Mr. Seymour was a business man. He was shrewd and he was very
successful. It did not necessarily follow that he was unscrupulous. In
fact, from a purely business standpoint, he was not; but he had no
Quixotic limitations to the end that he was his brother's keeper. The
world was full of disastrous mistakes; he took it as he found it. He did
not count as a sin of his own, the omission to do good unto others when
opportunity offered; but he regarded the opportunity as an indication of
sin or at least of poor judgment in his fellow. He was a church
communicant in good and regular standing; but religion was one thing,
business another. He did not search the scriptures either for
approbation or for defense. He acted upon the principle that offenses
must be and that woe was the lot of the one through whom they came. The
woe that was visited upon the offender was in reality no less a reward
of merit than the benefit which accrued to the one who was wise enough
to take advantage of the offense. He never pointed to the decalogue with
the smug assertion that this had been kept from his youth up. If his
business record did not show this, words would be useless. He wasted no
love on his neighbor, for love was a dissipater of energy. Love
engendered pity, pity sacrifice, and sacrifice precluded success. Every
tub must stand on its own bottom. If his neighbor's tub leaked, it was
his neighbor's fault for not keeping it calked. His neighbor had no
ground for complaint if the liquor which he spilled, was gathered by a
more fitting vessel.
Mr. Seymour's one hundred thousand shares of Las Cruces had cost him
nothing, save a little energy. If he did no better, he would have so
much clear. That was worth while. If Winston and Berl made a mess of the
affair, that was no concern of his. One man's extremity was to him
another man's opportunity. He intended to be the other man. Elijah was
an enthusiast, Winston a professional man. Enthusiasm would inflate
iridescent bubbles, professional pride would be an absorbing end in
itself. Both were essential, neither would necessarily supply the third
element of success, business acumen. At the proper time he would supply
this himself and at his own price. In any event, he would be perfectly
safe.
The orderly bustle which succeeded Seymour's departure, argued well for
the success of the new company. Experienced Ysleta boomers saw in "Las
Cruces" a new kind of boom, and beyond offering to put their experience
and methods at the service of the new company, did nothing further. The
idea of taking up land on a venture near Elijah's ranch, was discussed,
but the conclusion was reached that this land was too far from Ysleta to
be advantageous and that attention distracted from their own kettle of
fish would result in the deadening of the fires that were keeping their
own pot boiling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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