The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-13
HOW TO GET AT THEM.
THE BUSY MEN OF NEW YORK
AND THEIR DooRkEEPERS.
1t Is Quite Impossible TO Pass Some of
the Latter-Many Doorkeepers Only
Exercise Proper Csutfcn In Admitting
Especial Correspondence


ors have very little to do. They just sit
in an Office and read newspapers and
write few columns day of their re-
Elections on matters of interest, and look
over their mail and answer letters and
attend to the make up of their papers,
and the reporters and printers and book
keepers and other fellows do all the
work. If you don't know what the
make up is just call on the nearest editor
about the time when he is making
up, and ask him. He will be only toe
pleased to show you all about it and ex-
plain it as he goes along. An editor is
always glad to receive calls. You can
drop in any time and help him read his
exchanges, and he will give you cigar
and a drink of good whisky and chat
pleasantly all the afternoon. And you
can tell him while you are there how to
improve his paper.
But mean the busy men-men who
run railroads and great commercial en-
terprises, and banks, and city govern
ment and things. Men like these are
apt to put on pretense of superiority,
and try to refuse the ordinary citizen
the privilege of little friendly conver-
sation, especially when the citizen is q
stranger and they cannot make any
money out of him. So they go to great
expense and trouble to fit up inner Of
| fees, and maintain great numbers of
secretaries and clerks and Office boys
solely for the purpose Of preventing a
sociable man, who may can to make
their acquaintance, from getting access
| to them.
should say the two Rockefe1lers,
John D. and William, and Henry NJ.
Flagler are the hardest men now In New
York for stranger to get at. They are
the principal men in the great Gtandard
OIL combination, and. when thay are in
the city, are daily at the palatial Offices in
the Standard Oil building near the foot
Of Broadway. The visitor to this build
ing is received with the utmost suavity
and courtesy, and every attention will
be given to him If he goes On business;
but though he can without difficulty see
the secretaries Of the millionaires named,
he may go a Thousand times without
ever being able to see either one Of the
three.
1t is a little strange thaS they should
be so very averse to seeing strangers, IN
less they are afraid OF Icing imposed
upon, for all three Of them are excep-
tionally liberal men ontside of business
transactions. John d. Rockefeller's IA
vorite line of benefeence seams to be
giving checks to churches and other re-
hgious institutions, while Mr.. Flagler
has a great fondness for reforming
drunkards. 1t is sail that he las taken
scores of these unfortunate creatures in
hand and provided them with money
and employment, making men Of them
after the usual discouragements. How
they manage to get in communication
with him, though, is more than I have
ever been able to find out.
In sharp contrast with their habits of
seclusion is the simplicity with which
John Clahin, dry goods merchant, con-
ducts his business. Any respectable
looking man may walk into his private
Office at any time during business hours,
without even the fornlality of inquiring
whether he is in. His enormous store
stands a block off Broadway and has
only one. small entrance for the public
Passing in at this narrow door the
stranger may walk unchallenged half
way down the room, which is more than
two hundred feet long, where he will
find door with a sign beside it, read
ing, ITO the counting room" Thread
ing his way through narrow passage
ways, among the thousands of cases of
goods that are piled on the floor, and
lodging the scores of little hand trucks
that are used in collecting the goods for
individual orders, the visitor may pass
through this door, up narrow fight of
stairs to the enormous counting room,
where forty or fifty bookkeepers are
keeping the accounts of the house, and
turning sharply to the right may pass
the various clerks, and the desks of the
junior partners, into the little room
where Mr.. Clahin sits alone No one
will even ask his business, and Mr.. Clsf-
lin will give him time enough to explain
it, without fuss or ceremony Of any
kind. Many men with only small
fraction of his cares and responsibilities
would consider it impossible to transact
business on such plan, but Mr. Clafin
demonstrates that it is entirely feasible
Chauncey N. Depew is another very ac-
Cessible man, though he does intrench
himself behind double barrier of door
keeper and private secretary. The appli-
cant for an interview will be politely
asked by the doorkeeper what the nature
of his business Is. And, by the way, you
may form tolerably fair notion of the
manners Of any public man by noticing
those of his personal attendants. / have
never known really polite man TO have
rude doorkeepers. have known many
rude doorkeePers. If you are not inclined
to tell this one what your business Is, he
Will, still with perfect politeness, either
ask you 10 be seated, or show you into
the next room, where Mr.. Du Val, the
prince of private secretaries, viii ask you
again. If you are wise you VIII tell Mr..
Du Val what you want. If he can, be
will attend to your business. and save
Mr.. Depew the trouble. If 1t Is really
essential that ysz should see the great
man himself, you viii be shown into his
room as soon as he * disengssed There
is no fuss and no fummery about 1t
whatever.
There are men who enjoy the privi-
lege, such as It is, OF seeing Mr.. Jay
Gehld whenever they call on him, even
in business hours. One such is that very
clever newspaper nan, howard Irving
Smith We used TO call him Cocktail