most picturesque in the whole
dazzling story of the automobile. There could be no god in the car
without gold. Here, then, was the situation--on the one hand was the
enthusiastic inventor; on the other was the conservative banker.

"We will make four thousand machines this year," said the inventor.

"Who will buy them?" asked the banker in amazement; he refused to lend
the capital that the inventor so sorely needed.

The idea of selling four thousand motor-cars in a year seemed
incredible. Yet within ten years they were selling fifty times as many,
and were unable to supply the demand. No fabulous gold strike ever had
more episodes of quick wealth than this business. Here is an incident
that will show what was going on:

A Detroit engineer, who had served his apprenticeship in an
electric-light plant, evolved a car which he believed would sell for a
popular price. He tried to interest capitalists in vain. Finally, he
fell in with a stove-manufacturer, who agreed to lend him twenty-seven
thousand dollars.

"But I can't afford to be identified with your project," said the
backer, who feared ridicule for his hardihood.

That small investment paid a dividend as high as thirteen hundred per
cent. in a year. To-day the name of the struggling inventor is known
wherever cars are run, and his output is measured by thousands. This,
in substance, is the story of Henry Ford.

A young machinist worked in one of the first Detroit automobile
factories, earning three dollars and fifty cents a day. One day he said
to himself: "I can build a better car than we are making here."

He did so, and the car succeeded. Then he went to his employers, and
said: "I am worth three thousand dollars a year."

They did not think so, and he left, to go into business on his own
account. A manufacturer staked him at the start. Later, through a
friend, some Wall Street capital was interested. Such was the start of
J.D. Maxwell, whose interests to-day are merged in a company with a
capitalization of sixteen million dollars.

A curly haired Vermont machinery salesman, who had sweated at the
lathe, became factory manager for a Detroit automobile-maker. His
genius for production and organization made him the wonder and the
admiration of the automobile world. He was making others rich. "If I
can do this for others, why can't I do it for myself?" he reasoned one
day.

With a stake of ninety-five thousand dollars, supplemented with a
hundred thousa