Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-11-26

United States of late years IL
scU thing simply quite marvellous.
Thisy years ago the man who
pos ssed million dollars was a
plutc..st. Girard and John ia
cob Astor we're the great rich meu
Of the country forty years ago, and
I'VE millions of dollars would cover
the wealth Of the former and ten
millions that of the latter. Twen-
~ years ago 1t was said by those
best informed that Commodore
Vanderbilt was worth only three
millions, while he died worth
more than thirty times that sum.
A single Item of his sons posses
sions is . block OF some fifty-six
millions in United States four per
cents. Jay Gould, while perhaps
not go rich as the Astors or Van
derbiit, lie credited with controll-
Ing sixty millions of dollars, and
bis wealth IL enhancing at rate
which has never been paralleled lie
the history Of this or any other
country. 30 0versh allowing is the
wealth Of these men. and fifty
others that we could name, that
the possessor of q million to-day
scarcely cuts as considerable fig
urs ~ he who wac only worth fifty
thousand dollars would have done
twenty years ago. The other day
lt was noted in the newspapers
that Q certain chance assembiage
Of New York millionsires repre-.
scented $3.50, 100000.
Money begets money, while
nothing succeeds like success
These plutocrats have wrung from
Dame Fortune her most closely
guarded secrets, and the wealth
they have already made is as moth
ing to that which they are des
tined to acquire. The ratio or
which these riches are piled up IL
something frightful to contem.
plate. It took the Roman people
hundreds Of years to produce such
artificial excrescences as Lucullus,
Crassus and the other ancient
archstypes of the "bloateG bond.
holder" of to-day. Thirty years
have with us suff1ced for the crea-
tion of our Vanderbilts and our
doulds. Every man of competent
business habits who finds himself
possessed Of q very large fortune is
busily engaged adding to it by the
process of re.investment and com.
pounding. Where an unusual de-
gree OF business sagacity, as in the
case OF Jay Gould, directs theee
operations, the ratio of increment
10 something astounding. On the
supposition that Jay Gould, now a
comparatively young man of for.
ty.seveD, can manage to live just
three-fourths the span OF life aiiot-
ted to old Commodore Vanderbilt,
<neewii1 be worth three or four hun
dred millions Of dollars, and then
his wealth will only have increased
ct one.sixth the ratio which char
acterised the advance 10 the elder
VanderbIlt's fortune between the
years 1861 and 1873.
These enormous Accommodations
are ~ no means confined to the
metropolis of the United States.
In tue assessment rolls of San
FRANCISCO we find five or six gen.
tlemsn whose property Is officially
assessed at $50. 000. 600 aud upw ride,
and In the case OF q number OF
them the assessors estimate is In
reality q great undervalustion.
Thomas Jefferson, who haa been
. profound student of history,
looked with q keen horror at the
Inevitable development of wealth,
with Its relaxing and corruptine
tendencies, which he foresaw was
ahead for this country. His love
OF Republican simplicity was such
that he deprecated the introduce
ton OF manufactures, because be
regarded them as the entering
wedge which would split the sturdy
old log asunder. He even went SO
far a. to express the regret, pas.
sionate and accomplished horse.
man that he was. that that noble
animal had been broken to the use
OF man. The natural tendency Of
"ths man on horsebackn is to
dominate, and JefYsrsou cherished
the Utopian ambition Of seeing the
peopls Of the country he loved 60
Uol1 II wauu tho mo f.u,t -