288

credit in the community which he had gained
through his devotion to his uncle’s business.

For twenty-five years, a quarter of a century,
Johns Hopkins Jabored untiringly, late and early.
His business grew and extended into other States.
He was invariably temperate, and his word was as
good as his bond. While other firms failed in
seasons of financial depression, his house always
maintained the highest credit. While other men
drove fast horses, gave entertainments, attended
parties, he devoted his time to his business and to
reading. There is probably a connection between
these two series of facts. Bishop Jeremy Taylor
said, “ Men will find it impossible to do anything

greatly good, unless they cut off all superfluous:

company and visits.” .

Mr. Hopkins may have been called unsocial; he
never was called ungrateful. He never forgot his
uncle. He said when nearly eighty years old, to
his cousin, Gerard Hopkins, now living in Balti-
more, “If not for him, I would in all probability
have remained a boy on the farm.”

And now came the time when he retired from
the grocery firm, leaving it to his two brothers,
who also had come to Baltimore, and two of his
clerks. Did he sit down to luxuriously enjoy his
wealth? Did he spend it in travel, or in fine so-
cial pleasure? Oh, no; accustomed to system-
atize monetary affairs, he was at once chosen
and elected president of the Merchant’s Bank, and
he accepted the position and held it until his
death. Here he had many opportunities to do
favors for young business men. These he gladly
aided, provided they had shown the three sterling
qualities: diligence, good sense, and integrity.
In times of panic, when notes were brought before
the directors of the bank for consideration, Mr.
Hopkins, unsolicited, would often endorse them,
thus helping worthy but unfortunate business men
when they most needed it. But for lazy people,
or for those who seemed to have no aptitude or
tact in making a place for themselves in the world,
he had very little sympathy.

Mrs. Caroline H. Dall tells of a Baltimore firm,
that, having hung his picture in their office after
his death, were thus interrogated: “What was
Johns Hopkins to you?”

The reply was this: “ We began with very little.
We were his tenants; the rent was heavy; he
exacted it to the moment, and we lost many an
opportunity beeause we dared not risk a dollar
after it became his due. One day he came in him-
self to look after it. ‘Why don’t you do a larger
business?’ said he. ‘You are prompt; you ought
to get on.’ We told him candidly, and he wrote
us a check for ten thousand dollars on the spot,
and told us not to hurry about paying it! When
we were able to repay him, he returned the inter-
est. From that day we prospered.”

They had never regretted the hard way in which

LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON.

-coal and other companies.

a
they earned his respect, and they warmly cherished
his name and memory.

His giving was usually along this line of indus-
try and energy and promptness. He delighted to
reward and recognize these qualities. For instance,
five persons gave each a hundred dollars to buy
goods for a poor widow. At the end of two years
she returned the sum with interest. Mr. Hopkins
refused his share.” He said, “I don’t want it.
Keep it, and lend again in the same way.”

He was interested in all commercial enterprises,
especially those which concerned his native State.
Once when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad came
near to failure, he boldly pledged his great fortune
in its behalf, and thus inspired confidence to such
a degree that men of wealth immediately invested
in it and saved its future. He was made a direc-
tor of the road, then chairman of the finance
Committee, and in 1873 furnished the company
with nine hundred thousand dollars, which enabled
it to pay its interest in cash. He was now the
possessor of two hundred millions worth of stock,
owned one hundred and fifty warehouses, was
director in five banks, treasurer of a large insur-
ance Company, and large stockholder in various
But it was by the same
pluck and same patience which enabled him to save
up eight hundred dollars dollar by dollar through
seven long, slow years of drudging detail work,
that he gained and managed and kept and increased
his millions.

“What will this rich man do with his money, as
he is unmarried ?” the people of Baltimore began,
by and by, to ask about the white-haired old mil-
lionnaire. He had given three thousand dollars
to help build a Quaker meeting-house, but. this
was little to the public, thought the world, for a
man worth his millions. “ Make your will,” said
his friends.

“Tam not ready,” was the enigmatical reply.
“T have got something to do, and I shall live till I
have done it.”

Absorbed in business, he still felt the early
training of that mother with a gift for administra-
tion whose constant thought was how to wisely
help the world. “Such a remembrance,” says La-
martine, “isa North Star to any wanderer.” Ran-
dolph said, “I should have been an atheist, if it
had not been for one recollection, and that was
the memory of the time when my departed mother
used to take my little hand in hers, and cause me
on my knees to say, Our Father which art in
fleaven.” Certain it is that Johns Hopkins, as the
years went on, felt more and more the actuating
power of his mother’s spirit. He pondered well the
disposition of his vast property. He determined
to place it where it would do constant good; where
it would carry on his favorite work of aid to those
who were working their way up as he had done!
Not by money itself; they must earn that for