Artemus L. Gates was the son of Marvin J. Gates and Emma Rena Lamb
of Clinton, Iowa. His grandfather, Artemus Lamb (1840-1901), was born
in New York State and moved to Iowa with his father, Chancy Lamb. They
operated several sawmills, with S.W. Gardiner and S.B. Gardiner, their
longtime business partners. Artemus Lamb founded the Peoples' Trust and
Savings Bank in Clinton, and was also interested in the City National
Bank and the Clinton National Bank, the Merchants National Bank, and
the Clinton Savings Bank, all of Clinton; and the Lumberman's Bank of
Shell Lake, Wis. He was also a director of several regional logging
companies. He was a Royal Arch and Scottish Rite Mason. (Artemus Lamb.
In: Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 By Patrick B.
Wolfe, 1911, p. 684; and Garrett Eugene Lamb, p. 676.) Silas W.
Gardiner's daughter, Mary Jeannette, married Frank G. Wisner of Laurel,
Miss. [parents of Frank Gardiner Wisner of the C.I.A.] (Condensed Iowa.
Des
Moines, Daily Iowa Capital, Sep. 29, 1897.) S.W Gardiner and George S.
Gardiner, lumbermen from Laurel, were registered at the St. Charles
Hotel in New Orleans during the time that the United Fruit Company was
being organized there. (Gossip Gathered in Hotel Lobbies. New Orleans
Daily Picayune, Apr. 24, 1899.)
"He was a scion of the local banking magnates. By blood he was kin
to all the Pomeroy bankers." After leaving the Greylock School at
Williamstown, Mass., he was paying teller at the Pequonnoc Bank in
Bridgeport, Conn. "Biographers of success stories have pictured a
youthful Davison
wandering the streets of New York, a Horace Greely of the Banking
world, a penniless youth, sighing and dreaming of conquering in the
great metropolis. They have even gone so far as to picture him
standing, pilgrim-like, in front of the House of Morgan, and resolving
to some day enter the forbidding portals. Pretty notions to supplement
facts and inspire youths to dreams of achievement, but untrue of
Davison.... He came to New York because there was a vacancy in the
Astor Place Bank, and a banking friend who knew of it had recommended
him for the job. The old Astor Place Bank was the depository of many
publishers twenty years ago, and it was there that he got his first
knowledge of the publishing world that was later to serve him well in
financing properties that were close to the heart of J.P. Morgan." "At
the Astor Bank he made many friends and when the Liberty National Bank,
affiliated with the Astor, needed some energy and resourcefulness
behind it, Mr. Davison was the logical selection for cashier." His
backers were E.C. Converse and Dumont Clark. He was the organizer of
the Bankers' Trust. Five years later, George F. Baker, president of
the
First National Bank, brought him in as a first vice president. He
was chairman of the War Council of the American
Red Cross. (H.P.
Davison: The Man Behind the Red Cross. By Edwin Wildman. Forum, Sep.
1917.) He was also a director of the Chemical
National Bank.
Henry Pomeroy Davison (1867-1922) was born in Troy, Pennsylvania,
where his uncle ran a bank. One of his classmates at the Graylock
Institute in South Williamstown, Mass., was Charles H. Sabin, later
chairman of the Guaranty Trust. He came to the Astor Place Bank in
1891, the Liberty National Bank in 1894, and the First National Bank in
1902. He became a partner of J.P. Morgan & Company in 1909. He took
part in the merging of three trust companies into the Guaranty Trust
Company. He married Kate Trubee of Bridgeport, Conn. in 1893.
(Davison's Life Story Reads Like Fiction. New York Times, May 7, 1922;
H.P. Davison Dies Under Operation. New York Times, May 7, 1922.) He was
the son of George P. and Henrietta Pomeroy Davison. During the panic of
1907, he worked with Morgan partner George W. Perkins. He was a
director of the Astor Trust Company, Bankers
Trust Company and Liberty
National, the First National Bank and the First Security Company, and a
member of the Jekyl Island Club. (Henry P. Davison. Bankers' Magazine
Jun 1922; 104, 6; p.1002.)
