Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-11-19

two other things. He was at the oyster-boat,
buying his oysters at three in the morning,
wheeled them three miles, set up his board
near market, and began business He sold
out his oysters as quick as he could open them,
at a good profit. He repeated this experiment
morning after morning, until he had saved
$3.50, with which he bought a horse and wag-
on, and had five cents left
"How are you going to board your horse ?"
asked stable keeper, who witnessed the au-
dacious transaction.
II am going to board him at your stable" !"
"But you're a minor" replied the acute
Yankee. "And, mind, I can't trust you more
than week." The next morning the lad, who
had established good credit with oystermen,
bought thirteen bushels of remarkably fine
oysters, which he sold in the course of the day
at profit fS17. So he was able to pay off
his horses board. And right there in the
same market he continued to deal in oysters
and fish for forty years, became king Of that
business, and ended by founding a college !:
thus affording a new illustration of Professor
Agassiz's theory that the consumption OF fish
is serviceable to the brain.
So Astor, on reaching New York with his
capital of seven flutes and few shilings, goes
to work beating furs for two dollars a week,
and keeps at furs, until he is able to build
Astor Houses and Astor Libraries So Girard,
finding himself at Philadelphia during the
Revolutionary war, when the town was held
by the British troops, all ordinary business
being paralyzed, falls to work bottling claret
for the English officers, and followed up that
clue till it made him the chief merchant of
Pennsylvania. William Chambers, the found
er ofthe great publishing house Of Edinburgh,
coming out of the apprenticeship at nineteen
with FIVE shillings capital, set up a book.stal
with ten pounds worth of books, all bought on
credit. The Harpers began by cautiously
printing 500 copies Of Locke on the Under
standing, and Daniel Appleton by publishing
minute volume, bound in blue paper, two
and half inches square, called "Crumbs of
Comfort" George Stephenson, brakeman to
steam engine at the mouth ofa mine: began,
it is true, by soling his sweetheart's shoes and
demanding kiss in payment. But this was
only youthful sally. Her name, however,
was Ann, and she was servant girl. But
soon he began to tinker at his steam engine,
and kept on in that way until he invented the
locomotive, and created, with the aid of his
son, the railway system.
In those lecturing tours, which are far more
instructive to me than / can be instructive to
any one else, I frequently see immense estab-
lishments, and always visit them when l can.
Nine times in ten, if I am told their history, l
am informed that the founder was poor man,
who began business on next to nothing. In
Chicago. a few years ago, a mechanic invested
his whole capital and credit, too, in the max
ing of one rough, strong farm wagon, the first
ever made west Of the lakes. 1t was all he
could do to live while he made it, and if he
had not had the good luck to sell it immedi-
ately, he would have been in sorry plight.
When | was there, twenty years after, he had
factory which turned out an excellent wagon
every seven minutes.
SECRETS OF SUCCESS.
1t is essentially the same story with all these
Kings of Business. They learn how to do
some one thing superlatively we'll, and then
they keep on doing it better and better. Near
Pittsburg there is the great Cambria Iron
Works, which employ seven thousand persons
in making steel rails and iron-a great town
of people, all in the service of one company.
"What is the secret of such development of
business as this?' visitor asked of the presi-
dent and ruling spirit, Daniel j. Morrell. His
answer was: "We have no secret. Wealways
try and beat our last batch ofrails. That's all
the secret we've got, and we don't care who
knowsit." Why are the Rothschilds the first
bankers of the world? Because in business
career of one hundred and two years they have
f,;l loI Tn " Is
the Chemical Bank in New York the most
solid and profitable bank in America? Be-
cause in the panic of 1857, when all other
banks ceased to pay gold for their notes, that
bank did not and never has. When gold was
at 286, if you presented one of its $50 notes at
the counter, and asked for its equivalent in
gold, you got $50 in gold. Why is the Etna
Insurance Company of Hartford the first of
its kind in America? Simply because, after
the great fires of New York, Portland, Chicago,
Boston, it did what it had undertaken and en-
gagged to do-paid its losses. In the whole
world l do not believe there can be found
business fifty years old which is not founded
on the principle Of rendering an equivalent for
all that it receives
Honesty is the rock upon which all endur-
ing successes rest. was very much struck
during the late panic with three rules which
Vanderbilt gave to men in Wall street: 81.
Never use what is not your own. 2. Never
buy what you cannot pay for. 3. Never sell
what you haven't got" Next to honesty, l
think we must place, as condition OF king
shipin business, knowledge. have observed
that the men who take the lead in affairs,
whatever else they lack, are sure to possess
minute and entire knowledge Of their branch
of business knowledge as can be got
only by taking hold and doing every part of
it. Grard, as sailor, mate and captain, had
visited every port with which, as merchant,
he traded. He knew the men, the people, the
markets. Astor, with pack on his back,
had tramped over the whole reproducing re-
gion of New York and the lake country. No
man ever knew furs as he knew them. He
loved fine fur as connoisseur loves fine
picture Stewart has the best touch for silk
or velvet and the best judgment Of colors Of
any man in his establishment. All the Har-
pers young and old, began by setting type
and working the press. The late John WAL
ter, proprietor Of the London Times, called at
the office of the paper one day before going to
the House Of Commons, of which he was a
member. While there a courier brought in a
package labelled immediate and important"
which he found to contain news of the greatest
interest. 1t happened that all the compost
tors were gone to dinner. He took the des-
patch to the composing.room, set the type
himself, and by the time the men came back
he had it all ready to 90 into a second edition,
which was Immediately issued He knew the
business from top to bottom-knew it in his
brain and knew it in his fingers. So Horace
Greeley, on returning from his first visit to