It was, I should imagine, midst the fierceness
of the strife and fury of the _mania_ times, when his powerful
personality counted for so much, that he reached the zenith of his
happiness.
[George Hudson: hudson.jpg]
Whilst conducting in York his linendraper business, a relation died and
left him money. The railway boom had then begun. He flung his yardstick
behind him and entered the railway fray. The Liverpool and Manchester
line and its wonderful success--it paid ten per cent.--greatly impressed
the public mind, and the good people of York determined they would have a
railway to London.
A committee was appointed to carry out the project. On this committee
Mr. Hudson was placed, and it was mainly owing to his energy and skill
that the scheme came to a successful issue. He was rewarded by being
made chairman of the company.
This was his entrance into the railway world where, for a time, he was
monarch. He must have been a man of shrewdness and capacity. It is
recorded that he acquired the land for the York to London railway at an
average cost of 1,750 pounds per mile whilst that of the North Midland
cost over 5,000 pounds.
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