The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1875-05-28


With the dying sun.
The mind has thousand eyes,
And the heart but one,
Yet the light Of whole life dies
When love is done.
MISCELLANY.
WALL Street SKETCHES.
How Russell Sage Became Broker
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 Of
Jay Gould or Daniel Drew, but whose in.
auence is, on that account, not less pow
er1ul, 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 duo solely to the efforts Of his
own person; and very characteristic
person is Mr.. sage.
He has been occasionally and somewhat
unexpectedly described az "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 sort. How
much money he made there no
one knows, but tho 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 ut five or six millions {;
and it has been made chiefly in selling
:.'puts'' 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 50 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 to 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 considcr
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, bookkeeper and
cashier; and is one of the first men to
appear At the Office in tho morning, while
Drew and Gould carry on their opera.
tiols much in the fashion of potentates.
telegraphing orders to their cabinet min.
listers from their private residences. In
the appearance Of Mr.. Sage there ia moth.
ing that would give the slightest indica.
ton Of his wealth. Dan Drew wears 1t
least gorgeous seal.skin coat in winter
time; Jay Gould never appears without
whole staff Of his orderly officers, head
cd by his General Abide Camp, Charley
Osborne; while Russell Sage is never to
be seen outside Of the Office, where he has
not cen private room, and sits by the
side d his solitary clerk. He has even no
office Of his own, for tho room he occu.
pies belongs to the Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railroad Company. of which he il
Vice President. A circular lately issued
by an opponent Of his, Alexander Mitch.
ell, referred to this fact in terms Of re-.
proach. saying that it was not proper for
an official to use the Office Of his company
for private speculations, and especially
for specializing in the stick of tho con.
Germ itself. But Russell Sage does not
seem to take much notice Of the conf laint
and refers to kid of statute Of antioui.
ty, saying that he has dealt in stocks for
years on these premises, and that he
means to continue to do so.
Another branch Of Mr.. Sage's occupa.
ton is the lending Of money 1T moro or
less comfortable rate Of interest, amount.
sometimes-as was the case during tho
panic-to one.half per cent. a day. The
oldest dealers in Wall street do not re.
member time when Russell Sage had
not loose cash to lend, when applied for
with good securities and readiness to pay
high rate Of interest. But he never
~ considering it beneath his dignity, On
the other hand, in calculating interest or
IN settling an account for stock privileges
no Will squeeze every cent he possibly
can out OF his customers.
1t must be said, however, that he does
not makany secret Of his views on bust.
ness matters. Hypocrisy has never en-.
tered into his composition. You have
only to look at him to see half per cent.
day. written all over his bony. parch.
ment'liko conntenance. No end
Of people are just As greedy
and as fond of making money
as Russell Sage is; but they try to con.
ceal their natural p"oclivities under more
Or less soft and winning mannar. S,uo
Of them patrohize churches and sub:
scribe to charities, or entertain people
and exhibit social proclivities. In Rus.
sell Sage there is no humbug of tina, Sort
he has never been known to subscribe to-
ward anything, to have rum any
church. or to nave exhibited any ten.
dency toward social enjoyment, except
when there was business side to il. and
even on such occasions he greatly prefers
being a guest to being host. There is
a story going around in Wall street to the
effect that his notions Of domestic
,onomy 60 SO far that big hole has
been trodden in the carpet of his
dining room, much to the
dread Of his visitors, who feel con.
SANITY great apprehension Of be.
coming entansled in it. and that when
one of his friends made, thanks to that
hole, = stumbling and rather fat entry
into the apartment, Mrs. Sage remarked
that she had frequently called her hus.
bands attention to tho necessity of ) re
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