The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-09
John w. Gates
 Noted Financier
 Dies In Paris
PIunger, Who Out witted Some of the Biggest Magnates in the Money Market, Succumbs Far Away From Home, After One of Gamest Fights on Record
Especial from United Press.)

Especial from United Press)
 Paris, Aug. 9-Kept alive for weeks by the ardent wish to see America once more, "Bet Million" John w. Gates, the American f1nancier, died early today in the arms of his wife and son, after one of the gamest fights against death that his physic- Aans say they ever witnessed. Not long before he died he breathed the wish that he might have been 'at home."
 He was conscious almost to the last moment and knew that the end was at hand, but faced it with the cour- age that had characterized his life.
 Despite an iron constitution and the determination and will of his power full mind, to live, aided by all that medical science could do, it became apparent last night, when Gates had a serious relapse that his struggle for six weeks had been in vain and that death was but matter of hours. Besides Mrs. Gates and their son, Charles G. Gates, the only persons present at the financier's bedside were Dr. Edward Gros, an American phy- sician living in Paris, and D. R. Revee, an intimate friend of the Gates fam fly from New York.
 For four weeks Gates literally how cred between life and death Again and again it was believed that he could last but a few hours, but each time he rallied in way that amazed his doctors and family and gave rise to hopes that he would eventually win out. z
 Gates physicians expressed their amazement today at what they de- clared was "the gamest fight ever made by any patient in their long practice. Gates friends explained that the secret of his tenacious strug- felt wish and hope expressed repeat edly to "see home once more.'
 Gates came to Paris in June to be treated for an operation of the throat. An operation was performed and he was reported out of danger. in fact, was sufficiently we'll to be taken out one day for an airing. The follow ing day he took to his bed again. Serious complications of kidney trou- ble developed and soon his heart be- gan to weaken
 Gates body will be taken to New York for burial, leaving here on the steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, on n> August 16 Services will be held in an American church in Paris, on Saturday.
 John w. Gates. famous the world
 over as 'tBet- Gates,
 the best-advertised 'gamblfn'
 man" in America, on December
 IS, 1909, astOunded the seventh
 vision of the Methodist Church, at
 Port Arthur, Tex, with the follow
 ing spectacular "DOnt's":
 Don't gamble.
 Don't play cards.
 Don't bet on horse races.
 Don't speculate on the stock ex-
 change.
 Don't throw dice.
 Don't shirk honest labor.
 Don't be gambler; once
 gambler, always one
 The ministers agree these
 "dOnt'S were all right, coming as
 they did from a man whose heavy
 betting on horse races aroused the
 Jockey Club of New York to warn
 him to modify his wagers; whose
 whose spectacular gambling at
 n drM sone p1e snG noetan and wbe beidg stcbs nss
 pennies for 1000 a throw, who
 cornered corn and bucked Stand
 ard Oil and United States Steel
 'Off the boards'' in the stock ex- :.
 change.
 AS o0dtl Ol oOt- Ou-dVM11lOil John W. Gates, perhaps the best self multi-milllionaire in Amer ica, brings to an end a financial and personal career that has probably never been equalled.
 Worth probably $25,000,000 or $30, 100000 at the time of his death, John W. Gates. the .'torgetful man" who stood not in awe of Morgan pr or. in fact, the whole combined Street" wanted the world to know he had money. He wasn't ashamed of it. Once he had his pri- vate secretary write to the New York Herald: Let it appear in your fnan- cial page that during the late rise in railroad stocks, J. w. Gates has made between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000, in Baltimore & Ohio and Union Pacific, both great favorites of hiS''
 Gates was born in Turner's Juno ton, H., or what is now part Of South Chicago, on May 8, 1855. He was as poor as poverty. But, If South-side traditions be true, Gates was an early financier. He farmed his partners. He was most excel lent :'hossswapper.' When he was IS he was married to a farmers daugh- ter.
 After running small hardware and grain business in Turner's Juno  he admitted himself,h he was a peach" He travelled for Isaac l.. Elwood, founder of the barbed wire industry, and introduced barbed wire in Texas, proving a wonderful adept at the art of talking a man into buying Later he exemplifed this in selling out to the United States Steel corporation 1t a price far beyond the value of his works.
 'T hadn't travelled long before I ,ound more money could be made wire than selling it at s1O0 a month"; he said. With seven others he invested 2,500 in a wire company and cleaned | ID 50 per cent profit a week. Ell | wood, owner of the patents, objected. | When they served Gates with legal | papers in St. Louis he moved his lit le plant by ferry into Illinois and l made more wire. By the time legal papers reached him there he moved | lack to Missouri In the end he beat