Chapter 10

At that time it was the boy's intention to become a clergyman, and partly in preparation for such a calling, he became a member of the Young Men's Christian Association. A remark made by one of its members was responsible for the change in his intentions, for he intimated to young Wanamaker that if he worked as hard for himself as he did for the association he would become a rich man. Acting on this advice, the boy obtained a situation as stock clerk in a large clothing establishment.

After passing successively through the various grades of clerks and salesmen, he finally formed a partnership with his brother-in-law to go into the clothing trade. Their joint capital was thirty-five hundred dollars. On the first day the firm did a business of twenty-four dollars and sixty-seven cents, and for the year, twenty-four thousand dollars. But although year after year the business increased, Wanamaker never lost interest in religious gatherings. Among other things, he founded a Sabbath-school, which, commencing with only twenty-seven pupils, has grown into the Bethany of to-day, with its several thousand members.

Always abstemious in his way of living and credited with many acts of generosity, it is related that one day, on being requested for the story of his life, Mr. Wanamaker replied:

"Thinking, trying, toiling, and trusting--in those four words you have all of my biography."

AN OIL KING'S START.

Massachusetts Newsboy Gets an Attack of Wanderlust and Finds Fortune in Pennsylvania Wells.

H.H. Rogers, future master builder of industrial organizations, did odd chores for the neighbors, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, when a boy, and earned on the average fifty cents a week. His first step in real business was when he established a news route of forty-seven subscribers for the New Bedford _Standard_. In one week he doubled the number and struck for seventy-five cents more a week than the seventy-five cents he was receiving. This was granted and he also got an increased commission on new subscribers. A few months in a grocery store completed his Fairhaven business experience, and then, with Charles Ellis, a schoolfellow, he went to the Pennsylvania oil fields to make his fortune. Each had about two hundred dollars and they started in the refining business. It did not go the way Rogers wished, so he said to Ellis:

"Look here, I am going to learn the oil business. You run the office."

Rogers put on overalls and went to work at the pumps and stills. He was there early and late, working at everything, investigating, getting a grip on every detail, learning how the business could be run on the most economical basis and at the same time give the best quality of product. When he returned to office work the organization of the Standard Oil was under way. It was the knowledge he had gained at the stills that enabled him to figure down the cost of production to the fraction of a cent. It was he, also, who was the leading factor in the elimination of competition.

CAME BACK FOR MORE.

Financier Who Retired from Business at Forty Assumes Direction of Great Railroad at Fifty-Seven.

Alexander Johnston Cassatt retired independently wealthy at the age of forty, and seventeen years later he returned to dominate one of the largest railroads in the country. He was born in Pittsburgh. Though poor, his parents gave him a good education. He became a civil engineer, and the first work he got to do was on a road being built in Georgia. He remained in the South two years, but on the breaking out of the Civil War he returned North, and entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Cassatt's ability won rapid promotion. In nine years he built new roads, reorganized the company's shops, and improved the construction of cars and locomotives. Then, when he was thirty-one years old, the position of general manager was created for him.

One of the first things he did in this position was to introduce the air-brake, which at that time received scant encouragement from railroad men. Cassatt was told that it was useless. His experiments cost thousands of dollars, but they established the practicability of the air-brake.

It was Cassatt also who developed the idea of combining individual roads into one great system. In 1872 he executed a grand coup and purchased for the Pennsylvania the controlling stock of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Road, a line the Baltimore and Ohio people had tried to obtain. It took Cassatt one night to engineer the deal, and in payment for the stock a check for $14,549,052.20 was drawn--up to that time the largest on record.

Cassatt was first vice-president of the road when he withdrew in 1882, and for seventeen years he remained out of railroad affairs. When he returned it was as president of the Pennsylvania system, a position he still holds.

A "YELLOW JOURNAL" GLOSSARY.

This Sort of Language Doesn't Wear Any Dictionary Harness, So It Has to Be Put in a Class by Itself, and Made the Subject of Special Study.

