The herald., 1895-02-17
CONSIDER THE SOURCE

G. P. Huntington was recently asked
what he would do if he had to begin life
anew, and what he regarded as the best
field for young man.
''If were young and had 500, 600, 4" he
replied, Il would go at once to the Congo
Free State and buy rubber. Over across
the mountains you can buy it crude for
cent a pound. To get it down to the coast
for shipment you would probably have to
pay a cent or two more. Natives will carry
it over on their backs for that price. 1t
doesn't cost much to ship it to New York,
where you can usually count on about 81
a pound. It's an adventurous sort of
business but know of nothing that will
pay better. I'd be worth million in ten
years if l were a young man, and could
start with $780, 0o0.
That is what Coils P. Huntington would
do if he were young man and had $780,
600. He would buy rubber in Africa and
make million in ten years. He wouldn't
build railroad from Zambes to
Ujji with a government subsidy; he
wouldn't organize a contract and finance
bandtti to wreck the railroad by absorb
ing its earnings and bonds in compensa-
tion for building it, he wouldn't ''charge
all the traffic might bear in freights and
fares; he wouldn't corrupt state and ma
tiona Legislatures to further his schemes
of plumber; he wouldn't debauch the
elective franchise to procure tools to legal
ize his robbery of the commonwealth.
None of these things would Coils P.
Huntington do if he were young man
AMI possessed of $780, 900. He would en-
gage in the honest industry of buying
rubber in the Congo Free State; he would
buy it crude for one cent pound and pay
cent or two more for getting it to the
coast He wouldn't build a railroad to
transport the rubber to the coast, be-
cause the NATIVES would carry it
for less money than his railroad
would charge. Then he would ship his
rubber to New York, where he would sell
it for one dollar a pound, and in ten
years he would be worth one million dol
lars-not forty million dollars-only a
modest Million saved by the sweat of his
commercial genius. A slow way to make
modest little fortune, but honest withal,
and as Coils P. Huntington now views
the possibilities environing the modern
young man, sure way, and better way
than building railroads to wreck them.
500, 000?" was asked.
Then I'd start with $40, 900 and take
my chances" he answered. There spoke
the adventurous spirit-the soul of enter
prise reincarnated from the age that lifted
Carthage to proud eminence and sent
forth caravans through trackless wastes to
Tadmor in the desert and made conquest
of savage tribes beyond the mighty
Ganges.
''I'd start with $40, 900 and take my
chances SAYS Coils P. Huntington in
the tone of one who lays his money on
the faro dealers pictured cloth content to
risk the turning of the cards-as one who
stands the hazard of the die to laugh at
profit or loss-never seeking to stock the
cards or load the dice"
But, Mr.. Huntington" the interrog-
ator persisted sit is not every young man
that has $40, 000 What would you do if
you if you did not have that sum-" Now
mark the climax of this millionare's phi
losophy-the essence of ethics diametric-
ally inconsistent with the wrecking of
railroads; the fleeing of the poor; the
imposition of charges to the extent of all
the traffic will bear; the corruption of
the commonwealth; the purchase of legis-
lative chattels; the debauching of civic
virtue-listen to the old man eloquent of
moral precept and sturdy integrity-hear
him, We gods, and, hearing rend the
welkin with the thunder of your laughter
"a young man in this day and genera
ton who does not possess $40, 900 had bet
ter stay at home and work at something
till he gets it, said Coils P. Huntington;
1ao atatt ,aI ,,l.
way to get it is to save it.
And the wandering Californian, hearing
these words-so wise, so honest, so filled
with the spirit of industry, frugality and
upright manhood-from the lips of Coils
P. Huntington, visions of a Sacramento
hardware shop and the honest young
man named Huntington, who stayed at
home working to earn $10,0 900 and only
ceasing this labor when fortuitous circum-
stance made possible the building of a
railroad with the peoples money and the
transfer of the earnings of that road and
the subsidies thereof and the value of the
bonds thereon to his own Golfers and es-
tate through the sluiceways of contract
and finance.
Eheu! Coils P. Huntingdon Honest
Coils! Guide, philosopher and friend of
the young man seeking his fortunel Wise
Mentor instructing the Nineteenth Cen
fury Telemachus! Robber reformed
Sinner redeemed Merry old bandit Gym
zeal to the last! Cracking thy jest even
in the spare ribs of Death The world
Coils, has been more wicked for thy So
journ-'twill be better when thou art
gone.
AMEDIrA cErIrnIrrrc Anno.1