Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-01-22
MAXIMS OF A MAGNATE.
WHILE COMPILING THEM HIS CON.
SCIENCE HAS AN AWAKENING,

Farmer Lad to Follow His Devious
Path to Wealth. So He Declined to
Write His Autobiography.
The millionaire sat at the writing
table in his library and rehectively
chewed the end of pen. He was
about to undertake the first literary
labor of his life-an autobiographical
sketch which the editor of q magazine
devoted to the edifcation of American
youth had asked him to contribute to
its pages. "Your notable achieve
ments in the field of commercial en-
deavor," wrote the editor, shave
made your name a synonym of sue
cess. An account of the steps by
which you have reached your present
eminence cannot fail to be at once in
teresting, Instructive and inspiring.
When you talk that way to milI-
ionnire, as general thing, you have
got him.
There seemed no reason why there
should have been any difficulty about
the matter. Yet he had been sitting
there for three-quarters of an hour
and the only word he had written was
'T."
AS matter of fact, this shining ex-
ample, who had probably made"
more dollars than any other man of
HIS age in the United States, had
never taken time to look back and
consider the stages of his progress.
Apparently the process was not o
pleasing one, for he was frowning
darkly at the heavy oriental window
hangings. At last he took the splint-
cred pen from his mouth, dipped it in
the 1nkstand and wrote:
Il have always been guided by these
maxims.
"Get up early and keep busy.
Don't let IL good thing get away from
you.
"Let the other fellow put up.
''Never get gay with the boss.
Hold ON to your coin and keep holding
you can't be a good fellow and do busi-
ness both.
"Friends are all right, but look out for
them.'
He leaned back in his leather up
holstered chair and read over what
he had written, then frowned again.
''They're all right, as far as 1 can
going to look we'll in print"
He rose and went over to where
large unabridged dictionary was open
ON its stand and made number of
references. Then he returned to the
table and wrote:
"Rise early and let no part of the day be
without its profitable employment.
BE alert to recognize opportunity and
quick to take advantage oft.
Exercise prudent reserve in business
transactions.
eff employed, let your employer find YOU
polite, diligent and cheerful.
Practice frugality-deDy yourself all
forms of expensive entertainment and In
diligence.
Purely sentimental considerations can
not be allowed to influence or govern bust
ness matters"
''That sounds little better, though
it's about the same thing" said the
millionaire. "If any young man fol-
lows those precepts he can get rich if
he doesn't have bad luck"
He began to bite his pen again, for
the autobiography was beginning to
simmer intangibly in his brain. He
was fighting the battle over. A boy
on farm at the beck and call of every
body, debarred from. even ordinary
comforts and all advantages, shrewd
by nature, shiftY by necessity, with
the parsimony of niserly father
always before his eyes. The tardy
escape from the farm by the un-
mourned death of that father, his en-
ployment in the village store. Then
years of persistent effort, crawling,
squirming, elbowing, saving, starving,
cheating, lying, passing from petty
fraud to bolder swindle, with ever
increasing gains, sitting every gener-
Gus impulse, every noble emotion,
sacrificing love as we'll as he had long
since sacrificed honor, striving with
the fear of the law for the fear of the
Lord and finding his reward for it all
in what?
He looked around the room, and the
luxury that he saw seemed on the
whole fairly satisfactory answer to
the question. Yet there must have
been some doubt about the matter,
for he began to think of other reasons
why it had been worth while. Among
them were some highly complimentary
reieienceS W MS generosity from GER
tain well-known divines. There was
the memory OF foes overborne and
trodden down; of competitors remorse-
lessly crushed; of the adulation, the
unfeigned reverence of men; of this
letter, for instance.
He took up the letter and read it
over again. 1t was certainly flatter-
ing. The mere fact that he had been
asked to tell the public the story of
his life was fattering. And it showed
what the public wanted-its great and
feverish desire-its ideal. 1t wanted
success and it's fruition-dollars and
cents.
"Your notable achievementsl"
They were certainably notable; the
corcering of staple products, the
watering of stocks, the manipulation
of markets, ruin to others, but each
achievement" a step to "present
eminence."
al