One of the characteristics of the "yellow journal" is that while it usually says what it means, it does not always mean just what it says. It has a system of phraseology that is peculiar to itself, and one who would read it intelligently must familiarize himself with the idiosyncrasies of "yellow" expression. Some of these idiosyncrasies have been carefully collected by the New York _Sun_:

PRETTY GIRL--Any unmarried human female less than thirty-five years old who gets into the news.

SOCIETY MATRON--Any married woman, from a bartender's wife up through the social grades, who gets into the news.

SOCIETY GIRL--Synonymous with "pretty girl." See above.

NOT EXPECTED TO RECOVER--Phrase applied to the condition of all persons injured in course of news story.

PROMINENT YALE GRADUATE--Any one wearing a boiled shirt, arrested for anything above a misdemeanor.

MULTIMILLIONAIRE--Person possessed of property worth fifty thousand dollars or over, or a relative of a person listed in the _Social Register_. Up to three years ago "millionaire" was used in the same sense.

THIRTY-TWO CALIBER, PEARL HANDLED--Phrase which must always be attached to the noun "revolver," unless otherwise ordered.

TOT--Any child under seven. In a pathetic story the adjective "tiny" must always be prefixed.

PLUCKY WOMAN--Any woman who did not scream.

HEROINE--Principal female character in any burglary story. Otherwise synonymous with "plucky woman," q.v.

PROMINENT CLUBMAN--Any bachelor leasing apartments at thirty dollars a month and upward. Also members of the Paul Kelley and Timothy D. Sullivan associations who happen to be arrested while wearing dress suits.

FATALLY INJURED--See "not expected to recover," above.

FASHIONABLE APARTMENT HOUSE--Any dwelling which has an elevator.

TODDLE--Verb applied to the walk of a tiny tot. See under "tot" for correct usage.

WELL DRESSED--Phrase always applied to a woman who, when arrested, is comparatively clean. Must be used in a story about a prominent clubman, q.v. as above.

SNUG SUM--Money.

RAFFLES--Any thief who wears a collar.

CRISP FIVE-DOLLAR BILL--Five dollars.

COZY.--Adjective always applied to home to which the remains are taken.

WUZ--Synonymous with "was," but indicates dialect.

HURLED--Motion of passengers, cars, and cabs at the time of the accident.

FAINT--Course taken by all the women within six blocks of the accident.

SCREAM--See "faint," above.

DASH--Gait of the crowd at the time of the accident. "Rush" is synonymous. "Run" is not good usage.

HEIR--Child having three hundred dollars coming to him from a life insurance policy.

RING OUT--What shots always do.

HURTLE--Verb used of motion of any falling object, especially a brick or a suicide.

HAVOC--Good word to use almost anywhere.

HIGH--Adjective which must be prefixed to noun "noon" in the account of a fashionable wedding.

SLAY--Synonymous with obsolete verb "kill."

JUGGLE--What is always done with the funds of a bank or trust company.

COLLEGE GIRL--Any woman who has ever gone to school.

BANDIT--Person guilty of crime against property for which the penalty is more than ten days in jail.

BURLY--Adjective always applied to a male negro.

PROMINENT--Descriptive adjective applied to farmers, plumbers, and dentists.

BOUDOIR--Any bedroom the rent of which is more than one dollar and a half a week.

GLOBE TROTTER--Any one who has been to Hohokus, N.J., Kittery, Me., or Peru, Ind.

GEMS--Personal ornaments worth more than one dollar and seventy-five cents.

GRAVE, GAY, AND EPIGRAMMATIC.

THE PIPE THAT FAILED.

This story is told about ex-Senator J. S. Clark, of Calais, Maine: One day, while awaiting his turn in a barber-shop in Calais, he was talking with a friend, and was so deeply interested in the conversation that he allowed his pipe to go out several times. Each time he would ask Melvin Noble, a local practical joker, for a match.

About the time he wanted the fifth match, Noble said: "I don't begrudge you the matches, Jed, but I think it would be cheaper for you to put a grate in your pipe and burn coal."--_Boston Herald._

ANCIENT, BUT IT GOES.

Feebles (about to be operated upon for appendicitis)--Doctor, before you begin, I wish you would send and have our pastor, the Rev. Mr. Blank, come over.