Mrs. Henry P. Davison was matron of honor for her sister, Alice Bussey Trubee, who married William Henry Sallman, President of Northfield College in Northfield, Minn. The ushers were Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, [S&B] 1896, Secretary of the Yale Corporation; George Bowen Case, Yale 1894; Thomas Cochran Jr., [S&B] 1894; L.B. Jones of Wilkesbarre, Pa., Yale 1894; and Robert C. Seeley of New York. The best man was William Sloan, [S&B] 1895. The bridesmaids were Mrs. Henry Blodget and H. Agnes McKelvey of Bridgeport; Mary L. Davison of New York; Henrietta D. Pomeroy of Troy, Pa.; and Ethel A. Hatch and Jeanne M. Hatch of Philadelphia. The officiating clergyman was Rev. Timothy Dwight, ex-President of Yale. (Sallman-Trubee. New York Times, Feb. 18, 1903.) W.H. Sallman of London, Ont., was a member of Wolf's Head, 1894. (Yale University. New York Times, May 29, 1893.)
Henry Pomeroy Davison Jr. married the only daughter of James A.
Stillman. His brother Frederick Trubee Davison, was best man, and
Artemus L. Gates and David S. Ingalls were ushers. "Some of those at
the ceremony were Mrs. Eliphalet Nott Potter, Miss Grace Potter, and
Mrs. J. Kennedy Todd, representing the Potter family, Mr. and Mrs.
George Henry Warren Jr., the latter the former Miss Katherine Urquhart,
and her sister Miss Anne Urquhart, cousins of Mrs. Stillman;.. Mr. and
Mrs. Henry S. Morgan, the former a son of J. Pierpont Morgan, with
whose firm the bridegroom is associated; A. Coster Schermerhorn
[S&B 1920], Mr. and Mrs. Henry F. Colt, Mr. and Mrs. Robert A.
Lovett, Thomas W. Lamont Jr. [sic] and Wellesley Laud-Brown." (Anne
Stillman Wed to Henry P. Davison. New York Times Oct 19, 1924.) They
were divorced in 1946, and he married Eleanor M.A. Sparks Martin. (Mrs.
Martin's Nuptials. New York Times, Aug 10, 1946.) Henry P.
Davison Jr., Henry Sturgis Morgan, and Thomas Stillwell Lamont were all
chosen as partners of J.P. Morgan together. (Sons of 3 Partners Enter
Morgan Firm. New York Times, Jan 1, 1929.) When J.P. Morgan & Co.
changed from a partnership to an incorporated bank and trust company in
1940, Davison became vice president and a director, senior vice
president in 1953 and president in 1955. In 1959, when it merged
with the Guaranty Trust, he was elected vice chairman of the Morgan
Guaranty Trust and its two international subsidiaries, the Morgan
Guaranty International Banking Corporation and the Morgan Guaranty
International Finance Company. His mother, brother and sisters, three
sons and three stepdaughters survived him. (Henry P. Davison, Banker,
Dead. New York Times, Jul 3, 1961.
Frances Davison married Ward Cheney, Skull & Bones 1922. He was
the son of Charles Cheney, a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co. (?) and
the
national head of the Red Cross during World War I. His ushers included
Robert F. Solley, William Galey Lord, Robert J. Larner, James S. Bush, Stanley
Woodward, and Frederic dePeyster Townsend, all S&B 1922; Artemus L.
Gates S&B 1918, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, a director of the
Guaranty Trust 1926-1940. (Frances Davison Weds Ward Cheney. New York
Times, Jan. 2, 1926.) Ward Cheney was best man for Edward G. Janeway,
Yale 1922, to Elinor White [sister of Ogden White]. (Janeway-White. New
York Times, May 24, 1925.) In 1935, the Cheneys were in the First
Division
Cardiac Clinic of Bellevue Hospital benefit dinner party of Mr. and
Mrs. William Galey Lord, along with Mr. and Mrs.
Oswald Bates Lord (S&B 1926), Mr. and Mrs. Artemus L. Gates,
Mr. and Mrs. Averell
Harriman, and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
Douglas. Others who
had guests at the benefit included Mrs.
