Self Help
I never think of you,
however, without its occurring to me that one of these days you will
be passing out into the Great Unknown, and after you are gone there
will be nothing left as a monument to your name, because others will
take over your money, and money has a way of losing its identity very
quickly, as soon as it changes hands.
I have often thought of offering you the opportunity to perpetuate your
name by permitting you to build a new Hall out on the University
grounds, and naming it after you.
I would have offered you this opportunity long ago had it not been for the fact that one of the members of our Board wishes the honor to go to Mr. X_ (the street car head's enemy). Personally, however, I have always favored you and I still favor you, and if I have your permission to do so I am going to try to swing the opposition over to you. I have not come to ask for any decision today, however, as I was just passing and thought it a good time to drop in and meet you.
Think the matter over and if you wish to talk to me about it again, telephone me at your leisure. Good day, sir! I am happy to have had this opportunity of meeting you."
With this he bowed himself out without giving the head of the street car company a chance to say either yes or no. In fact the street car man had very little chance to do any talking. Dr. Harper did the talking. That was as he planned it to be. He went into the office merely to plant the seed, believing that it would germinate and spring into life in due time. His belief was not without foundation. He had hardly returned to his office at the University when the telephone rang. The street car man was on the other end of the wire.
He asked for an appointment with
Dr. Harper, which was granted, and the two met in Dr. Harper's office
the next morning, and the check for a million dollars was in Dr.
Harper's hands an hour later.
Despite the fact that Dr. Harper was a small, rather insignificant looking
man it was said of him that "he had a way about him that
enabled him to get everything he went after."
And as to this "way" that he was reputed to have had - what was it? It was nothing more nor less than his understanding of the power of Imagination. Suppose he had gone to the office of the street car head and asked for an appointment.