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CANADA 
 
 
 NATIONAL LIBRARY 
 BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE 
 

 A CANADIAN IN NEW YORK. 
 
 HY ELGIN MVERS, Q.C. 
 
 A SHORT sojourn in New York in the 
 summer of 1891, where I was the re- 
 cipient of much disinterested kindness 
 at the hands of Mr. Erastus Wiman, 
 so increased the interest that had pre- 
 viously been aroused in me by the 
 accounts in the public prints of his 
 achievements in the business, political 
 and literary world, that now that his 
 financial fame has become somewhat 
 dimmed, I feel a desire that his 
 countrymen should have at least some 
 faint insii-ht into the character of a 
 
 ERASTUS WIMAS. 
 
 man who for so long a period has 
 occupied the attention of the people 
 ot this continent, even though that in- 
 formation be imparted by one so incap- 
 able of adequately performing the 
 pleasing task as mvself. The radical 
 difference of opinion that exists be- 
 tween us on the subject of this 
 country's future should, in my opinion, 
 form no bar to the attempt to <lo 
 justice to one who has so unseltishlj 
 
 and at such great sacrifices of time 
 and money, labored to promote the 
 interests of the land of his birth. 
 It should be of interest to Canad- 
 ians to study the development of 
 one of their own countrymen, who, 
 friendless and alone, without the 
 pi'estige of family connection or social 
 influence, and aided only by his sturdy 
 independence of character, unusual 
 capacity, and stubborn perseverance, 
 arose from the position of a f. iend- 
 less lad earning a mere pittance as a 
 farm laborer, to the commanding em- 
 inence of one of the leaders of the 
 business, political and literary world 
 of the continent. 
 
 It is in the hope that a short narra- 
 tive of the incidents of that career will 
 prove a stimulus to those who are 
 about setting out to buffet the waves 
 of the world, with possibly neither 
 friendship nor capital other than their 
 own individual merits and a de- 
 termination to succeed, as well as in 
 the hope that that narrative will bring 
 nearer home to the Canadian people 
 the life of one of their own country- 
 men who has gained distinction in a 
 foreign land and who has been so mis- 
 represented and misunderstood, that I 
 have essayed this task. It is not with- 
 in the province of this article to ac- 
 count for the recent eclipse of Mr. 
 Wiman's star of fortune, nor to investi- 
 gate its causes, whether they be 
 founded on wrong business methods 
 or miscalculation, or whether, as is 
 more probable, his fortunes have been 
 engulfed in the whirlwind of financial 
 disaster that seems at present to be 
 invading so much of the earth's sur- 
 face. SiifHce it for the present in this 
 connection to simply reproduce the 
 following portion of an article from a 
 newspaper published in Staten Island, 
 

 436 
 
 THE CANADIAN MAGAZINE. 
 
 which has for man}' years been his 
 home : — " From leiil estate, stock in 
 Rapid Tiansit and Electric Power 
 companies, there seems ample assets 
 belonging to Mr. Wiman's estate to 
 pay all the indebtednesses in full, 
 while behind it all is the energy, the 
 ability and great force of ambition of 
 one who fought in their home the 
 Vauderbilts and their satellites and 
 beat them all." 
 
 Of incidents in his career tiiere is no 
 lack. His lite has been so active and 
 so interwoven with that of the people, 
 of all classes, that liis biographer will 
 not be troubled to find them, but will 
 be perplexed by an embarrassment of 
 riches. The great difhculty in pre- 
 paring this article was to select from 
 the great mass of facts, anything like 
 a detailed relation of which would fill 
 several volumes, those that might be 
 deemed the most characteristic and at 
 the same time, would not swell to an 
 undue compass a magazine article. To 
 the casual observer the most striking 
 feature of Mr. Wiman's character, in 
 view of the vastness and absorbing 
 nfiture of his business enterprises, is 
 his sentiment and imagination, two 
 qualities that seem to be essential to 
 that attribute in man that is generally 
 termed greatness, but which are plants 
 of so tender a growth that they have 
 been crushed out of many men by the 
 pressure of business pursuits, that, in 
 many instances, have not been of so 
 engrossing a nature as those that en- 
 gaged Mr. Wiman's attention. 
 
