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Show The Long Bow. James A. Patten, the millionaire cotton speculator, was talking in a Chicago club about his recent trip to England. "The English," Mr. Patten said, "take a great interest in self-made men. Every English reporter who interviewed in-terviewed me asked for a sketch of my life, and in each of their articles they dwelt on my humble beginning." "Well, you weren't ashamed of it, were you?" one of his listeners asked "Neither ashamed nor unduly proud of it," Mr. Patten answered. "Some men who have worked their way up from a very poor beginning delight in telling of the hardships of their youth. Often, though. I am afraid they exaggerate, ex-aggerate, as a friend of mine once did in preaching to a young and rather extravagant ex-travagant clerk. " 'To amount to anything in the long run,' said my friend, 'economy and a sense of order are absolutely necessary. Why, when I was your age, young man, I possessed but one brush for my clothes, my teath and my shoes.' " |