“What do you mean?”

I explained the situation to him.  We were destroying by our rival propositions the very advantages we desired to obtain.

“Well,” he said, “what do you propose to do about it?”

“Unite,” I said.  “Make a joint proposition to the Union Pacific, your party and mine, and organize a company.”

“What would you call it?” he asked.

“The Pullman Palace Car Company,” I replied.

This suited him exactly; and it suited me equally well.

“Come into my room and talk it over,” said the great sleeping-car man.

I did so, and the result was that we obtained the contract jointly.  Our company was subsequently merged in the general Pullman Company and we took stock in that company for our Pacific interests.  Until compelled to sell my shares during the subsequent financial panic of 1873 to protect our iron and steel interests, I was, I believe, the largest shareholder in the Pullman Company.

This man Pullman and his career are so thoroughly American that a few words about him will not be out of place.  Mr. Pullman was at first a working carpenter, but when Chicago had to be elevated he took a contract on his own account to move or elevate houses for a stipulated sum.  Of course he was successful, and from this small beginning he became one of the principal and best-known contractors in that line.  If a great hotel was to be raised ten feet without disturbing its hundreds of guests or interfering in any way with its business, Mr. Pullman was the man.  He was one of those rare characters who can see the drift of things, and was always to be found, so to speak, swimming in the main current where movement was the fastest.  He soon saw, as I did, that the sleeping-car was a positive necessity upon the American continent.  He began to construct a few cars at Chicago and to obtain contracts upon the lines centering there.

The Eastern concern was in no condition to cope with that of an extraordinary man like Mr. Pullman.  I soon recognized this, and although the original patents were with the Eastern company and Mr. Woodruff himself, the original patentee, was a large shareholder, and although we might have obtained damages for infringement of patent after some years of litigation, yet the time lost before this could be done would have been sufficient to make Pullman’s the great company of the country.  I therefore earnestly advocated that we should unite with Mr. Pullman, as I had united with him before in the Union Pacific contract.  As the personal relations between Mr. Pullman and some members of the Eastern company were unsatisfactory, it was deemed best that I should undertake the negotiations, being upon friendly footing with both parties.  We soon agreed that the Pullman Company should absorb our company, the Central Transportation Company, and by this means Mr. Pullman, instead of being confined to the West, obtained control of the rights on the great Pennsylvania trunk line to the Atlantic seaboard.  This placed his company beyond all possible rivals.  Mr. Pullman was one of the ablest men of affairs I have ever known, and I am indebted to him, among other things, for one story which carried a moral.