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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1909)
TIIE SUXDAT OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, .SEPTEMBER 5, 1909 A .s Sw ?wr fox s a WmAm'oucu ttorr of them have mm Automobiles MM VALETS. WlFFED TO SMEEBT COfllHG tTO ACTIVE TOICff WTll WECmT mmIE, OFBUffflEff. BT RtCHAJtD trPtt,L,ANE. A UNITED STATES- 6 EVA TOR who had noma stock market in terests that concerned him par ticularly sat in the office of one of the principal Wall street banking and broker : age houses the other day and watched the drift of prices. We could not help but admire the- cleverness with which : the youth who marked up the Quotation t did his work. The market -was active, ' and the ticker was spinning; out the fluc , tuations at Its highest speed, but fast as they came the young man kept pace with them. "With either hs-nd he worked with equal facility, never making an error, never getting flustered, marking the eighths, the quarters and the halves with the same regularity that the ticker worked, and never making at false mo tion and never making an unnecessary step. "Bright young man. that." remarked the Senator to a member of the firm. Tea." replied the broker. "I think he Is the beat board boy in the street." That evening the Senator was a gue.it at the ho una of the bead of the banking and brokerage firm. Next to him at din prr sat a, young gentleman who bore a striking reeem.blaJK.-e to the quotation board youth whose dexterity the Senator had admired earlier In the day. The youth, seemed to be perfectly at home. He called the daughter of the house "Kitty." and she oalled him "Bob." After dinner there was game of bridge. The Senator did not play, but as he and his host sat smoking in a side room he kept looking at the youth at the bridge table. Duncan." said the Senator at last, "I didn't catch Mr. Bob's name when wa Were introduced bad habit I've got of not getting names but he Li enough like one of the young men in your ofBce to be his twin." On $5 a Week. Mr. Duncan smiled. "No," he said. -Bob isn't a twin. He is just himself. He works for me. I give him five dol lars a week." The Senator looked at Bob again. The young man's Irreproachable evening clothes and general appearance indicated familiarity with company like that he was in at the moment. "And er is Is he able to do this on er Ave dollars a week?" inquired the Senator. "Bless your heart," exclaimed the banker, "Bob has more money than I have, or, at least, he will have. He Is Flske's son. His father aeked me to take htm into my office. Pretty good boy, too. A bit refractory and conceited, but he will have that knocked out of him. No better place on earth to educate or discipline a rich boy than in- Wall street. Thjere is no favoritism down there. Bob la Bob. my old friends son, in this house, but down town he Is only the quotation boy, and I'll stand no non sense from him. And he knows it." Wall stret Is full of Bobs of J5 mil lionaires. Pome of them run errands, some attend the telephone, some see that the inkwells are kept tilled and all .the stationery la In proper place on the desks of the partners and the clerks; some do clerical labor and some develop enough cleverness after a while to do- the work at the quotation board. They work side by side with some of the smartest youths in America, lads born In the tenement hou!"es. where the Irish and the Jews predominate, and they have to hustle or the Irteh and the Jew youths will put them to shame. Some of them are col lege graduates, but some of the & mil lionaires were expelled from college for one cause or another and were shipped to Wall street by their parents for punish ment. As a reformatory. Wall street is more serviceable than most institutions that bear that name. A Reofrmatory for Some. While It is a reformatory" for a few. It l the training school or the business crucible for all of them. The millionaire who has sense knows that the young man of wealth who la left to idleness or his own devices is not likely to be of much account. He also knows that a father Is not a good business trainer for a son. being either too Indulgent or to severe, so he does the wise thing and dumps the young man Into the big Wall street hopper. The hopper plays no favorites and It does not spoil any good ones. It does not matter the $5 millionaires have their automobiles and their yachts, ' tiieir private bank accounts and their valets: in Wall street they have to buckle down and work like all the other young men or they will be cast aside. The $5 a week may not be much more than a straw to them, but they never fail to collect It. It is something they have earned by their awn energies ' and It means something more than other money means. It signifies that they are part of the mighty machine of Business, a working, integral part, and that they are producers. Wall Street has no use for any hut the live ones, be tbey youths or men, , . - -r-rA - k NMU : jf V f v V - v. . 1 -& ' '."V.v ?':. v" ' , "- life - ( i A i . :'.f.l.