JOHN B. HERRESHOFF, THE YACHT 276
BUILDER
PART I.
“Let the Work Show” 278
The Voyage of Life 279
A Mother’s Mighty Influence 280
Self Help 281
Education 282
Apprentices 283
Prepare to Your Utmost: then Do 284
Your Best
Present Opportunities 284
Natural Executive Ability 285
The Development of Power 286
“My Mother” 287
A Boat-Builder in Youth 288
He Would Not be Discouraged 288
The Sum of it All 289
PART II. What the Herreshoff
Brothers have been Doing.
Racing Jay Gould 291
The “Stiletto” 293
The Blind Brother 296
Personality of John B. Herreshoff 297
Has he a Sixth Sense? 299
Seeing with His Fingers 300
Brother Nat 301
CHAPTER XVIII
A SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST: FAME AFTER 304
FIFTY PRACTICAL HINTS TO YOUNG
AUTHORS, BY AMELIA E. BARR.
Value of Biblical and Imaginative 305
Literature
Renunciation 306
Delightful Studies 307
Fifteen Hours a Day 308
An Accident 309
Vocation 310
Words of Counsel 310
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THEODORE THOMAS BROUGHT THE 314
PEOPLE NEARER TO MUSIC
“I was Not an Infant Prodigy” 315
Beginning of the Orchestra 316
Music had No Hold on the Masses 320
Working Out His Idea 323
The Chief Element of his Success 326
CHAPTER XX
JOHN BURROUGHS AT HOME: THE HUT ON 327
THE HILL TOP
CHAPTER XXI
VREELAND’S ROMANTIC STORY HOW HE 341
CAME TO TRANSPORT A MILLION
PASSENGERS A DAY.
CHAPTER XXII
HOW JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY CAME TO BE 357
MASTER OF THE HOOSIER DIALECT
Thrown on His Own Resources 357
Why he Longed to be a Baker 359
Persistence 361
Twenty Years of Rejected 362
Manuscripts
A College Education 364
Riley’s Popularity 365
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
[Illustration]
THE GREAT INTEREST manifested in the life-stories of successful men and
women, which have been published from time to time in the magazine
SUCCESS, has actuated their production in book form. Many of these
sketches have been revised and rewritten, and new ones have been added.
They all contain the elements that make men and women successful; and
they are intended to show that character, energy, and an indomitable
ambition will succeed in the world, and that in this land, where all men
are born equal and have an equal chance in life, there is no reason for
despair. I believe that the ideal book for youth should deal with
concrete examples; for that which is taken from real life is far more
effective than that which is culled from fancy. Character-building, its
uplifting, energizing force, has been made the basic principle of this
work.
To all who have aided me I express a grateful acknowledgment; and to
none more than to those whose life-stories are here related as a lesson
to young people. Among those who have given me special assistance in
securing those life-stories are, Mr. Harry Steele Morrison, Mr. J.
Herbert Welch, Mr. Charles H. Garrett, Mr. Henry Irving Dodge, and Mr.
Jesse W. Weik. I am confident that the remarkable exhibit of successful
careers made in this book—careers based on sound business principles and
honesty—will meet with appreciation on the part of the reading public.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
MARSHALL FIELD
THIS world-renowned merchant is not easily accessible to interviews, and
he seeks no fame for his business achievements. Yet, there is no story
more significant, none more full of encouragement and inspiration for
youth.
In relating it, as he told it, I have removed my own interrogations, so
far as possible, from the interview.
“I was born in Conway, Massachusetts,” he said, “in 1835. My father’s
farm was among the rocks and hills of that section, and not very
fertile. All the people were poor in those days. My father was a man who
had good judgment, and he made a success out of the farming business. My
mother was of a more intellectual bent. Both my parents were anxious
that their boys should amount to something in life, and their interest
and care helped me.
“I had but few books, scarcely any to speak of. There was not much time
for literature. Such books as we had, I made use of.
“I had a leaning toward business, and took up with it as early as
possible. I was naturally of a saving disposition: I had to be. Those
were saving times. A dollar looked very big to us boys in those days;
and as we had difficult labor in earning it, we did not quickly spend
it. I however,
DETERMINED NOT TO REMAIN POOR.”
“Did you attend both school and college?”
“I attended the common and high schools at home, but not long. I had no
college training. Indeed, I cannot say that I had much of any public
school education. I left home when seventeen years of age, and of course
had not time to study closely.
“My first venture in trade was made as clerk in a country store at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where everything was sold, including
dry-goods. There I remained for four years, and picked up my first
knowledge of business. I
SAVED MY EARNINGS AND ATTENDED STRICTLY TO BUSINESS,
and so made those four years valuable to me. Before I went West, my
employer offered me a quarter interest in his business if I would remain
with him. Even after I had been here several years, he wrote and offered
me a third interest if I would go back.
“But I was already too well placed. I was always interested in the
commercial side of life. To this I bent my energies; and
I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WOULD BE A MERCHANT.
“In Chicago, I entered as a clerk in the dry-goods house of Cooley,
Woodsworth & Co., in South Water street. There was no guarantee at that
time that this place would ever become the western metropolis; the town
had plenty of ambition and pluck, but the possibilities of greatness
were hardly visible.”
It is interesting to note in this connection how closely the story of
Mr. Field’s progress is connected with Chicago’s marvelous growth. The
city itself in its relations to the West, was
AN OPPORTUNITY.
A parallel, almost exact, may be drawn between the individual career and
the growth of the town. Chicago was organized in 1837, two years after
Mr. Field was born on the far-off farm in New England, and the place
then had a population of a little more than four thousand. In 1856, when
Mr. Field, fully equipped for a successful mercantile career, became a
resident of the future metropolis of the West, the population had grown
to little more than eighty-four thousand. Mr. Field’s prosperity
advanced with the growth of the city; with Chicago he was stricken but
not crushed by the great fire of 1871; and with Chicago he advanced
again to higher achievement and far greater prosperity than before the
calamity.
“What were your equipments for success when you started as a clerk here
in Chicago, in 1856?”
“Health and ambition, and what I believe to be sound principles;”
answered Mr. Field. “And here I found that in a growing town, no one had
to wait for promotion. Good business qualities were promptly discovered,
and men were pushed forward rapidly.
“After four years, in 1860, I was made a partner, and in 1865, there was
a partial reorganization, and the firm consisted after that of Mr.
Leiter, Mr. Palmer and myself (Field, Palmer, and Leiter). Two years
later Mr. Palmer withdrew, and until 1881, the style of the firm was
Field, Leiter & Co. Mr. Leiter retired in that year, and since then it
has been as at present (Marshall Field & Co.).”
“What contributed most to the great growth of your business?” I asked.
“To answer that question,” said Mr. Field, “would be to review the
condition of the West from the time Chicago began until the fire in
1871. Everything was coming this way; immigration, railways and water
traffic, and Chicago was enjoying ‘flush’ times.
“There were things to learn about the country, and the man who learned
the quickest fared the best. For instance, the comparative newness of
rural communities and settlements made a knowledge of local solvency
impossible. The old State banking system prevailed, and speculation of
every kind was rampant.
A CASH BASIS
“The panic of 1857 swept almost everything away except the house I
worked for, and _I learned that the reason they survived was because
they understood the nature of the new country, and did a cash business_.
That is, they bought for cash, and sold on thirty and sixty days;
instead of giving the customers, whose financial condition you could
hardly tell anything about, all the time they wanted. _When the panic
came, they had no debts, and little owing to them_, and so they
weathered it all right. _I learned what I consider my best lesson, and
that was to do a cash business._”
“What were some of the _principles_ you applied to your business?” I
questioned.
“_I made it a point that all goods should be exactly what they were
represented to be. It was a rule of the house that an exact scrutiny of
the quality of all goods purchased should be maintained, and that
nothing was to induce the house to place upon the market any line of
goods at a shade of variation from their real value. Every article sold
must be regarded as warranted, and_
EVERY PURCHASER MUST BE ENABLED TO FEEL SECURE.”
“Did you suffer any losses or reverses during your career?”
“No loss except by the fire of 1871. It swept away everything,—about
three and a half millions. We were, of course, protected by insurance,
which would have been sufficient against any ordinary calamity of the
kind. But the disaster was so sweeping that some of the companies which
had insured our property were blotted out, and a long time passed before
our claims against others were settled. We managed, however, to start
again. There were no buildings of brick or stone left standing, but
there were some great shells of horse-car barns at State and Twentieth
streets which were not burned, and I hired those. We put up signs
announcing that we would continue business uninterruptedly, and then
rushed the work of fitting things up and getting in the stock.”
“Did the panic of 1873 affect your business?”
“Not at all. We did not have any debts.”
“May I ask, Mr. Fields, what you consider to have been
THE TURNING POINT
in your career,—the point after which there was no more danger?”
“Saving the first five thousand dollars I ever had, when I might just as
well have spent the moderate salary I made. Possession of that sum, once
I had it, gave me _the ability to meet opportunities_. That I consider
the turning-point.”
“What trait of character do you look upon as having been the most
essential in your career?”
