The times., 1899-05-15
MR.. FLOWERS SUCCESSOR.
A. N. Brady Likely to Succeed Him in
Wall street.

Brady. of Albany. would very likely be the
successor OF Roswell p. Flower in what
is known as the Flower interests in Wall
Street. 1t was possible. it was said that
he might take the former Governors place
as special partner in the firm of Flower &c
Co., but if he did not that he would. at
any rate. occupy a position in the various
Flower properties such as Brooklyn Rapid
Transit. Peoples Gas. and the others. sim
liar to that held by the former Governor;
that is to say. he will become the head and
! front Mr.. Brady was one of f>rmer Gov
ernor Flowers closest friends, both So
cially and in the business world. He had
been associated with the former Governor
in almost every one of the great enter
prses that Mr.. Flower was in
terested in. from the time that the Gov
ernor himself became interested in them.
It was Mr.. Brady who first saw the great
possibilities in some of the enterprises.
and it was he who first interested the Gov
ernor. They went in together and stood
shoulder to shoulder as those enterprises
were pulled out of the dumps, and made
| the great paying properties that former
, Governor Flower has left them.
Anthony N. Brady is very well known
! man in the business world, but outside of
! the great enterprises with which he has
been and is connected, he is nowhere nea-
as well known as the Governor vas. He
never ran for Office and his interest in pol
itics has been chiefly in looking after the
interests of his friends. He has been an
artist in that business, as well as in great
financial enterprises, and anybody who has
any idea that it's safe to trife with Mr..
Brady in either line will quickly find out
hi A.
| the Governor was; that he is resourcefuI,
far-seeing, and as capable of giving his
enemies twist. Mr.. Brady is a younger
man than the Governor was by twelve
years, and he has had the advantage of all
OF the Governors experience. and has the
advantage now of that twelve years of
youth.
He Is an Irishman. as one might guess,
but he was born in France, his parents
having left Ireland in 1910. He was born
! In lS43. He came to this country with his
! parents when he was still an infant, and
! they settled in Troy. Ee went to public
school in that city until he was fourteen
years old. His parents had no money to
speak of. and when he was fourteen he
made up his mind that it was about time
he should get out and hustle for himself.
He went over to Albany. He had as hard
a time getting along in those days as did
that same sort of stick -to-itiyeness to say
nothing of thrift, that the Governor lad
and he worked at anything and everything
and saved while he worked. Nobody in
Albany knew him. there was nobody
around to help him, and he made his way
without anybody's assistance. He was en-
pioyed in the Delavan House in Albany,
when he finally got together money enough
to start in the tea and coffee business. He
7
made friends and these friends stood by
him. 1t wasn't very long before Mr..
Brady had the biggest tea store in town,
and he started in to be a capitalist. The
money ne made he invested in other stores.
He branched out into adjoining towns. He
bought up businesses and finally he had just
about as complete 4 monopoly OF he tea
business of that part of New York State
as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit has today
of the passenger carrying system of Brook
| lyn and he still had time on his hands
to spare. This time he occupied in Just
looking around and keping his eyes open.
| 1t was about then that granite became an
| important factor in the big cities; granite
| was wanted for street pavement. it was
wanted for building houses, and in his
| leisure moments Mr.. Brady quietly gath
! cred in all the granite that was coming
| to Albany. That's how he came to start
| in the contracting business. When he had
control OF the granite he could beat all
competitors in contracting work that re-
| quired that material. and he got the con-
! tracts. All manner OF public improvements
was needed and Mr.. Brady was right there
to look after it. He got along so famous
| ly that finally heTbought a granite quarry
| OF his own. I
These things are related to show how
| MIR. Brady who Is as remarkable man as
| was Governor Flower himself. got his
start and got his liking for big enterprises.
| In those early days every business that he
| touched turned TO money. He never was
satisfied with the business that he had
| when he got it. He was always branch
! ing out, and he was always successful.
Mr.. Brady today is boss in the gas busi-
ness. boss in the electric light business.
and boss in the surface railroad business.
He's a quiet, low-voiced. energetic man,
a little under the average in height. with
thin blond hair that is rapidly turning
gray. He dresses quietly and he doesn't
| look much more like millionaire than
Governor Flower did, but he is a mil
! lionare many time over. He first be-
came interested in the enterprises OF the
| character than he is at present the leader
| in, after he had grown tired OF the con-
| tracing business
The gas companies up in Albany and
| Troy made poor gas: they had leaty mains.
and they carried on business in the most
expensive way, charged big prices. and
didn't make any money. Mr.. Brady knew
4 a little about the gas business, and he
made up his mind there was money in it
! if it was properly managed. One of Mr..
! Brady's characteristics is that before he
puts his money into a business he learns
all about it, every detail, and he started
| in to study gas. How to make water
gas had just been discovered. He studied
water gas and he mastered the art of max
| ing it. Then he looked around for an op-
portunity to go into the business. He
| found out that the old gas companies up
| there could be bought out, but he couldn't
do the thing alone. and it was then that
he went to see Roswell p Flower, Edward
| Murphy, jr., and E. C. Benedict. He laid
his plans before them. They saw money
| in IL. and they Joined with him, and it
wasn't very long before they had absolute
possession of all the gas companies in
Albany and Troy. They made better gas
and sold ii for less money than the old
companies and they made heaps of money
| for themselves in doing 1t. When they
| got Albany and Troy gas in first-rate
shape they set out for other gas prop
critics, and in obtaining possession of the
gas companies OF Chicago in consolidat-
ing them into one great company. in turn
ing this one great company into a great
dividend paying. prosperous concern, Mr..
| Brady was always closely associated with
Roswell p. Flower.
| The oil business is closely associated
| with the gas business. Mr. Brady discov-
cred that fact when he was learning all
| about gas, and he had some time on his
hands, so he went into the oil business
and organized and successfully operated
the Manhattan Oil Company, of Lima,