- and the ti millionaires get to know this early In the game. There is an equality and a democracy that the youths did not know before. It sur prises and startles them. College re cords go only so far in Wall Street. The dandy football player is heartily welcomed the day, of his advent into the Street and forgotten the next. Wall Street Is a world unto itself and recog nizes no other. Thaw's Few Weeks. Sometimes a young millionaire cannot reconcile himself to Wall Street's iconoclastic attitude and he turns away. Usually he is a spoiled darling. One such went into Wall Street some years ago. His mother, a widow, immensely rich and very in dulgent to her son. had appealed to a vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad to find a good position for her boy in Wall stre-t. The vice president, eager to do anything to help the widow of an old friend, came to New York and saw the head of a prom inent brokerage house in behalf of the youth. A $5 a week job was the result, and the widow's son came on from Pittsburg to begin his business life. In Pittsburg he was a person of im portance. Every one knew the wealth of bis family. Every one glossed over his eccentricities. He had but to ex press a wish and it was gratified. It shocked the young man to find a different atmosphere in the broker's office. No one seemed to know of his family's mlllons, or, knowing, cared. Clerks ordered him around. He was called "Harry" by persons he looked down upon and he was sent like a messenger boy, to deliver" notices and securities to other brokerage houses. He did not like it. and he didn't put up with it for long. A few weeks of such experience was enough for Harry K. Thaw. But it was far different with men like Wm. G. Rockefeller, Walter Lewls ohn, Mortimer' L. Schiff and Clarence Mackay, and it is far different with hudreds of other $3 millionaires of today. Walter Lewlsohn, whose father was immensely wealthy, went the $5 route through the house of A. A. Hous man & Co., delivering stock, marking quotations, carrying messages, doing anything or everything he was ordered to do, and all the time keeping his eyes and ears open so that he could learn everything there was to he learned by a youth In the Street. Today he is one of the firm of Lewlsohn Brothers, and is about as well equipped for Wall Street work as any men In the Street. William G. Rockefeller. William G. Rockefeller did not work' in a brokerage office, but had his f5 experience in the Standard Oil Com pany's headquarters at No. 25 Broad way. He started as an errand boy In the purchasing agent's office. It did not matter that his father was one of the greatest millionaires of the world and that he himself was past 21 years old. He had to start at the bottom. He was just out of college. If he had the usual vanities of the young col legian he hid them pretty well. He settled down to work as if he liked it. And if he did like it he certainly had plenty of it. There were 18 or 20 clerks in the department who were his super iors and most of them seemed to take a hellish delight In keeping him busy. They sent him on messages just for the pleasure of ordering him about. And he never uttered a protest. He took everything that was coming to him In the way of work and looked for more. His pay was raised to $40 a month, and he deserved it if ever a young man did. With the Increase In pay he seemed to think the Standard OH was entitled to more work from him. He worked so hard In order to show that he was worthy of the re ward that he fell ill from typhoid fever. It took him a year to recover, and part of the treatment was a trip around the world. But even on this trip he would not cease work. Incidental to his general journeying he took side trips to various places to Inspect the Standard Oil plants and to study the company's business at those points. When he returned he probably had a better general knowledge of the Stand ard Oil Company's trade throughout the world than any other person. To day he is the treasurer of the Oil Trust. The young man who took William G. Rockefeller's errand boy Job when , c5 7ZW?SsV&- 3W TSiTj young Rockefeller fell 111 did not get MO a month, but fa a week. He was a mean little devil. Just out of Har vard University. He wore gaudy ties, a diamond scarfpln and was hated by every person in the department before he had been there a week. His 'father, who was one of the Standard Oil directors, owned one of the biggest of steam yachts, and ev ery Friday the steam yacht would be at anchor in the bay. waiting for Har vey (that was tBe son's name) to go aboard, and then the family would go up Long Island Sound or down the coast, or to Newport, for the week end. Never did Harvey let It be known that the automobile which he stepped into each evening and which, by his orders, awaited him In a side street instead of in front of No. 26 Broad way, was his own property. Never did he let It be known that the big steam yacht was his father's. He never men tioned yacht, in fact, but in Summer time regularly every Friday about noon he would go to the head of the de partment and ask if he could get -off at 3 o'clock, as his father wanted him to go up the river or up the sound or some other place. As regularly as the request was made, some Job would be found for him that would take every minute of the time up to i P. M. - Sumetimes Harvey would be sent to that place pf horrible smells, Newtown l-Creek, sometimes to Bayonne, N. J. By racing hotfoot ail the way he could get back in. time to get away on the yacht in