The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1885-02-12
DEATH OF 8. 3, MERRILL.

| DEATH or 8. 3, MERRILL.
He Breathed Els Last on Sunday Morning
Characteristics Of Man Who Rose
from Brakeman to General Manager.
sherburne s Merrill died in Milwa ukee at
1920 last Sunday morning, aged sixty-seven
years. He suffered . third paralytc stroke
! last Tuesday, and his death since that
time has been almost hourly expected
! To the thirty thousand or more employees
of the Chicago, Milwaukee L. St. Paul Rail
way company, General Manager Merrill was
commonly known as @The Old Man" The
sobrquet was an indication of the character
! OF the great manager, not of his age;
for the appellation originated in a
general and remarkable regard, which
the term itself indicates was filial in it's char
acter. Probably no commander of troops
! ever welded an equal army OF men SO thor
oughly loyal to single Individual In proof
! of this, it may be noted that strikes have
been entirely unknown to the experience of
the railway company which Mr.: Merrill has
developed from insignificant beginnings into
the greatest corporation of it's kind on the
acquaintance or often contact with Mr.: Mer-
I'LL can fully comprehend the degree of
: power which he could exercise over other
men, or bodies of men, at his will.
The faculty was not based upon
diplomacy, for few men were more candid in
any sort Of negotiations; it was not the result
. OF oratOrY or manners, for he was careless of
speech, and abrupt at all times; it did not
come from studied effort, for conscious
strength Of will and mind were Unborn in the
man 1t was due wholly to his always evil
dent determination as Indicated IN
the observation-disclosures gray eye, the
firmly drawn lips and erect posture-he
was built in straight lnes-to be just to him
self as well as others S5ren 9Th of purpose
was always noticeable III every line OF face,
matter how trivial the business at hand
might be-. He lacked grace or dignity but
made up for it tenfold by force of dignity.
These were elements which compelled re-
veneration in which he was held by all of his
subordinates Back of all his mind and
; will power was natural adaptibility. so to
speak, to persons. In his presence the new
est brakeman on the line would be relieved
of all mbarrassment-even If 1.-The old man"
was venting his rage at some dereliction of
duty-for there was always a subtle some
thing In the great managers manner
which seemed to say, Stand on your
own responsibility and be a man, is
the slightest tendency to familiarity, he
naturally treated every man in his employ as
though he considered him as good as king
if he was good enough to occupy place or
position with him. He elevated his men to
his own level-for the time being, at least
instead Of descending to theirs; and it made
him the idol he was. Mr.. Merrill's
SUCCESS IN PREvEsTING STRIKES"
has long been noted, has been striven for
by other large employers, but has not been
achieved. And it is equally we'll known that
he has never been com PEELED to grant speci-
ned conditions when trouble has threatened.
During the great railway strikes of few
years ago Mr.. Merrilrs management was
put to the test: Early one August morn
ing four or five hundred men marched
their guild hall on Wisconsin street.
held a sec1et meeting and resolved to
follow the example of their Chicago breth-
rem unless certain conditions of time or pay
were changed to meet the demands of other
strikers Mr.. Merrill was, of course, appraised
Immediately of what was going on "Oh,"
said he. sthe boys are all right, and will go
back to work after they have appointed
committee to come and see the Old Man
Soon the communication of course one was
appOinted-Waited upon the manager A
number of persons were in Er: Merrill'a
; office when the committee arrived, and all
! were requested to leave, Mr.. Merrill
! saying: @My boys always like to
/ see me alone at our family gatherings"
! The committee, composed Of five men, was
| met at tho doorway by the manager, who adj
dressed each and every by his sirname, and
invited them in with the remark: I'VE must
hurry through this meeting, so that you can
get back to work at 1 o'clock, :" implying, of
course, that strike was not among the pos
sibilities. In about ten minutes the COM
mittee came out, returned to their hall ond
reported that there was no use of thinking
about striking, &for the Old Man wouldn't
hear to it nohow."
"Does he agree tn the demands Of the resoln
mo. He wouldn't agree to anything, only
he drives up that way this afternoon" '
In the discussion that followed the COM
mittee could not give any clear idea of the
why or wherefore, but unanimously argued
work, "because the Old Man said So" And
: after 6wo or three speakers had admitted
that "whatever the Old Man said was best,
was always true" the meeting adjourned
| and the men returned TO work, confident
that in some way Mr. Merrill would set
things right, in his own good time and pleas
ure. This is a fair illustration of the begin
ming and end of all @labor troubles" between
Mr.. Merrill and his men.
HIS RELATIONS WITH NEWSPAPER MEN.
and favorable reputation generally on the
part of newspaper man, before much prog.
ress could be made toward the good gracet
of Mr.. Merrill When John C. Gault was his
assistant the interviewer was invariably
turned over to that gentleman's genial
iarly without letting any news es
cape. Later B. G.: Lennox, who has long
been sort of good right hand to the
great manager, has pretty efectually barred
the way between Merrill and reportorial in
quisitioh. But when it did happen that Mr..
Merrill was favorably disposed toward par
ticular reporter, he would take good deal
of personal pleasure in affording that individ-
ual opportunities for Scoops" being one Of
the few human beings who have existed out
able to comprehend the Importance of first
place in the race for news Generally, he was
considered by newspaper men about as hard
to corner as Ben Butler or Vanderbilt How
! ever, Mr. Merrill fully appreciated the power
of the press and when he had news to give
out which related to the concerns of his
company he was painstaking in giving the
information to reporters that even slightest
! errors in statement might be avoided At
such times he invariably expressed his
thanks to the reporter, seeming to appreciate
that bis company was the debtor, a conclu-
sion that many railway magnates always fail
! to arrive at
j. B. Olcott expresses the opinion that going
hungry to bed is poor business for dyspep-
: tic If he can command fresh air in sleeping
room, by himself, and can got the food that al
ways satisfies his reasanable appetite: That
ought to make = man sleep % Ill animals sleep
when they are well fed.
i !" fue&eaa 4saoco on Youth. 81
d. G: Dssaisne has made special observa-
:tiolsof. tho snecta tobacco in thirty-eight
! youths, from 9 to1o years old, who were ad-,,
dicted to smoking. With twenty two OF the
boys there was distinct disturbance of the
circulation, with palpitation of the heart, de-
fciencies of digestion, sluggishness Of the in
in thirteen instances the pulse was intermit-
tent Analysis of the blood showed in eight
cases notable falling off in the normal number
i of red corpuscles Twelve boys suffered fire.
quently from bleeding of the nose. Ten CON-
mare. Four boys had liberated mouths, and