THE HABIT OF SAVINGafforded, I had to have a stable, with all that goes with it.
This outfit cost me nearly one-fourth of my annual income.
Then I took up golE This was in my forty-first year. I went
at my play the same way I went at my work-put my whole
heart into it. I learned to play pretty well. My son and elder
daughter played with me, and they learned to play well, too.
It was necessary that my younger daughter should spend
the winter in the South and summers in the Adirondacks; but
instead of her mother going with her alone, I felt it would be
fine if the son and other daughter went along with them. This
arrangement was carried out. They went to Pinehurst, North
Carolina, every winter and to expensive resorts in the Adiron-
dacks or in New Hampshire in the summer.
All of this took a great deal of money. My son and elder
daughter were keen about golf and spent a lot of money on
it. I also disbursed quite a little on golf courses around New
York. Between the three of us we won eighty prizes, most of
which are now in storage. I sat down one day and calculated
what these prizes had cost me. I discovered that each trophy
had cost me $250 or a total of $45,000 over a period of fifteen
years, an average of $3,000 a year. Ridiculous, wasn't it?
I entertained lavishly at my home. Montclair folks thought
I was a millionaire. I frequently invited groups of businessmen
to have a day of golf at the club, and then to have dinner with
me in the evening. They would have been satisfied with a plain
home dinner, but, no, I must serve them an elaborate affair
staged by a famous caterer. These dinners never cost less than
ten dollars a plate, which did not include the money spent for
music while they were dining. I had a quartet come to the house.
Our dining room comfortably seated twenty people, and it was
filled to capacity many times.
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