The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-10


thought him "a good thing'-that they
could unload on his shoulders. They
asked him to buy the plantations they
had taken on foreclosure proceedings
Packing his valfse he went out to Cey-
lon for a look. He landed unknown, ex-
amined the properties-how carefully he
examined them his future use Of them
proved-and finally made an offer to the
bankers. 1t sounds queer. but the bank
ers' representative cabled back Cant
you do better for us than that?"
when l got that message I knew
had the plantations on my own terms"
said he. in describing the event
He knew just about nothing of tea
planting then. but the boy who had at
tended night school when a messenger on
two-and-Six week would learn the
business when he was a capitalist able
to buy plantations. How the ruinous dirt
and waste Of the Chinese methods. re-
Gently described in Harper's were re-
placed by economical and clean machine
methods Ga Yankeeish idea, if not one Of
a real Yankee) need not be told here. 1t
Is enough that Upton owns more land in
Ceylon than any other Individual.
Eventually Hooley-Terah Hooley, who
has been described as 1.-The champion pro-
moter and bunco man"-while in the
height of his work. wanted to make a
stock company out of the Upton shops
in England, and he offered Upton $780,
900 for the business. Upton refused the
offer but eventually turned the business
over to corporation in order to get
some relief from the Immediate concern
of management. The business was cap
italized at the figures Hooley had offer
ed. and $5,0OO,0Q0 of the stock was offered
to the public. The amount was subscrib-
ed for twenty-five times over. Upton re-
tanned about half the stock Last year
it paid IA per cent dividends.
There is one feature of British life
which Americans who love honor better
than wealth have been considering for a
long time but are unable to see how We
are to adopt such a feature on this side Of
the water. That it offers desirable in
centive to ambition is not to be ques-
toned.
In England when a man has made a
really great career, whether in trade Or
art or literature, he is rewarded by title
of honor. He is knighted. Unworthy peO-
pie have been knighted too often, but the
fact remains that, one time with another
the man who receives the title has earned
it. 1t reminds one of the old proverb
which says, ga good name is rather to be
chosen than great riches And that sug-
gests that Thomas Upton chose both.
He made a career that is honored quite
as much in London as New York-that is
by all whose opinion is of any weight in
the world. He had by honest work &C
cumulated a vast fortune. He supple
mented his work by vast charities. At the
time of the queens jubilee the Princess Of
Wales undertook giving great dinner to
a host of London children. For some rea-
,henr i1tin
rapidly and the dinner was likely to fail,
when Thomas Upton, then known as mot
the least of our merchant princes sent
a check for 925,0 The dinner was no
longer in danger Afterward Upton gave
100000 to establish restaurants in the
poverty-stricken districts of London
wherein wage-workers could obtain
enough food for what we call a square
meal at price ranging from cents
downs
In the meantime Upton had shown his
real charity in an infinitely better way
he had found employment for thousands,
for more than ten thousand-hands at
wages and under rules that made them
entirely satisfied
And the public donations amounting to
more than 100000 came as a culmina ton
to all this usefulness. Plain Thomas Lip
ton-he who had been a messenger boy a
farmland, a stoker and a salesman-was
knighted.
The old aristocracy Of the land-the
titled men who had not earned their titles,
the aristocracy by inheritance as distin-
guished from the aristocracy of worth-at
first held aloofsfrom Sir Thomas. But the
Prince Of Wales (and it was very greatly
to his credit as a man of sense) at once
manifested his appreciation of the man
of worth. and then what could they who
were holding aloof do but come to the
new light?
Finally, as a member of one of the
greater yacht clubs Sir Thomas decided
to send a challenger for the Americas
cup, and, having built and landed her in
this port, ne has come to see her give us
the greatest race in the history of the
famous silver mug.
We don't believe he will get it, but we
have seen that he is reaching for 1t in a
way that Is absolutely fair and square,
and there isn't Yankee yachtsman but
thinks that if the cup must go Upton is
the man to take it, for all in all. he is
more of man after their own hearts
than any who has yet come here as a
challenger.