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BY DEXTER MARSHALL.
M
ANT of the most interesting and
forceful Americans now living are
men -who failed to "find them-
eelves" until middle life had overtaken
them and whose most important achieve
ments have all been made after 40. Nor is
this true only of the men now upon the
stage. Middle-life successes, in fact, have
been noteworthy in this country since
the beginning of its history.
Hon. "Leslie M. Sha,w. Secretary of the
Treasury and Presidential aspirant, now
68, was utterly unheard of in politics or
outside of his own state, Iowa, in any
other line, until ten years ago, when, at
48, he undertook to answer Bryan's free
silver arguments, and was credited with
saving his state for his party.
Levi P. Morton, now S2, and near the
end of a long life in which he has filled
many Important positions, failed in busi
ness when on the verge of 40, but reha
bilitated himself and later paid 100 cents
Cn the dollar. His entire public career
was carved out after he was 52.
"Grover Cleveland, -'the only living ex-'
President, now only a year less than 70,
, began his public career as Mayor of Buf
falo In 18S2, when only five years less
than 60. During the succeeding 12 years
he was one of the greatest personal
forces, if not the greatest, in the whole
Republic.
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, best known to the
public through the productions of his pen,
despite his comparatively early success in
medicine, did not really begin his inter-'
estlng career as ,a literary writer until
tie was 54.
The late Russell Sage, whe sefms to
have lived the later years of his life
solely to hoard more'inonpy, and yet more
money, did not begin his Wall-street career
till 1S61. when he was 45, and had already
lived through, two of the four distinct
parts into which his life was divided.
During the first two sections, which cov
ered almost exactly hnlf of ins life, he
was as much unlike the Russell Sage of
later years as can well be imagined.
General U. S. Grant failed to count for
much until he was 39. Then in the face
of determined opposition he was appoint
ed a Captain the Northern Army.. . How
he rose from post to post and finally
fought to- a successful issue the greatest
American war. Is part, of history. He
was just under 40 when he captured Fort
Donelson, the first really convincing deed
lrr his military career.
Abraham LInooln. got to Congress at 38,
but was not re-elected and did not become
la any sense a National figure till 1858,
"When at 60, as a candidate for the United
States Senate, he engaged in his memor
able joint debates with Stephen A. Doug
Tns. Lincoln was 52 when elected Presi
dent. Nathaniel Hawthorne was 45 when he
wrote "The Scarlet Letter," and though
some of his earlier tales became famous
later, he did most of his Important work
i .ofter finishing that romance.
r..-S. F. B. Morse, then known as a painter
of pictures, got his first Idea- of the tele-
!: grraph at 40, while on the ocean voyaging
- between the old world and the new but
rt iie didn't even take out a caveat, pre
' Jlminary to a patent, until he was 46.
- General W. T. Sherman was past 60
when the Civil War broke out and Gen-
, eral R. E. Lee past 60. yet both did great
service the first for the North, the sec
ond for the South, during that contest.
.- - Charles A. Dana was only one year less
than 4S when he became editor of the
- New York Sun; it is true that he had
Tjeen' Assistant Secretary of War before
--then, but that post was not given to him
by Stanton till he was 44.
The Four Divisions of Sage's Life.
Every man's life is divided Into more or
- less well defined periods; the cleavage be-
- tween the four district sections in Rus
sell Sage's life was more than usually
""clean cut.
' Leaving out his childhood. which
. stopped sharply at 12. the first period,
Jasting till he was 29, was given up
""wholly to the most Intense activity, his
"' main object being to establish himself in
'life. To that end, soon after he began
'working In his brother's grocery at Troy,
'he hired a private teacher out of his
"slender wages to teach him o'nights and
; lost much sleep through nocturnal study.
Yet at that time and "for years after
"ward he had higher aspirations than
those of the money getter. He was am
bitious to be a man of some note in the
ivorld. He wanted power. So, ttj 1S46,
while still a year under 30. he went into
. politics with the apparent intention of
". giving up much of his future to the pub
' lie service. His first office was that of
.Alderman in Troy.
His career during the second well de
'". fined period of his life as a member of
,'the House of Representatives almost
.wholly forgotten by his fellow citizens
"until they were reminded of it by the
tilograjkhlcai sketches fubllUed tho iaj,
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after his death, began In 1852. During the !
two terms of his service he rave every !
evidence that the love of money for Its j
own sake was not then a predominating
element in . his character, his whole
course being that of an earnest, patriotic
citizen., . '
Though not at all financially interested
In the project, he championed vigorously
the scheme to build a Pacific" railroad.
He almost begged Congress not to put
off extending the country's railroad sys
tem across the mountains and the plains
to the Western Coast, but without avail.
He wanted the Nation to purchase
Mount Vernon, President Washington's
home, and workefl for the paseage of the
bill to authorize it. He was beaten, but
there Is no doubt that his fight did more
than anything else In bringing about
the formation of the Mount Vernon As
sociation, which has preserved the es
tate intact. He Was always a stanch
friend of West Point, and his logical
clean-cut sueech' In favor of adopting the
postage stamp had a good d?al to do
with that great forward step In the
United States mail service.
