CHAPTER XX.

Instances of success in Ontario--A thrifty wood-chopper turns cattle dealer--Possesses land and money--Two brothers from Ireland; their mercantile success--The record of thirty years--Another instance--A travelling dealer turns farmer--Instance of a thriving Scotsman--The way to meet trouble--The fate of Shylocks and their descendants.

To show the possibilities to be accomplished in Ontario, I purpose to cite some instances coming under my own observation of Ontarians who have succeeded. I take the ground, that the opportunities are as great, if not greater, in this Ontario of ours, for persons to achieve success, as in any part of the world. Certainly the Old World presents no such field for successful operations, and the only possible parallel can be found in some of the neighboring States.

Of the two I would certainly give Ontario the preference, for most of those who have risen in the United States were in some way helped by their parents and friends, whereas our successful men have invariably risen from no beginnings at all, as our country emerged from the forest.

Now for some instances of success: About twenty-three years ago, one who could not read came to this part of Ontario, possessing not one dollar, nor had a friend in America, but had come over from Ireland a few years previously quite alone, in order to better his condition. He began by chopping wood by the cord. Saving enough thereby, he bought a team, and then bought wood by the lump and hauled it to town to sell. Then he bought a wood lot, and proceeded to haul the cord-wood from it, which he sold to manufacturers in the towns. After a time he got his lot cleared of the wood, and put fall wheat on it, seeding the land down to clover and timothy at the same time. The next season he had unlimited quantities of grass for stock, and hay for wintering them. Then he went around the country and bought up cattle in droves, and put them on this grass. As soon as they were in condition these cattle were sold off for the Montreal market, for we had not at this time begun the business of shipping cattle to England. It is needless to add that he always bought his lean cattle at the very lowest possible figure. If some poor fellow, no matter how distant, was obliged to part with his stock by a forced sale, this man would be on hand, and invariably secure it. This cattle business coined money for him. Where he got his knowledge of the cattle business I am unable to say, but unlettered as he was, and unable even to write his own name, he seemed to take in all knowledge intuitively, as it were. In a word he seemed to drink in knowledge as a sponge takes up moisture. He could often be seen standing listening to groups of men who were talking, saying but little himself, but treasuring up every word dropped by them. The original wood lot was added to by another, which in its turn became a gold mine to him by the sale of its wood. This in its turn was cleared and seeded down to grass, as the first one was, and cattle placed on it as well.

Soon the first cleared lands became arable, and he then ploughed up the virgin soil, and began raising barley and peas. Invariably his crops turned out extremely well, which gave him funds to buy still another wood lot. And so the process went on. Should a lot of lean cattle come into the Toronto market in the fall, unfit for butchers’ use, our successful man, always with one eye looking to the east, while the other looked to the west, scented the bargain afar off, and came and secured the lot.

Without making repetitions, I will dismiss this man by saying that, a few years ago, before he divided his land among his sons, he was the absolute owner of 700 acres of land, and possessed besides an enormous stock of cattle, horses, and farming appliances generally, and was then easily worth $80,000--in twenty years he had made $80,000 from nothing in Ontario. This fact needs no comment. It shows the possibilities of our Ontario, and for a solid gain, without gambling, but property made to keep, I think I can safely defy the world to beat the record.

The next example I am going to relate is of success achieved in a totally different field, but wholly the growth of Ontarians, and it can be justly cited.

Two brothers came out from Ireland about thirty-five years ago. They possessed a good education, which is all they did possess besides the clothes upon their backs. Each got a situation as clerk in dry goods stores in one of our cities. By dint of close saving and strict attention to business, they were able after ten years to start a store on their own account. In this store they did all their work, and if there was any profit in storekeeping they got paid for it. After a few years they opened out branch stores in smaller Ontario towns, and these branches invariably succeeded and the profits were good. Their credit now had become assured, and buying mostly for cash, with their high credit they were able to buy at the lowest possible figure. The war broke out in the States about this time in my story of these men. The United States money went down a long way below par, but for some time their goods did not rise to keep pace with their depreciated currency. Our men bought largely in the United States and sent over their gold drafts, which were sold at a great premium, and thus their goods were placed upon their shelves at ridiculously low figures.

