or twelfth child, the president of the First
National Bank.
Rudolph is only thirty-five years old, but he began his career early. He was, like Roosevelt, an asthmatic child, and when the attacks were upon him he used to go off by himself on his pony, seeking relief “on the ranch” or in the woods. When he first disappeared in this sudden Way, the family was alarmed, but as he continued to do it, no further protests were offered. Self-reliant by birth, this boyish practice developed that trait in him, and some power of reflection, too. For solitude is good for the mind. But Rudolph could not go regularly to school, and his progress seemed to be irregular and aimless.
When he was seventeen, his father walked into the library one Hay and bade him choose on the spot one of three courses: college; a trip around the world with his tutor; or business. Rudolph chose business on the spot. And, on the spot, the father directed him to go to Philadelphia and help his brother, Claus Augustus, run the independent refinery that was fighting the Trust. The boy went and, advanced rapidly from department to department, he learned early the principles of business and the lack of them.
Young Rudolph saw machinery destroyed by
