Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-08-24
ATES--PLUNGER. MAN
Little Stories of Remarkable Personality That Has Just
Passed From the World Of Finance.

of town. replied Gates. who added,
A it is, o won. Cash your check
and get out of here"
The younger man was mad enough to
cash his $13, 600 check, and left Gates
office. He did not return either for
business or for bridge whist.
Broke? Not Yet!
When the crash occurred in the win
ter OF 1907. word ven Out through
Wall street that Gates was broke. The
firm of Charles Ct. Gates & Co.,
into which John Gates had transferred
his interests after the dissolution of
his old concern of Harris. Gates 4
Co, itself dissolved. In May, 1907.
Gates retired from the National Bank
of North America. where c.. w. Morse
had made him a director, differing
with Morgan's view that Gates was an
unsafe man. The pharisees of Wall
street INDUCED in much pious moraliz-
ing over the exodus of Gates and the
that Gates and his crowd had lost
from $6.OOO.G GOO to $40. 000. 900 in the mar
kct. Those who took this view, how
ever. seemed to forget that Gates for
tune was %variously estimated at from
$4,000. 600 to $685. 900. 900 and that he him
self, like James r. Keene and several
other leaders of the specializing public.
had always made u point in any finan-
cial operation. ''never to be left at
the post" as Keene once tersely put it.
When the newspaper men asked
Gates if he was broke, the plunger
only smiled and remarked that he
hoped that everyone was as we'll fixed
son. Charles G. Gates. packed their
trunks and started for France, where
they leased Sandri Court castle from
the Marquis de Beauvoir and had a
house full OF guests at a shooting
party that lasted for weeks and al
most for months. h following year,
Gates came back to the United States
and made for Texas. and the public
next heard of him as organizing a
circus combination in Galveston. Some
thing more substantial thar this, how
ever. happened the year after, when a
Texas OIL proposition that Gates had
long been interested with, turned ont
big and began to pay dividends of II
per cent a year on a capital of $751;
100000. Whether these dividends were
always earned, the record does not
show. but Gates at least had the wolf
we'll barred from the door on his oil
proposition alone.
Philanthropy.
IA W LII l0 was uGaTO
from as he amused himself by speak
ing before religious gatherings in Tex
as dn the course OF one of which
speeches he advised his hearers never
to gamble) n by making donations
to various worthy objects, one Of them
a Methodist university. Gates offered
property he said was worth 1925. 900
and $4,000 in cash to this institution.
After that he managed to keep out of
the newspapers fairly we'll until his
recent testimony in the congressional
investigation concerning the formation
Of the United States Steel company
and the affairs of the Tennessee Coal
q Iron company. as related to those
OF the Trust Company of America, in
the panic of 1907. In this testimony.
which Is too recent to need repetition
just now. Gates ono more INDUCED
his enmity against j. p. Morgan by
telling a story that largely confirmed
a popular impression hat the severity
of the panic was increased by the en-
deavor of the Morgan interests and
their allies to shake out the pool in
Tennessee Coal & Iron stock. which
the Trust Company of America was
supposed to have helped finance. One
mans story Is as good as another in
this connection. but 1T nay be said
that h one which Gates told caught
the popular notion much more than
the story volunteered later on by dis
tinguished representatives of the Nor
gan interests.
Big Bets.
The popular phrase bet you a mill
lion" no doubt. is an exaggeration. ever
applied to John W. Gates, one Of the
biggest gamblers the country ever
knew. But this story. which is an
rroximately true, illustrates the extent
20 which he would go for what he CON
sidered a good bet. One day, in Los
Angeles. Gates vas regaling a crowd of
friends with a description Of the sun
sets at Coronado beach. Someone Of