The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-04


of the great white race, surely New
York is its type among American cit
les.
1t is not merely it's growth in num-
bers-the American fetch, according
to Matthew Arnold-but it's growing
power of attracting the longest heads
and the longest purses on the CONT
nent. Hither they come, the long heads
to enter the great market for brains,
the long purses to compete in the con-
unental Vanity Fair-or haply to try
to grow longer. BY ones or tWos they
drop in and New York seems none the
larger; they drop out in time, but New
York is none the less for the loss. They
have meanwhile, given of their gray
matter or their greenbacks to the feed
Ing of the great towns purposes, and
the little comedy or tragedy of their
electric nerves.
New York swallows statesmen and
great politicians as calmly as it di-
gestS a millionaire from Kalamazoo or
a copper king from Montana. South
of st. Pauls they move daily among
the half million of the busy bees and
their buzz does not rise above the
crowd.
To be sure, there probably is an Of
flee stored away somewhere in the
gigantic beehives that distinguish New
York in which the notable man from
somewhere else is a bit of a king
importance as the gateleepers of the
great. There behind glass doors some
thing of the Olden state adheres, but
once outside, once in common corridor
or the elevator, not to speak of the
busting street, the majesty relapses
completely, the office boys play irrev-
erent tag around his coat-tails and the
grown people give him an elbow jolt
or walk over him as impartialy as
they do the like to each other.
Carlisle Lost in Crowd.
One sees a tall man of clean shaven
thoughtful, rugged face, crossing Broad
street. He wears a tall hat and
long frock coat that make him look
taller still. He is steering in and out
among the "curbstone" brokers, who
dispute the middle Of he-road way
with cabs, wagons and itinerant lunch
stands. A young clerk, eager for quo
tatIons, jostles him; trader with
big notebook walks into him. He keeps
his course.
One can follow his top hat above
the derbys of the crowd He walks
dreamily under great stone entrance
and without looking for or getting a
salute he is presently WhisIxing up
ward among cageful of nonentities
packed as tight as sardines. At the
eighth floor he struggles out and on
q glass door you may learn that John
G. Carlisle is there engaged in the
practice of law with several experts
whose names laid out in string Jar
your teeth, as the names of law firms
are apt to dO-Curtiss, Mallet- Provost,
Colt & Tichenor. Try to get that
from between your lips without a
tOothacheI
Mr.. Carlisle looks down on his law
papers not only from the eighth story
OF an office building in New York, but
rom thlrty-seven years of nearly con-
tinuous public service in his dearly be-
loved Kentucky and in the capital of
the nation. The eager young years
OF law study, of service in the state
legislature and state senator when he
was thirty, then his lieutenant COVER
norsh1p before he was thirty-six, were
worthy preparation for the congress
SIonal career of six terms that was to
follow, acting as speaker of the house
OF representatives for six years from
1883 to 1889. Then there were to fol-
low four years in the United States
senate, from which President Cleveland
was to elevate him to the Secretaryship
OF the treasury, holding that helm Of
the rlches OF the country until 1897.
Ihefe, at quite pinnacle, one can re-
call how the eyes of Wall street and
Exchange place were on him. How
the current Of millions of money flow
ed this way or that at his beck and
parlors and brokerdom on the marts
n
ger!
Eager for the Fray.
A miracle! Out of all his long pub
lie service, out of his manifold oppor-
tunitleS, he comes poor 1t is not
meant to say needy, but not wealthy.
NO doubt, despite the tidal entrance
of Mckinley in 1895, the cup of office
In Kentucky was not quite empty for
him, but the greater prizes We're out
of reach. What then?
At sixty to start in the world afresh
on the hunt for fortune
1 have just come back from Wash
1ngton, where l had supreme court
business, says Mr.. Carlisle without
emotion. Il am out of politics. I
don't want to talk for publication; all
the less because of thirty-seven Years
in public life.
why should a man stay in politics
to beggar himself? A salary that is
not enough for a position is as bad in
one rank of life as in another l like
New York we'll enough. One does miss
the knowing of everyone you meet,
the buoying up with smiles around one.
NO. there is no way that 1 can see in
our country to provide a place like the
pflVy council in England or any dis
position TO create fund for retired
officials of d certain grade. Senator
Lindsay, who succeeded me in the SEN
were always great friends. Yes. he
also IS practicing law in New York"
All very simple and straightforward
and with slight pathetic touch about
1t, that the tall and courteous Kentuck
ian, dfgnified without effort and COM
mandlng without pose, would be the
last to desire to impart
One may safely take off ones hat to
John Griffin Carlisle if he is met in the
domain Of the dollar.
1t is only good stones throw from
the foot of the big building to William
street, where the other Kentucky sem
ator was to be found, but up where.
Nassau street comes into Wall street
one sees coupe turn up and a we'll
known face appear at the window
Its journey is soon ended and a former
vice president of the United States
alights, goes up a few marble stems
quite leisurely and is greeted on ali
sides with the discreet Difference of
the welltrained officials of the big
financial establishments.
This Difference, by the way, is main
ly exhibited by combining a conscious
ness OF the presence with strict atten-
tlon to the business in hand. 1t is a.
great room with marble flooring and
partitions and peepholes. Behind the
partitions are seen an army of clerks
operating on big account books. II is
the Morton Trust Company, busy as a
bee In clover time with huge transact
uons-transfers, mergers, holding
companies-What not, wherein tens of
millions are only so many counters
passing to and fro with, let us homo
profit to all concerned.
Marfon = Rue,, A.