its application to many of the streets improved, was, for reasons which need not be presented here, declared unconstitutional. The city was in consequence forced to the necessity of making a compromise with the property owners, by which she was enabled to recover about forty per cent. of the amount represented by the bonds which she had issued, the balance of the debt being assumed by the city at large. This measure of councils is known as the "Penn Avenue Compromise." Among the more important matters which have recently engaged the attention of councils are those providing for the introduction and use of the natural gas found in abundance in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. By the adoption of these measures the great manufacturing industries are supplied with a cheap fuel, and the city is relieved of the cloud of smoke, resulting from the use of bituminous coal, which has enveloped her in the past. This relief from smoke is a transformation gratefully welcomed by the inhabitants of what has hitherto been recognized as the "Smoky City." Through the advantages thus afforded, Pittsburgh enters upon a propitious future. Great heretofore as a manufacturing centre, she is destined through the instrumentality of her natural advantages, and the enterprise and industry of her people, to increase in wealth and power and population until she shall take position among the great cities of our country.

In all these matters it is needless to

say that Mr. Gourley nas taken an active and prominent part, while his voice has been heard and his vote given to that side upon which the best interests of the public were located.

Mr. Gourley has always been an ardent Republican, and during the past twelve years has taken an active part in politics. In 1880 he was chairman of the committee on meetings and speakers for Allegheny county during the Presidential campaign which resulted in the election of James A. Garfield. He did much of the hard work attending that campaign, and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing Allegheny county give the Republican candidate a majority of sixteen thousand.

Mr. Gourley was married in 1867 to Miss Jennie Brenneman of Pittsburgh. Personally he is an agreeable, courteous gentleman, popular with the public at large, and possessing a host of close friends. He is highly cultured, has read much and studied much, and even while deep in the cares of business finds time to keep up with the current thought and literature of the day. All educational matters lie close to his heart, and any measure which has for its purpose the improvement of public schools finds in him an earnest friend. Viewed from all sides, and especially with reference to the long road of labor he has been compelled to travel, Mr. Gourley furnishes us with as fine a specimen as could be found of the successful and self-made representative American.

JAMES HENRY SEYMOUR.

THE reputation achieved by the late J. H. Devereux as a railroad manager was national; and yet it was not alone because he stood in a high position that he was widely recognized the country over, and honored and admired wherever known. Much of his fame arose from the fact that as he stood in a great light before the public gaze, no flaw or blemish was found upon him. He carried to his labors a noble manhood and an exalted Christian character that worked themselves out through his works and became a source of public benefit. He proved to the world that one could command the highest success in a business career, and at the same time be true to himself, his Christian principles, and those whose interests had been lodged in his hands. A life like his is, indeed, well worth looking into.

Nature and ancestry combined to give General Devereux a noble mental and physical equipment for the work he was destined to do in the world. He came of the best New England stock, and his family line can be traced directly to the Norman conquerors of England. His ancestors were among those who purchased the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, from the Indians in 1684. His father was Captain John Devereux, of the merchant marine. He was born in

Boston, on April 5, 1832, and early gave promise of a hardy independence of character, added to an upright mind and a brain of unusual quality. He received a thorough education at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, academy, and as early as 1848, when but sixteen years of age, came to the then far west of Cleveland to test the powers of his own resources, and to make his way in the world. His courage, energy, and ambition were beyond his years, but even then he never undertook a task without seeing that all its requirements were fulfilled; and no responsibility that was laid upon him was ever neglected or betrayed. He commenced life at the lower grade of the profession in which he was afterward to command such success, and on the very line which he was afterwards to control as president, engaging as construction engineer on the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati railroad. His labor was of the thorough kind and his advance certain. On the completion of the line, he obtained similar employment on the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula railroad, which was then seeking to give Cleveland an outlet toward the east. He earned and received the warmest commendation from those who had been his official superiors, and on his departure from the Columbus line, we find its superin

tendent, Amasa Stone, writing of him: "He has performed his duties to the entire satisfaction of all parties with whom he has been connected; at this time I consider him entirely competent to take charge of a piece of road as division engineer, and with some more experience no doubt he will be fully qualified to take charge of the construction of a road." William Case, president of the Cleveland & Erie road writes to him as early as 1853:

It gives me the greatest pleasure to bear testimony to the energy, fidelity and correct manner with which you have discharged every duty assigned to you in the field or office, and to recommend in the strongest terms your services as engineer and draftsman to any company desiring such assistance, fully believing they will be as satisfactory to others as they have been to our company, and to the C. C. & C. company previous to your engagement with us.

These extracts are simply made for the purpose of showing that General Devereux's success in life was not the outcome of accident or the result of a combination of circumstances, but that he laid the foundation thereof in early manhood, and built in character as well as reputation with every year that passed. He was only twenty-one years of age, it should be remembered, when the above was written.

In 1852 the young man turned his face toward the south, and for the next nine years was one of the busy and moving railroad spirits in Tennessee. He became division and resident engineer of the Tennessee & Alabama railroad, which position he held for eight years. He was for a time civil engineer of the city of Nashville. "He was prominently connected with the

internal improvements of that state and section," says one appreciative record of his life, "and was referee in important cases as to location and construction. He became the leading spirit of the state and section in railroad affairs, and had determined on residing there the rest of his natural life." But the war cloud swept across the land, and his hopes and material expectations were swept away with those of many other northern men who had located themselves in the south. His heart was with the Union, and he decided to close up his affairs as rapidly as he could and tender his services to the government. He was compelled to pursue a course of discretion and judg ment, as he was a marked man because of the opinions he had not concealed, and his life was more than once in dan ger. But his purpose knew no change. and he finally placed his life and ser vices at the disposal of the country he loved so well. There was a field in which he could do a work of especial value, and he was soon assigned thereto. The faithfulness, energy and far-seeing judgment that were shown by him in the responsible service of managing the government railroad lines that were under his care, marked him as a man of no ordinary stamp, and produced results that were of the greatest benefit to the cause he served.

In the early part of 1862 he was directed to make a reconnoissance for a military road in the Shenandoah valley, and when it was completed he received the appointment of superintendent of military railroads in Virginia.

Under