Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-05-16
Some Characteristic Anecdotes Told
of Roswell P, Flower.


Uncle" Roswell p. Flower, who's.
sudden death Friday night same as q
great shock to New York and the a.
nancial world of the entire country
was a character. Lovable, genial, fond
OF good stories, as accessible in his
banking Office as when he sold watches
in Watertown, he took a commanding
place In Wall street almost before any
one realized It. In Wall street II is a
case always of 1.-THE king Is dead; long
live the king"
At the beginning of the present year
Flower became king.
He went into the street convinced
that honest methods were the best.
"In general" he said, ~ would say
never do mean thing for money.
know of no better way of becoming
rich than always to be sober, honest
industrious, economical. Be true to
your employer and yourself. Save all
you can without parsimony and invest
your saving In improved real estate or
in anything that is honestly managed
and making money out Of real profits. T"
His maxim was to be merry, take
things easily and not worry. He play
ed golf or fished for trout at intervals,
and while he was doing those things
Wall street might go hang for all he
cared.
His optimistic frame of mind put
him on the right side of the market
during the recent enormous bull
movement. He had confidence in the
country.
While croakers thought the war with
Spain would retard prosperity, he sized
it up correctly as a mere flea bite and
invested millions in securities. He
loaded up ON Federal Steel, the big
trust that his brains formed; Rock Is
land, in which he had been a leading
spirit for years; Chicago Gas, Brook
| lyn Rapid Transit, American Tobacco,
Metropolitan Tobacco, New York Air
Brake. and several gas investments.
These increased in price to the amount
of millions and Flower and all his
friends simply rolled in money.
| He believed in America at the right
| time.
He insisted that period Of prosper
ity was upon us. The stock values
climbed enormously-cllmbed too
much, perhaps-and the inevitable re-
action came.
As is always the case when big op-
erations are under way, Wall street put
up all sorts Of games on Uncle Ros-
we'll" Some of them succeeded, and
here and there he lost, but as a general
thing he retained most of his winnings
Once, while he was trout fishing on
Long Island and caught 10 fish, his
stocks lost 100000, and statisticans
put II that each fish cost him 5000, 900.
If that were so, he didn't show it, for
he told unusually bright stories that
night at the club.
When Mr. Flower started in to buy
Chicago gas once there was scheme
to give him twist. The tWisters sold
the Gas short at sc, quantities. and
quantities of 1t, they chuckled, as they
thought they had him. When they
came ito deliver they had to pay 80 for
what they had sold for Sc. When the
Maine was blown up in Havana harbor
and it was certain that there would De
a war with Spain the Would-be twisters
thought they saw the opportunity Ito
get in their work. Mr.. Flower was in
Turkey at the time His absence seem
ed to make the opportunity more fav-
orable. So they started in. He wasn't
particularly interested in stocks at
that time. He was enjoying a rest. He
got the news of the blowing up of the
Maine by cable and he was notified
that lot of his friends would like to
speculate on his Judgment So he sat
down and thought out the situation.
Here was a war coming on and bust
ness was bound to be disturbed and
upset Trouble OF every kind was in
store. So far in his thinking he |
thought on the line of the twisters, but |
they stopped thinking there and he |
kept on. He thought that this country |
was about the biggest thing on earth. |
He thought that Spain was an old, de- !
erepit nation that had held colonies in |
bondage and that had been continually |
growing weaker for hundreds of years
as its expressions continued. He |
thought that there wasn't a nation on |
the face of the earth that could whip |
America, and that the United States
would take Spain up just as a terrier |
takes up rat and would shake'it till
its bones ratified in less time than it
takes to write this. So he cabled 20
New York to his friends who wanted to
speculate on his judgment to buy 4O,-
900 shares of stock, and then he went
to thinking again. He hadn't thought
long before he made up his mind he
had been too conservative, and SO he
cabled again, and told his friends to
just double up on their pool and they
did. So the twisters were twisted again |
and they were badly twisted, too, be-
cause about two-thirds OF all the spec
llators who were not in the twisting
business said: Now, here's Flower |