CHAPTER LIX.MEN OF MARK.

Cyrus W. Field—Hon. Stephen V. White—Austin Corbin—Philip D. Armour—Hon. Levi P. Morton—John A. Stewart—Anthony J. Drexel—The Jerome Brothers—Addison Cammack—Russell Sage—Chauncey M. Depew—James M. Brown—Stedman the poet—Victor H. Newcombe—Moses Taylor—Former Giants of the Street—Henry Keep—Anthony W. Morse.

Cyrus W. Field has been termed a locomotive in trousers. The simile illustrates the indefatigable energy of the man. His indomitable resolution and his energy of character have placed him high among the distinguished men of the age. He was born at Stockbridge, Mass., in 1819. His father was a clergyman. At fifteen years of age, Cyrus W. Field came to New York with a trifling sum in his pocket. For three years he was in the employ of A. T. Stewart, the dry goods merchant, and then went to Lee, Mass., to work in his brother’s paper mill. Two years later he became a partner in the paper firm of E. Root & Co., in Maiden Lane, but the co-partnership was not successful. Later on he again went into the paper business, and by 1853 had acquired a competence, whereupon he partially withdrew from mercantile pursuits, and his health having failed he took a trip to South America. He was about to withdraw entirely from business, when he was induced, with considerable difficulty, to look into a project for laying a telegraphic cable to England. Frederick N. Gisbourne had interested Matthew D. Field, a civil engineer, and a brother of Cyrus W. Field, in a project for establishing a telegraph line between New York and St. John’s, Newfoundland, partly on poles, partly under ground, and partly under water. AtSt. John’s, the fastest steamers ever built were to sail for Ireland, and the time between the two countries was to be shortened to six days or less. A company had attempted to carry out this project, and had become bankrupt. The idea was un-American; it was unsatisfactory; much quicker communication was needed. It was not till Mr. Field conceived the idea of laying a cable direct from Newfoundland to Ireland, that he became really interested in the enterprise. He was assured by high scientific authority that the idea could be carried out. In March, 1854, Mr. Field went to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and obtained from the legislature a charter, granting an exclusive right for fifty years, to establish a telegraph line from the Continent of America to Newfoundland and thence to Europe. Then, with considerable difficulty, he obtained in New York subscriptions amounting to $1,500,000, which he thought would be sufficient. The line really cost $1,834,500, being more than 2,600 miles long. His first attempt failed in 1857. He succeeded in the following year, and then the cable became silent, and the incredulous public thought that this would end all attempts to do something that seemed miraculous. For seven years no attempt was made to lay a cable, as the Civil War intervened, but in 1865 Mr. Field again took up the enterprise, in which he had never lost faith. By this time sub-marine telegraphy had been greatly improved, a better cable was constructed, and a better machine for laying it was invented. The famous steamerGreat Easterntook the cable, but after going some 1,200 miles, the great vessel gave a lurch that broke the cable and an attempt to grapple it was unsuccessful. In 1866, however, a cable was successfully laid. A private citizen seldom receives such honors as was showered on Mr. Field, in 1866, when Europe and America realized that largely through the exertions of one man, they were joined by the Atlantic cable. He had pushed a vast project to a successful consummation in spite of incredulity, ridicule, indifference and strenuous opposition.

Peter the Hermit did not preach the crusade with more fervor and enthusiasm than this priest of commerce, so to speak, advocated the great work with which history will always link his name. If any one had, a few centuries ago, ventured to predict that the day would come when there would be six or seven cable telegraphs stretched along the ocean bed between America and Europe—along dim prehistoric valleys, four miles under water and over great sub-marine mountains—by means of which a message could be sent nearly three thousand miles and an answer received in thirty seconds; he would have been in danger of incarceration as a lunatic, or even of death on the scaffold or at the stake. This daring utilitarian age, however, has grown accustomed to startling exhibitions of human ingenuity. Mr. Field owns considerable Western Union stock, and is interested in a number of railroads, including the Manhattan Elevated. He owns one-fifth of the stock of the Acadia Coal Co., is a special partner in the grain firm of Field, Lindley & Co., and owns theMail and Express, one of the great papers of the metropolis. He has a house in Gramercy Park and a fine mansion at Irvington on an estate of about 500 acres. He is a large owner of real estate in that very pleasant section, owning some 56 houses besides considerable land. He is fully six feet in height, of light complexion, with penetrating, bluish-gray eyes, which peer sharply into those of an interlocutor. The nose is prominent, the brows knit with years of thought, the mouth and jaw indicate great decision of character. He is a man of courtly manners and exceptional abilities.

