The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-09
J. PIERPONT MORGAN
THE RICH BROKER NOW A DREAD
ED KING In WALL STREET.
His Fee for Reorganixing Railroads Is
$1,OOo.OOO and Upwards-The Gov
eminent Bond Business.
New York Press.

New York Press.
Mr.. Morgan, you are the most conspicuous
man in the world to-day. In many parts
of your own country you are looked on as
the savior of the Nation. You are 50
brusque and unprepossessing. so grun and
naughty, that ii Is an accident for man
TO become your intimate friend, and to be
that is to fear more than 10 love you. We
all know you as Mr.. j. Pierpont Morgan
1 am going to call you Doctor. In Wall
street you have been called monetary
surgeon" but / never liked il. Your course
of three years at Gottingen made a silent
studious, morose German of you, and you
came to New York at the age of twenty
that was in 1S57-one of the most solemn,
reserved young Americans that ever started
out with great prospects. Your father put
you with a good firm-Duncan, Sherman &
Co.-but you became restless and wanted
to have firm of your own. You became
the brains of the firm of Dabney, Morgan
& Co., Mr.. Dabney being put in the firm by
your father as a sort Of balance wheel
There were six of you youngsters, among
them James j. Goodwin, your cousin, whose
father left him a millionaire. George Pea
body made your house his American agent
and you got along famously. You had all
the backing that was needed to make you
little Rothschild. You had branch bank
in San Francisco, at the head of which was
that able financier. United States Senator
Latham, and you had a house in Melbourne.
Thus early in your career you had the
world as field to garner in.
But for Jay Gould you might never have
become the mighty man you are to-day. he
was your foil. When you We're so lucky as
to capture from him and Fisk the Albany
and Susquehanna railroad, in 1869, the peo-
pie began to look you over critically and TO
talk about you. 1t was indeed a great
victory. To have done the Little Wizard
and his partner, the pyrotechnic Fisk, was
enough to put any man on a pedestal. IL
put you there, and once there you made
up your royal mind never to come off.
am bound to admit that you are there yet.
You never liked Gould. You hated him.
You looked down upon him upon an in
forgotten the time when Jay Gould, whom
you refused TO do business with because
he was beneath you in the social scale,
If not in the financial, turned the tables and
refused to do business with you? l reckon
that Is a sore spot in memory. But we all
have to stoop to conquer at times, and II
GU your knees up the stairs Of the Western
Union building TO Jay GOuld's office and
took off your hat to him.
1t was an immensely clever thing on the
part of the Drexels to open New York
house with you at its head. You we're
already deep in the profession of doctoring
sick railroad corporations, and the Drexels,
with all the influence of the Pennsylvania
Company behind them, got hold of the
right man when they got you. You made
all over the civilized world. You Joined
hands with August Belmont, of blessed
memory, and the Rothschilds in the pur-
issued in 1877. and tried upon the public
without success, and your syndicate cleared
thereby over So, Oo0. 900. The house of Drex-
of it. This was your first splendid achieve
ment, and you became famous. You looked
around for new worlds to conquer.
STOCK FOR EUROPE.
Money was going begging in the old world.
and the Rothschilds, the Peabodys and all
their English and continental connections
looked toward this country for investment.
Only one railroad in the United States was
recognized by foreigners as being Of any i'm
portance at that time. It was the New York
Central, of course. With your usual keen
foresight, you proposed purchase of Gen.
trail stock for the European market Fools
laughed at what they called your presump-
tion. Practical men who knew you ex-
suits. 1t was all over in few days. You
took William H. Vanderbilt's breath away,
but got $250OO,000 of Central stock at 120.
and upward Your profits amounted to over
81, 600, 600. William H. Vanderbilt, who had
fought shy of you before, became one. Of
he would spurn the counsel of any other
man. You had him hypnotized.
1t was you who restored the Hudson river
to an equilibrium. The river was in a ter
rible condition, with roads fighting on both
sides. and Vanderbilt sent for you. You
promised to look into it and see what. could
up your mind that there was something like
100000 in it, and-well, you got what there
was. / have never seen the present the
Vanderbifts made you in gratitude for this
great achievement. l remember that Ii was
a silver service of three hundred pieces, the
price of which was estimated at $50. 900.
We have not heard much of your failures,
Doctor. 1 used to run down to Rockaway
once in a while to see a gigantic elephant
on the beach. 1t was made of wood, in the
shape of a great hotel, and was not called
an elephant till it was left on somebody's
hands. Great undertakings are never so
characterized till they become failures
Doctor. to imagine that you could make a
success of the hotel business? 1t is really
the only thing you have done that comes
down to the level Of the ridiculous. Ha, ha
ha, When / think of you and your ele-
plant l cannot help laughing. How much
did II cost you, anyway? Did you lose by it
pont Morgan as boniface-how they would
smile in Londoni
When you saved the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad from ruin and the CARROTS you
did your country a service that was worth
all you made by it. 1t was said at the time
that the work profited you some s.. O00. OO0
What Of it? Better give you So OO00 600 than
let the road be sold for scrap iron
Wasn't it there that you picked up Samuel
Spencer, your railroad expert? Sam was
president of the Is. & o. for while. wasn't
he? He was a lucky find, and was lucky
to be found. AS consulting physician he
has been a success Sam was worth a..
you paid him. He certainly earned his
$4,000 year.
1t has always seemed strange that you
should have taken such a liking to your
old foe, Jay Gould, as to become the finan-
cial agent of the Manhattan Elevated Rail-
road Company, Doctor. And do you know
there are persons who think it more strange
that while you occupied that position Sam
uel Spencer, your railroad expert should
have been appointed one of the rapid-transit
commissioners? 1t is cold, cruel, heartless
world, wherein people are always looking
for excuse to jump on a good man who
has succeeded where they have failed.
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