The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-02-11
UNDER FORTY, AND CONTROLS MANY MILLIONS.
Success OF Walton II. Holmes, Who Was Educated i'll ST. Louis and Then
Went to Kansas City.

had different ideas OF running 4 street rail-
Way 10 what others might have had. AL
most his first year was the year Of the
SrassiOpper plague. Liverymen and others
who had horses TO feed went TO the wall
fast. as their feed boxes got empty. Corn
was $40 a bushel. and Vice President Wall
ton Holmes celebrated his eighteenth birth
day by declaring Kansas City should MAIN
tain its street-car system. come what
might.
50. instead OF sitting IN his ONCE ana
figuring how II could be done. he hailed
every car IS Il passed a feed store and
took the change out OF the boxes. By that
way he fed his mules and kept his wheels
moving.
Ana now. less than IS years OF age. ha
sits as president and general manager of
Iv miles Of street railways. with a work
ing capital OF Sis.u":vv. lie has 900 men
working for him. and last year expended
$.SU.Go IN improvements and paid out a
little over Sl.t-s,."J in wages.
He is Just about as sanguine to-day as
he was when at /. he told the local stock
holders he could make the Nestport horse
cars pay and ne Is Just as resourceful-
Il Was something 10 tackle, was that OLD
hor-,-gar line. His receipts ran as high
as 800 a day sometimes, ana IL was not long
until competitors We're thick as daisies In
"a June meadow. The young man distanced
them ali. He improved his own line. built
another and when the real estate crash
came and the reCcd:ns waters !eft hundreds
OF Kansas city h'EumerS high and dry on
the strand. Walton Holmes. not well In his
tw.nrie~. raised si5.U-.o-n and bought up
nearly every competing line in the city.
Not "a bau recon-. even II re had stopped
there. BUT he Gid Tot.
Mr.. Holmes IS pretty much Ike a water
mill. when the wheels are going round he
finds little to ID. but let the mill race or
IN, lam 40 wrong ana BE Is NJ 10 his waist
III work. Il WAS 4 troublesome time for
Kansas lily finances when. about 1877, this
,,-us ul.,,1 decided ls suul! induce the
great Fleming he Of London. who repre-
s'EtS the majority 81 tnr santa Re. and OF
Lrrwc-i.~ ana Street-Car lines all over this
C"tujTs-'' invest IN Kansas tity. Within
io.r months "f mis- first putting pen TO
paper. this p'E'ky youth hat Ss.Ss.eo at
lis disposal. And be could have had as
much more, it is asserted. if he had needed
iyut .lr. Holmes is a careful man. He al
WAYS y-crE~ along one line Ills father was
an engineer u-;r:c him. and a believer In
street trrS. Young Walton followed the
trail his father HAD started to blaze. Now
when ne wants S.5".-J To buy up electric
!izht plants be gets i: for the asking. The
Armr-.~ nave Tremendous Interests IN his
hands.
Sir. Holmes has no advice TO give young
men. but those VIA have watched him
gov w nave. The Holmes idea was to
they say. Walton Holmes has always fol-
loved this course re has carried his
hro'Eer, con. along with him side by side,
Con being four y"rrs his junior. Until a
year ago there WAS m uhi rfnplnye OF his
father with Min only Death took Barrett
T.dr. aea,,n. president, idea al
vay- m 20 nav" ben 10 spend money to
make mooney. His father gave the first
UaTk ra.s,s city ever had. laying II out to
make traffic fox his hpgEC-cIT line. which he
himself GaIl;. Parks. the convention hall.
bouI,yar.=. ana every puss.bl. public fea-
tlra tast pT missed 10 bring people and
make them riie on st:cct cars have ever
claimed auj got the support of Mr.. Holmes.
IT.. is uU- "a lit ~N-li-h-4Gri Small in
stature. gentle OF voice. well groomed for
dinner. during the day tune he dodges hero
and there. -iTDue"i ~ this season of the
wear in uu old macintosh. and il so be ho
iarr-us to be near where u helping hand
IS rr.irI to clear away the wreckage OF q
cart OF lift The front trucks OF one of his
cars back on the rails again. this young
NAN whom the good brothers OF the st.
Louis eel eye taught only twenty years ago.
and declared he was leaving school far
TOO soon. j. not above rubbing n little dirt
his palms and getting down to work.
Under 4, and directing S2l.pp.H OF money
IS 4 record TO make u man proud; and that
great business 10 the result Of common. or
binary. everyday hard knocks. and not tho
turn of the market or the discovery Of q
vein Of ore.