Bisbee daily review., 1907-01-20
.COLLOSAL COPPER DEAL
 TINTED AT FUR FUTURE
Il Is Believed in Some Quarters That Thomas F. Cole Has in Mind the Consolidation of Cole" Copper Companies, and That This Gigantic Plan Was Unfoded to Colonel Greene at Time of Organization or Greene -Cananea Co.,

T. F. Cole, whose figure is ever looming larger on the copper horizon, is a man of powerful physique and commanding stature, being six feet two inches in height, with the pro l portions of an athlete.
 He would have made a star foot bali player, but fortunately for him the circumstances of his early life saved him from such a fate.
 Cole is not university man, but had to gain his superlative education studying between times and mostly at night. The story of the younger Pliny putting his feet in ice water to keep him awake while he imbibed at night that knowledge that has since won the worlds admiration, made a deep i'm pression on Coles youthful mind. So earnest was he in the quest of knowl- edge that everybody in the little Mich Igau inning town where he lived, who possessed any good books, was sure at one time or another to be requested by Cole for the loan of them. Pos sessing, as he does today, a prodigious memory, these books were not lost on the youthful Cole, and in time his un- usual knowledge of book lore became the subject of remark in the neighbor- hood While studying during the long winter evenings and far into the night in a fireless room in Northern Michi- gan Cole found that it was not neces- sary to put his feet in ice water to keep awake.
 The studies, began so early and un- der such adverse conditions, have been persisted in to this day, until now his partners in the gigantic deals which he is putting through with such con- summate ability are no less astonished at his success in business than at his learning and scholarly attainments.
 Coles first opportunity to put in practice the business methods which in six years have won for him prince ly fortune and the foremost place in the copper world, came with his ap- pointment, in 1900, to the presidency of the Oliver Mining Go. with head quarters in Duluth, Minnesota. The great Mesaba iron range was then in its prime. At this time there were in Duluth three large iron mining con- panies, represented by as many men holding positions similar to Coles. Previous to Coles advent, these three men were buying mines in a desultory way, or whenever some poor devil had to sell out for a song. They thought, in a somnolent sort of a way, that the unheard of opportunity that was then theirs would last forever. And 1t is not of record that Cole eveI tried to disabuse them of the idea Cole saw his opportunity, however. and availed himself of it in the same way that he has since in the copper business. In the space of two years Cole had done something, and the rep resentatives of the other three big mining companies at Duluth came out of their trance just In time to realize that Cole had bought the Mesaba range.
 Even in the face of his later achieve ments, this iron deal stands out pre- eminently as one of the boldest and most brilliant coups that he has ever made, and certainly one of the great est tributes to his judgment, as the mines he bought then would today be considered cheap at ten times the fig ures he paid for them.
 The tremendous ore resources that Cole then accumulated. with all the silence and secrecy that later char acterized his Cananea deal, formed the club with which the other mining com