The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-05-27
S51.405.500

Total, SOL, 400 800
The total of the taxable property in this
same year was $555, 42012. So that it APP
pears that ten men already own about one
tenth of all; and one hundred men might
own the wole of tine city, had their fathers,
and they, done as these have done. The
highest tax paid on the list amounted to
1858, 40, and the lowest to 22,670. Eth
er of them very pretty fortunes in most
quarters of the habitable globe. Together
these ten paid taxes to the amount of ST..
1S3,326.
To help the non millionaire to understand
this thing fully, it is we'll to say that these
figures of fifty-one and a half millions OF dol
lars represent, ut least, one hundred and
three million of actual property. and, prob
ably, one hundred and fifty millions; be-
cause hardly any of this property is rated at
more than one-half of its mercantile value,
some of it very much less than that. So
that we may estimate Mr. Astor to be worth,
in real estate alone, over $32, 000 900, and
Mr. Roosevelt over $2,700,000. For myself,
I believe these fortunes are three times the
taxed values.
Now, then, we come to the question How
did these ten men get to be millionaires 3
That is the question which everybody wishes
solved. so that they may go and do likewise.
Briefly, then, let us see how we can answer
this important question, without prying into
the sanctities OF private life:
First, then, note, that no one of these was
professional man or a producer of any
thing; nor were their immediate ancestors
They were, or their ancestors were, mer-
chants, traders, buyers and sellers of other
mems productions
Second. 1t is curious to observe that, out
of the two most persistent, thrifty, money
getting tribes-Yankees, pure and simple
and Jews-come but one each of this ten.
The other eight are: Four from the great
Germanic races, two from the Huguenot
French, and two from the Scotch, or Scotch
Irish.
The Germanic race has great industry and
persistence, not much vivacity or enterprise,
but vast capacity for holding on and it
will appear, in the progress OF this story,
what valuable faculty this is. The French
race is the most alert and vivacious in the
world but has not succeeded in trade when
pitted against the Germans and Saxons One
of our Gallo families, however. has not been
surpassed. The Scotch land tile North
Irish are the same) are canny-that is they
are wary, skilful, pertinacious; thay have
hand to grasp and hand to hold unequal
led among the sons of men.
Third. 1t has taken two generations to
produce eight of these mlionaires-tw
only, Stewart and Lord, have been the arch
itects of their own fortunes. Coming lit
tie to detail, which will assist our solution
of the question, we find the Astor estate to
be the result of the traffic of John Jacob As
tor with the Indian tribes through some half
century. This he seems to have begun al
most Immediately upon landing on the
shores of the New World, in 1888, and to
have prosecuted with vi gor and assiduity
which never tired Astor had three things
health, money-getting faculty, and an
organizing faculty.-This last is the Keynote
to the success of the great trading and manu-
featuring minds. 1t is quite distinct
from the producing faculty, and the building
or construction faculty.
Mr.. Astor, buying his furs cheap, took
them, or sent them, to Europe and to China,
and sold them dear. He bought teas and
other productions cheap. and those he again
sold dear-as dear as he could But, no
doubt, his main profit came from his deal
ings with the Indians. In other words, he
organized the North American fur trade, so
that it should make money for himself, not
the Indians; and it did it, did it largely
In due time he had money to invest, and
then his sagacious money making faculty
told him that New York was destined to be-
come a great commercial city, and that real
estate, judiciOusly bought, must increase in
value. He bought and he bought largely
AS he had great surplusses of money he
could buy and pay, and could hold on
through depressions and panics, when other
men went under; and, indeed, could buy in
the midst of such commissions to great profit.
For always this young, vigorous people and
the great. productive country pulled through,
and again became prosperous and then his
lands advanced greatly in value. This ap-
petite for accumulating millions grew with
what it fed on, and the power to do it grew
vastly with the growing millions; and thus
1t went on for sixty five years, until, in 184S,
he was gathered to his fathers, leaving an es-
tate to his son estimated at twenty millions,
legacy of $400, 900 to the city to found IL
brary, and an annuity of 5000 year to the
poet Halleck.
The career of our Rhinelander millionaire
has been essentially the same. He, too, in
herited the beginnings of his fortune for
the Rhlneanderpere was so lucky, or so wise,
as to own farm along the East River, on
. Manhattan Island. Having the supreme fac
ulty, also, OF holding on, it came to his chill
dren, of whom our millionaire is the most
distinguished representative He, too, has
had his struggle to keep, and to get more :;
and he has succeeded so that he now holds
"lOts innumerable. from 30th street to 131 -
and vast properties in Broadway, Park Row,
Barclay-street, ETC., etc.
The Goelets rank as one, not because it
takes two Goelets to make one man. but be-
cause it is said their property in a good de.
gree is one. The Goelet m:llionaires. too.
had an ancestor, who, following the honor
able craft of ironmongery, learned in it how
to turn iron to gold, and then into the CITY
lots. The story goes that, upon time, they
found themselves cramped for pasture for
their COW, and, to accommodate her. thew
bought pasture lot of some forty or fifty
q acres, for trfle That pasture lot now is
covered with brick and stone along Fifth.
Lexington and Fourth Avenues; and the
Goelets still it.
Thirty-fve years ago, Robert Lenox was
one of the four rich men of New York, fol-
lowing Mr., Aston. The other three were
John G. Coster, Stephen Whitney, and Ma.
thaniel Prime. The Lenox estate has grown
and become vast-the Others are scattered
or divided. This Lenox fortune begins as
far back as the American Revolution. when
in connection with the commissary depart
ment, the shrewd, prudent, careful, indefati.
gable Scotsman began to accumulate wealth
he went steadily forward with this grea,
purpose of his life until he died, in 1889
leaving millions to bis heirs.
-. .,.ooont millionaire Iaraoa L o.,a,r L..