season, but it always was a tight fit. But never did he whimper, although he hated every one in the office fully aa much as they hated him. be knew he was offensive to nine persons out of every ten he met and that nature made him offensive, but he seemed to be satisfied if he only could revenge himself on those who did not like him. He planned, just as soon as he was promoted, to have his revenge on the men in the ofiue. For one year he was kept on the $5 a week Job. Then in disgust he resigned. A Champion Golfer. A far different character than this is Harold Sands, one of the country's greatest golf, players and winner of various championships. He works in one of the big banking and brokerage houses near the Stock Exchange, and is one of the most popular young men In the financial district. He is a mem ber of a family prominent for genera tions in New YorK society and of large means. He is a $5 millionaire, his present employment being that of at tending to the telephone connecting his employer's office with the Stock Exchange. He is learning the details of the business and learning them thoroughly. Clarence Mackay, now the head of the Postal Telegraph Company, .and the other big corporations organised by his father, was a $5 millionaire for a short time, getting just enough of the experience to season him for tak ing employment in a minor capacity in onn ot his father's" companies. Mortimer L. Sfhiff. who is destined to take his father's place as head of the great banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., went through the 16 mill, as did Allan, Ryan, son of Thomas F. Ryan; James C Brady, eon of Anthony K. Brady, and a lot of others. But none of the house- of Vanderbilt was sent to -Wall street to take the course. Maybe If they had the splendid property left by the first and second generations of the family would not now be falling into other hands. Neither has Harriman given the Wall street Jo training to hid sons. One of them is out in Idaho working as surveyor's as sistant at J a month, but he is young enough when he has learned something of field work and something of practical railroading to take a post graduate course with the Jo millionaires. Some Become Partner. James Stillman, too, has had his son go West to learn railroading, but railroads no longer are managed by practical rail road men. The day of the man who be gan at the firebox or at the brake is gone. The man of the ticker Is the boss today. Possibly that la why the millionaires are so numerous. For every young pluto crat who goes West to take a railroad Job a hundred go Into Wall street. No doubt the J6 millionaires make it a bit harder for the youth who has to work for a living to get a position in Wall tmA ' lift iAty street. No doubt many banking and I brokerage houses would be glad if heads of trusts, heads of banks and millionaire customers did not dump their sons and fhelr nephews uporrhem, but there are Just as many houses that are glad to have the glided young men In their employ. Everything is fish that comes to the Wall street tiet. The $5 millionaire may not be a brilliant clerk, he may have no special qualification for posting quotations, and he may balk at filling the ink wells, but he may be a wonder at steering business to the shop or at getting valuable lnfor mation. The young millionaire who Is a good mixer and who is on terms of in timacy with the sons of other millionaires can get their trade, or, from the talk of the young men, may learn of stock mar ket deals In which the fathers are en gaged, the knowledg-e of which Is worth considerable to the to millionaire's em ployer. These are the scouts and the pullers-in and they are the ones the com mission houses are glad to get hold of. .Sometimes, too, the $3 millionaire is' used to advantage by being taken into, partner ship. It flatters his vanity and some times It eaves a house that is shaky. Never Ask for a Raise. There is one thing about the to million aire, however, that is a cardinal virtue in tho eyes of the employer. He never kicks for a raise in salary. He may have all the conceits of the other employes, re ferring to the concern's operations as what "we" are doing or what "we" did or I what "we" think of the market, and he may have his business cards specially en graved the day he finst goes to the street, but he never has designs on the firm's OBADIAH Sights at the Ocean Shore as Seen HOAXVILLEv Or., Aug. .24. Mr. Ed itor: When you are agettin" out your paper for next Sunday don't forget to state that Obadiah and Hanner Oldway has just returned from Newport. Yes, sir, we've been there and Baw the ele phant, as the poet says. John and Elvlry John's got him a sec ond wife, you know. She's Elder Jonea' girl and a right spry woman, too. They come home from their weddin' trip and insisted that me and Haner go some where! for a spell and let them do the work durin' the hot weather. Well. I didn't like much to leav& right in har vest, but John runs that derned bindin' machine and hires a. blower thrashin' outfit, so there ain't much for me to do but stand around and see things hur ried headlong through the season, and gotn' to waste right and left, so I up and says, says I: "Hanner, let's us go to Newport and see what's the attrac tion over there." I'd found out that