His boldness won ; but when the required amount was bid for, the purchasers timidly desired some further security, and Huntington, without a moment's hesitation, made himself and his four partners personally responsible for the whole amount, and it was on this pledge of their private fortunes that the first forty miles of the Central Pacific Railroad were built. But even then, so great were the straits of the enterprise, that when Huntington returned to Sacramento, after completing this first loan, and buying and shipping rails and other needed material, he found the treasurechest so low that it was necessary either to tliminish the laboring force on the work or raise more means. Once more he was equal to the emergency. " We have no time to lose," he said, "and we must do it ourselves; Huntington & Hopkins can keep five hundred men at work on the road for a year at their own charge ; how many will the rest of you undertake?" And it was agreed that the five partners should maintain out of their private fortunes eight hundred men on the works for a year. That resolution greatly diminished their troubles; for before the year was over they received their government bonds and their credit was established.

But for Huntington this was only the beginning of worries and labors which would have crushed any man only a little weaker or less able than he. It was his task to remain in the East, not only to raise money, but also to expend a great deal of it for material and su])plies. All the rails, locomotives, powder and various other material for the road were bought by him, and shipped around Cape Horn or across the Isthmus. His transactions brought him into contact with all sorts of people in New York and other Eastern cities, and it is still told of him that j when some one who did not know him came to him in 18()2 with an otl'er of a handsome commission if he would deal with him, Huntington replied: " I want all the commissions I can get, but I want them put in the bill.