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/ /U. c rC

T3USINESS Success: 7
what it is and
how to secure it.

A LECTURE

DELIVERED BEFORE THE TORONTO YOUNG MEN'S
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION,

JOHN MACDONALD.

TORONTO :
ADAM, STEVENSON & CO.

'nwwumr iLwi^ V

mmmm

M^^£^t^

/ifZ/L^,

thf: young men

OF OUR

DOMINION,

-ITS BL'SISKSS MEN TO BK,-

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED

WITH TUB

BEST WISHES OF THEIR FRIEND

THE AUTHOR.

PEEFACE.

I had promised to deliver a lecture for the Young
Men's Christian Association of this city in the early
part of last year, on " Business Success." Duties, many
and pressing, prevented my fulfilling that engagement
earlier than last month. Many who heard it then, (in-
cluding business men, in whose judgment I have much
confidence), and others who heard of it, expressed a wish
that it might be published.

The thoughts contained in it have been gathered
from observation during the many years of an active busi-
ness life. It will not be considered presumptuous then, if
even the writer should think that their study will prove of
service to the man of business, while the young man about
setting out in life, (whatever his calling), cannot but be
benefitted by their perusal.

It may be said that there are causes which lead,
not only to success, but to failure, which are un-

PREFACE.

noticed here ; this, I admit; but the reader will remem-
ber that the matter was prepared not with the view of
furnishing an exhaustive treatise on so important a sub-
ject, but as a lecture only, within which nothing more
could be pressed than would interest an audience for a
reasonable length of time.

Enough will be found, however, if carefully read and
duly acted upon, to guard from failure ; — enough to point
the way to a successful business career.

I have preferred, in this small volume, making no
additions to the manuscript. This will make it more
welcome to those who have but little time for reading,
and none the less to those who have most.

The book, I trust, will have the effect of leading to
a higher standard of commercial morality ; of deterring
some from entering business whose talents fit them for
other callings ; of inspiring others with high resolves to
battle bravely and to win ; and of leading all to acknow-
ledge that God is seen in commerce as He is in every
part of His vast universe ; and that without His blessing,
" it is vain to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread
of sorrows. "

J. McD.
Oaklands, Toronto June, 1872.

^^nj

*i\>^*S=a»..:

gftjiUhiUfflffl

Business Success.

T has been affirmcMl that the majority of busi-
ness men fail at some period of their career :
that not more than five out of every hundred
succeed. Both statements are startling; and yet
neither should be hastily dismissed without
careful examination. Whatever differences of opinion
there may be about the first, we arc inclined to think
that experience will fully confirm the second.

There are no changes so great in any country as
those found among its business men. Nor any calling is
there, or proftssion, which yields so small a measure of
success as business, in proportion to the numbers engaged.
You find Judges on the Bench and Lawyers at the Bar,
you find others actively engaged in their professions for
ten, twenty, and thirty years. Not so with business men :
you look for old familiar faces and they are gone. As

6 BUSINESS SUCCESS.

you pass along the streets you find, instead of well known
names, those of strangers, and before you are well familiar
with them they disappear to give place to others. Think
of the men in our own city, who not only sat upon our
Bench, but adorned it ; whose opinions were respected
not only at home, but beyond it ; think of those
who in Law and Medicine took the very first place
in their professions ; men of mark, whose names be-
came household words, and who engaged in active duties
to the last, passed away full of years, and full of honours ;
and then look back, if you will, and count the number
and tell the names of your successful business men of
the same period. You will find but few, nor will you be
able, we think, to make the average of those who suc-
ceed, more than five per cent.

Take up a Directory of this city which will carry
you back twenty or thirty years : look for the names of
the business men of those days : they have disappear-
ed ! You will be struck in finding the number who
have been unsuccessful ; but great as the number is, do
not think it greater than that found in other cities
of the same population : there is not a town or ham-
let on this continent, which does not furnish the
same results. The story of the majority of business
men is, that they have been unsuccessful. But some

BUSINESS SUCCESS. f

will say : Canada is too small a field to form a fiiir
estimate of the proportion of successful business men.
Take a wider one : look at the United States ! We ven-
ture to assert, without having examined the figures, that
not five per cent, of the merchants of New York suc-
ceed. Quite likely says one : American merchants gen-
erally, are little better than a set of sharpers. Not so.
There is no higher type of business men to be found than
the high-toned American merchant.

That there are unprincipled traders in the United
States, we think quite possible ; but have we not this
class among ourselves ? We cannot see the propriety in
any man bringing a sweeping charge against the business
men of any country, simply because his transactions may
have been (perhaps from choice) with the least reliable
of its traders. Equally unsafe would it be to form our
judgment from the verdict of those who complain only
because they found themselves less skilled in the
sharp practices of trade, than the sharper men into
whose hands they fell. Some of the most advanced
men of the day are business men, foremost in every
good work ; with views too broad, sympathies too noble,
and souls too great to suffer them to do anything small,
mean, or contemptible ; — whose princely incomes afford
them ample opportunities of originating and executing

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

benevolent schemes on a large scale. Such men are
found in every land to-day, but in none do you find
finer specimens, or in none do you find a larger proportion,
than in the United States. Yet, take the city of New
York in the year 187 1 : it had three hundred and twen-
ty-four failures, with liabilities amounting to $20,740,000.
In the United States the failures for 187 1 were 2915,
with liabilities $85.252.000 ; in 1S70, 3551, with liabili-
ties $89,242,000; while in 1861, the liabilities were
$207,000,000; and in 1857, over $291,000,000. These
figures I know are very startling, and many will at once say
that they must represent a loss to creditors y^r^^t7«^ any-
thing, in proportion, which exists in Canada. Let us see.
From 1864 to 1869, ^^ period of a little over four years,
there were in this Dominion, three thousand three hun-
dred and thirty-two Insolvents, sufficient with their fam-
ilies to people a city ; and with liabilities sufficient
to build it substantially, to adorn it with squares, foun-
tains, handsome public buildings, churches and schools.
Look at Ontario, this favoured province, not in a year
of scarcity, but in a year of plenty, — in the most prosper-
ous year of its history ; one might well say : surely there
were no failures ! \^<t learn from the Monetary Times
that there were three hundred and twenty-eight,
with liabilities probably not under $5,000,000. Each
number of the Ontario Gazette contains the notice

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

of new Insolvents. In the issue of the last week of
February, were notices of twenty-six. Assuming that
to be a high weekly average, take the number at seven ;
and you would then have not less than three hundred
and sixty-four Insolvents per annum. We find in a
paper of the Province of Quebec, dated February 29th,
the notices of twelve Insolvents for that Province : this
only a local paper in a period of not more than seven-
teen days ; and for such notices in each of the Provinces
we may look with as much certainty as we look for the
spring-time and the autumn. If this be so, one is ready to
inquire : Is it safe to go into business ? Is it wisdom to
adopt a calling which has so few prizes and so many
blanks ? If business to so many means disaster and
bankruptcy ; if men of good ability, moderate capital,
and fair prospects, have long battled, and yet in the end
have had all swept away, how, I would ask, is it possible
that I can travel that road and escape its dangers ? —
navigate that ocean, and pass safely through its storms? —
fight that battle, and not fight only — but win. It would
be a good thing not only for those engaged in trade, but
for the entire community who share, more or less, in the
sufferings and loss which failures bring, if each man be-
ginning business would propose these questions to him-
self, or to some one upon whose judgment he could
rely ; — a good thing if he would insist upon an honest and

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

faithful reply. The result would be, that thirty per cent.
of all the men who go into business would discover that
there were other fields in which they could better dis-
tinguish themselves ; callings for which their talents were
more suited, and which, though promising to bring with
them greater labour, would also bring to them greater
reward. And yet although trade has its risks, un-
certainties and failures, there is no need that business
men should be unsuccessful. True, there are dangers, but
men may escape them. There are laurels to be won, and
men may win and wear them, as having been fairly and
bravely won.

It is possible that one's business career may be one
of unbroken triumph; possible to reach a first-class com-
mercial position, while friends will delight and foes, if
men have them, will be compelled to acknowledge that
they who have honourably attained it are successful
business men.

Some regard business as a lottery ; others as a game
of chance, in which none but the fortunate win ; others
tell you that tricks are a necessary part of trade, that
everything in business is fair, even over-reaching and un-
truthfulness ; and, that without these, success is impos"
sible. It is time that all such ideas were swept away,
for they are dangerous, misleading and untrue.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

That there may be found untruthful and over-reach-
ing men in business, we are ready to admit ; and
because such men may have accumulated means in busi-
ness by cunning, or possibly by fraud, there are those
who have conceived that success in business is to be
secured only by such methods.

