The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-11-05

oysters as quick as he could open them
at good profit. He repeated this ex
pertinent morning after morning, unit
he had saved $3.50, with which he bought
horse and wagon and had five cents
left.
"How are you going to board your
horseY asked stable-keeper, who wit
messed the audacious transaction.
~ am going to board him at youl
stable"
"But you're a MINOR" replied the
acute Yankee. "And mind / can't trust
you more than week"
The next morning the lad, who had
established a good credit with oystermen
bought thirteen bushels of remarkably
fine oysters, which he sold in the course
of the day at a profit of $l7. So he was
able to pay off his horses board. And
right there in the same market he con
tinued to deal in oysters and fish for forty
years, became king of that business, and
ended by founding college; thus afford
ing new illustration of Prof. Agassiz'
theory that the consumption of fish is
serviceable to the brain.
So Astor, on reaching New York with
lliS CdDltdl vi SCNCn nuttS anu a. lCN Sill
lings, goes to work beating furs for two
dollars week, and keeps at furs until he
is able to build Astor Houses and Astol
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 mer-
chant of Pennsylvania. William Cham
bers, the founder of the great publishing
house of Edinburgh, coming out of his
apprenticeship at nineteen, with five
shillings capital, set up book-stall with
ten pounds worth of books, all bought
on credit. The Harper's began by eau
tiously printing 500 copies of Locke on
the Understanding, 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 of mine, began,
it is true, by soleing his sweetheart's
shoes and demanding kiss in payment.
But this was only youthful sally. Her
name, however was Ann, and she was a
servant girl. But soon he began to tin
ker at his steam engine, and kept on in
that way until he invented the loco
motive, 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 in
structive to any one else, l frequently
see immense establishments, and always
visit them when l can. Nine times in
ten, if / am told their history, am in
formed that the founder was poor man,
who began business on next to nothing.
In Chicago, few years ago, mechanic
invested his whole capital and credit,
too, in the making 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 Immediately, he
would have been in sorry plight. When
/ was there twenty years after, he had a
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 en-
ploy seven thousand persons in making
steel rails and iron-a great town of peo-
pie all in the service of one company.
"What is the secret of such develop
ment of business as this?" a visitor
asked of the President and ruling spirit,
Daniel J. Morrell. His answer was
"We have no secret. We always try and
beat our last batch of rails. That's all
the secret we've got, and we don't care
who knows it,"
Why are the Rothschilds the first bank.
ers of the world? Because in business
career of one hundred and two years they
have never failed to keep an engagement.
Why is the Chemical Bank in New York
the most solid and profitable bank in
America? Because 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 2.S6, il
you presented one of its fifty dollar notes
at the counter, and asked for its equiva-
lent in gold, you got fifty dollars 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, ii
did what it had undertaken and engaged
to do-paid its losses. When Cornelius
Vanderbilt at eighteen learned that to
him had been awarded the contract for
conveying supplies to the different forts
in New York Harbor, he started with
astonishment. He had disdained to
compete with the other boatmen in price,
but had offered to do the work on just
terms. The commissary, observing his
surprise, said to him, "Don't you know
why we have given this contract to you ~
"No," replied the youth. "Why, it Is
because we want this business done, and
we know you'll do it,"
In the whole world do not believe
there can I've found business fifty years
old which is not founded on the princi,
pie of rendering an equivalent for all that
it receives. Honesty is the rock upon
which all enduring successes rest.
i was very much struck during the late
panic with three rules which Vanderbilt
gave to men in Wall street.: 81. Neve,
use what is not your own. 2. Never buy
what you can not pay for. 3. Never sell
what you haven't got"
Next to honesty, I think we must
place, as condition ofkingship in busi.
ness, knowledge. have observed that
the men who take the lead in affairs,
whatever else they lack, are sure To
possess a minute and entire knowledge OF
their branch of business-such a knowl
edge MS can be got only by taking hold
and doing every part Of it. Girard a.
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 hi
back, had tramped over the whole fur
producing region of New York and tho
lake country. No man never know fur
as he knew them. He loved fine ful
as connoisseur loves a fine picture
Stewart has the best touch for silk OF
velvet, and the best judgment of colors o
any man In his establishment. All thu
Harpers, young and old, began by setting