Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — Unbusiness-like Business Men. [ARTICLE]

Unbusiness-like Business Men.

Mr. Daniel Drew’s examination yesterday before the Register in Bankruptcy brought oat a curious state of facts. It seems that he kept no banking account, drew no checks, never knew exactly how much he was worth, and depended on his. own head entirely for information touch* ing accounts coming due and obligations to be met. In fact, all his business was done in what would usually be considered a most unbusiness like manner. A sudden accident to him would have left his family and executors completely in the dark as to his affairs, except his brokers had voluntarily imparted some of the necessary information. There is an impression abroad that in order to carry' on these speculative ventures a certain amount of education and the exercise of methodical habits in the keeping of accounts are indispensable; but here we find a man, without education, trusting to his head for all the details of his immense business, and plodding on without any accurate knowledge of his affairs. Though he was engaged in a kind of speculation in which sharp wit rather than a tender conscience is required, he trusted absolutely the statements of his btokera. He depended on them for treating him fkirly, and never questioned the accenntß they rendered. And, strange as it may seem to those who do not know Wall street, it is not improbable that he was well served by his brokers; for, how. ever open to criucism Wall street is on the score of its financial morality, the ward of a Wall street broker—the brief memorandum on a piece of paper—is as binding in the vastest transactions as are the asost elaborate legal documents in a court of law. There is little doubt that were the business habits of all our mill., ionaiies known it would be found that the methods of checking ami book-keeping which an deemed so essential in ordinary banking and commercial institutions are little regarded by those really great operators* In fact, correct business habits would probably be a hindrance to a very great operator. A man cannot have his cake and eat it, too; and the force expended in keeping precise accounts would diminish the power of concentrating attention upon tite larger operations involved in great commercial anil financial ventures.—if. Y. Graphic, \ V '