Evening journal., 1912-10-30
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Potatoes That Led to a
Distinguished Career
BY Holland.

Orlando ,. Potter, Massachu-
sets man by birth and training, but
who was a New York lawyer for
about forty years, is probably best
known to architects, builders and to
the contractors who have. constructed
the great freproof buildings in large
cities as the designer and owner OF
what IN its time was spoken of as
the largest, safest and loftiest OF
office buildings in New York city.
Mr. Potter, however. was at one
time far more prominent in politics
than he was as a builder Of great
Office buildings. He was elected to
Congress from one Of the New York
city districts in 1882, but one term Of
Congressional service was enough for
him. At one time his party thought
seriously OF nominating him for gov
ernor OF New York AS a LAWYER he
was engaged in a number of very i'm
portant cases and his professional re-
putation was very high. At the time
OF his death in 1898 he was found to
have accumulated a large fortune.
Most of his investments in real pro-
perty had been made with Judgment
and the appreciation in the value OF
real estate which he bought and im-
proved was in some instances more
than hundred per cent.
Yet this man who was Que Of the
conspicuous citizens of New York for
nearly a generations time was born
TO poverty. In the village of Dennis,
on Cape Cod, Mr. Potter is still re-
membered as a patient plodding, tre-
mendously earnest and ambitious
young man.
Young Potter went to Dennis from
his home in a country town near
Boston one summer to teach school,
He had made up his mind to become
lawyer and to study law at the Har-
vard Law School, but he had not the
slightest idea how he was going to
raise the money which would pay his
expenses during his two years course
at the school. The salary as teacher
at Dennis was very small. and al
though he saved almost the whole Of
il for two or three years, yet he knew
that the aggregate savings were not
enough to carry him through the law
school.
One day he was looking out of the
window of the room of the little cot
tage I'm which he lived when he saw
a tract of land of five or six acres
about half mile away which ap-
peared to have been neglected OF a
sudden bright idea struck him and
he acted upon IL Immediately He
went to see the owner of the land and
offered 10 culticate It on shares The
nupc- vrau or,1ar for Glad a. arrorf fho
offer
Young Potter worked early in the
morning and late in the afternoon
on the tract and without any help at
all planted, hoed and harvested a
crop of potatoes that filed a good
many barrels. But he found that
none of the village residents cared
to buy potatoes, as every one had
his own little potato patch
Then Orlando p Potter displayed
an evidence of the pluck and per
severance which in the long run en-
sbled him to become a, man of great
wealth and influence He actually
hired a horse and wagon and then
began to peddle potatoes by the
bushel from town to town and house
TO house on the Cape He had good
luck at Provincetown and had splen-
did success at Chatham. So he trud-
ged along day by day until at last he
had peddled at fair prices every bar
rel of potatoes that he raised
With the money secured in this
way, together with his savings as a
teacher. he was able to enter Harvard
Law School, take his course there and
a little later. to open an Office in New
York City. He was successful In his
career as lawyer from the very
start.
Copyright 1912, by r J. Edwards.
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards Will tell
of The Chief Reason That Led to Har-
rison's Nomination in 1855