Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-07-13

/ peen above the ordinary feeling OF
/ loneliness. Nevertheless, he was tenn
! ro-amentally lonesome, and at this
! particular moment desperately so.
/ He had drifted into New York some
25 years before. utterly unheralded,
uLnoticed. He had begun by filling a
! small clerkship in little dry goods
/ store. He kept at it until he owned
/ the store, and after that a larger store
on a better street. He had developed
! a genius for trade, and an executive
/ ability in accord, until the original
| little shop had expanded into IS
! story building covering a block on the
! principal thoroughfare of New York
! city, and its owner had become a pow
/ er in inance,-a merchant prince.
! Such was George Gormly
He was, too, a scrupulously honest
man. He sold good goods, without
| deceit. Things were as he represent
ed them. He established principles Of
: accommodation in his dealings that
! were unique when they were first in
stftuted in New York. He made no
dishonest dollars. His money was
good everywhere because it was I'M
tainted. He prospered exceedingly,
one expansion following another.
Eschewing speculation of any kind
and deyoting himself strictly to the
business, he found himself in middle
life the head, the foot, the sole owner,
Of the greatest enterprise Of the kind
that the world had ever seen.
This had rot been achieved lightly.
He had brought it about because, with
absolute singleness of heart, he had
put every ounce of strength and time
and talent, which in him amounted to
genius, at the service of his affairs.
Time, talent, and genius do not always
produce such results; fortune still
must be considered in the game. OPP
portunity had favored Gormly. He
had succeeded in everything beyond
his own or anyone's widest dreams.
He might have gone on indefinitely
in his mercantile operations without
attracting special attention to himself
personally, had it not been for one
fact That momentous happening was
his meeting with Miss Haldane.
1t had come about in a common
place way enough. Miss Haldane,
deeply interested in social settlement
work and being brought in contact
thereby with some of the poorer en-
ployees of the great Gormly establish
ment, had concluded to call on the
proprietor thereof to see if she could
not induce him to make some ade-
quate contribution to the work she
had so much at heart. Like every
other business man in New York,
Gormly was overwhelmed by chart
table demands. His business was one
thing; his charity another. He en-
ployed a special secretary to look aft
er the eleemosynary end of his af-
fairs.
There were two reasons why the
secretary felt himself unequal to deal
with Miss Haldane and her demands
The first reason was Miss Haldane
herself. She was member of the
oldest and most exclusive circle in
New York society. Her family was
one of the richest and most esteemed
in that hive of multi-millionaries,
would be-sos, also-rans, and other peO-
pie. The second was the magnitude
of Miss Haldane's demand. She want
ed something like a million dollars.
This amount appalled, the secretary.
She realized that a man like Gormly,
indeed most men if they had the pow
er, would much rather give a million
than a dime to an undertaking that
appealed to them. Still, Gormly, hav-
ing devoted his attention so exclusive
ly to his business heretofore, was
rather staggered by the magnitude of
the amount. He would have been
more staggered by it had he been less
so by Miss Haldane herself.
Miss Haldane had beauty. Thou
sands of peopie-women, that is, and
some few men-have that. She had
more; she had presence and person
atty. Hundreds Of men, and some
few women, have these.
Those who have all three in either
sex are rare and come to view infre-
quently. Whether it was Miss Hal
danes undoubted beauty, or Miss Hal
! danes exquisite breeding and man
ner, or Miss Haldane's force of char
acter and determination, that most i'm
pressed him, or whether his instant
subjugation was due to the influence
of all three, Gormly could not tell.
He was given to self-analysis, as
lonely people usually are. By analyz-
ing himself he learned to analyze 9th
ers. Introspection and observation had
been great factors in his success. Here
again his experience was at fault; for
Miss Haldane defied analysis, as the
breath of summer compounded of a
thousand balmy scents cannot be re-
solved into its elements, save by the
hard scientist who is insensible to its
fragrance.
CTO BE CONTINUED