THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 19. 1DI5.
WITH .MANY
UILU "si
Solemn Swain
The Writer, Peripatetic (Very Pathetic), Describes His
Sensations and Impressions Before and After
Seeing" J. P. Morgan, Central Force in World of Finance
NUTE IIALKS
&&r Mi By
3.
'4
MOMENTARY FETICHISM is the
worship of the rapidly expiring
dollar. It is a "Lewis Carrel'ed"
phrase. "Humanltis" could be the
"Alex Carrol'ed" word for the same
pathological symptom. It ought to be
s&f ft A VV' ; '. jgr r
- - - rrry
J. P. MORGAN.
placed in our great American jargonlc value. He pines to place the "Inside
lexicon. Story of Bonds" high on the literary
Folks are now particularly afflicted trophy heap. My. bond writing friend
with this disease. We all have It claims to know the devious ways of
this worship of the U. S. Symbol of High Finance. He can prove it If you
Worth. The complaint Is as prevalent have time and a keen conception of
as the blue taffeta dress in the Roar- the eternal termination of conversa
ing Forties.
I am persistently afflicted with It.
The sight or a moneyed personage
causes a malevolent wave thought to
circulate in my cranial cavity. The
dght of money much money In the
control of else-ones will to this very
day and date distort my viewpoint on
life as misanthropically as that of the
very late and Illustrious Mr. Alighiere
Dante. Reasons for this are legion. As
a gatherer of the dollar I have ever
been a toiler in sterile fields. Money
eeems to bear the charmed life with
me. I could never bear to see money
"herded." The thought of a collection
of dollars always flustered my self
poise. I could not control myself in
the august presence of many National
Images. .
Therefore, in the very presence of
Money Incarnate, I take pause, lubri
cate my palms figuratively speaking
and prepare for a mental seismic dis
turbance. In an effort to record my
impressions I only evolve halting
phrase and hamstrung hysteria.
Money Incarnate is today Morgan. J.
P., the son of the man who left Art on
the horizon of Commerce and Cash on
the bulwarks of Business; J. P., the
man who bxit recently survived a crazy
man's attack. The Morgan who lives
on the Sound, runs banks, shuns so
ciety and lives clean.
Just now Morgan Is the central force
In the " world. I mean just that. Na
tions await his head nod or shake. He
represents the "nth" degree of Plenti
.tude. Seeing such a man, interrogating
him on nothing in particular and much
in general, seemed impossible. How
ever, verdant enthusiasm oft wins in
the race for worth-while things. Ver
dant enthusiasm pictured Morgan as a
Man if the Aura of Affluence could
once be stripped from his broad shoul
ders. Verdant enthusiasm wins, hands
down.
Leaping the Hurdles.
Obstacles? Plenty of them. News
paper entree is all very well with a
large and rectangular BUT. Imagine
many clerklings very cleverly dis
guised detectives the kind you could
not possibly tell were "Law to the Let
ter" more than eight city blocks away;
cooling rooms where would-be filchers
of Morgan's time found confidence
oozing from their pores as moisture
accumulates on the outside of an ice
water cooler, and very positive per
sonages who assure you that "under no
consideration, Mawruss," could you see
Mr. Morgan these are just a few of
the hurdles to leap in really "seeing
Morgan." But "back to our Bacon"
as Johnson was wont to remark.
The manner in which I saw Morgan
a fortnight or so ago was with two
very astigmatlo eyes and about two
X5
desires to see if it really could be done.
Digressing I have a literary friend
down Wall street way who writes in
teresting but intensely dry things about
bonds and such. He persists, in tune
and out, that bonds have a literary
M
ME. OLIVE FREMSTAD. among
the greatest of dramatic prima
donnas, who sang in Portland
last season, is going to build an Amer-
lean home In the Maine woods. "Bhe'U
. -'Ill
tion. He will explain for hours just
what he is talking about and then
leave you, flat-f ootedly acknowledging
that you can't grasp a thing he is say
ing. His knowledge must be deep.
None of it ever seems to leak out.
