The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-01

Within the last decade a new king
has sprung up-the street railway
king. He is always American and al.
most invariably he has been evolved
from a poor boy. He is the practica
man to whom American cities are
looking for solutions of their trans
portation problems, and he is the mar
who is spending millions upon millions
in his efforts to meet the demands OF
continually increasing centers of popu-
lation. Representative of his class are
H. H. Vreeland of New York, Charles
T. Yerkes of Chicago, Murray Werner
and Judge J. H. Reed of Pittsburg and
P. A. B. Widener and William L. FL
kins of Philadelphia.
But, although the transported ton
problem is far from solved in this
country, the American street railway
king is already reaching out into for
eign fields. Charles 7. Yerkes is 60
ing to give London a modern under
ground SYSTEM; Murray Werner is lay
ing electric railways in the capital of
the Car, st. Petersburg; and nearly
every European city that can boast Of
~ lcIllS VI AifAAiS hOA heAS'o
has TO acknowledge that American
money and American brains have fig
ured largely in the consummation-
MIR. Verner's Rise from Horse Car
Driver.
Mr.. Werner is typical of the Ameri
can railway magnate abroad Like
the majority of his fellows, he started
with nothing except an indomitable
determination to amount to somebody
some day. 1t was this ambition that
sent him from his fathers farm in
Western Pennsylvania to Pittsburg,
where, after knocking around for sew
eral weeks looking for job, he seized
on an opportunity to become a horse
car driver. His knowledge of horses.
gained on the farm, stood him in good
stead, and it was soon noticed that
his car was hardly ever behind its
schedule and his horses always in
good condition. This led to young
Nerner's transfer to the car barns as
stable boss. Here he remained for
several years, saving his employers
thousands of dollars in horse flesh.
AS a reward for this piece of bust
ness, he was graduated into a more
responsible position, where, in the
woods of one of his old employers,
:" urray did the work of two men in
half the time they would have taken
to do it" Then, gradually, step oy
step. he advanced until finally he be-
came superintendent of the line. He
was still young when this happened,
but he had not been in his new posi-
ton twelve months before the road
was placed on a paying basis, some
thing that former superintendent had
strived in vain to do for years.
Mr.. Werner had made the road a
good investment simply because he
l., \ l., 4 "
and 1t was not long before this fact
was recognized. Then, when the era
of the trolley car came, men of capt.
tai interested themselves in Mr.. Yer
ner, and pretty soon were found to
be backing him in his purchases and
identification of rundown street rail-
ways throughout the Central states.
In every case Mr.. Werner gave the
lines personal attention, with the re-
suit that they were transformed into
profitable properties with almost
nghtning-like rapidity.
Boarding the Car i'm His Capital.
After he had amassed a fortune of
$4,000 600 from this sort of work. Mr..
Werner concluded that he would see
what could be done toward giving
European cities better transportatio
facilities. With this object in view,
he went abroad. After looking over
Paris. Berlin, and several other Con-
tinental cities, he travelled to st. Pc
tersburg to visit a friend, who took
him home in one of the rattle-trap
tram cars that have been fixtures of
the Cars capital for generations. Mr.
Werner was so disguised with that
mode of getting around that he said,
jokingly, TO his companion:
i've half a notion to come to this
town and give it electric railways
The friend took the remark serious
ly.
IF you can get the proper conces-
sions from the authorities" he said,
you'll make a mint of money"
That remark made Mr.. Werner pick
up his ears, and, whereas he had
planned to remain in St. Petersburg
scarcely a week, he stayed two months
making Investigations and talking to
officials. When he departed he carried
back to Pittsburg an agreement be-
tween himself and the Cars represen-
tatives for modern transportation lines
in the Russian seat of government.
The men who had backed him before
were only too willing to back him
again, and so, to-day, a former Yam
kee horse car driver is the street rail-
way king of Russia.
Spare Moments of Study Made This
Another Pittsburg man who has re-
Gently become widely known as a
street railway power is Judge j. H.
Reed. His prominence and his for
tune of $S,000,000 have come to him
only within the last few years, but
both are the direct result of years of
study of corporation law during spare
moments.
When a young man Judge Reed
went from a neighboring town &c
Pittsburg, where he read law in the
Office in which he earned his bread
and butter by transcription. He stay
ed there until he was admitted to the
room and hung out his shingle.
AS he had precious few clients to
represent for the first few years OF
his legal experience, he took the op.
portunity to verse himself thoroughly
in corporation law. of which he had
been extremely fond as a student
Some years later, while he was prose
cutting a case in court against a rail-
road, that property's officials became
aware of the fact that he was more
than a match for their attorneys, and
some time after the case had beer
disposed of, they made Mr. Reed their
legal representative in Pittsburg
Along in the nineties the railroad
got into a suit in which a million or
two was at stake. and William X
Vanderbilt, who, by that time, owned
a majority of the stock, summoned
all the roads attorneys to New York
for a consultation as 10 the best meth
cd of defending the case. A score OF
Ia NUara rraQanf and