The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-01-06
THE WISDOM AND HUMOR OF o L GoRGON
GRAHAM" PORK-PACKER.
LETTERS FROM A SELF-MADE MER-
CHANT TO HIS SON. By George Horace
Lorimer. $3.50. Small, Maynard & Co.,
Publishers, Boston.

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in the Saturday Evening Post, and with so much
enjoyment that we made haste on their publica-
ton in book form to ask for a copy for review.
This has been received and we have paid the
author the compliment of reading every one of
the twenty letters over again. The imaginary
"self-made merchant is John Graham, head of
a big pork-packing house in Chicago, dubbed
"Old Gorgon Graham" by his business associ-
ates,) and he addresses his letters to his son
Pierpont (known to his fellow-students as
"Piggy'), who at the beginning of the book has
just entered Harvard University. After gradua-
ton he begins at the foot of the business ladder
with his fathers firm and works his way up to
a $500 position, where the book leaves him.
A better combination of humor and horse
sense is seldom found. The stories that John
Graham tells give evidence of a rare insight
into human nature, while his hearty, homely, and
wholesome philosophy is worthy of "Poor Rich
ard" himself. For Mr.. Lorimer is, in one sense,
Franklin's successors: he is now editor of the
Philadelphia Saturday Evening Po.t, which
Franklin founded, under a different name, in
1928.
Strangely enough, however, in not a single re-
view have we noticed a reference to the train
ing which fitted Mr.. Lorimer for writing this
book. We happen to have filed away a sketch
of his life that appeared in Printers Ink a year
ago, from which we learn that he began work
for the Armours in Chicago while in his teens,
and climbed to a $4,000 salary when "a years
old. But young Lorimer was not satisfied: he
wished to give up business for a literary career
and he did. He went to a little Maine college
and took a course in English literature, then en-
tered daily journalism in Boston. Later-about
five years ago-he went on the staff of the Satur-
day Evening Post, rising speedily to the editor
ship. And now, at thirty-four, his salary is larger
than that which he gave up when he left the
Armours.
With this introduction, we propose to let the
book review itself, for the following extracts
barring the fact that none of the inimitable
stories are included-give a better idea of it's
character than could be given by any words of
our own. Hear, therefore, some of the observa-
tions of cold Gorgon Graham:
"I want you to learn at the outset not to play
with the spoon before you take the medicine.
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and
putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.
"There's one excuse for every mistake a man
can make, and only one. When a fellow makes
the same mistake twice he's got to throw up both
hands and own up to carelessness or cussedness.
"I don't just place Miss Dashkam, but if she's
the daughter of old Job Dashkam, on the open
Board, I should say, on general principles, that
she was a fine girl to let some other fellow marry.
A man can't pick his own mother, but he can pick
his sons mother, and when he chooses a father
in-law who plays the bucket-shops he needn't be
surprised if his own son plays the races.
"To marry for money or to marry without
money is a crime. There's no real objection to
marrying a woman with a fortune, but there IS
to marrying a fortune with a woman. And I
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girl is the one mistake that you've got to live with
oil vour life