Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — MAN OF GREAT POWER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAN OF GREAT POWER.

Joseph B, Gree*h>at, Ex-President o 4 the Whisky Trust, Recent events In the financial world have brought Joseph B. Greenhut into a prominent, if not an enviable, posi-

tlon. A remarkable man in many ways is the ex-President and ex-recelver of the whisky trust. He barely missed being a great man, as greatness goes in Wall street At one time he seemed destined to become the successor of

Jay Gould in the boldness and daring of stock operations. A word or a nod from him made or lost fortunes for traders in whisky securities. .Always active, the stock was obedient to his dictates. When he talked of prosper* ity the quotations soared. When he told of lean earnings they tumbled. Intoxication with his power in the market finally made him dizzy, and at the critical moment traders with whose capital he had juggled for years combined and overthrew him. He is now about to be retired from the property he managed so ably at first, and finally so recklessly. Mr. Greenhut Is a Bohemian Jew. When a mere lad he came to America. His parents setled in Chicago. Few persons who knew him as a boy, when he attended a small Jewish school, would have ventured to predict a successful career for the lad. He was regarded as the blockhead of the school. He took one position in his classes and held it throughout his entire coarse. It was at the bottom. Nobody took enough interest in the stupid young fellow to inquire what became of him after he dropped from school. That was back in the fifties. Astonishment

wasexpressed when reports came back from the war that Greenhut was at the front, fighting like a tiger. Those who thought they knew him never dreamed of his being stirred by patriotic impulses. Greenhut disappointed them. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the war. After the war. Mr. Greenhut returned to Chicago and got in the distilling business. The fortunes that others had made in the whisky business while he was fighting seemed to attract his attention. He operated a plant in Chicago for some time. Afterward he went to Pekin, continuing in the same business. Then he moved on to Peoria. He was one of the organizers of the trust After the death of Adolph Woolner, Mr. .Greenhut became the controlling spirit of the trust. He was the absolute dictator of its policy and its methods. The strength of the man was never, better illustrated than on those occasions when directors of the trust met in Peoria with their minds made up to check Greenhut’s autocratic ways and assert themselves. He dealt with tile board firmly. One of the directors recently said Mr. Greenhut seemed to hypnotize them. He got everything he wanted, and always ended by having things his own way. Mr. Greenhut’s home is one of the most hospitable and artistic in Peoria. His domestic life is exemplary. It Is said that he puts no limit whatever on the charitable work of Mrs. Greenhut. She gives away thousands of ils money every year, though in sucl} an unostentatious way that few know who the objects of her charity are. Touching stories are told in Peoria of her generosity.

J. B. GREENHUT.

ME. GREENHUT’S HOME IN PEORIA.