The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-23
OSCAR STRAUSS,
 YOUNGEST OF FAMOUS
 BROTHERS, 63 TO-DAY,

Oscar Solomon Strauss, youngest of the three distinguished Strauss broth CTS, was born in Rhenish, Bavaria, sixty-three years ago to-day. While his father and brothers achieved fame and fortune as merchants and pion- eers in the development of the de- partment store idea, Oscar upheld the honors of the family in the domains of diplomacy and politics. When their three sons were born, Lazarus and Sara Strauss lived in a little Bavarian town on the Rhine. Isidor, the mer- chant prince who was lost in the wreck of the Titanic, and whose de- voted wife chose death with him rath- er than separation, was the eldest. Nathan, who recently retired from ac- tive business to devote the remainder of his life to the many Humanitarian interests which he has founded, was the second son, and Oscar the third. The latter was in his third year when the family emigrated to America and settled in the little hamlet of Talbot ten, Ga The future ambassador was a typical barefooted country lad, and at the age of ten he guided a blow through the fields. Mrs. Strauss was an enthusiast on the subject of gar dening, and introduced asparagus and several other vegetables to the atten- ton of Georgians. Lazarus Strauss was a well educated man. learned in Biblical lore, and Jew of liberal re- ngious tendencies. Oscar attended a Baptist Sunday school. When the civil war broke out Isadore, the eld- est of the Strauss boys, sought to, en- ter the Confederate army but was re- fused on account of his youth. Later he went to Europe to assist in the pur- chase of ships and supplies for the southern government. Oscar, with the rest of the family, went to Column bus, Ga, in 1868, remaining there un- til the close of theayear. Lazarus Strauss lost nearly all he possessed by reason of the war, and in 1865. had barely enough to pay his debts and remove with his family to New York. There oscar entered Columbia Uni versity, while Lazarus Strauss and his two elder sons started business in q small way as importers of pottery and glassware. The bushes flourish ed, and in 1874 L. Strauss 6 Sons made arrangements with R. H. Macy, a dry goods merchant, to install in the base msnt of the Macy store department for china, crockery and glassware. This was the first step toward a de- partment store, an idea later deveI- oped by Nathan and Isadore Strauss in their great department stores in New York and Brooklyn.
 Oscar Strauss chose the law as his profession, and built up a fourishing practice. He showed his public s.tr- 1t when he took part in the move ment for the passage of the interstate commerce law. It is declared ts at this activity against the railroads re- duced his income from legal practice to less than s1O,OOO a year, when 1t had previously been s1OO,OOO. He served without pay as counsel before .E1e Hepburn committee hearings. Af- ter -s-ne years in business with his |-others, he was made minister to Turkey, serving in that position dur ing two administrations, and more re- gently as ambassador to Constantino- pie In 1906 he was Secretary of President Roosevelt, remaining in Washington until 1909. Last year he was the Progressive nominee for Gov ernor of New York.
 During his college days he was for a few weeks a reporter on the New York Sun, and he is the oldest living Sun a1umnus. Like his brothers and his father, MT. Strauss has always