CHAPTER V 



INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS (1848-1851) 



(Age 14-17) 



The notes referred to in the previous chapter 

 serve to show, incidentally, how circumstances 

 were combining to make the boy thoughtful 

 and self-reliant beyond his years, in spite of the 

 natural sensibility of his disposition. Though 

 one of so large a family, he was rather isolated 

 from the others, the next two to him in point 

 of age being girls, so that there was between him 

 and his next brother, Henry, a gap which at 

 that time of life is considerable. It was always 

 his fortune, for good or ill, to have his elders as 

 his chief companions, and the delicacy of his 

 constitution probably attracted him the more 

 to their society. The notes run as follows : 



In 1848, when I was nearly fifteen, my father's two 

 partners being both in bad health, he had to choose 

 between taking another or bringing me at once into the 

 Bank to assist him. Our firm was then Lubbock, 

 Forster & Co., and we did not join our friends, Robarts, 

 Curtis & Co. till some years later. Having so many 

 children to provide for, he chose the latter alternative 

 and in 1849 I began business. He would not of course 

 under other circumstances have brought me in so early. 



At the same time he did so with the less reluctance 



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