The Washington herald., 1917-02-11
Here's New Financier Who Loves
Everybody and Everything but Publicity
William B. Thompson, Mis-
called Colonel" Gives
100000 to Starving Bel
gians, Then Hides From In
terviewer.


meaning ants and bees. Long before he
made his twenty, thirty. forty, fifty, sixty
or seventy millions OF dollars (maybe It's
only a paltry twenty millions. but those
who ought to know say it's nearer sixty
or seventy millions) Boulder loved to
study ants and bees.
Yesterday" (meaning less than a dozen
years ago) he was broke. Today he's
only IS years old, or, to be exact, VIII
be IS years on May 13 next; and now he
Is one of the very rich men OF the world:
also he Is one OF the few. very few, great
fnanciers who Is loved, really loved, by
his associates, from his partners down
t1 his newest ofrice boy; and he comes
Ikar being. or Is. the foremost Individual
'bgure in metals, chiefly or altogether cop
per. in the world; and his home. called
Alder" in Yonkers, shelters great pic
lures and the very finest collection Of
rare minerals in the world: and It's dol
lars to doughnuts that you, reader, never
heard of him.
Isn't a Real sSColsneI.o
In fact. Boulder is so little known that
when occasionally he accidentally. through
no fault OF his own, breaks into print the
newspapers invariably call his Col"
william B. Thompson. He isn't. never
was and probably never will be q Col.
His ambitions do not run that way. said
Frank O'Mally, in the New York Sun
last Tuesday night when the Rocky
Nj IN Club got together IN Its rooms
IN Jr s Algonquin to talk over the
71s-ter as dlding a million-dollar club
ro-se, suu e member OF the club stood up
u G.rs z and spoke as follows: "A mill
hcI-r0!tzr clubhouse? Shucksi Let's
0~ry long without the clubhouse, but
ralsO ls million bucks and give It to
Brother herbert c. Hoover for his starv-
ing Belgians. One member authorizes me
to say that he has kicked In with 800 900
regular cash money as a starter for the
million-dollar Rocky Mountain Club
Hoover Fund for the Relief of the Bel
gians. Come, come, come, come! Come
across brethren"
Next morning up comes a good gentle
man ma. who was not a member of the club.
Guest Gives Him Away.
Listen, boys" said the gnest-and may
his days be ever happy and long in the
l2ndi-"a guy named William B. Thomp-
son did it, But never say told you'
Like a herd of buffalo the reporters
charged toward the Algonquin telephone
booths.
who's Thompson interrupted the
other end OF the wire.
Search me. boss" replied the re-
porters; but the next morning they read
on the front pages of their papers that
Col Thompson had done what they
had said he had done.
Hes a copper person. said a sub
boss the next day, and he has Of
fees at IA Wall street. Go down and
have a talk with him. The readers of
The Washington Herald doubtless would
he interested in knowing something
about him"
- .oIIx
that's the way bosses who just sit at
desks. lightly give directions.
Ard what happens. The reporter goes
down to the skyscraper at II Wall street.
one door from Broad, and Is elevated to
the fifteenth floor
Mr. Thompson is out"
"Oh," cried the reporter, stung to the
quick. We'll listen. Thomas Chat being
the name Of the private secretary.
suppose we reverse things. Suppose in
stead of chasing Mr.. Thompson through
inner rooms We tell you all about him.
It's a new idea in interyiews-we've been
talking to his friends and have got the
goods on him.
A wild Westerner.
"To begin with-and hope. Secretary
Thomas. he hears my raucous voice"
that skulking, five foot eleven gent Ia
there was born in Virginia City. Montana,
on May 13. 1869. Let him deny it.
His father-bring this news in to him
also-was once mayor Of Butte, Mont,
and a very populaT mayor he was. His
fathers father was OF Scotch-English
descent His mothers name was Anna
Boyce. Boulder's father was born in Co
bourg. Ontario. Go on in and ask him
If the interview up to this point isn't
right
but wait-if Boulder refuses to come
out into the spotlight, the interviewer
will go further and expose him from his
earliest days onward. Listen. Boulder,
as he has been said was born in Virginia
City in 50. What happened then? Go In
and tell your boss, Thomas, that as a
schoolboy he showed no particular prom
ise. Like his pop, he was a favortte;
but far be II from anybody in sight to
say that he was ever going to auount
to a continental darn. He was slow,
Thomas-tell him the interviewer said
that He was sleepy looking. Also he
was one OF the best looking boys in the
entire United States.
Walked When Others Ran
He used to walk when everybody
else ran,' a man who had falling out
with him on the street and therefore
dislikes him, said admiringly this morn
ing. but somehow, although slow and
sleepy and seeming to walk while the
rest ran, he always was there frst and
waiting for the gang. He walks and
the rest run and he beats 'em to it. I'm
on the outs with him but love him.
You may go further, Thomas" con-
tinued the interviewer, "and tell your
boss who doubtless Is still hiding back
Of a waste basket, that through a news
photographfng agency the Sunday Sun
and Frank Ward OMalley have got hold
of his photograph. Mr.. Thompson-to
continue-while a boy was sent East to
Phillips Exeter. He was graduated in
1880. Go in and tell him that and ask
him whether or not the interviewer is
right or wrong.
'Boulder's father" the interviewer
continued-having got all the dope in va
rious ways on the difident gent and being
certain whereof he spake-"went into Al
der Gulch. Mont. in 1858. About $1,000
900 In gold was taken out OF the sulch'
in four years. But little or none OF 1t
came to Boulder's father.
"Boulder's father finally went into the
lumber business. Boulder and his BROTH
er had an inactive part in the lumber
business. Were they rich then? Ask me-
Go on, ask me. III tell you how rich
they were. One day Boulder and his
brother and his father wanted 10000
They went to the State Savings Bank and
a. ttrrx