Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-09-26
#isteltaneuus Readins.
FOUR FAMOUS FORTUNES.
The Men Who Built Them Started Without
q 0oIlSr.

llaC Ildly TtSulteu III iIiouuCdluS VI
wealth?
If you will consider you will find
that the richest men in America be-
gan life as peddlers.
A long leap-from the estate Of wan
dering tradesmen to that Of the su-
preme arbiter of millions, Of destinies
and Of men. -
Yet Millionaire Coils P. Huntington.
who died the other day, made such a
leap; so did the first John Jacob Astor,
and Jay Gould and Russell Sage.
Not one Of these great fortune build
ers began life with dollar-which Is
common lot. Probably not one Of
them ever wasted a dollar that he
earned-which is less common. Not one
had any other than himself to thank
for his success. Equipped with mar
velous shrewdness and acquisitive
power, each contrived to seize for HIM
self a position Of more than princely
dominion.
The genius Of bargaining was born
in these boys, into whose hands passed,
like filings to the magnet, the greatest
fortunes of the new world. The boy
Astor, with his flutes and furs; Jay
Gould with his mouse traps; Hunting
ton with his clocks; Russell Sage with
his country store "notions'-was any
man wise enough to read in their eager
faces the power and sagacity that were
to make them money kings?
GOULD pEDDLED MOUSE TRAPS.
Jay Gould's juvenile energies had
been employed in the production Of
mouse. trap. When he went to New
York in 1853, he took the little machine
with him, incased in a mahogany box.
Without introduction or guidance he
tramped the city until he sold it. The
money he got for 1t was the nucleus Of
the colossal Gould fortune Of more
than $40, 900, which Is even now be-
ing employed In so many remarkable
ways-in the philanthropic pursuits OF
Helen Gould, in the pretty and costly
fancies Of Count Boni de Castellane,, In
the railroad schemes Of George Gould,
and in the social schemes Of three
beautiful women in New York.
Many persons have professed to see
something prophetic in that first ven-
ture Of Jay Gould's, and to declare
that all his later schemes were but
glorified traps" and the genius that
operated them that of the great
mouse catcher of America"
Another early scheme of Jay Gould
was equally successful. He WIS a
country boy, brought up on farm. 1t
did not appear to him, however, that
there was a fortune in farming. So he
learned something Of surveying and
then started penniless to make his way
through the Catskill mountains. At
every farm house he found the far
mer's wife anxious for a moon mark"
on her porch. A noon mark was q
species Of dial showing the arrival of
the noon hour. The boy was able to
,ol1 or1yc
each one. He was, therefore, able to
arrive quite comfortably at his desti-
nation.
HUNTINGTON HAwKED CLOCKS ABOUT.
It was a curiously accurate power Of
divination that led Coils P. Hunting
ton to select watches and clocks as his
first stock of merchandise. He was,
likewise. a poor country lad, one Of a
Connecticut family Of nine children.
AS with Astor and Gould, even the
boys schooling was Of fragmentary
sort. At Is he got employment In a
country store, where he spent year
In learning the art of bargaining. With
the lesson we'll learned, he started out
the next year for New York, to under
ness venture. Most boys would have
thought themselves fortunate to get
a small salaried position. Huntington
looked around for an Opening" He
found it in a supply Of watch and
clock findings which he bought cheap
and believed he could sell at a profit,
which he industriously set himself to
do, peddling faithfully and on foot un-
til he disposed of them.
Fortune or his own shrewdness, ia
vored the boy. In few months he had
realized we'll from his venture and
was able to meet the bills he had incur
red during the meantime. With the
profits he took large number Of what
were known as "clock notes" for COL
lection. Again he was successful. In
q year he was established in his career
as a merchant. Never afterward did
he meet with a serious reverse. And
not many days ago he died leaving a
fortune Of $82,000,000.
AsToR BEGAN WITH FURs.
Nothing could be humber than the
fashion which the famous John Jacob
Astor-whose grandson is now an .ex-
lie from two nations-began his career.
A German peasant, the son Of
butcher, he could hardly have dreamed
of the brilliant future that actually
awaited him. At II he left home-the
little village Of Waldorf, in Germany
with his wardrobe in a bundle slung
over his shoulder on stick, and 81 in
his pocket. Honesty was his watchword
from the outset, and self-denial his
cardinal principle Of living.
In two years he was able to sail
from London to New York, having
spent the money that he had earned In
the interval for seven German flutes
a slender weapon with which to
wrench from the world its secret of
commercial prosperity.
But it Is not recorded that Astor ever
made a mistake. The seven flutes
which he later so patiently peddled in
New York brought good prices. And
thus the foundation for one famous
fortune was laid.
But. as young Astor could not be al
together sure that fortune had intend
ed him for a merchant prince, the
voyage over was rather an anxious one.
He had come on a steerage ticket, for
which he had paid five guineas, and he
brought with him a Sunday" suit Of
clothes, which. during violent storm,
he amazed his companions by put
ting on.
But we are likely to be wrecked"
they said to him, aghast.
PRECISELY" he replied, land If we
are wrecked and rescued wish to have
on my best suit since I cannot well
take another with me; while If we are
wrecked and not rescued, it will make
no difference what I wear"
MADE A FORTUNE AT 1T.
This logic was irrefutable.
On the journey Astor made the ac-
ouaintance of another young German
who had already achieved a business
success in America. This young man
bought furs from the Indians in ex-
change for toys and trinkets, and had
found that the profit Of reselling the
furs was considerable. He persuaded
Astor that he could not do better than
to take up the same business.
Everybody knows how faithfully this
advice was followed, how patiently the