the railroad was asallln' cheap round-trip tickets Just then, thlnkin" mere than likely that bein' in the busy season, there wouldn't be many people take advantage of it. I think it Is a sin to miss a opportunity of gettln' ahead of a railroad. It ain't often a feller gets a chance to beat 'em out of a cent, but when it does happen I think we should all stand in together and get what's comin to us. Elvlry borrowed her pa's tent and Han ner's cousin lent us his came stove. Hanner and Elvlry cooked up a whole trunk full of stuff and we launched out on our Journey. The railroad had a extra good streak on that day. I'll be harged if they didn't check everything we had along grub, tent, tent poles, feather bed, wearin' ap parel, a water bucket full of eggs, a sack of apples and the satchel. "Is that all now, Mr. Oldway?" says the baggage man. "Yes," says I, "that's all for thi time, thank .ye." Gosh! I wished I'd taken the dog and a few more things along and had him check all that was due us on our tickets. It seemed as If everybody in the coun try had took a notion all to once to see the ocean, especially the women. I'll bet the most of 'em left their hus bands to home to do the harvestin and the cookln' and milkin besides. It never -used to be that way. The men used to do tha harvestin' and then they went somewheres on a hunttn" and fishln' trip to rest up. The women stayed at home and done their duty and said nothin'. What are we acomln' to? As I said, the train was full of gabbin' , bank account. If he gets anything at Christmas time he Ls likely to spend the I r!hristTiin tlirm he Ls ltkelv to SDend the I OLDWAY AT YAQUINA by the HoaxviUe Philosopher; Gainful Diversions Indulged in by All Summer Visitors. women and laughln' children when we got on, but we finally did get a seat and held on to it till we got there. It takes quite a spell to get from the county seat to Yaquinny, and them cars was ewelterin hot. I noticed when wTe'd crossed the river for about the 17th time there wasn't quite so much hilarity agoin' on. Half of them women as was so chummy and ewappin home-made candy and cake and whoopin' cough receipts a.s we was agoin' up the moun tains was mad at the other half and slappin" the bawlin' young 'una and achewin' gum in silence and wghs as we was agoin' down the tother side. When we got to Yaquinny they told us to get off and take tha boat for New port. "Not on your life." says I. "I bough a ticket to Newport and I'm agoin' to ride there on it. I don't pay no boat to take me over, young feller. I've iraveled too much to be swindled like that." "But, my dear sir," says he, "the rail road ends here and we take- vou on our own boat. It won'.t cost you a cent more. Your ticket is good pn the boat." "Well. I never knew that before," says I. "Next time- we go to Portland, Han ner, we'll buy boat tickets and go down on the railroad that'll be quite a savin'." By this time the boat was awhlstlin" and the feller hurried us onward. One of them little steam tubs sort of water automobiles was abarkin' at the landin', but the railroad man said we'd have to pay extra if we took that, so went on to the railroad boat to be safe. We spent about a half a hour gettln' over to Newport on the tother side of the bay, and there was the ocean alayin' out thero before us, agrowlin" and, amoanin' and aheavin' like it was hard work to swash all that water about and keep it amovin'. , I'm agoin' to draw the curtain on our experiencea In gettln' our camp set. There was some remarks made by us and others likewise employed that ain't just exactly fit for narratln'. However, if you have been placed in a similar situation you know what a ordeal it is, with the wind aflappln' the tent and apullin" up the tent stakes faster than you can get 'em pounded in. But I don't suppose Mrs. Oregonlan would make things- quite as unpleasant for you un der the circumstances aa Hanner did for me. Shakespeare says that It's a long lane that ain't got no turnln', and by and by we got things settled for the night and went peacefully to sleep to the song of the rollin' waves. The days that followed was one con tinual round of Joy and sorrow. The beach ls bet tar" n a sidewalk when' the sum on flowers for a chorus girl or he may give it to his valet. Unless he has tide ls out, but when It ain't and you have to walk in the dry sand it's worse'n follerln' a plow all day. The ocean is like liquor. The more you get the better you like It and the more you want. Old as I be. I'd just stay In camp long enough to got a snack to eat and then go right out again. When the tide is agoin" out the beach looks like a lunatic asylum turned loose. Everybody runs out a-s far as they can and grabs at every little rock they see. They call the prettiest ones agglts and everyone tries to get more'n everybody else. I rolled up my pants and hunted too. I got a lard bucket full while I was out there and 'sold 'em to a feller for four bits. He had a machine for shinin' 'em up and makln' 'em into Jewelry to sell to Easterners. I made that money easy, didn't I? Wlsht I could do that way here at home. Y'ou want to try it when you go out there. You Just run In after a wave and grab a rock out of the sand, hold It up to the light and squint one eye. If you can kinder see through it, it's a