Philip D Armour

Hon. Stephen V. White is a short, compactly built, dark-complexioned man of 54. In manners he is courteous and unassuming; in business methods he is quick and straightforward. He is a Director in the Western Union and the Lackawanna road. He is a bold, dashing operator in stocks, andin Wall Street has met with considerable success. One of his greatest favorites is Lackawanna. He expects to see it some day go to 200. He has several times badly squeezed the shorts in that stock, and, now that he has practically demonstrated what they ought to have known before, namely, that the stock can easily be cornered, the bears are apt to fight shy of it. He has a largeclientele, and, being a natural leader, he has plenty of followers in his speculative campaigns. He was born in North Carolina. He was graduated from Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. He studied law in the office of the Hon. John J. Kasson, afterward United States Minister to Germany. He drifted to St. Louis, and there became a reporter for the MissouriDemocrat. He went to Des Moines, practised law for nine years, and was elected a Judge. He came to New York, and for a time practised law, but soon became a stock broker as well. He still occasionally appears as counsel in the Federal Courts, and sometimes in the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a ready and forcible speaker, full of vim and fire. He was a warm personal friend of the late Henry Ward Beecher, the grand old Chrysostom of the nineteenth century, who has left the world brighter for his memory and darker for his absence. In the frank, keen, practical financier and lawyer, and the great, warm hearted preacher, glowing with fervid idealism and generous enthusiasm and high aspirations for the human race, there were kindred qualities that made them friends. Mr. White, in 1886, was elected to Congress from Brooklyn, where he resides. He is scholarly in his tastes, well versed in the classics, and is especially fond of astronomy, for the study of which he has a fine observatory in his palatial home. He is popular in Wall Street.

L. P. Morton

Within a year Austin Corbin has become a prominent figure in the financial world, winning wide business celebrity by his identification with the reorganization of the ReadingRailroad. He is by nature the reverse of an iconoclast, namely, a builder up. He would construct rather than destroy. He would save a property if it were at all possible, and in pulling that poor, tired, financial pilgrim Reading out of the slough of despond, and in directing its way toward a primrose path of prosperity, he is engaged in a congenial task. He is about 58 years of age, and was born in Newport, New Hampshire. He studied law, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School. For a time he practised law in his native town as a partner of Ex-Governor Metcalf, of New Hampshire, but in 1851 he went to Davenport, Iowa. There he really organized the first national bank under the new system, which was to prove of such incalculable financial benefit to the nation. Mr. Corbin made the first application under the new law, but it happened to be faulty in some minor technicalities, and before their trivialities could be corrected four other national banks were organized, so that his bank became number five under the new system. He came to New York in 1865, and established a banking-house here. He is President of the Reading, Long Island, Indiana, Bloomington & Western, Elmira, Cortland & Northern, and Manhattan Beach Railroads. He is a member of the Union League, Manhattan and Saturday Night Clubs of New York, the Somerset Club of Boston, and the Conservative Club of London. He is a man of strict probity, genial in his manners, and deservedly held in high esteem.

Philip D. Armour was born in a little village near Watertown in the interior of New York State, in 1832. He is powerfully built, with broad shoulders, a large head and firm, square features and light gray eyes, that never seem excited or disturbed. His manners are quiet, composed and courteous. In 1849, leaving his native village, he went to California. He crossed the plains with a six-mule teamwhich he drove himself. He worked for a few years in the gold fields, accumulated a little capital, and in 1855 went to Milwaukee and engaged in the grain and warehouse business. He prospered moderately but steadily. Then he thought of going into the lumber business, but bought an interest in the pork packing establishment of Layton & Plankington, the former retiring. At this time he was worth half a million. He soon increased this three-fold. In the war, provisions were very high, but when Gen. Grant was closing in on the Confederacy for the final struggle that could only end in the triumph of the North, Mr. Armour saw that prices must come down with the Confederacy. He came at once to New York and began to sell pork short. He began to sell at $40 a barrel. He covered at $18 and netted, it is said, nearly two million dollars. He now enlarged his business, established new packing houses in Chicago and Kansas City as well as agencies all over the world. He has sold sixty million dollars’ worth of food products in a year. He has five thousand names on his pay roll. He has cornered pork three times within recent years, and in 1880 made, it is said, three millions in punishing bears who tried to sell the market down. A campaign against the bears in pork or meats he calls protecting his cellars. Those cellars are well protected. No bearish Ali Baba has the pass-word to go in and plunder them, and the number of cinnamons and grizzlies, big and little, who have licked their paws in rueful remembrance of the attempt are not a few. He has made millions in successful grain speculations. He invested four millions in St. Paul stock, buying it outright. He is now one of the recognized financial leaders of the country, as aggressive as a Wellington at the proper time and cautious as a Fabius when caution is the watchword of wisdom. He lives in a plain house on Prairie Avenue in Chicago, and is himself a man devoid of ostentation. He works from 7 A. M. till 6 P. M. His fortune is estimated at fifteen millions of dollars.

