The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-11
IF I HAD MY LIFE
 TO LIVE OVER AGAIN.

Newell Dwight Hills in New forK
 Tbe other day group Of gentlemen |, New York gave dinner to an old, an bonored and successful merchant. The occasion was his seventy-Ilttn hirthday Ten years ago he retired' giving his great business over into the hands of younger men, feeling that ne had means and honor and office enough. Having been out of the battle for some fen years, the merchant wanted to meet his former associates, as well as the young men in his own business. and so that the guest-table was a group of white haired merchants, bank CTS and manufacturers.
 To an outsider these men looked like members of the Old Guard, who had come in after a fierce fight on the far off frontier. Not one had come oil un- scathed; all brought scars with them. And so these old merchant veterans Tn their after-dinner speeches fell Into reminiscent mood The merchant ana guest of the evening struck the Key
 note when he took for his toast II had my life to live over again.
 Would Take Care Of Health.
 When the honored merchant arose ne said that for full ten years nc nau been out of the battle. He was hke a horse that had lamed it's leg and saw all the other horses go charging ps like a boat that had sprung aleak anu was up on the beach for repairs when all the other ships set sail For Ten years inst at the time when his ex- nerience fitted him to have been most useful. though ill-health he had been 1aid aside, He said he had drunk an ocean of water--iron water salt water, soda water, sulphur water clean water and dirty water. He had tried steam baths. hot-air baths. mud paths, . ne1 bcen baked in dry ovens and toasted over electricity One doctor told nm he did not exercise enough, so he walk cd one that he was not Jolted enough so he rode horspback; another that ne
 was shaken tod much, so he, tried an automobiles; fourth that ne nee9eo companionship, so he took up soll' One VI, winter he tried California; anu ln
 next France. One summer ne went to Norway, and the next to Canada.
 He said he hated doctors, abhorred hotels rebelled against travel ana tnat the sum of his experience was tnls :: That success purchased by the loss or health was not worth while. ne saN. Tiff he had spent one-quarter the tiIne in Keeping the health God ana ms pal ents gave him that he had spent In trS . lIne 10 recover the health he hao
 thrown away he might have had hap I py old age. .,,o
 Then the old merchant laid down the | law to his young associates Doh work any harder any day than you can recover by sleep at night Eat sfnple 1 foods, walk to your business ana wal Walh home again Exercise and sleep, anu take plenty of time for your recreation. With what time is left make as much money as you can and be content with if. Don't overdraw your nervous cap- ital. You ought to sleep as souholy and as well when you are seventy as when you are thirty. And nothing else counts, excepting that every day yo" ] take care of your health.
 The old merchant astounded his young associates, but before he was | through they had wskened to their peril as one wakens to discover that he l is making a vital blunder and march, l ing toward a precipice
 A Business Is Less For Making money Than For Making Men.
 | After the merchant came a manufae- turer. He said that if he had his life | to live over again he would use his | great business and factory less to make money than to make men. Happiness, he said was in building the institution | rather than in getting money out or IL : | Recalling his early business career fif- | ty years ago, he said he started out on l the theory that his one aim must be | to get dividends. He said employers | then fed their workmen in at one end | of the business and ground out money
 at the other The bond between the
 employer and the workman was the casb bond. But, now that he was old
 and successful and ready to leave the
 stage. he wished he had stood inc the relation to his employees of a college | president to his students or of father
 to his children.
 The happiest recollection of his life
 he said, was the memory of certain
 poor boys whom he had called my
 boys," advised them. warned them. re- | buked them, helped them, and finally | he had had the satisfaction. of feeling that he had made certain men. But. 1 he said, T now see that is what the whole business ought to have been | That factory which makes money and spoils the men who work in It is a 1 failure. That factory which taAes pooS ! foreign help and makes men of them I