Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/166

142 parents. He was the sole architect and maker of his own great fortune.

His methods of business were beyond criticism or reproach. While scrupulously exact, strictly claiming all that was fairly his right, he would take nothing more, always keeping clear of enterprises that bordered on 6harp practices or uncertain foundations, counting the loss of possible gains as nothing to the risk of staining his good name.

He had a curious habit of holding up in his office the propositions that were made to him. Instead of following an impulse or yielding to importunity for a quick decision, he deferred his conclusions by saying, "I must take time to think of this a little further." He would walk all round the proposition and look at it from all sides before he would act.

Stradivarius, the greatest of violin-makers of the olden time, it is said on good authority, used to go out into the forests and cut pieces of wood from half a hundred trees. These pieces he began testing and kept on trying until the last vestige of sap dried out and the elasticity of the wood became no longer a factor. Then he knew the wood. He knew