Hon. Levi P. Morton received his business training in the dry goods trade. Then he became a banker. He has a national reputation as a financier. He is shrewd, genial and successful. President Garfield made him Minister to France. He had previously done good service as a member of Congress. He is now in his sixty-third year. He is a lineal descendant of George Morton, one of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to this country in 1623. Mr. Morton was born in the State of New Hampshire. At 20 he became a clerk in a country store. He had to shift for himself. Necessity is the stimulus that men of real ability require. He stayed five years in the obscure New Hampshire village and then went to Boston, where he ultimately engaged in business. But New York attracted him. He embarked in the dry goods business here and went into banking afterwards, and soon laid the broad foundations for the successful firms of Morton, Bliss & Co., of New York, and Morton, Rose & Co., of London. His Congressional and diplomatic laurels followed. He filled the French Mission with great satisfaction to the French people as well as those of the American traveling public, as he was a free and generous entertainer. His large fortune has been amassed since he came to Wall Street. He has a fine villa at Newport and also one on the Hudson.

John A Stewart

John A. Stewart is President of the United States Trust Company, one of the largest banking and trust corporations in America. Its deposits are over forty millions of dollars. Its great success is largely due to the able management of President Stewart, who has in fact shown marvellous ability in the management of large financial interests. Mr. Stewart during the war period was urged by Secretary Chase to became Sub-Treasurer of the United States in this city, and he finally consented to take the position, although at a greatpersonal sacrifice, being actuated solely by a patriotic spirit. He is one of the financial lights of the metropolis, and is respected for his financial acumen and his sterling qualities as a man.

Anthony J. Drexel is the head of the house of Drexel & Co. in Philadelphia and Drexel, Morgan & Co. in New York. The house was founded by Joseph Drexel, who emigrated to this country from Germany early in the present century, and began business in Philadelphia in a small way as a sort of exchange broker. When the California gold fever broke out he made connections with parties in San Francisco and received large amounts of gold. In these transactions he got his first great start. The returns from the exchange were large. As his means increased he gradually extended his business, and finally, by thrift and diligent attention to business, he accumulated quite a snug fortune. In the end he built up a successful banking business, in which his sons became interested, and at his death inherited his wealth and the business. The elder brother died a few years ago, leaving ten million dollars to his family and to various charities. Anthony Drexel, the present head of this signally successful firm, is 55 years of age, and is a man of excellent business capacity. He is one of the successful business men of the United States.

Addison Jerome, who died some years ago, was a gigantic operator in his day, and displayed great ability in the conduct of speculative campaigns, but he went beyond his depth and disaster followed. Like many others in Wall Street, he gained his business education in the dry goods trade. He met with one of his greatest reverses in his attempt to corner Lake Shore. Others followed, one after another, and the end was financial shipwreck.

ANTHONY J. DREXEL.

