He was not, however, Sir George when I met him
first, but plain Mr. Findlay. It was in the year 1891, the occasion
being one of the periodical visits to Ireland of the London and North-
Western chairman, directors, and principal officers. They gave a dinner
at their hotel in Dublin to which, with other Irish railway
representatives, I was invited. My seat at dinner was next to Mr.
Findlay, and I had much conversation with him. Then in his sixty-third
year, he was, perhaps, interested in a young Englishman, 21 years his
junior, who had not long begun his career as a railway manager, and who
showed some eagerness in, and, perhaps, a little knowledge of, railway
affairs.
I remember well the impression he made upon me. I felt I was in the
presence of a strong, natural man, gifted with great discernment and
ability but full also of human kindness. His face was one which
expressed that goodness which the consciousness of power imparts to
strong natures. He was a notable as well as what is called "a self-made"
man, a fact of which he never boasted but I think was a little proud. He
commenced work at the early age of fourteen as a mason--a boy help he
could only have been--and continued a mason for several years.
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