Making Money

ding in the lower city, which towered above the surrounding squalid brownstone houses given ov

ered into the cogs of a universal machine. He passed one by one a row of glassed-in rooms with names of minor officers displayed, marking them solemnly as though already he saw the long slow future ahead: Mr. Pelton, treasurer; Mr. Spinny, general secre

B. Crocker, explaining that his father would return presently. Everything was in order; chairs precisely placed, the window shades at the same leve

ctacle of nature. Behind the desk hung a large black and white engraving of Abraham Lincoln, with one hand resting on the Proclamation of Emancipation, flanked by smaller portraits of Henry Ward Beecher and the author of the McKinley tariff. Opposite was an old-time f

ow him with its steam insects crawling across the blue-gray surface, its wharf-crowded shores, beyond the ledges on ledges of factories trailing cotton streamers against the brittle sky. Everywhere the

revolt arose in him anew. What was the use of money if it could not bring a wider horizon and greater opportunit

relations had been formal. At the beginning and end of each summer he had come down the long avenue of desks, past the glass doors into the private office, to report, to receive money, and to be sped with a few appropriate words of advice

t his father's activities had multiplied he still was ignorant. Conversation between them had always been difficult in those tours of inspection; but Bojo, insti

milk diet. Bojo had an idea that his father was very stern, rigid, and exact, with the unrelenting attitude to

e behind him. "Turn around. You look

" he said hastily, taking

gar. Let me straighten out this d

himself as he gripped his hand

the back, and the prominent undershot jaw. Years had thickened the frame of the father and written characteristic lines about the mouth and the e

sconcerting fixity of the mastiff's; but the quality of dreams which so keenly qualified the tempestuous obstinacy of the son had been discarded as so much superfluous baggage. Life to him was a succession of immediate necessities, a military progress, and his imagin

tion. Richardson faded from the room, the father shifted a package of memoranda, turned the face of his desk clock so he could

a smile, and without waiting for Bojo's embarrassed answer he c

; but you have not allowed it to interfere with your serious work, and I believe on the whole your experience in athletics has been valuable. It has taught you qualities of self-restraint and discipline, and it has given you a sound body. Your record in your studies, while it has not been bril

to fling a barrier of conventionality b

moodily. And he felt with a sudden depression the futility

ts talk about

Bojo to himself, bra

ld you li

?" said Tom, compl

t are you

the moment assemble his thoughts. He rose, maki

here expecting that you would deman

what your father's done. You want

used the obstinacy in the young man

el

se of my explaining myself; I don't kn

here to discuss with you." (Bojo repressed a smile at t

l understand it at a

to do

ho are doing things, to get a chance to deve

that

d all. If you wanted me to do only that why did you send me to college? I've made friends and it's only right I should have the opportunity to lead as

our mind, Tom?" sai

aid I ha

n a different light. First you speak

has been ki

ans Wall

s,

r thought

ation between you

ery good

her if you didn

ould

ou re going into Wall Street," he said, after a

y,

ads or any crea

exa

urious time at college and who want to go on with it. You're going there as a gambler, hoping to get the ins

a hard way to

arn a hundred thousand dollars in

uiring friends that others can't make, and friends are assets. The higher up you go in society the easier it is to make money; isn't it so? Opportunities are a

nsibilities?" said Crocker, senior, shaking his head. "You want money like all the rest. What good do you want to do in return? What usefulness do yo

to deny the card, with a curt order against further interruptions

drudgery in it. Did you ever think there were thousands and thousands of people depending on how you run your business? Do you realize that every great business to-day means the protection of those thousands; that you've got to study out how to protect them at every point in order to make them efficient; that there's nothing unimportant? You've got to watch over their health and their happiness, see that they get amusement, relaxation; that they're encouraged to buy homes and taught to save money. You've got to see that they get education to keep them out of the hands of ignorant agitators. You've got to make

had surrendered, but that his own

laid his hands on

't dollars and cents: I've got ten times what I want; it's pride. I'm proud of every bit of it. There isn't a new turn, mechanical or social, has come up over the wo

still fought on. "I'm not starting where you started, sir; that's the trouble. You went to work when you were twelve. It would be easier if I had, and, if you'll forgive me, it's your fault too that I want what I want now. I suppose I do

tly and seated himself at

ou would refuse,

o, sir," said Bojo, wi

d of which Mr. Crocker drew out his

w much he'll give me and cu

ue. The only trouble is you don't know; you've got to learn your lesson. So you think if you had a start you'd clean up a fortune, do

with deliberation, while Bojo, puzzled, thoug

ife, but you want to try it. Very well. I'm going to give you a check. It's yours. Play with it all you want. You'll get it taken away from you in two years at the most. When that happens c

n his hand a ch

er of Thomas B

housand

B. Cr