The proportion which our unsuccessful traders bear
to our successful ones is so large that we are not sur-
prised that many should regard business as a lottery, and
conclude that while here and there one may find a suc-
cessful business man, yet, that the great majority must
fail. These are all mistakes. There are certain business
principles which, if strictly and constantly followed, will
as surely result in business success, as that a vessel by
careful navigation can be safely brought to her destina-
tion, or that brave troops, skillfully handled by a brave
general, may be led to victory. Failure is not necessarily
a part of business, nor must it be concluded that fifty
or even ten out of every hundred men who go into busi-
ness must fail. I know that to the most honourable,
failure is possible ; men have been ruined in their efforts
to save others : just as many a bold swimmer has been
pulled down by a drowning man whose life he sought to
save. The fire will desolate on land ; ships will go down
at sea ; markets will drop suddenly ; occasionally there

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

will be a shrinkage of values ; bills of Exchange will be
returned ; banks will fail ; and thus men, honest and
well-intentioned, will sometimes find themselves com-
pelled to ask the consideration of their creditors; and
although in such cases there may have been a lack of
becoming prudence, yet these remarks are needed to
rescue such men from the odium which so often is con-
nected with failure, and to save them from being classed
either as fools or knaves. Making full allowance, however,
for such cases, we contend that ninety per cent, of our
failures might be avoided : and that business might be a
certain instead of an uncertain thing ; that disaster might
be the exception and not the rule. There is no need that
men should break down in early life, as the result of
continued business perplexity. No need that homes
should be made sad and cheerless, through business
difficulties, which ought always to be happy and
cheerful ; — no need that business which a wise Pro-
vidence designed should be the means of con-
tributing so largely to the comfort and happiness
of the human family in every part of the world, should be
the cause to so many of misery and ruin : business may
be stripped of nine-tenths of the doubt which now sur-
rounds it and men may see with some confidence, when
they begin a business career that they will be able to
bring it to a prosperous and successful close.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Nearly six thousand of our seamen are drowned
every year, as the returns to ParHament for 1870 show!
Apart from the brave sailors who thus annually perish,
how many are there who go down to the sea in ships,
either on business or pleasure, who find every year a
watery grave. That this waste of life is no necessary
part of travelling by sea, is abundantly proved by the
long and prosperous career of the Cunard company.
True, they have lost seamen and may yet lose more. Men
will in a fool-hardy way, expose their lives by sea as well
as by land; but during thirty years and more, from the first
trip of their first steamship to the present hour, every
passenger who has not imprudently exposed his life or
died from natural causes, has been safely landed at his
destination. Nor has a letter or a parcel been lost
through the negligence of the company. Their vessels
have been in every storm ; have borne the rage of
every hurricane which has swept over the ocean dur-
ing these long years; — mid rain and fog, and sleet
and ice ; watchful and careful, they have carried
their passengers with greater safety than those passen-
gers could have travelled on land by any conveyance,
and have fairly won the high reputation they enjoy to-
day, by a management in the navigation of ocean steam-
ships the most perfect and the most successful, the
world has ever known.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

The bungling of the Crimea was the real enemy
our brave soldiers had to contend with. Want of food,
clothing, tents, and even fuel, in the depth of a Crimean
winter, soon produced their results : — exhaustion, fever,
cholera, and trench work wrought among them far greater
havoc than did the fire of the enemy.

The Expedition to Abyssinia proved that misman-
agement, endangering the lives or even the health of
troops, is no necessary part of a military campaign ; that
it is possible to lead an army through a country, the
difficulties of which are vastly greater than those of the
Crimea with perfect safety ; that commissariat arrange-
ments and sanitary regulations can be made so perfect,
that men need not suffer for lack of food, clothing, tents
or fuel, and that the health of the troops may be main-
tained at as high an average as if they were stationed
at Aldershot, or, better still, at the garrison in Toronto.

So with business. Thousands fail every year, but
they need not. The fact that men live through the same
crisis which swept them away, is proof that they might
have done the same. That men have lived through
mrsny crises in which men stronger financially than they
were, have been ruined, and that though some of these
storms have been terribly severe, have nobly braved them

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

all, not perhaps with capital unimpaired ; but with credit
unaffected, and with character untarnished. Men, who,
guided by lofty principle, scorned the idea of taking ad-
vantage of a panic to propose a compromise ; never
asked what was expedient, but what was right ; whose
bark when the rage of the tempest was past, was found
at anchor ; a spar or two gone, perhaps a little battered,
but still at anchor ; Avhile here, and there, and yonder, lay
stranded and broken wrecks in wild and shapeless confu-
sion. That such men could outride such storms is enough
to prove that others could do the same, and that it is no
more necessary for a man to fail because he goes into
business than it is for a man to be drowned because he
goes to sea.

But why, it may be asked, have the Cunard com-
pany been so successful ? All that can be obtained in
human skill and ingenuity is brought to bear in the con-
struction of their vessels ; everything about their ships
must be of the very best. The ship itself, its machinery,
charts, compasses, stearing gear ; officers tried and capa-
ble, brave and daring ; yet, cool and cautious ; en-
gineers, men high up in their profession ; crews, the best
that can be secured. In their passages the first consid-
eration is safety ; the second, speed ; the third, profit.
Is it any wonder that they have been so successful.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Some of our volunteers thought the medical exam-
ination of the force designed for the Red River expedi-
tion unnecessarily severe. Had every man who deemed
himself fit to undergo its hardships been allowed to form
part of the force, many would have gone, who would
have hindered rather than helped it. It was deemed
best that the force should be formed only of men of strong
and sound constitutions. Their way lay through an un-
known and uninhabited wilderness, where it might fairly
be expected there would be formidable obstacles to meet
which would require all the strength and endurance of
healthy and powerful men. The successful completion of
that expedition, without a single casualty, shows how
wise were these precautions ; and how perfect was the
organization.

iii

Let business men have the same fitness for their
calling as our Canadian volunteers of the Red River
expedition had for theirs ; the same enthusiasm as these
brave fellows had in entering upon the difficulties of that
unknown and unexplored way ; the same care, the same
caution, which the Cunard company have exercised
during their lengthened career, and you will have the
same successful results. Let it be understood that a
business man requires something more than friends, or
means, though both are excellent ; and it is difficult to get

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

on without either. That if he lacks character, it matters
little what else he may have. That he wants brains and
common sense, for many a man has the one, who lacks
the other. That he wants business fitness, and a confi-
dence that leads him to look upon difficulties as play-
things, — to think, and speak, and believe in nothing but
success. In one word, have in business as elsewhere,
always the right man in the right place. Then the num-
ber of your successful men will be immensely increased,
and a commercial crisis a matter of rare occurrence.

Success is possible in a bad cause as well as in
a good one ; yet we understand by the word, the favour-
able or prosperous termination of anything attempted for
purposes of profit or improvement. Business is a word
of such extensive and indefinite signification, that it may
be applied with great propriety in describing the occu-
pation of many who are not engaged in trade. We look
at it only from its mercantile aspect.

What measure of those qualities which make great
business men is inherited and what acquired, we do not
undertake to determine ; whether a man can become a
business man of high order, who is not born a merchant
we leave others to decide.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

When Peabody, in 1856 went to Dan vers to revisit
the scenes of his childhood and to receive the honours
which his fellow townsmen were anxious to offer, he
said : —

" Though Providence has granted me unvaried,
and unusual success, in the pursuit of fortune in other
lands ; I am still in heart the humble boy who left yonder
impretending dwelling. There is not a youth within the
sound of my voice, whose early opportunities and advan-
tages are not very much greater than were my own, and I
have since achieved nothing that is impossible to the
most humble boy among you."

The modesty of Peabody led him to speak thus, but
he was mistaken. Great business ability, such as he pos-
sessed, is not profusely bestowed. A man who stood in
the very first rank among the merchant princes of Lon-
don ; who in trade won laurels as many and as proud as
they ) who became the benefactor not only of the country
of his birth, but of that of his adoption ; who received
marks of distinguished favour from the President of the
United States, and to whom the Queen of England pre-
sented her o\<'n portrait specially prepared for him
upon a plate of pure gold, must have been a man among
many thousands ; and every boy whom he addressed

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

«9

could no more become a merchant like Peabody than
he could become a general like Wellington, or an engineer
like Stephenson. Aim high, be ambitious to take the
first business position ; but do not be surprised if you
fail to reach the lofty position of Peabody, and men of
his class, and do not be discouraged ; for we know that
there are positions which if not nearly as influential as
that held by him ; wealth, which if not nearly as great as
he possessed ; credit which if not nearly as extensive as
he enjoyed ; yet, once obtained, would entitle you or
any one to be regarded in this or any land as a successful
business man.

You cannot form a correct estimate of a man's busi-
ness success by mere outward appearances. The ambi-
tion to make a social flourish upon inadequate means is
not only an evil, but a growing one, and many are led to
mistake outside glitter for accumulated wealth. It would
be as unsafe to judge of a man's success by the outward
flash he makes, as it would be to estimate the value of
the mine by mere surface indications. You will be told,
if you would rightly judge of the value of the mine, you
must test it below the surface ; and the banker will tell
you that in his parlour, you will find a better picture of a
man's business position than you can possibly get from
mere outward appearances. There are those who pay

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

homage to wealth, — men are courted for their means ; —
yet great means do not always imply great business
ability.

