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THE  BOOK  of  NEW  YORK 

Forty  Years'    Recollections  of  the  American  Metropolis 

BY 

JULIUS  CHAMBERS,  F.  R.  G.  S. 

Reporter,  Special  Correspondent,  City  Editor  and  Managing  Editor  of  the  New  York  Herald 
and  Managing  Editor  of  the  New  York  World 

Author  of  "A  Mad  World  ami  Its  Inhabitants,"  "On  a  Margin," 

"The  Haseal  Club,"   "Missing,  A  Tale  of  the  Sargasso  Sea," 
"The  Destiny  of  Doris,"  "The  Mississippi  River,"  etc. 


THE       BOOK      OF       NEW      YORK      COMPANY 

:i   1    1    -   8  3  9        T    R   I   B    U   N    E         BUILDING,         N    E    \V        Y    O   R   K         C    I   T  Y 
JULIUS     CHAMBERS,     Editor  M.     M.     MARCY,     Manager 


■.A:!:  •:••:/  ppft   ,C"i  I  ■■■■■■■\-'^' 


JULIUS     CHAMBERS 

S     «    \  ORK  ( 


Contents 


CHAPTER  I 


First  Impressions  of  the  American  Metropolis. 


Revolt  Among  the  Citizens 


CHAPTER   II. 


23 


Busiesi  Yeah  of  My  Life. 


CHAPTER   III 


35 


A  Change  op  Base 


CHAPTER  IV 


42 


Alert,  at  Home  and  Abroad 


CHAPTER   V. 


47 


Across  the  Atlantic  in  Quest  of  News 


CHAPTER   VI. 


Nine  Presidents  I  Have  Known. 


CHAPTER    VII 


58 


City  Editor  and  Foreign  Editor. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


75 


An  Era  of  Wonderful  Development 


CH.vPTER  IX. 


»- 


Among  the  Forgotten 


CHAPTER  X. 


89 


A  Crusade  to  the  Quaker  City. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


••- 


Speakers  of  the  House  I  Have  Known 


CHAPTER  XII. 


107 


Sudden  Change  of  Fortune 


CHAPTER    XIII 


113 


CHAPTER   XIV 

Editing  New. -papers  in  Paris  and  New  Yoke .117 

CHAPTER   XV. 
A  .New  World '23 


CHAPTER   XVI 


Some  Captains  of  Industry 


130 


CONTENTS— Continue-.  1 


CHAPTER   XVII. 


Comedy  of  Journalism 1">7 


CHAPTER   XVIII 


First  American  Daily  Newspaper    in  Colors 


161 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

The  First  Bryan  Campaign "'' 


Two  Palaces  for  Books  and  Aici 


CIIAPTEK    XX 


173 


Echoes  of  Three  W.a 


CHAPTER   XXI. 


209 


Evolution  of  the  Legal  Proi 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


213 


Cristmas  in  d  the  French  Ball. 


CHAPTER    Will 


321 


M  M1VHI.S  OF  SURGERY   AND   Mf.DICINE, 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


326 


Development  on  the  Railroad  Hi  sines 


CHAPTER    XXV 


331 


hi  vi  i.oi-MENi  "i    i  hi:  New   York  Pi  \yhousi 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 


341 


Bohemi  vn  Nights 


CHAPTER    XXVII 


3",  7 


How   Good  Ci  ioking  Came  to  I  Is 


CHAPTER    XXVIII 


365 


The  <',m:\i  Metropolis  oi  To-Dai 


CHAPTER    XXIX 


372 


Selling  Real  Esi  ate  is  a  Fine   \i 


CHAPTER,    XXX. 


405 


A  National  Wave  of  Rei 
Index 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


4U 


44") 


FOREWORD 

GREAT  Frenchman,  Theophile  Gautier,  once  said:  "Let  me 
write  the  preface,  and  I  don't  care  who  writes  the  book."  Evi- 
dently, he  meant  he  would  exhaust  any  subject  with  which  the 
volume  dealt.  Aside  from  the  vanity  of  the  boast—  which  he  al- 
most confirms  in  the  preface  to  "Mademoiselle  de  Maupin" 
custom  sanctions  an  introductory  page  which  the  reader  can  avoid,  if  he  prefer. 

Delay  in  the  publication  of  this  work  has  been  due,  somewhat,  to  serious 
illness,  but  in  a  much  greater  degree  to  obstacles  cast  in  my  way  for  obtaining 
material  for  sketches  of  friends  and  distinguished  persons  I  desired  to  include  in 
the  volume.  My  illness  was  acute,  and,  at  one  time,  grave.  The  tension  under 
which  I  suffered  was  relieved  not  so  much  by  medicine  as  by  a  cold-blooded  des 
patch  from  Mr.  Marcy,  couched  in  this  language: 

"For  God's  sake,  Chambers,  keep  alive  until  the  book  is  finished;  after 
that,  use  your  own  discretion." 

That  message  came  to  me  at  St.  Augustine,  Fla. ,  where  I  was  in  bed  under 
orders  to  remain  there;  but  it  galvanized  me  into  action.  It  had  the  effect  of 
bringing  me  back  to  New  York  on  the  first  Clyde  steamer  from  Jacksonville. 
Publishers,  as  well  as  corporations,  are  soulless:  but  I  always  have  respected  the 
man  who  drives.     I  was  a  "driver"  many  years,  myself. 

When  I  set  out  to  write  my  recollections  of  an  active  life  in  this  city,  the 
task  appeared  easy.  All  I  had  to  do  was  to  turn  to  my  stenographer  and  say, 
"Begin!"  But  I  soon  discovered  that  a  large  part  of  my  intimate  knowledge  of 
political  and  professional  men,  especially  of  my  employers,  was  contained  in 
privileged  conversations  and  written  communications.  Among  more  than  a 
thousand  letters  on  my  files,  many  were  barred  by  professional  ethics.  Not  a 
confidence  has  been  violated.  Some  incidents  herein  set  down  may  jar  the  feel- 
ings of  friends  or  enemies,  but  the  fault  is  not  mine. 

In  a  personal  narrative,  the  writer  is  unavoidably  prominent:  but  many 
events  that  did  not  make  for  the  progression  of  this  one  have  been  omitted. 
These  include  several  brief  trips  to  Europe,  in  one  of  which  I  re-visited  Spain 
and  glorious  Grenada,  roamed  about  the  Alhambra  castle  as  in  my  early 
twenties;  thence,  going  to  Morocco,  I  heard  at  Tangier  the  ever-consoling 
'  Yerga"  song,   coupled  with  "the  return"  to    the  Alhambra  that  has  been 


chanted  nightly  in  its  coffee-houses  since  the  Moors  were  driven  across  the 
Strait  of  Hercules.  A  winter  was  spent  in  Egypt,  a  veritable  temple  and  tomb 
bazaar,  during  which  the  canon  called  the  Nile  valley  was  ascended  to  the 
Soudan.  Likewise  unrecorded  are  countless  runs  to  Washington,  in  quest  of 
special  information  for  which  I  happened  to  possess  an  "open  sesame!"  Never 
did /shake  a  fist  at  "the  great,  white  Dome"  on  Capitol  Hill,  as  did  Coun- 
sellor Cromwell,  because  thereunder  lay  my  treasure-house  of  news. 

Several  friends  have  joined  "the  throng  invisible"  since  this  work  was 
undertaken.  As  this  page,  the  last,  goes  to  press,  the  horrors  of  the  Steamship 
Titanic  disaster  occupy  every  mind.  Among  the  lost  passengers,  who  willingly 
gave  their  lives  that  women  might  be  saved,  was  a  friend  of  many  years,  Colonel 
John  Jacob  Astor.     Like  other  men  on  that  ship,  he  died  as  do  the  brave. 

"Everything  in  good  humor"  has  been  the  rule  throughout  this  volume. 
The  breath  of  malice  does  not  taint  a  single  line.  Not  a  grievance,  real  or 
fancied,  has  been  aired. 

J.  C. 


New  York  City,  April  20,  1912 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


THE  BOOK  of  NEW  YORK 

CHAPTER  I 


HERE  is  only  one  New  York. 
It  is  the  dream  town  of  the 
American  boy,  who,  at  play 
or  at  work  in  remote  pails  of 
the  Great  Republic,  counts 
himself  a  New  Yorker  in  his 
visions  of  the  future. 

New  York  owes  its  transcendent  commercial 
majesty  to  the  sea! 

Deep-laden  argosies  from  wonderlands  afar 
unload  their  treasures  at  its  wharves.  For  all 
mankind,  here's  welcome  haven  and  assured 
market!  A  splendid  harbor  attracts  the  ships 
of  the  world;    but  ninety  million  money-earn- 


ing, money-spending  people  of  the  United 
Slates  outside  its  city  gates  are  what  justify 
their  cargoes.  There  are  other  ports  upon  our 
ocean  shores,  but  New  York  is  monarch  of 
them  all! 

This  majestic  volume  of  hade,  representing 
product  of  hand  and  brain,  creates  ceaseless 
demand  for  new  mental  and  physical  vitality. 
Imperial  New  York  issues  a  royal  summons 
to  the  American  youth,  and  he  responds  from 
the  North,  the  Fast,  the  West  and  the  South 
as  though  he  heard  a  call  lo  arms.  Mainte- 
nance or  this  proudest  possession  of  the  Repub- 
lic must  not  be  in  doubt  for  a  single  hour, 
even  if  every  home  tie  be  sundered. 


1(1 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


This  annual  tribute  of  the  hinterland  to  the 
gluttonous  metropolis  exceeds  25,000  young 
men  and  an  uncounted  number  of  young  wom- 
en— a  contribution  one  thousand  times  greater 
than  that  of  Athens  to  Crete!  Innocence, 
hope,  talent  and.  occasionally,  genius  come 
hither  to  grapple  with  that  heartless  monster, 
Competition. 

"Only  the  fittest  survive!"  is  the  song  of 
the  battle. 

The  vear  at  which  these  intimate  recollec- 
tions begin  is  a]>tlv  chosen,  although  its  selec- 
tion by  the  writer  was  accidental.  He  came 
straight  from  college,  a  stranger  and  with  a 
capital  of  thirty  dollars.  He  had  not  a  letter 
of  introduction  or  a  friend.  The  failure  of 
his  father  in  business  had  necessitated  the 
abandonment  of  an  education,  or  working  his 
own  way  through  the  third  and  fourth  years 
of  a  university  course.  This  alternative  had 
been  accepted  and  a  diploma  attained. 

The  Evening  Post  Building  stood  at  the 
corner  of  Nassau  and  Liberty  streets;  seeing 
its  sign,  the  stranger  climbed  to  the  "editorial 
rooms"  and  sent  his  unknown  name  to  ( diaries 
Nordhoff,  managing-editor,  with  whom,  in 
after  years,  he  was  closely  associated  in  Wash- 
ington  and  whose  chief  he  finally  became  on 
the  New  York  Herald.  That  talk  was  very 
memorable.  Mr.  Nordhoff  had  no  place  for 
a  new  man,  but  he  gave  some  advice  that,  for 
impracticability,  rises  superior  to  any  that  has 
earned  the  dignity  of  print. 

"Every  time  you  walk  up  Broadway,  young 
man."  said  he,  "and  every  time  you  walk  down 
Broadway,  something  occurs  that  never  has 
happened  before  and  never  will  recur.  Now. 
if  you  have  but  the  eye  to  see  and  the  faculty 
to  describe  this  unusual  happening,  your  suc- 
cess is  assured." 

This  dictum  was  uttered  in  a  grave  and  im- 
pressive manner;  and.  at  its  conclusion,  the 
Post's  managing-editor  bowed,  as  he  swung 
back  to  his  desk.  The  youngster,  barely  turned 
nineteen,  was  much  impressed  and  backed  out 
of  the  holy-of-holies  trembling  with  gratitude. 
That  he  did  not  fall  over  the  office  cat  was  a 
miracle.  Surely,  thought  he,  nobody  but  a 
niirabile,  a  wondersmith  in  words,  can  suc- 
ceed  in    journalism. 

During  the  four  years  that  followed  under 


severe,  almost  savage,  city  editors,  he  learned 
that  writing  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  art  of 
making  a  newspaper.  He  realized  the  value 
of  legs  over  gray  matter,  of  attrition  with 
mankind  over  mere  book  knowledge. 

A  similar  ascent  was  made  up  three  of  the 
longest  flights  of  stairs  in  town  to  the  edito- 
rial  rooms  of  the  World,  a  newspaper  I  was  to 
manage  long  years  afterwards,  and  whose 
editor,  William  Henry  Hurlbert,  two  years 
later,  wrote  to  me  an  invitation  to  join  his 
stall'.  But  on  this  occasion,  City  Editor 
Israels  told  me  frankly  that  he  did  not  want 
any  "kid  reporters."  His  words  were  not 
complimentary  to  the  brood,  and  the  descent 
of  the  long  stairways  landed  the  stranger  on 
Park  Row  once  more.  Not  a  face  in  the 
passing  throng  was  friendly  or  familiar. 

The  old,  slate-hued,  brick  building  at  Spruce 
and  Nassau  streets  was  crowned  with  a  sign 
five  feet  high  containing  the  single  word, 
"TRIBUNE."  As  I  gazed  at  it.  I  recalled 
a  time  of  my  life,  long  before  I  could  read, 
when  I  had  sat  for  hours  at  a  time  upon  the 
floor  staring  at  the  pages  of  "Greeley's  Tri- 
bune," never  absent  from  my  grandparents' 
home  in  Ohio.  Suddenly  a  weird  figure 
emerged  from  the  throng  and  headed  for  the 
Tribune's  only  front  door.  There  could  not 
be  another  such  a  man  on  earth!  Familiar 
with  portraits  of  Greeley,  "the  staunch  Aboli- 
tionist," I  would  have  recognized  him  had  I 
been  only  six  years  old,  instead  of  nineteen. 
Hardly  hail  he  disappeared  before  I  was  ask- 
ing myself,  "  Whv  not  apply  to  Mr.  Greeley  ? " 
I  knew  so  little  of  the  internal  organization  of 
a  newspaper  office  that  it  appeared  best  to 
seek  a  reporter's  job  at  the  to]).  After  a  long- 
wait,  I  was  taken  behind  the  counter  and 
climbed  a  single  flight  of  iron  stairs  to  the  door 
of  the  quaintest  den  imaginable.  An  attend- 
ant, whom  I  afterwards  came  to  know  as 
"Sullivan,"  pointed  to  the  big,  white-haired 
man,  seated  at  a  desk  literally  piled  with  all 
sorts  of  clippings,  scraps  of  letters  and.  pre- 
sumably, "copy."  Standing  until  spoken  to. 
the  situation  became  so  embarrassing  that 
when  a  shrill,  squeaky  voice  asked:  "Well, 
young  fellow,  what  is  it.-"  I  looked  about 
the  room  for  another  speaker  than  the  idol 
of  my  boyhood's  dreams. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


11 


This  was  the  first  time  the  voice  of  Horace 
Greeley  had  ever  reached  my  ears!  It  was  so 
harsh,  so  broken,  so  unsympathetic  that  when 
the  kindly  face,  round  as  the  Moon's  on  her 
thirteenth  night  and,  with  its  aura  of  silken, 
white  hair,  turned  toward  me,  1  managed  to 
stammer: 

"Mr.  Greeley,  1  have  called  to  ask  for  a 
place  on  your  newspaper.  You  are  a  trustee 
of  Cornell  University,  and  1  have  just  Keen 
graduated— 

"I'd  a  damned  sight  rather  you  had  been 
graduated  at  a  printer's  case,"  was  his  com- 
ment. I  didn't  have  a  chance  to  tell  him  that 
I  had  been  foreman  of  a  composing-room  at 
fifteen,  and  that  I  had  taken  myself  through 
college   liv   work   al    a    case.       The  great    man 


HORACE    GREELEY 

is:  2 


"Fame  is  vapor;  popularity  an  accident;  riches  take  wings;  the  only 
earthly  certainty  is  oblivion;  no  man  can  see  what  a  daj  may  bring  forth; 
while  those  who  cheer  to-day  will  often  curse  to-morrow;  ami  vet,  I 
cherish  the  hope  that  the  journal  1  projected  and  established  will  live 
and  flourish  long  after  I  shall  have  mouldered  into  forgotten  'in  i ,  being 
guided  by  a  lamer  wisdom,  a  more  unerring  sagacity  to  discern  the  right, 
though  not  by  a  more  unfaltering  readiness  to  embrace  and  defend  it  at 
whatsoever  personal  cost;  and  that  the  stone  which  covers  my  ashes  may- 
bear  to  future  .-yes  the  still  int ell iu'ihle  inscription,  '  rounder  ol  The  New 
York  Tribune.' "—Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,  143. 


forgol  me  then  and  there;  and,  although  : 
subsequently  met  him  on  two  occasions,  1  am 
sure  lie  did  not  identify  me  with  the  youngster 
to  whom  he  had  administered  a  savage  rebuke 
because  a  boy  had  assumed  he  possessed  the 
rudiments  of  an  education.  In  time,  I  came 
to  know  how  incomplete  the  best  university 
education  is,  but  1  had  hard-earned  respect 
for  a  diploma  at  that  time. 

Whether  "Sullivan"  helped  me  or  threw  me 
down  the  stairs,  I  never  knew.  I  got  back  into 
the  street,  somehow.  Wasn't  it  terrible  to  be 
young!  What  wouldn't  I  have  given  for  a 
few  gray  hairs  or  for  whiskers  upon  my  beard- 
less cheeks.  I  fell  old,  but,  blessed  be  youth, 
I  wasn't  discouraged! 

I  had  been  working  at  a  trade  since  I  was 
eleven  years  old,  had  prepared  for  college  by 
night  study,  hail  hammered  through  four 
years  of  work  and  study,  had  secured  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  and  other  so-called  college  "hon- 
ors." all  for  nothing! 

Hut  a  boy's  thoughts  are  long  thoughts:  life 
is  so  very  real  that  rebuff  and  discouragement 
are  not  associated  in  his  mind. 

I  do  not  remember  whether  1  applied  at  the 
Times  or  not;    if  I  did,  it  was  a  frost. 

NTo,  I  hadn't  any  letters,  or  experience,  or 
knowledge,  for  that  matter — only  hope.  1 
didn't  dare  confess  that  1  was  a  college  man; 
I  was  not  to  be  caught  twice  in  that  excuse  for 
a  rebuff. 

'Idle  following  afternoon,  I  was  again  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Tribune  corner  and  dis- 
covered the  entrance  to  the  editorial  rooms  on 
Spruce    street. 

"If  Mi-.  Greeley  hasn't  sent  for  his  chief 
editor  and  specifically  told  him  not  to  employ 
me.  another  trial  will  do  no  harm,"  thought  I. 
"If  he  lias,  and  the  man  I  meet  is  anywhere 
my  si/.e.  there'll  lie  some  satisfaction,  at  least, 
in  a  try  at  getting  even." 

Having  climbed  the  stairs.  I  landed  in  a 
loom  in  which  several  young  men  were  sealed. 
Through  a  door,  silhouetted  against  the  light 
on  Printing  House  Square,  stood  a  chunky 
man.  his  back  toward  me  and  the  sheen  upon 
his  trousers  resplendent.  He  was  Bronson 
Howard,  although  the  fact  was  not  known  to 
me  any  more  than  was  that  exchange-editor's 


u 


THE   BOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


true  place  in  literature,  which  was  not  fixed  for 
many  years  thereafter.  I  had  learned  enough 
to  ask  for  the  city  editor,  but  he  was  at  lunch- 
eon. I  was  about  to  go  away,  when  "Sul- 
livan" entered.  He  recognized  me,  at  least: 
there  was  a  deal  of  gratification  in  that.  For 
what  he  did,  after  he  had  carried  a  bundle  of 
letters  and  manuscripts  to  an  inner  room.  I 
never  have  been  aide  to  decide  whether  I  owe 
to  him  thanks  or  blame.  When  he  reappeared, 
he  said  to  me: 

'Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid  is  alone  in  his  office, 
I'll  take  in  your  name  and  he'll  see  you." 

Here  was  an  unexpected  opportunity  to 
meet  "Agate."  whose  war  correspondence,  in 
theJCincinnati  Gazette,  had  thrilled  my  boyish 
blood  during  the  Rebellion.  "Sullivan"  was 
back  in  a  half  minute  and  led  me  into  the 
presence! 


WHITELAW    REID 

■  ill-  " 


Here  was  a  man  of  very  different  type  from 
any  1  had  met.  He  was  very  formal  when  I 
said  I  wanted  to  learn  the  newspaper  business. 
He  did  not  give  to  me  the  slightest  encourage- 
ment, explaining  that  the  staff  was  already  too 
large  and  that  in  the  summer  every  reporter 
who  could  be  spared  was  "let  go."     I  remem- 


ber that  phrase,  because  it  was  the  first  time 
my  cars  had  heard  it.  At  any  rate  I  would 
have  to  see  the  city  editor — 

Turning  to  go  away,  Mr.  Reid  saw  a  pin 
of  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  college  fraternity 
upon  my  vest.  He  sprang  to  his  feet.  He  ex- 
tended his  right  hand,  the  "grip"  was  given 
and  returned.  At  that  instant,  "Sullivan"  re- 
appeared and  mentioned  the  return  of  E.  B. 
Moore,  the  city  editor. 

"Come!"  said  Mr.  Reid,  with  boyish  enthu- 
siasm, still  holding  my  hand.  "I'll  introduce 
you  to  the  City  Editor  and  ask  him  to  give 
you  a  chance  to  show  what  you  can  do." 

In  less  time  than  I  can  speak  it.  I  was  "on 
space,"  with  the  prestige  of  an  introduction 
by  the  managing-editor!  It  did  not  mean  a 
great  deal,  but  it  was  the  start  I  had  been 
seeking.  It  was  followed  by  two  and  a  half 
years  of  severe,  merciless  training,  and  the 
acquirement  of  a  style  of  composition  that  re- 
quired years  to  overcome — a  method  of  setting 
forth  news  best  described  as  the  Grocer's  Bill 
style.  Facts,  facts:  nothing  but  facts;  so 
many  peas  at  so  much  a  peck,  so  many  beans 
at  so  much  a  quart ! 

To  a  beginner,  opportunity  is  everything. 
It  came  to  me.  unexpectedly,  only  a  few  days 
after  I  had  been  so  dramatically  attached  to 
the  Tribune.  On  the  morning  of  July  12th, 
the  City  Editor  said:  "Go  to  Elm  Park  this 
afternoon  and  give  me  a  quarter  column  about 
the  picnic  of  the  Orangemen."  The  assign- 
ment was  not  believed  to  be  important,  or  it 
would  not  have  been  given  to  a  novice.  Elm 
Park  was  on  the  high  ridge  of  land  between 
Central  Park  and  the  Hudson,  about  West 
Ninety-second  street.  St.  Agnes's  church  now 
stands  upon  its  site;  but  at  that  time  neither 
Columbus  avenue  nor  cross  streets  had  been 
opened.  The  only  means  of  access  was  by 
the  Eighth  avenue  horse-cars;  more  than  an 
hour's  ride.  I  was  young;  the  Orancemen 
took  me  to  their  hearts,  because  I  was  the 
only  reporter  sent  to  them.  I  danced  with 
the  giils  and  played  ball  with  the  boys. 

Suddenly,  the  wooden  gate  was  broken  in 
and  a  gang  of  men.  who  had  been  working  at 
aqueduct  pipes  on  Eighth  avenue,  rushed  into 
the  grounds.  Stones  were  thrown  and  clubs 
freely  used.     Many  people  were  struck  by  the 


THE    HOOK  of  NEW    YORK 


13 


flying  missiles.  One  man  of  middle  age, 
seated  with  his  family,  was  hit  on  the  head 
with  a  paving  stone  and  killed.  Half  an  hour 
elapsed  before  a  squad  of  police  appeared  and 
drove  oft'  the  intruders. 

"The  Elm  Park  Riot"  is  a  memorable 
event  in  metropolitan  history.  1  knew  I  had 
a  highly  sensational  piece  of  news.  Gathering 
the  names  of  the  injured  men  and  women,  and 


foun 


d   the  grou 


THE  EVENING    POST   BUILDING,    1871 

securing  from  friends  of  the  dead  man  all  ob- 
tainable information  regarding  his  trade  and 
place  of  abode.  I  hurried  to  the  Eighth  avenue 
cars  and  reached  Printing  House  Square  be- 
fore an  announcement  of  the  disturbance  had 
come  from  Police  Headquarters.  The  City 
Editor  comprehended  thai  he  could  "beat  the 
town"  if  he  could  get  the  besl  out  of  the  only 
reporter-eye-witness!  He  despatched  men  in 
several  directions.  Those  scut  to  the  scene 
of  the  riot,  like  reporters  from  other  journals. 


gone,  sorrow  full\ 


closed  and  the  picnickers 
o  their  homes. 

Attentions  were  showered  upon  the  young 
reporter  that  night.  He  was  given  a  desk  in 
a  private  room.  He  was  told  to  "Write! 
Write!  and  keep  writing!"  Experienced  work- 
men laid  out  the  "story."  telling  the  novice 
how  to  keep  on  but  warning  him  not  to  quit. 
( Irudities  in  the  copy  were  trimmed  out:  parts 
were  re-written  and  expanded;  and  next  day 
"the  new  man"  received  credit  for  nearly 
four  columns  at  $10  per  column. 

"This  is  the  finest  job  imaginable!"  I  com- 
mented on  payday,  when  my  first  success  and 
"follow-up"  articles,  including  the  murdered 
Orangeman's  funeral  swelled  my  bill  to  $100. 
Poor  innocent !  1  assumed  1  was  about  to  be- 
come "a  star  man":  but,  alas  (with  one 
exception,  when  I  saved  the  report  of  a  yacht 
race).  1  was  rarely  permitted  to  earn  more  than 
$10  a  week  for  the  next  six  months. 

Here  we  leave  the  worker  and  return  to  the 
hive! 

New  York  was  shaking  herself  loose  from 
the  enthrallment  of  the  Civil  War.  Garbage, 
in  the  shape  of  deserted  barracks,  broken 
forage  wagons  that  had  been  left  where  they 
stalled,  and  posters,  calling  for  volunteers  at 
large  bounties,  encumbered  parks  and  streets 
and  defaced  dead  walls.  The  southern  end 
of  City  Hall  Park  was  surrounded  by  a  fence. 
Barnum's  Museum,  a  boy-haven  prior  to 
"the  cru-el  war."  had  gone  uptown  to  be 
burned  out  a  second  time.  The  marble  struc- 
ture of  the  New  York  Herald  stood  partly 
upon   its  original  site. 

The  "rim.  gray  Astor  House  impressed  me 
most  of  any  building  m  the  city,  i  ears  after- 
ward, standing  before  the  Cheops  Pyramid  at 
Gizeh,  1  recalled  my  first  impression  of  that 
old    hotel. 

Remembering  what  Charles  Nordhoff  had 
said  to  me  about  Broadway,  I  walked  much 
upon  thai  thoroughfare;  but  the  profitable 
suggestion  made  by  the  editor  advantaged  me 

DO  '  i  i  • 

naught.  1  wrote  many  paragraphs  about  its 
happenings,  but  they  were  dropped  into  a 
basket,  or  1  was  cruelly  told  that  newspapers 
were  not  printed  for  grandmothers  or  simper- 
ing idiots.  This  phrasing  is  far  inside  the 
mark.     An  attempt   at   the  pathetic  was  char- 


14 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


acterized  as  "writing  for  grandmother";    an 

effort  at  description  was  assumed  to  be  writ- 
ten by  or  for  an  idiot!  The  Grocer's  Bill  was 
the  proper  model:  "John  Brown,  aged  5(5, 
married,  was  thrown  from  the  fire-engine  lie 
was  driving  and  instantly  hilled.  Body  at  the 
morgue."  A  suggestion  to  visit  the  home  of  the 
dead  man.  to  describe  the  grief  of  the  widow 
or  to  foretell  the  wants  of  the  children  was  dis- 
couraged. 'Idie  dead  fireman  was  or  was  not  a 
hero:  he  had  or  he  had  not  turned  his  team 
to  avoid  killing  a  pedestrian.     A  score  of  sug- 


H!      I  III  I'.INi;   BUILDING  AND  NEWSPAPER    ROW     VS  IT 
APPEARED    IX    1S7I 


gestions   that    made  for  "the  good  story"  of 
the  presenl  day  were  deliberately  ignored! 

New  York  was  awake;  hut  it  was  in  the 
clutches  of  a  gang  of  unscrupulous  politicians, 
the  first  consummate  "grafters,"  hut  not  the 
worst  or  the  last.  Broadway,  above  Thirty- 
fourth  street,  was.  literally,  "as  crooked  as  a 
deer's  hind  legs."  Central  Park  was  already 
a  place  of  beauty,  hut  every  other  bit  of  open 
ground,  even  the  Battery,  was  filled  with 
debris  of  the  conflict.  Tents  had  disappeared 
from  the  southern  end  of  City  Hall  Bark  and 
a  proposition  that  the  City  grant  the  site  to 
the  general  Government  for  a  federal  building 
was  favorably  considered.  At  that  time  New 
York  needed  public  buildings.  Its  post-office 
structure  was  a  wretched  brick  affair  far  down 


Nassau  street,  where  now  stands  the  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company's  edifice. 

Much  talk  is  heard  about  "the  dear  old 
limes  of  the  early  Seventies."  The  city  then 
contained  a  trifle  more  than  a  million  inhabi- 
tants. Its  markets  were  filthy  and  infested 
with  rats;  not  one  stall  keeper  in  ten  possessed 
an  ice-box  for  preserving  his  meats  or  butter, 
(did  storage  was  unknown.  Stages  were  un- 
heated  in  winter;  so  were  the  street  cars,  hav- 
ing in  addition  a  mass  of  wet,  filthy  straw 
upon  their  floors.  The  cushioned  seats  of  all 
public  vehicles  were  alive  with  vermin.  A 
paid  fire  department  had  just  been  organized, 
but  it  was  ridiculously  inefficient.  The  police 
force  was  an  undisciplined  mob  of  decrepit 
foreigners,  owing  their  places  to  politicians 
rather  than  capacity,  and  imbued  with  the 
duty  of  protecting  crime  instead  of  honest 
householders  and  tradesmen.  The  vilest  cor- 
ruption in  public  office  prevailed.  The  city 
tax-rate  was  higher  than  now.  There  wasn't 
any  Board  of  Health;  1,400  citizens  had  died 
from  cholera  as  late  as  18(i(i  and  small-pox 
epidemics  occurred  each  winter.  During 
February  of  1  <S7^,  I  rode  in  a  Third  avenue 
car  several  miles  with  a  small-pox  patient, 
the  pustules  upon  whose  face  were  unhealed. 
Butchers  slaughtered  cattle  under  any  condi- 
tions that  suited  them.  A  Society  for  the  pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Children  did  not  exist. 
Juvenile  delinquents  were  committed  to  jail  in 
company  with  incorrigible  criminals. 

Prior  to  the  opening  of  Mouquin's  French 
restaurant  on  Fulton  street,  there  wasn't  a 
good  eating-house  down-town  or  one  at  which 
real  French  wines  could  be  obtained  at  reason- 
able prices.  The  saloons  and  "sample  rooms  " 
were  dives,  generally  with  sand  or  saw-dust 
upon  their  floors,  and  the  bar-keepers  were 
ruffians.  Most  people  encountered  in  ears  or 
stages  neglected  their  teeth.  Elevators  were 
unknown,  long  flights  of  stairs  had  to  be 
climbed  to  offices.  These  were  heated  by  coal 
or  wood  stoves  and  the  bins  for  fuel  encum- 
bered the  halls.  After  the  extinction  of  Bar- 
man's (1868)  the  city  hadn't  any  museums, 
art  galleries,  or  kindred  educational  influences. 
Good  driving  roads  did  not  exist  and  the  parks, 
excepting  Central  and  Prospect,  were  jokes. 
Wallack's  was  the  only  well-appointed  theatre 
on   Manhattan    Island.      Others  were   located 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


15 


over  shops  and  were  veritable  fire-death  traps, 
with  narrow  and  crooked  stairways,  sure  to 
jam  in  cases  of  panic.  Coney  Island  was  four 
hours'  ride  in  horse-cars  and  was  an  unsafe 
place  to  visit,  being  infested  by  thugs,  three- 
card  monte  and  nut-shell  gamblers.     Except- 


ing Beecher  and  Chapin,  there  wasn't  a  min- 
ister in  any  pulpit  worth  hearing;  several  imi- 
tators of  Beecher,  who  wore  their  hair  long, 
had  temporary  vogue.  No  rational  amuse- 
ment was  to  he  had  and.  all  things  considered, 
the  city  was  dismal,  dark  and 


damnable 


Newspaper  Ro«  as  it :                             owing  the  change 
withlhe  view  on  page    l  I  taken  in    1871       Mm    Shi Idin 


hanges  of  forty  years  con 

iL'  i.  mains  I  tie  same       I 


TrOm\  ■  into  i  kyscrapel  and  the  u  arid    I  uilding  ha    arisen   on 

the  site  i  i  I  he  old  French  Hotel. 


16 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


The  original  one-legged  elevated  railway 
had  been  opened  on  Greenwich  street  in  1S(!7. 
its  original  inventor,  designer  and  patentee 
being  diaries  T.  Harvey.  The  cars  were 
operated  by  a  cable  that  originally  ran  atop 
the  structure  and  returned  underground;  but 
in  1869,  when  the  road  was  extended  up  Ninth 
avenue  as  far  as  Thirtieth  street — the  passen- 
ger station  of  the  New  York  Central  at  that 
time  the  cable  was  run  in  a  continuous  circuit 
over  the  tops  of  the  pillars.  When  I  Hist  saw 
these  cars,  they  were  of  curious  construction. 
To  keep  the  centre  of  gravity  close  to  the 
rails,  the  centres  of  the  cars  were  depressed 
between  the  forward  and  rear  trucks.  The 
cars  were  like  a  two-humped  camel,  the  place 
between  the  humps  reached  by  a  descent  of 
two  steps.  The  cable  was  not  satisfactory  and 
dummy  engines  were  substituted. 

The  so-called  Gilbert  road  did  not  appear 
until  1870,  and  many  people  were  not  aware 
of  its  existence  for  many  months.  It  was 
erected  inconspicuously  on  West  Third  street, 
between  Sixth  avenue  and  South  Fifth  avenue, 
and  is  still  standing.  Upon  that  little  bit  of 
steel  superstructure,  all  the  elevated  railroads 
of  the  world  are  based!  During  1873-'?4.  it 
was  extended  southward  lo  Rector  street  and 
northward  on  Sixth  avenue  to  Fifty-eighth 
street.  On  an  invitation  from  George  M. 
Pullman  and  General  Horace  Porter,  I  made 
a  trip  on  the  first  passenger  train  from  the 
yard  below  Rector  street  to  Fifty-eighth 
street  station.     Time,  11  minutes! 

The  Third  avenue  line  was  undertaken  in 
l(S?(i  and  the  Second  avenue  road  soon  fol- 
lowed. An  extension  of  the  Ninth  avenue  line 
to  Manhattanville  came  some  time  after. 
Remembering,  as  1  did,  when  John  Foley, 
the  gold  pen  man,  had  extended  the  Fourth 
avenue  horse-cars  up  Madison  avenue,  then 
nothing  but  a  succession  of  mud-holes.  I  real- 
ize the  progress  in  transit  facilities  now  afford- 
ed by  tlie  Subways  and  the  East  and  Hudson 
river  tunnels.  The  substitution  of  four  splen- 
did bridges  between  various  parts  of  Kong 
Island  and  Manhattan  for  ferries,  will  be  con- 
sidered elsewhere. 

A  deplorable  feature  of  the  city  was  the 
filthy  condition  of  its  streets.  A  Street  ('lean- 
ing  Bureau  existed,   but    money   appropriated 


was  only  sparsely  used  for  the  purpose.  True, 
the  sum  was  small  compared  with  the  amount 
spent  at  the  present  day,  but  the  conditions 
were  such  as  to  breed  disease.  During  the  win- 
ters, Broadway  was  a  reeking  mass  of  filthy, 
steaming  slush,  through  which  horse-drawn 
stages  floundered.  Snow  was  banked  at  the 
sides  of  this  ami  nearly  all  other  thorough- 
fares and  remained  there  until  Spring  sunshine 
melted  it!  Avenues  upon  which  car  lines  ran 
had  the  tracks  cleared  by  sweeping-machines, 
drawn  by  long  lines  of  horses.  If  laws  ex- 
isted for  keeping  street  gutters  open,  they  were 
not  enforced,  and  Spring  floods,  filling  cellars 
in  all  parts  of  town,  were  annual  incidents. 

Recalling  the  non-provision  for  the  public 
health,  it  is  not  remarkable  that  the  city  was 
annually  swept  by  an  epidemic  of  some  sort. 
Hospitals  were  few:  the  New  York  on  Broad- 
way, opposite  the  northern  end  of  Pearl  street, 
and  Bellevue,  far  away,  as  then  seemed,  on  the 
East  river,  were  the  only  public  institutions 
for  emergency  patients.  Chambers  street  hos- 
pital, that  became  a  great  boon  to  people  in- 
jured in  the  business  section  of  New  York,  was 
not  opened  at  that  time.  Police  stations 
served  the  purpose  of  emergency  hospitals. 

Immorality  flaunted  its  various  trades  before 
tlu1  eyes  of  young  and  old.  (  hatham  street,  as 
Park  Row  was  then  known  from  Printing 
House  square  to  Chatham  square,  was  a  pro- 
cession of  low  dives  and  second-hand  clothing 
shops,  each  class  having  its  "barkers"  upon 
the  sidewalks,  soliciting  custom.  In  Greene 
and  Mercer  streets,  signs,  with  letters  a  foot 
high,  announced  the  infamous  character  of 
certain  establishments.  Pompeii  was  not  a 
whit  worse,  as  a  subsequent  visit  to  "The 
House  of  the  Wolf,"  in  that  long  buried  city, 
proves.  Familiarity  with  nearly  every  large 
city  of  Europe,  since  that  time,  justifies  me 
in  declaring  that  New  York  of  1870  was  the 
vilest  city  east  of  Suez!  Gambling-houses  w  ere 
running  openly  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  Shortly 
after  my  engagement  on  the  Tribune,  that 
journal  published  a  list  of  several  hundred  such 
places  and  was  laughed  at  for  its  pains.  Eater, 
when  Kelso  was  Chief  of  Police,  this  same 
journal,  striving  to  attract  attention  and  cir- 
culation, rented  from  "The"  Allen  a  "badger" 
house  and  ran  it  for  a  fortnight,  with  the  con- 


THE    BOO K   of  NEW   YORK 


17 


porters,  1  formed  his 
of  other  city  officials. 


nivance  of  bribed  police.  The  two  men  who 
undertook  thai  task  were  Arthur  Pember,  an 
Englishman,  and  E.  ^  .  Breck,  now  a  distin- 
guished lawyer  of  Pittsburg.  Il  was  "a  good 
story"  and  made  talk;  I  nit  not  a  reform  was 
effected.  Those  were  the  days  of  "scarlet 
journalism"  for  thai  publication!  The  so- 
called  "yellow  journalism"  of  thirty-five  years 
later  was  only  mildly  "sensational"  by  com- 
parison.* 

William  M.  Tweed  was  a  man  of  Herculean 
physical  dimensions.  Like  most  active  re- 
acquaintance,  as  well  as 
Tweed  rarely  held  any 
public  office,  but  was  recognized  as  the  local 
Warwick  who  "made"  and  "unmade"  candi- 
dates. In  the  line  of  reportorial  duty.  I  fre- 
quently visited  him  in  his  offices.  Never  to 
my  recollection  did  1  see  him  at  the  City  Hall. 
If  he  wanted  to  talk  to  Mayor  Hall,  he  sent  for 
him.  One  of  his  offices  was  in  Dunne  street, 
near  Broadway;  the  other  in  the  brownstone 
building  at  the  southern  corner  of  Park  Place 
and  Broadway,  over  the  Broadway  Bank — the 
site  now  occupied  by  a  skyscraper.  He  was 
always  accessible  to  reporters  and  talked  with 
utmost  frankness  before  them,  when  his  under- 
lings happened  to  come  in.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  Tweed,  and  there  is  little  else  credit- 
able that  can  be  said  of  him,  he  was  not  a  hypo- 
crite. He  was  a  "grafter"  and  did  not  make 
a  secret  thereof. 

Social  conditions  in  a  city  that  was  shaking 
itself  loose  from  the  entanglements  of  tin- 
Civil  War,  the  Draft  Riots  and  the  wretched 
mis-management  under  which  its  people  had 
suffered  for  a 
curious. 

the  war.  and  professional  heroes,  who  had 
clung  to  the  real  heroes  of  the  Federal  Army, 
were  striving  to  crowd  themselves  into  the 
small  and  exclusive  social  circles  already 
formed  by  Knickerbocker  descendants  or 
earlier  tradesmen  who  had  made  fortunes  be- 
fore the  conflict  and  had  invested  their  money 
in  acre  property  already  coming  into  market 
as  city  lots.  .lay  Gould  was  remembered  as 
a  seller  of  railroad  tickets  at  No.  1  Astor 
House,    and    although    he    became    associated 

•Anybody  desiring  to  compare  the  "scarlet"  journalism  of  1^71  '7_> 
with  the  "yellow"  oi  the  present  time  can  find  the  panel-housa  article  in 
The  TVi'liUNf  mi  March  IG.  1872. 


generation,    were    even    more 
Families  that  had  been  enriched  by 


with  .lames  Fisk,  Jr.,  about  thai  time, 
was  supposedly  the  stronger  mind.  ( 
encouraged    that     belief;     he    used    Fisk 


Fisk 

rould 

as   a 


mask  and   did   it   so  effectively   thai    the   man 

of  real  power  in  the  combination  was  not  sus- 

"'ie 


Tl 


pected  until  alter  the  Colonel's  death.* 
great  public  balls,  of  that  period,  whether 
given  for  "charity"  or  to  entertain  a  scion  of 
European  royalty,  such  as  the  Russian  Grand 
Duke  Alexis,  were  exceedingly  miscellaneous, 
dopile  efforts  to  the  contrary.  The  annual 
French  ball  was  a  drunken  orgy,  such  as  never 
has  been  exceeded  by  students  of  the  Latin 
Quarter  or  of  Montmartre.  Were  I  to  accu- 
rately describe  almost  any  one  of  these  affairs 
that  occurred  between  1870  and  1SS0,  the  mails 
ought  to  be  denied  to  this  book. 

The  progress  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war 
in  Europe  did  not  interfere  with  the  sport- 
loving  Americans  during  the  late  summer  of 
1870.  Commodore  James  Ashbury,  of  the 
Royal  Harwich  Yacht  Club,  first  challenger 
for  the  "America"  cup.  won  in  English  waters 
by  Henry  Steers  in  1851,  was  here  with  his 
schooner  "Cambria"  and  raced  unsuccessfully, 
as  other  contestants  have  since  done.  When 
August  S  arrived.  I  determined  to  see  my  first 
yacht  race.  1  asked  for  the  day  off  and  early 
in  the  morning  boarded  the  "Sylvan  (den." 
an  excursion  boat,  at  Peck  Slip.  As  it  hap- 
pened, that  particular  boat  got  alongside  the 
stern  of  the  lightship,  which  was  the  turning 
point,  and  became  a  menace  to  the  racing 
yachts.  I  saw  every  contestant  round  the  light- 
ship and  took  the  time  with  my  watch.  When 
I  returned  to  the  office  that  night.  I  heard 
"Pop"  Chadwick,  the  sporting  editor  and  al- 
ready known  as  "The  Father  of  Baseball." 
complaining  that  the  tug  assigned  to  reporters 
had  gol  aground  on  the  Southwest  Spit  and 
had  thus  prevented  the  scribes  from  witnessing 
the  turning  of  the  stake  boat.  The  Herald, 
he  said,  had  its  own  steam  tugs  over  every  yard 
of  the  course,  and  would  have  a  complete 
"story,"  but  the  Tribune  was  sure  to  be  beaten  ! 

With  considerable  courage,  as  I  thoughl  at 
that  time.  I  staled  my  experience  of  the  day 
to  City  Editor  Moore  and  offered  to  supply 
"the  missing  link."  First,  correcting  my 
watch  with  that  of  the  sporting  editor,  whose 


.1      leall     nil  i  hi    period  ol  New  York  in  "( »n  a  Ma 
published  by  Mitchi  il  Ki  qui  rl  y 


IS 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


time-piece  had  been  set  with  that  of  the  official 
timer,  I  sat  down  and  "ground  out"  about 
2,000  words  of  stop-gap  copy.  Had  as  I  al- 
ways realized  it  to  be,  the  time  set  down  was 
within  a  second  or  more  of  the  time  officially 
given,  the  order  of  rounding  was  correct,  and 
whether  the  boats  had  "gibed"  or  "rounded" 
made  little  difference.  "Rotten"  as  the  tech- 
nique must  have  been,  1  had  "'saved  the  night  " 
for  my  paper  and  was  the  City  Editor's  pet 
for  several  days.  As  a  reward.  I  was  sent  on 
the  annual  cruise,   up   Long  Island  Sound  to 


THE  LATE  JOHN   HAY 
At  that  time  a  prominent  member  of  tin-  Tribune  stall 

Newport,  and  enabled  to  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  nearly  every  yacht  owner  in  the  fleet. 
Most  prominent  was  .lames  Gordon  Bennett, 
Jr.,  then  barely  29,  to  whose  service  I  was 
later  to  give  the  best  years  of  my  life.  When 
we  realize  that  Mr.  Bennett  opened  Africa  to 
the  civilized  world,  his  commanding  place 
among  the  great  men  of  his  lime  must  be  con- 
ceded. The  qualities  that  make  him  different 
from  other  editors  are  those  that  most  com- 
mand respect  and  admiration. 

The    first    meeting    with    an    epoch-making 
man  generally  leaves  an  indelible  impression. 


The  writer  encountered  Mr.  Bennett  on  board 
the  "Dauntless,"  in  the  summer  of  INTO.  His 
schooner  yacht  lay  at  anchor  in  Newport  har- 
bor one  beautiful  August  morning.  The  waters 
of  that  land-locked  bay  sparkled  in  the  first 
rays  of  the  rising  sun  as  a  small  boat  carried 
Captain  Roland  Coffin  and  me  from  India 
Wharf  toward  the  "Dauntless."  It  was  to  be 
a  race  day  and  we  had  been  invited  to  sail 
with  Mr.  Bennett.  Far  apart  from  any  an- 
chored craft,  we  saw  a  swimmer  whose  head 
and  shoulders  were  moving  at  racing  speed. 
His  brown  hair  was  cropped  short.  His 
shapely  head  turned  now  and  again,  as,  in 
using  the  English  stroke,  he  vigorously 
"reached"  with  his  right  hand.  The  skill  of 
the  swimmer  indicated  the  athlete.  His  face 
we  did  not  see. 

The  guests  were  welcomed  aboard  the 
"Dauntless"  by  Sailing-Master  Samuels.  A 
few  minutes  later,  the  swimmer,  who  proved 
to  be  Captain  Bennett,  came  on  deck  over 
the  side  a  tall,  lithe  man.  robed  only  in 
Nature's  pink  morocco  and  covered  with 
sparkling  drops  of  brine.  He  extended  a 
hand,  not  less  hospitable  because  it  bore  the 
ocean's  chill.  Mr.  Bennett  was  then  one  of 
the  prominent  figures  in  American  life,  be- 
cause it  was  universally  recognized  that,  on 
the  death  of  his  father  and  Mr.  Greeley,  he 
would  become  the  chief  of  American  journal- 
ism. 

Captain  Bennett,  soon  after  chosen  Com- 
modore of  the  Xew  York  Yacht  Club,  was  a 
deep-sea  sailor  who  crossed  the  ocean  in  his 
own  boats.  He  was  the  "enthusiasm"  of 
every  seaman  m  the  pleasure  fleet  then  in 
Newport  harbor.  American  yachting  has 
never  been  the  same  since  he  ceased  active 
participation  therein.  The  slightest  sugges- 
tion of  a  race  was  sufficient  for  him  to  oiler  a 
prize  cup.  His  own  cabin  was  adorned  with 
golden  and  silver  trophies.  Every  piece  bore 
an  inscription  that  chronicled  better  seaman- 
ship than  that  of  a  rival.  There  were  enthusi- 
astic yachtmen  in  those  days,  and  Bennett 
was  captain  of  them  all. 

The  elder  Bennett  died  in  the  summer  of 
1872.  Prior  to  that  event,  the  son  had  begun 
the  active  management  of  the  Herald  which 
lie    has    retained    every    hour    since.      Stanley 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1!) 


had  been  sent  by  him  to  Ijiji  (in  1871)  and 
had  found  Livingstone.  Like  many  of  the 
best  things  done  in  journalism,  the  execution 
of  this  task  was  not  nearly  so  splendid  as  its 
conception.  Stanley  had  his  troubles.  The 
trail  from  Bagamoyo,  on  the  mainland  oppo- 
site the  insular  city  of  Zanzibar,  to  Lake  Tan- 
ganyika is  now  as  well  known  as  the  National 
Road  from  Washington  City  to  Cumberland, 
Md.  Anybody  can  make  the  trip  to-day;  but 
it  was  not  so  in  1871— '72.  Stanley's  return 
was  a  memorable  event  in  American  journal- 
ism. It  marked  the  dawn  of  a  new  idea.  The 
discovery  of  the  missing  missionary  created  the 
news!  Correspondents  had  served  on  battle- 
fields as  early  as  Xenophon,  but  the  making 
of  legitimate  news  was  a  stroke  of  genius. 
And  the  idea  was  Mr.  Bennett's.  Up  to  the 
moment  of  Stanley's  return,  nobody  outside 
his  immediate  family  had  felt  any  special  in- 
terest in  Livingstone;  but  Mr.  Bennett  gave 
to  the  missionary  a  grave  in  Westminster 
abbey. 

Later  in  the  Eall  of  the  year  1870,  about 
October,  in  a  match  race  between  Ashbury 
and  Bennett  oil'  Sandy  Hook  light-ship,  I  was 
appointed  time-keeper  aboard  the  light-ship 
and  passed  thereon  a  night  of  horrible  illness. 
It  was  my  first  and  only  experience  with  sea 
sickness,  and  the  assurance  from  Captain 
Cosgrove  that  pilots  came  aboard  the  anchored 
craft  and  became  desperately  sick  did  not 
comfort  me.  I  remember  to  have  met  William 
B.  Astor.  grandfather  of  the  two  heads  of  the 
Astor  family  of  to-day.  August  Belmont, 
Moses  Grinnell,  whom  I  was  afterwards  to 
know  as  Collector  of  the  Port,  and  William  P. 
Douglas,  a  handsome  young  man  who  owned 
the  "Sappho."  A  humorous  incident  of  the 
day  was  that  Lawrence  Jerome,  universally 
called  "Larry," exchanged  his  gold  stop-watch 
for  my  ticker  and  when  I  had  to  climb  the 
"Jacob's  ladder"  at  the  stern  of  the  light-ship. 
1  was  fearful  his  valuable  watch  might  drop 
from  my  pocket.  It  was  my  first  experience 
with  a  swinging  rope  ladder  anil  1  had  not 
learned,  as  1  have  since,  to  climb  both  sides 
thereof.  The  ladder  doubled  up  on  me  and 
nothing  but  my  training  in  college  athletics 
saved  me  from  a  ducking. 

Meanwhile  the  battle  of  Gravelotte   (Aug. 


18),  had  occurred  and  the  Tribune,  owing  to 
its  combination  with  the  London  Daily  News, 
scored  a  great  beat.  The  French  under 
Bazaine  had  been  shut  up  in  Met/.  Bayard 
Taylor,  who  had  been  a  lecturer  on  German 
literature  at  Cornell  University  and  was  then- 
fore  known  to  me,  came  in  one  afternoon  and 
we  renewed  our  acquaintance.  Among  other 
things  he  predicted  the  surrender  of  Bazaine, 
which  seemed  incredible,  and  the  early  over- 
throw of  Napoleon  III.  But  President  White 
had  made  the  same  prophecy  about  the  Empire 
a  year  before  in  his  class-room  lectures  on 
France.     While  Taylor  and   I   were  talking. Jn 


New  York   Fosl  Office  forty  years  ago.     The  Mutual  Life  Building  now 
occupies  thai  site. 


big  man,  wearing  long  hair  and  a  black  soft 
hat.  slouched  through  the  city  room,  en  route 
to  that  of  Managing-Editor  Reid.  I  had  seen 
the  figure  on  the  platform  in  Ohio  three  years 
before  and  knew  it  to  he  that  of  Theodore 
Tilton. 

"There  goes  the  most  solemn  ass  in  Amer- 
ica," said  Bayard  Taylor,  'Mark  my  words, 
he'll  prove  it  before  he  is  much  older."  How 
often  that  remark  recurred  to  me  when  sitting, 
for  davs  at  a  time,  at  the  trial  of  the  case  know  rj 
to  legal  history  as  "Tilton  vs.  Beecher."  more 
than  Four  years  later! 

The  great  crime  of  that   year  had  been   the 


20 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Nathan  murder,  which  occurred  in  the  large 
brown-slone  mansion  of  the  hanker  on  Twenty- 
third  street,  west  of  Broadway  on  the  south 
side.  Jordan  was  ( 'hiel'  of  Police  and  although 
the  crime  had  occurred  in  July,  it  continued  to 
crop  up  as  a  news  feature  during  the  Fall  and 
Winter.  The  mystery,  like  that  of  Dr.  Bur- 
dell  at  .'»1  Bond  street,  many  years  previous, 
never  was  cleared.  The  assertion  was  often 
made  that  the  burden  of  a  belief  which  he  could 
not  prove  caused  the  death  of  Superintendent 
Jordan.  Best  opinion  was  that  the  killing  was 
done  by  a  relative  of  the  housekeeper  and  that 
a  son  of  the  dead  man  suffered  under  very  un- 
just suspicion. 

It  was  a  very  busy  winter.  Communication 
with  distant  parts  of  the  city  was  arduous, 
owing  to  the  snows,  and.  as  may  be  imagined. 
the  "kid  reporter"  was  not  spared.  lie,  and 
those  like  him,  got  all  the  unremunerative, 
heart-breaking  assignments.  I  was  out  in  all 
sorts  of  weather  and  laid  the  foundation  for 
an  attack  of  pneumonia  that  nearly  cost  my 
life. 

One  of  the  assignments  handed  to  me  that 
Winter  was  an  order  for  an  article  on  the  river 
thieves.  I  went  to  Brooks  Brothers,  then  on 
the  water  front  at  Catherine  street,  and  fitted 
out  in  deep-sea  togs.  After  a  few  nights' 
browsing  'round  the  sailors'  resorts,  mean- 
ing saloons,  I  was  taken  to  the  "Catamarket 
Club,"  a  dingy  second-story  room  on  South 
street,  north  of  Catherine. 

On  my  second  visit,  I  saw  a  tall,  cadaverous 
man,  with  strangely  white  cheeks. — due,  I 
afterwards  knew,  to  "prison  pallor."  His 
face  appealed  to  me.  His  fine  gray  eyes  had 
in  them  a  look  of  hopelessness  and  lament  I 
could  not  resist.  I  talked  to  him;  but  he  was 
shy.  lie  read  me  right.  lie  told  me  I  was 
not  a  sailor  or  a  tough,  like  the  men  and 
youngsters  about  me.  He  refused  to  drink, 
said  he  never  again  would  touch  "the  dam- 
nable stuff."  I  invited  him  to  Dorlon's,  at  Ful- 
ton Market,  to  have  supper.  He  accepted, 
with  anxious  reluctance.  A  novice  could  see 
he  was  hungry,  but  he  still  distrusted  me.  We 
went  and  1  gave  to  him  all  he  could  eat.  He 
admitted  it  was  his  first  food  in  twenty-four 
hours!  1  then  made  a  confidant  of  him.  I 
told  him  I  was  a  Tribune  reporter,  but  did  not 


mention  the  character  of  my  assignment.  He 
admitted  to  me  he  had  been  a  river  thief:  was 
recently  out  of  prison,  after  a  long  term.  He 
was  tired  of  a  career  of  crime:  he  thought  he 
could  be  of  use  to  w  retches  like  himself,  hunted 
by  officers  of  the  law  and  repudiated  by  re- 
spectable people.  He  said  he  had  recently 
visited  a  mission  ami  had  there  awakened  to 
faith  in  the  Saviour  of  Men  who  had  died  on 
Calvary.  1  had  heard  considerable  talk  of 
that  sort  and  was  not  sure  of  my  man.  He 
did  not  act  like  a  hypocrite,  yet  1  misjudged 
him. 

After  we  had  met  several  times.  I  told  him 
what  I  sought:  he  proved  to  be  a  mine  of  in- 
formation. He  had  a  thief's  honor,  however; 
he  would  not  "peach"  on  former  "pals."  One 
day.  I  was  sent  to  Wall  street  to  assist  the 
chief  of  that  bureau,  and  was  introduced  to 
A.  S.  Hatch,  a  banker  on  Nassau  street  at  the 
present  site  of  the  Hanover  Bank  building. 
Mr.  Hatch  was  known  as  a  patron  of  the 
Oliver  Street  Mission  and  an  all-round  lover 
of  humanity.  I  told  him  of  Jerry  McAuley, 
and  sent  the  redeemed  river-thief  to  him  with 
a  note.  Thus  began  McAuley's  remarkable 
career  of  regeneration. 

Other  activities  prevented  the  completion  of 
my  article  for  many  weeks  but.  when  printed, 
I  divided  the  money  received  equally  with 
McAuley.  then  installed  as  the  head  of  the 
Mission  at  the  corner  of  Oliver  and  Water 
streets.  He  was  reluctant  to  take  the  amount, 
small  as  it  was,  but  said  it  was  the  first  honest 
money  he  had  earned  in  years. 

McAuley's  judgment  of  men  was  marvellous. 
I  remember  he  said  to  me  one  night,  after  a 
famous  parson  had  prayed:  'There's  a  false 
note  in  that  man's  voice!"  And  history  vin- 
dicated his  opinion.  But  McAuley's  life  was 
resplendent  in  good  works.  He  remained 
steadfast  unto  the  end;  years  afterward,  he 
founded  the  Cremorne  Mission  in  the  "Ten- 
derloin" region  and  saved  many  unfortunate 
girls  from  the  streets,  —sending  them  to  homes 
in  the  far-away  country  where  Hope  welcomed 
them.  He  was  my  friend  unto  the  end:  I  was 
a  mourner  at  his  bier. 

For  more  than  thirty  years,  I  held  a  record 
for  the  only  interview  with  John  I).  Rocke- 
feller.    It  occurred  in  March,  1871,  when  the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


21 


whole  Titusville  region  was  at  fever  heal  over 
the  differentia]  rates  allowed  to  the  South  Im- 
provement Company  by  "Commodore"  Van- 
derbilt  and  Thomas  A.  Scott.  After  all  the 
expressions  of  Titusville  and  Oil  City  had 
been  secured.  I  was  advised  to  go  to  Cleveland 
and  talk  with  a  Mr.  Rockefeller,  associated 
with  Harkness  and  a  few  others  in  a  general 
commission  business     "incidentally  oil." 

Mr.  Rockefeller  was  found  at  his  warehouse. 
an  unpretentious  place,  and  as  he  was  on  the 
point  of  going  out.  he  asked  me  to  walk  with 


.JOHN    D.    ROCKKFEU-Ki: 


him.     We  tramped  through  the  crisp  air  for 

more  than  half  a  mile,  and  he  gave  to  me  the 
impression  that  he  did  not  take  a  greal  deal  of 
interest  in  the  oil  business.  He  was  absolutely 
truthful,  because  crude  oil  was  then  shipped 
in  tank  cars  and  the  profits  were  not  large, 
even  with  such  rebates  as  were  allowed  by  (he 
two  railroads  that  reached  the  region.  Hut 
the  South  Improvement  Company  blazed  the 
way  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company!  During 
years  that  followed,  Mr.  Rockefeller  and  his 
associates  piled  up  the  greatest  accumulation 
of  wealth  history  ever  has  known.  Now,  the 
problem  confronts  him  of  knowing  what  to 
do  with  this  money. 

The  wisdom  of  giving  most  of  it  away  dur- 


ing  life  can  be  recognized  when  the  inheritance 
tax  is  mentioned.  I  haven't  time  to  calculate 
what  the  State  of  New  York,  or  of  Ohio — if 
that  be  Mr.  Rockefeller's  legal  residence- 
would  exact  upon  a  fortune  of  one  billion  dol- 
lars. It  would  be  something  enormous.  There 
isn't  the  slightest  obligation  on  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller's  part  to  surrender  such  a  large  sum  tor 
the  benefit  of  legislative  grafters.  lie  does 
wisely  to  disburse  the  money  himself. 

Almost  everything  will  depend  upon  the 
hands  in  which  this  great  trust  is  placed. 
Means  should  be  devised  to  prevent  the  direc- 
tors of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  from  be- 
coming a  self-perpetuating  body.  Unless  that 
objectionable  feature  he  prevented,  the  Rocke- 
feller Trust  will  become  like  the  Girard  Trust 
of  Philadelphia,  Sailors  Snug  Harbor  Trust  of 
this  city,  or  the  Water  Power  Corporation  of 
Lowell.  Mass.  The  latter  institution  is,  per- 
haps, one  of  the  most  curious  specimens  of 
self-perpetuation  in  this  country.  Although  it 
absolutely  owns  the  splendid  water  power  of 
the  Merrimac  at  Pawtucket  Falls  and  distri- 
butes river  water  to  a  score  or  more  of  cotton 
mills  and  bleacheries  of  Lowell,  its  ownership 
is  a  secret  that  not  a  citizen  of  Lowell  can 
solve  in  entirety.  There  are  sixty  or  eighty 
stockholders,  hut  even  the  individual  share 
owner  is  not  allowed  to  see  the  hooks  and  may 
not  learn  who  is  the  holder  of  another  share. 
A  close  corporation,  composed  of  president, 
treasurer  and  auditor,  possesses  this  informa- 
tion and  declares  dividends. 

This  serves  to  indicate  tin-  dangers  to  which 
any  created  "foundation"  similar  to  the  Car- 
negie or  the  proposed  Rockefeller  funds  are 
prone.  When  as  able  a  lawyer  as  the  late 
Samuel  J.  Tilden  failed  to  draw  a  will  that 
could  not  be  broken,  how  can  Mr.  Rockefeller 
hope  to  steer  clear  of  the  pitfalls  into  which 
nearly  every  well-intentioned  benefactor  of 
smaller  hut  similar  character  has  fallen.  Let 
us  suppose  this  glorious  Rockefeller  **  founda- 
tion "  eventually  to  drift  into  the  clutches  of 
a  few  men  of  strong  will  who  would  dominate 
the  other  twenty  trustees;  there  is  no  telling 
what  misuse  mighl  he  made  of  so  enormous  a 
fund. 

It  might  defy  the  government  itself!  It 
could   lock   up   money,   or  it    could   depreciate 


22 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


the  currency.  Such  an  enormous  sum  of 
money  will  necessarily  have  to  seek  investment 
in  the  best  of  railway  securities.  What  is  to 
prevent  it  from  creating  "corners"  or  form- 
ing "pools"  .' 

The    Rockefeller    thought    is    splendid!      A 
trifle  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  millions  ought  to 


suffice  for  the  heirs  of  the  master  mind  that 
gathered  this  vast  wealth.  The  transfer  of 
the  enormous  remainder  to  other  hands,  with 
explicit  directions  for  its  use,  should  be  done 
in  a  practical  manner  that  never  will  leave  a 
loop-hole  for  disappointment,  or  for  the  per- 
sonal enrichment  of  a  single  trustee. 


A 


^. 


mm 


]2.->,-, 


„& 


?p3a#i 


jiggj 


?'***»*  •-'■'■ 


Citizens  of  New  York  of  lorn 


From  Painter's  Views. 

LbiAcus  ui  ncn    iuirv  ui  iuity  years  ago  will  remember  this  bridge  over  Broadway  at 
Fulton  Street,  erected  with  the  idea  that  it  would  relieve  the  traffic  at  that  point. 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW    YORK 


23 


CHAPTER  II 


REVOLT  AMONG  THE  CITIZENS 


HE  utter  collapse  of  the  French 
defence  abroad  was  celebrated 
by  a  German  Peace  Jubilee 
oil  April  to.  1871.  Nothing 
exactly  like  this  carnival  ever 
occurred  in  New  York.  Nat- 
urally, it  was  confined  entirely 
to  German-Americans  and  for  the  first  time 
citizens  of  the  metropolis  awoke  to  the  fact 
that  there  was  an  enormous  body  of  foreign- 
born  people  beside  Irish  in  New  York!  From 
that  hour,  the  German  element  commanded 
and  received  recognition  at  the  hands  of 
leaders  of  all  parties. 

Out  of  this  celebration  developed  one  of  the 
most  graphic  and  sensational  narratives  I  have 
ever  encountered.  In  making  my  rounds  of 
the  East  River  shipping,  on  a  dull  day,  1  met 
a  priest  who  told  me  of  the  abduction  of  a 
Swedish  girl,  daughter  of  one  of  his  parish- 
ioners. He  accompanied  me  to  the  home  of 
the  parents  of  the  missing  girl.  1  found  the 
mother  in  tears.  While  1  was  listening  to  her 
brief  recital  of  the  girl's  departure  to  see  the 
parade,  ten  days  before,  the  door  opened  and 
the  missing  daughter  entered.  After  the  re- 
joicings were  ended,  this  tall,  beautiful.  blue- 
eyed  young  woman  told  to  me  the  most  re- 
markable, circumstantial,  coherent,  improb- 
able tale  of  her  experience  in  the  hands  of  a 
procuress  that  ever  was  put  on  paper.  Not  a 
detail  was  wanting.  She  said  she  had  been 
induced  to  take  a  drink  of  water  by  a  middle- 
aged  woman  who  sat  in  a  carriage  and  remem- 
bered nothing  more  until  she  awakened  in  a 
luxurious  apartment.  She  denied  that  she 
knew  its  locality.  She  was  told  that  she  had 
been  taken  there  in  the  carriage  occupied  by 
the  woman  who  had  addressed  her.  After  a 
fortnight's  cogitation,  the  Tribune  printed  the 
three-column  narrative.  It  certainly  did  make 
"good  readinff"  and  got  the  town  bv  the  ears! 
On   the  dav  following  publication,   I    took 


the  girl  to  Captain  Thorn,  then  in  command 
at  the  City  Hall  station.  Thence.  I  conducted 
her  to  the  District  Attorney's  office,  where  I 
first  met  Algernon  S.  Sullivan,  then  an  assist- 
ant. As  had  been  the  case  with  Thorn,  the 
girl  impressed  .Mr.  Sullivan.  Mayor  Hall 
offered  a  reward  of  $5,000  for  the  arrest  and 
conviction  of  the  woman  who  had  drugged  the 
complainant.  Shadowed  by  a  detective  in 
plain  clothes,  unknown  to  the  girl,  she  and  I 
"did"  the  then  "white  light  district"  thor- 
oughly, hoping  to  see  the  woman  or  to  locate 
the  house  in  which  the  girl  had  been  kept 
prisoner.  Cross-examined  times  without  num- 
ber, this  Swedish  beauty  never  deviated  from 
her  original  story  in  the  slightest  degree.  She 
answered  lawyers  and  detectives  with  equally 
ready  frankness,  staring  into  the  faces  of  her 
inquisitors  from  her  large,  pale-blue  eye-. 

After  giving  almost  a  month  of  unpaid  time 
to  the  solution  of  the  mystery.  1  began  to 
lose  faith  in  the  girl  and  her  story.  That  re- 
markable narrative,  as  written  by  me  from 
the  young  woman's  lips,  will  be  found  in  the 
Tribune  of  May  5,  1871.  To  this  hour,  it  holds 
the  blue  ribbon  for  a  right-off-the-reel  narra- 
tive of  a  17 -year-old  girl!  I  have  written  hun- 
dreds of  "  interviews  "  since  that  day.  but  never 
one  that  quite  equalled  that  one  in  all  respects. 

Among  my  friends  at  that  time  was  Judson 
Jarvis,  a  son-in-law  of  Michael  T.  Brennan, 
afterward  Sheriff.  One  day.  Jarvis  and  I 
were  at  Broadway  and  Chambers  street,  about 
to  cross  to  Delmonico's,  then  at  the  northwest 
corner,  for  luncheon.  A  man  whom  we  had 
known  as  "Page,"  when  he  was  in  the  Hoard 
of  Aldermen,  was  standing  near  us.  This 
fellow  had  been  elected  to  the  Assembly  the 
preceding  November,  since  which  time  he  had 
called  himself  Page,  using  an  acute  accent 
over  the  final  letter  of  his  name.  Quick  as 
thought,  Jarvis  exclaimed  : 

"Hello.  Mr.  Page.    Waiting  for  the  stage  ?" 

,*  r^  r^ 


24 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


In  June,  1871,  I  was  transferred  to  Will 
street.  Mr.  Cleveland.  Horace  Greeley's 
brother-in-law,  wrote  the  financial  article  hut 
1  made  a  daily  round  of  forty  brokers'  offices, 
visited  the  Custom  House.  Merchants'  Ex- 
change, Assay  Office  and  Slock  Exchange. 
Thomas  Murphy  was  Collector  and  1  saw 
him  nearly  every  day.  Whenever  he  could  not 
give  me  information  I  sought,  he  referred  me 
to  Deputy-Collector  Thomas  Lemuel  James, 
who  had  the  instincts  of  a  newspaper  man 
because  he  had  been  an  editor  for  ten  years 
at  Hamilton,  \.  Y.  Very  soon.  1  realized  the 
Heedlessness  of  seeing  Collector  Murphy  or 
Chester  A.  Arthur,  who  succeeded  him.  and 
went  direct  to  Mr.  James.  What  he  did  not 
know  about  the  customs  service  was  not  worth 
seeking.  lie  had  entered  the  department  in 
1851  as  an  inspector,  had  become  a  weigher 
in  1864  and  a  deputy  collector  in  1870;  hut 
the  career  of  my  long-while  friend  really  be- 
gan in  L873,  when  President  Grant  made  him 
Postmaster  of  New  York.  He  soon  attracted 
the  attention  of  every  citizen  of  the  metropolis 
who  sends  or  receives  mail!  Whatever  the 
impression  may  have  been  regarding  the  dis- 
patch of  letters  prior  to  Postmaster  James's 
time.  New  Yorkers  realized  that  a  man  had 
been  installed  as  the  director  of  an  expeditious 
service.  He  put  mail  cars  on  the  Third  avenue 
line;  and  as  soon  as  the  elevated  roads  were 
open  had  sacks  carried  thereon  by  special  mes- 
sengers to  the  various  stations  along  their  en- 
tire lengths,  thus  saving  hours  in  time  over 
Former  horse-drawn  vans. 

The  Department  of  Posts  was  originally 
established  for  the  sole  use  of  monarchs  and 
their  administrative  systems,  and  it  is  regret- 
table that  in  the  earlier  days  of  this  republic  a 
feeling  prevailed  that  "any  old  time"  would 
do  for  the  delivery  of  a  letter.  Of  course.  I 
was  an  early  caller  on  the  new  Postmaster. 
One  of  the  first  things  he  said  was,  "I  find 
much  inconvenience  occasioned  to  the  busi- 
ness community  by  careless  people  who  forget 
to  put  stamps  upon  their  letters.  1  am  going 
to  try  an  experiment.  The  regulation  is  that 
all  unstamped  letters,  not  hearing  direction 
for  return,  go  to  the  'Dead  Letter  Office' 
where  I  hey  aie  opened  and  returned  to  the 
sender.     Now.  I  have  put  ii])  $100  of  my  own 


money  to  supply  stamps  for  the  benefit  of  the 
recipients  of  such  letters, — not  the  senders.  I 
have  had  a  small  paster  printed  which  will  he 
affixed  to  cadi  letter  so  forwarded  at  our  ex- 
pense, stating  the  facts  and  asking  for  the 
return  of  the  postage.  We  have  met  with 
encouragement  in  some  directions,  although  a 
few  people  to  whom  we  have  rendered  this 
gratuitous  service  pay  no  attention  to  our 
suggestion.  This  is  partly  due  to  careless 
secretaries  who  open  mail;  hut.  on  the  other 
hand,  here  is  a  letter  from  a  grateful  citizen, 
saying  that  the  delay  of  a  certain  letter  for- 
warded by  us  would  have  entailed  heavy 
financial  loss.  He  incloses  one  dollar  for  the 
fund!"  The  carrier  system  was  enlarged  and 
the  number  of  daily  deliveries  greatly  in- 
creased. Mr.  James  introduced  the  dictum: 
"A  letter  must  he  kept  in  motion:  it  must  not 
lie  dormant   at   any  branch  office!" 

When  Mr.  James  was  made  Postmaster- 
General  in  President  Garfield's  Cabinet, 
March  .">,  1881,  lie  merely  expanded  the  same 
idea  until  it  embraced  the  service  of  the  coun- 
try! When  transferred  to  Washington,  Mr. 
Pearson,  who  had  enjoyed  thorough  training 
under  Mr.  .lames,  succeeded  to  the  post.  This 
was  the  era  of  development  for  special  mail 
trains  on  most  of  the  trunk  lines,  in  which 
Theodore  N.  Vail  was  an  efficient  coadjutor  of 
the  hustling  Postmaster-General.  At  Car- 
field's  death.  General  Arthur  succeeded  to  the 
Presidency.  Mr.  James  remained  in  office 
until  January,  1882,  when  he  accepted  the 
Presidency  of  the  Lincoln  National  Hank  in 
New  York  City.  This  hank  is  the  custodian 
of  the  Vanderbilt  millions.  Under  the  James 
regime,  its  deposits  have  multiplied;  its  build- 
ing has  been  quadrupled  in  size  and  its  busi- 
ness has  doubled  on  itself  over  and  over  again. 
Mr.  James  comes  into  town  every  week-day 
from  his  pretty  home  at  Highwood,  N.  J.;  he 
served  as  Mayor  of  Tenafiy  in  1896.  lie  is 
a  Director  in  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company.  Although  not  a  college  graduate, 
he  has  been  given  the  honorary  degrees  of 
A.M.,  by  Hamilton  College,  and  of  LL.D.. 
by  Madison  University,  St.  Francis  Xavier  and 
St.  John's  Colleges.  The  sturdy  traits  of  this 
man  have  commanded  my  constant  respect 
for  forty  years. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


zo 


Still  travelling  on  the  reputation  as  a  yacht- 
ing expert  acquired  at  the  first  aquatic  event 
of  the  kind  I  ever  had  witnessed,  I  spent  much 
of  the  Summer  of  1871  upon  the  water.  Re- 
porters of  metropolitan  newspapers  were  al- 
ways welcome  upon  the  yachts  of  the  New 
York  fleet,  and  although,  at  Newport,  we 
lived  at  the  Ocean  House,  we  were  constantly 
invited  aboard  the  competing  yachts  during  a 
series  of  races  that  occurred  off  that  port. 

During  that  summer,  a  remarkable  instance 
of  the  value  of  memory  occurred.  After  a 
yacht  race  off  Sandy  Hook,  I  was  returning  to 
the  city  aboard  the  steamer  "Seth  Low."  work- 
ing at  my  copy  in  the  pilot  house.  As  we  passed 
Quarantine,  after  nightfall.  I  noticed  several 
steamers  being  lightered.  Great  flambeaux 
burnt  holes  in  the  night! 

"What  does  that  mean  .-"  I  asked,  turning  to 
Captain  Bloodgood,  in  command  of  the  boat. 

"It  is  Quarantine  fraud!"  he  replied. 

"  Must  be  a  big  story  there?"  I  suggested. 

"Indeed  there  is;  and  the  man  who  can  give 
it  to  you  is  Harry  S.  Miller,  a  commission  mer- 
chant on  South  street. 

In  another  moment  I  realized  that  I  had 
several  thousand  more  words  to  write  and  re- 
turned to  work.  Hut  the  name  of  "tin'  man 
who  knew"  must  have  lingered  in  one  of  mem- 
ory's lockers,  as  the  sequel  will  show. 

Late  in  October  of  that  year,  I  was  called 
into  the  Managing-Editor's  room  one  after- 
noon and  (old  the  following: 

"  We  have  information  that  gross  impositions 
are  practiced  upon  the  commerce  of  this  port, 
several  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  year  be- 
ing extorted  from  the  merchants.  I  have  had 
Mr.  Pember  at  Staten  Island  for  a  month  seek- 
ing information  on  the  subject,  but  he  has 
utterly  failed.  Now  I  am  going  to  try  you! 
See  what  you  can  do;  I  do  not  make  any  sug- 
gestions or  give  to  you  any  orders." 

Leaving  the  august  presence  in  a  bewildered 
mental  state,  seeing  slight  prospect  of  success 
in  an  undertaking  al  which  one  of  the  most 
experienced  men  on  the  stall'  had  failed,  the 
incident  on  the  "Seth  Low"  recurred  to  me.  A 
city  directory  gave  me  the  address  of  the  ship 
chandler.  Hounding  down  the  iron  stairway.  1 
ran  through  Ferry  street  to  Heck  Slip  and  not 


he  man  1  sought. 


far  above  that  point  foun< 
He  was  opening  a  keg  of  mackerel  as  I  entered 
his  warehouse,  hut  when  told  I  came  at  the 
suggestion  of  Captain  Hloodgood  of  the  "Seth 
Low."  he  led  the  way  to  his  private  office. 
There  he  agreed  for  $'-200  to  give  all  informa- 
tion about  Quarantine  in  his  possession,  to  the 
Tribune.  This  he  did  that  night  at  his  house 
in  Cranberry  street,  Brooklyn,  where  George 
E.  Mills,  then  a  stenographer  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  but  for  many  years  thereafter  secretary 
to  Collis  P.  Huntington,  took  down  about 
8,500  words  regarding  the  Quarantine  pirates. 
I  subsequently  obtained  the  books  of  the  pirat- 
ical company,  known  as  "The  New  \ork 
Stevedore.  Lightering  &  Towing  Company," 
from  Clark  Mills,  its  secretary.  1  prepared 
and  printed  forty-odd  columns  of  evidence  and 
figures,  upon  the  strength  of  which  Governor 
Hoffman  removed  the  Health  Officer  of  the 
Port.  The  Legislature  appointed  an  Investi- 
gating ( 'oinmittee  which  went  to  the  root  of  all 
the  extortions.  The  house  of  E.  D.  Morgan 
&  Co.  had  been  severe  sufferers  and  Solon 
Humphrey,  its  manager,  was  anxious  to  raise 
a  fund  among  benefited  merchants  as  a  pres- 
ent to  the  Tribune  reporter;  but  as  1  was  re- 
ceiving the  munificent  sum  of  $'•2.5  per  week, 
the  testimonial,  which  I  was  assured  would 
equal  $5,000.  was  declined.  What  could  I 
possibly  want  with  more  money? 

Another  important  journalistic  triumph 
scored  by  the  Tribunein  1871  was  the  capture 
and  publication  in  advance  of  all  rivals  of  the 
Treaty  of  Washington,  providing  for  the  ar- 
bitration of  the  Alabama  claims.  The  means 
by  which  the  text  was  obtained  has  been  a 
well-guarded  secret.  As  matter  of  fact,  a 
printed  copy  had  been  left  in  a  committee 
room  by  a  Senator,  where  it  was  found  by  a 
janitor  cleaning  the  room  and  was  sold  for  a 
price.  The  importance  of  the  "beat"  is 
secondary  to  the  journalistic  dictum  which  it 
called  forth  when  White  and  Rainsdell.  the 
Washington  correspondents,  were  arrested  by 
order  of  the  Senate.  The  editor  of  the  Tribune 
took  a  high  stand  for  the  rights  of  journalists, 
using  these  words:  *'It  is  the  business  of  the 
Governmenl  to  keep  its  secrets;  it  is  the  duty 
of  our  correspondents  to  gel  us  the  news." 
This  dictum  may  have  been  in  contempt  of 


26 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


court,  bul  it  has  been  invoked  and  has  been 

sustained  in  many  cases.  Highly  as  this  lan- 
guage may  be  commended,  1  must  in  candor 
mention  that  when,  in  the  heal  of  the  <  'onkhng- 
Garfield  controversy,  the  Herald  "indirectly" 
obtained  and  printed  a  long  telegram  from  the 
editor  of  the  Tribune  to  the  late  John  Hay, 
advising  as  to  Garfield's  course  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  Robertson  to  the  Collectorship  of  this 
Port,  tin's  same  editor,  forgetting  his  dictum, 
became  very  angry  and  called  Mr.  Bennett 
had  names. 

As  a  printer's  hoy.  I  had  been  taught  to 
"follow  copy,  if  it  went  out  the  window"; 
hut  I  had  some  sense  knocked  into  my  green 
head  that  Spring  by  a  suspension  (my  only 
one  in  thirty-five  years'  experience)  because  1 
obeyed  written  orders!  Furthermore,  the  pun- 
ishment was  absolutely  just.  I  was  rushed  off 
on  an  assignment  in  Connecticut.  I  intended 
to  gel  my  '"story"  and  to  return  with  it.  As 
I  was  entering  a  cab,  to  drive  to  the  railroad 
station,  a  note  from  my  editor  was  thrust  into 
my  lingers  directing  me  lo  slay  over  at  New 
London  and  lo  send  my  copy  down  by  the 
baggage  master  of  a  train  on  the  Shore  Line 
leaving  there  at  7  :.'!()  p.m.  I  was  particularly 
ordered  not  lo  telegraph  the  matter — because 
the  horrors  of  the  Paris  Commune  laid  a  terri- 
ble embargo  on  the  expense  account  at  the 
lime. 

The  facts  were  secured,  the  article  written, 
inclosed  in  an  office  envelope  and  personally 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  baggage  master. 
Outside  the  envelope  was  the  usual  order. 
"Pay  $2  to  hearer  for  prompt  delivery."  1 
had  misgivings,  hut  at  thai  stage  of  my  ex- 
perience "orders  were  orders." 

Thai  "copy"  did  not  reach  the  office  for 
two  days!  Then  a  rum-soaked  chap  presented 
it  and  tried  to  collect  the  $2.  For  the  first 
time  in  many  years,  the  baggage  master  went 
on  a  spree  that  particular  night!  I  was 
"beaten."  Another  man  was  sent  to  replace 
me.  1  said  to  my  chief,  when  1  returned:  "1 
am  'beaten'  because  1  followed  orders,  liter- 
ally. 1  never  will  again.  My  suspension  of  one 
week,  without  pay,  is  deserved.  There  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  losing  a  piece  of  news.  I  have  none  to 
oiler."  1  was  recalled  aftera  lew  days.  But  the 
lesson  was  of  value  to  me  when  1  was  promoted 


to  executive  work.  Never  did  1  give  an  "or- 
der" as  to  the  method  of  getting  a  feature;  the 
term  "suggestion"  was  always  employed.  A 
special  correspondent,  dispatched  on  a  crucial 
undertaking  of  prime  news  importance  or  of 
extra  hazard,  should  he  left  to  his  own  best 
judgment.  He  is  responsible!  I  should  have 
disregarded  orders  and  brought  the  "copy." 
or  telegraphed  it,  in  face  of  orders  to  the  con- 
trary.    "  First  of  all,  the  news!" 

During  this  winter,  I  attended  a  memorable 
operatic  performance  at  the  Academy  of 
Music.  It  was  a  matinee  and  the  opera  was 
//  Trovatore.  Ilerr  Wachtel  was  the  Manrico; 
Mine.  Parepa-Rosa  was  the  Leonora;  Ade- 
laide Phillips  was  the  Azucena  and  Santley, 
the  English  baritone,  was  the  Count.  It  was 
such  an  exceptional  cast  that  $5  a  seal  was 
charged  at  the  afternoon  performance,  a  price 
that  evoked  a  storm  of  protest.  Carl  Rosa, 
who  conducted,  told  me  years  afterward  in 
London  that  the  performance  showed  a  loss. 
Wachtel  was  at  that  time  the  premier  tenor 
of  the  musical  world. 

The  tall,  slender  figure  of  Henry  Bergh, 
surmounted  by  its  straight-crowned,  French 
silk  hat, was  to  he  seen  on  the  streets.  He  en- 
countered ridicule  at  first,  hut  he  finally  se- 
cured the  enactment  of  laws  that  gave  him 
power  to  stop  the  brutality  of  the  human 
toward  the  animal  creation.  One  vivid  recol- 
lection of  Mr.  Bergh  comes  to  me: 

An  aged  miser  living  on  West  Houston  street 
in  a  hovel  died,  leaving  $65,000  to  Mr.  Bergh's 
Society.  Bergh  was  a  philanthropist  as  well 
as  a  lover  of  animals,  and  out  of  his  own  pocket 
defrayed  the  cost  of  a  decent  funeral  for  the 
old  chap  who  had  starved  and  gone  without 
lire  for  years  to  save  his  money  for  the  benefit 
of  the  brute  creation.  1  happened  to  he  first 
to  convey  information  of  this  bequest  to  Mr. 
Bergh;  when  I  told  him  how  the  giver  of  the 
money  had  lived,  he  said  of  the  man's  self- 
sacrifice: 

"Benevolence  is  a  trait  that  must  he  horn 
in  a  human  breast.  One  cannot  acquire  it: 
it  must  come  naturally.  I  am  sorry  this  man 
denied  himself  the  necessaries  of  life  to  make 
this  bequest.  I'd  much  rather,  with  such  a 
noble  impulse  in  his  breast,  he  had  lived  more 
generously  to  himself  and  left  the  Society  less 


fe^ABRAftAM    OAKE.Y  flALL    ~~-N<3  f>^^"  -WITH     ILLY  ^\<]  fc^    E.DWAKD      aOQFER~X<3 


B/"WIbMAA\   RUJVTEL.  (gRA6ZN3         t>X"  FRATSKL.1H     E-DJOff    "X<fl  ^ABRAAS   ^TEVSHJ1  -HEWITT,  LU)^ 


f>^"    -HUS-H-       J.      gBAHT        ~^x<3  g/TtiOMAJ   FRAIICiJ     g]LROT'\g3  K-^~  WHEM  M      r,.    JTRQHC    X<1 


o  T^tpC^ 


-28 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


money  or  none  at  all;  but  we  must  not  judge 
him  harshly.  He  probably  found  more  de- 
light in  accumulating,  rather,  hoarding,— 
his  money  for  this  specific  purpose  than  he 
would  have  seemed  by  spending  it  upon  him- 
self. Every  dollar  of  this  fund  shall  be  placed 
where  it  will  accumulate.  Who  knows  but 
this  bequest  may  have  been  inspired  by  some 
noble  act  on  the  part  of  an  animal  and  that 
this  money  is  a  memorial  thereto?" 

The  last  sentence  was  highly  romantic- ! 
Mr.  Bergh  didn't  appreciate  how  deeply  he 
stirred  a  young  heart.  Suppose  he  were 
right!  Had  the  recluse  been  a  scout  on  the 
plains,  and  had  a  faithful  and  tireless  horse 
given  his  life  to  save  him  from  the  scalping- 
knife?  Had  a  noble  dog,  faithful  as  Gellert, 
defended  him  from  danger  when  a  child? 
Had  some  other  animal,  to  which  he  was 
deeply  attached,  suffered  at  the  brutal  hands 
of  man  ? 

Speaking  of  animals.  1  am  reminded  that 
during  my  second  Spring  "the  learned  hog, 
"Wicked  Hen.'"  made  his  appearance  in  Wall 
street.  The  showman  took  a  basement  on 
Broad  street,  at  the  present  site  of  the  Broad 
Exchange  building,  and  it  became  quite  a 
fad  for  brokers,  after  the  close  of  the  Stoek 
Exchange,  to  congregate  at  the  place  to  play 
cards  with  the  educated  animal.  One  after- 
noon, when  I  was  in  the  office  of  Osgood 
Brothers,  where  the  Blair  edifice  is  to-day,  a 
party  was  made  up  to  "play  the  hog."  Each 
man  contributed  $1  and  there  were  ten  of  us. 
I  recall  Franklin  and  William  Osgood,  Charles 
Osborn,  Cammack,  Chapin,  Peabody,  and 
Ed.  House.  A  committee  of  three,  of  which 
I  was  one,  was  appointed  to  do  the  playing 
for  the  "pool." 

The  porker  stood  upon  a  raised  dais,  car- 
peted with  a  rug.  He  appeared  to  be  as 
'intelligent"  as  any  other  hog  one  meets  in 
the  street-cars  or  restaurants.  The  committee 
proposed  two  tests,  of  $5  each, — one  in  euchre, 
besl  two  games  out  of  three,  the  other  in  poker. 
The  manager  agreed  to  back  the  animal  for 
equal  amounts,  and  the  three  of  us  took  charge 
of  the  entertainment.  The  manager  was  to 
deal  for  the  porker,  turn  and  turn  about;  but 
as  soon  as  tlie  cards  were  laid  out,  back  up- 
wards, upon  the  carpet,  he  was  to  stand  aside 


and  a  member  of  the  committee  was  to  show 
the  face  of  each  card  (five  in  number)  to  the 
hog.  This  agreement  was  carried  out.  The 
hog  won  the  first  game — his  memory  of  the 
location  of  the  card  he  wanted  to  play  being 
perfect.  With  the  tip  of  his  snout  he  would 
turn  oyer  the  right  card,  whether  he  followed 
or  led.  Never  once  did  he  make  an  error. 
The  committee  won  the  second  game,  due  to 
remarkable  cards.  The  third  was  easily  taken 
by  the  hog.  One  of  the  hands  played  by  him 
was  very  intricate.     We  settled. 

The  poker  game  followed,  best  three  in  five 
hands  dealt,  with  privilege  of  a  draw  to  win. 
In  the  technique  of  the  game  it  was  to  be  a 
"freeze-out"!  When  my  turn  came  to  handle 
the  cards  for  the  animal.  I  was  amazed  at  the 
accuracy  of  his  discard.  His  hand  was  with- 
out a  pair;  he  took  five  cards.  Twice  he  might 
have  drawn  to  a  flush,  but  he  would  not.  He 
would  keep  a  pair  of  deuces  and  discard  an 
ace  and  king.  Of  course,  this  is  rudimentary, 
but  I  have  seen  human  players  foolish  enough 
to  discard  deuces  and  keep  ace-king. 

Seven  hands  had  to  be  played  to  decide,  but 
the  hog  got  the  money — rather  his  master  did. 
The  elation  of  the  animal  over  victory  remind- 
ed me  of  the  self-applause  of  "Blind  Tom" 
for  his  own  music.  The  hog  literally  capered 
about  the  platform. 

Taken  altogether,  it  was  the  best  dollar's 
worth  of  experience  1  ever  had.  I  was  taught 
to  respect  real  hogs  and  to  have  a  greater  dis- 
like than  before  for  humans  who  ape  their 
manners,  without  possessing  their  natural  in- 
telligence. 

An  audacious  attempt  by  the  Tammany 
cabal  to  continue  its  servile  Boards  of  Alder- 
men and  Assistant  Aldermen  in  power  for  one 
year  longer  than  the  term  for  which  they  were 
elected  first  served  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  peo- 
ple of  New  York  to  a  realization  of  the  lengths 
to  which  Tweed  and  his  fellows  were  inclined 
to  go.  This  incident,  preliminary  to  the  tre- 
mendous popular  uprising  that  later  occurred, 
was  so  minimized  by  the  appalling  disclos- 
ures that  followed  that  hardly  one  citizen  of 
to-day  living  at  the  time  will  remember  it; 
and  yet  it  was  the  one  event  that  prepared  the 
public  mind  for  what  was  to  follow.  Briefly, 
it  may  be  stated  thus: 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


29 


Exercising  complete  dominance  over  the 
Legislature,  Tweed  had  procured  the  passage 
of  an  act  extending  the  term  of  the  New  York 
City  Aldermen  and  Assistant  Aldermen 
elected  in  1870  for  one  year,  for  an  additional 
twelve  months!  The  threatened  revolution. 
which  had  taken  definite  shape  in  the  creation 
of  the  Committee  of  Seventy,  rendered  it  im- 
perative to  the  Tammany  cabal  that  their  crea- 
tures in  the  Municipal  Legislature  hold  over, 
so  that  further  plans  for  defrauding  the  tax- 
payers might  he  carried  oul  prior  to  "the  del- 
uge." It  was  the  most  daring  coup  the  ring- 
sters  had  yet  tried!  It  proved  to  he  the  most 
impolitic.  Honest  members  of  the  Democracy 
had  joined  with  a  small  group  of  their  parti- 
sans, known  as  the  Apollo  I  lull  element,  and 
had  nominated  a  city  ticket.  These  candidates 
were  endorsed  by  the  Republicans  and  by  the 
Committee  of  Seventy  in  October,  1871.  This 
fusion  ticket  was  elected  in  November,  despite 
stuffed  ballot  boxes,  but  the  conspirators  who 
had  grown  to  believe  they  owned  New  York 
were  only  partially  disillusioned. 

Admittedly,  the  act  of  the  Legislature  ex- 
tending the  Aldermanic  term  was  unconstitu- 
tional. A  scheme  even  more  amazing  than  the 
original  one  was  at  once  concocted  to  retain 
power:  it  included  the  sacrifice  by  Tammany 
of  Mayor  A.  Oakey  Hall!  The  plan  agreed 
upon  was  to  have  a  special  meeting  of  the  two 
Boards  of  Aldermen  in  the  forenoon  of  Jan- 
uary 1,  1872.  A  vote  would  then  be  rushed 
through  both  bodies  impeaching  the  Mayor, 
so  that  Thomas  Coman,  President  of  the  Board 
of  Aldermen,  would  become  acting  Mayor. 
When  twelve  o'clock  struck,  it  was  the  inten- 
tion to  have  all  members  of  the  old  Board 
tender  their  resignations  and  to  have  the 
acting  Mayor  immediately  appoint  the  same 
men  to  tin-  vacant  offices.  Nothing  more 
revolutionary  was  accomplished  by  Napo- 
leon 111  in  the  coup  d'etat  of  1852  or  was 
attempted  by  President  MacMahon  of  France, 
in    1ST!). 

This  high-handed  outrage  was  defeated  by 
Henry  Lauren  Clinton,  a  distinguished  lawyer 
of  his  time,  who  assembled  the  reform  Alder- 
men in  the  ( iovernor \s  Room  of  the  (  ily  Hall, 
served  writs  of  prohibition  upon  each  member 
of  the  old    Boards  and   when   their  terms  had 


legally  expired  stormed  the  assembly  chambers 
and  took  possession  of  the  scats.  The  sensa- 
tion throughout  New  York  City  was  profound. 
The  newspapers  of  thai  afternoon  and  of  the 
following  morning  stated  the  facts  with  ap- 
proximate clearness;  organs  in  the  pay  of 
Tammany  did  not  dare  to  omit  the  sensational 
occurrence.  I  was  present  at  thai  scene  and 
never  shall  forget  the  resolute  expression  on 
Mr.  Clinton's  face  on  that  momentous  occa- 
sion. He  was  fit  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope!  Blood- 
shed was  threatened  in  the  corridor;  dethroned 
slaves  of  Tweed  and  his  coparceners  acted  as  if 
they  were  submitting  to  injustice  and  were 
being  deprived  of  their  lawful  rights.  At  this 
distance  of  time,  it  is  customary  to  say  that  the 
overthrow  of  the  Tweed  cabal  dates  from  the 
formation  of  the  Committee  of  Seventy,  but 
that  distinguished  body  contained  many  ini- 
practicables,  men  without  energy  or  moral 
courage,  lacking  in  initiative  and  far  too  timid 
to  have  sustained  their  really  strong  co-ad ju- 
tors.  Besides,  the  citizens  in  general  were  in- 
different and  went  about  their  business  as 
usual,  smiling  at  charges  of  peculation. 

Theft  was  one  thing;  but  an  attempt  of  the 
cabal  to  seize  the  law-making  bodies  of  the 
municipality  and  to  retain  power  indefinitely 
savored  of  nothing  but  absolute  monarchy !  As 
long  as  a  pretense  existed  of  electing  the  city 
officials,  however  corrupt  the  means  employed, 
the  people  endured  wrongs  that  they  believed 
to  exist. 

From  that  hour  events  moved  rapidly. 
Mayor  Hall  was  put  on  trial  in  the  following 
March  upon  a  charge  of  neglect  of  official 
duty.  Henry  L.  Clinton  managed  the  prose- 
cution and  the  testimony  presented  for  the 
firsl  time  laid  bare  the  appalling  extent  of 
the  public  robberies.  Several  creatures  of  the 
cabal  tinned  Stale's  evidence,  notably  A.  .1. 
Garvey,  and  exposed  the  methods  by  which 
nearly  all  bills  for  supplies  or  work  were  in- 
creased from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred 
pei-  cent,  liaising  of  money  for  corrupt  use 
al  A II i.i n \  was  proven.  The  evidence  against 
Mayor  Hall  was  grave  as  showing  negligence; 
actual  criminal  connivance  and  participation 
in  the  spoils  of  robbery  were  not  brought  home 
to  him.  The  death  of  a  juror,  as  the  trial  was 
approaching  its  end.   brought    this  celebrated 


:?o 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


case  to  an  abrupt  termination.  Mr.  Hall  was 
subsequently  acquitted. 

The  exposure  of  Tweed  had  been  due  to 
accident,  not  entirely  to  "Jimmy"  O'Brien, 
as  asserted  at  the  time.  "Steve"  Lyons,  at  the 
head  of  the  county  finance  department  and  a 
faithful  Tweed  henchman,  was  accidentally 
killed  and  Matthew  J.  O'Ronrke,  county 
auditor,  took  charge  of  the  hooks.  Casual 
examination  revealed  thefts  to  the  extent  of 
$10, 000, 000!  There  were  doubtless  many 
other  embezzlements  never  disclosed,  because, 
after  the  first  exposure,  a  glass  door  of  the 
County  Treasurer's  office  was  broken  one 
night  and  vouchers  of  all  paid  bills  carried 
away!  O'Rourke  imparted  to  his  friend. 
O'Brien,  the  find  he  had  made.  O'Brien  pur- 
suaded  him  to  turn  over  all  his  evidence  to 
the  New  York  Times. 

Many  curious  stories  were  in  circulation  re- 
garding the  publication  of  the  evidence  against 
the  Tweed  ring.  One  tale  declared  that  a 
certified  check  for  $1,000,000  was  laid  upon 
the  desk  of  Lewis  J.  Jennings,  then  editor  of 
the  Times.  He  was  to  have  the  money  if  he 
would  cease  publication  of  the  Tweed  ex- 
posures. Years  afterwards,  in  London,  I 
asked  Jennings  about  this  yarn  and  he  denied 
that  anything  of  the  kind  had  happened  to 
him.  He  appeared  to  believe,  however,  that 
some  sort  of  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
"reach"  Mr.  Morgan,  of  Auburn,  who,  with 
George  Jones,  practically  owned  the  news- 
paper. If  so,  the  scheme  failed.  Those  men 
were  not  to  be  bought, — their  honor  was  above 
any  price. 

"Jimmy"  O'Brien  lived  on.  He  witnessed 
the  downfall  of  Tweed,  whom  he  detested. 
He  seemed  to  be  in  favor  with  John  Kellv, 
but  when  Richard  Croker  came  to  power,  as 
chief  of  Tammany  Hall,  he  tackled  him.  Here 
was  a  man  of  quite  different  mettle.  Their 
enmities  culminated  in  a  shooting  affray  on 
the  West  side,  in  which  a  local  tough  was 
killed.  O'Brien  swore  he  had  seen  Croker 
fire  the  shot.  A  trial  followed  but  the  jury 
disagreed.  O'Brien  then  became  "a  promoter 
of  Democratic  factions."  At  every  election, 
city  or  slate.  O'Brien  came  out  with  a  "new 
Democracy"  of  some  sort.  His  business  was 
the   building  up  of  organizations  for  sale  to 


the  highest  bidder.  Oftenest,  he  found  the 
best  market  with  the  Republicans.  He  and 
"Steve"  French  understood  each  other.  Ches- 
ter A.  Arthur,  also,  in  those  days,  was  an  ad- 
mirer of  O'Brien — about  election  time. 

All  "Jimmy's"  old  allies  in  the  two  parties 
died.  His  only  remaining,  implacable  enemy, 
Croker,  voluntarily  expatriated  himself  in  Ire- 
land. O'Brien  had  saved  money  but  he 
seemed  alone  in  this  big  city.  As  age  claimed 
him,  his  face  grew  angular;  his  gait  altered,— 
no  longer  having  the  swagger  that  character- 
ized it  in  the  days  of  "storm  and  stress."  1 1 < - 
had  fine  eyes.  Changeable  as  his  political 
creed  may  have  been,  there  wasn't  anything 
shifty  about  his  steel-blue  eves.  He  lived  until 
March.  1907. 

The  fate  of  the  Tweed  ring  proved  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  honest  members  of  a  community 
when  thoroughly  aroused  to  protect  their  com- 
mon interests.  The  office  of  the  modern  news- 
paper never  was  more  clearly  demonstrated 
than  during  that  long  struggle.  One  day's 
temporizing  by  Manton  Marble  destroyed  the 
influence  and  financial  standing  of  the  World— 
making  possible  Joseph  Pulitzer's  acquire- 
ment of  the  property,  after  twelve  years  of  a 
moribund  existence,  in  1883.  Municipal 
"grafters"  of  later  years  have  avoided  the 
crude  methods  of  the  Tweed  "Pillagers,"'  if  I 
may  so  seriously  reflect  upon  a  tribe  of  Chip- 
peway  Indians,  dwelling  on  Cass  and  Leech 
lakes,   Minnesota. 

The  United  States  is  a  republic,  in  name; 
but  in  large  cities,  like  New  York,  Philadel- 
phia. Chicago  and  others,  dictatorship  has 
been  vested  in  one  man.  as  a  rule,  who  has 
named  the  Mayor  and  all  the  city  officials, 
and,  as  matter  of  course,  members  of  the  Leo- 
islature  and  House  of  Representatives  within 
the  confines  of  the  city  over  which  he  held 
dominion.  In  instances  such  as  Tweed, 
Kelly,  Croker  and  Murphy.  Xew  York  state 
came  under  the  control  of  these  local  muni- 
cipal "bosses."  Tlie  same  thing  was  true  of 
Philadelphia.  "Boss"  McManes  was  too 
shrewd  to  "go  up  against"  the  "Clan  Cam- 
eron" in  that  Commonwealth,  but  he  wielded 
a  power  in  the  "Quaker  City"  equal  to  that 
of  a  Persian  Satrap  or  a  Roman  Tetrarch  and 
with    greater    opportunities    for    "graft."      It 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


31 


was  possible  for  the  "boss"  of  any  of  these 
large  cities  to  "acquire"  one  million  dollars 
per  year  in  tribute!  I  could  go  into  this,  if 
necessary,  down  to  the  lowest  collection  of 
the  "wardman"  from  the  unfortunate  pros- 
titute who  walked  the  streets  and  had  to  pay 
for  the  privilege  of  hunting  her  prey!  Under 
this  despotism,  not  a  merchant  could  receive 
a  box  of  goods  or  a  bale  of  cloth  upon  the 
pavement  that  he  owned  without  rendering 
something  to  somebody  for  the  "privilege." 
In  New  York,  the  citizens  wriggled  free 
from  the  clutches  of  one  "boss."  only  to  fall 
into  the  grasp  of  another.  After  Tilden,  Peck- 
hani.  ( )'( 'onor  and  (  linton  had  defeated  David 
Dudley  Field.  John  D.  Townsend  and  other 
clever  lawyers  and  sent  Tweed  to  jail  the  new 
regime  became  about  as  unsatisfactory  as  the 
old  one. 

In  this  year  of  1871,  I  had  my  first  detail 
on  an  important  murder  story.  It  occurred  on 
a  dull  night,  when  those  of  us  held  on  "wait- 
ing orders"  were  drowsy,  owing  to  inaction. 
A  messenger  entered  from  Police  Headquar- 
ters with  a  note.  It  was  before  the  days  of  the 
telephone;  a  printing  telegraph  that  ought  to 
have  served  was  out  of  order.  When  the 
Night  City  Editor  opened  the  envelope,  he 
became  a  mitrailleuse  in  action.  A  big  news 
story  in  sight!  A  glance  at  the  clock;  the 
hour  is  11!  He  calls  his  "star"  reporter. 
James  Connelly,  and  says: 

"John  Hawkins.  Wall  street  banker,  has 
been  murdered  in  his  Fifth  avenue  home, 
near  Tenth  street.  Body  found  in  parlor  by 
his  nephew  and  his  daughter  on  their  return 
from  theatre.  Now,  Connelly,  take  two  men 
with  you;  hire  a  double  team  and  get  the 
story!  Kase  has  left  Headquarters  and  he'll 
meet  you  at  the  house.  This  murder  is  worth 
every  line  we  can  get  ready  for  first  edition 
by  2.45,  and  we  will  make  as  many  editions 
thereafter  as  necessary." 

"Here,  Mr.  Johnson  and  Mr.  Chambers, 
you  will  as>i>t  Mr.  Connelly:  absolutely  under 
his  orders.  Connelly,  I  hold  you  responsible 
for  the  "story'." 

Then  and  there  the  learner  gets  his  first 
experience  in  a  really  important  case,  here 
narrated  with  slight  changes  in  the  names  for 
personal   reasons.      He  feels   the   responsibility 


reposed  in  him:  he  comprehends  that  the  sole 
feature  of  the  morrow's  paper  will  be  this  sen- 
sational crime  right  here  in  New  York.  All 
happenings  in  other  parts  of  the  world  become 
insignificant,  owing  to  the  prominence  of  the 
victim  and  the  mystery  of  his  death! 

By  this  time  the  three  men  are  in  the  car- 
riage which  an  office  boy  has  secured.  The 
horses  are  headed  up  Broadway,  then  a  de- 
scried thoroughfare.  literally  on  a  run.  Con- 
nelly plans  his  campaign.  Mr.  Johnson  will 
be  dropped  at  the  New  York  Hotel  to  secure 
another  cat)  for  his  own  use.  Connelly  keeps 
the  novice  with  him,  for  "leg  work." 

"Kase  will  have  a  diagram  of  the  Moor  on 
which  the  murder  was  done."  begins  Connelly, 
authoritatively.  "We  must  trace  Hawkins's 
movements,  from  the  time  he  left  his  office  this 
afternoon  to  the  moment  of  his  death.  His 
clubs  must  be  visited.  If  robbery  has  oc- 
curred, we  have  a  motive:  if  no  theft,  we 
must  seek  a  motive.  It  will  be  your  duty, 
Mr.  Johnson,  to  bring  the  banker  up-town; 
you  must  secure  every  detail  of  the  trip,  when 
he  started,  where  he  stopped  and  at  what  club 
he  dined.  He  is  a  widower  and  usually  dines 
at  the  Union  Club.  Call  on  his  partner. 
Radish,  at  !)  Fast  Eleventh  street,  'round  the 
corner  from  Hawkins's  house.  He  may  know 
with  whom  the  deceased  man  started  up-town: 
If  so,  find  that  man !  Then  hurry  to  the  office 
and  write  every  line  possible.  Here  we  are  al 
the  scene  of  the  murder, — twenty  minutes 
after  eleven!" 

Kase  is  awaiting  us;  he  has  made  and  sent 
to  the  office  a  floor  plan,  which  will  lie  con- 
structed of  labor-saving  rules.  From  the  cap- 
tain of  the  precinct,  on  the  ground,  the  story 
of  the  crime  is  learned.  Additional  details  are 
few.  except  that  the  house  is  in  perfect  order, 
not  an  article  missing,  and  that  the  killing  was 
done  with  a  piece  of  lead-pipe,  left  by  a 
plumber  only  two  days  previously  in  a  corner 
of  the  hall.  Therefore,  this  is  not  a  premedi- 
tated ciimc  but  one  of  necessity,  owing  to  dis- 
covery; or  of  sudden  impulse,  suggested  by 
sighl  of  the  deadly  bludgeon.  This  presup- 
poses that  the  blows  were  struck  in  the  light! 
Nobody  knows,  as  yet. 

"ll  is  the  crime  of  an  amateur!"  comments 
Connelly,   after  he   has  examined   the   body, 


32 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


verified  the  identity  of  the  victim  and  ascer- 
tained that  the  blow  was  struck  from  behind, 
crushing  the  skull. 

'The  man  fell  without  a  cry!"  declares  the 
Coroner's  physician.  'The  body  was  still 
warm,  when  found."  he  adds. 

When  the  nephew  and  daughter  came  home, 
the  front  door  was  '"on  the  latch."  that  is, 
unlocked,  and  the  light  in  the  hall  had  been 
turned  off.  Not  until  the  gas  was  relighted 
was  die  body  seen  in  the  drawing-room.  This 
from  the  nephew:  the  daughter  is  hysterical 
and  unable  to  be  interviewed. 

"At  what  theatre  was  young  George  Haw- 
kins ?"  asks  Connelly. 

'The  Union  Square,"  is  the  reply  of  Kase, 
who  has  seen  the  nephew. 

"What  were  the  old  man's  clubs?"  Con- 
nelly asks  Kase. 

"The  Union  and  Union  League,  1  am  in- 
formed by  the  nephew." 

"Good!"  commented  Connelly,  which 
meant  that  he  had  instructed  Johnson  cor- 
rectly. Then  turning  to  Kase,  he  grave  final 
instructions  to  him  in  this  wise:  "Go  into  the 
house,  get  a  complete  talk  with  the  nephew. 
Ask  particularly  between  what  acts  of  the 
play  he  left  the  theatre.  Then  jump  into  a 
cab  and  get  to  the  office." 

"Now,  youngster,"  he  said  to  me,  "get  into 
my  carriage.  Go  first  to  the  Union  Square 
theatre:  rouse  the  watchman  by  ringing  the 
bell  at  the  stage  entrance  on  Fourth  avenue. 
Ascertain  precisely  when  the  curtain  fell  at 
the  end  of  each  act,  and  the  length  of  each 
intermission.  Look  over  the  crowd  in  the 
hotel  at  the  Broadway  corner,  where  you'll 
find  some  member  of  the  Union  Square  com- 
pany. Ask  if  anybody  saw  young  Hawkins 
in  the  playhouse,  or  saw  him  leave  it!  Re- 
member, nothing  that  serves  to  corroborate 
or  to  discredit    George      Hawkins's  statement 


T 


len. 


drive    to 


is    too    trivial    to    mention, 
the  office." 

Connelly  then  re-enters  the  house  of  the 
crime.  Coroner  has  not  arrived;  body  lies 
where  discovered.  The  reporter  has  already 
identified  the  lace.  He  begins  a  search  of  the 
Moor.  Carpet  is  moquette  of  dull  brownish 
.shade.     With  his  hands.  Connelly  feels  every 


inch  of  the  floor  covering.  Ah!  inside  the 
sliding-doors,  in  the  dining-room,  is  a  damp 
spot!  Blood!  The  body  was  moved  after 
death!  Why.'  Obviously,  so  that  it  may  be 
seen  by  the  first  person  to  enter  the  front  door. 
Would  a  murderer,  fearing  interruption,  do 
so  foolhardy  an  act  ?  Isn't  it  rather  the  act 
of  a  person  who  knew  members  of  the  family 
to  be  absent  and  wanted  the  crime  discovered  ? 
And.  where  is  the  banker's  hat  ?  The  butler 
points  to  it.  hanging  in  the  hall.  In  a  moment 
Connelly  knows  that  in  addition  to  the  body 
being  moved  from  the  dining-room  to  the 
drawing  salon  the  banker's  hat  has  been  hune 
upon  the  rack  after  the  crime.  Its  binding 
upon  one  side  is  red  with  blood:  it  has  rolled 
across  an  ensanguined  spot!  Yes.  and  an- 
other discovery:  the  lock  of  the  front  door 
has  been  "thrown  off"  by  bloody  fingers! 
Why  should  this  murderer  wish  to  leave  the 
door  unlocked  unless  to  create  the  theory  that 
a  night  prowler,  a  human  vulture  without 
home  or  purpose,  had  wandered  into  the 
banker's  house,  been  surprised  and  had  com- 
mitted murder  to  escape? 

Mr.  Connelly  keeps  his  own  counsel:  he 
has  discovered  all  these  mysteries  in  eleven 
precious  minutes.  He  is  working  against 
time.  He  is  not  a  "detective"  but  a  news 
gatherer! 

Mr.  Kase  reappears  from  upstairs  with 
notes  of  an  interview  with  George  Hawkins. 
nephew.  The  statement  is  full,  clear  and  ex- 
plicit. The  young  man  was  at  the  Union 
Square  theatre  to  see  Charley  Thome's  latest 
play,  accompanied  by  his  cousin.  Miss  Haw- 
kins, daughter  of  the  deceased  banker.  Be- 
tween the  second  and  third  acts,  he  had  gone 
around  the  corner  of  Broadway  to  'The 
Shakespeare"  for  a  drink,  and  while  there 
had  spoken  to  Henry  James,  Barry  Montres- 
sor,  Sam.  ( 'aruthers 

"Caruthers  is  'in  the  box'  at  Wallaek's 
theatre  and  lives  at  the  big  red  brick  hotel, 
the  New  York.  Stop  there  on  your  way  down. 
If  you  don't  find  him  in  the  bar-room,  go 
right  up  to  his  room  and  rout  him  out.  It'll 
be  all  right.  Ask  him  what  young  Hawkins 
said  to  him  when  they  met  in  'The  Shakes- 
peare." but  don't  give  him  a  hint  about  this 
crime." 


THE    BOOK   of  XFW    YORK 


33 


Indications  point  to  the  nephew  as  the  mur- 
derer! Connelly  thinks  so,  and  when  he 
reaches  the  office  at  1.30  o'clock  (having 
written  1,500  words  in  the  library  of  the  dead 
man  until  a  reporter  arrived  to  relieve  him), 
he  has  facts  sufficient  to  hint  at  that  belief; 
lint  he  dodges  the  libel  law  by  defending  the 
accused  in  an  artful  way.  lie  feels  safe,  for 
these  reasons : 

1. — What  Chambers  learned:  At  the  thea- 
tre: That  the  second  act  of  the  play  ended  at 
9.40:  the  interval  was  eighteen  minutes,  ow- 
ing  to  an  elaborate  boxed-in  scene  that  had 
to  be  set.  Time.  !).4<)  to  9.58!  Had  met  actor 
Leonard,  in  the  cast,  who  assured  the  reporter 
that  he  knew  young  Hawkins  and  had  dis- 
tinctly seen  him  "in  front."'  Fortunately, 
Leonard  had  stopped  Robert  Horn,  ticket- 
taker  at  the  Union  Square  theatre,  who  knows 
Hawkins  and  says  he  went  out  at  the  end  of 
the  second  act  hut  did  not  return  until  middle 
of  the  third  act,  being  absent  fully  forty-five 
minutes!     Positively  cannot  be  mistaken. 

2. — What  Johnson  learned:  That  banker 
Hawkins  had  dined  and  passed  the  evening 
at  the  Union  Club.  Fifth  avenue  and  Twenty- 
first  street.  He  had  left  his  bank  at  4  o'clock, 
walked  as  far  north  on  Broadway  as  the 
Astor  House  with  his  partner.  Radish.  There 
they  had  a  pint  of  champagne,  because  Haw- 
kins appeared  greatly  worried.  No:  couldn't 
have  been  about  business.  Radish  thinks  it 
concerned  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  to 
her  cousin.  George,  of  whose  habits  the  old 
man  did  not  approve.  Radish  returned  to 
Wall  street,  because  he  had  forgotten  to  lock 
up  a  bundle  of  bonds  left  in  his  desk,  first 
seeing  Hawkins  enter  a  cab  for  his  club. 
There  he  dined,  played  a  few  rubbers  of  whist 
until 

"Now.  be  explicit!"  interrupted  Connelly, 
driving  his  pencil  and  listening  meanwhile. 

Well,  the  doorman  of  the  Union  remembers 
that  old  man  Hawkins  passed  out  as  the  clock 
chimed  half-past  nine.  How  does  he  fi\  the 
tinier  Because  his  relief  was  due  at  !).  hadn't 
arrived  and  he  was.  literally,  watching  the 
clock.  His  relief  didn't  conic  at  all.  so  still 
on  duty.  Much  more  important  was  a  state- 
ment by  John  Brandon,  fellow  --clubman,  who 
encountered  the  deceased  stumbling  along  the 


western  pavement  of  the  avenue,  bound  south- 
ward. He  was  in  a  preoccupied  manner; 
didn't  speak  to  Brandon.  This  was  the  last 
sight  of  Hawkins  alive! 

"Going  home  to  be  killed!"  commented 
Connelly.      "Actually  seeking    Fate!" 

.'?. — What  Kase  learned:  That  Caruthers 
remembered  George  Hawkins  entering  "The 
Shakespeare"  saloon.  His  manner  was  hur- 
ried. First  glancing  'round  the  place,  as  if 
looking  for  a  clock  but  not  finding  one,  had 
drawn  his  watch  and  said:  "Why,  it's  a  quar- 
ter to  ten!  Hello,  Sam;  come  take  some- 
thing." When  Caruthers  declined.  Hawkins 
appeared  to  have  forgotten  about  the  drink 
and  left  abruptly.  He  had  not  said  he  was 
at  the  theatre;  but  looked  warm  and  excited. 
A  few  moments  later.  Caruthers  had  occasion 
to  glance  at  his  own  watch  and  found  the  real 
time  to  be  half-past  ten  instead  of  a  quarter 
to  that  hour.  Caruthers  had  not  returned  to 
the  box-office  that  night,  but  left  his  assistant 
in  charge  after  "counting  out." 

Star-reporter  Connelly  has  heard  the 
nephew's  statement  from  Kase  and  knows 
that  the  banker's  daughter  is  prostrated,— 
either  with  grief  or  by  a  suspicion  of  the  iden- 
tity of  the  murderer.  He  lias  a  mental  pic- 
ture of  the  interior  of  the  Fifth  avenue  man- 
sion and  has  before  him  a  proof  of  the  dia- 
gram showing  the  arrangement  of  the  rooms 
and  the  two  places  in  which  the  body  of  the 
dead  man  lav.  The  Index  bureau  has  done 
its  part  and  re-writers  have  supplied  two  col- 
umns of  an  obituary,  and  a  catalogue  of  the 
corporations  with  which  the  dead  banker  was 
associated.  The  eight  and  a  quarter  column 
account  of  the  crime  comes  together  into  one 
harmonious  whole,  as  if  written  by  a  single 
hand : 

Statemenl  "I  crime;  who  victim  is;  commercial  gravity  of  bis 
sudden  death.    ><  'opj  reader,  |  col.  I 

Narrative  •>!  crime's  discovery,  in  words  of  Hawkins,  Jr.  (Kase, 
1  col.) 

Description  of  interior  of  house,  l"  accompany  diagram.  Kase, 
]  col.) 

Exploration  "I  parlor-floor;  discoveries,  deductions.  (Connelly, 
I J  cols.) 

How  Hawkins  came  up-town,  omitting  Radish's  reference  to 
troubled  mind.     (Johnson,  ,;  col.) 

Ai  Union  Club;  who  saw  him  and  precise  momenl  of  leaving. 
i  Johnson,  ]■  col.) 

Lasl  sighl  of  deceased  bj  Brandon.     (Johnson,  ',  col.) 

Whal  probablj  occurred  in  house,  based  "ii  theories  "i  detectives 


34 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


and  Connelly's  own  discoveries.     Could  assassin  have  entered  at 
request  of  victim?    (Connelly,  \  col.) 

Young  Hawkins  at  theatre,  statements  of  people  who  saw  him. 
(Connelly,  \  col 

Here   Radish  statement   about   worry  and  engagement  of  young 
people.     << ' Ilv.   ,:  col.  I 

History    of    Hawkins's    career    and    vast    enterprises.     (Index   and 

oilier.    2    cols.) 

Famous  murder  rases  of  the  past.     (Index,   '  col.) 

Thus  the  paper  went  to  press  at  half-pasl 
two  with  a  nine-column  account  of  the  mur- 
der (including  the  head),  written  and  com- 
piled by  seven  artisans,  no  breaks,  no  con- 
fusion. 

In  a  second  edition,  the  arrest  of  the  nephew 
by  Superintendent  Kelso  was  announced; 
heading  and  opening  paragraph  being  changed 
to  chronicle  the  very  startling  fact.  Young 
Hawkins  had  strolled  over  to  Fifth  avenue, 
during    absence   from    the  theatre,   had   acci- 


dentally  encountered  his  uncle,  and  had  been 
asked  to  walk  the  four  short  blocks  with  his 
prospective  father-in-law.  Entering,  at  the 
elder  man's  request,  George  had  seen  the 
bludgeon  and  was  seized  with  an  uncontrol- 
lable impulse  to  kill  the  old  man  and  thus 
silence  opposition  to  the  marriage.  After  the 
blow,  he  dragged  the  body  where  it  would  be 
seen,  hurried  back  to  the  theatre,  stopping  at 
'The  Shakespeare"  to  create  an  alibi, — the 
act  that  first  directed  suspicion  toward  him. 

I  had  been  entrusted  with  little,  because  of 
inexperience;  but  I  had  learned  much  that 
night.  Mr.  Connelly  said  a  few  encouraging 
words  as  he  rapidly  ran  over  the  wet  proofs. 
Then  he  put  on  his  coat  and  hat,  lit  a  cigar 
and   bade  us  "Good  morning!" 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    V()I{K 


.'J;j 


CHAPTER   III 


BUSIEST    YEAB    OF    MY    LIFE 


jX  MANY  respects,  the  year 
1872  was  the  most  active  1 
have  known:  it  assuredly  sup- 
plied more  varied  experiences 
than  any  other.  A  severe  cold, 
contracted  during-  the  winter, 
had  left  me,  in  the  Spring,  with 
symptoms  of  pulmonary  trouble:  physicians 
told  me  a  Summer  in  the  woods,  close  to 
Nature,  was  imperative.  While  at  Washing- 
ton, in  January,  I  had  examined  all  records 
of  research  at  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi, 
therefore  I  decided  to  spend  my  outing  upon 
the  great  river.  I  ordered  a  Baden-Powell 
canoe  from  Waters,  of  Troy,  and  set  out  for 
Minnesota,  in  May.  That  long  voyage,  by 
canoe  and  steamer,  from  Elk  lake  to  South 
West  Pass,  is  recorded  in  a  large  volume.* 
At  Saint  Louis,  I  was  introduced  to  Joseph 
Pulitzer  by  a  card  from  Carl  Schurz.  This 
young  man.  afterwards  the  pioneer  of  a  dis- 
tinctive school  of  American  journalism  and 
whose  Managing  Editor  in  New  York  1  was 
afterwards  to  become,  was  then  23  years  old 
and  city  editor  of  the  Westliche  Post,  a  Ger- 
man newspaper. 

On  my  return  to  New  York,  in  August.  1 
was  asked  to  undertake  the  hazardous  task  of 
exploring  a  private  mad-house.  1  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  risks  entailed;  but.  securing  admis- 
sion to  Bloomingdale  asylum,  I  remained  there 
a  fortnight.  My  personal  counsel  was  John 
D.  Townsend.  a  faithful  friend,  who  procured 
my  release  on  habeas  corpus.  This  experience, 
also,  has  been  fully  recounted  in  "A  Mad 
World  and  Its  Inhabitants."  r  ll  was  my  last 
notable  work  for  the  Tribune;  hut  because  it 
subsequently  brought  to  me  an  offer  from  Mr. 
Bennett,  of  the  Herald,  a  promised  reward 
never  was  paid  to  me,  and  my  letter  of  resig- 
nation was  not  accepted  because   I    was  going 

"The  Mississippi  and  Its  Wonderful  Valley,"  <i.  I'.  Putnam's 

~-Mii-,  New  York  .-Hid  London.  11110. 


to  another  newspaper.  The  work  of  rescue 
(I  secured  the  release  of  twelve  sane  patients  i 
received  the  commendation  of  Charles  Reade, 
the  English  novelist.  His  "Very  Hard  Cash" 
had  for  leading  motif  the  unlawful  detention 
of  its  hero  in  a  private  asylum  for  the  insane. 
During  a  subsequent  visit  to  London  I  was 
invited  to  the  Reade  home  at  Kniffhtsbridffe, 
with  its  rear  on  Rotten  Row,  Hyde  Lark.  The 
breakfasts  and  luncheons  were  very  enjoyable. 
Mr.  Reade  hated  many  of  the  features  of  mod- 
ern life.  He  spoke  with  sorrow  of  his  failure 
to  gain  admission  to  a  certain  club,  although 
Collins  had  proposed  him  and  Dickens  had 
seconded  his  nomination.  Gas  was  not  used 
at  that  social  organization!  He  added,  with 
a  sigh:  "1  do  like  to  read  by  a  good  sperm 
candle.'*  He  was  a  terrific  tea  drinker.  Mrs. 
Seymour,  who  always  poured  tea.  was  the 
charm  of  that  house.  The  platonic  relation 
of  those  two  people  never  was  questioned  by 
their  friends.  The  tact  of  this  handsome, 
prematurely  white-haired  woman  was  delight- 
ful. During  one  of  my  visits.  Mr.  Reade 
showed  to  me  the  ingenious  methods  by  which 
he  "'evolved"  or  composed  his  plots  by  shift- 
ing a  series  of  large  cards  upon  which  were 
written  catch  words  or  brief  scenes  and  dia- 
logue. 

I  made  a  tour  through  former  New  England 
whaling  ports  that  Fall,  but  was  fold,  "in 
mournful  numbers."  that  flic  romance  of 
whaling  had  come  to  an  end.  Reference  was 
not  had  to  the  private  schools  in  which  the 
birch  is  still  used  but  to  the  time-honored 
search    for   whale   oil.       The   leviathans   of   the 

t  "A  .Mad  World  and  Its  Inhabitants,"  Sampson  Low.  Marston, 
Searl  &  Rivington,  London,  ts'IO;  I).  Appleton  &  •  o.,  New  York, 
is;:. 

A  month  after  the  publication  of  my  articles,  I  received  the  fol- 
lowing letter:  "Albert  Terrace,  Knightsbridge,  London.  Dear  Sir: 
Your's  i-  the  way  to  work.    A  greal  battle  is  not  to  be  won  without 

self  sacrifice.     Accept  a  tribute  of  respect  fr a  brother  writer  in- 

terested  in  the  same  good  cause,  and  may  Heaven  prosper  your 
efforts.    1  am.  sir,  Your  very  faithful  servant,  Charles  fli  w»  ." 


36 


THE    HOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


(lc<'|)  have  been  driven  out  of  business  as 
articles  of  commerce,  by  the  petroleum  dis- 
coveries of  the  past  fifty  years.  "Oil  that 
will  burn  in  lamps"  had  been  found  deep 
down  in  the  bosom  of  Mother  Earth  and  a 
few  men  got  eon t nil  of  it. 

At  Xew  Bedford  and  in  other  harbors  of 
New  England,  one  saw  old  whaling  ships  of 
the  prosperous  days  of  America's  supremacy 
upon  the  sea.  going  to  rot,  because  whale  oil 
had  become  a  thing  of  the  past.  Electricity 
has  since  contributed  its  part  to  the  relief 
from  persecution  that  the  whale  had  suffered 
from  the  earliest  days  in  which  men  went  to 
sea  in  ships.  However  grateful  this  change  to 
the  largest  of  aquatic  mammals,  a  splendid 
and  romantic  industry  that  gave  vigor  and 
romance  to  such  polls  as  Gloucester,  Salem 
and  Xew  Bedford  has  ceased  to  exist. 

Naturally,  most  of  us  who  lament  destruc- 
tion of  life  of  any  kind  are  with  the  whale! 
Such  is  the  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  writer. 
Much  as  he  may  deplore  the  rise  of  a  mon- 
opoly that  makes  the  need  for  whale  oil  in- 
significant, and,  as  a  consequence,  the  search 
for  it  hardly  necessary,  there  is  a  bond  of 
sympathy  between  any  man  who  has  to 
struggle  for  the  right  of  existence  and  the 
whale, — a  creature  that  only  wants  to  be  let 
alone  in  harmless  pursuit  of  happiness  and 
subsistence. 

We  are  confidently  assured  that  the  days  of 
whale  hunting  are  gone!  Are  we  not  to  have 
any  more  of  those  marvelous  tales  of  the  sea. 
in  which  the  catching  of  whales  has  played 
so  large  a  part  ?  Heaven  forbid  that  this  new 
inhibition  should  be  placed  upon  the  already 
narrowing  horizon  of  earthly  joys!  Long  ago 
the  buccaneer  of  fiction  was  taken  from  us. 
Then  came  "Bmffalo  Bill"  and  ravished  us  of 
the  bison  of  the  plains  and  of  the  Indian,  wait- 
ing for  an  opportunity  to  die  to  make  a  good 
story.     Now.  alas,  we  are  to  lose  the  whale! 

The  memorable  local  incident  of  the  Novem- 
ber election  of  that  year  was  witnessing  the 
final  appearance  of  William  M.  Tweed  before 
a  political  assembly.  A  stand  had  been  erected 
in  the  small  triangular  plaza  at  East  Broadway 
and  ('anal  street.  The  Shanley  Association 
occupied  a  building  facing  the  platform  on 
the    first-named    thoroughfare.      Its    windows 


were  aglow 


with  light  and  its  roof  sprouted 
like  a  portuhtca  garden,  with  rockets  and  balls 
of  colored  fires.  I  had  a  seat  on  the  platform 
with  half  a  dozen  other  reporters.  There  was 
a  large  gathering,  made  up  of  the  previously 
cowed  ami  tractable  population  of  the  locality. 
That  night,  however,  there  were  mutterings 
among  that  standing  audience  that  ought  to 
have  been  ominous  of  trouble.  But  had  not 
'The  Great  Boss"  asked,  only  a  (c\v  weeks 
earlier,  "What  are  von  going  to  do  about  it?" 
—meaning  the  stealing  of  the  city's  money. 

The  presiding  officer,  a  local  tool  of  the 
King,  spoke  a  few  moments  and  then  intro- 
duced "the  captain  of  us  all."  Tweed  came 
forward  from  the  back  of  the  stage  and  hap- 
pened to  stand  on  my  side  of  the  platform. 
not  one  foot  away.  There  was  some  cheering. 
1  mt  it  was  mostly  from  the  stand  and  a  claque 
that  had  gathered  directly  in  front,  where  the 
Boss  could  see  its  members.  Tweed  had  a 
naturally  melodious  voice  and  handled  it  well. 
My  eyes  were  fastened  upon  that  flabby  face 
as  it  overtopped  me.  The  eves  sparkled  like 
a  serpent's  with  malice  and  indifference.  His 
first  act  was  to  place  the  thumb  and  fingers 
of  his  left  hand  upon  the  counter  before  him. 
His  right  hand  was  thrust  into  the  bosom  of 
his  vest.  He  straightened  himself  into  a  posi- 
tion of  self-assumed  dignity,  smiled  again. 
bowed  to  thi'  presiding  officer  and  began: 

''My  Fellow  Citizens,  I  am  proud  to  be  here 
to-night  and  to  see  that  the  outburst  of  calumny 
sweeping  over  this  city  has  not  caused  you  to 
lose  confidence  in  your  real  friends.  I  am  a 
proud  man  to  know  that  you  still  believe  in 
my  integrity 

From  the  crowd  came  hisses  and  cat  calls. 
A  moment  later,  a  burly  chap,  not  ten  feet 
from  the  platform,  shouted:  "Jail  for  you, 
old  thief!"  He  then  drew  from  his  blouse  a 
cabbage  and  hurled  it  at  the  speaker,  missing 
him.  Tweed  actually  smiled.  Raising  his 
light  arm  with  the  hand  open,  a  favorite  ges- 
ture, Tweed  good-humoredly  said:  "Don't 
be  rude,  my  friend.  If  you're  in  need  of  a 
job,  I'll  see  you  get  one." 

At  that  moment,  somebody  threw  a  potato 
that  struck  Tweed  squarely  on  the  chest  and 
burst,  pieces  of  the  vegetable  falling  upon  the 
reporters'    table.      The    "Boss"    was    of   such 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


:;? 


enormous  hulk  that  he  was  not  staggered;  hut 
lie  lost  his  temper  and  shouted: 

■■'There  are  blackguards  among  you,  ene- 
mies of  the  honest  and  upright  administration 
that  now  rules  this  city 

These  were  the  last  words  "■Ross"  Tweed 
ever  uttered  in  public,  until  he  rose  to  plead 
to  the  indictment  framed  by  Samuel  J.  Tilden 
and  Charles  O'Conor  charging  him  with  com- 
mon, or  uncommon,  thieving.  Quicker  than 
it  can  be  written,  garbage,  refuse,  stones, 
sticks  and  cans  were  pouring  upon  that  plat- 
form. Lanterns  were  broken  and  the  place 
was  in  darkness.  Swearing  like  a  baffled 
pirate  Rill  Tweed  was  helped  down  the  steps. 
He  had  a  cab  waiting  at  the  nearest  corner  in 
Canal  street,  hut  the  mob  followed  him,  jeer- 
ing and  insulting  him.  When  the  big  man 
tried  to  get  into  the  vehicle,  the  crowd  attacked 
it  and  broke  everything  that  was  perishable.  A 
trace  was  cut.  Tweed  got  out,  and  was  hur- 
ried across  the  street  by  a  policeman.  He  took 
refuge  in  a  private  house.  A  platoon  of  police 
arrived  and  formed  in  front  of  the  discredited 
"boss's"  refuge.  It  was  easy  to  see  that  the 
policemen  had  no  sympathy  with  the  man, 
but  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  of  that 
posse,  Tweed  would  have  been  killed  that 
night  by  men  who  had  been  cheering  for  him 
when  the  campaign  began  a  week  before!  A 
remarkable  revulsion  of  sentiment  had  oc- 
curred. 

Within  five  minutes,  not  one  board  of  the 
stand  remained  in  place.  Urchins  were  carry- 
ing away  some  of  them  and  other  people,  less 
frugal,  formed  a  heap  of  the  debris  and  lighted 
a  bonfire!  It  was  a  far  more  savage  demon- 
stration than  I  had  witnessed  a  year  before  in 
the  square  behind  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard  when 
a  meeting  in  advocacy  of  the  removal  of  the 
naval  station  to  another  city  was  broken  up. 

Tweed  was  indicted  in  two  hundred  counts 
before  Christmas  and  in  January.  1873,  Ly- 
man Tremain  and  Wheeler  H.  Peckham 
brought  him  to  trial.  I  was  in  the  court  on 
many  occasions  under  special  orders  to  gel 
interviews  or  work  up  features  developed  by 
the  testimony.  Especially  was  I  present  (then 
serving  the  Herald)  when  Judge  Davis  closed 
his  charge,  and  1  had  every  opportunity  to 
observe  Tweed  after  the  jury  had  filed  out.     I  [e 


entertained  such  contempt  for  public  opinion 

that  he  did  not  appear  to  fear  disaster,  yet  he 
was  within  twenty-four  hours  of  the  end  of 
personal  liberty, —  if  I  except  the  brief  period 
of  his  flight  as  a  fugitive  from  justice!  A  re- 
markable fact  was  his  utter  lack  of  competent 
legal  advice!  The  offences  with  which  he  was 
charged  were  only  misdemeanors;  he  was  on 
moderate  Kail  and  after  the  jury  retired,  he 
could  have  crossed  over  to  New  Jersey  where 
he  would  have  been  safe  in  the  event  of  an 
adverse  verdict.  No  requisition  upon  the 
Governor  of  that  state  would  have  been  recog- 
nized for  the  offence  for  which  he  was  con- 
victed. Henry  L.  Clinton  afterwards  told  me 
that  Tweed  was  advised  to  do  this  very  thing, 
but  he  laughingly  retorted:  "  Don't  worry 
about  me;  I'm  all  right!"  I  have  been  as- 
sured by  a  man  close  to  Tweed  that  he  had 
paid  a  large  sum  to  "fix"  one  of  the  jurors. 
If  so,  some  scoundrel  cheated  Tweed  and  kept 
the  money.  Next  day.  I  saw-  the  jury  return 
and  heard  the  verdict:  "Guilty!"  Tweed 
was  present.  He  turned  ghastly  pale,  from 
astonishment  rather  than  fright.  He  was  a 
convict  and  a  prisoner!  A  man  who  for  years 
had  wielded  more  absolute  power  than  half 
the  monarchs  of  Europe  collapsed  into  a  vul- 
gar crook!  I  watched  particularly  to  see  who 
would  approach  to  condole  with  him.  Harry 
Genet  was  the  only  one;  and  although  mat- 
ters went  very  harshly  with  Genet,  when  he 
was  subsequently  tried  and  convicted.  I  al- 
ways harbored  a  kind  thought  of  what  was  a1 
the  time  a  gallant,  as  well  as  courageous,  act. 
It  was  much  like  Ruy  Lopez  whispering  the 
solution  of  a  difficult  chess  problem  to  Don 
Guzman,  Prince  of  Caltrava,  as  the  latter  was 
mounting  the  scaffold ! 

Assistant  District  Attorney  Allen  had  sug- 
gested  to  his  colleagues  of  the  prosecution  the 
possibility  of  a  cumulative  sentence,  and  Judge 
Davis,  taking  the  Tichborne  case  as  a  prece- 
dent, and  after  hearing  elaborate  argument, 
ruled  that  the  court  had  power  to  inflict  such 
punishment.  Tweed  was  convicted  on  two 
hundred  and  four  counts  for  '"neglect  of  duty, 
as  a  member  of  the  Hoard  of  Audit,  in  respect 
to  claim-,  against  the  county  of  New  York." 
Judge  Davis  sentenced  Tweed  to  one  year's 
imprisonment,  successively,  on  each  of  twelve 


38 


THE   BOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


counts.  ;i  fine  of  $250,  on  each  in  addition,  and 
upon  other  counts  to  additional  fines  bringing 
the  total  to  $12,500.  It  was  a  staggering  blow! 
After  Tweed   had   escaped,   been   recaptured 

and  had  served  a  year  at  BlackwelPs  Island 
and  paid  his  first  fine  of  $250,  the  question  of 
the  legality  of  the  continuous  sentence  imposed 
by  Judge  Davis  was  attacked  by  lawyers  in 
Tweed's  interest.  A  habeas  corpus  was  set 
aside  by  the  Supreme  Court  at  General  Term. 
but  when  the  appeal  was  carried  to  the  high- 
est court  of  the  State  that  tribunal  (June, 
1875)  decided  unanimously  that  all  the  sen- 
tences, except  one  year's  imprisonment  and 
one  fine,  were  illegal.* 

This  brought  forth  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able letters  from  the  late  Charles  O'Conor  ever 
written  in  criticism  of  the  Court  of  Appeals. 
Only  four  years  ago,  a  President  of  the  United 
States  east  reflections  upon  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States;  but  had  he  known  of  or 
had  read  the  letter  of  O'Conor  to  Judge  Noah 
Davis,  dated  June  30,  1875,  he  would  have 
felt  at  liberty  to  go  as  far  as  he  liked  in  criti- 
cism. While  Tweed  was  on  BlackwelPs 
Island,  new  suits  charging  him  with  obtaining 
city  money  by  means  of  a  fraudulent  issue  of 
$6,000,000  Audit  Bonds  were  instituted  against 
him  and  on  his  discharge  after  the  Court  of 
Appeals'  decision,  he  was  immediately  re-ar- 
rested and  lodged  in  Ludlow  street  jail,  his 
bail  being  fixed  at  $3.(1(10.000.  On  Dec.  4, 
1875.  Tweed  left  the  jail  in  company  with 
three  of  the  Sheriff's  deputies,  drove  to  the 
house  his  family  occupied  (on  the  east  side  of 
Madison  avenue,  near  Sixtieth  street)  and 
dined  there.  After  Tweed  had  seated  the 
deputies,  he  excused  himself,  saying  he  wished 
to  talk  with  his  family.  After  the  dinner,  the 
officers  began  to  look  for  their  prisoner.  He 
was  gone!  The  escape  was  a  sensation!  After 
hiding  in  New  York  for  several  weeks,  Tweed 
went  to  Santiago  de  ( 'uha,  where  he  was  recog- 
nized and  threatened  with  blackmail.  Thence, 
he  slipped  away  on  a  sailing  vessel  to  Vigo, 
Spain,  where  the  authorities  were  watching 
for  him.  He  was  arrested  the  moment  he 
arrived  and  spent  several  weeks  in  the  Vigo 
fortress,  where  he  was  not  permitted  to  see 
anybody.     This  was  in  July,   1 S 7 ( ! . 

*  Readers  curious  to  look  up  this  opinion  will  find  il  in  (ill  New- 
York  Reports,  page  5.5!»,  Case  of  People  ex  rel.  Tweed  vs.  Liscomb. 


A  curious  story  exists  of  his  stay,  incom- 
municado, in  that  fort.  He  could  not  talk 
with  the  Spanish  prisoners,  because  of  his 
ignorance  of  their  language;  but  for  diversion, 
he  made  a  set  of  paper  dominos,  with  which 
he  played  games.  When  Tweed  was  returned 
to  this  country,  his  yellow-paper  dominos  were 
sent  to  the  Secret  Service  Bureau  of  the  United 
States  Treasury  for  decipherment,  a  theory 
being  that  they  were  a  code  by  which  he  com- 
municated with  his  former  colleagues  in  New 
York.  The  extradition  treaty  with  Spain  did 
not  cover  Tweed's  case;  but  General  Caleb 
dishing,  the  American  .Minister,  was  suffi- 
ciently potential  to  have  the  "Boss"  sent  back 
to  the  city  he  had  robbed.  He  died  in  Ludlow 
street  jail  on  April  12,  1878.  I  have  anticipated 
time  in  relation  to  Tweed,  because  I  wished  to 
dispose  of  him.  But.  arch  "grafter"  as  he 
was.  it  is  impossible  for  the  New  Yorker  of 
to-day  to  drive  along  the  Riverside,  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  famed  Cornice  road  that  skirts 
the  blue  Mediterranean  from  Marseilles  to 
Genoa,  and  not  to  remember  that  it  was 
Tweed's  idea!  He  did  more  for  the  embel- 
lishment of  Central  Park  as  we  know  it  to-day 
than  anybody  who  has  come  after  him.  The 
straightening  of  Broadway,  mentioned  earlier 
in  this  book,  was  another  claim  made  upon 
posterity.  His  misfortune,  from  a  "grafter's" 
viewpoint,  was  that  he  was  ignorant  of  a  sys- 
tem for  getting  the  money  of  other  people, 
utilized  two  decades  later  by  cleverer  men. 

One  Saturday  night  (Nov.  8,  1872),  as  we 
were  going  home,  a  large  fire  was  reported  in 
Boston,  but  not  until  the  following  day  did 
the  serious  character  of  the  conflagration  be- 
come apparent.  The  way  in  which  the  news 
was  handled  is  interesting  as  showing  the 
value  of  a  resourceful  man  like  City  Editor 
Shanks,  who  had  succeeded   Mr.   Moore. 

It  was  a  beautiful  Sunday  morning  when 
all  New  York  learned  that  Boston,  the  pride 
of  the  nation  and  the  cradle  of  American  lib- 
erty, was  in  flames.  Sunday  morning  journals 
of  the  metropolis  contained  reports  of  a  dis- 
astrous conflagration.  But  it  was  not  until 
church  time  of  this  charming  day — a  day  so 
beautiful  that  every  newspaper  man  then  in 
harness  remembers  it  well, — that  the  appalling 
character  of  the  calamity  wras  learned.     The 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW    YORK 


39 


fire  burned  all  of  that  Sunday.  Each  New 
York  journal  sent  its  best  correspondents  to 
the  crumbling  city.  Arriving,  they  found  the 
telegraph  service  utterly  disabled.  No  matter 
how  cleverly  they  described  the  ravages  of  the 
names,  their  despatches  could  not  be  sent. 

In  New  York,  anxiety  in  every  newspaper 
office  was  maddening.  Every  Managing  Edi- 
tor was  asking  himself,  "Who  will  have  the 
best  report  on  .Monday  morning?"  There  was 
no  disputing  the  universal  interest  in  the  dis- 
aster. Every  mercantile  firm  that  sold  goods 
to  Boston  was  vitally  interested,  and  the  in- 
surance companies  of  this  city  could  realize 
that  dividends  for  years  to  come  were  going 
up  in  flame  and  smoke. 

Besides,  a  deeply  rooted  sentimental  regard 
for  Boston  existed  in  every  household  of  the 
New  World.  Chicago  had  well-nigh  suffered 
obliteration  the  year  before.  Now  the  curse 
had  passed  to  Boston!  "Do  we  come  next?" 
thought  every  New  Yorker.  The  primal  idea 
was  that  a  city  sacred  to  the  American  heart 
was  doomed.  The  eastern  part  of  the  Conti- 
nent responded.  Fire  bells  were  rung  in  every 
town  between  Portland  and  Providence.  Spe- 
cial trains  carried  fire  engines  from  Albany 
and   Hartford. 

The  whole  country  awaited  news  of  Boston's 
fate.  Preachers  spoke  of  the  impending  blight 
in  their  Sunday  sermons:  Beecher,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  lamented  the  fate  of  the  doomed 
city.  People  stood  in  groups  on  the  streets  of 
every  American  town  solemnly  discussing  in 
whispers  an  impending  national  calamity. 
Must  they  give  up  the  old  State  House,  Fall- 
en i  I  Hall,  the  "old  South  Church,"  State  street. 
in  which  occurred  the  "massacre,"  Christ 
Church,  from  the  spire  of  which  glittered  the 
lantern  that  Paul  Revere  saw,  and,  seeing, 
"galloped  off  into  the  night  to  summon  Amer- 
ica.-" These  buildings  and  streets  were  not 
treasures  of  Boston  alone:  she  was  only  their 
custodian!  They  belonged  to  the  whole  coun- 
try. All  were  menaced  !  The  ground  on  which 
stood  the  birthplace  of  Franklin,  the  church 
of  Channmg,  the  famous  Roman  Catholic 
cathedral  had  already  been  swept  by  the 
flames. 

Who  could  do  justice  to  such  a  theme  in  a 
newspaper    article?       But,    conceding   every 


capacity  in  the  human  mind  to  describe  wliat 
he  saw,  who  could  gel  his  written  matter 
through  to  New  York  when  the  wires  were 
down?  Ah!  it  is  one  thing  to  gather  news 
and  another  to  get   it   printed ! 

From  a  commercial  viewpoint  the  informa- 
tion most  desired  was  a  list  of  the  business 
firms  destroyed.  To  get  that  seemed  utterly 
hopeless,  until  the  managing  editor  of  the 
Tribune  put  his  mind  to  the  problem.  He 
readily  solved  it.  By  nightfall  of  Sunday, 
the  limits  of  the  fire  had  been  accurately  as- 
certained to  lie  Summer,  Washington,  Milk, 
Broad  and  State  streets.  The  entire  city  staff, 
thirty  men  in  all.  were  summoned  and  sat  at 
their  desks.  Boston  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty-six  miles  away! 

A  large  map  lay  upon  the  managing-editor's 
desk.  With  a  red  pencil,  the  fire  area  was 
outlined.  A  list  of  the  streets  and  parts  of 
streets  destroyed  was  easily  prepared.  Two 
men  expert  in  the  use  of  a  city  directory  and 
acquainted  with  Boston  were  able  to  decide 
what  numbers  the  houses  bore  in  each  of  the 
destroyed  thoroughfares.  Every  one  of  my 
readers  who  has  had  occasion  to  consult  the 
street  index  at  the  back  of  our  New  York 
directory  will  comprehend  the  method. 

The  fire  was  confined  to  the  business  por- 
tion of  the  city,  therefore  the  harrow  inn-  scenes 
common  to  burning  tenements  or  dwellings, 
with  thrilling  rescues  of  women  and  children, 
were  not  present.  Loss  of  life  was  small  hut 
loss  of  property  was  enormous!  Every  New 
Yorker  who  did  business  with  Boston  was  in- 
terested in  pocket ! 

The  latest  Boston  business  directory  had 
been  obtained  at  an  express  office  by  the  rank 
bribery  of  a  night  watchman.  The  precious 
volume  was  torn  into  thirty  equal  sections 
and  apportioned  among  as  many  reporters. 
On  long  thoroughfares,  like  Washington  sheet. 
although  they  extended  far  beyond  the  fire 
limits,  it  was  easy  to  select  the  houses  in  the 
bumed  section.  But  the  really  artistic  work 
was  done  on  streets  burned  only  on  one  side; 
it  is  quite  easy  to  locale,  from  a  directory  and 
with  the  aid  of  a  map.  the  side  of  the  street  on 
which  are  the  odd  and  the  even  numbers. 
For  example,  only  one  side  of  Stale  street  was 
burned:    it   was  quite  easy  to  pick  out   from 


40 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW    YORK 


the  directory  the  names  of  the  banks,  insur- 
ance offices  and  lawyers  that  lined  the  burned 
side  of  that  thoroughfare. 

A  complete  list  of  streets  inside  the  fire-area 
was  set  ii|)  and  a  proof  slip  furnished  to  each 
man.     They  may  have  read  like  tins: 

Juniper  street,  from  No.  281  I"  342.     Both  ^i<l<>. 
Puritan  street,  even  numbers  only,  from  No.  si  to  126. 
State  street,  odd  numbers  only,  from  1!>  to  97. 
Devonshire  street,  <>dd  numbers,  353  to  071;  and  so  on. 

With  these  proof-slips  before  him,  each  man 
went  through  his  ten  leaves  of  the  directory 
and  selected  all  names  and  occupations  on  any 
of  the  prescribed  streets,  within  and  including 
the  numbers  set  down.  There  were  forty 
thoroughfares  more  or  less  injured.  Alert  re- 
porters placed  a  blue  cross  before  each  name 
as  they  detected  it  by  its  tell-tale  address. 
These  pages  went  direct  to  the  printers,  who 
set  only  the  names  that  had  the  Morgiana's 
cross  upon  them!  Then  the  sheets  were  re- 
turned to  the  reporters  who  marked  with  a 
red  cross  any  new  names  to  he  added  owing 
to  a.  spread  of  the  conflagration. 

Classification  by  trades  was  necessarily  al- 
phabetical, because  arranged  by  the  directory: 
ami  under  each  business  subdivision  the  list 
of  names  was  likewise  alphabetical,  therefore 
ready  of  access.  Excepting  in  cases  where 
firms  had  failed  or  moved  since  the  publica- 
tion of  the  directory,  there  were  no  errors! 
This  list  of  commercial  sufferers  as  prepared 
in  New  York  was  more  accurate  than  could 
have  been  compiled  in  Boston  amid  attendant 
excitement.  It  made  a  whole  page  of  valuable 
information.  It  was  a  Managing-Editor's 
nighl ! 

One  cold  night,  in  December,  1872,  I  en- 
countered Cesar  Celso  Mareno,  an  adven- 
turous Italian,  who  gave  to  me  the  first  ex- 
posure of  the  padroni  system  as  practiced  in 
New  York.  1  wrote  the  first  article  on  the 
subject  and  brought  the  matter  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Emigration  Commissioners.  For 
a  time,  the  importation  of  Italian  children  as 
musicians  and  flower  sellers  was  checked:  but 
those  were  the  days  of  the  "Do-Nothing  Presi- 
dents of  the  United  Stales"  and  the  infamous 
h-ufric  was  ere  long  resumed. 

.Vol  having  any  Napoleons  to  isolate,  the 
British  Government  recently  decided  to  with- 


draw the  detachment  of  troops  that  had  gar- 
risoned thi'  lonely,  desolate  island  of  St.  Helena 
for  nearly  a  century.  This  announcement  re- 
calls an  incident  of  the  period  with  which  I 
am  now   dealing: 

A  newspaper  associate,  MacKnight,  broke 
down  physically  from  overwork.  Physicians 
agreed  he  had  brain  fag  and  insomnia,  attend- 
ed by  other  disorders  that  are  supposed  to 
bridge  the  gulf  from  neurasthenia  to  violent 
mania.  Best  was  imperative!  He  must  culti- 
vate lassitude.  The  St.  Helena  consulship  was 
suggested,  and  General  Grant,  then  President, 
who  had  known  MacKnight's  father  during 
*'the  cru-el  war,"  appointed  him  to  the  post. 
MacKnight  came  to  me  for  congratulations  and 
received  them.  In  effect,  I  told  him  if  St. 
Helena  was  the  kind  of  a  place  he  was  seek- 
ing, it  was  just  the  sort  of  an  island  for  him. 
Ascension,  the  nearest  land,  was  TOO  miles 
distant.  It  was  1,200  miles  to  Africa,  by 
grapevine  telegraph,  and  1,800  to  Brazil  by 
the  most  direct  pilot-fish  route.  The  news- 
papers at  Nemguela,  South  Guinea,  were  not 
sensational.  A  ship  from  Pernambuco  might 
touch  once  a  year  with  a  few  newspapers, 
printed  in  bad  Portuguese.  He'd  find  a  real 
rest  cure  there. 

Four  years  later,  to  a  week.  I  was  City  Editor 
of  the  Herald.  One  afternoon  a  tall  figure  of 
a  man  darkened  the  door.  His  visage  was 
antagonistic — like  that  of  an  angry  husband 
of  a  soubrette  whose  name  had  not  been  men- 
tioned among  the  leading  characters  in  a  first 
night's  performance.  Had  I  ever  seen  him 
before?  1  didn't  like  his  appearance,  and 
was  about  to  tell  him  that  1  was  only  the 
office  boy,  occupying  the  city  editor's  chair 
while  that  person  was  at  luncheon.  Heaven 
be  praised,  it  was  Henry  MacKnight!  He  was 
back  and  looking  for  a  job!  He  was  "cured" 
of  desire  for  isolation.  But  he  had  returned, 
alive,  a  fact  that  appeared  to  astonish  him 
more  than  me. 

'Phe  unfortunate  Napoleon  had  lasted  at  St. 
Helena  almost  six  years  ( 1 S 1 .5  to  1821),  but 
MacKnight  "could  not  understand  how  the  old 
man  stood  it  so  long."  Four  years  and  six 
months  were  enough  for  any  reasonable  mor- 
tal— one  who  had  only  ten  or  a  dozen  mental 
troubles  to  wrestle  with.      Managing  editors 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


41 


who  reach  a  mental  stage  when  they  have  to 
sit  in  corners  of  darkened  rooms  for  hours 
daily,  cutting  paper  dolls,  might  find  St.  Hele- 
na's "silence  treatment"  salutary;  but  for  an 
ordinary  "star"  reporter,  such  as  lie  had  Keen 
classified,  four  and  a  half  revolutions  of  the 
earth  'round  the  sun  were  ample.  1  heard  a 
storv  of  exile,  compared  with  which  Alexander 
Selkirk's  marooning  on  Juan  Fernandez  (dis- 
guised by  Defoe  under  the  title  of  "Robinson 
Crusoe")  is  airy  persiflage.  Two  years'  pay 
had  keen  consumed  in  getting  himself  and  wife 
to  Jamestown.  MacKnight  didn't  sleep  any 
better,  although  the  silence  on  the  island  was 
of  a  sort  one  could  literally  feel.  He  soon 
longed  for  the  clank  of  a  street  car  or  the 
noise  of  a  morning  milk  cart  "rattling  o'er  the 
stony  streets."  lie  wanted  little  old  New  York 
as  child  never  wanted  a  mother.  That's  why 
he  returned. 

An  episode  associated  with  the  defeat  of  the 
Orton-Colfax  crowd,  who  tried  to  buy  the 
Tribune  after  Greeley's  death  and  to  oust 
Whitelaw  Reid,  is  a  dinner  given  by  the  tri- 
umphant managing  editor  at  Delmonico's  on 
the  night  of  December  28,  1872.  Although 
the  name  of  his  financial  backer  was  unknown 
at  the  time.  Jay  Gould  had  furnished  the 
money  to  buy  the  paper.  The  dinner  was  an 
interesting  affair.  The  two  Greeley  girls  were 
there.  Also,  William  Winter,  I.  N.  Ford,  J. 
B.  Bishop  and  Greeley's  brother-in-law,  Cleve- 
land. Kate  Field,  of  jolly  memory,  sat  near 
to  me  and  directly  opposite  was  John  Hay. 
"Jim  Bludsoe"  had  been  printed,  inconspicu- 
ously, on  an  inside  page  of  the  newspaper  to 
which  we  were  all  allied;  but  on  that  night 
Hay  recited  "The  Mystery  of  Gilgal,"  and  on 
a  recall  gave  "Little  Breeches."  1  recall, 
likewise,  Henry  F.  Keenan.  afterwards  the 
author  of  "The  Money  Makers,  a  Si>cial 
Problem,"  which  completely  estranged  him 
from  John  Hay,  because  the  latter  though!  an 
incident  therein   referred   to  the  death   of   his 


father-in-law,  Ainasa  Stone.  During  this 
period  of  Mr.  Hay's  editorial  work  on  the 
Tribune,  he  wrote  a  quarter  column  one  night 
that  made  talk  in  every  part  of  this  country. 
It  was  entitled  "  Did  We  Escape  a  Napoleon  ?" 
He  briefly  sketched  the  career  of  Col.  Ells- 
worth, shot  at  a  hotel  in  Alexandria  while 
removing  a  Confederate  flag.  Hay  described 
the  marvellous  popularity  and  personal  mag- 
netism of  that  young  New  Englander,  who 
came  to  New  York  a  stranger  and  raised  a 
regiment  of  Zouaves  in  three  weeks. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  pass  through  West 
Forty-fifth  street  between  Fifth  and  Sixth 
avenues,  without  having  strange  recollections 
awakened.  Horace  Greeley  was  buried  from 
a  narrow,  cream-colored  house  in  the  middle 
of  the  block,  on  the  north  side.  The  body  was 
taken  from  the  dwelling  of  Samuel  Sinclair, 
then  publisher  of  the  Tribune,  to  Dr.  Chapin's 
church,  at  the  lower  corner  of  the  avenue, 
where  a  jeweler's  shop  is  to-day.  At  the  serv- 
ice, Clara  Louise  Kellogg  sang  "I  Know  That 
My  Redeemer  Liveth." 

In  the  same  block  dwelt  George  Wilkes,  who 
more  narrowly  escaped  being  a  great  man  than 
any  one  of  his  New  York  contemporaries.  He 
also  had  a  Hue  bachelor's  apartment  in  Twenty- 
first  street,  three  doors  east  of  Broadway, 
where   I    used   to  visit   him. 

Forty-fifth  street  was  far  uptown.  New 
York  and  New  Haven  trains  were  drawn  by 
horses,  one  car  at  a  time,  along  Fourth  avenue, 
from  the  station  at  Twenty-seventh  street 
(where  until  recently  stood  the  Madison  Square 
Garden),  to  an  open  road  at  Forty-second 
street.  There  trains  were  made  up.  There 
wasn't  any  Madison  avenue  line.  John  Foley, 
of  gold-pen  fame,  organized  that  later.  Nearly 
all  the  country  between  Fiftieth  street  and 
Yorkville  was  open  land.  Not  all  streets  were 
opened;  where  they  were  graded  and  sewered, 
vast  holes  indicated  the  squares,  utilized  as 
skating  ponds  during  winter. 


4^2 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER   IV 


A    CHANGE    OF    HASH 


JHE  year  1873  bad  opened  au- 
spiciously for  inc.  An  offer 
from  the  Herald,  made  in  the 
midst  of  work  on  the  Bloom- 
ingdale  expose  and  condition- 
ally declined,  for  the  reason 
that  1  could  not  honorably 
leave  a  task  incompleted,  was  renewed.  It 
had  originally  come  from  Mr.  Bennett,  per- 
sonally, who  had  appreciated  my  position,  and 
upon  his  return  from  Europe  in  the  last  week 
of  January.  1873,  I  received  an  invitation, 
written  upon  one  of  his  cards,  to  call  upon 
him.  I  did  so  and  was  engaged.  Earlier  in 
this  narrative,  I  have  recounted  the  treatment 
received  from  my  original  employer  when  the 
announcement  was  made  to  him.  The  inci- 
dent was  not  of  importance  hut  my  young 
feelings  were  sorely  hurt. 

A  remarkable  man.  about  my  age.  joined 
the  Herald's  city  staff  from  the  Sun  the  same 
week.  Albert  Pulitzer.  He  was  a  handsome 
chap,  and  destined  to  create  a  wholly  new 
type  of  the  American  Sunday  newspapers,  in 
connection  with  the  Morning  .Journal.  We 
hail  often  met  on  similar  assignments  and  I 
always  found  him  "square";  he  never  be- 
came popular  with  other  Herald  reporters, 
however,  owing  to  an  air  of  mystery  given  to 
his  work.  lie  and  I  remained  friends  until 
his  death,  in  Vienna,  four  years  ago. 

My  first  out-of-town  assignment  was  a  pecu- 
liar one.  The  '"Credit  Mobilier"  scandal  at 
Washington  had  convulsed  the  country.  Mr. 
Oakes  Ames's  red  note-book  had  destroyed 
half  a  hundred  Congressional  characters. 
Hardly  had  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  as- 
sembled,  however,  when  two  prominent  mem- 
bers of  that  body  joined  in  an  uncalled-for  and 
disgraceful  attack  upon  tin'  editor  of  the 
Herald,  in  which  the  name  of  the  elder  Ben- 
nett, who  had  died  the  previous  Summer,  was 
joined.     The  Herald,  as  the  one  great  metro- 


politan journal  of  that  period,  had  many  ene- 
mies and  the  slanderous  remarks  were  sent 
far  and  wide  and  much  printed.  My  recollec- 
tion is  that  only  one  newspaper  in  New  York 
quoted  any  of  the  language.  Several  decent 
members  of  the  Pennsylvania  State  Senate. 
Col.  A.  K.  McClure  taking  the  initiative,  had 
the  language  expunged  from  the  records;  but 
the  publicity  elsewhere  justified  a  reprisal. 
One  morning  I  received  a  message  at  my 
boarding-house  from  Tom  Connery,  manag- 
ing editor,  directing  me  not  to  come  to  the 
office  but  to  meet  him  in  a  room  he  named  at 
the  Astor  House.  His  first  words  were:  "Are 
you  known  to  anybody  at  Ilarrisburg.-  town 
or  Legislature?"  I  assured  him  to  the  eon- 
trary.  Then  he  told  me  the  story,  gave  me 
the  names  of  the  two  offending  members  of 
the  Senate  and  said:  "Go  over  and  buy  those 
men;  and  a  few  others,  if  they  come  easy! 
I  leave  the  method  entirely  to  you,  but  get 
them.  You  can  go  as  far  as  $10.00(1  and  all 
necessa  ry  exj  >enses . ' ' 

Thus  was  a  bill  to  incorporate  the  "Con- 
sumers' Gas  Company  of  Pittsburg"  sprung 
ten  days  later  upon  a  guileless  Legislature. 
hungry  for  "graft."  I  went  to  a  friend  in 
Pine  street,  famous  for  organizing  companies; 
secured  the  text  of  a  charter,  had  some  excel- 
lent copies  engrossed  (substituting  the  name  I 
had  chosen  and  using  three  of  his  relatives 
who  lived  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl- 
vania anil  the  requisite  number  of  dummies 
(clerks)  in  his  office,  as  incorporators.  I  was 
on  the  list  under  the  name  of  "Arthur  Pur- 
cell."  When  all  was  ready  here,  1  went  to 
Harrisburg,  registered  at  the  Lochiel  House 
and  hunted  up  a  lobbyist.  He  managed  the 
matter  so  adroitly  that  I  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  men  "wanted"  in  four  days. 

Events  favored  me.  The  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road had  a  bill  before  the  Legislature  to  in- 
crease its  capital  stock  to  $100,000,000.    This 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


43 


was  regarded  as  a  lot  of  money  in  those  days, 
and  Thos.  A.  Scott,  who  was  "looking  after 
things"  himself,  was  inclined  to  be  liberal. 
After  losing  a  few  dollars  at  cards  with  my 
new  acquaintances, — not  because  they  "out- 
drew"  me  but  because  I  did  not  want  to  win, 
each  man  did  me  the  honor  to  call  at  my  room 
for  a  first  payment.  They  got  some  cash,  but 
I  was  waiting  for  the  moment  in  which  1  could 
give  to  them  checks!  The  lobbyist  must  have 
been  a  constant  spender,  because  he  was  "tap- 
ping me"  once  or  twice  daily.  A  member  of 
the  Committee  on  Corporations,  whom  I  didn't 
need,  was  brought  in.  I  thought  money  thrown 
away  on  him.  at  the  moment;  but  the  fellow 
finally  achieved  my  success  by  carrying  checks 
to  the  two  men  1  really  desired. 

I  had  casually  referred  to  a  very  sick  rela- 
tive at  a  sanitarium  in  Philadelphia,  and  when 
the  bill  was  ready  to  report.  1  received  a  tele- 
gram (a  copy  of  which  I  had  forwarded  to 
the  Herald  correspondent  in  the  Quaker  City) 
commanding  my  presence.  It  was  so  timed 
that  the  bank  in  which  "Arthur  Purcell"  kept 
his  account  was  closed.  (I  had  been  introduced 
at  the  bank  by  my  lobby-man.  who  was  per- 
sona grata.)  I  drew  two  checks  for  $500  each 
to  "my  two  coons"  and  one  for  $100  to 
the  order  of  the  committeeman.  1  hurried 
to  my  hotel.  I  had  hardly  begun  to 
pack  my  grip  when  Mr.  Committeeman 
entered.  I  pointed  to  the  open  telegram  on 
the  table  and  said  I  would  return  at  the  earli- 
est moment.  lie  was  satisfied.  Then  1  ap- 
peared to  recollect  the  checks.  I  told  him  I 
had  promised  his  friends  (all  had  been  together 
in  the  rooms  and  talked  frankly  about  what 
they  expected  For  supporting  the  bill)  their 
money  that  nighl  and  meant  to  keep  my  word. 
1  had  no  recourse  but  to  give  checks  to  them. 
1  hoped  to  l»e  back  before  the  following  Thurs- 
day, when  tin-  hill  would  he  reported,  at  which 
time,  if  our  friends  didn't  want  to  put  the 
checks  through,  I  would  take  them  up  for 
cash.  Next,  1  handed  to  him  his  check,  with 
which  he  appeared  satisfied. 

1  had  hired  a  Pittsburg  lawyer  to  come  on 
as  an  opponent  to  granting  a  charter  to  the 
"Consumers',"  and  his  presence  made  my  ob- 
jective men  "reedier  to  get  their  money  early, 
so  they  could   be  bought   also   by   my  "false- 


alarm"  attorney!  My  checks  reached  their 
respective  destinations.  The  supposititious  rel- 
ative grew  steadily  worse  for  live  days,  until 
I  was  notified  by  wire  that  my  checks  had 
been  cashed.  Suspicion  was  disarmed  at  the 
bank  by  a  fairy  tale  sent  by  mail  to  the  cashier 
about  a  very  costly  surgical  operation  being 
necessary  which  rendered  a  statement  of  the 
amount  of  my  cash  balance  imperatively  de- 
sirable. My  relative  "passed  away"  that 
same  afternoon  and  1  reached  Harrisburg  at 
midnight!  I  "sat  in"  at  a  club-room  over  a 
drug-store  and,  I  am  ashamed  to  admit,  won 
$250.  One  of  my  "friends"  was  there  but  he 
was  "bucking"  faro-bank:  1  didn't  get  any  of 
his  money.  Next  day  1  secured  the  cheeks 
and  disappeared. 

Everything  was  ready,  even  to  engraved  fac- 
.similes  of  the  checks;  hut  the  reason  that 
expose  was  not  made  is  another  and  a  separate 
story,  possessing  elements  of  pathos  and  hu- 
manity. Its  suppression  did  credit  to  a  gener- 
ally misunderstood  man.  The  cost  of  the 
escapade,  reduced  as  it  was  by  my  credit  of 
$250  won  at  poker,  amounted  to  $1,500.  The 
charter  for  the  "Consumers'  Gas  Company" 
never  emerged  from  committee,  but  I  had  the 
men  I  wanted  tight  and  fast. 

An  outbreak  of  the  aviation  mania  occurred 
in  the  Summer  of  1873.  Aeronauts  King  and 
Donaldson  were  much  in  the  public  prints; 
that  they  did  not  occupy  a  large  field  in  the 
public  eye  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  made 
few  ascents.  They  "promised"  well,  but 
their  performances  were  moderate.  Professor 
King  announced  that  he  was  ready  to  cross 
the  ocean.  As  flic  only  newspaper  of  cease- 
less enterprise,  the  Herald  arranged  with  King- 
to  take  one  of  its  correspondents  with  him. 

There  was  a  clever  reporter  on  the  city  stall' 
named  James  Coulson.  Tom  Connery,  the 
managing  editor,  sent  for  him  one  day  and 
said  : 

"  1  want  you  to  gel  ready  to  leave  lor  Europe1 
at  4  o'clock  this  afternoon. 

"How  do  1   go?"  asked  Coulson. 

"By  balloon,"  retorted  the  editor,  not  look- 
ing up  from  his  desk. 

"I'll  he  ready."  said  the  reporter. 

"Whal  shall  von  want?"  asked  Connerv. 


44 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


"A  pair  of  blankets  and  a  medicine  chest." 

"Correct." 

"And  my  return  steamer  fare."  suggested 
Coulson. 

'That's  right;  here  you  are!"  The  editor 
wrote  an  older  to  the  cashier!  When  "  Jimmy" 
glanced  at  the  memorandum,  he  saw  it  was 
good  for  $250. 

Returning  to  the  city-room,  Coulson  selected 
a  tew  trusted  confidants  and  the  crowd  ad- 
journed to  "Tommy"  Lynch's,  a  "sample- 
room"  in  the  International  Hotel,  upon  the 
present  site  of  the  Park  Row  building.  After 
half  a  dozen  drinks,  Coulson  boarded  a  Third 
avenue  horse-car  to  travel  as  far  north  as 
Jones's  Woods  (near  East  river  and  Sixty- 
sixth  street),  from  which  point  Professor  King 
and  his  companion  were  to  ascend. 

The  air-ship  was  fully  inflated  when  Coulson 
arrived.  He  had  forgotten  the  blankets;  what 
medical  supplies  lie  carried  were  stored  within 
his  own  anatomy.  Prof.  King  entered  the  car 
and  assisted  the  correspondent  to  a  place  by 
his  side.  The  balloon  was  released  and  rose 
gracefully;  but  a  strong  breeze  carried  the  big 
gas  bag  into  a  tree,  the  limbs  of  which  tore  a 
hole  therein  so  large  that  the  balloon  collapsed 
and  the  basket,  with  its  occupants,  came  to  the 
ground,  ingloriously.  The  men  were  unin- 
jured and  the  projected  European  trip  was 
abandoned. 

Half  an  hour  after  reaching  Jones's  Woods, 
Coulson  was  on  his  way  back  to  Ann  street. 
The  situation  to  him  was  quite  appalling.  He 
had  $246.85,  which  would  have  to  be  accounted 
for.  He  summoned  a  council  of  experienced 
mathematicians,  including  Dan.  Kirwin,  Jerold 
McKenny,  and  others;  when  "the  bill  of  ex- 
penses" u;is  rendered  there  was  money  coming 
to  Coulson.  It  was  a  masterly  afternoon's  work. 

One  morning  a  policemen  who  had  been 
leading  "a  double  life"  shot  his  mistress  and 
himself  in  dingy  lodgings  on  the  upper  West 
Side.  Suicides  make  the  dullest  sort  of  read- 
ing and  city  editors  never  give  them  any  space. 
A  reporter  was  sent  to  get  this  "story."  On 
his  way  to  the  scene,  he  noticed  in  the  window 
of  a  shop  a  papier-mache  figure  of  the  Devil, 
stained  red.  It  stood  ten  inches  high.  When 
the  reporter  entered  the  room  where  the  two 


bodies  lay  upon  the  floor,  he  was  conscious 
something  must  be  done  to  "make  a  story." 
He  noticed  a  small  altar  in  the  bed-room.  He 
hurried  to  the  stationer's,  bought  the  "red 
devil"  for  a  quarter,  returned  with  it  under 
his  coat  and,  unseen  by  anybody,  planted  it 
at  the  top  of  the  little  shrine,  before  which  the 
infatuated  woman  had  been  wont  to  kneel  in 
prayer! 

When  the  Coroner  and  other  reporters  ar- 
rived, special  attention  was  called  to  the  Imp 
of  Evil.  The  man  who  had  placed  it  there 
wanted  all  his  companions  to  mention  the 
object,  but  he  was  sufficiently  ingenious  to 
make  a  three-column  narrative  of  "Devil 
Worship"  in  the  metropolis,  tracing  the  mur- 
der and  suicide  to  the  influence  of  the  "little 
red  Satan." 

If  made  excellent  reading  and  that  reporter 
won  a  prize.  Several  weeks  passed  before  the 
facts  came  out. 

Tammany  Hall,  under  the  reign  of  Boss 
John  Kelly,  was  modest  as  became  an  organi- 
zation that  needed  a  character.  The  Americus 
Club,  at  Greenwich,  had  been  sold  out.  Mr. 
Kelly  had  his  office  in  two  rooms  at  the  rear 
of  117  Nassau  street  and  could  only  be  seen 
by  politicians  at  "The  Hall"  at  certain  hours. 
Years  later.  Richard  Croker  established  the 
National  Democratic  Club  on  Fifth  avenue, 
near  Fiftieth  street,  having  for  neighbors  the 
Vanderbilts,  Astors,  Goelets  and  Mills.  R. 
T.  Wilson,  who  had  inherited  a  few  millions 
made  in  cotton  by  the  Confederacy  but  never 
claimed  by  it.  dwelt  in  Tweed's  old  house,  at 
the  corner  of  Forty-third  street  and  Fifth 
avenue. 

General  Ryan,  a  tall,  cadaverous  Irish  sol- 
dier of  fortune,  came  to  see  me  on  July  10, 
1873,  with  information  that  the  filibuster 
steamer  "Virginius"  had  safely  landed  a  cargo 
of  arms  and  munitions  of  war  on  the  Cuban 
coast  for  use  of  the  insurgents.  He  gave  the 
following  history  of  the  ship,  which  differs 
essentially  from  that  afterward  told  to  me  by 
Caleb  Cushing  at  Madrid.  As  this  vessel  oc- 
cupied so  large  a  place  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  and  her  capture  followed  by  the  exe- 
cution of  a  1  >otit  half  the  crew  (General  Ryan 
among  the  latter),  I  reproduce  the  Ryan  nar- 
rative: 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


15 


"The  side-wheel  steamer  'Virginius'  was 
bought  from  the  United  States  Government  in 
1870.  Manuel  Quesada  sailed  on  her  from 
New  York  to  Venezuela  October  4th  of  that 
year;  a  cargo  of  arms  was  landed  in  Cuba 
the  following  June,  after  which  the  'Virginius' 
returned  to  Colon.  There  she  was  blockaded 
for  a  year  by  a  Spanish  cruiser.  In  1872  she 
left  under  convoy  of  the  United  States  cor- 
vette 'Kansas.-  She  ran  away  from  a  Spanish 
cruiser  and  went  to  Puerto  Cabello,  where  she- 
was  blockaded  by  seven  Spanish  vessels  until 
September.  1872.  A  bribe  of  .$10,000  was 
ottered  the  captain  of  the  'Virginius'  to  run 
her  ashore  but  he  refused." 

Then  followed  the  Bolivar  expedition,  and 
the  last  one  that  so  nearly  involved  Spain 
and  the  United  States  in  war.  The  capture 
of  the  "Virginius"  gave  to  me  a  winter  in  the 
^  est  Indies  and  a  subsequent  mission  to  Mad- 
rid, eaeli  of  which  furnished  its  full  quota  of 
experiences.  Perhaps  "adventure"  were  a 
better  word  -for  everything  Spanish  is  an  ad- 
venture. 

The  most    amusing  story  of  that  Cuban  in- 
surrectionary period  belongs  to  New  York,— 
an  episode  of  the  Comedy  of  Journalism: 

"1  wish  you  would  see  this  man  in  the  recep- 
tion-room and  get  his  story,"  said  City  Editor 
Edward  T.  Flynn.  handing  to  me  a  card  heal- 
ing the  name  "Capitano  Henrique  Cantaro." 
He  wants  $100,  and  it  appears  worth  the 
money,  if  verified.     You  must  decide." 

A  typical  stage  villain  was  awaiting  me  in 
the  ante-room.  He  rose  as  I  entered,  placing 
a  hand  with  noticeable  caution  upon  a  brown- 
paper  parcel  upon  a  table. 

"  I'd  prefer  to  talk  to  you  in  private,"  said  he. 

I  took  him  to  the  council-room,  where  we 
would  not  be  interrupted. 

'This  is  better,"  commented  the  visitor,  as 
we  faced  each  other  across  the  council-table. 
"You  comprehend.  I  hope,  that  my  recent  life 
has  involved  much  personal  hazard,  and  I 
have  no  wish  to  disclose  my  identity?" 

'That  is  understood."  was  my  reply,  as  I 
glanced  at  the  card  in  my  fingers. 

"Of  course,  that's  not  my  name,"  the 
stranger  admitted,  smiling. 

"Very  good;    now,  what's  vour  story?" 


"For  the  past  veai',  I  have  been  engaged  in 

t      i  ■  ■  i  • 

delivering  dynamite  to  the  ( !uban  insurgents," 
he  began,  like  a  heavy  tragedian.  'The  peo- 
ple I  represent  have  shipped  many  tons  of  the 
deadly  material  into  Cuba.  Not  only  has  it 
gone  to  the  'Liberating  Army'  in  the  field, 
but  much  has  been  sent  to  Havana,  hidden  in 
fruit  jars,  boxed  as  "groceries'." 
'This  is  interesting,"  I  admitted. 
"We  pressed  the  high  explosive  into  cylin- 
ders, for  the  cans,  or  into  blocks  like  this." 
continued  the  mysterious  visitor,  unwrapping 
the  package  he  guarded  so  closely.  A  cube  of 
inky  blackness  was  disclosed,  at  which  its 
owner  gazed  with  awe. 

"Is  that  dynamite.-"  I  asked,  breaking  the 
silence. 

''Yes;  the  most  deadly  agent  employed  in 
modern  warfare.  It  is  harmless,  unless  sub- 
jected to  shock;  hut  were  I  to  drop  it  upon 
the  floor,  detonation  would  occur  and  this 
room  and  contents  would  utterly  disappear. 
This  building  would  he  rended  apart!"  Sav- 
ing which,  this  strange  man,  obviously  inured 
to  danger,  took  up  the  cube  ami  offered  it  to 
me  for  inspection.  In  my  hands  the  block  had 
a  greasy,  crumbly  feeling.  I  examined  the 
solidified  agent  of  death  with  grave  caution. 

"It  resembles  a  compressed  block  of  coal 
dust."  I  commented. 

"Naturally,"  was  the  reply.  "Coal  dust 
and  charcoal  are  used  to  give  consistency  to 
the  dynamite, — to  make  it  safe  for  transpor- 
tation. The  particles  of  carbon  furnish  flame 
for  the  deadly  explosive  and  add  a  thousand- 
fold to  its  destructive  qualities.  It  might  be 
possible  for  a  half-pound  of  dynamite  (the 
quantity  absorbed  into  this  cube)  to  detonate 
without  setting  tire  to  a  house;  but  the  carbon 
supplies  flame  that  will  ignite  all  woodwork, 
torn  to  splinters  as  it  will  he.  We  experi- 
mented for  months  before  deciding  on  the 
most  portable  shape  in  which  this  destructive 
agent  could  be  handled,  and,  rejecting  all  others. 
chose  this  form.  It  lends  itself  to  many  kinds 
of  death.  Realize  how  easily  a  hero  of  our 
cause  can  mix  one  of  these  blocks  with  coal 
that  goes  into  the  bunkers  of  a  Spanish 
cruiser! " 

"Surely,  you  wouldn't  do  thai.-"  I  ex- 
claimed. 


4<> 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


"Why  not?"  in  affected  astonishment. 
"You  recall  what  General  Sherman  said  about 
war?" 

"Yes." 

"lie  knew  what  he  was  talking  about:  we 
make  it  exactly  what  lie  described  it  to  be!" 
This  was  said  with  a  scowl  and  a  fierceness 
worthy  of  a  pirate  blood-drinker  of  the  Span- 
ish Main.  For  an  hour  this  dreadful  man 
spun  his  yarn  of  deeds  of  desperation.  He 
told  how  he  had  replaced  paving  stones  in 
front  of  the  Tacon  theatre,  Havana,  with 
cubes  similar  to  the  one  before  me.  They  had 
exploded  the  first  time  a  horse  trod  upon  them. 
lie  ran  on, — 

"  Moral  effect  is  the  result  aimed  at.  Death 
lies    in    wait     for    the    Spaniard,    everywhere! 


But  a  friend  was  braver  than  1;  he  actually 
placed  two  of  these  blocks  in  the  court-yard 
of  Captain-General  Jovillar's  palace,  so  that 
if  his  carriage  happens  to  pass  over  the  spot 
he  will  be  blown  to  the  four  winds  of — 

Suiting  action  to  his  words,  "Capitano  Can- 
taro"  waved  his  left  arm  so  vigorously  as  to 
sweep  the  cube  of  dynamite  from  the  table! 

I  was  first  upon  my  feet.  The  fall  of  the 
black  cube  had  not  produced  even  a  jar!  A 
small  mound  of  coal-dust  lay  on  the  hardwood 
floor.  The  patriot  never  looked  in  my  direc- 
tion. He  moved  toward  the  door,  but  there 
he  halted  to  ask: 

"It  tea.'-;  a  good  story,  wasn't  it  ?  And  cheap 
at  a  hundred,  if  I  hadn't  dropped  that  brick." 
Then  he  vanished. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


47 


CHAPTER   V 


ALERT,    AT    HOME    AND    A1MOAI) 


IOSE  were  the  days  in  which 
"star"  men  got  their  assign- 
ments at  noon,  wrote  articles 
of  prescribed  length,  attached 
the  heads  and  sent  the  "copy" 
up  the  pipe  to  the  composing- 
room.  Not  until  I  became  City 
Editor,  in  November,  1876,  was  there  any 
eopv  reading  on  the  Herald  except  that  done 
by  the  Night  City  Editor.  J.  I.  C.  Clarke  was 
then  given  the  job  of  reading  city  copy. 

An  active  reportorial  existence  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  capture  of  the  "Virginius"  by 
a  Spanish  cruiser,  the  summary  execution  of 
her  captain  and  twenty-odd  members  of  the 
crew  and  passengers.  Among  the  latter  was 
my  friend  General  Ryan,  and  I  have  since 
stood  at  the  spot  in  Santiago  de  Cuba  where 
these  men  were  shot.  I  was  hurried  to  the 
West  Indies,  war  being  apparently  inevitable. 
The  "Virginius"  was  "returned"  to  the 
United  States  government,  although  she  was 
not  entitled  to  fly  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and, 
taken  in  tow  by  the  "Ossipee."  was  sunk  in 
Florida  strait.  It  has  been  a  well-guarded 
secret  that  orders  were  issued  at  Washington 
to  have  the  "disaster"  occur. 

That  winter  in  Havana  and  Key  West  was 
crowded  with  experiences.  The  most  inter- 
esting man  I  met  was  Commodore  Foxhall 
Parker,  Flag  Officer  during  the  naval  drill  in 
Florida  Hay.  in  which  I  wasted  about  five 
weeks  of  my  life.  Those  evolutions  now  seem 
very  crude.  Torpedoes  were  fired  from  spars 
a  hundred  feet  long,  supposed  to  be  poked 
under  an  enemy's  hull.  When  one  thinks  of 
the  steel  battle-ship  of  to-day  that  does  effec- 
tive work  at  a  distance  of  three  miles,  the  evo- 
lutions of  the  United  States  Navy  in  Florida 
Ray,  in  the  Spring  of  1874,  were  ridiculous. 
Rear-Admiral  Kase  was  intolerably  jealous  of 
Commodore  Parker,  and  resented  any  men- 
tion of  his  name  in  the  newspapers.     Because 


one  of  the  headlines  in  a  Xew  York  journal 
announced  the  evolutions  as  those  of  "Com- 
modore Parker's  Fleet."  every  correspondent 
was  sent  ashore.  It  was  idle  to  explain  to 
Kase  that  the  correspondents  did  not  tele- 
graph the  headings.  Ashore  we  all  went,  one 
day.  on  the  arrival  of  the  New  York  news- 
papers. 

On  my  return  to  Xew  York,  after  the  "Vir- 
ginius" episode,  I  was  hurried  to  the  wilderness 
of  Elk  County,  Pa.,  to  get  an  "interview" 
with  one  Harry  English,  a  notorious  desperado 
hidden  somewhere  in  the  mountains.  He  had 
been  living  with  his  family  in  a  small  village 
near  Driftwood,  when  a  sheriff's  posse  from 
the  county  seat  had  opened  fire  upon  his 
house,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  and  had 
wounded  his  wife  and  one  of  his  children. 
English  had  returned  the  fire  with  a  Win- 
chester and  had  hit  several  members  of  the 
assaulting  party,  most  of  whom  were  loaded 
with  backwoods  courage.  English  was  "a  bad 
man"  beyond  dispute,  but  the  obvious  intent 
of  the  special  sheriffs  was  to  assassinate  him 
first  and  to  deliver  his  body  to  "justice"  after- 
ward. 

That  most  charming  trait  of  the  American 
newspaper,  the  Philanthropy  of  Journalism, 
was  aroused  in  the  breast  of  Tom  Connery,  of 
tiie  Herald,  and  he  directed  me  to  give  to  the 
hunted,  obviously  persecuted,  man  a  "square 
deal." 

At  the  village  of  Clairmont,  1  hired  a  guide 
to  take  me  to  the  lair  of  the  outlaw.  Sympathy 
was  with  English.  When  he  fitted  out  next 
morning  for  the  long  climb.  I  was  advised  to 
replace  my  pumps  with  cowhide  boots,  the 
legs  of  which  reached  to  my  knees.  Much  of 
the  route  lay  through  trackless  forest  and  over 
hills,  "alive  with  rattlers."  1  did  not  believe 
all  that  I  heard;  but  one  "rattler"  to  a  square 
mile  was  sufficient  to  cause  me  lo  give  $6  for 
(he    boots. 


48 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


When  the  "pack"  was  being  made  up  for 
the  journey  I  noticed  that  the  outfit  included 
a  pint  hottle  of  sweet  oil  and  one  gallon  of 
whiskey. 

"Do  we  need  that  much  whiskey  ?"  asked  I. 

"Sure!"  exclaimed  the  guide.  "It's  the 
only  antidote  for  rattlesnake  bite!  If  you  are 
'struck.'  I  cut  a  'cross'  in  the  wound,  like 
this  "—and  he  suited  action  to  speech  by  draw- 
ing out  a  large  "Billy  Barlow"  knife,  sharp 
as  a  razor,  and  making  a  "cross"  upon  the 
top  of  the  shopkeeper's  counter.  "Then,  I 
suck  the  wound.  Next,  I  rub  the  cut  full  of 
sweet  oil.  Then.  I  give  you  one  quart  of  the 
contents  of  this  jug!" 

"I  hope  to  (iod  I  don't  get  bitten!  The 
cnttinir  and  the  sweet  oil  I  wouldn't  mind; 
but  if  that  whiskey  is  anything  like  the  stuff 
I  tasted  at  the  bar,  half  a  glassful  ought  to 
neutralize  any  snake  poison — even  to  that  of 
a  cobra  or  of  a  Gila  monster.  If  you  give  me 
a  quart  of  that  liquor.  1  am  a  dead  man!" 

"It's  the  only  remedy!"  said  the  guide, 
shrugging  his  shoulders,  to  express  his  con- 
tempt for  a  "tenderfoot."  "It's  thet;  or 
you  go  back  to  New  York  in  a  box,  ef  you're 
'struck'  by  a  diamon'-back!" 

"And  suppose  you're  bitten  ?"  I  asked,  al- 
though I  soon  learned  not  to  use  any  word 
for  a  snake  bite  but  "struck." 

"I'll  do  the  same,  with  your  help,"  he  an- 
swered. "On'y  watch  thet  I  don't  take  all 
the  whiskey.  I  bin  'struck'  five  times,  an' 
nothin'  but  whiskey  an'  plenty  of  it  saved 
me.  The  las'  time,  my  right  arm  swelled 
bigger  'an  thet  demijohn,  and  turned  purple, 
in  spots." 

We  set  out,  after  my  credentials  had  been 
re-examined  and  I  had  submitted  to  search 
to  prove  that  I  was  unarmed  and  was  not  a 
deputy  sheriff,  masquerading  as  a  newspaper 
correspondent.  On  my  part,  I  took  the  pre- 
caution of  leaving  what  cash  I  had  with  the 
postmaster  of  the  village — a  consumptive  chap, 
who  disliked  to  take  the  responsibility  and 
positively  refused  to  give  me  a  receipt. 

English's  hiding  place  was  reached  after  a 
nine  hours'  painful  walk  in  boots  that  did  not 
fit  me.  At  the  "shack,"  where  the  bandit 
and  two  companions  were  "intrenched,"  Eng- 


lish's first  act  was  to  take  a  long  pull  at  the 
snake  antidote.  He  then  showed  to  me 
four  of  the  ugliest  wounds  I  ever  saw.  lie 
had  been  hit  by  bullets  from  the  sheriff's  posse 
when  escaping  from  his  house,  as  prepara- 
tions were  making  to  set  the  miserable  dwelling 
on  fire. 

The  version  of  his  persecutions  told  that 
night  saved  English's  life.  The  guide  and 
I  made  the  return  journey  without  any 
"antidote." 

Every  drop  thereof  had  been  consumed  by 
the  "bandits,"  or  rubbed  into  the  wounds 
on  English's  body.  When  the  last  swallow 
had  disappeared,  English  turned  to  my  guide, 
and.  in  a  peculiarly  rhythmical  voice  —  a 
voice  with  tones  like  those  of  les  courriers  des 
hois  of  the  forest  primeval  —  asked : 

"Say.     Bill,    why    in  did    you    bring 

so  much  sweet  oil  ?" 

In  the  Summer  of  1874  occurred  the  myste- 
rious disappearance  of  Charley  Ross,  a  four- 
year-old  son  of  a  Market  street  merchant  of 
Philadelphia.  I  went  to  the  Quaker  City 
the  day  following  the  announcement  and  for 
three  weeks  sent  to  the  Herald  from  two  to 
five  thousand  words  every  night.  On  the 
day  of  my  arrival,  1  went  to  the  Ross  home, 
in  Washington  lane.  Germantown,  and  walked 
from  there  to  the  point  in  Kensington  where 
the  boy  was  last  seen  in  company  with  two 
men.  The  subject  was  then  fresh,  but  in- 
quiry at  every  house  and  shop  along  the  many 
miles  of  roads  and  streets  failed  to  elicit  the 
slightest  clue.  According  to  the  story  of 
Walter  Ross,  elder  brother  of  Charles  and 
aged  seven,  the  two  boys  had  been  playing 
in  front  of  their  home  when  two  men  passing 
in  a  light  wagon  asked  them  if  they  wanted 
a  ride.  They  did.  They  were  driven  to  a 
street  corner  seven  miles  distant,  in  the  old 
part  of  the  city,  where  the  elder  boy  was  given 
money  and  told  to  enter  a  candy  store  to  buy 
sweets.  When  lie  returned  to  the  street,  the 
wagon,  the  men  and  his  younger  brother  were 
l^one. 

A  great  deal  of  time,  energy  and  money 
were  expended  by  the  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia newspapers  in  seeking  that  unfortu- 
nate child.  An  entire  volume  could  be  written 
on  the  theme  without  exhausting  its  mysterious 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


49 


features.  Conduct  of  certain  relatives  of  the 
distressed  family  remains  inexplicable  to  me. 
Letters  from  alleged  kidnappers  began  to  be 
received  by  the  parents  of  the  boy,  but  they 
were  jealously  guarded  from  inspection.  I 
was  shown  one  of  them,  without  being  allowed 
to  read  it.  and  saw  a  small  double  sheet  of 
note  paper,  the  water-mark  in  the  corner  of 
which  had  been  torn  off.  The  handwriting 
was  very  memorable.  I  was  authorized  to 
offer  $1,0011  for  the  letters,  but  a  much  larger 
sum  was  demanded  by  the  custodian  of  the 
correspondence.  I  then  put  an  advertisement 
in  the  Herald  reading  as  follows: 

PERSONAL. — A  man  of  large  wealth,  whose  wife  has  become  a 
nervous  wreck  from  brooding  over  the  abduction  of  little  Charley 
Ross,  will  pay  the  sum  demanded  for  his  return,  provided  the  l><>v 
be  delivered  to  him,  alive  and  well,  so  that  he  may  return  the  child 
to  his  parents.  No  questions  will  he  asked.  Send  your  lawyer  to 
John  L).  Townsend,  256  Broadway,  my  counsel,  who  will  communi- 
cate with  me  and  arrange  a  meeting.  Money  will  be  in  cash.  A.  I'., 
Box  205. 

As  expected,  this  advertisement  brought 
one  of  the  curious  letters  by  first  mail.  After 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  bring  about  a  meet- 
ing, I  had  the  letter  engraved  and  printed  in 
facsimile.  Mr.  John  Norris,  an  editor  of 
Philadelphia,  worked  for  several  years  on  this 
case.  His  quest  extended  as  far  West  as 
Ohio  and  resulted  in  many  strange  incidents. 
"Charley  Ross"  became  a  bugbear  to  the 
police  of  every  city  in  the  land.  New  York's 
Chief  of  Police  ended  the  hunt  for  the  missing 
boy  by  "planting"  the  crime  upon  two  bur- 
glars killed  by  Judge  Van  Brunt  and  a  relative, 
as  they  were  in  the  act  of  entering  the  home 
of  the  former  at  Bay  Ridge.  Mosier  and 
Douglas  were  notorious  thugs.  One  of  them 
was  shot  dead;  the  other  lived  a  few  hours 
and  was  reported  to  have  stated  that  he  and 
his  dead  companion  had  carried  off  the  Ross 
boy.  He  added  that  the  child  had  died 
while  in  their  custody.  This  seemed  to  close 
the  book  for  ever. 

The  Winter  of  1874-'75  I  spent  in  Wash- 
ington. The  press  gallery  of  that  time  con- 
tained some  men  of  great  ability,  as  I,  its 
most  inconspicuous  member,  fully  appre- 
ciated. I  personally  recall  Melville  E.  Stone, 
W.  S.  Walker,  White  and  Ramsdell,  of  the 
N.  Y.  Tribune,  who  had  covered  themselves 
with  glory  bv  securino;  the  text  of  the  Treaty 

D  v  %f'  O  ■ 

of  Washington  exclusively;  George  Adams,  of 


the  N.  Y.  World,  afterwards  to  become  a  large 
owner  in  the  Washington  Star;  General  H.  V. 
Boynton  and  a  score  of  others.  The  echoes 
of  the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  had  not  died 
away,  and  the  Pacific  Mail  inquiry  soon  fol- 
lowed; but  the  feature  of  the  Session  was  the 
passage  of  the  Civil  Rights  Bill. 

During  the  final  hours  of  debate  on  that 
measure.  I  happened  to  be  in  the  House  Gal- 
lery when  an  historic  attack  on  Benjamin  F. 
Butler  was  made  by  John  Young  Brown,  of 
Kentucky.  Beck,  of  the  same  state,  and  Cox, 
of  New  York,  evidently  abetted.  It  came  un- 
expectedly to  the  assemblage.  Speaker  Blaine 
was  signing  bills.     Brown  obtained  the  floor 

DO  , 

and  in  a  clear  voice  that  commanded  attention 
began : 

"In  England,  once  upon  a  time,  there  was 
a  man  who  earned  a  living  by  selling  the  bodies 
of  the  dead.  His  name  was  linked  to  his 
trade,  which  is  known  to  this  day  as  'Burking.' 
Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  would  wish  to  coin  a 
new  word  for  our  language, — one  that  will 
comprehend  all  that  is  pusillanimous  in  peace, 
cowardly  in  war,  and  infamous  in  politics. 
That  word  is  'Buttering!'  ' 

The  House  was  in  uproar!  It  was  easy  to 
see  that  Blaine  was  inwardly  pleased.  The 
burly  figure  of  James  A.  Garfield  came  tum- 
bling down  the  first  aisle  on  the  Republican 
side,  with  two  fingers  raised  like  a  buyer  upon 
the  floor  of  an  exchange.  Blaine  never  lost 
an  opportunity  to  snub  Garfield;  he  paid  not 
the  slightest  attention  to  him  on  this  occasion. 
Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  made  a  formal 
motion  that  "the  language  be  taken  down  and 
read  for  the  action  of  the  House."  —the  usual 
form  when  a  member  is  to  be  haled  before  the 
bar.  Garfield  hurried  to  Butler's  side,  but 
the  latter  literally  pushed  him  away  and  got 
the  Speaker's  eye.     He  shouted: 

"As  the  person  most  interested.  I  ask  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Dawes]  to 
withdraw  his  motion.  I  will,  in  that  event, 
move  for  an  immediate  vote  upon  the  bill 
before  the  House." 

That  speech  was  Brown's  first  and  only 
appearance  in  Congressional  vaudeville  in  a 
star  part.  He  never  would  have  been  heard 
of  had  he  not  attacked  Butler:  the  diatribe 
made    biiti    Governor    of    Kentucky.      Butler 


i() 


THE    IH)OK   of  NEW    \<>UI\ 


li;id  Imth  tried  iii  :i  hundred  posts  ol  danger 
demanding  courage  nnd  taet,  and  had  always 
extricated  himself.  11*-  possessed  some  traits 
of  eharaeter  n. <l  altogether  admirable:  bul  his 
individualih  was  the  strongest  thai  wide  and 
varied  ohservation  ever  presented  to  me.  He 
eonld  I"'  the  ealmest  of  men  amid  general  ex 
eitement,  ami  n  most  violent,  ill  tempered 
ereatnre  ;il  limes  of  popular  res!  l>m  personal 
nnuovanee,  I  have  reeited  M i i -~  ineidenl  aboul 
(Jeneral  Butler  for  ili<'  purpose  of  showing  a 
praotieal  use  1,1  which  1  j »i 1 1  il  tu >l  long  after, 
during  .1  \  >- i t  of  the  ftssex  statesman  l<>  New 
York. 

The   (Jeneral   arrived    in    \Te\\    Vork    from 
Washington,  one  afternoon,  and  1  was  sent  to 
gel  .1  talk  with  him  on  a  eurrent  news  feature- 
Having  nvel  him  several  times,  al  the  Capital 
nnd  ;il  his  Lowell  home,  1  fell  eonfidenl  of  al 
leasl    partial   sueeess.      lie   was   at    the    Fifth 
V venue   Hotel,      When    I    asked   the  elerk   to 
sent!  up  tin  card,  he  nd vised  me  against  « K > i  1 1  ^ 
ll>-  explained  that  the  General  was  in  bad 
humor  and  would  not  see  me.     1  insisted,  how 
ever,   and    went    upstairs    with    the   bell  boy. 
The  boy  knoeked.    lu  answer  to  a  gruff  "Come 
in!"    I    opened   the  door  and  stepped   into  the 

room  I  he  (Jeneral  glare<l  at  me.  furiously. 
1  didn't  give  him  a  chance  for  a  word,  but 
blurted  out : 

■'Oose  study  oi  your  career.  General.  has 
taught  me  that  the  man  who  does  things  must 
be  aggressive.  The  elerk  advised  me  against 
sending  up  my  name,  so  1  came  personally  to 
ask."  etc.  And.  without  delay.  1  delivered  my 
orders  from  the  city  editor.  (Jeneral  Butler's 
was  an  interesting  picture.  When  1  had 
finished,  a  smile  began  to  pucker  one  side  oi 
his  mouth.  He  used  several  words  that  would 
not  look  well  in  print.  I>ut  ended  by  telling  me 
exactly  what  1  wanted.  He  didn't  sil  down; 
I  could  not  make  any  notes  But  when  1  es 
eaped  into  the  corridor,  1  went  to  a  writing- 
room  nearby  and  wrote  out  his  language.  As 
1  subsequently  learned,  other  reporters  who 
sent  cards  to  the  General's  room  were  turned 
dow  n. 

My  experience  at   Albany  began  with  the 

Tilden  period,  when  the  1  egislature  sat  in  the 

n-stone  capitol.     Congress  came  to  an 

end   on    March    4,    1875.      1    was   hustled    to 


Albany.  Governor  Tilden  had  sprung  the 
(anal  King  investigation,  which  came  as  an 

echo  of  the  Credit    Moltilier  and    Pacific    Mail 

scandals  al  Washington, 

In  the  Assembly  chamber  echoes  of  Timothy 
Campbell's  voice  were  slill  heard,  enacting  the 
same    drama    under    Speaker    Jerry     Mc(iuire 

that  he  had  played  so  successfully  during  the 
easA  davs  of  "Boss"  Tweed.  'The  latter 
"statesman"  was  in  jail  and  the  Court  of 
Appeals  was  getting  ready  to  declare  Judge 
Noah  Davis'  cumulative  sentence  unconsti- 
tutional. John  Kelly,  at  the  head  oi  Tani- 
manv,  was  reaching  for  control  of  the  state. 
Speaker  MeGuire  was  annoyed  al  Kelly's  ac- 
tivity in  the  upper  part  of  New  York,  lie 
and  "Old  Salt  Alvord  were  forming  a  com- 
bination to  "do"  both  Tilden  and  Kelly. 
MeGuire  was  pounding  his  desk  and  threaten- 
ing Kelly  with  "A.r  till  ion  is!"  It  was  a  pel 
phrase  tt\  Jerrv's  and  evervbodv  had  looked  it 
up  iii  the  dictionary  "the  law  oi  revenge." 
When  the  exposure  oi  the  canal  ringsters 
was    sprung,    Jarvis    Lord,    Wood,    Woodin 

and  others  assumed  an  injured  innocence 
defense. 

'Tilden  has  destroyed  the  great  Democratic 
part\  !"  said  the  members  oi  his  political  faith; 
but  Democratic  and  Republican  ringsters  held 
their  heads  aloft  and  feared  no  evil.  Tilden 
did  not  appear  to  be  a  man  o(  force.  When 
the  newspaper  bovs  went  to  see  him  he  was 
generally  standing  in  his  office  with  his  back 
to  a  log  tire  and  his  hands  under  his  eoat-tails. 
He  was  so  diminutive  in  stature  and  so  guileless 
in  face  that  nobody  could  mark  him  as  a  man 
of  stem  resolution.  Tike  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 
something  was  wrong  with  one  oi  his  eyes  and 
he  carried  on  much  oi  his  conversation  with 
that  defective  optic.  In  all  my  experience 
with  public  men.  1  never  knew  one  who  would 
talk  so  readily  as  Governor  Tilden.  He 
adopted  the  Bismarck  policy  oi  telling  so 
much  that  his  hearer  never  believed  all  he 
heard. 

The  more  the  Senate  and  Assembly  stormed. 
the  stiller  Tilden's  backbone  became.  There 
were  as  many  "crooked"  members  oi  one 
party  as  the  other  in  that  Legislature.  The 
Tweed  system  was  still  in  vogue.  Tweed  was 
a  "fair  divider,"  and  Republicans,  like  Wood- 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


51 


in,  hud  been  "let  into  good  things,"  because 
there  were  enough  good  things  to  go  'round. 
While  the  legislative  body  was  rending  itself 
asunder  in  attempts  to  nullity  Tilden's  canal 
attack,  the  Governor  tossed  into  the  scrambling 
bunch  what  he  described  to  me  as  "An  Exege- 
sis on  the  Historical,  Philosophical,  Moral  and 
Mechanical  System  of  Home  Rule."  His  mes- 
sage of  May  12,  in  which  he  aired  at  length 
his  fancies  regarding  municipal  government, 
was  a  remarkable  document.  It  was  "a 
tough  job,"  according  to  Virgil,  to  establish 
the  Roman  state;  but  Governor Tilden  showed 
wherein  lay  the  difficulties. 

Members  of  that   Legislature  did  not  read 


the  message,  having  other  anxieties  to  deal 
with;  but  it  contained  fully  forty  yards  of 
first-class  (clipping)  editorial  matter  for  coun- 
try editors  who  dislike  to  write,  and  they  gave 
it  ample  circulation,  week  after  week.  Tilden, 
like  a  true  Knight  of  the  Leopard,  seized  on 
the  cry  of  "Municipal  Independence"  that 
echoed  through  the  streets  of  New  York  City. 
At  the  close  of  the  Legislative  session  at 
Albany,  1875,  I  returned  to  grapple  with  re- 
porting. William  II.  Wickham  was  Mayor 
and  reformation  in  city  politics  was  complete. 
Several  members  of  the  Committee  of  Seventy 
had  used  it  to  climb  into  office;  the  organiza- 
tion had  worn  itself  out  and  had  disintegrated. 


52 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


CHAPTER  VI 


ACROSS    THE    ATLANTIC     IN     QUEST    OF    NEWS 


Y  NEXT  step,  in  the  line  of 
advancement,  was  to  the  Lon- 
don bureau  of  the  Herald, 
which  occurred  in  July,  1875. 
At  Queenstown,  I  learned  of 
the  "clean  sweep"  made  by 
the  oarsmen  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity at  Saratoga  Lake  while  we  had  been  on 
the  sea.  It  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
aquatic  triumphs  for  my  Alma  Mater.  The 
original  Germanic  made  an  eight-day  voyage 
to  Liverpool,  regarded  as  fair  time;  the 
steamer  train  by  the  Midland  railway  landed 
me  in  London  late  at  night.  Reporting  for 
duty  next  morning.  1  was  sent  to  Aldershot. 
to  report  the  rifle  match  between  the  American 
team  that  had  won  a  few  days  before  at  Dolly- 
mount,  Ireland,  and  a  team  selected  from  the 
Army.  The  Herald  was  very  enterprising  at 
that  time.  A  facsimile  of  the  target  was 
divided  into  squares  an  eighteenth  of  an  inch 
in  size;  each  square  was  numbered  and  each 
number  had  a  code  word.  By  this  means, 
the  location  of  every  shot  was  reproduced  in 
New  York  next  morning!  It  seemed  natural 
for  the  Herald  to  do  extraordinary  things  in 
those  days. 

Next  day,  I  had  an  interview  with  Mr. 
Bennett  at  Long's  Hotel,  a  quaint  old  place 
on  Bond  street,  only  recently  closed.  All  that 
recommended  it  was  its  high  charges.  While 
1  was  waiting  to  be  summoned,  a  '  B.  and  S. " 
cost  me  two-and-sixpence,  in  addition  to  a  tip. 
A  curious  interview  followed.  Mr.  Bennett 
was  leaving  for  New  York.  He  said  to  me, 
without  ceremony:  "I  want  you  to  write  a 
personal  letter  to  me  every  week.  In  it,  you 
are  to  tell  me  what  vour  associates  are  doing; 
what  you  suggest  and  what  they  suggest — all 
the  news  of  the  office,  you  understand  ?" 

I  had  heard  of  espionage,  but  never  had 
given  it  serious  consideration;  therefore,  the 
suggestion  that  1   was  to  play  the  spy  upon 


my  fellow  workers  gave  to  me  a  shock.  I 
asked  if  I  was  to  inform  Mr.  Jackson,  Mr. 
Huvshe,  Mr.  O'Conner  (T.  P.)  and  others  of 
what  I  had  written,  so  they  could  explain? 
That  inquiry  discomfited  my  chief  and.  tug- 
ging at  his  mustache,  he  retorted,  "No;  not 
at   all." 

"I'm  not  suited  for  this  job.  Mr.  Bennett," 
was  my  slow  reply.  "If  a  part  of  my  duty  is 
keeping  watch  and  reporting  upon  my  com- 
panions. I  had  best  return  to  New  York." 
The  fact  was  not  mentioned,  but  I  had  taken 
the  precaution  to  buy,  with  my  own  money, 
a  prepaid  return  ticket.  I  had  heard  of  men 
being  arbitrarily  discharged  on  the  other  side 
and  left  to  get  home  as  best  they  could. 

My  employer  abruptly  closed  the  interview: 
I  expected  discharge.  Since  then,  I  have 
learned  that  it  was  one  act  in  my  career  that 
attracted  me  to  my  chief — with  whom  I  re- 
mained fifteen  years  and  then  left,  of  my  own 
accord,  while  occupying  the  highest  position 
in  his  gift.  'The  Commodore"  felt  the  same 
contempt  for  employes  who  would  serve  him 
in  the  capacities  of  spies  that  I  did. 

In  later  years,  when  occupying  posts  of 
authority,  this  incident  taught  me  to  deal  with 
frank  fairness  to  subordinates.  If  an  editor  or 
reporter  had  to  be  suspended,  discharged  or 
reported  to  his  employer  for  dereliction  of 
duty,  my  invariable  rule  was  to  send  for  the 
offending  man  and  say  to  him:  "Here  is  what 
I  am  writing  to  Mr.  Bennett  about  your  con- 
duct (or  failure)."  After  the  text  had  been 
read,  I  always  added:  'This  letter  will  go 
by  to-morrow's  steamer.  If  yon  desire,  you 
can  send  an  explanation  by  the  same  mail;  or 
you  can  hand  it  to  me  and  I  will  inclose  it 
with  my  letter.  In  fact,  you  can  do  both." 
During  all  the  time  I  was  in  London,  not  a 
sneaking:  letter  crossed  the  sea  from  me! 

When  John  P.  Jackson  returned  to  the 
Continent,    I    was    placed    in    charge    of    the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


.5:3 


Bureau.  J.  A.  MacGahan,  who  in  1S?.'5  had 
crossed  the  Ki/.il  Kuiu  desert — over  the  cara- 
van route  east  of  the  Aral  Sea — to  overtake 
General  Kaun'man's  army,  returned  from  the 
Arctic  seas,  where  he  had  been  on  the  "Pan- 
dora" with  Captain  Allen  Young.  This 
steamer  had  penetrated  into  Peel  Strait,  hop- 
ing- to  discover  traces  of  the  lost  expedition  of 
Sir  John  Franklin.  Nothing  of  value  was 
added  to  Arctic  research;  hut  MacGahan's 
book,  "Under  the  Northern  Lights,"  was  the 
outcome.  I  had  met  this  remarkable  young 
man  at  Key  West,  during  the  "Yirginius" 
episode,  and  was  afterwards  to  encounter  him 
in  Madrid,  under  curious  circumstances.  Dur- 
ing his  stay  in  London,  we  were  much  together 
and  at  one  of  the  dinner  parties  we  were 
fond  of  holding  at  the  Cafe  Royal,  on  Regent 
street,  I  met  "Jack"  Burnaby,  who  imitated 
and  repeated  MacGahan's  "Ride  to  Khiva." 
Burnaby  admired  the  American  as  devotedly 
as  did  Genera]  Skobeloff. 

Among  the  incidents  of  that  Summer  and 
Fall  was  witnessing  Captain  Webb's  first 
attempt  to  swim  the  English  Channel,  from 
Dover  to  Calais.  lie  was  unsuccessful,  but 
subsequently  performed  the  remarkable  feat. 
I  attended  a  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  first  trip  of  Stephenson's  loco- 
motive, at  Darlington,  and  saw  the  original 
engine,  raised  upon  blocks,  in  operation. 
Among  other  interviews  secured  [was  one 
with  Benjamin  Disraeli,  then  Premier;  Glad- 
stone, leader  of  the  Opposition;  Commander 
Cameron,  R.N..  on  his  return  from  a  walk 
across  Central  Africa,  and  C.  II.  Spurgeon, 
who  resented  the  title  of  "Reverend."  Moody 
and  Sankey,  the  revivalists,  were  convulsing 
the  British  capital  and  I  had  talks  with  them. 
The  most  valued  of  all  my  acquaintances  in 
London  was  Charles  Reade,  whom  I  came 
to  know  well  and  at  whose  house,  in  Knights- 
bridge  Terrace,  I  had  luncheon  and  dinner 
several  times. 

Although  I  often  attended  the  Houses  of 
Lords  and  Commons,  the  most  memorable 
recollection  I  have  of  the  chief  man  of  the 
Empire  was  seeing  him  emerge  afoot  from 
Downing  street,  hi  the  company  of  Earl  Rus- 
sell, bound  for  Parliament  House.  Disraeli, 
with   his   stooping  shoulders,   was   much   the 


less  impressive  of  the  two  men.  They  had 
just  left  "No.  10  Downing,"  where  a  meeting 
of  the  Ministry  had  occurred.  In  Downing 
street,  the  "Commoner"  was  master,  there  he 
could  create  noblemen;  but  in  the  corridors 
of  Westminster  Palace,  Earl  Russell  separated 


JAMES    GORDON    BENNETT 
(The  famous  caricature  in   Vanity  Fair) 

from  his  chief  and  proceeded  to  the  House  of 
Lords. 

Downing  street  is  the  smallest  and  yet  the 
most  important  street  in  all  this  world!  It 
is  a  dark,  alley-like  passage;  but  "No.  10"  is 


54 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


the  official  residence  of  the  Prime  Minister 
of  the  British  Empire  and  has  been  since  the 
time  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole — 200  years.  This 
building  more  resembles  a  middle-class  board- 
ing-house, such  as  usually  kept  by  widows  of 
army  officers,  than  a  place  of  national  im- 
portance. Many  Americans  respect  this  dingy 
almost  repellant  lodge  of  diplomacy  and 
national  ambition,  because  Sir  George  Down- 
ing, who  laid  out  the  street  and  built  the  house 
therein,  was  of  American  ancestry;  his  mother 
belonged  to  the  Winthrops  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony  and  he  is  the  second  graduate  on 
the  roster  of  Harvard  College!  After  getting 
an  American  education,  he  went  to  England 
and.  seizing  opportunity  when  it  offered,  be- 
came Oliver  Cromwell's  ambassador  at  the 
Hague.  He  grew  so  rich  that  Charles  II  did 
not  displace  him.  Those  were  the  days  in 
which  "graft"  was  permitted  to  public  of- 
ficials. He  invested  his  money  in  a  strip  of 
land  on  the  western  side  of  Whitehall  and  built 
houses  on  two  sides  of  the  short  street  that 
cuts  through  it.  One  often  reads  in  the  letters 
of  Americans  making  their  first  visit  to  Lon- 
don that  the  tall  Nelson  monument,  in  Trafal- 
gar Square,  is  the  center  of  the  great  British 
Empire.  They  mistake  the  point  from  which 
all  distances  are  calculated  for  the  strategical 
center  of  the  English  world.  Were  they  to 
walk  down  Whitehall,  toward  Westminster 
Abbey,  a  few  hundred  yards  they  would  pass 
the  entrance  to  Downing  street,  absolutely 
the  most  important  place  in  London. 

When  one  speaks  of  "the  official  residence" 
of  a  foreign  minister  of  state,  he  is  not  to  be 
understood  as  intimating  that  the  personage 
lives  there.  It  is  the  place  to  which  his  mail 
should  be  addressed;  the  location  of  the  council 
room  at  which,  surrounded  by  the  members 
of  his  cabinet,  he  decides  upon  the  national 
policy.  No.  10  Downing  street  is  the  place,  so 
far  as  the  destinies  of  Imperial  Britain  are 
concerned.  England  has  gone  through  many 
political  upheavals,  not  to  mention  its  changes 
of  dynasty,  since  Sir  George  developed  the 
street  that  bears  his  name;  but  No.  10  does 
not  exhibit  any  improvement.  I  never  fail 
to  take  a  look  at  the  old  house  when  in  London, 
and  on  my  last  inspection  its  external  appear- 
ance indicated  that  the  woodwork  of  its  doors 


and  windows  hasn't  known  fresh  paint  for  a 
quarter  century.  When  one  inspects  the  low 
and  narrow  doorway  he  is  bound  to  feel  that 
he  is  rubbing  against  about  all  the  history 
(except  Japanese)  that  has  been  made  in  the 
past  200  years.  His  ears  may  hear  the  echoes 
of  the  footsteps  of  Walpole,  Pulteney,  Pelham. 
Grafton,  North,  Pitt,  Fox,  Perceval,  Liver- 
pool, Canning,  Wellington,  Grey,  Peel,  Mel- 
bourne, Aberdeen,  Palmerston,  Russell,  Derby, 
Disraeli  (commoner  and  earl) ;  Gladstone, 
Rosebery,  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  Balfour,  Sir 
Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  and  Asquith,  the 
latest  premier.  Naturally,  hundreds  of  other 
men  have  passed  and  repassed  that  portal  who 
were  known  to  the  world. 

Meanwhile,  complications  growing  out  of 
the  "Virginius  episode"  had  developed  new 
phases.  Spain  had  not  paid  the  promised 
indemnities  to  the  wives  and  orphans  of  pris- 
oners shot  at  Santiago  de  Cuba  and  General 
Caleb  Gushing  was  directed  to  "put  on  the 
screws."  In  November.  I  was  rushed  to 
Madrid.  A  brief  stop  was  made  in  Paris, 
during  which  Mr.  Ryan,  Herald  representative 
in  the  French  capital,  took  me  to  call  on 
Emilio  Castelar,  ex-President  of  the  brief 
Spanish  Republic,  then  in  exile.  I  found  him 
a  most  genial  man.  He  gave  to  me  six  letters 
of  introduction  to  his  friends  in  Madrid. 
Here  is  a  copy  of  the  only  one  undelivered, 
owing  to  the  absence  of  Seilor  Carvajal  from 
the  city: 

Paris  27  de  Noviembre  de  1875. 
Exmo.  Sr.  Dr.  Jose  Carvajal: 

Querido  Amigo  Mio:  Le  recomendo  a  V.  vivamente  al  dador, 
M.  Julius  Chambers,  joven  publicist;!  Americano,  corresponsal  del 
New  York  Herald,  primer  periodico  hoy  quiras  de  toda  la  tierra  y 
que  pasa  p  esa  con  animo  de  informar  a  suis  pais  sobre  nuestra 
politica.  Fraterlo  V.  con  toda  atencion  y  todo  carino.  pues  sin  duda 
alguna  lo  merece  y  tenga  V.  la  seguridad  de  que  cuanto  haga  en  su 
obsequio  lo  consideran  como  un  favor  personal.  Sabe  V.  que  le 
quiere  mucho  su  amigo. 

Emilio  Castelar. 

General  dishing  received  me  cordially  and. 
after  my  official  call,  sent  to  me  the  following 
letter: 

Fuente  Castellano,  7,  Madrid.  30  Nov.,  1875. 
Dear  Mr.   Chambers:     Pray  come  and  dine  with  me  to-day  at 
0.30  o'clock,  that  we  may  talk  over  your  plans  at  ease  and  see  what 
I  can  do  in  aid  of  them. 

C.    CUSHIXG. 

In  December.  1875,  Secretary  Hamilton 
Fish  sent  through  General  Cushing,  to  all  the 
governments    of    Europe    (except    Spain),    a 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


5.5 


circular  note  asking  if  the  American  govern- 
ment would  be  justified  in  intervention  in 
Cuba.  It  was  one  of  the  monumental,  tactical 
blunders  of  the  second  Grant  administration. 
Of  course,  Spain  was  soon  supplied  with  a 
copy  of  that  note,  and,  through  the  aid  of  a 
woman  in  Madrid,  I  secured  the  gist  thereof, 
mailed  it  to  my  friend,  Leopold  A.  Price, 
then  Consul  at  Bordeaux,  who  wired  it  to 
New  York.  To  save  General  dishing  embar- 
rassment, I  dated  the  cablegram  from  Vienna 
—incidentally  causing  Minister  Kasson  serious 
trouble. 

An  urgent  request  had  been  added  at  the 
end  of  the  news  message  that  Secretary  Fish 
be  asked  about  the  "circular";  and,  if  he 
denied  its  existence,  that  Representative  S.  S. 
Cox,  of  New  York,  offer  a  resolution  calling 
for  all  papers  in  the  "Virginius"  case.  As  an- 
ticipated, Mr.  Fish  denied  that  such  a  letter 
had  been  sent.  Mr.  Cox  introduced  his 
resolution;  three  days  later  the  text  of  the 
"circular"  was  read  to  the  House.  It  was 
printed  next  morning,  with  Mr.  Fish's  denial 
in  black  letter  at  its  top,  and  the  "leader," 
written  by  John  Russell  Young,  was  entitled 
"Lying  and  Diplomacy."  Thus  did  a  young 
correspondent,  with  a  powerful  journal  at 
his  back,  "get  even"  with  a  Secretary  of 
State.     (See  page  58.) 

Spain  was  sure  to  make  rejoinder  and  I 
devoted  my  energies  to  capturing  its  text. 
Engaging  a  clerk  in  the  Foreign  Office,  under 
the  pretext  of  teaching  me  the  language,  I  had 
him  breakfast  with  me  daily  until  one  morning 
he  brought  to  me  a  "brief"  of  the  anticipated 
reply.  1  had  in  my  possession  the  most  val- 
uable current  news  in  all  the  world!  But, 
how  could  it  be  got  out  of  the  country,  past 
the  censor?  I  might  take  train  and  steamer 
for  Bayonne  or  Bordeaux;  but  during  the 
interval  the  Spanish  Minister  would  be 
likely  to  give  out  the  rejoinder.  The  risk  of 
delay  was  serious!  It  must  go  that  night! 
But 'how? 

The  Prince  of  Wales  (afterward  Edward 
VII)  was  about  starting  on  his  return  from 
India.  Much  had  been  printed  in  the  Madrid 
newspapers  about  a  visit  to  Spain  en  route. 
The  interest  was  intense.  Seizing  upon  that 
slender   subterfuge,    I    prepared    a    code   and 


sent  the  following  message  to  the  London  office 
of  my  journal: 

Add  letter  mailed  about  Prince  of  Wales'  visit  to  Spain.  Prospec- 
tive coming  Wales  received  with  great  public  favor.  His  return  from 
East  adds  interest  to  special  private  advices  from  Alexandria  regard- 
ing re-opening  of  diplomatic  controversy  between  Italy  and  Egypt. 
Have  just  ascertained  Italian  government  has  issued  rejoinder  to 
Egypt's  circular  regarding  Suez  question,  replying  in  unmistakable 
language  to  propositions  stated  by  Egyptian  minister  of  state  that 
continued  troubles  at  Suakim  necessitate  Egyptian  intervention  in 
name  of  humanity.  In  tone,  reply  is  quite  belligerent;  takes  high 
ground  on  question  raised.  Impression  at  Alexandria  is  that  it  com- 
pletely counteracts  effect  produced  by  previous  document.  In  sub- 
stance it  declares  existing  commerce  between  Egypt  and  Suakim  has 
not  suffered  to  appreciable  extent  by  troubles  in  Abyssinia.  Instead 
of  trade  having  diminished,  it  has  actually  prospered  and  is  grow- 
ing. Therefore,  no  grounds  of  complaint  and  no  tenable  justifica- 
tion for  proposed  drastic  action.  Statement  is  also  boldly  made  that 
Egypt's  commerce  is  not  her  own,  and  little  prospect  of  any  in  future. 
Attention  is  asked  to  fact  that  many  citizens  of  British  India  and 
Arabia,  as  well  as  of  Egypt,  have  established  themselves  at  the  com- 
mercial center  of  Suakim,  where,  unmolested  by  the  government, 
they  have  amassed  large  individual  fortunes,  adding  no  wealth  to 
country,  because  trade  is  in  foreign  hands.  Further  asserted  that 
Arabian  territory  is  constant  refuge  for  outlaws  from  Suakim,  who 
are  there  permitted  to  hatch  conspiracies  to  detriment  and  injury  of 
home  government,  thus  outraging  law  of  nations.  Besides,  all  just 
and  equitable  claims  between  Egypt  and  Abyssinia  have  been  ami- 
cably and  fully  satisfied,  or  are  before  courts  for  adjudication.  There- 
fore, no  just  complaint  exists.  Style  of  paper  is  argumentative,  vet 
fully  dignified,  as  becomes  occasion.  Alleged  to  have  been  written 
by  Minister  of  War.  Don't  forward  this  until  letter  arrives,  but 
acknowledge  receipt  immediately. 

John  P.  Jackson,  at  the  London  office, 
wired  back:  "Prince  of  Wales'  dispatch  ar- 
rived safely."  The  code,  hastily  prepared, 
had  been  arranged  in  triplicates  for  greater 
diversity  and  here's  a  copy  of  it  from  my 
notebook,  as  written  that  night: 

Cuba Suakim,  Suez,  Abyssinia. 

I  inicd  States.  India,  Arabia,  Egypt. 

Spain Italy,  England,  Tunis. 

Madrid Alexandria,  Rome,  Calcutta. 

Havana Cairo,  Bombay,  Naples. 

Washington Madras,  Aden,  Venice. 

As  will  be  seen,  many  of  the  words  were 
unused.  I  then  prepared  the  following  mes- 
sage, which  W.  E.  Addis,  an  agent  of  the 
Winchester  Arms  Company,  resident  at  my 
hotel,  sent  to  Jackson's  private  address  in 
order  that  it  might  not  be  identified  with  mv 
previous  message : 

Jackson,  Dane's  Inn.  London:  In  letter  forwarded  regarding  Prince 
of  Wales  in  East, cancel  first  twenty-six  words.  Then  correct  India, 
Arabia,  Egypt  to  United  Slates;  Italy  to  Spain;  Suakim  and  Abys- 
sinia to  Cuba;    Alexandria  to  Madrid.     Answer,  if  understand. 

Several  hours  of  anxiety  followed,  until 
this  telegram  was  put  into  my  hands:  "Prince 
sailed  for  America  to-night,  in  perfect  health." 
This  message  can  be  found  in  the  early  part 
of    January.    1876    (X.    Y.    I  fen, hi).      Behold 


50 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


how  dear  it  becomes,  beginning  with  the 
twenty-seventh  word: 

Private  advices  from  Madrid  (are  at  hand)  regarding  the  reopen- 
ing of  the  diplomatic  controversy  between  Spain  and  the  United 
Stales.  Our  Madrid  correspondent  lias  just  ascertained  that  the 
Spanish  Government  has  issued  a  rejoinder  I"  Secretary  Fish's  cir- 
cular letter  regarding  the  Cuban  question,  replying  in  unmistakable 
terms  t<>  propositions  set  forth  by  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  that  continued  troubles  at  (in)  Cuba  necessitate  American 
"intervention  in  the  name  of  humanity."  In  tone,  reply  is  quite 
belligerent;  takes  high  ground  in  the  discussion.  The  impression  at 
.Madrid  is  that  it  completely  counteracts  effect  produced  by  previous 
document  (the  circular  letter  of  Secretary  Fish,  called  for  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  S.  S.  Cox,  of  New  York,  two  weeks  ago 
and  finally  sent  to  Congress,  despite  many  denials  of  its  existence). 
In  substance  the  rejoinder  declares  that  existing  commerce  between 
the  United  States  and  Cuba  has  not  suffered  appreciably  owing  to 
troubles  in  Cuba.  ''  Attention  is  asked  to  fact  thai   many  citi- 

zens of  the  United  Stales  have  established  themselves  in  the  com- 
mercial centers  of  Cuba,  where,  unmolested  by  Spain,  they  have 
grown  rich  adding  no  wealth  to  the  country  because  they  are  aliens 
and  send  their  money  to  the  United  States  as  fast  as  accumulated. 
The  rejoinder  further  asserts  that  United  States  territory  is  a  con- 
stant refuge  for  Cuban  outlaws,  who  are  there  permitted  to  hatch 
conspiracies  (tofitout  privateers  like  the  "Virginius,"  to  buy  and  ship 
arms  to  insurgents),  to  detriment  and  injury  of  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, thus  outrageously  violating  the  law  of  nations,  etc. 

According  to  W.  F.  (i.  Shanks,  a  long-while 
special  correspondent  and  editor,  this  was  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  journalism  a  code 
message  was  sent  in  advance  of  its  key.  Its 
success  was  complete. 

One  rainy  night  in  the  British  capital,  after 
my  return  from  Spain,  the  bell  of  the  Herald 
bureau,  4(i  Fleet  street,  rang  violently.  A 
moment  later,  an  attendant  ushered  in  a 
slender  brunette;  she  was  voting  and  pretty, 
but  her  eves  were  rilled  with  tears.  I  was 
preparing  my  cablegram  of  the  night;  but  the 
sight  of  a  young  woman,  in  trouble,  caused 
an  interruption  of  my  work.  She  carried  a 
copy  of  The  »S'/.»,  which  she  had  received  front 
friends  in  New  York.  It  contained  on  its 
front  page  tin  attack  upon  the  conduct  of  a 
Miss  Emma  Abbott,  of  whom  I  never  had 
heard. 

The  stranger  explained  that  she  was  Miss 
Abbott  and  that  the  article  would  ruin  her 
career,  unless  disproved.  I  read  the  two 
columns,  which  denounced  Miss  Abbott  be- 
cause she  had  married  and  abandoned  a 
musical  career,  upon  which  her  American 
friends,  in  Dr.  Chapin's  church,  had  spent  a 
lot  of  money.  The  article  charged  that  the 
beneficiary  had  been  untrue  to  her  trust  and 
ungrateful  to  her  patrons.  Most  prominent 
was  tin  allegation  that  Miss  Abbott's  chief 
European  patroness,  the  Baronne  Rothschild, 
of  Pans,  had  disproved  of  the  marriage  and 


had  rebuked  her  protege  for  taking  the  step. 
When  I  asked  for  till  the  facts,  the  visitor 
said: 

"I  was  ill  and  in  despair  in  Paris,  due  to  the 
loss  of  my  voice.  I  couldn't  sing  a  note; 
my  voice  was  gone — I  feared,  for  ever!  This 
calamity  was  so  appalling  to  me  that  I  dared 
not  confess  it  to  my  closest  friends.  One  day, 
in  utter  wretchedness,  I  threw  myself  upon  the 
mercy  of  the  good  Baronne,  told  to  her  the 
terrible  truth  ami  closed  by  recounting  Eugene 
Wetherell's  devotion  to  me  and  my  rejection 
of  his  offer  of  marriage.  1  then  added  that 
Mr.  Wetherell  had  counselled  me  to  call  upon 
him,  should  misfortune  overtake  me  and  he 
would  renew  his  offer.  The  sweet  lady  com- 
forted me;  she  advised  marriage,  in  the  hope 
that  1  would  find  in  a  new  happiness  solace 
for  my  bitter  disappointment  at  the  wreck  of  a 
professional  career.  I  cabled  Mr.  Wetherell 
that  night;  he  took  a  steamer  the  next  day! 
So  we  were  married  in  Paris. 

"A  month's  rest  in  Northern  Italy  restored 
niv  health.  One  glorious  morning,  my  voice 
came  back  to  me!  I  could  sing!  The  first 
train  carried  us  to  Paris.  I  was  heard  at  the 
Conservatoire,  and  on  the  strength  of  that 
performance  secured  an  engagement  with 
(';trl  Rosa  in  New  York,  which  1  am  about 
to  fill.  This  article  will  ruin  my  prospects. 
It  is  unjust  and  bears  the  ear-marks  of  a 
jealous  rival's  inspiration.  Can  you  set  me 
right  .-" 

'These  charges  stand  or  tall  upon  the  alle- 
gation that  the  Baronne  Rothschild  regarded 
your  marriage  as  a  breach  of  good  faith  to  her 
and  to  your  American  friends,  who,  by  their 
pecuniary  aid,  enabled  yon  to  attain  a  musical 
education,"  I  replied,  conservatively.  "What 
proof  have  you  that  this  charge  is  untrue?" 

"I  have  here  a  letter  from  the  Baronne 
saying  far  more  strongly  than  1  have  done 
that  she  advised  me  to  marry,  had  met  my 
husband  and  approved  my  choice." 

As  she  spoke,  Miss  Abbott  opened  a  reti- 
cule and  began  a  search  therein. 

"Please  let  me  see  it!"  I  demanded. 

In  another  moment,  the  letter  was  in  my 
hand.  The  Rothschild  crest  was  there!  In 
forty   lines   of   dainty   French   script,   the   pa- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


o  I 


troness  of  this  American  girl  said  everything 
that  a  tender,  sympathetic  heart  could  ex- 
press.    A  complete  vindication! 

"Your  act  in  handing  to  me  this  letter  to 
read,  Madame,  constitutes  a  legal  'publica- 
tion,' under  the  English  common  law,"  I  ex- 
plained, speaking  with  enthusiasm,  because  1 
recognized  the  power  of  the  document,  it' 
properly  used.  'The  vindication  of  your 
course  by  your  noble  patroness  has  been 
published  in  London  to-night.  I  shall  at  once 
cable  its  substance  to  Xew  York;  it  will  be  on 


the  breakfast-tables  of  your  Friends  and  ene- 
mies to-morrow.      Your  career  is  saved!" 

The   lady    was   shown    to    her   cab   and    re- 
turned   to   her  hotel,   much   relieved   in    mind. 

What  1  predicted  occurred,  and  Emma 
Abbott  began  a  career  of  remarkable  financial 
success.  She  died  in  Salt  Lake  City  fourteen 
years  later  worth  a  million  dollars,  which  she 
left  principally  to  small  Western  churches 
tailing  to  endow  even  a  single  free  bed  in  a 
hospital  for  ailing  members  of  her  own  or  the 
newspaper  profession. 


58 


Tilt:    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER    VII 


NINE    PRESIDENTS    I     HAVE    KNOWN 


•  IN*  E  going  to  Washington  in 
December,  1874,  I  have  per- 
sonally known  every  President 
of  the  T  nited  States  after  Lin- 
coln. Although  General  Grant 
was  serving  his  second  term  at 
that  time,  Andrew  Johnson 
came  to  Washington  as  a  Senator  from  Ten- 
nessee. 1  went  to  his  hotel,  on  Pennsylvania 
avenue,  as  a  Herald  correspondent,  to  inter- 
view Johnson  and  was  received  by  him  in  his 
room.  He  was  in  bis  shirt-sleeves,  but  wel- 
comed me  without  apology  and  gave  to  me  a 
cordial  shake  from  a  damp  hand.  Before  I 
describe  what  to  me  was  one  of  the  mosl  dra- 
matic and  historic  incidents  witnessed  during 
many  long  years'  experience  at  the  Capital, 
namely.  Johnson's  reentrance  to  public  life, 
among  a  body  of  men  containing  many  of  his 
bitterest  critics  and  enemies,  I  will  speak  of 
President  Grant  a-  he  appeared  in  those 
day-. 

Conditions  at  that  time  were  not  favorable 
for  a  Herald  representative  to  meet  the  Presi- 
dent. Mr.  Bennett  was  agitating  the  subject 
of  "Caesarism"  in  his  usually  vigorous  man- 
ner. Indications  had  appeared  of  a  desire  by 
the  large  army  following  of  the  Grant  fortunes 
to  renominate  him  for  a  third  term.  Mr.  Ben- 
nett was  bitterly  hostile  and  never  allowed  his 
paper  to  go  to  press  without  a  leading  article 
denunciatory  of  the  cabal  then  urging  a  second 
reelection  upon  the  incumbent  of  the  White 
House.  There  was  no  proof  at  that  time  that 
General  Grant  seriously  entertained  such  a 
de-ire.  although  in  lssn  he  yielded  to  senti- 
ment and  would  have  welcomed  another 
term. 

One  of  my  firsl  experiences  with  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet  had  been  a  call  upon  Hamilton 
Fish,  Secretary  of  State,  who  had  treated  me 
with  rudeness,  because  I  came  as  a  Herald 
representative,  although  he  had  the  impudence 


to  say  that  I  "appeared  to  he  a  gentleman, 
although  in  the  employ  of  a  blackguard."  As 
has  been  seen  in  these  "Recollection-."  I 
squared  that  account  with  Secretary  Fish 
from  Madrid,  one  year  later.  Owing  to  this 
and  other  incidents.  1  was  quite  disinclined  to 
call  upon  General  Grant,  although  I  had  -ecu 
him  .several  time-  ami  had  been  formally  pre- 
sented to  him  at  one  of  his  reception-. 

