Social problems; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
June is the time for roses. Jones came in April. Poor Jones! Poor April
rose!
Such is the mode of the “born success”; now for the young man who is
born with brains and appetites and ambitions only. He is determined to
achieve a plutocratic success; looks about him for the road that leads
to palaces, equipages, yachts--all that gives one title to a seat at
the table of honor at this banquet of extravagant luxury. He sees at
once that to become a multi-millionaire he must use his brains to force
or to cajole the multi-millionaires to make him one of them.
He must pattern after those who are far on the way to achieving
his kind of success: this corporation lawyer earning his hundred
thousand or more a year as the legal servant of rich men; that railway
president with his fifty thousand a year and perquisites, earned as
the commercial servant of rich men; that manager getting a salary of
one hundred and twenty-five thousand as a seeker of safe investments
for surplus millions of income--again a servant of rich men; that bank
president with salary and opportunities together netting him upward
of two hundred thousand a year--again a servant of the rich; that
broker who put by half a million last year as a result of his skill
and assiduity in the service of rich operators; that doctor who made
seventy-five thousand in fees and two hundred thousand in Wall Street
last year on “tips” from grateful patients--again the rewards of
service to the rich.
Our young candidate for success has brains to sell; he wants customers
with money. He hopes ultimately to sell these brains at a very high
price; he wants customers with lots of money, millions of money, in
which he may presently share largely. He must ingratiate himself with
the rich; must go where they are to be found, not only in business
hours, but also in hours of relaxation. He must not only work hard; he
must also play hard and high--must lead the life of the rich as far as
possible. His air, his dress, his style of living, all must be such
that he will be regarded as rich and progressive. To drudge and to
economize and to keep away from the extravagance downtown and up will
mean a small success, or at best one that will not lead to the lofty
height of fashion and social position upon which he has fixed his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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