The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-31
MIR. sCHWAB'S PERSONALITY.
Hint That the Struggle of the Newly
Rich May Have Affected Him.
Letter in Philadelphia Press

NEW 10TH IoltCT III GHlldQelDDld 1TeSS.
Ordinarily it would be an improperly, If
not an 1mpertinelce, to make public report
of the private life of any of those who are
prominent in industrial or financial affairs,
or any other. in fact. But when certain
features of the private life of a business
man who has become conspicuous and in
tiuential seem to afford opportunity for
obtaining judgment as TO the staying quail
tiles, the moral fiber, the self-resIraint and
equipoise Of one upon whom many RESPONSE
bilities rest, and whose mistakes might be
followed by business calamity, then he can
not be privileged, at least as TO that part
of his private life which does not escape
the observation of the public.
Therefore, it was not only natural, but
in one sense iustihable, that there should
have been considerable m at the
manner of life which Mr.. Schwab at once
began to lead when he came to New York.
Men or great wealth and OF wide experience
and of long residence in New York, not
cOmplainingly but suggestively, spoke of
those luxurious apartments at the most
gariSh and sensational of our hotels, where
Mr.. Schwab had installed himself and his
family. His private service, his elaborate
entertainments, his reception there, while
he was at his late breakfast, of men
plunged into the thiSk of affairs, and who
had been up and stirring several hours be-
fore Mr.. Schwab was awake. His appar-
emily ostentatious and sensational purchase
Of a block upon Riverside drive, contem-
plating the erection thereon of the most
snowy of New York's city homes. and var
| ious peculiarities of this character ineVita-
bly, led to the suspicion that Mr.. Schwab
was not entirely content with the brilliant
reputation, with the magnificent authority
aud influence, with the dazzling position as
The head of the worlds greatest corpora
ton which were already in his possession,
9ut that he sought for what, 10 many of
our citizens, is a cheaper, less worthy, less
satisfactory sense OF power; that which
! comes from ostentation.
II began to be said Of him that he was
like a ,nabob, that Daudet might have
drawn his character of 9TH Nabob' had
he waited until this time before writing
that book from some features OF Mr..
! Schwab's life after he came from New
York. 1t was not infrequently said of him
that his story and that Of the Count of
Monte Cristo differed only in this, that one
was real and the other was romance.
While there was no diminution of the re-
spect or of the acknowledgment OF those
remarkable powers that brought Mr..
SchWab from poverty TO one of the proud
less, among experienced men here there was
wonder whether in this life that was apart
from his business career there was not TO
be discovered the Achilles heel.
The wonder is whether Mr.. Schwab's col
lapse may not in part be traceable to the
very impulses which led him., if not TO seek,
at least to adopt a manner OF life in pri-
vate that brought = him a cOnspicuousnes
In its way quite as great as that which he
had obtained as a business man. Certainly,
the business and the social life OF New
York, there would have been a hrmer faith
II Mr.. Schwab's maintenance of the high
position which the swift organization OF
the steel trust made IL possible for him Il
take had there been another manner Of life
New York. This view was strengthenei
by the sensational experiences through
which Mr.. Schwab passed during his brief
. vacation OF last winter In Europe,