The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 3, 1906, Page 9

- FOUNDER OF THE SWIFT FORTUNE IS P, Swrift tounie fc s ¥ am Swif a otive se e 3 Bele rt ho . were: . the eers in the | attie trading & and b buriness on ¢ a = astern Massach ne Cape Cod t ape Cod bu mixt ily, for sentiment nd thé birthplace amore, unilke Swift _personally more practic because } of business. he custom In superintends ing and does the dressing of all the | e there, and this week he o iy engaged killmg and le market, and on Thurs- drove over his Cape Cod route, i seliing pigs ft is a natural born trader,” e which the Cape O to b And then they ess all the Swifts are s and always were.”’ An niniscent and tell how ttended tion how on the another sthers, or t thing offered, doing « riving busi- ess in jonk, old furniture, farm utensils wate &8¢ f horsee, carts, cattle and any old and the recoliections of Yax skill in driving a bargain end subseguently making a big profit on THE and weather, no -steam antic their sink. an wor h- mee bad & masted, and waifs Cumm! Hston na ught ty; 1896, cartied of sides rhites as She was ¢ in a ory- 1 énd ih brine the deck three rted - crew, the uld. not make 1l ‘they fired nd that set e attracted are well. known by the a meat wagon to the Bandwich for a. period of over forty . years residents known, but rig © when trip hiz first attle mar- righton, - goin his uncle, He siiw that e t there wa& money de in buy- £ cattle dche on the hoof, and lar in-the village 2 e an to trade in shieep. Hi t de was made with oné of his neighbors who had some sheep to s#ll. t gdt the amount necéssary to- by gheap one and v i returhing from school afterncoin brought thé shesp- hotme wit Y d ‘enough when was surpr saw his young €on t home tow- a sheep behind him. T oung man lic sheep throughout the winter and the steamer Queensmore, which. rescued thé crew, the idea being that she would burn 5o that the seas would easily tear her apart. But the wobd of the cargo was {00 wet, the fire failed and she startéd on her long voyage around the -Atlantic, At vdrious times - she was - seen; 1 she nearly reaclied Kngiand; then she drove pakt the French coast; next she was sighted off the Azores; later she appearad near the equafor, and -finally, safter ' sighteen months, she drifted ashore on San B Island, near Colon, Isthmus of Pavama During. her amaxzing cruise at least six ships’ tried to set fire to her, but withour avali; and though she was burned to the water's edge, she remainéd afloat A derelict lumber carrier. with most equally curious record was the Fan- nie_ Wolston, which was ‘afloat for 1407 ddys and covered more than 9000 miles, but her vovage, while appareatly moel longer than t of the Cummings, was ly not so, beécause she spent much of her time crossing dnd recrossing an al- re in the spring sold the young lamb and from the procepds of the sele got money enough to huy other sheep in the village and in this way he s60h had established a profitable business. He wus too young, hewever, to go into the cattle market at Brighton to buy in comipetition With' the oldér buyers who assembled there, although he was an ex- cellent judge of eattie and pigs and couid have Been reljed upon even at that time to_make good trad When about sevemtesn years of age he made his first, purchase of pigs in the Brighton ‘market and started ,to drive thein honié over the road. Théré were no rafiroads to Capé Cod in these days and the only way to ‘get the pigs td Cape Cod was to drive them over the road. Swift says.that from the very begin- ning he made ft'a point to sell the fattest pigs at the start ol the loAg journey, as they were a1l sold by wel be more lkely to-bring bétter pricés than t ‘and would | FRANCISCO w0 SAN UNDAY <) 5 ‘ own tracks, moving around ih a circle about 2) miles off the Atlantic coast, be-! ing sighted by no fewer than forty-six ships during hér aimless wanderings. Her range was from the Delaware capes south to. the . lonely Sargosse Sea, her swinging ronnd’ th cirele occupying about twe vearsShe then-went baeck and ' forth through “this ghostly region, and next started off for Florida, off which coast she was sighted twenty-three times other sels. She then made two more circles and then went north, being about 60 miles off Cape Cod when last sighted. It s supposed she went down, probably by being struck by another ve: sel. as she was never seen again. The Norwegian barge Birgitte of Grim- stead, while bound from Mobile to Queens- town with pitch pine, was abandonéd, with all safis standing, but her howsprit gone and her hull leaky. On February 17, 189, her crqw were taken off by the HBritish steamer Snowflake near the Irish vast, and for four months she drifted t and fro across the tracks of the At- lantic passenger liners. 