The Hickman courier., 1878-07-12
MONEY KINGS.
The wealth Of the West--FIOOd, Maekay
and O'Brien, the BONANZA Kings-.The
Croesi OF Manhattan IsIand-AstOr.
Vanderbilt and Gould the
Rich Men of New YORK.

nest fifteen or twenty years. Their rise
70 unbounded wealth reads more like the
toles of the zone Thousand and One
N;gbts'' than of the commonplace era
If our time. The wealth of these men
on6 those who are with them, but who
orc nsmeless and insignificant because
thew do not exceed more than so, ,OOO,-
600 or $I2, 1000, 900, is vested in silver
mines principally. They own little land
comparatively, and seem to have no de-
sire to possess any, save that which con-
talns the precious metal.
In the east there are rich men whose
wealth rivals and exceeds these Califor-
MIA Cresuses. There are the Astors,
whose estates is more correctly namt at
$3.50, 900, 900 than at any other figure. A
large proportion OF this is invested in
real estate in New York city. Aside
from this the estate owns and controls
much land in other cities and states.
The general impression seems to be that
the Astors put all their money in land.
But this is not so. They are large in
vestors in first-class securities, and upon
good authority it is said that they own
the great majority of the bonds issued by
the state of Massachusetts. The Wander
bilts have their money wholly in rail
roads Jay Gould, whose accumulations
have been something fabulous within the
past few years, is put down at SAC, 0,000,-
600, and owns little land, while the
Stewart estate has both real estate and
securities to the amount of 500, ,000, 900.
The New York correspondent of the San
Francisco Chronicle devOtes letter to
THE MANHATTAN cRGsUsEs,
From which, excerpts are made below
A few years ago, the rich men of New
York meant William B. Astor, Cornelius
Vanderbilt and Alexander T. Stewart,
because they were so much richer than
anybody else that the smaller Cr9suses
were not thought OF in connection with
them. Since the death of the opu-
lent trio, a number of men have
come to the front who we're
formerly kept in the back ground.
The immense estates were not
much distributed; indeed, they were
hardly distributed at all. The AstOr
estate was left in trust to this generation,
with John Jacob Astor as custodian. as
it had been left before by the elder John
Jacob to William B. Astor for the beDe-
fit of himself and his heirs. The great
bulk OF the Vanderbilt estate passed into
the hands of William H. Vanderbilt, who
erty. and Stewart, having no children
and scarcely any relatives, made over his
gigantic business to Henry (Judge) Hill
ton for 81 100000 The form of it was
that he left the sum of money to Mrs.
Stewart, who, in consideration of a like
amount, transferred the wholesale and
retail dry goods establishment to Hilton.
John Jacob Astor will be pretty certain
to discharge his trust wisely. He is
very shrewd and capable, and possesses
much more financial talent, it is believed,
than William B. ever had, resembling
his grandfather in sagacity aud foresight
rather than his father. He is consider
ably over fifty, but is of robust constitu~
tion and vigorous health, and will be
likely to increase the property very
materially during his administration.
If he lives to his fathers age-eighty-
fve--the estate will probably be worth
$15G, ,000, 900. William II. Vanderbilt
is not the financial genius that
mis- father incontestably was. No
body has ever suspected him of
being such, but he is astute and
cautious nevertheless, and will not
be likely, as has been predicted, TO in
volve the enormous interests of which he
has charge. The commodore left things
man could prevent legal assaults upon
his wilD that almost any good business
| man ought to be abls to carry out his
views and intentions. The present Van
| derbilt, albeit not brilliant, is thought
| by his intimates to be very safe. He
| knows far more than he reveals. His
| father long believed him to be incompe-
| tent; but many years before his death,
! discovered the capacity of his son, and
never doubted it afterward. William
| II has a son, Cornelius, who, everybody
! says, is the strongest and albert of the
existing Vanderbilts. The commodore
had the highest opinion of his grandson,
and consulted him on manv occasions,
attaching the greatest importance to his
opinions. He used to declare that "that
boy Cornell is going to be one of the
smartest men in the United States" and
the declaration will probably be justified
| by circumstances.
The correspondent, after devoting a
few not complimentary words to Judge
Hilton, concerning the immense busi-
ness under his control, the Grand Union
and the Hebrews, the Woman's hotel
fGsoo, comes to the consideration of one
who is well known ofBrooklyn and much
honored by it, the place of his residence.
HORACE B. CLAFLIN
Is one of the richest merchants (perhaps
the richest after Stewart) in the city or
country. He used to be in lower Bread
way, but, before the breaking out of the
civil war, he removed to new and CO.
lossal warehouse which he bad built for
his business in west Broadway, extend
| ing to Church and Worth streets, and
has remained there ever since. The
building occupies half of whole block
| and is enc of the most conspicuous in
that quarter. During the season it pre-.
sents a most active appearance. 1t
swarms with busting humanity. The
sidewalks are covered with boxes, bales
and cases addressed to every part of the
United States, the territories, Canada,
Mexico, Guatemala and South America.
Nearly every vessel that comes or goes
from our docks brings or takes something
to or from II. B. Clsfiin & Co., and the
fl rm is most favorably known in London,
Manchester, Glasgow, Paris, Lyons,
Brussels, Hamburg, and all centres of
commerce and trade. The house employs
some 700 or 500 persons at salaries rang
ing from $500 to S25, 900 per annum, the
latter price being paid to the manager.
Clafin himself is now considerably over
Sixty, EuL dCblNc duU CHCiSCbAC3 WIN
wears of hard work in him yet. He
looks like a Yankee" having wiry,
rather slight, angular figure, and a
shrewd, somewhat anxious, though hon
est, prepossessing face. He has a repu-
tation for liberality, and is much liked by
his employees and all persons having
intimate dealings with him. "What is
he worth 2" To this decidedly American
question he could scarcely reply, if he
would. His fortune is estimated all the
way from $12,OO0,000 to 500, 600, 900,
but if his affairs were settled to-day, it
would necessarily suffer greatly from
shrinkage.
There is another written of whom
BROOKLYN must take interest in, since he
has been for 50 many years identified
with her ferries.
GEORGE LAW
Has sunk into obscurity istterly, so far
as new spaper mention is concerned; but
he is richer than he has ever been and is
busy looking after his affairs despite his
seyenty-four or five years. A native of
Washington county, this state, his par
ents we're too poor to furnish him with
an education, for which in TACT he cared
very little. He
WANTED To MAKE MONEY
More than he wanted anything else, and
1 L. -