Sage would probably have continued in
public life had the general prosperity of
the Nation gone at that time. Certainly
the panic of. 1857,. which came the year
after the close of his second term, exer
cised a profound influence upon his ac
tions. . He .was just beginning to get
rich, and he realized ' that he couldn't
attend to hie own and the public busi
ness at the same time.
He had made such large investments
in the La Crosse Railroad, now the Chi
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, then In
process of construction, that his entire
fortune of $75,000 or $100,000 would be
jeoparded by disaster to the road
through the panicky conditions. In order
to protect the loans he had already made
he became the owner of practically all
the stock In the system. It .was because
of his railroad complications that. In
1861, he began to operate In Wall street.
The third period of his life as a con
structive financier was now well under
way.
This period, and the last In his 'life,
during which he was a money lender,
pure and simple, the most extensive in
the world, probably, and devoted wholly
to the hoarding of interest, were less
sharply divided than the others. But
during all the years that he was ap
parently nothing but an accumulator he
maintained his interest in his horses.
This was never shown more Interest
ingly than one day a few years ago,
when Wall street was fairly boiling un
der the pressure of unusually high rates
for money. A writer of "specials" de
tailed to "do -a human Interest story on
Uncle Russell" went to his office, but
finding the anteroom crowded with re
porters watting to get his views on the
situation "backed out" discouraged. In
the corridor he met a man named Law
son, an oid friend of Sage's, locally fam
ous for his ability to drive four-and six-in-hand
teams. The writer told Lawson
his trouble.
"Go and tell Sage's clerk you have my
ringbone cure," said Lawson. "He'll see
you. He's been trying to get It for 30
years."
Lawson then wrote out a formula, the
writer did as suggested, and the scheme
worked. Sage let him Into his office, and,
having copied the formula, got to talk
ing about the horses he had owned. The
talk lasted hours, the writer got his
"story." and Sage did not start for his
Long Island Summer home till two trains
later than usual. Meanwhile the news
reporters cooled their heels in the ante
room and finally had to return to their
city editors empty-handed. More than
that, several men who called upon- the
financier that afternoon to talk, about
loans were turned away that Sage might
talk about his horses.
Lievi P. Morton's Middle Age.
The life of Levi P. Morton, now 82,
ex-Representative in Congress, ex
UBlomjLt, ex-Vice-President and, x-
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Governor, has been almost as sharply
divided as was that of Russell Sage.
But Mr. Morton took pains to get
rich before he went into public life.
Sage's first impulses were to serve the
public; his Inordinate love of money
came rather late in life; Morton ap
pears not to have thought about poli
tics at all until after he had packed
away a fortune. ,
Morton's father, a New England
Congregational minister, planned to
send him to college, and did send the
boy's elder brothers. Levi saw how It
would pinch the family" were he to
take a college course, and declined. He
worked in a country general store,
went to night school and became agent
for one Esterbrook in the conduct of
a store at Hanover, N. H., the seat of
Dartmouth College. He went there
with two trunks, which contained the
stock in trade of the store, as well as
his wardrobe. He built up a business
of $100,000 a year before he .left
Hanover.
At the beginning he entered Into all
sorts of small enterprises. One year
he furnished the graduating class with
suits of black clothes on contract, f
Meanwhile Esterbrook, who had sev
eral enterprises besides the store at
Hanover, failed, and one of the credit
ors, named Beebe, set Morton up in
business for himself. After a while
Morton, went to Boston and went In
business with Beebe, the firm name
being Beebe. Morgan & Co. The Mor
gan in the concern was Junius S..
father of J. Pierpont, who is not alto
gether out of the running at- the pres
ent day. Then, in 1854. after he had
taken his first Job as a "clerk" in a
country general store at Enfield,
Mass., Levi P. Morton removed to New
.York and established the dry goods
firm of Morton, Grinnell & Co. This was
In 1854, when he was only 30.
One of the first things he did after
establishing his New York dry goods
store was to order all the salesmen to
cut off their mustaches, certain cus
tomers from the .country not . liking
Xh then new-XaoEled. custom of wear-
SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER
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Ing hair on the upper lip. Morton was
Joked a good deal about this order, but
there came days soon afterward that ad
mitted of little joking. They "were the
panic days of '57, the same that drove all
thoughts of further public life out of
Sage's mind, and they were followed by
beav; repudiation of. Southern orders in
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cident to the breaking out of the Civil
War.
The resulting squeeze was so severe
that Morton. Grinnell ft Co. had to sus
pend after settlement with their creditors
for 50 cents on the dollar. Meanwhile
Morton had started the banking-house of
Morton, Bliss & Co. (Morton Rosa & Co.
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In London), and in this enterprise was
making money "hand over fist." One
evening In 1863, in the darker days of the
Civil War. he asked all his old creditors
to dine with him. As the guests seated
themselves, each found beside his plate
a check for the exact amount, with in
terest, that was due him morally, though
not legally, from Morton, Grinnell & Co.
