Instances of success in Ontario--A thrifty wood-chopper turns
cattle dealer--Possesses land and money--Two brothers from Ireland;
their mercantile success--The record of thirty years--Another
instance--A travelling dealer turns farmer--Instance of a thriving
Scotsman--The way to meet trouble--The fate of Shylocks and their
descendants.
To show the possibilities to be accomplished in Ontario, I purpose to
cite some instances coming under my own observation of Ontarians who
have succeeded. I take the ground, that the opportunities are as great,
if not greater, in this Ontario of ours, for persons to achieve success,
as in any part of the world. Certainly the Old World presents no such
field for successful operations, and the only possible parallel can be
found in some of the neighboring States.
Of the two I would certainly give Ontario the preference, for most of
those who have risen in the United States were in some way helped by
their parents and friends, whereas our successful men have invariably
risen from no beginnings at all, as our country emerged from the forest.
Now for some instances of success: About twenty-three years ago, one who
could not read came to this part of Ontario, possessing not one dollar,
nor had a friend in America, but had come over from Ireland a few years
previously quite alone, in order to better his condition. He began by
chopping wood by the cord. Saving enough thereby, he bought a team, and
then bought wood by the lump and hauled it to town to sell. Then he
bought a wood lot, and proceeded to haul the cord-wood from it, which he
sold to manufacturers in the towns. After a time he got his lot cleared
of the wood, and put fall wheat on it, seeding the land down to clover
and timothy at the same time. The next season he had unlimited
quantities of grass for stock, and hay for wintering them. Then he went
around the country and bought up cattle in droves, and put them on this
grass. As soon as they were in condition these cattle were sold off for
the Montreal market, for we had not at this time begun the business of
shipping cattle to England. It is needless to add that he always bought
his lean cattle at the very lowest possible figure. If some poor fellow,
no matter how distant, was obliged to part with his stock by a forced
sale, this man would be on hand, and invariably secure it. This cattle
business coined money for him. Where he got his knowledge of the cattle
business I am unable to say, but unlettered as he was, and unable even
to write his own name, he seemed to take in all knowledge intuitively,
as it were. In a word he seemed to drink in knowledge as a sponge takes
up moisture. He could often be seen standing listening to groups of men
who were talking, saying but little himself, but treasuring up every
word dropped by them. The original wood lot was added to by another,
which in its turn became a gold mine to him by the sale of its wood.
This in its turn was cleared and seeded down to grass, as the first one
was, and cattle placed on it as well.
Soon the first cleared lands became arable, and he then ploughed up the
virgin soil, and began raising barley and peas. Invariably his crops
turned out extremely well, which gave him funds to buy still another
wood lot. And so the process went on. Should a lot of lean cattle come
into the Toronto market in the fall, unfit for butchers’ use, our
successful man, always with one eye looking to the east, while the other
looked to the west, scented the bargain afar off, and came and secured
the lot.
Without making repetitions, I will dismiss this man by saying that, a
few years ago, before he divided his land among his sons, he was the
absolute owner of 700 acres of land, and possessed besides an enormous
stock of cattle, horses, and farming appliances generally, and was then
easily worth $80,000--in twenty years he had made $80,000 from nothing
in Ontario. This fact needs no comment. It shows the possibilities of
our Ontario, and for a solid gain, without gambling, but property made
to keep, I think I can safely defy the world to beat the record.
The next example I am going to relate is of success achieved in a
totally different field, but wholly the growth of Ontarians, and it can
be justly cited.
Two brothers came out from Ireland about thirty-five years ago. They
possessed a good education, which is all they did possess besides the
clothes upon their backs. Each got a situation as clerk in dry goods
stores in one of our cities. By dint of close saving and strict
attention to business, they were able after ten years to start a store
on their own account. In this store they did all their work, and if
there was any profit in storekeeping they got paid for it. After a few
years they opened out branch stores in smaller Ontario towns, and these
branches invariably succeeded and the profits were good. Their credit
now had become assured, and buying mostly for cash, with their high
credit they were able to buy at the lowest possible figure. The war
broke out in the States about this time in my story of these men. The
United States money went down a long way below par, but for some time
their goods did not rise to keep pace with their depreciated currency.
Our men bought largely in the United States and sent over their gold
drafts, which were sold at a great premium, and thus their goods were
placed upon their shelves at ridiculously low figures.