 The youth, personal habits, religious 
 beliefs and domestic life of a man 
 of mark are always subjects of 
 deep interest, the narration of which, 
 as light streaks tend to relieve a dark- 
 ened firmament, incline to brighten 
 the heavy narration of the more 
 weighty affairs of life. Beginning 
 with his youth we find this erstwhile 
 millionaire, at the age of twelve ye irs, 
 working as a farm laborer in the 
 neighliorhood of ('hurchville, near 
 Brampton, in Peel County, a few miles 
 west of Toronto, for the pittance of 
 
 fifty cents per week. We next find 
 him for four or five years employed as 
 a newsboy and then as a typesettei" in 
 the newspiper office of his cousin, the 
 Honorable Wm. McDougall, who con- 
 ducted the celebrated " North Ameri- 
 can, ' which, after enjoying a short but 
 successful career under its brilliant 
 manager and editor, became extinct. 
 Here young Wiman worked from ten 
 to sixteen hours per day at wages 
 commencing at ?l.5() per week and 
 ending at !:<.5.()0. 
 
 A reminiscence of his newsboy 
 career was forcibly and pleasantly re- 
 called in London a year or two ago 
 when dining as a guest of Lord and 
 LaJv Thurlow. The latter, during the 
 course of conversation, remarked that 
 she too was a Canadian. Upon Mr. 
 Wiman asking who.se daughter she 
 was, he was informed that she was 
 Lord Elgin's. " Oh," replied Mr. Wi- 
 man. " I remember now, your birth- 
 day was on a iSew Year's day, and I 
 heard your first cry." Curious to know 
 how this could be, Mr. Wiman explain- 
 ed to Lady Thurlow that ho was the 
 newsboy who delivered the papers 
 about torty-five years before at Elm- 
 slie Villa, which was situated just be- 
 yond Yonge street entrance to College 
 Avenue, Tonmto, where Lord Elgin, 
 then Governor- Greneral of Canada, re- 
 sided. The house was a great distance 
 from the street, and on this particular 
 morning the snow was deep, and no 
 track having been made, the newsboy, 
 not large of stature, whilst beating his 
 way through it became covered with 
 snow. The weather was bitterly cold, 
 and the kindly butler taking him in- 
 to the hall before the large stove let 
 him warm himself. The house, be- 
 tween the bustling of the servants and 
 doctor.s, was in great confusion. Sud- 
 denly the vigorous cry of an infant 
 heard through the door, and the butler 
 exclaiming, " Thank God it is over," 
 revealed to our newsboy friend that 
 the future Lady Thurlow was born. 
 
 in passing, we may remark, that it 
 is a comment on the small size to 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
A CANADIAN IN NEW YORK. 
 
 437 
 
 next find 
 inployed as 
 'pesetter in 
 cousin, the 
 , who con- 
 ith Ameii- 
 a short but 
 s brilliant 
 ne extinct, 
 d from ten 
 
 at wages 
 week and 
 
 newsboy 
 asantly re- 
 V two aofo 
 Lord and 
 dnrinir the 
 iirked that 
 Upon Mr. 
 ighter she 
 -t she was 
 1 Mr. Wi- 
 Dur birth- 
 day, and I 
 
 15 to know 
 m explain- 
 was the 
 
 16 papers 
 e at Elm- 
 d just be- 
 to CoUesre 
 ird Elorin, 
 mada, re- 
 t distance 
 )articular 
 
 and no 
 newsboy, 
 mating his 
 ored with 
 eriy cold, 
 g him in- 
 stove let 
 ouse, be- 
 zants and 
 n. Sud- 
 an infant 
 he butler 
 is over," 
 3nd that 
 
 born. 
 V, that it 
 
 size to 
 
 which steam nnd electricity have re- 
 duced the world, find on the presort all 
 pervasive democracy, that the newsboy 
 forty-five years later was, 3,000 miles 
 away, the honored guest of this titled 
 babe. The gold sovereign that Lord 
 Elgin conferred on our friend was the 
 fii'st he ever jjossessed, and the joy it 
 bestowed caused the naturally warm 
 heart of Mr. Wiman to go out in gen- 
 erous contributions to the newsboys as 
 regularly as succeeding New Year's 
 came round. 
 
