The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-03-27
CAREER OF whitaker WRIGHT,
BRITISH PROMOTER.
R0PED IN THE ARISToCRATS
The Peer Of Modern Promoters, What
He Did and How He Liveu-Mii-
lions Made and Lost.

The arrest of Whitaker Wright in
New York last week gives a nearby
view of n of the greatest confidence
men the young century, or the old
one, for that matter, has produced.
He is a British product, with some
American polish acquired during a
residence of six years under the sha-
dows Of the Philadelphia Stock ex-
change. Wright out-Hooleyed Hooley
in boosting a skin game with aristo-
cratic backing. The late Barney Bar
nato was not in his class. Compared
with him the American get-rich-quick-
er-diamond tontine, turf investment,
home cooperative, numerical bond,
Iron Hall and other defunct schemes
are as three small pieces of silver
to a double eagle. The nearest APP
proach to Wright in magnitude were
the operations of Jabez Balfour, a
countryman, who is serving a life
sentence in a British prison.
An account of the life Of the wrong
Mr.. Wright in the New York Herald
says he has made and lost millions,
and is accused of having been the
cause of the loss of $780, 600, 900
through the organization and failure
of the Globe group of companies. He
lived in Philadelphia for six years,
from 1885 to to 1891, occupying an
Office in a building where the Stock
exchange nov stands, and engaging in
business as a broker in cotton, grain
and petroleum. His wife is a native
of Philadelphia and her father was
killed during the civil war while serv-
ing under General Grant.
His successes did not begin until
after he left this country. In West
Australia he is said to have made
SIS, O00,000 in mining speculations,
and to have made several times that
amount in London in the operation
of companies he organized to float
his properties. He induced several
members of the nobility to serve on
his boards of directors, among them
the late Lord Dufferin, at one time
governor general of Canada, who was
financially ruined by the failure of the
oncer
In appearance he is not especially
striking, but his personality is mag
netic, and it has been said that if
he could get a man to listen to him
for fifteen minutes he could in most
instances obtain from him almost any
thing he desired. Weighing about $50
pounds and five feet ten inches tall,
Mr.. Wright's expression, except when
he is greatly interested in the matter
under discussion, is colorless and
heavy. His small eyes, set we'll back
in his head, his thick neck, retreating
forehead and rounded chin fail en-
tirely to convey any impression of
the great intellectual power he is adj
mitted to possess by all who have
known him we'll, but when he devotes
his attention to the furtherance of
his plans or wishes to convince any
one his whole bearing changes. His
eyes,, turned full upon the person to
whom he is talking, seem to grow
larger as he warns to his subject, and
it is impossible not to feel the effect
of his magnetic personality.
Until a short time before the crash
came-and the whole financial world
a shocked by the enormity of the
failure-he had been for several years
one of the most prominent figures in
business circles in London. Himself
comparatively unknown when he be-
gan his operations, he induced Lord
Dufferin, Lord Loeb and others with
great anne to allow him to use their
names as members of his boards of
directors, and by this means inspired
SO much confidence in his undertake
ings that money flowed in profusely
from all quarters, and in several in
stances subscriptions to stock offered
for sale were far in excess of the
capitalization of the companies he
was floating.
Although never admitted to a social
equality with the members of the
nobility, he was on intimate terms
with many men whose names appear
in Burke's Peerage. He claims even
King Edward as his personal friend
n is well known to such Americans
finaciers as Charles T.. Yerkes and
Charles NJ. Schwab, the later of whom
he says he met a short time ago in
Paris and found him looking in the