The daily sentinel., 1909-04-23
PATTEN. THE PLUNGER.

James A. Patten of Chicago. who
seems to have cornered the wheat
market. has eyes like pig and an
under Jaw like that of n bulldog
When he speaks he growls, but every
syllable is distinct in spite of the
menace Of his tone. The pitch OF his
voice is always low, yet persons .
or 20 feet away from him are likely
to jump when they are first consei-
Gus of the rasp in it,
Mr. Patten was once mayor of Ev-
anston. No celebrity is allowed to
visit the town without being driven
out to look. at least at the outside
OF the Patten home. IL is quite
worth looking at. 1t has more ar
chitecture to the square inch than
any other house i'm the world except
Senator w. A. Clark's home on Fifth
avenue in this city.
The Patten disposition runs to cor
nering things. once the fat John w.
Gates started out to corner corn in
1901. About the time the Armours
decided to accumulate to themselves
the sole right to deal in wheat and
Cudahy felt impelled to shove every
body else out of the pork market,
Patten found them all so busy that
they had no time to watch the corn
market. Ee bought all the corn in
the world and n good deal more be
fore they woke up. Their own cor
ners faded away in the excitement
caused by the roars and the squeals
of Patterns victims. who finally went
to court and had their contracts de
clared void on the ground of public
policy.
a book agent Jared forth to Chi
cago n few years ago and made an
Independent study of the Patten fam
lily. Then he persuaded Mrs. Patten
that one set of Theodore Roosevelt's
works was worth s22. 900, because it
was the only set in the world ever
offered for sale at that price. He got
away with it. But when he offered
set of Shakespeare in the poets
own handwriting for about the same
price. a vague suspicion took shape
in the plunger's mind that all was
not as it should be. For n year he
devoted himself to the pleasing job
of getting the book agent into pris-
on cell
In 1905 Patten took dislike TO
the delusion of John w. Gates that
the wheat market ought to be cor
nered The things he did to Gates
are never mentioned by Gates In pno-
| lie because the police won't allow his
version. Late in 1908, Patten went
in with Plunger Livermore on q cot
| ton corner. Mr.. Livermore was OBJ
served. about August uttering loud
cries of rage because "Patten had
sold out on him Patterns answer
was characteristic. He said: II was
afraid some of those fellows were
selling us real wheat instead OF con
tracts to deliver. OF course, / couiu
not stand for that"
In fhp Fish 10 t.t.f n,a,, a,ri,4 o., ~
control of the Illinois Central. pat
ten had the right to vote some 7S7
shares. Neither side knew which
way he meant to vote, but the Harri-
man people thought his natural in
clinations were in their favor. Pat
ten went to a stockholders meeting
and aggressively and loudly insulted
William Nelson Cromwell; the Fish
crowd rejoiced; that night the prox-
res We're delivered to Hartman. Said
Patten: at takes an awful lar TO
make some people see a point"
The present wheat corner is due
to Patten's marvellous ability at tore
casting. His machinery for gather
ing crop information has been at
work for years. Early in April this
year. he smilingly announced his
opinion that the worlds supply Of
wheat was inadequate had been veri-
heu anu thaI ne guessed the price Of
bread was going up.
lot of gambling millionaires who
had bet against Patterns fall opin-
ions lost about million dollars. He
stands to win 10 million more.
Patten is abstemious in every
thing except cornering the necessi-
ties of life As mayor of Evanston,
he put in force an administration so
strict that it was impossible to get
drink within the city. even at a
drug store, without genuine pre-
seription from physician.-N
York World