Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-09-10
WRITER'S INBUSINESS
ACHIEVEMENT OF LITERARY TALENT
 IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD.
straightening Out n Business wreelt-How the New Southern Railway System Was Developed-Literary Gifts That Received Good Returns.
strnigiite
[speclal Correspondence.l

Special Correspondence.l
 NEW YORK, Sept. 4.-The question is often asked, Where arc wo to look for the great writers in the future? And it is said in reply that we shall be sure to find those who are able to do great literary work en- gagged in other vacations because literature pays scanty returns-that Is to say that men who are capable of doing something really great with the pen have found that their capacities can earn much greater ro- wards when employed in moro practical matters.
 Recently there has occurred in New York a striking illustration of the truth that is contained in such statement. There are three or four men engaged in financial business who in their younger days had an inclination toward literature and were, in fact, almost tempted to make it their life business. Chance, however, or perhaps good fortune, threw them into other associations, where their abilities have received such recognition as to bring them great fortunes. They are not known and probably never will be by name to the great American public, but they have won the highest respect and admiration from those who arc masters in the financial world.
 The latest of the achievements of these men in association with others has been the creation of one of the greatest railway systems in the world, ono which, at tho final stroke of the pen a few days ago, was ready equipped for the transportation of passengers and freight over nearly B. 900 miles, and one which will practically com mand the transportation business of q con siderable portion of the southern states.
 The literature of figures never told a more fascinating tale than that which this mighty transaction suggests. There were in the south great number of railways some 10 years ago which by one of the magic operations of finance became at the stroke of the pen one system, known as the Richmond Terminal Hard times and em- barrassments came, and this system, con trolling nearly 5000 miles of railway, was obliged to beg the protection of the courts in other words, it became bankrupt
 Tho mind is almost bcwildered in con- sidering tho figures which were presented to thosc who proposed to bring order out of this wreckagc of disorder. There were securities amounting to several hundred millions of dollars, and they crossed one another so that it was almost as difficult to trace them as it would have been to cx- plorc the Egyptian labyrinth. Even the visible evidences of these obligations made q sight wonderful to look upon. The own CTS of these securities brought them to one of the banking houses in New York in bundles great and small. They tossed them over tho raflings to the clerks, for there was no other convenient way to han dlc them, 50 that at last the banking rooms looked like n great junkshOp, and no one could tell how much these $4O0, OO0, GOO of nominal value were really worth.
 Finally the owners of the securities re- questcd a famous banking house to under take to crate out of these remains new property which should have n fixed value, and the work was delegated to a commit tee consisting of three men, each one of whom is possessed of unusual literary ability nnd would have been likely to have made his mark in tho literary world had he yielded to his early temptation and made literature n vocation.
 The committee sat down day after day before an appalling maze of figures Tho totals represented as much as the Cntirc issue of grvcnbncks uf the United states government. It was necessary to trace cY- cry set of figups and learn the story of railway experience and values which lay behind. Tine work was almost like that made necessary by the translation of n ci phcr dispatch. At last thCS' men Cumplct- ed 1t, and when they had done SD their lit crary gifts availC,l them sO that they wrote n report in tcrs.' lucid and accurate Eng fish, in which the whole story of the puSt was told and n brilliant prophecy for the futurc made.
 Having done this, these men, with per suasive argument, induced some uf the greater capitalists to unite so that as much Us slO, ,OuU, U0O wcrc raised and in other ways eight millions more. After that the work of reconstruction went on with amazing cclerity. All tho shattered frag- ments were brought together. Old corpo- rations gave up their Individuality and be came component parts of new one. Prop ositions creating new evidences of wealth amounting to Sl25. GOO, GOO wcrc made and accepted. and thus upon the 1st day of September the new Southern railway was introduced to tho American public, one of the grCatCst systems in the world, second only'to two or three of the colossal north ern systems. The literary faculty played no small part in this mighty operation. The creation of this system involved the employment of intellectual powers as great us any that were ever used to write any work of the modern times The men who took part in this might some of them have written great story or an able history, but they would not have made tho mil lions which are their payment for their share in this new creation in the railway world. E. J. EDW ARDS