The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-09-20
Frank steinhart, Who Wa
1880 Month Soldier, is
Traction Magnate.

| ClOSeu III ADTll, WllllC otGlIllldIl was
still consul general.
There is q keen appetite in official
circles here for any light on the career
of the man who entered Cuba as a
private soldier with the invading army
of 1898, and who, in ten years, be-
came a millionaire and traction mag
rate. Steinhart is one soldier of for
tune who has found the fortune. His
capture of the Havan street railway
system in the panic of last years
Cuban revolution was as fine a piece
of inside financial strategy as one
could wish to see. He is the man who
got the scalp of Herbert G. Squiers,
one time United States minister to
Cuba.
Touching the Oil. Trust.
Just now Steinhart represents the
big New York financial house of Speyer
& Co. and his associates or his trips
to this country would seem to indicate
friendly relations with at least the
younger crowd in the Standard OIL
company. 1t is the inside story be-
hind his pare outline that Reilly
threatens to bring out in this suit Of
his.
Steinhart has hardly yet reached
middle age. He is a man of medium
height and build. a dark, sturdy, drum
mer sort of q He came originally
from Pennsylvania and he had been a
stenographer when he enlisted In the
regulars at Chicago for the Spanish
war. AS a stenographer he was ma
turally picked out Of the ranks for
company clerk and eventually, after
General Wood had been given supreme
control of things in Cuba, steinhart
went into the h%eadQuarter offices On a
detail to pound a typewriter and an
ever Yes, SIR when he was spoken
to. There WAS about one chance in a
hundred that he would receive any per-
sonal notice from the governor general
of Cuba, but Steinhart's whole career
IN cuba has been a succession OF Win
Ing andre to n shots. He is not a
man who hides his light under a
bushel.
When Steinhart became consul gem
eral he found Herbert G. SQuiers, the
United States minister. Diplomacy was
! squiers' end Of It. Of course. while the
after American business in Cuba and
after opportunities for more OF It..
SQuiers was a graduate Of West Point,
had been an officer In the famous Sew
enth cavalry, was down in the his
tory books as one Of the heroes of the
Pekin legation siege in 1900. and
Squiers was also very rich. He and
his wife were socially ambitious, d.
plomacy was their career" and they
preferred to be regarded Is aristccrats.
Sympathy Impossible.
There could be no sympathy between
SQuiers and the rough and tumble
Steinhart. who slapped men on the
back at a first Introduction and asked
them what they would have to drink,
who was not rich but wanted to be and
who regarded h consul generalship as
g watchtower from which good things
might be discovered n subsequently
picked up. Squiers was popular with
the official set iP Havana, or at least
reasonably SO. but Steinhart knew ev-
erybody worth knowing by his front
name and could even pick out the par
In the streets OF the city.
Squiers had an acquaintanceship that
might have elected him president of a
havana bank or the city's chamber Of
commerce. Steinhart could have run
tor mayor of Havana and won hands
down. So Squiers was handicapped at
the start.
Real Coup d'Etat.
1t was at this time that the Cuban
rusty mausers and started their revolu-
ton. Estrada Palma and the whole
Cuban cabinet, fearful Of being shot
against a stone wall. came flutterinR
to Steinhart in great agitation and
begged him to take charge and save
them; h revolutionists. who knew
and liked steinhart, sent in word that
they did not ant to buck the United
States government and they would do
! pretty much what he said.
Steinhart grinned cheerfully and
while he held the trembling admins
tration on the job by the scrufr Of its
neck and the revolution at arms
length With his other hand on its
throat. he arranged for American in
tcrvention. which both sides begged.
But no II In Cuba but Steinhart
knew that this American Intervention
was coming and he kept his own conn
sci.
Meanwhile the stock of the proftah,e
Havana street railway system Vent
down, down. down. Steinhart let the
revolution light a few bonflres on the
very edge of the city Of Havana and
the street railway stock tumbled some
more. When 1t hit rock bottom. and
ing to let go OF it with both hands
Steinhart announced the coming armed
intervention. That day the stock skv-
rocketed in fine style. That day, too
some agitated Cuban %1nanciers discoy.
cred that Steinhart had the stock, O,
most of 1t. W
He had pulled off the only real conn
d'etat Of this opera bouffe revolution.
Now comes Reilly. who claims to hav
been in on some Of these Cuban trac-
ton deals. and says S%teinhart owes him
$4,000 on an option that figured in ONT
OF them: It Is this suit to which Cos
sippy Washington. looks for some inter.
csting details of American relations
with Cuba. OF curse Steinhart, at the
worst. can be charged with nothine
more heinous than bad taste in usine
his official information. as consul gen.
eral for q guide in his private bushes,
affairs. But people here would like IA
know more about it just the same.