yours trulyLeonard W Jerome

At this time his brother, Leonard W. Jerome, was one of the foremost men of Wall Street and was a partner of Wm. R. Travers, the firm name being Travers & Jerome. Leonard Jerome is splendidly built and nearly six feet in height. His ancestors were Huguenots. He was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, New York. His grandfather was a Presbyterian clergyman. At 14 Leonard was sent to Princeton College and was graduated with credit. He then spent three years reading law in Albany, and at 22 was admitted to the bar. He practiced law with his uncle, Judge Jerome, of Rochester. Afterward with his brother Lawrence he established a newspaper, called theRochester Native American, and he made a good editor. President Filmore appointed him Consul at Trieste. He came to Wall Street in 1854. His first operation was in putting up all he could spare, about two thousand dollars, as margin on five hundred shares of Cleveland and Toledo stock, one of the old-time speculative favorites. He bought it on a sure point from the treasurer of the road. He bought. The treasurer sold. Result: The stock fell, and Jerome lost all his spare funds. He was not discouraged. He studied Wall Street tactics, and in the end he made the treasurer pay dearly for his former success in spearing a lamb. He invested $500 in buying calls and made $5,000 within thirty days. He became a partner of William R. Travers. They were very successful on the short side of the market. He was to meet with some reverses, however. In 1862 the agent of the State of Indiana, in a manner that would have deceived the very elect, through an unauthorized issue of Indiana 5 per cent. bonds, swindled him out of $600,000 by the hypothecation of the bonds. The State repudiated the acts of its agent, and as an individual is not allowed to sue a State, Mr. Jerome was robbed of the money. Still another reverse was met in Pacific Mail. When the capital stock was increased to $20,000,000 he took 50,000 shares at 200. The price advanced soon thereafter to 243, and he sold a part of hisstock, but kept a large block of it on account of his faith in its value. At the next quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors, however, it was decided by a majority of one, five directors being present, to reduce the dividend from five to three per cent. The street was thunderstruck at the audacity of this move; the market broke, and in two hours Mr. Jerome’s stock depreciated $800,000. Still he made large gains in Pacific Mail as well as big losses. He left Wall Street years ago with an ample fortune. He went there with next to nothing, and in spite of reverses, came out a substantial victor in the financial tourney. In the war he was always enthusiastic in his devotion to the cause of the North, and subscribed with princely liberality to aid patriotic movements. When the first great Union meeting was held at the Academy of Music he paid all the expenses. He was Treasurer of the Union Defense Committee, and he likewise paid all of its incidental expenses. He was the most liberal in his contributions and the most devoted in his allegiance to the Government in its darkest and gloomiest hours. He was the founder of the fund for the benefit of the families of those who were killed or wounded in the New York riots of 1863, growing out of the draft. His checks for $10,000 and more to aid the Union arms were frequent; he contributed $35,000 toward the construction of the “Meteor,” a war vessel built to destroy the famous “Alabama” of the Confederacy. During the war Mr. Jerome purchased and held for some years the largest interest in theNew York Times, then edited by the great war editor, Henry J. Raymond, an old friend of Mr. Jerome’s. Like Mr. Travers, his early partner, Mr. Jerome has done much to encourage all out-of-door sports, especially on the race course. He established the Jerome Park Jockey Club, and became half owner in a famous speed horse which cost $40,000. No one has done more to improve the breed of blooded horses in this country than Mr. Jerome. He has also been prominent in yachting. He first owned the“Undine”; then, with Commodore McVickar, he bought the “Restless,” and still later, with Commodore James Gordon Bennett, the “Dauntless.” He paid $125,000 for the steam yacht “Clara Clarita,” which proved a failure, and since then he has not been so enthusiastic a yachtsman as formerly. He made $45,000 on the great ocean yacht race of 1866. He had much to do with introducing the taste for four-in-hands in this country. He has been a liberal patron of American art in all its branches. He paid for the musical education of a number of well-known singers, whose voices were trained in the best Italian schools. His social position has always been high, but it has been still further promoted by the marriages of his beautiful daughters. The elder, Clara, is married to Mr. Morton Frewen, a member of an old English family which long represented their shire in Parliament. Another, Leoni, married Mr. John Leslie of the Guards, and son and heir of Sir John Leslie; while Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill, the notable but erratic statesman. Leonard W. Jerome, whose history I have followed somewhat minutely, is one of the best-hearted men that Wall Street ever knew. The more he made the more he gave. He was liberal to a fault. He was never happy but when making others happy. He was a Sir Philip Sidney of chivalry and peerless generosity—a man in whom the warmest and most ingratiating traits of human nature were as natural as the winning sunniness of his disposition and the courage which once made him one of the great gladiators in the arena of Wall Street. Both he and his brother Lawrence are old members of the Union Club. Lawrence was formerly a stock broker. He had his ups and downs, and withdrew from Wall Street several years ago. He sold his seat in the Stock Exchange and placed the proceeds, about $30,000, in an annuity which insures him about $4,000 a year for the remainder of his life. This, with his other income, places him in easy circumstances and preserves his naturally cheerful disposition, rendering him one of themost companionable men in the city. He is about five feet ten inches in height, stout and of light complexion. Since the death of his old friend, Wm. R. Travers, to whom he was as Damon to Pythias, he stands pre-eminent among the wits of New York. He is the prince of metropolitan wags and wits. His friends are legion. The great, genial, warm hearted, boyish Larry Jerome, as his friends love to call him, is literally a man without an enemy, and long may he live to brighten society with his happy exuberance of spirits, his scintillating humor and his brilliant wit.

