ozen nabobs--not great nabobs, but second rate ones. Mr. M---- was the
biggest one. He's a railroad president, and he always talks loftily of
his 'system' when he means the single railroad he presides over and its
little branches. Then there was D----. He's a General Freight Agent, and
he never forgets the fact or lets anybody else forget it. That's because
he was a small shipping clerk until less than two years ago. I don't
think much of his capacity. Yes, I do. He knows how to manage a big
traffic fairly well, and he has had _nous_ enough to climb out of his
small clerkship into a position of responsibility. What I mean is that
he has little education, no culture, and no intelligence outside of
business. But I begin to see that except in its very highest places,
business does not require anything better than good ordinary ability
inspired by inordinate selfishness. Perhaps that is the reason that the
novelists so rarely--I may say never--take a man of business for the
hero of a romantic story.

"All this has put a new thought into my mind. Why should not I, Guilford
Duncan, make myself a leader, a captain, or even a commanding general of
affairs. I am far better educated than any of these men. They hold that
education is a hindrance rather than a help in business, but in that
they are mightily wrong, as I intend presently to show them. Other
things being equal, a man of trained mind should certainly achieve
better results, even in business, than a man of untrained mind. A man of
trained mind, if he has natural capacity and energy, _can do anything
that he chooses to do_. I must never forget that.

"But the man who would do things of any consequence in business ways
must have money. The bank account is his tool chest.

"I suggested some combinations to-night to those nabobs, and they are
going to carry them out. They would never have thought of the
combinations but for my suggestion. But they can and will carry them
out, with great credit and profit to themselves, because they have
command of money. _I_ could not even think of conducting such affairs,
simply because I have no command of money.

"Very well, then. I shall proceed to get money, just as I should study
to acquire skill in a profession, or just as I should read up the law
pertaining to a matter with which I must deal.

"I shall not learn to love money. That would degrade my soul. I shall
regard money always as a means--a mere tool with which to do such w