One  afternoon,  it  became  imperative  for 
somebody  in  the  Herald's  Washington  office 
to  see  the  President.  I  walked  from  the  F 
street  office  to  the  White  House,  climbed  the 
step-  to  General  Babcock's  room  and  laid  the 
matter  before  the  President'-  Secretary  with 
the  best  grace  I  could  summon.  Babcock  on 
several  occasions  had  been  extremely  cour- 
teous to  me.  hut  he  balked  at  sending  in  the 
card  of  a  Herald  man.  At  that  moment. 
John  P.  Foley,  then  editor  of  the  National 
Republican,  the  official  organ  of  the  President. 
entered.  lie  greeted  me  warmly  and  when  1 
told  him  I  was  trying  to  see  President  Grant, 
he  -aid.  "Come  with  me!'  Almost  before  I 
could  comprehend  what  had  occurred,  we 
were  in  the  Cabinet  Room  and  I  had  Keen 
presented  to  the  Chief  Executive.  General 
<  riant  held  an  unlighted  cigar  in  his  teeth, 
and  when  I  stated  the  object  of  my  mission. 
he  motioned  me  to  walk  with  him  to  a  window 
overlooking  the  White  Lot  and  told  me  every- 
thing I  warded  to  know.  Of  course,  I  was 
informed  regarding  the  etiquette  on  such 
occasions  and  knew  that  the  President  must 
never  he  (pioted  a-  giving  information  to  a 
correspondent.  The  friendly  relations  estab- 
lished at  that  time  continued  up  to  the  last. 
I  met  the  General  many  times  thereafter,  es- 
pecially at  Long  Branch,  at  the  house  of 
George  W.  Childs,  of  Philadelphia,  and.  at 
the    General's    suggestion,    once   rode    at    his 

—  — 

side  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  hearing 
for  two  hours,  his  vivid  memories  of  the  Mexi- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


59 


can  War  and  frontier  soldier  life.  Never  at 
any  time  did  I  hear  him  utter  a  sentence 
about  friend  or  foe  in  connection  with  the 
Civil   War. 

Grant's  position  in  history  as  a  commander 
is  unalterably  fixed.  What  place  he  will  have 
in  the  political  chronicles  of  his  country  is 
difficult  to  determine.  The  opinion  of  future 
historians  will  probably  be  that  the  defeat  of 
his  Santo  Domingo  annexation  scheme,  under 
the  conditions  then  inevitable,  namely,  the 
possession  of  the  acquired  territory  by  a  baud 
of  hungry  Federal  "grafters,"-  was  a  fortu- 
nate  event,  although  the  sincerity  of  its  oppo- 
nents,such  as  Sumner  and  Stevens,  was  doubt- 
ful. 

Genera]  Grant  belonged  to  the  Do-Nothing 

Presidents,  was  founder  of  the  dynasty!  He 
was  not  corrupt  but  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
gang  of  the  most  unscrupulous  political  scoun- 
drels this  country  has  known  since  the  days  of 
Aaron  Burr. 

The  two  Houses  of  Congress  were  domi- 
nated  by  Malice  and  Money!  The  persecu- 
tions heaped  upon  the  Southern  people,  still 
staggering  under  direst  misfortune,  although 
self-invoked,  were  continuous,  vindictive,  re- 
lentless and  intended  to  repress  instead  of 
uplift.  General  Grant  was  dominated  by 
Congress:  and  was  ruled  by  a  few  political 
tyrants  as  heartless  as  Persian  satraps.  Had 
he  not  said,  "Let  us  have  peace!"  No  doubt 
he  meant  what  he  uttered:  but  fresh  in  mind 
must  have  been  the  treatment  his  predecessor, 
Andrew  Johnson,  had  received  at  the  hands 
of  Congress.  The  influence  of  that  example 
doubtless  was  potent!  History  will  censure 
Grant  for  the  Reconstruction  period  and  the 
heaped-up  miseries  of  a  defeated  people;  bul 
the  course  of  the  Legislative  branch  of  the 
Government  was  abhorrent  to  Grant's  own 
views.  Hero  worship  was  repugnant  to  him: 
but  he  lacked  sufficient  firmness  to  antagonize 
a  few  strong  men,  in  the  Senate  anil  House, 
who  would  have  destroyed  him  had  he  opposed 
them.  He  had  not  forgotten  what  they  tried 
to  do  to  Johnson:    manv  of  the  same  men  had 


shown    their    fangs 


in 


187^.       Sumner    and 


'Thad."  Stevens  were  dead,  but  there  were 
many  of  the  survivors  left,  as  I  shall  show 
when  I  speak  of  Andrew  Johnson. 


When  the  Marine  Rank  failed  in  1884,  it 
carried  down  with  it  the  firm  of  (irant  & 
Ward,  the  head  of  the  house  being  a  son  of 
General  (irant.  The  latter  borrowed  $150,000 
from  William  II.  Vanderbilt  to  avert  the  col- 
lapse and  lost  it,  with  all  his  savings.  The 
Grants  had  much  sympathy.  The  General 
mortgaged  all  his  property,  declining  Mr. 
Vanderbilt's  offer  to  cancel  his  loan.  The 
"frenzied  financiers,"  who  had  brought  on 
the  disaster.  James  1).  Fish,  president  of  the 
Marine  Rank,  and  Ferdinand  Ward,  active 
member  of  (irant  &  Ward,  were  arrested  for 
fraud,  tried,  convicted  and  each  man  was 
sentenced  to  ten  years'  imprisonment  at  hard 
labor  at  Sing  Sing  prison.  It  was  a  crushing 
blow  to  the  methods  of  Ward,  but  similar  prac- 
tices were  revived  after  a  tew  years  and  trusts 
bloomed  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  a  forc- 
ing house  for  more  than  a  hundred  such  or- 
ganizations. 

The  last  hours  of  the  Forty-third  Congress 
(March.  1875)  were  approaching,  a  session 
made  historic  by  the  enactment  of  the  Civil 
Rights  bill.  Senators,  as  well  as  Members  of 
the  House,  were  chiefly  intent  upon  the  final 
passage  of  bills  in  which  they  were  personally 
interested.  Under  such  conditions,  a  short, 
broad-shouldered  and  aged  man  entered  the 
main  door  of  the  Senate  Chamber  one  after- 
noon, alone.  He  gazed  about  the  room:  then, 
with  a  sneer  upon  his  shaven  face,  he  walked 
to  a  sofa  at  the  rear.  Nobody  appeared  to 
know  this  stranger.  Obviously,  he  had  a  right 
to  the  floor.  I  had  seen  him  for  the  first  time 
on  the  preceding  night  at  his  hotel.  Therefore, 
I  recognized  the  Senator-elect  from   Tennessee, 

a  man  who  had  sat  in  the  Lower  House  in 
the  forties,  had  presided  over  the  Upper  House 

and    as    President    of    the    United     States    had 

been  arraigned  before  the  bar  of  this  same 
Senate,  charged  with  high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors! By  the  narrow  margin  of  one  vote, 
he  had  escaped  becoming  the  victim  of  a 
political  persecution  as  vindictive  as  any  since 
the  time  of  Warren  Hastings. 

Here  was  the  small,  stoop-shouldered  man 
who  had  the  nation  by  the  ears  in  1868, 
Andrew    Johnson! 

A  hurried  glance  about  the  Chamber  dis- 
covered  Senators   who   had   voted   to  degrade 


()() 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


this  man,  types  of  unbending  will  or  .slaves  to 
party.  How  many,  many  things  had  happened 
in  seven  years!  The  re-volt  of  the  Independent 
Republicans  in  1872,  for  example,  led  by  the 
denouncers  of  Johnson, — statesmen  who  so 
soon  forgot  their  own  intolerance.  And  public 
opinion,  too.  had  reversed  itself.  The  Ameri- 
can people  had  mentally  effaced  the  Johnson 
who  uttered  wild  harangues  and  "swung 
'round  the  circle,"  and  had  installed  in  their 
hearts  the  face  and  figure  of  him  who  had 
been  a  sturdy,  steadfast  loyalist  when  the 
Federal  Union  needed  friends. 

The  presence  of  that  neglected  old  man,  at 
the  rear  of  the  Chamber,  conjured  up  a  pic- 
ture of  that  same  legislative  hall  on  March  13, 
1868  (not  witnessed  by  me),  when  the  social 
and  diplomatic  world  assembled  to  see  the 
baiting  of  a  President  who  had  become  useless 
to  his  party.  In  that  very  room,  the  menace 
of  impeachment  and  eternal  disgrace  had  been 
confronted.  The  indictment  was  prepared  by 
seven  partisans,  every  one  of  whom,  remain- 
ing alive  and  in  Congress,  afterwards  par- 
ticipated in  filching  $1,250,000  from  the 
American  people  under  the  pretext  of  "back 
pay."  The  summons  and  complaint  was 
signed  by  Schuyler  Colfax,  whose  character, 
on  investigation,  disqualified  him  for  passing 
judgment  even  upon  an  habitual  criminal. 
The  presiding  Chief  Justice  was  plotting  for 
the  presidency,  assisted  by  a  "reptile  fund" 
as  vile  as  any  ever  got  together  in  France  or 
Germany:  the  names  of  newly  rich  members 
of  the  Whiskey  Ring,  who  supplied  the  money, 
and  of  the  corrupted  newspaper  correspond- 
ents who  received  it,  were  known  to  the  silent 
man.  Was  it  strange  that  he  was  cynical  ? 
Could  he  forget  the  undue  haste  with  which 
his  case  was  Forced  to  trial.  Never  was  felon 
given  shorter  shrift!  His  counsel.  Stanbury, 
Black  and  Evarts,  asked  forty  days  to  prepare 
the  defence;  they  were  grudgingly  allowed 
ten,  two  of  which  were  Sundays. 

The  trial  was  a  farce,  a  mockery  of  legal 
procedure.  The  Senate  Chamber  was  a  scene 
of  social  carnival,  like  an  intellectual  debauch 
of  "profane  history."  Women  of  high  estate 
intrigued,  coaxed  and  fought  for  tickets.  Am- 
bassadors  were  not  then  accredited  at  this 
court;    but  the  ministerial  spy  of  every  petty 


monarch  was  present  to  gloat  over  the  final 
disgrace  of  a  Republic  that  had  barely  sur- 
vived a  bloody  Civil  War.  There  wasn't  any 
White  House  coterie;  therefore,  a  daughter  of 
the  chief  justice  and  wife  of  a  Senatorial  juror 
monopolized  the  Executive  box,  to  enjoy  the 
humiliation  of  its  rightful  occupant.  The 
Montague-Spragues  and  the  Capulet-Antho- 
nys,  two  rival  Rhode  Island  families,  head- 
ed the  social  factions  and  reigned  at  different 
ends  of  the  Senate  gallery.  The  crush  was 
tremendous.  Historians,  artists,  diplomats 
jostled  one  another.  The  sergeant-at-arms 
made  proclamation,  as  if  he  were  garter  king- 
at-arms.  The  respondent  appeared  by  attor- 
neys. He  did  not  come  in  person  to  bend  the 
knee  before  the  high  chief  justice  who  was 
scheming  for  his  job,  or  Senator  Wade,  who, 
as  President  of  the  Senate,  expected  to  fill  out 
the  Presidential  term.  He  continued  to  scorn 
the  Fortieth  ( longress. 

Then  the  charges  were  read. — eleven  articles 
that  soon  simmered  to  two!  Three  sets  of 
speeches  made  by  Johnson  at  Cleveland  and 
St.  Louis  were  offered  in  evidence.  None  of 
the  reports  agreed  in  text.  A  violation  of  the 
Tenure  of  Office  act  was  made  out.  because 
Johnson  had  removed  Stanton,  who,  with 
Chase,  was  scheming  against  him.  A  very 
grave  accusation  (at  the  time)  was  Johnson's 
veto  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  bill, — a  bureau 
that  afterwards  became  so  corrupt  that  the 
very  men  who  had  condemned  Johnson  abol- 
ished it!  And  so  on,  to  the  end.  Intolerant, 
contemptuous  to  counsel  for  the  respondent, 
the  mock  tribunal  held  fifteen  sessions.  Then 
it  took  a  vote  on  Article  XI  (the  ousting  of  the 
insubordinate  Stanton),  and  the  verdict  was: 
Guilty,  35;  not  guilty,  19.  The  impeachment 
failed  because  the  prosecution  had  not  secured 
the  requisite  two-thirds. 

Charles  Sumner,  after  violently  opposing  all 
expressions  of  personal  opinions  by  Senatorial 
jurors,  talked  thirty-four  printed  pages  of  a 
report  in  explanation  of  his  own  vote.  A  calm 
reading  to-day  shows  its  insufferable  egotism. 
George  II.  Williams,  afterwards  known  as 
"  Landaulet"  Williams  and  dismissed  and  dis- 
graced by  Grant,  concluded  five  pages  of  talk 
with  the  assertion:  "I  believe  Andrew  John- 
son to  be  dangerous  to  the  country." 


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61 


While  thinking  of  all  these  tilings,  I  had 
been  watching  the  old  man  on  the  sofa  whose 
mind  probably  had  been  following  a  similar 
channel.  He  beckoned  to  a  page  and  sent 
the  hoy  to  the  only  Senator  present  among 
the  nineteen  who  had  voted  "Not  Guilty!" 
The  moment  Mr.  McCreery  was  aware  of 
Senator-elect  Johnson's  presence,  he  hastened 
to  welcome  him.  The  fine  Kentucky  gentle- 
man  was  arrayed  in  immaculate  linen  and  a 
swallow-tail  coat  of  perfect  fit.  The  greeting- 
was  frank  and  hearty.  By  this  time,  people 
in  the  gallery  "took  notice,"  and  the  incident 
became  the  dominating  one  in  the  Chamber. 
The  big  Kentuckian  towered  head  and  shoul- 
ders over  the  stocky,  stooping,  tailorman  from 
Tennessee.  Still  clasping  hands,  they  turned 
and  overlooked  the  Senators  between  them 
and  the  rostrum  upon  which  Vice-President 
Wilson  was  enthroned.  And  Wilson  had  voted 
"Guilty!" 

An  eye-stroke  of  the  Chamber  showed  John- 
son that  of  the  thirty-five  who  had  condemned 
him.  thirteen  were  still  there!  Senator  Brown- 
low,  whom  Johnson  was  to  succeed,  kept  out  of 
sight;  the  Senator-elect  was  not  on  speaking 
terms  with  his  prospective  colleague,  Mr. 
Cooper,  because  of  alleged  duplicity  in  the 
legislative  election  at  which  Johnson  had  been 
defeated  two  years  previously. 

Johnson  tried  to  appear  unconscious  of  the 
glances  directed  upon  him  from  all  parts  of 
the  Chamber.  Morton,  of  Indiana,  had  a 
front  seat  on  the  main  aisle.  A  look  of  defiance 
blazed  in  his  face;  lame  as  he  was,  he  thought 
himself  Sir  Brian  de  Bois-Guilbert  of  the 
Senate,  always  ready  for  the  lists  of  oratory. 
His  long  black  hair  crackled  with  magnetism: 
but  the  man  near  the  door  took  no  notice  of 
the  menace  of  the  "War  Governor." 

Mr.  Anthony's  face  assumed  a  far-away 
look.  Simon  Cameron,  just  returned  from 
the  glamour  of  Russian  court  life,  began  to 
totter  about,  affecting  to  be  unusually  busy. 
Mr.  Cragin  kept  his  eyes  on  the  floor.  Mr. 
Edmunds,  known  as  "St.  Jerome"  in  the 
press  gallery,  was  making  an  objection  to  a 
ruling;  but  when  he  caught  sight  of  a  group 
of  Democratic  Senators  gathering  about  the 
former  President,  he  abruptly  sat  down.  In 
his   abstraction,    like   the   barber's   brother   in 


the  Arabian  tale,  he  kicked  over  a  row  of  law- 
books on  shelves  at  the  front  of  his  desk.  His 
colleague,  Mr.  Morrill,  of  the  "moral  tariff" 
was  travelling  afar  on  a  train  of  thought! 
Senator  Morton  glanced  at  Morrill  and  sneer- 
ed. When  I  asked  him.  days  after,  why  he 
had  done  so,  the  Indianian  answered:  "Be- 
cause Morrill  thinks  he  looks  like  Charles 
Sumner,  but  he  doesn't." 

Roscoe  ( lonkling's  figure  was  one  that  never 
could  remain  out  of  a  picture.  His  desk  was 
on  the  left  side  of  the  main  aisle,  in  front  of 
that  occupied  for  so  many  years  by  Stewart. 
of  Nevada.  'Conkling  was  aware  of  Johnson's 
presence,  and  taking  up  a  letter  pretended  to 
read.  In  reality,  he  was  watching  from  his 
left  eye  the  attention  bestowed  upon  the  re- 
habilitated politician. 

A  deep  hush  fell  upon  the  Senate  Chamber. 
Mr.  .Johnson,  on  the  arm  of  Mr.  McCreery, 
began  to  move  down  the  centre  aisle  towards 
the  high  altar  where  sat  Vice-President  Wilson. 
Mi-.  Cooper  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  centre 
aisle,  bowed  stiffly,  and  attended  his  colleague. 
Amid  impressive  silence,  the  three  men  walked 
down  the  broad  steps.  Johnson  had  grown 
much  paler.  Several  of  the  younger  members, 
memorably  Carl  Schurz,  rose  to  do  honor  to 
Johnson's  former  greatness, — as  the  House  of 
Commons  uncovered  to  Warren  Hastings  on 
his  final   visit. 

Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  one  of  "the  thirteen 
apostles  of  reform,"  was  on  his  knees,  seek- 
ing a  book  or — a  hatchet  ?  Morrill,  of  Maine, 
and  Ferry,  of  Connecticut,  pretended  to  be 
chatting  together  and  affected  a  sympathy 
for  the  man  they  had  once  condemned.  John 
Sherman  stared  the  newcomer  frankly  in  the 
face!  I  was  watching  them  closely  from  the 
front  row  of  the  press  gallery.  Their  eyes 
met;  in  his  glance,  Johnson  forgave  Sherman. 
The  two  men  afterwards  became  friends. 
Senator  Hamlin,  who  hadn't  censured  John- 
son, nudged  Boutwell  and  pointed  to  the  ceil- 
ing. The  Massachusetts  man  didn't  appre- 
ciate this  reference  to  his  speech  in  the  House, 
during  which  he  had  described  "a  hole  in  the 
sky"  through  which  alone  the  (then)  Presi- 
dent could  escape  punishment. 

In  a  grave  and  sonorous  voice,  Henry  Wil- 
son read  to  the  man  before  him  the  obligation 


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THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


of  a  United  States  Senator.  Wilson  was  stand- 
ing, an  unusual  thing  for  him.  I  wondered 
whether  the  act  was  a  tribute  to  the  candi- 
date, or  an  atonement  for  wrong?  On  every 
side,  recognition  of  irreparable  injustice  was 
shown.  The  scene  suggested  one  in  which 
a  jury  had  condemned  a  man  to  death  and 
afterward  repented  of  its  action. 

Half  an  hour  later,  I  met  Senator  Johnson 
in  the  corridor,  still  walking  on  the  arm  of  the 
sturdy  McCreery.  There  were  tears  in  his 
eyes  as  1  lifted  my  hat  and  greeted  him  and  in 
answer  to  my  inquiry  regarding  his  absent 
friends,  he  said  with  the  frankness  of  a  child: 

''I  feel  very  badly.  I  would  wish  to  shake 
hands  with  Bayard  (meaning  the  father  of  the 
then  Senator  from  Delaware),  Buckalew  of 
Pennsylvania.  Davis  of  Kentucky,  Doolittle 
of  Wisconsin,  Dickson  of  Connecticut,  Fessen- 
den  of  Maine.  Grimes  of  Iowa,  Fowler  of 
Tennessee,  Hendricks  of  Indiana.  Johnson 
and  Vickers  of  Maryland,  Norton  of  Minne- 
sota, Ross  of  Kansas,  Saulsbury  of  Delaware, 
Trumble  of  Illinois  and  Van  Winkle  of  West 
Virginia.  I  cannot  forget  that  they  were 
steadfast  when — when  my  own  party  had 
repudiated  me  and  I  needed  friends." 

President  Hayes  had  served  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  before  I  went  to  Wash- 
ington and  although  I  was  a  native  of  Ohio, 
I  did  not  meet  him  until  near  the  end  of  his 
first  year  at  the  White  House.  Governor 
Tilden,  whom  he  had  defeated,  technically, 
was  well  known  to  me, — first  from  his  con- 
nection with  the  Tweed  trial  and,  later,  at 
Albany  when  he  was  Governor.  Tilden,  small 
as  he  was  in  stature,  possessed  a  distinct  per- 
sonality; but  the  countryman  from  Ohio, 
Hayes,  who  got  the  White  House  job,  travelled 
entirely  upon  his  record  as  a  capable  soldier. 
Nothing  discreditable  could  be  said  about 
his  career  in  the  army.  He  never  had  been 
trapped,  although  he  had  encountered  several 
of  the  cleverest  tacticians  of  the  Confederacy. 
I  was  told  by  men  who  had  been  in  Congress 
at  the  time  that  Hayes  was  rarely  listened  to 
with  attention. 

Entering  office  with  a  clouded  title,  since 
universally  believed  to  have  been  purchased 
corruptly  (probably  without  his  knowledge), 
President  Hayes  should  have  devoted  sleep- 


less nights  to  squaring  his  dubious  position  by 
specific  performance  of  great  deeds.  Instead, 
he  supinely  took  his  place  as  second  of  the 
Do-Nothing  Presidents.  Already  large  cor- 
porations  were  grabbing  everything  in  sight! 
Railroads  were  putting  bills  through  Congress 
giving  to  them  many  hundred  thousand  acres 
of  public  lands,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
were  defaulting  in  payment  of  interest  upon 
money  already  advanced  or  bonds  guar- 
anteed by  the  Government.  Nine  men  out 
of  every  ten  in  politics  were  so  occupied  for 
the  purpose  of  enriching  themselves,  or  giv- 
ing public  money  to  other  people  who  would 
divide  with  them!  President  Daves  heard 
nothing,  saw  nothing,  did  nothing!  True, 
his  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Carl  Schurz,  who 
had  left  his  native  land  for  the  cause  of  liberty, 
had  fought  valiantly  in  the  Federal  army 
for  the  salvation  of  the  Union,  did  strive  to 
check  thefts  of  vast  timber  regions;  but  his 
efforts  were  abortive.  President  Hayes  was 
more  interested  in  a  patent  incubator  he  daily 
visited  in  a  corner  of  the  White  House  con- 
servatory than  he  was  in  the  welfare  of  the 
masses  of  the  American  people. 

Garfield  I  had  come  to  know  well  during 
heated  days  of  the  Civil  Rights  Bill  debate. 
General  Butler,  "the  Holy  Terror,"  domi- 
nated the  House  at  that  time  so  completely 
that  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  think  of  any- 
body else  in  connection  therewith.  One  of 
his  favorite  pastimes  was  belittling  Garfield. 
Whether  the  latter  ever  thought  himself  an 
orator  or  not  is  difficult  to  say.  He  dressed 
like  a  parson  and  swaggered  like  Don  Caesar 
de  Bazan !  Garfield  was  a  victim  of  indolence, 
bad  advice  and  physical  infirmity.  That 
he  was  without  moral  principle  as  regards 
his  fellowmen  was  proven  by  the  Rosencrans 
correspondence  with  Secretary  Chase,  which 
was  given  to  Charles  A.  Dana  by  John  W. 
Shuchers,  Chase's  private  secretary,  and  pub- 
lished in  The  Sun.  His  futile  effort,  as 
President,  to  curb  the  dictation  of  Senators 
and  Representatives  was  merely  part  of  a 
plan  to  secure  control  of  the  Empire  State 
for  James  G.  Blaine,  in  order  to  select  its 
delagation  in  the  next  Republican  National 
Convention. 

The  issue  upon  which  Conkling  and  Piatt 


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63 


went  down,  apparently  forever  (true  in  the 
ease  of  Mr.  Conkling),  was  what  is  variously 
termed  "the  Congressional  Rule"  in  the 
House  and  "Senatorial  Courtesy"  in  the 
Chamber.  Although  an  unwritten  code,  it 
had  been  recognized  since  the  days  of  Presi- 
dent Jackson  and  was  so  firmly  established 
that  Senators  and  Representatives  of  the  domi- 
nant party  insisted  upon  its  observance.  An- 
drew Jackson  had  uttered  the  dictum.  "To 
the  victor  belongs  the  spoils"  and  he  always 
lived  up  to  it.  The  right  of  individual  mem- 
bers of  Congress  to  be  consulted  by  the  Presi- 
dent regarding  all  appointments  made  in  their 
states  and  districts  owed  its  origin  to  this 
claim.  Although  Garfield  pretended  a  desire 
to  overthrow  it,  subsequent  disclosures  indi- 
cated that  he  merely  wanted  to  overturn  the 
party  machine  in  the  Empire  State  and  to 
pave  the  way  for  James  G.  Blaine's  nomina- 
tion in  1884.  YVhitelaw  Reid  became  the 
President's  chief  advisor  and  a  long  telegram 
that  he  sent  to  the  late  John  Hay,  to  lie  read 
to  the  President,  found  its  way  into  the  col- 
umns of  the  Herald  by  some  mysterious  chan- 
nel and  precipitated  a  national  split  in  the 
party.  The  perils  of  telegraphy  never  were 
more  obvious.  It  is  doubtful  if  a  despatch  so 
tilled  with  personalities  ever  went  over  tin- 
wires  between  New  York  and  Washington. 
Robertson,  an  up-state  politician,  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Collectorship  of  this  port,  in 
opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  two  Senators, 
causing  their  resignations.  The  acrimony  and 
fevered  condition  that  followed  developed  a 
crank.  Guiteau,  who  shot  the  President  and 
who  was  hanged  for  the  infamous  act.  From 
that  time  until  the  second  term  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  no  attempt  was  made  by  any  Chief 
Magistrate  to  challenge  the  monstrous  usurpa- 
tion that  had  well-nigh  destroyed  the  appoint- 
ing power  of  the  President, — except  of  a  few 
cadets  to  West  Point  and  Annapolis. 

To  the  hour  of  his  death,  in  health  or  in 
suffering  from  his  wound.  Garfield  was  a  Do- 
Nothing  President  and  will  be  so  taken  bv 
posterity. 

Of  General  Arthur,  1  would  wish  to  speak 
with  affectionate  kindness.  We  had  known 
each  other  at  the  Custom  House  on  Wall 
street,  when  he  was  Collector, — had  together 


eaten  pumpkin  pie,  made  by  an  aged  Vermont 
woman  who  kept  a  stall  in  one  of  the  corridors. 
Arthur  came  into  the  presidential  office  under 
a  very  different  cloud  from  that  which  had 
enveloped  Hayes.  He  was  a  politician  of  nar- 
row vision;  easy  in  his  views  on  polities,  re- 
ligion and  morality.  During  his  encumbeney 
of  three  years  and  almost  a  half,  Congress  did 
exactly  as  it  pleased.  There  were  no  great 
scandals,  simply  because  there  were  no  serious 
Congressional  investigations.  The  "Trusties" 
were  "sawing  wood,"  just  as  they  had  been 
under  Hayes  and  Garfield. 

The  name  of  Grover  Cleveland  first  came 
to  my  ears  in  a  peculiar  manner.  I  was  sent 
from  New  York  to  a  hanging  in  Pennsylvania 
and  the  sheriff  whose  oath  compelled  him  to 
execute  the  condemned  man  was  in  such  a 
stale  of  hysteria  that  he  told  me  he  had  sent 
to  the  sheriff  of  Erie  County.  New  York,  a 
man  named  Cleveland,  to  engage  the  services 
of  one  of  his  assistants  who  had  had  experience 
in  hanging  people.  This  imported  executioner 
showed  to  me  two  nooses  he  had  brought  with 
him  from  Buffalo.  This  was  during  the  winter 
of  187. '5. 

The  next  mention  of  Grover  Cleveland  was 
made  to  me  in  the  winter  of  1881  by  Governor 
Alon/.o  B.  Cornell  at  a  dinner  of  the  New  York 
Alumni  of  Cornell  University. 

"There  is  a  remarkable  man  in  Buffalo." 
began  the  Governor.  "His  name  is  Cleveland, 
and  although  he  is  mayor  of  the  city,  he  re- 
cently came  to  see  me  in  a  legal  capacity  on 
behalf  of  a  convicted  murderer,  under  sen- 
tence of  death.  His  appeal  to  me  for  execu- 
tive clemency  was  totally  unlike  any  I  hereto- 
fore have  received.  It  was  without  sentiment. 
It  was  a  cold,  dispassionate  presentation  of  the 
unfortunate  circumstances  under  which  the 
killing  was  done,  the  provocation  and  the 
shadow  of  presumptive  justification,  from  the 
view-point  of  the  man  who  committed  the  act. 
Although  the  brief  which  he  left  with  me  con- 
tained numerous  citations  of  precedents,  1  was 
so  impressed  with  the  sincerity  and  the  legal 
cock-sureness  of  the  man  that  1  commuted 
the  sentence.  1  hope  some  of  my  successors 
will  pardon  him."  He  was  talking  about  his 
own  successor,  although  he  did  not  know  it! 
Many    years    afterwards,    at    another    Cornell 


(>4 


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d/V 


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PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND,   IN    1895 
(A  pen  and  ink  sketch  given  10  me  bj  Valerien  ( Iribayedofl  I 

dinner,  attended  by  ex-Governor  Cornell  and 
ex-President  Cleveland,  I  publicly  repeated 
this  episode,  much  to  the  astonishment  of 
both  guests.  After  the  dinner,  Mr.  Cleveland 
confirmed  the  story  to  me.  He  did  not  pardon 
the  man;    one  of  his  successors  did  so. 

Daniel  S.  Lamont  had  been  known  to  me 
as  a  member  of  the  Albany  Argus  staff.  As 
happened,  I  was  not  sent  to  Albany  on  any 
mission  during  Governor  Cleveland's  term, 
but  I  was  present  at  Washington  on  March  4, 
1885,  as  one  of  the  Herald  staff,  to  report  the 
Inauguration  of  the  new  President.  From 
the  stand  at  the  south  side  of  the  capitol,  I 
saw  President  Arthur  drive  up  with  his  suc- 
cessor by  his  side,  heard  the  oath  administered 
by  Chief  Justice  Waite,  saw  Mr.  Cleveland 
kiss  a  small,  ribbon-tied  Bible  (said  to  have 
been  a  gift  of  the  President-elect's  mother), 
and  I  listened  with  rapt  attention  to  the  inau- 
gural address.  In  December  of  the  same  year, 
I   returned  to   Washington   as    Herald  corre- 


spondent and  remained  until  the  close  of  the 
session  the  following  Summer. 

Col.  Lamont,  owing  his  title  to  service  on  the 
staff  of  Governor  Cleveland,  was  the  Presi- 
dent's private  secretary  and  through  him  I 
had  easy  access  to  the  Chief  Executive.  Wil- 
liam ('.  Whitney,  well  known  to  me  when  in 
the  Corporation  Counsel's  office,  at  Xew  York, 
was  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  was  a  valu- 
able friend. 

An  army  officer  (on  May  17,  1886)  whis- 
pered to  me  that  President  Cleveland  had 
bought  a  country  place  on  the  Green  Mill 
road.  The  real  estate  broker's  name  was  un- 
known to  him.  Going  to  the  White  House,  I 
asked  Lamont  if  my  information  were  true. 
He  looked  me  straight  in  the  eye  and  said, 
"No,  it  is  incorrect."  Further,  he  would 
not  speak.  The  President  could  not 
be  seen.  It  was  a  complete  throwdown!  I 
was  leaving  the  White  House,  believing  the 
rumor  unfounded.  On  the  stairs.  I  encoun- 
tered Secretary  Whitney.  He  remarked  about 
my  dejected  look.  I  told  him  what  hail  hap- 
pened; I  had  hoped  for  a  "scoop,"  but 
Lamont  had  disillusioned  me.  A  merry 
twinkle  appeared  in  the  Secretary's  eves  as 
he  cross-examined  me,  lawyer-like. 

'Tell   me   exactly   what  you   asked   him?" 
said  he. 

"Has  the  President  bought  a  country  place 
on  the  Green  Mill  road?'  was  my  language," 
I   replied. 

Whitney  laughed  heartily.  "He  told  you 
the  truth,  because  the  place  is  on  the  Tennly- 
town  road.  See  Bennett,  a  broker  on  F  street, 
opposite  the  Masonic  Temple.  Good  luck  to 
you ! 

I  hired  a  team,  drove  to  the  real  estate 
office,  got  the  address  of  the  President's  new 
property,  "Red  Top;"  drove  the  five  miles, 
entered  the  grounds,  gave  money  to  the  care- 
taker, thoroughly  explored  the  building,  made 
plans  of  its  two  floors,  returned  in  the  car- 
riage, caught  "the  Congressional  Limited" 
for  New  York  at  3.50,  wrote  my  "story"  on 
the  train,  delivered  the  copy  at  Broadway  and 
Ann  Street  about  eleven  o'clock,  took  a  soda 
water  with  old  John  Graham,  at  Iludnut's, 
jumped  into  a  hack,  caught  the  twelve  o'clock 
ferryboat  at    Cortland   street,  went  to  bed  in 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


65 


a  Pullman  at  Jersey  City  and  woke  up  in 
Washington  next  morning.  The  trip  to  New 
York  was  necessary,  for  two  reasons:  one 
cannot  telegraph  diagrams  and  wires  have 
been  known  to  "leak.  "     It  was  a  fine  "scoop." 

From  a  professional  view-point,  the  most 
important  event  in  President  Cleveland's  first 
term  was  Miss  Folsom's  marriage  to  him  on 
June  l2.  1N86.  I  was  held  responsible  for  the 
Herald's  account  of  the  wedding.  It  proved 
to  be  a  difficult  assignment,  involving  labor 
necessary  to  produce  six  columns  of  printed 
matter,  in  addition  to  securing  the  informa- 
tion. The  Rev.  Dr.  Sunderland,  who  offi- 
ciated, gave  to  me  the  original  text  of  the 
service.  This  curious  paper  is  still  in  my 
possession.  Ralph  Meeker,  who  had  known 
the  Folsom  family,  was  sent  to  the  honeymoon 
retreat  in  the  Blue  Ridge.  I  attended  the 
reception  given  by  President  and  Mrs.  Cleve- 
land on  their  return  from  the  mountains. 

The  unfortunate  incident  of  Mr.  Cleveland's 
first  term, — for  which  he  was  loudly  praised 
by  the  "Interests"  at  the  time. — was  the 
sending  of  United  States  troops  to  quell  a 
strike  in  Chicago.  Had  he  been  appealed  to 
by  the  Governor,  he  would  have  been  within 
his  prerogative.  Governor  Altgelt,  like  men 
since  his  day  who  have  regard  for  the  many  in- 
stead of  the  few,  was  described  as  "an  anar- 
chist," by  corporation-controlled  Senators  and 
Representatives.  He  was  misunderstood,  just 
as  were  western  farmers  who  revolted  against 
exactions  of  the  railroads.  He  was  quite  ca- 
pable of  handling  the  situation.  Interference 
of  the  Chief  Executive  at  Washington  and  the 
subsequent  calumny  heaped  upon  Altgelt 
crushed  his  sensitive  nature  and  caused  his 
death.  I  knew  Governor  Altgelt  reasonably 
well,  understood  his  views  in  opposition  to 
the  growing  monopolies  and  thoroughly  credit- 
ed his  sincerity. 

While  it  is  hardly  fair  to  class  Mr.  Cleve- 
land with  the  Do-Nothing  Presidents,  be- 
cause he  tried  to  accomplish  some  things,  his 
achievements  were  not  equal  to  his  courage 
and  the  disasters  that  grew  out  of  the  Wilson 
tariff  legislation  set  back  the  cause  of  tariff 
reform  a  generation. 

Senator  Benjamin  Harrison  was  well  known 
to  me  in  1886,  when  I  was  at   Washington.      I 


frequently  met  him  at  Charles  Nordhoff's house 
on  K  street.  Once  I  was  invited  to  his  modest 
residence,  adjacent  to  the  large  property  of 
R.  R.  Hitt.  The  Harrisons  were  simple- 
minded  people;  the  Senator's  wife  kept  a  cow. 
which  she  milked.  I  remember  telling  a 
ghost  story  at  Nordhoff's  one  night  about 
which  Senator  Harrison  expressed  much  in- 
terest. At  another  time,  when  I  reminded  the 
Senator  that  his  grandfather  had  been  an 
Indian  fighter  anil  President  of  the  United 
States,  he  said:  "I  never  felt  much  interest  in 
my  ancestors.  I  never  received  anything 
from  them  except  an  education  and  that  was 
sufficient.  My  father  died  poor.  I  married 
young  and  my  wile  and  I  lived  in  a  house  of 
three  rooms.  We  had  six  knives,  six  two- 
pronged  folks  and  six  plates.  Mrs.  Harrison 
did  her  own  work  and  never  since  have  we 
been  happier." 

After  Benjamin  Harrison  became  Presi- 
dent, I  met  him  probably  fifty  times.  De- 
spite- the  fact  that  he  was  always  courteous, 
duty  compels  me  to  assign  him  to  a  niche 
in  the  gallery  of  Do-Nothing  Presidents.  He 
had  a  fine  legal  mind,  was  inclined  to  be  in- 
dependent, and  had  in  the  person  of  James  G. 
Blaine  the  most  brilliant  and  far-seeing  co- 
adjutor possessed  by  any  President  since  the 
days  of  Jefferson.  Much  was  possible  for 
Harrison.  He  was  a  worker,  unentangled  by 
any  alliances;  as  he  told  Ingersoll,  he  believed 
himself  a  selection  of  Almighty  God;  he  had 
been  a  soldier  and  had  won  a  brevet  for 
bravery  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  at  Atlanta; 
he  knew  of  the  methods  employed  by  lobby- 
ists and  their  masters  to  influence  legislation, 
although  his  own  hands  were  perfectly  clean. 
Unlike  his  predecessor,  he  did  not  lack  ex- 
perience in  Washington  methods.  He  could 
have  put  his  medical  finger  upon  every  dis- 
ease that  infected  national  affairs!  Alas,  he 
did  nothing!  He  hampered  Blaine;  was  jeal- 
ous of  him.  The  broad  views  regarding 
reciprocity  and  especially  the  development 
of  South  American  trade  held  by  his  Secre- 
tary of  State  were  repudiated  by  Harrison.  I 
know  these  facts  to  be  true,  because  of  con- 
versations had  with  Mr.  Blaine  at  Cape  May 
Point  and  later  at  Bar  Harbor.  Harrison 
believed   what   he  said   to    [ngersoll,   but   the 


(.<; 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


latter's  retorl  was  whal  made  the  incidenl 
immortal.  "I  have  said  some  pretty  hard 
things  about  the  Almighty,  l>ui  never  anything 
equal  to  that,"  was  Ingersoll's  rejoinder. 

As  I  was  about  to  enter  ;i  train  for  New 
York  nl  the  old  Sixth  street  station  in  Wash- 
ington (1891),  I  saw  ex  President  Cleveland's 
face  al  a  «  indow  nl'  n  Pullman  ear  and  stepped 
in  for  a  moment  i<>  pa\  my  respects,  lie  was 
coming  north  from  Louisiana,  where  lie  had 
been  visiting  his  friend,  Joseph  Jefferson,  the 
actor,  Jefferson's  plantation  was  in  the  parish 
so  admirably  described  in  George  \Y.  Cable's 
"Bonavcnture."  Mr.  Cleveland  did  no!  travel 
in  ;i  private  car,  l>ul  nobody  intruded  upon 
his  privacy,  lie  volunteered  to  me  the  infor- 
mation thai  the  fishing  and  shooting  were 
of  llie  best.  I  was  aboul  to  proceed  to  the 
far  end  nl    llie  parlor  ear.   where   inv   seal    was 

located,  w  lien  Mr.  Cleveland  asked  if  I  played 

"California  .lack."  1  confessed  il  was  inv 
enthusiasm      when      in      college.        The      poller 

produced  a  table  and  a  pack  of  cards.  Iml  the 
K.\  ['resident's  memon  was  so  far  superior 
to  mine  thai  1  was  outclassed,  lie  played  a 
realh  superior  game. 

1  desire  to  s;i\  little  about  Mr.  Cleveland's 
second  lerin.      The  Venezuela  message  will  l>e 

referred     to    elsewhere.       Mr.     Cleveland     was 

sound  on  the  money  question,  I u > I  he  did  not, 
in  message  or  speech,  utter  a  protest  against 
the  constantly  increasing  arrogance  o(  the 
"protected"  monopolies!  lie  placed  one  verv 
large  loan  in  Wall  Street  that  gladly  would 
have  been  taken  by  llie  people  o\'  the  United 
Stales.  Proof  i*\'  this  assertion  was  furnished, 
near  llu-  i-wA  o(  his  term,  when   Mr.   Pulitzer 

forced    the    President    to    throw    open    the    sale 

ot  a  second  bond  issue  to  public  subscription. 

The  proprietor  of  the  World  took  a   million 

dollars'    worth    of    the    bonds    himself.     The 

issue   was   greatly   over-subscribed,   at    much 

higher    prices    than    Wall    Street    would    have 

ottered. 

William    Mckinley    made    his    first    appear 

ance  in  Washington  as  a  Representative  in 
December,    1ST?      lie   was   a    gawky,    pink- 

cheeked,  serious  countryman  from  Ohio.  He 
attracted  little  attention.  lie  was  generally 
addressed  as  "'Major."  Ami.  to  the  day  of 
his  death,  he  preferred  that  title  to  any  other. 


I  first  met  him  in  the  second  session  of  that 
( longress. 

At  first,  he  didn't  appear  to  have  any  "long 
suit"  to  play;  1ml  he  began  to  study  the  tariff 
and  had  the  courage  to  make  a  speech  thereon 
before  adjournment.  lie  was  soon  given  a 
place  on  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
Ultimately  becoming  chairman  of  that  com- 
mittee, he  reported,  in  1890,  the  tariff  bill 
which    has    gone    down    in    history    associated 

with  his  name.  1 1  was  the  beginning  of  ex- 
travagance on  the  part  of  Congress,  because 

il  supplied  much  more  money  than  was  needed 
for     the     wauls     of     the     country.      Although 

'The  Billion-Dollar  Congress"  did  not  occur 
until  Thomas  l>.  \{ca\  became  Speaker  and 
the  Dingley  Tariff  had  taken  the  place  of 
that  ascribed  to  Major  Mckinley  actually 
framed  by  each  branch  of  the  corporate  in- 
terests in  manner  thai  best  suited  its  wishes, 
money  Mowed  freely  into  the  treasury  in  such 
large  quantities  thai  it  was  squandered  by 
( longress. 

President     Mckinley    delivered    his    address 

of  acceptance   to   the   notification   committee 

on  the  front  porch  of  his  Canton  home  late 
in  July.  IS!Xi.  1  was  present  and  heard  him 
read   the  paper  in   his  solemn,  eloquent    voice. 

After  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1896,  which 
had  nominated  Bryan  so  dramatically,  1  had 
gone  lo  Lincoln  with  the  successful  candidate 
so  suddenly  sprung  into  prominence;  hut  1 
arrived  in  Canton  the  day  before  the  Notifi- 
cation Committee.  1  remained  there  until 
the  following  March,  when  the  President-elect 
came  to  Washington  to  be  inaugurated  into 
office.  During  all  those  months  1  saw  the 
candidate  and  after  his  election  in  November, 
llu-  President-elect,  two  to  four  limes  every 
.lay. 

Major  Mckinley  was  very  sociable  with  the 
newspaper  men.  Late  at  night,  when  he  had 
a  strong  cigar  well  aglow,  he  talked  about 
everything  except  his  part  in  the  Civil  War 
and  the  struggles  of  the  Cubans  for  freedom. 
Never  at  any  time  did  President  Mckinley 
evince  any  sympathy  with  the  Cubans.  Sev- 
eral curious  incidents  occurred  during  that 
Winter.  The  President-elect  frequently  wrote 
editorial  articles  for  a  Cleveland  newspaper. 
The  theme  generallv  was  the  Cuban  insurrec- 


THE    HOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


(i? 


tion.  Before  long,  I  established  underground 
means  by  which  I  was  able  on  the  following 
morning  to  distinguish  the  prospective  Presi- 
dent's work  in  the  Cleveland  newspaper. 
Two  years  later,  when  General  Weyler  had 
created  his  inhuman  reconcentrado  camps  in 
Cuba,  I  visited  that  Island  and  with  the  as- 
sistance of  Mr.  Bryson  and  others  had  about 
500  photographs  made  of  starving  Cubans, 
which  were  enlarged  and  personally  shown  to 
President  McKinley.  Those  pictures  were 
sufficiently  pitiful  to  have  drawn  tears  from 
the  stony  heartedest  specimen  of  mankind. 
President  McKinley  was  not  impressed;  no 
action  was  taken.  Children  and  adults  were 
dying  in  the  various  camps  at  the  rate  of  a 
thousand  daily.  Bubonic  plague  existed  in 
all  parts  of  Cuba.  The  Battleship  "Maine" 
was  blown  up  on  February  15,  1898,  but  even 
then  war  was  not  declared  until  April. 

McKinley  was  a  "Do-Nothing  President," 
the  last,  let  ns  hope.  lie  had  entered  office 
with  so  many  obligations  to  repay  that  two 
full  terms  at  the  White  House,  had  he  been 
spared  to  fill  them,  would  hardly  have  sufficed 
to  wipe  off  the  slate.  His  liabilities,  largely 
incurred  by  his  faithful  friend,  Mark  II anna, 
were  as  far-reaching  as  notes  given  for  money 
loaned  to  pay  off  debts  of  $100,000  incurred 
in  business  enterprises  that  turned  out  badly. 

Marcus  Alonzo  Ilanna  was  in  most  respects 
the  most  creditable  associate  with  the  McKin- 
ley regime.  He  became  a  politician  late  in 
life,  but  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  power 
of  money  and  purchased  delegates,  just  as  he 
would  have  bought  votes  had  it  been  neces- 
sary. He  was  not  a  hypocrite.  Rev.  Dr. 
Henry  ('.  McCook.of  Philadelphia,  has  written 
a  book  paying  proper  tribute  to  Senator 
Ilanna  as  an  associate.  I  made  a  trip  with 
Ilanna  in  his  private  car  through  the  State  of 
Ohio  and  a  more  amiable  traveling  compan- 
ion I  never  knew.     Mr.  Bryan  was  his  equal. 

Mr.  Ilanna  directed  the  McKinley  Admin- 
istration as  absolutely  as  any  Mayor  of  the 
Palace  ever  conducted  the  affairs  of  a  Mero- 
vingian King  of  France.  President  McKinley 
did  not  possess  sufficient  political  acumen  to 
foresee  the  coming  revolt  against  trusts  and 
other  vast  corporate  interests;  but  Senator 
Ilanna  scented  the  coming  upheaval  and  was 


getting  his  house  in  order  to  separate  from  the 
so-called  "Old  Guard."  Were  he  alive  to- 
day, Senator  Ilanna  would  be  in  line  with 
La  Follette  and  his  party. 

The  death  of  President  McKinley  was  de- 
plorable; bul  Theodore  Roosevelt,  his  suc- 
cessor ex-officio,  committed  a  regrettable  error 
when  he  undertook  to  temporize  with  the  cor- 
porate interests  during  the  rest  of  the  period 
that  would  have  belonged  to  McKinley.  lb' 
had  said  he  would  "follow  McKinley  lines" 
and  this  is  an  explanation  for  the  acceptance 
of  campaign  contributions  from  E.  II.  Ilarri- 
man  and  large  corporations.  McKinley  had 
acceded  to  the  same  sort  of  thing  by  Ilanna. 
Politically,  Roosevelt  was  shrewd,  because 
three  years  of  radicalism,  such  as  he  subse- 
quently developed  with  sublime  heroism,  when 
past  occurrences  were  considered,  probably 
would  have  caused  his  defeat  for  rcnomina- 
tion  and  deprived  him  of  the  four  years'  leader- 
ship In  an  active  reform  campaign  that  char- 
acterized his  second  term  in  office. 

It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  many  men 
close  to  McKinley  grew  rich  out  of  the  Span- 
ish-American War.  To  my  personal  knowl- 
edge, there  was  a  certain  series  of  offices  on 
Broad  street  through  which  most  of  the  trans- 
ports procured  abroad  were  bought.  Names 
of  all  the  members  of  that  firm  did  not  appear 
upon  its  front  door.  Very  U-\\  visitors  ever 
reached  the  rear  suite — a  far  away,  mystical, 
generally  unattainable  goal,  wherein  sat  a 
gross,  flabby-cheeked,  old  man.  always  chew- 
ing a  cigar,  whose  word  was  final  regarding 
most  of  the  ships  and  equipment  purchased 
abroad. 

The  rise  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  not 
due  to  luck  but  to  persistent  activity  in  his 
own  interests.  He  felt  himself  destined  for  a 
brilliant  career  and  never  lost  sight  of  that 
hope.  He  believed  himself  capable  of  being 
useful  to  his  fellow  countrymen  in  a  way 
not  wholly  selfish.  When  recently  asked  how 
he  would  be  classified,  as  to  his  livelihood. 
Roosevelt  is  said  to  have  replied.  "Ranchman 
and  author."  Apparently,  the  Twenty-sixth 
President  of  the  United  States  has  little  desire 
to  go  down  in  history  as  a  "politician."  in  the 
general  acceptance  of  the  word,  although  he 
lost  no  time  in  getting  into  political  life  after 


68 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


his  graduation  at  Harvard.  He  left  eollege 
in  1880,  and  entered  a  contest  for  Assembly- 
man in  the  fall  of  the  following  year.  His 
services  in  the  New  York  Legislature  were 
earnest  but  not  remarkable;  at  the  close  of 
the  second  session  he  went  to  his  ranch  in 
North  Dakota,  stopping  at  Chicago,  en  route, 
to  serve  as  a  delegate  to  the  Republican 
National  Convention  that  nominated  James  G. 
Blaine  for  the  Presidency.  Two  years  of 
open-air  life  followed.  His  health  never  had 
been  good  up  to  that  time  and  the  young  man, 
then  about  26, — for  he  was  horn  in  New  York, 
Oct.  27,  1858, — passed  whole  days  in  the 
saddle.  This  brief  period  of  ranch  life  had  ;i 
marked  effect  upon  his  subsequent  career. 
He  became  fond  of  hunting  and  whenever  a 
few  weeks  of  vacation  offered  during  later 
years  he  hurried  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  to 
shoot  big  game.  The  ranchman  had  just 
married  his  second  wife  and  the  experience  of 
frontier  life  was  exceedingly  novel  to  husband 
and   wife. 

The  Republican  nomination  as  Mayor  of 
New  York  was  offered  to  Theodore  Roosevelt 
in  the  Autumn  of  1886  and  he  returned  to 
make  the  canvas.  The  contest  was  a  remark- 
able one  in  several  ways.  Abram  S.  Hewitt 
was  the  regular  Tammany  candidate,  but 
Henry  George  accepted  the  nomination  of  the 
Labor  party.  Hewitt  was  elected.  For  six 
years,  Roosevelt  served  in  the  tiresome  and 
humdrum  office  of  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioner, when  another  turn  of  the  wheel  landed 
him  as  President  of  the  Police  ( lommission  in 
the  City  of  New  York.  One  of  the  remark- 
able peculiarities  about  the  career  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  is  that  on  several  occasions  he  has 
found  himself  in  a  political  cut  de  sue  from 
which  further  progress  along  the  road  toward 
distinction  seemed  absolutely  impossible.  His 
defeat  for  the  Mayoralty  was  well-nigh  crush- 
ing and  ended  his  availability,  from  the  view- 
point of  any  party  leader.  His  isolation  in  the 
Civil  Service  Board  was  complete, — he  was  in 
a  fair  way  to  have  the  procession  pass  him. 
So  in  the  Police  Department,  he  seemed  to 
be  out  of  place  engaged  in  the  suppression  of 
crime.  The  next  step,  into  the  post  of  Assist- 
ant Secretary  of  War,  under  McKinley,  ap- 
peared to  be  the  finishing  blow  to  his  ambi- 


tion. And  yet,  in  that  position  of  duty,  as  in 
others,  he  rendered  the  most  valuable  services 
given  by  any  subordinate  official  connected 
with  the  executive  arm  of  the  Government. 
He  it  was  who  secretly  prepared  for  the 
equipment  of  the  United  States  Asiatic  Squad- 
ron by  despatching  two  trainloads  of  powder 
and  shell  to  San  Francisco,  whence  the  mate- 
rial was  shipped  direct  to  Hong  Kong  and 
stowed  aboard  ship  before  the  official  declar- 
ation of  war. 

When  the  Spanish  war  burst  upon  the 
country,  Theodore  Roosevelt  stepped  out  of 
the  narrow  environment  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment and  called  about  him  men  of  the  open 
air, — the  "rough  riders  of  the  plains!"  The 
response  was  immediate.  When  the  First 
Volunteer  Cavalry  regiment  was  raised,  he 
asked  Dr.  Leonard  Wood  to  take  command, 
and  served  under  him  as  Lieutenant-Colonel. 

The  first  noteworthy  event  of  the  campaign 
was  the  recognition  of  the  utter  incompetency 
of  the  commissary  and  medical  departments 
of  the  Army  service.  The  tainted  food  fur- 
nished to  the  soldiers  was  denounced  by 
Roosevelt  in  a  letter  sent  over  the  heads  of  his 
superior  officers  to  President  McKinley  direct. 
Two  years  in  the  Police  Department  of  New 
York  had  taught  the  volunteer  officer  that 
"tainted  money"  was  back  of  rotten  food. 
Had  Generals  Miles,  Brooke  or  Shatter  acted 
with  the  same  energy,  several  men  at  the  head 
of  the  Beef  Trust  would  have  gone  to  prison. 
Gen.  Miles  knew  all  the  facts  and  his  negli- 
gence in  bringing  the  criminals  to  justice 
formed  the  basis  of  an  enduring  displeasure 
toward  him  on  the  part  of  the  man  who  was 
to  succeed  to  the  Presidency  and  who  lost  no 
time  in  showing  his  contempt  for  a  timid 
Lieutenant-Genera  1. 

The  landing  of  the  First  Volunteer  Cavalry 
upon  the  Cuban  coast  east  of  Santiago  was 
immediately  followed  by  the  sharp  skirmish 
at  Las  Guasimas,  in  which  several  of  the 
Roosevelt  troopers  were  killed.  Although  few 
members  of  the  "Rough  Riders"  had  ever 
been  in  battle,  most  of  them  had  been  "under 
fire."  The  exigencies  of  life  on  the  plains  as 
cow-boys,  deputies-sheriff  and  administrators 
of  frontier  justice  had  made  them  fearless. 
The  participation  of  the  "Rough  Riders"  in 


THE   BOOK   of  XEW   YORK 


(i!) 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT    IN    1897 

(From  a  steel  engraving) 


the  general  engagement  on  San  Juan  Hill  was 
unimportant,  and  nobody  connected  with  the 
troop  ever  has  claimed  any  glory  for  that  day's 
event.  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  promoted  to 
be  Colonel  of  his  regiment  for  gallant  service, 
and  returned  with  his  men  to  Montauk  Point. 
His  name  was  upon  every  lip  and  as  early  as 
August  of  1898  he  was  suggested  for  the 
Governorship  of  Xew  York.  lie  had  escaped 
from  the  cul  de  sac  in  which  he  constantly  ap- 
peared to  find  himself! 

While  at  Montauk  Point  and  a  member  of 
Colonel  Roosevelt's  mess,  I  attempted  to  ren- 
der a  signal  service  to  the  "Rough  Riders" 
and  their  commander.  Mayor  Van  Wyck  had 
distinctly  declined  to  invite  the  body  to  parade 
in  front  of  the  City  Hall  that  he  might  review 
it.     Knowing  the  Mayor,  I  undertook  to  ob- 


tain his  consent.  At  my  own  expense,  I  came 
to  Xew  York  and  saw  Robert  A.  Van  Wyck. 
When  I  mentioned  the  object  of  my  visit,  he 
said:  "Do  yon  think  I  am  going  to  help 
Roosevelt  to  get  the  Republican  nomination 
for  Governor?"  I  answered  that  such  a  con- 
tingency had  nothing  to  do  with  my  request. 
I  suggested  that  more  depended  upon  Mr. 
Piatt  than  on  any  act  of  the  Mayor.  I  en- 
larged upon  the  desire  of  New  Yorkers,  with- 
out regard  to  party,  to  see  the  "Rough  Riders." 
Van  Wyck  would  not  consent. 

Despite  the  opposition  of  Mr.  Piatt,  the 
Republican  "boss"  of  this  state,  who  had 
other  plans,  the  popularity  of  Colonel  Roose- 
velt compelled  his  selection  by  the  Saratoga 
convention  and  he  was  elected  Governor. 
The    plurality    wasn't    as   large   as   expected: 


ro 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


its  smallness  was  due  to  bad  Mood  engendered 
by  the  miscarriage  of  prearranged  plans  for 
the  party  "slate"  caused  by  Roosevelt's  can- 
didacy. Taking  office  on  January  1.  1899, 
Governor  Roosevelt  began  to  play  national 
politics  seriously.  He  did  several  remarkable 
things  during  his  chieftainship  at  Albany. 

What  kind  of  man  is  this  Roosevelt  ?  Na- 
poleon tells  in  one  of  his  letters  of  a  ramble. 
incognito,  among  the  hills  near  Tarare,  a 
manufacturing  town  not  far  from  Lyons,  dur- 
ing which  tramp  he  met  an  old  woman  climb- 
ing a  steep  stretch  of  road  with  a  bundle  of 
fagots  on  her  back.  The  First  Consul  re- 
lieved her  of  her  load  to  the  top  of  the  hill 
and  then  asked : 

"And  this  fellow  Napoleon;  he's  a  tyrant 
like  all  the  others,  isn't  he?" 

"It  may  be."  answered  the  crone;  "but  the 
others  have  been  the  kings  of  the  nobility, 
while  he  is  one  of  us.  We  chose  him  our- 
selves!" 

This  little  story  describes  the  career  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  lie  was  schooled  in 
both  elective  and  appointed  office.  Inclined 
as  he  was  to  prove  unruly  and  to  take  the 
same  measure  of  Congressional  integrity  as 
do  most  citizens,  we.  Democrats  and  Repub- 
licans, chose  him  to  be  President  by  an  over- 
whelming plurality.  He  was  not  made  Presi- 
dent by  politicians.  He  was  the  first  Repub- 
lican since  Lincoln  to  he  chosen  over  the  heads 
of  cabals  of  railroad  managers,  bankers,  "  ( lap- 
tains  of  Protected  Industries"  and  political 
bosses. 

Roosevelt's  last  four  years  were  in  such 
contrast  to  the  McKinley  administration  that 
this  period  of  his  career  must  always  be  re- 
garded as  typical.  Every  hour  thereof  ex- 
hibited sturdy  efforts  to  break  the  fetters  that 
custom  and  tradition  had  forged  upon  the 
Chief  Executive.  A  trust-owned  Senate  was 
defied,  although  sucji  contention  for  the  masses 
as  against  the  few  were  followed  by  cloak-room 
threats  of  impeachment  and  humiliation.  The 
resolute  man  at  the  White  House  went  straight 
ahead.  He  made  mistakes;  but  the  people 
trusted  him.  if  politicians  did  not. 

The  old  fagot  gatherer  stated  the  situation: 
"He  was  one  of  us;    we  chose  him  ourselves!" 

My  first  meeting  with  Theodore  Roosevelt 


was  during  the  heat  of  the  mayoralty  cam- 
paign of  1886.  He  looked  much  younger  than 
he  really  was,  almost  boyish.  After  that  dis- 
astrous experience,  young  Roosevelt  became  a 
plainsman.  Our  next  meeting  was  at  a  dinner 
given  to  Whitelaw  Reid  at  the  D.  K.  E.  Club 
in  the  fall  of  1SS9.  when  we  sat  together.  He 
made  a  speech  possessing  the  elemental  vigor 
characteristic  of  his  subsequent  addresses. 
Thereafter,  he  again  disappeared  from  public 
view  for  a  brief  space. 

When  the  troops  returned  from  the  Spanish 
War  to  camp  at  Montauk  Point.  I  was  spe- 
cially engaged  to  interview  General  Shatter  on 
his  return, — the  troops  having  preceded  him. 
Through  the  acquaintance  of  Major  Jerome, 
who  had  campaigned  with  "Pecos  Pill,"  as 
Shafter  was  known  in  the  Army,  I  became  a 
member  of  the  mess  of  the  First  Volunteer 
Cavalry.  I  slept  in  a  tent  provided  by  the 
New  York  World,  but  took  my  meals  at  the 
same  table  with  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  Lieut. - 
Colonel  Brodie.  As  my  stay  lasted  a  week, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  "Mohawk"  with 
Gen.  Shafter,  an  acquaintance  of  twelve  years' 
standing  was  renewed. 

I  owed  my  success  in  getting  aboard  the 
"Mohawk"  and  securing  an  exclusive  full 
front  page  interview  with  General  Shafter  to 
my  friend.  Captain  William  II.  Stayton,  a 
former  United  States  Naval  officer  then  in 
command  of  one  of  the  despatch  boats,  who 
put  me  aboard  with  General  Shaffer's  mail. 
Stayton  was  too  modest  to  permit  me  to 
acknowledge  the  obligation  at  the  time,  as  I 
wished,  and  this  is  the  first  opportunity  I 
have  had  to  express  my  gratitude.  Mr.  Stav- 
ton  left  the  service  for  the  legal  profession— 
as  did  a  comrade  of  the  "Virginias"  campaign, 
the  late  "Jack"  Soley — and  is  now  a  success- 
ful member  of  the  New  York  bar. 

One  episode  of  those  Montauk  days  is  very 
memorable.  Anxiety  regarding  the  success  of 
my  assignment  made  me  a  poor  sleeper.  One 
beautiful  morning,  soon  after  sunrise,  I  arose 
and  in  my  pajamas  set  out  for  the  beach,  to 
take  a  plunge  in  the  ocean.  Far  away.  I  heard 
reveille  sounded!  Turning  my  gaze  shore- 
ward, I  saw  a  figure  in  khaki,  mounted  upon 
a  horse  running  at  full  gallop,  coming  toward 
me  over  the  sand  dunes.     The  horse  and  rider 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


71 


appeared  and  disappeared  at  intervals.  Not 
within  the  range  of  my  vision  was  there  a  mov- 
ing object,  except  this  horseman.  He  was 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  bound  toward  the  beach 
for  his  morning  dip!  He  was  in  the  water 
almost  as  soon  as  1  was. 

Already  at  Montauk,  the  young  Colonel  was 
addressed  as  "Governor";  but  he  treated  the 
matter  as  a  joke.  It  was  not  thought  that 
Mr.  Piatt  would  sanction  his  nomination.  He 
was.  however,  chosen  Governor  of  New  York, 
not  by  a  thrilling  majority  but  by  a  sufficiently 
large  vote  to  show  that  he  was  the  only  Re- 
publican who  could  have  been  elected. 

While  at  Albany,  Governor  Roosevelt  ma- 
terially assisted  in  the  agitation  I  started  for 
the  return  to  this  country  of  the  body  of  John 
Paul  Jones.  I  had  drawn  a  joint  resolution 
which  Senator  Boies  Penrose  introduced  in 
the  Senate  and  Representative  Harry  II. 
Bingham  presented  to  the  House.  The  text 
of  that  resolution  was  as  follows: 

For  the  removal  of  the  bones  of  John  Paul  Jones  from  Paris. 
France,  and  their  reinterment  in  the  United  States: 

Whereas,  the  bones  of  John  Paul  Jones,  our  firsl  great  sea  cap- 
tain, rest  in  a  neglected  grave  in  Paris,  the  locality  of  which  is  now 
established;   be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  Ambassador  of  the  United  Stairs  to  France  be 
directed  by  the  President  to  promptly  secure  necessary  permission 
to  open  the  grave  and  to  have  the  remains  of  the  naval  hero  of  the 
American  Revolution  properly  prepared  for  removal  to  the  United 
States. 

Resolved,  That  a  ship-of-war  be  detailed  to  receive  the  remains 
at  a  French  port,  with  all  the  honors  due  to  the  body  of  an  Admiral, 
and  they  be  brought  to  the  port  of  New  York,  or  such  port  as  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  may  designate. 

Resolved,  That  a  sufficient  sum  is  hereby  appropriated  out  of 
any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  disinterment  in  France,  transfer  to  the  United  States 
and  final  entombment. 

These  resolutions  were  introduced  on  De- 
cember 4th  and  (5th.  1899,  were  adopted  soon 
after  and  received  President  McKinlev's  sig- 
nature. The  agitation  that  followed  this  prop- 
osition swept  the  country.  This  honor  to 
Paul  Jones  had  been  one  of  the  dreams  of  my 
life,  somewhat  on  a  par  with  my  trip  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Mississippi.  At  my  per- 
sonal expense,  I  had  employed  a  friend  in 
Paris  to  search  the  Parisian  newspapers  eon- 
temporary  with  the  funeral  of  Admiral  Jones, 
and  had  located  the  grave  beyond  question  in 
the  Protestant  cemetery  as  it  existed  in  1792. 
On  the  corner  nearest  to  the  Gare  du  Nord, 
a  four-story  brick  tenement  stood,  the  base- 
ment of  which  was  a  wine  shop.  To  the  right 
thereof  was  a  two-story   stucco  and    wooden 


structure  occupied  by  a  frame  maker.  It 
covered  the  original  entrance  to  the  ancient 
cemetery  and  the  body  of  the  first  Admiral  of 
the  United  States  Navy  was  located  at  a  point 
I'orly  feet  inside  the  pavement  line.  I  sent 
Charles  Ileikel.  a  photographer  at  Xo.  l.'3o* 
Faubourg  Saint  Ilonore,  to  make  a  picture  of 
the  site  as  it  is  to-day. 

Elsewhere,  in  talking  about  Mr.  Piatt,  I 
describe  the  nomination  of  Roosevelt  for  the 
Vice-Presidency  and  the  strong  disinclination 
he  had  to  accept  it.  Had  he  not  done  so,  his 
political  career  probably  would  have  ended 
with  his  Gubernatorial  term.  President  Mc- 
Kinley  was  assassinated  in  September,  1901, 
and  therefore.  Vice-President  Roosevelt  never 
presided  over  the  Senate.  During  his  incum- 
bency of  the  White  House,  President  Roose- 
velt   was    readily    accessible    to    old    friends. 

I  went  to  New  Haven  on  the  final  day's 
celebration  of  Yale's  200th  anniversary  in 
October,  1901.  to  witness  the  conferring  of 
honors  upon  President  Roosevelt.  Youth,  in 
colleoes  as  in  men.  may  be  joyous,  but  aw  is 
grand  and  glorious!  Around  Old  Eli  were 
gathered  her  children  of  the  last  half  of  her 
second  century  to  rejoice  with  her.  Alma 
Mater  welcomed  them  and  the  world  beside. 
Atmosphere  of  a  college  town  was  gone;  one 
might  believe  a  national  convention  to  be  in 
session.  Medals  of  bronze  and  rosettes  of 
deep  azure  silk  adorned  every  coat  in  sight. 
The  day  began  with  the  arrival  of  President 
Roosevelt  and  his  party  from  Farmington, 
among  the  Connecticut  hills,  where  he  had 
passed  a  restful  night  aboard  his  private  car. 
President  Roosevelt  was  in  fine  spirits.  He 
had  climbed  the  stone  walls  and  crossed  the 
meadows  afoot.  Most  characteristic  of  all. 
he  had  helped  a  strange  farmer,  far  from  the 
village,  round  up  his  herd  of  cows  at  milking 
time. 

After  its  run  down  the  valley,  the  special 
train  of  two  Pullman  cars  had  arrived  on  time. 
The  President  sprang  lightly  off  the  rear 
platform,  which  had  been  surrounded  by  a 
squad  of  blue  jackets.  A  national  salute  was 
fired  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood.  Two 
companies  of  State  militia  immediately  sur- 
rounded the  cars. 

The    President    was    the    Roosevelt    of   old; 


rz 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


the  broad  smile  and  laughing  eyes,  the  rosy 
lips  and  glistening  teeth.  lie  was  a  picture  of 
good  health  and  happiness.  He  looked  young- 
er, if  anything,  than  during  the  campaign. 

The  presence  of  the  armed  militia  was  clear- 
ly  repugnant  to   Roosevelt   but  he  passed  at 

c  to  an  open  landau  in  waiting  and  seated 

himself  at  the  rear,  right  hand.  .Mayor  Stud- 
ley  got  in  beside  him,  because  the  President 
was  the  city's  guest  until  he  was  landed  at 
Phelps  Hall  gate,  on  university  territory. 
The  front  scat  was  occupied  by  President 
Hadlev,  of  Yale.  The  President  had  dressed 
for  the  ceremonv  aboard  his  car.  lie  wore 
a  long  walking  coat  and  silk  hat.  It  was  the 
first  time  1  have  ever  seen  him  wear  gloves. 
They  were  of  tan. 

When  the  carriage  moved  oil'  to  the  music 
of  a  band,  a  grand  popular  demonstration 
occurred.  The  streets  along  the  route  had 
been  packed  with  people  since  early  morning. 
Curiosity  to  sec  the  young  President  appeared 
to  be  universal. 

When  turning  into  Chapel  street  an  incident 
caused  tin'  President  to  spring  to  his  feet  and 
raise  his  hat.  An  aged  veteran  appeared  in  an 
upper  window,  wearing  the  uniform  of  '61 
and  holding  an  old  army  musket  at  "Present 
arms!"  It  was  like  a  picture  from  an  old 
print:  but  Roosevelt  recognized  its  genuine- 
ness, lie  stood  proudly  erect,  waved  his 
hat  as  if  to  cheer,  and  the  crowd  promptly  gave 
voice  to  his  suggestion.  A  similar  incident, 
though  not  so  dramatic,  occurred  at  Trinity 
Church,  on  Chapel  street.  As  the  carriages 
approached,  the  chimes  in  Trinity  tower  were 
playing  "My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee." 

The  instant  the  notes  caught  the  President's 
ear  he  again  rose  and  reverently  stood  uncov- 
ered until  the  ivy-clad  church  was  passed. 
It  was  a  graceful  and  evidently  an  impulsive 
act — an  incident  thoroughly  Rooseveltian.  A 
fewr  moments  later  the  first  carriage  entered 
the  college  grounds  and  drew  up  at  the  gate- 
way to  Phelps  Hall.  This  portal  is  a  groined 
arch  of  Gothic  architecture.  Its  material  is 
old  red  sandstone.  Roosevelt  sprang  from 
the  landau,  up  a  slight  acclivity  that  rose 
from  the  curb  and,  with  President  Hadley 
on  one  side  and  Colonel  Bingham  on  the 
other,  passed  into  the  Yale  campus,  where  at 


least  five  thousand  people  had  formed  in 
double  line  to  greet  him.  Again  the  silk  hat 
was  raised;  again  that  typical  smile  that  has 
become  a  part  of  our  national  life!  Cheer 
upon  cheer  arose.  The  college  men  were 
assembled  in  classes;  their  greetings  were  in 
old  and  familiar  form.  "  Breck-kekekex, 
Brekekex;  coax,  coax!"  was  the  Aiistophanean 
welcome;  "Rah!  rah!  rah!  Yale!"  the  college 
civ  of  Old  Eli. 

Between  this  double  line  of  boisterous  stu- 
dents the  President's  party  passed  rapidly 
afoot  across  the  breadth  of  the  campus  to 
Alumni  Hall.  Handing  his  hat  to  a  relative, 
who  stood  near  him,  the  President  donned  his 
mortar-board  cap  and  his  black  silken  gown. 
The  cap  was  of  black,  with  a  violet-colored  tas- 
sel. The  gown  bore  three  broad  black  velvet 
bars  across  each  sleeve.  Xo  sooner  was  His 
Excellency  gowned  than  many  old  friends 
pressed  forward  to  greet  him. 

"Who  could  have  dreamed  that  the  bine  of 
old  Yale  would  ever  wave  in  honor  of  me?" 
said  Roosevelt,  in  my  hearing.  He  spoke  of 
his  own  A/iiki  Mater,  Harvard,  with  loving 
pride,  but  evinced  every  sign  of  delight  at 
the  honor  Yale  was  about  to  bestow.  It  was 
a  pretty  episode  and  served  to  pass  a  pleasant 
quarter  hour.  Then  the  procession  toward 
the  aratewav  through  Vanderbilt  Hall  to  the 
Hyperion  Theatre  was  quickly  formed.  Police 
cleared  the  path.  Here  and  there  secret  service 
men  in  broadcloth  and  duly  resetted  in  bine  fell 
into  the  line.  It  was  a  mistake  of  them  not  to 
have  worn  the  mortar  board;  the  tall  silk  hats 
made  them  look  like  English  mutes  at  a 
funeral. 

The  rapid  tramp  through  Durfee  Gateway 
and  past  old  South  College  to  Vanderbilt  Hall 
was  a  scene  of  continuous  ovation.  Cap  and 
gown  had  so  transformed  the  young  and 
sprightly  President  of  the  United  States  that 
his  best  friend  would  hardly  have  recognized 
him.  His  hands  were  gravely  clasped  across 
his  stomach,  and  the  eyes,  that  are  oftenest 
alertly  cast  upward  and  everywhere,  were 
solemnly  upon  the  ground.  lie  was  as  grave 
as  a  molds;  from  the  Abbey  of  Eli  in  the  time 
of  King  Canute. 

In  the  Summer  of  1905,  Theodore  Roosevelt 
induced  two  great  nations  at  war,  Japan  and 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


a 


Russia,  to  send  commissioners  to  Portsmouth, 
\.  II.,  where  a  peace  was  arranged  that 
brought  to  an  end  the  bloodiest  conflict  in  all 
history.  The  morning  sun  of  sincerity  and 
fact  dispelled  the  fog  of  personal  detraction 
and  political  jealousy  then  rising  over  the 
President's  conduct  as  a  radical.  He  has  been 
described  as  "the  man  militant";  he  loomed 
up  before  all  the  world  as  a  practical  peace- 
maker. 

My  acquaintance  with  William  II.  Taft 
began  while  he  was  Secretary  of  War.  I  had 
seen  him  before  hut  had  not  met  him.  When 
he  became  President  of  the  Red  Cross  Society 
of  the  United  States,  he  took  an  active  part 
in  extending  the  work  of  that  splendid  organi- 
zation and  his  name  was  a  tower  of  strength 
thereto.  At  the  Ohio  Society  dinner  in  New 
York,  after  his  election  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  United  States,  I  heard  him  reiterate  his 
pledges  to  carry  out  "the  Roosevelt  policies," 
as  he  described  the  correction  of  abuses  under 
which  the  country  was  suffering.  That  he 
has  tried  to  keep  that  pledge,  no  one  can 
doubt.  His  administration  is  one  of  great 
promise,  although  he  has  not  escaped  criticism. 
It  is  too  early  to  take  the  measure  of  his  activi- 
ties. Next  to  Roosevelt's,  his  name  will  be 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  creation  of 
the  Panama  Canal,  the  pacification  of  the 
Philippines  and  the  inauguration  of  a  Colonial 
policy  for  the  United  States. 

Forensic  ability  has  secured  nominations  in 
badly  divided  national  conventions:  but  never 
has  a  man  famous  as  an  orator  attained  the 
White  House. 

Not  going  beyond  our  own  memories,  most 
of  us  can  recall  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  He  was 
a  much  more  finished  orator  than  Lincoln. 
lie  had  studied  Webster  and  Clay,  who  had 
staked  their  fates  on  oratory.  They  had 
failed  of  success  in  their  ambitions.  Edward 
Everett  had  tried  for  the  Vice-Presidency. 
But  the  plain  "rail-splitter"  of  his  own  state 
swept  Douglas  out  of  public  life.  A.  K.  Mc- 
Clure  said  that  "Lincoln  was  nominated  by  a 
convention  in  which  two-thirds  of  the  dele- 
gates were  for  Seward."  In  Lincoln's  second 
contest.  McClellan  wasn't  an  orator. 

In  the  struggle  between  Grant  and  Seymour, 
the  oratory  of  the  Democratic  candidate  was 


of  a  mild  character;  but  he  had  a  fine  pres- 
ence on  the  rostrum  and  spoke  with  readiness. 

Horace  Greeley  would  have  been  a  fine 
orator  hail  he  possessed  a  voice;  but  the  high 
falsetto  key  in  which  he  always  spoke  at  first 
amused  and  then  annoyed  his  hearers.  The 
silent  man  of  Appomattox  was  elected. 

Tilden  was  a  fine  speaker  before  a  court  of 
judges  sitting  in  banc,  despite  his  insignificant 
figure.  Whether  or  not  be  thought  himself  an 
orator  would  be  hard  to  guess.  But  a  country- 
man from  Ohio,  named  Hayes,  got  the  White 
House  job  from  him.  He  was  rarely  listened 
to  with  attention  when  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. Ben.  Butler,  "the  holy  terror," 
dominated  that  legislative  body  most  of  the 
time  Hayes  was  there,  and  long  after.  lie 
"sat  upon"  Garfield  and  Hayes  as  if  he 
didn't  know  they  were  there.  Blaine  had  been 
suggested  at  Cincinnati,  bv  Ingersoll,  but 
failed  of  nomination. 

Garfield  thought  himself  an  orator,  but  he 
wasn't.  He  could  talk,  as  could  Benjamin 
Harrison;  but  there  were  half  a  dozen  cleverer 
men  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  Hancock  was 
a  soldier  and  never  made  a  speech  during  the 
campaign.  The  New  York  Sun  disposed  of 
him  by  announcing  his  weight  as  250  pounds. 

The  Cleveland-Blaine  contest  of  1884 
brought  to  the  front  the  most  magnetic  orator 
in  public  life  this  generation  has  known. 
Webster  may  have  been  more  ponderous. 
Clay  may  have  been  more  logical  and  schol- 
arly; but  Blaine  had  a  voice  that  delighted 
the  ear.  He  was  keen  at  fence,  quick  to 
divine  a  thrust  and  to  anticipate  it;  popular 
in  the  same  sense  as  Clay — an  all-round  bril- 
liant character.  And  yet  he  was  defeated  on 
the  verv  ground  where  he  ought  to  have  been 
invulnerable.  A  lot  of  fussy  parsons  secured 
an  appointment  for  an  audience;  their  spokes- 
man interjected  into  his  "few  remarks"  a 
passing  reference  to  "Ruin,  Romanism  and 
Rebellion"  which  Blaine  didn't  hear.  A 
World  reporter  was  the  only  scribe  who 
caught  the  words  and  printed  them.  That 
the  language  was  used  never  was  denied; 
but  Blaine  was  caught  napping  and  failed  to 
denounce  the  speaker's  attack  upon  a  faith 
to  which  his  own  family  belonged,  lie  could 
and   would  have  rebuked   Burchard   in  a   way 


74 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


that  would  have  made  capital  for  the  candi- 
date h;i<l  lie  Ween  up  to  his  usual  mental 
alertness;  hut  splendid  oratory  during  that 
campaign  didn't  save  Blaine.  Cleveland,  who 
couldn't  he  described  as  an  orator  by  his  wild- 
est  admirer,  was  chosen  President  by  a  narrow 
popular  plurality  of  23,005.  The  Electoral 
College  stood  219  to  185.  But  the  orator 
was  bowled  out,  which  is  what  I  set  out  to 
show. 

Benjamin  Harrison  probably  was  the  near- 
est approach  to  an  orator  of  any  man  who 
has  gone  to  the  White  House  in  our  day.  He 
was  not  regarded  as  a  brilliant  talker  in  the 
Senate,  for  he  was  overshadowed  by  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  place.  Conkling  had  left  the 
Chamber,  yet  he  was  remembered.  So  was 
[ngalls.  But  Harrison  while  in  the  Senate 
never  attempted  an  oratorical  flight:  he  did 
not  "raise  his  voice"  or  speak  with  impas- 
sioned fervor.  He  was  cold,  calm,  calculating 
as  a  ratchet  wheel!  He  was  the  same  when 
President,  and  after  his  retirement  to  private 
lite.  Ingersoll  understood  him  and  told  Har- 
rison the  steely  truth  about  himself.  Thur- 
man,  who  was  on  the  ticket  with  Cleveland, 
had  a  record  lor  oratory  of  the  old  school, 
hut  he  went  down  to  defeat.  Candidates  were 
reversed  in  1802,  when  Cleveland  was  chosen 
over  Harrison,  renominated,  but  oratory,  such 
as  it  was.  got  a  black  eye  that  time. 

William  Mckinley  wasn't  an  orator  in  any 
of  the  senses  that  Ingersoll.  Blaine  and  Conk- 
ling were.  He  prepared  his  speeches  with 
elaborate  care  and  when  addressing  the  House 
always  clung  to  his  notes.  In  my  press  gallery 
experience  between  187?  and  1N!M>.  I  probably 
heard  Mckinley  speak  at  length  a  dozen 
times.  He  always  impressed  a  listener  with 
his  earnestness  and  that  is  the  best  to  be  said 
for  his  oratory. 

But  opposed  to  him  was  a  born  orator. 
This  country  hasn't  known,  in  our  generation, 
anything  exactly  like  Bryan's  wonderful  mas- 
tery of  the  human  voice.  Ingersoll  had  spurts 
of  eloquence;  Blaine  had  much  of  the  sym- 
pathetic quality  of  voice  as  Bryan,  but  neither 
man  could  stand  comparison  with  the  orator 
of  the  North  Platte.  I  listened  to  the  "Crown 
of  Thorns"  speech  at  Chicago — a  memorable 


outburst  from  a  dull  sky  that  drove  nearly 
every  delegate  in  the  Convention  Hall  to  him, 
as  a  shower  in  an  open  held  sends  a  crowd 
scurrying  to  the  nearest  shed  for  shelter.  And 
yet.  during  a  trip  made  with  Bryan  in  his  car, 
I  heard  many  finer  specimens  of  true  and  emo- 
tional oratory  than  was  that  wonderful  and 
compelling  rampage  at  Chicago.  I  would 
prize  as  one  of  my  choicest  possessions  a 
stenographic  copy  of  a  ten-minute  speech 
Bryan  made  from  a  store  box  at  Logan.  O.,— 
a  wretched  mining  town  in  the  southeastern 
section  of  the  Buckeye  State.  It  touched  the 
heart  of  every  man.  woman  and  child  in  the 
crowd. 

But  Bryan  the  orator  has  thrice  walked  the 
political  plank! 

President  Roosevelt  is  a  speechmaker.  be- 
yond question;  but  it  is  improbable  he'd  call 
himself  an  orator.  He  speaks  with  extreme, 
energized  force.  His  gestures  are  tremendously 
forceful.  His  speech  at  Philadelphia,  second- 
ing Mckinley's  nomination,  was  marred  by 
the  fact  that  he  lead  most  of  it.  Had  he  mem- 
orized it,  that  address  might  have  been  de- 
scribed as  oratory. 

The  list  of  orators  who  aspired  to  the  Presi- 
dency hasn't  been  exhausted  by  any  means; 
but  with  the  exceptions  of  Clay.  Webster  and 
Lincoln,  I  have  only  talked  about  men  I  have 
heard  speak  or  have  personally  known.  To 
this  class  must  be  added  the  ponderous,  jolly. 
aggressive  Thomas  B.  Reed.  Reed  thought 
he  could  hammer  himself  into  the  White 
House.  He  didn't  give  dinners  to  get  votes,— 
as  did  Vice-President  Fairbanks  eight  years 
later, — because  he  hadn't  any  confidence  in  a 
culinary  campaign.  But  Joe  Manlev  never 
could  convince  him  he  couldn't  get  delegates 
by  dragooning  the  House  of  Representatives 
or  by  ] Hitting  another  man  in  his  Speaker's 
chair  so  that  he  might  go  upon  the  floor  and 
"slam  things"  with  his  ponderous  voice  and 
not  less  terrifying  fist. 

Reed  got  his  lesson  at  St.  Louis,  on  June 
Hi.  1896,  when  Warwick  Hanna  "allowed" 
644  votes  to  be  cast  for  Reed,  after  Mckinley's 
nomination  on  the  first  ballot  was  assured.  It 
is  doubtful  if  Reed  ever  knew  how  Hanna  did 
the  McKinlev  trick.     Oratorv  didn't  do  it. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER    VIII 


CITY    EDITOR    AND    FOREIGN    EDITOR 


X  MY  return  from  an  assign- 
merit  one  afternoon.  I  was 
notified  I  had  been  appointed 
City  Editor.  This  was  in  No- 
vember, 1876,  and  I  was  not 
26  years  of  age.  One  never  was 
astonished  at  good  or  bad  for- 
tune on  the  Herald:  all  came  *'in  the  day's 
work."'  I  took  charge  at  once,  succeeding 
Edward  Flynn.  with  W.  J.  C.  Meighan  as  my 
assistant.  The  Brooklyn  theatre  fire  occurred 
that  night,  an  event  I  am  never  likely  to  for- 
get. It  serves  to  illustrate  the  difficulties  of 
gathering  news  at  that  time,  compared  with 
the  present  day — when  telephones,  taxicabs, 
bridges,  subways  and  rapidly-moving  trolley- 
cars  are  at  the  service  of  a  city  editor  and  his 
reporters.  The  fire  had  been  burning  an  hour 
before  I  could  learn  where  it  was  and  judge 
its  importance.  From  the  roof  of  the  Herald 
building  unobstructed  in  view  by  skyscrapers 
—the  conflagration  appeared  to  be  in  one  of 
the  warehouses  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river.  The  Williamsburg  man.  who  had 
come  to  the  office  on  a  ferry-boat,  corroborated 
that  assumption.  If  he  were  right. the  Brooklyn 
stall'  was  competent  to  take  care  of  the  fire. 
Finally,  owing  to  personal  anxiety.  I  sent  my 
assistant.  Mr.  Meighan,  across  to  Brooklyn. 
The  ferry  ran  at  quarter-hour  intervals  and 
thirty  precious  minutes  elapsed  before  Mei- 
ghan reached  the  scene.  Gathering  what 
facts  he  could,  he  hastened  back  knowing, 
by  experience,  that  the  important  use  of  news 
is  to  get  it  printed.  His  two-column  report 
was  masterly.  Although  the  police  assured 
him  everybody  had  escaped,  he  wrote  his  ac- 
count in  the  subjunctive  mood,  so  thai  if  dead 
were  discovered  he  would  have  predicted  the 
calamity.  1  made  the  heading  and  ventured 
a  line  '"Sad  Loss  of  Life!"  Next  day  the 
discovery  came  that  more  than  three  hundred 
people  had  been  burned  or  suffocated!     City 


Editor  Shanks,  of  the  Tribune,  who  lived  in 
Brooklyn  and  was  bound  homeward,  was  lirsl 
upon  the  ground  and  had  rather  the  best  re- 
port in  any  newspaper.  lie  had  an  hour 
longer  to  work  bul  did  not  positively  announce 
loss  of  life!  Meighan's  work  that  night  caused 
him  to  be  appointed  my  successor,  when  I  was 
transferred  to  the  Foreign  Desk,  on  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war.  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.     It  was  a  just  reward  to  him. 

rFhe  Worlds  Fair  at  Philadelphia  was  of 
inestimable  benefit  to  New  York.  It  brought 
a  million  visitors  during  that  Summer, 
Western  people  who  never  had  seen  the  East. 
It  marked  the  first  impulse  toward  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  national  taste  for  art.  Although 
rude  "hayseeds"  mutilated  valuable  statues 
in  their  curiosity  to  see  whether  they  were 
stone  or  plaster,  and  a  few  holes  were  poked 
in  rare  canvasses  by  equally  crude  human 
atoms,  the  paintings  and  marbles  in  Memorial 
Hall.  Fairmounl  Park,  had  an  enduring  in- 
fluence upon  the  American  people.  At  that 
time,  there  was  nothing  like  a  serious  collec- 
tion of  art  work  anywhere  in  this  country. 
Boston  hail  an  art  museum  and  New  York 
had  the  quaint  Venetian  building  at  Fourth 
avenue  and  Twenty-third  street,  where  a  few 
good  pictures  were  to  be  seen;  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum  of  Art. on  West  Fourteenth  street, 
was  a  joke,  although  endowed  with  statuary 
and  canvasses  from  the  private  collections  of 
John  Taylor  Johnson  and  Henry  Marquand. 
It  occupied  a  building  adjoining  the  presenl 
site  of  Salvation  Army  Headquarters.  Mod- 
est as  was  its  beginning,  it  was  the  progenitor 
of  the  splendid  museum  in  Central  Park, 
which  promises  to  develop  into  one  of  the 
great  institutions  of  the  world. 

Another  artistic  impulse  that  the  metropolis 
received  from  Philadelphia  in  that  year  was 
the  general  use  of  wall  papering.  Interior 
walls   of   the   houses   of   the    wealthy    had    been 


?(i 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


painted  or  covered  with  satin; but  New  Yorkers 
round  the  homes  of  the  Quaker  City,  poor  and 
rich  alike,  decorated  with  paper.  There  are  many 
qualities  of  wall  paper;  sonic  of  the  decorative 
attempts  were  failures:  hut  the  eternal  white 
walls  to  which  New  Yorkers  were  accustomed 
gradually  disappeared.  The  poor  of  New 
York  began  to  paper  their  own  walls,  a  reform 
that  extended  even  to  the  tenements.  Per- 
sonally. I  have  always  believed  painted  walls 
and  ceilings  are  best  for  tenants  not  naturally 
cleanly,  because  they  can  be  washed  and 
germs  of  contagious  diseases  removed.  How- 
ever, in  l(S?(i.  comparatively  little  was  known 
about  parasitic  diseases,  not  until  1883  did 
Dr.  Koch  discover  the  bacillus  of  consumption 
and  the  spirillum  of  cholera. 

Among  the  many  incidents  of  my  city  editor- 
ship, a  few  may  be  told.  One  evening  my 
assistant  was  late  in  arriving.  The  hour  was 
seven  and  1  was  alone  at  the  city  desk  when  a 
tall  (inure  appeared  and  gazed  at  me  across  an 
iron  railing. 

"Do  you  recognize  me  ?' '  the  stranger  asked. 

'Yes:  you  are  Henry  B.  Hyde.  President  of 
the  Equitable  Assurance  Company." 

"Correct:  you  can  do  me  a  favor.  1  require 
identification  at  the  advertising  window,  down- 
stairs, where  a  young  man  will  not  take  my 
check." 

"I    will  go  down   with  you,"   I    replied. 

In  the  counting-room,  a  chunky,  red-headed 
clerk  refused  to  take  Mr.  Hyde's  check  for  a 
half-page  advertisement — something  like  $.'50(1: 
but  he  concluded  that  he  "would  take  a  risk 
if  Mr.  Chambers  would  indorse  the  check." 
He  reasoned  that  I  might  be  discharged  the 
next  day  and  if  the  check  came  back  he  might 
have  to  pay  it.  Thus  did  1,  on  one  occasion, 
make  one  of  Mr.  Hyde's  checks  current !  In 
later  years,  I  was  a  guest  of  James  H.  Hyde, 
son  of  the  founder  of  the  Equitable,  on  a 
coach  run  from  New  York  to  Lakewood  and 
heard  him  tell  of  the  episode. 

Mr.  II.  B.  Hyde  wrote  all  his  own  advertise- 
ments and  personally  attended  to  placing 
them;  the  Herald  in  those  days  gave  credit 
to  nobody  and  a  clerk  who  received  a  check 
in  payment  did  so  at  his  own  risk.  To  me. 
as  I  mentally  recur  to  it.  the  incident  is  de- 
cidedly humorous.     Times  have  changed. 


Another  incident  of  my  incumbency  of  the 
city  desk  was  the  re-publication  by  Appleton 
of  the  London  edition  of  "A  Mad  World" 
and  the  bitter  controversy  its  appearance  pro- 
voked with  Dr.  Brown  and  the  Asylum  man- 
agement. In  this  matter.  Mr.  Bennett  came 
to  my  support  as  valiantly  as  St.  Clair  McKel- 
way  had  done  in  the  Eagle  four  years  pre- 
viously. He  authorized  me  to  print  a  re- 
joinder under  my  official  title — an  unmistaka- 
ble evidence  of  good  will. 

During  this  period,  I  became  acquainted 
with  Theodore  N.  Yail,  then  taking  his  first 
interest  in  the  Bell  telephone,  of  which  he  is 
to-day  the  master  spirit.  If  Professor  S.  F.  B. 
Morse  and  Judge  Alfred  Vail  "put  all  the 
world  on  the  wire,"  Theodore  N.  Vail,  by 
developing  the  telephone  of  Prof.  Bell  into 
a  commercial  magnitude  that  compelled  a 
consolidation  therewith  of  the  largest  tele- 
graph corporation  of  this  country,  has  put 
most  of  the  world  on  speaking  terms.  He 
was  recently  made  President  of  the  mightiest 
commercial  corporation  in  the  world,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Company.  Here's  a  man  I  like  to  talk  about! 
Two  generations  of  Vails  have  witnessed  and 
cooperated  in  the  creation  of  the  most  profit- 
able and  ingenious  scientific  means  of  making 
capita]  earn  dividends  that  the  human  mind 
has  devised.  Second  only  to  the  development 
of  the  steel  industry,  the  telegraph-telephone 
wizardry  must  long  remain  the  symbol  of 
Aladdin's  lamp  for  conjuring  fabulous  wealth 
from  an  idea. 

Theodore  N.  Vail,  at  the  age  of  62,  absolute 
master  of  this  second  mechanical  industry  of 
the  world,  had  the  humble  beginning  of  an 
Ohio  farmer's  lad:  but  he  enjoyed  an  excellent 
academic  education  and  his  preeminence  has 
been  attained  by  gradual  but  never  uncertain 
steps.  The  secret  of  triumph  in  whatever 
he  attempted  was  that  he  early  comprehended 
that  his  mind  had  a  mechanical,  rather  than 
professional,  bent.  Whatever  he  did  was  ex- 
ecuted with  enthusiasm,  as  if  existence  depend- 
ed upon  his  efficiency. 

The  Vails  originally  came  from  New  Eng- 
land, but  there  was  a  colony  of  the  family  at 
Morristown,  X.  J.  Theodore's  parents  sep- 
arated from  that  group  and  migrated  to  Carroll 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


77 


county,  Ohio,  where,  on  a  farm  miles  from 
town,  July  Hi,  1845,  tin's  hoy  was  horn.  The 
Morristown  Vails  thought  so  highly  of  the 
public  schools  in  their  own  aristocratic  com- 
munity, among  the  beautiful  New  Jersey  hills, 
that  they  induced  Theodore's  parents  to  send 
the  youngster  from  Ohio  to  gather  what  edu- 
cation was  to  be  had. 

After  a  subsequent  academic  course,  Theo- 
dore began  reading  medicine  under  the  direc- 
tion of  an  uncle:  hut  Judge  Alfred  Vail's  in- 
fluence upon  the  young  man  caused  him  to 
abandon  medicine  and  enter  upon  the  com- 
paratively new  branch  of  electrical  science.  In 
the  same  way  in  which  young  Judge  Vail  had 
been  of  service  to  Morse.  Theodore  N.  Vail 
was  destined  to  aid  Hell  and  Hubbard  at  a 
time  when  help  was  needed. 

Somewhat  similar  to  the  careers  of  Carnegie 
and  Edison,  we  next  hear  of  young  Vail  at 
work  as  telegraphist  in  New  York.  So  effi- 
cient was  he  that  when  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
road began  business,  he  was  offered  a  position 
as  station  master  and  telegraph  operator  at 
one  of  the  towns  on  the  new  line.  It  was  not 
anything  to  turn  the  head  of  a  man  of  20, 
but  Vail  went  West.  When  the  Government 
began  to  utilize  the  new  mail  route  to  the 
Pacific  coast,  transition  from  telegraphic  work 
to  railway  mail  service  was  natural.  For  six 
years,  with  his  home  in  Omaha,  young  Vail 
made  the  run  as  mail  clerk  between  the  Mis- 
souri river  and  Ogden.  The  efficiency  of  his 
work  attracted  attention  at  Washington.  Mail 
by  this  route  was  often  delivered  one  or  two 
days  ahead  of  that  sacked  by  other  clerks, 
because  Vail  thoroughly  informed  himself 
regarding  the  proper  places  at  which  to  put  it 
off  his  car  for  best  connections.  He  was 
taken  into  the  office  of  the  General  Superin- 
tendent of  Railway  Mails  and  in  a  year's  time 
rose  to  be  chief  assistant. 

During  this  period,  in  November,  1874,  I 
first  met  Theodore  X.  Vail  in  the  office  of 
Postmaster  George  Fairman,  at  Philadelphia. 
He  was  engaged   on   an    investigation   of  im- 

DO  o 

portance;  but  my  long-while  friend  Fairman 
made  us  acquainted  and  friendship  has  ex- 
isted ever  since. 

The  Philadelphia  Exposition  proved  to  he 
the  turning  point  in  many  an  American  career. 


Mr.  Vail  saw  the  interesting  device  of  Prof. 
Bell,  just  as  a  million  other  visitors  did:  but. 
unlike  nearly  everybody  else,  he  compre- 
hended its  future  possibilities,  if  its  mechan- 
ism could  lie  perfected.  Herein  appeared  the 
value  of  his  inherited  passion  for  electrical 
science  and  he  began  a  serious  study  of  the 
imperfect  '"toy."  as  it  was  then  playfully 
described. 

Several  men  in  this  country,  especially  in 
Boston  and  Lowell,  literally  stumbled  into 
vast  fortunes  by  "taking  chances"  m  Bell 
Telephone  stock  about   1876,  when  its  shares 


THEODORE    N.    VAIL 

were  going  begging;  but  Mr.  Vail  was  not  one 
of  those  persons.  He  studied  his  subject 
carefully.  He  foresaw  the  boundless  possibili- 
ties of  such  an  invention;  he  invested  every 
dollar  he  had  saved  in  the  West  and  held  on 
to  his  shares  with  grim  determination.  One 
of  his  earliest  purchases,  for  about  $2,400, 
was  a  block  of  stock  for  which  he  was  ultimate- 
ly offered  two  round  million  dollars!  Much 
courage  was  required  to  hold  on.  He  asso- 
ciated himself  with  Bell  and  the  inventor's 
father-in-law,  Hubbard,  and  increased  his 
holdings  in  the  parent  and  subordinate  com- 
panies.     He    left    the    Railway     Mail    service, 


78 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


after  introducing  numerous  improvements  in 
the  handling  of  Idlers  en  route.  Many  fea- 
tures in  use  to-day  are  due  to  Mr.  \  nil's  thor- 
ough stinlv  of  the  demands,  carried  out  before 
he  was  thirty  years  of  age.  First  among  other 
things,  the  postal  clerks  were  made  to  study 
geography.  Examinations  were  held,  every 
little  while,  and  ignorance  was  followed  by 
dismissal.  Mr.  Vail  disclaims  credit  for  the 
introduction  of  the  first  fast  mail  trains  be- 
tween New  York  and  Chicago,  but  there  is 
good  reason  for  crediting  him  with  the  awaken- 
ing that  ultimately  developed  special  trains, 
exclusively  of  mail  cars,  making  the  distance 
inside  24  hours.  'The  Limited  White  Mail" 
it  was  called,  because  all  its  cars  were  white. 
When  the  experimental  stages  were  past, 
and  a  reorganization  of  the  Bell  corporations 
was  effected  in  1878,  Mr.  Vail  undertook  the 
general  management  of  the  company.  His 
duties  chiefly  involved  the  installation  of  ex- 
change service  in  a  score  of  the  larger  cities  of 
this  country.  The  exchange  system  was  un- 
developed and  nine  years  of  such  work  sprin- 
kled Vail's  leonine  head  with  gray  hairs;  but, 
at  the  end  of  thai  lime,  the  telephone  became 
a  commercial  success,  although  the  mechan- 
ism left  much  to  be  desired.  Connections,  few 
as  the  calls  were,  in  comparison  with  to-day, 
were  slow  and  often  indistinct.  During  this 
time,  a  discovery  was  made  that  copper  could 
be  drawn  into  wire  cold  and  its  conductivity 
greatly  increased  thereby.  Mr.  Vail  imme- 
diately adopted  the  use  of  copper  instead  of 
iron  wire  and  reached  the  turning  poinl  in 
the  problem.  Emile  Berliner,  who  first  used 
induction  coils:  Thomas  B.  Doolittle,  discov- 
erer of  the  possibilities  of  cold  drawn  copper 
wire,  making  "long  distance"  feasible;  .John 
Carly,  of  the  "bridging  bell, "and  Prof.  Bell 
himself  all  contributed  to  the  development  of 
the  marvellous  device  now  so  familiar  to  every 
man,  woman  and  child.  Personally,  I  can 
remember  that  when  in  Paris,  in  the  summer 
of  1887,  one  had  to  talk  against  a  thin  pine 
shavingfora  transmitter.  All  these  discouraging 
obstacles  had  to  be  and  were  overcome.  Bv 
1890,  the  Bell  telephone  had  acquired  reliabil- 
ity and  constancy;  it  had  ceased  to  have  freaks 
of  non-transmissability,  alternating  with  com- 
plete satisfaction  in  wholly  unaccountable  ways. 


The  story  of  the  Bell  Telephone  for  the 
first  twenty-five  years  is  wholly  one  of  build- 
ing and  re-building;  of  pulling  down  machin- 
ery not  worn  out  to  set  in  its  place  something 
better  and  more  expensive.  The  entire  Xew 
York  plant  was  rebuilt  three  times  in  sixteen 
years.  By  1SS?  there  was  no  difficulty  in 
securing  the  necessary  capital.  It  responded 
easily,  whereas  in  the  early  days  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  find.  As  late  as  1896,  when  an  ap- 
parently final  type  of  apparatus  was  in  use, 
an  entire  revolution  in  the  methods  of  oper- 
ating appeared.  The  common  battery  switch- 
board was  installed;  one  central  battery  super- 
seded hundreds  of  tiny  local  batteries,  but  the 
art  of  operating  had  to  he  relearned!  In 
1887,  Xew  York  had  talked  to  Boston  over 
a  $70, 000  line  of  copper  wire;  by  1892  talking 
was  in  progress  between  Chicago  and  the 
metropolis  over  1,000  miles  of  wire.  To-day 
tin'  average  number  of  daily  calls  in  Greater 
New  York  is  1,500,000! 

Theodore  \.  Vail,  who  had  become  presi- 
dent in  1885,  was  the  first  efficient  organizer 
of  the  telephone  business.  To  him  more  than 
to  any  other  man  is  due  the  creation  of  (he 
immense  Bell  system  with  its  7,000.000  'phones 
and  its  11,000,000  miles  of  wire.  In  New 
York,  he  established  the  first  successful  com- 
pany, raised  the  capital,  developed  the  suburbs 
and  put  the  wires  under  ground.  The  value 
of  the  telephone  to  business  had  been  demon- 
strated. It  now  became  a  question  of  building 
machines  with  sufficient  rapidity  and  expand- 
ing the  exchanges.  Trade  had  monopolized 
its  use.  but  society  began  to  demand  its  in- 
stallation in  residences. 

Having  an  ample  fortune,  vast  beyond  the 
wildest  dream  of  an  Ohio  farmer's  son,  Mr. 
Vail  retired  from  the  general  management  and 
devoted  several  years  to  travel.  Especially 
was  he  delighted  with  a  long  stay  in  Italy. 
After  enjoying  Europe  thoroughly,  he  crossed 
the  Atlantic  at  its  narrowest  point  to  Buenos 
Aires,  and,  then  visiting,  en  mute,  the  chief 
cities  of  Brazil,  returned  to  Xew  York. 

While  in  Argentina,  however,  he  had  done 
two  characteristic  things.  His  mind  naturally 
saw  everything  through  eyes  of  electrical  pos- 
sibility. Visiting  the  inland  city  of  Cordoba, 
he    beheld    an    immense    reservoir    built     by 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


79 


damming  up  a  valley,  for  the  irrigation  of  an 
arid  plain;  but  over  the  crest  of  this  dam 
thousands  of  tons  of  water  power  were  run- 
ning to  waste  every  hour.  Mr.  Vail  had  no 
difficulty  in  leasing  the  use  of  the  waste  water 
and.  installing  turbines  sufficient  to  consume 
it,  he  built  a  station  for  dynamos  at  the  reser- 
voir. In  a  few  months,  he  was  supplying 
light,  traction  and  power  for  manufacturing 
uses  to  the  neighboring  city!  'This  was  one 
of  the  earliest  revelations  to  South  Americans 
of  the  capacities  of  "white  coal."  Their  minds 
comprehended  that  what  they  had  been  wast- 
ing was  sufficient  to  light  their  houses  and 
streets,  to  draw  their  street-cars  and  to  turn 
the  wheels  of  their  manufactories!  When  he 
returned  to  the  capital  of  Argentina,  Mr.  Vail 
bought  a  wretched  little  horse-car  line,  tra- 
versing some  of  the  principal  thoroughfares, 
lie  secured  it  for  a  trifle,  to  him,  but  he  could 
see  that  it  was  the  key  to  the  entire  future 
trolley  system  of  Buenos  Aires.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  iie  forgot  this  purchase  for  nearly  two 
years,  so  completely  satisfied  was  he  with  the 
Cordoba  experiment.  He  bought  a  farm  near 
Lyndenville,  Vt.,  on  his  return  to  tin-  United 
States,  and  settled  down  to  enjoy  the  life  of  a 
country  farmer.  Thus  did  early  environment 
assert  its  influence  over  a  brain  of  unusual 
activity.  He  kept  adding  to  the  original  700 
acres,  until  to-day  the  Vail  ranch  is  nearly  II 
square  miles  in  area  and  contains  7,000 
acres.     But  that  is  another  story. 

The  retired  capitalist  had  three  years'  ex- 
perience raising  corn  at  $5  per  ear  and  keep- 
ing cows  that  gave  milk  worth  a  dollar  a 
quart.  He  enjoyed  it,  and  often  drove  his 
fine  horses  across  the  Canadian  frontier  as 
far  as  good  roads  lasted;  but  one  uight,  seated 
in  his  library  reading  "On  a  Margin,"  the 
"old  feeling"  came  over  him.  He  remembered 
the  little  horse-railroad  in  Buenos  Aires!  Next 
day  he  was  on  a  train  for  New  York.  He  sent 
for  a  few  friends.  A  pool  was  arranged,  and 
on  the  steamer  which  sailed  for  the  River 
Plate,  a  week  later,  was  Theodore  X.  Vail, 
full  of  enthusiasm  of  youth.  He  arrived  un- 
ostentatiously. He  appeared  not  to  have  any 
business  on  his  mind;  but  in  a  month's  time 
he  had  either  bought,  or  effected  a  traffic  agree- 
ment   with,   ten   other  small    roads   in    the   big 


city.  These  he  consolidated  and  electrified. 
Time  was  necessary,  but  it  passed  pleasantly. 
Mr.  Vail  formed  the  acquaintance  of  all  the 
financially  strong  Britons  in  the  city,  having 
in  mind  a  future  utilization  of  their  wealth. 
All  the  dynamos,  rails  and  cars  were  ordered 
by  cable  from  sources  that  could  supply  them 
with  greatest  promptitude.  In  eighteen 
months,  the  traction  system  of  Buenos  Aires 
had  been  revolutionized.  The  earning  capa- 
bilities of  the  consolidated  companies  were  ob- 
vious. Their  manager  did  not  have  to  wail 
long  until  he  was  approached  by  English  capi- 
talists, and  at  a  big,  round  profit  to  all  original 
stockholders,  especially  to  the  promoter,  they 
were  allowed  to  purchase. 

Again  back  to  the  farm,  with  three-quar- 
ters of  a  million  more  funds  than  before  leav- 
ing. This  time  he  was  bound  to  stay  out  of 
business!  Everything  that  mortal  man  could 
desire  was  his.  But  sad  days  were  in  store 
for  him.  His  only  son.  who  had  completed 
a  course  at  Harvard  and  was  the  pride  of  his 
father,  sickened  and  died.  In  1!)()4,  the  de- 
voted wife  who  had  married  him  in  ISO!),  when 
he  was  a  station  agent  at  a  desolate  post  on 
the  North  Platte,  and  had  shared  his  travels 
as  well  as  his  successes,  was  taken  from  him. 
These  two  blows  shook  the  strong  man  ter- 
ribly. When,  therefore,  the  American  Tele- 
phone Company,  in  which  Mr.  \  ail's  interests 
were  large,  had  become  so  overgrown  that 
complete  overhauling  was  necessary,  the  direc- 
tors and  stockholders,  headed  by  United 
States  Senator  Crane,  of  Massachusetts,  asked 
Theodore  N.  Vail  to  again  take  the  laboring 
oar.  lb'  exacted  many  conditions.  One  of 
his  earliest  coups  was  a  consolidation  of  many 
telegraphic  and  telephone  interests  into  one 
gigantic  corporation,  which  in  amount  of 
capital  is  only  exceeded  by  the  United  States 
Steel  Company.  There  he  is  to-day.  dividing 
his  time  between  the  New  York  and  Boston 
offices  and  his  Vermont  farm,  with  which  he 
is  connected  by  a  special  copper  wire  thai 
hasn't  a  "cut   in"   anywhere   in  its  400  miles. 

Who  can  say  that  the  telephone  doesn't  make 
talkr  A  special  report  issued  recently  by  the 
Bureau  of  the  Census  shows  that  in  1910 
about  14,500,000  miles  of  telephone  wires  in 
the  United  States  were  used  in   the  transmis- 


so 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


sion  of  more  than  12,000,000,000  messages  or 
"talks."  The  growth  of  the  telephone  has  been 
the  most  prodigious  spectacle  in  modern 
science.  In  1880  there  were  in  use  only 
34,305  miles  of  telephone  wire;  in  1890  the 
mileage  had  increased  to  '-240.41 '•2.  These  fig- 
ures are  approximate  only.  Improvement  in 
mechanism  and  the  demonstrated  usefulness 
of  the  now  familiar  and  indispensable  instru- 
ment resulted  in  an  increase  in  wire  mileage 
to  4.900.451  in  1902.  Five  years  witnessed  a 
growth  to  8,098,918  miles.  The  number  of 
communicating  instruments  in  use,  1907.  were 
(i.l  18,578.  A  near  guess  estimates  the  amount 
paid  by  the  American  people  alone  for  the  use 
of  telephone  service  last  year  at  $2:55.000.000. 
Of  tlu>  six  million  'phones  in  use  in  1907. 
685,512  were  in  Xew  York  State.  That 
number  has  been  increased  50  percent,  within 
the  past  four  years.  This  showing  does  not 
represent  the  extent  of  the  use  to  which  the 
wonderful  machine  is  put.  Thousands  of 
systems  are  installed  in  hotels,  apartment 
houses,  clubs,  factories,  offices  and  large 
private  houses,  for  use  exclusively  within 
their  confines.  Police  telephone  boxes  are 
familiar  objects  upon  the  streets  of  most 
cities.  Many  railways  are  operated  by  tele- 
phone orders  instead  of  by  telegraph.  Thirty- 
five  years  ago  the  telephone  was  regarded  as 
an  interesting  scientific  toy;  to-day  it  has  be- 
come a  commercial  and  household  necessity. 

The  combination  of  the  American  Tele- 
phone Company  with  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  was  a  very  natural  one. 
Electricity  is  the  active  agent  in  both  enter- 
prises. Xo  student  of  electrical  science  in 
this  country  can  give  instinct  ion  to  President 
Vail  in  this  marvellous  branch  of  modern 
science.  He  has  been  nurtured  on  that  cur- 
rent since  boyhood. 

The  aim  of  President  Vail  is  to  supply  uni- 
versal service.  As  a  first  step  he  is  bending 
every  energy  toward  giving  Transcontinental 
communication,  that  is,  speech  between  Xew 
York  and  San  Francisco.  The  Xew  York- 
Denver  circuit,  opened  about  two  years  ago, 
lias  a  length  of  over  2,000  miles;  that  is  to 
say,  it  is  more  than  twice  the  length  of  the 
line  to  Xew  York  or  St.  Louis.  When  the 
Denver  circuit  was  opened,  it  was  regarded  as 


the  limit  of  telephonic  communication;  but 
to-day  the  human  voice  can  be  distinguished 
as  readily  at  that  distance  as  between  this  city 
and  Washington.  It  was  a  long  step  from 
Chicago  to  Denver;  an  even  longer  stride  of 
1,350  miles  is  required  to  carry  the  service 
into  the  city  at  the  Golden  Gate. 

Mr.  Bennett's  yachting  experience  was  of 
value  to  him.  as  an   incident   will  show. 

"What's  the  most  important  news  to- 
night.'" he  asked,  one  evening,  when  I  was 
on  the  city  desk. 

"A  National  Line  steamer  has  arrived  with 
the  captain,  crew  and  passengers  of  '  L'Amer- 
ique  '    -nobody  lost."  I  replied. 

"What  are  the  circumstances!'"  he  asked, 
with  animation. 

'  The  engines  of  the  French  boat  broke 
down;  Captain  Lamaria,  her  commander, 
hoisted  signals  of  distress,  and.  when  the  Brit- 
ish steamer  came  along,  abandoned  his  ship. 
Captain  Queen,  of  the  British  boat,  put  a 
prize  crew  aboard  the  derelict  with  orders  to 
sail  her  to  Queenstown.  Then  the  French- 
man wanted  to  return  to  his  ship  and  resume 
command;  but  the  Britisher  wouldn't  permit 
1 1 i in  to  do  so.  So  'Frenchv'  is  hot  mad  and 
swears  he'll  have  the  Englishman's  commis- 
sion taken  from  him." 

"That's  a  good  story!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Ben- 
nett, having  listened,  attentively.  "  Xow,  what 
do  you  think  about  it.'  Did  the  Englishman 
do  right  in  stopping  Lamaria's  return.-  Will 
he  be  sustained  !'" 

Here  was  a  perilous  question  of  commercial 
as  well  as  international  law.  but  I  took  an  even 
chance  and  boldly  replied : 

"Captain  Queen  is  undoubtedly  right;  the 
sea  belongs  to  no  man,  and  property  onee 
abandoned  thereon  goes  to  the  finder." 

"You're  right!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Bennett; 
"and  I'll  tell  you  why  I  know—  '  and  he 
told  the  following  characteristic  story: 

"  I  had  a  party  of  friends  on  the  '  Dauntless.' 
Becalmed  off  the  Isle  of  Wight,  we  drifted  on  a 
bar.  Tide  was  at  the  ebb  and  we  were  due 
to  stay  there  for  several  hours.  Somebody 
suggested  we  could  shoot  snipe  ashore;  and, 
taking  guns,  we  left  the  yacht  in  the  cutter. 
The  sailing  master  asked  to  go  ashore  in  the 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


SI 


dingy  also,  as  he  wanted  to  make  some  pur- 
chases. The  yacht  was  virtually  in  charge  of 
the  steward.  This  fellow  thought  a  lot  of  me 
and  wanted  to  do  me  a  good  turn:  so,  when  he 
saw  a  tug  coming  up  the  Solent,  he  hailed  her, 
took  a  line  and  had  my  boat  pulled  off  the  bar 
into  deep  water.  The  captain  of  that  tug  at 
once  libelled  the  yacht  for  salvage:  the  good 
intentions  of  my  steward  cost  me  1,200 
pounds!  That's  why  1  know  your  opinion 
is  correct.  The  Herald  must  stand  by  the 
Englishman,  because  he's  right.  Have  an 
editorial  written  saying  this —  "  and  he  out- 
lined the  leading  article  for  the  night. 

It  is  impossible  to  omit  mention  of  the 
encounter  between  Bennett  and  May.  A 
young  Marvlander.  named  Fred.  Mnv,  nursing 
a  real  or  fancied  affront,  lav  in  wait  for  the 
editor  in  front  of  the  Union  Club  and  when 
Bennett  appeared,  struck  him  with  a  whip. 
Mr.  Bennett's  valor  on  the  occasion  never 
was  questioned.  A  meeting  was  arranged, 
but  accurate  details  of  the  affair  did  not  be- 
come public  until  many  months  later.  1  was 
city  editor  at  the  time,  and  after  the  managing 
editor.  Tom  Connery,  had  declined  to  give 
any  orders,  I  reported  the  arrest  and  trial  of 
the  seconds,  exactly  as  if  the  editor  of  the 
journal  had  not  been  concerned. 

With  that  encounter  at  Delmar,  on  the 
Delaware  and  Maryland  line,  Mr.  Bennett's 
American   career  terminated.      lie   returns   to 


liis  native  land  occasionally,  but  his  life  is 
lived  in  Paris,  where  he  is  universally  popular 
with  the  French  people. 

A  U-w  days  before  the  final  preparations  for 
blowing  up  the  Hell  Gate  reef,  I  visited  the 
workings  under  the  river  with  a  parly  of  en- 
gineers. At  the  completion  of  the  trip,  a 
group  of  wet  and  chilled  enthusiasts  assem- 
bled in  the  office  of  Chief-Engineer  Newton 
at  Ilallet's  Point.  Astoria.  Several  kinds  of 
restoratives  were  offered.  General  Shaler 
stood  at  one  side  of  me  and  ( reneral  Mc(  lellan 
on  the  other.  As  happened,  General  Newton 
set  a  bottle  before  me  and  I  was  about  to  pour 
out  a  dose  of  medicine  when  the  former  Com- 
mander of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  spoke: 

"Put  the  cork  in  the  bottle  and  turn  it  up- 
side down;    then  shake  it!" 

"Wherein  is  the  philosophy?"  I  asked. 

'The  best  whiskey  has  some  fusil  oil." 
answered  General  McClellan.  "It  is  a  poison 
and  floats  upon  the  top.  Unless  you  shake 
a  bottle  that  has  been  standing,  as  this  one 
has,  you  get  most  of  it.  If  you  shake  it.  you 
divide  with  the  next  man." 

When  the  great  mass  of  water  and  rock 
rose  high  into  the  air.  on  the  memorable  Sun- 
day of  the  blast,  I  witnessed  it  from  the  lower 
end  of  Ward's  Island.  A  tremendous  wave 
was  created  that  I  narrowly  escaped  by  run- 
ning to  higher  ground.  Many  sightseers  were 
thoroughly   wet. 


82 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER    IX 


AN    ERA    OK    WONDERFUL    DEVELOPMENT 


]HE  acquisition  of  money  is  the 
business  of  the  world. 

Wall  street  was  well  known 
to  me.  I  had  served  an  ap- 
prenticeship there,  as  a  Tribune 
reporter,  during  which  time— 
by  a  most  unusual  courtesy  of 
the  Board  of  Governors — I  was  given  a  card 
that  admitted  me  to  the  floor  of  the  Stock 
Exchange.  Due  to  this  experience,  in  the 
years  that  followed,  upon  the  Herald.  I  was 
assigned  to  describe  nearly  all  the  panics  that 
occurred  in  the  financial  centre — beginning 
with  the  Jay  Cooke  failure  of  1873  and  includ- 
ing several  that  were  wholly  local  in  their 
effects.  Nearly  every  prominent  broker  of 
that  period  was  personally  known  to  me. 
When  Summer  came  I  received  invitations 
from  yacht  owners  like  the  Osgoods,  William 
Garner,  William  P.  Douglas,  Captain  Loper, 
and  several  others  to  make  the  annual  cruise 
on  their  boats  all  impossible  to  accept.  1 
recall  the  Ilarriman  of  those  days  and  did  not 
foresee  that  he  would  become  even  a  mightier 
financial  giant  than  Jay  Gould  or  Henry  X. 
Smith.  The  introduction  of  the  stock  ticker, 
a  crude  affair  at  first,  revolutionized  the  busi- 
ness of  Wall  street.  The  stock  list,  as  printed 
in  the  daily  papers,  began  to  increase  in 
length,  but  it  grew  downward.  like  the  rank 
ami  noxious  upas  tree.  Daily  transactions 
rarely  exceeded  a  quarter  million  shares. 
With  the  ticker,  as  finally  developed,  record 
of  sales  were  simultaneously  conveyed  directly 
into  a  hundred  brokers'  offices,  where  cus- 
tomers could  sec  them  and  make  their  wagers. 
The  banks  were  developing  strength.  They 
loaned  money  to  brokers,  taking  listed  stocks 
as  collateral  for  repayment. 

The  Xew  York  Stock  Exchange  celebrated 
its  centenary  on  May  17,  1892.  Twenty-five 
residents  of  Xew  York  had  met  on  that  same 
dav.  1792,  under  a  tall  buttonwood  tree,  stand- 


ing where  (>()  Wall  street  now  is  and  agreed 
thus:  "We  do  hereby  solemnly  promise  and 
pledge  ourselves  to  each  other  that  we  will  not 
buy  or  sell  from  this  day  for  any  person  what- 
soever, any  kinds  of  public  stocks  at  less  than 
one-quarter  of  one  per  cent,  commission  on 
the  specie  value  thereof,  and  that  we  will  give 
a  preference  to  each  other  in  our  negotiations." 
The  price  of  a  seat  on  that  exchange  in  1823 
was  $25;  in  1863,  .$.'5. 000:  in  1892,  $35,000: 
and  in  1909,  $90,000. 

Dining  the  Summer  of  IS??,  a  slim,  healthy 
skinned  man  of  medium  height,  alert  and 
wary,  if  one  might  judge  from  his  eyes,  came 
across  the  Continent  in  a  private  car.  He  was 
:>!)  years  of  age  and  had  been  born  in  England. 
When  14  years  old,  his  parents  had  taken  him 
to  California,  where  he  had  grown  up  amid 
the  excitement  of  the  days  succeeding  the  gold 
fever  of  l<S4i).  Whether  the  journey  to  the 
Golden  Gate  was  made  by  Panama  or  across 
the  plains,  I  never  have  known,  but  young 
James  Robert  Keene  early  developed  a  pas- 
sion for  commercial  life.  He  tried  practical 
mining  in  California  and  Nevada,  hut  the 
early  Seventies  found  him  employed  in  a 
brokerage  house  of  San  Francisco.  What 
capital  he  had  accumulated  as  a  miner  and 
as  a  speculator,  he  held  in  readiness  for  the 
great  coup  that  offered  when  the  Bonanza 
mines  were  discovered  in  Nevada.  With  the 
same  courage  he  has  ever  since  displayed, 
young  Keene, then  little  more  than  30, hazarded 
his  entire  capital  on  Virginia,  Hale  &  Nor- 
cross  and  Ophir  shares.  When  these  stocks 
began  to  soar  toward  high  prices,  Keene  dis- 
regarded all  advice  to  take  moderate  profits. 
Xot  only  did  he  hold  on,  hut  borrowing  upon 
his  already  appreciated  possessions,  bought 
more  shares.  He  closed  out  very  near  top 
prices  and  found  himself  the  possessor  of 
more  than  $6,000,000  cash.  He  then  rested 
for  a  time,  making  a  voyage  to  Japan,  by  way 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


83 


of  Hawaii.  On  his  return,  he  was  chosen 
President  of  the  San  Francisco  Stock  Ex- 
change. When  he  thought  the  time  ripe,  he 
transferred  his  money  to  New  York,  and. 
harkening  to  the  call  of  the  American  metropo- 
lis, took  train  for  the  East. 

Remarkable  success  achieved  by  this  man, 
previously  unknown  to  New  York,  made  him 
an  object  of  exceptionable  solicitude.  He  was 
"interviewed,"  willy  nilly,  at  every  large  city 
through  which  his  train  passed.  His  efforts 
to  escape  publicity  were  ignored,  because,  in 
1877,  six  millions  in  cash  were  tenfold  greater 
in  amount  than  they  would  be  thought  to-day! 
With  the  exception  of  the  Astors  and  Vander- 
bilts,  few  men  in  the  East  possessed  anything 
like  such  an  amount  of  money.  Eight  years 
after  that  time,  when  Moses  Taylor  died  and 
left  $10. 000. 000,  the  commercial  world  stood 
aghast.  One  can  easily  understand,  there- 
fore, why  this  comparatively  young  Anglo- 
American  was  an  object  of  interest.  The 
large  operators  of  Wall  street,  men  who  had 
amassed  big  bunches  of  money  by  "doing" 
each  other,  regarded  the  new  comer  as  lawful 
prey.  Several  of  them  said  so.  Others,  less 
talkative,  were  not  less  hopeful  or  willing  to 
relieve  him  of  his  money. 

Things  went  smoothly  for  the  man  from  the 
Golden  Gate  at  first.  He  made  several  fine 
"turns"  that  would  have  done  credit  to  Henry 
X.  Smith  or  Mr.  Gould.  For  ten  years.  Mr. 
Keene  held  his  own  against  the  cleverest  of 
his  rivals  on  that  "Barbary  Coast."  Some- 
times he  grappled  with  them  single  handed; 
at  other  times  he  met  them  in  echelon  or  in 
platoon, — euphemisms  for  "cabal"  or  "syn- 
dicate." In  May.  1884.  a  combination  of 
nearly  a  score  of  the  wiliest  financial  buc- 
caneers on  the  coast. — said  without  intentional 
offence, — caught  Keene  in  a  grain  deal  and 
"trimmed  him  proper,"  according  to  the 
ethics  of  the  locality. 

About  this  time.  I  came  to  know  James  R. 
Keene.  By  curious  fatality,  although  I  had 
been  well  acquainted  with  "bare-headed" 
Ilarriman.  as  the  afterward  monarch  of  the 
Street  was  known  during  the  Seventies,  be- 
cause he  rarely  wore  a  hat  when  "hustling" 
between  the  board-room  and  his  office.  I  had 
not  encountered  "The  Man  from  California." 


1  met  him  in  the  days  of  his  adversity.  I  had 
known  Stockwell  when  he  was  the  heaviest 
trader  in  the  market  and  after  he  had  been 
"done."  But  here  was  a  very  different  kind 
of  man.  If  ever  any  human  creature,  deceived 
by  false  friends  who  gloated  over  his  downfall. 
were  entitled  to  inscribe  as  his  motto,  "felix 
adverso"  (happy  in  adversity),  that  man  is 
James  R.  Keene.  Xo  mortal  creature  knew 
exactly    how    badly    he    was   crippled.      Mosl 


JAMES     R.     KEENE 


III 


people  thought  hun  "down  and  out.  His 
former  cronies,  for  many  of  whom  he  had 
made  moderate  fortunes,  had  no  further  use 
for  him.  I  have  seen  him  sitting  alone  in  the 
Broadway  coiner  of  the  Delmonico  cafe,  then 
at  Twenty-sixth  street,  when  not  a  man  who 
had  known  him  appeared  to  lie  conscious  of 
the  fact.    Those  must  have  been  terrible  years. 


S4 


THE    HOOK    nf  NEW    YORK 


Once  or  twice,  when  I  had  the  candor  to  ap- 
proach and  sit  with  him  a  few  minutes,  I  left 
Mr.  Keene  with  a  doubt  as  to  whether  my 
sincere  good  will  was  desired  or  understood. 
Hut  he  became  to  me  an  ideal  hero  of  com- 
mercial life.  During  this  darkest  period  I 
published  a  column  describing  the  courage 
necessary  for  a  Fabian  policy  such  as  this 
man  obviously  was  playing.  Without  men- 
tioning him,  I  told  how  his  schemes  had  been 
ambushed  by  misleading  information;  how 
the  bugle  had  sounded  for  the  charge,  wound 
by  a  close  associate  that  afterward  claimed  a 
personal  triumph.  1  told  how  this  man  had 
ridden  into  the  valley  of  financial  death,  only 
to  escape  alive  with  the  utter  destruction  of 
his  fortune. 

Every  operator  in  the  Street  understood 
the  metaphors  and  the  allegories.  I  received 
a  note  from  Mr.  Keene  expressing  sincere 
appreciation.  A  tie  was  formed  that  no  in- 
fluence has  been  able  to  weaken  in  the  twenty 
years  that  have  followed.  Another  human 
bond  between  us  cropped  out  in  the  discovery 
that  I  had  been  with  Commodore  Foxhall 
Parker  during  the  five  weeks'  Naval  drill  in 
Florida  Hay.  Spring  of  1874.  Commodore 
Parker  was  Mr.  Keene's  uncle;  his  only  son 
is  named  Foxhall  in  honor  of  that  distin- 
guished officer. 

James  R.  Keene  began  his  new  and  far 
more  brilliant  career  about  1896.  His  com- 
manding genius  as  a  manipulator  of  the 
market  brought  to  him  several  of  the  mightiest 
financial  combinations  in  America.  The 
Standard  ( )il  Company  employed  him  to  sell 
its  copper  properties.  J.  P.  Morgan  called 
upon  him  in  some  of  his  greatest  emergencies. 
A\  hile  other  large  operators  were  buying  stocks 
in  thousand  share  lots,  Keene  would  trade 
daily  in  fifty  to  one  hundred  thousand  shares 
through  a  dozen  brokers!  I  used  to  call  at  his 
office  occasionally,  to  find  him  in  a  darkened 
room  on  the  sixth  floor  of  the  Johnston  build- 
ing giving  cipher  orders  over  half  a  dozen 
telephone  wires.  A  glance  at  the  tape,  from 
time  to  time,  serves  to  keep  him  thoroughly 
informed  regarding  the  course  of  the  market. 
If  his  blow  is  not  being  properly  delivered, 
the  ticker  warns  him.  It  speaks  a  language 
he  understands.      Then  the  lover  of  literature 


becomes  a  man  of  action.  Orders  to  buy  are 
doubled,  or  doubled  again.  If  he  be  "a  bear," 
stocks  are  poured  into  the  Exchange  as  from 
a  hopper!  Such  is  the  story  of  five  hours  of 
five  days  in  the  week.  Saturday  is  almost  no 
day,  being  only  two  hours  long,  commercially. 

Rut  the  time  to  enjoy  meeting  James  R. 
Keene  is  in  the  evening,  after  he  has  dined 
and  while  he  is  converting  a  large  cigar  into 
smoke.  Then  he  is  as  thoroughly  divorced 
from  business  as  if  he  were  on  a  yacht  in 
midocean.  In  a  room  on  the  tenth  floor  of  the 
Waldorf-Astoria,  surrounded  by  every  luxury 
that  money  can  supply,  and  with  direct  tele- 
phonic connection  to  all  the  centers  of  trade 
and  information,  sits  this  remarkable  man, 
whose  name  is  upon  thousands  of  tongues  every 
day  and  who  is  credited  with  influencing  the 
most  enormous  financial  policies.  He  is  in- 
accessible to  those  unknown  to  him.  but  al- 
ways within  reach  of  people  he  trusts. 

Mr.  Keene  loves  speculation  as  a  bull-dog 
loves  fight.  He  handled  the  gigantic  Amal- 
gamated  Copper  coup  lor  the  Standard  Oil 
speculators;  and  on  that  desperate  day  when 
Harriman  and  Hill  fought  for  control  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  and  Wall  Street  went  mad, 
it  was  J.  P.  Morgan  who  threw  Keene  into 
the  inferno  and  brought  out  a  victory  for  the 
Hill  forces.  Mr.  Keene  more  than  regained 
his  fortune  in  that  famous  "bull  panic"  of 
May,  1901,  when  the  titanic  struggle  for  the 
control  of  the  Northern  Pacific  occurred  be- 
tween E.  II.  Harriman  and  James  J.  Hill. 
Shares  of  the  railroad  that  had  "broken" 
Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  in  IN?.'},  and  had  sold  in 
open  market  as  low  as  $.'5,  soared  to  $1,00(1. 
The  "Bonanza"  experience  was  repeated! 
Mr.  Keene  had  plenty  of  long  stock  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  let  it  go.  Hut  this  financier 
has  a  very  human  side.  One  Winter,  when 
laid  up  in  his  apartment  at  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria  with  a  broken  knee-cap,  he  conducted 
a  good  campaign.  The  day  was  bitterly  cold 
and  the  whistling  winds  at  times  drowned  the 
sound  of  the  ticker.  He  looked  out  his  win- 
dow and  saw  a  poorly  clad  woman  shivering 
on  the  street.  Turning  to  his  secretary  he 
said,  abruptly: 

"Spend  $20,000  m  the  next  twenty-four 
hours  on  people  who  are  cold  and   hungry!" 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


85 


He  then  added:  "And  tell  the  hoys  not  to  ask 
any  fool  questions  when  they  give  the  money." 

Mr.  Keene  is  intensely  fond  of  polities, 
an  ardent  admirer  of  President  Roosevelt 
and  a  believer  in  the  future  value  of  the  Philip- 
pines. Speaking  of  the  results  of  the  war  in 
the  Far  East,  he  said  among  many  other  things: 
"The  triumph  of  Japan  over  Russia  in 
Manchuria  will  change  commercial  and  finan- 
cial conditions  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
Japan  will  ultimately  become  one  of  the 
wealthy  nations  of  the  earth.  Having  risen  in 
two  years  to  the  place  accorded  a  power  of  the 
first  class,  her  Mikado  and  Counsellors  know 
that  eternal  vigilance  alone  can  maintain  the 
splendid  preeminence  achieved  by  their  Army 
and  Navy.     Their  energy  will  not  abate. 

"Naturally,  the  Japanese  are  intoxicated 
with  ambition.  They  will  extend  Japan's 
sphere  of  influence  along  the  entire  Asian 
coast.  Japan  will  solve  the  problem  of  China's 
future.  Although  the  density  of  the  popu- 
lation in  the  Flowery  Kingdom  may  be  ex- 
agge rated,  there  are'  more  than  200,000,000 
Chinese.  In  its  large  cities  are  stores  of 
wealth  that  have  been  accumulating  for  cen- 
turies. These  riches  will  now  find  outlet,  and 
a  large  share  of  the  money  received  therefor 
will  be  employed  under  Japan's  direction,  for 
China's  betterment.  Railroads,  cotton-  and 
woolen-mills  will  be  built  by  Japanese  en- 
gineers and  architects  and  machinists.  Re- 
fore  many  years,  a  lethargic,  moody  race  of 
mankind  will  be  converted  into  a  nation  of 
manufacturers,  tradesmen  and  mechanics.  The 
possibilities  of  agriculture  in  the  Middle 
Kingdom  are  endless.  Almost  every  name- 
able  cereal,  fruit  and  vegetable  can  be  grown 
somewhere  in  the  broad  expanse  of  the  ( 'hinese 
Empire.  Cotton,  coffee,  tea  and  rice  flourish 
in  the  southern  provinces.  China  will  not 
need  any  prompting  from  Japan  to  ask: 
'Why  should  our  people  buy  cotton  or  woolen 
goods  from  England  or  the  United  States.-' 
That's  what  the  'Boycott'  we  hear  so  much 
talked  about  means.  China  has  already  awak- 
ened. The  example  of  Japan's  rise  to  a  posi- 
tion of  dignity  among  nations  has  not  been 
lost  upon  the  teeming  millions  of  China.  If 
a  'Yellow  Peril'  ever  develop  for  US,  owing 
to  our  ownership  of  the  Philippines,  it  will  be 


equally  grave  to  France,  England  and  Ger- 
many, because  of  their  possessions  upon  the 
eastern  coast  of  Asia." 

Love  of  the  thoroughbred  horse  has  been 
one  of  James  R.  Kcene's  most  marked  char- 
acteristics. When  the  racing  season  was  on. 
lie  would  leave  a  rising  or  a  falling  market  to 
hurry  to  Sheepshead  Ray.  Gravesend,  or.  later. 
Belmont  Park  to  witness  performances  of  his 
horses.  For  more  than  a  decade,  he  main- 
tained the  largest  racing  stable  in  the  United 
States.  He  was  Vice-President  of  the  West- 
chester Racing  Association  that  managed 
Morris  Park,  before  it  was  abandoned  to  the 
growth  of  the  city.  To  this  day  Mr.  Keene 
has  a  splendid  stud  farm  at  Castleton  in  the 
"blue-grass  region"  of  Kentucky,  which  he 
frequently  visits  for  rest  and  recreation.  Mr. 
Keene  has  owned  several  monarchs  of  the 
American  turf,  among  them  probablj  the  great- 
est horse  ever  bred  in  this  country,  the  un- 
forgetable  Svsonby.  This  great  animal,  with 
an  unbeaten  record  of  two  seasons,  died  of  a 
sudden  illness.  Other  famous  horses  belong- 
ing to  the  Keene  stable  were:  Foxhall,  bred  in 
Kentucky  and  bought  as  a  yearling  for  $650, 
sent  abroad  and  won  the  Grand  Prix  at  Long- 
champs  in  1881.  In  the  same  year,  this  horse 
ran  second  in  England  to  the  great  Ren  d'Or 
at  the  City  and  Suburban;  also  in  the  Cezare- 
witch,  carrying  121  pounds.  Domino  won 
$191,780  in  1893;  Mr.  Keene's  stable  win- 
nings that  year  were  $279,458,  an  amount  un- 
precedented on  the  American  turf.  Also  may 
be  mentioned  Disguise,  Cap  and  Bells,  Com- 
mando, Charconac,  Colin,  Peter  Pan,  Super- 
man, Celt,  Pope  Joan  and  Veil.  In  his  early 
racing  days,  Air.  Keene  owned  Spendthrift, 
Dan  Sparling  and  Dutch  Roller. 

During  the  year  of  the  war  in  the  Far  East. 
Mr.  Keene  named  his  colts  after  Japanese 
warriors  and  diplomats.  "Kuroki"  was  one 
of  the  yearlings.  'Togo"  was  another.  There 
was  sentiment  in  this  matter.  Few  people 
knew  that  Mr.  Keene  had  lived  about  a  year 
in  Japan  and  found  his  stay  beneficial  to  his 
health.  The  visit  was  made  after  his  amazing 
coup  in  Bonanza  mining  stock  and  before  he 
came  Fast  to  live.  In  other  respects,  beside 
his  love  of  horses.  Mr.  Keene  is  exceptional 
among     Wall     Street     men.      He     is    a    great 


86 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


reader,  I  might  say,  a  constant  student. 
Calling  at  his  hotel  suite  during  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War,I  found  him  immersed  in  astudy 
of   Russian   history.     He  felt  a  deep  interesl 

in  the  two  countries,  then  at  each  other's 
throats, beyond  any  effect  the  conflict  might 
have  upon  the  stock  market.  He  followed 
everv  step  of  Marshal  Oyama's  advance  into 
Manchuria  on  a  large  map.  fixing  the  locations 
of  each  division  of  the  two  great  armies  by 
white-  and  black-headed  pins. 

A  hull  movement  of  1SD4  never  has  been 
explained  until  now.  The  Cherokee  Nation 
sold  its  lands  to  the  Government,  in  order  that 
they  lie  thrown  open  for  settlement:  the 
Cherokee  Strip,  as  tin-  reservation  was  known. 

was    purchased    for    $8,000,1 payable    in 

twenty-year  bonds.  A  committee  of  their 
people  brought  these  bonds  to  New  \  ork  to 
convert  them  into  cash.  The  Cherokees. 
dwindled  under  the  drastic  erosion  of  civiliza- 
tion from  a  mighty  nation  to  a  few  thousand. 
became  homeless!  They  were  poor  in  land, 
but  wondrously  rich  in  pocket!  In  the  future, 
the  chase  would  be  a  thing  unknown:  the 
tepee  and  the  wigwam  only  a  nebulous  men- 
tal vision. 

The  Cherokees.  literally  driven  into  civil- 
ization, were  better  prepared  for  such  a  fate 
than  any  other  native  people:  they  had  been  a 
self-governing  nation  for  a  century  and  a  half. 
During  all  those  years,  in  their  native  sim- 
plicity, they  escaped  the  sordid  side  of  human 
life,  never  knew  the  sleepless  nights  entailed 
by  anxieties  of  trade.  Their's  had  been  a 
quiet,  peaceful  existence,  but  now.  like  other 
members  of  the  Indian  races,  they  were  no 
longer  to  starve  on  reservations,  to  be  de- 
frauded by  Government  agents,  robbed  by 
trader-  and  physically  injured  by  bad 
whiskey  and  other  accompaniments  of  our 
civilization.  They  had  had  enough  of  these 
things.  They  did  not  kill  agents  or  destroy 
home-  of  the  whites,  but  sought  retributive 
justice  in  a  more  potent  and  effective  manner. 
Just  as  the  Romans,  at  the  end  of  the  18th 
century,  set  out  to  reconquer  Gaul — as  Napo- 
leon with  his  Italian  follower-  redeemed 
France  from  herself:  as  the  artists,  poets, 
litterateurs  and  statesmen  of  Southern  France 
nearly   all    Italian    in    blood    and    sympathy 


invaded  Paris,  giving  to  French  statesmanship 
Leon  Gambetta,  to  prose  literature  Alphonse 
Daudet  and  Guy  de  Maupassant  and  to 
poetiy  Mistral — so  came  the  Cherokees  to  the 
financial  centre  of  the  continent,  loaded  with 
wealth  and  firm  of  purpose,  to  grapple  with 
the  commerce  of  the  world!  Would  it  not  be 
a  strange  ethnological  picture  if  the  former 
owners  of  the  Cherokee  Strip,  pushed  to  the 
wall  and  robbed  of  their  rights,  dominated 
the  trade  of  the  East  and  reestablished  the 
supremacy  of  the  red  race  on  this  continent? 

Their  whole  history  has  been  marked  by  the 
courage  of  forbearance.  Patience,  in  the 
supreme  effort  to  maintain  good  fellowship 
with  white  neighbors,  ha-  been  the  dominating 
characteristic  of  their  history.  Aye.  they  have 
a  history  which  is  readily  traceable  as  far  back 
as  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Dr.  Brinton.  the  best  living  authority  on  the 
Indian  races,  identities  the  Lenapes  with  the 
Cherokees.  He  declares  that  ( 'herokee  history 
goes  back  to  the  Mound  Builders.  The  (  hero- 
kees  were  driven  from  the  Delaware  to  the 
Alleghanies,  where  they  dwelt  about  1540; 
thence  west  to  the  Ohio,  whence  they  were 
forced  in  1700;  thence  southward  to  North 
Carolina  ami  Georgia,  and  then  expatriated 
to  a  dreary  reservation  in  the  unexplored 
Western  wilderness.  They  left  behind  them. 
all  along  their  trail,  evidence  of  their  gentle 
and  relatively  humane  character.  Their  tumuli 
abound  in  soapstone  pipes,  showing  that  the 
(  herokee-  belonged  to  the  noble  army  of  smok- 
ers— were  the  precursors  of  all  followers  in  the 
wake  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  That  they  dwelt 
in  Central  Ohio  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
the  name  Cherokee  is  fastened  upon  many 
villages  and  streams  therein.  Perhaps  this  i- 
one  reason  why  their  fate  and  their  future 
appeal  -o  strongly  to  me.  A-  a  boy  I  knew 
their  graves.  I  -warn  in  a  (herokee  creek  and 
often  visited  one  of  the  many  villages  named 
""Cherokee." 

The  system  of  government  enjoyed  by  the 
Cherokee  Nation  always  was  democratic.  As 
early  a-  17:5o.  Sir  Alexander  dimming,  a 
special  commissioner  sent  by  Kim.:  George, 
found  the  (herokee  Nation  then  established 
in  Georgia  ,  a  government  of  seven  Mother 
Towns,  each  of  which  chose  a  chief  to  preside 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


81 


over  its  people.  This  local  ruler  was  elected 
out  of  certain  families  by  popular  ballot,  and 
the  descent  was  always  on  the  mother's  side. 
These  Mother  Towns  sent  a  deputation  to 
London  on  His  British  Majesty's  ship  "Fox," 
in  May  of  that  year.  With  them  went  the 
crown  of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  an  emblematic 
evidence  of  their  national  organization,  and  it 
was  tangibly  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  British 
King  in  token  of  complete  submission  to  the 
then  Home  Government  across  the  sea.  In 
June.  lS.'iO.  one  hundred  years  afterward  to 
a  month,  another  delegation  of  the  Cherokees 
visited  Washington  to  protest  against  the  laws 
that  the  State  Legislature  of  Georgia  had  im- 
posed upon  them.  This  body  of  intelligent 
native  Americans  consulted  Chief  Justice 
Marshall.  Chancellor  William  Wirt,  Justice 
McLane,  Daniel  Webster  and  Henry  Clay- 
all  immortal  names — and  Mr.  Wirt  took  their 
case  before  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 
He  made  one  of  the  greatest  speeches  of  his 
life  on  the  Cherokee  question,  in  which  oc- 
curred the  memorable  words,  often  quoted: 

"We  may  gather  laurels  on  the  held  of  bat- 
tle and  trophies  on  the  ocean,  but  they  will 
never  hide  this  foul  blot  on  our  national  es- 
cutcheon. 'Remember  the  Cherokee  Nation!' 
will  be  answer  enough  by  any  foreign  rival  to 
the  largest  boast  we  can  make." 

It  is  history  that  the  Government  treated 
these  Indians  just  as  it  has  other  natives.  It 
jockeyed  them,  just  as  a  gypsy  horse  trainer 
might  have  done.  The  expatriation  of  the 
Cherokees  soon  followed,  and  on  March  14, 
1836 — against  a  written  request  signed  by 
15,000  out  of  the  18.000  Cherokees  this  noble 
and  peaceful  people  were  sent  far  beyond  the 
Mississippi  to  a  land  of  desolation  and  star- 
vation, so  distant  from  all  existing  channels  of 
communication  with  the  rest  of  humanity  that 
it  was  doubtful  if  they  would  ever  again 
emerge.  A  great  race  appeared  to  have  ended 
its  career  in  despair  and  gloom! 

But  the  end  had  not  come.  With  them  they 
took  a  civilization  infinitely  superior  to  that 
existing  among  the  whites  of  the  frontier.  In 
their  Georgia  homes,  which  they  had  left  in 
tears  and  under  protest,  they  enjoyed  the  ben- 
efits  of  schools:  they  had  set  up  a  native  press, 
and.    as   early    as    1828,    had    published    The 


Cherokee  Phoenix.  This  journal  was  printed 
in  a  syllabic  language,  invented  by  one  of  their 
own  people.  We  have  only  to  read  Foster's 
charming  biography  of  this  unlettered  savage, 
who  invented  an  alphabet  and  started  the 
Cherokee  people  on  the  way  to  their  present 
high  state  of  civilization,  to  realize  how  far  in 
advance  they  were  of  the  border  ruffians  and 
Mexican  bandits  among  whom  they  were 
thrown,  to  survive  or  perish  as  fate  might 
decree. 

But  the  Cherokees  did  not  perish!  They 
became  an  agricultural  people;  they  converted 
thousands  of  square  miles  of  sage  brush  and 
sunburned  heather  into  green  and  smiling 
meadows  and  productive  farms.  They  re- 
established schools.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Boudinot  and  Bushyhead,  they  organized  a 
thoroughly  equipped  representative  govern- 
ment, with  its  Senate  and  Lower  House,  sitting 
at  Talequah,  and  over  it  they  chose  the  able 
Bushyhead  as  President  Chief.  The  Phoenix 
rose  from  its  ashes  and  was  edited  by  Elias 
Boudinot.  one  of  the  most  charming  and  lov- 
able men  it  has  ever  been  my  fortune  to  meet. 

Every  old  Washington  correspondent  re- 
members his  tall  figure,  his  beautifully  mod- 
eled features,  his  long  and  carefully  kept  hair. 
The  late  Edward  King  has  made  him  a  part 
of  our  literature  in  his  delightful  novel  entitled 
"A  Gentle  Savage."  For  years,  at  regular 
intervals,  he  was  a  well-known  figure  at  Wil- 
lard's,  admired  and  respected  by  everybody 
who  enjoyed  his  acquaintance.  He  was  famil- 
iar with  all  the  methods  of  legislation  at 
Washington,  and  so  long  as  he  acted  for  the 
Cherokee  Nation  its  interests  were  thoroughly 
protected. 

Of  the  legislation  culminating  in  the  pur- 
chase of  the  Cherokee  Strip  1  dislike  to  speak. 
Beyond  question,  that  peace-loving  and  in- 
dustrious people  were  forced  to  part  with  their 
lands.  It  is  an  insufficient  answer  to  this  sad 
fact  to  assert  that  they  received  a  fair  price  for 
their  property,  and  to  argue  that  the  greatest 
good  to  the  greatest  number  justifies  the  final 
extinction  of  this  people  as  an  independent 
nation.  It  is  true  that  land  can  be  bought  in 
other  sections  of  the  West,  notably  along  the 
lines  of  transcontinental  travel,  at  a  less  price 
than  $1. 25  per  acre,  but  the  Cherokees  were 


88 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW     YORK 


virtually  forced  to  take  that  sum  or  have  their 
lands  forcibly  intruded  upon  by  squatters, 
who  would  have  maintained  possession  with 
knife  and  gun.  For  good  or  for  ill.  thev 
finally  accepted  the  terms  offered  by  the 
Government.  The  sum  in  bonds  was  $8,000,- 
000  for  more  than  (i. 000. 0(10  acres!  A  depu- 
tation from  the  Cherokee  Nation  discounted 
these  bonds  in  New  York  for  $6,800,000,  most 
of  which  went  into  Wall  Street.     Notoriously, 


the  natives  were  enormous  winners;  they 
nearly  doubled  their  money.  That  vast  sum 
is  well  invested,  according  to  the  romance- 
history  of  Wall  Street,  and  will  reappear  in 
the  market  one  of  these  days;  handled  by  a 
mind  like  that  of  a  Keene  or  a  Rockefeller, 
it  will  make  of  the  defrauded  Cherokees  the 
financial    rulers    of    this    country. 


Ah!      That    would 
conquest  of  the  East! 


be    an    aboriginal    re- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


89 


CHAPTER   X 


AMONG    THE    FORGOTTEN 


OW  many  of  us  have  visited  a 
poor  farm  in  the  country.' 

When  I  lived  in  a  traveling 
bag,  so  to  speak,  and  was  hur- 
ried to  all  sorts  of  places  at 
every  hour  of  the  day  or  night, 
a  rush  order  to  Schoharie.  There 
a  revolt  among  the  inmates  of  the 
poor-farm  of  that  county — a  paupers'  rebel- 
lion, almost.  The  forsaken  dwellers  in  that 
land  of  the  forgotten  had,  in  some  manner, 
communicated  with  the  State  Commissioner 
of  Charities  and  he  had  asked  the  Herald  to 
investigate  the  complaints,  instead  of  doing 
the  work  himself.  (Only  another  instance  of 
the  manner  in  winch  the  large-hearted  editor 
is  constantly  made  use  of  by  the  public  official. 
Ye  Gods!  What  a  theme  is  "The  Chivalry 
of  the  Press!") 

A  night  on  the  train  to  Albany,  a  forenoon's 
ride  on  the  Albany  and  Susquehanna  road  and 
1  was  landed  at  Schoharie  Station.  The  little 
town  was  nestled  among  hills,  and  a  gurgling 
creek,  that  looked  fish-wise,  ran  through  it. 
To  this  day  I  can  recall  a  quaint  old  bridge 
over  which  I  was  driven.  The  village  was 
well  supplied  with  churches,  hut  1  could  not 
learn  that  any  of  their  pastors  ever  visited  the 
exiled  paupers,  three  miles  from  the  county 
seat.  The  distance  seemed  longer;  a  full 
hour  was  used  in  driving  it.  The  ride  was  a 
pretty  one — a  traveler  would  have  thought 
lie  was  bound  to  a  bit  of  Eden.  There  was 
water  in  the  landscape,  because  the  road 
skirted  the  brow  of  a  range  of  hills,  and,  far 
below,  was  the  creek  that  gives  name  to 
county  and  town. 

At  last,  we,  the  driver  and  1.  reached  the 
object  of  my  quest.  It  was  a  two-story  brick 
structure,  fronting  valley-ward.  We  drove 
through  a  gateless  entrance  into  the  Potter's 
Field,  placed  on  the  high  road  where  passersby 
could    notice    every    newly-made    grave    and 


wonder  which  of  their  former  neighbors  had 
gone  to  a  more  hospitable  world  than  this  one! 
Not  a  headstone!     Oblivion! 

How  characteristic  of  cold  charity  to  place 
the  pauper's  burying  ground  at  the  entrance 
to  their  last  earthly  home!  How  Dante 
would  have  appreciated  the  thought  had  he 
ridden  that  road,  even  in  spirit  form.  He 
would  have  revised  the  legend  over  the  gate 
to  hell!  The  thought  of  the  Schoharie  pool- 
directors  was  more'  poetic  and  quite  as  ef- 
fective as  the  words:  "Abandon  hope,  all  ye 
who  enter  here!" 

The  deputy  keeper  welcomed  me  and 
asked  me  to  make  myself  at  home  with  a 
cordiality  that  implied  the  possibility  of  doing 
so.  He  told  me  Schoharie  County  fed  her 
paupers  at  a  cost  of  a  dollar  a  head  per  week. 
He  seemed  proud  of  the  economies  he  prac- 
ticed. 

I  spent  an  hour  among  the  forlorn  men  and 
women  waiting  to  die — the  socially  con- 
demned! Xot  a  particle  of  reading  matter 
did  I  see.  except  a  torn  and  greasy  Bible  upon 
the  cover  of  which  was  the  announcement  in 
letters  so  large  that  the  title  to  the  Word  of 
God  was  over-shadowed:  "Presented  by  the 
Schoharie  Bible  Society."  Weren't  there  boxes 
at  the  post  office  or  the  railroad  station  in 
which  papers,  magazines  and  books  might  he 
deposited  for  these  lonely,  friendless  people!' 
Nobody  had  thought  of  that.  The  beds  were 
terrible  to  look  upon.  Provisions  made  for 
midnight  "drunks"  in  our  city  police  stations 
are  much  better.  Only  one  sad  incident  of 
many  comes  to  mind.  In  an  upstairs  room 
were  eight  aged  women.  One  of  them,  dod- 
dering  in  a  broken  rocking  chair,  looked  up 
as  we  entered  and  exclaimed: 

"Ah!  are  you  a  doctor.-  There's  some- 
thing the  matter  with  this  poor  old  head  of 
mine." 


90 


THE    HOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


I  told  her  that  there  was  much  the  matter 
with  mine,  also — that  it  ached  for  her.  This 
appeared  to  comfort,  much  as  did  the  assur- 
ance of  mv  in-aiidiiiother  when  I  stubbed  a 
toe:  **It  will  feel  better  when  it  (puts  hurt- 
ing." What  a  freemasonry  is  human  wretch- 
edness!  The  woman  was  made  happy  by  the 
thought  that  I,  too,  was  miserable. 

When  1  had  seen  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  place,  I  was  driven  back  to  town — past 
the  outcasts'  graves,  past  the  farmers'  homes, 
over  the  picturesque  bridge-  and  halted  be- 
fore a  new  county  court  house,  the  seat  of 
justice.  What  a  contrast  to  mercy's  seat  that 
I  had  left  among  the  hills!  In  front  of  the  lat- 
ter, a  graveyard;  behind  the  former,  a  jail. 
Alas!  Mercy  hail  been  exhausted  in  temper- 
ing Justice.  It  was  a  comfortable  jail.  Its 
keeper  told  me  that  the  county  paid  $L2..'50 
pel'  week  to  feed  his  charges.  Little  enough; 
but  why  the  contrast  ? 

The  ethics  are  easy  to  puzzle  out.  The 
law-breaker  must  be  conciliated.  Does  not 
he  come  into  court  and  has  not  he,  by  coun- 
sel, the  last  word  to  a  jury  of  his  peers  ?  lie  is 
the  ward  of  Justice!  But  the  broken  of  heart, 
of  body  and  of  mind.     Whose  wards  are  they  ? 

Yes,  one  can  hear  the  answer  afar  oil'. 
We've  all  heard  it  until  it  sounds  sacrilegious 
to  utter  that  Holy  Name.  But,  on  earth, 
God's  creatures  who  have  been  stricken  with 
misfortune  dire  are  without  judge,  or  counsel. 
Even  the  sacred  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  not 
operative  in  their  behalf. 

At  the  poor-house  of  Essex  county,  located 
in  the  hills  beyond  Whallonsburg,  1  passed 
through  the  wards  for  the  aged  men  and 
women  and  crossed  an  open  yard,  deep  with 
mud,  to  visit  the  children's  quarters.  While 
there,  a  small,  red-haired,  bare-headed  urchin 
attracted  my  notice.  I  patted  him  upon  the 
shoulder  and  asked  his  name.  lie  gave  it 
promptly,  told  me  he  was  10  years  old  and 
mother  and  fatherless.  He  hadn't  any  rela- 
tives, so  had  to  live  at  the  poor  farm!  I  felt 
deeply  touched  by  the  boy's  words. 
When  I  left  the  miserable  shed  in  which 
these  children  were  herded  and  started  across 
the  muddy  yard,  I  felt  a  tug  at  my  coat.  My 
little  friend  stood  behind  me.  His  eyes  looked 
up  to  mine  so  pitifully  that  I  asked: 


"What  can  I  do  for  you,  dear  little  chap?" 
"I  want  you  to  kiss  me,"  he  answered. 
"Certainly;    but  why?" 
"I  never  was  kissed  in  my  life!" 
When  I  sat  down  to  write  that  incident  for 
the  Herald,  I  developed  its  pathos,  describing 
the  friendless  lad.      As  a  result,  the  little  fel- 
low  was   adopted   by   a    childless   family  near 
Saratoga:    he  has  been  well  raised,  given  an 
education    and    will    be    heir    to    considerable 
property.       His    "ship    came    in    that    day." 
Hail  to  the  Philanthropy  of  Journalism! 

During  this  winter  of  IS?!) -'NO,  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  then  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
instituted  a  series  of  reforms  in  prison  and 
asylum  management  in  that  state.  At  his 
request,  I  went  to  Boston  in  February,  1880, 
to  address  a  meeting  held  in  Tremont  Tem- 
ple. The  hall  was  packed  even  to  the  rear 
seats  of  the  gallery.  To  my  amazement,  on 
seeing  a  programme,  I  found  that  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  war-horse  of  Abolitionism  and 
most  famous  of  all  living  American  orators, 
was  to  follow  me.  I  thanked  Heaven  he  was 
not  to  precede  me!  His  presence  on  the  plat- 
form explained  the  packed  house.  The  won- 
derful old  man  showed  his  mastery  over  a 
crowd  before  the  meeting  had  thoroughly  got 
under  way.  A  Boston  lawyer  made  the  open- 
ing address  and  uttered  language  that  started 
an  agitation  at  the  front  of  the  house.  The 
keeper  of  a  "private  sanitarium"  had  sent  a 
score  of  demented  women  with  their  keepers 
to  the  meeting  in  the  hope  of  creating  a  scene. 
A  mentally  unbalanced  woman  got  on  her 
feet  and  began  a  rambling  talk  about  a  rela- 
tive who  had  been  unjustly  locked  up  in  a 
mad-house.  The  assemblage  of  more  than 
two  thousand  people  was  in  turmoil.  Mr. 
Phillips  stepped  to  the  front  of  the  platform 
and  with  a  motion  of  his  hand  stilled  the  mur- 
murs of  insubordination  aroused  by  the  wo- 
man's language,     lie  said : 

'This  good  lady  is  quite  right  in  every- 
thing she  says,  I  haven't  a  doubt;  I  have  in 
mind  a  case  exactly  similar  of  which  I  might 
tell  you." 

He  "might  have"  told  it,  but  he  didn't.  The 
woman  sat  down.  The  audience  was  hushed 
and  Mr.  Phillips  at  once  turned  the  platform 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


<)1 


over  to  the  next  speaker.  He  |>ut  an  inde- 
scribable spell  upon  every  listener.  lie  sat 
down  close  to  me  and  as  he  did  so  commented 
upon  the  size  of  the  audience.  "1  am  sur- 
prised to  see  so  many  people  here,"  said  lie. 
"Everybody  has  forgotten  the  Indians  and  the 
insane."  His  was  the  speech  of  the  night  and 
made  mo  feel  as  if  my  poor  effort  were  a 
school-boy's  recitation.  His  methods  showed 
the  sublimity  of  that  art  which  captures  un- 
willing listeners  and  commands  attention. 
Wendell  Phillips  had  had  an  experience  of 
more  than  a  generation's  length  in  dealing 
with  turbulent  assemblages.  He  had  been 
hissed  and  pelted  with  had  eggs  when  ad- 
vocating the  cause  of  the  negro.  Therefore, 
I  had  the  advantage  of  learning  in  five  min- 
utes what  he  had  acquired  by  the  hardest  and 
most  cruel  experiences.  Great  as  is  the  art  of 
oratory,  it  leaves  behind  only  a  memory! 
While  the  sculptor,  painter  or  author  be- 
queathes to  posterity  something  more  or  less 
enduring,  the  orator  works  not  upon  canvas. 


or  white  paper  or  in  clay,  but  upon  himself  to 
vitalize  his  thoughts.  His  statues  fall  with 
him!  I  have  spoken  of  oratory  elsewhere.  Like 
the  actor's  art,  thai  of  the  orator  dies  when 
he   does. 

Mention  of  Wendell  Phillips  recalls  one  of 
the  last  acts  of  Horace  Greeley's  editorial 
career  before  he  plunged  into  the  mad  vortex 
of  a  presidential  campaign.  Mr.  Phillips  had 
spoken  slightingly  of  Greeley's  acceptance  of 
a  Democratic  endorsement.  A  few  weeks 
thereafter  the  Boston  orator  came  to  New 
^  ork  to  deliver  his  famous  address  on  "The 
Lost  Arts."  Mr.  Greeley  sent  the  best  sten- 
ographer on  his  stall'  to  Steinway  Hall  and 
printed  the  oration  in  full  next  morning,  there- 
by destroying  its  availability  for  further  use 
on  the  lecture  platform.  Since  that  time,  laws 
have  been  enacted  that  protect  the  rights  of 
lecturers  and  dramatic  authors.  It  was  "a 
complete  revenge  in  one  act."  as  Dumas  once 
said. 


92 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER  XI 


A    CRUSADE   TO    THE    QUAKER    CITY 


few 


wee 


ks, 


N  the  Fall  of  INTO  I  was  sent 
to  Philadelphia  with  instruc- 
tions from  James  Gordon  Ben- 
nett to  expose  corruption  in  the 
Republican  organization  that 
dominated  that  city.  It  was 
thought  to  l>e  the  work  of  a 
or  months,  at  most.  Political 
power  was  centered  in  '"the  Gas  Trust."  an 
organization  invested  with  the  management 
of  the  municipal  plant  tor  lighting  the  Quaker 
City.  Its  members  were  chosen  by  Select  and 
Common  Councils,  a  large  majority  of  the 
members  of  which  owed  their  places  to  the 
gas  trustees.  Having  created  the  sources  of 
their  appointment,  these  trustees  virtually 
chose  themselves.  Never  in  the  palmiest  days 
of  Tweed  was  a  small  cabal  of  politicians  so 
securely  intrenched.  Its  members  had  the 
employment  of  more  than  11,000  workmen  in 
various  branches  of  gas  production  and  sup- 
ply. These  men  were  chattels.  They  were 
moved  about  from  ward  to  ward,  whenever 
need  arose  to  maintain  dominance  in  any 
particular  locality.  Xot  a  ton  of  gas  coal  was 
brought  to  the  city  on  which  the  railroads  did 
not  surrender  a  rebate  to  persons  unknown. 
Not  a  foot  of  gas  pipe  was  purchased  without 


an  overcharge. 


Lime.  coke,  retorts,  wagons, 
of    all     kinds     were    gorged     with 


machinery 

"graft!"  The  chief  of  this  secret,  all-power- 
ful cabal  was  a  tall,  mild-mannered  Irishman, 
far  along  in  years,  who  came  to  this  country 
as  a  weaver  and  began  work  in  Philadelphia 
at  a  loom  in  a  cellar.  He  wielded  the  power 
of  millions  when  the  Herald  went  up  against 
him!  A  long  fight  developed.  Not  a  friendly 
word  did  I  have  from  any  newspaper  in  the 
town.  Rufus  E.  Shapley,  who  had  fallen  out 
with  the  ringsters,  was  a  staunch  coadjutor. 
He  wrote  a  satire  called  "Solid  for  Mulhooley  " 
that  materially  advanced  the  agitation. 


A  young  lawyer  named  Pattison,  in  the 
office  of  Lewis  C.  Cassidy,  secured  the  demo- 
cratic nomination  for  City  Comptroller.  He 
wasn't  well  known  and  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Democrat  caused  the  Republican  leaders  to 
ignore  him;  but  the  reform  agitation  was 
growing  and  to  the  amazement  of  everybody, 
Robert  E.  Pattison  was  elected.  He  began 
at  once  to  perform  the  true  offices  of  a  City 
Comptroller  by  demanding  vouchers  for  all 
bills  and  tin-owing  out  those  for  which  none 
existed.  On  November  (>.  1880,  E.  Dunbar 
Lockwood  sent  out  a  call  for  a  meeting  at  his 
office  on  the  15th.  to  organize  a  committee 
to  grapple  with  the  ring.  Out  of  this  meeting, 
to  which  I  was  invited,  grew  the  Committee 
of  One  Hundred,  -by  comparison  a  far  more 
effective  and  unselfish  popular  organization 
than  had  been  our  much-vaunted  Committee 
of  Seventy  in  New  York.  As  time  proved, 
there  were  less  than  half  a  dozen  office-seekers 
in  the  whole  bunch!  In  this  fight,  the  Herald 
led  from  the  beginning.  Frequently,  when 
its  issue  contained  an  exposure  of  convincing 
character.  Mr.  Bennett  sent  10.000  extra 
copies  to  the  Quaker  City  and  distributed 
them  at  his  own  expense.  The  crusade  was 
a  costly  one  and  attended  with  much  perplex- 
ity, discouragement  and  perhaps  some  per- 
sonal danger.  Hardly  a  mail  but  failed  to 
bring  to  me  a  threatening  letter  from  some 
servant  of  the  cabal.  Although  I  never  as- 
sumed that  these  threats  were  inspired  at 
headquarters,  I  afterwards  learned  that  at- 
tempts were  made  to  reach  my  proprietor 
abroad  and  to  convince  him  I  was  actuated  by 
motives  of  spite  or  failure  to  obtain  political 
favors  demanded!  Non-possession  of  the  fact 
that  Mr.  Bennett  had  inspired  the  campaign 
was  the  weak  point  of  my  enemies.  I  re- 
ceived from  him  a  letter  dated  at  Pan,  saying: 
"I  approve  of  everything  you  have  done  and 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


!)3 


am  not  influenced  by  any  letters  I  receive." 
A  desperate  character,  affiliated  with  the  Gas 
Trust,  although  a  Democrat,  "Billy"  McMul- 
len,  was  reported  to  me  as  swearing  personal 
vengeance  if  (lie  "persecution"  of  his  friends 
diil  not  cense. 

The  cabal  then  tried  another  method  to 
cause  my  removal.  On  an  order  from  the 
Herald  office  to  get  an  interview  with  an 
adventurer,  named  Mantrop,  for  the  use  of  a 
member  of  a  Congressional  committee  in- 
vestigating charges  that  certain  Senators  were 
connected  with  a  scheme  to  compel  payment 
of  claims  against  Peru.  I  secured  the  material, 
forwarded  it  to  New  York  on  the  assumption 
that  it  would  be  transmitted  therefrom  to 
Washington.  To  my  amazement,  the  matter 
was  printed  the  following  morning,  owing  to 
the  condition  of  the  night  editor  on  the  pre- 
vious evening.  A  firm  of  shyster  lawyers 
affiliated  with  the  ringsters  immediately  com- 
municated with  one  of  the  Senators  mentioned 
by  Mantrop,  induced  him  to  come  to  Phila- 
delphia and  cause  my  arrest  on  a  charge  of 
criminal  libel.  I  avoided  arrest  by  hurrying 
to  a  magistrate's  office  with  a  bondsman  and 
giving  bail.  The  Senator  disclaimed  un- 
friendliness to  me  when  the  facts  were  stated, 
but  persisted  in  what  he  was  pleased  to  call 
his  "vindication."  The  Gas  Trust  cabal  was 
jubilant!  Senator  McPherson  was  not  per- 
mitted to  be  satisfied  with  a  '"vindication" 
in  a  magistrate's  court,  because  an  opportu- 
nity offered  to  send  the  obnoxious  Herald  cor- 
respondent to  jail  and  thus  to  stop  the  ex- 
posures. Like  Tweed  and  his  associates,  the 
Gas  Trust  corruptionists  "only  wanted  to  be 
let  alone."  The  trial  was  unimportant  and 
resulted  in  a  fine,  which  was  promptly  paid, 
and  the  campaign  continued. 

Among  all  the  men  who  came  to  the  fore- 
front in  this  crusade  was  S.  Davis  Page,  a 
prominent  lawyer  and  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mon Council.  lie  was  elected  from  a  down- 
town ward.  lie  lived  in  a  fine  old  house  on 
Fourth  street,  where  his  father,  an  eminent 
physician,  had  resided  before  him  Mr.  Page 
was  born  in  the  Quaker  City  in  1840,  was 
graduated  from  Yale  in  1859,  and.  after  read- 
ing law  in  the  office  of  Peter  McCall,  com- 
pleted his  studies  at  Harvard   Law   School  in 


iMit.  lie  at  once  began  practice  on  his  own 
account  and  it  was  not  until  twenty-odd 
years  later  that  he  formed  the  firm  of  Page, 
Allinson  &  Penrose,  the  latter  being  the  pres- 
ent United  Stales  Senator.  When  corruption 
in  the  management  of  the  City's  gas-works 
became  so  evident  that  public  action  had  to  be 
taken,  a  committee  of  the  City  Council  was 
appointed  ami  on  this  committee  Mr.  Page 
soon  took  the  laboring  oar.  Day  by  day 
the  Herald  hammered  away,  its  correspond- 
ent generally  knowing  in  advance  what  wit- 
nesses would  he  called  and  often  sujwestine 
ii-  .  .        .  .      . 

the  line  of  examination.      An  incident  occurred 

one  day  that  recalled  the  conduct  of  the  Tweed 
ringsters  in  this  city,  when  they  broke  a  glass 
door  in  the  court  house  and  abstracted  main' 
documents.  Mr.  Page  carried  a  green  baa', 
as  does  nearly  every  lawyer  in  the  Quaker 
City,  lie  placed  it  in  front  of  him  upon  a 
table  and  while  he  was  conducting  an  exam- 
ination of  one  of  the  gas  trustees,  some  ser- 
vant of  the  cabal  stole  his  bag,  supposed  to 
contain  incriminating  evidence.  The  theft 
had  no  effect  upon  the  investigation  which 
went  straight  along  and  was  followed  by  a 
political  upheaval  the  like  of  which  never  has 
been  seen  in  so  strongly  partisan  a  community. 
The  reformation  spread  throughout  the  state 
and  with  the  assistance  of  an  "insurgent" 
Republican,  named  Wolff,  Robert  E.  Pattison, 
the  faithful  City  Comptroller,  was  chosen 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  -a  Commonwealth 
with  a  normal  Republican  plurality  of 
150,000! 

Mr.  Pattison's  retirement  from  the  Con- 
trollership  was  followed  in  1883  by  the  advent 
of  S.  Davis  Page  to  that  office.  Although  he 
served  only  one  term,  he  fully  completed  the 
house-cleaning  so  well  begun  by  his  predeces- 
sor. Having  a  large  legal  practice.  Mr.  Page 
was  not  desirous  of  continuing  longer  in 
politics,  hut  with  the  advent  of  President 
Cleveland  he  was  appointed  Assistant  Treas- 
urer of  the  United  Stales  at  Philadelphia  and 
administered  that  office  with  entire  satisfac- 
tion until  1890.  A  year  later  he  was  one  of 
the  Commission  appointed  by  the  Governor 
to  investigate  the  accounts  of  John  Bardsley, 
a  derelict  City  Treasurer,  with  the  Keystone 
National  Rank.         had  known  Rardslev  when 


94 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


HARMAN    VERKES 


1'Hll-    DEWITT  CUYLE 


JOHN  C.    BELL  P.  F.  ROTHERMEL,  Jr. 

A  Ghoup  of  Promixkxt  Philadelphiaxs 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


95 


he  was  a  common  councilman  and  had  re- 
garded him  as  the  least  grasping  member  of 
the  McManes  cabal.  He  had  played  his 
cards  so  well  that  many  thousands  of  staunch 
reformers  were  induced  to  vote  for  him  when 
he  received  the  nomination  for  City  Treas- 
urer, to  succeed  a  weak  occupant  of  that 
office  who  had  risen  on  the  reform  wave. 
When  the  crash  of  the  Keystone  Bank  came. 
Bardsley  was  found  to  have  unduly  favored 
it.  because  its  vaults  held  more  city  money 
than  they  should  have  had  in  them.  Exactly 
what  was  the  loss  to  the  city.  I  never  knew. 
Counsellor  Page  brought  out  every  fact  and 
sent  the  wretched  "Godly-good-bub"  Bards- 
ley to  state  prison. 

The  personality  of  Boies  Penrose,  whom 
I  knew  in  those  days,  is  a  delightful  one.  lie 
has  been  everywhere,  seen  everything,  always 
a  creature  of  luxury  but  never  of  foolish 
wealth,  and  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  best- 
equipped  companions  any  man  who  seeks 
true  sociability  could  hope  to  meet.  Penrose 
possesses  a  most  equable  temperament.  He 
is  one  of  the  best  listeners:  his  mentality  is  far 
beyond  average.  True,  he  lacks  the  divine 
gift  of  oratory.  The  man  who  can  say  the 
right  thing  at  the  proper  moment  more  nearly 
belongs  to  the  inspired  of  heaven  than  any 
human  creature  since  the  days  of  alleged 
prophets. 

When  I  first  met  Boies  Penrose,  son  of  the 
distinguished  Dr.  Richard  A. 


F.  r 


enrose. 


he 


was  a  young  member  of  the  bar  of  Philadel- 
phia, associated  with  S.  Davis  Page.  That 
was  about  1883.  Senator  Penrose  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  1860,  and  was  graduated 
from  Harvard  in  1881.  He  was  an  athletic, 
healthy  specimen  of  manhood  when  he  re- 
turned to  his  home  city  and  began  the  study 
of  his  profession.  He  read  law  with  Wayne 
MacVeagh  and  George  Tucker  Bispham.  but 
after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  entered 
politics  and  was  elected  to  the  Pennsylvania 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  Eighth  Phila- 
delphia district.  Two  years  later  he  was 
sent  to  the  State  Senate,  was  reelected  in  1X90 
and  again  in  1894,  acting  as  president  pro 
tempore  of  that  body  in  1889  and  1891.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  National 
Convention  of  1900  and  1904;  was  Chairman 


of  the  Republican  State  Committee  tor  two 
years;  was  Pennsylvania's  representative  on 
the  National  Republican  Committee,  1904. 
He  was  elected  United  States  Senator  to  suc- 
ceed J.  Donald  Cameron,  tor  the  term  begin- 
ning March  4,  1897,  and  lias  twice  been 
reelected,  his  term  of  service  to  expire  in  191."). 

Although  Boies  Penrose  is  the  inheritor  of 
the  mantle  of  the  "Clan  Cameron,"  never  in 
any  respect  identified  with  reform  measures, 
his    own    record    began    with    brilliancy    in    a 


BOIES  PEN  HOSE 

memorable  contest  made  by  him  in  his  native 
city  as  a  candidate  for  mayor.  At  the  request 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and  in  collabo- 
ration with  Edward  P.  Allinson.  an  associate 
in  the  law  office  of  S.  Davis  Page,  he  wrote 
"A  History  of  the  City  Government  of  Phila- 
delphia," a  large  octavo  volume,  which  cut  to 
the  root  of  municipal  corruption  and  showed 
how  trusteeships  like  that  which  operated  the 
gas  works  of  the  city  were  abused.  The  work 
was  intended  as  a  text-book  for  university 
study  in  historical  and  political  science  and 
served  its  purpose  so  vigorously  that  it  led  to 
political  agitation  wherever  it  was  used. 
Associated  as  Mr.   Penrose  was  with  Matthew 


96 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


Stanley  Quay,  his  Senatorial  colleague,  he 
acquired  by  direcl  heritage  from  the  <  lamerons 
.•ill  the  arts  of  political  finesse  thai  had  given 
to  thai  family  complete  political  domination  of 
the  great  state  for  more  than  ;i  generation.  I  [e 
is  to-day  leader  of  his  party  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  absolute  chieftain  of  the  second 
state  in  the  Union  and  litis  before  liim  ;i  career 
of  great  prominence.  Barely  fifty  years  of 
age,  willi  ;i  small  but  ample  fortune,  general 
popularity,  much  suavity  of  manner,  ;i  fine 
voice  ;ind  capacity  to  use  il  when  necessary, 
commanding  the  respect  of  the  tremendous 
Republican  majority  in  his  state,  there  is  no 
reason  why  Boies  Penrose  should  not  retain 
lo  hale  old  age  the  distinguished  position  in 
national  affairs  lie  now  occupies.  lie  has  de- 
veloped with  his  years;  has  become  an  excel 
lent  Constitutional  lawyer,  a  fair  debater  and 
.-in  admirable  political  tactician.  I  have 
referred  to  his  ability  as  a  speaker,  which  1 
am  frank  to  say  he  has  not  displayed  notably 
since  entering  the  Senate  Chamber.  My 
opinion  is  based  upon  his  speeches  during  an 
exciting  municipal  contest,  in  which  he  formed 
so  large  a  part.  Many  people  marvelled  at 
the  forensic  ability  Senator  Aldrich.  a  plain 
grocery-man,  ultimately  developed.  Senator 
Penrose  has  a  line  education,  is  well  equipped 
in  legal  knowledge,  and  as  the  leader  of  his 
party  in  the  Chamber,  will  rise  to  the  demands 
of  the  place.  lie  belongs  to  one  of  the  old 
families  of  the  Quaker  City,  and.  as  1  have 
said,  his  father  was  ;i  distinguished  member 
of  a  profession  that  ranks  preeminently  high 
in  Philadelphia,  known  as  a  city  of  doctors 
and    lawyers. 

Another  experience  with  a  threatened  libel 
suit  occurred  during  my  stay  in  tin'  Quaker 
City.  Although  il  belongs  to  the  Comedy  of 
Journalism,  1  relate  il  here  as  a  foil  to  the 
McPherson  incident.  In  searching  through 
a  mass  of  vouchers  and  letters  that  I  had 
obtained  in  an  underground  manner  from  the 
office  of  the  Gas  Trust.  1  encountered  the 
name  of  Cornelius  Walburn,  referred  to  in 
letters  as  "Coonie."  I  made  mention  of  him. 
although  he  was  not  in  any  way  involved  in 
irregularity.  Nexl  day,  a  short,  red-faced  man 
of  middle  age  came  into  the  Herald  bureau 
and  announced  his  intention  to  bring  a  suit  for 


libel  against  the  newspaper  because  his  name 
had  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  "the 

rascals  of  the  ( bis  Trusl ." 

A  clerk  was  seated  at  the  other  side  of  the 
loom  and  1  pretended  lo  give  him  some  in- 
structions. Then  1  returned  to  my  visitor 
and  asked : 

"Why  have  I  libelled  you  by  mentioning 
your  association  with  the  people  at  the  gas 
office  ?" 

"Why?"  he  fairly  shouted:  "'because 
is  a  thief.  1  know  him  to  be.  lb'  wauled  me 
lo  certify  a  crooked  kill  for  goods  1  supplied; 
when  1  refused  to  do  so.  he  sa  id :  'No  matter. 
Coonie;  we  can  fix  the  bill  afterwards.'  And 
1  suppose  he  diil.     There's  .  he  is  just  as 

much  of  a  'crook.'  1  can  put  him  in  jail. 
And.  as  for  the  boss  himself.  1  don't  fear  him: 
1    know    how    he  gol    rich 

"Please  wait  a  moment,"  said  I.  looking 
over  at  the  clerk.  "Have  you  got  that  all 
dow  n.  Joe  ?" 

"Yes,  sir."  replied  the  young  man. 

"What's  thai  ?"  exclaimed  Walburn.  "  You 
don't  mean  you  are  going  to  print  what  1  have 
just    said  ?" 

"Certainly  not:  but  we  shall  find  it  valua- 
ble in  the  suit  you  intend  lo  bring." 

"Oh!  see  here:  I'll  call  thai  suit  off  if  you 
will  give  lo  me  those  notes." 

".lust  put  them  in  the  safe.  Joe,"  1  said, 
as  the  visitor  departed. 

Many  interesting  incidents  occurred  during 
my  stay  in  Philadelphia.  From  a  small  gath- 
ering of  journalists  and  theatrical  managers 
the  Clover  (Ink.  one  of  the  most  famous  in- 
stitutions of  the  kind  ever  known  in  this 
country,  became  a  national  affair.  Il  had  its 
origin  at  a  dinner  given  to  John  lb  SchoefTel, 
at  the  Continental  Hotel,  in  the  spring  of 
1880.  The  party  included  .lames  II.  Alexan- 
der. William  U.  Balch,  Royal  Merrill.  Edward 
Bedloe,  Erastus  Brainerd,  John  P.  Carncross, 

John  Donnelly.  Moses  P.  Handy.  Albert  II. 
Hoeckley.  Thomas  L.  Jackson,  Charles  A. 
Menduin.  Julius  Chandlers.  William  Ander- 
son. Charles  \\.  Deacon,  and  .1.  Fred  Zim- 
merman. Mr.  Handy  presided.  Near  the 
small  hours,  Mr.  Balch,  then  fresh  from  Bos- 
ton, proposed  the  formation  of  a  social  club. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


'.»: 


It  was  a  Thursday  night  and  the  name  of 
"Thursday  Club"  was  chosen.  The  organi- 
zation took  shape  at  once  and  for  many  months 
the  meetings  continued.  A  year  later  the 
name  of  the  coterie  was  changed  to  "Clover 
Clul>."  When  a  dinner  was  given  by  this 
club,  special  trains  were  run  from  Washington 
and  New  York,  bringing  as  its  guests  distin- 
guished men  of  the  nation.  The  Clover  Club 
was  the  making  of  G.  C.  Boldt. 

While    at    Philadelphia    I    knew    John    W. 
Shuckers,    who    had    been    Secretary    Chase's 
private  secretary  and  inherited  all  his  corre- 
spondence.    During  the  Civil  War  a  strange 
code  of  military  ethics  had  developed.     The 
most  notable  instance  was  Garfield's  conduct 
toward    a    superior    officer,    Gen.    Rosecran-. 
On    July   ?.    1863.    Garfield,    who   afterwards 
became   President,    wrote   from    Nashville   to 
Salmon     P.     Chase,     then     Secretary     of     the 
Treasury,  a  letter  found  among  the  papers  of 
the  dead  Chief  Justice  in   Shuckers'    posses- 
sion and  by  him  given   to  Charles  A.   Dana, 
who  published  it  in  the  Sun  in  January.  1880. 
That    letter   has   few    parallels!      During   the 
entire    Civil    War,    Chase    and    Stanton    were 
marplotters  in  the  Lincoln  cabinet.     I   recall 
an  entire  afternoon  passed  in  Shuckers'  office 
where  he  had  a  type-setting  machine,  many 
features    of    which    are    incorporated    in    the 
"Linotype**  of  to-day),  during  which  I  read 
half  a  hundred  confidential  letters  addressed 
to  Chase  by  prominent  member-,  of  the  then 
Republican  party.    Many  of  them  were  grossly 
slanderous,  most  of  them  were  treacherous  in 
the  truest  sense,  because  they  criticised  men 
who  trusted  them  and  whose  friendship  they 
courted.     Many  of  those  epistles  belong  to  the 
history  of  that  time.     Especially  do  I  recall  a 
letter  by  Murat  Halstead,  then  editor  of  the 
Cincinnati  Commercial,  saying  to  Chase,  who 
sat  in  Lincoln's  cabinet.  "Lincoln  is  crazy" 
and  ""Horace  Greeley  ought  to   be  hanged!" 
The   birth   of   the   town    of    Roanoke.    Va., 
dates  from  the  visit  of  a  group  of  New    York 
and  Philadelphia  capitalists  who  made  a  trip 
of  exploration  in  May.   1881,  over  the  newly 
acquired  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Railroad,  which 
extended  from  Norfolk  to  Bristol.  Tenn..  and 
which  they  had  re-christened  the  Norfolk    & 
Western.      In    that    party    were    George     I. 


Tyler,  Clarence  II.  Clark.  Frederick  .1.  Kim- 
ball. S.  A.  Caldwell,  all  of  Philadelphia,  and 
( !hristopher  ( 


Baldwin,  President  and  George 


C  Clark,  director  of  the  Louisville  &  Nash- 
ville Railroad.  W.  B.  [sham  and  James  T. 
Woodward,  of  the  Hanover  Hank  of  New 
York.  I  was  aboard  that  train  a-  the  guesl 
of  Clarence  II.  Clark,  who  had  bought  the 
road  at  foreclosure  sale,  re-capitalized  it. 
placed  its  bonds  and  was  making  the  tour  of 
inspection  of  bis  new  property.  That  was  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  four  days'  experiences 
of  my  life!  The  special  train  travelled  only 
by  daylight,  and  from  ten  o'clock  until  three. 
lay  on  sidings  with  direct  wire  communication 
into  several  of  the  largest  banks  and  brokeragi 
offices  of  New  York.  It  was  veritably  a  stock 
exchange  on  wheels! 

One  evening,  as  darkness  was  falling,  the 
train    stopped    on    a    siding   at    Big    Lick.     An 
hour  before,  we  had  passed  the  point  at  which 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  railroad   was  to  join 
the    newly    named    Norfolk     &    Western    and 
thereby   give   to    the    latter   direct    connection. 
through    Hagerstown    and    the    Cumberland 
Valley   railroad,   to   New    York.      Dinner   had 
been  served  and  every  guest   was  in  amiable 
mood.     At  this  auspicious  moment,  a  porter 
entered   and    announced   that   the    mayor  and 
town  council  of  Big  Lick  awaited  outside,  de- 
siring to  express  the  gratitude  and  the  good 
will   of  the  villagers  toward  the  new  owners 
of   the    line.     President    Baldwin    was    desig- 
nated to  go  to  the  rear  of  the  car  and  address 
to  the  group  of  a  dozen  men  a  few    words  of 
thanks    prior    to    sending    "refreshments"    to 
them.     Mr.   Baldwin  was  confused  as  to  the 
geography  of  the  locality.     lie  assumed  that 
Big  Lick  was  the  point  at  which  the  Shenan- 
doah   Valley    road    was    to    terminate.      In    a 
few    florid  sentences,  he  committed  the  direc- 
tors of  the  Shenadoah  Company  to  a   change 
in  their  terminal   plans!      lb-  -poke  partly  as 
follows:    "Here    will    rise    a    great    city.    Mr. 
Mayor  and  Councilmen  of  Big   Lick.     Bere 
we  shall  locate  machine  shops,  round-houses 
and  build  hotels;  here  will  rise  seats  of  learn- 
ing  and    vast    commercial    enterprises.      In    a 
word,     the     magic    of    northern     capital     will 
create  for  the  New  South  a  business  centre  that 
will  radiate  it>  activities  far  and  wide.""      'I  he 


98 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


LUCIUS  1.    JOHNSON 


JAMES  McCREA 


1 

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jos.  b  iii  tchinson  alexander  c.  shand 

Prominent  Railroad  Officials  of  Philadelphia 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


!)f) 


applause  was  deep  and  heartfelt,  although  it 
is  doubtful  it'  the  Mayor  and  Councilmen 
of  Big  Lick  understood  its  tremendous  import. 
After  the  reception  was  over,  the  people  in 
the  dining-car  had  a  hearty  laugh  at  the  ex- 
pense  of  Mr.  Baldwin;  hut  they  smiled  in  a 
different  way  when  lie  assured  them  that  his 
promises  must  he  made  good  and  that  the  ter- 
minal of  the  Shenandoah  road  must  be 
changed  to  Big  Lick!  He  admitted  his  error 
hut  said  it  must  he  corrected  into  fact.  Some 
of  the  shrewd  members  of  the  parly  unostenta- 
tiously dropped  oil'  the  train  and  beforemid- 
night  had  secured  options  on  all  the  acreage 
property  they  could  buy  within  a  mile  of  the 
railroad.  Several  Philadelphia  millionaries 
were  made  that  night!  Francis  .1.  Kimball, 
who  was  one  of  the  party,  was  then  President 
of  the  Shenandoah  Valley  railroad,  and  lived 
to  see  it  one  of  the  important  branch  lines  of 
the  Pennsylvania  system.  The  present  head 
of  the  Norfolk  &  Western  Railway  Company 
is  Lucius  E.  Johnson,  horn  at  Aurora,  111., 
1864,  and  educated  at  the  public  schools  of 
that  town.  At  the  age  of  twenty  Mr.  John- 
son secured  employment  on  the  Chicago, 
Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroad  as  a  fireman. 
He  tells  me  that  it  was  a  matter  of  necessity 
with  him  to  find  work  and  points  with  especial 
gratification  to  the  fact  that  he  has  risen  from 
the  ranks  to  the  Presidency  of  a  successful 
railroad  system.  Not  possessing  a  technical 
education,  such  as  might  have  been  obtained 
at  college,  he  specially  qualified  himself  for 
the  higher  branches  of  his  trade  by  constant 
study  of  the  mechanical  features  of  locomo- 
tive and  train  equipment.  He  remained  in 
the  locomotive  department  of  that  load  until 
1886,  holding  various  positions,  including  mas- 
ter mechanic  at  Aurora.  He  was  then  ap- 
pointed Superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis  divi- 
sion, where  he  served  two  years;  then  of  the 
Chicago  division,  where  he  remained  an  equal 
length  of  time;  he  was  Superintendent  of  the 
Montana  Central  railway  for  three  years; 
next  he  was  Superintendent  of  the  Michigan 
division  of  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  South- 
ern for  four  years  and,  in  October,  1903,  he- 
came  General  Manager  and.  in  the  following 
February.  President  of  the  Norfolk  &  Western 
Railway.    Here  is  a  story  from  real  life  of  con- 


tinuous advancement  l>\  sheer  force  of  capac- 
ity. When  the  Norfolk  &  Western  Railway 
was  extended  up  the  New  River  Valley  into 
the  soft  coal  deposits  of  West  Virginia,  the 
commercial  world  recognized  the  development 
of  a  previously  unknown  coal  area  In  the 
I  nited  States.  The  outcome  of  thai  adven- 
ture into  unexplored  fields  was  the  formation 
of  the  Pocahontas  Coal  &  Coke  Co.  The 
Norfolk  &  Western  corporation  built  at  Nor- 
folk the  largest  coal  chutes  in  America.  They 
were  located  near  the  entrance  of  the  harbor, 
w  here  water  was  deep,  and,  for  the  first  time  iu 
the  history  of  the  American  coal  trade,  regular 
lines  of  steamers  carried  the  "black  diamonds" 
of  the  Pocahontas  Co.  to  Europe.  Sturgeon 
and  oysters  took  second  rank  at  Norfolk  to 
coal!  Since  1904,  when  Mr.  Johnson  took 
charge,  the  permanent  way  and  rolling  slock 
of  the  Norfolk  &  Western  Railway  have  been 
vastly  improved.  Mr.  Johnson  has  offices  in 
New  ^  ork  hut  lives  in  Roanoke,  that  dream- 
town  of  the  beautiful  valley  whose  origin  I 
have  described.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Club  of  Norfolk,  the  Shenandoah  (lull 
of  Roanoke  and  of  the  Queen  City  of  Cin- 
cinnati. He  is  a  Democrat  but  has  never 
mixed  in  politics. 

The    Pennsylvania    railroad    has    produced 

several  of  the  most  progressive  men  in  Ameri- 
ca's roll  of  fame.  Among  them  are  J.  Edgar 
Thomson,  who  largely  created  the  line  to 
Pittsburg  and  secured  the  New  Jersey  divi- 
sion to  New  York;  Thomas  A.  Scott,  who 
extended  the  trunk  lint"  to  Chicago;  George 
B.  Roberts,  who  added  the  Philadelphia.  Wil- 
mington &  Baltimore  and  with  Scott's  Bal- 
timore &  Potomac  drove  the  road  into  Wash- 
ington and  through  the  Monument  City  and 
laid  the  great  basis  for  its  present  financial 
credit;  Frank  Thomson,  who.  like  the  others. 
had  given  his  life  to  (he  problem  of  improving 
the  permanent  way:  A.  J.  Cassaft.  whose  fore- 
sight in  providing  freight  relief  lines  and  en- 
tering the  metropolis  under  the  Hudson  River 
by  extending  the  steel  highway  to  Long  Island 
has  been  realized  since  his  death:  and  James 
McCrea,  the  present  head  of  the  gdfjantic  cor- 
poration,  under  whose  presidency  that  notable 
improvement  which  makes  New  York  the 
Eastern  terminus  of  the  Pennsylvania  system 


100 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


W.  \V    ATTERBURY 


CHARLES  E    ITCH 


henry  s.  grove  john  s.  bioren 

Foub  Well  Kxowx  Philadelphia  Men 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


101 


SAMUEL  REA 

lias  been  completed,  at  an  expense  of  $100,- 

000. 000.  Every  one  of  these  men  lias  done 
his  part,  but  in  each  instance  there  have  been 
masters  of  planning  and  execution,  upon 
whom  the  burden  of  responsibility  has  actually 
rested  and  whose  engineering;  genius  has  been 
called  into  service  in  a  thousand  unexpected 
crises. 

When  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company 
determined  to  extend  its  system  into  the  heart 
of  New  York  under  the  North  River  and  be- 
yond, under  the  East  River,  to  Long  Island, 
and  to  erect  a  mammoth  station  in  the  metrop- 
olis, direct  charge  of  these  vast  undertakings 
was  committed  to  Samuel  Rea,  Second  Vice- 
President  of  the  Company.  The  magnitude 
of  such  responsibility  can  hardly  be  compre- 
hended by  the  ordinary,  unprofessional  mind 
intent  on  other  tasks.  That  every  detail  of 
the  work  has  been  carried  to  complete  suc- 
cess does  not  surprise  the  associates  of  Mr. 
Rea,  or  those  who  believe  in  the  Pennsylvania 
organization  and  methods.  Thorough 
education  in  the  railroad  business,  an  excellent 
engineering  experience  and  sublime  confidence 
in  his  ability  to  achieve  apparently  impossible 
results,  guaranteed  results.  In  recognition  of 
Mr.  Ilea's  achievement  and  the  public  benefit 


derived  therefrom,  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania recently  honored  itself  by  conferring 
upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science.  I 
should  add  thai  as  part  of  the  tunnel  exten- 
sion the  construction  of  the  New  York  Con- 
necting Railroad,  now  building  jointly  by  the 
Pennsylvania  and  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
&  Hartford  Railroad  companies,  will  in  con- 
nection with  the  tunnels  form  a  through  route 
for  transportation  between  Southern.  Western 
and    New    England  states. 

The  rise  of  Samuel  Rea  to  such  distinction 
as  engineer  and  executive  is  not  the  result  of 
anything  but  hard  work  and  ability.  lie  was 
born  at  Hollidaysburg,  Pa.,  in  1855,  at  the 
eastern  foot  of  the  original  Portage  road,  over 
which  canal  boats  of  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century  were  dragged  across  the  Alleghenies 
to  Johnstown  on  the  western  side.  As  a  hoy, 
he  climbed  those  hills,  through  the  rhododen- 
drons, to  Cresson  and  determined  upon  a  life 
of  service  to  the  railway  that  was  at  that  time 
solving  the  problems  of  the  Horse-Shoe  Curve 
and  the  Allegrippus  grade.  He  did  not  wait 
an  hour  after  he  was  sixteen.  lie  began  engi- 
neering work  on  Morrison's  Cove.  Williams- 
burg and  Bloomfield  branches  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania railroad  in  1871,  carrying  chain  or 
theodolite  for  two  years  (serving  under  his 
present  chief,  Mr.  .lames  McCrea,  then  as- 
sistant engineer).  The  great  financial  and 
commercial  crises  of  the  Seventies  put  a  stop 
to  all  engineering  work,  so  then  he  titled  him- 
self for  clerical  work  until  1875  with  one  of 
the  large  Hollidaysburg  iron  corporations, 
returning  to  the  Pennsylvania  in  1875  as  As- 
sistant Engineer  and  builder  of  the  chain 
suspension  bridge  over  the  Monongahela  river 
to  Pittsburg.  When  this  task  was  completed, 
he  was  assigned  to  the  Pittsburg  &  Lake  Erie, 
where  he  acted  as  Assistant  Engineer  for  two 
years.  From  this  point,  I  cannot  better  indi- 
cate the  vast  scope  of  Mr.  Rea's  experience 
than  by  summarizing,  step  by  step,  the  prog- 
ress of  his  interesting  career:  In  IS?!)  he 
resinned  his  Pcnna.  R.  R.  affiliation;  an  ex- 
tension of  the  Pittsburg,  Virginia  <\:  ( Charleston 
railway  was  decided  on  and  he  was  directed 
to  make  it.  That  was  the  form  orders  always 
took  when  given  to  him.  Then  duties  came 
fast.      From  1SS0  to  1SN.'5   he  was   engineer  in 


102 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


charge  of  surveys  in  Westmoreland  County, 
Pa.,  and  revising  and  rebuilding  Western 
Pennsylvania  Road;  in  1883  to  1888,  Principal 
Assistant  Engineer,  Pennsylvania  Railroad: 
isss  to  188!).' Assistant  to  Second  Vice-Presi- 
dent; then  from  1SS!)  to  April,  1K!)1,  he  became 
Vice-President, Maryland  Central  Railway. and 
Chief  Engineer,  Baltimore  Belt  Road,  to  abol- 
ish the  B.  &  ().  ferry  and  run  trains  under 
and  through  Baltimore;  April,  1891,  to  May. 
1892,  out  of  service  on  account  of  ill-health 
and  European  travel  for  recreation;  May  25, 
1892,  to  Feb.  1(1.  IS!)?.  Assistant  to  President, 
Pennsylvania  Railroad;  Feb.  10.  1897, to  June 
14,  1.S99.  First  Assistant  to  President,  same 
road;  June  14.  IS!)!),  to  October  10.  1905, 
Fourth  Vice-President,  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
System  East  of  Pittsburg  and  Erie;  October 
li),  1905,  to  March  24.  1909,  Third  Vice-Presi- 
dent; March  24,  1909,  to  date.  Second  Vice- 
President;  and  in  connection  with  his  former 
duties  was  placed  in  charge  of  engineering 
and  accounting  departments;  also  second 
Vice-President,  Northern  Central  Railway, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore  &  Washington  R.  R. 
and  West  Jersey  &  Seashore  R.  R.  Compa- 
nies, and  a  Director  of  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  Co. 
and  many  other  corporations. 

Admiring  the  sturdy  qualities  of  Samuel 
Rea  as  I  do,  I  hope  to  see  him  one  day  carry 
out  the  dream  of  the  late  Frank  Thomson, 
to  drive  a  tunnel  thirty-odd  miles  under  the 
Alleghenies,  starting  from  his  beloved  Holli- 
daysburg  anil  ending  at  Johnstown,  doing 
away  at  one  stroke  with  the  natural  barrier 
that  impedes  rapid  transit  between  Altoona 
and  the  West.  It  is  a  theme  1  discussed 
on  several  occasions  with  Frank  Thomson 
at  his  home  in  Merion. 

Mr.  Ilea  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers  of  London,  New  York  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Merion  Cricket  Club,  Union  Club 
of  New  York,  Lawyers  Club  of  New  York. 
Philadelphia  Club.  Metropolitan  Club  of 
Washington,  Century  Association,  Pennsyl- 
vania Society  of  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  Met- 
ropolitan Museum  of  New  York,  Royal  Auto- 
mobile Club,  London;  Pennsylvania  Society 
of  New  York.  Economic  Club  of  New  York 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 


The  mammoth  Pennsylvania  Railroad  sta- 
tion in  Manhattan  has  been  opened  for  more 
than  a  year.  During  its  first  twelve  months, 
112,500  trains  passed  in  and  out  through  the 
tunnels  that  reach  it — 99  per  cent,  of  them  on 
time.  Not  a  single  accident  occurred  on  the 
section  that  includes  these  tunnels!  Such  a 
record  cannot  be  equalled  above  ground,  in 
this  country  or  in  Europe — the  latter  boasting 
of  low  accident  records.  The  traffic  through 
the  tubes  renews  wonder  at  the  magnitude 
and  success  of  the  splendid  undertaking  of 
Mr.  Rea  and  his  engineers.  This  is  an  era  of 
marvellous  engineering  feats;  but  nothing- 
more  wonderful  has  been  accomplished  in 
any  part  of  the  world  than  tunnelling  under 
an  entire  city  and  two  rivers,  and  carrying  a 
trunk  line  of  active  railway  underneath  the 
cellars  of  skyscrapers  without  disturbance  to 
the  activities  on  the  surface,  and  without 
accident  in  operation.  Tunnelling  under 
mountains  may  be  more  spectacular;  the 
Panama  canal  may  appeal  more  directly  to 
the  imagination;  but  conquest  of  the  wilder- 
ness is  free  from  complications  that  attend 
stupendous  engineering  undertakings  in  the 
heart  of  a  compactly  built  city. 

Prominent  among  the  many  notable  engi- 
neers in  the  service  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road is  Edward  Brinton  Temple,  who  is  now 
Assistant  Chief  Engineer  of  that  company 
with  headquarters  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Tem- 
ple graduated  from  Swarthmore  College  in 
1 S!)  1  and  immediately  became  a  rodman  in 
the  engineering  department  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Company.  His  advance  in  his  chosen 
profession  was  rapid  and  he  was  from  IS!)-,' 
to  1S!)4  an  engineer  connected  with  the  en- 
largement of  Broad  Street  station  and  was 
similarly  employed  in  1902-.')  when  the  big 
improvements  were  made  at  West  Philadel- 
phia. He  also  had  direct  supervision  of  the 
enlargement  of  the  Schuylkill  River  bridges 
and  the  elevated  railroad  in  1910.  Mr.  Tem- 
ple was  recently  appointed  Chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Engineers  on  Philadelphia  Terminal 
Improvements.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Athletic  Advisory  Committee  of  his  alma 
mater  and  was  director  of  the  Swarthmore 
Rank  in   1910  and  its  president  in   1911. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


103 


\V.  ATLEE  Bl  RPEE 


MAHI.nX  \V.  XKWTmN 


The  secret  of  W.  Atlee  Burpee's  success  in 
the  seed  business  is  that  he  is  an  originator 
and  is  full  of  methods  for  creating;  and  hold- 
ing  trade.  lie  oilers  prizes  for  almost  every- 
thing that  will  help  in  the  general  aggregate 
and  in  consequence  has  created  one  of  the 
greatest  mail-order  houses  in  the  country, 
while  he  has  at  the  same  time  improved  the 
quality  of  his  product  so  that  his  claim  that 
"Burpee's  Seeds  Grow"  is  no  misnomer. 

Mr.  Burpee  entered  the  seed  business  with 
two  partners  in  1876.  He  was  then  eighteen 
years  of  age  and  two  years  later  he  started 
alone  under  the  firm  name  he  still  uses.  His 
success  was  phenomenal  from  the  start,  so  that 
he  has  now  several  mammoth  warehouses  and 
conducts  the  Fordbook  Farms,  the  largest 
and  most  complete  trial  grounds  in  the  coun- 
try. In  addition,  Mr.  Burpee  publishes  one 
of  the  most  comprehensive  annuals  devoted 
to  the  industry.  It  is  known  as  "The  Leading 
American  Seed  Catalogue"  and  the  1912 
issue   will   he  the  thirty-sixth   annual   edition. 

Mr.  Burpee  is  interested  in  many  financial 
institutions,  is  a   member  of  a  score  of  clubs 


and   national    and   international    societies   de- 
voted to  horticulture. 

To  many  a  man  who  makes  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia in  his  travels,  the  knowledge  that 
he  has  Green's  Hotel  at  which  to  live  and 
Mahlon  Newton  for  a  host  makes  his  ap- 
proach to  that  city  a  bright  spot  in  the  dull 
cares  of  life.  There  are  few  hotels  in  this 
country  that  carry  a  better  name  than  Green's 
of  Philadelphia;  perhaps  none  gives  better 
service  for  the  amount  charged  its  guests. 
Mr.  Newton,  who  has  made  it  one  of  the  lead- 
ing houses  of  the  continent  and  a  real  feature 
of  the  Quaker  ( 'it v.  was  horn  in  the  neighboring 
state  of  Jersey.  When  he  left  his  home  and 
went  to  Philadelphia  from  Burlington  County, 
New  Jersey,  in  early  youth,  it  was  to  fill  a 
position  in  a  Market  Street  hardware  store,  so 
that  when  he  launched  into  the  hotel  business 
at  Woodbury,  X.  .1..  in  1878,  he  was  totally 
inexperienced  and  the  success  of  the  venture 
was  by  no  means  certain.  Mr.  New  ton.  how- 
ever, had  a  genius  for  entertaining  and  the 
faculty  of  providing  good  service  and  an 
elaborate    cuisine.     His    success    was    imme- 


1(14 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


diate  and  he  later  purchased  the  hotel  at 
Wenonah,  X.  J.,  in  a  few  years  more  becom- 
ing one  <>f  three  to  purchase  Green's  Hotel. 
He  eventually  bought  the  interests  of  his 
partners  and  since  1898  has  conducted  the 
house  alone.  Each  year  Mr.  Newton  has 
added  some  improvement  to  the  hotel.  This 
year  he  is  entirely  remodeling  it  and  the  old 
house,  which  is  one  of  the  most  homelike  in 
the  city,  will  now  have  added  charms  for  its 
thousands  of  guests   throughout   the  country. 

While  mentioning  those  who  were  prom- 
inent in  the  social,  professional  or  mercantile 
life  of  Philadelphia,  Walter  Hatfield  must  not 
lie  overlooked,  although  the  Grim  Reaper  long 
since  claimed  him. 

Mr.  Hatfield  was  born  in  Philadelphia. 
January  1.  1851,  the  son  of  Nathan  L.  Hat- 
field. M.I).  He  was  educated  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  being  a  member  of  the 
class  of  '72,  and  upon  leaving  that  institution 
of  learning  decided  to  enter  mercantile  pur- 
suits instead  of  preparing  for  a  professional 
career.  He  engaged  in  the  iron  business  and 
became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Patterson  & 
Hughes,  proprietors  of  the  Delaware  Rolling 
Mills,  and  retained  this  interest  until  his  death, 
in  1908. 

Mr.  Hatfield  was  a  man  of  attractive  per- 
sonality and  had  many  friends  in  the  social 
and  manufacturing  worlds,  to  whom  his  death 
came  as  a  great  shock. 

He  was  a  brother  of  Henry  Reed  Hatfield, 
who  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  Philadel- 
phia   Bar. 

There  has  never  keen  a  more  forceful  or 
commanding  figure  in  the  District  Attorney's 
office  in  Philadelphia  than  George  S.  Graham, 
who  for  many  years  acceptably  filled  that 
arduous  position. 

Mr.  Graham  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Sep- 
tember  13,  1<S.>:>.  and  aftera  preparatory  course 
entered  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  from 
which  he  graduated  and  then  took  up  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  John  Roberts.  He 
afterwards  entered  the  law  school  and  gradu- 
ated with  the  degree  of  LL.B. 

Possessing  rare  oratorical  ability  Mr.  Gra- 
ham naturally  turned  to  politics  and  was  soon 
in  demand  as  a  speaker.      He  was  elected  to 


and    has    since    been    engaged  in 


Select  Council  and  subsequently  District  At- 
torney and  held  the  office  for  eighteen  years. 
being  Professor  of  Criminal  Law  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  Resuming  pri- 
vate practice  in  IS!)!).  Mr.  Graham  organized 
the  firm  of  Graham  &  L'Amoreaux,  of  New 
York  City 
many  notable  cases. 

The  Democratic  party  in  Pennsylvania  was 
in  a  demoralized  condition  in  the  '80's,  owing 
to  a  feud  between  Senator  Wallace  and  Ex- 
Speaker  Randall  -two  strong,  equally  am- 
bitious and  incorruptible  men.  A  state  con- 
vention of  their  party  had  been  called  to  meet 
at  Harrisburg,  and  the  anxiety  to  know  what 
the  Pennsylvania  Democracy  would  do  was 
general  throughout  the  country.  I  was  there 
to  ascertain  the  terms  of  peace,  if  made. 

During  the  afternoon  preceding  Convention 
day.  several  correspondents  like  myself  found 
difficulty  in  killing  time.  We  visited  the 
public  institutions.  Four  of  us  hired  a  car- 
riage and  drove  to  the  Asylum  for  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb,  where  we  witnessed  a  remarkable 
exhibition  of  a  super-cultivated  sense.  A 
young  woman,  deaf  and  dumb,  could  write 
down  what  two  of  us  conversed  about  by 
watching  our  lips!  We  made  several  tests— 
in  one  case  standing  100  feet  distant  and  talk- 
ing in  whispers. 

That  night  1  learned  from  W.  U.  Ilensel, 
afterward  Attorney-General  under  Governor 
Pattison.  that  a  reconciliation  was  to  occur 
between  Randall  ami  Wallace, — to  take  place 
in  view  of  the  entire  convention.  A  balcony 
at  the  rear  of  the  hall,  originally  built  for  an 
orchestra,  had  been  chosen  as  the  place. 
Phis  was  announced  in  Xew  York  in  the 
morning  papers.  I  had  come  to  know  both 
those  men  at  Washington.  Although  honest, 
they  believed  the  spoils  of  office  belonged  to 
them.  Therefore,  an  agreement  about  the 
offices  in  the  state  was  inevitable.  Wallace 
and  Randall  were  to  enter  the  balcony  from 
opposite  sides,  have  their  conference  alone  and 
to  clasp  hands,  in  view  of  1/200  delegates! 
A  thrilling,  picturesque  scene,  easy  of  de- 
scription, was  sure  to  occur;  but  who  could 
learn  what  words  were  exchanged  between  the 
two  men  ? 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1 05 


f 


k. 

r 


RICHARD   WAI.X    MEIRS 

A  well-known  Philadelphian  who  is  connected  with  the  administration 
of  the  great  Weightman  Estate 


JOSEPH  II.   KLEMMI  I: 

Director  of  Suppliesfor  the  citj   of  Philadelphia  under  Mayo]    fo 
who  rel  ired  \\  n  !i  t  hat  adminisl  ration. 


My  mind  reverted  to  "the  banner  scholar" 
at  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum!  The  balcony 
was  distant  only  thirty  feet  from  the  main  gal- 
lery. With  the  aid  of  a  cab,  persuasion  and 
promises  of  liberal  compensation,  a  demure 
woman  occupied  the  nearest  gallery  scat  to  the 
balcony,  when  the  convention  opened.  She 
was  to  write,  by  sight,  upon  a  pad  what  the 
state  leaders  said!  Nobody  in  the  hall  knew 
of  her  presence  except  myself. 

She  was  alert,  but  innocent  of  any  political 
knowledge.  The  rush  of  the  assembling  mul- 
titude did  not  disturb  her — because  she  could 
not  hear  it.  Suddenly,  the  vast  crowd  rose  to 
its  feet!  A  whirlwind  of  applause  anticipated 
the  appearance  of  the  two  statesmen  at  op- 
posite sides  of  the  balcony.  It  was  a  thrilling 
moment    for   everybody    who    understood    its 


purport — it  presaged  the  election  of  Robert  E. 
Pattison,  as  Governor!  Hut  a  stolid  little  wom- 
an in  the  gallery,  near  to  the  chief  actors,  said 
nothing,  heard  nothing,  and  saw  everything. 
Barring  a  few  proper  names  that  she  could 
not  read,  because  unknown  to  her.  she  com- 
mitted to  paper  the  terms  reached  at  that 
famous  conference.  Some  of  the  blanks  were 
tilled  by  subsequent  "'hustling"  and  some 
were  not;  hut  she  wrote  an  almost  verbatim  re- 
port of  what  each  of  the  two  men  said;  the 
patronage  they  agreed  to  control,  in  the  event 
of  Mr.  Pattison's  nomination  and  election; 
and  the  attitude  they  would  take  in  the  ap- 
proaching Democratic  National  Convention. 
The  Democratic  ticket  named  on  that  day 
swept  the  Commonwealth,  for  the  Hist  time 
in  thirty  years,  and  all  pledges  made  in  that 
balcony  were  carried  out. 


KM. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Among  the  members  of  the  Philadelphia 
junior  bar  who  have  made  reputations  in  that 
city  of  excellent    lawyers   is  Charles  II.   Burr, 

Jr.,  a  graduate  of  the 
Law  School  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania. 
Upon  graduation  and 
subsequent     admission 
to   the   bar,    Mr.    Burr 
was    for    a    time    asso- 
ciated  with    his   father. 
1  nit  his  private  practice 
grew    to   such    propor- 
tions that  he  organized 
the  firm  of  Burr,  Brown 
&     Lloyd,     which     has 
figured     in     prominent 
cases  both  in  Philadel- 
phia   and     Xew    York 
City,  and  is  now  coun- 
sel for  many  well-known  individuals  and  firms. 
Mr.  Burr  is  deeply  interested  in  politics  in 
his  native  city  and  has  been  in  much  demand 
as  a  speaker  in  several  campaigns. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  University  and 
Lawyers'  clubs  and  belongs  to  many  other 
social  and  political  organizations.  His  offices 
are  located  at  Xo.  328  Chestnut  Street.  Phila- 
delphia. 


CHAS.  II    Bl   l;l; 


A  branch  of  expert  research  commanding 
high  reward  is  that  of  a  certified  public  ac- 
countant, who  is  able  to  disentangle  the  affairs 

of  a  firm  or  corpora- 
tion when  they  become 
involved.  In  this  class 
of  experts,  I  especially 
want  to  mention  Ed- 
ward Preston  Moxey, 
at  the  head  of  his  pro- 
fession in  Philadel- 
phia. He  was  born  of 
Scotch  parentage  in 
that  city.  August.  1849, 
and  received  his  edu- 
cation in  its  excellent 
public  schools.      At   15 


EDWD    PRESTON  MOX]  V 


he  began  as  a  clerk  in 


the  banking  house  of 
Glendinning,  Davies  & 
( 'o..  where  he  remained  10  years  and  ultimately 
became  cashier.  In  1875  he  established  a 
stock  brokerage  firm  and  "'bucked  theThird 
Street  tiger"  until  he  organized  the  accounting 
firm  of  Edward  P.  Moxey  &  Co.  He  became 
a  special  United  States  bank  examiner  of  the 
National  Banks  in  1891.  He  is  an  instructor 
in  advanced  accounting  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


in 


CHAPTER  XII 


SPEAKERS  OF  THE  HOUSE   I    HAVE   KNOWN 


)ROM  Philadelphia  I  went  to 
Washington,  again.  This  time 
my  orders  were  unusual.  The 
last  column  of  the  Herald's  edi- 
torial page  was  reserved  for  me 
and  1  was  expected  to  fill  il 
every  night  with  gossip  from 
the  Capital.  This  was  an  easy  task  for  a  fort- 
night; but,  by  that  time,  sources  of  supply 
were  exhausted  and  the  stunt  became  a 
difficult  one.  Fortune  often  favored  me,  as, 
for  example,  I  visited  the  National  Museum 
one  daw  when  a  secretary  of  a  United  States 
Senator — mistaking  me  for  an  employe  —ac- 
costed me  to  ask: 

"Is  Senator  Van  Wyck's  bald-eagle  done.-" 

This  led  to  the  unearthing  of  unusual 
"perquisities,"  obtained  by  Congressmen  of 
all  degrees.  Another  Senator  was  having  a 
collection  of  the  birds  of  Kentucky  stuffed  and 
mounted  at  Government  expense.  1  learned 
that  taxidermy,  in  all  branches,  was  performed 
free  for  statesmen!  Every  time  another  West- 
ern Congressman  returned  from  his  home,  he 
brought  as  many  specimens  of  the  winged 
game  of  the  locality  as  he  could  gather,  to 
have  then  stuffed  and  mounted  at  the  National 
Museum. 

While  at  Washington,  on  this  occasion,  I 
lived  for  several  months  in  the  "Dolly"  Madi- 
son house,  at  the  corner  of  Jackson  Square  and 
H  street.  I  slept  in  the  bed  chamber  that  had 
been  occupied  by  the  charming  mistress  of  the 
White  House,  but  never  saw  her  apparition, 
as  other  tenants  have  claimed.  The  building 
is  now  the  home  of  the  Cosmos  Club. 

The  social  event  of  that  season  (1886)  was 
the  marriage  of  Miss  Folsom  to  President 
Cleveland.  The  burden  of  writing  an  entire 
page  account  of  that  event  fell  upon  me  and 
has  been  referred  to  elsewhere. 


\Micn  Congress  adjourned.  1  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Summer  at  Long  Branch, 
Narragansett,  Cape  May  and  Newport,  doing 
a  daily  letter  and  a  page  Sunday  article  every 
week.  Thus  events  hurried  me  onward  In- 
ward the  sublime  incident  of  my  life. 

At  Washington,  I  had  many  experiences 
that  have  no  place  in  this  narrative.  Among 
them  was  a  personal  acquaintance  with 
Thomas  B.  Reed,  obviously  the  coming  man 
on  the  Republican  side  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. He  was  a  lover  of  Balzac  and 
read  him  in  the  original,  after  a  fashion  al- 
though he  persisted  in  calling  the  name 
"Balza,"  even  after  being  set  right.  There 
wasn't  any  doubt  that  Reed  was  the  leader 
of  the  minority,  although  ( 'aniion,  as  ( 'hairnian 
of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  was  very 
strong;  but  Reed,  by  sheer  avoirdupois  anil 
brain  tissue,  over-rode  everybody  in  his  party. 

A  London  newspaper  recently  announced 
that  •"the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  ('ominous 
is  suffering  from  'listener's  gout !' '  It  was  a 
wholly  new  phrase  to  me.  I  have  personally 
known  every  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, at  Washington,  since  Schuyler 
Colfax,  ami  I  never  heard  any  of  them  con- 
fess to  similar  complaint.  Doubtless,  one 
sort  of  gout  is  as  obnoxious  as  another.  Years 
ago  1  gave  up  Burgundy  because  premonitory 
twinges  in  one  of  my  feet  were  diagnosticated 
as  incipient  gout.  All  my  life  I  have  been  a 
good  listener,  and  the  recollections  of  my 
forgetfulness  would  stand  me  in  greal  stead 
were  1  sure  of  them.  What  is  "listener's 
goutr"  1  got  "on  (he  wire"  and  called  up 
several  distinguished  authorities  on  diseases 
of  the  nervous  system.  Not  an  answer  was 
satisfactory  from  a  bill-poster's  view-point. 
I  should  explain  that  the  bill-poster  is  a  phi- 
losopher who  sincerely  believes  that  an  answer 


108 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


or  an   appeal   is  valueless  unless   it   makes   a 
distinct  mental  impression. 

James  G.  Blaine  was  the  first  Speaker  of 
the  House  known  to  me.  His  art  consisted 
in  playing  General  Butler  against  every  other 
stormy  petrel  in  the  House!  It  was  a  com- 
paratively easy  solution  of  a  difficult  situation. 
Butler  liked  the  job  and  it  saved  the  Speaker 
a  deal  of  trouble.  The  Essex  statesman  had 
I n  of  invaluable  aid  on  several  critical  oc- 
casions and  Speaker  Blaine  was  "a  square 
divider." 

Speaker  Kerr  never  was  well  known  to  any- 
body. He  only  lasted  for  one  session  (1875 
1N7(>)  and  as  a  "listener"  never  attained  a 
standing.  When  the  newspaper  boys  went  to 
see  him  after  each  day's  session,  he  always 
talked  a  streak,  but  never  supplied  any  in- 
formation. 

Samuel  .1.  Randall  was  the  most  respectful 
and  considerate  man  who  occupied  the  Speak- 
er's chaii-  since  I  began  a  study  of  such 
officials.  There  wasn't  any  "cloture"  under 
him.  The  youngest  member  was  always  given 
a  few  opportunities  to  "make  good."  He  had 
to  show  ability,  or  he  got  a  short  shrift;  hut 
there  wasn't  any  smothering  of  nascent  genius. 
Randall  might  have  contracted  "listener's 
gout"  had  he  known  of  the  malady.  Poor 
chap,  he  didn't  learn  he  had  cancer  of  the 
stomach  until  he  ran  against  a  too-talkative 
physician.  Of  all  men  lately  in  public  life. 
Randall  probablv  possessed  more  sweet  and 
lovable  characteristics  than  any  other.  Never 
shall  1  forget  a  day  passed  with  him  at  his 
farm,  near  Paoli,  Pa.,  only  a  few  months  be- 
fore his  death,  in  which  he  talked  continuously 
about  his  career  in  Congress.  He  foresaw 
the  coming  popular  revolution,  although  this 
must  have  been  about  INN!),  and  regretted 
that  his  devotion  to  "  protection  "  —owing  to 
his  Pennsylvania  environment — had  contrib- 
uted to  the  creation  of  gigantic  monopolies. 
Remember,  that  was  more  than  six  years  be- 
fore the  Chicago  platform  that  first  arraigned 
the  trusts! 

J.  Warren  Keifer.  who  succeeded  Randall 
for  a  single  session,  in  1881,  was  an  excep- 
tionally popular  Speaker.  He  was  truly  a 
"listener."  The  hold  of  the  Republican 
majority  was  recognized  as  temporary;    there- 


fore, Keifer  treated  the  Democrats  in  the 
House  with  as  much  consideration  as  a  Speaker 
chosen  from  their  own  party  could  have  shown. 
He  made  several  rulings  that  stand  to  this 
day  as  marvels  of  impartiality,  and  in  which 
partisans  like  Reed  or  Cannon  would  have 
exercised  "a  reasonable  discretion" — as 
Reed  once  explained  an  arbitrary  decision  to 
me — in  behalf  of  his  own  party.  Keifer's  sit- 
uation was  difficult  and  he  never  received 
credit  for  the  cleverness  with  which  he  ac- 
quitted  himself. 

John  G.  Carlisle  was  a  wholly  different 
type  of  man.  He  came  into  the  Speakership 
on  a  wave  of  popular  revolt — the  wave  that, 
on  its  rebound,  was  to  carry  Grover  Cleveland 
a  second  time  into  the  White  House.  The 
keen,  analytical  mind  he  possessed  never 
really  showed  until  he  attained  a  Cabinet 
position  that  came  to  him  later.  He  kept 
his  left  ear  to  the  crowd  all  the  time,  and 
might  have  been  a  much  greater  figure  in 
American  history  had  he  barkened  to  pre- 
monitions that  came  to  him.  What  his  affilia- 
tions with  protection  and  gold-standard  ele- 
ments in  the  democracy  were  I  never  was 
able  to  fathom.  He  lost  his  opportunity,  just 
as  did  David  B.  Hill,  by  clinging  to  driftwood 
that  really  belonged  to  the  Republican  party 
—its  flotsam  and  jetsam!  Hill  could  have 
buried  Bryan  at  Chicago  had  he  been  a  good 
"listener,"  conceded  the  trend  of  the  silver 
craze—  almost  as  rampant  at  St.  Louis  as  at 
Chicago — and  proposed  a  compromise  of  25 
or  26  to  1  instead  of  1()  to  1.  John  G.  Car- 
lisle was  the  most  ambitious  man  ever  known 
to  me  in  public  life. — not  even  excepting 
Thomas  B.  Reed.  His  eyes  were  as  confi- 
dently set  upon  the  White  House  as  were  those 
of  William  McKinley.  But  Carlisle  weakened 
on  half  a  dozen  critical  occasions  while 
Speaker,  and  Crisp  subsequently  became  the 
figure  that  Carlisle  ought  to  have  aspired  to 
l»e,  instead  of  going  into  the  Senate.  Natur- 
ally, when  he  accepted  a  place  in  President 
Cleveland's  second  Cabinet  his  career  was  run. 
Had  Carlisle  been  a  good  "listener."  "Old 
Faithful"  geyser,  Bryan,  never  would  have 
appeared  above  the  surface  and  Carlisle 
surely  would  have  landed  in  the  Executive 
Mansion,    as    it    was    called,    until    Theodore 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


10!) 


Roosevelt     had     the    stationery    changed     to 
"White   House." 

'Tom"  Reed  appeared  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  like  a  big  Roman  candle  thai 
dazzled  the  eyes  of  Cannon,  Payne,  Dalzell, 
Bingham  and  Kelley.  Had  Wa-d  not  tumbled 
into  the  arena.  Cannon  would  have  "arrived" 
in  the  Speaker's  chair  ten  years  before  he  did. 
Of  the  two  men.  Cannon  was  much  the  better 
politician;  Reed  didn't  make  a  single  "touch- 
down" that  Cannon  didn't  make  a  kick  from 
the  25-yard  line!  But  Reed  was  absolutely 
fierce  in  "tackling"  every  player  who  showed 
up.  In  that  way,  he  became  "captain"  of  the 
House  team. 

Thomas  B.  Reed,  never  suffered  from  "lis- 
tener's gout."  His  first  term  (1889-91)  was 
administered  with  the  mildness  of  a  suckling 
dove.  He  was  like  a  hoy  at  school.  Not  a 
trace  of  subsequent  imperiousness  that  de- 
veloped during  his  second  incumbency  of  the 
office!  When  the  Democratic  landslide  of 
1890  happened,  Reed  went  to  Rome  and 
studied  the  careers  of  the  Emperors.  He 
came  back  from  Italy  in  August,  1891.  I 
went  to  Portland  to  get  an  interview  and 
passed  much  of  two  days  with  him  at  his  bio-, 
square  brick  house,  enjoying  his  treasures  in 
missails  and  Venetian  cameos,  petting  his  bio- 
cat  "Anthony"  and  listening  to  his  predictions 
regarding  the  policies  of  the  victorious  Demo- 
cratic party.  He  was  anxious  that  Mills  should 
have  the  Speakership;  he  was  warm  in  praise 
of  the  Texan.  Crisp  had  not  appeared  as  a 
candidate.  (This  was  on  August  1.3,  1891.) 
Had  Mills  been  chosen  Speaker  his  career 
would  have  ended  very  differently. 

Charles  F.  Crisp  came  into  office  like  a 
June  morning.  He  was  undoubtedly  popular. 
He  was  too  good  a  "listener"  and  made  wreck 
of  his  two  terms  in  the  Speakership  for  the 
same  reason  that  the  Miller  and  his  Son  failed 
to  get  anywhere  when,  according  to  .Esop. 
they  set  out  for  the  mill.  Here's  another  man 
who  could  have  headed  off  Bryan  had  he 
risen  to  opportunity!  Maybe,  the  explanation 
is  "listener's  gout!"  I  never  heard  one  sug- 
gested before.  Mills  would  have  got  some- 
where had  he  attained  that  Speakership: 
Crisp  never  got  anywhere.  My  recollection 
of  the   broiling-hot   days  of  the  Chicago  con- 


vention is  that  while  Bland,  Mills  and  others 
were  mentioned,  the  name  of  Crisp  never 
agitated  the  air.  Hope  is  that  the  career  of 
Champ  Clark  will  not  end  in  similar  fashion. 

In  Reed's  two-term  second  occupancy  of 
the  Speaker's  chair  In-  effaced  every  tradition 
of  his  previous  term  and  stood  strong  for  in- 
dividuality and  bossism.  lie  was  always  im- 
perious, but  during  a  field-day  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  Speaker  Reed  for  the  first 
time,  and  amid  continuous  uproar,  enforced 
his  new  rules.  Although  that  body  had  put 
power  in  his  hands,  many  members  of  his  own 
party  rebelled  at  the  Speaker's  dictatorship. 
I  had  sent  a  special  correspondent  (Henry  L. 
Nelson)  to  Washington  who  wired  a  graphic 
description  of  the  scene.  Mr.  Reed's  method 
of  counting  a  quorum  by  including  every 
member  in  the  Chamber,  whether  or  not  he 
answered  to  his  name  at  roll  call,  was  set 
forth,  accompanied  by  interviews  denuncia- 
tory of  the  Speaker's  "despotism."  On  a 
small  basis  of  fact.  Nelson  made  a  highly  sen- 
sational letter.  Reed's  domination  over  Un- 
popular body  was  generally  pronounced  ini- 
republican — decidedly  Russian  in  character. 

I  was  then  managing-editor  of  the  World. 
This  despatch  being  the  news  feature  of  the 
night,  I  undertook  the  construction  of  its  big 
head,  as  was  generally  my  custom.  For  a 
top  line.  I  wrote  the  words 

REED,  THE  RUSSIAN 

The  compositor  did  not  follow  my  marks 
indicating  the  size  of  display  type,  but  used 
another  font;  consequently,  the  letters  over- 
ran the  line,  and  the  proof  came  to  me  thus: 
"REED.   THE    Rl'SS." 

A  new  catch  line  had  to  lie  invented,  in- 
stantly: the  page  was  waiting!  After  several 
attempts,  I  hit  upon  two  words  that  have  be- 
come a  part  of  American  political  history.  I 
went  to  Foreman  Jackson  and  asked  him  to 
select  the  largest  possible1  type  that  would  ad- 
mit the  words.  "CZAR     REED." 

The  title  was  a  national  hit!  It  was  taken 
up  by  republican  and  democratic  journals. 
\{crt\  was  immensely  pleased  as  he  was  at  a 
later  (lav  with  Homer  Davenport's  caricatures 
of  his   vast,   round   face  and   his   Gargantuan 


mi 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


body.  The  only  protest  came  from  the  corre- 
spondent. He  sen!  a  pathetic  letter-telegram, 
whining  thai  "the  Czar  Reed  head  has 
dwarfed  my  entire  article."  1  laughed  ;it  him 
over  the  wire  in  response;  hut  he  was  right. 
The  headline  lived,  while  his  specious  protests 
against  '"the  \\rtt\  rules"  were  soon  forgotten. 
1  had  known  Reed  since  1886,  when  he  was 
edging  toward  the  leadership  of  his  party  on 
tin'  floor  of  the  House.  Especially  do  1  recall 
a  trip  we  made  together  from  Washington  to 
New  York.  He  was  reading  a  volume  of 
Balzac  and  1  was  correcting  the  proofs  of  an 
article  on  "Journalism,"  for  the  American 
Appendix  of  the  " Encyclopaedia  Britannica." 
Reed  looked  over  the  sheets  and  encountered 
this  paragraph:  "Washington  is  the  political 
news-center  of  the  nation  and  the  outlook  of 
the  correspondent  sent  there  becomes  as  wide 
as  the  country.  The  Capital  interests  him; 
its  distances  wear  him  out.  New  members  of 
(  ongress  talk  too  much;  old  ones  not  enough, 
lie  encounters  falsehood  in  all  forms,  and. 
almost  daily,  is  shocked  to  hear  lawmakers 
admit  it  is  uttered  for  political  reasons.  Wash- 
ington is  a  solemn  place  to  anv  young  man 
who.  until  arriving  there,  has  believed  in  the 
sincerity  of  human   kind." 

rhat's  as  t rue  as  anything  in  Holy  Writ!" 

he  exclaimed.  '"1  hope  to  see  the  dav  when 
politics  in  this  country  will  not  be  conducted 
according  to  the  methods  of  the  professional 
confidence  man  or  the  police  'grafter.'  1  am 
glad  you  put  into  permanent  form  a  protest 
against  Washington  as  it  is."  Then  he  re- 
sumed "l.ii  Duchess  de  Langeais."  His  knowl- 
edge of  French  was  wholly  academic. 

When  at  Washington  in  L896,  1  often  at- 
tended Mr.  Speaker  Heed's  receptions  at  the 
Shoreham  Hotel  and  delighted  to  observe  the 
way  in  which  he  satisfied  members  of  the 
House  without  promising  them  what  they 
asked.  His  methods  were  those  of  the  lion- 
tamer  the  eye-power.  The  Republican  party 
had  for  its  head,  at  that  time,  a  man  who 
hadn't  been  known  to  the  American  people 
a  year  earlier.  Marcus  Uonzo  llanna.  and  he 
had  announced  that  William  McKinley  would 
l»e  the  next  nominee  of  the  party  for  the  Presi- 
dency. Hauna  was  a  Cleveland  shipping  mer- 
chant, a  millionaire  and.  as  afterwards  devel- 


oped, capable  of  making  good.  In  that  Spring 
of  L896,  \\ti-(\  looked  fair  as  the  coming  man: 
hut  he  didn't  appreciate  llanna  as  1  learned 
to  do.  during  several  months  at  Canton  and 
Cleveland,  after  the  St.  Louis  Convention. 
1  have  referred  to  this  ambition  of  Mr.  Heed 
elsewhere,  in  discussing  Senator  Piatt. 

Within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death.  I  happened 
to  meet  Heed  in  a  hall  of  the  Broad  Exchange 
building,  where  he  had  an  office,  and  he  again 
expressed  his  warm  gratitude  to  me  for  chris- 
tening him  "Czar  Heed,  of  the  First  Pillion 
Dollar  Congress."  lie  was  successful  in 
everything,  except  his  cherished  one  a  Presi- 
dential   nomination. 

lie  had  antagonized  so  many  people  that 
his  crowning  ambition  was  rendered  impossi- 
ble. 

In  tin'  meantime,  the  Cleveland  shipowner 
llanna  had  appeared  above  the  surface  as  an 
exploiter  of  McKinley,  a  dead-broke  Canton 
lawyer,  who  had  been  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives for  a  space  and  as  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  stood 
sponsor  for  the  stillest,  monopoly-favoring 
tariff  hill  ever  shoved  under  the  noses  of  the 
American  people,  -although  it  was  framed  for 
him  by  the  various  "interests."  llanna. s 
opinion  was  that  if  the  "protected  interests" 
had  received  so  many  favors  from  the  Repub- 
lican party,  in  the  name  of  McKinley.  the 
least  they  could  do  would  he  to  raise  a  "yel- 
low-dog" fund  of  $5,000,000  and  to  let  him 
dispense  it.  That's  what  happened.  Reed 
had  thought  he  could  win  the  St.  Louis  nomi- 
nation strictly  on  his  merits;  hut  when  llanna 
told  him  exactly  how  many  votes  he  would 
allow  him  to  have  (8-H,  if  memory  serves,  and 
llanna  intended  to  emphasize  his  generosity 
by  the  half  vote.  \{cv(\  sickened  of  politics. 
He  continued  as  Speaker  for  another  term. 
hut  1  have  always  believed  he  did  s,>  because 
lie  hoped  in  that  position  to  humble  McKin- 
ley and  llanna. 

\{<-vd  had  learned  much,  hut  he  had  not 
comprehended  the  omnipotence  of  money  in 
national  elections.  He  had  not  realized  that 
llanna  bought  the  Southern  delegates,  to  be- 
gin with,  and  then  ad. led  what  delegates  he 
needed  in  the  Northern  States  by  sentiment 
or  promises  of  office  to   their   bosses.       llanna 


BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


111 


"got  away  with"  shrewd  politicians  like  Piatt, 
Quay  and  others  in  1896;  l>nl  they  outwitted 
him  at  Philadelphia,  in  1900,  when  they  forced 
Governor  Theodore  Roosevelt  upon  his  ticket. 

Heed's  Presidential  campaign  bears  inter- 
esting comparison  with  the  more  recent  one 
of  Vice-President  Fairbanks,  who  attempted 
to  conduct  it  on  a  culinary  basis.  Charles  W. 
Fairbanks  thought  he  could  make  himself  a 
candidate  by  giving  a  dinner  once  a  week  to 
members  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  promi- 
nent Senators  of  his  party.  It  was  the  intro- 
duction of  the  kitchen  into  politics  much  as 
the  late  Sam  Ward  introduced  the  spit  and 
Westphalian  ham  into  lobbying!  Reed's  plan 
was  not  less  disastrous  than  was  Fairbanks'. 
They  were  not  good  "listeners." 

The  incumbency  of  David  \\.  Henderson  as 
Speaker  taught  nothing.  His  wife  was  a  prom- 
inent temperance  agitator.  She  thought  to 
score  a  "touch-down"  one  day  bv  spilling 
many  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  family's 
wines  into  the  gutter:  but  the  effort  was  abor- 
tive, because  even  temperance  fanatics  asked 
how  the  wines  happened  to  be  in  her  cellar. 
Henderson  became  such  a  cad  toward  news- 
paper men,  upon  whom  he  had  forced  his 
association  when  on  the  Moor,  that  he  was 
generally  overlooked.  One  cannot  say  harsh 
things  about  a  cripple  or  a  dead  man.  Hen- 
derson was  "listening"  all  the  time,  but  he 
never  contracted  "gout"  or  attracted  public 
attention. 

