New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-11
THE MILLIONAIRE.
Ernm IN, London speetntor.


The wonder about mllonalres Is, not that they
should lie sometimes eccentric, but that they are
usually so ordinary Power turns all heads more
or less and the absence of resistance develops will
fness TILL as often see IN the East, IL becomes
monstrous caprice. Now. there Is no power IN
modern times which is 80 like executive volitlon as
that of the milhonaire.-of the man, We mean, with
"A really great fortune to use outside his usual
wants. He has only to will strongly enough to
draw his check, and all mankind Is eager TO carry
out his wishes. Architects, builders, gardeners IN
hundreds workmen in tribes. ale only too glad that
ne has been gracousy pleased to Will II he IS
European there is hardly anything he cannot
obtain. and oven time may, with adequate eXpendl-
ture be made to give way. 1t is supposed that the
one thing unattainabe is park If there are no
trees: but Louis XIV. created park in bare
plain with old trees and verdure and silent glades
In few weeks. though at "a cost which, II Is said
this quite WELL must be aware that there Is IN him
a potentlality of patronage greater than that OF
most Ministers, must recognize his own capacity
for sudden and unexplained acquisition; yet mil
ionaires very rarely do anything which at all in
terests the world, rouses its horror OF the un-
usual They are 2 little obstinate, sometimes
about making" places. They will spend I'M
heard-of SINUS in periectiDg an interior, which
would be far mt re perfect were much less money
wasted. They Will collect. az great cost some me,
themselves. But they very rarely do anything
that is striking or magnificent or even exception.
ally odd Nobody in our days feeds horses out of
gold. AS Nero did though one man did build Sc!
of pissties OF polished mahogany,-and kept them
polished, too
There IS, we DelleNe, one nODic III EuIopt NhoSo
daily dinner is served in Spain if he were
present, though he is absent in Russia but that
though it seems so bizarre. il not really excep-
tional. Scores of men keep up places IN such
cond ton that IL they arrived without notice all
would be ready, though they know, as well as thew
know ANYTHING that they are not going there. The
readiness gratiies some internal desire To DO Tree
upon the subject of going not, and the money is
not regarded. Such freaks pass nnnotced, unless
the within costs something which men with
ordinary incomes think great, and then the spenders
are pronounced .half-cracked. Some OF our readers
know what it costs to keep steam yacht in harbor
IN such condition that on receipt OF telegram
steam can be got up, yet that Is done IN more than
one or two cases. II is may be atrocious waste,
but it no more indicates mental alteration than
the boat of the retired tradesman which Is always
painted, and washed, and ready, though nothing
would induce its proprietor to enter IL. The pres
sure of the Usual is felt by the millionaes much
as by everybody else perhaps more 80, because
thew have in our modern society such dislike to
be conspicuous and such self-distrust Of their
own capability to be original 1t will be from
America where fortunes are vast and Individuality
respected that we shall before long import million
aires with genuinely savage wills, whose caprces in
brick and mortar will make those OF the Duke OF
Portland seem very tame.