A Mine of Misinformation.
We forgathered. I listened. He
talked. He elucidated. He must have
helped me wonderfully. I have yet to
know what he really said. It must
have been too far down In the Grotto
seen in the picture breaking ground
for it herself, an old-world custom in
a new land. Mme. Fremstad would
not permit any workman to put his
hand to a shovel before si had partic-
'Of Low Gossip for me to grasp. He
nearly told me the name of the man at
the door at the Morgan bank. He al
most let slip the Christian cognomen of
the chap who empties the Morgan
waste baskets. He was inspirational
in his conversation In that his lnfor-
matlon must have be en extraordinarily
good. I never fathomed its import for
hours after.
Stored in my mind as I left him was
a collection of the most valuable misA
Information that I believe ever glutted
a human brain. I had firmly fixed in
ray mind the exact location of the
House of Morgan. He has told me that
painstakingly, carefully, exhaust
ingly. I walked the allotted three blocks,
took a turn to the left. That, so far,
followed Instructions. It should have
been the lbcation of the Morgan offices,
according to my bond-writing-conversational
acquaintance. It was not.
An obliging police officer helped me
out. In fact, he assisted me graciously
and with expedition. He left his post
gratuitously. He took my arm. Next,
in what I believe is the present-day
parlance, he "frisked" me. I had no
gun. Later he explained. He said that
the "dead line" was still at Fourteenth
street and besides that a "feller can't
be too careful these days" when 'the
deleted English and the much more
deleted Germans were all but dragging
us into a row. "And cranks," he con
tinued, "look jus" likes the rest uv us."
He pointed the Morgan house to m
looming two blocks in the distance like
a Colossus of Coin in the Maw of the
Many.
Gaining the House of Morgan was
merely a matter of Ill-manners and
elbow akimbo. It seemed that some one.
in several battalions was straining to
arrive at the same place that I hap
pened to be moving toward. However,
the some one wanted to get there first.
When I arrived at Nassau street the
some one else whom I perceived to be
about 4000 shouting men had really no
place to go at all.
They all turned
down a side street, or at least 3987 of
them did, and stood about wildly talk
ing in the sign language to one an
other. I stood on the steps of the House of
Morgan. I decided to take the bull by
the' horns or as it were, the bear by
the brisket whichever way the mar.
ket was going and enter.
Meets Joba Comforters.
- Utterly impossible personages began
at once to tell me how hopeless my
task was. Superior beings, who smiled
condescendingly upon my haber
dashery, were only too willing to tell
me that my task was hopeless that
my mission was both fruitless before
it began, and to Infer asinine at any
period of the pastime.
. Such a cordial welcome to the House
of Morgan was hardly expected. It
might -not, however, have been called
en vogue, as I believe the French have
it. To me it seemed quite de rigor.
The word "rigor" particularly fits. 1
believe we use it in referring to
corpses, do we not?
First moment Impressions of the
House of , Morgan tend toward some
what allaying the pain of perseverance
If it inhabits your being. This may
be dne to the very youthful appearance
of everyone and everything connected
with the House of Morgan. From the
very youthful mayhap early Italian
marble stairways, rails and columns to
the budding genius of finance vhu
ushers you about youth predominates
in the House of Morgan. There is not
far v V
ipated in the ceremony herself. The
new home is at Bridgton, in the heart
of the Maine woods. Here she spends
her Summers resting by doing all the
sports and outdoor life, preparatory in
her strenuous concert tours in the Fall,
a "Hopkinson-Smlth-'Peter'-the - bank
clerk" personage about. Only young
men. Bronzed, out-of-door-looking
young men all chaps vigorously alive
and quietly worth while, but so poig-
nantly and perseveringly young,
While I was stating my errand to
jsome one whom I believe to this min-
ute must have been the Man Who Made
the Original Dollar, and was being
told in three distinct vocal registers
that "I could not possibly see Mr. Mar-
gan today," tomorrow or for several
and possibly unending tomorrows, I
saw a man about to enter the common
or street variety of door to the House
or Morgan. He did.
