Intimates of James J. Hill, the transportation giant of the northwest, say that the ambition of his life is to encircle the world with a system of railroads and steamships, all of which shall be under his guiding hand. He has nearly attained it. He owns the Great Northern railway, which stretches from Seattle, Washington, to St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota. He is proprietor of the line of steamers which ply between Duluth and Buffalo. He is largely interested in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which covers the territory between Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. He is organizing, in Europe, a steamship company whose vessels shall have for their terminal ports Seattle, Washington, on the one side, and Vladivostok, Yokohama and Hong Kong on the other. He is now reaching out across the Pacific to Seattle, intending to connect his Great Northern road with the Trans-Siberian road, and the man who controls all these huge enterprises earned them from humble beginnings, and asserts that the principle that has enabled him to reach power and affluence is simply that of economy. When he earned five dollars a week he saved; now that he is the owner of an income the size of which he can hardly pass upon, he saves, not in miserly fashion, but he detests unnecessary expenditure. Mr. Hill was born near Guelph, Upper Canada, September 16, 1838. He was educated at Rockwood academy and started life in a steamboat office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hard and continuous work brought its reward in the shape of his being made agent for the Northwestern Packet company in 1865. Then he branched out for himself, establishing a fuel and transportation business on his own account. From that time on his rise was rapid. He founded the Red River Transportation company, 1875; organized the syndicate which secured control of the St. Paul and Pacific railroad, became the president of the organized road and finally merged it with other lines into the Great Northern system of which he is now president. Mr. Hill is married and has several sons, all of whom are following the railroad business. MELVILLE EZRA INGALLS.