The Journalist Who Has Bloomed Into A Great Capitalist

The man who once toiled for $20 a week on a morniug newspaper is acually alive, healthy and vigorous. and uly 46 years of age, is assered to be worth $5 000,000 or $6,000,000. He may be seen at any time during business hours at No. 20 Nassau street; nis 'ace and ügure are familiar to many ; hia name is Henry Villard. Some three 'ears ago he formed the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, deciding to raise a large sum to buy up the stock of the Oregon Steamship and Dregon Steamboat Navigation ] sany, on whose consolidation the new iorporation was to be based. Fee) ing assured that the investment would prove extremely profitable, he unfolded the scheme to a few of bis friends, giving them vith each $1,000 six per cent. flrst mortgage bond at 90; $700 stock of the new company gratis. Almost as soon as the stock was ready for delivery it advanced to 124, and Ihe members of thesyndicate weren aturally lighted with their extraordinary gain. iome while after Jay Gould, in talking Co Villard of the brilliant success of bis plan, asked: "Why didn'tyou divide your Oregon Navigation stock into preferred and commoo, making two-sevenths of it preferred and flve-seventbs common? The preferred yo might have given to your friends and kept the common for yourself . They would have been more than satisfled to get $240 to $250 clear, besides a ürst rate $1,000 bond, commanding a premium for $900, aad you would have made several millions ditional. The transacción woulü nave been perfectly legitímate; the mo8t squeamisn person would not and could not have objeeted to it." "Probably not," replied Villard. I am not aware that I thought of doing any such a thing. But, if I had, 1 should not have done it. I reeeived the $700 stock oh each of the bonds that I took, and I wanted my friends to share fully in my good fortune. They had trusted me and my opinión, and on no account would I have withheld from them anything that I had gained." "But," persuted Gould, "they would have cleaied 1300 ou each $900 in a fewmonths, and would have seeured an excellent investment beside. I should have arranged the thing in that way; 1 don't see why you didn't." "The reason I didn't is, I suppose, that yon are Jay Gould, and that I ani Henry Villard." This anecdote illustrates Villard's character, whose general reputation as a monetary f orce and a big operator is harldly three years old. The surprisingly prosperous issue of the Oregon Navigation enterprise reared it, and his masterly acquisition of the Northern Pacific Road, with the now famous blind pool achievements, constituted its cap. His rise Las been so recent and so abrupt that many persons who have merely heard of hirn fancy he is a species of adventurer thrown by f avoring circum3tance to the suiface of flnancial circles; th.it, happening to have a bow and arrow in lus hand.hedrew thecord and hit, by chance, the center of the target. This is an egregious error. His success has not been accidental; no permanent suceeás ever is. He had been yearii in training before he flashed upon the public. He is a Bavarian, having beon bom at Speyer, and having gone, while a child, with his father, a man of title and aucient f amily, to reside in Munich, wliere his parent held 011e of the highost judicial positions ia the kingdom. He was, I think, an only son, and carefully educated both in Germán and Fteueh, his father designing him for official life, to which he had an aversión i'roni his earlieat years. He wanted a broader freer field, more scope for his activity and when he had entered his curriculum he ardently desired to ome to America, with which he was weil acquainted from reading books on ie country and devouring everything ie could ündconnected with it. The lder Villard conservativo to a point f crystalization, thought his boy wildy romantic and visionary when his ?ishes were communicated to hiro, and pposed them strennously. But, finding lis rnind set on expatriation, feeling bat he would cross the ocean in any vent, he yielded unwilling consent, leaching New York- he was then 19 - he determined to visit the West, where competition was less keen, and vhere he might secure a good position a a newspaper. Ho had already seected journalism as a calling, not as va. endj so much as a means, knowing hat it would bring him into contact with public men, and make him familiar with the spirit and people of the country. VILLAKD ON THE CINCINNATi COMMEECIAL AND CHICAGO TBIBUNE. His ürst experience on the press was, I believe, with the Cincinnati Commercial. He translated sotne irencb. and Germán articles, did some reporting, and made himself generally usefu). After