Dr. Sawem--Certainly, if you wish it, but--ah----

Feebles--I'd like to be opened with prayer.--_Exchange._

RILEY'S RYE PATCH.

Whitcomb Riley was looking over a fence on his farm at a field of rye, when a neighbor who was driving by stopped his horse and asked:

"Hullo, Mr. Riley, how's your rye doing?"

"Fine, fine," replied the poet.

"How much do you expect to clear to the acre?"

"Oh, about four gallons," answered Mr. Riley, soberly.--_Success._

IN A SHOE STORE.

"Have you felt slippers, sir?" she said.

The boy clerk blushed and scratched his head.

Then, smiling back, he found his tongue:

"I felt 'em often when I was young."

_Boston Herald._

AT NAPOLEON'S TOMB.

Henry Vignaud, secretary of the American embassy at Paris, enjoys telling of an American who was being shown the tomb of Napoleon. As the loquacious guide referred to the various points of interest in connection with the tomb, the American paid the greatest attention to all that was said.

"This immense sarcophagus," declaimed the guide, "weighs forty tons. Inside of that, sir, is a steel receptacle weighing twelve tons, and inside of that is a leaden casket, hermetically sealed, weighing over two tons. Inside of that rests a mahogany coffin containing the remains of the great man."

For a moment the American was silent, as if in deep meditation. Then he said:

"It seems to me that you've got him all right. If he ever gets out, cable me at my expense."--_Success._

THE OTHER SIDE.

"Did you ever get into Brown's confidence?"

"Oh, yes; it was costly, too."

"What was costly?"

"To get out."--_Yonkers Herald._

TIPS FOR AUTHORS.

An author wrote a little book, Which started quite a quarrel; The folk who read it frowned on it And said it was immoral.

They bade him write a proper screed, He said that he would try it; He did. They found no fault with it, And neither did they buy it.

_Washington Evening Star._

HIS IMPOLITE QUERY.

"Women claim that the way to get on with a man is to give him plenty of nicely cooked food."

"Well," answered Mr. Sirius Barker, irritably, "why don't some of them try it?"--_Washington Star._

ARTEMUS WARD'S ADVICE.

A certain Southern railroad was in a wretched condition, and the trains were consequently run at a phenomenally low rate of speed. When the conductor was punching his ticket, the late Artemus Ward, who was one of the passengers, remarked:

"Does this railroad company allow passengers to give it advice, if they do so in a respectful manner?"

The conductor replied in gruff tones that he guessed so.

"Well," Artemus went on, "it occurred to me that it would be well to detach the cowcatcher from the front of the engine and hitch it to the rear of the train; for, you see, we are not liable to overtake a cow, but what's to prevent a cow from strolling into this car and biting a passenger?"--_Boston Herald._

LOST.

Legends of the absent-minded savant are legion, but the following, told of a well-known Ph.D. of this city, perhaps touches the climax:

One of the charwomen in the temple of learning with which he is associated choked on a pin she had put in her mouth as she went about her work. Rushing up to Professor Blank's sanctum she burst in through the door without the formality of a knock.

"Professor, oh, professor!" she panted, "I've swallowed a pin."

"Never mind," returned the professor, feeling absently about the edges of his lapel without raising his eyes from the book before him, "here's another one you can have."--_New York Times._

IT WOULD NOT "DOWN."

Nat Goodwin was much occupied in looking at the waves. As he leaned over the deck railing a young woman passenger emerged from the first-cabin saloon.

"Oh. Mr. Goodwin," she cried, "is the moon up to-night?"

"If I swallowed it, it's up," responded the actor sorrowfully.--_New York Mail._

LABORERS WERE PLENTIFUL.

An officer who served with Lord Kitchener in Egypt tells the following anecdote of him:

"During the progress of some construction work in Upper Egypt the young subaltern in charge had the misfortune to lose some native workmen through the accidental explosion of some cases of dynamite. He telegraphed to Lord Kitchener, then Sirdar:

"'Regret to report killing ten laborers by dynamite accident.'

"In a few hours came this laconic dispatch: "Do you need any more dynamite?"--_Pittsburgh Dispatch._

FEMININE ARITHMETIC.