Addison Cammack is about sixty years of age and was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was reared in comfortable but humble circumstances. Early in life he began his business career as a clerk in the house of J. P. Whitney & Co., then the largest ship brokers in New Orleans. He showed decided business talent, and ultimately became a partner in the firm. In the early part of the Civil War he was located in Havana, but in 1863 he went to London and and engaged in business and speculation there. He returned to this country in two years, and in 1866 embarked in the wholesale liquor business in New York with J. W. George, the firm being J. W. George & Co. In about two years the firm was dissolved and Mr. Cammack became a member of the Stock Exchange, having previously formed a co-partnership with the late Chas. J. Osborn, under the name of Osborn & Cammack. This co-partnership, after some years of great prosperity, was dissolved, and since then Mr. Cammack has been an operator on his own account. In this capacity he has become widely known. He is a shrewd operator, and quickly changes his mind if he thinks he has been wrong. He jumps from one side of the market to the other with the greatest celerity when occasion demands it, but in the main he seems most at home on the bear side. In bear operations he has met with some reverses, while in thisdirection he has also made millions. He seems to place great faith in Benner’s book of “Financial Prophecies.” At times he operates on a very large scale, and he has been known to cover fifty thousand shares of stock in a single day. He is tall, well built, and has strong features, with keen, gray eyes. In manners he is very democratic and candid, and occasionally somewhat bluff; but he is a man of generous impulses, very charitable, and has plenty of friends, both for his financial acumen and for his qualities as a man who never deserts his friends, and who has not a few of the characteristics of mediæval chivalry joined to the shrewd practicality of a great stock operator of this practical epoch.

Very RespectfullyAddison Cammack

Russell Sage is one of the best known of Wall Street celebrities. He was born seventy years ago in Oneida county, of this State. As a boy, he was employed in a country general store, beginning life in this fashion at 14. His business aptitude early manifested itself, and at 20 he bought out his employer in Troy, to which he had in the meantime removed. He became later on a member of the Troy Board of Aldermen, served seven years, and was then elected Treasurer. Still later he was elected to Congress, serving from 1853 to 1857. He started the project of purchasing Mount Vernon and making it a national domain, and took great pride in the success which attended his efforts in this direction. While in Congress he became connected with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and later Vice-President of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, also for a time its acting president. He is now a director in the Gould telegraph and railroad systems, is interested in a number of trust companies and is also said to own a large amount of stock in the Importers’ and Traders’ Bank. He is the king of puts and calls. He has usually been successful in writing privileges, but in the summer of 1884, when the market broke so badly as to produce a panic, Mr. Sagemet with a decided reverse. He had sold a large number of puts, and the loss was several million dollars. He is known as, in one sense, the largest capitalist of Wall Street, inasmuch as he keeps the largest cash balance. It runs far up in the millions, giving him quick resources with which to carry out any project that may seem desirable. He is quiet and simple in his habits, making no display. He lives on Fifth Avenue, and also has a place at Babylon, Long Island. He is worth about twenty millions. He is tall, light complexioned, with keen, gray eyes, and in Wall Street might be taken for a country gentleman seeing the sights.

Chauncey M. Depew owes his rise to native abilities and the friendship of the Vanderbilt family, which he has thoroughly merited. He made the acquaintance of Wm. H. Vanderbilt about the year 1866 and became the attorney of the New York and Harlem Railroad. On the union of the New York Central and Harlem roads, in 1869, he was appointed attorney of the consolidated company, and in 1875 he was made general counsel. A few years previous he had been elected director of the New York Central road, and subsequently became a director in the Chicago and Northwestern, Michigan Central, St. Paul and Omaha, the Lake Shore and the Nickel Plate. In 1882 he was elected second vice-president of the New York Central, and in 1885 succeeded Mr. Rutter as president of that great railroad. He was born in Peekskill in 1834, and comes of an old French Huguenot family. He still owns the homestead purchased two hundred years ago by his ancestors. His mother is a descendant of the brother of Roger Sherman, of revolutionary fame. Mr. Depew was graduated from Yale College in 1856, and three years later was admitted to the bar. In 1862 he was elected to the New York Assembly and acted as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means and part of the time as Speaker. In 1863, the year after GovernorSeymour’s election, Mr. Depew was a candidate for Secretary of State on the Republican ticket, overcame the Democratic ascendancy, and was elected by about thirty thousand votes. He declined re-election and was appointed Minister to Japan by Secretary Seward. He held the post several years, and resigned it to resume business. His commission as Collector of the Port of New York was once made out by President Johnson, but in consequence of Senator E. D. Morgan’s refusal to sustain Mr. Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights bill the President never sent the nomination to the Senate, but tore it up in a rage. In 1872 Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of New York on the Liberal-Republican ticket, and was defeated. Two years later the Legislature elected him Regent of the State University. He served one year as one of the Commissioners to build the new Capitol at Albany. In the memorable contest for the United States Senatorship in 1881, Mr. Depew for eighty-two days received the votes of three-fourths of the Republican members, retiring then to ensure the election of Warner Miller. Mr. Depew is President of the Union League and a member of many other clubs and societies, and is very popular wherever he is known. He is one of the wittiest and readiest after-dinner speakers in this country, and when occasion requires, rises to the height of a born orator. His tastes seem to be those of a statesman and a scholar rather than those of a financier in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but his conservative and able administration of his office as President of one of the greatest trunk lines in this country, reveals a thorough apprehension of railroad problems and a natural capacity for whatever duties may be imposed upon him. His great versatility is exemplified by the fact that he has succeeded in law, politics and railroad management.

