HIS IDEA OF GENUINE SUCCESS.
When I asked him what the true idea of success is, he replied, without a moment’s hesitation:
“Money-making is the cheapest kind of success. It doesn’t indicate the highest development, by any means. I will give you a simple illustration, embodied in an incident which occurred this very day. A friend of mine, a professional gentleman of high mental attainments, had been offered a salary of ten thousand dollars a year by a corporation engaged in transportation. He was strongly tempted to take it, for he is working for the government at a salary of only five thousand dollars. He admitted to me, however, that he is capable of far greater usefulness, in his present work, than he would be in the employment of the railroad. Thereupon I strongly advised him to reject the larger offer, and he has done so. My reason was simply that money does not measure one’s place in the world, one’s mental triumphs, or one’s usefulness to humanity.”
“But money is a helpful factor in life,” I urged, “and is considered indispensable, nowadays, in climbing up the ladder.”
“Well,” he replied, “if I had a son and a hundred thousand dollars, I would keep them apart.”
In the senate a new member is not supposed to take part in debates, or even discussions. The atmosphere is not only dignified, but frozen. I strongly anticipate, however, that there will be a thawing out before long. The presence of Mr. Dolliver ought to act like an old-fashioned depot stove in a cold-storage room.
XX
Varied Business Training the Foundation of a Long Political Career.
THOMAS COLLIER PLATT has succeeded in business and in politics in a phenomenal manner. The reason is, he has had the native sagacity, energy and working ability of two ordinary men, and has fairly earned his place as a senator of the United States, as one of the political leaders of the nation, and as president of the United States Express Company.
Last summer, as I sat on the porch of the Oriental Hotel at Manhattan Beach, for Mr. Platt’s return from his office, he came up the steps two at a time, with the elasticity of a man of forty. As I waited for him in the Fifth Avenue Hotel the other day, he came into the lobby looking very much jaded. He said: “I am very tired, after a week’s session of the senate at Washington. I have had a very busy day in New York. Come up to my room.”
Members of the legislature, local politicians, statesmen of national renown, sent their cards to the senator’s room before we were fairly seated. Wearied amid this great press, Mr. Platt took time to say some things about himself, and to indicate some of the elements of his success as an encouragement and inspiration to young men in the struggle of life.
“Where were you born?”
“In Owego, Tioga County, New York.
“My ancestors were Americans. They were Yankees that came from Connecticut and Massachusetts to New York state.”
“Do you believe in hereditary tendencies?”
“I do, most certainly. Blood tells. There is nothing so absolutely true as that blood tells in cattle, horses and men. My father was a devoted, consistent Presbyterian. The preachers almost counted my father’s house a home when I was a boy. My father was my ideal of a man every way. He was one of the few men I ever saw whose everyday life completely harmonized with the Christian profession.”
“In your Puritan home, you had to toe the mark, did you not?”
“Yes, my parents were strict; but very tender. They never used the rod, because we were such exceptionally good children. We did not need it. I never saw father or mother raise their hand against a child. My father was a lawyer. He afterward became interested in real estate, taking charge of extensive timber and farm lands in the northwest, owned by a gentleman in Philadelphia.”