v.l

PRINTED BY

KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, w.c.;

AND MIDDLE MILL, KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.

WHEN Aladdin rubbed his Wonderful Lamp (so we are told in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments) he summoned a powerful genie, who obeyed his every behest, and was able to lay at his feet all the good things which this world can command.

The old Eastern story was a sort of prophetic mirror of many romantic incidents in the Modern Biography of Industry and Commerce.

In Current Literature few things have a greater charm to busy men than any trustworthy record of successful enterprise, especially when the story bears upon yesterday or to-day. No wonder that it is so.

Now, perhaps, more than ever, calm, welldirected effort and scientific insight; indomitable pluck and that ready resolution which knows when to seize the moment of fortune-are the grand characteristics which give power to win a prize in the arena of modern competition.

To know something, therefore, of the men who have succeeded becomes of increasing interest to those in the thick of the fight at the present

moment. The lucky hit or the lost chance, the far-seen enterprise demanding years of quiet, patient labour and stern endurance,-are a kind of commercial history which carries its own lesson of elastic hope or sober caution to the eager men of to-day.

In such studies of character and energy we observe at work the ready wit which sees a new market, and the prompt resource which supplies it; the skilful utilisation of a waste product; the building up of new industrial colonies, as remarkable for their social as for their commercial advantages; the forging of links of connection between eminent business houses and the highest offices of state; the magic of mechanical power and inventive genius applied to the cheapening of some article of every-day consumption; the Art which casts a brightening fancy upon even the mean utensils of the poorest household. Above all, we can mark the influence of fidelity to engagements, and the sagacity and wise liberality which know when to foster a struggling industry.

All the forces, in short, which bend the powers of Nature and the rugged products of the Earth to the comfort and the grace of man's life are before us. We see them in full play amidst the small beginnings and the marvellous expansion of Com