Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-10-26
BUSINESS SUCCESS.
THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE THAT
SETS FOR OR AGAINST MEN.

An Example of bow Luck May Change.
A. T. Stewards Attention to Details.
Could's NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Vander-
bilt and His Traffic 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 out Of the army everything
that he turned his hand to failed, and as a
means of support he was obliged to seek
government offie,, and he was rejoiced 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 a few years to put him on his feet again,
but he found that be 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 a 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 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 snooksa 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
Miller's fortune shifted from the keen east
wind of disappointment to the bracing west
erly winds of magnificent prosperity
The curious thing about it was that from
that day Miller never made business in
vestment that was not profitable, although
to many of those which he did make he did
not bestow one-half the attention and eau
tion 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
thoughtlessly made in mining properties in
the British possessions and in Alaska, as well
as some apparently worthless stock in Ne
vada mining property which a few years ago
he would have seen burned up without a
sigh, chance has brought him a new fortune.
The man who prescribes unto himself any
set of rules, Or takes as a model the career of
any man, will be very likely to meet with
slip up There was A. T. Stewart, who as
cribed his success to the most patient atten-
ton to trivial details, but if William r. Grace
undertook to run his colossal business as Stew
art did, he would be frantic in week.
Stewart not only gave orders, but followed
OLclu up W $50 IL CliOJ NGlO S@AcCuUeu ILL.,
Grace employs men who he knows will carry
out in detail the plans which he conceives.
That is also in some respects Mr. Gould's
habit. During the great southwestern strike,
in which Mr.. Goulds property was SO
seriously imperiled, he was asked why he
seemed to rest so easily. Said he: I'VE en-
ploy Mr.. Hoxie. He keeps me informed as
to results, and it is his business to look after
the Details" A colossal brain racking bust
ness it was, too, and it undoubtedly killed
Hoxie. But Mr.. Gould, had he adopted the
methods of some successful business men,
would have thought it necessary to have
penetrated all those details himself, and that
would have brought on neuralgia like a
paralytic shock.
Just so with Commodore Vanderbilt, and
we can illustrate it no better than to repeat
one of Chauncey M. Depew's stories. Said
he: 1.-The commodore heard Of young man
who was fl eight agent, and a remarkably
bright and successful one, on the Erie rail-
road. The chap had given evidence that he
comprehended that the business of freight
transportation was something more than the
mere hauling of goods from one town to an
other. In his limited field the young chap
had shown that be possessed genius for an
interstate or national traffic manager That
was just the kind of bud that the commodore
wanted to blossom on the Central system.
So he got Jim Rutter away from the Erie
and paid him 5000 year as traffic man
ager of the New York Central. Not long
after Rutter took charge there arose
a difficult problem, and one in
volving the interest of the Cen
trail road very greatly. Rutter
went to the commodore with it. The old
man looked at him moment and then said,
'Jim, what does the Central road pay you
$4,000 year forT TO manage the traffic
department. Jim replied. DO you expect
lam going to earn your salary for youY said
the commodore. Jim caught the point,
turned on his heel, went away and solved the
problem If he hadn't solved it rightly the
Central road had no use for him." Yet there
are lots of successful business men who would
have taken it as a compliment to have been
thus approached by Rutter had they been in
Vanderbilt's place.
That great merchant prince, John Wanna
maker, of Philadelphia, might have been
tailor barker to this day had he tried to get
rich on lines laid down by others. He adopted
just one motto: ''Do ye next thing" and has
now reached the point where the next thing
seems to be depositing of bigger sums at the
end Of one days business than he did the day
1,afo,a Nav Work. Evaninor Sim