DREW, LIKE VANDERBILT, AN EXAMPLE OF GREAT SUCCESS WITHOUT EDUCATION.—CONTROLLED MORE READY CASH THAN ANY MAN IN AMERICA.—DREW GOES DOWN AS GOULD RISES.-“HIS TOUCH IS DEATH.”—PREDICTION OF DREW’S FALL.—HIS THIRTEEN MILLIONS VANISH.—HOW HE CAUGHT THE OPERATORS IN “OSHKOSH” BY THE HANDKERCHIEF TRICK.—THE BEGINNING OF “UNCLE DANIEL’S” TROUBLES.—THE CONVERTIBLE BOND TRICK.—THE “CORNER” OF 1866.—MILLIONS LOST AND WON IN A DAY.—INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF THE YOUTH WHO SPECULATED OUTSIDE THE POOL, AND WAS FED BY DREW’S BROKERS. One of the most singular and eventful careers in Wall Street was that of Daniel Drew, familiarly called “Uncle Daniel.” This man affords another remarkable instance of the possibility of attaining great success by stubbornly following up one idea, and one line of thought and purpose. His life also shows that education is not necessary to success in the acquisition of money, but, as I have attempted to show in another chapter, may be a great hindrance. This fact is abundantly illustrated in the lives of both Drew and Vanderbilt. In fact, everybody who knew these two men were of the opinion that with a fair or liberal education they would never have cut a prominent figure as financiers. It is also questionable whether either of them, with all their ability in other respects, would have been capable, with their peculiar predilections for other pursuits, of receiving a common school or college education. They, probably, had not the capacity for that kind of acquisition. Perhaps it might have been impossible for any teacher to make Drew pronounce the word shares otherwise than “sheers,” or convince Vanderbilt that the part of a locomotive in which, the steam is generated should not be spelt phonetically, “boylar.” It is more than probable that professors in grammar would have found it a hopeless task to convince the Commodore that there was anything wrong in the expression, “Never tell nobody what yer goin’ to do, till you do it,” or Drew that it was improper to say to his broker, “Gimme them sheers,” when he desired his stocks reduced to possession. Both men seemed to think with the character in Shakespeare, that reading and writing, like their other attributes, came by nature. They evidently thought that their abilities for financiering emanated solely from that source, and results largely bore them out in that interpretation. Both had supreme contempt for persons of less ability than themselves in the speculative arena, yet they were terribly jealous of rivals who essayed to compete with them in their own peculiar methods of making money. Cunning and shrewdness were the leading characteristics of Drew. Though illiterate himself, he, however, showed that he appreciated education in others, by erecting and endowing a seminary in his native place.