St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-15
A Representative of the Globe Graphic
ally Sketches the Financial Career
Of Phil Armour,
Who Laid the Foundation Of His Millions
in Buying Pigs and Selling
Pork,
Traces of the Fine Italian Hand of a
Man Who Leads I'm Specula-
tive Operations.
His Wealth Estimated at SIS ,OOO,-
600 To 100000, OOO--His
EccentricIties.
APen picture OF Phil Armour.

4
Armour. or Phil" as most people here
aboutS persist In calling him. There are
rumOrs that the big pig-Sticker Is planning
bold strOke-nOthing less than cOmbina-
ton between the ST. Paul railroad aud one
of the small Eastern lines, this combination
To be for Interchange of business i'm general
and for dressed meat shipments in par
tieular. In and about the big board OF
trade building the prediction is freely made
that Armour will yet beat the trunk lines
and force them 10 recede from their posi-
ton, which is so adverse TO the interests OF
the meat shippers. This combination may
be with the Baltimore Il Ohio. whose young
president is so frisky as to make all of the
pool men very fearful of him, with the
Chicago & Atlantic people, with the
dressed
MEAT MEMS OLD FRIEND,
the Grand Trunk. or with Huntington
via Cincinnati To Newport News. Hunt
ingtOn is reaching i'm this direction, and his
seaport is no farther from Chicago than
New York. The market for Chicago fresh
meat is principally in the Atlantic coast
cities and in Europe. and Newport would
thus be convenient shipping point. Ar
mOur has money, brains and nerve. He is
probably the richest man west of New
York and Philadelphia. and east Of Cali
fOruia. He Is rated at about Sl5. 900. 900.
and one of his intimate friends and trusted
brokers tells ME that he has reason TO be
lieve that Armour is worth nearer $50. 0OO.-
600. He Is keener, bOlder and more intui-
tive than he was in 1864. when he packed
his whole fortune into n gripSack. went
down TO New York and sold pork right and
left 10 the tune of million or more clear
profit. The fall of Richmond knocked pork
from about $40 down to SIS, and lifted the
Western pig-killer into the ranks of million
aired men. 1t is not generally known that
Armour decided upon this great venture
after but few hours meditation. 1t was
almost an inSpiTatiOn-such an inspiration
as comes to the intujtive man, and the bold
man profits by. Some of
ARMOUR's GREAT DEALS
within the past few years have been as
quickly planned and executed. A few
months ago he heard that the largest glue
factory i'm the West. that of Wahl Bros.
was for sale. He jumped into his carriage.
drove TO the Wahl's office. asked their price
the same day sent two experts to look over
the property and the next day made his
offer. The siow-going Wallis spent nearly
a week considering the proposition, but so
far as ArmOur's part in the transaction was
concerned it was finished in twenty-fOur
hours. About $500 600 was involved i'm
this bargain. Less than one weeks cOnsid-
Grafton was given to the proposition OF
Alexander Mitchell To take him into the St.
Paul directory. Many guesSes have been
made as TO the amount of money Armour
put into st. Paul, outright and on margins
but l have it almost from his own lips that
the sum Appropriated 81, 900, 900. He
bought So, 500, 600 of common stock. paying
cash. az d put a freight car full of money
into Wall street on margins. If he has
made cent out of st. Paul he has
MADE 100000
1t is characteristic of Armour that he
rarely speeculates, pure and simply. His
speculative operations are nearly always
parallel with his legitimate business inter
estS- Pork and lard have always been his
mainstays, but he was at home there be-
cause he owns the largest hOg-killing estab-
liShment in the world. And, likewise. he
went into St. Paul not only as a bear in
Wall street, but as an investor i'm the shares
OF the company and as member or the
directory. Yet Armour is an ideal specu-
latOr. He works by no rule, and even his
custom OF making actual investment and
margin speculation side by side Is varied by
his magnificent deals in wheat. He keeps
dozen firms of brokers almost constantly
in the shadow OF the great town of the
worlds grain market who do not OCCASION
ally enjoy orders from the prince of pork
Armour is
NOT sECRETIvE OR FOXY,
but he employs so many brokers that the
shrewdest operators ind it very difficult to
keep track OF his movements. Every few
weeks there Is a sudden awakening among
the smaller fry to the fact that Armour is
behind deal where Armour was never
dreamed of. He is an ideal speculatOr, be-
cause he refuses to fritter away his
strength. He is not ''scalper." He al
ways shoots for big game, and usually hits
the mark. He can drop a bad venture and
start shooting at a new target from under
cover quite as quick as a man whose ven
lures are dollars to his thousands, and
whose aim Is for half cents where his is for
wide. fat settlements. His general policy
is to stay out of the market until he per
ceiyes an opportunity for a coup. Then he
moves quickly and boldly. His chances to
win are usually as
THREE TO ONE
to his risk of failure. Though intuitive and
even impulsive he never goes IN when the
ground is not as familiar to him as the floor
of his own Office. where he sits eleven
hours day. lie never bets on another
mans game and stays out of jack-pOts
unless he can open them himself. He does
not venture his money on the fluctuations
OF the market, but puts in the lever OF his
millions and endeavOTs to move the market
his way. With all his holiness he possesses
admirable caution, as is shown by the fact |
that his Wall street operations are TigidIy |
confined to ST. Paul. 1 have written that |
Amour remains i'm his office eleven hours a |
day, and this is the truth. He is a worker |
from working family. The stroke of six |
gets him out of bed In his $40, 600 residence |
for this business and
SPECULATIVE LEADER
of interior America lives as plainly as a !
and at o'clock sharp his |
bay team drives up to the portals of the ten |
story palace in which he rents his Office. |
In one big room with his goo desks he sits |
till 8 in the evening, and is in bed by 9. |
Before most spectators have finished their |
morning coffee he has read the morning |
papers and the cable dispatches from his |
agents and correspondents i'm /
Europe. By 10 o'clock he has done a half !
days work. and when trading opens on the |
board he is perhaps the best-informed man |
having business i'm connection with IL. /
There are no partitions In his Office and |
Armour and his clerks work together
NO CALLER CooLs HIS HEELS
in the ante-rOOm of this pig pOtentate Ar !
mour is frank even to bluntness. He loves |
epgrams and hOmely illustrations. His /
now famous Almighty in cOpartnership |
with every trader in ST. Paul stock" is a |
sample Of the gems which almost hourly |
fall from his lips. He is a good story |
teller. too, and even INDUCES in an Occa-
siOnal pun. He likes to laugh and to make |
others laugh, and one of mis- associates told |
me that one day last year, while Armour
was telling a particularly good story, his |