Some ac(|uire a reputation for business ability and'
success to which they have no claim ; their ability con-
sisting merely in inheriting the large means employed in
their business. Others by monopolies or restrictions ac-
quire the control of articles of trade solely for their own
enrichment, to the loss, and ruin, perhaps, of other
trades. Legislative acts have been framed, tariffs en-
acted, legislators corrupted, for no other purpose than to
secure such monopolies for individuals or corporations.
What matter though coal be put beyond the reach of the
poor, so that they are enriched ; and equally regardless
are they of the disturbance which the increased price of
any commodity may create so long as the result is turned
to their profit ; and then men look at the immense palaces
the fruit of such gains, and call their owners successful
business men. Such men are mere adventurers and their
gains the results of bribery, corruption and fraud. Equally
unsafe would it be to regard the very rapid acquirement
of means in every case as a test of business success. If
so the most successful men of our time have been the
members of the Tammany Ring. For no men ever made
money more rapidly, and if all be true, none ever made

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

it more dishonestly. Wealth acquired through long
years of honourable business life is an evidence of suc-
cess ; and where with great wealth you find a great heart,
and great enjoyment in the right use of means, you have
the finest type of a successful business man. Yet to
great wealth we must not attach undue importance ; for
how many do we find who having enormous means, are
nevertheless miserable, mean, and poor. True " The
hand of the diligent maketh rich." We may have deli-
gence and its reward, and yet the man himself may be
utterly incapable of turning to any useful account the
means he has acquired. Some hoard large means from no
other motive it would appear, than to have men say of
them that they died rich. Such men may have piled away
in chests thousands of gold and silver, but for all the good
their gold is likely to do themselves or others, they
might as well have so many stones. Such men live
in daily fear of burglars and skeleton keys, of banks
breaking, of commercial ruin ; of such, and there are
many everywhere, one is ready to say : " there is more
hope of a fool than of him." There isTio young man in
this assembly, who, while in a respectable situation, en-
joying life as he passes through it ; has confidence in his
fellow men, is bright, cheerful, and hopeful, though he
may not be possessed of fifty dollars, who could exchange
places with such a man without being an immense loser.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Wealth that has been acquired by ruining manufac-
terers, underpaying employees, and bringing about the
failure of weak competitors, cannot bring pleasure. For
the thought will obtrude itself even amid the splendour of
establishments so secured, as one looks at their ships
or palaces, that they have been secured by oppression,
injustice and wrong. We do not see that you can form a
fair estimate of a man's success by looking at him apart
from his destiny. He may count his gold by millions,
but gold does not bring happiness. Where men live to
accumulate it for its own sake, and toil for it so as to for-
get that they have a hereafter, it becomes not only a
snare, but a curse, and it would have been better for such
men had they lived and died poor. It was once asked
of such an one : " How much did he leave ?" " Every
dollar," was the quick and suitable reply. "He took none
with him." Where there are no correct views of a man's
responsibility ; where there is neither desire nor heart to
use means rightly, enormous wealth simply means enor-
mous anxiety ; accumulation instead of bringing content-
ment only creates the desire for more ; a bondage the
most cruel, a thirst for wealth which refuses to be satisfied ;
and as millions are added to the already enormous pile, the
cry is still : more ! more ! Richer and happier by far, and
more useful to the world, is he who, satisfied with mod-
est means, enjoys the fruit of his labours. Nor is there

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

one here who having the choice of positions, but woald
choose the latter —

Who only asks for humblest wealth ;

Enough for competence and health,

And leisure when the day is done ;

To read his book by chimney nook.
Or stroll at setting of the sun.

Who toils as every man should toil :

For fair reward, erect and free, —

These are the men, the best of men.

These are the men we mean to be.

" Better is a handful with quietness, than both hands
full, with travail and vexation of spirit."

Gold, I know, is with many the measure of a man's
success. If it has cost him the loss of health, pro-
duced an enfeebled frame, or weakened intellect, what has
he gained ? If it has made him a grub worm, and kept
him ever looking with his eyes fixed on the earth so that
he had neither pleasure or desire to look up at the bright
blue sky ; if while it has led him to be thickly lining his
pockets, has also led him to neglect the cultivation and
enrichment of his mind, so that he is bankrupt in every
thing but gold, whatever measure of success the world
may award him as a business man, he has been an im-
mense loser. Should his application bring upon him
suffering as it is likely to do, so that he become an in-

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

valid ; or should he be spared to reach old age, which to
such an one would certainly bring its infirmities ; he would
be found a poor man without the resources which would
enable him to endure the one state, or without the cheer-
fulness which is the charm of the other. While he who
through life has felt that neither the pressure nor the emol-
uments of business could lead him to neglect the garnish-
ing of his mind, draws to its close with richly stored re-
sources within himself, which render age not only endur-
able but delightful, who as he thinks

** On years that time has cast behind,
■ But reaps delight from toil and pain."

"As when the transient storm is past,
The sudden gloom and driving shower,
The sweetest sunshine is the last,
The loveliest is the evening hour."

He is a successful man who meets all his obligations
with promptness, and who for his business has a " rest "
sufficient to meet all its contingencies ; whose name
stands high in the first commercial circles ; whose judg-
ment and counsel is sought and respected, and whose
whole course is above suspicion and worthy of imitation ;
whose business is ever in such a state that, if removed by
death, enough will be found to discharge every obliga-
tion, and enough remain for those dependent upon him.

BUSINESS .iUCCESS.

He is the most successful who, in addition to the
capital employed in his business, has means and time to
do good with them ; whose lite, in the best sense, is a
busy one ; who makes money not only by his fellow-men,
but for them ; who enjoys life as he passes through it ;
who, though in business, is a busy man ; is, in the best
sense, a busy worker who is watchful to improve those
opportunities where his means, influence and experience
enable him to do most good.

" Nations become rich and powerful by the con-
tinued and well-protected efforts of individuals to improve
their condition and rise in the world. The labour and
the savings of all such are at once the source and the
measure of national opulence and public prosperity."

To the humblest we may then say :

" Hold up your brow in honest pride ;
Though rough and swarth yours hands may be,
Such hands are sap-veins that provide
The life-blood of the nation's tree."

What are the causes of failure ?

The first we notice is Incompetency. Hundreds of
men go into business in Canada, and we presume else-
where, who, for everything connected with its manage-
ment, are thoroughly incompetent : clergymen with sore

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

throats, school-masters who find confinement oppressive,
farmers who tell you that their work is laborious ; me-
chanics who think "keeping store," as they term it,
more respectable than their own trade ; now and then a
stray doctor ; and although there are those^ in each of
these classes who succeed, they do so mainly from a force
of character which would equally well serve them in any
other pursuit.

If you wanted a book bound, you would not be
likely to send it to a carpenter ; nor, if you wanted a
broken leg set, would you be likely to send for a tin-
smith. Would it not be well for doctors, clergymen and
mechanics, who think that without any training they
possess a thorough fitness for business, to remember
that years of application were needed to fit them for the
duties of the callings they are throwing aside ; that
without such preparation they would have been unable
to have sustained themselves as they had hitherto done,
and that some training at least would be required for the
business they are about to attempt. It is simply cruel
to encourage such men to go into a business with the
simplest details of which they are utterly ignorant ; cruel
to take from them the earnings of years when it is quite
apparent that the end can only be disaster; entering
upon a business of which they know nothing, to be left

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

behind in a race for which they are altogether unequal ;
to become the victim of some unprincipled trader, or to
fritter their means away through sheer incompetency and
to find out, when too late, that they had no fitness for
business and should never have attempted it.

Eighty per cent, of our failures are the result of
Extravagance.

Don't be startled ; that will be found to be under,
rather than over the mark. Extravagance is a disease
which, though in some admitting of treatment, in others
is incurable. There are some who act, as soon as they
have obtained a credit, as though their fortune had been
made. Their business and home expenses, assume pro-
portions of an unwarranted nature ; nor do they pause to
consider whether such expenditure can be long main-
tained, or whether it is likely speedily to come to an end.
Such men run their course in an incredibly short time.
When the end comes, they call it imprudence. It is
dishonesty, and nothing else. There are many men in
business to-day, who are building houses, buying lands,
and living in a reckless and extravagant style, on the
strength of a credit obtained for strictly business purposes.

There are others who fail through extravagance, but
do so more slowly ; tempted first to indulge in some un-

f^m*

m I!

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

warranted expenditure, they resist for a while, perhaps,
but then yield. The appetite for further expenditure be-
comes a craving one, and as it increases the ability to
resist it diminishes. They wavered when they should
have been firm, vaccilated when they should have resist-
ed ; and from that hour their downward course began.
Suppose a young man who has recently commenced busi-
ness with moderate capital, good credit, and fair pros-
pects. Things go on well. His wife, who knows little of
business, but takes it for granted that he is doing well,
puts in her claim, let us say for a piano. If he studied
her happiness and his own, his answer would be : "Glad-
ly, when we ca.i afford it, and a piano stool, and a
music stand, and anything else that we really require ; but
we must wait patiently until it can be well afforded,
without inconvenience to business, or without jeopar-
dizing the means of others."

