The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-21

time that ''Buckn Grant was taken into the
magazine and it had another squirt. In the
mean time the business affairs of Schlicht
ana Field got worse and worse, and the
magazine was sold to ]. Brisben Walker
VINO now owns it and has made it good
property. Mr.. Walker is one of the bright
business llterateurs of the day. He is a
man, judge, of perhaps forty-tive years of
age and one hundred years of experience
he is, L think, a graduate of either West
Point or Annapolis, and he went to China
with BurliDgame as naval attache After
Inc war he took notion that great deal
OF money was made in real estate, and he
anticipated the great real estate boom which
has since struck the country He made his
nrst speculations at Charleston, West Vir-
glnla, where he settled and ran for Con-
gress, and was, l am told, elected but
counted out. He thought at this time that
Charleston was going to be the capital of
West Virginia, and he invested all his
money in property there. The movement
to change the capital fell through for the
time, and he lost everything Gathering
up the debris of his estate he moved to
Denver and there edited for time a
weekly newspaper. He bought it for a
song, got it on the road to making money
and sold it at profit. He took the money
which he received from it and began to buy
land on the outskirts of Denver. He bought
one little farm after another, at from five
TO ten and twenty dollars an acre until he
at last had about a thousand acres. He
owned these lands when the real estate
boom struck Denver, and he sold. am tod,
a portion OF his land to a syndicate for
100000 when the boom came He held on
to about seventy five acres nearer the city,
and this is, SO Denver people say, worth at
least half million dollars to day. When
he first bought the Cosmopolitan he spent
about $4,000 in the first few weeks in ad-
vertising. and ne has been spending ever
since. He put the magazine on a firm
financial basis, bought his supplies for cash
and charged cash for his advertising He
hired the best brains he could find to help
him, and the result is that the magazine
now sells as well as the oldest established
periodicals. 1t has now about eighty thou
sand circulation. and it had only sixteen
thousand when Mr.. Walker took hold of it
two years ago. 1t is now making money
notwiths landing that it has such men as
Murat Halstead and Edward Everett Hale
among it's editors
OUR oCToGENARIAN WRITER'S
Some of the oldest men of the country
are doing their share of literary work.
Governor Andrew G. Curtin is writing his
"Reminiscences of the War; at his home
in Bellefonte, and he tells me he has pile
OF manuscript as big as dictionary. Re
dictates his stories to a very rapid type
writer, young lady whose critical literary
Judgment he says is good, and who can take
down the matter almost as fast as he can
talk. Cassius NJ. Clay is, l am told, writ
lug away a the age of eighty in his
Kentucky home, upon some additional me-
moirs of his career, and | met not long ago
the Hon. John H. Latrobe, of Baltimore.
who, Notwithstanding that ne is nearly
ninety, is still writing This man is one Of
the most remarkable characters in the
United States. He was born during JEFF
ferson's administration, and was cadet at
the United States military academy when
Monroe was President, was admitted to
the bar during the administration of John
Quincy Adams. and when Jackson was first
elected he became counsel for the Baltimore
d Ohio railroad ano secured its right of
way over the mountains. He was the in
ventor of the Latrobe stove or Baltimore
Heater, which is known all over the United
States, aud he has published about dozen
works including law books, infantry tao
tics, hints for travel in Europe, children's
books and novels Now at eighty-seyen. he
enjoys novel as well as any young lover
OF twenty, and his brain is as clear and his
eye as bright as it was when he was boy
A LAWYERS SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLAR CHECK.
1t was John H. Latrobe who acted as
counsel for the Winans brothers in their
railroad contracts with the Russian govern
ment, and heard the other day the story
OF how he was engaged by them. He was
in Europe at the time for his health when
he met one of the Winans brothers. and
was asked by hun to go to Russia. II can't
go and you can't afford to pay me what it
is worth. I" But you must go.' said Wi
mans. I'VE have got TO make a big con-
tract and we need man we can trust We
VIII pay you any price you want, and what
will you charger don't want to COZ an
swered Mr.. Latrobe. "bus if l do go 1 will
have to have $50, 0o0n ''All right said MIR.
Winans, and as Governor Curtin tells the
story, he thereupon took out his check book
and wrote him out check for the amount
The result was Latrobe drew up the cen
tract with the government, and by this Sc
cured the control of the road for twenty
hve years. IL was an expensive business,
but they made millions out of it.
HOW THE CAR BUILT A RAILROAD.
1.-THE Winans brothers said Governor
Curtin, were among the first railroad
builders OF Russia, and the story of their
fortune making there reads like a romance
They first came to the notice of the Car
from q contract which they took to build
bridge across the River Neva. In building
this bridge they found that the current was
much swifter than they had supposed and
the river was deeper, and the result was
that they lost about one hundred and fifty
thousand roubles on the job. About the
time the bridge was completed the Car
came down SO see it. He was told that the
American contractors had lost on it and he
knew the amount of their loss He offered
to reimburse them but they refused, and
said that in their country men stood by
their contracts, and that If they had made
S150,000 instead OF losing 10000 roubles
they would have said nothing about it and
they would have considered it fair bust
ness arrangement This reply pleased the
Gar very much. 1t showed him that the
Winans were honest business men, and the
in which they had made the bridge
showed him that thew were good civil en-