Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-04-01
GOTHAM GOSSIP.
New York Millionalrss And Their
SpecaIations.
THE CAREER OF JOHN RUSSELL SAGE,
With Random Notes on His Rivals In Wall
Strset-How Sage Made His
-. Fostune-financiai
Situation.

were asked who Is the seconu ricness
man in this country, what would he
answer? Probably, if he were pretty
well informed, he would say: Jay
Gould. But he would be mistaken,
I think. 1t is the general opinion on
Wall street that
Russell Sage,
with S75,OOO,OOO to his credit, comes
next to Vanderbilt, and that Jay Gould
follows Sage, several millions behind.
I desire In this letter to tell some
thing about Russell Sage, or "Old Strad-
de-" as be is familiarity and euphonl'
ously called on the street-certainly one
of the most remarkable men of this
generation. A man who began with
nothing and has added to it until his
income is at the very least SIS min
ute. waking and sleeping, has lived q
life which is worth study and full OF
interest. He is still quite young enough
to double his property again; and there
he lives, in big house up Fifth Ave
nue., with no family but frugal wife.
1 wonder who will inherit his vast
wealth, and where it will be fifty years
from now. know a person who would
appreciate it very much; but Mr.. Sage
is in danger of overlooking him, and
modesty prevents me from mentioning
his name.
The least remarkable thing about
Russell Sage Is that he Is self-made-
that he became poor. This Is the COM
mon lot of all Americans of genius TO-.
day, and it is almost uniformly true OF
prominent men in this city. Peter
Cooper was hatter's apprentice; Chas.
O'Conor was born in shanty. OF the
poorest of Irish parents II. b. Claliin,
who now pays his confidential clerk
sos, 600 a year, was Vermont school
teacher; Leonard Jerome was prin-
ter; Henry Willard was reporter; John
G. Moore ran away from home to start
himself in life; James Watson Webb
was clerk in country store; ID. Apple
ton once kept grocery store in Haver-
hill, Mass. James r. Keene came to
this country with $40 in his pocket;
CYRUS Mccormick was miller's boy;
Rufus Hatch began by dealing in gar
den sass"
Jay Could was Cowboy
on a rugged farm of Delaware county !;
William H. Vanderbilt, at thirty, was
Commodore Vanderbilts thriftless son,
| trying in vain to get a living on q
Staten Island farm, while his father
freely alluded to him in common con-
| yersatiOn AS fool"
So Russell Sage was born on very
DOOR farm in Verona, Oneida county,
New York, August 10, 1916. His par
ents, of course, were from Connecticut.
The wooden nutmeg State has strong
| breeding qualities. Almost everybody's
father was Connecticut man. Thur
| low Weeds father was Connecticut
man. Governor Morgan's father was
| Connecticut man. Beecher's father
was Connecticut man. The father OF
| CYRUS w. Field and David Dudley
| Field was Connecticut man. Daniel
| Drew's father was Connecticut man.
Samuel J. Tilden's father was a Con-
necticut man. Sidney billions father
was a Connecticut man Erastus Corn
| ing's father WAS a Connecticut man.
| General Sherman's father was Con-
necticut man. General Grants father
was Connecticut man. And, when
you come to that, my father was Con-
necticut man.
There are something more than mere
| condolences.
On Monday called on the subject of
this sketch at his Office in the famous
ramshackle of a building at Il Broad:
way, looking down on Trinity's old
churcbyard, Jay Gould occupies the
front rooms, Russell Sage the offices
next, and then the Manhattan Railroad
Company. There are not fewer than
Fifteen MilliOnaires
in this old building, and their aggregate
property would foot up over 100000
900. There are probably twenty States
in the Union any one of which the men
in this building could buy and pay
every dollar down. From the side o.
the door which l sought, small plain
wooden sign projected into the morrow
hall-bearing the name Russell Sage"
] entered and was in an outer office
where q dozen clerks were active be-
hind desks, and several brokers TALL
under 30, l should think walked anXi-
ously up and down, pausing every mo.
meut to examine the tape that flowed
from the ticking stock reporter by the
| wall. NV card was taken and the mes.
senger presently returned and let me
through to the room. Mr.. Sage, whom
l had Oftense upon the streets, greeted
and seated me, handed me paper, and
said, ~ will see you in five minutes
| He was talking with Mr.. Lawyer, the
Cooper Union evangelist, about getting
| some poor reformed drunkards out
West, where they "could have q
| chance"
Outs ide the window where / sat was
the grave of Alexander Hamilton-s
broad pedestal of brown sandstone sup
porting huge monolith of marble sur.
mounted by a pyramid, and ornamented
only with antique funeral urns at the
corners. The room was plainly fur.
nished, with three or four Autographs
on the walls, and Mr.. Sage sat at q
SQUIRE table covered with thirty or forty
piles of little envelopes as large as 9
visiting card, each pile belonging to q
seperate broker, aud each envelope bear.
| ing his name. There were so many Of
these piles that there was hardly room
for the great speculator to write. He
is a tall, thin man, inclined to bony
aspect, chestnut hair, grown thin at the
top and combed forward over the ears, q
long crooked nose that might have
been slightly warped in following some
elusive rumOr around
The Wall Street Corner,
small gray eyes that almost shut up
when they look at you, smooth.
shaven face Sith brownish grayish
whiskers around under his chin from
ear to ear like Horace Greeley and
Peter Cooper, a plain black scarf and a
$40 suit of clothes. He has the nervous
bilious temperament-active, strong,
self. D ossessed-the temperament pos
sessed by almost all overmastering men.
He talks like lightning--so fast that
| the words tumble over each other, and
he frequently goes back to pick them
up.
AS took this inventory, the evange-
| list, rising to go, showed me passes to
| the West, and letters to Sindey Dillon
and Henry Willard, recommending
half-rate tickets, with the comment,
"That's the kind of a man he Is. ]
never come here in vain"