 These sums, as well as the farm 
 wages, small as they were, weie 
 freely and regularly handed to a 
 widowed mother to be applied to the 
 common support of herself and a little 
 sister, who divided between them the 
 solicitude of the noble son and bro- 
 ther. Let it be said here that deep 
 affection and never failing care for this 
 widowed mother were among the 
 strongest features of Mr. Wiman's 
 character. Several citizens of Toronto, 
 some of whom have occupied, and 
 others of whom now occupy, positions 
 of trust and honor, take pleasure in 
 testifying, as indeed th<v also do to 
 all the incidents of his Canadian life 
 that are recordod here, to the noble 
 self-sacrifices on the part of Mr. Wiman, 
 in his earlier struggles for existence, to 
 not merely support, but render com- 
 fortable and happy, his widowed 
 mother, thus testifying to the posses- 
 sion of one of those human qualities 
 that approach nearest to the Divine, — 
 that of never failing filial love. It is 
 needless to say that this anxious so- 
 licitude accompanied the mother 
 through life, the need of support in- 
 creasing with the ca{)acity to contri- 
 bute it, until death finally closed the 
 eyes of one, who, while taking a last 
 loving look upon her devoted son, pro- 
 phetically foresaw that he wouldattain 
 the eminence of what *j\\q world calls 
 success. 
 
 From the many incidents that could 
 be selected of absorbing interest at the 
 newsboy period of his career, is one 
 which also illustrates the narrowness 
 
 of his circumstances. When voung 
 Wiman lost his week's wage of S.5.00, 
 rather than permit those who were 
 dependent upon him to suffer from 
 want, his filial and brotherly love 
 ])rotnpted him to borrow from his co- 
 workers in the office a sufficient sum 
 to tide over the week, a sum which it 
 is needless to say was speedily repaid 
 out of the savings of future earnings. 
 
 The next we see of young Wiman 
 is on the staff of the Toronto Globe, as 
 commercial editor, where his keen com- 
 mercial instincts soon became so mani- 
 fest that they attracted the attention 
 of Mr. R. G. Dun, who had established 
 the enteri)rise of mercantile reporting. 
 
 The subject of this sketch went in- 
 to the employ of this firm as a repor- 
 ter, and his abilities soon raised him. 
 successively to the positions of mana- 
 ger of the Toronto and Montreal 
 agencies, in which capacities he ac- 
 quired that thorough and accurate 
 knowledge of the commercial affairs of 
 the Dominion, including a detailed in- 
 formation of almost every business 
 man from Halifax to Winnipeg, for 
 which he is so distinguished. Start- 
 ing with a great prejudice in Canada 
 agaias't it, owing to its being regarded 
 as a sort of detective concern, the 
 broad and enlightened spirit with 
 which its designs were pursued under 
 Mr. Wiman's management soon render- 
 ed the agency one of the most popular 
 institutions in the mercantile world, 
 and soon caused it to be regarded as an 
 indispensable adjunct to commercial 
 life. 
 
 So successful was he in the manasre- 
 rnent of the Canadian branch of the 
 business, that he was, some twenty- 
 five years ago, shortly after the close 
 of the great Amercian Civil War, in- 
 vited to the larger field of usefulness 
 in the commercial metropolis of Amer- 
 ica, to assist in the management of the 
 business there. His success in the 
 smaller sphere of action was only the 
 harbingerof his triumph in the greater, 
 for he broujjht to bear in his connec- 
 tion with the New York concern the 
 
I 
 
 43« 
 
 THE CANADIAN MAGAZINE. 
 
 same industry, energy, wonderful 
 knowledge, tact and enlightened 
 methods that chiuacterized his man- 
 agement of attairs in Canada, until an 
 institution that was up to that time 
 regarded with the same distrust that 
 it had been in Canada, soon developed 
 into the most marvelloi43 and popular 
 system of commercial reporting in the 
 world. The agency, when Mr. Wiman 
 was removed to ^Jew York, possessed 
 only eighteen branches, whereas it 
 now has 150, an enormous i-e venue, 
 and a large army of employes. Ris 
 knowledge of printing found full scope 
 here. He soon reorganized the print- 
 ing department, improved and enlarged 
 the Reference Book, which contains 
 the names and rating of every trader 
 in the United States and Canada, and 
 it soon became the best credit author- 
 ity in the United States. To him 
 more than toany other man is duethat 
 marvellous success of commercial re- 
 porting which renders it possible for 
 every trader, no matter how remote 
 his location, from Maine to CiUifornia, 
 from Vancouver to Halifax, to procure 
 credit in the great centres of com- 
 merce in accordance with the resources 
 and standing he possesses at home. 
 