Joseph  G.  Cannon  and  his  eight  years' 
Speakership  fills  a  large  niche  in  national  his- 
tory. What  a  pity  he  hadn't  really  done  one 
little  thing — had  one  little  thought— for  the 
great  masses  of  the  American  people!  He 
was  one  of  the  most  popular  occupants  of  the 
chair  since  my  recollection — popular  with  the 
members.  The  procession  is  a  long  one  and 
"Uncle  Joseph"  may  be  proud  to  lead  it. 
The  State  of  Illinois  wanted  to  make  of  him 
her  "favorite  son"  for  the  presidential  nomi- 
nation of  1!M)N.  It  was  a  deserved  compli- 
ment; but  the  Speaker  would  not  listen  to  the 
suggestion.  He  insisted  that  he  had  been 
honored  sufficiently. 

While  dealing  with  Washington,  I  want  to 
speak  of  the  relations  between  alleged  states- 
men and  real  newspaper  correspondents. 


German  journalists  recently  did  what  the 
American  correspondents  in  the  Senate  and 
House  galleries  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington 
should  have  done  on  many  occasions.  A  beer- 
full  leader  of  the  Center  parly  during  a  wild 
harangue  in  the  Reichstag  sneeringly  referred 
to  the  newspaper  correspondents  as  "swine." 
Wth  splendid  unanimity,  every  managing 
editor  in  Berlin  and  throughout  Germany 
ordered  a  cessation  of  reports  of  all  delibera- 
tions in  the  Reichstag.  The  reporters  left 
the  press  galleries,  and  legislators  who  had 
shone  in  the  reflected  light  of  the  newspapers 
had  to  hire  publishers  to  print  their  speeches, 
as  well  as  to  revise  them. 

As  every  Washington  correspondent  knows, 
the  value  and  amount  of  publicity  bestowed 
upon  ungrateful  Congressmen  by  the  news- 
papers cannot  be  calculated.  An  average 
member  of  the  lower  House  is  incapable  of 
uttering  a  dozen  consecutive  sentences  thai 
are  grammatical  or  logical.  Hardly  a  day 
passes  in  which  the  language  of  some  one  or 
other  of  these  gentlemen  does  not  require  the 
conscientious  and  wholly  unreniunenitive  serv- 
ices of  men  in  the  press  galleries.  In  the  Sen- 
ate, naturally,  the  standard  of  education  is 
higher  and  the  vernacular  is  spoken  with  con- 
siderable purity.  Its  members  have  Keen 
longer  under  the  blue  pencils  of  the  clever 
men  who  edit  their  copy  for  the  Congressional 
Record.  In  addition,  many  of  them  prepare 
their  long  speeches,  with  the  assistance  of 
their  private  secretaries  paid  by  the  people— 
and  actually  read  them!  Such  an  infliction 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  other  legislative 
body. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  hear  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  who  for  years  have  ted  at 
the  public  trough,  make  slurring  references  to 
newspaper  correspondents,  who  serve  the 
American  people  at  Washington  quite  as 
faithfully  as  they  do.  At  a  reception  in  this 
city,  one  evening,  I  heard  Representative 
Hepburn,  of  low  a.  sneeringly  refer  to  "the 
lying  correspondents  at  Washington  who  are 
always  misrepresenting  what  we  (the  Con- 
gressmen, presumably)  try  to  accomplish." 
This  language  was  used  in  a  party  of  ladies, 
bill  in  such  (ones  that  I  couldn't  help  hear- 
ing. 


1K> 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


One  lady  came  to  me  and  begged  that  I 
interfere,  but  when  I  told  her  that  this  critic 
of  the  Washington  correspondents  hailed  from 
a  little  village  in  Iowa  and  owed  everything 
he  was  in  his  party  (which  wasn't  a  great 
deal)  to  the  notoriety  bestowed  upon  him  by 
the  same  "lying"  reporters,  she  agreed  with 
me  that  notice  of  the  remarks  would  dignify 
them.  1  then  told  her  that  this  same  man 
actually  accepted  invitations  to  dinners  of  the 
Gridiron  Club,  an  organization  of  these  same 
newspaper  correspondents,  that  cost  the 
"lying  reporter"  who  invited  him  $10  to  $L2.5 


foi 

Food    law 


is  guest. 


No  restrictions  of  the  "  1: 


urc 


prevented    this    Iowa    critic   from 
smoking  Grid- 


eating  a  Gridiron  dinner,  or 
iron  cigars  or  drinking  Gridiron  wines.  But 
the  newspapers  forgot  him  and  he  was  de- 
feated for  re-election. 

1  would  like  to  see  a  boycott  established 
against  a  few  senators  and  representatives  who 
are  constant  and  unjust  in  their  criticisms  of 
I  he  American  press.  It  has  faults,  as  have 
present  methods  of  legislation.     Some  people 


assure  us  that  even  executive  power  is  abused, 
at  times.  But  the  good  the  newspapers  of 
this  country  have  done  so  far  outweighs  all  its 
injustices  that  its  official  representatives  should 
be  free  from  the  sneers  of  public  servants  sup- 
ported in  part  by  the  people  they  affect  to 
despise. 

The  action  of  the  German  reporters  of  the 
Reichstag  will  surely  cause  a  wholesome 
change  of  sentiment  throughout  Germany,  as 
well  as  in  that  body.  Xo  fewer  than  twelve 
deputies  who  had  intended  to  speak  on  the 
colonial  budget  refused  to  address  the  Reich- 
stag because  their  remarks  would  not  attain 
publicity.  They  do  not  care  for  several  hun- 
dred hearers  in  the  houses;  they  coveted  the 
readers  of  newspapers  throughout  the  Empire, 

an  audience  counted  by  millions. 

The  most  gratifying  feature  about  the 
Reichstag  boycott  was  the  absolute  unanimity 
with  which  it  was  entered  into.  Within  a 
week,  the  Reichstag  passed  a  resolution  of 
apology  to  the  German  reporters  and  begged 
its  acceptance. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


113 


CHAPTER  XIII 


SUDDEN  CHANGE  OF  FORTUNE 


T  THE  close  of  the  Summer 
season,  I  was  recalled  to  the 
office  by  a  cablegram  from 
Paris  and  detailed  to  write 
editorial  paragraphs;  but  Rev. 
Dr.  Hepworth,  in  charge  of 
that  page,  resolutely  threw  them 
away,  uight  alter  night.  1  should  have  com- 
plained and  asked  a  transfer  to  another  de- 
partment; lint  I  made  carbon  copies  of  my 
matter  and  sent  them  to  Mr.  Bennett,  at 
Paris.  For  six  weeks.  I  went  to  my  desk 
every  night,  and  "ground  out"  twenty  to 
forty  paragraphs,  most  of  which  were  sup- 
pressed. Perhaps  they  were  poor  stuff .  How- 
ever, I  learned  that  Mr.  Bennett  was  coming 
over  in  October.  He  is  a  delightful  chief 
when  near  at  hand,  but  a  terrible  master 
when  on  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  his  em- 
ployee on  the  other. 

A  few  days  after  the  arrival  in  New  York 
of  the  proprietor  of  the  Herald,  he  sent  for 
me.  He  was  standing  at  a  high  desk,  looking 
up  Park  Row.  I  was  in  a  dissatisfied  state 
of  mind  and  what  he  said  was  not  calculated 
to  put  me  in  better  mood.  When  we  were 
alone,  he  began: 

"I  have  been  trying  for  several  months  to 
get  the  truth  about  the  circulation  of  the 
World.  I  have  had  the  business  department 
working  at  the  job,  but  its  people  tell  me  our 
circulation  still  leads.  Xow,  how  can  I  get 
the   facts?" 

"If  you  cannot  secure  the  figures  from  the 
World  press-room,  by  *  underground,'  there's 
only  one  sure  method  of  ascertaining  what 
von  want  to  know.  A  man  must  go  to  every 
news-stand  on  Third  Avenue,  between  here 
and  Harlem  bridge.  He  ought  to  walk,  in 
order  not  to  attract  attention.  Then  Sixth 
and  Eighth  Avenues  should  be  covered  in 
the  same  wav.     Murrav   Hill  and  the  Down- 


town shipping  sections,  where  the  Herald  is 
strongest,  should   be  canvassed." 

'That's  an  excellent  suggestion,"  replied 
the  proprietor;  "but  it  is  open  to  the  same 
objection  I  have  made  to  the  other  method. 
Can  I  believe  the  reports?  I  must  have  some- 
body do  that  work  who  isn't  afraid  to  tell  me 
the  truth!     I    want  you  to  undertake  it!" 

This  order  was  a  surprise;  after  a  success- 
ful winter  at  Washington,  an  assignment  to 
spend  days  on  the  streets  in  a  task  of  this 
sort  appeared  a  humiliation  despite  the  im- 
plied compliment  as  to  my  truthfulness.  I 
left  the  room  much  chagrined.  But.  starting 
at  Cooper  Institute  next  morning  at  seven 
o'clock,  I  spent  four  days  on  the  streets, 
afoot.  Stands  not  connected  with  shops  were 
closed  by  11  o'clock,  not  to  be  re-opened  until 
the  evening  papers  were  on  sale:  so  I  had  less 
than  half  a  day  in  which  to  work.  My  plan 
was  to  buy  a  paper,  engage  the  dealer  in  con- 
versation and  get  the  number  of  Heralds  and 
Worlds  sold.  These  figures  I  set  down  in  a 
book,  out  of  the  dealer's  sight,  with  location 
of  purchase  and  name  of  dealer  when  ob- 
tainable. A  day  was  required  to  compile  and 
properly  tabulate  the  results.  The  showing 
was  unfavorable  to  the  Herald.  Although  I 
do  not  choose  to  quote  the  figures,  1  worked 
out  the  percentage,  showing  relatively  how 
much  one  journal  led  the  other  in  circulation. 
When  1  presented  the  report  to  my  proprietor, 
he  went  over  every  line,  covering  many  pages 
of  ledger  paper.  After  half  an  hour's  silence. 
—very  awkward  to  me.  because  1  had  to 
stand  as  Mr.  Bennett  was  standing  al  his 
desk,      the  latter  said: 

"Just  as  I  expected!  Your  work  is  well 
done:  I  am  much  pleased."  With  a  few  words 
of  thanks,  1  started  to  leave  the  room,  when 
Mr.   Bennett  asked:    "What   lime  is  it?" 


114 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


Glancing  across  the  street  t<>  the  spire  of 
St.  Paul's  chapel,  1  replied,  "Three  o'clock." 

"Very  well;  I  shall  put  you  in  charge  of 
this  office  at  four!    Conic  hack  at  that  hour." 

Then  followed  the  most  thrilling  sixty  min- 
utes of  my  life!  A  score  of  times,  while 
trudging  through  the  mud  or  rain,  gathering 
figures  for  my  report,  I  had  resolved  to  re- 
sign. Evidently  my  twelve  years'  faithful 
service  was  not  appreciated.  1  was  receiving 
a  salary  of  $5,000  per  year,  hut  to  be  asked 
to  perform  menial  labor  such  as  that  in 
which  1  was  engaged,  hurt  my  feelings. 
Xow.  as  a  reward.  1  was  to  he  put  in  charge 
of  the  Herald,  to  he  made  its  Managing:- 
Editor  to  have  the  wildest  ambition  of  my 
life  realized.  The  top  of  my  profession  at 
35!  1  descended  the  circular  staircase  to 
Ann  Street,  thence  crossed  Broadway  to  the 
coiner  of  St.  Paul's  church-yard.  That  hour 
was  spent  in  walking-  'round  that  block,  and 
when  the  clock  showed  a  few  minutes  of 
four.  I  returned  to  the  Herald  office.  "Jim- 
my." Mr.  Bennett's  colored  hoy,  was  on 
watch  for  me. 

Taking  me  by  the  arm,  Mr.  Bennett  con- 
ducted me  to  the  side  of  Mr.  Flvnn's  desk 
and  told  him  1  was  to  take  his  place.  Natur- 
ally, I  had  supposed  Mr.  Flynn  cognizant  of 
the  intended  change;  hut  the  paleness  upon 
his  face  showed  utter  surprise.  I  never  have 
felt  sadder  in  my  life!  Here  was  a  man  with 
whom  I  had  been  intimately  associated  for 
many  years,  against  whom  not  a  single  act 
of  meanness  or  unfairness  could  he  charged. 
Utterly  forgetful  of  the  traditions  of  Herald 
management.  I  stammered,  "Oh!  Mr.  Flynn; 
I  assumed  you  knew!"  I  was  most  untact- 
ful. 

That  night.  Mr.  Bennett  personally  took 
me  to  the  composing  room  and.  in  my  pres- 
ence, gave  orders  to  ".lack"  Henderson,  the 
foreman,  that  I  was  to  revise  the  editorial 
page.  Whatever  I  cancelled,  was  to  he  left 
out.  Thai  gave  to  me  supreme  authority. 
Oh!  Dr.  Hepworth!  But  I  had  had  too 
much  experience  to  get  brash. 

Next  day.  1  sent  a  note  to  a  stock-broker 
carrying  three  hundred  shares  of  stocks  for 
me  on  a  margin  to  sell  me  out  "at  best." 
This    was    done,    at    a    loss    of   $1,100   to    me. 


I  nlike  some  other  managing-editors  of  New 
York  newspapers,  1  did  not  deem  it  proper 
to  he  speculating  on  the  Stock  Exchange 
when  in  a  position  to  control  the  newspaper 
columns  of  a  stock  report.  I  do  not  criticize 
several  acquaintances  who  have  retired  from 
similar  berths  with  fortunes;  they  are  wel- 
come to  them.  Using  the  custody  of  another 
man's  property  for  my  own  enrichment  was. 
and  is.  repugnant  to  me. 

Mr.  Bennett  remained  in  Xew  York  until 
after  the  stormy  municipal  election  of  that 
year  (1886).  Under  his  orders,  money  was 
literally  squandered  in  getting  news;  hut  the 
infernal  circulation  didn't  move!  Mr.  Ben- 
nett went  hack  to  Europe,  without  telling 
anybody.  I  didn't  know  of  his  departure 
until  midnight,  when  1  learned  he  was  to 
sail  on  the  French  liner  at  (!  in  the  morning. 
He  was  disgusted — I  do  not  say  discouraged. 

I  knew  something  had  to  he  done  to  start 
the  circulation  upward.  1  always  had  been 
a  believer  in  "freak  features,"  if  1  may  so 
describe  them.  There  was  no  "wireless"  in 
those  days:  hut  I  knew  something  would 
happen  if  the  circulation  didn't  rise.  In  des- 
peration, affecting  a  jollity  1  did  not  feel.  I 
scattered  over  the  editorial  page  a  dozen  para- 
graphs, paraphrased  from  college  cries  at  the 
various  institutions  of  alleged  learning  with 
which  I  was  more  or  less  familiar.  Next 
morning,  among  tin-  "non-committal"  edi- 
torials using  the  language  of  Dr.  Wallace. 
who  had  already  joined  the  throng  invisible — 
I  inserted  "freaks,"  of  which  this  is  a  sam- 
ple: 

"We  arc  the  stuff, 
We  arc  the  stuff! 

Who're  the  stuff? 

The  Herald's  ilie  proper  stuff — 
That's  what  the  | pic  -.a;  " 

Some  of  them  were  more  audacious,  going 
to  the  length  of  saying  "the  old  Herald  has 
waked  up,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  In  do- 
ing this,  I  burned  every  bridge  behind  me. 
Besides.  1  knew  it  meant  a  final  fight  with 
Dr.  Hepworth  and  I  was  not  sure  whether 
Mr.  Bennett  would  sustain  me.  But,  I  had 
cast  an  anchor  to  windward.  To  every  col- 
lege man  I  knew  within  the  day's  circulation 
radius.  I  had  sent  a  whooping  telegram,  call- 
ing attention  to  the  college  shouts  and  asking 

o  D  O 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


11.) 


for  a  sentiment.  Most  of  those  to  whom  I 
appealed  replied  in  laudatory  language.  This 
turned  the  guns  against  the  afternoon  papers 
of  that  day.  which  said  sarcastic  things  about 
the  sanity  of  tin1  Herald's  new  executive  edi- 
tor. Result,  an  increase  of  7,200  in  circula- 
tion in  a  week!  The  abuse  heaped  upon  me 
by  the  other  newspapers  aroused  curiosity  to 
see  "the  rotten  sheet."  as  one  of  niv  critics 
described  the  "stuff"  edition. 

Dr.  Hepworth  came  to  "protest."  I  was 
fighting  for  my  life  and  made  short  work  of 
him.  If  I  went  down.  I'd  have  my  hoots  on! 
I  do  not  believe  he  ever  before  had  heard  the 
word  "circulation"  or  knew  that  I  was  re- 
sponsible for  it!  He  cabled  Paris;  but  my 
message  had  been  sent  the  previous  night. 
Ilowland  looked  wise  as  an  owl.  and  didn't 
understand  what  was  intended.  For  ten 
days,  the  Herald,  which  had  dropped  out  of 
the  exchanges,  was  commented  on  far  and 
wide.  I  reprinted  the  most  critical  notices. 
The  local  newspapers  shut  up,  after  the  en- 
dorsements of  college  men  were  published. 
The  circulation  began  to  move  upward,  slowly 
but  steadily  the  most  encouraging  kind  of 
growth.     That  was  a  busy  winter  for  me. 

1  feel  justified  in  speaking  of  a  few  innova- 
tions introduced.  When  1  had  time  to  think 
of  improvements.  I  noticed  that  the  baseball 
"averages"  were  only  printed  once  a  week. 
Sending  for  the  editor  of  the  sporting  depart- 
ment, I  ordered  the  averages  made  up  and 
published  every  day.     lie  said  he  would  have 

to  engage  another  man   to  make  the  Calcula- 
te     o 

tions,  as  it  was  a  tedious  task.  'No;  tell 
the  baseball  writer  to  do  the  figuring  after  he 
has  turned  in  his  account  of  each  day's  game." 
There  was  trouble  at  first;  but  1  appointed 
Alfred  Stimer  sporting-editor  and  the  "aver- 
ages" appeared  daily  from  that  day  to  this. 
All  competitors  followed   us. 

One  night.  I  had  an  exceedingly  dangerous 
story.  The  trustee  of  an  estate  was  accused 
of  embezzling  funds;  but  no  legal  proceed- 
ings had  been  taken.  We  had  the  charges 
and  a  statement  from  the  accused,  denying 
his  guilt  and  putting  up  a  fair  answer.  I 
couldn't  print  the  accusations  with  an  answer 
below  them,  because  if  the  matter  were  set- 
tled out  of  court,  a  libel  would  lie.     I  hit  upon 


what  is  now  known  as  "the  twin  head." 
Placing  the  charges  in  the  first  column  and 
the  self-vindication  in  the  second.  1  bound 
them  together,  civing  equal  prominence  to 
each,  with  a  two-column  head  like  this:  Is 
he  a  thief?  No,  he's  an  honest  man."  I 
also  believe  I  was  first  to  use  a  full-page  head- 


JULIUS  CHAMBERS 

1SS7 


in»\  I  never  had  seen  one.  at  any  rate.  I 
tried  all  manner  of  "freak"  headings,  con- 
firming my  previous  opinions  about  the  men- 
tal impressions  they  create. 

The  first  conflict  I  had  will:  the  stall'  oc- 
curred when  1  asked  a  pleasant  chap  who 
hail  been  engaged  to  write  editorials  on  liter- 


110 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


ary  themes  to  review  a  book.  He  swelled  up 
and  said  lie  had  not  been  hired  to  do  that, 
considered  it  "beneath  his  dignity,"  and 
much  more.  I  was  inclined  to  pass  over  the 
matter,  because,  calling  a  stenographer,  1 
dictated  the  review  myself;  but  the  man 
made  the  error  of  telegraphing  Mr.  Bennett 
that  he  refused  to  obey  my  orders  to  review 
a  hook;    he  got  "fired"  by  cable  for  his  pains. 

The  large  daily  cartoon,  so  popular  to-day. 
was  originated  by  Mr.  Bennett  in  his  Evening 
Telegram.  Baron  de  Grim,  an  artist  with  a 
wide  European  reputation,  was  imported  to 
draw  them.  The  proprietor  of  the  Herald 
had  been  cartooned  in  Vanity  Fair,  of  Lon- 
don, with  other  famous  men  of  his  time,  and 
he  knew  that  such  caricatures  do  not  leave 
wounds.  I  reproduce  that  cartoon  From  a 
copy  Mr.  Bennett  gave  to  me. 

Mr.  Bennett  has  been  a  successful  corre- 
spondent himself  on  occasions.  lie  witnessed 
the  bombardment  of  Alexandria  (-Inly  11. 
1882)  from  the  deck  of  the  "Xamouna."  and, 
steaming  to  Malta,  cabled  a  full  description 
to  New  York.  During  the  first  insurrection 
in   Cuba,  the   Herald  was  in  sympathy  with 


the  revolutionists;  hut  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Spanish-American  troubles  that  culmi- 
nated in  war,  he  manifested  a  decidedly  pro- 
Spanish  sentiment — which  was  inexplicable. 
because  his  patriotism  was  beyond  question. 
It  is  not  generally  known  that  Mr.  Bennett 
served  as  a  volunteer  lieutenant  in  the  United 
States  Navy  during  the  Civil  War.  I  possess 
a   rare  photograph  of  him  in  bis  uniform. 

Judged  by  the  supreme  test  of  what  he  has 
accomplished.  Mr.  Bennett  is  great  in  many 
ways.  But  he  is  careless  of  fame.  His  official 
friendship  is  like  a  wax  taper — liable  to  ex- 
tinguishment by  the  faintest  breath  of  doubt 
or  external  influence.  The  criticism  of  a 
fellow  clubman,  or  of  the  masseur  who  rubs 
him  down  at  the  "Ilaniniain."  often  out- 
weighs the  mature  judgment  of  his  chief  edi- 
tor.' 

He  is  a  gentleman  always;  generous  spas- 
modically, to  the  limit  of  extravagance;  again, 
m  business,  he  is  close  as  a  Scotchman.  His 
crest  is  "an  owl  in  the  moon."  but  it  might, 
with  advantage,  be  changed  to  a  thistle,  with 


the    motto 
lacessit. 


of    Scotland — A" 


oho    me    impune 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


117 


CHAPTER  XIV 


EDITING   NEWSPAPERS   IN   PARIS  AND  NEW  YORK 


EVER  was  an  employer  more 
solicitous  for  the  health  of  his 
employees  than  Mr.  Bennett. 
I  literally  lived  in  his  office, 
getting  there  at  noon,  as  a  rule, 
and  rarely  leaving  before  the 
paper  went  to  press  at  2.30. 
Except  in  Summer.  I  didn't  take  any  days 
off.  Of  these  facts,  my  employer  appeared 
to  he  informed,  for  in  many  of  his  letters  he 
cautioned  me  not  to  work  too  hard.  lie  de- 
tailed Mr.  White  to  come  early  to  assist  me; 
but  I  found  White  ordered  rafts  of  useless 
matter  and  asked  that  he  he  withdrawn.  He 
was  called  to  Paris. 

The  winter  of  1886-'87  was  enjoyable,  he- 
cause  the  chief  was  on  a  cruise  in  the  "Na- 
mouna"  in  the  Far  East.  lie  visited  Java,  the 
Straits  Settlements.  India  and  Ceylon.  I  had 
no  trouble  with  anybody.  The  cablegrams 
from  distant  points  were  all  kindly  and  en- 
courairino-. 

In  the  May  of  1887.  I  received  a  message 
from  Colombo.  Ceylon,  saying:  'Take  Sat- 
urday's French  steamer  for  Havre,  await  me 
Paris:  put  Meighan  on  your  desk  until  re- 
turn." Reaching  Paris.  I  found  a  despatch 
from  Aden:  'Take  charge  of  Galignani's 
Messenger;  have  bought  it.  Order  plenty 
American  news  from  home  office.  Shake  up 
London :  have  Hall  help." 

What  followed  the  receipt  of  this  second 
message  really  belongs  to  the  Comedy  of 
Journalism,  which  will  be  dealt  with  else- 
where. 

That  evening,  I  walked  into  the  office  of 
Galignani,  introduced  myself  to  Editors  Fox 
and  Robillard;  told  them  of  my  orders,  hung 
up  my  coat  and  sat  down  at  a  vacant  desk. 
Sending  for  the  foreman,  M.  Maiernard,  1  in- 
formed  him  I  had  taken  charge  for  Mr.  Ben- 
nett, and  ordered  proofs  of  all  "standing  mat- 
ter."    He  was  also  directed  to  give  to  me  sam- 


ples of  all  display  type  that  could  be  used  for 
headings.  A  cablegram  was  rushed  to  New 
York,  ordering  2,000  words  sent  to  "Gali- 
gnani, Paris."  London  was  told  to  double  its 
service  by  the  private  wire.  A.  Oakey  Hall, 
the  Herald's  London  correspondent,  was  told 
to  duplicate  over  the  < lalii/iiaiii  wire,  matter 
prepared  for  Herald,  lit  two  hours,  the  dull 
place  had  the  bustle  of  a  New  York  office. 
Evening  papers  contained  suggestions  for  two 
"good  stories."  Galignani  hadn't  any  re- 
porters. So.  1  assigned  myself  to  one  of  the 
articles  and  asked  Mr.  King  to  attend  to  the 
other.  He  was  much  shocked,  but  obeyed. 
W-  landed  our  articles  and  wrote  them  dur- 
ing lulls  in  the  receipt  of  telegraphic  matter. 
New  York  responded  gallantly.  London  was 
behind  America:  the  special  wire  worked 
badly.  (It  always  did.  Messages  were  re- 
ceived on  an  old  printing-telegraph  machine.) 

Xext  morning  a  fifty-year  reader  of  (lali- 
gnani  would  not  have  recognized  the  sheet! 
My  editorial  predecessor,  William  Makepeace 
Thackeray,  would  have  been  startled  had  it 
been  delivered  at  his  present  abode,  wher- 
ever that  may  be.  From  an  American  stand- 
point, "spread  heads"  on  the  first  page  were 
highly  temperate,  but  they  gave  the  purport  of 
the  matter  underneath.  Captions  like  "Lat- 
est from  Berlin,"  or  "Yesterday  in  America" 
were  missing.  The  editorial  page  was  reduced 
to  one  column.  A  lot  of  "canned  leaders." 
contracted  for  by  the  month,  were  thrown  into 
the  waste-basket.  To  express  my  disrespect 
for  the  "non-committal"  English  paragraph, 
I  asked  the  office  boy  to  write  a  few  para- 
graphs. He  was  a  London  cockney:  1  told 
him  to  discuss  a  cabman's  strike  in  the  Eng- 
Iish  capital,  and  a  rise  in  price  of  meat  at  the 
I  [alls  ( 'entrals.  With  editing,  which  amounted 
to  re-writing,  the  boy's  work  was  excellent. 

This  charivari  continued,  nightly,  for  two 
weeks  before  the  supposed  proprietor  reached 


IIS 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Paris.  I  never  had  so  much  fun  in  my  life! 
The  Paris  bureau  of  the  New  York  Herald 
co-operated  valiantly.  Mr.  ('.  Inman  Barnard 
was  a  whole  team;  Mr.  C.  Henry  Meltzer 
was  great  on  music,  drama  and  art.  A  young 
Englishman  was  retained  to  do  the  horse- 
racing  and  professional  duels.  Miss  Effie 
Evans  visited  the  holds,  getting  English  and 
American  gossip.  The  hills  were  large;  but 
Mr.  Bennett  never  did  anything  in  a  small 
way  and  1  had  no  fear  of  a  day  of  reckoning. 

Meanwhile,  I  was  acquiring  information 
about  the  cost  of  producing  a  daily  newspaper 
of  small  circulation  in  Paris.  I  investigated 
the  advertising,  which  consisted  chiefly  of 
French  and  Swiss  hotels.  'Idle  hooks  showed 
that  many  of  the  accounts  had  been  drawn 
against  far  ahead.  Paris  advertising  amount- 
ed to  little.  The  Matin  printed  Galignani 
and  appropriated  all  its  special  features, — an 
intolerable  thing,  because  vve  got  almost  noth- 
ing of  a  news  character  in  return.  Its  editor 
was  suffering  from  an  incurable  disease  and 
I  could  not  tell  him  how  I  felt  about  his  con- 
duct; it  savored  of  picking  a  quarrel  with  a 
baby  in  an  incubator. 

One  evening  during  June,  I  went  to  Les 
Ambassadeurs.  a  cafe  cliantant  on  the  Champs 
Elysses,  and  heard  Paulus  sing  "En  Revenant 
de  la  Rente."  It  had  "go."  I  bought  a  copy 
of  the  song  and  music,  forwarded  it  to  New* 
York  with  orders  to  publish  it  on  July  14, 
and  to  get  Patrick  Gilmore  to  march  his 
band  up  Broadway  playing  it.  This  was  done 
and  "Boulanger's  March, "as  it  came  to  be 
known,  took  New  York  city  by  storm. 

When,  however,  copies  of  the  Herald  of 
July  14  reached  Paris,  Paulus  learned  that 
it  contained  his  song.  He  secured  the  services 
of  a  process-server  and  seized  all  copies  of  the 
Herald  of  that  date  to  be  found  in  the  Paris 
office.  When  told  of  the  "outrage'*  by  M. 
Giraud,  the  cashier,  1  decided  to  get  some 
advertising  out  of  the  incident.  Marking  ink 
was  secured  and  1  covered  the  large  windows 
of  the  office  with  sheets  of  paper  announcing 
a  "seizure  of  the  New  York  Herald  by  the 
authorities."  A  thousand  people  soon  assem- 
bled in  front  of  41)  Avenue  de  1'Opera.  Lon- 
don newspapers  gave  the  incident  half  a  col- 
umn each. 


Mr.  Bennett  arrived  in  fine  spirits.  He  had 
received  bundles  of  the  new  Galignani  at 
Brindisi,  Genoa  and  Nice  and  seemed  to  be 
pleased  with  the  work,  although  he  carefully 
refrained  from  saying  so.  An  employee  at 
Galignani's  had  asked  me  if  the  will  of  the 
founder  of  the  newspaper  had  been  examined; 
I  spoke  to  Mr.  Bennett  about  the  matter.  He 
called  his  avocat,  who  admitted  that  he  had 
not  gone  beyond  the  statements  of  the  Brothers 
Jeancourt,  present  owners  and  nephews  of  the 
original  M.  Galignani.  A  visit  to  the  Register 
of  Wills,  by  whatever  title  he  is  known,  re- 
vealed an  amazing  clause  in  the  will  of  the 
late  M.  Galignani,  positively  forbidding  that 
the  name  of  the  paper  should  pass  out  of  his 
family! 

What  was  to  be  done.''  The  American  edi- 
tor had  agreed  to  pay  a  huge  sum  for  the 
property,  assuming  he  was  buying  "lock, 
stock  and  barrel."  namely,  title,  plant  and 
good-will.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  getting 
only  a  lot  of  badly  worn  type  and  a  collection 
of  advertising  contracts  at  low  rates,  many  of 
which  had  been  drawn  upon  a  year  in  ad- 
vance. Characteristically,  the  American  de- 
cided to  drop  the  matter. 

"If  you  are  intent  on  having  a  journal  in 
Paris,"   1    volunteered,  "start  one." 

"  What  will  it  cost  ?" 

"Seven  thousand,  five  hundred  and  sixty- 
six  francs  and  seventy-five  centimes  per  week," 
I  answered,  promptly. 

"How  do  you  know?"  I  had  expected  that 
question  and  drew  the  following  memoran- 
dum from  my  pocket: 

"Composition,  1,560;  Editors,  1,166  (this 
does  not  include  work  done  by  me  or  your 
Paris  staff,  charged  to  Paris  office) :  Telegraph 
operator,  100;  Tirage  (printing),  500;  De- 
part (mailing  and  circulation),  410;  Postage, 
182;  Paper  (4,500  copies).  .jS^.T.J;  Counting 
room,  410;  Cabling,  875;  London  wire, 
917.50;  Rent,  192;  (bis.  170;  Petty  expenses 
(average),  00;  and  Gerant  (publisher,  who 
stands  for  libels),  12.50."  And  I  passed  the 
memorandum  across  the  table  at  which  we 
sat. 

"How  much  will  a  plant  cost?" 

"The  type  will  have  to  be  bought  in  Lon- 


I  IK    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1  1!) 


don  and  shipped  over;  also  the  cases,"  1  an- 
swered. "'Its  cost  installed,  types  'laid,'  will 
be  $7,325.  I  know  a  place  in  a  large  impri- 
merie  on  the  Rue  ('<»([  Heron  that  can  he 
rented  for  6,000  francs  per  year;  the  deposit 
and  plumbing  for  the  gas  wdl  cost  425  francs 
($85).  AMiat  the  cost  of  heating  in  winter 
will  be  I  do  not  know.  You  will  need  a  tele- 
phone, say  300  francs  annually.  A  complete 
set  of  all  the  Paris  newspapers,  morning  and 
evening  will  be— 

'That  will  do!  I'll  wire  Jack  Henderson 
to  come  bv  first  steamer.  How  long  will  it 
take  to  get  a  special  wire  to  London?" 

'That  is  not  an  easy  task;  but  1  should 
say  two  weeks.  There's  much  red  tape.  I 
can  go  to  London  and  buy  the  type,  engage 
the  printers 

"Very  well;  don't  go  to  Galignani  to-night. 
Tell  Barnard  and  Meltzer  to  give  the  Herald 
their  whole  attention." 

The  old  journal  was  very  nearly  not  mak- 
ing its  appearance  next  morning!  New  York 
did  not  send  any  news;  Oakey  Hall  ceased. 
The  clamor  for  copy  was  hard  to  satisfy.  I 
never  entered  Galignani's  again. 

Instead.  I  had  on  my  hands  a  contract  to 
start  a  wholly  new  enterprise.  After  1  hail 
secured  the  London  wire,  rented  an  office, 
secured  printers,  bought  the  necessary  outfit 
of  type,  cases,  stands,  and  gas  fixtures.  Mr. 
Bennett  handed  to  me  a  weekly  credit  at 
Rothschilds  and  jumped  into  a  cab  for  St. 
Lazare  railway  station,  en  route  to  New 
York — as  John  A.  Cockerill  wittily  said,  "To 
edit  his  Paris  paper  by  cable." 

When  the  excitement  of  departure  had 
passed.  I  glanced  at  my  credit  with  the  great- 
est banking-house  in  Europe.  The  checks 
were  dated  one  week  apart,  for  nine  weeks, 
and  each  was  exactly  7,566.75  francs! 

The  first  number  of  the  Paris  edition  of  the 
Herald  appeared  on  the  date  promised  (Oct. 
10,  1887).  On  the  previous  afternoon.  I  had 
been  authorized  to  distribute  2. 000  francs 
among  the  kiosk  keepers  along  the  Boule- 
vards; the  paper  was  sold  out.  Although  my 
hours  averaged  IS  out  of  24.  I  enjoyed  the 
work.  My  estimate  was  only  exceeded  on  one 
pay-day,    and    that    bv    200    francs,      which    I 


personally  paid  and  said  nothing  about.  Ow- 
ing to  an  oversight  by  the  firm  that  supplied 
the  paper.  Ihe  stock  was  short  one  night  and 
Barnard  and  I  had  to  drive  to  the  other  side 
of  the  Seine,  awaken  a  night- watchman,  con- 
vince him  of  our  identity  (which  was  not  easy) 
and  bring  Ihe  white  paper  hack  in  two  cabs. 
Paris  has  not  been  the  same  to  Americans 
since  Robert  and  Lucy  Hooper  died.  Mrs. 
Hooper  was  for  a  generation  one  of  the  best- 
known  members  of  the  American  colony.  The 
Hoopers  were  at  the  height  of  popularity  dur- 
ing !<SS7.  when  1  lived  in  Pans.  The  family 
dwelt  in  a  large  flat  on  the  Rue  dvs  Petits 
Champs,  in  the  heart  of  the  bustling  city. 
Their  Sunday  night  receptions  were  delight- 
ful features  of  a  stay  at  the  French  capital. 
Many  of  the  brightest  men  and  women  of 
Europe  were  to  be  met  there.  Monet  Sully 
and  Sara  Bernhardt  were  of  ten  guests :   Wynd- 

O  • 

ham  and  Irving  rarely  visited  Paris  without 
dropping  in  on  a  Sunday  evening.  This  Phil- 
adelphia couple  created  the  only  American 
salon  that  endured  a  dozen  changes  of  Min- 
isters. 

One  evening,  Daniel  Dougherty  recited 
King  Henry's  advice  to  his  son.  A  young 
actor  from  the  Theatre  Francais  stood  before 
"the  silver  tongued"  orator,  who.  being  for 
the  time  a  king,  spoke  seated.  Dougherty 
talked  the  wonderful  lines  of  Shakespeare  in 
such  a  natural  manner  that  the  scene  became 
real.  The  actor  '"son"  listened  most  respect- 
fully, although  he  did  not  understand  a  word 
of  the  English  language. 

"Boh"  Hooper  was  not  literary;  hut  he 
was  an  epicure.  lie  knew  where  the  best 
cafes  could  be  found;  he  was  a  judge  of 
Burgundy.  I  once  drove  with  him  to  Old 
Paris,  across  the  Isle  of  St.  Louis,  to  taste 
delicious  brands  of  wines  he  had  discovered. 
Where  he  procured  his  mint  I  never  knew, 
hut  he  could  concoct  a  julip  that  feared  no 
rival  in  the  Blue  Grass  land  of  Kentucky  or 
in  the  Piedmont  Valley  of  Virginia. 

When  the  Paris  edition  was  launched.  I 
returned  to  the  managing  desk  in  New  York. 
The  memorable  event  of  the  following  year 
for  Xew  Yorkers  will  always  lie  the  blizzard 
on  March  II.  12  and  l.S.  Xew  York  was 
isolated    for   several    days.     One    managing- 


120 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


editor  got  his  Boston  news  by  way  of  Ireland, 
sent  orders  therefor  to  Cape  Ann  by  the 
Mackay-Bennett  cables  and  received  reply  by 
the  same  route.  All  electric  lights  were  out 
for  two  nights.  1  slept  on  a  table  in  the 
Herald  office.  The  snow  drifted  to  such 
depths  that  many  people  had  to  tunnel  from 
the  basements  of  their  dwellings.  The  day 
before  that  blizzard,  dear  old  Walt  Whitman 
sent  to  me  a  pretty  little  verse,  entitled  "The 
First  Violet  of  Spring."  I  marked  it  for  the 
editorial  page  and  went  home  early.  It  was 
a  beautiful  night.  When  the  paper  was  on 
the  streets  next  morning,  the  joke  was  on  me. 
Town  and  country  were  in  the  grasp  of  the 
Storm  King!  Ten  thousand  gods  of  trouble 
were  loosed!  I  didn't  hear  the  last  of  "The 
First  Violet"  for  many  a  day.  Poor  Walt 
felt  badly  about  the  mishap  as  if  he  were  to 
blame  and  didn't  want  to  accept  the  money 
1  sent  to  him  for  the  brief  verse.  When  1  last 
saw  him.  shortly  before  his  death,  he  apolo- 
gized for  the  upset  of  the  Weather  Bureau. 
Again,  when  I  stood  beside  his  tomb  as  a 
pallbearer.  I  tenderly  recalled  his  self-abne- 
gation and  sorrow  over  the  discomfiture  of  a 
poet  and  an  editor  by  the  Bowers  of  all-potent 
Nature. 

An  example  of  what  1  had  to  endure  will 
suffice.  The  following  poem,  written  in  mock 
Walt  Whitman  style,  appeared  in  a  contem- 
porary : 

TO  .1    C,  PERSONAL  AM)  AFFECTIONATE. 

"The  weather  to-day  in  New  York  ami  its  vicinity  promises  to  be 
generally  lair  ami  cooler,  preceded  by  partial  cloudiness  near  the 
coast.  To-morrow,  it  promises  to  be  slightlj  warmer  ami  generally 
fair."— Weather  Report  in  the-  II,  ml, I.  March  12,  1888. 

NO  Villi. Els  FOR   HIM. 

Roaring,  imperial  beauty,  Julius,  icicicular,  valvular,  confiscating, 
diamond-sheened,  sun-dazzling, 

Montana  blizzard,  Dakota  blizzard — blizzard  from  Buffalo-land; 

Julius,  weather-prophet,  stormy-eyed,  accurate.  Antic  in  sunshine, 
tropical  amid  the  snows; 

I  [erald-governing,  salary-raising  Julius! 

Lord  of  tin-  cable,  tin-  win-,  the  thin,  clammy  type,  millions  of  spray- 
like sheets: 

No  bananas,  nor  oranges,  nor  feathery  pines,  nor  odorous  pine-cones; 

Nor  mint-julips,  fragrant  with  spices  ami  fruit,  cold  with  hurried, 
tumbling  ice — 

Hut  hyperborean  nighl,  sombre,  deadening  nightl 

(  )  .luliiis.  with  the  weather  prophet's  eye! 

Walt  Whitman. 

Days  afterward,  when  I  obtained  the  origi- 
nal copy,  I  recognized  the  handwriting  as  that 


of  mv  beloved  friend,  John  Russell  Young. 
This  shows  the  cameraderie  and  jollity  that  ex- 
isted in  the  Herald  office  during  the  storm, 
when  most  of  the  editors  and  reporters  slept 
upon  tables,  under  their  overcoats.  In  the 
press-room  "blankets"  were  taken  from  the 
presses  for  wrappings. 

Never  in  the  history  of  the  metropolis  has 
there  been  such  a  period  of  complete  commer- 
cial and  social  stagnation  as  lasted  for  the 
greater  part  of  Blizzard  week.  Stacks  of 
snow,  created  between  the  car  tracks  and  the 
sidewalk,  grew  to  incredible  heights.  A  sin- 
gle instance  will  suffice. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  same  year,  1SSS,  I 
was  standing  at  the  second-story  window  of 
the  Herald  Building,  corner  of  Ann  Street  and 
Broadway.  At  my  side  stood  the  owner  of  the 
newspaper,  who  dwelt  abroad.  I  was  attempt- 
ing to  describe  the  paralyzing  effects  of  the 
'"  blizzard." 

"Would  you  believe  that  I  stood  exactly 
where  we  are  and  could  not  see  even  the  hats 
of  men  passing  in  front  of  St.  Paul's  Chapel?" 
I  asked. 

The  Franco-American  didn't  reply  imme- 
diately; he  watched  the  throng  of  men  and 
women  hurrying  north  and  south  along  the 
pavement,  on  the  opposite  side  of  Broadway. 

"It  seems  incredible,"  he  finally  said. 

So  it  did;  but  it  was  absolutely  true  and  I 
could  have  secured  corroboration  from  a  score 
of  men  who  spent  days  and  nights  in  that 
building  during  that  stress  of  weather. 

A  mystery  of  mysteries  in  the  newspaper 
world  existed  for  several  years  regarding  the 
means  by  which  the  Herald  scored  its  great 
"beat"  in  1SS7  by  printing  President  Cleve- 
land's message  in  full  on  the  morning  of  the 
day  it  was  sent  to  Congress.  I  was  respon- 
sible for  that  "scoop,"  and  in  a  long  experi- 
ence this  is  the  only  instance  in  which  I  lit- 
erally  had  an  "exclusive"  forced  upon  me. 
I  kept  the  secret;  but  Charles  Nordhoff,  who 
happened  to  be  in  the  office  that  night,  over- 
heard part  of  the  conversation,  divined  the 
rest  and  told  the  story  at  a  dinner  party  at 
Washington.     Here  is  the  explanation: 

From  a  source  unknown  to  me.  William 
Henry    Smith.    New     York    manager    of    the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


121 


Associated  Press,  received  word  thai  the 
Herald  had  surreptitiously  obtained  an  ad- 
vance copy  of  the  President's  message  and 
intended  to  print  it  in  full  in  the  morning. 
As  the  Associated  Press  was  custodian  of  the 
document,  until  its  distribution  to  customers 
on  the  following  day.  Mr.  Smith  was  greatly 
distressed.  lie  sought  to  prevent  premature 
publication!  He  hurried  across  Broadway, 
climbed  a  long  flight  of  stairs  and  demanded 
an  audience  with  the  Herald's  managing  edi- 
tor.    1  saw  him  at  once. 

"I  understand  the  Herald  has  obtained  the 
President's  message  in  an  underhanded  manner 
and  intends  to  print  it  to-morrow  before  it 
has  been  delivered  to  Congress?" 

"  Indeed  ?"  said  I. 

"Now,  von  mustn't  do  this!"  Smith  con- 
tinued, gasping  for  breath.  'The  Herald  is 
a  member  of  the  Associated  Press,  and  the 
honor  of  this  association  is  pledged  not  to 
circulate  this  document  until  to-morrow  after- 
noon." 

"Well,  really,"  I  managed  to  say,  merely 
to  await  developments;  "what  you  may  or 
may  not  do  is  of  no  consequence  to  the  Herald, 
and  will  not  influence  it  in  the  least." 

"But.  sir,  I  am  assured  that  you  are  at 
(his  moment  setting  up  the  matter  and  in- 
tend to  print  it  to-night !" 

"Suppose  we  are;  what  then?"  I  excused 
myself  and  walked  into  the  library  to  catch 
my  breath,  for  somebody  had  been  imposing 
upon  the  Associated  Press  agent.  We  did  not 
have  and  didn't  expect  to  have  the  message 
ahead  of  its  delivery  by  the  association. 

"What  will  you  do?"  demanded  Mr.  Smith, 
anxiously,  on  my  return. 

"  If  we  have  it.  we  shall  print  it."  I  retorted. 
'This  establishment  doesn't  change  its  plans 
at  the  whim  or  behest  of  anybody." 

"Very  well!"  exclaimed  the  visitor.  "I'll 
defeat  your  little  scheme:  I  will  send  out  the 
message  to-night!  All  shall  fare  alike."  And 
Mr.  Smith  flung  himself  out  of  the  room  in  high 
dudgeon. 

Such  had  been  my  hope.  Sending  for  -lack 
Henderson,  the  foreman.  I  directed  him  to  be 
in  readiness  to  set  an  extra  page  at  a  late 
hour,    as     the     President's     message     was    ex- 


pected. Sure  enough,  in  came  the  document 
about  1  o'clock!  ttesult,  the  Herald  had  a 
page  of  the  message  set.  corrected  and  in  the 
stereotype-room  before  2  o'clock;  other  pa- 
pers, not  being  prepared  to  handle  so  large  an 
article  at  thai  hour,  could  only  use  a  few  dis- 
connected paragraphs  which  they  were  ac- 
cused of  stealing  from  us!  Thus  was  a  fin  • 
"scoop"  scored  by  diplomacy:  but  Mi'. 
Smith  congratulated  himself,  for  years,  at 
having  "defeated  tlie  machinations  of  an 
enterprising  but   unscrupulous  newspaper." 

The  writing  of  headings  is  an  art  in  itself. 
Like  the  title  of  a  book,  the  heading  should 
pique  the  reader's  curiosity,  as  well  as  set 
forth  all  the  important  facts  in  the  article. 
There  are  rare  occasions  in  which  it  is  ad- 
visable to  express  editorial  opinions  in  a  head- 
ing. The  best  example  that  recurs  to  me 
was  the  republication  in  the  Herald  of  .lay 
Gould's  scandalous  attack  upon  James  Gor- 
don Bennett.  July  !i.  1SSS.  That  letter  was 
put  in  type  in  the  Tribune  office,  and  proofs 
were  sent  late  at  night  to  every  New  York 
paper,  except  the  Herald.  It  was  positively 
refused  to  that  journal,  whose  proprietor  was 
assailed!  The  responsible  editor  was  a  very 
anxious  man  that  night,  but  secured  a  proof 
of  the  offensive  letter  after  one  o'clock.  The 
article  was  probably  the  most  venomous  and 
contemptible  ever  published.  I  have  since 
learned  that  Mr.  Gould  did  not  write  it.  but 
was  induced  to  sign  it  while  in  a  condition  of 
rage  over  a  complication  during  a  fight  of  the 
rival  cable  lines. 

Appalled  as  the  editor  was  at  the  slanderous 
charges  made  against  his  chief,  after  a  careful 
reading  he  decided  to  print  the  letter,  without 
the  omission  of  a  word,  in  Mr.  Bennett's  own 
paper.  This  was  an  awful  responsibility,  but 
lie  assumed  it,  for  two  reasons:  First, because 
he  personally  knew  that  the  slanderous  charges 
were  false,  and,  second,  because  he  wanted  to 
utterly  destroy  the  injurious  effeel  of  the  whole 
article — to  "scotch  the  snake"  at  once!  Only 
one  means  remained  in  which  to  do  this: 
The  heading!  The  editorial  page  had  gone  to 
press,  and  I  doubt  if  its  use  would  have  been 
so  effective.  While  the  article  was  going  into 
type,  the  editor  wrote  the  lop  line  now  famous 
in    Printing    House    Square       'Tin:    Consul! 


1 22 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Raves."  Then  followed:  "Jay  Gould,  the 
Pirate  of  Wall  Street,  Signs  ;m  Infamously 
False  Personal  Onslaught  on  the  Herald's 
Proprietor.-  Honored  by  This  Attack  of  a 
Sneak  and  a  Coward. — Though  Addressed  to 
the  Editor  of  the  Herald,  the  Screed  is  Re- 
fused Is  for  Publication:  lint  We  Secure  It 
and  Print  It  in  Full  to  Show  What  Kind  of 
an  Animal  Gould  Is.      Isn't  lie  a  Skunk?" 

That  heading  did  the  business.  It  wasn't 
"nice."  but  it  was  desperately  effective. 

The  letter  was  forgotten. 

The  incident  that  caused  me  to  leave  Mr. 
Bennett  is  typical.  An  offer  had  been  made 
to  me  to  join  the  World,  but  had  been  grate- 
fully declined.  Weeks  afterward,  I  received  a 
long  cablegram  abusing  me  for  a  bad  night 
at  the  office  of  the  Paris  edition.  I  was 
charged  with  having  recommended  Albert 
Ives  as  its  editor,  when  the  fact  was  1  had 
journeyed  from  Paris  to  Vichy  to  protest  against 
his  selection.  Of  course,  I  was  not  to  blame 
for  a  contretemps  in  Paris.  Disgusted  and 
sore.  I  went  to  the  Astor  House'  for  luncheon. 
There  I  met  ( 'olonel  John  A.  Cockerill  and 
sat  down  beside  him.  After  a  few  minutes, 
he  drew  from  his  pocket  a  cablegram  from 
his  chief.  Joseph  Pulitzer,  dated  St.  Moritz, 
that  morning,  directing  him  to  see  me  again, 
to  renew  his  offer  and  to  increase  the  salary  to 
$250  per  week,  with  a  three  years'  contract. 
The  proposition  found  me  in  a  mood  to  accept 
the   offer.      When    I    returned   to    my   desk,    a 


cablegram  lav  thereon  announcing  that  Mr. 
Bennett  had  left  for  New  York.  It  was  the 
part  of  honor  to  await  his  arrival.  This  I  did. 
Although  he  was  very  civil  and  made  no  men- 
tion of  his  unjust  cablegram,  I  promptly  noti- 
fied him  of  my  intended  departure.  He 
treated  the  matter  as  a  joke  and.  after  he  had 
left  the  office  that  afternoon,  sent  his  boy, 
Jimmy,  to  invite  me  to  breakfast  with  him 
next  morning.  I  returned  my  thanks  but 
begged  to  be  excused.  This  made  the  editor 
very  angry;  he  wrote  and  wanted  to  print  an 
obituary  notice  of  me.  He  was  dissuaded  by 
a  meddlesome  editor — a  man  I  had  recom- 
mended for  City  Editor.  1  have  seen  that 
manuscript  and  regret  its  suppression. 

Thus  came  to  an  end  a  devoted  service  of 
fifteen  years,  during  which  I  literally  occupied 
every  desk  in  the  Herald  office.  Air.  Bennett 
never  shook  hands  with  any  employee;  but 
since  leaving  him  I  have  met  him  in  several 
parts  of  the  world  and  he  has  always  held  out 
his  hand  with  cordiality. 

He  is  a  splendid  master  to  serve,  when 
near  at  hand;  but  when  far  away — influenced 
by  suspicions  and  malicious  reports  from 
secret  agents-  his  temperament  becomes  so 
mercurial  that  praise  is  dangerous  because 
it  is  always  followed  by  censure;  the  thought 
of  the  proprietor  probably  is  that  commenda- 
tion is  likely  to  enlarge  the  vanity  of  an  em- 
ployee. 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


12:5 


CHAPTER  XV 


A   NEW   WOULD 


I  IK  first  day  in  a  strange  office 
is  something  to  he  remembered. 
When  I  walked  into  the  World 
office  and  was  shown  to  the 
room  assigned  to  the  Manag- 
in»-  Editor,  I  did  not  know  five 
men  in  the  establishment.  ( !oI- 
onel  Cockrill,  who  retained  charge  of  the 
editorial  page,  was  merely  an  acquaintance. 
James  A.  Graham,  the  City  Editor,  who 
proved  to  be  pure  gold,  was  unknown  to  me; 
likewise  Mr.  Fiske.  the  night  editor.  When 
I  entered  the  editorial  council  that  afternoon 
everv  man,  except  Cockrill,  was  a  stranger. 
It  was  easy  to  see  I  was  in  for  a  hard  task, 
until  I  learned  something  about  the  capacity 
of  each  man. 

My  first  surprise — shock  is  a  better  word 
came  when  I  sent  for  a  reporter  and  told  him 
to  undertake  a  trip  that  involved  considerable 
travel  and  some  difficulties.  To  my  amaze- 
ment, he  began  to  argue  and  to  suggesf  that 
another  correspondent,  whom  he  named,  could 
do  better  than  he!  This  was  a  new  experience, 
with  my  fifteen  years'  Herald  training,  where 
declination  to  serve  implied  resignation.  Of 
course,  any  man  who  went  unwillingly  at  a 
task  was  likely  to  fail.  I  told  this  gentleman 
he  must  try  it  or  resign.  I  saw  an  utter  end 
of  discipline  if  orders  did  not  go.  He  went  to 
Colonel  Cockrill.  but  the  latter  told  him  my 
authority  was  absolute.  He  went  on  his  mis- 
sion and  was  entirely  successful.  Hut  I  made 
the  discovery  that  "organization"  and  "dis- 
cipline" were  not  favored  by  my  chief.  His 
idea  was  that  he  secured  better  results  by 
playing  man  against  man! 

First  intelligence  of  the  terrible  Johnstown 
flood.  July  of  the  following  year,  reached  the 
office  late  al  night.  The  flood  had  broken 
about  dark,  but  destruction  of  all  telegraphic 
communication  with  the  stricken  town  pre- 
vented   news    of    the    disaster    from    reaching 


New  York  until  about  11  o'clock.  Every 
available  man  was  seized  upon  and  sen  I  west. 
Mr.  Farrellv.  on  the  copy  desk,  was  appointed 
to  take  charge  of  the  force.  To  gain  lime,  a 
man  in  Albany  on  a  special  mission  was  sent 
to  Pittsburg  by  the  Central  and  was  first  to 
reach  the  news  field:  he  was  young  and  loo 
inexperienced  to  improve  his  supreme  oppor- 
tunity, although  he  rendered  efficient  service 
subsequently  under  direction.  Men  were  sent 
by  midnighf  trains  on  the  Erie,  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  railroads.  The  extent 
of  the  disaster,  which  sacrificed  4,000  lives, 
was  not  known  until   the  following  day. 

A  semi-humorous  episode  developed  from 
that  fii'st  night's  work.  Knowing  Johnstown, 
which  1  had  once  visited  on  the  occasion  of  a 
strike.  I  took  the  Associated  Press  despatches, 
necessarily  fragmentary,  and  rewrote  them  into 
a  semblance  of  unity.  One  of  the  messages, 
clearly  imaginative,  described  a  usual  evening 
gathering  at  the  post-office,  while  the  black 
clouds  were  hovering  over  the  eastern  hills. 
One  townsman  was  reported  as  saying  lo  an- 
other, "  Pig  storm  in  the  mountains  ?"  '  Yes, 
looks  like  it;  we  shall  have  a  shower  before 
long."  Then  I  added,  with  a  blue  pencil, 
"but  it  hail  rained  before  in  Johnstown." 
Two  weeks  later,  when  the  news  vane  had 
veered  to  another  direction,  I  received  a  cable- 
gram from  Mr.  Pulitzer  especially  commend- 
ing the  first  night's  work  and  directing  me  to 
send  his  check  for  $200  to  the  man  who  w  role 
(he    despatch    containing    the    words.    "Il    hail 

rained  before  in  Johnstown."  That  money 
never  was  drawn  and  the  circumstances  are 
here  stated  for  the  firsl  time. 

"Jersey"  Chamberlain,  of  I  he  Sun,  beat 
everybody  lo  the  dam  and  had  the  first  ex- 
planation of  the  cause  of  the  calamity.  The 
responsible  man  of  the  World's  corps  had  been 
telegraphed  more  than  once  daily.  "Send  or 
go  to  the  dam!"     lie  sent  a  weak  vassal,  who 


P24 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


was  scared  by  a  ten-mile  tramp  through  the 
woods.  1 1  was  the  only  feature  on  which  we 
were  "beaten."  In  the  face  of  positive  order 
Por  one  man's  discharge,  1  smoothed  the  mat- 
ter over  and   retained   him. 

George  W.  Turner,  publisher  of  the  World. 
and  I  had  one  serious  dispute,  although  we 
afterwards  became  staunch  friends.  The  idea 
occurred  to  me,  one  night,  to  put  an  announce- 
ment of  the  weather  for  the  next  day  in  the 
right-hand  "ear"  of  the  front  page.  [The 
'"ears"  of  a  newspaper,  let  me  explain,  are 
the  small  corners  at  the  right  and  left  of  its 
heading.]  It  had  seemed  to  me  an  admirable 
thought.  Every  buyer  of  a  World  at  a  stand 
could  see.  by  a  glance,  what  kind  of  weather 
the  Washington  Bureau  had  predicted.  As 
readers  will  recall.  I  had  had  my  own  expe- 
rience with  the  Weather  Bureau  and  did  not 
"back  it  in  the  betting"  after  '"The  First 
Violet"  mishap  on  Blizzard  Eve.  Mi-.  Turner 
took  the  ground  that  the  "ears"  belonged  to 
the  business  office.  We  had  a  warm  conver- 
sation. 1  couldn't  prove  my  contention,  any 
more  than  he  could  establish  his.  Mean- 
while, every  other  newspaper  in  the  country 
jumped  into  the  ring,  adopted  the  thought 
and  put  the  World  in  Coventry.  I  wish  I 
had  time  to  hunt  up  that  innovation.  The 
Herald  is  the  only  newspaper  in  the  United 
States,  so  far  as  my  observation  goes,  that  has 
not  adopted  my  suggestion.  The  World  had 
to  trail  after  a  thousand  other  newspapers  had 
seized  upon   its  idea. 

A  man  on  the  World  to  whom  I  was  soon 
attracted  by  his  frankness,  demonstrated  effi- 
ciency and,  above  all.  loyalty,  was  George 
Harvey.  He  had  charge  of  the  New  Jersey 
department  a  large,  news  field  of  high  im- 
portance and  under  his  direction  were  twen- 
ty-five local  reporters  in  the  principal  towns  of 
the  state.  Unlike  many  newspaper  men.  he 
fully  understood  the  embarrassments  of  an  ex- 
ecutive editor  in  a  strange  office,  before  I  lie 
special  capacities  of  individual  editors  and 
reporters  had  been  learned.  I  especially  re- 
call this  generous  trait  of  his  character. 
Harvey  was  at  that  time  an  aid-de-camp  on 
the  staff  of  Governor  Green,  of  New  Jersey, 
lull  he  did  not  use  the  title  of  Colonel.  Later 
he   held   the  same  office  under  Governor  Ab- 


Cul    GEO.  B    \I     HARVEY 


bett,  and   his    friends    were    rejoiced    at    this 

recognition  of  his  fit- 
ness. Subsequently  he 
was  appointed  Insur- 
ance Commissioner  of 
New  Jersey,  but  re- 
turned to  journalism  in 
the  winter  of  1891  as 
managing-editor  of  the 
World.  He  then  en- 
tered commercial  life 
for  a  while,  his  most 
noteworthy  a  c  h  i  e  v  e- 
ment  of  that  period 
being  the  construction 
of  various  electric  rail- 
ways, in  which  work 
he  was  extremely  successful,  financially.  Col- 
onel Harvey  purchased  the  Metropolitan  Mat/- 
azine,  but  sold  it  to  buy  the  North  American 
Review,  of  which  he  has  since  been  editor. 
Becoming  editor  of  Harper's  Weekly,  in  1 !)().'{. 
he  was  soon  made  president  of  Harper  &  Bros., 
and  has  since  managed  that  historic  publish- 
ing house.  He  is  a  director  in  the  Audit 
Company  of  New  York  and  the  Windsor 
Trust  <  Company. 

Col.   George   (Brinton    McClellan)    Harvey 

was  born  at  Peachani.  Yt..  February.  1864,  and 
was  educated  at  the  academy  of  his  native 
town.  He  began  his  experience  in  journalism 
on  the  Springfield  Republican,  then  went  to 
the  Chicago  News  and  afterwards  came  to  the 
New  York  World.  The  honorary  degree  of 
LL.D.  has  been  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
University  of  Nevada  and  Erskine  College. 
Recently  he  has  been  appointed  honorary 
Colonel  and  Aide-de-Camp  on  the  staffs  of 
Governors  Heyward  and  Ansel,  of  South 
Carolina.  He  is  an  Independent  Democrat. 
takes  an  active  interest  in  national  politics,  an 
admirable  after-dinner  speaker,  as  well  as  a 
popular  orator,  and  is  a  member  of  many 
social  organizations.  He  is  also  a  trustee  of 
the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology  at  Hobo- 
ken.  He  is  identified  with  New  Jersey,  own- 
ing a  country  home  at  Deal,  where  he  spends 
a    large   part    of   the  year. 

Another  man  I  encountered  in  the  World 
office  was  Sereno  S.  Pratt,  then  representing 
the   Philadelphia   Public  Ledger.      I    formed  a 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


125 


high  opinion  of  him,  for  he  was  a  frequent 
visitor  owing  to  the  fact  that  George  x\ . 
Child's  newspaper  was  accorded  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  World  establishment.  Mr. 
Pratt  is  to-day  Secretary  of  the  Xew  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  a  position  of  high 
honor  and  of  life  tenure,  for  the  duties  of  which 
lie  is  admirably  qualified.  We  are  fellow 
members  of  Kane  Lodge,  4.>4.  F.  and  A.  M 
lie  is  successor  to  George  Wilson,  whom  1  had 
known  intimately  from  INTO  until  the  time  of 
his  death. 

The  greatest  newspaper  sensation  of  that 
period  was  the  trip  of  "Nelly  lily"  'round  the 
world  to  beat  the  record  of  "Phileas  Fogg," 
Jules  Verne's  hero  in  "Round  the  World  in 
Eighty  Days."  The  idea  was  George  W. 
Turner's;  hut  most  of  the  details  fell  to  me. 
1  arranged  the  call  of  the  young  woman  upon 
M.Verne  at  Amiens.  ( )n  ** Miss  lily's"  return, 
I  went  to  Philadelphia  in  a  private  car  to 
bring  the  tourist  to  Xew  York.  A  score  of 
distinguished  New  Yorkers  were  guests:  quite 
a  lot  of  speech-making  and  a  luncheon  were 
incidents.  Great  crowds  had  gathered  at 
every  station  along  the  line.  At  Philadelphia 
the  crush  was  so  great  that  gates  were  broken 
down. 

The  Sullivan-Kilrain  prize  fight  was  a  "big 
seller."  I  sent  Vincent  Cook,  a  Philadelphia 
boy  and  good  sparrer,  to  report  the  fight.  A 
special  wire  was  laid  from  the  nearest  town 
to  the  ring-side  and  George  II.  Dickinson,  an 
expert  telegraphist,  was  there.  When  I  re- 
ceived word  that  the  direct  wire  was  working. 
I  sent  to  Cook  the  following  message: 

(link.  World  correspondent:  Every  man  is  on  post; 
editors,  printers,  pressmen  stand  by  to  serve  yon  to- 
night! Send  one  million  words!  God  and  the  Devil 
lie  with  yon.  CHAMBERS. 

With  a  wire  from  the  ring-side  in  Louisiana 
into  the  office,  we  received  and  printed  a  page 
account   next  morning. 

The  introduction  of  electrocution  occurred 
in  1889.  A  commission  had  been  created  in 
L 886,  composed  of  Elbridge  T.  Gerry,  of  New 
York  City.  Dr.  A.  P.  Southwick,  of  Buffalo, 
and  Matthew  Hale,  of  Albany,  to  report  upon 
the  feasibility  of  executing  criminals  by  elec- 
tricity. Their  report  is  a  complete  history  of 
the  death  penalty  from  the  earliest  Mosaic  age 


to  date.  It  states  that  10  countries  at  that 
time  used  (he  guillotine;  l!>  the  sword;  .'!  the 
gallows;  2  the  musket:  I  (Brunswick)  the 
axe;  I  the  cord,  and  1  the  garrote.  It  is  a 
remarkable  report.  The  law  took  effect  .Ian. 
1.  1889,  and  publication  of  the  details  of  any 
execution    in    this    state    was    made    a    misde- 


OPENING  OF  THl     BROOKLYN   BRIDGE 
[A  Drawing  by  H.  I'm.  it  Share] 


nieanor.  That  part  of  the  law  was  defied  by 
the  newspapers,  as  abridging  the  powers  of 
the  press.  William  Kemler  was  the  first  mur- 
derer executed.  I  sent  a  piece  of  the  electric 
cable  connecting  the  condemned  with  the  dy- 
namo to  the  Whitechapel  Club  of  Chicago. 
A  curious  outcome  of  the  agitation  in  favor  of 
the  death  penalty  was  the  formation  of  the 
American  Execution  Company,  in  Chicago, 
"to     destroy     persons     convicted     of    capital 


126 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


offenses."      Its    motto    was     'No   bungling!" 

The  greal  local  evenl  of  the  year  was  the 
Washington  Centenary  celebration,  April  29, 
80  and  May  1.  To  tell  the  history  of  the 
first  inauguration  in  readable  shape,  1  scut 
W.  L.  Crounse,  from  Washington,  with  an 
artist  and  in  a  four-horse  stage,  to  Mouni 
Vernon.  He  started  from  thai  poini  at  the 
hour  General  Washington  had  departed  tlnn 
years  before)  and  drove  to  Elizabethport,  over 
the  same  route  the  first  President  had  followed, 
stopping  where  he  stopped.  It  made  four- 
davs'  interesting  reading.  President  Harrison 
completed  the  journey,  leaving  Elizabethporl 
at  the  hour  Washington  had  departed.  The 
parade  on  Fifth  Avenue  was  one  of  the  most 
national  in  character  ever  -ecu.  Nearly  every 
state  sent  a  delegation,  headed  by  its  Gover- 
nor, who  rode  horseback. 

James  (i.  Blaine  sent  his  famous  letter 
from  Florence,  Italy,  refusing  to  be  a  candidate 
for  the  presidential  nomination  on  January 
25,  1SSS.  giving  the  job  to  Harrison.  In  the 
fall  of  1889,  I  went  to  Europe  on  a  six  weeks' 
vacation.  My  intention  was  to  rest  in  Paris 
and  to  take  the  treatment  at  Wiesbaden.  The 
first  morning  in  the  French  capital.  I  received 
a  **  pointer"  from  a  friend,  returned  from 
Milan,  that  a  Dr.  Fornoni  of  that  city  had 
said  Mr.  Blaine  was  "out  of  his  mind  for  a 
month  while  in  Italy."  The  old  reporter's 
feeling  came  over  me  and  that  nighl  1  was  in 
a  "wagon-bed,"  bound  for  Milan.  Morning 
overtook  meal  Basle;  a  delightful  ride  across 
Switzerland  bl'OUghl  me  through  the  St. 
Gothard  tunnel  to  Como  and  Milan,  at  dark. 
1  drove  to  the  Hotel  Cavour  and  after  dinner 
went  to  lied  to  summon  Dr.  Fornoni.  who 
came  and  diagnosticated  my  case  as  pneu- 
monia! After  he  left.  1  dressed  and  went  to 
the  opera  at  I. a  Scala.  The  physician  came 
next  morning  and  at  the  end  of  three  days, 
having  gained  his  confidence,  he  described  to 
me  pooi-  Mr.  Blaine's  madness.  Put  he  knev 
nothing  of  the  "Florence  letter."  The  states- 
man had  been  a  patient  of  a  Dr.  Baldwin,  at 
Florence. 

1  forgo!  vacation  and  need  of  rest. 

Florence  lor  me!  1  reached  that  prettiest 
of  Italian  cities  next  day.  going  (as  1  had  in 
Milan)    to    the    hotel    at    which    Mr.    Blaine 


had  stopped      Hotel  Florence  et   Washington. 

A  cab  took  me  to  Dr.  Baldwin's  villa.  He 
was  absent  at  a  consultation  when  1  arrived, 
hut  1  was  (old  to  wait.  Taking  a  seat  at  a 
window  that  gave  upon  the  approach  to  the 
front  door.  1  soon  saw  the  host  arrive,  1 
studied  him  as  he  came  briskly  up  the  gravel 
walk  and  in  that  brief  space  decided  upon  my 
method  of  approach.  He  looked  the  personi- 
fication of  professional  dignity  -a  man  likely 
to  stand  l>v  the  ethics  of  his  fellows  if  I  sought 
information  in  the  usual  way  and  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  publication.  It  was  neces- 
sary, therefore,  to  dissemble;  hut  1  desired  to 
do  so  within  the  lines  of  truth. 

The  instant  the  physician  appeared  at  the 
doorway  of  his  drawing-room.  I  rose  and. 
speaking  as  rapidly  as  possible,  demanded: 

"Am  I  addressing  Dr.  Baldwin.-" 

"  \  ou  are." 

"Well.  Dr.  Baldwin.  1  am  an  American: 
also,  a  Republican  and  a  long-while  personal 
friend  of  Mr.  Blaine.  Like  all  his  other  ad- 
mirers, who  have  supported  him  in  the  past, 
and  those  whose  future  depended  upon  Mr. 
Blaine's  continuance  in  public  life.  1  was 
chagrined  and  heart-broken  at  his  letter  of 
declination  sent  from  this  city,  literally  throw- 
ing away  the  presidency  to  Mr.  Harrison. 
Now.  sir.  1  have  recently  learned  it  was  by 
your  advice  that  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  that  fool- 
ish, needless  and  dreadfully  disappointing 
letter  that  wrecked  his  political  career,  as 
well  as  destroyed  the  hopes  and  ambitions  of 
his  friends  throughout  1 1  it"  United  States! 
This  matter  is  SO  amazing  to  me,  that,  as  a 
representative  of  the  stauiichest  friends  of 
Mr.  Blaine  -men  who  have  known  him  in 
and  out  of  Congress  and  appreciate  his  grand 
qualities  better  than  a  mere  casual  acquaint- 
ance like  yourself  could  have  done  -I  demand 
to  know  why  you  advised  the  writing  of  that 
declination  ?  Friends  of  Mr.  Blaine  have  a 
right  to  know  your  reasons,  that  they  may,  if 
possible,  mitigate  their  wrath  toward  you 
when  they  learn  what  has  just  come  to  my 
ears  as  they  certainly  shall  on  my  return  to 
New  York.  Tell  me.  sir.  why  you  assumed 
this  tremendous  responsibility?" 

'*  I   saved   Mr.   Blaine's  life  by  so  advising 
.... 
him. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


127 


"That,  sir,  is  a  purely  Hippocratic  assump- 


tion 


i" 


"Sit  down,  and  I  will  convince  you  thai  1 
acted  for  the  best,"  said  Dr.  Baldwin.  "Of 
course,  not  being  a  politician.  I  did  not  com- 
prehend the  far-reaching  effects  such  a  course 
would  have  upon  the  vast  following  of  Mr. 
Blaine.  1  see  your  point  and  it  is  only  fair 
and  proper  that  I  state  my  side  of  the  case. 
I  will  tell  you  everything,  beginning  with  Mr. 
Blaine's  arrival  and  my  first  summons  to  his 
hotel." 

The  narrative  lasted  for  an  hour.  Not  a 
detail  was  omitted.  During  the  recital,  I 
maintained  a  gravely  serious  and  injured  ex- 
pression. Whenever  the  physician  halted.  1 
prodded  him  with  questions,  in  a  semi-indig- 
nant tone.  1  got  a  page  "story."  which 
caused  me  to  overlook  the  ruin  of  my  vaca- 
tion. 

In   reply   to  a   copy  of  the  printed   matter 

sent   to   him.   Dr.   Baldwin   wrote  a   courteous 
letter,  saving  he  was  "lad  the  facts  were  out. 

I  had  returned  to  London  when  Wilkie 
Collins  died.  I  passed  an  afternoon  with 
Blanche  Roosevelt,  who  understood  the  nov- 
elist better  than  any  of  his  new  friends. 
Dickens,  Reade  and  other  intimates  had 
passed  away.  It  was  generally  known  that 
Collins  became  a  slave  to  drugs  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life.  Miss  Roosevelt  assured 
me  that  the  character  of  Obenreiser,  in  "No 
Thoroughfare,"  was  the  absolute  creation  of 
Collins.  I  then  repeated  to  her  a  little  dis- 
tich 1  hail  heard  Kate  Field  utter,  sponta- 
neously, about  the  time  of  Dickens'  death. 
when  she  exclaimed,  as  if  in  answer  to  an 
inquiry: 

Wlin  wrote  "No  Thoroughfare?" 

Surely  not  "15<>z." 

Collins  it  was. 
lie  wrote  "NO  Thoroughfare.' 

Such  has  been  the  verdict  of  posterity. 
The  story  is  always  omitted  from  sets  of 
Dickens  and  always  included  in  editions  of 
Collins.  The  clock-lock  incident  was  so  im- 
probable as  to  cause  the  story  to  lie  classed 
among  the  "penny  dreadfuls."  To-day.  every 
bank  has  lime  locks  upon  its  safes. 

The  end  of  November  found  me  back  at 
mv  desk  in  New  York. 


The  important  event  of  L891  was  the  crea- 
tion of  a  Rapid  Transit  Commission,  origi- 
nally composed  of  William  Steinway,  John  II. 
Starin,  Samuel  Spencer.  John  II.  Innian  and 
Eugene  I>.  Bushe.  That  was  the  starting- 
poinl  of  the  splendid  system  of  subways  with 
which  Greater  New  York  is  blessed.  The 
city  debt  was  actually  decreased  during  this 
year  by  over  hall'  a  million.  .Much  was  made 
of  the  fact  by  Mayor  Grant's  friends,  although 
an  increase  of  $1,116,399  occurred  the  follow- 
ing year.  A  decision  was  reached  in  the  Til- 
den  will  by  the  Court  of  Appeals.  It  was 
against  the  city  receiving  the  gift;  but  one  of 
the  heirs  generously  surrendered  his  entire 
portion  of  $2,000,000,  to  make  good  his  uncle's 
promises.  This  assured  the  construction  of 
the  Tilden  Library,  designed  by  Carrere  & 
Hastings  and  opened  to  the  public  in  1911. 
The  Carnegie  .Music  Hall  was  opened  May  .">. 
and  the  rose  was  chosen  as  the  New  York 
State  flower  by  a  vote  taken  on  Arbor  Day. 
May  S;  the  rose  won  by  294,816  votes  over 
golden  rod's  206,402. 

As  has  been  stated,  five  years  after  the 
World  passed  under  the  management  of  Joseph 
Pulitzer,  I  became  its  managing  editor  and 
"held  down  the  job"  for  two  years  and  eight 
months  a  record  as  yet  unbroken  in  that 
office.  I  am  told.  During  that  period  Col. 
George  Harvey,  who  succeeded  me  and  ought 
to  know,  assures  me  the  high-water  mark  of 
2-cent  circulation  was  scored.  Naturally,  the 
output  at  the  present  price  is  immeasurably 
greater. 

My  World  experience  was.  in  many  respects. 
the  most  remarkable  of  my  life.  I  had  served 
under  two  other  journalistic  chiefs  of  the 
period  whose  methods  were  so  different  from 
those  of  Mr.  Pulitzer  that  1  was  amazed  at 
the  fertility  of  this  newcomer's  imagination 
and  the  keennes--  of  bis  news  sense.  White- 
law  Reid.  for  example,  always  decided  ques- 
tions of  policy  by  precedent;  he  reasoned  out 
a  problem  with  extreme  care.  James  Gordon 
Bennett.  Jr..  on  the  other  hand,  decided  in- 
tuitively. He  lacked  the  inventive  mind  of 
Pulitzer,  but  1  have  always  regarded  his  news 
sense  as  something  beyond  rivalry.  He  had 
opened  Africa  to  civilization  starting  with 
the    Livingstone  expedition  and   ending  wit 


1 28 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Stanley's  Congo  exploration.  These  exploits 
were  newsmakers  of  high  quality!  It'  a  new 
project  were  proposed  to  Mr.  Bennett,  he  de- 
cided instantly:  the  man  would  start  on  his 
quest  that  night  or  never.  His  policy  ap- 
peared to  be  spontaneously  intuitive;  hut  don't 
forgel  "L'Amerique"  incident! 

Especially  do  1  recall  the  occasion  on  which 
Senator  Blaine  rose  in  the  Chamber  and  at- 
tacked Haves.  The  Herald  had  been  in- 
dulging in  caustic  remarks  about  the  President; 
hut  Mr.  Bennett  cabled  from  Nice:  "Stand 
by  the  President,  as  against  Blaine."  1  could 
cite  numerous  instances  to  prove  the  spon- 
taneity of  the  "Commodore's"  decisions. 

Mi'.  Pulitzer  had  the  newspapers  read  to 
him.  even  before  his  eyesight  failed;  he  said 
he  could  think  more  rapidly  while  listening. 
He  poured  forth  a  stream  of  suggestions,  with- 
out interrupting  his  reading  secretary.  An- 
other scribe  took  down  his  ideas.  Often 
these  directions  had  not  the  remotest  relation 
to  what  he  had  heard  proving  that  his  mind 
was  capable  of  working  along  two  or  more 
lines  simultaneously. 

In  the  fall  of  lSSi).  I  passed  three  weeks 
with  him  at  Wiesbaden  and  on  one  of  our 
walks  he  saw  upon  the  front  of  a  building  in 
that  Spa  the  caryatides,  copies  of  which  adorn 
the  front  of  the  World  Building.  He  had  a 
remarkably  clever  man  for  secretary,  Claude 
Ponsonby,  a  nephew  of  the  private  secretary 
to  Queen  Victoria.  At  times  Mr.  Pulitzer, 
believing  himself  a  sufferer  from  insomnia. 
became  hypochondriacal  and  imagined  he  did 
not  sleep.  One  afternoon  Ponsonby  and  1 
walked  him  ten  miles  through  the  vineyards 
towards  Schloss  Johannisberg,  having  a  car- 
riage to  follow,  and  when  Mr.  Pulitzer  was 
seated  in  the  vehicle  to  return  to  Wiesbaden, 
he  slept  soundly  from  sheer  exhaustion.  Dur- 
ing that  stay  at  the  German  Spa,  the  chief 
planned  a  score  of  political  crusades  that  were 
carried   out  during  the  following  six  months. 

He  looked  far  ahead:  unlike  Mr.  Bennett, 
he  could  wait!  Mr.  Bennett  knows  no  word 
but  "Now!"  Bennett  has  wonderful  capacity 
for  imparting  enthusiasm  to  an  employee  when 
he  despatches  him  on  a  difficult  or  hazardous 
mission;  Pulitzer  never  attempted  anything 
of  the  sort.      He  always  strove  to  improve  upon 


suggestions  made  to  him,  but  never  exclaimed, 
"Excellent!  Jump  for  it!"  Success  with 
Bennett  justified  any  expenditure.  Liberal  as 
was  Pulitzer,  he  kept  strict  watch  of  the  week- 
Iv  totals.  That  was  natural  he  hadn't  in- 
herited his  fortune. 

To  the   men    in    his  employ,    Mr.    Pulitzer 
was   always   considerate.      He   rarely   praised; 


JOSEPH  PULITZER 

but  censure  never  was  imposed  until  he  had 
heard  an  explanation.  In  this  respect  he 
differed  from  Mr.  Bennett.  He  knew.  In- 
experience, that  circumstances  more  often 
affected  an  executive  editor's  judgment  than 
that  of  men  placed  in  posts  of  responsibility 
in  other  professions.  Frequently  an  editor 
has  to  decide  in  a  minute  of  time  whether  or 
not  to  print  a  piece  of  news  that  is  apparently 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


129 


dangerous.  Nothing  l>ut  intuition  can  guide 
him  in  such  a  crisis. 

One  of  the  most  impetuous  workers  1  ever 
met,  Mr.  Pulitzer  was  in  constant  fear  of 
over-zeal.  '"Activity  and  accuracy"  were  two 
words  most  frequently  upon  bis  lips;  and  yet, 
he  seemed  to  dread  men  who  were  too  active. 
This  is  paradoxical.  When  the  moment  came 
for  decision  regarding  a  feature  article.  Mr. 
Pulitzer's  judgment  was  infallible.  I  never 
knew  him  to  make  a  mistake.  At  his  com- 
mand, I  set  in  motion  the  machinery  to  expose 
the  mysterious  disappearance  of  the  millions 
of  A.  T.  Stewart  and  his  widow.  Several  of  the 
most  careful  and  experienced  newspapermen 
in  this  country  worked  for  months  on  that 
task.  The  first  article,  two  pages  in  length, 
entitled  "The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Stewart," 
was  written  by  John  K.  Mumford  and  is  a 
classic.  It  does  not  resemble  Poe's  "Fall  of 
the  House  of  Usher"  or  Balzac's  "Decline 
and  Fall  of  Cesar  Birotteau,"  but  is  equal  in 
literary  merit  to  the  former  masterpiece.  All 
the  information  gathered  was  sifted  and 
collated  by  John  P.  Foley,  former  editor  of 
the  National  Republican  when  it  was  Presi- 
dent Grant's  organ,  of  whom  1  have  spoken 
in  my  first  meeting  with  Gen.  Grant. 

A  suit  for  libel  was  brought  under  an  old 
law,  but,  like  a  recent  Brooklyn  case,  was 
withdrawn.  It  was  a  great  disappointment 
that  the  case  was  not  tried,  because  a  multi- 
tude of  facts  could  have  been  brought  out  in 


court  that  never  have  or  can  appear  in  print. 
The  utter  wreck  of  the  vast  Stewart  fortune 
was  one  of  the  sublime  tragedies  of  the  end 
of  the  last   century. 

A  few  summers  ago  I  met  Joseph  Pulitzer 
on  the  porch  of  the  Louisburg  Hotel  at  Bar 
Harbor.  He  drove  up  while  1  was  sitting 
there,  evidently  to  make  a  call  upon  a  guest 
of  the  house.  When  he  emerged  he  took  a 
chair  and  we  talked  for  an  hour  about  past 
events.  I  learned  many  things  concerning 
certain  gentlemen  with  whom  I  had  been 
associated  when  in  Mr.  Pulitzer's  employ 
that  would  have  been  valuable  knowledge  to 
me  had   I  possessed  it  at  the  right  time. 

The  death  of  Joseph  Pulitzer  in  October. 
1911,  was  little  short  of  a  calamity  to  journal- 
ism. He  had  been  ailing  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  had  completely  lost  his  eyesight, 
was  in  an  extremely  nervous  condition  and 
slept  irregularly,  but  his  gigantic  physical 
frame  gave  little  indication  of  the  general 
distress  under  which  he  suffered.  Loss  of 
evesighl  had  strengthened  his  keenness  of 
memory  and  sharpened  his  marvelous  powers 
of  cross-examination:  he  would  have  been  one 
of  the  remarkable  jury  lawyers  of  this  country 
had  he  gone  to  the  bar.  Great  as  were  his 
afflictions,  hi'  bore  them  philosophically:  physi- 
cal troubles  did  not  warp  his  gentle  nature. 
To  his  three  sons  ultimately  will  fall  the  great 
property  he  has  created. 


130 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER  XVI 


SOME  CAPTAINS  OF   INDUSTRY 


^CONTROVERSY  that  threat- 
ened to  become  serious  oc- 
curred  between  t  he  Carnegies 
and  their  employees  in  18S1 
and  I  was  sent  to  Pittsburgh. 
My  first  visit  was  to  Carnegie 
Brothers.  There  I  first  met 
Andrew  Carnegie,  who  was  very  cordial  1  nit 
insisted  that  his  brother  Henry,  since  deceased, 
could  present  the  situation  more  clearly.  He 
personally  conducted  me  to  another  room, 
where  a  long  interview  followed.  I  next  met 
Andrew  Carnegie,  in  the  Summer  of  1884,  at 
the  Mountain  House.  Cresson.  He  came  to 
me,  remembering  my  Pittsburgh  visit,  and  ex- 
pressed the  gratitude  of  the  firm  for  the  man- 
ner in 
avert  e< 
ing  in  , 
me  to 
mothei 
vanced 
Scotch 


which  a  threatened  strike  had  been 
by  the  Herald's  article.  He  was  liv- 
cottage  upon  the  grounds  and  invited 
accompany 


Him  there  to  meet  his 
saw  a  clear-eyed  lady,  far  ad- 
in  years,  who  spoke  with  a  broad 
accent.  The  meeting  was  recalled 
twelve  years  later,  when  President-elect  Mc- 
Kinley.  in  Canton,  walked  with  me  from  his 
home  to  that  of  his  mother,  that  1  might  hear 
from  her  lips  an  account  of  his  boyhood. 

The  whole  country  was  astonished,  at  a 
much  later  date,  to  learn  that  Andrew  Car- 
negie's annual  income  from  his  steel  proper- 
ties was  $35,000,000!  He  suddenly  loomed 
up  as  one  of  the  very  rich  men  of  this  country 

ultimately  worth  half  a  billion — and  accom- 
panied the  announcement  with  a  declaration 
that  he  intended  to  distribute  his  money  dur- 
ing lifetime,  in  order  that  he  be  not  worth  a 
dollar  at  his  death!  By  this  pronunciamento, 
Mr.  Carnegie  established  a  new  philosophy  of 
human  existence.  He  has  kept  his  word. 
however,  and  during  the  second  half  of  a 
strenuous  life,  he  lias  been  as  busy  giving 
away  his  money  as  he  was  during  the  first 
half  in  accumulating  it.      He  has  set  a  new- 


task  for  the  wealthy  man,  and  like  Peter 
Cooper,  Mr.  Rockefeller,  Baron  Hirseh  and 
('ceil  Rhodes,  he  practices  the  doctrine  he 
preaches.  He  calls  it  a  criminal  act  to  die 
wealthy!  Such  an  opinion  is  so  radical  that 
curiosity  is  natural  regarding  the  manner  of 
man  who  voices  it. 

Andrew  Carnegie  was  born  in  Scotland. 
November,  1837.  but  was  brought  to  this 
country  by  his  parents  at  eleven  years  of 
age.  He  began  work  as  a  weaver's  assistant 
in  a  cotton  factory.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest 
telegraph  messenger  boys:  but.  unlike  most 
of  his  successors,  he  delivered  with  remarkable 
promptitude  the  telegrams  that  arrived  at  the 
Pittsburgh  office  of  the  Ohio  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. He  lost  no  time  in  learning  telegraphy, 
entered  the  service  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road and  became  Superintendent  of  the  Pitts- 
burg Division  of  its  telegraphic  service.  Then 
it  was  he  met  T.  T.  Woodruff,  "a  farmer- 
looking  man."  who  had  a  model  of  a  sleeping- 
car  which  he  had  been  trying  in  vain  to 
induce  railroad  managers  to  adopt.  Carnegie 
tells  the  story  of  this  initial  speculation  in  his 
admirable  volume.  'Triumphant  Democ- 
racy." As  a  reward  for  laying  the  Woodruff 
plans  before  Thomas  A.  Scott.  President  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  he  was  allotted  a 
small  block  of  the  sleeping-car  stock:  but 
when  a  first  instalment  was  to  be  paid  thereon. 
(  arnegie  says  he  hadn't  the  $217.50  demanded. 
He  was  receiving  $50  per  month.  He  went 
to  a  bank  ami  borrowed  the  money  on  a  note. 
The  great  Ironmaster  has  often  declared  that 
the  proudest  moment  of  his  life  was  that  in 
which  he  made  his  first  note  and  got  it  cashed. 
Dividends  supplied  money  for  the  subsequent 
payments.  When  petroleum  was  discovered 
on  Oil  Creek,  Carnegie  went  to  the  locality 
and  made  several  fortunate  investments.  He 
disposed  of  his  sleeping-car  stock  and  invested 
in   oil   lands. 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


131 


When  the  Civil  War  hurst  upon  the  coun- 
try, Andrew  Carnegie  rendered  valuable  serv- 
ice to  the  Federal  Government  as  Superin- 
tendent of  Military  Railroads  and  Telegraph 
Lines  in  the  East;  but  as  soon  as  the  conflict 
closed,  he  began  the  building  of  his  first  iron 
furnace.  When  intelligence  of  the  invention 
of  the  Bessemer  process  for  making  steel 
reached  this  country,  Carnegie  hurried  to 
Europe  and  secured  the  American  patents. 
While  other  large  iron  manufacturers  were 
deliberating,  he  acted.  All  old  plant  was  dis- 
carded and  the  new  machinery  installed. 
From  that  hour  (1868)  the  Carnegie  iron 
and  steel  business  has  grown  until  it  was 
merged  (1901)  with  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  at  nearly  half  a  billion  dollars. 
Mr.  Carnegie  took  his  pay  in  bonds  and  re- 
tired from  business. 

His  career  as  a  philanthropist  had  begun 
years  before.  As  a  patron  of  music,  he  had 
buill  the  Carnegie  Institute  in  New  York— 
sufficiently  endowed  to  be  self-supporting. 
As  a  patron  of  letters,  he  had  given  a  fund  of 
$10,000  to  the  Authors  Club  and  quarters  in 
the  Institute  in  perpetuity.  For  the  develop- 
ment of  scientific  research,  he  gave  $10,000,- 
000  to  the  Carnegie  Institute ofPittsburgh ;  a 
similar  sum  to  the  Carnegie  Institute  of  Wash- 
ington City,  and  a  like  amount  to  Scotch 
Universities.  lie  started  a  benevolent  fund 
for  employees  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company 
by  a  subscription  of  $.5,000,000.  Mr.  Carne- 
gie's total  benefactions  exceed  $100,000,000. 
including  $40,000,000  for  about  1,500  muni- 
cipal library  buildings.  One  of  his  latest  acts 
has  been  the  creation  of  a  ten-million  dollar 
fund  to  pension  aged  college  professors. 

Mr.  Carnegie  thus  explains  his  views  re- 
garding the  duty  of  rich  men  to  make  sure 
that  their  money  is  properly  used  by  disposing 
of  it  while  they  are  alive.  In  "The  Cospel 
of  Wealth."  he  says:  "The  millionaire  is  only 
a  trustee  for  the  poor,  entrusted  for  a  season 
with  a  large  part  of  the  increased  wealth  of  the 
community  but  administering  it  for  that  com- 
numity  far  better  than  it  could  or  would  have 
done  for  itself.  The  hest  minds  will  thus  have 
reached  a  stage  in  the  development  of  the  lace 
in  which  it  is  clearly  seen  that  I  here  is  no 
mode  of  disposing  of  surplus  wealth  creditable 


to  thoughtful  and  earnest  men  into  whose 
hands  it  flows,  save  by  using  it  year  by  year 
for  the  general  good.  This  day  already 
dawns.  Men  may  die  without  incurring  the 
pitv  of  their  fellows,  still  sharers  in  greal  busi- 
ness  enterprises  from  which  their  capital  can- 
no!  lie  or  has  not  been  withdrawn,  and  which 
is  left  chiefly  at  death  for  public  uses,  yet  the 
day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  man  who  dies 
leaving  behind  him  millions  of  available 
wealth,  which  was  free  for  him  to  administer 
during  life,  will  pass  away  'unwept,  unhonor- 
ed.  and  unsung,'  no  matter  to  what  use  he 
leaves  the  dross  that  he  cannot  lake  with  him. 
Of  such  as  these  the  public  verdict  will  he: 
'The  man  who  dies  thus  rich  dies  disgraced!" 

Unlike  some  very  rich  men  who  made  for- 
tunes by  falsehood  and  deceit  and  at  their 
deaths  strove  to  buy  Paradise  and  the  for- 
giveness of  their  fellow-men  by  bequests  to 
churches,  Carnegie,  who  made  his  millions  in 
legitimate  trade,  strives  to  give  them  back  to 
science  and  education  for  the  betterment  of 
other  people,  instead  of  trying  to  purchase  an 
exclusive  heavenly  ticket  for  himself.  His 
name  never  has  been  found  upon  the  direc- 
tories of  the  criminally  managed  life  insur- 
ance companies,  over-capitalized  banks  or 
other  modern  corporations  promoted  for  the 
deception  of  the  public. 

The  rise  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company 
from  small  beginnings  and  fostered  by  the 
protective  tariff,  is  a  living  history  of  Ameri- 
can industrial  development.  Mill  after  mill 
was  built,  interest  after  interest  was  added. 
until  Carnegie  became  the  directing  genius  of 
the  mightiest  industry  of  the  Western  Conti- 
nent. Among  his  business  associates,  he 
created  a  score  of  millionaires.  Before  his 
company  was  merged  with  the  great  United 
States  Steel  Corporation.  Carnegie  gave  em- 
ployment to  15,000  men,  who  received  $1,250,- 
000  in  wages  every  month. 

Although  Mr.  Carnegie's  opportunities  for 
early  education  were  meagre,  he  has  schooled 
himself  in  that  greatest  of  universities,  the 
world.  He  has  been  a  patient  student:  he  is 
a  constant  reader  of  books  and  a  keen  ob- 
server of  men.  As  an  after-dinner  speaker. 
he  excels:  and  his  lectures  at  various  colleges 
mark  him  as  a  competent  instructor.      He  has 


132 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


published  several  delightful  books  in  addition 
to  those  already  mentioned,  namely:  "An 
American  Four-in-Hand  in  Great  Britain." 
"Round  the  World.'"  and  "The  Empire  of 
Business."  College  honors  have  been  show- 
ered upon  him;  he  was  chosen  Lord  Rector 
of  St.  Andrew's  University,  Scotland,  in  1903. 

Mr.  Carnegie  makes  his  permanent  resi- 
dence in  Xew  York,  but  he  owns  Skibo  Cas- 
tle, Scotland,  and  makes  a  visit  thereto  every 
Slimmer,  to  enjoy  the  shooting  and  fishing  on 
his  preserves.  lie  is  an  American,  heart  and 
sonl.  although  he  glories  in  the  fact  that  he 
was  born  in  Dumfermline,  the  (own  in  which 
Robert  Bruce  was  buried. 

Charles  M.  Schwab,  although  50  years  old, 
is.  without  doubt,  the  most  interesting  figure 
among  the  new  millionaires.  Of  the  thousand 
millionaires  made  by  oil  and  steel,  Schwab  is 
the  most  human.  His  instincts  are  natural. 
He  is  neither  treacherous  to  opponents  nor 
false  to  friends.  His  love  for  I  he  members  of 
his  family  is  a  Hue  trait.  He  was  born  among 
the  Alleghenies  and  at  the  age  of  five  was 
taken  by  his  parents  to  the  hamlet  of  Loretto, 
a  desolate  hermitage,  about  five  miles  back  of 
Cresson  Springs — where  the  Pennsylvania  s 
fast  train  stopped  when  that  company  owned 
the  Mountain  House.  It  was  the  seat  of  a 
school,  founded  in  the  eighteenth  century  by 
Prince  Galitzen,  who  left  the  splendors  of  the 
Russian  court  to  hide  himself  amid  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Alleghenies.  Galitzen's  log  hut 
was  standing  when  I  visited  Loretto.  My 
hist  recollection  of  meeting  Mr.  Schwab  was 
at  a  Republican  State  Convention  in  Harris- 
burs  in  the  nineties,  when  he  was  a  delegate 
from  Homestead;  but  he  insists  that  he  re- 
members my  visit  to  Loretto  and  drove  the 
carriage  in  which  I  saw  the  place.  That  was 
ten  years  before  the  meeting  at   Harrisburg. 

Loretto  is  a  shrine  toward  which  all  Chris- 
tian hearts,  no  matter  what  their  creeds,  must 
turn  with  affection.  The  place  is  almost  as 
revered  as  is  the  Canadian  shrine  of  St.  Ann 
de  Beaupre,  near  Quebec  and  (he  Falls  of 
Montmorency  and  within  sight  of  the  turgid 
St.  Lawrence.  But  it  is  a  very  different  kind 
of  a  sanctuary.  If  miracles  ever  have  been 
worked  at  Loretto.  Mr.  Schwab  is  chiefesl  of 
them! 


The  story  of  Prince  Galitzen  is  that  of  a 
penance,  and  it  gives  luster  to  the  "Endless 
Hills,"  said  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  Indian 
name  for  this  part  of  the  Appalachian  range. 
The  place  is  hallowed  by  his  bones  that  rest 
inside  a  marble  tomb,  surmounted  by  a  tall 
white  cross.  Religion  hadn't  formed  any  part 
of  Prince  Galitzen's  early  education.  His 
father  was  an  enthusiast  in  the  school  of  Gallic 
infidelity;  a  personal  friend  of  Voltaire  and 
Diderot,  and  special  care  was  taken  that  no 
minister  of  the  Christian  faith  ever  entered 
the  study  room  of  the  young  man.  He  was 
on  the  sure  highway  to  riches,  earthly  happi- 
ness and  glory.  But  one  day.  like  Hercules. 
as  Xenophon  described  him.  he  stood  par- 
leying with  Virtue  and  Vice!  As  did  the  fabled 
demi-god,  this  prince  chose  the  path  that  Vir- 
tue pointed  out.  He  declared  openly  tor  the 
Faith,  at  17.  and  joined  the  Church  of  Rome. 
With  his  religious  convictions,  his  mother,  the 
Princess  Amelia,  secretly  sympathized.  She 
covertly  gave  him  a  copy  of  "The  Confession 
of  St.  Augustine."  —the  same  precious  volume 
that  may  be  seen  as  a  holy  relic  at  Loretto. 
After  enduring  w  hat  amounted  to  persecution, 
Galitzen  made  his  escape  to  the  young  Re- 
public on  this  side  of  the  sea.  As  a  humble 
novice,  he  entered  the  Sulpician  Seminary  al 
Baltimore.  He  cast  aside,  for  ever,  the  glori- 
fication of  man  and  put  on  the  livery  of  the 
Holy  Faith!  During  many  long  missionary 
excursions,  he  traveled  for  days  through  the 
forests  and  slept  under  the  stars.  He  assumed 
the  name  of  "Rev.  Mr.  Smith."  He  never 
allowed  anybody  to  make  him  a  "doctor  of 
divinity."  In  that  respect,  he  resembled 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.  In  such  name  and 
guise,  he  traveled  alone  to  Loretto  and  in  that 
desolate  place  began  his  work.  The  locality 
was  without  a  name  until  he  gave  it  one.  It 
was  a  vast  wilderness;  there  wasn't  any  trunk- 
line  of  railroad  sending  its  trains  thundering 
over  those  hills  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
the  night!  There  was  a  silence  like  the 
awful  stillness  of  the  desert  that  Pliny  de- 
scribes. But.  it  was  a  place  for  meditation. 
prayer  and  repentance.  If,  as  modern  meta- 
physicians claim,  there  is  vast  power  in  Si- 
lence, Galitzen  found  it  atop  the  Alleghenies! 

Slowly,    followers    began    to    gather    about 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


133 


him.  Some  came  in  ( lonestoga  wagons.  Others 
stopped  en  route  to  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  hut 
remained,  won  by  the  magic  charm  of  this 
strange  man.  lie  had  mastered  the  English 
language,  and  spoke  German  and  French. 
Through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay,  Galit- 
zen  obtained  a  small  share  of  his  patrimony, 
most  of  which  had  been  absorbed  by  his  rela- 
tives. A  warm  friendship  existed  between 
the  Whig  statesman  and  this  servant  of  God. 
Their  correspondence  exists  in  the  Clay 
archives.  Mr.  John  Fenlon,  of  Ebensburg, 
lias  asserted  that  he  read  many  of  ('lav's  let- 
ters to  Galitzen.  When  the  priest's  father 
died,  the  prince's  mother  earnestly  urged  him 
to  return  to  his  native  land. 

Galitzen  rode  to  Baltimore,  consulted  the 
bishop  (Carroll)  ami  after  many  prayerful 
days,  in  "retreat."  decided  to  return  to 
Loretto. 

For  forty-one  years,  he  toiled  without  ces- 
sation and  often  without  means.  Many  times 
did  the  little  colony  know  privation  and 
want.  In  small  sums,  during  that  time,  this 
prince  obtained  from  his  estates  $140,000. 
every  cent  of  which  was  expended  in  sustain- 
ing the  struggling  enterprise.  He  was  often 
the  victim  of  deception.  On  one  occasion, 
he  relieved  an  apparent  case  of  great  distress. 
only  to  learn  subsequently  that  the  money  so 
generously  bestowed  had  been  squandered  in 
a  carouse  at  a  tavern  in  a  near-by  village. 
Galitzen  said : 

"I  gave  it  not  to  that  poor  mortal;  1  gave 
it  to  God!" 

Galitzen's  disinterested  nobleness  of  char- 
acter was  shown  in  the  severe  winter  during 
which  he  died.  Snow  fell  to  an  unusual  depth 
and  fire-wood  became  scarce.  The  priest  sent 
word  to  his  neighbors  that  (hey  should  keep 
their  fires  going  from  his  scanty  stock.  He 
remained  in  lied,  or  wrapped  in  blankets. — to 
do  without  fire  for  the  benefit  of  others.  This 
equals  the  beautiful  tale  about  Sir  Philip  Sid- 
ney, who  gave  his  last  drink  of  water  to  a 
soldier  dying  al  his  side  upon  the  field  of 
battle.  There  is  a  noblesse  oblige  in  (he  well- 
born man  or  woman! 

Good  brother,  good  fellow,  Charley  Schwab, 
lie  lias  the  finest  home  in  Manhattan,  but  he 
hasn't  forgotten  the  old  nest  at    Loretto. 


The  history  of  the  Astor  family,  since  the 
arrival  of  its  firs!  member  in  17N.'5,  compre- 
hends the  growth  of  this  city.  The  half  billion 
of  money  now  in  possession  of  the  descendants 
of  the  original  John  Jacob  Astor  has  been 
accumulated  by  the  appreciation  of  real 
estate;  nol  one  dollar  of  it  has  been  garnered 
in  speculative  enterprises.  Col.  John  Jacob 
Astor,  son  of  William  Astor  and  great-grand- 
son  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  the  founder  of  the 
family  in  America,  was  born  at  "  Ferncliff." 
Rhinebeck,  \.  Y.,  July.  1864;  was  educated 
at  St.  Paul's  School.  Concord.  X.  II..  and 
graduated  al  Harvard  University.  Unlike  the 
sons  of  many  rich  men,  Col.  Astor  has  de- 
voted his  mind  seriously  to  mechanical  in- 
ventions, somewhat  to  authorship  and  dur- 
ing the  Spanish  War  raised  and  equipped  a 
battery  which  he  accompanied  to  the  front. 
Although  he  is  an  enthusiastic  yachtsman, 
he  does  not  permit  the  love  of  sport  to  inter- 
fere with  the  management  of  the  vast  estate 
committed  to  his  care  by  inheritance.  He 
has  enriched  the  metropolis  with  several  of  its 
handsomest  hotel  structures.  Thai  part  of 
the  Waldorf-Astoria,  known  as  the  "Astoria." 
he  completed  in  IS!)?;  the  Hotel  St.  Regis, 
under  Mr.  Hahn's  management,  was  opened 
in  1905  and  the  Hotel  Knickerbocker  in  1906. 
Always  a  diligent  student  of  science  and  one 
of  the  first  champions  of  the  automobile,  as 
well  as  an  early  believer  in  the  feasibility  of 
aerial  navigation,  he  published  in  1894  an 
exceedingly  scholarly  volume  entitled  "A 
Journey  in  Other  Worlds."  Governor  Mor- 
ton appointed  him  a  member  of  his  staff  with 
the  title  of  [nspector-General ;  but  he  was 
unwilling  to  nominally  hold  any  such  title  as 
Colonel,  to  which  his  staff  appointment  entitled 
him.  and  fully  equipped  the  battery  of  artillery 
for  use  against  the  Spaniards  in  Cuba.  He 
was  present  at  the  baffles  before  Santiago  dr 
Cuba  and  was  detailed  by  Major-General 
Shafter  to  deliver  the  official  terms  of  capitula- 
tion to  the  Secretary  of  War!  He  was  mus- 
tered out  of  the  Volunteer  service  November 
1.  1898,  with  the  rank  of  Lieut  .-Colonel 
I  .  S.  \  olunteers. 

Col.  Astor  received  a  firsl  prize  al  flic 
World's  Columbian  Exposition  for  the  in- 
vention  of  a    pneumatic  machine  to   remove 


134 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


Col.  .JOHN  JACOB  ASTOR 


worn-out  material  from  roads  before  the  laying 
of  new  stones.  lie  is  also  the  inventor  of  a 
practical  turbine  engine  and  other  mechanical 
devices. 

The  utilization  of  vast  peat  deposits  in  the 
temperate  zones  has  long  presented  a  baffling 
problem.  Here  is  a  valuable  fuel,  if  the  water 
could  be  economically  extracted — a  thing 
heretofore  impossible!  Col.  Astor  has  in- 
vented and  presented  to  the  public  a  solution 
of  this  difficulty.  He  has  devised  what  he 
calls  a  "vibratory  disintegrator,"  which  utilizes 
the  expansive  force  of  the  large  quantities  of 
gases  hidden  in  the  peat  to  disrupt  the  cakes 
of  fuel,  so  they  may  be  uniformly  dried.  This 
disrupting  result  is  attained  by  a  gas  engine, 
driven  by  the  gas  derived  from  the  peat! 
Its   simplicity   equals    its   effectiveness.     The 


same  may  be  said  of  a  chair  for  use  on  steamers 
that  Col.  Astor  has  invented.  He  utilizes 
the  principle  of  suction  upon  the  feet  of  the 
chair,  produced  by  pressing  a  small  handle  at 
its  hack.  This  will  do  away  with  the  necessity 
of  bolting  to  the  floor  chairs  on  ocean  steamers 
and  will  greatly  add  to  the  comforts  of  sea 
voyages. 

He  is  a  patron  of  the  hue  arts,  a  lover  of 
arboriculture  and  his  country  home  at  "Fern- 
cliff"  contains  some  of  the  finest  trees  upon 
this  continent ;  while  there  are  several  larger 
places  on  the  Hudson.  Col.  Astor's  Ethine- 
cliff  estate  is  far  and  away  the  most  beauti- 
ful in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Astor  was 
one  of  the  first  steam  yacht  owners  and 
for  years  his  "Nourmahal"  was  one  of  the 
most   expensively  equipped  steamers   belong- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1 35 


ing  to  the  X.  \.  \  acht  Club.  His  new  boat, 
"Noma,"  is  the  latest  word  in  steam  yacht 
building. 

The  Newport  home  of  the  family,  "Beech- 
wood,"  is  on  Bellevue  Avenue,  ;in<l  overlooks 
the  cliffs.  It  has  been  the  country  seat  of  the 
family  for  three  generations,  and  although  no1 
showy,  like  some  of  the  more  modern  villas, 
is  commodious  and  surrounded  by  one  of  the 
finest  law  us  in  that  beautiful  Summer  city.  ( )f 
late  years.  Col.  Astor  has  made  all  his  trips 
between  the  metropolis  and  Newport  on  the 
"Noma."  The  Astor  town  home  is  not  ex- 
celled by  any  in  this  city.  It  oceupies  a  corner 
on  upper  Fifth  Avenue,  facing  Central  Park, 
and  is  one  of  the  few  establishments  on  that 
thoroughfare  having  a  driveway.  It  contains 
the  largest  ballroom  of  any  private  house  in 
New  York  and  its  art  nailery  has  many  splen- 
did specimens  of  the  modern  schools. 
Throughout,  the  building  is  a  treasure-house 
of  art.' 

Col.  Astor  is  a  director  of  more  financial 
institutions  and  railway  corporations  than  any 
other  American.  A  list  of  them  is  too  long  to 
enumerate.  The  part  he  has  taken  in  the 
development  of  the  Niagara  Falls  Power 
Company  is  especially  worthy  of  mention— 
he  and  II.  C.  Frick  having  been  the  strongest 
supporters  of  Mr.  Tesla  in  that  gigantic 
enterprise  that  has  been  brought  to  such 
triumphant  success.  At  Harvard,  Mr.  Astor 
was  a  member  of  the  Delta  Phi  fraternity.  A 
list  of  the  social  organizations  to  which  he  be- 
longs would  include  every  one  of  importance 
in  this  city,  London  and  Paris.  Perhaps  the 
one  local  club  that  gives  him  greatest  pride  in 
its  membership  is  tin-  Authors,  the  semi- 
monthly meetings  of  which  he  frequently 
attends. 

Thomas  Collier  Piatt  was  unlike  any  other 
politician  bearing  the  Republican  brand  who 
attained  supreme  power  in  the  Empire  Slate. 
His  methods  wore  those  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden, 
but  in  some  respects  he  was  cleverer  than  the 
"Sage  of  Greystone."  Although  he  made  no 
display  of  the  fact,  Mr.  Plait  was  a  highly 
educated  man,  fond  of  books  and  at  times 
even  thought  himself  a  poet.  He  was  born 
at  Owego,  New  York,  1833,  prepared  for 
college    at    the    academy    of    that    town    and 


entered  Yale,  but  was  compelled  to  leave  lie- 
cause  of  ill  health,  lie  returned  to  his  native 
town  and  engaged  in  mercantile  life;  was  one 
of  the  first  lo  become  interested  in  lumbering  in 
Michigan.  After  serving  three  years  as  clerk 
of  Tioga  County,  he  was  elected  to  Congress  in 
187:5,  serving  three  terms.  I  first  met  him 
in  1876.  lie  did  not  attract  attention  in  de- 
bate, but  he  was  an  efficient  worker  on  com- 
mittees and  in  January,  1881,  was  sent  10  the 
United  States  Senate  by  the  New  York  Legis- 
lature. The  differences  that  arose  between 
Senators  Conklin  and  Piatt  and  President 
Garfield  in  May  of  1SS1,  leading  to  the  resigna- 
tion of  the  two  Senators,  have  been  dealt  with 
elsewhere.  When  the  Legislature  refused  to 
send  the  two  Senators  hack  to  Washington,  the 
opinion  was  that  Mr.  Piatt's  political  career 
had  ended.  He  resumed  his  position  as 
President  of  the  United  States  Express  Com- 
pany, and  became  President  of  the  Hoard  of 
Quarantine  Commissioners.  Above  all,  he 
began  the  task  of  regaining  the  Republican 
leadership  of  the  state.  When  all  his  plans 
were  made,  he  secured  a  reelection  to  the 
United  States  Senate  in  IS!)?,  and  retained  the 
place  for  twelve  years.  He  died  full  of  years 
in  March.  1!>1<).  ' 

Senator  Piatt  made  his  actual  reent  ranee 
to  the  political  arena  at  the  St.  Louis  Conven- 
tion of  1896,  where  he  forced  upon  an  unwill- 
ing assemblage  a  plank  of  the  platform  com- 
mitting the  party  to  the  gold  standard  of  money. 
McKinley.  the  candidate  of  the  party  chair- 
man. Mr.  Ilanna,  had  been  wobbly  on  the 
silver  question  ami  the  Republicans  of  the  West 
and  Middle  West  were,  in  many  cases,  out- 
spoken in  advocacy  of  bi-metalism.  The  gold 
plank  elected  McKinley!  Mr.  Plaft  was  at 
that  time  in  complete  control  of  his  party  in 
the  Empire  State  and  his  return  to  the  Senate 
only  awaited  a  vacancy.  A  large  volume  could 
lie  written  about  his  last  twelve  years  in  the 
I  pper  House  of  Congress.  In  his  day  he 
had  been  an  apothecary,  a  mill  owner,  presi- 
dent of  a  railroad,  of  a  mining  company  and  of 
an  express  company  and  a  Representative  in 
Congress;  hut  after  March  t,  1897,  lie  became 
a  veritable  Warwick.  Before  McKinley's 
nomination,  Piatt  had  been  opposed  to  him, 
but   after  the  election   of  the  Ohio   man.  and 


136 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


their  simultaneous  induction  into  office,  the 
President  sent  for  the  New  Yorker  and  re- 
gained his  friendship  to  such  an  extent  that 
\\  hen  they  separated  Piatt  had  tears  in  his  eves 
and  said  to  the  first  friend  lie  met:  "McKin- 
ley is  a  real  human  creature,  he  grasped  my 
hand  warmly  as  he  exclaimed:  'Let  us  forget 
everything,  Mr.  Piatt;  1  need  your  friendship 
and  you  need  mine."  '  McKinley  possessed 
hypnotic  powers  or  lie  could  not  so  easilj 
have  regained  a  friendship  that  had  been 
utterly  lost. 

At  Philadelphia,  in  ]!)()().  Piatt  and  Quay 
decreed  the  nomination  of  Theodore  Roose- 
velt tor  Vice-President.  McKinley  didn't 
want  Roosevelt,  preferring  Elihu  Root,  then 
Secretary  of  War,  with  Cornelius  X.  Bliss  as 
second  choice.  Chairman  Ilanna  was  reso- 
lutely opposed  to  Roosevelt:  but  Senator  Piatt 
wanted  to  rid  himself  of  Roosevelt  as  Governor 
of  New  York  and  the  artifice  by  which  he 
forced  his  candidate  upon  the  unwilling  Ilanna 
is  one  of  the  neatest  in  American  history. 
Hardly  had  the  convention  come  to  order, 
when  a  resolution  (written  by  Piatt)  was  pre- 
sented by  Quay,  calling  for  a  reduction  in  the 
number  of  delegates  from  Southern  states  in  all 
future  Republican  national  conventions.  The 
idea  was  not  a  new  one  and  the  better  elements 
of  the  party  favored  it.  because  Southern  dele- 
gates were  notoriously  purchasable.  Ilanna 
saw  that  it  was  a  direct  thrust  at  him  and  as 
soon  as  the  resolution  was  read,  the  Ilanna 
people  shouted  for  an  adjournment  until  the 
following  dav  and  got  it.  I  was  one  of  sev- 
era]  correspondents  who  hurried  to  ask  Senator 
Piatt  what  the  resolution  meant.  "It  means 
that  Papa  Ilanna  will  throw  up  the  sponge 
to-night  and  come  out  for  Roosevelt  as  Mc- 
Kinley's  running  mate.  You  don't  suppose 
that  old  rooster  wants  his  organization  in 
I  he  South  cut  to  pieces,  do  you  ?  Quay  and  I 
know  what  we  are  about.  We  have  the  votes 
to  pass  that  resolution,  for  we  have  taken  a 
poll  of  the  delegates."  Ilanna  withdrew  his 
opposition  to  the  Governor  of  New  York.  Al- 
though Mr.  Piatt  was  suffering  from  a  broken 
rib.  he  walked  into  Roosevelt's  room  that  night 
about  ten  o'clock  and  in  the  presence  of  a  score 
of  alert  newspaper  men.  myself  among  them. 
offered    the    nomination    to    Roosevelt.      Piatt 


gave  to  Quay  credit  for  having  suggested  that 
resolution.  lb-  was  a  great  admirer  of  the 
Pennsylvania!)  and  once  said:  "I  wish  I  had 
been  Quay's  office  boy  for  six  months!" 

The  manner  in  which  Mr.  Piatt  relegated  to 
obscurity  and  totally  eliminated  all  the  men 
who  had  gloated  over  his  downfall  in  1SS1 
marked  him  as  a  political  tactician  of  the 
shrewdest  kind.  He  had  the  memory  of  an 
elephant  and  the  adroitness  of  a  Machiavelli. 
Piatt  had  been  a  strict  Presbyterian  all  his  life, 
but  was  very  fond  of  Robert  [ngersoll  and 
ridiculed  Warner  Miller  most  sarcastically 
for  withdrawing  the  agnostic  from  the  stump 
during  Miller's  campaign  for  the  Governor- 
ship. The  Senator  never  tired  of  telling  an 
incident  that  occurred  under  his  notice.  A 
prominent  theologian,  being  introduced  to 
[ngersoll,  asked:  "Colonel,  without  irrevei- 
ence,  what  would  you  do  if  you  were  God 
Almighty.'"  [ngersoll  instantly  replied,  "I'd 
make   health   contagious   instead   of  disease." 

Mi-.  Piatt  could  have  nominated  himself 
Governor  in  tS!)(i.  but  his  eyes  were  focussed 
on  the  Senatorship  which  he  expected  to  land 
in  the  following  January.  I  delight  to  write 
of  Thomas  C.  Piatt  as  a  wit.  a  satirist,  a 
stoic,  an  optimist  and  a  sincere  believer  in 
friendship,  although  many  times  disappointed 
therein.  Taken  all  in  all.  he  was  one  of  the 
most  interesting  men  who  filled  a  large  place 
in  public  life  that  I  have  ever  known,  and 
Louis  Lang's  life  of  him  is  very  readable. 

On  visits  to  the  White  House  during  Presi- 
dent Cleveland's  second  term,  I  met  a  slender. 
light-haired,  alert  young  man  attached  to  the 
office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  President  as  a 
stenographer.  He  was  always  courteous,  ex- 
ceptionally rapid  in  his  work  and  withal  ex- 
tremely modest.  This  was  in  the  winter  of  1 895 
and  '!)(>,  when  George  Bruce  Cortelyou  was 
about  '.VI  years  of  age.  He  had  had  extensive 
experience  as  stenographer  in  New  York  prior 
to  that  time,  reporting  in  the  courts  and  be- 
fore referees.  He  had  been  principal  of  pre- 
paratory schools  in  New  York  from  1885  to  '89 
and  had  served  as  private  secretary  to  various 
officials,  including  the  Post  Office  Inspector 
of  New  York,  Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  New 
York  and  the  Fourth  Assistant  Postmaster 
General  at  Washington.      From  this  last  posi- 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


i:;? 


tion  he  was  drafted  to  the  "\\"  1 1 i 1 1'  House  to 
become  stenographer  to  the  President,  Novem- 
ber, 1SJ).5.  There  1  first  encountered  him. 
Mr.  Cortelyou,  who  lias  left  an  indelible 
mark  upon  the  political  history  of  this  country 
as  organizer  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor,  was  born  in  this  city,  July,  1862. 


GEORGE  B.  CORTELYOU 

His  preparatory  studies  were  at  the  Hempstead 
Institute  and  the  State  Normal  School.  West- 
Held.  Mass.  He  then  received  instruction  in 
law  at  Georgetown  University  and  finished  at 
the  Columbian  (now  George  Washington) 
I  Diversity.  Therefore,  we  find  him  well 
equipped  for  the  rapid  and  brilliant  rise  that 
followed  the  advent  of  President  McKinlev. 
A  Hartford  editor,  Addison  Porter,  was  the  first 
secretary  to  McKinlev  and  wisely  chose  the 
assistant  secretary  who  hail  served  so  credita- 
bly under  President  Cleveland.  This  event 
occurred  in  July.  1898,  prior  to  which  time 
Mr.  Cortelyou  had  been  acting  as  executive 
clerk  to  the  President.  In  the  spring  of  1  !><)<). 
the  death  of  President  McKinlev  \s  secretary, 
Mr.  Porter,  was  followed  by  the  advancement 
of  Mr.  Cortelyou  to  the  place.  On  most  of 
the  President's  tours,  the  amiable  assistant 
secretary  had  accompanied  him.     1  especially 


recall  ;i  fortnight  at  the  Hotel  Chainplain, 
where  the  President  and  the  newspaper  cor- 
respondents fraternized.  Dining  the  Mckin- 
ley administrations  for  Mr.  Cortelyou  was 
reappointed  this  faithful  service  continued. 
and  when  Theodore  Roosevelt  succeeded  to 
the  Presidency,  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to 
reappoint   tin'  acting  secretary. 

When  necessity  for  the  creation  of  a  new 
department,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the 
laboring  classes  as  well  as  of  their  employers. 
was  recognized  by  Congress.  President  Roose- 
velt chose  Mr.  Cortelyou  as  the  first  Secretary 
to  create  and  organize  it  a  task  involving 
infinite  details.  The  choice  did  credit  to  the 
President's  judgment  of  his  Secretary's  origi- 
nating capacity.  To  create  an  entirely  new 
executive  branch  of  a  national  government 
is  not  an  easy  task:  hut  the  success  of  Mr. 
Cortelyou  was  unequivocal.  In  a  few  months 
he  had  its  various  bureaus  and  special  agents 
actively  at  work.  The  publication  of  a  daily 
consular  report  was  projected  and  soon  put 
into  effective  operation. 

When  the  campaign  for  President  Roose- 
velt's election  in  1904  approached.  Secretary 
Cortelyou  was  chosen  Chairman  of  the  Re- 
publican National  Committee  and  conducted 
the  campaign  against  Judge  Alton  B.  Parker 
with  complete  success.  As  in  previous  under- 
takings. Mr.  Cortelyou  displayed  a  remark- 
able grasp  of  details.  As  an  evidence  of  ap- 
preciation and  further  confidence,  President 
Roosevelt  appointed  Mr.  Cortelyou  Post- 
master-General in  March,  1905,  a  position  he 
tilled  creditably  for  two  years.  During  that 
time  a  thorough  investigation  was  made  of 
the  department;  many  irregularities  were  erad- 
icated and  improvements  in  the  service  intro- 
duced. Especially  was  the  transportation  of 
foreign  mails  and  the  domestic  special  delivery 
system  accelerated.  As  a  final  recognition  of 
splendid  public  service.  Mr.  Cortelyou  was 
appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  March 
4.  1907,  continuing  in  office  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Roosevelt  term.  This  post 
is  one  of  such  transcendant  responsibility  that 
no  word  from  me  is  needed  to  emphasize  the 
heighl  of  George  15.  Cortelyou's  rise.  His 
administration  was  fair  to  all  interests.  On 
one  occasion,  by  prompt  action,  he  averted  a 


138 


THE   BOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


panic  by  going  to  the  rescue  of  the  banks. 
In  1909  lie  was  elected  President  of  the  Con- 
solidated Gas  Company,  of  New  York,  the 
largest  corporation  of  its  kind  in  the  world, 
and  despite  a  decrease  of  20  per  cent,  in  price, 
he  so  conducted  the  company's  affairs  as  to 
show  an  increased  revenue  in  l!)l(l  of  $4,724,- 
<S4!).  To  my  mind,  here  is  the  best  known 
example  of  the  rise  of  a  man  in  public  life 
who  did  not  owe  the  attainment  of  his  am- 
bition to  politics. 

Charles  Adolph  Schieren,  born  in  Rhenish, 
Prussia,  Germany,  February.  lN4'-2,  was  edu- 
cated at  public  schools  of  his  native  land  until 

the  age  of  fourteen, 
when  he  was  brought 
to  the  United  States. 
His  father  was  a  cigar- 
maker  and  dealer  and 
the  boy  assisted  his 
parents  in  the  business 
in  Brooklyn  until  1804. 
\\  hen  he  became  a  clerk 
in  the  leather  belting 
factory  of  Philip  F. 
Pasquay  in  Manhattan. 
He  established  himself 
in  the  same  business, 
with  a  small  capital, 
in  1808,  from  w  h  i  c  h 
grew  the  firm  of  (  has. 
A.  Schieren  Company  in  Xew  York,  with 
branch  houses  in  this  country  and  Hamburg. 
Although  the  scene  of  Mr.  Schieren's  entire 
business  career  has  been  in  Manhattan,  in 
that  locality  familiarly  known  to  the  leather 
trade  as  "The  Swamp,"  his  residence  has  been 
in  Brooklyn  and  with  that  borough  his  social 
and  political  interests  are  closely  identified. 
In  polities,  a  Republican,  he  was  for  three 
years  president  of  the  Brooklyn  Young  Re- 
publican Club.  He  introduced  the  election 
district  system  that  caused  the  overthrow  of 
the  Democratic  party  in  Brooklyn,  and.  in 
1893,  brought  aboul  his  own  election  to  the 
Mayoralty.  He  turned  his  business  over  to 
other  hands  and  devoted  his  entire  time  to  the 
duties  of  his  high  office.  His  administration 
was  characterized  by  conservative  manage- 
ment of  the  city's  affairs  that  gave  to  him  a 
national    reputation.     Through    his    influence 


('HAS.   A.   .M'lIII.UKN 


and  energetic  advocacy,  the  legislature  of  1895 
authorized  the  construction  of  the  new  Wil- 
liamsburg bridge.  By  the  addition  of  five 
new  parks  during  Mr.  Schieren's  term  of 
office,  the  park  area  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn 
was  doubled.  Forest  Park,  the  largest  of 
these  (570  acres),  is  noted  for  its  natural  beauty 
and  tine  view  of  the  ocean  and  Long  Island 
Sound:  Dyker  Meadow  Park,  150  acres,  em- 
braces several  thousand  feet  ocean  front;  final 
plans  were  atlopted  and  riparian  plans  secured 
for  the  Shore  Driveway,  which,  when  com- 
pleted, will  be  one  of  the  finest  boulevards 
in  the  world.  Mr.  Schieren  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Brooklyn  Museum  and  laid  its 
corner-stone  during  his  occupancy  of  the  ad- 
ministration as  Mayor.  Governor  Black 
named  him  Chairman  of  the  State  Commerce 
Commission;  Governor  Roosevelt  appointed 
him  a  member  of  the  Xew  York  Charter  Re- 
vision Committee.  His  activities  in  charities 
are  ceaseless.  He  is  president  of  the  Brooklyn 
Academy  of  Music,  one  of  the  finest  structures 
in  this  country  devoted  to  grand  opera  and 
art.  Mr.  Schieren  is  public-spirited  and  ever 
ready  to  support,  by  his  means  and  influence, 
enterprises  that  make  for  the  betterment  of 
the  community  of  which  he  has  been  an 
honored  member  for  over  half  a  century. 

Herbert  II.  Vreeland  was  born  a  poor  man's 
son;  his  only  heritage  was  character  and  brains. 
His  father  was  the  son  of  a  minister,  but  he 
refused  to  take  up  the  same  calling;  the 
grandson  had  to  leave  home  early  and  hustle 
for  himself.  Mr.  Vreeland  was  born  in  the 
village  of  (den,  X.  Y.,  1S57.  the  youngest  of 
several  children.  His  father  died  when  he 
was  a  boy  and  his  mother  removed  to  Jersey 
City.  At  the  age  of  ten,  he  got  a  job  with  a 
Jersey  City  grocer.  In  1875,  he  got  employ- 
ment with  the  Long  Island  Railroad  Com- 
pany, as  a  gravel  shoveler.  In  a  few  months 
he  was  promoted  to  be  inspector  of  ties,  at  a 
dollar  a  day.  Next,  he  was  a  switch  tender. 
When  oil'  duty,  he  assisted  clerks  at  the  Bush- 
wick  station  in  making  up  their  receipts. 
Often,  after  a.  day's  work,  he  would  remain 
until  midnight,  without  extra  pay,  compiling 
train  receipts  and  expenses.  He  was  made  a 
brakeman  on  a  train  to  Hempstead.  He  was 
then  20  years  old.      To  a  friend  who  bantered    I 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


139 


him,  young  Vreeland  retorted  that  he  expected 
to  become  a  conductor  and  fully  intended  to 
be  a  railroad  president.  One  morning,  a  con- 
ductor of  a  regular  train  was  summarily  dis- 
charged and  Vreeland  was  put  in  his  place. 
He  served  satisfactorily  for  several  months 
until  an  accident  occurred  for  which  he  and 
the  engineer  were  jointly  responsible.  lie  ad- 
mitted his  fault  and  was  discharged.  The 
superintendent  reinstated  him  as  a  brakeman. 
When  the  Long  Island  load  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Austin  Corbin  and  associates,  Vree- 
land was  one  of  those  who,  as  he  puts  it,  was 


HERBERT  H.  VREELAND 

"permitted  to  get  out  as  quickly  as  possible." 
He  soon  secured  a  position  as  conductor, 
afterwards  General  Manager  on  the  New 
York  and  Northern  railroad.  A  few  months 
afterward,  in  1893,  he  received  a  telegram 
from  Win.  C.  Whitney,  asking  him  to  come 
to  the  office  of  the  Metropolitan  'Fraction 
Company.  He  had  made  a  success  of  the 
New  York  and  Northern.  He  went  and  was 
informed  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders 
he  had  Keen  elected  a  director  of  the  company 
and  with  unanimity  chosen  its  president  and 
general  manager.  This  jump  in  eight  years 
from  a  brakeman  and  conductor  to  the  head 
of  the  greatest  system  of  surface  trolley  rail- 


road in  the  world,  with  a  salary  that  appeared 
to  him  fabulous,  did  not  upsel  Mi-.  Vreeland, 
then  aged  35. 

At  that  time  the  roads  of  the  Whitney 
syndicate  were  a  collection  of  separate  lino, 
each  under  different  management.  The  hard- 
est and  best  work  done  by  Mr.  Vreeland  was 
the  unification  of  all  these  lines  into  the  Met- 
ropolitan System.  Heads  were  lopped  oil'  in 
all  directions  and  economies  of  the  most  radi- 
cal character  introduced.  A  discovery  he 
made  was  that  the  appointments  of  conductors 
and  lnotorinen  were  chiefly  made  through 
political  influence.  The  places  were  regarded 
as  the  patronage  of  certain  Assemblymen  and 
Aldermen;  needless  to  say,  this  species  of  dicta- 
tion and  "graft"  was  stopped.  Peremptory 
orders  were  issued  that  no  man  could  secure 
employment  through  political  influence  and 
that  nobody  should  be  discharged  who  was 
sober  and  competent.  Mr.  Vreeland  taught 
every  under-boss  there  was  only  one  head- 
quarters ami  that  was  at  Broadway  and 
Houston  Street.  The  4,000  employees  ren- 
dered better  service;  there  were  no  more 
strikes,  because  when  the  men  had  a  grievance, 
they  could  always  arbitrate  with  President 
Vreeland.  He  has  been  at  the  head  of  the 
Metropolitan  Company  ever  since. 

Since  Cuba  has  been  freed  from  the  Spanish 
yoke,  traveling  facilities  on  the  island  have 
improved  in  every  way.  A  railway  now  ex- 
tends from  Havana  to  Santiago,  with  branches 
connecting  all  important  ports  with  the  main 
line.  This  railway  system  has  brought  thou- 
sands of  colonists  from  the  United  States  and 
Europe.  Prosperity  exists  in  the  larger  cities 
and  the  smaller  towns  are  awakening  to  the 
prospects  of  a  splendid  future.  The  late 
Walter  1).  Munson  was  prompt  to  foresee  the 
value  of  direct  steamship  connections  with  the 
large  semi-tropical,  continental  and  insular 
regions  gathered  about  the  great  basin  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
Mexico  and  Cuba  are  the  most  prominent  of 
these;  proximity  and  reciprocal  needs  and 
products  for  their  supply  have  made  them  a 
natural  part  of  the  commercial  system  of 
the  United  Stales.  The  Munson  steamship 
line,  with  its  Hue  fleet  of  vessels  sailing  direct 
to    Matanzas,    Cardenas.    Sagua    la    Grande, 


HO 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


Cabarien,  Neuvetas,  Gibara,  Banes,  Antilla 
;iiid  Baracao,  is  the  only  direct  route  to  these 
ports.  As  stated,  Walter  I).  Munson  was  the 
founder  of  this  line  giving  communication  with 
Central  and  Eastern  Cuba.  lie  was  a  native 
of  Connecticut.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War.  he  entered  the  Federal  Army,  and.  due 
to  faithful  service  in  the  Held  through  many 
campaigns,  rose  to  the  rank  of  Major.  When 
peace  returned.  Mi'.  Munson  went  to  Havana. 
where  he  engaged  for  fifteen  years  in  commer- 

* 

cial  pursuits.  Returning  to  his  native  land 
in  1882,  he  became  a  citizen  of  New  York 
and  established  the  steamship  line  thai  hears 
his  name.  A  hitherto  neglected  part  of  the 
large  and  fertile  island  of  Cuba  was  opened 
to  trade.  The  splendid  resources  of  the  in- 
terior were  almost  as  undeveloped  as  those  of 
German  Easl  Africa;  railways  were  few  and 
of  short  mileage;  ports  were  isolated  and  the 
mountain  range  that  traverses  the  middle  of 
Cuba  rendered  difficult  communication  be- 
tween north  and  south  coasts.  In  a  short 
time,  the  steamers  of  the  Munson  line  encircled 
the  greal  island,  thus  rendering  all  parts  ac- 
cessible  for  travel  and  commerce. 

Few  people  who  have  not  visited  Cuba  have 
a  correct  idea  of  its  size;  a  general  impression 
exists  that  it  is  about  the  length  of  Long  Island, 
whereas  it  is  more  than  700  miles  long  a  dis- 
tance equal  to  that  between  New  York  and 
Toledo!  The  extreme  eastern  province, 
known  under  the  Spaniards  as  Santiago,  is 
now  called  Oriente;  the  next  province,  to- 
ward the  west,  was  Puerto  Principe,  hut  is  now 
Camaguey:  then  comes  Santa  Clara.  Malan- 
zas.  Havana  and  Pinar  del  Rio.  The  scenery 
in  the  Oriental  region,  only  reached  direct 
by  the  steamers  of  the  Munson  line,  is  very 
beautiful,  with  wild  mountains  and  tropical 
forests.  In  the  central  part  are  extensive 
prairies;  in  the  west  archills  and  smiling  val- 
leys everywhere  the  royal  palm  is  the  dom- 
inating tree!  Here,  within  four  days  of  New- 
York,  are  to  he  found  the  same  splendid  palms 
one  sees  in  Algeria  and  Egypt!  The  valley 
of  the  Yumuri,  near  Malanzas.  a  circular 
basin  crossed  by  a  river  that  issues  through  a 
charming  glen  to  the  sea.  is  the  most  beautiful 
spot  in  Cuba.  A  peculiar  feature  of  the  island 
is    the   abundance    of   its    caverns;    there   are 


scores  of  them,  but  Cotilla,  near  Havana;  Bel- 
lamar.  near  Matanzas.  and  Monte  Libano,  near 
Guantanamo,  are  best  known  and  most  easily 
visited.  Disappearing  rivers  are  numerous. 
The  Mon  cascade,  near  Guantanamo,  drops 
.'500  feet  into  a  cavern  and  its  waters  later 
reappear  from  the  earth.  Geologically,  Cuba 
is  a  treasure-house  of  mineral  wealth,  chiefly 
undeveloped.      Its     flora     is    tropical     and     of 


WALTER  D.  MUNSON  (deceased) 

splendid  richness.  Tobacco  is  its  staple. 
Sugar  has  been  the  dominant  crop  since  the 
18th  century.  In  its  forests  are  forty  different 
kinds  of  cabinet  and  building  woods — its 
ebony  and  mahogany  are  the  highest  priced 
known.  Snakes  are  few  and  not  of  poisonous 
character.  The  climate  is  most  equable 
The  Spanish  occupation  proved  that  dwellers 
in  temperate  zones  can  become  acclimatized 
in    Cuba:   and.   since   American   intervention. 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


141 


yellow  fever  has  been  totally  eradicated.  Such 
is  the  tropical  wonderland  that  W.  1).  Munson 
opened  to  citizens  of  our  country! 

Steamers  of  the  Munson  line  not  only  are 
despatched  from  New  York-  which  most  in- 
terests me,  for  1  have  been  visiting  Cuba  since 
1874 — but  from  Nova  Scotia  one  line  of  boats 
goes  to  Havana  and  another  from  Mobile. 
Munson  vessels  transport  a  large  share  of 
freight  and  passengers  between  Canada  and 
the  United  States,  on  the  one  side,  and  Cuba 
and  Mexico,  on  the  other.  They  are  large 
carriers  of  sugar  from  Cuba  to  Boston.  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York.  Since  the  death  of  his 
father,  Charles  W.  Munson  has  been  president 
of  the  company;  Frank  C.  Munson  is  treas- 
urer and  Alfred  II.  Bromell,  secretary. 


.l"Si:PH  .1.  LITTLE 

A  prominent  figure  in  metropolitan  com- 
mercial life  is  Joseph  J.  Little,  printer,  pub- 
lisher, ex-Congressman  and  man  of  affairs. 
He  was  born  at  Bristol.  England,  1S41 :  came 
to  the  United  States  when  five  years  old.  was 
educated  at  the  public  schools  and  began  life 
as  a  printer's  apprentice  at  Morris,  X.  Y..  in 
1855.  batei-  he  came  to  this  city  to  work: 
he  began  as  a  compositor:  but.  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out.  he  enlisted  in  the  37th  New 
York  National  Guard  and  served  in  the  Sum- 


mer campaigns  of  1862,  1863  and  1K(!4.  when 
he  returned  to  this  city  and  resumed  work  as 
foreman  of  a  composing  room.  Mr.  Little  is 
fond  of  telling  that  his  wages  for  the  first  year 
as  an  apprentice  boy  at  Morris  were  $v2.).  for 
the  second  year  $35  and  for  the  third  year  $45, 
payable  quarterly.  In  the  Spring  of  1859, 
when  young  Little  came  to  New  York,  he 
had  about  $5  in  his  pocket.  Being  under  age, 
although  a  journeyman  printer,  he  could  not 
command  more  than  two-thirds  of  a  journey- 
man's wages.  I  have  already  spoken  of  his 
part  in  the  war  from  which  he  returned  a  first 
lieutenant.  He  went  into  business  in  a  small 
way  in  1<S(I7.  the  firm's  name  being  Little, 
Rennie  &  Co.  When  Mr.  Rennie  died,  in 
INTO,  the  corporation  became  J.  J.  Little  & 
Co..  and  moved  into  a  seven-story  building 
on  Astor  Place,  where  it  remained  until  1!)()N, 
when  it  moved  into  its  own  eleven-story  build- 
ing in  Last  ".24th  Street.  The  business  now 
carries  between  five  and  six  hundred  people 
on  its  pay  roll.  The  capacity  of  the  estab- 
lishment is  such  that  the  book  binding  de- 
partment  can  turn  out  1.5. 000  cloth  covered 
books  and  35,000  paper  covered  books  per  daw 
Since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  Mr.  Little 
has  served  as  Colonel  of  the  Seventy-first 
Regiment  Veteran  Association  and  is  past 
Commander  of  Lafayette  Lost.  G.  A.  R. 

Especially  has  he  displayed  interest  as  an 
officer  and  finally  as  president  of  the  General 
Society  of  Mechanics  and  Tradesmen  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  an  organization  dating 
back  to  1785  and  sustaining  a  large  free,  cir- 
culating library,  free  schools  for  teaching 
mechanical  and  free-hand  drawing,  modeling, 
stenography  and  typewriting.  This  institu- 
tion has  equipped  thousands  of  students. 
Mr.  Carnegie  recently  became  a  member  and 
has  helped  its  work  to  the  extent  of  more  than 
$500,000.  Mr.  Little  is  a  member  of  the 
American  Institute,  of  which  he  has  also  been 
president.  His  charities  are  many.  He  served 
for  many  years  as  a  trustee  of  the  New  York 
Infant  Asylum,  one  of  the  most  praiseworthy 
institutions  on  this  continent.  He  is  a  life 
member  of  the  New  York  Geographical  So- 
ciety. His  work  as  a  member  of  Congress 
was  noteworthy,  but  he  refused  a  second  nomi- 
nation. He  succeeded  the  late  Roswell  P. 
Flower,  who  in  his  turn  had  defeated  William 


142 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


Waldorf  Astor.  in  a  normally  Republican  dis- 
trict. Mr.  Little  has  always  been  a  Democrat, 
but  has  rarely  taken  an  active  part  in  national 
politics.  After  leaving  Congress  he  again, 
upon  the  urgent  request  of  Mayor  Strong,  be- 
canie  a  member  of  the  Hoard  of  Education 
of  this  city.  As  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Buildings  of  that  Board,  he  reorganized  the 
building  bureau  of  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion, placing  at  its  head  a  young  and  capable 
architect.  ( )ut  of  this  important  change  arose 
vast  improvements  in  school-house  architecture, 
seen  in  many  parts  of  this  metropolis.  Greater 
\e\\  York  contains  the  handsomest,  best 
arranged  and  best  ventilated  school-houses  of 
any  city  in  the  world.  Mr.  Little  finally  be- 
came President  of  the  Board  of  Education 
and  only  resigned  after  a  second  election  as 
President  on  account  of  business  and  ill  health. 

Joseph  J.  Little  occupies  a  large  niche  in 
the  Masonic  hall  of  fame.  lie  joined  Kane 
Lodge,  4.>4.  in  1ST!),  and  has  served  as  its 
Master  several  times,  as  well  as  Deputy  Grand 
Master  of  his  district.  A  distinguished  honor 
came  to  Mr.  Little,  in  1896,  when  In-  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  then  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward 
King  Edward  VII,  Grand  Representative  of 
the  Grand  Lodge  of  England  near  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  Xew  York.  Mr.  Little's  standing  in 
New  York  is  shown  by  the  many  important 
civic  and  municipal  committees  for  which 
he  has  been  named.  He  was  an  active  worker 
in  the  raising  of  funds  for  the  Grant  monu- 
ment on  Riverside  Drive,  also  assisted  earnest- 
ly in  relief  work  for  sufferers  by  the  Johnstown 
Hood. 

A  very  bright  incident  in  Mr.  Little's  life 
was  the  return  to  his  boyhood  home.  Morris, 
on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  apprentice- 
ship. September  5,  1905,  when  he  gave  a  din- 
ner to  the  utmost  capacity  of  the  village  hotel 
to  all  his  old  and  new  friends.  Mr.  Little  is 
an  officer  of  the  Pearson  Publishing  Company 
I  ha  I  issues  "  Pearson's  Magazine."  lie  is  a 
Trustee  of  the  Excelsior  Savings  Bank  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Xew  York's  World  Pair 
( Commission  in  1893. 

Many  a  good  man  has  been  born  in  Xew 
Jersey  and  more  than  two  hundred  thousand 
active  participators  in  the  trades  and  professions 
of  the  metropolis  dwell  in  Jersey,  but  come  to 


the  city  daily.  (  me  of  the  most  active  men  in  the 
great  human  hive  known  as  the  Hudson  Ter- 
minal, where  the  offices  of  the  Erie  Railroad 
Company  are  located,  is  John  Hull  Browning, 
financier,  president  of  the  Northern  Xew 
Jersey  Railroad.  Mr.  Browning  comes  of 
Rhode  Island  stock,  his  ancestors  dating  back 
to  the  davs  of  Roger  Williams.  On  his 
mother's  side,  he  counts  among  his  forebears 
the  Rev.  Joseph  Hull,  one  of  the  original 
settlers  of  Weymouth.  Plymouth  Colony,  1(1:;."). 
Both  sides  of  his  house  had  representatives 
in  the   Wars  of  the    Revolution   and   of   1812. 


JnHN  HULL  BROWNING 


Young  Browning  was  a  Christmas  gift  to  his 
parents  in  1841.  Soon  after  his  birth  his 
parents  moved  to  Xew  York  City.  The  boy 
was  sent  to  the  College  of  the  City  of  Xew 
York,  was  graduated  and  engaged  in  commer- 
cial enterprises  with  his  father  for  some  time. 
His  father-in-law,  Charles  G.  Sisson,  president 
of  the  Xew  Jersey  Railroad  Company,  died  in 
1874,  and  the  representatives  of  the  estate 
secured  the  election  of  Mr.  Browning  to  the 
directorate  of  that  corporation.  He  was  soon 
elected  president  of  the  company  and  retained 
that  position  until  it  was  consolidated  with 
the  Erie  Railroad  Company. 


THE    HOOK   0/  NEW    YORK 


143 


Mr.  Browning's  railroad  connections  have 
become  very  extensive.  He  is  associated  as 
a  director  with  many  Southern  lines,  in  addi- 
tion to  a  score  of  banks,  gas  companies  and 
other  corporations.  He  lives  in  a  beautiful 
home  at  Tenafly,  and  enjoys  automobiling 
along  the  fine  roads  that  line  the  crest  of  the 
Palisades.  He  has  always  been  a  Republican 
and  for  many  years  has  been  president  of  the 
Bergen  County  Republican  League.  Thrice 
lie  lias  been  chosen  a  Presidential  Elector,  hut 
has  never  held  a  political  office  of  any  other 
kind.  Although  Mr.  Browning  never  speaks 
of  his  acts  of  benevolence,  people  who  know 
him.  as  does  the  writer,  are  aware  that  he  is 
a  constant  giver  to  the  support  of  hospitals 
and  city  missions.  He  is  a  life  member  of 
ten  charitable  societies.  He  is  a  manager  of 
the  Xew  York  Protestant  Episcopal  City 
Mission  and  vice-president  of  Christ  Hospital, 
Jersey   City. 

A  firm  that  has  figured  prominently  in  the 
mercantile  history  of  Xew  York  City,  and  one 
that  has  had  a  most  remarkable  career,  is 
that  of  Holt  &  Company,  of  Xo.  95  Broad 
Street,  of  which  Mr.  Charles  AY.  McCutcheon 
is  the  head. 

The  firm  was  founded  in  1801  by  Stephen 
Holt,  of  XTew  London,  Conn.,  who  came  to 
this  city  in  early  life,  attracted  by  the  com- 
mercial possibilities  here. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Colony  a  charter 
had  been  granted  bv  the  Crown,  giving  to  the 
colonists  the  right  to  manufacture  Hour  for 
trade  in  the  West  Indies.  This  act  was  con- 
sidered of  such  importance  that  the  embryo 
city  adopted  as  a  coat  of  arms  a  design  in 
which  the  four  wings  of  a  windmill  and  two 
barrels  of  flour  were  the  principal  features. 
Naturally  the  business  was  soon  one  of  the 
leading  industries  and  it  was  the  commercial 
prospects  presented  that  led  Stephen  Holt  to 
organize  the  linn  of  Holt  &  Company,  and 
commence   the   business   of  handling   Hour. 

In  the  111  years  of  its  existence  I  he  firm  has 
naturallv  undergone  many  changes,  but  dur- 
ing  that  long  period  its  integrity  has  never  been 
impaired.  It  successfully  weathered  every 
commercial  storm,  and  there  were  many  en- 
countered, never  asked  financial  aid  and  never 
owed  a  dollar  beyond  the  time  fixed  by  coin- 


CHAS.   W.  McCUTCHEON 

mercial  usage.  It  is  still  engaged  in  the  same 
line  but  has  added  corn  goods  for  hot  climates, 
and  makes  regular  shipments  to  the  West 
Indies.  Of  late  years  the  trade  has  been 
largely  increased  and  now  includes  many 
Central  and  South  American  ports. 

Mr.  McCutcheon,  who  is  now  head  of  the 
firm,  was  born  in  Williamsburg.  Brooklyn. 
January  2,  1845,  the  son  of  William  Moore 
andEliza  (St.  John)  McCutcheon.  Thefamily 
is  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry  ami  was  founded 
in  America  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Mr.  McCutcheon  was  educated  at  the  Poly- 
technic Institute  in  Brooklyn,  from  which  he 
graduated  in  ('lass  of  1862.  He  at  once 
entered  upon  a  business  career  and  in  1879 
became  a  partner  in  Holt  &  Company.  His 
long  experience  and  executive  ability  have  done 
much  to  extend  (he  business  of  the  house  and 
uphold  the  high  repute  it  has  enjoyed  for 
over  a  century. 

Mr.  McCutcheon  is  a  director  of  the  Corn 
Exchange  Bank.  Xew  York  City;  the  Plain- 


H4 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


field  Trust  Company,  of  Plainfield,  X.  J., 
and  the  People's  National  Bank,  of  Westfield, 
\.  J.  He  is  also  director  of  the  Adirondack 
Company  and  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Produce  Exchange,  Maritime  Exchange,  and 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  lie  is  a  Republican  in  politics,  but 
of  that  pronounced  independent  type  that 
stands  for  good  government  rather  than  party 
mis-rule.  Mr.  McCutcheon  has  traveled  large- 
ly, making  several  trips  to  Europe  and  touring 
Egypt  and  the  West  Indies.  He  is  a  lover 
of  horses  and  as  such  takes  active  interest  in 
the  Riding  and  Driving  Club,  being  also  a 
member  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 
the  New  England  Society  in  New  York  City 
and  the  Union  League,  Atlantic  Yacht,  Na- 
tional Art.  Lake  Placid  Yacht.  Plainfield 
Country.  Park  and  Park  Golf  clubs. 

Mr.  McCutcheon  makes  his  home  in  Plain- 
field,  N.  .1..  hut  spends  his  summers  at  Lake 
Placid.  N.  Y.,  where  he  has  an  attractive 
camp.  "Asulvkit,"  on  the  shores  of  the  lake. 
It  is  indisputable  that  our  country,  hetero- 
geneous as  is  its  population,  possesses  a  sort  of 
backbone,  an  essential  stamina,  in  the  de- 
scendants of  those  hardy  northern  races  which 

populated  this  conti- 
nent generations,  even 
centuries  ago.  These 
men  we  find  preemi- 
nent in  every  vocation. 
utilizing,  in  their  pres- 
ent sphere,  the  hardy 
virility  inculcated  in 
and  derived  from  those 
ancestors  who  fought 
and  overcame  the  per- 
ils of  the  inhospitable 
wilderness,  still  main- 
taining their  standards 
of  honor  and  upright- 
ness which  are  SO  essen- 
tial to  a  healthy  society  and  which  we  would 
fain  call  American.  The  first  ancestor  of 
Arthur  Theodore  Stilson  to  see  American  soil 
was  James  Stilson.  who  left  England  about 
1625.  His  descendant.  Andrew  Stilson.  mar- 
ried Charlotte  Judd  and  settled  upon  the  old 
homestead  farm  in  Lewis  County,  New  York, 
where   there   was    born    to    him    five   children. 


ARTHT'H  T.  STILSON 


The  youngest  of  these  is  Arthur  Theodore 
Stilson,  horn  in  1859.  Arthur  T.  Stilson  is 
also  a  descendant  of  (  aptain  Thomas  Judd  and 
of  General  Andrew  Jackson.  Owing  in  part  to 
financial  losses  suffered  by  his  father  during 
the  industrial  depression  of  the  Civil  War.  he 
was  cast  almost  entirely  on  his  own  resources 
at  a  very  early  age  and  became  somewhat  pro- 
ficient at  log  driving  and  lumbering. 

Coming  to  New  York  in  1S7S,  at  the  age 
of  nineteen,  he  obtained  employment  with  the 
firm  of  James,  Aikman  &  Co.,  attending  even- 
ing school  during  the  fall  and  winter  months 
for  a  time.  The  above  firm  was  later  con- 
solidated with  four  other  large  ones,  forming 
the  Central  Stamping  Company.  Mr.  Stilson 
has  remained  in  their  employ  and  has  become 
general  manager  and  vice-president.  This 
simple  statement  of  fact  is  sufficient  encomium 
on  his  achievements  in  business  life.  Mr. 
Stilson,  as  one  might  infer,  has  a  marked  pref- 
erence for  country  life,  living  at  his  charming 
estate,  "Westover,"  in  Montclair,  N.  J.,  and 
indulging  his  taste  for  farming  by  the  super- 
vision of  scientific  and  extensive  agricultural 
operations  carried  on  at  his  "To-Wak-How 
Mountain  Spring"  Farms  at  Lincoln  Park, 
N.  J. 

Electricity  has  created  a  hundred  million- 
aires in  this  country  and  electrical  science  has 
proved  so  fascinating  to  many  men  of  mechan- 
ical genius  that  they  have  deserted  other  pro- 
fessions to  pursue  its  study.  Ralph  Hamilton 
Beach,  inventor  of  the  first  street  car  that 
successfully  employed  an  electric  storage  bat- 
tery, was  born  at  Linden,  Michigan,  October, 
1860,  and  secured  his  education  at  the  High 
School  of  Fenton,  Mich.  Early  in  life  he  dis- 
played an  aptitude  for  invention.  It  was 
intended  he  should  study  medicine,  but, 
through  a  predeliction  for  mechanics,  young 
Beach  entered  iron-working  shops  at  Linden 
and  later  at  Detroit.  He  began  at  the  lowest 
rung  of  the  mechanical  ladder.  He  took 
service  in  INNS  with  the  Thompson-Houston 
Electrical  Company,  at  St.  Paul.  Minn.,  and 
from  this  corporation  he  received  prompt  and 
deserved  recognition  in  the  way  of  promotions. 

From  1888  to  l!)(ll)  were  the  years  of  de- 
velopment in  electrical  industry.  Mr.  Beach 
was   soon   asked   to   become    manager   of   the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


I  15 


railway  department  of  the  General  Electric 
Company,  of  New  York,  and  at  once  took 
rank  among  prominent  electrical  engineers  of 
tin's  country.  The  commanding  position  he 
held  afforded  excellent  opportunity  for  ac- 
quiring knowledge  of  every  branch  of  his 
profession;  it  also  enabled  him  to  become 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  men  who 
were  most  earnest  in  electrical  development. 
Thomas  A.  Edison,  known  as  "the  Wizard  of 
Menlo  Park."  has  said  of  Air.  Beach:  "He 
is  the  most  accurate  experimenter  1  ever  have 


RALPH   H.   BEACH 

known,  his  first  experiment  is  always  a  success." 
Every  minute  of  Mr.  Beach's  time  was  em- 
ployed in  gaining  further  insight  into  the 
mysterious  element  of  nature  with  which  he 
was  dealing.  Nobody  knows  exactly  what 
electricity  is;  but  Mr.  Beach  has  utilized  it  in 
its  multitude  of  forms.  Never  was  science 
pnl  into  more  practical  service  or  made  to 
perform  more  work  for  mankind!  ruder  Mr. 
Beach's  ceaseless  experimentation,  the  splen- 
did possibilities  of  electricity  sprang  into 
recognition  at  a  lime  when  all  allied  branches 
of  science  were  undergoing  spontaneous  de- 
velopment  and  great  minds  in  all  parts  of  the 
civilized  world  were  giving  to  1 1 1**11 1  concen- 
trated mental  effort. 


Mr.  Beach's  theory  of  experimentation  al- 
ways was  along  one  line;  before  he  gave  to  any 
subject  much  of  liis  valuable  time  or  expended 
thereon  any  considerable  amount  of  money, 
he  definitely  settled,  in  his  own  mind,  the 
practical  uses  to  which  the  contemplated  de- 
vice or  appliance  could  be  put.  His  motto  was 
"Find  the  need!"  Thereby,  he  saved  lime 
and  money  thai  other  equally  earnest  men 
wasted!  His  dominating  thought  was  thai 
nothing  should  be  invented  that  could  not  be 
turned  to  the  benelil  of  mankind  in  a  com- 
mercial sense.  (On  the  other  hand,  all  im- 
provements of  moderately  successful  inven- 
tions he  believed  to  be  desirable.  lie  did 
not  think  it  unwise  to  attempt  a  further  ad- 
vancement of  an  apparently  perfected  elec- 
trical device.)  Too  often,  inventors  are  satis- 
lied  with  a  mechanism  that  suffices  for  prac- 
tical service  and,  by  "leaving  well  enough 
alone."  retard  progress.  Mr.  Beach's  me- 
chanical qualifications  enabled  him  to  foresee 
future  adaptations  of  electricity  in  every 
branch  of  domestic  as  well  as  commercial  life. 
For  years  he  struggled  with  the  storage  bat- 
tery problem  the  extreme  weight  of  all 
existing  inventions  of  that  character  barring 
them  from  satisfactory  use  on  street  cars  or 
automobiles.  It  has  been  the  dream  of  the 
greatest  electricians  living  to  simplify  and 
lessen  the  dead  weight  of  the  storage  battery. 
To  this  problem,  Mr.  Edison,  chief  electrician 
of  the  world,  has  given  main1  years  of  his  life. 
Mr.  Beach  has  devised  a  method  of  coordinat- 
ing the  electrical  and  the  mechanical  move- 
ment of  a  car  upon  rails,  so  that  the  energy 
consumption  per  ton  mile  is  one-third  of  that 
before  known;  by  this  extraordinary  advance, 
he  has  made  practical  the  use  of  storage  bat- 
teries as  a  means  of  tram  propulsion.  Mr. 
Beach  is  a,  resident  of  New  York  City  and  is 
a  member  of  the  Essex  County  Country  Club, 
the  N.  Y.  Electrical  Society  and  belongs  to 
The  Founders  and  Patriots  of  America. 


Electricity  is  the  element  which  has  done 
more  for  the  upbuilding  of  our  cities  than  any 
other:  few  of  us  have  time  to  stop  and  think 
what  city  life  was  before  the  introduction  of 
electricity.  Try  and  imagine  what  New  A  ork 
would  be  without  it. 


Ufi 


THE    HOOK   .;/'  NEW    YORK 


There  is  distinction  in  being  the  head  of  an 
institution  which  ignores  the  traditions  of  the 
pasl  and  steps  out  in  advance  of  the  law  in 
order  to  Fulfill  what  it  regards  its  duties  and 
responsibilities  to  the  people. 

John  ('.  Juhring  is  president  of  Francis  II. 
Leggett  &  Company,  pioneers  in  the  pure 
food  movement.  He  was  born  in  Xew  York 
and  educated  at  Mount  Washington  Collegiate 
[nstitute.  The  story  of  his  rise  to  commercial 
prominence  begins  with  his  search  for  an 
opportunity  to  demonstrate  what  qualities  he 
possessed. 

He  applied  to  Francis  II.  Leggett  for  em- 
ployment and  was  given  a  humble  clerkship. 
All  he  asked  was  "to  get  in."  He  knew  where 
he  would  land.  He  rose  slowly  but  surely. 
lie  became  cashier,  then  a  department  man- 
ager and  finally  a  partner.  When  the  business 
became  a  corporation.  Mr.  Juhring  was  elected 
vice-president. 

In  February,  1910,  shortly  after  Mr.  Leg- 
gett's  death,  he  was  unanimously  chosen 
president. 

A  movement  was  started  among  the  citizens 
of  Xew  York  for  the  formation  of  a  Merchants' 
Association.  Mr.  Juhring  was  a  charter  mem- 
ber, serving  as  first  vice-president  for  five  con- 
secutive terms.  1898-1903.  He  is  a  director 
of  the  Coal  and  Iron  National  Bank,  trustee 
of  the  Citizens'  Savings  Rank,  director  of  the 
American  Can  Company  and  of  the  Seacoast 
(aiming  Company  of  Maine.  Mr.  Juhring 
is  a  Republican,  though  in  an  independent 
sense  in  politics,  and  a  member  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Xew 
York  Produce  Exchange  and  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  and  Transportation. 

His  clubs  are  the  Merchants  and  the  Ards- 
lev-on-the-IIudson.  He  is  fond  of  travel. 
having  made  many  trips  to  Europe.  The  trait 
for  which  he  is  most  conspicuous  is  his  en- 
thusiasm. He  is  a  lover  of  nature  and  an  ad- 
mirer of  the  beautiful. 

Those  who  know  him  best  say  that  it  is  the 
sum  of  his  many  sides  which  has  made  him 
the  head  of  what  is  probably  the  greatest  and 
most  distinctive  importing,  manufacturing  and 
wholesale  grocery  house  in  the  world. 


HIM;  V   W    SCHLOSS 


When  the  citizens  of  Xew  ^  ork  unanimously 
decided  to  tender  a  public  dinner  to  a  practical 
philanthropist.  Nathan  Strauss,  Mr.  Henry  W. 

Schloss,  a  prominent 
manufacturer  and  dis- 
tinguished c  i  t  i  z  e  n, 
was  chosen  by  unani- 
mous consent,  to  act  as 
chairman.  The  affair 
was  one  of  the  most 
successful  in  the  his- 
tory of  this  city,  the 
energy  of  the  presiding 
officer  insuring  such  a 
result.  Henry       W. 

S  c  h  1  o  s  s  hails  from 
Michigan,  with  Adrian 
as  his  birthplace.  He 
was  born  there  in  1XX.5. 
but  was  brought  to 
Xew  York  when  young  and  received  his  early 
education  in  our  public  schools,  returning  for 
a  few  years  to  his  native  state  to  engage  in 
commercial  pursuits.  His  immediate  fore- 
bears had  left  Germany  in  the  troublous  year 
of  1848  a  year  of  revolution  in  Germany  and 
Austria,  the  year  of  the  Heidelberg  Assembly, 
of  the  uprising  in  Berlin,  of  the  Prussian 
proclamation  to  the  "German  Nation,"  of  the 
preliminary  German  Parliament,  of  the  meet- 
ing of  the  National  Assembly  at  Frankfort 
and  of  the  Prussian  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion. Many  members  of  the  best  German 
families  came  to  America.  Among  these  lov- 
ers of  civil  liberty  was  William  J.  Schloss, 
father  of  the  subject  of  these  remarks. 

Henry  W.  Schloss  began  his  business  career 
in  the  jewelry  business  at  Chicago:  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  he  became  associated  with  the 
wholesale  branch  and  for  four  years  traveled 
widely  throughout  this  country.  The  Castle 
Braid  Company  offered  him  its  management 
in  1881,  and  he  has  continued  with  it  ever 
since  is  its  president  to-day — and  has  devel- 
oped it  into  a  great  corporation.  When  a 
national  organization  of  braid  manufacturers 
was  formed  in  1907,  Mr.  Schloss  was  chosen 
president  and  has  been  reelected  from  year  to 
year.  He  has  recently  been  quite  active  in 
politics  as  a  member  of  the  regular  Republican 
organization  of  the   Fifteenth   Assembly   Dis- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


w, 


WALTER  C.  RCXYON 


trict.  Ho  is  first  vice-president  of  tli<'  Con- 
servative Republican  Club  and  a  member  of 
the  West  Side  Republican  Club.  Mr.  Schloss 
is  associated  with  many  charitable  organiza- 
tions, a  fervent  Mason  and  a  practical  lover 
of  humanity.  His  unostentatious  philanthro- 
py is  continuous. 

Aniona'  my  friends  no  architect  of  his  own 
fortune  is  more  deserving  of  mention  than 
Walter  (  lark  Run  von,  one  of  the  leading  man- 
ufacturers of  pig  iron 
in  this  country.  lie 
was  born  at  Chicago, 
April,  1N.>7.  and  was 
educated  at  Springfield, 
Ohio.  His  active  ca- 
reer began  in  the  fall  of 
1S7  1  with  the  Union 
Rolling  Mill  ( Company 
of  Chicago.  In  IN?!) 
he  was  elected  secretary 
in  recognition  of  un- 
usual services  rendered 
to  the  corporation.  Mr. 
R  u  n  y  o  n  moved  to 
Cleveland  in  1886  to 
enter  the  iron  ore  busi- 
ness, and  was  largely  instrumental  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Lake  Superior  Iron  Ore  Associ- 
ation of  Cleveland.  Ohio,  and  acted  as  its 
first  secretary.  During  his  connection  with 
the  Iron  Ore  Association  and  as  its  secretary 
he  effected  a  change  in  the  method  of  selling 
iron  ore — the  unit  of  iron  being  valued  in  the 
natural  state  instead  of  when  dried  at  212 
degrees  F.,  and  the  phosphorus  values  were 
fixed  by  a  table  or  a  schedule  devised  by 
him.  This  table  never  has  been  changed  and 
has  governed  the  settlement  of  all  contracts 
for  Lake  Superior  Bessemer  ores  since  its  is- 
sue. Mr.  Runyon  also  organized  the  Besse- 
mer Pi*;-  Iron  Association.  In  1894,  he  en- 
gaged in  the  blast  furnace  business  and  or- 
ganized  The  Struthers  Furnace  Co.  He  has 
been  located  in  New  York  since   1901. 

Mr.  Runyon  has  made  several  automobile 
tours  through  Europe  and  this  country.  lie 
is  at  present  senior  partner  of  Runyon,  fair- 
bank  &  Co.:  president  of  The  Struthers  Fur- 
nace Co..  and  The  Struthers  Coal  &  Coke 
(  ompany. 


The  National  Guard  of  New  York  boasts 
and  has  boasted  capable,  energetic  and  de- 
voted officers,  lull  none  whose  activities 
have  proven  more  meritorious  of  these  ad- 
jectives, or  whose  practical  abilities  have  been 
of  more  value  to  that  organization  than  Gen- 
eral Edwin  Augustus  McAlpin. 

Edwin  is  a  grandson  of  James  McAlpin, 
himself  a  descendant  of  that  sturdy  Scotch 
stock  which  invaded  and  colonized  the  north 
of  Ireland  in  Cromwell's  time.  James  Mc- 
Alpin came  to  America  from  the  city  of  Bel- 
fast and  settled  in  Dutchess  County.  There 
he  engaged  in  the  grocery  trade,  meeting  with 
some  success.  His  son.  David  Hunter  Mc- 
Alpin. married  Adelaide  Rose  and  of  these 
parents,  Edwin  .McAlpin  was  born  in  the  year 
1848.  Edwin  attended  Phillips  Academy  in 
Andover,  Mass..  and  was  graduated  during 
the  early  part  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  Scotch-Irish  blood  of  Edwin  McAlpin. 
at  the  age  of  14  or  15,  was  warmly  stirred  by 
the  war  fever  and  he  straightaway  enlisted, 
actuated,  doubtless,  by  a  desire  to  win  fame 
similar  to  that  borne  in  history  by  his  fore- 
bears, the  ('Ian  Alpine.  He  was  twice  frus- 
trated in  this  wish  by  his  father  and  set  to 
work  in  the  tobacco  manufactory  in  Avenue  D. 

Edwin  McAlpin,  it  would  seem,  devoted 
his  energies  wholeheartedly  to  making  this 
enterprise  the  striking  commercial  success  it 
has  since  proved.  He  became  a  partner  in 
the  firm,  and  after  his  father's  death  president. 
This  corporation,  at  that  time  the  largesl  of 
its  kind,  was  later  sold  to  the  American  To- 
bacco   ('ompany. 

In  1869,  Mr.  McAlpin  became  a  private  in 
the  Seventh  Regiment.  Five  years  later  he 
resigned  from  this  regiment  to  accept  a  lieu- 
tenancy in  the  Seventy-first,  of  which  he 
eventually  became  commanding  officer  after  a 
steady  and  certain  rise  through  the  inter- 
mediate ranks.  During  eighteen  years  of 
occupancy  of  this  post,  he  established  a  most 
enviable  reputation  and  brought  his  corps  to  a 
high  degree  of  efficiency. 

The  qualities  which  Colonel  McAlpin  dis- 
played, as  commanding  officer  of  the  7 1st.  led 
Governor  Morton  to  appoint  him  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  Stale  of  New  York,  with  rank 
of    Major-General.      During     his     tenure     of 


US 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


JAMES  B.    ]'.KA1)\ 


this  important  ;ni<l  honorable  office,  his  ability 
and  invigorating  methods  made  themselves 
felt  ;iiid  appreciated  throughout  the  entire 
service  under  liini  and  made  their  impress  in 
the  form  of  marked  improvements. 

"Show  me  a  man  who  has  made  a  success 
of  life,  financially  or  artistically,  who  has 
risen  to  the  top  of  his  profession  or  is  recog- 
nized among  the  lead- 
ers of  Ins  line  of  trade, 
no  matter  what  that 
calling  may  he-  and  I 
will  show  to  you  a  man 
who  has  more  than  or- 
dinary ability  a  man 
who  has  'something  in 
him."  who  commands 
respect  and  admiration, 
though  that  admiration 
may  he  horn  more  or 
less  of  jealousy." 

The    above     remark 

was   made   by   the   late 

John  (i.  ( Carlisle,  when 

addressing    a    jury    in 

Covington,  Kentucky,  years  before  he  became 

Secretary   of   State    in    President    Cleveland's 

cabinet. 

And  the  ••twelve  men.  good  and  true," 
nodded  their  approval. 

.lames  Buchanan  Brady  was  not  the  client 
to  whom  Mr.  Carlisle  referred,  but  had  he 
been,  the  application  would  have  been  very 
appropriate. 

By  his  own  efforts,  natural  intelligence,  and 
unwavering  application  to  his  work,  James  B. 
Brady  has  gained  a  place  among  the  leaders 
and  sticks  there. 

Born  in  New  York  City,  he  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools,  and  began  his  business 
life  as  an  errand  boy  for  the  New  York  Cen 
tral  Railroad.  lie  studied  telegraphy,  and 
soon  became  an  expert  operator  at  the  Grand 
Central  Station  headquarters.  This  position 
he  held  for  some  time  and  was  also  ticket 
agent  for  a  while.  One  day  he  saw  what  he 
thought  "a  good  fhin<j'.'*  and  seized  it.  It 
was  a  saw  used  for  cutting  and  sawing  iron. 
He  raised  the  money  to  purchase  the  patent 
rights,  placed  it  on  the  market. 

It    was    then    that   young    Brady    developed 


extraordinary  ability  as  a  salesman.  He  made 
a  wonderful  success  and  his  fame  traveled 
before  him. 

As  traveling  agent  for  Manning,  Maxwell  & 
Moore,  one  of  the  largest  railroad  supply 
houses  in  the  country,  he  became  interested 
in  several  steel  and  iron  companies,  and  his 
reputation  in  this  line  extended  from  coast  to 
coast.  It  is  said  that  he  earned  as  high  as 
$.'{0,(1110  a  year  as  a  salesman  independent  of 
any  partnership  interests.  He  was  immensely 
popular,  ami  his  friends  wore  legion. 

Success  begets  success,  and  when  he  en- 
tered the  stock  market,  at  the  entreaty  of  his 
friends,  "in  the  Street."  Brady  was  looked 
upon  as  a  "mascot."  Everything  he  touched 
seemed  to  turn  into  money;  some  said  it  was 
"Brady  luck,"  hut  the  wise  ones  said, 
"Brady  is  no  fool;  he  knows  a  good  thing, 
and  when  he  gets  it.  he  plays  it  for  all  that  it 
is  worth." 

In  his  business  affairs  "Jim"  Brady  is  ag- 
gressive; when  he  buckles  on  his  commercial 
armor  it  is  to  fight-  and  to  win.  But  the 
vulnerable  spot  in  his  armor  is  his  humanity. 
He  wishes  ill  to  no  one.  and  is  ever  ready  to 
lighten  the  burden  of  others. 

When  Mr.  Brady  became  a  factor  in  mat- 
ters of  the  turf  he  did  so  out  of  friendship  for 
F.  C.  McLewes,  becoming  his  partner.  The 
combination  was  successful.  The  firm  owned 
some  of  the  greatest  racers  in  the  world,  win- 
ning fabulous  sums,  the  richest  stakes  in  turf 
events,  against  the  best  talent  of  the  pure 
blood  stock  of  the  English  stables. 

Among  their  horses  wore  Major  Dainger- 
field,  Gold  Heels,  Oiseau,  Fontainebleau  and 
others  that  made  turf  history. 

Matt.  Allen  was  the  trainer  of  their  stable 
and  Mr.  Brady  has  always  given  him  the 
credit  for  their  successes  in  the  "sport  of  kings." 

Mr.  Brady  has  for  some  years  been  famil- 
iarly known  as  "Diamond  Jim,"  a  sobriquet 
given  him  on  account  of  his  valuable  posses- 
sions in  precious  stones. 

He  owns  some  of  the  most  unique  and  orig- 
inal designs  extant  in  jewelry — creations  of  his 
own   mind. 

As  an  entertainer  he  has  few  equals  and  no 
superiors.      He  enjoys  giving  good  dinners  to 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    VOIJK 


149 


his  friends  and  on  such  occasions  no  expense 
is  spared. 

Though  he  has  traveled  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  Mr.  Brady  thinks  thai  New  York, 
his  home  city,  is  the  "greatest  spot  on 
earth"  and  Broadway  "the  only  street," 
although  he  has  kind  words  for  the  great  thor- 
oughfares of  London  and  Paris. 

Mr.  Brady  is  vice-president  of  the  great 
railway  supply  house  of  Manning,  Maxwell  & 
Moore.  Incorporated;  vice-president  of  the 
Standard  Steel  Car  Company,  president  of  the 
Independent  Pneumatic  Tool  Company,  and 
other  equally  large  concerns. 

Having  had  the  tang  of  travel  in  my  own 
blood  since  early  boyhood,  I  am  likely  to 
speak  of  Charles  Arthur  Moore,  Jr.,  with  con- 
siderable enthusiasm, 
lie  was  born  in  Lynn, 
Mass.,  1880;  educated 
at  St.  Paul's  School. 
Concord,  N.  II..  and 
Yale  University,  where 
he  was  graduated  in 
1903.  I  lis  father  is  a 
member  of  a  large  man- 
ufacturing concern  in 
this  city  and  the  young 
man  at  once  applied 
himself  to  business. 
Prior  to  this  time,  how- 
ever, he  had  acquired 
wide  reputation  as  a 
traveler.  In  1897  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Peary  expedition  to  Cape 
York  and  assisted  in  bringing  back  the  famous 
meteorites  to  be  seen  at  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History.  The  call  of  the  Arctic 
appealed  to  him  so  strongly  that  in  1901  he 
chartered  the  steam  whaler  "Algerine"  and 
spent  that  summer  in  Hudson  Strait  and 
Hudson  Bay.  He  is  probably  the  best  in- 
formed of  any  living  man  regarding  that  vast 
inland  sea  that  became  the  grave  of  its  dis- 
coverer. Again  his  love  of  adventure  awak- 
ened when  he  heard  that  Homer  Davenport, 
cartoonist,  was  about  to  fit  out  an  expedition 
to  the  desert  of  Arabia  to  purchase  Aral) 
horses.  He  promptly  volunteered  as  a  mem- 
ber   of    the    party.      What    probably    caused 


A.  MOORE,  Jr. 


Davenport  to  warm  up  to  him  was  that  he 
is  an  inch  taller  than  the  lanky  artist.  In  the 
Spring  of  1900,  Mr.  Moore  weighed  245 
pounds  and  stood  six  Feet,  four  inches  in  his 
stockings!  He  sailed  for  Havre  early  in  July 
of  that  year;  reaching  Constantinople  by  the 
Oriental  express  on  .Inly  U).  Thence,  he 
accompanied  the  party  into  the  desert  and 
lived  for  three  months  the  life  of  a  nomad. 
I  almost  hesitate  to  talk  aboul  the  commer- 
cial side  of  so  interesting  a  character;  but  Mr. 
Moore  is  a  man  of  responsibilities,  because 
he  is  bound  lo  inherit  many  of  them  from  a 
successful  father.  He  is  already  vice-presi- 
dent, secretary  and  director  of  Manning,  Max- 
well &  Moore.  Inc..  and  half  a  dozen  other 
companies. 

Nothing  is  more  gratifying  than  lo  find  a 
wealthy  and  successful  merchanl  and  lawyer 
taking    an    active    part    in    local    and    national 

politics.  This  is  the 
feature  that  appeals  to 
me  in  the  career  of  E. 
W.  Bloomingdale, 
born  at  Rome,  in  this 
state.  November,  1852, 
and  graduated  at  Co- 
lumbia Law  School, 
1877.  He  practiced  law 
until  1883,  bul  was 
associated  w  i  t  h  his 
brothers  in  the  large 
department  store  at 
Third  Avenue  and  59th 
Street  until  1905.  He 
has  been  equally  suc- 
cessful at  law  and  in 
commercial  life.  His  experience  has  admi- 
rably titted  him  to  act  as  receiver  of  many  cor- 
porations and  lo  acquil  himself  with  great 
credit.  He  is  a  prominent  director  of  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  a  di- 
rector of  the  Phenix  National  Bank,  an  Inter- 
state Bridge  Commissioner,  a  member  of  the 
Hudson  Ter-Centenary  Committee.  An  honor 
he  appreciates  highly  is  that  of  Trustee  of  the 
Mckinley  National  Memorial.  In  charities 
of  the  city  and  state,  he  is  particularly  prom- 
inent. Especially  should  I  mention  his  effi- 
cient    service     in      behalf     of     the     House     of 

Refuge. 


E     \V     HI  i  K  IMIM  ,l>  \  I   I 


1.50 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


When  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  was  ad- 
vancing by  rapid  stages  across  the  plains,  the 
eastern  end  of  the  rails  had  reached  Cheyenne, 
in  the  state  now  known  as  Wyoming,  early  in 
1S(!7.  Several  of  the  civil  engineers  and  con- 
tractors lived  with  their  families  in  box  cars, 
shunted  upon  sidings  until  such  time  as  they 
might  move  to  the  next  stage  of  construction, 
further  west.  In  such  quarters  one  of  the 
mosl  interesting  men  in  this  big  city,  William 
B.  Walker,  now  dwelling  on  Riverside  Drive, 
was  horn,  March  14th  of  that  year.  This  boy 
began  active  work  for  himself  at  the  age  of 
twelve.  The  railroad  had  been  completed 
long  before,  bul  he  was  still  a  hardy  youngster 
of  the  plains.  He  employed  a  team  of  horses, 
a  wagon  and  half  a  dozen  barrels  for  drowning 
out  prairie  dogs  and  capturing  them  when 
they  emerged  from  their  burrows.  These 
curios  hesold  to  tourists.  While  dog-catching 
he  observed  that  the  plains  were  covered  with 
buffalo  bones  and  finding  a  market  for  them 
in  a  New  Jersey  factory  town,  he  shipped 
many  carloads  at  a  good  profit.  When  the 
bone  supply  was  exhausted,  young  Walker 
took  to  the  saddle  and  "followed  the  cows" 
for  three  years  in  that  section  of  Dakota  and 
Wyoming  rendered  famous  by  Colonel  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt.  Thus  did  he  complete  his 
education  in  the  splendid  college  of  experience, 
combining  attrition  with  men  of  the  frontier, 
giving  their  lives  to  "winning  of  the  west," 
and  a  study  of  methods  of  money-making 
suggested  by  his  environment.  He  embarked 
in  general  merchandising,  established  a  chain 
of  five  stores  and  ran  the  business  into  half 
a  million  annual  sales  only  to  learn,  when  the 
panic  of  1893  swept  over  the  land,  that  his 
craft  was  built  for  sailing  on  smooth  financial 
seas.  It  foundered  with  all  on  board  in  the 
first  big  blow.  Mr.  Walker  says  he  reached 
the  conclusion  in  1894  that  he  wasn't  nearly 
so  smart  as  he  had  thought  himself.  He 
realized  that  if  money  was  to  be  acquired  he 
must  go  where  money  was  plenty.  He  selected 
New  York,  because,  in  his  opinion,  success  is 
easier  here  than  failure.  Harkening  to  the 
call  of  the  city,  he  studied  mankind  with  a 
view  to  deciding  which  line  of  trade  offered 
the  surest  road  to  fortune.  Manufacturing, 
he   concluded,    had    provided    the    basis   of   a 


larger  number  of  fortunes  of  the  second  class 
than  any  other  line  of  endeavor;  and  as  his 
chief  asset  at  that  time  was  the  knowledge  that 
the  percentages  had  to  be  in  his  favor,  he  be- 
came a  manufacturer.  There  are  no  "get- 
rich-quick  schemes"  for  men  from  the  tall 
grass  country. 

First,  Mr.  Walker  must  find  something  to 
manufacture!  Chief  importance  lay  in  the 
selection  of  the  article.  He  wanted  to  make 
something  that  had  never  been  made  before;  to 
do  something  that  never  had  been  done  before; 


\V\I.  B.    WALKER 

to  create  an  article  thai  would  do  what  every- 
body wanted  done, — in  short,  an  article  that 
nobody  else  but  he  could  make!  These 
specifications  were  no!  easy  to  comply  with. 
Mr.  Walker  spent  twelve  years,  crowded  with 
patient  effort,  seeking  this  apparently  unat- 
tainable object.  He  visited  more  than  half 
the  States  of  the  Union  and  every  manufac- 
turing centre  of  England,  France.  Italy. 
Austria  and  Germany.  Quite  by  accident,  he 
was  introduced  to  a  resident  of  Berlin  who  had 
received  a  keg  of  caviar  from  a  friend  in  Russia. 
This  German  asked  Walker  to  help  him  con- 
sume it.  At  the  home  of  his  host  he  was  in- 
troduced to  Rheinhold  Burger,  a  famous  glass 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YOKK 


15] 


manufacturer,  who  casually  mentioned  an 
idea  of  his  for  a  field  or  hunting  flask  that 
would  retain  the  temperature  of  its  contents 
for  several  days.  Subsequent  interviews 
brought  Herr  Burger's  idea  to  the  blue-print 
stage, — the  first  models  of  Thermos  bottle. 
German,  English  and  American  companies 
were  quickly  organized  and  to-day,  five  years 
from  the  date  of  its  discovery,  this  remarkably 
useful  article  is  handled  by  50,000  dealers 
in  the  thirty  civilized  countries  of  the  world. 
Mr.  Walker  ascribes  his  brilliant  success  to 
habits  of  industry  acquired  in  youth  and  to  the 
timely  arrival  of  that  keg  of  caviar!  He  re- 
cently said  to  me  that  after  spending  so  much 
of  his  life  on  the  plains,  the  most  awe-inspiring- 
moment  he  has  ever  known  was  when  he  first 
gazed  upon  the  vast  watery  expanse  of  the 
ocean.  Mr.  Walker  is  a  thorough  cosmopoli- 
tan and  he  belongs  to  several  social  clubs. 

The  South  Shore  of  Kong  Island  may  be 
accurately  described  as  "the  Riviera  of  Greater 
New  York."     Sir  John  Tindall,   when    here 

twenty-odd  years  ago, 
declared  that  children 
were  born  who  would 
live  to  see  royal  palms 
growing  on  the  ocean 
shore  of  Kong  Island. 
He  predicted  that  the 
Gulf  Stream  w  o  u  I  d 
gradually  work  nearer 
to  land  and  that  the 
modifying  effect  of  its 
w  a  r  m  currents  upon 
climate  would  be  such 
as  to  render  the  South 
Shore  one  of  the  most 
delightful  residential  lo- 
calities in  the  Temper- 
ate Zone.  Americans  who  have  visited 
Genoa  and  especially  its  suburb,  Pegli,  will 
remember  the  splendid  array  of  palms  at  the 
latter  place  and  wonder  why  such  tropical 
trees  are  to  be  found  there,  when  the  latitude 
is  4-t  degrees  X.  New  York  lies  in  about 
41  degrees  X..  and  if  the  Gulf  Stream  does  its 
duty,  as  predicted  by  the  scientist,  my  friend, 
Richard  A.  Bachia,  living  at  Bay  Shore,  will 
possess  a  country  home  equally  attractive  at 
all    seasons    of    the    year.      His    grandfather, 


RICHARD  A.  BACHIA 


Nicholas  C.  Bachia,  came  to  New  York  from 
Venice  in  1818,  and  married  a  Miss  Waldron, 
member  of  an  old  Dutch  family  that  had  come 
to  America  in  l(i-K). 

Richard  A.  Bachia  is  a  product  of  "Green- 
wich Village,"  on  the  West  Side  of  Manhattan 
Island,  where  his  father  lived  and  where  he 
was  born  in  Charles  Street.  Mr.  Bachia  was 
graduated  from  the  public  schools  and  ob- 
tained a  position  with  a  leaf  tobacco  house. 
A  few  years'  apprenticeship  convinced  him 
that  he  had  the  taste  of  a  connoisseur  on  Cuba's 
product.  After  following  this  line  for  twenty- 
five  years,  buying,  importing  and  selling,  he 
began  the  manufacture  of  Havana  cigars  in 
New  York,  in  1901,  importing  the  leaf  direct 
and  making  up  the  product  here.  His  success 
has  been  gratifying,  because  his  plan  was  a 
decided  innovation  from  the  fact  that  the 
market  can  be  supplied  with  the  fresh  goods 
instead  of  the  dry  product,  which  lovers  of 
the  weed  do  not  esteem. 

Mr.  Bachia  has  made  many  trips  to  Cuba; 
he  is  fond  of  all  kinds  of  sports,  particularly 
golfing  and  yachting.  He  is  a  lover  of  books 
and  possesses  an  excellent  library.  His  home 
at  Bay  Shore,  on  the  South  Country  Road, 
is  one  of  the  show  places  of  that  locality. 
Ross's  "History  of  Long  Island"  deals  with 
the  family  history  to  some  extent.  Richard 
A.  Bachia  is  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Yacht,  Hanover  and  South  Side  Field  clubs. 
He  is  a  trustee'  of  the  Citizens  Savings  Hank 
of  New  ^  ork  and  a  director  of  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Bay  Shore,  L.  I. 

Sugar  is  one  of  the  world's  staples.  Im- 
provement in  methods  of  producing  the  refined 
article  has  been  due  to  efforts  of  American 
refiners  like  B.  II.  Howell,  Son  &  Co.,  of  this 
city.  A  prominent  member  of  that  firm  is 
James  Howell  Host,  who  has  been  connected 
with  it  as  clerk  and  partner  since  1874.  He 
knows  the  sugar  business  from  start  to  finish, 
as  thoroughly  as  any  living  man.  He  was 
born  at  New  Rochelle,  X.  Y.,  October,  1859, 
and.  after  finishing  at  the  public  schools  of 
that  town,  plunged  into  commercial  business. 
He  is  to-day  president  of  the  National  Sugar 
Refining  Company  of  New  Jersey,  a  director 
of  the  National  City  Bank  the  strongest  in- 
stitution of  its  kind  in  this  country,  occupying 


1 52 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


the  site  of  the  old  Custom  House  -director 
and  treasurer  of  the  Chaparra  Sugar  Com- 
pany and  various  other  corporations  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  sugar.  He  is  a  trustee 
in  the  Williamsburg  Savings  Bank  and  a 
director  in  the  United  States  Realty  and  Im- 
provement Company  and  many  other  cor- 
porations. Mr.  Post  is  a  sincere  believer  in 
helping  the  American  hoy  and  to  that  end.  from 
early  in  his  successful  commercial  career,  has 
Keen  a  sturdy  supporter  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  the  Industrial  School 
Association  of  Brooklyn,  and  of  the  hospital 
and  dispensary  system  of  that  borough.  He  is 
a  Presbyterian  in  his  religious  views,  hut 
knows  no  creed  in  his  charities. 

The  Parker  family  of  Xew  Jersey  came  from 
England  by  way  of  Barnstable.  Mass.,  in  l(i-K), 
settling  at  Woodbridge,  X.  -I..  in  1667.  For 
three  generations,  descendants  of  Elisha  Par- 
ker were  members  of  the  King's  Council  for 
the  Province  and  held  commissions  as  Colonels 
and  Captains  of  Provisional  Troops  engaged 
in  ceaseless  warfare  against  the  Indian  tribes. 

Subsequent  members  of 
the  Parker  family  have 
been  members  of  State 
Legislatures  a  ml  of 
<  !ongress.  R  obert 
Meade  Parker,  now  in 
active  commercial  en- 
terprises in  Greater 
Xew  ^  ork,  is  a  son  of 
(  Ortlandt  Parker,  a  dis- 
tinguished jurist,  orator 
and  diplomat,  and  was 
born  in  Xew  ark.  N  .  J.. 
1S(I4.  He  received  his 
education  at  St.  Paul's 
School.  ( loncord,  X.H., 
and  at  Phillips  Exeter 
Academy,  finishing  at  Princeton  University  in 
1885.  After  graduation  he  obtained  a  clerk- 
ship with  the  Erie  Railroad,  serving  part  of  the 
time  in  President  King's  office.  He  became 
division  freight  agent  in  1890,  general  freight 
aeent  in  1902,  and.  in  1905,  was  chosen  traffic 
manager  for  the  American  Sugar  Refining 
Company.  His  selection  as  President  of  the 
Brooklyn  Cooperage  Company  followed  in 
1 !)()(!    and    this    post    he    still    retains.      lie    is 


ROB]   l:  1    M.   PARKER 


the   sugar 
argely  d\u- 


President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Stave,  the  But- 
ler County  Railroad,  and  the  Great  Western 
Laud  Companies  and  is  vice-president  of  the 
Oleona  Railroad.  Despite  his  active  business 
career.  Mr.  Parker  has  always  taken  deep 
interest  in  military  matters,  serving  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  highly  exclusive  Essex  Troop  of 
Xew  .Jersey  from  1890  to  ISDN,  when  he  was 
chosen  1st  lieutenant  and  battalion  adjutant 
of  the  12th  Infantry,  Xew  York  Volunteers, 
and  promoted  to  Captain  and  Regimental 
Quartermaster,  June  1.  1898.  This  post  im- 
posed upon  him  entire  charge  of  the  field 
equipment  of  the  regiment  for  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  Mr.  Parker  was  actively  em- 
ployed at  Peekskill.  Chickamauga  Park,  Ga., 
and  in  Kentucky,  resigning  his  commission 
after  the  conclusion  of  peace.  lie  afterwards 
joined  the  12th  Regiment,  X.  G.  X.  Y.,  serving 
until  l!M)cS,  when  he  resigned. 

The  wonderful  development  o 
industry  in  this  country  has  been 
to  strictly  scientific  talent  employed  in  work- 
ing out  the  most  ap- 
proved methods  of  re- 
fining  the  raw  article  of 
commerce.  The  Amer- 
ican Sugar  Refining 
Company  has  always 
commanded  the  best 
gray  matter  to  lie  had. 
At  the  head  of  its  Man- 
ufacturing and  Supply 
Department  is  Henry 
Ernest  Niese,  a  practi- 
cal chemist,  who,  for 
forty  years,  has  special- 
ized on  the  scientific 
methods  employed  in 
the  sugar  i  n  d  u  s  t  r  y. 
Equipped  with  complete  technical  training. 
secured  at  the  best  institutions  of  Europe,  he 
came  to  America  as  a  young  man  and  served 
a  thorough  apprenticeship  as  chemist  in  the 
refinery  business.  Of  late  years  he  has 
shown  that  he  is  equally  as  efficient  in  an  ex- 
ecutive post  as  in  places  demanding  scientific 
know  ledge.  Mr.  Niese  was  born  on  the  Island 
of  Fehmarn,  Germany,  in  1848.  He  is  of  un- 
mixed German  blood.  He  was  educated  in 
his  native  country.      He  entered  the   Univer- 


1 1 1  N  1 ; v  E.  NIESE 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1 53 


sity  of  Kiel  and  studied  chemistry  at  Leipsic. 
His  college  studies  were  interrupted  by  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  in  which  he  served  as 
a  private  in  the  Thirty-sixth  Etegimenl  of 
Fusilliers.  Returning  to  college,  he  was  grad- 
uated in  INT.'S  and  came  immediately  l<>  the 
Tinted  States  to  act  as  chemist  for  the  Mat- 
thiessen-Wiechers  Sugar  Refinery,  of  Jersey 
City.  At  the  end  of  six  years  he  was  made 
superintendent  of  the  establishment  and  still 
holds  that  position,  although,  in  L887,  the 
concern  was  taken  into  the  American  Sugar 
Refining  Company.  Mr.  Niese  has  been  a 
member  of  the  American  Chemical  Society 
since  its  organization.  lie  belongs  to  the 
Chemists'  Chili  and  the  Carteret  Chili,  of 
Jersey  City.  He  is  also  a  director  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Jersey  City.  Mr.  Niese 
is,  by  temperament,  an  earnest  and  painstak- 
ing workman  in  whatever  he  undertakes.  His 
early  training  inspired  him  with  a  profound 
love  of  research  and  he  couldn't  lie  other  than 
a  student,  if  he  tried.  His  library  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  private  collections  of  books 
in  the  city  of  his  residence. 

Sugar,  next  to  bread  and  salt,  is  a  "staff  of 
life!"  Among  the  wildest  tribes  of  American 
Indians,  sugar-making  has  always  been  one 
of  the  Spring  ceremonials,  equalled  only  by 
the  gathering  of  the  wild  rice  in  the  Autumn. 
Therefore, sugar  is  a  theme  over  which  one  may 
be  justified  in  waxing  eloquent.  I  want  to 
speak  of  a  man  who  has  been  actively  engaged 
in  manufacturing  sugar  for  thirty-four  years. 
F.  1).  Mollenhauer,  vice-president  and  treas- 
urer of  the  National  Sugar  Refining  ( Company, 
of  New  Jersey  and  New  York.  When  the 
parent  corporation  of  this  industry,  the  Na- 
tional Sugar  Refining  Company,  was  organized, 
in  1900,  its  most  important  accession  was  the 
Mollenhauer  Sugar  Refining  Company,  of 
Brooklyn,  with  a  daily  capacity  of  14,000  bar- 
rels  of  the  refined  product.  This  enormous 
business  had  been  created  by  John  Mollen- 
hauer, father  of  the  present  head  of  the  family. 
F.  1).  Mollenhauer  was  born  in  New  York 
City  fifty-odd  years  ago.  was  educated  at  the 
public  schools  and  took  a  finishing  course 
at  the  Polytechnic  Institute,  Brooklyn.  He 
was  a  hard  student  in  the  sciences,  having 
real   enthusiasm   in   his  life's  work.       He  then 


be 


;gan  a  practical  training  in  the  sugar  refining 
business  that  equipped  him  for  the  great  re- 
sponsibilities sure  to  fall  upon  his  shoulders. 
When  he  succeeded  his  father,  he  linill  a  new 
refinery,  one  of  the  largest  in  I  he  United  States, 
employing  several   hundred   men   in   its   manj 


wx4*^  n 

-M 

^^W   /             I 

WmSla 

\  Ha 

Btt-                        ji£&F^.-?& 

FRED'K    l>.  MOLLENHAUER 

diverse  branches.  The  building  became  a 
landmark  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn.  The  ca- 
pacity of  the  refinery  was  more  than  doubled 
by  this  addition  to  its  plant.  Mr.  Mollen- 
hauer always  has  been  a  prominent  factor  in 
the  National  Sugar  Refining  Company  since 
the  consolidation  of  his  interests  therewith, 
and  his  rise  to  the  vice-presidency  was  a 
recognition  of  his  efficiency  and  capacity  as  an 
executive  director  therein.  lie  is  identified 
with    half   a    dozen    other    large    corporations. 


154 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


holding  directorships  in  the  Cuban-American 
Sugar  Company  and  the  St.  Regis  Paper  ( !om- 
pany.  He  is  also  a  director  in  the  Manufac- 
turers' National  Hank  and  Nassau  Trust  Com- 
pany and  a  trustee  of  the  United  States 
Llovds.  His  thirty-four  years  of  active  com- 
mercial life,crowded  with  many  responsibilities, 
have  not  dulled  his  social  tendencies,  as  is 
shown  by  his  members-hip  in  the  New  York 
and  Atlantic  Yacht  clubs,  the  Automobile 
Club  of  America,  the  National  Democratic 
and  the  New  York  Athletic  clubs  of  Manhat- 
tan, and  the  Hanover  and  Union  League  clubs 
of  Brooklyn.  Mr.  Mollenhauer  is  an  inde- 
pendent Democrat  but  has  never  taken  an 
active  part  in  politics. 

A  fellow  Ohioan  for  whom  I  have  great  ad- 
miration is  D.  Alvin  Fox,  born  at  New  Phila- 
delphia, May.  1870,  and  who  finished  his 
education  at  the  Ohio  Wesleyan   University, 

Delaware,  where  I  my- 
self passed  (wo  happy 
years.  Mr.  Fox  began 
his  active  career  in  1 SS!) 
as  office  clerk  in  the 
cooperage  department 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Co., 
at  Cleveland,  and  re- 
signed two  years  later 
to  accept  a  place  in  the 
engineering  department 
of  the  Walker  Manu- 
facturing ( 'ompany.  in 
the  same  city.  There 
:>  A  F0X  he    served    four   years' 

apprenticeship,  during 
which  period,  by  special  study  after  office 
hours,  he  completed  an  engineering  course.  His 
natural  inclinations  were  towards  mechanics 
and  he  took  advantage  of  all  opportunities. 
Haying  completed  an  apprenticeship  he  went 
to  the  Dickson  Manufacturing  Company,  of 
Scranton,  Pa.,  and  thence  returned  to  his 
former  employers,  the  Walker  Manufacturing 
Company,  where  he  remained  until  1897, 
when  he  made  the  great  step  of  his  life  by 
becoming   identified   with   the   Honolulu    Iron 


Works  Company,  of  Hawaii.  In  that  wonder- 
ful country  he  passed  nearly  eight  years,  and. 
as  head  of  the  engineering  department  of  the 
company. he  carried  out  many  improvements  in 
machinery  and  the  enterprise  grew  to  one  of 
large  proportions.  He  was  sent  to  New  York 
in  1905  to  open  an  office  of  the  company  and 
lias  been  its  manager  ever  since.  The  Hono- 
lulu Iron  Works  Company  was  established  in 
1852  by  1).  Weston,  inventor  of  the  marvelous 
centrifugal  machine  for  drying  sugar.  Its 
works  now  occupy  nearly  seven  acres  of  ground 
and  arc  specially  equipped  for  the  manufacture 
of  sugar-making  machinery.  The  number  of 
its  employees  varies  from  300  to  600  men. 
Nearly  all  new  machinery  installed  in  the 
sugar  factories  of  Hawaii  was  supplied  by  this 
company.  The  following  modern  establish- 
ments, with  cane  capacity  per  day,  will  indi- 
cate the  growth  of  the  Honolulu  Iron  Works' 
business:  Oahu  Sugar  Company,  1,450  tons; 
Wailuku,  1,200;  Waialua  Agricultural  Com- 
pany, 1,400:  Ewa  Plantation  Company,  2,500; 
Olaa  Sugar  Company,  1,200;  Puunene,  L2,500 
tons;  Puako,  200  tons;  Hawi,  S00  tons;  and 
Ililo  Sugar  Company,  1,200  tons.  This  large 
manufacturing  plant  has  already  sent  a  com- 
plete outfit  to  the  Tobasco  Plantation  Com- 
pany, Oaxaquena,  Mexico;  remodeled  four 
factories  in  Porto  Rico,  one  with  a  capacity  of 
4,500  tons  of  cane  per  day;  designed  and  built 
five  factories  on  the  Island  of  Formosa.  A 
new  factory  of  1.000  tons  daily  capacity  has 
just  been  shipped  to  the  Philippine  Islands. 
It  has  been  a  successful  bidder  for  contracts 
in  Louisiana,  especially  a  new  1,400  ton  cane 
mill  at  Adeline.  Mr.  Fox  has  developed  the 
business  of  the  new  office  to  its  full  capacity. 
No  better  proof  of  the  fact  that  New  York 
City  can  furnish  thoroughly  equipped  business 
men  is  needed  than  is  shown  in  the  successful 
career  of  J.  Henry  Dick,  who  was  born  in 
this  city  in  1N51  and  who  hurried  through  his 
education  to  enter  the  sugar  refining  business, 
at  the  age  of  seventeen,  with  his  father.  His 
life  from  that  hour  has  been  wholly  devoted 
to  the  activities  of  a  business  career,  and  he 
is   to-day   one  of  the   directing  spirits   of  the 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


155 


National  Refining  Company.  He  early  be- 
came an  associate  of  the  late  Cord  Meyer  in 
the  development  of  Long  Island  property; 
he  assisted  in  the  creation  of  the  Citizens' 
Water  Supply  Company,  the  Charles  Rice 
Milling  Company  and  the  St.Regis  Paper  Mills. 
He  is  associated  as  a  Director  in  the  Manu- 
facturers' Bank  and  the  German  Savings 
Bank  of  Brooklyn.  These  enterprises  by  no 
means  cover  the  field  of  his   activities.      Mr. 


J.  HENRY  DICK 

Dick  is  a  member  of  the  Metropolitan, 
Athletic  and  Riding  and  Driving  ('Inks  of 
Manhattan  and  of  the  Hanover  ('Ink  of 
Brooklyn,  which  would  indicate  that  he  is 
fond  of  social  life  as  well  as  business. 

In    1837,    Maximilian    Schaefer,    son    of   a 
successful   brewer  in  Germany,  came  to  this 


to- 


RUDOLPH  J.  SCHAEFER 


country;  later  he  joined  his  brother  and 
gether  they  established 
the  firm  of  V.  ik  M. 
Schaefer.  That  was  in 
1N-1>2,  which  gives  to 
the  Schaefer  establish- 
ment pioneership  as 
lager  beer  brewers  in 
the  United  States.  Ru- 
dolph J.  Schaefer.  son 
of  Maximilian,  w  a  s 
born  in  this  city  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1863.  His  edu- 
cation was  received  in 
private  and  p  u  b  1  i  c 
schools  and  embraced 
general  academic  in- 
struction and  thorough 

commercial  courses.  After  graduation  he  spent 
two  years  in  downtown  commercial  and  mer- 
cantile life,  and  then  took  up  the  business  of  his 
father  and  rose  through  all  grades  and  depart- 
ments of  the  calling  by  dint  of  his  own  appli- 
cation and  efforts  to  the  position  of  manager 
of  the  manufacturing  branch.  It  may  be  said 
that  to-day  he  is  one  of  the  best  known  and 
most  popular  men  in  the  brewing  business  in 
the  United  States.  His  activities  have  not 
been  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  concern 
which  bears  his  surname,  but  he  has  for  many 
years  played  a  leading  and  conspicuous  part 
in  the  national,  state  and  city  organizations 
which  recruit  their  membership  from  among 
all  the  brewers  of  the  United  States.  State  and 
City  of  New  York. 

He  is  serving  his  third  term  as  president 
of  the  Xew  York  State  Brewers'  Association, 
anil  previous  to  that  he  had  been  president  of 
the  Lager  Beer  Brewers'  Board  of  Trade  of 
Xew  York  and  Vicinity  for  a  period  of  two 
years.  Mr.  Schaefer  is  now  the  vice-president 
of  the  F.  &  M.  Schaefer  Brewing  Co..  and 
president  of  the  Schaefer  (Realty)  Company, 
and  is  also  interested  in  many  other  industrial 
enterprises.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the  German 
Hospital  and  1  )ispensary.  He  is  a  life  member 
of  the  Xew  York  Athletic  Club  and  "Big 
Chief"  of  the  Huckleberry  Indians  thereof: 
a  "  Lamb."  a  "  Pilgrim,"  a  member  of  a  dozen 
or  more  other  clubs  and  associations  in  all  the 
dilferent    ramifications    of    metropolitan    life. 


156 


THE  HOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


I     COIT  JOHNSON 


A    Connecticut    cotton    manufacturer    who 

was  amons  the  first  of  ;ill  Northern  men  to  sec 
the  wisdom  of  taking  the  mill  to  the  cotton 

planl  instead  of  trans- 
porting the  raw  mate- 
rial to  the  \e\\  Eng- 
la  rid  factory  is  F.  ( 'oil 
Johnson.  lie  was 
born  in  Norwich, ( !onn., 
in  1863  and  was  edu- 
cated at  the  academy 
in  thai  city.  At  an 
earlv  age  he  plunged 
into  the  cotton  busi- 
ness as  a  commission 
merchant  and  after  sev- 
eral years'  active  expe- 
rience as  a  trader,  he 
received  an  oiler  from 
a  large  manufacturing 
company  thai  promised  rapid  advancement. 
In  doubt  as  to  the  desirability  of  an  acceptance, 
however,  he  consulted  J.  II.  Lane,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  cotton  factors  in  New  York. 
Mr.  Lane  heard  his  story  and  promptly 
offered  to  him  a  very  Battering  position  in  his 
own  company.  He  is  now  the  president  of 
.1.  II.  Lane  &  Co.  and  of  the  Hampton  Cot- 
ton Company,  Last  Hampton,  Mass.  He  is 
a  director  in  four  large  cotton  manufacturing 
corporations  in  La  Grange,  Comers  and  Man- 
chester. Ga.  lb"  occupies  various  official 
positions  in  many  other  companies.  He  has 
Keen  an  early  and  enthusiastic  autoinobilist. 
spending  much  of  his  time  in  the  enjoyment 
of  this  sport.  Mr.  Johnson's  country  home  is 
at  Mill  Neck  (Locust  Valley),  Long  Island, 
within  easy  motoring  distance  of  the  metrop- 
olis, where  the  family  passes  their  Summers. 
I  ike  many  men  who  have  made  their  own  way 
in  this  world.  Mr.  Johnson  is  fond  of  associa- 
tion with  his  fellows.  He  belongs  to  several 
clubs,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the 
Union  League.  Merchants'  and  Hardware  of 
Manhattan,  and  the  Country  Club  of  Nassau 
County.  As  a  high  distinction,  Mr.  Johnson 
rates  his  election  to  the  ( 'hamber  of  Commerce 
of  the  State  of  New  York.  Mr.  Johnson  is 
devoted  to  literature,  as  well  as  commerce, 
and  is  informed  regarding  all  new   books. 


II  \  I ;  I ;  V   IS.  THAYER 


Of  great  prominence  in  the  electrical  field 
and  vice-president  of  the  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company,  one  of  the  largest  cor- 
porations in  this  coun- 
try, is  Harry  Hates 
Thayer,  who  started 
his  business  life  in  a 
savings  bank  at  North- 
field,  Vt.,  .'5.'5  years  ago. 
Mr.  Thayer  was  born 
in  that  town  August. 
1858,  and  after  a  public 
school  education  was 
graduated  at  Dart- 
mouth College,  1879. 
lb-  attained  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon  fraternity.  Dis- 
regarding false  starts 
in  his  career,  he  began 

as  a  clerk  for  the  Western  Electric  Company, 
of  Chicago.  January,  1881.  From  that  point 
Mr.  Thayer  has  never  ceased  to  rise  and  thirty- 
odd  years'  growth  has  lifted  him  from  clerk- 
ship, local  manager,  general  manager,  vice- 
president  and  president  of  the  Western  Elec- 
tric ( lompany  to  the  vice-presidency  of  the  great 
corporation  that  now  controls  the  telephone 
and  a  large  share  of  the  telegraphic  business 
of  the  United  States.  He  ascribes  his  success 
to  persistent  application  and  continuity  of 
purpose.  He  stuck  to  his  job  and  grew  with 
it!  Mr.  Thayer  is  a  director  in  several  com- 
panies subordinate  to  the  ones  in  which  he  is 
president  and  vice-president.  He  comes  from 
old  Massachusetts  Hay  ancestry,  none  of 
whom  arrived  later  than  1700  or  settled  else- 
where than  in  Xew  England.  In  politics,  he 
is  decidedly  independent,  believing  thai  capac- 
ity and  integrity  are  what  qualify  men  for 
public  confidence.  He  never  has  held  political 
office,  his  activities  in  that  direction  being 
confined  to  exercising  his  own  duties  as  a  voter; 
he  is  of  serious  thought  a  student  at  all  times. 
Mr.  Thayer  is  a  member  of  the  University 
and  Salmagundi  clubs  of  New  York,  the 
Union  League  of  Chicago,  the  Xew  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  the  Xew  England 
Society  of  Xew  York. 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


157 


CHAPTER  XVII 


COMEDY  OF  JOURNALISM 


MEMORABLE  football  game 
between  two  of  the  great  Uni- 
versities, was  played  at  Berke- 
ley Oval.  As  Managing  Editor 
of  the  New  York  World.  1  was 
anxious  to  <>-et  some  advertising 
out  ot  the  event.  Several  of  us 
put  our  heads  together  and  hit  upon  this 
scheme : 

We  would  obtain  an  ambulance,  equip  it 
with  physicians  and  drivers  and  send  it  to  a 
place  outside  the  fence  surrounding  the  foot- 
hall  field  to  await  opportunity.  On  one  side 
of  the  enclosure  was  a  gate  that  we  proposed 
to  utilize;  arrangements  of  a  financial  char- 
acter were  made  with  an  attendant  at  the 
grounds  to  throw  open  that  portal  on  a  signal 
which  I  would  give  from  the  grand  stand. 

The  ambulance  was  borrowed  from  the 
Department  of  Charities  and  Correction;  its 
leather  sides  were  replaced  by  new  ones,  set- 
ting forth  in  large  letters  the  legend:  'The 
New  York  World's  Special  Football  Ambu- 
lance." The  daily  circulation  of  the  news- 
paper was.  incidentally,  given  in  figures!  A 
surgeon,  at  $25,  was  seated  in  the  vehicle. 
A  driver,  who  had  explicit  orders,  held  the 
lines.  The  ambulance  was  ready  outside  the 
gateway:  I  took  my  seat  on  the  grand  stand, 
at  a  point  from  which  I  could  lie  seen  by  the 
gateman. 

There  were  8,000  people  on  the  grounds, 
to  every  one  of  whom  I  hoped  to  impart  a 
distinct  mental  impression  that  the  World 
was  the  most  alive  newspaper  in  the  metropo- 
lis. The  first  half  of  the  game  ended  without 
a  case  of  injury!  Was  our  splendid  scheme 
to  fail  ?      It  looked  so. 

The  second  half  began  more  lively.  Several 
new  men  had  been  substituted,  and  they  played 
with  an  impetuosity  that  the  tired  members 
of  the   teams    could    not    withstand.      ".Jack" 


Mumford,  formerly  of  a  Princeton  eleven, 
was  writing  the  story  of  the  game.  Ten 
minutes  passed  and  not  a  player  failed  to  get 
up  after  a  tackle  or  a  down! 

Suddenly,  there  was  a  mass  play  in  front 
of  the  grandstand.  As  the  squirming  players 
were  pulled  oil'  the  body  of  the  man  with  the 
ball,  I  saw  the  youngster  was  unconscious. 
The  moment  had  come! 

The  signal  was  given;  the  gate  swung  open 
and  our  ambulance  dashed  into  the  enclosure. 
The  horse  at  full  gallop,  it  came  to  the  side  of 
the  injured  man.  Quicker  than  can  be  writ- 
ten, a  stretcher  was  out.  the  sufferer  was  lifted 
thereon,  pushed  into  the  vehicle  and  away 
went  the  horse! 

The  ambulance  had  disappeared  through 
the  gate,  amid  tumultuous  cheering,  before 
the  captain  of  the  team  realized  that  we  had 
"kidnapped"  one  of  his  best  men,  under  the 
guise  of  doing  an  act  of  mercy. 

Meanwhile,  the  driver  and  physician  had 
orders  to  take  their  patient  to  the  nearest  city 
hospital  and  not  to  release  him  under  any 
circumstances  until  they  had  delivered  him 
to  the  physician  in  charge.  Hut  the  unex- 
pected occurred. 

The  injured  man  came  to  himself  and  de- 
manded to  know  where  hi'  was  being  taken. 
In  vain,  he  was  assured  of  serious  injuries. 
He  swore  he  wouldn't  go  to  a  hospital,  and 
began  to  recover  his  strength  with  alarming 
rapidity.  At  the  end  of  a  mile,  the  doctor, 
who  was  somewhat  of  an  athlete,  was  engaged 
in  a  death  grapple  with  the  famous  guard. 
They  fought  all  the  way  to  Central  Park. 
The  driver  was  bound  for  Roosevelt  Hospital, 
but  made  the  mistake  of  attempting  to  drive 
through  the  park.  Advertising  signs  upon 
a  wagon  are  an  infraction  of  a  city  ordinance. 
Before  he  had  passed  McGowan's  Tavern  a 
mounted  policeman  was  in  hot  chase.     Arres 


158 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


followed  and  the  party  landed  at  the  old  Ar- 
senal station. 

The  whole  episode  then  came  out.  It 
seemed  so  humorous  to  the  police  captain 
that  he  discharged  the  driver;  the  famous  left 
guard  laughed  heartily  and  shook  hands  with 
the  plucky  doctor,  who  had  a  hue  black  eye 
to  console  him  for  his  fidelity  to  instructions. 

lint  we  got  the  advertising.  Needless  to 
say,  we  were  thoroughly  abused  by  our  com- 
petitors— envious  because  the  idea  hadn't  oc- 
curred to  them.  It  was  such  an  easy  thought, 
don't  you  see;  anybody  could  have  done  the 
trick,  had  they  been  given  the  idea. 

A  School  of  Journalism  had  Keen  estab- 
lished at  Cornell  University,  my  alma  mater, 
and  when  a  case  of  smallpox  appeared  in  Sage 
College,  a  part  of  the  university  for  women 
students.  1  thought  an  opportunity  had  arisen 
in  which  to  serve  the  institution.  The  school 
had  begun  work  under  the  deanship  of  a 
former  exchange  reader  in  a  New  York  office; 
and  pretended  attempts  were  made  at  report- 
ing local  events.  When  the  case  of  smallpox 
appeared,  the  faculty,  with  grave  wisdom, 
decided  that  the  3,000  students  must  be  vac- 
cinated, as  a  safeguard  against  contagion. 
The  two  hundred  and  more  young  women 
were  included,  which  added  human  interest 
to  a  properly  written  account  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  virus. 

1  wiied  Dean  Smith:  "Here's  a  chance  to 
demonstrate  the  practical  worth  of  the  in- 
struction in  journalism  now  given  at  Cornell. 
The  World  desires  to  engage  ten  members  of 
your  school  and  will  pay  regular  space  rates 
for  .'{(10  words  of  a  signed  article  from  each 
pupil.  Methods  of  vaccination  should  be 
described,— especially  the  comparative  forti- 
tude of  young  men  and  women.  Kindly  avoid 
duplications.  We  want  a  plain,  matter-of- 
fact  narrative  of  the  entire  incident.  An  in- 
terview with  Dr.  Hurt  G.  Wilder  should  be 
added."  Could  any  thought  have  been  more 
practical.'  But  that  Dean  did  not  rise  to  an 
opportunity  to  advance  the  interests  of  his 
school;  he  sent  a  curt  and  impudent  reply. 
I  then  engaged  the  staff  of  a  local  Ithaca 
newspaper  and  the  thorough  manner  in  which 
the  interesting  event  was  "covered"  resulted 


in  the  abolition  of  the  course  of  instruction. 

Chicago  has  a  humor  of  its  own  and  a  special 
brand  of  humorists.  The  "guying"  of  guests 
is  of  modern  invention.  It  probably  originated 
witli  the  Clover  Club  of  Philadelphia;  but 
the  Gridiron  of  Washington,  and  the  tem- 
porarily successful  Quaint  Club  of  tins  city, 
carried  the  offense  to  greater  lengths.  That 
a  member  of  the  Chicago  Society  of  Indians 
should  have  accoutred  himself  in  woman's 
garb  and  intruded  upon  the  dinner  to  claim 
his  affinity  in  the  person  of  the  professional 
humorist  is  nothing  unusual,  as  matters  are 
understood  in  Chicago. 

Eugene  Field  was  responsible  for  a  great 
many  practical  jokes,  but  they  were  always 
redeemed  by  the  merit  of  originality  and 
perfect  good  humor.  Field's  answer  to  a 
visitor  who  had  worn  out  his  welcome  is 
historical. 

"Ah!  Mr.  Field,  why  do  you  have  wire 
netting  in  vour  window.'"  he  asked. 

'To  enable  me  to  resist  the  constant  im- 
pulse to  jump  the  ten  stories  when  1  am 
bored." 

"Aw!  very  clever,  Mr.  Field,"  commented 
the  Englishman,  squaring  himself  for  a  pro- 
tracted stay. 

"But  it  is  detachable,"  retorted  Field,  with 
annoyance;  "and  I  am  about  to  remove  it." 
The  stranger  departed. 

The  best  practical  joke  Field  ever  played 
was  upon  his  discoverer  and  exploiter,  Mel- 
ville E.  Stone.  During  tin-  Columbian 
World's  Fair,  a  distinguished  group  of  Euro- 
pean journalists  and  diplomats  expressed  a 
wish  to  visit  the  office  of  the  Chicago  Daily 
News  and  a  date  for  their  coming  was  set. 
When  the  party  arrived  and  the  building  was 
inspected,  a  universal  desire  existed  to  be  in- 
troduced to  Eugene  Field.  He  had  a  room  to 
himself  and  the  party  was  conducted  thither. 
When  the  door  was  opened  in  response  to 
a  gruff  "Come  in!"  the  poet  was  seen  sitting 
at  Ins  desk,  garbed  in  a  convict's  suit  and  to 
his  ankle  was  attached  a  chain  and  ball.  His 
hail'  was  cut  as  short  as  a  clipper  could  make 
is.      lie  glared  at  his  visitors. 

'This  is  only  another  proof  of  the  heartless 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


159 


character  of  my  task-master,"  lie  said,  with 
every  appearance  of  anger.  "1  hoped  to  he 
spared  this  humiliation.  But  no;  he  is  piti- 
less. Not  only  does  he  compel  me  to  wear 
'stripes'  as  an  evidence  of  my  servility  and 
degradation  in  being  connected  with  his  news- 
paper,  hut  he  chains  me  to  this  ball  so  that  I 
cannot  escape." 

Melville  E.  Stone  never  was  wholly  unpre- 
pared for  a  surprise  from  Field.  lie  flushed 
a  trifle,  but  said.  "Everything  he  says  is  true: 
humorists  have  to  be  chained  in  Chicago.  If 
they  get  loose,  they  are  liable  to  kill  people. 
This  poor  fellow,  gentlemen,  is  as  dangerous  as 
his  jokes  are  harmless." 

I  recall  an  experience  of  my  own  with  the 
Whitechapel  Club  of  Chicago.  I  arrived  in 
that  city  late  one  night  and  having  registered 
at  Mr.  Bends'  hotel,  on  the  lake  front,  was 
preparing  to  go  to  bed  when  there  came 
a  peremptory  knock  at  my  door.  I  opened; 
a  policeman  stood  beside  the  hall  boy.  The 
officer  put  me  under  arrest,  telling  me,  in  surly 
tones,  to  get  into  my  clothes!  I  sent  the  boy 
for  Mr.  Bemis,  but  he  had  disappeared.  I 
demanded  to  see  the  warrant  and  I  was  shown 
a  sure  enough  document,  properly  made  out 
and  signed  by  a  magistrate.  It  looked  regular, 
bore  my  name  and  charged  me  with  criminal 
libel!  In  vain,  I  tried  to  secure  telephonic 
communication  with  two  lawyers  known  to 
me;  but  my  messages  did  not  get  beyond  the 
ground  floor  of  the  Richelieu.  Finally,  I  was 
rudely  led  to  the  elevator,  taken  downstairs 
and  bundled  into  a  cab.  The  driver  had  his 
orders,  obviously,  for  he  whipped  up  his 
horses  and  dashed  away  at  high  speed.  Turn- 
ing into  a  narrow  alley,  he  slopped  before  a 
disreputable  doorway. 

"Where  have  you  brought  me?"  I  de- 
manded. 

'To  the  magistrate's,"  was  the  reply. 

We  entered  an  anteroom,  and  beyond  the 
closed  door  sounds  of  hilarious  revelry  were 
heard.  It  didn't  look  like  a  magistrate's 
court,  but  Chicago  is  different  from  other 
towns. 

"Go  inside  and  tell  his  honor  that  1  have 
the  prisoner  here."  said  the  officer  to  a  frowsy 
attendant.  The  young  man  disappeared  and 
a  hush  at  once  fell  upon  the  multitude  assem- 


bled within.  The  flunkey  reappeared.  The 
door  was  thrown  open,  I  was  marched  down  to 
a  long  table  and  formally  surrendered  to  the— 
Whitechapel  Club.  I  was  seated  under  a 
noose  that  had  hanged  a  man:  behind  me. 
upon  the  wall,  was  a  black  cap  that  had  hid- 
den the  awful  death  agonies  of  another  un- 
fortunate fellow  creature. 

I  had  told  the  cabby  to  wait:  but  when 
the  stars  were  singing  together,  about 
4  a.m.,  the  cabman  insisted  upon  driving  up 
the  steps  of  the  Leland  House,  because  he 
asserted  it  was  a  short  cut  into  the  Richelieu. 

I  was  sent  to  Philadelphia  to  report  a  first 
night  of  a  comic  opera  entitled  "The  King 
of  No-Land."  It  was  a  great  occasion  and 
the  Broad  Street  Theatre  was  crowded.  After 
speaking  of  the  leading  singers  in  my  tele- 
graphic report,  a  glance  at  the  programme 
suggested  reference  to  the  young  person  who 
played  the  part  of  the  King.  She  was  a  slight. 
anaemic  creature,  suffering  dreadfully  from 
stage  fright.  Thinking  to  treat  her  kindly, 
I  added  the  following  sentence:  'The  young 
lady  who  played  the  King  appeared  to  be  in 
constant  fear  that  somebody  would  play  the 
ace." 

When  one  is  standing  at  a  telegraph  desk 
to  send  a  dramatic  criticism,  he  lacks  repose; 
his  words  are  wanting  in  finish  that  other- 
wise would  characterize  them. 

Next  morning,  I  went  to  the  Herald's 
Philadelphia  office  to  write  a  letter.  Hardly 
had  I  seated  myself  when  an  immense  man 
entered,  carrying  a  large  club.  He  demanded 
to  see  the  regular  correspondent.  I  told  him 
Mr.  Browning  had  not  arrived. 

"I  want  to  see  him  and  to  teach  him  what 
it  means  to  insult  my  wife,  as  he  does  in  his 
notice  of  her  appearance  as  the  King  at  the 
Broad  Street  Theatre  last  night."  He  then 
explained  that  he  was  the  husband  of  the  pale, 
scared  creature  and  was  grossly  incensed  at 
the  opinion  expressed  about  her. 

It  was  in  the  early  days  of  the  telephone. 
I  stepped  behind  a  curtain,  rang  the  tele- 
phone bell  violently  and  pretended  to  have 
the  following  conversation : 

"Hello,     is    that    you     Browning.' 
(dad    to    have   caught   you     before  you    came 
down.     There's   a   chap   here  who  is  going  to 


li;o 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


club  you  for  what  appears  in  the  Herald  this 
morning,  criticizing  his  wife.  No;  I  am  not 
joking.  .  •  •  Stop  at  the  Fencing  and 
Sparring  Club  and  bring  Jimmy  Murray,  the 
English  prize  fighter,  with  you.  .  .  .  Yes, 
1  am  in  dead"  earnest.  .  .  .  Oh,  you're 
right.  Jimmy '11  do  him  up.  Come  at  once, 
the  man  is  impatient." 


I  pretended  to  hang  up  the  receiver,  al- 
though 1  hadn't  taken  it  off  the  hook,  returned 
to  the  outer  office,  and  advised  the  visitor  to 
wait  for  Mr.  Browning.  I  then  resumed  my 
writing  and  after  a  few  minutes  the  much  ex- 
cited  husband  said  he  would  rail  again  and 
left  the  office. 


THi;  BROOKLYN  EAGLE 


Upper  view  shows  the  site  as  it  appeared  forty  years  ago  when  it  was  occupied  by  the  Brooklyn 
Theatre  which  was  destroyed  l>\  Bre  in  1876  a-  described  in  another  chapter 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YOliK 


k;i 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


FIRST  AMERICAN    DAILY  NEWSPAPER   IN  COLORS 


|HE  New  York  Recorder  started 
with    a    splendid    impulse.      It 
was  thoroughly  advertised  and 
when    it    appeared,    the   people 
bought  it  with  avidity.     Many 
new   features   were   introduced, 
among  winch   were  large  illus- 
trations  and   a   daily   page  of  matter  devoted 
to   women.      But  its   most   venturesome   inno- 
vation was  the  use  of  color  in  its  daily  issues. 
George  W.  Turner,  who  had   been  the  pub- 
lisher of  the   World,  look  charge  of  the  new 
journal  a  short  time  after  its  birth  and  pushed 
it    with   the   vigor   he   had    previously   shown. 
lie  asked  me  to  take  charge  of  the  news  and 
color  departments.     The  latter  task  was  much 
the  more  difficult  of  the  two,  because  the  use  of 
color  on  rotary  presses  had  not  been  success- 
fully   accomplished.      White     paper,     from     a 
roll,   passed  over  four  separate  cylinders,  the 
first  printing  black — in  which  the  letter  press 
was  run- -and  the  three  others  carrying  in  turn 
the    primitive    colors,     red,    yellow    and    blue 
inks.      After  weeks  of  trial,  the  fault  was  seen 
to    be   with    the    inks.     The   "register"    was 
satisfactory  but  all  attempts  to  blend  the  col- 
ors    failed.      For    example,     when     blue     was 
superimposed    upon    yellow,    green    was    not 
produced— the   second    color  would    not    mix 
with  the  first.      Many  whole  days  and  sleep- 
less nights  were  devoted  to  securing  the  hoped 
result     but     without    success.      Slowly    as    the 
press  might   be  run.  the  effect   was  not  satis- 
factory.    One  discovery  of  value  was   made, 
namely    the   employment    of    the    white    back- 
ground   for    giving    what    artists    call    "high 
lights"  to  pictures.      I  engaged  several  young 
artists  who  have  since  become  famous  in  black 
and  white  and  in  oils.    I  brought  ( '.  H.  Macauley 
from  Cleveland  and  he  began  his  career  as  a 
cartoonist  which  has  now  placed   him  in  the 
front  rank.      His  work  on  the  World  to-day  is 
generally    conceded     to     lie    about     the    most 


popular  in  this  city.  Leon  Barrett,  a  man 
of  established  reputation,  and  William  F. 
Ver  Beck,  who  has  since  attained  national 
fame  with  his  "Tiny  Tads,"  were  on  the  art 
stall'.  George  B.  Luks,  who  had  studied 
abroad,  was  there  and  did  some  remarkable 
illustrating  in  the  Parisian  style;  Luks  has  now 
attained  a  high  place  as  a  figure  painter  in 
oils.  William  Iloffaker,  a  promising  free- 
hand draftsman,  with  ships  as  his  specialty, 
did  much  excellent  work.  But  the  director 
of  the  color  work,  a  capable  man  with  a  tine 
reputation  in  lithography,  could  not  make 
the  press  do  justice  to  the  drawings.  Daily 
use  of  color  had  to  be  abandoned,  although 
the  Sunday  paper  retained  a  color  supple- 
ment. Comics  were  printed  in  color — the 
beginning  of  what  has  since  proved  to  be  the 
best  circulation  builders  on  more  modern  Sun- 
day issues.  Mr.  Duke,  one  of  the  Recorder's 
largest  stockholders,  argued  that  the  public 
did  not  care  for  color;  but  subsequent  history 
proves  that  the  fault  lay  with  the  immature 
printing  machine,  not  with  the  artists  or 
patrons  of  the  newspaper. 

The  Recorder  was  the  first  Eastern  news- 
paper to  advocate  bi-nietalisin.  In  politics, 
it  was  Republican  and  stood  where  Congress- 
man McKinley,  afterwards  President,  did  at 
the  time.  One  morning,  a  cartoon  by  Barrett 
contained  a  fac-simile  of  a  silver  dollar.  I 
was  familiar  with  the  United  States  statute 
that  forbids  the  reproduction  of  likenesses  of 
money,  but  had  assumed  that  such  a  law  could 
only  refer  to  paper  money.  I  took  the  pre- 
caution, however,  to  erase  a  few  of  the  stars 
and  to  remove  pari  of  Columbia's  hair.  By 
noon  of  the  day  of  publication,  the  United 
States  Attorney  for  this  District  had  served 
upon  me  a  notice  that  my  arrest  would  follow 
for  an  infraction  of  the  statute.  Here  was  the 
same  sort  of  a  chance  for  advertising  the  paper 
I   had  used  so  successfully  in   Paris!      I   sum- 


102 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


moned  every  caricaturisl  in  Gotham  and  en- 
gaged eaeh  of  them  to  make  cartoons  of  the  sil- 
ver dollar  always  slightly  changing  the  face 
of  the  coin  bu1  leaving  it  recognizable.  We 
printed  a  cartoon  every  day  for  a  month!  One 
of  Ver  Beck's  was  a  masterpiece:  it  represented 
the  American  eagle,  surrounded  by  a  group 
of  eaglets,  reading  the  Revised  Statutes  to 
the  birdlets  and  cautioning  them  not  to  take 
any  silver  dollars  made  of  paper.  The  case 
against  me  was  laughed  out  of  existence. 

Countless  innovations  for  increasing  circu- 
lation were  tried.  An  interesting  one,  used 
after  the  circulation  had  passed  the  1(1(1.00(1 
mark,  was  the  addition  to  the  presses  of  a 
mechanism  that  printed  a  number  upon  every 
paper  issued.  Next  day.  the  publisher  would 
offer  $100  for  the  copy  bearing  a  specified 
number.  No  promise  of  reward  was  made  in 
advance,  which  took  the  scheme  out  of  the 
lottery  class.  Attempts  were  made  to  stop 
this  redemption  of  printed  copies,  but  they 
were  defeated  in  the  courts.  Later,  small 
copies  of  famous  paintings  in  color  were 
issued  as  daily  supplements.  These  were 
numbered  with  a  chemical  ink  that  prevented 
counterfeiting  or  alteration — which  had  been 
attempted  where  ordinary  black  printing  ink 
was  used.  Large  pictures  were  given  away 
with  the  Sunday  issues  and  many  New  York 
homes  were  beautified  therewith. 

There  was  a  spirit  of  philanthropy  in  that 
office  such  as  I  never  encountered  elsewhere. 
Everybody  about  the  place  strove  to  suggest 
methods  for  helping  suffering  humanity. 

We  had  on  the  staff,  at  the  head  of  the  wo- 
man's department.  Miss  Cynthia  Westover. 
who  hailed  from  Denver  and  was  a  splendid 
type  of  athletic  womanhood.  One  afternoon 
she  assembled  fifteen  of  us  and  announced 
her  plan  to  found  an  International  Sunshine 
Society,  having  for  its  purpose  the  creation 
of  a  Home  for  Blind  Babies.  The  splendid 
enterprise  was  started  in  a  very  modest  man- 
ner, but  it  has  to-day  a  contributing  member- 
ship of  150,000  and  has  raised  funds  sufficient 
to  build  two  large  Homes.  Miss  Westover, 
now  Mrs.  John  Alden,  is  at  its  head.  Herein 
is  an  example  of  what  may  be  accomplished 
in  the  cause  of  humanity  by  people  who  are 


not  millionaires.  Miss  Julie  Opp,  now  a 
theatrical  star,  was  of  the  staff. 

A  late  despatch  that  came  into  the  Re- 
corder office  one  night  was  from  Jacksonville. 
Fla.,  stating  that  four  small  boys,  children  of 

| r  parents,  had  been  bitten  by  a  rabid  dog 

that  afternoon  and  had  been  taken  to  a  hos- 
pital "where  they  would  be  kept  isolated  until 
rabies  did  or  did  not  develop." 

This  appeared  to  be  a  horrible  experiment! 
Without  counting  the  cost,  I  "got  on  the  win-" 
and  sent  messages  to  the  Mayor  of  Jackson- 
ville, now  United  States  Senator  Duncan  U. 
Fletcher,  to  the  presidents  and  general  man- 
agers of  all  railroads  between  New  York  and 
Florida,  to  the  superintendent  of  the  Jackson- 
ville hospital,  directing  that  the  four  boys, 
accompanied  by  a  nurse,  be  rushed  here  by 
the  first  train  and  I  hat  the  Recorder  would  be 
responsible  for  all  expenses.  I  awakened 
I)]-.  Paul  Gibier,  of  the  Pasteur  Institute,  and 
had  a  talk  with  him  over  the  'phone,  he  agree- 
ing to  take  the  little  patients  for  $100  per  week. 
The  board  of  the  nurse  was  to  be  extra.  The 
cashier's  office  was  closed  and  only  by  borrow- 
$5  and  $10  from  printers,  editors  and  re- 
porters was  I  able  to  make  up  a  purse  of  $100 
to  bear  the  expense  for  Pullman  fares  and 
meals  on  the  journey.  This  money  was 
wired  to  the  hospital  superintendent.  So 
prompt  was  the  telegraphic  service  that  by 
.'}::>()  a.m.,  I  received  word  that  the  children 
would  leave  Jacksonville  at  S  o'clock  that 
morning. 

The  cooperation  of  the  railroads  was  most 
generous,  because  the  party  was  carried  free 
(except  in  the  sleeping  ears).  When  met  at 
Jersey  City,  one  of  the  boys  had  manifested 
symptoms  of  rabies.  All  were  taken  in  a 
carriage  to  the  Pasteur  Institute,  and  an  in- 
jection of  the  serum  was  given  to  them  before 
they  were  washed  and  put  to  bed. 

A  brief  announcement  was  made  next  morn- 
ing of  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
children  had  been  brought  here.  Obligations 
aggregating  fully  $600  had  been  incurred.  I 
didn't  ask  for  contributions,  but  knew-  not 
how  the  money  was  to  be  raised.  A  mes- 
senger came  from  Morris  K.  Jesup  with  his 
check  for  $100  and  an  offer  to  defray  the  en- 
tire   expense.      He     was    a    practical     philan- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


163 


thropist;  I  was  glad  not  to  have  to  ask  him 
for  a  second  contribution.  About  $400  was 
received  and  my  associates  on  the  Recorder 
bore  the  rest  of  the  expense, — George  W. 
Turner.  God  love  him!  giving  $.50.  Every 
boy  was  sent  home,  cured.* 

About  this  time,  William  H.  Hearst  came  to 
New  York.  Knowing  of  dissensions  amone 
the  stockholders  of  the  Recorder,  I  was  anxious 
that  the  young  California  editor  should  buy 
I  lie  Recorder.  It  was  a  two-cent  newspaper 
of  high  class  and  would  have  furnished  splen- 
did material  upon  which  to  build  a  progressive 
publication;  but  the  stockholders  advanced 
their  price  to  such  a 
the  matter. 


height  that  1  abandoned 


*A  recent  letter  from  Senator  Fletcher  explains  itself:  "United 
States  Senate,  Washington,  D.  C,  April  •.'.">,  1911.  Dear  Mr.  Cham- 
bers: I  remember  quite  well  your  philanthropy  and  splendid  work  in 
connection  with  the  boys  whom  yon  tookin  charge  and  gave  treat- 
ment at  the  Pasteur  Institute  of  New  York,  while  I  was  Mayor  of 
Jacksonville.  The  doctor  and  boys  returned  home  in  fine  health 
ami  spirits.  There  is  no  doubl  they  were  bitten  by  a  rabid  dog  and, 
but  for  the  treatment.  I  have  no  question, and  never  had,  would  have 
suffered  the  fate  of  those  who  became  thus  afflicted.  Yours  very 
truly,  Duncan  U.  Fletcher." 


Air.  Hearst  asked  me  to  join  his  staff  when 
lie  purchased  the  Morning  Journal  from 
John  II.  McLean  and,  feeling  that  the  col- 
lapse of  the  Recorder,  owing  to  internal  troubles 
was  assured,  I  accepted.  An  effort  was 
required  to  part  with  Mr.  Turner,  one  of 
the  most  lovable  personalities  1  ever  knew. 
Like  a  heroic  commander.  Turner  stood  by 
the  ship  to  the  last,  sinking  his  entire  for- 
tune and  seeing  many  of  his  friends  heavy 
losers. 

The  demise  of  the  Recorder,  a  year  later, 
is  one  of  the  tragedies  of  metropolitan  journal- 
ism. On  the  day  of  its  suspension,  it  had  a 
sale  of  82,000  copies,  at  H  cents  each;  its 
advertising  patronage  was  excellent  and  its 
net  profits  were  $1,000  to  $1,500  per  week. 
The  owners  who  held  a  sufficient  amount 
of  stock  to  carry  control  would  not  sell 
and  the  minority  holders  could  not  save 
themselves  from  the  crash.  The  paper  was 
established;  it  needed  only  harmony  to  assure 
prosperity. 


