The Irish standard., 1905-05-20

Its Icy folds. If we had depended upon:
their type we would have few martyrs
and no sages.
Suppose that you took one of these
narrowists who infest the more seclud,
ed sections of the Back Bay and point
ed out to him the Whitley good record
OF the Celt in art, in craftsmanship,
in finance, how you'd astonish him!
Suppose you took him, your doubt
ing Thomas, to New York, and In the
very heart and heat Of that city's diz-
ziest financial center showed him the
building which bears the name of the
Morton Trust Company Then, sup
pose you told him that the brains of
that institution, its mental thews and
sinewes was Il man of Irish name and
blood-wouldn't your Maynower old
ster of the Back Bay throw up his
hands In astonishment?
If you wished to convince him more
completely that the Celtic strain was
of value to the financial world you
should probe more deeply into the life
| of this remarkable man.
Mr.. Ryan was born in Nelson couu.
| ty, Virginia, of sturdy Irish parentage.
He had the advantage of being born
poor-relatively speaking, at least.
The Republic knows no greater aid to
happy and prosperous life than to
be born with bank account so slen-
der that you couldn't see it with the
naked eye. On the sinister other hand
there is no deeper disaster than to
come into the world heir of millions.
Poverty Is healthful, stimulating, it
spurs one to the leap. No one works
because he likes it, hut because he
must. He must be driven to every
field Of effort and held there under
guard.
Work, effort, is in the vast majority
of cases, found only where need exists.
And yet without work there can be
development, as young Ryan soon
learned.
Work to man is like cultivation
to flower. Without it, there come
retrogression; what blossoming en-
sues will be no full, no true blossom
ing, but one inferior and without
value. Mr.. Ryan had the luck to be
born poor.
His best equipment was splendid
physique, an honesty without taint,
and mind Of vast inquisitiveness. He
went to country schools; no gilded
halls Of learning knew his footballs.
In the end he went to Baltimore and
entered the dry goods business.
Baltimore was delightful place in
those days-and is today. Its people
represent that section of the South
which does not regard commercialism
and the works Of the devil as tho
same thing. 1t is full of a fine spirit
of progress. Ryan was fitting HIM
self, gradually and quietly, into his
proper sphere. He had no fiery elo.
quence, was not one Of the sky-rocket
gentlemen. He was gifted with busi-
ness acumen, and as his business grew
he bethought himself of home-making
which is simply love-making looked
at from different angle. Miss Ida
M. Barry. beautiful in person, devout
in temperament, of an exquisite mind
and heart, became his wife in 1873.
Baltimore was too small field for
a man of Ryan's soaring gifts and
awakened powers. New York beckon-
ed him on, and within short time of
his marriage he entered Wall street,
eager to put his keen mind, rapier-like,
into competition with the financial
brains that flash and flare and flaunt
themselves on the "Street."
When he became member of the
New York Stock Exchange in 1874, the
country was in the throes of the reae-
tion that had begun it's flow during
Civil War times. Railroad after rail-
road was being sucked into bankrupt
cy. The grass was growing between
the tracks of many once prosperous
systems, and the predatory money
kings were scattering right and left