Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-06-23
SENSATIONAL CAREER
OF JOHN w. GATES
His Ability to Grasp and Seize Has
Made Him Famous.
Louis Post-Dispatch.

St Louis Post-DiSpatch.
Just a quarter of a century ago Cali
fornia sent to New York small, wiry'
silent man of 80 years. His fame as
plunger in the market had preceded him,
and the world was informed that Jim"
Keene had made his way east to take
Jay CSould's scalp" Keene has been a
factor in speculation ever since. He is
regarded as the ablest operator the street
has ever known. No we'll could be deeper
Two years ago Chicago sent to the
metropolis a great, big, beefy, roliicking'
loouacious man of As. He had no fame.
he was an adjunct of the steel business.
He had been a commercial traveller, sell
ing barbed wire to the farmers or the
west. II he had dealt in stocks 1t was
mere dabble.
Keene has made himself a power in
the world Of speculation by the force
of intellect Gates is lucky chap whose
success lies in his ability to grasp, seize'
grapple, grab and freeze on to oppor-
tunity.
Gates has grown so fast that he can
hardly keep track of himself. He did
not mean ii at ALL A land agent IN
duced him to buy some acres near chi
cago Opportunity beckoned. Gates rusn-
ed to the embrace. Barbed wire was a
new thing. The ranches of the west
demanded tons of it. There were rot
off his land and sold it for money to chip
in with his coterie OF friends and build
a small factory.
The sum invested was $500. In the
first year the profits were nearly five
times that sum. Some of the partners
desiring to sell, Gates generously took
their interests off their hands until ne
owned the mill.
Opportunity beckoned a second time.
Tie Moores led the way. Gates followed.
A plant at Ellwood that cost some hum
dreds of thousands was turned over TO
Morgan and the steel trust for 81, 100000.
Other plants in proportion. The inde-
pendent steel and wire men made for
tunes. The world never before offered so
golden an opportunity.
Unequaled Since Jim Fisk.
Gates equal has not appeared in the
street since Jim Fisk entered the imam
cial vortex and startled the world with
his gigantic schemes, his bold, multitu-
dinous and successful operations, his ex-
ecutive ability and his masterful grasp
of conditions. 1t was far easier to be
a power in Fisk's day than 1t is in Gates
day.
Like Fisk, he is of great girth, with
an enormous capacity for food and drink.
He is a glutton for work. Nobody ever
heard of his being tired. He looks ready
to tackle any shape Ol man VI DSo~7N
that ever entered the arena, and no propo-
sition is big enough to frighten him. He
educated his nerve when ne was an or
binary steel and wire man selling fences
to the farmers in the southwest.
The steel and wire crowd burst upon
New York, American Steel and Wire,
National Tube, American Tin Plate
American Steel Hoop and one or two
other alned stocks were attracting ---e
attention of the speculative world.
Presidents of some Of these corporations
made their headquarters in brokerage
and commission house in New York that
was the New York branch of Chicago
establishment which had long handled the
commissions of the steel crowd. 1ne
manipulation OF these stocks kept local
spectators in a ferment. The steel crowd
coined money, while the outsiders lost
It, At first New York refused to take
the westerners seriously, and everybody
bought Steel and Wire. National Steel
and American Steel Hoop for quick
turn
When every man had his load stocks