564
The Green Bag
returned from Germany, but after he had essayed some independent work of his own selection, his uncle volun tarily loaned him five thousand dollars with which he advised him to buy a mining property in Colorado. This the young man did and received two thou sand more with which to open the mine. Then he found to his chagrin that he had opened only a hole in the ground; that all of his engineering and mining skill, acquired at so great an expense, had gone for nothing. He had lost his uncle's money and had made a dismal failure of life. It did not seem so to his uncle. The judge promptly sent for the nephew, and his wife wrote an affectionate letter telling him not to bother about the lost money, that it was not a great amount, and that the Judge would not worry over it. When young Grant came to the presence of his uncle he was amazed to hear the older man say that he had expected the loss of the money and was rather glad of it because it would help to develop the bump of caution on his nephew's head. He then informed his nephew that he had planned to give each of his nephews and nieces the amount of twenty thousand dollars by will, but that he would give the share set apart for James B. Grant to him at that time, if the nephew would accept it, and go in partnership with him and build a smelter at Leadville to cost not less than forty thousand dollars. Judge Grant proposed to put up the other twenty thousand dollars himself. This proposition so astounded the young man that he thought he had better have a few days in which to consider it, and at the expiration of that time, he went back and told his uncle that he felt he could not accept the offer, that if it was all the same he would wait until his uncle's death for the money that was
coming to him. At this, the Judge laughed heartily, and said he would not be done out of his project to utilize the highly educated talents of his nephew in work with himself. He therefore submitted another proposition which was to the effect that he himself would supply all the capital and take all the risk, and that young Grant must go out and build the smelter and operate it, and if it should become profitable the two would become partners upon certain terms which were made by the originator and proposer of this daring enterprise. As the result of this last proposal on the part of Judge Grant, the young man went to Leadville, which was then in the beginning of its renown as a mining centre, and bought a prop erty which proved highly profitable. This was in the year 1877. During ninety days of operation of the smelter, in 1878, they made a profit of thirty thousand dollars, and in one month of 1879 they made thirty thousand dollars, and in 1880, after fifteen months and seven days they had three hundred and sixty thousand dollars profits. The judge got back his advancements with eighty thousand dollars profits, having made the most liberal allowance to his nephew for producing these splendid results. Judge Grant then became very much interested in mining enterprises and had at one time about half a million dollars invested in these properties. An extraordinary circumstance in his life was that when he was past the age of sixty years he went to the Boston Institute of Technology and took a course in metallurgy, placing himself on an equal footing with the other students and reciting with them. This required, of course, several months. Afterwards, when one of his friends inquired why he did this extraordinary thing, he stated
