Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-28

which he found, during long period, no
difficulty in obtaining money. There was a
time when his fame IN the city cclpsed that
of the Earrings, and Morgans, and ROthschlds.
Ee understood, as no man before him had
ever understood, the art of bringing out a
company. lie knew his time and the men of
his time. Five years sooner or later, and no
such career could have been run. 1t was not
in the nature of things that it should last, and
1t was probably mlScalculalon of the dura-
ton of human creduhty with respect to a
particular form OF imposition that brought
the great baron to grief. He made immense
sums; but the sums ne spent were also i'm
mense. Not so much the sums he lavished
IN mere ostentation as those which the course
and incidents of his peculiar business ex-
tracted from him. His big home at Kensing-
ton, his pictures, his gift of Leicester square
to London, his bribery at Kiddermlnster, cost
him dear, certainly. But all this was as
nothing compared to what he spent In keep
ing up the elaborate machinery by which the
public WIS led to part with its millions. 1t
would be mistake to suppose that Grant
was the sole Beneficiary by the peculiar
proceedings with which his name was
most conspicuously connected. The plumber
was divided among many. Said a man who
knew him and his affairs intimately: They
got the money away from him almost as fast
as he made it. l didn't care to ask who
/ they we're, but it Is easy TO guess. You
might make q shrewd conjecture. for in
stance, as to the division of profits in the
Emma mine business. No one case hes
proved so disastrous to Grant as that. It
was In that he took his highest flight. Before
that he had brought down great game; peers,
ID, P.'s. city magnates and many other per-
sonages had been on his list as directors. But
then for the FIRST time he owned q foreign
minister; and a minister of the country in
which the property to be disposed of was
situate. 1t was thought a stroke of genius
at the time. But there happened to be
few L0en among the stockholders of the EN-
ma company VINO had an objection to being
done; who were puglaclOus; who mad
money, and who treated the baron to more
law than he could manage. Wrlts
rsined down on him. l think as
many as three hundred actions were
pending at one time, Solely on behalf of
Emma stockholders. The mere legal ex-
penses were enormous. The scandal was
more damaging than the cost in money, The
period Of general credulity about companies
passed rapidly away. The baron found his
trade vanish almost as mysteriously as it had
grown When the collapse came, he was
loaded down with a mass of shares which
rep esented great nominal values, b which
he had been unable 10 dispos, of in time
/ His prestige was gone. Lisbon Tramways
and Sombrero Phosphate had destroyed what
Emma lett of 1t, and though he struggled
against fate, the end was inevitable. There
are people who say he VIII begin again when
be is freed from debts by a discharge IN
baukrup- CT, and that he may once more be
power in the financial world. But that is
very doubtful. HIS ability, unquestlonably
great, IS OF q peculiar kind, and not adapted
to all circumstances He Is best fitted to fish
in troubled waters. Before his great sue
| failed IN all. Mr.. Albert Gottheimer was
never a name to conjure with, albeit for
many years known we'll enough In various
| departments of financial experiment. Meta
morphOseG into Mr.. Albert Grant, and then
into Baron Grant, he has had more brilliant
fortune, out their career, too, has come 70
close 1t was reported a year ago that tie
baron was studying Tor the bar. He tried
some OF ms own causes himself, and tried
them IN what must be called very brilliant
style for an amateur. But it can hardly be
supposed that solicitors or clients would de-
size to lntru 81 many important briefs to man
whose name bears so many STAINS. OF late,
he found himself obliged to withdraw
mis- affairs from solicitors whose bills
even bills for money paid out OF pocket--he
could no longer discharge, and they have
been managed by the clerk-aso a solicitor
of some kind, | belIeve-whom be kept on
the premises. When he quilted the splendid
establishment where he ussd to hold audi
ences ana keep half the city dancing attend
ance on him, he had to submit to the humili-
alton OF paying rent IN advance for tie modest
chambers ne was able to hire. His huge
anu Al4NCOuo AOOec IL hSuSiuRLOn mas never
been Occupied. Twice or three times It has
been put up for sale by auction, bat he never
got 2 bid ioC 1t which came near the reserved
price put on the property. Mr.. Grant, in
deed, had no interest ia the sale, The re-
serve price represented the sum Tor which the
mortgages and the owners OF builders liens
were willing to part with their claims When
he built the mansion he dreamed of such a
success in fashionable life as Mr.. Trollope
has described IN The Hay We Lire Notc;
where the father of the young lady whom
Sir Felix Carbury makes love to bears some
likeness to Baron Grant, as he would have
been had his dream of social splendor come
true. The house stands in seven acres of
ground, and is built on scale too vast for
any fortune not speculative In Its origin. 1t
would have cost It's owner more than one
bundled thousand dollars year for rent
alone in the shape of interest on purchase
MONEY. Withal, it was . model of brilliant
discomfort. lll-arranged, pretentious, with
out real grandeur, and big as it was,
seemed empty rather than spacious.
Still 1t would have held great crowds,
and one need not be very cyni-
cal to believe that the crowds would have
come readily enough had prosperity lasted
1t would not have been the first mansion
built on the ruins of honesty which had seen
the best part of London within its gates. For
any one whose life lay really within the true
social circle or near the social center, this es-
tablishment was too remote. Kensington is
still a suburb of Mayfair and BelgraVia, and
it Is not pGrUenN OF the Grantstype who will
succeed In reviving the glories of Holland
house. Its remoteDess made it equally i'm
possible as a hotel. At one time it was said
that the duke of Northumberland would buy
it, but the report had probably no better
foundation than the knowledge that North
cumberland house, at Charing Cross, was to
be pulled down, as 1t sidce has been, to
make way for new avenue, and for huge
hotel on the corner as well. To the last this
man maintained that he had been honest;
that his proceedings were justifable by the
code Of financial morality existing among
business men; that the business of 'proniot-
ing companies which had no bottom to them
was an honorable business, and so on. He
commended stoutly for this theory in court and
N the newspapers. The leading Journal
published more than ona letter from him, in
which he boldly took issue with his critics.
Nay, that same journal consecrated an article
to him, In which the world was assured that
Mr.. Albert Grant was mo mean parsonage
This 1T did subsequently to the trial in which
1t had been proved to the everlasting scan
dial of journalism, that Its own financial edi-
tor, Mr.. Sampson, had been bought by Grant;
and that the Times itself, with It's own I'M
rivaled authority in the city, with its known
power to make or mar any scheme brought
before the public, had, for a considerable
period been tool In Grants hand True, no
breath of suspicion fell on anybody connected |
with the paper, except Sampson, and Samp- |
son was promptly dismissed; but the exposure !
was blow to the Journal from which it has |
not yet recovered, and 1t gave an odd air |
to anything like panegyric upon the author |
OF Its misfortune. Mr.. Grant even brought |
an action for libel, or perhaps more than one.
against victims who ventured to say in print |
that they objected to being victimized. |
never heard that any such action came to
trial; but then the laws delay is proverbial.
Nor do mean to say that Grants view of
matter is not sincere one. Nothing is
more easy than for man to delude himself
INTO the belief that what he thinks for his
interest can be made to square with the rules
OF good behavior. Mr.. Trenor w. Park,