CHARACTER SKETCHES

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 18

CHARACTER SKETCHES

ft- J PIERPONT MORGAN A GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIER. In the December. “Munseys’s,” Mr John Paul Bocock has a brief but interesting ■ article on ‘‘America’s foremost Financier,’* Mr J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr Bocock describes the head of the banking firm of J. Pierpont Morgan and Co., the greatest power in Wall street, as a man distinguished not only for his large charity, but for his even more unusual modesty or hatred of notoriety—whatever it is that makes him insist on the anonymity of his great gifts. Although he has given away some 5,000,000d015., not a single institution which lias benefited by his generosity bears his name.

His abhorrence of notoriety is one of the strong factors m his personal equation. Others are his impervious will, his acuteness of thought, and Ins brevity of speech. Another powerful factor is his physique. Six feet in height, with the shoulders and chest of an athlete, he is, with all his 200 and more pounds of weight, so quick in his movements as to force upon all beholders the conclusion that here indeed is a man both intellectually and physically in touch with the foremost forces ot his time.

AN ACCESSIBLE MAN. A railroad president from a not far distant state, whose name was also identified with an institution of learning, called one morning, not many years ago, at 23 Wall street, and asked to see Mr Morgan. A peculiarity of the banking house is that almost anybody can see Mr Morgan who wants to. He does not sit in a sanctum shut away by mahogany doors from the surging life of the place. Behind a long glass partition, to the right as one enters, and beginning about- thirty feet from the street entrance, stands the desks of the partners : Robert Bacon, C. H. Coster (who died recently), George S. Bowdoin, Temple Bowdoin, and W. P. Hamilton, the latter Mr Morgan’s son-in-law. At the far end of the line sits Pierpont Morgan himself, by a broad, low desk, in a pivot chair, on which he swings him - self freely as his attention is directed, now here, now there. Desk and chair are alike plain, business-like, and unsuggestive of magnificent enterprises.

Around the room are men waiting, hat in hand, watching the opportunity to approach and speak. Mr Morgan holds a long, gold-banded cigar betwe in the fingers of his left hand, enjoying a dry smoke. His clothes are of a man of the world ; bis ciosely-tr.mined grey hair, smooth—»h iron face, mid heavy moustache shows that he takes care of himself. To him entered the railroad president, smiling, to be eloquent, but not to be abashed.

‘'This, ,sir,' said he, presently, referring to the proposition he had just outlined, { 'is a gilt-edged opportunity. You must not think cur stock is going begging. lam ready to put the matter through myself, but—” - “I don’t see, then, that you need me at all/' said Mr Morgan quietly. And he turned to> the next comer.

On a fair estimate of his annual gains, each minute of his working hours is worth at least forty dollars. It ought to be dangerous to waste the time of such a man —and it is.

Mr Morgan’s chief recreation is-yacht-ing. He was, for years, commodore of "the New York Yacht Club. His new yacht, The Corsair, is a big' black, ocean-going steamer of 1136 tons, which cost 500,000d015. Once aboard her Mr Morgan throws off business cares, and becomes a genial host and companion. HIS VAST INTERESTS. Of the corporations whose management _ Pierpont Morgan dictates, the most important are the railroads, fu others, like the General Electric Company, he retains an abiding interest. In others still, like the Federal Steel, company and the National Tube Company, he was interested only in their formative period, when they needed both promoting and financing. Of the way in which the Federal Steel Company was formed, President Gary said to the Industrial Commission, sitting in Washington a few weeks ago : “Mr J. Pierpont Morgan really effected the union, and brought the separate companies together. Between 200,000,000 dollars and 300,000,000 dollars was given to him, and with this he bougnc a controlling interest in _gach of the corporations, paying.his own expenses/’