The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-10-18
ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.
RAILWAY KING OF SOUTH AMER
LCA.
The Wonderful Career of Henry
Meigys-A Man Who Made and
Spent Huge FOriunes-His
Great achievements in
Chill and Peru.

chill ana Peru.
The death of Henry Meiggs, which oc-
cured ut Lima Peru, on the 18th OF Sep
TENDER, ended the career one OF the
most remarkable men of his time. Few
men have dominated empires as large as
he did; few men have owned and con
trolled so much of the worlds wealth rs
he, and few men have left behind them
50 g!ittering, and at the same time so
demorallzlng, and example. Before his
brilliant meteoric course, which at one
time seemed to have the regularity of u
planets orbit, the careers of most mod.
ern adventures are as the tickle CLEANS
of rush light. Fisk, with his feeble
enterprise of stealing the funds OF the
Erie Railroad and crossing from one
State to another with them in y skitl, be-
comes piCmy in comparison with his
daring ventures. And even Tweed, who
ruled municipality and had disputed
dominion over Commonwealth, showed
himself an imitstor OF this colossus OF
fraud and speculation when, as captive
after his flight and escape, he offered to
make restitution and pleaded for mercy
that he might go abroad, selt-eXlled, to
conduc. the great enterprises he med-
tated IN old Spain. Ralston who was u
bov when Meiggs had attained the or
binary stature in the speculative world,
.agd who, when his trlerds were exposed
and his schemes came to naught, plunged
into the waters OF San Francisco Bay,
WAS a dwelling sentimental idiot beside
him. Only John Law, the gambler,
drunkard and murderer, who deluded an
entire nation at time 1t Is still proud 10
look upon as one of the most advanced
intellectual epochs of his history, and the
shrewd money-lenders of q dozen Eu-
ropesn capitals; and that wonderful pro.
duet of our own century, the German
Jew adventurer, DR.. Bethel Henry
Strousbers, who, playing all parts in his
time: from the converted jew in Lon
don to the schoo!master in New Orleans,
became the creates, builder OF railroads
the world mas ever known, and was I'm
ally convicted of swindeling in Moscow,
threatened with Punishment to Siberia,
ald is now penniless exile from Russia
and Germany-only these two men are
large enough in the sphere In which they
moved to be Lamed with the dead rail-
road king of the South American repub-
lies
Henry Meiggs was borne in Greene
county, y. Y, in 1871. When scarcely
ut ofshls teens he became known rs
successful lumber dealer in Boston, and
Tor his ability to manage great enter
nrjses. But Boston was no. large
enough field for his isr-reachng genius,
and ne removed TO New York, where he
soon became the.largest operator In lum-
Der. noted patron OF art, upon which he
htvished large sums, and conspicuous Tor
me readiness with which he would enlist
N ANY new speculation or assist strug
ling friend. The panic OF lS"I-he
VA then only twentY-sIX years OF age
,rIpplcd the Young capitalist, but he was
~spIdly recovering when the discovery
Of cold In California gave n new impetus
,p ms tremendous energy and Tired ms
,uarInnlion with fresh dream OF the I'm.
rn.n.c wealth which Was his aim. Start
inc from New York, he landed NJ San
Francisco in July, lS49, with cargo OF
lumber, on which he Immediately real
ized \ profit OF $4,000. DE then en-
hsrked IN the lum Der trade on the Pac'
fife coast: he made money by the hun
dreds of thou sands OF d"llars-spendlng
il As freelv-and before the panic OF 1854
struck California WAS thought To- be the
rlchu,t man IN the State where million
ares hid been of mushroom growth
The disaster OF that year was, however,
fatal 10 his fortunes, not 50 much because
of ms own o:ses, it is said, Us because OF
hi. efforts to save his iriends-and no
body has ever doubted his liberal, gen
arons nsture-and he fell. tie forged
commercial notes and city warrants u
the amount of a million dollars, and sud
denIy sailed in y vessel he had purchased
| Tor his fight, MS be said afterwards. ne
! knew not where himself, but anywhere tC
escspe his crime. He WAS next heard OF
as superintendent OF bridges on the Val
naruso and Santiago Railway OF Chill
! Tor twenty years he had been famous ~
the railroad king OF South America snC
| AS conductor of some OF the grandes
modern enterprises. He built more thar
500 miles OF railroad Ill Peru and Chin
be reclaimed enormous tracts OF land anc
and became the grsndest land owner II
| South America; he built villas by th'
score; he purchased Congresses ant
bribed President; be made Sl,5OO,OOO
So OOO.O 900 and 81 100000 each In single
enterprises, aud his riches, or repute(
riches, became so vast that they couI(
no, be estimated. He was an immens,
man physically as well Us intellectually
and had the biggest hand and brain o
any man in South America. he LIVED
I like an Emperor-not Ike vulga
princc-ard built himself palace Will
seventy apartments. There were Away
thirty or forty guests AT his board, ant
the remnants OF the feast were daily dis
tributed to the poor. But the end cam
at last. The gigantic system OF maud
bribery, speculation and extrsvsgsnt eA
peDdlture he had established could no
last forever, nor even for his lifetime
One by one his great schemes cane t
grlet. de built one road one hundred
and thirty miles long, with grade q
tour ard a halt feet, which furnished
neither freight nor parengers, and owe
which only one train runs weekly. Th
end was run, and Meiggs died broker
ard bankrupt, and the gigantic fabric h
reared will prove to be but an empt
bubble o. coarse there is q moral il
the career, decline and death OF the man
but it need not be elaborated. 1t is THU
that every violation of law, whether o
allure, or phiscs, or of morals, or evel
oil trade, must inevitably bear retrlbutlv
| iustice