Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-11-11
STEWARDS MARBLE PALACE.

So Stewart, besides founding the greatestd dry
goods establishments this continent ever saw,
connected his name with other institutions
on no less grand a scale. He controlled the
carpet mills of the country at the time Of his
death. He owned two of the finest hotels,
the Grand Union at Saratoga and the Metro
politan, of New York. Three New York
theatres were among his possessions, while
his marble palace on Fifth avenue was
adorned with treasures from every land.
He had about completed a colossal hotel for
working girls, with the purpose CT providing
them with the maximum OF comfort at the
minimum of cost.
He founded Garden City on the spacious
plains of Long Island, an extensive monu-
ment to his memory, he thought, in perma-
nent real estate. The fortunate inhabitants
of this favored Garden City should also pos
sess his remains, to honor as long as the 3d.
COO, 900 monument in the shape of a cathedral
should cover the ghoul proof vault in which
they were to repose. Nemesis seems to have
swooped down on the plans of Stewart,
and they remain only as a striking example
of how the purposes OF man "gang aft aglee."
His great wholesale dry goods house is o an
office building and likely to fall into the
hands of the city. His retail house, which
covered a block is now cut up into many
small stores with a multiplicity of owners.
The control of his immense mills is divided
among rival manufacturers. The hotel and
theatres passed Immediately to other pro-
prietors. 1t is rumored that his marble
palace was out of the possession of his wife
for some years before her death and that it
will shortly be opened as a club house.
His house for working girls was. not allowed
to fulfill the purpose of its designer. Garden
City exists as a deserted village. Only the
grand cathedral tomb remains, and that as a
monument TO the hollowness of human hopes,
for it covers an empty tomb. The only way
in which this cathedral could likely be di-
verified from the use for which it was intended
was by preventing the remains from being in
TERED there, and this was the very thing
that did occur. A. I. Stewards body was
stolen from the temporary vault in which
they rested on the 9th of November. 1875, and
none outside OF the few ghou1s who carried
them away know what has become of them,
though it is supposed they consumed them
with quicblime to destroy all evidence Of
their crime.
Why there remained no affection for A. T,
Stewart was: due to the old mans hardness of
heart. An incident which well illustrates this
was told the writer many years ago by the
daughter of one of the victims of this
trait of Stewards. Her father owned a
small marble quarry in Westchestsr coun-
ty, N. Y. When Stewart was, about
to build his marble palace he solicited esti-
mates from numerous quarrymen for the
stone. Her father was unfortunately the
lowest bidder, and made a contract with
Stewart to supply the marble fer the build
ing. fhis was at a time when labor was
cheap. The war came, and quadrupled the
prices paid labor. The poorquarryman soon
foundth hat it would iii. we all of his earn
ings for years to flleyen a portion Of the CON
tract, SO he appsavSi to Stewart, who. was