Making Haste to Be Rich! CHAPTER 1.
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Two young men, named Franklin Riddell and Morris Jordan, had spent an evening with some lady acquaintances. As the air was mild, and a bright moon shone in the sky, they walked the streets for an hour before returning home, in earnest conversation about the present and the future.
"The more I see of Anne Bradford, the more am I charmed with her," remarked Riddell. "She has good sense, taste, firmness, and an even temper; qualities so desirable in a companion for life."
"And deep feeling united to all," said Jordan.
"Yes, she is a girl of deep feeling. Too deep, perhaps, for her own happiness. If she has any defect of character, it lies here."
"I would hardly call that a defect."
"Not too great sensitiveness?"
"Too great sensitiveness is a defect certainly. But I do not think this may fairly be charged upon Anne as a fault."
"Perhaps not; though it rather strikes mo that she feels too quickly and too deeply. But, be this as it may, she is a lovely girl, and, as I have just said, the more I see of her, the more am I charmed with her beauty, intelligence, and grace. If I were to look the city through, I do not believe I could find one more fitted to make me happy. In a word, Morris, I have determined, if she does not object, to make her at some future day, my wife. How do you approve my decision?"
"I approve it fully," was replied. "And, as you have been so frank on this subject, I will be equally so. For Anne's sister, Maria, I have long felt a most earnest regard; and this regard, it is plain to me, is reciprocated. I shall no longer delay a declaration of my sentiments and feelings. At the earliest suitable opportunity, I will open to the sweet girl, all that is in my heart."
And may the result be as your heart desires," returned Riddell. "I doubt not that it will be so. Most sincerely do I congratulate you on the prospect of a union with one who is in every way so worthy of your best affections. If we both find favor in the eyes of these lovely sisters, we shall in the end be still more closely united than we are now."
"To me a pleasant thought," said Jordan.
"And equally so to me," responded his friend. "But," he added in a more serious tone, "I'm afraid it will be some time before we shall realize a happy consummation of our present desires."
"Why so?" ashed Jordan.
"We are neither of us in a situation to marry, and may not be for four or five years to come."
"You get a thousand dollars a year, and my salary is eight hundred. I think we might venture to commit matrimony on this basis."
"Never. If you marry as a clerk, the chances are, ten to one, that you remain a clerk to the end of your days; and this would not suit me. First, I mean to get well started in business for myself, and then take a wife — not before."
"Business, and the results of business, are, then, first in your mind — and marriage secondary?"
"That is your inference, not my declaration, Jordan."
"But is not that conclusion involved?"
"I do not see that it is. No man ought to marry until he is able to support a wife handsomely."
"If all waited for that, there would be fewer marriages than there are!"
"I know. But look at the result of an opposite course. Men's faces to the grindstone, and women slaves for life. The woman I marry, Jordan, shall live like a lady."
"And the woman I marry," replied his friend, "shall have every comfort in my power to give her, and no more. She must be willing to share my lot, be it high or humble, or I will not take her for my wife. As to waiting until I go into business before marrying, that will depend on the prospect there is of starting in the world soon. On my present salary, I can, with economy, support a wife comfortably. That fact is sufficient reason to me for taking a companion, if I meet with the one I like; and I think I have met with that one. All that remains is to get the maiden's consent. That obtained, and I think no very long time will pass before I am a married man."
"Marry in haste — and repent at leisure! So it has been from the beginning, and so it will be, I suppose, to the end. But I am not to be betrayed into any weakness of this kind. I am not going to mar all my future prospects, by a hurried assumption of the married man's responsibilities. No, not I. I want to get a fair start first. Then I will make my own fortune, and no thanks to anybody. I have ability, enterprise, ambition; and I am satisfied to rest my hopes with them. All I want is to get fairly in the current; let it run as swiftly as it may, I will trust to my own skill in guiding my vessel safely."
"How soon do you think of commencing business?" asked Jordan.
"As soon as I can see my way clear to do so. I have a couple of thousand dollars laid aside. But I can't start on that."
"Why not? You might open in a small way."
"No small way for me, friend Jordan. I am of too ardent a temperament. It will be impossible for me ever to rise by the slow and sure way. Enterprise — enterprise! That is the word. Fortunes are to be made in a day, so to speak, by those who have the required enterprise."
There is great risk attendant upon the course you propose."
"Nothing ventured — nothing gained, you know. But I'll look out for that. I'll take care of number one, you may depend upon it."
"How much money do you expect to accumulate, before you venture upon the sea of trade in your own barque?" asked Jordan.
Riddell shook his head.
"I don't expect to get a capital by saving it from my paltry salary. It would take me twenty years."
"How, then, will you obtain it?"
"There are plenty of rich men, with sons too indolent to acquire a thorough knowledge of business. These rich fathers must give their sons a start in the world, but are generally afraid to trust them in business by themselves. Young men thoroughly educated in a commercial business, are picked out as partners, and capital set against their capacity. Do you understand?"
"Oh, yes! very well."
"Then you have the idea."
"But, suppose no rich father happens to select you as the partner of his son. What then?"
Riddell shrugged his shoulders and then replied —
"I think I can manage that. There are two or three old codgers in our business, with whom I come pretty frequently in contact. They all have sons in their stores, learning to be merchants. I take good care, whenever I have any business to transact with these observing old gentlemen, to appear very shrewd, prompt, and intelligent. One of them has his eyes on me, I know, from the manner in which he asks questions when we meet. His son, two or three years younger than I am, is just the kind of a man I would like for a partner. Fond of pleasure, ignorant of business, and indifferent about his own interests."
