The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-30

Pythias, which existed for years between
Mr.. Tracy and ex-senator Platt is not
generally known. They were children to-
gether in Owego, played pranks on pass
ers by, played baseball in the same nine
and collsborated in writing campaign
songs when Mr.. Platt kept drug store in
Owego. Secretary Tracy has a good many
political enemies in Brooklyn, his home,
but also many warm friends His enc
mics accuse him Of putting the patronage
of the Navy Department under tho civil
service rules
General Horace Porter's erect and SOL
dierly figure is familiar in the great
building. He is thirty years older than
at the battle of Chickamauga. and the
imperial is gray and time has touched
the fearless face here and there, but he IS
the same popular gentleman. as quiet
and modest as though he had not been
frequently mentioned in official reports
of battles for gallant and meritorious
services" as though he had never been
brought into the closest and most
friendly, not to say the most affectionate
relations with General Grant. who
trusted him az another self General
Porter is vice president of tho Pullman
Palace Car company, and Is we'll known
as one of the best orators in the country.
He can be as prolix in his speeches as
William NJ. Evarts or as short as pie
crust He tells story Of a popular
chaplain in the Civil War "He always
preached" said the General, with the
Bible in one hand and his watch in the
other, that while he preached of eternity
he might not be wholly oblivious to time"
Wealthy But Afa BILE.
Darius o. Mills, worth perhaps twenty
five millions, the owner OF the building,
and the father-in-law of Whitelaw Reid,
used to keep small hotel in a Hudson
River town and drove hack to the sta
in mining stocks in San Francisco and an
other in Lake Shore and other railroad
stocks in Now York. The Mills building
cost him about 81, 900, 900, and he is sup
posed to make per cent. per annum net
from it's rentals. Some purse proud per-
sons worth not hundredth part of this
mans colossal fortune might learn a les
son from his quiet, unpretending manners
and genuine affability. He is bull on
Erie stock and is power at the Stock
Exchange when he wishes to be. He is
very popular In Wall street.
The Earl eff Beaconsfeld said that tho
relations between a public man and his
mr., 70 ofor he AnoS hot
exist between man and man. This I'M
doubted fact is illustrated in the case of
Colonel Daniel S. Lamont in his relations
with Grover Cleveland. No one man has
rendered that statesman higher service
than the former newspaper reporter. Mr..
Cleveland has said: 81 told Dan Lamont
that wouldn't so to Washington unless
he went with me-"
The salary of the private secretary to
the president is $1,000 year. Colonel
Lamont could not afford to give his time
for that amount and Mr.. Cleveland ac-
cordingly paid him S., 900 year in addi-
ton from his own salary. Colonel La
mont is now at AiX-les-B ains, France,
recovering from the effects of hard work
and insomnia. To get rid of his sleep
lessness he got into the habit of taking
bromide of potassium and he is now suf-
fering from the effects of bromide poison
ing. He is thirty-six years of age, five
feet eight inches in height, of rather
slight build. and has thick, reddish
brown and bushv mustache and retreat
ing forehead. His temperament is emil
nently diplomatic Self control is his
one great law. Tennyson's injunction is
Self knowledge, self reverence, self con-
troll, and this hard headed young politi-
clan lives up to it vigorously. He is tho
incarnation of shrewdness and discre-
ton.
There is not better informed man in
the United States on State and National
politics than Colonel Lamont. He is a
practical student of politics not only in
this State, but in many other States.
While in Washington William c. Whit
ney singled him out as man Of unusual
ability, and after Mr.. Cievelsnd's defeat
he induced Colonel Lamont TO become
identified with the Metropolitan Traction
Company, which owns or controls numer-
Gus street railroads in New York and
other cities Of this country, and he is now
president of the Houston, West Street
and Pavonia Ferry Railroad Company.
and a director in two other street railroad
companies. His income is probably not
far from $4,000 a year He neither
smokes nor drinks, and his only amuse-
ment is fishing. He has fished in every
trout stream in the Adirondacks No
man lives who could have MS services as
private secretary again, not eveS at the
White House
4 II. Combs. the Little Giant" OF the
Stock Exchange, weight 100 pounds. is
broker for Addison Cammack and other
operators. He sometimes trades in thirty
TO forty thousand shares in a day. re
has been in Wall street nearly thirty
years and member of the Board for
twenty-five years lie WAS in the Min
ing Board with power OF attorney for
b,S operator when be was only fifteen
years old.
Jchn Pondir. on the fifth soor. IS one
Of the old-time celebrities Of Wall street.
In former days he was 4 great friend Of
James K. heeae. In features he - con-
sidered the plainest man IN Wall street.
He was lunching at Delmonicos. on
broad street. one day. with a company OF
gay spirits. when one Of them said:
John. yoa are the honaeliest man / ever
saw. You beat snvthing IN New York F"
On. no. said Mr. Pondir. with his
never failing good nature, there i
man IN this city who is honelIex than