Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-16

to brass tacks" Is the advice to sell
stocks and bonds when they are high and
buy them when they take a tumble be
cause Of the volume of sales. And this
advice Is seriously and solemniy given to
audiences of rural people. the great ma
jorlty Of whom never owned share OF
such securities.
Knows value of Advertising.
Mr.. Lawson is surrounded in his private
car by men who impress the visitor as be-
ing entirely able to take care Of him in an
advertising and literary way. f. ].
Rldgway, publisher Of the Lawson maga-
zine, is the manager Of the trip. He keeps
quite discreetly in the background. Then
there is Mr.. Lawson's son, who authorita-
lively calls him down. when he gives too
much time to newspaper interviewers. But
the father never let's so Of the interviewers
until he has satisfied his own notion Of
what they should have.
The copper stock manipulation has as pri-
vate secretary L. A. Mcsweeney. a trained
newspaper man Of Boston. 1t was quite
noticeable at Missouri Valley that in the
morning Mr.. Lawson emphasized the de-
mand that he said MIR. Ridgway had made
on him for 5000 words" In the after
noon, while he was jollying the Chautauqua
crowd with mention OF the millions made
in a day and a month by his knowledge Of
''the game" Mr. McSweeney was very
busy with typewriter in the private car.
Lawson is not a master extraordinary of
language. although somewhat picturesque
in expression, as a stock broker OF thirty
seven years experience is apt to be. The
preparation and polishing zip of the raw
material is undoubtedly McSweeney's work.
The latter is a young Irish American of the
Julius Caesar hue. florid and ready-looking.
He is the buffer against which the inter-
viewer and the curious visitor must go be-
fore Lawson can be seen, and he knows his
business.
Personality of the Man.
Personally Thomas w. Lawson impresses
the observer as man who would have
been a fine platform orator II he had had
the chance of early training and expert
ence. He has the trick OF grooming him
self down to a science, but he would never
be guilty OF over dressing. He looks the
keen business man, trained In the school
of personal friction. His body is well knit
and well cared for; his head is well shaped,
even If little narrow across the temples.
He will never be pussy and has not about
him the general indications of assured old
age. Snappy positive. he gives evidence
that he can domineer and delights In being
boss. He Is unlike the western man of his
class, in that to offer his callers cigar or
other entertainment never occurs to him.
1t is not lack one would notice except by
contrast, for stinginess does not appear to
be one of his traits.
Lawson likes to talk and in his inter-
views at close quarters uses his hands to
illustrate his remarks. On the platform
he is not demonstrative, but when he
makes a point that he likes he apparently
draws a good deal of satisfaction from the
expression, "You can't bust that" He
sounds the letter "r" at the end of every
word ending with "w," as ''lawr' for law.
He processes great admiration for Roose-
velt yet insists that Roosevelt's plan OF
high ideals and an evident disposition to
enforce them is futile, while he evinces the
supremest confidence in his own plan OF
beating Rockefeller and the rest Of the
anti-I.awson bunch at their own game.
Lawson is forceful, and he is resourceful
also. He is the grown up boy who has
gotten used to hoeing his own row on the
lines of his own thought. He will get
there in a worldly sense, but he will never
be any wider in craftsmanship than he is
now. He is too old to learn. 1t is the les
son Of the old dog and the new tricks over
again.
Booster for Speculation.
Reserving, as he claims in every inter-
view, the real kernel OF his plan. because
the time is not yet ripe" still at every
stopping place he advises people to sell
stocks and bonds" If someone conceived
the notion that the American people out
In the country districts and in the smaller
towns have not been sufficiently familiar
with stocks and bonds to deal in them
| freely, Thomas w. Lawson would be, and
| is, the best possible advance agent to start
| speculative minds in that channel After
| studying him for the time he Is in sight
one gets the impression that he is a literary
South Sea bubble or booster. maybe un'
Intentionally, for more general stock spec
! ulation.
! Then. again, II he has not some audac'