ABSTRACT
A curious circumstance in connection with my Indian appointment may be mentioned to show how an apparently trivial detail may often lead to a considerable result. There were some four or five other appointments made at the same time by the Madras Railway Co., who were to be my employers, and calling at their London office, I asked by what mail steamer I was expected to start. The reply was that either the next one or the one after would do; so, not having any special reason for delay, I secured the only berth vacant in the first steamer, the other engineers following in the next ship a fortnight or a month later. On reaching Madras, and stating and verifying my previous experience, I was at once appointed to the entire charge of the only railway construction division then vacant, the filling of which was a matter of urgency. The rest, most of them just as experienced and well qualified as I, but arriving later on the scene, became only assistants to others of my position, and in consequence they were left years behind me in subsequent promotion, owing not so much to absence of qualifications as to want of opportunities of showing them.