Russell Sage

James M. Brown, the banker, was born in New York city, and is about 65 years of age. He is ex-President of the Chamberof Commerce, and is held in general esteem and respect. The house of Brown Bros. & Co., in which he is now the senior member, has an interesting history. Early in the present century Alexander Brown came from Belfast, Ireland, to this country, and settled in Baltimore, where he engaged in the dry goods business under the firm name of Alexander Brown & Sons. Subsequently the firm comprised five sons of Alexander Brown. The business of the dry goods firm prospered, and branch houses were established in Philadelphia, New York and Liverpool, a son going to each of these cities to represent the parent house in Baltimore. In New York and Philadelphia the style of the firm was Brown Brothers & Co., as the father had died in the meantime. In Liverpool they associated with them Mr. Shipley, and the firm there was Brown, Shipley & Co. Another house was established in London later on under the same title as the Liverpool firm. All the houses were still engaged in the dry goods trade. Here in New York, in which we are more particularly interested, the firm made advances on cotton, and received linens from abroad, and also orders to buy cotton for Liverpool. Gradually the house began to make larger advances to planters and others engaged in the cotton trade, and finally the banking business became so large as to swallow up the dry goods trade and the house thereupon dropped merchandise and became bankers. Later on a branch house was established in Boston, and at times it has had branch houses in New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston, Savannah and Charleston conducted under the name of the parent firm. At present it has houses in London, Liverpool, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans. All of the original Brown brothers are dead. James M. Brown is a near relative of James Brown, whose picture appears, and who was the original head of the house in New York. James M. Brown did not enter the house in his youth. He was for years the senior member of the dry goods house of Brown,Seaver & Dunbar. On the dissolution of this firm James M. Brown became a partner in the house of which, by reason of his years and large experience, he may be considered the head. The other partners here are Howard Potter, John Crosby Brown, Charles D. Dickey, Waldron Post Brown, a son of James M. Brown, and W. F. Halsey. The New York partners are interested in the branch houses in this country and abroad. James M. Brown was a member of the famous Committee of Seventy which contributed to the downfall of the Tweed Ring in this city. He is of the medium height and florid complexion, well preserved, genial in manners, and is a man of high character.

Yours Very Truly.Chauncey M. Depew.

A small, slightly built gentleman with iron gray side whiskers, a refined face and expressive gray eyes, is one of the notable figures in Wall Street. It is Edmund Clarence Stedman, the banker poet. He was born in a small town in Connecticut in 1833, studied at Yale, entered journalism in 1852, came to New York in 1855, and soon began to contribute poems to theNew York Tribune. He became a war correspondent for theWorldon the outbreak of the rebellion, and continued in this capacity till 1863. In that year he became private secretary to Attorney-General Bates at Washington. Meantime he studied law, and contributed to theAtlantic Monthlyand other leading magazines. As a poet, he holds high rank; as a writer of polished, graceful prose he has few equals; as a thorough gentleman and a scrupulous man of business he is held in the highest respect. Through the imprudence of another he has within a few years met with some financial reverses, which he met courageously and honorably, and he is now well on his way towards his former position of financial ease. Although a poet, he understands Wall Street business thoroughly, and is considered a keen judge of financial opportunities.

