The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1875-06-05
RUSSELL SAGE.
A Spicy Description of the Great Stock On
erHfor-How the +" Boys on Change Once
Handled Him.


of Jay Gould or Daniel Drew, but
whose influence is, on that account, not
less powerful, and that is the thin, dry,
angular Russell Sage. Truly speaking,
he Is even stronger man than Gould or
Drew, for he has neither a party nor
even friends, and is much more mistrust-
ed by the public at large than either
Gould or Drew. Consequently the
business success he achieves is due solely
to the efforts of his own person; and n
very characteristic person is Mr.. Sage.
He has been occasionally and some
what disrespectfully described as ga
cadaverous reptile, caught at the head
of the Hudson river navigation" mean
ing at Troy, where he used to hold,
years ago, the post of Aldermen or
something of that sort. How much
money he made there no one knows,
but the whole of Wall street is perfectly
aware that at the present moment
Russell Sage is the man who has more
available cash than any other person
down town. His fortune is estimated at
five or six millions; and 1t has been
made chiefly in selling puts" and
calls" He will sell them on any
stock, and to any amount; out when
the time comes to take them In, there is
no man so particular as hewith reference
to the details of the transactions. in re-
gard to the day, hour, and terms,
especially if he happens to be the losing
person. The small dealers trading in
'puts " and " calls - complain of hav
ing to look out very sharply in dealing
with him, and to be very stringent with
reference to the signature of the great
manipulation, for so long as he has not
appended his name to a contract he
does not consider it binding.
A person very different in his habits
from both Gould and Drew, he does
nearly all the office work himself. He
is his own confidential clerk, bookkeep-
er, and cashier; and is one of the first
men to appear at the office III the morn
! ing; while Daniel Drew and Jay Gould
carry on their operations much in the
| fashion of powerful potentates, tele-
graping orders to their cabinet minis
! ters from their private residences. In
the appearance of Mr.. Sage there is
nothing that would give the slightest
indication of his wealth. Dan Drew
wears at least a gorgeous seal skin coat
| in winter time: Jay Gould neverappears
without whole staff of his orderly Off
| GERS, headed by his General
Abide Camp, Charley Osborne;
while Russell Sage is never to
| be seen outside of the office, where he
has not even a private room, and sits by
the side of his solitary clerk. He has
even no Office of his own, for the room
he occupies belongs to the Milwaukee
and ST. Paul Railroad Company, of
which he is Vice President. A circular
lately issued by an opponent of his
Alexander Mitchell referred to this
fact in terms of reproach, saying that ii
was not proper for an official to use the
Office of his company for private specu-
lations, and especially for specializing
III the stock of the concern itself. But
Russell Sage does not seem to take
much notice of the complaint, and rc-
fers to a kind of statute Of antiquity,
saying that he has dealt in stocks for
years and years on these premises, and
that he means to continue to do so.
Another branch of Mr.. Sage's occIl-
patton is the lending of money at q
more or less comfortable rate of inter.
est, amounting sOmetimes-as was the
case during the panic-to one-half pei
cent. day. The oldest dealers III Wall
street do not remember time when
Russell Sage had not loose cash to lend,
when applied for with good securities
and readiness to pay high rate of IN
terest. But he never likes to lend less
than 100000, apparently considering 1t
beneath his dignity.
Until very lately MIR. Sage dealt on
the Exchange through brokers, some
of whom he induced to do his bust
ness for a much smaller commission
than is established by law. One OF
these brokers, who had been discov-
cred in doing this, was expelled from
the Exchange, and Mr.. Sage resolved,
for the sake of economy, to become
himself a member of the Board He
paid some S.. 200 for his seat, under
went some difficulty in getting elect
ed, but overcome all that, and has now
the privilege of either doing business
himself or of paying only one-thlrty-
second per cent. commission, instead
OF one-eiGhth per cent, to his broth
er brokers-through which economy he
realizes an immense saving i'll the long
run.
His election took place about a year
ago, but he never appeared on Change
until last Monday, when the election Of
a new President took place, and he had
TO give his vote. The Stock Exchange,
as is well known, preserves the laudable
custom of hazing new members, and
Mr. Sage had to pass the usual ordeal.
The moment he appeared III the hall the
air was rent with cries of "Here's Old
Honesty ~ 'LCOk out for your pocket
| books and watches !" "Knock his skull
in" and so on His hat was smashed
he was chased all around the Exchange
room, thrown against the bulletin
boards, and ill-used in different other
ways and manners, until the Chairman
of the board, Mr. Wheelock, came to
his rescue and carried him away, pale,
trembling, and considerably damaged
all over. The next day Mr.. Sage was
quite serene again, quietly selling his
"puts and "calls," and assuring
everybody that he understood perfectly
well that the little ill-usage he was ex-
posed to was simply joke on the part
of "the boys" Those, however, who
were present at this reception have ap
parently some reason to believe that
had it not been for Mr. Wheelock, Mr.
Sage would have probably been i'll
duced to take a somewhat different
view of gambols of those playful young
cubs and calves, whom he, IN common
with other full grown bulls and bears,
sometimes handles SO severely when
ever he gets chance to do SO III bust
ness transactions.
The Last of a Family Drowned.