One day my eyes happened to see a line in that most valuable paper, the “Scottish American,” in which I had found many gems.  This was the line: 

“The gods send thread for a web begun.”

It seemed almost as if it had been sent directly to me.  This sank into my heart, and I resolved to begin at once my first web.  True enough, the gods sent thread in the proper form.  Dr. J.S.  Billings, of the New York Public Libraries, came as their agent, and of dollars, five and a quarter millions went at one stroke for sixty-eight branch libraries, promised for New York City.  Twenty more libraries for Brooklyn followed.

My father, as I have stated, had been one of the five pioneers in Dunfermline who combined and gave access to their few books to their less fortunate neighbors.  I had followed in his footsteps by giving my native town a library—­its foundation stone laid by my mother—­so that this public library was really my first gift.  It was followed by giving a public library and hall to Allegheny City—­our first home in America.  President Harrison kindly accompanied me from Washington and opened these buildings.  Soon after this, Pittsburgh asked for a library, which was given.  This developed, in due course, into a group of buildings embracing a museum, a picture gallery, technical schools, and the Margaret Morrison School for Young Women.  This group of buildings I opened to the public November 5, 1895.  In Pittsburgh I had made my fortune and in the twenty-four millions already spent on this group,[46] she gets back only a small part of what she gave, and to which she is richly entitled.

[Footnote 46:  The total gifts to the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh amounted to about twenty-eight million dollars.]

The second large gift was to found the Carnegie Institution of Washington.  The 28th of January, 1902, I gave ten million dollars in five per cent bonds, to which there has been added sufficient to make the total cash value twenty-five millions of dollars, the additions being made upon record of results obtained.  I naturally wished to consult President Roosevelt upon the matter, and if possible to induce the Secretary of State, Mr. John Hay, to serve as chairman, which he readily agreed to do.  With him were associated as directors my old friend Abram S. Hewitt, Dr. Billings, William E. Dodge, Elihu Root, Colonel Higginson, D.O.  Mills, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and others.

When I showed President Roosevelt the list of the distinguished men who had agreed to serve, he remarked:  “You could not duplicate it.”  He strongly favored the foundation, which was incorporated by an act of Congress April 28, 1904, as follows: 

To encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner investigations, research and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind; and, in particular, to conduct, endow and assist investigation in any department of science, literature or art, and to this end to cooeperate with governments, universities, colleges, technical schools, learned societies, and individuals.

[Illustration:  THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTE AT PITTSBURGH]