TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 627 



man Jew, whose name I will not mention because he doesn't want it pub- 

 lished in this manner. He came to this country an orphan boy sixteen 

 years of age. He first received a position as office boy in a large insti- 

 tution in New York City. At sixteen he could speak French, German 

 and English. Within a few months he noticed that the company had 

 large dealings with Mexicans, so he decided to study the Spanish lan- 

 guage. At the end of the year he came in the president's office one day 

 and said, "I should like to try to act as an interpreter, if you will let 

 me, for these gentlemen tomorrow." The president said, "What do you 

 know about Spanish?" He replied, "I have studied it during the past 

 year," The boy was given a trial, and thereafter was employed as an 

 interpreter. He knew three languages at "sixteen years of age, and ac- 

 quired the Spanish language in one year with sufficient fluency to act as 

 interpreter. During the second year there. Senator Clark had a case over 

 in Germany involving technical matters and won a decision. The court's 

 decision covered an entire book. There were some sentences that were 

 a page and one-half long. Senator Clark took this decision to several in- 

 terpreters in New York City to get them to translate it into English as 

 he wanted to read it, but as soon as they learned that it was full of legal 

 terms they declined. He took it to New York City University to the 

 professors who understood the German language, but they didn't under- 

 stand law, and those who understood law didn't understand German. He 

 couldn't find anyone to translate that book for him. The president of this 

 company which I haven't named was an intimate friend of Senator Clark. 

 The stenographer for the president learned of this incident and said to 

 my friend, "Why don't you translate it?" He replied, "I couldn't possi- 

 bly do it; what are you talking about!" "Aren't you studying law?" 

 "Yes; what of it?" "Don't you know German?" "Yes." "Well, then, I 

 would tackle it if I were you." So at seventeen years of age this boy 

 undertook the task of translating a decision of a German court which 

 no one else whom Senator Clark could find in New York City would un- 

 dertake. Within sixty days he had translated it. During that time he 

 discovered the inventor in New York City and spent an entire Sunday 

 with that inventor out at his plant. The inventor, with vanity touched, 

 was delighted to show him all about the place. The youngster read two 

 or three books on the subject, and within sixty days he had translated 

 that decision into English, working some nights until two or three o'clock 

 in the morning, and then the stenographer ran off a copy on the type- 

 writer and handed it to the president, and the president gave it to Sen- 

 ator Clark. Senator Clark said, "I would like to see that young man." 

 He was introduced, the senator congratulated him, and said, "You ought 

 to be compensated for this." And he gave him a check for $500 for work 

 performed after hours during months when he was receiving $15 a week 

 as an interpreter. A lad with that perseverance couldn't help but suc- 

 ceed. He went the rounds of the office, from one position to another. 

 A number of years later it was disclosed that they were paying an exor- 

 bitant price for certain materials they got from Mexico. The young man 

 asked the company to send him to Mexico and let him try to get it, and 

 they replied that they had tried that and failed. They refused to send 

 him. The officers of the company hesitated because they thought the 



