The Minneapolis journal., 1902-02-27
G00DFEII0W 0RY GO00S CO., 25i 253 256 NColLE7 AVE
MARSHALL FIELD, THE MAN
His Secluded Life-His Distaste for
Publicity.
Richard Linthicum in Ainslee's.


Richard Linthicum in Ainslee's.
s'Marshall Field has lived the self-cen-
tered life of the strenuous business man.
Publicity of any sort is distasteful to him,
and he regards the interviewer as an in
truder. His persistent refusal to talk
for publication or to consent to pose as
the subject of the biographer or charac-
ter student is not chargeable to excess
sive modesty. He is modest enough, but
it would be more accurate to say that
his dislike to appearing In print Is the
natural resentment Of reclus1ve spirit
to a seeming interference with it's affairs.
1t may be charged in part to the sensi-
tive pride that is so apparent In people
who live much to themselves or are Who'll
ly absorbed in their own affairs.
"Only of late years has 1t been possible
to obtain his photograph, but the best
counterfeit presentment the photograph
er's art can produce does not do him JUS
tice. It is faithful only In showing his
white hair and mustache, and the we'll
preserved features of man who has lived
an abstemious life. 1t can give no idea
of his dynamic presence, suggestive as
we'll Of unlimited reserve force. 1t shows
the general contour Of features, but not
their animating keenness and shrewdness.
It cannot put the rapier glances IN the
cold, gray eyes, set far back in the head.
'If Marshall Field were in the midst OF
a State street crowd on bargain day, any
student Of character would single him out
of the thousands as master of men. His
erect military bearing might cause him
to be mistaken for a retired admiral or
major general, but no one would ever mis-
take him for an ordinary man. No young
blade Of q soldier carries himself better
than this man of &c, as he walks to his
place of business in the early morning.
His commodious and old-fashioned resi-
dence is about a mile from his great re-
tail store. It Is not so large or imposing
as the Pullman residence further down
the street, yet George M. Pullman In the
latter years of his life was only kind
of head clerk of Marshall Fields car
business
There is library in the house, but
the master merchant does not rank as a
book-lover; there are pictures on the
walls-good ones, too, but the owner can
scarcely he called an art collector or a
connoisseur.
''In this home Of his younger days the
man Of many millions dwells alone. His
wife is dead, and his children, son, who
bears the same name as himself, and q
! daughter, are both married.
"Within the gilded and expansive circle
OF society he has drawn smaller circle,
close to the nave, within which are in
cluded the few to whom he dispenses hos
pitality, and at whose homes he occa-
sionally dimes. They are for the most
part old friends around whom cluster the
memories and sentiments of early days
in Chicago. The practical nature of Mar
shall Field Is shown in his friendships as
| we'll as in his business. as many Of his old
| friends could testify II they would. One
| conspicuous instance OF this is found in
tho elevation Of Robert T. Lincoln to the
presidency OF the Pullman company. There
are many other instances in which his
hand has been stretched forth in friendly
help to preferment OF to avert financial
disaster"