"CENT to cent, shilling to shilling, and dollar to dollar, slowly and
steadily, like the progress of a mole in the earth! That may suit some,
but it will never do for Sidney Lawrence. There is a quicker road to
fortune than that, and I am the man to walk in it. 'Enterprise' is the
word. Yes, enterprise, enterprise, enterprise! Nothing venture, nothing
gain, is my motto."
"Slow and sure is the safer motto, my young friend, and if you will
take my advice, you will be content to creep before you walk, and to
walk before you run. The cent to cent and dollar to dollar system is
the only sure one."
This was the language of an old merchant, who had made his fortune by
the system he recommended, and was addressed to a young man just
entering business with a capital of ten thousand dollars, the joint
property of himself and an only sister.
Sidney Lawrence had been raised in a large mercantile establishment,
that was doing an immense business and making heavy profits. But all
its operations were based upon adequate capital and enlarged
experience. When he commenced for himself, he could not brook the idea
of keeping near the shore, like a little boat, and following its safer
windings; he felt like launching out boldly into the ocean and reaching
the desired haven by the quickest course. He wished to accumulate money
rapidly, and believed that, on the capital he possessed, five or six
thousand dollars a year might as easily be made as one thousand, if a
man only had sufficient enterprise to push business vigorously. The
careful, plodding course pursued by some, and strongly recommended to
him, he despised. It was beneath a man of true business capacity.
"As I said before, nothing venture, nothing gain," replied Lawrence to
the old merchant's good advice. "I am not content to eke out a thousand
or two dollars every year, and, at the age of fifty or sixty, retire
from business on a paltry twenty or thirty thousand dollars. I must get
rich fast, or not at all."
"Remember the words of Solomon, my young friend," returned the
merchant. "'_He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent._'
Among all the sayings of the wise man, there is not one truer than
that. I have been in business for thirty years, and have seen the rise
and fall of a good many 'enterprising' men, who were in a hurry to get
rich. Their history is an instructive lesson to all who will read it.
Some got rich, or at least appeared to get rich, in a very short space
of time. They grew up like mushrooms in a night. But they were gone as
quickly. I can point you to at least twenty elegant mansions, built by
such men in their heyday of prosperity, that soon passed into other
hands. And I can name to you half a dozen and more, who, when reverses
came, were subjected to trials for alleged fraudulent practices,
resorted to in extremity as a means of sustaining their tottering
credit and escaping the ruin that threatened to engulf them. One of
these, in particular, was a young man whom I raised, and who had always
acted with the most scrupulous honesty while in my store. But he was
ardent, ambitious, and anxious to get rich. His father started him in
business with ten thousand dollars capital. In a little while, he was
trading high, and pushing his business to the utmost of its capacity.
At the end of a couple of years, his father had to advance him ten
thousand dollars more to keep him from failing. During the next five
years, he expanded with wonderful rapidity, built himself a splendid
house, and took his place at the court end of the town, as one of our
wealthy citizens. It was said of him that he had made a hundred
thousand dollars. But the downfall came at last, as come I knew it
must. He toppled over and fell down headlong. Then it was discovered
that he had been making fictitious notes, purporting to be the bills
payable of country merchants, which his own credit had carried through
a number of the banks, as well as made pass freely to money-brokers. He
had to stand a long and painful trial for forgery, and came within an
ace of being sent to the State's prison. As soon as the trial closed,
he left the city, and I have never heard of him since."
"But you don't mean to insinuate," said Lawrence, rather sternly, "that
I would be guilty of forgery in any extremity?"
"Sidney Lawrence!" replied the merchant, speaking in a firm, serious
voice, "I am a plain-spoken man, and always tell my real mind when I
feel it my duty to do so, whether I give offence or not. That Solomon
spoke truly, when he said, '_He that maketh haste to be rich shall not
be innocent,_' I fully believe, because I am satisfied, from what I
have seen and know of business, that whoever follows it with an eager
desire to make money rapidly, will be subjected to daily temptations,
and it will be almost impossible for him not to seek advantages over
his neighbour in trade, and trample under foot the interests of others
to gain his own. If this is done in little matters unscrupulously, it
will in the end be done in great matters. What is the real difference,
I should like to know, between taking advantage of a man in bargaining,
and getting his money by passing upon him a forged note? The principle
is undoubtedly the same, only one is a legal offence and the other is
not. And therefore, I hold that he who takes an undue advantage of his
fellow man in trade, will not in the end hesitate about committing a
greater wrong, if he have a fair chance of escape from penalty. In my
young days, the motto of most business men, who were not very nice
about the interests of others, was, '_Every man for himself and the
Lord for us all._' But the motto has become slightly changed in these
times. It now reads, '_Every man for himself, and the d----l take the
hindmost!_' I hear this too often unblushingly avowed, but see it much
oftener acted out, all around me. My young friend, if you wish to keep
a clear conscience, adopt neither of these mottoes, but regard, in
every transaction, the good of others as well as your own good. And let
me most seriously and earnestly warn you against making haste to be
rich. The least evil that can overtake you, in such an effort, will be
the almost certain wreck of all your worldly hopes, some five or ten
years hence, and your fall, so low, that to rise again will be almost
impossible."