Kit 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  FIRST   BRYAN  CAMPAIGN 


)HEN  the  Winter  of  1895  ap- 
proached, 1  was  offered  a  choice 
of  the  London  or  Washington 
bureaus  and  chose  tin*  latter  as 
the  better  field.  The  episode 
of  chiefest  importance  at  the 
Capital  that  Winter  was  Cleve- 
land's Venezuela  Message,  and  1  have  told 
elsewhere  how  1  obtained  first  news  of  the 
settlement  with  Premier  Salisbury.  Before 
Congress  adjourned,  the  nomination  of  Mc- 
Kiniev  by  the  Republicans  was  a  foregone 
conclusion,  but  the  wildest  guessing  could  not 
name  the  Democratic  presidential  candidate. 
I  had  been  at  St.  Louis  immediately  after  tin- 
tornado,  which  tore  a  pathway  through  that 
city  From  Tower  Hill  Park  to  the  southern 
water  front,  ami  was  not  particularly  rejoiced 
to  return  there  in  June  to  the-  Convention. 
McKinley  was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot, 
much  to  the  surprise  of  Speaker  llrrd  and 
other  candidates.  Xexl  1  went  to  the  Chicago 
Convention  in  July  and  heard  Mr.  Bryan's 
"Crown  of  Thorns"'  speech.  Prior  to  the 
assembling  of  the  convention.  Boies  and  Bland 
appeared  to  he  most  talked  about.  Bryan 
was  not  mentioned  until  after  his  speech. 

Mi-.  Brvan  had  been  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, hnt  had  not  attracted  attention. 
He  appeared  at  Chicago  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
testing Nebraska  delegation  and.  through  the 
influence  of  Daniel  of  Virginia,  his  delegates 
were  seated.  lie  was  dressed  in  a  Tuxedo 
jacket,  with  a  low-cut  dress  vest  and  a  shirt 
front  that  would  have  done  honor  to  a  dinner 
party.     As  the  delegations  were  alphabetically 


arranged,  according  to  states.  Bryan's  cohorts 
were  seated  in  front  of  the  New  Yorkers, 
headed  by  Whitney.  Passing  over  the  tre- 
mendous furore  created  by  Bryan's  address, 
a  word  may  he  said  about  Senator  Hill's  lost 
opportunity.  When  Hill  ascended  the  plat- 
form a  great  speech  was  expected.  A  dozen 
correspondents  had  spent  an  hour  in  his  room 
at  the  Grand  Pacific  the  preceding  night  try- 
ing to  convince  him  that  he  could  secure  the 
nomination  if  he  would  reiterate  his  views 
on  bi-metalism,  expressed  at  Elmira,  and.  for 
the  sake  of  harmony,  advocate  a  ratio  of  '2(i 
to  1  instead  of  Bryan's  10  to  1.  Julian  Ralph 
had  been  chief  spokesman  and.  we  thought, 
had  convinced  Hill  of  the  possibilities  of 
success;  but  the  Senator  merely  discussed 
the  platform's  criticism  of  the  Supreme  Court! 
His  words  did  not  call  forth  any  enthusiasm. 
Sound  money  Democrats  found  themselves 
in  a  helpless  and  hopeless  minority.  Bland 
of  Missouri  father  of  the  "Bland  dollar" 
that  only  contained  fifty-odd  cents'  worth  of 
silver  led  until  the  third  ballot,  when  the 
Nebraska  orator  wont  to  the  front  ami  had 
an  easy  victory  on  the  fifth  ballot. 

1  accompanied  the  candidate  to  Lincoln 
and  passed  several  days  there,  visiting  Bryan 
several  times  daily.  Thence  1  hurried  to 
Canton  to  witness  the  arrival  of  the  Thurston 
Committee,  charged  with  officially  notifying 
Major  McKinley  of  his  nomination.  In  Sep- 
tember I  was  called  to  New  York  to  tem- 
porarily take  S.  S.  Chamberlain's  place  as 
Managing  Editor.  His  health  had  broken 
down   and   he  had  gone  to   Europe  for   rest. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


165 


Mr.  Hearsl  had  declared  for  Bryan  the  only 
newspaper  in  New  York  thai  did  so.  That 
course  lia<l  appeared  dangerous,  I  ml  his  San 
Francisco  Examiner  had  to  supporl  Bryanism 
and  the  young  editor  could  not  be  a  sound 
money  man  in  New  York  and  a  Bryan  silverite 
on  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  move  proved  to 
he  a  wise  one.  It  sent  the  circulation  bound- 
ing upward.  The  McKinley  campaign  was 
treated  with  the  same  fulness  as  thai  of  Bryan. 
More  than  a  page  was  daily  given  to  each  of 
the  parties.  Bryan  was  traveling  by  a  special 
train,  and  one  correspondent  reported  every 
speech  he  made.  Equally  capable  men  were 
attending  the  McKinley  meetings,  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  fully  reporting  them. 
The  circulation  was  growing  at  the  rate  of 
30,000  to  50,000  daily.  Presses  had  been 
hired  in  three  offices.  One  nighl  the  orders 
for  Journals  exceeded  1. ()()(). (ion  copies!  Mr. 
Hearst  was  the  coolest  man  in  the  office  that 
night.  When  1  showed  him  the  figures,  he 
said:  "Let's  wait  until  we  see  if  we  can  print 
and  sell  that  many."  Nearly  eleven  hundred 
thousand  papers  were  sold  next  morning!  I 
put  the  figures  in  "the  ear"  next  day.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  returned  a  few  days  before  elec- 
tion and  I  was  hurried  back  to  Canton,  to  be 
with  the  Republican  candidate  on  the  day 
of  balloting.  With  the  exception  of  brief 
intervals,  I  remained  there  until  the  President- 
elect came  to  Washington.  It  was  a  long 
three   months. 

The  fairness  of  the  Journal,  in  giving  both 
sides,  created  for  that  paper  a  new  constitu- 
ency! Although  Mr.  Hearst  continued  to 
pour  money  into  the  property,  it  could  have 
been  made  to  pay  its  way.  with  economical 
management,  after  1897;  but  Mr.  Hearst  went 
right  along  increasing  the  expenditures,  in- 
stead of  lowering  them.  His  enormous  re- 
sources enabled  him  to  be  fearless  regarding 
cost. 


Hi  iMI.K    li  \\  ENPI  Ht T 


While  in  charge  of  the  Washington  bureau 
of  the  New   York  American  during  the  Spring 
of   1896,  a   tall,  ruddy-faced  young  man   pre- 
sented himself,  bearing 
a    letter    from    William 
H.     Hearst.      It     intro- 
duced   Homer    Daven- 
port.      In  eft'eel  the  let- 
ter said  "  I  )avenpor1  is 
a     cartoonist      I      have 
brought    from    the    Pa- 
cific   ('oast;    introduce 
him  to  everybody,  but 
impress   upon    him    the 
necessity     of     si  inlying 
men    in    public    life    be- 
fore he  begins  to  cari- 
cature    them."       That 
visit  of  Homer  Daven- 
port marked  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new   era  in  newspaper  lampooning. 
In    a    few    months    this    previously     unknown 
artist    earned    a     national    reputation!       His 
first  great  hit  was  made  with  a  cartoon  of  the 
late    Thomas    C.    Plait,    then    United    States 
Senator,    selecting   candidates    for   the    various 
governmenl  offices  in  his  gift.      It  was  labelled. 
"Enie,  Menie,  Minie,  Moe."     His  next  suc- 
cess   was    in    cartooning   Speaker   Thomas    B. 
Heed;    but     when    the    Presidential  campaign 
opened    and    Mark    Ilanna's    active    financial 
work  for  McKinley  became  apparent.  Daven- 
port   scored    his   chief   triumph    by    picturing 
Ilanna  in  a  suit  of  clothes  covered  with  dollar 
marks.      Since  the  time  of  Thomas   Nast,   no 
man    has    done    so    much    to    arouse    popular 
feeling    against     political    chicanery    and    the 
domination    of   predatory    wealth!      During   a 
subsequent   visit   to   Italy.   Davenport  saw  the 
famous    statue    of     Hercules    at     the     Naples 
Museum   and    it    suggested   to   him   the    figure 
.since    employed    to    portray    his   idea    of    the 
Trusts      a  i>i<>'antic  soulless  creature  without  a 
neck! 

Mr.  Davenport  takes  pleasure  in  referring  to 
his  birth  (March.  1<S(!7)  and  early  life  on  an 
Oregon  farm.  He  had  flic  impulse  to  draw 
pictures  from  his  earliest  days.  His  father 
was  an  Indian  agent  at  Pendleton,  where  the 
boy  was  constantly  posing  bucks  and  sipiaws 


166 


THE  HOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


as  models  for  his  pencil.  His  relatives  did  not 
entertain  a  high  opinion  of  Homer's  work, 
thinking  that  his  time  would  have  been  better 
spent  in  hoeing  cabbages  than  in  drawing. 
His  boyhood  at  Silverton  was  a  long  period  of 
happiness;  he  drew  thousands  of  pictures.  His 
father  was  the  only  one  who  had  full  confidence 
in  him.  In  1892  he  went  to  San  Francisco  and 
began  work  on  the  Examiner,  and  there  tor 
the  hist  time  he  saw  a  man  drawing  with  pen 
and  ink.  He  was  soon  discharged  for  incom- 
petence, lie  found  another  job  on  the  ( Chron- 
icle but  soon  left  and  went  to  the  Chicago 
Herald,  where  he  remained  during  the  summer 
of  1N!).'>.  He  then  returned  to  'Frisco  and 
eventually  secured  a  place  on  the  Examiner, 
where  he  remained  until  his  departure  for  New 
York.  Mr.  Davenport  has  written  books,  but 
the  chief  episode  outside  his  professional  career 
was  a  trip  to  the  Syrian  desert,  far  east  of 
Aleppo,  armed  with  a  special  irade  from  Sul- 
tan Abdul  Ilamid,  authorizing  him  to  export 
a  number  of  pure-blooded  Arabian  mares  and 
stallions  for  his  stud-farm  at  Holmdel,  X.  J. 
His  book  describing  that  journey  is  an  ad- 
mirable bit  of  literary  work.  He  is  now  doing 
a  daily  cartoon  on  the  New  York  American 
and  the  standard  of  its  execution  is  as  high 
as  ever. 

One  of  the  cleverest  men  ever  in  Wall  Street, 
as  financial  writer  for  a  metropolitan  newspa- 
per, is  Collin  Armstrong,  who  wrote  the  daily 
story  of  Wall  Street  for  the  Xew  York  Sun 
from  1878  to  1902.  During  most  of  that  time, 
he  was  likewise  financial  editor  of  his  paper, 
which  under  his  direction  became  one  of  the 
important  departments  thereof.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong was  born  at  Fayetteville.  X.  Y.,  June, 
IS.").'!.  After  preliminary  study  in  his  home 
town,  he  entered  Amherst  College  and  took 
the  degree  of  A.B.,  in  1877.  He  was  an  en- 
thusiastic fraternity  man,  belonging  to  the 
Alpha  Delta  l'hi.  During  his  college  career, 
he  dropped  out  for  a  year  and  came  to  New 


York  to  take  a  place  as  reporter  on  the  Xew 
York  World,  where  he  served  from  March  to 
June,  1S7(>.  He  then  returned  to  Amherst 
and  completed  his  course  as  above  stated. 
A  year  after  graduation  he  began  work  on  the 
Sun  and  remained  14  years  in  a  post  considered 
one  of  the  most  responsible  on  a  Xew  York 
newspaper.  In  1902  he  retired  from  the  Sun 
to  engage  in  a  general  advertising  business; 
ultimately  he  organized  the  Collin  Armstrong 
Advertising  ( lompany,  of  which  he  is  president. 
He  is  popular,  socially,  and  is  a  member  of 
many  clubs,  among  them  the  Lotos,  Salma- 
gundi. Sphinx.  Alpha  Delta  l'hi,  of  which  he 
was  vice-president  for  a  time;  Society  of  the 
Onondagas,  of  which  he  was  president  for  a 
year,  and  of  the  Sun  Alumni  Association.  He 
is  also  a  member  of  the  Rowfant  Club,  Cleve- 
land, O. 

The  manufacture  of  paper  used  in  United 
States  Government  notes  is  not  only  an  in- 
dustry but  a  science  and  one.  necessarily,  that 

can  only  be  given  to 
trustworthy  hands.  The 
corporation  of  George 
La  Monte  &  Son,  of 
which  George  M.  La 
Monte  is  president,  not 
only  performs  this  work 
for  the  United  States 
lint  for  many  foreign 
governments  and  for 
several  of  the  largest 
financial  institutions 
throughout  the  country. 
George  La  Monte  was 
born  at  Danville,  Va., 
in  1863.  In  1884  he 
\\  a  s  graduated  from 
Wesleyan  University. 
He  has  been  a  manufacturer  of  safety  papers 
for  twenty-one  years,  and  in  addition  to  being 
president  of  George  La  Monte  &  Son  is  a 
director  of  the  First  National  Hank,  Hound 
Brook,  and  the  Bank  of  Xutley.  Nutley,  N.  J. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  American  Historical 
Society,  the  Virginia  Historical  Society  and 
the  Xew  .Jersey  Historical  Society  and  his  clubs 
are  the  Metropolitan,  City  and  Alpha  Delta 
Phi. 


GEORGE  M.  LA  Ml  >NTE 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


167 


The  advertising  business  has  assumed  such 
mammoth    proportions    in    this   country   that 

the  men  who  have  been  foremost  in  its  de- 
velopment have  attained  fortunes  therein. 
James  Rascovar  was  born  in  Providence. 
R.  I.,  but  came  with  his  parents  to  New  York 
when  a  small  boy.  He  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools  and  began  work  with  the  Wall 
Street  News  Bureau  (1869),  of  which  ex- 
Senator  John  J.  Kiernan  was  president. 
Later,    he   formed    a    connection    with    Albert 


JAMES  RASCOVAR 


Frank  &  Co.,  and  was  among  the  first  to  see 
the  importance  of  supplying  news  to  brokers, 
afternoon  newspapers,  hotels  and  clubs  by  a 
printing  telegraph.  This  business  developed 
enormously,  and  to-day  Mr.  Rascovar  is 
president  of  the  New  York  News  Bureau 
which  operates  tickers  in  all  the  leading  cities 
of  the  United  States,  recently  housed  in  a 
large  building  of  its  own  on  Beaver  Street. 
He  is  also  president  of  Albert  Frank  &  Co., 
and  vice-president  and  director  of  the  Ham- 
ilton Press.  Mr.  Rascovar  is  a  devout  be- 
liever in  fraternal  organizations,  being  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Darcy  lodge.  F.  &  A.  M.,  the  Con- 
sistory of  New  York.  32d  degree,  Scottish  Rite, 
and  Olympic  lodge.  1.  ().  ().  F.      His  coopera- 


-  I  WLEY  A.  COHEN 


tion  in  many  benevolent  institutions  has  been 
notable,  especially  Mount  Sinai  Hospital, 
Montefiore  Home,  Lebanon  Hospital,  the 
University  Settlement  and  B.  P.  O.  Elks. 

Although  playing  cards  are  not  mentioned 
by  Petrarch.  Bocaccio  or  Chaucer,  there  is 
evidence  that  their  use  in  Europe  began  in 
the  12th  century.  Like 
nearly  every  good  thing 
thai  Western  Europe 
possesses,  cards  came 
from  the  Fast.  The 
Crusaders  probably 
brought  them.  ( rames 
of  cards  were  common 
in  the  1.5th  century,  but 
although  their  form  and 
faces  were  similar  to 
those  in  use  to-day, the 
pack  did  not  contain  a 
queen!  The  manufac- 
ture of  playing  cards  in 
America  dates  back  to 
the  first  quarter  of  the 

last  century  and  the  present  representative  of 
that  business,  which  has  grown  to  large  pro- 
portions, is  Stanley  A.  Cohen,  the  third  genera- 
tion of  his  family  who  founded  the  enterprise 
in  1826.  Mr.  Cohen  was  born  in  this  city, 
December,  1858,  and  finished  his  education  at 
the  Columbia  Grammar  School  in  1S?(>.  He 
immediately  began  work  in  the  factory  of  the 
Xew  York  Consolidated  Card  Company,  of 
which  his  father  was  then  the  head.  He 
served  an  apprenticeship  in  every  branch  of 
card  manufacture,  his  determination  being  to 
master  and  perpetuate  the  oldest  business  in 
this  line  in  America!  Mr.  Cohen  has  risen 
step  by  step,  until  he  is  now  president  of  the 
corporation,  having  agents  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Mr.  Cohen  has  invented  all  the  mod- 
ern methods  and  labor-saving  machinery  by 
which  playing  cards  are  now  made.  Louis  I. 
Cohen,  his  grandfather,  manufactured,  in  ISIS, 
the  first  lead  pencils  made  in  America,  and. 
about  the  same  time,  introduced  steel  pens 
into  this  country. 


168 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


A  New  Yorker  who  comes  out  of  the  West  is 
Bird  S.  Coler,  who  was  born  in  Champaign, 
III..  but  early  left  for  the  East,  where  he  was 

educated  at  the  Brook- 
lyn Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute and  Andover  Aca- 
demy, Mass.  His 
lather  had  become  a 
New  ^  ork  banker  and 
young  Bird  enjoyed  ex- 
ceptionable facilities  to 
lit  himself  for  a  com- 
mercial career.  I  form- 
ed his  acquaintance 
du ring  the  winter  of 
1895-'96  at  a  club  din- 
ner. I  was  charmed 
with  his  frank,  affable 
Hon.  bird  s.  colee  manner.  The  follow- 
ing summer  we  re- 
newed our  friendship  at  the  '"Bryan"  Conven- 
tion, Chicago,  where  he  was  a  delegate  and  I 
was  a  special  correspondent.  My  most  mem- 
orable meeting  with  Coler  was  at  Grand  Cen- 
tral Palace  where  the  Democratic  city  con- 
vention was  held,  on  the  night  of  his  nomina- 
tion thereat  for  the  office  of  Comptroller  of 
the  city  of  New  York.  He  was  only  "2!*  years 
of  age,  but  sure  of  himself.  I  found  him 
sitting  on  a  box  in  a  room  below  the  con- 
vention floor,  entirely  alone,  waiting  for  the 
verdict.  When  I  joyously  congratulated 
him.  he  said:  "This  is  a  very  serious  business 
for  me.  but  I  know  I  can  make  good.  I 
have  looked  the  place  over,  and  I  am  sure 
I  can  do  the  work."  At  mv  request,  Coler 
outlined  in  a  column  the  policy  he  would 
follow  if  elected  Comptroller —a  statement 
so  clear-cut.  so  free  from  usual  promises 
that  many  of  the  other  newspapers  reprinted 
it  the  second  day  following.  It  became 
part  of  the  campaign  literature  of  the  time. 
Bird  Coler  outlined  the  Hist  clear  plan  for  a 
strictly  business  administration  of  the  office 
a  system  that  his  successors  have  followed, 
but  that  never  had  been  practiced  by  his 
predecessors.  The  management  of  the  city's 
accounts  was  placed  on  a  strictly  banking- 
house  basis.  lie  was  nominated  for  Governor 
of  the  State  of  Xew  York  in  1902,  and  polled 


an  enormous  vote,  although  defeated  by  his 
Republican  opponent.  Again  Mr.  Coler  took 
charge  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  until 
January  1.  1906,  when  lie  became  President 
of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn,  and  held  the  job 
four  years.  President  Grout  had  been  a 
personal  friend  as  a  fellow  1).  K.  E.,  Littleton 
I  had  come  to  admire  as  a  good  fellow,  but 
President  Coler,  Littleton's  successor,  always 
maintained  the  delightful  qualities  of  mind 
found  only  in  hearts  that  do  not  grow  old 
with  years. 

Among  the  representative  German-Ameri- 
cans of  this  city,  Louis  Windmuller  has  been 
one  of  the  most  active.  He  is  a  thorough 
American  in  every  respect,  although  he  was 
born  in  the  old  city  of  Munster  and  educated 
at  the  Gymnasium  of  that  place.  He  came 
here  when  eighteen  years  of  age,  since  which 
time  his  career  has  been  one  of  continued 
success.  To  enumerate  the  financial  insti- 
tutions which  he  has  assisted  in  founding 
would  crowd  out  more  desirable  mention  of 
his  unflagging  work  for  political  reform  and 
social  uplift.  lie  was  one  of  the  organizers 
of  the  Reform  Club.  An  Independent  in 
politics,  he  has  voted  according  to  his  convic- 
tions, heading  strong  German  movements  in 
the  metropolis  first  for  Cleveland  and  then  for 
Mckinley.  He  has  been  a  constant  writer 
for  magazines  and  newspapers,  producing 
copy  with  equal  facility  in  German  and 
English.  On  occasions  of  financial  crisis, 
especially  when  American  credit  was  assailed 
in  Europe,  Mr.  Windmuller  has  been  prompt 
to  send  letters  to  the  principal  newspapers  of 
Germany,  explaining  our  financial  situation. 
His  diversions  have  been  confined  to  the  col- 
lection of  rare  books  and  pictures;  his  library 
contains  several  early  books  of  Gutenberg, 
Caxton  and  other  famous  presses.  He  has 
been  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  various  mu- 
seums and  historical  associations  and  was 
especially  proud  of  his  membership  in  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  He  is  devoted  to 
country  life  and  his  home  at  Woodside, 
Queens  Borough,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
in  that  charming  community. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


109 


Col.  \VM.  D.  MANN 


A  fellow  "Buckeye"  whom  the  metropolis 
finally  claimed,  after  a  sturdy  life  of  activities 
in  this  country  and  Europe,  is  Colonel  William 

D'Alton  Mann,  soldier, 
civil  engineer,  inventor 
and  editor.  Years  rest 
very  lightly  upon  him, 
for  I  see  him  in  ( Central 
Park  or  on  Riverside 
a-horse  back  every  fair 
morning,  in  all  seasons. 
Col.  Mann  was  born  at 
Sandusky  City,  Ohio. 
September,  1839,  and 
was  educated  as  a  civil 
engineer;  hut  when  the 
( 'ivil  War  came  he  was 
21  years  of  age  and 
went  to  the  front  as 
captai  n  in  the  1st 
Michigan  ("aval  r  v  . 
Called  home  by  the  Governor  of  Michigan, 
he  organized  and  commanded  the  7th  Michi- 
gan Cavalry  and  was  at  its  head  in  many 
engagements.  I  lis  mind  was  always  active  in 
attempts  to  improve  the  comforts  and  sani- 
tary condition  of  the  men  in  the  field  and 
several  valuable  improvements  of  the  accoutre- 
ments were  made  by  Col.  Mann. 

When  the  war  had  ended,  lie  was  one  of  the 
first  to  attempt  to  prove  to  the  Southern  people 
that  all  northern  bitterness  was  buried.  He 
invested  every  dollar  he  possessed  in  Mobile. 
Ala.,  in  a  cotton-seed  oil  mill,  giving  employ- 
ment to  white  and  black  labor.  lie  induced 
northern  capitalists  to  assist  him  in  the  pro- 
motion of  railroad  building  in  Alabama.  He 
purchased  the  Mobile  Register  and  edited  it 
for  several  years,  in  addition  to  caring  for  his 
commercial  interests.  In  ISO"}),  Col.  Mann 
was  elected  to  Congress  by  an  overwhelming 
majority,  but  the  Reconstruction  Judges  re- 
fused to  certify  him,  on  account  of  openly 
avowed  sympathy  he  had  for  the  Southern 
people  under  the  outrageous  conditions  im- 
posed upon  them  by  "carpet-bag"  officials. 
He  was  not  of  their  class;  he  had  gone  South 
expecting  to  pass  the  rest  of  his  life  there!  In 
lST^  he  patented  the  boudoir  car  that  bore 
his  name  for  many  years  in  all  parts  of  the 
world:    lie    spent    the    ten    years    following    in 


EGBERT  C.  FULLER 


Europe,  introducing  it  there.  Returning  in 
1883,  lie  purchased  "Town    Topics"  and  has 

since  conducted  it  as  editor  and  publisher. 
In  many  respects  it  contains  the  best  English 
01  any  newspaper  in  America. 

"From  machine  shop  helper  at  the  age  of 
1(>  to  president  of  a  large  manufactory  employ- 
ing   several    hundred    men,"    summarizes    the 

career  of  Egberl  ( !hap- 
lain  Fuller,  born  in  Ux- 
bridge,  Mass..  1852. 
Realizing  that  success 
in  life  meant  for  him  a 
fight,  he  responded  to 
a  natural  inclination  to- 
ward mechanics,  began 
at  the  bottom  and  end- 
ed by  becoming  an  ex- 
pert machinist.  He 
first  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  development 
and  improvement  of 
bookbinders'  machin- 
ery, lie  formed  a  part- 
nership in  New  York, 
Montague  &  Fuller,  to 
represent  several  large  manufacturers  of  that 
class  of  machinery,  but  in  1904  Mr.  Fuller 
bought  out  his  associate  and  continued  the 
business  under  the  name  of  E.  C.  Fuller  & 
Co.  A  large  factory  in  Connecticut  was  pur- 
chased and  enlarged,  at  which  Mr.  Fuller 
builds  modern  printing  machinery.  He  is 
president  of  the  Economic  Machine  Co.  He 
owns  a  charming  home  at  Pine  Orchard,*  !onn., 
where  he  and  his  family  spend  most  of  the 
year. 

What  a  pity  New  York  couldn't  have  more 
Comptrollers  with  practical  business  training! 
In  speaking  of  the  reforms  effected  in  Phila- 
delphia under  Comptroller  Pattison,  I  showed 
how  the  righl  official  in  such  a  place  could 
save  to  the  city  much  money  and  much  of  its 
self-respect.  We  have  had  some  excellent 
men  in  this  office,  since  the  creation  of  Great- 
er New  York.  My  personal  friendship  for 
Mr.  Coler  does  not  blind  me  to  the  earnest. 
conscientious  and  capable  administration  of 
the  ComptroIIership  by  Herman  A.  Metz. 
He  showed  himself  to  be  a  man  of  courage, 
political     independence    and    staunch     fidelity 


l?(l 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


to  duty.  I  have  known  every  Comptroller 
since  the  halcyon  days  of  "graft"  under  the 
Tweed  regime,  l>;nl  and  good  alike,  and  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  ranking  Mr.  Metz  very 
high  among  our  faithful  public  servants.  Be- 
fore  lie  entered  upon  his  duties  as  an  official. 
he  had  demonstrated  his  capacity  as  a  business 
man  by  amassing  a  fortune  in  the  chemical 
field. 

The  career  of  Franklin  Murphy  began  in 
July,  ISO1',  when  at  the  age  of  16  years  he  left 
the  Newark  Academy  to  enlist  in  the  Thir- 
teenth Regiment,  X.  J.  V.  He  was  born  in 
Jersey  City,  January,  1846;  but  when  ten 
years  old  his  family  removed  to  Newark.  In 
the  Federal  service,  partly  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  and  partly  in  the  West  under  (Jen. 
Sherman,  he  remained  until  the  close  of  the 
war,  when  he  was  mustered  out  with  the  rank 
of  first  lieutenant.  lie  had  been  at  Antietam, 
Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg  and  had 
marched  with  Sherman  "from  Atlanta  to  the 
sea."  Returning  to  Newark,  in  1865,  he 
founded  the  firm  of  Murphy  &  Co..  varnish 
manufacturers.  He  was  two  years  short  of 
his  majority,  hut  the  enterprise  was  a  success 
from  tht'  first.  From  small  beginnings  the 
business  has  grown  to  one  of  the  largest  of  its 
kind  '"Murphy  Varnishes"  being  known  the 
world  over.  A  corporation  was  formed  in 
L891,  The  Murphy  Varnish  Company,  of 
which  Mr.  Murphy  is  the  president.  One  of 
Mr.  Murphy's  elements  of  success  has  been 
the  keen  interest  he  lias  felt  and  displayed  for 
the  welfare  of  his  workmen  and  of  labor  in  gen- 
eral. For  many  years  he  has  been  a  sturdy 
advocate  of  high  wages  for  faithful  services; 
he  has  constantly  striven  to  lift  American  in- 
dustrialism to  a  lofty  plane. 

Honors  have  come  plentifully  to  Mr.  Mur- 
phy, in  recognition  of  his  unselfish  and  public- 
spirited  course.  He  was,  early  in  life,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Common  Council  in  Newark;  his 
neighbors  sent  him  to  the  Legislature  of  New 
Jersey,  and.  as  Park  Commissioner,  he  laid 
out  and  completed  the  parks  of  Essex  County. 
For  many  years  he  was  Chairman  of  the  Re- 
publican State  Committee;  President  M(  Kin- 


ley  made  him  a  Commissioner  to  the  Paris 
Universal  Exposition  of  1!)(>(),  and  in  l!)()f 
he  was  elected  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  for 
a  term  of  two  years.  He  has  served  as  a 
member  of  the  National  Republican  Com- 
mittee since  f !)()().  Mr.  Murphy  comes  of 
Colonial  stock  and  is  a  member  of  the  Sons  of 
the  American  Revolution — President-General 
in  IS!)!)  — ,  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars  and 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  the  Loyal  Legion, 
the  LTnion,  the  Union  League,  Century,  Re- 
publican  clubs  of  New  York. 

(i illicit  Collins,  descendant  of  a  Revolu- 
tionary family,  was  born  in  Stonington,  Conn., 
August,  1846.  He  was  privately  educated 
and  was  admitted  to  the  New  Jersey  bar  in 
1869.  His  success  in  his  chosen  profession 
has  been  noteworthy.  He  was  appointed 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Jersey 
in  1897  and  served  until  1903,  in  which  year 
he  resigned.  Judge  Collins  had  previously 
distinguished  himself  during  a  term  as  Mayor 
of  Jersey  City,  which  post  he  occupied  1884 
to  1886.  Judge  Collins'  great-grandfather 
was  a  first  lieutenant  of  the  First  Connecticut 
Line  Regiment  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 
The  grandson  is  therefore  a  member  of  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution  and  of  a  number  of 
local  clubs  and  societies  in  Jersey  City  and  a 
strong  Republican.  Judge  Collins  is  a  part- 
ner in  the  firm  of  Collins  &  Corbin.  His 
reputation  for  business  judgment  renders  him 
of  great  value  as  director  in  several  banks 
and  trust  companies. 

An  authority  on  white  paper,  both  as  to 
quality  and  economical  methods  of  manu- 
facture, is  George  F.  Perkins,  a  retired  manu- 
facturer who  is  frequently  appealed  to  for 
information  and  advice  by  committees  in- 
quiring into  the  duty  upon  wood  pulp  and  the 
most  modern  methods  of  paper  making.  Mr. 
Perkins  was  horn  at  Andover.  Conn.,  in  lcS,'5.5, 
entered  the  public  school  at  Lee.  Mass..  and 
took  an  academic  course  at  the  Charlotteville 
Seminary  of  New  York  State;  he  served  an 
apprenticeship  with  a  company  building  paper- 
ma  kino-  machinery  and  at  the  completion  of 
his  term  worked  for  two  years  as  a  journey- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    VOKK 


171 


GEl  IRGE   1'.  PEB  KIN'S 


i  i:  w  ki.in  mii; rn  -i 


The  Late  JOHN    F.  M:\  D]  N 


GILBERT  COLLINS 

Four  Representative  Citizens  of  Our  Neighboring  State,  New  Jersey 


17-2 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


man.  By  private  study  he  qualified  himself 
as  ;ni  expert  accountanl  and  for  two  years 
followed  thai  profession.  1  le  responded  to 
the  call  of  the  metropolis  in  1858  a!  the  age 
of  twenty-three  and  returned  to  the  paper 
business  in  the  commercial  end.  About  1865 
he  and  some  fellow -u orkers  organized  the 
firm  of  Bucanan.  Perkins  &  Goodwin,  from 
which  partnership  Mr.  Bucanan  retired  in  a 
few  years  and  the  business  was  continued 
under  the  firm  name  of  Perkins  &  Goodwin. 
After  an  active  life,  the  subjecl  of  this  sketch 
finally  retired  from  active  business  in  L905, 
although  he  retained  his  connection  with  a 
number  of  banks  and  trust  companies,  lie 
is  Vice-President  of  the  Title,  Guarantee  & 
Trust  Company,  President  of  the  Provident 
Institution  for  Savings,  a  Director  in  the 
Pavonia  Trust  Company  and  in  the  Colonial 
Life  Insurance  Company  of  Jersey  City.  Mr. 
Perkins  has  never  had  any  political  ambition. 
I>ut  has  Keen  affiliated  with  the  Republican 
party  throughout  his  life;  he  has  declined 
many  public  offices,  preferring  to  devote  his 
life  to  business  rather  than  politics,  lie  was 
induced  to  accept  an  appointment  on  the 
Board  of  Finance,  hut  he  declined  to  till  a 
second  term.  Socially.  Mr.  Perkins  is  fond 
of  club  life  and  belongs  to  the  I  nion  League 
clubs  of  Jersey  City,  the  Merchants  and 
Carteret,  lie  is  especially  proud  of  his  mem- 
bership in  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. He  is  fond  of  hooks  and  is  a  patron 
of  art   and   music. 


world    ot 
Edward 


Occupying   an    eminent    place    in    the   civic 
the    Slate    of    New     Jersey,    .lames 
'ope  stands   in   a    position  of  corre- 
sponding importance  in 
the    business    world    of 
New  York.     President 

of  the  P  o  p  e  Metals 
Company  and  of  the 
University  of  the  State 
of  New  Jersey,  Mr. 
Pope  must  devote  a 
large  p  a  r  I  of  what 
would  otherwise  be  his 
leisure  to  the  interests 
of  Jersey  City  and  of 
the  State  of  New  Jersey 
as  a  member  of  various 
ci\  ic  commissions.  He 
w  as  horn  in  the  city  of 
New  ^  ork  of  English 
descent  on  both  sides,  tracing  on  the  maternal 
side  directly  from  Dr.  George  Buxton,  physi- 
cian to  George  Washington.  He  was  gradu- 
ated in  1882  from  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School  of  Yale,  being  a  member  of  the  Ber- 
zelius  Society  and  of  the  Yale  University  (dub 
of  New  Haven.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Meridian  and  Drug  and  Chemical  Clubs  of 
New  York  and  of  the  Hudson  County  Historic- 
al Society  of  Jersey  City,  the  American  Civic 
Association,  and  the  National  Municipal 
Leasue. 


1  \\l  I  3   EDW  \Kli   POPE 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


n:; 


CHAPTER   XX 


TWO   PALACES   l'Oli    BOOKS  AND  ART 


HE     new     Public     Library     is 

housed  in  a  $12,000,000  marble 
building,  a  perfect  specimen  of 

the  (J reck  order;  its  architects 
were  Carrere  cS;  Hastings.  It 
is  a  palace  with  a  million 
books!  The  beautiful  struc- 
ture was  largely  built  with  the  money  left  by 
the  late  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  although  the  city 
added  about  $5,000,000  thereto  before  com- 
pletion. The  books  and  pictures  with  which 
the  interior  is  equipped  and  embellished  come 
from  the  Astor  and  Lenox  libraries.  Shelf- 
room  is  provided  for  2,700,000  volumes,  with- 
out crowding.  Even  more  wonderful  than 
the  exterior  is  the  interior  of  the  vast  library, 
with  its  eighty  miles  of  shelving,  represented 
by  68,(1(10  shelves.  These  provide  accommo- 
dations for  3.500,00(1  books  as  the  ultimate 
limit.  About  "2,700,000  of  the  books,  when  the 
extreme  limit  is  reached,  will  be  housed  in  the 
main  stack  room,  with  about  800,000  dis- 
tributed through  the  other  departments.  The 
main  stack  room  takes  three  hundred  feet 
along  the  Bryant  Park  side  of  the  building  and 
seventy-eight  feet  on  the  Fortieth  and  Forty- 
second  street  ends.  It  contains  seven  Moors. 
All  shelves,  corrugated  to  supply  ventila- 
tion, are  adjustable  and  may  be  changed  to 
fit  books  of  any  height.  Not  only  are  the  ends 
of  the  stack  shelves  open  for  ventilation  but 
in  the  corridors  between  the  stacks  the  floor- 
ing on  either  side  is  left  open  so  that  there  may 
be  no  chance  for  the  accumulation  of  dust  and 
that  there  will  be  an  uninterrupted  circulation 
of  air.  The  artificial  lighting  is  done  by 
electric  bulbs  set  overhead  between  the  stacks. 
A  button  placed  at  the  end  of  the  stack  will 
when  pressed  light  three  double  rows  at  once. 
There  are  .'50.000  electric  lights  in  the  building. 

For  the  convenience  of  the  attendant  the 
stacks  are  divided  into  geographical  sections 
and  marked  at  the  end  N.  W.,   X.   E.,  S.   E., 


S.  W.,  and  in  addition  a  bronze  tablet  denotes 
the  alphabetical  order  and  the  subjects  rep- 
resented in  each  stack. 

The  prompt  despatch  of  books  from  the 
stack  room  to  the  main  reading  room  is 
achieved  by  a  system  of  lifts,  four  in  the  center, 
largely  used  during  the  day.  and  two  at  the 
end  for  returning  books  at  night.  Pneumatic 
tubes  are  used  in  connection  with  the  lifts 
by  which  slips  are  sent  from  the  main  reading 
room  to  the  attendants.  An  order  is  filled 
and  the  books  returned  by  the  lifts,  operated 
by  automatic  electric  attachments. 

The  main  reading  room  is  on  the  top  floor 
and  is  identical  in  size  with  the  stack  room. 
Here  is  a  collection  of  some  25.000  volumes 
arranged  on  shelves.  These  are  free-to-hand 
books  to  be  used  by  patrons  of  the  library. 

In  the  catalogue  room  which  adjoins  the 
main  reading  room  are  6,600  card  index  draw- 
ers, in  front  of  which  tables  are  placed  upon 
which  to  rest  the  boxes  during  a  reader's 
search  for  his  subject.  An  information  desk 
in  the  center  of  the  room  has  the  pneumatic 
tubes  close  at  hand.  Into  this  the  slips  for 
books  are  handed  for  their  destination  in  the 
main  reading  room  and  from  there  despatched 
to  that  part  of  the  stack  room  where  the 
books  are  kept.  By  placing  your  scat  number 
on  the  slip  books  will  be  delivered  by  mes- 
sengers directly  to  you.  or  if  the  reader  de- 
sires to  wander  about  until  the  book  arrives  he 
receives  a  number  which  appears  on  an  illu- 
minated indicator  on  the  wall  of  the  reading 
room  as  soon  as  the  order  is  filled. 

In  addition  to  the  main  reading  rooms,  there 
are  special  rooms  fitted  up  for  students  doing 
research  work  along  special  lines.  Particu- 
larly valuable  are  the  little  rooms,  where  an 
individual  studying  some  particular  subject 
may.  with  his  books  and  papers  around  him, 
work  undisturbed  for  days. 


174 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


There  is  a  periodical  room  on  the  first  floor 
on  the  Fifth  avenue  and  Fortieth  street  side, 
where  are  between  5,000  and  6,000  different 
periodicals,  mostly  domestic.  One  interest- 
ing room  is  that  containing  the  Stuart  collec- 
tion, a  part  of  the  Lenox  Library  collection, 
which  owing  to  the  restrictions  of  the  deeds  of 
gift  must  he  kept  intact.  It  includes  a  col- 
lection of  paintings,  rare  editions  of  hooks  and 
prints  and  curios.  The  room  will  he  closed 
to  the  public  on  Sunday,  another  stipulation 
of  the  donor.  To  provide  an  effective  back- 
ground for  the  pictures  the  walls  have  been 
covered  with  green  silk  burlap.  Low  book- 
cases with  ventilated  screened  doors  have  been 
placed  about  the  room  for  the  books,  while 
the  paintings  and  prints  are  hung  on  the 
walls  by  a  new  method,  the  hooks  being  fas- 
tened in  a  narrow  steel  groove  or  channel 
which  divides  the  wall  about  a  third  of  the 
way  down  from  the  ceiling. 

Under  the  dome  of  the  north  court  on  the 
first  floor  is  the  circulation  department,  acces- 
sible by  an  entrance  on  the  Forty-second 
street  side,  so  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  for 
patrons  to  pass  through  the  main  part  of  the 
building  to  reach  it.  At  the  left  as  one  enters 
is  the  application  desk,  and  directly  opposite 
another  bearing  city,  street,  telephone  and 
business  directories.  This  convenience  is  sup- 
plemented by  twelve  telephone  booths. 

A  newspaper  room  on  the  north  side  of  the 
basement  floor  is  fitted  around  the  four  sides 
with  stacks  for  the  back  tiles  of  papers,  while 
on  tables  in  front  of  the  windows  will  be 
racks  with  current  issues. 

The  children's  department  is  a  long,  low 
room  on  the  Forty-second  street  side.  Every- 
thing in  the  room  is  in  proportion  to  the  size 
of  its  clients.  For  example,  the  shelves  are 
just    high    enough    so    that    the    average   child 

may    reach     1 ks    at    the    top    easily.      The 

chandeliers  are  hung  low  and  each  window- 
is  an  alcove  with  low  tables  and  built-in 
benches  that  will  accommodate  six  youngsters 
at  a  time. 

In  1817  Robert  Lenox  bought  thirty  acres 
of  land  in  what  was  the  Ninth  Ward.  The 
tract  was  traversed  by  "the  middle  road," 
which  is  now  Fifth  Avenue,  and  the  neighbor- 
hood  was   known   as   "Five-Mile   Stone."      In 


is:!!)  he  made  a  will  containing  this  devise: 
'To  my  only  son.  James  Lenox,  my  farm  at 
Five-Mile  Stone  for  and  during  the  term  of 
his  life,  and  after  his  death  to  his  heirs  forever. 
My  motive  for  so  leaving  this  property  is  a 
firm  persuasion  that  it  may  at  no  distant  day 
be  the  site  of  a  village:  and  as  it  cost  me  much 
more  than  its  present  worth,  from  circum- 
stances known  to  my  family,  I  like  to  cherish 
the  belief  it  may  be  realized  to  them.  At  all 
events  I  want  the  experiment  made  by  keeping 
the  property  from  being  sold.'*  A  codicil 
changed  the  stipulation  of  never  selling  the 
land  into  advice,  and  until  1N(>4  the  advice 
was  followed.  Since  then  much  of  the  prop- 
erty has  been  sold.  Tweed,  Sweeny  and  Con- 
nolly being  among  the  purchasers  of  lots. 
One  whole  block  was  given  to  the  Presbyte- 
rian Hospital,  the  ground  and  cash  contributed 
by  James  Lenox  being  equal  to  $800,000,  and 
ten  lots  on  Fifth  Avenue  to  the  Lenox  Library. 

At  present,  American  art  leads  the  world! 

Success  in  painting  or  sculpture  must  be  due 
to  egotism  —the  same  is  true  of  all  great 
successes.  Naturally,  know  ledge  of  technique  is 
necessary.  And  yet  that  is  not  so  important 
as  sublime  confidence  in  one's  self;  for.  if  one 
has  that,  the  technique  will  be  acquired. 
Nobody  is  literally  "self-made."  He  must 
learn  from  some  other  mind,  by  instruction  or 
observation.  But,  no  matter  how  great  the 
capabilities  of  an  artist,  he  never  will  rise  to 
the  top  unless  he  have  supreme  confidence 
in  his  imagination  and  in  his  capacity  to  exe- 
cute. Curious  that  the  requisite  for  success 
in  art  is  the  one  thing  that  will  destroy  the 
efficiency  of  a  man  in  commercial  life! 

Success  in  painting  conies  only  after  the 
closest  communion  with  Nature.  Ibsen  ap- 
plied flic  same  rule  to  the  drama,  and  dem- 
onstrated that  a  man  without  the  slightest 
knowledge  of  construction,  and  with  an  in- 
difference  to  plot  almost  contemptuous,  can 
write  plays  that  portray  life  as  it  is.  He  enun- 
ciated a  great  truth  when  he  said  that  every 
family  holds  an  acting  drama  in  its  clutches. 
Ibsen  had  only  to  lift  the  roof  of  a  house  to 
find  a  tragedy  or  a  comedy. 

French  art  has  run  its  course  for  a  genera- 
lion  or  two.  Every  revival  of  art  has  been 
contemporaneous  with  some  political  or  com- 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


17.5 


mercial  activity  in  the  country  where  il  has 
occurred.  Modern  art,  as  we  understand  it. 
sprang  into  existence  in  Italy  about  the  middle 
of  the  15th  century.  Bellini,  who  was  Titian's 
instructor,  was  horn  in  1427  and  Leonardo  da 
Vinci  in  1452;  but  Michelangelo,  Titian  and 
Raphael  were  all  horn  within  a  few  years  of 
one  another.  Those  five  names  are  immortal. 
They  are  called  a  "school."  hut  there  wasn't 
any  special  intimacy  between  the  men.  Venice 
and  Genoa  were  then  the  greatest  ports  on  the 
Mediterranean.  Titian  lived  to  !)!)  and  then 
died  of  the  plague  at  Venice.  Michelangelo 
lived  89  years.  There  was  a  hundred  years  art 
supremacy  for  Italy,  unquestioned  and  indis- 
putable! Then  the  ait  center  moved  to 
Spain,  and  the  so-called  school  of  Seville  pro- 
duced Velasquez  and  Murillo.  The  former 
was  only  19  years  the  predecessor  of  the  latter. 
Then  the  angel  of  painting  hovered  over  Hol- 
land and  we  have  Rubens  and  Rembrandt. 
These  four  wonderful  men  were  almost  con- 
temporaries— indeed,  all  were  alive  at  the 
same  time.  The  Flemish  school  endured  until 
tin'  later  years  of  the  17th  century,  when  the 
art  microbe  crossed  the  channel  to  London. 
The  English  school  reached  its  highest  excel- 
lence in  Reynolds.  Gainsborough  anil  Turner. 
Sir  Joshua  was  just  as  much  responsible  for 
Turner,  a  poor  barber's  son.  as  was  Bellini 
for  Titian — and  no  more.  Turner  would 
assuredly  have  been  appreciated  by  this  time 
if  Ruskin  hadn't  "discovered"  him.  The 
English  painters  continued  to  produce  good 
work  until  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  Hut 
Napoleon's  vandalism  in  gathering  together 
in  the  Louvre  the  art  treasures  of  Europe 
created  the  so-called  modern  French  school. 
It  is  called  "modern"  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  dainty  hut  not  great  work  of  Claude 
Loraine,  Watteau  and  Greuze  that  had  pre- 
ceded it.  Several  art  centers  formed.  The 
most  important  was  at  Barbizon,  a  small 
village  near  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau. 
Theodore  Rousseau  was  its  founder,  and  he 
gathered  'round  him  Corot,  Dupre,  Daubigny 
and  Diaz.  The  colony  spread  to  the  adjacent 
villages  of  Chailly  and  Marlotte.  Later  fol- 
lowed Trovon,  Francois  Millet.  Courbet,  Fleu- 
ry,  Veron,  Fleurs  and  Riou.  These  were 
nearly  all  landscape  painters;  next  came  the 
figure  painters.      Paris  teemed  with  good  and 


indifferent  work.  Meissonier  led  that  field: 
Gerome  a  poor  second.  With  the  "Frou- 
Erou"  artists,  like  Boldini,  line  art  has  little 
patience 

The  American  school  is  unqualifiedly  the 
best  in  the  world  at  this  time.  How  long  this 
preeminence  will  remain  is  a  hazard  to  guess; 
l>ul  there  has  been  a  group  of  landscape  paint- 
ers, the  ranks  of  which  are  depleted  by  the 
deaths  of  George  Inness,  Winslow  Homer, 
Julian  Rix  and  others,  who  have  established 
American  art  on  a  plane  from  which  it  is  not 
likely  to  be  dethroned  for  a  generation.  This 
is  ascribable  to  the  splendid  prosperity  of  the 
United  States  since  the  Civil  War.  The 
grandeur  of  Venice  and  ( renoa  was  responsible 
for  the  painters  that  gave  to  Italy  her  glorious 
place  in  art.  not  the  cultivated  tastes  of  the 
Popes  or  the  Medicis.  Wealth  is  the  patron  of 
art!  Without  wealth,  art  is  unappreciated. 
Men  like  Yerkes,  Carnegie,  Clark  and  Widen- 
er,  who  have  little  of  the  artistic  sense  them- 
selves, are  the  real  promoters  of  art!  It 
sounds  sordid  to  an  abasement  to  say  so,  but 
it  has  always  been  true  and  ever  will  continue 
to  be. 

What  a  wondershop  is  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art!  The  Egyptian  mummies 
and  grave-trinkets,  .5,000  years  old;  the  Etrus- 
can pottery;  the  Cypriot  collection;  the  statu- 
ary, in  modern  originals  and  plaster  replica 
of  the  best  days  of  Greece  and  Rome;  the 
tapestries  and  gossamer  laces  of  France  and 
the  Low  Countries;  the  silver  work  of  the  old 
guilds  of  Florence.  Venice  and  London,  and 
so  on  to  the  end  of  the  catalogue.  Truly  a 
wonderful  place,  that  few  appreciate  at  its 
true  worth. 

The  splendid  architectural  development  of 
the  new  metropolis,  which  began  about  hSS.5. 
is  due  entirely  to  the  race  of  superior  archi- 
tects that  developed  in  this  city.  The  move- 
ment was  led  by  Mckiin.  Mead  &  White, 
some  years  before  that  time,  and  from  their 
office,  as  a  training  school,  emerged  manv  of 
these  successful  men.  Among  them  must  he 
mentioned  the  late  John  Merven  Carrere, 
born  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  1858,  who  came  to 
New  York  when  three  years  old.  was  sent 
abroad  when  a  young  man  lor  a  long  course 
of  studv  in  Switzerland  and  Paris,  graduating 


176 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


;it  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  —a  pupil  of  Leon 
Ginain  and  Victor  Ruprich  Robert.  About 
the  same  time,  another  young  man,  Thomas 
Hastings,  son  of  the  ex-president  of  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  born  in  New  York, 
lN(;o.  was  a  student  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux 
Arts.  Paris.  He  returned  home  to  form 
a  partnership  with  Mr.  Carrere,  in  188.5. 
He  had  had  the  benefit  of  ten  years'  study  at 
the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  and  had  been  a  com- 
panion of  Mr.  Carrere  in  the  office  of  McKim, 
Mead  &  White.  These  two  young  architects 
were  thoroughly  aglow  with  enthusiasm  for 
their  profession,  aroused  by  much  travel  and 
personal  inspection  of  the  chief  architectural 
wonders  of  the  Continent. 

When  I  come  to  speak  of  the  work  of  these 
two  men  and  what  they  have  done  for  the 
advancement  of  architecture  in  the  United 
States.  I  am  at  a  loss  where  to  begin.  The 
one  feature  that  gave  initial  velocity  to  the 
development  of  Florida  as  a  popular  Winter 
resort  for  American  and  even  European 
visitors  was  the  creation  of  the  wonderful  hotel 
system  starting  at  St.  Augustine  and  stretching 
down  the  coast  as  far  as  Miami.  Chiefest  of 
these  great  structures  was  the  Ponce  de  Leon 
Hotel,  at  St.  Augustine.  Its  plans  are  on 
the  Moorish  order  and  every  effect  of  apparent 
lightness,  grace  and  coloring,  for  which  Arabic 
art  is  famous,  was  employed  by  these  archi- 
tects. New  Yorkers  forever  feel  a  sense  of 
gratitude  to  Carrere  &  Hastings  for  their  de- 
sign of  the  New  York  Public  Library  on  Fifth 
Avenue,  which  combines  external  beauty  with 
perfect  interior  equipment  for  the  handling 
of  several  million  volumes.  The  approaches 
to  Manhattan  Bridge  across  Fast  River  are 
their  handiwork.  Visitors  to  Ithaca.  New 
York,  cannot  fail  to  admire  the  immense  but 
graceful  Goldwin  Smith  Hall,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Campus,  facing  the  original  build- 
ings of  Cornell  University,  and  bearing  the 
charming  title  "College  of  the  Humanities." 
The  larger  and  less  ornate  Rockefeller  Hall 
at  Cornell  University,  built  for  purposes  of 
scientific  research  rather  than  for  the  study  of 
arts  and  letters,  was  also  designed  by  them. 
The  State  of  New  York  and  the  city  of  Buffalo 
were  placed  under  lasting  obligations  by  these 
architects,    whose   designs    for   the   setting   of 


the  Pan-American  Exposition  were  the  marvel 
of  this  country  and  Europe.  Memorial  Hall 
at  Yale  University,  a  structure  of  much  beauty, 
rose  under  their  hands.  The  Lafayette  Monu- 
ment, in  Paris,  and  numberless  important 
buildings  throughout  this  republic,  together 
with  scores  of  residences,  might  be  added  to 
their  record.  Mr.  Carrere  was  injured  in  an 
automobile  accident  in  the  Spring  of  1911, 
and  died  after  several  days  of  suffering. 

The  next  time  the  reader  of  this  page  passes 
St.  Paul's  Chapel  he  should  stop  and  study 
the  architectural  effect  of  the  National  Park 
Bank  building,  a  comparatively  low  building 
surrounded  by  skyscrapers,  and  realize  the 
difficult  problem  with  which  its  architect, 
Donn  Harbei-.  had  to  grapple.  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  talk  of  a  comparatively  young  man  who 
has  accomplished  much  for  himself  and  at  the 
same  time  been  a  constant  inspiration  and 
"booster"  of  younger  artisans  in  his  own  pro- 
fession. The  Atelier  Donn  Barber,  on  Fast 
Forty-second  street,  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting places  in  the  metropolis,  solely  from  the 
viewpoint  of  achievements,  for  the  benefit  of 
young  architects. 

Mr.  Barber  was  born  in  Washington.  I).  C, 
in  October.  1871,  of  New  England  and  Revo- 
lutionary stock,  although  his  father  had  been 
previously  a  resident  of  New  York  for  many 
years.  Having  prepared  at  Holbrook  Mili- 
tary Academy,  Briarcliff.  N.  Y..  young  Barber 
entered  Yale  and  was  graduated  Ph.B.  in 
IN!).').  He  then  spent  a  year  at  Columbia  in 
special  architectural  study,  and  in  1895  en- 
tered L'Fcole  des  Beaux  Arts,  Paris.  The 
diploma  he  received  from  that  institution  in 
1898  was  the  ninth  awarded  to  an  American 
student  in  architecture.  He  won  nine  medals 
from  the  French  government.  After  a  tour 
of  study  among  the  architectural  wonders  of 
the  European  cities.  Mr.  Barber  returned  to 
New  York  to  enter  the  office  of  Lord  &  Hew- 
lett, architects;  he  completed  a  thorough 
apprenticeship  there  and  with  Cass  Gilbert 
and  Carrere  &  Hastings.  In  1 !)()()  he  opened 
an  office  of  his  own. 

What  Donn  Barber  has  accomplished  in 
ten  years  stamps  him  as  a  fine  example  of  the 
strenuous  life.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  men- 
tion all  the  notable  and  characteristic  edifices 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


117 


THOMAS  HASTINGS 


Hi.    Late  JOHN    M.  CARRERE 


GEORGE  W.  KH  WII   I: 


DONN  BAHltl  :i: 


178 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


he  has  designed,  but  the  National  Park  Bank 
structure  has  already  been  cited.  It  is  a 
truly  interesting  example  of  this  architect's 
ingenuity  in  dealing  with  a  difficult  situation. 
lis  exterior  i>  so  admirably  composed  that  it 
does  not  look  stunted  by  the  tall  Colonial 
Trust  building  adjoining  standing  on  the 
former  site  of  the  New  York  Herald  building. 
The  interior  is  a  most  sumptuous  renaissance 
banking  room  composition.  The  Connecti- 
cut Slate  Library,  the  Supreme  Court  building, 
tlu*  new  homes  of  the  Travelers'  Insurance 
Company  and  of  the  Hartford  National 
Bank,  all  at  Hartford,  are  equally  worthy  of 
individual  description.  The  new  Lotos  Club 
structure,  in  West  Fifty-seventh  street,  is 
characterized  as  the  most  decorative  use  of 
brickwork  to  be  seen  in  this  country.  In- 
teriorly, it  is  a  delight  to  the  eves.  In  the 
government  competition  lately  held  for  the 
three  department  buildings  in  Washington, 
Mr.  Barber  won  the  Department  of  Justice 
building  from  twenty  architects,  representing 
the  cream  of  the  architectural  world  in  Amer- 
ica. His  success  in  this  the  most  important 
competition  that  has  ever  been  offered  in 
this  country  places  him  indisputably  in  the 
very  first  rank.  The  Chattanooga  Union 
Railroad  station,  the  new  house  of  the  Capital 
City  Club.  Atlanta;  the  White  Plains  Hospital, 
and  the  splendid  country  mansions  of  W.  B. 
Dinsmore,  at  Tuxedo;  of  E.  C.  Converse,  at 
Greenwich;  the  model  farm  of  Richard  Dela- 
field;  the  Institute  of  Musical  Art  of  the  City 
of  \ew  York,  show  the  diversity  of  Mr.  Bar- 
ber's genius. 

The  one  thing  that  appeals  to  me  is  the 
practical  creation  of  an  Ecole  Barber,  at  the 
Barber  atelier,  where  students  of  architecture 
go  to  have  their  work  criticized,  [f  encourage- 
ment be  justified,  students  are  advised  to 
take  a  full  course  at  the  Beaux  Arts.  Pa  lis. 
Fourteen  students  from  the  Atelier  Barber 
are  studying  in  the  French  capital.  Mr. 
Barber  has  written  and  lectured  on  architec- 
ture. He  is  editor  of  the  New  York  Architect 
and  is  a  member  of  societies  and  clubs  almost 
without  number. 

When  an  architect  specializes  in  a  particular 
class  of  designing  and  is  sufficiently  successful 
to  maintain  his  supremacy  in  the  building  of 


churches  and  other  religious  edifices  for  forty- 
odd  years,  he  is  sure  to  become  a  man  of  dis- 
tinction in  his  profession.  George  Washington 
Kramer  did  not  heed  the  call  of  the  city  until 
189  t.  when  he  was  forty-seven  years  of  age.  He 
came  from  Ashland,  Ohio,  originally,  but  he  had 
chiefly  distinguished  himself  as  the  founder 
and  head  of  a  large  architectural  firm  at 
Akron,  where  his  designs  for  Sunday  school 
buildings  received  the  name  of  "The  Akron 
Plan."  Mi'.  Kramer  was  born  to  the  build- 
ing business  because  his  father  was  a  builder 
before  him.  At  Akron,  his  association  with 
Jacob  Snyder  &  Co.,  engaged  in  designing 
and  building  churches  in  all  parts  of  the 
Middle  West,  permanently  deflected  his  mind 
to  that  branch  of  work.  This  led  to  the 
origination  of  the  modern  type  of  church  plan 
as  adapted  to  the  non-ritual  or  evangelical 
churches,  now  known  throughout  Christen- 
dom as  the  Akron  System.  The  popularity 
of  the  Kramer  plans  compelled  him  to  dis- 
continue all  other  branches  of  architecture 
and  make  this  his  exclusive  specialty.  Prior 
to  becoming  a  church  builder.  Mr.  Kramer 
had  designed  college  buildings,  school  and 
court  houses,  and  numberless  public  institu- 
tions. Especially  do  I  remember  him  as  the 
architect  of  the  reconstruction  of  Oberlin  Col- 
lege, where  he  transformed  an  archaic  and 
dingy  collection  of  buildings  into  modern  form, 
giving  to  the  aged  institution  its  campus  and 
quadrangles.  He  was  also  employed  to  de- 
sign the  first  building  of  the  Ohio  Agricul- 
tural College,  and  the  great  Dueber-IIampden 
watch  ami  case  factory  at  Canton,  O.  Mr. 
Kramer  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Western 
Association  of  Architects,  which  was  subse- 
quently merged  into  the  American  Institute. 
I  must  nol  forget  to  mention  that  Mr.  Kramer 
invented  a  complete  system  of  prison  locks 
by  which  all  cells  in  the  same  sections  of  such 
institutions  are  simultaneously  closed,  and 
which  is  now  generally  used  throughout  the 
country.  He  originated  the  Fan  Furnace 
System  of  heating  and  ventilating  so  extensive- 
ly used  in  climates  too  cold  for  steam,  and  on 
this  account  was  elected  honorary  member  of 
the  National  Association  of  Heating  and  Yen- 
tilatmg  Engineers.  According  to  Mr.  Kra- 
mer's opinion,  one  great   fault   with  our  Ameri- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    VORK 


179 


FRANCIS  II    MMUAI.I. 


I   II  \.~     I'    II    I  I  I  I   r.l    i.  1 


JOSEPH   11DWI.AM)   HUNT 


RICH  \i;n  II'  i\\  I   \M>  HUNT 


180 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW   YORK 


•  •an  buildings  is  the  habit  of  building  for  to- 
day, expecting  to  remodel  or  tear  down  and 
build  larger  to-morrow;  in  consequence,  the 
question  of  durability  in  selecting  materials 
doesn't  receive  sufficient  attention.  He  has 
argued  from  the  outset  that  it  costs  very  little 
more  to  build  for  a  century  than  for  a  genera- 
tion; the  extra  outlay  is  economy.  Mr. 
Kramer  originated  the  now  popular  type  of 
diagonal  or  pulpit-in-the-corner  church,  and 
over  three-quarters  of  all  modern  non-liturgi- 
cal churches  in  the  United  Stales  are  based  on 
some  form  of  the  Kramer  plan.  lie  has 
planned  and  designed  over  2,000  churches  for 
different  denominations  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  costing  from  $.'5,000  to  $300,000,  and 
has  justly  earned  the  title  of  'The  Church 
Architect."  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  has  de- 
signed "forty  miles  of  churches." 

New  York  originally  stood  upon  an  island 
of  rocky  hills  and  intervening  marshes  and. 
when  the  rock  lav  far  below  the  surface,  the 
problem  of  finding  secure  foundations  for  large 
buildings  was  a  great  one.  In  some  instances 
contractors  had  to  go  down  nearly  a  hundred 
feet  to  secure  proper  bottom.  Francis  II. 
Kimball  was  the  originator  of  the  caisson 
system  in  foundation  construction,  now  uni- 
versally adopted.  The  use  of  this  system 
has  made  possible  tin'  rearing  of  structures  of 
great  height,  that  fifteen  years  ago  would  have 
been  a  defiance  of  natural  laws.  This  is  Mr. 
Kimball's  chief  pride,  although  his  achieve- 
ments in  architecture  are  eminently  note- 
worthy, lie  was  born  at  Kennebunk,  Maine, 
1845,  and  he  learned  the  building  trade  from 
practical  beginnings.  Later,  he  served  with 
Louis  P.  Rogers  of  Boston.  When  Mr.  Kim- 
ball was  commissioned  supervising  architect 
of  the  new  buildings  of  Trinity  College,  Hart- 
ford, he  went  to  London  and  studied  in  the 
atelier  of  William  Burgess,  a  master  of  the 
French  Gothic  school.  Since  the  completion 
of  tin'  beautiful  buildings  at  the  Connecticut 
capital.  Mr.  Kimball  has  been  the  authority 
on  this  style  of  architecture  in  America.  The 
Casino  (of  Moorish  type),  the  Garrick  and 
Fifth  Avenue  theatres  in  this  city  were  de- 
signed by  him.  Kimball  &  Thompson  were 
the  architects  of  the  Manhattan  Life  building. 


on  lower  Broadway,  in  the  rearing  of  which  the 
caisson  system  was  first  utilized. 

Another  man  who  has  helped,  architectur- 
ally, to  enrich  and  beautify  Greater  New  York 
is  Charles  Pierrepont  II.  Gilbert,  born  in 
the  metropolis,  1863.  From  earliest  boyhood, 
he  set  out  to  be  a  civil  engineer  and  architect. 
His  whole  life  has  been  devoted  to  the  study 
of  painting,  sculpture  and  the  hue  arts, 
backed  by  a  thorough  special  training  in  civil 
engineering  and  architecture.  Mr.  Gilbert 
always  has  practiced  on  his  own  account; 
has  designed  many  important  hotels,  bank 
buildings,  churches,  railroad  stations,  office 
buildings  and  private  residences.  lie  is  a 
Fellow  of  the  American  Institute  of  Archi- 
tects, a  member  of  the  Architectural  League, 
the  Fine  Ails  Society,  the  Municipal  Arts 
Society,  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars.  Sons 
of  the  Revolution,  the  Society  of  the  War 
of  1SW.  the  New  England  Society  and  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  Mr.  Gilbert  is  a 
charter  member  of  Squadron  A.,  X.  G.  S. 
N.  Y.  He  belongs  to  the  Metropolitan, 
Union  League,  Riding,  Racquet,  Lawyers' 
clubs,  Sleepv  Hollow  Country  Club  and  Xew 
York  Golf  Club. 

Architects  are  born  not  made;  often  they 
inherit  the  art  of  designing  from  their  fathers. 
This  is  especially  the  case  with  Richard  How- 
land  Hunt,  whose  father  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  his  profession  in 
this  country.  Mr.  Hunt  was  born  at  Paris. 
France,  in  1862;  he  was  educated  at  the  In- 
stitute of  Technology  and  finished  his  studies 
at  L'Ecole  des  Reaux  Aits.  From  a  small 
sketch  left  by  his  father,  Richard  Morris 
Hunt,  he  completed  the  new  wing  for  the  Met- 
ropolitan Museum  of  Art,  the  facade  of  which 
is  one  of  the  architectural  beauties  of  this  city. 
Among  the  countless  structures  that  Mr. 
Hunt  has  designed  may  be  mentioned  Quin- 
tard  Hall  and  Hoffman  Hall  at  Sewanee 
University:  Kissam  Hall  at  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity; Schmid  House;  "Idle  Hour,"  for 
W.  K.  Vanderbilt's  Long  Island  estate,  and 
the  Schieffelin  town  house.  He  is  a  member 
of  all  the  scientific  associations  allied  to  archi- 
tecture and  of  the  Players  and  Century  clubs. 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


181 


Another  member  of  1 1 1  *  -  Hunt  family  who 
has  distinguished  himself  in  architecture  is 
Joseph  Howland  Hunt,  a  brother  of  the  above. 
and  of  the  same  firm.  He  was  horn  in  New 
York  City,  March.  1870,  was  educated  at  St. 
Mark's  School.  Southboro,  Mass.:  then  went 
to  Harvard  University;  studied  at  Columbia 
College  and  L'Ecole  des  Beaux  Aits.  Paris. 
He  traveled  extensively  in  Europe  studying 
architecture  and  visiting  all  the  famous  cathe- 
dral towns  of  England,  as  well  as  the  Con- 
tinent. He  also  spent  considerable  time  on 
the  Island  of  Sicily,  examining  the  splendid 
remains  of  Greek  temples  to  be  found  at  Gir- 
genta.  The  tine  old  church  at  Palermo  was 
made  a  subject  of  special  examination.  Mr. 
Hunt  is  very  fond  of  shooting  and  sought  big 
game  in  Canada  and  the  Rockies.  He  has 
visited  the  Bermudas.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
National  Guard  of  this  state  and  belongs  to 
Squadron  A.  the  crack  troop  of  New  York. 
He  is  secretary  of  the  Fine  Arts  Federation: 
treasurer  of  the  American  Society  of  the  Beaux 
Arts;  treasurer  of  the  Architectural  League; 
member  of  the  New  York  Chapter  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Architects,  the  New 
England  Society,  the  Municipal  Arts  Society 
and  the  Graduates  Association;  belongs  to  the 
University,  Racquet  and  Tennis.  Harvard 
and  Players' clubs.  Mr.  Hunt  has  utilized  his 
travels  in  every  possible  way  to  increase  his 
architectural  knowledge.  He  lias  at  his  finger 
tips  the  details  of  most  of  the  grand  palaces 
of  Italy.  France  and  England.  He  has  espe- 
cially studied  the  Gothic,  although  he  has 
given  much  time  to  Moorish  remains  in 
Spain. 

So  many  men  have  been  conspicuous  in 
the  creation  of  modern  New  York,  and  their 
shares  in  the  splendid  results  have  been  so 
varied  that  it  almost  seems  invidious  to  single 
out  any  one  architect  for  special  commenda- 
tion; but  an  exception  may  be  justifiably  made 
in  the  case  of  Julius  Franke.  who.  although  one 
of   the   younger    architects  in  this  great  com- 


petitive city,  really  merits  the  admiration  of  his 
fellow  countrymen.  Mr.  Franke  is  a  native 
of  this  city,  born  1868,  and  educated  at  the 
public  schools,  the  College  of  the  City  of  New 
York  and  the  Cooper  I  nion.  At  the  age  of 
IS  he  began  the  study  of  architecture  in  the 
office  of  architect  Duenkel,  of  Hoboken,  and 
after  accumulating  sufficient  funds  by  four 
years'  work,  he  went  to  Paris  for  special 
observation.  There  he  received  great  en- 
couragement and  mastered  all  schools  of  archi- 
tecture from  the  early  Norman  to  the  most 
modern.  Notre  Dame  Cathedral  became  as 
much  of  an  enthusiasm  to  him,  architecturally, 
as  it  was  to  Victor  Hugo.  He  traveled  ex- 
tensively, after  the  completion  of  his  course  of 
study,  and  personally  examined  many  of  the 
notable  architectural  marvels  of  the  Old 
World.  Before  going  to  Europe,  he  entered 
the  office  of  George  B.  Post,  and  one  of  the 
first  responsibilities  committed  to  him  by  Mr. 
Post— although  barely  twenty-one  years  of 
age  was  the  supervision  of  the  Pulitzer  build- 
ing, fronting  City  Hall  Square.  This  task 
required  his  constant  attention  for  nearly  a 
year,  and  he  gave  to  it  the  same  concentra- 
tion of  thought  that  has  characterized  his 
subsequent  work.  Upon  his  return  from 
Europe  the  firm  of  Maynicke  &  Franke. 
which  erected  more  than  200  large  buildings 
in  New  York  City,  was  formed.  The  one 
that  most  promptly  recurs  to  me  is  the  new 
Fifth  Avenue  building,  on  the  site  of  the  old 
hotel  of  that  name.  When  I  asked  Mr. 
Franke  what  had  induced  him  to  adopt  this 
line  of  activity,  he  replied:  '*  1  could  not  get 
along  with  my  father  in  his  business  and  1 
selected  architecture,  in  the  firm  belief  that 
it  was  best  suited  to  my  inclination  and  ca- 
pacity." The  speaker  was  proud  of  the  fact 
that  he  always  had  had  to  work  for  a  living. 
He  has  been  a  grand  juror  for  six  years.  His 
clubs  are  the  New  York  Athletic  and  Repub- 
lican; he  is  a  member  of  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  Architects. 


1 82 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


JULIUS   FRANKE 


.ti  >h\  \    -i  ii  \i.i  1:1: 


The  designing  of  beautiful  architectural 
structures  is,  of  course,  a  condition  precedent 
to  their  erection;  but  a  competent  builder  to 
accurately  execute  the  designs  is  of  equal  im- 
portance. For  this  reason  John  V.  Schaefer, 
Jr.,  deserves  a  place  well  up  in  the  list  of 
those  who  have  contributed  to  the  architec- 
tural beautifying  of  the  cities  of  this  country. 
Mr.  Schaefer  was  horn  in  this  city  in  1872, 
finished  his  education  in  the  city  of  New 
York  and  then  took  a  post-graduate  course 
in  architecture  in  Vienna.  His  business  career 
began  in  association  with  his  father,  as  an 
interior  decorator:  l>ut.  in  1889,  he  started 
for  himself  and  six  years  later  incorporated 
under  the  firm  name  of  John  N  .  Schaefer. 
Jr.,  &  Company,  having  for  his  partners 
II.  Y.  Carrere  and  J).  II.  Mapes. 

Mr.  Schaefer  has  been  successful  from  the 
outset,  alwavs  making  a  specialty  of  high- 
class  private  residences,  both  city  and  country, 
and  institutional  buildings.  Among  the  finest 
examples    may  be  mentioned    the  residence  of 


Edwin  Gould,  at  Ardsley;  Daniel  and  Murray 
Guggenheim,  at  Elberon;  Stephen  ('.  Millett, 
at  irvington;  Forsyth  Wickes,  at  Tuxedo,  and 
Percy  Strauss,  at  Red  Hank.  The  beautiful 
memorial  building  at  Cornell  University,  dedi- 
cated to  Goldwin  Smith  and  known  as  "The 
College  of  Humanities,"  and  Rockefeller  Hall, 
upon  the  same  campus,  were  built  by  this 
firm.  Concordia  College,  at  Bronxville,  and 
the  Administration  Building  and  Concourse 
in  Bronx  Park  are  also  their  work.  Bethany 
Memorial  Church  and  Day  Nursery,  in  this 
city:  the  Westchester  Court  House  at  White 
Plains;  a  group  of  twenty-eight  buildings  for 
the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  Society,  of 
Pleasantville,  and  the  Glen  Cove  Bank,  on 
Long  Island,  are  products  of  their  skill.  Mr. 
Schaefer  is  treasurer  of  the  Blanc  Stainless 
Cement  (  lompany,  a  director  of  the  Hungarian- 
American  Bank,  of  Xew  York,  and  director  of 
the  International  Import  and  Export  Com- 
pany. He  is  a  member  of  the  University  Club. 
of  Washington,  1).  C,  of  a  similar  organiza- 
tion  of  college   men   at    Pleasantville.   N.    ^  .. 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


183 


and  of  the  New  York  Athletic  Club  of  this 
city.  lie  is  a  Democrat  and  the  only  public 
office  he  ever  has  attempted  to  attain  is  that  of 
School  Director  in  the  town  of  Mt.  Pleasant, 
Westchester  County,  where  his  summer  home 
is  located. 

As  the  architect  of  several  of  New  York's 
leading  hotels,  Henry  J.  Hardenbergh  has 
contributed  much  to  the  structural  beauty  of 
the  city. 

Mr.  Hardenbergh  was  born  in  New  Bruns- 
wick, N.  J.,  February  (>.  1847,  and  when 
eighteen  years  of  age  took  up  the  study  of 
architecture  with  Detlef  Lienau.  After  five 
years  of  thorough  preparation,  he,  in  1870, 
commenced  active  practice  in  New  York  City, 
and  has  been  eminently  successful,  designing 
many  buildings  that  are  recognized  as  among 
the  finest  in  the  metropolis.  These  include 
the  Dakota.  Waldorf-Astoria.  Plaza  and  Man- 
hattan hotels  and  the  American  Fine  Arts 
Society  building. 

Mr.  Hardenbergh  resides  at  Bernardsville, 

N.  J.,  and  his  studio  is  at  Xo.  1  West  Thirty- 
fourth  Street,  New  York  City. 

Another  architect  from  the  West  who  has 
attained  a  high  measure  of  success  in  this  city 
is  Albert  Frederick  D'Oench,  born  in  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  in  1852,  and  graduated  twenty 
years  later  M.E.  from  Washington  University 
in  that  city.  Thence  he  went  abroad  and 
studied  at  Stuttgart,  Wurtcmberg,  Germany, 
finishing  at  the  Royal  Polytechnic  Institute 
in  that  city.  Returning  to  New  York,  in 
1875,  he  began  his  professional  career  as  an 
architect  ami  pursued  it  with  distinguished 
success.  He  was  Superintendent  of  Build- 
ings of  the  city  of  New  York,  1885-'89;  mem- 
ber and  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Examiners 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  1900-1902.  He  is  a 
director  of  the  Germania  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany and  of  the  American  Eden  Musee 
Company.  He  is  now  senior  member  of  the 
firm  of  D'Oench  vV  Post;  a  Fellow  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Architects  and  of  its 
New  York  Chapter;  member  of  the  Archi- 
tectural  League  of  New  York  and  of  the  Beta 


Theta  Pi  fraternity,  the  Automobile,  Reform, 
Graduates  and  Manhassel  Bay  Yachi  clubs. 
Mr.  D'Oench  is  especially  fond  of  country 
life  and  has  a  place  at  Manhasset,  Long  Island, 
known  as  "Sunset  Hill."  where  he  passes  a 
large  part  of  the  year. 

The  State  of  Ohio  has  contributed  to  the 
metropolis  a  successful  architect  in  the  person 
of  William  Wells  Bosworth,  born  at  Marietta. 
1S(i!).  educated  at  Marietta  College,  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology  and  L'Ecole 
des  Beaux  Arts.  Paris.  Mr.  Bosworth  has 
engaged  in  practice  under  his  own  name  and 
in  connection  with  Jarvis  Hunt,  of  Chicago. 
He  is  an  Associate  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Architects;  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
Societe  Beaux  Arts  Architects;  Companion  of 
the  First  Class  (by  inheritance)  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  of  the  United  States.  Ohio  Command- 
ery.  He  belongs  to  the  Century,  Players'  and 
other  social  organizations. 

I  want  to  talk  about  the  man  who  built  two 
and  a  half  miles  of  the  first  New  York  Sub- 
way. He  is  a  born  engineer.  A  passion  for 
constructive  work  directed  the  mind  of  John 
J.  Hopper  toward  a  career  as  civil  engineer  and 
contractor.  He  was  born  in  Manhattan, 
November,  1853,  educated  at  the  public 
schools  and  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege in  1877 — a  member  of  the  Beta  Theta  Pi 
fraternity.  He  took  a  special  course  at  the 
Thayer  School  of  Civil  Engineering,  con- 
nected with  Dartmouth.  When  the  agitation 
for  the  construction  of  the  subway  from  the 
Battery  to  Van  Cortland  Park  had  taken 
shape.  Mr.  Hopper  was  one  of  the  earliest 
bidders  and  secured  a  contract  as  stated  above, 
completing  the  work  days  ahead  of  time.  He 
is  of  Dutch  ancestry,  his  family  having  lived 
in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  for  two  and  a 
half  centuries.  He  belongs  to  the  Independ- 
ence League  and  was  its  candidate  for  Governor 
against  Dix  and  for  sheriff  of  New  York  County 
1!)1 1.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Reform.  Single 
Tax,  City,  Engineers'  and  Dartmouth  clubs, 
the  Municipal  Arts  Society,  American  Society 
of  Civil  Engineers  and  the  American 
Geographical     Society. 


I, St 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


wm.  \v  hi iswi mill 


JOHN  J.  Hi  IPPER 


WM    11    McCORD 


^hat  is  technically  known  as  "skeleton" 
construction  in  modern  habitations  might  be 
justly  described  as  ;i  phase  of  the  evolution 
of  modern  civilization.  The  development  of 
this  particular  phase  may  he  partly  attributed 
to  the  fact  that  a  little  less  than  a  half  century 
ago  a  boy  named  William  Hewlett  McCord, 
disregarding  the  predelictions  of  his  parents 
for  a  professional  career  for  their  son.  went 
with  the  firm  of  .1.  B.  and  W.  W.  Cornell, 
manufacturers  of  architectural  iron,  and 
learned  the  trade  with  them.  Born  in  New- 
burgh,  Orange  County,  1S47.  he  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools  and  at  what  is  now  the 
University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Joining 
the  above-mentioned  firm  at  an  early  age,  he 
went,  in  1870,  to  the  Architectural  Iron  Works, 
which  1  remember  as  the  firm  that  built  the 
Grand  Central  station,  lately  razed.  Little 
did  1  think,  when  contemplating  the  erection 
of  that  then  remarkable  structure,  that  I 
would  live  to  see  it  torn  down  as  inadequate 
to  the  requirements  of  an  overgrown  traffic. 
In  1876  the  firm  of  Post  &  McCord  was 
established.  1  believe  they  erected  the  first 
fireproof  structure,  the  original  Morse  Build- 
ing, at  the  corner  of  Nassau  and  Beekman 
streets,  and  later.  Temple  Court,  still  stand- 
ing. The  first  "skeleton"  steel  structure  in 
New  York,  according  to  Mr.  McCord,  was 
the  Chatham  Hank  building,  at  .John  Street  and 
Broadway.  The  important  part  played  by 
Post  &  McCord  in  their  Held  is  evinced  by  a 
contemplation  of  Madison  Square.       The  won- 


derful Metropolitan  Life  Tower,  as  well  as 
the  late  Madison  Square  Garden  Tower,  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Building,  the  Brunswick  Build- 
ing and  that  at  334  Fourth  Avenue,  owes  its 
steel  skeleton  to  this  firm.  Other  remarkable 
works  of  architecture,  as  regards  steel  frame- 
work, attributable  to  Tost  &  McCord.  are  the 
buildings  of  the  University  of  New  York, 
the  City  Investing  Building  and  the  thirty- 
nine-story  Bankers'  Trust  edifice  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Nassau  and  Wall  streets. 

Many  of  the  public  buildings  of  Brooklyn 
arc  tin"  work  of  the  P.  J.  Carlin  Construction 
Company.  'The  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  and  the  Hall  of  Records  are  note- 
worthy examples.  This  firm  was  founded  by 
Patrick  J.  (  arlin.  who  was  born  in  Kathmelton, 
County  Donegal,  in  1851.  He  saw  but  little 
of  the  land  of  his  birth,  coming  to  this  country 
when  an  infant  with  his  parents.  When 
twelve  years  of  age  he  entered  upon  a  prac- 
tical education  in  his  present  vocation,  being- 
set  to  bricklaying  by  his  father. 

In  addition  to  the  buildings  mentioned,  the 
Carlin  Construction  Company  has  erected 
some  of  the  Naval  Academy  buildings  at 
Annapolis.  The  company  also  completed  the 
capitol  at  Albany.  Mr.  Carlin  is  first  Vice- 
President  of  and  particularly  interested  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Orphan  Asylum  Society; 
President  of  the  Prospect  Gun  Club  and  was 
formerly  President  of  the  Emerald  Society  of 
Brooklyn  and  of  the  St.  Patrick  Society. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1S5 


ri <  Mil  ktc  in  i:\siui 


THOMAS  DlMnNI) 


I'llAKLES  CRANFORD 


After  several  years'  training  in  the  active 
business  of  a  New  York  banking  house, 
Robert  Clifford  Burnside  became  President 
of  the  Asbestolith  Manufacturing  Company, 
a  corporation  of  which  the  late  C.  T.  Barney 
was  practically  the  owner.  The  Asbestolith 
Company  supplies  granite  for  building  pur- 
poses. Mr.  Burnside  was  also  associated  with 
the  late  Thomas  B.  Reed  and  Payson  Tucker, 
of  Maine.  Mr.  Burnside  was  born  in  New 
York  City  in  1S66,  and  was  educated  at  the 
New  York  public  schools.  His  company  sup- 
plied the  granite  for  Grant's  Tomb,  the  Smith 
Memorial  of  Philadelphia,  the  house  of  former 
Senator  Clark  on  upper  Fifth  Avenue,  as  well 
as  for  the  Clark  tomb  at  Woodlawn,  the  Dun 
building  and  the  Bowling  Green  building  and 
other  important  buildings  throughout  the 
country.  Mr.  Burnside  is  descended  from 
Sir  William  Wallace,  on  his  father's  side.  He 
is  a  Mason,  a  member  of  the  Ancient  Order  of 
Foresters,  of  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  Amer- 
ica, Royal  Arcanum,  the  Republican  Club  and 
Railroad  Club. 

The  growth  of  demand  for  structural  iron 
and  steel  used  in  buildings  has  developed  sev- 
eral notable  characters  in  this  city.  Thomas 
Dimond  was  born  at  Garrisons,  N.  \  .,  in 
1854,  hut  was  early  transplanted  to  New  York, 
where  he  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  our  public 
schools,  took  a  course  in  business  at  Pack- 
ard's and  studied  architecture  under  James 
Renwick,  the  designer  of  Grace  Church  and 
St.  Patrick's  Cathedral.      Mr.  Dimond  worked 


on  plans  of  the  latter  structure.  On  the  com- 
pletion of  that  splendid  edifice,  he  began  the 
manufacture  of  architectural  iron  work,  asso- 
ciated with  an  uncle.  His  father  had  original- 
ly been  in  this  business.  He  has  always  taken 
an  active  interest  in  New  York  real  estate 
and  believes  that  the  region  around  the  new 
Pennsylvania  railroad  station  will  become  the 
future  business  centre.  He  is  interested  in 
horses,  is  a  director  of  the  Westchester  Horse 
Show  Association  and  has  a  fine  country  place 
at  Rye.  He  was  for  many  years  a  member 
of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  N.  G.  N.  Y. ;  he 
is  a  vestryman  of  All  Angels'  Episcopal 
Church  and  belongs  to  numerous  clubs  and 
social  organizations. 

Charles  Cranford  was  born  in  New  York 
in  1868,  entered  the  employ  of  the  Inman 
Steamship  Company  in  1882  and  that  of  the 
Commercial  Bank  in  18S.>.  With  the  latter  insti- 
tution he  remained  five  years,  leaving  to  form 
the  firm  of  Cranford  &  Valentine,  contractors, 
which  partnership  existed  till  1!)0.5.  In  the 
construction  of  and  removal  of  grade  crossings 
on  the  Brighton  Beach  Line.  Mr.  Cranford 
performed  his  workso  capably  and  expeditious- 
ly as  to  earn  the  gratitude  of  the  residents  of 
Flatbush  and  following  this  achievement  a 
public  dinner  was  given  to  him. 

Mr.  Cranford  is  Vice-President  of  the 
People's  Surety  Company.  President  of  the 
Flushing  Bay  Improvement  Company,  and 
Vice-President  of  the  Borough  Development 
( Company. 


186 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


Col.  M.  J.  DADY 


When  a  large  or  difficult  contract  is  an- 
nounced, Michael  J.  Dady  is  sure  to  be  found 
among  the  bidders     often  the  successful  one. 

My  especial  interest  in 
him  is  that  he  began 
life  as  an  office  boy  in 
a  newspaper  office.  He 
was  a  glutton  for  hard 
work  and  soon  decided 
that  his  craving  there- 
for could  be  better 
utilized  in  some  other 
line  of  endeavor.  As 
he  intended  to  end  by 
being  a  constructor  of 
1  a  i'  g  e  building's,  he 
learned  the  trade  of 
masonry,  that  he  might 
begin  at  the  bottom  and 
know  all  about  his  life's 
occupation.  Nothing  in  the  way  of  informa- 
tion escaped  him.  lie  soon  knew  exactly  how 
many  bricks  a  competent  mason  could  lay  in  a 
dav's  work  and  how  few  an  incompetent  man 
"scratched  through." 

When  he  became  wise  enough  to  go  alone 
and  secured  his  first  contract.  Michael  J. 
Dady  made  a  beginning  in  politics.  His  polit- 
ical career  is  an  interesting  one.  He  has  shown 
much  independence  at  times  and  has  been 
"inside"  and  "outside  the  breastworks"  when- 
ever his  conscience  dictated.  Mr.  Dady  was 
born  in  Brooklyn,  April.  1850,  and  attended 
its  public  schools.  He  tells  me  the  better 
part  of  his  education  was  obtained  in  a  news- 
paper office.  When  he  entered  the  office  of 
William  C.  King-slew  a  contractor,  he  mapped 
out  his  future  course.  He  worked  as  a  mason 
on  the  General  Post  Office  building,  at  Broad- 
way and  Park  Row.  Five  years  later  he  was 
general  superintendent  of  all  national  build- 
ings under  construction  in  New  York  City! 
Naturally,  when  a  Federal  building  was  de- 
creed for  Brooklyn,  he  became  superintend- 
ent of  construction.  After  several  experiences 
in  partnership,  with  excellent  men,  Mr.  Dady 
decided  to  go  alone  in  1893.  The  Michael 
.1.  Dady  Contracting  Company  was  formed— 
he  being  sole  owner.  Under  this  name  Mr. 
Dady  has  completed  some  of  the  largest  under- 
takings   in    this   country.     One    wing   of   the 


Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  was  constructed 
by  him.  lie  has  had  municipal  government 
work  of  huge  proportions.  His  contract  with 
the  Spanish  government  to  build  the  sewers  of 
Havana.  Cuba,  amounted  to  $14,000,000. 
The  Spanish-American  War  defeated  this  con- 
tract, but  the  Government  of  Intervention 
allowed  Mr.  Dady  $250,000  for  work  done. 

Mr.  Dady  has  been  very  prominent  at  times 
in  Brooklyn  politics;  he  has  been  delegate  to 
three  National  Conventions,  twenty  years  on 
the  Republican  State  Committee,  and  an 
elector  on  the  McKinley  ticket.  He  is  a 
member  of  many  clubs. 


il.Al      Hi  il'l 


When  the  tunnel  under  the  Detroit  River 
that  connects  Detroit  with  Windsor.  Canada, 
was  decided  upon  by  the  Michigan  Central 
Railroad,   one   or   two    unsuccessful    attempts 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


187 


having  previously  been  made  to  complete  it, 
Olaf  Holt'  in  1906  submitted  plans  that  un- 
folded a  previously  untried  method  of  tunnel 
construction.  These  plans  were  adopted  and 
the  contract  awarded  his  firm. 

What  seemed  an  impossible  undertaking 
was  successfully  completed  by  the  middle  of 
the  year  1910.  A  trench  was  dug  in  the  bed 
of  the  river  by  the  use  of  floating  dredges; 
steel  tubes  23  feet  4.  inches  in  diameter  and 
L2(>0  feet  long,  reinforced  every  twelve  feet  with 
transverse  partitions  or  diaphrams  of  steel 
plates,  were  floated  over  the  trench  and  sunk 
into  the  ditches  by  filling  them  with  water. 
They  did  not  lie  directly  on  the  bottom  of 
the  river  bed  but  were  held  suspended  several 
feet  above  to  permit  the  filling  in  of  concrete, 
thus  giving  to  them  solid  foundation.  When 
the  concreting  was  finished,  water  was  pumped 
from  the  tubes  and  concrete  lining  placed 
inside. 

Mr.  Hoff  was  granted  letters  patent  for  this 
invention,  which  establishes  a  new  era  in 
subaqueous  tunnelling. 

Mr.  Hon"  was  born  at  Smaalenene,  Norway, 
April,  18.59;  he  received  a  technical  education 
at  Christiania,  taking  his  C.E.  degree  in  1870. 
He  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  same  year 
and  from  that  time  until  now  has  been  engaged 
in  numerous  bridge  undertakings  and  other 
engineering  projects  in  this  country  and 
Mexico.  He  has  lately  had  supervision  of  the 
construction  of  the  new  Vanderbilt  Hotel  on 
Park  Avenue.  During  four  years' connection 
with  the  Xew  York  Central  &  Hudson  River 
railroad  he  built  or  renewed  more  than  four 
hundred  bridges  on  that  line.  He  built  for 
the  Great  Northern  Railway  the  great  steel 
structure  across  the  Mississippi  River  at 
Minneapolis. 

His  history  in  this  country  is  a  continual 
career  of  successes  since  the  day  he  entered 
the  services  of  the  Keystone  Bridge  Company 
of  Pittsburg  in  1880. 

He  is  now  engaged  in  the  practice  of  en- 
gineering in  this  city  with  an  office  in  the 
Singer  Building. 

Among  his  inventions  are  methods  of  sub- 
marine pile  driving,  reinforced  concrete  piles. 


grain-bin  construction  of  reinforced  concrete 
and  fireproof  Mooring. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers,  the  National  Geographic 
Society,  and  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science. 

One  of  the  authorities  in  this  country  on 
water  supply  and  sanitation  is  Cornelius 
(  larkson  Vermeule,  a  civil  engineer  of  national 
reputation,  who  for  thirty  years  has  been 
chief  consulting  engineer  for  the  State  of  New- 
Jersey.  He  was  born  in  New  Brunswick, 
N.  J.,  1858,  and  was  graduated  at  Rutgers 
College  twenty  years  later.  Three  years'  sub- 
sequent   study    secured    for    him    a    degree    of 


CORNELIUS  C.  VERMEULE 

civil  engineer.  Although  he  had  joined  the 
engineering  staff  of  the  Newark  Aqueduct 
Board,  he  took  charge  of  the  topographical 
survey  of  the  State  of  New"  Jersey.  This  im- 
portant work  occupied  ten  years,  and.  when 
completed,  was  the  first  scientific  survey  made 
by  any  state  in  the  Union.  Without  precedent 
to  guide  him.  Mi'.  Vermeule  accomplished 
this  task.     At  the  time  he  undertook  this  work, 


188 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


he  was  twenty  years  of  age.  In  1SSS  he 
opened  an  office  on  Broadway  and  has  since 
acted  as  advisory  engineer  tor  many  of  the 
cities  and  private  water  companies  of  the 
Middle  States.  He  has  constructed  large 
plants  in  numerous  cities.  He  acted  as  con- 
sulting engineer  for  the  Republic  of  Cuba  on 
questions  of  water  supply  and  sanitation.  He 
constructed  a  new  sewerage  system  For  Cien- 
fuegos,  Cuba.  He  became  interested  in  the 
development  of  Maine  seaside  property,— 
planning  and  building  York  Cliffs  and  Passa- 
conaway  Inn.  His  ancestor  in  this  country 
was  Adrian  Yermenle.  who  came  from  Ylis- 
singen,  Holland,  in  Hi!)!);  he  was  an  educated 
man  and  became  town  clerk  and  voorleser 
of  Harlem,  N.  Y.  Moving  to  Plaiiffield.  \.  J., 
in  1735,  the  family  acquired  an  estate  of  twelve 
hundred  acres.  Adrian's  son,  Cornelius,  was 
a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  and 
Provincial  Congress,  during  the  Revolution. 
The  son  of  this  man,  in  turn,  named  Cornelius, 
served  as  Captain  in  the  Somerset  Militia 
throughout  that  war.  The  Vermeule  home- 
stead, at  Plainfield,  was  the  scene  of  many 
gatherings  of  heroes  during  the  most  trying 
periods  of  the  War  for  Liberty;  Washington 
was  a  frequent  guest.  The  subject  of  this 
sketch  belongs  to  the  Century  Association 
and  the  Holland  Society.  Although  holding 
an  appointive  office,  he  never  has  been  a  can- 
didate for  a  political  one.  In  politics,  he 
always  has  been  an  Independent. 

Railroad  management  of  this  country  is  to- 
day in  the  hands  of  comparatively  young  men. 
An  example  is  seen  in  Henry  Gordon  Stott, 
who  at  the  aye  of  forty-five  is  Superintendent 
of  Motive  Power  for  the  Interborough  Transit 
Company  of  New  York  City.  Mr.  Stott  was 
born  in  the  Orkney  Islands.  Scotland,  in 
]S(i(i.  After  attending  the  public  schools, 
he  took  a  course  at  Watson's  College,  Edin- 
burgh; but  his  technical  education  was  re- 
ceived at  Glasgow,  where  he  specialized  in 
mechanical  engineering  and  electricitv.  He 
at  once  sought  employment  with  an  electric 
lighl  company  at  Glasgow,  but  soon  was  ap- 
pointed an  electrician  on  board  the  Anglo- 
American  Telegraph  Company's  steamship 
"  Minia,"  employed   in   making  deep  sea  re- 


pairs on  Atlantic  cables.  He  duplexed  the 
Direct  United  States  Cable  Company's  main 
line,  at  that  time  the  longest  cable  (2,750 
marine  miles)  ever  duplexed.  In  1889  he 
joined  the  Brush  Electric  Engineering  Com- 
pany, of  England;  next  he  was  sent  to  Madrid 
for  the  installation  of  the  English  Electric 
Eight  Company,  of  that  city.  and.  in  1891, 
he  came  to  America  and  installed  the  Buffalo 
Eight  &  Power  Company.  He  then  joined 
the  Manhattan  Railway  Company  of  this  city, 
installed  the  third  rail  system  and  soon  attained 
the  commanding  place  he  now   holds. 

Among  the  prominent  consulting  engineers 
of  lower  Broadway.  I  must  not  fail  to  mention 
Col.  John  Bogart.  who.  after  graduating  at 
Rutgers  College,  became  a  consulting  engineer 
with  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  and 
afterward  assisted  in  the  construction  of  Cen- 
tral Park.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out, 
he  entered  the  engineer  service  of  the  Federal 
Army  and  had  charge  of  the  construction  of 
the  fort  at  the  Rip  Raps,  Hampton  Roads. 
He  served  until  l<S(i(>.  Iu  1870  he  became 
chief  engineer  of  the  Park  Commission  of 
Brooklyn,  but  soon  resumed  his  connection 
with  the  public  parks  of  Manhattan  Island, 
continuing  as  chief  engineer  until  1877.  Since 
the  latter  date,  he  has  been  engaged  upon  im- 
portant municipal  work  at  New  Orleans. 
Baltimore,  Chicago,  Albany,  Nashville  and  in 
South  America.  In  this  connection,  his  plan- 
ning of  the  West  Side  parks  of  Chicago  and 
of  the  park  system  of  Newark  and  the  Oranges 
and  that  of  Albany  deserves  especial  notice. 
He  built  the  Washington  Bridge  across  the 
Harlem;  was  consulting  engineer  for  the 
Niagara  Falls  Power  Company,  the  New 
York  Rapid  Transit  Commission  and  the 
New  York  State  Board  of  Health.  He  was 
State  Engineer  of  New  York  for  four  years, 
and  has  served  as  an  officer  of  the  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers. 

Recently  he  has  designed  and  constructed 
many  hydraulic  and  electric  developments 
financed  in  New  York  Citv;  some  of  the  larger 
ones  being  being  those  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
Power  Company,  the  Atlanta  Water  &  Electric 
Power   Company,     the   Cascade    (British   Co- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


189 


ALFRED  CRAVEN 


Col.  JOHN  BOGART 


A  1-1  HI  I)  P.  BOLLER 


lumbia)  Company,  the  Chattanooga  &  Ten- 
nessee River  Power  ( Company.  I  [e  is  the  New 
York  member  of  the  U.  S.  Board  on  the  deep 
waterway  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  on  the  American  Commission  of 
Congresses  of  International  Navigation.  He 
has  been  the  Engineer  officer  of  the  State 
National  Guard.  lie  is  a  member  of  mam- 
social  and  scientific  organizations. 

The  success  of  the  subways  uniting  the 
various  sections  of  this  great  city  has  been 
due  to  the  care  and  ability  bestowed  upon  the 
original  designs  by  the  engineers  who  made 
them.  At  present,  the  progress  of  the  sub- 
way extensions  is  in  the  hands  of  a  thoroughly 
capable  engineer,  with  a  Naval  Academy  train- 
ing behind  him.  1  refer  to  Alfred  Craven, 
who  since  1884  has  been  actively  engaged  as  a 
civil  engineer  in  this  city.  Originally,  he  be- 
longed to  Xew  Jersey,  having  been  born  at 
Bound  Brook  in  1846.  He  was  appointed  to 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  where  he 
was  graduated  with  honors  in  1867.  Mr. 
Craven  remained  in  the  service  until  1871, 
when  he  resigned  to  accept  a  place  with  the 
California  Geological  Survey.  He  remained 
on  the  Pacific  Coast  until  1884,  when  he  came 
to  this  city  to  accept  an  offer  from  the  Aque- 
duct Commission.  For  six  years  he  worked 
on  reservoirs,  dams  and  aqueducts,  being 
division  engineer  most  of  the  time.      In    1900 


the  Board  of  Rapid  Transit  Commissioners 
chose  him  as  a  division  engineer  and  five  years 
later  he  became  Deputy  Chief  Engineer;  when 
Henrv  B.  Seaman,  chief  of  the  Enoineerine; 
Department,  resigned.  Mr.  Craven  succeeded 
him.  He  has  been  in  continuous  practice  of 
his  profession  for  thirty-nine  years. 

Among  the  distinguished  civil  engineers 
who  have  specialized  upon  railroad-bridge 
construction  in  this  country  is  Alfred  Pancoast 
Boiler,  who  came  to  this  city  from  Philadel- 
phia, where  he  was  born  in  1840.  After 
securing  a  degree  at  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania in  1858,  he  took  an  engineering  course 
at  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute.  Troy, 
N.  Y.,  until  1861.  He  has  been  in  continuous 
practice  of  his  profession  ever  since,  conduct- 
ing important  works  in  various  parts  of  this 
country,  as  assistant  chief,  consulting  or  con- 
tractmg  engineer.  He  is  now  of  the  firm  of 
Boiler  &  I  lodge.  Among  the  large  enter- 
prises he  has  carried  out  are  the  double  track 
steel  bridge  over  the  Hudson,  at  Albany, 
a  similar  structure  over  the  Thames,  at  New 
London;  also,  a  four-track  structure  connect- 
ing Duluth  and  Superior  City.  He  served  as 
consulting  engineer  in  the  Department  of 
Parks  and  Public  Works  of  Xew  York  City, 
and  designed  and  constructed  the  extension 
of  the  Wabash  lines  into  Pittsburg.  He  is 
author  of  "A   Practical  Treatise  on  the  Con- 


190 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


struetion  of  Iron  Highway  Bridges;"  he  has 
been  a  constant  contributor  to  technical 
journals.  He  is  a  member  of  the  British  In- 
stitute of  Civil  Engineers  and  of  the  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers.  In  politics.  Mr. 
Boiler  is  an  Independent  Republican;  his 
club  is  the  Century. 

One  of  a  distinguished  galaxy  of  Kentuck- 
ians  who  have  fought  the  battle  of  life  snecess- 
fnllv  in  the  metropolis  is  Albert  U.  Ledoux. 
Born  in  Newport,  on  the  south  side  of  the  ( )hio 
river.  November,  1852,  he  studied  successively 
at  Columbia.  School  of  Mines,  Berlin  University 
and  the  famous  University  of  Gottingen,  from 
which  latter  he  was  graduated  with  the  degrees 
of  A.M.  and  Ph.D.  He  also  received  the  de- 
gree of  M.S.  from  the  University  of  North 
Carolina  in  1SS0.  From  1876  to  1880  he 
served  as  chemist  and  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health  in  North  Carolina.  Since 
that  time  he  has  practiced  independently  as 
consulting  mining  engineer,  metallurgist,  as- 
saver  and  chemist.  'The  firm  of  Ledoux  & 
Co.  has  attained  a  national  position  as  metal- 
lurgists. By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  copper 
produced  in  the  United  States,  Canada.  South 
America  and  Australia  passes  through  their 
hands  for  assay  and  the  certificates  of  this  firm 
are  known  and  accepted  throughout  the  civil- 
ized world.  The  eminence  that  Albert  Le- 
doux has  achieved  in  his  profession  is  evidenced 
in  the  fact  that  he  has  been  elected  President 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers. 


He  is  also  a  member  ot  the  American  Scien- 
tific Alliance,  the  American  Chemical  Society, 
the  Society  of  Medical  Jurisprudence,  the 
American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers,  the 
Canadian  Mining  Institute.  New  York  Acade- 
my of  Science.  Society  of  Chemical  Industry, 
A.  A.  A.  S.,  and  New  York  Zoological  Society. 
The  City.  National  Arts,  Baltusrol  Golf  and 
Storm  King  Golf  clubs  have  his  name  on 
their  membership  rolls. 

Another  New  Jersey  contribution  to  the 
successful  engineers  of  the  metropolis,  born 
under  the  shadow  of  the  New  York  sky-line 
almost,  at  Passaic,  is  Mason  R.  Strong,  a  de- 
scendant, in  the  9th  generation,  of  Elder  John 
Strong,  who  sailed  from  England  in  the  ship 
"Mary  and  John"  and  landed  in  New 
land,  1631,  was  prepared  for  co 
Albany  Military  Academy;  he  was  graduated 
from  the  School  of  Arts.  Columbia  University, 
1889,  and  then  spent  a  year  at  the  Columbia 
School  of  Architecture, — one  of  the  divisions 
of  the  "School  of  Mines"  as  it  was  then  mis- 
named. He  entered  the  office  of  the  Chief 
Engineer  of  the  Erie  Railroad  Company,  and 
became  responsible  for  all  structural  ques- 
tions with  regard  to  bridges  and  buildings, 
with  official  title  of  "Engineer  of  Bridges  and 
Buildings."  The  jurisdiction  of  this  office  ex- 
tended over  the  entire  Erie  system,  including 
the  New  York,  Susquehanna  &  Western  R.  H. 
and  the  Chicago  &  Erie  R.  R.  In  1896  he 
became  the  responsible  engineering  represen- 


Eng- 
ege  at  the 


ALBERT  R.  LEDOUX 


JOHN  J.  CARTY 


MASON   R.  STRONG 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


191 


tative  of  the  Erie  Company  on  the  great 
Buffalo  City  Grade  Crossing  Elimination, 
where  many  millions  of  dollars  were  spent. 
In  1  !)(>(>,  he  left  the  Erie  to  be  associated, 
at  7  Wall  Street,  with  the  late  W.  Wheeler 
Smith,  prominent  among  New  York  City 
architects  for  upwards  of  forty  years,  to  whose 
business  he  has  succeeded.  For  over  a  year 
after  leaving  the  Erie,  however,  lie  was  re- 
tained as  consulting  engineer  on  that  com- 
pany's official  list.  From  1890  to  1906-7, the 
track  and  structures  on  the  Erie  were  prac- 
tically rebuilt,  many  interesting  structures 
being  erected.  A  mono- them  is  the  world-famous 
Kinzua  viaduct,  finished  in  1  !)()<>.  2,000  feet 
long  and  301  feet  high.  There  were  many 
other  important  viaducts,  two  being  over 
3,000  feet  long  each. 

In  private  work  Mr.  Strong  was  the  struc- 
tural consulting  engineer  for  the  Empire  City 
and  Belmont  Park  grandstands;  and  this 
year,  as  architect  and  engineer,  built  the  new 
grandstand  at  the  historic  Goshen  track  for 
the  Orange  County  Driving  Park  Association, 
—besides  the  regular  architecture  work  of  the 
office.  He  has  membership  in  the  Society 
of  Columbia  University  Architects,  American 
Institute  of  Consulting  Engineers.  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  Columbia  Univer- 
sity Club,  and  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  frater- 
nity. He  is  one  of  the  Health  Commissioners 
of  the  City  of  Passaic,  X.  J.,  and  a  member  of 
its  Board  of  Trade;  a  Republican  in  politics; 
and  a  member  of  the  Reformed  (Dutch) 
Church. 

Some  one  once  defined  an  engineer  as  "a 
man  who  could  do  with  one  dollar  what 
any  one  could  do  with  two."  This  definition 
has  reference  particularly  to  skilled  intelligence 
of  the  first  order.  I  am  now  about  to  speak 
of  a  man  who  has  contributed  vastly  to  the 
development  of  the  telephone  system  of  the 
United  States.  Since  the  year  1876,  when 
Alexander  Graham  Bell  made  it  possible  for 
two  people  to  converse  over  a  wire  so  success- 
fully that  voices  could  be  recognized,  the 
telephone  has  become  one  of  the  industries  of 
scientific  value  so  great  as  to  defy  prognostica- 


tion. At  first  the  world  was  incredulous,  but 
the  instrument  first  became  useful  and  then 
an  absolute  necessity. 

The  science  of  telephony  bears  an  intimate 
relation  to  my  own  profession,  for  in  these  days 
the  telephone  is  used  by  a  large  part  of  the 
metropolitan  newspapers  for  the  collection  of 
afternoon  and  late  night  news.  It  has  become 
an  indispensable  part  of  the  machinery  of 
daily  journalism.  In  a  position  to  observe  its 
development,  I  have  often  marveled  at  the 
achievements  of  John  J.  Carty.  present  chief 
engineer  of  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company.  To  his  genius  is  largely 
due  the  growth  from  two  crude  sounding  boxes. 
connected  by  wire,  to  the  present  system  of 
multiple  switchboards. 

Mr.  Carty  was  born  in  Cambridge,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1861,  and  at  an  early  age  entered 
the  service  of  the  Bell  Telephone  Company. 
He  literally  began  at  the  lowest  round  of  the 
ladder,  but  his  progress  toward  the  important 
place  he  now  occupies  has  been  steady  and 
always  earned.  He  has  been  accorded  the 
distinction  that  sometimes,  not  always,  re- 
wards genius  and  constructive  accomplish- 
ment. He  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  In- 
stitute of  Electrical  Engineers. 

Many  thousand  words  would  be  needed 
to  tell  the  story  of  Mr.  Carty's  various  im- 
provements. Especially  has  he  given  service 
in  rendering  speech  over  the  wire  clearer,  in 
removing  the  induction  noises  and  in  expe- 
diting by  his  constantly  improving  switch- 
boards promptitude  of  intercommunication. 
It  is  a  matter  of  tradition  that  when  the  first 
telephone  line  was  opened  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  it  was  difficult  to  persuade 
the  honest  Quakers  that  they  were  really  talk- 
ing with  some  one  in  the  metropolis.  Mr. 
Carty  is  largely  responsible  for  rendering  the 
voice  of  the  speaker  so  distinct  that  it  can  be 
recognized.  After  the  first  long  line  had  been 
opened  in  Chicago,  St,  Louis  was  connected 
up,  then  Denver  and  in  a  few  months  San 
Francisco  will  be  brought  into  conversational 
touch  with  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 


192 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


(.'apt.  DAVID   L.  HOUGH 


P.  H.  DUDLEY 


PAUL  i',.  BR(  >\VN 


David  L.  Hough  has  become  one  of  the  most 
successful  engineering  contractors  in  the 
country. 

Mr.  Hough  was  born  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind., 
in  1865,  and  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
and  by  a  private  tutor.  After  graduating 
from  Yale  University  in  1885  with  the  degree 
of  Ph.  J).,  he  served  an  apprenticeship  as 
machinist  and  boilermaker.  His  first  employ- 
ment was  as  chief  engineer  in  the  structural 
department  of  R.  D.  'Wood  &  Co.,  Philadel- 
phia, and  he  became  in  succession  chief  en- 
gineer and  general  manager  of  the  East  River 
Gas  Company,  and  general  manager  of  the 
National  Contracting  Company.  lie  is  now 
president  of  the  United  Engineering  and 
Contracting  Company,  The  Cuban  Engineer- 
ing and  Contracting  Co.,  the  New  York 
Tunnel  Company  and  the  Hough- Wickersham 
Realty  Company. 

Mr.  Hough  was  a  captain  in  the  1st  Regi- 
ment, U.  S.  Volunteer  Engineers  during  the 
Spanish-American  War.  and  also  held  the 
same  rank  in  one  of  the  companies  of  the 
71st  Regiment,  N.  G.  N.  Y. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Naval  and  Military 
Order  of  the  Spanish-American  War,  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  American 
Gas  Institute,  Theta  Xi  Association,  and  the 
University,  Engineers,  Yale.  American  Yacht, 
Turf  and  Field  and  City  Lunch  clubs  of  New 
York  City;  the  University  of  Philadelphia, 
the  Graduates  of  New  Haven  and  the  Vedado 
Tennis  of  Havana,  Cuba. 


Iowa's  contribution  to  the  engineering  talent 
of  New  York  is  Paul  (J.  Brown,  Vice-President 
and  Managing  Engineer  of  the  United  En- 
gineering &  Contracting  Company.  Born  at 
Red  Oak.  Iowa.  1871,  he  had  his  prelimi- 
nary schooling  at  Tabor  College  and  Wyoming 
Seminary,  and  finished  at  Cornell  University 
in  a  special  engineering  course.  He  began  as 
a  rodman  in  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Engi- 
neermg,  then  served  in  the  construction  of  the 
water- works  tunnels  under  Lake  Michigan. 
He  rose  to  be  engineer  in  charge  of  that 
branch  of  the  city's  works.  Several  firms  hav- 
ing city  contracts  aggregating  millions  of  dol- 
lars abandoned  them,  but  Mr.  Brown  took 
them  over  and  completed  them  at  less  than 
contract  prices.  He  was  among  the  first  to 
devise  methods  for  soft  ground  tunnelling, 
since  employed  so  effectively  in  Hudson  and 
East  River  subterranean  work.  In  1899  he 
removed  to  Pittsburg  to  become  chief  en- 
gineer and  superintendent  of  a  large  con- 
tracting corporation,  and  during  that  con- 
nection (1904)  constructed  about  five  miles 
of  exceedingly  difficult  tunnel  for  a  new  water 
supply  system  of  Cincinnati.  lb'  came  to 
New  York  as  engineer-in-charge  for  the  con- 
tractors of  the  Terminal  Improvement  of  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad.  As  a  side  issue 
he  completed  the  "Belmont  Tunnel."  under 
the  East  River  to  Long  Island  City — devising 
the  coffer-dam  on  Man-of-War  reef.  He  then 
engaged  with  the  United  Engineering  and 
Contracting  Company  as  managing  engineer 
in  the  construction  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


i<):3 


road  tunnels  across  Manhattan  Island.  Mr. 
Brown  is  considered  a  national  authority  on 
tunnel  construction.      lie  belongs  to  a   dozen 

among    which    arc    the 
Whist    and     Engineers' 


organizations, 


social 

Cornell,  D.    K.    E., 

clubs  of  New  York. 

A  great  railroad  corporation  like  the  New 
York  Central,  having  mighty  rivals,  naturally 
secures  the  best  possible  engineering  talent 
both  for  active  work  and  for  consultation. 
The  growth  of  the  permanent  way  since  the 
days  of  the  strap  rail  has  not  been  effected 
without  a  constant  exercise  of  the  keenest 
scientific  judgment.  There  is  as  great  a  gulf 
of  experiment,  not  to  say  anxiety,  between 
the  three-inch  strap  rail  of  soft  iron  and  the 
six-inch  steel  rail  of  the  present  day,  weighing 
100  pounds  to  the  yard,  as  there  is  between 
the  original  "Rocket"  locomotive  and  the 
gigantic  250-ton  engines  that  draw  the  18- 
hour  trains  to  Chicago.  The  ""Rocket"  could 
hardly  pull  three  Concord  coach-bodies  mount- 
ed upon  trucks,  whereas  the  latest  type  of 
express  locomotives  whisk  a  ten-car  train  of 
steel  Pullmans  across  country  at  60  miles 
an  hour.  To  these  changed  conditions  the 
ever-thoughtful  civil  engineers  attached  to 
these  progressive  railroad  corporations  have 
chiefly  contributed.  In  this  class  of  men  be- 
longs Plimmon  Henry  Dudley,  one  of  the  fore- 
most metallurgical  experts  in  this  country. 
He  was  born  at  Freedom,  O.,  May,  1843;  edu- 
cated at  the  public  schools,  attended  the 
Hiram  College,  where  President  Garfield  had 
been  a  professor.  I  first  heard  of  him  as  the 
chief  engineer  on  the  Valley  railway,  but  he 
had  been  city  engineer  of  Akron  four  years 
prior  to  that  time.  From  his  earliest  student 
days  he  had  been  a  constant  observer  of  rail- 
road building;  he  realized  the  future  growth 
of  that  great  public  servant,  the  railway;  he 
divined  its  weakness  and  set  about  a  search 
for  improvements.  In  short,  even  while  super- 
intending the  construction  of  roads,  sewers 
and  various  municipal  improvements  at  Akron, 
his  active  mind  was  largely  devoted  to  railroad 
construction.  Therefore,  we  find  him  an  inven- 
tor of  the  dynagraph,  track  indicator,  strem- 
matograph 


or  recording  strains  in  rails  under 


engineer 


moving  trains  and  several  other  equally  val- 
uable innovations  now  in  general  use.  He  it 
was  who  designed  the  first  five-inch  steel  rail 
used  in  the  United  States,  in  INN.');  this  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  first  six-inch  steel  rail.  1892.  Mr. 
Dudley  was  first  to  announce  that  decay  in 
wood  is  caused  by  fungi  and  not  by  animal 
parasites  as  popularly  supposed.  He  has 
attended  railway  conferences  in  all  parts  of 
the  world.  Is  a  member  of  numerous  scientific 
bodies  and  is  to-day  consultin 
for  the  New  York  Central. 

A  man  of  whose  acquaintance  I  am  espe- 
cially proud  is  Rossiter  Worthington  Ray- 
mond, scientist,  lawyer,  author,  and  I  beg  to 
add,  philosopher.  There  is  little  opportunity 
in  a  brief  review  of  such  a  busy  life  to  more  than 
hint  at  its  accomplishments.  Dr.  Raymond 
was  born  in  Cincinnati,  April,  1840,  was  edu- 
cated in  America  and  in  Europe  -winning 
high  honors  at  Heidelberg  and  Freiberg.  He 
served  through  the  entire  Civil  War  as  aide  de 
camp  with  the  rank  of  Captain,  after  which 
he  was  consulting  engineer  in  New  York  for 
four  years;  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Mining  Statistics,  two  years.  He  became 
Professor  of  Economic  Geology  at  Lafayette 
College,  1870,  remaining  11  years.  He  has 
edited  several  engineering  and  mining  journals, 
lectured  on  mining  law  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity and  is  a  member  of  the  bar.  He  was  one 
of  the  founders,  ex-president  and  the  present 
secretary  of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers  and  is  a  member  of  several  foreign 
scientific  societies.  His  largest  scientific  work, 
as  an  author,  is  "Mineral  Resources  of  the 
United  States.  West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains," 
8  volumes.  He  belongs  to  numerous  scientific 
and  social  organizations. 

An  engineer  who  deserves  mention  because 
of  his  achievements  is  Peter  Elbert  Nostrand, 
who,  as  assistant  engineer,  designed  and 
supervised  the  construction  of  the  first  elevated 
railroad  in  Brooklyn;  made  the  original  start 
with  the  Cape  Cod  Canal  in  1880  and  was 
chief  engineer  for  the  construction  of  the 
Broadway  and  the  Third  Avenue  cable  rail- 
ways in  Manhattan. 


194 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


The  invention  and  successful  development 
of  a  number  of  important  improvements  in 
processes  for  ore  treatment,  now  being  adopted 
by  the  leading  metallurgical  establishments 
all  over  the  world,  and  known  as  the  "Dwighl 
and  Lloyd  Process."  has  placed  Arthur  S. 
Dwight  among  the  leaders  in  his  profession. 

Mr.  Dwight  was  horn  in  Taunton.  Mass.. 
March  IN,  1864,  and  graduated  from  the 
Brooklyn  Polytechnic  in  1882,  and  the  Co- 
lumbia School  of  Mines  in  1885,  the  latter  institu- 
tion conferring  upon  him  the  degree  of  En- 
gineer of   Mines.      Immediately   upon   gradu- 


Development  of  the  mining  interests  in  this 
country  owes  nearly  as  much  to  laboratory 
research  work  as  to  prospectors  who  have 
spent  years  of  lonely  rpiest  among  the  moun- 
tains seeking  mines.  One  of  the  best  con- 
sulting engineers  in  this  line  known  to  me  is 
George  William  Maynard,  born  in  Brooklyn. 
June.  1839,  and  graduated  from  Columbia 
College  in  1859.  After  graduation  he  took  a 
course  in  chemistry  in  the  Columbia  College 
laboratory  and  in  the  autumn  of  1860  went  to 
Germany  and  put  in  two  and  one-half  years 
at  the  Goettingen  University  and  the  Royal 
School    of   Mines.    Clausthal.     His    first   pro- 


\  I :  I  1 1 1  •  I : 


DWIGHT 


GEORGE  W.  MAYNARD 


EDWARD  D.  MEIER 


ation  and  continuously  for  twenty  years  after- 
ward, he  was  engaged  in  the  successful  han- 
dling and  direction  of  a  number  of  important 
mining  and  smelting  enterprises  in  the  West- 
ern United  States  and  Mexico. 

In  1906  he  located  permanently  in  New 
York  City  as  consulting  mining  engineer  and 
later  organized  and  became  president  of  the 
Dwight  &  Lloyds  Metallurgical  Company. 
Mr.  Dwight  is  a  life  member  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  a  member  of  the 
Institution  of  Mining  and  Metallurgy  of  Eon- 
don.  England:  the  Engineers'  (dub  of  New 
York,  and  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars.  He 
is  listed  as  a  non-resident  lecturer  at  Columbia 
University,  in  Mining  and  Metallurgy. 


fessional  work  was  in  Ireland  as  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Metallurgical  Department  of  a  cop- 
per mine. 

On  his  return  to  Xew  York  in  1N(>4  he 
established  a  mining  engineering  office  and 
chemical  laboratory  and  subsequently  a  branch 
office  in  Central  City.  Colorado,  where  he  re- 
mained until  the  winter  of  1867.  In  1868  he 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Mining  and  Metal- 
lurgy at  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute, 
Troy,  Xew  York.  In  1873  he  was  called  to 
London,  which  became  his  headquarters  for 
the  following  six  years.  In  1876  he  erected  a 
copper  plant  in  Russia  for  an  English  com- 
pany. In  1878  he  investigated  the  Thomas 
Basic  Steel  Process  and  on  his  return  to 
America   disposed  of  the  patents    lo  the   Bes- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


195 


senior  Company,  Limited.  He  also  introduced 
the  Bower-Barff  Rustless  Iron  Process.  He 
was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Mining  Engineers;  a  charter 
member  of  the  Mining  and  Metallurgical 
Society  of  America;  a  member  of  the  Iron  and 
Steel  Institute,  London;  the  Institution  of 
Mining  &  Metallurgy,  London,  and  an  hon- 
orary member  of  the  Alumni  Association  of 
the  School  of  Science.  Columbia  University. 
Mr.  Maynard  is  at  present  in  general  practice 
as  a  consulting  engineer. 

A  young  man  should  he  thankful  to  lie  in  a 
position  to  choose  his  life's  work  through  nat- 
ural fitness  and  inclination.  Edward  I).  Meier 
inherited  a  love  for  machinery  and  conse- 
quently, when  he  started  in  the  business  of 
making  locomotives  in  1S(!L2,  he  entered  upon 
an  occupation  that  ensured  to  him  happiness 
and  success.  Born  at  St.  Loins,  in  1841,  he 
received  his  education  at  Washington  Uni- 
versity of  that  city  and  later  studied  for  several 
years  at  the  Royal  Polytechnic  Institute  in 
Hanover.  Germany.  His  return  to  America 
saw  him  launched  upon  a  very  successful 
career,  broken  only  by  two  years  of  partici- 
pation in  the  Civil  War.  Since  that  time 
Mr.  Meier  has  displayed  genius  and  versa- 
tilitv  in  the  deskniimj;  and  manufacture  of  cot- 
ton  machinery,  blast  furnaces  and  in  the  de- 
velopment of  water  tube  boilers.  He  is  Pres- 
ident. Chief  Engineer  and  Director  of  the 
Heine  Safety  Boiler  Company.  Mr.  Meier 
has  a  leading  part  in  many  associations  of  his 
craft. 

What  possible  use  had  Niagara  ever  been 
to  the  human  race  until  Nikola  Tesla,  and 
friends  who  financed  his  scheme,  put  the  fall- 
ing waters  to  work  ? 

A  deal  is  heard  about  "vandals  who  would 
rob  us  of  the  greatest  natural  phenomenon  on 
earth."  I  am  aware  that  this  is  the  popular  view. 
But,  how  many  of  the  hundred  thousands  of 
good  Americans  who  jump  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  is  better  to  preserve  a  big  waterfall  for  the 
edification  of  visiting  bridal  couples  than  to 
employ  it  turning  lathes,  driving  looms  or 
propelling  railroad  trains,  realize  that  this 
"spectacle"  is  maintained  for  the  enrichment 
of  greedy  hotel  managers  and  of  a  few  make- 
believe    Indians,    who    sell    fake    moccasins? 


I  have  been  a  visitor  at  Niagara  since  1864, 
when,  as  a  boy,  I  climbed  to  the  top  of  "Ter- 
rapin Tower,"  on  the  brink  of  the  Horseshoe 
fall.  When  that  ridiculous  addition  to  nature 
was  torn  down,  a  mighty  howl  was  raised. 
'The  falls  never  will  be  the  same!"  we  were 
told.  When  Table  Rock  fell,  a  similar  cry 
was  heard. 

Now,  commercialism  is  drawing  oil'  so  much 
water  that  the  volume  going  over  the  cliff  is 
noticeably  reduced.     Mathematicians  produce 


NIKOLA  TESLA 


calculations  to  prove  that  in  a  few  more  years 
all  the  overflow  of  the  Great  Lakes  will  be 
going  through  the  turbines  and  the  "spectacle" 
will  cease  to  exist.  Very  well!  We  can  do 
without  the  waterfalls;  but  light,  power,  trans- 
portation and  manufactured  products,  rep- 
resenting the  labor  of  man,  are  necessities! 
I  have  nerve  enough  to  declare  that  all  of 
Niagara,  as  a  "spectacle,"  doesn't  compare 
with  one  additional  cotton  or  woolen  mill, 
giving  employment  to  several  hundred  active 
and  clever  American  artisans.  That  is  only 
one  result  of  the  "robbery  of  Niagara."  But- 
ting the  water  to  work  may  cause  a  falling  off 
in  trolley  traffic  through  the  Niagara  gorge; 
but  it  will  not  render  marriage  unpopular,  or 


196 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


by  that  means  curl)  the  growth  of  our  nation. 

The  United  States  and  Canada  had  these 
falls,  1  Go  feet  high,  for  more  than  a  century 
and  annually  allowed  nine  hundred  quadrillion 
gallons  of  water  that  they  could  not  drink  go 
to  waste!  Some  of  these  citizens  were  im- 
bibing beer  and  rum  when  they  might  have 
been  drinking  this  beautiful,  God-given  water! 
The  aborigines  liked  the  falling  waters!  Had 
they  used  them  to  bathe  in,  no  doubt  they 
would  have  retained  possession  of  this  vast 
territorial  empire.  To  what  use  did  they  put 
the  beautiful  Niagara  ?  To  most  romantic  use. 
Over  its  brink,  in  the  light  of  every  harvest 
moon,  they  sent  the  fairest  Indian  maiden, 
seated  in  a  frail  canoe  and  chanting  a  hymn 
to  the  Great  Spirit.  That  was  picturesque; 
that  was  as  good  use  as  the  falling  waters  had 
ever  been  put  to  although  severe  upon  the 
girl.  But  it  was  beautiful,  and,  perhaps,  it 
was  true!  The  aborigine  had  been  driven 
from  his  ancestral  tepee;  maiden  sacrifice  had 
been  abolished,  like  that  other  popular  custom 
of  the  sutee  in  Hindustan;  but  the  waters  had 
flowed  on  and  should  swirl  forever! 

Nikola  Testa  now  promises  a  perfect  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  energy  transmission. 
He  undertakes  to  deliver  electrical  energy.' 
without  the  help  of  wires,  from  one  point  to 
any  other  point  upon  the  earth's  surface,  for 
domestic  and  commercial  use.  The  Boer  in 
Pretoria  will  be  able  to  buy  his  house  light 
and  heat  from  Niagara.  This  marvel  will 
give  the  final  touch  to  aerial  navigation! 
Nature  will  be  harnessed  with  the  electrical 
Hash  and  weather  will  be  regulated  by  man 
instead  of  man  being  regulated  by  weather! 
Tesla  is  sure  that  all  things  now  achieved  by 
the  use  of  coal  can  be  better  done  by  electricity, 
which  means  that  all  coal  used  will  be  con- 
verted into  electrical  energy  at  a.  few  centers 
and  distributed  from  there.  This  will  save 
!)().()()(),()()()  tons  of  coal  annually.  He  believes 
in  harnessing  every  horsepower  of  waterfalls 
in  this  and  other  countries.  Most  original 
of  all  the  students  of  electricity  in  this  country 
is  Nikola  Tesla,  son  of  a  distinguished  Greek 
clergyman.  His  mother  was  a  famous  in- 
ventor from  whom  he  derived  taste  for  me- 
chanic arts.  Born  at  Smiljan,  Lika,  a  border 
country  of  Austro-Ilungarv,  he  was  educated 


in  the  elementary  schools  of  his  native  place 
and  graduated  at  Carlstadt,  Croatia.  1873. 
Originally  destined  for  the  clergy,  he  pre- 
vailed upon  his  parents  to  send  him  to  the 
Polytechnic  School  in  Gratz,  where  for  four 
years  he  studied  mathematics,  physics  and 
mechanics;  following  with  two  years  in  philoso- 
phical studies  at  University  of  Prague,  Bo- 
hemia. His  practical  career  began  in  1881, 
in  Budapest,  Hungary,  where  he  made  his 
hist  electrical  invention,  a  telephone  repeater, 
and  conceived  the  idea  of  his  rotating-mag- 
netic  field;  thence  he  went  to  France  and  Ger- 
many, where  he  was  successfully  engaged  in 
various  branches  of  engineering  and  manu- 
facture; since  1SS4,  in  l".  S..  of  which  he  is  a 
naturalized  citizen.  Author  of  numerous 
scientific  papers  and  addresses.  Among  his 
inventions  and  discoveries  are:  System  of 
arc  lighting.  1886;  Tesla  Motor,  and  system  of 
alternating  current  power  transmission,  pop- 
ularly known  as  2-phase,  3-phase,  multiphase 
and  polyphase  systems.  1888;  system  of  elec- 
trical conversion  and  distribution  by  oscillatory 
discharges,  1889;  generators  of  high  frequency 
currents  and  effects  of  these.  1890;  transmis- 
sion of  energy  through  a  single  wire  without 
return.  1891;  the  Tesla  Coil  or  Transformer. 
1891;  novel  system  of  electric  lighting  by 
Tesla  tubes.  1891;  investigations  of  high  fre- 
quency effects  and  phenomena.  1891-93;  sys- 
tem of  wireless  transmission  of  intelligence, 
1893;  mechanical  oscillators  and  generators  of 
electrical  oscillations,  1894-95;  researches  and 
discoveries  in  radiations,  material  streams  and 
emanations,  1896-98;  high  potential  magnify- 
ing  transmitter,  1897;  system  of  transmission 
of  energy  by  refrigeration,  1898;  art  of  Tela- 
automatics,  1898-99;  discovery  of  stationary 
electrical  waves  in  the  earth.  1899;  burning  of 
atmospheric  nitrogen,  and  production  of  other 
electrical  effects  of  transcending  intensities, 
1899-1900;  method  and  apparatus  for  magni- 
fying feeble  effects,  1901-02;  art  of  individual- 
ization, 1902-03;  since  1903  chiefly  engaged  in 
development  of  his  system  of  world-telegraphy 
and  telephony,  and  the  design  of  a  large  plant  for 
the  transmission  of  power  without  wires,  to  be 
erected  at  Niagara.  I  lis  most  important  re- 
cent work  is  the  discovery  of  a  new  mechani- 
cal principle,  which  he  has  embodied  in  a 
great    variety   of   machines,   as   reversible  gas 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


1!)" 


GEORGE  S.  GREENK,  Jr 


ALLEN  N.  SPOONEB 


ERNEST  P.  GOODRICH 


and  strain  turbines,  pumps,  blowers,  air  com- 
pressors, water  turbines,  mechanical  trans- 
formers and  transmitters  of  power,  hot  air 
engines,  etc.  This  principle  enables  the  pro- 
duction of  prime  movers  capable  of  develop- 
ing ten  horsepower,  or  even  more,  for  each 
pound  of  weight.  By  their  application  to 
aerial  navigation,  and  the  propulsion  of  ves- 
sels, high  speeds  are  practicable. 

Improvement  of  the  waterfront  of  the 
North  River  has  been  the  chief  thought  of 
every  Commissioner  of  Docks.  The  extreme 
width  of  the  river  being  less  than  a  mile,  the 
dock-head  line  was  fixed  many  years  ago  and 
the  problem  of  lengthening  the  piers  became 
one  of  purchasing  land  behind  the  bulkhead, 
most  of  which  had  been  rilled  in,  and  restoring 
to  the  river  water  space  that  had  been  taken 
from  it.  George  S.  Greene,  Jr..  prepared 
elaborate  maps  forecasting  the  wharf  system 
as  it  is  to-day.  Mr.  Greene  was  born  at  Lex- 
ington. Ky..  November,  1837.  and  is  a  brother 
of  Gen.  Francis  Vinton  Greene.  He  entered 
Harvard,  1856,  but  left  before  graduation  to 
study  civil  engineering  under  his  father.  He 
was  assistant  engineer  on  the  Croton  aqueduct; 
built  several  railroads  in  Cuba  and  managed 
copper  mines  on  Lake  Superior;  became 
engineering  chief  of  the  Department  of  Docks. 
1875,  and  1898  consulting  engineer.  Many 
valuable  improvements  in  instruments  used 
by  the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey  were  made  by  him. 
The  new  Chelsea  docks  were  planned  by  him 


and  he  has  received  entire  credit  for  the  same. 
They  are  objects  of  pride  to  every  New 
Yorker. 

This  city  is  one  of  the  greatest  fields  in  all 
the  world  for  competent  and  experienced  con- 
sulting engineers,  a  fact  due  to  the  enormous 
aggregation  of  capital  centered  here.  All  the 
great  industries  of  this  country  have  their  New 
York  offices,  to  which  are  attached  the  best 
engineering  ability  that  money  will  hire. 
Among  this  class  is  Ernest  P.  Goodrich,  who 
at  the  age  of  thirty-seven  distinguished  him- 
self as  the  chief  engineer  of  the  Bush  Terminal 
and  its  affiliated  companies.  In  that  capacity 
he  had  charge  of  the  construction  of  their 
$10,000,000  railroad  and  steamship  ware- 
houses. Mr.  Goodrich  hails  from  Michigan, 
where  he  was  born  at  Decatur,  in  1874.  He 
was  city  engineer  of  his  home  town  at  twenty 
years  of  age.  He  was  prepared  at  the  State 
Normal  College,  graduated  at  the  University 
of  Michigan  as  B.S.,  1898,  and  C.E.,  1900. 
He  was  commissioned  by  President  McKinley 
a  civil  engineer  in  the  Navy,  serving  principally 
at  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard.  He  resigned 
to  take   up   the   work   for  the   Bush  Terminal 

Company    above   mentioned.      Mr.    G Irich 

has  served  as  consulting  engineer  in  various 
capacities  for  the  Borough  of  Manhattan  and 
serves  the  city  at  present  in  that  line.  He  de- 
livered a  course  of  lectures  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity on  engineering  subiects.     His  specialty 

is   water  front   and   dock   engineering,   manu- 
re I"* 


1!>S 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


facturing  development  and  reinforced  con- 
crete. He  is  a  member  of  many  scientific 
societies. 

In  no  one  feature  lias  the  great  port  of  New 
Y>rk  more  noticeably  advanced  in  its  facilities 
for  handling  the  vast  commerce  that  comes 
hither  from  all  parts  of  the  world  than  in  the 
improvement  of  its  wharf  system,  which  to-day 
compares  favorably  with  that  of  any  maritime 
city  of  the  world.  Especially  has  this  develop- 
ment been  noticeable  on  the  North  River, 
where,  during  the  past  few  years,  the  munici- 
pality under  the  direction  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Docks  has  created  a  series  of  the 
longest  and  most  capacious  piers  known  any- 
where. The  man  responsible  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  Chelsea  piers,  with  their  white- 
stone  facades,  is  Allen  Newhall  Spooner,  a 
graduate  of  Columbia  School  of  Mines,  as 
civil  engineer.  Mr.  Spooner  was  born  Octo- 
ber. 1844,  in  Jersey  City.  He  began  as  a 
rodman  and  draughtsman  for  the  Pennsyl- 
vania railroad.  His  family  was  related  to 
Elias  Howe,  inventor  of  the  sewing  machine. 
His  first  experience  in  dealing  with  wharf 
construction  was  in  1887,  when  he  became 
a  supervising  engineer  for  the  Department  of 
Docks  and  Ferries  of  Jersey  City.  Next,  he 
was  consulting  engineer  of  the  Passaic  Valley 
District  Sewerage  and  Drainage  Commission; 
the  Midland  Railroad  Terminal  Company, 
of  Staten  Island;  the  New  York  Dock  Com- 
pany; James  Shewan  <\-  Sons'  Dry  Docks; 
New  Yoik  and  College  Point  Ferry,  and  the 
Port  Morris  Terminal  and  Astoria  Ferry. 
For  14  years  Mr.  Spooner  had  charge,  as 
Division  Engineer,  of  the  Department  of 
Docks  of  the  pier  and  wharf  system  of  the 
Fast  River  (Manhattan) , between  the  Battery 
and  125th  street.  Harlem  River. 

These  qualifications  peculiarly  designated 
him  for  the  Commissionership  of  Docks,  to 
which  Mayor  McClellan  appointed  him  in 
1908.  Mr.  Spooner  is  a  Democrat  and  a 
member  of  the  Jersey  City,  Columbia  and 
University  clubs;  the  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers  and  of  the  Masonic  and  Psi 
Ipsilon  fraternities. 

Another  Philadelphian  who  is  at  the  head 
of  a  large  manufacturing  business,  with  head- 


quarters in  New  York,  is  Henry  Robinson 
Towne,  a  mechanical  engineer  of  international 
reputation.  As  president  of  the  Merchants' 
Association  of  New  York,  an  organization 
which  commands  the  respect  of  every  citizen 
of  the  metropolis,  Mr.  Towne  is  especially 
worthy  of  mention  in  this  volume,  as  that 
association  has  accomplished  more  practical 
reforms  affecting  the  average  householder, 
business  and  commercial  man  than  any  other 
of  its  kind,  —these  results  being  attained  by 
compelling  the  enforcement  of  all  good  laws 
upon  which  the  common  welfare  depends. 

Mr.  Towne's  record  as  a  mechanical  en- 
gineer is  very  extensive.  Born  in  Philadelphia 
in  1844,  he  was  a  student  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  for  two  years,  and  was  given 
an  honorary  A.M.  degree  in  1887.  He  studied 
also  at  the  Sorbonne,  Paris,  taking  a  course  in 
physics,  and  in  the  office  of  Robert  Briggs 
tor  a   special  course  m  engineering. 

The  vital  step  in  his  life  was  taken  in  1868, 
when  he  became  associated  with  Linus  Yale, 
Jr.,  in  the  manufacture  of  locks  and  builders' 
hardware.  Upon  Mr.  Yale's  death,  shortly 
afterwards.  Mr.  Towne  became  president  of 
the  Yale  &  Towne  Manufacturing  Company, 
whose  extensive  works,  employing  3.000  peo- 
ple, are  located  at  Stamford.  Conn.  He  is  a 
life  member  and  ex-president  of  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers.  He  is  the 
author  of  many  valuable  technical  papers  and 
treatises  on  mechanical  subjects. 

Any  beginner  in  the  profession  of  civil  en- 
gineering fortunate  enough  to  secure  several 
years'  experience  in  the  engineering  depart- 
ment of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company, 
probably  one  of  the  best  training  schools  in 
the  world,  has  a  start  in  his  career  that  is  to 
be  envied.  John  A.  Bensel.  State  Engineer, 
was  born  in  New  York  City  in  1863  and 
took  a  degree  at  Stevens  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, 1884;  after  which  he  at  once  secured 
a  place  on  the  held  staff  of  the  Aqueduct 
Commission  of  the  City  of  New  York,  leaving 
that  work  to  accept  a  position  with  the  great 
railroad  company  above  mentioned.  Thus 
equipped,  he  becomes  assistant  engineer  in 
the  Department  of  Docks  and  during  six 
years    of    service    rose    through    the    various 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW   YORK 


1!)!) 


grades  to  assistant  engineer  in  charge  of  con- 
strnction,  designing  and  building  many  of 
the  great  waterfront  structures  of  the  city. 
Meanwhile,  lie  was  called  to  Philadelphia  to 
design  and  execute  stupendous  waterfront 
improvements  for  the  Girard  estate.  Mr. 
Bensel  became  engineering  chief  of  the  De- 
partment of  Docks  and  Ferries  of  this  city 
in  1898  and  under  his  immediate  direction  the 
famous  Chelsea  piers  were  constructed.  Hav- 
ing served  as  Chief  Engineer  for  seven  years. 


Company  and  was  stationed  at  New  Orleans, 
La.  Later,  lie  was  division  engineer  of  the 
Xew  York  Subway  and  chief  engineer  of  the 
Brooklyn  Rapid  'Transit.  lie  was  a  partner 
of  William  Barclay  Parsons  when  both  were 
Consulting  Engineers  to  Xew  York  City. 
Mr.  Klapp  went  to  the  Spanish  War  as  first 
lieutenant  and  quartermaster  of  the  2nd 
United  States  Volunteer  Engineers  and  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  Captain.  He  is  a 
member    of    the    American    Society    of    Civil 


Capt.  EUGENE  KLAPP 


JOHN   A.  BENSEL 


WILLIAM    1J.  M  Al:  KS 


he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  the  De- 
partment, which  position  he  held  for  two  years. 
reorganizing    the    Staten    Island    and    other 

DO 

ferry  service.  lie  was  made  president  of  the 
Board  of  Water  Supply  in  1J)08,  giving  him 
direction  of  the  new  Aqueduct  System  by 
which  water  is  to  be  brought  from  the  Catskill 
Mountains.  Mr.  Bensel  was  elected  State 
Engineer  in  November,  1910. 

"  The  House  Beautiful,"  a  magazine  of 
laudable  and  valuable  purpose,  owes  its  ex- 
istence to  Eugene  Klapp,  its  founder,  pub- 
lisher and  editor  for  three  years.  Eugene 
Klapp  was  born  in  Orange.  X.  J.,  on  May 
23,  1807.  He  studied  engineering  at  the 
Columbia  School  of  Mines,  served  as  assist- 
ant engineer,  engineer  of  maintenance  and 
later  as  chief  engineer  of  the  South  Side 
Rapid  Transit  Railroad  in  Chicago.  He  then 
became  manager  of  the  National  Contracting 


Engineers  and  of  Delta  Psi.     His  clubs  are  the 
St.  Anthony  and  Columbia  University. 

William  Dennis  Marks  is  a  Missourian,  who 
has  won  exceptional  prestige  as  a  mechanical 
engineer  and  as  the  author  of  several  text- 
hooks  on  engineering.  He  was  born  in  St. 
Louis.  1849,  and  in  1871  was  graduated  from 
Yale  with  the  degrees  of  Ph.B.  and  C.E. 
Afterward,  he  engaged  in  special  studies  in 
preparation  for  the  profession  he  was  destined 
to  adorn.  During  the  period  1871— '73  he  was 
employed  as  practical  engineer  by  railway  and 
manufacturing  corporations.  lb"  served  for 
2  years  as  lecturer  on  mechanical  engineering 
and  later  became  Whitney  professor  of  dy- 
namic engineering  at  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Mr.  Marks  has  held  such  important 
offices  as  President  and  chief  engineer  of  the 
Edison  Electric  Light  Company,  and  has 
acted   as   special   consulting  engineer  and   ex- 


200 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


pert  in  gas  and  electric  lighting  for  New  York, 
Buffalo  and  other  large  cities.  He  is  an 
honorary  life  member  of  the  Franklin  Insti- 
tute of  Philadelphia  and  belongs  to  the  Amer- 
ican Philosophical  Society. 

Richard  T.  Dana,  civil  and  consulting 
engineer,  was  graduated  from  the  Sheffield 
Scientific  School  of  Yale  in  1896,  taking  the 
degree  of  Ph.  B.  in  civil  engineering.  Mr. 
Dana  has  practiced  his  profession  of  consulting 
engineer  with  remarkable  success.  lie  acted 
as  assistant  engineer  of  the  Erie  Railroad  Com- 
pany for  several  years,  since  which  time  he  has 
practiced  independently.  Mr.  Dana  is,  at 
present,  chief  engineer  of  the  Construction  Ser- 
vice Company,  and  consulting  engineer  of 
the  Danesville  &  Mount  Morris  Railroad 
Company.  He  served  with  the  Connecticut 
Naval  Militia  and  is  a  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Society  of  Civil  Engineers  and  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers.  Mr.  Dana 
is  a  member  of  the  New  York  Railroad  and 
Yale  clubs. 

Colonel  Charles  Warfield  headed  the  dar- 
ing and  successful  party  that  performed  the 
historic  feat  of  burning  the  ship  Peggy  Stewart 
in  Annapolis  harbor.  This  family  is  one  of 
the  oldest  of  Maryland;  its  forebears  came  to 
America  in  !(>(>'{  and  received  grants  of  land, 
by  Royal  Patent,  in  Anne  Arundel  and  How- 
ard counties.  Lewis  Warfield  was  horn  in 
Baltimore  in  1864.  He  was  graduated  from 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy  in  1885, 
and  taking  up,  as  a  specialty,  the  study  of 
transportation  engineering,  served  with  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio.  Erie  and  Pennsylvania 
Railroads  until  1901.  During  that  time  he 
was  also  vice-president  and  trustee  of  various 
street  railroads.  In  1!M)1  he  became  one  of 
the  three  founders  of  the  Donald  Steamship 
Company,  and  was  chosen  vice-president  of 
the  Occidental  Construction  Company,  en- 
gaged in  the  development  of  the  Pacific  (Oast 
of  Mexico.  He  is  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Yacht  Club. 

Dr.  James  Douglas,  the  mining  engineer 
and  railroad  man  is  a  native  of  the  city  of 
Quebec,  where  he  was  horn  in  1837,  and  who 


has  resided  since  IN?.}  in  the  United  States- 
The  father  of  Dr.  Douglas  was  a  medical  man, 
who  for  many  years  was  one  of  the  proprietors 
of  the  Beauport  Asylum  near  Quebec,  and 
one  of  the  first  men  in  Canada  to  introduce 
modern  and  humanitarian  methods  in  the 
care  and  treatment  of  the  insane.  Dr.  Doug- 
las took  his  B.A.  degree  at  Queens  University, 
Kingston,  Ontario,  in  1N5N.  and  completed 
his  education  at  Edinburgh  University.  Until 
his  migration  to  Phoenixville,  Pennsylvania,  to 
take  charge  of  the  copper  works  there,  he  was 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  Morrin  College. 
Quebec.  He  is  a  member  and  has  been  twice 
president  of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers;  he  is  also  a  member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  the  American  Geograph- 
ical Society,  the  Society  of  Arts  of  London, 
the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  of  London,  and 
has  received  the  gold  medal  of  the  Institution 
of  Mining  and  Metallurgy  of  London,  of 
which  he  is  also  a  member.  He  is  a  trustee  of 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  of 
New  York  and  of  the  General  Memorial  Hos- 
pital. The  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  was 
conferred  upon  him  by  McGill  University. 
Dr.  Douglas  is  the  author  of  '"Old  France  in 
the  New  World,"  ''Canadian  Independence  and 
Imperial  Federation,"  and  was  a  Cantor  Lec- 
turer of  the  Society  of  Arts.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Century  Association,  the  Engineers 
Club  and  the  Adirondack  League  Club. 


In  speaking  of  street  names,  one  naturally 
asks :  "'  Who  was  Ann  ?"  This  little  thorough- 
fare was  not  always  headquarters  of  cast-off 
material.  With  the  surrounding  territory  Ann 
Street  once  formed  a  part  of  the  first  Dutch 
Governor's  garden.  Later  Gov.  Dongan  got 
the  property,  and  his  heirs  sold  it  in  1762  to 
Thomas  White,  one  of  the  great  merchants 
of  the  day.  He  cut  the  land  up  into  building 
lots,  and  what  more  fitting  monument  could 
he  pay  to  his  wife  than  to  name  one  of  the 
streets  for  her!  It  was  Mrs.  Ann  White  who 
ceded  to  the  city  the  little  alley  between  Broad- 
way and  Nassau  Street  known  as  Theatre 
Alley,  reminiscent  of  the  days  when  the  pop- 
ular Park  Theatre  stood  just  above  the  Park 
Row  Building  overlooking  the  square. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


201 


CHAS.  H.  7,\  II  MH  I: 


Ri  IB  I.  B.  STANTON 


IIU'IM  W.  PYE 


Another  man  who  has  grown  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  coal  and  iron  industry  in 
northeastern  Pennsylvania  is  Charles  II.  Zehn- 
der,  who.  although  nominally  a  New  Yorker, 
is  resting  after  a  life  of  commercial  activity 
at  his  country  seat.  Allenhurst,  New  Jersey. 
Born  in  Northumberland  County.  Penn., 
1856,  he  was  educated  at  the  public  schools. 
He  began  an  active  business  career  as  clerk 
in  a  national  hank  in  his  native  common- 
wealth. In  1879  lie  went  to  Berwick.  Pa., 
with  the  Jackson  &  Woodin  Manufacturing 
Company  (carbuilders) ,  rising  to  the  presi- 
dency of  that  corporation.  In  1896  he  he- 
came  president  of  the  Dickson  Manufacturing 
Company  of  Scranton,  remaining  five  years. 
during  which  time  he  assisted  in  organizing 
the  Allis-Chahners  Company,  merging  the 
machinery  building  interest  of  the  Dickson 
corporation  with  the  new  company.  He 
formed  the  Allegheny  Ore  <!v  Iron  Company 
of  Virginia,  l!)(h2,  acquiring  three  blast  fur- 
naces and  valuable  iron  ore  lands.  This 
property  was  later  sold  and  his  interest  trans- 
ferred to  the  bituminous  coal  and  coke  regions 
of  West  Virginia,  where  he  became  president 
of  the  Austen  Coal  &  Coke  Company.  With 
two  brotheis.  he  organized  the  Scranton  Holt 
&  Nut  Company  of  Scranton,  Pa.,  of  which  he 
is  vice-president.  He  is  a  director  in  the  fol- 
lowing corporations:  Equitable  Life  Assur- 
ance Society.  Empire  Steel  &  Iron  Company 
of  Catasauqua,   Empire  Trust   Company   of 


New  York,  Union  National  Bank  of  Phila- 
delphia, a  member  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Mining  Engineers,  American  Society  of 
Mechanical  Engineers,  Union  League  clubs 
of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  the  Lawyers'. 
Railroad  and  New  York  Athletic  clubs  of 
New  York. 

Among  the  prominent  mining  engineers  of 
this  city,  I  must  not  overlook  Robert  Brewster 
Stanton,  who  has  travelled  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  including  the  Dutch  Last  Indies,  ex- 
amining mineral  deposits.  Mr.  Stanton  was 
born  in  Woodville,  Miss.,  August,  1846,  and 
was  valedictorian  of  the  class  of  1871  at 
Miami  University,  Ohio.  There  he  secured 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity.  His  first  work 
was  as  a  levelinan  on  the  original  surveys  for 
the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  railroad  in  Indian  Ter- 
ritory; thence,  he  entered  the  construction 
department  of  the  Cincinnati  Southern  rail- 
way; then  became  division  and  later  chief 
engineer  of  the  Dayton  <K;  Southeastern;  next 
a  division  engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
road from  'NO-'S-l — when  he  built  the  now 
famous  "Georgetown  Loop"  in  Colorado. 
Meanwhile,  he  had  been  devoting  all  spare 
time  to  study  of  milling  engineering  and.  in 
1891,  he  switched  to  that  profession,  in  which 
he  has  been  successful.  He  has  reported  on 
mines  throughout  the  United  States.  Canada 
and  Mexico.  Cuba  and  the  Dutch  Easl  [ndies. 
As    chief    engineer    of    a     proposed     railroad 


202 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


down  the  Colorado  River  of  the  West,  lie  led. 
in  l889-'90,  t h<-  second  successful  expedition 
thai  ever  passed  through  the  Grand  Canon 
of  thai    river,   following   Major   Powell's   first 

exploration    of    1869. 

lie  is  a  member  of  the  Engineers' Club, 
American  Society  and  the  British  Institution 
of  Civil  Engineers,  American  Institute  of 
Mining  Engineers,  the  British  Institution  of 
Mining  and    Metallurgy,   and   other  societies. 

A  prominent  New  York  manufacturer  of  rail- 
way supplies  entered  his  present  field  through 
the  gateway  of  journalism.  1  refer  to  David 
Walter  I've.  Iioin  in  Brooklyn,  November,  1870, 
and  prepared  for  a  business  career  at  a  local 
college.  When  fifteen  years  of  age,  he  was 
a  reporter  on  the  stall'  of  the  Argus;  there- 
after engaging  with  the  Pintsch  Light  Com- 
pany, thai  supplied  illumination  on  railway 
cars.  There  he  developed  much  aptitude 
as  purchasing  agent  and  soon  had  entire 
charge  of  the  commercial  branch  of  the  com- 
pany. In  1!)10  he  wa>  offered  the  presidency 
of  the  Tinted  States  Heal  and  Lighting  Com- 
pany an  amalgamation  of  the  National  Bat- 
tery Company  and  the  Bliss  Electric  Car 
Lighting  Company.  Large  factories  for  the 
construction  of  this  lighl  have  recently  been 
opened  at  Niagara  Falls.  Mr.  I've  has  many 
social  affiliations  and  is  Fond  of  outdoor  sports 

belonging  to  the  New  York  Yacht,  Crescent 
Athletic  and  Columbia  Yacht  clubs.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Maritime  Association  of  New 
York,  the  Japan  Society  and  several  other 
clubs. 


Thi'  first  time  one  hears  Yandam  Street, 
in  Greenwich  Village,  mentioned,  if  he  has 
had  a  pious  bringing  up.  the  name  will  cause 
a  shock:  bul  a  hasty  run  through  the  Dutch 
chronicles  will  unearth  old  Kip  van  Dam. 
who  was  somewhat  of  a  man  in  his  day. 

The  origin  of  Marketfield  Street,  an  ob- 
scure little  lane  leaving  Broad  below  Beaver— 
the  existence  of  which  isn't  known  to  one 
stock  broker  in  a  hundred — is  clouded  in 
antiquity.  It  was  likely  as  not  the  market 
place  in  early  Dutch  days.  The  fort  at  the 
Battery  and  a  few  houses  thereabouts  were 
the  germs  of  the  present  imperial  city. 


JAMES   V  GUNN 


who    blazed    an   entirely    new    trail    in 
by  announcing  himself  as  "an  indus- 


With  the  growth  of  mechanical  inventions 
have  appeared  new  professional  activities  and 
special  nomeclature  descriptive  thereof.      For 

e  x  a  m  ] i  1  e,  marvelous 
strides  in  electrical 
science  have  rendered 
necessary  a  technique 
of  its  own.  Mechani- 
cal devices  have  not 
been  confined  to  any 
one  field,  however,  and 
demand  for  expert 
opinion  regarding  the 
projected  investment  of 
large  sums  of  money 
in  manufacturing  en- 
terprises, together  with 
advice  as  to  proper  lo- 
calities for  mills  or 
points  of  distribution, 
induced  a  thoroughly  equipped  scientific  mind 
to  undertake  the  creation  of  an  absolutely 
novel  profession.  .  refer  to  James  Newton 
( >  iiiin. 
science 

trial  engineer."  meaning  thereby  "an  author 
itv  and  advisor  in  production  engineering.' 
Not  only  did  Mr.  Gunn  give  to  his  new  pro- 
fession its  name  hut  he  developed  it  into  a 
highly  successful  achievement,  proving  it  to  be 
a  branch  of  engineering  that  devoted  itself  to 
various  factors  of  production  in  industrial 
fields  with  the  chief  object  of  increasing  effi- 
ciencv.  .lames  Newton  Gunn  was  horn  at 
Springfield,  Ohio,  in  1867,  and  obtained  his 
preliminary  education  at  the  public  schools  of 
that  city.  He  then  studied  under  private 
tutors  and  spent  a  year  in  Europe,  investigat- 
ing manufacturing  methods  and  labor  con- 
ditions, lie  is  a  lecturer  on  industrial  organi- 
zation at  Harvard  University.  His  ancestors 
came  to  Dorchester.  Mass..  in  1635;  and  a 
son  of  Thomas  Gunn,  from  whom  he  is 
directly  descended,  moved  to  Milford,  Conn. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Lotos.  Engineers',  City. 
Midday  clubs  of  New  York,  and  of  the  Colo- 
nial at  Cambridge,  Mass. 

If  John  William  Rapp,  the  president  of  the 
United  States  Metal  Products  Company,  had 
believed  that  "opportunity  knocks  hut  once 
at  a  man's  door."  he  would  not  hold  the  im- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


203 


portanf  position  in  commercial  life  thai  he 
docs.  Mr.  Rapp  took  hold  of  many  oppor- 
tunities and  worked  upon  them.  Some  failed. 
Iiul  that  did  nol  prevent  his  trying  another; 
he  mastered  his  trade  as  a  sheet  metal  worker. 
beginning  as  a  hoy  helper  at  the  bench  and 
rising  to  the  top  rung  of  the  ladder  as  expert 
workman;  he  then  opened  a  modest  little 
workshop  in  East  66th  Street,  for  the  manu- 
facture of  skylights  and  roofing;  he  foresaw  in 


JOHN  w.  RAPP 

the  fast  growing  building  industry,  as  apart- 
ment houses  seemed  to  spring  up  over  night, 
that  for  the  public  safety  the  old  fashioned 
wooden  doors  and  windows  would  have  to  be 
replaced  by  something  more  substantial  as 
fires  swept  away  many  of  the  new  buildings. 
"Doors  and  windows  must  be  fireproof"  he 
said,  "and  sheet  metal  is  the  material  for  it." 
Acting  upon  the  thought,  he  produced  a  few 
samples  and  the  contractors  anil  builders  at 
once  saw  that  the  great  problem  of  the  fire- 
proofing  industry  was  solved.  From  that  time 
on  the  firm  of  John  W.  Rapp  &  Company  had 
all  the  orders  they  could  handle:  "the  acorn 
had  grown  to  an  oak  tree."  and  when  the  United 
States  Metal  Products  Company  was  incor- 
porated. John  W.  Rapp  was  its  president,  and 


to-day  il  may  be  said  thai  there  is  not  an  im- 
portant modern  building  put  up  in  New  York 
City  that  has  not  some  of  its  material  within 
its  walls. 

Recently,  the  new  Vanderbilt  Hotel  caught 
lire  on  the  fourth  floor.  'The  house  had  just 
opened  to  the  public  and  was  well  filled  with 
guests.  The  corridor  was  piled  with  new 
furniture  wrapped  in  burlap  and  excelsior 
the  niosl  inflammable  material  -and  was  a 
Seething  mass  of  Haines  when  discovered. 
What  happened?  The  furniture  was  burned, 
but  the  lire  died  where  il  originated.  Il  could 
not  pass  the  hollow  steel  doors  of  the  corridors 
and  elevator  shafts  of  the  manufacture  of  the 
United  States  Metal  Products  Company.  Oc- 
cupants of  the  floors  above  and  below  the  (ire 
did  not  know  there  was  a  fire.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  loss  of  the  furniture  no  damage 
was  done. 

'The  construction  of  a  building  may  be 
perfect,"  said  Mr.  Rapp,  "but  as  long  as  wood 
is  used  for  doors  and  windows  or  partitions 
the  danger  will  exist.  Our  new  method  of 
construction  eliminates  wood  entirely  for  all 
interior  trim;  the  windows,  doors,  partitions, 
wainscoting,  etc..  are  made  of  indestructible 
material — fireproof,  absolutely  so,  beyond  ques- 
tion. Every  room  is  a  unit  in  itself  and  if  a 
fire  starts  in  it.  it  is  confined  to  the  rooms  in 
which  it  originated.      That's  the  whole  story." 

The  manufacturing  plant  of  the  company  is 
at  College  Point  on  the  Sound,  occupying  five 
blocks  square  and  the  executive  and  general 
offices  are  at  203-205  West  40th  Street.  New 
York  City.  The  company  has  branches  in 
Philadelphia.  Washington,  Boston  and  San 
Francisco,  and  owns  and  controls  seventy  or 
more  patents  for  metal  trim  and  appliances 
for  buildings.  Mr.  Rapp  is  a  director  in  the 
Colpo  Realty  Company:  the  R.  &  J.  Realty 
Company;  the  Arsca  Building  Company; 
Star  Carborator  and  Supply  Company;  Re- 
liance Roller  Rearing  Company;  Member  of 
the  Building  Trade  Association;  trustee  of  the 
Flushing  Hospital;  member  of  the  Catholic 
('lull.  Queens  Borough  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce; the  Shinnecock  Club.  Whitestone  and 
Knickerbocker  Yacht  Clubs  and  the  College 
Point  Club. 


204 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1:1  i\V  \K1>  G.  BURGES 


Horn  iii  the  city  of  Albany  in  1N44.  Edward 
Oliver  Burgess  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Jersey  City  and  began  the  battle  of 

life  as  a  boy  with  the 
jewelry  firm  of  Alex- 
ander McDougal  in 
Cortland!  Street. 
After  several  years  of 
experience  that  one 
does  not  appreciate  at 
the  time  but  value  in 
later  life.  Edward  G. 
Burgess  went  with 
Paul  ( i  r  o  u  t  with 
whom  his  father  was 
associated  in  the  grain 
business.  T  h  i  s  has 
I)  e  e  n  his  occupation 
through  life,  and  he  has 
achieved  an  unusual 
degree  of  success  there- 
in. Mr.  Burgess  is  now  president  of  the  In- 
ternational Elevating  Company;  has  served 
several  years  as  vice-president  and  president 
of  the  Produce  Exchange.  lie  is  a  member  of 
of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Sons  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution.  National  Geographic  and 
New  York  Botanical  Societies;  he  belongs  to 
the  New  York  Athletic.  Montclair  Arts  and 
Montclair  Club,  and  is  a  founder  of  the  Essex 
County  Country  Club. 

The  Ackers  are  a  family  that  has  largely 
retained  the  blood  of  its  Dutch  ancestry.  'The 
first  member  of  this  family  in  America  landed 
here  in  1663.  David  D.  Acker,  who  died  in 
I  888,  established  the  firm  of  Acker,  Merrall  & 
Condit,  whose  name  is  a  household  word.  His 
eldest  son.  (diaries  L.  Acker,  succeeded  him 
and  died  in  1891.  This  mans  son.  Charles 
Livingston  Acker,  was  born  in  1N72.  was 
educated  at  the  University  Grammar  School 
and  was  graduated  therefrom  in  1<S,S!).  In 
October  of  that  year  he  entered  the  service 
of  the  above  firm,  but  a  year  after  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Acker  family  from  the  business, 
in  1891,  resigned.  In  1907,  in  connection 
with  Augustus  B.  Carrington,  Mr.  Acker 
organized  the  Manhattan  Mortgage  Company. 
He  is  treasurer  and  a  director  of  this  firm. 
Mr.   Acker  also  was  one  of  the  organizers  of 


the  Guarantee  Mortgage  Company,  of  which 
he  is  a  director,  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  and  Treasurer.  He  was  for  some 
time  a  member  of  Company  H,  Seventh  Regi- 
nient. 

It  is  pleasant  to  read  poetry  about  the  sea; 
but  it  is  a  different  matter  to  wrest  from  its 
waters  a  living. 

The  ocean  is  the  greatest  hunting  ground 
in  the  world.  Its  waters  outside  the  three- 
mile  limit  do  not  belong  to  any  man  or  nation. 

Hunters  of  the  sea  have 
been  famous  since  time 
began,  but  providers  of 
sea  food  for  the  hungry 
public  are  those  who 
merit  most  attention 
from  a  domestic  view 
point.  Walter  E.  Ash- 
croft  was  born  in  Eng- 
land in  1873,  came  to 
this  city  as  a  boy  and 
was  educated  at  Trin- 
ity School.  II  e  e  n  - 
gaged  in  the  wholesale 
fish  business  and  is  now 
president  of  Warner  & 
Prankard,  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  Fish  (  ompany  and  sec- 
retary of  the  Continental  Fish  Company,  the 
three  places  located  in  the  wholesale  fish 
market — Warner  &  Prankard  at  No.  22  Fulton 
Market,  the  New  York  Fish  Company  at  No. 
15  Fulton  Market,  and  the  Continental  Fish 
Company  at  No.  26  Fulton  Market.  In  re- 
ligion he  is  an  Episcopalian,  and  in  politics  a 
Republican. 

On  the  east  side  of  Broadway,  from  Maiden 
Lane  above  Fulton,  was  the  ancient  Van 
Tienhoven  farm.  Most  of  it  finally  became 
the  property  of  an  association  of  five  shoe- 
makers and  tanners  and  is  popularly  known 
as  the  Shoemakers'  pasture.  Most  prominent 
of  these  was  John  Harpending,  whose  home- 
stead was  on  the  corner  of  Maiden  Lane  and 
Broadway.  From  him  John  Street  gets  its 
name,  and  the  valuable  holdings  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  in  that  locality,  between 
Broadway  and  William  Street,  come  from  his 
bequesl  to  that  denomination  of  the  greater 
part    of   his    property. 


WALTEB    K    iSHCROFT 


THE    liOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


205 


\VI  I.  1.1  AM   .1  .   G  A  \  NOR 
Mayor  of  New  York  City 

From  ;i  recenl  snapshot  taken  while  addressing  an  audience 
on  city  affairs 


Many  of  our  city  streets  were  named  after 
the  War  of  1812  in  honor  of  warriors  who 
were  prominent  in  that  conflict.  Perry  is 
an  example.  On  the  east  side  there  is  quite 
a  batch  of  these  1812  war  hero  thoroughfares, 
including  Forsyth,  named  for  Col.  Forsyth, 
wounded  in  Canada:  Chrystie,  for  Lieut.  Col. 
John  Chrystie,  killed  at  the  Niagara  frontier; 
Eldridge,  for  Lieut.  Eldridge,  scalped  in 
Canada:  Allen,  for  Lieut.  William  II.  Allen, 
wounded  in  the  naval  fight  between  the  Argus 
and  the  British  ship  Pelican;  Ludlow,  for 
Lieut.  Ludlow,  killed  in  action  between  the 
Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon;  Pike,  for  Gen. 
Pike,  killed  in  the  attack  on  Toronto  in  IS]:;. 
Worth  Street  was  so  named  in  honor  of  Gen. 
Worth,  killed  in  the  Mexican  War.  It  sup- 
planted the  earlier  name  of  Anthony,  after 
Anthonv  Rutgers,  through  whose  farm  it  ran. 


11,  II    TOPAK'V  \\ 


Among  New  ^  ork's  citizens  hailing  from 
the  Orient  none  is  more  highly  esteemed  than 
Hayozoun  Hohannes  Topakyan,  Consul  Gen- 
eral of  Persia  at  this 
port.  I  Ie  is  an  Arme- 
nian, born  at  Sa/aria, 
T  u  rk  e  y  ,  November, 
1864,  and  is  a  descend- 
ant of  aii  ancient  Ar- 
menian family.  Having 
completed  preliminary 
studies  in  his  native 
town,  he  attended  the 
American  college  at 
Bardizak  to  learn  Eng- 
lish.  After  mastering 
the  details  of  trade  with 
his  father,  he  removed 
to  Constantinople  and 
became  a  commission 
merchant.  Coming  to  the  United  States  on 
business,  he  was  so  pleased  with  American 
institutions  that  he  decided  to  remain.  He 
leached  New  York  in  INN?,  and.  in  a 
modest  way,  began  the  importation  of  Persian, 
Turkish  and  India  rues.  His  business,  based 
upon  absolute  fairness  in  dealing,  has  steadily 
grown  until  M  r.  Topakyan  is  to-day  the  largest 
private  importer  of  Eastern  rugs.  In  recog- 
nition of  his  services  in  introducing  the  weaves 
of  Persia  to  this  country,  the  Shah  designated 
him  as  Imperial  Commissioner  for  Persia  at 
the  Chicago  World's  Fair.  The  Persian  and 
Ottoman  pavilion  at  the  Exhibition  was  built 
at  Mr.  Topakyan's  personal  expense  and  he 
received  the  thanks  of  the  Commissioners  and 
President  Cleveland  for  his  labors  in  behalf 
of  the  great  fail'. 

He  was  awarded  forty-eight  diplomas  and 
an  equal  number  of  medals  for  the  superiority 
of  his  display  of  Oriental  goods.  lb'  was 
decorated  by  the  Persian.  Turkish  and  Ven- 
ezuelan Governments.  From  Persia  he  re- 
ceived the  Imperial  Order  of  "The  Lion  and 
the  Rising  Sun;'*  from  Turkey,  the  "Magi- 
diva."  and  from  Venezuela,  the  "Buste  del 
Lisuetor."  He  was  also  informed  a  short 
time  ago  by  the  Persian  Legation  at  Washing- 
ton that  they  had  received  a  communication 
from  his  Highness,  Mohtachemos-Saltaneh, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  at   Teheran.  Persia 


206 


THE    HOOK    at   NEW    YORK 


informing  the  Legation  that  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment had  conferred  upon  Consul-Genera] 
Topakyan  an  imperial  gold  decoration  for  his 
long  and  valuable  services.  It  is  stated  that 
no  Consul  has  ever  before  received  such  high 
decorations. 

The  Academic  Society  of  International  His- 
tory of  France  has  also  recently  conferred  the 
gold  medal  of  the  society  upon  Mr.  Topakyan 
in  recognition  of  his  efforts  in  Oriental  re- 
search. 

Among  the  many  other  posts  of  honor  that 
Mr.  Topakyan  has  been  called  upon  to  fill  is 
that  of  the  honorary  vice-presidency  of  the 
International  Peace  Forum,  of  which  John 
Wesley  Mill  is  president  and  of  which,  also, 
Wm.  II.  Tat't  is  honorary  president. 

As  evidence  of  his  devotion  to  this  republic, 
Mr.  Topakyan,  in  L907,  presented  to  the 
United  States,  to  be  hung  in  the  White  House, 
a  Persian  rug  worth  $50,000-  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  ever  brought  to  this  country.  Its 
texture  is  of  imperial  silk,  marvelously  woven 
and  set  with  a  multitude  of  rubies,  pearls. 
turquoise  and  other  precious  stones.  The  gift 
was  accepted  by  President  Roosevelt  and  it 
now  hangs  in  a  massive  mahogany  frame  upon 
a    wall  of  the  White   House. 

Mr.  Topakyan  lives  in  the  Summer  at 
"Persian  Court,"  Morristown,  X.  .1..  a  typical 
Oriental  home,  handsomely  decorated  and 
furnished  with  Eastern  materials.  He  is  high- 
ly philanthropic.  I  have  learned  that  he  sup- 
ports twenty-eight  orphan  children.  As  a 
leader  in  the  Armenian  colony,  he  has  been  a 
constant  worker  for  the  amelioration  of  con- 
ditions among  his  former  countrymen.  Since 
becoming  an  American,  he  has  joined  the  Re- 
publican party  and  is  active  in  politics.  He 
is  a  member  of  many  clubs  and  social  organi- 
zations. 

Were  it  not  for  the  policy  long  ago  adopted 
by  Trinity  Church  to  give  the  names  of  its 
Wardens  and  Vestrymen  to  many  streets  as 
they  were  laid  out  from  time  to  time  through 
the  broad  acres  of  its  church  farm  more  than 
one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the  early  mercan- 
tile and  social  life  of  the  city  would  now  lie 
forgotten.  These  commemorate  the  activities 
of  Gabriel    Ludlow.  Matthew  Clarkson,  Col. 


Bayard,  John  Reade,  Joseph  Murray.  John 
Chambers,  Stephen  De  Lancey,  Robert  Watts, 
Elias  Desbrosses,  Edward  Laight,  Dr.  John 
Charlton,  Humphrey  Jones.  Anthony  Lis- 
penard,  Gov.  Morgan  Lewis.  Thomas  Barrow. 
Jacob  Leroy,  Frank  Dominick,  John  Clark, 
Rufus  King,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Beach,  and  that 
worthy  old  Dutchman  Rip  van  Dam. 

There  are  many  self-made  men  in  this  big 
city;  an  example  is  found  in  the  case  of  Victor 
A.    Harder,    born    in    Manhattan,    1S47,    and 

educated  at  the  public 
schools.  He  started 
work  as  a  bookkeeper 
with  Mayor  Lane  in 
1869,  soon  developing 
into  a  traveling  sales- 
man, where  he  attained 
much  success.  He  se- 
cured an  interest  in  the 
manufacturing  business 
in  1876  when  the  firm 
name  was  changed  to 
Mayor  Lane  &  Co. 
Since  that  time  Mr. 
Harder  has  bought  out 
victor  \  harder  his  partner  and  made  a 

corporation  of  the  busi- 
ness. He  explains  his  success  only  upon  the 
grounds  that  he  "got  to  work  and  hus- 
tled." He  is  president  of  the  Essex  Foundry, 
Newark.  N.  J.;  the  Powhattan  Brass  &  Iron 
Works,  Charleston,  W.  Va.;  Mayor  Lane  & 
Co.,  and  the  Victor  A.  Harder  Realty  &  Con- 
struction Co..  New  York  City.  Mr.  Harder 
is  a  32d  degree  Mason,  a  member  of  the  Mon- 
tauk,  Riding  and  Driving  and  Prospect  Gun 
clubs. 

At  this  time,  when  doctors  and  paymasters 
are  scrambling  for  the  privilege  of  describing 
themselves  as  Captains  and  Rear  Admirals, 
it  is  gratifying  to  find  an  old  Navy  officer  who 
when  he  asked  for  retirement  from  the 
Naval  Militia  of  New  York  insisted  upon  re- 
taining the  title  of  Commodore,  which  he  bore 
in  the  Naval  Militia,  instead  of  acquiring  a 
higher  one.  In  a  remarkable  letter  which 
Commodore  Jacob  William  Miller  has  sent  to 
Governor  John  A.  l)ix.  he  said  that  experience 
of  twenty   years   in   the   I  nited   Stales   Navy 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


207 


KK'HAIUU'    VILLI 


JiiHS  H.  FLAGLER 


LAUREN  .1.  DRAKE 


led  him  to  believe  the  grade  of  Rear  Admiral 
should  he  bestowed  only  upon  those  who  are 
to  fill  executive  positions  ;it  sea.  and  that  it 
should  he  restricted  to  officers  of  the  regular 
service  commanding  fleets.  The  title  of  Com- 
modore being  traditionally  an  honorable  one. 
he  deemed  it  a  great  privilege  to  he  allowed 
to  retain  it.  Commodore  Miller  was  horn  in 
Morristown,  X.  J..  June.  1847,  son  of  a  United 
States  Senator  from  that  state.  He  entered 
the  Naval  Academy,  f  8(5.'}.  and  was  graduated. 
1S()7.  The  following  twenty  years  were  passed 
in  service  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  of  IS??,  he  was  on  board  the 
"vandalia"  when  General  Grant  visited  the 
Levant  on  his  trip  around  the  world.  On 
resigning  from  the  Navy  in  18S,'5.  he  became 
identified  with  railroads.  In  1889,  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  Providence  &  Ston- 
ington  Steamship  Company;  later  he  became 
vice-president  of  the  New  England  Naviga- 
tion Company,  which  controlled  all  the  Sound 
steamers;  resigning  this  post  in  1!t(l!).  he  has 
since  been  vice-president  of  the  Cape  Cod 
Construction  Company.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  University,  Century,  Naval  Academy 
Alumni  and  many  other  clubs  and  societies. 
Playing  an  important  part  in  the  industrial 
history  of  the  country.  John  II.  Flagler  has 
capped  his  achievements  by  shifting  to  com- 
mercial lines  and  directing  the  affairs  of 
liegeman  &  Co..  which  probably  controls 
the  world's  largest  amalgamation  of  wholesale 
and  retail  drug  and  chemical  stores. 


Mr.  Flagler  was  born  in  Cold  Springs, 
Putnam  County,  New  York,  and  was  edu- 
cated at  the  Academy  of  Paterson.  N.  Y.  I  lis 
early  experience  was  with  Haldane  &  Co.. 
maternal  uncles,  who  conducted  an  iron  busi- 
ness. He  then  organized  the  firm  of  John 
II.  Flagler  &  Co.,  and  started  the  manufacture 
of  tubing  at  Fast  Boston.  This  firm  event- 
uallv  became  the  National  Tube  Works  and 
was  removed  to  Pennsylvania,  being  finally 
absorbed  by  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion. 

Mr.  Flagler  is  an  earnest  yachtsman  and  has 
been  connected  with  the  American  and  At- 
lantic Yacht  chilis.  He  is  also  a  member  of 
the  New  York  Yacht.  Railroad.  Lawyers, 
Lotos,  and  Engineers'  clubs  of  New  York, 
and  the  New  York  Historical  Society  and 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

From  office  boy  to  manager  of  the  Marine 
Department  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company, 
and  to  stockholder  of  that  gigantic  corporation. 
is  the  accomplishment  of  Richard  C.  Veit. 
He  was  born  in  New  York  City.  November  17 
1855,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  years  entered 
the  employ  of  the  company  as  an  office  boy 
at  three  dollars  per  week,  rising  gradually 
through  many  responsible  positions  until  be 
reached  his  present  place.  He  is.  in  addition, 
interested  in  several  industrial  concerns  and 
is  vice-president  of  the  J.  Hood  Wright 
Memorial  Hospital. 

Mr.  Veil  is  a  patr >f  St.  Mark's  Hospital 

and  is  a  member  of  the  American  Museum  of 


208 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Natural  History,  the  New  York  Zoological 
Society,  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  the  Lotus  Club  and  the  New  York 
and    Atlantic    Yacht    clubs. 

Nearly  a  half  century  spent  with  the  Quincy 
Mining  ( lompany  of  Lake  Superior,  Michigan, 
has  made  William    H.  Todd    a    notable    figure 

in  the  copper  mining 
industry  of  the  United 
States. 

Mr.  Todd  was  born 
at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
June  15,  1837,  the  son 
of  John  Neatby  and 
Julia  (Parsons)  Todd, 
and  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools  there 
and  in  Brooklyn.  He 
\\  cut  to  II  o  u  g  h  t  o  n 
County,  Mich.,  in  1859, 
as  a  clerk  at  the  Quincy 
Mine.         During    1  S(!4 

WILLIAM  R.  TODD  .,,„,    ]  X05.  lie  WHS  ill  tlw 

Navy  as  clerk  to  ('apt. 
G.  II.  Scott,  U.  S.  Navy,  senior  officer  in  com- 
mand of  the  United  States  blockading  fleet 
off  Charleston,  S.  ('..  serving  on  the  ships 
"Canandaigua"  and  "John  Adams."  After  the 
war  he  operated  oil  wells  in  Kentucky  and  in 
1869  was  elected  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
Quincy  Mining  Company,  with  headquarters 
in  New  York  City.  In  1902  he  was  made 
president  of  that  corporation  which  position 
he  has  since  held. 

A  man  who  has  attained  prominence  in  the 
oil  industry  is  Lauren  J.  Drake,  who  was 
born  in  Concord.  Erie  County,  N.  Y.,  Jan- 
uary 29,  1842.  He  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Buffalo  and  at  the  Springville 
Academy  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  re- 
moved to  the  oil  fields  of  Pennsylvania  and 
became  a  conductor  on  the  Oil  ( 'reek  Railroad. 
In  LS7.5  he  removed  to  Keokuk,  la.,  and  from 
thence  to  Omaha,  Neb.,  to  become  genera] 
manager  of  the  Consolidated  Tank  Lines 
Company. 


He  was  in  1896  made  general  manager  of 
the  business  in  the  nine  states  comprising  the 
Standard  Oil  Company,  of  Indiana,  and  in 
1!)0L2  was  called  to  the  company's  office  in 
New  York  City.  He  is  a  director  of  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company,  of  N.  J.,  and  vice-president 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  of  Indiana  and 
the  Galena  Signal  Oil  Company.  He  is  also 
president  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  of 
Kentucky. 

Mr.  Drake  is  a  member  of  the  Union  League 
Club  of  Chicago  and  the  Essex  County  Coun- 
try (  Hub  of  New   Jersey. 

Customs  house  brokerage  is  one  which  calls 
for  exceptional  qualities  and  experience.  Mar- 
shall   Joseph    Corbett,   one   of   the    leaders    in 

this  business,  is  the  de- 
scendant of  old  and 
honored  American  fam- 
ilies on  both  sides. 
Born  in  1843  in  Brook- 
dale.  Pa.,  the  first  note- 
worthy event  in  his  ca- 
reer was  his  enlistment 
for  service  in  the  Civil 
War.  Mr.  Corbett  has 
to  his  credit  participa- 
tion in  some  of  the  most 
historic  actions,  includ- 
ing ( 'ha  ncellorsville, 
Gettysburg,  Wauhat- 
chie.  the  Atlantia  cam- 
paign and  "Sherman's 
March  to  the  Sea." 
Leaving  the  army  upon  the  declaration  of 
peace  with  the  brevet  rank  of  Major,  conferred 
for  meritorious  service,  he  became  eventually 
a  clerk  in  the  U.  S.  Appraiser's  Department. 
Rising  to  the  post  of  examiner  and  assistant 
appraiser  of  merchandise  of  the  port  of  New- 
York.  Mr.  Corbett  has  become  an  expert  in 
customs  usages  and  regulations  as  well  as  in 
the  science  of  appraisement.  Consequently, 
upon  (putting  the  service  after  twenty-two 
years'  experience,  in  1892,  he  was  in  an  excep- 
tional position  to  build  up  the  successful  busi- 
ness that  he  has. 


MARSHALL  .!<  'S.  CORBETT 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


209 


CHAPTER  XXI 


ECHOES  OF  THREE  WARS 


)S  a  guest  of  John  Russell 
Young,  1  visited  the  battlefield 
of  Gettysburg  in  the  fall  of 
1894,  and  walked  with  General 
E.  P.  Alexander  over  the  half 
mile  of  up-hill  land,  crossed  by 
Pickett's  men  in  their  immortal 
charge  against  the  Federal  position  at  the  top 
of  that  slope.  Although  .'51  years  had  passed, 
a  memorable  incident  occurred  after  reaching 
the  crest  of  the  hill. 

Upon  a  granite  l>ase  stands  a  mammoth 
open  hook.  The  monument  hears  the  in- 
scription: "Highvvater  Mark  of  the  Con- 
federacy." Upon  one  page  of  that  big  bronze 
volume  are  set  down  the  names  of  the  Federal 
commanders  on  that  bloody  Held;  upon  the 
other  page  are  the  names  of  the  Confederate 
chieftains. 

When  the  visitors  looked,  behold  General 
Alexander's  name  stood  immediately  below 
those  of  Longstreet  and  Lee!  lie  had  com- 
manded the  artillery  that  covered  the  assault 
by  Pickett's  men — a  charge  felt  to  he  hopeless 
when  ordered.  General  Alexander  heard  the 
command  delivered  to  Pickett  by  an  aide  from 
Longstreet.  Years  afterwards  it  was  said 
General  Lee  never  approved  of  the  wanton 
destruction  of  life;  about  this  General  Alex- 
ander was  uninformed.  It  was  the  forlorn 
hope,  after  the  checking  of  Stuart's  cavalry 
in  the  sunken  road,  behind  the  same  elevated 
ridge  -a  continuation  of  Cemetery  Hill.  In 
'The    Confederate     War,"    Eargleston    says: 

Do  ■ 

'The  story  of  Pickett's  charge  may  now  he 
told  to  Northern  ears  as  surely  sympathetic 
with  the  heroism  shown  in  that  world-famous 
action  as  are  any  ears  at  the  South." 

Another  monument  atop  that  hill  causes 
the  blood  to  tingle;  if  is  erected  to  General 
Lewis  Addison  Armistead.  a  Confederate, 
who  actually  broke  through  the  thin  Federal 
line  defending  the  crest,  and  was  killed  (line 


rods  inside.  Busy  as  the  defenders  were  al 
I  he  time — for  the  enemy  was  then  a  I  arm's 
length  strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  capture 
Armistead  alive.  He  was  frantically  slashing 
and  lunging  at  everybody  within  reach,  hut 
not  a  Federal  gun  was  raised  to  shoot  him. 
He  sneered  at  demands  to  surrender;  a  soldier 
undertook  to  disarm  him  by  bayonet  fencing, 
so  sincere  was  admiration  for  his  bravery. 
Report  differs  as  to  how  Armistead  was  killed; 
he  was  not  deliberately  shot.  The  accepted 
theory  of  Federal  soldiers,  at  that  danger  point 
during  the  terrible  crisis,  is  that  a  fragmenl 
of  shell  brought  him  down.  There  stands 
his  monument,  and  old  Federals,  as  well  as 
Confederates,  get  damp  in  the  eves  when  they 
gather  before  it.  General  Alexander  only  saw 
that  final  grapple  of  North  and  South  at 
Gettysburg  from  a  distance.  He  was  in  the 
valley,  overseeing  the  service  of  the  field  guns, 
the  roar  of  which  must  have  shut  out  the 
unearthly  shouts  of  assailants  and  defenders  or 
shrieks  of  the  dying.  A  revelry  of  death 
was   in  progress  upon  that  field! 

When  I  read  of  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  to 
the  glorious  Lawton,  the  man  who  won  the 
only  fight  at  Santiago  de  Cuba,  I  remembered 
his  conduct  there,  as  described  by  Major- 
General  Joseph  C.  Breckinridge,  at  Old  Point 
Comfort,  within  an  hour  of  landing  from  the 
transport  that  had  brought  him  home.  Law- 
ton   was  the   Leonidas  of  that   battle! 

I  wish  I  could  reproduce  the  lire  and  the 
vigor  with  which  General  Breckinridge  recited 
the  first  complete  story  of  that  two-days' 
fight.  We  wore  seated  in  one  of  the  sun  par- 
lors of  the  Hotel  Chamberlin,  Breckinridge 
walking  about  the  uncarpeted  apartment.  lie 
had  been  talking  for  forty  minutes  aboul  I  he 
difficulties  that  confronted  General  Shaffer — 
difficulties  that  Shafter  afterward  described 
to  me.  when  I  had  a  talk  with  him  aboard  the 
"Mohawk"  at  Fort  Pond  Bay  ami  he  made  that 


210 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


memorable  utterance:  "The  men  who  ordered 
a  summer  campaign  in  a  fever-infested  country 
are  responsible!" 

"It  has  not  been  told;  but  the  attaek  upon 
San  Juan  Hill  failed!"  said  General  Breck- 
inridge, speaking  solemnly.  'The  Spaniards 
were  intrenched  in  most  modern  fashion- 
meaning  they  had  burrowed  in  the  earth. 
Instead  of  throwing  dirt  in  front  of  them,  they 
had  placed  it  behind  them.  They  had  solid 
earth  between  them  and  our  bullets.  Quite 
a  difference!  As  for  our  men.  they  stood  in 
the  open.  Each  American  soldier  was  like 
a  savage,  and  represented  only  what  he  was 
worth  in  shoe  leather,  as  a  mark  for  Spanish 
marksmen.  Here  was  the  problem:  We 
wanted  the  San  Juan  earthworks,  but  the  El 
Caney  blockhouse  on  our  Hank  must  be 
captured   first. 

"John  Chaffee  was  the  sublime  figure  of 
the  night  of  June  30.  He  got  his  men  splen- 
didly intrenched,  personally  supervising  every 
detail.  He  didn't  sit  down,  much  less  sleep. 
And  this  was  wise,  because  we  had  determined 
to  assault  San  Juan  Hill  a  position  that 
would  be  called  an  impregnable  position  by 
every  writer  on  the  art  of  war  since  the  repeat- 
ing arm  has  come  into  universal  use.  Chaffee 
knew  as  well  as  did  Lawton  what  the  task 
meant!  His  men  made  pits  in  which  they 
'covered  themselves  with  the  planet'!  The 
little  hill  of  earth  that  the  old-time  soldier 
threw  in  front  of  his  trench  was  not  a  pro- 
tection; it  was  a   mark! 

'The  El  Caney  blockhouse  was  taken  by 
assault  early  next  day  (July  1):  and  after 
that  position  on  the  right  had  been  secured. 
Lawton  was  to  act  with  the  other  two  divis- 
ions in  delivering  a  swinging,  solar-plexus 
blow.  lie  had  gone  over  the  ground  on  the 
map  during  the  night  of  June  30  and  by 
reconnaissance  in  the  early  morning  that  fol- 
lowed. Everything  depended  upon  Lawton! 
We  were  short  of  artillery,  which  was  im- 
perative for  Lawton's  proper  support,  in  case 
he  encountered  stubborn  resistance.  This 
aid  he  had  every  right  to  expect,  because  the 
Spaniards  were  admirably  placed  in  rifle 
pits,  constructed,  as  I  have  said,  with  highest 
military  art. 

"After  the  capture  of  the  fort  at   El  Caney 


came  a  hitch:  troops  at  that  point  were  vir- 
tually called  off.  To  have  obeyed  orders 
would  have  meant  an  abandonment  of  a  des- 
perate Kit  of  success,  —an  act  humiliating  to 
every  officer  and  man  engaged  in  the  move- 
ment. The  courier  passed  down  the  line  until 
he  reached  Lawton's  division.  No  sooner 
had  this  man  heard  the  orders  than,  his  face 
aglow  with  the  fire  of  battle.  Lawton  ex- 
claimed: 

'  I  can't  (put !' 

'The  serious  problem  was  put  up  to  me," 
continued  Breckinridge,  "and  I  said:  'You 
must  take  the  village,  also.'  That  was  done 
in  thirty  minutes.  Many  deeds  of  bravery 
occurred  during  that  first  day's  fight;  but  1 
was  not  a  personal  witness  to  them.  The 
attack  on  San  Juan  by  Hawkins  had  failed 
and  the  fact  was  generally  known  throughout 
both  armies. 

'The  morning  of  July  2  broke  clear  and 
beautiful,  with  Lawton's  division  on  the  righl 
and  Rates'  independent  brigade  on  the  left 
of  a  position  everywhere  beleaguered.  Our 
men  on  the  hill  crest  were  still  there,  chiefly 
in  holes  in  the  ground,  dug  during  the  night; 
but  the  heart  of  every  officer  and  every  man 
in  the  plain  below  throbbed  with  an  ardent 
desire  to  go  to  the  support  of  comrades  in 
such  a  forlorn  position.  In  the  early  morning 
light.  Hawkins  could  be  seen  recklessly  ex- 
posing himself  to  flying  bullets. 

"After  such  breakfast  as  only  the  more 
fortunate  of  us  could  eat.  serious  alarm  arose 
as  to  whether  we  had  not  advanced  beyond 
reach  of  our  supplies.  Remember,  the  roads 
were  mere  torrent  paths,  through  which 
wagons  could  not  be  drawn,  and  the  Spanish 
artillery  on  the  heights  above  us  covered  all 
the  middle  ground  across  which  stores  would 
have  to  be  transported.  All  day  long  the 
next  move  was  canvassed.  Troops  at  the 
front  hadn't  a  thing  to  eat  except  what  they 
carried  on  their  backs.  Our  forces  spent  that 
entire  day  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  but  there 
wasn't  any  fighting.  To  send  the  main  bod) 
to  the  support  of  Hawkins  and  to  attempt  to 
carry  the  heights  by  storm  would  have  pro- 
duced a  catastrophe,  with  which  Skobelolf's 
attack  upon  the  Gravitza  redoubt  before 
Plevna,  in  September,  1877,  would  have  been 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


211 


trifling.  A  grave  council  of  officers  assembled 
that  night  at  El  Paso;  but  a  conclusion  was 
not   reached. 

'*(  )n  the  morning  of  July  :>  the  situation  was 
hazardous!  Several  men  of  tried  and  indis- 
putable courage  hesitated  to  advise.  Haw- 
kins* position  was  perilous.  Withdrawal, 
which  every  officer  of  experience  felt  in  his 
heart  would  have  been  good  tactics,  was  not 
considered,  because  the  next  day  would  be 
July  4.  We  knew  nothing  about  the  splendid 
victory  of  the  American  fleet  off  the  harbor's 
mouth!  But  the  Spaniards  knew  and  a  truce 
was  proposed.  This  was  followed  on  our  pari 
by  a  peremptory  demand  for  unconditional 
surrender.      It  was  acceded  to." 

"Do  you  mean  that  the  demand  for  sur- 
render was  made  at  a  moment  of  peril  to  the 
American  troops.-"      1  asked,  amazed. 

"1  mean  that  we  demanded  Toral's  sur- 
render at  a  time  when  our  retreat  appeared 
to  be  imperative,"  answered  General  Breck- 
inridge. 

The  lesson  of  this  statement  woidd  appeal' 
to  be  Lawton  won  the  first  day's  fight,  that 
the  second  day's  battle  was  without  decisive 
result,  and  that  the  fleet  under  Admiral  Samp- 
son brought  about  the  surrender  of  the  land 
forces  of  Spain  at  Santiago. 

Sad  so  gallant  a  man  as  Lawton  subsequent- 
ly lost  his  life  in  the  Philippines,  when  he 
possessed  so  many  of  the  elements  of  a  great 
commander!  He  ought  to  have  a  monument 
on  the  Prado  at  Havana,  because  his  heroic 
firmness,  at  a  critical  moment,  made  the 
victory  at  Santiago  de  Cuba  possible. 

When  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish  prisoners 
from  Santiago  was  expected  at  Portsmouth. 
X.  H..  I  was  specially  engaged  by  the  World 
to  meet  the  transport  "St.  Louis."  which  was 
bringing  Admiral  Cervera  and  .''■'-20  men,  and 
to  describe  the  landing.  I  was  also  expected 
to  get  an  account  of  tin-  voyage,  because  most 
of  the  other  metropolitan  newspapers  had  cor- 
respondents aboard.  It  was  not  a  task  for  a 
novice,  but  I  felt  confident  of  success  until  I 
attempted  to  procure  a  pass  for  the  incoming 
ship  from  Rear-Admiral  Carpenter  at  the 
Kittery  Navy  Yard.  He  refused  to  aid  me 
in  any  manner,  although   I  enlisted  the  good 


offices  of  an  old   friend.  Col.   James   Forney, 
I  .  S.  M.  ('. 

In  New  Hampshire's  only  port  all  incom- 
ing vessels  are  boarded  by  an  official  known 
as  a  "Harbor-Master."  He  lives  at  New- 
castle, southeastern  entrance  to  the  harbor. 
I  drove  live  miles  to  that  village,  installed 
myself  at  its  only  hotel,  and  secured  the 
cooperation  of  its  proprietor  in  order  that  1 
might  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  harbor- 
master. That  official  was  invited  to  the 
hotel  and  joined  me  in  the  cafe.  Before  mid- 
night, by  means  of  stories  and  good  cheer,  I 
had  thoroughly  ingratiated  myself  with  the 
retired  ship-captain  who  held  the  important 
post  of  harbor-master.  By  one  o'clock  I 
had  secured  an  appointment  as  deputy  harbor- 
master, entitling  me  to  go  in  the  boat  with 
my  chief  when  he  boarded  the  "St.  Louis." 

That  was  an  anxious  night,  because  the 
vessel  was  expected  any  hour. 

The  big  transport  steamed  into  port  the 
following  afternoon ;  the  deputy  harbor-master 
was  the  second  man  to  hoard  her.  following 
his  chief  up  the  gangway  with  all  the  assump- 
tion of  authority  he  was  able  to  affect  and 
returning  the  salute  of  the  officer  of  the  deck. 

In  my  official  capacity  I  explored  every 
corner  of  the  ship,  as  authorized  to  do:  visited 
the  deck  stateroom  of  the  captive  Spanish 
admiral  and  obtained,  by  inquiry  among  the 
younger  officers  of  the  vessel,  complete  details 
of  the  voyage.  Having  been  informed  that  Cap- 
tain Goodrich,  the  commanding  officer  of  the 
"St.  Louis,"  had  issued  an  order  forbidding 
anybody  to  address  Admiral  Cervera  unless 
spoken  to  by  him,  an  interview  was  not  at- 
tempted: but  I  stood  very  near  to  him  hoping 
that  he  might  speak  to  me.  That  was  what 
happened!  I  had  learned  my  Castilian  at 
Madrid  years  before,  but  some  of  it  had  been 
retained. 

The  Admiral  was  gazing  at  a  windmill  on 
the  hills  behind  Kittery.  Its  arms  were  sw ing- 
ing  like  those  on  the  little  red  mills  of  his 
native  La  Mancha,  when  he  turned  and  im- 
pulsively addressed  the  supposed  official: 

"Que  terano  es  este?"  (What  land  is  this  ?) 
pointing  beyond  the   Kittery  Navy  Yard. 

"  f.r  Estado  tic  Maine!"  I  replied. 


2  W 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Admiral  Cervera  started.  He  had  heard 
the  word  "Maine"  before,  amid  the  fire  and 
smoke  at  Santiago! 

"I  don't  comprehend,"  he  said,  slowly. 

"The  men  go  ashore  in  Maine;  but  von 
and  Captain  Enlate  will  be  taken  to  An- 
napolis," I  explained. 

"Ah!"  sighed  the  captive  hero;  "Aora, 
itiendo!"  (Now.  I  understand). 

I  had  the  climax  of  my  five-column  despatch, 
and  the  horses  that  dragged  my  carriage 
through  the  deep  sand  to  the  telegraph  wire 
at  Portsmouth  did  not  go  fast  enough  to  suit 
me.      It    was    "a    first    pager,"    sure    enough. 

The  Plain  of  Abraham  is  to  be  made  a  reser- 
vation of  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Why  this 
hasn't  been  done  long  ago  is  inexplicable.  It 
is  the  one  bit  of  land  at  Quebec  really  historic. 
Every  visitor  to  the  fine  old  city  takes  a  calash 
in  order  to  ride  up  the  hill  back  of  the  citadel 
for  a  walk  over  the  Plain  of  Abraham.  Or, 
if  thev  are  stopping  at  the  Chateau  Frontenac, 


they  will  walk  along  the  Dufferin  terrace  to 
the  long  wooden  stairway  and  ascend  thereby 
to  the  weedy  field  where  a  crucial  battle  be- 
tween English  and  French  was  fought. 

To  my  way  of  thinking,  one  of  the  finest 
emblems  of  human  brotherhood  in  this  wide 
world  is  the  monument  in  the  little  cemetery 
upon  the  Quebec  Heights  to  Wolfe  and 
Montcalm.  The  tall  obelisk  is  intended  to 
honor  the  two  heroes  equally.  In  my  travels 
1  never  have  stood  before  any  one  monument 
that  produced  the  same  mental  effect  as  does 
this  shaft.  It  is  the  only  instance  that  has 
crossed  my  orbit  in  which  the  English  have 
done  full  justice  to  a  fallen  foe.  When  one 
remembers  how  Napoleon  was  treated  at  St. 
Helena,  and  how  the  Colonial  prisoners  were 
allowed  to  rot  in  the  ships  in  New  York  harbor, 
the  touch  of  humanity  seems  more  remarkable. 

Visit  the  held  of  Waterloo  and  search  in 
vain  for  any  British  recognition  of  Blucher's 
vital  aid  to  Wellington! 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


213 


CHAPTER  XXII 


EVOLUTION  OF  THE   LEGAL  PROFESSION 


HE  Metropolis  has  always  asso- 
ciated preeminence  in  the  Law 
with  Philadelphia.  The  Qua- 
ker City  had  its  Brewster,  Shars- 
wood,  Brown.  Cassidy  and 
Dougherty  at  the  same  era  in 
which  Clinton.  Brady,  Graham, 
Evarts,  Carter,  Vanderpoel  and  Townsend 
upheld  up  the  dignity  of  the  New  York  bar. 
There  were  many  other  able  lawyers  in  the 
two  cities.  All  these  pleaders  have  passed  to 
a  higher  court.  Joseph  II.  Choate  had  come 
From  Boston  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
William  M.  Evarts  bearing  the  potent  signa- 
ture of  Rufus  Choate.  Judge  A.  J.  Ditten- 
hoel'er  had  already  earned  his  title  and  was 
as  active  as  he  is  to-day,  when  he  counts  his 
years  by  threescore  and  ten.  The  late 
Colonel  John  J.  McCook  had  torn  himself 
away  from  his  beloved  Ohio  to  build  up  a 
large  practice  in  the  metropolis.  Elihu  Boot, 
hailing  from  Hamilton  village  and  college, 
was  making  a  place  for  himself.  He  had  been 
an  adviser  of  William  M.  Tweed;  l>ut  the  same 
could  he  said  of  other  reputable  lawyers. 
John  I).  Townsend.  for  example,  acted  for 
Tweed  in  his  final  trial.  All  these  avocats 
were  hustling  when  I  first  knew  them,  hut  their 
subsequent  laurels  and  financial  rewards  were 
assured.  While  serving  as  Foreign  Editor  of 
the  Herald,  my  hours  of  work  being  at  night. 
I  entered  Columbia  Law  School.  When  Dr. 
Theodore  W.  Dwight  was  Professor  of  Con- 
stitutional Law  at  Columbia  University,  young 
men  came  hither  from  all  pails  of  the  English- 
speaking  world  to  sit  under  his  instruction. 
Such  a  teacher  is  rarely  met  in  academic  work; 
lhere  was  a  timbre  in  his  voice  that  aided 
memory  by  compelling  recollection  of  the 
precepts  enunciated. 

In  the  time  of  Cicero,  somewhat  of  a  Roman 
lawyer,  acceptance  of  a  fee  for  legal  services 
was  not  an  act   of  good  form.     Oratory  suf- 


ficed for  argument,  and  renown  look  the  place 
of  all  other  rewards.  Conditions  are  some- 
what changed  in  our  day.  Mr.  Evarts  is  said 
to  have  received  $200,000  for  an  opinion  em- 
braced in  the  single  word.  "Yes.'  William 
Nelson  Cromwell,  who  was  in  Columbia  Law- 
School  when  1  was  there,  received  from 
Eugene  Zimmerman  a  fee  of  .$1(1(1.000  for  ad- 
justing the  tangled  affairs  of  the  Cincinnati, 
Hamilton  &  Dayton  railroad.  This  occurred 
less  than  ten  years  after  leaving  Professor 
Dwight's  class-room;  but  since  that  time,  Mr. 
Cromwell  has  made  the  monumental  record  of 
a  million-dollar  fee.  in  addition  to  '"disburse- 
ments," as  a  reward  for  selling  the  French 
Panama  Canal  Company  to  the  United  States 
Government.  When  one  remembers  that  the 
Frenchmen  received  $40,000,000  for  a  com- 
pletely bankrupt  enterprise,  concession  and 
unfinished  canal,  their  attorney  served  them 
faithfully  and  the  payment  was  not  excessive 
—representing  as  it  did  six  years  of  constant 
attention  and  one  hundred  trips  to  \\  ashington. 
Mr.  Cromwell  will  always  he  known  as  "the 
genius  of  the  Panama  Canal." 

The  charming  personality  of  the  late  Al- 
gernon S.  Sullivan  has  been  mentioned  in  an 
early  page  of  this  volume.  I  now  come  to 
speak  of  a  younger  man,  who,  after  graduation 
from  Columbia  Law  School,  became  asso- 
ciated with  Mr.  Sullivan  in  the  practice  of 
law.  In  a  few  years,  the  firm  of  Sullivan  & 
Cromwell  was  known  from  one  end  of  the 
United  States  to  the  other.  This  was  largely 
due  to  the  energy  and  success  of  the  junior 
partner.  William  Nelson  Cromwell,  in  the 
reorganization  of  great  corporations.  After 
the  death  of  Mr.  Sullivan.  Mr.  Cromwell 
carried  to  complete  success  several  of  the  most 
stupendous  schemes  of  corporate  organization 
ever  attempted  in  any  land. 

If  ever  a  mortal  won  the  order  of  knight- 
hood at  the  hand  of  the  God  of  Success.  Wil- 


•J  14 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


liam  Nelson  Cromwell  is  that  man!  What 
manner  of  man  is  her  Snow-white  hair  and 
mustache  accentuate  strong  lines  of  deter- 
mination in  his  keen,  earnest  face.  The 
dark-blue  eyes  are  its  most  distinctive  feature. 
Hardly  above  medium  height  and  rather 
slender  of  figure,  his  broad  shoulders  indicate 
athletic  training  or  open-air  work  early  in  life. 
He  was  horn  in  Xew  York,  January  4,  1854, 
and  is  a  son  of  Colonel  John  Nelson  Cromwell, 
of  the  Forty-seventh  Illinois  Volunteers,  who 
was  killed  in  battle,  July  lb",  1S(>.'?.  soon  after 
passing  unscathed  through  the  three  days' 
carnage  at  Gettysburg.  The  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  educated  by  private  tutors,  owing 
to  his  delicate  health,  and  was  graduated 
at  Columbia  Law  School  in  the  class  of  IS??. 
The  man  of  to-day  is  very  striking  in  person- 
ality and  figure,  and  would  he  singled  out 
among  a  multitude  by  any  student  of  men. 
As  mentioned,  he  is  now  senior  of  the  firm  of 
Sullivan  &  Cromwell,  founded  by  Algernon  S. 
Sullivan,  a  Sir  Philip  Sydney  in  chivalry, 
benevolence  and  gentleness  of  character. 
Throughout  his  career  at  the  bar.  Mr.  Crom- 
well  has  made  a  specialty  of  corporation  law 
and  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  formation 
of  the  gigantic  companies  for  which  the  United 
States  is  noted.  As  a  reorganizer  of  bank- 
rupt firms,  he  has  earned  renown:  he  has  al- 
ways succeeded  in  restoring  crippled  concerns 
to  a  paying  basis.  Grappling  with  large  cor- 
porations, involving  millions  of  money,  was 
not  an  act  of  novelty  to  Mr.  Cromwell,  there- 
fore, and  when  he  undertook  to  rehabilitate 
the  character  of  the  Panama  Canal  Company 
and  to  sell  its  charter  to  the  United  States,  he 
went  about  the  task  with  the  same  enthusiasm 
he  had  displayed  on  many  previous  accasions. 
Had  he  not  organized  the  National  Tube 
Company  in  IS!)!),  with  a  capital  of  eighty 
million  dollars?  Why  should  he  balk  at 
making  a  sale  of  property  inventoried  at  only 
half  as  much  ? 

The  supreme  coup  of  this  brilliant  counsel- 
lor's life  was  the  final  success  of  six  years  of 
ceaseless  effort  whereby  he  changed  official 
and  sentimental  preference  for  the  Nicaragua 
route  for  an  Inter-oceanic  canal  to  a  Congres- 
sional majority  favoring  Panama.  The  need 
of  an   isthmian  canal   had  been  conceded  for 


fifty  years;  but  Nicaragua  was  the  only  route 
discussed  by  American  engineers.  Commis- 
sion after  commission  had  reported  in  its 
favor,  never  a  favorable  word  for  Panama. 
Meanwhile,  a  French  company  had  been 
organized,  hundreds  of  millions  of  francs  sub- 
scribed and  work  had  begun,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  creator  of  the  Sue/,  canal,  Count 
de  Lesseps.  The  French  corporation  had 
been  wastefully  extravagant  and  had  reached 
a  point  at  which  popular  criticism  denounced 
its  management  and  criminal  prosecution 
against   its  chief  directors  was  instituted. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  William  Nel- 
son Cromwell  undertook  the  seemingly  im- 
possible  task  of  changing  American  sentiment. 
He  was  counsel  for  the  Panama  railroad, 
originally  an  American  corporation  that  had 
been  taken  over  by  the  French  Canal  Com- 
>any.  For  that  reason,  Mr.  Cromwell  was 
•mown  to  the  officers  of  that  organization. 
He  conceived  the  idea  of  having  the  United 
States  take  over  the  Panama  enterprise.  In- 
vestigation showed  that  the  French  company 
was  not  in  desperate  straits,  as  currently  rep- 
resented, and  at  the  time  Mr.  Cromwell  under- 
took to  convince  the  Frenchmen  they  had  best 
sell  out  to  the  United  States  more  than  three 
thousand  men  were  at  work  on  the  Canal. 
Hardly  crediting  this  statement,  given  to  him 
in  Paris,  Mr.  Cromwell  cabled  to  this  city 
and  sent  a  photographer  to  Panama,  with 
orders  to  walk  over  the  route  of  the  water- 
way and  take  a   picture  every   mile. 

Before  Mr.  Cromwell  could  begin  the  task 
of  convincing  the  American  Congress  of  the 
wisdom  of  digging  the  great  ditch  and  owning 
it.  instead  of  letting  France  get  a  foothold 
upon  the  Isthmus,  he  had  to  persuade  the 
French  Panama  Company  to  fix  a  price  and 
consent  to  sell.  This  task  looked  like  a  for- 
lorn hope,  almost  to  the  last  moment.  Hut 
he  finally  succeeded  ! 

Then  he  moved  his  base  of  operations  from 
Paris  to  Washington.  For  two  years,  during 
sessions  long  and  short,  William  Nelson  Crom- 
well was  appearing  before  committee  after 
committee,  always  talking  in  the  same  con- 
fident manner.  There  is  a  quality  in  his  voice 
that  evinces  sincerity,  and  this  had  much  to 
do   with   the  effects   of  more  than   a    hundred 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


2  b 


addresses  made  before  Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives, in  and  out  of  committee  rooms. 
Never,  in  or  out  of  session,  did  he  ask  any 
Congressman  to  vote  for  Panama.  It  was  a 
never  flagging  campaign  of  education;  bu1 
it  was  waged  in  the  open  and  through  the  mails 
by  the  distribution  of  maps,  every  one  of 
which  was  attested  by  United  States  Min- 
isters, by  engineers  of  international  reputa- 
tion and  eminent  travelers.  The  workmen 
of  Mr.  Cromwell's  Bureau  of  Education  were 
sleepless!  But  Mr.  Cromwell  did  not  have 
any  associate  counsel:  his  was  the  directing 
mind. 

When  Philander  C.  Knox,  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States,  went  to  Paris,  he  did  so 
to  submit  Mr.  Cromwell's  written  opinion 
upon  the  validity  of  the  title  of  the  French 
Canal  Company  to  the  highest  authority  on 
French  civil  law,  M.  Waldeck-Rousseau.  Early 
Mr.  Cromwell  had  satisfied  himself  that  Un- 
title of  the  French  corporation  was  beyond 
question,  all  statements  to  the  contrary.  The 
famous  Parisian  avocat  gave  several  weeks 
to  an  examination  of  every  phase  of  the  con- 
tracts, and  reported  unequivocally  in  favor 
of  the  Cromwellian  brief.  Diplomatic  art  of 
the  highest  Bismarckian  class  must  lie  credited 
to  the  victor  in  that  campaign,  from  first  to 
last,  because  the  weapon  of  absolute  truth 
was  always  employed.  Diplomacy  and  double 
dealing  are  far  too  often  and  justly  associated: 
but  they  had  no  part  in  this  negotiation.  As 
Senator  Ilanna  said.  "Cromwell  was  'Johnny 
on  the  spot,'  always  prepared  to  answer  ques- 
tions, always  ready  with  proofs, — proofs,  re- 
member,— to  sustain  his  contention."  As  a 
truth.  Mr.  Cromwell  was  not  acquainted  with 
many  Senators  or  Representatives. 

At  the  critical  moment,  when  the  hour  for 
a  summing  up  of  evidence  for  and  against  the 
Panama  route  was  approaching,  the  terrible 
disaster  at  Martinique,  the  eruption  of  Mount 
Pelee  and  the  utter  destruction  of  the  city 
of  St.  Pierre,  occurred!  With  an  instinct 
truly  journalistic.  Mr.  Cromwell  seized  upon 
the  calamity,  and.  by  maps,  showed  that  five 
active  volcanoes  were  marshalled  along  the 
line  of  the  proposed  Nicaraguan  canal.  Mr. 
Cromwell  said  to  the  writer  a  few  hours 
after  the  vote  had  been  taken: 


'Mount  Pelee  won  the  light  for  Panama!" 
A  few  days  later,  when  the  bill  ordering 
the  purchase  of  the  French  interests  had  been 
signed  by  President  Roosevelt,  the  counsellor 
told  me  an  even  more  characteristic  thing, 
so  curious  and  so   personal   that    it   describes 


Wl  1. 1.1  \\1    NELSON   CROMWELL 


the  man  better  than  would  a  regiment  of  words: 
"How  can  I  epitomize  the  anxiety  and  toil 
of  the  past  live  years  ?  I  have  literally  lived  upon 
night  trains  between  New  York  and  Wash- 
ington: I  have  made  more  than  four  hundred 
trips  to  the  Capital!  Ah!  1  can  give  to  von 
a  hint  of  my  feelings!  When  my  train  pulled 
out  of  Washington  that  afternoon  of  victory, 
I  gazed  from  the  car  window  long  and  intently 
at  the  great  white  dome  on  Capitol  Hill. 
Why?      Nearly  everv  time  I  had  arrived  in  or 


216 


THE    BOO K   of   NEW    YORK 


departed  from  Washington  I  had  seen  that 
lofty  objeci  with  shiverings  of  anxiety,  dis- 
quietude and  pain.  It  mocked  me  in  mv 
bitteresi  moments;  its  calm  placidity  added 
to  my  despair.  Thousands  of  hours,  precious 
to  a  man  with  only  one  life,  vital  to  his  hopes, 
apparently  had  been  wasted,  with  the  con- 
nivance of  that  bulging  dome.  But.  when  1 
looked  it  in  the  face  that  never-to-be-forgotten 
day.  1  mentally  said:  'You  terrify  me  no 
longer.  You  can  stay  there,  forever:  I  have 
fought  you  to  a  finish. — and  won!"  It  was 
a  feeling  of  triumph,  an  indescribable  thrill 
of  victory  over  the  inanimate,  that  I  cannot 
expect   any   one   to   comprehend." 

When  one  gets  to  talking  about  lawyers 
whom  one  has  known  during  an  experience 
of  forty-odd  years  with  New  York  newspapers. 
there  is  practically  no  end  to  the  names  and 
faces  that  come  before  one;  some  of  them  will 
lie  described  in  this  volume.  Many  I  have 
known  personally,  some  even  intimately;  others 
a  bowing  acquaintance  carried  on  for  years, 
and  with  the  remainder  a  knowledge  of 
many  of  the  things  they  have  done. 

It  is  a  great  profession  in  New  York — the 
law — it  has  attracted  the  best  minds  of  the 
country;  the  rewards  are  better,  when  one 
wins,  than  in  perhaps  any  other  walk  of  life. 
There  is  many  a  failure,  too.  sad  ones  at  that: 
but  Xew  York  doesn't  care  for  failures,  ami 
I'm  going  to  draw  only  on  those  who  are 
winning. 

When  I  was  in  Washington  in  1886,  one 
of  the  ablest  Constitutional  lawyers  in  the 
United  States  Senate  was  John  Coit  Spooner, 
of  Wisconsin.  Although  he  had  occupied  a 
seat  in  the  Chamber  less  than  one  year,  he 
was  recognized  as  an  expert  debater  and  com- 
manded attention  whenever  he  addressed 
that  body.  That  he  would  eventually  come  to 
New  York  to  practice  his  profession,  after  his 
ambition  in  statesmanship  had  been  fully 
gratified,  was  inevitable.  This  he  did  in 
1907,  while  retaining  his  official  residence  in 
Madison,  Wisconsin.  Senator  Spooner  was 
born  at  Law  renceburg.  End.,  1843,  a  de- 
scendant of  William  Spooner,  who  came  from 
England  in  1637  and  settled  at  Dartmouth, 
in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts.  Young  Spoon- 
er attended  the  public  school  of  Madison  and 


entered  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  I860. 
In  response  to  the  call  from  President  Lincoln, 
he  recruited  a  company  from  the  University 
students,  stipulating  with  the  faculty  that  the 
members  be  allowed  to  graduate  as  if  not 
enlisted.  Although  entitled  to  a  commission, 
he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Company  B.  40th 


JOHN  ('   SPI  ION]   l; 


Wisconsin  Infantry,  served  through  the  hun- 
dred days'  term  and  reenlisfed  for  three  years 
as  Captain  of  Company  A.  50th  Wisconsin. 
He  began  the  study  of  law  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  practice  in  1867.  Meanwhile,  he 
was  serving  as  military  secretary  to  Governor 
Lucius  Fairchild,  with  the  rank  of  Colonel 
and  for  two  years  was  Quartermaster-General 
of  the  state.  He  was  Assistant  Attorney- 
General  during  1869  and  '70.  At  the  end  of 
his  term,  he  removed  to  Hudson  and  soon 
acquired  a  large  practice;  he  was  counsel  for 
two  new  railway  companies,  the  West  Wiscon- 
sin and  North  Wisconsin.  When  these  roads 
were  merged  into  the  Chicago,  Minneapolis  & 
Omaha   railroad,   he  became  general  counsel. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    VOIIK 


217 


He  was  elected  to  the  State  Legislature  in 
1871,  his  most  important  service  in  thai 
body  being  the  passage  of  a  bill  to  levy  a  gen- 
era] state  tax  to  be  added  annually  to  the  in- 
come of  the  University  of  Winconsin.  When 
the  Vanderbilts  secured  control  of  the  rail- 
road of  which  he  was  general  counsel  in  1884, 
Mr.  Spooner  resigned.  A  year  later,  he  be- 
came a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate 
and  began  his  campaign  with  an  agreement 
that  nothing  disrespectful  in  speech  or  news- 
paper should  be  spoken  or  written  aboul  his 
opponent.  He  was  elected  in  January.  1885, 
and  took  his  seat  on  March  4th.  He  was  one 
of  the  youngest  members  of  the  Senate,  hut. 
as  1  have  said,  he  soon  took  rank  as  an  orator 
and  lawyer  of  brilliant  attainments.  While 
serving  as  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee 
on  ( laiins.  he  saved  the  government  more  than 
$30,000,000.  Senator  Spooner  made  several 
memorable  addresses.  I  lis  eulogy  of  Vice- 
President  Hendricks  on  the  occasion  of  the 
memorial  service  is  recalled.  An  episode 
between  Spooner  and  Butler,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, will  long  remain  a  tradition  of  the  Senate. 
Spooner  was  advocating  the  admission  of 
South  Dakota  as  a  state  (INNS),  when  Butler 
objected  to  Dakota  "trying  to  break  into  the 
Union."  Spooner  instantly  retorted  that  Da- 
kota had  as  much  inherent  right  to  "break 
in"  as  Butler's  state  (South  Carolina)  had 
to  "break  out."  In  1890,  Senator  Spooner 
made  a  stubborn  effort  to  have  sugar  placed 
on  the  free  list  and  some  of  his  speeches  in 
behalf  of  that  measure  were  eloquent.  When 
his  term  ended  he  removed  from  Hudson  to 
Madison,  the  capital  of  his  state,  where  he 
devoted  himself  to  a  large  general  practice. 
He  fought  the  attempted  gerrymandering  of 
the  legislative  and  congressional  districts  by 
the  Democrats.  He  was  unanimously  nomi- 
nated for  the  governorship  in  1892,  but  was 
defeated  by  Governor  Peck.  He  was  again 
sent  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  IS!)?, 
where  he  added  new  laurels  to  his  fame  as  a 
statesman.  During  the  ten  years  of  his  sec- 
ond service  in  the  Senate,  he  made  speeches 
or  debated   upon  450  different  subjects. 

Many  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  of 
the  metropolis  arc  acquisitions  from  other 
states.      For  example,   the  dean   of  the  profes- 


sion, Joseph  II.  Choate,  comes  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  Judge  A.  J.  Dittenhoefer 
from  South  Carolina.  The  present  head  of 
the  legal  department  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company.  George  Hadsall  Fearons, 
hails   from    Kentiickv.   where   he   was   born.  :!| 


GEORGE  H.  FEARONS 


Newport,  1S.).'5.  His  father  was  a  distinguished 
lawyer  in  the  "Blue  Grass  State"  and  was 
Mayor  of  his  town.  Of  course,  the  Fearons 
are  of  Irish  descent:  the  family,  originally 
French,  had  first  settled  in  Essex,  England, 
but  later  removed  to  Dublin,  where  the  father 
of  the  present  counsellor  was  born.  On  the 
maternal  side,  I  find  Kentucky  blood,  directly 
descended  from  a  family  of  Connecticut 
Quakers.     Mrs.  Fearons'  father  had  removed 


•218 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


from  Dunkirk.  New  York,  to  New  Haven,  on 
account  of  Indian  outbreaks  on  the  frontier. 
George  Hadsall  Fearons  began  his  school  days 
at  Newport  but  was  soon  transferred  to  Mount 
St.  Mary's  College,  .Maryland:  he  look  his 
Bachelor  of  Arts  degree  at  St.  Francis  Xavier 
College,  Cincinnati,  in  1871.  A  brief  post- 
graduate course  was  had  at  the  St.  Louis 
University,  Missouri,  and  subsequently  study 
was  had  at  Paris.  Stuttgart  and  Heidelberg, 
under  private  tutors.  Returning  to  his  native 
state,  young  Fearons  read  law  with  the  late 
.John  G.  Carlisle  at  Covington,  meanwhile 
taking  a  course  at  the  Cincinnati  Law  School. 

Mr.  Fearons  heard  "the  call  of  the  city"  in 
IS?.')  and.  coming  to  New  York,  opened  a 
law  office.  He  soon  returned  to  the  west. 
and  for  three  years  taught  school  at  Toledo 
and  Cincinnati.  Ohio,  serving  as  principal  in 
both  places.  I  next  hear  of  him  as  a  clerk  in 
the  Superintendent's  office  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  at  Cincinnati. 
There  he  appears  to  have  found  his  metier, 
and,  in  1881,  on  the  call  of  Norvin  Green, 
then  President  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company,  young  Fearons  triumphantly 
"came  back"  to  New  York  as  an  assistant  in 
its  legal  department.  Nine  years  later,  he  was 
made  general  attorney  for  the  great  corpora- 
tion, a  position  he  still  holds.  His  rise  to  this 
post  of  distinction  was  earned  by  strenuous 
service  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  wher- 
ever actions  at  law  demanded  his  presence. 
He  acted  as  general  counsel  for  the  Southern 
Bell  Telephone  &  Telegraph  Company;  was 
an  organizer  of  the  American  District  Tele- 
graph Company  of  New  Jersey,  and,  for 
twenty  years,  has  been  legal  representative  in 
the  United  States  of  the  great  British  corpora- 
tion, the  Anglo-American  Cable  Company, 
lie  is  President  of  the  Havana  District  Tele- 
graph Company  and  Vice-President  of  the 
Dominion  Messenger  &  Signal  Company  of 
Canada,  and  attends  to  the  legal  business  of 
sixty  other  corporations  in  this  country  and 
Europe. 

The  scope  of  Mr.  Fearons'  duties  is  very 
broad;  not  only  has  he  charge  of  all  the  local 
legal  business  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company  but  is  expected  to  protect  its  inter- 
ests  throughout    the  States  of  the   Union,  ap- 


pearing in  the  highest  courts  of  every  one  of 
them.  A  highly  memorable  case,  carried  to 
a  .successful  finish  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  was  the  "Primrose"  litiga- 
tion that  settled  for  all  time  the  liability  of  a 
telegraph  company  under  the  contract  with 
the  sender  of  a  message,  as  printed  upon  the 
back  of  a  message  blank.  He  showed  that 
the  duty  of  such  sender  was  to  read  and.  if 
necessary,  have  explained  to  him  the  terms  of 
the  contract  into  which  he  entered  when  he 
signed  his  name  upon  the  face  of  the  blank. 
When  the  City  of  Richmond.  Ya.,  undertook 
to  oust  the  Southern  Bell  Telephone  &  Tele- 
graph Company  from  its  streets,  involving  the 
rights  of  telephone  corporations  under  the  Act 
of  Congress  of  July  24,  1866,  Mr.  Fearons 
carried  the  ease  to  the  highest  court  in  this 
land  and  won   it. 

I  should  want  a  whole  volume  to  recount 
the  legal  achievements  of  Judge  John  Forrest 
Dillon,  who,  although  he  came  back  to  us 
from  the  west,  where  he  had  spent  his  boy- 
hood in  Iowa,  was  born  in  Montgomery  Co., 
N.  Y..  December  25,  1831,  and  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  having  removed  west  with  his  par- 
ents, took  a  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  at 
the  Iowa  University.  After  six  months'  prac- 
tice of  that  profession,  he  began  the  study  of 
law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1852.  Be- 
tween that  time  and  his  return  to  New  York 
in  IS?!),  he  was  appointed  Prosecuting  Attor- 
ney, Judge  of  the  7th  Judicial  District,  la.. 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  a  U.  S. 
Circuit  Judge.  This  last  office  he  resigned 
to  accept  the  post  of  Professor  of  Real  Estate 
and  Equity  Jurisprudence  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, where  he  remained  for  three  years. 
Since  then  he  has  been  general  counsel  for 
the  Missouri  Pacific  Railroad  Co..  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Co..  the  Texas  Pacific  Rail- 
road Co..  and  other  Gould  corporations.  He 
is  the  author  of  many  books  upon  law  and 
jurisprudence  and  of  an  admirable  life  of 
Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

When  it  comes  to  mixing  oil  and  law,  Mor- 
timer F.  Elliott,  General  Solicitor  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Company,  is  probably  the  most 
competent  man  in  the  United  States.  For 
several  years  he  has  borne  the  brunt  of  the 
legal  contests  directed  by  the  government  and 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YOKE 


21!) 


private  individuals  against  the  great  corpora- 
tion. Sometimes  his  opponents  seem  to  be 
gaining  an  advantage  in  one  court,  lnit  Solici- 
tor  Elliott  triumphantly  bowls  them  out  in 
another.  A  constant,  unending  struggle  exists, 
on  the  part  of  critics  and  rivals,  to  invade  a 
held  the  Standard  Company  has  made  its 
own.  Mr.  Elliott  did  not  reach  his  present 
eminence  by  any  short  cuts;  he  attained  it 
along  the  straight  trail  of  thoroughness,  lie 
is  to-day  justly  regarded  as  the  dean  among 
the  old  corporation  lawyers. 

Then'  wasn't  any  oil  agitation  in  Tioga 
County,  Western  Pennsylvania,  when  Mi-. 
Elliott  was  horn.  He  spent  his  boyhood  on  a 
farm  and  was  a  very  handy  youngster  about 
the  place  when  he  wasn't  attending  district 
school.  When  he  grew  large  enough  to  con- 
template an  advanced  education,  lie  attended 
the  Alfred  University  at  Alleghany,  X.  Y.; 
but  he  left  before  graduation  and  returned  to 
his  home  county  to  study  law  in  the  office  of 
Judge  Wilson.  He  worked  to  support  him- 
self during  all  the  time  he  was  reading  law. 
After  admission  to  the  bar,  he  caused  his 
name  to  be  painted  on  a  board  over  the  door 
of  his  office.  Although  the  letters  were  large 
and  the  announcement  of  his  determination 
to  practice  law  was  direct  and  unequivocal, 
the  good  people  of  Tioga  County  declined  to 
take  notice.  Instead  of  business  coming  to 
him.  young  Mr.  Elliott  had  to  go  in  search 
of  it.  He  thoroughly  prepared  every  case  he 
handled.  It  was  said  of  him  that  if  he  were 
to  have  litigation  involving  the  paternity  of  a 
dodo.  Elliott  would  have  become  an  authority 
on  dodos  before  the  day  of  trial.  About  this 
time,  political  friends  advised  him  to  go  to 
Congress.  He  was  nominated  and  elected  to 
the  House  of  Representatives;  but  one  term 
was  sufficient  and  he  returned  to  the  practice 
of  law.  with  gladness.  The  new  oil  districts 
in  Northwestern  Pennsylvania  and  South- 
western New  York  developed  almost  as  much 
litigation  as  oil.  Several  cases  of  that  sort 
came  to  the  hands  of  Mr.  Elliott  and  in  their 
study  he  was  brought  to  a  comprehension  of 
the  utter  inadequacy  of  existing  statutes  for 
the  protection  of  the  great  oil  industry.  Law 
hadn't  been  made  to  lit  an  oil  "strike."  Ap- 
parently, the  assumption  had  been  that  every- 


body engaged  in  the  oil  business  was  a  person 
of  integrity;  but  constant  claims  and  counter- 
claims made  by  litigants  disproved  it.  Some 
people  in  that  part  of  the  world  were  not  hon- 
est. Mr.  Elliott  math'  a  study  of  the  oil  busi- 
ness from  every  view-point.  He  visited  the 
wells.  learned  how  they  were  drilled,  studied 
indications  favorable  to  the  finding  of  oil. 
learned  how  it  was  pumped,  stored  and  piped 
ami  became,  literally,  a  practical  developer  of 


MORTIMER  F.  ELLIOTT 


oil  property.  He  won  most  of  tin'  cases  en- 
trusted to  him;  as  the  oil  area  broadened,  his 
business  grew  with  its  expansion.  People  who 
had  controversies  about  claims  rarely  consulted 
anybody  else.  The  litigant  who  first  got  Mr. 
Elliott's  ear  considered  himself  fortunate. 
Some  of  his  most  stubbornly  contested  cases 
were  against  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  and, 
in  them,  he  proved  himself  more  than  equal 
to  their  cleverest  attorneys.  Following  its 
usual  custom,  this  corporation  secured  the  ex- 
clusive control  of  Mr.  Elliott's  gray  matter! 
The  big  company  didn't  relish  legal  defeats 
any  Letter  than  it  did  trade  defeats.  In  1892 
Mr.   Elliott  went  to  ( )il  City  as  attorney  for 


220 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


the  Standard  Oil  Co.,  for  the  fields  of  West 
Virginia,  Indiana  and  Ohio.  In  1898  lie  came 
to  New  York  as  assistant  attorney  for  the 
Company.  In  1903  lie  assumed  control  of 
the  legal  department  and  in  1905,  upon  the 
death'  of  S.  ('.  T.  Dodd,  Mr.  Elliott  was 
promptly  advanced  to  the  vacant  place,  at  the 
head  of  the  company's  legal  department. 

My  first  vivid  recollection  of  Stewart  L. 
Woodford  goes  back  to  a  raw  and  windy 
October  day  in  1868,  when,  with  a  few  other 
expectant  students  of  the  about-to-be-born 
Cornell  University,  I  stood  at  the  lofty  hill- 
top at  Ithaca,  prospective  site  of  campus  and 
college  buildings,  and  heard  his  admirable 
address  accepting  the  first  gift  of  woman  to 
the  nascent  institution  of  learning.  He  was  a 
younger  man  then;  was  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  State  of  Xew  York,  a  devoted  friend 
of  the  young  President,  Andrew  I).  White. 
and  of  the  founder.  Ezra  Cornell.  I  have 
heard  him  speak  probably  a  hundred  times 
in  the  years  which  have  followed,  but  the 
mental  picture  of  this  finished  orator  of  thirty- 
three,  with  a  splendid  war  record  and  an 
enviable  political  career  to  his  credit,  can 
never  be  effaced.  Perhaps  my  own  loneliness 
and  distance  from  home  may  have  caused 
his  naturally  sympathetic  nature  to  appeal 
to  me.  I  thought  his  recitation  of  the  verses 
from  Tennyson's  '"In  Memoriam,"  inscribed 
by  Miss  Jenny  McGraw  upon  the  bells  of 
the  chime  she  had  given,  the  most  finished  bil 
of  eloquence  I  had  ever  heard.  We  met  for 
the  first  time  that  evening  at  a  reception  given 
by  President  White. 

General  Woodford's  career  has  been  one 
of  complete  success,  whether  if  be  judged  from 
the  viewpoints  of  political,  professional,  mili- 
tary, financial  or  diplomatic  careers.  This 
can  be  said  of  few  men.  He  was  born  in  Xew 
York  in  1<S.'5.5  and  has  always  been  a  lover  of 
city  life.  Widely  as  he  has  traveled  in  later 
years,  he  always  returns  to  the  place  of  his 
nativity  with  gladness.  He  took  his  college 
course  at  Columbia,  in  his  day  highest  in 
classical  standard  of  any  institution  of  this 
land  and  having  Charles  Anthon  as  its  Hel- 
lenic champion.  Since  graduation  in  1S.>4. 
he  has  been  the  recipient  of  about  a  dozen 
honorary    degrees    from    various    institutions. 


He  began  law  practice  in  this  city  just  before 
the  Civil  War  ami  was  serving  as  Assistant 
I  nited  States  District  Attorney  of  the  Southern 
District  of  Xew  York  when  he  secured  an 
appointment  as  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the 
127th  Xew  York  Infantry  ami  went  to  the 
front.  He  was  soon  raised  to  a  Colonelcy 
and  at  the  close  of  the  war  was  breveted  a 
Brigadier-General  of  Volunteers  "for  zeal. 
efficient  and  generally  meritorious  conduct." 
Hence  his  title,  which  was  earned  by  nearly 
three  years  of  active  service  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy.  He  resigned  from  the  army,  August 
L>;?.  1865,  having  acted  as  military  commander 
of  Charleston  and  Savannah.  Returning  to 
law  practice  in  this  city,  his  natural  predilection 
for  politics  made  him  a  candidate  for  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and  he  was  triumphantly 
elected:  he  was  the  choice  of  his  party  (Re- 
publican) for  Governor  in  1870,  but  was  de- 
feated. He  was  President  of  the  Electoral 
College  in  '72  that  east  its  vote  for  General 
Grant.  Then  lie  was  sent  to  the  Forty- 
third  Congress,  but  resigned  after  a  year  and 
a  half.  It  seems  idle  to  mention  the  distinc- 
tions which  have  been  showered  upon  Gen- 
eral Woodford.  He  was  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  in  this  district  for  six  years  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Commission  that  drafted 
the  Charter  for  Greater  Xew  York,  1896. 
When  complications  became  imminent  be- 
tween this  country  and  Spain,  growing  out  of 
mistreatment  of  the  Cubans  by  Captain-Gen- 
eral Weyler,  President  Mckinley  despatched 
Genera]  Woodford  to  Madrid  as  Envoy  Ex- 
traordinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
the  Court  of  King  Alfonso  XIII.  Personally, 
the  American  Minister  was  popular:  but  when 
war  was  declared,  in  April,  1898,  he  returned 
home,  stopping  in  Paris  en  route  to  transfer  to 
the  British  Ambassador,  then  hurrying  to 
Madrid,  authority  to  act  for  American  resi- 
dents in  Spain  during  the  continuance  of  the 
then  inevitable  conflict.  These  two  diplo- 
mats discussed  for  the  first  time  the  results 
that  must  follow  necessary  acquisition  of  the 
Philippines  by  the  United  States.  After  nine 
years  of  active  devotion  to  his  profession 
which  followed  General  Woodford's  return 
to  Xew  York,  he  was  chosen  President  of  the 
Hudson-Fulton  Commission,  one  of  the  most 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


221 


successful  celebrations  of  two  great  historic 
incidents  in  the  history  of  this  continent, 
namely,  the  discovery  of  Manhattan  Island 
ami  the  first  practical  use  of  steam  as  motive 
power  upon  the  Hudson  River.  At  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  of  1898  he 
placed  Governor  Hughes  in  nomination  for 
the  Presidency.  Since  that  time  he  has  trav- 
eled extensively  in  Europe  and  has  Keen  the 
recipient  of  distinguished  honors  from  its 
Monarchs  and  Presidents.  The  Emperor  of 
Germany  last  year  decorated  him  with  the 
Crown  Order  of  the  1st  Class. 

The  Kentuckians  believe  in  the  breeding  of 
horses  and  the  development  of  good  blood  in 
men.  The  Meanys  of  Kentucky  and  the 
Shannons  of  the  same  state  are  the  progenitors 
of  Edwai'd  P.  Meany,  Brigadier-General  of 
the  National  Guard  of  New  Jersey.  Judge 
Edward  A.  Meany.  his  father,  served  most 
capably  and  honorably  upon  the  bench  of  that 
state  and  enjoyed  a  brilliant  and  successful 
career  at  the  bar;  and  his  grandfather,  Captain 
Henry  Gould  Shannon,  served  in  the  War  of 
1812  and  in  the  Mexican  War.  Commodore 
Barry  and  Captain  John  Meany  of  Philadel- 
phia were  also  members  of  this  family.  Porn 
in  Louisville.  Ky.,  1S.54,  Edward  P.  Meany 
was  educated  in  his  native  state  and  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1878  after  thorough  preparation 
by  his  learned  father.  General  Meany  did 
not  take  long  to  find  his  level  in  his  profession 
after  he  came  East.  In  1884  he  became 
vice-president  of  the  New  Mexican  Central 
iS;  Southern  railroad  and  obtained  from  the 
Mexican  Government  the  concession  under 
which  it  operates  in  that  republic.  He  also 
represented  that  company  in  Europe.  Gener- 
al Meany  served  as  counsel  for  the  American 
Telephone  &  Telegraph  Co.,  and  has  occupied 
several  important  positions  in  the  executive 
service  of  that  and  its  tributary  corporations. 
As  a  Democrat  he  was  a  delegate  to  the 
National  Conventions  in  1896  and  1900,  al- 
ways supporting  the  cause  of  sound  money. 
Since  1<S!).'5  he  has  served  as  Judge  Advocate- 
General  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  with  the 
rank  of  Brigadier-General.  He  is  vice-presi- 
dent and  a  director  of  the  Trust  Company 
of   New    Jersey,    a    director   of   the    Colonial 


Life  Insuia  nee  ( )o.  of  America,  the  National  Iron 
Bank  of  Morristown  and  many  business  cor- 
porations. He  is  a  member  of  the  Lawyers, Mor- 
ris County  Golf  and  Morris  County  Country 


G il!  u>\\  \i:n  p.  mi: ANY 


clubs,  the  Whippany  River  and  Morristown 
clubs,  and  possesses  a  charming  country  place 
near  Morristown,  which  is  a  reproduction  on 
a  smaller  scale  of  the  home  of  his  ancestors  in 
the  old  world. 