8he was sighted no- less than twenty-two times and the British Admiralty ‘sent out a warkhip, whieh found her and towed her to land. This process was adoptéd also by the French Admiralty with regard to the British brig Hyaline, which had travelea 2500 miles and been adrift before ghe got near enongh to the coast of France to enable a warship to secure her. She had Beén séveral times set afire, but refused “CALL: to burn, and she was nierely a hulk when secured. These cases refer to craft which are tenantless on the ocean, but there are as many instances on record of waifs which retain their crews. Perhaps the most remarkable of all these wes the skysail clipper T. F. Oakes, the first American iron’ square rigger ever launched. She enjoys the distinction of -being one of the very few vessels ever posted at Lloyd's as, missing afld subsequently showing up. She left Hongkong on July 4, 1896, for New York, for which voyage the usual {time was about day She was out more than 23 days, and not reinsurable, her agents having given lier np as lost, and the relatives- of her master, €aptain E. W. Reed, and his wife, who was on board with him, had gone into mourning. Then on the twd hundred and sixtieth day, March 1897, she brought up in New York, havihg been towed in by the oil tank stéamer Kasbek, which came upon her 30 miles east of Sandy Hook, the steamer being outward bound from ihiladelphia. In trying to take her in tow the hawser caught in the steamer's screws and jammed it, rendering her helpless. The Oakes was equally helpless, her crew be- ing stricken down by scurvy. and the two ships barely escaped a collision, there being only a boat's length betwean them when the wind drove them apart. The steamer was helpiess for eight hours, during which period the Ozkes was driven out of sight by a storm. The Kasbek's engineer had to force out her shaft by means of wooden plugs: The hawser was worked clear of the propeller and then the steamer started off in quest of the-Oakes, sighting her again some hours later In a worse storm, which lasted for two daye, during which time it was im- possible to send a boat to her, but the steamer lay by her till the weather abated and then took effective steps to succor the crew and get the craft under control. It was found that everybody on board the ODakes was aflicted with seurvy (of which five seamen had died) save the captain’s wife, on whom, through sheer pressure. of necessity, much of the labor the ship fell. The second and es were unable to go aloft. The eward was also incapable of tasks. Twelve seamen lay in their s helpless Th captain had b stricken with paralysis. In the China Sea two typhoons drove the ship outof her course, and, though intending to round the Cape of Good Hope, she had, to make for Cape Horn, Another of workin, third mas Chinese sailor remarkable case was that of the steamer Perthshire, off the Australian voast in 1389, which drifted abeut fer forty-five days helplessly, covering 1400 miles be being rescued. On April 26 she left Sydney for Bluff Head, a four days’ voyage.. On May 26 a schooner put into ydneéy reporting that she had sighted the missing steamer two weeks previously, when the Perthshire had been adrift ten days without sighting a sail her propeller being broken clean off in the tailshaft and hér spread of canvas being too limited to give her steerage way. AS she had nearly seventy persons aboard and was drifting north toward some evil reefs, every available craft was sent in quest of her, ineluding two war- ships, several liners and a flotilia of tugs. ventually the steamer Tolune came upon her before daylight on June ome 750 miles off her course, the Perthshire being descried just an hour before the 1 even olune’s captain had determineéd to abandon the search. A towliné was passed and for th Ix hours the Tolunc got her along. Then a heavy sea tore them apart and to get them coupled agalnl reckets, with lines attachied, had to be fired from one ship to the other. Another almost ' incredible story of a derelict is that of the wooden b dartha, which left Jack: uary 16, 189 wbér - laden, for Liver pool, and bec dismas n a “gale, a héavy sea th ber. from stem to stern the ‘pro- visions and ecarryin the . galley. For twenty days tw sub sisted on raw potatoes. aptain had is forehead laid open and . ome: ‘eye blinded by: a blow ‘from ion: - the boatswain had an a yken ;- the -chief mate and two. seamen were stricken with serious illness, due “to t weaken condition, - and eeded without prospect of 1¢ despaip settied upon all. Two steamérs passed without sighiting er, and then th N bark Ve fan lande came by off. “For nearly five months derelict drifted heiplessly eat, co ing more than 1800 and being re ported no fewer than oe times. The captain of the st ner Oakmore set her on fire in hope lding the seas of such a menace, but tl tailed to de- stroy her. Ultimatel chorus of. complaints from s captains as to her obstructing the liner- track - 300 miles off the Irish coast, M. M. S. Melam- pus was sent out and secured her_ towing her into Bantry Bay, where she was sub- sequently used as a coal There more than logged by the marine officers as beiny adrift in- the North Atlantic at the pres- ent time, two amber ladem craft, the Bronson H. and the Mary Manning. bein right in the er ack east of the I more. Along the Atlantic seaboard Florida Rocks to Cape Race-is a pro- cession of drifting waifs. - At times the Ameticah navy sehds out a ginboat to destroy some specially objeetionable or dangerous hulk. the British Admiralty do- ing the same on the other side; but there is no comcerted policy for ridding the ocean lanes of them and no general crusade by these two goveinments after they had waddled one hundred miles or more.’ over the dusty roads. ““The Cape Coddérs