Do not think that I suppos. an improbable case.
There are few failures which take place in the country
where you will not find a piano among the household
furniture, and as a matter of course, you are always told
that it belongs to the wife.

Now, he is the best husband who can talk to his
wife in this way, and she the best wife who, fully appre-

!l!

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

dating his motives, is contented with such a reply ; and
each so denying themselves, in due time Inisband
and wife will be abundantly rewarded. But the man
yields, the piano is bought, for he says he can get this bill
renewed. Then the carpets look shabby, and they must
get new ones. The furniture is old-fashioned, and the
curtains are faded, and when the first step is taken it is
the simplest matter to glide into others equally uncalled
for. Then follow the neglect of business ; the accumu-
lation of bills ; the protesting of notes ; the stoppage of
credit ; the loss of confidence ; the meeting of creditors ;
the visit of the sheriff"'s officer; piano gone, carpets and cur-
tains gone ; the man broken-spirited, broken-hearted.
The morning that shone out so promising, already dark
and beclouded. Then, in too many instances, the
bottle, — then the grave.

Hundreds of men are ruined through Intemperance,
When a man finds that he requires stimulants to give
him the energy needed for his business, he is in a
bad way. When you find men stand back from you in
conversation, or turn their heads away from you lest you
should discover their habits, they are in a dangerous
position. When you find them constantly dull, dreamy,
and stupid, make up your mind, if you area creditor, that
unless there be a speedy and radical change, you may

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

look forward to a bad debt, and to the man's destruction.
In Great Britain, where a very large amount of busi-
ness is transacted by travelling, thousands of young men
and their customers have been ruined by the drinking
usages of the road. A young man who is a commercial
traveller need not be a drinker. Nor need he, to sell goods,
offer drink to others. We would be glad if the commercial
travellers of our young Dominion and their customers
would alike set their face against an evil which has already
slain so many bright, promising young men, and desolat-
ed so many happy homes, and shew to the same class
in the Old World that here they can do business upon its
own merits, and are opposed to practices which, though
having the appearance of present profit, are but sowing
the seed which can bring forth nothing but ruin and
death.

Many fail through Speculation. They see those who
through long years of patient industry have acquired
position, influence and means, and whose trials, by
the way, they know nothing of; and despising the slow
but certain paths of their own business (the safest at all
times), enter into some wild and reckless undertaking by
which they expect to make a fortune immediately.
Others, they are told, have tried the same thing, but they
were stupid, had no business talent, had not seized

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

the right time — were fools. Upon such men words and
arguments are wasted ; it is folly to talk to them of meeting
bills, either with the banker or wholesale dealer ; they
hope to be bankers or wholesale dealers themselves
within six months. There is an oil property, and in the
venture there is a perfect mint of money. There are a few
shares to be had in some joint-stock company, wiiich
will yield immense returns, and they are to be had at
par. Or a village has just been mapped out in the wild-
erness, or is going to be, and the place is destined to
become or^e of the most important cities on the conti-
nent, and they intend to secure a large number of the
lots. And so with a thousand things ; some of them as
ridiculous as the bogus companies of the South Sea
Bubble days.

There is extant a list of nearly two hundred bub-
ble companies started in the year of bubbles, none
of which were under ;j^ 1,000,000, and some went as
far as ;^ 10,000,000, stg. One was designed to make
salt water fresh ; another to furnish merchants with
watches ; a third to discover perpetual motion ; a fourth
to plant mulberry trees and breed silk-worms in Chelsea
park ; a fifth, to import large jackasses from Spain in
order to propagate a larger kind of mule in England ;.
while an advertisement was issued that at a certain place

3«

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

on Tuesday next, books will be opened for a subscription
of ;^2, 000,000, for the invention of melting sawdust and
chips and casting them into clean deal boards, without
cracks and without knots." Not less ridiculous are some
of the schemes into which men rush to-day, — with means
not their own, but entrusted to them only for legitimate
business purposes, bringing upon others loss, perhaps
suftering, and stamping themselves for all time to come
as dangerous men whom it would l)e unsafe to trust.

We have no " Wall Street " here, and we are glad of
it. Many of its brokers to-day are but wrecks of what
were once thrifty business men. Tempted to try their
hand at some fancy stock, they listened in an evil hour,
were led on step by step, until they lost property, busi-
ness habits, friends, all. Henry Ward Beecher recently
delivered a lecture on " Wall Street." He stated that he
had buried from it, in a period of twenty-five years, four
generations of men. He says it is a dunghill of mush-
rooms ; there is in it every year a vast growth of men, and
every year they are trampled down in hosts. "I know,"
he says, " but one or two men in that period who have
been able to make permanent gains ; nor was this done by
speculation ; they added other means of accumulation
which were the foundation of their stability."

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Profanity and Sabbath-breaking bring about com-
mercial disaster. They are presented together, for they
are inseparable. We have no confidence in the success
of either a profane man or a Sabbath-breaker ; nor have
we any confidence in the future of the young man who is
either the one or the other. Nothing, to business men, is
of greater moment than the confidence of creditors ; this
class of traders may impress men so as to secure their
confidence, but they will retain it not one day after their
habits are known. The command to labour for six days is
as imperative as that which enjoins rest upon the seventh;
and while a blessing is promised to those who diligently
labour during the six days, it is promised only in con-
nection with the proper observance and rest of the
seventh. When men tell you they are so closely confined
during the week, and have to work so hard that the only
church they can get to is the country — the only minis-
ter they can hear. Dr. Greenfields — you may mark them,
for sooner or later they will fail. Some there are who,
belonging to none of these classes, fall behind from pos-
itive inability to keep up with younger and more active
competitors. To use a common phrase, they get "behind
the age," and others, from circumstances of a nature pecu-
liar to their own case, and without intention to defraud,
bring upon themselves disaster, and for which they feel
as deeply, perhaps more so, than the creditors to whom
they occasion loss.

i !

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Although failures are of regular occurrence, it is
in the crisis when they come thick and fast. And
then wise ones shake their heads and gravely tell
you that they saw it coming ; that it has been caused by
excessive importation, injudicious credits, reckless over-
trading, and a continued contraction of the money
market. All these causes, we take it, exist more or less in
every crisis, for they are certain, sooner or later, to pro-
duce commercial disturbance. But these wise people
find this out just when every one else finds it out — when
it is too late. Raise the standard of your business men,
let fitness and character be regarded as indispensable to
the obtainment of credit, let the honest trader feel that
his competition is to be only with honest traders, and
the crisis will be something less to be feared, and the as-
sets of commercial men will represent a value they do
not now possess.

The merchants of Tyre were princes, her trafficers
the honourable of the earth ; her sails were spread to
every breeze, the sound of her oars heard in every sea.
When her wares went forth she filled many people, and
enriched the kings of the earth. Of the prophet Eze-
kiel's description of her wealth, beauty, influence, and
far-reaching commerce, it has been said that for graphic
power, high poetic imagery, and historic accuracy of detail,

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

the passage is unequalled in the whole compass of litera-
ture. What a commentary her history presents of the
changes which take place, not only with great commer-
cial men, but with great commercial centres. When we
remember that she who, in the days of her glory, " heaped
up riches as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the
streets," is to-day but a scene of ruins and of the deepest
poverty, upon whose fallen ramparts the fisherman spreads
his nets ; when it is remembered that her towers, her
temples, her palaces, her harbour, her commerce, her
wealth and her glory, are all things of the past, how can
one help exclaiming, " What city is like Tyrus, like the
destroyed in the midst of the sea !"

It would be pleasant to trace the development of
commerce from its decline among the Phoenicians to the
present period, when the trade of the British Islands has
attained a magnitude never reached before in the history
of the world; but such a subject would take us beyond
our limits. Let us say, however, that if Tyre had her
merchant princes, so has Great Britain ; that if the hon-
ourable of the earth were the trafficers of the one, so are
they of the other. But Britain has a glory which Tyre
never knew. Her chief city, which needed not Mac-
aulay's unborn artist of New Zealand to render famous —
while it is the centre of the nation's trade — is the centre

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

of the nation's charity. It is undoubtedly a great honour
to be Lord Mayor of London, (an office usually held by
one of London's merchant princes), but perhaps the chief
attraction of the office consists in the fact that the Lord
Mayor is the great almoner of the nation. No spot is
there where the cry of suffering or oppression is heard
more readily than in the Mansion House ; none is there
from which help comes so quickly or so munificently.
Whether the cry come from the beleaguered Parisians,
dying by thousands from exhaustion and famine ; from
Persia, in the low moans of famishing men ; from gory
battle-fields where, side by side, those who, but a few
hours before, were deadly foes, have been made friends
by reason of their common suffering ; or from the home-
less thousands of Chicago, as they staiid amid the ruins
of their charred and blackened city — the great heart of
the English people is moved. No question is asked in
reference to faith, colour or government. It is enough to
know that there is suffering, and that it cries for help.
The one broad, strong tie of human b^-otherhood is all
that is needed to call forth the splendid offerings of
Britain's princely merchants ; and food and raiment, and
gold and silver, are poured forth with a princely generosity,
which, while it meets the wants of the suffering, calls
forth the admiration of the world.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

I am aware that it has been sneeringly said of Great
Britain that she is a nation of shopkeepers ; yet wliere
do you find such a nation, and where do you find such
shopkeepers ? To such princely merchants we point you,
and ask you to imitate their example if you would enjoy
like success.

