Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-08-11

wire in Texas on a salary of s25
week.
This trip made Gates. 1t also made
barbed wire. The Texas cattlemen had
never seen barbed wire before, and they
ridiculed it,
THAT stuff wouldn't hold a Texas
steer minute" they said.
Gates was put on his mettle. "rll
show you" said he, and he did
Gates hired the nearest plaza and got
together a drove of 25 of the widest
Texas steers that could be found Then
he fenced his plaza with barbed wire.
put the steers inside and gave the cat
tlemen a free show. The steers charg-
ed the wire and were pricked by the
barbs. They shook their heads and
charged again, with the same result.
After two or three of these defeats, they
huddled together on the inside and tried
to think it over. Gates sold hundreds
of miles of his wire that day at is
cents a pound.
MADE BARBED WIRE
Ever playing against the future, Gates
thought he saw bonanza in wire. Some
how he gathered enough money 20 have
barbed wire factory of his own in st.
Louis One day his factory burned
down. Fifteen minutes after his fore
man had reported that it was totally
wrecked. he had entered into partner
ship with William Edenborn. another,
factory owner. and was filling orders as
usual Six years later he made his first
large sum of money. $4,000. by a big
sale of English wire. Every dollar that
he could lay his hands on went into
wire. Then Ellwood, the original wire
manufactured, th-ught he discovered
that Gates and Edenborn were infring-
ing on ais patent rights.
Litigation Followed for several years
and thereby Gates acquired title as
"Moonshiner" Gates ana lost the John
n.y.. To escape injuncuons against the
alleged infringement or patents, he NOV
ed his plant overnight" from Illinois to
Missouri and continued to make the
fight so not that Colonel Ellwood took
him into the business. ---cantime Gates
and Edenborn had built another plant
at Braddock, Pa, and Gates conceived
the idea of pooling all the wire racto-
ries in the country. That time it failed,
but in 1892 Gates brought about a mer-
ger of the St. Louis, Braddock, Joliet
and Allentown plants as the Consolidat-
ed steel and Wire company. Edenporn
was made president and Gates general
manager.
Johnny" Gates and "Moonshiner'
Gates had now become John w. Gates,
citizen of Chicago, where he moved in
1892, man o. the world follower of the
race track for diversion, and with an
ever increasing passion to risk his
money on anything and everything where
a bet would quicken his pulse But ne
was not yet a plunger in the grain or
stock markets.
To acquire the money that enabled
IL. - 4v.4A T. Vel
street, feared even by it's biggest men,
John W. Gates had only to bring to real
lzation his early dream of a wire trust.
After his first success in getung to-
gether the Consolidated Steel and Wire
company, he was asked to assume the
presidency of the Illinois Steel compa-
ny, which at that time was struggling
along after the hard times" panic Gates
gradually extended his activities and in
fluence and in the fall of 1892 he deter
mined TO try again to merge the wire
companies.
j. Pierpont Morgan agreed to finance
the undertaking. but was scared out
when the Spanish war started. Lloyd
L. Smith, a Chicago capitanst, jumped
into the breach and he, Gates and ELL
wood floated the $9O,0o0,0UO wire COM
blne
But with all the tremendous money
power Denlnd MIN, Gates could not get
seat in Wall street. So he played the
game from the outside. He came to
New York with his bank roll and set up
his son, Charles c. Gates, in the bro
kerage business under the name of the
son, who had been admitted to the ex-
change. From that time, father and son
were inseparable, both in business and
pleasure. The brokerage house soon
made the high record for days busi-
ness on the New York exchange-425.00 900
shares-on which the brokerage COM
missions were approximately $4,000.
When Wall street grew tiresome in
1900. Gates took his son with him to
England. where he plunged on the sta
bles- of his friend Drake. On one race