When I was ten and you were eight, Two years between us stood, We used to meet by daddy's gate-- A stolen kiss was good.

When I was twenty--quite a boy, You still were my heart's queen, But grown of kissing somewhat coy; You see, you were sixteen!

When I was thirty, bronzed and tall, With sweethearts, too, in plenty, I met you at the Wilsons' ball-- You told me you were twenty.

I'm forty now, a little more-- Oh, Time, you ruthless bandit! But you--you're only twenty-four; I cannot understand it!

_Pearson's Weekly._

FAR IN THE FUTURE.

"Don't you ever expect to get married?" she asked.

"Well," replied the old bachelor, "I may some day. But I have been reading up on the subject and the scientists agree that if a man takes proper care of himself there is no reason why his mind should begin to fail before he is eighty at least."--_Chicago Record-Herald._

CRUSHED.

MR. W.S. Gilbert was once at the house of a wealthy but ignorant and pretentious woman. She asked Mr. Gilbert several questions about musical composers, to show that she knew all about them.

"And what about Bach?" she asked. "Is he composing nowadays?"

"No, ma'am," answered Gilbert; "he is decomposing!"--_Tit-Bits._

IN A STREET CAR.

Blodgett--You see that homely woman hanging to that strap?

Foster--How do you know she is homely? You can't see her face.

Blodgett--I can see she is hanging to a strap.--_Boston Transcript._

Poems by Dickens and Thackeray.

Verses from the Pen of Two of England's Most Celebrated Novelists.

With the notable exception of Sir Walter Scott, no writer of English novels has attained any marked distinction as a poet. But like men engaged in hundreds of other occupations, celebrated novelists have at times succumbed to the allurements of the muse, and have offered some of their thoughts to the world through the medium of verse. Among these were Dickens and Thackeray.

"The Ivy Green," by Dickens, lends grace to the "Pickwick Papers," while Thackeray's "The Church Porch" plays an interesting part in the novel "Pendennis."

THE IVY GREEN.

[Recited by the Old Clergyman at Manor Farm.]

Oh! a dainty plant is the ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. The wall must be crumbled, the stones decayed, To pleasure his dainty whim; And the moldering dust that years have made Is a merry meal for him. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the ivy green.

Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, And a stanch old heart has he; How closely he twineth, how tight he clings, To his friend the huge oak-tree! And slyly he traileth along the ground, And his leaves he gently waves, As he joyously hugs and crawleth round, The rich mold of dead men's graves. Creeping where grim death has been, A rare old plant is the ivy green.

Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed, And nations have scattered been; But the stout old ivy shall never fade From its hale and hearty green. The brave old plant in its lonely days Shall fatten upon the past: For the stateliest building man can raise Is the ivy's food at last. Creeping on where time has been, A rare old plant is the ivy green.

THE CHURCH PORCH.

[Arthur Pendennis made his entry into literature by writing these verses for Mr. Bacon's "Spring Annual." The Hon. Percy Popjoy, a regular contributor to that fashionable publication, had sent in a poem which Mr. Bacon's reader condemned as too execrable to inflict upon the public. To take its place, at George Warrington's suggestion, Pendennis was invited to turn off a copy of verses to accompany an engraving which showed a damsel entering a church porch, with a young man watching her from a near-by niche. The poem printed below was the result.]

Although I enter not, Yet round about the spot Ofttimes I hover: And near the sacred gate With longing eyes I wait, Expectant of her.

The minster bell tolls out Above the city's rout And noise and humming: They've stopped the chiming bell; I hear the organ's swell: She's coming, she's coming!

My lady comes at last, Timid, and stepping fast, And hastening hither, With modest eyes downcast; She comes--she's here--she's past-- May heaven go with her!

Kneel undisturbed, fair saint! Pour out your praise or plaint Meekly and duly; I will not enter there, To sully your pure prayer With thoughts unruly.

But suffer me to pace Round the forbidden place, Lingering a minute, Like outcast spirits who wait And see through heaven's gate Angels within it.

World-Famous Bachelors.