This well-meant, but plainly uttered advice, more than half offended
Lawrence. He replied, coldly, that he thought he knew what he was
about, and would try, at least, to "steer clear of the penitentiary."
With shrewdness, tact, untiring industry, and a spirit that knew no
discouragement, the young man pressed forward in business. The warning
of the merchant, if it did not repress his desire to get rich in haste,
caused him to look more closely than he would otherwise have done into
every transaction he was about to make. This saved him from many
serious losses.
The want of more capital soon began to be felt. He saw good operations
every day, that might be made if he had capital enough to enter into
them.
"A man deserves no credit for getting rich, if he have capital enough
to work with," was a favourite remark. "There is plenty of business to
be done, and ways of making money in abundance, if the means are only
at hand."
One week, if he had only been in the possession of means, he would have
purchased a cotton-factory; the next week become possessor of a ship,
and entered into the East India trade; and, the next week after that,
purchased an interest in a lead-mine on the Upper Mississippi.
Money, money, more money, was ever his cry, for he saw golden
opportunities constantly passing unimproved. A neighbour, to whom he
was expressing his desire for the use of larger capital, said to him,
one day--
"I'll tell you how you can get more money!"
"How?" was the eager question.
"Get into the direction of some bank, push through the notes of a
business friend, in whom you have confidence, who will do the same for
you in another bank of which he is one of the managers. There are
wheels within wheels in those moneyed institutions, from which the few
and not the many reap the most benefit. Connect yourself with as many
as you can of them, and make the most of the opportunities such
connections will afford. You know Balmier?"
"Yes."
"And what a rushing business he does?"
"Yes."
"He dragged heavily enough, and was always flying about for money,
until he took a hint and got elected into the Citizens and Traders'
Bank. Since then he has been as easy as an old shoe, and has done five
times as much business as before."
"Is it possible?"
"Oh, yes! You are not fully up to the tricks of trade yet, I see,
shrewd as you are."
"I know well enough how to use money, but I have not yet learned how to
get it."
"That will all come in good time. We are just now getting up a petition
for the charter of a new bank in which I am to be a director, and I can
easily manage to get you in if you will subscribe pretty liberally to
the stock. It is to be called the People's Bank."
"But I have no money to invest in stock. That would be taking away
instead of adding to my capital in trade, which is light enough in all
conscience."
"There will be no trouble about that. Only an instalment of twenty
cents in the dollar will be necessary to set the institution going. And
not more than ten cents in the dollar will be called in at a time.
After two or three instalments have been paid, you can draw out
two-thirds of the amount on stock notes."
"Indeed! That's the way it's done?"
"Yes. You ought to take about a hundred shares, which will make it easy
for us to have you put into the Board of Directors."
"I'll do it," was the prompt response to this.
"And take my word for it, you will not be many months a bank director,
if you improve the opportunities that will be thrown in your way,
without having a good deal more money at your command than at present."
The charter for the People's Bank was obtained, and when an election
was held, Lawrence went in as a director. He had not held that position
many months, before, by favouring certain paper that was presented from
certain quarters, he got paper favoured that came from certain other
quarters; and in this was individually benefited by getting the use of
about fifteen thousand dollars additional capital, which came to him
really but not apparently from the bank in which he held a hundred
shares of stock. For the sake of appearances, he did not borrow back
his instalments on stock notes. It was a little matter, and would have
looked as if he were pressed for money.
From this time Sidney Lawrence became a financier, and plunged deep
into all the mysteries of money-raising. His business operations became
daily more and more extended, and he never appeared to be much pressed
for money. At the end of a couple of years, he held the office of
director in two banking institutions, and was president of an insurance
company that issued post-notes on which three per cent. was charged.
These notes, as the institution was in good credit, could readily be
passed through almost any bank in the city. They were loaned pretty
freely on individual credit, and also freely on real estate and other
collateral security.
It is hard to serve two masters. The mind of man is so constituted, and
the influences bearing upon it are so peculiar in their orderly
arrangements, that the more it is concentered upon one object and
pursuit, the more perfection and certainty attend its action. But if it
be divided between two objects and pursuits, and especially if both of
these require much thought, its action will be imperfect to a certain
degree in both, or one will suffer while the other absorbs the most
attention.
