Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1910-11-05
A Life
Picture
Two Who Began and
Ended Friends
BY II. d. CLEAVER
Copyright. 1910. BY American Press
Association.

Robert Spooper and Lars Gibson
at five were going about with their
arms around each others neck; at
twelve they enjoyed boys sports to-
gcther: at eighteen they conferred as
TO what field In lifes work they should
enter.
The bond that drew them together
was a dissimilarity OF disposition
Spooner was bright. impulsiye, daring
even TO recklessness. He would cas-
fly fly into passion and was quick to
do penance for his acts while under
It's influence. Gibson was of very
equable disposition. His amiability
was never seriously interfered with
and seldom ruflicd These compli-
mentary dispositions welded their
hearts when they were children, and
the affection born of their tender years
was never permanently broken.
Both about the same time secured
situations In different mercantile
houses. Spooner was very quick TO
learn and endowed with great natural
energy. The consequence was that he
advanced rapidly. Gibson was slow
in his motions. not over quick to I'M
derstand, always willing to do what
was required of him. patient to
fault and quietly persistent. During
these early years OF their career
Spooner would confer with his friend,
complaining OF what he called the stu
pidity OF those Immediately over him,
chatting because he found II difficult
TO make them understand that he dis
covered ways Of doing things quicker.
palmer. more correctly than they.
Gibson would say:
BE patient. Bob Your natural
ability will win In the end. whereas
II you try to go too fast you may get
a backset that you will be years in
making up"
IL know you're right. my boy" Bob
would reply. You're always right
about everything, but it's mighty hard
to see things going wrong when a
suggestion from me would right 1t and
I not make the suggestion"
How do you know they would APP
preciate Il? And wouldn't they be
liable TO tell you 10 keep your place
and mind your own business. II you
were in their place would you listen
TO suggestions from thcm?"
II listen to suggestions from them.
Not muchw
"All things come TO those who wait"
Bob Spooner could not help feeling
himself a better man than his friend
In everything except patience. gentle
ness, endurance. He did not expect
Lars to make much Roadway in the
world: indeed. he was ambitious to
make success for himself that he
might share II with the man he loved.
II was not long before Spooner broke
away from his employers and set up
for himself He had no capital. but
had a capacity for inspiring conf
dence. He succeeded from the start,
Both young men married. Spooner
welded girl who saw in him a means
TO acquire what WAS the wish of her
life-social prominence. Gibson mar
ried a girl who loved money for mon.
ey's sake rather than what she could
acquire with H. Mrs Spooner spent
all her husbands income. Mrs. Glib
son exerted herself To prevent her
husband from giving away all his fam
lily did not positively require. From
the time OF their marriage their wives
stepped into their shoes and enacted
the balance OF their lives for them.
No. not all; at the end they acted for
themselves
II was their desire that their wives
should feel rs warm n friendship for
each other as was theirs. Spooner, with
his natural enthusiasm. expected this;
Gibson. with certain longheadedness
or horse sense, knew that II could not
be. There was nothing TO bring the
two women together-indeed. there
was that TO drive them apart. Each
wife was Jealous OF the influence ex-
erted by her husbands friend 1T Is
singular" Mrs. Spooner would say.
"how you can see so much in that dull
fellow. You are more capable in every
way" And Mrs. Gibson would say.
"Your friend Spooner looks down on
you: he considers himself vastly your
superior"
Spooner made money so fast that the
very rapldity OF his accommodations ac-
CELEBRATED his accumulative desires. just
as a man owning an automobile that
will do forty miles an hour desires one
that will do sixty. one morning the
newspapers announced the failure OF
a large and long established banking
house. II was the signal gun for the
opening OF commercial panic. The
house OF Spooner & Co. went down In
the crash. and the head OF the firm was
obliged TO take the benefit OF the bank
ruptcy law.
For two or three years values
shrank. Gibson. who had saved-or,
rather whose wife had savcd-consid-
cradle money. saw an opportunity 10
buy property cheap and made invest
ments which when the financial pen
dulum swung TO the other extreme
made him rich. Meanwhile Spooner
was freeing himself from the wreck OF