 Of almost incalculable advantage 
 to the South was this system as 
 thus perfected. At the close of the 
 war all industries there were neces- 
 sarily in a disorganized condition, so 
 much so that almost universal distrust 
 of the capacity of the business men 
 prevailed. Owing, however, to the 
 wonderful Reference Book, informa- 
 tion was soon disseminated relative to 
 the deserving and reliable, confidence 
 was quickly restored, business men 
 obtained that credit which was so 
 essential to their existence, and the 
 distrusted and desolate South soon 
 began to blossom as the rose. The 
 book also soon became the guide, 
 philosopher and friend, and indeed 
 the almost indispensable auxiliary 
 to every counting house. The suc- 
 cess of the Mercantile Agency Sys- 
 tem is an enduring monument to 
 
 the business ability of Erastus Wi- 
 man and his associates, and alone is 
 sufficient to .satisfy the ambition of 
 any ordinary man, for unless it had 
 been well conducted it couldeasily have 
 been the most unpopular of institu- 
 tions^ 
 
 It would be wrong, however, to 
 suppose that this was his only achieve- 
 ment, alth<)ugh it is the one in which 
 WG believe he takes the most pride. 
 Not satisfied with accomplishing, in 
 coanection with the agency, what was 
 sufHcient for the work of one life, he, 
 almost immediately on arrival in New 
 York, with that rapid insight into 
 affairs that is so characteristic of him, 
 saw what the multitude of other able 
 financiers of that great metropolis 
 failed to fully realize, the immense 
 possibilities of Staten Island, which 
 forms part of New York State, and 
 lies six miles distant from and opposite 
 New York, in a hollow of the coast 
 of New Jersey. This island has been 
 termed the Isle of Wight of America. 
 Possessing an area of about 58 square 
 miles, a shore capable of adding ten 
 miles additional harborage to the port 
 of New York, having in its north and 
 centre lovely elevations which slope 
 beautifully in all directions to the 
 shore. Providence seems to have 
 specially designed this favored place 
 as an example of what His beneficence 
 can accomplish for man in furnishing 
 a spot where he could revel in luxur- 
 ious delight, and which he could also 
 turn to the most practical use. When 
 Mr. Wiman first conceived the idea of 
 putting to use this favored place, the 
 beautiful uplands in its centre were 
 almost unknown. Under his wise and 
 skilful directions, the reputation of 
 the island has much increased as one 
 of the most popular resorts for recrea- 
 tion and amusement of the multitudes 
 of the adjoining cities, who seek its 
 sylvan reti-eats as a relief from the 
 burdens of active business life, as well 
 as one of the points to which is eager- 
 ly directed the attention of those men 
 of affairs, who perceive the immense 
 
A CANADIAN IN NEW YORK. 
 
 439 
 
 rastua Wi- 
 ld alone is 
 mbition of 
 ess it had 
 easily have 
 of institu- 
 
 owever, to 
 ly achieve- 
 le in which 
 nost pride. 
 )li9hing, in 
 , what was 
 )ne life, he, 
 val in New 
 isight into 
 'tic of him, 
 other able 
 metropolis 
 ) immense 
 nd, which 
 State, and 
 id opposite 
 
 the coast 
 d has been 
 f AmericJi. 
 i 58 square 
 idding ten 
 o the port 
 north and 
 lich slope 
 ns to the 
 
 to have 
 3red place 
 eneficence 
 'urnishing 
 
 in luxur- 
 could also 
 >e. When 
 he idea of 
 
 place, the 
 ntre were 
 
 wise and 
 tation of 
 ied as one 
 or recrea- 
 lultitudes 
 
 seek its 
 
 from the 
 
 e, as well 
 
 is eager- 
 hose men 
 
 immense 
 
 commercial possibilities that are cen- 
 tred there. 
 
 One of his first and most noted 
 achievements in this connection was 
 the securing of a charter for the con- 
 struction of a great railway bridge 
 connecting the State ot New Jgrsey 
 with the island. This was accomplish- 
 ed against the whole force of that 
 combative state, which did not wish 
 to see its own water fronts depreciated 
 in value by the presence of a competi- 
 tor, combined with the enormous 
 vested interests of the great railway 
 corporations which had termini in that 
 state, opposite New York city. After 
 Cyclopean efforts, he finally got the 
 authority of Congress for its construc- 
 tion, and it stands to-day another 
 monument to the ability, courage and 
 pertinacity of this masterful man. By 
 it, the Baltimore and Ohio and eight 
 other trunk lines of railway are admit- 
 ted to the harbor of New York mak- 
 ing Staten Island probably the great- 
 est future railway site in the world. 
 
