The Florence daily tribune., 1899-01-03
RARELY RECOGNIZED.
But Few of the Millionaires Known
to the General Public.
Some Instances In which New York
Men of Money Have Besn An
noyed by Too Demonstrn-
tive Attentions.

1t is one of the delights of George
Gould's life that his face and figure
are so unfamiliar to the public that he
,an go anywhere without attracting
The curious attention that is invariably
bestowed upon known celebrity.
This is not because of snobbishness.
as sonfe might imagine-in fact, what
ever else he may be, George Gould is
not a snob-but simply from n natural
dissnclination TO be stared at.
As ii is. he can travel from end to
end of his elevated railroad lines with
out one chance in fifty of being spotted
as the president of the road. and one
OF the most talked-of young plutocrats
in America to boot. More than that,
he can travel up and down the ele-
vators of the Western Union building
itself y,ithout attracting special at
tention. and more than once has been
highly amused by the comments on
himself that have been passed back
and forth by his fellow passengers.
On one or two memorable occasions,
however, he has been identified by
some one in public place, and the word
has been passed around, to his great
discontinue.
This happened once, when. for some
reason. he decided not to lunch at the
restaurant in the Western Union build
ing provided for the officials and di-
rectors of the Gould corporations. hut
at an eating house on Lower Broad
way.
Mr.. Gould entered the place with a
friend and the two sat down, gave
their orders and began their meal
without attracting any more atten-
tion than any other lunchers. But
when they had about half finished a
man who was going out whispered
something in the ear of the cashier,
at the same time glancing significant
ly at Mr.. Gould and his friend. The
next customer to pay his bill asked
the cashier who the two men were
and why they had been pointed out
to him.
THE young fellow is George Could"
replied the cashier,
The customer marched straight over
to the table and extended his hand to
the millionaire.
"Mr. Gould, believe" he said. I'm
proud of the opportunity Of speaking
TO YOU"
Gould was taken back, but returned
the greeting civilly enough and re-
sumed his lunch and his talk with his
friend. He was not destined to finish
unmolested, however, for moment
later another man approached and
scraped dacquaintance, saying he should
never forget the courtesy were he al
lowed to shake the hand of Western
Unions chief owner.
Then the walters dropped to the
situation and began to neglect their
work to stare at him, forming wav-
ering, irregular semi-circle about his
table. \ little later white-aproned
employe of the kitchen elbowed his
way through the throng and expressed
his delight at being privileged to gaze
upon the features of so fabulously rich
u man.
That was quite as much as Gould
could stand. He called for the bill,
paid for what he and his friend had
already eaten and departed without
more than half finishing the meal.
1t is probable that George Gould
would be much better known than he
is were he to become active in Wall
street; but that is likely never to oc-
cur. In his younger days his father
was much better known, though for
the last ten years of his life, at least,
he was able TO go almost everywhere
without being recognized. 1t was his
custom at times, when living up the
river, to come and go between his home
and his office on his yacht.
Quite often, however, he used to ride
to and fro ON the elevated road and
the suburban extension that runs to
Yonke RS, and ii was seldom indeed that
he was recognized on these trips. And
because of his short stature and un-
assertive manner he generally suffered
his full shore of hustling at the hands
of the crowd. John ID. Rockefeller is
not much better known to the pub
lie. either; and, although he often
goes to his Office by way of the Il"
road. he is never annoyed by the stares
of strangers.
Russell Sage is another multi-mil-
lionaire who is not readily recognized
in crowd, and he has many times
turned this circumstance to good ac-
count. In general talk with the
writer one day, Mr.. Sage said:
aside from the persons l meet al
most daily in the regular course of
events, l am evidently generally un-
recognized, and l am glad of it, too.
1t enables me to keep much closer
track of some branches of my bust
ness than l otherwise could. N. Y.
Press.