Heeding  the  call  of  the  metropolis,  Willis 
T.  Gridley  relinquished  a  lucrative  law  prac- 
tice in  Syracuse,  came  to  New  York  City  in 
1901,  and  quickly  attained  prominence  at  the 
Bar  here. 

Mr.  Gridley  was  born  on  a  farm  near 
Fayetteville,  Onondaga  County,  N.  Y..  Jan- 
uary 10.  1870.  His  preliminary  education 
was  received  in  the  district  school,  after  which 
he  attended  the  Polytechnic  Academy  at 
Chittenango,  X.  Y,  driving  four  miles  night 
and  morning  and  in  addition  attending  to  his 
farm  work.  He  graduated  in  1SSS  and  won 
the  Cornell   University  scholarship.      Just   be- 


222 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


lore  taking  the  scholarship  examination,  bis 
grandfather,  Daniel  Gates,  told  him  that  it'  he 
won  he  would  defray  his  expenses  at  college, 
lie  graduated  from  Cornell  LL.B.  with  the 
Class  <>r  1892,  and  Mr.  Gates  presented  him 
with  one  hundred  shares  of  Western  Union 
Telegraph  stock,  lie  was  admitted  to  the 
Bar.  February   Hi.  1893,  and  had  the  unusual 


WILLIS  T.  GRIDL]   V 

honor  when  only  twenty-three  years  of  age 
of  being  chosen  attorney  of  the  Salt  Springs 
National  Bank  of  Syracuse.  X.  Y..  and 
though  young  in  years  and  practice,  his  ability 
was  demonstrated  when  he  vanquished  a  firm 
of  old  and  experienced  attorneys. 

While  Mr.  Gridley  represented  the  bank  a 
hitler  fighl  arose  between  the  different  factions 
to  gain  its  control  and  the  opposing  force 
engaged    Hiscock,    Doheny   &    Hiscock,   then 


of  mandamus  compelling  the  transfei 

weeks  the  situation  remainec 


the  most  influential  and  successful  law  firm 
up-state.  A  secret  move  by  these  attorneys 
gained  a  majority  interest  for  their  clients, 
but  when  they  attempted  to  have  the  necessary 
slock  transferred,  Mr.  Gridley  stepped  in  and 
defeated  the  movement.  This  stock,  thirteen 
shares,  which  carried  control  with  it.  the 
owner  had  agreed  to  sell  to  Mr.  Gridley's 
clients,  and  the  opposing  faction  bought  it 
after  having  being  notified  of  this  contract.  By 
virtue  of  this  agreement,  Mr.  Gridley  obtained 
an  injunction  restraining  the  transfer  of  the 
stock  and  the  opposing  counsel  got  out  a  writ 

For 
unchanged  until 
the  opposition  gave  in  and  offered  to  sell  all 
interests  to  the  defending  faction,  which 
thereby  retained  control  of  the  bank. 

Mr.  Gridley  had  a  large  corporation  prac- 
tice in  Syracuse,  representing  many  large 
firms  in  Utica,  Watertown,  Cortland.  Bing- 
hamton  and  other  points  in  that  judicial 
district.  Since  coming  to  New-  York  City  he 
has  appeared  in  many  important  cases,  among 
them  being  that  of  Miss  Laura  Glover,  of 
Atlanta.  Ga.,  who  is  bringing  several  suits 
to  recover  the  lost  estate  of  her  mother,  uncle 
and  grandfather,  amounting  to  something  like 
$3,000,000.  Most  of  this' property  was  dis- 
posed of  by  the  public  administrator  in  office 
about  the  time  of  the  Civil  War.  and  actions 
for  recovery  will  be  brought  against  the  city, 
the  National  Bank  of  Commerce  in  New  York, 
the  New  York  Central  Railway  Company  and 
many  others. 

He  is  also  attorney  for  the  contestant  in  the 
Lesster  ^ill  Case,  which  involves  the  control 
of  an  estate  valued  at  $800,000. 

Mr.  Gridley  is  a  descendant  of  Judge  Philo 
Gridley,  an  eminent  jurist  of  Utica  and  is 
a  son  of  Daniel  Webster  Gridley,  who  was 
named  for  the  illustrious  statesman,  and  who 
was,  prior  to  his  death.  November  '21.  1911, 
president  of  the  Fayettesville  &  Syracuse 
Railroad  Company.  His  grandfather,  Daniel 
Gates,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Madison 
County,  and  amassed  a  fortune  of  nearly 
$2,500,000.  Upon  his  death  he  left  consider- 
able fortunes  to  Mr.  Gridley's  mother,  Helen 
M.  Gridley,  who  is  owner  of  the  Gridley  Block 
in  Syracuse,  and  the  largest  individual  stock- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


223 


holder  in  the  Thousand  Island  Park  Associa- 
tion Company;  to  his  son,  ex-State  Senator 
Frank  II.  dates,  ami  to  each  of  his  grand- 
children. 

Mr.  Gridley  is  a  member  of  the  New  York 
County  Lawyers'  Association,  the  Society  of 
the  Onondagas  and  the  Delta  ("hi  fraternity. 
He  was  a  member  of  all  the  leading  clubs  in 
Syracuse,  hut  since  his  residence  in  Xew  York 
City   has  not  taken  any   interest   in  clubdom. 

The  middle  west,  from  whence  has  conic  so 
many  men  to  achieve  honor  and  distinction 
in  New  York  City,  has  made  a  worthy  con- 
tribution to  our  professional  ranks  in  Wilson 
15.  Brice,  whose  ancestors  were  originally 
English  settlers  in  the  colony  of  Virginia.  His 
forebears  were  men  of  stamina,  education  and 
versatility,  who  blazed  the  trails  on  the  then 
western  borders,  and  afterwards  settled  down 
as  leaders  in  the  civilization  that  followed 
their  efforts. 

It  would  have  been  unnatural  for  Mr. 
Brice  to  have  entered  mercantile  pursuits. 
He  is  a  lawyer  and  in  adopting  a  profession 
only  followed  the  bent  of  six  generations  of 
studious  ancestors  who  have  been  lawyers, 
physicians,  clergymen,  or  army  or  navy  officers. 
Mr.  Brice  was  born  in  Tarlton,  Ohio.  June  4. 
1863,  and  graduated  from  the  Greenfield  High 
School,  18?!);  the  Salem  Academy,  1881;  the 
National  Normal  University.  A.B..  in  1882, 
and  Harvard  University,  LL.B..  in  1888.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Cincinnati  in  1889 
and  came  to  New  York  City  in  1894. 

Mr.  Brice  has  made  a  specialty  of  trial  and 
appellate  work,  usually  being  trial  counsel  for 
defendant  corporations  and  has  been  eminently 
successful,  not  losing  a  case  for  over  two  years. 
In  one  instance,  the  jury  disagreed,  two 
others  were  settled  during  trial  and  the  balance 
of  the  cases,  thirty  in  all.  were  won  at  trial  and 
affirmed  on  appeal.  His  thorough  prepara- 
tion, fair-minded  presentation  and  skilful 
examination  of  witnesses  led  a  Supreme  Court 
Justice  to  name  Mr.  Brice.  and  three  other 
attorneys,  as  the  "four  best  trial  lawyers  that 
had  been  before  him." 

The  reasons  for  Mr.  Brice's  success  are  un- 
doubtedly his  thorough  democracy,  his  power 
of   attracting   and    holding   attention    and    his 


forceful  and  convincing  manner.  He  is  skilful 
in  oratory  not  the  kind  that  talks  over  the 
juror's  heads  1ml  ;it  them — and  his  plain  and 
logical  conclusions  arc  not  to  lie  controverted. 
An  important  case  in  which  Mr.  Brice 
figured,  together  with  David  McClure  and  the 
late  John  Notman,  was  where  he  represented 
the  property  owners  on  William  Street  who 
were  opposed  to  the  construction  of  a  subway 
under  that  thoroughfare.     The  Rapid  Transit 


WILSON  B.  BRICE 


Commissioners  contended  that  the  Commis- 
sion appointed  to  determine  whether  the  sub- 
ways should  be  built  as  planned,  must  in- 
clude William  Street  or  ignore  all  the  other 
routes.  Counsel  contended  they  could  cut  out 
William  Street  and  the  court  sustained  the 
contention.  The  preparation  of  the  brief  and 
the  argument  of  the  law  on  the  subjeel  were 
left  to  Mr.  Brice  and  it  received  the  commen- 
dation of  his  associate  counsel.  As  advisor 
fpr  a  life  insurance  company.  Mr.  Brice  pro- 
cured a  decision  from  the  Appellate  Division, 
that  where  a  company  has  been  induced  to 
issue  a  policy  through  false  representation  as 
to  the  health  of  the  insured,  the  company  can 
cancel  the  policy  without    lust   offering  to  re- 


«4 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


store  the  premium.     It  was  the  first  decision 
of  the   kind    in    (he    United   States. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  law  linn  of  Van 
Schaick  &  Brice,  with  offices  at  No.  100  Broad- 
way, and  is  a  director  of  the  Van  Schaick 
Realty  Company,  the  New  Holland  Land  and 
Mortgage  Company,  the  New  Jersey  Gold- 
field  Mines  Corporation,  director  and  counsel 
for  the  Hankers'  Life  Insurance  Company, 
ami  is  trial  counsel  for  a  railroad  and  several 
hank  and   insurance  corporations. 

He  is  a  Republican  in  politics  hut  has  never 
held  office,  although  he  has  frequently  been 
urged   by   his  friends  to  accepl    nominations. 

W.  B.  Brice  comes  from  illustrious  an- 
cestry on  both  the  maternal  and  paternal 
sides.  The  Brice  family  was  founded  in 
America  sometime  prior  to  1676  by  John 
Brice.  who  came  from  England  and  settled 
near  what  is  now  Annapolis,  Md.  From  him 
descended  Maryland.  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina  branches  of  the  family  and  his 
progeny  included  men  of  more  than  ordinary 
note.  Col.  James  Brice  and  ('apt.  William 
Brice  serving  in  the  Revolutionary  Army, 
Nicholas  Brice  being  a  distinguished  lawyer 
and  judge  in  Baltimore  Major-General  Ben- 
jamin Wilson  Brice  being  Paymaster-General 
of  the  United  States  Army  during  the  Civil 
War.  and  the  late  Calvin  S.  Brice,  Tinted 
States   Senator   from    Ohio. 

Captain  William  Brice,  the  great-grand- 
father of  Wilson  B.  Brice,  served  through  the 
loic  struggle  for  independence  of  the  ( Colonies. 
He  was  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  wintered 
at  Valley  Forge  and  played  an  important 
part  at  the  battle  of  Trenton.  He  won  a 
captaincy  for  bravery  and  died  when  only 
forty-three  years  of  age  as  the  result  of  exposure 
during  the  war.  His  wife  was  a  Jones,  who  after 
the  death  of  her  husband  removed  to  Harrison 
Countv,  Virginia,  now  West  Virginia,  and  her 
two  sons  married  daughters  of  Col.  Benjamin 
Wilson.  The  younger  son  became  a  dis- 
tinguished physician  in  Newark,  Ohio,  and 
his  only  child  was  the  late  Major-General 
Benjamin  Wilson  Brice.  a  graduate  of  West 
Point  who  served  in  the  Black  Hawk  and  other 
Indian  wars,  and  in  the  Mexican  and  Civil 
Wars. 

The   elder  son    of   Captain    William    Brice 


was  Benjamin  Jones  Brice,  grandfather  of 
Wilson  B.  Brice.  He  was  a  lawyer  and  judge 
of  one  of  the  courts  and  a  large  land  owner  in 
Virginia.  He  had  the  most  select  library  in 
all  the  section  where  he  lived  and  from  his  own 
volumes  studied  French.  ( ierman,  Latin,  Creek 
and  Hebrew,  becoming  proficient  in  the  latter 
when  eighty  years  of  age.  He  was  a  slave 
owner,  but  in  his  will  freed  all  the  slaves  and 
left  them  each  enough  money  or  property  to 
start  them  in  an  humble  way,  on  their  new 
life.  His  wife  was  Sarah  Wilson,  daughter 
of  Col.  Benjamin  Wilson,  and  they  had  four- 
teen children,  three  of  them  being  sons.  The 
daughters  with  two  exceptions  married  either 
lawyers  or  physicians. 

Mr.  Brice's  father,  Archibald  Blackburn 
Brice.  D.I).,  was  the  youngest  son.  He  was 
a  Presbyterian  clergyman  who  received  de- 
grees of  A.B.  and  D.I),  from  Waynesburg  Col- 
lege;  acted  as  editor  of  a  religious  publication 
for  seven  years  and  then  entered  actively  into 
ministerial  work  for  over  40  years,  dying  in 
Cincinnati  in  1892.  Upon  the  breaking  out 
of  the  Civil  War,  Dr.  Brice,  greatly  aided  in 
the  work  of  enlisting  troops  and  made  many 
speeches  in  support  of  the  Union.  His  views 
wore  so  pronounced  and  his  campaign  so  vig- 
orous that  the  southern  sympathizers  referred 
to  him  as  "Old   Brice,  the   Union  Shrieker." 

The  mother  of  Wilson  B.  Brice  was  Eveline 
V.  Vose,  of  Vermont,  whose  ancestry  was  also 
noted,  she  being  a  descendant  of  the  Voses, 
Mayos  and  Whitneys  who  were  early  Colonial 
settlers  in  and  around  Boston. 

Mr.  Brice's  connection  with  the  Jones 
family  is  through  his  great-grandfather.  Wil- 
liam Brice  marrying  Rachael  Jones,  whose 
father  Griffith  Jones,  was  a  distinguished 
Welsh  Baptist  clergyman  who  came  to  America 
in  174!).  Rev.  Morgan  Jones,  father  of 
Rev.  Griffith  Jones  married  the  daughter 
of  the  Marquis  of  Cardigan,  a  house  that  is 
now  extinct.  Among  the  collateral  relatives  in 
the  Jones  family  are  Robert  J.  Burdette.  the 
humorist  and  the  late  Col.  A.  E.  Jones,  who 
was  Provost  Marshal  of  Cincinnati  during 
the   Civil   War. 

In  the  Wilson  branch  of  the  family,  Mr. 
Brice  is  descended  from  David  Wilson,  of 
Scotland,  whose  son    David   removed    to    Ire- 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


^)0 


20 


land  in  1722  and  was  the  father  of  William 
Wilson,  who  settled  in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, Virginia,  in  1746.  'The  daughter  of  his 
oldest  son.  Col.  Benjamin  Wilson,  married 
Benjamin  Jones  Brice,  grandfather  of  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch. 

Col.  Wilson  was  a  man  of  distinction  and 
an  Indian  fighter.  He  was  a  lieutenant  in 
an  expedition  against  the  Shawnee  Indians  in 
Ohio  and  was  a  colonel  of  the  Virginia  troops 
in  the  Revolutionary  War.  At  its  close  he 
was  granted  4,000  acres  of  land  in  Licking 
County,  Ohio,  for  his  services.  lie  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Virginia  State  Convention 
which  ratified  the  United  States  Constitution, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature 
for  several  years.  lie  was  a  lawyer  and  after 
relinquishing  practice  was  Clerk  of  the  Court 
for  many  years.  He  had  twenty-eight  chil- 
dren, thirteen  of  whom  were  sons.  He  gave 
to  each  son  a  farm  and  to  each  daughter  a 
dowry  at  marriage.  At  his  death  he  left  127 
living  descendants. 

A  majority  of  Col.  Wilson's  sons  became 
lawyers,  one  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  and 
another  president  of  the  Marietta  &  Cin- 
cinnati Railroad. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Mr.  Brice's  an- 
cestors were  nearly  all  professional  men. 
The  women  of  the  families  all  married  men  in 
that  profession.  It  was,  therefore,  not  strange 
that  Mr.  Brice  should  follow  an  inherent  desire 
and  enter  the  legal  profession.  He  came  to 
Xew  York  City  a  stranger  and  has  won  the 
confidence  of  every  justice  before  whom  he 
has  appeared.  While  a  Republican  in  politics, 
simply  because  he  believes  that  party  has  given 
better  administration,  he  is  not  subservient 
to  bossism  and  fights  hard  and  effectively 
when  he  thinks  principle  is  being  sacrificed  for 
party  interests.  This  was  exemplified  when 
he  recently  took  sides  against  a  Republican 
Congressional  candidate  in  the  Fifteenth  Dis- 
trict. This  man  was  defeated  by  1,200  votes 
when  previous  candidates  of  the  party  had  been 
elected  by  3,000  majority.  Mr.  Brice  had 
served  on  the  Republican  County  Committee 
and  on  the  Executive  Committee  of  his  As- 
sembly District  and  in  repudiating  (he  nominee 
of  his  party,  he  gave  the  newspapers  such 
convincing    reasons    for    his    opposition,    that 


the  voters  were  sure  of  his  absolute  honesty  of 
purpose,  and  aided  him  in  encompassing  the 
candidate's  defeat. 

Augustus  Van  Wyck's  career  as  lawyer,  jurist 
and  citizen  is  <\\\v  to  natural  gifts  and,  in 
a  large  measure,  to  the  circumstance  that  lie 
has  blended  harmoniously  in  his  person  the 
best  attributes  of  the  Northland  and  the 
Southland  the  practical  strength  of  the  one 
and  the  charming  manners  of  the  other.  His 
Xew  York  father  and  South  Carolina  mother 
left  their  impress  upon  him,  and  for  him  both 
sections  entertain  admiration  and  esteem. 
He  also  has  been  President  of  the  Holland 
Society  and  the  Southern  Society  of  Xew  York, 
each  claiming  him  as  one  of  its  own  loyal 
sons.  Born  in  the  year  1850,  his  youthful 
days  were  passed  in  the  South,  and  his  man- 
hood days  in  Xew  York.  He  was  fitted  for 
college  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  and 
graduated  with  high  honors  from  North 
(  arolina  University. 

At  the  bar  of  this  big  city,  he  soon  attained 
great  success,  and  was  elected  .bulge  of  the 
Superior  City  Court  of  Brooklyn  in  1885,  and 
in  1895  became  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  of  Xew  York.  From  the 
latter  position,  he  resigned  in  1898  to  become 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  mak- 
ing a  close  race  with  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who 
was  then  fresh  from  San  Juan  Hill.  He  re- 
fused to  return  to  the  Bench  and  devoted  him- 
self to  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  which 
he    almost    immediately    attained    leadership. 

As  a  Democrat,  he  has  shown  independence 
of  thought  and  action,  and  yet  he  has  been 
the  official  head  of  his  party  organization,  and 
delegate  to  numerous  conventions,  local,  state 
and  national,  over  many  of  which  he  has 
presided.  His  influence  was  potential  in  the 
nomination  and  election  of  Mr.  Cleveland  to 
the  presidency.  He  has  twice  led  a  success- 
ful  movement   to  restore  his  party  to  power. 

He  has  been  counsel  for  the  Episcopal 
Church  for  the  Diocese  of  Long  Island,  as 
well  as  a  member  of  its  Executive  Committee. 
He  has  also  Keen  trustee  of  several  of  the 
hospitals,  of  Adelphi  College,  of  the  Holland 
Society.  St.  Nicholas  Society,  Southern  So- 
ciety  and  Xew  England  Society,  and  is  a  mem- 


226 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


AUGUSTUS  VAX  WYCK 


EDWARD  LAl'TEKBACH 


her  of  a  dozen  of  the  leading  clubs  of  Greater 

New  York. 

When  a  young  man  begins  practice  at  the 
bar  with  the  enthusiasm  that  characterized 
Edward  Lauterbach's  entrance  upon  his  pro- 
fessional career  in  1865,  success  is  only  a 
question  of  time.  He  has  ranked  high  in 
polities  and  at  the  bar;  socially,  he  is  a  de- 
lightful companion.  Edward  Lauterbach  was 
born  in  this  city,  on  August  12,  1S44.  attended 
the  common  schools  and  took  a  degree  at  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York  in  1N(>4. 
lie  received  first  prize  in  declamation  while 
at  college  and  soon  held  high  rank  as  an 
orator.  He  plunged  immediately  into  prac- 
tice and  soon  distinguished  himself  as  a  cor- 
poration attorney,  especially  as  a  railroad  re- 
organizer.  One  of  his  most  characteristic 
achievements  was  the  unification  of  the  New 
York  Rapid  'Transit  Systems.  He  also 
brought  about  the  consolidation  of  the  Union 
elevated  railroads,  was  instrumental  in  com- 
pelling the  electric  companies  to   place  their 


wires  underground,  and  reorganized  and  built 
up  many  railroad  systems  in  differenl  parts 
of  the  country.  lie  also  has  been  counsel 
for  several  surface  railroads,  including  the 
Third  Avenue  Railroad.  He  was  for  seven 
years  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
an  active  participant  in  all  measures  looking 
to  the  improvement  of  educational  facilities 
in  this  state.  He  was  for  a  long  time  Chair- 
man of  the  Republican  County  Committee, 
and  a  close  and  trusted  advisor  of  President 
McKinley  in  the  affairs  of  this  city  and  state 
and  has  been  a  delegate  to  all  National 
and  State  Republican  Conventions  for  years. 
He  was  for  some  time  President  of  the  Board 
of  'Trustees  of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New- 
York,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  removal 
of  the  College  from  its  first  site  at  Lexington 
avenue  and  Twenty-third  street  to  the  new 
building  on  Washington  Heights.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Hoadly,  Lauterbach  & 
Johnson,  he  has  conducted  countless  famous 
cases.     Judge    Iloadlv.    former    Governor    of 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


227 


WILLIAM  F.  SHEEHAN 


I    |i\\    \l:h  \V    HA  II!  I 


\I.1"N  B    PARKER 


Ohio,  and  Mr.  Johnson  are  deceased;  Mr. 
Lauterbach  is  at  the  head  of  the  firm.  lie 
was  at  one  time  vice-president  of  the  Maurice 
Grau  Grand  Opera  Co.,  and  has  always  been 
prominent  in  musical  affairs  in  this  city.  lie  is 
a  member  of  many  social  and  charitable  or- 
ganizations. Mr.  Lauterbach  is  a  director  in 
the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum  of  New  York, 
which  has  charge  of  two  thousand  children, 
and  President  of  the  National  Liberal  Immi- 
gration League. 

After  achieving  a  high  reputation  as  Dis- 
trict Attorney  and  Justice  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  the  City  of  Buffalo,  Edward  Wingate 
Hatch  was  elected  to  the  Supreme  Bench, 
designated  to  the  Appellate  Division  in  Brook- 
lyn. Subsequently  he  was  transferred  to 
Manhattan  by  Governor  Roosevelt.  In  1905, 
he  resigned  from  the  bench  and  entered  the 
law  firm  of  Parker.  Hatch  »!<:  Sheehan.  Judge 
Hatch  was  born  November,  1852,  at  Friend- 
ship, Allegheny  County.  N.  Y..  where  he  re- 
ceived a  common  school  education.  As  the 
family  was  poor,  he  learned  the  blacksmith's 
trade,  studying  law  meanwhile.  He  was  at- 
tached to  the  law  office  of  A.  J.  Lorish,  of 
Attica,  for  two  years,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  Buffalo  in  1876.  He  succeeded  Judge 
Barrett,  deceased,  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  in 
this  city.  He  is  a  Republican,  although  both 
associates  in  his  firm  are  Democrats.  He  is 
a  fluent  speaker,  is  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  County   Lawyers'  Associa- 


tion and  member  of  numerous  clubs,  including 
the  Union  League,  Manhattan,  Lawyers'  and 
Republican. 

The  Old  Bay  Stale  makes  a  contribution  to 
the  New  York  Bar  in  the  person  of  Fisher  A. 
Baker,  born  at  Dedham.  February,  1837. 
After  graduation  at  Dartmouth  College,  1859, 
he  took  a  course  at  Albany  Law  School.  When 
the  Civil  War  burst  upon  this  country,  he 
promptly  closed  his  law  office  and  volunteered 
in  the  18th  Massachusetts  regiment,  which 
joined  the  5th  Corps.  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Mr.  Baker  served  three  years.  In  1865,  In- 
removed  to  New  York  from  Massachusetts 
and  has  practiced  his  profession  here  ever 
since.  He  has  been  especially  successful  in 
corporation  cases.  He  is  a  director  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  the  City  of  New  York  and 
of  the  New  Jersey  General  Security  Co.:  a 
trustee  of  the  Bankers'  Safe  Deposit  Co.,  and 
of  the  Hackley  School,  Tarrytown.  When  in 
college,  he  secured  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity; 
he  belongs  to  the  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal 
Legion.     He  is  a  Republican  and  a  Unitarian. 

In  the  Spring  of  1885,  an  active,  brown- 
haired,  young  man  made  his  appearance  at 
Albany  as  an  Assemblyman  from  Schuyler 
County.  He  attracted  attention  within  a 
month  by  the  incisiveness  of  his  speech  and 
the  logic  of  his  arguments.  No  one  supposed 
that  he  was  after  the  leadership  of  his  party, 
held    by   James   W.    Husted.    known    as   "The 


228 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Bald  Eagle  of  Westchester,"  who  had  him- 
self  chosen  Speaker  whenever  he  pleased. 
When  the  Assembly  convened  in  January, 
1SSS.  however,  Fremont  Cole  was  elected 
Speaker  by  a  Republican  majority.  He  was 
young  for  the  place,  having  Keen  born,  as  his 
name  indicated,  during  the  Fremont  cam- 
paign. Mr.  Cole  comes  of  Xew  England 
stock;  the  Dennisons,  his  mother's  family, 
were  among  the  earliest  English  colonists  in 
Connecticut.  His  father's  family  had  emi- 
grated from  Massachusetts  to  Putnam  Co.. 
Xew  York,  where  its  head  had  "lopped  the 
hushes"  to  a  considerable  tract  of  wilderness 
and  thus  established  an  undisputed  title  to 
the  land.  On  a  hit  of  stream,  he  buill  Cole's 
mill  and  from  this  Daniel  Cole,  paternal 
grandfather  of  Fremont, — born  at  Carmel  in 
177!), — the  family  descends.  Two  grandsons 
of  this  man  were  soldiers  in  the  War  of  1812. 
Fremont  Cole  is  the  third  son  of  a  family  of 
eight  children,  all  reared  in  Cobert,  upon  a 
farm  that  had  been  in  the  family  for  a  cen- 
tury. Fremont  passed  the  first  nineteen  years 
of  life  on  this  farm.  His  education  was  that 
of  a  country  school  during  winter  only.  At 
twentv.  he  began  the  study  of  law  in  Judge 
Hurd's  office,  Schuyler  County.  Admitted  to 
the  Bar  in  1880, he  went  to  Watkins.the  town 
of  the  wonderful  glen,  to  practice.  His  politi- 
cal career  had  already  begun.  He  had  served 
as  clerk  to  the  Surrogate,  when  in  Schuyler 
County.  Hardly  had  he  hung  out  his  shingle 
at  Watkins  before  he  smashed  the  so-called 
post-office  rino-  in  that  place  which  had  been 
managing  the  town  to  suit  its  members.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Assemblies  of  1885,  '86, 
'87,  '88  and  '89,  speaker  last  two  terms.  He 
served  on  the  Railroad  Committee  and  gained 
the  hostility  of  the  lobby.  His  work  on  the 
Judiciary  Committee  also  attracted  attention. 
Veritably,  he  was  an  excellent  example  of  "the 
young  man  in  politics."  One  thing  about 
Fremont  Cole  that  will  not  he  forgotten  by 
anyone  who  has  heard  him  speak,  is  the  con- 
fidence with  which  he  states  his  views.  In 
accepting  the  Speakership,  he  said:  "Our 
high  aim,  kept  ever  in  view,  shall  he  to  pre- 
serve this  session  free  from  the  strictures  of 
deserved  criticism,  and  to  adjourn  it  prompt- 
ly."    He  is  now  practicing  law  in  this  city. 


Hamilton  College  has  furnished  a  great 
many  brilliant  men  to  this  city,  especially  in 
the  legal  profession.  Among  them  is  James 
L.  Bennett,  horn  at  Durhamville,  Oneida 
County,  X.  Y.,  in  1849,  and  graduated  from 
Hamilton  College  in  1871.  He  entered  the 
office  of  Judge  Irving  G.  Vann,  of  Syracuse; 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Onondaga  County. 
He  responded  to  the  call  of  the  metropolis  in 
CSS.),  where  he  at  once  plunged  into  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  His  success  in  cor- 
poration law  has  caused  him  to  be  chosen 
president  of  the  Guaranteed  Mortgage  Com- 
pany of  Xew  York,  President  of  the  Long 
Island  Realty  Company,  Director  of  the  Man- 
hattan Mortgage  Company,  and  a  director 
of  several  similar  organizations.  Mr.  Ben- 
nett was  United  States  District  Attorney,  ap- 
pointed by  President  Cleveland,  and  served 
from  IS!),}  to  IS!)!).  He  is  somewhat  of  a 
hookworm,  especially  fond  of  history.  He 
is  an  enthusiastic  golf  player  and  is  a  member 
of  the  Salisbury  Club.  When  I  asked  him 
about  his  fads.  Mr.  Bennett  denied  having 
any.  He  admitted  to  being  a  collector  of 
hooks.  He  lias  traveled  abroad  and  was  most 
interested  in  the  relics  of  Roman  civilization, 
scattered  through  Europe.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  college  fraternity  and 
an  active  participant  in  its  post-graduate 
annual  meetings.  Bennett  &  Kuster  was 
organized  in  June.   1910. 

The  younger  partner  in  this  prosperous 
firm  is  Louis  E.  Kuster.  of  city  birth,  dating 
from  December,  1868.  His  education  was 
obtained  in  the  public  schools  and  his  law 
degree,  from  the  Xew  York  University,  in 
1893.  Mr.  Kuster  made  his  own  way  in 
this  world.  In  1882,  at  the  age  of  thirteen. 
he  left  the  public  schools  to  support  himself. 
beginning  work  as  a  boy  in  the  Astor  library, 
where  he  remained  three  years  and  acquired 
a  taste  for  reading;  he  was  next  employed  in 
a  mercantile  house,  until  lS!)t.  The  first 
night  law  school  in  Xew  York  City  was  estab- 
lished in  that  year.  It  was  originally  under 
the  patronage  of  the  Xew  York  University, 
but  developed  into  the  Metropolis  Law  School, 
of  which  Abner  C.  Thomas,  Surrogate  of 
Xew  York  County,  was  the  founder  and  dean. 
Mr.   Kuster  promptly  took  advantage  of  this 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


229 


FREMONT  COLE 


.1  wiks   I.    BENNET'J 


LOUIS  E.  KUS  i  I  i: 


MIUABEAB    I.  TOWNS 


230 


THE    HOOK    of  XEW    YORK 


innovation  and  spent  his  nights  in  the  lecture- 
rooms  -while  working  for  a  living  in  the  day- 
time. He  was  asked  to  enter  the  law  office 
of  Aimer  C.  Thomas  before  he  secured  his  de- 
gree and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1894. 
During  the  legislative  session  of  1895,  Mr. 
kuster  represented  the  office  of  the  Corpora- 
tion Counsel  of  the  former  city  of  Brooklyn, 
having  charge  of  municipal  legislation  at 
Albany.  He  was  connected  with  the  Law- 
yers' Surety  Company,  of  which  Joel  B. 
Erhardt,  former  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New 
York,  was  president,  soon  becoming  secretary 
of  the  organization  and  later  its  attorney. 
Resuming  individual  practice  in  1903,  Mr. 
Kuster  accumulated  a  large  clientage  and 
argued  many  important  cases. 

The  legal  profession  has  furnished  several 
of  the  most  prominent  literary  men  in  America 
and  one  is  always  gratified  to  learn  that  an 
active  practitioner  at  the  Bar  finds  time  to 
cultivate  a  taste  for  hooks  outside  his  legal 
library.  In  saying  this.  1  have  in  mind  a 
highly  interesting  member  of  the  New  York 
Bar,  Mirabeau  L.  Towns,  who  especially 
appeals  to  me  as  a  newspaperman,  because 
he  is  probably  the  greatest  authority  on  the 
law  of  libel  in  this  city.  During  the  past  ten 
years,  he  has  been  counsel  in  more  than  250 
libel  suits — in  all  except  six  of  these  cases  act- 
ing for  the  editor  or  newspaper.  A  proper 
interpretation  of  the  law  of  libel,  although 
the  law  itself  be  based  upon  a  principle  of 
justice  which  every  conscientious  editor  thor- 
oughly endorses,  is  often  exceedingly  difficult. 
It  may  lie  laid  down  as  a  journalistic  axiom 
that  libel  is  never  intentionally  committed! 
This  is  the  theory  upon  which  Mr.  Towns 
proceeds  to  construct  his  briefs  in  libel  cases. 
He  comes  to  the  metropolis  from  Alabama, 
where  he  was  born  in  Russell  County,  Janu- 
ary, 1852.  He  is  a  descendant  of  Revolution- 
ary stock,  through  both  sides  of  his  house. 
lie  was  barely  nine  years  old  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out  and  could  avail  himself  of  only 
such  educational  advantages  as  existed  during 
those  troublous  times.  At  the  conclusion  of 
hostilities,  he  was  sent  to  Germany  and  re- 
mained there  seven  years.  On  return  to  the 
I  nited  States,  he  came  to  this  city  and  entered 
I  he  law  school  of  New    York  University,  from 


which  he  was  graduated  in  1S77.  He  began 
practice  as  a  partner  of  Ludwich  Sender,  then 
Comptroller  of  the  old  City  of  Brooklyn. 
This  firm  continued  until  the  death  of  Judge 
Semler,  since  winch  time  Mr.  Towns  has 
practiced  under  his  own  name.  He  removed 
to  Manhattan  in  1906  and  opened  an  office  on 
Broadway,  where  his  success  has  been  con- 
tinuous. 

Mr.  Towns  early  took  an  active  part  in 
politics.  Indirectly,  he  had  a  large  part  in 
the  passage  of  the  consolidation  act.  because 
he  secured  the  nomination  of  Peter  II.  Mc- 
Nulty  for  the  State  Senate  and  conducted  his 
campaign  against  both  old  parties  with  suc- 
cess. McNulty  cast  the  deciding  vote  for 
consolidation,  creating  Greater  New  York  of 
to-day.  Mr.  Town  is  fond  of  music  and  is 
known  among  his  friends  as  the  lawyer-poet, 
because  he  frequently  introduces  verse  into 
his  speeches.  Mrs.  Towns  is  distinguished 
for  charities  of  a  practical  nature.  She  an- 
nually sends  many  children  to  homes  in  the 
West'.  Last  Christmas,  she  gave  20,000  toy 
concrete  houses  to  children  of  the  poor,  be- 
speaking a  hope  of  future  home  far  from  noisy 
city  streets.  Mr.  Towns  is  a  member  of  many 
clubs. 

Attracted  to  the  profession  of  law  by  his 
intense  liking  for  legal  work,  it  is  not  strange 
that  William  T.  Holt  has  been  successful  in 
practice. 

Mr.  Holt  was  born  in  Esopus,  I  Ister 
County,  X.  Y.,  and  was  educated  at  the  Kings- 
ton Academy  and  Albany  Law  School,  grad- 
uating from  the  latter  institution  in  1876  and 
becoming  managing;  clerk  in  the  office  of 
Charles  A.  Fowler,  of  Kingston.  X.  Y.  Later 
he  practiced  his  profession  for  some  years  in 
Kingston,  and  was  one  of  the  counsel  for  the 
West  Shore  Railroad  during  its  construction. 
He  was  connected  with  the  Internal  Revenue 
Department  from  1887  to  1889,  hut  deter- 
mining to  devote  his  entire  time  to  the  practice 
of  the  law,  he  came  to  Xew  York  in  1SS!)  and 
became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Van  Hoeven- 
berg  &  Holt,  and  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Van 
Hoevenberg  organized  the  firm  of  Holt.  War- 
ner &  ( rail  lard. 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


23 1 


WILLIAM  T.   Hiil.T 


JAMES  A.   ROBERTS 


RUSH  TAGGART 


Mr.    Holt    resides   in    Richmond    Borough, 

o 

Staten  Island,  and  is  Public  Administrator  of 
Richmond  County. 

The  state  of  Maine  has  sent  to  New  York 
by  way  of  Buffalo  a  lawyer  of  versatile  ability 
in  the  person  of  James  Arthur  Roberts,  who 
was  born  at  Waterboro,  in  that  State,  March. 
1847,  and  the  history  of  his  family  is  as  rugged 
and  sturdy  as  the  mighty  forests  and  tower- 
inn-  mountains  of  his  original  habitat.  Amid 
such  surroundings  he  grew  up  and  prepared 
for  college;  entering  Bowdoin.  he  became  a 
member  of  the  I).  K.  E.,  and  graduating  with 
the  class  of  1870.  He  saw  some  active  fight- 
ing during  the  Civil  War  with  the  Seventh 
Maine  battery.  After  getting  his  degree  at 
Bowdoin.  he  settled  in  Buffalo  and  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar,  soon  formed  the  firm  of 
Roberts,  Becker.  Messer  &  Groat.  Between 
1875  and  1894,  in  which  year  he  became  State 
Comptroller,  Mi-.  Roberts  attained  extraordi- 
nary success  as  a  real  estate  lawyer:  he  served 
for  three  years  as  Park  Commissioner  of  Buf- 
falo, and 'in  1ST!)  and  LS80  was  elected  to  the 
Assembly  of  the  State  of  Xew  York.  Since 
1902  he  has  been  a  resident  of  the  metropolis, 
where  realty  has  particularly  claimed  his  at- 
tention. He  is  president  of  the  Greater  Xew 
York  Home  Company,  the  Xew  Netherlands 
Home  Company,  and  the  Stuyvesani  Home 
Company.  In  addition  to  many  other  posi- 
tions of  trust,  he  is  a  director  of  the  National 


Sugar  Manufacturing  ( !ompany,and  other  sim- 
ilar corporations.  Mr.  Roberts  is  the  posse>>or 
of  a  library  of  rare  Americana.  He  is  presi- 
dent of  the  Xew  York  State  Historical 
Society  and  a  member  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution.  Considerable  might  be 
said  about  Mr.  Roberts'  Colonial  ancestry. 
One  of  the  first  governors  of  the  Colony  of 
New  Hampshire  was  his  original  ancestor, 
who  came  across  the  sea  in  1623.  He  is  a 
member  of  many  social  organizations. 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
made  another  draft  upon  the  '"Buckeye 
State"  in  the  person  of  Rush  Taggart  for  one 
of  its  most  efficient  minds.  Mr.  Taggart  was 
born  at  Smitheville.  Wayne  County,  Ohio,  in 
1849,  of  Revolutionary  stock,  and  took  a  de- 
gree at  Wooster  University,  1871.  He  was 
the  second  man  in  his  class  and  an  enthusias- 
tic Beta  Theta  Pi.  Thence  he  went  to  the 
University  of  Michigan  for  a  law  course,  com- 
pleted in  1875.  When  the  Hayden  Survey  in 
the  far  West  was  ordered  by  the  government. 
Mr.  Taggart  was  detailed  as  assistant  geolo- 
gist and  spent  two  years  in  the  work.  On  his 
return,  he  entered  the  service  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Company,  acting  as  counsel  at  Pitts- 
burg and  for  the  Eastern  Ohio  division  of  the 
great  railway  system.  He  came  to  Xew  York 
in  1887  to  enter  the  office  of  Dillon  &  Swayne. 
Four  years  later.  Mr.  Taggarl  was  appointed 
solicitor  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  ( !om- 


->:3-> 


THE    BOOK    of   XEW    YORK 


pan  v.  His  fad  is  farming  and  he  has  a  place 
at  New  Canaan,  Conn.,  where  he  indulges  his 
fancy  and  plays  golf  in  the  interim.  lie  is  a 
member  of  numerous  clubs,  both  in  and  out 
of  town. 

The  Public  Service  Commission  of  New 
York  State  has  brought  a  number  of  men  to 
the  front  in  this  city.  The  general  counsel  to 
that  body,  in  the  First  District,  is  George  S. 
Coleman,  who  was  born  in  Flatlands  (now 
part  of  Brooklyn)  in  1856.  lie  was  graduated 
from  Wesleyan  University  in  1S?(»  and  re- 
ceived its  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.,  in  1908. 
While  at  Middletown  he  was  editor  of  the 
Argus  and  Olla  Podrida,  college  publications. 
He  won  eight  scholarship  prizes  and  held  first 
rank  in  his  class.  He  was  a  Psi  Upsilon. 
After  graduation  Mr.  Coleman  began  read- 
ing law  with  Countryman  &  Bowen,  Coopers- 
town,  \.  Y.,  taught  for  a  year  in  Albany,  took 
a  course  at  Columbia  Law  School  and  was 
admitted  to  practice  in  this  city  in  May.  1880. 
He  served  as  a  clerk  with  Shearman  &  Sterling 
for  two  years  and  then  became  managing  clerk 
for  Bristow,  Peet  &  Opdyke  until  1885,  when 
he  was  appointed  Assistant  Corporation  Coun- 
sel, which  office  he  held  until  IS!)1-',  having 
special  charge  of  matters  relating  to  municipal 
taxation.  The  firm  of  Eustis,  Foster  &  Cole- 
man was  then  formed  and  as  a  member  there- 


of Mr.  Coleman  continued  in  general  practice 
until  1899,  when  he  returned  to  the  city  law 
department  until  his  present  appointment, 
nine  years  later.  He  is  descended  from  Pil- 
grim and  Puritan  stock,  his  paternal  ancestors 
including  John  Ilowland,  of  the  '*  Mayflower," 
1620,  and  Thomas  Coleman,  one  of  the  asso- 
ciate founders  of  Nantucket. 

A  name  much  on  the  public  lips  is  that  of 
William  K.  Willcox.  distinguished  political 
and  social  economist,  eminent  lawyer  and 
chairman  of  the  Public  Service  Commission 
of  Xew  York  City. 

Mr.  Willcox  was  born  in  Smyrna.  X.  \  .. 
in  1863.  He  took  the  degree  of  A.B.  at  the 
University  of  Rochester  in  1886,  and  that  of 
LL.B.  at  Columbia  in    1889. 

Upon  establishing  his  residence  in  Xeu 
York  City  and  having  been  admitted  to  the 
Bar.  Mr.  Willcox  took  an  active  part  in  Repub- 
lican politics  and  ran  for  Congress  against 
().  II.  P.  Belmont.  Although  he  was  not 
elected,  lie  distinguished  himself  by  greatly 
reducing  his  opponent's  vote. 

Mr.  Willcox  was  appointed  Park  Commis- 
sioner by  Mayor  Low  and  served  in  that 
capacity  throughout  the  latter's  administra- 
tion. He  later  served  as  Postmaster  of  the 
City  of  Xew  York  for  two  and  one-half  years, 
until   his  appointment   in    1907   to  the  chair- 


GEORGE S    COLEMAN 


WILLIAM  R.  WII.LCOXJ 


HENRY  W.  SACKETT 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


233 


of    all    the    more 
Alpha   Delta   Phi. 


manship  i>t'  the  Public  Service  Commission. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Hoard  of  Trustees  of 
the  Presbyterian  Hospital, 
important  clubs  and  of  the 

A  successful  lawyer  who  has  combined  a 
sincere  devotion  to  his  own  profession  and  a 
fondness  for  the  treatment  of  legal  questions 
in  tin1  editorial  columns  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  is  Henry  Woodward  Sackett,  born  at 
Enfield.  X.  Y.,  1853,  educated  ;it  the  Ithaca 
Academy  and  graduated  at  Cornell  University, 
1875  (Phi  Beta  Kappa).  He  came  to  New 
York  and  while  studying  law  did  considerable 
newspaper  work;  he  began  practice  in  1ST!) 
and  subsequently  became  senior  member  of 
Sackett,  Bacon  &  McQuaid,  chiefly  engaged 
in  corporation  work.  Tin-  present  title  of  the 
firm  is  Sackett.  Chapman  &  Stevens.  lie  was 
for  six  years  a  member  of  Troop  A  and  Squad- 
A.   Governor  Blac1 


A.   Ijovernor   black  appointed   him  aide 
i   staff    with    a    rank   of   Colonel 


.  durmg 

the  Spanish-American  War.  Colonel  Sackett 
served  as  Assistant  Paymaster- General  of 
New  York  in  the  Southern  States.  lie  is  a 
Republican  in  politics  and  an  Episcopalian  in 
religion.  He  has  served  as  Secretary  of  the 
Hudson-Fulton  Celebration  Commission,  as 
trustee  of  Cornell  University,  vice-president 
of  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preserva- 
tion Society,  commissioner  of  the  Fire  Island 
State  Park  and  trustee  for  the  Clarkson  Home 
for  Children.  He  has  lectured  on  law  at  Cor- 
nell University.  His  recreations  are  horse- 
back riding,  golf  and  arboriculture.  He  be- 
longs to  a  number  of  clubs  and  spends  his  sum- 
mers at  ••  Quaker  Ridge,"  Mamaroneck. 

When  a  young  lawyer  leaves  Texas,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-four  to  take  a  fall  out  of  New- 
York,  with  its  strong  skirmish  line  of  estab- 
lished attorneys,  he  has  to  "make  good"  very 
soon  or  go  back  home!  That's  why  I  was 
early  attracted  to  Martin  W.  Littleton,  who 
came  to  New  York  in  1N!M>,  hired  and  furnished 
an  office  and  before  he  had  a  single  client  re- 
turned to  Dallas  to  get  married.  His  idea 
evidently  was  to  eliminate  all  possibility  of 
failure  bv  burning  his  bridges  behind  him. 
The  story  of  Mr.  Littleton's  early  life  is  simple 
enough.  His  father  had  lived  in  the  moun- 
tains of  East  Tennessee,  a  small  fanner.  When 
the  war  broke  out  and  the  dissolution  of  the 


I  nion  was  threatened,  fanner  Littleton  and 
his  five  brothers  utterly  refused  lo  discuss  the 
nice  points  of  secession;  they  declared 
that  the  Union  had  protected  them  and  for 
the  Union  they  stood.  When  the  war  was 
over,  the  federal  soldier  returned  to  his  devas- 
tated farm  in  Roane  County.  Tennessee, 
hoping  to  wring  a  living  from  the  scanty  earth. 
In  January,  1872,  Martin  was  born.  Nine 
years  later  the  Littleton  family  trekked  West- 
ward to  Texas  and  located  upon  a  small  farm. 
There  were  eight   bovs  in  the  family  bv  this 


\l  \KTIN   W.   LITTLKTOX 

time  and  they  were  promptly  sent  into  the  cot- 
ton field.  Sonic  of  them  developed  great 
expert  ness  as  horsemen.  Most  of  Martin's 
boyhood  was  spent  on  the  Texas  prairies.  He 
attended  school  whenever  time  could  be  spared 
from  his  work  or  the  weather  was  too  bad  for 
farm  labor.  The  family  returned  to  Ten- 
essee,  but  Martin  and  one  of  his  brothers  de- 
cided to  remain  in  Texas.  He  tried  his  hand 
at  railroading,  was  made  a  track-walker  and 
saved  money  enough  to  attend  school  for  eight 
months,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  got  day 
employment  as  a  road  builder,  giving  hi^ 
nights  to  the  study  of  law.  He  was  ex- 
amined   and    admitted    to    the   bar   before   he 


234 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW   YORK 


was  twenty  years  of  age.  He  was  almost 
immediately  made  Assistant  Prosecuting  At- 
torney. The  following  year  he  went  to  Dallas 
and  soon  attracted  attention  by  volunteering 
as  attorney  for  a  friendless  negro,  hut  clients 
didn't  come  and  he  sat  for  weeks,  staying  off 
landlord  and  landlady  with  promises  of  hope. 
Thus  matters  stood  until  the  Bryan  cam- 
paign when  Martin  Littleton  took  a  firm 
ground  against  silver  and  was  made  an  elector- 
at -large  on  the  Palmer-Buckner  ticket.  Here 
he  showed  his  wonderful  ability  as  a  spell- 
binder. He  spoke  in  nearly  every  part  of 
the  state,  generally  capturing  his  audience, 
although  unfavorably  received  and  often  threat- 
ened with  knives  and  missiles. 

In  New  York  Martin  and  his  wife.  Peggy, 
settled  in  a  little  flat  on  Washington  Heights. 
He  had  brought  some  letters  of  introduction 
but  nobody  of  importance  would  recognize 
them.  He  and  his  wife  spent  all  their  free 
evenings  at  the  lectures  in  the  public  schools 
and  the  free  libraries  reading.  Finally,  when 
hope  was  about  gone,  Mr.  Littleton  presented 
a  letter  to  George  Foster  Peabody,  who  se- 
cured for  him  a  position  as  clerk  in  a  Brooklyn 
\&\x  office.  Ultimately,  he  was  appointed  an 
Assistant  District  Attorney  of  Kings  County. 
He  was  elected  President  of  the  Borough  of 
Brooklyn  in  19(13.  To  come  to  a  big  city 
without  money,  friends  or  influence  is  a  brave 
and  plucky  thing  to  do;  but  New  York  is  a 
generous,    hearty    place,  and    though    already 


crowded  has  room  for  a  sincere  and  earnest 
worker.  Mr.  Littleton's  fame  as  a  lawyer 
has  been  largely  responsible  for  his  splendid 
rise.  He  was  chosen  by  the  Democracy  of  Xew 
York  to  nominate  Alton  B.  Parker  at  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  of  1904.  At 
the  expiration  of  his  official  term  in  Brooklyn, 
he  moved  to  Manhattan  and  has  resided  on  this 
island  ever  since.  The  most  picturesque  incident 
in  his  career  was  his  election  to  Congress  in  the 
First  District  in  1910.  The  district  was 
strongly  Republican  and  was  especially  noted 
as  the  home  of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Mr. 
Littleton  made  more  than  a  hundred  speeches, 
no  community  being  too  small  for  him  to 
visit.  He  spent  days  and  nights  in  an  auto- 
mobile, always  accompanied  by  his  wife,  who 
became  a  thorough  campaigner.  There  is  no 
stopping  a  man  like  this!  His  election  was  a 
personal  triumph,  but  only  an  incident  to  what 
the  future  holds  for  such  a  man. 

Charles  Carrollton  Clark,  born  at  Ozark. 
Mo.,  in  1874.  reached  Xew  York  by  way  of 
Texas.  His  parents  emigrated  from  south- 
western Missouri  to  the  broad  plains  of  Texas, 
where  they  took  up  ranch  life.  Young  Clark 
lived  the  open-air  existence  of  a  cowboy  and 
rancher  on  the  Staked  Plains  from  1887  to  '90. 
He  then  began  the  studv  of  law,  was  graduated 
LL.B.  at  the  LIniversity  of  Texas  and  began 
practice  at  Dallas,  with  his  brother,  Ross  L. 
Clark.     That  partnership  existed  until   1898. 


CHARLES  C.  CLARK 


HENRY  S.  HOOKER 


IRA  J.  DL'TTON 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


235 


when  Mr.  Clark  removed  to  New  York  city 
and  assisted  Martin  W.  Littleton  as  trial  coun- 
sel for  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit  Co.  lie 
subsequently  had  much  corporation  practice, 
among  his  clients  being  the  Edison  Electrical 
Illuminating  Co.,  of  Brooklyn,  the  Estates 
of  Long  Beach  ami  other  realty  companies. 
He  was  alumni  orator  for  the  University  of 
Texas  in  1907. 

Henry  Stewart  Hooker  was  born  in  San 
Francisco  in  1880.  He  was  sent  East  to  the 
Groton  school,  a  well-known  boys'  school, 
modeled  upon  the  best  English  lines.  Thence 
he  went  to  Yale,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
the  class  of  1902.  A  course  at  the  New  York 
Law  School  followed,  where  he  took  a  degree 
in  1904.  Meanwhile,  coming  to  New  York, 
he  entered  the  law  office  of  De  Lancey  Xicoll 
and  familiarized  himself  with  routine  work  of 
his  profession.  Mr.  Hooker  adopted  the  legal 
profession  because  his  ancestors  had  been  law- 
yers and  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  the  repub- 
lic. His  great-grandfather  was  Governor  Foote, 
of  Mississippi,  a  descendant  of  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington,half  brother  of  George  Washington,  who 
was  also  an  United  States  Senator.  His  grand- 
father was  Senator  William  M.  Stewart,  of 
Nevada.  Mr.  Hooker  became  a  member  of 
the  law  firm  of  Crocker  &  Wicks  in  1907  and 
is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Marvin, 
Hooker  &  Roosevelt.  He  is  a  Republican 
and  a  member  of  the  Lnion,  Yale  and  Tuxedo 
clubs. 

Among  the  lawyers  of  this  city  who  have 
given  special  attention  to  realty  practice,  as 
well  as  corporation  law,  is  Ira  Jay  Dutton, 
born  at  Sherman.  X.  Y..  in  1859;  educated 
at  the  Sherman  High  School,  four  years  at 
Oberlin.  and  law  courses  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity and  the  New  York  Law  School.  He 
began  to  practice  in  April,  1901.  Love  of  the 
profession  of  law  inspired  him  and  he  soon 
acquired  an  excellent  clientage.  In  February, 
1907,  he  was  injured  in  a  railroad  wreck  at 
Brewster  and  was  incapacitated  for  profes- 
sional work  for  2^  years.  Since  then  he  has 
reestablished  his  practice.  Mr.  Dutton  has 
always  felt  interested  in  country  life,  par- 
ticularly in  abandoned  farms  of  Xew  England. 


He  owns  1  ,L200  aires  of  these  typical  farms  in 
Vermont  with  the  intention  of  extending  his 
acreage  and  reclaiming  the  wornout  soil  by 
scientific  farming.  In  this  task  he  has  al- 
ready had  fair  success.  He  is  a  director 
in  Westburv  Park,  L.  I.,  in  the  Wemlinger 
Steel  Piling  Company,  and  is  a  firm  believer 
in  the  development  of  our  national  resources. 
His  forebears  were  of  Revolutionary  stock. 
Another  contribution  of  North  Carolina,  to 
the  New  York  Bar  is  Williamson  W.  Fuller, 
born  at  Fayetteville,  August.  1858;  graduated 
at  the  University  of  Virginia,  1N7S,  and  edu- 
cated in  law  at  Greensboro,  where  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1SS0.  At  present  he 
is  general  counsel  for  the  American  Tobacco 
Company  and  many  other  large  corporations 
—a  position  he  has  won  by  sturdy  work  in  his 
profession  since  his  arrival  in  New  York.  I 
would  like  to  refer  to  some  of  his  early  suc- 
cesses,but  Mr.  Fuller  is  averse.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  the  North  Carolina  Society  and  South- 
ern Society  of  New  York  and  the  Aldine  Asso- 
ciation. His  clubs  are  the  Metropolitan, 
Democratic.  Pilgrims  and  Ardsley. 

Maine's  contribution  to  the  legal  fraternity 
of  this  city  is  creditably  represented  by  Jordan 
Jackson  Rollins,  born  at  Portland,  December, 
1869.  After  a  course  at  Dartmouth  College, 
closing  in  1892,  he  was  graduated  at  the  Har- 
vard Law  School.  He  came  to  New  York 
and  studied  with  Daniel  G.  Rollins,  securing 
an  admission  to  the  bar  in  1894.  He  then 
formed  a  partnership  with  his  preceptor  and 
has  since  acted  as  counsel  for  many  financial 
and  commercial  corporations.  Mr.  Rollins 
is  a  director  in  the  Acker,  Merrall  &  Condit 
Co.,  Casualty  Company  of  America,  New 
York  City  Railway  Co.,  Windsor  Trust  Co., 
and  McDonald  Electrolytic  Co.  He  is  sec- 
retary of  the  New  York  Law  Institute  and 
member  of  the  Bar  Association.  He  belongs 
to  many  clubs,  among  them  the  American, 
Seawanhaka  and  Corinthian  Yacht  clubs; 
University,  Harvard,  Manhattan.  Racquel  and 
Tennis,  New  York  Athletic,  lnion  League, 
Metropolitan,  Psi  Upsilon,  Dartmouth  and 
Rockawav  Hunt  clubs. 


236 


THE  HOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


GEORGE   1.    STERLING 


AKI'lllHAI.l)   II     WATSI  >N 


1 1  ;rence  l" a i { i . i .  \ 


The  law  department  of  the  City  of  New 
York  has  contained  a  great  many  historic 
men.  The  Corporation  Counsel  appointed  l>\ 
Mayor  Gaynor,  Archibald  Robinson  Watson, 
is  a  young  man  to  have  attained  such  distinc- 
tion, lie  hailed  originally  from  the  South. 
having  been  born  at  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  in 
L872.  After  a  private  preparation,  he  entered 
the  I  diversity  of  Virginia  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Letters  in  1894.  lie 
came  of  a  race  of  lawyers,  several  of  his  an- 
cestors and  immediate  relatives  giving  their 
lives  to  that  profession.  Reaching  New  York 
at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  he  organized  the 
"Bench  and  Bar"  Company  and  undertook 
the  management  of  that  successful  legal  mag- 
azine. Mr.  Watson  continued  to  edit  this 
publication  until  he  assumed  public  office 
under  Mayor  Gaynor.  He  came  to  New 
\i\vk  with  engagements  for  legal  writing, 
which  were  carried  on  in  the  excellent  law 
libraries  of  this  city.  This  literary  work 
yielded  moderate  support  and  bridged  over 
I  he  storm  and  stress  period  of  a  young  law- 
yer's life.  His  first  real  opportunity  came  in 
I  he  offer  of  a  place  in  the  offices  of  Xicoll, 
Anable  &  Lindsay,  and  was  later  admitted 
into  full  partnership  in  the  firm  which  con- 
tinued until  his  appointment  as  Corporation 
Counsel.  Mr.  Watson's  ambition  was  ex- 
pressed to  the  writer  in  the  following  language: 
'I  considered  Xew  York  the  greatest  city  in 
the  world  and  came,  hoping  to  succeed  where 
success  would  mean  most." 


A  lawyer  who  has  rendered  highly  efficient 
service  to  his  associates  at  the  bar  by  the  capa- 
ble manner  in  which  he  has  served  as  an  as- 
sistant in  the  Corporation  Counsel's  office, 
through  many  administrations  since  1.SS5,  is 
George  L.  Sterling:.  He  came  to  New  York 
from  Connecticut,  where  he  was  born  De- 
cember. 18.5.5.  His  early  education  was  at  the 
two  private  schools  of  Strong  and  of  Day  at 
Bridgeport;  he  then  entered  Yale  and  was 
graduated  in  1876.  A  two  years'  post-grad- 
uate course  followed,  and  a  law  degree  in  1880. 
He  was  promptly  admitted  to  the  bar  and  came 
to  Xew  York  a  year  later,  where  he  has  prac- 
ticed his  profession  ever  since.  As  before 
mentioned,  he  became  an  assistant  in  the  Cor- 
poration Counsel's  office  in  1885  and  recently 
lias  introduced  a  new  system  of  filing  papers 
in  the  Hall  of  Records  which  has  been  of 
utmost  use  to  lawyers  who  frequent  that  im- 
portant institution.  Mr.  Sterling  is  a  member 
of  the  Bar  Association  of  Xew  York  and  of  the 
Xew  England  Society.  He  belongs  to  the 
University,  Manhattan  and  Yale  clubs. 

The  City  Corporation  Counsel's  office  is  a 
splendid  training  school  for  young  lawyers. 
Terence  Farley  entered  there  as  a  clerk  when 
a  very  young  man  and  while  pursuing  his 
legal  studies  at  Columbia.  He  was  born  in 
this  city.  November,  1870,  educated  at  the 
public  schools  and  graduated  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  City  of  Xew  York.  After  ad- 
mission to  the  bar.  he  was  appointed  to  a  place 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


23< 


in  the  Corporation  Counsel's  office,  having 
special  charge  of  the  appeal  division,  and  in 
that  post  took  part  in.  or  handled  entirely, 
many  important  cases.  During  the  last  twen- 
ty years,  Mr.  Farley  lias  served  under  seven 
different  Corporation  Counsellors,  which  is 
presumptive  evidence  that  he  gave  entire  sat- 
isfaction and  did  not  mix  politics  with  his 
official  duties.  lie  is  Chairman  of  the  Regis- 
tration Committee  of  the  Metropolitan  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Amateur  Athletic  Union,  a 
director  of  the  Catholic  and  the  Osceola  clubs 
and  a  trustee  of  the  Amateur  Athletic  Asso- 
ciation. 

Dudley  Field  Malone,  now  Assistant  Cor- 
poration Counsel,  was  horn  in  New  ^  ork 
city.  1881,  took  an  A.B.  degree  at  St.  Francis 
Xavier  College  and  an  LL.B.  at  Fordham, 
serving  as  valedictorian  of  his  class,  lie 
entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  T.  ('.  O'Sul- 
livan  in  1905,  and  was  then  associated  for 
four  years  with  the  firm  of  Battle  &  Marshall. 
After  that  time,  he  practiced  independently 
until  appointed  to  his  present  place  in  the 
Corporation  Counsel's  office.  Mr.  Malone 
has  had  varied  experience  in  criminal  law. 
especially  murder  trials.  He  made  a  specialty 
of  municipal  law;  has  represented  the  Catholic 
Hierarchy  and  also  the  Confederation  of 
Churches  of  Greater  New  York  and  the  Inter- 
Denominational  bodies  of  Greater  Xew  York 
before  the  Legislature.  He  was  an  active 
campaigner  during  the  last  gubernatorial  and 


mayoralty  contests,  probably  making  more 
speeches  than  any  other  man.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Dwight  Club,  the  Delta  Chi  legal 
fraternity,  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  ami 
of  the  Seventh  Regiment. 

The  long  service  and  frequenl  promotions 
of  Curtis  A.  Peters  is  a  fitting  testimonial  to 
his  value  as  an  attache  of  I  he  office  of  I  he 
Corporation  ( lounsel. 

Mr.  Peters  was  horn  at  Porl  Richmond, 
Staten  Island,  attended  the  College  of  the  City 
of  Xew  York,  and  graduated  from  the  New 
York  Law  School.  After  service  as  a  clerk 
in  the  office  of  Ilornblower,  Byrne,  Miller  & 
Poller,  30  Broad  Street,  shortly  after  gradua- 
tion, he  was  appointed,  in  1!M)l>,  as  a  Junior 
Assistant  Corporation  Counsel  in  lax  cases, 
l>\  Corporation  Counsel  George  L.  Rives, 
lie  was  made  full  Assistant  Corporation 
Counsel  by  Judge  John  J.  Delaney,  during 
his  term  as  Counsel,  and  during  subsequent 
administrations  of  the  office  until  he  was 
finally  appointed  Assistanl  Corporation  Coun- 
sel in  charge  of  the  division  of  taxes  and 
assessments.  As  such  he  has  charge  of  all 
tax  litigation  of  the  City  of  New  York, including 
all  special  franchise  tax  litigation  instituted  by 
all  the  public  utility  corporations  of  the  city. 

An  energetic  assistant  on  the  staff  of  Cor- 
poration Counsel  Watson  is  William  P.  Burr, 
born  in  Dublin  in  1856  and  brought  to  this 
country  by  his  parents  when  seven  years  of 
age.     He  was  educated  at  De  La  Salle  Acade- 


DCDl.KV  FIELD  M  \l  "\l 


wili.iam  i>.  nrui: 


CURTIS  A    PETERS 


•j:;n 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


my,  New  York,  St.  James'  College,  Baltimore; 
and  Columbia  College  Law  School.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1ST!),  rapidly  acquiring 
distinction  as  a   trial  lawyer. 

Mr.  Burr  was  named  Assistant  Corporation 
Counsel  of  New  York  in  1!)04.  being  placed 
in  charge  of  the  Division  of  Franchises,  hav- 
ing supervision  over  all  public  utility  corpora- 
lions  operating  in  the  city.  At  this  post  he 
has  tried  and  won  many  notable  cases.  Espe- 
cially memorable  is  his  contention  for  eighty- 
cent  gas,  in  winch  litigation  he  bore  the  brunt 
of  a  popular  fight  to  sustain  the  constitution- 
ality of  the  law  fixing  the  rate  of  SI)  cents  per 
1,000  feet  for  illuminating  gas.  On  the  evi- 
dence he  offered  before  the  Special  Master. 
Arthur  II.  Masten.  the  contentions  of  the  city 
as  to  the  law's  constitutionality  were  finally 
sustained  by  a  unanimous  decision  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  the  opinion  de- 
livered by  Mr.  Justice  Peckham,  January  !>. 
1909.  This  was  one  of  the  most  important 
commercial  cases  ever  decided  by  that  great 
tribunal,  because  it  affects  every  service  cor- 
poration in  this  country!  Six  per  cent,  return 
on  the  present  value  of  property  actually  de- 
voted to  the  business  of  the  Consolidated  Gas 
Company  was  held  to  be  reasonable  and  fair. 

As  a  trial  lawyer  Hector  M.  Hitchings  has 
won  many  important  cases,  a  number  of  them 
being  on  appeals  before  the  higher  courts, 
and  in  this  line  of  work  he  has  attained  great 
prominence. 

Mr.  Hitchings  was  born  at  Gravesend,  Kings 
County,  X.  Y.,  December  12,  1855,  the  son 
of  Benjamin  G  and  Catherine  Newberry 
(Moon)  Hitchings.  He  graduated  from  Ex- 
eter Academy  in  1874  and  from  Amherst  Col- 
lege in  1876,  and  then  took  up  the  study  of 
law  in  the  office  of  his  father.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1879  and  since  that  time 
has  been  very  active  in  his  profession,  being 
now  senior  partner  in  the  legal  firm  of  Hitch- 
ings (S:  Dow,  with  offices  at  No.  loo  William 
Street.  Mr.  Hitchings  is  a  Republican  and 
lias  always  taken  an  active  interest  in  politics. 
He  is  an  elder  in  Brick  Presbyterian  Church, 
a  trustee  of  Christ  Church  and  the  Church 
of  the  Covenanl  and  trustee  and  secretary  of 
the  McAuley  Cremorne  Mission.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  West  Side  Republican,  River- 


side. 21st  Assembly  District  Republican,  En- 
glewood  Golf,  Shelter  Island  Golf  and  the 
Drug  and  Chemical  clubs. 

Always  active  in  New  York  politics.  Thomas 
F.  Conway  has  been  partially  rewarded  for  his 
zeal  and  constancy  to  the  Democratic  party 
by  elevation  to  the  Lieutenant  Governorship, 
but  his  friends  assert  that  the  party's  obliga- 
tion will  not  be  fully  discharged  until  he  is 
chosen  as  Chief  Executive  of  the  State. 

Mr.  Conway  is  a  successful  lawyer  who 
commenced  life  as  a  school  teacher  and  who, 
while  a  "wizard  of  the  birchen  rod,"  studied 
law  assiduously  until  he  was  competent  to 
pass  the  examination  and  be  admitted  to  the 
bar,  in  1885.  Always  active  in  politics.  Mr. 
Conway  was  nominated  for  Attorney-General 
in  1898  and  at  the  Rochester  Convention  in 
1910  was  candidate  of  the  northern  section  for 
Governor,  being  unanimously  given  second 
place  on  the  ticket  when  Dix  was  nominated. 
He  adheres  strictly  to  the  policies  embodied 
in  the  platform  and  is  active  in  carrying  them 
out. 

Mr.  Conway  is  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Conway  &  Weed,  and  has  a  huge  practice 
in  the  city,  state  and  Federal  courts. 

The  old  South  state  contributes  the  next 
lawyer  that  conies  to  mind,  R.  Floyd  Clarke, 
born  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  October, 
1859,  but  removed  with  his  parents  to  New 
York,  directly  after  the  Civil  War.  Here,  he 
attended  the  public  schools  and  was  grad- 
uated at  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
1SS0.  He  was  among  the  last  students  who 
sat  under  the  magic  tongue  of  Dr.  D wight  at 
( 'olumbia  Law  School,  where  he  took  a  degree, 
cum  laude,  winning  in  lSH^  the  first  prize  in 
municipal  law.  Next,  I  knew  of  him  as 
managing  clerk  of  Olcott  &  Nostre,  admitted 
a  member  of  the  firm  in  CSS.'}.  In  1885,  he 
organized  the  partnership  of  Clarke  &  Cul- 
vert, which  continued  until  1903,  since  which 
time  Mr.  Clarke  has  practiced  on  his  own 
account.  He  has  been  counsel  at  various 
times  for  large  interests  and  corporations, 
memorably  the  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
Bridge  Company,  which  had  charters  from 
the  two  states  to  throw  a  span  over  the  Hud- 
son   River,    and    later    for    the    North    River 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


239 


HECTOR   M.   HITCH  I  Mi: 


THOMAS  F.  CONWAY 


II.  FLOYD  CLARKE 


Bridge  Co., which  possesses  asimilar grant  from 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Clarke 
was  also  the  legal  advisor  of  the  George  A. 
Fuller  Co.  when  it  first  entered  New  York, 
and  of  the  Lake  Superior  Corporation.  He 
tried  against  ex-Surrogate  Rastus  S.  Ransom, 
the  famous  Kemp  will  ease.  In  international 
litigation.  Mr.  Clarke  represented  the  claim 
of  the  United  States  &  Venezuela  Co., — mean- 
ing the  Critchfield  asphalt  concession. — against 
the  South  American  republic,  which  finally 
went  to  The  Hague  Tribunal  and  was  settled 
for  $47.5.000.  He  has  handled  the  claims  of 
private  individuals  in  arbitration  cases  be- 
tween Mexico  and  the  United  States,  regard- 
ing the  boundary  dispute  over  the  EI  Chamzal 
Tract  of  lands  at  El  Paso,  Texas;  he  acted 
as  private  counsel  for  Porter  Charlton  in 
habeas  corpus  and  before  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  to  prevent,  his  deportation  to 
Italy  under  conditions  arising  from  Italy's 
breach  of  the  extradition  treaty  with  the 
United   States. 

Mr.  Clarke  is  author  of  'The  Science  of 
Law  and  Lawmaking"  and  of  numerous 
magazine  articles  on  legal  questions.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Par  Associations  of  the 
State,  City  and  County  and  of  the  American 
Bar  Association  and  American  Society  of  In- 
ternational Law  and  of  the  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon  and  Phi  Beta  Kappa  fraternities. 
Colonial  Order  of  the  Acorn  and  the  Xew 
York  Southern  Society.  He  is  an  enthusias- 
tic yachtsman  and  owns  the  fast  sloop  *'  Ata la." 


His  clubs  are  the  University.  New  York, 
Larchmont  and  Atlantic  Yacht  chilis  and  the 
Manhattan   Chess   Club. 

The  ,lOkl  North  State"  has  contributed  a 
lawyer  of  unusual  success  to  the  bar  of  the 
metropolis.  I  refer  to  (leorge  Gordon  Pattle, 
born  on  Coolspring  Plantation.  Edgecomb 
county.  N.  C,  near  the  close  of  1808.  He 
was  sent  to  the  Hanover  Academy,  at  Rich- 
mond. Ya.:  then  attended  the  University  of 
North  Carolina;  took  a  degree  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  Charlottesville,  and  com- 
pleted his  studies  at  Columbia  Law  School 
in  this  city.  After  leaving  Charlottesville,  in 
1889,  Mr.  Pattle  read  law  for  six  months  with 
his  brother,  Judge  Jacob  Pattle.  at  Rocky 
Mount,  prior  to  entering  at  Columbia.  In 
1892,  he  was  appointed  a  Deputy  Assistant 
District  Attorney  by  Dc  Lancev  Nicoll,  and 
ultimately  became  an  Assistant  District  At- 
torney, serving  until  March,  1<S!)7.  Retiring 
from  office,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Par- 
tow  S.  Weeks,  and  soon  after  the  firm  became 
Weeks.  Pattle  &  Marshall,  by  the  introduction 
of  II.  Snowden  Marshall.  Mr.  Weeks  later 
withdrew  from  the  firm  and  it  then  became 
Pattle  &  Marshall.  When  In-  was  Assistant 
District  Attorney,  Mr.  Pattle  had  charge  of  the 
Grand  Jury  of  the  County  of  Xew  York  for 
three  years,  presenting  cases  and  trying  in- 
dictments iluring  that  period.  No  indictment 
drawn  by  him  ever  had  a  demurrer  against  it 
sustained,    due   to    technical    defect. 


-240 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW     YORK 


GEI  >RGE  i.i  IRDI  >S    It  \  II  1.1. 

lie  rigidly  adhered  to  a  determination 
not  to  be  associated  with  any  corporation  in 
any  capacity  except  that  of  counsellor.  Mr. 
Battle  belongs  to  the  Metropolitan.  Calumet, 
Manhattan,  St.  Nicholas,  Seneca  and  West 
Side  Democratic  dubs.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Bar  Associations  of  this  city,  state  and 
nation,  the  Southern  Society.  North  Carolina 
Society.  The  Virginians,  and  various  benevo- 
lent associations.  He  is  a  Democrat,  and  re- 
ceived the  nomination  for  District  Attorney 
in   1  !•()!).  but   was  defeated  by  Mr.  Whitman. 

Austria  has  given  to  New  York  a  capable 
lawyer  in  the  person  of  Max  D.  Steuer.  born 
in  the  empire  in  1871  and  brought  to  this 
country  by  his  parents  when  a  youth.  lie 
was  educated  in  the  public  schools  and  sold 
newspapers  morning  and  night.  His  hunger 
lor  knowledge  and  desire  to  fit  himself  for 
a  legal  career  induced  him  to  enter  the  College 
of  the  City  of  New  ^  ork  in  spite  of  the  neces- 
sity of  making  his  own  way  and  assisting  his 
parents.  He  gave  private  instructions  in 
Civil  Service  in  the  Regents'  examinations  and 
during  college  vacations  he  worked  in  woolen 


\1  \X  H    STEUER 

houses.  During  his  sophomore  year.  I  he 
financial  condition  of  his  family  became  such 
that  he  was  forced  to  discontinue  his  studies 
and  to  accept  a  clerkship  in  the  foreign  mails 
department  of  the  general  post-office.  He  con- 
tinued his  studies  privately,  until  October. 
1890,  when  he  resigned  his  clerkship,  much 
to  the  regret  of  Postmaster  Van  Cott.  to  enter 
Columbia  Law  School.  At  the  end  of  a  three 
years'  course  he  was  given  his  degree  of  LL.B.. 
and  won  a  money  prize  of  $150.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1892,  but  continued  in 
the  law  school  for  an  additional  year.  He 
had  specialized  in  mercantile  law  and  his 
success  was  almost  immediate.  He  tells  me 
he  has  tried  over  -2(>00  jury  cases,  of  which 
he  has  won  !).)  per  cent.  A  remarkable  cir- 
cumstance is  that  in  more  than  fifty  per  cent, 
of  all  cases  Mi1.  Steuer  has  acted  as  counsel  for 
the  defendant.  He  is  at  present  counsel  for 
over  two  hundred  law  firms  in  New  \  ork  City. 
His  recent  defense  of  Senator  Gardiner  and  of 
Raymond  Hitchcock,  the  actor,  were  much 
applauded.  His  remarkable  success  in  defense 
has  occasioned  much  comment  at  the  bar. 

Mr.   Steuer  is   a   member  of  the    Progress, 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


241 


Democratic  and  Tamorora  clubs  and  is  con- 
nected with  the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian 
Society,  the  United  Hebrew  Charities,  the 
Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum.  Educational  Alliance. 
Philanthropic  Hospital.  I  Ionic  for  Aged  and 
Infirm  Hebrews,  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Asso- 
ciation, Mount  Sinai  Hospital,  Montefiore 
Home.  Girls'  Technical  School,  Sunshine  So- 
ciety for  Blind  Children  and  other  charitable 
institutions. 

A  lawyer  of  this  city  who  makes  a  specialty 
of  commercial,  ecclesiastical,  probate  and  real 
estate  law  is  Edward  Sears  Clinch,  a  man 
who  never  lias  lived  outside  of  Xew  York,  is 
a  graduate  of  its  City  College,  where  he  took 


former  Governor  John  William  Griggs  came 
from    that    state   and    established    a    law   office 
here.      He    was    born    in    Newton,    X. 
1N4!>,     and     .....,,,,>.!     <■>      ..,,..<.,,  i.. 
He  began 


educated    al     Lafayette    College. 

>ractice  at    Paterson,    X.    .1..   but, 

entering  politics,  soon  went  to  the  New  Jersey 


Assembly,     then     became 
acting  as  president  of  t  lial 


a  State  Senator, 
body  in  1886.  He 
was  elected  Governor  as  a  Republican  in 
IS!)."),  resigning  two  years  later  to  enter  the 
Cabinet  of  President  McKinley  as  Attorney 
General,  where  he  served  until  1901.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Permanent  Court  of  Arlnl ni- 
tration of  The  Hague.  At  the  close  of  his 
official    career    at     Washington,    Mr.    Griggs 


l.l>\\  Alii)  S    CLINCH 


JOHN    \V.  GRIGGS 


CHARLES  P.  DORR  \M  V 


his  degree  in  1865,  and  of  Columbia  Law 
School  two  years  later.  Mr.  Clinch  was  born 
in  this  city  in  1N4<>.  He  began  practice  upon 
reaching  his  majority  and  was  actively  en- 
gaged in  his  profession  until  1906,  when  he 
was  appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
for  the  First  District  of  Xew  York.  In  poli- 
tics, he  has  ever  been  a  consistent  Republican 
ami  in  1!MI4  was  a  Presidential  Elector  on  the 
Roosevelt  ticket.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
National  Geographic  Society,  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
the  National  Audubon  Society.  Municipal  Art 
Society.  Xew  York  Historical  Society.  Amer- 
ican Museum  of  Natural  History,  the  Par 
Associations  of  the  city,  state  and  nation,  and 
the  American  Society  of  International  Law. 
The  legal  profession  of  the  metropolis  gained 
a  distinguished  recruit  from  Xew  Jersey  when 


opened  an  office  in  this  city.  He  is  President 
and  Director  of  the  Marconi  Wireless  Tele- 
graph Co.  of  America,  a  director  of  the  Cor- 
poration Trust  Co.  of  X.  J..  Xew  York  Tele- 
phone   Co..    and    American     Locomotive    Co. 

A  successful  specialist  in  real  estate  law  is 
Charles  P.  Dorrance,  who  hails  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, having  been  born  at  Carbondale  in 
1852.  After  an  academic  course,  he  went  to 
Rutgers  College.  Xew  Brunswick,  X.  J.. 
where  he  took  the  degree  of  A. P.  in  1873.  lie 
studied  law  at  Freehold,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Xew  Jersey  as  an 
attorney  in  1876,  and  as  a  counsellor  in  1879. 
After  practicing  at  Long  Branch,  he  moved  to 
Xew  York  City  in  1881.  He  came  to  this 
eitv  at  a  time  that  marked  a  wonderful  move- 


242 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


ment  in  real  estate  values  and  soon  developed 
a  large  practice.  He  is  one  of  the  best  in- 
formed authorities  on  the  law  applicable  to 
titles  to  real  estate  in  the  city.  Mr.  Dorrance 
takes  an  active  interest  in  politics,  although  he 
has  never  been  a  candidate  for  public  office; 
he  is  an  ardent  Republican  and  was  for  a 
number  of  years  a  member  of  the  West  Side 
Republican  Club.  His  interest  in  religious 
matters  is  also  strong,  lie  being  a  member  of 
the  (Dutch)  Reformed  Church.  In  college, 
he  was  a  sincere  fraternity  man  and  belonged 
to  the  Chi  Phi.  In  1909  lie  was  the  President 
of  the  New  York  Association  of  that  fraternity. 


He  was  reelected  in  1 !)()!).  his  present  term 
expiring  December  31,  1!)L2.'5. 

Justice  Laughlin  is  a  member  of  the  Man- 
hattan, Catholic  and  Republican  clubs.  He 
resides  in  Buffalo,  X.  Y. 

A  comparatively  young  member  of  the 
Supreme  bench  of  this  state  is  Charles  L. 
Cluy,  born  in  Xew  York  City,  1856,  of  French- 
Canadian  Catholic  parentage  on  his  father's 
side  and  of  Connecticut  Presbyterian  stock  on 
his  mother's.  He  was  educated  at  the  College 
of  the  City  of  Xew  York  but  left  before  grad- 
uation, to  become  a  clerk  in  a  shipping  firm. 
After  various  similar  employments,  hi'  learned 


FRANK  C.  LAUGHLIN 


ill  \i;i.i;s  L.  (U'Y 


VICTOH   .1    IMiWLING 


There  are  few  jurists  in  Xew  York  State 
who  enjoy  a  higher  reputation  than  Justice 
Frank  C.  Laughlin,  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
Justice  Laughlin  was  born  in  Xewstead.  X.  Y., 
July  20,  1859,  and  was  educated  at  the  Union 
School.  Lockport,  X.  Y.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  liar  in  1882  ami  at  the  commencement 
of  his  legal  career  took  a  deep  interest  in 
Buffalo's  municipal  affairs,  being  Assistant 
City  Attorney  and  City  Attorney  from  1886 
to  1891.  He  was  made  Corporation  Counsel 
in  1893  and  was  elevated  to  a  justiceship  of 
the  Supreme  Court  in  1895,  sitting  in  the 
Eighth  District.  He  was  assigned  to  the 
Appellate  Division  in  Rochester  in  11)01.  and 
to  the  Appelate  Division  in  Xew  York  City 
in  1902,  and  has  twice  been  reassigned  thereto. 


stenography  and  became  an  official  court  re- 
porter. He  then  entered  Columbia  Law 
School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1881. 
Justice  (iuv  tells  me  he  went  into  law  in 
"pursuit  of  the  line  of  least  resistance."  He 
was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Lexow.  MacKellar,  (iuv  &  Wells;  he  was  a 
law  assistant  to  the  Surrogate  for  two  years, 
was  a  State  Senator,  1894-'!)8,  when  he  in- 
troduced and  passed  the  School  Teachers' 
Pension  Hill.  He  was  School  Commissioner 
for  two  years;  Assistant  Corporation  Counsel, 
and  on  November  (>,  1906,  was  elected  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  for  First  Department 
for  the  term  expiring  December  :>1,  1920.  In 
politics  Justice  (iuv  has  always  shown  inde- 
pendence, although  inclined  to  be  a  democrat. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


MICHAEL  P.  O'CONNOR 


.1.  ARTHUR   I1II. 1 1  >\ 


Prior  to  the  secession  of  South  Carolina,  a 
few  resolute  Southern  men  did  all  they  could 
to  stem  the  rising  tide  of  revolt.  They  be- 
lieved in  the  Union  of  the  States,  "one  and 
inseparable,"  and  were  far-sighted  enough  to 
see  that  the  Southern  ( Confederacy,  even  if  suc- 
cessful in  securing  independence,  would  no) 
begin  its  career  as  a  first-class  power  and 
could  not  long  maintain  its  place  among  the 
independent  nations  of  the  world.  Probably 
the  most  prominent  of  these  men  to  oppose 
secession  was  the  popular  Southern  orator  of 
that  day.  Michael  P. O'Connor, of  Charlestown, 
S.  C.  He  felt  no  special  friendship  for  the 
North  hut  argued  strictly  from  the  view-point 
of  a  practical  man  who  foresaw  the  disruption 
of  a  great  nation,  the  southern  part  of  which 
ultimately  would  fall  into  the  possession  of 
England  or  France.  Tp  to  the  hour  of  the 
final  act  of  the  South  Carolina  legislature, 
Mr.  O'Connor  sturdily  continued  his  unpop- 
ular struggle  as  an  anti-secessionist.  He  was 
a  lover  of  liberty,  his  father  had  Keen  an  Irish 
patriot  before  him  and  he  was  himself  a  friend 
and  co-worker  with  Patrick  Ford  in  the  cause 


of  Irish  independence.  When  South  Caro- 
lina took  the  irrevocable  step.  Mr.  O'Connor 
stood  by  the  act  of  its  legislature  and  became 
a  Confederate, — much  as  did  Robert  E.  Lee 
of  Virginia.  He  was  the  first  member  of  Con- 
gress to  represent  South  Carolina  at  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War.  I  never  knew  the  sturdy  old 
campaigner,  but  his  son,  Michael  P.  O'Connor, 
born  in  Columbia.  1865,  has  been  practicing 
law  in  this  city  since  1890.  He  was  educated 
at  the  schools  of  his  native  city  and  graduated 
at  Charleston  College.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  this  city  anil  since  that  time  has 
been  eminently  successful  as  a  trial  lawyer. 
His  practice  has  been  particularly  devoted  to 
litigated  cases  and  he  has  handled  many 
prominent  jury  trials.  He  has  achieved  dis- 
tinction in  damage  suits  against  railroads  and 
other  corporations.  His  practice  extends  over 
Manhattan  and  Pong  Island,  having  his 
offices  on  Broadway,  Manhattan,  and  Jackson 
avenue.  Long  Island  City.  Mr.  O'Connor 
served  for  ten  years  in  the  New  York  Seventh 
Regiment  and  was  commissioned  from  there 
as  a  lieutenant  in  the  Twelfth  Regiment. 


,'44 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


One  of  the  distinguished  younger  members 
of  the  metropolitan  bar  is  J.  Arthur  Hilton. 
who  was  born  in  Cohoes,  of  this  State,  edu- 
cated at  Colgate  University  and  received  a 
professional  training  at  the  New  York  Law 
School.  His  capacity  as  a  trial  lawyer  has 
won  high  praise  from  many  of  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  bar.  Especially  distinctive  are 
his  methods  in  the  conduct  of  cross-examina- 
tions. He  has  specialized  in  insurance  law 
and  is  an  authority  on  statutes  affecting  rail- 
roads. Mi-.  Hilton  recently  won  a  suit  brought 
nor  breach  of  contract  involving  a  quarter  mil- 
lion dollars.  In  politics,  lie  lias  acted  in  an 
advisory  capacity  With  the  Kjngs  County 
Republican  Committee,  but  never  has  been 
a  candidate  for  office.  He  is  an  omniverous 
reader;  fond  of  sports,  especially  the  hunting 
of  big  game  in  the  Adirondack^,  where  he 
has  a  summer  camp,  or  shooting  ducks  on  the 
Chesapeake.  He  lias  an  eight  hundred  acre 
farm  in  Dutchess  County,  where  he  has  in- 
stalled all  the  latest  scientific  helps  to  tilling 
the  soil.  He  is  ""a  practical  farmer."  because 
he  has  made  farming  financially  successful. 
He  is.  also,  a  trustee  of  the  Greenwich  Baptist 
Church,  a  bank  director  and  an  active  Mason. 

Xo  New  Yorker  known  to  me  so  harmoni- 
ously combines  law  and  politics  as  Col. 
Abraham  Gruber,  who  began  his  legal  career 
as  an  office  boy  at  thirteen  with  a  firm  of  inter- 
national fame  and  at  the  end  of  six  years' 
service  had  familiarized  himself  with  every 
working  detail  of  the  profession.  He  utilized 
the  knowledge  thus  gained  to  spend  his  days 
serving  a  collection  agency  and  his  nights  in 
the  study  of  law.  He  had  no  sooner  attained 
his  majority  than  he  applied  for  admission 
to  the  bar  and  successfully  gained  the  coveted 
prize,  although  he  had  never  entered  a  college 
or  school  of  law.  He  soon  developed  an  active 
interest  in  politics  and  affiliated  himself  with 
the  Republican  party.  I  am  uncertain  as  to 
the  exact  date  in  which  he  acquired  control  in 
his  Assembly  District  but  it  was  somewhere 
in  the  eighties.  As  his  practice  grew,  "Abe," 
as  lie  prefers  to  be  called,  developed  capacity 
as  an  after-dinner  speaker  and  as  such  was 
much  in  demand.  He  tells  me  he  never 
suffered  from  stage  fright  or  had  cause  to 
lament   the   loss   of  a    word.      He    is   a    fluent 


linguist  and  no  word  in  German  or  English 
dare  say  to  him,  "Nay!"  Abraham  Gruber 
is  a  product  of  the  city,  having  been  born. 
raised  and  developed  here;  he  cannot  be  de- 
scribed as  a  tribute  of  the  West  to  the  East! 
He  is  thoroughly  metropolitan,  having  first 
seen  the  light  here  in  1861  and  obtained  his 
education  at  the  public  schools,  reinforced 
by  constant  private  study. 


c  II  \KI.KS  S.  GUGGENHEIMER 

A  highly  popular  and  philanthropic  man 
who  was  engaged  in  politics  in  this  city  be- 
cause he  believed  he  could  be  of  service  to  his 
fellow  citizens  was  the  late  Randolph  Guggen- 
heimer,  first  president  of  the  Municipal  Coun- 
cil under  the  consolidation  charter.  His  be- 
nevolence in  behalf  of  the  New  York  newsboys 
has  been  continued  by  his  widow.  Charles  S. 
Guggenheimer,  a  son  of  this  worthy  citizen, 
followed  his  father  in  the  law.  He  was  born 
in  this  city  in  September,  1877,  was  educated 
at  the  public  schools,  the  Halsey  School,  Johns 
Hopkins  University  and  completed  his  law 
course  at  the  New  York  Law  School  in  IS!)!). 
He  also  took  a  special  course  in  History  and 
Political  Economy.  Meanwhile,  he  had  en- 
tered the  law  office  of  his  father  as  a  student  in 
1897. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


•24.-) 


DANIEL  F    COHALAN 


PET]  R    A    III  NDKli'k 


JAMES    \    '  I'Gl  >l!\l  VN 


Since  his  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  to  succeed  J)r.  Depew,  James  A. 
O'Gorman  has  become  a  national  figure. 
His  choice  for  that  high  office  was  made  after 
a  contest  lasting  74  days,  in  which  William 
F.  Sheelian  and  the  late  Edward  AT.  Shepard 
were  principal  figures.  Although  Justice 
O'Gorman  had  been  a  presiding  officer  of  the 
Supreme  Court  since  1900,  he  had  never 
prominently  challenged  public  attention  apart 
from  his  judicial  work.  He  was  born  in  this 
city.  May.  lS(i();  educated  at  the  public  gram- 
mar schools  and  College  of  the  City  of  New- 
York,  lie  took  his  law  course  in  New  York 
University;  later,  he  received  LL.D.  from 
Yillanova,  Fordham  and  New  York  Univer- 
sity. He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1NS-2  and 
practiced  eleven  years  until  he  became  a 
Justice  of  a  district  court  in  1893.  He  is 
the  first  of  the  name  ever  to  lie  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate  or  House  of 
Representatives. 

Senator  O'Gorman's  public  service  has 
been  marked  by  ability,  courage  and  industry. 

One  of  the  most  capable  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New  Y>rk  is 
Peter  Aloysius  Hendrick,  who  was  elected  to 
that  high  office  in  1907  and  will  serve  until 
1920. 
and     a 

schools  and  at  IVnn  Yan  Academy,  took  a 
degree  at  Fordham  University  in  1878.  His 
alma  mater  has  since  conferred  upon  him  the 


He   was    born   at    Penn    Yan    in    1856 
ter    preparatory     courses     at     private 


honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  The  special 
branches  in  which  he  excelled  in  college  were 
philosophy,  metaphysics  and  Latin.  He  al- 
ways maintained  an  active  interest  in  athletics: 
was  captain  of  his  university  baseball  team 
for  three  years.  He  began  law  practice  at 
Auburn.  N.  "\  ..  and  was  corporation  counsel 
of  that  city.  l883-'85.  Mr.  Hendrick  is  the 
youngest  member  of  a  family  of  l(i  children: 
a  brother  of  the  Pt.  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Hen- 
drick. 1).])..  LL.D..  Bishop  of  Cebu,  1'.  I.; 
of  Monsignor  Joseph  W.  Hendrick.  Domestic 
Prelate  to  Pope  Pius  X..  and  of  Col.  M.  J. 
Hendrick.  U.  S.  Consul  at  Moncton,  X.  P. 
His  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  known 
Catholic   families    in    the   state  of   New   York. 

The  Supreme  Pencil  of  this  state  possesses 
an  active  Justice  in  the  person  of  Daniel  F. 
Cohalan,  born  at  Middletow  n.  Orange  County, 
in  1868.  After  preparatory  studies  at  the 
public  schools  and  at  Walkill  Academy,  he 
entered  Manhattan  College,  from  which  he 
was  graduated  in  the  classical  course.  Since 
coming  to  New  \  ork.  he  has  been  a  trustee 
of  his  alma  nutter  for  14  years.  Entering 
the  law  office  of  the  late  Judge  John  G.  Wil- 
kin, he  secured  admission  to  the  liar  and  be- 
gan practice  in  this  city.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  Democratic  politics;  was  engaged  in 
many  notable  legal  cases  and  secured  a  large 
practice.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Demo- 
cratic National  Conventions  of  1  !)(•!■  and  1908. 
He  has  been  a  delegate  to  all   Xew    York  State 


24(i 


THE    MOOR    of  NEW    YORK 


Democratic  Conventions  since  1902.  For  sev- 
eral years,  he  was  chairman  of  the  law  com- 
mittee of  Tammany  Hall;  from  l<S!)(i  to  the 
time  of  his  appointment  to  the  Supreme 
Bench  to  fill  a  vacancy,  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Democratic  State  ( Committee.  Mr.  Cohal- 
an  belongs  to  the  Slate.  County  and  City  Bar 
Associations,  lie  was  elected  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  November  7.   1911. 

Sidney  Harris  is  as  prominent  and  popular  in 
society  as  in  clubdom.  In  politics  he  has  fig- 
ured for  the  last  twenty  years.  At  the  bar  and 
in  public  office  in  his  quiet  and  effective  way 
he  has  won  the  respect  of  the  judiciary,  of  his 
professional  brethren  and  of  the  public.  Born 
in  New  York  City  in  1866,  the  son  of  Sidney 
Smith  Harris  and  Miriam  Coles  Harris,  re- 
ceived his  preliminary  education  at  St.  Paul's 
School.  Concord.  N.  H.  Later,  at  Columbia 
University,  in  addition  to  pursuing  his  studies 
with  average  zeal,  he  distinguished  himself  in 
athletic  competitions.  He  rowed  on  the  fresh- 
man eight-oared  crew  that  defeated  the  Har- 
vard freshmen  at  New  London  in  1884,  in  the 
best  time  on  record  for  two  miles.  He  rowed 
number  six  on  the  'Varsity  crews  of  Columbia, 
1886  and  1SS7,  at  New  London  in  contests 
with  Harvard.  Columbia  was  victorious  in 
1886,  and  in  the  same  year  decisively  won 
against   the  University  of  Pennsylvania  crew. 

Mr.  Harris  received  the  degree  of  B.A. 
from  Columbia  University  and  in  INN!)  he 
was  graduated  also  from  the  Law  School  of 
the   University  with  the  degree  of  LL.B. 

In  March,  1890,  Governor  Hill  appointed 
General  Daniel  E.  Sickles  Sheriff  of  New 
York  County,  to  reform  notorious  abuses  in 
the  administration  of  that  office.  In  the  selec- 
tion of  his  deputies.  General  Sickles,  himself 
a  lawyer  of  great  ability,  evinced  marked 
preference  for  young  men  of  that  profession. 
He  did  not  deem  political  experience  a  neces- 
sary qualification  for  his  associates,  but  he  did 
want  men  whose  legal  education  would  enable 
them  to  measure  responsibility  and  to  discern 
the  ethical  elements  of  public  questions.  Mr. 
Harris  was  appointed  to  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant deputyships  and  served  until  January 
1,  1891.  For  a  year  he  practiced  law  with  his 
father.  Sidney  Smith  Harris,  who  died  in  1892. 

Sidney  Harris  has  been  eminently  success- 


ful in  genera]  civil  practice.  He  has  fre- 
quently served  as  referee  in  important  cases 
and  as  Commissioner  in  matters  affecting  the 
public  streets,  parks  and  water  supply.  In 
]!)()!).  he  was  appointed  by  Justice  Howard, 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  Chairman  of  the  High- 
way Ashokan  Reservoir  Commission.  This 
board  is  a  quasi-judicial  body,  charged  with 
the  duty  of  adjusting  and  adjudicating  claims 
arising  from  changes  in  the  public  highways 
of  Ulster  County,  incident  to  the  construction 
and  sanitation  of  the  Ashokan  watershed. 
For  many  knotted  questions  decided,  there 
were  no  precedents  in  the  law  reports  and  the 
decisions  rendered  by  the  Commission  have 
been  affirmed  hv  the  Appellate  Courts.  Mr. 
Harris  is  still  serving  as  Chairman. 

On  April  to.  1911,  Mayor  Gaynor  ap- 
pointed Mr.  Harris  to  the  Municipal  Ex- 
plosives Commission,  of  which  the  Fire  Com- 
missioner is   Chairman  ex-offieio. 

The  ancestors  of  Sidney  Harris  were  British. 
The  American  branch  of  the  Harris  family 
tree  was  planted  by  ancestors  who  came  over 
from  the  British  Isles  between  1625  and  1640. 

Miriam  Coles  Harris,  mother  of  Sidney 
Harris,  is  a  gifted  novelist,  who  has  published 
a  score  of  books,  of  which  her  maiden  effort 
was  "Rutledge."  Social  life  and  conditions 
in  America  furnished  the  theme  for  this  book, 
which  appealed  in  1860.  "Rutledge"  was 
the  most  popular  novel  which  up  to  that  time 
had  been  published  in  this  country.  The 
author  had  written  several  chapters  before 
she  realized  that  she  had  not  given  a  name 
to  the  heroine.  Then  it  occurred  to  her  that 
if  she  could  finish  the  book  without  supplying 
a  name,  the  idea  would  be  unique.  This  she 
succeeded  in  doing  admirably  and  so  the 
heroine  is  still  nameless.  "Rutledge"  had  a 
large  sale  abroad  as  well  as  in  the  United 
Slates.  The  latest  work  of  Mrs.  Harris, 
'The  Tents  of  Wickedness  "  appeared  in  1!)()7. 

The  father  of  Sidney  Harris  was  Sidney 
Smith  Harris,  a  talented  and  successful  lawyer. 

Sidney  Harris  is  a  member  of  the  Union, 
the  Brook  and  St.  Anthony  clubs,  the  Colum- 
bian Order  and  the  Bar  Association  of  the  (  ity 
of  New  York.  He  is  also  a  member  of  Tam- 
many Hall  and  has  been  since  1891  a  member 
of  the  General  Committee  of  that  organization. 


THE    HOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


247 


WILLIAM   H.  PAGE 


SIDNEY  HARRIS 


HENRI    NEVILLE  TIKFT 


The  famous  "Seaboard"  litigation  will  live 
in  the  minds  of  the  legal  fraternity  for  a  long 
time.  William  II.  Page,  a  New  York  lawyer, 
who  conducted  this  ease  in  association  with 
other  attorneys,  has  also  been  counsel  in  many 
street  railway  cases  of  importance.  The  firm 
of  Page,  Crawford  &  Tuska,  which  has  been 
concerned  professionally  in  much  Cuban  liti- 
gation, maintains  a  branch  office  in  Havana. 
Horn  at  Paris,  France,  in  1861,  William  Page 
was  educated  at  the  Boston  Latin  School  and 
later  was  graduated  from  Harvard  University 
with  the  degree  of  A.B.  He  studied  at  the 
Columbia  Law  School,  receiving  the  degree 
of  LL.B.  He  has  a  charming  country  place 
at  Far  Hills,  N.  J.,  and  a  town  residence.  He 
is  a  member  of  several  leading  clubs,  including 
the  Harvard,  Xew  York  Athletic,  Automobile 
of  America  and  Somerset  Hills'  Country. 

Securing  his  first  practical  experience  in  the 
law,  after  admission  to  the  bar,  as  an  Assistant 
District  Attorney  under  Elihu  Root,  Henry 
Neville  Tifft  continued  in  that  office  under  Ex- 
Governor  Dorsheimer  and  Stephen  II.  Walker. 
It  was  a  splendid  training.  Mr.  Tifft  was 
born  at  Geneva,  in  this  state,  in  1854,  hut 
early  came  to  Xew  York  City,  where  his  par- 
ents had  resided  for  many  years.  He  attended 
the  public  schools,  took  a  degree  of  \i.^.  at 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York  in  '?:{. 
and  M.S.  in  1876,  and  ended  with  a  course  at 
Columbia  Law  School.  After  teaching  for 
four  years  in  the  public  schools  of  this  city, 
he  began  an  active  career  in  law  as  indicated 


above.  Having  a  special  interest  in  educa- 
tional matters  he  served  as  a  school  inspector 
in  ln's  district,  and  as  chairman  of  the  14th 
district  under  Mayors  Strong,  Van  Wyck  and 
Low.  His  activity  led  to  his  appointment 
on  the  Board  of  Education  in  1903,  where  he 
remained  several  years,  having  been  elected 
to  the  Presidency  in  1 1)04-  and  reelected  in 
1905.  His  interest  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has 
been  continuous  and  the  progress  of  the  West 
Side  Branch  is  largely  due  to  him.  In  1886, 
Mr.  Tifft  began  practice  with  ex-Judge 
Granville  P.  Ilawes,  until  the  hitter's  death, 
since  which  time  he  has  been  in  the  profession 
alone.  Mr.  Tifft  inherited  a  liking  for  the 
law  from  his  father,  who  had  many  friends  in 
the  profession.  He  is  a  director  of  the  Chepul- 
tepec  Land  Improvement  Company  of  the 
City  of  Mexico.  In  college,  he  won  Phi 
Beta    Kappa  and  was  a  I).  K.  E.  man. 

In  recent  years  no  Assistant  District  At- 
torney of  Xew  York  County  has  been  a  more 
prominent  figure  at  the  criminal  bar  than 
James  W.  Osborne,  member  of  an  old  North 
Carolina  family,  and  who  was  born  at  Char- 
lotte, forty-odd  years  ago.  After  completing 
his  education  and  his  law  studies,  he  came  to 
New  York  to  practice.  His  special  fondness 
was  for  criminal  law  and  having  distinguished 
himself  by  several  notable  defences  of  men 
charged  with  crime.  District  Attorney  Jerome 
chose  him  as  one  of  his  assistants,  after  the 
spirited  election  of  ten  years  ago.  Mr.  Os- 
borne's   conduct    of    the    prosecution    against 


2  18 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Albert  T.  Patrick,  charged  wit li  procuring 
the  murder  of  millionaire  Rice  is  one  of  the 
memorable  features  of  New  York  legal  history. 
The  trial  was  of  great  length  and  conviction 
was  obtained  wholly  on  circumstantial  evi- 
dence and  the  testimony  of  Rice's  valet,  Jones. 
who  swore  than  Patrick  had  induced  him  to 
chloroform  the  aged  man.  MY.  Osborne's 
address  to  the  jury  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
case  was  one  of  the  most  exhaustive  legal 
arguments  ever  heard  in  a  New  York  court 
I  was  present  and  listened  to  it.  Unlike  old- 
school  lawyers,  such  as  Graham  or  Brady, 
the  speaker  did  not  rely  upon  flights  of  oratory, 
but  hammered  theory,  deduction  and  logical 
conclusion  into  the  men  in  the  box  for  several 
hours.  Patrick  was  sentenced  to  death  but 
was  afterwards  commuted  to  life  imprisonment. 


of  NewJYork  was  defendant  and  recoveries 
against  the  Municipality  were  less  than  one- 
half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  amounts  claimed 
by  litigants.  In  1890,  he  was  appointed  First 
Assistant  District  Attorney  and  for  four  years 
conducted  the  prosecution  of  all  the  principal 
criminal  trials  in  New  York  county.  Espe- 
cially memorable  are  his  convictions  of  Dr. 
Carlisle  W.  Harris,  Dr.  Robert  Buchanan, 
Frank  Ellison,  Fanshawe,  Stroud.  Stephanie, 
Gardner  and  other  notorious  criminals.  He 
has  been  general  counsel  for  the  Metropolitan 
Street  Railway  Company  since  1894,  and  has 
personally  defended  many  important  litiga- 
tions against  that  corporation.  Mr.  Well- 
man  is  a  member  of  the  University,  Man- 
hattan   and    New    \  ork  Yacht  clubs. 


JAMES     W.  OSBORNE 


FRANCIS   L.    WELLMAN 


PATRICK   E    CAM  AH  AN 


One  of  the  most  successful  lawyers  of  the 
present  generation  in  this  city  is  Francis  L. 
Wellman,  who  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
I  niversity  in  1N?(>  and  Harvard  Law  School 
two  years  later.  On  his  admission  to  the 
Massachusetts  bar.  he  was  appointed  instruc- 
tor at  the  Boston  Law  School  and  soon  after  a 
lecturer  in  the  Harvard  Law  School.  He  came 
to  New-  York  in  1883  with  the  prestige  of  a 
Boston  partnership  with  former  U.  S.  Senator 
Bainbridge  Wadleigh  and  was  soon  appointed 
an  assistant  in  the  office  of  the  Corporation 
Counsel.  During  seven  years  in  that  office,  he 
had  charge  in  all  jury  trials  in  which  the  City 


The  Borough  of  Brooklyn  is  as  remarkable 
for  its  lawyers  as  for  its  ministers  of  the  ( Jospel. 
Easily  in  the  front  rank  is  Patrick  Eugene 
Callahan,  who  was  born  among  the  people  he 
has  since  so  efficiently  served  in  1861,  exactly 
one  month  after  Fort  Sumter  had  been  fired 
upon.  This  shuts  out  a  war  record.  He  at- 
tended public  school.  St.  Patrick's  Academy, 
St.  John's  College.  Brooklyn,  and  then  took 
a  law  course  at  Columbia  College,  under  the 
late  Theodore  W.  Dwight.  He  was  graduated 
and  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1<SN.'>.  He  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession  at  once.  He 
was  appointed  an  Assistant    District  Attorney 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


249 


WILLIAM  ,1    FANNING 


1  R  \\K    MOS 


I  n\\  \l:n  M    GROUT 


in  1891  and  served  with  distinction  five  years. 
When  the  Building  Department  of  his  native 
city  was  confronted  with  unexpected  diffi- 
culties under  new  tenement-house  statutes. 
Mr.  Callahan  was  promptly  chosen  as  counsel 
for  that  Department  and  proved  himself  of 
much  worth  in  reconciling  builders  to  the 
complicated  regulations.  This  success  liter- 
ally commanded  for  him  a  place  in  the  Cor- 
poration Counsel's  office  of  Greater  New 
York,  where  he  was  engaged  in  trial  work  for 
six  years.  He  was  twice  nominated  as  a 
Democrat  for  a  Supreme  Court  Justiceship 
in  1910.  1911.  hut  owing  to  the  combination 
of  political  parties  was  defeated.  He  belongs 
to  the  Montauk  Club  and  is  a  Knight  of  Co- 
lumbus. 

Another  lawyer  who  has  taken  an  important 
part  in  educational  matters  in  this  city  is  Wil- 
liam Joseph  Fanning,  born  at  Crescent.  Sara- 
toga County,  this  stale,  in  1850;  educated  at 
the  Halfmoon  Institute,  where  he  took  a  classi- 
cal course,  and  then  entered  the  law  department 
of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
where  he  obtained  a  degree  of  LL.B.  He  has 
been  in  active  practice  since  1880.  As  attorney 
for  the  Hotel  Association,  for  twenty  years, 
he  has  distinguished  himself  bv  disentangling 
the  intricacies  of  all  statutes  affecting  inn- 
keepers. He  was  appointed  City  Magistrate 
by  Mayor  Strong  but  declined  the  office.  He 
is  a  Director.  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  the 
Sinclair  Realty  Company,  Secretary  and 
Treasurer  of  the  Great    Northern    Hotel   Co., 


and  interested  in  several  other  corporations. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art.  His  interest  in  educational  Facilities 
for  the  children  of  his  ward,  the  Eighteenth,  in- 
duced him  to  serve  as  School  Trustee  for  some 
time.  Mr.  Fanning  belongs  to  the  Manhattan, 
National  Democratic  and  Catholic  Clubs.  He 
has  always  been  a  Democrat,  but  with  the 
exception  of  the  school  trusteeship,  has  never 
sought  or  accepted  public  office. 

One  evening  in  1SS7,  at  a  dinner  party  at 
General  Stewart  L.  Woodford's  on  President 
street,  Brooklyn.  I  met  Edward  M.  Grout,  a 
young  lawyer  who  had  studied  in  General 
Woodford's  office  and  had  been  admitted  to 
the  bar  two  years  before.  Mr.  Grout  was 
born  in  this  city  in  1S(il  and  graduated  at 
Colgate  University  in  1884.  The  same  in- 
stitution conferred  upon  him  the  honorary 
degree  of  LL.D.  in  190.'}.  An  evidence  of  his 
capacity  as  a  politician  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
ten  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar.  he 
was  Democratic  candidate  for  Mayor  of 
Brooklyn.  After  the  consolidation,  he  was 
elected  the  first  President  of  that  Borough. 
1S97;  his  choice  as  Comptroller  of  the  City 
of  New  ^ork.  on  a  Fusion  ticket,  followed  in 
1901  and.  two  years  later.  Tammany  again 
elected  him.  He  acted  as  Judge  Advocate 
and  Major  of  the  2nd  Brigade.  N.  G.  S.  N.  Y.. 
for  ten  years.  He  is  a  trustee  of  Colgate 
University,  a  member  of  the  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon  fraternity  ami  numerous  city  clubs. 
He  is  a  successful  metropolitan  lawyer. 


250 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Ever  since  the  Lexow  State  Senate  Special 
Committee  exposed  the  "graft"  in  the  Police 
Department  of  New  York,  the  name  of 
Frank  Moss,  as  assistant  counsel  of  the  com- 
mittee, has  been  a  household  word.  Mr. 
Moss  was  horn  at  Cold  Spring,  N.  Y.,  1860; 
came  to  the  metropolis  when  (i  years  old,  and 
was  educated  at  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  although  he  did  not  graduate. 
lie  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1881.  His  work  in  the  Lexow  Investiga- 
tion, associated  with  Mr.  (ioff,  is  very  mem- 
orable. He  was  appointed  President  of  the 
Police  Board  in  18!)?  and  two  years  later  was 
named  as  chief  counsel  for  the  Mazet  Com- 
mittee, another  Legislative  investigation  of 
political  corruption.  Mr.  Moss  is  president 
and  chief  counsel  for  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Crime;  Professor  of  Medical  Juris- 
prudence in  the  New  York  Medical  College 
and  also  in  the  Hospital  for  Women.  He  has 
served  as  Commissioner  of  Health;  in  1!)1(), 
he     was     First     Assistant     District     Attorney. 

John  Randolph  Dos  Passos  was  born  in 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  1N44,  educated  in 
the  public  schools  and  studied  law  under  Wil- 
liam S.  Price  in  connection  with  lectures  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  under  Shars- 
wood. 

During  the  campaign  in  which  Stonewall 
Jackson  made  his  raid  into  that  state,  he  served 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Militia  during  the  in- 
vasion of  that  commonwealth,  and  when  the 
regiment  was  mustered  out  of  service  he  began 
the  study  of  his  profession  in  Philadelphia,  in 
which  state  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in 
1866.  In  186?  he  came  to  New  York  and 
soon  became  famous  as  a  criminal  lawyer. 
He  appealed  in  two  of  the  trials  of  Edward 
S.  Stokes  for  the  murder  of  James  Fisk,  and 
made  one  of  the  final  arguments  before  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  where  a  new  trial  was  pro- 
cured for  the  convicted  man,  then  under 
sentence  of  death.  Thereafter,  Mr.  Dos  Pas- 
sos turned  his  attention  to  corporation  and 
financial  law  and  became  very  prominent  as 
an  organizer  of  great  corporations,  among 
which  may  be  mentioned  the  American  Thread 
Company  and  the  American  Sugar  Company. 
The  fee  he  received  for  organizing  the  latter 
was  the  largest   on   record   at  that  time. 


A  proud  achievement  of  Mr.  Dos  Passos  was 
the  alteration  of  the  rules  of  the  Court  in  re- 
gard to  the  admission  of  students  to  the  bar. 
As  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Admission 
of  the  New  York  County  Lawyers'  Association. 
he  succeeded  after  three  years  of  labor  in 
obtaining  from  the  Court  of  Appeals  an 
amendment  of  its  rules  relating  to  the  admis- 
sion of  Attorneys,  so  that  from  July  1.  11)11, 
the  term  of  apprenticeship  was  extended  from 
three  to  four  years  and  other  amendments 
were  provided  for  making  it  quite  impossible 
for  those  defectively  equipped  to  become  mem- 
bers of  the  bar. 

The  South  has  furnished  a  capable  United 
States  District  Attorney  for  this  district  who 
has  risen  to  distinction  as  a  lecturer  on  Law 
and  Practice  and  Bankruptcy  at  Yale  Univer- 
sity. I  refer  to  Macgrane  Coxe,  born  at 
Huntsville,  Ala.,  in  1859,  and  graduated  at 
Yale  in  his  twentieth  year,  followed  by  a. 
course  at  the  Columbia  Law  School.  He  has 
been  in  practice  at  New  York  since  1881 ;  served 
as  Assistant  United  States  District  Attorney 
1885-'89;  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  southern 
district  of  New  York;  United  States  Minister 
to  Guatemala  and  Honduras  ISO?  and  United 
States  Referee  in  Bankruptcy,  in  which  office 
he  has  served  since  1<S!)().  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Visitors  to  the  Naval  Academy. 
Annapolis,  1908.  In  politics.  Mr.  Coxe  is  a 
Democrat  and  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  the 
late  Grover  Cleveland.  He  is  a  member  of 
several  city  and  country  chilis.  His  fondness 
for  country  life  has  induced  him  to  spend 
much  of  the  year  at  his  farm,  Southfields, 
( )range,  N.  Y. 

Gratz  Nathan,  a  successful  counsellor,  has 
been  in  active  practice  in  this  city  since  his 
admission  to  the  bar  in  1864.  He  was  born 
in  New  York  in  1843  and  was  graduated  from 
Columbia  College  in  1861,  receiving  the 
"Alumni  Prize"  at  graduation.  He  studied 
law  at  the  office  of  Foster  &■  Thomson  in  this 
city.  From  186?  to  1872  he  was  Assistant 
Corporation  Attorney,  and  rendered  highly 
creditable  service.  His  practice  has  been  a 
general  one  and  he  has  been  engaged  in  manv 
important  referee  cases.  He  has  always  been 
a  Democrat,  but  never  an  active  participant  in 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


251 


MACGRANE  COX] 


Jl  ' II N    l:     DOS  1'  iSSi  IS 


GKATZ  NATHAN 


partisan  work.  Mr.  Nathan  is  a  member  of 
the  New  York  Law  Institute,  the  New  York 
Genealogical  and  Biographical  Society,  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  the  Columbia 
College  Alumni  Association  and  the  St.  Nich- 
olas Society.  He  is  a  vestryman  of  the  Con- 
gregation Shearith  Israel,  a  director  of  the 
Hebrew  Relief  Society  and  a  member  of  the 
National  Democratic  <  Mill >  of  the  City  of  New 
York. 

A  man  who  has  distinguished  himself  in 
straight  law  and  in  clean  politics  is  William 
Sulzer.  representing  for  years  the  Tenth  Dis- 
trict. New  York,  in  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives.  Mr.  Sulzer  was  born  in 
Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  of  German  and  Scotch-Irish 
parentage.  His  father  was  a  farmer  near 
Elizabeth  and  the  boy  was  educated  at  the 
country  schools  near  that  town.  He  then 
attended  lectures  at  the  Columbia  Law  School, 
and  read  law  in  the  office  of  Parish  &  Pendle- 
ton in  New  York  City.  His  parents  were 
strict  Presbyterians  and  intended  their  son  for 
the  ministry;  but  he  preferred  the  law  and  was 
duly  admitted  to  the  bar  on  attaining  his 
majority,  in  1884.  He  soon  became  recog- 
nized as  a  sound  lawyer,  and  an  eloquent 
public  speaker.  He  took  an  active  part  in 
the  first  Cleveland  campaign,  and  has  been 
prominent  in  every  campaign  since.  His 
success  in  law  has  been  equalled  by  that  in 
politics.  He  was  sent  to  the  New  York 
Assembly    and   reelected    for   five  years.      He 


made  a  splendid  record  for  usefulness  to  the 
State  at  Albany.  No  one  ever  questioned  his 
honesty,  his  sincerity,  or  his  capability.  He 
served  with  distinction  in  the  sessions  of  1S!)I), 
1891.  1892,  IS!).'}  and  1894, 

He  was  a  leader  there  of  his  party.  an< 


Speaker    in    1898 — one    of    the    youngesl 


the 
on 


gress;  he  has  been  returned  ever  sinc< 
creasing  majorities 


record. 

From  the  first,  the  newspapers  were  his 
friends.  In  1894,  the  old  Tenth  District 
of  this  city  sent  him  to  the  Fifty-fourth  Con- 
by  in- 
IIe  is  popular  with  the 
people.  His  course  in  the  House  has  been 
one  of  hard  work  and  sturdy  independence. 
He  was  a  staunch  friend  of  the  suffering 
Cubans:  his  sympathies  are  world-wide;  his 
ideas  are  broad;  and  his  work  national. 

He  introduced  the  bill  declaring  war  against 
Spain;  the  joint  resolution  providing  for  a 
constitutional  amendment  under  which  United 
States  Senators  will  be  elected  by  direct  votes 
of  the  people;  he  is  the  author  of  the  law* 
establishing  the  Bureau  of  Corporations  in  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor;  the  bill 
increasing  the  pay  of  letter-carriers.  He  is 
the  author  of  the  resolution  denouncing  the 
Jewish  outrages  in  Russia;  of  the  Columbus 
Day  bill;  the  law  increasing  the  pensions  of 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Union;  the  law 
to  raise  the  wreck  of  the  "Maine";  of  the 
copyright  law;  of  the  resolution  for  an  income 
tax.  He  is  the  author  of  the  bill  to  reestablish 
the  Merchant   Marine;  for  a  general   parcels 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


w  1 1  li  \  \i  siJ]  / 1 , 1 : 


III  \i;"i    M    Gt  'l  !>!'(  »;ii 


BENJAMIN  ]      1   \  I  lit  HI 1  l> 


post;  for  national  aid  in  the  construction  of 
good  roads;  of  the  Mil  to  create  ;i  Department 
t>l  Labor  with  ;i  Secretary  having  ;i  seat  in  the 
Cabinet;  of  the  bill  to  decrease  the  cosl  of 
living  by  placing  the  necessaries  of  life  on  the 
free  list;  and  of  many  other  measures  in  the 
interest  of  the  people  of  the  country.  His 
record  ;it  Albany  and  at  Washington  is  a 
monument  to  his  untiring  zeal  and  inde- 
fatigable industry. 

He  has  been  a  delegate  to  every  Democratic 
National  Convention  since  1896.  I  stood  be- 
side him  at  the  Chicago  Convention  of  that 
year,  when  Whitney,  as  Chairman  of  the  New 
lork  delegation,  declined  to  support  Bryan, 
and  counselled  the  New  York  delegation  to 
l>olt.  Mr.  Sulzer  refused  to  be  led  out  of  the 
convention  hall  and  stood  alone  in  his  sun- 
port  of  the  nominee.  Sulzer  prevented  the 
New  York  delegation  from  bolting,  and  kept 
the  Democrats  of  New  York  regular.  He 
explained  to  me  at  the  time  that  there  were  so 
many  good  things  in  the  platform  and  thai 
Mr.  Bryan  was  a  man  of  so  much  honesty 
and  energy  and  power  for  good  that  he  de- 
cided to  go  along  with  him.  This  was  an  act 
of  great  courage,  for  the  New  Yorkers  were 
bitterly  hostile  to  Bryan. 

Mr.  Sulzer  has  served  on  several  very  im- 
portant committees  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Just  so  soon  as  his  party  gained 
control  of  the  House  Ms  colleagues  made  him 
Chairman   of   the   important    and    responsible 


Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and  he  is 
making  good.  I  le  is  widely  read,  is  considered 
a  tine  international  lawver,  with  ability  along 
diplomatic  lines. 

Mr.  Sulzer  last  year  was  a  candidate  for  the 
nomination  for  Governor  on  the  Democratic 
ticket.  Had  he  been  selected  he  would  have 
been  elected  by  a  landslide  majority.  I  sin- 
cerely hope  he  will  attain  that  high  office,  of 
which  he  is  worthy.  The  people  are  with  him. 
lie  is  a  true  mam  an  ideal  representative,  and 
one  of  the  best  known  and  most  lovable  char- 
acters in  our  country. 

Training  in  official  life  at  Washington  early 
in  his  career  prepared  Benjamin  Lewis  Fair- 
child  for  subsequently  successful  practice  as 
a  lawyer  in  this  city.  Mr.  Fairchild  was  horn 
;il  Sweden,  Monroe  Co.,  this  state,  1N(»;>.  but 
soon  removed  with  his  parents  to  the  District 
of  Columbia,  where  he  attended  the  public 
schools.  He  completed  a  law  course  at  Co- 
lumbia University  in  1883  and  since  L885has 
practiced  his  profession  in  this  city.  Prior 
to  that  time  he  had  served  as  a  draughts- 
man in  the  United  States  Patent 
Office  at  Washington  and,  later,  as 
clerk  in  the  I  .  S.  Treasury  Department. 
Since  coming  to  New  York,  he  has  largely  in- 
terested himself  in  real  estate  at  Pelham 
Heights.  In  politics  lie  is  a  Republican  and 
represented  the  Sixteenth  Congressional  Dis- 
trict for  one  term.  His  clubs  are  the  Union 
League,    Lawyers    and    New     York    Athletic. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


253 


A  New  York  Congressman  who  qualified 
for  the  place  by  ;i  long  and  creditable  career 
on  the  bench  of  this  city  is  Henry  M.  Gold- 
fogle,  born  in  the  metropolis.  May,  1856,  and 
educated  ;it  the  public  schools.  lie  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1S77  and  practiced  law 
for  ten  years,  when  he  was  elected  justice 
of  the  5th  District  Court  of  New  York,  re- 
elected 1893,  became  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
Municipal  Court  of  New  York  and  retired 
from  the  bench,  January,  1900,  to  resume 
practice  of  his  profession.  lie  went  to  Con- 
gress for  the  first  time  in  the  same  year  and 
has  been  reelected  ever  since.  Mr.  Gold- 
fogle  has  been  a  delegate  to  every  State  Demo- 
cratic Convention  during  the  past  '27  years; 
was  a  delegate  to  the  National  Democratic 
Convention  in  1S!)(!.  He  has  served  as  Grand 
President,  District  1.  Independent  Order  of 
B'nai  Brith;  he  is  vice-president  of  the  Temple 
Rodeph  Sholom;  an  enthusiastic  Mason  and 
member  of  many  fraternal  societies. 


and  graduated  in  1903.  After  graduation  he 
entered  the  offices  of  Wilmer  &  Canfield,  and 

was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1905.  The  same 
year  he  became  associated  with  Evarts,  ( !hoate 
&  Sherman,  and  continued  his  connection  with 
thai  linn  until  June  1.  1911,  since  which  time 
he  has  practiced  alone  at  No.  60  Wall  Street. 
and  has  specialized  to  some  extent  in  practice 
under  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Ad.  In  speak- 
ing of  his  association  with  Mr.  Joseph  II. 
Choate,  he  said:  "I  consider  my  connection 
of  five  years  with  Mr.  Choate  the  greatest  ex- 
perience of  my  life,  because  of  the  opportunity 
given  me  to  know  a  man  of  such  towering 
mentality,  to  observe  the  methods  and  char- 
acteristics of  a  master  mind  and  to  benefit  by 
association  with  such  a  genius." 

Mr.  Walmsley  is  a  member  of  the  Sigma 
Chi  fraternity,  hut  has  no  club  affiliations, 
domestic  in  his  tastes  and  taking  recreation 
from  business  cares  in  occasional  automobile 
trips  in  nearby  territory. 


HAKIHE  li.  WALMSLEY 


BARTOW  S.   \\  EEKS 


JOSEPH  I'm  i  rs 


A\  hilo  not  necessary  to  a  legal  career,  em- 
inent jurists  agree  that  a  medical  training  is  a 
valuable  adjunct  and  this  added  knowledge 
is  part  of  the  equipment  of  Hardie  15.  Walms- 
ley. one  of  the  successful  younger  members 
of  the  New  York  Bar.  He  was  born  in  New 
Orleans.  La..  June  11.  IS??,  and  was  educated 
at  Tula ne  University,  New  Orleans,  and  then 
studied  medicine  for  three  years  at  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  at  New  York. 
He  afterwards  entered  Columbia   Law   School 


He  comes  of  noted  ancestry,  being  descended 
on  the  paternal  side  from  William  Carroll,  a 
brother  of  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  and 
Robert  Walmsley.  who  came  from  England 
with  William  Penn,  on  the  ship  "Welcome." 
On  the  maternal  side  he  numbers  Roger  Wil- 
liams among  his  forebears.  His  father.  Rob- 
ert M.  Walmsley.  is  one  of  the  leading  citizens 
of  New  Orleans,  being  Chairman  of  the 
Hoard  of  Directors  of  the  Canal-Louisiana 
Bank  and    Trust  Company,  Chairman  of  the 


254 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


Board  of  Liquidation  of  the  City  Debt  of  New- 
Orleans.  President  of  the  New  Orleans  Clear- 
ing House,  one  of  the  Board  of  Administrators 
of  Tulane  University,  director  of  the  New- 
Orleans  Railway  and  Light  Company,  and 
ex-President  of  the  New  Orleans  Cotton  Ex- 
change. 

Intending  originally  to  engage  in  mercantile 
pursuits,  Bartow  S.  Weeks  graduated  from 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York  in  1879 
and  for  two  years  was  engaged  in  commercial 
life.  His  inclinations  at  this  period  were  for 
a  legal  career  and  he  entered  the  Columbia 
Law  School,  from  which  he  graduated  in 
1883  and  was  admitted  to  practice  the  same 
year.  He  was  First  Assistant  District  Attor- 
ney of  New  York  County  from  1X91  to  1897, 
and  since  that  time  has  been  very  prominent 
in  the  profession. 

Mr.  Weeks'  lather  was  Colonel  Henry 
Astor  Weeks,  of  the  12th  X.  Y.  Volunteers 
during  the  Civil  War.  and  his  middle  name 
was  given  him  because  his  birth,  occurring 
April  25,  1861,  followed  closely  the  firing  on 
Fort  Sumter.  He  has  been  Judge  Advocate 
General  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Sons 
of  Veterans.  President  of  the  Amateur  Athletic 
Union  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  New- 
York  Athletic  Club.  In  addition  he  belongs 
to  the  various  Bar  Associations,  many  leading 
clubs,  the  Loyal  Legion,  Sons  of  the  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Alpha  Delta   Phi  fraternity. 

Another  contribution  of  Vermont  to  the 
legal  fraternity  of  this  city  is  Joseph  Potts, 
who  came  to  New  York  in  the  fall  of  1900, 
was  admitted  to  practice  in  May.  1901.  As 
an  employee,  he  entered  the  law  firm  of  Par- 
sons, Shepard  &  Ogden,  composed  of  John 
E.  Parsons,  the  late  Edward  M.  Shepard  and 
David  B.  Offden.  When  that  firm  dissolved 
in  190.S.  Mr.  Potts  continued  for  a  while  with 
Mr.  Parsons,  after  which  he  opened  an  office 
and  began  practice  independently.  Joseph 
Potts  was  born  at  St.  Johnsbury,  Vermont, 
September,  1873.  He  prepared  for  college  at 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy;  was  graduated 
from  Harvard  University.  A.B.,  1897,  and 
from  Harvard  Law  School,  1900.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Democratic  party,  but  never 
has  held  any  political  office. 


AUGUST  1'.  WAGENER 


A  descendant  of  a  notable  German  family, 
August  P.  Wagener  comes  naturally  by  those 
traits  which  have  enabled  him  to  overcome 
every  obstacle  and  build  up  a  large  legal 
practice  in  New  York  City,  to  which  he  came 
in  1870  absolutely  unknown  and  with  no  in- 
fluence to  help  him  in  his  uphill  fight.  He, 
however,  possessed  indomitable  will  and  de- 
termination and  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
law  and  was  soon  making  himself  known  and 
respected  in  the  courts  where  he  practiced. 
His  success  was  assured  from  the  start  and 
he  has  now  one  of  the  largest  practices  of  any 
individual  lawyer  in  the  city. 

Mr.  Wagener  was  born  in  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,  and  attended  the  public  schools  there. 
Determining  to  enter  the  legal  profession  he 
took  up  the  study  of  law  and  after  thorough 
preparation  was  admitted  to  practice  by  the 
New  York  Supreme  Court  in  1870.  He  was 
connected  with  the  National  Guard  of  New- 
York  State  for  many  years,  first  as  Adjutant 
of  the  11th  Regiment  and  then  as  acting 
captain  of  one  of  the  companies  of  the  55th 
Regiment.  During  the  Civil  War  he  served 
nine  months  with  the  12th  Regiment,  United 
States  Regulars.  He  is  a  Republican  in  politics 
and  was  once  a  candidate  for  Congress,  running 
against  ••Sunset"  Cox  and  nearly  beating  him. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


255 


EDWARD  J.  GAVEGAN 


1U\  INC.  LEHMAN 


\in  mi;  c.  S  VLMON 


ind  legislation  con- 


A  fitting  recognition  of  the  admitted  ability 
of  Edward  J.  Gavegan,  was  his  election  to 
the  Judgeship  of  the  Supreme  Court  for  the 
term  expiring  December  31,  19L23. 

Justice  Gavegan  was  horn  in  Windsor, 
Conn.  He  was  graduated  from  the  Rockville, 
Conn.,  Academy  in  188.5.  B.A.,  from  Yale  in 
188!)  and  LL.B.  from  the  Yale  Law  School 
in  1891,  being  awarded  the  Munson  prize  for 
graduating  thesis.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  the  same  year  and  at  once  entered  into 
active  practice,  becoming  counsel  for  the  Mer- 
chants'  and  Manufacturers'  Board  of  Trade. 
He  has  always  been  deeply  interested  in  bal- 
lot reform,  tariff  reform 
cerning  employers'  liability 

Justice  Gavegan  is  a  member  of  the  Bar 
Association  of  New  York  City,  the  Society  of 
Medical  Jurisprudence.  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon 
fraternity.  West  End  Association.  Xavier 
Alumni  Sociality.  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul.  Knight  of  Columbus,  and  the  Yale, 
Manhattan.  Catholic  and  Oakland  Golf  Club. 

Among  the  popular  members  of  the  bench 
at  present,  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  [rving 
Lehman,  born  in  this  city  in  January,  1876; 
he  completed  academic  and  law  courses  at 
Columbia  College  in  1896  and  1898.  In  tin- 
law  school,  he  won  the  Tappan  prize  in  Con- 
stitutional Law.  lie  practiced  for  ten  years 
as  a  member  of  Marshall.  Guran  &  Williams; 
subsequently,  the  firm  became  Worcester. 
Williams  &  Lehman.     lie  was  recently  elected 


Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket  for  fourteen  years,  a  greal 
tribute  to  so  young  a  man. 

Among  New  York  lawyers  who  have  main- 
tained a  place  in  the  front  rank  of  their  pro- 
fession for  many  years  is  Arthur  C.  Salmon, 
born  in  Brooklyn  in  1853;  he  attended  the 
Adelphi  Academy  and  then  went  to  the 
Stamford  Military  Institute,  where  he  was 
graduated  first  lieutenant.  He  spent  two 
years  in  Europe,  studying  languages,  after 
which  he  returned  to  New  York  to  attend 
Columbia  Law  School,  being  articled  as  a 
clerk  in  the  office  of  the  late  Homer  A.  Nel- 
son. ex-Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Salmon  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1876,  since  which  time 
he  has  been  active  in  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. He  was  associated  with  Judge  Jasper 
W.  Gilbert  as  a  commission  to  revise  the 
Charter  of  the  City  of  Brooklvn, — known  as 
Chapter  .583,  Laws  of  1888.  He  was  Assist- 
ant Corporation  Counsel  of  Brooklyn  for  six 
years  and  was  appointed  law  member  of  the 
Board  of  Taxes  and  Assessments  under  the 
Consolidation  Act,  serving  from  1898  to  1902. 
He  is  a  very  prominent  member  of  the  Royal 
Arcanum  and  a  life  member  of  Acanthus 
Lodge,  ?1<),  E.  &  A.  M.  and  of  Scottish  Rite 
bodies.  Mr.  Salmon  has  always  been  an 
active  Democrat,  serving  for  twenty-six  years 
on  the  County  Committee  of  Kings  County. 
In  1910  he  was  appointed  Justice  of  Special 
Sessions  by  Mayor  (iaynor  for  a  term  of  eight 
years. 


256 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


FRANK   KECK 


A.  J.  DITTENHOEFER 


HENRY  E.  HoWLAND 


Fifty-four  years  at  the  New  York  bar,  and 
still  in  practice  for  the  very  love  of  it.  is  a 
wonderful  record!  What  a  multitude  of  in- 
teresting  experiences  are  crowded  into  such 
a  busy  life!  Ex-Judge  A.  J.  Dittenhoefer 
has  recently  retired  from  practice  in  the  courts, 
but  he  tells  me  he  will  continue  to  work  as 
counsel  and  to  feel  the  same  active  interest 
in  public  affairs  he  always  has  done.  He 
was  born  at  Charleston.  S.  (\.  March,  1836; 
but  his  parents  moved  to  New  York  when  he 
was  four  years  old,  where  he  was  given  care- 
ful preparation  for  Columbia  College  and 
graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class.  After  ad- 
mission to  the  bar  at  21,  he  was  nominated 
by  Republicans  at  the  age  of  22  as  Justice  of 
the  City  Court.  lie  was  later  appointed  to 
that  office  by  Gov.  Fenton.  lie  was  a  Lin- 
coln elector  in  1864,  but  he  declined  the  posi- 
tion of  United  States  District  Judge  for  South 
Carolina,  tendered  by  President  Lincoln— 
although  he  was  Southern  born,  he  didn't 
believe  in  "carpet-bag"  offices.  It  is  impos- 
sible in  a  brief  sketch  even  to  mention  the 
important  cases  or  the  high  compliments  that 
have  been  showered  upon  this  brilliant  lawyer. 

Relinquishing  his  law  practice  to  take  up 
arms  for  his  country.  .Major  Frank  Keck 
made  an  enviable  record  during  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  lie  was  born  in  New  "V  ork 
City,  January  ^N.  1853,  and  graduated  B.  S. 
from  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York 
and  LL.B.  from  Columbia  University,  com- 
mencing the  practice  of  law  in  1  s  7  ."> . 


In  the  Spanish-American  War  he  was 
Major  of  the  3rd  Battalion.  71st  X.  Y. 
Volunteers,  and  was  named  for  the  brevet 
of  Lieutenant-Colonel  for  bravery  in  the  battle 
of  San  Juan  Hill.  He  also  served  in  the 
Philippines,  taking  part  in  many  battles  and 
assisting  in  instituting  civil  government  in 
several  towns.  For  this  service  he  was  com- 
mended  by  the  district  commander. 

After  the  war  Major  Keck  resumed  the 
practice  of  law  and  has  offices  at  No.  L2!) 
Broadway.  He  is  Past  Department  Com- 
mander of  the  Spanish-American  War  Veter- 
ans. Recorder-in-chief  of  the  Naval  and  Mili- 
tarv  Order  of  the  Spanish-American  War.  and 
Treasurer  of  the  War  Veterans'  Association 
of  the  71st  Regiment.  He  belongs  to  the 
Masonic  fraternity,  being  a  member  of  Kane 
Lodge,  No.  4>4,  and  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Military  Order  of  Carabao,  the  New  York 
County  Lawyers'  Association.  Military  Service 
Institute.  Military  Order  of  Foreign  Wars. 
Phi  Gamma  Delta  fraternity  and  the  Army 
and  Navy  and  New  York  Athletic  clubs. 

A  philanthropic  spirit  is  a  strong  com- 
ponent of  the  character  of  Henry  Elias  IIow- 
tand.  Born  at  Walpole,  X.  II..  he  was 
educated  at  Yale  University  and  at  the  Har- 
vard Law  School.  Joining  in  the  peaceful 
invasion  of  this  city,  he  became  associated 
with  John  Sherwood  and  remained  his  partner 
for  twenty-one  years.  He  later  entered  into 
partnership  with  Henry  II.  Anderson,  who 
died  in  1896.      He  is  at  present  associated  with 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


257 


Mr.  George  W.  Murray  and  with  his  son. 
Charles  P.  How  land.  During  Judge  How- 
land's  long  and  useful  life,  he  has  served  as 
president  of  the  Tax  Department  under  ap- 
pointment of  Mayor  Cooper,  and  has  twice  been 
a  candidate  for  judicial  office,  lie  was  ap- 
pointed Judge  of  the  City  Court  by  the  pres- 
ent Governor,  John  A.  I)i\.  Judge  How- 
land  has  been  president  of  the  University 
Club  and  of  the  New  England  Society  and  is 
a  member  of  the  Century,  Yale  and  several 
leading  clubs. 


As  we  have  seen  elsewhere,  the  printing 
office  is  an  excellent  schooling  for  men  who 
expect  to  enter  professions  demanding  a  knowl- 
edge of  their  fellow  mortals.  A  young  lad, 
who  had  been  born  in  Germany  thirteen 
years  before,  became  a  copy  boy  in  the  office 
of  the  Brooklyn  Union,  in  1864.  His  name 
was  Henry  S.  Rasquin,  and,  as  a  product  of 
the  public  schools,  he  was  quick,  intelligent 
and  ambitious.  AVhen  of  legal  age,  he  became 
Equity  Clerk  in  the  County  Clerk's  office  in 
Kings   County.      While   there,    he  studied    law 


rAMES  D    BELL 


HENRY  S.  RASQUIN 


|i  ilIN    \YH  AU.N 


In  the  memorable  year  of  '61,  James  1). 
Bell  left  what  is  now  the  University  of 
the  City  of  New  York  to  respond  to  the  call 
for  fighting  men.  He  joined  the  First  Xew 
York  Mounted  Rifles  and  participated  in 
some  important  engagements.  He  was 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  Returning, 
after  five  years,  to  Xew  York,  with  the  rank 
of  first  sergeant,  he  spent  eight  years  at  news- 
paper ami  magazine  work.  He  studied  law 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1880.  Since 
that  time.  Colonel  Bell  has  capably  filled 
many  important  offices.  He  was  the  organ- 
izer, trustee  and  president  for  some  years  of 
the  Brooklyn  Bar  Association.  He  has  Keen 
particularly  active  in  (I.  A.  R.  affairs  and  is  a 
member  of  a  number  of  various  important 
societies.  Colonel  Bell,  at  present,  holds  the 
office  of  Assistant  Corporation  Counsel  in 
charge  of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn. 


and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1X7(1.  Al- 
though devoted  to  the  profession  of  law.  and 
to  a  partnership  formed  with  Hugo  Hirsh.  he 
became  active  in  the  National  Guard  of  New- 
York.  He  gave  thirty  years  to  this  work,  and 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  commanded  the 
Third  Battery  of  Artillery.  He  retired  from 
active  service  with  the  brevet  rank  of  Major. 
He  has  always  had  a  taste  for  politics  and  was 
Commissioner  of  Records  in  Kings  County 
for  three  years.  Major  Rasquin  is  a  Repub- 
lican and  a  member  of  several  clubs. 

Enthusiasm  for  the  national  game  doesn't 
have  to  be  born  in  a  man;  he  has  only  to  attend 
a  few  well-played  games  and  love  of  the  sport 
develops  as  naturally  as  the  measles.  The 
greatest  men  in  America  become  boys  again 
in  the  seventh  inning  and  we  see.  as  well  as 
hear,  them  gesticulating  and  shouting  direc- 
tions  to  the  umpire.      John  Whalen,  is  a    Xew 


258 


THE    HOOK    of  XEW    YORK 


Yorker  from  'way  hack;  so  he  turned  this 
enthusiasm  to  account  by  becoming  vice- 
president  and  treasurer  of  the  New  York 
Baseball  Club.  "Giants"  they  are.  in  their 
invincible  skill,  as  well  as  in  name!  Mr. 
Whalen  was  horn  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  1864, 
which,  lie  insists,  accounts  for  his  unequivocal 
patriotism.  His  father  died  when  he  was  a 
child  and  his  raising  fell  wholly  upon  his 
mother.  Early.  John  deeided  to  become  a 
lawyer.  He  started  as  errand  hoy  in  the 
office  of  Charles  O'Conor,  rose  to  he  a  clerk 
and  then  entered  the  Law  School  of  New  York 
University.  He  was  graduated  LL.B.,  and 
later  received  honorary  A.M.,  from  St.  John's 
College  and  LL.D.  from  St.  Francis  Xavier 
and  Manhattan  Colleges.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  1878,  and  devoted  himself  especially 
to  corporation  and  real  estate  practice.  Poli- 
tics had  much  attraction  for  him.  He  was 
appointed  Tax  Commissioner  in  May.  IS!).'!, 
and  in  1898  was  named  Corporation  Counsel 
by  Mayor  Van  Wyck.  While  in  that  office 
he  assisted  in  breaking  ground  for  the  first 
subway,  lie  is  a  member  of  many  clubs,  but 
is  fonder  of  baseball  than  any  other  sport. 


WALTER   II.  BOND 


Among   the   younger   members   of   the    bar 
who  hail  from  Massachusetts  is  Walter  Hunt- 
torn    at    Waltham,    in    1878, 


ington     Bond 


educated  at  the  Pratt  Institute  and  graduated 
in  law  at  the  University  of  Michigan.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1901,  served  in  the  office 
of  Judge  James  B.  Dill  for  two  years  and 
then  organized  the  law  firm  of  Pond  &  Pah- 
son.  He  is  distinctly  a  corporation  lawyer 
and  in  the  interests  of  large  enterprises  has 
traveled  extensively  throughout  the  Fluted 
Slates.  Canada  and  Europe.  In  politics,  he 
is  a  Republican;  in  religion,  a  Baptist.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Order  of  Founders  and 
Patriots  of  America,  the  Society  of  Colonial 
Wars,  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  New 
England  Society.  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  and  several  Xew  York  clubs.  His  chief 
recreation  is  mountain  climbing  and  lie  holds 
records  for  ascending  Mts.  Rainier,  Hood, 
ami  other  peaks  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  as  well  as  Mt.  Plane  and  some  less 
famous  European  peaks.  In  1909  he  estab- 
lished a  new  world's  record  in  the  ascension  of 
Mt.  Plane  which  is  his  climax  in  tall  moun- 
tain climbing.  His  club  affiliations  would 
indicate  intense  patriotism  and  love  of  Amer- 
ican institutions. 

Another  veteran  of  the  Spanish  War  is 
Michael  Gavin,  2nd,  who  saw  seven  years  of 
active  service  with  that  smart  corps.  Squadron 
A.  X.  G.  S.  X.  Y.  Michael  Gavin,  2nd,  horn 
at  Memphis.  Tenn..  November,  1S7.S.  was 
graduated  from  Yale,  A. P..  '95,  and  LL.B., 
'!)7.  After  spending  several  months  of  travel 
abroad,  he  became  associated  with  the  firm 
of  Reed,  Simpson,  Thatcher  &  Bartlett,  of 
which  firm  the  late  ex-Speaker  Thomas  Reed 
was  the  head.  Since  1901,  he  has  been  in 
charge  of  the  legal  a  Hairs  of  Moore  &  Schley. 
He  is  President  and  Director  of  the  Howe 
Sound  Company,  Vice-President  and  Director 
of  the  Dally  Peet  Sugar  Company,  Secre- 
tary-Treasurer and  Director  of  the  Coal 
(reck  Mining  «.\:  Manufacturing  Company, 
and  a  director  of  the  Preece  Mining  Com- 
pany, of  the  Chasmar-Winchell  Press, 
Mercedes  Mining  Company,  Poplar  Creek 
Coal  &:  Iron  Company,  West  Mountain  Tram- 
way Company,  and  of  the  Lenoir  City  Com- 
pany. Mr.  Gavin  is  a  keen  rider  to  hounds 
and  a  member  of  the  Yale  Club,  and  of  the 
Phi  Delta  Phi  (law)  and  Psi  Upsilon  frater- 
nities. 


THE    BOOK   <;/'  NEW   YORK 


259 


Back  in  1!)01  the  daily  papers  had  an  item 
about  a  youthful  lawyer  who  was  acting  for 
a  plaintiff  in  the  trial  of  a  case  in  one  of  the 
city  courts,    and  during  the  progress  of  the 
trial  was  informed  by  his  client  that  the  de- 
fendant   was    politically    affiliated     with     the 
Court.    During  the  argument  of  the  opposing 
counsel,  the  Court   interrupted   with  the  an- 
nouncement that  he  considered  the  position  of 
the   defendant   untenable,  and    it   seemed    im- 
possible to  entertain  his  contention,  as  it   was 
at  variance  with  the   testimony.      'The  youth- 
ful lawyer  for  the  plaintiff,  being  momentarily 
confused,  was  under  the  impression  that   the 
Court    was    deciding    against    his    client,      lie 
jumped  to  his  feet  and  interrupting  with  rapid 
language  and  piercing  tones  exclaimed  :  *'\  our 
Honor,  the  result  financially  of  this  case  to  the 
plaintiff  or  the  defendant  is  of  no  consequence; 
the  result  is  of  no  consequence  as  far  as  1  am 
personally  concerned,  for  I  am  nothing  hut  a 
poor,   miserable,  half-starved  assistant   in  the 
office    of   the    attorney    for   the    plaintiff    and 
amount  to  very  little  in  my  profession  or  on 
earth  or  in  Heaven  or  in  Hell;  this  ( 'ourf  is  of  no 
consequence.  Your  Honor  is  of  no  consequence, 
hut  the  principle  involved  in  this  cast'  repre- 
sents moral  justice,  and  the  law  intends  there 
shall  he  a  remedy  for  every  wrong — therefore, 
let  this  wrong  he  righted.      Let  this  principle 
of  justice  triumph,. and  let  this  plaintiff  and 
this  defendant  and  this  Court  including  Your 
Honor  and    myself,  go  down  to   hell — hut   let 
justice  lie  done,  and  I  solemnly  pledge  Your 
Honor  if  justice  is  not  done  here  and  now,  that 
somewhere  in  some  court  1  shall  obtain  justice 
in  this  case  or  erase  my  name  from  the  rolls 
of  my  profession  and  enter  the  profession  of 
ditch    diggers."     The    Court    promptly    fined 
the  young  attorney  ten  dollars — presumably  for 
consigning   himself  to  the   lower  regions  with 
the  others  involved  and  then  staled:      'Young 
man,  hail    you    been    listening    carefully    you 
would  have  understood  that   I   was  giving  ex- 
pression  to   that   which   practically   amounted 
to  a  decision   in  your  favor."     It   afterward 
developed  that   not  only  was  the  Judge  of  an 
entirely  different  political  party  than  the  de- 
fendant, but  that  they  were  both  unknown  to 
each  other.     The  young  attorney  of  whom  the 
above  account    was   written    was    Marshall    A. 


Harney,  who  to-day  stands  as  one  of  the  fore- 
most corporation  attorneys  not  only  of  New 
York  but  many  countries;  in  bis  practice  being 
often  retained  as  associate  counsel  by  attor- 
neys in  Paris,  London.  Berlin  and  the  large 
Canadian  and  South  American  cities  and 
occupying  the  position  of  having  incorporated, 


MARSHALL  A.  BARNEY 


personally  and  acting  with  associate  counsel. 
perhaps  more  companies  than  any  living  man 
since  the  decease  of  James  B.  Dill. 

In  recalling  this  incident  Mr.  Barney  said: 
"Although  the  laugh  was  on  me  in  that  mat- 
ter, it  was  the  turning  point  in  my  career.  On 
that  very  day  I  was  employed  as  permanent 
trial  counsel  by  one  of  the  largest  law  firms 
in  New  York  at  a  salary  of  live  times  the 
amount    I    had    been    receiving    the    day    pre- 


260 


THE  BOOK  of   XFW  YORK 


viously,  but  I  had  a  woeful  time  getting  $10. 
with  which  to  pay  that  Hue  The  late  Justice 
James  B.  Dill,  author  of  "Dill  on  Corpora- 
tions," once  said:  "Barney  has  a  corporate 
mentality  not  acquired  alone  from  reading 
corporation  law  but  in  the  field  of  a  large 
experience  that  fairly  incubates  corporations 
by  the  score."  Mr.  Barney  has  never  been 
ii'i  politics,  but  on  the  contrary  has  confined 
his  efforts  entirely  to  his  law  practice. 

When  1  was  managing  editor  of  the  World. 
1    had   frequent   occasion   to   consult    its   legal 
advisor.   De  Lancey   Nicoll.      He   was  then  a 
young  man,  almost  my  own  age,  and  1  grew 
much  attached  to  him.      Although  he  was  in 
the  early  thirties,   he   had   already   attained  a 
prominent   standing   in    his   profession   owing 
to   success    as    an  Assistant    District    Attorney 
of   New    York   County  in 
the     prosecution     of    the 
boodle  aldermen,   placed 
in  his  hands  by  his  chief. 
Randolph     B.     Martine. 
His    first    important   case 
had    been    that    of    Ser- 
geant ( Irowley,  whose  trial 
and      conviction      caused 
much   excitement   at    the 
time.      The  collapse  of  a 
building  under  construc- 
tion by  one  Buddensick, 
in    which    several    people 
were  killed,  and  the  trial 
that     followed,     resulting 
in  the  conviction  and  im- 
prisonment  of  the  crimi- 
ally    negligent    contrac- 
tor,    was    Mr.     Nicoll's 
next  success.     The  trial  of  Gen.  Shaler,  for 
irregularities  in  connection  with  armory  sites, 
soon  followed,  and  the  culminating  case  was 
that  of  Ferdinand  Ward,  of  Grant   &  Ward, 
by    whose    failure    General    Grant    was    im- 
poverished.    Ward   was  the  original   "Napo- 
leon   of    Finance"    who    undertook    to   enrich 
himself  by  using  other  people's  money;   Mr. 
Nicoll  secured  a  long  term  in  prison  for  him. 
It  was  a   brilliant  page  in   the  reformation  of 
New    York.     Day    after    day.    trains    carried 
convicted    boodlers  and   frenzied    financiers   to 
Sine  Siiiir.     Mr.  Nicoll  became  a  popular  idol 


DE  LANCEY  NICOLL 


in  the  metropolis  and  his  election  to  the  office 
of  District  Attorney,  in  1890,  followed  natur- 
ally a  post  he  held  with  entire  credit  for  three 
years.  He  then  began  practice  for  himself  and 
clients  came  in  troops  to  his  offices. 

De  Lancey  Xicoll  was  born  on  Shelter 
Island  in  1854,  but  his  family  home  was  in 
Flushing.  lie  prepared  for  college  at  St. 
Paul's  School.  Concord,  X.  IF,  and  then 
entered  Princeton  University,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  1874.  Thence  he  went  to  Co- 
lumbia Law  School,  in  the  glorious  lecture- 
room  davs  of  Dr.  Dwight.  Getting  his  de- 
cree, he  was  taken  into  the  office  of  Clarkson 
N.     Potter,     brother    of     Bishop     Potter.      He 


T.    Da  vies  before 

o    the    bar.    after 

for   himself.      He 

Lewis    dv:    Xicoll 

important    cases 


served   a    year   with    Julian 
he    applied    for    admission 
which   he  opened   an   office 
entered   the   firm   of   Eaton 
in    1882    and    won    several 
while  so  associated. 

Mr.  Xicoll  was  always  actively  interested 
in  politics.  He  was  on  the  stump  in  presidential 
campaigns  from  1876  to  1892.  He  had  always 
been  a  Democrat  but  balked  at  Bryan's  silver 
heresies  and  voted  for  McKinley  in  1896  and 
1 !)()().  Mr.  Xicoll  is  a  member  of  many 
social  organizations,  including  the  Union, 
Metropolitan,  Racquet,  University,  Manhat- 
tan, Rockaway  Hunt,  Tuxedo,  Lawyers'.  Ards- 
ley,  Democratic  and  Country  clubs,  and  the 
St.  Nicholas  Society. 

Samuel  Hiker,  Jr..  was  born  in  Paris.  May 
17.  1866,  the  son  of  the  late  John  L.  Hiker, 
who  was  a  prominent  business  man  in  the  last 
generation  and  the  founder  of  the  house  of 
J.  L.  &  D.  S.  Hiker,  of  which  Samuel  Hiker, 
Jr.,  is  vice-president. 

The  family  has  been  prominent  in  New 
York  since  it  was  known  as  Xew  Netherlands, 
the  forebears  being  the  Yon  Rickers  of  Amster- 
dam, Holland,  many  of  whom  took  part  in 
the  ereat  contest  that  William  of  Nassau  made 
for  Dutch  independence. 

The  founder  of  the  family  in  America  was 
Abraham  Rycker,  who  was  registered  in  1042 
as  living  on  his  own  premises  at  "Heeren 
Grachf  on  the  Old  Dutch  Road,"  which  is 
now  Broad  and  Beaver  Streets.  In  Ki.54  the 
Director-General    Peter    Stuyvesant    granted 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


26 


PETER  T.  BAUI.nW 


SAMUEL  RIKER,  Jr. 


Ri  IBERT  H.  HIBBAUD 


Abraham  Rycker  one-fourth  of  the  township 
of  Newtown  on  Long  Island.  Much  of  the 
land  has  been  sold,  but  the  old  Riker  Home- 
stead, comprising  130  acres,  and  the  old  bury- 
ing ground  is  still  held  bv  the  family. 

Samuel  Riker.  great-grandson  of  Abraham 
Rycker.  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  and  afterwards  became  a  member  of  the 
State  Assembly  and  served  two  terms  in 
Congress.  The  youngest  of  his  nine  children 
was  John  Lawrence  Riker,  the  grandfather 
of  Samuel  Riker.  Jr.,  a  leading  lawyer  for 
over  fifty  years. 

Samuel  Riker.  Jr.,  was  educated  in  Ever- 
son's  Collegiate  School.  New  York  City,  and 
Columbia  Law  School,  graduating  in  ISScS 
with  the  degree  of  LL.B.  He  then  entered 
the  office  of  his  uncle,  Samuel  Riker.  as  a 
student  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1890. 

When  Samuel  Riker.  Sr..  retired  from  prac- 
tice in  1893,  Mr.  Riker  formed  a  partnership 
with  Edward  R.  DeGrove,  which  continued 
until  January.  1910.  Since  that  time  he  has 
been  alone,  having  a  general  practice,  con- 
sisting of  real  estate, estate  and  corporation  law. 

Mr.  Riker  is  a  director  in  a  number  of  cor- 
porations, lie  is  a  member  of  the  Delta  Phi 
Fraternity,  the  Automobile  Club  of  America, 
Down  Town  Association.  Sons  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. St.  Nicholas  Society  and  the  Columbia, 
University.  City.  Manhattan.  Racquet  and 
Tennis.   Rumson   Country  and   Union   clubs. 

For  many  years  Peter  T.  Barlow,  has  been 
one  of  the  best-known  judges  on  the  bench  of 


the  City  Courts.  Judge  Barlow,  the  son  of 
Samuel  L.  M.  Barlow,  of  the  law  firm  of 
Shipman,  Barlow,  Larocque  &  Choate,  was 
born  in  New  York  City,  June  21,  is.)?,  and 
after  thorough  preparation  entered  Harvard 
University,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1ST!) 
with  the  degree  of  A.B.  Deciding  to  follow 
his  father's  profession,  he  entered  the  Colum- 
bia Law  School  and  in  1SS1  was  graduated 
LL.B.  After  admission  to  the  Bar  he  com- 
menced a  general  practice  in  which  he  con- 
tinued until  his  appointment  as  a  city  magis- 
trate, his  term  expiring  May  1st.  191.'?.  Judge 
Barlow  is  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Colonial 
Wars.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Union,  Uni- 
versity, Harvard.  Down  Town  and  American 
Yacht  clubs. 

Those  who  personally  know  Robert  II.  Hib- 
bard  are  not  surprised  that  he  has  been  success- 
ful as  a  lawyer.  He  served  on  the  police 
force  as  patrolman  and  detective  and  was 
noted  for  his  activity  and  integrity.  When 
he  resigned  to  take  up  the  practice  of  law  he 
brought  the  same  fidelity  and  honesty  of  pur- 
pose to  his  new  profession  with  the  result  that 
he  immediately  secured  a  large  clientele. 

Mr.  Ilibbard  was  born  in  Taconia.  Wash- 
ington. May  .SO.  1ST.'),  the  son  of  Major  George 
B.  Hibbard,  who  was  on  the  stall'  of  General 
George  II.  Thomas,  during  the  Civil  Wir. 
He  was  brought  to  New  York  City  when  a 
child  and  educated  at  the  Peekskill  Military 
Academy  after  which  he  became  affected  with 
"Wanderlust"  and  was  in  succession  rodman 


262 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


SAMCICL  T.   MAI  U)i  iX 


JOHN   FORD 


THOMAS  C.  T.  CHAIN 


and  transitman  in  survey  work,  brakeman 
and  dock  builder,  not  settling  down  until  he 
was  appointed  to  the  police  force  in  1895. 
For  seven  years  he  served  as  patrolman,  ward- 
man,  and  eventually  Central  Office  detective 
on  the  stall's  of  Inspectors  Brooks  and  Walsh. 
He  made  an  enviable  record  in  each  position 
despite  the  fact  that  every  moment  was  used 
in  preparing  for  a  bar  examination  and  in 
studies  at  the  New  York  University  Law 
School  and  at  the  New  York  Law  School. 
From  the  first  institution  he  graduated  LL.B. 
in  1902  and  LL.M.  from  the  latter  one  year 
later.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1903 
and  at  once  started  practice  at  No.  L2L20  Broad- 
way where  he  lias  been  located  ever  since, 
conducting  a  general  practice,  representing 
large  contracting  companies  and  acting  as 
counsel  in  many  cases  involving  the  construc- 
tion of  railroads.  He  served  as  Special 
Deputy  Attorney  General  in  l!)<):>-4,  is  a 
member  of  the  local  School  Hoard  No.  14, 
and  was  recently  appointed  by  Governor  Dix 
a  member  of  the  Hoard  of  Managers  of  the 
Central  [slip  State  Hospital.  He  is  active 
in  politics  and  is  a  member  of  the  general 
committee,  15th  Assembly  District,  Tam- 
many Hall.  He  also  belongs  to  the  West  Side 
and  Amsterdam  Democratic  Clubs,  the  Col- 
umbia Yacht  (  Hub  and  the  Masonic  fraternity. 
An  anient  sportsman  and  an  able  jurist  is 
John  Ford.  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Xew  York  State,  who  was  born  in  Knowles- 


ville,  X.  Y.,  1862.  In  1S!)0  he  was  graduated 
from  Cornell  with  the  degree  of  A.B.  and  then 
removed  to  New  York  City.  Embarking  in 
the  profession  of  journalism,  in  1890,  Mr. 
Ford  studied  law  and,  always  taking  an  active 
interest  in  municipal  ami  state  politics,  he 
was  chosen  State  Senator  in  1896  and  served 
until  1900.  He  was  elected  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  in  1906  on  the 
Democratic  and  Independent  tickets.  Justice 
Ford  is  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  belongs  to 
several  fraternal  organizations,  beside  the  Cor- 
nell Lhiiversity,  Canadian  Camp,  Campfire 
and  Dalcassion  clubs. 

That  famous  trans-Atlantic  liner,  the  "  May- 
flower," carried  a  distinguished  passenger  list. 
Probably  much  of  the  distinction  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  many  descendants  of  that  ship's  com- 
pany have  acquired  fame  and  preeminence 
among  their  fellows.  Three  passengers  on 
that  frail  hark  were  ancestors  of  Thomas  C. 
T.  Crain.  Judge  Crain,  however,  is  a  real 
Xew  Yorker,  horn  in  this  city  in  1860.  He 
was  educated  in  Germany,  Italy  and  England. 
Returning  to  his  native  land,  he  studied  law 
and  became  associated  with  the  firm  of  Flatt  & 
How ers.  After  practicing  in  various  partner- 
ships and  independently,  Judge  Crain  traveled 
in  Europe  for  several  years  and  became 
United  States  Vice-  and  Deputy-Consul  at 
Milan.  He  has  held  various  important  muni- 
cipal and  state  positions,  being  for  a  time 
Deputy  Attorney-General  for  this  state.     He 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


2(i3 


was  elected  Judge  of  the  Court  of  General 
Sessions  in  1906,  which  office  he  still  holds. 
The  reforms  instituted  and  carried  out  by 
Collector  Loeh  in  the  New  York  Customs 
Service  have  been  rendered  possible  by  the 
efficient  aids  he  has  gathered  'round  him. 
One  of  these  coadjutors  of  reform  is  Francis 
W.  Bird,  a  young  lawyer  barely  thirty  years 
of  age,  who  holds  the  important  post  of 
Appraiser.     Since    accepting    office    early    in 


United  States  District  Attorney  under  Henry 
L.  Stimson,  now  Secretary  of  War  in  Presi- 
dent Tal'I's  Cabinet.  In  December  of  that 
year.  Mr.  Bird  was  transferred  as  United 
States  District  Attorney  at  New  Orleans,  where 
he  conducted  an  investigation  into  alleged 
frauds  in  the  importation  of  sugar.  As  a 
result  of  his  report  to  the  Attorney  General, 
he  came  under  the  favorable  notice  of 
President    Taft    and     Lloyd    C.    Griscom,    the 


FRANCIS  W.   I'.IIMi 


CIl  MILES  H.  STOA  I   R 


1911,  he  has  been  the  resolute  foe  of  dishonest 
importers  who  have  been  systematically  under- 
valuing their  goods  brought  to  this  port.  Mr. 
Bird  was  born  in  East  Walpole,  Mass.,  July. 
1881.  His  father  is  a  large  New  England 
manufacturer.  Young  Bird  attended  the  Hill 
School  at  Pottstown,  Pa.,  and  later  entered 
Harvard  University,  from  which  he  was  grad- 
uated in  1!)()4  and  subsequently  spent  two 
years  at  the  Harvard  Law  School.  He  was 
soon  appointed  Assistant  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  the  southern  district  of  Ne"W 
York.     In  1901,  he  became  a  special  Assistant 


Republican    leader    of    this    State,    asked    his 
appointment  as  Appraiser  of  this  Port. 

Since  the  rise  to  professional  supremacy  of 
the  corporation  lawyer,  many  young  men  have 
directed  their  talents  in  that  direction.  Wil- 
liam Wilson  Miller  was  born  in  Washington, 
1).  C  1870.  Educated  at  Princeton  University, 
he  subsequently  took  a  course  at  the  National 
University,  Washington.  He  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  1891  and  soon  came  to  New 
York.  His  father  was  William  .1.  Miller,  a 
leader  of  the  District  bar,  having  a  large  prac- 
tice before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 


264 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


W'll.I.IAM    \V     MILI.KK 


Hli',11  GORDl  iN   MILLER 


SAMUEL  I'    McCONNELL 


States.  In  New  York,  Mr.  Miller  became 
a  clerk  in  the  office  of  Hornblower,  Byrne  & 
Taylor,  and  became  a  member  of  the  firm  in 
18!)4.  lie  is  now  the  second  member  of  the 
firm  of  Hornblower,  Miller  &  Potter,  of  which 
firm  William  B.  Hornblower  is  the  senior 
member.  lie  has  been  associated  in  an  ad- 
visory or  executive  capacity  with  innumerable 
railroads,  banks,  trust  companies  and  manu- 
facturing corporations.  I  recall  a  very  good 
story  about  Mr.  Miller,  told  in  connection 
with  his  Hist  employment  by  Mr.  Hornblower. 
He  managed  to  see  the  distinguished  lawyer, 
but  was  assured  that  no  vacancy  existed. 
Young  Miller  claimed  that  it'  he  were  allowed 
to  remain,  lie  would  find  something  to  do. 
This  amused  Hornblower,  who  said.  '"Well, 
young  man.  if  you  think  there  is  anything  in 
this  office  not  thoroughly  looked  after,  you 
may  make  an  effort  to  discover  it."  When 
asked  when  he  would  be  ready  to  begin,  he 
replied:  "I  will  remain  now;  I  don't  want  to 
take  any  risk  of  not  getting  in.  if  once  I  get 
out."  He  was  shown  a  desk  and  place  to 
hang  his  hat.  Evidently,  the  young  man 
found  something  to  do.  for.  three  years  later, 
he  was  taken  into  the  firm.  He  is  a  member 
of  most  of  the  prominent  clubs  of  New  York 
as  well  as  the  Metropolitan  of  Washington. 
Virginia  is  not  only  "the  Mother  of  Presi- 
dents" but  of  lawyers.  Among  the  young  and 
active  members  of  the  legal  profession  in  this 
city  is  Hugh  Gordon  Miller,  who.  at  the  age 


of  .'5(>.  has  taken  high  rank  as  a  prosecuting 
lawyer.  He  was  born  March.  1875,  at  Nor- 
folk, his  ancestors,  who  came  to  America  150 
years  ago,  being  members  of  the  Gordon  chin 
of  Scotland.  After  serving  as  deputy  clerk  of 
the  Norfolk  Corporation  Court  until  189(5,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  practiced  in  the 
state  and  federal  courts  of  Virginia  until  1904, 

two  years  of  which  time  he  acted  as  Assistant 
United  States  Attorney.  President  Roosevelt 
made  him  a  special  assistant  to  the  Attorney- 
General  of  the  Tinted  States  in  1908  and  gave 
him  charge  of  the  litigation  growing  out  of 
the  Passaic  River  pollution  suits.  Governor 
Higgins  of  Xew  York  named  him  as  a  Com- 
missioner from  this  state  to  the  Jamestown 
Exposition.  Mr.  Miller  is  general  counsel  for 
the  Xew  York  Civil  Service  Association  and  a 
director  of  the  West  Indian  Development  Co. 
He  served  as  secretary  of  the  Robert  Fulton 
Monument  Association  and  is  a  member  of 
several  societies.  He  is  a  Republican  and  took 
the  stump  for  McKinley  during  the  Bryan 
campaign  of  li)()(). 

Another  Western  man  who  responded  to 
"the  call  of  the  city"  and  came  from  Illinois, 
where  he  was  born  at  Springfield  in  1850,  is 
Samuel  Parsons  McConnell.  distinguished 
both  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  jurist,  as  well 
as  having  been  first  vice-president  and 
then  president  of  the  George  A.  Fuller  Com- 
pany, one  of  the  largest  building  contracting 
corporations  in  the  world.      He  took  a  degree 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


2(>5 


at  Lombard  College,  Galesburg,  in  1871;  was 
admitted  to  the  Bar  the  following  year  and 
began  practicing  in  Chicago.  lie  became  a 
judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  in  1SS!)  and  while 
holding  that  position  presided  in  the  Cronm 
murder  trial  and  in  many  other  criminal  and 
civil  cases.  Judge  McConnell  is  a  man  of 
distinct  personality  and  showed  his  ability  to 
rise  above  popular  clamor  while  in  Chicago 
by  circulating  a  petition,  directed  to  Governor 
Oglesby  of  Illinois,  asking  commutation  of 
death  sentences  against  the  anarchists  Fielding 
and  Schwab  to  life  imprisonment.  His  oppo- 
sition to  the  execution  of  these  men  was  based 
solely  upon  legal  grounds,  he  believing  the 
crimes  to  be  strictly  political.  Mr.  McConnell 
personally  went  to  Springfield  with  the  peti- 
tion and  the  Governor  did  commute  the  sen- 
tences of  Fielding  and  Schwab,  and  later  they 
were  pardoned  by  Governor  Altgeld.  At- 
though  bitterly  denounced  at  the  time.  Mr. 
McConnell  was  elected  by  a  large  majority  to 
the  Judgeship  previously  mentioned  less  than 
two  years  after.  He  regards  the  preparation 
of  this  petition  the  best  thing  he  ever  did,  con- 
sidered strictly  from  a  legal  view-point. 

One  of  the  men  with  whom  I  became  ac- 
quainted on  his  arrival  in  New  York  in  1SS1 
was  (diaries  Henry  Beckett,  until  recently  Sur- 
rogate of  the  County  of  New  York,  born  in  Wil- 
liamstown.Yt.,  in  1N.>!>.  After  a  .common  school 
education  he  entered  Barre  Academy  and  was 
graduated  at  Dartmouth  College  (1881),  win- 
ning all  Hist  prizes  in  the  senior  class.  He 
entered    Columbia    Law    School,    finished    in 

1883  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar.  During 
the  following  year  he 
was  appointed  to  the 
probate  clerkship  by 
Surrogate  Rollins  and 
acquired  information 
subsequently  useful  to 
him.  He  remained  for 
a  year  under  Surro- 
gate Ransom,  Rollins' 
successor,  resigning  to 
form  the  firm  of  Boor- 
iiem, Hamilton  c!v  Beck- 
ett. Governor  Roose- 
charles  h.  beckett         velt,  in  INN!),  appointed 


him  a  trustee  of  the  Elmira  Reformatory,  and. 
with  his  associates,  Mr.  Beckett  accomplished 
important  reforms,  lie  continued  mi  the 
Elmira  Hoard  until  1903,  declining  a  reap- 
pointment by  Governor  Odell.  'To  utilize 
experience  in  the  Surrogate's  office,  he  acted 
as  counsel  in  contested  will  eases.  In  this 
line  he  is  recognized  as  an  expert  and  during 
the  years  that  followed  his  appointment  as 
Surrogate  he  took  part  in  the  trial  of  more 
contested  will  eases  than  any  lawyer  at  the 
New  ^  ork  liar.  He  is  now  one  of  the  trustees 
of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company 
and  a  member  of  the  University  Club.  City 
('lull.  Republican  Club,  the  Bar  Association, 
a  I).  K.  F.  man,  and  a  Republican. 

In  forsaking  a  possible  brilliant  military 
career  for  professional  life,  William  N.  Dvk- 
man  has  shown  his  versatility  by  becoming  one 
of  Brooklyn's  most  distinguished  lawyers. 

Mr.  Dykman  was  appointed  to  West  Point 
and  graduated  in  1875,  later  being  appointed 
lieutenant.  He  had  given  evidence  of  his 
fitness  for  military  life,  lint  the  call  of  civic 
pursuits  was  strong  and  he  resigned  to  take 
up  the  study  of  law.  After  graduation  and 
admission  to  the  New  York  Bar,  he  soon  be- 
came prominent  in  the  legal  profession  and 
on  January  7,  1898,  was  appointed  a  member 
of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  of  New  York 
City  ami   was   reappointed   January   1,   1902. 

Mr.  Dykman  is  now  a  member  of  the  law 
firm  of  Dykman.  Oeland  &  Kuhn  and  is  a 
director  in  many  Kings  County  corporations. 
He  is  president  of  the  Riding  and  Driving 
Club  and  a  member  of  the  University,  Brook- 
lyn, Hamilton.  Montauk,  Remsen  County, 
and  Frontenae  ^  aeht  clubs. 

One  of  the  best  friends  1  made  when  chosen 
Chairman  of  the  House  Committee  of  the 
D.  K.  F.  Club,  in  INN?,  was  Charles  F.  Matli- 
ewson,  an  active  young  lawyer  and  member 
of  the  fraternity.  He  was  an  interesting  and 
charming  personality.  Mr.  Mathewson  was 
born  at  Barton,  Vt.,  May.  1860;  took  a  degree 
from  Dartmouth  in  1882,  valedictorian  of  his 
class,  receiving  prizes  for  proficiency  in  Greek, 
Latin,  mathematics  and  oratory  and  being  at 
the  same  time  active  in  athletics  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  'Varsity  base-hall  and  foot-ball 
teams;  a  law  course  was  finished  at  Columbia 


266 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


in  1885,  his  admission  to  the  bar  soon  fol- 
lowing. Since  that  day  he  has  been  active 
in  his  profession-  especially  prominent  as  a 
corporation  attorney.  He  was  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Dartmouth  Club,  when  organized 
in  this  city,  and  was  president  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan Association  of  the  Amateur  Athletic  Union. 

As  general  counsel  for  the  Consolidated  Gas 
Company  in  the  celebrated  "80-cent  gas" 
fight  he  prevailed  before  the  Master  and  he- 
fore  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States; 
and  while  the  Supreme  Court  reversed  the 
judgment  without  prejudice  to  a  further  pro- 
ceeding by  that  company,  it  sustained  and 
established  practically  all  the  important  prop- 
ositions advanced  by  the  Gas  Company, 
including  its  right  to  a  return  of  at  least  six 
per  cent,  on  its  property,  the  inclusion  of  such 
property  at  its  "present  value"  as  against 
what  it  originally  cost,  and  likewise  the  in- 
clusion in  such  property  of  its  "franchises" 
which    the    State    sought    to    exclude,    and    it 

is  undersl 1  that  the  Gas  Company  is  not 

shedding  many  tears   over  the   whole   result. 

The  United  States  Customs  Service  is 
drawing  into  it  men  of  experience  and  educa- 
tion in  the  lines  of  their  work.  One  of  the 
present  incumbents  of  the  office  of  United 
States  General  Appraiser  (a  life  appointment), 
Charles  P.  McClelland,  was  horn  in  Scotland 
in  1S54.  His  parents  brought  him  here  early. 
He  received  a  public  school  education  and 
was  graduated  from  New  York  I  niversity 
Law  School  in  1882.  He  had  begun  life  as  a 
clerk  in  a  shop,  studying  law  at  nights.  Poli- 
tics had  much  attrac- 
tion for  him.  In  1884, 
he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  Assembly  for  the 
First  District  of  West- 
chester county,  and  was 
reelected  in  '85.  Pres- 
ident Cleveland  then 
appointed  him  Special 
Deputy  Collector  of 
Customs,  Port  of  New 
York.  He  held  that  po- 
sition until  1890,  when 
he  resumed  the  practice 
of  law.  A  year  later 
charles  p.  Mccielland      he   was   again   sent    to 


the  Assembly  and  became  Chairman  of  the 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  and  leader  of  his 
party  therein.  His  next  step,  in  1892,  was  to  the 
State  Senate,  where  lie  served  two  years. 
Again  in  1902  he  became  the  nominee  of  his 
party  for  Senator  from  the  Westchester  County 
district  and  was  elected.  After  he  had  served 
one  year  of  his  term  as  Senator.  President 
Roosevelt  tendered  him  an  appointment  as 
United  States  Genera]  Appraiser  and  the 
tender  was  accepted,  Mi-.  McClelland  resign- 
ing from  the  Senate.  There  are  nine  General 
Appraisers,  having  jurisdiction  of  all  matters 
arising  in  any  part  of  the  U.  S.,  Hawaii  and 
Porto  Rico.  The  office  is  non-partisan.  There 
may  be  no  more  than  five  of  any  one  party. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  St.  Andrews  Society 
and  is  a  director  of  several  charitable  insti- 
tutions. 

The  Board  of  United  States  General  Ap- 
praisers was  organized  in  1890  and  its  mem- 
bers constitute  a  Judicial  Tribunal  of  great 
value  to  the  customs  service  of  the  nation. 
The  President  of  this  Board,  since  July,  1910, 
is  Henderson  Middleton  Somerville,  born  in 
Virginia  in  1837,  and  graduated  from  the 
University  of  Alabama.  He  has  received  the 
honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Georgetown 
College.  Ky.,  the  Southwestern  University 
(Tenn.).  and  from  his  alma  muter.  lie  also 
took  a  degree  at  Cumberland  Law  School. 
He  then  became  editor  of  the  Memphis  Ap- 
peal. He  founded  the  Law  School  of  the 
University  of  Alabama  in  1S7:>.  where  he 
was  a  lecturer  on  and  professor  of  constitu- 
tional, statutory  ami  common  law  until 
1890,  during  ten  years  of  which  time  he  was 
Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Alabama,  resigning,  July,  1890,  to  assume 
the  duties  of  his  present  Federal  office  in  this 
city. 

He  has  been  President  of  the  New  York 
Medico-Legal  Society;  was  Trustee  of  the 
Alabama  Insane  Hospital  for  1?  years;  is  a 
Trustee  of  the  Peabody  Educational  Fund, 
President  of  the  Alabama  Society  of  New 
York,  and  a  member  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  New  York  Southern  Society. 
T  should  have  mentioned  that  while  in  college 
he  became  a  member  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
and  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternities. 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


"2<>1 


HENDERSON  M.  SoMERVILLE 


WILLIAM  J    GIBSON 


WILLI  \\l  C.  BEECHEB 


Justice  Somerville  is  the  author  of  the  Ala- 
bama statutes  regulating  the  trials  of  the 
criminal  insane;  also  of  the  opinion  of  the 
Alabama    Supreme   Court    in    the   celebrated 

case  of  Parsons  vs.  The  State,  reported  in  the 
81st  vol.  Ala.  Reports, — said  by  the  Chicago 
Legal  Journal  to  be  the  only  judicial  deliver- 
ance ever  published  that  completely  harmon- 
ized the  views  of  medical  and  legal, professions 
on  the  subject  of  the  responsibility  of  the  crim- 
inal insane,  and  the  proper  tests  of  insanity 
in  criminal  cases. 

Among  the  Pennsylvanians  who  have  at- 
tained prominence  in  legal  practice  in  New 
York  City,  is  William  J.  Gibson. 

Mr.  Gibson  was  born  at  Gibsonville,  Ches- 
ter County.  Pa.,  November  8,  1842,  and  was 
educated  at  New  London  Academy  and  West- 
minster College.  He  studied  law  in  West- 
chester. Pa.,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  there 
in  1865;  to  that  of  Louisiana  the  same  year 
and  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  in 
1866. 

He  was  counsel  for  the  United  States 
Treasury  Department  before  the  Boards  of 
United  States  General  Appraisers  from  1895 
to  1!)01  and  since  that  time  has  practiced 
alone  at  No.  32  Liberty  Street. 


Mr.   Gibson   was  a  member  of  tl 


1 


Cllll- 


sylvania  Military  Academy  Battery,  enlisting 
in  1863  for  three  months'  service,  and  going 
to  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  at  the  time  Lee  crossed 
the   Potomac.      lie  is  a   member  of  the  New 


York  County  Lawyers'  Association,  the  Law 
Institute  and  the  Reform  and  New  York 
Athletic  clubs. 

A  man  I  remember  as  an  efficient  Assistant 
District  Attorney  of  New  York,  before  the 
consolidation,  is  William  C.  Beeeher,  born  in 
Brooklyn.  1N1!>.  After  preliminary  studies  at 
Rand  Hill  School,  Northampton,  Mass.,  he 
was  graduated  from  Yale  in  1872,  and  then 
took  a  course  at  Columbia  Law  School.  Dur- 
ing the  progress  of  his  studies,  he  had  hesitated 
between  surgery  and  law.  but  the  latter  won 
out.  Forming  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Lewis, 
which  lasted  nine  years,  in  1895  the  firm  of 
Beeeher  &  Scoville  was  organized  and  con- 
tinued for  three  years.  Since  then  Mr. 
Beeeher  has  practiced  independently.  Much 
is  expected  of  a  man  who  at  Yale  attains 
Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  and  Scroll  and  Key, 
but  Beeeher  fully  comes  up  to  the  standard. 
He  is  a  member  of  several  prominent  clubs, 
namely,  Hamilton.  Crescent.  Rembrandt,  Dy- 
ker  Meadow,  Hardware,  Campfire  of  America. 
Campfire    of    Canada    and   Nassau    Country. 

Brevet-Brigadier  Genera]  Anson  G.  Mc(  look 
was  born  at  Steubenville,  Ohio.  October  10, 
IS.'!.'),  lie  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  New  Lisbon,  Ohio,  and  in  1854  crossed  the 
plains  to  California,  where  he  spent  several 
years,  when  he  returned  shortly  before  the 
war.  and  was  engaged  in  the  study  of  law  at 
Steubenville.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War.  he  promptly  raised  a  company  of  volun- 


■JiiS 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


ccis.  and  was  elected  Captain.  This  was  the 
first  company  to  enter  the  volunteer  service 
from  Eastern  Ohio.  He  was  assigned  to 
the  Second  Ohio  regiment,  and  took  part  in 
the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run.  July  ^21.  1861. 
Upon  the  reorganization  of  the  troops  for  three 
years,  he  was  appointed  Major  of  the  2nd 
Ohio.  August  (».  1861,  and  rose  by  death  and 
resignation  of  his  seniors  to  the  rank  of  ( 'olonel. 
December  31,  1862.  At  the  battle  of  Peach 
Tree  ("reek,  near  Atlanta.  July  20,  1864,  he 
commanded  a  brigade,  lie  was  in  action  in 
many  of  the  principal  battles  of  the  West, 
including  those  of  Perryville,  Stone  River. 
Lookout  Mountain.  Missionary  Ridge,  Resaca. 
etc..  serving  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland. 
After  the  muster  out  of  the  L2nd  Ohio,  at  the 
dose  of  its  three  years'  service.  October  1(1. 
1S(i4.  he  was  appointed  Colonel  of  the  One 
Hundred  and  Ninety-fourth  Ohio,  in  March. 
1865,  and  was  ordered  to  Virginia,  where  he 
was  assigned  to  command  a  brigade.  He 
was  brevetted  a  Brigadier  General,  March  1:5. 
1865.  He  returned  to  Steubenville,  whence, 
after  several  years'  residence,  lie  removed  to 
New  York  city  in  IS?.'?,  his  present  residence. 
He  served  six  years  in  Congress  from  the 
Eighth  New  York  district,  in  the  Forty-fifth, 
Forty-sixth  and  Forty-seventh  Congresses.  He 
was  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Senate 
from  December  IS.  1SS.'?.  to  August  7.  IS!).'?, 
and  Chamberlain  of  the  City  of  New  York 
From  August  1.  1895,  to  January  1.  1898. 

The  Ohio  McCooks  acquired  a  reputation 
during  the  Civil  War  as  the  "Fighting  Mc- 
Cooks."  In  current  notices  they  were  spoken 
of  as  one  family,  but  really  were  two  families, 
the  sons  of  Major  Daniel  McCook  and  of  Dr. 
John  McCook.  Of  the  former  family  there 
were  engaged  in  military  service  the  father. 
Major  Daniel  McCook.  Surgeon  Latimer  A. 
Mc<  look,  ( reneral  (  reorge  AY.  Mc(  !ook,  Major- 
General  Robert  L.  McCook,  General  Daniel 
McCook,  Jr.,  Major-General  Edwin  Stanton 
McCook.  Private  Charles  Morris  McCook 
and  Colonel  John  J.  McCook.  Of  the  latter 
family  were  engaged  in  the  service  Major- 
General  Edward  M.  McCook.  General  Anson 
G.  McCook,  Chaplain  Henry  C.  McCook, 
Commander  Roderick  S.  McCook.  U.  S.  N., 
and  Lieutenant  John  J.  McCook,  five  in  all. 


This  makes  a  total  of  fifteen,  every  son  of  both 
families  all  commissioned  officers  except 
Charles,  killed  in  the  first  battle  of  Pull  Run. 
The  two  families  have  been  designated  as  the 
'Tribe  of  Dan"  and  '"Tribe  of  John." 

William  Matheus  Sullivan  was  born  in  New 
York  City.  June  26,  1880.  He  is  a  descend- 
ant of  General  John  Sullivan  of  Revolutionary 
fame.  He  received  his  academic  education 
at  the  Polytechnic  Institute.  Brooklyn,  and 
graduated  with  scholarship  honors.  He  then 
entered  the  New  York  University  and  grad- 
uated from  this  college  and  its  law  school  in 
1901,  being  admitted  to  the  New  York  Bar 
the  same  year.  Mr.  Sullivan's  first  case  of 
prominence  was  the  Macnaughtan  Federal 
indictment     matter,    in    which    case    General 

Benjamin  F.  Tracy  was 
chief  counsel  and  pre- 
dicted a  prominent  ca- 
reer for  young  Sullivan. 
The  celebrated  Ban- 
croft robbery  case  in 
1!)11  and  Mr.  Sulli- 
van's active  efforts  in 
bringing'  the  thieves  to 
justice  brought  Mr. 
Sulliva  n  prominently 
into  public  notice. 
Aaron  Bancroft,  an 
aged  banker  of  S4 
years  and  a  member 
of  the  firm  of  George 
Bancroft  t\:  Com- 
pany, was  robbed  of  $100.00(1  of  negotiable 
securities  while  carrying  same  to  the  safe 
deposit  vault  of  the  firm.  No  clew  of  the 
thieves  could  be  found,  although  the  police 
and  Pinkerton  Detective  Agency  were  search- 
ing the  entire  country.  In  response  to  a  tele- 
phone request  from  the  thieves,  whether  Mr. 
Sullivan  would  meet  them  alone  and  pay  a 
certain  reward  for  the  securities,  the  young 
lawyer  not  only  met  them,  but  regained  the 
stolen  securities  and  delivered  the  thieves  to 
the  police.  Mr.  Sullivan  is  a  member  of  the 
University  and  Delta  Chi  clubs  and  of  the 
Delta  Chi  Fraternity. 

Among  the  corporation  lawyers  of  the 
metropolis  must  be  included  James  Armstrong, 
who,    although    born    at    Candor,    N.    Y..    in 


WILLIAM  M.  SCLLIVAN 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


269 


1S,'54.  and  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1858,  passed 
the  first  fifteen  years  of  his  legal  practice  in 
Davenport,  la.  During  that  period  of  his 
life  he  acted  as  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue 
under  Presidents  Johnson  and  Grant;  was 
one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  First  National 
Hank  of  Davenport,  the  first  institution  to 
begin  business  under  the  Banking  Act  of 
1863.  Air.  Armstrong  came  to  New  York  in 
1873  to  take  charge  of  the  law  and  collection 
business  of  II.  H.  ClaHin  &  ( '<>..  then  the  great- 
est mercantile  house  in  this  country.  lie  has 
been  attorney  for  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading 


taking  the  degrees  of  A.B.,  A.M.  [and  LL.B. 

I  pon  graduation,  he  entered  the  office  of  S.  H. 
Brownell,  later  starting  in  independent  prac- 
tice. The  case  of  American  Law  Hook  Co. 
vs.  Edward  Thompson  Co.,  handled  by  Mr. 
Leubuscher  is  very  noteworthy  because  of  the 
establishment  of  an  important  point  in  the  law 
of  injunctions.  He  was  a  close  friend  of  the 
late  Henry  George,  having  written  a  history 
of  his  campaign  for  mayor  in  1886  of  which 
'20.0(10  copies  were  sold.  In  the  recent  con- 
gressional elections,  he  managed  most  success- 
fully the  campaign  of  his  son.  Henry  George, 


JAMES  ARMSTRONG 


FREDERIC  C.  LEUBUSCHER 


SAMUEL  UNTERMYER 


railway  since  189-2.  also  serving  as  counsel 
in  the  State  of  New  York  for  the  Philadelphia 
&:  Reading  Coal  &  Iron  Co.  lie  is  senior 
member  of  Armstrong,  Brown  &  Boland.  Ib- 
is president  of  the  Mortgage  Holding  Co.  and 
director  in  other  similar  corporations.  He 
was  graduated  at  Hobart  College  in  1856, 
where  he  achieved  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity. 

We  should  feel  indebted  to  one  who  is  re- 
sponsible for  bringing  forward  a  magistrate  of 
the  calibre  of  Mayor  Gaynor.  As  chairman 
of  the  Municipal  Democracy.  Frederic 
Leubuscher  was  responsible  for  the  nomi- 
nation of  the  present  mayor  by  that  body 
before  his  name  was  ultimately  selected 
by  the  regular  organization.  Frederic  Cyrus 
Leubuscher  was  born  in  this  city  in  I860, 
educated  at  the  City  College  and  at  Columbia. 


Jr.  Mr.  Leubuscher  is  a  member  of  the  City 
and  Reform  clubs,  a  Democrat  (in  national 
politics):  and  a  Free  Trader  as  becomes  an 
upholder  of  the  Single  Tax  principle,  being 
President  of  the  Manhattan  Single  Tax  Club. 

Space  proscribes  anything  like  an  adequate 

enumeration  of  the  notable  achievements  of 
Samuel  Untermyer  in  his  chosen  profession, 
law.  Born  in  Lynchburg,  Ya..  in  1858,  edu- 
cated in  the  New  York  public  schools  and  in 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Mr. 
Untermyer  took  his  degree  of  LL.B.  from 
Columbia  Law  School.  It  is  illustrative  of  his 
capacity  and  brilliancy  that  his  successful 
career  began  practically  upon  his  embarkation 
in  a  profession  that  frequently  imposes  years 
of  weary  waiting  for  recognition.  Before  he 
was  -24  years  of  age,  Samuel  Untermyer  rep- 
resented almost  all  the  brewing  interests  of  the 


270 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


City  of  New  York  and  was  counsel  for  the 
State  and  American  Brewers'  Associations. 
Since  that  time  lie  has  been  attorney  in  many 
world-famous  cases.  His  duties  as  counsel 
for  several  railroads  and  other  large  corpora- 
tions have  not  precluded  him  from  taking 
active  interest  in  the  correction  of  lax  methods 
of  several  of  New  York's  largest  corporations. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Lotos  Club. 

To  have  served  four  years  as  Public  Admin- 
istrator of  intestate  affairs  in  the  City  of  New 
York  is  a  liberal  education.  One  occupying 
such  a  responsible  public  office  has  impressed 
upon  him  the  disinclination  of  average  men 
to   recognize  the  inevitable  end  of  all   human 


president  of  the  National  Guard  Association 
and  a  member  of  many  clubs  and  societies. 
As  president  of  the  alumni  association  of  bis 
alma  mater,  he  organized  the  movement  that 
resulted  in  legislation  by  which  the  City  Col- 
lege was  established  on  Convent  Heights. 
Greatly  to  his  credit.be  it  said,  be  is  a  friend 
of  the  most  friendless,  hopeless  specimens  of 
humanity,  the  insane;  he  is  the  originator  of 
laws  establishing  visitorial  powers  over  all 
asylums,  public  and  private,  of  the  State  Com- 
missioner in  Lunacy.  When  Wendell  Phil- 
lips said,  in  a  memorable  address  before  a 
Boston  audience.  "Nobody  ever  thinks  of  the 
insane  or  the  Indian,"  he  could  not  have 
known  Mr.  Lvdecker. 


CH.U'.l.KS  E    LVDECKEK 


ADRIAN  H.  I.AKKIN 


ASHTI  IN  PARKER 


creatures.  There  are  a  thousand  dramas, 
novels  and  short  stories  tucked  away  in  the 
pigeon-holes  of  the  Public  Administrator  of 
the  City  of  New  York.  A  predecessor  of 
William  AT.  Hoes,  the  present  incumbent,  was 
Charles  E.  Lvdecker.  one  of  the  best-informed 
authorities  on  wills  in  this  country.  Mr. 
Lydecker  is  a  New  Yorker,  born  in  1851. 
He  availed  himself  of  the  splendid  educational 
advantages  offered  by  the  New  York  Free 
Academy,  as  it  was  then  called.  Mr.  Lydecker 
entered  Columbia  Law  School  and  was  grad- 
uated in  1873.  Almost  as  soon  as  he  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  he  was  engaged 
in  important  will  litigations,  including  those 
of  the  Leland  Stanford  estate,  California;  of 
Eugene  Cruger,  New  York,  and  of  Howard 
Paul,  London.  Mr.  Lydecker  was  Major  of 
the    Seventh    Regiment,    N.    G.    N    Y.;    ex- 


Ashton  Parker  was  born  in  Lachine,  near 
Montreal,  Quebec.  He  is  the  son  of  Robert 
A.  Parker,  vice-president  of  the  Market  and 
Fulton  National  Bank.  Practically  the  entire 
life  of  Ashton  Parker  has  been  spent  in  the 
United  States.  He  obtained  his  degree  of 
LLP.  from  Columbia  University  and  began 
practice  in  New  York  in  1904;  he  formed 
the  firm  of  Parker  &  Ernst.  He  has  been 
active  in  politics  for  a  number  of  years  as 
secretary  of  the  West  Side  Democratic  (  lub  and 
his  election  to  the  Assembly  from  the  Fifteenth 
District  is  a  particularly  creditable  and  note- 
worthy achievement.  It  was  only  by  a  de- 
termined and  plucky  fight  that  this  district 
could  be  won  over  to  the  1  )emocracy,  for  it  had 
normally  a  Republican  majority  of  over  .'{(((Ml. 
He  was  the  first  Democrat  elected  there  in 
fifteen  vears.      He   also    had   the  endorsement 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


271 


EDWARD  M    Mi  MM',  \N 


MATTHEW  P.  BREEN 


JOHN  B.  C.  TAl'l'AN 


of  the    Independence    League    in    the    cam- 
paign. 

The  firm  name  of  .Inline,  Larkin  &  Rath- 
hone  is  constantly  familiar  in  connection  with 
important  corporation  eases  that  merit  and 
occupy  a  quantity  of  newspaper  space.  Adrian 
H.  Larkin  is  a  graduate  of  Princeton,  where 
he  obtained  his  degree  in  1887.  He  has  been 
notably  successful  in  the  practice  of  law  in 
this  city  as  a  member  of  the  above  firm.  His 
abilities  are  logically  demonstrated  by  an 
enumeration  of  the  companies  with  which  he  is 
connected:  Secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  West- 
ern Steel  Car  &  Foundry  Co.;  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Co.;  director 
of  the  ( lolonial  Sugar  ( '<>. ;  Crimora  Manganese 
Co.;  Davis  Creek  Coal  &  Coke  Co.;  Schloss 
Sheffield  Coal  &  Iron  Co.,  and  other  important 
corporations.  Mr.  Larkin  lives  at  Xutley, 
N.  J.,  and  is  a  member  of  the  University. 
Racquet,  Down  Town  and  Garden  City  Golf 
clubs. 

Development  of  the  Bronx  during  the  past 
10  years  has  been  the  marvel  of  all  students 
of  our  municipal  growth.  The  one  man  who 
has  contributed  most  of  thought  and  energy 
to  the  creation  of  its  magnificent  park  system 
is  Matthew  P.  Breen.  He  was  elected  to  the 
Assembly  in  1882.  when  the  Annexed  District, 
as  then  described,  had  a  population  of  less 
than  50,000;  hut.  foreseeing  the  future  con- 
solidation of  all  surrounding  territory,  lie  in- 
troduced a  resolution  on   February  14.   1882, 


providing  for  the  purchase  of  the  land  that 
has  since  been  utilized  for  broad  boulevards 
and  Bronx  Park.  Judge  Breen  was  born 
in  County  Clare,  Ireland.  December,  1848, 
the  son  of  a  civil  engineer.  He  was  educated 
at  Dublin  University,  came  to  New  York  in 
1866,  where  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Ham- 
ilton W.  Robinson,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas.  Admitted  to  the 
bar  in  187:>.  he  began  practice  for  himself  and 
took  an  active  part  as  an  Independent  Dem- 
ocrat in  the  dethronement  of  the  Tweed  ring. 
He  was  elected  to  a  City  Judgeship  and  was 
an  organizer  of  the  County  Democracy  of 
1880.  In  IS!)!)  Judge  Breen  published  a 
volume  entitled  "Thirty  Years  of  New  \  ork 
Politics,"  which  I  have  read  with  delight  from 
cover  to  cover  and  from  which  in  the  writing 
of  this  volume  I  have  derived  many  sug- 
gestions. 

If  anybody  can  be  described  as  having  from 
a  humble  start  in  public  office  obtained  the 
full  competency  of  chieftainship  that  man  is 
Edward  M.  Morgan,  Postmaster  of  New 
York  since  August.  1!)(I7.  At  the  age  of  seven- 
teen (1873)  he  became  a  carrier  in  this  city 
and  by  his  fidelity  was  rapidly  promoted  until 
he  was  appointed  superintendent  of  a  branch 
office  in  18S,'5.  Three  years  later.  Postmaster 
Van  Cott  placed  him  in  charge  of  the  city  de- 
livery and  he  served  as  assistant  postmaster 
under  Van  Cott  and  Willcox  and  when  the 
latter  acquired  a  place  on     the  Public  Service 


272 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


Commission,  no  other  name  than  that  of  Mr. 
Morgan  was  suggested  to  sneered  him.  lie 
hails  from  Michigan  and  is  another  response 
of  the  country  to  the  city.  No  notice  of  Mr. 
Morgan  would  be  complete  without  distinct 
reference  to  his  achievement  in  perfecting  the 
pneumatic  tube  system,  to-day  complete,  for 
the  prompt  transmission  of  mail  between  the 
various  sub-stations  and  the  general  postoffice. 
During  the  year  1!)1().  every  sub-station  in 
Manhattan  was  brought  into  direct  commu- 
nication. So  efficient  is  this  service  that  it  is 
possible  to  mail  a  special  delivery  letter  at  any 
one  of  the  branch  postoflices  on  Manhattan 
Island  to  any  part  of  the  business  or  developed 
residential  sections  of  Greater  New  York  and 
to  receive  an  answer  thereto  within  two  hours. 
Direct  communication  has  been  maintained 
with  Brooklyn  through  two  large  conduits 
across  the  Brooklyn  Bridge. 

Belonging  to  a  family  that  had  lived  three 
centuries  in  the  territory  now  designated  as 
the  "Empire  State."  John  B.  Coles  Tappan 
is  an  excellent  example  of  the  successful  New 
York  lawyer.  lie  was  born  at  the  pretty 
country  place.  "Dosoris,"  near  (den  Cove, 
L.  [..April,  1860.  lie  entered  Yale  at  the 
age  of  Hi  and  was  graduated  in  1880.  Thence 
he  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  Columbia 
Law  School,  under  the  lamented  Dr.  Dwight 
and  Professor  Chase,  taking  his  degree  as  a 
lawyer  in  1882.  A  year  later,  he  began  prac- 
tice. The  firm  of  Tappan  &  Bennett  was 
soon  after  formed.  Mr.  Tappan  spends  his 
summers  at  his  country  home  at  (den  Cove 
and  his  winters  at  the  Hotel  Gotham.  lie  is 
a  member  of  the  Yale.  City.  Republican,  Nas- 
sau County,  Whitehall.  Reform,  Economic, 
Psi  Upsilon,  Huntington  County  and  Yale 
Graduates  (New  Haven)  clubs;  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution  and  all  the  State.  County 
and   City    Bar  Associations. 

In  the  fall  of  CSS?,  when  the  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon  Club,  on  Fifth  avenue,  was  at  its 
zenith,  a  young  Georgian,  fresh  from  Yale 
College  named  Clifford  Wayne  Hartridge, 
was  one  of  the  most  popular  members.  He 
had  been  an  athlete  at  Sale  and  excelled  in 
nearly  all  kinds  of  sports.  Mr.  Hartridge  was 
born  at  Savannah.   June.    1866,   prepared   for 


CL II  FORD  W.  HARTRIDGE 


college  at  the  Bellevue  High  School.  Virginia, 
and  was  graduated  at  Yale,  1887,  and  at  Co- 
lumbia Law-  School,  1889.  Forming  a  part- 
nership with  the  late  Justice  Leslie  W.  Bus- 
sell  he  began  the  prac- 
tice of  law  in  this  city, 
and  continues  a  most 
active  business  at  14!) 
Broadway.  He  was 
counsel  during  the  first 
trial  for  Harry  Thaw, 
who  shot  Stanford 
White.  He  is  a  Demo- 
crat, member  of  the 
Columbian  Order  S.  A. 
R.  His  clubs  are  the 
New  York.  Manhattan, 
New  York  Yacht.  Yale. 
Democratic  and  Chats- 
worth. 

Since  his  admission  to  the  bar,  John  J. 
Kuhn  has  been  unusually  active  in  every  phase 
of  legal  work  and  in  consequence  has  come  to 
be  recognized  as  one  of  the  leading  prac- 
titioners in  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Kuhn  was  born  in  that  borough.  March 
?.  IS??,  and  was  educated  at  the  Brooklyn 
High  School  and  Cornell  University,  from 
which  he  graduated  LL.B.  in  1898.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  the  same  year,  and  be- 
came a  clerk  in  the  office  of  Bergen  & 
Dykman.  which  eventually  became  Dykman, 
Carr  c\:  Kuhn.  Mr.  Carr  retired  upon  his 
election  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  firm 
became  Dykman.  Oeland  &  Kuhn  and  is 
recognized  as  one  of  the  principal  law  firms 
in  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Kuhn  is  a  Democrat  in  politics  and  is 
a  member  of  many  clubs  ami  associations. 
He  was  formerly  International  President  of  the 
Delta  Chi  fraternity  and  for  many  years  was 
an  officer  of  the  same  or  on  its  governing  board. 

Among  the  active  and  younger  lawyers.  I 
must  not  forget  to  mention  List  on  L.  Lewis, 
a  fellow  Cornellian,  born  at  Franklindale. 
Bradford,  Pa..  1870;  graduated  from  Cornell, 
1892,  and  from  Harvard  Law  School.  1!)<)1. 
He  engaged  in  the  publishing  business,  after 
leaving  Cornell,  and  was  for  two  years  Chicago 
manager  of  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.  He  then 
became    vice-president   of   Powers.    Fowler  & 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


273 


LISTON  L.  LEWIS 


WILLIAM  A    KEENER 


NO!   I    GAL] 


Lewis.  Chicago,  which  relation  was  maintained 
until  1898.  Then  followed  the  law  course 
at  Harvard  and  active  entrance  into  practice, 
after  admission  to  the  bar.  His  beginning 
was  as  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Hatch. 
Keener  &  Clute,  but  in  1905  the  partnership 
became  Keener  &  Lewis  until  1910,  since 
which  time  Air.  Lewis  has  been  practicing 
independently.  While  in  college,  he  belonged 
to  the  Beta  Theta  Pi  fraternity.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  City 
of  New  York.  Chancellor  Walworth  Lodge, 
F.  and  A.  M..  and  Pennsylvania  Society.  His 
clubs  are  the  Union  League,  Lawyers,  Repub- 
lican and  Cornell  University. 

A  worthy  Georgia  contribution  to  the  legal 
fraternity  of  this  city  is  William  Albert 
Keener,  born  at  Augusta,  March,  1856,  and 
graduated  in  the  classics  at  Emory  College, 
Oxford.  (la.,  in  law  at  Harvard  University. 
1877.  and  since  honored  with  LL.l).  by  the 
Western  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr. 
Keener  was  formerly  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  New  York;  successively  Story  pro- 
fessor of  law  at  Harvard  and  Kent  professor 
of  law  and  Dean  of  the  School  of  Law  at 
Columbia.  Mr.  Keener  is  now  actively  en- 
gaged in  practice  in  this  city.  He  is  the 
author  of  a  'Treatise  on  Quasi-Contracts " 
and  editor  of  "Cases  on  Contracts,"  "Cases 
on  Quasi-Contracts,"  "Cases  on  Equity  Ju- 
risdiction "  and "  Cases  on  Corporation."  He 
is  President  of  the  Hoard  of  Managers  of  the 
Manhattan  State  Hospital.      His  chilis  are  the 


Union  League,  Century.  University.  City. 
Lawyers  and  Republican;  he  is  a  member  of 
the  Bar  Association  of  New  York  City. 

The  bar  of  the  City  of  New  York  is  cos- 
mopolitan in  the  sense  that  it  has  drawn,  not 
only  upon  many  foreign  lands,  but  upon  every 
slate  in  the  Union  in  its  composition.  The 
State  of  Ohio  is  not  behind  in  this  respect,  for 
it  has  given  us  some  distinguished  counselors 
and  attorneys.  Like  another  member  of  the 
linn  of  Strong  &  Cadwalader,  Henry  W.  Taft. 
Noel  Gale  hails  from  the  Buckeye  state. 
Born  at  Unionville  in  1862,  son  of  Edmund 
Gale,  he  was  educated  at  Oberlin,  and  grad- 
uated therefrom.  1882,  with  the  degree  of 
A.B.  The  firm  of  Strong  <S:  Cadwalader.  of 
which  he  is  a  member,  enjoys  preeminent 
standing  in  the  legal  profession.  Mr.  Gale 
is  a  member  of  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon 
fraternity  and  of  the  University.  City.  Midday 
and  Knollwood  Country  clubs. 

Maryland's  contribution  to  the  New  ^1  ork 
bar  is  headed  by  Camillus  G.  Kidder,  born 
at  Baltimore.  July.  1850.  His  preparatory 
education  was  obtained  at  Phillips  Academy. 
Exeter.  N.  II..  whence  he  went  to  Harvard 
University  and  was  graduated  in  1872.  He 
then  took  a  three  years'  course  at  Harvard 
Law  School,  achieving  LL.B.  cum  laude. 
New  York  City  welcomed  him  in  1876,  when 
he  entered  the  law  firm  of  Emott,  Burnett  & 
Hammond,  in  which  he  later  became  a  partner. 
Mr.  Kidder  has  held  local  offices  at  Orange, 
\.  J.,  where  he  lives,  and  has  favored  ninniei- 


-211 


THE    HOOK    of  XEW    YORK 


pal  reform  movements;  he  is  ;it  present  a 
member  of  the  Essex  County  Park  Commis- 
sion. He  was  originally  a  Republican,  he- 
came  a  Cleveland  Democrat,  but  is  now  back 
in  the  Republican  fold.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  the  Cleveland  campaigns  of  1884,  '88 
and  *!)'2.  He  is  an  officer  of  several  large  pri- 
vate realty  companies.  Among  his  numerous 
clubs  are  the  University,  Century,  Harvard. 
Reform  and  City;  he  belongs  to  the  Bar  Asso- 
ciation of  Xew  York,  the  New  England  So- 
ciety  and  the  Hunker  Hill  Association. 

A  Kentucky  lawyer  who  has  attained  success 
in    Xew    York   is    William    Beverly    Winslow, 


low  is  a  descendant  of  the  Virginia   Beverlys 
and  Winslows. 

Among  the  men  who  were  in  Columbia 
Eaw  School  with  me.  sitting  under  the  in- 
struction  of  Theodore  W.  Dwight,  was  Henry 
C.  Henderson,  who  was  born  in  the  old  town 
of  Westchester  in  1849.  To  my  surprise,  I 
found  that  we  had  been  fellow  students  at 
Cornell  University,  where  Mr.  Henderson 
took  a  degree  in  Civil  Engineering  in  1872. 
Although  he  was  successful  as  an  engineer. 
his  leaning  was  toward  the  law  and  that  fact 
induced  him  to  enter  Columbia,  where  he  took 
his    LL.B.    in    1878.       His    first    opportunity 


WILLIAM  BEVERLY  WINSLOW 


HENRY  C.JHENDERSON 


WILLIAM  C.  BREED 


author  jointly  with  William  Hepburn  Rus- 
sell, of  "A  Syllabus-Digest  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  Reports,"  in  four  vol- 
umes, pronounced  by  members  of  the  legal 
profession  tin-  best  work  of  its  kind  because 
of  an  original  method  of  arrangement  and 
extraordinary  accuracy.  Mr.  Winslow  was 
born  at  Carrollton.  Ky..  1862.  Was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  bis  native  state  in  1SS.'5  and  of 
Xew  York  in  1S!).5.  His  father  and  grand- 
father were  lawyers,  the  former  being  a  chum 
of  Justice  Harlan.  Russell  and  Winslow  are 
responsible  for  the  decree  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  which  has  become  a 
leading  precedent  throughout  the  United 
States,  on  the  question  of  liability  of  directors 
of  corporations  for  secret  profits  obtained  in 
promoting  (Hex  ward  vs.  Leeson).     MY.  Wins- 


for  distinction  was  in  the  Mazet  Legislative  in- 
vestigation when  he  acted  as  counsel  for  several 
of  the  accused  police  officers  and  since  that  time 
has  gone  steadily  forward  as  a  counsellor, 
appearing  before  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  and  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  in  many  important  cases.  Mr.  Hen- 
derson's love  of  country  life  induced  him  to 
moveto White  Plains,  wherehe  hasan  attractive 
home.  He  is  fond  of  all  outdoor  sports.  He 
formerly  took  an  active  interest  in  politics  but 
has  never  been  a  candidate  for  office. 

William  Constable  Breed  was  bom  in 
Malone,  Xew  York,  on  June  L24.  1871.  Grad- 
uated from  Amherst  College  in  1893,  where 
he  took  an  A.B.  degree  (with  Phi  Beta  Kap- 
pa). Graduated  from  the  Xew  York  Law- 
School   in    IS!)."),   admitted   to   the    bar  of  the 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


:i.> 


State  of  New  York  in  1895,  and  since  thai 
time  has  been  in  active  practice  of  the  profes- 
sion of  law  in  New  York  City.  Now  of  the 
law  firm  of  Breed,  Abbot  &  Morgan.  He  is 
a  director  of  the  [rving  National  Exchange 
Bank,  director  of  the  Merchants  Associa- 
tion of  New  York,  a  Republican,  and  a 
member  of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  City 
of  New  York,  Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity,  the 
Union  League,  Lotos,  Republican,  Church, 
Downtown,  Knollwood  Country  and  Sleepy 
Hollow  Country  Clubs. 


friend.  George  B.  He  is  a  Democrat  by  in- 
clination, but  vcrv  independent  in  his  polit- 
ical views. 

Michigan  lias  contributed  to  the  metropolis 
a  highly  successful  member  of  tin"  bar  in  the 

pers I  Charles  Larned  Atterbury,  born  at 

Detroit  in  1842  and  educated  at  Yale  College, 
lie  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  De- 
troit but  soon  came  to  New  York  as  solicitor 
of  the  Erie  Railway;  later  he  became  Assistant 
President  of  that  company,  lie  attracted  at- 
tention 1>\-  the  efficiency  of  his  work  and  was 


GEORGE  It    COVINGTON 


I'll  VRLES  I.    ATTERBUR> 


SAMUEL  A.  BEARDSLEY 


A  member  of  the  "delegation"  from  the 
historic  state  of  Maryland  is  George  15.  Cov- 
ington. Born  in  Snow  Hill, Worcester  County, 
he  studied  at  Princeton,  and  was  graduated 
cum  laude  in  1S!>().  After  leaving  college, 
George  B.  Covington  taught  mathematics  at 
Macalister  College,  St.  Paid,  Minn.  Prompted 
probably  by  the  same  analytical  temperament 
that  predisposed  him  to  a  study  of  mathematics 
he  determined  upon  the  profession  of  law 
as  a  life  occupation  and  came  here  to  study 
at  the  New  York  Law  School  the  difficult 
science  of  solving  human  tangles  and  prob- 
lems. The  wisdom  of  his  choice  of  profes- 
sion has  been  amply  demonstrated.  Mr. 
Covington  is  at  present  counsel  for  the  Ha- 
vana Central  Railroad  and  many  other  im- 
portant corporations.  General  Covington,  of 
the  Revolutionary  Army,  an  ancestor,  served 
in    Congress,    as    also    did    the    father   of    my 


appointed  counsel  of  the  Chicago  &  Atlantic 
Railway  and  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Com- 
pany. These  two  important  steps  assured  his 
.success  in  corporation  work  and  he  is  to-day 
counsel  for  numerous  organizations  of  that 
character,  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The 
present  title  of  his  firm  is  Atterbury  &  Mnl- 
lally.  He  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  New 
York  Bar  Association  and  an  excellent  after- 
dinner  speaker.  His  social  connections  are 
with  the  Century  and  University  clubs  of  this 
city.  He  is  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  all  athletic 
spoils,  and  delights  in  the  open  air. 

Samuel  A.  Beardsley  was  born  in  Ltica. 
\.  \  ..  December,  1856.  He  received  his  law- 
degree  from  Hamilton  College  Law  School 
and  after  studying  in  the  office  of  Beardsley. 
Cobenham  c\:  Burdick,  was  admitted  to  the 
l>ar  in  1ST!).  His  Father  and  grandfather  also 
were  lawyers.      Mr.   Beardsley  became  special 


276 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


city  judge  in  1886,  serving  until  1888,  when 
he  became  city  judge,  which  position  he  held 
till  1892.  He  later  practiced  law  in  Utica  and 
in  New  York  City,  where  the  firm  of  Beardsley 
&  Hemmens  was  formed.  At  that  time. 
Beardsley  &  Hemmens  became  counsel  for  the 
Xew  York  Edison  and  constituent  companies. 
Mr.  Beardsley  was  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  Railroad  Commissioners  from  1892 
to  1896  and  served  as  member  of  and  secre- 
tary of  the  Democratic  State  Committee,  1889 
to  1892.  He  is  a  director  of  the  United  Elec- 
tric Light  &  Power  Co.  ami  of  the  Utica 
Gas  &  Electric  Co.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Xew  York  Bar  Association.  Utica  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  of  the  Manhattan  and  Democratic 
cluhs  in  Xew  York  and  of  the  Fort  Schuyler, 
Sadaquada  Golf  (Utica),  Maidstone  (East- 
hampton,  L.  1.)  anil  Oakland  Golf  cluhs. 

One  of  the  first  men  with  whom  1  became 
acquainted  when  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon 
club  was  formed  and  its  clubhouse  opened 
on  Fifth  Avenue,  was  David  Bennett  King, 
scholar,  author  and  lawyer,  who  had  come  to 
Xew  York  from  Lafayette  College  and  entered 
partnership  with  Edward  G.  Black.  Mr. 
King  was  horn  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Pa..  June. 
1848;  after  an  elementary  schooling  in  his 
native  town,  entered  Lafayette  College  and 
was  soon  chosen  a  "D.  K.  E."  After  grad- 
uation, his  excellence  in  Latin  secured  for 
him  a  tutorship,  and  later  a  professorship  of 
Latin  until  1886.  During  this  time,  he  read 
law.      While  Mr.   King  has  pursued  the  prac- 


tice of  law  with  success,  he  finds  great  pleas- 
ure in  literary  work.  He  is  a  profound 
student  of  the  classics  and  regarded  as  an 
authority  on  the  language  of  Ancient  Rome, 
his  work  on  "Latin  Pronunciation"  being  a 
text-book   in  several   parts  of  the  world. 

Another  lawyer  who  has  held  a  very  promi- 
nent place  in  his  profession  in  this  city,  Rastus 
S.  Ransom,  comes  from  Illinois,  where  he  was 
born  at  Peoria,  in  1839.  He  enjoyed  a  com- 
mon school  education,  supplemented  by  five 
terms  as  a  country  school  master.  lie  never 
had  any  college  education  but  came  to  Xew 
York  in  1  <S 7  ( ►  to  become  managing  clerk  in  the 
law  office  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  soon  after 
Collector  of  the  Port  of  Xew  York,  and  in 
1881  successor  to  Carfield  as  President  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Ransom  was  elected 
Surrogate  of  the  City  and  County  of  Xew 
York,  in  1SSS.  and  served  six  years.  Imme- 
diately  after  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two.  Mr.  Ransom  enlisted 
and  became  First  Lieutenant  of  Company 
II.  Fiftieth  X.  Y.  Engineers.  He  served  with 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  throughout  the 
Peninsular  campaign.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  Loyal  Legion  and  of  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic  and  President  of  the  Society  of 
American  Authors.  He  is  a  Democrat  and 
belongs  to  the  City  Club  of  New  York,  the 
Army  and  Navy  Club  and  the  Masonic  Club. 

When  one  finds  a  successful  lawyer  in  the 
city  of  Xew  York,  who  has  obtained  high 
university  honors  and   built  up  a   large  prac- 


RASTUS 


R  \\.-<  i\I 


DAVID  B.   KING 


ALGERNON  S.  NORTON 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


Zl  t 


SOL.  M.  STRl  II  ICK 


EDWIN  A.  \V  Vl'si  IN 


\1    -  I  I  \    I  I      1  l.T  \\ 


tice,  cherishing  the  memory  of  his  college  days 
above  mere  professional  success,  we  meet  with 
a  man  we  like  to  talk  about.  Algernon  S. 
Norton  lias  practiced  law  for  IS  years.  He 
was  born  at  Homer  in  this  state  in  1860  and 
prepared  for  college  at  the  Cortland  Academy 
and  Normal  School,  took  an  A.B.  degree  at 
Cornel  University  in  1886  and  was  graduated 
at  the  New  York  University  Law  School  in 
1892.  Although  he  was  a  contestant  for  the 
Woodford  medal  for  oratory,  president  of  his 
class  and  obtained  Phi  Beta  Kappa  at  Cor- 
nell, I  venture  to  say  he  recalls  with  greatest 
pleasure  the  raid  made  by  his  class,  when  he 
was  a  sophomore,  upon  the  freshman  class. 
Mr.  Norton  conceived  and  was  chief  actor  in 
carrying  out  a  plan  by  which  an  elaborate 
dinner,  sent  from  Rochester  to  Ithaca,  was 
taken  off  the  train  at  Trumansburg,  a  station 
nine  miles  north  of  Ithaca,  and  served  to  the 
sophomore  class  whose  members,  impersonat- 
ing freshmen,  had  assembled  at  that  place  to 
enjoy  it.  Meanwhile,  the  hungry  freshmen 
were  waiting  at  the  railway  station  in  Ithaca 
for  tin'  banquet  that  never  came. 

Edwin  A.  Watson,  of  the  law  firm  of  Umax 
&  Watson,  is  a  New  Yorker,  born  and  bred. 
His  place  of  birth  was  Clinton  street.  ( )ld  New 
York,  and  the  year  1874.  He  is,  therefore,  at 
thirty-seven  years  of  age,  entering  upon  a 
career  of  unusual  prominence.  His  education 
was  acquired  in  the  public  schools,  although 
he  took  a  finishing  course  at  the  Polytechnic 


Institute.  Brooklyn.  He  then  entered  the  law 
offices  of  Truax  &  Crandall,  of  which  the  late 
Justice  Charles  II.  Truax  was  a  member. 
While  the  Justice  was  off  the  bench  for  one 
year.  Mr.  Watson  acted  as  his  secretary;  and. 
upon  the  Judge's  reelection  in  1896,  the  young 
man  went  to  the  Supreme  Court  as  secretary  to 
the  Justice  and  continued  in  that  capacity  until 
admitted  to  the  bar,  in  1900.  The  present 
firm  was  organized  in  September  of  that  year, 
and  has  acquired  a  large  commercial  law  prac- 
tice. Mr.  Watson,  for  the  past  nine  years, 
has  had  personal  charge  of  litigation  by  prop- 
perty  owners  against  the  Brooklyn  Rapid 
Transit  Company  for  construction  of  trolley 
road  on  Union  street  in  that  Borough;  and  the 
Court  of  Appeals  finally  crowned  a  nine  years' 
contention  in  favor  of  the  property  owners. 
giving  damages  for  the  unlawful  use  of  that 
street.  Mr.  Watson  was  one  of  counsel  for 
Senator  Ben.  Conger,  in  the  trial  of  his 
charges  against  Senator  Jothan  P.  Allds,  in  a 
trial  before  the  New  York  State  Senate  for 
accepting  money  for  his  vote.  The  burden 
of  preparing  all  evidence  used  in  that  famous 
trial  fell  upon  Mr.  Watson.  He  was  also  en- 
gaged as  counsel  by  Superintendent  Hotchkiss 
in  the  Fire  Insurance  Investigation  of  1909-'10. 
Dining  the  year  of  "the  Roosevelt  landslide" 
(1904),  Mr.  Watson  ran  for  Senator  on  the 
Democratic  ticket,  against  Charles  Cooper, 
in  the  Eighth  Senatorial  District.  Brooklyn, - 
the  strongest  Republican  senatorial  district  in 


278 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


the  state  of  New  York.  Notwithstanding  the 
trend  of  public  opinion  in  that  year  and  the 
fact  thai  Roosevelt  heat  Judge  Parker  l>y 
13,900  in  that  district,  Cooper  won  by  only 
:5.1(i()  plurality. 

A  young  lawyer  of  especial  promise  is 
Arthur  I).  Truax,  son  of  the  late  Justice 
Charles  II.  Truax,  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
lie  was  bora  in  lliis  city  in  1872  and  was 
educated  at  private  schools  and  Hamilton 
College,  where  he  was  a  member  of  the  class 
of  1894  and  a  I'si  Upsilon  man.  Thereafter, 
he  studied  for  two  years  at  Dresden,  Germany. 
After  completing  a  course  at  the  New  York 
Law  School,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
IS!)?.  Nothing  could  lie  more  natural  than 
that  Mr.  Truax  would  adopt  the  profession 
that  had  appealed  to  so  many  of  his  forebears. 
His  lather.  Charles  II.  Truax  was  twenty- 
eighl  years  on  the  bench  in  the  Superior  and 
Supreme  Courts  of  this  city;  Chauncey  W. 
Shaffer,  one  of  the  most  prominent  counsellors 
of  the  preceding  generation,  was  his  grand- 
uncle.  The  Truax  family  is  of  old  Holland 
ancestry  and  have  always  been  prominent 
members  of  the  Holland  Society.  He  belongs 
to  the  New  York  Athletic  and  Manhattan 
clubs  and  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of  Oneida, 
lie  served  as  his  father's  private  secretary  for 
four  years  until  he  began  to  practice  law  for 
himself,  in  1900.  A  very  warm  attachment 
existed  between  the  young  man  and  lus  dis- 
tinguished father.  Justice  Truax.  A  memorial 
consisting  of  a  bas-relievo  of  Justice  Truax 
was  recently  unveiled  above  the  great  marble 
fireplace  in  Special  Term.  Part  III,  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Justice  Engraham,  of  the 
Appellate  Division,  presided  at  that  cere- 
monial. Eulogies  were  spoken  by  Senator 
Elihu  Root,  who  had  known  the  late  Justice 
as  a  student  at  Hamilton  College;  by  Francis 
Lynde  Stetson  and  Justice  Giegerich.  The 
bas-relievo  shows  the  Justice  in  Ins  robes,  with 
gavel  held  above  an  open  law  hook  that  lies 
before  him.  The  face  is  slightly  turned  in 
profile.  New  York  has  never  had  a  more 
genuinely  popular  and  admittedly  capable 
presiding  justice  than  Charles  II.  Truax.  I 
often  met  him  at  the  Manhattan  Club,  where 
he  was  a  directing  force.  Only  a  few  weeks 
before   his   death,    he   was    present    at   a    large 


dinner  party  at  the  Lotos  Club  and  received  a 
popular  ovation.  Senator  Root  described  the 
special  capacity  of  Justice  Truax  when  he 
said:  "He  had  that  directness  of  intuition  of 
more  value  than  imperfect  human  logic.  Too 
often  lawyers  look  upon  a  case  as  a  game  and 
upon  the  Judge  as  a  referee  to  award  prizes  for 
points  instead  of  making  a  simple  and  direct 
effort  to  ascertain  the  truth."  Mr.  Stetson 
described  two  kinds  of  judges:  one  who  spins 
a  science  of  justice  out  of  books;  the  other  who 
sees  in  cases  before  him  their  eternal  relation 
to  human  life  and  interest.  To  the  latter  class. 
Justice  Truax  belonged. 

Regarded  as  one  of  the  leading  corporation 
lawyers  of  New  York  City.  Sol.  M.  Stroock 
numbers  among  his  clients  some  of  the  largest 
firms  anil  companies  in  the  city.  He  was 
born  here,  September  '•i'-i,  1873,  and  after 
attending  the  public  schools  entered  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1891  with  the  U.S.  degree. 
A  course  at  the  Columbia  School  of  Political 
Science  followed  and  he  graduated  from  this 
institution  with  the  Master  of  Arts  degree 
in  1892.  His  educational  equipment  was 
completed  in  1894,  when  he  graduated  from 
Columbia  Law  School  with  the  degree  of 
ILL.  and  the  Toppan  Prize  in  Constitutional 
Law. 

Upon  his  admission  to  the  bar  Mr.  Stroock 
was  associated  with  Morris  Goodheart  and 
was  afterwards  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Platzek  &  Stroock.  Upon  the  elevation  of 
Mr.  Platzek  to  the  bench  of  the  New  York 
Supreme  Court,  the  firm  became  Stroock  & 
Stroock,  his  brother,  Moses  J.  Stroock,  being 
a   partner. 

A  hustling  law  firm  of  this  city,  which  has 
constantly  appeared  in  the  courts  in  important 
cases.  House,  Grossman  &  Yorhaus.  has  for 
its  junior  member  one  of  our  Austrian  born 
fellow-citizens.  Louis  J.  Yorhaus.  He  came 
to  this  country  with  his  parents  in  1873,  when 
barely  six  years  of  age.  and  made  his  way 
through  the  public  schools  into  the  College 
of  the  City  of  New  York.  Having  determined 
upon  the  law  as  his  profession,  young  Yorhaus 
began  as  an  office  hoy  with  a  prominent 
counselor,  soon  rising  to  be  a  clerk.  lie 
entered  the  law   school  of  New  York  Univer- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


279 


LOUIS  J.  \  ORHAUS 


WILLIAM  MITCHELL 


SILAS  I!.  BR(  IWNELL 


sity,  where  he  took  a  degree  in  1889.  After 
two  years'  further  office  experience,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1890,  and  formed  a 
partnership  with  Mr.  Grossman,  leading  to 
the  present  firm.  Mr.  Vorhaus  possesses 
keen  power  of  analysis,  quick  decision  and 
argumentative  skill  in  the  presentation  of 
cases.  He  has  been  exceedingly  successful  in 
jury  trials.  Strangely,  he  prefers  civil  eases, 
although  he  has  won  distinction  as  a  criminal 
lawyer. 

Among  the  distinguished  lawyers  who  have 
been  in  practice  at  the  metropolitan  bar  for 
more  than  fifty  years  and  associated  with  some 
of  the  most  important  civil  cases  during  that 
long  period  is  Silas  Brown  Brownell,  born  at 
Knoxville.  Albany  County,  X.  Y..  1830.  He 
was  prepared  for  college  under  private  tutors 
and  at  the  Troy  Academy  and  was  graduated 
at  Union  College.  1852,  winning  Phi  Beta 
Kappa.  He  has  received  the  degree  of  LL.D. 
from  Hobart  and  Columbia.  Obtaining  ad- 
mission to  the  bar  in  September.  1852,  upon 
examination  at  the  General  Term  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  he  practiced  in  Troy  for  one 
year  and  then  came  to  Xew  York,  where  he 
has  since  remained.  For  three  years,  he  was 
managing  clerk  in  the  law  office  of  Clark  &• 
Rapallo,  Horace  F.  Clark  and  (diaries  A. 
Rapallo.  subsequently  Justice  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals.  When  the  war  broke  out.  Mr. 
Brownell  volunteered  and  wen)  to  the  front  on 
April  li),  1861,  in  flu-  7th  Regiment.  The 
firm  of  Brownell,  King  &  Lathrop  was  formed 


in  1867;  became  Brownell  &  Lathrop  in  1868, 
and  Brownell  &  Patterson  in  1896.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  ( lentury,  University,  Mayflower, 
City  and  other  clubs;  of  the  Presbyterian 
Union  and  of  Lafayette  Post,  Xo.  140,  G.  A.  R. 
He  has  been  secretary  of  the  Association  of  the 
Bar  of  the  City  of  Xew  York  since  1878,  and 
member  of  its  Executive  Committee  since 
1880. 

Country  life  appeals  to  William  Mitchell, 
who  has  been  a  practitioner  at  this  bar  since 
1<S71.  but  resides  at  Bryn  Mawr  Park.  Yon- 
kers.  He  is  a  son  of  the  late  William  Mitchell, 
Justice  of  the  Xew  York  Supreme  Court.  He 
prepared  at  Columbia  Grammar  School  and 
took  a  degree  at  Columbia  College.  After 
training  under  Professor  Dwight,  at  Columbia 
Law  School,  hi'  was  graduated  valedictorian 
of  his  class,  in  1871.  He  at  once  entered  the 
firm  of  Mitchell  &  Mitchell,  but  later  prac- 
ticed independently.  lie  is  a  Republican,  a 
member  of  the  Psi  Upsilon  fraternity,  Hugue- 
not Association  of  America,  and  belongs  to 
the 
Down  Town  clubs. 

Considerably  past  the  four-score  year  mark. 
Benjamin  F.  Tracy  is  able  to  look  back  on  a 
career  of  splendid  activity  and  usefulness  to 
the  American  people.  He  was  born  on  a 
farm  in  Owego,  Tioga  County,  X.  Y..  April 
26,  1N.'5<).  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  lin- 
age of  twenty-one  years.  He  has  been  prom- 
inent  in    politics  since   carlv    manhood,    being 


Union    League,   Xew   York   Athletic  and 


280 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


elected  District  Attorney  of  Tioga  County  in 
1853,  the  youngest  person  ever  elected  to  that 
office  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  reelected 
in  1856.  He  was  chosen  to  the  Assembly 
in  1861  anil  a  year  later  assisted  Governor 
Morgan  in  raising  several  regiments  of  troops 
upon  the  call  of  President  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Tracy  became  Colonel  of  one  of  the  regiments, 
the  109th,  and  took  part  in  the  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  receiving  a  medal  and  being 
brevetted  Brigadier-General  for  his  conduct 
on  the  battlefield.  His  health  failing,  lie 
resigned  and  returned  to  Owego,  X.  ^  ..  hut 
when  he  recovered  he  became  Colonel  of 
the  127th  colored  troop  and  retained  the 
command  until  the  surrender  of  General  Lee, 
when  he  again  resigned  and  resumed  the 
practice  of  his  profession.  He  was  appointed 
U.  S.  District  Attorney  in  1866  and  served 
until  1873.  In  1SS1  he  was  made  Associate 
Justice  of  the  New  York  State  Court  of  Ap- 
peals and  served  for  two  years.  President 
Harrison  appointed  him  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
which  position  he  filled  from  1889  to  1893. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  commission  which 
drafted  the  new  charter  for  ( Jreater  New  \  ork, 
and  was  the  Republican  candidate  for  Mayor 
of  the  city  in  1897. 

Cornell  University  always  has  been  mighty 
upon  the  water;  hut  when  Arthur  J.  Baldwin 
was  at  Ithaca,  it  achieved  successes  upon  the 
"gridiron,"  as  well.  lie  played  on  the  foot- 
ball eleven  for  four  years,  graduating  in  1892. 


Eleven  generations  in  America  is  the  record 
of  the  Baldwin  family.  Arthur  J.  Baldwin 
began  the  practice  of  law,  after  leaving  the 
university,  at  Tonawanda,  X.  Y..  within  sound 
of  the  mighty  roar  of  Niagara,  and  continued 
in  that  court  for  five  years.  He  came  to  New 
York  m  1897,  to  enter  the  office  of  James  B. 
Dill,  with  whom,  in  1899,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership. When  United  States  Attorney-Gen- 
eral Griggs,  of  Xew  Jersey,  resigned  from  the 

DO  t  O 

Cabinet  of  President  McKinley.  the  existing 
firm  of  Griggs,  Baldwin  &  Baldwin  was 
formed.  Mr.  Baldwin  is  an  enthusiast  in  out- 
door sports,  as  his  university  record  would 
indicate. 

A  Kansas  contribution  to  the  New*  York 
bar  is  Thomas  Ewing,  Jr..  born  at  Leaven- 
worth, in  1862.  He  began  his  education  at 
the  University  of  Wooster,  Ohio,  and  took  an 
A.B.  degree  at  Columbia  in  1885.  He  studied 
at  the  Columbia  Law  School,  but  took  his 
degree  at  Georgetown  University  in  1890. 
Since  beginning  practice  in  Xew  York,  Mr. 
Ewing  has  made  a  specialty  of  patent  law,  and 
has  solicited  several  patents  for  well-known 
inventions,  notably  the  fundamental  claim  of 
Frank  J.  Sprague  on  the  multiple  unit  system 
of  electric  train  operation  and  Prof.  Pupin's 
patents  on  long-distance  telephony.  His  great- 
grandfather, George  Ewing,  was  with  Wash- 
ington's army  at  Valley  Forge  and  elsewhere; 
his  grandfather,  Thomas  Ewing,  was  twice 
United   States   Senator   from   Ohio;   Secretary 


ARTHUR  J.  BALDWIN 


THOMAS  EWING,  Jr. 


GEORGE  B.  LESTER 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


2S1 


of  the  Treasury  and  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
His  father.  Thomas  Ewing,  was  a  brigadier- 
general  in  the  Federal  Army.  Mr.  Ewing  is  a 
Democrat  and  belongs  to  the  New  York,  Uni- 
versity, Columbia  clubs  and  the  Ohio  Society. 
lie  is  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  man. 

George  Bacon  Lester  is  a  lawyer  whose  occu- 
pation is  law,  hnt  whose  recreations  are  yacht- 
ing, golf,  riding  and  driving.  Although  a 
lover  of  the  open  air.  Mr.  Lester  has  decidedly 
"made  good"  in  the  practice  of  law.  Born 
at  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y.,  1872,  he  was  educated 
at  Mynderse  Academy  and  took  a  degree  of 
LL.B.  at  Xew  York  University  Law  School. 
He  is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Lester, 
Graves  &  Miles  and  a  director  and  general 
counsel  of  the  Fleischmann  Manufacturing 
Co.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Lotos,  St.  Nich- 
olas, Apawamis,  Orange  County  Golf,  Auburn 
Country  and  Manhasset  Bay  Yacht  clubs  and 
Down  Town  Association. 


Elections,  1874  '93,  and  as  U.  S.  Commissioner 
and  Master  in  Chancery  of  U.  S.  Courts  in 
Brooklyn  since  1 S 7 4 . 

A  summer  home  at  Burlington,  \'t.,  amid 
the  scenes  of  his  college  days,  is  maintained 
by  Mr.  Allen,  where  he  enjoys  a  thorough 
rest  from  the  exactions  of  his  manifold  duties 
during  the  balance  of  the  year. 

The  death  of  .lames  McKccn.  a  well-known 
lawyer  of  this  city,  in  February,  191  1.  removed 
a  public-spirited  citizen  of  Greater  New  York. 
He  was  born  at  Brunswick.  Me.,  December, 
1844,  and  took  a  degree  at  Bowdoin  College, 
1864.  lie  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  be- 
gan  practice  in  Xew  York,  1867.  lie  was 
a  member  of  the  commission  that  revised  the 
charter  of  Greater  Xew  York,  but  he  espe- 
cially distinguished  himself  as  advisory  counsel 
to  the  Armstrong  Committee  that  investi- 
gated the  Life  Insurance  Companies  of  this 
state.      He    received    the    Republican    nomina- 


JOHN  J.  ALLEN 


JAMES  McKEEN 
I  Deceased) 


I  I  i:l>!\  AMI  I!    MINRATH 


A  lawyer  who  holds  an  eminent  place  at 
the  bar  in  Greater  Xew  York  is  John  Johnson 
Allen,  who  was  born  at  Utica.  X.  Y.,  in  INI-.'). 
Mr.  Allen  graduated  from  the  University  of 
Vermont  in  1862,  and  from  Columbia  Law 
School  in  lS(!(i.  He  was  admitted  to  the  New 
York  Bar  in  the  same  year  and  has  been  ac- 
tively engaged  in  practice  ever  since. 

Mr.  Allen  served  as  acting  provost  marshal 
in  1866;  as  assistant  U.  S.  District  Attorney 
in  1866  '?.l5;  as  member  of  the  Xew  York 
Assembly  in  1874;    chief  U.  S.  Supervisor  of 


tion  for  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  1903 
and  afterwards  became  senior  counsel  for  The 
Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company.  His  col- 
lege honors  have  been  distinguished  by  an 
election  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  a  reward  for  high- 
est scholarship. 

He  was  President  for  eight  or  ten  years  of 
the  Hamilton  Club  of  Brooklyn.  President 
New  England  Society,  member  of  Board  of 
Directors  Historical  Society.  I  )i rector  (or  Trus- 
tee) Brooklyn  Library,  member  Board  of 
Education  of  old   Brooklyn.  Trustee  College 


282 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


I  \i  !i  IB  A    C  \NTi  IB 


ISAAC  W.  JACI IBSI  i\ 


WILBUR  F.  EARP 


New   York   and   other   Boards,    member    Bar 
Association  of  New  York. 