“_Perseverance_,” said Mr. Field. But Mr. Selfridge, his most trusted
lieutenant, in whose private office we were, insisted upon the addition
of “_good judgment_” to this.
“If I am compelled to lay claim to such traits,” added Mr. Fields, “it
is because I have tried to practise them, and the trying has availed me
much. I have tried to make all my acts and commercial moves the result
of definite consideration and sound judgment. _There were never any
great ventures or risks._ I practised honest, slow-growing business
methods, and tried to back them with energy and good system.”
At this point, in answer to further questions, Mr. Field disclaimed
having overworked in his business, although after the fire of ’71 he
worked about eighteen hours a day for several weeks:—
“My fortune, however, has not been made in that manner. I believe in
reasonable hours, but close attention during those hours. I never worked
very many hours a day. People do not work as many hours now as they once
did. The day’s labor has shortened in the last twenty years for
everyone.”
QUALITIES THAT MAKE FOR SUCCESS
“What, Mr. Field,” I said, “do you consider to be the first requisite
for success in life, so far as the young beginner is concerned?”
“The qualities of _honesty_, _energy_, _frugality_, _integrity_, are
more necessary than ever to-day, and there is no success without them.
They are so often urged that they have become commonplace, but they are
really more prized than ever. And any good fortune that comes by such
methods is deserved and admirable.”
A COLLEGE EDUCATION AND BUSINESS
“Do you believe a college education for the young man to be a necessity
in the future?”
“Not for business purposes. Better training will become more and more a
necessity. The truth is, with most young men, a college education means
that just at the time when they should be having business principles
instilled into them, and be getting themselves energetically pulled
together for their life’s work, they are sent to college. Then
intervenes what many a young man looks back on as the jolliest time of
his life,—four years of college. Often when he comes out of college the
young man is unfitted by this good time to buckle down to hard work, and
the result is a failure to grasp opportunities that would have opened
the way for a successful career.”
_As to retiring from business_, Mr. Field remarked:—
“I do not believe that, when a man no longer attends to his private
business in person every day, he has given up interest in affairs. He
may be, in fact should be, doing wider and greater work. There certainly
is no pleasure in idleness. A man, upon giving up business, does not
cease laboring, but really does or should do more in a larger sense. He
should interest himself in public affairs. There is no happiness in mere
dollars. After they are acquired, one can use but a moderate amount. It
is given a man to eat so much, to wear so much, and to have so much
shelter, and more he cannot use. When money has supplied these, its
mission, so far as the individual is concerned, is fulfilled, and man
must look further and higher. It is only in the wider public affairs,
where money is a moving force toward the general welfare, that the
possessor of it can possibly find pleasure, and that only in constantly
doing more.”
“What,” I said, “in your estimation, is the greatest good a man can do?”
“The greatest good he can do is to cultivate himself, develop his
powers, in order that he may be of greater use to humanity.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
II
BELL TELEPHONE TALK
HINTS ON SUCCESS BY ALEXANDER G. BELL.
EXTREMELY polite, always anxious to render courtesy, no one carries
great success more gracefully than Alexander G. Bell, the inventor of
the telephone. His graciousness has won many a friend, the admiration of
many more, and has smoothed many a rugged spot in life.
A NIGHT WORKER
When I first went to see him, it was about eleven o’clock in the
morning, and he was in bed! The second time, I thought I would go
somewhat later,—at one o’clock in the afternoon. He was eating his
breakfast, I was told; and I had to wait some time. He came in
apologizing profusely for keeping me waiting. When I told him I had come
to interview him, in behalf of young people, about success—its
underlying principles,—he threw back his large head and laughingly said:
“‘Nothing succeeds like success.’ Success did you say? Why, that is a
big subject,—too big a one. You must give me time to think about it; and
you having planted the seed in my brain, will have to wait for me.”
When I asked what time I should call, he said: “Come any time, if it is
only late. I begin my work at about nine or ten o’clock in the evening,
and continue until four or five in the morning. Night is a more quiet
time to work. It aids thought.”
So, when I went to see him again, I made it a point to be late. He
cordially invited me into his studio, where, as we both sat on a large
and comfortable sofa, he talked long on
THE SUBJECT OF SUCCESS.
The value of this article would be greatly enhanced, if I could add his
charming manner of emphasizing what he says, with hands, head, and eyes;
and if I could add his beautiful distinctness of speech, due, a great
deal, to his having given instruction to deaf-mutes, who must read the
lips.
“What do you think are the factors of success?” I asked. The reply was
prompt and to the point.
PERSEVERANCE APPLIED TO A PRACTICAL END
“Perseverance is the chief; but perseverance must have some practical
end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a
practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our
insane asylums. The same perseverance that they show in some idiotic
idea, if exercised in the accomplishment of something practicable, would
no doubt bring success. Perseverance is first, but practicability is
chief. The success of the Americans as a nation is due to their great
practicability.”
“But often what the world calls nonsensical, becomes practical, does it
not? You were called crazy, too, once, were you not?”
“There are some things, though, that are always impracticable. Now,
take, for instance, this idea of perpetual motion. Scientists have
proved that it is impossible. Yet our patent office is continually beset
by people applying for inventions on some perpetual motion machine. So
the department has adopted a rule whereby a working model is always
required of such applicants. They cannot furnish one. The impossible is
incapable of success.”
“I have heard of people dreaming inventions.”
“That is not at all impossible. I am a believer in unconscious
cerebration. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know
it. At night, it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have
worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the
facts regarding it together before I retire; and I have often been
surprised at the results. Have you not noticed that, often, what was
dark and perplexing to you the night before, is found to be perfectly
solved the next morning? We are thinking all the time; it is impossible
not to think.”
“Can everyone become an inventor?”
“Oh, no; not all minds are constituted alike. Some minds are only
adapted to certain things. But as one’s mind grows, and one’s knowledge
of the world’s industries widens, it adapts itself to such things as
naturally fall to it.”
Upon my asking the relation of health to success, the professor
replied:—
“I believe it to be a primary principle of success; ‘mens sana in
corpore sano,’—a sound mind in a sound body. The mind in a weak body
produces weak ideas; a strong body gives strength to the thought of the
mind. Ill health is due to man’s artificiality of living. He lives
indoors. He becomes, as it were, a hothouse plant. Such a plant is never
as successful as a hardy garden plant is. An outdoor life is necessary
to health and success, especially in a youth.”
“But is not hard study often necessary to success?”
“No; decidedly not. You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the
result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter
how much study is put upon them. It is _perseverance_ in the pursuit of
studies that is really wanted.
CONCENTRATION OF PURPOSE
“Next must come concentration of purpose and study. That is another
thing I mean to emphasize. Concentrate all your thought upon the work in
hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
“I am now thinking about flying machines. Everything in regard to them,
I pick out and read. When I see a bird flying in the air, I note its
manner of flight, as I would not if I were not constantly thinking about
artificial flight, and concentrating all my thought and observation upon
it. It is like a man who has made the acquaintance of some new word that
has been brought forcibly to his notice, although he may have come
across it many times before, and not have noticed it particularly.
“_Man is the result of slow growth_; that is why he occupies the
position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has
gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains
it in as many years. A horse is often a grandfather before a boy has
attained his full maturity. The most successful men in the end are those
whose success is the result of steady accretion. That intellectuality is
more vigorous that has attained its strength gradually. It is the man
who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and
wider,—and progressively better able to grasp any theme or
situation,—persevering in what he knows to be practical, and
concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the
greatest degree.
YOUNG AMERICAN GEESE
“If a man is not bound down, he is sure to succeed. He may be bound down
by environment, or by doting parental petting. In Paris, they fatten
geese to create a diseased condition of the liver. A man stands with a
box of very finely prepared and very rich food beside a revolving stand,
and, as it revolves, one goose after another passes before him. Taking
the first goose by the neck, he clamps down its throat a large lump of
the food, whether the goose will or no, until its crop is well stuffed
out, and then he proceeds with the rest in the same very mechanical
manner. Now, I think, if those geese had to work hard for their own
food, they would digest it better, and be far healthier geese. How many
young American geese are stuffed in about the same manner at college and
at home, by their rich and fond parents!”
UNHELPFUL READING
“Did everything you ever studied help you to attain success?”
“On the contrary, I did not begin real study until I was over sixteen.
Until that time, my principal study was—reading novels.” He laughed
heartily at my evident astonishment. “They did not help me in the least,
for they did not give me an insight into real life. It is only those
things that give one a grasp of practical affairs that are helpful. To
read novels continuously is like reading fairy stories or “Arabian
Nights” tales. It is a butterfly existence, so long as it lasts; but,
some day, one is called to stern reality, unprepared.”
INVENTIONS IN AMERICA
“You have had experience in life in Europe and in America. Do you think
the chances for success are the same in Europe as in America?”
