Page:The Tales of a Traveller.djvu/120

108 artificial lakes, golf links, tennis courts, and everything that fancy could desire. A year later he appealed to the real estate agent through whom he had purchased the place to sell it for him, no matter at what loss. What was the trouble—didn't he like it? Oh, yes, he liked it well enough—the place itself, that is—but the life was killing him. He was eager to return to the paint factory and his old surroundings, and do up some paint packages.

Another instance given was that of a retired grocery man, who having received about a million dollars from his partners for his share in the business, begged them piteously a few months later to take him back into it. He could not stand the idle life which he was compelled to lead. Upon their refusal, he made it a point to come every day, get behind the counter, and help in putting up all sorts of grocery packages.

The actuary of an insurance company, the author also told us, will consider a man of sixty in active business a much better risk than a man of the same age out of business. Men whose activity and interest are maintained in life, according to all statistics, live longer. Their minds are keen; their very appearance indicates strength and energy-.

Among my own trade I could point to a number of old men, many in the seventies, who should be an inspiration to many a much younger man. They make their plans and speak of their future activity as if they were in their early forties. I regard such men as true benefactors of mankind. Pessimism and all that goes with it are not in their makeup.

Taking a leaf from their book, I have put myself in the attitude of mind wherein I give no thought at all to the possible "finish." I have traveled for twenty-eight years, I am still traveling, and life and health permitting, I shall travel another twenty-eight. During those first twenty-eight years, as I have already said a number of times, I have formed a great many friendships that are very precious to me; during the next twenty-eight, or the fraction of them that will permit my activity, I hope to strengthen them and to form new ones. Perhaps some of the little shavers of today will do business with the "old man" in days to come!

Looking back over my business life as a unit, I can say that I have enjoyed it. It has had its ups and downs, like everything else in life, to be sure. There have been moments of discouragement, and of a sense of failure. But there have been compensations. And I am not speaking only of money, either, though I have been enabled to support my family and to educate my children as I wanted to. It is to something less tangible that I refer—less tangible, but by no means less real. I believe that I have won the confidence of the trade, and that I have made my friends sure of the honesty of my intention in all my dealings with them. This it is that is my greatest compensation, and this it is that I hope to perpetuate during the remaining years of my life.