In boots and shoes, of which they bought enormous quantities, they doubled their money on every invoice. Without pursuing this narrative further, it is just as well to say that as the war went on and the equilibrium came about in the price of goods in the United States, and the depreciated currency got in sympathy, these men found themselves with thousands of available funds on hand.

Into manufacturing they then entered. In this new branch the same painstaking and foresight which gained them success in storekeeping made the wheels of the manufactories revolve to their profit. Year by year their manufacturing operations succeeded, and they found themselves the possessors of more capital than their manufacturing operations required. Next they became bankers, and again in this new line the old business habits of constant care, watchfulness and keen oversight, wrested success from the business. Their manufacturing operations they still kept on in connection with their banking business.

Success so phenomenal pointed out the principals as sound, far-seeing men, and we next find each brother the president of a bank and their financial position fully assured. During this series of years they have found time to take a relaxation now and again by trips to Europe, besides holding municipal offices among the people where they reside. I am not in a position to tell for a certainty of the wealth of these brothers at this time, but it is conceded by all who know them to be in the hundreds of thousands.

This has all been done in thirty years in Ontario, and done fairly and honestly. They have never gambled, nor taken chances, but always done a square, legitimate business, open to the closest scrutiny. If those persons in our country who are railing at capitalists will stop and read this narrative, they must see that these persons have a moral as well as a legal right to their capital, and it is to the glory of our Ontario that they have made it and possess it. Indeed these men worked and saved and lived close until they made their start, and they surely have a right to it.

All capital in Ontario was acquired by closeness and saving, for very few persons in Ontario brought much money into the country. The capital, in fact, has been created here by just such saving and downright hard work as these men did. What is true in the case of these men is invariably true in the case of others who have succeeded in becoming capitalists in Ontario. I hope this narrative may be in somewise an incentive to others to try and do likewise in their own particular calling.

A young New England lad began about forty years ago selling goods through Ontario from a waggon. His employer furnished the horses and waggon. Every working day through rain and snow found this young man on the road. No storms, nor floods, nor cold snaps deterred him, but every day he did business for his employer, and weekly he made up his balance sheets, and remitted to his employer his weekly sales.

His salary he saved, every cent of it, reserving for himself only enough for the strong serviceable clothing he wore. He got an interest in the business in a few years, or sold the goods on commission. The knowledge he had gained while selling before for his employer at a salary enabled him as he grew older to increase his sales, and likewise his profits. Daily he plodded on, never for a moment swerving from the path of duty, and as in the instances before narrated, such application has only one result--and that is success. Success he certainly did have, and at the age of twenty-five this young man found himself the absolute owner of $10,000.

He then became a farmer. Here, as in the selling of goods, the same perseverance which succeeded before caused success now. In his farming he succeeded. His harvest was always got in first in the neighborhood, and his plough was soonest after the harvest dancing through the fields making the next crop a certainty. It is almost a pity that so good a farmer as this young man was was debarred from farming. His wife’s health failed, however, and he found it necessary to get nearer a town, where she might have better medical care, and so he sold out his farm. From a farmer he became a manufacturer. In this new calling he masters every detail of his business. He is at his work early and late, and daily does more downright hard work than any man in his employ. Gradually his works are added to, and his shop becomes known throughout the length and breadth of our land. Seasons of adversity are guarded against, for he always keeps an eye to the future. In fact, a panic can scarcely strike him. Cash he pays for his stock, and his position becomes so strong that he feels he really knows his ground and is fully master of his business. Capital gathers; it is the same story I have to tell as in the former instances. Such work, plodding and oversight cannot fail to bring accumulated capital. There is no other way to get it so that it will stick. Of course, we have the examples of stock-gambling, but who will pretend to assert that capital by stock-jobbing ever does stick? And now this manufacturer, having made capital, becomes a banker. His banking operations, in the hands of a man who has literally carved his own fortune, cannot fail to be a success. A millowner he next becomes besides a manufacturer and a banker, and about as busy a man as Ontario can produce to-day. Daily he is on the move, early and late he is at his post, and every wheel is well oiled and runs smoothly. Such men are a positive benefit as well as an ornament to our young country. $300,000 he has made in thirty-five years, that being his present wealth, which is conceded by all who know him. Recollect, he began as a lad, fresh from a New England common school, and has literally made himself.

