The great banking-house of Bendibow Brothers, like many other great
things, had a modest beginning. At the beginning of the eighteenth
century there was a certain Mr. Abraham Bendibow in London, who kept a
goldsmith’s shop in the neighborhood of Whitechapel, and supplemented
the profits of that business by lending money at remunerative interest,
on the security of certain kinds of personal property. To his customers
and casual acquaintances he was merely a commonplace, keen, cautious,
hard-headed and hard-hearted man of business; and, perhaps, till as
lately as the second decade of the century, this might have fairly
represented his own opinion of himself. Nevertheless, there lurked in
his character, in addition to the qualities above mentioned, two others
which are by no means commonplace, namely, imagination and enterprise.
They might have lurked there unsuspected till the day of his death, but
for the intervention of circumstances--to make use of a convenient word
of which nobody has ever explained the real meaning. But, in 1711, that
ingenious nobleman, the Earl of Oxford, being animated by a praiseworthy
desire to relieve a nightmare of a half-score million sterling or so of
indebtedness which was then oppressing the government, hit upon that
famous scheme which has since entered into history under the name of the
South Sea Bubble. The scheme attracted Bendibow’s attention, and he
studied it for some time in his usual undemonstrative but thoroughgoing
manner. Whenever occasion offered he discussed it, in an accidental and
indifferent way, with all kinds of people. At the end of two or three
years he probably understood more about the affair than any other man in
London. Whether he believed that it was a substance or a bubble will
never be known to any one except himself. All that can be affirmed is
that he minded his own business, and imparted his opinion to no one. The
opinion gradually gained ground that he shared the views of Sir Robert
Walpole, who, in the House of Commons, was almost the only opposer of
the South Sea scheme. So matters went on until the year 1720.
It was at this period that the excitement and convulsion began. The
stock had risen to 330. Abraham Bendibow sat in his shop, and preserved
an unruffled demeanor. The stock fell to below 300; but Abraham kept his
strong box locked, and went about his business as usual. Stock mounted
again to 340; but nobody perceived any change in Mr. Bendibow. For all
any one could see, he might never have heard of the South Sea scheme in
his life. And yet a great fortune was even then in his grasp, had he
chosen to stretch out his hand to take it.
Weeks and months passed away, and the stock kept on rising. Often it
would tremble and fall, but after each descent it climbed higher than
before. It became the one absorbing topic of conversation with everybody
except Abraham Bendibow, who composedly preferred to have no concern in
the matter: it was not for small tradesmen like him to meddle with such
large enterprises. And, meanwhile, the stock rose and rose, and rose
higher still, until men lost their heads, and other men made colossal
fortunes, and everybody expected to secure at least ten thousand a year.
One day the stock touched 890, and then people held their breath and
turned pale, and the most sanguine said in their hearts that this was
supernatural and could not last.
On that day Abraham Bendibow went into his private room, and locked the
door; and taking pen and paper he made a calculation. After having made
it he sat for a long time gazing at the little array of figures in
seeming abstraction. Then he leaned back in his chair, with one hand in
the pocket of his small-clothes, while with the other he slowly rubbed
his chin at intervals. By degrees he began to breathe more quickly, and
his eyes became restless. He arose from his chair and paced up and down
the room. “Eight hundred and ninety,” he kept muttering to himself, over
and over again. The strong box stood in the corner of the room, and
toward this Mr. Bendibow often looked. Once he approached it, and laid
his hand upon the lid; then he turned away from it with an abrupt
movement, compressing his lips and shaking his head. He resumed his
pacing up and down the room, his head bent down in deep and troubled
thought. At last an idea seemed to strike him. He unlocked and opened
the door of the room, and called in a harsh, peremptory tone:
“Jacob!”
A young man appeared, about twenty years of age. In features he
resembled the other, but his face was not so broad, nor was his air so
commanding. Mr. Bendibow motioned to him with his head to enter. He then
seated himself in his chair, and eyed Jacob for a while in silence.
Jacob stood with his head stretched forward, and slowly chafing the back
of one hand with the palm of the other, while his countenance wore an
expression of deferential inquiry.
“Jacob,” said the elder, “what is doing out-doors to-day--eh?”
“The same as usual, father,” answered Jacob, tentatively, as being in
some doubt what the question might portend. “There is plenty of
excitement: same as usual.”
“Excitement; on what account?”
“Well, sir, the stocks: terrible speculation: madness--nothing less.
