St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-28
RICH MEN OF GOTHAM.
Wealth Thrust Upon Many By Inheritance
or Through circumstances Beyond
Control.
Comparatively Poor Men in the Confidence
Of Millionaires and Their Lost
Chances.
Heroes on the Stage and Rascals Off OF
It--Mtllions and Millions
Buried.
The Pretty Wife of Dick Scott the
Thtef-.Harry Hill Still Lead
ing Citizen.

Ii you Will think it over Judlc1OuSly
yOuw i'll see that most of the extremely
wealthy men are not to blame for it..
They have been enriched in spite of them
selves, either by inheritance or through
circumstances over which they really had
no great control. 1t is mistake to accuse
fortune-makers of the entire responsibility.
Chance has in every case had as much OF
more to do with it than shrewdness. The
proof of this is, that after man has &C
cumulated capital he is no surer to invest it
wisely than if he were dealing with money
which had come to him without effort.
Millions upon millions, for example. have
been buried in New York as permanently
as Capt. Kidd's treasure and yet easy to
locate. Running under the Hudson river
from each side is section of a tunnel, cost
ing already half a million, and now
abandoned. Beneath the pavement of the
busiest part of Broadway is completed
arch, with all the apparatus for running
cars by
A PNEUMATIC DEVICE.
This was built and given up fifteen years
ago. Along Greenwich street for miles
stand the remnants of the first elevated
railroad built in this city. 1t cost millions,
but had to be finally sold for its worth as
old iron to the present companies because
its system of cable propulsion failed, and it
was too light to bear steam traffic. The
largest hotel in the wide world has stood
on the beach at Rockaway five years I'M
opened. The scheme lost everything that
the stockholders put into it, and yet they
include such fnanciers as the Drexels, Jay
Gould and Vanderbilt. The biggest market
ever erected is ruin. 1t had for owners
men famous for monetary success, but it
proved an utter miscalculatiOn, and when it
burned down the insurance policies pro-
wiped the only returns that could possibly
be got from it. On every hand can be found
evidences of the fact that millionaireS are
apt to blunder in their enterprises; that
they are no more infaIlible in perception
than the rest of us.
IN THE CONFIDENCE OF MILLIoNAIREs.
Another thing to prove that circumstances
rather than ability make wealth: Those
who are in the confidence of millionaires do
not get enormously rich. Three men are
close in business with Jay Gould. They
are Sidney Dillon, his legal adviser, and
Connor and Morosini, his brokers. Of
course, these three have grown affiuent, but
not in measure which might reasonably
be expected under the circumstances. Yet
they must know the inwardness of every
move that Gould makes, and could follow
his lead in speculation. Take the case Of
Vanderbilt. Chauncey Nj. Depew is his
confdant in matters purely speculative, and
yet l doubt if Chauncey could count
half million, though vaguely supposed to
have much more. Rutter, the president of
Vanderbilt's railroad, is just dead, and his
fortune is found to be small. He had been
for many years in positions wherein, it
would be assumed, he was able to honestly
operate advantageously in Wall street; but
he seems to have done very little in that
way. / am informed that Vanderbilt is
warily watchful of those employees who
possess the facilities for turning to account
their knowledge of his enterprises, and that
he has ousted several on learning of their
OUTSIDE sPECULATIoNs
in his stocks, although they did not violate
their trusts. Well, immense prosperity
does not always extend from its possessor
to even the immediate relatives. A certain
wine shop in Third avenue, near Fourteenth
street, is frequented almost exclusively by
Italian singers and musicians. l dropped
in there the other evening for glass
of chianti, and while slipping it saw a shah
billy dressed man enter. After a glance
round the place he dropped into a chair with
the familiar manner of one accustomed to
this resort.
''That chap" said l to my companion
CLOCKS like Don Bazilio, in ''The Barber Of
Seville"
''He ought to-" was the reply, 'sfor that's
the part he used to sing. Don't you know
him? He is Adelina PATHS brother"
PATHS brother! Does she recognize
him when she comes to New York?''
Certainly she does; though am told
that sometimes, when he goes to the Wind
sor to call on her, the servant tells him that
she is out when she's in. What does he do
now? Well, he can't be said to sing, ex-
cept when he's asked to drink. Then he
sings out quickly enough. l think it just
possible that his illustrious sister gives a
small allowance to him, for he MANAGES to
live without harder work than that in which
you see him engaged at this minute, hold
ing down cane-bottomed chair. I've seen
a great deal in print about PATHS castle in
Wales, but never anything of the abode Of
her American brother. To tell the truth, 1
don't know where it is-probably in some
obscure street on the East side. He used
to be fairly good singer, but in no way fit
to be estimated along with his sisters, Ade-
lima and Carlotta"
EVEN MUSICIANS ARE NOT PERFECT.
Musicians have their failings as well as
other folks, and there are students of human
nature who declare that devotion to music
is apt to undermine the moral character of
the devOtee. This fact gives sound rea-
son why those soft maidenS who admire the
tenors of opera should not, if they wish to
enjoyably perpetuate their illusion, seek to
break across the footlights into the privacy
of the mimic heroes. The tenor of one of
the considerable number of light opera COM
panies, handsome and popular, is notably
successful in sentimentally impressing his
female hearers. But those with whom he
has financial relations are prosy, to put it
mildly, in their opinions of him. He dresses
at the theater in room with fellow
singer. and, while that man was singing, a
tender love song the other evening, he be-
thought him of other notes-of two $40
ones that he had carelessly left in his vest
pocket along with the tenor in the dress
ing-room. At his next exit he hurried to
the apartment and there found only one of
the bills. The tenor had just gone on the
stage, but his private clothes hung on the
wall. and i'll his vest the loser discovered a
note like
THE MISSING MONEY.
He hastily transferred it to his own
pocket, and at the close Of the act made a
great ado about somebody having stolen
from him. The tenor said nothing until he
happened to put his hand into his own vest
pocket Then his walls were almost loud
enough for the audience to Overhear. Such
are the episodes of actuali life among the
tinsel heroes, dear young ladies.
1t is not exclusively in theatricals that the
seeming heroes are really rascals Many a
wife knows now that the gallant who
wooed her had only an imaginary halo
around his head. The prettiest three sis
tiers In New York fifteen years ago were the
daughters of banker named Gross. They
.rrs,,.1, tho ,xxordoYc of thair nooial oiralo