This classic incident In American busi
ness annals Is essentially pertinent here,
since Morton was on the eve of middle
age, being 39. when the dinner was given.
For 13 years after that he gave strict
attention to the banking business, amass
ing a .fortune which has since become
very large. In 1868 he wa a me'niber of
the famous syndicate that helped the Gov
ernment to resume specie payments and-
fund the public debt. J. P. Morgan. Jay
Cooke, the Rothschilds and other famous
bankers here and a,broad were among the
other members of the syndicate, which. It
is estimated, saved $70,000,000 to the Gov
ernment. "
This made Mr. Morton famous, but he
didn't get into public life. In which he
was best known tor .years, till 1876. when
he was 52. Then he ran for Congress, but
was defeated. This nettled him. although
the district he ran In was normally and
heavily Democratic. In 18M he ran again
and was elected by a majority larger than
his opponent's eutlre vote. The way he
did it was about as follows:
-He made one Captain McDonald his
manager. McDonald took Morton all
through the East Side district which he
wished to represent and '.'put him next"
to all sorts and conditions of voters.. East
FMde voters are made ud of classes the
like of which Morton had never known.
but he "stood up to. the rack like a Ma
jor," according to the Captain, spent his
money freely, slapped longshoremen,
butchers and whoever came along on the
back with perfect food-fellowship, and
made votes steadily.
The result of the election has already
been Indicated. Colonel Ben Willis, his
opponent, who had previously beaten Mor
ton, was fairly daffy with chagrin over
the result, since none but a Democrat
had ever been elected from that district,
Willis was particularly sore over his
defeat because Morton was "a society
man." Some time later, when William
Waldorf Astor wanted to go to Congress
from the same district, he, too, hired
McDonald as his political manager. But
Astor was too standoffish for the East
Side. He spent his money freely as Mor
ton had. but the voters would have none
of him as a Congressman, though they
had sent him to the Legislature two or
three times.
In 1880 Morton was one of the 306 who
stood by Grant in the fight for the Pres
idential nomination to the last. Being of
fered the Vice-Presidency; he declined It
and Arthur took It, to be made President
by the pistol of Guiteau when the latter
shot Garfield. Garfield offered Morton
the Ministry to France, or a place In the
Cabinet at the head of the Navy Depart
ment. Morton chose the former, as Paris
remembers very well, for he spent money
lavishly while there, establishing a new
record for an American Minister in France.
In ISSo and 18S7 ha tried lor the United
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States Senate and failed. In 18S8 he was
Harrison's running mate, serving with
him as Vice-President. In 1892 Morton
was discarded for Whltelaw Reld and the
ticket was defeated. Morton, however,
was elecfd Governor of New York. This
was his last public office.
Mr. Morton still gives attention to his
banking business, and is often seen on
the streets of New York, where he de
votes much time and money to charitable
undertakings. His beautiful estate up
the Hudson. Ellerslie. near Rhineellff. has
long been famous for its beauty and Its
blooded cows, each known by a name
that begins "vith a we," as Sam Weller
would say.
Cleveland. Sliaw, Mitchell.
Grover Cleveland, who has been Presi
dent, and Leslie M. Shaw, who wishes to
be one, were both well over the middle
age line when they began In public life.
Neither seems to have had in mind the
achievement of the highest honors when
he began, yet Cleveland reached the high
est level! and Shaw has done the next
best thing, since a Cabinet Minister Is a
bigger man than either a Senator or a
Vice-President.
Cleveland, a country minister's son and
a lawyer of fair repute, was Sheriff In
Buffalo at 34. but his election as Mayor
didn't come till he was 45. At 4" he was
made President,' at 51 defeated for re
election, and at 55 elected for the second
time. He was made an official In the man
agement of insurance companies at 69.
Shaw's career is almost as well known
as Cleveland's, and you are sure to hear
much more about him In the next two
years, whether he wins "his fight for the
Presidential nomination or - not. He is
now 58. and he was 48 when he decided
to answer Bryan in 1896. and did it so
well as to save the state for McKinley.
This macle him Governor a few years
later. On Gage's resignation as Secre
tary of the Treasury, Shaw took the
place.
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell waited till middle
life overtook him to begin in literature,
because Oliver Wendell Holmes told him
he couldn't win In medicine and literature
at the same time, and advised him not to
attempt a cereer in letters until he Dad
become eminent as a physician. Dr.
Mitchell was 53 when. In 18S3, he took up
literature seriously. Since then he Is
now 76 he has become one of the best
known and most widely read novelists in
the English tongue.
It would be difficult to find a more pic
turesque man among the world's writers
than Dr. Mitchell, or one who has led a
more interesting life. Though his father
and his grandfather before him were phy
sicians, as a youngster he did not take
kindly to the healing art, and It is doubt
ful whether he ever would have buckled
down seriously to medicine but for the
advice given to him by Dr. Holmes. Once
Mitchell had decided In favor of medicine,
however, he pursued it with rare single
ness of purpose.
Now best known professionally as the
greatest living expert in nervous disor
ders, he was at one time accorded the first
place as an authority on gunshot wounds.
.Concluded, on Face 4X)
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