The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-27
PEOPLE WHO WERE REALLY RICH.
Historical Personages Beside Whom the Late
Mr.. Vanderbilt Was q Pauper.

PEOPLE WHO WERE REALLY RICH.
Historical Personages Beside Whom the Late
Mr.. Vanderbilt Was a Pauper.
q. T. Nirdnger, in New York World.
The death of W. H. Vanderbilt and the publ
cation Of his will has set everyone to talking In
eight and nine figures. Your washerwoman Cos
sips about millions and your bootblack offers to
bet that amount But the fortunate ones, the
real persons who have had the right to speak OF
their own millions, is painfully small. Through
out all historical time there have been only lso-
lated mllionares here and there 1t may be in
terestng TO tell of few OF these. King Solomon
was literally the first merchant prince, but Solo
mon was not q self made man His father, Da-
vid, made him the trustee of a fund for build
ing the temple estimated by Prideaux
at 81. Ice, O00, 600, and if Solomon was
like good many trustees since his
time he ought to have got good start
In life with such a sum in his hands. AS it Is
plain that this was but single item in the cata-
logue of his wealth. it is probable that at the
time of his accession to the throne ne was worth
all told not far from $8,0O0 900, 600. Was he
satisfied Not a bit OF it. He at once took steps
to monopolize every kind of trade known at that
time to the world. He dealt in horses, chariots
linen; the commerce of the Red sea was entirely
in his hands; he controlled the entire lumber in
terests of Lebanon; the mines of Ophir and Tar
shish yielded their treasures only to his myrlads
of slaves. Solomon was essentially monop,
Labor in his day he would have been boycotted
Still. he of some good to somebody. For
several years Solomon's annual income Is estl-
mated to have been lat least SIS, 900, O0O,OOO, In
round numbers" And right here | want to cite
fact that do not think has been noted BY any
previous biographer. In the thousand and one
females who, in the light of modern ways, may
have had some claim on Solomon, there was not
who attempted to contest his will after his
death, or if there was. his family hushed it up
before If rot TO the OF the Dubllc Another
rich of antiquity Croesus--king of
Lydia. Crosus was not so rich as Solomon, but
he was rich He was great conQueror, and he
robbed body, right and left Kennel puts
him down at So, 600 100000 Approximately"
Herodotus tells Of some votive offer
ings that he in tho Temple at Del
phi They had been sent by Croesus as sort
of contribution box donation The intrinsic value
of these little presents was SD, 000, 00O. Among
them was suspended gold statue of the woman
who baked bread" Cor the millionaire. 1t is
plain that she had not learned cooking at Vassar,
under Miss Parloa. In that circumstance Cree
sus would probably have suspended her in per-
son. Calculated from the relative size of rich
mems gifts to churches at the present day.
Croesuss donation of SIS. 600, 900 would indicate
possessions of greater value than the s., Geo.
600. 600 set down to his credit by Kennel. 1t is
possible. though that Herodotus lied in his &C
count of the gifts in the Temples Herodotus is
the Tom Ochiltree of ancient history, any way.
Xenophon, in his Memorabilia" says that Crue
sus was.a glutton; he actually shed tears once
because vessel he had dispatched to Crete
for load of kuamoi did not return by the time
he had hoped for and what do you suppose these
kuamo We're? Trcffles. mushrooms. reed
birds? No; beans What an inspiration for a
Boston artist!
Alexander the Great very wealthy. True,
he got his wealth by n system of robbery, but
he does not stand alone among rich men in that
respect. He brought back from his expedition
TO Susa and Persia alone over $500 GEO. and
during his whole life he continued to pile up
wealth like the owner of gas-h house. When he
died he left will that looked like the inventory
of O brio a-brac SALE
Ptolemy Philadelphus, who came not so very
long after Alexander, is the first literally bioa;ed
bondholder Of whom we have any record He
weighed $50 pounds, and had private purse of
1885, coo, 000 The historian Appian is author
ity for this. In order to keep this wealth in the
family, Mr.. Philadelphus married his grand
mother Ho was so economical in money mat
tiers that he never paid out piece of gold until
he had caused it to be 'sweated.'
There Persian with a name suggestive
Of SWOLLEN tonsils and hereditary asthma, who
must have been we'll off. from all accounts. L
refer to Dareoios Hystaspes, who was king about
4S0 b. T.. His strong point was not so much his
capital as his income, about 81, 800, 600 900 per
year, according to both Gibbon and Kennel
1t is with pleasure that write the name of
lady. the story of whose wealth looks like an
arithmetic page in the throes Of delirium ire
guess at once. You have heard the story of
Serniramis and the bull but you must not Judge
from that that Semiramis had anything to do
with stocks Besides, Semirams was homely
and if she was anything in that line she was
bear. 1t would be indicate, perhaps, in the
case of lady to inquire just what her fortune
amounted to, but Diodorus tells of some statues
that Semiramis erected in the Temple of Belus
the value of which the good Able Barthelemy
places at $50. 900, 600.
But it is not only in tales tinged with the
warmth and color of the Orient that records of
colossal fortunes are found. There was a Ro-
man, Licnus Crassus whose wealth was such
that he frequently gave al fresco suppers to the
whole Roman population. And they were real
suppers, too-banQuets-no mere measelv offer
ings of sandwiches, from which the walters had
previously distracted wafer of meat. Rollo
gives Crassuss fortune at Ell ,6l45S3 6s. 81. in
real estate alone. He estimates his personally
to have been fully four times that amount Rollo
by the way, is artist in his line A man
| must have an artistic conception of how to live
when he ventures to get down to shillings and
pence in estimating the value of Roman real es-
tate 1000 years ago Rolo ought to have
gone advance agent to the forty-year old
star who tells the reporter that her ma won't
let her travel alone"