"A poor sort of a man for a partner, I would say," remarked Jordan.
"The very man for me. All I need with a partner is capital; and I'd much rather he would reside in the moon, than anywhere near me. The young man of whom I speak, would be a mere cipher; and, therefore, I could push everything according to my own notions. Do you understand the idea?"
"Perfectly."
"Well, what do you think of it?"
"It may do for you, Riddell; though I doubt if the final result is as good as if, like a little boat, you were content to keep near the shore at first, and venture farther out to sea when your experience became larger, and your knowledge of mercantile affairs more extensive."
"As to that, friend Jordan, I flatter myself that I understand the operations of trade pretty thoroughly; much more so, in fact, than dozens of very thrifty merchants, who have accumulated fortunes. If I had the means and facilities that some businesses I could point to possess, I would make two dollars to their one. The fact is, one half of our business men are asleep."
"It may be better to sleep in safety, than tempt destruction by rushing forward with railroad velocity," suggested Morris Jordan.
"Let them sleep who will," replied Riddell. "I belong to the wide-awake, go-ahead portion of the community. In ten years from now, you will see me over the heads of dozens of the sleepy tribe, who now grope along in the paths of trade, actually in the way of better and more enterprising men."
"You'll mount far enough over my head, no doubt," said his companion.
"Not if you will act upon my advice, and follow my example. You have plenty of the right kind of stuff in you, Morris — plenty."
"I think I will hold by the good old motto — 'slow and sure.' It will give me competence and contentment," said Jordan. "I have no wish to feel the eager, all-absorbing desire for great wealth that is such a passion with you. It is not good, depend upon it, this making haste to be rich. There is a saying of old king Solomon's, that always forces itself upon my mind, when I see men pressing eagerly forward in the race for gold. 'He who makes haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.'"
"And do you believe it, Jordan?"
"I certainly do!"
"That is, you believe a man of great business enterprise cannot be an honest man?"
"I did not say so. A man may have the enterprise you speak of, and yet be a man of the strictest integrity. All that I mean when I say that I believe in the proverb, is, that a man who makes haste to be rich, will be so tempted at every step to overreach his neighbor, as to be in great danger of falling away from strict integrity, even while he does not dream that, in securing his own interests, he is doing so at the cost of wrong to his neighbor The love of money, for its own sake, is sure to blind us to the rights of others. And I believe no man makes haste to be rich, who does not so love money."
"I am sure that I do not love money for its own sake," said Riddell.
"I hope you do not, Franklin Riddell. But it is a truth, that the real affection of our minds is not always apparent to our thoughts. It will certainly influence our actions, however, and lead us into just the error that corresponds with the false principle concealed in the hidden motive."
"You are too much of a philosopher for me, Morris. I can't stop to inquire so profoundly in regard to motives, when I see so much before me to do. Action is the great principle of my life. The fact is, my friend, you think too much — deal too much in mental abstractions — are too precise on the score of motives. You must come out of this, or you will be left far behind in the race. You have ability enough, energy enough. Come, my friend! Wake up! Look around you for golden opportunities as I am doing, and seize upon the first that offers. I do not want, as I rise, to look back upon you groveling in the plain below, with the great, unambitious horde."
"Don't feel any concern for me, Frank," replied Jordan, calmly. "Without doubt, I shall pass safely enough through the world. You take your course — and I will take mine. From small beginnings — often come large results. The mighty river was at first a trickling rill, and many a mile it went trickling on in an unambitious course, before its waters were deep enough to bear even the smallest boat upon their surface. I would rather be like that growing rill — than resemble the mountain torrent, suddenly rushing forth a rapid stream."
"Each to his taste, then. If you are content to plod along, and add, carefully, cent to cent and dollar to dollar — I must not complain. But that course won't do for me. It is no in accord with the spirit of the age. There is too much go-ahead in me to make a merchant of the old school. Ten, twenty, and even fifty thousand dollars have been accumulated in a year by men who knew what they were about. That's doing things after my fancy. I frankly own that I like the sound of it. It makes my blood warm up at the very thought. Wait a few years, and I'll let you see what I can do in that line. I hope old Mr. Alexander will make up his mind right speedily as to the partnership that I am a little ambitious of forming with his son Henry.
"Alexander is the man, then?" said Jordan.
"Yes, what do you think of him?" inquired Riddell.
"I think," was the prompt reply, "that I would rather remain a clerk all my days — than have a business connection with Henry Alexander."
"Why?"
"I have a most thorough contempt for him."
"Why?"
"Is it necessary for you to ask? Surely, you know him to be a young man with a weak head and a bad heart."
"As to his bad heart, that is a matter personal to himself, and has nothing to do with a mere business connection. I am not afraid of his exercising it upon me. The weak head is a merit rather than a defect. It will leave the management of affairs entirely in my hands."
"You take your own way, Franklin — and I will go mine," said Morris Jordan, pausing at his own door. "When the end comes, it will be seen who is right."
"As to the question of right, I shall care very little," replied Riddell, "if I find myself the fortunate possessor of a few hundreds of thousands, when I begin to think of retiring from business. Good night."
And the young men parted, each having been in earnest in what he had said.
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