At a Time When Contemporary Writers Are Pointing Out the Men Who "Have Been Made By Their Wives," a List of a Few Men Who "Made Themselves" May Prove Worth While.

_Compiled and edited for_ THE SCRAP BOOK.

"He travels the fastest who travels alone," sings Kipling. In other words, the bachelor has the advantage in the race for fame and fortune. The truth or falsity of this viewpoint depends upon the road which a person travels; it also depends upon his harness mate--who very often helps him along much faster than he could go by himself. Even were it universally true, the average man would undoubtedly prefer to jog along comfortably with a mate beside him.

It is worth while, however, to note that many great men have remained single; some from choice, some from indifference, some because of early disappointment. Especially among those whose work requires the most concentrated reasoning is the single state frequent. In the following nutshell biographies of famous bachelors it will be observed that a majority of the men named are philosophers. The great philosopher seldom marries--for is not the experience of Socrates a warning?

BARUCH DE SPINOZA (Holland--1632-1677).

Baruch Spinoza was by nature unfitted for matrimony. An aggressive thinker, he led a troubled life. Of Portuguese Hebrew parentage, he was accused of heresy at an early age and narrowly escaped assassination. Quitting Amsterdam he took up his abode at The Hague, where he remained until he died. Having no private fortune he earned his living by polishing spectacles. His needs were few, and he refused with equal equanimity a sum of two thousand florins, which his friend, Simon de Vries, presented to him, and the offer of the chair of philosophy in the University of Heidelberg.

Fame was not his object, and of all his writings a theologico-political treatise was the only one published during his life. A storm of disapproval greeted it, and the author decided not to provoke the public any further. He did not cease to labor, however, and after his death his friends found that a mass of manuscripts were ready for the press.

RENÉ DESCARTES (France--1596-1650).

Another thinker, over whose life no woman seems to have exercised any influence, is René Descartes. He took part in the siege of La Rochelle in 1629 and then sought solitude in Holland and remained there for twenty years. During this time he published his metaphysical works and made a great name for himself. The Princess Palatine became his warm friend, and Christine of Sweden invited him to her court. He declined her invitation at first, but finally, finding that his theological opponents were determined to suppress him, he fled from Holland and took refuge in Stockholm, where the rigorous climate soon carried him off. Christine, whose counselor and warm friend, in a Platonic sense, he had been for years, mourned sincerely for him. So did other notable women who dimly recognized in him the Socrates of the seventeenth century.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON (England--1642-1727).

Very similar was the fate of the great Sir Isaac Newton. Born in 1642, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1660, and thenceforward gave himself up to the study of mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Making his home at Woolsthorpe, where he possessed a fine property, he spent his remaining years there, taking occasional trips to London and Cambridge. In 1672 he became a member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1688 he represented the University of Cambridge in Parliament. In 1703 he was elected president of the Royal Society, and held the position until his death in 1727.

Why he never married is not clear. It is supposed, however, that he was crossed in love in his youth and on that account abandoned all thoughts of matrimony.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (Sweden--1688-1772).

A mystic from his cradle, Swedenborg blossomed first as a man of letters and a poet and won considerable popularity in Stockholm and throughout Sweden. Then he became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and broached his famous atomic theory. Finally, at the age of fifty-four, he cast off all mortal interests and became the expounder of new religious doctrines, claiming that the truths he gave out were secured through direct inspiration.

His disciples founded the Church of the New Jerusalem, which spread rapidly, and to-day has offshoots in England, India, Africa, and this country.

IMMANUEL KANT (Prussia--1724-1804).

Another man of monastic temperament was Immanuel Kant, the eminent founder of German philosophy. Born at Königsberg in 1724, he lived there all his life. He did not travel; he did not even take flying trips to the great universities; the old city on the Pregel was good enough for him, and there he stayed and worked.

An honorable, dignified man, he was practically dead to the world and lived only that he might do honor to his goddess, Philosophy. Womankind seems to have had no attraction for him, and from social pleasures he rigidly abstained. His proper place was in a cloister, and no ascetic ever lived who apportioned out his time more regularly or did more conscientious work during the twenty-four hours of each day.

FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET VOLTAIRE (France--1694-1778).