 The Kill Van Kull bridge was in- 
 cidental to the construction of the 
 Rapid Transit Railroad in Stai.en Is- 
 land, which Mr. Wiman also carried 
 through against the immense local in- 
 fluence of such famous capitalists as 
 the Vanderbilts and John H. Starin, 
 who, as we would naturally suppose, 
 would not care to be deprived of the 
 monopoly they theretofoi-e enjoyed in 
 the ferry service between New York 
 and the island. 
 
 The control of this fei-ry service was 
 soon obtained by our Canadian friend. 
 A direct result of the estal)lishment of 
 Rapid Transit and the building of the 
 railway bridge has been to increase 
 communication between the Island 
 and New York city, by ferry, from 15 
 times per day to 58 times, to cause 
 real estate to double in value, popula- 
 tion to rapidly increase, the establish- 
 ment of many additional manufactor- 
 ies, the price of products to the con- 
 sumer to materially diminish, and to 
 add a vast residental suburb to the 
 adjoining overcrowded cities. 
 
 In the following extract from a 
 letter recently written to Mr. Wiman, 
 Sir Roderick Cameron, a large real 
 estate owner there, expresses the uni- 
 versal sentiment respecting the value 
 of Mr. Wiman's services to the island: 
 "As fellow Canadians, we have differ- 
 ed in our political views, but there has 
 never been an hour during the [)ast 
 ten yenrs, when I have failed to ap- 
 preciate what you have done for our 
 island home. Your losses are as but a 
 drop in the ocean compared with the 
 enormously increased value of the is- 
 land property, entirely duo to your 
 foresight and unflagging zeal. Keep 
 up your spirits and all will be well 
 with you." 
 
 One of Mr. Wiman's ambitions was 
 to make the island a great centre for 
 out-door amusements, and to this end 
 he formed the Staten Island Amuse- 
 ment Company, which engaged for 
 months the exhibition of Butialo Bill's 
 Wild West Show on the islaml, and 
 procured, at a cost of .'?40,()0(), the 
 celebrated Electric Fountains from 
 England, which now form so great an 
 attraction at the World's Fair at 
 Chicago. 
 
 Out of the electric display grew the 
 Richmond Light, Heat and Power 
 Company, also promoted by Mr. Wi- 
 man, designed to supply every manu- 
 facturer and every private individual 
 with light, heat and power," on tap,"and 
 to rendernightasday, through the many 
 miles of foliaged slopes, lovely glades, 
 and shady ilells of Staten Island. It 
 will, on completion of the pending im- 
 provements, supply not only lights, 
 power and traction for manufactories 
 and <lomestic purposes, but will also 
 supply power to an electric railroad 
 system our Canadian friend has 
 planned in connection with a large 
 land enterprise, which will thus make 
 accessible to New Yorkers cheap 
 homes in the romantic but almost 
 unknown interior of the Island. 
 
 These vast undertakincrs in the 
 country of his exile which have been 
 enumerated, apparently did not mon- 
 
440 
 
 THE CANADIAN MAGAZINE. 
 
 opolizo, much loss oxhaust, tlio enerjfios 
 of this truly energetic man, for we 
 find him in l.SNO and ISM I emjajjed in 
 ori,fanizin<f and loomoting tlie Great 
 North-Wostern Tele<,Maph Company of 
 Canada, of which h<j soon hecame 
 prertident, and he, after many years 
 of patient, skilful and persistent nego- 
 tiations against ohstacles that would 
 have appalled a man of less courage 
 and perseverance, succeeded in leasing 
 and practically amalgamating the old 
 Montreal and Dominion Telegraph 
 (Jompanies, which were, by this act, 
 placed on a solid financial basis, thus 
 securing substantial dividends that are 
 being paid, up to the present time. 
 Not content with the performance of 
 these labors in the commercial world, 
 Mr. Wiman has for years accomplished 
 in the f)olitical world what would 
 have sufficed for the energies of any 
 i.rdinary man. 
 
