Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-12-27
LETS NOTHING GO
G. n. Hartman, Who Wanted
Equitable Stock. is Re-
markable Man.
STEAM ENGINE FOR WORK
Curt in Business, But Kindly to All az
Country Home-Orisinal
in Utterances.

| WHALES y. PROUTY of the in
| q tc.statC commerce commission
81 once said that five men could
control the railroads OF the Unit
ell States. He did not name the men,
but he unqucstionabiy referred 10 the
| chief fi"urcs Ia the live great railway
systems: William X Vanderbilt OF the
Vanderbilt rodda. George J. Gould of
| the Gould roads. =. Pierpont Morgan
of the MorGan-Hi.i interests, y. J. Cas-
salt OF the PennSy lvania system and
| Edward Il. Hartman o. the Hartman
roads. While named last, Hartman
| IN power and influence Is easily the
head of the list Morgan formerly was
there. bat the younger man passed him
some time ago II il safe 10 say that
Hartman win keep the lead. lie has
habit OF keeping things. lie once
said - Il bunch of newspaper men who
came to question him about the rUmor
that Morgan and Hill had wrcstei from
him the control OF the Union Pacific:
II guess that isn't 50. have never
yet let 80 OF anything that / wanted
after getting il in my possession"
Ordinarily NJ Hartman does nor
talk much. Lately. he has been more
loquacious, but he could not help that.
1t was all on account OF hughes and
that insurance investigation. \ whole
lot of people who would have preferred
TO keep quiet have been saying things
for the same reason. Some of these
high tinanciers are so modest ana re-
firing that the shrinking daisy is bold
by comparison. 1t is little less than
cruel TO drag them out before the pub
lie and make them tell where they
got it.
Pregnant Ejaculation.
Mr.. Hartman thinks so rapidly that
il is impossible for him 20 express him
self in mere words. At one famous
meeting of the Equitable directors he
became so surcharGed with burning
ideas that all he could 60 was II give
utterance to the memorable sentence,
Wow. WOW, VOW That pregnant
ejaculation was freiChted with more
meaning than is contained i'll many
volumes. Anybody can reel OF strings
of adjectives, but it takes n genius to
think Of anything 50 startlingly origi-
nal as Wow, WOW. wow That sen
tence was either something more or
something less than human. 1t was
even new 10 Wall street The fire.
quenters of the Stock Exchange me-
nagcrie were familiar with the below
ing of bulls, the growing OF bears and
the bleatlnS Of lambs, but Wow, WOW,
wow" was Il language beyond them.
1t clearly belonged to some other zoo
logical species.
Even when he does descend To Ordi-
nary human forms of expression Har-
riman is saving of his breath. When
asked. for example, If he had done
anything to Thomas +. Ryan for tax
ing the Equitable away from him the
railroad king said. with crisp erlpha-
sis. Not yet" Delicious. Some men
write columns and do not say half as
much as Is contained in those TWO
words If they did not make sIiYery
feeling run down Ryan's spine. then
be is proof agains, fear.
Here is another rather savage dig at
Ryan. The present owner of the Equi-
table had testified that he bought
Hyde's stock because he feared that
the exposures in the company would
bring a panic. When Mr.. Hartman
was asked II he shared In this apDre-