GREAT MEN'S BODIES
ers, had they been ordinary men, must have been crushed; but with Mr. Huntington, an unlimited capacity for work, natural powers which had never been impaired by the use of tobacco or liquors, and the rugged, physical vitality which was the outgrowth of heredity and early training carried him safely through the ordeal.
"He next built the Southern Pacific Railroad; meantime he had acquired lines through east from it, connecting it with New Orleans. He then, to unify the operations of this vast system of transportation lines, organized the Southern Pacific Company of Kentucky, which consists of twenty-six distinct corporations, comprises 8024 miles of railroad, and 4976 miles of steamship lines in the United States, and 573 miles of railroad in Mexico. President of the Guatemala Central Railroad and of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, he built at Newport News, Virginia, and owns the best-appointed ship-yard in the United States. He has also provided his native town with a beautiful church.—America's Successful Men.
No one who ever saw him need be told that, bodily, he is a man in a thousand, and that the hard farm-work of youth has done its work.
One look at him—one shake of his hand—will tell any one that here is an unusual man, six feet high, broad, deep, massive, weighing, apparently, about two hundred and forty pounds; his grip, even at seventy-six, was stronger than that of most men of any age. Not only did his rugged, physical vitality carry him through the mighty ordeal just named, but through all his long life of vast responsibility. Owner of tens of millions, he is said to have once remarked that high living was what had killed several of his chief contemporaries; and that bread and milk had always been good enough for him, and is so still.
ULYSSES S. GRANT (1822–1885)
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