Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 2White, Andrew Dickson
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Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 2
White, Andrew Dickson
Cornell University; Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918
To this succeeded an episode of a very different sort. For some
time Mr. Andrew Carnegie had done me the honor to listen to
advice of mine regarding some of his intended benefactions in
Scotland, the United States, and elsewhere. I saw and felt the
great possibilities for good involved when so noble a heart, so
shrewd a head, so generous a hand had command of one of the most
colossal fortunes ever at the disposal of a human being; and the
bright purposes and plans revealed in his letters shone through
the clouds of that mournful summer. So it was that, on my journey
to America, made necessary by the sudden death of my son, I
accepted Mr. Carnegie's invitation to visit him at his castle of
Skibo in the extreme north of Scotland. Very striking, during the
two days' journey from London to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to
Bonar, were the evidences of mourning for President McKinley in
every city, village, and hamlet. It seemed natural that, in the
large towns and on great public buildings, flags at half-mast and
in mourning should show a sense of the calamity which had
befallen a sister nation; but what appealed to me most were the
draped and half-masted flags on the towers of the little country
churches and cottages. Never before in the history of any two
countries had such evidences of brotherly feeling been shown.
Thank God! brotherly feeling had conquered demagogism.
The visit to Mr. Carnegie helped to give a new current to my
thoughts. The attractions of his wonderful domain forty thousand
acres, with every variety of scenery,--ocean, forest, moor, and
mountain,--the household with its quaint Scotch usages--the piper
in full tartan solemnly going his rounds at dawn, and the music
of the organ swelling, morning and evening, through the castle
from the great hall--all helped to give me new strength. There
was also good company: Frederic Harrison, thoughtful and
brilliant, whom I had before known only by his books and a brief
correspondence; Archdeacon Sinclair of London, worthy, by his
scholarly accomplishments, of his descent from the friend of
Washington; and others who did much to aid our hosts in making
life at the castle beautiful. Going thence to America, I found
time to cooperate with my old friend, President Gilman, in
securing data for Mr. Carnegie, especially at Washington, in view
of his plan of a national institution for the higher scientific
research.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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