“It is harder to attain success in Europe. There is hardly the same
appreciation of progress there is here. Appreciation is an element of
success. Encouragement is needed. My thoughts run mostly toward
inventions. In England, people are conservative. They are well contented
with the old, and do not readily adopt new ideas. Americans more quickly
appreciate new inventions. Take an invention to an Englishman or a Scot,
and he will ask you all about it, and then say your invention may be all
right, but let somebody else try it first. Take the same invention to an
American, and if it is intelligently explained, he is generally quick to
see the feasibility of it. America is an inspiration to inventors. It is
quicker to adopt advanced ideas than England or Europe. The most
valuable inventions of this century have been made in America.”
THE ORIENT
“Do you think there is a chance for Americans in the Orient?”
“There is only a chance for capital in trade. American labor cannot
compete with Japanese and Chinese. A Japanese coolie, for the hardest
kind of work, receives the equivalent of six cents a day; and the whole
family, father, mother and children, work and contribute to the common
good. A foreigner is only made use of until they have absorbed all his
useful ideas; then he is avoided. The Japanese are ahead of us in many
things.”
ENVIRONMENT AND HEREDITY
“Do you think environment and heredity count in success?”
“Environment, certainly; heredity, not so distinctly. In heredity, a man
may stamp out the faults he has inherited. There is no chance for the
proper working of heredity. If selection could be carried out, a man
might owe much to heredity. But as it is, only opposites marry. Blonde
and light-complexioned people marry brunettes, and the tall marry the
short. In our scientific societies, men only are admitted. If women who
were interested especially in any science were allowed to affiliate with
the men in these societies, we might hope to see some wonderful workings
of the laws of heredity. A man, as a general rule, owes very little to
what he is born with. A man is what he makes of himself.
“Environment counts for a great deal. A man’s particular idea may have
no chance for growth or encouragement in his community. Real success is
denied that man, until he finds a proper environment.
“_America is a good environment for young men. It breathes the very
spirit of success. I noticed at once, when I first came to this country,
how the people were all striving for success, and helping others to
attain success. It is an inspiration you cannot help feeling._ AMERICA
IS THE LAND OF SUCCESS.”
PROFESSOR BELL’S LIFE STORY
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 3, 1847.
His father, Alexander Melville Bell, now in Washington, D.C., was a
distinguished Scottish educator, and the inventor of a system of
“visible speech,” which he has successfully taught to deaf-mutes. His
grandfather, Alexander Bell, became well known by the invention of a
method of removing impediments of speech.
The younger Bell received his education at the Edinburgh High School and
University; and, in 1867, he entered the University of London. Then, in
his twenty-third year, his health failing from over-study, he came with
his father to Canada, as he expressed it, “to die.” Later, he settled in
the United States, becoming first a teacher of deaf-mutes, and
subsequently professor of vocal physiology in Boston University. In
1867, he first began to study the problem of conveying articulate sound
by electric currents; which he pursued during his leisure time. After
nine long years of research and experiment, he completed the first
telephone, early in 1876, when it was exhibited at the Centennial
Exposition, and pronounced the “wonder of wonders in electric
telegraphy.” This was the judgment of scientific men who were in a
position to judge, and not of the world at large. People regarded it
only as a novelty, as a curious scientific toy; and most business men
doubted that it would ever prove a useful factor in the daily life of
the world, and the untold blessing to mankind it has since become. All
this skepticism he had to overcome. “A new art was to be taught to the
world, a new industry created, business and social methods
revolutionized.”
“I WILL MAKE THE WORLD HEAR IT”
“It does speak,” cried Sir William Thompson, with fervid enthusiasm; and
Bell’s father-in-law added: “I will make the world hear it.” In less
than a quarter of a century, it is conveying thought in every civilized
tongue; Japan being the first country outside of the United States to
adopt it. In the first eight years of its existence, the Bell Telephone
Company declared dividends to the extent of $4,000,000; and the great
sums of money the company earns for its stockholders is a subject of
current comment and wonder. Some fierce contests have been waged over
the priority of his invention, but Mr. Bell has been triumphant in every
case.
He has become very wealthy from his invention. He has a beautiful winter
residence in Washington; fitted up with a laboratory, and all sorts of
electrical conveniences mostly of his own invention. His summer
residence is at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His wife, Mabel, the daughter of the late Gardiner G. Hubbard, is a
deaf-mute, of whose education he had charge when she was a child.
Mr. Bell, with one of his beautiful daughters, recently made a visit to
Japan. The Order of the Rising Star, the highest order in the gift of
the Japanese Emperor, was bestowed upon him. He is greatly impressed by
the character of the people; believing them capable of much greater
advancement.
Mr. Bell is the inventor of the photophone, aiming to transmit speech by
a vibratory beam of light. He has given much time and study to problems
of multiplex telegraphy, and to efforts to record speech by
photographing the vibrations of a jet of water.
Few inventors have derived as much satisfaction and happiness from their
achievements as Mr. Bell. In this respect, his success has been ideal,
and in impressive contrast with the experience of Charles Goodyear, the
man who made india-rubber useful, and of some other well-known
inventors, whose services to mankind brought no substantial reward to
themselves.
Mr. Bell is in nowise spoiled by his good fortune; but is the same
unpretending person to-day, that he was before the telephone made him
wealthy and famous.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
III
Why the American People Like Helen Gould
MISS HELEN GOULD has won a place for herself in the hearts of Americans
such as few people of great wealth ever gain. Her strong character,
commonsense, and high ideals, have made her respected by all, while her
munificence and kindness have won for her the love of many.
Upon my arrival at her Tarrytown home, I was made to feel that I was
welcome, and everyone who enters her presence feels the same. The grand
mansion, standing high on the hills overlooking the Hudson, has a
home-like appearance. Chickens play around the little stone cottage at
the grand entrance, and the grounds are not unlike those of any other
country house, with trees in abundance, and beautiful lawns. There are
large beds of flowers, and in the gardens all the summer vegetables were
growing.
Miss Gould takes a very great interest in her famous greenhouses, the
gardens, the flowers, and the chickens, for she is a home-loving woman.
It is a common thing to see her in the grounds, digging and raking and
planting, like some farmer’s girl. That is one reason why her neighbors
all like her; she seems so unconscious of her wealth and station.
A FACE FULL OF CHARACTER
When I entered Lyndhurst, she came forward to meet me in the pleasantest
way imaginable. Her face is not exactly beautiful, but has a great deal
of character written upon it, and it is very attractive. She held out
her hand for me to shake in the good old-fashioned way, and then we sat
down in the wide hall to talk. Miss Gould was dressed very simply. Her
gown was of dark cloth, close-fitting, and her skirt hung several inches
above the ground, for she is a believer in short skirts for walking. Her
entire costume was very becoming. She never over-dresses, and her
garments are neat, and naturally of excellent quality.
HER AMBITIONS AND AIMS
In the conversation that followed, I was permitted to learn much of her
ambitions and aims. She is ambitious to leave an impression on the world
by good deeds well done, and this ambition is gratified to the utmost.
She is modest about her work.
“I cannot find that I am doing much at all,” she said, “when there is so
very much to be done. I suppose I shouldn’t expect to be able to do
everything, but I sometimes feel that I want to, nevertheless.”
A MOST CHARMING CHARITY
One of her most charming charities is “Woody Crest,” two miles from
Lyndhurst, a haven of delight where some twoscore waifs are received at
a time for a two weeks’ visit.
Years before Miss Gould’s name became associated throughout the country
with charity, she was doing her part in trying to make a world happier.
Every summer she was hostess to scores of poor children, who were guests
at one of the two Gould summer homes; little people with pinched, wan
faces, and crippled children from the tenements, were taken to that home
and entertained. They came in relays, a new company arriving once in two
weeks, the number of children thus given a taste of heaven on earth
being limited only by the capacity of the Gould residence. This was her
first, and, I am told, her favorite charity.
Little children do things naturally. It was when a child that Helen
Gould commenced the work that has given her name a sacred significance.
When a little girl, she could see the less fortunate little girls
passing the great Gould home on Fifth avenue, and she pitied them and
loved them, and from her own allowance administered to their comfort.
“My father always encouraged me in charitable work,” she writes a
friend. How much the American people owe to that encouragement. A frown
from that father, idolized as he was by his daughter, would have frosted
and killed that budding philanthropy which has made a great fortune a
fountain of joy, and carried sunshine into many lives.
“Woody Crest” is a sylvan paradise, a nobly wooded hill towering above
the sumptuous green of Westchester, a place with wild flowers and
winding drives, and at its crest a solid mansion built of the native
rock. One can look out from its luxuriant lawns to the majestic Hudson,
or turn aside into the shadiest of nooks among the trees. What a place
for the restful breezes to fan the tired brows from the tenements. Do
the little folks enjoy it? Ask them, and their eyes will sparkle with
gladness for answer. Ask those, too, who are awaiting their turn in hot
New York, and watch the eagerness of their anticipation. For two long
and happy weeks they become as joyous as mortals are ever permitted to
be.
