The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-15
CHANCE IN GREAT LIVES.
of Gen. Thomas, DIR. Shrady and
Henry VI. FIagIer.


Here is a story showing how one man
felt when he first understood the circum-
stances and his own good work had made
his name a famous one. 1t was told to the
writer in the realtors pleasant ofice-lI-
brary one evening by 'Dr. George f.
Shrady, editor of the Medical Record.
who attended Gen. Grant during his last
illness.
Il want to say" said DIR. Shrady in tell
ing the story. that 1 fully understood
that it was the eminence of my patient,
far more than my work. that rendered
me prominent in the long months during
which the great soldier slowly wasted
away. ] might have devoted myself as
faithfully to the care of a less prominent
man without in any way attracting gen.
eral attention. And when l saw how
my name was being passed from lip to
lip, and the frequency with which it was
being printed in the newspapers, 1 was
startled.
Full knowledge of the situation came
to me suddenly one dark night when 1
was being driven through the streets to
visit the general. When l reached Union
Square my driver was halted by police
man. l saw a great crowd gathering, but
| had no idea of its cause, and leaned
out to make Inquiries.
Sure sorr, said the officer. the peo-
pie do be readin' the bulletins about
Gin'ral Grant put out by DR.. Shrady.'
well 1 said, rather impatiently,
I'm DIR. Shrady. I'm going to see Gen.
Grant now, and I'm in hurry.
can't take time to drive around
THE policeman opened his eyes wide
and made way through the crowd for my
carriage. As we drove slowly along l
leaned further out to see the bulletin.
The bulletins were thrown upon
screen from stereopticon, as advertise
ments and election returns are nowadays,
but at the instant Of my looking out the
instrument was pointed upward and the
words of the bulletin were outlined on
the clouds, which that night we're dense
and low. So l saw my name in enormous
letters written almost the sky itself.
DR.. Shrady says
Il did not read the remainder of the
bulletin. / was stunned. l remember
that 1 settled as far back as i could on
the carrigae seat. 1 dbl not wish TO be
seen by human eye. 1t seemed to me
that the name in clouds was that of some
other fellow with whom 1 might be con-
founded.
WHO are you, George Shrady,' 1
asked myself that your name should
be Haunted in the sky in the view of
these thousands, and what have you done
to deserve so much prominence?'
when we were halted a second time by
another policeman, 1 told the driver to
turn down a street without any talk.
did not wish again to explain to an officer
that l was the man to read whose words
the big crowd had gathered. l did not
get over my feeling of personal httleness
for several days after that time, and
though / am frank to say that 1 had all
my life been hoping l could do something
worthy Of the favorable comment of my
fellow citizens, L understood then, as I
understand now, that 1 first became
known simply through the performance of
professional duties in the case of an emf
nent patient, and that l might have done
the same thing in the case of a patient
not well known and the world never hear
a word about it.
1t win be seen that, however the world
may look upon it, DR.. Shrady considers
his position in his profession due in some
measure to what may be termed the acci-
dent of his being called to attend Gen.
Grant
In a certain sense it was accident that
gave Henry M. Flagler of the Standard
Oil Company an opportunity to take the
first steps in the path that has been
found by him since to be literally paved
with gold Thirty-six years ago he was
swinging an ak in the forests of Mich
igan. He had been brought up on farm
AS a boy he had an ambition to one day
be a tavern keeper.
Anyway, he disliked farm work, and it
may have seemed to him that the life of
a lumberman would give him more of a
chance to get the coveted tavern than The
life Of an agriculturst, and he went into
the woods. After a while he met, loved
courted and married a daughter of a boss
lumberman.
There was no opposition to the match. In
fact, the lumberman thought the groom
was a promising fellow, and when the
winter after the marriage, the old man
went to Cleveland he had it in his mind
to look up something that might give
his son-in-law better start in life. When
in Cleveland the lumberman accidentally
got acquainted with John d. Rockefel-
Ter, then young man doing a small bust
ness in oil.
Rockefeller said there was a great for
tune in oil, and he thought he knew how
to take advantage of the fact, but he had
little money He explained all this to his
new acquaintance from the forests. The
latter had a thousand or two to spare,
and he considered the situation. After
a day or so he decided to invest the s., 900
for his son-in-law. month later Flag
Ter and his bride arrived in Cleveland.
the partnership was begun and the cor
rectness of Rockefener's predictions as
to the future Of the oil business began to
make itself manifest.
Since then Mr.. Flagler has gratified his
ambition to be a tavern keeper only his
tavern" is not known by that HON aly
title. 1t is the magnificent Ponce de Leon
hotel at St. Augustine, where persons
who have money to burn" can get rid
of it with a rapidly that makes II quite
unnecessary to resort to the use Of fire.
But there is one man who has been high
ly successful in the way he most desired
to whom success may not be said to have
come by accident. He is Russell Sage
His progress has always been the result
of deliberate planning and continuous eff
fort. To-day he works as hard as he did
when success was all ahead Of him. His
keen eyes are ever open.
AS is well known, many highly placed
persons borrow money Of Mr.. Sage. AS is
also well known. Mr.. Sage rarely gets
left" The percentage Of his bad loans is
exceedingly small.
do you want to know why we make so
few mistakes" queried Mr.. Sage Of the