To succeed in business, one should have a strong
preference for it, amounting to a passion ; should possess
a fitness for it, should be early and well trained in a good
school. It is questionable whether any man ever made
his mark in business, who did not, as a boy, exhibit a
strong liking for it. A passion as great as tliat which
led Philip to forget the glazing of the windows, as he
stood in rapture gazing at the paintings ; which found
Flaxman pencilling at six, Stephenson modelling engines
in clay while a child. Sir Christopher Wren evincing his
preference for mechanics, and Nelson that love of bold
adventure, and that happy unconsciousness of fear, which
gave promise of his splendid and brilliant career. These
all became great men ; their names and their deeds are
part of their nation's history ; nor will either be forgotten
SO long as our language is spoken, or time endure.

Budgett was born a merchant. At the age of ten,
when on his way to school, Arthur, his biographer, tells

ffli^WH^BiBHHHWaBI

^38

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

US he found a horse-shoe ; he carried it three miles and
•sold it to a blacksmith for a penny. That, he says,
was his hrst penny. He kept it for some time. He
found, while at school, that while a halfpenny would
purchase six marbles, for a penny he could buy four-
teen. At once he began to traffic in marbles ; he
bought in the larger, and sold in the smaller qanti-
ties. He next buys a quantity of cucumbers, upon
which he clears ninepence ; when he had two shillings
and sixpence he bought a young jackass, this he sold
to a Mrs. Ellis for five shillings. (You see he looked
for respectable profits). Mrs. Ellis had no money, but
she had a pair of new stays, which cost her ten shillings ;
these he took as collateral security. Meantime the
donkey died, and Mrs. Ellis demanded her stays. He
contended that the donkey died through ill-treatment,
and refused to return them. These incidents exhibit
the amazing passion for trade in a lad of tender years,
and to some extent furnish us with the secret of his suc-
cessful life. Budgett, in many respects, is not our model,
although Arthur has written his life with much ability,
and we commend its perusal to young men, assured that
it will prove of service to them. There is one point,
however, in the character of Budgett, which we cannot
pass by without injustice to his memory and the subject
we are treating. It is the point which we like

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

most : — While not yet fifteen, he had made, by tra-
ding, thirty pounds ; the whole of this he gave to his
parents, and although they purposed returning it to him,
were never able to do so. I choose rather to find in
this act the foundation of his fortune. While thoughtful
men, as they look at the business bequeathed by him to
his children, with its spacious warehouses, its hundreds
of employees, its returns — estimated probably by millions
— will not fail to trace a connection between these results
and the act to which we have referred ; or call to remem-
brance the words spoken by the Saviour to the rich
young man in the gospel, as conducive to his happiness
in this world and the next : " Honour thy flither and thy
mother." We are not afraid of the success of the young
man, whatever his calling, who honours his parents. In-
deed we would not be afraid to predict it, while we would
hesitate to pronounce favourably upon the future of him
who, though having first-rate abilities, spoke lightly of his
parents, or treated their counsels with indifference.

Parents often make grevious blunders in deciding
upon the future of their children, simply because they have
already determined in their own minds what their future
callings shall be. How often do we hear parents speak of
their children as though they had no will of their own,
as though they would be equally successful in that calling

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

for which they had a positive hatred, as in that to which
they were most attached. Hence some parents say: "Our
Tom is a sharp, cunning fellow, we are going to make
him a lawyer." Another will say: " Chris, is so very quiet
I am afraid we will have to make him a minister ;" while
a third says: "We are going to send Jack to his uncle's
office and make him a merchant." It would be a good
thing for the church and the world if there were fewer
ministers who have been thus made, and it would be well
for parents to wake up and learn that they can no more
make their boys merchants than they can make them
ministers.

There are boys who strongly desire to go to business,
and their parents say " No," and, like Mrs. Swift, say to
them, " You must be a lawyer." There are boys who
want to be mechanics, and their parents say " No^ you
must go to business ;" and as the result of this conflict
between the will of the parents and the wish of the boys,
we have briefless lawyers who would have made splendid
business men, and we have unsuccessful business men
who would have made splendid mechanics. Where the
passion for a calling exists, you generally find the fitness
for it ; and where that fitness is wanting, it is the merest
folly on the part of parents to urge their children to
follow it. This pride on the part of parents, which leads

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

them to fear that, if their boys go to business, they will
rub against those of obscure birth, is something with
which we have no patience, and can find no words to
descri1)e the contempt with which we regard it. It is
time, not in this country alone, but everywhere, that the
worth of men should be estimated, not so much by the
accident of their birth, as by their character ; time that
it should be acknowledged that the son of a coal-heaver
has as much right to aim at the best positions in the land,
as the son of a lord, and securing which against great
odds, is fairly entitled to wear the hojiour he wins. No
man, however high his birth, standing side by side with
such a man should feel other than honoured, for —

"Princes and lords are but the breath of kings :
'An honest man's the noblest work of God." '

The young man whose life is to be a business
one, should begin its study early, prosecute it patiently,
acquire it thoroughly. He should be at it not later than
fifteen, and it will require all the application he is capable
of giving it for the next ten years, to fit him for the
responsible duties of a business life ; and away through
the long years after, if he would be successful, he must
still be learning. No young man ever succeeded who
was afraid of work ; no young man over will. The less
his time and thoughts are exercised about tight-fitting

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

kid gloves, flashy jewellery, and that exquisite style of
" getting-up " so essential to the very existence of some
young men, the better. The more ready he is to work,
to work hard, and long, and willingly ; the deeper the
interest he takes in the business welfare of his employer ;
t^ c more he throws his energies into his work ; the more
he is influenced in all that he does from principle ; the
more likely is he to succeed. When you sec one taking
as deep a concern in all that pertains to the interest of
1.13 t :;|ilover as though the business were his own ;
wh^ S-; t.;'.l behind his master's back is of the same
unf.apf^ing, : ~ Ay character as when he is present, you
may sa.c.y .j;!-, ir*'^ ; for, find him where you will, you
will find one in whose word you can confide, and upon
whose honour you can rely.

The advantages of being well trained in a good school
cannot be over-estimated. Not one young man in every
hundred, either in Canada or in the United States, learns
his business as he would have to learn it in Great Britain.
There, from five to seven years of close attention are
thought necessary to prepare a man for business ; but at
the end of that time he has acquired it thoroughly, so
that it will secure him a living in any part of the world,
and fit him for taking the first commercial position.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Every man in the United States is eligible for
the Presidency. It is not strange, therefore, that young
men who have been twelve months in the packing room,
should think themselves competent, in their own language,
to " run the concern." Or that one who had been the
same time in the warehouse, should think himself quite
able to do the foreign buying. But in Canada, where
ideas are more conservative, it is a matter of astonish-
ment that young men are not more wishful to ac([uire
that thorough groundwork, that mastery of their business,
without which success is almost impossible. There must
be a vist improvement in the business training of our
young men, a greater attention to system and detail, a
more thorough acquaintance with every department of
business, before we can expect largely to increase the
number of our successful business men.

We have spol^en of the folly of parents urging their
children to follow a calling for which they had no liking.
We have before us the names of fifty young men, who,
twenty-five or thirty years ago, went to business, some of
them possibly to please their parents only. Their history
will give us some idea of the uncertainties of a business
life, and will show us also that it requires something
more than a parent's wishes to make that business life a
successful one : — Twenty-seven are dead and missing.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

three became ministers, two lawyers, one a physician, one
a forwarder, one became deranged, seven are in situations.
Of the fifty, eight have been in business on their own
account, of these five have failed. Three are in business
to-day, and occupy good positions as business men. If
this should be thought a small proportion, it is only right
to say, that as compared with business young men, of
the present day, they were all fully up to, several of
them much above the average.

It is a common thing to see iron steam-ships anchored
in the Gare loch in the Frith of Clyde for several days
before going to sea. The absence of magnetic disturb-
ance has led to its selection as one of the best places for
the testing of compasses.

