The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-01-20

and projecting scientific museum, to he
called the Humboldt House.
A single lustitim, however, spanned the
summer OF his prosperity, and the FIVE
subsequent wears merely delayed an in
evitablc catastrophe. The non-pavmcnt
of the ROumauian coupons in 1870, and the
disastrous complications which followed,
crippled STRorsnERG's prestige and re-
sources so decisivcly that all his incessant
aud indcfatigahlc offorts-thc attempt to
enlist English capital the scheme of an
Imperial AuglO-GeIinan Bank, and the
projection of steel and iron works on n
colossal scale failed utterly to retrieve
his fortunes. The desperate measures to
which he at last resorted, and which pre-
cipitated his total collapse, as well as the
ruin of his ooadjutor JACQUES, his own
arrest and Incarceration at Moscow, in
short the closing incidents of his career,
are still fresh in the public mind.
The last two centuries exhibit hut two
men the scope ana spendor Of whose
cphcmelHl fame can fifty he compared with
STRoUsBERG s-JoHN Law, who plunged
France into bankruptcy under the Regent
ORLEANS. and HUDSON, the English railway
king of Il quarter of Il century ago. The sue
cess, however, OF the German adyenturcr
WAS achieved under much more arduous
conditions. The founder of the Mississippi
scheme brought large fortune to Paris,
and recommended his enterprise to public
confidence by embarking in II the whole
Of his private means. The commercial
standing Of HUDSON was at one period be-
yond suspicion, and his credit sound III
the most conservative circles. Obviously
at all times aud in all places capital aud
credit, one or both, are the essential fac
tors of effective speculation. Now, il is IA
fact established by recent Investigations
that SrRoUsHERG ut no time possessed
| either
IL is now known that the rcputed pos
SCISSOR of hfty millions, whose operations
implied the control of perhaps i've hum
| drcd, at no moment of his business life
could have shown, upon an adjustment Of
accounts, even a trivial balance to his
credit; that he never had ten Thousand
dollars which he could fairly Gull his own.
| Moreover, his commercial standing was
always 80 precarious, that at the acme OF
| his political and social influence, while he
held IA seat in Parliament aud counted
among his friends the most houored
names of the Brundeuburg nobility, lac
was unnhlc 10 get his paper discounted nj
tho Prussan Bank. For ready money lac
was invariably compelled to resort 10
! note shaNeIs and jews, aud to pay sucli
| incredible rates for accommodation as
| thirty, fifty, sometimes u hundred per
cent. II is plain that the imposing cdiiicc
of SrRorsBERG's fortunes was the merest
she'll, which only consummatc financial
conjurer could have maintained intact
| even for single day.
That "A muu should have projected SO
| many colossal works, aud successfully ac-
| complisled II large part Of them. unsup-
ported hy the most essential adjuncts Of
human enterprise, with no leverage, in
| fact. except his brains, cannot fail TO ex-
| tort n certain admiration. Moreover,
srnoCsBERG has been freud TO Prussia.
ritory in a broad network of railways,
| which have impaired a wonderful impe-
tus To industry and trade. II is not sur
| prisiug, therefore, that his countrymen,
comings with philosophy. and find Napo-
! leonic features in n bankrupt who had
| turned the stream OF his restless activity
| into every channel Of human cndcaNor,
at last on the banks Of the Moscowa.