The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-27
AIETEoRIC LAWSON.
FInancier Is Always Either Making or
Losing q Fortune.

! That Thomas w. Lawson is a unique
American product is acknowledged by
his worst enemy
| He is tall, well built, with a ruddy
complexion, a mass of black hair
sharp, piercing eyes that look you
through and through, and a square
jaw His hands are remarkably small
for such a big man.
Mr.. Lawson began his business
career in 1872, when at the age of Is
he made a fortune by Specializing in
| shares of Cincinnati, Sandusky &
! Cleveland railroad stock, which
dropped from $50 a share to So. He
of II years. At that time he received
a present of 500. He spent $S7 on a
present for his sister and the rest went
toward making his brother happy.
When he made the fortune in Gin
cinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland stock
he made the money fly while it lasted
He got mixed up in the Boston Water
Power company and dropped the mod
est sum of $59,S41 in jig time. But
that left him with hundred and fifty
odd dollars, which he spent in giving
his friends a dinner, handing his last
IS note to the head. waiter.
Z That left Mr.. Lawson with clean
decks, but it did not take him long to
| get into the game again. For the last
! 80 years no man has made and lost
the fortunes like him; no man has
spent the millions that he has in SO
many different ways. His motto is;
IF you spend money, spend it like a
gentleman" and he has lived up to
this. If he wants a thing he buys it,
just as he did when he paid $4,000 for
the famous Lawson pink.
In the last historic crash of Amalga-
mated Copper Lawson is said to have
lost $1,000, OO0-a mere bagatelle.
Since that time he has made that
| much over and over again at times,
n on
So far as skyrocket speculation goes
he excels even the INSTRUMENTATION
John w. Gates. When he loses a fight
he likes to write a book about his
troubles and show up the inside work
ings of the financial world from his
point of view to illustrate what little
chance the general public has to make
money unless by blind luck.
AS one of the most versatile and pic
turesque American millionaires Mr..
Lawson is always doing something
new. When he bought the famous
pink there We're other bidders for the
flowers. New York concern offered
$4,000 for the slip. Harlow w. Calvin
made it $4,000, another florist made
the bid of $4,000 and Lawson jumped
it to $4,000.
No reverses in life ever stung him so
deeply as the wound inflicted by the New
York Yacht club He built the sloop hide
he might be chosen % e e3P t fle as II
cas- cup, but the New York Yacht club
declared the boat to be barred because
Mr.; Lawson was not a member of the
club.
After writing a book about the disap-
pointment, entitled The Lawson History
of the Americas Cup: A Record of Fifty
Years" he smashed the Independence to
bits and made souvenirs of her plates.
Mr.. Lawson says that only one person
can help a man in this world, and that
person is himself. Certainly few have
helped him, for he has many enemies.
They are all thoroughbreds," he says
of his enemies. Every one of them would
rise from sound sleep to do me an in
jury. Long may they live. They put spice
into life"
To most men the loss of a couple of mil
lion dollars would be a blow from which
they would never recover. Not so with Mr.
Lawson. More than once he has lost that
amount with a smile, and more than a
dozen times he has made that amount
while the day laborer in front of his office
was earning 81
Among Their things Mr. Lawson is
noted for is mis- beautiful homes His
house in the exclusive Beacon street in
Boston, is a palace. He has a half dozen
beautiful farms where his crack trotters
graze. When he tires of one. place he
buys another, for in this, as well IS every
other phase of his career, Mr.. Lawson be-
heves that variety is the spice of life
Baltimore Sun.