The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-18
THE SUCCESS OF A LIFE.
lErastus R. Wiman, the New York MILF
ionaire-W What a Poor Boy Has Done.
The Deserted Village of Manhattan-SOciety
off at the ResOrts-Margaret Mathers
Scheme to Talk with Her Lover.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journak
A Notable Financier.

A Notable Financier.
NEW York July 16-One of the most notable
figures that see hurrying through that human
sea, Broadway, is man slightly under the
medium height in gray business suit, with
.Sacqueminot rose in his button-hole and an IN
tent, earnest. yet good-natured expression on MS
Engiish-looking features. In his mutton-cnop
whiskers he looks like a Londoner, but his activ-
" is that of born American. 1t is Erastus
Wiman. He is one of the numerous foreigners
who have won wealth and distinction in this
country. Alexander Hamilton in statesmanship
Albert Gallatin in finance, A I. Stewart in
trade, Farragut in war; and now comes a man
from Canada whose name is already well known
in the United States fnancier and the or
ganizer of various business projects he was
born in 1884 in a little village near Toronto. In
the summer months he worked In the fields for
80 cents week; in the winter he picked up
scanty school education His best education
was in a printing Office in Toronto, where he
obtained employment as boy OF fifteen. he
remained there till he was nineteen, acting first
as roller-by for an old-style Adams press, and
finally as type-setter. His wages ranged from
81. Is to So a week.
1.-THE proudest day of Erastus Wiman's life "
said one who knows him well, was the day that
he threw into his widowed mothers lap the sum
weeks wages Throughout his whole apprentice
ship the same disposition was made of every
dollar he earned. for they were very poor. he
had younger sister but no brother to share the
burden with him. He has told me with glisten-
ing eyes how, when he had achieved the great
earning power of five dollars per week,
he aud his sister walked the streets of
Toronto looking into all the milliners
windows to select bonnet for the dear
mother that she might go to church on the fol-
lowing Sunday and with what pride the adorn-
ment was selected and presented. Long before
he himself owned house the good moth er and
sister were comfortably settled in home OF
their own. and years before he himself could ar
ford carriage one had been provided for his
mother who, in her advanced years, had become
lame and unable to walk With such principle
Of sef-Sacrfce, and such industry as he early
manifested. success was only question OF
time"
Leaving the printing -office, he joined the staff
of the Toronto Globe, as a commercial writer
and compiler of statistics. These duties brought
him in contact with large number of business
men, In time his acquaintance extended to all
the leading merchants and bankers of Canada
When II. Ct. Dun & Co. extended the opera
tions of their mercantile agency to Canada,
young Wiman was employed as one OF their
trusted assistants: In a few years he became
the Canadian head of the business. In 1865 he
came to New York, as one of the leading mem
bers of the firm now known as Dun, Barlow Il
Co., in New York, and Dun, Wiman & Co., in
Canada His experience in the metropolis has
beon as interesting as his success has been
marked. He is always ready to help the needy,
and bis sympathies are especially warm towards
Canadians He is president of the Canadian
Club OF this city; in his fine house at New
Brighton, Staten Island, are numerous speci-
mems of Canadian art he has spent considerable
sums in encouraging Canada's national game of
lacrosse he has used all his influence and adroit-
ness in prompting the success of the winter car
hiyals in Montreal, whittier some fifteen or
twenty thousand Americans have been induced
to go and spend, as the Canadians compute,
not less than half million dollars in season.
He has done much to establish Canadian col
ony in the United States by giving employment
10 Canadians in his agency business all over the
country. He has, am told, Jog branch Offices,
and fifty Of these have Canadian managers who,
In turn. have looked after their fellow country
men. Erastus Wiman is the head and front of
the firm known as Dun, Barlow 81 Co. Under
his administration it's revenues have increased
TO two millions of dollars annually. He prints a
book four times year, containing, believe, O
million names and requiring forty tons of type to
print It. He is director Of the Western Union
Telegraph Company and pays nothing for his
kilograms
Mr. Wiman has in recent years given much at
tention to the enlargement of the harbor of New
York and to the development of Staten Island.
He Is president of the Staten Island railroad,
and controls the ferry company which acts in
conjunction with It, A few years ago Staten
Island was little known to New Workers.. The
trips by the ferry were few, and the means of
transportation on the island primitive Now
the ferry make thirty eight trips day. and
even the remoter parts of the island are
about as accessible as Harlem Mr. Wiman,
] expect, would like to see the city
of New York, or at least the kernel thereof
transferred to Staten Island, but energetic and
persistent as he is he will never see this miracle
accomplished. The people of New York, as it is
now known, like Staten Island well enough as
summer resort but they will not emigrate to it
as business body. Mr.. Wiman may as we'll
try to move some other mountain. As to his
efforts towards an enlargement OF the New York
harbor. they have met with the hearty approval
of all who understand the supreme Importance
Of the subject Congress has devoted millions
TO the goose runs of the country but nothing of
Importance has been done in recent years to en-
large the principal harbor of this continent
Mr. Wiman's railroad and other projects have
brought him into conflict with the State of New
Jersey and the Pennsylvania railroad in some
respects remarkable. He is at once aggressive
and shrewd An alliance with the Baltimore &
Ohio railroad for the entrance of that road into
New York, is one of the chief events of Mr. Wi
mans life. The printers boy at ST. so week has
become railroad magnate. The alliance is of
such nature that it is peculiarly to Mr. Wiman's
advantage to build up Staten Island and attract
visitors thither. This is the secret of Saint
George and its skyrockets, its blare of bands its
Buffalo Bill shows, electrical fountains and base
ball matches The fnancier has something of
Mr. Barnums skill III leading the public by the
nose
AL his fortune of two or three millions, all his
financial achievements pale before one sigle act
of his busting and eyentful life. Fifty wears
hence nobody will care how much he was worth.
but history may well record, with an electric
spark playing around the words that the repeal
Of the ancient and barbarous statute In regard
TO imprisonment for debt was largely due to the
efforts of one man, Erastus Wiman. An en-
peror might have been proud to listen to the
words of heartfelt fearful gratitude that were
poured out upon this business man of New York
by the unfortunate men suddenly and unex-
pectediy released from hopeless Imprisonment
who assembled in front of Ludow-street Jail to
thank their benefactor, who out of pure kind
ness OF heart had spared neither time nor money
in their behalf. 1t was an act that may well
have caused the miserable place and the by
stanGers TO shine
Like most men of large enterprises Mr. Wi