The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-10
"The Judge" Has Been the
Right Hand Man of De-
ceased Financier.
BEGAN AS MERE PLOW BOY
WENT FROM TEXAS WITH HIS
ROUGH EDGES AND BEAT THE
EASTERN CAPITALISTS AT
THEIR OWN GAME.

New York, Sept. 1O.-There seems
to be little doubt among the associates
of Edward H. Hartman that one OF
two men will be chosen to fill the
place OF the dead magnate at the helm
OF the great railroad interests. These
two men are Robert Scott Lovett and
Leonor Fresnell Loree, and of the two,
Lovett, seems more likely to possess
the shoulders upon which the mag
Mates mantle will fall.
It is Mr.. Lovett, or Judge" Lovett,
as he is called. who has been the only
one outside the Hartman family to
be near the magnate since he return
ed from Europe. Mr.. Lovett has been
at Arden almost daily. and 1t is be-
lieved that points which he had not
before been given were impressed up
on him by Mr.. Hartman when the
latter felt his end approaching.
Thirty-five years ago Robert S. Low
EFT leaned over the handle of pillow
as he rounded the hill in the topmost
furrow on his fathers farm near Shep-
hard, Texas, and saw something new.
It was a work train on a narrow
guage railroad. The Houston East and
West was being pushed toward
Shreveport from the city of it's name
through the densest part of the piney
woods.
Fascinated With Locomotive.
Young Lovett was fascinated. The
next day he went down to inspect the
locomotive. He saw the men throwing
up the grade and watched them lay
ing ties and forty pound rails. Imme-
diately he secured employment. Driv-
Ing a team when the mud was deep
he was the sole proprietor of wagon
that hauled tmbers to the builders.
He had quit the farm where he spent
his boyhood in poverty. His father
had managed to exc out but a poor
existence from the impoverished soil
of east Texas and there, during the
war, Robert was born.
Some day." he exclaimed to his
boy friends who laughed at him be-
cause he was hauling ties for the
work, It'll own that railroad"
When Robert Scott Lovett was
brought to New York from Houston,
Texas. three years ago by Hartman,
with the title Of vice president and
general counsel of the Hartman lines,
those OF New York who came in con-
tact with him remarked, pretty
shrewd chap that, but we will have
to polish off some of his rough edges.
They might be all right down in Tex
as, where lawyers and railroad mag
mates have to deal with cattle punch
ers. but they won't go in New York"
IL Still Texan.
Judge Lovett has been in New York
now three years and he is still in ev-
cry essential Texan. II any polish
ing has been done he was the polish
er. Just who the polishees are can
best be guessed after taking cur
sorry glance at the roads that have
fallen into Hartman hands since
Judge Lovett came here in an execu-
tive and advisory capacity
With reputation established in
Texas as one OF the shrewdest men
In the state, it is but natural that he
should have attracted the attention of
Hartman, especially when the Judge
was a big man in the legal department
Of the Gould interests. Hartman was
quick to recognize his worth, and he
became counsel for the Southern Pa
cific, with offices In Houston, and so
we'll did he serve his new master that
he was soon rewarded and brought to
New York. and made the whole
thing" In the legal department of the
Hartman lines.