Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-06
ADVENTURES
Of LAMAR TYPE
AREPLENTIFUL
"The Street" Often 0utwitted by
Men of No Experience and No
Capital, From Nowhere.
BY BoERsANIER.

CHICAGO July 5.-"The street"
has the reputation of drawing the
most astute men in the world of busI-
ness. 1t is accounted the essence of
astuteness, the keenest form of
shrewdness, to succeed there. Men
who have qualified for eminence in
various lines of industrial activity are
supposed to be tested in the street"
for a final degree.
And yet there is the paradox that
in no department of trade are brazen
and shallow Adventures more sue
cessful than in the street" Black
guards and blackmailers who, should
they endeavor to operate in any com
mercial line would be detected and
banished instanter, flourish unmolest-
ed in the purlieus of the stock ex-
change.
Lamar is only one of a myriad of
instances. Lest his position and op-
erations be underestimate, it must
be confessed that from time to time
he made himself useful" TO power
full men For a while he was James
r. Keene's intimate. He supped with
John w. Gates and played many parts
for scaly banking houses" arrayed In
opposition to this or that plan.
Some Rocket Careers.
But there are adventurous charac-
tiers in no way suggestive of the
wolf" type as represented by Lamar;
men sincere enough in their way with
methods, if not wholly impeccable, at
least lawful The most part of these
have no financial antecedents. They
come from journalism. from the law,
from the medical profession. They
arrive in "the street" comparatively
unknown, with practically no knowl-
edge, certainly no experience, of
financial affairs, and in a few months
the country is ablaze with their ex-
ploits. How they do it is a mystery.
England has had several "Hooleys'
fellows who positively terrorized
bankers and corporation managers
into the widest sort of speculative
schemes. At about the same time in
Wall Street a certain doctor ran an
amazing campaign in a dozen worth
less curb stocks: ran these shares to
par and over, assisted by a tramp
newspaper man who had been unable
to earn $40 a week in Chicago, who
sold out before the crash came, pock
citing nearly 100000 before he hur-
ried to Europe.
Two Schemes Survive.
A still higher instance Is that of
III M Nndd nWa NN
burst forth as a promoter Of a half
dozen companies, two of which have
survived and are highly profitable.
The gentleman was wholly unknown
in LaSare Street Nevertheless his
undertakings and all oversubscribed
and had II not been for the opposi-
ton of the Moores, who were then
busy with their steel promotions. the
attorney might have merged all the
industries of the West and Middle
West. This genius subsequently dis
tinguished himself as a novelist and
a dramatist. He also is now a wine
and art connoisseur. 1t is needless
TO note that he began life as jour
nalist
The case of Napoleon" Ives is a
further exemplification. Ives had
been a subordinate clerk in a brokers'
wells and to run errands, One day
the street" could not believe its ears
when II heard that this junior clerk
had captured the Cincinnati, Hamil-
ton and Dayton Railroad-at that
time a fourishing property. Ives had
somehow. in some way, got out of
town capitalists to enter a pool he
had formed to get control of the road.
No Wall Street man had been invited
hence Wall Streets surprise.
Quite as abrupt and romantic was
A. A. McLeod's acquisition of the
Reading and Of the New York and
New England roads. Mcleod had
been a milkman in Minneapolis. He
drifted into Wall Street, and had not
been there long before he startled
everybody. particularly ]. P. Morgan
by seizing the management of two
important railway companies. Most
Of these rockets-and many more
came down completely exploded. as
suddenly as they had risen. The
amazing point is that they should
have gone up at all in a thoroughfare
inhabited by a nations most sophis-
ticated citizens.