Miss Gould has a personal oversight of the place, and, by her frequent
visits, makes friends with the wee visitors, who look upon her as a
combination of angel and fairy godmother. Every day, a wagonette drawn
by two horses takes the children, in relays, for long drives into the
country. Amusements are provided, and some of those who remain for an
entire season at Woody Crest are instructed in different branches. Twice
a month some of the older boys set the type for a little magazine which
is devoted to Woody Crest matters. There are several portable cottages
erected there, one for the sick, one for servants’ sleeping rooms, and a
third for a laundry.
And the munificent hostess of these children of the needy gets her
reward in eyes made bright, in cheeks made ruddy, in the “God bless
you,” that falls from the lips of grateful parents.
All winter long, instead of closing “Woody Crest” and waiting for the
summer sunshine to bring about a return of her charitable opportunities,
Miss Gould has kept the place running at full expense. During the winter
she herself occupies her town residence. Ordinarily she would not keep
“Woody Crest” open longer than Thanksgiving Day, but in the past winter
fifteen small boys were entertained for six months. Six of these were
cripples, and nine were sound of limb. Though it required many servants,
I am told that the little guests were given as much consideration as the
same number of grown people would have received. They had nurses and
physicians for those who needed them, governesses and instructors for
those who were well.
HER PRACTICAL SYMPATHY FOR THE LESS FAVORED
When, one day, I was privileged to meet Miss Gould at Woody Crest, I saw
a hundred children scattered around the lawn in front of the stately
mansion. It had been an afternoon of labor and anxiety on her part, for
she felt the responsibility of entertaining and caring for so many
little ones. As she finally cooled herself on the piazza and looked at
her little charges romping around on the lawn, I asked her if she
thought any of the little ones before her would ever make their mark in
the world.
“That’s hard to say,” she replied, after a moment’s hesitation, “but no
one can tell what may be in children until they have grown up and
developed. But the hardest thing to me is to see genius struggling under
obstacles and in surroundings that would discourage almost anybody. I do
not see, for my part, how any child from the poorest tenements could
ever grow up and develop into strong, successful men or women. Many of
them, of course, have no gifts or endowments to do this, but even if
they had, the surroundings are enough to stifle every spark of ambition
in them. It is a mystery to me how they can preserve such bright and
eager faces. What would we do if we were brought up in such
environments! I know I should never be able to survive it, and would
never succeed in rising above my surroundings. And it is harder on the
girls than the boys! The boys can go forth into the world and probably
secure a position which in time will bring them different companionship
and surroundings; but the poor girls have so few opportunities. They
must drudge and drag along for the bare necessities of life. My heart
aches sometimes for them, and I wish I had the power to lighten the
burdens of everyone.”
“The hardest thing, I suppose, is to see real ability fighting against
odds, with no one to help and encourage?”
“Yes, that seems the worst, and I think we all ought to make it possible
for such ones to get a little encouragement and help. When a boy is
deserving of credit it should be given unstintedly. It goes a long way
toward making him more hopeful for the future. We don’t as a rule
receive enough encouragement in this world. Certainly not the poor.
Everybody seems so busy and intent upon making his own way in the world
that he forgets to drop a word of cheer for those who have not been so
fortunate by birth or surroundings.”[1]
Footnote 1:
NOTE.—For four paragraphs preceding I am indebted to GEORGE ETHELBERT
WALSH, whose interview was published in the _Boston Transcript_, Oct.
12, 1900.
For a number of years, Miss Gould has supported certain beds in the
Babies’ Shelter, in connection with the Church of the Holy Communion,
New York, and the Wayside Day Nursery, near Bellevue Hospital, has
always found in her a good friend. Once a year she makes a tour through
the day nurseries of New York, noting the special needs of each, and
often sending money or materials for meeting those needs.
PERSONAL ATTENTION TO AN UNSELFISH SERVICE
Her charities, says Mr. Walsh, in the article above cited, are probably
the most practical on record. She does not go “slumming,” as so many
fashionable girls do, but she does go and investigate personal charities
herself and apply the medicine as she thinks best. She puts herself out
in more ways to relieve distress around than she would to accommodate
her wealthiest friend. Not only has she always pitied the sufferers in
the world less fortunate than herself, but she has always had a great
desire to help those struggling for a living in practical ways to get
along. It is this side of her noble work that stands out most
conspicuously to-day. The public realizes for the first time that this
young woman, who first came into actual fame at the time of our war with
Spain, has been supporting and encouraging young people in different
parts of the country for years past. These protéges are all worthy of
her patronage, and _they have been sought out by her. Not one has ever
approached Miss Gould for help, and in fact such an introduction would
undoubtedly operate against her inclination to help them_. _She has
discovered them_; and then through considerable tact and discretion
obtained from them their ambitious desires and hopes. Through equally
good tact and sense she has then placed them in positions where they
could work out their own destinies without feeling that they were
accepting charity. This is distinctly what Miss Gould wishes to avoid in
helping her little protéges. She does not offer them charity or do
anything to make them dependent upon her if it can be helped. By her
money and influence she obtains for them positions which will give them
every chance in the world to rise and develop talents which she thinks
she has discovered in them.
Some of her protéges, continues Mr. Walsh, have been sent away to
schools and colleges. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to
offer a scholarship in some institution and then place her young protége
in such a position that he or she can win it, and in this way have four
years of tuition free. Fully a dozen different scholars are now enjoying
the benefits of Miss Gould’s kindness in this and other respects. Four
others have been enabled to attend art schools, and two are studying
music under the best teachers through the instrumentality of this young
woman. Two of these scholars were literally rescued from the tenement
dregs of New York, and they showed such aptitude for study and work that
Miss Gould undertook to give them a fair start in the world. Unusual
aptitude, brightness, or kindness on the part of children always attract
Miss Gould, and she has become the patron saint of more than a hundred.
When her name is mentioned they show their interest and concern, not by
looks of awe and fear but of eagerness and happiness. Those of their
number who have been lifted from their low estate and put in high
positions to carve out a life of success through their common patron
saint, bring back stories of her kindness and consideration that make
the children look upon her as they would the Madonna. But she is a
youthful Madonna, and the very idea of posing as such, even before the
poor and ignorant of her little friends, would amuse her. Nevertheless,
that is the nearest that one can interpret their ideas concerning her.
Miss Gould’s beneficiaries have been sometimes aided in obtaining the
most advanced schooling in the land; and she visits with equal interest
the industrial classes of Berea and the favored students of the College
Beautiful.
HER VIEWS UPON EDUCATION
Miss Gould is well educated, and a graduate of a law school. I tried to
ascertain her views regarding the education of young women of to-day,
and what careers they should follow. This is one of her particular
hobbies, and many are the young girls she has helped to attain to a
better and more satisfactory life.
“I believe most earnestly in education for women,” she said; “not
necessarily the higher education about which we hear so much, but a
good, common-school education. As the years pass, girls are obliged to
make their own way in the world more and more; and to do so, they must
have good schooling.”
“And what particular career do you think most desirable for young
women?”
“Oh, as to careers, there are many that young women follow, nowadays. I
think, if I had my own way to make, I should fit myself to be a private
secretary. That is a position which attracts nearly every young woman;
but, to fill it, she must study hard and learn, and then work hard to
keep the place. Then there are openings for young women in the fields of
legitimate business. Women know as much about money affairs as men, only
most of them have not had much experience. In that field, there are
hundreds of things that a woman can do.
THE EVIL OF IDLENESS
“But I don’t think it matters much what a girl does so long as she is
active, and doesn’t allow herself to stagnate. There’s nothing, to my
mind, so pathetic as a girl who thinks she can’t do anything, and is of
no use to the world.”
HER PATRIOTISM
The late Admiral Philip, he of the “Texas” in the Santiago fight,
regarded Miss Gould as an angel, and the sailors of the Brooklyn navy
yard fairly worship her. A hustling Y. M. C. A. chap, Frank Smith by
name, started a little club-house for “Jack Ashore,” near the Brooklyn
navy yard. Miss Gould heard of this club, and visited it. At a glance
she grasped the meaning, and, on her return home she wrote a letter and
a check for fifty thousand dollars, and there sprang from that letter
and check, a handsome building in which there are sixty beds, a library,
a pipe organ, a smoking-room, and a restaurant. Do you wonder that the
“Jackies” adore her, and that the gale that sweeps over the ship out in
the open sea is often freighted with the melody of her name?
“When I visited Cuba and Porto Rico,” says Congressman Charles B.
Landis, of Indiana,—to whom I am greatly indebted in preparing this
article,—“I talked with officers and privates everywhere along the
journey, visited camps and hospitals in cities and isolated towns, and
everywhere it seemed that the sickness and suffering and heart yearning
of the American soldier had been anticipated by Helen Gould. Voices that
quivered and eyes that moistened at the mention of the name of this
young American girl were one continuous tribute to her heart and work.
She cannot fully realize how far-reaching have been her efforts.”
A business man looks for results. What impressed me most with Miss
Gould’s work was the visible, tangible results. Every dollar spent by
her seemed to go, straight as a cannon-ball, to some mark. Miss Gould
has a business head, and is not hysterical in her work. She gives, but
follows the gift and sees that it goes to the spot. She has studied
results and knows which charity pays a premium in smiles, and tears, and
joy, and better life, and very little of her money will be wasted in
impracticable schemes. She has a happy faculty of getting in actual
touch with conditions, realizing that she cannot hit an object near at
hand by aiming at a star.