An  active  member  of  the  well-known  law 
firm  of  Iloadlv,  Lauterbach  &  Johnson — one 
who  pulls  a  laboring  oar  is  Ferdinand  U. 
Minrath,  horn  in  this  city,  September,  1857; 
educated  at  the  College  of  the  City  of  New 
York  and  at  Columbia  Law  School.  For 
high  scholarship,  in  the  first-named  institu- 
tion, he  was  elected  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 
We  completed  his  law  course  in  1S7S  and  went 
at  once  with  Morrison,  Lauterbach  &  Spin- 
garn,  predecessors  of  the  present  firm.  Mr. 
Minrath  has  been  almost  wholly  engaged  in 
corporation  practice.  lie  is  a  Republican, 
but  never  has  held  any  political  office;  his 
clubs  and  societies  are  the  Liederkranz  and 
Arion.  and  the  State.  City  and  County  Bar 
Associations. 

One  of  the  really  interesting  men  I  found 
on  the  New  York  Herald  reportorial  staff  was 
Jacob  A.  Cantor,  who  since  those  days  has 
distinguished  himself  in  law  and  politics. 
Mr.  Cantor  was  born  in  New  York  in  the  last 
month  of  1S;54,  was  educated  at  the  public 
grammar  and  high  schools,  and,  while  work- 
ing as  a  reporter,  took  a  course  at  the  New 
York  University  Law  School,  securing  a 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar 
but  it  was  not  until  eight  years 
later  that  he  developed  a  taste  for  public 
office.  He  was  elected  to  the  Assembly  two 
successive  years,  and  was  then   raised  to  the 


degree  in  1S75. 
soon   after. 


Senate,  where  he  remained  for  eleven  years, 
becoming  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  mem- 
bers. He  was  President  of  the  Senate  and 
Acting  Lieut. -Governor  in  18!).'>  '!)4.  He  was 
elected  President  of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan 
on  a  reform  ticket,  in  1902,  and  has  served  as 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Highways  and 
Parks  of  the  New  York  Improvement  Com- 
mission since  1904.  Mr.  Cantor  is  in  active 
practice  of  his  profession,  making  a  specialty 
of    corporation    law. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  will  contests 
that  has  occupied  the  metropolitan  courts  for 
many  years  was  that  of  Lawrence  B.  Jerome's 
attempt  to  break  the  will  of  his  mother, 
Catherine  II.  Jerome.  The  lawyer  in  the 
case  was  Isaac  W.  Jacobson,  an  attorney  of 
experience  who  had  been  associated  with 
Ambrose  II.  Purdy  and  with  General  Horatio 
C.  King  at  different  times.  The  settlement 
of  the  Jerome  will  case,  effected  by  Counsellor 
Jacobson,  established  him  on  a  high  plane 
in  Ids  profession.  He  was  born  in  New  York 
city  in  1866  and  obtained  his  education  at 
the  public  schools  and  from  private  tutors. 
For  a  time  he  held  a  license  to  teach  in  the 
evening  public  schools;  but  in  1SS!)  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  Supreme  Court. 
General  Term  of  Kings  County.  He  had 
read  law  with  Thomas  C.  Ennever,  Horace 
E.  Deming,  Colonel  Benj.  E.  Valentine  and 
the  firm  of  Butler.  Stillman  &  Hubbard.  He 
owns    a    farm   in    Orange   County,  where   he 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


283 


spends  his  summers.  Mr.  Jacobson  is  a 
Republican  and  is  exceedingly  prominent  in 
fraternity  circles,  being  a  33rd  degree  Mason. 
One  of  his  latest  achievements  is  the  procure- 
ment of  a  permanent  injunction  against  the 
Board  of  Health,  restraining  it  from  local  inn' 
a  tuberculosis  clinic  on  Henry  street,  in  a 
populous  neighborhood  of  Brooklyn. 

Maryland  has  added  to  the  legal  stall'  of  the 
metropolis  Wilbur  F.  Harp,  who  hails  from 
Howard  County,  in  that  stale,  where  he  was 
born  in  1863.  After  a  common  school  edu- 
cation, he  studied  stenography  and  began 
work  as  a  shorthand  writer  in  Baltimore  at 
the  age  of  twenty-three.  He  subsequently 
published  a  newspaper  in  Maryland  for  sev- 
eral years,  hut  in  IS!)!)  he  came  to  this  city 
and  took  up  the  study  of  law  at  the  New  York 
Law  School.  Mr.  Earp  is  fond  of  referring 
to  the  fact  that  when  he  was  tendered  a  posi- 
tion in  Washington  under  Secretary  Rush 
and  went  there  to  accept  it.  he  chanced  to 
meet  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  a  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  to  whom  he  stated  his  pro- 
spective duties  and  by  whom  he  was  advised 
to  get  into  business  for  himself.  For  this 
change  in  his  career,  he  expresses  the  utmost 
gratitude.  Mi1.  Earp  is  a  Republican  and. 
although  born  in  a  slave  state,  hail  for  fore- 
bears ardent  supporters  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  which  founded  the  colony 
of  Liberia.  His  great-grandfather,  Major  Wil- 
liam New  ton.  of  Dorchester  County.  Md.. 
liberated  all  his  slaves  and  sent  them  to 
Liberia  about   1SV2:>. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  1  was  probably  the 
first  out-of-Ithaca  student  at  Cornell  Univer- 
sity in  1868,  1  always  have  felt  a  friendship 
for  alumni  of  that  institution.  This  state- 
ment needs  explanation.  I  had  been  at  a 
Western  college  for  two  years,  when  I  read 
about  the  university  projected  by  Ezra  Cor- 
nell and  Andrew  1).  White.  I  wrote  for  in- 
formation and  received  a  circular  stating  that 
Cornell  would  open  on  the  15th  of  September, 
l<S(iS.  1  prepared  to  enter  the  Junior  class 
and  on  the  appointed  day  arrived  in  the  then 
(plaint  little  town  by  its  only  switchback 
railroad.  Not  another  student  had  come! 
There  I  learned  that  owTing  to  the  unfinished 
condition  of  the  two  buildings  then  under  roof. 


the  opening  hail  been  postponed  until  the 
isth  of  October!  The  registrar  assured  me 
that  circulars  announcing  the  postponement 
had  been  dispatched  to  every  applicant  for 
information.  Mine  was  "the  letter  that  never 
came."  There  I  was.  marooned  for  one  long, 
lonely,  dreary  month;  keyed  up  for  examina- 
tion for  advanced  standing,  I  saw  the  danger 
of  "getting  stale."  When  examination  da\ 
finally  arrived,  I  succeeded  m  passing  satis- 
factorily and  was  gazetted  "Junior." 

Therefore,  when  1  come  to  talk  of  Herbert 
L.  Fordham,  lawyer  of  this  city,  who  has  be- 
come an  authority  on  real  estate  matters.  I 
am  reminded  of  the  fact  that  he  was  one  of 
the  really  prominent  University  men  during 
his  stay  at  Ithaca.  He  was  born  at  Green- 
port,  Suffolk  Co..  in  1869.  He  entered  Cor- 
nell in  1S!)()  and  soon,  took  rank  as  a 
debater  as  well  as  a  student.  He  won  several 
honors  in  oratorical  contests.  He  was  chosen 
to  represent  Cornell  in  a  debate  between  that 
institution  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
which  attracted  national  attention.  He  was 
for  a  year  editor  of  the  Cornell  Magazine,  a 
publication  of  high  literary  excellence.  His 
proficiency  in  scholarship  is  attested  by  the 
fact  that  he  won  Phi  Beta  Kappa  honors.  An 
additional  year  in  the  University  Law  School 
after  his  Ph.B.  degree  in  '94  secured  his  ad- 
mission to  the  bar. 

He  came  to  New  York  in  the  summer  of 
1895  and  served  for  a  few  months  as  a  clerk 
in  a  law  office,  learning  the  executive  and 
clerical  details  of  the  profession;  hut  in  1N!)(> 
he  started  for  himself,  and  later  the  death  of 
Judge  B.  II.  Reeve,  of  the  firm  of  Reeve  & 
Bartlett,  resulted  in  Ins  succeeding  the  Judge 
in  the  firm.  He  maintains  his  home  at  Green- 
port,  although  he  has  a  city  residence.  Being 
a  Republican  in  politics  and  a  natural  orator. 
he  has  taken  part  from  time  to  time  as  a  public 
speaker  in  the  campaigns  of  that  party.  One 
of  the  really  noteworthy  professional  acts  of 
his  career  was  his  successful  defense  of  the 
large  oyster  interests  of  eastern  Long  Island 
against  the  claims  of  the  town  of  Southold, 
the  decision  in  which  case  by  the  highesi 
court  of  the  state  established  the  title  of  the 
State  of  New  York  to  the  bottoms  of  all  the 
bays    at    the    east    end    of    Loup,'    Island    from 


'284 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


HliliBKHT  L.  FORDH  \  \1 


Samuel  m.  <;audenhire 


CHARLES  C.  PAULDING 


Riverhead    to    Montauk    Point.     The    effect 


of    this   signal 


victory    becomes    of   amazing 


importance  now  that  Fort  Pond  Pay  has 
been  decided  upon  as  the  future  harbor  for 
express  steamers  between  Europe  and  this 
country.  Mr.  Fordham  is  a  recognized  au- 
thority upon  the  law  applicable  to  oyster  lands 
and  the  oyster  industry  and  upon  real 
estate  law.  and  is  also  engaged  as  counsel  to 
various  interests.  lie  is  a  member  of  the 
State.  City  and  American  Bar  Associations; 
a  member  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution, 
Suffolk  County  Historical  Society,  Xew  York 
State  Historical  Society,  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Association,  the  Republican  and  Law- 
yers' clubs  and  other  organizations.  His  af- 
fection for  Long  Island  is  natural,  his  family 
having  lived  there  ever  since  1640,  when  the 
Ilex.  Robert  Fordham  was  the  Hist  minister 
of.  and  the  leader  in  the  founding  of  the  town  of 
Hempstead,  later  becoming  the  second  minister 
of  the  town  of  Southampton. 

Missouri  contributes  to  the  legal  profession 
of  the  metropolis  a  charming  friend  of  mine 
in  the  person  of  Samuel  M.  Gardenhire,  who 
has  not  only  achieved  success  in  his  chosen 
calling,  but  has  written  fiction  of  a  high  and 
popular  older.  Born  in  Fayette,  Mo.,  Nov., 
1855,  he  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  St.  Louis,  and  went  to  Tennessee  to  study 
law.  where  he  was  admitted  to  practice,  1875. 
He  returned  to  St.  Louis  to  remain  four  years, 
when  he  removed  to  Topeka,  Kan.,  where  he 
was  elected  a  municipal  judge  and  sent  to  the 
State  Legislature;    after  travel  in  Europe  and 


the  Orient,  he  came  to  Xew  York,  1895,  and 
formed  the  firm  of  Gardenhire  &  Jetmore. 
He  is  a  Republican,  an  Episcopalian  and 
author  of  "Lux  Crucis,"  'The  Silence  of 
Mrs.  Harrold,"  "Purple  and  Homespun" 
and  "The  Long  Arm." 

There  is  no  question  about  Charles  C. 
Paulding's  revolutionary  ancestry;  his  great- 
grandfather was  John  Paulding,  one  of  the 
captors  of  Major  Andre.  Mr.  Charles  C. 
Paulding's  forebears  had  settled  in  Xew 
Netherlands  long  before  its  acquisition  by 
Great  Britain.  He  was  born  in  this  city, 
December.  18(58,  studied  at  the  Berkeley 
School  and  took  degrees  at  Yale  University 
and  Columbia  Law  School.  He  was  a  Psi 
Lpsilon  man  at  Yale.  Entering  the  law  office 
of  Alexander  &  Green,  May.  1891,  he  re- 
mained there  until  appointed  one  of  the  solici- 
tors for  the  Xew  York  Central  &  Hudson 
River  Railroad  Co.,  which  position  he  still 
holds.  He  is  a  Republican  and  lives  at  Ards- 
ley-on-Hudson,  near  the  locality  rendered  his- 
toric by  his  great-grandfather's  achievement. 
Mr.  Paulding  is  an  excellent  example  of  an 
inheritance  of  fondness  for  hard  work  and  as 
a  member  of  an  old  American  family  early 
comprehended  that  success  is  only  attained  by 
perseverance.  I  envy  him  the  genial  asso- 
ciation with  his  chief,  Ira  A.  Place,  a  fellow 
Cornellian.  In  addition  to  membership  in  the 
City,  State  and  National  Bar  Association,  Mr. 
Paulding  belongs  to  the  Yale.  Union  League, 
University,  Republican,  Transportation,  Ards- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


285 


ley.  Sleepy  Hollow  and  Metropolitan  (Wash- 
ington) clubs. 

Becoming  dissatisfied  with  the  exacting  cares 
of  commercial  life,  J.  Stewart  Ross,  studied 
law  while  engaged  in  manufacturing  pursuits 
and  entered  upon  a  more  congenial  career  as 
a  lawyer.  He  was  born  in  Brooklyn  and 
after  graduating  from  the  public  schools  there, 
became  a  manufacture]-  of  shirt  fronts  and 
during  this  connection  read  law  in  the  office  of 
the  late  James  W.  Culver  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  Poughkeepsie,  X.  V..  in  May, 
1875.     Since  that   time   he  has  been   contin- 


J.  STEWART  ROSS 

uously  engaged  in  the  trial  of  cases  and  argu- 
ment of  appeals,  not  only  as  attorney,  but  as 
counsel  for  other  attorneys  and  has  been 
successful  in  more  than  !)()  per  cent,  of  trials 
and  appeals.  In  the  case  of  Cunningham  vs. 
Davenport,  he  established  the  revocability  of  a 
trust  created  by  deposit  in  a  savings  bank  and 
in  the  case  of  Hanlon  vs.  The  Central  Rail- 
road of  New  Jersey,  he  established  the  propo- 
sition, that  while  a  railroad  employee  was  not 
obliged  to  render  special  service,  yet  if  he  vol- 
unteered to  do  so.  the  railroad  company  was 
liable  for  any  negligence  in  the  performance  of 
such  volunteer  service.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  firm  of  J.  Stewart  &  LeroyW.  Ross,  and  has 


been  unusually  successful.  He  is  a  Democrat 
in  politics  and  in  ISMS  was  a  candidate  for 
State  Senator  in  a  district  that  usually  gave 
a  Republican  plurality  of  9,500.  He  was  de- 
feated by  only  2,500  votes  while  the  mayoralty 
candidate  had  a  plurality  of  8,500  against  him. 
Since  that  time  he  has  taken  no  active  part 
in  politics,  devoting  his  entire  time  and  energy 
to  his  profession. 

I  have  watched  with  interest  the  develop- 
ment of  many  a  young  lawyer  out  of  the  Dis- 
trict Attorney's  office,  which  office  affords 
such  splendid  preparation  for  a  subsequent 
legal  career.  Although  the  practice  has  to 
do  with  criminal  law.  young  assistants  gen- 
erally find  opposed  to  them  lawyers  of  ex- 
perience and  recognized  ability,  demanding  the 
best  talent  of  the  prosecution  to  combat,  and  giv- 
ing valuable  insight  into  the  legal  necessities  of 
a  great  city  that  could  come  to  them  in  no  other 
way.  Among  those  who  received  their  early 
training  in  this  manner  is  Samuel  Thorne, 
Jr..  who  was  born  at  Saugatuck.  Conn.,  June, 
1874,  and  graduated  at  Yale  in  1896  with 
the  degree  of  A. I?.  He  was  a  member  at 
Yale  of  the  fraternity  of  I).  K.  E.,  which  has 
some  significance  in  a  college  course,  and  of 
the  Senior  Society  of  Skull  and  Bones,  a 
society  peculiar  to  Yale,  hut  which  admits  no 
drones.  His  law  course  was  takenat  Harvard, 
leading  to  LL.B.,  in  1899.  Mr.  Thorne  pre- 
viously had  made  a  trip  around  the  world 
(1891-2),  spending  the  greater  part  of  nine 
months  in  India.  China  and  Japan.  After  a 
second  trip  abroad  in  the  summer  of  IS!)!) 
he  entered  the  law  office  of  Stimson  &  Wil- 
liams. It  was  during  the  following  winter, 
toward  the  close  of  the  administration  of 
Mayor  Van  Wyck,  that  the  Committee  of 
Fifteen,  of  which  the  late  William  II.  Baldwin. 
Jr.,  who  was  President  of  the  Long  Island 
Railroad,  was  Chairman,  commenced  its  activ- 
ities. Mr.  Thorne  was  appointed  as  one  of 
the  assistant  attorneys  to  this  committee  and 
was  active  in  its  service  in  more  ways  than 
one.  The  following  summer  he  was  appointed 
by  Eugene  A.  Philbin,  at  that  time  District 
Attorney  of  New  York  County,  a  deputy 
assistant  in  that  office,  thus  making  his  first 
real  entrance  into  the  legal  field  of  the  metrop- 
olis; he  was  reappointed  under  William  Trav- 


286 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


JAMES  A.  GRAY 


OTTO  F    STRUSE 


FRANK  WHITE 


ers  Jerome;  he  aided  in  the  trial  of  criminal 
cases  and  had  charge  of  them  himself  until 
July.  1905,  when  he  returned  to  civil  practice 
in  the  office  of  Joline,  Larkin  &  Rathbone. 
After  a  year  and  a  half  with  this  firm,  which 
handled  some  of  the  greatest  cases  in  the  city, 
lie  commenced  practice  for  himself.  In  poli- 
tics. Mr.  Thorne  is  a  Republican  and  in  church 
affiliation  an  Episcopalian.  He  is  a  director 
in  the  following  organizations:  Missionary 
Education  Movement  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  Missionary  Exposition  Company, 
Vale  Mission.  Federation  of  Chinches  of  New 
York  City,  Westchester  County  Y.  M.  C.  A.. 
and  the  Silver  Bay  Association. 

Georgia  has  made  a  creditable  contribution 
to  the  New  York  bar  in  the  person  of  James  A. 
Gray,  partner  of  the  late  John  R.  Fellows.  Mr. 
Gray  was  horn  at  ( 'alhonn.Ca..  June,  1857, and 
enjoyed  the  benefits  of  a  country  school  educa- 
tion. He  began  as  clerk  in  the  Probate  (  onrt  of 
Gordon  County,  and  read  law  as  an  amuse- 
ment, without  any  intention  of  adopting  it  as  a 
profession.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
however,  went  to  Atlanta  and  was  associated 
in  practice  with  Hoke  Smith,  present  United 
States  Senator  from  Georgia.  He  came  to 
New  York  at  the  age  of  .'54  and  formed  the 
partnership  referred  to  above.  In  Georgia 
he  had  secured  the  acquittal  of  Nancy  and 
Thomas  Printup,  charged  with  murder,  one 
of  the  most  noted  trials  in  that  state.  His 
latest  success  in  this  city  was  the  defense  of 
Paul  Geidel,  a  hotel  bell  boy,  for  the  murder 
of  "William   II.  Jackson,  which   resulted   in   a 


second  degree  verdict.  In  civil  trials  he  has 
been  exceedingly  successful — especially  so  in 
life  insurance  litigation.  I  cannot  avoid  men- 
tioning the  fact  that  Mr.  Gray  has  reared  to 
manhood  and  womanhood  five  boys  and  five 
girls.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Southern  and 
Georgia  Societies  and  of  the  Democratic  Club. 
He  has  held  many  minor  political  offices  ami 
in  1SSS  was  Presidential  Elector  from  Georgia 
on  the  Cleveland  and  Thurman  ticket. 

Ha vin^  been  successful  as  a  lawyer,  Otto 
F.  Struse  has  found  time  to  devote  to  local 
matters,  being  treasurer  and  trustee  of  the 
Brooklyn  (E.  D.)  Dispensary  and  Hospital 
and  trustee  of  the  Industrial  School  Asso- 
ciation. 

Mr.  Struse  was  born  in  Brooklyn.  January 
20,  1859.  He  attended  the  public  schools 
and  then  entered  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1<S7!>. 
Two  years  later  he  graduated  from  the  Law 
School  of  Columbia  University  ami  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  the  same  year.  His  practice, 
while  a  general  one,  includes  the  representa- 
tion of  several  corporations  and  financial  in- 
stitutions. Mr.  Struse  is  a  Democrat  in  politics, 
but  has  never  been  active.  He  is  a  trustee  of 
the  Dime  Savings  Bank  of  Williamsburg;  is 
a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity  and  the 
Hanover  and  Crescent  clubs  of  Brooklyn,  and 
of  the   Brooklyn   and   State   Bar   Association. 

In  addition  to  his  large  practice  respecting 
corporations,  Frank  White  lias  found  time  to 
write  several  valuable  works  on  legal  subjects. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


287 


These  include  "White  on  Corporations,"  com- 
prising 1,500  pages,  "White's  Manual  for 
Business  Corporations,"  "White  on  Member- 
ship Corporations."  He  also  was  co-editor  of 
"Dill  on  New  Jersey  Corporations"  and  acted 
as  assistant  to  the  consolidators  of  the  corpora- 
tion laws  of  the  State  of  New    York  in   1  !><)!). 

Mr.  White  was  born  in  Deposit.  N.  Y.,  July 
L27,  1858,  and  was  educated  at  (dens  Falls 
Academy.  His  legal  training  was  obtained 
under  the  tutorship  of  Hughes  &  Northup, 
noted  lawyers  of  Northern  New  York. 

Since  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  has  made 
a  specialty  of  corporation  practice  and  is  a 
lecturer  in  that  branch  at  the  Albany  Law 
School.  He  was  chief  of  the  corporation 
division  of  the  Secretary  of  State's  office  for 
many  years  and  also  filled  the  office  of  First 
Deputy  Attorney  General.  As  receiver  of 
the  Hamilton  Hank  he  enabled  the  stock- 
holders to  reorganize  with  over  a  million  dol- 
lars in  cash.  He  is  a  Mason  and  a  member  of 
several  law  associations  and  social  clubs. 


Rieger  &  Gans.  This  connection  continued 
for  nearly  two  years,  since  which  lime  Mr. 
Gans  has  practiced  alone,  specializing  in 
commercial  and  real  estate  law  and  acting  as 
counsel  and  director  of  several  realty  organi- 
zations. His  offices  are  at  140  Nassau  Street. 
He  is  a  Democrat  hut  takes  no  active  part  in 
politics.  He  has  few  club  affiliations  but  is 
interested,  in  a  general  way.  in  several  char- 
itable  organizations. 

Forsaking  newspaper  work  for  the  law, 
Charles  F.  Holm,  while  finding  his  lines  laid 
in  pleasanter  places,  still  sighs  for  the  old  days. 
He  was  originally  connected  with  the  New 
York  dailies  and  made  an  effort  to  establish 
a  daily  morning  paper  in  Brooklyn,  but  gave 
it  up  after  a  year  of  hard,  persistent  work  and 
heavy  financial  loss. 

Mr.  Holm  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
March  S.  1862,  and  after  attending  schools 
in  Schwerein,  Germany,  entered  the  Columbia 
Law  School,  from  which  he  graduated  in 
1882, with  the  degree  of  LL.B.     He  was  admit- 


JOSEPH  GANS  JOHN  T.  HETTRICK 

Devoting  his  time  to  civil  work  alone  and 
representing  several  large  corporations.  Joseph 
Gans  is  a  successful  practitioner  at  the  Bar 
of  New  York  City.  Mr.  Gans  was  born  in 
Germany,  May  17.  1881,  and  being  brought 
to  this  country  by  his  parents  when  quite 
young,  was  educated  at  the  public  schools 
and  the  New  York  University.  He  gradu- 
ated LL.B.  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1901.  starting  practice  immediately  and  at  once 
becoming    a    member    of    the    legal    firm    of 


CHARLES  F.  HOLM 


ted  to  the  bar  the  same  year  and  is  now  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Holm!  Whitlock  &  Sarff,  and 
is  engaged  principally  in  corporation  work. 

He  is  counsel  and  a  director  of  the  Hudson 
Trust  Company,  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Plattdeutscher  Volksfest  Verein  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Montauk  and  Riding  and  Driving 
clubs  of  Brooklyn  and  ex-captain  of  Company 
C.  14th  Regiment,  N.  G.  N.  Y. 

The  city  rooms  of  metropolitan  newspapers 
have  been  sprouting  beds  of  many  clever  and 


288 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


ago 


successful  lawyers.  Seventeen  years 
encountered  an  active  young  reporter  asso- 
ciated with  the  Xew  York  Recorder.  He 
was  John  T.  Ilettrick.  born  in  Brooklyn,  in 
August.  1868,  and  educated  at  the  Boys'  High 
School.  At  the  graduation  exercises.  Post- 
master Joseph  ('.  Hendrix,  who  by  the  way 
was  a  college  chum  of  mine  at  Cornell,  pre- 
sided and  was  so  attracted  by  young  Ilettrick's 
address  that  he  offered  him  a  clerkship  in  the 
Brooklyn  PostofEce,  where  lie  steadily  ad- 
vanced until  he  became  an  Assistant-Post- 
master. He  resigned  to  take  up  active  news- 
paper work  and  served  for  five  years  on  the 
staff  of  local  newspapers.  He  resigned  to 
become  political  writer  on  the  Xew  York 
World  where  lie  remained  for  four  years,  then 
going  to  the  Xew  York  Times  in  a  similar 
capacity.  While  employed  as  an  active  news- 
paper nian.  he  studied  law.  first  entering  the 
office  of  (iavnor.  (Trout.  DeFere  &  Hyde, 
prior  to  the  election  of  present  Mayor  (iavnor 
to  the  Supreme  Court  Bench.  Mr.  Ilettrick 
retired  from  active  newspaper  work  at  the 
requesl  of  August  Belmont  when  the  latter 
undertook  the  contract  for  the  present  Sub- 
way.  He  retained  that  connection  until  March. 
1909,  when  he  began  the  active  practice  of 
law.  Mr.  Ilettrick  was  named  associate 
counsel  to  the  Legislative  Committee  to  in- 
vestigate the  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Com- 
panies of  this  slate.  He  has  always  Ween  an 
active  athlete  and  won  many  prizes  in  rowing 
contests.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Xew  York 
Athletic  and  Lotos  clubs  and  Xew  \  ork  ( ounty 
Lawyers'   Association. 

One  of  the  younger  school  of  attorneys  who 
has  distinguished  himself  in  the  practice  of 
criminal  law  is  Frederick  B.  House.  City 
Magistrate.  Born  at  Cooperstown  on  the 
banks  of  Otsego  Lake  in  1862,  he  grew  up 
in  that  village  of  romance.  After  preliminary 
study  in  a  local  law  office,  he  came  to  the  Law 
School  of  the  University  of  the  City  of  Xeu 
York.  He  entered  into  practice,  independ- 
ently, and  into  politics,  enthusiastically.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Xew  York  Legislature  and 
served  two  terms  (1883-'84).  He  formed  a 
partnership  with  Mr.  Friend  in  1885,  which 
continued  for  some  time.  The  firm  of  House. 
Grossman  &  Vorhaus  was  organized  in  1895, 


and  continued  until  Mr.  House  was  appointed 
a  City  Magistrate  in  January,  1907.     He  has 

been  connected  with  many  famous  criminal 
cases  during  the  past  fifteen  years.  A  highly 
interesting  one  was  that  of  "  Frenchv."  or 
Ben  Ali.  a  wretched  Arab  vagabond  charged 
with  the  brutal  murder  of  "Old  Shakespeare." 
a  notorious  outcast.  He  was  described  as 
Xew  York's  "Jack  the  Ripper."  Mr.  House 
secured  the  acquittal  of  Marie  Barbieri.  an 
Italian  woman,  who  had  slain  her  lover,  after 
she  had  been  convicted. 

An  ambition  which  withstood  every  form  of 
privation  impelled  Asa  L.  Carter  to  become 
a  successful  lawyer. 

He  was  born  in  Ban- 
gor. Marshall  (.'ounty, 
Iowa.  September  11). 
1880,  and  attended  the 
country  schools  there. 
After  due  preparation 
he  entered  the  Univer- 
sity of  Missouri  and 
paid  for  his  schooling 
by  selling  books  and 
merchandise  to  his  fel- 
law-students.  He  grad- 
uated in  1905  and  was 
admitted  to  practice 
in  Missouri  the  same 
asa  l.  carter  year.     Xot  being  satis- 

fied with  his  1  e  g  a  I 
equipment,  he  came  to  Xew  York  City  for  a 
course  at  Columbia  University,  registered 
there  and  became  librarian  in  the  law  library 
in  order  to  defray  his  expenses.  He  grad- 
uated A.M.  and  LL.B.  in  1907  and  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  immediately  started  practice. 
While  Mr.  Carter's  practice  has  been  along 
general  lines,  he  is  gradually  drifting  into  cor- 
poration work  and  to  that  end  has  made  an 
exhaustive  study  of  corporation  law. 

A  young  Xew  York  lawyer  who  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  member  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  the  State  of  Xew  York, 
at  which  the  latest  revision  of  flu-  original 
state  charter  was  made,  is  Thomas  Gilleran, 
a  graduate  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  University  in 
this  city,  and  of  the  Xew  York  University 
Law  School.  In  1891,  he  began  the  practice 
of  his  profession  in  the  metropolis  and  three 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


289 


TIIi  IMAS  GILLERAN 


HEADLEY  M.  GREENE 


JOHN  M.  WARD 


years  later  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge 
John  Ford  which  lasted  for  one  year.  Since 
that  time,  he  lias  been  practicing  on  his  own 
account.  The  Constitutional  Convention  is 
one  provided  for  in  the  original  charter  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  meeting  every  ten  years 
for  the  purpose  of  making  alterations  and 
amendments  to  the  Constitution  to  meet  con- 
ditions that  may  arise  in  passing  years.  Nat- 
urally, it  is  one  of  the  most  important  legisla- 
tive bodies,  composed  of  distinguished  men  and 
membership  therewith  is  a  marked  recognition 
of  ability.  Mr.  Gilleran  is  a  member  of  the 
Manhattan,  Catholic,  Graduates  and  Siwa- 
ney  Golf  clubs  and  the  Bar  Association. 

Another  lawyer  from  western  New  York 
State  is  Ileadley  M.  Greene,  horn  at  Gorham, 
Ontario  County.  January,  1865;  educated  at 
the  preparatory  school.  Canandaigua,  and 
Rochester  University,  where  he  took  a  Latin 
scientific  course.  He  then  entered  the  law 
offices  of  Guggenheimer  &  Untermyer,  re- 
maining with  that  firm  more  than  four  years. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1SSS;  served 
as  Transfer  Tax  Appraiser  for  1906-'07.  He 
is  a  Republican  in  politics  and  executive  mem- 
ber of  the  County  Committee  from  the  Thirty- 
fourth  Assembly  District,  where  he  lives.  He 
confines  his  practice  to  civil,  veal  estate  and 
corporation  law.  His  clubs  arc  the  Repub- 
lican. Union  Republican  and  Pioneer  Repub- 
lican. 

Superb  physical  condition  joined  with  ex- 
cellent  mentality   is  the  best   preparation  for 


iiiiiiPiaiN     education   ;u    tiic    i  eniis\  i  \  aiua    oism 

( College.      I  le  became  a  professional  ball  playei 
in  1S7S,  one  year  later  joined  the  Providence 


a  professional  career.  John  M.  Ward  started 
out  in  life  as  an  athletic  enthusiast  and  amply 
made  good  in  that  line.  He  was  born  in 
Bellefonte,  Pa.,  in  1860,  and  received  his  pre- 
liminary education  at  the  Pennsylvania  State 

3r 
ce 
team  of  the  National  League,  as  pitcher.  In 
1883  he  became  a  member  of  the  original  New 
York  Giants.  The  same  year  he  entered 
Columbia  College,  and  graduated  from  the 
School  of  Law  with  honors  in  1885,  and  with 
first  honors  from  the  School  of  Political  Science 
in   1886. 

He  organized  and  was  president  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  Ball  Players  in  1886  and  in 
1890  organized  the  Players'  National  League 
of  Baseball  Clubs,  but  retired  from  the  game 
four  years  later  to  take  up  the  practice  of  law. 
In  1!)1 1 ,  he  purchased,  with  others,  the  Boston 
National  League  Baseball  Club  and  became 
president  of  that  organization.  Mr.  Ward 
resides  near  Babylon,  on  his  private  estate  of 
225  acres,  which  includes  the  finest  trout  fish- 
ing preserve  on  Long  Island.  lie  has  figured 
prominently  in  National  and  Metropolitan 
golfing  events,  is  a  rhirty-second  Degree 
Mason  and  is  a  member  of  the  Elks  and  many 
social  and  athletic  clubs. 

That  Puritan  stock  has  produced  an  ex- 
ceptionally large  proportion  of  our  useful  and 
famous  citizens  is  undeniable.  One  of  Oliver 
Cromwell's  Ironsides  was  Edward  Allen,  who 
left  England  upon  the  accession  of  Charles  II., 


21)0 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


l  i ; i: i > i : i : i ( ■  k  h.  ai.i.kn 


IRVING  E.  ZIEiil.F.I! 


RANDOLPH  PAHMLY 


and  came  to  America  in  1661.  Property 
acquired  by  him  at  Northfield,  Mass.,  is  still 
held  by  his  descendants.  Frederick  Hobbes 
Allen,  lineal  descendant  of  Edward  Allen, 
was  born  in  Honolulu,  where  his  father  was 
Chief  Justice  and  Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom 
in  the  Pacific.  He  received  the  degrees  of 
A.B..  A.M.  and  LL.B.  from  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. In  1882,  he  became  secretary  to  the 
Hawaiian  Legation  in  Washington  and  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  Charge  d'Affaires 
upon  the  death  of  his  Father  in  1883,  who 
then  was  Minister. 

Since  1884,  Mr.  Allen  has  practiced  law 
in  New  York  with  a  degree  of  success  which 
requires  no  comment. 

Coming  from  Philadelphia,  where  able  law- 
yers are  said  to  be  the  rule  rather  than  the 
exception,  Irving  E.  Ziegler  found  it  com- 
paratively easy  to  get  into  lucrative  practice 
in  New  \  ork  ( !ity. 

Mr.  Ziegler  was  horn  in  Towamencin  Town- 
ship, Montgomery  County.  Pa.,  September  25, 
1871,  of  German-Irish  parentage.  His  early 
education  was  obtained  in  the  country  schools 
near  his  home  and  at  the  Millersville  State 
Normal  School,  teaching  in  the  school  which 
he  attended  when  only  fourteen  years  old. 
He  then  entered  Lawrenceville  (N.  J.)  School 
under  Dr.  .lames  C.  McKenzie,  in  the  class 
of  <S(i.  and  went  to  Princeton  College  in  the 
Class  of  '!>().  He  was  a  member  of  the  Class 
of  '93  at  the  Law  School  of  the  University  of 


Pennsylvania,  at  the  same  time  studying  under 
F.  Carroll  Brewster,  the  eminent  jurist.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1S!).'>  and  during 
his  early  years  of  practice  acted  as  counsel  for 
eleven  persons  charged  with  murder,  none  of 
whom  was  hanged. 

Deciding  to  devote  his  time  to  civil  practice. 
he  fitted  himself  for  corporation  work  and 
thus  equipped  removed  to  New  York  City, 
which  offered  a  broader  field  in  this  line.  He 
has  been  very  successful,  representing  some 
large  corporations  and  having  clients  in  France, 
Germany  and  Austria.  Air.  Ziegler  played 
right  end  on  the  Lawrenceville  School  foot- 
ball team,  the  Princeton  College  team  and 
for  three  years  filled  the  same  position  on  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  team.  He  was 
always  active  in  athletics  during  his  college 
years  and  has  a  record  of  eleven  seconds  for 
the  one  hundred  yard  dash.  lie  is  a  member 
of  the  Whig  Society  of  Princeton  and  a  non- 
resident member  of  the  Princeton  Club.  He 
is  also  a  member  of  Mariners  Lodge.  No.  67, 
F.  and  A.  M.;  Oriental  Chapter.  No.  183; 
Royal  Arch  Masons.  St.  John's  Commandery 
No.  4.  Knights  Templar  and  Lulu  Temple. 
A.  A.  ().  \\  M.  S.  of  Philadelphia  and  of  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church.  In  poli- 
tics Mr.  Ziegler  is  a  Republican  and  as  such 
is  a  member  of  the  Republican  County  Com- 
mittee of  New  York  County  and  the  Republi- 
can Club  of  the  Twenty-third  Assembly  Dis- 
trict.    He  is  a  forceful  and  convincing  speaker 


THE    BOOK   of   XEW    YORK 


^201 


and  has  been  much  in  demand  in  several  cam- 
paigns. During'  his  early  life  in  Philadelphia, 
Mr.  Ziegler  was  on  one  of  1 1 1  *  -  daily  morning 
papers  and  has  a  wide  acquaintance  among 
the  old-time  newspaper  men. 

Randolph    Parmly,   attorney-at-law,  is    the 
son   of   the    Reverend    Wheelock    II.    Parmly, 

who  was  for  forty  years  a  pastor  in  Jersey 
City.  His  grandfather,  the  Rev.  Duncan 
Dunbar, was  also  a  Baptist  clergyman  in  the 
same  city  for  almost  an  equal  length  of  time. 
Randolph  Parmly  was  born  in  Burlington. 
X.  J.,  in  1<S5.'5.  He  was  educated  at  the  Has- 
brouck  Institute,  Jersey  City,  and  at  the  New 
York  University,  from  which  he  was  graduated 
in  1875  with  the  degrees  of  A.B.  and  A.M. 
He  became  a  member  of  the  Zeta  Psi  and  after 
a  course  at  Columbia  Law  School  in  1878  he 
began  his  career  as  a  lawyer  in  Jersey  City. 
Eventually  he  settled  in  Xew  York  to  practice 
his  profession.  He  has  obtained  an  enviable 
reputation  as  an  expert  counsel  and  in  corpo- 
ration matters  generally  and  is  counsel  for 
several  large  corporations,  among  which  are: 
The  Safety  Car  Heating  and  Lighting  Co.; 
Standard  Coupler  Co..  and  the  Rome  Loco- 
motive &  Machine  Works  and  he  is  a  mem- 
ber of  several  leading  clubs  and  associations, 
among  which  are  the  University.  Lawyers,  Bar 
Association.  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa. 

Among  the  successful  lawyers  of  the  younger 
set  in  Xew  York  I  must  not  forget  to  mention 
a  man  of  agreeable  personality  and  manner, 
Alfred  A.  Cook,  of  the  firm  of  Leventritt, 
Cook  &  Nathan.  He  is  in  touch  with  my 
own  profession  as  counsel  for  the  Xew  York 
Times.  Mr.  Cook  was  born  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. June,  1S78.  but  came  to  Xew  York 
at  an  age  sufficiently  early  to  enioy  the  benefits 
of  our  public  schools.  Thence  he  passed  to 
the  College  of  the  City  of  Xew  York,  where 
he  took  a  B.S.  degree  in  1892  and.  after  post- 
graduate study  at  Columbia,  received  A.M. 
in  1N!)L  His  law  course  was  completed  a 
year  later  at  the  Columbia  Law  School,  lie 
was  chosen  Phi  Beta  Kappa  on  account  of 
high  scholarship.  He  began  practice  in  1895 
and  has  now  a  large  clientele.  He  is  a  Dem- 
ocrat and  a  member  of  the  Lotos.  Manhattan 
and    Economic    clubs,    the    Bar    Association, 


Society    of    Medical    Jurisprudence    and    the 
California   Society. 

Andrew  Delos  kneeland.a  lawyer  of  distinc- 
tion, who  came  to  this  city  from  Rome.  X.  Y.. 
ten  years  ago  has  already  made  a  place 
for  himself.  Mr.  Kneeland  was  born  in 
Binghamion,  this  state,  in  1863,  and  secured 
his  education  at  Colgate  Academy  and  I  ni- 
versitv.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon  fraternity.  He  was  city  attorney  of 
Rome  for  several  years  and  prosecuted  sev- 
eral of  the  most  important  eases  in  Central 
Xew  York.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  in 
Supreme  Court  in  1!)()0.  He  is  a  past-master 
Mason.  32d  degree;  Past  Commander  of  the 
Knights  Templar,  a  Trustee  of  the  Society  of 
Medical  Jurisprudence  and  a  Son  of  Oneida. 
He  is  independent  Republican.  He  is  also 
a  member  of  the  American  Bar  Association. 
the  Bar  Association  of  the  State  of  Xew  York 
and  of  the  City  of  Xew  York,  and  the  Xew 
York  County   Lawyers'  Association. 

As  an  orator  of  great  ability  and  as  a  skilful 
and  learned  lawyer,  Edward  A.  Sumner,  has 
more  than  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  early 
student  life. 

He  was  born  at  Rome.  X.  Y..  November  .'5. 
185(5,  and  graduated  A.B.  from  Wesleyan 
University  in  1878  with  honors  in  history 
and  oratory.  1 1  is  post-graduate  work  was  at 
Yale  and  included  political  science,  history 
and  economics.  Mr.  Sumner  was  admitted 
to  the  Bar  of  Xew  York  in  188.5  and  later  to 
the  Bars  of  Connecticut.  Massachusetts,  Ohio 
and  Minnesota  and  all  the  Federal  Courts. 
His  specialty  is  corporation  law.  He  is  a  Re- 
publican in  politics  and  has  made  many 
speeches  under  the  auspices  of  the  National 
and  State  committees  of  that  party.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  American  Bar.  Xew  ^  ork  State 
Bar,  and  Xew  York  County  Lawyers'  Asso- 
ciations, the  Psi  Upsilon  fraternity,  Xew  Eng- 
land Society  in  the  City  of  Xew  York,  Navy, 
League  of  America  and  the  Xew  York  Yacht, 
Xew  York  Athletic.  Yale,  Sachems  Head 
Yacht.  Brooklyn  Yacht  and  the  Huntingdon 
Yacht  clubs. 

Georgia's  contribution  to  the  legal  fraternity 
of  Xew  York  includes  William  Harman  Black, 
born  at   Forsyth,  in  that  state.      He  was  edu- 


292 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


A.  DELOS  KNEEI.AMi 


EDWARD  A.  SUMNER 


WILLIAM  HARMON  BLACK 


rated  at  the  public  schools  of  Atlanta,  where 
lie  finished  in  1884,  and  began  his  career  as 
private  secretary  to  Joseph  M.  Brown,  after- 
wards Governor  of  Georgia  when  that  official 
was  in  the  railroad  business.  From  this  posi- 
tion, Mr.  Black  was  promoted  to  be  the  private 
secretary  of  Tinted  States  Senator  Joseph  E. 
Brown,  and  lived  in  Washington  six  years. 
He  was  always  sincerely  interested  in  the  law 
as  a  profession,  and  occupied  every  spare 
moment  in  acquiring  knowledge  thereof.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  became  counsel 
for  the  Mallory,  Clyde,  and  Metropolitan 
Steamship  Companies,  and  prominent  com- 
mercial institutions.  He  is  author  of  Black 
on  "NewYorkand  New  Jersey  Corporations," 
and  '"The  Real  Wall  Street."  He  was  Com- 
missioner of  Accounts  of  Greater  New  York 
(1!)0I  and  1905)  and  is  at  present  special  coun- 
sel for  the  City  of  New  York  in  its  litigation 
with  the  Subway  conduit  monopolies.  Mr. 
Black  organized  in  1903,  in  connection  with 
Commissioner  John  F.  Calvin,  the  Citizens' 
Independent  Democracy,  and  within  a  few 
months  it  had  attained  a  membership  of  six 
thousand,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  hist 
election  of  McClellan.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Metropolitan  and  Lawyers'  Clubs  and  of  the 
Southern  and  Georgia  Societies.  He  also 
belongs  to  Kane  Lodge,  F.  and  A.  M. 

Mr.  Black  organized  "The  Association  for 
New  York,"  which  has  for  its  object:  "To 
contend  for  the  principle  of  the  Government 
of  Xew  Yoik  hv  Xew  Yorkers  for  New  York, 


to  challenge  indiscriminate  abuse  and  criti- 
cism of  New  York  City,  and  to  set  forth  her 
advantages  as  a  place  of  residence  for  the 
citizen,  as  a  point  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion for  the  manufacturer,  and  as  a  mart  for 
the  merchant." 

Mr.  Black  is  president  of  the  Corporations 
( )rganization  and  of  the  Accounting  Company 
of  Xew  York,  and  is  a  director  in  the  Com- 
mercial Trust  Company,  Alsace  Realty  Com- 
pany and  the  Topia  Mining  Company. 

While  at  Cornell  University,  Samuel  S.  Slater 
acted  as  correspondent  for  many  of  the  lead- 
ing dailies  in  the  large  cities  and  established 
a  record  that  it  was  thought  at  the  time  would 
turn  him  from  legal  to  journalistic  work. 

Mr.  Slater  was  born  in  Xew  York  City, 
January  24,  1S70,  and  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools,  at  the  New  York  University 
Law  School  and  ( 'ornell  University,  graduating 
from  the  latter  institution  B.L.  and  LL.B., 
being  Law  School  debater.  Commencement 
Day  orator  and  winner  of  the  Law  Thesis 
prize. 

Mr.  Slater  is  joint  author  of  Alger  and 
Slater's  Employers'  Liability  Law  and  while 
a  member  of  the  State  Assembly  he  was  author 
of  the  Franchise  Tax  Law.  He  also  served  in 
the  State  Senate  during  the  sessions  of  1901 
and  1902.  Mr.  Slater  is  a  director  of  the 
Cold  Process  Company,  United  Cotton  Gin 
Company,  the  Millington  Company,  and  the 
Broadway  Hotel  Company.      He  is  a  member 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


293 


SAMUEL  S.  SLATER 


EMANUEL  LI.  BULLAKD 


JulIX  S.  SUMNEH 


of  the  Bar  Association,  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  the  Republican 
Club  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  Harlem 
Republican  Club,  the  Cornell  Club  and  the 
Phi  Gamma  Delta.  Phi  Delta  Phi  and  Alpha 
Zeta  fraternities. 

Many  a  young  man  is  handicapped  in  com- 
pleting his  education  by  ill  health.  Such  was 
the  ease  with  Emanuel  G.  Bulla rd,  who  was 
horn  in  Waterford,  X.  Y..  in  1861.  After 
making  a  thorough  preparation  for  a  univer- 
sity course  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  he 
entered  Harvard  in  the  class  of  1884,  but 
complete  failure  of  his  health  prevented  him 
from  remaining  until  graduation.  Acting 
upon  medical  advice,  he  went  to  Iowa,  studied 
law  there  and  in  Minnesota  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  at  Minneapolis.  March.  1889.  His 
father.  Gen.  Edward  F.  Bullard,  practiced 
law  in  this  state  from  1842  to  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1900.  He  came  to  New  York  City 
in  1891  and  was  first  associated  with  Da  vies. 
Short  &  Townsend,  attorneys  for  the  Man- 
hattan Railway  Company,  and  later  with 
Oudin  &  Oakley,  counsel  for  American  To- 
bacco Company.  He  began  practice  on  his  own 
account  in  1896,  and  has  argued  many  cases 
in  the  Supreme  and  United  States  Courts  and 
the  Court  of  Appeals.  Recently  he  has  de- 
voted attention  to  real  estate  in  Queens  Bor- 
ough, and  is  largely  interested  in  property  at 
Jamaica  and  Richmond  1 1  ill.  Served  on  Com- 
mittee of  One  Hundred  in  city  campaign 
of  190!). 


The  Capital  of  the  United  States  lias  not 
been  wanting  in  its  quota  of  capable  lawyers 
to  add  to  the  brilliancy  of  the  New  York  Par. 
John  Saxton  Sumner  was  born  at  Washing- 
ton. I).  ('..  September.  1876,  and  thirteen 
years  later  came  to  this  city.  He  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools  ami  took  a  degree  in  law 
at  the  New  York  University  in  1904,  being  a 
member  of  the  Zeta  Psi  and  Phi  Delta  Phi 
(law)  fraternities.  He  began  his  career  with 
Henry  ("lews  Co.,  bankers,  where  he  remained 
ten  years  (1895  to  1905).  During  this  period 
he  studied  law.  He  believes  the  experience 
obtained  in  Broad  Street  was  of  great  value 
to  him.  Statesmanship  and  the  legal  profes- 
sion run  in  his  family,  although  they  skipped 
his  father,  who  went  into  the  Navy  and  re- 
tired as  a  Rear-Admiral  in  1903.  Naturally, 
after  extensive  experience  in  the  Wall  Street 
section.  Mr.  Sumner  has  a  decided  leaning 
toward  stock  brokerage  litigation;  but  he  is 
also  successful  in  corporation  practice'.  He 
enlisted  in  the  114th  Regiment.  X.  Y.  S. 
Militia.  May,  1898,  to  go  to  the  Spanish  War. 
but  the  regiment  was  not  called  out.  He  has 
been  active  in    Democratic  politics. 

An  attorney  who  has  been  notably  success- 
ful in  the  practice  of  his  profession  is  Joseph 
T.  Ryan.  Mr.  Ryan  obtained  his  1.I..B.  at 
Columbia  Paw  School  and  a  Ph.B.  from  St. 
Francis  Xavier  and  was  for  three  years  con- 
nected with  John  M.  Scribner,  the  famous 
railroad  lawyer,  in  the  practice  of  law.  In 
1899    he  entered   upon    independent    practice. 


294 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Since  that  time  Mr.  Ryan  has  handled  many 
notable  eases.  In  the  matter  of  the  biennial 
election  of  a  certain  benevolent  society,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  the  principle  of  law  that 
the  Supreme  Council  of  this  society,  as  incor- 
porators, had  not  the  right  to  continue  them- 
selves by  reelection  as  permanent  life  members 
of  this  Council,  thereby  maintaining  control 
and  management  of  the  affairs  and  funds.  Mr. 
Ryan  is  a  keen  golfer  and  equestrian,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Catholic.  Deal  Golf,  Allenhurst  and 
Military  Rough  Riding  clubs. 

One  of  the  most  energetic  of  the  Assistant 
United  States  District  Attorneys  for  the  south- 


Utica  and  Litchfield,  Conn.,  are  related  to 
him.  Ten  years'  success  in  private  practice 
caused  his  appointment  as  Assistant  United 
States    District     Attorney. 

Three  years  ago.  after  living  twenty-five 
years  in  the  metropolis,  he  adopted  country 
life  and  acquired  a  residence  at  \\i^\  Rank, 
\.  J.,  giving  iij)  his  city  clubs  and  seeking  the 
retirement   of  country  life. 

One  of  New  Jersey's  valued  contributions 
to  the  younger  generation  of  metropolitan 
lawyers  is  James  Renwick  Sloane,  horn  at 
Princeton.  January,  1881;  was  graduated  at 
the   University   of  New   Jersey,    !!)()():   at    the 


JOSEPH  T.  RYAN 


CLARENCE  S.   HOUGHTON 


JAMES  R.  SLOANE 


ern  district  of  New  York  known  to  me  is 
Clarence  S.  Houghton,  who  served  for  nine 
years  in  that  post  and  handled  some  of  the 
most  important  cases  that  arose  during  the 
strenuous  period  of  President  Roosevelt's 
second  term,  when  crooked  corporations  and 
smuggling    importers    were    hunted    to    their 

DO  O  1  . 

lairs.     Mr.  Houghton  was  born  at  Piermont, 

N.  Y.,  in  1S()4.  was  sent  to  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover.  and  then  to  Amherst  College,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  1SSS.  lie  immediately 
came  to  New  York,  entered  the  Columbia 
Law  School,  was  admitted  to  practice  and 
opened  a  law  office  here.  Meanwhile,  he  had 
taken  a  special  course  in  law  under  Charles 
M.  Bostwick.  lie  was  induced  to  enter  the 
law  by  an  uncle,  the  late  Augustus  S.  Seymour, 
for  many  years  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
of  North  Carolina.     The  Seymour  family  of 


Columbia  Law  School,  1 !)().'}.  and  studied  two 
years  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Mr. 
Sloane  practiced  law  in  London  for  one  year 
to  familiarize  himself  with  British  procedure. 
Returning  to  New  York,  he  entered  the  office 
of  Strong  &  Cadwalader.  lie  assisted  Henry 
W.  Taft  in  the  prosecution  of  Tobacco  Trust 
cases.  His  father  is  Prof.  William  M.  Sloane, 
of  Columbia  University,  author  of  "Life  of 
Napoleon"  and  other  histories.  James  R. 
Sloane  is  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association,  the 
New  York  Athletic  and  Princeton  clubs.  He 
was  recently  appointed  a  Condemnation  Com- 
missioner on  the  Ashokan  reservoir. 

A  young  lawyer  from  California  who  has 
specialized  in  patent  law-  is  Seabury  Cone 
Mastick.  born  at  San  Francisco,  July,  1871, 
and  educated  at  the  University  of  California, 
where  he  received  his  LL.B.  degree.      Subse- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


295 


quently,  he  took  ;i  special  course  in  law  at 
New  York  University  and  studied  electrical 
engineering  and  chemistry  at  Cornel]  Univer- 
sity. He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Sacra- 
mento in  1893  and  three  years  later  came  to 
New  York.  Mi-.  Mastick  belongs  to  a  family 
of  lawyers.  lie  engaged  in  scientific  farming 
in  Westchester  County  and  in  1907  success- 
fully undertook  citrus  growing  in  Florida, 
both  farms  having  competent  foremen  as 
managers.  As  stated,  Mr.  Mastick  has  been 
especially  successful  as  a  patent  lawyer,  par- 
ticularly with  reference  to  chemistry  ami 
electricity.  lie  is  a  member  of  numerous 
social  and  scientific  clubs  and  is  a  Son  of  the 


fell  a  compelling  desire  to  enter  the  legal  pro- 
fession and,  since  beginning  his  career,  has 
been  counsel  for  large  mercantile  concerns 
especially  distinguishing  himself  by  winding 
up  the  affairs  of  the  Hank  of  Staten  Islandfiii 
such  a  manner  as  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
depositors.  Thai  litigation  and  settlement 
attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention.  He  is  one 
of  the  Hoard  of  Governors  of  the  Progress 
Club. 

I'he  metropolis  acquired  a  capable  lawyer 
in  the  person  of  .1.  Douglas  Wetinore,  owing 
to  his  belief  in  the  equality  of  man  before  the 
law  and  his  fearlessness  in  appearing  before  a 
Florida   court    in  defense  of  the  rights  of  the 


SEABURY  C.  MASTICK 


NATHAN  D.  STERN 


J.  DOUGLAS  WETMORE 


American  Revolution.  He  is  a  Republican, 
an  Episcopalian  and  an  enthusiastic  Knights 
Templar. 

North  Carolina  has  furnished  another  acces- 
sion to  the  bar  of  the  metropolis  in  the  person 
of  Nathan  I).  Stern,  a  promising  young 
lawyer  who  came  here  in  his  boyhood  and 
has  become  essentially  a  New  Yorker,  from 
sentiment  and  training.  Mr.  Stern  was  born 
at  Greenville,  N.  ('.,  August,  1877,  but  reached 
this  city  in  time  to  take  advantage  of  its  ad- 
mirable public  schools.  Thence,  he  entered 
the  law  department  of  the  New  York  Univer- 
sity, where  he  was  graduated  in  1897.  Prior 
to  that  time,  he  had  acquired  a  familiarity 
with  the  office  business  of  his  profession  in 
association  with  Felix  Jellenik,  his  present 
partner.      From  early  boyhood,  Mr.  Stern  had 


colored  race.  His  experience  is  a  story  of 
universal  interest.  Mr.  Wetinore  was  born 
in  Tallahassee.  1870;  attended  the  public 
schools  of  Jacksonville;  spent  one  year  at 
Atlanta  University  and  read  law  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Florida  Bar,  and  practiced  at 
Jacksonville  until  1  !)<)(>,  when  events  I  am 
about  to  relate  made  desirable  a  change  of 
environment.  In  July.  l!)(t.">.  Mr.  Wetmore 
won  a  test  case  in  Florida  that  caused  the  "Jim 
Crow"  street  car  law  of  that  state  to  he  de- 
clared unconstitutional.  The  decision  was 
extremely  unpopular  to  the  white  population, 
however  much  of  a  personal  triumph  it  may 
have  been  from  a  lawyer's  viewpoint.  The 
case  is  famous  throughout  the  South  and  is 
known  as  "The  Slate  of  Florida  vs.  Andrew 


296 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


Pattison."  After  braving  the  disfavor  of  his 
fellow  townsmen  for  several  months,  Mr. 
Wetmore  responded  to  "the  call  of  New- 
York"  and  came  here,  where  all  men  are 
treated  fairly  and  amendments  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  are  revered. 

David  Rumsey,  Assistant  Corporation  Coun- 
sel of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  charge  of 
Department  of  Arrears  of  Taxes,  turned  ten 
years  of  arrears  of  taxes  into  cash,  some  five 
hundred  million  dollars  of  assessed  property 
being  involved.  During  his  term  of  business- 
like administration,  he  demonstrated  that 
these  matters  could  be  brought  entirely  up 
to  date  with  a  loss  of  only  1\  per  cent.  Mr. 
Rumsey  is  a  son  and  grandson  of  Justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York.  He  was 
horn  at  Bath.  X.  Y..  in  1875,  studied  at  the 
University  of  Rochester,  where  he  was  a  Psi 
Upsilon  man.  and  at  Columbia  Law  School. 
He  is.  at  present,  counsel  for  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Continental  Insurance  Company, 
and  of  the  Fidelity-Phenix  Insurance  Com- 
pany. He  is  a  member  of  the  Union  League, 
the  City  Club  and  of  the  City  and  State  Bar 
Associations.  His  work.  "Rumsey  on  Taxa 
Hon,"  is  a  text-hook  of  value. 

Erie  County,  of  this  State,  has  given  to  the 
New  York  Bar  James  M.  Hunt,  born  at 
Clarence.  April.  1858.  His  father  was  a 
clergyman  of  the  Baptist  denomination  and 
sent  his  son  to  the  University  of  Rochester, 
where  he  was  graduated  in  1880.  Removing 
to  Yonkers,  he  began  the  practice  of  law  and 


served  as  Corporation  Counsel  of  that  town 
from  1892  to  1901.  He  then  opened  an  office 
in  New  York  City,  where  he  has  since  been 
engaged  in  general  practice.  Mr.  Hunt  is  a 
Republican  and  member  of  the  State  and 
City  Bar  Association;  he  is  a  trustee  of  War- 
burton  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  of  Yonkers. 
Mr.  Hunt  is  intensely  fond  of  outdoor  sports, 
plays  golf  and  spends  much  of  his  time  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  in  Canada.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity  and  of  the 
Republican  and  St.  Andrew's  Golf  clubs. 

William  Lester  Wemple.an  Assistant  Attor- 
ney-General of  the  United  States,  has  actively 
cooperated  with  the  Customs  Department  in 
prosecuting  importers  who  undervalued  their 
goods  and  in  hunting  down  irregular  postal 
officials  in  Cuba.  Mr.  Wemple  had  graduated 
from  one  college  and  had  worked  for  two 
years  in  a  private  bank,  before  he  began  the 
study  of  law  at  Harvard  Law  School  in  1900. 
Four  years  later,  he  was  practicing  his  pro- 
fession in  New  York  and  was  soon  in  the 
Government  service,  assisting  United  States 
Attorney  Wise.  His  work  in  New  York  em- 
braced the  customs  scandals,  most  of  the 
cases  against  importers  being  handled  by 
him.  The  Duveen  Brothers  were  willing  to 
settle  for  $1,200,000  and  to  pay  fines.  He 
also  prosecuted  ('.  F.  Xeely,  charged  with 
irregularities  in  Cuban  postal  affairs,  and 
secured  a  verdict  for  $113,000.  President 
Taft  appointed  him  an  Assistant  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States.     Mr.  Wemple 


DAVID  RUMriEY 


OTTO  G.  FOELKER 


JAMES  M.  HUNT 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


297 


WILLIAM  LESTER  WEMPLE 


JOHN  P.  DUNN 


WALDO  G.  MOUSE 


comes  from  Illinois,  where  he  was  born  at 
Waverly,  May,  1877.  He  is  a  Republican 
and  a  member  of  the  Harvard  Club. 

The  Corporation  Counsel's  office  has  grad- 
uated many  successful  lawyers,  who  have 
obtained  therein  valuable  training.  Among 
those  I  have  in  mind  is  John  P.  Dunn,  horn 
on  Manhattan  Island  in  1800,  prepared  for 
college  at  Public  School  Xo.  04  and  given  a 
degree  by  Fordham  University  in  1880.  He 
then  took  a  course  at  the  Columbia  Law 
School.  After  serving  as  managing  clerk  in  a 
large  law  firm  for  four  years,  he  was  appointed 
Assistant  Corporation  Counsel  in  1889  and 
defended  several  notable  actions  brought 
against  the  city.  He  organized  the  Bureau  of 
Street  Openings  and  Tunnels,  acting  as  its 
chief  from  1895  to  1910.  He  is  a  Democrat  in 
politics;  member  of  the  Manhattan.  Larch- 
mont  and  Oakland  Golf  clubs;  a  Knight  of 
Columbus  and  served  as  Assistant  Secretary 
to  the  New  York  Fire  Department  for  two 
years. 

A  sturdy  and  constant  fighter  in  behalf  of 
the  preservation  of  the  Palisades — one  of 
the  natural  treasures  of  the  Hudson  River 
region — is  Waldo  Grant  Morse,  born  at 
Rochester,  March,  1859,  of  Xew  England 
parentage.  After  leaving  the  University  of 
Rochester,  he  studied  law  with  Martindale  & 
Oliver,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1884  and 
has  been  in  practice  in  this  city  since  1888. 
Mr.  Morse  was  appointed  a  Palisades  Com- 


missioner by  Governor  Morton  and  drew  the 
Palisades  National  Reservation  bills,  which 
were  passed  by  the  legislatures  of  New  York 
and  New  Jersey.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science.  Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  Sons  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  state,  county  and  city 
Bar  Associations.  His  clubs  are  the  Law- 
yers, Reform,  Amackassin,  Quill  and  Seagull 
Golf.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Committee 
of  the  Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society 
in  charge  of  conserving  the  Highlands  of  the 
Hudson. 

From  the  foothills  of  the  Adirondacks, 
harkening  to  "the  call  of  the  city,"  came 
Clark  L.  Jordan  to  practice  law  at  this  famous 
bar.  He  was  born  at  Rockwood,  Fulton 
County.  N.  Y..  January.  1801,  educated  at 
the  common  schools  and  Casanova  Academy. 
He  began  service  in  his  profession  at  Glovers- 
ville  in  1882  and  had  excellent  success  as  a 
trial  lawyer.  This  class  of  practice  has  be- 
come his  chosen  work.  He  was  the  first 
Democratic  mayor  of  Gloversville.  After  de- 
fending many  of  the  criminal  actions  in  his 
home  and  adjoining  counties  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  he  came  to  New  York  in  1900. 
Here  his  capacity  has  been  shown  to  greatest 
advantage  in  the  criminal  courts.  He  has 
successfully  defended  many  important  cases. 
He  recentlv  represented  Lillian  Graham  and 
Ethel  Conrad,  charged  with  shooting  W.  E.  D. 
Stokes,  over  which  case  the  city  was  extremely 


298 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


interested  and  much  amused.  Mr.  Jordan 
has  been  successful  since  beginning  practice 
in  this  city.  Owing  to  the  open-air  life  in 
youth,  lie  is  devoted  to  athletic  sports. 

The  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  con- 
tributed to  the  legal  profession  of  the  metrop- 
olis Wm.  Hepburn  Russell,*  who.  since  his 
coining,  in  1895,  had  been  as  active  in  politics 
as  in  law.  Born  at  Hannibal.  Mo.,  IS.*)?,  he 
received  his  education  at  the  public  schools; 
he  engaged  in  newspaper  work  and  rose  from 
reporter  to  editor  of  a  local  newspaper,  study- 
ing law  meanwhile.  He  was  admitted  to 
practice   in    1882   and   the  same  year  became 


and  belongs  to  the  New  York,  Whitehall,  and 
Manhattan  clubs;  has  been  President  of  the 
Missouri  Society  and  also  President  and 
chief  owner  of  the  Boston  National  Baseball 
club. 

Among  West  Virginian  contributions  to  the 
talent  of  this  city  is  .Judge  Charles  Forrest 
Moore,  now  engaged  principally  in  literary  and 
platform  work.  Judge  Moore  was  born  at 
Dunmore,  West  Va.,  and  after  a  preliminary 
course  at  the  Vanderbilt  University,  Nash- 
ville, completed  his  education  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia.  He  began  practice  at  Hun- 
tersville,  W.   Ya..  in   January,   1887.     In  the 


CI.ARK  T,    JOR.D  \S 


Will. I  \M    HKI'BIIJN   RCSSi:i.I. 


ill  \KI.KS  F    M :i 


City  Attorney  of  Hannibal.  He  became  a 
corporation  lawyer,  acting  as  general  attorney 
for  several  railroads  while  located  at  Lafayette 
and  Frankfort.  Ind.  Thence  he  removed  to 
Chattanooga  and  served  as  Presidential  Elector 
in  1892.  He  came  to  New  York,  three  years 
later,  where  lie  has  practiced  largely  in  the 
Federal  Courts.  lb'  is  quite  an  authority 
on  special  phases  of  the  law. 

lie  is  the  author,  jointly  with  his  former 
partner,  Wm.  Beverly  Winslow,  of  Russell 
and  Winslow's  Syllabus-Digest  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  Reports,  now  in  its 
third  edition.  lie  is  one  of  the  receivers 
of  the  Mutual  Reserve  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany; a  prominent  Elk,  a   Knight  of  Pythias, 

Russell  has  - 


■Tin-  untimely  death  of  M 
was  written. 


urred  since  the  above 


same  month,  four  years  later,  he  moved  to 
Clifton  Forge.  Va.,  and  in  1894  was  elected  by 
the  State  Legislature  as  Judge  of  the  County 
Court  for  Allegheny  and  Craig  Counties.  He 
moved  to  New  York  in  l!)(lv2.  He  was  dele- 
gate from  Virginia  to  the  Universal  Congress 
of  Lawyers  and  Jurists  held  in  St.  Louis  dur- 
ing the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exhibition.  Judge 
Moore  has  published  *' A  History  of  the  States. 
United  and  Otherwise.**  an  ingenious  and 
satirical  treatment  of  many  of  the  grave 
questions  that  have  agitated  this  country.  He 
is  known  as  one  of  the  best  after-dinner  speak- 
ers in  this  city  and  has  spoken  before  many 
social  and  political  organizations  in  various 
parts  of  the  country.  He  is  an  Independent 
Democrat,  a  member  of  the  Southern  Society 
and  "The  Virginians."      Has  also  been  Presi- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


299 


dent  of  the  Traffic  Clul>  of  New  York,  and  is 
regarded   as   an    authority   on    transportation 

matters. 

With  the  indomitable  will  that  character- 
izes the  native  New  Englander,  Stark  B.  Fei- 
riss  has  succeeded  in  New  York  City,  where 
others  with  less  obstacles  to  overcome  have 
failed. 

Mr.  Ferriss  was  horn  in  New  Milford,  Conn., 
and  came  to  New  York,  after  a  brief  schooling, 
to  take  up  the  study  of  law.  He  attended  an 
evening  law  school  here  and  then  entered  the 
New  York  Law  School,  graduating  as  an 
honor  man  with  the  Class  of  '!K5  and  since 
twice  serving  his  school  as  judge  of  its  most 


case  in  which  he  appeared  as  one  of  the  attor- 
neys for  Albert  T.  Patrick.  In  general  prac- 
tice he  negotiated  the  sale  of  $6,000,000  of 
Brooklyn  water  fronl  to  the  City  of  New  York 
and    was   counsel    in    the    Van    Denburgh    ex- 

i  •     •  • 

tradition  proceedings.  lie  is  a  recognized 
authority  on  the  tax  laws. 

Mr.  Dalberg  was  horn  in  St.  Louis.  Mo.. 
July  27,  1875,  and  was  educated  al  Columbia 
University  and  the  New  York  Law  School, 
graduating  A.B.  and  LL.B.  lie  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1897  and  has  been  in  active  prac- 
tice ever  since.  lie  is  a  Democrat  in  politics; 
was  candidate  for  Alderman  from  21st  District 
in  1901  and  was  in  charge  of  the  bureau  of  club 


STARK  B.  KEHRISS 


MELVTN   H.  DALBEFK 


JAMES  F.  DONNELLY 


advanced  examinations  for  prizes.  For  twelve 
years  he  was  in  the  employ  of  the  Title  Guar- 
antee and  Trust  Company  and  in  1905  en- 
tered upon  private  practice.  During  his  long 
connection  with  the  Trust  Company,  and  re- 
cently in  his  private  practice.  Mr.  Ferriss  has 
closed  many  large  titles,  some  of  them  being 
very  important  private  transactions. 

lie  is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Ferriss. 
Kocsser  &  Storck.  Mr.  Ferriss  resides  in 
Madison.  X.  J.  He  is  also  a  counsellor  at 
law  at  the  New  Jersey  Bar  and  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Bar  Association  of  New 
Jersey. 

As  an  able  trial  lawyer.  Melvin  II.  Dalberg, 
has  figured  in  many  important  cases,  promi- 
nent among  them  being  the  famous  murder 


organizations  of  the  Democratic  National 
Committee  in  1908;  he  was  Assistant  Tax 
Commissioner  of  the  City  of  New  York  in 
1906  and  1907;  in  li)ll(i  he  became  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Inspectors  of  The  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  by  appointment  of 
the  State  Superintendent  of  Insurance. 

Mr.  Dalberg  is  a  director  of  the  Seminole 
Mining  Company  and  the  Physical  and  Sur- 
gical Hospital.  He  was  formerly  president 
of  the  Young  Men's  Democratic  Club  of  the 
29th  Assembly  District  and  is  a  member 
of  the  Columbia  College  Alumni  Association, 
the  Dwighl  Alumni  Association;  the  New 
York  County  Lawyers'  Association.  Missouri 
Society.  Zeta  Psi  and  Masonic  fraternities  and 
the  National    Democratic  chili. 


300 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


A  young  lawyer  who  has  created  a  distinctive 
place  for  himself  in  this  great  city  within  the 
last  ten  years  is  -James  F.  Donnelly,  horn  at 
New  Britain,  Conn.,  IS??.  He  took  a  course 
at  the  Holy  Cross  College,  Worcester,  Mass.; 
a  degree  at  St.  Francis  Xavier  College  in  this 
city  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1902.  For 
two  years  he  served  as  an  assistant  in  the 
office  of  Whalen  &  Dunn,  hut  in  1004  he 
opened  an  office  for  himself.  He  first  came 
lo  the  front  in  the  cast-  of  Samuel  McMillan 
vs.  Klaw  &  Erlanger.  The  latter  firm  had 
obtained  from  the  Board  of  Aldermen  a  city 
ordinance  permitting  them  to  extend  the 
front  of  the  New  Amsterdam  Theatre,  hut 
Mr.  Donnelly  established  the  unconstitution- 
ality of  the  ordinance.  Another  well-known 
case  of  his,  Ortolano  vs.  the  Degnon  Con- 
tracting Co..  settled  the  question  of  the  suf- 
ficiency of  a  notice  under  the  Employers' 
Liability  Act.  Another  memorable  hit  of 
litigation,  namely,  J.  B.  McDonald  vs.  The 
Mayor  of  New  York,  a  highly  important 
mechanics'  lien  case,  created  an  exception 
to  the  rule  that  personal  judgment  could  not 
he  obtained  by  such  action  without  demand. 
Mr.  Donnelly  is  a  Democrat  and  a  member 
of  several  clubs. 

A  comparatively  young  hut  distinguished 
member  of  the  bar  and  one  who  has  won  dis- 
tinction outside  of  his  profession  is  Louis  II. 
Porter,  a  son  of  Timothy  H.  and  Marie 
Louise  (Hoyt)  Porter.  Young  Porter  first 
saw  the  light  of  day  in  New  York  on 
March  Hi.  1S?4.  He  received  his  early  edu- 
cation at  Andover  and  subsequently  he  was 
graduated  at  Yale  in  1896  with  the  degree  of 
B.A.  He  received  the  oration  appointment 
and  was  awarded  special  honors  in  history 
and  economics. 

He  took  the  degree  of  LL.B.  in  1898  at  the 
New  York  Law  School,  and  immediately  en- 
tered upon  the  active  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. He  now  controls  a  very  large  and  in- 
fluential clientele,  consisting  of  the  larger 
corporations  of  New  York  City  and  its 
suburbs.  In  1901,  Mr.  Porter  married  Ellen 
Marian  Hatch,  daughter  of  Richard  J.  and 
Eleanor  Merrill  Hatch.  Four  children  were 
born  to  this  union:    Louise  Hoyt,  Louis  Hop- 


kins, Jr.,  Joyce  and  Beatrice.  In  addition  to 
the  large  practice  Mr.  Porter  is  identified  with, 
he  finds  time  to  he  on  the  directory  of  the 
Yale  &  Towne  Manufacturing  Company, 
and  is  President  and  Director  of  the  North 
American  Mercantile  Agency  Company.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Yale.  University  and 
Hardware  Clubs;  of  the  New  York  City,  New 
York  State.  New  York  County  Lawyers'  and 
American  Bar  Associations  and  of  the  Com- 
mercial Law  League  of  America.  He  is  like- 
wise a  member  of  the  Ornithologists'  Union 
and  of  the  Linmean  Society. 

Mr.  Porter  is  a  devotee  of  country  life  and 
lives  at   Stamford. 

Vermont  has  contributed  another  member 
of  the  New  York  Bar  in  the  person  of  Henry 
Boynton  Johnson,  of  the  firm  of  Niles  & 
Johnson.  He  was  horn  at  Woodstock,  July. 
1862,  and  hetookadegreeat  Dartmouth  in  1883, 
being  a  member  of  the  Psi  Upsilon  fraternity. 
After  serving  in  the  Claim  Department  of  a 
western  railroad,  he  was  admitted  to  practice 
in  1SSS.  The  present  firm  was  organized  a 
year  later.  His  specialty  is  corporation  law 
and  estates.  He  naturally  acquired  a  taste 
for  real  estate  and  has  occupied  himself  also 
for  six  or  seven  years  in  the  development  of 
the  country  residences  situated  at  Shoreham. 
L.  I.,  on  a  high  bluff  on  the  shore  of  Long 
Island  Sound,  opposite  Bridgeport.  He  has 
a  summer  place  in  Vermont  and  is  a  lover  of 
horses,  although  keen  on  motoring.  He  is 
quite  a  club  member,  belonging  to  the  Union 
League,  Riding.  Dartmouth  and  several  coun- 
try clubs. 

One  of  the  most  scholarly  men  in  the  legal 
profession  in  New  York  to-day  is  Floyd  Baker 
Wilson,  born  at  Watervliet.  this  state,  in  1845. 
After  taking  a  classical  course  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan  and  studying  law  at  the  Cleve- 
land Law  College,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1873,  practiced  at  Chicago  until  1SS0 
when  he  came  to  New  York,  where  he  has 
since  lived.  Corporation  law  has  been  his 
specialty;  he  is  one  of  the  best-informed  men 
in  this  country  on  Spanish-American  laws  as 
affecting  property  rights.  He  has  been  sent 
to  Europe  on  many  occasions  as  representa- 
tive of  corporations.  His  last  enterprise  of 
that  kind    was  in  association  with  a  southern 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


:)()1 


FLOYD   B.  WILSON 


i  R  VNCIS  D.  GALLATIN 


EDWARD  0    T<  iWNi: 


syndicate  in  control  of  an  entirely  new  form 
of  cotton-gin.  Mr.  Wilson  is  largely  interested 
in  Mexican  mines.  He  is  President  of  the 
School  of  Philosophy  and  has  lectured  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  on  Metaphysics.  He  is 
author  of  a  series  of  tour  remarkable  hooks 
in  the  "New  Thought"  philosophy,  namely, 
"Paths  to  Power."  "Man  Limitless," 
'Through  Silence  to  Realization."  and  "The 
Discovery  of  the  Soul."  He  is  the  author  of 
a  novel.  "Uphill."  and  a  translator  of  a  Span- 
ish hook.  He  has  been  given  an  LL.D.  by 
Richmond  College. 

Relinquishing  a  possibly  brilliant  diplo- 
matic career  for  the  practice  of  law  is  why 
Francis  D.  Gallatin  is  now  numbered  among 
the  members  of  New  York  City's  bar. 

Mr.  Gallatin  was  born  in  this  city,  Septem- 
ber 2,  1870.  and  is  of  Swiss  and  English  ex- 
traction, the  family  being  founded  in  America 
in  1780.  His  great-grandfather  was  Albert 
Gallatin,  who  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
under  Presidents  Jefferson  and  Madison. 

He  was  prepared  at  Berkeley  and  Everson 
schools  and  then  entered  Columbia  College, 
graduating  in  1S!)1  with  the  degree  of  A.B. 
lie  studied  law  in  the  offices  of  Hornblower, 
Byrne  &  Taylor  and  in  the  New  York  Law 
School,  and  then  went  abroad,  becoming  in 
1901,  an  attache  of  the  American  Embassy 
at  Constantinople.  After  this  service  he  made 
a  tour  of  South  America,  visiting  many  of  the 


Latin  Republics.  Returning  to  New  V>rk 
in  1908,  he  took  up  the  active  practice  of  law 
anil  has  been  deeply  interested  in  the  Prison 
Association  and  in  the  work  of  the  criminal 
courts.  Mr.  Gallatin  is  a  Knight  Commander 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  a 
decoration  he  received  from  Pope  Pius  X. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Delta  Phi  fraternity, 
the  Columbia  University  and  National  Demo- 
cratic clubs  of  New  York  and  the  Oriental 
Club  of  Constantinople. 

In  addition  to  being  successful  at  the  prac- 
tice of  law.  Edward  Owings  Towne.  has 
written  several  successful  plays.  His  comedy, 
"Other  People's  Money,"  has  kept  the 
boards  for  1!)  years,  he  tells  me. 

He  was  born  in  Iowa  and  received  his  edu- 
cation at  the  Iowa  Central  University,  gradu- 
ting  when  only  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  Chicago,  and  started 
practice  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years.  When 
but  twenty-six  years  old  he  was  candidate 
for  Superior  Court  Judge,  and,  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, "was  beaten  so  badly,  he  has  never 
since  ran  for  office." 

Mr.  Towne  was  one  of  the  attorneys  in  (he 
famous  Debs  Railroad  Conspiracy  case  in 
Chicago,  and  appeared  in  other  celebrated 
cases.  He  came  to  New  York  City  in  1903. 
He  was  leading  counsel  for  the  defense  in  the 
Sheib  bath-tub  murder  case. 

Mi-.    Towne    was    organizer   and    executive 


302 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


chairman  of  the  famous  Waldorf-Astoria 
Peace  Banquet.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Iowa  Society  of  New  York  and  the  Liberal 
Culture.  Fortnightly  and  American  Drama- 
tists'clubs.  He  is  also  founder  and  president 
of  the  Theatregoers'  Club  of  America. 

The  Middle  West  contributed  another  suc- 
cessful lawyer  to  the  bar  of  New  York  City, 
when  Herman  .1.  Witte  relinquished  practice 
in  Ohio  and  located  in  the  metropolis.  He 
was  born  in  Cincinnati.  September  1!>.   1860, 


and  after 


thorough  schooling  in  the  public 


HERMAN 


schools  in  the  city  of  his  birth  he  entered  the 
I  Diversity  of  St.  Loins,  from  which  he  grad- 
uated with  honors.  He  was  for  several  years 
connected  with  the  municipal  government  of 
Cincinnati  and  was  admitted  to  practice  by 
the  Supreme  Court  in  181)?.  Since  locating 
in  New  \  ork  City  he  has  acquired  a  large 
practice  and  enjoys  the  confidence  and  re- 
spect  of  all   with   whom   he  conies  in  contact. 

The  Delafield  family  is  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  in  New  York,  dating  from 
Revolutionary  days.  Lewis  Delafield  was 
born  in  this  city.  1863,  studied  at  St.  Paul's 
School,  was  graduated  at  Harvard  University, 


and  secured  a  degree  of  LL.B.  from  Columbia 
Law  School  in  1884.  'Sir.  Delafield  has  been 
in  active  practice  since  his  admission,  and.  as 
a  member  of  the  New  York  City  Bar  Associa- 
tion, has  served  on  all  its  committees,  has  been 
chairman  of  several  committees  and  chair- 
man of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  New 
York  State  Bar  Association.  Mr.  Delafield 
was  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Committee  of  Seventy  in  181)4.  Secre- 
tary of  the  Rapid  Transit  Board  of  New  York 
City.  1895-99,  and  was  nominated  in  UXMi  for 
Justice  of  tlu'  Supreme  Court.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Union  Club  and  of  the  Century 
Association. 

The  District  Attorney's  office  has  sent  out 
many  capable  jury  lawyers,  among  whom  I 
rank  highly  John  E.  Mclntyre,  who  served 
as  an  assistant  under  District  Attorneys  De 
Lancy  Nicoll  and  John  R.  Fellows.  During 
that  time.  Mr.  Mclntyre  prosecuted  614 
murder  and  manslaughter  cases,  out  of  which 
number  he  secured  580  convictions  of  various 
kinds.  Three  months  of  this  eventful  term 
(extending  from  November.  1894, to  January, 
IS!).")),  are  known  to  this  day  as  "the  Bloody 
Assize,"  because  44  persons  were  tried  for 
murder  in  New  York  County  and  every  one 
was  convicted.  Among  important  cases  prose- 
cuted by  Mr.  Mclntyre  were  those  of  Burton 
C.  Webster.  Dr.  Meyer,  Edward  Caesar,  Marie 
Barbari,  David  Hannigan,  Daniel  McGrath 
and  Henry  Wise.  At  the  end  of  his  public 
service.  Mr.  Mclntyre  was  retained  by  several 
Irish  societies  to  go  to  England  and  appear 
in  behalf  of  Edward  Ivory,  charged  with  an 
attempt  to  dynamite  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment. Associated  with  him  were  several  dis- 
tinguished English  lawyers:  a  verdict  of  ae- 
quital  was  secured.  Since  then  he  has  en- 
gaged in  general  practice,  his  most  recent  case 
of  importance  being  the  defense  of  Capt. 
Peter  C.  Haines,  charged  with  murder.  Mr. 
Mclntyre  was  born  in  New  York.  January. 
1855,  educated  at  the  College  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier  and  the  University  of  the  City  of  New 
York.       He  belongs  to  many  clubs. 

Recently  appointed  general  solicitor  of  the 
New  York  State  Brewers'  Association  and  the 
Lager  Beer  Brewers'  Board  of  Trade  of  New 
York  and   vicinity*   William   II.    Hirsh   brings 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


303 


.11 HIN    I      McINTYRE 


Wll   MAM    II     lllliSH 


li.W'll)  M.   NEUBERGEH 


to  his  new  offices  ;i  complete  knowledge  of 
every  phase  of  law  and  precedent  that  is  of 
invaluable  aid  in  looking  after  legislative  mat- 
ters and  protecting  a  large  amount  of  invested 
capita]  for  his  clients.  lie  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  July  8,  1874.  and  later  graduating; 
from  the  public  schools  in  1889,  entered  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  from  which 
he  graduated  A.B.  in  1N!)4.  One  year  later 
he  obtained  the  A.M.  degree  from  the  School 
of  Political  Science  of  Columbia  University 
and  in  1897  graduated  LL.B.  from  the  Law 
School  of  the  same  institution.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  one  year  previous  to  gradua- 
tion and  from  1896  to  1897  studied  for  the 
degree  of  Ph.D..  taking  up  such  subjects  as 
historical  political  economy,  constitutional  his- 
tory of  the  I  nited  States,  comparative  con- 
stitutional law  of  United  States  and  Europe 
administrative  law.  Roman  law,  law  of  Muni- 
cipal corporations,  law  of  taxation.  Consti- 
tutional law,  international  law  and  Mediaeval 
and  Ecclesiastical  history.  During  his  studies 
in  the  School  of  Political  Science  lie  also  took 
up  a  special  seminarium  work  in  history  and 
administrative  law  and  the  police  power 
vested  in  the  various  states.  He  was  ap- 
pointed Inspector  of  Schools  by  Mayor  Van 
Wyck,  becoming  Chairman  of  the  Thirteenth 
District  Board  and  retained  the  position  dur- 
ing Mr.  Van  Wyck's  term  of  office.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Association  of  the  Par  of  the 
City    of    New      York,     the     Manhattan     Club 


and     other     social     organizations     and     is     a 
member  of   the   firm   of    Ilirsh    &    Ehrhorn. 

In  becoming  a  lawyer,  David  M.  Neuberger 
consummated  a  determination  formed  while 
employed  in  the  office  of  A.  Oakley  Hall,  one 
time  Mayor  of  New  York  City;  his  service 
with  the  ex-Mayor  engendering  an  inclination 
tor  the  legal  profession  to  the  exclusion  of 
everything  else.  He  was  born  here  April  f. 
1864,  and  educated  in  the  public  schools;  his 
legal  training  being  obtained  at  the  Paw 
School  of  New  York  University  and  in  the 
office  of  Dittenhoefer  &  Etunkel,  where  he 
remained  until  his  admission  to  the  liar.  He 
has  been  successful  from  the  commencement 
of  his  professional  career  and  has  been  counsel 
in  many  important  cases,  both  civil  and  crim- 
inal and  in  many  cases  of  public  interest. 
He  also  represents  a  great  many  corporations 
and  is  connected  with  several  companies  as 
director  or  officer. 

Mr.  Neuberger's  father.  Jacob  Neuberger 
emigrated  to  this  country  from  the  Rhine 
Province  in  Germany,  in  1849,  and  was  a 
client  and  close  friend  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
His  mother.  Rosalie  Neuberger,  was  born  in 
Denmark  and  coming  to  America  when  very 
young  became  one  of  the  foremost  women  of 
her  time.  In  politics.  Mr.  Neuberger  has 
always  been  an  independent  Democrat.  He 
is  interested  in  charitable  work  and  is  con- 
nected with  many  organizations  in  that  line. 
He    numbers    many    prominent    men    among 


304 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


his  clientele.  He  is  a  writer  of  much  force 
and  is  a  frequent  contributor  to  various  publi- 
cations. Mr.  Neuberger  is  a  member  of 
the  American  Economic  Society,  the 
American  Civic  Alliance,  the  County  Law- 
yers' Association,  the  Alumni  of  Xew  York 
University    and    several    social    organizations. 

The  first  mayor  of  Long  Island  City  was 
the  father  of  Edward  W.  Ditmars,  who  was 
born  at  Astoria  in  1803.  Educated  at  the 
Columbia  Law  School  for  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  Edward  Ditmars  received  the  de- 
gree of  LL.B.  and  became  associated  with 
his  uncles.  J.  II.  and  S.  Riker.  This  law 
firm  will  probably  be  remembered  by  the  old 
New  Yorkers  as  attorneys  in  the  famous 
Sarah  Burr  will  case.  Since  the  dissolution 
of  that  firm  Mr.  Ditmars  has  practiced  in- 
dependently. He  is  attorney  for  the  Rich- 
mond Kaolin  Co.  and  for  the  Astoria  Heights 
Land  Co.;  a  member  of  the  Holland  Society 
and  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution.  In 
politics,  lie  is  actively  a  Democrat. 

In  1884,  Morris  Cukor,  a  young  Hungarian 
of  1(>,  desiring  to  live  in  a  country  of  unlimited 
opportunities  and  free  institutions,  landed  in 
this  city  and  entered  the  New  York  University 
Law  School.  He  had  previously  secured  a 
fair  education  at  the  Royal  College  of  Kallo, 
in  his  native  land,  and  had  taken  several  gold 
medals  for  scholarship.  Here,  he  won  the 
Elliot    E.    Shepard    scholarship    at    the    New 


York  University.  Entering  the  law  office  of 
Justice  Joseph  E.  Newburger,  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  and  began  practice.  His 
fondness  for  the  law  was  marked.  He  acted 
as  counsel  to  Count  Ladislaus  Szechenyi  in 
ante-nuptial  negotiations  preceding  the 
Count's  marriage  to  Miss  Gladys  Vanderbilt; 
was  legal  advisor  to  Aurel  Batonyi;  is  gen- 
era] counsel  to  the  Austro-Hungarian  Consul- 
General  in  this  city  and  to  the  United  Hunga- 
rian Reform  churches  in  America,  consisting 
of  30  congregations  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  He  represents  the  Hungarian-Ameri- 
can Bank  of  New  York,  also  the  Royal  Hun- 
garian Government,  the  Commercial  Bank 
and  the  Hungarian  Central  Credit  Bank,  of 
Budapest,  two  of  the  largest  institutions  on 
the  continent.  He  is  an  active  worker  in 
many  charitable  associations.  Is  a  Demo- 
crat and  one  of  the  secretaries  of  Tammany 
Hall. 

John  Henry  Iselin  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  September,  LS74;  he  secured  his  early 
education  abroad  at  Vevey  and  Paris.  Re- 
turning to  New  York,  lie  prepared  for  college 
at  the  Berkeley  School;  took  a  degree  at  Har- 
vard. 1890,  and  finished  a  law  course  at  Co- 
lumbia Law  School  in  IS!)!).  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Delta  Phi  fraternity.  He  began 
his  active  career  in  the  law  office  of  the  late 
Albert  Stickney  in  1897.  He  has  been  an 
active  worker  in  politics  as  an  Independent 
Republican.     He    served    as    Assistant     Dis- 


EDWARD  W.   DITMARS 


MORRIS.CC  Ivor,' 


JiiHN   H.  ISELIN 


TIIK    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


305 


CIIAKUClS    1'  1 1 A  I  >  I  '  I   I   -i    I  i:i!KV 


GEORGE   W     Mi  (RGAN 


i;ii;in ai.u  II.  sciieni'k 


trict  Attorney  of  New  York  County,  1902- 
11)00,  after  which  he  became  head  of  the  pres- 
ent law  firm  of  Iselin  &  Delafield  in  1900. 
Mr.  Iselin  belongs  to  the  Knickerbocker, 
University,  City,  Republican,  Down  Town 
and  Harvard  clubs;  he  is  a  member  of  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Met- 
ropolitan Museum  of  Art  and  New  York 
Zoological  Society. 

From  Albany,  Charles  Thaddeus  Terry 
came  to  New  York  City  about  1893  to  make 
a  place  for  himself  in  the  legal  profession.  He 
was  then  twenty-six  years  of  age  and  had 
taken  degrees  at  Williams  College,  the  Colum- 
bia Law  School  and  had  studied  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin.  He  began  practice  as  junior 
partner  in  an  established  firm,  but  after  six 
years  established  an  office  of  his  own.  He 
was  a  prize  lecturer  at  Columbia  Law  School. 
1,N!):5  '95,  and  a  regular  lecturer  from  1896  to 
1901,  since  which  time  he  has  been  Professor 
of  Law  at  the  University.  He  is  believed  to 
be  the  best-informed  man  on  laws  relating  to 
automobiles  and  the  liabilities  of  their  owners. 
He  was  appointed  by  Governor  Higgins  Com- 
missioner of  N.  Y.  State  on  uniformity  of  laws 
in  the  United  States.  He  is  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa, 
an  ex-president  of  the  National  Council  of  the 
Phi  Delta  Phi  fraternity  and  a  member  of  the 
Uni versify  Club. 

New  Jersey  has  supplied  the  metropolis 
with  many  excellent  citizens.  Especially  is 
this  trui'  in  the  profession  of  law.      Mr.  George 


W.  Morgan,  of  Breed,  Abbott  &  Morgan, 
was  born  at  East  Orange,  \.  J.,  in  1875.  He 
went  to  Ohio  for  his  college  degree,  taking  it 

it  O  r^ 

at  Oberlin  College  in  1897.  Then  he  attended 
Columbia  Law  School  for  three  years  and  was 
graduated  LL.B.  in  1900.  He  served  as 
deputy  assistant  district  attorney  of  New 
^  ork  county  for  two  years,  having  especial 
charge  of  police  prosecutions.  After  serving 
three  years  as  State  Superintendent  of  Elec- 
tions, lie  resigned  to  devote  his  time  to  practice. 
He  has  taken  an  active  part  in  Republican 
politics.  Mr.  Morgan  is  fond  of  the  open 
air  and  spends  much  time  in  the  Summer  at 
his  farm  near  Sutl'ern,  N.  Y.  His  grand- 
father. John  Morgan,  was  a  professor  at 
Oberlin  College  for  50  years  and  the  father 
and  mother  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  were 
both  graduates  of  that  institution.  Mr.  Mor- 
gan is  a  member  of  the  American,  State.  City 
ami  County  Bar  Associations,  the  Academy 
of  Political  Science,  the  University  and  Re- 
publican Clubs  and  the  Ohio  Society. 

Among  the  lawyers  who  have  attained 
success  through  individual  effort,  Reginald  II. 
Schenck  is  deserving  of  mention.  He  was 
born  in  New  York  City  July  20,  1878,  and 
comes  of  old  Holland  ancestry.  His  father 
was  a  prominent  broker  whose  failure  made 
it  necessary  for  Mr.  Schenck  to  leave  school. 
He  secured  employment  in  the  circulation  de- 
partment of  an  afternoon  paper  and  at  the 
same    time    attended    the    night    class    of    the 


306 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


New  York  Law  School,  from  which  he  ob- 
tained  the  degree  of  LL.B.,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1901.  He  afterwards  matri- 
culated at  the  New  York  University  Law 
School  but  did  not  complete  the  course. 
returning  to  the  New  York  Law  School 
for  the  LL.M.  degree  winch  was  conferred 
upon  him  in  1904.  Mr.  Schenck  was  at  one 
time  a  member  of  the  legal  firm  of  Cheney. 
Schenck  &  Stockell,  which  included  O.  II. 
Cheney,  formerly  Superintendent  of  Banks, 
and   now    vice-president   of  the   Pacific   Hank. 


ill  VRLES  1'    M    COLE 

Charles  D'Urban  Morris  Cole  was  born 
in  West  Forty-third  Street.  New  York 
City,  in  which  city  he  was  raised  and  has 
lived  practically  ever  since.  He  comes  of 
old  Plymouth  stock,  was  fitted  for  college  at 
Cambridge,  graduating  from  Harvard  Univer- 
sity in  l.SN.'J.  He  then  studied  law  at  Colum- 
bia, and  took  the  Degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws 
in  1N,S.>.  and  the  same  year  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  New  York  City.  He  early  estab- 
lished himself  as  a  specialist  in  corporation 
law.  and  devoted  his  efforts  exclusively  to 
that  business  until  1890,  when  he  became 
associated  with  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company,  of  which  Company  he 
is  now    the  attorney. 

During   the   twenty-three    years   of  service 


with  the  Telephone  Company  he  has  seen  it 
grow  from  a  corporation  with  a  capital  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  its  pres- 
ent proportions,  has  had  much  to  do  with 
the  building  of  its  system  and  the  develop- 
ment of  its  plant,  and  has  assisted  in  solving 
the  many  and  complex  problems  which  have 
arisen  from  time  to  time  in  connection  with 
its  growth. 

He  is  connected  as  a  director  and  in  other 
official  capacities  with  several  corporations, 
mostly  telephone,  has  done  much  in  civic 
work,  and  is  widely  and  favorably  known  in 
business  circles. 

He  is  a  prominent  churchman,  a  democrat 
of  the  conservative  Cleveland  school,  and  is  a 
member  of  numerous  metropolitan  clubs. 

Cornell  University  has  furnished  an  un- 
usual number  of  members  of  the  bar  in  this 
city.  Among  them  is  Captain  Charles  Her- 
bert Stoddard,  horn  at  Glens  Falls.  New  York, 
1869, and  educated  at  the  Glens  Falls  Academy, 
lie  then  went  to  Cornell  University,  where 
he  took  the  degree  of  H.L..  also  leading  in 
military  science;  was  Colonel  of  the  Cadet 
Corps,  and  Woodford  prize  orator.  His  de- 
gree in  law  was  acquired  at  the  New  York 
University,  and  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
the  same  year.  He  has  successfully  practiced 
in  this  city  since  that  time.  He  was  an  en- 
thusiastic member  of  the  National  Guard 
from  1SS7  to  IS!)!);  was  second  lieutenant, 
22nd  Regiment,  1N!).'3:  first  lieutenant.  1894; 
Captain,  71st  Regiment,  IN!)?  to  '99;  Captain. 
71st  Regiment  Infantry,  N.  Y.  Volunteers, 
during  the  Spanish-American  War;  private. 
sergeant,  first  sergeant,  29th  Infantry.  U.  S.  Y.. 
campaigns  in  Luzon,  Marinduque,  Masbate, 
Ticao.  Burias  and  Samar.  Philippine  Islands. 
1899-1901.  Mr.  Stoddard  is  a  member  of  the 
Naval  and  Military  Order  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  the  Delta  Phi  fraternity. 
Cornell  and  St.  Elmo  clubs  and  has  been 
president  and  director  of  the  Builders  Con- 
struction Co.  since  1905.  He  is  prominent  in 
Masonic  bodies. 

Unquestionably  the  builder  of  his  own  for- 
tune. Robert  M.  Moore  has  great  cause  for 
self-congratulation,  for.  without  the  advan- 
tages   of  a   collegiate  career,   he   has    become 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


30" 


one  of  the  recognized  leaders  at  the  criminal 
bar  of  New  York  City.  He  was  born  in 
Morrisburg,  Canada.  July  .'>.  1N(>7,  and  was 
educated  in  the  public  and  high  schools  of 
Watertown,  X.  ,» .  After  leaving  school. 
he  studied  law  with  Judge  Watson  M.  Rogers, 
of  Watertown,  X.  Y..  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  L899.  lie  commenced  practice  in 
Maloiie.  X.  ^  ..  I>nt  shortly  afterwards  re- 
moved to  this  city.  The  first  case  to  bring  him 
prominence  was  his  defense  of  Dr.  Samuel  K. 
Kennedy,  charged  with  the  murder  of  Dolly 
Reynolds.  Kennedy  was  tried  three  times, 
the  first  time  defended  by  another  lawyer, 
he  was  convicted.      Mr.   Moore  took  the  case 


entire  time  to  theatrical  work  and  in  this  line 
he  has  been  highly  successful.  He  acted  as 
attorney  For  Edna  Goodrich  in  her  suit  for 
divorce  from  Nat.  C.  Goodwin  and  also  was 
attorney  for  Mrs.  Burke-Roche  and  Ltilu 
Glaser  in  similar  proceedings.  lie  is  not 
only  prominently  identified  with  the  pro- 
fession in  a  legal  way,  hut  he  is  financially  in- 
terested in  ahoul  nineteen  theatrical  produc- 
tions. Mr.  Roth  has  a  distinguished  ancestry. 
Ills  father  was  a  General  under  the  famous 
Kossuth  in  the  Revolution  of  1848  while  his 
uncle  was  a  member  of  the  Hungarian  parlia- 
ment and  his  eldest  In-other  is  counsel  to  the 
crown    of     Hungary.      His     father    was    also 


Ell  IBERT  M.  MOOR! 


HERMAN   I.    ROTH 


w     BERN  \l:[>  V  VCS1 


on  an  appeal  and  the  second  trial  resulted  in 
a  disagreement  by  the  jury.  The  third  trial 
resulted  in  acquittal.  lie  was  also  one  of  the 
defending  counsel  in  the  A.  J.  Patrick  case 
and  later  in  that  of  two  "iris  charged  with  at- 
tempting to  kill  a  millionaire. 

An  attorney  who  figures  prominently  in 
many  of  the  celebrated  cases  in  the  dramatic 
profession,  is  Herman  L.  Roth.  He  was  horn 
in  Budapest.  Hungary,  and  was  educated  at 
the  Budapest  Royal  Academy  also  graduating 
from  Heidelburg  University.  Upon  coming 
to  Xew  York  City  he  entered  the  New  York 
University  Law  School  from  which  he  grad- 
uated A.B.  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1893.  He  at  once  started  a  general  practice, 
and  eventually  drifted  into  criminal  work. 
Several    years   ago   he   decided   to   devote   his 


Grand  Master  of  the  Masonic  fraternity  in 
his  native  country.  Mr.  Roth  is  a  member 
of  the  National  Democratic  Club,  Progress 
Club.  Lawyers'  Club,  County  Bar  Association. 
Alumni  Xew  York  University  and  of  the 
Masons.  Knights  of  Pvthias,  Odd  Fellows 
and  Elks. 

A  few  of  the  rich  men  of  this  city  have  used 
their  wealth  to  admirable  advantage  and  gen- 
eral public  appreciation  in  developing  useful 
sports,  such  as  automobile  races,  motor  boat 
contests  ami  aviation.  In  the  front  rank  of 
this  interesting  and  valuable  membership  in 
our  community  is  William  Barnard  Vause, 
prominently  identified  with  the  original  con- 
ception of  the  Vanderbilt  Cup  Races.  He  is 
a  scholar  as  well  as  financier,  being  a  graduate 
of  Columbia    University  and   the   Xew    York 


.SOS 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


Law  School.  He  was  born  and  raised  in 
this  city  and  most  of  his  large  financial  in- 
terests are  centered  here.  Mr.  Vau'se  is  fond 
of  hunting  and  is  an  enthusiastic  motorist. 
He  belongs  to  the  Constitution  and  Long- 
Island  Automobile  clubs  and  withal  is  actively 
and  successfully  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law. 

In  the  legislative  fight,  still  fresh  in  our 
memories,  over  the  Anti-Racetrack  Bill, 
Charles  Frederick  Murphy  was  in  his  element 
and  played  an  important  part.  Of  the  family, 
three  of  the  preceding  generation  fought  in  the 
Civil  War.  Charles  Murphy's  father  lost  an 
arm.  one  uncle  was  killed  at  Gettysburg  and 
another  was  seriously  wounded.  Still  an- 
other, of  non-combatant  age  in  Civil  War 
times,    accompanied    Hobson    in    his    venture 


CHARLES  I     MURPHY 

into  Santiago  harbor.  Born  at  Norwood,  St. 
Lawrence  County,  Charles  F.  Murphy  was 
educated  at  Union  College  and  at  the  New 
York  Law  School.  lie  has  since  been  engaged 
in  genera]  practice  with  marked  success.  Five 
times  Mr.  Murphy  has  been  elected  to  the 
Assembly  from  the  Tenth  District  of  Kings 
County.  During  that  time,  for  three  years, 
he  was  chairman  of  the  Codes  Committee. 
He  was  the  father  of  the  Livingston  St.  Bill 
which  saved  a  million  and  a  half  to  his  con- 
stituents. 


Julien  T.  Davies,  Jr.  is  a  member  of  one  of 
the  leading  law  firms  at  the  New  York  Bar, 
and  at  the  present  time  engaged  in  an  active 
general  practice  of  which  the  conduct  of  liti- 
gations, both  before  the  Trial  and  Appellate 
Courts,  is  a  considerable  part.  Some  of  his 
principal  interests  outside  of  his  profession 
are  gunning,  fishing,  boating  and  motoring. 
He  rinds  some  time  to  devote  to  the  good  roads 
movement. 

Mr.  Davies  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
February  20,  1870.  He  was  educated  at 
St.  Paul's  School.  Concord,  X.  II.,  and  then 
entered  Columbia  University,  graduating  A.B. 
in  1891.  He  spent  two  years  at  the  Harvard 
Law  School,  leaving  there  in  1893  to  enter 
the  office  of  Evarts,  Choate  &  Beaman,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  one  year  later.  He 
is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Davies,  Auer- 
bach,   Cornell   &   Barry. 

Mr.  Davies  was  connected  with  the  Na- 
tional Guard  from  ISSSto  1906,  during  which 
time  lie  served  in  the  7th  Regiment.  Troop 
and  Squadron  A,  and  the  1  "2th  Regiment. 
His  last  term  of  service  was  from  1902  to 
1  !)()(>  as  1st  Lieutenant  of  Company  K,  12th 
Regiment  Infantry,  N.  G.  N.  Y.  lie  is 
president  of  the  Bancroft  Really  Company, 
also  of  the  Summerfield  Gun  Club,  a  North 
Carolina  shooting  club,  and  is  one  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Suffolk  County 
Taxpayers'  Good  Roads  Association.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  New  York  County  Lawyers' 
Association,  the  Bar  Associations  of  the  City 
and  State,  Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  Sons 
of  the  Revolution,  St.  David's  Society  and  the 
Down  Town  Association.  The  Recess,  Union, 
University  and  the  New  York  Yacht  clubs. 

Enjoying  the  confidence  of  his  constituents, 
whom  he  ably  represents,  Aaron  J.  Levy,  has 
been  elected  to  the  State  Assembly  for  five 
successive  terms,  and  was  chairman  of  the 
most  important  legislative  committee,  namely, 
the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  in  the  last 
Assembly. 

Mr.  Levy  was  born  in  New  York  City.  July 
4.  1881.  lie  attended  the  public  schools,  the 
evening  high  schools.  Cooper  Union  School  of 
Science  and  the  New  York  University. 

Since  admission  to  the  bar  he  has  tried  many 
important  civil  and  criminal  cases  and  acted 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


309 


AAHllN  J.   Li;VY 


WILLIAM    L.   HANSOM 


\\  I  I.I  1 11  GHB1     B     In  IBBS 


as  counsel  for  several  prominent  realty  cor- 
porations. He  has  always  been  interested  in 
all  social  and  political  reform  movements  on 
the  lower  East  Side,  and  prior  to  his  election 
to  the  Legislature  frequently  went  before 
that  body  in  behalf  of  good  government,  ballot 
reform,  more  small  parks  and  improvement 
in  tenement  house  conditions. 

Mr.  Levy  is  a  Mason,  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  Princes  of  Jerusalem,  the  Chapter 
of  Hose  Croix,  the  Consistory  and  the  Mystic 
Shrine,  the  John  F.  Ahearn  Association, 
Tammany  Hall  General  Committee  Fourth 
Assembly  District,  Educational  Alliance,  Beth 
Israel  Hospital,  United  Hebrew  Charities, 
Talmud  Torah,  Hebrew  Immigrant  Associa- 
tion, the  Veritas  Association,  the  Society  of 
Medical-Legal  Jurisprudence  and  the  Young 
Men's  Democratic,  Avon,  New  Era,  Kiswa  and 
Professional  Men's  clubs. 

Another  member  of  the  newspaper  profes- 
sion who  was  drafted  into  legal  Work  is 
William  L.  Ransom,  who  from  1902  to  1905 
was  editor  of  the  Chautauqua  Assembly  Daily 
Herald.  Mr.  Ransom  was  born  in  Harmony 
Township,  Chautauqua  County,  N.  Y.,  June 
24,  1883,  and  attended  the  Jamestown,  N.  Y., 
High  School  in  18!)!)  and  Cornell  University 
L.iw  School  in  1905.  After  admission  to  the 
bar  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Ran- 
som &  Cawcroft,  Jamestown,  X.  Y.,  and  after 
a  period  of  great  activity  in  civic  work  there, 
he  removed  to  New  York  City.  Since  his 
residence  in  the  metropolis  he  has  been  attor- 


ney for  New  Jersey  affiliated  commercial  and 
commuters'  organizations  in  proceedings  be- 
fore the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
and  for  Westchester  County  Municipalities 
and  commercial  bodies  before  the  New  York 
Public  Service  Commission.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  New  York  State  Bar  Association.  Bar 
Association  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Chau- 
tauqua County  Society  of  New  York  and  the 
Alabama  Society  of  New  York,  and  is  now 
with  the  legal  department  of  the  Public  Service 
Commission. 

Another  metropolitan  lawyer  who  entered  his 
profession  by  the  gateway  of  journalism  is 
Willoughhv  Barrett  Dobbs,  who  was  born  in 
Portsmouth.  Va..  in  the  first  year  of  the  Civil 
War.  His  parents  removed  to  Richmond. 
Ky.,  in  1S(>(>.  then  to  Lexington,  Ky.,  in  1808, 
and  to  Bowling  Green,  Ky.,  in  1874.  In  these 
places  he  attended  private  and  public  schools. 
Thence  he  entered  Bethel  College,  Russel- 
ville.  Ky.,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1880. 
For  three  years  he  taught  district  school  and 
read  law  at  the  same  time,  attaining  admission 
to  the  bar  of  Kentucky  in  1888.  He  practiced 
law  and  edited  newspapers  until  1892,  dividing 
his  time  between  the  two  professions  of  law 
and  journalism.  He  wrote  slashing  editorials 
at  night  for  the  Bowling  Green  Democrat, 
Daily  Gazette  and  Daily  Times  and  gave  his 
hours  of  daylight  to  practice  in  the  courts.  In 
1886  he  became  the  proprietor  of  the  Allen 
Sentinel,  Scottsville,  Ky..  and  livened  the  com- 
munity in  politics.      He  transferred  his  aetivi- 


:?!(» 


THE    HOOK    oj   NEW    YORK 


tit's  to  Washington,  I).  C,  in  1892,  when  he 
was  called  three  years  later  to  accept  office 
as  chief  examiner  in  the  Police  Department  of 
New  York  under  Commissioner  Theodore 
Roosevelt.  This  tenure  was  of  brief  duration 
because  the  office  was  abolished  by  the  charter 
of  1898.  The  only  other  political  office  that 
Mr.  Dobbs  has  ever  held  was  that  of  Assembly- 
man in  1907  for  the  32nd  New  York  County 
District. 

Born  and  educated  in  the  middle  west. 
Rollin  M.  Morgan  was  quick  to  recognize 
the  superior  advantages  of  New  York  City 
and  came  here  early  in  life.  The  place  of  his 
nativity  was  Ohio,  where  he  was  born  July 
'2.  1857,  and  his  education  was  received  in 
the  public  schools,  the  Urbana  University, 
the  Ohio  State  University  and  the  Columbia 
College  Law  School,  from  which  he  graduated 
LL.B.  Since  admission  to  the  bar  he  has 
been  in  active  practice  and  has  filled  many 
positions  of  trust.  lie  was  compiler  and 
editor  of  the  building  laws  of  New  \  ork  and 
of  Municipal  Ordinances.  He  served  as 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  1SSS- 
!>1  and  afterwards  as  Assistant  Corporation 
Counsel.  lie  was  also  counsel  to  tin-  New 
York  Building  Code  Commission  and  to 
the  Municipal  Assembly  in  1898.  From 
1898  to  1901  he  was  counsel  to  the  New 
York  Board  of  Education.  Mr.  Morgan  is 
now  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Morgan  & 
Mitchell;  secretary-treasurer  and  director  of 
the  Ilollai'  Safe  and  Lock  Company,  and  pres- 
ident of  the  Kokosing  Land  Company.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  City 
of  New  York,  the  New  York  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, the  Masonic  fraternity.  Friendly  Order 
of  St.  Patrick  and  the  Ohio.  Iowa  and  St. 
David's  societies.  His  clubs  are  the  Manhat- 
tan. Democratic  and  New    York  Athletic. 

A  young  member  of  the  New  York  Bar  who 
has  been  more  than  ordinarily  successful,  is 
( ruernsey  R.  Jewett. 

Mr.  Jewett  was  born  at  Moravia.  N.  Y.. 
October  10.  1876,  and  after  a  high  school 
course  entered  Cornell  University,  where  he 
took  a  special  course  in  arts  and  law  and 
graduated  in  IS!)!). 

After  leaving  college  he  was  secretary  to 
the  Attorney-General  of  the  Stale  and  during 


this  period  took  up  the  study  of  law   and  also 
attended  the  Albany  Law  School. 

Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he 
removed  to  New  York  City  and  has  been  asso- 
ciated with  Randolph  Parmly  and  Frederick 
E.  Kessinger. 

Mr.  Jewett  is  a  director  in  the  Biograph 
Company,  the  A.  Z.  Company,  builders  of 
automobiles,  the  A.  &  M.  Robin  Company, 
the  Island  Cities  Realty  Company  of  New 
York  City  and  is  secretary  of  the  Rome  (N.  Y.) 
Locomotive  and  Machine  Works. 

Mr.  Jewett  is  a  member  of  the  Chi  Psi 
fraternity  but  has  no  club  affiliations. 

A  college  professorship  possesses  many  al- 
luring features  to  voung  men  after  graduation 
and  it  was  through  that  channel  that  Francis 
X.  Carmody,  now  a  Wall  Street  lawyer, 
entered  his  present  profession.  He  was  born 
at  Watervliet,  Michigan,  in  1871,  and  edu- 
cated at  the  University  of  Michigan  and  Notre 
Dame  University,  receiving  a  degree  in  IN!)!). 
He  subsequently  took  law  courses  at  the  New 
York  Law  School  and  Brooklyn  Law  School. 
He  began  his  active  career  as  head  of  the  de- 
partment of  oratory  at  University  of  Notre 
Dame.  Indiana,  and  held  this  position  for 
three  years,  coming  to  Brooklyn  in  1 900,  as 
I  lie  head  of  a  similar  department  in  the  Poly- 
technic Institute.  He  was  also  Ilarkness 
Instructor  in  pulpit  oratory  at  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary.  He  has  occupied  the 
chair  of  Professor  of  Constitutional  Law  and 
of  the  New  York  Code  at  the  Brooklyn  Law- 
School. 

The  Dominion  of  Canada  has  gone  so  far 
in  reciprocity  as  to  send  us  an  excellent  law- 
yer in  the  person  of  M.  Casewell  Heine,  born 
at  Ottawa.  September,  1876,  and  educated  at 
McGill  University,  Montreal.  He  took  a 
special  course  in  Roman  law  at  Edinburgh 
and  graduated  at  the  New  York  Law  School. 
When  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1901,  he  entered 
the  office  of  J.  Arthur  Hilton,  where  he  re- 
mained for  three  years  and  then  began  prac- 
tice individually.  A  study  of  political  history 
and  ancient  law,  combined  with  the  love  of 
the  excitement  of  debate  and  trial  work,  was 
the  principal  influence  that  induced  him  to 
adopt  his  profession.  He  has  specialized  in 
real   estate  and   is   counsel   for  various   indus- 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


;ii 


trial  ;iml  mining  companies.  He  has  been 
influential  in  the  development  of  the  zinc 
industry  of  Tennessee.  While  climbing  the 
Alps  between  Forclaz  and  Chamounix  in 
May,  IS!)!),  Mr.  Heine  encountered  ;i  voung 
German  student  crazed  from  exposure  and 
with  much  difficulty  brought  him  down  to 
Argentiere,  saving  his  life.  The  sufferer  h;i<l 
to  be  carried  most  of  the  distance.  Mr.  Heine 
is  a  Republican;  belongs  to  the  Delta  Upsilon 
fraternity;  is  a  Mason  and  a  member  of  sev- 
eral clubs. 

Toledo.  Ohio,  the  former  home  of  "Petro- 
leum Y.  Nasby,"  sent  to  New  ^  ork  by  way 
of  Yale  University,  George  Davis  Zahm,  who 


To  be  honored  by  two  terms  of  fourteen 
years  each  upon  the  Supreme  bench  of  the 
Stale  of  New  York,  speaks  very  highly  for  the 
legal  ability  and  judicial  integrity  of  any  man. 
Such  tribute  has  been  paid  to  Henry  Bischoff, 
born  in  this  city  in  1852,  educated  at  the  public 

schools  and   Columbia    Law    Scl I.      lie   was 

admitted  to  the  bar  in  1S7:5  and  engaged  in 
private  practice  until  elected  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  1890.  During 
that  tune,  he  was  senior  member  of  the  bank- 
ing firm  of  Bischoff  &  Co.  In  lN!)(i.  he  was 
elected,  as  a  Democrat.  Supreme  Court  Jus- 
tice and  recently  reelected.  He  is  devoted  to 
music  as  well  as  the  law.  a    regular  attendant 


CASEWELL  HEINE 


1  K  VNCIS  X.  ('  1KMH1IV 


Prol    GEI  IRGE  1'    Z  \HM 


now  occupies  a  prominent  position  as  an  in- 
structor in  the  law.  He  was  born  in  the  city 
the   Maumee   River   in    1876.      Centennial 


on 


year!  After  thorough  preparation,  he  was 
graduated  at  Yale  magna  emu  /untie,  l!)l)(). 
During  his  course  in  law.  he  won  the  Edward 
Thompson  and  the  Jewell  prizes.  He  opened 
a  law  office  in  Syracuse  in  1901,  but  was  called 
to  New  Haven  to  act  as  an  instructor  in  law 
at  Yale.  and.  since  May.  1904,  has  been  As- 
sistant Professor  of  Law  at  that  University. 
He  is  also  Assistant  Professor  of  Law  at  the 
St.  Lawrence  University,  but  has  been  prac- 
ticing his  profession  in  this  city  while  acting  as 
a  lecturer  on  law.  lie  is  a  member  of  the 
Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  a 
32d  degree  Mason,  an  Elk  and  belongs  to  the 
Society  of  the  Onondagas. 


at  the  opera,  a  member  of  the  Arion,  Beethoven 
and  Liederkranz  musical  societies.  He  be- 
longs to  the  Manhattan,  Lotos  and  National 
Democratic  clubs. 

I'he  sport  of  golf  appeal's  to  have  more 
enthusiasts  in  the  legal  profession  than  any 
other.  Although  Edward  J.  Welsh  has  suc- 
ceeded in  his  profession,  he  is  a  keen  yachts- 
man and  when  not  upon  the  water  is  to  be 
found  upon  the  golf  field  during  leisure  hours. 
He  was  born  at  Easton,  N.  Y..  1872,  and 
took  a  law  course  at  Union  University  where 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Delta  Chi  fraternity. 
Coming  to  the  metropolis,  he  entered  the  law 
office  of  Birdseye,  Cloyd  &  Bayliss,  where  he 
remained  ten  years.  leaving  to  form  the  firm 
of  Welsh.  Heine  &   Fall.      This  latter  partner- 


312 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


ship  was  recently  dissolved  and  Mr.  Welsh 
now  practices  independently.  lie  assisted  ( lar- 
ence  Birdseye  in  compiling  "Birdseye's  Re- 
vised Statutes,"  a  work  used  universally  in 
New  York  state.  Although  his  residence  i^  in 
New  York.  Mr.  Welsh  has  a  country  place  in 
Noroton,  Conn.,  where  at  the  nearby  Weeburn 
golf  links  he  enjoys  his  favorite  pastime. 

Attracted  by  the  greater  possibilities  for  a 
career  in  his  chosen  calling.  Albert  Rathbone 
came  to  New  York  City  from  Albany  and  the 
success  following  his  change  of  localities  shows 
that  his  judgment  was  right. 

Mr.  Rathbone  was  born  in  Albany.  N.  Y., 
July  27,  1868,  and  was  educated  at  Albany 
Academy  and  was  a  member  of  the  Class  of  '88 
at  Williams  College.  He  afterwards  took  a 
special  course  at  Union  University  from  which 
he  received  the  degree  of  LL.B.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1881  and  practiced  alone 
until  1892,  when  he  became  a  member  of  the 
firm  of  Tracey,  Cooper  &  Rathbone.  He 
came  to  New  York  in  1900  and  in  1901  was 
admitted  to  partnership  in  the  firm  of  Butler, 
Notman,  Joline  &  Mynderse.  This  firm  was 
dissolved  December  31.  1004.  when  the  pres- 
ent firm  of  Joline.  Larkin  &  Rathbone  was 
organized. 

Mr.  Rathbone  is  a  member  of  the  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, the  Loyal  Legion,  Alpha  Delta  Phi 
and  the  following  clubs;  Racquet,  Metropoli- 
tan. Down  Town,  Riding  and  Driving,  Ards- 
ley.  Sleepy  Hollow  Country,  Rumson  Country 
and  the  Automobile  Club  of  America. 

George  C.  Beach  is  another  member  of  the 
younger  bar  who  is  deserving  of  mention. 
He  was  born  November  10,  1877,  at  Watkins, 
N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Daniel  and  Angelica  Church 
(Magee)  Beach,  anil  was  educated  at  the 
Watkins  High  School  and  St.  Raul's  School, 
Concord,  N.  II.  He  graduated  B.L.  from 
Hobart  College.  Geneva,  N.  Y..  in  1808  and 
LL.B.  from  Cornell  University  Law  School 
in  1901.  Mr.  Beach  is  a  member  of  the  Bar 
Association  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the 
Sigma  Phi  Society  and  the  St.  Nicholas,  Cor- 
nell University,  City,  Midday,  Apawamis  and 
West   Side  Tennis   clubs. 


A  successful  lawyer  and  devoted  to  yachting, 
Lorenzo  1).  Armstrong  frequently  relieves 
his  legal  cares  by  short  cruises  in  his  schooner 
yacht,  "Grampus." 

Mr.  Armstrong  was  born  in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  December  21,  1875,  and  after  grad- 
uating from  Yale  University  with  the  B.A. 
degree  entered  the  New  York  Law  School, 
finishing  LL.B. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  entered 
active  practice  and  is  now  a  member  of  the 
firm    of    Garvan    »S;    Armstrong. 

Mr.  Armstrong  is  director  and  second  vice- 
president  of  the  Fajardo  Sugar  Company,  and 
a  director  in  the  New  Amsterdam  Casualty 
Company  and  the  Electric  Cable   Company. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Greenwich  County. 
New  York  Yacht.  Tiedean  Harbor  Yacht, 
University  and  Yale  clubs. 

After  a  residence  in  Havana,  during  which 
he  acted  as  counsel  for  the  Military  Gover- 
nor of  Cuba,  Ernest  L.  Conant  returned  to  New 
York  City  in  1906  and  has  already  become  a 
successful  practitioner  here. 

He  was  born  in  Dudley.  Mass.,  September 
11,  18.59,  and  was  educated  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege, graduating  A.R.  in  1884;  Johns  Hopkins 
University  and  Maryland  Law  School.  1884 
to  1880.  and  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1889 
with  the  A.M.  and  LL.B.  degrees. 

He  acted  as  English  instructor  at  Harvard 
and  lecturer  on  International  Law  at  the  same 
institution. 

He  is  a  director  of  the  American  Type 
Founders  Company,  a  member  of  New  York 
State  Bar  Association  and  the  Association  of 
the  Bar  of  the  City  of  New  York.  His  clubs 
arc  the  University,  Harvard  and  City. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  legal  career.  Wil- 
liam A.  Redding  has  been  deeply  interested  in 
the  study  of  the  law  as  applied  to  patents  and 
in  this  connection  has  figured  as  general 
counsel  for  industrial  firms  in  many  litigations 
where  the  rights  of  patentee  or  manufacturer 
were  involved. 

Mr.  Redding  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  No- 
vember 12.  18.50,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
October  11,  1873.  Not  satisfied  with  his 
legal    equipment,    Mr.    Redding   entered   the 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


313 


WILLIAM  A.  REDDING 


WILLIAM  M.  HOES 


MICHAEL  J.  MULQUEEN 


Law  School  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
and  graduated  therefrom  in  1876  with  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws.  He  then  or- 
ganized the  firm  of  Redding,  Jones  &  Carson, 
was  elected  to  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature, 
and,  while  very  successful  in  his  native  state, 
came  to  New  York  in  1887  and  is  senior  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Redding.  Greeley  &  Austin. 
Mr.  Redding  is  a  member  of  the  Five 
o'clock  Club  and  Art  Club  of  Philadelphia 
and  of  the  Union  League  Club,  of  Engineers' 
Club,  Machinery  Club  and  Bar  Association 
of  New    York    City. 

One  of  the  wondershops  of  the  metropolis 
is  the  office  of  the  Public  Administrator  of 
the  County  of  New  York.  Many  a  sensa- 
tional novel  is  hidden  in  its  file-cases.  The 
present  incumbent  of  this  highly  important 
position  is  William  M.  Hoes,  born  in  Kinder- 
hook,  N.  Y.,  June  li),  184<».  lie  prepared  at 
the  academy  of  his  native  town,  took  his  de- 
gree at  Williams  College  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1865.  Since  that  time  he  has 
devoted  himself  chiefly  to  civil  practice.  Mr. 
Hoes  is  a  Democrat,  a  member  of  the  Bar 
Association  of  Manhattan,  prominent  in  the 
Holland  Society  and  is  Past  Master  of  my 
lodge.  Kane,  454,  F.  and  A.  M.  In  college, 
he  belonged  to  the  Kappa  Alpha  fraternity. 
His  administration  of  the  vast  litigation  forced 
upon  the  county  by  neglect  of  proper  provis- 
ion For  death  by  citizens  of  this  island  has  been 
so  notably  efficient  that  Mr.  Hoes  has  been 
retained  in  office  many  years,  through  varying 
municipal  governments. 


One  of  the  most  able  addresses  made  at  the 
reception  of  Cardinal  Farley,  upon  his  return 
from  Rome,  was  by  Michael  J.  Mulqueen, 
who.  as  president  of  the  Catholic  Club,  figured 
hugely  in  the  exercises  at  the  Hippodrome  and 
also  presided  at  the  clubs'  greeting  to  the 
Cardinal,  on  which  occasion  Governor  Dix 
and  Mayor  Gaynor  made  addresses. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  City  and  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools,  at  Cooper  In- 
stitute and  at  the  Columbia  Law  School.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1883  ami  for  many 
years  was  a  member  of  the  legal  firm  of  Mul- 
queen &  Mulqueen,  but  now  practices  alone. 
He  is  a  Democrat  in  politics  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1N!)4. 
Mr.  Mulqueen  is  a  life-long  member  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  is  one  of  the  managers 
of  the  Catholic  Protectory.  He  is  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Manhattan.  Hardware.  Democratic, 
Catholic  and  the  Foxhills  Golf  clubs. 

A  man  in  political  life  who  incurs  the  dis- 
favor of  a  party  boss  is  sometimes  unsuccessful 
for  renomination  at  the  right  lime  namely 
when  a  landslide  is  imminent  and  the  defeat 
of  his  successful  party  rival  takes  place.  Such 
is  the  experience  of  Alvah  W.  Burlinganie.  Jr., 
a  lawyer  of  this  city,  who  after  serving  the 
people  of  the  Eighth  Senatorial  District  and 
being  endorsed  by  most  of  his  neighbors  was 
imperatively  '"turned  down"  for  renomination 
at  the  command  of  Naval  Officer  Kracke  and 
Postmaster  Voorhies,  with  the  result  that 
Cant.    Fahnestock,    named    in    his    stead    was 


314 


THE    HOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


overwhelmingly  defeated  in  a  strong  Republi- 
can district, November,  1910.  While  at  Albany, 
Mr.  Burlingame  made  a  senatorial  record 
that  received  the  approval  of  the  New  York 
Bar  Association,  especially  in  legislation  for 
the  prevention  of  "graft"  in  condemnation  pro- 
ceedings. He  was  largely  instrumental  in 
the  reduction  of  the  price  of  gas  to  80  cents; 
he  introduced  hills  for  simplying  the  civil 
code;  a  hill  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquors  to 
tubercular  patients  m  hospitals;  another  amend- 
ing the  Rapid  Transit  Act  and  two  hills  mak- 
ing the  crimes  of  "cadets"  punishable  as 
misdemeanors. 

Pennsylvania  contributes  another  lawyer  to 
New  York  in  the  person  of  Harry  B.  Brad- 
bury, born  at  Athens  of  that  state  in  1863. 
In  early  life,  he  was  a  machinist,  telegraph 
operator  and  newspaperman;  but  at  the  age 
of  thirty,  he  began  the  practice  of  law  in  this 
city.  He  is  author  of  several  hooks  on  legal 
subjects,  including  "Rules  of  Pleading," 
"Forms  of  Pleadings,"  "Practice  and  Form" 
and  "Jurisdiction  of  the  State  and  Federal 
Courts."  In  politics,  Mr.  Bradbury  is  a  pro- 
gressive Republican.  He  is  fond  of  hunting 
and  fishing  and  belongs  to  an  Adirondack 
mountain  club.  The  Bradbury  family  came 
from  Yorkshire.  England  in  l(i:5(i.  Harry  B. 
Bradbury's  paternal  and  maternal  great- 
grandfathers fought  in  the  Revolution.  His 
father  served  as  captain  in  the  Civil  War. 
raising  a  company  by  his  own  efforts.  Mr. 
Bradbury's  ancestors  belonged  to  the  family 


of  that  name  so  well  known  throughout  Maine, 
of  which  the  late  Senator  -lames  W.  Bradbury 
and  William  R.  Bradbury,  composer,  were 
members. 

A  clever  young  lawyer  coming  to  us  from 
New  Jersey  is  Charles  1.  Taylor,  who  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1899,  after  completing 
a  course  of  study  at  the  Xew  York  Law 
School.  Although  he  lives  in  East  Orange, 
the  place  of  his  birth  was  Skillman,  N.  Y.,  and 
its  date,  1S7.5.  His  affection  for  Princeton 
caused  him  to  take  his  University  course  there, 
where  he  was  graduated  in  I  S!>7.  Since  his 
admission  to  the  bar  he  has  been  an  active 
member  of   Beardsley,    Hemmens   &  Taylor. 

A  Commission,  the  members  of  which 
rendered  a  valuable  service  to  their  fellow- 
citizens,  investigated  the  Gas  and  Electrical 
systems  of  this  citv  a  few  years  ago. 


One  of  its  members  was  Ijeorge  15.  Ague 


uis  George  P.  \y 
born  in  Xew  York  city  in  1868  and  graduated 
from  Princeton.  1891.  He  was  sent  several 
terms  to  the  \.  Y.  Assembly;  and.  in  1906, 
was  elected  to  the  Senate. 

Eustace  Conway,  who  is  in  the  practice  of 
law.  is  counsel  for  various  lumber  companies, 
including  the  Wholesale  Lumber  Dealers' 
Association  in  Xew  York.  He  has  also  ren- 
dered most  valuable  service  in  the  reorgani- 
zation of  various  large  corporations,  and 
represents  various  estates. 

Mr.    Conway    was   educated    at    University 


Al.YAH   W    BUR!  ING  \MK,  Jr. 


II  \KI(Y  H.  BKAIHil   l:\ 


t'H  iRLES  I.  TAYLOR 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


315 


EUSTACE  I'oNW  \\ 


JAMES  I!     EL'S 


DAVID  THi  IRN  I '  IN 


College,  and  at  the  Inner  Temple,  London. 
though  born  in  Cincinnati  in  1S.5!).  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York  in  1881,  and 
is  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association  and  of  the 
Century  Club.  He  is  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners of  Appraisement  of  the  Flatbush 
Avenue  Subway  in  Brooklyn, 

Illinois  contributed  another  lawyer  in  the 
person  of  James  R.  Ely.  born  in  Chicago,  1859, 
and  educated  at  Yale,  where  he  was  grad- 
uated in  1882,  after  which  he  studied  for  one 
year  at  Columbia.  Law  School.  He  then  be- 
came a  clerk  in  the  office  of  Roger  Foster, 
where  he  remained  until  admitted  to  the  bar, 
January  1,  1886.  Since  that  time  he  has 
been  in  general  practice  in  this  city.  He  be- 
longed to  the  old  County  Democracy,  and 
later  to  its  successor,  the  State  Democracy, 
being  a  member  of  its  executive  committee. 
His  first  official  appointment  was  that  of 
United  States  District  Attorney,  in  1895, 
serving  three  years.  He  was  a  delegate  to 
the  Syracuse  Convention  of  the  National 
Democratic  party  and  to  the  National  Con- 
vention of  the  same  at  Indianapolis,  1896, 
where  Palmer  and  Buckner  were  nominated 
for  President  and  Vice-President  on  a  Gold 
Standard  ticket.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Committee  of  One  Hundred  that  led  the  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  an  independent  judiciary, 
1898,  and  has  been  Assistant  District  Attor- 
ney ami  active  in  local,  state  and  national 
politics.     He   is  a   member  of  several   clubs. 


Like  many  other  successful  men.  David 
Thornton  owes  his  start  in  life  to  an  attentive 
study  of  the  "Want  Columns"  of  the  news- 
papers. He  was  born  in  this  city  and  edu- 
cated at  the  public  schools.  Imt  early  fore- 
seeing that  he  would  have  to  make  his  own 
struggle  for  existence,  he  sought  employment 
while  attending  school.  An  advertisement  in 
the  Sun  caught  his  eve:  it  read  "Boy  wanted 
in  a  law  office."  He  secured  the  job  of 
errand  boy  and  before  his  first  month  was 
completed  began  the  study  of  his  future  pro- 
fession. He  read  Blackstone  and  other  ele- 
mentary books  at  home,  mastered  the  routine 
of  office  work  and  eventually  became  a  law  yer. 
It  was  a  bitter  up-hill  struggle,  the  final  step 
of  which  was  admission  to  the  liar.  Activity, 
hope,  earnestness  and  a  desire  to  employ  the 
best  of  his  talents  have  been  rewarded  by 
success.  The  firm  of  Thornton  &  Earle  gets 
its  share  of  business.  Mr  Thornton  is  a 
Republican,  a  member  of  the  Brooklyn  Union 
League  and  the  Congregational  clubs. 

Cornell  University  and  Columbia  Law 
School  contributed  to  the  qualification  of  John 
T.  Sackett  tor  the  legal  profession  of  this 
city.  He  was  born  in  New  York,  October, 
isiit.  graduated  at  Cornell.  ISSti.  and  Colum- 
bia, 1888.  He  is  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of 
Sackett  &  Lang;  a  Republican  and  an  Epis- 
copalian. He  is  vice-president  of  the  Borough 
Building  Supply  Co.  He  is  a  hard  worker  in 
the  winter  but  finds  his  chief  recreation  in  the 
summer    at     his    300-acre    farm     near    South 


316 


THE  BOOK  of   XEW  YORK 


Amenia,  Dutchess  County,  X.  V.  His  clubs 
are  the  Beta  Theta  Pi  and  Church:  he  is  a 
member  of  the  New  York  County  Lawyers' 
Association  and  the  New  York  Law  Institute. 
While  in  college  Mr.  Sackett  was  business 
manager  of  the  Cornell  Daily  Sun. 

The  metropolis  has  produced  many  suc- 
cessful lawyers,  despite  the  drafts  it  has  made 
upon  the  rest  of  the  country.  In  this  class  is 
Edmund  Lincoln  Baylies,  born  on  Manhattan 
Island.  December,  1857,  prepared  for  college  at 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy  and  graduated  in 
arts  at  Harvard,  1879,  and  at  its  Law  School. 
1882.  A  supplementary  course  of  instruction 
under  the  late  Dr.  Theodore  W.  Dwight  was 
had  at  Columbia  Law  School.  Mr.  Baylies 
then  made  a  trip  'round  the  world,  traveling 
slowly  and  studying  the  peoples  of  different 
lands.  Especially  did  he  give  attention  to  the 
methods  of  procedure  in  English  and  French 
courts.  On  his  return,  he  practiced  for  a 
while  independently,  and  then  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Carter.  Ledyard  &  Milburn. 
When  a  special  Ambassador  was  sent  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  to  the  Coronation  of  Edward 
VII,  Mr.  Baylies  was  named  as  Secretary  to 
the  Ambassador.  He  is  a  director  in  several 
large  corporations;  a  member  of  the  Cincin- 
nati and   Bar  Association. 

Since  Xew  York  became  the  financial  as 
well  as  commercial  center  of  the  United  States, 
it  has  attracted  capitalists  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.      No    matter   where    their    legal    resi- 


dences may  remain,  they  have  quarters  in  Xew 
York,  where  they  pass  a  large  part  of  every 
year.  Edmund  K.  Stallo  was  born  in  Cin- 
cinnati, ().,  and  educated  at  its  public  schools. 
He  started  out  to  become  a  lawyer,  studying 
while  in  commercial  employment,  and  was 
admitted  to  practice  at  the  bar  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Ohio.  He  soon  became  actively  en- 
gaged in  large  commercial  enterprises  and  has 
since  devoted  all  his  time  thereto.  He  is  a 
sincere  lover  of  books  and  possesses  a  library 
of  15.000  volumes,  which  includes  many  speci- 
mens of  rare  editions.  He  is  also  a  bibliophile 
in  the  sense  of  being  an  omniverous  reader. 
his  favorite  book  being  Kant's  "Critique  of 
Pure  Reason."  He  belongs  to  many  social 
organizations  in  New  York  and  Cincinnati. 

Artemas  Ward,  Jr..  member  of  the  Assem- 
bly, attracted  a  great  deal  of  newspaper  atten- 
tion because  of  his  conflict  with  the  suffragette 
party  during  the  elections  of  1910.  One  of 
his  noted  ancestors  was  General  Artemas 
Ward.  Major-General  under  Washington  and 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress.  The 
political  career  of  Artemas  Ward,  Jr.  began 
when,  as  an  election  worker,  he  assisted  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  Odell  machine  in  Xew  York 
County.  In  the  following  year  he  was  nomi- 
nated and  elected  from  the  25th  Assembly 
District  and  has  served  continuously  since 
1907.  In  1909  he  ably  handled  the  Election 
Bills  in  the  Assembly.  Mr.  Ward  was  born 
in   Philadelphia.   1875,  is  a  Harvard  A.B..  an 


EDMUND   I..  I'..\\  I  II- 


EDM1  \1)   K    .-'I  \l  I  •  i 


ARTEMUS  WARD,  .Jr. 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


31' 


LEONARD   A.  SNITK1N 


RnHEUT    F.  WAi.M.i; 


HAKOI.1)  J.    FRIEDMAN 


LL.B.  of  Buffalo  University  and  has  prac- 
ticed law  in  Buffalo  and  in  New  York  since 
1902.  lie  is  a  member  of  the  Sphinx,  Har- 
vard, City,  Ardsley  and  of  many  other  clubs, 
as  well  as  of  the  Mayflower  Society  and  Sons 
of  the  American  Revolution. 

Wide  experience  in  criminal  and  civil  work 
was  the  equipment  that  has  made  Leonard  A. 
Snitkin  a  successful  municipal  Justice.  Born 
35  years  ago  and  educated  in  the  public  schools 
and  the  New  York  University,  which  conferred 
the  LL.B.  degree  upon  him  when  he  gradu- 
ated in  1897.  The  Supreme  Court  admitted 
him  to  practice  the  same  year  and  he  started 
at  once  on  a  successful  legal  career.  His 
fitness  in  his  profession  was  attested  by  his 
selection  as  special  Deputy  Attorney-General 
under  Attorney-General  Davies,  an  office 
that  he  rilled  most  acceptably.  After  retiring 
from  the  Attorney-General's  office,  he  returned 
to  active  practice.  In  11)0!)  he  was  elected 
to  a  municipal  justiceship  for  a  period  of  ten 
years.  He  is  a  member  of  the  National 
Democratic  Club,  County  Lawyers  Associa- 
tion and  many  Hebrew  charitable  institutions. 
He  is  very  popular  in  the  district  in  which  he 
resides  and  is  familiarly  called  the  "poor 
man's  judge." 

In  the  contest  for  a  United  States  Senator 
to  succeed   Chauncey   M.   Depew.    Harold   J. 


Friedman,  the  youngest  member  of  the  As- 
sembly, displayed  such  independence  and 
disregard  for  party  dictation  that  he  became 
widely  known  and  commended  throughout 
the  entire  country.  He  was  born  in  New  Y>rk 
City  in  1SS7  and  after  graduating  from  the 
Horace  Mann  School  and  the  Teachers' 
College,  lie  entered  the  New  York  Law  School 
and  also  studied  in  the  office  of  Thomas  E. 
Rush.  Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar, 
he  entered  the  law  firm  of  Einstein,  Town- 
send  &  Guiternian  and  later  commenced 
practice  alone.  When  elected  to  the  Assem- 
bly, his  course  in  that  body  was  marked  by 
such  independence  of  action  that  he  was  com- 
mended by  the  Citizens'  Union  and  by  the 
newspapers  of  the  state,  many  of  which  classed 
him  as  a  progressive  advocate  of  reform,  and 
an  unyielding  opponent  of  "ripper"  legisla- 
tion. 

One  of  the  youngest  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  of  New  York  is  Luke  I). 
Stapleton,  bora  in  Brooklyn  in  December, 
1869.  He  was  educated  at  the  St.  .lames 
Academy  and  Manhattan  College  and  subse- 
quently took  a  law  course  at  the  University 
of  the  City  of  New  York.  He  began  practice 
of  his  profession  in  tin's  city  at  the  age  of  22, 
and  having  special  fondness  for  criminal  law, 
tried  a  large  number  of  capital  cases      twenty 


.'518 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


three  in  all.  He  was  Firsl  Assistant  Corpora- 
tion ( lounsel  of  tlic  ( 'ily  of  New  York,  1898-'01. 
Appointed  to  the  bench  by  Gov.  Hughes,  he 
w  ,i>  renominated  by  all  parlies  for  the  Supreme 
Court  Justiceship  and  elected  in  November, 
1908,  for  It  years.  He  is  a  Democrat  and 
belongs  to  the  Brooklyn,  Riding  &  Driving 
and  Montauk  clubs  and  the  St.  Patrick 
Society. 

Fondness  for  the  law  is  hereditary  in  sonic 
families  and  this  can  be  said  especially  of 
Lawrence  E.  Hrown,  who  belongs  to  a  race 
of  lawyers.  His  lather  was  a  lawyer  and  his 
grandfather,  Benjamin  W.  Bonney,  was  a 
Supreme    Court    Justice    in    this    city.      Mr. 

Hrown  was  horn  in 
New  York,  1 S 7 "-2 ;  was 
educated  at  Williston 
Seminary,  East  I  lamp- 
ton,  Mass..  and  was 
graduated  A.B.  at 
jr  Yale,  1893.    lie  taught 

school  one  year  and 
entered  his  lather's 
law  office  as  a  student. 
Admitted  to  the  bar 
in  this  city,  1897,  he 
engaged  in  general 
practice.  In  the  same 
year  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  As- 
sembly, as  a  Republican,  from  the  29th  dis- 
trict, New  York  City.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution,  his 
great-great-grandfather,  David  Hrown.  having 
commanded  the  Continental  forces  at  Con- 
cord Bridge  and  is  said  to  have  fired  '"the 
shot  heard  around  the  world."  Mr.  Hrown 
also  belongs  to  the  Union  League  and  Yale 
clubs. 

James  I'.  McGovern,  lawyer,  orator  and 
financier,  is  a  worthy  example  of  the  New 
York  City  self-made  man.  Born  in  that  city 
in  1877,  he  graduated  from  the  Grammar 
school,  meanwhile  helping  to  support  his 
parents  by  the  sale  of  newspapers.  He  en- 
tered the  law  department  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  R.R.  Co.  as  office  boy  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  rising  rapidly  to  the  position  of  Chief 
(  lerk.     Pursuing  his  academic  and  law  studies 


I   \\\  RENCE 


BROW  \ 


at  night  he  was  admitted  to  the  New  York 
Bar  at  the  age  of  23,  and  has  since  become  a 
recognized  authority  on  Corporation  Paw 
and  Management.  Among  his  clients  are 
numbered  many  large  interstate  concerns  of 
some  of  which  he  is  director  and  officer.  He 
is  Secretary.  'Treasurer  and  Director  of  the 
P.  S.  Industrial  Alcohol  Co..  an  $18,000,000 
corporation,  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
denatured  alcohol.  For  many  years  his  ser- 
vices have  been  in  demand  in  the  campaigns 
of  Tammany  Hall.  In  1905  he  was  nomi- 
nated by  that  organization  for  the  State  Leg- 
islature in  the  then  Seventeenth  Assembly 
District,  but  through  a  combination  of  forces 
was  defeated  by  85  votes,  running  however, 
ahead  of  Mayor  McClellan.  who  headed  the 
Democratic  ticket. 

A  member  of  the  Allen  family  in  Virginia 
does  not  have  to  eider  into  details  regarding 
his  ancestry.  One  of  the  contributions  of  the 
'Mother  of  Presidents"  to  the  bar  of  New 
\  ork  is  William  Allen,  born  in  Claremont, 
Surrey  County.  His  parents  removed  to  Rich- 
mond soon  after  his  birth.  He  was  graduated 
with  high  honors  at  Georgetown  College,  1875, 
and  took  a  law  course  at  the  University  of 
Virginia.  He  practiced  as  an  attorney  in 
Richmond,  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Peyton 
&  Allen,  until  1890,  soon  after  which  he  came 
to  New  ^  ork.  Here  he  took  high  rank  at  once 
as  a  corporation  lawyer  and  served  as  referee 
in  bankruptcy  for  the  Southern  District  of  this 
State.  Although  independent  in  state,  city 
and  county  politics,  Mr.  Allen  is  a  Democrat 
in  national  affairs.  He  is  a  staunch  Catholic 
and  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association.  His 
clubs  are  The  Virginians,  University  and 
Southern  societies. 

A  man  of  wise  judgment  regarding  values 
of  real  property  in  this  city  or  its  vicinage 
is  De  Witt  C.  Fox.  Horn  in  the  metropolis, 
1882,  he  took  classical  and  law  courses  at 
Columbia  University,  finishing  in  1904.  After 
practicing  law  for  several  years,  he  turned  his 
energy  entirely  in  the  direction  of  real  estate 
development,  conducting  several  large  opera- 
tions.    He  suggested  the  Duane  Street  site  for 

Do 

the   County  Court  House  which  the  Hoard  of 
Estimate  has  accepted. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


319 


Since  graduation  and  admission  to  the  bar, 
the  career  of  William  W.  Lapoint  has  been  a 
varied  one  and  his  versatility  is  proven  by  his 
success  alone  several  lines.     He  was  born  in 


U  I  I.I.I  \M     \\       I    \l'i  IINT 


Barre,  Vermont,  November  10.  1870,  and  has 
been  successively  newsboy,  lawyer,  theatrical 
manager,  journalist,  dramatist  and  campaign 

orator.  His  education  was  obtained  at  the 
Goddard  Seminary  in  his  native  town  and  at 
the  Boston  University  and  his  legal  training 
was  in  the  office  of  ex-mayor  J.  W.  Gordon, 
Barre,  At.  After  admission  to  the  bar,  Mr. 
Lapoint  practiced  law  in  his  native  town  and 
also  became  manager  of  the  local  theatre 
there.  During  liis  residence  in  Barre  he 
wrote  several  plays,  edited  a  weekly  journal 
and  acted  as  correspondent  of  Boston  and 
New  York  papers.  He  was  also  for  seven 
years  prosecuting  attorney  in  Barre,  Vt.,  and 
also  acted  as  assistant  District  Attorney  of 
Washington  County  in  the  same  state.  After 
coming  to  New  York  lie  entered  the  practice 
of  liis  profession  and  in  1!>10  acted  as  a  Tinted 
States  Census    [nspector. 

During  the  years  of  his  practice  Mr.  Lapoint 
has   won   three   murder  cases  and  has  lost   but 


twelve  out  of  the  large  number  of  civil  and 
criminal  cases  in  which  he  has  appeared, 
in  New  ^  ork  and  \  ermont.  lie  is  now  meet- 
ing with  great  success  in   recovering  English 

1  ■  '  DO 

estates  for  American  claimants,  and  is  also 
ailing  as  counsel  for  several  well-known 
theatrical  managers.      During  the  campaign  of 

1909  he  was  a  vigorous  speaker  in  Otto  Ban- 
nard's  behalf. 

Mr.  Lapoinl  is  an  ex-Commander  of  the 
Vermonl  Division.  Sons  of  Veterans,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  New  York  Society  Sous  of  Vermont, 
and  former  vice-president  of  Ihe  Goddard 
Alumni  Association.  lie  is  interested  in  the 
Staples  Estates  Company  and  owner  of  the 
\  erniont  Theatre  ( Company. 

The  strength  of  personality  is  admirably 
illustrated  in  the  character  of  John  B.  Stanch- 
field,  who  plays  a  preeminent  part  in  the 
Democratic  counsels  of  the  state  of  New  York. 
Mr.  Stanchfield  has  distinguished  himself  in 
his  profession,  that  of  law,  in  private  practice 
and  as  District  Attorney  of  Chemung  County 
during  ISXO-'S.j.  He  was  born  in  Elmira, 
N.  V.  March,  1855,  was  graduated  from 
Elmira  Academy,  1872,  and  took  the  degree  of 
A.B.  at  Amherst  College  in  1876  and  studied 
his  profession  at  the  Harvard  Law  School  and 
in  the  office  of  the  late  David  B.  Hill  in  Elmira. 
He  later  became  Mr.  Hill's  partner.  Mr. 
Stanchfield  has  served  as  Mayor  of  Elmira  and 
as  member  of  the  Assembly  of  this  state.  He 
was  nominated  for  Governor  in  1900  and  for 
U.  S.  Senator  in   1901. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association  of  the 
City  of  New  York  and  of  the  New-  York 
County  Lawyers'  Association.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  Ihe  I  niversity  and  Manhattan  Clubs 
andofthePsi  Upsilon  fraternity. 

The  ability  to  fill  any  niche  and  fill  it 
acceptably,  is  the  reason  that  Charles  M. 
Russell  has  been  successful  in  several  lines  of 
endeavor.  He  is  a  product  of  the  country 
village,  being  born  in  (dens  Falls,  N.  Y.. 
December  11.  1872.  His  early  training  was 
received  in  Ihe  schools  of  his  native  village, 
in  the  Glens  Falls  Academy  and  Cornell 
I  niversity.  Prior  to  his  collegiate  days  he 
served   an   apprenticeship   as   drug  clerk,  and 


320 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


while  in  college  acted  as  an  out-of-town  cor- 
respondent of  metropolitan  dailies.  He  util- 
ized his  vacation  periods  as  clerk  of  a  large 
Lake  George  Hotel,  of  which  he  afterwards 
became  proprietor.  He  first  attracted  atten- 
tion by  his  work  as  a  reporter  on  the  Albany 


CHARLES  M.  RUSSELL 

Press  and  Knickerbocker  and  as  legislative 
correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune  and 
Sun.  While  hustling  for  news  he  attended 
the  Albany  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1899.  He  came  to  New  York 
City  the  same  year  and  entered  upon  his  pro- 
fessional career.  Mr.  Russell  devotes  twelve 
hours  each  day  to  business  and  sometimes 
fifteen  and  sixteen,  having  in  addition  to  his 
law  practice  the  care  of  several  estates  and 
the  management  of  the  Metropolitan  Hard- 
ware Co.,  of  which  he  is  president.  This 
business,  unique  in  its  Held  and  methods,  has 
widely  expanded  under  his  supervision.     Mr. 


Russell  is  a  Mason,  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Press  Club,  the  Montauk  Club,  Ma- 
chinery Club,  Cornell  University  Club,  Delta 
Phi  fraternity  and  many  social  and  political 
organizations.  His  acquaintance  with  poli- 
ticians of  both  state  and  national  importance, 
newspaper  men  and  others  in  public  life  is 
most  extensive.  He  married  the  daughter  of 
Senator  William  J.  La  Roche,  who  was  well 
known  at  Albany.  Mr.  Russell  succeeded 
Senator  La  Roche  as  president  of  the  Metro- 
politan Hardware  Company. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  practitioners 
at  the  New  York  Par  during  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  was  George  G.  De  Witt,  who 
died  January  12,  1912.  His  power  of  quick 
analysis  and  perception,  fidelity  to  court  and 
client,  and  courteous  consideration  of  others 
brought  him  a  large  clientele  and  the  friend- 
ship  and  respect  of  every  one  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  He  was  born  in  Callicoon. 
Sullivan  County.  New  York,  April  9,  1S4."), 
the  son  of  George  and  Julia  (Foster)  De  Witt, 
and  received  his  preparatory  education  at  the 
Columbia  Grammar  School.  New  York  City, 
afterward  entering  Columbia  College  from 
which  he  received  the  degree  of  A. P.  in  lS(i? 
and  A.M.  in  1870.  His  legal  training  was 
received  in  the  Columbia  Law  School  which 
conferred  the  LL.P.  degree  upon  him  in  1869. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  the  same  year  and 
practiced  in  New  York  City  until  his  untimely 
death.  George  G.  DeWitt  was  a  man  of 
unblemished  integrity  and  the  highest  attain- 
ments and  could  well  be  characterized  as  a 
lawyer  of  the  "old  school."  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  a  director  of  the  Chemical  Bank, 
the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company  and 
the  Fulton  Trust  Company;  a  member  of 
many  of  the  leading  clubs.  He  was  also  a 
trustee  of  Columbia  University  and  Roosevelt 
Hospital;  one  of  the  governors  of  New  York 
Hospital  and  vice-president  of  the  New  York 
Society  for  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


321 


CHAPTER   XXIII 


CHRISTMAS  AND  Till'.   FRENCH    BAIT 


children  s 
tlie   cities 


jIIRISTMAS  is  the  time  of  the 
pine  tree,  holly  and  mistletoe. 
Conservation  of  the  American 
forest  is  unpopular  at   Christ- 
mas    season,     because     young 
pines  that  would  become  mon- 
archy of  the  forest  in  our  grand- 
time  are  cut  down  and  shipped  to 
to   serve   as    Christmas    trees — the 
wildwood's  sacrifice  to  the  children! 

Of  the  Christmas  tree,  most  modern  of  all 
accessories  of  the  sacred  anniversary,  nothing 
need  be  said.  Encyclopedias  are  full  of  its 
history.  But  the  holly  and  the  mistletoe 
supply  a  theme  flavored  with  delightful  ro- 
mance and  smacking  of  warm  kisses  of 
maidens  and  youths.  The  popularity  of  the 
holly,  with  its  bright  red  berries,  is  probably 
due  to  its  natural  beauty.  Joined  with  a 
Christmas  wreath,  it  adorns  our  windows 
from  Christmas  to  Xew  Year's  day.  To  me 
its  mystic  meaning  is  entrancing.  Like  the 
mistletoe,  it  comes  to  us  from  the  ages  when 
Druids  worshipped  trees  as  gods!  For  that 
reason,  the  parasitic  mistletoe  was  excluded 
from  Christian  churches  for  fifteen  hundred 
years.  Toward  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
the  little  gray  berries  began  to  have  place  with 
the  red  ones  as  pulpit  decorations.  Often 
have  I  wondered  if  the  average  Christian 
minister  comprehended  that  in  such  use  of  the 
mistletoe,  pagan  rites  of  the  ancient  Druids 
of  Western  France  and  Britain  were  appro- 
priated. 

If  Caesar  were  as  accurate  in  his  information 
about  the  Druids  as  about  other  peoples  he 
described,  he  must  be  leaned  upon  for  nearly 
all  known  about  these  devoutly  religious 
ancients.  lie  tells  us  they  had  a  Pope,  who 
was  infallible.  The  festival  of  Christmas  far 
antedates  Christ,  because  the  Druids  cele- 
brated it.  Indeed,  the  6th  of  January  was 
observed  as  the  Day  of  the  Nativity  by  Chris- 


tians until  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century, 
when  Pope  Julius  1  changed  the  anniversary 
to  December  L2.>th. 

To  return  to  the  Druids,  when  this  famous 
holiday  drew  near  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  sum- 
moned his  people  to  Rouvres.  where  the  holy 
ceremony  of  the  mistletoe  was  performed. 
The  parasite  must  be  gathered  from  a  tree 
of  not  more  than  30  years'  growth.  The 
forest  was  then  primeval,  and  the  leathery, 
parasitic  shrub  was  easily  procured.  Under 
the  oak  upon  which  grew  the  sacred  plant, 
as  if  to  deify  the  fortunate  tree,  the  altar  was 
raised. 

The  solemn  procession,  exactly  as  was  the 
custom  in  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs,  was 
preceded  by  the  victims,  two  white  bulls  that 
never  had  felt  the  yoke.  After  them  came 
priests,  novices,  disciples,  the  three  most  ven- 
erable pontiffs  and,  last,  the  Supreme  Pontiff, 
clad  in  white  and  girdled  with  gold.  Hymns 
were  sung  while  the  sacrifices  were  making. 
Then  the  Great  Druid  climbed  the  tree,  and 
with  a  golden  sickle  cut  off  the  sacred  plant 
and  distributed  parts  thereof  among  the  at- 
tendant priests.  Relievers,  in  turn,  received 
small  portions  of  the  {pouch  restum  or  univer- 
sal remedy)  life-giving  mistletoe. 

This  sacred  shrub  cured  all  ills  of  the  body; 
it  was  an  amulet  against  misfortune;  it  warded 
off  enchantment;  a  house  that  harbored  it 
was  not  to  be  struck  by  lightning.  There 
was  nothing  profane,  cruel  or  disgusting  in 
the  ceremonial  of  the  beloved  mistletoe! 
Some  of  the  other  Druidieal  rites  were  terrible. 

Xo  Druidieal  superstition  can  prevent  young 
girls  of  this  generation  from  hanging  the  mistle- 
toe in  places  high  enough  for  them  to  be  led 
under  by  the  man  by  whom  they  wish  to  be 
kissed.  At  this  season  wreaths  of  evergreen 
and  holly  appear  in  windows  of  rich  and  poor 
alike  and  the  dainty,  mysterious  mistletoe  is 


322 


TIIK    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


dangling    from    gas    and    electric    fixtures,    in 
homes  of  poverty  as  well  as  wealth. 

In  Xew  York,  the  event  to  which  the  gay 
world  looked  forward,  after  Christinas,  was 
the  annual  French  Ball.  Every  reader  of 
this  volume  knows  what  habit  is.  I  had  been 
attending  that  merry  Winter  diversion  ever 
since  a  nixing  in  Xew  York.  In  the  early 
davs  if  was  held  at  the  Academy  of  Music, 
on  Fourteenth  Street,  and  its  recurrence  was 
anticipated  more  distinctly  than  other  dates 
on  the  calendar.  Illness  or  absence  from  the 
country  alone  prevented  my  attendance.  A 
description  of  one  will  suffice  for  all.  A  weird, 
unholy  glamour  of  unreality  surrounds  all 
inexperienced  conceptions  of  great  halls  at 
Madison  Square  Garden.  Flowers,  electri- 
city, champagne  of  all  qualities,  and  pretty 
women  of  all  classes  are  there.  Late  suppers, 
lost  coat  checks,  insolent  waiters,  over-charges 
in  the  wine-room,  deliriously  shocking  inci- 
dents of  cocotterie  are  inextricably  jumbled 
in  the  imaginations  of  people  who  never  at- 
tended a  French  Ball.  Imagine  that  you  ac- 
company me.  on  a  crisp  February  night,  to 
observe  the  frivolity  of  ."5. 000  men  and  women, 
to  hear  for  four  hours  the  chatter  of  5,000 
voices  and  the  continuous  blare  of  two  mam- 
moth orchestras,  playing  turn  about. 

Heaven  is  said  to  be  the  only  place  in  which 
fail1  and  lovely  woman  is  understood,  hut  one 
comprehends  why  members  of  the  gentler 
sex.  fashioned  for  Paradise,  attend  such  halls. 
They  go  to  be  admired!  Like  other  men,  we 
fall  into  the  circling  line  and  worship.  The 
"Parade  of  All  Nations"  has  completed  its 
final  circuit  of  the  dancing  floor.  We  are  in 
ample  time  to  witness  the  transformation  of 
church-wardens  into  hilarious  harlequins.  ( )ur 
tongues  are  keen  with  comment.  If  vour 
Parisian  experience  has  been  real,  you  can 
imagine  yourself  at  Montmartre  or  in  the 
Quariier  Latin  with  Henry  Murger  as  guide, 
for  we  have  at  hand  "La  Vie  de  Boheme"  in 
more  than  five  acts.  We  occupy  the  hour 
between  12  and  1  in  paying  calls.  This  is  a 
dull  period,  because  a  continuous  stream  of 
guests  is  pouring  into  the  Madison  Square 
Garden  and  the  trend  of  diversion  is.  as  yet, 
unestablished.  The  music  is  in  sympathy; 
the   stringed    orchestra    is    plavine   a    dreamy 


waltz  by  Waldteufel,  described  as  "The  Violet," 

a  neutral  tint  to  serve  as  priming  for  cardinal 
hues  to  be  laid  on  later.  Everywhere  is  "a  dash 
of  lavender."  Although  the  music  intoxicates 
us  in  one  way.  we  detect  a  welcoming  gleam 
in    the    eves    of    Musette,     true    daughter    of 

* 

Bohemia.  You  have  your  first  waltz  with  her! 
I  am  enmeshed  in  a  sudden  conjunction  of 
dancers. 

Outside  the  dancing  floor  is  a  broad  prom- 
enade, fenced  off  by  a  hedge  of  evergreen. 
Wcvc  is  a  vantage  point  from  which  to  inspect 
the  occupants  of  the  boxes.  They  are  there 
to  be  seen  and  should  not  be  overlooked. 
Faces,  fail-  and  otherwise,  are  everywhere! 
Pink,  light  blue  and  cream-hued  costumes 
vary  the  monotony  of  white  lace  and  chiffon. 
Some  masks  are  still  worn,  although  midnight 
has  passed.  Hired  revellers  have  left  the 
floor  and  the  ball  is  fairly  launched.  In  each 
box  is  a  small  table,  destined  to  play  its  part 
when  wine  is  brought.  Bottles  and  glasses 
appear  thereon  and  disappear  therefrom,  as 
by  magic.  How  cosmopolitan  the  atmos- 
phere! In  that  quarter  mile  saunter  are  to 
lie  seen  the  besl  and  worst  men  and  women  in 
America.  The  same  proximity  occurs  in  all 
parts  of  the  building. 

There  is  a  hush!  Enter  the  opera-queen, 
from  the  Casino!  She  wears  a  super!)  milk- 
white  gown  of  silk,  cut  Directoire,  brocaded 
with  golden  roses  and  trimmed  with  point 
de  Venise  lace.  Her  neck  and  shoulders  are 
ablaze  with  diamonds,  "stage"  or  real.  The 
immortal  Sarah  Bernhardt  looks  on  from  Mr. 
French's  box.  Every  actor  and  most  of  the 
actresses  of  the  city  are  present;  one  would 
think  it  a  professionals'  morning  performance. 

How  one's  thirst  emphasizes  itself  at  such 
a  time.  Here  is  the  making  of  a  great  balk- 
time  for  a  "high"  one!  The  bar  is  crowded 
and  noisy:  hut  it  is  peaceful  as  a  woodland  dell 
compared  with  the  wine-room.  We  are  again 
on  the  dancing  floor  in  time  for  the  York, 
done  to  "Kin  Herz,  ein  Sinn."  Kind  Provi- 
dence finds  partners  for  us,  not  a  miracle, 
by  any  means.  A  tame  frolic,  ending  in  the 
wine-room,  with  a  cold  bottle.  'The  Lan- 
cers" brings  out  a  lively  group  of  high-kickers 
at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Garden.     Thev  dance 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


323 


with  more  impetuosity  than  grace.  "Ladies 
cross  over!"  Then  ajarandote  before  the  next 
figure.  Staring  men  and  women  surround  the 
set;  late  comers  can  barely  see  the  tossing 
heads  and  flashing  eyes  of  the  can-can  dancers. 

Simultaneously,  a  diversion  is  occurring  in 
a  box  on  the  southern  tier;  a  popular  stock- 
broker has  become  the  prize  of  a  hair-pulling 
match  between  two  rival  beauties.  The  cause 
of  the  contention  lights  a  cigarette  and  swal- 
lows a  glass  of  wine,  indifferent  to  the  out- 
come. Why  shall  he  interfere.'  The  float- 
ing throng  sways  to  that  side  of  the  house. 
like  the  rush  of  a  football  team.  So  greal 
is  the  jam  that  an  elderly  woman,  long  past 
days  of  frivolity,  faints  and  is  trampled  upon 
before  she  can  be  lifted  and  carried  into  a 
corridor. 

Two  o'clock!  Ludicrous  scenes  of  folly 
are  visible,  now,  as  every  second  is  ticked! 
In  a  nearby  box.  a  perfect  lady,  excessively 
desirous  of  seeing  the  prostrate  woman,  still 
supposed  to  he  upon  the  floor,  leans  too  far 
over  the  front  railing,  loses  control  of  her 
light  head,  turns  a  somersault  and  lands  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  throng  below  her.  She 
is  boosted  back  into  her  box.  uninjured  but 
terribly  mussed. 

The  brass  band  having  had  an  inning,  the 
stringed  orchestra  renews  the  waltzing.  Music 
and  wine  are  vieing  with  each  other  for  popu- 
larity. By  this  time,  all  of  us  are  as  talkative 
as  magpies. 

"Come  on.  old  chap,"  you  shout.  "bake 
another  degree  in  the  brotherhood  of  man; 
there's  much  in  philanthropy.  Tis  she!  She 
knows  me.  She's  beckoning:  I  fly  to  her 
side."  And  you  are  true  to  your  word.  1 
lose  you.  Again  that  music,  sensuous,  se- 
ductive, "Ange  d' Amour."  My  partner  is  a 
superb  mistress  of  the  dance  and  we  end  in  a 
whirl  towards  the  wine-room.  Only  one  table, 
but  we  get  it.  Bring  a  bottle!  Pop!  Swish! 
Tr-r-r-zp! 

An  hour  with  a  Bacchante!  An  hour 
gorged  with  frivolity  and  expense;  a  memory 
of  polyglottery,  of  stale  salad  and  of  cham- 
pagne that  never  knew  the  beautiful  land  of 
France.  "Ange  d' Amour,"  lovely  music. 
The   not   less   lovely   creature   tells    me   aboul 


herself.  They  all  do.  As  the  wine  bubbles 
about  the  rims  of  the  "lasses,  she  warbles  her 
variation  of  the  dear  old  yarn.  She  takes  two 
thousand  words  to  recount  it.  but  I  can  tell 
her  two-bottle  romance  in   two  hundred: 

"I  am  the  daughter  of  an  impoverished  but 

noble  family.  I  was  raised  near  Joinville,  on 
the  Maine,  outside  Paris.  I  was  sent  to  a 
convent,  but  ran  away  with  an  American  artist. 
\\  e  wore  happy  together;  he  was  waiting  for 
his  father's  death  to  marry  me.  I  was  the 
model  for  his  'Mimi'  that  took  the  Prix  de 
Rome  in  the  next  Salon.  I  never  had  attended 
a  ball  at  the  (  )pera.  I  slipped  away  and  wont 
one  night  with  a  young  Parisian,  meaning  no 
harm.  My  poor  Fred  was  there  and  chal- 
lenged my  escort  on  the  spot.  They  took 
cabs  for  the  Pare  de  Vincennes  and  met  at 
daylight,  rapiers  in  hand,  in  the  very  park 
wherein,  as  a  young  girl.  I  had  played!  1  fol- 
lowed, hoping  to  interfere;  but  I  w  as  too  late.  I 
found  Fred  on  the  ground  with  a  sword 
wound  in  his  breast.  lie  died  in  my  arms. 
There  was  an  inch  of  snow  on  the  around; 
the  dear  boy's  blood  made  a  sickening  spot 
therein.  Speaking  of  art,  you  know  (Jerome's 
picture  of  a  duel  in  the  snow  ?  lie  paints  the 
blood  red.  you  remember.'  He  never  saw 
any  blood-stained  snow — never  had  a  lover 
die  for  love  of  him.  He  should  have  made 
it  chrome  with  a  dash  of  Nile  and  a   daub  of 


lak< 


*     Oil.  here's  the  win 


Haifa  dozen  ladies  known  to  you  tell  similar 
stories  equally  well.      When  we  return  to  the 
dancing  floor,  the  promenade  band  is  playing 
'The    Beggar  Student."   as    half   the   merry- 
makers in  the  vast  throng  burst  into  a  chorus: 

In  :i  moment  of  rapture,  a  transporl  of  bliss, 
On  her  lily-white  shoulder  1  planted  ;i  kiss. 

At  this  moment,  you  reappear,  my  neophite! 
You  are  waltzing  as  if  it  wore  a  life's  task. 
Singing,  too;  forever  singing.  \N  iue  is  served 
on  the  ball-room  floor —against  rules,  but 
profitable.  "Here's  to  life!"  is  the  toast  that 
accompanies  the  champagne.  "Take  oil'  the 
roof  that  the  stars  may  see  how  happy  I  am!" 
retorts  Sapho  at  your  side,  draining  her  glass. 
A  snowstorm  is  raging  outside  but  nobody 
knows  or  cares. 

"  Who  breaks,  pays!"      Put  who  pays  is  of  no 


324 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


importance.     Money  is  dross,  only  made  to 
buy  the  smiles  of  pretty  women. 

In  a  boxsits  "my  real  old  friend,"  Musette. 
widow  of  a  college  mate,  whose  grief  over  a 
husband's  loss  started  her  on  the  merry  career 
she  now  leads.  I  stand  in  front  of  her  box 
to  have  speech  with  her.  Although  she  affects 
jollity,  I  can  read  regret  in  her  eyes.  Her  face 
is  flushed  with  wine.  Alas,  there's  sad  con- 
trast to  the  time  when  I  knew  her  as  a  good 
woman!  Once  a  successful  actress,  she  rarely 
has  a  choice  in  these  days  between  a  coupe 
and  a  stage. — meaning  an  omnibus.  A  bold 
venture  "on  the  road"  as  a  "star"  having 
proved  disastrous,  she  is  now  following  "the 
primrose  way." 

"Ah!  There's  the  old  waltz  «  Tout  Paris!'  " 
she  exclaims.  "Just  once  'round  the  house. 
in  memory  of  other  days!"  She  hastens  from 
the  box  to  my  side.  Musette  is  as  Champ- 
fleury  describes  her. — tall,  slender  and  grace- 
ful as  a  willow.  Her  gown  of  dull,  black  satin 
tits  her  like  a  glove  and  becomes  her.  to  me. 
at  least,  because  the  black  typifies  mourning 
for  a  dead  past.  Away  we  move  to  the  waltz 
music.  She  begins  to  tell  me  what  has  hap- 
pened since  we  last  met, — they  always  do,- 
when  a  big  woman  bumps  against  her.  Mu- 
sette  haughtily   surveys   the   dame   and   says, 

"Go  home,  grandma!" 

We  are  soon  at  the  southwestern  corner  of 
the  Garden,  where  a  once  pretty  blonde  in  a 
box  is  monopolizing  attention.  She  is  sprawl- 
ing in  a  chair,  limp  and  unconscious.  A  col- 
ored maid  is  bathing  her  face  with  champagne, 
water  being  unobtainable.  The  man  who  has 
brought  the  beauty  is  solicitous;  but  before  he 
lifts  the  precious  burden  in  his  arms,  he  ad- 
justs a  mask  upon  his  own  face.  There  are 
water-drinkers  in  Bohemia,  according  to  Mur- 
ger,  but  none  is  at  this  ball.  When  the  dance 
is  finished,  my  watch  marks  "Five  o'clock" 
and  I  have  promised  to  take  Musette  to  her 
home. 

Ziffzaeeine  across  the  floor  is  a  handsome 
young  chap,  barking  like  a  dog.  Every  one  of 
us  has  hydrophobia,  therefore  none  is  afraid 
of  him.  If  he  be  mad,  others  are  as  fearful 
of  water  as  he.  Not  a  glassful  in  the  Garden! 
A  two-step  is  next  on  the  card.      Cyclones  of 


humanity  sweep  across  the  floor,  making  a 
wreckage  of  torn  gowns.  A  gentle  youth 
walks  amid  this  mad  medley,  as  Pinel  trod 
the  maniac  wards  of  Bicetre.  handing  to  each 
woman  who  pleases  his  fancy  an  American 
Beauty  rose.  He  carries  an  armful,  each 
flower  having  cost  him  $2  at  a  counter  in  the 
lobby.  He  is  a  man  of  thirty,  scrupulously 
attired.  At  times  he  exacts  a  kiss  in  exchange 
for  the  rose:  so  exquisite  is  his  art  of  approach, 
so  palpable  his  condition,  there's  neither  re- 
sentment nor  refusal.  Like  the  moon,  he  is 
greatest  when  full. 

Morning  has  come,  but  not  daylight.  Music 
has  lost  its  charm.  Time  of  waltz  and  two- 
step  is  slower,  owing  to  sheer  fatigue  of  mem- 
bers of  the  orchestra.  The  last  circle  of  the 
floor  has  been  completed.  Seeking  Musette, 
she  is  told  that  the  hour  of  departure  has  ar- 
rived. In  an  adjoining  box,  I  observe  that 
Nanine  has  begun  her  two-bottle  story,  and 
that  the  rich  brewer  by  her  side  has  succumbed 
to  potations  more  heating  than  his  own  beer. 
At  her  other  side.  listening  to  the  story,  is  an 
old  banker,  opening  wine.  He  opens  his 
mouth  and  yawns,  most  discourteously.  Per- 
haps  he  has   heard  Nanine's  tale  elsewhere? 

Eighteen  of  the  largest  roosters  in  all  New 
York,  imprisoned  in  cages  over  the  second 
balcony,  are  awakened  by  a  simultaneous  thrill 
of  electric  current  sent  through  the  metal 
perches  upon  which  they  are  dozing.  They 
crow  in  chorus!  Theoretically,  dawn  has 
come!  Out  go  many  of  the  lights.  The  band 
is  playing  "Home,  Sweet  Home." 

We  take  a  carriage  at  the  main  entrance  to 
the  Garden,  Musette  and  I.  The  vehicle 
makes  its  way  through  deep  snow  and  turns 
into  Twenty-seventh  Street,  toward  Broad- 
way, en  route  to  the  upper  West  Side.  In  the 
gray  of  the  morning  light,  as  we  pass  the  Hotel 
Victoria,  its  lover  is  seen  to  be  aglow  with 
electric  lights.  Musette  points  to  a  score  of 
bedraggled  women  upon  their  knees  scrubbing 
a  marble  floor!  A  grim-faced  housekeeper, 
perched  upon  a  tall  stool,  directs  the  workers 
amid  suds  ami  dirt.  Their  task-mistress  is 
berating  them;  her  voice  is  barren  of  sympathy 
for  their  lot.     To   her,   this   is   a   hard   world 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


325 


and  she  makes  it  so  for  others.     Turning 
my  companion,  who  is  trembling,  I  ask: 
"What  do  you  think  of  that?" 
"That  is  virtue!"  exclaims   Musette. 


"Ah,  yes!     See  what   it   costs!" 
"Perhaps   they,   too,   danced   at    a    French 

liall    and    drank    champagne,    once    upon    a 

time." 


"SHF* 


From  Pain         I 
THE  SINGER  BUILDING,  LOWER   BROADWAY 

The  Stud f  Oliver  Lippincott,  Pho  ol  Men,  is  in 

this  Building. 


326 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER     XXIV 


MARVELS  OF  SURGERY  AND  MEDICINE 


HERE's  no  autocracy  in  sur- 
gery to-day!"  said  the  late 
Dr.  George  F.  Shrady  to  me 
during  a  visit  with  him  at  the 

Hotel  Renaissance  shortly  be- 
fore his  death.      He  stated  the 
case    accurately,    because    an 
emergency  in  surgery  can  be  met  in  the  back- 

w Is  by  a  so-called  "country  doctor"  as  well 

as  in  the  best-equipped  city  hospital.  This 
is  due  to  simplification  of  methods,  the  splen- 
did work  of  the  post-graduate  schools  bymen 
who  give  the  benefits  of  their  experience  for 
the  benefit  of  the  young  men  who  must 
take  their  places  before  long.  Many  such  able 
and  conscientious  teachers  in  this  city  and  at 
colleges  elsewhere  are  my  friends.  I  shall 
mention  many  of  them  in  this  volume. 

The  human  race  should  take  heart!  Some 
of  the  most  dreaded  human  ailments  have  been 
abolished  by  medicine  in  civilized  countries. 
Many  of  the  older  plagues  have  not  only  been 
robbed  of  their  terrors  but  have  ceased  to  come 
to  our  shores.  Surgery  is  annually  saving 
thousands  of  lives  that  would  have  been  be- 
yond human  hope  only  a  generation  ago. 
Perhaps  the  most  brilliant  surgical  operations 
of  the  present  concern  the  heart ;  in  chloroform 
poisoning,  for  example,  after  the  patient  is 
dead  to  all  previous  understanding,  an  open- 
ing is  made,  the  heart  is  grasped  in  the  hand 
and  is  directly  massaged  until  natural  action 
is  resumed.  This  is  already  a  settled  method 
of  practice.  A  surgeon  must  do  and  dare! 
The  grand  thing  in  medicine  and  in  surgery 
is  to  save  life. 

However  wonderful  and  praiseworthy  repar- 
ative surgery  and  medicine  may  be.  the  high- 
esl  aim  of  either  branch  of  the  art  is  to  prevent 
disease,  or  to  obviate  an  operation  rather  than 
to    perform    it.      The    spectacular    phases    of 


advanced  sanitation  were  reached  during  the 
recent  Russo-Japanese  War.  Dr.  Louis  L. 
Seaman,  who  visited  the  battlefields  and  hos- 
pitals while  that  terrible  conflict  was  in  prog- 
ress, has  given  to  the  world  definite  informa- 
tion regarding  the  marvelous  1  might  almost 
say  magical  methods  by  which  camps  were 
protected  from  epidemics  and  the  general 
health  of  vast  armies  maintained.  Modern 
aseptic  treatment  works  wonders!  The  cour- 
age of  tlie  members  of  the  United  States  medi- 
cal corps  who  solved  the  yellow  fever  mystery, 
by  submitting  themselves  to  be  bitten  by  in- 
fected mosquitoes,  was  equal  to  that  of  the 
battlefield.  Many  of  them  died  from  the 
disease  that  future  generations  might  live! 
There  is  no  longer  any  conflict  between  sur- 
gery and  medicine:  one  is  ever  ready  to  yield 
to  the  other. 

The  recent  elevation  of  Sir  Thomas  Crosby, 
a  distinguished  London  physician,  to  the  post 
of  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  practitioners  of  the  healing  art 
have  attained  high  honors  outside  their  own 
profession.  The  Crosby  family  is  an  old  one, 
antedating  the  Norman  Conquest  and  Sir 
Thomas  is  the  first  physician  to  be  a  successor 
of  •'Dick*'  Whittington.  1  recall  Dr.  L.  S. 
Jameson,  who  rose  to  be  Prime  Minister  of 
South  Africa;  Dr.  Georges  Clemenceau,  who 
served  as  Prime  Minister  of  the  French  Re- 
public; Dr.  Leonard  Wood,  who  is  to-day  a 
Major-General  and  Chief  of  the  General  Stall' 
of  the  United  States  Army;  Prince  Louis 
Ferdinand  of  Bavaria,  who  is  a  regular  prac- 
titioner only  among  the  poor:  Lord  Lister. 
the  father  of  antiseptic  surgery,  represents 
his  profession  in  the  British  House  of  Lords; 
Dr.  William  Jenner  was  knighted  by  the  late 
Queen  Victoria  and  was  consulted  by  her  on 
matters  of  statecraft;  Dr.  Jacob  II.  Gallinger 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


327 


of  New  Hampshire  has  been  ;i  United  Slates 
Senator  from  his  state  for  several  terms,  and 


ie 


Mor- 

is in- 

Louis 

ornell 

many  other  names  might  be  mentioned, 
service  Pasteur,  Charcot,  Shrady  and 
ton  have  rendered  to  the  human  race 
calculable. 

When  I  set  out  to  talk  about  Dr. 
Livingston  Seaman,  an  associate  a  I  < 
University  and  a  devoted  friend  during  all  the 
years  we  have  dwelt  in  New  York,  a  whole 
volume  is  needed.  I  Ie  was  born  at  Newburgh, 
N.  Y.,  October,  1851.  His  family  has  a  line 
record  in  the  medical  profession;  his  grand- 
father, Valentine  Seaman,  M.D.,  introduced 
vaccination  in  this  city.  17!)!).  ( )n  his  mother's 
side.  Dr.  Seaman  is  a  descendant  from  Robert 
Livingston,  First  Lord  of  the  Manor,  and 
from  Philip  Livingston,  a  signer  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  Entering  Cornell 
with  its  first  class,  he  was  graduated  A. I?.; 
thence  he  went  to  Jefferson   Medical  College, 


ml    was    graduated,    the    gold 


Philadelphia, 

medalist,  in  1876.  Post  graduate  medical 
courses  were  taken  at  Vienna,  Paris  and 
Edinburgh;  later  he  received  a  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Laws  at  the  University  of  New 
York.  lie  then  served  as  resident  surgeon 
of  the  State  Immigrant  Hospital  on  Ward's 
Island  and  as  Chief  of  Staff  of  various  insti- 
tutions on  Blackwell's  Island  from  1877  to 
1885.  First  of  his  many  tours  around  the 
world  was  made  in  1SS7.  during  which  in 
India  and  China  he  studied  cholera  and  other 
infectious  and  epidemic  diseases  of  the  Far 
East.  When  the  Spanish-American  War  arose 
Dr.  Seaman  promptly  offered  his  services  and 
was  appointed  Surgeon-Major  of  the  1st 
Regiment,  U.  S.  V.  Engineers  and  served  in 
Porto  Rico  and  Cuba;  and  subsequently  as 
Surgeon  of  the  17th  and  L2.'5rd  Regiments  of 
Infantry  in  the  Philippines;  was  with  the 
Army  of  Occupation  during  the  Boxer  War 
in  China,  1900-1901;  was  with  the  Russian 
Army  in  Manchuria,  1904;  and  at  the  front 
with  the  Japanese  in  Mongolia  under  General 
Oku,  when  peace  was  declared,  1!)(>.>.  Dr. 
Seaman  was  also  in  South  Africa  during  the 
Zulu  troubles,  and  in  East  Africa  with  the 
German  troops  in  l!X)(i.  lie  made  two  trips 
to  the  \  ictoria   Nyanza   region   to  study   the 


sleeping  sickness.  On  one  of  these  occasions, 
he  was  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Seaman  the 
first  American  lady  to  see  the  Ripon  Palls  and 
head  waters  of  the  Nile  in  Uganda.  Prior 
to  thai  journey  made  several  months  before 
Colonel  Roosevelt  Dr.  Seaman  had  pene- 
trated   the    Dark    Continent    over  the   famous 


[j|rfe<*J 

i* 

i 

t 

i      \.v       * 

j 

/ 

l)r    LOUIS   LIVINGSTON  SEAMAN 

Zambezi  deck  of  his  kinsman,  David  Living- 
stone, to  Victoria  Falls;  and  the  following  year, 
in  company  with  the  late  Dr.  Nicholas  Senn, 
had  circumnavigated  South  America  and 
crossed  the  Andees  four  times. 

The  researches  and  publications  of  this 
American  student  and  traveler  have  received 
and  deserved  recognition  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  lie  is  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society,  and  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Arts  of  England.  In  recognition  of  his 
services  to  Japan's  army  in  the  field,  the  Em- 


328 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


peror  conferred  upon  Dr.  Seaman,  insignias 
of  the  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun  and  of  the 
( >rder  of  Special  Merit  for  Service  on  the  field. 
By  vote  of  the  Societe  de  la  Croix  of  Japan, 
he  received  Honorary  Life  Membership  in  the 
Red  Cross  Society  of  that  country.  He  was 
awarded  the  Diploma  d'llonneur,  Exposition 
Internationale  de  Paris,  for  his  services  in 
Army  Sanitary  Reform.  He  has  been  ap- 
pointed delegate  to  various  International  Med- 
ical Congresses  at  London.  Berlin.  Moscow, 
Paris.  Rome.  Madrid.  Lisbon  and  Budapest. 
His  contributions  to  medical  journals,  ad- 
dresses to  colleges, professional  and  sociological 
organizations  are  too  numerous  to  cite.  Among 
a  dozen  books.  I  must  mention  "The  Real 
Triumph  of  Japan."*  •'From  Tokio  Through 
Manchuria  with  the  Japanese.**  "La  Ration 
du  Soldat  en  Campagne,"  'Triumphs  of 
Scientific  Medicine,  in  Peace  and  War."  and 
"Utilization  of  Native  Troops  in  our  Colonial 
Possessions."  In  addition  to  membership  in 
the  American  Medical  Association,  the  Acade- 
my of  Medicine,  and  the  County  and  State 
medical  societies,  Dr.  Seaman  belongs  to 
thirty-odd  social,  professional,  literary  and 
civic  organizations  and  the  Authors.  Lotos, 
Calumet.  Players.  Cornell  University,  St. 
Nicholas.  Asiatic.  Army  and  Navy.  Republi- 
can and  City  clubs;  tin-  Metropolitan  (dub  of 
Washington,  and  the  Royal  Societies  Club  of 
London.  Dr.  Seaman's  affection  tor  Ins  Alma 
Muter  is  shown  by  his  gift  of  the  'Varsity  Cup 
for  preeminence  in  aquatic  sports.  lie  has 
also  served  as  president  of  the  Cornell  Univer- 
sity Club  of  New  York,  and  is  now  the  presi- 
dent of  the  China  Society  of  America. 

Among  all  the  medical  specialists  of  the 
metropolis,  Frank  E.  Miller,  regarded  as  a 
world-wide  authority  on  diseases  of  nose. 
throat  and  ear,  has  had  an  especially  inter- 
esting career.  Born  at  Hartford.  Conn.,  in 
IS.")!),  he  was  graduated  from  Trinity  College 
in  the  year  1881,  after  which  he  came  direct 
to  New  York  and  entered  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians and  Surgeons,  acquiring  a  doctor's 
deeree  in  lss-t.  After  two  years  as  a  medical 
and  surgical  interne  at  New  York,  Charity  and 
St.  Francis  Hospitals.  Dr.  Miller  became  a 
sanitary  inspector  for  the  Board  of  Health. 
where     he     remained     three     years.      He    then 


served  as  an  assistant  under  distinguished 
professors  in  the  New  York  Polyclinic,  the 
Vanderbilt  Clinic,  the  New  York  University 
and  the  Post-Graduate  Hospitals.  It  was  at 
this  time  that  he  began  specializing  in  diseases 
of  the  throat  and  acted  as  assistant  for  Dr. 
W.  P.  Swift.  Dr.  Urban  G.  Hitchcock  and 
Dr.  R.  P.  Lincoln,  the  latter  a  distinguished 
throat    specialist.      Dr.    Miller   was   attending 


MILLER 


physician  to  the  Minerva  Home,  to  the  Way- 
side Nursery,  to  St.  Joseph's  Hospital  for  sev- 
eral years  and  is  now  consulting  physician  for 
St.  Francis  Hospital.  In  1906  he  was  ap- 
pointee! visiting  physician  to  the  New  York 
Hospital:  he  is  also  at  present  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Medical  Directors  of  the  Loomis 
Sanitarium.  He  has  had  vast  experience  in 
treatment  of  the  throat,  ear  and  nose,  espe- 
cially at  the  Vanderbilt  and  Bellevue  Hospital 


THE    HOOK  of  NEW   YORK 


329 


clinics.  He  has  been  laryngoloffist  to  the 
Metropolitan  College  of  Music  since  1890. 
Dr.  Miller  began  private  practice  in  lSS(i;  lie 
has  treated  188,000  patients  in  the  last  ten 
years.  While  a  student  at  Hartford.  Dr. 
Miller  was  solo  tenor  in  the  (dee  Club  at 
Trinity  College;  later,  while  pursuing  his  medi- 
cal course  in  New  York,  he  was  solo  tenor 
of  St.  Thomas'  Church.  Fifth  Avenue  and 
53rd  Street.  Intense  enthusiasm  over  music 
caused  him  to  make  a  thorough  study  of  the 
vocal  organs  and  of  the  cultivation  of  the 
human  voice;  he  established  a  principle  of 
hollow  space  resonances  which  has  gained 
authoritative  recognition  as  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  a  perfect  theory  of  voice  production. 
He  was  first  to  advocate  a  regular  standard 
for  tone  of  voice  production,  by  which  any 
voice  can  be  definitely  measured  and  classi- 
fied. He  also  suggested  what  he  described 
as  a  Voice  Sifting  Bureau.  At  one  time  or 
another  he  has  been  consulted  by  the  most 
prominent  singers  of  the  musical  world.  Due 
to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Miller  is  both  a  distin- 
guished medical  throat  specialist  and  possesses 
the  qualifications  of  a  high-class  singer  and 
musician.  Mr.  Oscar  Ilammerstein  engaged 
him  to  pass  upon  the  throats  and  vocal  organs 
of  his  artists, — an  innovation  in  voice  training 
methods  of  the  most  radical  kind.  Dr.  Miller 
has  outlined  a  new  theory  of  the  origin  of 
nodules,  from  a  study  of  234  cases,  which 
has  been  subsequently  confirmed.  He  is 
author  in  collaboration  of  .1  Comperid  <>f 
Nose,  Throat  <tn<l  Ear  Diseases,  and  has 
written  many  papers  on  the  voice  and  vocal 
organs.  He  has  devoted  much  time  to  in- 
vestigations  regarding  the  treatment  of  tuber- 
culosis. He  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  the  American  Laryn- 
o-oloo'ical.  Khinoloo'ical  and  Otological  Society. 
He  is  a  32d  degree  Mason,  a  Knights  Templar, 
a  member  of  the  Mystic  Shrine  and  the  Elks. 
Among  his  clubs  are  the  Players',  Lotos.  Men- 
delssohn Glee.  New  York  Yacht,  Republican, 
Masonic  and  the  New  England  Society.  In 
19111  Schirmer  &  Company  published  his  book. 
The  Voice,  which  has  been  adopted  by  the 
Board  of  Regents  and  Public  Schools  as  a 
text-book. 


Germany  makes  a  valued  contribution  to  ad- 
vanced surgery  as  practiced  in  New  York  in 
the  person  of  Dr.  Willy  Meyer,  born  at  Min- 
den,  Westphalia,  in  1858.  He  was  educated 
at  the  University  of  Bonn  and  was  an  assist- 
ant in  the  surgical  clinic  therein  until  1884, 
when  he  came  to  New  York  City,  win 
uncle.     Dr.    Abraham    Jacobi,     had 


been 


us 
in 


iJl^y^ 


practice  for  thirty  years.  After  working  in 
the  surgical  department  of  the  German  Dis- 
pensary and  conducting  a  general  practice  for 
a  short  time,  he  decided  to  devote  himself 
exclusively  to  surgery.  He  was  appointed 
professor  of  clinical  surgery  in  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  and  served  from  1886-'93. 
He  has  been  instructor  and  professor  of  sur- 
gery at  the  New  York  Post-Graduate  Medical 
School  and  Hospital  since  1887.  lie  is  At- 
tending-Surgeon  to  the  German  Hospital 
(1887),  Consulting  Surgeon  to  the  New  York 
Skin  and  Cancer  Hospital  and  to  the  New 
York  Infirmary,  the  liar  Moriah  Hospital  and 
the  Hospital   for   Deformities    and    .Joint    Dis- 


330 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


uses.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  cystos- 
copy, in  1887,  and  Bottini's  operation,  in 
1897,  into  this  country.  lie  is  a  Fellow  of  the 
American  Surgical  Association  and  of  many 
medical  societies. 

Among  distinguished  physicians  of  the 
metropolis  is  George  Thomas  Stevens,  who 
served  throughout  the  Civil  War,  first  as  sur- 
geon of  the  Seventy- 
seventh  X.  Y.  V..  as 
division  surgeon  and  as 
medical  inspector  of 
the  Sixth  Army  ( lorps. 
Dr.  Stevens  was  horn 
in  Essex  County  of  this 
state  in  1832  and  was 
educated  at  Castleton 
(Vt.)  Medical  College, 
receiving  the  degree 
of  Ph.  1).  from  Union 
College.  lie  began 
practice  in  Xew  York 
in  1880,  after  a  term  as 
Professor  of  Physiology 

t  Oi 

and  Diseases  of  the  Eve 
at  Union  University.  While  located  in 
Albany,  as  Secretary  of  the  Xew  York 
Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Union  in  1886,  the 
XCw  York  department  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  was  organized  in  his  office  by 
four  men.  of  whom  he  was  one.  His  first  an- 
cestor in  America  was  John  Stevens,  who 
came  to  Xew  Haven  as  one  of  the  Davenport 
colony  about  Ki4.5.  Dr.  Stevens  has  received 
the  highest  prize  from  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Medicine  of  Belgium  for  a  treatise  on 
"Functional  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System;" 
lie  is  likewise  the  inventor  of  many  surgical 
and  philosophical  instruments.  He  is  author 
of  several  standard  works  on  nervous  diseases 
and  treatises  on  ophthalmic  subjects.     He  has 


1 

l 

i 

\: 

Dr.  GEORGE  T.  STEVENS 


recently   published   an    "Illustrated   Guide 
Flowering  Plants." 


to 


Dr.  GEORGE  EVANS 


American  dentistry  is  classed  as  the  best 
in  the  world.  George  Evans,  who  is  Irish  by 
birth,  was  born  at  ( 'ork.  Ireland.     He  received 

his  early  education  in 
Ireland  and  when  he 
came  here  at  the  age  of 
ten  attended  the  public 
schools  and  College  of 
the  City  of  Xew  York. 
I  )r.  Evans  studied 
music  and  art.  His 
original  plan  was  to  be- 
come an  architect.  He 
incidentally  became  in- 
terested in  dentistry 
and  finally  chose  that 
profession,  st  ud  v  i  ng 
under  the  late  Dr.  Wal- 
ter P.  Roberts,  of  Bond 
Street,  inventor  of  the 
Roberts  Torpedo  for  reviving  exhausted  oil 
wells.  Dr.  Evans  lectured  at  the  Baltimore 
College  of  Dentistry  for  twelve  years:  has  also 
lectured  in  the  X'ew  York  College  of  Dentistry, 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  at  the 
Royal  College  of  Dentists.  Toronto.  He  is 
the  author  of  a  popular  Treatise  on  Crown- 
and-Bridge-Work  and  Porcelain  Dental  Art. 
He  has  introduced  many  novel  methods  in 
dental  practice  and  has  secured  patents  for 
mechanical  dental  devices  in  this  country  and 
Europe  and  is  also  interested  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  dental  materials.  He  has  also  been  an 
operator  in  city  real  estate  and  has  a  country 
place  at  Svosset,  E.  I.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Eolos,  X.  Y.  Athletic.  Ibero-Americo,  and 
Canadian  Camp  clubs,  and  of  leading  dental 
societies. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


33] 


CHAPTER  XXV 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  liAII.KOAD  BUSINESS 


Tl 


H'll 


single 


MLROADING  is  unqualifiedly 
the    greatesl    industry    of    the 
United     States.      Taking     the 
railroad  map  as  il  was  in  1870 
and  comparing  it  with  that  of 
to-day,  development  is  seen  in 
every    section    of    the    country. 
trans-Continental    line,   known 
as   the   Union   and   Central    Pacific   railroads. 
from  Omaha  to  Oakland,  opposite  San  Fran- 
cisco,   was    considered    an    achievement    that 
nothing  could  outrank.     The  troubles  of  that 
road    were    with    snow-slides    and    washouts. 
Hundreds  of  miles  of  snow-sheds  were  built. 
Then  followed  Jay  Cooke's  Northern  Pacific, 
which    slowly    crawled    across    a    totally    un- 
populated   region — an    enterprise    that    went 
to  smash  because  people  who  were  supplying 
the   money  failed  to  see   where  traffic   would 
be  found.      The  Southern   Pacific,  engineered 
by  C.  P.  Huntington,  who  had  acquired  vast 
experience  in  railway  building  in  the  construc- 
tion  of  the   Central    Pacific   from   the    Pacific 
coast  to  Ogden.     Next,  the  Atchison.  Topeka 
&  Santa  Fe,  originally  a  small  group  of  lines, 
was    caught    up    by    Boston    capitalists    and 
rushed  through  to  Los  Angeles.     Meanwhile,  a 
St.  Paul  commission  merchant,  named  James 
J.  Hill,  was  personally  surveying  an  extension 
of   the  so-called   "Manitoba"    road    From    his 
own    city,  and.  almost    before   eastern    people 
knew  about  it.  the  Great  Northern  was  run- 
nine   trains   to    Puget    Sound!      Its    route   was 
supposed  to  run  through  a  land  covered  with 
snow  at  least  five  months  of  the  year.      Later 
came  the  Oregon  Short  Line — an  extension  of 
the  Union  Pacific  to  the  Puget  Sound  region; 
next     the    Burlington    prolongation     into    the 
same  section  of  Oregon  land. 

The  genius  of  all  trans-Continental  develop- 
ment was  E.  II.  Ilarriman.  a  minister's  son, 
whom  I  have  described  as  I  knew  him  in  his 
"hustling"  days  on  the  Exchange. 


Activities  in  the  West  awakened  chiefs  of 
the  great  trunk  lines  in  the  Last.  Fasl  trains 
were  put  on  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  York 
Centra]  roads.  At  first  a  24-hour  run  to 
Chicago  was  regarded  as  the  maximum  of 
fast  travel.  To-day  a  train  on  each  of  these 
roads  makes  the  trip  in  18  hours,  and  goes  to 
or  returns  from  St.  Louis  in  24  hours!  The 
Erie,  pioneer  of  the  eastern  trunk  lines,  has 
been  improved,  but  has  not  grown  as  it  should, 
owing  to  a  load  of  debts,  saddled  upon  it  at 
various  times  by  designing  operators.  The 
Baltimore  &  Ohio,  earlier  still  in  construction, 
lacked  a  New  York  connection  for  so  many 
years  that  the  traveling  public  almost  over- 
looked its  existence.  The  New  England  roads 
have  keen  practically  consolidated  into  a 
single  corporation;  time  from  Boston  to 
New  York  still  remains  at  five  hours,  a  trifle 
over  50  miles  an  hour.  As  this  volume  goes 
to  press,  the  most  significant  incident  in 
railroad  affairs  is  the  waning  of  the  Gould 
influence,  which  during  the  life  of  Jay  Gould 
was  potential.  The  Vanderbilts  have  almost 
held  their  own.  even  against  such  a  magician 
as  the  late  E.  II.  Ilarriman.  who  forced  him- 
self into  the  directory  of  the  Vanderbilt 
System  only  a  short  time  before  his  death. 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan  ami  James  J.  Hill  are  the 
dominant  powers  at  this  writing,  but  who 
their  successors  will  be  cannot  be  conjectured. 

The  age  of  giants  is  here,  but  the  dis- 
persion of  enormous  fortunes  must  come! 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has 
accomplished  results  in  regulating  freight  and 
passenger  rates;  the  Sherman  Act  only  checked 
for  a  time  some  unholy  combinations  of  in- 
dustrial interests,  which,  supported  by  an 
iniquitous  tariff  that  has  benefited  the  few 
at  the  expense  of  the  many,  has  been  pushing 
upward  the  cost  of  living  and  engendering 
anarchist  feelings  in  most  law-abiding  hearts. 

Government    regulation    is    no    longer    de- 


332 


THE    HOOK    of  MAY    YORK 


CI. i  IRGE    \    POST 


BENJAMIN   A.   HEGEMAN 


KALI'H  PE'J  ERS 


scribed  as  "interference."  Its  wisdom  is  con- 
ceded by  many  of  the  so-called  "captains  of 
industry " —like  Mr.  Carnegie-  who  have  in- 
ordinately fattened  their  purses  during  a  long 
dynasty  of  "Do-Nothing-Presidents"  and  an 
equally  long  series  of  corrupt  or  indifferent 
Congresses.  .lames  .1.  Hill,  an  authority  of 
high  value,  says  two  and  one-half  billions  of 
money  will  be  needed  during  the  next  five 
years  to  develop  the  railroad  facilities  of  this 
country,  in  order  to  keep  pace  with  its  won- 
derful growth!  Where  is  this  enormous  sum 
to  lie  had  ?  The  answer  is  that  it  must  he 
dug  from  the  ground!  The  mines  of  the 
United  States  must  supply  the  greater  part 
thereof.     And  they  will  do  it. 

The  railroads  of  the  United  States  are  not 
without  friends  among  the  business  men  who 
do  not  hold  salaried  positions  under  the 
various  corporations  or  serve  as  directors  in 
their  boards.  These  men  are  lovers  of  fair 
play  quite  as  much  as  patrons  of  the  trans- 
portation companies.  About  three  years  ago, 
when  the  trend  of  opinion  appeared  to  be 
hostile  to  the  management  of  the  great  trunk 
lines  of  the  country,  and  when  the  government 
was  equally  antagonistic,  a  group  of  men 
throughout  the  country  formed  what  is  known 
as  the  Railway  Business  Association.  These 
gentlemen  were  largely  engaged  in  supplying 
railroads  with  their  equipment  and  not  only 
paid  an  average  of  $250,000,000  in  freight 
charges  yearly,  but  furnished  employment    to 


a  million  and  a  hall'  of  men!  The  inspiring 
mind  in  the  organization  of  this  association 
was  George  A.  Post,  president  of  the  Standard 
Coupler  Company,  of  New  York  City.  The 
Railway  Business  Association  takes  very  high 
ground  regarding  railway  regulation.  So  far 
as  restrictive  legislation  is  concerned,  it  makes 
no  effort  to  control  the  law -making  powers  ex- 
cept by  presentation  of  facts  and  figures,  sup- 
plemented by  argument.  Be  it  remembered 
that  a  cardinal  principle  of  the  Association  is 
that  "no  railroad  shall  have  directly  or  in- 
directly any  voice  in  its  management."  Self- 
protection  is  its  claim  to  existence!  It  stands 
as  the  mediator  between  the  railroads  and  the 
public.  The  career  of  George  A.  Post  is  an 
interesting  one.  I  have  known  him  since 
1889,  w hen  we  were  associated  on  the  World. 
lie  was  born  at  Cuba.  Allegheny  County, 
X.  Y.,  September,  1854;  spent  his  youth  at 
Owego,  where  he  received  his  education 
in  the  public  schools  and  academy.  His 
father.  Ira  A.  Post,  was  connected  with  the 
Erie  railway  fifty  years,  so  that  the  son's 
natural  attraction  for  railroad  business  in  any 
form  is  readily  explained.  He  entered  the 
service  of  the  Erie  in  its  freight  department 
at  the  aye  of  IS.  then  became  assistant  to  the 
superintendent  of  motive  power.  Always  an 
active  Democrat,  he  was  elected  Mayor  of 
Susquehanna,  Pa.,  when-  he  was  located.  He 
was  sent  to  Congress  from  that  district  at  the 
aye  of  28— the  youngest  member  of  that  body. 


THE    BOOK  of  NEW    YORK 


333 


While  in  the  employ  of  the  Erie  he  gave  his 
nights  to  the  study  of  law  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Convention  of  188-1.  Mr.  Post  had  been  an 
editor  and  part  owner  of  the  Montrose  (Pa.) 
Democrat,  1883  to  188!),  when  he  came  to 
New  York.  His  loudness  for  the  railroad 
business  induced  him  to  accept  the  vice- 
presidency  of  the  Standard  Coupler  Company, 
of  which  he  later  became  president.  Mr. 
Post  is  an  excellent  speaker,  talks  with  readi- 
ness and  always  speaks  in  terms  of  moderation 
and  good  humor.  One  of  his  speeches  at 
Pittsburg  acquired  national  reputation.  In 
closing  an  address  upon  fair  play  Mr.  Post 
said:  "I  plead  for  temperance  in  the  use  of 
language  on  public  questions  and  at  the  fire- 
side. Some  homes  are  made  happy  by  absti- 
nence from  intoxicating  drinks;  but  a  thousand- 
fold more  owe  their  joys  to  kindly  words  and 
acts.  More  hearts  have  been  broken  by  ugly 
words  than  through  inebriety." 

The  railroad  business  is  a  very  Fascinating 
field  of  endeavor.      It  makes  its  appeal  espe- 
cially  to  sons  whose  fathers  have  given  their 
lives  to  the  work.      In   nearly  every    instance 
we  find  that  men  take  up  that   work  because 
the  tang  of  it  is  in  their  blood.     This  is  the 
case    with    Benjamin    Arrowsmith    liegeman. 
Jr.,    who   after  eleven   years   of  training   with 
the    Delaware,    Lackawanna    &    Western    rail- 
road formed  a  large  company  dealing  in  rail- 
road   supplies.      I  lis    father    had    been    traffic 
manager  of  the   same   road    for   many   years. 
Mi-.  liegeman  is  not  a  college  graduate.      lie 
went    to    work    after   leaving    the    Mt.    Wash- 
ington (  Ollegiate  Institute,  at  Fourth  and  Mac- 
douffal  Streets,  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years 
and  has  been  steadily  engaged  in  active  busi- 
ness since  that  day.   lie  was  born  in  the  City 
of  New    York   in    18(i()   and  early   entered   the 
public  schools.      He   began   as   a   clerk   in  the 
freight  department  and  afterwards  in  the  pas- 
senger   department    and    treasurer's    office   of 
the   railroad  company  with   which   his    father 
was    associated.      Being    offered    the    position 
of    assistant    secretary     and     cashier    in     the 
Citizens'  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  he 
spent    a  year  and  a  half  learning  that  business, 
after   which    he    returned     to    his    first     love, 
as    General     Manager    of    the      Lackawanna 
Live    Stock    Transportation    Company.      In 


I  legeman 


this  branch  of  the  service,  Mr 
was  eminently  successful,  developing  it  to  the 
present  standard  of  excellence.  The  Ameri- 
can Car  &  Foundry  Company  of  New  York 
then  made  him  an  oiler  to  act  as  its  General 
Eastern  Sales  Agent,  but  at  the  end  of  a  year 
and  in  less  than  two  years  he  formed  the  com- 
pany previously  mentioned  with  which  he  is 
now'  the  directing  mind.  Mr.  liegeman  is  not 
only  president  of  the  L.  S.  Metal  &  Manu- 
facturing (' pany,  but  also  of  the  Rockland 

Railroad  and  the  Union  Lumber  Manufac- 
turing Company;  he  is  a  trustee  of  the  Ex- 
celsior Savings  Bank  and  a  director  in  several 
large  manufacturing  companies.  In  politics 
he  is  a  Republican  and  has  served  as  Council- 
man and  Mayor  of  North  Plainfield,  N.  J., 
where  he  resided  before  he  made  his  permanent 
residence  in  New  York.  He  is  very  fond  of 
club  life  and  belongs  to  nine  social  organiza- 
tions, among  which  are  the  Lotos,  New  York 
Athletic.  Republican  of  New  York,  and  the 
Racquet  of  Philadelphia. 

Thoroughly  experienced  in  every  detail  for 

'  1       1  * 

the  successful  operation  of  a  great  trunk  line, 
Ralph  Peters,  president  of  the  Long  Island 
Railroad  Company,  has  made  that  corporation 
one  of  the  best-paying  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Peters  was  born  in  Atlanta,  Ga.> 
November  lib  1853,  and  is  of  English  and 
Scotch  extraction.  The  family  was  founded 
in  America  in  1740.  by  William  Peters,  who 
was  one  time  commissioner  in  the  colony  of 
Pennsylvania.  His  father  was  Richard  Peters. 
a  distinguished  engineer  and  his  great-grand- 
father was  .Judge  Richard  Peters,  who,  after 
the  Revolutionary  War.  attained  world-wide 
fame  by  his  lavish  entertainments  in  ^  his 
beautiful  mansion  at  Belmont,  now  in  Fair- 
mount   Park,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Ralph  Peters  graduated  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Georgia  in  187-2.  with  the  degree  of 
B.A.  He  at  once  entered  the  service  of  the 
Atlanta  Street  Railways,  and  subsequently 
was  employed  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 
filling  many  positions  of  trust. 

Taking  hold  of  the  Long  Island  line,  then 
looked  upon  as  a  summer  excursion  railroad, 
Mr.  Peters  has  made  it  an  all-year-round 
proposition  and  brought  the  gross  earnings 
1 1 1 >    to    $26,433    per    mile    per    annum.      Mr. 


334 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW   YORK 


Peters  is  a  member  of  the  Lawyers.  Railroad. 
New  York  Yacht,  Garden  City  and  Garden 
City  Golf  clubs,  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  Ohio. 
Georgia  and  Southern  societies  and  Society  of 
Colonial  Wars  in  Ohio. 

From  farm  hoy  to  financier  is  a  long  stretch 
and  where  obstacles  were  to  be  overcome 
at  nearly  every  step  the  distance  is  indeed 
lon<'\  This  is  the  accomplishment  of  George 
Carson  Smith  and  his  early  struggles  must 
stamp  him  as  a  self-made  man.  He  was  horn 
in  Granville,  X.   Y..  March  4,   1855,  the  son 


private  secretary  to  Charles  M.  Croswell, 
then  Governor  of  Michigan. 

He  next  completed  a  course  in  the  study 
of  law  and  entered  the  railway  service  in 
Texas  in  1881,  as  assistant  to  the  general  man- 
ager of  the  Texas  and  Pacific  and  International 
and  Great  Northern  Railways.  Upon  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Missouri  Pacific  system  in 
St.  Louis,  he  was  made  assistant  to  the  senior 
vice-president . 

In  rapid  succession  he  became  general  man- 
Missouri   Pacific  system:  the  At- 


ager  of  tht 


GEORGl     C\RSON  SMITH 


II!  \  A     IM    \<    I 


of  Harvey  J.  and  Olivia  Cordelia  (White) 
Smith,  and  is  of  English  ancestry  on  both  sides 
of  the  family.  His  early  education  was  ob- 
tained at  North  Hebron  Institute,  in  Wash- 
ington County.  X.  Y.,  and  Castleton  Semi- 
nary. Vermont,  his  collegiate  course  being  at 
Adrian  College.  Michigan,  from  which  he 
was  graduated  in   1877. 

lie  defrayed  his  college  expenses  by  acting 
as  instructor  in  languages,  bookkeeper,  stenog- 
rapher and  as  a  newspaper  correspondent. 
Immediately  after  graduation  he  was  appointed 


lanla  and  West  Point  Railway  of  Georgia; 
the  Western  Railway  of  Alabama  and  the 
St.  Louis-Louisville  lines  of  the  Southern 
Railway. 

In  !!)(»]  he  was  selected  to  represent  George 
Westinghouse  in  the  various  corporations  bear- 
ing his  name  and  served  as  president,  vice- 
president  or  director  in  a  score  of  Westing- 
house  corporations.  Retiring  from  many  of 
these  companies.  Mr.  Smith  has  during  the 
past  year  established  new  connections  in  the 
field    of   construction   and    finance,    becoming 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


J535 


a  special  partner  in  the  firm  of  James  Stewart 
&  Co.,  of  New  York.  St.  Louis  and  Chicago, 
and  representative  in  New  York  of  the  Canada 
Syndicate,  Limited,  of  Montreal  and  Toronto. 

One  of  the  charming  characteristics  of  man's 
nature  is  his  affection  for  all  graduates  of  his 
own  university.  It  comes  as  naturally  as  the 
affiliations  that  grow  out  of  relationship. 
There's  much  in  the  u/itia  mater  fondness  that 
one  Cornell  man  feels  for  another.  Ira  A. 
Place  has  been  one  of  the  most  successful  grad- 
uates of  an  institution  that  has  grown  in  forty- 
three  years  from  nothing  to  one  of  the  fore- 
most places  in  American  educational  ranks. 
He  was  horn  in  this  city  in  1854,  hut  prepared 
for  college  at  Alfred  Academy  and  took  his 
A.B.  degree  at  Cornell  in  1881.  While  at  the 
University,  he  was  an  editor  of  The  Era, 
Cornellian,  and  Cornel/  Magazine.  lie  then 
began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of 
Vann,  McLennan  cS;  Dillaye,  Syracuse,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Buffalo.  lie  came 
to  Xew  York,  in  October.  1SS:5.  with  Judge 
McLennan,  who  had  been  appointed  general 
counsel  of  the  Xew  York,  West  Shore  & 
Buffalo  Railway  Company,  prior  to  its  reor- 
ganization as  the  West  Shore  railroad.  In 
March.  1886,  Mr.  Place  entered  the  Law 
Department  of  the  New  York  Central  & 
Hudson  River  Railway  Company.  So  com- 
plete was  his  success  in  this  post  that  he  was 
appointed  general  counsel  for  all  Xew  \  ork 
Central  lines  east  of  Buffalo  in  1  !)().">.  A  year 
later,  he  was  chosen  vice-president  of  the  Xew 
York  Central  lines  east  of  Buffalo,  in  charge 
of  the  Law  Department  and  of  the  Land 
and  Tax  Department.  Mr.  Place  is  a 
trustee  of  Cornell  University;  likewise  pres- 
ident of  the  Cornellian  Council  and  Cornell 
University  Club  of  Xew  York  City.  At 
the  university,  he  was  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
and  a  Psi  Upsilon  man.  In  politics,  he  is  a 
Democrat;  in  religion,  he  is  a  Unitarian. 
Among  the  clubs  to  which  he  belongs  are  the 
University,  Transportation,  Cornell,  St.  An- 
drews Golf,  Adirondack  League  and  Unita- 
rian of  Xew  York  and  Fort  Orange  of  Albany. 

Mr.  Place  is  a  director  in  a  score  or  more 
of  railroads,  coal  companies  and  other  corpo- 
rations, among  which  may  be  mentioned:  The 
Carthage.    Watertown    &    Sackett's    Harbor 


Railroad,  Tivoli  Hollow  Railroad,  Troy  Union 
Railroad  Company,  Little  Falls  &  Dolgeville 
Railroad  Company,  Detroit.  Monroe  &  'Toledo 
Railroad  Company,  Xew  York  &  Ottawa 
Bridge  Company,  Cornwall  Bridge  Company, 
Buffalo  Erie  Basin  Railroad  Company,  Cen- 
tral Dock  &  Terminal  Railway  Company,  Fair 
Land  Realty  Company,  Gallitzin  Coal&Coke 
Company,  Gouverneur  &  Oswegatchie  Rail- 
road Company,  Xew  Jersey  Junction  Railroad 
Company.  Xew  Jersey  Shore  Line  Railroad 
Company,  New  York  Central  Niagara  River 
Railroad  ('onipany,  Niagara  Falls  Branch 
Railroad  Company,  Spuyten  Duvvil  &  Port 
Morris  Railroad  Company,  Wallkill  Valley 
Railroad  Company,  and  Xew  York  &  Fort 
Lee  Railroad  Company.  IK'  is  president  of 
the  Central  Dock  &  Terminal  Railway  Com- 
pany, and  of  the  Fair  Land  Realty  Company. 

A  railroad  man  who  has  risen  from  the 
ranks  to  one  of  the  highest  offices  in  this 
country  is  William  Johnson  Ilarahan.  born 
at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  December,  1867,  of 
Scotch-Irish  parents,  whose  ancestors  were 
settlers  in  the  West.  He  was  educated  at  the 
public  schools  and  at  St.  John's  College.  New 
Orleans.  Before  attaining  his  majority  he 
entered  the  service  of  the  Louisville  &  Nash- 
ville railroad  -attached  to  the  superintend- 
ent's office  in  Xew  Orleans.  He  advanced 
rapidly,  becoming  an  assistant  engineer  in 
ISSi);  but.  a  year  later,  he  resigned  to  accept 
the  post  of  division  engineer  on  the  Chesa- 
peake &  Ohio  railroad.  Thence  he  went  to 
the  Baltimore  &  ( )hio  Southwestern.  He  then 
joined  the  Illinois  Central  and  in  1896  was 
made  superintendent  of  the  Louisville  division. 
holding  that  place  until  1901,  when  he  be- 
came chief  engineer  of  the  entire  system  and 
assistant  general  manager.  After  fifteen  years 
continuous  service,  Mr.  Harahan  retired  from 
the  Illinois  Central  to  accept  the  vice-presi- 
dency of  the  Erie  railroad. 

Improvement  in  rolling  stock  on  American 
railroads,  especially  the  substitution  of  steel 
for  wood  in  the  manufacture  of  passenger 
cars,  is  largely  due  to  the  energy  and  inventive 
genius  of  a  few  young  men.  Among  these 
must  be  mentioned  Frederick  Ileber  Eaton, 
president  of  the  American  Car  &  Foundry 
Co.,  which  office  he  has  held  since  1902.      Mr. 


336 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


Eaton  is  a  Pennsylvania!]  by  birth,  having 
for  his  native  town  Berwick  and  the  date  of 
his  birth  April.  1863.  He  was  educated  at 
the  public  schools  and  has  engaged  in  manu- 
facturing ever  since  he  was  seventeen  years  of 
aye.  Mr.  Eaton  is  a  director  of  the  Columbia 
Trust  Company,  Seaboard  National  Bank. 
Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  Inter-Ocean 
Steel  Company,  the  lloyt  &  Weedin  Manu- 
facturing Company,  and  several  other  corpora- 
tions and  railroads.  He  belongs  to  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  and  the  Union  League, 
Metropolitan,  Ardsley  and  \.  Y.  Athletic  clubs 
of  this  city.  He  was  chosen  a  McKinley 
elector  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  in  1896. 
He  has  a  city  residence  and  a  country  place, 
"Hillcrest,"  in  Berwick.  Mr.  Eaton  is  a 
lover  of  books  and  a  member  of  several  his- 
torical societies.  He  conies  of  Revolutionary 
ancestry   and   is   naturally   proud   of  the   fact. 

Thomas  E.  Oakes,  now  living  in  .Yew  York 
City,  is  one  of  the  real  '*  Builders  of  the  West." 
He  was  associated  with  some  of  the  great  en- 
terprises of  that  part  of  the  country  and  carried 
out   his   part  with  credit   and   distinction. 

Born  in  Massachusetts,  about  sixty-seven 
or  sixty-eight  years  ago.  where  he  was  edu- 
cated at  the  public  schools,  young  Oakes 
turned  early  to  the  West  and  got  into  the 
battle  of  life  by  becoming  associated  with  rail- 
road contractors  on  the  old  Kansas  Pacific 
in  '(>:{.  Ten  years  later  we  find  him  as  pur- 
chasing agent  of  the  road  and  he  advanced 
rapidly  until  ten  years  later  he  was  made  gen- 
eral superintendent.  He  was  afterward  con- 
nected with  the  Kansas  City.  Fort  Scott  and 
Gulf  R.  R..  and  the  Kansas  City.  Lawrence 
and  Southern  R.  R.  in  the  same  capacity  as 
general  superintendent,  which  positions  occu- 
pied his  time  until  1880  when  he  became  Vice- 
President  and  General  Manager  of  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company,  with  head- 
quarters in  the  city  of  Portland.  Ore. 

The  Northern  Pacific  was  the  next  road  to 
command  Mr.  Oakes'  services.  He  was  suc- 
cessively Vice-President,  General  Manager, 
President  and  Receive]-  of  this  great  system 
during  the  years  of  1881-1896. 

Mr.  Oakes  now  makes  his  home  at  the  Plaza 
Hotel,    New    York    City,    but    enjoys    most    at 


present  the  pleasures  of  a  well-appointed  farm 
at  Concord,  Mass.,  within  call  of  his  boyhood 
home. 

Prominent  among  the  men  who  have  fig- 
ured in  the  commercial  development  of  New 
York  City  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
is  William  H.  Woolverton,  president  of  the 
National  Railway  Publication  Company,  pub- 
lishers of  the  Official  Railway  Guide. 

Mr.  Woolverton  was  born  in  the  State  of 
Indiana,  but  was  taken,  when  very  young,  to 
Pennsylvania,  the  family  locating  in  the  town 
of  Alexandria.  His  preliminary  education 
was  secured  in  the  country  schools  near  his 
home,  but  it  was  not  until  he  had  started  on 
his  business  career  that  he  found  the  oppor- 
tunity of  broadening  his  mind  and  educating 
himself  in  the  branches  necessary  for  his 
battle  with  the  world. 

When  a  boy  he  studied  telegraphy,  working 
side  by  side  with  Andrew  Carnegie.  Thomas 
M.  Carnegie,  Thomas  T.  Eckert  and  David 
II.  Bates,  and  the  companionship  of  those 
early  days  developed  into  friendships  that 
were  life-long  in  duration.  At  this  period 
Mr.  Woolverton  was  an  employee  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  Company,  and  in  this  ca- 
pacity he  was  transferred  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  remained  for  several  years,  filling 
many  responsible  positions. 

It  was  forty-four  years  ago  in  the  Quaker 
City  that  the  Official  Railway  Guide  was 
started.  Mr.  Woolverton  and  several  other 
railroad  men  were  the  organizers  of  the  pub- 
lishing company.  Many  difficulties  were  en- 
countered and  it  was  not  until  the  publication 
had  been  removed  to  New  York  City  that 
success  was  assured  and  the  Guide  came  to 
be  recognized  as  indispensable  to  the  traveling 
public  and  of  inestimable  value  to  railway 
officials.  Mr.  Woolverton  has  been  for  years 
the  president  of  the  company,  succeeding 
Henry  W.  Gwinner,  the  first  president,  who 
retired  twenty-seven  years  ago.  Upon  enter- 
ing the  business  world  of  New  York  City. 
Mr.  Woolverton  at  once  became  interested  in 
many  corporations  and  was  one  of  the  organ- 
izers of  the  Bell  Telephone  Company,  now  the 
New  York  Telephone  Company,  of  which  he 
is  still  a  director.  In  1878  seven  men  under- 
took   the    installation    of    that    service.      The 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


337 


telephone  was  then  almost  unknown  and  the 
venture  did  not  look  flattering  at  that  time, 
but  the  organizers  were  men  who  could  see  a 
long  distance  ahead  and  they  persisted  in  the 
work,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  and  to-day  the 
company's  triumphant  success  testifies  to 
their  keen  judgment  and  indomitable  will. 
Of  the  men  who  brought  this  important  work 
to  perfection  l>ul  two  remain,  Mr.  Woolverton 


WILLIAM   II.  \\i  lOLVERTON 

and  Theodore  Newton  Vail,  now  president 
of  the  company.  In  addition  to  being  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Railway  Publication 
Company,  Mr.  Woolverton  is  ;it  the  head  of 
the  New  York  Transfer  Company,  which 
operates  Dodd's  Express,  and  he  tills  ;i  similar 
position  with  the  Gamewell  Fire  Alarm  Tele- 
graph  Company.  This  company's  service  is 
used  in  residences,  stores,  industrial  estab- 
lishments and  by  municipalities  in  over  1,500 


cities  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and 
has  also  been  installed  in  South  America, 
South  Africa,  (Jreal  Britain,  Germany,  Manila 
and  the  Sandwich  Islands.  It  had  its  incep- 
tion in  (he  electric  lire-alarm  signal  which 
John  N.  Gamewell  installed  in  Boston  in 
1851.  During  the  Civil  War.  the  business 
made  little  progress  and  it  was  not  until  Mr. 
Woolverton  became  interested  in  the  com- 
pany thai   it  started  on  its  successful  career. 

During  all  these  years  the  Gamewell  Com- 
pany has  not  failed  lo  recognize  and  secure 
every  possible  improvement  so  that  to-day 
its  service  is  as  near  perfection  as  is  possible 
to  make  an  electrical  system. 

In  this  work.  Mr.  Woolverton's  ability  and 
foresight  are  shown.  He  took  hold  of  the 
Gamewell  Company  when  it  was  in  its  in- 
cipiency  and  non-productive:  and  recognizing 
its  vast  possibilities  turned  it  into  a  fire-pre- 
venting, fire-loss  decreasing  and  life-saving  in- 
stitution. A  fraction  of  time  often  saves  heavy 
loss  and  many  lives  when  a  big  conflagration 
threatens.     This  the  Gamewell  system  does. 

Mi'.  Woolverton  is  also  president  of  the 
Alexandria.  Pa.,  Water  Company,  American 
Railway  Supply  Company,  Gamewell  Auxil- 
iary Fire  Alarm  Company.  He  is  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Manhattan  Fire  Alarm  Company 
and  the  Police  Telephone  and  Signal  Com- 
pany, treasurer  of  the  Iron  Steamboat  Com- 
pany of  Xew  Jersey,  treasurer  of  the  New 
Jersey  Navigation  Company  and  a  director  in 
the  American  Railway  Guide  Company,  the 
Cumberland  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, Holmes  Electric  Protective  Company, 
New  York  Telephone  Company  and  the  Union 
Transfer  Company  of  Philadelphia.  Pa. 

Mr.  Woolverton  is  a  Republican  in  national 
politics,  but  in  state  and  municipal  affairs  he 
is  always  found  on  the  side  of  the  best  man. 
regardless  of  party  affiliations. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Union  League,  the 
New  York  Athletic,  the  Railroad  and  Lotos 
clubs. 

The  United  States  has  in  notable  cases  sup- 
plied the  genius  of  initiative  to  two  important 
South  American  countries.  I  have  already 
spoken  of  Theodore  X.  Nail's  achievements 
at  Buenos  Ayres,  Argentina;  but  a  more  re- 
cent champion  of  the  destinies  of  the  adjacent 


338 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


republic  of  Brazil  has  arisen  in  the  person  of 
Perciva]  Farquhar,  who  may  be  accurately 
described  as  "the  E.  II.  Harriman  of  South 
America."  He  is  doing  for  Brazil  cpiite  as 
much  as  Cecil  J.  Rhodes  did  for  South  Africa, 
although  he  is  a  republic  developer,  rather 
than  an  empire  builder!  Being  born,  dyed- 
in-the-wool  lover  of  democracy,  he  has  no 
liking  for  imperialism.  Mr.  Farquhar's  career 
is  a  fascinating  one.  He  comes  of  Maryland 
stock,  but  was  born  at  York.  Pa.,  October, 
1N<;+.  Little  more  than  a  year  previously, 
Lee's  army  had  swept  through  that  part  of 
Pennsylvania,  until  checked  at  Gettysburg. 
Arthur  B.  Farquhar.  father  of  the  future  finan- 
cier, was  a  manufacturer  of  agricultural  ma- 
chinery in  York  —a  business  that  has  grown 
into  the  Pennsylvania  Agricultural  Works,  of 
which  A.  B.  Farquhar  is  chief.  In  its  office. 
young  Percival  received  his  commercial  train- 
ing. He  had  passed  through  Yale  Univer- 
sity, taking  highest  honors  of  his  class.  1SS4. 
In  addition  to  the  Arts  course,  he  specialized 
in  engineering,  and  followed  his  stay  at  ^  ale 
by  a  two  years'  attendance  at  Columbia  Law 
School,  in  this  city. 

Thus  equipped,  Percival  Farquhar  came  to 
Xew  York  to  grapple  the  problem  of  success! 
A  fondness  for  economics  had  been  inherited 
from  his  father,  not  only  a  student  of  political 
economy  but  a  writer  on  the  subject.  It  was 
quite  impossible,  therefore,  for  the  young  man 
to  keep  out  of  politics.  He  joined  the  Demo- 
cratic organization  of  his  Assembly  District 
and  took  an  active  part  in  its  deliberations. 
lie  had  not  contemplated  seeking  office,  but 
was  nominated  for  the  Assembly  and  elected. 

Meanwhile,  he  had  been  studying  the  pros- 
pects of  railway  development  in  Brazil.  After 
making  an  extended  visit  to  the  region  south- 
west and  northwest  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Mr. 
Farquhar  went  to  Europe  and  laid  before 
London  and  Paris  bankers,  various  proposi- 
tions for  financing  a  vast  international  railway 
system  for  South  America.  In  a  short  time, 
Mr.  Farquhar  organized  the  Brazil  Railway 
Company,  which  to-day  owns,  or  controls  by 
lease,  3.101  miles  of  road  in  operation,  and 
has  under  construction  1,818  additional  miles. 
His  ambition  was  to  combine  under  one  sys- 
tem the  lines  of  steel  road  serving  the  southern 


part  of  the  State  of  Sao  Paulo  and  the  States 
of  Parana,  Santa  Catharina  and  Rio  Grande 
do  Sul.  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  their  west- 
ern borders.  When  the  extensions  under  con- 
struction are  finished,  the  so-called  "Farquhar 
system"  will  extend  from  Sao  Paulo — the  cap- 
ital of  the  state  of  similar  name,  having  a 
population  of  1,500,000  and  the  important 
port  of  Santos,  from  which  it  is  distant  about 
40  miles — to  the  frontiers  of  Uruguay  and 
Paraguay.  Its  own  lines  ami  connections 
will  open  up  the  vast  and  now  inaccessible 
State  of  Matto  Grosso  as  far  as  the  Bolivian 
border.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  for  me.  in 
an  article  of  this  length,  to  give  a  reader  an 
accurate  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
work  that  Percival  Farquhar  has  accomplished 
and  that  he  contemplates  achieving  in  the  im- 
mediate future.  Several  hundred  millions  of 
American  ami  European  money  are  enlisted 
in  the  development  of  the  heretofore  inacces- 
sible resources  of  the  largest  country  of  the 
South  American  continent!  The  Amazon 
route  has  been  fairly  well  explored;  the  shores 
of  that  mighty  river  are  generally  marshy  ami 
its  fevers  are  deadly.  Mr.  Farquhar,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  chosen  to  exploit  one  of  the 
most  healthy,  salubrious  districts  on  earth. 
If  is  a  storehouse  of  arboreal,  mineral  and 
agricultural  wealth.  Santos,  the  port  of  Sao 
Paulo,  is  a  city  of  20,000  inhabitants  and  ranks 
second  only  to  Rio  as  a  coffee-shipping  port. 
Sao  Paulo  is  a  fine,  largely  modern  city  of 
SO. 000  people,  within  half  a  day's  journey  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro  by  the  Central  Brazil  Railway 
— a  distance  of  about  230  miles. 

Percival  Farquhar,  as  President  of  the 
Brazil  Railway  Company,  has  under  his  im- 
mediate control  the  following  lines:  Soroca- 
bana  Railway,  in  the  State  of  Sao  Paulo.  813 
miles  in  operation  and  268  miles  under  con- 
struction: the  Sao  Paulo-Rio  Grande  Rail- 
way, traversing  Parana  and  Santa  Catharina 
already  for  010  miles,  with  1,550  miles  under 
construction:  the  Parana  Railway,  all  in  the 
State  of  that  name,  operating  258  miles;  the 
Thereza  Christina  Railway,  72  miles;  the 
Cie.  Auxiliaire  de  Chemins  de  Fer  au  Brazil, 
operating  1,348  miles.  The  Brazil  Railway 
Company  possesses  large  holdings  in  and  im- 
portant  traffic   arrangements    with   the   Mog- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


;«9 


yana  Railway,  926  miles,  and  the  Paulista 
line  of  715  miles,  a  total  length  of  1,641  miles. 
Three  other  lines,  with  a  mileage  of  1,468, 
cooperate  with  the  Brazil  Company. 

The  vast  region  reached  by  the  Brazil  rail- 
ways is  an  area  of  table-lands,  called  chapadoes, 
having  elevations  of  1,000  to  3,000  feet,  and 
is  in  every  respect  the  best  pari  of  Brazil. 
The  climate  is  temperate,  it  contains  the  most 
fertile  lands  in  the  republic,  its  forests  are  of 
the  finest  commercial  woods  and  its  rainfall 
is  regular.  Already  a  large  lumber  company 
has  been  organized  and  millions  of  feet  of 
mahoganies  and  other  fine  woods  are  coming 
to  this  and  foreign  markets  from  the  mills. 

This  is  only  a  small  part  of  what  might  be 
written  about  the  Farquhar  activities.  The 
man  himself  is  President  and  Director  of  the 
Brazil  Railway  Co..  Bahia  Tramway,  Light 
&  Power  Co..  Madeira-Mamore  Railway  Co., 
Port  of  Para,  Para  Construction  Co.,  Brazil 
Land.  Cattle  &  Packing  Co.  and  Southern 
Brazil  Lumber  Co..  and  First  Vice-President 
of  the  Sorocabana  Railway  Co.  Evidently, 
Percival  Farquhar  believes  this  to  be  an  age 
of  men  of  affairs!  His  clubs  in  New  York 
are  the  Metropolitan.  Lawyers"  and  National 
Democratic,  and  Metropolitan  of  Washington. 

Elsewhere  I  have  briefly  sketched  the  de- 
velopment of  the  telegraph  system  of  the 
United  States.  Like  every  other  line  of  busi- 
ness, it  has  been  greatly 
improved  by  competi- 
tion, the  public  has 
been  better  served  and 
this  very  rivalry  has  de- 
veloped one  of  the  won- 
derful stories  of  modern 
invention.  One  of  the 
men  who  has  contrib- 
uted a  large  part  to  the 
marvelous  growth  of 
telegraphy  in  this  coun- 
try is  Charles  C. 
Adams,  second  vice- 
president  of  the  Postal 
Telegraph  Company. 
the 


rhrough 


energy 


and  indefatigable  application  of  such  men  as 
he  is.  the  art  of  telegraphy  has  become  in  the 
last  half  century  a  national  utility  of  first  im- 


portance. Mr.  Adams  was  born  at  Freeport, 
Pa..  August,  1858,  acquired  his  early  educa- 
tion in  the  Pittsburg  public  schools  and  took  a 
brief  course  at  the  Sharpest >urg  Academy. 
lie  promptly  became  an  operator  for  the  West- 
ern Union  Company.  Next  I  Hud  him  as 
Associated  Press  telegraphist  at  Fort  Wayne. 
When  the  Mutual  Union  Company  was  or- 
ganized, he  was  selected  as  the  manager  of  its 
Pittsburg  office,  but  after  its  merger  with  the 
Western  Union  he  entered  newspaper  service 
in  Pittsburg  and  soon  returned  to  .Yew  York. 
He  joined  the  Postal  Telegraph  Company  in 
1SS4  as  manager  at  Philadelphia.  Thence 
his  rise  has  been  steadily  upward.  lie  came 
to  Yew  York,  1904,  to  become  a  vice-president 
of  the  Postal  Company.  His  clubs  are  the 
Lotos  and  the  National  Geographic  Society. 
lie  is  a  director  in  about  thirty  subordinate 
companies  of  the  Postal. 

One  of  the  prominent  shipping  merchants 
of  this  city  who  has  devoted  an  active  career 
to  correcting  abuses  in  commercial  trans- 
actions is  F  d  w  a  nl 
Wa  I'd  Vanderbilt. 
One  of  his  brill  i  a  n  t 
successes  was  securing 
the  abrogation  of  the 
tonnage  I  a  \  aga  i  nst 
American  vessels  that 
Spain  had  been  levy- 
ing for  more  than 
a  ge  tie  rat  ion.  Mr. 
^  anderbilt  was  born 
near  the  Battery.  As 
soon  as  the  Civil  War 
closed,  he  formed  a 
firm  for  sending  packet 
ships  to  Georgetown, 
( 'ha  rleston,  Savannah 
and  Jacksonville;  next  he  enlarged  his  con- 
nections and  sent  packets  to  Corpus  Christi, 
Texas.  Acquiring  an  interest  in  Bentlv,  Mil- 
ler &  Co.  and  other  firms  until  IS?!),  he  formed 
the  house  of  Vanderbilt  &  Hopkins  and  took 
contracts  for  supplying  lumber  for  railroads. 
He  then  took  over  the  entire  business  and 
launched  the  house  of  F.  W.  Vanderbilt,  which 
is  still  thriving.  Mr.  Vanderbilt  is  a  veteran 
of  the  Civil  War  and  independent  in  politics 
He  is  especially  proud  of  having  destroyed  the 


EDWARD  W.  VANDERBILT 


340 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


"sailors'  lawyers"  a  gang  of  shysters  that 
shipped  men  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting 
captains  of  sailing  vessels  on  the  charge  of 
abuse  while  at  sea.  Such  charges,  he  found, 
were  chiefly  made  to  extort  money  and  were 
groundless. 

Among  the  self-made  men  who  have  place 
in  this  volume  none  is  more  worthy  of  men- 
tion  than    John   Nemeth,    born    in    Garadna, 

Hungary,  Nov..  1861. 
Alter  securing  the  ad- 
vantages of  excellent 
schools  of  his  native 
land,  he  came  to  this 
country  in  1887  and 
opened  a  general  sup- 
ply store  at  Hazelton, 
Pa.  He  was  induced  to 
go  to  that  locality  be- 
cause so  many  of  his 
fellow  countrymen  were 
there  employed  as  min- 
ers. His  business  de- 
veloped into  that  of 
f  o  r  e  i  g  n  money  ex- 
change and  the  sale  of 
In  1901  Mr.  Nemeth 
transferred  his  business  to  this  city,  where 
he  is  agent  for  all  trans-Atlantic  steamship 
lines.  Recently  he  introduced  a  successful 
cable  system  of  transmitting  money  to  Hun- 
gary at  the  reduced  cost  of  .)<>  cents  for  each 
transfer,  sending  any  sum  to  any  place.  He 
has  handled  in  this  way  several  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  without  mishap.  He  is  a  Demo- 
crat. Mr.  Nemeth  is  naturally  proud  of  the 
fact  that  he  arrived  in  this  country  at  1!). 
absolutely     friendless,     without    a     knowledge 


JOHN    NEMETH 


steamship    tickets. 


of  the  English  language,  with  small  capital, 
and  has  attained  a  position  of  affluence  and  of 
public  esteem. 

