Achmed Abdullah

“ The car stopped at the entrance of the building on lower Fifth Avenue. He looked up at the big, solid, black-and-gold sign which bore his name and that of his partner:
Macdannald and Haddad
Oriental Rugs.
He looked up at it, touching his hat. It was a daily rite with him.
There it was. It marked an epoch in American trade. It meant achievement and wealth, and that broad, unquestioned, square-standing credit which is more than wealth. And he had made it, built it, bricked it together—he and his Syrian partner. ”

“ He read the cablegram over again, thinking and wishing as he thought that there might be something in the cabled message which would touch the chord of feeling which he craved subconsciously, and make it vibrate.
But he could not find it in his heart. It was not there, he decided; that was all. He missed the quality of the sublime; the quality which gilds even sorrow and lights up resignation. ”

“ Big success, my dear, is not a single, grim, continuous sacrifice to the sharp little gods of fine, searching detail. Take my own business. The Persian artist who can merely sit on a stool and weave those silken, flowered dreams of his into rugs, would never make a salesman, nor the salesman a manager; never. In such a one there must be the artist, the dreamer, the doer, and the organizer—all of them, in one or more degrees of strength. ”

“ Here was a successful business man, in the prime of life and glowing with health—and he wanted a treatment to make him feel and understand the common emotions of happiness and unhappiness, of joy and grief, which are at the cradle of the human heart, of Creation itself. ”

“ It was just another chapter of American business success, American, though the first and last chapter of it was written by a Scot and edited by a Syrian. But it was American just the same, because the land itself had made it possible; no other land could. And so it blazed its message and its sterling hallmark on that solid, square shield:
Macdannald and Haddad
Oriental Rugs.
His partner was in the office. He was a slight, tall man, with keen, brown eyes, and a smile which was rarely absent from his full lips. ”

“ Rugs? Only an accident. I made a success of them, I know. I shall sell out to-morrow, and settle here, center everything here, and make a success here—and happiness and contentment for you and me. Remember what I said, that the successful man must be a doer as well as a dreamer. Now, here—with you —I shall give the dreamer in me a chance. ”