The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-23
PRIVATE OFFICES
Of Great ,Financiers Well Guarded
 and Not Easy of Access.

0f Great E1uauc1erS well 0uaTueo
 and Not Easy of Access. New York Correspondence Philadelphia
 Public Ledger.
 That a inan's house is his castle Is A maxim which has held good .n Anglo Saxon communities for many centuries. No such maxim, however, has been ap- piled to a mans office. intended TOT the transaction of his business. Yet IL IS fact that in these latter days a man in his office, especially if 1t is located In one of tho towering structures Of the financial district, Is more dihfcult or en- trance by the casual visitor than wouio be the smoking room of hts home. Tn truth, many a great bankers or lawyer office might be called his moated grange, so many barriers have been thrown aoout 1t to secure hls privacy.
 It has frequently been said that J. Pierpont Morgan Is the most democratic of renowned men, so, far as his office Is concerned There Is nothing to Keep thar great -financter from the gaze of anyone entering shhe outer office but a glass par titioY, which incloses moderately large space holding the desks of the head or the firm and of his partners But that glass enclosure might as we'll be nfty- foot stone wall, so far as the possibility of penetrating 1t is concerned. For be-
 
 he visitor looms the form of 6-foot de- tective-Captain Smith, as he is known to those who go in and out of the Nor gan office, There are only few cases on record where anybody got by Wno was not known by MT. Smith to have the entree of the private office. without being stopped with a polite question as to whom he wanted to see
 Just before the announcement of the
 kzty tr4r a diFnR- tory a young man of foreign appearance, with red socks a red tie and the badge of the Legion of Honor in his button hole swinging a light cane, attempted to walk into the private office. Smith aid not happen to be there, so one of the of- flee boys bounced on him and grabbed him by the arm. The young man looked mildly surprised, shook off the boy, and then shook hands with MT. Morgan and his partners. He was James H. Hyde. of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.
 If, however. Mir Morgan or his part ners have any important conference on hand, there are reserved for this purpose a number of rooms in the adjoining Mills building. which are entirely shut off from the public, affording a comparatively pri- vate means of entrance and departure for the conferees If any member of the great firm is in that room, not sven Cap tain smith VIII OdTe to tthe III d Cdiu uh- less the visitor is expected.
 Much easier of access is the office of James Stillman, the President of tho National City Bank, of the Clearing house Association and of other ?ig institutions. It Is situated on the second floor of the banr's building. and i: Mir. Stilman d"es not happen to be engaged visitors card will at once be laid before him, with the chances 100 to that the ans yer will be, "Mr. Stillman will see you"
 Perhaps one of the most 'original' off, fees in the whole district is that of John W. Gates. Far in the rear of the off, fees of the firm of Harris Gates & Go. Is large room. with two small rooms opening from it. This is MT. Gates's sanctum. The door to the large room is guarded by an office boy and negro. In the little anteroom where they sit stands a good-sized Ice chest and over 1t hangs a corkscrew that has evidently seen con- siderable service. In the large room is a large table with a small vase of pinks Just a few. enough for boutonniere and perhaps a plate of fruit. One of the small rooms contains two desks be- longing to MT Gates and his son. Charles The walls of that room are GOV cred with framed cartoons from all kinds of daily and weekly papers. with MT Gates as the central figure. They show