MICHIGAN

TRADESMAN

 

. MEN OF MARK.

 

Charles W. Garfield, President Grand Rap-
ids Savings Bank.

If there is one comfort which the
larger and the better part of humanity
delights in, more than another, it is the
hand grasp of a business man who does
not think it is ‘‘all of life to live, norall
of death to die.’’ Work is wholesome.
Toil is necessary. Devotion to business
should be cheerfully given; but to wear
out one’s body and soul the first half of
life for the sake of slowly and painfully
dying the last half is not the Divine in-
tention nor the part of good sound com-
mon sense. A creed like that, early be-
lieved in and practiced, may not end in
the accumulation of millions; but it
does ensure almost to a certainty a life
free from fret and anxiety and worry,
with time enough to do all that was ex-
pected to be done, when the struggle for
existence began.

Unless there has been a faulty read-
ing of signs, that kind of life began on
the 14th of March, 1848, at Wauwatosa,
a town near Milwaukee, Wis., when
Charles W. Garfield was born. The
family, of New England ancestry,
moved from Wisconsin to Grand Rapids
in 1858 and settled upon Burton Farm,
just south of the city. Here the 10 year
old boy made himself useful in carrying
out that part of the daily routine of the
farm that fell to him. There were chores
to be done, there was work to do, and
he did both, apparently recognizing
the fact at that early age that he had
all the time there was, and that by tak-
ing it by the forelock and seeing to it
that if the minutes were not lost the
hours would take care of themselves,
and that, too, without any over anxiety
on his part. So the summers came and
went and when winter took up the bur-
dens of the year, the farm boy became
a pupil and went on with his daily
work in the school room. This life he
led until the high school course was
finished at 18, when he turned his
schooling to practical account and
taught school for two years, at the same
time going on with his own studies and,
in 1868, entering, as a sophomore, the
State Agricultural College. He was
graduated from that institution in 1870
after two industrious years, made more
so by the fact that he had determined
to take upon himself the burden of his
expenses accomplishing his purpose
by teaching and at the same time keep-
ing up withhis class. They were years
of hard work and they tested, as noth-
ing else could, the creed which com-
pelled him to turn the minutes to the
best possible account while they were
passing.

Four years of that kind of effort was
too much. The bow that is bent all
day must be unstrung at night if it is to
retain its usefulness, but the young stu-
dent, in his desire to get through his
course, forgot the fact and never or
rarely unstrung his bow. He was am-
bitiously doing double duty and, when
the course was finished and the college
honors won, he was in no condition to
take up the calling he had determined
upon and he was forced to find occupa-
tion out of doors on account of his im-
paired health. This he found as a hor-
ticulturist with the firm of Storrs &
Harrison, Painesville, Ohio. After a
year with them he took up on his own
account the nursery business, but the
winter of 1872-73 made such havoc with
his venture that, to repair his losses, he
gave up the nursery and accepted the
position of foreman of the gardens of
the Agricultural College. In connection

 

with this he became Secretary of the
State Horticultural Society and had the
management, at the same time, of the
farm department of the Detroit Free
Press. He was meeting, to the satis-
faction of all, the demands of these
triple duties when his father died,
and Mr. Garfield returned to Grand
Rapids in the fall of 1877 to the old
homestead, which has since been his
and which he has made his home. He
retained the Secretaryship of the State
Horticultural Society until 1885, but he
found again that he was doing too much,
that, while the spirit was willing, the
flesh was weak and that he must calla
halt.

His duties at the Grand Rapids Sav-
ings Bank, where he at once became a
director, soon so centralized as to force
him to drop almost all outside interests,
a condition of affairs which was con-
firmed when he became President of the
bank in 1894, a position he still retains,

 

more than twelve years he has been a
member of the governing board of the
State Agricultural College and many or-
ganizations of state and nation devoted
to rural affairs have felt the wholesome
influence of his. inspiration and coun-
sel. The Farmers’ Institute owes its
existence largely to him. The Ameri-
can Park and Outdoor Art Association
claims him as a leading spirit. He was
appointed a member of the Michigan
Forestry Commission under a _ recent
enactment of the Michigan Legislature
and was afterward elected President of
the Commission. Asa member of the
Legislature of 1881 he rendered valuable
service in connection with enactments
in the interests of rural affairs and Ar-
bor Day, as it is now celebrated in this
State, owes its existence to Mr. Gar-
field, its foster father.