In boots and shoes, of which they bought enormous quantities, they
doubled their money on every invoice. Without pursuing this narrative
further, it is just as well to say that as the war went on and the
equilibrium came about in the price of goods in the United States, and
the depreciated currency got in sympathy, these men found themselves
with thousands of available funds on hand.
Into manufacturing they then entered. In this new branch the same
painstaking and foresight which gained them success in storekeeping made
the wheels of the manufactories revolve to their profit. Year by year
their manufacturing operations succeeded, and they found themselves the
possessors of more capital than their manufacturing operations required.
Next they became bankers, and again in this new line the old business
habits of constant care, watchfulness and keen oversight, wrested
success from the business. Their manufacturing operations they still
kept on in connection with their banking business.
Success so phenomenal pointed out the principals as sound, far-seeing
men, and we next find each brother the president of a bank and their
financial position fully assured. During this series of years they have
found time to take a relaxation now and again by trips to Europe,
besides holding municipal offices among the people where they reside. I
am not in a position to tell for a certainty of the wealth of these
brothers at this time, but it is conceded by all who know them to be in
the hundreds of thousands.
This has all been done in thirty years in Ontario, and done fairly and
honestly. They have never gambled, nor taken chances, but always done a
square, legitimate business, open to the closest scrutiny. If those
persons in our country who are railing at capitalists will stop and read
this narrative, they must see that these persons have a moral as well as
a legal right to their capital, and it is to the glory of our Ontario
that they have made it and possess it. Indeed these men worked and saved
and lived close until they made their start, and they surely have a
right to it.
All capital in Ontario was acquired by closeness and saving, for very
few persons in Ontario brought much money into the country. The capital,
in fact, has been created here by just such saving and downright hard
work as these men did. What is true in the case of these men is
invariably true in the case of others who have succeeded in becoming
capitalists in Ontario. I hope this narrative may be in somewise an
incentive to others to try and do likewise in their own particular
calling.
A young New England lad began about forty years ago selling goods
through Ontario from a waggon. His employer furnished the horses and
waggon. Every working day through rain and snow found this young man on
the road. No storms, nor floods, nor cold snaps deterred him, but every
day he did business for his employer, and weekly he made up his balance
sheets, and remitted to his employer his weekly sales.
His salary he saved, every cent of it, reserving for himself only enough
for the strong serviceable clothing he wore. He got an interest in the
business in a few years, or sold the goods on commission. The knowledge
he had gained while selling before for his employer at a salary enabled
him as he grew older to increase his sales, and likewise his profits.
Daily he plodded on, never for a moment swerving from the path of duty,
and as in the instances before narrated, such application has only one
result--and that is success. Success he certainly did have, and at the
age of twenty-five this young man found himself the absolute owner of
$10,000.
He then became a farmer. Here, as in the selling of goods, the same
perseverance which succeeded before caused success now. In his farming
he succeeded. His harvest was always got in first in the neighborhood,
and his plough was soonest after the harvest dancing through the fields
making the next crop a certainty. It is almost a pity that so good a
farmer as this young man was was debarred from farming. His wife’s
health failed, however, and he found it necessary to get nearer a town,
where she might have better medical care, and so he sold out his farm.
From a farmer he became a manufacturer. In this new calling he masters
every detail of his business. He is at his work early and late, and
daily does more downright hard work than any man in his employ.
Gradually his works are added to, and his shop becomes known throughout
the length and breadth of our land. Seasons of adversity are guarded
against, for he always keeps an eye to the future. In fact, a panic can
scarcely strike him. Cash he pays for his stock, and his position
becomes so strong that he feels he really knows his ground and is fully
master of his business. Capital gathers; it is the same story I have to
tell as in the former instances. Such work, plodding and oversight
cannot fail to bring accumulated capital. There is no other way to get
it so that it will stick. Of course, we have the examples of
stock-gambling, but who will pretend to assert that capital by
stock-jobbing ever does stick? And now this manufacturer, having made
capital, becomes a banker. His banking operations, in the hands of a man
who has literally carved his own fortune, cannot fail to be a success. A
millowner he next becomes besides a manufacturer and a banker, and about
as busy a man as Ontario can produce to-day. Daily he is on the move,
early and late he is at his post, and every wheel is well oiled and runs
smoothly. Such men are a positive benefit as well as an ornament to our
young country. $300,000 he has made in thirty-five years, that being his
present wealth, which is conceded by all who know him. Recollect, he
began as a lad, fresh from a New England common school, and has
literally made himself.
