Mother & Son

Mrs. Hetty Green, the late unique creative financier among women, had forgotten that she had bought a railroad during the great panic of 1893. The Texas Midland, 125 miles long, had completely slipped her mind. She found it one day when she had nothing better to do than paw over some dusty old papers. She sent her son, Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green, to Terrell, Tex., headquarters of the road, to ascertain its value. It was a long sort, of job, as the Interstate Commerce Commission learned later. The road did not pay. Colonel Green established himself at Terrell, became a prominent figure in Texan Republican politics. It is still repeated in Texas that Mark Hanna himself put him on the governor's military staff, which made Capitalist Green of Manhattan a Texan Colonel. The Colonel paid the railroad's deficit regularly every year. It was his plaything. Last week the Southern Pacific bought Texas Midland, adding 125 miles to 16,601 miles. Colonel Green received $2,500,000 cash. The Interstate Commerce Commission had put the road's value "tentatively" at $3,096,851. Colonel Green has not revealed his own valuation. Analysis of the road's capital structure suggests that his illustrious mother made a good buy.