Howard Dean, an ancester of Presidential candidate Howard
Dean. (Cabaret Benefit Assists
Hospital. New York Times, May 16, 1935.) Lewis Douglas was the grandson
of James Douglas, the benefactor of James
Ewing of the American Society for the Control of Cancer. Charles
Cheney was chairman of Cheney Brothers until retiring in 1932. He
graduated from MIT. (Charles Cheney, of Silk Firm, Dead. New York
Times, Apr. 12, 1942.) Ward Cheney was also chairman of Cheney Brothers
Silk Corporation in Manchester, Conn. He died in 1967. (Mrs. Ward
Cheney. New York Times, Jul. 25, 1969.)
Henry Pomeroy Davison 2d, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Pomeroy
Davison [S&B 1949], married Kristina Talmage Perkin, whose
grandfather, Richard S. Perkin, founded the Perkin-Elmer Corporation in
Norwalk, Conn. Her father, Richard T. Perkin, was founder and chairman
of the V.Z.V. Research Foundation. She was a Harvard grad and an
associate in the global investment management division of Bankers Trust
Company. "Mr. Davison, 32, is known as Harry. He is a vice
president in
the private banking division of J. P. Morgan & Company in New York.
He graduated from the Groton School, which was founded by his
great-grandfather Endicott Peabody, and from Yale University. The
bridegroom's father, who is retired, was the chairman and chief
executive of the United States Trust
Company of New York. The
bridegroom's great-grandfather Henry Pomeroy Davison was a partner in
J. P. Morgan and the founder of Bankers Trust." (Kristina Perkin, Harry
Davison. New York Times, Sep 18, 1994.)
Before 1914, the "Tap Day" ceremony in which members of the secret societies of Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Wolf's Head, et al., were chosen, "formerly attract[ed] crowds which thronged the campus. In that year, "the Faculty made the event practically a private affair, closing the campus to the public." "In 1917 elections were given on the campus, although several of the men had gone into military service. They were notified of their election either by cable or telegram, or by special messenger sent to the military camps, and returned word of their acceptance. In 1918 the elections were given in the rooms of the juniors, attracting little or no notice from the outside world." "During the absence from the campus of practically all the members of the secret societies on military service, the older alumni who are members of the three organizations are rumored to have carried on the business affairs of the societies, although strict secrecy has prevented any of the details from reaching the public ear. Regular meetings of the three societies were resumed immediately after the signing of the armistice." In 1919, "It is planned to have the elections conducted this year exactly as in peace times, the fifteen members of all three societies who are members of the class of 1919 appearing on the campus between the hours of 5 and 6 on the afternoon of May 22, and, by each slapping a junior between the shoulders and shouting to him: 'Go to your room,' notify the forty-five members of the class of 1920 of their election." (Yale Will Revive Tap Day This Year. New York Times, May 4, 1919.) Albert Olsen, S&B 1917, the former football manager, traveled to Palm Beach to tap the 1918 members a month early, because five of the 15 secret society members - Gates, Vorys, Ames, Davison and Lovett - were already in the Yale aviation corps. (Yale Seniors Tapped. New York Times, Apr. 20, 1917.)
In 1916, Yale football player Artemus L. Gates was a member of the "Aero Fleet" organized by Mrs. Henry Pomeroy Davison. "Mrs. Davison is responsible for the formation of the flying squad. Before giving her consent she had to overcome a conviction that flying was the most dangerous avocation on earth; further than that, Mr. Davison, who held a similar belief, had to be converted before the training school could be established." Most were Yale students, including four others who also joined Skull & Bones Class of 1918: Their son, F. Trubee Davison, Robert A. Lovett, John M. Vorys, and Allen W. Ames. The Davisons' other son, Henry P. Davison Jr., S&B 1920, serving with the American Ambulance Corps in France, and Lieut. W.F. Sullivan of the Royal Flying Corps, were to join them in September. (Mrs. H.P. Davison Starts Aero Fleet. New York Times, Aug. 24, 1916.) Henry P. Davison Sr., a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. since 1908, was chairman of the 1910 New York Fund-Raising Committee and later chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross, which sent the expedition to Russia to help the Bolsheviks.
