“And what do you do with yourself in the evenings?” I inquired.

He seemed a little disconcerted by this perhaps unaccustomed bluntness.

“Oh,” he said, casually, “I read insurance literature.”

He had the conscious mien and manners of a reigning prince.  His courtesy and affability were impeccable and charming.  In the most profound sense this human being had succeeded, for it was impossible to believe that, had he to live his life again, he would live it very differently.

Such a type of man is, of course, to be found in nearly every country; but the type flourishes with a unique profusion and perfection in the United States; and in its more prominent specimens the distinguishing idiosyncrasy of the average American successful man of business is magnified for our easier inspection.  The rough, broad difference between the American and the European business man is that the latter is anxious to leave his work, while the former is anxious to get to it.  The attitude of the American business man toward his business is pre-eminently the attitude of an artist.  You may say that he loves money.  So do we all—­artists particularly.  No stock-broker’s private journal could be more full of dollars than Balzac’s intimate correspondence is full of francs.  But whereas the ordinary artist loves money chiefly because it represents luxury, the American business man loves it chiefly because it is the sole proof of success in his endeavor.  He loves his business.  It is not his toil, but his hobby, passion, vice, monomania—­any vituperative epithet you like to bestow on it!  He does not look forward to living in the evening; he lives most intensely when he is in the midst of his organization.  His instincts are best appeased by the hourly excitements of a good, scrimmaging commercial day.  He needs these excitements as some natures need alcohol.  He cannot do without them.

[Illustration:  ABSORBED IN THAT WONDROUS SATISFYING HOBBY]

On no other hypothesis can the unrivaled ingenuity and splendor and ruthlessness of American business undertakings be satisfactorily explained.  They surpass the European, simply because they are never out of the thoughts of their directors, because they are adored with a fine frenzy.  And for the same reason they are decked forth in magnificence.  Would a man enrich his office with rare woods and stuffs and marbles if it were not a temple?  Would he bestow graces on the environment if while he was in it the one idea at the back of his head was the anticipation of leaving it?  Watch American business men together, and if you are a European you will clearly perceive that they are devotees.  They are open with one another, as intimates are.  Jealousy and secretiveness are much rarer among them than in Europe.  They show off their respective organizations with pride and with candor.  They admire one another enormously.  Hear one of them say enthusiastically of another: