The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-13


then he was transferred to the capitol. |
This led to his acquaintance with Mr. |
Cleveland, and thus his way to politi |
cal preferment and great worldly pros
perity was opened.
In those old days he was entirely un-
assuming-indeed he is that to this
dSy-and quite commonplace in APP
pearance, being short, slender and
wearing besides his clothes and thick
thatch of auburn hair a decidedly red
and stubby mustache. He rarely wrote
lcng articles, his speciality being short,
newsy paragraphs with no style at all
except conciseness, but he was rarely
left" on the news. The late David
Dudley Field was then pushing his
codes through the New York Legisla-
ture and Field and Lamont were great
friends.
A young golden eagle of Wall street
fell quietly but with entire success and
completeness a few days ago He was
the pet office hey of one of the oldest
and biggest firms. The partners were
very proud of him, for he was not
bit like most Wall street Office boys.
He had all the eopy-book qualities, be-
ing quiet, simple, respectful and moral.
For this combination of eXcellenceS he
drew ten dollars a week on which
sum. 1t was understood he was sup
porting his regulation poor but honest
parents Last Thursday the model
child was away on an errand when a
stranger dropped into the office and
inquired for him, prefixing the title
Mister to his name. He volunteered
the information he was an agent for
an automobile concern and that the
gentleman had been in correspondence
With him about buying one. Interested.
enc of the firm asked him how much
the young gentleman had been expect
ing TO pay for it. Twelve hundred dol
lars, was the answer.
The firm got together to think and
sent confidential man out to study
the life of the nice boy. The confden-
tial man found that, in addition to
being IN love with automobilism the
gentle youth always was in love with
a fair creature whose board he had
been paying for months at the rate
OF thirty dollars week. Even in
wall street ten dollars a week, 81, 200
automobiles and expensive love af-
fairs are not compatible with eatire
innocence, and the brokers soon found
that the moral model had been making
money by a simple method. Jne of
ms duties had been to receive The cr-
ders from customers. Whenever he
got an order to buy a big block Of
stock "at the market" he would has
stock in que stion himself, generally
succeeding III boosting up the martset
point or two if the order was big
enough. As soon as the price had adj
vanced, he would deliver the CUSTOM
ers order to the firm, send the tip to
his friend through whom he bought
who would In turn offer the stock 10
the firm at shade under the market.
of course obtaining the order. Then
the two would "Whack nm -
Now he is blacklisted on the street,
his dream of automobiling has vanish
ed and so has the lady who was to
grace it
A paragraph in the papers records
the ninetieth birthday of a William
Blair, of River Edge New Jersey.
whose birthday doubtless would not
have been recorded at all if it had not
been for the fact that one of his
recolIecuons was the giving of a quar-
ter to Commodore Vanderbilt for row. 4
ing him from Staten Island to Perth
Amboy Really, many columns in
stead of paragraph should have been
given to disquisition ON that. Think
of the intense human interest that
attaches to that quarter. What did
Commodore Vanderbilt do with it? Is
1t the quarter that with it's accretions
built the New York Central Railroad?
What particular Vanderbilt palace
represents that quarter now? How
much of the compound and still more
compound interest that it has earned
is now in the hands of the fair Mrs.
Belmont, once Vanderbilt? How much
of 1t went towards buying the Red
Devil or the White Ghost? And does
Mr.. Blair ever pass sleepless nights
figuring out how much money he
might have had If he had kept it and
put it into the same manifold uses
that the Commodore found for quar-
ters and coins of other denominations
A book, nay dozen books, one more
romantic than the other could writ
ten about that quarter, tracing it's
career and growth and telling of the
lovely women for whom 1t has bought
diamonds and palaces and-heart-
aches? Perhaps. Duane.