FOUNDING A FORTUNE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 124, 12 October 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOUNDING A FORTUNE.

MILLIONAIRE'S STORY OF HIS START.

M. Dufayel lit his cigar and watched the smoke curling upwards (writes John X. Raphael in tho Express). "If you like, I will tell you a story," lie said. M. Georges Dufayel is one of the richest men in Paris. His house in the Champs Elysees is a palace, he owns almost the whole of St. Adresse, which is in a fair way to become a second Trouville, and his business enterprises are as extensive as those of any man in France. He had small beginnings. When liu was twenty-five I doubt whether he earned in a day more than enough, if enough, to pay for the cigar he had just lit. "If you like I will tell you a story," he said.

"A self-made man, whom we will call X for short, was sitting on the shingle watching the children playing. All of a sudden there was a shriek of dismay. A big toy balloon, one of those balloons which the shops give away, had broken its thread and dropped, after floating over the children's heads, on the waves. It was floating very slowly out to sea, and a little girl was crying at its loss. Three boys, bare-legged urchins who had been making a sand-castle, watched the balloon, and laughed at the crying child. X loved children.

"He took a twenty-franc piece (16s) from his pocket, held it up, and said, "I'll give this to the boy who brings me that balloon back. Then he laughed to himself. 'I am paying for an objectlesson in psychology,' he thought. X was a self-made man, and in his life of hard work he had learned to judge of the value of men by their doing little things. He was keenly interested in those three bare-legged urchins. He wanted to see what each of them would, do to earn that twenty-franc piece.

FIRST BOY'S FAILURE. "Also, he knew that it was more money than any of them had ever had before, probably more than any of them had seen very often. He was almost as intent on the fate of the balloon as was this small girl who had lost it. The first boy ran off and came back with a long stick. With this he prodded the balloon, whipped it, and tried to steer it back to shore. But the balloon, which was prodded and whipped easily enough, was not so easily steered. The tide was ebbing, and whenever the boy tried to whip or prod the balloon inshore it rolled along his stick and gathered speed to get away. It got out of his reach at last. The other two boys laughed at the first one's efforts, and at last he gave in. "My turn now," said the second boy. He rolled his trousers further up his legs, then changed his mind, undressed himself entirely, and waded out into the sea after the red balloon. "That boy will get it, and the gold piece, too," said Xto the little girl. "I do not think >he will," she said. "My beautiful balloon is lost," and she began to cry again. "The second boy waded out manfully, jumping over the bigger waves, rushing the smaller ones, and making good progress till, when he was almost within

reach of the balloon, and his hands were stretched out to grasp it, fate played a trick on him. There was a deep hole in the sand just there, the small boy felt himself running down till the water was up to his shoulders, then up to his ears, then so high that he had to hop on tiptoe to keep his mouth out of the water. And the boy could not swim. He tried to edge a way round the hole, but when he found a place where the sand was not so steep he was quite out of reach, and the balloon had bobbed and floated right out of his depth. He shook his head, paddled his way in, and with a shrug of his shoulders got into his clothes again. The twenty-franc piece was not for him.

A SPRAT TO CATCH A WHALE. "The third boy had been lying with his chin propped on his hands watching the efforts of the other two. X thought him either lazy or a coward, and put ' the gold piece back into his pocket. "I will buy you another balloon when the old man comes round again," he said to the little girl. The small boy rolled over, sat up, turned round, and laughed aloud. 'I am going to have those twenty francs,' he said. 'You must earn them,' said X. 'I will,' said the boy. There was a boat with two fishermen in it, and the boy had been watching it lazily. 'Bring me in that balloon, and I'll give you two francs (Is 6d) for your trouble!' he ealled to the boatmen. "' 'You haven't got two francs, you little ragamuffin,' they laughed back. The boy ran up to X. 'Lend me the two francs,' he said. 'You will owe me eighteen then.' He held the silver coin up for the boatmen to see, and when they were near enough threw it into the boat. They caught the balloon, and brought it in to land. '"I will make you a present of the two francs as well,' said X, 'and here is the twenty franc piece. What are you going to spend it on ?' 'I must, think that out,' the boy said. 'Twenty francs is a lot of money.' X laughed. 'I must see more of you, young man,' he said. 'Tell me your name and where you live.' "Oh, of course, we can all guess the rest of the story," said somebody. "You were so interested in the boy's cleverness, you were so pleased with his enterprise and initiative, you were so certain that a boy who had just earned twenty francs, and did not mean to spend it without consideration, was certain to make a good business man, that you took him into your office, where he was promoted step'by step until you made him manager of an important branch, when he either became a partner, or left you to become a millionaire himself." "No," said M. Dufayel, "that is not quite the truth. You are supposing that I was X. That is where you have gone wrong. I was the third of the three boys."