THE MILLIONAIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 12722, 27 January 1906, Page 4

THE MILLIONAIRE.

I first say him. in the smoking room of the Twentieth Century Ikpress, where, surrounded by admiring friends, he was holding forth about 30 per cent, propositions. The sharp outline of Jus face suggested a brain as keen as a razor’s edge, while tb© deep lines aboyt his mouth told of the constant strain of his fife. Now, for aught X knew, be might bo the great P. M. (Morgan) or the still greater R. (Rockefeller). The ’question, was how to approach his majesty. I lay awake that night tossing in my bunk to the music of tho wheels, until it occurred to me that the great man probably aie breakfast. In spite of tho adoration of his worshippers, lie probably ato something, if it was only dollar notes. Next morning, therefore, I entrenched myself near his table to await his arrival. He appeared with a lurid light in his eyos. Mr Crnmpster, as I learned, his name to be, had ordered his breakfast by telegram, and tho fact that the special dishes had not arrived made ' him nearly apoplectic. In vain the conductor of the car excused himself; in vairi he pleaded that he had- not received the -telegram. Tho special dish that he had ordered was not there. The conductor was told that he would be reported, arid find out that a millionaire’s word was law. ’ “ I guess you’re a stranger,” ho said, noticing astonished look. “But you will soon find -*it that you don’t get anything done in this country unless yon use strong language.” His eggs and his griddle-cake had happily a calming effect, and now was my opportunity of drawing him into talk before his satellites appeared on tho scene. As a promising' opening, I touched gently on the wonderful resources of his country and the amazing wealth and energy of its citizens. This baited the hook successfully, and my fish rose.

“You do more in one day,” I said, “than an Englishman does in a week.’" “ That's about right,” said the millionaire. And then relaxing into a smile, “ Come and spend a day with me; I’ll iake you straight home with mo, and ran you round my works and show you how much we can do in sixteen hours.”

“Is that the usual length of your day?” I asked. “ Yah,” said he. We were on the road to Chicago, and it was his intention to get out at Z and just take me round.

“And now,” said he, “Til just make my day as typical as I can. When I get to my office in Z I shall find a mail waiting for me. Shall we say fifty letters? ” There were just about that number in his office, and it took him an hour to ran them through and to giro orders to half a dozen clerks to answer them. The rapidity with which this was done was astonishing. “ I have had to fire a ,devil of a lot of clerks before I got good ones,” he explained. “When I came hero there were a number of elderly men. who bad been ten to twentyyears in the firm, and the old boss ho had kept them on because he had had them so long.”

“ Why, that,” he said, emphatically, “ was the very reason for firing them. There’s no room for sentiment in business, and a joint stock company is not an institution for supporting the old and incapable.” “Why, hang it! ” said he, as he waited for my applause, “ I’ve got to think of the interests of my shareholders, and I can’t spend their money in, running a Nazareth house.” After an hour in ihe office, the motor car was waiting to ( ako us to the works. As the motor sped some tcu miles into the country where the iron and steel works of and Co. stand, lire millionaire was plunged in thought. He was evidently thinking cut some very deep proposition. I followed him round the foundry fairly panting for breath. His eagle eye seemed to take iu everything, and woe betide any- workman who was seen loitering at his job. As a matter of fact, the difference between the English and the American mechanic seemed to me to bo that the American never loitered. Certainly the way the men handled the hissing bars of iron as they shot oat of the

furnace, seizing them -with nimble tongs and ' sending them twisting and writhing back on, . to the rollers, was,- as-Mr Orompster said, “all right.” “They look like so many fiery serpents darting round,” raid I, referring to the writhing rods of ied-Bot iron.''‘ '! '’' ; Mr Orampster and shut fcis jaw. “ Yah! ” 'hfe said. Ho evidently thought thaj> I was a maniac, and I recalled his 1 statement —“ 'There’s- no room ' for sentiment : in ’ ihy business”—and held my tongue. ‘ Later I gained'a clue to his contemptuous “Yahl” when he asked me during tpe rdaxatiom of lunch why I called his men “fiery serpents.’’ “Is that your term for union hands?” he asked; “because wo don’t keep any.” ■ Another hour was spent in the office at tho I works, interviewing'the various managers and j giving them instructions. One of the superintendents was fired because he had forgotten to write ’ a letter.

“Tve no use for foegotfnl people,” said Mx Orumpster. “ Don’t het me sob your faCo again.” And so to lunch, which was a bully meal, as they say. Mr Crumps ter was a prodigious eater. I reminded him that all great men eat heartily, from Julius- Csjsar, who hated lean men about him, to Dr Johnson and Napoleon. This pleased'him. We were allowed an hour for lunch, and then off again to visit another factory some five miles off. This concern was nob doing as well as it should iii Mr Cnimpsteris opinion, and he fairly fumed round the place. “It ■ gives them all a fright and bucks' ’em up when I come down and swear a bit,” be explained. “ You can’t get anything done in this country,” ha remarked, “ unless you swear at ’em all the time.” “I seem to have heard that before somewhere,” I remarked,. Mr Crurrrpster snorted a fierce “Yahl I said it this morning,” he added. He then relapsed into silence as we sped back to Z in the automobile. Suddenly he gripped my arm. “ D’you sea that little house right there ? ” said he. It was a small wooden shanty on the outskirts of the town. “ That’s where I lived as a boy before I got a job as a chucker in the foundry.” He then proceeded to tell me his history, of his early determination to better himself, of his labor at the night schools, and finally of liis invention of an improved pneumatic drill, which gave him his first chance of promotion. By selling the idea he accumulated a little capital, and by lucky investments doubled it and trebled it, until he became tho president of the company owning the large works which we had seen to-day. His story was cut short by tho motor drawing up before a stately house. “ After dinner,” said he, “ I must do some more work; but the next few hours belong to my wife.” Mrs Orumpster was a little woman, with an unceasing flow of talk which kept us all entertained. Her vivacity was a great relief after the hard Work of the day, and Mr' Cmmpster laughed till tho tears roiled down his cheeks. His table was laden with the best, but of vulgar display there was none. Released from his work, the millionaire became a genial companion and a most excellent host, and the pleasantest evening I spent in America was in his house.— “H.F.5.,” in the ‘Westminster Gazette.’