Every young man who is about to commence busi-
ness should first carefully examine whether he possesses
those principles by which alone he can hope to steer.
He is about to undertake a perilous journey, let him look
well to his compasses. Begin well ; not too young.
Nothing is lost by waiting a few years. Years bring a ma-
turity of thought and judgm(2nt, a knowledge of men and
things, which no very young man can possibly possess ;
and which, once obtained, will be valuable beyond anything
that can possibly be conceived by that restless young man

S li

^ i

■^ 1

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

whose only discipline has been hasty and imperfect.
Experience in some cases is really more essential tlian
capital, — without it no business can be conducted success-
fully. As it must be secured, it had better be acquired
with patience than purchased by bitterness. Let no un-
easy, restless promptings, no impatience to be your own
master, lead you hastily to take a step not well and duly
considered, not warranted by the circumstances of the
hour, and the result of which you may have to regret, per-
haps bitterly. You have much to learn : learn it well ; seize
the proper time ; select your location wisely ; make good
arrangements ; begin modestly. Do not attempt to do in
one year what it has taken others twenty to accomplish.
Your apparent gains may not be so large as those who
aim at a trade questionable and hazardous, because al-
together unwarranted by their means ; but what you make
will be more certain. While you carry no more sail
than you are able to manage in any storm, you secure the
confidence of those whose confidence is your best capi-
tal, while those who crowd on all their canvass
are ever in danger of shipwreck, and steadily impair the
confidence of those who can best help them. You may be
called a small buyer ; never mind, go on ; carefully and
modestly, but go on : slow and sure is a good motto, for
every young man commencing business, alike for himself
and his creditors. Caution is always a safer element in

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

a man's character than flash ; nor do they who make
" haste to be rich" accompHsh the most good or prove the
most successful. You will remember that in the long
run, the tortoise beat the hare.

It has been said that the best way to secure peace
is to be prepared for war. To secure business success
guard against every possibility of failure. That you may
be able to do this, you want the carefulness which avoids
disaster, and the enthusiasm which knows of nothing but
success. Be careful in your expenditure ; not penurious or
shabby, — but careful.

We have said that eighty per cent, of our failures.
are the result of extravagance, we might add, of all
the misery in the world, and yet if young men have
not learned the secret of living within their means before
they go into business, they are not likely to do so after.
Many a young man, possessing fair business abilities, has
found his way blocked in the obtainment of credit, and
has been astonished to find that men not nearly as well
up as himself obtained support ; the merchant or banker
to whpm he applied, in making a fiiir estimate of his
chance of success decided against him, and in favour of
the other, who, though less showy was all the more sure.
There is not an extravagant young man in this or any

UUSIXESS SUCCESS.

city whose habits are not known, or who is likely to sue
ceed so long as he continues them.

The prudence so essential, not only to a man's success
but to his hapi)iness, is not learned at the bench of the
carpenter, the counting house of the merchant, or the
lawyer's office ; it is learned at home. It is learned as
everything else that is good is learned : from one's mother.
And what a young man is when he leaves home, he is
likely to continue to the end. Is it too much to say
that no man becomes a great man who has not a great
mother. She may not be rich, she may not be of earth's
great ones, hers may be a lowly position, her kw friends
humble as herself; she may, nevertheless, be great. Great
in the love of truth, great in the possession of a sound
mind, great in her power of framing the future of her
children, as they behold every day the nobleness of her
own character, as she almost unconsciously imprints
upon them that self-reliance, which is worth more
than gold, that honour which is above suspicion. He
who leaves such a home to fight life's battle, takes with
him a heritage the proudest he can possess. While
such a mother is seen - looking well to the ways of her
own household, and eating not the bread of idleness,
her children rising up and calling her blessed her hus-
band, also, and he praising her -," how can one help ex>

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

claiming " Many daughters have done virtuously, but
thou excellest them all." It rests with the mothers to
say what our merchants will be ; whether they are to ex-
hibit those equalities which make them successful, or those
which render success impossible. Wills have t
broken, restraints have to be imposed, self-denial learned,
perhaps i)ainfully ; — all these lessons have to be taught
him by a mother who fully comprehends how essential
they are to his future, and intelligently understood by
the boy before he has finished that education which will
enable him to go forth into life. Mothers who pamper their
boys, who encourage them in an expenditure which can
ill be afforded, which can beget only habits of idleness,
extravagance and pride, who cannot think of having t' n
do what their fathers had to do, are ruining them. _ j
do not think so, I know, but they are ; and that poor,
dear boy of yours, (we may say to a many a mother,) who
is so good, and so gentle, and so kind, and who knows so
little of the world (although he knows vastly more of it
than you think he does) has been unfitted by you (with
the best intentions I have no doubt), yet by you, for that
station in life which he might have filled with credit had
his training been different ; and who, unless he be taught,
and that speedily, that there are fields in which he may
win greater distinction than in hanging about his mother's
skirts ; unless he go out into the world and prove him-

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

self a man, he will become an incubus on society, and
so far as any practical benefit he is every likely to be to
any one, beyond some dmcy hair dresser, or going
to evening parties, he might just as well be put in
a band-box, and allowed to remain there. There
are hundreds of young men among us, and some who are
no longer young, who are suffering life to pass away in
unbroken dreams of what " the governor" is going to do
for them. While others will tell you with the great-
est seriousness, that they have a rich old aunt either in
Ireland, or elsewhere, or some other relative at whose
decease they will be "mnde" for life. They tell you this
with an earnestness wliich would lead you to believe
that no tidings would give them greater pleasure than
those of the death of the kind friend by whom they
expect to be remembered. Send your boys out into the
world, let them become familiar with its rough side.
Let them make their own mark. Teach them to be noble,
self-reliant and true.

Be careful of your expenditure ; every dollar you with-
draw from your business needlessly is a thrust at your suc-
cess. It is like taking away an effective man in presence of
the enemy. It is worse ; it is like taking an effective man
and handing him over to the enemy. Some wonder why
the end of the year finds them no better off than they

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

were at its beginning. There have been large sales, fair
profits, but no addition to capital. There need be no
mystery. They indulged in everything their fancy led
them to desire. This because it was a trifle, that because
they wanted to be like some neighbour, and something
else because they wanted to surpass another. The temp-
tation all the stronger because these matters, whatever
they might be, had not to be paid for for several months.
These people never know what it costs them to live ; an
account they never keep ; self-denial they do not under-
stand. Could you get them to keep an account just for
twelve months (but you could not), of all the money
spent upon trifles, you would startle them, though we fear
you could not cure them, for in business or out of busi-
ness, such persons never succeed. They pass through life
making no headway, and when age comes upon them, it
finds them without j^rovision for its infirmities.

Be careful of your time. Time is money ; husband
it well ; let it be understood that, when men look for
you in business hours, you are to be found. You cannot
afford to be gossiping with others, or have others coming
to gossip with you. Many a man has been ruined by
that readiness which leads him to attend to every one's
business but his own, neglecting to attend to his own
fortune, as he busies himself with the affairs of others, to

BUSINESS SLXCESS.

be pitied at last for his pains. In every comnnmity it is
the simplest possible thing to put yotir finger upon scores
of just such men.

Be careful of j-our companions. If you want to
succeed, the theatre, the saloon, the gambling hall, are
not the places for you. He would not be a ])rudent
merchant who would open accounts with young men
knowmg them to be frequenters of such |,laces. Don't
seek companions who can only corrupt, while you can
find so many who can profit.

Don't engage in work that is hurtful, when vou can
find so much that is elevating; the world is full of work
in which you can be helpful to your fellows :

"LIve.s of great men all remind us
n« can make our Jives sublime,
And, departing, leare behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints thai perhaps another,

Sailing o'er lifc'.s solemn main,
A forhrn and shipwrecke I bro'htr'

Seeinj, shall take heart again."

You can find, in the work in which this and kindred
Associations is engaged, enough to occupy the time you
may have to give, enough to call forth the talent you pes.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

sess, you will find among the workers in such Associa-
tions congenial spirits, whose friendship may not only be
profitable, but life-long, and all the more endearing be-
cause found in connection with work so elevating ; and
thus from the first you may shew that it is possible to do
well for both worlds, to be "diligent in business, fervent in
spirit, serving the I>ord."

Young men have found their account sometimes
suddenly closed, forgetting that the banker or the mer
chant could forsee that the money spent at the saloon,
the gaming table, and at the livery stable for fast horses,
could have one end only, and that end ruin — not of busi-
ness only, but of mind and body. They felt that in
opening the account they made a mistake, they decide,
however, to make a present loss, rather than afford an
opportunity of making it greater, and so close the ac-
count. If you want to be successful, be careful of your
companions.

Be careful of your character. " A good name
is rather to be chosen than great riches. — Prov. 22, i.
Character, like a shadow, accompanies all men, and
whether good or bad, it cannot be shaken off. A father
who leaves to his son a good name, and that only, leaves
him a priceless inheritance ; one which will never fail
him if fully appreciated and properly improved.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Love the truth. Let nothing move you from it,
for no earthly consideration swerve from it, sufter loss if
it must be, but speak the truth. Never equivocate ;
never give an answer to mislead, or an answer that you
know misleads ; never take advantage of your reputation
for truthfulness to promote your own ends by framing
your speech so as to have the semblance of tmth while
m your heart you know you are misleading; such conduct
is more reprehensible than glaring falsehood, and though
you may thus gain a temporary advantage, rest assured
^ that upon no such foundation can you erect a successful
business.

