The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-08-16
A Great Man Of Business.

CoLIIs POTTER HUNTINGTON. President or
director OF many great railroad. steam
boat, and other enterprises. and one OF the
greatest American geniuses for business
was a poor Connecticut boy In a large
family. He began his business career at "a.
He worked for seven dollars a month at
first. He was a pedler; he kept a general
store; he got rich in hardware. Then he
had a continental idea. OF a railroad between
the Atlantic and the Pacific, HUNTINGTON.
HOPKINS, STANFORD and CRocKER must
be numbered always among the greater
gods OF business, men who foresaw the
future and were equal to a mighty enter
prise. With them and afterward without
them, Mr.. HUNTINGTON. the sturdy sur
vivor Of those giants. those planners and
builders, carried on a multitude OF pros
perol,s undertakings. He was much hated.
not so much by rivals as by the unsuccessful
loafers who regard the riches OF others
as an insult to themselves. but he was a
decent citizen. quiet, thoroughly American
and thoroughly unostentatious,
When COILS HUNTINGTON was a boy
the Connecticut folks we're saying. %,
there's no chance to get rich now. When
YOU had a fat contract in the Wal OF 1912
you could make some money, but It's TOO
late now. A poor man has no chance,
And now the bilious. the discontented
and the lazy are saying. %, HUNTINGTON
made a lot OF money, but there Ia no such
chance now"
There will always be a chance for the
frugal. the enterprising and the foresighted.
The first competence that HUNTINGTON
got was such a competence as Is within
the reach OF almost all The affairs OF
magnificent scope in which he afterward
engaged we're such as can be managed
only by the wide-ranging man OF genius.
His was a broad imagination supported
by a solid base Of practical business sense.
There cannot be many such men any more
than there can be many SHAKEsPEAREs and
DANrEs, but some there will be In every
age; and in his way a mighty man OF bust
ness must have something, indeed a good
deal. OF the mathematician and the poet.
In the lower, but easier. walks OF trade the
way to success is just as easy and Just as
hard now as 1t was when Mr., HUNTINGTON
was a boy.
Somewhere or other in the works OF
EDWARD EvERErr-his brilliant son will
correct us II we quote the spirit rather
than the letter-is a passage in which he
speaks Of the boys who have inherited
nothing but poverty and health, who In a
few years will be striving. in generous con-
tention with the great intellects of the
land. 1t remains for each, by darting
forward like a greyhound at the slightest
glimpse OF honorable opportunity, by
redeeming time. defying temptation and
scorning sensual pleasure. 10 make himself
useful, honored and happy"
O~ld-fashioned, obvious. obtrusive moral
advice, u may be said. There are thousands
Of Bryanites kicking their heels at station
platforms or rural groceries or groggeries
and expectorating discomfort. There Is
no chance for a young man, they say. The
Trusts and the corporations spoil all. The
rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.
II HUNTINGTON had had this spirit or want
OF spirit. he might have died on the town
farm in Rte native village.