Leonard Matthews Is Pioneer Drug Store Founder.

Leonard Matthews, former wholesale druggist, investment broker and banker, on the threshold of his 102nd birthday which will be next Wednesday, sat in an easy chair in the parlor of his home at 5447 Cabanne avenue yesterday afternoon and said he was “feeling fine.”

This remarkable centenarian still takes and interest in affairs and is proud of the fact that on his 100th birthday he predicted the stock slump almost a year before it came.

Founded Brokerage Firm.

Increasing deafness now makes it difficult for Matthews to hold an extended conversation, but his mind is still keen and he retains much of the business and financial acumen which made him a business leader in his day.

He was the founder of the drug house which grew into the Meyer Bros. Drug Company, and of the brokerage house which became Whitaker and Company.

After his retirement he frequently deplored the modern tendency to speed up business and make money too quickly. In his interview with a Times reporter two years ago he said, “It seems to me that the stock brokers nowadays have discarded their ethics and they all try to make as much money as they can all the time. It’s going to hurt them, though. Some day the bottom will fall out.”

Author of Book.

Matthews is proud of a book of reminisces which he wrote and which was published shortly before his 100th birthday.

“Did you read it?” he asked the reporter who visited him yesterday.

“Yes, and I found it very interesting,” replied the reporter.

“What interested you most?” asked the centenarian.

When he was told that the most interesting feature of the book, as the reporter saw it, was its revelation of the manners and business customs of Old St. Louis. Matthews smiled and said, “I think so, too. We didn’t have automobiles and airplanes then and I think we were better off without them.”