The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-08-23
AMERICAN KINGS.
Some Interesting Reading Concerning Them
and the Size OF Their Purses-Com-
pared With Foreign Monarchs.

N"" ''hN, august <%'--in an eultorlal
on "Our American Kings" the World to.
day has the following; When we speak OF
certain men as money kings or railroad
kings, the expression sounds like figure OF
speech. This is a republic. We are all
equal. SUCH thing as king in this coun.
try Is an absurdity. Yet the name is all
thst Is wanting. There are men in this
country who have every attribute ofa king
except the name. Like kings they derive
their revenues from taxes on the people.
Like Kings they control legislation. Like
kings they are masters OF the will and OF the
work OF tens Of thousands Of their fellow.
men. The chief distinction ia that our
kings are m UGH richer sud more powerful
than some Of the kings they have in Europe.
There IL King Vanderbilt H.. Nobody
knows exactly how rich he is, because,
unlike other kings he does not allow his
subjects to scrutinize his civil list But he
Is very rich and powerful king. His for
tune Is estimated at 500, 00O. 600. a In the
years when he only builds palaces and buys
paintings and does not buy nickel-plate
roads his civil list ranges from S14, 000, 900 to
$50, 900, 900. He buys $50, 900, 900 Of 4 per
cent. bonds at \ single investment. He
controls over six thousand miles OF rail-
roads. The area Of his territory Is very
large, His subjects grumble great deal
under the burdens he lays upon them, but
the only answer he makes to their remon.
strances is, my subjects be damneu!'
Then there is King Gould L., the founder
Of the dynasty Of the Wabash line. He ia
not as rich as King Vanderbilt, but he is
much ADLER and more powerful. He has q
large kingdom called the Southwest svs.
tem' which other kings have attempted to
invade with fatal results to them
selves. He also controls the forces Of eiec-
tricity and OF the telegraph over the whole
country. His uiies are numerous and i'm
posing, such as King of Wabash, Prince of
Erie, Great Mogul OF the Western Union,
and Grand Duke OF the Union Pacific. He
Is not poor onarch. At one time when
his subjects In part Of his dominions called
'the street, were alarmed lest he might
be falling into prOverty, he reassurcd them
by showing committee some fifty odd
millions OF securities that he kept tied with
string. Huntington Is q railroad king,
VIII OSe dominions stretch through 10 Cali
fornia, from California to Mexico and New
Orleans, with one or two principaities In
West Virginia. Willard Is king of Oregon
and the n. =. over
TERRITORY LARGER
than the German Empire. No man dare
lay mile Of railroad track against the will
Of this railroad king, The dry goods king
died ana lelt no successor, and the sceptre
OF Pennsylvania is lin commission. - But
three Of the four bonanza kings (Mackay,
Fair and Stanford) rule over the bonanza
land and threaten to invade the great money
Kingdom and Wall street. We have more
kings and more kinds OF kings than all
Europe put together, Commodore Van
dcrbt is fine type OF "monarch retired
from business The Aston dynasty con.
trolls revenues that would make an average |
European potenate turn green with envy. |
1t takes loss OF 81 900, 900 TO break one OF |
our lard kings. Our grain kings make n
million dollars every time they turn cor.
ner. The standard Of King Rockatcllow IL
the standard OIL company-the civil list OF |
this Kingdom amounted to some seventy.
two millions OF dollars during the past ten
years. A queen. dowager here, such az
Mrs. Stewart or Mrs. Stevens would be
c ompellcd to economize, II she had only
the priyy purse OF Queen Victoria. A
second class European monarch is getting
big pay when he draws half a million lol.
lars for being king and supports his poor
relations with his money But we have
- ~ IA, |
quietly pocket that amount every year with.
out letting any one know anything about it
until their estate reveals the secret. We do
not call these people kings over here. We
have some pride In our kings and
when we call man king we mean it.
What are the pigmy monarchs OF Europe
compared with these kings Of ouH3 The
Gar OF Russia Is supposed TO have an In,
come OF $40 900, 900, but he has to spend Il
In lot Of court rubbish whether he wants
0 or not. He
COMES THE NEAREST
10 be ing an American king, but none OF the
other potentates come near him. His cous.
IN, Of Austro-llungsry, has "A, Csc, 900 per
lnnum, which IL only about the dividend on |
80, 900, 900 Of New York Central. These
ire the rich monarchs outside OF America.
queen Victoria has only f3S5. 900, plus
ome Gao, 900 from the Duchess OF Lancas.
er and her SAVING.
when our American kings think OF the
BEGGARLY POVERTY
4 these royal cousins Of theirs, IL must
hem feel an II they ought to do something
or them. make fresh issue Of stock. en-.
Gree dividend or something OF the kind,
o keep the wolf from the palace door. We
re sometimes lost In wonder at the exact.
ons and ,yranncs OF our American kings,
IN when we come to look at these families, =,
take into account the absolute power
hey WELD. we can understand Gould or G
Vanderbilt cxclaiming, with Warren Has. 4
ngs; my God, l am .tonished At my !:
wn moderation" II Is true that they d
ave largely taken control Of business and =,
oltics and Of most public and private In ~ !"
erosts, but instead Of complaining wo arc y
lsposcd 10 thank them for not having taken
ycrythIng, But they have been at their al
'adc only twenty Year,. They have cor. ~
,inlv donp well for 40 ahArt a tina II Ia ~