THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



17 



sake of the display it will enable them to 



make. 



* * * 



I speak of the case of Hockefeller for the 

 reason that his case is an ilhistration on a 

 gigantic scale of the experience of every 

 very successful business man. 



A man may go into politics in pursuit of 

 success, and if he has the grit, determina- 

 tion and ability he may rise to great 

 heights, so that his name is known and 

 respected throughout all the laud, and so 

 that wheu he visits such a city as Chicago 

 all the citizens unite to do him honor. 

 The same may be accomplished by a man 

 entering the law, the ministry or literature. 



But the great business man cannot rise 

 to such a position. His success in this 

 great and productive country causes his 

 wealth to pile up on him, and the greater 

 this success the higher it piles. And the 

 people believe the piling up of the money 

 is his main ob.iect, when it is really only 

 au Incident; and they believe he is either 

 a hog or a fool; that he is an enemy of the 

 laboring classes, the oppressor of the poor, 

 a money-grabber who will stoop to any- 

 thing just for the pleasure of piling one 

 gold piece on another. And in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred that process doesn't 

 give him any more pleasure than it does 



anyone else. 



* * * 



Every man who is really a man wants to 

 amount to something. He wants to rise 

 above the level. He wants to test his 

 strength and make others feel it. So a 

 business man pushes his business by every 

 means in his power. And the bigger the 

 business gets the more pushing it takes. 

 There is always a strong competitor just 

 behind or ahead to keep a man up to his 

 best. To meet competition he has to keep 

 spreading and spreading, reaching back to 

 the raw material and forward to the con- 

 suming trade, driving his business with a 

 tight rein, with a keen and vigilant eye on 

 his competitors in the race, looking for an 

 opening to an advantage. 



That his money keeps piling up as the 

 years go by doesn't greatly interest him, 

 except as he needs that money as sinews 

 of war to carry on the fight. As for want- 

 ing the money just for the sake of having 

 it, he is no more guilty of that than would 

 any other man be who already had more 

 money than he could ever hope to use. 



And I have seen men pretty well along 

 In years who, although vastly wealthy, 

 wore still digging away, and the superfi- 

 cial observer believes they are slaving 

 from pure love of money. But, bless the 

 superficial observer, it isn't anything of the 

 kind. 



Often, as he attains advanced years, a 

 man would quit business if ho could. But 

 then, as ever, there is a hawkeyed com- 

 petitor just ahead or just behind, and for 

 the old, experienced hand to drop the reins 

 would mean th(! loss of the race, and that 

 the business and reputation which were 

 the iiroiluct of a liCetinio of hard work 



A\ould be swept away, and the poor rich 

 man would be left in his old age with 

 nothing but money. A man would rather 

 be accounted a rogue, au oppressor of the 

 poor, a tax-dodger, a briber — anything, 

 anything, Loru! but a failure. So he keeps 

 gamel.v on. 



Every man has a fear of being left in 

 poverty in his old age, and every man is 

 justified in making provision that this 

 great calamity may not befall him. That 

 a man does make such provision does not 

 indicate an undue love of money. It is 

 commendable thrift. But that love of 

 money simply for money's sake, or for the 

 s;;ke of a vulgar display which may be 

 made in the spending of it — that love of 

 money that the bible says is the root of all 

 evil — it does not, I believe, cut one-half nor 

 one-tenth the figure in the affairs of the 

 world that many thiuk it does. It is con- 

 fined to the weak, the ignorant and the 

 foolish. It is not, as a rule, a character- 

 istic of rich men, especially of those who 

 have made their own money. As a rule 

 they are strong and able men who have 

 fought for better things — for standing, 

 for respect, for reputation, for everything 

 and anything, in fact, rather than for the 

 mere love of money. 



The man whose career is about closed 

 and who hasn't anything but money is 

 poor indeed. 



BORING FOR OIL. 



Mr. Herman A. Gerhardt, well known 

 in the lumber circles of Chicago, has been 

 missed from his accustomed haunts in this 

 city since early in January until quite re- 

 cently. He has been down in Hammond, 

 La., boring for oil, and although he has 

 not struck oil as yet, he has gained In ex- 

 perience. 



