Bridgeton pioneer., 1892-11-24
A MAN OF MENTALITY.

A Courteous and Genial Gentle.
man, and q Keen and Able
Statesman. Ne1f-Etlucated,
he is Modest and He
Thinks for Others.
''The fault, dear Brutus," says
Shakespeare, lis not In our stars, but
in ourselves that we are underlings.' .
Among the men of affairs in New
Jersey none of her leading men have
been more the architects of their own
fortunes In every sense than has Hon.
Benjamin F. Lee, for almost a quarter
of a century clerk of the Supreme
Court and Democratic leader In New
Jersey.
Mr.. Lee was born In Port Elizabeth,
Cumberland county, sixty years ago,
and while he possesses correct and even
elegant literary tastes and mentality
of broad gauge, he is self-educated.
Without the advantage of college
culture he naturally possessed an apti-
tude for discursive reading, and with
out processing to be an orator Mr.. Lee
is one of the most gracious of after
dinner speakers In our gallant little
commonwealth. In current politics
he plans what others execute.
For many years Benjamin F. Lee
was prominent in the management of
the West Jersey Railroad, and had he
not turned readily to the more allur-
ing fields of politics (Which that grace
full and able optimist, William H.
Seward, called "the sum of all the
sciences,'D Mr.. Lee would certainly
have reached the highest place among
the railroad magnates of the country.
He seems to possess that unerring
instict in business, akin to intuition,
which leads the happy possessor of a
financial competence to make invest
ments at the right place.
CAPTURED FIFTY THOUSAND.
When almost everybody in Third
street-formerly called ''the Algerian
Coast"-in Philadelphia. before great
wealth made Drexel g. Co., the finan-
cial Brahmins of our sister city. Mr..
Lee contidentially predicted returning
prosperity for the great Pacific Rail-
way of the north for the first time after
the crisis of 1878 and at a single ven-
tnre with John G.. Bullitt 'collared'
$4,000 on ten days margin in North
ern Pacific Railway stock. But Ben
jamin F. Lee is not by nature specu-
lator.
His instincts In financial affairs are
strongly marked with conservative
tinge.
He is now ranked among the heav-
lest capitalists of Trenton-a city of
rich men-and his wealth has been
the usufruct of caution and good sense
in making investments at the right
time and using considerate judgment
in selecting the ''plants" which prom
ised legitimate returns for money ven-
tured. He meyer touches anything
that does not succeed, either in busi-
ness or in politics.
AS SUPREME COURT CLERK.
One of his earliest as we'll as latest
friends is DIR. Coleman F. Leaning, of
Cape May county, one of the pioneers
of West Jersey. When ''Ben Lee"
as the boys delight to call him, was
appointed to the lucrative position of
Clerk of the New Jersey Supreme
Court for the first time, DIR. Leaning
said, "Ben Lee is smart politician;"
at his re-appointment, five years later,
the Doctor said, lice is a d-d tai
ented man, third appointment for
term of five years followed, when
'Coley" Lsaming exclaimed "Ben
Lee is a man of genius" and when our
admirable Crichton struck fourth
term Leaning said, This man is
phenomenon;" when the Supreme
Court Clerk entered on fifth term
the Cape May doctor said, II can't ex-
plain 1t. give it up"
W For thirty years Mr.. Lee has been
prominent as leader in Democratic
politics in New Jersey, and such is his
courtesy of manner and his aptitude
for public affairs that he has never
made enemies in his own party, nor
on the other side, but has had the
good fortune to plan more successful
campaigns and win more victories
than any other statesman in New Jer-
sey.
A MODEST STATESMAN.
MIR. Lee is as modest In manner az be
is able in council. Like Caesar on the
Lupercal thrice has he laid aside" Of
fers Of the Gubernatorial purple, when
nomination meant an election.
1t is far more to his liking to make
great men of others than to become a
great man as Governor or United
States Senator himself. Amidst the
exacting cares of politics Benjamin F.
Lee has found ample time to keep up
with the current literature of the day,
oca ho 10 "a p,iI}or with tho no ooc of