Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-12
WHOM THE GODS LOVE-BRAVE MEN
Modern Instance Recalls the Heroic Courage With Which
Great Romancer and Great Humorst Met the
Test of Financial Failure.
By LUKE GUARDIAN

THE elder Morgan, master of finance, used
i to insist that character is the very best
kind of security. Though probably a good
many honest men have encountered greater or
less difficulties in the effort to obtain loans
of money, nevertheless business pays homage
to character and character pays dividends in
business, as elsewhere. good illustration
of the respect in which downright manli-
ness is held in the money markets is con-
tanned in an editorial in the Wall Street
Journal:
"A preacher in Brooklyn, the Rev. DR..
Newell Dwight Hills, the successor of Henry
Ward Beecher and Lyman Abbott at tho
ugly old Plymouth Church, which is almost
a national shrine, gave letters of recommen-
dation to two nephews nine years ago. He
became a stoCkhoder in a lumber company
they hoated, and his liability was of course
limited to the amount of his stock. The en-
terprise was failure No one knows exactly
how much was involved, but Doctor Hills,
over period Of four years, paid off the
stockholders to the extent of $55, 900 and two
notes. the amount of which is not specified
"Sir Walter Scott and Mark Twain did like
wise, and Doctor Hills with publicity he
probably does not desire, joins the company
of two very brave and honorable gentlemen.
Here is preacher who practices what he
breaches. Wall Street lends on character. If
Doctor Hills wants to borrow a million dol
lars down here any old time his word is good
enough, without collateral"
The Stuff of Heroes
The highest merit that we ascribe to Hills
and Grant and Lincoln and Mark Twain and
Walter Scott is not that they showed them
selves honest under heavy burdens of debt,
but that when trouble and crisis came, a
conception of honesty which knew no moral
limitations and accepted no legal compromise
was found Joined with an unhesitating and
invincible courage in the struggle against
adversity. When plain honesty is deemed
worthy of admiration and praise it will be
sad day for mankind. The honest man.
merely as such' is not yet a ft subject for
hero worship.
In the fight against heavy odds to pay off
the creditors of John Ballantyne & Co. IL
was not only sturdy integrity that Sir wal !
ter revealed, but indomtable will. Instead
OF crushing him, misfortune only called forth
his strength To find his means swept away
in a single moment and a colossal debt
thrown upon him was a terrific blow suf6-
Client to crush an ordinary man, but at no
time i'm his career did Scott so clearly ex
hibit his heroic character It is for this that
we honor him-his heroic courage He we'll
nigh accomplished the mighty task to which
he set himself, but at last both body and
mind gave way under the tremendous strain.
Scott had himself established the publish
ing firm of Ballantyne & Co, and It was
principally the success of the Waverley nov
els and the authors toll in producing them
that had saved the Arm from laundering on
the rocks before the financial wreck OF 1925
The disaster followed from the failure OF
Hurst Robinson & Co, and the CONSEQUENT
failure OF Constable. On the 18th OF Janu.
ary 1928, Scott learned. after a period of
hope that the wreck was complete. The
great romaneer dined that evening with bis
friend skene
Il never" wrote Skene In his reminis-
eenees, had seen Sir Walter in better sp,r,ts
or more agreeable. Next r,orntn,-
early was surprised by a verbal MESSAGE
10 come 70 him as soon as / had Got nm
Holding out his hand 10 me as an
tered, he said, 'skene. this is the hand ~
pegger Constable has failed, and am
ruined de fond ez eomble' It's q bara
blow evs I must bear up The only tbing
that ~Flnss me Is poor Charlotte and tbs
bairns'- '"s
Gave Ris Life for Ais oree.sors
II the gods" Professor Hudson has p.
marked love 10 see a brave man str,qqlins
Assinst adversely, then Ia truth scott ~.
-.sht wen pleasing TO the gods Instes5 ~
sisstins ths usual course Ia such a erlaia 49,
-Fs.af'ht himself bankrupt he defarmf,,S
%stV's 'As test q be life 90 ihe aisehares