登陆注册
5145700000111

第111章 JOURNALISTS AND FINANCIERS(4)

I made on it the biggest kill of my life."I have often had quoted to me that sentence about "fortune comes to one but once, and if rejected never returns." When I declined President Harrison's offer of the position of secretary of state in his Cabinet, I had on my desk a large number of telegrams signed by distinguished names and having only that quotation.

There are many instances in the lives of successful men where they have repeatedly declined Dame Fortune's gift, and yet she has finally rewarded them according to their desires. I am inclined to think that the fickle lady is not always mortally offended by a refusal. I believe that there come in the life of almost everybody several opportunities, and few have the judgment to wisely decide what to decline and what to accept.

In 1876 Gardner Hubbard was an officer in the United States railway mail service. As this connection with the government was one of my duties in the New York Central, we met frequently. One day he said to me: "My son-in-law, Professor Bell, has made what I think a wonderful invention. It is a talking telegraph. We need ten thousand dollars, and I will give you one-sixth interest for that amount of money."I was very much impressed with Mr. Hubbard's description of the possibilities of Professor Bell's invention. Before accepting, however, I called upon my friend, Mr. William Orton, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Orton had the reputation of being the best-informed and most accomplished electrical expert in the country. He said to me: "There is nothing in this patent whatever, nor is there anything in the scheme itself, except as a toy. If the device has any value, the Western Union owns a prior patent called the Gray's patent, which makes the Bell device worthless."When I returned to Mr. Hubbard he again convinced me, and I would have made the investment, except that Mr. Orton called at my house that night and said to me: "I know you cannot afford to lose ten thousand dollars, which you certainly will if you put it in the Bell patent. I have been so worried about it that contrary to my usual custom I have come, if possible, to make you promise to drop it." This I did.

The Bell patent was sustained in the courts against the Gray, and the telephone system became immediately popular and profitable.

It spread rapidly all over the country, and innumerable local companies were organized, and with large interests for the privilege to the parent company.

I rarely ever part with anything, and I may say that principle has brought me so many losses and so many gains that I am as yet, in my eighty-eighth year, undecided whether it is a good rule or not. However, if I had accepted my friend Mr. Hubbard's offer, it would have changed my whole course of life. With the dividends, year after year, and the increasing capital, I would have netted by to-day at least one hundred million dollars. I have no regrets.

I know my make-up, with its love for the social side of life and its good things, and for good times with good fellows. I also know the necessity of activity and work. I am quite sure that with this necessity removed and ambition smothered, I should long ago have been in my grave and lost many years of a life which has been full of happiness and satisfaction.

My great weakness has been indorsing notes. A friend comes and appeals to you. If you are of a sympathetic nature and very fond of him, if you have no money to loan him, it is so easy to put your name on the back of a note. Of course, it is rarely paid at maturity, because your friend's judgment was wrong, and so the note is renewed and the amount increased. When finally you wake up to the fact that if you do not stop you are certain to be ruined, your friend fails when the notes mature, and you have lost the results of many years of thrift and saving, and also your friend.

I declined to marry until I had fifty thousand dollars. The happy day arrived, and I felt the fortunes of my family secure. My father-in-law and his son became embarrassed in their business, and, naturally, I indorsed their notes. A few years afterwards my father-in-law died, his business went bankrupt, I lost my fifty thousand dollars and found myself considerably in debt. As an illustration of my dear mother's belief that all misfortunes are sent for one's good, it so happened that the necessity of meeting and recovering from this disaster led to extraordinary exertions, which probably, except under the necessity, I never would have made. The efforts were successful.

Horace Greeley never could resist an appeal to indorse a note.

They were hardly ever paid, and Mr. Greeley was the loser. I met him one time, soon after he had been a very severe sufferer from his mistaken kindness. He said to me with great emphasis:

"Chauncey, I want you to do me a great favor. I want you to have a bill put through the legislature, and see that it becomes a law, making it a felony and punishable with imprisonment for life for any man to put his name by way of indorsement on the back of another man's paper."Dear old Greeley kept the practice up until he died, and the law was never passed. There was one instance, which I had something to do with, where the father of a young man, through whom Mr. Greeley lost a great deal of money by indorsing notes, arranged after Mr. Greeley's death to have the full amount of the loss paid to Mr. Greeley's heirs.