Be careful of the interest of your creditors ; if you
are anxious that no one should lose by you, you begin
with the best incentive to success. So long as you are
thus influenced, you are furnished with one of the best
safe guards against failure. Credit is capital ; do not
abuse it. You have secured it possibly more on account
of your character than your means. So long as you
maintain it unimpaired, it is a fortune; be careful of it.
Feel that your first duty is to discharge your obligations,
to divert into unwarranted channels not one dollar which
should be applied in reducing them. Your capital puts
you in possession of means, if you waste the one, rest
assured you will destroy the other.
4

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

The man who relies upon a credit to enable
him to carry on his business may be called I know
a dependent man, and yet I fancy that if business
were reduced to an absolutely cash basis, many
large and healthy concerns in the old world, and in
this new one, would find themselves suddenly pulled
up. But admit that the man who does conduct his busi-
ness on a credit derived from the merchant or banker,
is a dependent man. It has been so ordered that every
high-minded man does experience just in that state, a plea-
sure and a satisfaction as great as he is ever after likely to
know, no matter how great the volume of his business'or
the extent of his means. Nothing can give greater pleasure
to a high-minded business man than to discharge his ob-
ligations ; and in doing this he is affording his creditors
the best evidence he can give them that their confidence
has not been misplaced. But he is doing more than this,
even though a humble trader, he tends by every such
transaction to strengthen and uphold public credit. He
leads even the doubtful man to put confidence in his fel-
low man, he leads those who look at balance sheets only
as actuaries, to feel satisfied that, although the crisis may
come, and may bring with it much suffering, and much
loss, that with men thus careful of their credit, who thus
look upon their obligations as sacred, the crisis may be
severe, and may be wide-spread, but it cannot be uni-
versal.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Do not be restless because you have to do your
business upon credit, so long as you feel you have never
abused it, or intend to do ; so long as you are conscious
that you are worthy of it, and intend to be ; so long as you
feel that it is a benefit, not only to yourself, but to those
who bestow it. You occupy a good position, a proud
position, one that will afford you as much pleasure as
you are ever likely to know, throughout your entire busi-
ness career, and while the man who is constantly straining
his credit to the utmost limits, and ever calling give!
give ! has it continued with doubt, if indeed it is not
curtailed or stopped, yours will be increased, as your
business requires its expansion, and that to the mutual
advantage of your creditors and yourself.

When the crisis comes, and when men who have much
at stake look over their assets, and as name after name
passes under their eye, the question is not so much what a
man has, but what he is ; not what his means, but what his
character. Is he truthful? Will he equivocate? Will his as-
sets be found to be the property of his father-in-law, or
of some creditor trumped up for the occasion ? or will he
be one who has nothing to hide, but will be found on that,
as upon every other occasion, clear as the noon day ?

This carefulness, while it will inspire you with forti-

! i

i I

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

tude, will lead you to avoid all speculations ; will lead
you to be satisfied that at nothing will you make so much,
or do so well, as at your own business. A miner sometimes
stumbles upon an immense nugget of gold, or one may
find a diamond of enormous value ; but that the value of
either gold or diamonds are not affected by such occurren-
ces, is good evidence that they are but accidental. So with
speculation ; one man in ten thousand, reckless enough to
employ in some wild enterprise the means entrusted to
him for his business, may come out safe ; but where he
does, more than one thousand will fail. The young man
who, in Wilmington, not long since, helped a feeble old
man over a street-crossing, was engaged in active business ;
that act was but the outcropping of his own goodness of
heart. Soon after he found himself very unexpectedly
remembered in the old man's will to the extent of Forty
Thousand Dollars. He had already found his reward
by contributing to the old man's comfort ; the legacy was
an unexpected reward, though not a richer one than the
other. But the young men who make it their business to
wait at street crossings to help feeble old men over, that
they may be remembered by them in their wills to the
extent of Forty Thousand Dollars, will have to wait a
very long time — as they deserve to do.

This carefulness will lead you statedly to take your

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

stock and balance your books. Which of us would feel
safe with a captain who neglected taking his daily obser-
vations ; nor with such a captain would we be surprised
to find ourselves among the breakers. You may regard
it as a safe rule that the man who does not take some
method of periodically ascertaining his position, is not
likely to make a successful business man.

This carefulness will lead you judiciously and con-
stantly to insure your property. It is simply amazing
how many men are ruined by the neglect of this simple
matter; not in territily desolating fires merely, but in
fires which happen throughout the year in our towns,
villages and cross-roads. Men who obtain a credit should
feel it to be a duty incumbent upon them to insure their
property against loss by fire. This carefulness leads
many to insure their lives. The husbanding of the means
for the payment of the premiums is itself a discipline of
the most healthful character to every beginner, while the
thought that he does this to promote the welfare of those
he may leave behind him, and to make his creditors yet
more safe, enables him with a lighter heart and a firmer
purpose to push his business.

lur

This carefulness will make you cheerful. Many a
man has failed in business through his manner ; has been

mmm

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

li' s_

unconscious of the cause, and had no friend honest enough
to tell him the truth. A man who has a monopoly of a
commodity which people want, and must have, and
which they can obtain only from him, may be as gruff,
and as uncouth and as surly as he pleases, without affect-
ing his income. But where men have to deal in com-
modities the very same as hundreds of competitors have
to offer, bought as well, held in quantities as large and
qualities as good, they will go to the man whose face
has the most sunshine and who serves them most plea-
santly. And you cannot blame them. There are some
men, and good men too, and honest men, yet they pass
through life as though no pleasant sunbeam had ever
shed its soft light across their countenance, and who
have never learnt the important lesson, that true suavity
of manner is an important element in a man's business
success.

A Rothschild or a Baring may assume a stiffness or
an indifference of manner without injury to themselves,
which would simply be fatal to any young man who had
his business to make. To one of the Rothschilds a
Gemian prince brought letters of credit ; he was shown
into the inner room of the famous banker, whom he
found busy with a heap of papers. On his name being
announced the banker nodded, offered his visitor a chair,

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

. 59

and went on with his work. The prince, who felt that
everything should give way to one of his rank and dig-
nity, was not prepared for this treatment, and, standing,
said, " Did you not hear, sir, who I am ]" repeating his
titles. " Oh ! very well," said Rothschild, " take two
chairs then." Until you become a Rothschild or a
Baring, a little more attention will be expected on the
part of those who bring letters of credit to you ; and
you never will become either the one or the other, nor
will you ever be possessed of the means or influence of
many men found in grades far below such commercial
giants, unless you impress the mind, not of a prince
merely, but of your humblest patron (who may one day
become a prince), that, in doing business with you, he
confers as great a favour upon you as you can possibly
confer upon him. Whatever a man's position, it costs
little to be courteous to all. The constant exercise of
this quality will minister immensely to his own happiness
in passing through life, while it will greatly contribute to
the happiness of others.

As soon as you can afford it (not before), get mar-
ried. No companion can be so helpful to you in every
respect as a good wife. No spot in this world should
have such attractions for you as your own home, made
comfortable by your own industry, and gladdened by
the smiles of those who love you.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Young men should marry as early as circumstances
will warrant, as one of the best means of saving them
from numberless snares, and securing their happiness and
prosperity. Marry in your own station ; don't wait until
you have amassed a fortune, that you may look for the
hand of some Nabob's daughter, possibly to be refused ;
when the sympathies of youth no longer remain, and
when such a marriage, even if practicable, could be but
one of policy or convenience. You can always find
among your own friends those quite as good as yourself,
and whose sympathies and associations, being like your
own, afford the best evidence that your life will be a
happy one. It is as true to-day as it was when written
by the wise man, that " Whoso findeth a wife findeth a
good thing." — Prov. xviii. 22.

Be enthusiastic. From the moment of your begin-
ning, let your motto \>t forward! Be determined to be
successful, or the probabilities are you will fail. Inspire
every one about you, as far as that is possible, with your
own earnestness, cheerfulness and truthfulness. Place
every man in your employment in the position for which
he is best fitted. Keep no drones about you ; have no
unfaithful men about you ; no eye-servants who, though
making their bread from your business, are neither true
to its interests nor to you.

BUSINESS SUCCKSS.

Be the mainspring of your own business, the con-
trolling and directing power which keeps the whole in
constant and harmonious motion ; impress every one
around you that you are a thorough master of your own
business, able to guide your vessel in the tempest as in
the calm ; that difficulties but inspire you with greater
earnestness to achieve greater results. Take an interest
in every one in your employment ; an interest in their
comfort, welfare and happiness. Give them your confi-
dence ; don't suffer faithful services to go unrewarded.
In addition to what you promise to pay them, let them
feel that they, as well as you, have a direct pecuniary
interest in the development and extension of your busi-
ness, and that the more they are able to make for you
the more will they make for themselves.