Miss Gould’s practical business sense was beautifully exemplified at
Montauk Point. Hundreds of soldiers from the hospitals in Cuba and Porto
Rico were suddenly unloaded there. Elsewhere were government
supplies—tents and cots and rations,—but there the sick soldiers were
without shelter, were hungry, had no medicine, and were sleeping on the
ground.
Why? Because of red tape. This young lady appeared in person and amazed
the strutters in shoulder-straps and the slaves to discipline by having
the sick soldier boys made comfortable on army cots, placed in army
tents, and fed on army rations,—and this, too, without any
“requisition.” She grasped a situation, cut the ropes of theory and
introduced practice. From her own purse she provided nurses and
dainties, and bundled up scores of soldier boys and sent them to her
beautiful villa on the Hudson.
The camp rang with this refrain:—
You’re the angel of the camp,
Helen Gould,
In the sun-rays, in the damp,
On the weary, weary tramp,
To our darkness you’re a lamp,
Helen Gould.
Thoughts of home and gentle things,
Helen Gould,
To the camp your coming brings;
All the place with music rings
At the rustle of your wings,
Helen Gould.
“OUR HELEN”
On the day of the Dewey parade in New York, Miss Gould was in front of
her house, on a platform she had erected for the small children of
certain Asylums. Mayor Van Wyck told Admiral Dewey who she was, and the
Admiral stood up in his carriage and bowed to her three times. Then the
word went down the line that Miss Gould was there, and every company
saluted her as it passed.
But it was when a body of young recruits stopped for a moment before her
door that the real excitement began.
“She shan’t marry a foreign prince,” they cried, tossing their hats and
stamping their feet. “She’s Helen, our Helen, and she shall not marry a
foreign prince.”
“AMERICA”
Miss Gould’s patriotism is very real and intense, and is not confined to
times of war. Two years ago, she caused fifty thousand copies of the
national hymn, “America,” to be printed and distributed among the pupils
of the public schools of New York.
“I believe every one should know that hymn and sing it,” she declared,
“if he sings no other. I would like to have the children sing it into
their very souls, till it becomes a part of them.”
She strongly favors patriotic services in the churches on the Sunday
preceding the Fourth of July, when she would like to hear such airs as
“America,” “Hail Columbia,” and “The Star Spangled Banner,” and see the
sacred edifices draped in red, white, and blue.
UNHERALDED BENEFACTIONS
Miss Gould has a strong prejudice against letting her many gifts and
charities be known, and even her dearest friends never know “what
Helen’s doing now.” Of course, her great public charities, as when she
gives a hundred thousand dollars at a time, are heralded. Her recent
gift of that sum to the government, for national defense, has made her
name beloved throughout the land; but, had she been able, she would have
kept that secret also.
The place Helen Gould now holds in the love and esteem of the republic
exemplifies how quickly the nation’s heart responds to the touch of
gentleness, and how easy it is for wealth to conquer and rise
triumphant, if only it be seasoned with common sense and sympathy.
I will not attempt to specify the numerous projects of charity that have
been given life and vigor by Miss Gould. I know her gifts in recent
years have passed the million-dollar mark.
“It seems so easy to do things for others,” said Miss Gould, recently.
It is easy to do good, if the doing is natural and without thought of
self-glorification.
Miss Gould’s views upon “How to Make the Most of Wealth,” are well set
forth in her admirable letter to Dr. Louis Klopsch, as published in the
_Christian Herald_:—
“The Christian idea that wealth is a stewardship, or trust, and not to
be used for one’s personal pleasure alone, but for the welfare of
others, certainly seems the noblest; and those who have more money or
broader culture owe a debt to those who have had fewer opportunities.
“And there are so many ways one can help. Children, the sick and the
aged especially, have claims on our attention, and the forms of work for
them are numerous; from kindergartens, day-nurseries and industrial
schools, to ‘homes’ and hospitals. Our institutions for higher education
require gifts in order to do their best work, for the tuition fees do
not cover the expense of the advantages offered; and certainly such
societies as those in our churches, and the Young Woman’s Christian
Association and the Young Men’s Christian Association, deserve our
hearty cooperation. The earnest workers who so nobly and lovingly give
their lives to promote the welfare of others, give far more than though
they had simply made gifts of money, so those who cannot afford to give
largely need not feel discouraged on that account. After all, sympathy
and good-will may be a greater force than wealth, and we can all extend
to others a kindly feeling and courteous consideration, that will make
life sweeter and better.
“Sometimes it seems to me we do not sufficiently realize the good that
is done by money that is used in the different industries in giving
employment to great numbers of people under the direction of clever men
and women; and surely it takes more ability, perseverance and time to
successfully manage such an enterprise than to merely make gifts.”
HER PERSONALITY
Miss Gould’s life at Tarrytown is an ideal one. She runs down to the
city at frequent intervals, to attend to business affairs; but she lives
at Lyndhurst. She entertains but few visitors, and in turn visits but
seldom. The management of her property, to which she gives close
attention, makes no inconsiderable call upon her time. “I have no time
for society,” she said, “and indeed I do not care for it at all; it is
very well for those who like it.”
Would you have an idea of her personality? “If so,” replies Landis, “you
will think of a good young woman in your own town, who loves her parents
and her home; who is devoted to the church; who thinks of the poor on
Thanksgiving Day and Christmas; whose face is bright and manner
unaffected; whose dress is elegant in its simplicity; who takes an
interest in all things, from politics to religion; whom children love
and day-laborers greet by reverently lifting the hat; and who, if she
were graduated from a home seminary or college, would receive a bouquet
from every boy in town. If you can think of such a young woman, and
nearly every community has one (and ninety-nine times out of a hundred
she is poor), you have a fair idea of the impression made on a plain man
from a country town by Miss Gould.”
Helen Miller Gould is just at the threshold of her beautiful career.
What a promise is there in her life and work for the coming century?
She has pledged a Hall of Fame for the campus of the New York
University, overlooking the Harlem river. It will have tablets for the
names of fifty distinguished Americans; and proud will be the
descendants of those whose names are inscribed thereon.
The human heart is the tablet upon which Miss Gould has inscribed her
name, and her “Hall of Fame” is as broad and high as the republic
itself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV
Philip D. Armour’s Business Career
I MET Mr. Armour in the quiet of the Armour Institute, his great
philanthropic school for young men and women. He was very courteous, and
there was no delay. He took my hand with a firm grasp—reading with his
steady gaze such of my characteristics as interested him,—and saying, at
the same time, “Well, sir.”
In stating my desire to learn such lessons from his business career as
might be helpful to young men, I inquired whether the average American
boy of to-day has equally _as good a chance to succeed in the world_ as
he had, when he began life.
“Every bit and better. The affairs of life are larger. There are greater
things to do. There was never before such a demand for able men.”
“Were the conditions surrounding your youth especially difficult?”
“No. They were those common to every small New York town in 1832. I was
born at Stockbridge, in Madison county. Our family had its roots in
Scotland. My father’s ancestors were the Robertsons, Watsons, and
McGregors of Scotland; my mother came of the Puritans, who settled in
Connecticut.”
“Dr. Gunsaulus says,” I ventured, “that _all these streams of heredity
set toward business affairs_.”
“Perhaps so. I like trading well. My father was reasonably prosperous
and independent for those times. My mother had been a schoolteacher.
There were six boys, and of course such a household had to be managed
with the strictest economy in those days. My mother thought it her duty
to bring to our home some of the rigid discipline of the school-room. We
were all trained to work together, and everything was done as
systematically as possible.”
“Had you access to any books?”
“Yes, the Bible, ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ and a History of the United
States.”
It is said of the latter, by those closest to Mr. Armour, that it was as
full of shouting Americanism as anything ever written, and that Mr.
Armour’s whole nature is yet colored by its stout American prejudices;
also that it was read and re-read by the Armour children, though of this
the great merchant did not speak.
“Were you always of _a robust constitution_?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. All our boys were. We were stout enough to be bathed in an
ice-cold spring, out of doors, when at home. There were no bath tubs and
warm water arrangements in those days. We had to be strong. My father
was a stern Scotchman, and when he laid his plans they were carried out.
When he set us boys to work, we worked. It was our mother who insisted
on keeping us all at school, and who looked after our educational needs;
while our father saw to it that we had plenty of good, hard work on the
farm.”
“How did you enjoy that sort of life?” I asked.
“Well enough, but not much more than any boy does. Boys are always more
or less afraid of hard work.”
The truth is, I have heard, but not from Mr. Armour, that when he
attended the district school, he was as full of pranks and capers as the
best; and that he traded jack-knives in summer and bob-sleds in winter.
Young Armour was often to be found, in the winter, coasting down the
long hill near the schoolhouse. Later, he had a brief term of schooling
at the Cazenovia Seminary.
FOOTING IT TO CALIFORNIA
“When did you leave the farm for a mercantile life?” I asked.