Cornea In AVIth a Rush.
Taking the marble stair risers two
at a time, the man all but charged Into
the counting-rooms. A fleeting glimpse
of a man who would attract attention
were he in uniform bathing suit or
bread-line rags. The sharp crack of
a door lock snapped back, the disap-
pearance of a pair of broad Bhoulders
and a partially bald head behind a
good mahogany desk, and like the
Irish gunner said of the German Taube
Morgan had "came and went."
My conversationalist who really
lYinsf havo y, o t t,n,4 t
of the unal metal was about once
more to offer me his sympathy and
smile, like the village undertaker at
the first burial after a dull season,
when I checked him. Agitatedly I. de
manded not asked, mark you if the
personage who made the flying en-
trance was not Mr. Morgan.
With a pained look, exactly like the
retired Methodist parson who has been
told that the pension fund for the past
quarter is quite exhausted, my vis-avis
acknowledged the coin.
Then things began to happen.
I was told to go Into a "cooling
room" adjacent to the counting depart
ment. I was asked to assume a sitting
posture on a very brittle little chair
until such a time as some one would
communicate with Mr. Morgan and see
if Mr. Morgan would be in a position
to talk with me for five minutes or no.
The emphasis placed upon the helpless
adverb "no" was ghastly! The entire
"vox humana" stop was pulled by each
person who informed me that he was
about to communicate with Mr. Mor
gan's third or fourth secretary, who in
turn well, as Thespis placed it graph-
ically. "ad lib" until Mr. Morgan was
finally reached.
I intermittently shifted my weight on
the decorative chairs of the cooling
room and Idly perused a copy of a fi
nancial report lying on a rather expen
sive center table. The financial report
proved a clever thing. As an example
of bilious editorial effusion I dare say
it has no counterpart anywhere. It
ought to be included as text in one of
Arnold Bennett's novels It would
lighten it so. .
One has such an excellent opportunity
of analyzing the Morgan character and
machine from the vantage point of the
cooling rooms at the Morgan house.
One can almost see out of the plate
glass door. One could not fail to dis
cern the presence of several retired po
lice officers posing in the immaculate
raiment of men of affairs. These gen
tlemen, so I surmised, must be private
detectives. I was quite sure of it later,
One of them very carelessly exposed
his waistcoat. Looming high over his
left breast was, I believe, about the
most vicious looking automatic re
volver it has been my ill-fortune to
gaze unrestrainedly upon. This armed
person had a most unnecessary way of
looking me over as I attempted to
center my mind on the aforementioned
financial report
Finally and the point is well taken.
AMERICAN COLLEGE BOYS
(Continued From Page
that. In making quick advances., we
find German dead standing upright,
pointing their rifles. And without a
scratch. Within 15 yards round a
bursting French shell there becomes a
short, sudden, terrific atmospheric de
pression. The equilibrium of air pres
sure between the outside and the in
side of the human body is so upset that
the gases in the blood rush out. chok
ing the vital organs."
"And rifle fire?" asked someone.
"On July 17, we had 23 holes in one
ambulance in elorht minutes. Many
were bullet holes, the remainder shell
splinters. It is exceptional. The French
were making one of their rapid drives
and we were getting their wounded
up behind them."
The bomb-proof shelters are not
bomb-proof.
"When a German 210 lights on the
roof, it is liable to go to pieces like
dust, though made with the greatest
ingenuity of railroad Iron, sandbags
and dirt."
They talked about the chances of
killing and wounding.
"The men get kind of stoic," said" the
husky angel, "when they see that noth-i
ing they can do can help their safety.
Cowardice does not help a Jot. Tran
quil duty at your post is safer than
running or crouching. So the men
come to have confidence in God alone.
Any man who says he has not prayed,
in this war, is a liar."
Someone said he must be thinking of
Mignot.
Who was Mignot? These are stories
of the section, which, perhaps, ought
not to get out. Mignot was Salisbury's
French orderly. One morning, recently,
he was seen to be praying fervently.
"I've got mine," wa3 his explanation.
