A man of keen intelligence, great knowledge of stock, commercial shrewdness and a military tactician's power of combination … He forgets nothing and superintends everything. He trusts nobody" he coerces, persuades and manipulates everybody. He has the terms of all contracts. He keeps the various parties in hand. Toiling every day and half the night, he does the work of two or ten men [so] that in a comparatively few years, out of a salary of £300, he saves as much as £2,000 or sometimes £3,000. He is usually rewarded by being taken into partnership or by becoming a runholder himself.