同类推荐
  • 北斗七星念诵仪轨

    北斗七星念诵仪轨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 释迦氏谱

    释迦氏谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 唐宋诗醇

    唐宋诗醇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 韩氏医通

    韩氏医通

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Swiss Twins

    The Swiss Twins

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 每天学一点管理·文学·哲学

    每天学一点管理·文学·哲学

    这些常识的讲述以知识结合故事为主,重点在以轻松活泼的方式将学科常识经过梳理、选择、确立后分不同角度撰写。每小节的常识点1500字左右,使我们在轻松阅读中获得最精良的文化滋养。
  • 近代上海社团发展及其社会管理意义研究

    近代上海社团发展及其社会管理意义研究

    本书对近代上海社会发展的历史特点及民间组织发育成长的动因与作用进行了深入探讨,重点对近代上海社团组织的社会管理作用进行了深入研究,以期对近代上海的发展历史作一个新视角的观察,从而更加立体地理解近代上海都市化的历史进程,给今天上海社会的现代化发展提供一些历史镜鉴,也为当前推进都市社会治理体系和治理能力现代化提供一些历史经验的鉴思。
  • 屋顶上的猫大人

    屋顶上的猫大人

    本书由十三篇关于猫的小说组成,包括马克·吐温的《迪克·贝克和他的猫》、爱伦·坡的《黑猫》、巴尔扎克的《一只英国猫的苦恼》等。
  • 我喜欢你有用吗

    我喜欢你有用吗

    在这个小小星球上或许有八十亿条河,以不同的速度各自流淌。河与河之间能发生怎样的故事?在这之前,想不出。现在知道了,是关于一条河想变成一只船的故事。
  • 比尔盖茨传

    比尔盖茨传

    本书是根据众多有关比尔·盖茨的传记资料编纂而成。比尔·盖茨,出生于1955年10月28日,与两个姐姐一起在西雅图长大。他们的父亲,是西雅图的律师。盖茨的母亲是学校教师,华盛顿大学的董事。盖茨在很小的时候就显露了在计算机方面的天才,并以自己的远见卓识将这一天才充分地发挥出来。他曾就读于在西雅图的公立小学和私立的湖滨中学。在那里,他发现了他在软件方面的兴趣并且在13岁时开始学习计算机编程。1973年, 盖茨考进了哈佛大学,在那里和现在微软的首席执行官史蒂夫·鲍尔默结成了终生朋友。在哈佛的时候,
  • 凉拌菜谱

    凉拌菜谱

    民以食为天。我们一日三餐的饭菜不仅关系我们的生命,更关系我们的健康。因此,我们不但要吃饱吃好,还要吃出营养、吃出健康、吃出品味,吃出高水平的生活质量。随着现代生活水平的提高,我们要是一边品尝着美味佳肴,一边又享受着养生保健和预防治疗的待遇,那简直是人生的超值恩赐了。
  • 三天读懂金融学

    三天读懂金融学

    本书以简洁的语言、图文并茂的形式,向读者呈现了金融学复杂而清晰的世界版图,兼顾了“快速学习”和“深入了解”两个方面。书中提供了活生生的行业数据,并以统计图表的形式直观地呈现出来,让人无须分析对比,就能迅速掌握金融行业的真实情况。
  • 浪迹在诸天

    浪迹在诸天

    末法时代,历经无量量劫,修炼纪元即将终结,最后的气运结合遁去的一演化至宝诸天棋盘,被末法时代最后一个修行之人得到,开启了一段浪迹诸天的传奇。
  • 青莲子传奇

    青莲子传奇

    他曾是依附一株青莲上的一缕幽魂,想要找回盘古斧报师父重生之恩,犹如大海捞针。
  • 二更鼓

    二更鼓

    自幼得父武功真传的莫沾衣入选宫闱,于探亲回家途中,机缘巧合地救护了三太子干骋。回宫后的邂逅,让二人认出对方并渐生情愫。谁知宫廷纷争之中,二人感情被窥见,于是卷入了一场妃嫔和皇位的争夺之中。有人伺机设局,将沾衣推向皇帝,从此,深闱之中一介红颜从弱小被欺开始步步为营、争取机会。无论是尔虞我诈的后宫还是血雨腥风的江湖,沾衣险情遭尽,苦尽甘来:报得家仇、争回师回、扶正皇子,但……更艰难的选择再次面临,她将何去何从?