Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/85

Rh silent and alone with a small pencil in hand, and look off at some distant object while he thought out his problems.

Always economical in his habits, his expenses became smaller. He lived in the simplest way, dressing more plainly and dispensing with everything he could do without.

At this very time, he was giving away secretly thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, covering up his hand so that only two or three persons would know the source of the gifts.

During this time and through the fifties, his wealth grew much more rapidly than he could wisely distribute it. He never speculated. He paid in full for what he bought and put it in his boxes to keep until the right time to sell. First of all, he made himself thoroughly familiar with all the corporations, their men and methods of management, and the possibilities of advancing values. The hard-headed, thorough business man that he had always been, held him off from being drawn into operations through friendship or sentiment.

He dealt not in vague expectations or by