Gates married the Davisons' daughter, Alice, in 1922. Nine members of Skull & Bones class of 1918 (M.H. Baldridge, Allan W. Ames, Cassius M. Clay, Robert B. Deans, James Gould, Robert A. Lovett, John M. Vorys, J. Elliot Woolley, and Charles P. Taft 2d) were ushers, and Trubee Davison, S&B 1918, gave his sister away because their father was recuperating from an operation. John C. Farrar, S&B 1917, David S. Ingalls, S&B 1920, and James V. Forrestal were also ushers; and Henry P. Davison Jr., S&B 1920, was best man. Mr. and Mrs. George F. Baker Jr. and their kids participated in the ceremony, and Gates's sister Henrietta and Mrs. Robert A. Lovett were attendants of the bride. (Miss Davison Weds Artemus L. Gates. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1922.) In 1927, Mrs. Gates and the Bakers assisted Mrs. Davison with a three-day bash to raise funds for the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
Of this group, F. Trubee Davison later became Assistant Secretary of War for Air in the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations; Ingalls became Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air from 1929 to 1932; Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air, and Secretary of Defense during World War II; and Gates was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air in August 1941, under Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox (Names A.L. Gates to Navy Air Post. New York Times, Aug. 20, 1941), and was Under Secretary of the Navy in the Truman Administration.
In 1919, Gates became associated with the Liberty National Bank, which merged in 1921 with the New York Trust Company. Gates became a vice president in 1926, and was elected president at the age of 34. (A.L. Gates, 34, Heads New York Trust. New York Times, June 13, 1929.) Mortimer N. Buckner (S&B 1895) had been chairman of the board since 1921. William F. Buckley was one of the incorporators in 1890. (New York Trust Is 50 Today; Represents Merger of Three Banks. New York Times, Apr. 4, 1939.) In August, his brother-in-law, Henry P. Davison, Jr., joined him. (Davison on Board of New York Trust. New York Times, Aug. 23, 1929.) Gates resigned as President of the New York Trust to take the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air in 1941. New York Trust later merged with Chemical Corn Exchange Bank, which later became the Chemical Bank.
Gates was elected to the board of directors of the Security Management Company in 1928, along with Yale Professor Irving Fisher, S&B 1888, who was a founder of the Life Extension Institute; William S. Gray Jr.; and Lindsay Bradford, Yale 1914. (Many Firm Changes Announced In Day. New York Times, Mar. 1, 1928; Trust Company Organized. New York Times, Oct. 19, 1928.)
"Several dinners were given before the cabaret entertainment in behalf of the First Division Cardiac Clinic of Bellevue Hospital, which was held last night at the Stork Club..... In the party of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Tickermann were Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Brewster Jennings and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lamont. With Mr. and Mrs. William Galey Lord [S&B 1922] were Mr. and Mrs. Oswald Bates Lord [S&B 1926], Mr. and Mrs. W. Averell Harriman [S&B 1913], Mr. and Mrs. Ward Cheney [S&B 1922], Mr. and Mrs. Artemus L. Gates [S&B 1918] and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Douglas." Others who had guests at the benefit included Mrs. Howard Dean, an ancester of Presidential candidate Howard Dean. (Cabaret Benefit Assists Hospital. New York Times, May 16, 1935.)
Mrs. Gates raised funds for the Public Education Association. Her fellow fund-raisers included Mrs. [Mary] Woodard Reinhardt and her mother, Mrs. Frank Woodard, and sister, Alice Woodard; and Mrs. Thomas Lamont, wife of the Guaranty Trust director. (Reception Will Be Held March 22 For Opening of Degas Exhibition. New York Times, Mar. 7, 1937.) Mark A. May, director of Yale's Institute of Human Relations, was a member of the P.E.A.'s Commission on Human Relations.