 Among his less prominent achieve- 
 ments was one dictated by that broad 
 and disinterested philanthropy, and 
 sympathy for human misfortunes, 
 which have, from his earliest boyhood, 
 been among his most happy character- 
 istics. I refer to the Act for the aboli- 
 tion of imprisonment foi debt, a bar- 
 barous punishment that was, until the 
 good ofHces of Mr. Wiman were enlisted 
 to secure its repeal in 1887, permitted 
 by the highly civilized state of New 
 York. Under the old law, men for 
 years had languished in Ludlow-street 
 gaol for the crime merely of being too 
 poor to |)ay their debts. The move- 
 ment for its repeal originated in the 
 case of one Ross, a Canadian from 
 Montreal, who had been incarceiated 
 for some trifling indebtedness which 
 was paid by Mr. Wiman, who restored 
 him to his family on the anniversary 
 of the evening when angels ushered 
 into the world the message of peace 
 and good-will towards men, with 
 pockets filled not only to furnish his 
 family with a Christmas dinner, but 
 to relieve their immediate necessities 
 as well. From Ross, Mr. Wiman 
 heard of the five years' incarceration 
 
 for debt of another persf)n who was. 
 from sickness contracted in gaol, likely 
 to die .soon, unless released. This man, 
 by the way, had a wealthy brother in 
 Montreal, who has liberally endowed 
 a seat of learning there, but who was 
 apparenth' unmoved at the prospect 
 of his brother pining in gaol in New 
 York for debt. I am unal)lo to state 
 whether or not he endowed a Chair of 
 the Humanities. Mr. Wiman, during 
 the course of his investigation into 
 this man's case, was so struck with 
 horror at the whole situation that he 
 determined that perpetual imprison- 
 ment for debt should be a thing of the 
 f»ast, and going to work with his reso- 
 ute will and against great obstacles, 
 not the lea.st of which was the stony 
 indifference of the public, he eventu- 
 ally succeeded in accomplishing his 
 aim. 
 
 On the wall of one of the cells 
 in the Tombs of New York are these 
 words, written by still another man, 
 which bear mute testimony to the 
 constant going about doing that un- 
 ostentatious good which letteth not 
 the right hand know what the left 
 hand doeth, that characterized all Mr. 
 Wiman's deeds of charity : " I am 
 to-day forty years of age, and I 
 thought I had not a friend in the 
 world, when Erastus Wiman sent me a 
 Christmas dinner. I vow that before 
 I am fifty I shall be rated in the book 
 which this man prints worth half a 
 million, and before 1 am sixty I will 
 be rated at a million." As idle as 
 this boast at that time no doubt ap- 
 peared, it has been more than fulfilled, 
 as one of the largest places on Broad- 
 way, owned by this man, in which he 
 is doing annually a business of $6,00(),- 
 OOO, amply testifies. 
 
 A tale of absorbing interest is con- 
 nected with his release from the 
 Tombs, which was secured by Mr. 
 Wiman, which is too lengthy to relate 
 here. It would be a mistake to sup- 
 pose that these vast .schemes, .so scanti- 
 ly outlined, were the limit of Mr. Wi- 
 man's achievements. His essays in 
 
A CANADIAN IN NEW YORK. 
 
 44« 
 
 n who was, 
 gaol, likely 
 This mail, 
 ' l»iotlier in 
 ly endowed 
 Lit who W«9 
 le prospect 
 aol in Now 
 V)le to state 
 1 a Chair of 
 nail, during 
 Ration into 
 truck with 
 ion that he 
 I imprison- 
 thinjif of the 
 ih his reso- 
 it obstacles, 
 s the stony 
 he eventu- 
 lishing his 
 
 if the cella 
 
 •k are these 
 
 lotlier man, 
 
 )ny to the 
 
 ig that un- 
 
 Jetteth not 
 
 at the left 
 
 zed all Mr. 
 
 "I am 
 
 and I 
 
 nd in the 
 
 n sent me a 
 
 ihat before 
 
 n the book 
 
 rth half a 
 
 ixty I will 
 
 As idle as 
 
 doubt ap- 
 
 in fulfilled, 
 
 on Broad- 
 
 1 which he 
 
 of .S6,O0U,- 
 
 est is con- 
 from the 
 !d by Mr. 
 y to relate 
 ,ke to sup- 
 so scan li- 
 3f Mr. VVi- 
 es^ays in 
 
