The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-10-30
ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE,
RAILWAY KING OF SOUTH
AMERICA.
The Wonderful Career Of Henry
aeiggs-A Man no Made and
spent Huge FOrtuues-His
Great Achievements In
Chill and Peru.

The death of Henry Meiggs, which oc.
CURED NJ Lima, Peru, on the 10Th OF Sep.
TENDER, ended the career of one of the
! most remarkable men OF his time. Few
men have dominated empires as large
rs he did; few mon have owned and con.
trolled so much of the worlds wealth rs
he, and few men have left behind them
so glittering, and ut the same time so de-
moralizing, an example. Before his
brilliant meteoric course, which at one
time seemed to have the regularity OF q
planets orbit the careers OF most modern
adventures are rs the tickle CLEANS OF q
rushligtt. Fisk, with his feeble enter
prise or stealing the funds OF the Erie
Railroad and crossing from one State TO
another with them IN skitf, becomes a
pgmy in comparison with his daring
ventures. And even Tweed, who ruled a
municipality and had disputed domin.
ion over q Commonwealth, showed him
self an lmitstOr OF this colossus OF fraud
aid speculation when, as u captive, after
his flight and escape, he offered to make
restitution and pleaded Tor mercy that he
might go abroad, self exiled, TO conduct
the greater enterprises he meditsted in
old Spain. Rilston, who was boy when
Meiggs mad attained the ordinary stature
in the speculative world, and who, when
bis friends were exposed in his schemes
came TO naught, and plunged into the
waters of San Francesca Bay, was II
Oriveling sentimental idiot beside him.
Only John Law, the gambler, drunkard
and murderer, who deluded an entire ma
ton at time it is still proud to lock up
on Us one OF the most advanced Intellect
ual epochs OF It's history, aud the shrewd
money lenders OF Il dozen European capt.
tsls and that wonderful product OF our
own century. the German. Jew adven-
,Grer, Dr. Bethel Henry Strous
berg, who, playing all parts
in his lime, from the Con
yersed jew" III London to the school
master in New Orleans, became the great
r-L buildero railroads the world has
rver known, and was finally convicted OF
swindhng in Moscow, threatened with
Punishment To SlOtrIa, and Is now pen
uiless exile from Russia and Germany
only these two men are large enough IN
the sphere in which they moved To be
named with the dead railroad king OF the
South Amcric republics.
Henry Meiggs WAS born IN Greene
county, N. Y, in 1871. When scarcely
out OF his teens he became known ms II
: Icce. siul lumber dealer in Boston, and
Tor his ability to manage great en-
terpriSes But Boston WAS not n large
cI uugh field tor his iar-reaching genius,
AID he removed To New York, where he
soon became the largest operator In lum-
ben, noted patron Of art, upon which he
lavish ned large sums, and conspicuous for
tho readiness with which he would enlist
IN any new speculation or assist Strug
gntg friend The panic OF lS37-he
WAS then only twenty six ears o. age
crippled the young capitalist, but he was
rapidly recovering when the discovery OF
gold in California gave new uu .'uS to
Ms trcmrr dOus crci- and EI,. ms
imagination with irOsh dreams OF the I'M
m,rse wealth which was his aim. Start
rg from New York. he landed at San
Francisco in July, lSl9, with cargo OF
lumber, ON which he immediately real
ized IA profit of $4,000. tie then en-
barked IN the lum Der trade on the Pacific
coasl; he made moDey by the hundreds OF
thousard Is oI pending II Us free
ly--ahd before the panic OF 1894 struck
California was thought To- DC the richest
man in State where mllllonalres had
been OF mushroom growth. The disaster
OF that wear was, however, fatal To his
l 1 h,ppVca of hue MN
Losses il is said, ss because OF his efforts
10 save his friends-and nobody has
ever doubted his liberal, generous nature
and he tel. He forged commerclsI
notes and city warrants To :he amount OF
million dollars, and suddenly SAILED IN
a vessel be had purchased for his flight
! a he SAID afterwards, he knew not where
himself, but anywhere to escape his
crime. ua was next heard et As superin-
tendent OF bridges on the Valparaiso and
/ Santiago Railroad OF Chill; Tor twenty
wears he has been famous rs the railroad
! king of South America and as conductor
! Of some OF the grsndest modern enter
urises. lie built more than 800 miles
| of railroad in Peru and Chill; he re-
I
| came the greatest land owner IN South
| America; ne built villas by the score; ne
| purchased Congresses and brlbed Presi-
! dent,; be made 81 100000, So 100000 al
/ 81. coo 900 each IN single enterprises, and
/ his riches, or reputed riches, became SO
v.st that they could not be estimated
| lie was An immense man physically as
well AS intellectually ard had the biggest
/ hand and brain of any man in South
! America. He lived like an emperor
not ike vulgar prince-snd built him
sell palace with seventy apartments
! There 3re ALWAYS thirty or forty guests
at his board, and the remnants OF the
feast were daily distributed to the poor
| But the end came at last. The gigantic
system of fraud. bribery, speculation and
extravagant expenditure he had estsb-
Hshed could not last forever, nor even tor
his lifetime. One by one his wild
schemes came to grief. He built one
road one bdndred and thirty miles long,
with a grade oi four aud 3 halt rect
! which furnishes neither freight nor pas
sengers, and over which only onetrain
runs weekly. The end was ruin, and
Meiggs died broken and bankrupt, and
the gi santlc fabric he reared will prove
I to be but an empty bubble. OF course
there Is a moral in the career, decline
and death OF the man, but it need not De
elaborated. 1t is this, that every viols-
tioD OF law, whether OF sture, OF physics
or morals, or even OF trade, must me
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