Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-04-15
ANCIENT MILLIONIIREs.
The vanderbiIts, Jay GOulds and
 AstOrs of AntiquitY.


 AstOrs of Antiquity.
 : Thousands of men have envied Astor, Stewart, Vanderbilt, Mackey, Keene, Gould and. the other fellows who can buy strawberries at $1 per box but the. richest of them are mere vagrants when compared to some of the ancients. There was Minus, for instance. He was. the son of Eimrod, the old hunter, who made the lions scratch for holes and ti-. gers take to ditches. Old Nim left his boy about e130 GOO, 000 in cash, besides; 0,000 cattle, piece of land about as big as Arkansas, and II, 900 likely slayess There were no lawyers in those days and young Minus quietly took possession and cast about for some plan to keep himself out of the poor-house.
 He was considered a poor young man, and had he been seen tagging his girl to an ice-cream saloon or riding out in a livery rig his friends would have said he would bring up in 8 garret. By lucky capture of territory from the Assyrians, together with 10000 slaves, 125, ,000 cat tie, ten wagon-loads of silver and jewels and few other trifes, Minus walked up the social ladder until big bugs asked after his wife and babies, and he could lose three games of billiards without wondering if the owner of the saloon would take 8 "stand off " He was worth 1850, GOO, GOO when he died, and. yet for the last five years of his life he went without mutton because the price had raised to 3 cents pound.
 | The heiress with $50,000 bank ac- count considers herself some pumpkins, but what Scent piece she would have been alongside. of Queen Semiramis. She not only had the lucre left by Minus, but in ten years she had increased it fourfold. Just multiply 1850, GOO, 900 by two, and you have the amount of her bank balance, to say nothing of jewels and clothing and furniture and palaces and slaves and cattle. Had she sold out and cleaned up she could have drawn her little check for about e700,- GOO, 600. She didn't worry about where her spring bonnet was to come from, and when a new style of dress goods came out she didn't sit up nights for fear some neighbor would secure pat, tern first. While she made 1t lively for her enemies she was soft on her friends. She gave her waiting-maId S500, 900 in lump for dressing her hair in a new style, and she tossed the same amount to her dressmaker as reward for the excellent fit of one particular dress. One day when she saw 8 poor old man trav- cling the highway on foot she presented him with 500 asses to ride on, and in- sisted on his accepting 950,00 to pay his toll and tavern bills. ,
 Cyrus, King of Persia from the year 538 to 530, had some little change to be- gin with, and in ten years he could draw his check for 9600, ,0OO, 900. He didn't. haggle over the price of slave when a man came to buy, but presented him with 1,000 He at one time owned 30,- 900 horses. 40, GOO cattle, 200, 900 sheep, I5, ,000 asses and 25, 900 slaves, and when he got tired of a palace costing S1, ,000,- 900, he gave 1t away to some poor wash woman with seven children to support. He one day sat down to a dinner which cost 930, GOO, and in the afternoon he went on 950, ,000 drunk The police didn't run him in, or he would doubtless have insisted on paying fine of eea00 eea200 ,ee1 e9t1l and presenting his Honor with corner house andlot in the toniest part of Baby lon.
 King Menes was another well-heeled man. It was too much trouble to count his cash, and so he weighed 1t. One day when an old friend asked him for the loan of few dollars until Saturday night, he sent him procession of 60 asses, each animal loaded with loo pounds of gold coin. He paid 91O0, ,O0O for bird which could whistle, the same for a trick dog, and he had such fond- aess for white oxen that he shelled out e25, GOO apiece for them, and at one time had drove of 2,000. When he got out with the boys he made things lively. During one spree in his city of Memphis, he gave away 9500, 000, and didn't get drunk at that. At one time he had 600,000 gold chains, 1,000,U0 finger rings, 100000 costly swords, 300, ,00O daggers, and land only knows how many tish-ines, jack-knives, cork screws and tobacco boxes His wife had q, COG, ,0oO year as pin money, and when his eldest son went up to Thebes to see the ele- phant, he was followed by 300 friends, 1000 slaves, 2,000 horses and e50O, ,00e for fare, checks and beer money.-Ds. troit Free Press.