The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-18

CnemlcaI national bank when / called
upon her one day this week. Hetty
Green is said to be the richest woman
in the world. Her wealth is estimated
at from $40,0O0.000 to $50,0OO,000. At )
per cent her income must be over IS, 600
day, or more than So minute, day
and night, year in and year out. Her
property is of many kinds and her
investments stand out like great
freckles on the face of the United
States. With the grip of an octopus
her mortgages embrace some Of the
most valuable properties of our big
gest cities between Boston and San
Francisco, and the dollars roll in to her
from every part of the country between
Maine and Texas. In railroads and
steamboats, in mines of gold coal and
iron, her stocks cover all kinds of prop
erty and almost every variety of in
dustry. The greater part of this vast
wealth is due to her own talents and
she manages it all herself She had
been at work for more than an hour
before she could get rid of the men
who were present with business mat.
tiers by previous appointments before
she could see me.
WHERE SHE DOES BUSINESS.
During part of this time 1 waited for
her in her private office in the bank.
1t is not easy to get access to this
office, for it is part of the bank itself
II is merely one corner of the big room
IN which the cashiers, tellers and clerks,
penned up in gilded cages, carry on
one OF the biggest banking businesses
of the United States. Hetty Green's
corner is lighted from the roof. At
one side she is fenced off by a long
walnut desk, such as bankers use for
sorting bank notes or papers, and on
the opposite side is the wall. 1t is not
as wide as the ordinary alley and all
the furniture in it would not bring
$l5 at auction. There are two little
walnut desks in the Office. One Of
these has fiat top. It is here that
Mrs Green's stenographer and type
writer. pretty young woman of about
eighteen years of age, sits. The other
desk is Hetty Green's. 1t is a small
roller top affair with a set of drawers
running on one side from the table to
the floor. The desk is, I judge, about
three feet wide, and the pigeon holes
within 1T are stuffed with papers.
Upon the top lies Mrs. Green's bonner
and cape just as she has thrown them
there, on coming into the office. and
upon the desk is the steel pen with
which if she wishes she can sign
checks for millions. There is little
sign of comfort or luxury about this
little office. Were Mrs. Green and her
secretary not present you would not
imagine that it belonged to a woman
There is not a sofa nor cushion nor
rocking chair in sight. The four
chairs which form the only furniture,
in addition to the desks and a table,
are straightforward, cane-seated ones,
such as are used in other parts of the
bank. There is no tatting or crochet
work to be seen and the only feminine
signs visible are Mrs. Green's bonnet
and cape and six pins, each at least
two inches long, which are probably to
be used for fastening papers together.
Upon the table is a box about eighteen
inches square and foot deep of just
about the size of those in which a gro
Ger keeps soap. This box is of tin,
painted black, and as you look you
think of the leaden casket of Portia
in the Merchant of Venice" 1t is
Mrs. Green's box for valuable papers,
and, though it's outside is but homely
tin, I doubt not that there are millions
in it.
CHAT WITH HETTY GREEN.
I wish I could show you Mrs. Green
as she chatted with me after her bust
uesS callers had gone. She is a far
different woman than the one you
> know in the newspapers. She makes
me think of the good old mothers
whom you will find by the dozen in al
most any country town, a woman who
has brought up family and done It
WELL and who now, in her sixties, al
though her life has been a hard one,
is still in sympathy with humanity and
is ready to do battle on to the close I
don't believe woman can have a face
like Hetty Green's and not have a
heart prone to sympathy and love.
Her eyes are blue and friendly. Her
mouth, though determined, has moth
erly lines about it, and strong char
acter shines out of every feature She
is still fine looking, and she must have
been most beautiful girl. During
my chat she showed me some daguer-
reotyes taken of herself when she was
the daughter of the millionaire Robin
son; In an representations way she
told me something of her simple life
before her father died, and how she
was forced into business by having to
fight the biggest lawyers of the coun-
try for her estate. Mrs. Green dresses
very plainly. The costume she wore
yesterday would not have been out of
place upon the motherly old lady whom
I referred to above. Her dress waist
was of some black goods, trimmed with
velvet, which was rather rusty than
new The skirt was sateen of black
spotted with white, and upon her head
she wore a veil, which was twisted
about. So as to look like a cap. AL
though she speaks four language the
words she used were plain Anglo-Sax-
on, and she never hesitated to call a
spade a spade. She has Slight Yam
kee accent, which comes, I suppose
from her having been raised in Yer
mont There was not the slightest af-
recitation about her. l did not see an
atom OF the thickness, hardness. or of
the suspicious character usually asso-
c1ated with the descriptions of her I
found her. in fact. rather modest than
anything else.
WHERE SHE GOT HER TRAINING.
One of my first questions was as to
when she first discovered that she had
business ability. She replied:
don't know that have much bust
ness ability, but such business ability
as l possess has been developed by the
necessity of taking care of my fortune.
You see, 1 was not born poor We
have been rich for three generations.
The house in which I was born in Yer
mont had twenty-five rooms and two
bath rooms, and my father, grand
father and great-grandfather were
rich. The first idea that I ever got of
business was from my grandfather. I
used to help him in his correspondence,
and L absorbed some of his business
methods. Still, I had nothing really
to do with business until my father
died."
eft WAS thap tbot va, lo..o. -