A Scotsman came to Canada about forty years ago, with nothing but his hands to help himself. He had been used to farming at home, and here he hired himself out to a farmer. Year after year he toiled on, worked and saved. In about fifteen years he found that he had saved enough to buy and pay cash for a farm. You, no doubt, reader, think it a long time to work for the first start, but just wait and see what he did when he got a start. He marries his employer’s daughter and sets up farming for himself. If he was a good hired man, he was equally good as a boss, and his farm began to bloom and season after season to look neater. Keeping right on, even with the low prices which he then got for his grain, he added to his farm until he owned absolutely and farmed 150 acres of Ontario’s best lands. Now he is on the high road to success, but the big Scotch heart within him went out to his father-in-law, and this came near being his ruin. His father-in-law had been a wealthy man, but became involved, and the son-in-law endorsed for the father-in-law for a sum as great as his land was then worth. It is only the old history of such endorsations to repeat: the endorser had to pay, of course. The father-in-law failed, leaving the young man almost penniless. Neighbors, not of the sterling stuff he was made of, advised him to sell his stock, because that was not mortgaged, and take the money and run away.

“I will pay every cent,” said the honest Scot, “only give me time.” Away he went to the holders of the notes, and plainly and squarely told them that he could not pay them now, but if they would wait he would pay them every cent.

“Then you are not going to run away?”

“Never! I will work it all out in a little while if you will only wait.”

And wait they did.

The merchants with whom he dealt, knowing the sterling qualities of the man, came forward and told him that he should have anything he wanted. And he bared his arms, went to work, and gradually paid off every dollar of his indebtedness, and stuck to his home when those who counselled him to run away had lost their homes and gone away west. He buys another farm, and with its aid, and the old farm as well, pays for it in a few seasons. A palatial home he erects, and his farm becomes one of the best cultivated in the locality. Now, had this man not been known as a man of sterling integrity, his property must have been all taken from him when those notes became due. But being so favorably regarded, he got the chance which put him on his feet again. His character stood him in good stead, for his merchants having lands they had taken for debts, offered them to our Scot on favorable terms, with easy terms of payment, and the Scot finds himself the absolute owner of five hundred acres of first-class land, besides money at his credit in the banks, and a large farm stock at home. In thirty-five years this penniless Scot makes about $70,000, after the reverses he had suffered from his large-heartedness. Money honestly, fairly acquired, a respected member of the community all the time, a man whose word no one dare impugn, manifestly his course was far better than if he had run away, and it is probable had he run away in his adversity that to-day he would have been in very moderate circumstances. Again, I doubt if any country in this world shows better possibilities than Ontario does for a man to rise. And these are not particularly isolated instances. Many more I might cite of what may be achieved in this glorious Ontario of ours.

Before drawing this chapter to a close, I wish to speak of one more class of Ontario persons, whom I never recollect to have seen mentioned in print before, and these are the Ontario Shylocks. Usually these persons came from the British Isles, mainly from England, fifty years or so ago. They would ordinarily be younger sons of a good family, and not being able to inherit much under the British law of primogeniture, took their one thousand sovereigns or so, and came to Canada. Arriving here at that early day, and there being but little money in the country, their cash commanded large rates of interest. At first they lent their money at 15 per cent, or so, and were for a time satisfied. But as time wore on, the greed of inordinate gain gained upon them, and they began to demand a bonus of 10 per cent, beside their 15 per cent, interest. Getting on in this way, it is almost superfluous to add that they soon doubled and trebled their means. Was some unfortunate settler unable to pay at the appointed time, an additional bonus of 10 per cent or so would satisfy the lender. Lands he would not acquire, for they would never be valuable, he thought, and nothing was worth anything but money. The consequence was that these Shylocks became wealthy. But I almost defy any reader to fix upon any such person to-day, or the family of such a person, who are worth anything now. It appears according to the eternal fitness of things that money so got by extortion does not stick. A Temperance Society of England offers a prize of one hundred guineas to any one who will trace money down to the third generation, got by the sale of liquors. But here in Ontario we do not need to go down further than the second generation to find that money got by extortion does not stick. To-day those very settlers who paid the 15 per cent. interest and a bonus besides, and kept their lands, are still at the fore, and their descendants will inherit many broad acres.