The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-27
| Early training re-
sponsible for pres
| ent wealth.
(By Dorothy Richardson.)
OF New York Herald.


"Suceess-you ask me to tell you the
story of my successT"
Slowly Daniel G. Reid repeated the
question put to him. Keen OF face,
dark of eye, ,debonnaire, this man who
has made the making of tin plate one
of Americas great industries does not
look his fifty years. He does look,
however, every inch the millionaire
and captain of finance that he is, and
1t may be said right here that he
stands six feet in his stockings at that.
His is figure you would unconscious
~ single out anywhere in an assem-
blage of men, and Of that figure you
would unhesitatingly declare that it
belonged to a man who had done
things and was doing things, man
with nerves Of steel and will Of iron,
a man as only America could have pro-
duced And yet withal man of SEN
timent, richsin the humanities and gen.
erous to fault.
We were sitting in one of the great
twin loggias of his country house at
Irvington on Hudson. The place was
thronged with a weekend house party,
the young friends Of Miss Rhea Reid,
the daughter and only child of Mr..
Reid, a beautiful girl of twenty-five
The stately stone pile, faithful repli-
ca of an ancient English abbey; liv-
cried servants moving across the ter
race bearing tea trays laden with price
less china, of which Mr. Reid is q
great connisseur; other liveried ser
wants following with other trays laden
with rare old decanters and tall thin
glasses worth kings ransom; the
echo of young girls laughter from the
tennis court on the other side of the
formal garden; the cry OF pair OF
prize spaniels rebellious against the
firm, but gentle hand of a groom car
rying them to regions beyond the con-
seryatories; a strain of Chopin waited
from the long, cool, Louis QuinZe mu-
sic room; the perfume OF flowers
every sight, every sound bore testlmo-
nv to what money combined with ex-
quisite taste may buy for man in the
way of all that is sybaritic and fair
and beautiful, all that which, in the
popular mind, makes life worth the liv-
ing.
And the man himself the man who
by reason of better brains and steadier
nerves and greater courage than his
fellows has been able to acquire the
wherewithal by which to command this
princely luxury-this man looked, or
so fancied, just the least bit weary OF
it all. But the weary look was only
momentary, for Dan Reid is too
healthy a man to remain interpretive
for long. Gradually his keen face
softened into a smile and, taking his
cigar from between his teeth, the tin
plate magnate laughed es men laugh
only when they are thinking of absurd
ly happy things.
His First Start.
"I was Just thinking what good
time l did have anyway in those days
back in Richmond, Indiana, when l
first started out to make my fortune
in the pig market. My fathers farm
was just outside the town. In addition
to running the farm, father also con-
Quoted grocery store down in Rich
mond.
Now. there was no foolish pride
about being in trade in Richmond. On
the contrary, it was in my boyish estl-
nation a distinction. Indeed, my first
ambition was to grow up and wear
seersucker coat and weigh out sugar
and tea for the good people of Rich
mond and the surrounding country.
l often wonder if there was ever
boy who did not at some time or other
come through the period of wishing
to run a grocery store?
"In spite of my fathers double
means of earning livelihood money
| was always pretty scarce around the
Reid homestead There was a large
family. My father and mother had
both been married twice and l had
five half brothers. OF spending money
we boys had little or none. Now, 1t
was the ambition of my boyhood to
own a bull's-eye watch. Down in the
jewelry store in the town there was
beauty marked $3.50, My father
suggested that if were to save up my
pennies might some day have
enough to buy such a watch, and by
way of encouraging me he gave me
one OF those small toy banks in which
you drop coins through a slot in the
roof l was now eight years old, and
| for the first time in my life began a
conscious effort to accomplish def
mite purpose.
This effort lasted three years. I
ran errands. sold all the old iron
on the place and all could induce
the other boys to sell me for cash
discount. / went into the rag bust
ness and secured the neighborhood
for miles around in search of cast-off
gum shoes and other junk, which l
speedily converted into cash. When I
was eleven years old had saved up
$3.50 and you may be sure l lost no
time in cracking open my little iron
bank and running with its contents to
| the jewellers.
For week or SO afterward I lived
in the clouds. l had now real
! watch and a chain. too. 1 must not
forget about the chain. 1t was made
of brown hair, curiously twisted and
braided. Hair chains were all the
rage in Richmond then and this one