The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-19
BIG MN OF WALL STREET
JOHN d. ROCKEFELLER THE MOST
EXCLUSIVE AND MOST DIFFI-
CULT OF ACCESS
MANY ARE HARD TO APPROACH
J. PierpOnt Morgan Regarded as the
Ogre of the District-Henry
CIews Fond of Re-
pOrters.

'4t4A Soiilc SuCl Auely DIS llllSs
Can you tell me, please, where is Wall
street?"
The timid inquirer is usually intelligent
and well dressed, albeit with an atmos-
ohere of the interior, and If the ques-
toned one is not too busy he stops to
reply:
You are standing in It,"
The stranger looks disappointed and
stands gazing about him. If he belongs
to the common type of curious visitors,
he had expected to identify Wall Street
by heaps of gold piled up in glass plated
windows; to see big, sweaty laborers
shoveling yellow metal into drays with
the nonchalance of wheat handlers.
But, above all, the rural traveller ex-
pected to brush against Russell Sage, ].
Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller
and other great lights, hurrying hither
and thither, with fortunes Rugged tightly
to their breasts, intent upon pulling off
another Black Friday-for Black Friday
is hopelessIy tangled with Wall Street
In the mind of your visitor, who half ex-
poets to find the hole where that day hit
the earth and left it's imprint, like a
comet.
A VERY ORDINARY PLACE
But Wall Street is really a very or
binary place, once you get used to it. It's
features of human interest are not upon
the surface, and you might linger in the
sacred precincts for months and not see
the precious figures who dominate the
country's finances. They each have their
respective haunts, upon which the out
slider might rarely intrude, provided he
be the most difficult part of his task
The newspaper reporter whose business
1t is to interview these gentlemen, when
the gentlemen are willing, will tell you
that it is harder to get to a Wall Street
magnate than to get audience with the
president of the United States.
One of the men who are very difficult
of access is John D. Rockefeller, whose
office is at the Standard Oil building. Any
reporter who manages to land a talk
with Rockefeller" wins himself high
prestige, but the number Of interviews
that have been wrested from Mr.. Rookie
Teller on business topics within the past
ten years might be counted upon the
fingers of one hand with two digits to
spare
If your business is very important, you
may succeed, by dint of great persistency,
IN getting to Mr.. Rockefeller's lawyer.
At that stage your name and business are
written out at length, nearly as full as
on a civil service application blank, and
this document goes to the private sec
rotary. He may turn it down or lay 1T
before Mr.. Rockefeller, but it matters lit
tie, since Mr.. Rockefeller will say mo,
II your business has anything to do with
an interview, and all the red tape you
had set IN motion was merely form, but
you didn't know that.
ONE OF HIS IRREGULARITIES,
One popularity about Mr.. Rockefeller
IS that he is rarely too busy to see gen
tlemen Of the cloth, particularly doctors
OF Baptist persuasion.
Long ago, when newspapers were
fewer in number and more reVerent than
now, the Wall street district was Gov
cred by about ten reporters, each of
whom was familiar with, say, three big
fnanciers, to whom he was always adj
mltted, and by working together these
old-time reporters had little trouble in
getting interviews, either by proxy or In
person, and then the work was easy.
But latterly the appearance of an i'm
pOrtant story brings twenty or thirty
reporters into the street, and the men
Ss-Ose opinions are in demand are forced
10 resort to typewriter statements 'fo1
the press" and this method is still in
vogue But Individual interviews are
frequently desirable, and usually as diff
fcult to get as they are important
The reporters learn to know the per-
sonal eccentricities of the famous finan-
Ciers and are governed accordingly.
When it falls to the lot Of a newspaper
man to interview ]. Pierpont Morgan he
must take into account the state of the
weather, the condition of the financial
horizon, and, above all, take chances on
the dinner or lunch Mr.. Morgan has
eaten, for he is dyspeptically inclined.
CONDITIONS MUST BE FAVORABLE.
With all conditions favorable, the re-
porter may succeed in getting to Mr..
Morgan, and then he must be very apt at
taking cues from signs, else he will not
profit by the audience Mr.. Morgan's
moods are VIGOROUSLY tricky. He has
one particularly undesirable mood under
the influence of which he will stare
blankly at his interlocutor through a
dozen questions. well, well, what do you
want?" just as though the reporter had
not been trying to tell him what he
wanted.
Saying it respectfully, Mr.. Morgan is
really the ogre Of Wall street with news
paper men, and for no apparent cause
he has been known to order reporter
out Of his office just upon looking at
him.
Russell Sage is another great light who
is very difficult of access. Entry to his
Office is barred by a large, uncouth indi-
vidual, whose business it is to penetrate
your business and tell you that Mr.. Sage
is not interested in your mission.
There is one reporter in Wall Street
however, who readily gets an audience
with Mr.. Sage. This reporter is a thor
Oughly dried out chap, with metallic
face, fully as hard looking in countenanct
as Mr.. Sage himself, and it is suspected
that in this there lies some sort of
psychological explanation of Mr.. Sage
Partially for him.
At all events, this reporter gets to Mr.
Sage when others fail and it is one o.
his assets in Wall Street work. 1t may
be said for Mr.. Sage that he will tall
when once a reporter gains admittanct
to his private office, but since the IA
nous bomb exploit Mr.. Sage has beer
very shy of callers personally unknown
to him.
LOVES THE REPORTERS.
But Henry Clews is the man. He loves
the reporters, and likes them to loa
about his big brokerage establishment
He has even rugged up conveniences fol
them, such as writing tables, pens, ink
etc, and when a reporter wants an in
terview from Mr.. Clews that amiabI,
gentleman writes it out. In Mr.. Clews
office a reporter Is more popular than
customer, and makes himself at home
with the ease peculiar to his type.
Jim Keene, the bear of Wall Street
has to be approached carefully. If thu
reporter has a friend in the office, h,
first inquiries how the "old man. is feel
ing, and if the answer is reassuring, h
proceeds to set a card in motion.
If Mr.. Keene has dined well, and if the
market is falling, he is glad to see the
reporter and will talk Otherwise TIT
t,+ey-xriau ia not ant 10 he comfort BILE