Whatever business claims him, he
finds his comfort and his joy on his
farm and turns to it with a never-end-

 

 

 

This brought him into more active busi-
ness pursuits and he gave himself up to
its requirements. He was one of the in-
corporators of the Peninsular Trust Co.
and was its Vice-President until it was
merged into the Michigan Trust Co. He
became, and is now, a director in the
Grand Rapids Fire Insurance Co. He
was one of the incorporators of the
Worden Grocer Co.,and is still a direct-
or of that corporation. He was one of
the prime movers in the Grandville
Improvement Co., in which he is still
interested.

While thus compelled to give up the
pleasing pursuits that had come to be a
second nature, Mr. Garfield has kept
himself in close touch with these rural
interests and has come to be a power, if
not the leading spirit, among them all.
Giving up the Secretaryship of the
American Pomological Society, he is
still the chairman of the Executive
Committee of that organization.

 

ing delight. While business is not irk-
some to him, when its hours are over,
the harness is not reluctantly put off
and he betakes himself to the fields that
are constantly calling to him. It is the
old story of the poet and his Sabine
farm. He finds there what pleases him
best and most. From his boyhood he
has been among its pleasures and of
them and at heart the two are one. It
is a place where trees unmolested grow.
He plants shrubs and they thrive. The
wild flower greets him with its bright-
est blooms. Vines flourish where he
wants them and the landscape, at his
suggestion, discloses unwonted beauty.
Orchards bloom and are burdened with
the choicest fruits. The grape takes
time to do its work and hangs up its
tempting clusters to ripen in the Octo-
ber sun. The birds there hold high car-
nival from June to June and are alway
welcome. The strawberries suffer and

For | the cherries go for a song, but the books h

 

are found to balance when the season is
over. Quails whistle without fear of the
shot gun and the partridge drums un-
molested in the sheltering undergrowth
of this modern Sabine farm. It is the
ideal life. It is a mingling of what is
best in business and enjoyment. Money
is an acknowledged blessing, but, made
to know its place, becomes neither ar-
rogant and exacting nor a burdensome
care. Here under his own vigorous
vines and abundantly bearing fig trees
Mr. Garfield enjoys, as he always has,
the advantages of the city with all that
is best in the country. He easily stands
for what is best in both. Successful in
business, he commands the respect of
business circles. A son of the Agricul-
tural College he brings his culture to
bear upon the life about him, and
makes his home among his trees the
center of those far-reaching influences
which the State and the Nation acknowl-
edge and enjoy. In this delightful home
Mr. and Mrs. Garfield, the daughter of
Mr. Thomas Smith, a gentleman well
known as a prominent factor in this
city’s development, are constantly illus-
trating the fact that business can be a
success and that life can be enjoyed if
men will so far recognize the claims of
both as to make them both subordinate
to what is best in each.
——————_o©0¢o__
Censored Trade-Marks.

Turkey is not a practical place for a
foreigner to do business in. This is
due, in part, to the tyranny of the Turk-
ish censor, who exercises his legal func-
tion at the custom house so that noth-
ing shall pass that can possibly offend
the religious or political susceptibilities
of the subjects of the Sultan. Two ex-
amples illustrate the scope of his con-
trol. A firm designed a trade-mark for
use in Turkey in which the star and
crescent formed a part. The design was
forbidden. Another firm, profiting by
the advice of a British consul, had the
advertisement and directions that ac-
companied their goods—a special brand
of soap—translated to Arabic. The
translation was done in London, and in
the phrase, which in English read
‘‘Soapmakers to Her Majesty the
Queen,’’ appeared a title which in Tur-
key is only applied to the Sultan. When
the first consignment was examined by
the censor he offered the importer the
alternative of returning the soap to
England or removing the obnoxious la-
bel. In the meantime British merchants
are warned against sending any goods
to Turkey bearing trade-marks or cir-
culars which could by any stretch of
the imagination be in any way con-
nected with Islamism or the Sultan.—
Profitable Advertising.

o>
Where Danger Lurked.

A little girl who has spent her life in

the city went out to visit her grandpar-
ents, living in the country, during the
holidays, and, as usually happens in
such cases, the little city lady displayed
her ignorance.
_ The little girl,-soon after her arrival
in the country, manifested great appre-
hension of being hooked hy the cows
about the place. One day her mother
told her to go to a neighbor's home and
carry a message. The little girl started,
but at the gate she encountered a cow,
one of the muley species.

In great excitement she ran back to
her mother, crying, ‘‘Oh, mamma,
there’s a cow down there!’’

The mother looked out of the window
and saw the meek looking bovine.
_.‘Why, daughter, that’s a muley cow.
She hasn't any horns and can’t hook
you.

.,_, But, mamma !’’ exclaimed the child,
she hasn't any horns, but she might
ook me with her pompadour!’’

 

g