The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-06-02
MISCELLANY.
KINGS or BUSINESS.

1t is essentially the same story with all these
kings of business. They learn how to do one
thing superatively well, and then they keep
on doing it better and better. Near Pitts
burg there is the great Cambria Iron Works,
which employs 1000 persons in making steel
rails and irun@a great town Of people, all in
the service of one company. "What is the
secret of such development of business as
thisp +" 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,
In Philadelphia, Henry Disston B Sons sell
five tons of saws every day--an immense
quantity, for saw is thin and light. Forty
years ago he landed on these shores, aged
days after landing the father died, leaving
those two orphans alone in strange land. He
got work in saw shop, and by and by began
business for himself in a small cellar. The
simple secret of his marvellous prosperity is,
that he studied saws to the very utmost both
in theory and practice, and learned how to
make better saws than had ever been made
before.
Why are the Rothschilds the first bankers
of the world? Because in business career of
102 years they have never failed to keep an en-
gagement. Why is the Chemical Bank in
New York the most solid and profitable bank
in America? Because in the panic of 1887
when all other banks ceased to pay gold for
their notes, that bank did not, and never has.
When gold was at 266, if you pre- ented one Of
its equivalent in gold. you got fifty dollars in
gold Why is the Etna Insurance Company
Of Hartford the first of it's kind in America
Simply beeause, after the great fires Of New
York, Portland, Chicago and Boston, it 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 dis6ained
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 : g Don't you know why we have
given this contract to your" +" No." replied
the youth. Why, it is because we want this
business done, and we know you'll do it,
In the whole world l do not believe there can
be found a business fifty years old which is
not founded on the principal of rendering an
equivalent for all that it receives. Honesty is
the rock upon which all enduring success
rests.
| was very much struck during the late
panic with three rules which Vanderbilt gave
to the brokers in Wall street al. Never
use what is not your own. Q. Never buy
what you cannot pay for. 8. Never sell
what you haven't got"
From what agonies of apprehension and re-
morse and shame men would be saved by the
observance of these rules
Next to honesty think we must place, as a
condition of kingship in business, knowledge.
/ have observed that the men who take the
lead in affairs, whatever else they lack, are
sure to possess q most minute and entire
knowledge of their branch of business-such
knowledge as can be got only by taking hold
of every part of it. Girard, as sailor, mate
and captain, had visited every port with which
as merchant he traded. He knew the man,
the people, the markets. Astor, with pack
on his back, had tramped over the whole fur
producing region of New York and the lake
country. No man ever knew furs as he knew
them. He loved a fine fur as a connoisseur
loves fine picture. Stewart has the best
touch for silk OF velvet, and the judgment of
colors, of any man in his establishment. All
the Harpers, young and old, began setting
type and working the press. The late John
Walter, proprietor of the great 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 courier brought
him package labeled " Immediate and I'M
portant, +" which he found to contain news of
the greatest interest 1t happened that all the
compositors had gone to dinner. He took the
despatch to the composing room, set the type
himself, and by the time the men came back
he had it already to go into 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 Europe, made mp the steamers
news for the Tribune before she entered the