"A Personal Word by way of introduction. My first appearance in the Revere Copper Company's office, then at No. 22 Union Street,[1] was on Monday morning, March 23, 1840. Saturday night last, therefore, completed the full period of fifty uninterrupted years of service. In the nature of things it cannot be expected that this record will be repeated by me, nor can any one else duplicate it for a long time to come. There is no other stockholder whose certificate bears an earlier date than 1881, and no one in the office has a retrospect of twenty years even.[2]"