Twelve years of pleasant intercourse have served to inspire feelings of personal regard for those who have so faithfully labored with me in the service of the Company.  The coming change is painful only as I reflect that in consequence thereof I am not to be in the future, as in the past, intimately associated with you and with many others in the various departments, who have through business intercourse, become my personal friends.  I assure you although the official relations hitherto existing between us must soon close, I can never fail to feel and evince the liveliest interest in the welfare of such as have been identified with the Pittsburgh Division in times past, and who are, I trust, for many years to come to contribute to the success of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and share in its justly deserved prosperity.

Thanking you most sincerely for the uniform kindness shown toward me, for your zealous efforts made at all times to meet my wishes, and asking for my successor similar support at your hands, I bid you all farewell.

     Very respectfully

     (Signed) ANDREW CARNEGIE

Thenceforth I never worked for a salary.  A man must necessarily occupy a narrow field who is at the beck and call of others.  Even if he becomes president of a great corporation he is hardly his own master, unless he holds control of the stock.  The ablest presidents are hampered by boards of directors and shareholders, who can know but little of the business.  But I am glad to say that among my best friends to-day are those with whom I labored in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

In the year 1867, Mr. Phipps, Mr. J.W.  Vandevort, and myself revisited Europe, traveling extensively through England and Scotland, and made the tour of the Continent.  “Vandy” had become my closest companion.  We had both been fired by reading Bayard Taylor’s “Views Afoot.”  It was in the days of the oil excitement and shares were going up like rockets.  One Sunday, lying in the grass, I said to “Vandy”: 

“If you could make three thousand dollars would you spend it in a tour through Europe with me?”

“Would a duck swim or an Irishman eat potatoes?” was his reply.

The sum was soon made in oil stock by the investment of a few hundred dollars which “Vandy” had saved.  This was the beginning of our excursion.  We asked my partner, Harry Phipps, who was by this time quite a capitalist, to join the party.  We visited most of the capitals of Europe, and in all the enthusiasm of youth climbed every spire, slept on mountain-tops, and carried our luggage in knapsacks upon our backs.  We ended our journey upon Vesuvius, where we resolved some day to go around the world.

This visit to Europe proved most instructive.  Up to this time I had known nothing of painting or sculpture, but it was not long before I could classify the works of the great painters.  One may not at the time justly appreciate the advantage he is receiving from examining the great masterpieces, but upon his return to America he will find himself unconsciously rejecting what before seemed truly beautiful, and judging productions which come before him by a new standard.  That which is truly great has so impressed itself upon him that what is false or pretentious proves no longer attractive.