Victor H. Newcombe was born in Louisville, Kentucky, about 48 years ago. His father was President of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the son succeeded the father in that position. The elder Newcombe was a financial power in Kentucky. He was sagacious and far-seeing. In every respect, he was an excellent business man. Victor Newcombe has fallen heir to his father’s laurels and is a successful operator in Wall Street. He has achieved signal success in most of the campaigns in which he has engaged, whether on the bull or the bear side of the market. He is cautious, and turns quickly when he thinks there is occasion. He seems to act on the French saying, that “only a fool never changes his mind.” He lives in fine style on Fifth avenue, and also has a beautiful residence at Elberon. He is one of a number of prominent gentlemen from the South who have enrolled themselves among the citizens and taxpayers of New York. He is an ex-director in the New York & New England road, and a prominent member of the Union and Tuxedo Park Clubs.

Moses Taylor, now deceased, was one of the notable figures in Wall Street life for many years. He started as a South street merchant, after having been a clerk with G. G. & S. Howland. Wm. H. Aspinwall was also a clerk with that house at the same time. When Mr. Taylor gave up his situation to embark in business for himself, Mr. Aspinwall was admitted into the Howland firm as a junior partner. Moses Taylor was a man governed largely by intuition. There was little argument; with him, so to speak, it was a word and a blow. Having formed his impression and taken his quick resolution, there was no length to which he would not go in the transaction, either in buying or selling or advancing money. He was President of the City Bank and owned a large amount of its stock. Under his administration the bank was wonderfully successful. His son-in-law Percy R.Pyne, is now its President. Moses Taylor was a valuable aid to the Union cause during the war. He was a close friend of Secretary Chase, and whenever the Government needed the assistance of the banks, the Secretary’s influence with the great merchant speedily brought about the desired result. Moses Taylor realized the fact that the support of the Government by the entire banking system was an imperative necessity. The presidents of the banks would be called together on one of these appeals from the Secretary of the Treasury, and whatever action Mr. Taylor favored would be adopted, so strong was his influence, and so high his standing as a merchant and financier. He accumulated wealth very fast in connection with the sugar branch of his business. Most of the large sugar planters consigned their product to his firm, and they were also governed by his superior judgment in investing their money, so that he always had important connections with Wall Street, a fact that entitles him to a place in this book. While investing millions for Cuban capitalists, he also invested very largely for himself. Moses Taylor was the first to discover the value of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Coal property, and while the stock was kicked about Wall Street, because the company was bankrupt, he picked it up at a few cents on the dollar, and made millions of dollars from this investment alone. At his death he was one of the largest owners of the stock, as his faith in it was so strong that he had refused to sell it, even though the price had risen above 140. He died worth at least forty millions of dollars. He had no social aspirations, and no interest in anything but business. It was his idol. Few men have been harder workers from early in life up to their last days. He never felt that he could spare time for recreation, and was seldom known during his long business career to leave the city over night, summer or winter, except on business. Moses Taylor had for partners in his business his son-in-law Percy R. Pyne and Lawrence Turnure, both excellent businessmen, and Mr. Taylor owed much of his success to the selection of these gentlemen to aid in the management of his affairs. Mr. Taylor placed in the hands of these two gentlemen, especially during the last ten years of his life, the laboring oar of his vast business, and the successful results are the evidence of their sagacity and marvellous ability.

James Brown

Anthony W. Morse was once one of the remarkable men of Wall Street. He made $150,000 in speculation, bought a yacht and went to Europe during the war. While in England, he mingled with the aristocracy, and became strongly imbued with the idea that the North would not be successful in the war, and that the National currency would become almost valueless. He thought that the more the National currency depreciated, the more railroad stocks and bonds would advance; in short, that whatever the currency would buy would advance, while the currency itself would become nearly worthless. He therefore became a rampant bull on stocks. He bought almost the whole list, and also did a large business in buying for others whom he succeeded in impressing with his own ideas. He had many followers and made a tremendous inflation. Secretary of the Treasury Chase was advised of this Morse speculation, which might prove prejudicial to the National credit, and he announced that if the inflation was carried any further, he would prick the bubble by selling gold. Anthony W. Morse thereupon personally sent Secretary Chase a dispatch saying that he would take all the gold that the United States Government had to sell. Mr. Chase immediately ordered Assistant Treasurer John J. Cisco to sell $10,000,000 of gold to the highest bidders. The usual notice appeared in the morning newspapers, and a panic at once followed. At 12 o’clock, or two hours after the opening of the Exchange, it was announced from the rostrum that Anthony W. Morse had failed. This terminatedthe career of Mr. Morse as a large operator and manipulator, and with his downfall the death knell was sounded to his imported theories. He straggled manfully for several years to regain his footing, but his prestige was gone, and he failed in every effort to push his way again to the front. His ill-success soured him. His health failed, and he went to Havana to recuperate. There he died with profanity on his lips, enraged at the failure of all his hopes. He paid the penalty of disloyalty. His friends of the English nobility were largely to blame for all his misfortunes. Their predictions of the success of the South led him on to irretrievable ruin. He did not see that their wish was father to the thought.

