plain that no man's opposition would balk him in the management of the
firm's affairs. One of his most famous remarks was: "Considering myself
as the instrument of the Lord, without heeding the views and opinions of
the day, I go my way." The board of directors censured him for this, but
he paid little heed.

The growth of the business was enormous; nothing like it had been seen
in the world's history. Branch offices were opened all over the globe.
Vessels bearing the insignia of the company were seen on every ocean. He
himself with his accustomed energy travelled everywhere to advance the
interests of trade. In England, Russia, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Turkey,
the Holy Land, he made personal visits to the firm's best customers. He
sent his brother to America to spread the goodwill of the business; and
other members of the firm to France, Holland, China, and Japan. Telegram
after telegram kept the world's cables busy as he distributed
congratulations, condolences, messages of one kind and another to
foreign merchants. His publicity department never rested. He employed
famous scientists and inventors to improve the products of his
factories. He reared six sons to carry on the business after him.

This is no place to record minutely the million activities of thirty
years that made his business one of the greatest on earth. It is all
written down in history. Suffice it to say that those years did not go
by without sorrows. He was afflicted with an incurable disease. His
temperament, like high tension steel, was of a brittle quality; it had
the tendency to snap under great strains, living always at fever pitch,
sparing himself no fatigue of body or soul, the whirring dynamo of
energy in him often showed signs of overstress.

It is hard to conceive what he must have gone through in those last