The Romance and Tragedy of a Widely Known Business Man of New York Part 29

In my prosperous days when I made large annual profits, I did not realize how foolishly extravagant was my scale of living, for every year I was adding a handsome amount to my acc.u.mulations which were steadily increasing, and yet, looked at from the standpoint of this clear-headed, successful business man, I was expending far more than what should have been regarded as my income.

It will be remembered that in the early years of my career, shortly after my marriage, I was handicapped by the loss through a stock speculation of all my savings. This was followed by dull times and increasing burdens, and it was not until the year 1878 that my profits materially exceeded my absolutely necessary expenditures.

During that year I lived comfortably and happily on an expenditure of three thousand dollars. My profits were twelve thousand, and I started the year 1879 with nine thousand dollars to the good.

Taking my expenditure of three thousand dollars as a necessary basis, no matter what my profits in 1879 were, I was warranted in spending only the three thousand dollars plus the interest on the nine thousand, which was my capital. This was the principle imparted to me by the man who had put it in practice and who believes it to be a foundation principle in business, and that neglecting to make it the corner-stone is the cause of nine out of ten of the failures in the business world.

Then he asked me to figure out how it would have worked in my case.

I did so and was astounded at the results. I may add it gave me many hours of hard thinking over "what might have been."

In order to make the working of the principle entirely clear to my readers, I have tabulated the figures for fifteen years, calculating interest at six per cent, and showing for each year the profits of my business, the permissible expenditure, and the amount of capital as it would have been on December 3lst.

Year Profits Expenditure Capital, Dec. 3lst

1878..........$ 12,000 $3,000 $ 9,000 1879.......... 16,000 3,540 22,000 1880.......... 21,000 4,320 40,000 1881.......... 28,000 5,400 65,000 1882.......... 21,000 6,900 83,000 1883.......... 24,000 7,980 104,000 1884.......... 30,000 9,240 131,000 1885.......... 15,000 10,860 143,000 1886.......... 36,000 11,580 176,000 1887.......... 61,000 13,560 234,000 1888.......... 120,000 17,040 351,000 1889.......... 72,000 24,060 420,000 1890.......... 68,000 28,200 485,000 1891.......... 80,000 32,100 562,000 1892.......... 70,000 36,720 629,000

This brings me up to January, 1893, the period when I considered the question of retiring from business and decided against doing so for the reason that the income from my capital if invested would have been far below my annual expenditures.

How would it have been had I lived the fifteen years on the scale as figured out?

My capital invested at six per cent, would have realized an income greater than my expenditure in any previous year! But look a little further.

If during all those years I had been in possession of such amounts of capital as the evolution of this principle would have brought me, I am perfectly confident that the profits of my business, handsome as they were, would have been much larger. The money would have produced earnings far in excess of six per cent., and in January, 1893, the capital would surely have been set down in seven figures.

Surely those longed-for years of travel would have been mine--or, suppose I had remained in business? I could not have failed for my capital would have safely carried me over.

And now to conclude the brief addition to my narrative.

The late Robert Ingersoll once said:

"Hope is the only universal liar who maintains his reputation for veracity."

Hope promised me, in the prospective reorganization of the Was.h.i.+ngton concern, the certainty of a complete fulfillment of my "Dream."

Hope lied! The reorganization is indefinitely postponed. Now, hope promises me success in a prospective business connection in Baltimore, and I still have faith in him.

Once more in active business life with all the old energy and ambition and in perfect health, I may yet have another fifteen years to put in practice a principle that I know to be sound.