The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-07
CAN MAKE MONEY
ACHIEVEMENT OF LITERARY TALENT
IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD.
Strengthening Out Business wreck-Hou
the New Southern Railway System Was
Ds-sIoPed-Litsrary GIFTS Tsa. Received
Good Returns.
Ispecial Correspond.noe.l


Especial Correspond-noe.l
New YORK. Sept. 5.-The question Is
often asked, Where are we to ieok for tho
great writers IL the future: And il is said
in reply that we shall be sure TO find those
who are able 20 Go great literary work en-
gagged IN other vocations 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 re-
wards when employed in more practical
matters.
Recently there has occurred in New
York striking illustration OF the truth
that is contained in such q 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,
CT perhaps good fortune, threw them into
other associations, where their abilities
have received such recognition IS 10 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 are 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, one which, at the
final stroke of the pen few days ago, WIS
ready equipped for the transportation OF
passengers and freight over nearly 5000
miles, and one which will practically com
Inand the transportation business OF a con-
siderable portion of the southern states.
The literature of figures never tod 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 enc system, known as the
Richmond Terminal Hard times and en-
barrassments came, and this system, con-
trolling nearly s, 600 miles of railway, was
obliged to beg the protection of the courts
in other words, it became bankrupt.
The mind is almost bewildered in con-
sidering the figures which were presented
to those who proposed TO bring order out
of this wreckage 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 ex-
plore the Egyptian labyrinth. Even the
visible evidences Of these obligations made
a sight wonderful 20 look upon. The own
ers Of these securities brought them TO one
Of the banking houses in New York in
bundles great and small. They tossed
them over the ratings to the clerks, for
there was TO other convenient way TO han
die them, so that at last the banking rooms
looked like great junkshop, and no one
could tell how much these $500, 600, 600 of
nominal value were really worth.
Finally the owners of the securities re-
quested famous banking house to under
take to create out of these remains new
property which should have a fixed value,
and the work was delegated to commit
tee consisting Of three men, each one of
whom is possessed of unusual literary
ability ana would have been likely to
have made his mark in the literary world
had ha yielded TO his early temptation and
made literature a vocation.
The committee sat down day after day
before an appalling maze of figures. The
totals represented as much as the entire
issue of greenbacks of the United States
government. It was necessary TO trace ev
cry set Of figures and learn the story Of
railway experience and values which lay
behind. The work was almost like that
made necessary by the translation of CT
pher dispatch. At last these men complet-
ed it, and when they had done SO their lit
erary gifts awaited them so that they wrote
a report in terse, lucid and accurate Eng
lish, in which the whole story Of the past
was told and brilliant prophecy for the
future made.
Having done this, these men, with per
suasive argument, induced some Of the
greater capitalists TO unite so that as much
as so, 600, 900 were raised and in other
ways eight millions more. After that the
work OF reconstruction went on with
amazing CELEBRITY. All the shattered frag
mcnts 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 10 Sl25, 600, 600 were made and
accepted, and thus upon the 1st day of
September the new Southern railway was
introduced to the American public, one Of
the greatest 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 ss great
as 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 the mil
lions which are their payment for their
share in this new creation in the railway
world. T. J. EDWARDS.