 political, literary and social spheres 
 during the time he wa.s engaged in 
 promoting these great enterpriHes, wore 
 characterized by the same boldness, 
 energy and comprehensiveness that 
 were the main features of his financial 
 achievements. His mind was pro- 
 bably the first to conceive the vast 
 scheme of joining in commercial union 
 the two vast territories that compose 
 almost this entire continent. His 
 puVjlic meeting at Dufierin Lake, in 
 the summer of 1887, inaugurated the 
 movement, in which his heart is still 
 so engaged, and which soon became 
 the battle cry of one of the great poli- 
 tical parties of Canada, under the name 
 of unrestricted reciprocity. So engross- 
 ed in the desire to benefit his native 
 country was be that he took no less 
 than twenty-five trips to Washington 
 on behalf of this movement, and after 
 a large expenditure of time, money and 
 energy, procured the Committee on 
 Fciieign Relations of the House of Re- 
 presentatives to give it the stamp of 
 its approval in the famous " Hitt re- 
 solution." His refusal to renounce 
 allegiance to the land of his birth and 
 to take the oath of allegiance to the 
 government of the United States has 
 entailed on him very great inconven- 
 iences, among which are a foreigner's 
 inability to hold real estate in his 
 own name, or any title whatever in 
 coasting vessels, in some of which he 
 was largely interested, or to become a 
 director in any banking institution, 
 in one of which he was a large stock- 
 holder. This stand taken by him is 
 an unobtrusive testimony to a genuine 
 sentiment of loyalty that breathed 
 ill him, and is in striking contrast to 
 the noiuy demonstrations of many of 
 his opponents in Canada, who bandy 
 about, without much reference to its 
 meaning, this much abused and mis- 
 construed word. 
 
 Among the large number of pamph- 
 lets he has published, the vast num- 
 ber of addresses he has delivered, and 
 letters to the press he has written on 
 political, social and scientific subjects, 
 
 are many that deal with this (juesticm 
 of commercial union between Cana<hi 
 antl the United States. No leas than 
 twenty-five articles of his grace the 
 North American and Contemporary 
 Reviews. He received requests to con- 
 tribute no less than three different 
 articles within five months to the 
 same magazine. His public addre-ses 
 have been delivered in nearly every 
 city of the Union, and in all the cities 
 of Canada except Hamilton. They 
 have been delivered before the most 
 noted commercial, scientific, education- 
 al and literary institutions in the 
 United States. That he has been a 
 powerful agent in the formation and 
 controlling of thought on this contin- 
 ent scarcely any one will undertake to 
 deny. 
 
 When we consider the work of this 
 one man, we wonder what limit there 
 is to human endurance, and natur- 
 ally feel a desire to account for his 
 ability to accomplish so much. That 
 he must be a man of unusual ability, 
 industry and energy goes without say- 
 ing. Retiring at nine thirty, p.m. and 
 rising at three or four a.m., he has 
 thus been able to" perform an amount 
 of literary labor that would have been 
 impossible, in view of his other engage- 
 ments, without utilizing these early 
 hours, most of his literary work hav- 
 ing been done between these latter 
 hours and seven a.m. He was always, 
 when in the city, to be found at his 
 office between nine a.m. and five p.m., 
 after which his well known form 
 could be seen pacing the deck of the 
 ferry which carried him to his happy 
 home in Staten Island, where he reign- 
 ed as the idol with no rival, and where 
 he usually spent his evenings reading 
 aloud the popular authors to a charm- 
 ed family circle. In this home, tw well 
 as in the city, he also dispensed the 
 most generous hospitality. This ex- 
 tended not only to his private friends, 
 but to the persons composing such im- 
 portant bodies as the Pan-American 
 Congress, the Iron and Steel Institute 
 of Great Britian, the President and 
 
442 
 
 THE CANADIAN MAGAZINE, 
 
 Executive of the Ballimoii) ami Ohio 
 Kaih'oad, and other guests by the 
 hum I red. 
 
 T(j his other pergonal characteri.sticH 
 iini.st bo added a vivacity of intellect, 
 a grHn<l phy«iiiue that lias never been 
 enervated by the use of tobacco or the 
 excessive use of ardent li(|Uor.s, nie- 
 thodiciil habits, do^j^ed |)erHeverance, 
 a mounting ainl)ition, and, above all, a 
 lififht-heartcd an<l cheery disposition 
 which, during his wliole career, from 
 the time ho was a barefooted boy 
 earning fifty cents per week, to the 
 time he l)ecanie one of the most noted 
 men of North America, has served him 
 so well. A<l(lod to this, the springs of 
 human sympathy and philanthropy 
 were ever active within him, thus keep- 
 ing fresh ami ifreen the moral constitu- 
 tioii, which seems to react upon and 
 keep healthy the physical, the drying 
 up of which in any one is not favor- 
 al)le to longevity. It is almost incred- 
 ible to a strangei- viewing Mr. VViinan'.s 
 freshness and vigor, that he is within 
 ten years of fulfilling the sphere of life 
 alloted by the Psalmist to man. 
 