At noon, Mignot. Grassettie, a
mechanician-driver, and two others
were in the kitchen of the section's
headquarters. Without warning, a
stray shell fell into the kitchen, killing
and mangling Mignot beyond recogni
tion, grievously wounding Grassettie,
and not touching a hair of the two
others, both notably nearer.
"It's all in the draw," says our hero,
"and the cards are dealt from on high.
A Captain, limping and bandaged, rode
to the rail-head with us. 'I am going on
repose." he, said, 'all my officers are
killed. My orderly, poor fellow, kind
of butt for his fussiness. was bringin
mo a cup of coffee in the trench. Aa
it was already much past my lunch
hour and quite well Into the afternoon
I was led to believe from the words
of a gentleman who shall remain un
named, -and thus escape fame that Mr.
Morgan would see me.
I ask in all candor: Why dally with
the English language? Why attempt to
toy with words, to build a wall of
language in an effort to erect a written
structure that resembled my feelings?
I have seen the "death march" of a
condemned man. I have lived through
a high school commencement and seen
the shy youngster in his first long
pants suit and celluloid stand-up collar
get his diploma. I was on the Los An
geles "wanderlust" hike through the
Painted Desert, and they say they are
still coming back from that jaunt even
to this iay.
The march to the office of the Pres
ence In the House of Morgan was even
lonKr than the old Mosaic decennary
fast-
"At last Tho Man!
And
Behind a very able cigar, stubbed in
an amber holder some two inches long,
1 manged to make out features. From
the personage syllables were
coming.
I seemed to hear the words, 'I'm very
busy; pleaee be brief."
I was!
"Mr. Morgan, as you are the recog
nized head of finance in America In
fact, in the world could you give to
my newspaper an authentic statement
regarding Just what may transpire in
the foreign exchange problem? Will
England float a large loan here? Will
much gold be shipped to America soon?
Are you to head an American bank sys
dicate which will further finance the
war?"
Mr. Morgan shook his head vigor
ously. "To those questions I have but one
reply: This is not the time nor occa
sion to discuss such matters. They will
be self-adjusting and self-annuncia-tory."
What Mr. Morgan said further must
remain a mutual secret. It is some
times not well to be too Informative.
Markets, men and maids have found
this out.
Wherein Literature Suffers.
What I said in closing the interview
will forever be lost to literature. It
was lost on The Man before I had wel
gained "my second phrase in a carefully
framed adieu. Mr. Morgan was not
thinking of me. I could see it. In
fact, any one could see It. As a per
sonality I must have been about as
luminous to him as a burnt out in
candescent lamp.
A smile, a wave of a half raised arm
and I was on the extreme outside,
looking In.
Two points I recall brilliantly now
after "seeing Morgan." One is that
Mr. Morgan wore a cheaper Panama
hat than I did. The other is that his
desk blotter didn't have a spot on It
and mine does. Sartorially Mr. Mor
gan is representative of all that New
York holds dear. He dresses well not
expensively, nor what might be called
luxuriantly but well. Simple gray and
pale blue blend In suit and tie. A very
plain umbrella with a curved nandle
might have done for showers or thugs.
It was very thick. New tan shoes al
ways dress a man. They did for Mr.
Morgan.
I have another very clear mental pic
ture of Mr. Morgan at this moment I
mean Mr. Morgan the man. I have a
very clear respect for Mr. Morgan, the
man who can carry the billions of ten
nations upon his broad back and still
find time to smile "Good morning!" to
usual, he was whispering hoarsely:
Jacques, get down!' 'Jean, you're ex
posing yourself!' when a bursting shell
cut him fn two, the most watchful man
in the company, his lower parts falling
into the pit, and his shoulders, arm and
head blown over the trench."
There is only one load to the boys'
headquarters. The Germans shell back
on that road, to prevent provisions be
ing brought up.
"If the fire is regular, we can cal
culate when the shell will fall," he
says, "but fancied security plays
strange tricks. A Lieutenant whom we
knew very well was riding his bicycle
nignt at i a. .m. along that road
A small shell. Just one. all by itself,
landed within three yards of him,
blowing off his lees. We picked him
up in a dying condition."
