Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-18
BUSINESS SUCCESS.
THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE THAT
SETS FOR OR AGAINST MEN.

An Example of Row Luck May Change.
A. T. Stewards Attention to Details.
Gould's Methods-Commodore Wander
bilt and His Trafic Manager.
Some of the shrewdest merchants in this
town will tell you that there is assuredly an
element of chance which sets for or against |
men in business affairs. One of the richest |
men in this country before his death told the |
most fascinating Of tales regarding the play |
of chance in his experience This was the |
late Senator Miller, of California He was a |
man of superior business qualification, Of |
pretty shrewd Judgment, and far sighted, yet
when he came ont of the army everything
that he turned his hand to failed, and as
means of support he was obliged to seek a
government office, and he was rejoieed when
Grant gave him the custom house at San
Francisco In that office Senator Miller
hoped to be able to save enough in the course
of few years to put him on his feet again,
but he found that he was sliding backward
He could not see how or why, and he was
firmly impressed with the belief that he was
born under an unlucky star
See now how luck changes, and how its
chance may shift about like weather cock
One day there came into Mr. Miller's office
briny tar, with the smell of whale oil on his
clothes and the roll of a sea dog in his legs
He laid on the collectors desk a bit Of fur,
and he said that he had captured that skin
himself and knew where there were millions
more. He had gentle proposition to make,
that the collector should charter and victual
a ship and go snooks" with him in the
profit that he thought would be obtained
from selling these skins. He would not tell
in what part of the sea he found the animals,
and his proposition was about as unbusiness
like and hare Drained as any that Mr.. Miller
had ever listened to. His business instinct
told him to dismiss the man, but as he rubbed
his hand on the fur, which was smoother than
the best silk velvet, it occurred to him to
| make the venture. He interested some of his
friends in the scheme and they sent the cap
tain, with great doubt as to their sanity in
so doing, off into the mystery of the Polar
sea, and thus the great Alaska Seal Fur COM
pany was organized, and the shuttlecock of
| Millers fortune shifted from the keen east
wind of disappointment TO the bracing west
eriy winds of magnificent prosperity.
The curious thing about it was that from
| that day Miller never made a business in
vestment that was not profitable, although
to many of those which he did make be did
not bestow one-half the attention and eau
| ton which he had previously given to others
that were unfortunate Senator Jones, of
| Nevada, is another of those whose experience
leads him to believe in the doctrine of chance
as an element of business mems success or
misfortune. Into the great Hudson river
tunnel, into his hotel properties, into his
Washington investments, in fact into every
thing east of the Rocky Mountains which
the senator has put his money, fate set
against him, and he has seen millions
melt away like icicles in the sunlight. But
IN a chance investment which he almost
tholghtlessly made in mining properties in
the British possessions and in Alaska, as well
as some apparently worthless stock in Ne
vada mining property which few years ago
he would have seen burned up without a
sigh, chance has brought him new fortune,
The man who prescribes unto himself any
set of rules, or takes as model the career Of
any man, will be very likely to meet with a
''slip up There was A. 7. Stewart. who as
! cribed his success to the most patient atten
ton to trivial details, but if William R. Gracs
undertook to run his colossal business as Stew
art did, he would be frantic in week
Stewart not only gave orders, but followed
them up to see if they were executed. Mr.
Grace employs men who he knows will carry
out in detail the plans which he conceives
That is also in some respects Mr. Could
habit During the great southwestern strike
in which Mr.. Gould's property was 81
seriously imperiled, he was asked why h
seemed to rest so easily. Said he: I've em
ploy Mr. Hoxie He keeps me informed a
toresults, and it is his business to look afte
the details" A colossal brain racking busi
ness it was too, and it undoubtedly killet
Hoxie. But Mr.. Gould. had he adopted tn
methods of some successful business men
would have thonght it necessary to hav
penetrated all those details himself, and tha
would have brought on neuralgia like
paralytic shock
Just so with Commodore Vanderbilt, an
we can illustrate it no better than to repea
one of Chauncey NJ. Depew's stories. Sal
he: "The commodore heard of young ma
who was FREIGHT agent, and remarkabl
bright and successful one, on the Erie raj
road The chap had given evidence that b
-
transportation was something more than tt
mere hauling of goods from one town to al
other In his limited field the young cha
had shown that he possessed genius for a
interstate or national traffic manager. Tbs
was Just the kind of bud that the commodol
!. wanted to blossom on the Central system
So he got Jim Rutter away from the Err
!. and paid him $500 year as traffic maj
ager OF the New York Central Not lor
after Rutter took charge there aro
q difficult problem, and one ii
volving the interest of the Ce
tral road very greatly. Rutt.
went to the commodore with it. The O
man looked at him moment and then sal
Jim, what does the Central road pay u
$4,000 a year forF TO manage the traf
department. Jim replied DO you expe
lam going to earn your salary for your sa
the commodore. Jim caught the poin
turned on his heel, went away and solved Il
problem II he hadn't solved 1t rightly Il
Central road had no use for him" Yet the
- are lots of successful business men who wou
have taken it as a compliment to have be-
y thus approached by Rutter had they been
Vanderbilt's place.
That great merchant prince, John Wan
maker, of Philadelphia, might have been
tailor barker to this day had he tried to Z
: rich on lines laid down by others, He adopt
=. just one motto: "Do ye next thing" and b
a, now reached the point where the next thil
ed seems to be depositing of bigger sums at t