Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-01

she deserves to be written about IN ertenSO
much more for her meanness than her
wealth. She is apparently the meanest
woman in America as well as the richest.
Her money is said to be the accumulation
of inherited wealth nursed by a trugality
despicable in its penuriousness. She has,
therefore, no right to the title of Queen of
Wall street. She has not grown abnOr-
mally rich through speculation, or sue
cessful financial enterprises of a more
legitimate character. All she has done
has been to save. Her parents left her
millions, to which an aunt added. What
she now has is simply the natural in
crease of that money at compound inter
est.
Unless she is belied, and for the honor
of human nature it is to be hoped she IS,
her saving has been conducted on scale
of niggardliness compared to which tie
economy of other misers is liberality.
Although she excuses her penuriOusnesS
on the ground that t is her ambition to
make her son the richest man in the
world. that son is aid to be Il cripple be-
cause she did not procure tor him proper
medical and surgical treatment on ac-
count of the expense. Think of mother
with an income of q million or more dol
lars a year refusing to spend the money
necessary to cure an only son of what, II
not cured, would prove lifelong curse.
Most millionaire mothers would think an
entire years income well spent in effect
ing the cure of such a terrible evil.
Her mode of life may be Judged from
this. If she did not spare her son, she
has not spared herself. She has gone with
out luXuries, and even comforts. Living
in he country for ecOnOmy's sake. she
has conducted her household with a fru-
galltv that made the mode Of living of
her most pOYerty-stllcken neighbors
seem extravaganza. She certainly can
have no share of wOman's proyerbiai
vanity for she dresses in a manner that
makes even the questionable OF her own
sex gasp and stare. When her clothing
gets in such a condition that even she
can wear it nc longer, she sells it. This
particular story rather taxes ones cred
ulity. for if her clothes are as bad, when
at their best, as they are described. who
would buy them when at their worst? No
one would certainly be a purchaser if it
be true that she makes her undertaking
out Of her husbands cast-0f shirts
Speaking OF Mr.. Green, aVarice would
seem to be as catching as the measles.
A retired navy officer, who knew him be-
fore he was married, told me the other
evening that he was, when young man,
a very good fellow, and quite as liberal as
need be. He now has the reputation of
being as stingy as his wife. Last summer
he made himself conspicuous at New
London by seeking the cheapest way" to
get from the Pequot House to the town.
When nearly everybody else in the hotel
hired a hack, as q matter of course, he
and his wife, worth many times more
money than all the other inmates of the
house combined, haggled over the eX-
pense Of the cheapest conveyance they
could find.
1t goes without saying that the Greens
were never known to have given away
anything in charity. \ millionaire who
sells her old clothes is not likely to re-
member the poor. OF what other person
in the world, with an income of between
one and two millions, can it be said that
no deed of charity is recorded of him or
her?
In regard to meanness, all women seem
to be like
- the little girl,
Who had q little curl
Right down the centre Of her forehead;
When she was good,
she was very, very good,
And when she was bad. she was hOrrid.
Il am rot sure these classic lines are
arranged correctly.) When women are
mean they are very, very mean.
MRS. GREEN HAS HER PARALLEL IN A
WOMAN,
whose name Just now has escaped me,
who hired two boys for 10 cents each to
shovel snow from her sidewalk last week
When they had finished she made some
excuse for not paying them-said they
had not done the work properly, or re-
quired additiOna! labor for the same
m0ney-and they began to shovel the
snow back again. For this she had them
arrested, and on the way to court sho
made the policeman who had arrested
them pay her car fare. The magistrate
before whom the boys were arraigned
discharged them with the remark that the
cOmplainant's conduct was the meanest
be had ever heard of. He had evi-
IDENTIFY never heard the stories which
are atlOat concerning Mrs. Green.
In order not TO seem unfair to the fair
sex let me tell you CT two male million
aire mis6rs. There is an old fellow in
Brooklyn who owns entire blocks Of
houses in that city and not a few in
this. Yet he is reputed to have
worn the same OVercOat for the
past twenty years, and the gar
meut in question looks patched and tat
tered enough TO be even older. He lives
al least three miles from the ferry. and
Yet be has been known, after walking
that distance, to walk ali the way to
Seyenth-eighth street, where he has pro-
perty, SIX miles farther, and back. Think
Of walking nearly twenty miles to save
twenty cents car fare. 1t is really false
economy, fO~ the wear OF shoe leather in
walking such a distance is very ccusid-
cradle. This millionaire personally re-
pairs his houses, and consequently is at
the beck and call OF his tenants wOen
things are out of order. HIS being his
own plumber is probably the reason he is
a millionaire. He once went down a man
hole TO repair a broken sewer connection.
and was nearly asphyNiated when drawn
up. The only food be allows himself and
his wife is oatmeal, which accordingly
forms their breakfast, dinner and tea.
Old Ben Richardson, OF Harlem, the
owner of WashingtOn's state coach you
have heard of before. He turns the en-
velOpes of the letters he receives inside
out, at the expense of no littlestime and
trouble, and uses them oyer again. He
Is the man who sold the spirits in which
the body of his son, who died in Califor-
mia, was preserved in while on It's way to
this city for burial. Richardson at pres
ent is unhappy to desperation. The law
is about to force him to spend 81 600 in
putting some of his houses in a good
sanitary condition.
1 HEARD ROSCOE CONKLING SPEAK FOR
THE FIRST TIME
in years at public dinner at Delmonico's
the other evening. He has given up the
characteristic which made
him in one respect resemble the little
girl above alluded O,whO, "When she was
bad, she was hOrrid." He has no longer
"a little curl right down the centre OF his /
forehead" His speech was good, but he
was theatrical and affected in manner, |
one moment he elevated his eyebrows |
until they mingled with his hair; the next !
they descended until they almost Joined |
his mOustache. His voice was melodious. |
but it was most melOdioUs when his words |
were least worthy of their instrument, so |
that it reminded one of an organ conde- /
scending to do the work of penny |
whistle. To person who remembered /
Mr.. COnkling's speeches IN Mechanics /
Hall, in Utica, twenty-five years ago. /
when he was merely Congressman from /
Oneida, as did, the orator did not seem |
TO Lave improved in the interval.
SeuatOr-elect Evarts was at the same /
dinner dressed in the oldest looking and /
shabbiest swallOw-tail coat | ever noticed |
on a similar public occasion. A former /
member Of the Tweed ring went away
lust before he began to speak, saying: Il /
wanted to hear COnkling, but I'Il be ID |
If Fll stay to listen to the thief who stole |