KING OF MILLIONAIRES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13890, 26 October 1905, Page 10

KING OF MILLIONAIRES.

John D. Rockefeller is the subject of a character sketch; remarkable fm- its outspoken language, which appeal's in the August number of tne publication, “ M’Clure’s Magazine.” The writer is Miss M. Barbell, and after quoting what Mark Hanna said of Rockefeller —“ Money mad, money mad: sane in every other respect, but money mad ” —she goes on to describe" him thus:— “The impression he makes on one who secs him for the first time is overwhelming. Brought face to face with Mr .Rockefeller unexpectedly, and not knowing him, the writer’s immediate thought was, ‘ This is the oldest man in the world—a living mummy.’ But there is no sense of feebleness with the sense of age; indeed, there is one of terrific power. The disease which in the last three or four years has swept Mr Rockefeller’s head free of hair, stripped away even eyelashes and eyebrows, has revealed all ,the strength of his great head. Mr Rockefeller is a big man, not over-tall, but large, with powerful shoulders, and a neck like that of a bull. “ EYES LIKE A WALL.” “ The head is wide and deep and disproportionately high, with curious bumps, made more conspicuous by the tightly-drawn, dry, naked skin. The interest in tho big face lies in the eyes and,mouth. Eyes more useful for a man of Mr Rockefeller’s practices could "hardly be conceived. They are small and intent and steady, and they are as expressionless as a wall. But if the eyes say nothing the mouth tells much. It is only a slit—the lips are quite lost, as if by eternal grinding together of tho teeth—teeth set on something he would have. It is one of the .cruellest features of his face, this mouth, the cruellest and most pathetic, for the hard, closeset line slants downward at the corners, giving a look of age and sadness. The downward droop is emphasised by deep, vertical furrows running from each side of his nose. Mr Rockefeller may have made himself the richest man in the world, but he has paid. Nothing but paying ever ploughs such 'ines in a man’s face, ever sets his lips to such a melancholy angle. 1 “To the whole face a certain distinction is lent by the nose, which is small and fine, rising like a thorn from between the heavy cheeks—a nose whose nostrils might vibrate were not the in an so much the master of his features. Altogether it is a strange and powerful head, and one cannot look on it and ever forget it.” HIS OTHER SIDE. Miss Tarbell turns to the other side of .Rockefeller. “There is,” she says, “iprobably not a public character in the United States whose private life is more completely concealed than is that of John D. Rockefeller. The club never sees him. He is almost never numbered among the banqueters at great celebrations. He never appears on the platform when men of public importance gather to discuss public questions "or stimulate to action in public causes. His opinions on great issues are never quoted. His three homes are all unpretending, even to the point of being conspicuous. “ There is little doubt that Mr Rockefeller's chief reason for playing golf is that ho may live longer, in order to make more money. ‘He has two ambitions,’ a lifelong intimate of Mr Rockefeller once said. ‘To be very old, and to be very rich.’ He is sixtysix years old now. “ The daily life on his great estates is studiously simple. On. every hand there is frugality and carefulness. “He is not a great man,” she concludes; “not a human man. He is a machine—a money machine—stripped by his overwhelming passion of greed of' every quality whicn makes a man worthy of citizenship. He has not made good. He cannot make good. It is not in him.” ■