River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-02-10
MEN OF MILLIONS.
Americans who Are Rolling la
BoundIess Wealth.

BoundIess Wealth.
New York News.
The richest man in America, and
nearly the richest man in the world,
is William H. Vanderbilt. His fortune
is set nj about $200,000,000. Next to
him comes Jay Gould, who is reaching
toward $l00,000,0O0 The immense
estate of the Astors is worth much
over $50, 100000. Fortunes ranging
from $4,000, 600 to S15,000000 are al
most common-so frequent indeed,
that the term millions" has almost
lost its immensely as figure of speech,
and is employed now where that of
thousands used to be. Our fathers
spoke of a man worth his hundreds Of
thousands, and We, the children, heard
them with the same awe MS that with
which we listened to the description of
the fab,ed treasures of fairy tale.
Our children tO-dGy,do not call a man
rich until he has passed the goal their
grandsires only considered in such
names ms the Rothchilds, who were re-
garded rs types of a wealth no man
would ever peer. Even David Jones,
the brewer, who died last week, worth
$10,000000, did not receive half col
umn obituary i'll any morning paper.
The man who wanted to make a CEN
sus o. the millionaires of New York
for the year 1881, would almost need
whole newspaper to do it in. Their
name is literally legion. There are
scores of them whose wealth can not
be known, because it is invested in such
a way that it is not required to pay
taxes, and leaves no annual record of
itself that can be arrived at Dennis
kearney called these men bloated
hondholders, and they are, in so far as
the latter clause is concerned They
are men who invest their vast accumu-
tons in government bonds, draw the
interest regularly, and add it to the
principal, and so go on heaping up
monstrous capital with no labor on
their part, and no expenditure except
the original one. but they are lavish
with their wealth in spite of all that
may be said to the contrary, and that
| lavishness has made the name of New
York synonym for the open-handed
Deneficence which marks it in charity,
science, arts, and commerce the me-
! tropolis of the western hemisphere.
Apart from the fluctuating fortunes of
the speculative rich men, the Jim
keenes and his like, which may be
millions to-day or thousands to-mor-
row, there are merchant princes and
quiet men of fortune who, when they
die, will leave wills to run into the
seven figures, and make people wonder
why they never heard of such rich men
before.
Nor are these colossal capitals re-
stricted to the metropolis. Cincinnati
has several well-to-do people, although
forty years ago she had but three who
counted their fortunes by millions.
These We're Nicholas Longworth, who
died in 1862, leaving about 100000,
and Jasob Burnett and James Ferguson,
who died in 1858, each leaving about
81 100000. OF the opulent people
now residents of Cincinnati, David Sin
ton is said to be worth $l0000,000; G.
IL. Shoenberger, $5,000,000; A. ID.
Breed, s. 900, 600; estate of James w.
Golf, $6000,000; estate of Oliver Perrin,
100000; r. II. Springer, $5,000,000;
Joseph Longworth, $5.000,000; estate
of s. n. Pike, 100000; Emory Broth
ers, 100000; A. d. Bullock, Charles
and John KilgOur, w. Z. Hulburt, Sam
utl II OSulChs w III. .. OIOtSbbCh, JdCOb
Seasongoed, Frieberg & Workum, John
Shillito's estate, Timothy Kirby's estate,
Robert Mitchell, S. NJ. Barrett, X. b.
COwlers estate, Samuel Virgins estate
Judge ID. X. Estes estate J. G. Shorts
estate, Gen. James Taylor's estate, and
r.. b. HoppIe, are each worth $1,000
900, while the list of single millionaires
! is too numerous to mention.
Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh,
Boston, all make similarly splendid
showing in the matter Of figures.
Philadelphia and Boston are very
much alike in the fact that, though
there are fewer millionaire in them in
proportion to their population than
there are in our other great cities,
there are proportionately more men of
solid fortune. That is to say, while
tn business man in New York or Chi
cago, having won his 100000, tries to
double it, and having doubled, to du-
plicate it again, the soDer-sided citizens
of the Hub and the Quaker city are
content to settle when they find them
selves at ease financially. 1t would
quite start these conservative COM
mercial persons to think of collateral
investment of from Sl,000,000 to &c.
100000 in mines to get coal from to
run iron-foundries with capitals of
much greater bulk, as a score of Pitts
burgh iron-founders do, or to hold a
reserve of 100000 for grain opera
tons, like half a hundred Chicagoans.