The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-04-29
MEN WHO

1t is the custom with many people OF
the present day 10 abuse rich men.
10 make II appear that wealth Is a crime.
or all who have thus been stigmatized
perhaps the stockholders in the so-called
sugar trust have come in for the great
est share OF abuse. And yet the Have
meyers who succeeded in building up this
great Industry were once poor men and
succeeded by their W thrift and enter
prise and hard work and attention to
business.
Mr.. Theodore Havemeyer who recently
died was a thorough workman and 1t is
said, was fond OF drawing from the ca
reer Of himself and brothers the moral
OF what earnest. honest industrial effort
can do in this favored land. Speaking
some time ago of the causes Of his sue
cess, he said;
we were taught our business
thoroughly. After leaving school was
sent TO Europe to learn all l could con-
corning the business / was TO follow for
a livelihood. On my return in 1859. l went
into my uncle's refinery I'm Vanderveer
street, and from there / went into the
business in Williamsburg. l made up
my mind from the start that whatever
was worth doing at all was worth doing
well. For twenty-five years / was at
work at z A.. NJ. and did not leave the
refinery until Z T.. NJ. l never went
20 bed at night until j had gone through
the whole establishment. Many times
l worked all the night long. While l
was a single man my expenses never eX-
c.aIod x-u a month DiiOf bread and
cheese made for me many q meal. A
canvas suit was my daily apparel. and
there was no part OF the business at
which / and my brothers did not work;
no part we considered too dirty or too
arduous or beneath us. one prerequisite
in any business Is q thorough mastery
OF its principles and a knowledge of all
its details. There was no part Of the
mandatory or of the refining usin
with which we were not thoroughly IA
milar. knew how 10 fire up under the
/ boilers: how 10 run the engines. / built
an engine once myself. ! knew how to
refine the sugar and how to market it. l
knew what was a fair days work for n
man because | worked alongside OF the
men. Another requisite is application
and alertness. We were always on the
lookout for some better way to do a
thing. and our success is largely owing
to invention brought out by observa-
ton and experiment. Another need Is
integrity and promptness in business
dealings. We always paid cash as we
went along. but II one has TO give notes
they should be promptly met. We filed
our orders always according to agree
ment. Another rule IL 10 keep away
from liquor. and we always followed 1t.
The practice Of these rules. combined
with frugality and ordinary faculties Of
mind. will bring commercial success 10
any man"
John d. Rockefeller. the Standard Oil
king. recently gave a similar account Of
himself. The simple fact IS that these
men took advantage of the opportunities
that were offered them to accumulate a
fortune. and II was not by luck or by
crookedness. but by hard liNs and dill
gent attention to their own affairs that
gave them success. There is not a man
in the United States. there is not one in
all those who abuse the Havemeyars and
the Rockefellers who would not have ac-
cumulated money in the same way If they
could and had they done so. they would
rave seen nothing wrong in the process.
Several years ago there lived in a
n%eighboring Virginia city n man of fine
| sense. who had the reputation Of being
tricky. One of his intimate friends.
who is now on the bench. was questioned
one day as TO how this man had gott'
such . reputation, the man asking the
| question having always found him square
in business. The judge replied that the
whole truth Of it was that the so-called
tricky man looked after his own az
fairs. INC in making a trade generally
showed more sense thar the other fell
low. As a consequence the other fellow
decided that he was tricky"
There is a great deal of human nature
in this little story. The man who fails
Is very apt to see serious defects in the
character Of the man who succeeds.