“I was a clerk in a store in Stockbridge for two years, after I was
seventeen, but was engaged with the farm more or less, and wanted to get
out of that life. I was a little over seventeen years old when the
California gold excitement of 1849 reached our town. Wonderful tales
were told of gold already found, and the prospects for more on the
Pacific coast. I brooded over the difference between tossing hay in the
hot sun and digging up gold by handfuls, until one day I threw down my
pitchfork and went over to the house and told mother that I had quit
that kind of work.
“People with plenty of money could sail around Cape Horn in those days,
but I had no money to spare, and so decided to walk across the country.
That is, we were carried part of the way by rail and walked the rest. I
persuaded one of the neighbor’s boys, Calvin Gilbert, to go along with
me, and we started.
“I provided myself with an old carpet sack into which to put my clothes.
I bought a new pair of boots, and when we had gone as far as we could on
canals and wagons, I bought two oxen. With these we managed for awhile,
but eventually reached California afoot.”
Young Armour suffered a severe illness on the journey, and was nursed by
his companion Gilbert, who gathered herbs and steeped them for his
friend’s use, and once rode thirty miles in the rain to get a doctor.
When they reached California, he fell in with Edward Croarkin, a miner,
who nursed him back to health. The manner in which he remembered these
men gives keen satisfaction to the friends of the great merchant.
“Did you have any money when you arrived at the gold-fields?”
“Scarcely any. I struck right out, though, and found a place where I
could dig, and I struck pay dirt in a little time.”
“Did you work entirely alone?”
“No. It was not long before I met Mr. Croarkin at a little mining camp
called Virginia. He had the next claim to mine, and we became partners.
After a little while, he went away, but came back in a year. We then
bought in together. The way we ran things was ‘turn about.’ Croarkin
would cook one week, and I the next, and then we would have a clean-up
every Sunday morning. We baked our own bread, and kept a few hens, which
kept us supplied with eggs. There was a man named Chapin who had a
little store in the village, and we would take our gold dust there and
trade it for groceries.”
THE DITCH
“Did you discover much gold?” I asked.
“Oh, I worked with pretty good success,—nothing startling. _I didn’t
waste much, and tried to live carefully._ I also _studied the business
opportunities_ around, and persuaded some of my friends to join me in
buying and developing a ‘ditch,’—a kind of aqueduct, to convey water to
diggers and washers. That proved more profitable than digging for gold,
and at the end of the year, the others sold out to me, took their
earnings and went home. I stayed, and bought up several other
water-powers, until, in 1856, I thought I had enough, and so I sold out
and came East.”
“How much had you made, altogether?”
“About four thousand dollars.”
This was when Mr. Armour was twenty-four years old,—his capital for
beginning to do business.
HE ENTERS THE GRAIN MARKET
“Did you return to Stockbridge?”
“A little while, but my ambition set in another direction. I had been
studying the methods then used for moving the vast and growing food
products of the West, such as grain and cattle, and I believed that I
could improve them and make money. The idea and the field interested me
and I decided to enter it.
“My standing was good, and I raised the money, and bought what was then
the largest elevator in Milwaukee. This put me in contact with the
movement of grain. At that time, John Plankington had been established
in Milwaukee a number of years, and, in partnership with Frederick
Layton, had built up a good pork-packing concern. I bought in with those
gentlemen, and so came in contact with the work I liked. One of my
brothers, Herman, had established himself in Chicago some time before,
in the grain-commission business. I got him to turn that over to the
care of another brother, Joseph, so that he might go to New York as a
member of the new firm, of which I was a partner. It was important that
the Milwaukee and Chicago houses should be able to ship to a house of
their own in New York,—that is, to themselves. Risks were avoided in
this way, and we were certain of obtaining all that the ever-changing
markets could offer us.”
“When did you begin to build up your Chicago interests?”
“They were really begun, before the war, by my brother Herman. When he
went to New York for us, we began adding a small packinghouse to the
Chicago commission branch. It gradually grew with the growth of the
West.”
MR. ARMOUR’S ACUTE PERCEPTION OF THE COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS FOR BUILDING
UP A GREAT BUSINESS
“Is there any one thing that accounts for the immense growth of the
packing industry here?” I asked.
“System and the growth of the West did it. Things were changing at
startling rates in those days. The West was growing fast. Its great
areas of production offered good profits to men who would handle and
ship the products. Railway lines were reaching out in new directions, or
increasing their capacities and lowering their rates of transportation.
These changes and the growth of the country made the creation of a
food-gathering and delivering system necessary. Other things helped. At
that time (1863), a great many could see that the war was going to
terminate favorably for the Union. Farming operations had been enlarged
by the war demand and war prices. The state banking system had been done
away with, and we had a uniform currency, available everywhere, so that
exchanges between the East and the West had become greatly simplified.
Nothing more was needed than a steady watchfulness of the markets by
competent men in continuous telegraphic communication with each other,
and who knew the legitimate demand and supply, in order to sell all
products quickly and with profit.”
SYSTEM AND GOOD MEASURE
“Do you believe that system does so much?” I ventured.
“System and good measure. _Give a measure heaped full and running over,
and success is_ _certain._ That is what it means to be the intelligent
servants of a great public need. We believed in thoughtfully adopting
every attainable improvement, mechanical or otherwise, in the methods
and appliances for handling every pound of grain or flesh. Right
liberality and right economy will do everything where a public need is
being served. Then, too, our
METHODS
improved all the time. There was a time when many parts of cattle were
wasted, and the health of the city injured by the refuse. Now, by
adopting the best known methods, nothing is wasted; and buttons,
fertilizers, glue and other things are made cheaper and better for the
world in general, out of material that was before a waste and a menace.
I believe in finding out the truth about all things—the very latest
truth or discovery,—and applying it.”
“You attribute nothing to good fortune?”
“Nothing!” Certainly the word came well from a man whose energy,
integrity, and business ability made more money out of a ditch than
other men were making out of rich placers in the gold region.
THE TURNING POINT
“May I ask what you consider the turning-point of your career?”
“The time when I began to save the money I earned at the gold-fields.”
TRUTH
“What trait do you consider most essential in young men?”
“Truth. Let them get that. Young men talk about getting capital to work
with. Let them get truth on board, and capital follows. It’s easy enough
to get that.”
A GREAT ORATOR, AND A GREAT CHARITY
“Did you always desire to follow a commercial, rather than a
professional life?”
“Not always. I have no talent in any other direction; but I should have
liked to be a great orator.”
Mr. Armour would say no more on this subject, but his admiration for
oratory has been demonstrated in a remarkable way.
It was after a Sunday morning discourse by the splendid orator, Dr.
Gunsaulus, at Plymouth Church, Chicago, in which the latter had set
forth his views on the subject of educating children, that Mr. Armour
came forward and said:—
“You believe in those ideas of yours, do you?”
“I certainly do,” said Dr. Gunsaulus.
“And would you carry them out if you had the opportunity?”
“I would.”
“Well, sir,” said Mr. Armour, “if you will give me five years of your
time, I will give you the money.”
“But to carry out my ideas would take a million dollars!” exclaimed
Gunsaulus.
“I have made a little money in my time,” returned Mr. Armour. And so the
famous Armour Institute of Technology, to which its founder has already
given sums aggregating $2,800,000, was associated with Mr. Armour’s love
of oratory.
One of his lieutenants says that Gerritt Smith, the old abolitionist,
was Armour’s boyhood’s hero, and that to-day Mr. Armour will go far to
hear a good speaker, often remarking that he would have preferred to be
a great orator rather than a great capitalist.
EASE IN HIS WORK
“There is no need to ask you,” I continued, “whether you believe in
constant, hard labor?”
“I should not call it hard. I believe in close application, of course,
while laboring. Overwork is not necessary to success. Every man should
have plenty of rest. I have.”
“You must rise early to be at your office at half past seven?”
“Yes, but I go to bed early. I am not burning the candle at both ends.”
The enormous energy of this man, who is too modest to discuss it, is
displayed in the most normal manner. Though he sits all day at a desk
which has direct cable connection with London, Liverpool, Calcutta, and
other great centers of trade, with which he is in constant
connection,—though he has at his hand long-distance telephone connection
with New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and direct wires from his
room to almost all parts of the world, conveying messages in short
sentences upon subjects which involve the moving of vast amounts of
stock and cereals, and the exchange of millions in money, he is not,
seemingly, an overworked man. The great subjects to which he gives calm,
undivided attention from early morning until evening, are laid aside
with the ease with which one doffs his raiment, and outside of his
office the cares weigh upon him no more. His mind takes up new and
simpler things.
“What do you do,” I inquired, “after your hard day’s work,—think about
it?”
“Not at all. I drive, take up home subjects, and never think of the
office until I return to it.”
“Your sleep is never disturbed?”
“Not at all.”
A BUSINESS KING
And yet the business which this man forgets, when he gathers children
about him and moves in his simple home circle, amounts in one year, to
over $100,000,000 worth of food products, manufactured and distributed;
the hogs killed, 1,750,000; the cattle, 1,080,000; the sheep, 625,000.
