Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-06-28
EDWARD II. HARTMAN.
the Leading Characteristics OF the Rail-
Road Magnate.

Road Maqnate.
Edwin Lefevres article on Hartman
In the June American Magazine is an
unusually successful character sketch. II
enables the reader really to see and I'M
derstand the man.
OF Harriman's personal appearance Mr.
Lefevre says:
"A little chap, 50 years old, who up to
tire months ago looked ten years
younger, with eyes that are not partic-
ularly expressive behind the lenses of his
spectacles; a heavy dropping mustache
now tinged with gray, a manner of speak
ing neither vivacious nor languid His
chin is pugnacious; his head is so we'll
shaped that IL has no conspicuous
bumps, His forehead Is his best feature.
a qulet-spoken little man, not at all
impressive-looking. who walks with a Gu
rious sort of bow-legged 'horsey' jaun-
tiness as Of a Jockey His complexion
inclines one to fear that the Hartman
liver is not as efficient as the Union Pa
cihc. You can tell that real bonhomie is
foreign to him these days, but you are
not surprised to learn that he Is q model
husband and tender father. You can
talk to Hartman and think him ruthless
You cant listen to him without thinking
him man Of great brain power. He
talks rather easily and seldom uses fig
ures of speech. but is often at a loss for
the precise word wanted, and when you
offer 1t to him he uses II without cor
rccting himself in n matter-o f-fact way
than conveys no sense OF help received or
gratitude. ! should say he is the kind
Of man who would not dream Of say
ing Thank you to a fellow who helps the
deal to come Harriman's way, because It
would have come anyway, with OF with
out help or opposition from Others and
why be grateful?"
How He Came TO Know the Game.
Hartman knows the game Of the
street from the sub-cellar to the gilt
ball at the end Of the flag-pole" says
Mr. Lefevre. He began at the bottom
and has since climbed as high as any
human being can climb In Wall street. /"
OF Harriman's early days in the street
-,r Defevre writes:
Even in those early days he was not
popular. Not one man In a thousand
found him genial. not one in n ten
thousand conEenial. He was an old
friend says, a cold-blooded little cuss.
Ned Hartman. not exactly offensive nor
opinionated but with a vein Of Gym
icism that kept friendships away Some
call him worse. But there was this DIFF
ference between the cold booded little
cuss and the other traders, that even
while we was betting on fractional huc-
tuations, he was studying His hunger
for Information was-and still is-insatia-
hDl's impatient at lIlf llltNTN llldI fthnre
rules the world Of the ticker, he was
Analysing conditions and men. determin-
ing causes and effects. As he grew in
years he grew in dolars-that was what
knowledge was made for to he coined
And as his fortune grew his reserve
toward his fellow gamblers also deepened,
for he was outgrowing his own class
The more he knew the less he talked He
knew the quotations of stocks and the
vagaries Of the market but he knew also
what stocks themselves meant, what they
were worth, and why certain conditions
must produce certain stock market ef-
fects. so that when the time came and
securities sold away below value he
plunged; he bought confidently. imper-
turbably, betting his entire fortune not
on fluctuations, but on the soundness Of
his knowledge and the clearness of his
vision. 1t was not courage. IL was logic
tho logic that makes cowardice an i'm
possibility to his temperament"
Not a Friend In the World.
"A man who is perhaps Mr. Harri-
mans closest associate said once when
h.s partner suggested that some friend
Of Mr. Hartman ought to speak to him
frankly on the unwisdom Of his lack Of
tact: Friend? l don't believe that Har-
riman has n friend In the world" The
man who said this is n very great fnan-
cier who has been in, and has had an
active interest in. every deal Of MIR Har-
riman's since 1899"