Thus it happened with Lawrence. While ardently engaged in financiering,
his business received less attention. Instead of using to the best
possible advantage the money already obtained in his financiering
operations, he strove eagerly after more. In fact, too reckless an
investment, in many instances, of borrowed capital, from which no
return could be obtained perhaps for years, made his wants still as
great as before, and kept in constant activity all the resources of his
mind in order to meet his accommodations and steadily to increase them.
Ten years from the time when Sidney Lawrence started in business have
passed. He is living in handsome style and keeps his carriage. Five or
six years previously, he was married to a beautiful and lovely-minded
woman, connected with some of the best families of the city. He has
three children.
"Are you not well, dear?" asked his wife, one day about this period.
They were sitting at the dinner-table, and Mr. Lawrence was hardly
tasting his food.
"I haven't much appetite," he replied indifferently.
"You eat scarcely any thing; hardly enough to keep you alive. I am
afraid you give yourself too much up to business."
Mr. Lawrence did not reply. He had evidently not heard more than half
of his wife's last remark. In a little while he left the table, saying,
as he rose, that he had some business requiring his immediate
attention. Mrs. Lawrence glanced toward the door that closed after her
husband with a troubled look, and sighed.
From his dwelling Mr. Lawrence hurried to his store, and spent an hour
there in examining his account books, and in making calculations. At
five o'clock he met the directors of the insurance company, of which he
was still president, at an extra meeting. All had grave faces. There
was a statement of the affairs of the company upon the table around
which they were gathered. It showed that in the next two weeks
post-notes, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
would fall due; while not over fifty thousand dollars in bills
receivable, maturing within that time, were on hand, and the available
cash resources of the company were not over five thousand dollars. The
time was, when by an extra effort the sum needed could have been easily
raised. But extra efforts had been put forth so often of late, that the
company had exhausted nearly all its resources.
"I do not understand," remarked one of the directors, looking up from
the statement he had been carefully examining, "how there can be a
hundred and fifty thousand dollars of post-notes due so soon, and only
fifty thousand dollars in bills receivable maturing in the same time.
If I am not mistaken, the post-notes were never issued except against
bills having a few days shorter time to run. How is this, Mr. Lawrence?"
"All that is plain enough," the president replied promptly. "A large
portion of these bills have been at various times discounted for us in
the People's Bank, and in other banks, when we have needed money."
"But why should we be in such need of money?" inquired the director
earnestly. He had been half asleep in his place for over a year, and
was just beginning to get his eyes open. "I believe we have had no
serious losses of late. There have been but few fires that have touched
us."
"But there have been a good many failures in the last six months, most
of which have affected us, and some to quite a heavy amount," returned
the president. "Our post-note business has proved most unfortunate."
"So I should think if it has lost us a hundred thousand dollars, as
appears from this statement."
"It is useless to look at that now," said Mr. Lawrence. "The great
business to be attended to is the raising of means to meet this trying
emergency. How is it to be done?"
There was a deep silence and looks of concern.
"Can it be raised at all? Is there any hope of saving the institution?"
asked one of the board, at length.
"In my opinion, none in the world," was replied by another. "I have
thought of little else but the affairs of the company since yesterday,
and I am satisfied that all hope is gone. There are thirty thousand
dollars to be provided to-morrow. Our balance is but five thousand,
even if all the bills maturing to-day have been paid."
"Which they have, I presume, as no protests have come in," remarked the
president.
"But what is the sum of five thousand dollars set off against thirty
thousand? It is as nothing."
"Surely, gentlemen are not prepared to give up in this way," said the
president, earnestly. "A failure will be a most disastrous thing, and
we shall all be deeply sufferers in the community if it takes place. We
must make efforts and sacrifices to carry it through. Here are twelve
of us; can we not, on our individual credit, raise the sum required? I,
for one, will issue my notes to-morrow for twenty thousand dollars. If
the other directors will come forward in the same spirit, we may
exchange the bills among each other, and by endorsing them mutually,
get them through the various banks where we have friends or influence,
and thus save the institution. Gentlemen, are you prepared to meet me
in this thing?"
Two or three responded affirmatively. Some positively declined; and
others wanted time to think of it.
"If we pause to think, all is ruined," said Mr. Lawrence, excited. "We
must act at once, and promptly."
But each member of the board remained firm to the first expression.
Nothing could be forced, and reflection only tended to confirm those
who opposed the president's views in their opposition to the plan
suggested. The meeting closed, after two hours' perplexing
deliberation, without determining upon any course of action. At ten
o'clock on the next day the directors were to meet again.
