New-York tribune., 1908-09-06
TO ENDOW MODEL
TECHNICAL SCHOOL
HUGH j. CHISHOLW, y IDEA
OF HAPPINESS.
Success In Business Does Not Giue
the Joy That Comes from Prac-
fical Service.
BY James B. Morrow.

ssasf for a lamp. which made of wood and
was to burn kerosene. Hugh ]. Chisholm would
not have gone into the paper business. The magi-
cal quality of the lamp in its utter failure.
commercially. JE5stheticaliy IL must have been
hidtous waste Of respectable material. II is
difficult pour oil into wood, unless II be
q barrel without thinking of fire. The harmonies
OF utility art destroyed, therefore. by
an association of that character. Yet out Of such
violepce against the laws of business and the
osnons Of beauty Chisholm deliberately snatched,
II snatchng be deliberate. large fortune.
Whether the triumph wholly Chsholm's,. or,
in part the lamps viii always be disputed ques-
lion among persons who believe in charms and en-
chant1nents
Apart from his talent for making money Hugh
J. Chisholm is unusual individual. The facts OF
his life sound louder and impossible
than fiction. Strangely enough. his name is rarely
In print. and he is practically unknown to the pub
lie. Smoking long cigars in slim holder, he talked
TO without reluctance, evasion or excuse, tell
ing with entire absence OF pride or self-con-
sciousness how he got his millions and the use to
which he means to devote some of his wealth. His
white. fluffy hair: his shaved face, and his full.
gray eyes. the pupils and iris OF which uncom-
monty large and very black give him distinction in
the matter of personal appearance. Perhaps he
looks like old Commodore Vanderbilt who was a
bold and venturesorCe man himself Anyway, Mr.
Chisholm's atmosphere is his own-he has not bor-
rowed II or bought it from some one else His
voice is rarely gentle In manner he is cordial but
reserved His scarf blends with the shirt, ana the
tint of his shirt commits outrage the color
of his clothes. I had heard he was once a train
boy on q railroad-Thomas A Edison started In
that way-and SO asked him about It
Il put no emphasis the incident, he said.
but began 10 sell things a railway train when
] was fourteen years cid. II was the familiar
story of a misunderstanding of family circu1n-
stances When my father died found that We
were actually poor. I had expected TO go 10 col
lege Plans had been made for my career. Parents
do that in Canada. you understand, or did when
was boy. There is a vague impression in my
mind that my first work the purchase Of a
quantity of fruit on the tree, which gathered,
packed and sold IL the neiShborhood- 1 was thir-
teen wears OF age, i suppose. From that time to
this have never been employed by any one. That
is to say, have never earned a dollar during my
life in wages Hold on: 1 mistaken was
given SIS a month occasion for managing a
business I had organized. which was Just about
noush 10 nav NV bills cigars. After the trans
action in fruit my elders petted mo on the head
and called me a natural trader Money, then- OF
course WIS not In my mind-I only wanted to help
my mother 4 man owned the right TO sell candy,
newspapers and other small merchandise on the
trains of the Grand Trunk Railway which out
of Toronto One train. going sixty miles away, was
SO lean that no boy would take II commission
I hired il at a fixed week, reserviag the
privilege however, of buying my supplies In the
open market.
CANDY purchased by the quantity. made
into neat little packages in my room 1 got mag
azines month old for five cents apiece and sold
them at the regular prices, which. in some in
stances returned me a profit of 500 per cent If
"a dealer had books he couldn't sell, took them
on a lump offer and peddled them up and down
the road.