AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12266, 9 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

THE RISE AND FALL OF A DARING

FINANCIER. The New York Herald has devoted one of its pages to an autobiography of Mr. Wh'itaker Wright. The financier's own description of his early life is as follows: —

At 21 I was cast entirely on my own resources, without a penny of capital. My father had given me a good education, and as I had been much interested in inorganic chemistry and in assaying, I came to America to try my fortunes as an assayer. There never was any difficulty about my making money. I had to struggle at first, of course, as any young man without capital has, but after I made my first 10.000 dollars the rest was easy ; in fact, it is my experience that any man with a fair insight into human nature, a clear head, and absolute integrity ought to make a comfortable competence, at least, if he can once accumulate 10.000 dollars. How did I get that start? Why, I went West, and as I made a little money I saved it, and bought a few shares in a mine that looked as if it would be profitable. It was only a few dollars at first, but all the time I was adding to my investment. I bought a mining claim outright for 500 dollars, and sold half my interest in it for enough to pay me back my original investment, and provide workiug capital. The mine proved profitable, and a little later I sold out my remaining half-interest for a good profit. Then I did the same thing with other properties, and kept on doing it until I was dealing in amounts tljat made the profit worth while. Then, after a while, I came back East and made a lot of money on the New York Stock Exchange. When I was 31 I was more than a millionaire, and when I returned to England in 1889, when 45 years old. I expected to retire from business. I thought I had enough money, so that I never would feel the want of anything; but hard times came on over here, and the value of my securities shrank considerably. It was not like starting all over again, but still I had only a moderate fortune at the time I began operations on the London Stock Exchange. Would that I never had left America! If I had remained here I have not the slightest doubt that by this time I would have a snug little nest-egg of 50 millions or so as the result of the boom of the last few years. LUCK! LUCK! A ( little later, after describing his adventures with Indians in the pioneer days of the Leadville boom out West, Mr. Wright said: — Luck, luck i Of course, it's luck in these mining operations. Not one mine in a hundred pays. Anyone who knows anything, and goes into mining speculation, ought to know there is more than an even chance that he will lose. If he wins, he wins heavily, on the other hand. And yet here is part of the British public investing in the most risky securities in the world, and then, when the slump comes, they look on their speculative counters as if they were special deposits in the savings bank. All old financiers know that waves of prosperity advance like the waves of the incoming tide, and that then nothing can stop prices from advancing; nor can any human power check the recession of the waves when prices tumble. These cycles of rising and decreasing values no man can control, but it is through keen insight into the causes which lead to these periods of prosperity and depression that shrewd men make millions, and then are called lucky. That is the only trouble with me. I could not stem the tide of depression which followed the Boer war. I failed to accomplish the impossible. I gave up a fortune in the attempt, but I could not stand alone against the entire London Stock Exchange.