Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1907-03-12
HARTMAN THE MAN.
Some GIimpses of the Railroad
Magnate at Sea.
QUIET AND UNoBTRUsIvE.

War Correspondents Account of a
Voyage With Him, In Contrast With
Two United States Senators-What
the Japanese Think of Hartman.
My first glimpse of the real man was
on voyage, writes Frederick Palmer
the famous war correspondent, in Col
l1er'S. When the ocean is the Pacific
and there are few people aboard you
learn your fellow passengers pretty
well. So you did on this occasion, in
Guiding two United States senator's
Hartman spent more time with the
engineer than with them.
We started from Yokohama with the
idea Of beating the record to San
francisco. A smooth sea ali the way
meant an even chance of success This
disappeared for everybody except Har-
riman when the first three days were
entirely unprOpitious. | think that he
thought he must succeed because he
himself was aboard When some one
offered him bet of $4,000 to 81 600
that he would fail he took it. Then be
started out to win the bet with all the
zeSt that he has shown in obtaining
control over new railroad Fair
weather broke the next day and con
tinued. We began to feel that the quiet
little man was putting demoniacal en-
ergy into the stokers and into the very
engines. By the dramatic space of q
few minutes he Won Hartman never
advertised the fact that he gave the
$4,000 to the engine room crew. Win
ming was the point in mind.
On the whole he was the least obtrlI-
sive of any great millionaire with
whom I have ever come in contact
Whether he is doing a kindness or do
ing business. he never uses words
where thought or action will take their
place / noticed that when he told q
steward to move a lady's chair to n
better position it was in an undertOne
of breyity The lady did not know of
his thoughtfulness. She would if
James J. Hill had been in Harriman's
place. PierpOnt Morgan's politeness
would have had the aplOmb of q JOve
The two senators were always ready
to pick up Harriman's handkerchief,
although they are on record as trust
busters. When you cut away their
egoism and glad handism the skeleton
that remained consisted merely of a
rubber backbone and floating ribs. On
one occasion Senator n, looking
around for an audience, engaged Har-
riman in discussion Of the rate prob
lem. 1t was the encounter of a rapier
and a pillow full of words Besides,
Hartman was not arguing; he was
telling us.
Senator w. said that he hoped to
avoid the importunate interviewers in
San Francisco because he did not want
any newspaper glory" When he ar
rived he graciously distributed a long
typewriter statement and called the
reporters ''bOys" He said that he
would wait over a day instead of tax
ing the next mornings Overland linn
tied | found afterward that he had
gone on the Pacific express, because
passes are not honored on the Over
land
Meanwhile the king-no fat, overfed,
SNUG, vulgar, easy going king, but a
self made, intense, Argus eyed, little,
| efficient king-had gone aboard the tug
waiting for him and was being shot
across the country by the mighty or
| ganization he controlled, and controlled
so absolutely perhaps because senators
are cheap. So cheap were these two
| that you could not withhold your ad-
| miration from Hartman as a thor
| oughbred fighting man.
The contrast made me understand
| the point of view of the Japanese, who,
being foreigners, can see us in the
| large. They looked on Hartman as
one of the really great men of Ameri-
| ca, a commander, who is the counter
part of Togo an Oyama, or a Kuro-
ki; a type of creative organizer who
has brought to America the industrial
power which they so desire to emulate
and in the country where the civilian
| is supposed to be of lower breed than
the official they gave the man who had
I never held office at home more honors
than they had ever paid to any visiting
American since Grant