Evening star., 1899-02-04

man who has become rich in his own town
and has vanquished all competitors there.
Here Wall street cries, rs 'Haute FL
nance battle of wits worthy of the strong.
You have run your course where you are.
| Like the pugilist of the second rank who
has conquered time and again, there are
| now only the champions for you to contend
against"
And the I4orelei cry of Wall street tempts,
The picture of ''Haute Finance gains its
end. To the narrow highway of the me-
lropoliS where the biggest financial game in
all America is played the capitalists of the
other great cities come trembling. The lure
has too many fascinations for them to re-
sist. With the memory of other victories
over scores of keen-witted men in their
own towns, they come with undaunted con-
hdence. With a cool and clean million each
sometimes much more, never much less
Gn the cases of men of this class) they
match swords with the princes of capital.
The shrewdest riggers of the money market.
the men who play for millions nonchalant-
ly each day.
The Varied Outcome.
The outcome? It Is varied. The tide of
fate sometimes swings one way, sometimes
the other. The whirl of the maestrom of
Haute Finance is invariably stronger than
these men have supposed. 1t never loses
its fascination, however. Even the clear
est t-headed become New York inanciers for
better or for worse, and pluckily play the
great game unendingly. AS a matter of rec
ord the most of them have done surprising
ly well, and not a few of Wall street
greatest lights tOdav are men that havn
made their pile elsewhere and have come
here because no worthy antagonist was left
them at home.
The west. on the whole has contributed
the greatest number of these money kings
who have emigrated to New York within
the past few years.
1p,,o tot u rri,-o al
The names of a few, nevertheless, cling to
thu memory-Collis P. Huntington. the
ROCkefellers, Keene. Darius O. Mills. Cal
win s Brice, Col. Oliver H Payne James
3. Haggin. And if those who while not
directly in finance. yet have entered great
enterprises, be considered. there are VIM.
r. Hearst of the New York Journal and
Frank Cooper of Chicago. the latter a great
dry goods establishment that has stepDed
into an already full field and fights on even
terms with its largest competitors. There
is none the less John Wanamaker turning
from the west for an instant). who found
Philadelphia too small; Roswell P Flower
and Erastus Wiman of Canada, for whom
the bubble unfortunately burst at the very
point of success Today as 1t happens,
Roswell Flower, the financier of a little
country town of New York state, is all
but dominating Wall street.
GiIded Romances.
The story of each and every one of these
is a gilded romance. Fifth avenue, the
gorgeous, the new, ths site of a fresh Sc
ries of palatial residences, has the material
evidences of these romances in the shape
of the dwellings Of the men who have play
ed this fascinating game of Haute Finance
and have won at it. No better instance is
there of a man of this sort than Coils p.
Huntington. millionaire of the Pacific
coast, he entered New York some years
ago, unos stentatiouSly, but with a resolution
to become a magnate of the metropolis.
On 5th avenue, at the corner of 51th street
stands huge pile of gray stone. baronial
like, imposing, grim, one of the City's most
distinctive mansions. 1t is forever without
the gayety, the brightness of light that
associates itself with a home on 9th ave-
nue.. Here IS simply a massive monument
of power
And at this point one is brought face
to face with the real reason for the COM
ing to New York of these men. 1t is not
social ambition, though this has often
been asserted. Look at the lives of the men
and you Will see. Hardly one of them has
the slightest desire to shine in the social
world, scarcely a man Of them attempts
it. What has brought them to Wall street
to one enterprise or another on the banks
of the Hudson, is simply the game" that
is nowhere else to be found.
From the Land of Gold
Coils P. Huntington was a magnate in
California before he ever landed in New
York. Here he has simply added to his
wealth. The white-bearded man, with a
skull cap on his head-iudoors he is never
without this-that sits quietly in his of
flee day following day, never Speculated in
the ordinary sense. Outside of his own
private enterprises-the Southern Pacific
railroad being the chief of these and his
especial pet-Wan street hardly knows
him.
He said to Ward McAllster, founder of
the Four Hundred, one day: Mr. Meal
lister, 1 have made it the rule of my life
never to go outside of my own enterprises
for investment. They offer me all the OPP
portunites for speculation I need. | do
not believe in scattering my resources. If
l do not have faith in my own companies
how can 1 expect others to take stock in
them?'
Here, perhaps. has lain the secret of C
r Hunfington's success. At all events, he
has prospered nightly. Experts figure
his present wealth at twenty five millions
From the east he reaches out and holds
certain sections of the west in the hollow of
his hand
Pretty Big Toys.
His house is gorgeous within, possessing
what is called the finest private stairway in
America. 1t Is built of Mexican onyx The
Southern Pacific, though the most import
ant, is but one of his toys. The Central
Pacific, several transmississippi roads, lines
in Mexico and Central America and fleets
of steamships to China and Japan are all
under the iron hand of the man in the
black skull cap.
Two men that stand out in bold relief.
utterly diverse in methods, one conserva-
tive taking few risks, the other bold and
daring, are James R. Keene and D. o.
Mills Both heaped up fortunes in Califor-
MIA In the old mining days, Keene as a
brilliant curbstone stock investor, and both
came to New York about 1879. The wheel
of fortune spinning SO merrily in Wall
street attracted them. Mills went at it
cautiously. He saw his chance in Lake
Shore, and he plunged. With four or five
millions then at his back. he could have
afforded to lose, but fate let him win-three
millions of dollars With these profits, not
drawing a cent from his other resources.
he erected the famous Mills building, op-
posite the New York stock exchange. A
similar speculation in Erie proved unsuc-
cessful. Another building was to have
been erected out of the gains of this but
there were no gains, and it was all this
nnancier could do not to actually lose
Since that day Mr.. Mills has kept out of
trying to manipulate the market By sim
pie investment he has quintupled and more
his original fortune. Mines. railroads and
real estate constitute the bulk of his prop
erty. He, too has 9Th avenue residence.
Fortunes Caprices
Four millions, according to the best OBJ
tainable figures. was the sum James r.