The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-18 00:00:00

when in town to business, and keeping all under him
tit work. He paid well, and he must have had some
judgment in men, for he was well served, and had the
art of inducing his agents to give up their whole lives
to his service. He had, too, a certain fidelity to his
work and to the estate, and, we believe, pat a clause
in his leases under which he alone should undertake
all repairs—a branch of work involving exce3s labour
and no profit. It is probable that while he adhered
steadfastly to his own plan of life, and watched his
fortune accumulating, be was a weary man, who
thought life had very little to give, and had something
of a dislike for the wealth which had made him such a
name. He seemed to he governed, possibly from hahit,
by a sense of duty to the estate whien be had watched
so long—by a feeling that to diminish it, even for great
objects, wou'd be in some sense a moral wrong. It
may even be surmised that he was conscious of this
feeliug, and a little ashamed of it, broader Heas
flitting occasienally bef, re his mind. There is some-
thing to our ears excusatory in his frequent remark
that his wealth brought him nothing but a mainten-
ance and a daily round of work, and the burdensome
reputation of being the richest man in the Union.
Nevertheless, be never intermitted his toil, but from
1860 to 1873 increased his buildings' till be was popu-
larly descsibed as "the Landlurd of New York, and
was possessed of a fortune which the Traune says is
variously estimated, but may reach £10,000,000 ster-
ling. We have heard it e;timated, not by vulgar
rumours, but by grave capitalists, who had in-
terest in knowing the truth, at a very much
la'rger sum • but, -vast as the transactions of
W. B. Astor were, Wall-street is shrewd, and
the Tribune's estimate is likely to be found,
when the property is valued ft Ithe succession' the
terms of which are still unknown, very near the truth.
Jacob H. Astor certainly left £4,000,000, most of it
producing more than six per cent., and allowing even
£40,000 a year for expenditure and management
charges, the savings of 27 years under such manage-
ment as Mr. William Astor's, added to the original
fortune, cannot amount to much less than ten millions,
and may prove to be much more. It is to be observed,
however, that the houses will be valued at a period of
unusual depreciation. If the amount we have stated
should be realized Mr. Astor's fortune was one of the
largest ever at the disposal of a single man, unfettered
by the responsibilities of a house like the Rothschilds,
or by settlements such as reduce the London dukes to
life-tenancies.

We rather wonder why off° feels a slight contempt
for a career like this—y,ontempt deepened rather than
lessened by the charm which very great wealth, like
very great power in ,any other shape, has for the
imagination. Tried br all rules, William Astor was
a very excellent citizen. Tried by the rules of politi-
cal economy, he was a most excellent citizen—a man
who, instead of wasting wealth upon himself, or hoard-
ing it unused, er pauperising his neighbours by lavish
gifts, employed it in the most beneficial way—devoting
the whole, or nearly the whole, of his profits to repro-
ductive undertakings, railways, mines, and above all,
useful buildings. Tried by a higher standard even, there
was little to cavil at, for, as we have said, he probably
accumulated money from a sense of duty, which,
however narrow, was sincere, and his personal cha-
racter is believed to have been without a stain of any,
kind. He was bred and remained through life an un-
obstrusive member of the Episcopal Church, and never
neglected any external duty of a Church member,
gi,-ing up attendance only when his age made the ascent
of the church steps a suffering to him. If his will is
found as respectable as his life, there is no fault in it
on which a critic can take hold. And yet the in-
stinctive feeling that this man on the whole lived a
poor life must be the correct one. He had power in
his hands, power of the most real and effective kind,
and he did not care to use it; but while always in-
creasing it, left it behind him for others to use or mi use,
inderr mien,: of his centr( 1. There is no reason why he
should be blamed, any more than any Eeglish million-
aire who, equally with him, buries his talsnt in a nap-
kin ; hut one fe is in his case an extra sense of disap-
pointment, as if, livirg in such a country, with such a
family history, he ought to have been more original,
more splendidly gensrous, more of a recognisable
benef rto his kid. It is as if Napoleon in
the fulness of power rai usel his whole streng, h
to make himself a sA.e and decorous Sovereign
in some comer of his pos-essions.—had made a
warm cloak of his purple robe, and a handsome crutch
of his sceptre. A man is not bound to be lofty, if
loftine,s is not in him, hut there is in the career of
Mr. Astor, excellent person as he is always repre-
sented to have been, a want of the greatness which
power like his would in some few natures have called
fined. He did not even expand the eomewhat coo-
forth and sordid American idea of living.