The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-04-03
itical nature which you have will be of
moro value than the money"

uIlcal nature Wncn you nave Will be or
moro value than the money!
a New Business.
Then the m;m showed the collector u
namber Of sealskins which no had
brought with him from the Boring sea.
They seemed to be of excellent quality
and had been taken Oh II Whaling yoy-
nge.
Now" said tho whalcr, ''if you
will send these to London and have them
tested ut the great dycing houses there
md they turn out all right, Il good deal
OF money can be madc taking these seals.
have no money, but l have IL ship, and
know where the seals can best be TAX
ell. If you can raise enough S.oncy to
victual my ship and pay the needed adj
vance to my men, will go north again
and get IL cargo of skins We can mako
satisfactory arrangements as to profits,
and u company can be formed OH my re-
turn
Almost against his Judgment Mr..
Miller consented The skins were sent
to London, and i'll due time word came
back that they We're of superior dye tax
ing quality. The ship was victualed and
outfitted and sailed away to the Boring
sea for a cargo of skins.
Luck Turns at Last.
Mr. Miller's term as collector had
nearly expired before the ship again an
chored inside the Golden Gate and
when she did return she was loaded
down with handsome and perfect seal
skins, the profits from the sale of which
were such as to make it an easy matter
to get enough money to capitalize the
proposed company The act of incorpo-
ration gave tho company, too, the cxclu-
slve right to the seal fisheries for q long
term of years OH the payment of lib
eral tax OH each skin. Thus the Alaska
Seal Fur company, of which Miller was
tho first president, came into being, and
presently he was rich. From that time
his luck was good and not bad His
surplus capital was invested in business
enterprises, all of which yielded hand
some returns, without exception, and
never again was he Il victim of bad luck
But, the story continues, he always
trusted the management of his ventures
after his first lucky strike to the hands
of others
OF course tho man who SCOTS at the
doctrine of luck will say that this story
proves most conclusivcly the truth of
the law of cause and effect in business
III Miller had not been collector, the
man with the scalskins would not have
gone to him, and without Millcr's
knowledge of public men the conccs-
sions required to make tho seal fur com
pany IL glowing success could not have
been got.
The history of California as the land
OF gold naturally ahounds with incidents
OF lucky strikes which suddenly raised
men of no fortune at all to positions of
wealth beyond the dreams of avaricc
And naturally, too, most of these men
have long since lost all they got by
these lucky finds. Lucky" Baldwin is
one of the well known men who has not
suffered i'll this way.
do not know how much this mans
total fortune is, but his ranch is sol
emily declared to be of the value of
$40, 600, 600. Nobody seems to know
what first gave him the nickname of
Lucky" but whatever it was, and
whether his first winnings were "lucly"
or the result of careful calculation,
he Is, as every one who has ever dealt
with him is aware, one of the shrewdest,
'nerviest" business men ON this coast
or anywhere else; but, according to all
reports, it is supplemented by good luck
j. II. RIsDELL.