Eleven thousand men are constantly employed, and the wages paid them are
over $5,500,000; the railway cars owned and moving about all parts of
the country, four thousand; the wagons of many kinds and of large
number, drawn by seven hundred and fifty horses. The glue factory,
employing seven hundred and fifty hands, makes over twelve million
pounds of glue. In his private office, it is he who takes care of all
the general affairs of this immense world of industry, and yet at
half-past four he is done, and the whole subject is comfortably off his
mind.
TRAINING YOUTH FOR BUSINESS
“Do you believe in inherited abilities, or that any boy can be taught
and trained, and made a great and able man?”
“I recognize inherited ability. Some people have it, and only in a
certain direction; but I think men can be taught and trained so that
they become much better and more useful than they would be, otherwise.
Some boys require more training and teaching than others. There is
prosperity for everyone, according to his ability.”
“What would you do with those who are naturally less competent than
others?”
“Train them, and give them work according to their ability. I believe
that life is all right, and that this difference which nature makes is
all right. Everything is good, and is coming out satisfactorily, and we
ought to make the most of conditions, and try to use and improve
everything. The work needed is here, and everyone should set about doing
it.”
When asked if he thought the chances for young men as good to-day as
they were when he was young. “Yes,” he said, “I think so. The world is
changing every day and new fields are constantly opening. We have new
ideas, new inventions, new methods of manufacture, and new ways to-day
everywhere. There is plenty of room for any man who can do anything
well. The electrical field is a wonderful one. There are other things
equally good, and the right man is never at a loss for an opportunity.
Provided he has some ability and good sense to start with, is thrifty,
honest and economical, there is no reason why any young man should not
accumulate money and attain so called success in life.”
When asked to what qualities he attributed his own success, Mr. Armour
said: “I think that thrift and economy had much to do with it. I owe
much to my mother’s training and to a good line of Scotch ancestors, who
have always been thrifty and economical. As to my business education, I
never had any. I am, in fact, a good deal like Topsy, ‘I just growed.’
My success has been largely a matter of organization.
“I have always made it a point to surround myself with good men. I take
them when they are young and keep them just as long as I can. Nearly all
of the men I now have, have grown up with me. Many of them have worked
with me for twenty years. They have started in at low wages, and have
been advanced until they have reached the highest positions.” Mr. Armour
thinks that most men who accumulate a large amount of money, inherited
the money-making instinct. The power of making and accumulating money,
he says, is as much a natural gift as are those of a singer or an
artist. “The germs of the power to make money must be in the mind. Take,
for instance, the people we have working with us. I can get millions of
good bookkeepers or accountants, but not more than one out of five
hundred in all of those I have employed has made a great success as an
organizer or trader.”
Mr. Armour is a great believer in young men and young brains. He never
discharges a man if he can possibly avoid it. If the man is not doing
good work where he is, he puts him in some other department, but never
discharges him if he can find him other work. He will not, however,
tolerate intemperance, laziness or getting into debt. Some time ago a
policeman entered his office. In answer to Mr. Armour’s question, “What
do you want here?” he replied: “I want to garnishee one of your men’s
wages for debt.” “Indeed,” said Mr. Armour, “and who is the man?” Asking
the officer into his private room he sent for the debtor. “How long have
you been in debt?” asked Mr. Armour. The clerk replied that he had been
behind for twenty years and could not seem to catch up. “But you get a
good salary, don’t you?” “Yes, but I can’t get out of debt.” “But you
must get out, or you must leave here,” said Mr. Armour. “How much do you
owe?” The clerk then gave the amount, which was less than a
thousand-dollars. “Well,” said Mr. Armour, handing him a check, “there
is enough to pay all your debts, and if I hear of you again getting into
debt, you will have to leave.” The clerk paid his debts and remodeled
his life on a cash basis.
PROMPT TO ACT
In illustration of Mr. Armour’s aptitude for doing business, and his
energy, it is related that when, in 1893, local forces planned to defeat
him in the grain market, and everyone was crying that at last the great
Goliath had met his David, he was all energy. He had ordered immense
quantities of wheat. The opposition had shrewdly secured every available
place of storage, and rejoiced that the great packer, having no place to
store his property, would suffer immense loss, and must capitulate. He
foresaw the fray and its dangers, and, going over on Goose Island,
bought property at any price, and began the construction of immense
elevators. The town was placarded with the truth that anyone could get
work at Armour’s elevators. No one believed they could be done in time,
but three shifts of men working night and day, often under the direct
supervision of the millionaire, gradually forced the work ahead, and
when, on the appointed day, the great grain-ships began to arrive, the
opposition realized failure. The vessels began to pour the contents of
their immense holds into these granaries, and the fight was over.
FORESIGHT
The foresight that sent him to New York in 1864, to sell pork, brought
him back from Europe in 1893, months before the impending panic was
dreamed of by other merchants. It is told of him that he called all his
head men to New York, and announced to them:—
“Gentlemen, there’s going to be financial trouble soon.”
“Why, Mr. Armour,” they said, “you must be mistaken. Things were never
better. You have been ill, and are suddenly apprehensive.”
“Oh, no,” he said, “I’m not. There is going to be trouble;” and he gave
as his reasons certain conditions which existed in nearly all countries,
which none of those present had thought of. “Now,” said he to the first
of his many lieutenants, “how much will you need to run your department
until next year?”
The head man named his need. The others were asked, each in turn, the
same question, and, when all were through, he counted up, and, turning
to the company, said:—
“Gentlemen, go back and borrow all you need in Chicago, on my credit.
Use my name for all it will bring in the way of loans.”
FOREARMED AGAINST PANIC
The lieutenants returned, and the name of Armour was strained to its
utmost limit. When all had been borrowed, the financial flurry suddenly
loomed up, but it did not worry the great packer. In his vaults were
$8,000,000 in gold. All who had loaned him at interest then hurried to
his doors, fearing that he also was imperiled. They found him supplied
with ready money, and able to compel them to wait until the stipulated
time of payment, or to force them to abandon their claims of interest
for their money, and so tide him over the unhappy period. It was a
master stroke, and made the name of the great packer a power in the
world of finance.
SOME SECRETS OF SUCCESS
“Do you consider your financial decisions which you make quickly to be
brilliant intuitions?” I asked.
“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did anything I have
come that way. No, I never decide anything without knowing the
conditions of the market, and never begin unless satisfied concerning
the conclusion.”
“Not everyone could do that,” I said.
“I cannot do everything. Every man can do something, and there is plenty
to do,—never more than now. The problems to be solved are greater now
than ever before. _Never was there more need of able men. I am looking
for trained men all the time._ More money is being offered for them
everywhere than formerly.”
“Do you consider that _happiness_ consists in labor alone?”
“_It consists in doing something for others._ If you give the world
better material, better measure, better opportunities for living
respectably, there is happiness in that. You cannot give the world
anything without labor, and there is no satisfaction in anything but
such labor as looks toward doing this, and does it.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
V
What Miss Mary E. Proctor Did to Popularize Astronomy
“YOU can never know what your possibilities are,” said Miss Proctor,
“till you have put yourself to the test. There are many, many women who
long to do something, and could succeed, if they would only banish their
doubts, and plunge in. For example, I was not at all sure that I could
interest audiences with talks on astronomy, but, in 1893, I began, and
since then have given between four and five hundred lectures.”
Miss Proctor is so busy spreading knowledge of the beauties and marvels
of the heavens, that she was at home in New York for only a two days’
interval between tours, when she consented to talk to me about her work.
This talk showed such enthusiasm and whole-souled devotion to the theme
that it is easy to understand Miss Proctor’s success as a lecturer,
although she is physically diminutive, and is very domestic in her
tastes.
AUDIENCES ARE APPRECIATIVE
“I am always nervous in going before an audience,” she said, “but there
is so much I want to tell them that I have no time at all to think of
myself. I find that if the lecturer is really interested in the subject,
those who come to listen usually are; and it is certainly true, as I
have learned by going upon the platform, tired out from a long journey,
that you cannot expect enthusiasm in your audience, unless you are
enthusiastic yourself. But I think that audiences are very responsive
and appreciative of intelligent efforts to interest them, and,
therefore, I am sure, that if a woman possesses, or can acquire a
thorough knowledge of some practical, popular subject, and has
enthusiasm and a fair knowledge of human nature, she can attain success
on the lecture platform.
“The field is broad, and far from over-crowded, and it yields
bountifully to those who are willing to toil and wait. There is Miss
Roberts, for instance, who commands large audiences for her lectures on
music; and Mrs. Lemcke, who has been remarkably successful in her
practical talks on cooking; and Mary E. Booth, who gives wonderfully
instructive and entertaining lectures on the revelations of the
microscope; and Miss Very, who takes audiences of children on most
delightful and profitable imaginary trips to places of importance.
LECTURES TO CHILDREN
“Children, by the way, are my most satisfactory audiences. Grown-up
people never become so absorbed. It is the greatest pleasure of my
lecturing to talk to the little tots, and watch them drink it all in.