Edmund Clarence Stedman

Henry Keep, once President of the Lake Shore road, and also of the New York Central, was in his day a power in Wall Street. He was the first to discover the intrinsic value of railroad property in the Northwest, and manipulated Chicago & Northwestern stock, both common and preferred, very successfully, making a great deal of money for himself and friends. He died very wealthy. He came to New York city from Watertown, in the interior of New York, and at first was an exchange broker, dealing mainly in uncurrent money. He had previously served in some humble position on a railroad. By careful and economical habits he was able to leave a fortune of several million dollars, largely in common and preferred Northwestern stock. The plot of ground on which William H. Vanderbilt built his palatial Fifth Avenue home was once the property of Mr. Keep, who originally bought it for about $250,000 for the purpose of building a charitable institution, but changed his mind when the property quadrupled in value. Then he concluded that charity should begin at home. He sold the plot, extending for one block along Fifth Avenue, to Mr. Vanderbilt for one million dollars. Still his original intentionswere good, and it was only after the real estate market, as with Satanic malice, had in that locality advanced 400 per cent. and taken him up into a high mountain of temptation, that his philanthropical project turned awry and lost the name of action. While Mr. Keep made a signally good President of the Lake Shore road and was a great manipulator of stocks, he was a failure as President of the New York Central, and he resigned that post having no confidence in the future of the property. Commodore Vanderbilt, who believed in the property, became his successor, and in a previous chapter I have given the story of the rise of that remarkable man. It is of interest to recall, by the way, that while President of the Lake Shore road Mr. Keep went largely short of the stock. As the President he naturally had inside information. Addison Jerome, a brother of Leonard Jerome, was a big operator of the day, and undertook to corner President Keep. In those days a great deal of stock was sold on seller’s option for thirty and sixty days. Mr. Keep had sold largely in this way, and Addison Jerome and his clique had bought heavily, expecting that the corner would be complete when the options should mature. A surprise awaited them. Mr. Keep made deliveries promptly in brand new shares. They were really an over-issue by the Company. It was a Waterloo in a double sense for Jerome and his fellow bulls. They were in over their heads. It had such a dampening effect that they immediately threw up the sponge and the stock came down with a crash. The issue of this new stock was smoothed over by turning the avails into the treasury of the Company, a fact, however, which did not prevent Mr. Keep from making a pretty good turn on his shorts.

J. Pierpont Morgan, known as the “Railroad Reorganizer,” and who has won a place in the front rank among American financiers, is a son of the well-known Junius S.Morgan, the head of the firm of J. S. Morgan & Co., of London, and the successor of George Peabody, the great philanthropist in the banking business there. George Peabody, some years before his death, visited this country, and, desiring a partner in his great banking house, made inquiry in Boston for a suitable person. Junius S. Morgan was recommended as a young man of exceptional business talents and he was selected for the responsible post, the firm being known as George Peabody & Co. On the death of the celebrated head of the firm, the name was changed to J. S. Morgan & Co. The success of the father has been repeated in the signally successful career of the son. During the palmy days of the firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., once renowned among the financial strongholds of the country, J. Pierpont Morgan was one of the clerks. It was there he graduated as a practical student of financial achievements; it was there he won his spurs for the monetary campaigns that awaited him. Leaving the house that was then a synonym for invincible solidity, Mr. Morgan established the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co. Mr. Dabney was formerly one of the firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co. After a few years the firm in which Mr. Morgan had thus first engaged in business on his own account was dissolved. But the check, if it may so be termed, was only momentary, and colossal feats of financiering were to deck his career with triumphs. He formed a connection with the wealthy Drexels, of Philadelphia, and a New York branch of their banking house was established, under the name of Drexel, Morgan & Co., which has for some years been largely engaged in the reorganization of crippled railroads like the West Shore, Reading and many others. And they have been very successful. They have been financial physicians, healing sick corporate bodies; monetary surgeons, amputating needless expenditures and reckless methods; or, in perhaps more happy figure, skilful pruners of the vine, that the ultimate vintage might be more abundant.

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