The  coal  business  occupies  so  large  a  place 
in  the  domestic  economy  of  every  household 
that  all  of  us  are    nterested  in  the  identities 

of  the  men  who  super- 
intend the  extraction  of 
"black  diamonds"  from 
the  earth  and  regulate 
their  shipment  to  mar- 
ket. Prominent  among 
these  is  Richard  Theo- 
dore Davies,  general 
coal  agent  of  the  Le- 
high Coal  &  Naviga- 
tion Company,  one  of 
the  largest  producers  of 
anthracite.  Mr.  Davies 
was  born  at  Buffalo, 
N.  Y..  October.  1S50- 
being  a  direct  descend- 
K""AKI"  DAVIS  ant,  in  the  sixth  genera- 

tion, from  Sir  Francis  Pemberton,  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  (KiSO),  who  pre- 
sided at  the  trial  of  Lord  Russell  for  the  "Rye 
House  Plot."  He  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools.  For  .'51  years  he  has  represented 
the  oldest  anthracite  coal  mining  company  in 
the  United  States  in  this  city  and  now  has 
charge  of  the  sales  department,  with  offices 
here  and  in  Philadelphia,  lie  is  a  trustee  of 
the  Dry  Dock  Savings  Institution;  treasurer 
and  secretary  of  the  Society  of  Mechanics  and 
Tradesmen;  first  vice-president  of  the  Empire 
State  Society.  S.  A.  R..  and  treasurer  of  its 
Pennsylvania  Society:  a  life  member  of  the 
New  England  Society.  His  clubs  are  the 
Union  League,  Railroad  and  Meridian. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


S41 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  NEW  YOliK   PLAYHOUS1 


ARLV  in  this  volume,  I  have 
mentioned  the  scarcity  of  high- 
class  theatres  in  1870,  when  I 
first  began  to  study  the  amuse- 
ment question.  Wallack's  and 
Booth's  exhausted  the  list —  al- 
though Samuel  N.  Pike  had  started  out  to 
create  a  rival  to  the  Academy  of  Music  in 
Italian  opera.  Pike  was  the  Hammerstein 
of  his  day.  Niblo's  was  given  over  to  the 
spectacular — presenting  "The  Black  Crook" 
and  Lydia  Thompson's  blonde  maidens — the 
Olympic  soon  became  the  home  of  pantomime, 
with  George  L.  Fox  as  "Humpty  Dumpty." 
The  old  Academy  was  wholly  devoted  to 
grand  opera  and  the  great  balls  of  the  winter 
especially  the  annual  French  ball,  one  of  which, 
of  a  later  vintage  and  at  the  Madison  Square 
Garden,  is  described  herein.  The  Theatre 
(  omique  was  a  variety  show — would  have  been 
described  as  "vaudeville"   in   these  days. 

The  Grand  Opera  House  deserves  more  than 
mere  mention.  The  building  had  been  erected 
by  S.  X.  Pike  of  Cincinnati, — before  or  soon 
after  his  own  house  in  that  city  had  been 
destroyed  by  fire — and  was  opened,  in  January, 
186\8.  as  a  rival  home  of  Italian  opera.  It 
cost  about  $1, 000. 000,  which  was  an  eye- 
opener  for  metropolitan  managers.  They  were 
amazed  that  a  man  from  the  West  should 
lavish  so  much  money  on  an  amusement 
palace.  It  was  built  to  seat  2,000  people. 
but  during  the  furore  that  welcomed  Tostee 
and  Inna.  it  often  held  more  than  .'5,000. 

Jay  Gould  and  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  got  posses- 
sion of  the  property,  with  the  money  of  the 
Erie  railway,  in  18(H).  and  changed  its  name 
from  Pike's  to  the  Grand.  A  few  Shakes- 
peare plays  were  produced.  Then  followed 
the  remarkable  seasons  of  French  opera,  one 
after  another,  that  did  more  to  make  this  city 
cosmopolitan  than  anything  theatrical.  ( )pera 
Bouffe,  with  Carlo   Patti  as   musical  director. 


ruled  for  several  years.  The  first  woman 
of  this  stellar  world  I  recall  is  Montaland.  The 
year  1871  brought  to  us  the  adorable  Marie 
Aimee.  as  "Boulotte"  in  "Barhe  Bleue." 
Her  great  hit  was  made  in  "La  Perichole," 
quite  new  here,  and  one  of  the  best  bits  of 
comedy  acting  ever  seen  on  the  American  lyric 
stage  was  Aimee's  rendering  of  the  drinking 
song  in  that  operetta.  There  were  other 
clever  French  women,  but  I  don't  care  to  re- 
member them.  Aimee  died  of  cancer  in 
Paris.  October  v2.  1887,  and  was  buried  from 
her  little  home  at  Nogent  sur  Marne.  I  was 
in  Paris.  Many  sad  memories  stirred  my 
breast  as  Albert  Wolff.  C.  I.  Barnard  and  I, 
as  the  only  mourners,  followed  Aimee's  body 
to  the  grave  along  a  muddy  road.  Ah.  yes; 
there  was  another  mourner— a  small  girl  of 
about  12  years,  who  was  in  dire  distress  but 
whose  relation  to  the  dead  prima  donna  we 
did  not  know. 

The  first  time  I  saw  Lester  Wallack  was 
in  May,  1871,  when  he  played  "Eliott  Gray" 
and  John  Gilbert  "Miles  McKenna"  in 
"Uosedale."  1  witnessed  'The  Long 
Strike,"  with  Effie  Germon  and  J.  II.  Stod- 
dart  in  the  cast.  In  the  fall  of  that  year,  I  saw 
Charles  Fetcher  for  the  only  time  in  "The 
Lady  of  Lyons."  with  Lizzie  Price  as  "Paul- 
ine." Charles  Matthews  came  over  not  long 
after  and  I  never  shall  forget  him  in  "The 
(  ritic."  and  "  London  Assurance."  Although 
I  afterwards  saw  him  in  London  in  ha  I  fa  dozen 
roles  he  did  not  seem  so  clever  over  there; 
he  appeared  to  repress  himself  for  English 
audiences.  The  same  thing  was  noticeable 
in  John  E.  Clarke.  I  cannot  forget  Ada 
Dyas,  in  "The  Romance  of  a  Poor  Young 
Man."  with  II.  J.  Montague  in  the  leading 
part.  Then  followed  the  wonderful  "Shaugh- 
raun."  with  its  all-star  cast:  Montague.  Jef- 
freys Lewis.  J.  B.  Polk.  John  Gilbert,  Harry 
Beckett,  W.  J.  Leonard.  E.  M.  Holland.  Ada 


342 


THE    BOOK    nf  NEW    YORK 


Dyas,  Mine.  Ponisi  and  Dion  Boucicault, 
author  of  the  play,  as  "Conn."  Steele  Mac- 
kaye  made  his  first  appearance  at  Wallack's 
on  January  22,  1877,  in  "All  For  Her."  The 
subsequent  contributions  of  this  man's  work 
on  the  New  York  stage  were  marvelous— 
greater  than  any  others  except  Augustin  Daly 
and  David  Belasco.  Lester  Wallack  I  saw 
up  to  that  never-to-be-forgotten  benefit  night 
at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  (May  25, 
1SSS).  when  he  received  the  most  triumphant 
tribute  ever  given  to  an  American  actor.  He 
appeared  before  the  curtain,  in  evening  dress, 
and  spoke  a  few  words  of  thanks.  The  play 
was  '"Hamlet."  with  Booth  in  flic  title  role. 
Joseph  Jefferson  as  "First  Grave  Digger" 
and  \Y.  J.  Florence  as  his  mate.  Lawrence 
Barrett  was  "Ghost,"  Modjeska  was  the 
"Ophelia";  the  "Horatio"  of  John  A.  Lane 
was  excellent.  Equally  interesting  was  the 
wonderful  audience  of  nearly  4.000  people. 
1  sat  in  the  front  row.  between  Gen.  Sickles 
and  John  Russell  Young.  Recorder  Smyth 
and  General  Sherman  were  a  few  rows  behind 
us.  So  was  Joseph  Howard,  Jr.  Walter 
Damrosch  had  the  Symphony  Society  of  New 
York  about  him  as  orchestra.  The  picture 
presented  during  the  court  scene,  when  not 
only  principals  hut  all  auxiliaries  were  grouped 
upon  the  stage  left  a  mental  vision  that  cannot 
be  effaced  by  time.  The  management  was 
solely  in  the  hands  of  A.  M.  Palmer  and  the 
net  receipts  were  $21,600. 

In  writing  of  the  occasion  in  next  day's 
Graphic,  Joseph  Howard,  Jr.  said:  •■Next  to 
John  Russell  Young  sat  a  pale,  blue-eyed, 
nervous-mannered,  young  man.  I  thought 
as  he  walked  quietly  to  his  seat  how  many 
toadies,  flatterers,  social  flapdoodles  there 
weie  on  both  sides  of  him,  as  he  passed  along 
the  aisle,  who  would  have  made  haste  to  do 
him  honor  had  they  known  who  and  what  he 
is.  Julius  Chambers,  Managing  Editor  of  the 
New  York  Herald,  is  nobody's  fool.  He  is 
thirty-seven  years  of  age,  as  genuine  in  heart 
as  he  is  square  in  look.  He  is  not  a  time 
server.  He  is  faithful  to  his  trust;  he  takes 
orders  from  his  chief  as  soldiers  take  them. 
A  man  without  malice,  without  jealousy. 
without  envy,  without  self  conceit  a  model 
managing  editor."  I  hope  to  be  pardoned 
for  using  this  brief    paragraph,  because   Mr. 


Howard's  opinion  was  not  the  universal  one. 
by  a  long  way.  A  certain  number  of  enemies 
had  to  be  made,  were  made  and  venomous 
tongues  loosed. 

My  next  vivid  recollection  of  Wallack's  is 
Steele  Mackave's  "Won  at  Last."  in  1S?<S, 
proving  that  players  can  write  plays.  Charles 
F.  Coghlan  came  to  the  surface  about  this 
time.  In  the  year  following  appeared  Ada 
Cavendish  and  Henry  Lee.  About  that  time, 
I  first  recall  Maurice  Barrymore,  already  well 
known  in  Philadelphia.  'The  first  time  I  saw 
Boucicault  and  Wallack  together  on  the  stage 
was  at  a  matinee,  March  17,  1880,  for  the 
Herald's  Irish  Famine  I-'und.  George  Con- 
quest, whom  I  had  known  in  London  and  often 
met  at  the  Junior  Garrick  club,  came  over  for 
a  Summer  season  in  "extravaganza";  he  was 
to  have  played  five  parts.  On  the  first  night, 
Conquest  fell  and  broke  a  leg  and  the  whole 
business  went  to  smash.  He  was  not  nearly 
so  clever  an  acrobat  as  Francis  Wilson  of  a 
later  period.  The  nexl  new  blood  at  Wal- 
lack's I  recall  was  Osmond  Tearle  in  1881. 
Wallack  retired  in  July  of  that  year.  That 
was   the   end    of   the    real    Wallack's   Theatre. 

After  two  years  as  a  German  playhouse  it 
was  re-christened  the  Star  and  Boucicault. 
Barton  Hill  and  Lawrence  Barrett  appeared. 
Here  Henry  [rving  made  his  American  debut, 
October  29,  1883,  in  "The  Bells."  I  had 
seen  Irving  in  London  in  everything  he  did 
up  to  that  time. 

The  theatre  on  Broadway,  near  Thirtieth 
Street,  honored  with  Wallack's  name  is  chiefly 
sacred  to  Adelaide  Risloii,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Florence,  Robson  and  Crane,  and  Mary 
Anderson—  who  appeared  as  "Galatea"  in 
a  curtain  raiser  to  "As  You  Like  It."  with 
Forbes  Robertson  as  "Pygmalion."  About 
this  time  the  Polish  marvel,  Modjeska,  flashed 
upon  this  theatrical  sky.  Then  Robert  B. 
Mantell  and  Fanny  Davenport  in  "Fedora." 
Wilson  Barrett,  an  English  actor  of  great 
promise,  but  of  unsatisfactory  performance, 
dropped  in.  Booth  was  heard  a  week  later. 
Irving  came  again  in  1SSS,  and  a  year  after, 
on  the  same  stage.  (!  )    Lydia  Thompson. 

A  playhouse  with  a  brief  but  brilliant  his- 
tory was  the  Park,  on  Broadway,  near  Twenty- 
second  Street.      William  Stuart  was  manager 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


343 


with  Charles  Fechter,  flic  marvelous,  as  stage 
manager.  It  opened  April,  IS? 4.  in  ;i  French 
adaptation;  in  September,  John  T.  Raymond 
began  his  run  of  11!)  performances  in  "The 
Gilded  Age."  I  remember  the  Florences  in 
'The  Mighty  Dollar."  A  sad  recollection 
is  the  appearance  of  Ex-Mayor  A.  Oakey  Hall 
in  his  own  play,  "The  Crucible." 

Booth's  theatre  had  been  opened  before 
my  coming  to  this  city  (February  .'!.  1869, 
I  think)  with  "Romeo"  by  Booth  and  Mary 
McVicker  as  "Juliet."  The  greatest  event  I 
witnessed  at  Booth's  was  Charlotte  <  ashman's 
farewell,  in  the  fall  of  1874,  when  she  played 
"Lady  Macbeth,"  with  George  Vandenhoff 
in  the  title  part.  She  made  a  pretty  bul  very 
sad  speech  before  the  curtain — there  was  not  a 
dry  eye  in  the  audience.  Booth  I  saw  in 
nearly  every  one  of  his  Shakespearian  roles. 
After  Booth  gave  up  the  playhouse,  it  was 
successively  managed  by  Maurice  Grau  and 
Henry  E.  Abbey,  each  equally  unsuccessful. 
There  it  was  I  first  beheld  the  radiant  Adelaide 
Nielson  in  "As  You  Like  It."  The  building 
was  sold  at  auction  in  February,  1883. 

The  Union  Square  theatre  was  a  monument 
to  Sheridan  Shook.  It  opened  September  11. 
1871,  and  to  this  hour  it  is  sacred  to  the  mem- 
ories of  Agnes  Ethel,  1).  11.  Barkens,  Mark 
Smith,  F.  F.  Mackay,  Clara  Jennings,  Maud 
Granger.  Kate  Claxton,  Charles  R.  Thorne, 
Jr.,  Stuart  Robson,  Marie  Wilkins,  Clara 
Morris,  Rose  Eytinge,  Fanny  Morant  (of 
Wallack  days).  C.  F.  Coghlan,  Agnes  Booth. 
the  lovely  Sara  Jewett — of  "Wyndecott," 
Pigeon  Cove.  Mass.,  where  I  once  visited  her — 
Linda  Dietz,  Fanny  Davenport,  Zelda  Seguin, 
Charles  Fisher  and  Louis  Aldrich.  Later. 
we  had  Eugenic'  Legrand,  then  the  wife  of 
Kyrle  Bellew  (afterwards  to  become  so  popu- 
lar here  as  a  leading  man.  bul  then  unknown), 
E.  F.  Thorne,  Charles  Wyndhaiii,  Annie 
Pixley,  Nelson  Wheatcroft,  Tyrone  Bower, 
W.  II.  Crane,  Agnes  Huntington  and  a  score 
of  other  people  who  earned  fame. 

Augusfin  Daly's  career  as  manager  began 
December  3,  1873,  when  he  opened  the  New 
Fifth  Avenue  Theatre,  at  Broadway  and 
Twenty-eighth  Street.  He  gathered  one  of 
the  strongest  companies  ever  seen  in  America. 


Apparently,  he  look  the  best  from  the  other 
managers.  He  had  been  dramatic  critic  on 
the  I  'nucs  and  every  new  spa  per  man  took  pride 
in  his  project.  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
wrote  an  opening  address  that  Fanny  Morant 
delivered  admirably.  Daly's  firs!  play.  "For- 
tune," was  a  failure;  then  followed  a  series  of 
adaptations  until  Bionson  Howard  appeared 
in  September,  L875,  with  "Saratoga."  a 
play  at  which  Howard  had  been  working  when 
I  lirst  knew  him  on  the  Tribune  and  estab- 
lished the  house  on  a  [laying  basis.  "Dia- 
monds" and  other  plays  by  Howard  followed. 
I  witnessed  the  first  presentation  of  "John 
Moorcroft,"  a  failure,  because  the  prejudices 
of  the  people  of  the  North  against  slaverx 
were  still  rife.  After  Daly  moved  to  the 
Wood  Museum  building  at  Thirtieth  Street, 
his  career  as  manager  was  a  grand  triumph. 
Many  immortal  names  belonging  to  the  New 
York  stage  are  on  the  Daly  roll.  I  would  have 
to  repeat  nearly  the  entire  Wallack  and  Union 
Square  list.  In  addition  should  lie  added 
George  Clarke,  Louis  .lames  and  .lames 
Lewis — who,  with  Mrs.  G.  II.  Gilbert,  made 
the  best  old  couple  ever  seen  on  any  stage 
Charles  Fisher,  W.  Davidge,  George  Parkes, 
Nellie  Mortimer,  Ada  Rehan,  Nina  Varian 
and  Minnie  ( onway. 

The  Lyceum  theatre,  which  was  to  estab- 
lish the  reputation  of  Daniel  Frohnian  as  a 
manager,  owed  its  inception  to  the  versatile 
Steele  Mackaye.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Belasco  theatres  that  have  succeeded  it.  the 
Lyceum  was  the  expiring  breath  of  the  stock 
company  playhouse.  In  saying  this.  I  am 
not  overlooking  the  New  Theatre  episode  of 
1910-'ll  which  lasted  for  exactly  one  season. 
The  Lyceum  was  opened  April  <>.  1885,  by 
Mackaye  with  his  own  play.  "Dakolar." 
In  September,  Daniel  Frohnian  took  the  lease 
and  produced  Mackaye's  verson  of  Gardon's 
"Andrea."  with  Minnie  Madden,  Eben  Plym- 
ton.  Richard  Mansfield  and  Selina  Dolaro  in 
the  leading  parts.  Helen  Dauvray  got  Bron- 
son Howard  to  write  a  play  for  her,  look  a 
lease  of  the  house  and  the  play,  "One  of  Our 
Girls"  had  a  200-nighl  run.  With  that  fine 
record  of  success.  Miss  Dauvray  retired  from 
management. 


:U4 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Daniel  Frohman  took  hold  for  good  when 
the  regular  season  of  1886  began.  Success 
attended  him  until  January,  1887,  when 
Bronson  Howard's  "Met  by  Chance"  was 
elaborately  produced,  but  proved  a  dismal 
failure.  Miss  Dauvray  returned  to  the  stage 
and  scored  success  after  success.  E.  II. 
Sothern.  Enid  Leslie.  Ellic  Wilton.  Alexander 
Salvini,  Ida  Vernon.  W.  A.  Eaversham.  Henry 
Miller  and  Herbert  Kelcev  were  among  the 
new  or  revived  names.  Here,  at  the  end  of 
October,  1887,  we  hear  of  David  Belasco  and 
Henry  C.  De  Mille  collaborating  in  a  play 
called  "The  Wife."  In  the  Winter  of  that 
year,  the  Lyceum  stock  company  took  per- 
manent form.  'The  Wife "  ran  239  perform- 
ances. Belasco  and  De  Mille  reappeared  as 
joint  authors  of"  Lord  Chum  lev."  It  ran  about 
two  and  one-half  months.  After  fair  success 
for  two  seasons,  the  house  was  opened  for 
the  season  of  1889-'90  with  another  Belasco 
and  De  Mille  play,  "The  Charity  Ball."  In 
the  cast  were  most  of  the  old  favorites,  hut 
the  run  of  the  play  is  famed  for  the  appearance 
at  that  theatre  of  Henrietta  Crossman.  'The 
Charity  Ball"  had  200  representations.  The 
season  of  1891-'92  opened  with  a  play  by 
Henry  Arthur  Jones.  "The  Dancing  Girl,"  with 
E.  IL  Sothern  at  the  head  of  the  list  and 
Virginia  Harned  in  a  soubrette  part.  Mar- 
guerite Merrington's  first  attempt  at  play- 
writing,  "Lettarblair,"  was  produced  in  the 
fall  of  1891,  at  a  special  authors'  matinee. 
Georgia  Cayvan,  Bessie  Tyree  and  Effie 
Shannon  came  into  the  Lyceum  fold  about 
this  time.  A  constant  succession  of  new  plays 
appeared.  Paul  Potter's  "Sheridan"  was  de- 
lightful— done  September,  1893.  Revivals  of 
former  successes  and  new  plays  were  the 
feature  of  this  house.  Isabel  Irving  was 
next  new  blood.  Sothern.  Kelcev.  Le  Movne. 
Isabel  Irving.  Elizabeth  Tyree,  Elita  Proctor 
Otis.  Mrs.  Thos.  Whiffen,  Virginia  Harned 
and  all  other  favorites  were  constantly  seen. 
A  new  leading  man  appeared  in  1  Si)!);  Charles 
I.  Richman.  Clara  Bloodgood  and  Robert 
Edeson  were  recruited  about  this  same  time. 
The  fate  of  the  building  had  been  decreed 
by  a  life  insurance  company  that  wanted  the 
entire  block  and  the  end  came  in  March,  1902. 

The  new  Lyceum  in  West  Forty-fifth  Street 


is  everything  a  theatre  ought  to  be.  Its  career 
is  so  recent  and  so  brilliant  that  no  words  are 
needed  from  me.  The  memories  of  the  old 
Lyceum  are  still  lustrous. 

Charles  Frohman,  like  his  brother  Daniel. 
began  his  career  in  a  daily  newspaper  office 
in  New  York.  It  was  an  afternoon  journal, 
the  Graphic;  therefore  he  sold  tickets  at 
Iloolev's  theatre,  Brooklyn,  at  night.  I  first 
knew  him  with  "Jack"  Ilaverlv's  "Mastodon 
Minstrels."  and  have  always  believed  him  to 
be  the  inventor  of  the  phrase  "Count  them!" 
which  became  popular  bywords.  When 
the  Haverlv  band  marched  upon  the  stage, 
each  person  in  the  audience  read  this  legend, 
painted  upon  the  bass  drum:  "Fifty  per- 
formers! Count  them!"  Everybody  did  as 
ordered  and  found  the  troup  to  exceed  sixty! 
It  was  easy  to  get  ten  or  more  men  in  plain 
clothes  to  appear  for  the  price  of  an  admission. 
Charles  Frohman  took  Ilaverlv's  Ministrels 
to  Europe,  where  they  outdrew  Moore  & 
Burgess  in  London.  Success  came  thick  and 
fast,  after  that.  In  1890  the  Charles  Frohman 
stock  company  was  organized;  but  the  so- 
called  trust  was  soon  after  formed,  giving  to 
its  manager  a  string  of  playhouses  across  the 
Continent.  In  association  with  Al.  Ilavman. 
Charles  Frohman  manages  ten  theatres  in  this 
city  and.  individually,  two  in  London. 

The  rise  of  David  Belasco  to  eminence  as 
a  manager  was  achieved  by  determined  effort, 
lie  was  schooled  in  the  College  of  Hard 
Knocks,  so  far  as  the  dramatic  profession 
is  concerned.  He  made  several  successes  in 
playw  riting,  as  we  have  seen.  I  first  met  the 
handsome  young  man  about  INN?,  at  one  of 
Mis.  Frank  Leslie's  receptions.  That  was 
before  his  hair  had  acquired  its  present  snowy 
whiteness.  It  was  during  that  long  period 
between  "Lord  Chuniley"  and  the  brilliant 
scries  of  plays  that  in  1895  signalized  his 
advent  as  a  manager — beginning  with  "The 
Heart  of  Maryland"  and  by  no  means  ending 
with  "The  Girl  of  the  Golden  West."  It  is  a 
spare  season  in  which  one  or  two  Belasco 
plays  are  not  produced,  generally  with  large 
financial  success. 

The  afterwards  famous  Madison  Square 
theatre  was  originally  opened   by   Heller,  the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


:;  15 


DAVID  BELASCl  I 

magician,  but  in  1879,  Steele  Mackaye,  with 
the  backing  of  Mr.  Mallory,  built  "the  first 
and  only  double  stage  in  the  world"  — a  record 
unbroken  to  date  -and  opened  under  the 
above  name.  The  importance  of  the  event 
is  due  to  the  rise  of  the  actor  to  management. 
Here,  later,  was  the  home  of  Charles  Hoyt's 
farce-comedies,  lint  Mackaye  was  not  idle 
while  his  new  theatre  was  getting  ready. 
'The  Iron  Will"  was  produced  at  the  South 
Broad  Street  theatre  in  Philadelphia,  Novem- 
ber 4,  IN?!),  and  1  was  present.  An  old 
miller,  with  an  adamantine  heart,  was  played 
by  C.  W.  Couldock;  his  sole  object  in  life  was 
to  prevent  his  daughter,  Hazel,  from  marrying 
the  man  of  her  choice.  Dainty  Effie  Ellsler 
was  the  much-thwarted  maiden;  human  in- 
terest was  expected  to  centre  in  the  cruel  parent. 
One  representation  was  sufficient  to  show  that 
the  girl  was  the  feature  of  the  play.  At  a 
luncheon  to  which  Mackaye  invited  me  next 
dav.  1  made  that  point  and  insisted  that  the 
name  side-tracked  the  audience.  When  the 
melodrama  was  brought  to  this  city,  its  name 
was  "Hazel  Kirke."  and  it  ran  here  for  200 
performances.  Daniel  Frohman,  who  had 
been  attached  to  the  Tribune  when  I  was  there, 
was  business  manager  for  Mackaye.     I  shall 


not  attempt  to  recall  all  the  plays  and  players 
of  that  snug  little  house.  1  remember,  years 
later,  taking  Paul  Bourgel  of  the  French 
Academy  there  to  see  "a  characteristic  Amer- 
ican drama"  "The  New  South."  Memory 
recalls  Herbert  Kelcey,  Georgia  Cayvan,  Mas- 
ter Tommy  Russell,  Maud  Harrison,  Annie 
Russell,  Richard  Mansfield  and  Eben  Plym- 
ton.  As  I  was  leaving  the  first  performance 
of  "Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde"  a  horribly 
realistic  study  by  Mansfield  I  met  a  physician 
in  the  lobby  and  asked  for  a  prescription  to 
counteract  the  effect  of  the  experience  through 
which  every  member  of  the  audience  had  gone. 
He  gave  it  to  me  and  1  printed  it  {Herald, 
June  4,  ISSN)  over  Mi-.  Minton's  criticism.  At 
this  house  appeared  Emily  Rigl,  Dorothy 
Dorr — who  afterwards  married  my  devoted 
friend.  Harry  J.  W.  Dam — and  Henry  Miller. 
Charles  Hoyt's  advent  occurred  September  18, 
IS!).'?,  in  "A  Temperance  Town."  then  "A 
Texas  Steer."  Iloyt  and  McKee  leased  the 
house  in  January.  1894.  My  relations  with 
Iloyt  were  of  the  warmest  kind.  I  went  to 
Charleston,  Yt..  to  see  him  in  his  last  illness. 
Frank  McKee  was  his  devoted  friend  to  the 
last,  although  evil  tongues  tried  to  separate 
the  two  comrades. 

Ohio  has   Keen  called   the   mother  of  presi- 
dents,   but    it   is   a    remarkable   fact    that   the 


d   "Kuel 


uekeve 


Stat« 


has  grown  many  of  the 
successful  theatrical 

and  operatic  managers 
of  this  country.  Among 
the  former  is  George 
( 'rouse  Tyler,  especial- 
ly prominent  at  this 
time  becauseof  his  real- 
istic presentation  of 
"The  Garden  of  Al- 
lah." the  ureal  dramatic 
feature  of  the  season  of 
I'M  1-'12.  Mr.  Tyler 
was  born  at  (  ircleville. 
April.  1S(!7.  and  stud- 
ied at  public  ami  pri- 
vate schools  at  Chilli- 
cothe.  Like  many 
other  men  who  have  attained  success  in  other 
lines  of  endeavor,  young  Tyler  learned  to  set 
type  and  then  trekked  to  New   York  to  become 


GEi  IRGE  C     rYLEB 


:u(i 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


a  reporter  on  a  daily  newspaper.  Thence  lit' 
secured  employment  <>n  the  \.  V.  Mirror. 
and  soon  Pound  his  place  as  a  theatrical  man- 
ager. First,  lie  undertook  advance  work  for 
.lames  (  )'\eill.  subsequently  acting  for  several 
large  dramatic  organizations  in  the  same 
capacity.  He  had  shown  so  much  acumen 
as  an  organizer  and  manager  that  in  1897  he 
readily  formed  the  firm  of  Liebler  &  Co. 
composed  of  Theodore  A.  Liebler  and  George 
C.  Tyler  to  present  Charles  Coghlan  in  his 
own  adaptation  of  "The  Royal  Box,"  which 
achieved  great  success.  Mr.  Tyler's  first 
preeminent  success  came  when  he  made  a  five 
years'  contract  with  Viola  Allen  to  exploit 
her  as  a  star  under  Liebler  &  Co.,  in  Hall 
Caine's  "The  Christian,"  which  proved  the 
greatest  money-maker  of  the  decade  about 
si. ()()(), (100  in  net  profits  accruing  from  this 
contract.  Since  that  lime  the  firm  of  Liebler 
<!v  Co.  has  been  on  "easy  street"  and  has 
scored  an  almost  unbroken  series  of  dramatic 
successes.  Among  the  now  famous  stars 
which  Mr.  Tyler  has  been  instrumental  in 
managing  or  exploiting  may  be  named  Eleanor 
Robson,  Ada  Rehan,  .lames  A.  Heme,  Otis 
Skinner,  Viola  Allen.  James  O'Neill,  Wilton 
Lackaye,  Blanche  Rates.  Elsie  Janis,  William 
Faversham,  Gertrude  Elliott,  May  Irwin, 
Mary  Manncring.  William  Hodge,  George 
Arliss,  II.  R.  Warner.  Dorothy  Donnelly, 
Arnold  Daly,  Albert  Chevalier,  Walker  White- 
side, Nat.  C.  Goodwin,  Olga  Nethersole, 
Dustin  Farnum,  Chrystal  Heme,  Mabel  Mite, 
Annie  Russell,  Margaret  Anglin.  Sarah  Cowell 
LeMoyne,  Edward  Ilarrigan,  and  others.  In 
addition.  Liebler  cS:  Co.  have  brought  to  this 
country  for  American  tour  or  long-while  con- 
tract some  of  the  foremost  dramatic  artists  of 
Europe,  including  Mrs.  Patrick  Campbell. 
Elenora  Duse,  Madam  Gabrielle  Rejane. 
Vesta  Tilley,  Edward  Terry,  Ellis  Jeffreys, 
Kyrle  Bellew,  and  more  recently  Lewis  Waller, 
who  sustains  the  leading  role  in  "The  Garden 
of  Allah,"  and  Madame  Simone.  the  great 
Parisian  artiste  who  has  been  playing  in  New 
York  and  Boston  in  repertoire  the  past  season. 

The    art    of    dramatic    composition    takes 
second   place  only  to  that   of  epic  writing  in 


the  entire  domain  of  literature.     Until  recently, 

meaning  little  m  o  r  e 
than  a  generation, 
America  has  had  to  de- 
pend upon  Europe  for 
its  plays  and  most  of  its 
novels. 

In  the  case  of  Charles 
Klein,  born  in  London. 
1867,  the  order  was  re- 
versed, the  dramatist 
himself  was  imported. 
He  was  educated  at 
North  London  College 
and  came  to  New  York 
about  the  time  of  his 
majority.  Here,  he 
soon  formed  t  h  e  ac- 
quaintance of  Charles  Frohman  and  for  many 
years  served  as  his  censor  of  plays.  From  his 
earliest  boyhood.  Mr.  Klein  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  the  stage,  although  there  is  no 
record  that  he  ever  appeared  as  an  actor.  lie 
began  to  compose  playlets  before  he  was  out 
of  his  teens  and  his  first  full-Hedged  drama, 
"A  Mile  a  Minute,"'  was  produced  on  the 
stage  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age. 
That  marked  him  as  a  prodigy.  Full  twenty 
other  plays  have  followed  in  rapid  succession. 
There  never  was  more  than  an  interval  of  two 
years  between  them:  three  of  his  productions 
have  been  on  the  New  York  boards  at  one 
time.  To  give  a  list  of  his  plays  would  be 
like  naming  the  separate  volumes  of  the 
"Comedie  Humaine,  '  and  would  give  little 
idea  of  their  many  merits  or  of  the  transcend- 
ent success  some  of  them  achieved.  Without 
pretending  to  utter  a  dictum  as  to  the  relative 
merits  of  Klein  plays.  I  should  say  that  "The 
Auctioneer."  1901,  in  which  David  Warfield 
made  his  first  hit,  really  signalized  the  deserved 
recognition  of  Charles  Klein.  Three  years 
later,  with  the  same  actor  in  the  chief  role. 
'The  Music  Master"  literally  took  New  York 
by  storm.  Then  followed  'The  Lion  and 
the  Mouse."  'The  Daughters  of  Men."  "The 
Stepchild."  'The  Third  Degree."  and  the 
"Next  of  Kin."  Mr.  Klein  is  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Lambs  and  American  Drama- 
tists' clubs.  He  is  devoted  to  a  country  life 
and  dwells  on  his  Sabine  farm  at  Rowayton, 
Conn. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


3  47 


HARRISON  GREY  FISKE 


Journalism  has  been  the  entering  gate  for 
many  successful  American  theatrical  managers 
and  playwrights.  Harrison  Grey  Fiske,  de- 
scended from  Revolu- 
tionary slock,  was  born 
at  Harrison,  Westchest- 
er County,  July,  1861. 
A  f  I  o  v  attending  Dr. 
C  h  a  |>  i  n's  ( lollegiate 
School  he  traveled  in 
Europe  and  returned 
home  to  enter  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  ('ity  of 
New  York.  His  tastes 
were  literary,  and  after 
graduation  he  became 
dramatic  critic  on  The 
Argus  of  Jersey  City. 
Later  he  held  a  similar 
| dace  on  the  New  \  ork 
Star.  Securing  stock  in  The  Dramatic  Mirror 
in  IS?!),  he  became  its  sole  owner  in  1SSS. 
Fiske  has  been  a  staunch  encourager  of  the 
American  drama  and  has  striven  for  patriotism 
in  dramatic  art.  The  distinguished  American 
actress.  Minnie  Maddern,  became  his  wife 
in  1890.  Mr.  Fiske  entered  the  Held  of  man- 
agement, starring  Mrs.  Fiske.  in  1896.  The 
Manhattan  was  leased  in  1!)()1  as  the  home 
theatre  for  Mrs.  Fiske.  and  remained  so  for 
five  years.  Dining  that  period.  Bertha  Kalich, 
the  Polish  actress,  was  made  known  to  the 
American  public.  Mr.  Fiske  is  a  producing 
manager,  personally  directing  rehearsals  and 
supervising  all  details  of  the  productions  he 
presents.  His  more  notable  successes  have 
included  "Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles,"  "Reeky 
Sharp.'*  "Mary  of  Magdala,"  "Miranda  of 
the  Balcony."  ' The  Unwelcome  Mis.  Hatch," 
"Divorcons,"  "A  Doll's  House,"  "Leah 
kleschna."  "Monna  Vanna,"  "Hedda  Gab- 
ler,"  "Rosmersholm."  'The  New  York  Idea." 
"Marta  of  the  Lowlands."  "Sappho  and 
Phaon,"  "The  Devil."  "Septimus,"  "Salva- 
tion Nell,"  "Hannele."  and  "Pillars  of  So- 
ciety." 

Mere  mention  of  Oscar  Hammerstein  must 
suffice,  although  he  has  built  so  many  theatres 
and  music  halls  that  he  deserves  extended 
eulogy.  The  Victoria,  still  open,  was  his 
fifth    attempt,    the   Republic    his    sixth,    since 


which  time  the  splendid  Manhattan  Opera 
House  has  risen,  where  Oscar  introduced 
Mary  Garden  and  operas  of  the  modern 
French  and  Italian  schools  to  New  Yorkers. 
When  the  Manhattan  was  sold,  the  sleepless 
impresario  repeated  his  experiment  in    London. 

Victor  Herbert  occupies  a  commanding  posi- 
tion in  the  musical  world,  as  musician,  con- 
ductor and  composer  of  versatility.     He  has 

written  several  charm 
ing  light  operas  which 
have  met  with  unusual 
success  and  the  \  ictor 
Herbert  ( )rchestra,  his 
own  organization,  is 
now  an  institution  in 
New  York.  Born  in 
Dublin.  1859,  Mr.  Her- 
bert is  a  grandson  of 
Samuel  Lover,  the  nov- 
elist. He  was  educated 
by  private  tutors  and 
received  a  broad  and 
careful  musical  training 
in  Germany,  specializ- 
ing on  the  violoncello. 
He  achieved  high  success  as  solo  'cellist  with 
several  famous  orchestras  in  Germany.  Com- 
ing to  America,  on  tour,  in  1886,  he  remained 
in  this  country  as  solo  'cellist  at  the  Metropoli- 
tan Opera  and  later  appeared  in  that  capacity 
with  other  leading  orchestras.  He  later  suc- 
ceeded the  famous  conductor,  Patrick  Gilmore, 
at  the  head  of  the  22nd  Regiment  Band  and 
was  for  some  time  conductor  of  the  Pittsburg 
orchestra.  His  new  grand  opera,  "Xatsina," 
which  is,  so  far.  his  most  ambitious  work,  has 
received  public  approval. 


We  who  live  in  New  York  hardly  realize 
that  there  is  no  absolutely  dull  season  here. 
In  this  respect,  our  city  differs  from  almosl 
every  other  one  in  the  world.  Washington, 
when  Congress  is  not  in  session,  is  like  a  col- 
lege town  when  the  students  are  away.  Lon- 
don, during  the  Fall  and  Winter,  is  a  deserted 
town, — everybody  is  in  the  country.  Only 
the  stages  and  cabs  give  evidence  of  throbbing 
business  activities  at  commercial  centres  of 
the  metropolis.     In  New  York,  Broadway  is 


348 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


•as    much    a    moving  panorama    in  and  out  of 

season  as  arc  the  Parisian  boulevards.  Its 
large  shops  are  crowded  with  strangers  dur- 
ing die  warmest  Augusl  weather.  Roof-gar- 
dens  arc  aglow  with  light  and  noisy  with  eon- 
viviality.  Country  merchants  are  here  to 
replenish  their  Winter  stocks. — a  type  of  man 
rarely  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  who  re- 
turns home  as  a  missionary,  self-appointed, 
to  injure  the  good  name  of  this  gay  city.  He 
is  always  to  be  recognized  by  his  apparel  and 
his  fondness  for  the  "Tenderloin."  The  life 
he  finds  there  is  in  such  marked  contrast  to 
that  of  the  western  village  from  which  he 
hails  that  its  enjoyment  overcomes  his  judg- 
ment. At  home,  his  maddest  revel  consists 
of  an  "ice-cream  party"  or  a  meeting  of  a 
mite  society!  Here,  by  comparison,  lie  finds 
a  continuous  carnival  at  the  giddy  restaurants; 
a  dinner  at  one  of  the  French  table  d'hotes 
along  the  Great  White  Way  will  furnish  a 
memory  picture  to  illumine  his  after  years  of 
dull  and  monotonous  life. 

New  York's  history  is  invested  with  much 
truthful  and  much  apocryphal  glamour. 
Washington  Irving,  an  unconscious  humorist, 
is  chiefly  to  blame  for  the  latter  incidents. 
'The  Conquest  of  Grenada"  and  "Diedrich 
Knickerbocker's  History  of  Xew  York"  were 
practical  jokes  of  their  author.  Veritable 
figures  exist  in  Wouter  Von  Twiller,  the  pio- 
neer Dutch  Governor,  and  Petrus  Stuyvesant, 
"exile  of  ye  Bouwerie."  Jacob  Leisler  was 
first  American  martyr  to  popular  liberty.  Cap- 
tain Kidd,  born  an  Englishman,  hanged  in 
London,  came  to  New  York  as  protege  of  the 
Karl  of  Bellamonte.  He  lived  on  the  north 
side  of  W  all  Street,  opposite  the  National  (  'ity 
Bank.  I  never  pass  through  " Golden  Hill" 
that  section  between  William  and  Gold  Streets 

without  hearing,  in  imagination,  the  shouts 
of  the  "Liberty  Boys"  during  their  ebolution 
of  spontaneous  patriotism  that  brought  about 
the  first  conflict  with  British  troopers:  that 
skirmish  marks  the  earliest  bloodshed  of  the 
Revolution  and  antedates  the  Boston  mas- 
sacre. One  may  easily  see.  as  he  crosses  the 
old  ( 'ommon.  now  ( 'ity  Hall  Park,  the  shadowy 
figure  of  Washington,  sitting  erect   upon   his         tl 


-hrthe  watches  of  the  night,  going  home  after 
the  newspaper  with  which  I  was  associated 
had  gone  to  press.  I  have  fancied  I  heard  the 
clatter  of  Putnam's  steed  and  the  tramp  of  his 
troops  on  Broadway,  in  their  precipitate  re- 
treat from  Bowling  Green  to  Spuyten  Duyvil. 
A  many-volume  novel  is  hidden  in  the  loves, 
hatreds  and  revenges  of  Madame  Jumel. 
The  statue  of  Nathan  Hale,  in  City  Hall 
Park,  is  a  constant  reminder  that  the  only 
editor  ever  hanged  in  this  city  was  one  who 
said.  "I  regret  I  have  only  one  life  to  lose 
for  my  country!"  I  have  witnessed  the  exe- 
cutions of  preachers,  physicians,  lawyers  and 
men  about  town,  all  critics  of  the  daily  news- 
paper, but  never  of  an  editor. 


When  the  grandson  of  a  very  rich  man  de- 
votes his  life  to  art  instead  of  luxurious  ease, 
one  must  feel  high  respect  for  his  efforts  to 
achieve  success  in  his  adopted  profession.  I 
write   of    Ben    Ali    llaggin    with   sincere    en- 


BEN  ALI   HAGGIN 


white   horse,    listening  to   the   first    reading   m 
this  city  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


lusiasm.  because  I  have  visited  his  studio 
and  have  seen  many  of  his  portraits.  His 
large    portrait    of    Alary    Garden     is    known 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    VORK 


349 


throughout  this  country  and  Europe  as  [In- 
most interesting  likeness  of  the  prima  donna. 
Twelve  of  Mr.  Haggin's  portraits  were  recently 
shown  at  the  Glaenzer  Galleries.  The  can- 
vasses included  Miss  Marjorie  Curtis,  Mrs. 
Edward  W.  Delafield,  Mrs.  Leo  Everett,  Miss 
Kitty  Gordon,  Mrs.  Wilfred  Buckland,  Mr. 
Otis  Skinner  as  "Hajj  the  Beggar"  in  "Kis- 
met." Mile.  Rita  Sacchetto,  Mr.  J.  Harry 
Benrimo,  two  of  Margaret  Lee.  one  in  a 
Chinese  coat,  and  a  portrait  in  black.  The 
exhibition  attracted  much  attention,  due  to 
excellence  of  execution.  Mr.  Ben  Ali  Hag- 
gin  was  horn  in  this  city.  April.  1882.  He 
was  prepared  to  enter  Harvard  University; 
Lut  lie  forsook  a  college  course  for  art  and 
began  painting.  After  study  abroad,  he 
opened  a  studio  in  New  York  at  the  age 
of  1!)  and  married  Miss  Faith  Robinson 
two  years  later.  At  "24  Mr.  Haggin  exhibited 
at  the  Society  of  American  Artists  and  since 
then  his  pictures  have  been  accepted  and 
hunt;-  at  nearly  all  important  galleries,  in- 
cluding the  National  Academy  of  Design. 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  Corcoran 
Gallery  at  Washington.  Cincinnati  Museum, 
the  Royal  Academy  at  Berlin  and  Der  Kunst- 
verein  at  Munich. 

The  history  of  the  Haggin  family  is  very 
romantic.  Mr.  Haggin's  great-great-grand- 
father  came  from  Turkey  to  this  country  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  lie  was  an  officer  of 
the  Janizaries  at  Constantinople  and  his  name 
was  Ibrahim  Ben  Ali.  The  artist's  grand- 
father. James  B.  Haggin,  the  wealthy  mine 
owner,  is  the  largest  breeder  of  thoroughbred 
horses  in  this  country.  At  the  age  of  84,  he 
is  hale  and  active.  I  lis  Kentucky  stud  farm 
at  Elmendorf  is  the  show  place  of  the  state; 
his  California  stock  farm.  Bancho  del  Paso, 
contains  47,000  acres.  At  the  two  places, 
Mr.  Haggin  has  had  at  one  time  as  many  as 
1.0(1(1  brood  mares  and  stallions;  in  the  days 
of  turf  popularity,  he  bred  as  many  as  400 
yearlings  annually.  His  racing  stable  has 
contained  many  illustrious  names.  Mr.  Ben 
Ali  Haggin's  grandmother  was  a  famous 
Southern  beauty.  Miss  Sanders,  of  Natchez. 
Miss.  She  died  in  1894.  The  artist  has  his 
atalier  in  the  studio  building  on  West  Sixty- 
seventh  Street.      His  club  is  the  Players. 


Gen    EDW  AHH  I.    MOLINEAUX 


It  is  a  pleasure  to  talk  about  a  real  hero  of 
the  Civil  War,  who,  when  strife  ended,  prompt- 
ly  returned   to  paths  of  peace  and  to  a   forgcl- 

fulness  of  past  differ- 
ences between  a  re- 
united people  In  the 
business  life  of  this 
city.  General  Edward 
Leslie  Molineaux  has 
been  a  commanding  fig- 
ure for  forty-live  years. 
He  was  born  in  L833, 
and  although  actively 
engaged  in  trade  be- 
came identified  with  the 
National  Guard  of  the 
State  of  New  York 
in  1N.54.  Joining  the 
Brooklyn  City  Guard, 
he  rapidly  rose  in  non- 
commissioned rank  un- 
til he  was  despatched  to  South  America  on  an 
important  commercial  enterprise.  At  the  first 
shock  of  Civil  War,  he  enrolled  himself  as  a 
member  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  assisting 
meanwhile  in  filling  the  ranks  of  the 
Twenty-third  (Brooklyn)  regiment.  He 
was  subsequently  chosen  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  the  latter  regiment,  In  August,  1862,  as 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  he  raised  the  1.59th  Regi- 
ment. N.  Y.  Y.,  which  was  mustered  into  the 
United  States  service  with  Mr.  Molineaux  as 
its  Colonel.  Ilis  command  was  assigned  to 
the  Banks  Expedition  on  the  Lower  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  Colonel  was  severely  wounded 
in  April,  1863,  while  leading  a  charge  at  the 
battle  of  Irish  Bend.  Wounds  did  not  keep 
him  from  active  service  long,  however:  as  soon 
as  he  could  leave  the  hospital,  he  reappeared  in 
the  Red  River  campaign.  He  was  then  appoint- 
ed assistant  Inspector-General  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Mississippi,  afterwards  acting  as 
Provost  Marshal  at  an  exchange  of  prisoners. 
This  led  to  his  appointment  as  military  com- 
mander of  Lafourche  district.  La.  At  the 
close  of  the  Red  River  campaign,  he  was 
ordered  North  and  joined  Gen.  Grant  in  the 
final  operations  against  Petersburg  and  Rich- 
mond. With  a  division  of  the  l!)th  Army 
Corps,  he  reinforced  Gen.  Sheridan  in  the 
Shenandoah    \  alley    and    took    part    in    every 


350 


THE    BOOK   of  XFW    YORK 


engagement  of  that  campaign.  Conspicuous 
gallantry  ;it  Fisher's  Hill,  Winchester  and 
Cedar  Creek  won  him  a  Brigadier-General's 
epaulets  by  brevet.  Then  his  brigade  was 
sent  to  Savannah  by  sea  to  reinforce  Gen. 
Sherman.  "For  gallant  and  meritorious  serv- 
ice during  the  war,"  he  was  breveted  Major 
General.  Subsequently,  he  was  made  Major- 
General,  second  division.  X.  G  S.  X.  V.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Loyal  Legion  and  of  many 
public  and  charitable  associations.  On  Octo- 
ber 14.  1908,  General  Molineaux  was  tendered 
a  reception  by  Ins  surviving  comrades  of  the 
159th  Regiment,  on  his  seventy-sixth  birth- 
day, which  was  one  of  the  most  memorable 
social  events  that  ever  occurred  in   Brooklyn. 

A  leading  figure  in  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est industries  is  Richard  A.  McCurdy,  who 
recently   retired    from    the   presidency  of  The 

Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company.  Mr.  Mc- 
Curdy was  born  in  this 
city  in  1835  and  is  a  son 
of  Robert  H.McCurdy, 
who  was  for  many  yea  is 
a  director  of  the  Mu- 
tual. 

He  graduated  LL.B. 
from  the  Law  School 
of  Harvard  University 
in  1866  and  practiced 
law  with  Lucius  Rob- 
inson, afterwards  ( Jov- 
ernor  of  New  York. 
richard  a.  mccurdy  He   was   appointed   at- 

torney for  The  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company  in  lS(i()  and  became 
its  vice-president  in  1865.  Upon  the  death 
of  President  Winston  in  1885,  Mr.  McCurdy 
succeeded  him  in  the  office  and  continued  in 
that  capacity  until  1  !)<)(>.  when  he  resigned. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Metropolitan,  Law- 
yers," Morristown  and  Morris  Comity  Golf 
clubs  and  resides  at  Morristown,  X.  J. 


Scores  of  remarkable  reminiscences  could 
be  recounted  about  *'  Inspector"  Byrnes'  meth- 
ods in  dealing  with  criminals.  One  incident 
I  particularly  recall.  About  1S!)(),  a  notorious 
thiiii',  named  Jerrv  Dunn,  came  Last  from  the 

* 

Pacific  Coast  tor  the  avowed  purpose  of  killing 


Byrnes.  lb"  got  himself  interviewed  at  Den- 
ver, Omaha  and  Chicago,  uttering,  in  each 
place,  terrible  threats  against  the  Chief  of 
New  York's  police  force. 

A  few  days  later,  I  was  walking  up  Broad- 
way one  afternoon  and  overtook  the  "In- 
spector." He  was  sauntering  along,  studying 
the  faces  of  every  man  he  passed.  In  ex- 
ceptionally good  humor,  we  had  traveled  sev- 
eral blocks,  when  I  happened  to  glance  across 
to  the  west  side  of  the  street  and  saw  big, 
burly,  black-whiskered  Jerry  Dunn!  His  face 
and  figure  were  familiar  to  me.  as  he  had  been 
a  frequenter  of  the  race  tracks,  where  I  had 
gone  as  a  writer  of  introductions,  until  Byrnes 
had  driven  him  out  of  town  for  killing  a 
companion  in  a  brawl.  The  "Inspector" 
never  moved  a.  muscle,  but  said: 

"Oh,  yes;  he  has  been  following  me  all  the 
way  from  City  Hall:  I  am  walking  slowly,  not 
to  fatigue  him.  He  will  not  cross  the  street. 
He  never  will  shoot  me  or  anybody  else,  unless 
he  can  do  it  in  a  dark  alley,  with  nobody  in 
sight." 

"Surely,  you  are  armed.-"  I  asked,  anx- 
iously. 

"Never  have  I  carried  a  revolver  since  I 
ceased  to  be  a  patrolman;  a  gun  is  of  little 
use  in  a  crowd.  The  silent,  vindictive  chap 
who  is  determined  to  'get  you'  will  do  it  if  you 
are  a  walking  arsenal." 

We  parted  at  the  corner  of  Houston  Street. 
Naturally,  I  lingered  a  moment  to  see  if  Dunn 
crossed  the  thoroughfare,  when  the  "In- 
spector" turned  eastward  toward  police  head- 
quarters. The  thug  stopped  barely  a  second, 
then  he  resumed  his  way  uptown.  Byrnes' 
estimate  of  the  man's  character  was  correct. 

The  sporadic  appearance  in  this  city  from 
time  to  time  of  a  murderer  whose  crime  is 
characterized  by  the  horrible  atrocity  that  dis- 
tinguished a  series  of  butcheries  in  White- 
chapel  from  most  others  that  had  preceded 
them  (outside  the  French  capital),  is  calculated 
to  spin-  medical  specialists  in  degeneration  to 
further  study  of  a  subject  that  has  been  thor- 
oughly set  before  the  world  by  Nordeau  and 
Craft-Ebbing.  When  in  London  in  October 
of  1889,  I  took  a  letter  from  Chief  Thomas 
Byrnes  to  the  Scotland  Yard  authorities  and 
with  a  special  officer  visited  the  scene  of  every 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


351 


one  of  the  so-called  "Whitechapel  murders." 
There  is  much  tiger  blood  in  human  veins! 
Sight  or  smell  of  human  blood  inspires  in  a 
degenerate  mind  a  ferocity  that  Brooks  all 
control.  The  horrors  of  Whitechapel  were 
no  greater  than  those  witnessed  in  the  Borden 
house  at  Fall  River,  where  an  old  man  and 
his  wife  were  chopped  to  sausage  meal  by 
the  hands  of  some  temporarily  crazed  creature. 
When  1  visited  the  scenes  of  the  murders  in 
the  London  capital,  weeks  had  passed  and 
new  tenants,  quite  as  miserable  and  depraved 
as  those  that  had  contributed  victims  for  the 
slaughters,  were  domiciled  in  the  rooms  thai 
had  served  as  shambles  for  previous  butch- 
eries. Every  trace  of  the  crimes  had  disap- 
peared. Bodies  of  the  slain  had  passed 
through  the  dissecting  rooms  to  the  Potter's 
Field.  But.  at  Fall  River.  1  was  shown 
through  the  Borden  charnel-house  before  the 
blood  was  dry  upon  its  walls!  The  mutila- 
tion of  the  bodies  was  entirely  different,  but 
evidences  of  superhuman,  overmastering  sav- 
agery were  apparent. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  that  Jay  Gould,  for 
Byrnes'  service  to  him,  showed  Byrnes  how 
to  get  rich.-  Jay  Gould  did  for  Thomas 
Byrnes,  who  had  saved  him  from  supreme 
humiliation,  if  not  from  death,  exactly  what 
II.  Victor  Newcomb  of  Louisville  did  for 
Henry  Grady.  He  "put  him  in"  several  fine 
deals,  until  Byrnes  had  capital  enough  to  go 
alone.  Henry  Grady  once  described  to  me 
the  sensations  he  went  through  when  II.  Victor 
Newcomb  enabled  him  to  make  $35,000  in  one 
day.  without  risking  a  cent.  With  thai  money 
he  bought  an  interest  in  the  Atlanta  (  'on- 
stitution  and  became  a  national  character. 
I  knew  Grady  in  Philadelphia  when  he  was 
very  poor  and  he  sat  with  me  for  half  an  hour 
when  passing  through  New  ^  ork  on  his  last 
trip  to  Boston.  He  was  very  ill  and  I  tried  to 
dissuade  him  from  going. 


The  problem  of  supplying  water  to  a  great 
city  is  one  of  such  vital  importance  that  the 
men  responsible  for  that  supply  must  possess 
more  than  ordinary  ability  as  engineers  and 
students  of  terrestrial  economics.  William 
C.  Cozier,  now  responsible  for  the    Brooklyn 


water  supply,  began  his  professional  career 
as  a  reporter  on  the  Troy  Standard.  He  was 
born  al  Waterville,  Oneida  County,  N.  Y., 
and  was  educated  at  the  public  schools  at 
Troy.  From  boyhood  he  had  an  inclination 
for  newspaper  work  and  subordinated  every- 
thing al  school  to  (it  himself  therefor.  He 
rose  rapidly,  becoming  city  editor  and  finally 
managing  editor  of  the  Standard.  In  L888, 
al  the  age  of  thirty,  he  boughl  the  only  morn- 
ing paper  in  Troy,  but  after  three  years'  ex- 
perience he  look  advantage  of  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  sell  and  answered  the  lure  of 
the  city  by  accepting  an  editorial  position 
on  the  Mini  and  Express,  where  he  did 
political  and  City  Hall  work  until  1902.  This 
brought  him  info  acquaintance  with  many 
public  men.  He  was  offered  a  position  in 
the  business  department  of  the  Sun,  where  he 
remained  until  January,  1!)()(».  when  Mayor 
McClellan  appointed  him  Water  Commis- 
sioner of  Brooklyn.  Mayor  Gaynor  approv- 
ing all  his  official  acts  retained  him.  This  is 
the  only  political  office  Mi'.  Cozier  has  ever 
held. 

Political  party  leadership  always  seemed  to 
me  to  be  one  of  the  most  thankless  tasks  in 
the  entire  category  of  human  efforts.     Surely 

most  of  the  big  men  in 
both  parties  find  this 
true.  It  requires  a 
certain  temperament 
for  success  as  a  leader: 
level  headedness,  tact, 
and  above  all  a  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature. 
John  II.  McCoocv. 
who  succeeded  the  late 
Senator  Mc(  arren  as 
the  Democratic  leader 
of  Kings  (  omit  v.  seems 
lo  have  ihe  character- 
istics which  are  needed 

N  "   McC s  in    Ihe   man    who   slays 

al  the  head  of  things. 
Mr.  MeCooey  was  born  in  the  old  Eleventh 
Ward  of  New  York  City,  less  than  fifty  years 
ago,  and  was  educated  in  the  public  schools. 
On  attaining  his  majority,  he  became  interested 
in  politics,  and  his  activity  was  rewarded  by  a 
position    in    the    Brooklyn    Navy    Yard.     The 


^H 

m-  1 

0.  -»  1 

"4W 

BA.^h 

J5.V2 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


M  IRCUS   HI:  VI   \  i 


WILLIAM  C.  COZIER 


III     ALV.UI   H.    Dll'I'V 


succeeding  years  found  him  occupying  several 
minor  positions,  until  he  was  eventually  made 
Deputy  Comptroller  of  the  city,  which  position 
of  trust  he  tilled  with  satisfaction. 

Mr.  McCooey  was  recently  appointed  chief 
clerk  in  the  surrogate's  office  of  Kings  County. 

He  is  a  member  of  many  political  and  social 
organizations  in  Brooklyn  and  Manhattan 
Boroughs. 

A  distinguished  member  of  the  Hungarian 
population  of  this  city  is  Marcus  Braun,  who 
now7  holds  the  important  office  of  Warden  of 
the  Port  of  New  York.  He  was  horn  at  Mely- 
kut,  Hungary,  in  1865  and  secured  the  rudi- 
ments  of  an  education  at  the  public  schools  of 
Budapest.  When  little  more  than  a  hoy.  he 
began  to  learn  the  trade  of  tinsmith  and  at 
fifteen  tramped  over  most  of  Europe  as  a 
journeyman.  lie  worked  in  Berlin,  Paris 
and  Antwerp  until  1SS.>,  when  he  became 
a,  newspaper  correspondent.  He  had  been 
a  constant  student  and  observer,  determined 
upon  an  education,  and  was  only  prevented 
from  taking  a  college  course  by  utter  lack 
of  means.  He  came  to  America  in  1892 
and  secured  a  job  as  a  porter;  but  when  he 
had  acquired  sufficient  knowledge  of  English, 
he  resumed  newspaper  work,  giving  all  spare 
time  to  the  elevation  of  his  needy  compa- 
triots. By  mixing  with  them  and  by  public 
addresses  he  constantly  strove  to  inspire  in 
their  breasts  respecl  for  American  citizenship. 


He  became  a  citizen  himself  under  the 
earliest  provisions  of  the  law.  Prior  to  his 
emigration,  Mr.  Braun  served  for  two  years 
in  the  First  Hungarian  Infantry  regiment, 
and  received  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Jubilee 
medals.  He  is  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Republican  Club,  is  founder  of  the  Hungarian- 
American  Club, — its  President  for  fifteen 
years,  a  Mason,  a  fellow  of  the  I.  O.  O.  F., 
and  a  member  of  many  charitable  organiza- 
tions. From  1903  to  1910,  Mr.  Braun  was 
United  States  Special   Immigrant    Inspector. 

For  many  years.  Dr.  Alvah  Hunt  Doty  has 
been  keeper  of  the  gateway  to  this  port  from 
the  .sea — the  guardian  of  the  nation,  as  well 
as  city,  from  epidemics  of  all  kinds  that  threat- 
ened the  public  health.  Under  his  direction, 
all  incoming  steamers  and  sailing  craft  were 
hoarded,  their  passengers  and  crew  submitted 
to  keen  scrutiny  and  persons  afflicted  with 
contagious  diseases  removed  to  the  hospitals 
in  the  Power  Bay.  So  efficient  has  been  his 
watchfulness  that  not  a  case  of  cholera  or 
yellow  fever  has  got  past  the  Quarantine.  Dr. 
Doty  received  his  medical  education  in  this  city 
and  was  graduated  from  the  Bellevue  Hospital 
Medical  College  in  1S78,  and  for  several  years 
was  a  lecturer  at  his  Alma  Mater  on  "Quar- 
antine Sanitation."  About  1894,  he  succeeded 
Dr.  Jenkins  as  Health  Officer  of  the  Port  of 
New  York  and  was  retained  in  that  important 
post    until    February,    1912,    when    Gov.    Dix 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


353 


J.  WALTER   EARLE 


appointed  a  successor.  He  is  a  Fellow  of  the 
New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  and  a  mem- 
ber of   the    New    York   Slate    Medical   Society. 

When  the  typewriter,  now  in  universal  use. 
was  a  comparatively  new  invention,  one  of  the 
lirsl   men  to  appreciate  its  future  possibilities 

was  John  Waller  Ha  lie. 
He  was  horn  at  Ulys- 
ses, Tompkins  Co., 
one  of  the  many  towns 
in  Central  New  York 
laid  out  by  Ma  jor  Mc- 
Clintock  and  named 
from  Lemprier's  "Clas- 
sical Dictionary"  in 
August,  1S.54.  After 
preparing  at  the  Ithaca 
Academy,  he  spent  a 
year  at  Cornell  Univer- 
sity. Next  we  hear  of 
him  engaged  in  the  sale 
of  Remington  typewrit- 
ers; he  became  the  Lon- 
don agent  of  that  company  in  1889  and  con- 
tinued as  director-general  for  Europe  until 
1902.  During  that  time  he  was  chairman  of 
the  American  Society  in  London,  lie  then 
returned  to  this  country  and  organized  the 
Union  Typewriter  Company,  becoming  its 
president.  The  development  of  the  'Mon- 
arch" machine  is  largely  due  to  his  experience. 
While  abroad  he  was  created  an  Officer  of  the 
Imperial  Order  of  the  Magidieh  (Turkish. 
brevet  and  decoration  by  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt). 


Maiden  Lane,  which  recently  hail  a  tablet 
in  its  honor  placed  upon  the  Silversmiths' 
building,  has  a  curious  history.  It  has  played 
many  parts  in  the  city's  career;  it  has  a  his- 
torical society  of  its  own!  The  street  was 
originally  known  as  't  Maadge  Paatje,  or 
Maidens'  Walk.  Silversmiths  began  to  gather 
there  about  1840.  Where  the  street  slopes 
dow  n  to  the  river,  at  its  junction  with  Liberty 
Street,  was  the  famous  fly  Market,  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  Dutch  word  "Ylv."  meaning  a 
valley  or  low  land.  The  Fly  Market  was  an 
institution  of  the  locality  surviving  long  after 
the  Revolution,  and  some  of  the  Fly  Market 


butchers  were  among  the  most  substantial 
citizens.  Two  of  them  have  given  their  names 
to  city  streets,  James  Mott,  and  his  apprentice, 
James  Pell. 


A   notable  example 


FRANCIS  I!     AI'PI.K'l'oX 


lii  recent  years  many  men  intending  to  lead 
commercial  lives  have  qualified  themselves  by 
taking  courses  in  law. 
is  Francis  U.  Appleton, 
w  h  o  w  a  s  graduated 
from  Harvard  in  1875 
and  then  spent  two 
years  at  the  Columbia 
Law  School.  Those 
were  the  days  of  Pro- 
fessor Theodore  W. 
Dwight,  whose  lectures 
w  e  r  e  marvels  of  in- 
struction. M  r.  Apple- 
ton,  after  some  years 
spent  in  the  law  office 
of  Carter  and  Ledyard, 
and  with  Abiam  S. 
Hewitt,  took  an  ac- 
tive     interest      in     the 

affairs  of  the  Waltham  Watch  Company,  with 
which  his  family  had  Keen  associated  from  its 
organization.  He  is  to-day  vice-president  of 
the  American  branch  of  thai  greal  corporation. 
He  is  also  a  director  in  the  National  Park 
Bank,  Manhattan  Trust  Company  and  Mount 
Morris  Hank.  Cape  Cod  Construction  Co.. 
General  Memorial  Hospital  and  Lying-in 
Hospital.  While  in  college  he  was  identi- 
fied with  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  fraternity. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Harvard,  University, 
Knickerbocker,  Turf  and  Field,  Meadow 
Brook,  Somerset  and  Myopia  Hunt  clubs; 
Down  Town  Association  and  Society  of  Colo- 
nial Wars.  He  is  a  prominent  associate  of  the 
New  England  Society  and  devoted  to  books. 
music  and  art.  as  well  as  outdoor  spoils. 

Actively  engaged  in  the  petroleum  industry 
for  nearly  half  a  century.  Theodore  E.  Tack 
is  recognized  as  an  authority  on  everything 
pertaining  to  oil. 

He  was  born  in  Philadelphia.  Pa..  January 
(>,  1837,  and  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
there,  commencing  his  business  career  with 
a  dry  goods  house.  In  L862  he  entered  the 
volunteer  service  of   the  slate   to    repel   the  in- 


354 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


HEODORE  E.  'I  \'   I. 

vasion  of  the  Confederate  Army  under  Gen- 
eral  Lee.  He  afterwards,  in  association  with 
liis  brothers,  established  in  Pittsburg  the  first 
oil  brokerage  house  between  that  city  and 
Philadelphia,  later  engaging  in  the  production 
of  oil  in  Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia. 
Since  the  pioneer  days  he  has  been  allied 
with  many  producing  companies.  He  is  now 
president  of  the  American  ( )il  Development 
Company,  of  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Passing  through  South  Street  from  the 
Whitehall  Ferry  on  the  eve  of  Thanksgiving, 
IS!)!).  I  was  attracted  by  a  most  unusual  en- 
tertainment in  a  new 
building  al  Nos.  "2  and 
.'5  which  was  obviously 
receiving  i  t  s  house- 
warming.  The  event 
was  a  preliminary  cele- 
bration of  tin-  opening 
of  the  Marine  Hard- 
ware I)  u  s  i  n  e  s  s  of 
(  harles  1  hirkee  <S:  ( D. 
in  new  quarters.  There 
was  music,  dancing  and 
a  collation,  in  which 
live  hundred  g  u  e  s  t  s 
pa  rticip  a  ted.  The 
charles  d.  durkee  actual  opening  did  not 


occur  until  January  1.  1!)()().  Mr.  Durkee 
was  horn  in  Brooklyn  in  1862.  He  learned  the 
ship  chandlery  business  with  A.  X.  Rankin  & 
Co..  then  in  Broad  Street,  and  rapidly  rose 
from  various  clerkships  to  partnership. 
Charles  Durkee  &  Co.  is  known  throughout 
thi'  marine  world  for  the  promptitude  with 
which  it  fills  orders  for  the  equipment  of  ships 
of  all  kinds.  Mr.  Durkee's  particular  diver- 
sion is  yachting  and  he  is  a  member  of  several 
well-known  yachting  clubs.  He  is  an  en- 
thusiastic Mason  and  a  Past  Master  of  Cove- 
nant Lodge758,  Brooklyn;  he  is  also  a  Knights 
Templar,  a  Shriner  and  Elk  and  member  of 
Royal   Arcanum. 

In  the  Held  of  music  Ralph  Scheuer  has  won 
recognition  as  well  as  in  the  manufacture  of 
leather  specialties.  His  father  when  nineteen 
years  of  age  came  to 
America  penniless  from 
the  town  of  Hesse  in 
Darmstadt  and  built  up 
the  business  of  S.  Scheu- 
er &  Son.  Inc..  of  which 
the  son  is  now  the  head. 
Ralph  Scheuer  was  born 
in  New  York  city  in 
1861,  attended  the  pub- 
lic schools  and  the  ( 'it  v 
College,  from  which  he 
was  graduated,  receiv- 
ing a  medal  for  his 
studies  in  architecture. 
While  at  college,  Mr. 
Scheuer  founded  the 
first  college  orchestra  in 

members  were  Frank  and  Walter  Damroseh, 
Samuel  Untermyer,  Bartow  S.  Weeks  and 
J.  C.  Morgenthau.  Mr.  Scheuer  is  the  in- 
ventor and  patentee  of  twelve  devices  of  great 
labor-saving  value  in  the  manufacture  of  belts, 
purses  and  the  like.  These  machines  are 
widely  used  and  have  enabled  Mr.  Scheuer  to 
manufacture  articles  which  are  quite  unique 
in  design  and  practical  utility.  Mr.  Scheuer 
is  president  of  the  New  Idea  Metal  Goods 
Company.  He  is  an  alumnus  of  the  New  York 
( 'ity  ( ollege.  a  32d  degree  Mason  and  active  in 
all  charitable  and  civic  movements. 

Victor  L.   Mason  was  born  in  Washington, 
D.  C  December.  1870:  was  graduated  at  the 


RALPH  SCHEUER 


America. 


Among  the 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


355 


George  Washingtonv*University,  where  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Theta  Delta  Chi  fraternity. 
He  did  some  writing  for  magazines  along  his- 

toncal  and  scientific 
lines.  "New  Weapons 
of  the  Army"  and 
'"Fonr  Lincoln  Con- 
spiracies" were  pub- 
lished in  the  Century. 
He  then  became  private 
secretary  to  General 
Russell  A.  Alger,  Chief 
of  the  War  Depart- 
ment under  President 
M  c  K  i  n  I  e  y  .  When 
Elihu  Root  came  to 
Washington  Mr.  Mason 
acted  as  secretary  for 
VICT0E  LMAE  him    until     he    decided 

to  go  to  Detroit  and 
enter  the  lumber  business  with  General  Alger. 
The  latter  was  interested  in  the  Development 
Company  of  America,  which  owned  mines 
in  Arizona.  Mr.  Mason  was  made  vice- 
president.  In  1910  he  resigned  and  went  into 
the  railroad  construction  business.  lie  is 
Chairman  of  the  New  Jersey  Interstate  Bridge 
Commission,  for  live  years  has  been  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Passaic.  New  Jersey, 
and  served  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Re- 
publican National  Committee  in  the  campaign 
of  PHIS,  which  position  he  still  holds. 

New  York  owes  much  of  its  greatness  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  gateway  through  which  the 
vast   resources  of  this  country  find  their  way 

to  foreign  markets. 
The  export  trade  has 
increased  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  city 
and.  like  01  h  e  r 
branches  of  commerce, 
"has  floated  with  the 
swelling  tide  of  national 
growth."  Kaufman 

Mandell,  born  at  Dau- 
endorf,  Alsace,  was  ed- 
ucated at  the  French 
University  at  Pfaffen- 
hofen,  at  a  time  when 
the  p  r  o  v  i  n  c  e  was 
kaufma.n  mandell  French   territory.        He 


was  graduated 


in  IS.54.  lie  came  to  Amer- 
ica as  a  young  man  and  joined  the 
Federal  Army,  served  through  the  Civil 
War  and  began  an  active  business  career 
in  L865.  when  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  army 
at  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  Coming  to  New 
\ork,  he  formed  the  exporting  firm  of  K. 
Mandell  &  Co.,  the  business  of  which  has 
steadily  increased. 

Much  external  adornment  has  been  added 
to  the  buildings  of  New  York  by  liberal  use 
of  terra-cotta,  and  Walter  Geer,  who  began 
his  career  as  a  lawyer, 
is  largely  responsible 
for  the  development  of 
that    industry.  Mr. 

( Jeer  was  horn  at  Wil- 
liamstown,  Mass..  Au- 
gust. 1857,  and  took  a 
degree  at  Williams  ( 'ol- 
lege,  1878.  He  then 
went  to  the  National 
University  Law  School. 
Washington,  D.  C. 
While  practicing  law. 
he  became  an  assistant 
manager  of  the  Walter 
A.  Wood  Mowing  and 
Reaping  Machine  ( O.. 

of  (  hicago.  Since  1886  he  has  been  president 
of  the  New  York  Architectural  Terra-cotta 
Company  of  this  city.  The  important  build- 
ings in  which  his  terra-cotta  has  been  utilized 
are  the  Waldorf-Astoria.  Knickerbocker,  An- 
sonia.  Belmont,  Ritz-Carlton  and  Gotham 
hotels.  Police  Headquarters,  the  Brunswick. 
United  States  Express.  City  Investing  and 
World  buildings.  He  is  associated  with  many 
other  companies. 

Calling  on  William  McAdoo  soon  after  he 
retired  from  the  Navy  Department,  in  his 
office  at  Broad  and  \Aall  Streets,  the  former 
Congressman  said:  "I  want  yon  to  know  my 
partner;  we're  not  related,  but  our  names  are 
nearly  similar."  He  led  me  to  an  adjacent 
apartment  and  I  met  William  Gibbs  McAdoo. 
When  he  rose  to  his  full  height,  there  was  con- 
siderable of  him  —at  least  <>  feet  ;>  inches. 
First  impressions  were  exceedingly  favorable. 
He  had  been  in  this  city  live  years,  but  this 
was  our   first   meeting.      He  has  achieved   im- 


WALTER  GEER 


356 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


perishable  fame  since  then,  as  the  directing 
mind  thai  has  driven  tour  tunnels  under  the 
Hudson  River  and  developed  a  subway  sys- 
tem extending  from  Christopher  Street,  north- 
ward on  Sixtli  Avenue  to  the  Grand  Central 
Terminal.  Mr.  McAdoo  was  less  than  .'50 
years  of  age  when  he  responded  to  the  call  of 
the  metropolis,  lie  came  from  Tennessee,  a 
stranger,  without  financial  resources  or  ac- 
quaintances; his  capital  was  courage  and 
brains.  lie  wanted  to  do  something  bigger 
than  practice  law.  lie  saw  the  need  of  better 
facilities  lor  reaching  New  Jersey  and  in  a 
few  years  gathered  around  him  capitalists 
who  'supplied  $60,000,000,  with  which  the 
tunnels  and  approaches  were  constructed. 
The  Hudson  Terminal  buildings,  under  which 
the  roads  from  New  Jersey  end,  contain  more 
floor  space  than  any  structures  in  New  York. 
W.  <!.  McAdoo  was  born  at  Marietta,  Ga., 
Oct..  18(i:5;  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he 
removed  to  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  in  iss.5. 
where  he  remained  until  he  came  to  this  city 
in  1S!)12.  He  is  President  of  the  Hudson  & 
Manhattan  Railroad  Company  and  of  the 
Southern  Society  of  New  York.  His  home  is 
at  Irvington-on-Hudson  and  he  is  an  enthu- 
siastic golf  player. 

The    rigid    self-discipline     which     necessity 
inculcates    in    the   youth    usually    produces    in 


mature    years 


AHTHl'H  S    SOM]   RS 


the  characteristic  called  self- 
reliance.  The  career 
of  Arthur  S.  Somers  is 
an  illustration  of  the 
rule.  Born  in  New 
^i  ork  in  lS(i(!  and  edu- 
cated in  the  public 
schools  he  began  the 
battle  of  life  at  the  age 
of  ten.  Ten  years  later 
he  was  a  clerk  for  Fred 
L.  Lavanburg,  manu- 
facturer of  dry  colors 
for  the  paint  and  print- 
ing ink  trade.  In  '!)(! 
he  became  general 
manager   of   that    con- 


cern, a  position  he  has 
since  held.  Mi-.  Somers  is  vice-president  of 
the  Universal  Audit  Company  of  New  York, 
director  of  the  Citizens  Trust  Company  of 
Brooklyn,  and  trustee  of  the  Sumner  Savings 
Bank.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers of  the  Roman  Catholic  Orphan  Asylum 
Society  and  interested  in  the  Brooklyn  Home 
for  Crippled  ami  Defective  Children.  He  has 
been  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  and 
of  the  Civil  Service  Commission.  The  Han- 
over. Lincoln  anil  Drug  Chemical  clubs  num- 
ber him  among  their  members. 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


357 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


liOIIKMIAN   NIGHTS 


IFTER  Pfaff's  day  there  was 
not  ;i  true  Bohemia  in  New 
York  for  a  score  of  years. 
Then  it  reappeared  in  a  cellar 
on  Macdougal  Street,  south  of 
Washington  Square. 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  first 
time  1  was  taken  to  Maria  da  Prata's.  Re- 
turning on  an  afternoon  train  from  Philadel- 
phia, I  met  a  fellow  writer,  editor  of  a  popular 
magazine.  Near  us,  in  the  parlor  car.  sat  the 
proprietor  of  the  then  fashionable  hotel  in 
New  York.  We  were  all  known  to  one 
another  and  at  the  ferry  the  hotel  man  gra- 
ciously invited  ns  to  enter  his  waiting  carriage 
and  dine  with  him.  1  had  declined,  when 
Henry  Tyrrell,  a  gentle  personality,  spoke  up: 
"Come  with  me  to  Maria  da  Prata's.  It 
will  he  a  great  night  there,  because  Ahlrich, 
Robinson,  Gilder,  Stoddart,  GribayedofF, 
Luks,  Gunn,  and  other  artists  of  pen  and 
brush  have  arranged  for  a  dinner  of  real  soup, 
spaghetti,  chicken  and  zabilyoni;  there  will  be 
plenty  of  chianti  and  Lachrima  Christi  spu- 
mante.  Come  on.  all;  yon  can  dine  with  our 
friend,  Mr.  Boldt,  any  time  and  always  well; 
but  an  opportunity  like  that  I  offer  doesn't 
occur  every  day." 

Four  of  ns  went.  The  exterior  of  the  place 
was  very  uninviting,  contrasted  with  the 
sumptuous  place  at  which  we  might  have 
dined,  for  we  entered  a  basement  under  a 
broken  stoop.  ( )nce  inside,  however,  the  good 
fellows  assembled  at  one  long  table  made  the 
hovel  seem  a  palace.  Soup  was  on  the  table, 
a  great  bowl  thereof.  Colonel  Gilder  was 
mixing  cocktails,  which  were  handed  'round 
in  tumblers  and  swallowed  without  ceremony. 
The  chaff  had  already  begun.  According  to 
the  gastronomic  code  of  Ancona,  where  the 
best  spaghetti  in  Italy  is  made,  only  water  was 
drunk     with     the     succulent     paste.       When 


chicken  was  served,  red  chianti  flowed  plenti- 
fully from  gigantic  fiascos,  wanned  by  husky 
coverings  that  enwrapped  their  round  bellies. 
( )live  oil  was  atop  the  w  ine  in  I  heir  necks  those 
days,  and  I  marveled  at  the  cleverness  with 
which  members  of  the  party,  who  had  lived 
in  Italy,  flecked  it  oil'  against  the  wall  of  the 
room,  without  losing  a  drop  of  the  wine. 

That  evening  led  to  the  establishment  of  a 
coterie  that  endured  until  an  unfortunate 
time  in  which  the  prosperous  Maria  moved  to 
West  Twelfth  Street  and  her  pensionne  began 
to  be  visited  by  people  who  came  in  carriages 
and  evening  dress. 

Many  friends  of  the  fat  priestess  of  Bohemia 
followed  her;  several  young  authors,  since 
become  nationally  famous,  and  artists  who  are 
to-day  National  Academicians,  joined  the 
group.  Sad  to  say,  a  class  of  people  began  to 
affect  the  dinner  because  it  was  cheap.  This 
was  contrary  to  our  view  of  fin  de  such 
Bohemia.  The  dinner  cost  only  60  cents,  but 
our  bills  often  ran  as  high  as  **  and  sin  for 
wine.  The  cheap  people  were  more  obnox- 
ious than  the  swells  who  came  in  automobiles. 
For  a  time,  therefore,  we  deserted  our  Maria 
for  the  Pensionne  di  Livorno,  on  Washington 
Square.  On  the  north  side  of  this  ancient 
parade-ground,  opposite  the  home  of  hilarity 
where  we  were  wont  to  forget  the  cares  of  the 
present  and  to  lav  up  scores  thai  had  to  be 
settled,  dwelt  some  of  the  oldest  families  of 
the  metropolis  -people  of  much  method,  main 
dollars,  and  inheritors  of  humdrum,  common- 
place lives. 

Arriving  at  the  Livorno  late,  one  memorable 
night,  I  took  the  only  vacant  seat  at  a  long 
table  beside  a  well-dressed  stranger.  Many 
old  comrades  were  there;  some  w  ere  in  buoyant 
spirits,  chief  of  whom  was  Marie  Potoffski, 
a  Russian  woman  known  as  The  Countess. 
She    had    belonged    to    the    coterie    for   several 


3.58 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


years  and  was  vivacious  as  ever,  although  her 
vivid  auburn  hair  was  streaked  with  grey  and 
deep  lines  had  formed  in  her  race. 

"Sing  for  us!"  commanded  Potoffski,  look- 
ing hard  at  The  Poet,  as  she  called  for  more 
chianti. 

While  The  Poet  sang, — because,  in  Bohemia 
nobody  offers  excuses, — 1  sought  other  familiar 
faces  round  the  hoard.  Near  the  foot  of  the 
table,  I  saw  The  Great  American  Artist  (I 
mentally  used  capital  letters  to  distinguish  this 
man  from  The  Poor  Artist,  who  sat  near 
me).  Across  the  hoard  was  The  Vampire, 
secretive,  silent  and  watchful:  we  called  him 
"The  Vampire"  because  he  listened  with  his 
eves  as  well  as  his  ears  and  bled  lis  of  all  good 
stories,  clever  hits  of  repartee  and  sold  them 
to  his  own  profit.  Not  far  away.  I  had  a  bow 
from  The  Incubator,  so  named  because  he 
hatched  out  our  abortive  witticisms  and 
warmed  into  living  form  our  imperfect  meta- 
phors. Beside  the  fair-skinned  Russian  wo- 
man was  The  Tutor,  who  addressed  his  com- 
pany in  French  and  taught  that  language  at  one 
of  the  most  fashionable  schools  of  Manhattan. 
To  my  surprise,  1  recognized  The  Pretty 
Model,  now  several  times  a  mother,  who  had 
"a  past  "  but  did  not  brood  over  it.  This  fact. 
interesting  in  itself  and  delightful  to  me. 
distinguished  her  from  several  other  young 
anil  unknown  models  at  the  table  who  had 
entered  the  field  of  art  much  later  than  she 
and  had  not  yet  attained  to  the  distinction  of 
having  their  faces  and  most  of  their  figures 
portrayed  nearly  every  week  in  illustrated 
publications  by  such  artists  as  Archie  Gunn, 
Charlie  Reinhart,  Charles  Dana  Gibson,  Wil- 
liam T.  Smedley,  Louis  Loch  and  Granville 
Smith. 

Variously  placed,  were  representatives  of 
"The  Glad-Hand  Society."  generally  met 
with  in  Bohemia  and  club-land.  But  the 
sweeter  The  Poet's  soul;',  the  more  I  studied 
rldie  Stranger  at  my  right.  He  was  dressed 
in  broadcloth,  of  clerical  cut.  and  looked  the 
part  of  '"leading  man"  in  Kotzebue's  famous 
play,  "Menschenhass  und  Reu,"  —familiar  to 
all  of  us  in  English  as  "The  Stranger."  Ob- 
viously well  known  at  the  Pensionne  di 
Livorno,  his  face  was  new  to  me.      He  had  not 


belonged  to  the  old  Maria  da  Prata  crowd 
that  included  Joseph  Stoddart.  Julian  Haw- 
thorne, Nugent  Robinson.  Edgar  Fawcett, 
Valerian  Grebayedoff,  George  Luks,  W.  S. 
Walsh.  Recorder  Goff  and  Col.  Gilder,  -with 
many  brilliant  women  who  supported  them- 
selves or  their  husbands  by  the  product  of 
their  pens. 

While  a  dainty  little  waitress,  called  Pinota 
by  every  one.  was  serving  us  with  minestrone, 
my  neighbor,  The  Stranger,  transferred  to  me 
thi'  conversation  he  had  been  lavishing  upon 
Madame  Potoffski.  Probably  assuming  1  had 
overheard  his  previous  talk,  he  said,  authorita- 
tively: 

"It  was  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  history." 

"Doubtless,"  I  answered,  ignorant  of  the 
cause  of  his  regret. 

"I  am  sorry  yon  do  not  take  stronger 
ground  on  so  important  a  question,"  retorted 
The  Stranger,  reproachfully. 

For  the  first  time,  I  critically  examined  my 
neighbor  from  the  corner  of  an  eye.  His  was 
a  burly  figure,  and  by  far  the  best  dressed  in 
the  dingy  apartment.  He  looked  to  be  a 
strong,  dogmatic  and  highly  positive  person- 
ality. 

"How  can  1  .'"  was  my  retort. 

"Surely,  you  admire  Bona-part-e ? "  he  de- 
manded. 

"Naturally."  I  was  temporizing  in  order 
to  learn  his  game  before  leading  through  his 
hand. 

"Had  Bona-part-e  made  his  escape  to  the 
United  States,  this  land  would  have  witnessed 
a  restoration  of  the  Roman  Republic!" 

"Not  while  'Old  Hickory'  was  living."  I 
suggested. 

'Hickory'.1'      I  never  heard  of  him." 
"Madison    was    president,    of    course:    but 
Andrew    Jackson,  called  'Old  Hickory,'  never 
would  have  stood  for  Napoleon." 

'•What  do  you  mean?" 

"Merely,  there  wasn't  room  in  this  country, 
with  the  area  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  added, 
for  Andrew  Jackson  and  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte." 

'"That's  the  most  remarkable  statement  I 
ever   heard!"   exclaimed   The   Stranger,    with 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


3.59 


amazement.  He  wasn't  sure  whether  be  had 
underrated  Jackson,  or  overrated  Bonaparte. 

"Bonaparte  would  probably  have  been 
hanged,"  said  I ;  "that  would  have  been  as  un- 
fortunate as  the  ending  that    finally  came  to 

him  at  St.  Helena." 

"Ah!  Profanation!  Why  do  you  say 
this  ? "  screamed  The  Stranger.  *'  Bona-part-e 
would  have  builded  a  new  nation  here,  as — as 
— what  was  his  name  ?" 

"You  probably  refer  to  .Eneas!-"  suggested 
The    Poet. 

"Yes,  as  .Eneas  planted  a  new  Greece  in 
Italia." 

"But  Napoleon  was  a  Frenchman."  pro- 
tected The  Poor  Artist. 

"He  was  not!"  retorted  my  neighbor,  with 
an  emphasis  that  awakened  echoes  from  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  room.  "He  was  a 
Roman, — an  Italian  Caesar,  who  reconquered 
Card!" 

At  this  point.  The  Stranger  drew  a  card  from 
a  side  pocket  and  handed  it  to  me.  For  a 
moment,  I  was  in  doubt  whether  I  was  about 
to  lie  challenged.  Upon  the  card,  wore  en- 
graved the  words:  "Carlos  Bacigalupo,  Fu- 
neral Director." 

I  thanked  The  Stranger,  and  promised  to 
bear  him  in  mind.  He  became  to  me  the  vis- 
ible presence  of  Death,  fit  to  appear  in  "Ibin- 
nella."  While  an  "omnibus"  was  removing 
the  fish  course.  The  Stranger  recurred  to  the 
Napoleonic  contention : 

"Bona-part-e" — and  he  always  sounded  the 
the  final  vowel—  "was  a  Republican,  driven  to 
Imperialism,  just  as  was  Caesar.  He  eared 
nothing  for  show.  He'd  have  made  a  true 
American.  *  *  *  What  a  pretty  child  she 
is!"  he  exclaimed,  as  bright-eyed  little  Pinota 
reentered,  bearing  a  monster  tray  of  spaghetti. 
Strings  of  vermicular  paste  wriggled  over  the 

edge   of   the   dish.      The    f 1    was   as    hot    as 

Christmas  pudding;  the  tomato  sauce  made 
it  as  pink  as  Indian  coral.  Behind  this  steam- 
ing feast,  as  in  a  cloud  of  vapor,  shone  the  in- 
nocent face,  with  its  sparkling  eves  and  daintily 
puckered  mouth.  Pinota  was  the  angel  of 
the  Pensionne  di  Livorno  and  every  man 
among  its  regular  patrons  regarded  himself 
as  her  special  protector. 


"How  she  smiles  and  makes  eyes  to-night!" 
said  my  neighbor. 

"She  is  more  of  a  child  than  a  waitress,"  I 
commented. 

"What  a  sweei  little  bride  she'd  make!" 
soliloquized  The  Stranger,  as  his  exes  followed 
Pinota. 

Everybody  was  clamorous  to  lie  served. 
'To  Pinota!"  shouted  the  men.  lifting  their 
glasses.     The  Poet  stood  up. 

"Sinn-  us  your  latest  song!"  again  demanded 
'The  Countess,"    who   like  the  other   women 
had    been    silent    ami    thirsty    when    the    toast 
was  proposed. 

"That  I  will."  replied  The  Poet.  "It  is  SO 
new  that  nobody  has  heard  il.  I  wrote  the 
verses  this  afternoon,  to  the  melody,  'Alice, 
Where  Art  Thou.-'  I  have  called  the  song 
' .  tddio  Pinota! 

The  Poet  sang  and  everybody  helped  or 
hindered  him  in  the  refrain. 

"Why  ' Addio'  ? "  several  voices  asked, 
when  he  had  finished. 

"Because.  I  am  to  be  married,"  replied  The 
Poet. 

Pinota.  standing  near  the  singer,  had  Keen 
listening,  enraptured.  She  knew  " Addio" 
meant  "Farewell";  the  word  "married"  was 
one  of  the  few  in  her  English  vocabulary.  Her 
pretty  face  turned  pale.  As  she  staggered  to 
the  rear  of  the  room,  The  Incubator,  who 
hadn't  noticed  her  distress  shouted: 

'To  Pinota.  everybody!"      All  glasses  wore 
drained  again. 

"He  always  writes  verses  to  Pinota,"  said 
The  Stranger,  in  a  stage  whisper.  "She's  a 
foolish  child  and  has  believed  him  when  he 
sang  of  his  love  for  her.  When  she  hears 
that  young  fool's  voice  her  eyes  beam  with 
delight." 

"Pinota  is  in  love,  then.-"  I  queried. 
'Yes,  in   love."   lie   replied,  adding  a   deep 
sigh. 

"Ridiculous!"  exclaimed  Potoffski,  with  a 
sneer.      "She's  a   meer  child." 

'That  she  is."  commented   The  Vampire. 

"Ought  to  be  in  the  nursery!"  snapped  The 
Pretty  Model. 


360 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


'*().  I  say,  she  is  sixteen,"  ventured  The 
Poor  Artist. 

"What  does  a  girl  know  of  love  at  sixteen; 
or  boy,  for  that  matter.-"  retorted  The  Count- 
ess,   with  a   curl   of  lip.      "When    I    was 

"Ileal!"     -from  our  corner  of  the  table. 

"Listen,  all!"  from  the  other  end  of  the 
hoard. 

'This  is  not  a  confessional.  Madame."  in- 
terposed The  Stranger,  looking  hard  at  The 
Lady  of  Quality.  His  check  to  Her  Ladyship, 
in  defense  of  Pinota,  made  him  my  friend. 

"If  he  is  an  undertaker,"  whispered  The 
Poor  Artist.  "I'll  swear  he's  no  mute!" 

"He's  not  conducting  my  funeral!"  The 
( lountess  flung  hack. 

The  Vampire  wrote  this  bit  of  repartee  in 
his  note-hook,  surreptitiously,  for  the  British 
market,  where  "mutes"  are  as  necessary  to  a 
funeral  as  the  corpse.  After  exchanging 
glances  of  defiance  with  Pinota's  champion, 
The  Countess  hurst  into  a  laugh  as  keen  as  the 
pitiless  winds  of  the  frozen  North.  Strange 
that  none  of  the  women,  old  or  young,  who 
came  to  the  pensionne  liked  the  little  waitress. 
It  is  exceptional  for  older  women  to  he  jealous 
of  younger  ones. 

The  Poet  sat  moody  and  silent;  hut  what 
else  was  to  he  expected  from  a  man  of  his 
temperament  about  to  forsake  Bohemia  and 
to  settle  down  to  staid  matrimony?  The 
truth  was.  he  and  Pinota  hail  exchanged 
glances  and   he  saw  tears  in   her  young  eyes. 

At  this  point,  there  was  delay  in  serving 
the  dinner.  The  cook  brought  in  the  next 
course,  because  the  little  serving  maid  was 
not  to  he  found.      For  a  time,  we  forgot  her. 

A  scream  was  heard  from  the  upper  part 
of  the  house  that  brought  every  Bohemian  to 
his  feet.  The  shriek  increased  in  volume  as 
the  woman  uttering  it  descended  the  stairs. 
She  came  bounding  into  the  basement,  as  she 
gasped ; 

"  Pinota  is      dead!" 

The  shock  was  appalling.  In  broken  Eng- 
lish and  equally  unintelligible  Italian,  the 
trembling  woman  explained  that  on  going  to 
the  roof  for  fresh  table  linen  she  had  found  poor 
Pinota  writhing  in  the  agonies  of  death.      "By 


hi'r  side  lay  this  bottle,"  the  woman  added, 
holding  up  a  small  vial  bearing  the  label, 
"Oxalic  Acid."  Kitchen  maids  use  it  for 
cleaning  copper  vessels. 

While  several  men  ran  in  search  of  physi- 
cians, most  of  us  climbed  the  stairway  to  aid 
the  "Child  of  Bohemia."  Promptly,  the  frail 
body  of  the  girl,  still  having  the  warmth  of  a 
life  just  extinguished,  was  brought  to  the 
dining-room.  Although  distorted  by  the 
agony  of  death,  the  face  was  still  beautiful. 
We  composed  the  girlish  figure  atop  an  un- 
occupied table.  Most  of  us  men  cried  like 
children!  Xo  more  eating  and  drinking  for 
us!  The  Poet  stood  apart,  clutching  in  his 
fingers  a  scrap  of  paper  that  had  been  in  the 
dead  girl's  hand.  The  rude  scrawl  read: 
"I  lutf  you.  Mr.  Poet.  Gift  me  luff  to  Signor 
Bacigalup'." 

Two  physicians  came  and  told  us  what  we 
already  knew  .  A  coroner  arrived,  also.  Then 
I  heard  a  voice  at  my  side,  -a  voice  that 
echoed  like  the  fall  of  clods  upon  a  box  in  an 
open  grave: 

"She  left  me  her  love!  I  will  bury  her. 
friendless  little  one!" 

And  he  did.  Some  of  us  sent  flowers. 
Several  of  the  women  went  to  Bacigalupo's 
mortuary  chapel,  upon  the  walls  of  which 
hung  pictures  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  brought 
from  Italy,  duty  paid,  ami  other  evidences  of 
sacred  reverence  for  art  and  religion,  and  sang 
in  requiem  the  same  pretty  airs  to  which 
Pinota  had  listened  with  rapture.  Thus  it 
was  I  came  to  know  the  identity  of  "II  Gran' 
Bacigalup'  "  as  he  was  lovingly  called  by  the 
Italians  of  New  York,  the  merriest  undertaker 
who  ever  lived — and  the  most  interesting. 
He  loved  his  fellow  man. 

We  drifted  hack  to  our  first  love.  Maria, 
after  the  tragic  death  of  Pinota.  the  elf-child 
that  took  her  life  for  love  of  a  poet.  More 
than  half  a  year  had  passed  for  it  was  now 
Summer.  The  Laureate  of  Bohemia  had 
married,  as  he  said  he  would,  and  had  dropped 
from  our  lives.  The  Poor  Artist  had  sud- 
denly become  famous.  He  had  foresworn 
landscapes,  for  winch  he  had  little  talent,  and 
had  taken  to  figures,  for  which  he  possessed 
marvelous  aptitude.  He  could  paint  a  por- 
trait in  half  a  day  that  commanded  $500,  and 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


'Mil 


orders  were  far  ahead  of  his  capacity  for  work. 
Not  that  he  was  an  idler,  I  tut  he  insisted  on 
studying  his  subject,  often  for  a  week,  before 
he  would  put  brush  to  canvas.  When  the  in- 
spired moment  arrived,  he  would  fix  the  face 
upon  the  stretcher  in  a  jiffy.  lie  painted 
from  memory,  only  requiring  a  sitting  for  the 
finishing  strokes  with  the  camel's-hair.  But 
fame  came  unexpectedly.  He  sent  half  a 
dozen  of  his  impressionistic  portraits  to  the 
annual  exhibition  of  the  National  Academy, 
and  every  one  of  them  was  rejected!  One  of 
the  greatest  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  art-shops  at 
once  placed  its  main  gallery  at  The  Poor 
Artist's  disposal;  the  newspapers  that  had 
given  half  column  notices  to  the  Academy's 
exhibition  devoted  two  columns  or  more  to  the 
Luks  display.  Crowds  flocked  to  see  the 
pictures.  A  clerk  was  appointed  to  take 
orders  and  twenty-three  portraits  were  booked 
in  ten  days,  at  .$1,000  each.  Not  a  member  of 
Bohemia  but  was  glad.  This  had  occurred 
during  the  previous  winter,  and  now  that 
Summer  was  come  and  The  Boor  Artist  had 
a  bank  account,  he  had  taken  himself  to  Paris 
and  was  renewing  faded  memories  of  the 
■Quarticr  Latin  and  Montmartre.  This  was 
well,  for  the  heat  at  Maria's  that  night  was 
intense. 

The  Vampire,  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  had 
followed  us  to  the  new  home  of  Bohemia. 
He  had  been  a  member  of  the  Cloister  Club 
for  a  brief  space;  but  its  "Friars"  had  detected 
his  propensities  to  absorb  and  market  their 
quips  and  epigrams,  which  represented  money 
to  them.  They  had  expelled  The  Vampire 
for  violating  a  by-law  of  their  unwritten  con- 
stitution.  Then  he  returned  to  us, — a  com- 
pliment, in  a  way.  His  presence  implied  that 
he  could  find  sixty  cents'  worth  of  salable 
literature  somewhere  among  us.  Sixty  cents 
was  the  price  of  the  dinner,  wine  included. 
And  such  wine.  Most  of  us  never  drank  any- 
thing cheaper  than  chianti.  And  here  was 
The  Vampire,  drinking  our  literary  heart's 
blood,  also,  as  of  yore! 

The  Countess  had  married  and  had  become 
mistress  of  a  modiste's  shop,  on  a  side  street 
near  Fifth  Avenue.  She  was  said  to  be  doing 
a  successful  business  in  second-hand  evening 
gowns   and    Parisian    hats    not    more    than   a 


season  old.  Around  the  board  were  Walsh, 
Gilder,  Stoddart,  Max  de  Lipman,  Anthony 
(the  White  Czar),  Robinson,  Goff  (now  a 
"Recorder"  or  something  of  the  sort),  ami  a 
score  of  other  clever  men.  less  famous  or 
more  notorious;  hut  there  was  a  break  in  the 
circle  not  to  lie  forgotten  for  an  instant.  I 
refer  to  Salisbury,  of  Salisbury  Plain.  neat- 
Boston.  He  had  been  graduated  from  Bo- 
hemia, the  previous  Winter,  hut  we  were  sure 
of  his  affection  for  his  alma  mater  and  actually 
felt  the  presence  of  his  astral  body  at  all  our 
reunions.  That  his  memory  might  he  kept 
fresh,  a  dozen  quarts  of  chianti  were  opened 
every  Sunday  at  his  expense,  in  which  his 
health  was  pledged  again  and  yet  again.  For, 
you  must  know.  Salisbury  had  come  into  a 
great  fortune. 

About  three  years  before  the  night  I  am 
describing,  Salisbury  had  appeared  among  us 
sorely  disgusted  with  the  world,  indifferent 
to  promises  of  the  future  in  this  existence  or 
the  next.  His  father  had  cast  him  off  and  a 
sweetheart  had  renounced  him  in  the  same 
week.  His  parent  had  thought  him  deficient 
in  business  capacity,  unequal  to  the  inheri- 
tance and  management  of  a  thrifty  shipping- 
house  that  had  been  in  the  family  since  the 
days  of  the  Colonies.  The  head  of  this  Bos- 
ton firm  had  expected  to  transmit  its  name 
and  business  to  his  only  son,  the  Salisbury  we 
all  knew.  But  the  youngster  had  not  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  Harvard  as  a  student; 
indeed,  he  had  required  five  years  to  get  a 
degree,  having  been  "set  hack."  His  popu- 
larity among  his  fellows  was  immense,  equally 
admired  in  the  two  classes  with  which  he  had 
been  catalogued.  Had  the  Yale  custom  of 
awarding  a  wooden  spoon  to  the  "best  fellow 
in  a  class"  existed  at  Harvard.  Salisbury 
would  have  won  the  trophy  by  unanimous 
vote.  Then,  too.  when  he  took  his  place  in 
the  counting-house  facing  India  Wharf  he 
did  not  show  to  advantage.  He  could  not  add 
a  column  of  figures!  lie  did  not  last  long, 
because  his  father  was  an  ogre  that  fattened 
on  discontent.  The  old  man  had  turned  his 
office  into  a  nest  of  spies,  and  actually  en- 
couraged informers  who  brought  to  him  tales 
about  his  only  son!  One  day.  the  young  man 
went  to  a  yacht  race  instead  of  remaining  upon 
the  wharf  to  check  an  invoice  of  hides  from 


362 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Argentina.  That  settled  him.  He  was  hand- 
ed $500  by  his  infuriated  parent  and  told  to 
leave  Boston.     Then  he  came  to  us. 

Quite  a  while  elapsed  before  we  took  him 
lo  our  hearts.  We  thought  him  too  liberal 
with  his  money,  -not  a  fault  in  itself,  but  his 
name  was  one  of  the  best  known  in  the  Amer- 
ican commercial  world  and  we  despised  com- 
merce more  than  we  coveted  wealth.  Natural- 
ly, we  thought  him  a  "ringer  in."  who  affected 
a  respect  for  Bohemia  in  order  to  patronize 
us.  Poor  as  was  Bohemia  in  this  world's 
goods,  it  could  not  endure  to  be  patronized! 
Hut  we  misjudged  him.  Had  we  known  Salis- 
bury's entire  bank  roll  to  have  consisted  of 
$500  and  no  more,  his  treatment  would  have 
been  entirely  different.  Some  of  us  could 
have  advised  him  in  rudiments  of  economy. 
The  lime  came,  and  that  very  soon,  when  his 
last  dime  had  been  spent.  In  despair,  he 
turned  to  a  few  of  us  on  that  eventful  night  and 
confessed  his  impecuniosity.  He  told  us  how 
and  why  he  had  been  disinherited. — palliating 
the  outrageous  conduct  of  his  parent,  as  all 
agreed.  Immediately,  he  was  of  the  inner 
circle!  lie  was  no  longer  the  patron  of  Bo- 
hemia, as  we  had  unjustly  thought  him;  he 
craved  a  place  in  the  ranks. 

"How  can  I  make  a  living?"  he  asked,  with 
a  pathos  that  touched  every  heart,  although 
many  a  man  within  the  sound  of  his  voice 
would  have  found  the  question  difficult  to 
answer  in  his  own  case. 

Some  of  us  were  in  executive  positions  and 
our  thoughts  were  concentrated  on  devising 
an  excuse  forgiving  employment  to  him.  Sud- 
denly,  1   blurted  out : 

"You  were  on  the  crew  at  Harvard,  if  I 
remember  ?" 

"Yes;  rowed  stroke  two  years;  was  captain 
in  my  senior  year,"  he  replied,  with  a  modesty 
that  charmed. 

"Very  well;  you're  fixed  for  the  Summer." 
one  of  the  editors  at  the  table  exclaimed. 
"Can  you  write  a  description  of  a  boat  race?" 

"I   never  tried;  but  I  can  sign  one!" 

"Exactly     my    idea!"    shouted     the    editor. 

"That's   what    I    want.      You    will   attend    the 

intercollegiate     races,     observe     them     closely. 

Then   I'll  have  you   interviewed  and  von  will 


sign  what  you  have  said,  when  written  out. 
Do  you  understand  ?" 

"  ^i  ou've  saved  my  life." 

"We  will  discuss  the  salary  question  when 
you  come  to  my  office  to-morrow,"  added  the 
editor. 

'That's  a  matter  of  secondary  importance," 
replied  Salisbury,  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  as  if 
the  cares  of  this  world  had  been  lifted  from 
his  shoulders. 

This  novice  developed  remarkable  capacity 
for  describing  a  boat  race.  His  keen  eyes 
never  missed  a  point  in  the  contest.  When 
the  finish-line  was  passed.  Salisbury  would 
sit  with  his  back  to  a  stenographer  and  "talk" 
two  or  three  thousand  words  about  a  four- 
mile  contest  at  Xew  London.  Saratoga  Lake 
or  Poughkeepsie,  without  a  halting  sentence. 
He  knew  the  game  so  thoroughly  and  his  eve- 
memory  was  so  vivid  that  he  could  go  over 
every  yard  of  the  long  course  with  the  strug- 
gling contestants.  For  the  time,  he  sat  in  each 
of  the  boats,  spiritually,  if  not  physically.  He 
could  feel  the  straining  of  the  muscles,  when 
the  stroke  was  quickened.  The  dizziness  of  ex- 
haustion in  the  final  spurt  was  known  to  him 
by  bitter  experience  on  the  River  Charles  or 
at    Lake  Quinsigamond.     He  could  pick  out 

the  weak  spot  in  each  crew.      He  underst 1 

the  meaning  of  the  word  "endurance."  Those 
things  he  had  learned  at  college,  and  right  well 
did  the  knowledge  stand  him  in  hand. 

When  the  Eall  came  and  rowing  was  over 
for  the  year.  Salisbury's  enthusiasm  found 
vent  in  football.  Although  not  a  member  of 
the  'Varsity  eleven,  he  had  played  as  a  Fresh- 
man and  never  hail  missed  seeing  a  game 
during  his  college  career.  He  understood 
every  trick.  His  boating  articles,  bearing  the 
now  famous  name,  were  the  pride  of  the  metro- 
politan press!  Without  envy,  rival  writers 
of  sports  accorded  the  palm  to  Salisbury. 
As  an  innovation,  his  name  was  printed  over, 
instead  of  under,  his  work,  and  in  type  very 
little  smaller  than  the  headings  that  an- 
nounced the  results  of  the  contests.  And. 
without  fail,  the  line  "Famous  Stroke  of 
Harvard  University"  always  found  place  be- 
neath his  name. 

That's  what  gentle  Bohemia  did  for  Salis- 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


363 


bury:  it  supplied  the  human  touch  that  saved 
his  pride  and  did  not  inflame  his  vanity.  He 
was  still  one  of  us;  he  did  not  outgrow  the 
friends  around  him.  So  confident  became  lie 
of  himself,  in  his  new  walk,  thai  when  his 
hard-hearted  parent  relented,  during  the  Win- 
ter that  followed  that  Summer,  Salisbury 
wrote  to  his  father  a  brief  bul  respectful  letter. 
saying  that  he  was  able  to  make  his  own  living 
and  preferred  to  do  so.  He  accepted  the 
veiled  apologies  for  previous  treatment  that 
came  to  him  in  an  unusually  long  letter  from 
India  Wharf.  What  he  did  not  know  was 
that  Salisbury,  pere,  watched  the  Daily  Thun- 
derstorm with  the  eyes  of  a  hawk  and  thought 
his  son  the  marvel  of  the  century's  end.  lie 
was  more  vainglorious  about  the  boy's  notoriety 
than  of  his  many  millions !  He  liked  to  see  the 
family  name  in  the  newspapers!  His  magnifi- 
cent country  house  at  Salisbury  Plain,  a  short 
run  from  Park  Square  station,  became  a  place 
of  entertainment  for  athletes  of  Harvard. 
Tufts,  "the  Tech*'  and  the  University  bearing 
the  city's  name.  He  became  a  patron  of 
sports.  He  purchased  and  gave  additional 
acreage  to  Holmes'  Field.  He  built  a  new 
boat  house  for  the  Harvard  Navy.  He  re- 
equipped  the  gymnasium.  In  short,  the  son 
had  won  back  a  father's  love. 

For  three  years  our  delightful  companion- 
ship with  Salisbury  had  continued.  Some  of 
us  were  so  busy  that  we  didn't  meet  for  weeks, 
hut  we  were  sure  of  one  another.  One  morn- 
ing, we  read  in  the  newspapers  that  Salisbury, 
the  elder,  had  died  suddenly.  Within  a  week, 
each  of  us  who  had  known  Salisbury,  the 
younger,  received  a  letter,  heavily  bordered  in 
black,  announcing  that  he  "must  take  up  his 
father's  burden,"  because  the  entire  business 
had  been  left  in  his  keeping;  with  the  help 
of  old  employees,  his  message  said,  he  ex- 
pected   to    master    its    details. 

This  voung  man.  never  before  confronted 
with  anything  more  exacting  than  an  over- 
charge for  a  bottle  of  wine  he  had  not  ordered, 
but  thirsty  companions  had  imbibed,  suddenly 
became  executive  chief  of  an  establishment, 
the  subordinates  of  which  were  risking  their 
lives  against  attacks  from  pirates  on  the  Yel- 
low Sea.  combating  fever  and  death  in  the 
ports   of   Java,   watching   mutinous  sailors   in 


the  Straits  of  Malacca,  were  vvindbound  in 
the  Red  Sea.  were  waiting  for  a  tow  at  Suez 
to  pass  through  the  canal,  were  chasing  ser- 
pents on  a  day's  shore-leave  on  the  Island  of 
Cyprus,  were  regarding  Scilla  and  Charybdis 
with  indifference,  were  rounding  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  in  sight  of  Table  Mountain,  were 
passing  I  he  Pillars  of  Hercules,  were  crossing 
the  mysterious  Sargasso  Sea.  were  seeking 
whales  in  the  Antarctic  Ocean,  or  killing  seals 
oft"  the  Aleutian  Isles.  For  all  of  his  ships. 
there  was  safe  and  welcome  haven  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  where  they'd  finally  lie  up  at 
India  Wharf. 

Salisbury  had  accepted  the  situation  jusl  as 
he  had  accepted  life;  just  as  he  had  attempted 
an  education  forced  upon  him  at  Cambridge; 
just  as  he  had  swallowed  his  hoi  coffee  in  bed, 
each  morning.  Hut  Salisbury  was  no  fool. 
Hack  in  Boston,  re-united  to  the  Somerset 
Club,  with  its  dull,  painted  walls,  its  sombre 
reading  room,  its  New  England  waiters,  its 
starched  napkins,  its  Plymouth  chef,  its  Massa- 
chusetts baked-beans  on  Sunday  morning,  its 
Vermont  maple  syrup  and  hot  rice  cakes. 
Salisbury  was  a  very  differenl  man  from  the 
one  we  had  known  at  Maria  da  Praia's  and 
ol  her  haunts  of  Bohemia.  Some  vague  reports 
of  the  life  he  had  led  in  New  York  had  cir- 
culated in  Boston.  Friends  envied  him;  ene- 
mies sought  in  vain  for  damaging  information 
regarding  escapades  that  had  not  occurred. 
Business  rivals  shook  their  heads  in  affected 
distrust,  expressing  doubt  that  a  man  once  so 
frivolous  could  settle  down  to  the  dull  routine 
of  meeting  notes,  signing  checks  or  computing 
exchange  on  thirty  financial  centres  of  the 
world!  Nevertheless,  Salisbury  succeeded. 
His  house  never  had  Keen  more  prosperous: 
its  ships  and  captains  and  sailors  and  cargoes 
went  out  as  before  to  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth,  as  Argosies  for  the  retrieveinenl  of 
American  trade,  so  largely  absorbed  during 
our  Civil  War  by  European  competitors. 

Thus  did  we  lose  Salisbury  as  a  regular 
companion;  but  he  never  came  to  New  York 
without  taking  al  least  one  meal  with  all  com- 
panions of  Bohemian  days  who  could  l>e 
"rounded  up."  Lately,  he  had  introduced  an 
idea  peculiarly  his  own.  When  an  interval, 
longer  than  he  thought  necessary  had  elapsed 


364 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


between  his  visits,  Salisbury  sent  a  proxy  to 
eat,  drink  and  make  merry  with  us.  The  man 
always  was  of  the  right  sort  and  such  occa- 
sions  were  rare  nights  for  The  Vampire  and 
liis  prey.  The  joke  market  was  glutted  for 
weeks:  so  many  new  ideas  found  vent. 

Xow,  we  are  back  at  the  night  with  which 
we  began.  Maria's  was  crowded  with  diners. 
some  of  whom  have  been  mentioned.  About 
the  critical  moment  at  which  the  succulent 
spaghetti  was  brought  on.  the  street  door 
swung  wide  and  a  tall  stranger  entered.  His 
Newmarket  coat  touched  his  heels.  He  bowed 
to  every  one  with  a  single  nod.  because  every 
eye  in  thi'  place  was  fixed  upon  him.  Before 
he  spoke,  we  had  guessed  his  identity. 

"I  come  from  Salisbury!"  he  said. 

Spontaneously,  every  man  and  woman  of 
Bohemia  stood  up  and  shouted: 

"He  comes  from  Salisbury;  he's  welcome!'' 

A  seat  was  made  for  him  at  the  chief  table. 
The  Pretty  Soubrette-out-of-an-Engagement 
proposed  the  stranger's  health  in  a  neat  little 
speech,  the  motif  of  which  was.  "He  comes 
from  Salisbury!"  When  the  cheering  ceased, 
the  tall  Bostonian  rose  and,  in  a  voice  excep- 
tionally tender  and  affectionate,  thanked  the 
merry  crowd  for  the  welcome  he  had  received 
and  the  tribute  paid  to  his  friend. 

"On  this  occasion."  he  added,  "I  am  the 
bearer  of  an  important  message.  I  am  indeed 
a  special  commissioner  from  a  faithful  sub- 
ject to  the  Court  of  Bohemia  and  the  generous 
spirits  that  dwell  here.  My  heart  is  big  with 
information,  but  new  to  the  formalities  of 
diplomacy,  I  can  only  speak  the  words  I 
am  directed  to  utter  in  the  frankness  of  despair. 
Know,  then,  that  our  beloved  Salisbury  has 
taken  to  himself  a  wife!" 

Men  cheered  but  the  women  around  the 
board  were  silent.  The  Pretty  Soubrette 
showed  that  she  regretted  her  joyful  speech 
of  the  previous  moment.  However  far  re- 
moved from  the  hope  or  expectation  of  a 
woman's  heart  a  man  may  be,  she  dislikes  to 
be  informed  that  he  has  passed  into  the  pos- 


session of  another  member  of  her  sex!  She 
may  affect  an  indifference  not  real,  but  the 
sting  of  being  overlooked  remains!  Again, 
the  special  commissioner  was  speaking: 

"Salisbury  directed  me  to  tell  you  affection- 
ately what  many  of  you  well  know,  namely, 
that  when  he  lost  the  love  of  his  father  and 
of  his  sweetheart  on  the  same  day,  you  came 
between  him  and  despair.  The  devotion  of 
his  parent  returned.  Xow,  the  heart  of  the 
girl  he  never  ceased  to  love  has  melted! 
Outside,  in  a  cab,  is  a  wedding  cake,  baked 
especially  for  you.  It  will  be  brought  in 
and  cut." 

As  the  guest  sat  down,  Salisbury's  own 
valet  entered,  bearing  a  monster  cake,  snowy 
with  icing.  It  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
largest  table.  There  was  little  more  of  the 
regular  dinner:  its  progress  was  forgotten. 

"A  glass  of  champagne  and  a  piece  of  wed- 
ding cake  for  every  one!"  spoke  the  guest  of 
the  night.  "Such  are  the  orders  of  Salisbury, 
—a  command  that  must  be  obeyed!" 

And  it  was  done.  The  proxy  of  the  Absent 
One  cut  the  cake  and  so  contrived  that  the 
piece  with  the  ring  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Pretty 
Soubrette.  Then  the  happiness  of  life  in 
double  harness  was  toasted  by  lonely  Bohe- 
mians, who  pretended  to  hold  it  in  favor. 
Next,  the  oldest  bachelor  in  the  party,  a  life- 
long scoffer  at  matrimony,  spoke  from  his 
corner  seat: 

"Our  dear  Salisbury  is  right,  my  friends. 
'Better  the  nest  than  the  wandering  wing'; 
more  precious  the  home,  wherein  Love  keeps 
company  with  a  man  and  a  woman,  than 
the  shallower,  ever-hunted  happiness  that  we 
lone  bachelors  and  spinsters  seek." 

These  words  produced  a  profound  impres- 
sion,— cast  a  momentary  damper  upon  the 
jollity:  but  many  as  were  the  speeches  uttered 
during  the  hours  of  a  quickly  moving  night, 
no  words  clung  to  our  memories  like  those  of 
Old  "Bachelor  Button." 

All  of  us  knew  Bohemia  to  be  very  well 
as  a  diversion,   bid   the  real   thing  is   Home. 


HIE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


305 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


llow  <;ooi)  ( ooKIN*.  CAME  To  is 


upon   nature  s 


]1 1 1''  trade  of  the  cook  is  as  eternal 

as    the    lulls;     we   eat    to    live, 

and    some    of    us    live    to    eat. 

The  domestic  affections  of  our 

palates  begin  without  the  cook 

as   an   intermediary   and    ripen 

into    respect     for    the    artisan's 

methods  of  providing  food. 

The    magic   of   the    kitchen!     Thought    of 

it  works  a  spell,  memory  of  it  stirs  the  sense  of 

smell  and  of  savory  odors. 

What  a  noble  brotherhood  is  thai  of  the 
cooks  of  all  creation  and  all  times!  Painters 
have  been  knighted,  sculptors  have  been 
awarded  grand  crosses  of  the  Legion  d'Honor, 
but  the  con/on  bleu  of  Careme  or  Vatel  is  as 
proud  an  honor  as  any  of  the  workers  in 
colors  or  in  stone  ever  have  worn.  In  reality, 
a  kitchen  is  a  chemical  laboratory,  wherein 
are  studied  the  economies  of  heat,  the  trans- 
mutation of  elemental  substances  into  viands 
of  golden  delight  and  perfect  physical  assim- 
ilation. 

The  cook's  place  in  the  literature  of  all  ages 
is  firm  as  adamant;  carpings  of  splenetic 
dyspeptics  cannot  disturb  his  supremacy. 
The  grouchy  Englishman,  who  said  "(bid 
sends  meat,  but  the  devil  sends  us  cooks," 
never  had  eaten  a  properly  prepared  meal. 
An  American  who  doesn't  know  how  to  make 
a  proper  salad  dressing  is  a  disgrace  to  his 
country.  Massachusetts  owes  its  intellectual 
and  industrial  decline  to  the  use  of  sugar  and 
vinegar  upon  lettuce  and  tomatoes.  Chicago 
with  wonderful  push  and  enormous  growth 
remains  crude  and  wooly  because  its  citizens 
chiefly  subsist  upon  "pies" — incongruous  con- 
coctions of  hog's  lard,  flour  ami  fruits.  Good 
food  is  the  surest  proof  of  high  intellectual 
conditions. 

Greek  fables  glow  with  references  to  culi- 
nary art.  Homer's  warriors,  in  their  camps 
upon   the   plains  of  windy  Troy,   feasted   and 


U-<\  at  night  that  they  ini-hl  die  with  full 
stomachs  in  the  morning.  Roasts  were  their 
specialty,  and  one  can  seethe  huge  carcasses 
of  beeves  and  sheep,  tinned  upon  massive 
spits  over  glowing  embers  and  basted  by  cooks 
that  snuffed  the  savory  odors  of  roasting 
flesh.  \  cry  little  imagination  is  required  to 
conjure  up  such  a  vision,  if  one  chooses  for 
background  the  Long  Island  shore  at  South- 
ampton, with  the  Shinnecock  Hills  for  a 
horizon  stopper.  The  scene  at  Troas  was 
quite  similar  and  the  beach  of  sand  is  identical. 

Keen  as  was  the  satire  of  Aristophanes— 
the  Dean  Swift  of  his  day  and  the  original 
Charley  Iloyt  of  farce  comedy  writers — he 
never  cast  a  sneer  at  cooks!  He  loved  good 
dinners.  He  bespattered  the  lawgivers,  phi- 
losophers, pedants  and  the  stilted  tragedians 
of  Athens,  but,  God  love  him,  he  spared  the 
cooks,  who  stirred,  and  basted,  and  roasted 
and  fried  ever  to  his  delight.  Aristophanes 
was  a  fine  Grecian  gentleman  who.  early  in 
life,  had  heard  the  croaking  of  the  frogs  in 
Egypt:  he  learned  to  prefer  the  sizzling  of 
the  frog  upon  an  oiled  skillet  to  the  croaking 
of  the  stoics.  He  belonged  to  the  "Four  Hun- 
dred "  of  Athens.  Tie  banquet  that  the  cooks 
prepared  for  Jupiter,  when  he  assumed  mor- 
tal form  and  masqueraded  as  Amphitryon, 
probably  was  as  dainty  as  any  could  buy 
to-day  in  the  best  New  York  restaurant,  but 
no  better.  What  a  delightful  point  Moliere 
makes  in  his  comedy  (adapted  from  old 
Plautus),  when  the  real  Amphitryon  suddenly 
appears  and  controversy  as  to  the  identity 
of  the  two  persons  arises.  The  line  runs: 
'The  veritable  Amphitryon  is  he  who  gives 
the   feast." 

True  at  this  hour  because  he  is  not  the  host. 
but  the  cook. 

Most  cooks  were  slaves  in  ancient  Athens: 
but  what  of  that?  Many  eminent  men  were 
slaves.       .Esop     was    one.       He     learned     and 


366 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


composed  his  tallies  while  herding  goats  for 
his  master.  1 1  was  bad  form  in  Athens  to 
be  unduly  harsh  with  a  well-conducted  slave. 
Onlv  a  drunken  debauche  of  the  aristocracy, 
like  Alcibiades,  might  abuse  the  servile  race 
and  escape  censure;  but  the  unfortunate 
"poor  freeman"  received  harsh  treatment 
on  all  sides,  even  from  favored  slaves.  He 
was  the  "Patsy  Bolivar"  of  his  day.  The 
best  Athenian  cook  came  from  Andros  or 
Chios,  or  other  of  the  sacred  isles.  He  was  a 
Greek!  That  title  caused  him  to  forgel  he 
was  a  slave!     Asia  never  produced  a.  real  cook. 


HI  ITEL  BELMONT 
(in.-  ol  Hi'-  modern  type  of  high  rhiss  New  \  ork  Holds 

Much  of  Plato's  philosophy  is  as  weak  as 
was  his  stomach,  because  he  lived  upon  noth- 
ing but  dates  and  water.  A  good  cook  would 
have  prolonged  his  life  and  enriched  the 
world's  literature.  Sparta  hardened  her  war- 
riors on  sour  bread;  she  always  banished  her 
cooks  when  war  was  imminent.  Clever  Spar- 
tans! Had  digestion  and  bad  temper  go 
together.  Warfare  in  those  days  was  quite 
as  much  a  matter  ol  anger  as  valor.  It  was, 
veritably,  "war  to  the  knife." 


Rome,  in  the  Augustin  period,  ate  in  mod- 
eration, although  enormous  sums — equal  to 
the  plunder  of  a  province — were  at  times 
lavished  upon  a  single  banquet.  Maecenas 
and  Lucullus  were  hospitable  hosts,  but  never 
gluttons.  Lucullus  feasted  most  pompously 
when  alone;  he  would  send  to  Nubia  for  a.  dish 
of  rhinoceros'  eves  or  to  Syria  for  a  dozen 
peacocks'  livers.  The  hospitality  of  those 
two  men  made  them  immortal,  owing  to 
Horace  and  other  poets.  It  was  well  spent 
money.  Hut  back  of  the  poets  stood  thought- 
ful, sincere,  ever  inventive  cooks!  They  made 
immortality  possible  to  Maecenas,  because  he 
wasn't  '"descended  from  royal  ancestry"  at 
all.  but  came  of  a  race  of  Etruscan  highway- 
men, most  of  whom  died  with  their  sandals 
oil'  the  ground  -cither  on  a  cross"  or  by  a 
method  of  execution  equally  effective.  That's 
what  the  cooks  did  for  Horace,  Maecenas  and 
Latin  literature! 

Hut  Rome  always  overdid  what  ever  she 
attempted.  Her  nabobs  lived  too  high  and 
the  freemen  suffered  more  privations  than 
did  the  slaves  of  the  rich.  She  remained 
'"  mistress  of  the  world"  only  as  long  as  the 
majesty  of  the  kitchen  was  maintained;  but 
with  Heliogabalus  came  Syrian  chefs  who  in- 
troduced hideous  cooking,  concocted  from 
recipes  handed  down  to  them  by  Babylonian 
ancestors.  An  era  of  gourmandizing  began  and 
the  decline  hurried  toward  the  fall.  Poor 
cooks  and  bad  cooking  were  responsible. 

The  dismal  "Middle  Ages"  made  chaos 
of  all  cookery.  The  Goths  cared  no  more  for 
cooked  food  than  for  the  comforts  of  home. 
Viking  meats  were  devoured  raw.  Pieces 
were  cut  from  the  dying  beef  and  the  flesh  torn 
with  wolfish  teeth. 

Cooks  invaded  England  for  the  first  time 
with  the  Conqueror,  although  none  of  their 
names  figure  on  the  Battle  Roll.  After  every- 
thing is  said  in  favor  of  war,  tickling  the 
palates  of  a  conquered  nation  is  wiser  than 
hammering  heads  or  helmets  of  the  subju- 
gated. In 
proper  thing! 

As  a  rule,  the  cook  of  the  Feudal  period  was 
more  accomplished  than  his  baronial  master. 
As  for  the  '"lady"— the  grande  dame  of  that 
time — she  was  a   vulgar  talking,  painted  and 


such    emergencies    a   cook   is    the 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


367 


be-plastered  jade  arrayed  in  silks  and  fine 
linens,  hut  utterly  unwashed  and  uncleanly 
as  to  skin  or  morals.  Her  cook  was  her  in- 
tellectual superior. 

The  English  Channel  always  made  ;i  vasl 
difference  al  dinner-time.  Falstaff  deplored 
tish  dinners.  You  wouldn't  wonder  al  this 
if  you'd  ever  seen  the  sluggish  carp  in  castle 
moats,  upon  which  coin-tiers  were  fed.  The 
Frenchmen.  Rabelais,  Froissart  and  Mon- 
taigne, no  more  real  to  most  of  us  than  the 
British  Falstaff,  expressed  the  utmost  con- 
tempt for  a  fish  diet  -although  Victor  Hugo. 
of  our  time,  extolled  the  eating  thereof  as 
brain-fattening.  But  there  are  all  kinds  of 
fish  cooking.  The  range  from  sole  a  la 
Marguery  to  planked  shad  at  Gloucester  is 
very  broad,  lake  eggs,  the  freshness  of  the 
fish  is  a  large  factor;  the  best  of  cooks  cannot 
make  a  stale  fish  taste  sweet.  A  man  of  true 
pride  and  self-respect  will  not  undertake  the 
task. 

Literature  on  the  art  of  cooking  made  its 
appearance,  as  nearly  as  investigation  dis- 
closes, about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  French,  having  learned  all  the 
Italians  had  to  teach,  set  themselves  to  im- 
prove thereon.  Their  success  has  been  pro- 
digious. First,  they  refined  all  the  rules  by 
reducing  the  quantities  of  ingredients  used 
to  exact  scale  of  weighl  or  measure.  Loins 
XI\  and  the  Regent  Duke  of  Orleans  were 
sturdy  encouragers  of  their  chefs.  The  Boui- 
llons knew  good  dinners  when  they  smelled 
them  afar.  Under  them  were  the  most  famous 
chefs  the  world  has  known  -Ude,  Careme  and 
Vatel!  These  are  names  that  awaken  pride 
to-day  in  every  well-appointed  kitchen  of 
Europe. 

Even  in  our  modern  New  York  there  are 
names  that  stand  for  good  cooking  throughout 
the  civilized  world:  so  famous  are  they  that  1 
wish  to  mention  a  few  of  the  many  that  have 
come  to  he  so  well  known  in  this  art  so  near 
to  the  heart  of  every  man. 

There  was  a  period  of  cathedral  building 
in  all  parts  of  Europe  and  its  results  are  seen 
to-day  in  the  beautiful  edifices  dedicated  to 
the  cause  of  religion.  In  New  York,  flic  past 
score  of  years   may  he  described  as   the  era 


of  the  hotel  builders.  When  I  firsi  came  to 
New  York,  all  hotels  worth  mention  were  on 
Broadway  and  did  not  exceed  Four  in  number, 
namely.  Metropolitan,  Si.  Nicholas,  Astor  and 
Fifth  Avenue.  There  were  others,  hul  i lux 
hail  no  claim  to  distinction.  About  1885, 
hotel  building  began.  The  results  have  been 
marvelous.  When,  therefore,  the  lime  came 
lo  eclipse  all  attempts  al   hold  building  that 

had      preceded.     John      Jacob     Astor     creeled 

the  Si.  Regis  for  R.  M.  Haan.  Never  was 
such  utter  disregard  for  expense  shown.  Ad- 
mittedly il  was  the  most  exquisitely  arranged, 
furnished  and  decorated  hotel  in  America. 
Manx  features  of  home  comfort,  including 
special     facilities     for    the    entertainment     of 


lit  §u 


till  | 

.  i.  t ;  -  - 
......    : ; 


*  Mia 


■  "~'j  j  ■ 


si    i :  i  < .  i -  1 1  <  > 1 1 : 1 


friends  by  guests  during  the  opera  season, 
Horse  Show  week,  the  Easter  season  and  al 
other  holiday  times,  give  to  the  St.  Regis  a 
place  apart  from  all  other  hotels.  The  quiet 
magnificence  of  the  place,  superior  manage- 
ment and  a  cui>ine  thai  has  become  world- 
famous  have  made  il  one  of  the  most  popular 
hostelries  in  this  city  which  boasts  of  the  last 
word  in  hotels. 

Mr.  Ilaan's  well-earned  reputation  is  he- 
hind  this  enterprise  and  its  superior  location, 
upon  the  avenue  that  is  the  pride  of  New 
York,  gives  to  il  the  supreme  eminence  it 
possesses.     Transient   guests   who  appreciate 


368 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


the  best  of  everything  will  find  that  they  pay 
no  more  at  the  St.  Regis  than  at  other  places 
of  acknowledged  merit. 

Mr.  Haan's  large  and  popular  restaurant, 
occupying  one-half  of  the  first  floor  of  the 
Park  Row  Building,  is  one  of  the  sights  of  this 
city, — as  Taylor's  was  fifty  years  ago. 

Switzerland  is  known  the  world  over  for 
the  rearing  of  successful  hotel  managers. 
They  are  found  at  the  heads  of  most  of  the 
successful  establishments  in  all  parts  of 
Europe.  The  name  of  "Oscar"  is  a  familiar 
one  to  all  lovers  of  good  eating  in  this  city. 
He  was  born  at  Cahux-de-fonds  in  the  Swiss 
Republic,  September,  lS(i(i,  and  was  educated 


when  the  original  Hotel  Waldorf  was  erected. 
A  large  measure  of  the  success  of  that  estab- 
lishment has  been  due  to  him.  He  tells  me 
his  greatest  hobby  is  farming.  He  is  a  32d 
degree  Mason;  also  honorary  president  of 
the  Geneva  Society  and  of  the  New  York 
branch  of  the  International  Stewards'  Asso- 
ciation. 

New  York  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  hotel 
field  in  the  world;  the  statement  is  so  thor- 
oughly recognized  that  its  repetition  seems 
trite.  The  capacity  of  the  splendid  hotels  of 
this  city  is  more  than  double  that  of  London 
or  Paris.  Many  successful  managers  of  to- 
day  have   come   anion"-   us   with   well-earned 


OSCAB  TSCHIRKY 


EDWARD  M.  TIERNEY 


VV.  JOHNSON  QUINN 


in  the  schools  of  his  native  country.  His 
active  career  in  America  began  in  1SS3  at 
the  Hoffman  House,  where  he  soon  rose  to  a 
place  of  responsibility  as  caterer  to  the  most 
critical  class  of  patrons  known  to  New  York 
hotel  managers  in  that  day,  among  them 
being  Roscoe  Conkling,  B.  B.  Ilotchkiss, 
John  W.  Mackay,  Chauncey  M.  Depew, 
Gen.  Woodford  and  David  B.  Hill.  Oscar 
Tschirky  served  an  apprenticeship  in  every 
part  of  the  restaurant  and  hotel  business,  be- 
ginning at  the  bottom  in  Switzerland,  until 
to-day  he  has  the  distinction  of  being  manager 
of  the  Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel.  He  left  Del- 
monico's  to  take  charge  of  the  dining  rooms 


reputations  made  elsewhere.  Among  these 
is  Edward  M.  Tierney.  present  proprietor 
of  the  Hotel  Marlborough  and  recently  presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  State  Hotel  Association. 
Mr.  Tierney  was  born  at  Susquehanna,  Pa., 
November,  1858,  and  was  educated  at  the 
public  schools  of  his  native  town.  After 
experience  as  a  clerk  in  various  hotels  until 
1885,  he  began  for  himself.  His  start  was 
made  at  Binghamton,  N.  Y..  where,  in  asso- 
ciation with  J.  W.  Kennedy,  the  Arlington 
Hotel  was  erected,  which  is  now  conducted 
by  Mr.  Tierney.  These  partners  subsequently 
leased  the  Rathbun  Hotel  at  Elmira.  In 
1902    Mr.    Tierney    made  a   tour  of  Europe. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


:5(i<> 


Egypt  and  Palestine.  He  has  been  an  ex- 
tensive traveler  all  his  life.  After  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Sweeney-Tierney  Company,  in 
1904,  the  Hotel  Marlborough,  of  this  city, 
was  leased  and  has  been  managed  l>v  Mr. 
Tierney  ever  since.  He  is  well  known  as  an 
after-dinner  speaker  and  is  president  of  the 
Hotel  Men's  Mutual  Benefit  Association  of 
the  United  States  and  Canada. 

'The  Dominion  of  Canada  has  supplied  the 
metropolis  with  one  of  its  most  successful 
hotel  proprietors  in  the  person  of  W.  Johnson 
Quinn,  of  the  Hotel  Empire.  Mr.  Quins  was 
born  at  Durnham,  Ormston,  Province  of 
Quebec,  April,  1801,  and  was  educated  at 
the  Brothers'  School,  Montreal,  and  the  Tur- 
ner Institute,  graduating  in  1877.  He  left 
Montreal  in  1882  and  has  been  continuously 
engaged  in  the  hotel  business,  principally  in 
this  city,  since  that  time.  lie  was  manager 
of  the  Hotel  Vendome,  1S8!>  to  1894;  the  Hotel 
Arvene,  at  Arvene-by-the-Sea,  1894-'95;  open- 
ed the  Hotel  Empire  in  1N!)4,  as  manager  for 
the  estate  of  William  Noble,  became  pro- 
prietor in  1897  and  has  conducted  it  success- 
fully ever  since.  Mr.  Quinn  also  conducted 
the  Allenhurst  Inn  and  Cottage  Company, 
at  Allenhurst,  N.  J.,  and  the  Long  Beach 
Hotel  on  Long  Island;  both  were  Summer 
hotels  and  both  were  destroyed  by  tire.  When 
Mi*.  Quinn  took  charge  of  the  Hotel  Empire, 
it  was  thought  to  be  too  far  uptown,  but 
through  persistent  advertising  and  special  at- 
tention to  his  guests,  it  has  become  one  of 
the  most  prosperous  houses  in  New  York. 
Mr.  Quinn's  parents  came  from  Ireland.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Catholic  Club,  the  Order 
of  Elks,  the  national,  state  and  city  Hotel 
Men's  Associations. 

Diners  at  the  celebrated  French  restaurant 
of  J.  B.  Martin,  now  at  the  old  Delmonico 
site  at  Twenty-sixth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue, 
have  watched  the  growth  of  this  business  since 
the  appearance  of  M.  Martin  on  the  corner 
of  University  Place  and  Ninth  Street,  in  1883. 
He  was  born  at  Aix-Ies-Bains,  son  of  a  res- 
taurateur. When  Count  de  Lesseps  under- 
took the  construction  of  the  Panama  Canal, 
M.  Martin  set  out  for  the  canal  zone  and 
started  a  hotel  at  Colon.  It  was  far  more 
successful  than  the  canal  enterprise,  for  when 


the  latter  collapsed  the  young  Frenchman 
found  himself  rich  enough  lo  come  to  New 
York  and  start  business.  During  nineteen 
years  the  Hotel  Martin  attracted  French 
epicures.  Its  proprietor  was  the  first  to 
successfully  establish  in  New  York  the  French 
table  d'hote. 

Delmonico  had  an  eating-house  somewhere 
far  down  town;  but  an  event  of  far  greater  im- 
portance to  the  average  professional  man 
south  of  City  Hall  was  the  appearance  of  a 
Frenchman,  Henri  Mouquin,  on  the  lower 
part  of  Fulton  Street  in  1857.  Many  New 
Yorkers  had  previously  enjoyed  his  excellent 
cooking  in  a  basement  room  on  Nassau  St  reel ; 
but  when  he  opened  a  restaurant,  reaching 
from  Fulton  to  Ann  Streets,  editors,  reporters, 
lawyers  and  bankers,  who  appreciated  wine 
with  their  luncheons,  joined  in  an  acclaim  of 
welcome.  Henri  Mouquin  demonstrated  the 
possibility  of  supplying  a  good  grade  of  red 
or  white  French  wine  at  half  dollar  a  bottle ! 
Caterers  of  the  old  school  were  dissatisfied 
with  less  than  three  hundred  per  cent,  profit 
upon  foreign  wines,  and  the  drinking  of  any 
beverage  except  beer  with  one's  meals  was 
restricted  lo  wealthy  patrons.  In  a  year's 
time  this  thrifty  Frenchman  put  a  new  mint- 
mark  upon  good  living  at  a  reasonable  [nice! 
Never  were  his  charges  cheap;  reasonable  they 
assuredly  were.  New  Yorkers  who  know  only 
the  fashionable  restaurants  of  to-day  cannot 
form  any  conception  what  a  revelation  the 
Mouquin  cooking  became  to  appreciative, 
good-livers  of  the  Seventies  and  Eighties! 
My  own  satisfaction  may  be  estimated  by 
the  fact  that  one  waiter.  "Peter"  served 
me  for  twenty-seven  years!  When  he  died 
he  left  to  his  widow  four  brownstone  houses 
in  Harlem, — indicating  the  favor  in  which  he 
was  held. 

The  business  expanded,  as  it  deserved  to 
do.  For  the  first  time,  waiters  were  studiously 
attentive  to  the  tastes  of  customers.  Never 
was  there  any  hesitation  about  changing  an 
unsatisfactory  dish.  The  aim  of  the  pro- 
prietor was  to  satisfy  his  patrons.  Every 
complaint  was  promptly  attended  to.  This 
was  a  revelation  to  New  Yorkers,  who.  for 
generations    had    been   compelled    to   pay    for 


370 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


food  served  to  them  whether  it  was  in  satis- 
factory condition  or  not.  Here,  for  a  novelty. 
the  customer  was  asked  exactly  how  he  wanted 
his  steak  or  roast  fowl  and  he  could  confidently 
expect  to  receive  it  as  ordered.  It'  the  cooks 
were  careles>.  a  patron  never  suffered.  Mou- 
quin  may  be  truthfully  credited  with  the  in- 
troduction of  low-priced  French  wines  in  the 
l/nited  States. — a  service  to  humanity  not  to 


be  forgotten.  He  also  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  American  public  foreign  cheeses 
and  delicacies  that  the  most  fashionable 
grocers  hail  never  kept  in  stock.  Not  one 
New  Yorker  out  of  ten  thousand  had  eaten 
Pont  l'Eveque,  Camembert,  Gorgonzola  or 
Porte  du  Salut  cheeses  until  he  became  a 
frequenter  of  "Mouquin's."    There  never  was 


a  dull  day's  business.  Daily  new  French 
dishes  were  added  to  the  list:  business  men 
grew  fond  of  cepes  and  artichokes,  served  as 
they  are  at  Fontainebleau  and  the  Cafe 
Bignon,  Paris.  Of  course,  some  people  had 
eaten  these  characteristically  French  vege- 
tables at  Delmonico's;  but  such  delicacies  were 
assumed  to  be  beyond  the  ordinary  purse 
Mouquin  showed  the  fallacy  of  this.  Lovers 
of  Thackeray  were  served  with  steaming 
toureens  of  Bouillabaisse,  ami  inimitable  fish 
and  side  dishes  so  dear  to  the  French  taste, 
at  twenty-five  cents  a  portion.  A  feature 
particularly  attractive  to  regular  diners  was 
lc  p/iil  du  jour.  This  differentiated  one  day's 
meals  from  the  other.  A  patron  could  go  to 
Mouquin's  with  confidence  that  on  certain 
days  he  was  sure  of  his  favorite  dish.  The 
>econd  floor  of  the  building  was  soon  added. 
Especially  do  I  speak  of  a  small  room  in  an 
adjoining  building  to  the  east  added  for  the 
accommodation  of  customers  from  News- 
paper Row.  A  swinging  door  only  separated 
this  "sanctum"  from  the  larger  dining  room. 
but  the  exclusiveness  was  generally  respected 
by  men  in  other  professions.  In  this  out-of- 
the-way-nook,  1  have  frequently  seen  Charles 
A.  Dana.  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Park  God- 
win, Mayo  W.  Hazeltine,  John  Bigelow,  Amos 
J.  Cummings,  John  Hay.  Whitelaw  Reid. 
Manton  Marble.  William  Henry  Hurlbert, 
Thomas  B.  Connery.  John  Russell  Young, 
John  R.  Stockton.  Albeit  Pulitzer.  Louis  J. 
Jennings.   George   Jones  and   many  others. 

About  the  time  Henri  Mouquin  was  estab- 
lishing himself  on  Fulton  Street  (1870),  the 
present  head  of  the  business,  his  son,  Louis  C. 
Mouquin,  was  born  in  the  Ninth  Ward  of  this 
city.  Young  Louis  first  entered  the  New  York 
public  schools  and  then  finished  his  education 
in  France.  Switzerland  and  Germany.  He  is 
an  accomplished  linguist.  On  his  return  from 
abroad,  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  conduct 
of  the  business,  and  when  'The  Knicker- 
bocker Cottage."  an  historically  prominent 
tavern  on  Sixth  Avenue,  was  remodeled  and 
added  to  the  Mouquin  outfit,  he  was  placed 
in  charge.  He  is  an  exceedingly  popular  man, 
voung  looking  for  his  years. 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    VORK 


:;:  i 


In  speaking  of  the  hotels  and  restaurants  of 
the  city,  a  thought  comes  of  the  brewers  of  the 
country,  and  a  few  words  about  the  National 

Association   may  not  be  amiss. 

The  I  nited  States  Brewers'  Association, 
organized  in  November,  1SU-2.  is  an  indirecl 
product  of  the  most  momentous  crisis  of  our 
national  life.  The  beer  tax,  a  pari  of  the  in- 
ternal revenue  system,  then  embracing  every 
branch  of  commerce  and  industry,  was  the 
direct  tangible  cause  of  its  organization. 

Unbiased  historians  admit  that  the  more 
important  border  States  were  saved  for  the 
Union  by  the  German- Americans,  and  among 
them — as  in  fact  throughout  the  country,  even 
in  the  South  -the  brewers  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  willingness  to  give  active  sup- 
port to  the  l  nion  cause. 

The  first  revenue  laws  were  crude  and  de- 
fective, and  frauds  were  inevitable.  The  law- 
makers sought  remedies  for  these  delects;  hut 
above  all.  they  looked  for  a  tax-method  en- 
suring safe  and  easy  collection  and  the  pre- 
vention of  fraud.  It  was  the  organized  brew- 
ers' avowed  purpose  to  assist  the  Government 
in  the  accomplishment  of  these  objects. 

When  in  1865  Congress  created  a  Special 
Revenue  Commission  with  a.  view  to  per- 
fecting the  system,  the  United  Slates  Brewers' 
Association  again  volunteered  its  assistance, 
and  at  its  own  expense  sent  a  committee  to 
Europe  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  excise 
methods  in  the  various  beer-producing  coun- 
tries. 

Under  special  instruction  from  the  Treasury 
Department,  the  Special  Revenue  Commis- 
sioner attended  the  brewers'  convention  at 
which  this  committee  reported.  The  brew- 
ers' report  became  a  public  document,  not 
inferior,  as  impartial  critics  admit,  in  any 
respect  to  the  official  dissertation  on  revenue 
of  which  that  period  was  so  prolific.  ( longress 
adopted  the  system  which  was  proposed  by 
the  brewers,  and  which  in  its  essential  features 
remains  in  force  to  the  present  day. 

In  1875  Massachusetts  abolished  Prohibi- 
tion on  the  strength  of  a  voluminous  official 
report,  the  outcome  of  an  investigation  which 


resulted  in  a  complete  negation  of  every  argu- 
ment and  presumption  in  favor  of  compulsory 
total  abstinence.  Following  this  came  the 
famous  scientific  inquiry  conducted  by  Dr. 
Bowditch,  which  induced  thousands  of  physi- 
cians, journalists,  clergymen  and  authors  in 
advocate  the  use  of  wine  and  beer. 

Early  in  the  80's  Prohibition  gained  the 
ascendancy  in  Iowa.     From  this  period  dates 

the  systematic  dissemination  of  literature  on 
the  drink  question  by  the  Association,  and  its 
effect  may  he  properly  gauged  by  the  fact  thai 
up  lo  the  era  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  our 
time,  proposed  Stale  Prohibition  was  defeated 
at  the  ballot  box  in  ten  Slates,  and  abolished 
in  all  the  New  England  Stales,  excepting  Maine. 

Concerning  Federal  legislation  againsl  adul- 
terations, this  Association  assumed  an  attitude 
which  secured  to  it  the  respeel  and  confidence 
of  the  Agricultural  Departmenl  and  of  Con- 
gress. Taking  an  active  pail  in  the  First 
Pure  Food  Congress,  its  Committee  submitted 
that  clause,  subsequently  adopted  by  Congress, 
which  gave  to  the  manufacturer  the  rignl  lo 
cooperate  with  the  government  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  standards.  Thai  being  granted, 
#the  Association  consistently  advocated  the 
enactment  of  a  Federal  law,  and  had  the  grati- 
fication of  being  complimented  for  this  attitude 
by  several  industrial  bodies  that  had  originally 
opposed  Federal  legislation.  The  patriotism 
of  the  brewers  was  again  manifested  during 
the  Spanish-American  War,  when  the  brew- 
ing industry  was  subjected  to  and  cheerfully 
paid  a  double  tax. 

During  the  past  five  or  six  years  the  local 
option  movement  has  assumed  formidable 
proportions  under  the  leadership  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League.  On  the  other  hand,  a  re- 
awakening of  the  liberal  spirit  is  noticeable 
everywhere.  Thanks  to  the  energy  of  many 
associations  of  manufacturers  and  other  busi- 
ness men.  who  realize  the  destructive  ten- 
dencies of  the  League  anil  the  utter  lack  of 
fairness  in  its  agitation,  the  counter-movement 
goes  bravely  on,  and  will  bring  about  in  lime, 
it  is  confidently  expected,  a  revulsion  of  public 
sentiment  wherever  the  natural  rights  of  the 
citizens  are  threatened  or  suppressed. 


372 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


THE  GREAT  METROPOLIS  OF  TO-DAY 


1MB  the  tallest  building  in 
New  York,  therefore  the  high- 
est business  structure  in  the 
world,  and  get  your  first  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  greatest 
port  on  earth!  No  matter  what 
hour  of  the  day  be  chosen,  you 
are  sure  to  see  mammoth  steamships  at  their 
wharves  or  setting  out  or  arriving.  Descend 
and  visit  the  river  front  and  you  will  hear  all 
the  tongues  of  the  commercial  world.  The 
Ear  East  and  the  Western  Orient  are  con- 
tributing their  wealth  to  this  land.  In  their 
places,  grains  of  all  kinds  from  our  Western 
prairies  are  going  to  maintain  the  physical 
energies  of  tin-  rug-makers  of  Persia,  the  ivory 
carvers  of  the  East  and  the  artisans  of  Italy 
and  Southern  Europe.  Tank  steamers  are 
loading  with  oil  from  Pennsylvania,  Texas, 
Ohio  and  other  sections.  Cattle  by  thousands 
and  dressed  meats  by  the  ship-load,  machinery 
for  the  farm-lands  of  Russia  and  Egypt, 
dredgers  for  the  Persian  Gulf,  typewriters  for 
every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  phonographs 
for  Turkey!  Only  then  do  you  acquire  a  full 
understanding  of  the  colossal  commercial 
enterprises  represented  here. 

Here  is  a  clearing-house  for  the  whole  world! 

Near  the  Fulton  fish-market,  where  Glou- 
cester sailors  are  unloading  their  catch  from 
the  Newfoundland  banks,  Malays  and  China- 
men are  carrying  ashore  cargoes  of  spices 
from  the  Indies,  silks  from  Singapore,  coffees 
from  Batavia,  tobacco  from  Sumatra,  and,  at 
another  pier,  crated  wild  animals  from  Bengal 
and  pythons  from  the  Straits  Settlements; 
teas  from  China  and  Ceylon,  sugar  and  hemp 
from  Manila,  human  hair  from  all  parts  of 
Asia  in  all  a  hundred  million  dollars'  worth 
a  month  are  landing  at  the  best  of  the  world's 
markets  from  a  thousand  ships  of  every 
nameable  class  and  are  swallowed  in  a  day 
down  the  voracious  throat  of  New  York. 


More  than  a  hundred  coast-wise  steamers, 
not  reckoned  above,  are  transferring  the  goods 
of  one  part  of  this  country  to  another;  "whale- 
backs"  on  the  Great  Lakes  are  contributing 
their  share  by  canal-boats  from  Buffalo; 
vessels  of  sail  and  steam  from  the  West  Indies, 
Panama  and  all  the  Gulf  polls  are  coming 
and  going  several  times  each  day.  It  will  lie 
a  rare  occasion,  also,  in  which  half  a  dozen  of 
the  most  modern  of  Uncle  Sam's  fighting 
craft  are  not  within  the  Narrows. 

Sixteen  transatlantic  steamship  companies, 
a  fleet  of  more  than  one  hundred  great  liners, 
are  competing  for  passengers  and  freight 
between  the  new  world  and  the  old — with 
business  for  all  of  them.  Tramp  freight 
steamers  are  countless.  New  York's  450 
miles  of  waterfront  is  twice  as  great  as  that 
of  London  and  its  commerce  exceeds  the 
British  capital  by  more  than  a  million  tons 
annually!  New  York's  waterfront  is  barely 
half  developed,  and  by  the  time  it  is  fully 
opened — including  Jamaica  Bay— it  will  meas- 
ure nearly  as  many  miles  as  lie  between  the 
Atlantic  seaboard   and  the  Mississippi    River. 

Where  Nature  originally  placed  obstacles 
in  the  path  of  New  York's  commerce,  dyna- 
mite and  dredging  have  cleared  paths.  Rocks 
have  been  blown  out  of  "Hell  Gate,"  shoals 
have  been  removed,  and  a  canal  2,000  feet 
wide,  seven  miles  in  length  and  forty  feet  in 
depth  has  been  dug  at  vast  cost  from  the 
upper  end  of  the  Lower  Bay  direct  to  sea. 
It  is  known  as  the  Ambrose  Channel,  and 
shortens  the  preliminary  voyage— for  distance 
on  the  ocean  is  only  reckoned  from  the 
lightship— by  more  than  an  hour.  Half  a 
million  dollars  were  spent  in  lighting  it  at 
night!  The  new  Chelsea  piers  cost  the  munici- 
pality more  than  $12,000,000,  and  the  advent 
of  the  1, 000-foot  steamship  has  already  neces- 
sitated their  further  extension  into  the  North 
River. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


:{?3 


;*74 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Recent  Customs  rulings  permit  ocean  grey- 
hounds to  come  to  their  docks  at  auv  hour 
of  the  day  or  night.  So  admirably  enforced 
have  been  inspections  of  all  incoming  foreign 
steamers  or  sailing  vessels  that  the  arrival  of 
infectious  diseases  is  impossible,  (inns  that 
guard  this  imperial  port  are  the  heaviest 
known:  a  system  of  submarine  mines  has  been 
perfected  that  in  a  day's  notice  will  render  the 
harbor  impregnable  Lo  attack  from  sea. 
The  bottom  of  the  Lower  Bay  will  become  a 
network  of  mines.  The  Brooklyn  Navy  'Said 
is  the  most  important  in  the  country  and  the 
best  equipped.  With  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  ("anal,  several  new  lines  of  steamers 
will  carry  United  States  products  to  the  West 
coast  of  South  America  and  return  with 
argosies  that  now  go  to  Europe  'round  Cape 
I  lorn. 

To  safeguard  ships  of  all  nations,  bound  to 
this  port  or  leaving  it.  the  Government  main- 
tains a  complete  meteorological  bureau  atop 
one  of  the  loftiest  buildings,  to  give  warning 
of  hurricanes  or  dangerous  storms  by  wireless 
messages.  Every  steamer  on  the  North  At- 
lantic, properly  equipped,  is  told  the  direction 
and    intensity    of   the    threatening   storm. 

Over  this  great  harbor  towers  the  stately 
( roddess  of  Liberty — gift  of  the  French  people, 
to  whom  the  American  patriots  of  the  Revolu- 
tion   pointed    the   way    to   freedom. 

To  tell  the  story  of  such  a  city  would  mean 
the  writing  of  the  history  of  the  American 
people.  It  represents  the  tireless  energy  of  a 
new  nation;  but,  perhaps  the  most  interest- 
ing feature  is  the  study  of  the  men  who  are 
carrying  on  the  great  work  founded  by  the 
fathers.  This  book  has  included  the  names 
of  many  men  who  are  at  the  forefront  of  the 
battle  today, — all  builders  of  this  great  city— 
this  chapter  will  contain  a  review  of  a  few  of 
the  prominent  men  and  firms  who  are  en- 
gaged in  the  direction  of  the  financial  inter- 
ests  which  are  such  a  stupendous  factor  in 
New  York,  the  money  centre  of  the  western 
world.  One  realizes  that  this  city  draws  into 
its  labors  the  strong,  the  vigilant  and  the 
brave;  there  is  no  place  here  for  the  weak- 
ling, life  is  too  strenuous,  and  the  current 
soon  carried  the  sluggard  to  the  outer  shores. 


To  lie  successful  in  New  York  means  more 
than  success  in  any  other  city  in  the  world, 
and  the  pages  of  this  book  are  filled  with 
those  who  are  carrying  the  burdens  of  this 
wonder  citv  on  their  efficient  shoulders. 


WALTEK  E.  FREW 


Many  successful  bankers  have  started  their 
careers  as  merchants.  An  example  of  a  suc- 
cessful change  from  general  merchandise  to 
finance  is  found  in  Walter  Edwin  Frew,  now 
at  the  head  of  a  great  hanking  institution  of 
this  city.  He  was  born  in  Brooklyn,  July, 
lS(i4.  and  educated  at  the  Greenpoint  Acad- 
emy and  the  public  schools.  He  entered  the 
employ  of  Shepherd,  Knapp  &  Co.,  where  he 
remained  six  years,  going  thence  to  the 
Eleventh  Ward  Bank  as  a  clerk  in  1885.  We 
next  find  him  as  cashier  of  tin1  Queens  County 
Bank.  Long  Island  City,  four  years  later,  and 
its  president  in  IS)).),  which  position  of  trust 
he  held  for  four  years.     Thence   he  went  to 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


375 


the  Corn  Exchange  Hank  as  a  director  and 
vice-president,  since  becoming  its  president. 
Mr.  Frew  is  associated  with  many  financial 
institutions.  For  example,  he  is  a  director  in 
the  Bankers'  Trust  Company,  the  United 
Button  Company,  secretary  and  treasurer  of 
the  Queens  County  Safe  Deposit  Company, 
and  trustee  of  the  Dry  Dock  Savings  Hank. 
He  served  as  secretary  of  the  New  York  Clear- 
ing House  Association  and  during  the  panic 
of  190?  was  member  of  its  Loan  Committee, 
which  sustained  many  financial  institutions 
from  disaster  during  that  critical  period. 

Among  the  men  prominent  in  the  banking 
circles  of  the  city  is  Alexander  Walker,  presi- 
dent of  the  Colonial  Bank. 

Mr.  Walker  was  born  in  the  parish  of  Rat- 
ford.  Morayshire,  Scotland.  June  25,  1852. 
He  was  educated  in  the  parish  school  of  the 
town  of  his  birth  and  upon  the  completion  of 
his  studies  became  an  apprentice  to  a  stone 
cutter  in  Forres.  Scotland.  After  coining  to 
New  York  City  he  followed  the  same  trade 
and  at  the  same  time  studied  in  the  evening 
high  school.  He  then  commenced  business 
for  himself  as  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Gillie  & 
Walker,  and  subsequently  became  a  member 
of  the  real  estate  firm  of  Walker  &  Lawson 
and  is  still  engaged  in  large  realty  transactions 
and  building  operations.  He  has  been  con- 
nected with  the  Colonial    Bank  since  its  or- 


ganization and  its  president  since  IS!).'),  and 
is  also  vice-president  of  the  Standard  Mortgage 
Company,  a  director  of  the  Greenwich  Hank, 
and  trustee  of  the  Harlem  Savings  Hank. 
Mr.  Walker  is  a  member  of  the  (handier  of 
Commerce,  St.  Andrew's  Society,  president  of 
General  Society  of  Mechanics  and  Tradesmen, 
New  York  Historical  Society  and  the  New 
York  Scottish  Society. 

( )f  old  New  England  ancestry  and  inheriting 
the  sterling  integrity  and  business  acumen  of 
his  forebears.  Henry  C.  Hulherl  has  through 
his  own  efforts  risen  to  high  position  in  the 
financial  world  of  New  York  City.  Mr. 
Hulberl  was  horn  in  Fee,  Mass.,  December 
1!).  L831,  and  was  educated  at  the  district 
school  and  Lee  Academy,  after  which  he  was 
employed  in  stores  in  Lee  and  Pittsfield,  Mass. 
He  came  to  New  York  City  when  nineteen 
years  old  and  entered  the  employ  of  White  & 
Sheffield,  wholesale  paper  dealers.  He  was 
given  an  interest  in  the  profits  after  the  fourth 
year  and  the  year  following  became  a  partner 
in  the  firm  of  J.  B.  Sheffield  &  Co.  In  1858 
he  organized  the  firm  of  II.  C.  &  M.  Hulbert, 
and  in  L872  bought  out  his  partners' interesl 
and  admitted  to  partnership  two  young  men, 
Joseph  II.  Sutphin  and  George  F.  Hulbert, 
who  had  heen  brought  up  in  the  business. 
The   firm    was    II.    ('.    Hulbert    &    Co.     from 


ALEXANDER   WALKER 


HENm    C.   HULBERT 


\N  l"N     \     I!  \\  IN 


376 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


187l2  until  1900,  when  he  retired.  Mr.  IIul- 
bert  is  a  director  and  vice-president  of  the 
Importers  and  Traders  National  Bank.  South 
Brooklyn  Savings  Institution  and  the  Brooklyn 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren; a  director  and  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Pullman  Company  and  the 
Celluloid  Company:  director  of  the  United 
States  Life  Insurance  Company  and  the 
Franklin  Trust  Company:  life  member  of  the 
New  York  Colonial  Wars  Society  and  the 
New  England  Society  of  both  New  York  and 
Brooklyn,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  New  York. 

The  commercial  interests  of  New  York  are 
under  large  obligations  to  the  Island  of 
Curacao,  because  it  has  given  to  us  one  of 
the  foremost  insurance  men  of  this  country. 
Except  for  small  discrepancies  of  latitude  and 
longitude,  the  Garden  of  Eden  might  well 
have  been  located  in  Curacao,  in  the  Dutch 
West  Indies.  Of  beautiful  spots  that  have 
come  under  my  eye,  in  various  parts  of  this 
globe,  this  little  island  is  one  of  the  fairest. 

Upon  this  happy  and  peaceful  tropical 
isle,  Anton  Adolph  Raven  was  born  in  the 
year  1833.  His  father  was  John  R,  Raven, 
a  name  that  indicates  English  ancestry;  his 
mother  was  O.  Petronella  Ilutchings.  de- 
scended from  Knickerbocker  ancestors,  who 
went  from  New  York  to  Curacao,  a  genera- 
tion earlier. 

Anton  Raven  came  to  New  York  in  185L2, 
when  17  years  of  age,  and  entered  the  service 
of  the  Atlantic  Mutual  Insurance  Company. 
When  he  became  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  this 
corporation,  his  position  was  one  of  com- 
paratively little  scope  and  importance.  Dur- 
ing the  last  half  century,  the  rise  of  Atlantic 
Mutual  Insurance  Company  to  its  present 
preeminent  position  has  kept  pace  with  the 
steady  progress  of  Anton  Raven  to  its  presi- 
dency. His  financial  rank,  as  the  head  of 
this  great  company,  is  indicated  by  the  respon- 
sible positions  he  holds  as  trustee  of  the  New 
York  Life  Insurance  Company,  vice-president 
of  the  Metropolitan  Trust  and  of  the  Home 
Life  Insurance  Companies,  and  as  a  director 


of  the  Fidelity  and  Casualty  Company,  the 
Bank  of  New  York  and  the  Seaman's  Savings 
Bank. 

Mr.  Raven's  heart  and  purse  are  always 
open  to  worthy  objects.  He  also  takes  an  ac- 
tive interest  in  civic  reforms.  He  is  a  con- 
stant patron  of  science  and  art.  being  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History  (Life 
Member),  and  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art.  His  clubs  are  the  Hamilton  and 
Montauk  of  Brooklyn,  of  which  borough  he 
is  a  resident. 

The  splendid  building  occupied  by  the  com- 
pany, a.  the  corner  of  Wall  and  William 
Streets,  is  one  of  the  finest  office  structures 
in  a  city  of  skyscrapers.  It  towers  high  above 
surrounding  edifices,  having  for  nearest  neigh- 
bor  the  ancient  custom  house,  reconstructed 
for  the  use  of  the  City  National  Bank. 

When  the  two  cities  of  Manhattan  and 
Brooklyn  were  tied  together  by  the  opening 
of  the  first  Brooklyn  bridge  in  May,  1883, 
the  manifest  destiny  of  Greater  New  York 
was  seen.  Although  Brooklyn  has  profited 
more  than  Manhattan  from  that  subsequent 
means  of  communication,  both  boroughs  are 
stronger  for  the  union.  No  one  has  labored 
more  sturdily  to  effect  and  cement  this  con- 
solidation of  interests  than  Julian  D.  Fair- 
child.  One  by  one,  he  has  seen  bridges  added, 
but  the  proved  value  of  the  first  one  led  to  the 
construction  of  the  others  and  every  new 
structure  of  the  kind  has  merely  confirmed 
the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Fairchild's  original  views. 
Despite  the  thought  and  time  he  has  given 
to  public  interests,  characteristic  modesty 
twice  induced  him  to  decline  the  highest  honor 
in  the  gift  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  was 
offered  the  Democratic  nomination  for  Mayor 
of  Brooklyn  in  1894.  but  refused  it.  When 
the  greater  city  was  first  organized,  he  likewise 
objected  to  being  nominated  for  City  Comp- 
troller. This  action  was  not  taken  because  of 
disinclination  to  assume  responsibility  or  to 
undertake  arduous  work  for  the  city,  but  for 
the  reason  that  he  believed  he  could  serve  the 
public    equally    well    without    holding    office. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


377 


The  erection  of  the  Williamsburg  bridge 
was  one  of  the  most  businesslike  and  properly 
conducted  public  works  ever  accomplished 
by  the  City  of  New  York.  Mr.  Fairchild 
held  the  position  of  treasurer  of  the  Commis- 
sion having  charge  of  this  undertaking  and 
helped  materially  to  sustain  public  confidence 
during  the  progress  of  the  work.  The  com- 
pleted structure  stands  to-day  as  an  example 
of  what  can  be  accomplished  even  in  graft- 
ridden  New  York:  the  bills  for  its  erection 
were  as  closely  scrutinized  as  though  they  had 
been  presented  to  a  business  house  and  fewer 
"snakes"  crept  in  than  in  any  public  enter- 
prise of  recent  years. 

Julian  I).  Fairchild  came  from  Connecticut, 
where  he  was  born  at  Stratford.  April.   1850. 
He  attended  public  schools  in   Stratford    and 
New    Haven.      His    family    is    of   English    de- 
scent. Thomas  Fairchild  crossing  the   sea    to 
wed    Sarah    Seabrook,    of    Puritan    stock,    in 
1637.     Before    his    schooling    was    complete, 
young   Fairchild   sought   employment    with   a 
manufacturing  house  in  New  Haven,  to  which 
city  his  parents  had  removed.      By   industry 
and    intelligence    displayed,    while    employed 
by  this  firm,  his  prospects  were  advanced  ma- 
terially.     Having  saved  the  money  thus  earned 
he  started  a  store  of  his  own  which  proved 
exceptionally  successful  and  raised  him  to  the 
position  of  a  small  but  independent  capitalist 
in  the  '"Elm  City."      He  was  exceedingly  de- 
sirous to  take  a  course  at  Yale  College,  but  the 
.struggle  for  existence  prevented.      After  being 
identified     with     several     industries     in     New 
Haven,  he  invaded  what  is  to-day  the  City  of 
New  York  and  eventually  developed   into  a 
capitalist  of  large  proportions.     He  was  elected 
president   of  the    Kings   County   Trust    Com- 
pany, in  1893.  an  institution  in  which  he  had 
been  interested  since  its  inception.     Soon  after 
he  became  a  director  of  the  Bedford    Bank. 
Lawyers'    Title    Insurance    and    Trust    Com- 
pany.  National    City   Bank   and    many   other 
corporations.      Ever  since  Edison  had  success- 
fully subdivided  the  electric  current.  Mr.  Fair- 
child  has  taken  interest    in   "the  new   light" 
and  was  early  in  the  activities  that  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  Edison  Electric  Illuminating 
Company  of  Brooklyn.      Despite  the  fact  that 
he   was   an   enthusiastic   advocate   of   bridges 


JULIAN    li    FAIRCHILD 

and    tunnels    connecting    the    two     boroughs, 

Mr.  Fairchild  accepted  the  presidency  of  the 
Union  Ferry  Company,  hoping  to  restore  his 
fortune — seriously  impaired  by  the  bridges 
and  tunnels  he  had  advocated.  In  this,  as  in 
all  things,  his  thoughts  were  centered  upon 
the  fortunes  of  the  two  cities  rather  than  upon 
any  profits  that  might  accrue  to  the  stock- 
holders of  individual  corporations.  This  un- 
selfishness characterizes  Air.  Fairchild's  whole 
life.  His  declination  of  the  Democratic  nomi- 
nation for  Mayor  in  189(i  has  been  referred  to. 
He  is  a  regent  of  the  Long  Island  College 
Hospital,  president  of  the  Brooklyn  Central 
Dispensary,  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce and  of  the  Brooklyn.  Montauk,  Carle- 
ton  and  Dyker  Meadow  clubs. 

Banking  in  America  has  become  one  of  the 
fine  arts:  no  professional  pursuit  requires 
keener  judgment,  readier  resource  or  broader 
scope  of  national  affairs  than  the  conduct  of 
a  successful  banking  institution  in  New  York 
or  any  large  city.  The  highest  type  of  indi- 
vidual integrity  is  also  essential  capacity  and 
experience  being  a  condition  precedent.  One 
must  carry  in  his  mind  the  standing  and  credit 
of  all  prominent  business  industries  of  the 
community    to    properly    safeguard     interests 


378 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


j:h\vai:i>  E  \i: 


ELIAS  A     DE  LIMA 


LOUIS 


K  VUFMAN 


committed  to  his  care.  A  bank  president 
must  possess  qualifications  necessary  to  insure 
success  in  uearlv  every  other  branch  of  com- 
mercial life,  as  well  as  professional  service. 
In  this  respect  he  is  much  like  the  chief  editor 
of  a  metropolitan  newspaper,  because  he  can 
only  acquire  such  knowledge  when  he  has 
begun  at  the  bottom  and  grown  with  his  ad- 
vancement  until  he  lias  reached  the  pinnacle 
of  his  capacity  and  ambition.  I  am  led  to 
dwell  upon  the  requirements  of  the  modern 
bank  president  in  contemplating  the  success- 
ful career  of  Edward  Earl,  President  of  the 
National  Nassau  Bank  of  New  York.  He 
entered  that  institution  in  January,  1887, 
when  a  young  man.  as  an  assistant  bookkeeper, 
with  no  other  capital  or  influence  save  a  good 
character  and  a  resolute  determination  to  com- 
mand respect  and  advancement.  His  natural 
abilitv  and  close  application  to  business  ad- 
vanced him  in  eleven  years  to  the  post  of 
assistant  cashier.  In  another  nine  years 
(1!)()7)  he  became  cashier.  Soon  thereafter 
the  responsibilities  of  the  active  management 
of  the  bank  Fell  upon  his  shoulders,  owing  to 
the  illness  of  the  then  president.  Opportu- 
nity to  exhibit  the  value  of  20  years'  practical 
training  brought  out  the  dominant  forces  of 
his  character!  His  sole  attention  was  directed 
to  strengthening  and  increasing  and  broaden- 
ing  the  Nassau  Bank.  When  elected  cashier 
the  deposits  were  $3,800,000;  but  in  Novem- 
ber. 1908,  when  he  became  the  executive  head 
of  the  bank,  less  than  two  years  later,  thev  had 


grown  to  $6,000,000.  In  February,  1910, 
hardly  a  year  after  he  became  president,  the 
deposits  were  $8,830,393,  having  much  more 
than  doubled  in  the  first  three  years  of  Mr. 
Earl's  management.  On  November  1,  1911, 
the  deposits  were  $13,592,625,  and  the  total 
resources  were  $14,!)S4,4?.),  showing  the  most 
remarkable  increase  of  over  310  per  cent,  in 
resources  in  less  than  four  years. 

Be  it  remembered  that  the  training  of  this 
young  man  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  conser- 
vatism. During  the  panic  of  1JX»7-N  not  a 
customer  of  the  National  Nassau  Bank  was 
refused  accommodation. 

One  of  the  latest  accessions  to  the  ranks  of 
bank  presidents  in  this  city  drawn  from  the 
Middle  West  is  Louis  G.  Kaufman,  president 
of  the  Chatham  &  Phenix  National  Banks,  re- 
cently consolidated,  with  resources  exceeding 
$20,000,000,  in  their  new  building  at  Broad- 
way and  John  Street.  Mr.  Kaufman  hails 
from  Marquette,  Michigan,  of  Dutch  descent 
on  his  mother's  side  and  of  German  ancestry 
on  his  father's.  He  was  born  in  1<S?^  and  his 
early  education  was  received  in  the  public 
and  high  schools  of  his  native  town.  A\  hen 
nineteen  he  entered  the  Marquette  County 
Savings  Bank  and  rose  to  be  its  cashier  man- 
ager  in  1<S!)N.  He  soon  after  became  vice- 
president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Mar- 
quette and  was  chosen  its  president  in  1  !)<><>. 
The  Chatham  National  Bank  was  established 
in   1851    in   Chatham  Street,  but  came  to  the 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


.'57  !> 


Broadway  corner  il  now  occupies  in  1S(>(). 
Mr.  Kaufman  was  elected  to  the  presidency 
thereof  in  1910.  He  is  also  ;i  member  of  the 
executive  council  of  the  American  Bankers' 
Association  and  an  ex-presideni  of  the  Michi- 
gan State  Bankers'  Association. 

Young  men  who  intend  to  pursue  commer- 
cial careers  display  much  wisdom  when  they 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  law.  Elias  A.  de  Lima. 
a  successful  hanker,  prepared  himself  for  his 
lifework  by  taking  a  degree  in  Science  at  Cor- 
nell University  in  1886,  and  another  in  law  al 
Columbia.  lie  was  born  at  Curacao,  Dutch 
West  Indies,  in  1865.  lie  was  admitted  to  the 
New  Yoik  Bar  in  1889,  meanwhile  having 
become  a  member  of  the  firm  of  I ).  A.  de  Lima 
&  ( lompany,  and  a  director  and  advisory  coun- 
sel of  the  Staten  Island  branch  of  the  Corn 
Exchange  Bank  and  trustee  of  the  S.  R.  Smith 
Infirmarv  of  Staten  Island.  He  takes  a  oreal 
interest  in  art  and  in  the  bcautifieation  of  New 
York. 

After  forty-three  years  of  constantly  in- 
creasing business,  the  Excelsior  Savings  Bank, 
is  now  quartered  in  the  new  fireproof  edifice 
at  the  Northeast  corner  of  Twenty-third  Street 
and  Sixth  Avenue.  For  many  years  il  occupied 
the  store  in  Booth's  Theatre  at  the  Southeast 
cornei'  of  Twenty-third  Street  and  Sixth 
Avenue.  Later  it  removed  to  the  Masonic 
building  on  the  opposite  corner  and  remained 
there  until  the  building,  which  was  erected  in 
INTO,  was  demolished  in  order  to  erect  a  nine- 
teen-story modern  edifice  in  which  the  bank 
is  now  located.  The  institution's  prosperity 
is  shown  by  over  $12,000,000,  of  deposits  anil 
surplus,  which  plainly  indicates  the  necessity  for 
its  handsome  new  quarters.  The  officers  of  the 
bank  are:  President,  William  .1.  Roome;  firsl 
vice-president,  James  (\  Gulick;  second 
vice-president,  William  II.  Barron;  secretary. 
John  ('.  Griswold;  assistant  secretary.  Arthur 
Plage;  counsel.  John  ('.  Gulick;  trustees, 
James  ('.  Gulick,  John  C.  Gulick,  Robert  ('. 
Brown.  Henry  Dazian,  William  II.  Barron, 
William  J.  Roome,  Henry  I).  Brewster,  John 
Burke.  Joseph  J.  Little.  Robert  J.  Horner.  Wil- 
liam Crawford.  Rich.  G.  Hollaman,  Patrick 
F.  Griffin,  Ephraim  M.  Youmans  and  Benj.  A. 
Hegeman,  Jr. 


'The  reputation  of  the  bank  for  prompt, 
courteous  and  efficient  service  on  the  pail  of 
its  employees,  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  ils 
popularity    and    rapid    growth.      In    order    to 


m 

'?*■■■ 


THE  EXCELSIOR  SAVINGS  HANK 
Chartered  in   1869 


facilitate  the  business  of  those  who  cannot 
appear  in  person  at  the  hank,  it  publishes  a 
leaflet  which  explains  how  accounts  can  be 
opened,  deposits  made  and  drafts  effected,  by 
mail.  This  will  be  sent  to  anyone  applying 
for  it.  This  hank  deserves  the  patronage  and 
confidence  of  all  those  seeking  a  depository, 
which  is  conservative  and  safe  and.  al  the 
same  time,  progressive. 

The  Union  Dime  Savings  Bank,  occupying 
its  own  handsome  building  at  Sixth  Avenue  and 
Fortieth  Street,  shows  a  remarkable  growth 
for  the  fifty-three  years  of  its  existence,  having 


380 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


:i  surplus  of  $2,975,088.57.  Its  directorate  in- 
cludes sonic  of  the  best  known  business  men 
in  the  city. 

The  only  man  I  ever  knew  to  attain  the 
presidency  of  a  metropolitan  surety  company 
at  M  lie  age  of  twenty-seven,  in  this  city  01  tre- 
mendous rivalry,  is  William  M.  Tomlins.  Jr. 
The  career  of  tin's  young  man  is  as  interesting 
as  has  been  the  growth  of  his  corporation 
since  he  became  associated  with  it.  lie  was 
born  iu  Brooklyn  in  1878  and  is  a  product  of 
the  public  schools,  graduating  from  the  High 
School  at  the  remarkably  early  age  of  sixteen, 
secured  an  unimportant  clerical  position  with 


his  vote  for  the  candidate  that  he  believes 
most  worthy.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Law- 
yers* and  the  Underwriters'  clubs.  He  is  an 
enthusiastic  Elk  and  Mason. 

Wall  Street  has  for  years  rested  under  a 
cloud  of  misapprehension  and  distrust.  Iso- 
lated instances  of  disgraceful  and  dishonest 
conduct  in  the  financial  world  have  been 
blamed  on  Wall  Street  as  a  whole.  No  one 
ever  rose  iu  defense  of  Wall  Street  or  endeav- 
ored to  show  its  line  character.  It  has  per- 
haps been  this  policy  of  silence  which  has  done 
more  to  confirm  the  bad  impressions  than  any- 
thing    else.         In     the     latter     part     of     1906 


Col.  ROBERT  M    THOMPSON 


WILLIAM    M 


WILLIAM  ('    CORNWELL 


the  Lawyers'  Surety  Company  of  New  York. 
lie  remained  with  this  corporation  until  1900, 
when  he  joined  the  American  Bonding  Com- 
pany, soon  receiving  an  oiler  of  an  agency 
for  the  United  States  Fidelity  &  Guaranty 
Company.  A  year  later  he  entered  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Empire  State  Surety  Company, 
soon  becoming  secretary,  the  following  year 
vice-president  and  then  president.  His  rise 
through  the  various  official  grades  to  the  chief 
executive  position  was  due  entirely  to  the  sug- 
gestions constantly  made  by  him  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  company's  service.  lie 
found  the  organization  with  a  capital  of  barely 
$125,000,  and  in  less  than  eight  years  has  in- 
creased its  capital  to  a  half  million  with  assets 
of  over  $1,200,000.  Air.  Tomlins  takes  no 
active  pail  in  politics,  although  he  always 
exercises   the    right    of   citizenship    bv   casting 


Win.  ('.  Cornwell,  who  was  associated  with  the 
Stock  Exchange  firm  of  J.  S.  Bache  &  Co., 
and  who  always  believed  that  Wall  Street 
should  have  some  medium  which  would  ex- 
press the  true  sentiment  of  the  street,  began 
the  endeavor  of  publishing  something  more 
nearly  embodying  the  larger  ideas  of  that  part 
of  the  financial  world.  The  (inn.  for  many 
years,  had  issued  a  weekly  financial  review 
of  the  usual  character  of  stock  market  letters 
and  pertaining  mainly  to  the  speculative  situ- 
ation. Mr.  Cornwell  took  over  the  writing 
of  this  periodical  and  made  of  it  a  small 
editorial  sheet  covering  all  events  of  impor- 
tance, political  as  well  as  commercial,  affect- 
ing the  financial  situation.  Every  subject 
was  treated  fearlessly  and  without  prejudice. 
Mr.  Cornwell  had  long  been  a  financial  writer 
of  prominence   and    his   stvle   was   clear-cut. 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    VOIJK 


381 


condensed  and  picturesque,  and  the  Review 
soon  began  to  be  more  quoted  throughoul  the 
United  States  than  any  other  issue  of  its  kind. 
The  views  on  political  and  national  questions 
were  particularly  sound  and  frequently  led 
popular  thought  and  forecasted  final  judg- 
ment on  the  problems  of  the  day.  Mr.  Corn- 
well  had  for  many  years  been  a  successful 
writer  and  student  of  the  currency  question, 
and  his  publications  in  the  anti-silver  cam- 
paign were  the  text-books  for  newspaper 
writers  of  that  period.  lie  was  one  of  the  first 
to  insist  that  asset  currency  was  the  only  kind 
for  the  United  States,  and  when  he  first  began 
to  urge  this  opinion  there  were  only  five  other 
men  of  prominence  in  the  United  States  who 
believed  as  he  did.  The  banks  almost  to  a 
unit  were  against  it.  To-day  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  thinking  people  agree  with  his  early 
position  that  the  only  bases  for  true  bank 
notes  are  the  commercial  assets  of  the  business 
world,  and  no  sound  plan  for  Currency  Re- 
form is  now  proposed  that  does  not  embody  this 
one  essential  doctrine.  The  Bache  Re- 
view, as  it  was  called  by  the  newspapers  in 
the  West,  which  quoted  it  and  based  editorials 
upon  its  utterances,  began  to  be  a  forceful 
exponent  of  the  real  situation  and  competent 
authorities  assert  that  it  has  great  power  in 
molding  public  opinion  in  the  West  and  South- 
west and  along  the  Pacific  Coast.  The 
Review  began  to  find  its  way  to  Europe 
and  is  now  eagerly  looked  for  by  bankers  in 
London  each  week  as  an  indication  of  the  true 
situation  in  that  country.  Its  unprejudiced 
character  and  opinions  have  given  the  bank- 
ing firm  a  high  reputation  throughout  tins 
country  and  abroad.  The  Bache  Review 
was  designated  in  one  of  the  Western  editorials 
"the  mouthpiece  of  Wall  Street"  and  this 
cognomen  has  become  one  of  its  titles  in  the 
press.  Many  of  the  newspapers  of  the  coun- 
try quote  the  Review  each  week  under  the 
headline  "What  Wall  Street  Says."  All  this 
is  evidence  of  the  power  of  one  man's  pen. 

Who's  Win)  in  New  York-  gives  the 
following  about  Mr.  Cornwell: 

Born,  Lyons.  X.  V..  August  li).  1851;  son 
of  Francis  E.  and  Catherine  Livingston 
(Howe)  Cornwell;  attended  private,  public 
schools.  Cashier  of  Hank  of  Buffalo,  1878- 
1893;  President  City  Hank  of   Buffalo,  1S<):5- 


1901  ;  associated  with  J.  S.  Hache  &  (  oinpanv, 
members  of  New  York  Slock  Exchange,  for 
several  years  past.  Founder  and  first  Presi- 
dent American  [nstitute  of  Hank  Clerks. 
One  of  the  founders  and  first  president  of  the 
Xew  York  Stale  Bankers'  Association;  mem- 
ber Executive  Council  American  Bankers' 
Association,  1893-1896;  vice-president  for  Xew 
York  State  of  American  Hankers'  Association, 
1893;  Chairman,  Committee  on  Education  of 
American  Bankers'  Association,  1897-1900. 
Curator.  Buffalo  Fine  Ails  Academy,  L874- 
1899;  president,  Buffalo  Society  of'  Artists, 
1887-1888.  Author  of  many  works  on  cur- 
rency and  sound  money,  and  banking  sub- 
jects, also  author  of  the  Jinrlie  Review. 
Clubs:  Athenaeum  of  London,  England  (hon- 
orary member);  City,  National  Arts.  \.  Y. 
City;  Ellicott  of  Buffalo  (honorary  member). 

The  banking  house  of  W.  X.  Coler  &  Co. 
makes  a  specialty  of  railroad,  municipal  and 
corporation  bonds  and  has  representatives  in 
several  of  the  large  cities.  The  reputation  of 
the  firm  is  national. 

One  often  regrets  that  more  men  engaged 

.  ... 

in  the  strenuous   commercial  activities  of  our 

limes,—  many  of  them  real  heroes  of  the  finan- 
cial struggle,-  do  not  develop  fondness  for 
literature  and  art.  So  many  of  them  are 
literally  obsessed  with  the  passion  of  money- 
getting  that  the  charms  of  life,  to  be  found 
in  association  with  outdoor  sports,  books 
and  pictures,  are  overlooked.  It  was  not  so 
with  the  late  Dumont  Clarke,  whom  I  knew 
as  the  President  of  the  American  Exchange 
National  Hank,  and  as  \  ice-President  of  the 
Press  Publishing  Company,  which  owns  the 
New  York  World.  Throughout  a  long  business 
career,  he  was  a  splendid  and  preeminent  ex- 
emplification of  precise  honesty,  healthy  judg- 
ment and  conservative  energy  a  type  all  far 
too  rare  in  our  hurrying  American  business  life. 
His  counsel  was  highly  valued  by  his  associates 
and,  during  his  long  career,  eagerly  sought  by 
men  older  in  finance  than  he.  A  memorable 
instance  may  be  mentioned  when  Mr.  Morgan 
called  Dumont  Clarke,  at  the  height  of  the 
panic  of  1!)07.  as  an  advisor  in  his  successful 
efforl  to  reverse  the  tide  or  lost  confidence  in  the 
financial  condition  of  the  country. 

Dumont    Clarke    is    another    recruit    of    the 


182 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


I>1  MONT  C]  ARK] 
Deceased 


metropolis  from  that  great  colony  whose  in- 
fluence  has  been  so  marked  over  this  whole 
country  New  England.  He  was  born  in 
Newport,  H.  I.,  in  1840  and  died  of  pneu- 
monia, on  December  26,  1909,  at  his  beautiful 
estate  in  New  Jersey.  Dumont,  where  he  lived. 
is  a  borough  surrounding  his  estate  and  named 
after  him.  His  marriage  to  Cornelia  Ellery, 
at  Castleton,  Vt.,  in  1869,  was  followed  by  the 
birth  of  Lewis  L.,  Stanley  and  Dumont,  Jr., 
Mary,  Alice  and  Corinne,  three  boys  and 
three  girls.  Being  what  Aldrich  described 
himself  to  be,  "a  salty  boy,"  that  is  to  say, 
born  with  the  breath  of  the  sea  in  his  lungs, 
Mr.  Clarke  always  was  an  enthusiastic  yachts- 
man; he  could  sail  a  boai  and  swim  at  an 
early  age.  How  natural,  when  he  came  to 
the  metropolis,  that  he  should  join  the  New 
York  Yacht  Club  and  become  one  of  its  most 
enthusiastic  members.  Mr.  Clarke  was  a 
social  favorite  in  several  clubs,  and  fond  of 
sports  afield  as  well  as  on  the  water.  His 
recreations  and  his  devotion  to  art  and  liter- 
ature never  impinged  upon  his  commercial 
activities.  No  task  was  too  complicated  For 
him  to  undertake  if  the  credit  of  any  of  the 
corporations  with  which  he  was  associated 
were  to  he  maintained.  A  friend  once  de- 
scribed  Mr.  Clarke's  capacity  as  "possessing 


all  the  delicacy  and  finesse  of  a  diplomatist 
combined  with  great  physical  and  mental 
courage."  1  have  especially  in  mind  services 
he  rendered  to  several  hundred  thousand  policy- 
holders in  the  reorganization  of  The  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  when  he  restored 
popular  confidence  in  an  utterly  discredited 
corporation.  It  was  no  easy  task;  because 
two  other  institutions,  equally  strong,  had  Keen 
shown  to  he  equally  honeycombed  by  mis- 
management. Into  this  work  Dumont  Clarke 
threw  himself  with  the  energy  and  determina- 
tion of  a  much  younger  man!  The  value  of 
his  name  as  a  director  went  far  to  quiel  anx- 
ieties among  the  stockholders  anil  to  as- 
sure the  confidence  of  the  general  public  in 
banks  and  trust  companies  with  which  he 
was  affiliated.  There  never  was  any  question, 
at  times  of  threatened  panic  or  financial  de- 
pression, where  Mr.  Clarke  stood.  He  was 
always  on  the  right  side,  and  opposed  to  any 
subterfuge  involving  trickery  that  would  ameli- 
orate  conditions.  As  a  director  of  the  New 
York  Clearing  House  Association,  his  word 
was  always  a  potent  force  in  shaping  the  utter- 
ances and  acts  of  that  body.  Throughout 
a  long  career,  he  was  habitually  averse  to 
publicity  regarding  his  triumphs  in  business, 
although  he  was  a  sincere  advocate  of  the  ut- 
most publicity  concerning  the  financial  status 
of  corporations  that  invited  the  confidence  of 
the  public.  His  own  dislike  to  notoriety  pre- 
vented earlier  and  more  general  recognition 
of  his  splendid  abilities.  The  greatest  work 
of  Mr.  Clarke's  life  was  the  upbuilding  of  the 
American  Exchange  National  Hank,  of  which 
his  son  succeeded  him  as  president.  I  need 
to  mention  only  a  few  of  the  many  companies 
of  which  Mr.  Clarke  acted  as  director:  Adams 
Express,  American  Beet  Sugar.  American  Felt. 
Audit  Company  of  New  York,  Commercial 
Cable,  Delaware  &  Hudson  Railroad,  Fidelity  & 
Casualty,  the  Caledonian.  Home.  Mutual  Life. 
Lawyers'  Title  Insurance  Companies.  Knick- 
erbocker Trust.  Long  Island  Railroad.  Man- 
hattan Railway.  United  States  Safe  Deposit. 
United  States  Mortgage  <!<:  Trust  and  the  New 
York  Clearing  House  Building  Companies. 
His  association  with  journalism  has  been  al- 
ready stated.  His  death  was  a  great  loss  to 
the  financial  community. 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


383 


The  firm  of  X.  YV.  Halsey  &  Co.  deal  in 
bonds  in  ;ill  principal  markets.  They  buy 
and  sell  railroad,  municipal  and  public  utility 
bonds  and  make  appraisements  without 
charge   for  institutions,  estates  and   investors. 

The  education  and  expert  training  necessary 
to  develop  a  successful  bank  president  in  this 
age  are  such  that  the  man  who  attains  that  im- 
portant post  must  have  advanced  by  gradual 
approach  through  all  stages  that  intervene 
between  a  clerkship  and  the  presidency. 
Bank  presidents  are  not  born,  they  are  made! 
Samuel  S.  Conover,  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Fidelity  Trust  Company,  which  he  organized 
in  1907,  was  born  in  Passaic.  X.  .1..  1869, 
and  received  Ins  education  at  the  public 
schools.  lie  began  business  in  New  York 
City  at  the  age  of  fifteen  with  the  New  York 
Mercantile  Exchange,  but  was  soon  offered  a 
position  in  the  New  York  office  of  the  South- 
ern Pacific  railroad.  He  was  appointed  pri- 
vate secretary  to  the  late  .1.  Edward  Sim- 
mons, president  of  the  Fourth  National  Bank, 
and  continued  in  the  service  of  that  institution 
for  ten  years.  In  1902  he  was  elected  vice- 
president  and  director  of  the  Irving  National 
Bank,  becoming  its  president  in  !!)<)(>.  As  be- 
fore stated,  he  then  organized  the  Fidelity 
Trust  Company.  Mr.  Conover  is  of  Dutch 
extraction,  his  ancestors  settled  in  New  Am- 
sterdam. l(i.'5((. 

The  debt  of  gratitude  that  intellectual 
Brooklyn  owes  David  Augustus  Boody  for  his 


long  and  unwavering  support  of  the  Brooklyn 
Public  Library,  one  of  the  largest  institutions 

of  the  kind  in  the  United  Stales,  will  endure 
for  all  time.  Mr.  Boody  was  born  in  Jackson, 
Maine,  in  1837,  and  was  educated  at  the  local 
schools  and  at  Phillips  Academy.  Andover. 
Mass.  The  onlv  method  Kv  which  an  am- 
bitious young  man  without  parental  assistance 
could  secure  an  education  in  those  days  was 
bv  teaching  school  and  using  the  salary  thereof. 
intermittently,  to  attend  institutions  of  learn- 
ing. Mr.  Boody  began  as  a  schoolmaster  at 
eighteen,  studying  law  meanwhile,  and  at 
twenty-three  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He 
practiced  for  one  year,  came  to  New  York  in 
1862,  and  entered  the  banking  house  of  Henry 
II.  Boody  &  Co.  Three  years  later  he  began 
business  for  himself  and  has  Keen  in  the  1  >a tik- 
ing  and  brokerage  business  ever  since  In 
the  years  which  have  since  passed.  Mr.  Boody. 
located  iii  the  financial  center  of  the  country, 
has  witnessed  a  marvelous  growth  in  the  en- 
terprises of  our  nation.  lb'  has  seen  the  rail- 
road mileage  grow  from  thirtv  thousand  to 
over  two  hundred  thousand.  He  has  seen 
the  growth  of  the  most  gigantic  railroad,  in- 
dustrial and  financial  corporations  that  the 
world  has  ever  known  and  he  has  seen  New 
York  become  the  second  city  in  tin'  world, 
with  the  prospect  of  soon  becoming  the  firsl 
in  numbers  and  in  financial  and  commercial 
importance.  As  Mayor  he.  together  with 
Park     Commissioner     Brower,     located     the 


-  Wli  1,1.  S    '•<  >NO\  IK 


liWII)   \    BOOD'i 


AUSTIN  CORBIN 


384 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences  on  the 
East  Side  Park  Lands.  The  three  buildings, 
the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 
the  Central  Building  of  the  Brooklyn  Public 
Library  and  the  Berkeley  Institute,  are  all 
located  near  the  Plaza,  which  Mr.  Boody  be- 
lieves is  destined  to  become,  as  an  educational 
and  art  center,  one  of  the  prominent  places  not 
onlv  of  New  York  but  of  the  whole  country. 
His  life  is  indissolubly  associated  with  the 
initiatory  work  which  is  now  producing  these 
results. 

Mr.  Boody  has  for  many  years  been  the 
head  of  the  banking  house  of  Boody,  McLellan 
&  Company  and  is  also  director  of  the  People's 
Trust  Company  and  the  U.  S.  Title  Guaranty 
and  Indemnity  Company,  both  of  Brooklyn, 
and  is  also  president  of  several  minor  business 
enterprises.  He  was  elected  to  Congress  in 
the  autumn  of  1890  but  resigned  the  next  year. 
having  been  nominated  for  the  office  of  Mayor. 
He  served  in  that  position  for  two  years. 

In  the  midst  of  his  many  duties,  however, 
he  has  never  ceased  during  the  last  thirty  years 
to  serve  the  public  in  some  educational  or 
charitable  way  and  this  sort  of  service  and  the 
love  he  has  for  it  seems  to  be  his  chief  recrea- 
tion. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  recognize  the  sturdy 
capacity  for  work  of  rich  men's  sons  who  never 
have  manifested  an  inclination  to  waste  their 
days  in  idleness.  To  this  class  belongs  Austin 
Corbin,  son  of  the  late  Austin  Corbin,  a  man 
who  came  out  of  the  West  to  teach  slow  New 
Yorkers  the  splendid  advantages  of  their 
proximity  to  the  ocean  by  creating  Manhattan 
Beach  and  connecting  it  with  New  York  by 
steam.  Young  Mr.  Corbin  was  born  in 
Brooklyn,  1873.  and  had  his  preparation  for 
college  at  Cutler's  School  and  Westminster 
School,  Dobbs  Ferry;  after  which  he  entered 
Harvard,  in  the  class  of  '9(>,  where  he  was 
graduated  cum  laudc.  When  taking  his  final 
examination  at  Harvard,  in  1896,  Mr.  Corbin 
received  the  sad  intelligence  of  his  father's 
death  in  a  runaway  accident,  at  Newport. 
N.  II.  He  came  direct  to  New  York  to  as- 
sume his  duties  as  executor  of  this  large  estate. 
He    is    president    of    the    Manhattan    Beach 


ized 


('II  M.MKRS    DALE 


Estates. — a  corporation  now  creating  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  seaside  villa  colonies  on  this 
Continent:  president  of  the  Rockaway  Park 
Improvement  Company:  co-partner  in  the 
Corbin  Banking  Company,  and  director  in 
several  large  corporations. 

Chalmers  Dale  possesses  that  peculiar  en- 
ergy and  executive  ability  which  is  character- 
as  "American"  and  which  advances 
capable  young  men  in 
this  country  in  situa- 
tions of  responsibility 
that  in  more  conserva- 
tive Europe  would  be 
filled  by  older  men.  He 
was  born  in  New  York, 
1882,  and  is  a  graduate 
of  the  Hill  School  of 
Pottstown,  Pa.,  and  of 
Sheffield  Scientific 
School  of  Yale.  1904. 
Realizing  the  responsi- 
bilities devolving  upon 
him  in  the  matter  of 
large  investments  of  his 
personal  estate.  Mr. 
Dale  undertook  the  study  of  the  market  con- 
ditions and  of  values  and  became  in  1908  a 
member  of  the  Stock  Exchange.  Since  quit- 
ting the  Stock  Exchange.  Mr.  Dale  has  taken 
a  leading  part  in  the  direction  of  the  affairs  of 
such  well-known  companies  as  the  Precious 
Metals  Corporation,  of  which  he  is  treasurer; 
the  East  Canada  Smelting  Company,  and  the 
Federal  Storage  Battery  Car  Company.  His 
office  is  at  49  Wall  Street.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  Crescent  and  Riding  and  Driving  clubs 
of  Brooklyn  and  of  the  Lambs  and  Seawan- 
haka-Corinthian  Yacht  Clubs. 

The  mining  of  precious  metals  has  become 
one  of  the  great  industries  of  the  world. 
Mother  Earth  has  yielded  the  basis  of  all 
wealth.  A  young  man  who  has  achieved 
success  in  the  exploitation  of  mines  that  were 
genuine  producers  is  Charles  Edward  Green- 
ough.  born  in  the  Windsor  Hotel,  this  city, 
October,  1SS0.  The  Greenoughs  were  of 
English  stock,  descendants  of  pioneers  who 
came  hither  from  Rowley,  England,  in  1624, 
and  settled   in   Rowley,   Mass.     Charles  Ed- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


:  85 


ward  Greenough  received  his  early  education 
at  St.  Paul's  School,  Concord.  X.  II.,  and 
(hen  entered  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  at 
Vale,  where  he  was  graduated  with  honors  in 
the  class  of  1902.  As  his  family  were  largely 
interested  in  the  Portland  mine  at  Cripple 
Creek,  Col.,  young  Greenough  earnestly 
pursued  a  course  of  mining  engineering  at 
Yale. 

About  this  time  Grant  15.  Schley,  of  the  firm 
of  Moore  &  Schley,  suggested  to  the  young 
man  the  vast  possibilities  for  the  development 
of  the  mineral  wealth  of  Mexico.  Mr.  Green- 
ough went  to  the  neighboring  republic  and  con- 
tinued prospecting  until  he  had  located  more 
than  fifty  mines  and  had  purchased  .'500. 000 
acres  of  land — property  consisting  chiefly  of 
old  ranches,  containing  fine  timber  easily  ac- 
cessible to  the  railroads.  To  handle  this  im- 
mensely valuable  property,  the  Grand  Union 
Mining  Company  was  formed,  with  Mr. 
Greenough  as  Treasurer.  That  a  young  man. 
not  twenty-five,  should  be  selected  by  New 
York  capitalists  to  manage  so  large  an  enter- 
prise indicates  the  confidence  reposed  in  him, 
as  well  as  his  capacity  and  experience  as  a 
mining  engineer. 

Mr.  Greenough  has  found  time  to  interest 
himself  in  other  enterprises,  and  is  President 
of  the  International  Fire  Preventive  Company, 
manufacturers  of  Salamanderite,  a  fireproof 
substitute  for  wood;  he  was  recently  elected 
President  of  the  Henry  L.  Lewen  Company, 
which  successfully  introduced  a  new  system 
of  reinforced  concrete  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada.  He  is  prominently  identified 
with  an  improved  sight  for  use    of    firearms. 

In  1909  Mr.  Greenough  married  Miss 
Eleanor  Whitridge,  daughter  of  Frederick  W. 
Whitridge,  the  prominent  lawyer  and  re- 
ceiver of  the  Third  Avenue  Railroad.  Her 
grandfather  was  the  late  Matthew  Arnold. 
the  great  English  writer.  They  have  one 
son.  John  Whitridge  Greenough.  born  Octo- 
ber .J.  1911,  and  christened  in  Grace  Church 
on  November  Hi.  1911,  after  the  famous  John 
Whitridge.  Mr.  Greenough  is  a  member  of 
the  Metropolitan,  New  York  Yacht.  Aero. 
Delta  Phi,  Strollers.  New  York  Athletic. 
Baltusrol,  Sleepy  Hollow, Whitehall,  Lawyers', 


and  Yale  chilis;  also  of  the  Sons  of  the  ({evo- 
lution, American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  and  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art. 

1  take  great  pleasure  in  quoting  from  a 
recent  press  notice  which  serves  as  an  ad- 
mirable summary  of  this  young  man  prepared 
bv   a    writer   who   is   in   close   touch    with    Mr. 


♦3 


I 


i'H  MM  ES   I      GRE]  N'TUH 

Greenough's  work:  "Charles  Edward  Green- 
ough is  the  type  of  man  that  most  young  men 
wish  they  might  be.  At  the  age  of  thirty  years 
he  has  long  since  looked  the  world  straight 
in  the  eye  and  has  taken  from  her  that  to 
which  he  is  entitled  success.  His  history 
has  the  happy  glow  of  healthful  vigor  used 
with  good  sense.  And  he  is  a  New  Yorker  - 
the   true   New   Yorker,  such   as   we  seldom  see 


386 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


and  often  read  about  a  man  with  the  calibre 
to  absorb  the  atmosphere  of  the  metropolis 
and  profit  by  the  experience." 

Among  the  brokerage  and  banking  houses  of 
the  city  that  have  connections  with  all  the 
important  financial  centers,  is  that  of  J.  S. 
Bache  &  Co.  This  firm  holds  membership 
in  the  New  York  Stock.  Cotton  and  Produce 
Exchanges;  the  Chicago  Stock  Exchange  and 
the  Liverpool  and  New  Orleans  Cotton  Ex- 
changes.     It  maintains  branch  offices  in  many 

cities. 

For  twenty  years  J.  Frank  Howell  has 
been    an    active    and    respected    member   of 

the  ( Consolidated  Stock 
Exchange  of  New  York 
and  is  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Governors. 
His  business  has  stead- 
ily grown  and  through 
many  panics  (hat  swept 
away  more  pretentions 
concerns  Mr.  Howell's 
business  never  waver- 
ed, and  he  carries  to- 
day untarnished  pres- 
tige; that  is  all  an  in- 
vestor can  ask  or  ex- 
pect of  a  broker,  and 
is  the  reason  that  J. 
Frank  Howell  prospers. 
He  keeps  in  constant  touch  with  his  customers 
by  the  publication  of  a  daily  market  letter  and 
The  Market  Review  Digest,  which  he  edits 
and  issues  weekly.  Formerly  Mr.  Howell 
was  a  newspaper  man  of  some  prominence 
and  the  neatly  printed  and  illustrated  publi- 
cation is  his  hobby  and  his  customers'  guide. 
It  is  sent  free  upon  request  to  those  interested. 
Integrity,  conservative  methods,  character. 
safety  and  honesty  of  purpose  are  the  attri- 
butes which  have  served  to  give  Mr.  Howell 
success  and  a  comfortable  fortune. 

A  house  that  has  made  a  reputation  for 
conservatism,  since  its  formation  seven  years 
ago,  is  that  of  McCornick  Brothers.  They 
do  a  strictly  commission  business  and  have  a 
large  following. 


Photoby  "Li 

J.  FRANK  HOWELI 


ELBRIDGE  G    SNOW 


Elbridge  Gerry  Snow,  President  of  the  Home 
Insurance  Company,  was  born  in  Barkham- 
stead,  Conn.,  January  i2-2.  1841.  His  educa- 
tion, begun  in  the  district  and  high  schools, 
was  completed  in  the  Fort  Edward  (X.  Y.) 
Institute.  After  his  graduation  he  studied 
law.  but  instead  of  engaging  in  practice  he 
entered  an  insurance  office  in  Waterbury, 
Conn.  In  1862  he  obtained  a  clerkship  in  the 
main  office  of  the  Home  Insurance  Company, 
in  New  York  City,  and  since  then  his  connec- 
tion with  the  company  has  been  continuous. 
He  remained  in  the  main  office  for  nine  years, 
then  went  to  Boston  as  state  agent  of  the  com- 
pany for  Massachusetts;  and.  w  bile  there, 
also  became  a  partner  in  a  local  agency  rep- 
resenting several  of  the  best  companies,  under 
(he  firm  name  of  Ilollis  &  Snow.  In  1885 
Mr.  Snow  returned  to  New  York  City  as  sec- 
retary of  the  company,  became  its  vice- 
president  in  ISMS,  and  since  1!)04  has  been 
president  of  the  company. 

Besides  being  at  the  head  of  this  great  com- 
pany, Mr.  Snow  is  a  Trustee  of  the  New  York 
Fife  Insurance  Company,  and  is  a  director  of 
the  North  River  Savings  Bank  and  other  cor- 
porations. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


:;st 


Among  the  City's  strong:  and  able  banking 
institutions,  none  perhaps  is  better,  or  more 
favorably  known  than  the  house  of  Redmond 
&  Co.,  which,  since  its  organization  in  1892, 
has  grown  steadily  until  it  is  one  of  the  leaders 
among  New  York's  large  financial  institutions 
and  has  correspondents  and  agents  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  The  firm  of  Redmond  & 
Co.  was  founded  by  the  late  senior  partner, 
Mr.  Henry  S.  Redmond,  ami  is  now  composed 
of  Mi-.  Franklin  Q.  Brown,  Mr.  W.  Redmond 
Cross.  Mr.  James  C.  Bishop.  Mr.  Otto  J. 
Thomen  and  Mr.  J.  F.  B.  Mitchell,  all  of 
whom  have  long  been  prominently  engaged  in 
financial  and  railway  matters,  not  only  in 
New  York  City,  but  throughout  the  entire 
country.  Possibly  the  best  known  among  the 
group  is  Franklin  Q.  Brown,  the  senior  mem- 
ber of  the  firm,  who  was  for  many  years  vice- 
president  of  the  Plant  Systems  of  railroads, 
president  of  The  Plant  Investment  Company 
and  president  of  several  Southern  railways. 
He  is  now  a  director  and  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Knickerbocker 
Trust  Company,  director  and  Chairman  of 
the  Executive  and  Finance  Committees  of  the 
National  Surety  Company,  director  and  mem- 
ber of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Sea- 
board Air  Line  Railway,  director  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Railway  and  of  many  oilier  financial 
institutions. 

Mr.  W.  Redmond  Cross  is  a  director  in 
various  railroads.  Mr.  .lames  C.  Bishop,  is  a 
director  in  the  Mechanics  and  Metals  National 
Bank,  the  Auburn  Trust  Company  and  other 
institutions.  Mr.  Otto  J.  Thomen  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  and  a 
trustee  of  the  Staten  Island  Savings  Bank  and 
Mr.  J.  F.  B.  Mitchell  is  a  recognized  expert  of 
many  years'  experience  in  railroad  and  public 
service  corporations.  These  five  men.  com- 
prising the  firm  of  Redmond  &  Company, 
have  long  been  prominenl  in  bringing  out  new 
and  important  bond  issues  of  steam  and  street 


railways,  lighting  companies  and  similar  enter- 
prises. The  firm  is  known  for  its  conserva- 
tism; has  connections  and  ramifications  in 
every  foreign  financial  centre  and  its  Letters 
of  Credit  and  Travelers'  Cheques  are  known 
the  world  over. 


The  New  Banking  House  of 
REDMOND    &    COMPANY 


The  firm's  offices  are  in  its  marble  building 
of  beautiful  and  impressive  design.  The 
building  is  thoroughly  up-to-date  in  every 
respect  and  is  equipped  with  the  latest  modern 
devices  in  the  way  of  vaults  for  the  safekeeping 
of  securities  and  other  valuables,  and  ever) 
known  improvement  for  the  expeditious  con- 
duel  of  a  large  banking  business.  The  in- 
terior of  the  offices,  like  the  exterior,  conveys 
a.n  impression  of  solidity.  There  has  been  no 
attempt  at  gaudy  decoration  and  the  plainness 
is  elegant  and  suggestive  of  strength.  The 
reputation  of  Redmond  <\.  Company  being 
international  and  the  architectural  beauty  and 
elegance  of  ils  offices  being  widely  known,  a 
portion  of  each  business  day  has  |<>  be  set  aside 
for  flic  reception  of  foreign  bankers,  corre- 
spondents of  the  firm  and  many  others  who 
come  lo  see  the  building  and  the  facilities  of 
this  model,  modern  up-to-date  American  bank- 
ing house. 


388 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Modern  life  has  so  increased  the  dangers  of 

existence  that  far-seeing  men  have  created 
corporations  for  the  financial  safeguarding 
of  humanity  in  eases  of  accident.  ( )ne  of  the 
best  known  institutions  in  this  line  of  semi- 
philanthropic  effort  is  the  Fidelity  &  Cas- 
ualty Company  of  New  York,  the  managers 
of  which,  in  this  city,  are  E.  E.  (Map])  <S:  Co. 
This  firm  paid  to  the  Fidelity  &  Casualty  Com- 
pany, on  account  of  last  year's  business,  nearly 
$1,500,000.  The  directing  head  of  this  firm, 
Edward    Everett    Clapp,    comes    of    Colonial 

stock  and  was  born  at 
Holyoke,  Mass..  Jan- 
uary, 1838.  At  the 
age  of  23  Mr.  Clapp 
sailed  for  China. 
where  he  engaged  in 
the  cotton  industry.— 
being  among  the  first 
foreigners  to  do  so. 
The  close  of  the  Civil 
War  caused  a.  cessation 
of  that  industry  there 
and  lie  returned  to 
the  United  States  in 
1ST.)  and  entered  the 
insurance  business 
in  Albany.  In  1881 
he  came  to  New  York  as  General  Man- 
ager of  the  Casualty  Department  of  the 
Fidelity  &  Casualty  Company  for  the  States  of 
New  York,  New  Jersey.  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island,  and  to-day  his  firm  is  the  most 
important  concern  in  its  line  in  the  world. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Union  League,  the 
Down  Town  Association,  the  Peace  Society, 
the  Economic  Club  of  New  York,  the  Essex 
County  Country  Club  and  the  New  England 
Society,  of  Orange,  the  Republican  Club  of 
East  Orange  and  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars 
of  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  lie  is  also  a  32d 
degree  Mason. 

The  insurance  men  of  this  country  are 
among  its  brainiest,  most  energetic  and  most 
successful  citizens.  To  take  high  rank  among 
its  leaders  requires  ability  of  the  rarest  order, 
and  the  widespread  and  enviable  reputation 
enjoyed  by  Mr.  Clapp  and  his  firm  is  one  of 
which  any  man  might  he  proud. 


KllWAKI)   K     CLAPP 


The  world's  debt  to  Italy  never  can  he  paid. 
The  large  Italian  population  of  New  York 
has  contributed  so  much  to  this  city's  adorn- 
ment that  feelings  of  gratitude  must  inspire 
whatever  words  are  said  in  praise  of  it.  One 
man  who  has  particularly  distinguished  him- 
self as  an  adopted  citizen  of  our  metropolis  is 
Cesare  Conti,  hanker  and  steamship  agent, 
who  came  among  us  as  a  youth  in  1876  from  his 
native  town  of  Pontremoli,  Province  of  Massa 
Carara.  lie  opened  an  office  at  3.3  and  37 
Broadway,  in  the  building  that  has  housed  his 
business  ever  since,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  ( 1SS4). 
lie  had  a  small  room  on  the  second  floor  and 
a  smaller  office  hoy.  since  which  time  his 
banking  business  has  developed  to  large  pro- 
portions. Many  of  his  fellow  countrymen 
were  imposed  upon  by  irresponsible  agents 
of  private  Italian  banks,  therefore  Signor 
Conti  aided  the  Banco  di  Napoli  of  Italy  to 
establish  the  guaranteed  money  order  system 
for  the  protection  of  emigrants  from  his  native 
country.  He  was  first  to  interest  the  Italian 
automobile  builders  to  send  their  extraordinary 
and  famous  cars  to  the  United  States.  His 
long  steamship  experience,  as  well  as  strong 
financial  help,  were  utilized  to  form  the  now 
powerful  Lloyd  Sabaudo  Steamship  Company, 
the  vessels  of  which  form  a  continuous  link 
between  this  port  and  the  chief  havens  of 
Italy.  Finally,  he  incorporated  the  Italo- 
American  Stores,  for  the  introduction  of  prod- 
ucts from  the  land  of  his  birth  and  lias  created 
a  wide  and  growing  market  for  many  classes 
of  goods  not  previously  known  or  appreciated 
in  this  country.  Also  being  the  original  dis- 
penser of  Green  River  Whiskey,  a  noted  Ken- 
tucky  product.  Signor  Conti  has  been  de- 
servedly honored  by  the  monarch  of  his  native 
land,  having  been  created  a  Chevalier  of  the 
King  of  Italy.  He  lias  had  a  prominent  part 
in  raising  funds  for  the  erection  of  the  beauti- 
fill  monuments  and  statues  to  Garibaldi, 
Columbus,  Verrazzano,  Verdi  and  Dante. 
The  Columbus  shaft  at  Fifty-ninth  Street  and 
Eighth  Avenue  entrance  to  Central  Park  is 
the  handsomest  monument  to  the  Great  Dis- 
coverer in  existence,  excelling  the  one  in 
Columbus'  native  city  of  Genoa.  The  new 
Dante  memorial  will  be  a  work  of  art.  Space 
forbids  even  a  mention  of  ail  the  charities  and 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


889 


social  organizations  to  which  Signor  Conti 
belongs.  The  Lotos  and  Columbia  Yacht 
chilis  always  welcome  him;  he  is  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the   Italian  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

When  an  American  travels  abroad,  he  finds 
of  equal  importance  the  securing  of  passage 
on  a  fast  and  staunch  steamship  and  the  pro- 
curement of  a  proper  letter  of  credit  that  will 
keep  him  in  funds,  no  matter  where  he  goes. 
The  assurance  that  he  will  he  landed  in  safety 
on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean  is  desirable,  but 
the  gratification  of  knowing  that  money  is 
easily  forthcoming  for  the  expenses  of  his  tour 
exceeds  all  other  anxieties  after  he  is  ashore. 
There  are  many  ways  of  transferrins  money; 
but.  for  a  traveler,  the  letter  of  credit  has 
proved  superior  to  all  others.  Its  safety 
highly  recommends  it.  Travelers'  checks, 
such  as  are  issued  by  Knauth,  Nachod  & 
Kuhne,  are  also  safe  and  convenient  for  the 
tourist  in  any  country  in  the  world  and  are  in 
amounts  of  from  $10.00  to  $100.00. 

The  banking  firm  of  Knauth,  Nachod  & 
Kuhne  does  a  large  business  in  supplying 
letters  of  credit  to  Americans  who  travel  in 
all  parts  of  the  world.  In  addition  to  its 
financial  value,  the  bearer  of  such  a  certificate 
finds  it  as  good  for  identification  as  a  letter 
from  the  Secretary  of  State.  Not  only  does 
it  identify  the  possessor,  but  it  assures  him  of 
the  ability  to  proceed  upon  his  journey  with 
promptitude.  There  isn't  a  city  of  Europe, 
or  Asia,  or  South  America,  or  the  West  Indies, 
containing  a  bank  in  which  such  a  letter  of 
credit  cannot  be  drawn  upon. 

This  firm  has  associated  with  it  a  capable 
young  banker  named  Oscar  Louis  Gubelman, 
who  has  been  reared  in  an  atmosphere  of 
banking.  His  first  experience  was  obtained 
in  the  banks  of  Jersey  City,  his  birthplace, 
whence  he  crossed  the  Hudson  to  accept  an 
important  post  in  a  New  York  bank.  He 
was  born  in  May,  1876,  and  is  of  German 
ancestry  on  both  sides  of  his  house.  His 
father  arrived  in  this  country  sixty  years  ago 
and  located  in  the  strongly  German  settle- 
ment on  the  New  Jersey  side  of  the  river. 
Young  Gubelman  was  educated  at  the  public 
and  high  schools  of  Jersey  City,  taking  a  final 
course  at  the  Stevens  School.  Hoboken. 
When    seventeen    years    old    he    obtained    a 


clerical  position  in  the  Third  National  Bank, 
of  Jersey  City,  lint  a  year  later  he  went  to  the 
United  States  Mortgage  and  Trust  Company, 
where,  during  six  years'  service,  he  received 
thorough  training.  The  efficiency  of  his  work 
caused  him  to  he  offered  the  position  of  secre- 
tary and  treasurer  of  the  Commercial  Trust 
Company,  of  Jersey  City,  and  he  was  soon 
alter  elected  ils  vice-president.  In  1  !)()!•  Mr. 
Gubelman  was  made  vice-president  of  the 
Guaranty  Trust  Company,  of  New  York  City, 
from  which  post,  in  1907,  he  became  a  partner 
of  Knauth,  Nachod  i\:  Kuhne.     Thai  he  was 


OSCAE    1.    GUBELMAN 


an  acquisition  of  strength  to  the  firm  is  proved 
by  the  important  matters  entrusted  to  his  final 
disposition.  He  is  classed  among  the  coming 
men  in  Wall  Street. 

Mr.  Gubelman  is  a  director  of  the  Commer- 
cial Trust  Company,  of  New  Jersey;  secre- 
tary, treasurer  and  a  director  of  the  Eastern 
Construction  Company;  director  of  the  Electri- 
cal Securities  Corporation;  director  of  The 
Mechanics  Trust  Company,  of  New  Jersey; 
director  of  the  Underwood  Typewriter  Com- 
pany; director  of  The  Regina  Company;  di- 
rector of  the  Locomotive  Super  Heater  Com- 
pany, director  of  the  American  Cities  Co.,  <li- 


:5i)0 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


rector  of  the  Computing,  Tabulating  and  Re- 
cording Co.,  director  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  West  Orange,  N.  J.,  and  director 
of  the  Registrar  «S:  Transfer  Co.,  of  New 
Jersey.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Auto- 
mobile Club  of  America.  Downtown  Associa- 
tion, the  Railroad  Club,  the  Essex  County 
Country  Club,  the  Deal  Country  Club,  the 
Recess  Club  and  the  Jersey  City  Club.  He 
is,  also,  a  lover  of  outdoor  sports,  a  reader  of 
hooks  and  an  intelligent  student  of  the  general 
problems  of  the  business  world. 

Another  descendant  of  a  Revolutionary 
family  is  Thomas  Jewett  Hallowell,  horn  at 
Steubenville,  Ohio,  December,  1869.  He  re- 
ceived an  education  in 
Europe  and,  returning 
to  America,  began  a 
banking  career  as  clerk 
in  the  Second  National 
Bank  of  New  York 
City.  Mr.  Hallowell 
became  an  employe  of 
the  American  Surety 
Company  and,  later, 
manager  of  the  Fidelity 
Department  of  the 
Lawyers'  Surety  Com- 
pany. The  banking 
firm  of  Hallowell  «n_ 
Henry  was  formed. 
Mr.  Hallowell  served 
in  the  Spanish-American  War  as  a  petty  Naval 
officer.  lie  is  treasurer  of  the  Associated 
Maryland  Corporation,  of  the  Montague 
Realty  Company,  the  kifchawan  Telephone 
Company,  and  a  member  of  the  American 
Rankers'  Association.  His  club  is  the  Play- 
ers'; he  is  a  member  of  the  Sonsof  the  American 
Revolution  and  of  the  Society  of  (  olonial  Wars. 
Occupying  a  new  and  handsome  building 
at  Nos.  49  and  51  West  Thirty-third  Street,  in 
I  he  hub  of  New  York  City,  the  Mutual  Bank 
has  every  facility  for  conducting  its  constantly 
increasing  business.  The  bank  was  first  estab- 
lished in  1SS!)  with  quarters  at  Thirty-fourth 
Street  and  Eighth  Avenue;  David  Stevenson 
was  the  first  president,  and  after  removal  to 
Thirty-third  Street  and  Broadway,  James 
McClenahan  succeeded  to  the  presidency. 
( 'harles  A.  Sackett  has  been  the  executive  head 
since  !!)•)?,  and  under  his  direction  the  business 


I'UiiMAS  .1    HALLOWELL 


567.91. 


new    building, 


of  the  institution  has  largely  increased.  The 
capital  is  $200,000,  and  the  statement  of  Feb- 
ruary 28,  1912,  showed  surplus  and  undivided 
profits  of  $387,213.50  and  deposits  of  $4,496,- 
(Deposits  now  $5,100,000.)  The 
aside  from  the  advantage  of 
being  centrally  locat- 
ed, is  equipped  with 
the  most  improved  safe- 
ty deposit  vaults  and 
every  modern  device 
to  facilitate  business. 
The  officers  are:  Presi- 
dent, ( 'harles  A.  Sack- 
ett; vice-president, 
John  C.  Van  Cleaf; 
vice-president  and 
cashier,  Hugh  N.  Kirk- 
land,  and  assistant- 
cashier,    Eugene    Gal- 


THE  MUTUAL  HANK 


vin.  The  board  of  di- 
rectors includes:  Rich- 
ard Delafield,  chair- 
man, Andrew  J.  Connick,  Thomas  Dimond. 
Otlo  M.  Eidlitz,  A.  P.  W.  Kinnan,  C.  W. 
Luyster,  E.  A.  McAlpin,  Samuel  McMillan. 
Charles  A.  Sackett.  .lames  Thompson,  John 
C.  Van  (leaf.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  Charles 
P.    I'aft  and   Isadore  Taks. 

The  present  firm  of  J.  L.  Newborg  &  Bn>. 
was  formed  in  1904  and  consists  of  J.  E.  and 
Leo  D.  Newborg.  J.  L.  Newborg  has  been 
a  member  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange 
since  1901.  The  house  does  a  commission 
business  exclusively. 

There  is  a  woman  in  this  city  actively  en- 
gaged in  commercial  business  that  it  is  a  pleas- 
ure to  know.  She  maintains  that  having  been 
born  in  New  Hampshire,  educated  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  having  taught  school  in  Connec- 
ticut, she  is  necessarily  a  New  Englander. 
Knowing  that  her  chief  successes  have  been 
achieved  in  this  competitive  metropolis,  where 
nobody  gets  to  the  top  by  accident.  I  say  she 
is  a  cosmopolitan.  Myra  Relic  Martin  is 
descended  from  pioneer  Puritans,  but  not 
from  the  "  Mayflower."  Her  frankness  in  this 
respect  is  admirable.  The  Hist  acquirement 
for  which  she  can  thank  her  forebears  is  a 
finished  education  which  has  enabled  her  to 
instruct  others.      Before  she  could  have  voted, 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


391 


1i;k1  she  been  of  the  voting  sex,  she  was  teach- 
mg  Latin,  (neck  and  mathematics  and  pre- 
paring young  men  for  college.  She  prepared 
many  young  men  for  Harvard,  Yale  and  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  and 
many  young  women  for  Smith.  Vassar  and 
Wellesley,  all  of  whom  have  done  credit  to  her 
training.  In  1889,  she  gave  up  teaching  and 
came  to  New  York  as  associate  manager  of 
the  office  of  the  Prang  Educational  Company, 
of  Boston.  Even  more  successful  in  business 
than  she  had  been  in  the  other  Held  of  educa- 
tional work,  since  1S!).'5  she  has  been  engaged  as 
secretary  of  several  important  corporations  in 
the  I  nited  States  and  Mexico  success  of 
some  of  them  being  largely  due  to  her  faithful 
work.  For  example,  she  was  the  firsl  secre- 
tary of  the  Greene  Consolidated  Copper  Com- 
pany, the  unlisted  stock  of  which  was  sold  by 
popular  subscription.  Preparing  most  of  the 
advertising  matter,  she  personally  issued  to 
two  thousand  stockholders  certificates  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  shares  of  its  capi- 
tal stock,  countersigned  by  two  prominent 
Trust  Companies.  She  not  only  personally 
secured  for  the  company  the  first  money  so 
vitally  important  to  a  corporation,  but  she 
also  handled  about  $1,250,000  received  in 
subscriptions  for  the  stock.  This  is  believed 
to  be  a  record  for  accuracy  unsurpassed  by 
any  one  of  either  sex  in  a  similar  position. 
Her  work  brought  her  into  business  relations 
with  many  prominent  financial  corporations 
and  she  has  the  confidence  of  all  officials  who 
have   had    personal    dealings   with    her. 

Miss  Martin  has  not  allowed  devotion  to 
business  to  dull  her  interest  in  the  better 
things  of  life.  One  of  the  founders  of  the 
Patria  Club,  she  is  president  of  the  Shakes- 
peare Club,  is  a  member  of  the  Municipal  Art 
Society,  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Pres- 
ervation Society.  American  Anthropological 
Association,  National  Geographic  Society, 
National  Society  of  Craftsmen,  life  member 
of  the  National  Arts  Club,  and  a  Daughter  of 
the  American  Revolution.  In  charitable  work. 
her  sympathies  lie  particularly  with  children, 
and  until  the  Guild  for  Crippled  Children  of 
the  Poor  was  merged  in  an  organization  of 
similar    purpose,    she    was    a    member   of    its 


Hoard  of  Managers.  Miss  Martin  has  reg- 
istered  herself  as  a  law  student  and  looks  for- 
ward to  taking  her  examination  for  admission 
to  the  bar.  And  vet  the  woman  successful 
as  a  teacher,  successful  in  business,  and  with 
a  possibly  brilliant  future  as  a  lawyer  is  a 
woman  still!  She  has  caughl  the  spirit  of 
success  without  losing  the  charm  of  her  sex. 
She  is  even  more  at  home  in  her  pleasanl 
studio  at  the  National  Aits  Club  than  in  a 
downtown  office,  amid  the  din  of  business. 
She  can  converse  on  literature  and  art  with 
an  author  or  a  painter  after  the  day's  work  is 
done  as  well  as  she  can  talk  trade  to  a  stern 
bank  president  during  business  hours. 

'Idle  man  who  can  teach  his  fellows  how  to 
save  money  is  a  public  benefactor;  many  of 
ns    cannot    learn    the    secret.      Walter    Francis 

Burns  originated  the 
Home  Savings  Bank 
System,  which  consists 
of  a  small  steel  safe  into 
which  money  can  be 
placed  but  cannot  be 
extracted  except  by  an 
officer  of  a  financial  in- 
stitution having  the 
key.  So  successful  has 
this  system  of  securing 
a  savings  a  c  c  o  u  n  t 
proved  that  it  has  been 
adopted  by  more  than 
3,000  banking  institu- 
tions in  the  I  nited 
Slates  and  over  .")()() 
banks  in  foreign  countries.  Altogether,  his 
devices  have  been  placed  in  several  million 
homes.  He  is  president  of  the  Burns  Realty 
Company,  ami  a  large  owner  of  Inwood  prop- 
erty. Mr.  Burns  was  born  at  Fredericktown, 
Cecil  County.  Maryland,  and  is  descended 
from  a  distinguished  Naval  family.  His  father 
was  (  aptain  ( )w  en  Burns.  I.  S.  N. :  his  grand- 
father. Captain  Otway  Burns,  commanded  the 
l.  S.  Privateer  "Snap  Dragon."  in  the  War 
of  1NH-'1.).  To  the  memory  of  this  patriot, 
the  State  of  North  Carolina  recently  erected 
a  monument  at  Beaufort,  and  the  town  of 
Burnsville,  named  after  him.  conferred  a 
similar  honor  in  1908.  The  Burns  family. 
originally    English,    inherited    a    large  tract  of 


WALTER    1      BURNS 


392 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


land  "ranted  by  the  King  to  its  great-great- 
grandfather in  lT.'j'-i,  which  Walter  F.  Burns 
now  retains  as  head  of  the  house. 

From  the  humblest  beginning  to  a  position 
of  prominence  in  the  financial  and  commercial 
world  forms  the  life  story  of  Colonel  Andrew 
J).  Baud,  who  came  from  Scotland  when  a 
boy  and  locating  in  Brooklyn  started  to  work 
as  a  blacksmith's  helper  for  a  weekly  wage  of 
$2.50.  He  afterward  became  an  apprentice 
to  a  stone  cutter  and  thoroughly  learned  the 


ANDREW  1)    HAIKU 

art  of  cutting  and  fitting  stone.  He  had  risen 
to  an  assistant  foremanship  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out.  but  resigned  the  position  at  the 
first  call  for  troops  and  joined  the  79th  (High- 
lander) Regiment  as  a  private.  He  fought 
in  every  battle  in  which  his  regiment  was  en- 
gaged, winning  successive  promotions  for 
bravery  until  at  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  he 
had  risen  to  a  captaincy  and  was  made  major 
at  Petersburg.  lie  was  brevetted  lieutenant- 
colonel  for  gallantry  at  Fort  Saunders,  Knox- 
ville,  Tenn.,  where  with  but  14.5  men  he  re- 
pelled Longstreet's  force  of  8,000.  He  was 
several  times  wounded  and  still  carries  a  bul- 
let in  his  left  arm.      After  the  war  he  returned 


to  Brooklyn  and  formed  a  partnership  with 
Robinson  Gill,  with  whom  he  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship. He  afterwards  bought  his  part- 
ner's interest,  and  for  many  years  carried  on 
the  business  alone,  furnishing  the  cut  stone 
for  many  important  buildings  and  thousands 
of  dwellings  and  churches.  Col.  Baird  has 
always  been  interested  in  politics.  He  was 
elected  a  Republican  member  of  the  Board 
of  Alderman  in  1876,  serving  three  terms. 
He  was  on  two  occasions  candidate  for  Mayor 
and  was  only  defeated  by  small  majorities. 
In  addition  to  his  large  interest  in  the  firm 
of  Andrew  1).  Baird  &  Sons,  he  is  vice-presi- 
dent and  director  of  the  Manufacturers  Na- 
tional Hank,  vice-president  and  trustee  of  the 
Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank,  trustee  of  the 

DO 

Nassau  Trust  Company,  president  of  the  In- 
dustrial Home,  Brooklyn,  E.  I).,  director  of 
the  Brooklyn  Public  Library,  director  of  the 
Eagle  Warehouse  and  Storage  Company, 
director  of  the  Realty  Associates  and  presi- 
dent of  the  Brooklyn  Tunes. 

One  of  the  strong  financial  institutions  of 
the  Metropolis  is  the  Merchants  Exchange 
National  Bank.  With  a  cash  capital  of 
$600,000,  it  has  surplus  and  undivided  profits 
of  $607,072.19  and  deposits  of  $7,943,511.80. 

Across  the  river,  in  Jersey  City.  N.  J.,  is 
the  First  National  Bank,  one  of  the  strongest 
financial  institutions  in  the  State.  It  has  a 
capital  of  $400. 000;  surplus  and  undivided 
profits  of  $1,306,631.47,  and  deposits  amount- 
ing to  $7,338,704.46.  The  officers  are:  presi- 
dent. George  J.  Smith;  vice-president,  Robert 
E.  Jennings:  cashier.  Edward  I.  Edwards,  and 
assistant  cashier,  Henry  Brown,  Jr. 

As  a  financier,  Colgate  Hoyt  is  one  of  the 
prominent  figures  in  Wall  Street  affairs.  He 
was  born  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  March  2,  1849, 
and  is  now  senior  member  of  the  banking 
and  brokerage  house  of  Colgate  Hoyt  &  Co. 
Throughout  his  long  and  successful  career  Mr. 
Hoyt  has  been  interested  in  many  of  the  lead- 
ing trans-continental  railroads  and  has  mate- 
rially  aided  in  building  up  some  of  the  lines. 

He  is  an  ex-president  of  the  Automobile 
Club  of  America,  a  member  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan    Museum    of    Art.     New    York    Society 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


■'593 


Founders  and  Patriots  of  America,  Pilgrim 
Society,  New  York  Zoological  Society,  North 
Shore  Horse  Show  Association,  American 
Social  Science  Association,  New  York  School 
of  Applied  Design  for  Women,  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Empire  State  Society,  S.  A.  R., 
Oyster  Bay  Board  of  Trade,  Ohio  Society  of 
New  York,  and  the  Union  League,  Metropoli- 
tan, New  York  Yacht  and  City  Midday  clubs 
of  New  York  City,  the  Union  Club  of  Cleve- 
land, Canadian  Camp,  Peping  Rock  Kennel, 
and  the  Mill  Neck  Club  of  Oyster  Bay. 

The  business  man  in  national  affairs  is 
always  an  interesting  study,  chiefly  because 
he  is  exceptional.      No  better  example  can  be 

found  in  this  state  than 
Cornelius  Anion-  Pugs- 
ley,  who.  in  addition  to 
mastering  the  banking 
business  and  becoming 
president  of  the  West- 
chester County  Na- 
tional Bank,  at  Peeks- 
kill,  has  distinguished 
himself  in  Congress. 
lie  was  born  at  Peeks- 
kill,  of  an  old  West- 
chester County  family 
that  dates  back  to 
1680,  at  which  time 
John  and  M  a  t  h  e  w 
Pugsley  c  a  m  e  from 
England  and  settled  in 
the  Manor  of  Pelham.  When  the  Revolution 
broke  out,  the  family  divided,  the  Royalist 
wing  going  to  Canada  and  the  liberty-loving 
members  remaining  here.  Mr.  Pugsley's 
great-grandfather  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolu- 
tion and  his  grandfather  served  as  a  Captain 
in  the  War  of  1812,  making  him  eligible  as  a 
Son  of  the  American  Revolution  and  the 
Society  of  the  War  of  1812.  Mr.  Pugsley  was 
unanimously  elected  President-General  of  the 
National  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  American 
Revolution  at  Faneuil  Hall.  Boston,  in  1906, 
and  he  presided  over  the  National  Congress 
at  Denver  in  1907.  lie  was  educated  at  the 
public  schools  and  privately,  served  for  a  time 
as  assistant  postmaster  in  his  native  town  and 
then  entered  the  banking  business.  He  was 
sent  to  the  House  of  Representatives  for  one 


CORNELIUS  A.   PUGSLEY 


term  in  1900,  being  the  only  Democrat  elected 
in  New  York  State  between  \e\v  York  City 
and  Buffalo. 

Mr.  Pugsley's  early  education  has  been 
supplemented  by  extensive  reading  and  much 
travel,  giving  to  liiin  broad  and  comprehensive 
knowledge.  He  lias  visited  every  stale  and 
territory,  including  Alaska.  Europe  is  well 
known  to  him  and  he  has  also  travelled  in  the 
Holy  Land  and  Egypt,  Algiers  and  other  parts 
of  Africa.  While  in  the  Orient,  he  wrote  a 
series  of  letters  to  the  Evangelist  which  at- 
tracted attention.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  of  the  New  England 
Society  and  many  other  social  organizations. 
He  is  a  lover  of  the  horse,  but  lately  has  ac- 
quired a  taste  for  motoring.  Mr.  Pugsley  is 
distinguished  as  an  orator.  He  has  delivered 
several  memorable  addresses  on  historic  an- 
niversaries in  this  country,  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  his  Decoration  Day  speech  at 
Trinity  Cemetery,  N.  Y.,  an  address  at  the 
tomb  of  the  Prison  Ship  Martyrs,  Port  Greene 
Park,  Brooklyn;  another  at  Detroit,  Mich., 
on  the  occasion  of  an  anniversary  celebration 
of  the  French  Alliance;  again  at  a  lecture  on 
the  Holy  Land  and  the  East;  an  after-dinner 
speech  at  the  National  Congress  of  the  Sons 
of  the  American  Revolution,  at  Denver,  and 
a  speech  on  'The  American  Spirit,"  de- 
livered at  Boston. 

Accountancy  has  become  so  necessary  to 
every  branch  of  corporate,  financial  and  mer- 
cantile work  that  it  has  developed  into  a  pro- 
fession, ranking  with  the  largest  and  most 
important  in  this  country.  Among  those 
who  have  attained  high  reputation  in  this  line 
of  work  is  Leonard  II.  Coiiant.  who  numbers 
among  his  clients  some  of  the  most  important 
concerns  in  New  York  City  and  many  munici- 
palities throughout  the  United  States. 

Many  of  the  active  reform  measures  recently 
instituted  in  the  Customs  Service  at  the  Port 
of  New  York  are  due  to  the  initiative  of  the 
Surveyor,  Nelson  Herrick  Henry.  General 
Henry  was  born  on  Staten  Island  in  1855  and 
pursued  a  thorough  education  looking  to 
the  practice  of  medicine.  He  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons in  the  class  of  1879.  He  bnilt  up  an 
extensive    practice,    was    appointed    Assistant 


394 


THE    BOOK   of  XEW    YORK 


GEN'L  NELSON    H     HENRI 


HU     WALTER    BENSEL 


CHARLES   V     Fi  IRNES 


Surgeon-General  X.  G.  S.  X.  Y.,  and  later 
Chief  Surgeon  of  the  State.  When  the  Cuban 
War  broke  out,  in  1898,  President  McKinley 
made  him  a  ( !hief  Surgeon  of  Division.  Afterthe 
war  lie  represented  the  Fifth  Assembly  dis- 
trict in  the  Legislature  until  1901,  where  he 
initiated  the  movement  for  the  State  control 
of  tuberculosis  patients  and  introduced  the 
original  hill  for  the  creation  of  a  State  Sani- 
tarium. (  )n  the  completion  of  twenty-five 
years  of  active  service  in  the  National  Guard, 
on  February  1!),  li)l().  he  was  commissioned 
by  Governor  Hughes  Major-General  by  bre- 
vet. ( ieneial  Henry  was  appointed  and  served 
live  consecutive  terms  as  Adjutant-General  of 
the  State  under  as  many  different  Governors, 
a  record  never  equalled.  His  appointment 
as  Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  Xew  York  dates 
from  June  15,  1910. 

