St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-23
FOUR LEADING MEN.

At the Windsor hotel, New York. the
other evening l met President r. r.
Cable, of the Rock Island, who has prob
ably had more harsh things said about
him of late than ANOTHER prominent rail
road official. He has been accused of
selling out his holdings, making the
stock OF his road speculative football
on Wall street, and doing all manner of
things that incurred the cenSure of his
associate directors. TO all these derog-
atory rumors Mr.. Cable turns a deaf
ear, and, to quote his own words, says:
81 have not bought or sold share
of Rock Island in two years." Refer
ing to the approaching annual election,
he said it reminded him very much of
the last time he was bitterly attacked,
nine years ago, when the late William
III. Vanderbilt, on behalf of his family,
with representation of 29,726 shares,
issued a circular soliciting proxies.
That appeal only succeeded in influ-
encing the proxy on 300 shares. owned
by the wife of rich Louisiana planter,
and the opposition was so completely
routed that the VanderbiltS parted, out
of spite, with two-thirds of their holdings.
Mr.. Cable is equally confident Of the re-
suit of the next election, and predicts
that not even corporaFs guard will
raise their hands III opposition to the
regular ticket.
At Delmonico's l met Frank Thorn
son. the first vice president of the Penn
sylvania railroad. He is quite famil-
lar figure on Wall street. Mr.. Thomson
is.a man of medium size, with 1.-the
build of body and keen-cut face, lit up
with pair of very sharp eyes, and dec
grated with a sandy mustache. His
manner is quick and his expression
positive. He was born and raised up at
Chambersburg, in the Cumberland val
ley, near where the great Tom Scott
first saw the light of day. His father
was distinguished judge in that COM
munity at the same time that the late
Judge Jerry Black was. Like nearly
all the officials of the Pennsylvania rail-
road, MI. Thomson began his career
in very humble capacity think as
chain carrier in the engineer corps. He
is now near the top of the ladder, and is
regarded as one of the ableSt railroad
managers in the United States.
~
AS | saw Alexander Graham Bell at
| the Victoria, could not help but recall
ltlG 1dCU JllIO HllCCll y iSSO liz w tlS
having a mighty hard struggle to get
along in life. Every one looked upon
his ideas about the telephone as rdicul-
GUS, and even after it was patented
most people regarded it simply as a
playthng. He was going about Wash
ington trying to hold on and push his
enterprise, and he labored with the
newspaper men necessarily to get
| notices of it in the newspapers. One
ty-dollar-a-week reporter was very
friendly to him, and said all the good
things about him and his invention that
he could crowd into the press. Bell re-
membered the service, gave him a few
shares of stock and they made the
Journalist rich man. l suppose that
MIR. Bell is many times millionaire,
and he is now able TO live in Washing
ton in magnificent style. where he once
had to hustle for the necesSaries of life.
Funny what changes few years will
bring.
The Fifth Avenue hotel has just now
eX-Goy. Charlie Foster, of Ohio, for a
guest. This interesting politician does
not seem to age much under his burden
While he represents the big interests of
Brice, Thomas and the Standard Oil
company in the natural gas fields, he
still keeps weather eye upon the SEN
atorship, which he is exceedingly anX-
ious to capture. In three years from
now, when the successor to John SHEER
man is to be cleo ed, Mr.. Foster will be
found a lively and dangerous candidate.
Had the Republicans elected their legis-
lature in Ohio last fall he would have
carried off the senatorial prize despite
the combination of Foraker and Hal
stead against him. Mr.. Foster created
Gov. Foraker, and then Foraker set up
III business for himself and tried to
down Foster. OF course Foraker is dead
now, and Foster is the liveliest Repub-
lican in Ohio.