He returned to Chicago early this week 

 looking gloomy and depressed. He got 

 into a row with everybody in and about 

 the Exchange right away, and was plainly 

 in a morose humor. His hands were 

 bruised and scarred and his gold-rimmed 

 spectacles were gone, being replaced by 

 a pair of glittering platinum frames, which 

 gave his sunburnt face a sinister look. 



He was uncommunicative for two days, 

 but on the third morning when he came 

 in for his mail, there being nobody else 

 present, he thawed out. 



"Ever bore for oil, Strode?" he said, tak- 

 ing i\ seat and spreading his bruised hands 

 on his knees. "No. Well, don't ever do 

 it. Say!" here he got up and waved his 

 hands as if pushing something away from 

 liiin. "don't ever — ever do it." 



•'What was the matter';" 



"What was the matter? What was the 

 matter? Say, how much time do you 

 think I've got? I couldn't tell you all that 

 was the matter in a whole day; not in an 

 entire livelong day. 



"You see, we struck gravel; big, coarse 

 gravel, and that is the worst thing you can 

 strike. You can bore through anything 



that will hold still and let the drill work. 

 But gravel that is too small to hold steady 

 and too big to force up through the pipes — 

 what are you going to do with it?" And 

 ho glared at me through his glittering 

 glasses. 



'"We started with a twelve-inch pipe and 

 had got down 800 feet, and to a six-inch 

 pipe, when we struck gravel. We worked 

 a long time and couldn't make any head- 

 way and decided to take out the six-inch 

 pipe and run the eight-inch down farther. 



"Did you ever try to pull 300 feet of 

 pipe out of a hole SOO feet deep? Didn't, 

 eh? Well, don't you ever try it. Say" 

 (here he made that motion with his hands 

 again, as though pushing something away)^ 

 "don't you ever — ever try it. 



"Oh, yes, we pulled it out. That is^ 

 most of it. All but three lengths, down- 

 in the bottom of the hole. It's there yet. 

 We worked two months trying to get it 

 out, but it's there yet. Down at the bot- 

 tom of the hole. The 800-foot hole." 



"What became of your glasses?" I asked- 



He made no reply to the question. 



"Our boring rig was not first-class," he 

 said. "It belonged to a man from Indiana. 

 He was a first-rate fellow but he wouldn't 

 swear when his wife was around, and as 

 she was around a good deal that handi- 

 capped us some. 



"The Indiana man knew a good deal 

 more about machinery when we started 

 than I did, but I learned a lot. Besides, I 

 am a man of original ideas, and that helped 

 some. 



"Did you ever see a" rig that wouldn't 

 run when the weather was wet nor when' 

 it was dry?. That's the kind of a rig we 

 had. You see there was a wide leather 

 belt connecting the engine with a big 

 wheel— a great, big wheel, high as this 

 room. Then that wheel had a pulley at- 

 tached which conveyed power to the bull 

 wheel — know what a bull wheel is? Well, 

 it conveyed power to the bull wheel by 

 means of 'rope transmission,' which means 

 that instead of a belt we had an inch and 

 a half rope, all out doors. 



"Xow you know how it is with a leather 

 belt. When it rains or the air is damp the 

 belt stretches and slips and slips and slips. 

 A rope is just the opposite. When It Is 

 wet it shrinks and when it is dry It 

 stretches. So that when it was dry the 

 rope belt slipped and when it was wet the 

 leather belt slipped. By gad! it was the 

 funniest combination I ever saw. 



"But I fixed it." Here he placed one 

 mangled linger alongside his nose and 

 winked at me. "I fixed up a scheme. I 

 hired a nigger to carry water and pour 

 on (he rope. Did it work? Well, I guess 

 it did, and by keeping the nigger carrying 

 water all the time we could run right 

 along in good weather. When it was 

 diimp we would shut down and pack the 

 pump. 



"Did you ever pack a pump? No. Well, 

 don't vou ever — over do it." Here he 