liked the lean pize better v way,” fot ones first we had just what our cus- | tomers wanted when Wwe got to the cape | end of our journey.” | Swift's” brothers, Nathanlel and Gus tavus, accompanfed him to tha market at Brighton and helped to drive the pigs to the capé soon after he started In the business. i ‘“They were good boys, says Swift, | “and 1 started them right into thé busi- | ness of sellihg the pigs by sending Khemi farther down on the cape with the few | that were léft when we reached here, { I knbw a3 long ag I remained with the | boys that if any one wanted to buy | pigs, why the hoys would refer them‘ to me. In this way they would never get | | @ chance to show what was in them, and | | trips and found that they cotild make as | % | men's lives shorter. NING good sales as T could, if not better, and| that is how they«started their. business -career, “When they declded to branch out and | etart in business I thought that it would be just as well for me to remain at home m the farm, and I did so,” said Swift, | “and I have been here ever since as @c- tively engaged in business today as ever. stopped driving hogs over the road hen the hog cholera affected the hog: “It was hard work, walking a hundred or more mfles, and crossing and recross- ing the turnpike a hundred times, driving réfractory pige from Briglhiton to Cape Cod, but I have found that hard work never killedany on Swift declares that he meant by this that men who work hard should not keep late nights at play Swift has always made it a rule to re- | tire early and to be up with the sun. S0 I sent them down on the ciipe several | Hé does not use tobacco in any form, | and never has. He has lived his life in jit's play that makes | A SLAUGH the open, industriously at work on his farm or at his droving, butchering and selling work. No man can be a sucgcessful farmer unless he can kill and dress cattie,” in- sists Swift. “That is where the money |is found, in doing your own- work, and my advice to the farmers who are strug- gling along is to learn at once to kill and dress cattle and hogs, preserve the hides, and you see if they won't save money." Swift says that he has pleasant recol- lections of teh days when he drove hogs from the market to Cape Cod, and now often meets the old residents along the turnpike who used to buy.of him. “I was quick on my feet In those day says he, “and it needed a mah to be pretty active to keep a hundred or more pigs in line and headed in just the direc- tion you wanted them to go. Once a man came out of his house, and looking over the drove of pigs, a hundred or more in | number, said to me: ‘Can you put one 1 of the mpst serious problems for men and men.of prominence to 5 how not to Sek people without 2 offengc Also it Is guite as vexing a prodlem nd quite as serjous a one to find 2 Way to get rid of-callers expeditiously, The average caller who has succeeded in getti an audience with some prominent man iz apt to forget how valuable that prominent man's time is, and to feel no compunction or hesitaney in monépolizing as much of it as may suit hig own sweet will Of course, this Joes not apply to the stereotsped and well-known elass of bores after they have been found out » be such, An attendant or clérk with inary discrimination and discern- ment easily detects the professional bore and keeps him away from gnnoy- ing his chief. There are, however, plenty of well meaning peoplip in busi- ness and the professions who are hores ithout knowing it. They are the ur kind and would be very much offended If they were classed as busi- neas annoyances, It is against the per- sistency of this kKind of psople that busy man has to cmploy his ingenuity, HOW T0 EVADE THE B The corporation magnate, bank presi- dent or hedad of a big mercantile house i& perforce obliged to sés many people in the course 5f a“day.” Sometimes the callers run into, the hundreds. It. is, therefore, important to limit the calls | of those who have but little business, and te get rid sf them without in any way giving offénse or breaking ia on | the business relations which already exist. Many ahd varied are the schemes | utiliged to this ehd: There is hurdly o big business office that has not mome | special method of jts own of accom- plishing this end, Perhaps onk of the most amusing, and st ‘e same time #imple methode, of all employed fs that of one of the magnates. He. is a very difficult man to s8& At best, uniess the caller is personally kaown to him or | has some really important husiness_ that the secretary cannot attend to. Natu- | rally this condition frequently arises |and the magnate's miethod of making the call. brief is to have the callpr shdwn into a reception. room in which there are no chairs, ' * 3 Of ¢ourse, the magnate's sulté of offices contain other-reception raoms, in "which there are plenty of” chairs, but this -especial room, reserved and set aside for the ‘quick callers.” is entirely | devoid of any place to sit down, There| are elaborate tables with Inkstands and penpads, and also tolltop desks, 1t would be a sacrilege to oveén lean against any of them. Thig particular ! magnate has learsed by long and sad experience that when once a man sits on'a chair he Is likely to sit there much longer than he is wdnted. The caller is shown into this