The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-06-28
RALSTON'S FAMOUS PALACE.
The Romance of the California Bank Presi-
dents Life-HOw Warwick Martin Col
Iected an Old Debt and Betty Martin got
Silk Dress.

The Romance Of the California Bank Presi-
dents Life-How Warwick Martin Col
Iected an Old Debt and Betty Martin got
silk Dress.
A San Francisco correspondent of the
New York Sun writes To-day we have
spent at Belmont, the magnificent
country seat of the late VIM. A. Ralston.
We have beeh the guests of Senator
| Sharon, into whose hands Belmont fell
after Ralston's suicide. Belmont is situ-
ated about twenty-five miles from San
| Francisco. 1t contains about 210 acres
of irrigated land, in the middle of which
is a palace, which cost 81, 1,500,0 900.
There are twenty-five splendid horses,
greenhouses filled with thousands of
rare exotics, and orange, banana and
lemon trees growing in the open air. 1t
was here that Ralston used to hold those
magnificent .fetes, even down to the eve
of his bankruptcy, when he found him
self in debt to the fabulous sum of &c.
$1,000, and, broken hearted, left the
presidents seat in the Bank OF Califor-
MIA, and went out to the bay and drown
ed himself. Senator Sharon, who is
considered to be worth anywhere from
ten to twenty millions, now keeps up
Belmont, and entertains his friends
there every Sunday. 1t is here that he
entertained Lord Dufferin, Gen. Sher-
man, and, in fact, where he has enter
tanned almost every person of note who
has visited the Pacific coast. But Rails
ton used to entertain his friends here by
the hundreds. It was no uncommon
thing for him to have fifty people at
breakfast. No fairy tale can surpass the
real story of Ralstons princely enter
tainments. He would often charter q
train of cars out of San Francisco, fill
them with his friends, and, with bands
of music, wine and sumptuous banquet,
make night of it at Belmont.
"Do you think Ralston's mind was
sound when he was doing these startling
things2" L asked Senator Sharon, as 1
wandered and wondered through mirror
ed rooms and among marbles and
bronzes, and over Aubusson and Axmin-
ster carpets. Do you not think it was
incipient insanity
eyes," replied the senator. "I think
Ralstons mind was wrong for year be-
fore his suicide. His unselfshness was
mania. He lived entirely for his
friends. He would wear the coarsest
clothes, eat the commonest food himself,
but when it came to friend, OF even to
a casual acquaintance, he delighted to
startle him with the most lavish enter.
tainment.
"You were his partner 2" I suggested.
eyes, we built the Palace Hotel to-
gether but before it was half done I
saw that Ralston was on the verge of
ruin. don't think now, when I look
back, that poor Ralston ever had hun
dred thousand dollars free from all debts
in his life."
"And he died owing?"--
"He died owing sixteen millions. he
was president of the Bank of California,
but the banks capital was only a shell
for years. It was all used to carry on
his magnificent schemes. Why, when he
died he was carrying Belmont at an ex-
pense of hundred thousand dollars q
Palace Hotel. hotel which cost six mil
lions in gold; carrying a million or so in
the Grand Hotel and adjacent property
on Montgomery street building q mil
lion-dollar private residence on Pine
street, and, besides, was carrying sev.
eral manufacturing companies, and keep.
ing up the credit of the Bank of Cali.
fornia to ten-million dollar standard
when it was an insolvent shell, hopeless
ly bankrupt"
"And you knew how the bank stood p
eyes, 1 knew it at last but Ralstor
was too proud to tell me. I had two
millions in the bank, and when we push
ed Ralston to tell us how it stood he
hadn't the face to do it. Broken heart
ed, he looked away vacantly, and said
'The cashier will tell you, and then
grandly and sublimely, rather than tell
of his own misfortune, put on his hat,
walked heroically to the beach and killed
himself"
"And the effect on the people was''-
"Simply awful 1t was dreadful
Hundreds of bankrupt men shed tears
in the street-not because Ralston haG
ruined them, but because they loved
him-because all San Francisco loved
the man. He had taken sixteen millions
of dollars from the capitalists of Sal
Francisco and given it to the people
They worshiped him, and what wonder
that they should?"
Mr.. Edmond L. Goold, guest o.
Senator Sharon to-day and a persona
friend of Ralston, gives me the follow
ing incident in the life of the unfortu.
nate man, which affords q clew to his
character.
Mr.. Ralston in 1S4S was clerk on O
Mississippi steamboat. He was gener,
ous and poor. One day he went into
the banking house of Lake & Martin, in
st. Louis, and accosting Mr.. Martin
familiarly, said
"I say, Martin, can't you let me have
$500 ?"
81 don't see how we can, Billy" said
Mr.. Martin, "unless you can give us
some security. Who can you get to in
dorse for you ?"
Ralston scratched his head moment
and admitted that he couldn't give any
security. Said he: "Martin, the fact
is, I'm broke-dead broke-but I've got
a chance to go in with @. X. Garrison
down at Panama, and must have $500
to get there"
After while Mr.. Martin decided that
he would lend Ralston $500 ON his own
account and run the risk of payment,
and giving it to him Ralston started down
the river to join Commodore Garrison.
This was in '48.
"Did Ralston ever pay Martin ?"
asked Mr.. Goold.
"Pll tell you how it was," said Mr..
"Goold. Ralston forgot all about it, OF
else he lost track of Martin. But four.
teen years afterward I met Martin in
New York. He was broke then himself
gone all to pieces-hadn't a dollar.
Ralston at this time was at the meridian
of his glory, spending money by the