The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-13

as for his financial opponents His for
tune. which is estimated at present at
something between $4,000, 900 and SIS, ,0OO,-
OoO has grown by a series of leaps and
bounds, rather than by the slow accumu-
lation of dollar on dollar.
The financial operations of Mr. Gates
have attracted the more attention be
cause he is a newcomer in 'the street."
It is only within the last two years that
he has taken a hand in the game of
finance as it is played in the money GEN.
ter of the country. Wall street had heard
of him before that-as long ago as 1896,
when he won legal victory over Wash
burn & Moen and secured the right to
manufacture wire. But the New York
Herald says it was in st. Louis and Chi
cago that Mr.. Gates performed his earlier
exploits and accumulated the fortune
which he is now using to heap up
further millions In his stock operations
Mr.. Gates is a Westerner by birth. He
grew up on an Illinois farm and received
good education, being graduated from
Northwestern college, at NaperyilIe Ill.
1t is not recorded that he displayed eSpe-
cially remarkable qualities as a boy, but
an, event that occurred just as he reached
manhood showed, in its sequel, the de-
termination and indomitable will that has
made him successful business man.
This was the murder of his elder brother,
Charles Gilbert Gates.
The latter was engaged to a young
woman in Warrensburg, Mo-, and for
some reason the match was opposed by
the young woman's brother, Alexander
Jester. His enmity became so acute that
he finally killed Gates in cold blood. He
was at once arrested, but while being
conveyed from the local prison to Mex
leo, Mo-, he escaped Young Gates ew1 re
that he would hunt the murderer Of his
brother to the gallows or to the grave,
and during all the active and exciting
years of his business career he never lost
sight of this determination. AS he be-
came wealthy he spent thousands of del
lars in employing detectives to trace out
the missing man.
At length, a year ago, the murderer.
who was living in Tecumseh, Okla, ven
tured to write to his sister, asking her
not to reveal his whereabouts but to
communicate with him. 1t was twenty
eight years after the murder, and no
doubt Jester felt that at last he was safe
But the sister, like Gates himself nad
never forgiven the death of her lover
She informed Mr. Gates attorneys that
Charles Gates, was living in Oklahoma
under the assumed name of w. A HILL
Mr.. Gates was at the Oriental hotel
Manhattan Beach, when he received this
news He Immediately took train for tha
West, and as soon as he could reach
Oklahoma he confronted Jester picking
him out from a number of prisoners, and
positively identifying him as the man he
had sought for so long
ga mo nd n fa,-
Mr.. Gates displayed in this case nave
characterized his business affairs For a
time his sphere Of operations was a re-
stricted one. He was a clerk in Chicago
then a grain merchant, and later the pro-
prietor of hardware store In Warrens-
burg, Mo. In 1881 he removed 10 St
Louis and became the agent of a Cleve-
land mill, selling iron and steel manu-
faetures.
This was really the beginning of NJ
Gates business career. He was then lust
past thirty, and his previous success had
been OF very modest kind. In fact. it
is doubtful if he ever had ANTICIPATED the
possession of half the number of millions