The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-05-25

Yet the light of whole life dies
When love is done.
WALL Street SKETCHES.
From the New York SUM-
Among the leading Wall street manipu-
lators there is one whose name is not so
frequently before the public as that 1of
Jay Gould or Daniel Drew, but whose in.
f1uence is, on that account, not less pow
erful, and that is the thin, dry, angular
Russell Sage. Truly speaking, he is even
a stronger man than Gould or Drew, for
he has neither party nor even friends,
and is much more mistrusted by the pub.
lie at large than either Gould or Drew.
Consequently the business success he
achieves is due solely to the efforts of his
own person; and very characteristic
person is Mr.. sage.
He has been occasionally andsomewhat
unexpectedly described as "a cadaverous
reptile, caught at the head of the Hudson
river navigation meaning at Troy,where
he used to hold. years ago, the post Of
alderman or something of that scot. How
much money he made there no
one knows, but 1.-The whole Of Wall
street is perfectly aware that the
present moment Russell Sage is the
man who has more available cash than
any other person down town. His for
tune is estimated at five or six millions :;
and it has been made chiefly in selling
''pu1s'' and 'cal!s,'' He will sell them
on any stock, and to any amount; but
when the time comes to take them in,
there is no man so particular as he with
reference t. the details of the transactions
in regard to the day, hour and terms, es.
pecially if he happens to be the losing
person. The small dealers trading in
'puts'' and "calls'' complain of having to
look out very sharply in dealing with him,
and 10 be very stringent with reference
to the signature Of the great manipulation,
for so long as he has not appended his
name to contract he does not consider
it binding.
A person very different in his habits
from both Gould and Drew, he does near
" all the Office work himself. He is his
own confidential clerk, bookkecper and
cashier and is one of the first men to
appear at the office in the morning, while
Drew and Gould carry on their opera
tio1;s much in the fashion Of potentates,
tclegraphing orders to their cabinet min
listers from their private residences. In
the appearance of Mr.. Sage there is moth.
ing that would give the slightest indica.
ton of his wealth. Dan Drew wears at
least gorgeous seal-skin coat in winter
time: Jay Gould never appears without
whole staff of his orderly officers, head:
ed by his General Aid-deCamp, Charley
Osborne while Russell Sage is never to
be seen outside of the Office, where he has
not even private room, and sits by the
side Of his solitary clerk. He has even nc
Office of his own, for the room he occu.
pies 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 Mitch
eli, referred to this fact in terms of re-
proach, saying that it was not proper fol
an official to use the Office of his company
for private speculations, and especially
for specializing in the stack of the con
Germ itself. But Russell Sage does MOI
seem to take much notice of the complaint
and refers to kid of statute of antiqui
ty, saying that he has dealt in stocks fo1
lyears on these premises, and that h,
means to continue to do so.
Another branch of Mr.. Sage's occupa
ton is the lending Of money at more o.
less comfortable rate of interest, amount
sometimes-as was the case during tn
panic-to one-half per cent. day. TIL
oldest dealers in Wall street do not re
member time when Russell Sage ha,
not loose cash to lend, when applied 70
with good securities and readiness to pa,
high rate Of interest. But he neve
likes to lend less than 100000, apparent
ly considering it beneath his dignity. O
the other hand, in calculating interest Q
r in settling all account for stock privilege
he will squeeze every cent he possibl
| can out of his customers.
It must be said, however, that he doc
J., not makany secret Of his views on bus
ness matters. Hypocrisy has never e,
| tered into his composition. You ha,
r only to look at him to see half per cen
: a day. written all over his bony, parc]
e ment-Iikc conntenance. No en-
/ Of people are just as greco
d and as fond of making none
e as Russell Sage is; but they try to CO.
r ceal their natural proclivities under mo
t or less soft and winning manners. Son