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Show HOW TQM LAWSQN ROSE TO WEALTH , Spectacular Career of Boston Ff- nancier Who Has Been Much in Public Eye. RAN AWAY FROM SCHOOL t Making and Losing of a Fortune Common Com-mon Thing to Lawson Has Picturesque Pic-turesque Command of the English Eng-lish Language. New York. Of no man lu American history can It so truly be said that the making and losing of a fortune was a coiunioii thing to him than Thomas V. Lawsbn. The Boston financier, who tins been the center of the political stage In the last month, by reason of his accusations accusa-tions regarding wrongful use of secret diplomatic Information to gnln millions mil-lions In Wall street, has been a kind of flnnnclal volcano, erupting fitfully but powerfully, for '!." years. No one can say how many tens of thousands have made money and how many more thousnnds have lost by paying heed to his widely advertised stock-mnrket advice. He has been attacked savagely time and again In the public prints, while hla own onslaughts on "the system" (of which he confesses he was once a H ' rsfc j i I. rf Thomas W. Lawson. prominent member), the Htandard OH Interests, and the "money trust" are matters of recent history. Ills command of lunguago both slang and the king's English Is remarkable. re-markable. He has spent millions In promulgating his opinions through big advertisements In the newspapers. He can't remember, he says, how manv times he has been sued criminally and civilly for libel yet he has won every case brought again-1 him. A Boston newspaper once printed a six-page attack of lurid character on Lawson. The financier got out an Injunction, In-junction, but the newspaper proprietor barred the door against the Injunction server ; the presses ground out the edition, edi-tion, and Boston read the story. The effect was slight. Lawson continued ou his way serenely although what would be serene and ordinary for Thomas W. would be a trip through the Whirlpool rapids of N'lagura for au ordinary man. Started Tempestuously. Ills career started tempestuously, for he ran away twice In a finally successful suc-cessful effort to substitute business for school. I-awson Is a New Englander by hlrtb and a Southerner by descent. Three of his uucles were Episcopal clergymen. He was born In (Cambridge, Mass., In 1859, and brought up by his mother after his father was killed on a battlefield of the Civil war. When ho was twelve years old he skipped from school and got u place as an errand boy In the banking house ! of Stevens, Amory & Co., In State ! street, Boston. He was speedily np- prehended and returned to bis books, I only soon to make another break for the realms of trade. This time his i guardians decided they had better let I tilm stay at work and get sick of It. Ittn he didn't get sick. Instead he had a meteoric rise If this simile was ever appropriate. "At twenty-one he was un operator on the Boston "street." At twenty-four -he was a man of great wealth, and sat around green tables with millionaires as a director lu big corporations. At thirty he had become a man to be watched by the big financial Interests, Inter-ests, for he was "a speculative factor of Importance." Meantime he had turned out a large number of successful mechanical Inventions. In-ventions. When hardly more than u l.oy he put on the market u substitute fur playing cards, which hud quite a run of success, lie also wrote, printed and published u booklet on baseball, of which he Is au enthusiastic devotee. The book was called 'The Kriiuk : His Language and What It Meant," ami for the work be Invented a special paper, "blood parchment." He took a prominent part In the presidential campaign of 1SN.S. In :c dii.s he compiled u campaign history of political parties, with facsimile reproductions re-productions of many letters from l(e- pubiiciin party leaden xpreMrina their views. Of this about o."vJ.WU copies 1 were distributed by Republican campaign cam-paign committees. First Financial Undertaking. His first financial undertaking wns the reorganization of the lawson Story Service compnny. He lost n large amount Just nfter this successful coup when be tried to rebuild the Knnd-Avnry Knnd-Avnry Publishing company. But he recouped quickly by operating In West-Inghouse West-Inghouse Electric. He lost another fortune In southern land "booms," especially the Oraml BITOT Land compnny. Then came his great Bay State Oas operations, which made hlin thousnnds of enemies nnd thousands of friends. Out of the mnsc of conflicting stories It Is Impossible to determine Just how much Lawson had to do with what happened. Suffice It to say that under Lnwson's master band the stock of this company gy-rated gy-rated to giddy heights nnd then sank Into the abyss, having today a nominal value