career.

And that was no small thing. It is a great matter to be able to view one's success without any untoward feeling of exultation.

The wealth of the Astors is remarkable for the way it has been kept intact, and for the steady augmentation which is taking place. The elder Astor made a mint of money out of the fur trade, and would have continued in that business, but he found that investment in real estate was vastly more profitable. The family has steadily adhered to this line of investment through four generations.

George Peabody was a poor Massachusetts boy who, by hard industry, rose to be one of the great millionaires of his day. His fortune at one time exceeded $10,000,000, and during his lifetime he gave away more than $7,000,000 to charitable purposes. His millions were acquired by the saving of pennies, and by the exercise of thrift, honesty, and persevering effort.

Alexander T. Stewart, "the merchant prince," amassed his millions by close attention to business and by the aid of shrewd common sense and thrift. He was reputed to be one of the three wealthiest men in the United States, Commodore Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor being the other two. He left an estate exceeding $25,000,000.

Peter Cooper had a hard time getting an education. He was born in New York, one hundred years ago, and at the age of seventeen was apprenticed to a shoemaker. He tried his hand at several trades, and got together a comfortable fortune of about $6,000,000, through unremitting toil, conscientious. devotion to duty, and economical habits.

August Belmont came to New York poor, and lived to be worth millions. Prudence, acuteness, and sagacity were the instruments by which his wealth was accumulated. His successful career is an illustration of the fact that this country affords a fine opportunity for the intelligence, thrift, and industry, not only of native Americans, but of the Republic's adopted citizens.

Cyrus W. Field is another apt illustration. He has been termed a locomotive in trousers. The simile serves to convey

an idea of the indefatigable energy of the man. His indomitable resolution and his energy of character placed him high among the distinguished men of the age.

Vice-President Morton received his business training in the dry-goods trade. Then he became a banker. In his youth he had to shift for himself. Necessity is the stimulus that men of real ability require. He amassed his large fortune by tireless effort and the exercise of shrewd common sense.

Russell Sage, as a boy, was employed in a village store. His business aptitude early manifested itself, and in six years he bought out his employer. He is one of the largest capitalists in the country, and all his millions have been rolled up by energy and thrift.

John Wanamaker, Chauncey M. Depew, James M. Brown, Anthony Drexel, Moses Taylor, George W. Childs, J. Pierpont Morgan, and a host of others, are men who have fought their way to prominence and affluence by sheer force of integrity, pluck, intelligence, and industry.

The lives of all the men mentioned in this chapter are instances of what can be attained by any boy or man in America. They are eloquent testimony of the truth that industry, perse-verance, honesty, and thrift can accomplish anything. A man who is wise, careful, and conservative, energetic, persevering, and tireless, need have no fear of his future. But there is one other thing. He must have a steady head, one that can weather the rough sea of reverses, from which no life is altogether free, and one that will not become too big when success attends his efforts.

Keep out of the way of speculators. Take your money, whether it be much or little, to one whose reputation will insure you good counsel. Invest your money where the principal is safe, and you will get along.

But do not forget the acorns. See that you begin aright early in life. Save your money with regularity. By so doing, you will more than save your money; you will make money.

CHAPTER VIII.

BUSINESS EDUCATION.

How the business prospects of young men of the present day compare with those of twenty-five or fifty years ago. -A much better start in life possible now than then, as proved by historical facts. - The young man of to-day as compared with his grandfather at the same age. How millionaires of old were made, and how young men now want to become millionaires by jumping over the intermediary steps and omitting the hard work. Certain delusions about business success criticised and some cordial advice vouchsafed. - Opinions old and new on college and classical education and the value thereof in a business career. Macaulay's views.

TH
Tare

HE question is frequently put to me: "Do you think there are as good chances now for young men to make their way in life and for some of them to become wealthy, as in the past, say from a quarter to half a century ago?"

Yes, I should unhesitatingly answer, the opportunities are quite as favorable, and in many instances much more so; but as to the young men themselves, that is the question. In fact, the start in life for a young man fifteen years of age is much easier now than it was then. For instance, the parents of such a youth who were intent upon getting him a start in an office in former times were obliged in most instances to pay fifty dollars the first year for the privilege. At the end of the second year he received fifty dollars, and fifty dollars advance for every year afterward until the end of his fifth year, which completed his preliminary business education, or rather his apprenticeship.

Then, of course, he was employed according to his value as estimated by his ability and the use which he had made of his five years' experience. Our young man of the present day enjoys the distinction of entering upon business without any

idea of apprenticeship, and instead of his parents having to advance any money to his employer, the latter gives him three dollars a week to start with, and before he has spent two years at the business he may very often unwisely strike for seven, ten, or perhaps fifteen dollars a week, in many instances. These aspirations would never have entered the head of his grandfather before he had attained his majority and cast his first vote, while he never knew the taste of tobacco, much less thought of "pooling for drinks," as many of the young office boys do now. It was not from such young men as these, but from the training of half a century ago, that the old millionaires who are now the envy of our young men, were made.

But the young men of our time want to get wealthy suddenly. They want to reach the goal of their ambition by some imaginary rapid-transit route, and to escape the toil and patient waiting to which their forefathers were subject.

Science, it is true, has made rapid strides since the old fellows laid the foundation of their large fortunes, but in all its discoveries science has never yet found the method of dispensing with toil of both brain and muscle in the incipient stages of accumulating wealth.

The few who are born to wealth hardly need to be considered. The accumulators among those are comparatively few, the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, the Astors, and a few others in the Western world being conspicuous exceptions to the general rule of squandering rather than augmenting the wealth left by the hard-working and humble ancestors. In Europe, the Rothschilds and the Barings are prominent exceptions. They, too, made more of what was left them, but, in the majority of instances, the proverbial wings seem to attach themselves magically to the hardest earned accumulations. Most frequently, before the third generation has enjoyed its share, and often sooner, they are recklessly distributed to the millions.

This law of distribution affords one of the most remarkable examples of the irony of fate, manifesting its workings and results by inscrutable methods. In the periodical distribution of wealth, the highest order of intelligence rather than the

blind happenings of chance would appear to be behind the active and mysterious agencies which carry out what seem in most instances to be the beneficent designs of Providence. No benevolent institution could do the scattering abroad of this surplus wealth in a more general or a more equitable manner,

no, not if all the benevolent institutions in the country should form a grand trust or corporation with the design of engaging in the dissemination of riches.

Many young men, as well as some old ones, are under the delusion that the big fortunes now in existence form mountains in the path of modern individual enterprise, which can never be ascended by the present generation, except by lucky chances in speculation, such being the methods, as they presume, by which these mountains attained their present altitudes. Some of the more foolish ones would like to see these stupendous heights above the surface of general prosperity demolished by terrific and destructive forces, ignorant or unmindful of the fact that they constitute the chief fund from which capital is drawn for the development of all great enterprises and for the advancement of civilization.

It is necessary that people should be admonished of this fact, especially people of a speculative turn of mind, as the delusion when nurtured is liable to lead its possessor into all kinds of excesses where there may be any apparent promise of profit. They must be constantly reminded that these men whose prosperous ventures in speculation about which they have been reading, had long and toilsome uphill work before they were able to approach the big deals in speculation and investment for which they became celebrated. They should read the text with the context. For instance, when they reflect with great avidity on the immense stroke of luck which attended the bold speculations of the eminent sire of the house of Vanderbilt, they should not omit the account of his hardships for a living in all kinds of weather in Staten Island waters in a row-boat, to purchase which he had earned the money by digging and planting, early and late, a potato garden. These young men, however, want to start with the command of fleets bearing argosies