aggit; drop it into your pocket and skedaddle for the shore before the next wave gets you. It don't taka long to learn. Just watch the crowd and you'll soon see how it's done. It's more fun than cats awrestlin' to see the people go in swimmin'. Hanner wouldn't watch 'em after the first time. She said it was disgraceful for men and women to go Into the water together, especially In such garb. She wanted me to keep away, too, but I done as I derned please for once. You'd ought to seen 'em. The women all put on little girls' dresses that come about to their knees and left their stockin' legs ashowin'. Thq fat ones looked the funniest when they'd try to Jump the waves. The men would hang on to their hands to keep them from fallin' over, and of all the squealin and hollerin' you ever heard it was on the shore of that ecean at swimmin time. I set on the dry sand in front and laughed and old Ocean, he was behind the crowd winkin' at me and arollln' and a laughin' as he sent a big wave every now and then that would catch 'em unawares. If the water hadn't been so derned coid and I'd had one of them abbreviated dress suits along I'd atried it myself. Say. did you ever dig clams? I got up one morning as soon as I could see and beat the crowd out. I got half a gunny sack full and didn't pay 15 cents a can for them either. You Just go along on the clam flats when the tide has left them all slimy, bend over, akeepln' your eyes on the ground till you see the water go "squir-r-r-t," right up towards you. Then you dig for all you're the money itch he Is not after the paltry dollars that come from his Job, but for the action, the strife and the vicissitudes that attend it. The Jt millionaire who is of the rlsht stuff never presumes. He ls understrap per In the office and he takes orders from customers and clerks and bosfes with equal good will and willingness.' He Isn't servile, but he never is impolite'. He al ways shows proper respect for the mem bers of the firm or the heads of depart ments. Equality comes when he ls out side the office. At the Plaza Hotel the other day the manager of a big Wall street house saw two of the stork boys dining together. They hailed him as he went by and invit ed him to Join them. They had no wine, hut their bill for that meal would riddle their week's wages, for one of them got Jo and the other $7. The bill cut no figure, for both of them are sons of multi-millionaires. "The whole firm seems to be up here tonight," said one of the youths. "The hoss m dining, just six tables down from here. Junior (the junior partner) is "way down the other side of the room and Clin ton, manager of the cotton department, left a few minutes ago." At the Plaza all were equal, but In Broad street the next morning those two stock boys were stock boys again. worth till you run on the clam shell. Sometimes they'll be squlrtin all around you and you can't dig fast enough, then ag'in you won't see a llvin' clam all day. I drawed the line at huntin' crabs. They're too free with their nippers. Han ner got them herself. We had stayed a week when Hanner happened to think of a old hen she had set and forgot to tell the girls about, so nothin' would do but we had to come home to once. Comln' home we stopped at a station and I Bt out to get Hanner some coffee for her headache, and what do you suppose I found In my purse? Well, sir. It was a Canada 10-cent piece. I knew I didn't get It. so I says to Hanner when I went back. "Hanner, where did you get that 10-cent piece?" "I got It of the grocer man at Newport yesterday." says she. "Why didn't you mnke him take tt back?" says I. "Can't you see it rs Canada money?" "Yes," says she. "but I 'lowed It was good or he wouldn't a give It to me." "Well." says I. "it ain't good and you don't want to be trustin' everybody that way. There's sharpers everywhere nowa days. I see a paper boy out there and I'm agoin' out and buy a paper and get a good nickel in change." "Where's that paper you bought last night? says she. "You ain't read that, have yon?" Ain't it no good? Of course. If it ain't you'd better get a new one, but If It !s I don't see why you need to wasto it." "Y'ou don't see nothin' do you?" says I. I want to get shed of this here Can ada money you got put on to you, but may be I had better wait till we go to Portland some time and ride on the streetcar with It." "Yes," she says, "that would be better. It was passed on to us and we ought to have a right to pass it on." Barrln' this last misfortune, we reached home safely and had a great trip. Yours truly. OBADIAH EVERAT OLDWAT. p. s. Goin' out over the bar Is fins for cleansin" the stomach If you've et somethln" that don't set good. I was out one day and It was wonderful. God of the Open Air. , Henry Van Dyke. Thou who hast made thy dwelling fair With flowers beneath, above with starry lights And set thine altars everywhere On mountain heights. In woodlands dim, with many a dream. In valleys bright with springs. And on the curving capes of every stream, Thou who hast taken to thyself the wings Of morning to abide Upon the secret places of the sea. And on far islands where the tide Visits the beach of untrodden shores. Waiting for worshipers to come to thee In thy great ont-of -doors! To thee I turn, to thee I make my prayer, God of the open air. I