Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1909 — HARRIMAN BACK AND STILL WORN [ARTICLE]

HARRIMAN BACK AND STILL WORN

Expects to Sleep Tonight at Arden, His Retreat. PRAISED BY HIS INTIMATES Secretary of Hie Lines With Tears In Hie Eyes Says That the Wizard of Finance and Railroads While Pictured As an Ogre, a Spider and an Octopus, Really Is a Big-Hearted and Whole Souled Man —Called Brainiest and Most Patriotic American.

New York, Aug. 24.—Unless his schedule is amended, Edward H. Harriman by tonight will be at Arden, bis magnificent country place, where an army of workmen have been toiling night and day in an effort to have the buildings and grounds ready for the wizard of finance and railroads. Reports by wireless from the Kaiser Wilhelm II early today were that Mr. Harriman appeared on deck after remaining indoors practically all the way across. Also it was reported he still looked greatly fatigued and in need df rest. The general anxiety as to Mr. Harrlman’s health has found expression in a series of published appreciations of his personality and achievements such as probably never before have been accorded a private citizen.

“Most Patriotic American.” There is manifest disappointment in Wall street that Harriman’s sojourn abroad has not set him up sufficiently immediately to resume active direction of the great interests with which his name is associated. Alexander Millar, secretary of the Harriman lines, one of Mr. Harriman’s most trusted lieutenants, spoke of his chief with a seriousness and warmth that brought the tears to “his eyes. “Mr. Harriman,” said be, “has been pictured as an ogre, a huge spider, an octopus—. You don’t know what a bighearted, big-souled man he really is. I call him today the biggest, the brainiest, the most patriotic American w r e have.

“Educated in Wall street, he yet has jpone of that provinciality sometimes attributed to the bom and bred New Yorkers. He was alw r ays in sympathy with the west and intuitively divined its needs. Other men have helped, but Harriman blazed the trail. “If I should be asked to name the chief characteristics that have contributed to his success, I should say: His wizardry with figures, his faculty for getting instantly to the kernel of facts, his judgment of men and his insight into and faith in the future. "His Children and His Work.”

"He has the gift of seizing on the meaning of a maze of figures in a flash. He knows what he wants definitely and makes it understood briefly. He makes changes, but the very men shifted will tell you that they do better work in the new positions where he places them. His enthusiasm is contagious and inspires his subordinates.

"When he sits down to his desk things begin to hum. Like all big men, he is not what you would call methodical. He Jumps to conclusions by seeming intuition. No doubt the logical processes are all there—for Mr. Harriman is no visionary—but they elude analysis by their swiftness. “Does he play as hard as he works? To tell you the truth, 1 never saw hint play, except with his children. He has a passion for work, a gluttonous appetite for facts, and a marvelous ability to digest details. His children and his work —these are his life.”