Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son

by George Horace Lorimer

"Young fellows come to me looking for jobs and telling me what a mean house they have been working for."

Letters from

A Self-Made Merchant

To His Son

Being the Letters written by John Graham,
Head of the House of Graham & Company,
Pork-Packers in Chicago, familiarly known
on 'Change as "Old Gorgon Graham," to

his Son, Pierrepont, facetiously known
to his intimates as "Piggy."

Boston: Small, Maynard & Company: 1902

Copyright, 1901-1902, by

THE CURTIS PUBLISHING CO.

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Copyright, 1901-1902, by
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER

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Copyright, 1902, by
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(Incorporated)

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Entered at Stationers' Hall

Twentieth Thousand

Published October, 1902

Plates by
Printing & Publishing Co.
Albany, U. S. A.

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Presswork by
The University Press,
Cambridge, U. S. A.

TO

CYRUS CURTIS

A SELF-MADE MAN

CONTENTS

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		page
I. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
	Mr. Pierrepont has just become a member, in good and regular standing, of the Freshman class.	1
II. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at Harvard University.
	Mr. Pierrepont's expense account has just passed under his father's eye, and has furnished him with a text for some plain particularities.	15
III. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at Harvard University.
	Mr. Pierrepont finds Cambridge to his liking, and has suggested that he take a post-graduate course to fill up some gaps which he has found in his education.	29
IV. From John Graham, head of the house of Graham & Co., at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont Graham, at the Waldorf-Astoria, in New York.
	Mr. Pierrepont has suggested the grand tour as a proper finish to his education.	45
V. From John Graham, head of the house of Graham & Co., at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont Graham, at Lake Moosgatchemawamuc, in the Maine woods.
	Mr. Pierrepont has written to his father withdrawing his suggestion.	57
VI. From John Graham, en route to Texas, to Pierrepont Graham, care of Graham & Co., Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has, entirely without intention, caused a little confusion in the mails, and it has come to his father's notice in the course of business.	69
VII. From John Graham, at the Omaha Branch of Graham & Co., to Pierrepont Graham, at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont hasn't found the methods of the worthy Milligan altogether to his liking, and he has commented rather freely on them.	81
VIII. From John Graham, at Hot Springs, Arkansas, to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has just been promoted from the mailing to the billing desk and, in consequence, his father is feeling rather "mellow" toward him.	93
IX. From John Graham, at Hot Springs, Arkansas, to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has been investing more heavily in roses than his father thinks his means warrant, and he tries to turn his thoughts to staple groceries.	113
X. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at the Commercial House, Jeffersonville, Indiana.
	Mr. Pierrepont has been promoted to the position of traveling salesman for the house, and has started out on the road.	127
XI. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at The Planters' Palace Hotel, at Big Gap, Kentucky.
	Mr. Pierrepont's orders are small and his expenses are large, so his father feels pessimistic over his prospects.	141
XII. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at Little Delmonico's, Prairie Centre, Indiana.
	Mr. Pierrepont has annoyed his father by accepting his criticisms in a spirit of gentle, but most reprehensible, resignation.	157
XIII. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, care of The Hoosier Grocery Co., Indianapolis, Indiana.
	Mr. Pierrepont's orders have been looking up, so the old man gives him a pat on the back—but not too hard a one.	177
XIV. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at The Travelers' Rest, New Albany, Indiana.
	Mr. Pierrepont has taken a little flyer in short ribs on 'Change, and has accidentally come into the line of his father's vision.	191
XV. From John Graham, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, to his son, Pierrepont, at The Scrub Oaks, Spring Lake, Michigan.
	Mr. Pierrepont has been promoted again, and the old man sends him a little advice with his appointment.	209
XVI. From John Graham, at the Schweitzerkasenhof, Karlsbad, Austria, to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has shown mild symptoms of an attack of society fever, and his father is administering some simple remedies.	223
XVII. From John Graham, at the London House of Graham & Co., to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has written his father that he is getting along famously in his new place.	243
XVIII. From John Graham, at the London House of Graham & Co., to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont is worried over rumors that the old man is a bear on lard and that the longs are about to make him climb a tree.	259
XIX. From John Graham, at the New York house of Graham & Co., to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	The old man, on the voyage home, has met a girl who interests him and who in turn seems to be interested in Mr. Pierrepont.	275
XX. From John Graham, at the Boston House of Graham & Co., to his son, Pierrepont, at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
	Mr. Pierrepont has told the old man "what's what" and received a limited blessing.	301

ILLUSTRATIONS

By F. R. GRUGER and B. MARTIN JUSTICE

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1.	"Young fellows come to me looking for jobs and telling me what a mean house they have been working for."	Frontispiece
		Facing p.
2.	"Old Doc Hoover asked me right out in Sunday School if I didn't want to be saved."	4
3.	"I have seen hundreds of boys go to Europe who didn't bring back a great deal except a few trunks of badly fitting clothes."	20
4.	"I put Jim Durham on the road to introduce a new product."	38
5.	"Old Dick Stover was the worst hand at procrastinating that I ever saw."	50
6.	"Charlie Chase told me he was President of the Klondike Exploring, Gold Prospecting, and Immigration Company."	62
7.	"Jim Donnelly, of the Donnelly Provision Company, came into my office with a fool grin on his fat face."	72
8.	"Bill Budlong was always the last man to come up to the mourners' bench."	84
9.	"Clarence looked to me like another of his father's bad breaks."	98
10.	"You looked so blamed important and chesty when you started off."	128
11.	"Josh Jenkinson would eat a little food now and then just to be sociable, but what he really lived on was tobacco."	146
12.	"Herr Doctor Paracelsus Von Munsterberg was a pretty high-toned article."	166
13.	"When John L. Sullivan went through the stock yards it just simply shut down the plant."	184
14.	"I started in to curl up that young fellow to a crisp."	200
15.	"A good many salesmen have an idea that buyers are only interested in funny stories."	216
16.	"Jim Hicks dared Fatty Wilkins to eat a piece of dirt."	248
17.	"Elder Hoover was accounted a powerful exhorter in our parts."	268
18.	"Miss Curzon, with one of his roses in her hair, watching him from a corner."	294