Advertise your business. Better, however, a hun-
dred times, never do so, than do it untruthfully. If it
be true that not more than five men out of every hundred
succeed, make up your mind to be one of them, if but
one of that five, take the highest commercial position ;
try for it. Do not expect to escape without detractors.
There never was a successful man, and there never will
be, who had not and who will not have his enemies.
The envious will look on and say, with apparent sin-
cerity, that they hope this will not end in disaster, while

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

nothing would give them more pleasiire'than your failure.
There will be those who, while speaking fairly to your
face, would damage your credit if they could. But there
is a power in the really earnest, progressive man, which
bears down the combined assaults of envious and spiteful
men. Never mind 'them; go on. What though they
call you mean, as perhaps they will ; over-reaching and
unprin(M"pled, as possibly they may ; go on, extend your
business upon sound and honourable principles, and
every hour you will increase the distance between your-
self and your traducers ; and as you go up, they will go
down. Keep wisely extending your business, making
all you can ; and, as you do so, giving all you can.
Undertake nothing upon which you cannot ask Ood's
blessing ; do not forget that it is His blessing alone
which maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow ; and do not
forget that all who seek success without it — however
large their business, or numerous their friends — will find
that, for all their toil and care, they have but gathered
for this world and the next, " Sadly at iasi, nothing but
leaves y

So conducting your business, you will have litt^
fear from the crisis ; for although it is certnin to
ruin to thousands, it is almost equally cert: .o L»e t
you. The crisis either makes or mars a man. '' i'he

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

crisis of 1837, which brought ruin upon so many thou-
sands, made George Peabody. Three-fourths of all the
banks in the United States fell with a terrible crash ;
thousands of prosperous traders were ruined ; credit for
the time paralyzed ; American securities were worthless.
Amid all this upheaving, Peabody stood firm. In the
parlour of the Bank of England, where not half a-dozen
men in the kingdom would have been listened to on
American matters, his judgment commanded respect ;
his integrity won back confidence in the securities of his
country. That day, so dark to so many,- was the begin-
ning of his greatness, placed him at once in the foremost
rank of merchant princes, gave him unbounded credit,
and ultimately a world-wide reputation ; led to that
splendid career familiar now to every school-boy, to the
amassing of a princely fortune ; to the founding of a noble
charity, which finds homes for the poor of London
without making them paupers — which ministers to their
comfort without causing them to sink their independence ;
and whose name would have lived throughout all time,
even without the statue erected at the Royal Exchange
to perpetuate his memory. " Show me a man diligent in

business, he will stand before kings, and not before
mean men."

Do not be frightened at difficulties ; do not let
disasters overwhelm you.

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

I I

The history of the Allan Steamship Company is
part of our country's history. A Canadian line seemed
not only a desirable undertaking, but one urgently de-
manded by the growing trade of the country. Such a
line the Allan Company undertook, and gave it their
name. Disaster seemed to attend all its early efforts ;
ever and anon came the tidings of the loss of well-built
ships, and not of ships only, but of brave men ; and
then came sadder, stories still, where ships went down
and none were left to tell the tale. Yet the Company
went on ; some predicted their failure, perhaps wished it ;
others said the subsidy ought to be withdrawn, and would
have withdrawn it, if they could. Yet the Company went
on. Ordinary men would not only have quailed before
losses less overwhelming, but sank under them. Yet
the Company went on ; it wa'" their crisis, and it made
them ; they learnt lessons from disaster, and benefitted by
them ; improved their steamships, their discipline and
management ; so perfected their entire system, that their
fleet of steamships to-day is as large, as safe and as skil-
fully managed as any line in the world ; while the men
themselves are living examples of what can be accom-
plished by the pluck that refuses to be daunted, and the
energy which knows no tiring. Nor is it at all unlikely
that those of our Canadian youth, who exhibit like energy
and produce like results, may be honoured with marks of

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

royal favour such as those bestowed on the founder of that
Company, which not even the envious can grudge, and
which all right thinking men will say have been well
deserved.

Another illustration, and we have done. No disaster
ever fell upon people, during the century, equal to that
which fell upon the people of Chicago on the 9th of
October of last year. Never did a people in any land rise
above disaster with more commendable energy. The
burned area extended over two thousand one hun-
dred and twenty-four acres, or nearly three and half
s(iuare miles ; seventeen thousand/our hundred and fifty
buildings were destroyed; ninety-eight thousand five hun-
dred people were rendered homeless ; two hundred and
fifty perished in the flames : property amounting to six
hundred and twenty millions of dollars was destroyed.
To form some idea of the extent of this disaster you
may fancy every building in this city swept away, and add
to it another city of moderate size. Imagine every man,
woman and child in Toronto, Hamilton and Kingston^
and nearly three thousand more belonging to some other
city, shivering beside the smouldering remains of their
dwellings, the homes once not of comfort only, but of
opulence; not homeless merely, but destitute of food,
clothing and means. Imagine the entire wealth of this

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

city swept away in a few hours by the devouring flames,
then multiply that twenty fold, and you will have some
idea of the desolation and ruin caused by that terrible con-
flagration. And then if you were told that that vast
company, stripped of all earthly goods, rose up after that
night of desolation with a calm settled confidence,
with an energy which, appearing to be more than human,
refused to be stilled, and which seemed to defy disaster
even so appalling. If you were told that such men went
forth, with glad trustful hearts, to begin anew life's battle,
full of life and full of hope, determined to make their
cities of the future greater far than their cities of the
past, the whole would appear to you but as some wild
fairy tale which you would find it impossible to believe ;
yet all this the people of Chicago did.

I
1

Four weeks after the fire, and ere its smoke had
fully cleared away, the Chicago Tribune had this article :
" We are once more on our feet ; we have not much
to otter in the way of sliow, architecture, or plate glass.
We do not wear good clothes, we are decidedly shabby ;
but we have within us an abundance of the same stuff
that made the first Chicago a great city. Our credit in all
the markets of the world is unimpaired ; our geographi-
cal position the same as it was before the fire ; we have
as many railways as before ; as many trains running on

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

them, and all heavily laden ; we have the money in hand
to pay the interest on our city debt ; to rebuild our
burned bridges and our public offices ; we have faith in
God and a heart full of gratitude to the whole world for
its timely assistance in the hour of our calamity, and now
we start again to achieve honourable distinction among
American cities, a trifle crippled, a little hurt, somewhat
untidy in outward seeming ; but still, with unconquered
souls."

That these were not boastful utterances, but the lan-
guage of men of calm, resolute, settled purpose, may be
gathered from what has actually taken place. On the
1 8th March, just five months after that desolating fire, the
Chicago Times had this article :

" Animation, confidence, prosperity, were the char-
acteristics of the week just closed. On every hand, in
every channel of trade there was a glow of life which
seemed to bid defiance to the disasters of the past. Even
the ruins were all aglow with life, and in each and every
block of the new Chicago, the merry ring of hammer
and trowel kept time to the movement of merchandize
from buildings yet scarcely completed. To-day her trade
is more expansive, her profits larger, her prospects
brighter, than at any other period of her history. The

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

millions of property swept away in the fire are things
of the past and ahiiost forgotten, and ere the year is old,
will, through the rapid strides of trade, be nearly or quite
recovered."

ai i^

We might have called your attention to the history
of those who became renowned as business men, whose
characters pure, grand and lofty, might be presented to
you as models in every way worthy of your imitation.
We have chosen rather to call your attention to those
principles which formed the foundation of their greatness.
We have done this because the humblest one in this as-
sembly may adopt them; and, practising them, must be
successful. There are none here who cannot be noble,
virtuous, and true ; none who need be either idle or
slothful. Each one may be fired with a lofty ambition to
improve his own condition and minister to the good of
his fellows. Influenced by the principles which have made
our great men great, you will be successful. Yours may
not be a renown as great as that of Peabody. You may
never have the large means, or the large heart, or the large
sphere of the great and good Henry Thornton, of whom
Wilberforce said t'^ Hannah More ; " If you undertake
the work of reclaiming and clothing the neglected, I will
find the means, for I have a rich banker in London,
Mr. H. Thornton, whom I cannot oblige so much as in

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

drawing upon him for such purposes." But if your sphere
should not be so large, you will find one ample enough
for the profitable employment of your energies, and if
your wealth should not be so great, you will have all you
need for yourself and others. You cannot all be Wilber-
forces, or Thorntons, or Peabodys, but you may all be
successful. Your future is before you, and it is for you
to make it just what you please. In this Dominion you
will find a field large enough to task your ability, with
rewards abundant enough to recompense you for your
toil. You can be the founder of your own business and of
your own fortune. It may be yours to take many a
brother by the hand in whom you find <iualities worthy of
encouragement, and help him to shape his future. It
may be yours to stand by many a deserving business
man in the hour of trial, who but for such assistance would
be involved in ruin. Yours to roll away the reproach
which unprincipled men bring upon trade. Yours to have
made the world better for your having been in business,
yours to leave behind you an imperishable memory, and
to have your name inscribed upon that distinguished
scroll of your country, upon which is wriucn the names of
its great, its good, and its successful men. And away down
through the long future, in many of our Canadian homes
as boys through the long winter evenings, gather around
the cheerful hearth to hear the stories of those who from

BUSINESS SUCCESS.

small beginnings, became great, and useful and good,
the story of your own toils, and your own triumphs,
will often be told ; and, pointing to your own honourable
and prosperous, and it may be, distinguished career, the
father will tell his boys that if they would be successful as
you were, they must battle like you.

id good,
riumphs,
tiourable
reer, the
lessful as