of 12 cents a share. Lnwson's operations had now become be-come gigantic. He entered the "system," "sys-tem," us he himself explained, with (he object of combining all the copper Interests of the country. Here one again becomes Involved In a mass of disputed details. Lawson sold Hutte ami Boston Copper stork short from $10 n shore to. 78 refits, cleaning up a fortune. Then he began to buy, and urged his friends to buy. saying he believed In the future of the compnny. He paid $10 a share assessment, assess-ment, acquired u majority of the stock, and soon was Invited to Join the group Including H. H. lingers. John D. Rockefeller Rocke-feller nnd others of the "Standard Oil crowd" In consolidating all the copper cop-per companies of the United States. What happened Lawson describes at length In "Frenzied Finance," but few of his statements regnrdlng the matter stand unchallenged. Made Qreat Fortune. At any rate, Lawson pulled out with a great fortune, nnd changed from a friendly to a hostile attitude toward the "Standnnl Oil crowd," whom he now vigorously denounced. He built up a great financial "following" "fol-lowing" of Investors and smnil specu-1 lntors, whom he Influenced by spreud-eagle spreud-eagle newspaper advertisements In flamboyant style. Of lata years his nnme Is not henrU so often, and his financial Influence has i declined. Besides finance, Lawson Is Intensely j Interested In flowers, paintings, bronzes. I yucbts and horses. And he has one ' other great hobby his six children. For his wtfe, who wns Miss (lood-willle (lood-willle of Cambridge, be paid $.'H),000 to get the famous flower now called the "Mrs. Thomas W. Lawson pink." He bought the yacht Dreamer and other craft and built a beautiful Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts country mansion, Dreamworld. Dream-world. He bred famous thoroughbreds on his Massachusetts farm. He took his stables to Europe, and raced In mnny countries. No sketch of Lawson would be complete com-plete without the story of how he built a city, wns elected Its first mnyor, anil sold It charter, highways, city hall, j police department, fire apparatus. wharves, public franchises and all for I a goodly sum. In 1S00 bo became Interested In the rich coal nnd Iron bearing region In the state of Kentucky along the bnnks of the Tennessee nnd Cumberland rivers. riv-ers. Ho conceived the Idea of a city In that portion of Kentucky lying between be-tween the two rivers. By coincidence this bit of land was then also tho center of population of the nntlon. Ho named his city Grand Rivers, and hustled It Into being with no delay. He was a great sight rushing about his. municipality In slouch hat, flannel shirt nnd top boots. But life In Ornnd Hlvers soon Irked hint. He mild out and came to New York for real action which took the . form of a spectnculnr bear campaign In General Electric. Million In Sugar. In March, 1809. Lawson made a million dollnrs, he admitted, by speculation specu-lation In sugar stock ; but he said this was no more than he had lost In this same stock on previous occasions. How Lawson does things was shown In his purchase of the bay gelding Bornlma. In October. 8W, the financier finan-cier paid a visit to Lexington, Ky., for the purpose of attending ibe running of the Kentucky Futurity. Boralma. who had stepped the mile In 2:00, was pointed out to him n the probable winner. win-ner. So he bought the horse for $17,000, on condition thnt Boralma won the Futurity. Fu-turity. Then he entered the betting ring nnd put up W3.000 on his purchase. pur-chase. Bornlmo won, nnd Lawson not only got a fine horse but much more than enough to pny for It. In the midst of the Amalgamated Copper consolidation Lawson flashed Into the public eye by riding from Boston Bos-ton to New York In n special train nt ii... rut. of !mi miles mi hour for the entire distance. He did It In four hours und fifteen minutes, while the fastest regular train takes live hours. He suld lingers nnd Rockefeller had telephoned tele-phoned him they needed him Immediately Immedi-ately for Important business. Lowsnns ofllce In Boston looks more bXe an art museum than n broker's sanctum. Vtw flowers, bronzes nnd rare books iurround him and compete for room with the stock ticker. One of the great sorrows of Lnwson's life was when be failed to secure the four fatuous bronzes by Julian exhibited In n I Pencil salon. Three or these, SO inches In height, look down on him In bis prlvato ofllce. They are 'Taesar Crossing the Rubicon" Rubi-con" nnd two equestrian studies of Frederick the Great and George Washington. Wash-ington. The fourth piece, Napoleon, i was purchased by the municipality of I Paris before Lawson could arrange to 1 buy the quartet. He had to be satis-lied satis-lied with it replica of the Napoleon. |