Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-12-03
Greatest Woman FinancIor.


I'M SON GREEN of New York, the
wealthiest woman in the United
Es{fcH States was 20 years Of age on
& November q, and observed the
anniversary by diligently clipping on cou-
pons and planting some Of her idle money
where II would grow more coin every min
ute Of the day.
BY feminine rule and line Hetty Green.
in her SEVENTEEN year. Is tall. with
strong frame, hair still plentiful, but now
deeply frosted, plump but capable hands,
and a manner emphatic and forceful with
out being obtrusively so. She has a soft
voice and a matronly figure, but when she
leans back in her chair squares her face
IN earnest conversation or crosses her knees
and points her finger In denunciation at an
imaginary enemy-she does all these things
Just as a heavy, muscular man would do
them.
Occasionally, in her hurried earnestness,
a final "g'' is missing Otherwise her vo-
cabulary is one OF blunt Anglo-Saxon d.
rectness-simple words generally Of one
and two syllables, without any furbelows.
Her neat dress Of plain black was a replica
OF those you will nnd on benign elderly
mothers In scores of rural towns. The skirt
was Of sateen, and upon her head she wore
q crepe veil twisted about her hair in such
a way as to suggest the Castilian mode.
One noticeable characteristic was the en-
tire absence Of affectaton- no suggestion
Of thickness, hardness or suspicion.
Plainly. our wealthiest woman has been
persistently caricatured.
Or else Hetty Green dressed better and
smiles kindlier and oftener than was once
her habit.
Adding to her prescription Of youthful
ub IN q Il "a OnaEeragg and
that her father early implanted in her
habit of self-control He used to tell her,
she is fond OF repeating, that II she would
learn how to manage her brain she would
know how 10 manage her fortune. Thus
she learned as a girl to hold herself in
check when things were not going right;
when, for instance, she is being cross-ex-
amlned by the legal fraternity, against
which she has an abiding grudge.
Every forenoon. rain or shine, finds Mrs.
Green at her desk in the Chemical National
counting ROOM That is, every forenoon
that she is in town. For her vast business
interests in Chicago and elsewhere fire.
quently demand her absence from the me-
tropolis.
Today her property is of manN sorts and
her real estate holdings fairly frecl1le the
face Of the country. Octopuslike her mort
cages embrace some OF the safest and
soundest properties in a chain of cities ex-
tending from Boston 20 San Francisco, and
the income therefrom flows toward her
from every national section and corner be-
tween Maine and Texas. Railroads and
steamboats,, mines of copper in Michigan,
of gold in Nevada and OF iron in Missouri
and Pennsylvania, telegraph and telephone
securities, her wealth covers all sorts and
conditions of gilt-edged dividend paying in
vestments.
Building from a e-million-dollar base,
she has. by her own genius and energy.
reared a vast and valuable fabric, of which
every strand is known to her and numbered
man head. Yet she is as diligent in weav-
ing strand after strand. in piling dollar
upon dollar, as when she began, on the
death OF her father In 1865.
Asked regarding the secret OF her success,
she smiles and habitually disclaims being
the wealthiest woman In the country.
about all that can be said is that my in
vestments have been carefully chosen and
have turned out well, as a rule fortune
cannot be built up around any fixed idea,"
she believes, "or. in other words. without
the exercise Of plain common sense. 1 buy
when things are low and no one wants
them. I keep them, Just as keep a con-
siderable number OF diamonds on hand, un-
I'll they go up and people are anxious TO
buy. That is the general secret Of business
success. One thing. however, has been
wrongly attributed to me, and that is spec
ulating. 1 never speculate Such stocks as
belong to me were purchased simply as an
investment, never on a margin"