There was a fellow, sir, this very morning, got out a prospectus of a
company for prosecuting a certain undertaking not at present to be
revealed: capital one million, in ten thousand shares of one hundred
each: deposit two pounds, entitling to one hundred per annum, per share:
particulars next week, and balance of subscription week after next.
Frightful, upon my soul, sir!”
“Has anybody bitten?”
“A good many have been bitten,” returned Jacob, with a dry giggle.
“Three thousand pounds were subscribed in three hours; and then the
fellow decamped. Madness, upon my life!”
“You would not advise having anything to do with such speculations, eh,
Jacob?”
“Me? Bless my soul, not I indeed!” exclaimed Jacob with energy.
“Why not?”
“In the first place, because you have expressed disapproval of it,
father,” replied the virtuous Jacob. “And I may flatter myself I have
inherited something of your sound judgment.”
“So you have never speculated at all--eh, Jacob? Never at all, eh? Never
bought a shilling’s worth of stock of any kind in your life--eh? The
truth, Jacob!”
The last words were pronounced in so stern a tone that Jacob changed
color, turning his eyes first to one side of his father’s point-blank
gaze, and then to the other. At last, however, their glances met, and
then Jacob said:
“I might not be able to swear to a shilling or so, neither--”
“Nor to a guinea: nor to ten, nor to fifty--eh, Jacob?”
“Not more than fifty; upon my soul, sir,” said Jacob, laying his hands
upon his heart in earnest deprecation. “Not a penny, sir, upon my word
of honor!”
“What of the fifty then--eh?”
“It was in South Sea: I bought at 400,” said Jacob.
“At 400? And what is it to-day?”
“Eight hundred and ninety it was this morning,” said Jacob.
“Was this morning? Do you mean it has fallen since?”
“It has indeed, sir. They’ve all been selling like demons; and it’s
below eight hundred at this moment.”
“What have you done--eh?”
“Sold out the first thing, sir, at four hundred and ninety per cent,
clear profit,” replied Jacob, something of complacency mingling with the
anxious deference of his tone.
“Therefore, instead of fifty pounds, you now have three hundred or so?”
“Two hundred, ninety and five, sir,” said the youth modestly.
“Jacob, you are a fool!”
“Sir?”
“You have thrown your money away. You are a fool! You are timid! You
have neither the genius, the steadiness, nor the daring to manage and to
multiply a great fortune. Were you like myself, Jacob, you or your
children might have a hand in controlling the destinies of England, and
thus of the world. You have behaved like a pettifogger and a coward,
Jacob. I do not ask you to be honest. No man is honest when he is sure
that dishonesty will enrich him. But, whatever you are, I ask you to be
that thing with all your soul. Be great, or be nothing! Only fools and
cowards patter about morality! I tell you that success is the only
morality.” Here Mr. Bendibow, who had spoken with calmness, though by no
means without emphasis, checked himself, and putting his hand in his
pocket drew forth a key which he handed to his son. “Open the strong
box,” he said, “and take out the papers you will find in it.”
Jacob did as he was bid. But his first glance at the papers made him
start and stare in a bewildered manner at the unmoved countenance of his
father. He then reverted to the papers; but, after a close inspection of
them, he seemed only more bewildered than before.
“This is South Sea stock, sir,” he said at length.
“Well, Jacob?” said Mr. Bendibow, composedly.
“Nigh on fifteen thousand pounds’ worth at par, sir.”
“Yes, Jacob.”
“I see how it is; you have been buying for some one!” broke out Jacob,
energetically.
“Evidently, Jacob.”
There was a pause. “On commission, of course?” hazarded Jacob.
“No commission at all, Jacob.”
Jacob’s jaws relaxed. “No commission? Whom did you buy for, sir?”
“For myself, Jacob.”
Jacob dropped the papers on the table, and leaned against it dizzily;
his breath forsook him. Finally, Mr. Bendibow said: “Jacob, you are even
more a fool than I took you for.”
“But how.... When did you buy, sir?” faltered Jacob.
“Eight or nine years ago,” Mr. Bendibow replied.
“Then ... why, then you must have got it at under two hundred?”
“Eighty to a hundred and twenty,” said Mr. Bendibow, curtly.
There was another pause. Jacob moistened his lips and passed his hand
over his forehead. Suddenly he screamed out, “But you haven’t sold,
sir!”
“Well, Jacob?”
“If you’d sold this morning you’d have been worth a hundred and
thirty-five thousand sterling--one hundred and thirty-five thousand!”
“Very nearly, Jacob.”
