The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-01
DOMINANT FIGURE IN
ANERICANLITERATURE
(Cuirent Literature.)

affairs in this country began their ca
reers with what, in Mr.. Carnegie's
/ judgment, is an important advantage.
! They had the spur of poverty. Car
negie himself was a telegraph mes
senger boy. John d. Rockefeller was
( q groCers clerk. Henry II. Rogers
drove a delivery wagon. James j.
Hill was a farm hand Edward II.
/ Hartman was the son of poor cler-
/ gyman without a parish. Henry e.
/ Prick was a clerk in country store
/ Levi +. Morton was dry goods clerk
! But j. Pierpont Morgan had no such
spur. He was a wealthy mans son.
1 His fathers fortune was one of the
/ largest in the country in the fifties,
and when -. F." was ready for a ca
reer the fortune had reached several
millions. He was well educated, had
cultured tastes, and, If he had any
marked genius for high finance, it
took time for it to become visible
70 some of his early associates. When
he started in on his own account in
I New York city in the sixties he was
made a director in q prosperous cor
poration. chiefly because of his inf1u-
| entail connections. 1t is said that at
the end of a year he was dropped
from the directorate by general con-
sent. He had attended every meet
ling and voted on every question, but
he had never expressed an opinion
Oh amy sdbJEIt aAi'A IiiS lNhft SAASS "SANo
that he had none to express.
Last month there was a long line
OF automobiles and carriages in front
of the house where he resides, at Mad
ison avenue and Thirty sixth street,
where bank presidents and directors
and railway kings were with one ac-
cord turning to this man for direction
and assistance in the financial crisis
that had come upon New York city,
spread to the farthest parts of the
country, and made itself felt in more
than one European center. This man
of seventy was called on to undergo
a strain before which a man in his
physical prime might have quailed.
Conference after conference was held
In his library until the hours of two
and three In the morning. One Of
them. held on "the day of rest" last
ed until six in the morning. Yet at
ten Mr.. Morgan was up and around
again ready to resume work. II the
situation was saved, he saved it. The
quiet young fellow of the sixties with
no opinion to express, dropped from
a board of directors as Of no account.
had developed into the dominant fig
ure in American finance, and some
say the dominant figure in the worlds
finance. Almost more than a man."
said one writer in characterizing him
few months ago-"a British Ameri
can institution"
Without the spur Of poverty, heir
to millions, MIR. Morgan has always
been, nevertheless, as much a glutton
for work as any of the men trained
in the School of Hard Knocks. He still
keeps at it, though his desk at tho
Broad street window of his banking
house rarely sees him any more. sit
ting there in his place" says a writer
IN the New York Times. 'ts another
Morgan, large as his father physical
", who has demonstrated an inherit
lance of financial ability and all of
THE parents capacity for hard work.
This is Young J. p as contrasted
with the old Man of the Street, and
while the son receives his business
callers at the familiar desk, the father
meets his in that wonderful library
of the Madison avenue home. among
his books and pictures and his rare
manuscripts"
Mr.. Morgan receives callers on bus
mess matters until noon. Then he
devotes, usually. several hours TO art
subjects discussions with the Metro
pOlitan museum officials, examination
of his own af treasures, reading the
precious manuscripts that are care
fully kept in a vault built into the
library wall, consideration of obpects
OF art offered him for sale Later in
the afternoon he receives his personal
friends, or takes a drive. or goes to
the Union club for a few games Of
bridge, But retiring from business
even now is far from his thoughts APP
parently, or at least it was a few
months ago when a banker friend
found him driving through a lot of
work at high pressure, with his coat
OFF. The following eollequy is said TO
have ensued:
Are YOU not going ever to relax
this pressure % the visitor asked.
from under his shaggy eyebrows.
When did your father retire from
business ?" he demanded.
In 1890" was the reply.
How old was he?"
"Sixty five
When did he die?" came from the
inquisitor.
TN 1898"
Quick as a fash the answer came
back III the brusque tone that is SO
we'll known to Wall Street,
IF he'd kept at work he'd have been
living yet
MIR. Morgan's financial achievements
are writ large in the annals Of the
last thirty years, They are not the
work of n wrecker, but of a great
builder and organizer and harmonizer.
Others have made fortunes by pour
ing water into the stock of corpora
tions--ROgers and Hartman and
I SGNWaD ana others. morgan mas made
money pumping the water out. THE
Morgan Hospital for Crippled Rail-
roads was the term applied to his
bank about 1885, and 1t indicates the
nature of his first large national OPP
erations Railway company after rail-
way company came to him for medical
treatment. He was recognized as the
great expert in the treatment of dropsy
and most Of the railways of that time
were dropsical He performed the
necessary surgical operations with
neatness and dispatch. Almost his
first financial operation of any great
size had been the rescue of the Albany
and Susquehanna railway from those
artistic wreckers, Jay Gould and Jim
Fisk. That was accomplished in 1870.
Sixteen or seventeen years later he
was performing surgical operations
upon the Baltimore and Ohio, the
Reading, the Chesapeake and Ohio
the Richmond and West Point Ter
minal now the Southern), the Erie
the Northern Pacific-~the list of pa
tients has been a long one. The
charges of the surgeon were high.
but the operation was in nearly every
case a success, and the patients all
lived, When he took hold of the
Northern Pacific, for instance. the
common stock was selling as low as
SIS share. He reorganized it and
Induced James j. Hill to take charge,
and the price OF the same stock has
since mounted up to 5000 a share in
normal times Even in the recent