 A short enumeration of liis benevo- 
 lent and charitable acts would till a 
 goodly sized volume. Among the 
 objects of his cheerful support are his 
 first school mistress, aged unmarried 
 spinsters, widows, old men and distant 
 relatives, who have up to the time of 
 the present embarrassment in his fin- 
 ances been the regular monthly recipi- 
 ents of his bounty. 
 
 The offices in Montreal and Toronto 
 of the agency with which he has so 
 many years been identified were the 
 centres in Canada from which these 
 donations so freely flowed. No less a 
 sum than $.50,000 has, in the opinion of 
 those best capable of judging, been 
 given by him within the last fifteen 
 years to these objects of his fond soli- 
 citude in Canada. If this large sum 
 represents his gifts in Canada, what 
 must lie the sum that represents like 
 donations in the United States where 
 the field and demand for them were 
 greater. If, as Burke says, " Men are 
 
 ruined on the side of their natund pro- 
 pensities," we have in these charitable 
 gifts the secret of Mr. \Vi man's present 
 fiiuincial embarrassment. Nothing is 
 clearcrtohls most intimatt' friends than 
 that if hehad buttoned upliis pockets to 
 all cries for aid, the money thus saved, 
 utilized as he so well knew how to 
 utilize it, would have prevented 
 his present temporary end)arni.ssment. 
 Many (Canadians in the United States 
 have especial reason to gratefully re- 
 member him. Scattered all over the 
 Union from Maine to California are 
 thousands who owe their present pros- 
 perity in life to the impulse of his 
 sound and friendly ailvice and finan- 
 cial aid. His hume and office in New 
 York were the Meccas to which all 
 ( 'anadians, from the most prominent 
 and cultured to the most ignorant set- 
 tler, turned for recreation or help, and 
 none of them went disappointed away. 
 Especially was he solicitous of the 
 welfare of the newsboys and telegraph 
 operators, in whom, owing to his 
 former connection with those ca Hint's, 
 he felt a most active sympathy. 
 
 An indication of the hold he has 
 gained on the hearts and imagination 
 of the operators is furnished by an in- 
 cident that occurred at a banquet given 
 by the Magnetic Ciuo in New York, 
 where the chairman, upon introducing 
 Mr. Wiman, said: — " He is the oidy di- 
 rector on a list of thirty millionaires 
 composing the board, whom any one 
 of the sixty thousand operators would 
 approach with a certainty of borrow- 
 ing a ten dollar bill." 
 
 In view of all these achievements, 
 were the brittle thread which binds 
 him to this life to be now snapped, 
 could any one assert with truth that 
 his life i;ad not been a grand success. 
 Has it been any the less so because 
 he has probably still twenty years, with 
 all his accumulatedexperience,his ai'dor 
 and energy undiminished, within 
 which to recover from his present mis- 
 fortune ? All persons, however much 
 they differ in opinion from Mr. Wiman 
 on various topics, it is believed can join 
 
 •I 
 I 
 
A CANADIAN IN NEW YORK. 
 
 443 
 
 in the heartfelt wislieH of Mr. Bayanl, 
 ex-Secretary of State for the United 
 States, and at present American Min- 
 ister to the Court <»f St. JameM, who a 
 few woeka ago tlius wrote : 
 
 " Dear Mu. Wiman :— 
 
 " The time draws near for my depar- 
 ture for iiiy new scene of <luty, hut I 
 am not wiillnff to \io without an ex- 
 pression of my sincere antl hearty 
 sympathy for the financial embarrass- 
 ment which has come upon you. I 
 cannot douljt but that the same fore- 
 sight, energy, enterprise and integrity 
 upon whieli your success has heretofore 
 been btiilded up, will, in due time, re- 
 
 construct your fortunos, and leave you 
 in that condition which you iiave so 
 well earned and which, I sincerely hope, 
 you may soon regain. 
 
 " Wishing you every good fortune, I 
 am most truly and respectfully yours, 
 
 "T. F. Bavard." 
 
 Such words, from such a man, the 
 most representative of all the public 
 men in the United States, fittingly 
 close this tribute to Canada's friend in 
 the Uniteil States, as imlicating the 
 esteem in which he is helil in the 
 country of his adoption, and the inllu- 
 ence he wields for the benefit of the 
 country of his V)irth. 
 
 »■ 
 a.