St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-07-24


enough to dispense with food when not
hungry and to tempt rather than force
the appetite. Golden Rule.
Big Fortunes SIS Individual Wealth In
Ancient and Modern Times.
Doubtless the laboring class at this
day in all civilized communities are bet
ter housed, fed, clad and paid than the
same class at any other time in the his
tory of the human race. Yet there never
was time of greater dissatisfaction
among workingmen. During the mag
niticent reign OF Louis XIV, there was
more extreme poverty in France than
there is now in all Europe, Ireland in
Guided The condition of the emanci-
pated Russian serf is far better than that
of the French or German peasant two
centuries ago; and within the historical
era there is no record of time when
fifty millions of the common people and
poor We're so comfortably situated as the
| fifty millions who now inhabit the
| United States.
! But if the condition of the poor has
| improved, the private fortunes of the
rich have so increased as to utterly con-
found all attempts at comparison with
the rich men of past ages. "As rich as
Cresus,' has stood for an adage these
twenty-three centuries. Yet Cresus was
king who devoted his whole energies
to the acquisition of gold, and there is
| good reason to believe that we have not
less than half dozen men and women
in this State who are richer in gold and
it's equivalents than this Lydian mon
arch. The richest man in Rome at the
time of Cesar was Crassus. His fortune
has been carefully estimated by several
historians, but never above $S,5O0,000
of our money. This is not much more
than William H. Vanderbilt's year
ly income, and it is more than ST.
900, 900 below the appraisement of
the fortune of the late William
S. O'Brien, of this city. The Astor
estate was valued ten years ago
at over $40, 900, 900. At a moderate rate
of accretion-sayf five per cent.-it must
now amount to S60,0O0, 900. The yearly
income at the same rate is $3,000,000.
This is third more than the entire in
come of the monarch of the British en-
pire, and good deal more than the en-
tire revenues of the English Government
twohundred and fifty years ago. Its as
serted that there are eight or ten En-
glish peers whose incomes each exceed
the allowances of Parliam emit to the
Queen, and yet the richest men in En-
gland are commoneTs. Half century
ago the reputed wealthiest man in Amer
lea was old Stephen Girard, of Philadel-
al 10 tot hal
Sl5,000,ooo. There are probably now
one hundred private fortunes in the
United States each greater than Girard's
and half a dozen more twice as great.
In the purchasing power of money
the ancients had the advantage. A
dollar would buy more thousand years
ago than five will now. Forty years
back man who had $1,000 900 was rated
as quite rich, and one of $500, 900 phe-
nomenal. The latter class were not as
numerous in this country as those of
$5,000,000 are now.
OF course there is not gold and silver
enough in the world to represent the
aggregate of these huge private fortunes;
nor 1.-THE of them. They are invested
in lands, houses. Government, railway,
bank, mining and other stocks. The
national bonds of England, France
and the United States cover near
ly ten thousand millions, and the
railway securities of the United
States alone cover nearly five thous-
and millions. The largest private
landed estates are held in Spanish
America, Mexico, Russia, England and
the United States, bat the largest of all
in the latter country and by corpora
tions. 1t is thought, and justly, a great
hardship to the common people of En-
gland and Scotland that the Duke of
Switzerland should own over 100000
acres, and many other prominent mobiles
more than 100000 acres each. But
there is one corporation in this country
that has been granted 100000 acres
and then 48,0O0,000. and two others
by less than ten men, 25,-
VIII. confiscated the estates of the Ro-
man Catholic Church in his domjnions,
they did not amount to a tenth as many
acres as the grant of Congress to the
Northern Pacific Railroad; but they |
were enough to lay the foundations of
the richest nobility in the world and
their revenues to-day can hardly be less
than S12O,000,O00. Reasoning from
history aud analogy, the most stupendous
private fortunes in the United States
during the next fifty years will be real
lied from these enormous land grants,
now hardly worth $3.50 per acre, but
hereafter as surely to be worth from
$50 to 300 as a dollar is worth one hun
dred cents. a corporation whose land
grant covers, say 100000 acres, and
whose stock is to the extent of 80 per
rent in the hands of, say ten persons,
fit can hold on to it's lands for twenty
Or thirty years free from taxes, will
nave property in land worth any
where from $500, 900. 900 to 81, ZOO, O0O,-
700, or $36.U00.O0O to $3.50, O0O.O 900 for