The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-02-01
"The Rich Man Died and was
Buried"

"The Rich Man Died and was
Buried"
Tho death of the late VIM. B. Astor
furnished occasion but recently for brief
comment in our columns on The unsatisfy.
ing nature of the pursuit Of wealth for its
own sake, and we also had some words to
say upon the failure Of so many of our
rich men TO devote even portion of their
great riches to the alleviation Of misery or
to the promotion of good by the establish.
ment of large and generous benefces.
Since those words were pcnned the publ.
cation Of Mr.. Astor's will gives occasion
for return TO the subject.
Mr.. Astor was the representative of one
of our oldest families. For fifty years be
devoted himself to the development of the
enormous Astor cstate-an estate which,
two years after the death of its founder,
in 1913, was stated by the late Fitz
Greene Halleck to return an annual ip.
come Of Sl,600,000. or $4,000 day.
Mr.. Astor's will as printed in the public
Journal, rociied the testator's intention
to add during his lifetime s250,000 to
the endowment Of the Astor Library
founded by his father, and whose further
care was enjoined upon his son-and di.
reefs his executors to pay out of his estate
so much Of that sum as may not have
been paid at the time of his death ami
by codici appropriates further sum
of $1,000 600 to the same object. With
that exception the following is all Mr..
Astor has bequcathed to benevolent oh.
jects
American Bible Society $4,000
Society for Relief of Aged and Inligent
Females, 5000
Institution for the Blind, 5000
Lying-in Asylum, 1000
Ladies Repository, 5000
Fircmcns Fund, 10000
Total, $4,000
The precise value of the Astor estate is
not known, but i. has been estimated at
from S50,000,000 to S200,O00,O00. The
latter amount is doubtless, extravagant !;
but at compound interest the estate would
have quadrupcd its value during the past
twenty five years, giving an annual in.
come Of say S6,000,000. or $4,000 a
day. But taking the lowest estimate of
$50, O,OO0,O 600, and supposiug Mr. Astor
to have realized seven per cent. from it
an estimate which must be far below the
actual facts-Mr. Astor's estate would
still return yearly income of $780,
900, or $4,000 a day. And SO, after
life exceeding four score years--a life
born and Graded and reared and passed
in wealth-Mr. Astor passed out of this
world into the next, aud leaves to charity
and to religion the amount Of four days
income "The WILL" says contempo.
rary, "will be read with regret, if not
with surprise" "Regret," surprise" 4"
indeed Could any reader of this paper
have imagined that man who professed,
as Mr.. Astor did, belief in God and in
immortality, would dare go down to his
grave with such a record? Could any
life, has any life, in its wasted opportuni.
ties ever carried the record of quite so
pitiful failure as this?
All over our city Mr.. Astor Owned
property his wealth flowed in so freely
upon him that all he could do was to take
it in, buy, and build, and collect and it
was buy, and build, and collect year ar
ter year. Millions rolled in upon the
great estate, which grew and grew till it
surpassed in extent and value that of any
other in this country. And the busy
world outside ? 1t was the same it al.
ways had been. There was poverty :;
there was distress; there was starvation !;
there was misery; there was squalor, and
every form Of vice and wretchedness :;
there was disease and death thero was
moral turpitude there were the devils
agents paving the road to hell for youthful
feet to tread there were sick churches
and poor chapels. Christian men and
women were pleading for holp-hclp to
build hospitals, help to erect asylums.
hel p to spread the gospel to the perishine,
help to lift up the down.trodden. the out.
cast. the Derishing. They asked help of
Mr., Astor when living, He refused i;
And when dead they found he had said
to them, Here is four days income
take that and let me alone" All Mr..
Astor, why did You give at all 2 Then
we might have thought you had never
learned the lesson Of giving, and charity
might have hushed the voice of obloquy.
But, alas you knew how to give. You
knew that $4,000 to the Bible Society
was not waste Of your means; you knew
that $4,000 devoted to the relief of Door.
aged, INDECENT women would do some
good, and that like amount bestowed
upon blind asylum would perhaps pro.
vide free berth in that institution to one
poor, sightless unfortunate-you know all
this, but why did you stop there Had
you but given, when living, some of those
superauous millions which you could no,
use-which would have made you none
the poorer, but so much richer-bow
would the good have blessed your memo.
ry! How would the poor have honored
you How would your example have
lightened your pathway while living and
have shonc down the ages after you were
dead. How much grander q monument
you would have built than that shaft of
passionless, insensate marble which will
tower above your grave
Mr.. Astor indeed fostered great bene.
fee the Astor Library, an Inheritance
from his father; would that be had learn.
ed lesson in some of its volumes lie
might have read if he perhaps he
did-in sage old Antoninus that IA great
estate is great disadvantage to those
who do not know how to use it, for it is
precept and principle, not an estate, that
makes a man good for something" Or
he might have read in Lord Bacon's Es.
Says--or have read it as well in the mis-.
cradle failure of that lfe-that "riches
are the baggage of virtue: it cannot be
spared nor left behind, but it hindereth
the march and sometimes loseth tho vic.