acquainted with a brilliant personality and a great deed his hands and maybe be, we will learn the way to wealth that bestows blessings.
Dr. A. Hn.

Foreword
I believe that in the life of every person there comes a moment when he has a desire to look back again at those small and large events that constituted the main stages of his past. So I suddenly wanted to show the coquetry of an old talker and start a story about people and circumstances that I happened to be a witness in my very turbulent life.
In all my life I have had occasion to meet, perhaps, with the most interesting people that our country has produced (it is true, these relations were mostly of a business nature), with people who have taken the greatest part in the development of trade in the United States. and in distributing their products all over the world. It was these incidents that came to my mind now and rose up with all clarity in my memory, phenomena of extraordinary importance, as they seemed to me even then at the moment of their occurrence.
Quite a few disputes exist as to whether a person has the right to hide his personal affairs from public attention, and whether he should defend himself from attacks. The fact is that since he talks about his personal affairs, he can be accused of selfishness. If he keeps silent, they will say about him that he has nothing to say in his defense, that he is conscious of his guilt.
It is not in my nature to impose my personal affairs on the public. But since my family and my friends want me to write something like a report, they ask me to throw a ray of light on the circumstances that have served as the subject of disagreement and general reasoning, I, in response to these requests, yield to the desires of my friends and undertake to describe events.who made my life so interesting.
There is another reason for me to start compiling my memoirs. After all, if one tenth of what is told about me were true, then those tens and hundreds of capable and faithful people (many of them have already died) who are connected with me by a common cause, should be found guilty in the eyes of all serious crimes. As for me personally, at first I had a firm intention not to say a word, in the hope that after my death the truth would finally be revealed, and posterity would do its fair justice. But since I alone can explain many of the events in which I played a certain part, it finally seemed necessary to me to give some explanations that will hopefully help shed light on many events that have been the subject of heated debate. I am convinced that many things in my life have been misunderstood.
Everything that I will tell the story concerns the memory of the dead, but also hurts the reputation of the living, and, in my opinion, it will be more correct for the society to get to know a lot, so to speak, first-hand, before the final verdict is established.
At the moment I began compiling these memoirs, I did not even have the remotest thought that they might someday appear in the form of a separate book. I didn't even think of making a lowly autobiography out of them. Without any order and plan, I put on paper everything that seemed interesting to me, avoiding any pretense of completeness.
It would give me incomparable pleasure and a sense of deep satisfaction to be able to dwell in more detail on the description of the daily circle and the friendship that has connected me for so many years with closer collaborators in the case and participants in my enterprise. But I am well aware that such descriptions, despite all their value to me, are unlikely to interest the reader. That is why in my memoirs I have to speak of only a very few, out of the entire countless army, of employees who went hand in hand with me in the creation of my business enterprises.
J. D. R. March 1909.

The art of taking

Father's house

For showing me the right path in life, I owe eternal gratitude to my father. A man who took part in a number of industrial enterprises, he liked to talk to me about them, pointed out their significance and introduced me to the methods and principles of doing business. In my very early childhood I kept a little book (I called it Account Book A, and have kept it to this day) in which I carefully entered all receipts and expenses, keeping a careful account of the small amounts that I constantly gave to charitable purposes.
People of lesser means often live in a closer family circle than those who have a whole host of servants to satisfy their various needs. I cannot but bless the fate that sent me parents, namely from people of the first category.
When I was seven or about eight years old, I entered the path of commerce, doing my first "business" under the guidance of my mother. I had several turkeys, and my mother gave me feed them leftover dairy products. I was already personally engaged in rearing and selling them with all the dignity of a business person. All the proceeds went to my benefit, there were no expenses, they were at the expense of the mother and, thus, my “wealth” increased. I carefully noted its growth and changes in my accounting department, as far as I could.
This made me extremely happy. Even now I still seem to see my own, full of dignity, well-fed birds on a proud walk along the stream and through the woods of our small estate. Since these childhood days I have retained a special sympathy for flocks of turkeys and do not miss the opportunity to admire them.
My mother was excellent at maintaining discipline among us children, guarding the “dignity of the family” with a birch rod in cases where we showed intentions to damage this “dignity”. Once, I remember, thanks to some fatal incidents in our village school, I managed to get to know this device better. And then, already during the execution, it occurred to me to start proving that I had absolutely nothing to do with it.
– Ничего! - said the mother. “After all, we have already begun the spanking!” Why throw it, it will fit in the future!
My mother always showed the same logical sequence. One night, I remember, we children could not resist the temptation to go skating in the moonlight, although we were strictly forbidden to go on the ice even in the evening. We nevertheless went out, but before we even started skating, we heard cries for help, ran there and found a neighbor under whom the ice had broken, he was within a hair's breadth of death. We immediately handed him a long pole and we really managed to pull him out of the crack and return him to the bosom of his family in the desired health. My brother William and I were already lulling ourselves into thinking that in punishing this act of disobedience, at least the mitigating circumstance would be in our favor, that it is not every day that a man can be saved while skating. But our hopes for the recognition of mitigating circumstances by the formidable judge, our mother, turned out to be only the most empty and fruitless hopes.

Beginning of work

Although at first they wanted to send me to study at the university, when I reached the age of sixteen, my parents considered it best for me to leave school, which I had almost finished and send for several months to a trading school in Cleveland.
There they studied accounting and introduced students to the main principles of commercial science, commercial circulation, etc. From this school, despite the fact that I stayed there for a very short time, only a few months, I learned a lot. At the end of it, I involuntarily faced the question: where can I find a place? For long days and weeks, I knocked on the thresholds of all kinds of shops and offices, everywhere addressing the question: is there a need for an apprentice? But everywhere I met with refusal, a student was not needed, and only a very few condescended to talk with me. Finally, a merchant from the Cleveland docks asked me to call in after lunch. I was beside myself with delight: at last something flashed in the distance, at last it begins.
I was terrified that even this happy accident would fly away from me after such a long, fruitless search. I simply could not wait for the moment when it would be possible to go, and when it seemed to me that the moment had come for departure, I almost ran to my future principal at a run. “I will take you for a test,” the future owner told me; but neither he nor I uttered a word about the salary. It was September 26, 1855. The firm was called Gevit and Tettle.
My zeal was colossal, and besides, in comparison with other students, I had a huge advantage. It consisted in the method of education of my father that I have already indicated: he led conversations with me and reasoned on practical issues, and, moreover, I already learned the principles of trade from school, so that I had a decent stock of trading knowledge that I could develop.. Then, by a lucky chance, it fell to my lot