The Secret Of Wealth

When a newsboy walked into a bank in a small city in Wisconsin with sixty-five cents and was informed by a teller that he must have a dollar with which to start an account, he turned and left the bank with a hanging head and one or two people who witnessed the incident said a teardrop hit the stone threshold as he passed out of the side door. In less than five minutes he returned to the bank, walked up to the teller's window, doffed his cap and said,'' Say, Mister, when I own this bank, a feller can come in here and open an account with whatever he's got and it won't have to be a dollar, neither."

In that five minutes, the lad had decided to own that bank and the writer had the wonderful privilege of being present at a banquet given to that boy, then 66 years old, when he retired from the presidency of that particular bank in which he has owned the controlling interest for just twenty-five years. It was only fourteen years from the time he dropped the tear, got mad and decided to own the bank until he was holding down an officer's chair in that institution and had a nice little block of its stock in his safe deposit box.

"After reading countless maxims regarding opportunity--and again opportunity--we come back to the starting-point and realize that our fortunate turns and conditions have been always of our own making." 

CHAPTER X

"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner; neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify men for usefulness and happiness."--Burton.

PROSPERITY often warps the judgment of the individual and all but destroys discrimination. This is usually made apparent in his method of living and in his purchases.

The tendency, during a period of prosperity, is to buy and to uncomplainingly pay high prices, because high prices are the rule. It seldom occurs to the individual that, by a proper discrimination in the making of purchases and in the ordering of his life, high prices may in many instances be avoided.

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