Supporters of a 1953 art exhibition benefit for the Public Education Association included Mrs. Thomas S. Lamont, Mrs. Eustace J. Seligman, Mrs. Ernest Angell, Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, Mrs. Maurice T. Moore (of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Henry Luce's brother-in-law), Mrs. Henry H. Villard, Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman, Mrs. E. Roland Harriman, Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, and Mrs. Frank Altschul. (Many Parties Will Mark Preview Tonight Of Art Benefit for Public Education Body. New York Times, March 17, 1953.) Bethuel M. Webster Jr., counsel to the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, had been a member of the board of trustees for twelve years when he was elected chairman in 1954.
Artemus Gates; Winthrop W. Aldrich, a director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer in 1936; and William C. Potter, chairman of the board of the Guaranty Trust Company (in whose board room the Life Extension Institute had been formed), were three of the twelve directors of the Discount Corporation of New York (Display Ad. New York Times, Jan. 14, 1938).
"William S. Paley, president and chairman of the Columbia Broadcasting Company, and Artemus L. Gates, president of the New York Trust Company, were elected directors of the Pan American Airways Corporation at the annual meeting of stockholders held yesterday. They succeeded David K.E. Bruce and Herbert Fleischhacker, who resigned." Juan T. Trippe was the president. (2 Directors Elected By Aviation Concern. New York Times, May 19, 1939.) Fleischhacker was a California banker who went to prison for self-lending. He was a golf buddy of Albert D. Lasker. In 1940, the Laskers rented their apartment at 29 Beekman Place from Paley.
Howard Brush Dean, Yale 1918, and the grandfather of presidential candidate Howard Dean, was a vice president of Pan American World Airways System from 1943 until his death in 1953. He began his career in the bond department of the Guaranty Trust Company in 1919. From 1921 to 1941, he was a partner in the New York Stock Exchange firm of Struthers & Dean; was a governor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1938-42. (Howard Dean, 53, Airline Executive. New York Times, March 23, 1950.)
Gates and Lovett were re-elected to the board of trustees of Presbyterian Hospital in 1946. Gates had been a trustee for thirteen years before resigning in 1941, and Lovett, a partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman & Co., had been a trustee for fourteen years. Gates was also a director of Time, Inc. (Elected By Hospital. New York Times, Jun. 25, 1946.) Mrs. Gates had been a fund-raiser for the hospital since at least 1925. Other fund-raisers whose husbands bore the names of Bonesmen included Mrs. Ray Morris (S&B 1901), Mrs. John Ellsworth (S&B 1905), Mrs. Stephen H. Philbin (S&B 1910), Mrs. Dean Sage (S&B 1897), Mrs. John Sloane (S&B 1905), and Mrs. Henry Sage Fennimore Cooper (S&B 1917). (Hospital to Begin Fund Drive Today. New York Times, Aug. 29, 1925.) Charles Proctor Cooper, who replaced Dean Sage as president of Presbyterian Hospital in 1943, was a longtime director of the Guaranty Trust.
When Henry R. Luce died in 1967, Time Inc.'s board of directors consisted of: Roy E. Larsen; Charles L. Stillman, a friend of Luce who also joined the company in its early years; D.W. Brumbaugh; Rawleigh Warner; G.A. Freeman Jr.; Artemus L. Gates; Paul G. Hoffman; Samuel Meek; Maurice T. Moore, Luce's brother-in-law; Frank Pace Jr.; Hedley Donovan, editor-in-chief; Andrew Heiskell, chairman of the board; and James A. Linen. (Luce Aides: 'No Drastic Changes.' New York Times, March 6, 1967.)
Gates was elected to the board of directors of the Union Pacific Railroad when W. Averell Harriman (S&B 1913) resigned to become the US Secretary of Commerce. Averell's brother, E. Roland Harriman (S&B 1917) was elected chairman of the board to succeed him. (Becomes Board Chairman of the Union Pacific Road. New York Times, Oct. 16, 1946.)