Mr. Lawrence walked the floor for half of that night, and lay awake for
the other half. To sleep was impossible. Thus far, in the many
difficulties he had encountered, a way of escape from them had opened
either on the right hand or on the left, but now no way of escape
presented itself. A hundred plans were suggested to his mind, canvassed
and then put aside. He saw but one measure of relief, if it could be
carried out; but that he had proposed already, and it was not approved.
The unhappy state in which she saw her husband deeply distressed Mrs.
Lawrence. Earnestly did she beg of him to tell her all that troubled
him, and let her bear a part of the burden that was upon him. At first
he evaded her questions; but, to her oft-repeated and tenderly urged
petition to be a sharer in his pains as well as his pleasures, he
mentioned the desperate state of affairs in the company of which he was
president.
"But, my dear husband," she replied to this, "you cannot be held
responsible for the losses the institution has sustained."
"True, Florence; but the odium, the censure, the distress that must
follow its failure,--I cannot bear to think of these. My credit, too,
will suffer, for I shall lose all I have invested in the stock, and
this fact, when known, will impair confidence."
"All this is painful and deeply to be regretted, Sidney," said the
wife, speaking in as firm a voice as she could assume. "But as it is a
calamity that cannot now be avoided, and is not the result of any wrong
act of yours, let a clear conscience sustain you in this severe trial.
Let the public censure, let odium be attached to your name--so long as
your conscience is clear and your integrity unsullied, these cannot
really hurt you."
But this appeal had little or no effect. The mind of the unhappy man
could not take hold of it, nor feel its force. It was repeated again
and again, and with as little effect. Finally he begged to be left to
his own reflections. In tears his wife complied with his request. That
night she slept as little as her miserable husband.
On the next day the ---- Insurance Company was dishonoured, and "went
into liquidation." On the day following Sidney Lawrence suspended
payment. Trustees were appointed to take charge of the effects of the
company, who immediately commenced a rigid examination into its
affairs. Lawrence made an assignment at the same time for the benefit
of his creditors.
One evening, about a week after his failure, Mr. Lawrence came home
paler and more disturbed than ever. There was something wild in the
expression of his countenance.
"Florence," said he, as soon as he was alone with her, "I must leave
for Cincinnati in the morning."
"Why?" eagerly asked the wife, her face instantly blanching.
"Business requires me to go. I have seen your father, and have made
arrangements with him for you to go to his house, with the children,
while I am away. This property, as I have before told you, has to be
sold, and the sale will probably take place while I am gone."
"How soon will you return?"
"I cannot tell exactly; but I will come back as quickly as possible."
There was something in the manner of her husband, as he made this
announcement, that startled and alarmed Mrs. Lawrence. She tried to ask
many questions, but her voice failed her. Leaning her head down upon
her husband's breast, she sobbed and wept for a long time. Lawrence was
much affected, and kissed the wet cheek of his wife with unwonted
fervour.
On the next morning, early, the unhappy man parted with his family. His
wife clung to him with an instinctive dread of the separation. Tears
were in his eyes, as he took his children one after another in his arms
and kissed them tenderly.
"God bless you all, and grant that we may meet again right early, and
under brighter skies!" he said, as he clasped his wife to his bosom in
a long embrace, and then tore himself away.
On the third day after Mr. Lawrence left, one of the city newspapers
contained the following paragraph:
"THE ---- INSURANCE COMPANY.--We understand that in the investigation
of the affairs of this concern, it has been discovered that Mr.
Lawrence, the president, proves to be a defaulter in the sum of nearly
a hundred thousand dollars. The public are aware that post-notes were
issued by the company to a large amount, and loaned to individuals on
good collateral security. These bore only the signature of the
president. It now appears that Mr. Lawrence used this paper without the
knowledge of the directors. He signed what he wanted for his own use,
and when these came due, signed others and negotiated them, managing
through the principal clerk in the institution, who it seems was an
accomplice, to keep the whole matter a secret. This was continued until
he had used the credit of the concern up to a hundred thousand dollars,
when it sank under the load. Preparations were made, immediately on the
discovery of this, to have him arrested and tried for swindling, but he
got wind of it and has left the city. We presume, however, that he will
be apprehended and brought back. His own private affairs are said to be
in a most deplorable condition. It is thought that not over twenty
cents in the dollar will be realized at the final settlement."
Here we drop a veil over the history of the man who made haste to be
rich, and was not innocent. His poor wife waited vainly for him to
return, and his children asked often for their father, and wondered why
he stayed so long away. Years passed before they again met, and then it
was in sorrow and deep humiliation.