Rich Men

THE PORTRAIT OF A BANKER--Anna Robeson Burr--Duffield ($5).

COMMODORE VANDERBILT--Arthur D. Howden Smith--McBride ($5).

CERTAIN RICH MEN--Meade Min-nigerode--Putnam ($3.50).

P:James Stillman, silent president of the National City Bank of New York, tranquil friend of a few intimates speaks: "[During the Gold Panic of 1894 the U. S. Treasury begged [J. P.] Morgan for 50 millions, which he refused, thundering 'Impossible!' Then they came to me and I went 'round to see what I could do: He was greatly upset and overcharged, nearly wept, put his head in his hands and cried: 'They expect the impossible!' So I calmed him down and told him to give me an hour and by that time I cabled for ten millions from Europe for the Standard Oil and ten more from other resources and came back. I told him: 'I have twenty millions.'

" 'Where did you get them?' And when he heard--il bondit de 1'abime de desespoir au pinnacle de bonheur, and became perfectly bombastic and triumphant, as the Savior of his Country. . . . You see, he is a poet; Morgan is a poet."

Again silent Banker Stillman speaks. In England, he learned that Mr. Morgan was living alone. So he paid a call one hot June morning. "Morgan asked, 'What brought you here to see me, Stillman?' I answered, 'Oh, I thought you might be lonely.' Whereat Morgan jumped up from the table and ran around and kissed me on the cheek!"

James Stiilman, whom Wall Street cursed as an unapproachable legend of money power, had the gift to see himself as others saw him, and more. He saw exactly what he willed to do, and with almost as much preciseness what others planned. He had the trick of completing another's thoughts. That was at times embarrassing to him, for it gave him a reputation for wizardry which he disclaimed. Near his death, in 1918, he spoke again: " 'Twasn't the money we were after; 'twas the power. We were all playing for power. It was a great, game." And most of his potent play-fellows in that game--among them John D. Rockefeller, Edward H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff--liked him sincerely, warmly.

P:Far different from Banker Stillman was Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, whom his biographer in a lauding paragraph describes: "This, gaunt, dyspeptic, foulmouthed, egotistical old man had a genuine gift, of vision, a gift that wasn't the less genuine because it was attended by an almost incredible degree of superstition. He could focus those cold blue eyes of his upon the chaos of the Civil War and the turmoil of the years that followed, and through all the welter of graft, animosity, bigotry, dishonesty, misdirected energy and honest endeavor, he could see that the day of the railroad was at hand." In those crapulous times, 50 years ago, he was no nicer than others, and far more energetic. They splashed their financial muck like gamins; he heaped his in piles, out of which he built the adobe bricks of his fortune. When he died, in 1876, he practically owned the New York Central. From his wealth went $1,000,000 to found Vanderbilt College, and $50,000 to buy a church for a friendly preacher. His descendants have given away far more. P:[ The certain rich men are Stephen Girard (1750-1831) the Merchant Banker, John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) the Fortune Maker, Jay Cooke (1821-95) the Tycoon, Daniel Drew (1797-1879) the Old Man of the Street, Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1876) the Commodore, Jay Gould (1836-92) the Wizard of Wall Street,, and Jim Fisk (1834-72) the Mountebank. By his epithets Author Minnigerode foretells his biographical technique. It is journalistic, _ a bold penciling of his subjects' traits and activities. The only admirable one of the rich men, as here sketched, was Jay Cooke, and he brought ruin to his investors.

The Authors. Anna Robeson Burr published her first novels under a scrupulous anonymity. Many years ago she wrote The Autobiography--A Study; now she spends her summers mostly in New Hampshire, her winters mostly in Philadelphia writing simultaneous biography and fiction. She has two daughters.

Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, now 40 years old, has been a reporter, Washington correspondent, confidential secretary to Col. E. M. House, co-founder of the Adventurers Club, author of Porto Bella Gold and other works.

The Significance. Mr. Minnigerode's is an excellent chapbook for disillusioned Horatio Algerians. Therein they can catch the spirit, although not the method, of making (and losing) fortunes. Mr. Smith's is the familiar tale of a financial picaroon. Persistently he calls the blustering Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, "Corneel Vander Bilt." Mrs. Burr retells a rich man's career instructively. It is a text book for young stock & bond salesmen, for bank tellers. Meade Minnigerode of the three has the most imposing literary history. Lives and Times, The Fabulous Forties, and a biography of Aaron Burr (in which he collaborated with Samuel H. Wandell) are the best of his many previous works.