Indeed, I prepared my very first lecture for children, but didn’t
deliver it. That episode marked the beginning of my career as a
lecturer.
“Do you ask me to tell you about it? My father, Richard A. Proctor,
wrote, as you know, many books on popular astronomy. When I was a girl I
did not read them very carefully; my education at South Kensington,
London, following a musical and artistic direction. In fact, I was
ambitious to become a painter. But when my father died, in 1888, I found
comfort in reading his books all over again; and as he had drilled me to
write for his periodical, ‘_Knowledge_,’ I began to write articles on
astronomy for anyone who would accept them. One day, in the spring of
1893, I received a letter from Mrs. Potter Palmer, asking me if I would
talk to an audience of children in the Children’s Building at the
World’s Fair. The idea of lecturing was new to me, but I decided that I
would try, at any rate, and so I took great pains to prepare a talk that
I thought the children would understand, and be interested in. But when
I reached the building, I found an audience, not of children, but of men
and women. _There was hardly a child in all the assembled five hundred
people._ It would never do to give them the childish talk I had
prepared, and as it was my first attempt to talk from a platform, you
can imagine my state of mind. I was determined, however, that my first
effort should not be a fiasco, so I stepped out upon the platform and
talked about the things that had most interested me in my father’s books
and conversations.”
A LESSON IN LECTURING
“I have lectured a great many times since then, but my first lecture was
the most trying. I am now glad that things happened as they did, for
that experience taught me a valuable lesson. I learned not to commit my
talks to memory, but merely to have the topics and facts and general
arrangement of the lecture well in mind. By this method, I can change
and adapt myself to my audience at any time; and I often have to do
this. I am able to feel intuitively whether I have gained my listeners’
sympathy and interest, and when I feel that I have not, I immediately
take another tack. Another great advantage of not committing what you
are going to say to memory, word for word, is the added color and
animation and spontaneity which the conversational tone and manner gives
the lecture.”
THE STEREOPTICON
“My stereopticon pictures of the heavenly bodies are of great help to
me. They naturally add much to the interest, and are really a revelation
to most of my audiences, for the reason that they show things that can
never be seen with the naked eye. How my father would have delighted in
them, and how effectively he would have used them. But celestial
photography had not been made practical at the time of his death; it is,
indeed, quite a new art, although its general principles are very
simple. A special lens and photographic plate are adjusted in the
telescope, and the plate is exposed as in an ordinary camera, except
that the exposure is much longer. It usually continues for about four
hours, the greater the length of time the greater being the number of
stars that will be seen in the photograph. After the developing, these
stars appear as mere specks on the plate. That they are so small is not
surprising, for most of them are stars that are never seen by the eye
alone. When the photograph is enlarged by the stereopticon, the result
is like looking at a considerable portion of the heavens through a
powerful telescope.
“The children utter exclamations of delight when they see the
pictures,—the children, dear, imaginative little souls, it is my
ambition to devote more and more of my time to them, and finally talk
and write for them altogether. They are greatly impressed with the new
world in the skies which is opened to them, and I like to think that
these early impressions will give them an understanding and appreciation
of the wonders of astronomy that will always be a pleasure to them.”
“STORIES FROM STAR LAND”
“For the children, my first book, ‘Stories From Starland,’ was written.
I tried to weave into it poetical and romantic ideas, that appeal to the
imaginative mind of the child, and quicken the interest without any
sacrifice of accuracy in the facts with which I deal. I wrote the book
in a week. The publisher came to me one Saturday, and told me that he
would like a children’s book on astronomy. I devoted all my days to it
till the following Saturday night, and on Monday morning took the
completed manuscript to the publishing house. They seemed very much
surprised that it should be finished so soon; but as a matter of fact it
was not much more than the manual labor of writing out the manuscript
that I did in that week. _The little book itself is the result of ten
years’ thought and study._
“It is much the same with my lectures. I deliver them in a hasty,
conversational tone, and they seem, as one of my listeners told me
recently, to be ‘just offhand chats.’ But in reality I devote a great
deal of labor to them, and am constantly adding new facts and new
ideas.”
CONCENTRATION OF ATTENTION
“I learned very soon after I began my work, that _I must give myself up
to it absolutely_ if I were to achieve success. There could be no side
issues, nothing else to absorb any of my energy, or take any of my
thought or time. One of the first things I did was to take a thorough
course in singing, for the purpose of acquiring complete control of my
voice. I put aside all social functions, of which I am rather fond and
have since devoted my days and nights to astronomy,—not that I work at
night, except when I lecture; I rest and retire early, so that in the
morning I may have the spirit and enthusiasm necessary to do good work.
“_Enthusiasm_, it seems to me, is an important factor in success. It
combats discouragement, makes work a pleasure, and sacrifices easier.
“A great many women fail in special fields of endeavor, who might
succeed if they were willing to sacrifice something, and would not let
the distractions creep in. There is more in a woman’s life to divert her
attention from a single purpose than in a man’s; but if the woman has
chosen some line of effort that is worthy to be called life work, and
if—refusing to be drawn aside,—she keeps her eyes steadfastly upon the
goal, I believe that she is almost certain to achieve success.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VI
The Boyhood Experience of President Schurman of Cornell University
AT ten years of age, he was a country lad on a backwoods farm on Prince
Edward Island.
At thirteen, he had become a clerk in a country store, at a salary of
thirty dollars a year.
At eighteen, he was a college student, supporting himself by working in
the evenings as a bookkeeper.
At twenty, he had won a scholarship in the University of London, in
competition with all other Canadian students.
At twenty-five, he was professor of philosophy, Acadia College, Nova
Scotia.
At thirty-eight, he was appointed President of Cornell University.
At forty-four, he was chairman of President McKinley’s special
commission to the Philippines.
In this summary is epitomized the career of Jacob Gould Schurman. It is
a romance of real life such as is not unfamiliar in America. Mr.
Schurman’s career differs from that of some other self-made men,
however. Instead of heaping up millions upon millions, he has applied
his talents to winning the intellectual prizes of life, and has made his
way, unaided, to the front rank of the leaders in thought and learning
in this country. His career is a source of inspiration to all poor boys
who have their own way to make in the world, for he has won his present
honors by his own unaided efforts.
President Schurman says of his early life:—
“It is impossible for the boy of to-day, no matter in what part of the
country he is brought up, to appreciate the life of Prince Edward Island
as it was forty years ago. At that time, it had neither railroads nor
daily newspapers, nor any of the dozen other things that are the merest
commonplaces nowadays, even to the boys of the country districts. I did
not see a railroad until late in my ’teens. I was never inside of a
theatre until after I was twenty. The only newspaper that came to my
father’s house was a little provincial weekly. The only books the house
contained were a few standard works,—such as the Bible, Bunyan’s
‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ Fox’s ‘Book of Martyrs,’ and a few others of that
class. Remember, too, that this was not back at the beginning of the
century, but little more than a generation ago, for I was born in the
year 1854.
“My father had cleared away the land on which our house stood. He was a
poor man, but no poorer than his neighbors. No amount of land, and no
amount of work could yield much more than the necessaries of life in
that time and place. There were eight children in our family, and there
was work for all of us.”
A LONG TRAMP TO SCHOOL
“Our parents were anxious to have their children acquire at least an
elementary education; and so, summer and winter, we tramped the mile and
a half that lay between our house and the district school, and the snow
often fell to the depth of five or six feet on the island, and
sometimes, when it was at its worst, our father would drive us all to
school in a big sleigh. But no weather was bad enough to keep us away.
“That would be looked upon as a poor kind of school, nowadays, I
suppose. The scholars were of all ages, and everything, from A,-B,-C, to
the Rule of Three, was taught by the one teacher. But whatever may have
been its deficiencies, the work of the school was thorough. The teacher
was an old-fashioned drillmaster, and whatever he drove into our heads
he put there to stay. I went to this school until I was thirteen, and by
that time I had learned to read and write and spell and figure with
considerable accuracy.
“At the age of thirteen, I left home. I had formed no definite plans for
the future. I merely wanted to get into a village, and to earn some
money.
“My father got me a place in the nearest town,—Summerside,—a village of
about one thousand inhabitants. For my first year’s work I was to
receive thirty dollars and my board. Think of that, young men of to-day!
Thirty dollars a year for working from seven in the morning until ten at
night! But I was glad to get the place. It was a start in the world, and
the little village was like a city to my country eyes.”
HE ALWAYS SUPPORTED HIMSELF
“From the time I began working in the store until to-day, I have always
supported myself, and during all the years of my boyhood I never
received a penny that I did not earn myself. At the end of my first
year, I went to a larger store in the same town, where I was to receive
sixty dollars a year and my board. I kept this place for two years, and
then I gave it up, against the wishes of my employer, because I had made
up my mind that I wanted to get a better education. I determined to go
to college.
“I did not know how I was going to do this, except that it must be by my
own efforts. I had saved about eighty dollars from my store-keeping, and
that was all the money I had in the world.” _Out of a hundred and fifty
dollars, the only cash he received as his first earnings during three
years, young Schurman had saved eighty dollars; this he invested in the
beginnings of an education._