a few months he went to Chicago, and there he feil in with Horace White, the two becoming inimate friends, and contiuuing such ever since. Through White he formed connection with the Tribune that lasted for years, and tbat induced him subsequently to buy a number of shares in the paper, holding them so long as White controlled the journal. White is now Treasurer of the Oregon Navigation and also of the Oregon Improvement Company; as well as a proprietary editor of the Evening Post. Villard advanced rapidly in his profession, and wrote for different newspapers in the East and West. For some years he was a ington correspondent, and made the acquaintance of all of the public men at the time. He generally creates a most agreeable impression, having a free cordial manner, full of bonhomie and pleasant talk; he always got on, much to the surprise of his father, who expected to be importuned by remittances by nearly every steamer, but whose offers of aid, as it happened, steadily declined. At the breaking out of the civil war, Villard, who was then but 26 and fnd of adventure, went into the field as army correspondent. He witnessed the principal battles in Virginia and the Southwest, being by turns with McClellar, Burnside, Hooker, Grant, Iiosecrans, Thomas, Sherman and other commanders-in-chief. His correspondence, much with Westernof it as well as Eastern journals, was exceptionally good, being clear, comprehensivo ana vigorous, instead of the rambling, inconsequential, frothy sort so common in those days. He enjoyed unusual advantages, for he was on intimate termswith all the principal offlcers, wlio feit that they could afford to trust him with their confidence. Many of his experiences in the field were thrilling, havinghadanuinber of narro w escapes f rom capture and death. He was noted for coolness and daring, and some of his performances in getting his news through the lines in advance of all cotemporaries deserye 3peeial mention in the journalistic history of that bitter struggle. Af ter the war was over he measurably retired f rom newspaper work, having other interests, and havii ig learned all he wished to learn in that varied department of industry. He displaced financial ability at an early date, but was so quiet about his transactions that hardly any one knew of him possessing it. The next year after the war he married Fanny Garrison, sole daughter of William Loyd Garrison, having met her months before at her father's house in Boston, in which he has lived more or less. Since his marriage he has spent a good deal of time in Europe, particularly in the immediate neighborhood of Frankfort-on-the-Main. Intimate with the leading bankers of that great banking center, he must have made considerable money there by dealing in American securicies, of which he had long had ampie knowledge. His father left hiaa a handsome property at his death. and an affectionate acknowledgment tbat he had misunderstood his son. It was through the Germán bankers that ne was coosen presiaenc or ine uregon Stemship Co. and the Oregon & California railroad, after Ben. Holladay's failure to keep his engagements, the receiver of Kansas Pacilïc road at the time of its second default. Those bankers, having bought a large part of the securities of the three corporations, appointed Villard, in whom they had detected remarkable capacitj, to look after their interests, and their appointI ment was fully justifled. Villard is now a very heavy owner in the Oregon Improvement, Oregon & Transcontinental, Oregon Navigation and ern Pacific Companies, and controls them, as well a3 the Oregon & California roaci. Villard has three children - one girl, the eldest, and two boys, all bright and promising. He is very dcmestic in disposition, preferring home, with the society of is family, to any other place. He makes excellent use of his wealth, estimated at $5,000,000 and upward, he and his charining wife doing good continually in the stealthiest manner. He loves to do kind things for the pure sake of kindness; he is so unlike most opulent New Yorkera that few of them would recognize him as such from a truthful description. Personally, he has a large, fine presence, being more than six feet tall, and well proportioned. His nose is aquiline, though not too big; his eye is gray, clear and bright; his mouth f uil, his hair and mustache brown, his complexión rather dark.and his face noticeably strong and intellectual. He does not resemble a Germán, and his English is faultless, without an accent. In his dress he is scrupulously neat, but without a suggestion of dandyism. He is one of the youngest of the great financiers - only 46 - and is such a rieh man as we read of, but seldom see. -