The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-25
AQUARTET OF MILLIONAIRES
Personal characteristics and Business
Quarters of Four Rich New Workers.
Where Jay Gould Manipulates His Business
Affairs-Roswell P. Flower, Henry Clews
and Your Uncle Rufus Hatch.

New YORK. April % I'm Room No. 81 Of the
great Western Union Telegraph building, on
Broadway. sits a small black-eyed man, who is
probably more feared and hated than any other
fnancier in this country. OF course, it is Jay
Gould. Once proud to be the inventor of prom
Using mouse-trap, he is now worth $3.50, 600, 0o0
He is the real power in the Western Union Tele-
graph Company owning $32, 900 900 of the stock.
He is president of the Missouri Pacific and Mis-
souri,, Kansas & Texas railroads, and director
in the Wabash-that stencil in the nostrils of the
financial world-the Texas Pacific. the St
Louis Iron Mountain, and the Della
ware, Lackawanna & Western; not to
mention the Manhattan elevated road. and
the American Cable, which he largely controls,
and the stock certificates Of which bear his pho
tograph. Scrutinize this unique figure in mod
ern times that has come with steam and electric
ity. and your glance will be met by black eyes
of such piercing keenness as to seem endowed
with an auger like power of physical penetra-
ton His black beard is sprinkled with gray, he
wears derby hat, and does not often remove it.
in his Office; when he does. it is seen that he
is becoming quite bald. AS he talks he holds
his head little to one side and toys with slen-
der gold watch chain He is swift to hear and
slow to speak When he does speak 1t is in cor
rect, clean-cut and courteous sentences,
uttered slowly and in low tone
cool, and unreliable; his face gives no token of
how intelligence from the outer world affects
him; he seems as impervious to feeling as an en-
CINE on one of his railroads. He is purely and
solely man of intellect. He is great financial
chieftain who has gone forth conouering and to
conquer. He is quiet, reserved and unpreten-
tious. He cannot be fattered, certainly not by
the average person who essays the task. Once
in his presence, there is no difficulty in speaking
with him. Metternich said of the First Napo.
leon that there was no embarrassment in ex-
pressing himself plainly in conversation with the
couquerer of Austerlitz and there Is none In
speaking to this Napoleon of finance.
His life is bound up in his vast business He
has no social position though he isunderstood
to have sought social advancement for the sake
of his children. He has sought it in vain. The
doors of the best society are closed against him.
Even his vast wealth cannot procure him an
entrance to the circles where the Astors reign as
bright social consultations, even though skins
and pelts. and an illiterate boor were the original
motive power which pushed the family upward
to the seats Of the social elect. 1t is because of
Mr.. Gould's financial history that he finds the
best circles arrayed against him. His wealth is
as tropical garden, beautiful in riotous luxuri-
ance of rare vegetation, but with here and there
the trail of a serpent If Wall street speaks the
truth, the brave the generous and the faithful
have alike been stung to monetary death by
this financial cobra. He has few friends. He is
a millionaire Pariah.
His room in the Western Union building is
plainly furnished. and there he can usually be
found between the hours of 10 and 4. There he
holds the meetings Of the various corporations
in which he is the controlling power, and there
also he confers informally with officials of the
Gould railroads. as we'll as his telegraph inter
ests Now and then he shows distinguished
visitor through the great telegraph operating
room Of the Western Union company. He
seldom comes down town in coupe or returns
In such conveyance. He uses the elevated
railroad almost exclusively. On his
watch chain is a miniature wheel, which
serves as his pass on the aerial road. In the sum-
mer his steam yacht Atalanta, in which he re-
Gently cruised in Southern waters, is usually
stationed off the Battery, and at about o'clock
he goes on board and sails up to Irvington on the
Hudson, where he has fine place.
It was in this plainly furnished room 'on the
corner of Broadway and DEFY street. within sound
Of the jinslng horse-cars Of Jacob Sharp, and the
rattle and roar Of innumerable vehicles and the
tramp of an endless host, that Jay Gould fought
the great Western Union strike. and there on
the day after his recent arrival from the South
he was closeted with Russell Sage, discussing
the difficulties on his Southwestern roads.
There or at II Broadway he consults with Wash
ington Il. Conner as to operations in stock. Mr..
Conner being now. as he has been for years, his
trusted lieutenant, to whom is left the actual
conduct of his great campaigns. the buying and
the selling, and the thimble rigging Of the
market
At the head of Exchange court, opening out
of Exchange place pear, yet by its stiffness re-
mote, from Wall street well as clamorous
Broadway, closer at hand, are the Offices of one
of the ablest as well as one OF the most upright
of New York's millionares, Roswell P. Flower
He came to New York in 1869, and has been q
banker and broker ever since One of his sis
ters married Henry Keep, who died worth 81
600 900 and left the whole estate to the widow
Mr.. Flower showed such genuine ability as a
fnancier in managing the estate of his sis.e.s at
her request that others were raaay to trust him
with their funds, and thus arose the banking
Arm of Roswell P. Flower & Co. He comes
down town at 10 in the morning and leaves
at $3.50 in the afternoon. he is one of the direct
ors Of the Chicago & Rock Island railroad. He
dimes at Delmonico's daily. but is temperate In
his habits He is a member of the Manhattan
club, but is not, strictly speaking, club man;
he Is domestic in his tastes. He transacts in the
course of year very large business In the
Stock Exchange. and is also member Of the
Petroleum board; he Is understood to have not a
little to do with carrying on extensive oil specu
lations for various large operators IN Wall
street. when the market is at all active, and
among these spectators is Charles f. Woeris-
hotter, the famous "bear" operator In stocks. In
1881 Mr. Flower was elected to Congress, to fill
the unexpired term OF Levi P. Morton and he
may yet be heard OF still higher in public sta
ton. or course he declined the nomination
for Lieutenant GOV ernor of New York, last
year; the man who had been considered by his
friends worthy of the nomination for President
could not be gulled By the bauble which angling
politicians threw him. The boy who once labored
in brickyard has grown to be one Of the notable
figures in metropolitan life. His square built
frame pleasant face and genial manners are well
known in the best circles of New York. He was
once . volunteer fireman and retains. the Demo-
cratic amiability of old times. During the hours
of trading his offices in quiet Exchange court, in
front Of which stands a large gilded urn filled
with arbor vitae and other evergreens are the
scene of interesting activity, of hurrying brokers.
clerks and messengers intent on errands of the
unceasing campaigns in Wall street stock specu
laton.
Henry Clews Is one of the most indefatigabe
workers in Wall street, and he attributes his
success to that fact He ia strictlv a business