Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1872-04-18
Ancient and NIodern Wealth.

| Some one having been telling OF Mr.. Loder
in London, who died lately, leaving the
enormous fortune of $75, ,O00, 900. and of the
gorgeous monument of the Rhode Island
Spragues, which is to cost 800, 200, and of
the wondrous wealth and profusion of Tweed
and Stewart and other shoddy magnates and
millionaires, the Richmond Inquirer tells us
how people had big fortunes and built fine
houses, and gave dinners, and drank fine
wines, and spent money in other ways in the
old times, ere Loder was, or Stewart named.
Thus it Is that the Inquirer takes the shine
out of the nineteenth century:
| Why, what is Tweed, or Stewart, or Mr.
Loder, or Belmont, or the Rothchilds, or the
Marquis of Westminster, to Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, of Egypt, who amassed a little prop
erty of $3.50, ,066, 600? And which of our ex-
travagant young ladies in these boasted times
ever gave her lover, as Cleopatra did, pearl
dissolved In vinegar Cor undissolved) worth
$4OO, 900? That's half the expense of Miss
| Tweed's wedding at dash, and would dress
for forty years. Then there was Paulina,
one of the ton in Rome, who used to wear
| jewels, when she returned her visits, worth
$500, 900. Well, they boast of Mr.. Stewards
''marble palace" in Thirty fourth street and
Fifth avenue. We do not suppose this house,
which is about the best they have in New
| York, cost more than half q million dollars.
| S15O OOO for his house and tgodins Sno;d
$65O GOO for his establishment an the Pala-
tine. while MessaIa oaye no OOO O00 for the
house Of Antonw Senecs ~ Who Vac irSt no .
plain rhilosopber like Mr.. Greelcy was worth
$12, 100000. Tiberius left a property of
nearly $120, 100000 Why, they talk about
mans failing in New York for million as
if it was a big thing. Caesar, before he
gentleman in priyate lifeNowed S14 O0l 00f9
Snd he nnrcbasad the fr;ondShin of OnoSo,
far 10 5nO O00 Mari Antony owed ~ 500
mn, @n The ISes If March snS be na;J + ho
fore the Kalends of March This was moth
ing-be smandered S790 OOO 0O(1 of the nuh.
lie money-Maior HODGES defaIcation heinp
for the contemntible sum of S45O 00l
And these fellows lived well. Esonus. who
was a NAV actor Maid $4OO 00() for SINGLE
dish. Calignla spent S4OO. 600 on a sumner
Their wines were often kent for two aces and
some of them sold for 800 an ounce They
roasted hogs whole at their banouets They
were fond of rams head nie and pastrv stuffed
with raisins and nuts. Dishes were made of
gold and silver. set with precious stones. The
beds of Heliogabulus were of solid silver,
his table and plates were of pure gold. and
his mattresses, covered with carpets of cloth
of gold. were stuffed with down from under
the wing of the partridge, ..s'H
1t look $500. O1O a wear to keen nm the
dignity of Roman Senator. and some of
them spent SIS, 600. 900 wear
Cicero and Pompey "dropped in" one day
on Lucellus-nobody at home but the family
and that family dinner cost $4,000. =
But we talk of population. We boast of
London and New York. Rome had popu-
lation of between three and four millions.
The wooden theatre of Scarurus contained
80, 600 seats. the Colosseum, built of stone.
would seat $1,000, and afforded standing
space for q, 900 more. The Circus Maximus
(think of il old John Robinson y would hold
1856, 900 spectators. There were in the city
1900 public baths, those of Diocletian alone
accommodating $500 bathers. Even in the
sixth century, after Rome had been sacked
and plundered by the Goths and Vandals,
Zachariah, a traveller, asserts that there were
3S4 spacious streets, eighty golden statues of
the gods, 46,697 palaces, 13,O52 fountains,
8, 785 bronze statues of the emperors and gen.
erals, TWENTY-FIVE great horses in bronze. two
collossi, two spiral columns, thirty-one thea
tres, eleven amphitheatres, 9,O26 baths, 2, 300
shops of perfumes, 2O91 prisons.
AS set off to Mr. Sprapues monumental
tombstone" we may merely mention the
mausoleum of Augustus in the northern part
of the Campus Martius, consisting of a large
tumulus of earth raised on a lofty basement
of white marble and covered ON the summit
with eyergreens. as in the manner of hang
ing garden, the whole surmounted by a bronze
figure of Augustus. At the entrance were
two EGYPTIAN obelisks. fifty feet high. and all
around was an extensive grove divided into
walks and terraces.
We have not SPACE to sneak of the Forum
T.-t.. Al.