chair- leas room. . The magnate is here waits ing for him with a pleasant smile and a warm handshake, He-tells his busi- ness, naturally as brief as he cah, bé- cause it is not the most comfortable thing in the world to stand up and be verbose. - The result is entirely satis- factory to all pavties. The visitor goes away quickly. He has .told all he has to say and the magnate is saved any embarrassing remarksto the gffect that “You will have to excuse mé now,” or “l am very buysy,” or words to that effect. That is the method of the corpora- tions' quick action with callers they do not care to have linger. ! It is mot an infrequent occurrence that u Leardless youth will go to some antéroom to see a caller and imper- sonate the personality of a gray whis- kered veteran of the business profes- sion. The guileless caller, in a ma- Jority of cases, will possibly wonder how the man he called on has been able to keep his agé 5o well. But he will go away =atisfied and pleased that he has had a personal interview with the man he vame to sée, There is still another way. It Is the haughty, sarcastic and contemptuous way of réceiving callers. ! AB, for instance, a gentleman wa Vi esirous indeed of seeing the pres- ::::|doll1 b“.nk. 'l‘:ere was :n enp‘lrlal‘o‘h" indication of an extremely busy however. reason why the president of the bank wanted to see him, but there was very Zood reason why the caller wanted .to see the president. armed with letters of introduction and with cards from people whose names should have counted for something. He mT’ two or three frultless ) only to be informed that the president had gone to a directors’ meeting or was at Pdalm Beach or at “"lllcn. 'M l:- d for a possibility of catch- !'r?.';' I:‘finh’lrthe l:orglodnr wh%n he was rishihg to keep cne of these nymerous engrgements. He (the caller) was | | Finally, after sitting around the bank | president’s office for four hours, during { Which time he was told that the afore- | sald president would probably be at | letsure fn an hour, he was ushered in | through o long suite of exterior offices | until finally. he reached the personal | sanctum of the president. There he | expected to find a man with a worrled look, a stream of people coming out | after seeing him, and the president sit- |ting in front of a desk With a mass | of corresponderl® which he hag no time to attend to, and, in factfevery | and overworked human being. 1 ORE WITHOUT GIVING SEEMING OFFENSE — - TER-HOUSE of these pigs in my pen” ‘Yes’ I plied, ‘I'll put it down the chimney your house if you want me to.’ “The man bought the pig, wondering how 1 couid catch the one that he had se« lected from the I started for o of hundred. I the pig and it seemed as if it was deter- mined that I should net eateh it “The man who wanted to buy the pig stood looking on, believing, evidently, that I was not going to succeed in catching the pig. and I had a rough and tumbie fght of it in the middle of the road before [ got a rope tied around its hind lex.” E. C. Swift, whose death occurred in Boston recently, also received the fun- damental principles of business that fitted him for the respensible pesition that he held at the head of the business at Chi- cago, on Cape Cod, although he was fot actively engaged In . driving pigs and cattle as were his other brothers. ‘When he was ready to startout in the world t0 make his fortune his brothers Nathahiel and Gustavus had established the packing business, but he was an im- portant factor in the suecess that the brothers achieved before they died. William Swift. another of the brothers. never engaged in the beef business, and another brother was lost at sea whea a | young man, the vessel on which he sailed never having been heard from after she left port. Noble Swift has given away vast sums of money quietly and unostentatiously. For years when he drove his provision wagon not a poor family, deserving. or not deserving, in the accepted sense of term went hungry while Noble Swift's Swift's wagon made its rounds. Nothing could induce Noble Swift to live elsewhere than on his old farm. The old home where he had lived alone for rly all of the forty vears since his (@ died is not the old Swift homestead, The old Swift home was de- stroyed by fire nearly a dozen years ago. | On the contrafy, what he saw was a| He has two sons and one daughter. | dignified, pleasant man, who leaned back in a comfortable uphoistered | chair, shooting coffee beans | thumb and foréfinger at a targét on the | oppesite wall, which was nothing else hearty {than the nose of a reproduction of a | celebrated painting. The caller said: “Are you busy, Mr. President The president of the bank replied: “Yes, T am busy, but I ecan minute. What is it?” It is unnécessary to add that the call Fwas & briel one. from his | Swift, | many years younger. “p intted have lived more than the al- threescore and ten,” says “and have worked hard days.” Swift is halé and and in full peossession of his faculties and as active as a person He loves to be at work and keeps busily engaged about his farm or the slanghter-house. and seems destined to live for many yea.s. He bas all my Give YOU & ,jways taken an active interestin the affairs of his town and enjoys the Mghest ect of his {riends and fellow towns- men, - e~ e