One day the Germans bombarded
their advanced rail-head. (You know
how it is done. Aeroplanes photograph
the desired object battery, trench,
hospital, church, whatever the Ger
mans love to smash best; and, reduced
to scale, the photograph Is pasted cn
the map, in its recognized spot. Then it
is mere mathematics of pointing.)
"Shells fell into our station, some into
a factory adjoining; and a call was
mnde for ambulances to go down and
pick up the wounded. Two Americana
volunteered. One. endeavoring to cross
the tracks, was blocked, and stayed on
his machine while shells fell 150 feet
in front of him and behind him. He
quit his machine, carried his wounded
from the factory across the tracks,
aided by an aged gatekeeper, and got
away with a crippled tire, a shell
splinter cutting the rubber like an ax.
He was James McConnell, of Carthage,
N. C."
"Son of the Senator?" I asked.
He nodded yes.
"And the other American?" I asked.
"Oh, bother," answered modest Salis
bury. He told of a Colonel who had faith
and luck. "We can't go until cur work
is done," he said, "so Just being wound
ed means retarded victory." He was at
Morhange. he was at the Marne, he
was at Eparges, and each time at the
head of his battalions, that is to say,
with 90 chances in 100 to be hit. Ho
never had a scratch The other day,
he went with his staff at repose, in a
little village lost in the bottom of thj
forest, which the Germans almost never
Lombard that is to say. with 90
chances In 100 to repose In blessed
rr
3 V
ltd
poo
DQOC
OQOl
an office boy who filled his dry Ink
well.
I, myself, find after computing that
I owe Mr. Morgan a little over $110. I
took that much of his time figuring
his income so near as it is figurable
at a rate of 6 per cent per annum and
dividing that by his office hours each
day and that aain by the minutes. I
am afraid, also, that Mr. Morgan will
have to await the day when my serv
ices during the "harvest of wealth"
come "nine to the row," as we say in
the corn belt.
If Mr. Morgan would rather take a
new viewpoint of himself for public
consumption than my check for the
$110, I remain . content, and also at
peace with my bank cashier.
UNDER FIRE
peace. All right. As 7 P. M. struck an
avalanche of "marmites" began falling.
The Colonel avoided them all except
the last one, shot a quarter of an hour
after the others, and falling into the
middle tf the dining-room, as they
were at table. Four officers beside him,
elbow to elbow, were scarcely touched:
but he was killed clean, a scra-ot shell
cutting his carotid.
"The lone shell, or the first shell of
a shower," says Salisbury, "reduces ail
human pride. Regular bombardment
can be dodged. Rifle and machine-gun
bullets give a kind of warning you
feel death coming. But the lone shell
strikes when you don't expect it, on
the spot where no one could imagine.'
The air is calm, the village is at
peace, the men loaf beside the ol5
church, not even thinking of war.
Suddenly, a whistle and explosion.
Arms and legs fly tn the air, and blood
flows in rivulets. Five miles, seven
miles away, a cannon shot which no
one heard has done It. v
"Why were these men killed, and
others spared? The wind, the dryness
of the air, a wet map on which the
German artillery officer calculated his
distances, an interruption to listen to a
funny story, or the sun In his eyes
makes him uull the table back a trifle
made the shell fall on these men beside
the church, instead of 50 yards away.
"And you are in life or in mince
meat," says the humble hero. "It is
very comforting." .
??
"It removes temptation to be a cow
ard." ???
"Or think oneself smart."
????
"Just to go quietly about your work,
and trust."
"And trust?"
"And trust."
Fashion Xote Iora Peking.
Christian Herald.
The drees of both civil and military
officials Is to be changed. When tha
new republic was established, the an
cient order of official robes with dis
tinguishing headgear, was done away
with, and many of the new officials
who had been educated abroad retained
their European costume. Now. how.
ever, the government Is considering
adopting a special form of dress for
the different grades of officials which
will be more In keeping with ancient
form.