Mrs. Lewis W. Douglas, Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, Mrs. John W. Hanes, Mrs. William Zinsser, Mrs. Charles Wight, Mrs. John W. Drye Jr., Mrs. Frederick Eaton, Mrs. George L. Harrison [S&B 1910], Mrs. J. Holladay Philbin [Jesse Holladay Philbin, S&B 1913?], Mrs. Grenville P. Emmet Jr., Mrs. Frederick Warburg, and Mrs. S.M. Tushnet were appointed to the newly-created women's advisory board of Lenox Hill Hospital. Mrs. Wilton Lloyd-Smith was the chairman. (Named To Hospital Board. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1947).
Laymen were elected to the governing bodies of the American Heart Association for the first time in 1947. These included Artemus L. Gates; Thomas L. Parkinson, President of The Equitable Life Assurance Company; movie producer Samuel Goldwyn; former Rep. Clare Boothe Luce, the wife of Henry R. Luce of Time magazine, S&B 1920; and Harold E. Stassen, the former governor of Minnesota. Tinsley Harrison was elected president for 1948-49. (Mayo Clinic Official Named to Head Heart Asociation. New York Times, June 7, 1947.) Stassen was later a director of the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company from 1963 to 1968, when it was acquired by Loew's Corporation.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert D. Lasker lent their Matisses and other French paintings for a benefit for the New York Heart Association. Members of the loan exhibition committee included George F. Baker [Jr.], Artemus Gates, B. Brewster Jennings, and Oliver Gould Jennings. (French Paintings to Aid Heart Unit. New York Times, Jan. 7, 1951.)
Gates Made Boeing Director. New York Times, May 12, 1948.
Gates was a stockholder in a syndicate that purchased a chain of seven weekly suburban papers. Other stockholders included John Hay Whitney and S. Winston Childs [co-founder of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research and a possible ancestor of Starling Winston Childs, S&B 1976]; and Henry R. Luce, S&B 1920, William V. Griffin, James A. Linen 3d, and Charles L. Stillman of Time, Inc. (Coast Weeklies Bought. New York Times, May 9, 1948.) The venture was suspended the next year. (Publishers Suspend Los Angeles Venture. New York Times, Aug. 4, 1949.)
Gates was named the chairman when Kuhn, Loeb & Company and the Commercial Investment trust, Inc., jointly acquired the Lawyers Title Corporation of New York, a title insurance firm. Benjamin Buttenwieser was elected to its board. (Banking Firm, Investment Trust Acquire Title Corporation Stock. New York Times, Aug. 2, 1946.) Gates continued as chairman when Lawyers was acquired by Title Guarantee and Trust in 1948; he was in addition a director of Union Pacific, Time, American Superpower Corporation and North British & Mercantile Insurance Company. (Title Guarantee Names 3 Officials. New York Times, Oct. 6, 1948.)
Gates was added to the board of Safeway, along with Norman Chandler, the president and a director of the Los Angeles Times (Safeway to Add to Board. New York Times, March 17, 1949.)
Gates was a director when Transit Van Corporation was set up by the North American Car Corporation of Chicago and Hodges Research and Development Company, with former Maj. Gen. Fred L. Anderson, USAF, as president. (Transit Van Corp. to Be Transport Link. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1949.)
Gates was elected a trustee of Mutual Life Insurance (Former High Navy Aide Made Insurance Trustee. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1952.)
Gates was a member of the Citizens Commission on Utilization of Manpower in the Armed Services, which was created after Mary Lasker's friend Anna Rosenberg's appointment as Assistant Secretary of Defense, under Robert A. Lovett, S&B 1918. Other members included Robert W. Johnson, chairman of the board of Johnson and Johnson; Lewis L. Strauss; and David Sarnoff, chairman. (Manpower Waste In Services Hunted. New York Times, Nov. 26, 1952.)
Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller, Mrs. Gardner Cowles, and others, held a luncheon and fashion show in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria "to secure rummage to be sold at the Memorial Cancer Center Thrift Shop (Patronesses Named for Fete Aiding Cancer Center Feb. 16. New York Times, Jan. 24, 1960.)
Gates's obituary: Artemus L. Gates, at 80, Served As Under Secretary of the Navy. New York Times, June 17, 1976.
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