The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-22
RICH WHO BEGAN POOR.
Some Notable Examples Taken
From Among the Great Men
of New York.
Tho Question Of Education Seems
to Have Gut q Very Lit
tie Figure.
Tho Little Money That Some of tho Most
Successful New Workers Had Whom
The Started Ont In Life.

Tho Little Money That Some of the Mo!
Successful New Workers Had Whom
They Started Out In Life.
That all men are born free aud equal ia
fact that Ia set forth in tho constitution o
the United States. That they do not DON
tinue 90 is fact evident to all, says tn
New York News. '
Men who have been born under condi
tions that should insure success do not sue
coed, and men born to what seems failur
do not fail. And SO it goes.
Theirs was a group discussing this matte
the other day in IN uptown resort. Th
matter of college education and all tina
came up. Some thought that a college ca
recr was q good thing for a young man
and some others thought it was simply
waste of several wears as III importan
period in the life of n young man. Pres
emily one of the men who had not as ye'
spoken interrupted the others.
do you know" he said, in a very mat
ter of fact way. that you are all talking
good deal of nonsense. Neither n college
education or the lack Of n will ruin 6
man. or make him successful. any more
than an immense amount of drilling and
studying of tactics will make n Napoleon
out of the ordinary private. Education il
very good in it's way, but men often fai
who have very much education, and otherf
often succeed who have little or none at all,
Education, or lack of it, is a condition. AND
an important one, but the physical, mental,
and moral makeup of a man is still more
Important. Take twenty of the most sue
cessful mon in this city to-day, and you
will Gnd that they succeeded through quail
tiles thai would have dominated them
whether highly educated or not. just look
the records over"
And with this suggestion the speake,
sauntered away, leaving his friendst to think
it all over. 1t brought up an interesting
question that the writer took upon himself
to investigate, and that was-what sort of a
start in life did our successful men have,
anyhow?
OF course, we know that the present gen
Grafton of the Vanderbilt family were born
under conditions hat govern them. They
have their life work in retaining the money
that was made before them, and in allowing
it to swell to a greater volume by natural
prccessoS. The same is true OF the Astors,
and n couple of other families in this town.
But in the main. the successful men of New
York to-day do not owe their success to
their fathers. They have won it themselves,
and they hrve sprung from all ranks, a few
Of them having been college men, more hav-
ing been clerks, farmer boys, and even ordi-
nary newspaper men. In the court of sue
cess all men start without favor, no matter
how they may end.
Jay Gould and his rat-trap spring to the
front at once whenever one discusses the
small beginning and great results, just as
Dick Wilmington and his cat do in the
minds of Englishmea. There have been a
good many queer stories told about Jay
Gould, many of which were not true.
Whether the rat-trap is or is not true is Of
little ~onsequenc We do know that jay
Gould started in life poor enough, and that
he is now one of the richest men in the
world, and by the same token as DOR in
health and miserable in feelings as any of
them.
But Jay Gould is not by any means the
only man who came to New York owning
nothing more valuable than a rat-trap, md
succeeded in very short order in laying by a
few millions for a rainy day. The list of
those who have done it is not so short, and
it is decidedly interesting.
The papers have told a good deal about
the late George Jones, ana how he climbed
from the position of a poor clerk in a coun-
try store to that of the owner of a great
and powerful metropolitan newspaper. But
he was not the only one of his kind.
Charles A. Dana, OF the Sun, had to work
pretty hard for SIS q week IN Horace Gree
ley's Tribune oncs on a time. Ho did not
own an island in Long Island sound then,
nor did he employ a man Mt a high salary
to grow mushrooms for him. nor could he
afford a noted cook, at still larger wages, to
prepare his food for him; neither did he
nave a few fast horses and a beautiful
house in the city, aside from his country
house, and G few other trif1os of the like
sort.
Then Joseph Pulitzer could not 90 cruis-
ing a month at a timc on the Mediterranean
cen, in his W yacht, a few years ago. He
had to work at jobs of all kinds before he
became a reporter, at a very small salary,
on the st. Louis Westliche Post, before he
was lucky enough to get elected to the Mis-
souri, legislature.
newspaper in this CITY who WAS once a clerk
in Il country store, This is Col. Elliot Fitch
Shepard, who now has several millions OF
dollars. and who 4 few days ago laid the
cornerstone Of What he is ambitious to
make one of the most complete newspaper
buildings in the world. 1t is the habit to
attribute most of Col. Shepard's success in
life to the fact that he married into the
Vanderbilt family. This is not strictly true,
nor il it just. lie would have been a sue
ceRsful man even if he had never married
into tho Vanderbilt family.
Then there is another editor who has sue
ceaded through his own efforts. When he
was a struggling reporter at Il small salary
in Ohio, no one thought that upon the mar
row, s~lanting shoulders of this long, lanky
youth the mantle of Horace Greeley would
fall, or that he would one day control the
chief organ OF one of the two great political
be the chosen adviser of the Loading poll
ticians of his time, wealthy and powerful,
and be miniRter from this country TO
France, living i'll a palace in Paris, and
giving Entertainment that startle even the
brilliant Parisians by their magnificence.
Yet sill these things have come to ass, and
hoy it all cnme about Mr.. Whitelaw Reid
himself would probably be ut a loss to ex-
plain.
There is Austin Corbin, who is. in n way,
the king of Long Iplnnd.' Like a good
many other successful men III this town,
he graduated from his fathers farm in Yer
mont. He could manipulate a scythe very
~cleverlv long before he knew anything
the manipulations of railroads, and
for that matter can swing one yet with a
fair mount of vigor.
Then ex-judge Noah Davis had the same
sort of trimming rs did ex-JudCe Fullerton.
EiiL2 b. Root, successful iii law and poll
tics, started to succesB from the farm. So
did ex,Judge John +. Dillon, who, with
Gen. Wager Swayne, Sher1nnn's old sub
ordinate, do all of JAY Gould's law work..
Robert 6. Ingersoll wasu farmer before
he WAS q lawyer nrd an infde!. ID. 0.
Mills started on Il little farm uear Albany,
went to fDIifnrria IN 1GiG Ja,n,oo 80, -,