Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-11-18
A Russian RailrOad-King,

The United States is supposed IN CON-
tain goodly number of railroad kings"
but we never have had a George Hudson
or DIR. Strousberg on this side of the At
lantlc. The first one practically controlled
the whole railway system of England. He
began life extremely poor, became incred-
IDLY rich and died in poverty. His career
has been repeated, with an important va
ration, by Strousberg, the fallen railroad
king OF Russia, of Austria, of Germany.
One Empire was insufficient for his vault
ing ambition. He grasped at three, over
reached himself and fell. Hudson had
this same experience, but he is believed to
have been an honest man. Suousberg is
not as gently treated by rumor. His meth
cd of procedure, too, differed in kind from
that of Hudson. The latter was finan-
cier first, contractor afterward. The
former reversed this order of things
While he gambled in the stocks and bonds
OF every European railroad, he preferred
to make his money by bidding for con-
tracts and taking securities, instead of
cash, in payment. In this he re-
sembled Thomas Brassey, and he may
rise to wealth again, as Brassey did after
his disastrous failure But Strousberg
is at a disadvantage. A prison is
poor place from which to retrieve ones
fortunes, and the deposed monarch is in
prison. He was, we believe, of Austrian
extraction. For a long time he made
Vienna his headquarters. The smooth
roads and the substantial stone bridges of
the Austrian railways are largely due to
StrOusberg. He built not only largely,
but well. When the era of internal i'm
provement dawned upon Russia Strous-
berg was ready to profit by the newborn
zeal for railways. His bids were prompt
ly filed. 1t is said they were sometimes
weighted with gold, and that he therefore
got contracts without much regard to the
price he asked for his work. Be this as it
may, he got them. He laid hundreds of
miles of track on Russian soil While he
was busIly engaged there Germany fell
victim to the railway mania. What more
natural than that a great contractor, who
had successfully served two Empires,
should now serve third? An army of
| workmen marched across Germany,
marking their way with iron rails.
1t was Strousberg here, Strous-
| berg there, Strousberg everywhere.
| Lesser Spectators hung on his
lips and besought him for points" The
big Bonanza" is mere adaptation of a
German play, and the latter was born of
the speculative era which Strousbergled
He went too far. Supposed to be fabu
| lousy rich, he saw his wealth evaporate
! He was loaded down with stocks and
bonds. The bonds could not be sold The
| stocks shrunk in value day by day. One
desperate expedient after another failed
| The crash came. DIR. Strousberg was ar
rested in st. Petersburg DR. Strousberg
has been imprisoned at Moscow DR..
| Strousberg has been sued by his creditors
| in Vienna. He is about to be adjudged
| bankrupt in Berlin. The evil he has done
| is shown by the rush of failures in Russia
| and the panicky state of the money mar
ket III Austria and Germany. Our dis
patches of yesterday showed that even
London was disturbed. Dethroned mon
archs, like ex-Presidents, rarely amount
to anything. 1t is not probable that we
shall hear again of the King whom the
railways of three Empires owned. CHI
csg0 Tribune.