“And stock is falling: you’ve lost fifteen thousand since ten o’clock!”
shouted Jacob, now quite beside himself. He seized the papers again, and
made for the door. There he was stopped by an iron grasp on his arm, and
Mr. Bendibow said, in a voice as uncompromising as his grasp, “Stay
where you are!”
“But it’s not too late, sir; we’ll clear a hundred thousand yet,”
pleaded Jacob, in agony.
“Be silent, and hear what I say to you. When I bought this stock, and
paid fifteen thousand pounds for it, I made up my mind either to lose
all or to win ten times my stake. I made up my mind that my fortune
should be either one hundred and fifty thousand sterling, or nothing.
Through nine years I have held to my purpose. Until this hour no one has
known that I have risked a penny. Men have made fortunes--I have seen
it, and held to my purpose, and held my tongue. Men have gone mad with
success or failure; I am the same to-day that I was ten years ago. This
morning stock reached eight hundred and ninety; a thousand fools like
you sold, and now it is falling, and will fall yet more. But it is my
belief that it will rise again. It will rise to one thousand. When it
touches one thousand, I sell; not before, and not afterward. I shall win
one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. With that money I shall found a
banking-house. It will be known as the banking-house of Bendibow and
Son. If you and your children were men like myself, the house of
Bendibow and Son would become one of the great Powers of Europe. Where
now we have ten thousand, in a century we should have a million. But you
are not such a man as I am. Your children and your great-grandchildren
will not be such men as I am. But I have done what I could. I have
written down in a book the rules which you are to obey--you, and all
your descendants. If you disobey them, my curse will be upon you, and
you will fail. I am not young; and no man knows the day when he shall
die: therefore I have called you, Jacob, and made this known to you now;
because a day or a month hence might be too late. You are not such a man
as I am; but any man can obey; and if you obey the rules that I have
written you will not fail. Let those rules be written upon your heart,
and upon the hearts of your children’s children, even unto the latest
generation. There is no power in this world so great as a great fortune,
greatly used; but a fool may lose that power in a day.”
Mr. Bendibow had spoken these words standing erect, and with his eyes
fixed steadfastly upon his son; and his tone was stern, solemn and
impressive. He now said, in another tone: “Put the papers back in the
strong box, Jacob, and do not speak of them again, either to me or to
any other person, until stock is at one thousand. Come to me then, and
not before. Now go.”
“But, father, what if stock never reaches one thousand?” suggested
Jacob, timidly.
“Then I shall have lost fifteen thousand pounds,” returned Mr. Bendibow,
composedly resuming his seat in his chair.
Jacob said no more, but replaced the papers in the strong box, handed
the key to his father, and left the room, a different man from when he
entered it. He could not be an original great man, but he could
appreciate and reverence original greatness; and, being instructed,
could faithfully carry out the behests of that greatness. Doubtless his
father, who had the insight into human nature which generally
characterizes men of his sort, had perceived this, and had shaped his
conduct accordingly. Nor is it impossible--the greatest of men being but
men after all--that Mr. Bendibow may have taken his son into his
confidence as much to guard against his own human weakness as to provide
against the contingency of his death or incapacity. Proudly though he
asserted the staunchness of his purpose, he had that day felt the tug of
temptation, and may have been unwilling to risk the strain unaided
again. Be that as it may, it is certain that the confidence came none
too soon. When the evening meal was ready Mr. Bendibow did not appear;
his customary punctuality made the delay seem extraordinary; so, after
waiting half an hour, Jacob went to summon him. He knocked at the door,
but no response came. At last he made bold to open the door; and there
sat Abraham Bendibow in his chair, with the key of the strong box in his
hand, looking, in the dusk, very much as he had looked when Jacob left
him three hours before. But Abraham Bendibow was dead.
All his affairs were found to be in order; and, among the other contents
of the strong box, was the book of rules of which he had spoken to
Jacob. As to the South Sea stock, it sank and sank, and Jacob’s heart
sank with it; and when the stock had reached six hundred and forty,
Jacob’s heart was in his boots. Nevertheless he was faithful to his
trust, and held on. Soon afterward the agents of the Company bought
largely, and stock rose once more, and practically for the last time.
The hour came at last when it was quoted at one thousand, and then, with
a trembling delight, and with a conviction of his father’s prescience
and wisdom, that amounted to religious veneration, Jacob went forth and
sold; and that night he deposited in the strong box bank-notes and
bullion to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Such was
the beginning of the famous house of Bendibow.