The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-25

man, is not looked upon quite so ardent a religionist as she has proved herself. But for her, it has been said, he would have been more impartial in his charities.
 It was through Mrs Ryan's efforts, so rumor has 1t. that the Pope recently granted permission for the construction of a Ryan tomb under the Ryan cathe- dral at Richmond. The giver of the great edifice, together with his wife, is to find A last resting place beneath consecrated church, and that Is an honor bestowed upon laymen only when they rendered eX- traordinary services to the Roman Catho- lie organization; for the custom Is that priests and prelates alone shall be thus entombed
 From Mountain Boy Upward.
 Thomas F. Ryan first saw the light in the mountains of Virginia, fifty-five years ago. His parents were of Scotch-lrish eX- traction. and they had no means with which to give him an education beyond what the occasional school sessions of the hill country afforded. What he learn ed he had to pick up for himself. They say he read a great deal and applied him self to his arithmetic with unceasing zeal At any rate, he must have made the best of his opportunities for he was likely lad quick at figures and with com mon sense" beyond his years, when, at the age of seventeen, he journeyed eastward to seek his fortune in a city.
 Arriving in Baltimore in 1868, in search of a job, the boy from the bacSwoods managed to Hand" as dry goods clerk in John D. Barrys store. That was five years before he married Miss Ida M. Bar ry. But in the five years he did many things for so young man. Before he had lived in Baltimore for half that length of time, he decided that 1t was too small a city for his proper development, and to New York he came forthwith. He had been here only a few weeks before he became a broker on the curb, and in 1874. or one year after his marriage, he was able to buy a seat on the stock ex- change.
 From the beginning the young trader was known in "the street, as a man re- markably familiar with two subjects-the resources of the then mysterious west, into which he had managed to make few trips while a boy living among the Virginia mountains, and the securities markets. with whose intricacies he had acquired a familiarity quickly and thor oughly by reason of both hard application and natural aptitude. Of the west he was continually prophesying great things. Long before the railroad systems, the coal regions and the ''industrials" Of the undeveloped region had their boom he was telling his associates what was going to take place beyond the Alleghenies.
 While building up his traction skeletons, Ryan has had time for lnnumerable other activities in his favorite role of reorgan- izer and manipulator. He has become connected with banks, railroads and in- surance companies, generally seizing them in the moment of disorganization and reaping a harvest of profits after they have become revived under his clutch
 Invades the insurance World.
 It was late in 1904 that he turned his eyes upon the insurance field The Wash ington Life company was about to go to pieces. Ever ready to reorganize any thing that could be reorganized profit ably. the man from Nassau street laid his skilled hand upon the wreck AS had been the case with the other objects of his magic touch, the Washington Life was horn anew. The late legislative insu-- ance investigation held less than year after the reviving process began, showed the company to be on firm footing, ready to compete with the strongest and to make money as surely as the liveliest of it's competitors.
 The Washington Life episode m MT.
  no word of it got abroad until after he seized the Equitable last summer. That seizure was effected by the purchase of 70 shares of stock, or the controlling in- torest from James H. Hyde. whose use fuIness to the concern had ceased be- cauaa of the scandals arising out of the controversy between his faction and that of the president, James w. Alexander. Al The psychological moment MT Ryan stenped in, and. after he had bought the atock hastened to reassure the public s., Yiacinp if in the hands of three trus- fees whose integrity could not be ques- toned-Grover Cleveland. Morgan J. O,Rrien and George Westinghouse.
 Whether the buyer intended to do great public service has been debated by donbting seoffers, but he has told the ln- ,,ostiqating committee that he only ,,isbed to make a name" for himself ana to rescue the policyholders and he has agreed publicly to sell back the stock toe tho to the society, if 1t desires S to 1us ,nterest n4e ss pii0' R. H. G.