The rewards of abstinence

“. . . There are so many snags that most of the smart-money boys worry themselves to death—like the first Sir John Ellerman, the smartest of the lot in his day: he successfully exploited three wars, bought low and sold high in every market, from newspapers and ships to weekly periodicals, breweries, and real estate, and died of a stroke at 71 owning property worth maybe ten millions in a slump, fifty millions in a boom, and thirty millions as the tax-gatherer finally assessed his estate for death duties.”

Strand Magazine, April, 1943.