One  of  the  men  who  lias  demonstrated  his 
efficiency  in  the  Department  of  Health  is 
Walter  Bensel,  born  in  this  city,  in  1869.  He 
is  a  product  of  the  public  schools  and  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  taking 
an  M.D.  degree  at  the  latter  in  1S!)().  lie 
began  practice  as  a  physician  in  1892,  after 
eighteen  months*  surgical  experience  in  Belle- 
vue  Hospital  and  three  months  in  the  Sloane 
Maternity  Hospital.  He  served  as  assistant 
surgeon  at  the  Vanderbilt  Clinic  for  five  years. 
after  which  he  lectured  for  two  years  on  sur- 
gery at  the  Polyclinic  Medical  School  and 
Hospital;   he   was,   for  a    time.    Pathologist   at 


the  Xew  York  Hospital.  He  served  in  numer- 
ous capacities  in  the  Department  of  Health. 
between  lNi)"-2  and  1907.  He  was  appointed 
an  Associate  in  Hygiene  and  Preventive  Medi- 
cine at  Columbia  University;  he  also  served 
as  First  Lieutenant  in  the  Medical  Reserve 
Corps  of  the  U.  S.  A.  He  is  a  member  of 
numerous    medical    and   social   organizations. 

Having  many  interests,  both  commercial 
and  financial  in  Xew  York  and  being  thor- 
oughly conversant  with  the  needs  of  the  city. 
Charles  V.  Fornes  has  made  an  able  repre- 
sentative from  the  11th  District  in  the  60th, 
61st  and  62nd  sessions  of  Congress. 

Mr.  Ponies  was  horn  in  Erie  County.  Xew 
York,  January  22,  1847,  and  worked  his  own 
way  through  academic  and  commercial  courses 
in  Lockport  Union  Academy,  graduating  in 
1864. 

Upon  completing  his  education  he  entered 
the  employ  of  Dahlman  &  Co.,  woolen  mer- 
chants, and  then  with  the  nephew  of  his  em- 
ployer started  the  firm  of  Dahlman  &  Fornes. 
He  removed  to  Xew  York  City  in  1S77.  the 
firm  becoming  C.  V.  Fornes  X"  Co.  Mr. 
Fornes  is  a  trustee  of  the  Emigrant's  Industrial 
Hank,  the  Xew  York  Mortgage  X  Security 
Company,  and  the  Columbian  National  Life 
Insurance  Company.  He  was  president  of 
the  Board  of  Alderman  of  New  York  City 
from  1901  to  1905  and  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee   on    Columbian    Celebration    in    1902. 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    VORK 


:;!i: 


He  has  been  treasurer  of  the  Catholic  Pro- 
tectory and  is  now  the  secretary.  lie  is  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  Club  and  Democratic 
Club  of  New  York  City  and  is  an  ex-presidenl 
of  the  Champlain  Club  of  Plattsburg,  New 
York. 

The  triumph  of  a  resolute  nature  over  ap- 
parently insurmountable  circumstances  never 
was    better   exemplified    than    in    the   case   of 

Charles  W.  Anderson, 
Collector  of  Internal 
Revenue  for  the  2d  Dis- 
trict of  New  York  ( 'itv. 
Horn  in  ( )hio  ( ( )xfoi'd), 
of  |>  o  o  r  parents,  he 
w  o  r  k  e  d  h  i  s  vv  a  y 
through  high  school 
and  commercial  college 

o 

while  supporting  a  wid- 
owed mother  and  two 
sisters.  I  le  afterwards 
studied  I  a  w  .  serving 
meanwhile  as  man- 
aging clerk  of  a  law 
firm,  but  he  never  ap- 
plied for  admission  to 
the  bar.  lie  devoted  his  leisure  time  to  lead- 
ing and  mental  development  in  preparation 
for  newspaper  work.  In  pursuit  of  employ- 
ment of  that  character,  he  came  to  New  York 
and  worked  as  a  reporter,  with  unqualified 
success.  A  taste  for  politics  changed  the 
current  of  his  life  and  he  took  an  active  part  in 
the  local  Republican  campaigns,  speaking  as 
a  "spellbinder"  in  local  and  national  cam- 
paigns of  the  Republican  party.  For  several 
years  he  served  as  an  efficient  supervisor  of 
racing  accounts  for  the  X.  Y.  Racing  Com- 
mission,  and  was  for  four  years  chief  clerk  of 
the  State  Treasury  Department  of  X.  Y.  State. 
In  1906  President  Roosevelt  appointed  him 
( Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  and  he  has  since 
discharged  the  duties  of  his  office  to  entire 
satisfaction.  He  is  a  member  of  X.  Y.  Slate 
Republican  Committee,  a  member  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  of  New  York 
City, and  a  member  of  the  National  Geographic 
Society. 


i  H  \l!l.l  S  \\      VNDERSON 


The  frank  confession  of  the  little  Emperor 
of  China,  ostensibly  from  his  own  hand,  on 
October  30,  li)  I  1 .  must  appeal  to  I  he  American 
people,  who.  for  fifty  years,  endured  indif- 
ference of  their  Chief  Magistrates  and 
chicanery  or  complaisance  from  mosl  of 
the  Congressmen,  judiciary,  governors,  state 
legislators,  mayors  and  city  officials  who  mis- 
represented them.  Wretched  young  Hsuan- 
Tung,  feeling  the  Manchu  dynasty  tottering 
beneath  him,  cried  aloud :  "  I  ha  ve  not 
employed  proper  men;  those  whom  I  trusted 
have  deceived  me;  public  opinion  has  been 
antagonized;  when  I  urge  reform,  officials 
embezzle;  much  of  the  people's  money  has 
Ween  taken,  hut  nothing  to  benefil  the  people 
has  been  achieved;  all  China  is  grumbling, 
disaster  looms  ahead;  these  things  are  mv 
own   tault! 

Presidents  Grant,  Hayes.  Garfield,  Arthur, 
Harrison  and  Mckinley  mighl  have  written 
and  signed  such  an  edicl  with  entire  truthful- 
ness; hut  they  never  did.  There  were  few 
champions  of  popular  rights!  "Protection" 
to  the  producing  and  manufacturing  interests 
was  thought  to  he  (he  gospel  of  prosperity! 
I  had  Keen  raised  on  the  doctrine  and  had 
served  under  Horace  Greeley;  I  began  with 
that  opinion.  But  as  I  came  to  understand 
the  public  official,  I  soon  saw  that  he  was  not 
a  public  servant.  He  was  serving  individuals, 
not  the  whole  people,  rich  and  poor  alike! 
He  took  life  easily,  and  was  constantly  ad- 
vancing his  pay. 

The  awakening  came  only  when  President 
Roosevell  literally  "shook  up"  this  country 
by  telling  its  citizens  what  indilferent  crea- 
tures they  were  sending  to  the  Senate  and 
House.  Roosevelt  was  not  the  first  man  to 
speak  these  truths,  hut  the  presidential  voice 
commanded  attention!  As  the  miserable  lit- 
tle Emperor  of  China  says.  "Nothing  for  the 
people,  everything  for  I  he  nabobs!" 

When,  therefore,  earnest,  conscientious  na- 
tional, state  and  municipal  officials  are  chosen 
who  are  strict  in  attention  to  duty,  they  should 
command  especial  respect,  because  they  are 
unlike  the  great  majority  of  such  trusted  citi- 
zens. Personal  honesty  is  not  all;  indifference 
has  been  the  menace  to  popular  rights  in  this 
country!      I    have   known   many   capable   na- 


396 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


tional,  state  and  city  officials  who  had  a  cor- 
rect conception  of  their  duties.  But  their 
voices  were  not  as  potential  as  they  might 
have  been  made,  had  greater  energy  been  em- 
ployed. 

The  development  of  the  fire-alarm  system 
in  the  city  of  New  York  has  made  it  one  of  the 
most  efficient  features  of  that  Department. 
To  this  work  John  Clifford  Rennard  con- 
tributed much.  He  was  born  in  Philadelphia 
in  1866  and  took  his  first  degree  in  the  Central 
High  School  of  the  Quaker  City.  He  then 
secured  an  appointment  to  the  United  States 
Military  Academy,  where  he  was  graduated 
in  1890.  After  serving  four  years  of  military 
diitv.  he  resigned  to  take  a  course  in  electricity 


The  State's  administration  of  appropria- 
tions made  for  the  needy  is  characterized  by 
efficiency,  compared  with  examples  found  in 
many  county  and  private  charitable  institu- 
tions. About  95  per  cent,  of  the  State's 
money  reaches  its  proper  destination, 
the  small  remainder  being  used  for 
expenses.  The  present  secretary  of  the 
State  Board  of  Charities,  Robert  William 
Hebberd,  attained  that  position  after  much 
preliminary  experience  in  charitable  work. 
Born  in  this  city.  October,  1857,  he  was 
educated  at  Grammar  School  No.  37  and  the 
Mynderse  Academy,  Seneca  Falls.  He  began 
his  active  career  in  1881  with  the  New  York 
Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor,   his  special   charge   being  the   needy   in 


.1     CLIFFORD  RENNARD 


ROBERT  W.  HEBBERD 


CEORGE   McANENY 


at    Columbia    University   and    was   graduated 
as  electrical  engineer. 


lie  started  his  husiness 
career  as  an  assistant  in  the  New  York  Tele- 
phone Company,  and,  in  1900,  had  risen  to 
Assistant  Engineer  of  that  great  organization. 
At  the  end  of  seven  years  he  resigned  that 
post  to  begin  practice  as  a  consulting  electrical 
engineer.  In  August,  1910,  he  received  his 
appointment  as  electrical  engineer  of  the  New 
York  Fire  Department  for  the  special  purpose 
of  designing  and  installing  a  new  alarm- 
telegraph  system.  While  with  the  telephone 
company.  Mr.  Rennard  converted  the  entire 
switchboard  equipment  from  magneto  to  com- 
mon battery  type,  involving  the  installation 
of  new  central  offices  capable  of  handling 
upward  of  100, 000  telephone  lines. 


the  Twelfth  and  Nineteenth  Wards.  Early 
he  developed  strong  humanitarian  instincts 
and  not  only  found  his  work  interesting  but 
gratifying.  Subsequently,  Mr.  Hebberd  be- 
came superintendent  of  the  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society  of  this  city,  also  serving  for  a 
brief  period  as  secretary  of  the  State  Board, 
and  in  1906  he  was  appointed  Commissioner 
of  Public  Charities  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
Since  April,  1910,  he  has  been  acting  in  his 
present  capacity.  While  Commissioner  he 
caused  the  preparation  of  plans — a  thing  never 
undertaken  before — covering  a  systematic  de- 
velopment of  building  and  other  work  for  the 
next  half  century.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
City  Club  and  a  32d  degree  Mason.  He  is  an 
Independent  with  Democratic  inclinations 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


397 


WILLIAM    F    SCHNEIDER 


Long  years  of  business  experience  and  an 
expert  knowledge  of  accountancy  have  en- 
abled William   F.  Schneider  l<>  fill  the  office  of 

County  Clerk  \v  i  f  h 
in  o  r  e  than  ordinary 
success. 

He  was  born  in  New 
^  oik  ( ity,  November 
24,  1864,  educated  af 
the  public  schools  and 
graduated  in  L879,  en- 
tering the  employment 
of  rn.e  II.  B.  Claflin 
Company  two  y  e  a  r  s 
later.  He  remained 
with  flic  firm  for  twen- 
ty-one years,  the  last 
ten  being  Assistant 
(  hief  Accountant,  anil 
retired  to  join  with  M . 
M.  Smith  in  the  formation  of  the  firm  of  M.  M. 
Smith  &  Co..  manufacturers  of  ladies',  misses* 
and  children's  dresses,  at  No.  1154  and  136 
West  Twenty-fifth  Street.  Mr.  Schneider  was 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  Alderman  for  four 
years,  and  during  his  term  acted  as  Chairman 
of  Committee  on  Bridges  and  Tunnels,  intro- 
ducing the  resolution  for  the  erection  of  the 
Queensboro  and  Manhattan  bridges.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Harlem  Board  of  Commerce, 
the  National  Democratic  (lul)  and  the  Royal 
Arcanum. 

A  brilliant  and  still  a  young  man  who  has 
risen  to  responsible  position  is  John  P.  Cohal- 
an.      Timothy   Cohalan   and   Ellen   O'Leary, 

both  born  in  Ireland, 
are  the  parents  of  the 
present  Surrogate,  who 
was  born  in  Brooklyn 
on  the  most  auspi- 
cious date  of  March 
17,  1873.  After  at- 
tending the  public 
schools  at  Middle- 
town.  N.  Y..  John 
Cohalan  studied  at 
Manhattan  College, 
where  he  attained  the 
degree  of  A.B.  in  1893, 
and    was    admitted    l<> 

JOHN  I'    COHALAN  I  he    bar   in    IS!).'). 


After  practicing  law  successfully  for  several 
years  he  ran  for  Assembly  and  was  elected 
in  1906.  He  apparently  "made  good"  as  a 
legislator,  for  in  the  following  year  he  was 
elected  to  the  Senate.  The  tenure  of  his 
presenl  posl  of  Surrogate  of  New  York 
County  dales  from  January  I.  '!><>!).  Sur- 
rogate Cohalan  belongs  to  the  Manhattan, 
Catholic,  Oakland  Golf  Chilis  and  several 
others. 

With  a  mind  stored  by  years  of  newspaper 
experience  and  the  study  of  law.  George 
McAneny  is  especially  well-equipped  for  the 
presidency  of  the  Borough  of   Manhattan. 

He  was  born  in  Greenville,  N.  .1..  December 
24,  lSlil).  and  is  a  graduate  of  the  Jersey  City 
Ili^'h  School.  After  leaving  school  he  served 
as  reporter  and  correspondent  for  various 
New  York  newspapers  and  weeklies  and  was 
secretary  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  League, 
having  for  ten  years  much  to  do  with  the 
promotion  and  enforcement  of  Federal  and 
State  Civil  Service  Laws  and  drafting  the 
City  Civil  Service  rules  now  in  force.  He  was 
elected  President  of  the  Borough  of  Man- 
hattan on  the  Fusion  ticket  in  1909.  He  is 
vice-president  of  the  National  Municipal 
League,  president  of  the  Friendly  Aid  Society, 
vice-president  of  the  Armstrong  Association, 
having  to  do  with  the  Hampton  and  Tuskegee 
Institutes,  and  trustee  of  Jeanes  Fund  for 
Rudimentary  Negro  Education.  His  clubs 
are  the  Century.  City,  Manhattan  and  Lake 
George  Country. 

Lovers  of  travel  have  reasonable  cause  to 
envy  my  Lotos  Club  friend.  William  Herbert 
Libby,  who.  during  thirty  years,  visited  all 
parts  of  tin'  world  as  arbitrator  and  diplomatic 
agent  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  He  is 
a  New  Englander  of  English  descent,  extend- 
ing back  to  1620  at  Massachusetts  Bay. 
Starting  with  a  common  school  education. 
Mr.  Libby  at  the  age  of  twenty  (1865)  en- 
tered trade  in  the  petroleum  business  in  this 
city.  It  was  a  new  article  of  merchandise 
at  that  time,  bul  young  Libby  became  so  dis- 
tinguished as  an  expert  that,  in  1878,  he  was 
asked  to  enter  the  employment  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company.  He  was  at  once  sent  on  the 
road  to  extend  that  corporation's  business 
in    Oriental     countries.       For     twenty     years 


398 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Mr.  Libby  was  the  foreign  representative  of 
the  great  company;  he  pushed  its  trade  into 
every  corner  of  the  world:  lie  arbitrated  all 
disputes  and  became  a  sincere  believer  in 
conciliation  rather  than  aggression.  During 
that  time,  he  travelled  more  than  .'500. 000 
miles     making  several  trips  'round  the  world 

and  was  received  at  many  European  and 
Oriental  courts.  Recently,  at  the  age  of  <>.». 
Mr.  Libby  accepted  a  post  of  advisory  char- 
acter and  has  settled  down  in  this  city.  lie 
is  ajmember  of  many  social  organizations. 

.Inst  across  the  Canadian  line,  opposite 
Franklin  County.  X.  Y..  in  the  village  of 
Dundee.  A.  Paul  Gardiner,  now  a  successful 
manufacturer  in  this  city,  was  horn  in 
1865.      lie  is  of  Scotch  descent,  hut  his  fore- 


A.    PAUL  GARDINER 

hears  lived  more  than  a  century  in  Canada. 
having  originally  purchased  their  lands  from 
the  Indians.  Young  Paul  secured  his  edu- 
cation at  the  district  high  schools  and  Franklin 
Institute,  after  which  he  went  to  Montreal 
and  became  a  clerk  in  a  dry  goods  house. 
Remaining  there  a  short  time  he  came  to  New 
^4  ork  and  engaged  himself  to  a  large  cotton 
manufacturing  concern,  his  duties  taking  him 
to  every  state  in  the  Union.      Mr.  Gardiner  was 


first  to  found  a  magazine  on  a  cooperative 
plan  of  publication  among  retail  merchants, 
when  Modes  and  Fabrics  came  into  existence, 
attaining  an  enormous  circulation.  Its  publi- 
cation continued  for  sixteen  years  and  led  to 
the  promotion  of  proprietary  medicines,  in 
which  Mr.  Gardiner  made  a  fortune.  He  was 
among  the  earliest  to  realize  the  prospective 
growth  of  the  Bronx,  and  actively  undertook 
the  development  of  land  therein.  He  has  a 
fine  estate  at  Croton-on-IIudson,  called  "Hes- 
sian Hill  Farm."  Mr.  Gardiner  has  written 
several  books.  The  1  louse  of  Cariboo  ami 
Other  Tales  of  Arcadia.  The  Fifth  A  renin 
Social  Trust  and  Paul's  Adventures  to 
Date. 

The  growth  of  Italian  trade  with  this  country 
has  been  largely  due  to  the  enterprise  shown 
by  a  number  of  Italian 
merchants  who  have 
established  houses  in 
this  city  and  introduced 
Italian  products  to  the 
American  m  a  r  ket. 
Among  these  mer- 
chants none  has  dis- 
played more  energy 
than  Antonio  Zucca, 
born  in  Trieste  while 
it  belonged  to  Italy. 
It  is  now  in  possession 
of  Austria  .  He  was 
educated  at  the  com- 
mercial schools  of  his 
native  city,  and  after 
considerable  stay  in 
Northern  Italv  came  to 

the  United  States  about  1869  and  established 
the  house  of  Zucca  <.\:  Co.  lie  became  an 
American  citizen  and  organized  the  Italian 
Political  Association:  was  School  Trustee  for 
a  number  of  terms;  was  elected  Coroner  in 
the  Borough  of  Manhattan:  then  President  of 
the  Board  of  Assessors,  X.  Y.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  Tammany  Hall,  on  its  executive  com- 
mittee; he  has  served  as  President  of  the  Ital- 
ian Chamber  of  Commerce:  President  of  the 
International  Peace  Society  (Italian  branch): 
is  a  director  of  the  Italian  Savings  Bank  and 
Italian  Benevolent  Association.  He  has  been 
decorated   three  times   hv  the   King  of  Italv. 


ANTONK >   ZUCCA 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    VORK 


399 


Tammany  Hall  has  had  sonic  thoroughly 
upright  chiefs  who  have  done  much  to  remove 
popular  discredit  attached  to  it  by  the  name 
of  Tweed.  John  Kelly  was  an  unscrupu- 
lous politician  in  every  respect  except  thai 
lie  would  not  countenance  "graft"  or  politi- 
cal blackmail.  Richard  Croker,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  as  the  head  of  the  local  Dem- 
ocratic machine,  never  was  a  party  to  the 
small  schemes  of  his  department  heads,  lie 
was  personally  honest,  hut  he  availed  himself 
of  inside  knowledge  of  proposed  local  enact- 
ments by  the  Hoard  of  Aldermen  to  secure 
options  in  speculative  properties  and  thus  be- 
came a  very  rich  man.  Other  people,  in  rail- 
road and  insurance  hoards,  have  done  the 
same  thing  without  incurring  public  censure. 
Why  should  a  politician  he  judged  by  a  higher 
standard  than  the  head  of  a  greal  banking 
house  who  is  often,  likewise,  chief  man  in 
his  church?  When  Mr.  Croker  decided  to 
remove  to  Ireland  in  1894,  Tammany  was 
managed  for  a  time  by  a  triumvirate,  consist- 
ing of  Mayor  Gilroy,  Police  Commissioner 
J.  J.  Martin  and  County  Clerk  II.  I).  Purroy, 
until  about  July,  1895,  when  John  ('.  Sheehan 
was  unanimously  elected  leader,  a  distinction 
he  held  until  January.  1N!)N.  Mr.  Croker 
returned  at  that  time  and  got  control,  remain- 
ing here  until  the  fall  of  1901,  when  he  secured 
the  appointment  of  Lewis  Nixon  in  his  place 
and  went  hack  to  Ireland.  Mr.  Nixon  only 
lasted  from  November  of  that  year  to  May  of 
1902.  lie  lacked  experience,  was  all  things 
to  all  men  and  therefore  popular;  hut  he  gave 
way  to  a  Committee  of  Three,  consisting  of 
Louis  Haffen,  I).  F.  McMahon  and  ('has.  F. 
Murphy. 

Of  all  these  men.  the  most  interesting  is 
John  C.  Sheehan.  whom  I  have  known  and 
greatly  respected  for  many  years.  He  was  a 
successful  leader  in  the  dominant  party  ot 
this  city  and  had  scored  equally  well  as  a 
lawyer  and  a  private  contractor.  Whatever 
money  he  accumulated  has  been  earned  in 
these  two  activities:  not  one  dollar  has  been 
made  in  politics.  He  practiced  law  for  sonic 
years  before  he  became  prominent  in  Tam- 
many Hall  politics,  was  recognized  as  an  able 
practitioner  and  advanced  to  the  top  of  his 
profession    by    natural    progress.     Every    loot 


of  the  way  was  hotly  contested  by  able  law  vets 
of  that  period  and  he  did  not  gain  a  step  with- 
outffighting    for    il.     I    came    to    know    Mr. 


.1'  >ll\    C      Mill    II  \\ 

Sheehan  when  he  was  a  member  of  the  Police 
Hoard,  prior  to  Richard  Croker's  first  abdi- 
cation. He  was  then  a  Sachem  in  the  Taniniam 
Society,  an  especially  active  coadjutor  of  his 
chief  at  election  times  and  performed  his 
duties  on  a  higher  plane  than  most  of  the  men 
who  surrounded  him.  His  frank,  courteous 
hut  never  obsequious  manner  made  him  gen- 
erally popular.  Possessed  of  a  commanding 
presence,  his  large  frame  and  good  height  dis- 
tinguished him  in  a  crowd.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  Police  Commission,  1891,  and 
served  three  years.  When  Mr.  Croker  with- 
drew from  the  limelight  Mr.  Sheehan  became 
his  successor.  The  advancement  had  been 
earned  and  occasioned  no  surprise.  I  nlikc 
some  men  who  have  taken  over  this  laborious 
task.  Mr.  Sheehan  did  no|  proceed  to  convert 
his  position  into  a  "  get-rich-quick  "proposition. 
Never  was  there  a  year  of  such  economy  al  the 
Hall! 

The    first     Mayor    of    the    consolidated    city 
was  to  l>c  elected  in   November,   1S«)7.     Seth 


KIO 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


Low,  who  had  previously  been  Mayor  of 
Brooklyn  and  Gen.  B.  P.  Tracy.  Senator 
Piatt's  special  candidate,  were  already  in  the 
field  when  Mr.  Sheehan  got  his  convention 
together  at  Grand  Central  Palace  and  named 
an  exceptionally  good  city  ticket  with  Robert 
A.  Van  Wyck  for  Mayor  and  Bird  S.  Coler 
for  City  Comptroller.  Mr.  Van  Wyck  had 
served  as  City  Judge  for  eight  years,  was  the 
founder  and  afterwards  president  of  the  Hol- 
land Society  and  possessed  an  excellent  record; 
Mr.  Coler  had  been  raised  in  the  banking- 
house  of  his  father,  was  thoroughly  competent 
for  the  post  and  was  taking  his  first  step  into 
political  life.  lie  was  a  popular  young  man 
well  known  in  financial  circles  and  the  hap- 
piest choice  made  by  Mr.  Sheehan  on  the 
ticket.  An  exciting  campaign  followed.  Mr. 
Low  polled  a  tremendous  vote,  especially  in 
Brooklyn.  Judge  Van  Wyck  was  elected, 
despite  public  clamor  against  Tammany.  The 
celebration  of  the  creation  of  Greater  New 
York,  on  the  night  of  December  31,  1897, 
was  a  memorable  affair.  Although  the  weath- 
er was  bad.  the  populace  of  this  city,  suddenly 
raised  from  a  million  and  a  half  to  nearly 
four  millions  of  people  and  to  second  place 
among  the  cities  of  the  world,  paraded  the 
streets  amid  general  rejoicing.  Inauguration 
of  the  new  Mayor  on  the  following  morning 
stalled  Greater  New  York  upon  its  career! 
The  Van  Wyck  administration,  although  at- 
tended with  the  Ice  Trust  scandal,  must  have 
a  distinctive  place  in  local  history,  because 
thereunder  the  present  Subway  system  was 
inaugurated.  Mayor  Van  Wyck  lifted  the 
first  spadeful  of  earth,  in  front  of  City  Hall, 
at  a  spot  marked  by  a  bronze  tablet.  When 
the  new  administration  was  successfully 
launched,  Richard  Croker  returned  from 
abroad  and  his  interference  with  Mr.  Sheehan 
caused  the  prompt  retirement  of  the  latter 
from  leadership.  Essentially  a  man  of  com- 
mercial training  and,  unlike  later  politicians 
that  might  be  named,  unwilling  to  enter  as 
competitor  for  several  la  rye  contracts  that 
were  in  the  open  market,  Mr.  Sheehan  retired 
to  private  life.  He  secured,  as  lowest  bidder, 
the  important  contract  for  putting  under- 
ground the  Long  Island  railroad  entering 
Brooklyn   on   Atlantic   Avenue — the  first  sec- 


tion  of  the   new  Subway  system  of  Greater 
New  York! 

Mr.  Sheehan  was  born  at  Buffalo,  X.  Y., 
August,  1S4S;  was  educated  at  St.  Joseph's 
College  and  at  a  commercial  institution  of 
that  city.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and 
practiced  law  many  years;  but  his  chief  finan- 
cial success  has  come  through  large  contracts 
that  have  attained  for  him  national  promi- 
nence. Although  out  of  active  politics.  Mr. 
Sheehan  did  not  forget  Mr.  Croker's  treat- 
ment and  waited  to  get  even.  His  opportu- 
nity came  in  the  fall  preceding  the  close  of  the 
Van  Wyck  administration,  when  he  organized 
a  fusion  movement  that  overthrew  Croker 
by  defeating  the  Tammany  Hall  ticket.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  Seth  Low  was  the 
candidate  for  Mayor,  but  the  rest  of  the 
ticket  was  conceded  to  Mr.  Sheehan,  namely. 
Comptroller,  E.  M.  Grout;  President  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  C.  V.  Fornes;  President 
of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan,  Jacob  A. 
Cantor;  Sheriff.  W.  J.  O'Brien;  Register.  J. 
.1.  II.  Konner,  and  Coroner.  Nicholas  J. 
Brown.  It  was  a  memorable  victory  for  Mr. 
Sheehan  "a  whole  revenge  in  one  act."  as 
Dumas  would  have  said.  He  then  quit 
politics  forever. 

Familiarity  with  Hellenic  affairs  has  given 
Frank  W.  Jackson  a  decided  advantage  as  an 
importer  of  Grecian  products.     He  is  a  fluent 

Greek  scholar  and 
served  as  American 
Consul  at  Greece  for 
two  years,  at  the  same 
time  studying  the 
customs  of  the  people 
and  making  historical 
and  archaeological  re- 
searches. Upon  his 
return  to  America  he 
was  for  some  time 
general  agent  of  the 
Hellenic  Transatlantic 
Steamship  Company  of 
Athens  and  afterwards 
became  an  importer  of 
frank  w.  jackson  Greek   products.      Mr. 

Jackson  is  a  member 
of  the  staff  of  lecturers  of  the  New  York  Board 
of  Education;  a  member  of  the  Archaeological 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


401 


Society  of  Athens.  Greece;  of  the  Circolo 
Nazionale  Ltaliano,  Phi  (lamina  Delta  frater- 
nity, Phi  (lamina  Delta  Club  and  the  Traffic 
Club  of  New  York  City.     Mr.  Jackson  is  a 

graduate  of  Bneknell  University  and  was  for 
several  years  head  master  in  Greek  at  the 
Mount  Pleasant  (Pa.)   Preparatory  School. 


\\  1 1 .1.1  A M    i;     BEMIS 

VICE-PRESIDENT  STANDARD  OIL  COMPANY  OF   NEW   YORK 

In  a  long  and  successful  career  in  the 
held  of  finance  no  other  event  is  so  important 
as  the  part  Benjamin  B.  Bryan  played  in  the 
establishment  of  the  brokers'  private  wire 
from  New  York  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  He 
recognized  the  necessity  of  direct  communica- 
tion between  the  important  financial  cities 
and  the  immense  producing  fields  of  the  West 
and  Northwest,  and  was  the  pioneer  in  bring- 
ing 20,000  miles  of  territory  in  direct  touch 
with  the  metropolis  and  the  other  investment 
centers.  Mr.  Bryan  is  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  Logan  &  Bryan  and  is  the  nephew  of 
Benjamin  Butters,  a  well-known  hanker  and 
broker  who  died  at  the  Great  Northern  Hotel, 
Chicago,  in  1896.  lie  is  a  director  of  the 
Chicago  Board  of  Trade  and  as  one  of  a 
committee  of  four,  appeared  before  Congress 
in  1908  in  the  defense  of  legitimate  exchanges. 


( )f  all  men  known  to  me,  I  cannot  recall  one 
that  has  such  a  sincere  affection  for  his  native 
State  or  greater  devotion   to  the   prosperity  of 

the  New  South  than  Thomas  Fortune  Ryan, 
hanker,  railway  magnate  and  prospective 
I  nited  Stales  Senator  from  Virginia.  There 
isn't  a  story  in  the  "Arabian  Nights"  quite 
equal  to  the  life  history  of  this  man.  I  never 
have  known  him  very  well,  and  I  am  told  he  is 
a  Sphinx  to  his  closest  friends.  I  met  him 
lor  the  first  time  at  the  (  hicago  (  (invention  of 
1896,  introduced  by  William  C.  Whitney. 
Born  a  poor  hoy  al  Lovingston,  Nelson  (  Onnly, 
Virginia,  in  1851,  and  early  orphaned,  lie  went 
to  Baltimore  at  17,  as  clerk  in  a  mercantile 
house,  whence  he  came  lo  flic  metropolis  two 
years  later  and  began  his  marvelous  career. 
He  started  as  a  clerk  in  a  hank,  I  cannot 
learn  the  institution  that  would  he  glad  to 
claim  him  as  its  pupil  in  finance.  He  saved 
enough  money  to  buy  a  scat  in  the  Stock  Ex- 
change in  lS7t  i  then  worth  aliout  $5,000), 
and  from  that  hour  to  this  his  success  has  been 
like  a  romance.  Money  making  became  a 
fine  art  with  him.  Ilis  arrival  in  Wall  Street 
was  after  my  year  of  activity  there.  To-day, 
in  addition  to  a  personal  fortune  of  $50,000,- 
000,  he  probably  controls  and  dominates  more 
than  a  billion  and  a  half  of  money,  invested  in 
enterprises  chiefly  because  he  is  the  directing 
mind  therein!  There  is  Revolutionary  stock 
on  both  sides  of  his  family,  and  a  maternal 
grandfather.  Thomas  Fortune,  was  a  captain 
in  the  second  war  with  ( ireat  Britain,  although 
I  doubt  if  the  New  Yorker  ever  mentions  these 
facts.  These  forebears,  however,  account  for 
unflinching  patriotism,  which  to  my  mind  is 
only  exceeded  as  human  traits  by  love  of  God 
and  humanity.  In  these  latter  respects,  Mr. 
Ryan  is  eminent. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Ryan's  power  was  felt 
in  Wall  Street,  but  the  source  thereof  was  un- 
recognized. This  man,  whom  William  (  .  Whit- 
ney once  described  as  "(he  most  suave,  adroit 
and  noiseless  personality  American  finance 
ever  had  known,"'  suddenly  emerged  from  self- 
created  obscurity  in  1SSS.  when  II.  B.  Ilollins, 
Isaac  L.  Rice  and  E.  B.  Alexander  undertook 
the  capture  of  the  Richmond  Terminal  Bail- 
road.  Alexander  was  president  of  the  ( ieorgia 
Central.     A  long  litigation  followed  ;but,  about 


HI-.' 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


THOMAS    I      H\  \\ 


1S!)1 .  during  money  stringency,  Innian.  Thom- 
as and  Bryce,  who  controlled  the  Richmond 
Terminal  could  not  borrow  and  had  to  sue  for 
peace.  Then  Mr.  Ryan  appeared  as  director 
in  a  reorganized  board  and  he  was  disclosed 
as  the  great  unknown*. 

That  contest  was  a  fine  preparation  for  a 
subsequent  struggle  resulting  in  the  capture 
of  the  Seaboard  Air  Line.  There  had  been 
trouble  in  the  directory  of  that  corporation 
for  several  years.  While  the  stock  was  quoted 
at  $45  a  share  on  the  Exchange,  Mr.  Ryan 
suddenly  announced  that  he  had  bought  con- 
trol of  the  road  for  $125  per  share,  from  R.  C. 
Hoffman,  president  of  the  company.      But  the 

*  I  have  since  used  ihis  historic  contest  in  my  financial  novel  "<  >n 
:i  Margin,"  lc>  depict  the  influence  of  ;i  mighty  hidden  financial 
power 


Hoffman  party  couldn't  or  wouldn't  deliver 
the  stock  and  Mr.  Ryan  spoke  his  mind  to  the 
public.  A  new  syndicate  headed  by  .1.  S. 
Williams  and  .1.  W.  Middendorf  offered  $200 
per  share,  planning  to  unite  the  Seaboard  with 
the  Baltimore  &  Ohio.  An  injunction  was 
refused  to  Mr.  Ryan  and.  apparently  he  was 
defeated.  lie  waited.  When  the  panic  of 
1  !>(>.">  came,  the  Williams  group  got  into  dif- 
ficulties and  Mr.  Ryan  secured  the  Seaboard 
Air  Line  at  his  own  figures. 

Mr.  Ryan's  association  with  the  late  Wil- 
liam C.  Whitney  in  street  railway  enterprises 
were  highly  profitable,  but  details  are  too  com- 
plicated to  treat  in  a  sketch  of  this  length. 
The  consolidation  of  the  tobacco  interests 
of  the  world  is  a  different  matter.  It  is  proba- 
ble  that   this   achievement,   conducted   on   his 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


103 


own  initiative,  is  the  one  coup  that  has  brought 
most   money   to  Thomas   F.   Ryan.     Briefly, 

it  may  be  said  that  during  the  '90s  Mr.  Ryan 
had  organized  the  Union  Tobacco  Company, 
which  acquired  the  Blackwell  Bull-Durham 
and    the    Liggett    <!v    Myers    Companies— the 

latter  a  St.  Louis  concern.  These  proved  im- 
portant factors  in  the  organization  of  the 
American  Tobacco  Company,  the  purchase  of 
the  Continental  and  effective  control  of  80 
per  cent,  of  the  cigar  and  tobacco  trade  of  the 
United  States.  England  was  then  invaded 
and  a  legal  contest  for  possession  of  "Ogden's 
Limited'"  followed.  A  settlement  resulted  in 
the  surrender  to  the  American  Tobacco  Com- 
pany of  the  United  Slates  territory  and  all 
colonies,  Canada  and  Cuba,  as  well  as  a  two- 
thirds  interest  in  the  British-American  com- 
pany formed  to  supply  the  rest  of  the  world! 

Prior  to  1!)03,  the  National  City  Rank  was 
the  only  one  in  this  country  with  a  capital 
of  $25,000,000,  but  Mr.  Ryan  decided  to  rival 
it  by  consolidating  with  the  National  Rank 
of  Commerce,  which  he  and  friends  controlled 
the  Hide  and  Leather  and  the  Western  Na- 
tional banks.  The  choice  of  "National  Rank 
of  Commerce."  as  a  name,  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  this  institution  possesses  special  banking 
privileges  granted  to  it  by  Congress  during  the 
Civil  War  to  induce  it  to  come  into  the  na- 
tional banking  system.  The  creation  of  the 
old  Morton  Trust  Company,  now  the  Guar- 
antee Trust  Company,  which  has  deposits  of 
$178,000,000  to-day,  was  an  afternoon's  work. 
SO  to  speak.  The  Morton  was  then  combined 
with  the  State  Trust  and  to-day  has  about 
$100,000,000  deposits.  It  seems  too  easy  a 
proposition  to  deserve  mention. 

Mr.  Ryan's  most  memorable  ct>it/>.  because 
it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  civilized  world, 
was  his  purchase  of  the  controlling  Hyde  in- 
terests in  the  Equitable  Assurance  Society. 
The  Armstrong  Committee  had  riddled  that 
great  corporation;  the  report  of  the  Frick 
Committee  of  Directors,  laying  most  of  the 
blame  upon  James  H.  Hyde, — who  was  only 
one  director — had  not  satisfied  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  policyholders.  Something  had 
to  be  done  to  restore  confidence,  or  a  splendid 
institution,  having  a  benevolent  purpose  as  its 
real  objective,  would  go  to  pieces.      When  the 


suspense  was  the  most  tense,  when  thousands 
of  policyholders  refused  to  pay  premiums,  Mr. 
Ryan  announced  the  purchase  by  him  of  the 
Hyde  shares,  for  the  benefit  of  the  policy- 
holders! lie  paid  $2,500,000.  To  show  -a\>^>- 
lute  good  faith,  Mr.  Ryan  at  once  placed  lhi> 
stock  in  trust  with  three  trustees;  Grover 
Cleveland,  Justice  Morgan  .1.  O'Brien  and 
George  Westinghouse.  Reorganization  of  the 
Equitable  followed.  Paul  Morton,  former 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  Roosevelt,  was 
made  President,  and  a  $400,000,000  institution 
was  saved  from  disaster.  In  1906,  Mr.  Ryan 
retired  from  thirty-odd  banks  and  corpora- 
tions with  which  he  was  connected.  He  still 
retains  several  directorships. 

Tall,  keen-visaged,  but  polite  to  the  utmost 
degree,  Mr.  Ryan  is  a  personality  to  whom 
one  becomes  greatly  attached  after  acquaint- 
ance has  ripened  into  friendship.  In  his 
office,  his  steel-gray  eyes  put  one  upon  his 
guard;  when  lunching  at  the  Lawyers'  Club  or 
elsewhere,  he  is  as  genial  as  he  i>  gentle. 
Simple  in  his  personal  habits,  he  smokes  little, 
drinks  less  and  cares  nothing  about  what  is 
described  as  "society."  Away  from  YA  .-ill 
Street,  his  greatest  interests  lie  in  his  beloved 
Virginia,  where  many  millions  of  his  money 
have  been  devoted  to  development  of  natural 
resources.  At  Oak  Ridge,  near  the  place  of 
his  birth,  is  his  home  although  he  has  a 
country  home  '  Montebello,"  in  Rockland 
County.  N.  Y..  and  a  city  house  on  Fifth 
Avenue. 

A  descendant  of  the  old  Knickerbocker  fam- 
ily of  Op  Dyck,  which  settled  in  New  York 
in  l(i-M).  George  II.  Opdyke  was  horn  here  in 
1S(!?.  receiving  his  education  at  the  Weslcvan 
University,  Middletown,  (dun.,  from  which 
he  graduated  Ph.B.  in  1S!)(I  and  with  prizes 
in  economics  and  history.  He  later  look 
courses  in  Columbia  University  with  degree 
of  MA.  and  in  University  of  New  York,  from 
which  he  obtained  the  Ph.D.  degree  and  com- 
pleted with  a  law  course  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, but  did  no|  graduate,  leaving  on  account 
of  a  flattering  business  opening  in  Georgia. 
He  was  engaged  in  mining  and  railroading  in 
the  South  from  1892  to  1901  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Georgia  but  never  practiced. 
From  1901  to  l!>0t  he  was  engaged  in  mining 


404 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


and    railroading    in    California    and    Oregon. 
Returninr 


to 


New  York  City  he  became  in- 


terested in  several  business  propositions  as 
financial  backer  and  has  since  confined  his 
activities  to  this  city. 


MELVILLE    E.    STONE 

No  name  is  better  known  in  the  newspaper 
field  throughout  the  world  than  Melville  E. 
Stone  at  the  head  of  the  Associated  Press. 
The  above  photograph  is  presented  here  al- 
though mention  is  often  made  of  this  wonder- 
ful news-gatherer  in  the  previous  chapters. 
Every  newspaper  man  is  his  friend. 

In  the  preceding  pages  much  has  been  said 
regarding  the  New  York  Tribune  in  the  olden 
days  and  its  great  editor  and  founder.  Horace 
Greeley.  The  massive  foundation  laid  then 
remains  unshaken  and  the  Tribune  of  to-day 
continues  to  represent  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  age.  It  was  the  first  paper  to  use  a 
rotary  press,  the  first  to  use  stereotyping,  the 
first   to   use   linotype   machines.      Its   avenues 


of  information  reach  around  the  earth.  It 
was  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  Associated 
Press  and  its  resources  for  news  at  the  present 
time  are  boundless;  its  editorials,  highly  intelli- 
gent, its  local  news  columns  unsurpassed  and 
its  illustrating  and  art  departments  excellent. 

A  most  important  event  in  the  Tribune's 
history  occurred  on  the  21st  day  of  October, 
1909,  when  under  its  present  management, 
the  price  of  the  paper  was  reduced  from  three 
cents  to  one  cent  a  copy.  This  was  brought 
about  after  due  consideration,  and.  in  recogni- 
tion of  public  demand  and  prevailing  condi- 
tions. At  the  same  time,  the  six  columns  to 
its  page  were  increased  to  seven  columns, 
and  the  daily  and  Sunday  issues  were  enlarged 
to  such  proportions  that  the  old  subscribers 
of  the  paper  could  find  no  room  for  criticism, 
but  on  the  other  hand  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  letters  of  approval  were  sent  in  to  the 
paper  expressing  the  utmost  satisfaction  at 
the  change.  This  movement  was  radical  and 
successful.  The  circulation  jumped  many 
thousands  in  a  very  few  days.  Increase  fol- 
lowed increase  from  dealers,  not  only  through- 
out the  city  and  immediate  suburbs,  but  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  Announcement  of  the 
Tribune's  reduction  in  price  was  the  news- 
paper "event"  of  the  year  of  1!)()i). 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  to-day  is  not 
only  a  New  York  paper,  but  a  national  me- 
dium that  can  be  found  in  remote  districts 
where  the  competition  of  the  city  does  not 
reach  and  where  it  is  accepted  as  a  member 
of  the  family  that  the  passing  years  fail  to 
weaken. 

Another  strong  feature  of  the  Tribune  is  its 
high  standing  in  Europe.  Few  American 
papers  have  the  following  on  the  other  side 
that  the  Tribune  has  enjoyed  for  more  than 
half  a  century  and  it  is  so  highly  regarded  as 
an  American  medium  that  it  carries  in  its 
regular  paid  advertising  columns  the  business 
cards  of  not  only  the  leading  hotels  and  pleas- 
ure resorts  of  Europe,  but  advertisements  of 
conservative  houses  and   London  shops. 

Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid  is  still  identified  with  the 
paper  as  its  principal  owner.  His  son,  Ogden 
Mills  Reid,  has  recently  been  elected  to  the 
presidency.  The  editor  is  Mr.  Hart  Lyman. 
Conde  Hamlin  is  the  business  manager. 


THE    HOOK   nf  NEW   YORK 


K).1 


CHAPTER  XXX 


SELLING    REAL   ESTATE    IS  A   FINE   AIM' 


II  the  improvement  of  the 
city  came  the  developmenl  of  its 
suburbs.  There  have  Keen 
"conveyancers"  and  real  estate 
agents  since  the  beginning1  of 
time,  but  only  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years  has  the  selling 
of  city  and  suburban  property  been  reduced 
to  an  art.  Many  of  the  finest  city  improve- 
ments have  owed  their  inception  to  the  brilliant 
and  suggestive  minds  of  the  men  of  this  new 
profession.  When  in  London,  in  1875,  I 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  Birkbeck  System 
of  developing  plots  of  land  in  the  environs  of 
the  British  metropolis;  but  when  1  returned  to 
this  city  I  could  not  interest  any  one  of  a 
dozen  real  estate  men  whom  1  visited.  Not 
until  the  early  nineties  did  the  improvement 
of  outlying  regions  begin  in  earnest.  The 
movement  followed  closely  upon  the  rearing 
of  the  first  skyscrapers!  When  the  Tribune 
building  had  risen  to  eleven  stories,  timid 
New  Yorkers  were  afraid  to  go  to  see  the 
editor.  That  interesting  personage  probably 
escaped  many  a  disagreeable  visitor,  intent 
upon  securing  "a  retraction"  or  a  gratuitous 
"puff"  because  he  dwelt  so  far  aloft.  Then 
came  the  American  Tract  Society's  structure 
with  its  twenty-three  floors:  next  the  new 
Potter  building. 

A  marvelous  feat  in  construction  was  accom- 
plished in  the  Times  building,  on  the  site  of 
the  old  brick  church,  because  the  new  structure 
was  put  up  around  the  old  one  without  the 
loss  of  a  single  publication  day! 

Meanwhile,  the  splendid  edifice  of  the 
World  had  risen  on  the  site  of  French's  Hotel 
—its  cornerstone  laid  in  October,  1889.  All 
these  structures  looked  very  tall:  but  when 
the  ancient  International  Hotel  familiar  to 
every  newspaper  man  on  Park  Bow  because 
it  afforded  domicile  to  'Tommy  Lynch's 
boosing-ken"      came  down  and  the  Park  Bow 


or  "Syndicate"  building  rose  in  its  place  to 
the  height  of  thirty-three  floors,  most  New 
Yorkers  assumed  that  the  limit  of  structural 
steel  buildings  had  been  reached.  Since  that 
time  there  have  Keen  few  loftier  structures. 
The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company's 
tower,  the  Singer,  City  Investment.  Whitehall 
and,  latest,  Woolworth  buildings  advanced 
the  sky-line  higher  and  higher.  The  last 
mentioned,  containing  fifty  floors,  located  al 
the  corner  of  Park  Place  and  Broadway,  is 
one  of  the  wonders  of  the  new  century! 

The  outlook  for  Manhattan  realty  is  as 
promising  to-day  as  ever  if  has  been.  As 
many  fortunes  are  to  be  made  in  the  future 
as  in  the  past.  Fundamental  conditions  are 
sound  and  are  becoming  Wetter  every  month. 
Sales  of  realty  average  $500,000,000  annually 

not  taking  into  account  structures  upon  I  In- 
land. Growth  of  population  and  business 
account  for  this  and  not  a  sign  appears  to 
warrant  any  decrease  either  in  the  one  or  the 
other. 

More  than  $100,000,000  was  invested  in 
new  structures  in  Manhattan  during  1911, 
an  advance  of  $4,000,000  over  the  preceding 
year,  when  the  total  was  $96,703,029.  The 
year  1911,  therefore,  was  the  second  best 
building  year  in  the  history  of  the  borough, 
the  banner  year  being  190!).  when  the  high 
total  of  $127,973,902  was  reached.  The  only 
other  borough  that  showed  a  substantial  ad- 
vance was  Queens,  where  all  previous  records 
were  exceeded,  the  total  for  the  first  eleven 
months  up  to  December  1  last  being  $21,157,- 
264,  as  against  $14,507,000  for  the  year  L910. 
Richmond  showed  a  slight  gain,  but  Bronx 
and  Brooklyn  fell  below  the  marks  of  1910, 
owing  to  delay  in   rapid  transit  facilities. 

In  Manhattan  the  building  operations  were 
chiefly  apartment  houses  and  lofts.  These 
two  types,  one  representative  of  the  residential 
life  of  the  citv  and   the  other  of  its   business 


km; 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


needs  and  growth,  dominate  all  other 
forms  of  structural  work.  They  have 
been  centred  chiefly  in  two  parts  of  the 
city,  the  apartments  on  the  west  side. 
between  Seventy-second  and  110th 
Streets,  and  the  lofts  in  the  midtown 
commercial  /one.  between  Fourteenth 
and  Forty-second  Streets,  with  Fourth 
and  Madison  Avenues  as  the  eastern 
boundary  and  Seventh  Avenue  on  the 
west.  East  of  Fourth  Avenue,  in  the 
middle  east  side,  were  three  buildings 
costing  $440. (MM);  west  of  Seventh  Ave- 
nue in  the  Pennsylvania  station  /.one. 
were  two  costing  $800,000;  Greenwich 


$■(,  >c'  tec  it 

/!■■:!'  :;  Hi  ii 

j-i  •--  si 

;:('7rM  ill  b 

ti  tfrl! 

ti1  ii  ••  tt;  ■ 
i>.'(   '•'■'. 


aggregating    nearly  $9. 000. 00(1. 

While  realty  prices  advanced 
in  the  Fourth.  Madison  and  Fifth 
Avenue  /one.  due  to  continued 
demand  for  big  business  space,  the 
good  fortune  of  this  part  of  the 
city  has  been  made  at  the  expense 
of  the  old  dry  goods  centre  be- 
low Fourteenth  street. 

A  whole  chapter  might  be 
written  about  Madison  Squar?, 
once  the  fashionable  home  of 
"Flora  McFlimsey,"  but  now  at 
the  end  of  its  social  career.  The 
old  square,  which  in  its  days  held 


'  'opyright  by  Litlig  &  >  ■ 


THE   l.UI.ST   l\   NEW   YORK  SKY-SCRAPERS 
Illustrating  the  tremendous  earning  power  ol  a  few   feet  of  Manhattan  real  estati 


village  section,  which  furnished  a  number  of 
new  structures  the  preceding  year,  produced 
only  three  big  structures  last  year  costing 
$875,000;  north  of  Forty-second  Street  there 
were  four  costing  $1,570,000,  while  below 
Fourteenth  Street,  in  the  Broadway  section, 
plans    for   seven    large    structures  were    filed. 


some  of  the  finest  dwellings  in  this  city,  is 
now  claimed  by  modern  office  buildings. 
Only  a  few  remain  of  the  many  stately, 
handsome  residences  that  surrounded  the 
little  patch  of  greensward  fifteen  year.--  ago. 
Madison  Square  Garden,  now  doomed,  is 
more  than   L2\   years  old.      Barnum's   Hippo- 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


401 


drome,  as  the  old  New  York  Central  station 
covering  the  block  bounded  by  Madison  and 
Fourth  Avenues  and  Twenty-sixth  and  Twen- 
ty-seventh Streets  was  called,  was  boughl  in 
the  fall  of  1887  by  the  Madison  Square  Garden 
Company  for  $400,000.  The  next  year  build- 
ing operations  were  started  and  in  June,  1890, 
the   big   amphitheatre    was    formally   opened. 

The  Garden  was  really  the  first   big  i lern 

building  to  be  erected  on  the  square.  It  is 
one  of  the  best-known  structures  in  the  world, 
and  was  erected  from  designs  by  Stanford 
White.  The  Flatiron  building  was  the  next 
to  follow.  This  building,  because  of  its  shape 
and  height,  is  known  throughout  the  world. 
I  nlike  the  Metropolitan  Life  building,  it  was 
built  as  a  speculation,  and  in  this  respect  it  is 
the  pioneer  of  the  many  office  buildings  now 
flanking  the  park.  The  building  of  a  New 
\  ork  skyscraper  is  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs 
of  organization  that  the  world  ever  has  known. 
In  no  other  country  has  it  been  possible  except 
under  the  direct  superintendency  of  American 
experts. 

Wall  Street  of  to-day  is  not  the  one  1  knew 
in  1870.  Only  Trinity  Church  ami  the  Greek 
temple  called  the  Sub-Treasury  remain.  The 
United  States  Assay  office  was  last  to  go.  It 
hail  stood  since  IH^.'J.  When  I  Hist  knew  it. 
Henry  Clews  had  a  brokerage  office  in  the 
front  of  the  building;  well  do  1  remember 
sitting  with  him  the  day  of  Jay  <  looke's  failure, 
when  he.  too.  had  been  driven  to  the  wall. 
Never  shall  I  forget  his  words,  when  I  called 
to  express  my  regrets  and  a  hope  that  matters 
were  not  so  bad  as  he  feared:  "Chambers, 
I'm  not  worth  five  cents!*'  he  said.  In  its 
earliest  days,  the  Assay  office  was  the  Sub- 
Treasury,  the  present  edifice  dedicated  to 
that  use  being  the  Custom  House.  Later. 
it  was  a  branch  of  the  United  States  Bank. 
Not  a  building  on  Wall  Street  west  of  Pearl 
Street,  except  the  Seaman's  Savings  Hank 
and  the  Hank  of  New  York,  is  as  it  was  in 
1870.  The  old  Custom  House  has  become  a 
banking  house:  the  street  is  crowded  with 
sk\  scrapers! 

New  York  City  grows  twice  as  rapidly  as 
the  country  at  large.  Taking  the  official 
figures  of  the  five  Boroughs,  as  given  in  1!)1(). 
at    1,766,883    population    ami    adding    to    per 


cent.,  or  1,906,752,  we  have  6,673,636  people 

as  the  city's  census  in   1920. 

The  most  noticeable  real  estate  develop- 
ment has  been  on  the  upper  West  Side. 
Twenty-five  years  ago,  the  section  north  of 
Fifty-ninth  Street  ami  Eighth  Avenue  was 
generally  a  mass  of  rocks  and  rookeries. 
Isolated  houses  only  served  to  render  the 
region  more  desolate.  I  {locks  between  Colum- 
bus and  Eighth  Avenue-,  were  considerably 
developed.  'The  Dakota,  on  Central  Park 
West,  was  the  first  mammoth  structure  of  the 
new  real  estate  era.  The  Farlevs  buill  the 
Nevada  in  L890.  The  neighborhood  was 
alive  will:  goats  and  all  neighboring  houses 
were  shanties.  A  curious  and  interesting  fact 
is  that  churches  were  flic  pioneers  in  thai 
section.  The  Colonial  Club  and  the  Hotel 
St.  Andrews  were  two  inspiring  objects  and 
their  erection  almost  doubled  the  prices  of 
property  on  Sherman  Square.  Riverside 
Drive,  which  in  1NN<!  hail  only  fifteen  buildings 
between  Seventy-second  Street  and  Willi 
Street  some  of  them  old  frame  affairs  sud- 
denly felt  the  throb  of  new  life  on  the  Wes1 
Side.  The  late  Cyrus  (lark  was  pioneer: 
as  he  told  me  himself,  he  became  so  land  poor 
that  in  his  fine  house  al  Ninety-firsl  Street 
he  could  keep  only  one  servant!  About  1SSS 
came  the  era  of  large  aparlnienl  houses  on 
the  Riverside  and  elsewhere  throughout  that 
section.  Rents  in  sonic  of  them  were  as  high 
as  $12,000  a  suite!  Early  in  this  volume  I 
have  described  Elm  Park  as  a  picnic  ground. 
The  day  of  single  dwellings,  except  for  the 
wealthy,  is  passing;  huge  apartments  are 
lining  Broadway  as  far  as  ancient  Blooming- 
dale. 

The  possibilities  of  asymmetrical  and  beauti- 
ful development  of  Long  Island  had  been 
recognized  by  many  local  real  estate  dealers 
before  Daniel  II.  Burnham,  a  famed  Western 
landscape  architect,  visited  the  region  al  the 
close  of  1911.  A  broad  boulevard  from  the 
heart  of  Brooklyn  to  Montauk  Point,  and  a 
similar  one  from  Queensboro  Bridge  to  Green- 
porl  -with  excellent  cross-roads  joining  these 
two  thoroughfares,  so  as  to  open  up  all 
the  central  features  of  flu's  "terminal  morain" 

should    lie    put    under    commission    al    once. 


408 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


These  improvements  will  come  in  the  near 
future.  Queens  wants  a  boulevard  from  Jack- 
son Avenue,  through  Corona.  Flushing,  Bay- 
side  and  Little  Neck;  connections  between 
Brooklyn's  Eastern  Parkway  and  Queens 
Boulevard,  an  extension  of  Hillside  Avenue 
to  Floral  Park,  a  development  of  the  Rocka- 
way  Turnpike  from  Ridgewood  Avenue 
through  South  Jamaica  to  the  famous  Merrick 
road,  and  a  Van  Dam  Street  connection  be- 
tween Queensboro  Bridge  and  the  Williams- 
burg Bridge.  Nassau  County  desires  the  im- 
provement of  the  Jericho  Turnpike  and  the 
Merrick  road.  Suffolk  County  is  ready  to  do 
her  share  in  the  beautification  of  Long  Island. 

Before  long,  Fort  Pond  Bav  will  become 
the  terminal  point  for  trans-Atlantic  lines.  A 
National  Park  is  planned  at  Montauk  Point, 
taking  in  the  site  of  the  camp  occupied  by  the 
troops  on  their  return  from  Cuba.  Another 
.splendid  park  is  planned  for  the  Lake  Ron- 
konkoma  region,  in  the  middle  of  the  island. 
There  is  nothing  chimerical  about  the  pro- 
ject. Long  Island  is  already  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  attractive  places  in  the  entire 
country. 

Staten  Island  comprises  all  of  Richmond 
Borough  and  Richmond  County.  It  has  an 
area  of  .)(>,(i(l()  acres  and  a  population  fast 
approaching  the  100,000  mark.  With  the 
highest  ground  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
with  its  chain  of  beautiful  hills,  its  picturesque 
valleys  and  plains  and  its  splendid  views  of 
the  ocean,  the  lower  and  upper  bay.  the  Kill 
von  Kull,  Newark  Bay.  the  Orange  Moun- 
tains, and  last  but  not  least  with  the  constant 
panorama  of  ships  great  and  small  which  pass 
through  the  famous  Narrows  commanded  by 
the  Federal  fortifications,  its  advantages  are 
unparalleled  anywhere. 

Staten  Island  was  given  its  name  by 
Henry  Hudson,  who,  in  1608,  sailed  through 
the  Narrows  and  anchored  in  the  bay.  He 
it  was  who  called  it  "Staaten  Eylandt,"  in 
honor  of  the  States  of  Holland,  and  it  was  here 
that  his  crew  first  landed  near  what  is  now 
St.  George. 

With  the  Battery,  no  place  on  Manhattan 
Island  is  to  be  compared;  it  really  was  the 
cradle  of  the  metropolis  of  the  present!    There 


Peter  Minuit.  a  Prussian,  acting  for  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  made  the  greatest  real- 
estate  deal  known  to  American  history.  It 
casts  into  the  shade  all  the  brilliant  records 
of  the  men  of  to-day.  He  bought  the  entire 
island  from  the  Indians  for  $24!  It  was  a 
fair  bargain,  as  values  ran  in  1626.  The 
Battery's  present  area  is  21  acres — much 
larger  than  it  was  originally;  three  quarters 
of  the  present  park  is  "made  ground."'  Fort 
Amsterdam  stood  on  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  Custom  House.  The  Aquarium,  best 
known  as  "Castle  Garden,"  rose  in  1811. 
Every  shovelful  of  earth  between  the  fort  and 
Castle  Garden  came  from  the  old  ramparts  of 
the  first  protection  the  ancient  town  possessed. 
The  Dutch  did  not  fear  the  Indians,  but  the 
English!  I  could  write  several  chapters  about 
the  Battery,  did  the  duty  come  within  the 
scope  of  this  work.  Here  the  Dutch  settlers 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
New  World,  and,  although  they  agreed  to  call 
it  "New  Amsterdam."  they  did  not  finally 
decide  upon  a  name  until  many  pipes  of 
schnapps  had  been  drunk  and  countless  dis- 
putes had  been  had.  After  choosing  the 
Battery  site,  to  carry  out  an  illusion  that  their 
dear  Holland  was  to  be  reproduced  here,  they 
dug  a  canal  along  what  is  now  Wall  Street- 
it  was  the  earliest  instance  of  "watered 
stocks"  in  that  locality. 

Then  came  journalism!  Peter  Zenger's 
New  York  Weekly  Journal,  appeared  No- 
vember 5,  1733,  and  his  denunciations  of 
British  rule  became  so  caustic  that  he  was 
thrown  into  jail,  charged  with  libel  and  re- 
fused the  use  of  pen,  ink  and  paper.  His  dun- 
geon was  the  basement  of  the  City  Hall,  then 
standing  at  the  head  of  Broad  Street  on  the 
site  of  the  Sub-Treasury.  He  edited  his  paper 
through  a  chink  in  the  door  of  his  cell,  dic- 
tating his  articles  to  an  assistant  on  the  out- 
side. He  was  not  able  to  give  the  £400  bail. 
The  trial  occurred  in  August.  1735.  Chief 
Justice  DeLancey  presided,  Bradley  was 
Attorney-General.  John  Chambers  appeared 
for  the  prisoner  and  pleaded  "Not  Guilty!" 
Chambers  had  secured  as  chief  counsel  the 
services  of  Andrew  Hamilton,  of  Philadel- 
phia, aged  80,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
lawyers  in  all  the  Colonies.     Hamilton  boldlv 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Ml!) 


admitted  1 
iiii>"    and 


ae 


mblication,  claiming  that  "print- 
ibeling"  were  not  synonymous 
terms.  He  ([noted  many  passages  from  the 
Bible,  which,  with  an  interpolation  of  con- 
temporaneous names,  would  have  been  ad- 
mittedly libelous.  His  argument  was  sophis- 
tical, but  it  captured  the  juryandan  unanimous 
verdict  in  favor  of  the  editor  was  returned!  A 
public  dinner  was  given  to  Hamilton  by  the 
whole  city. 

When  the  Revolution  came,  the  liberty  pole 
was  raised  at  the  Battery.  A  stone,  recently 
set.  marks  the  event  hut  not  the  exact  site  of 
the  flag-staff.  The  formal  "evacuation"  of 
New  York  occurred  at  the  Battery  on  Novem- 
ber -2.5.  1?,S.'5,  and.  although  the  British  nailed 
their  colors  to  the  top  of  the  pole  and  greased 
it.  David  Van  Arsdale,  aged  28,  climbed  it  by 
the  aid  of  cleats,  fastened  thereto  with  nails  ob- 
tained from  the  little  hardware  shop  of  Goelet, 
in    Hanover  Square. 

The  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine  is 
rising  upon  "the  Acropolis  of  New  York" 
Morningside  Heights.  Forty  years  more  will 
he  needed  for  its  completion,  by  which  time 
it  will  have  cost,  exclusive  of  the  land,  $25,- 
()()().()()().  Architectural  drawings  indicate  that 
it  will  combine  the  best  features  of  Gothic 
cathedral  building;  its  massive  spire.  425  feet 
in  height,  will  resemble  Salisbury,  hut  higher 
and  more  ornate;  its  imposing  western  front 
with  two  towers,  will  recall  York  and  Lin- 
coln; the  chevet  of  chapels  at  the  eastern  end 
will  he  characteristic  of  the  splendid  edifices 
of  Northern  France,  imitated  at  Westminster. 
Cologne  and  Toledo;  its  interior  decoration 
is  intended  to  he  as  rich  as  that  of  the  duomo 
at  Milan.  The  cathedral  site  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  the  Christian  world — re- 
calls Durham  to  me — and  in  Pagan  lands  is 
only  equalled  by  the  vast  Fotala  of  the 
Dalai  Lama  of  Buddhism,  at  Lhasa.  Tibet. 
When  completed,  the  edifice  will  be  visible 
from  nearly  every  part  of  the  city  above  Fifty- 
ninth  Street.  Its  neighbor,  the  pretty  struc- 
ture of  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  had  its  beginning 
in  a  gift  of  $5  by  a  poor  woman  restored  to 
health  in  one  of  the  public  hospitals.  From 
that  humble  sum.  under  Dr.  Muhlenberg's 
fostering  care,   the   property   has  grown   to   a 


valuation  of  nearly  $4,000,000.     It  is  one  of 
the  best-equipped  hospitals  in  the  world. 

Chinatown  lies  to  the  westward  of  Chatham 
Square  and  comprises  a  triangular  section 
bounded  by  Molt  and  Doyer  Streets  and 
Paradise  Square.  It  teems  with  HIV;  natives 
of  the  "Flowery  Kingdom,"  in  their  home 
garb  but  mostly  without  their  queues  since 
the  latest  revolution  againsl  the  Manchus, 
throng  the  streets  and  shops.  The  Josh  Tem- 
ple, on  the  north  side  of  Molt  Street,  brings 
together  the  pious  at  regular  intervals  for 
prayer  and  meditation.  The  home  of  the 
sacred  joss  is  reached  after  climbing  two 
flights  of  stairs;  there  several  bonzes  are  de- 
voutly tending  the  eternal  lire  and  dusting  the 
face  of  the  bin',  bronze  Buddha.  The  most 
interesting  ceremonials  performed  at  the  Mott 
Street  temple  are  in  memory  of  the  dead. 
The  annual  "Feasl  of  Lanterns"  is  visited 
by  many  Americans,  who  respect  the  beauti- 
ful myth  to  which  the  fete  owes  its  origin — a 
mandarin  father,  who.  for  3,500  years,  has 
been  seeking  a  lost  daughter  of  great  beauty. 

Broadway  is  gorged  with  memories.  Near 
Duane  Street,  the  first  sewing  machine  was 
exhibited  in  a  window;  curiosity  was  excited, 
but  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  toy— like  the  Bell 
telephone  at  the  Philadelphia  Exposition.  On 
Thomas  Street,  near  Church,  occurred  the 
mysterious  murder,  never  explained,  for  which 
Edgar  Allan  Poe  suggested  a  logical  but  fan- 
ciful  solution  in  his  tale,  "The  Murders  in 
the  Rue  Morgue."  Horace  Greeley,  when  a 
journeyman  printer,  lived  near  West  Broad- 
way in  the  same  street.  1  have  spoken  of  the 
Broadway  theatres  elsewhere.  At  a  small 
hotel  on  the  corner  of  Houston  Street,  re- 
cently demolished,  lived  John  ('.  Ileenan.  the 
"  Benicia  Boy";  there  I  often  visited  him 
and  he  was  buried  from  a  house  in  Clinton 
Place.  'Idie  still-remembered  Burdell  mur- 
der occurred  at  .'!1  Bond  Street,  east  of  Broad- 
way. Poe  lived  in  the  same  street,  tempora- 
rily, as  guest  of  the  Shaw  family  and  there 
wrote  "The  Bells"  one  Sunday  morning. 
Clinton  Hall  faces  a  plaza  where  the  Mac- 
ready -I'd  ires  t  riots  occurred  in  1849.  In 
Colonade  How.  fast  disappearing,  dwelt  Wash- 


410 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


rtgton  Irving.  Grace  Church,  with  its  out- 
door  pulpit,  only  exceeded  in  beauty  by 
St.  Patrick's  Cathedral  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

The  wonderful  development  of  New  ^  ork 
and  her  vast  circle  of  beautiful  suburbs  has 
not  been  tin1  result  of  accident  or  of  a  special 
dispensation  of  Providence.  It  is  due  above 
all  to  the  energy  and  efficiency  of  men  like 
Joseph  W.  Doolittle,  who  have  had  confidence 
in  the  future  and  prepared  the  way  for  growth 
and  expansion. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  interest- 
ing example  of  the  beneficent  projector  of 
civic  improvements  than  Mr.  Doolittle.  It 
was  he  who  gave  the  city  of  Elizabeth  its  most 
picturesque  suburb  El  Mora.  Herein  1906, 
there  was  nothing  but  land  and  scenery:  but 
Mr.  Doolittle  saw  its  possibilities.  He  mapped 
out  its  pattern  of  streets  and  avenues.  lie 
underlaid  it  with  a  system  of  sewers  and  water- 
pipes.  He  equipped  it  with  telephone  service 
and  electric  light.  He  gave  it  a  running  start 
by  building  several  dozen  handsome  residences 
and  then  he  threw  it  open  to  the  public. 

Since  then,  he  has  duplicated  this  success  at 
Douglaston  Park,  which  nestles  on  one  of  the 
prettiest  bays  of  Long  Island  Sound.  Here 
he  secured  a  large  tract  of  undeveloped  land 
and  proceeded  to  transform  it  into  an  Eden 
of  ideal  homes.  Streets,  mansions,  bunga- 
lows all  were  built  in  accordance  with  a  gen- 
eral plan,  which  secured  the  highest  degree 
of  beauty  and  convenience.  As  it  is  inside  the 
limits  of  Greater  New  York,  this  enterprise 
at  once  commanded  attention,  and  its  com- 
plete success  has  added  much  to  Mr.  Doo- 
little's  reputation. 

He  is  the  president  and  principal  stock- 
holder in  the  El  Mora  Land  Company,  the 
Realty  Syndicate  and  the  Douglaston  Really 
Company.  His  general  policy,  by  which  he 
ha>  come  to  be  known  among  the  real  estate 
leaders  of  the  United  States,  is  to  confine  his 
energies  to  one  great  project  at  a  time,  and 
(o  carry  it  clear  through  to  completion  in  one 
continuous  effort.  He  has  little  interest  in 
the  mere  trafficking  side  of  the  real  estate 
business.  What  he  delights  in  is  to  create 
fo  develop  to  transform  an  uninhabited  wood- 
land into  a  suburb  de  luxe. 


Mr.  Doolittle  comes  of  old  New  Hampshire 
stock.  He  was  born  at  Winchester.  N.  II..  in 
1S(»4.  and  educated  in  ihe  schools  of  Man- 
chester,  in   the  same  State.      After  a    vear  or 


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V 

JOSEPH  \V    DOOLITTLE 

more  in  the  West,  he  heard  the  call  of  the  great 
metropolis  of  New  York  and  at  once  plunged 
into  the  real  estate  business.  At  first  he 
specialized  on  hotel  property,  and  went  into 
his  work  with  such  vim  and  energy  that  in 
eighteen  months  his  deals  amounted  to  a  total 
of  seven  million  dollars.  Then,  in  1905, 
when  it  became  evident  that  Manhattan  was 
soon  to  be  reached  by  subways  from  the  east 
and  west.  Mr.  Doolittle  inaugurated  his  pres- 
ent policy  of  creating  new  suburbs  into  which 
flic  residents  of  overcrowded  Manhattan  might 
Bow. 

In  several  years  his  transactions  amounted 
to  more  than  eight  millions  in  Long  Island 
and  New  Jersey.  New  communities  were  put 
on  the  map.  New  values  were  created. 
Higher  standards  of  suburban   comfort    wore 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


411 


realized.  Hundreds  of  families  weir  given 
good  homes  and  good  neighbors.  To  do  such 
work  as  this,  Mr.  Doolittle  maintains,  is  the 
duty  as  well  as  the  profession  of  the  real  estate 
operator.  lie  must  lie.  at  his  best,  much 
more  than  a  broker  and  salesman.  lie  must 
be  a  provider  of  new  homes.  And  in  this 
respect  Mr.  Doolittle's  work  in  the  making  of 
a  better  New  York  has  certainly  been  both 
notable  and  unique. 

Among  the  younger  real  estate  brokers  of 
the  upper  West  Side.  Manhattan,  is  Samuel 
Howell  Martin,  who  was  horn  in  this  city, 
September,  1N7N;  but  when  young  his  parents 
removed  to  East  Orange,  X.  J.,  where  he  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools.  I  le  specialized 
in  Latin  and  English,  and  in  1S!)S  began  the 
real  estate  brokerage  business  with  his  father 
in  Manhattan.  He  developed  much  liking 
for  the  work  and  has  been  able  to  secure  many 
appreciative  clients.  His  business  has  grown 
with  the  wonderful  development  of  the  upper 
West  Side,  which  has  made  fortunes  for  so  many 
property  owners.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Real 
Estate  Hoard  of  Brokers  and  an  agent  for  the 
Phoenix  Insurance  Company.  He  is  a  Re- 
publican, but  does  not  take  any  part  in  politics. 

Another  real  estate  man  largely  identified 
with  downtown  operations  is  William  II. 
Whiting,  born  in  Brooklyn  in  1X4(>.  He  was 
educated  at  Public  School  No.  1  and  the  Poly- 
technic Institute.  He  began  his  commercial 
career  with  Eberhard  Faber  &  Co.  at   131  Wil- 


liam Sheet,  this  city.  Thereafter  for  two 
years  he  was  associated  with  J.  K.  Brick  &  Co., 
a  large  manufacturing  concern  in  Brooklyn, 
and  in  lS(i(i  he  was  cashier  in  "  The  Nation" 
office.  In  |S(>S  Mr.  Whiting  formed  ;i  co- 
partnership with  M.  A.  I{  ii  hi  lid  in  the  real 
estate  business  at  5  Beekman  Street,  and  they 
continued  together  until  Mr.  Ruland's  death 
in  1907.  The  linn  of  Ruland  &  Whiting  was 
one  of  the  best  known  real  estate  linns  in  the 
city.  In  1!)1<>  Mr.  Whiting  withdrew  from 
the  Ruland  &  Whiting  Company  of  which  he 
was  president,  to  form  the  new  linn  of  Win. 
II.  Whiting  &  Company,  taking  into  part- 
nership his  two  sons,  [rving  S.  and  Ralph  l>. 
Whiting,  lie  has  put  through  some  of  the 
largesl  real  estate  deals  in  the  lower  pari 
of  the  city.  In  1891  he.  with  his  partner, 
organized  the  Metropolitan  Realty  Company 
with  $500,000  capital  and  Mr.  Whiting  has 
been  its  secretary  and  treasurer  ever  since.  lie 
is  also  president  of  the  Richland  Realty  Co. 
He  resides  at  Bound  Brook.  X.  J.,  and  had 
the  honor  of  being  its  first  Mayor. 

The  letting  of  houses  is  a  tine  art ;  it  requires 
I  he  tact  and  finesse  of  a  (  hiudisart.  Foremost 
among  these  experts  in  New  York  is  .1.  Edgar 
Leaycraft,  born  in  this  city  in  1849  and  edu- 
cated at  the  public  schools.  He  has  seen  the 
wonderful  development  of  the  east  and  wesl 
sides  of  Manhattan, above  Forty-second  Street. 
Like  manv  of  us  he  can  remember  when  most 


-  wine  h.  m  \i:  i  i  \ 


w  II. n  \\i   II     w  II  I  I  l\i  . 


.1    EDG  \i:    \.\'  \\  CH  \l  I 


4B2 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


of  the  lots  on  Madison  Avenue  were  sloughs 
in  Summer  and  skating  ponds  in  Winter. 
I  venture  the  assertion  that  he  can  tell  us 
when  we  could  have  bought  property  on  West 
Seventy-second  Street  at  $200  a  front  foot! 
He  has  been  an  active  official  in  the  Real 
Estate  Exchange  and  in  the  Real  Fstate  Board 
of  Brokers.  In  recognition  of  his  ability  as  an 
appraiser.  Governor  Roosevelt  appointed  him 
Tax  Commissioner  in  IS!)!),  in  which  office 
he  served  for  five  years.  He  was  an  appraiser 
on  the  New  Barge  (  anal. 

One  of  the  men  who  has  contributed  much 
thought  and  energy  to  the  development  of 
Long    Island,   especially   at    Floral    Bark  ami 

Etockville  Centre,  is 
Daniel  Maujer  Mc- 
Laughlin, 1)  o  r  n  in 
Brooklyn.  1875.  He 
attended  the  B  o  y  s  ' 
High  School,  at  which 
he  was  graduated  in 
1894.  Throughout  his 
school  days,  he  was  an 
enthusiast  in  athletic 
sports  and  distinguish- 
ed himself  in  several 
branches  thereof.  He 
also  had  a  strong  liter- 
ary bent,  was  fond  of 
public  speaking,  debat- 
ing and  essay  writing; 
ie  originator  of  the  High  School 
a    paper    still    in    existence.      After 


I'.   M  Mill:    M,  I.AIIIHI.IX 


he    was 

Recorder, 

leaving  the  high  school,  he  entered  Corne 
I  ni  versify,  where  for  four  years  he  specialized 
in  law  and  letters.  A  short  time  before  his 
graduation  he  was  called  home,  because  of 
the  dangerous  illness  of  his  father,  and  did  not 
take  a  degree.  At  Cornell  he  was  president 
of  the  Junior  class,  manager  of  the  '97  foot- 
ball team,  captain  of  the  '98  team,  manager 
of  the  Cornell  Daily  Sun  for  two  years,  and  a 
prize-speaker.  On  leaving  college  Mr.  Mc- 
Laughlin entered  the  insurance  field,  where 
he  successfully  operated  for  four  years.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  he  made  his  first  entrance 
into  the  domain  of  real  estate  by  founding  and 
becoming  vice-president  and  general  manager 
of  the  McCormack  Real  Estate  Company,  a 
corporation    that   grew    to    large    proportions, 


due  to  its  manager's  ability  and  foresight  in 
securing  acreage  in  highly  desirable  localities. 
As  an  advertiser  Mr.  McLaughlin  developed 
rare  traits.  When  he  had  a  fine  tract  of  land 
to  exploit,  he  knew  how  to  attract  public  at- 
tention to  the  advantages  he  had  to  offer. 
Success  emboldened  him  and  he  founded  sev- 
eral other  real-estate  enterprises  on  Long 
Island,  among  which  are  the  Windsor  Land 
&  Improvement  Co..  of  which  he  is  president ; 
tin-  St.  Albans  Terrace  Company,  the  Valley 
Stream  Realty  Company,  Rosedale  Terrace 
Company,  Floral  Bark  Villa  Company,  Rock- 
ville  Centre  Villa  Company,  Rockville  Centre 
Estates  and  several  others.  Mr.  McLaughlin 
is  a  member  of  the  Republican  County  Com- 
mittee of  Kings  County;  likewise  of  the  Xew 
York  Athletic.  Long  Island  Automobile,  Cor- 
nell and  Invincible  clubs.  He  is  an  enthusi- 
astic Mason  and  a  Shriner  of  Kismet  Temple. 


C\  R1LLE  CARREATJ 

796  Sixth    \\im  e  above  45th  Street 

Established  ;is  Real  Estate,  Mortgage  and  Insurance  Broker  in  1875 

Makes  .1  specialty  til  the  management  <>!  estati  5. 


The  amount  of  gray  matter  that  has  been 
devoted  to  the  development  of  real  estate  in 
the  metropolis  and  its  environments  is  un- 
appreciated by  the  community  at  large.     One 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


41:5 


1 . 1 )  W  ARD   B.   Bl  IYNTON 


fHOM  \s   i,    REYNOLDS 


!  ill   HI   R.II   K    G  1 1"  idi- 


ot' the  most  energetic  workers  in  this  field  has 
been  Edward  15.  Boynton,  born  at  Hartford. 
Conn.,  in  1866.  His  family  dates  hack  to 
!(>:>!).  when  the  Boyntons  came  from  Bridling- 
ton, York  County,  England.  He  began  his 
business  career  in  his  native  city  at  the  age 
of  fifteen.  In  1S!)(>  lie  came  to  New  York 
and  identified  himself  with  the  real  estate 
business.  He  had  always  believed  this  the 
imperial  city  of  the  Western  World;  that,  due 
to  its  constant  growth,  real  property  must 
necessarily  enhance  in  value  and  that  transac- 
tions therein  would  he  a  legitimate  and  profit- 
able business  in  which  to  engage.  When  he 
became  identified  with  the  American  Real 
Estate  Company  in  1896,  its  assets  were 
$1.400. 000:  hut  when  he  was  chosen  its  [.resi- 
dent in  1!)(),S.  its  assets  had  grown  to  $10,000,- 
ooo.  To-day  they  exceed  $20,000,000.  If  is 
the  oldest  and  one  of  the  largest  corporations 
of  the  kind,  having  been  founded  in  1888.  Mr. 
Boynton  is  also  president  of  the  Realty  Assets 
Company.  He  is  a  Republican  and  served  as 
Councilman  and  Alderman,  two  years  each, 
in  his  native  city  of  Hartford.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Onion  League,  Transportation, 
Economic  and  Dunwoodie  Country  clubs. 

Much  of  the  development  of  Greater  New 
York  in  recent  years  has  been  due  to  the  en- 
thusiasm, coupled  with  energy,  of  a  few 
courageous  real  estate  men.  Among  these 
Thomas    E.    Reynolds  commands  special   at- 


tention as  the  president  of  twelve  large  realty 
corporations,  every  one  of  which  is  actively 
engaged  in  the  improvement  of  a  distinctive 
section  of  this  growing  metropolis.  Mr.  Rey- 
nolds was  born  in  this  city  in  1866.  After 
attending  its  public  schools,  he  wont  to  Nash- 
ville, Teiin..  where  he  continued  his  studies, 
returning  to  New  York  for  a  course  in  law, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1888.  En- 
tering his  father's  linn,  he  learned  the  real 
estate  business,  inaugurated  many  of  the  large 
enterprises  undertaken  by  it  and  after  his 
father's  decease  carried  to  completion  all  the 
cherished  schemes  of  his  parent.  Notably, 
I  want  to  speak  of  his  connection  with  the 
Manhattan  Real  Estate  and  Building  Com- 
pany, of  which  he  is  president.  Its  activities 
are  ceaseless.  Mr.  Reynolds  served  for  ten 
years  with  the  Sixty-ninth  Regiment,  N.  G. 
X.  Y.  He  is  president  of  the  Corn  Exchange, 
Speculator,  Financiers',  Lorillard  and  Throgg's 
Neck  Realty  ( 'ompanies. 

Few  real  estate  operators,  as  agents  or 
builders,  have  done  more  toward  the  wonder- 
ful development  of  what  is  described  as  "the 
Upper  West  Side"  meaning  the  section  of 
Manhattan  extending  from  Central  Park  to  the 
Riverside  Drive  than  Frederick  G.  Hobbs. 
The  firm  to  which  he  belongs,  Slawson  & 
Hobbs,  occupies  a  new  and  handsome  marble 
front  structure  on  Seventy-second  Street,  uear 
Broadway,  and  carries  several  hundred  apart- 


H4 


THE    HOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


incuts  of  the  highesl  class  upon  its  books. 
Mr.  Hobbs  hails  from  Connecticut,  where  he 
was  born  June,  lS(i4:  but  he  went  to  Middle- 
ton  in  this  state  to  attend  the  Wallkill  Academy. 
He  plunged  into  the  real  estate  business  in 
1889,  selecting,  as  1  have  said,  west  side  Man- 
hattan property.  By  energy  and  popularity 
with  his  clients,  he  has  achieved  success.  Ib- 
is a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
the  New  York  Historical  Society.  National 
Geographic  Society.  West  End  Association. 
Lotos  and  West  Side  Republican  chilis. 

Deeply  interested  in  art.  Samuel  Borchardt, 
has  contributed  to  the  "city  beautiful"  several 
apartment  houses,  which  in  architectural  de- 
sign   and    elegance    of    interior    surpass    any 


SAMUEL  BORCH  \  1 : 1  >  I 

buildings  of  like  character  in  the  metropolis. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  "The  Bor- 
chardt" at  !)<Sth  Street  and  Broadway,  a 
twelve-story  building  180x100  feet.  Iii  the 
erection  of  this  house.  Mr.  Borchardt  spent 
$150,000  more  than  was  necessary  to  beautify 
the  structure  with  the  result  that  it  stands 
to-day  the  most  beautiful  apartment  on  Broad- 
way. Mr.  Borchardt  is  a  very  wealthy  manu- 
facturer, who  invests  his  spare  capital  in  this 


manner,  not  alone  for  the  return  he  gets,  1  nit 
in  a  desire  to  improve  the  localities  where  he 
builds.  He  was  born  in  San  Francisco.  Cal., 
June  19,  l,S(i(>.  but  came  to  this  city  with  his 
parents  when  only  twelve  years  of  aye  and 
received  his  education  at  the  public  schools  and 
at  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York  where 
he  took  a  scientific  course.  He  passed  through 
with  credit  and  was  elected  president  of  the 
Phrenocosmian  Society  while  a  member  of  the 
Class  of  1885. 

After  leaving  college  he  became  a  repre- 
sentative for  a  mercantile  house  and  after 
a  couple  of  years  of  service,  organized  the 
firm  of  S.  Borchardt  &  Co..  manufacturers  of 
shoes,  sandals  and  leggings,  now  employing 
seven  hundred  persons.  In  addition  to  "The 
Borchardt,"  Mr.  Borchardt  owns  "The  Wil- 
mington" at  97th  Street  and  Broadway,  and 
■'bhe  Stuart  Arms"  adjoining  on  97th  Street. 
"The  Winthrop"  and  "The  Melville."  both 
located  on  opposite  corners  at  1 1  St  It  Street  and 
Amsterdam  Avenue,  facing  Columbia  Uni- 
versity and  a  number  of  parcels  in  Spuyten 
Duvvil  and  ocean  fronts  on  the  Rockaway 
coast.  He  is  very  fond  of  art  and  at  his 
home  possesses  several  masterpieces  by  old 
painters  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemish  schools. 
Mr.  Borchardt  is  domestic  in  his  tastes  and 
cares  little  for  the  club  life  of  the  city,  finding 
relaxation  from  business  cares  in  golfing  and 
automobiling   and    touring    Europe. 

lb-  married  when  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
Miss  Eva  Rosenfield,  a  beautiful  young  lady 
of  Detroit.  Mich.,  and  they  have  two  children, 
a  son  and  a  daughter. 

Mr.  Borchardt  gives  liberally  to  charity  and 
is  a  member  of  numerous  organizations  de- 
voted  to  that  work. 

Alfred  V.  Amy  was  born  in  New  York  in 
1868,  and  is  a  son  of  the  late  Henry  Amy.  a 
well  known  hanker.  He  was  educated  at 
Fordham  University  and  the  ( Columbia  ( lollege 
Law  School,  from  which  he  received  his  de- 
gree upon  graduation,  commencing  his  busi- 
ness career  with  R.  V.  Harnett  &  Co..  real 
estate  auctioneers. 

Becoming  familiar  with  the  details  of  the 
business,  he.  in  1892,  commenced  operations 
for  himself,  with  offices  at  No.  ?   Bine  Street, 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


415 


and  confined  his  work  principally  to  sales  of 
Murray  Hill  and  West-Side  property.  His 
acquaintances  were  many  and  his  efforts  met 
with  considerable  success,  many  of  his  impor- 
tanl  sales  being  in  the  heart  of  the  present 
Herald  Square  section. 

Having  for  years  kepi  in  touch  with  the 
developments  of  those  sections  of  Manhattan, 
north  of  Central  Park. and  the  upper  Wesl  Side. 
Mr.  Amy.  of  the  firm  of  A.  V.  Amv  &  Co., 
became  an  expert  appraiser,  his  services  as 
such  being  continually  in  demand  by  real 
estate  owners,  lawyers,  estates  and  corpora- 
tions. 

With   the   future  growth   of  the   West   Side 


especially  to  the  management  and  care  of 
apartment  house  property  of  the  larger  and 
better  grade,  the  owners  of  which,  in  mam 
cases,  being  representative  old  New  York 
estates  and  conservative  investors. 

Mr.  Amy  is  a  member  of  the  Real  Estate 
Hoard  of  Brokers,  being  one  of  its  Governors, 
on  its  Hoard  of  Appraisers,  and  at  present 
holding   the   office  of   treasurer.       He   is   also  a 

member  of  many  social  and  charitable  organi- 
zations, and  given  to  outdoor  sports. 

Ihirty-two  years  of  constantly  increasing 
business    has    placed    John    ( '.    R.    Eckerson 

among  the  leaders  in  the  real  estate  Ihimiio- 
iii  New  York  ( 'il  v. 

Mr.  Eckerson,  who  is  a  member  of  the  linn 


ALFRED   V    AMY 


JOHN  c    l:    ECKERSi  >\ 


li  (SI   I'll    I'.l  RGER 


and  Harlem  showing  great  possibilities,  Mr. 
Amy.  in  1901,  moved  his  offices  to  One 
Hundred  and  Fifteenth  Street,  corner  of  St. 
Nicholas  Avenue,  and  admitted  L.  V.  O'Dono- 
hue, son  of  the  "Coffee  King,"  to  partnership. 
His  connection  continued  until  1905,  when 
other  interests  caused  Mr.  O'Donohue's  re- 
tirement. Since  that  time,  Mr.  Amy  has  oper- 
ated alone  under  the  old  firm  name,  being 
ably  assisted  by  a  force  of  competent  em- 
ployees. 

In  1907  the  business  had  increased  to  such 
proportions  that  more  room  was  required  and 
the  firm  removed  to  its  present  spacious  quar- 
ters at  the  corner  of  7th  Avenue  and  115th 
Street,  facing  the  newly  constructed  Parkway 
and  directly  opposite  the  old  office. 

The  firm,  of  late  years,   has  confined   itself 


of  Thomas  &  Eckerson,  was  born  in  this  city, 
and  obtained  his  education  in  the  public 
schools.  His  first  connection  was  with  a 
banking  house  ami  he  subsequently  entered 
a  lawyer's  office,  where  he  gained  a  knowledge 
of   realty   conditions. 

The  business  strongly  appealed  to  him  and 
finally  determining  to  embark  in  il.  he.  in 
1880,  became  a  member  of  the  firm,  which 
for  over  thirty  years  has  occupied  the  same 
offices  at  No.  35  West  Thirtieth  Street,  mak- 
ing a  specialty  of  handling  estates  and  con- 
ducting a  general  real  estate  and  insurance 
brokerage  business. 

Mr.  Eckerson  is  connected  with  several  other 

corporations  and  has  keen  a  member  of  the 
Heal  Estate  Hoard  of  Brokers  since  its  organi- 
zation. 


416 


THE  HOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


What  can  be  accomplished  by  close  appli- 
cation and  fidelity  to  an  employer  is  illustrated 
in  the  career  of  Joseph  Berger,  of  the  real 
estate  firm  of  John  J.  Clancy  &  Co.  Mr. 
Berger  was  horn  in  New  York  City  in  1SS(! 
and  entered  Mr.  Clancy's  employ  at  the  age 
of  ten  vears.  lie  was  then  earning  $2.00  per 
week,  but  being  painstaking  and  observing 
he  was  soon  getting  a  considerably  larger 
salary  and  was  given  the  opportunity  of 
graduating   from    Public  School    No.   (»!>  and 

DO 

completing  his  education  at  the  City  College. 

lie  had  scarcely  reached  his  majority  when 
Mr.  Clancy,  who  was  (puck  to  recognize 
merit,  admitted  him  to  partnership  and  the 
new  firm  became  John  J.  Clancy  &  Co.,  with 
offices  at  Fifty-seventh  Street  and  Broadway. 

Mr.  Berger  at  once  became  the  active  man 
in  the  firm  and  carefully  attended  to  all 
the  detail  work,  with  the  result  that  the  busi- 
ness expanded  and  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Clancy's 
sudden  death  was.  and  still  continues,  the 
most  prosperous  up-town.  The  value  of  Mr. 
Berber's  services  to.  and  the  esteem  in  which 
Mr.  Clancy  held  him,  is  attested  by  the  hitter's 
will,  which  left  Mr.  Berger  the  entire  business, 
and  besides  contained  a  bequest  of  $25,000. 
While  the  story  of  Mr.  Berger's  success  reads 
like  a  romance  and  while  Mr.  Clancy's  gener- 
osity seems  unusual  in  these  prosaic  days, 
there  is  nothing  remarkable  about  either  event. 
Mr.  Berger  was  energetic  and  creative  and 
Mr.  Clancy's  act  was  an  acknowledgment 
of  his  former  partner's  value  and  a  reward 
for  faithful  service  while  an  employee. 

The  following  from  a  letter  written  by  Mr. 
Joseph  1'.  Day  to  Mr.  Berger  after  Mr. 
Clancy's  death  is  self-explanatory:  "I  can 
assure  you  that  it  will  afford  me  great  pleas- 
ure to  continue  our  very  pleasant  relations 
and  1  do  this  with  the  same  degree  of  con- 
fidence in  your  ability  and  management  as  1 
had  in  Mr.  Clancy's.  1  could  not  but  place 
the  greatest  trust  in  the  man  who  was  so  closely 
connected  with  him  for  so  long  a  time." 

As  I  have  had  occasion  to  say  before,  real 
estate  has  engaged  the  best  ability  of  the  clever- 
est men  in  New  York.  Among  such  persons 
is  F.  R.  Wood,  born  in  Washington.  I).  ('.. 
and  educated  at  the  public  schools  of  this  city, 
Clinton  Grammar  School,  Oneida  Co..  X.  ^  ., 


and  Packard's   Business  College.     He  began 

active  business  as  a  clerk  in  a  Fifth  Avenue 
bank,  where  he  remained  two  years,  next 
serving  an  equal  length  of  time  in  the  Ameri- 
can Exchange  National  Bank.  He  then  went 
West,  where  he  first  realized  the  importance 
of  the  real  estate  business  in  Manhattan.  The 
growth  of  western  cities  was  slow  compared 
with  that  of  the  metropolis.  After  eight  years 
in  Denver,  he  returned  East,  satisfied  that 
nobody  could  go  wrong  in  the  purchase  of 
property  on  this  island. 

Mr.  Wood  deserves  distinction  for  selling 
the  first  million  dollar  apartment  house  north 
of  Fifty-ninth  street  (1902).  He  holds  official 
relations  with  the  Dorlton  Corporation,  the 
El  Dorado  Realty  <  oinpany.  Waywood  Realty 
Company  and  F.  R.  Wood,  W.  II.  Dolson  Co. 
He  is  in  sympathy  with  the  Republican  party. 

In  the  comparatively  few  years  since  his 
entry  into  the  realty  business  in  New  York 
City,  Robert  P.  Zobel  has  been  wonderfully 
successful  and  is  now  recognized  as  an  expert 
in  values  in  that  line.  Possessing  the  power 
of  discernment,  intuitive  knowledge  and  a 
very  retentive  memory,  he  soon  learned  all 
the  details  of  the  business,  becoming  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  district  in  which  he  operates 
—from  Fourteenth  to  Fifty-ninth  Streets, 
between  Third  and  Eighth  Avenues,  and  can 
tell,  without  recourse  to  records,  the  value  and 
last  selling  price  of  almost  every  piece  of  realty 
in  that  district.  This  knowledge  has  been 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  great  success  and  has 
led  to  his  being  frequently  called  upon  as  an 
appraiser  and  ofttimes  as  an  expert  witness 
in  court  proceedings.  Mr.  Zobel  was  born 
in  Breslau,  Germany,  December  '2(1.  1869, 
and  was  educated  in  Berlin,  becoming  pro- 
ficient in  French,  Latin  and  Greek  before  he 
was  fifteen  years  old  and  acquiring  a.  knowl- 
edge of  English  that  aided  him  greatly,  when, 
in  18S4,  his  father,  Adolph  Zobel,  who  was  a 
successful  merchant,  met  with  reverses  and 
brought  the  family  to  America. 

Mr.  Zobel's  first  experience  with  Xew  York 
City  was  in  a  lawyer's  office  where  he  studied 
to  perfect  himself  in  English,  but  did  not  finish 
the  course  as  the  possibilities  of  ultimate 
success  looked  too  remote.      He  then  entered 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


u? 


the  employ  of  a  Wall  Street  banking  house 
where  his  knowledge  was  greatly  added  to  and 
subsequently  became  a  salesman  for  a  mer- 
cantile house.  It  was  at  this  period  thai  Mr. 
Zobel  realized  that  the  anioiiiil  of  energy  re- 
quired to  sell  a  small  hill  of  goods  would 
bring  greater  results  if  expended  in  another 
field,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  deciding  that 
real  estate  offered  the  best  possibilities,  opened 
an  office  at   No.    136    Libertv  Street  and  em- 


ROBERT  1'    Z<  'HI   I, 


harked  in  that  line.  lie  devoted  several  years 
to  mastering  the  details  of  the  business  and  in 
1895  decided  that  the  best  field  of  operation 
was  in  the  central  part  of  the  city.  He  re- 
moved his  office  to  Twenty-fourth  Street  and 
looking  the  territory  carefully  over,  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  if  suitable  buildings  were 
provided,  the  wholesale  and  light  manufac- 
turing lines  would  soon  invade  il.  He  then 
commenced  to  creel  store.  loft  and  office 
buildings,  being  the  pioneer  in  steel  const  ruc- 
tion north  of  Fourteenth  Street,  and  his  judg- 
ment has  been  verified  by  sonic  of  the  biggest 
wholesale  houses  in  the  city  locating  in  the 
district,  in  which  he  has  erected  or  caused  to 


be  erected,  fifty  buildings  ot  the  most  improved 
character.  Mr.  Zobel  ha--  always  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  improvement  of  Fourth 
Avenue,  and  the  marked  change  in  the  char- 
acter of  buildings  on  thai  thoroughfare  is 
largely  due  l<>  his  efforts  and   initiative. 

Mr.  Zobel  is  president  of  the  Brunswick 
Realty  Company,  which  buys  and  sells  sites 
for  mercantile  buildings  only;  of  the  Stone- 
wall Realty  Company,  which  buys  and  sells 
property  of  every  description  and  of  the 
Fourth  Avenue  Holding  Company,  which 
operates  principally  in  lease-..  He  is  also  a 
director  of  the  Century  Hank  and  is  now  de- 
voting much  attention  to  financial  work,  his 
aim  being  to  eventually  enter  that  field. 

Mr.  Zobel  belongs  to  no  clubs,  being  do- 
mestic in  his  tastes  and  finding  diversion  from 
business  cares  in  his  home  circle  and  in  social 
gatherings  with  his  relatives  and  intimate 
friends,  lie  makes  frequenl  trips  abroad 
and.  being  a  Huenl  linguist,  is  perfectly  at 
home  in  most  of  the  Continental  cities.  In 
this  country  his  vacations  are  spent  at  Lake- 
wood,  X.  .1.,  where  he  thinks  the  climate  is 
most  conducive  to  mental  rest  and  a  remedy 
for  physical  fatigue.  He  is  a  Democrat  in 
national  politics,  hut  absolutely  independent 
in  state  and  municipal  affairs,  using  his  in- 
fluence for  the  candidate  who.  in  his  judg- 
ment, is  by  reason  of  integrity  and  ability 
best  fitted  for  office.  He  has  always  been 
deeply  interested  in  charitable  undertakings 
and  lends  his  support  to  hospitals  and  asylum-.. 
which  he  considers  the  best  way  of  rendering 
aid  to  the  unfortunate  and  worthy. 

Many  qualities  are  required  for  a  successful 
real  estate  auctioneer  and  Joseph  I*.  Day 
possesses  them.  Although  less  than  forty 
years  of  age,  he  has  handled  several  of  the 
largesl  partition  sales  of  city  property  ever  held 
in  New  York.  He  started  out  in  business  for 
himself  at  twenty-one,  after  a  common  school 
education.  His  first  achievement  thai  at- 
tracted attention  was  writing  the  heaviest 
accident  policy  previously  known  in  this 
country,  covering  all  disabilities  arising  from 
change  of  motor  power  of  the  Third  Avenue 
Surface  Railroad  and  the  Forty-second  Street, 
Manhaltanville    and    St.     Nicholas    railroads. 


41.X 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


JOSEPH    P.    DAY 


\VI  I.LI  AM    P     I!  \l 


T.   WAHIi  WASSON 


Thereafter,  Mr.  Day  developed  capacity  as 
an  auctioneer,  selling  the  famous  Ogden 
estate.  1,500  lots;  then  the  Doherty  estate 
bringing  $1,913,600,  in  a  single  afternoon's 
selling.  In  May.  1908,  he  disposed  of  over 
2,000  lots,  a  t'eal  achieved  at  a  time  of 
money  stringency.  In  six  years  he  revolu- 
tionized the  real  estate  auction  business,  his 
sales  in  one  year  aggregating  $30,000,000,— 
a   record. 

The  wonderful  developments  of  Brooklyn 
and  Long  Island  have  not  a  more  enthusiastic 
"boomer"  than  William  P.  Rae.  His  long 
residence  in  Brooklyn  and  his  large  business 
interests  find  him  identified  with  almost  every 
important  movement  tending  to  advance  real 
estate  developments.  He  was  born  in  Man- 
hattan, 1861,  and  educated  at  its  public  schools. 
He  started  as  a  hoy  of  fourteen  in  a  hardware 
store,  soon  going  with  Teff't.  Weller  &  Com- 
pany, wholesale  dry  goods  merchants.  Next 
we  hear  of  him  as  a  clerk  in  flic  Amsterdam 
State  Bank,  on  the  Bowery,  and.  in  1879,  he 
made  his  first  entrance  into  real  estate  business, 
leading  ultimately  to  a  partnership  with  Paul 
C.  Grening.  In  11KKI  he  withdrew  from  that 
firm  to  establish  a  business  of  his  own  under 
a  corporate  name  of  the  William  P.  Rae  Com- 
pany. He  has  conducted  since  that  time  a 
general  real  estate  business  in  the  management 
of  estates,  developing  suburban  tracts  and 
auctioneering;  Mr.  Rae  being  the  official 
auctioneer  for  several  terms  under  Sheriffs  Nor- 
man F.  Dike.  Alfred'!'.  Hoblev  and  ('has.  B. 


Law,  and  has  acted  for  the  city  and  other  prop- 
erty interests  in  many  condemnation  proceed- 
ings and  elevated  railroad  cases.  He  is  a 
close  student  of  the  development  of  the  city 
and  Long  Island.  Mr.  Rae  is  president  of  the 
Jamaica  Hillcrest  Company,  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Realty  Improvement  Company;  treas- 
urer of  the  Sea  Gate  Improvement  Company, 
and  secretary  and  manager  of  the  Norton  Point 
Land   Company,   which   developed   Sea    Gate. 

T.  Ward  Wasson.  a  native  of  Detroit.  Mich.. 
began  his  business  career  in  that  city  with  the 
firm  of  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.  He  served  in  the 
Registrar  of  Deeds  office  there  and  had  the 
management  of  property  for  his  father.  Thus 
he  acquired  familiarity  with  real  estate  trans- 
actions. This  fact  led  the  way  to  his  choice 
of  a  livelihood.  He  moved  to  New  York  City, 
and  during  the  first  year  of  his  residence  in  the 
metropolis  he  forsook  five  different  positions 
for  others,  each  a  step  up  the  ladder.  He 
remained  with  the  McVickar-Gaillard  Realty 
Company  for  five  years  and.  in  1!)<)!).  the  firm 
of  Knapp  &  Wasson  Co..  Inc..  was  formed, 
witli  Mr.  Wasson  as  secretary  and  treasurer. 
Since  that  time  the  company  has  been  success- 
ful in  its  operations. 

Originality  applied  to  business  sometimes 
produces  astonishing  results.  The  practice  ol 
selling  real  estate  through  newspaper  adver- 
tising was  founded  on  a  theory  of  George  D. 
Grundy.  Beginning  with  an  advertising  ex- 
penditure of  $5.00  a  week,  the  firm  of  W.  C. 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


H9 


Reeves  &  Company,  of  which  Mr.  Grundy  is 
President,  now  spend  $500  ;i  week  to  reach 
the  public.  Mr.  Grundy  is  a  native  of  Long 
Island  and  was  horn  at  Blue  Point  in  1S?^. 
Entering  into  partnership  in  1!M(4  with  W.  C. 
Reeves,  his  brother-in-law,  under  the  firm 
name  of  W.  ('.  Reeves  &  Company,  with 
offices  at  No.  1 24  East  23rd  Street,  Mr. 
Grundy  has  since  then,  by  steadfast  adher- 
ence to  his  convictions,  sold  upwards  of  twelve 
millions  dollars'  worth  of  real  estate  on  Long 
Island  alone  and  four  thousand  acres  in  New 
Jersey  in  small  tracts.  Mr.  Grundy  after  a 
short  time  bought  oui  his  brother-in-law  and 
had  the  firm  name  incorporated.  The  firm 
is  interested  more  particularly  in  the  splendid 
class  of  property  to  be  found  in  Mollis.  Rich- 
mond Hill.  East  Hampton  and  Southampton, 
and  has  an  enormous  clientele  numbering 
over  17,000  people,  which  is  drawn  from 
every  state  in  the  Union. 

Any  account  of  the  tremendous  activities  in 
real  estate  in  Greater  New  York  would  he  in- 
complete without  distinct  reference  to  the 
prominent  firm  of  Adrian  II.  Muller  &  Son. 
the  present  partners  in  which  are  William  F. 
Redmond,  Andrew  .1.  McCormack  and  Sam- 
uel ( i.  Redmond.  Ad- 
rian II.  Muller.  founder 
of  the  house,  started 
business  in  1840  and. 
during  his  life,  con- 
ducted many  of  the 
largest  auction  sales  of 
rea 1  estat e  in  New 
York  City.  Among 
them  were  the  estates 
of  Ilarscn.  Burr,  Fur- 
niss.  Eaile.  Post,  Fogg, 
Boggs,  Chittenden, 
Brooks,  Embury,  Mar- 
tin and  Leake,  and  the 
Watts  Orphan  Asy- 
lum. He  was  one  of  the 
by    the    City    Comp- 


ADRIAN    11     Mil  111; 


'I'l 


iraisers 


appointed 


holler  to  value  all  the  property  belonging  to 
the  City  of  New  York,  his  associates  being 
Anthony  J.  Bleecker  and  Homer  Morgan. 
He  was  one  of  the  trustees  named  in  the  will 
of  .lames  Roosevelt  to  found  Roosevelt  Hos- 
pital, of  which  he  was  president  several  years. 
Since   his   death    the     firm    has   continued    to 


conduct  weekly  auction  sales  of  real  estate* 
stocks  and  bonds  at  the  Real  Estate  Exchange. 
The  present  head  of  the  firm,  William  F. 
Redmond,  has  had  long  experience  in  every 
branch  of  the  business. 

One  of  the  known  "hustlers"  in  Manhattan 

real  estate  is  John  Noble  Golding,  horn  in  (hi-. 
city,  1860,  who  has  literally  Felt  the  growth 
of  Manhattan  because  he  has  been  a  part  of 
it.  lie  was  educated  at  Trinity  School  and 
at  Grammar  School  .'!.").  At  the  age  of  l!» 
he  entered  the  real  estate  office  of  B.  K. 
Stevenson,  Jr..  hut  three  years  later  joined 
the  active  house  of  A.  II.  Muller  &  Sons, 
where  he  remained  four  years,  during  which 
time  he  acted  as  a  broker  for  the  late  Henry 
I?.  Hyde.  President  of  the  Equitable  Life 
Assurance  Society,  in  acquiring  the  block  of 
property  on  which  the  Equitable  building  now 
stands.  Subsequently,  owing  to  the  success 
with  which  he  had  served  Mr.  Hyde,  he  be- 
came identified  with  the  Equitable  organiza- 
tion as  its  real  estate  attorney,  with  the  firm 
name  of  Brown  &  Golding,  and  managed  all 
the  property  under  control  of  that  great  cor- 
poration. Mr.  Golding  began  business  for 
himself  as  a  real  estate  broker  in  1890. 

It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  chronicle 
all  the  achievements  of  Mr.  Golding.  lie 
leased  t4  and  46  Broadway  to  the  Standard 
Oil  Company,  for  $60,000  a  year;  sold  to  the 
New  York  Central  all  the  property  acquired 
at  the  Grand  Central  terminal:  also  for  the 
Erie  terminal  in  New  Jersey:  sold  the  old 
Plaza  Hotel  to  the  syndicate  that  elected  the 
present  building;  sold  the  Langham  Hotel  on 
Fifth  Avenue:  managed  the  entire  real  estate 
deal  for  John  Wanamaker  in  acquiring  the  site 
for  his  new  Broadway  store,  and  sold  the  Park 
Place.  Barclay  Street  and  Broadway  property 
to  F.  W.  Woolworth  for  the  tallest  building 
in  the  world.  (  )n  Fifth  Avenue,  between 
Fifty-ninth  and  One  Hundredth  Streets,  he  has 
sold  practically  every  lol  on  which  millionaires 
have  erected  mansions.  He  sold  the  site  on 
which  stands  the  Singer  building,  lower  Broad- 
way; that  of  the  Lawyers'  Title  Building;  that 
of  the  Second  National  Bank  and  the  Orphan 
Asylum  block.  lie  has  been  connected  with 
nearly  all  the  large  real  estate  deals  in  this 
city  during  recent  years. 


120 


THE    BOO K   of  NEW   YORK 


THOMAS   J.   O'REILL'i 


j(  m.N  N.  Gi  ilium; 


WILLIAM    H.  MllFFITT 


It  is  a  pleasure  to  know  that  the  newspaper 
business  may  be  made  a   preparatory  course 

for  successful  achievement  in  the  real  estate 
field.  William  II.  Moffitt,  to-day  one  of  the 
leading  real  estate  operators  in  this  city,  started 
his  career  in  that  way.  He  was  horn  at  Black- 
stone,  Mass..  November,  1858,  but  early  in 
life,  was  removed  to  Auburn.  \.  Y.  where 
he  was  graduated  at  its  Academy  in  1877. 
After  three  years'  experience  in  dry  goods, 
he  associated  himself  with  the  Evening  Auburn- 
niii,  a  small  daily,  as  assistant  city  editor  and 
advertising  manager.  A  wide  circle  of  ac- 
quaintances formed  through  this  connec- 
tion, and  the  obvious  necessity  for  a  live 
man  in  a  dead  town  of  25,000  people  im- 
pelled Mr.  Moffitt  to  enter  the  real  estate 
business.  In  two  years  he  developed  every 
acre  of  land  within  one  mile  of  Auburn  and 
sold  houses  and  lots  on  the  installment  plan. 
He  soon  exhausted  the  supply  and.  in  1886, 
left  for  Kansas  City,  where  he  spent  one  year. 
Next  he  went  to  Chicago  and  studied  the  real 
estate  business  for  one  year  and  then  came 
direct  to  the  metropolis.  He  began  business 
here  in  a  small  office  on  Liberty  Street,  hiring 
desk  loom  at  $5  per  week.  His  offices  to-day 
occupy  the  entire  third  Moor  of  a  large  build- 
ing on  Madison  Avenue  4,500  square  feet  of 
Moor  space.  lie  has  a  country  home.  "Wil- 
low   Brook."   at   Islip,  comprising  250  acres, 


with  a  house  of  steel  and  concrete.  Italian 
style,  that  cost  $125,000.  Mr.  Moffitt  believes 
his  experience  in  journalism,  brief  as  it  was. 
laid  the  foundation  for  his  success  in  meeting 
with  his  fellowmen.  He  is  president  of  the 
W.  II.  Moffitt  Realty  Company,  Ocean  Shore 
Realty  Company,  and  Penatagust  Lumber 
Company.  He  is  commodore  of  the  Bay 
Shore  Motor  Boat  Club,  president  of  the  Islip 
Board  of  Trade,  of  the  South  Side  Fair  and 
of  the  South  Side  Ivennel  Club;  a  member  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  New  York; 
belongs  to  the  New  York  Athletic.  Catholic. 
South  Shore  Golf  and  Columbia  Yacht  clubs. 
Another  successful  competitor  in  the  real 
estate  business  is  Thomas  J.  O'Reilly,  born 
in  this  city,  August,  1879,  and  educated  at  the 
parochial  and  public  schools.  He  entered  the 
employ  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, in  bSi).>.  at  its  Union  Square  branch, 
after  finishing  a  commercial  course,  ami  re- 
mained with  that  institution  until  1!)<>7.  hav- 
ing been  advanced  to  different  positions  in  the 
Agency  Department  until  he  was  created 
Agencv  Instructor.  He  then  resigned  to  enter 
the  real  estate  business.  In  this  he  has  been 
successful.  In  addition  to  general  brokerage. 
he  has  the  management  of  several  of  the  largest 
apartment  houses  on  the  west  side.  He  has 
frequently  served  as  an  appraiser  and  as  an 
expert. 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


121 


GERALD    R     BROWN 


Gerald  R.  Brown  was  born  in  Brooklyn, 
May  .'!.  1857,  the  son  of  Theodore  Rudderow 
and  Caroline  Edwards  (Timpson)  Brown. 
The  family  is  of  English,  Irish  and  Dutch 
descent,  the  American  branch  being  founded 
by  Roberi  Brown  who  came  to  this  country 
in  1750. 

Mr.  Brown  was  educated  at  Lockwood's 
Academy,  Adelphi  Academy  and  the  Poly- 
technic Institute  in  Brooklyn,  and  after  rinisli- 
ing  his  schooling  entered  the  employ  of  I  lie 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society  as  an  office 
boy.  He  was  attentive  to  his  work  and  the 
value  of  his  service  was  recognized  by  pro- 
motions until  he  was  given  charge  of  all  build- 
ings and  real  estate  of  the  company  and  in 
1907    was    made    Comptroller.      In    1890    be, 


with  John  X.  Golding,  formed  the  real  estate 
firm  of  Golding  &  lb-own.  and  although  the 
firm  has  been  long  dissolved.  Mr.  Brown  is 
still  interested  in  real  estate  operations  and  is 
a  member  and  Governor  of  the  Heal  Estate 
Board  of  Brokers.  His  long  connection  with 
realty,  especially  in  (he  financial  section  of 
the  citv.  has  made  him  familiar  with  downtown 
values  and  there  is  no  man  in  the  line  that 
has  a  more  comprehensive  knowledge  on  that 
subject  a  knowledge  that  has  been  of  great 
value  to  him  in  his  connections  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Equitable  Society's  real 
estate  interests.  Mr.  Brown  i>  also  con- 
versant with  values  and  conditions  in  all 
of  the  important  cities  of  the  I  niteil  States 
and    Canada. 


(.•22 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Mr.  Brown  is  a  member  of  the  Lawyers' 
Club  and  the  Pilgrims  in  New  York  City,  the 
Englewood  Club,  the  Englewood  Golf  Club 
and  the  Englewood  Field  Club,  of  Englewood, 
\.  J.,  where  his  home  is  located. 

The  development  of  the  Borough  of  the 
Bronx  has  been  a  most  significant  incident, 
due  to  the  consolidation  of  the  surrounding 
cities  and  villages  with  the  original  metropo- 
lis on  Manhattan  Island.  In  ten  years,  the 
region  has  increased  in  population  from 
.•><». <l<><>  to  500,000.  A  man  who  has  con- 
tributed as  much,  if  not  more,  than  any  other 
individual  to  this  marvelous  growth  is  J. 
Clarence  Davies,  who  comes  of  a  race  of  real 
estate  developers  and  was  prompt  to  see  the 
impulse  which  the  extension  of  the  city  limits 
over  a  part  of  Westchester  Comity  would  im- 
part. Mr.  Davies  was  born  in  this  city  in 
1N<>7.  and  after  a  course  at  the  public  schools 
entered  the  College  of  the  City  of  New 
York.  Recognizing  the  inevitable  northward 
growth  of  the  metropolis,  he  abandoned  the 
manufacturing  business  in  1889  to  plunge  into 
real  estate  enterprises.  This  act  was  inspired 
by  the  fact  that  his  forebears,  for  three  pre- 
vious generations,  had  been  owners  or  oper- 
ators in  city  property.  Since  that  day,  Mr. 
Davies  has  sold  or  developed  most  of  the  large 
acreage  tracts  in  the  Bronx,  direct  from  the 
original  owners;  he  has  brought  millions  of 
dollars  into  that  borough  for  investment. 
When  the  subway  opened,  he  sold,  in  eight 
weeks.    $20,000,000    worth    of    Bronx    realty. 


He  is  a  director  in  several  banks  and  a  mem- 
ber of  many  clubs. 

A  young  man  who  has  taken  part  in  the 
editorship  of  the  Harvard  Lampoon  and  ( 'rim- 
son   may  be  expected   to  distinguish    himself 


ater  in  life.     A  member  of  the  editorial  stall's 
of    both     publications    was 


[rving    Ruland, 


graduated  in  1889.  The  Institute  of  1770  and 
the  Historical  Society  numbered  him  on  their 
membership  lists  and  he  left  the  University 
with  honorable  mention  in  Political  Economy. 
Entering  the  office  of  Ruland  &  Whiting,  a 
firm  established  by  his  father.  Manly  A.  Ru- 
land. in  l<S(i7.  Mr.  Ruland  has  obtained  for 
himself  enviable  standing  in  his  profession. 
He  frequently  has  been  retained  by  the 
City  of  New  York  and  by  the  Public  Service 
Commission  in  condemnation  and  certiorari 
proceedings  and  has  been  notably  successful 
in  the  carrying  out  of  numerous  important 
real  estate  transactions.  Mr.  Ruland  was 
for  seven  years  an  active  member  of  Troop  '•2. 
Squadron  A,  and  served  with  his  corps  in  the 
Spanish  War.  He  has  contributed  some  in- 
teresting articles  to  the  newspapers  on  the  sub- 
ject of  real  estate,  is  president  and  a  governor 
of  the  Real  Estate  Board  of  Brokers,  president 
of  the  R.  E.  Exchange  and  director  of  a  num- 
ber of  large  real  estate  companies. 

The  Dominion  of  Canada  has  furnished  one 
of  the  most  active  men  in  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness in  this  city.  Edward  D.  Paulin.  born  July. 
1S(»(>.  at  Woodstock,  Ontario.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  schools  of  Canada  and  at  the  age 


i    <  i.  \i;i:.nci;  i  >  \ \  1 1  - 


IRVING    RULAND 


EDWARD    n     PAULIN 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


123 


of  sixteen  went  to  the  Northwest  wilderness 
for  three  years.  Returning  East,  he  hailed 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  al  21  lie  engaged 
in  the  hardware  trade  and  developed  a  large 
business.  Mr.  Paulin  came  to  New  York 
in  1898,  and  promptly  entered  the  real  estate 
field.  He  saw  the  possibilities  of  suburban 
growth  and  made  that  his  specialty.  Among 
the  most  successful  of  his  developments  has 
been  Leonia.  N.  J.,  he  being  president  of  the 
Leonia  Heights  Land  Company.  While  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  he  was  instrumental  in 
forming  companies  For  the  utilization  of  its 
water-power — enterprises  that  have  made  that 
town  famous.  His  ancestry  is  Scotch-English; 
he  has  been  entirely  too  much  taken  up  with 
business  to  enter  into  social  organizations. 
Charles  F.  Xoves  is  one  of  the  younger 
real  estate  men  handling  a  business  of  large 
proportions.  He  was  born  in  Norwich,  Conn., 
July  li).  1878,  and  educated  at  the  Norwich 
Academy,  coming  to  New  York  City  when 
twenty  years  old  and  organizing  the  Charles 
F.  Xoves  Company,  with  offices  at  No.  92 
William  Street.  'The  business  grew  from 
practically  nothing  until  it  is  to-day  one  of  the 
leading  firms  in  the  city. 

Seventy  employees  are  required  to  super- 
intend the  various  buildings  under  the  com- 
pany's control  and  it  was  recently  found  neces- 
sary to  open  a  branch  office  at  Sixth  Avenue 
and  Twenty-third  Street.  Mr.  Xoves  has 
made  a  number  of  innovations,  one  of  which 


is  the  division  of  profits  among  the  employees 
at  the  end  of  each  year,  in  proportion  to  their 
earning  capacity  and  term  of  service.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Union  League  Club  of 
Brooklyn,  the  New  York  Athletic,  Crescent 
Alhleti<-.  Drug  and  Chemical  and  Under- 
writers clubs  of  New  York  City;  the  Masonic 
Club,  Brooklyn  League,  Real  Estate  Board 
of  Brokers,  and  is  a  director  of  the  Realty 
League  of  New  York  City,  ;•  director  of 
the  Norwich  Morning  Bulletin  and  several 
other  corpora  I  ions. 

A  life-long  experience  in  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness  has  given  George  Rowland  Read  a 
knowledge  of  realty  conditions  and  values  that 
places  him  in  the  expert  class  and  makes  his 
opinion  of  great  value. 

Mr.  Read  was  born  in  Brooklyn  in  1849, 
and  was  educated  at  the  Polytechnic  Institute 
there.  In  1867  he  entered  the  employ  of  the 
real  estate  firm  of  E.  II.  Ludlow  &  Co.,  where 
he  remained  for  seventeen  years,  and  in  1884 
started  in  business  for  himself.  The  present 
firm  of  (ieo.  R.  Read  &  Co.  was  organ- 
ized and  it  has.  guided  by  Mr.  Read's  expert 
judgment,  been  successfully  interested  in  some 
of  the  largest  and  most  important  realty  trans- 
actions in  New  York  City  and  the  contiguous 
territory    lying    within    the   suburban    /one. 

In  addition  to  being  president  of  George 
R.  Read  &  Co..  Mr.  Read  occupies  a  similar 
position  with  the  Mutual  Trust  Company, 
of    Westchester    Countv    and    the    Waccabuc 


CHARLES    I      V  '"i  ES 


G I  0  1 1 1 . 1      I :     READ 


DAVID    r.     I'llll.l.ll': 


424 


THE  BOOK  of   NEW  YORK 


Company.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum  of  Art  and  Down  Town,  Union. 
Metropolitan  and  Eliding  and  Coaching  clubs. 
Having  spent  his  entire  life  in  the  real  estate 
business,  David  L.  Phillips  has  come  to  be 
recognized  as  an  expert  in  realty  values  in 
New  York  City  and  in  the  many  beautiful  sec- 
tions within  the  metropolitan  suburban  zone. 
He  was  horn  in  New  York  City,  June  3,  1861, 
and  is  of  English  and  Dutch  extraction.  He 
was  educated  in  the  public  schools,  after  which 
he  entered  the  employ  of  L.  J.  Phillips  &  Co.. 
of  which  his  father  was  the  head,  and  thor- 
oughly mastered  every  detail  of  the  business. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  firm  and  upon  his 
father's  death  became  the  senior  member. 

The  firm  of  L.  J.  Phillips  &  Co.  is  one  of 
the  leaders  in  real  estate  activities  and  does  a 
large  auctioneering  and  appraising  business. 
The  offices  are  at  No.  158  Broadway  and  No. 
261  Columbus  Avenue.  Mr.  Phillips  is  a 
director  of  I  he  Great  Eastern  Casualty  and 
Indemnity  Company,  and  a  member  of  several 
clubs  and  social  organizations. 

There  is  practically 
no  end  to  the  fortunes 
made  in  real  estate  dur- 
ing the  past  generation. 
The  most  promising 
field  for  such  an  active 
business  life  has  been 
New  'S  ork  City  and  its 
immediate  environs. 
Among  successful  op- 
erators is  Pitch  II. 
Medbury,  born  on  a 
farm  near  Hamilton. 
Madison  ( 'ountv.  this 
state,  in  September, 
I860.  His  education  was  obtained  in  his 
native  town,  where  he  also  acquired  much 
of  his  business  preparation  for  the  career 
he  followed  after  coming  to  the  metropo- 
lis, for  which  he  has  always  had  a  natural 
liking.  Mr.  Medbury  is  a  descendant  of 
Governor  Lewis  Winslow,  who  was  the  sec- 
ond Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts.  He  never  has  held  any 
political  office,  but  is  a  staunch  Republican. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Crescent  Athletic  Club, 
of  Brooklyn. 


FITCH    II    MEDBUm 


Nowhere  within  thirty-five  minutes  of 
Herald  Square  is  there  such  suburban  property 
on  the  market  at  such  favorable  terms  as  is 
to  be  found  at  Massapequa,  L.  I.,  a  station 
on  the  Montauk  Division  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad.  It  begins  exactly  12  miles  beyond 
the  Greater  New  York  line  and  has  a  frontage 
of  several  miles  upon  the  Great  South  May. 
The  exploitation  of  this  large  tract  of  high, 
level  land  has  been  accomplished  by  the 
Queens  Land  and  Title  Company  and  so 
pronounced  has  been  its  success  that  a  city 
has  risen  in  four  years  upon  what  was  scarcely 
occupied  farm  property.  Within  the  borders 
of  the  new  city  are  four  beautiful  lakes,  con- 
served and  owned  by  the  City  of  New  York 
for  use  of  the  Water  Department  of  the  Bor- 
ough of  Brooklyn.  These  charming  bits  of 
water,  together  with  the  Great  South  Bay  and 
the  near  proximity  to  the  ocean  give  a  most 
delightful  climate  in  summer,  temperature 
being  upwards  of  15  degrees  cooler  than  on 
Manhattan  Island. 

With  magnificent  highways,  high  wooded 
land,  the  lakes,  the  bay.  the  ocean,  beautiful 
old  homes  and  private  parks,  churches,  schools 
and  clubs,  golf,  fishing,  boating  and  sailing, 
Massapequa  possesses  all  the  natural  attrac- 
tions and  advantages  possible  to  be  had  in 
suburban  home  life  for  man,  woman  or  child. 
With  such  a  foundation  to  build  upon  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  development  of  Mas- 
sapequa has  been  unusually  rapid.  That  it 
is  being  developed  along  unusually  high- 
grade  lines  is  evidenced  by  the  distinctive 
type  of  architecture  adopted,  the  majority  of 
the  homes  being  of  hollow  tile  or  stucco,  fire- 
proof, French  villa  type  of  construction. 
With  the  exceptional  transportation  facilities 
afforded  by  the  completion  of  the  electric 
transit  to  the  Pennsylvania  depot,  Massapequa 
will  present  an  ideal  suburban  home  site 
within  about  half  an  hour  of  the  heart  of 
Manhattan. 

The  owners  and  developers  of  Massapequa 
have  had  wide  experience  in  the  development 
of  high  class  suburban  properties.  Allen  T. 
Ilaight,  President  and  George  F.  Haight,  Sec- 
retary and  Treasurer  of  the  Queens  Land  and 
Title  Company  before  purchasing  the  proper- 
ties     comprising      Massapequa     successfully 


THE    HOOK   of   NEW    VOliK 


4-25 


developed  and  sold  "Manhattan  Terrace,"  a 
large  tract  of  land  in  Brooklyn,  south  of 
Prospect  Park. 

The  career  of  Charles  Newmark,  who  at 
the  age  of  twenty-four  years,  is  one  of  the 
city's  most  successful  builders,  illustrates  what 
ambition  and  application  can  accomplish. 

lie  was  born  in  New  York  City,  September 
1.").  1887,  and  was  educated  at  the  public  and 
high  schools.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  when  mos1 
boys  are  thinking  of  play,  lie  entered  the  em- 
ploy of  Robert  M.  Silberman,  a  builder,  wear- 
ing overalls  and  receiving  a  weekly  wage  of 
four  dollars.  Two  years  later  he  was  super- 
intendent for  the  Mckinley  Construction 
Company,  building  thirty  or  forty  houses 
annually,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  years  was 
in  business  for  himself  as  a  full-fledged  builder, 
his  first  operation  being  two  eight-story  apart- 
ment houses  at  Broadway  and  One  Hundred 
and  Eleventh  Street,  which  he  turned  over 
at  a  large  profit.  At  this  period  he  concluded 
that  nine-story  apartment  houses,  on  side 
streets,  would  be  a  desirable  and  paying 
proposition,  and  commenced  such  construction, 
being  followed  in  this  line  of  work  by  nearly 
all  the  realty  companies,  and  meeting  with 
great  success. 

Mr.  Newmark's  thorough  training  in  prac- 
tical building,  coupled  with  his  complete 
knowledge  of  realty  values  in  the  sections  in 
which  he  builds,  are  the  reasons  he  has  never 
vet  had  a  losing  operation.     lie  is  now  build- 


ing "Laureate  Hall,"  a  ten-story  apartment 
house  al  One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Street 
and  Amsterdam  Avenue,  in  the  college  settle- 
ment. This  house  will  be  in  suites  of  two. 
three  and  four  rooms  and  is  especially  designed 
for  teachers  and  students,  lie  is  also  aooul 
lo  start  another  building  of  the  same  size  at 
One  Hundred  and  Twentieth  Street  and 
Amsterdam  Avenue. 

In  addition  lo  his  building  operations, 
Mr.  Newmark  is  vice-president  of  the  Con- 
solidated Chandelier  Company.  He  i-  a 
Republican,  believing  thai  this  party 
stands  alone  for  the  nation's  commercial 
I  u'ogress. 

Dissatisfied  with  mercantile  pursuits  to 
which  he  turned  his  attention  after  leaving 
school,  Samuel  Marx  became  a  real  estate 
auctioneer,  and  in  thai  line  of  work  has  built 
up  a  reputation  that  keeps  him  constantly 
employed,  lie  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
May  10.  L867,  and  came  of  one  of  those  old- 
fashioned  bi^  families  of  which  he  was 
the  oldest  of  thirteen  children,  and  al  the 
age  of  twenty-one  started  in  business 
as  a  tailor.  The  prospects  not  being 
bright,  he  commenced  lo  sell  real  estate  al 
auction.  Mr.  Marx  is  a  Democrat,  and  during 
the  years  of  1908-'09-'10  and  '11  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  and  always  look 
an  active  pari  in  the  deliberations  of  thai 
body.  He  is  a  member  of  the  15.  1*.  <  ).  Elks, 
the   Knights  of  Pythias,  the  Samuel  Tichner 


CHARLES    MWM  VRK 


II     -  I  I  w  \l:  I     M.  K\li  Jl  I 


SAMUEL    \l  MIX 


126 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


Society.  Independent  Order  Free  Sons  of 
Israel,  the  Columbia  and  Owasco  clubs,  also 
of  the  Real  Estate  Exchange  and  is  president 
of  the  "Marx  Fraternity,"  organized  and  in- 
corporated for  the  mutual  protection  of  the 
family.  It  is  the  first  of  its  kind;  and  only 
members  of  the  immediate  Family  can  join. 
They  meet  at  the  residences  of  the  members 
every  second  week,  and  it  is  the  means  of 
preserving  the  family  interests  and  unity. 

Long  Island  has  been  the  field  upon  which 
many  real  estate  campaigns  have  been  planned. 
organized  and  fought  out  to  successful  real- 
ization. I  have  always  felt  a  peculiar  interest 
in  the  achievements  of  II.  Stewart  McKnight 
and  his  four  energetic  brothers,  because  they 
came  here  from  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  the 
original  home  of  my  ancestors  after  whom  the 
historic  old  town  is  named.  Mr.  McKnight 
was  a  young  lawyer,  but  saw  far  greater  possi- 
bilities in  the  development  of  Long  Island  than 
in  the  slow  growth  of  a  legal  clientage,  how- 
ever successful.  He  didn't  have  a  great  deal 
of  capital  himself,  lmt  was  able  to  ally  him- 
self with  men  of  wealth  who  admired  his  genius 
for  organization,  and.  in  1905,  he  established 
The  McKnight  Realty  Company. 

The  first  proposition  grappled  was  a  large 
tract  near  Bayside,  beyond  Flushing,  which 
at  large  expense  he  attractively  laid  out  in 
"  i  plots.     lie  immediately  brought  his  four 


VI 


brothers.  Ira  Thomas.  John  Calvin.  A. 
Maxwell  and  Edgar  Scott  McKnight  into 
active  cooperation.  These  young  men  ren- 
dered special  services.  The  first,  Ira  Thomas 
McKnight,  is  an  engineer  and  naturally  be- 
came the  head  of  the  construction  and  de- 
velopment department,  accomplishing  remark- 
able engineering  feats  in  landscape  gardening, 
drainage,  sewerage  and  water  proposition. 
Another  brother,  John  Calvin,  became  vice- 
president  of  the  McKnight  Realty  Company, 
and  was  of  rare  value  owing  to  his  extensive 
acquaintance  with  prominent  capitalists  in  the 
metropolitan  district.  He  was  well  known. 
owing  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  secretary 
to  Ex-Gov.  R.  R.  Odell,  and  had  served  for  a 
brief  time  in  the  same  capacity  with  Col. 
Roosevelt,  prior  to  his  election  to  the  governor- 
ship. A.  Maxwell  McKnight  was  for  a  time 
secretary  of  the  New  York  Produce  Exchange 


and    Edgar    Scott     McKnight,    the    youngest 

brothei-.  has  had  a  thorough  training  in  real 
estate  business. 

The  president  of  this  invincible  organization 
is  II.  Stewart  McKnight,  who  is  a  leader  in  all 
matters  of  public  interest  affecting  the  Bor- 
ough of  Queens.  He  was  president  of  the 
Long  Island  Real  Estate  Exchange  and  he 
is  probably  more  familiar  with  every  nook  and 
cornel-  of  the  big  island  than  any  man  in  the 
real  estate  business  to-day;  not  a  road,  lane 
or  path  is  unknown  to  him.  His  latest  under- 
taking is  the  development  of  the  Great  Neck 
Estates,  a  charming  tract  of  high  land  on  that 
well  known  promontory  of  the  North  Shore. 
Miles  of  streets  with  concrete  sidewalks  and 
many  villas  arc  already  in  process  of  construc- 
tion. 

Long  Island  property  has  felt  the  keen 
impulse  of  growth  during  the  past  decade 
The  completion  of  four  bridges  across  the 
Fast  River  and  several  tunnels  thereunder 
has  had  the  effect  of  giving  to  residents  on 
the  south  side  of  "the  great  terminal  moraine" 
easy  access  to  the  heart  of  Manhattan.  These 
activities  in  suburban  property  have  developed 
a  new  class  of  energetic  men  who  talk  well  and 
carry  conviction  because  they  believe  what 
they  say.  Among  men  who  have  galvanized 
into  activity  this  new  market  is  T.  Benton 
Ackerson,  born  at  Rockland  Lake,  this  state. 
June.  1856.  He  was  educated  at  Pough- 
keepsie  and  began  commercial  life  in  Brooklyn, 
1S74.  as  an  employee  of  the  Knickerbocker 
Ice  Company.  He  enjoyed  the  tutorship  of 
his  father,  a  successful  business  man;  but 
his  leanings  were  toward  the  real  estate  held. 
In  thirty-odd  years  he  has  prosecuted  ex- 
tensive operations  in  Long  Island  City.  Flat- 
bush  and  more  recently  at  Brightwaters,  near 
Ray  Shore  a  beautiful  sea.  lake,  pine  and 
oak  grown  residential  park  of  over  1,200 
acres.  A  pace  setter  in  seaside  suburban 
development.  The  harbor  features  incor- 
porated are  a  most  unique  and  ingenious 
conception  and  the  five  spring-fed  lakes, 
connected  by  cascade  dams  and  esplanade 
of  fountains,  encircled  by  winding  drives, 
have  all  combined  in  creating  a  substantial 
example  of  the  higher  standard  of  develop- 
ment, since  copied  by  mam  other  developers. 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


Ml 


Brightwaters  is  a  veritable  home  community, 
the  T.  15.  Ackerson  Co.,  in  which  all  Mr. 
Ackerson's  enterprises  have  recently  been 
combined,  being  the  first  to  establish  its  own 
interurban  transportation  system. 

The  development  of  the  suburban  town  of 
Nutley,  across  the  Hudson,  is  due  largely  to 
the  energy  and  success  as  an  architect  of 
William  A.  Lambert,  a  young  Englishman 
who  came  to  this  country  with  his  parents  in 
1871,  settled  in  New  Jersey  and  secured  his 
education  at  the  public  schools  of  that  state. 
Alter  a  thorough  technical  training,  he  began 
his  career  as  an  architect  in   1892.      In  addi- 


comes  with  the  prestige  of  success  in  that  line 
at  Auburn,  Rochester  and  Syracuse,  in  cadi 
of  which  cities  he  developed  large  section-,  ol 
realty.  Mr.  Tuxill  was  horn  at  Clarkson, 
Monroe  County,  N.  Y..  May,  1 S7 7 .  and  -pent 
his  early  days  on  the  farm  of  his  father.  After 
an  education  in  the  district  school,  he  went 
to  Auburn,  "loveliest  city  of  the  plain," 
1900,   to  accept   a    place  in   one  of  the   local 

real   estate  offices.       lie   was  a    "hllsller"   from 

the  first  and  l>\  1907  had  so  widely  inspired 
confidence  thai  he  had  no  difficulty  in  or- 
ganizing the  Tuxill  Realty  Company,  with  a 
$300,000   capitalization,    the   stock   of   which 


I     BENTi  IN    ACKERSON 


WILLIAM   A.    LAMBERT 


ril  VRLES   I       fUXILl 


tion  to  his  collegiate  studies,  he  had  served 
with  William  Ilalsey  Wood,  of  Newark,  one 
of  the  most  successful  men  in  his  profession. 
Mr.  Lambert  has  made  a  specialty  of  suburban 
architectural  work,  having  designed  and  con- 
structed about  one  thousand  residences  of 
that  character.  Among  his  chief  successes 
elsewhere  may  he  mentioned  the  Edgemere 
(dub  Hotel  and  the  Colonial  Hall,  at  Arvcrne, 
L.  I.  At  present  he  confines  himself  to 
architectural  work  in  Nutley,  being  President 
of  the  Nutley  Realty  Company.  He  has  de- 
signed and  built  .)<•()  houses  in  Nutley.  He 
is  President  of  the  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
Real  Estate  Exchange,  a  Mason,  a  member 
of  the  Royal  Arcanum,  and  of  many  societies 
and  clubs. 

A  newcomer  in  the  Held  of  Long  Island  real 
estate   promotion   is   Charles   E.   Tuxill,   who 


was  subscribed  by  some  of  Auburn's  most 
prominent  citizens.  With  this  increased  capi- 
tal. Mr.  Tuxill  pushed  his  activities  into  other 
eil  ies  of  Central  New  York.  Hacked  by  friends 
who  had  realized  large  profits  from  his  up- 
state enterprises,  he  recently  came  to  New 
York  and  purchased  a  large  tract  of 
Long  Island,  known  as  "Beacon  llil 
he  is  now  developing. 

An  exceptionally  successful  young 
of  the  real  estate  fraternity  is  Albert  B.  Ash- 
forth,  horn  in  this  city,  1873.  Educated  at 
private  schools,  he  entered  his  uncle's  real 
estate  office  in  1890.  The  fact  that  his  father 
had    achieved    success    in    the    same    business 

may  have  been  a  determining  factor  in  his 
choice.  In  1896  he  formed  an  independent 
partnership  with  Harvey  II.  Duryee  which 
lasted  until    1901.      Since'  that   time' Mr.    Ash- 


land on 
."  which 

member 


428 


THE    HOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


ALBERT  B.  ASHFORTH 


\  \  I  II  Will,   .1     HKSS 


ROBERT  W.  HAFF 


forth  has  conducted  his  business  under  his 
own  name.  Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Span- 
ish War.  Harvey  Duryee  and  Mr.  Ash- 
forth  conceived  the  idea  and  made  the  sug- 
gestion to  Colonel  Astor  which  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  Astor  Battery  by  that  patriot. 
Mr.  Ashforth  served  eight  years  as  a  member 
of  Company  1,  Seventh  Regiment,  X.  G.  S. 
X.  Y. 

Germany  furnished  another  active  member 
of  the  real  estate  guild  in  this  city  in  the  per- 
son of  Nathaniel  J.  Hess,  who  was  horn  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Germany,  September, 
1871.  This  was  after  the  creation  of  the  drv 
man  Empire  and  the  transfer  of  the  Imperial 
Capital  to  Berlin.  Mr.  Hess  came  to  this 
country  early  in  life,  with  his  parents.  He 
began  a  mercantile  career  in  his  sixteenth  year; 
hut.  at  li).  he  joined  the  firm  of  M.  &  L.  Hess, 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  a 
general  real  estate  and  brokerage  business. 
Since  then  he  has  been  connected  with  the 
Realty  Holding  Company,  the  Hess  Building 
Company,  the  Empire  Realty  Corporation,  the 
Pacific  Realty  Company,  the  Thirty-second 
Street  Building  Company,  and  several  other 
associations.  Mr.  Hess  is  closely  identified 
with  many  of  the  allied  charities.  For  pastime 
he  is  fond  of  breaking  horses  for  the  Horse 
Shows.  He  is  also  an  enthusiastic  hunter  and 
disciple  of  l/.aak  Walton.  lb-  is  a  member 
of  the  Fulton   Riding  Club,  Lotos  Club,  City 


and 


Lunch  Club,   American    Kennel    Club,    Lon 
Island     Kennel    Club,     Bull    Dog    Club 
others. 

A  successful  real  estate  broker,  actively 
engaged  since  1884  in  the  development  of  Man- 
hattan and  Long  Island  property,  is  Robert  W. 
Ilaff.  The  principal  office  of  his  company. 
••The  Robert  W.  Ilaff  Realty  Corporation." 
is  in  the  Marbridge  Building.  Manhattan, 
incorporated  in  1908  with  Mr.  Ilaff  as  presi- 
dent. One  of  his  most  recent  transactions,  as 
representative  of  the  Degnon  Realty  and  Ter- 
minal Improvement  Company  and  other  capi- 
talists, was  the  purchase  of  several  hundred 
acres  of  meadow  land  between  Flushing  and 
Corona,  Queens  County,  bordering  on  Flush- 
ing Bay  and  River.  This  large  area  is  now 
being  filled  with  city  ashes.  Five  years  will 
he  required  to  reclaim  this  land,  hut  when 
the  work  is  completed  the  land  will  be  suitable 
for  manufacturing  plants,  because  it  possesses 
both  rail  and  water  facilities.  The  business 
of  the  Robert  W.  Ilaff  Realty  Corporation 
extends  over  the  United  States  and  Mexico. 
Mr.  Half  has  recently  returned  from  a  three 
months'  trip  to  Europe  in  the  interests  of  Xew 
York  clients. 

Training  in  a  bank  is  an  admirable  prepara- 
tion for  almost  any  commercial  business. 
Douglas  Ludlow  Elliman,  now  a  successful 
real  estate  broker,  began  his  career  as  a 
"runner"  with  the  Union  National  Bank  and 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


1.29 


then  went  tt>  Vermilye  &  Co.,  where  he  re- 
mained three  years,  lie  entered  the  office  of 
Pease  <S:  Elliman,  real  estate  brokers,  and 
became  a  partner  in  1!)07.  Mr.  Elliman  was 
born  at  Flushing,  L.  I..  May,  lss-2.  and  was 
educated  at  the  Berkeley  and  Cutler  Schools. 
In  eight  years  of  brokerage  expei'ience,  lie 
••closed"  nearly  $7,000,000  of  sales,  including 
private  houses,  plots  for  apartments  and  one 
church.  He  also  built  up  a  collection  busi- 
ness of  about  $1,000. (100  annually,  including 
a  majority  of  the  besl  East  Side  apartments, 
lie  is  president  of  the  Douglas  L.  Elliman 
Company,  and  a  director  of  the  Bleecker  Street 
&  Fulton  Ferry  Railroad  Co.  He  is  a  Re- 
publican; his  clubs  are  the  Racquel  and 
Tennis,  St.  Nicholas,  Sea\vanhaka-(  drinthian, 
Stamford  Yacht  and  Wee  Burn  Golf. 

The  development  of  Westchester  property, 
especially  at  White  Plains  and  its  vicinity,  is 
largely  due  to  the  energy  of  E.  Nelson  Ehrhart, 
who  early  saw  an  opportunity  for  its  exploita- 
tion and  gave  himself  resolutely  to  the  work. 
Mr.  Ehrhart  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
December,  1N7.S.  prepared  for  college  in  the 
public  schools,  entered  Columbia  and  took  a 
special  course  in  architecture  there  and  agricul- 
ture at  ( 'ornell  University.  After  ten  years'  ex- 
perience in  dairy  farming,  lie  adopted  his  pres- 
ent occupation.  He  was  successful  from  the 
first.  Mr.  Ehrhart  was  acting  superintendent 
of  the  Horse  Department  of  the  World's  Fair, 
at   Chicago,   in   1N!>;>.   while  a  student  at  Cor- 


nell Agricultural  College,  and  was  named  as 
a  special  expert  of  the  Dairy  Division  of  the 
Agricultural  Department  of  the  United  Slates 
in  IS!).").  He  conies  of  a n  old  German  family, 
his  father  having  settled  in  Michigan  as  a  mis 
sionary  among  the  Indians.  Mr.  Ehrharl 
is  a  Republican  ami  a  member  of  the  Repub- 
lican and  Transportation  chilis.  7th  Regiment 
Veterans'  Association  and  other  societies. 

Some  men  are  naturally  inclined  to  enter  the 
real  estate  business  and  others  have  the  duty 
of  developing  ancestral  tracts  of  land  thrust 
upon  them.  Such  was  the  case  with  William 
Richmond  Ware,  who  undertook  the  exploit- 
ing of  a  large  property  belonging  to  the  estate 
of  E.  R.  Ware,  deceased,  in  the  city  of  Yon 
kers.  Mr.  Ware  was  born  on  the  hanks  of  the 
Hudson.  February,  1855,  and  was  educated 
in  the  private  schools  of  this  city  and  Yonkers. 
Early  in  life  he  was  charged  with  the  care  of 
large  real  estate  interests  belonging  to  his 
father's  family  and  developed  special  aptitude 
for  economical  managemenl  and  disposition 
of  many  kinds  of  property.  He  won  general 
confidence  by  his  dealings  and  gathered  around 
him  many  patrons.  He  began  in  New  York 
City,  lsso.  with  Leonard  .1.  Carpenter,  first 
trading  in  Easl  Side  properties:  but,  eleven 
years  later,  he  opened  an  office  on  the  upper 
West  Side,  where  he  has  prospered. 

A  direct  descendant  of  (apt.  Dolson.an 
early  settler  of  New  Amsterdam,  is  William 
Hamilton  Dolson,  now  a  prominent  real  estate 


DOUGL  VS   I-    ELLIMAN 


\i  LSON  i  m:ii  \i:  I 


Willi  Wl   l;    \\  \l:l 


130 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


LOUIS  i  II  HI' 


\  VRi  IN    R  Alii  \i  IWITZ 


J.  ARTHUR   FISCH]  B 


agent  in  this  city.  Among  many  important 
properties  under  his  management  is  that  of 
the  "Belnord,"  the  largest  residential  apart- 
ment building  in  the  world,  its  court,  with 
walks  and  fountains  and  Mower  beds,  covering 
more  area  than  the  ground  space  devoted  to 
most  other  properties  of  its  kind.  A  remark- 
able feature  of  this  building  is  that  every  wall 
has  an  ornamental  front  and  every  room  is  an 
outside  one.  therefore  the  "Belnord"  is,  ad- 
mittedly, a  standard  for  architects  and  is 
likely  to  remain  so,  because  there  is  not  at 
present  any  vacant  property  in  the  developed 
section  of  Manhattan  Island  of  sufficient  size 
to  erect  another  building  of  the  kind.  Mr. 
Dolson  is  a  member  of  the  Holland  Society  and 
also  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution, 
Capt.  Dolson.  aforesaid  mentioned,  in  l(!(i? 
built  the  first  large  vessel  put  upon  the  stocks 
in  these  waters.  He  was  also  active  in  New 
Amsterdam  real  estate,  and  with  his  son-in- 
law,  Jan  Kiersen,  opened  up  the  Great  Maize 
Land,  not  far  below  Fort  Washington.  Kier- 
sen's  house  was  the  hist  settlement  on  the  now 
well-known  Jumel  homestead,  and  further- 
more is  believed  to  be  the  first  spot  permanent- 
ly occupied  on  these  heights. 

Capt.  Dolson's  son.  Teunis,  is  credited  as 
being  the  first  male  child  born  in  New  Amster- 
dam after  it  was  ceded  by  the  Dutch  to  the 
English  -being,  therefore,  the  original  native 


citizen  of  the  English  ruled  and  named  City  of 
Xew  York.  His  branch  of  the  family  moved 
up    state    and    founded    the    town    of    Dolson. 

Every  owner  of  rentable  property  under- 
stands the  desirability  of  having  a  competent 
and  watchful  agent  to  collect  his  rents  anil 
see  that  the  character  of  his  houses  is  main- 
tained. Many  excellent  buildings,  with  ad- 
vantageous sites,  have  been  allowed  to  de- 
teriorate owing  to  inattentive  owners  or 
negligent  agents.  Aaron  Rabinowitz  belongs 
to  the  ever- watchful  class  of  agent  who  makes 
his  principal's  interests  his  own.  He  was  born 
in  this  city  and  derived  his  education  from 
the  public  schools  and  the  University  of  the 
City  of  New  York.  Through  the  advice  of 
Henry  Morganthau,  one  of  the  leading  realty 
owners  and  operators  of  this  city,  he  entered 
the  real  estate  business  in  1903.  Though 
only  twenty-seven  years  of  age  he  became 
president  of  the  long-established  firm  of  Spear 
&  ('o.,  real  estate  agents,  in  MM).),  a  house 
that  represents  more  than  $10. 000, 00(1  in 
tenant  property,  mainly  in  the  commercial 
center  of  the  metropolis. 

J.  Arthur  Fischer  is  another  prominent  real 
estate  dealer  of  the  mid-town  section,  who  has 
met  with  success  as  agent,  broker  and  ap- 
praiser of  some  of  the  best  property  in  the  city 
during  the  ten  years  which  he  has  devoted  to 
building  up  his  business. 


THE    HOOK    of   NEW    VOlik 


131 


CHARLES  II.  PATRICK 


111  INK    E.  SMI  I  II 


LAW  i;  I :  N  i  I .    B     I    I.I.1M  W 


After  retiring  from  a  life  of  business  activ- 
ity. Charles  II.  Patrick  was  induced  to  take 
the  presidency  and  Ereasurership  of  the  Easl 
Hay  Land  and  Improvement  Company  and 
lias  demonstrated  his  ability  along  executive 
lines  by  a  wise  and  successful  handling  of  the 
company's  interests.  Mr.  Patrick  was  born 
in  Bennington.  Vermont,  and  started  in  life 
in  a  country  store.  He  came  to  New  York 
in  1860  and  was  connected  with  the  II.  V\  . 
Johns  Mfg.  Co.,  for  thirty-seven  years.  The 
property  he  is  now-  interested  in  is  located 
upon  the  East  River  or  Sound  and  extends 
from  Oak  Point  to  the  Bronx  River.  If  has 
an  excellent  water  front,  is  easy  of  access 
and  is  particularly  adapted  lo  residences  and 
for  manufacturing  and  shipping  purposes. 
Paige  interests  are  already  located  on  the 
tract,  and  are  unrestricted  by  the  encroach- 
ments of  adjoining  property,  while  the  rail 
and  water  facilities  are  unexcelled. 

Closely  associated  with  the  buying  and  sell- 
ing of  real  estate,  in  late  years,  has  developed 
the  placing  of  loans  for  the  construction  ot 
lame  city  structures  or  development  of  sub- 
urban  real  estate.  In  this  particular  line 
Prank  E.  Smith  has  created  a  place  for  himself. 
He  was  born  in  Candia,  X.  II..  and  enjoyed 
the  benefits  of  the  local  schools.  He  began 
life  with  his  father,  who  was  a  mason-builder 
in  Manchester.  Thence  he  went  to  Chicago, 
where  he  worked  as  a   builder  for  two  years. 


lie  came  to  New  York  in  1X7!).  and  continued 
in  the  same  trade  until  1896.  Since  then 
Mr.  Smith  has  been  a  promoter  and  real  estate 
broker.  One  of  his  large  deals  was  the  sale 
of  the  Delaware  &  Hudson  property  on 
Church  and  Cortland!  Streets  to  the  City  In- 
vestment Company,  and  the  negotiation  of  a 
loan  for  the  latter  corporation  of  $6,250,000. 
He  also  figured  in  the  sale  of  the  Hotel  Vic- 
toria property,  a1  27th  Street,  Broadway  and 
5th  Avenue,  involving  $7,000,000,  and  sold  the 
land  and  furnished  the  capital  to  creel  the 
Ilendrik  Hudson  Apartments  at  I  Kith  to 
111th  Streets  and  Riverside  Drive.  He  also 
furnished  the  money  lo  erect  the  Chalsworth 
Apartments  and  Annex  at  7-2nd  Street  and 
Riverside  Drive,  the  Forrest  Chambers  al 
1  l.'Jth  Sheet  and  Broadway  and  the  Adamston 
and  Evanston  Apartments.  These  five  n  >go- 
tiations  represented  an  outlay  of  $4,000,000. 
He  also  negotiated  the  sale  of  the  German- 
American  Building.  35  Nassau  Street,  in 
which  the  consideration  was  large. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  and  best-posted 
real  estate  men  in  New  York  City  is  Law- 
rence B.  Elliman  of  Pease  &  Elliman.  He 
was  born  al  Flushing,  P.  P.  and  was  edu- 
cated at  the  Flushing  Institute,  Flushing  High 
School  and  the  Berkeley  School.  New  York 
City,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1893,  and 
commenced  his  active  business  career  in  Wall 
Street    with    the    linn    of    Bultrick    &    Elliman. 


132 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW    YORK 


From  here  he  went  to  the  Bacteriological 
Division  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Health, 
and  in  1897  formed  a  connection  with  the 
firm  of  1VII  &  Graves,  where  lit'  remained 
until  lit'  organized  the  real  estate  firm  of 
Pease  &  Elliman.  The  business  was  successful 
from  its  inceptionand  was  incorporated  in  \{MH. 
It  has  increased  from  the  zero  mark  in  IS!)? 
to  an  annual  gross  turn  over  of  $25,000,000. 
The  linn  lias  sold  many  of  the  most  prominent 
dwellings  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  district,  includ- 
ing Andrew  Carnegie's  former  residence  to 
\V.  P.  Clyde;  the  W.  II.  Bliss  house  to  Mrs. 
Moulton;  a  house  to  J.  I).  Rockefeller,  Jr., 
and  many  other  notable  homes  to  prominent 
individuals. 

Mr.  Elliman  is  descended  from  the  Dutch 
and  Quakers  of  Long  Island.  One  of  his 
ancestors  was  an  original  settler  and  founder 
of  Flushing,  and  another  was  one  of  the 
early  mayors  of  New  York  City.  He 
served  live  years  in  the  Naval  Militia  and  is  a 
member  of  the  Racquet  and  Tennis.  Rocka- 
way  Hunt.  New  York  Yacht  and  Cedarhurst 
Yacht  clubs;  the  St.  Nicholas  Society.  Society 
of  Colonial  Wars  and  the  New  York  Historical. 
Genealogical  and  Biographical  Society  of 
New  York  City.  His  business  connections 
are  president,  treasurer  and  director  of  Pease 
&  Elliman.  Inc.,  vice-president,  treasurer  and 
director  of  Pease  &  Elliman  Agency,  treas- 
urer and  director  of  the  Woman's  Hotel  Com- 
pany and  director  of  the  City  of  New  York 
Insurance  Company,  and  the  Allied  Heal 
Estate   Interests. 

Indication  of  the  growth  of  our  wonderful 
metropolis  is  the  success  that  has  attended 
I  he  organization  and  efficient  management 
of  several  corporations  organized  for  the  de- 
velopment of  city  and  suburban  real  estate. 
The  New  York  Central  Realty  Company 
was  incorporated  in  1903,  with  a  paid-up 
capital  of  $200,000.  Their  policy  has  been 
lo  purchase  property  along  the  lanes  of  the 
city's  growth,  and  as  it  was  improved  to  cut 
it  into  lots  and  market  it.  With  its  large  re- 
sources, the  possibilities  of  this  company  are 
limitless.  This  fact  has  led  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  bond  department,  which,  in  effect, 
bids  for  the  use  of  money  in  the  real  estate 
business    at    legal    interest.      The    New     York 


Central  Realty  Company  is  not  in  any  sense 
a  bond  company,  that  department  being  in- 
cidental to  its  real  estate  interests.  The 
.successful  development  of  acreage  property 
on  Long  Island  has  been  remarkable.  This 
company  bought  one  hundred  acres  at  $800 
an  acre  five  years  ago.  Three  years  later. 
adjacent  property  sold  for  $2,850  an  acre. 
Owdng  to  the  fact  that  the  Central  Realty 
Company  had  cut  its  land  into  villa  plots,  a 
much  higher  price  was  realized.  I  merely 
cite  this  instance  as  one  of  many  successful 
enterprises.  The  company's  operations  in  New- 
Jersey  and  Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  are 
equally  extensive. 

The  theory  of  heredity  may  possibly  account 
for  the  fact  that  Charles  Shonsrood  is  a   very 


•apaUe  auctioneer. 


< 

1  "*  * 

A  son  of  Joseph  Shon- 
good,  who  for  main 
years  followed  thai 
honorable  and  ancient 
profession  in  the  city  of 
New  ^  ork.  ( 'harles  was 
born  there  on  May  1, 
1864.  Educated  in  the 
public  schools,  he  em- 
barked in  the  vocation 
of  his  paternal  ancestor 
and  distinguished  him- 
self. Charles  Shongood 
is  the  first  U.  S.  auc- 
tioneer appointed  by 
the  Federal  Court  un- 
der the  Bankruptcy 
Law.  He  was  a  presi- 
dential elector  in  the  year  of  Roosevelt's 
famous  victory  and  ran  for  Congress  in  1904, 
but  was  defeated.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Republican  and  Progress  clubs,  taking  an 
active  interest   in  polities. 

There  is  no  more  successful  dealer  in  North 
Sitle  real  estate  than  John  A.  Steinmetx.  who 
within  the  short  period  of  seven  years  has 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  realty  values  in  the 
Bronx  that  has  made  him  a  leader  in  his  line. 
He  was  born  in  West  Farms.  January  11. 
1875,  obtaining  his  education  in  the  public 
schools  in  that  locality  and  was  a  baker  until 
twenty-four  years  of  age,  when  he  went  into 
the    wholesale    Hour    business.       The    purchase 


CHAR]  I  -  SHONGOOD 


THE    BOOK    of  NEW    YORK 


133 


of  a  single  lot  when  lie  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age  turned  his  attention  to  the  growing 
possibilities  of  the  Bronx  and  when  thirty 
years  of  age  lie  decided  to  quil  mercantile 
pursuits  and  go  into  the  real  estate  and  insur- 
ance business.  Since  that  time  he  has  been 
very  successful  and  his  office  at  No.  1009 
East  INOth  Street  is  a  place  of  great  activity. 
A  majority  of  the  large  apartmenl  houses  in 
this  section  has  Keen  sold  through  his  efforts 
ami  he  completed  the  negotiations  by  which 
the  large  hotel  and  hall  immediately  opposite 
the  terminal  of  the  West  Farms  subway  line 
was  erected.  In  addition  he  has  conducted 
many  exchanges  and  has  a  large  clientele  in 
renting  and  insurance. 

Mr.  Steinmetz  is  president  of  the  Eas1 
Tremont  Taxpayers'  Association  and  is  con- 
nected with  tin-  1,.  W.  Divine  Company,  the 
Jacob  Jensen  Company,  and  the  Obark 
Realty  Company,  all  engaged  in  building 
operations.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity  and  several  societies. 

Having  left  home  in  Alsace  when  he  was 
fourteen  years  old  and  winked  in  Paris  five 
years,  Henry  Moses  Weill  directed  his  course 
toward  America.  Mr.  Weill  readied  this  city 
when  twenty  years  old.  His  first  occupation 
was  translator  to  the  physician-in-chief  of  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Company.  This 
work  was  not  calculated  to  hold  a  man  of  Mr. 
Weill's   energy   and    progressiveness ;    nothing 


would  satisfy  him  hut  his  own  desk.  Opening 
an  ofliee  in  West  Twenty-eighth  Street,  success 
soon  came  to  him.  After  leasing  stores  and 
lolls  in  the  neighborhood  he  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing a  loan  of  $450,000  for  the  Bijou  Theatre. 
After  placing  this  loan,  his  progress  was 
rapid,  until  at  the  age  of  33  he  is  recognized 
by  the  entire  real  estate  Fraternity.  Besides 
being  the  president  of  the  II.  M.  Weill  Com 
pany,  he  is  a  director  of  the  Coleman  Con- 
struction Company  and  treasurer  of  the  One 
Hundred  and  Thirty  West  37th  Street  Com 
pany.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Democratic 
Club,  West  Side  Real  Estate  Association  and 
Allied  Real  Estate  Interests. 

After  thorough  training  as  ;i  merchant,  a 
Wall  Street  broker  and  a  banker.  Benjamin 
Rush  Lummis  finally  undertook  the  manage- 
ment of  estates  and  has  made  himself  one  of 
the  authorities  in  this  city  on  the  appraised 
values  of  real  properly.  He  was  horn  in  New 
York,  July,  1857,  and  received  a  thorough 
education  at  St.  Francis  Xavier's  and  Scion 
Hall  Colleges.  He  began  active  business,  in 
1877,  as  shipping  clerk  in  a  wholesale  house 
thai  did  a  business  of  $3,000,000  a  year.  His 
father  had  been  a  i\\\  goods  importer,  but 
family  reverses  during  the  Civil  War  caused 
the  young  man  to  go  to  work  early  in  life. 
Next  I  hear  of  him  in  Wall  Street,  in  the  firm 
of  Lummis  &  Day  the  brokerage  business 
of  an  elder  brother.  After  weathering  several 
panics.    Mr.    Lummis    engaged    in    the    real 


.lnIIN    \    STEINMETZ 


HENRY   M    WEILL 


I'.l  VI  W1IN     l:    I  LMM1S 


134 


THE    HOOK   of  XEW   YORK 


estate  Held,  which  he  has  followed  ever  since. 
He  is  strong  in  Revolutionary  ancestry  and  a 
member  of  the  Sons;  is  ;i  member  of  the 
Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  is  on  the  advisory 
board  of  the  New  York  Foundling  Hospital 
and  the  Seton  Hospital  for  Consumptives,  a 
trustee  of  the  Catholic  Institute  for  the  Blind. 
a  member  of  the  New  York  Athletic  club 
and  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

Judging  from  what  he  has  done  and  is  do- 
ing, it  is  but  fair  to  assume  that  among  the 
names  of  the"  civil  engineers  of  to-day  that  will 

he  long  remembered  is 
a  Bayly  Hipkins,  who  is 
in  the  front  rank  of  that 
most  important  branch 
of  modern  engineering 
— subway  const rnct ion. 
Mr.  Hipkins  was 
horn  in  Baltimore.  July 
27,  1871.  After  grad"- 
natioii  from  the  City 
College  of  Baltimore 
and  Lehigh  University, 
he  became  the  resident 
engineer  of  the  Tybee 
Railroad  of  ( reorgia : 
roadmaster  of  the  (  en- 
tral  of  Georgia  and  the 
Railroad.     Comim 


H  n  L"5     HIPKINS 


Georgia  and   Alabama 
New  York  in   1899  he 


became  the  ( 


Hie 


to 
En- 


gineer of  the  Bradley  Construction  Company, 
which  has  the  contract  for  building  the  new 
Brooklyn  and  Lexington  Avenue  subway. 
aggregating  an  outlay  of  $50,000,000.  This 
contract  was  secured  in  the  face  of  the  most 
aggressive  competition  with  powerful  rival 
companies  upon  figures  prepared  by  Mi-. 
Hipkins,  so  complete  in  the  details  that 
older  and  more  experienced  masters  were 
defeated. 

Identified  with  the  real  estate  business  for 
the  past  20  years,  it  is  natural  that  Charles  W. 
Mix  should  acquire  an  experience  that  makes 
him  a  leader  in  the  realty  world.  He  was 
born  in  Camden,  Oneida,  County,  X.  Y.. 
July  29,  1868,  of  New  England  ancestry,  and 
was  educated  in  Syracuse.  X.  Y.  Before 
attaining  his  majority  he  embarked  in  the 
real  estate  business  in  Syracuse,  that  line  of 
endeavor  appealing  to  him  as  the  one  for  which 


he  was  best  fitted.  He  was  successful  and 
in  1902  removed  to  New  York  City,  where  he 
concluded  the  field  was  broader  and  fuller  of 


opportunities.  He  formed  a  connection  with 
the  Frank  L.  Fisher  Company,  an  organiza- 
tion that  has  been  successful  for  twenty-five 
years,  and  eventually  he  and  William  II. 
Beckham  became  sole  stockholders  of  the 
company,  Mr.  Beckham  being  president  and 
Mr.  Mix  filling  the  positions  of  secretary  and 
treasurer.  The  company  is  recognized  as  en- 
tirely responsible  in  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness. It  handles  no  property  in  a  speculative 
way.  but  has  a  large  clientele  of  wealthy 
patrons  who  are  always  looking  for  permanent 
investments  in  paying  business  properties 
and  apartment  houses  and  it  is  to  this  class  of 
business  alone  thai  the  Frank  L.  Fisher  Com- 
pany devotes  its  energies.  The  long  expe- 
rience of  both  Mr.  Mix  and  Mr.  Beckham 
along  these  lines  has  given  them  a  complete 
knowledge  of  realty  values  in  all  sections 
of  the  city  and  their  advice  to  investors 
is  always  valuable,  their  judgment  being 
affirmed  by  clients  whom  they  have  served 
for  years. 


THE    BOOK    of   NEW    YORK 


ISi 


Out  on  Fire  Island,  where  health  and  happi- 
ness go  hand  in  hand  and  where  the  summer 
breezes  are  always  ten  degrees  cooler  than  in 
New  York  City,  lies  Ocean  Beach,  one  of  the 
ideal  spots  in  that  beautiful  territory  of  pic- 
turesque resorts.  Ocean  Beach  differs  ma- 
terially from  nearly  every  town  on  the  coast 
from  the  fact  that  there  one  can  get  back  to 
nature  without  the  handicap  of  modern  society 
trammels.  'There  art-  no  social  functions  to  be 
observed  and  no  catering  to  fashion's  usages 
— everything  tends  to  the  simple  life  and 
unalloyed  enjoyment  and  happiness  holds  full 
sway.  It  is  an  ideal  spot  and  is  the  creation 
of  John  A.  Wilbur,  who.  in  1908,  conceived 
the  idea  of  locating  a  high-class  family  sea- 
shore summer  colony  on  Fire  Island,  which 
to  his  mind  filled  every  requirement.  He 
christened  the  spot  Ocean  Beach  and  at  once 
started  to  develop  it.  That  his  judgment  was 
correct  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  since  that 
time  eighty-five  bungalows  and  cottages  have 
been  erected  by  lot  owners,  while  between 
25  and  50  more  have  been  contracted  for,  and 
during  this  period  of  development  700  lots 
have  been  sold.  A  pier  extends  into  the  bay 
and  right  at  the  landing  a  modern  hotel, 
partly  of  concrete,  and  a  dancing  pavilion  of 
ornate  design  have  been  erected.  The  beach 
is  undulating  and  in  many  respects  superior 
to  Atlantic  City  and  all  the  surroundings  are 
conducive  to  health  and  water  sports.  Two 
steamers  convey  passengers  to  and  from 
Bay  Shore,  another  to  Islip  and  one  to  Pat- 
chogue. 

No  suburban  retreat  lying  contiguous  to 
New  York  City  presents  the  attractions  and 
natural  advantages  that  can  be  found  there. 
This  ideal  spot  has  pure  water,  surf  bathing, 
still  water  bathing,  boating,  fishing,  shooting 
and  cool,  refreshing  ocean  breezes.  Here 
the  blue  fishing  grounds  are  in  front  of  every 
cottage  door,  and  duck  and  snipe  shooting 
are  the  best  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  You  can 
tread  your  own  clams  and  have  your  own 
clam  bake  or  indulge  in  a  shore  dinner  al 
trifling  expense.  Mr.  Wilbur,  who  conceived 
and  developed  this  unique  resort  and  who  is 
president  of  the  Ocean  Beach  Development 
Company,  commenced  his  career  as  a  mes- 
senger    boy,     afterwards     becoming     a      tel- 


egraph operator  on  the  Manhattan  Elevated 
Railroad.  He  used  his  leisure  time  in  study- 
ing and  after  saving  some  money  became  in- 
terested in  a  manufacturing  business  which 
he    disposed    of    to    starl    the    development    of 


JOHN    A     WILBUR 

Ocean  Beach.  He  has  always  been  a  student 
and  is  an  able  writer  on  trade  subjects,  real 
estate  development  and  political  economy, 
contributing  many  articles  on  these  subjects 
to  the  leading  trade  journals.  He  is  a  friend 
of  labor  and  from  the  beginning  of  his  career, 
has  been  bitterly  opposed  to  over-capitalized, 
wafer-soaked,  swindling  trusts,  believing  that 
the  laboring  man  should  receive  better  wages 
and  thereby  be  permitted  to  enjoy  a  more 
liberal  share  of  the  profits  which  accrue  so 
largely  from  his  efforts.  He  is  prominent 
in  Masonic  circles,  having  passed  through  all 
the  intervening  degrees  of  Masonry  up  to  and 
including  the  thirty-second,  lie  is  Past  Mas- 
ter of  Bunting  Lodge,  a  member  of  Sylvan 
Chapter,  Constantine  Commandery,  Mystic 
Shrine  and  all  the  Scottish  Rite  bodies.  He  is 
an  ex-president  of  the  Harlem  Board  of  Com- 
merce and  a  member  of  the  Harlem  Branch 
Y.  M.  C.  A.     He  was  a  school  commissioner 

in    IIXMi  and    !!)<>';   ami  during  thai   time  vigor- 


136 


THE    BOOK    of    NEW    YORK 


ously  advocated  improvements  in  the  sanita- 
tion of  school  buildings,  particularly  the  ven- 
tilation and  cleanliness  of  class  rooms.  He 
also  instituted  the  investigation  in  the  matter 
of  second-hand  square  pianos  that  had  been 
purchased  and  paid  for  as  new.  He  is  a 
Democrat,  and  while  not  active  in  politics,  was 
chosen  presidential  elector  from  the  Eleventh 
Congressional  District  during  the  1908  cam- 
paign. 

In  less  than  a  dozen  years  in  New  York 
City,  William  Henderson.  Jr..  as  secretary  and 
manager  of  William  Henderson.  Inc..  has  he- 
come  a  factor  in  the  building  trade.      He  was 

horn  in  Westchester  ,VN . 
Y.,  February  20,  1871, 
and     educated     in     the 


imi  t)li'-   schools,  and 


lus 


\V1 1. 1.1  AM  HEND1  RSI  IN,  Jr 


practical  knowledge  of 
construction  was  gain- 
ed with  his  grandfather 
and  father.  'The  grand- 
father, James  Hender- 
son, had  a  wood-work- 
ing mill  in  Westchester, 
and  upon  his  death  in 
]SS(i.  his  son,  William, 
succeeded  to  the  busi- 
n  ess.  In  INNS  he 
turned  his  attention  to 
the  construction  of  high 
class  private  residences,  and  during  the  four 
years  previous  to  the  company  coming  to  New 
York  City,  many  beautiful  and  costly  homes 
and  club  houses  were  erected  in  the  territory 
contiguous  to  Westchester.  In  all  of  this 
work.  William  Henderson,  Jr.  was  an  active 
factor.  In  1892,  New  York  City  was  invaded 
and  since  that  time  William  Henderson,  Inc.. 
has  played  an  important  part  in  building  con- 
struction here-.  At  the  present  time  the  com- 
pany is  erecting  a  twelve-story  loft  building  at 
.".1st  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue  and  the  con- 
struction of  modern  playhouses  is  one  of  its 
specialties.  In  this  connection  may  he  men- 
tioned the  Longacre  Theatre.  48th  Street  west 
of  Broadway,  and  the  Jackson  Avenue  Theatre 
al  155th  Street  and  Westchester  Avenue. 
Bronx,  while  the  company's  hid  has  been  ac- 
cepted on  still  another,  the  location  of  which 


has  not  as  yet  been  made  known.  Mr.  Hen- 
derson is  of  Scottish  extraction.  His  ances- 
tors located  in  Westchester  in  1S,'5S  and  since 
that  time  they  have  always  taken  an  important 
part  in  the  development  and  affairs  of  that 
section.  He  is  a  Democrat  in  politics  and 
was  at  once  time  a  member  of  the  Assembly 
from  Westchester,  hut  since  coming  to  New 
York  City  his  activities  have  been  diverted 
from  politics  to  the  upbuilding  of  a  large  and 
successful  business. 


\\  II.I.IAM    I     BR(  IWN 

Knowing  every  property  and  every  foot  of 
vacant  land  in  the  Borough  of  the  Bronx,  by 
reason  of  a  residence  of  45  years,  and  with  a 
mind  stored  by  twenty-six  years  of  experience 
in  realty  transactions,  it  was  but  natural  that 
the  services  of  William  I.  Brown  should  be 
sought  whenever  condemnation  proceedings 
were  instituted  in  that  section.  He  is  presi- 
dent of  W.  E.  and  W.  I.  Brown.  Inc.,  a  busi- 
ness started  by  his  father.  Robert  I.  Brown, 
in  lS(i?,  and  in  the  nearly  half-century  of  the 
linn's  existence,  sterling  integrity  and  abso- 
lute  devotion  to  its  clients'  interests,  have  been 
the  watch  words.  Mr.  Brown's  specialty  is 
expert  appraising  and  in  this  connection  he 
has  been  retained  by  the  eitv,  state  and  attor- 


THE    BOOK    of    NEW    YORK 


[:',: 


neys  for  owners  in  thousands  of  cases.  For 
loaning  institutions  and  attorneys  of  estates, 
lie  lias  appraised  over  2200  parcels  of  real 
estate  and  in  the  suits  ensuing  from  the  con- 
struction of  the  subway,  he  testified  as  an 
expert  for  the  city  in  over  .'i.jO  eases.  lie 
proved  that  prior  to  the  subway's  construc- 
tion, the  value  of  the  property  along  the 
route  was  about  $4,000,000  and  three  years 
after  construction  was  commenced,  the  same 
property  was  worth  $9,000,000.  This  show- 
ing saved  the  city  a  large  amount  of  money  in 
claimed  damages.  In  street  opening  proceed- 
ings he  has  appeared  in  over  !>()(>  cases  and 
in  the  suits  brought  against  the  city  by  reason 
of  the  change  of  grade  made  necessary  l>\ 
the  depression  of  the  Harlem  Railroad  tracks. 
from  Mott  Haven  to  Williamsbridge,  lie  ap- 
peared as  expert  for  the  property  owners  in 
935  cases.  The  company  of  which  Mr. 
Brown  is  president,  has  figured  in  many  of 
the  most  important  transfers  of  property  in 
the  Bronx,  being  the  agent  for  many  of  the 
old  estates,  such  as  the  Rogers,  Morris,  de 
Peyster  and  Zbrowski  families.  A  complete 
record  of  all  conveyances,  mortgages,  leases, 
building  plans  and  alterations  of  each  piece 
of  property  in  the  Borough  is  kept,  and  there- 
fore Mr.  Brown  can  tell,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  all  the  facts  concerning  any  piece 
of  property,  therein  making  his  opinion  as  an 
expert  appraiser,  reliable,  and  his  testimony 
of  forceful  effect. 

That  success  in  handling  New  York  realty 
docs  not  entirely  depend  upon  a  trained 
knowledge  of  the  business,  is  proven  by  the 
remarkable  achievements  of  Julian  Benedict, 
who,  within  a  period  of  eleven  years,  has  en- 
gineered real  estate  sales  involving  nearly 
twenty  millions  of  dollars.  Of  course,  he 
has  acquired  (hiring  that  time  an  experience 
which  makes  him  an  authority  on  values,  but 
the  story  of  his  early  struggles  and  final  success 
reads  like  a  romance.  lie  was  born  in  Rou- 
niania  in  IST.'i.  and  graduated  from  the  acad- 
emy  in  his  native  city  with  the  highest  honors. 
He  took  a  special  course  in  mathematics  and 
became  an  accountant,  but  finding  the  pros- 
pects for  a  successful  career  were  very  remote 
in  Roninania.  he  came  to  New  York  in  1SSS. 


Here  he  became  successfully  identified  with 
bicycle  interests  and  the  cloak  and  suit  busi- 
ness. While  engaged  in  the  latter  he  decided 
that  the  land  of  his  adoption  offered  better 
chances  than  were  possible  in  mercantile  lines 


.in.i  \'.  mi  \i:i)i<T 

and  he  decided  to  become  a  real  estate  agent. 
He  had  not  the  slightest  idea  of  how  to  nego- 
tiate a  sale  or  to  execute  a  lease,  but  this  lack 
of  knowledge  did  not  deter  him.  He  secured 
an  office  on  March  30,  1901,  and  began 
hustling  for  clients.  Naturally  a  period  of 
weary  waiting  followed.  Although  discour- 
aged he  held  on  and  his  patience  was  re- 
warded l>v  a  rare  piece  of  luck.  This  was  the 
sale  of  the  little  building  at  the  northwest 
corner  of  Broadway  ami  34th  Street,  and  the 
sale   brought    him    al    once   into    prominence, 


138 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


For  the  price.  $375,000  was  a  record  one  and 
all  the  papers  credited  him  with  being  a 
shrewd  realty  salesman.  Naturally  owners  of 
property  who  were  looking  for  the  highest 
possible  terms  hunted  him  up.  and  since  that 
time  he  has  been  very  successful.  He  has 
been  the  pioneer  in  long  leases  in  the  mid- 
section of  the  city  and  has  established  a  rec- 
ord of  getting  the  highest  possible  price  for 
business  properties.  One  of  the  deals  which 
Mr.  Benedict  conducted  is  of  a  unique  char- 
acter and  established  a  long-lease  record  on 
Fifth  Avenue.  It  was  the  sale  of  the  property, 
\os.  556  and  558  Fifth  Avenue  for  M.  Knoed- 
ler  &  Co..  to  Daniel  A.  Loring,  president  of 
the  .Etna  Real  Estate  &  Loan  Co..  and  the 
subsequent  leasing  of  the  land  to  the  original 
owner  for  a  period  of  eighty-four  years.  This 
negotiation  involved  the  sum  of  $5,000,000 
and  was  entirely  consummated  within  a  period 
of  fifteen  days.  After  this  sale  and  lease 
were  executed.  Mi'.  Loring  wrote  to  Mr. 
Benedict  the  following  letter: 

"I  wish  to  thank  you  for  the  prompt  and 
businesslike  manner  in  which  you  negotiated 
the  exchange  of  my  Central  Park  West  and 
i)lst  Street  lots  with  Mr.  Ronald  II.  Mac- 
donald  for  the  property,  No.  29  West  34th 
Street.  I  also  feel  quite  enthusiastic  and  very 
well  pleased  with  the  negotiations  made  by 
you  with  Messrs.  Knoedler  &  Co.  for  the 
property.  Nos.  556  and  558  Fifth  Avenue. 
both  transactions  being  very  satisfactory  to 
me." 

( Concerning  the  same  transaction.  M  .  Knoed- 
ler &  Co.  wrote  as  follows: 

"We  take  great  pleasure  in  complimenting 
you  on  the  quick  and  thoroughly  satisfactory 
manner  in  which  you  carried  out  the  sale  of 
.">.")<)  and  558  Fifth  Avenue  to  Mr.  I).  A.  Lor- 
ing, and  the  re-leasing  of  same  to  us  for  his 
account.  \\  e  hope  that  we  may  have  further 
transactions  with  you." 

Another  record  established  by  Mr.  Benedict 
was  the  leasing  of  the  building,  No.  1!)  West 
34th  Street  to  Revillon  Frercs.  for  a  period  of 
twenty-one  years,  the  first  long  lease  recorded 
up  to  that  time  on  that  street.  lie  also  sold 
the  Henry  Clews  resilience  for  $750,000  and 
his  record  for  big  sales  and  long  leases  has 
caught     the    attention    of    the    realty     world. 


There  have  been  many  instances  where  success 
has  been  achieved  in  the  real  estate  business, 
but  it  has  usually  been  by  men  carefully  trained 
in  that  line.  Mr.  Benedict  was  almost  a 
stranger  in  this  country,  had  no  knowledge  of 
the  business,  which  fact  makes  his  success  a 
noticeable  one. 

Forsaking  mercantile  pursuits  on  account 
of  illness.  Harry  White  entered  the  real  estate 
business  with  no  previous  knowledge,  and 
has  figured  extensively  in  the  development  of 
northside  realty.  He  located  eight  years  ago 
at  lSlst  Street  and  St.  Nicholas  Avenue, 
when  that  territory,  known  as  Washington 
Heights,  had  a  combined  assessed  value  of 
about  $2,000,000.  He  had  selected  the  sec- 
tion as  offering  unexcelled  chances  in  the  line 
he  adopted  and  had  but  a  short  time  to  wait 
until  his  judgment  was  verified  by  the  north- 
ward trend  of  the  residential  and  business 
section,  until  to-day  the  value  of  the  property 
in  the  territory  has  increased  to  nearly  $200,- 
000. (KM),  and  in  this  appreciation  he  has  built 
up  a  huge  business.  Mr.  White  was  born  in 
New  York  City  in  1N70.  and  educated  in  the 
public  schools.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Elks 
and  is  affiliated  with  the  Democratic  party. 
In  this  connection  it  might  be  mentioned  that 
he  has  refused  several  tenders  of  Assembly 
nominations. 

Andrew  S.  Brownell  is  President  of  the 
New  York  Realty  Owners,  organized  in  the 
year  1SSS.  the  first  company  which  took  up 
the  business  of  co-operative  accumulative  in- 
vestments in  real  estate. 

Associated  with  Mr.  Brownell  are  many  in- 
vestors who  believe  that  New  York  real  estate 
is  the  most  stable  and  profitable  commodity 
in  which  to  place  money  for  income  produc- 
tion and  increase  in  principal.  They  know 
that  for  generations  great  fortunes  have  been 
acquired  from  investments  in  real  estate,  and 
the  success  of  this  company  shows  that  the 
same  results  can  be  realized  for  the  small  in- 
vestor, by  co-operative  activity,  honestly  and 
intelligently  controlled  and  along  lines  that 
produce  profits  for  all  stockholders  equally. 

Mr.  Brownell  and  his  associates  have  ac- 
quired for  the  New  York  Realty  Owners  dur- 
ing   its    sixteen    years    of    business,    extensive 


THE    BOOK   of   NEW    YORK 


139 


properties  in  the  line  of  New  York  City's 
growth  northward  that  arc  now  valued  at 
over  $3,000,000,  and  that  are  destined  to  In- 
developed  into  commercial  centres  in  the  near 
future.  Enhancement  in  the  values  and  in 
the  income  production  of  these  properties, 
great  as  they  have  been,  will  undoubtedly  be 
far  in  excess  of  anything  now  foreseen. 


Street  names  honoring  prominent  English- 
men are  not  as  numerous  as  those  of  Dutch 
origin.  Most  of  those  thai  remain  have  no 
affiliation  with  royalty,  those  reminders  of 
British  rule  having  been  carefully  expunged 
after  the  Revolution.  Thai  is  why  we  have 
Liberty  Street  instead  of  (  Town,  ( 'edar  instead 
of  Queen,  and  Pine  instead  of  King,  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  designations  of  royalty  being 
regarded  as  out  of  place  with  the  patriotic  sen- 
timents of  the  new  Republic.  A  portion  of 
Broadway  above  City  Hall  bore  the  resounding 
term  of  King  George  Street,  and.  of  course, 
that  passed  away  early. 

Chatham  Street,  now  only  remaining  in 
Chatham  Square,  but  originally  all  of  Park 
Row.  was  not  molested  for  some  time.  It 
honored  the  great  William  Pitt,  Karl  of 
Chatham,  for  his  friendly  attitude  toward  the 
colonies  during  the  Stamp-Acl  troubles.  A 
marble  statue  of  the  Karl  was  subscribed  for 
and  erected  in  Wall  Street,  near  William,  on 
September  ?.  1770.  the  inscription  stating  that 
it  was  a  "  public  testimony  of  the  grateful  sense 
the  Colony  of  New  York  retains  of  the  many 
eminent  services  he  rendered  America,  par- 
ticularly in  promoting  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act."  This  statue  was  overturned  and  broken 
by  the  British  soldiers  when  they  entered  New 
York  in  retaliation  for  the  destruction  of  the 
leaden  statue  of  King  George  on  Bowling 
Green,  but  the  torso  still  remains  among  the 
relics    in    the    New    York    Historical    Society. 


One  of  the  leading  linns  forming  part  of 
New  York's  huge  commissary  department,  is 
that  of  John  Xix  &  Co..  commission  merchants 
at  Xo.  281  Washington  Street. 

The  business  was  founded  in  IS.".!)  and  was 
incorporated  in  1904  with  John  W.  Xix.  a 
son  of  the  founder,  as  president.     Associated 


with  him  in  the  company  are  George  \\  .  Nix. 
Frank  VV.  Nix  and  Robert  VV.  Nix,  the  com- 
bination being  known  as  the  "big  four"  of 
the  produce  trade. 

For  seventy-three  years  the  house  lias 
handled  fruits  and  produce,  principally  from 
Southern  points,  in  carload  lots  and  less,  and 
by  conscientious  dealing  and  careful  examina- 
tion of  shipments  before  delivery,  has  built  up 
a  reputation  for  reliability.  Short  shipments 
and  prompt  delivery  to  consumers  is  a  rule  of 
the  house,  while  quick  returns  have  made  the 
linn  popular  with  consignors. 

"If  it's  from  Xix  it's  bound  to  be  right"  is 
one  of  I  he  mottoes  of  John  Xix  &  Co.,  and  the 
reputation  made  in  every  quarter  proves  that 
the  linn  has  observed  this  rule  to  the  letter. 


Nassau  is  about  the  only  -tied  survivor 
bearing  a  name  of  royal  lineage,  both  being  in 
honor  of  the  Prince  of  Nassau,  who  afterward 
shared  the  honors  of  King  of  England  with  his 
wife.  Queen  Mary.  The  lower  pari  of  Chat- 
ham St  reel  lost  its  name  early  in  the  last  ceiitun 
in  view  of  its  location  opposite  the  park,  and 
Park  Row  was  eventually  continued  up  to  its 
junction  with  the  Bowery.  William  Street  i- 
due  to  William  Beekman,  through  whose  farm 
it  ran.  Nassau  Street,  like  Maiden  Kane, 
which  has  just  attained  high  fame  in  being 
the  tirst  street  ill  New  York  to  have  a  tablet 
erected  in  its  memory,  once  had  a  name  ol 
more  local  significance.  It  was  known  two 
centuries  or  more  ago  as  the  "road  that  leads 
bv  the  pie  woman'-."  Evidently  this  un- 
known woman  hail  touched  the  heart  through 
the  stomach  of  many  of  her  neighbors  to  lend 
such  distinction  to  the  thoroughfare  by  her 
humble  bake  shop.  The  popularity  of  pic 
still  lingers  in  Ann  Street,  hard  by. 

Wall  Street  gets  its  name  from  the  line  ol 
palisades  which  the  Dutch  erected  in  1656  as 
a  protection  againsl  their  foes,  the  Indians, 
who  had  a  bad  habit  of  swooping  down  from 
the  wild  country  to  the  north  and  making 
life  uneasy  for  the  peace-loving  Dutchmen. 
This  wall  extended  across  the  city  from  the 
Easl  to  the  North  Rivers  and  had  several  gates 
from  which  access  could  be  hail  to  the  pas- 
tures   outside    the    walk.     The    fortifications 


440 


THE    HOOK   of   XEW   YORK 


were  never  required  for  actual  defense  bill 
were  kept  in  repair  until  the  time  of  Gov. 
Dongan. 

The  demolition  of  the  wall,  in  1688,  left  a 
wide  street,  too  wide  for  necessity  it  was  con- 
sidered, and  the  eminent  English  Governor 
who  gave  New  York  its  famous  charter  showed 
thai  he  was  alive  to  the  possibilities  of  land 
speculation.  He  purchased  through  a  dummy 
land  on  the  north  side  of  the  old  wall  having 
a  frontage  of  1.(100  feet  on  the  present  Wall 
Street  eastward  from  Broadway.  When  the 
walls  came  down  he  added  to  his  property 
about  forty  feet  from  the  street,  thereby  in- 
creasing the  depth  of  his  lots  from  an  average 
of  SO  feet  to  120  feet.  In  1689  he  sold  most 
of  it  to  Abraham  de  Peyster  and  Nicholas 
Bayard,  including  the  entire  block  between 
Nassau  and  William  Streets  on  the  north  side 
now  occupied  by  the  Sub-Treasury,  the  old 
site  of  the  City  Hall  where  Washington  was 
inaugurated  President,  and  many  banking  and 
office  buildings. 


Xo  architect  in  Xew  York  has  achieved 
greater  success  or  accomplished  more  for  the 
city's  beautification  than  Albert  Buchman,  of 
the  firm  of  Buchman  &  Fox.  Born  in  Cin- 
cinnati. Ohio.  June  11.  1859,  he  graduated 
from  Cornell  University  in  1K79.  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  architecture,  and  has  since  been 
very  active  in  his  profession.  His  work  has 
included  department  stores,  office  buildings, 
loft  buildings  and  residences.  He  designed 
the  Saks  and  Bonw  it- Teller  buildings,  the 
office  building  at  .'51st  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue 
and  has  the  large  office  building  at  42d  Street 
and  Madison  Avenue  in  preparation.  He 
also  designed  the  Times  Annex  on  43d  Street 
and  several  hundred  residences.  Mr.  Buch- 
man is  a  member  of  the  Architectural  League, 
the  Cornel!  University  Club  and  several  other 
organizations. 


High  in  the  counsels  of  the  Democratic 
Party,  the  majority  leader  on  the  Moor  of  the 
Senate  during  1910  and    1911,  and  a  decided 

leaning  toward  reform 
legislation,  makes  Rob- 
ert F.  Wagner  a  prom- 
inent figure  through- 
out the  entire  state  and 
places  him  directly  in 
line  for  future  political 
preferment.  lie  was 
born  in  Prussia.  Ger- 
many, in  1877  and  came 
to  this  country  with  his 
parents  nine  years  later. 
I  lis  education  was  re- 
ceived in  tlu'  public 
schools,  from  which  he 
robert  i  Wagner  graduated  in  1893;  the 
City  C  o  1 1  eg  e  from 
which  he  secured  the  B.S.  degree  in  1898,  and 
the  Xew  York  Law  School,  which  conferred 
LL.B.  upon  him  in  1900.  He  was  admitted 
to  practice  the  same  year.  His  activity  in 
politics  secured  for  him  the  Assembly  nomina- 
tion in  1905.  He  was  elected  and  served 
continuously  in  that  body  until  1908  when  he 
was  elected  to  the  State  Senate.  He  has  been 
unusually  active  in  both  legislative  bodies. 
In  1907  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  Commission  on  ('odes.  Public  In- 
stitutions and  Printed  and  Engrossed  bills, 
and  the  following  year  was  made  a  member 
of  the  Commission  on  Cities,  Public  Institu- 
tions and  Printed  and  Engrossed  bills.  In  the 
Senate  he  has  served  on  the  Judiciary  and 
Public  Education  Committee,  but  his  greatest 
activity  has  been  shown  as  the  Democratic 
Moor  leader,  his  commendable  course  being 
followed  by  reelection,  with  increased  major- 
ity in  1910.  He  is  a  member  of  the  law  firm 
of  Phillips,  Ma  honey  i\;  Wagner;  of  the  Sigma 
Kappa  fraternity,  the  Mozart  Verein,  Frater- 
nal Order  of  Eagles,  B.  P.  ().  Elks,  the  Buf- 
faloes. Bar  Association  of  the  City  of  Xew 
York,  the  Xew  York  County  Lawyers'  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  Arion.  Manhattan.  City.  Al- 
gonquin, Citv  College  and  Hell  (late  Demo- 
cratic  clubs. 


THE    book    of  NEW    YORK 


m 


CHAPTER   XXXI 


A    NATIONAL    WAVE    OF    REFORM 


TIDE  of  commercial  and  politi- 
cal reform  swept  over  New- 
York  in  the  Winter  of  1905-'06. 
Similar  episodes  had  occurred 
before.  We  had  had  the 
Lexow  Committee,  which  had 
"exposed"  police  corruption 
with  a  thoroughness  that  was  informative,  hut 
that  did  not  work  improvement  in  the  morals 
of  the  force  or  stop  the  "blackmailing"  of 
saloon-keepers  and  unfortunate  wantons  upon 
the  streets.  The  patrolmen  were  the  "cadets" 
of  those  days;  now,  a  stern  law  sends  to  prison 
any  man  who  lives  off  the  shame  of  a  woman. 
Not  a  single  policeman  exposed  by  the  Lexow 
Committee  of  the  State  Senate  was  put  be- 
hind the  bars.  A  word,  "To  lexow,"  was 
added  to  the  language.  Next  we  had  the 
Mazet  Committee,  a  reformative  body  that 
promised  much  but  performed  little. 

The  Armstrong  Committee  of  l!)()-t,  how- 
ever, actually  did  things.  This  was  solely 
owing  to  the  energy  and  capacity  of  Charles 
E.  Hughes,  a  comparatively  unknown  lawyer. 
who  rose  from  the  ashes  of  that  inquiry  to  a 
far  greater  height  that  John  W.  Goff  had  risen 
from  the  scandals  of  the  Lexow  investigation. 
To  indicate  how  little  Mr.  Hughes  was  known. 
I  remember,  at  the  announcement  of  his  selec- 
tion as  inquisitor,  to  have  searched  every  local 
and  national  "Who's  Who"  without  finding 
the  slightest  reference  to  him !  When  1  learned 
he  was  a  "Delta  Upsilon"  man  in  college.  1 
was  without  hope.  But  he  favorably  disap- 
pointed everybody  and  rendered  to  the  Amer- 
ican people  much  service.  The  life  insur- 
ance investigation  left  a  trail  of  wrecked  char- 
acter that  no  previous  legislative  regenerative 
attempt  had  equalled.  At  first,  the  Empire 
State  appeared  to  he  the  chief  sufferers,  but 
evidence  was  soon  forthcoming  that  tentacles 
of  corruption  extended  into  other  common- 
wealths beside  ours.     The  activity  of  ;i   bos- 


ton broker,  Thomas  F.  Lawson,  was  expended 
in  a  New  York  magazine.  He  tore  masks 
from  the  "frenzied  financiers."  He  exposed 
what  he  aptly  called  "The  System," — a  policy 
based  upon  greed  of  the  lowest  character,  al- 
though  fathered  by  distinguished  and  repu- 
table bankers,  bauson  told  the  truth  about 
insurance  companies  and  was  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  general  "awakening"  that  followed. 

A  bloodless  revolution  began.  At  first,  the 
complexions  of  the  state  and  national  legis- 
latures were  not  materially  changed.  The 
"interests"  that  had  named  Representatives 
and  Senators  were  too  strongly  entrenched  to 
be  dislodged  by  mere  popular  sentiment.  Ex- 
perience with  the  Democratic  party  during  the 
first  Cleveland  term  had  shown  its  unreliability 
for  national  reform.  The  "Trusties"  fared 
as  well  then  as  subsequently.  The  problem 
under  the  Republicans  was  how  to  waste  the 
nation's  money  with  greatest  personal  profit. 
Under  the  dominance  of  Speaker  Reed  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  McKinlev  tariff,  patriotism 
weighed  as  lightly  as  feathers  against  special 
privileges.  National  pride  hadn't  a  seat  in 
Congress!  The  American  people  became 
thoughtful  and  realized  their  neglect.  The 
cry  of  "anarchist"  no  longer  affrighted  them 
or  served  as  a  deterrent  to  an  expression  of 
contempt  for  the  characters  of  most  public 
servants. 

The  culminating  shock  in  the  Life  Insur- 
ance scandal  was  reached  in  the  proof  that 
custodians  of  the  widows'  mites,  meaning 
officers  of  the  companies,  had  furnished  their 
homes  with  rugs,  tallies,  chairs  and  pictures 
at  the  expense  of  the  policyholders.  From  the 
same  source,  they  drew  their  fuel:  whenever 
the  winter's  coal  was  ordered,  a  feu  tons  were 
always  sent  to  the  houses  of  the  presidents  and 
other  high  officials.  One  life  insurance  head 
had  fattened  his  entire  family    upon  his  com- 


442 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


pany.  His  sons  and  daughters  lived  in  a 
splendid  apartment  house  on  Seventy-second 
Street,  owned  by  the  company  and  paid  for  by 
the  policyholders'  money.  There  they  paid 
only  a  nominal  rent.  When  the  exposure 
came,  crowds  of  policyholders  stood  before 
that  house  all  day.  This  might  have  an- 
noyed some  people  but,  in  this  instance,  the 
inmates  of  the  building  arrived  and  departed 
high  headed,  in  automobiles  and  carriages. 

During  the  Spring  of  1900,  the  entire  coun- 
try was  aroused.  The  American  people  awak- 
ened to  the  thousand  and  one  impositions  that 
greedy  monopolies  had  inflicted  upon  them. 
Revolt  spread  like  a  prairie  fire!  The  West 
was  earliest  convinced;  Eastern  people  were 
slower  to  believe  the  truth.  Strangely,  the 
alarum  bell  had  been  sounded  in  England!  A 
wage  earner,  John  Burns,  had  been  elected 
to  Parliament  and  then  taken  into  the  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman  cabinet,  a  post  worth  .$10,00(1 
a  year.  That  was  greater  recognition  of  the 
toiling  masses  than  had  been  accorded  in  this 
country.  Fifty  other  workmen  soon  found 
seats  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  in- 
dividual citizen  of  the  United  States  had  been 
speaking  through  the  ballot  in  recent  years, 
but  nobody  heard  his  voice.  The  hour  had 
come  for  commercial  nabobs  in  America,  as 
elsewhere,  to  harken!  The  meaning  was  un- 
mistakable. 

A  far  greater  proof  of  the  actuality  of  the 
revolt  was  shown  by  the  development  of  ver- 
tebrae among  editors  of  newspapers  who  had 
previously  been  spineless!  Managers  of  jour- 
nals not  owned  by  financial  interests  actually 
came  out  in  defence  of  popular  rights!  The 
cry  of  "socialist"  or  "anarchist"  no  longer 
affrighted  editors.  Any  man  who  declared 
that  the  chiefs  of  corporations  had  reduced  the 
accumulation  of  money  to  "A  System,"  in 
which  they  alone  shared  and  into  which  out- 
siders could  not  intrude,  was  no  longer  "a 
dangerous  lunatic."  The  social  revolution 
grew  like  a  ball  of  snow  upon  a  hillside!  The 
proletarians  had  made  studies  of  their  masters! 
A  "Servile  War"  followed,  in  which  the  pro- 
fessional classes,  except  lawyers  "retained" 
by  the  nabobs,  joined.  After  the  exposure,  a 
shout,  started  by  the  workmen,  became  gen- 
eral: 


"Halt!     Bezonians!" 

The  christening  of  the  class  was  apt.  Al- 
though a  few  members  of  the  greedv  gang  had 
given  many  millions  to  education,  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  commercial  nabob  marked  him  as 
a  true  bezonian,  "a  shifty  knave,"  who  would 
get  money  by  any  confidence  game,  rather 
than  not  possess  himself  thereof!  Colgrave 
defined  a  bezonian  as  "a  base-humored  scoun- 
drel." What  could  better  describe  the  typical 
life  insurance  "grafter,"  or  the  financial  bunco- 
steerer  ?  If  not,  dictionaries  are  out  of  print! 
Men  of  letters  fell  into  the  ranks  with  the  pro- 
letarians: the  common  fight  was  made  side  by 
side.  Soiled  as  the  palms  of  allies'  hands  may 
have  been  with  the  soot  of  the  forge  or  the 
dye  of  the  loom,  they  were  not  defiled  by  dis- 
honest money  or  taint  of  inhumanity  to  man! 

Many  national  events  recalled  the  awaken- 
ing of  honesty  in  the  City  of  New  York  that 
followed  the  downfall  of  the  Tweed  regime. 
Then  the  chime  of  the  bell-punch  was  heard 
in  the  cars,  succeeded  by  the  clang  of  the  cash 
register  in  the  shops.  Some  employees  needed 
watching,  so  a  check  was  placed  upon  all  alike. 
Now.  since  the  awakening,  a  watch  has  been 
set  upon  employers  of  labor!  While  a  long 
line  of  Do-Nothing  Presidents  in  the  White 
House  had  reigned,  the  "Trusties"  had  been 
sawing  wood  every  minute.  Eike  busy  bees, 
they  had  "improved  each  shining  hour," — 
if  one  knows  a  "shining  hour"  when  he  sees  it. 

How  many  of  our  ninety-odd  million  citizens 
utilize  the  growing  majesty  of  public  opinion? 
In  the  days  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  later  of 
Tweed,  contempt  for  public  opinion  was 
universal. 

In  190N,  I  rode  from  Washington  to  New 
York  on  the  Congressional  Limited,  with  a 
United  States  Senator  from  a  state  west  of 
Ohio.  We  had  known  each  other  twenty-odd 
years.  The  acquaintance  had  begun  when  he 
was  a  Representative  in  the  House,  ambitious 
to  go  down  in  history  as  a  pure  and  a  wise 
statesman.  But.  in  the  years  that  succeeded, 
he  had  grown  great  only  in  appearance.  A 
hundred  opportunities  had  presented  them- 
selves to  him,  in  which  he  might  have  courage- 
ously  defended  the  rights  of  the  American 
people  against  the  timber  thieves,  the  beef 
adulterators,   the  land  grabbers,   the  railroad 


THE   BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


443 


filchers  of  the  public  domain,  and  in  countless 
other  ways  he  might  have  voiced  unspoken 
protest,  already  ascending  to  high  heaven 
many  times  daily  from  every  hamlet  in  this 
land. 

Never  a  word  from  him!  And  yet,  he  was 
pure  as  snow.  I  don't  believe  he  ever  made  a 
dollar  corruptly.  But  like  a  sleeping  police- 
man, he  allowed  scoundrels  to  steal  past  him 
and  do  the  dirty  work  that  he  ought  to  have 
prevented. 

There  were  some  honest  members  in  the 
Credit  Mobilier  and  the  Pacific  Mail  subsidy 
Congresses,  I  said  to  him,  with  far  more  feel- 
ing than  I  am  able  to  reproduce  here,  when  he 
complained  about  the  way  in  which  critics 
had  described  him.  'Those  pure  men,  who 
prided  themselves  upon  the  fact  that  they 
were  not  corrupted  weren't  bought  because 
Oakes  Ames  didn't  need  them!  They  were 
reached  by  other  influences.  One  of  Sam 
Ward's  good  dinners,  wherein  a  Westphalian 
ham.  with  its  whisp  of  newly  cut  hay,  acted  as 
an  anesthetic  to  conscience,  sufficed  in  some 
cases;  in  others,  a  trade  of  votes  on  a  River 
and  Harbor  appropriation  achieved  the  same 
result.  In  later  days,  when  shrewd,  clever 
men,  like  Allison  or  Wolcott,  to  mention  the 
most  innocent,  were  kindly  helping  vast 
railroad  interests  in  grateful  recognition  of 
continuance  in  office,  but  without  other  hope 
of  financial  reward,  you  were  trailing  along 
with  the  bunch.  There  wasn't  a  price  upon 
your  head;  but  you  were  serving  the  vested 
interests  quite  as  faithfully  as  if  you  had  been 
hired  to  argue  a  case  for  them  before  the 
Supreme  Court.  It  is  a  merry  happening, 
for  your  peace  of  mind,  that  your  conscience 
was  under  a  spell!  You  must  have  awakened, 
by  this  time,  to  opportunities  you  overlooked 
to  stop  countless  maraudings  of  the  public? 
Your  face  is  confession." 

"My  God!  It  never  came  to  me  in  that 
liffht  before!"  the  Senator  exclaimed. 

"Are  you  sure?  How  could  you  have  been 
blind  to  the  fact  that  you  were  a  valuable  assel 
to  the  lobbyist  who  knew  how  to  pull  the  social 
string  that  imparted  action  to  your  brain.'" 
I  added. 

Then  this  United  States  Senator  put  in  a 
special  plea — a  plea  in  avoidance. 


"Why  should  I  have  been  on  the  alert  to 
presuppose  crime  in  others?"  he  demanded. 

'That's  the  defense  of  Cain!"  I  retorted. 
"Didn't  he  say  something  of  the  same  kind  ? 
'I'm  not  my  brother's  keeper,"  are  the  words 
put  into  his  mouth,  whether  he  uttered  them 
or  not.  Of  course,  if  you  put  in  the  Cain 
defense,  the  first  person  who  reads  your 
alleged  explanation  will  throw  your  case  out 
of  ( 'oiirt." 

"Rut,  1  never  made  a  dollar,  in  Senate  or 
House,  beyond  my  salary!" 

"Indeed;  for  example,  you  drew  your 
mileage,  didn't  you,  at  10  cents  a  mile,  and 
always  traveled  on  a  free  pass?" 

"Y-e-s,  I  did.  That  wasn't  honest.  I  admit; 
but  everybody  in  Congress  did  it." 

'That's  only  another  version  of  the  Cain 
defense.  Because  other  people  robbed  the 
treasury,  you  argue  that  it  was  justifiable  for 
you  to  do  so.  The  steal  was  as  petty  as  that 
of  the  traveling  salesman  who  charges  for  a 
carriage  ride  every  time  he  buys  a  new  shirt. 
To  be  sure,  you  never  got  any  corrupt  re- 
tainers from  corporations  when  measures 
vitally  affecting  the  popular  interests  were  be- 
fore your  committees  in  House  or  Senate. 
Why  should  you  ?  Lobbyists  are  imbued  with 
a  high  sense  of  economy  as  well  as  gluttonous 
with  covetousness.  When  they  could  get 
your  vote  for  nothing,  why  should  they  pay 
for  it?" 

"Rut.  never  have  I  knowingly  assisted  in 
the  passage  of  a  single  'job '  through  ( longress," 
my  opposite  protested. 

"No  doubt  you  think  so;  but  do  you  re- 
member the  River  and  Harbor  bill  of  last 
Congress?  You  told  me  you  consented  to 
the  insertion  of  two  very  objectionable  items 
in  that  bill  because,  by  giving  a  pledge  to  sup- 
port them  in  committee  and  on  the  Boor,  you 
secured  a  half-million  appropriation — I  mean 
you  made  sure  of  votes  enough  to  extract  the 
money  from  the  United  States  Treasury  -for 
a  Federal  building  that  your  city  didn't  need 
and  that  stands  upon  land  owned  by  close 
friends  of  yours,  which  they  sold  to  the  govern- 
ment tor  three  times  its  value?  Don't  inter- 
rupt! Of  course,  you  didn't  get  a  dollar  of 
that    blood    money!     Rut.    you    should    have 


444 


THE    BOOK   of  NEW   YORK 


opposed  the  despoilment  of  the  American 
people  and  have  let  your  constituents  grumble. 
Herein  is  the  kernel  of  your  trouble.  Lust 
of  office  is,  it'  possible,  dirtier,  more  degrading, 
than  lust  for  money!" 

Two  years  later.  I  was  dining  with  an- 
other United  States  Senator  at  the  New  Wil- 
lard,  Washington,  when  he,  my  host,  suddenly 
switched  the  conservation   to  ask: 

"I  noticed  in  your  article  of  to-day  a  new 
bit  of  phrasing.  You  say  that  the  failure  of 
the  dominant  (Republican)  party  to  keep  its 
pledges  regarding  a  revision  of  the  tariff  will 
be  resented  by  the  citizens  of  the  country  at  the 
next  Congressional  elections  this  Fall.  Your 
words  are.  'This  exhibition  of  indifference  to 
the  public  good  cannot  continue,  now  that  the 
'bob-cats'  in  possession  of  the  franchise  have 
learned  how  to  scratch  their  tickets!'  Tell 
me.  what  do  you  mean  by  coining  a  phrase 
of  this  sort?" 

When  the  awakened  majesty  of  the  inde- 
pendent voter  had  been  brought  to  his  atten- 
tion, the  growing  demand  for  primaries  that 
serve  to  indicate  the  popular  choice  of  candi- 
dates, independently  of  the  wills  of  party  bosses 
in  state  and  nation,  the  aged  Senator  said: 

'The  term  'bob-cat'  is  well  chosen.  It  is 
a  much  better  title  than  'Mugwump.'  which 
the  late  Charles  A.  Dana  dug  from  the  Eliot 
Ojibwa  Bibh — meaning  'A  big  chief  moping 
in  his  tent.'  Scratching  'bob-cats'  will  be 
the  salvation  of  the  Republic!  When  United 
States  Senators  are  chosen  by  direct  vote,  the 
'bob-cat's'  power  will  be  tenfold  more  potent 
than  now.  The  Senate,  too,  often  defeats 
the  will  of  the  majority  in  the  popular  branch 
of  this  government.  The  House  proposes 
and  the  Senate  disposes!  An  end  of  strictly 
party  politics  in  this  country  is  foreshadowed. 
It  sounds  like  a  foolish  thing  to  say,  but  a 
new  party  ought  to  be  born  in  the  United 
States  every  eight  or  twelve  years.  We  saw 
the   'Silver   party'   come   into    being    in    1896, 


and  endure  for  fully  four  years.  I  mean  that 
its  leader  was  strong  enough  to  command  a 
renomination.  Bryanism  did  this  country  a 
power  of  good.  It  was  conceived  in  folly  and 
maintained  in  the  face  of  popular  disapproval; 
but  it  was  'tried  out'  until  abandoned  and 
shown  to  be  hopeless.  We  have  become  a 
thinking  people  since  1896!  What  a  splendid 
thing  it  would  have  been,  for  instance,  had  the 
slavery  question  been  given  the  same  crucial 
trial!  Even  the  South  would  have  opposed 
the  introduction  of  slavery  into  all  the  North- 
ern States!  Its  leaders  would  have  been  the 
first  to  see  that  the  activities  of  the  North 
would  have  driven  the  slave-laborer  much 
harder  than  he  was  driven  in  the  South,  and 
that,  with  the  exceptions  of  cotton,  rice  and 
sugar,  the  North  would  have  still  controlled 
the  agricultural  output  of  the  country.  Had 
the  question  ever  been  presented:  'All  slave 
or  all  free!'  the  South  would  have  voted  for 
the  freedom  of  the  slave.  The  purchase  of 
the  human  property  could  have  been  com- 
pleted at  a  cost  of  $30,000,000;  the  Civil  War, 
that  resulted  in  an  outlay  of  billions  of  dollars 
and  1.000,000  lives,  would  have  been  averted. 

"  Bryanism  was  a  national  question.  The 
whole  country  was  asked  to  take  it  or  leave 
it.  Sections  of  the  United  States  favored  it, 
just  as  many  of  the  states  adhered  to  slavery. 
But.  like  slavery,  it  is  a  dead  issue.  Never 
will  it  come  up  again !" 

In  the  Roosevelt  campaign  of  1904.  the 
"Bob-eat"  voter  scratched  his  way  into 
national  prominence  when  more  than  half  a 
million  of  him,  with  Democratic  proclivities. 
east  his  ballot  for  a  Republican  presidential 
candidate! 

"May  his  tribe  increase!" 

A  "Mugwump"  was  defined  as  "one  op- 
posed to  something  of  which  he  was  in  favor;" 
the  "Bob-cat"  knows  why  he  dislikes  a  meas- 
ure or  a  candidate  and  antagonizes  it  or  him 
tooth  and  nail. 


Index 


Acker,   Charles  L 

Ackerson,   T.   Benton 

Adams,  Charles  C 

Agnew,   George  B 

Allen,  Frederick  H 289 

Allen,   John  J 

Allen,   William 

Amy,  Alfred  V 

Anderson,  Charles  W. 

Appleton,  Francis  R 

Armstrong,  Collin 

Armstrong,   James 

Armstrong,   Lorenzo   D 

Ashcroft,   Walter  E 

Ashforth,   Albert  B 127 

Arthur,  Chester 2 

Astor.  John  Jacob ,  . .        133 

Atterbury,  Charles  L 

Atterbtjry,   W.   W 


PAG  I 

.  2(14 
121'. 

.  339 
314 
290 
281 
318 
114 
395 
353 
166 
2i  is 
312 
204 
128 
1  63 
134 
275 
loo 


B ache  &  Co.,  J.  S 386 

Bachia,   Richard  A 151 

Baird,   Andrew  D .    392 

Baker,   Fisher  A 227 

Baldwin,   Arthur  J 280 

Barber,   Donn 170 

Barlow,   Peter  F 2(il 

Barney,   Marshall  A 259 

Battle,   George  Gordon 239  240 

Baylies,   Edmund   L .  ...   316 

Beach,   George  C HI 2 

Beach,   Ralph   H 144 

Beardsley,   Samuel  A .      275-276 

Beckett,  Charles   H.  . 265 

Beecher,   William  C 267 

Belasco,  David 344 

Bell,  James  D 257 

Bell,  John  C '-'4 

Belmont  Hotel 366 

Be.mis,   William   E lol 

Benedict,  Julian 4:i7 

Bennett,  James  Gordon 18-52  92 

Bennett,  James  L. ..  .  .  .  228 

Bensel,   John   A 198 

Bensel,  Walter,  M.D 394 

Berger,  Joseph 415    U6 

Biohen,  John  S 100 

Bird,   Francis  W 263 

Bischoff,   Henry 311 

Black,   William   Harmon  2111    292 

Bloomingdale,   Emanuel   W.               149 

Bogart,  John L88 

Boller,   Alfred  P Is'-' 

Bond,  Walter  H 258 

Boody.    David   A ;iN;J 

Borchardt.   Samuel.  Ill 

Bosworth,   William   W  ls;i    lsl 

Boynton,   Edward  B  113 

Br  idbury,    Harry   B :;l  I 

Brady,  James  B 148 

Br  m\,   .Marcus 352 

Breed,   William  C. . .  27  1 

Brj  in.   M  \tthew   P.  .271 

Brice,  Wilson  B 223 

Brown,  Gerald  B..  I'-'1 

Brown,   Lawrence  E :;ls 

Brown,   Paul  < '. 192 

Brown,   William   I.  .  136 

Brownell,  Andrew  s  ..  l-js 

Brownell,  Silas  B 279 

Bri  >«  sing,   .1     II II. i,  1  12 

Bi.v  w.   Benjamin   B  l"1 

Bri  w  i,  William  J  74-164 

Buchman,  Albert.  .  '40 

Bullard,   Emanuel  G 293 

Burgess,  Ed\\  \.rd  i  I        204 

I'.,  rlingame,  Jr.,  A    W         313  ::i  I 

Burns.    Walter   F 391 


Bl   RNSIDE,     ROBERI     C        IS.". 

Burpee,    W    Atlee .103 

Bi  rr,  Jr.,  Charles  H 106 

Bi  rr,    Willi  \\i    1' 237  238 


i; 


Callahan,   Patrick    I •'. 

Cantor,   .1  mod    \ 

C arli n,    Patrick  J 

Carmody,   Francis  X 

(  '  \HN  EG1  B,      \\m:l   u  

Carreau,  ( '•.  RILLE .  .  . 
Carrere,  John  M 
Carter,  Asa  L. 
Carti  ,  John  J 

Cla pf,  I'j.w  VRD  I  . 

Clark,  Ch  irles  < '  . 

(  'l.  VRKE,     I  )UMONT oSl 

Clark  e   1!     Floyd 

CLEVEL  \N'D,  <  iROVER 

Clinch,   Edward  S  

Cohalan,   Daniel  F 

COHALAN,    John     P....  

Cohen,  Stanley   A 

Cole,  Charles   D.  M 

Cole,  Fremont.  . .  .  227 

Colem  \s.  <  Ieorge  s         

Coi. eh.    Bird   S    

Coleh  &  Co.,   W    \ . 

Collins,   Gilbert.  

Conant,    Ern bs i    I. 

Conant,   Leon  mid   II        

Conover,  Samuel  S 

Conti,  Ces  ire.  . . . .  

Conway,   Eustace 

Conway,  Thomas  F 

Cook,   Alfred  A 
Corbett,   Marshall  J.... 

Corbin,    Austin 

(  'iihnw  ell,    William   C 

Cortei.yiiu,  George  Bruce.  . 
Covington,  George  B 

(  !0XE,    .M  LCGH  \NE 

Cozier,  William  C. . 
Crain,  Thom  is  C  T. 
Cranford,  Charles., 

Craven,   Alfred 

Croker,   Richard. 

Cromwell,   William   Nelson  .   213 

Ci  kor,   Morris 

('iii  er,  Thom  is   I  >eWit  r  . 


.Ms 

282 

Is) 

310 
130 
112 
176 
288 
191 
:;ss 
234 
382 
238 
r.l 
211 
245 
397 
167 
306 
228 
232 

168 
381 
170 
312 
393 
383 
388 
314 
238 
291 
208 
384 
380 
136 
275 
250 
351 
262 

is.'. 

189 
399 
215 
304 
94 


Dady,    Mich  u:i.  J 

I  I  M.lil.ui;.     MELVIN     I  1 

Dale,   Ch  m.mehs 
Dana,  Chas     \     .    . 

I  1  \  \  \.     I  ,'n   HARD    T. 

Davenport,    Hum  er. 
D  \\  1 1  s,   Jr.,  .1  I  LI  an  T. . 

I  )  \\  IES,     .1       (  'l    SKI    M    1 

D  wii>.   Rich  sku  T 
Day.  Joseph    P 
Delafi eld,    Lewis   I . 
deLim  \.   Elias    \ 
DeWitt,  Georgi    G 
I  ink.   .1     Henri 
Dili. iin.    .Inns    F 
Dimond,   Thomas 
Ditmars,    Edward   W 
I  Iin  i:\in  IEFER,    A.  J.... 

I ).  nil.-.    Will inn    B. 

D'Oi  N'  ii.   Albert   1 

I  (OLSON,     \\  11.1.1  Ml     II 

Donnelly,   James    I 

1 1 iiiii.  Josi  ni   VV 

I  iorr  \n<  i  .  Ch  \hi  i 
Dos   Passos,  John    I! 
Doty,   Alvah   II  .   M.D 
1 1 las,  James     


117 


129 

2  '  I 


186 
299 

384 
62 
200 
165 
308 
122 
340 

lis 
302 
179 
320 
154 
218 
is;, 
304 
256 
309 
183 

410 

241 
250 
352 
200 


445 


INDEX— Continued 


PAGE 

Dowling,  Victor  J 242 

Drake,   Lauren  J 207-208 

Dryden,  John  F 171 

Dudley,  Plimmon  11 193 

Dunn,  John  P 297 

Durkee,  Charles  D 354 

Dutton,  Ira  J 235 

Dwight,   Arthur  »S 194 

Dyk.man,   William   N 265 

Earl,   Edward 377-378 

Earle,  J.   Walter 353 

Earp,   Wilbur  E 283 

Eaton,  Frederick  H 335-336 

Eckehson,  John  C.  R 415 

Ehrhart,   E.   Nelson 42'.) 

Elliman,  Douglas  L 428 

Elliman,   Lawrence  B 431 

Elliott,  Mortimer  F 218 

Ely,  James  R 315 

Evans,  Dr.  George 330 

Ewing,  Jr.,  Thomas 280 

Excelsior  Savings  Bank 379 

Fairchild,  Benjamin  L 252 

Fairchild,  Julian  D 376-377 

Fanning,   William  J 249 

Farley,  Terence 236 

Farquhar,   Percival 337-338 

Fearons,  Georoe   H '-'17 

Ferris,  Stark  B 299 

First  National  Bank,  Jersey  City 392 

Fischer,  J.  Arthur 430 

Finke,   Harrison   Grey 347 

Flagler,  John  H 207 

Foelker,  Otto  G 296 

Ford,  John 262 

Fordham,   Herbert  L 2S3-284 

Fornes,   Charles  V 394 

Fox,   Dewitt 318 

Fox,   D.  Alvin 154 

Franke,  Julius 181-182 

Frew,   Walter  E 374 

Friedman,   Harold  J 317 

Frohman,  Charles 344 

Frohman,   Daniel 343 

Fuller,  Egbert  C 169 

Fuller,  Williamson  W 235 

Gale,  Noel 273 

Gallatin,  Francis  D 301 

Cans,  Joseph 287 

Gardenhire,  Samuel  M 284 

Gardiner,   A.    Paul 398 

Garfield,  James  A 62 

Gavegan,   Edward  J 255 

Gavin,  2nd,  Michael 258 

Gaynor,  William  J 205 

Geer,   Walter 355 

Gibson,   William  J 267 

Gilbert,  Charles  P.  H 179-180 

Gilleran,  Thomas 288 

Gold,  Louis 430 

Goldfogle,   Henry   M 253 

Golding,  John  N 419-420 

Goodrich,  Ernest  P 197 

Graham,   George  S 104 

Grant,  General  U.  S 58  59 

Gray,  James  A 2S(i 

Greeley,  Horace 11 

Greene,  Jr.,  George  S 197 

Greene,   Headley   M 289 

Greenough,  Charles  E 384-385 

Gridley,   Willis  T 221-222 

Griggs,  John  W 241 

Grout,   Edward  M 249 

Grove,   Henry  S 100 

Gruber,   Abraham 244 

Grundy,  George  D 418 

Gubelman,   Oscar  L 389 


page 

Guggenheimer,  Chas.  S 244 

Gunn,  James  N 202 

Guy,  Charles  L 242 

Haan,   R.   M 367 

H aff,   Robert  W 428 

Haggin,   Ben   Ali 348 

Hallowell,   Thomas  J 390 

Halsey  &  Co.,   N.   W 383 

Hanna,  Marcus  A 67 

Harahan,   William  J 335 

Hardenberg,   Henry  J 183 

Harder,   Victor  A 206 

Harris,  Sidney 246 

Harrison,  Benj 65 

Hartridge,  Clifford  W 272 

Harvey,  George  B.  M 124 

Hastings,   Thomas 176 

Hatch,   Edward  W 227 

Hatfield,  Walter 104 

Hay,  John 18 

Hays.  Rutherford  B 62 

Hearst,  Wm.  R 165 

Hebberd,  Robert  W 396 

Hecem an,  Benjamin  A 333 

Heine,   M.  Casewell 310 

Henderson,   Henry  C 274 

Henderson,  Jr.,   William 436 

Hendrick,  Peter  A 245 

Henry,   Nelson  H 393-394 

Herbert,   Victor 347 

Hess,   Nathaniel  J 428 

Hettrick,  John  T 287-288 

Hibbard,   Robert  H 261 

Hilton,  J.  Arthur 243-244 

Hipkins.   Bayly 434 

Hirsh,  William   H 302 

Hitchings,   Hector  M 238 

Hobbs,   Frederick  G 413 

Hoes,  William  M 313 

Hoff,  Olaf 187 

Holm,  Charles  F 287 

Holt,   William  T 230 

Hooker,   Henry  S 235 

Hopper,  John  J 183-184 

Hough,  David  L 192 

Houghton,  Clarence  S 294 

House,  Frederick  B 288 

Howell,  J.   Frank 386 

Howland,   Henry  E 256 

Hoyt,  Colgate 392 

Hulbert,   Henry  C 375 

Hunt,  James  M 296 

Hunt,  Joseph  Howland 179-181 

Hunt,   Richard  Howland 179-180 

Hutchinson,  Joseph  B 98 

Hyde,  Henry  B 76 

Iselin,  John  H 304 

Jackson,  Frank  W 300 

Jacobson,   Isaac  W 282 

James,  Thomas  L 24 

Jewett,  Guernsey  R 310 

Johnson,  Andrew 59-62 

Johnson,  F.  Coit 156 

Johnson,   Henry  B 300 

Johnson,   Lucius  E 99 

Jordan,  Clark  L 297-298 

Juhring,  John  C 146 

Kaufman,  Louis  G 378 

Keck,   Frank 256 

Keene,   James  R 82 

Keener,   William   A 273 

Kidder,  Cornelius  G 273 

Kimball,   Francis  H 179-180 

King,   David  Bennett 276 

Klapp,  Eugene 199 

Klein,  Charles 346 


446 


INDEX— Continued 


PAGE 

Klem.mer,  Joseph   H lo.r> 

Kneeland,  A.   Delos 2!tl  292 

Kramer,   George   W 177-178 

Kuhn,  John  J .  272 

Kuster,  Louis  E 228 

Lambert,  William  A 427 

Lamont,  Daniel  S 64 

LaMonte,   George   M 166 

Lapoint,   William   W 319 

Larkin,   Adrian   H 271 

Laughlin,  Frank  C .  .  242 

Lauterbach,   Edward 226 

Leaycraft,  J.  Edgar HI 

Ledoux,  Albert  R I  'to 

Lehman,   Irving 255 

Lester,  George  B 281 

Leubuscheh,   Frederic  C 269 

Levy,  Aaron  J 308 

Lewis,   Liston   L 272 

Libhy,   William    H 397 

Little,   Joseph  J 141 

Littleton,   Martin  W 233 

Li'mmis,   Benjamin   R 433 

Lydeckf.r,   Charles  E 270 

McAdoo,   William   G 355 

Mi  Alpin,   Edwin  A 147 

McAneny,   George 396  397 

McAuley,  "Jerry" 20 

McClelland,  Charles  P 266 

McClelland,  Gen.  Geo.  B 81 

Mi  (  Jonnell,   Samuel  P Jill 

McCooey,  John   H .  . .  3.51 

McCook,  Anson  G 267-268 

McCord,  William   H 184 

McCornick  Brothers 386 

McCrea,  James 98 

Mi  I  i  kdy,   Richard  A 350 

Mi  (  i  tcheon.   Charles  W 143 

McGovern,   James  P 318 

McIntyre,  John  F 302 

McKeen,  James 281 

McKinley,  Wm Gfi  67 

McKnight,   H.  Stewart 425  426 

McLaughlin,   D.  Maujer 412 

Maddux.   Samuel  T 262 

M  u.iine,   Dudley  Field 237 

Manhei.l.    Kaufman 355 

Mann.   William   D 169 

Marks.   William   D 199 

Martin  Cafe 369 

Martin,   Myra  B 390 

Martin.   Samuel  H 411 

Marx,  Samuel 425 

Mason.    VICTOR    L 354 

M  \~thk.   Seabtjry  C 294 

Mathewson,  Charles  F 265 

Maynard,  George  W 194 

Meant,   Edward  P 221 

Medbury,   Fitch   H 424 

Meier,   Edward   D 195 

Meirs,   Richard   W 105 

Merchants  Exchange   National  Bank.  392 

Metz,   Herman   A 169 

Meyer,   Willy,   M.D 329  330 

Miles.   George  E '-■' 

Miller,   Frank   E..   M.D 328 

Miller,   Hugh   Gordon 264 

Miller,  Jacob  W 206 

Miller.   William   W 263  26  I 

Minrath,  Ferdinand  R 281  282 

Mitchell,   William 279 

Mix.   Charles  W ' 3  I 

Moffitt,  William   H 420 

Moi.ineaux.   Edward   L 349 

Moli.enhauek.   Frederick  D 153 

Moore,  Jr..  Charles  A 149 

Moore.   Charles   F -",v 


PAGE 

Moore,  Robert  M 306 

Morg  w   Edward  M 271 

Morg  in,  i  Ieorge  W 305 

Morg  i\,   Rollin  M 310 

Morse.    Waldo   G 297 

Muss.   Frank 249  250 

Moi  i.M  in,   I...!  i~  C 369  370 

Money.   Edward   P 106 

Miller  A   Son,   All 119 

Mi  i  '.I  ken.   Michael  J 3,13 

MUNSON,    Walter    [i                    139    L40 

Mi  i:inv.   Cn  \ki  is   F 308 

M  '  i  in  v.   Franklin I  To 

Miii   u.    Hank 390 

Nathan,  Gratz 250 

\  I  M  1   I  II,    .In  UN          340 

NeUB]   i.'i.i   i:       I  I  u  III    M 

\  I   u  BORG    &    COMP  IVY 

N  i  u  \i  mck.   Charles 125 

Newton,   Mahlon    W      103 

X.    Y.   Central   Realty  Co...  432 

New   Yukk  Tribune       loi 

New   York   World                 123    i  19 

NlCOLL,     I  Ml.  SNi  l.\       260 

Niese,    Henry    E              152 

Nix,  John   W 

Nordofp,  Charles               lo    l :; 

Norton,  Algernon  S 276  -'77 

\n- 1  rand,    Peter    E     193 

Noyes,  Charles   I    123 

Oakes,  Thomas  F 336 

i  ('Connor,   Mm  ii  mi.   I'   243 

O'Gorman.   James  A 245 

Opdyki,  George   II 103 

O'Reilly,  Thomas  J 120 

(  (SBORN1  .    .1  mi  -    W 217   248 

I'm. i  ,  S    Davis    93 

Page,    William    II 217 

Parker,   Alton    B 227 

Parker.   Ashton 270 

Parker,   Robert  M 152 

Parmly,   Randolph 291 

Patrick.   Charles    H 131 

Paulding,  Charles  C 284 

1'aii.in,   Edward   D 122 

Penrose.    Boies 95 

Perkins.   George  F 170 

Peters,  Curtis  A 237 

Peters,   Ralph 

Phillips.    i>\\ii>    1 123    121 

Plai  e,   [ra   A 335 

Platt.  Thomas  C 13.'. 

Por  i  er,  Gen.  Hor  ice 

Pope,  James   E      172 

Porter,    Louis   II 300 

Post,  Gi  orge  A 332 

Post,  James   II ••"'' 

Putts,  Joseph 253   25  l 

Pratt.   Sereno   S 12  1 

IV, oi.   Charli  -   I 10" 

Pugsi  ik  Cornelius  A 393 

Pulitzer.  Joseph 128 

Pye.   David  W 201    202 

Queens   Land  A-    Title  Co 12  1 

1.0  inn.   W    Johnson 369 

Rabinowitz,   Aaron '30 

Kae.  William    I' "s 

i;  vn-iim,   Rastus  S   276 

Ransom,  Wili  iam   1 

Rapp,  John  W..                     203 

RASCOT   m:,    -I  nn  B  167 

Rasquin,   Henry  S 

H  mtiiiiin  e,  Albert 312 

Raven,    ^.nton    \      :(~-"'  376 


417 


INDEX— Continued 


PAGE 

Raymond,   Rossiter   W 193 

R  i  i    Sami  el.  . . .  101 

l;  i    \u.    <  rEORGE    1!                              4_':-S 

Redding,   William   A                312 

Redmond  &  Company         387 

Reeves  .V-  Co.,   W.   C 418  110 

Reid,  Whitelaw 12-70 

Rennard,    .1     Cl  IFFORD 396 

Reynolds,  Thomas  L 413 

Riker,  Jr.,  Samuel 260 

Roberts,  .1  imes  A 231 

Roi  kefeller,  John   I).            20 

Id ii. i. ins.   Jordan  J .  23.5 

Roosevelt,   Theodore 67 

Ross,  J.  Stewart 285 

Roth,   Herman  L 307 

Rothermal,  Jr.,   P.   F 94 

H n. a nii.    Irving 422 

Rumsey,   David 296 

Runyon,  Walter  C 147 

Russell,  Ciiahi.es  M      319-320 

Russell,   Um.   Hepburn 298 

Ryan,  Joseph  T 293-294 

Ryan,  Thomas  F 401-403 

Sackett,   Henry  W 233 

Sackett,  John  T 315 

Salmon,  Arthur  C 255 

Schaefer,  Jr.,  John   V 182 

Schaefer,   Rudolph  J 155 

Schenck,   Reginald  H 305 

Scheuer,   Ralph 354 

Schieren,  Charles  A 138 

Schloss,   Henry  W 146 

Schneider,   William   F 397 

Schwab,  Charles  M 132 

Seaman,  Louis  L.,   M.D 327 

Shand,   Alexander  C 98 

Sheehan,  John  C 399 

Sheer  an,   William  F 227 

Shongood,  Charles 432 

Slater,  Samuel  S 292 

Sloane,  James  R 294 

Smith,   Frank   E 431 

Smith,  George  Carson 334 

Snitkin,   Leonard  A 317 

Snow,   Elbridge  G 386 

Somers,   Arthur  S 356 

Somerville,  Henderson  M 266 

Spooner,  Allen  N 197-198 

Spooner,   John  C 216 

St.   Regis  Hotel 367 

Stallo,  Edmund  K 316 

Stanchfield,  John  B 319 

Stanton,   Robert  B 201 

Stapleton,  Luke  D 317 

Steinmetz,  John  A 432 

Sterling,   George   L 236 

Stern,   Nathan  D 295 

Steuer,   Max   I) 240 

Stevens,   Dr.   George  T 330 

Stilson,   Arthur  T 144 

Stoddard,  Charles   H 306 

Stone,   Melville  E 404 

Stott,   Henry   G 188 

Stover,  Charles  B 263 

Strong,    Mason   R 190 

Stroock,  Sol  M 277-278 

Struse,   (  >tto  F 286 

Sullivan,   William   M 268 

Sulzeh,   William "_'.">  1  252 

Sumner,   Edward  A 291  -292 

Sumner,  John  Saxton 293 


Tack,   Theodore  E 353-354 

Taft,  William   11 73 

Taggeht,   Rt'sh 231 

Tappan,   .1     B.   Culls 271  -272 

T  \  vi  nit.  i  'ii  miles   I   .  . .       314 


PAGE 

Temple,    Edward  B 102 

Terry.   Charles   ThaDDEUS 305 

Tesl  \.   Nikola 195 

Thayer,   Harry  B 156 

Thompson,   Robert  M 380 

Thorne,   Jr..   Samuel ....  285 

Thornton.    David 315 

Tierney,  Edward  M .  368 

Tifft,   Henry   N 247 

TlLDEN.    Sam'l  J 21 

Todd,   William   R 208 

Tomlins,   Jr.,   William   M 380 

Tih'akyan.   Hayozoun   H...                                     205 

Townb,  Edgar  Owings 301 

Towne,    Henry   R .198 

Towns,    Mikabeau   L 229-230 

Tracy,  Benjamin  F 279 

Truax,   Arthur   D 277-278 

Tschirky,   <  Iscar 368 

Tuxill,  Charles  E 427 

Tweed,  Wm.  M 17 

Tyler,   George  C 345 

Union  Dime  Savings  Bank 379 

U.   S    Brewers  Association 371 

LTntermyer,  Samuel 269 

Vail,   Theodore  N 76 

Vanderbilt,   Edward   W 339 

Van  Wvck.   Augustus 225-226 

Van  Wv.k,  Robt.  A 69 

Vause,  W.  Bernard 307 

Veit,  Richard  C 207 

Vermuele,  Cornelius  C 187 

Vorhaus,  Louis  J 278 

Vreeland,   Herbert  H 138 

Wagener,  August  P 254 

Wagner,   Robert  F 440 

Walker,  Alexander 375 

Walker,  William  B 150 

Walmsley,  Hardie  B 253 

Ward,   Artemas 316 

Ward,  John  M 289 

Ware,  William  R 429 

Warfield,   Lewis 200 

Wasson,  T.  Ward 418 

Watson,  Archibald  R 236 

Watson,  Edwin  A 277 

Weeks,   Bartow  S 253-254 

Weill,   Henry  M 433 

Welch,   Edward  J 311 

Wellman.   Francis  L 248 

Wemple,   William  L 296 

Wetmore,  J.   Douglas 29, 

Whalen,  John 25 

White,   Frank 286 

White,   Harry 438 

Whiting,   William   H 411 

Whitney,  Willi  lhC 64 

Wilbur,  John  A 435 

Willcox,   William  R 232 

Wilson,  Floyd  B 300 

Windmuller,   Liiuis      16S 

Winsluw.   Wm.  Beverly 274 

Witte,    Herman  J 302 

Wood,  F.   R 416 

W'oodford,  Stewart  L 220 

Wiiiii.vkrtiin,   William   H 336 

Yerkf.s.    1 1  m:\ian 94 

Zahm,   George   D 311 

Zehnder,  Charles   H 201 

Ziegler,  Irving  E 290 

Zobel,   Robert  P 416 

Zucca,   Antonio 398 


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