The news & observer., 1905-08-06

has spent practically all OF the year 81
one or another of his three homes
Forrest Hill, country place near
Cleveland, Ohio, where he lives from
MAY until October; his New York town
house, on Forty-fourth STREET, or his
great estate at Pocantico Hills, near
Tarrytown- -on-the Hudson. 1t is fair to
Judge something of a mans character
from his homes, particularly when the
man is one who is freed from the ne
ceSSity of considering cost in building.
Mr.. Rockefeller's homes force several
reections on one. Certainly they show
his cult of the unpretentiOnS. No one
of the three houses he occupies has
any claims to rank among the notable
homes of the coutry. They are all un-
pretending even to the point of being
cospicuous. Not only that, they show
him to have no pleasure in noble ar
chitecture, to appreciate nothing of
the beauty of fine lines and decora-
tions. Mr.. Rockefeller's favorite
home, the house at Forest Hill, is a
monument of cheap ugliness. A great
modern structure, built in the first
place as a sanatorium, it is amazing
that any one not compelled to do so
should live in it's shadow. His city
house is without distinction, and there
has never been an appropriate man
sion at Pocantico Hills. The daily
life on his great estates is StudlOuSly
simple Mr. Rockefeller regulates his
household as he does his business.
Family and servants are trained to
srictest economy. There is no more
gas burned than is. needed; no un-
necessary heating; no wasteful pro-
viding There is nothing for display;
nothing Squandered in the senseleSs
American way to prove you are rich
so rich you need notcare. On every
hand there is frugalti. man-fliveh
hand there is ,frugality and careful
ness. And this frugality certainly is
a welcome contrast to the wanton.
lavishness which on every side of us
corruptS taste and destroys the sense
of values One would be inclined to
like Mr.. Rockefeller the better for his
plain living if, somehow, one did not
feel that there was something more
than frugality-that there was parsi-
mony; not only that, that here was
parsimony made a virtue-and that
one of the chief vanities of this "rich-
est man in the world is seeig how lit
tie he can spend on his household, as
that of manyanother rich man is see
ing how much he can spend.
Study the photograph, the last takne
.handlittle-t z
of Mr.. Rockefeller; study George Va
rians powerful sketch from life. made
in 1903, and say if it be worth while TO
be the richest man in the world at the
cost these portraits show. Concentra-
ton, craftinesS cruelty and something
indefinablely repulSiye are in them.
The photograph reveals nothing more.
Mr.. Varian's sketch is vastly more in
teresting, for it suggests, besides, both
power and pathaos, and no one can
look long on Mr.. Rockefeller without
Is&s IL ;tSaTlr ccir
he makes on one who sees him for the
first time is overwhelming. Brought
face to face with Mr.. Rockefeller, and
not knowing him, the writer's lmme-
diate thought was "ThN is the oldest
man in the world-aliving mummy.
But there is no sense of feebleness
with the sense of age; indeed, there is
one of terrific power. The disease
which in the last three or four years
has swept Mr.. Rockefeller's head bare
of hair, stripped away even eyelashes
and eyebrows, abs revealed all the
strength of his great head. Mr.. Rock
efeller is big man, not over tall, Dut
large, with powerful shoulders and
neck like that of a bull. The head Is
wide and deep and disproportlonately
high with curious bumps made more
conspicuous by the tightly drawn, dry,
naked skin, The intreSt of the big
more useful for aman of Mr.. Rookie
feller's practices could hardly be con-
ceived. They are small and impress
sionlesS as a wall. They are every
thing and reveal nothing. 1t ism OF
Shifty eye-not a cruel or leerlng one
1t is something vastly more to be fear
ed--a blank eye, which looks through
and through things and tellsnothing
of what it found on the way.
T2IIU nOthlnP
mouth tells much. Its former mask
the full mouStache Mr.. Rockefeller
has always worn is now completly
gone. Indeed, the greatest loss Mr.
Rockefeller sustained when his hair
went was that it revealed his mouth
1t is only slit--the lips are quite, lost
as if by eternal grinding together of
the teeth-teeth set on something he
would have 1t is at once the cruelesi
feature of his face-his mouth-tht
cruelest and most pathetic, for the
hard. close-set lines slant downward
at the corners, giving look of age
and sadness. The downward drOop is
emphasized by deep. vertical burrows
running from each side of his nose.
Mr. Rockefeller may have made him.
self the richest man in the world; but
he has paid. Nothing but paying ever
plows such lines ina mans face. ever
sets his lips to such a melancholy am
gle.
The only public place in which Mr..
Rockefeller appears with any regu-
larity is at the services of Baptist
church in the community where ne
happens to be living. He is particular
ly devoted to the srviceS of the Eu-
clid- Avenue Baptist Church of Cleve-
land and rarely from May to October
does he miss the Sunday meetings, and
he always appears at the Sunday
school picnic. Here he seems to be
at his freest; here he even makes lit
tie speeches on occasions. And yet to
one who from a. pew watches Mr..
Rockefeller in the bosom of his church
it SENS as if the Sunday service can be
nothing but an ordeal. The writer was
once present at the annual October
gathering i'm Mr.. Rockefeller's Cleve-
land church where he says goodbye for
the season to the Sunday-school of
which he is the honorary superintend-
ent He sat through the session of
Sunday-school. his back to the wall
(they say in Cleveland Mr.. Rocgefel-
Ter always sits with his back to the
wall when it is possible-so many
things can happen behind ones back
in an assemblyi1 inceSSantlV peering