A Scotsman came to Canada about forty years ago, with nothing but his
hands to help himself. He had been used to farming at home, and here he
hired himself out to a farmer. Year after year he toiled on, worked and
saved. In about fifteen years he found that he had saved enough to buy
and pay cash for a farm. You, no doubt, reader, think it a long time to
work for the first start, but just wait and see what he did when he got
a start. He marries his employer’s daughter and sets up farming for
himself. If he was a good hired man, he was equally good as a boss, and
his farm began to bloom and season after season to look neater. Keeping
right on, even with the low prices which he then got for his grain, he
added to his farm until he owned absolutely and farmed 150 acres of
Ontario’s best lands. Now he is on the high road to success, but the big
Scotch heart within him went out to his father-in-law, and this came
near being his ruin. His father-in-law had been a wealthy man, but
became involved, and the son-in-law endorsed for the father-in-law for a
sum as great as his land was then worth. It is only the old history of
such endorsations to repeat: the endorser had to pay, of course. The
father-in-law failed, leaving the young man almost penniless. Neighbors,
not of the sterling stuff he was made of, advised him to sell his stock,
because that was not mortgaged, and take the money and run away.
“I will pay every cent,” said the honest Scot, “only give me time.” Away
he went to the holders of the notes, and plainly and squarely told them
that he could not pay them now, but if they would wait he would pay them
every cent.
“Then you are not going to run away?”
“Never! I will work it all out in a little while if you will only wait.”
And wait they did.
The merchants with whom he dealt, knowing the sterling qualities of the
man, came forward and told him that he should have anything he wanted.
And he bared his arms, went to work, and gradually paid off every dollar
of his indebtedness, and stuck to his home when those who counselled him
to run away had lost their homes and gone away west. He buys another
farm, and with its aid, and the old farm as well, pays for it in a few
seasons. A palatial home he erects, and his farm becomes one of the best
cultivated in the locality. Now, had this man not been known as a man
of sterling integrity, his property must have been all taken from him
when those notes became due. But being so favorably regarded, he got the
chance which put him on his feet again. His character stood him in good
stead, for his merchants having lands they had taken for debts, offered
them to our Scot on favorable terms, with easy terms of payment, and the
Scot finds himself the absolute owner of five hundred acres of
first-class land, besides money at his credit in the banks, and a large
farm stock at home. In thirty-five years this penniless Scot makes about
$70,000, after the reverses he had suffered from his large-heartedness.
Money honestly, fairly acquired, a respected member of the community all
the time, a man whose word no one dare impugn, manifestly his course was
far better than if he had run away, and it is probable had he run away
in his adversity that to-day he would have been in very moderate
circumstances. Again, I doubt if any country in this world shows better
possibilities than Ontario does for a man to rise. And these are not
particularly isolated instances. Many more I might cite of what may be
achieved in this glorious Ontario of ours.
Before drawing this chapter to a close, I wish to speak of one more
class of Ontario persons, whom I never recollect to have seen mentioned
in print before, and these are the Ontario Shylocks. Usually these
persons came from the British Isles, mainly from England, fifty years or
so ago. They would ordinarily be younger sons of a good family, and not
being able to inherit much under the British law of primogeniture, took
their one thousand sovereigns or so, and came to Canada. Arriving here
at that early day, and there being but little money in the country,
their cash commanded large rates of interest. At first they lent their
money at 15 per cent, or so, and were for a time satisfied. But as time
wore on, the greed of inordinate gain gained upon them, and they began
to demand a bonus of 10 per cent, beside their 15 per cent, interest.
Getting on in this way, it is almost superfluous to add that they soon
doubled and trebled their means. Was some unfortunate settler unable to
pay at the appointed time, an additional bonus of 10 per cent or so
would satisfy the lender. Lands he would not acquire, for they would
never be valuable, he thought, and nothing was worth anything but money.
The consequence was that these Shylocks became wealthy. But I almost
defy any reader to fix upon any such person to-day, or the family of
such a person, who are worth anything now. It appears according to the
eternal fitness of things that money so got by extortion does not stick.
A Temperance Society of England offers a prize of one hundred guineas to
any one who will trace money down to the third generation, got by the
sale of liquors. But here in Ontario we do not need to go down further
than the second generation to find that money got by extortion does not
stick. To-day those very settlers who paid the 15 per cent. interest and
a bonus besides, and kept their lands, are still at the fore, and their
descendants will inherit many broad acres.