JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JUN

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12955, 26 August 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JUN

At the services' of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, New York, a lew Sundays ago, the eyes of the large and fashionable congregation were centred upon two men. One was tall, broad-shouldered, with long arms and big hands, his whole frame, though somewhat bent by the weight of years, suggesting great strength; the other was a little below the medium height, thick set, and with a face whose pallor was" in strong contrast to the ruddy, healthy complexion of the older man. The tall man looked no more than 50 years of age, though he is in reality 66; the smaller man was to all appearances between 40 and 45 years old, though he has barely reached his thirtieth year. These two interesting personages were John D. Rockefeller and John J). Rockefeller, juti.

It was the first Sunday home for young Rockefeller, after a five months' sojourn in Europe for rest, and recreation, but his drawn and pallid face and listless eyes showed that his long stay abroad had been of little benefit. The wealthiest young man in the world, John D. Rockefeller, jiin., has succumbed to overwork. His father, in speaking of his son's health, said : " He will get better. All he needs is rest. He was always so willing and anxious to work that I. am afraid we have crowded a little too much on him. We must simply let up a, bit and he will got well." Some folks have remarked "Why is it that a man with Mr. Rockefeller's wealth has to work so bard as to make him ill?" These folks do not know the young Mr. Rockefeller, who is patterned after his father's own heart. Work is a pleasure to him. • He was early taught that the true secret of happiness was labour, and he has consecrated his life to work; he finds pleasure, recreation, and diversion in it, and all the wealth in the world would not for one moment make him idle.

With the gradual and systematic withdrawal from active business participation in his various business enterprises Mr. John D. Rockefeller, sen., has finally secluded himself from the public eye, and coincident with this subsidence is the greater projection of his son and namesake—the world's prospective) billionaire. Consequently the permanent impairment of the young man's health would be a great blow to his family, for hip whole training has been to make him successor to his father, Ho has been taught the value of money, and he is more careful of his pennies vhan many a man is of the dollars. Through' methods, inexorable as the laws of nature, nothing ever goes to waste in the Rockcfollot household. From morning fill night the daily routine is one of studied economy hi its every phase, bordering on asceticism.

Mr. Rockefeller rises every morning at six o'clock, ami is at his desk at No. 26, Broadway, at nine. He works uninterruptedly until two o'clock in the afternoon, when he is wont to go to a small restaurant in Broad-street, wlicrj he eats simple and 'frugal lunch, the expense for which meal seldom exceeds thirty cents. He is quickly back again at his desk, and leaves for his homo at live o'clock. After dinner he receives friends, reads some of bis books, his favourite author being Victor Hugo), the life of Napoleon, and various religious works. He is passionately fond of music, and is an apt pupil on the violin, which he often plays v. bile accompanied by his wife on the piano. He makes it a mile to retire every night at ten o'clock.

As the successor of his father he is one of the most powerful men'in the world of business. He is a director in the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, the National City Bank, the billion dollar Steel Corporation, the American Linseed Oil Company, the Federal Mining and Smelting Company, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the' Standard Oil Company: president of the American Postal and Newspaper Tube Company, and a trustee of the University of Chicago. Financiers say lie could corner the worlds wheal- supply ' and bring an international war to an end; could buy and close, the biggest banks in the country and even precipitate a panic: and could ruin thousands by increasing the price of commodities which he absolutely controls. But there is no danger of.Mr. Rockefeller ever doing any of these things, no matter how great his power. His is a nature as sympathetic and gentle as a woman's, and a. man who spends all his leisure time in religious work, in preaching and talkiii" to men of all classes and conditions, has not in him the brutal characteristics of a. tyrant. In spite of all his wealth there is nothing of the fashionable typo in. Mr Rockefeller's make-up, arid no likelihood that there ever will be. He is simple in bis tastes, habits, and desires. Few men have greater regard for a, father than young Mr. Rockefeller has for his fa'parent. It amounts almost to a wor]lip_a touching, tender affectum, an apotheosis of filial love seldom witnessed. Dropping in one morning at young Mr. Rockefeller's Bible class just as lie was addressing the young men, his lather turned to a beamier and said: "I would rather sec my son doing this thankee him a monarch sitting on his throne.