The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-11-05
KINGS OF BUSINESS.
Lecture by James Parton.

James Parton delivered the first of the
Packard College course of lectures We'd
nesday evening in the large hall of
Cooper Union. His subject was "Kings
of Business" and the lecture one he has
recently prepared for delivery during the
coming winter. We quote:
THE MAGNITUDE OF RICHES.
can well believe the familiar story of
John Jacob Astor's saying that ga man
who is worth $3.50, 900 is Just as well off
as though he were rich" The mind
easily becomes habituated to these new
magnitudes. Thomas Brassey, the Eng
lish railroad contractor, had at one time
$4,000 men in his employ, whose wages
came to about $500, 900 week, and they
were at work in eight countries-Eng-
land, France, Spain, Italy, Venezuela,
Canada, and Australia. He wrote a-note
one day ordering 10000 wheelbarrows
and 5000 wagons. In the course of forty
years, he constructed, or helped to con-
struct, $50 railroads, and he did all this
with less fuss and worry than many a
man experiences in running a peanut
stand. We have greater than Thomas
Brassey in Cornelius Vanderbilt, who, at
eighty, quietly makes up his mind that
the time has come for us to have four
track railroad between New York and
Buffalo. Some one said to him, 81 don't
know of any four-track roads," 81 don't"
said he, "but the Central must have two
more tracks, and l hope to live to see
them laid" And probably he will. The
care of an estate of SAC, 900, 900 and the
management of all his railroads only oc-
cupy him two hours day, and during
that short time he does not seem to be
very busy. BY three o'clock he is usually
on the road, erect, magnificent, driving
pair of fast horses, in an open buggy,
unattended.
There are higher spheres Of labor than
making railroads, in which the great re-
sources of our Kings of Business are en-
ployed with widely beneficial effects of
another kind.
And now the question occurs: Who
are these uncrowned monarchs of the
modern world? What are they? Where
do they originate? BY what means do
they accumulate these great resources? !?
In what respect do they differ from the
men who attempt a similar career and
fall out of the course disabled and de-
feated? Is it their virtue or their want
Of virtue that gives the success? These
are interesting questions, because these
men are the masters Of our modern world.
They carry the purse, and pay every
body, and it is apparently law of nature
that the hand which signs the check
wields the power.
AS rule, these kings of business begin
life near the bottom of what is called the
SOCIAL scale. They generally begin very
poor. Crabb Robinson records that the
late Lord Southampton applied to the
Bishop of Llandaf for advice how to
bring up his son 50 that he would get for
ward in the world. 81 know but of one
way" replied the Bishop. "Give him
parts and poverty" "Well, then" said
the father, who was noted for his free
living, eff God has given him parts will
manage as to poverty" Another Eng
lish nobleman, Lord Derby, mentioned a
curious circumstance in point the other
day. At a gathering in Australia four
people met, three of whom were shep-
herds on sheep farm. One of these had
taken degree at Oxford, another at
Cambridge, and the third at a German
university. The fourth was their en-
ployer, squatter, rich in focks and
herds, but scarcely able to read and
write, much less to keep his own ac-
ter knew sheep, knew land, knew mar
kets, knew wool. 1t is an unqucstionable
fact that both in Australia and America
these founders of huge business are, as a
rule, unlettered men, whose college was
a rough, hard, long grapple with material
things.
1t is also true that they usually take
hold, early in life, of some plain work
that lies under their noses, and keep To
that until il issues into something large
and magnificent. The wealthiest and
most powerful house of business i'm Eu-
rope is that of the Rothschilds. The
founder of the house, one hundred years
ago, was a boy in his fathers money
changing office at Frankfort-on-the-Ma Main.
He discovered that some of the coins in
which his father dealt had an artificial
value as specimens, and he used to spend
the first day of the week--the Jews idle
day-in picking out such coins from tho
mass for sale to collectors. That was the
beginning of his career. He took hold,
you will observe, of the work that lay
most obviously before him.
HOW SOME MEN HAVE BECOME RICH.
Isaac Rich, who left million and
thrce-,quarters year or two ago TO found
a college in Boston. began thus: At
eighteen he came from Cape Cod TO Bos-
ton with three or four dollars in his DOS
session, and locked about for something
to do, rising early, walking far, observing
closely, rejecting much. Soon he had
an idea: He bought three bushels OF
oysters, hired wheelbarrow, found a
board, bought six small plates, six iron
forks, three-cent pepper box, and one
or two other things. lie was at the
ovster-boat. buving his ovsters at th roc