Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-31
BUT SELDOM
FROM OFFICE GLOOM
Charles L. Freer. Man OF
Wealth. Celebrated for
His Surprises.
.ecial Correspondence OF The Star.

NEW YORK. May -. 1913.
This is the story of a man who hides
himself:
Detroit. Now and then he energies
from his Office obscurity long enough to
get his name on every first page in
Christendom. Then he diffiGently re-
treats into the gloom Between times
an effort to learn anything about him is
met with the same generous welcome
granted to explorers around the south
pole. The latest time his name ap-
peared in print was when the London
Times had dignitied and scholarly fit
over the "Freer gospels"-a sheepskin
manuscript which contains a new YER
sion of the Gospels OF St Mark. st.
John and ST. Luke. Freer bought ii six
years ago In Egypt as a curiosity. Now
it turns out to be of inestimable value.
His First Appearance.
Eight years ago the world, outside OF
Detroit. heard of Freer for practically
the first time. Then he offered a mil
lion and half dollars worth Of art and
cash to the Smithsonian Institution. OF
course, he had been in print before
There was the time the dailieS of
Logansport, Ind, bewailed in print the
proba bility that poor Charley Freer
would starve to death out in cold
world he having just been boosted out
of his job as auditor of the Eel River
railroad. And some years later a dis
Greet attention was paid to the fact
that Freer had sold his car building
works in Detroit to the trust. thereby
loose millions and unlimited leisure
But that is about all that has ever been
said
F'reer is one of the most remarkable art
collectors of the United States. His coll
lection isn't of the wholesale and ware
house character of that gathered by the
late J. +. Morgan. 1t is confined within
definite limits. and within those limits
it is coldly logical. His porceiains, for eN-
ample. practically cover the field of
porcelain manufacture. and his gathering
OF Scripture texts is the most complete
in the hands of any individual. He has
most noteworthy collection of Chinese.
Japanese. Korean, Babylonian and CEN
trail Asian art. \ characteristic of Freer
is that he knows what he wants. Then he
has owned the "Freer gospel for six
years. The news just kind of leaked
out in London
Luck Comes His Way.
F'reer's luck began when he lost his job
as auditor of the Eel River railroad in
Indiana. This was a rusteaten, rotten
timbered neighborhood mistake. 1t was
thirty miles long. owned sixteen freight
cars, six coaches and two tin tea ket-
ties. which Freer passionately asserted
were engines One of them was at the
plumbers most of the time having Its
bronchitis plugged F'reer lived in a sim
gle room, and cooked his meals over an
oil stove. and adored that frog-hop rail-
road BY and by he became auditor. Life
held no other gifts for him. He wouldn't
have traded places with the Prince of
Wales.
The Wabash grabbed that meager angle
worm. the Eel River road. and reorgan-
ICED Freer out of job. The world came
to an end for him right there But in or
der to occupy his mind he Went to De-
troit and began to build cars. BY and by
the trust bought him out. He's been col
lecting art and keeping quiet ever since.
He is something more than sixty years
old. and he has been a man of large at
fairs since he was thirty. And 1t is be-
lieved that he has not spoken in the first
person to the public i'm all that time. lie
is slender. wears a Van Dyke, beard, and
is bachelor Also he is the most retir-
ing man in the world. You could bury
F'reer in cht-glass goblets in the whis-
pering gallery at Washington, and he'd
get out without tinkle.