Show SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE I All readers have seen the name of Sir William Van Home ns the president of the Canadian Pacific railroad but not many people know that though now an English subject who has been given a title by the Queen he was originally an American boy and began his career as a cub telegraph operator Mr Henry Harrison Lewis gives an interesting sketch of him in Ainsloes Ho was the son of an Illinois farmer began as u railroad telegraph operator and after years of apprenticeship became be-came superintendent of the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul Railroad company com-pany and later general manager and virtually the builder the Canadian Pacific The engineering difficulties presented between Lake Superior and the west coast wore something fearful As he himself said that in his preliminary and personal survey he found 200 miles of engineering impossibilities There were times when he was almost al-most utterly discouraged l He had to crosa 1 uste of forest rock and I inuskcy bog out of which almost every mile of road had to be hewn I I blasted or filled up hue conquered and was given a title In recognition ot his great work The account says he Is an artist of undoubted ability and n connoisseur In music He reads Spanish Italian and Japanese with facility and has made jan j Ian I-an exhaustive study of the art history J I and literature of Japan i In his home in Montreal he has n I I i magnificent collection paintings He I has moreover a farm and hIs hobby Is i mushrooms He has special variety va-riety V Hpeclal writer recently went to Montreal to secure material for several sev-eral magazine articles One was on the I Canadian Pacific and for this he Interviewed I I In-terviewed Sir William Next he wanted data on the paper pulp Industry 1 l He went to a paper company and wan referred re-ferred to Van Home as ho was at the head of the biggest paper pulp concern in the country The third thin wanted was facts about the coal and developments of Sidney Capo Breton Ho was referred re-ferred to Van Home as he had the largest Interest there I When the writer returned to New I York he found In his mol a commission commis-sion from a prominent publication td I prepare an article on a new Cuban commercial syndicate one recently or ganlzed on a stupendous financial scale nnd he was referred for information to the head oC the syndicate Sir William Van Home We havo given space to thin account because the man Is now only 57 years of age and was the son of a poor Illinois farmer It showa the possibilities possi-bilities of our country His picture Is of n solid head like that of the late Mr Armour one of the world compelling com-pelling heads ant looking at it one would say He would be at home directing a recting n railroad or a great steamship or manufacturing company I would need the noise of the steady respirations of a steam engine tp keep his nerves steady and he would bo at home handling natures mighty forces when reduced to manu control He has made already a great name He fought the snows and the mountains of British Brit-ish Columbia and made a smooth path over and through them now he Is fling fl-ing to the other extreme to circle Cuba with a railroad to multiply Its products prod-ucts and put them in commercial form The chunces are that after he has been performing his miracles there for a year or two the Cubans will want to worse make him King And they might do |