The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-07-29
MEN WITH MILLIONS.
The Central Pacific Railroad as
a Foundation of Wealth.

j ne O0UCIdl racine Eta1lrOaQ dS
Foundation of Wealth.
Huntington, Croker, August Belmont,
and Others.
How Great Fortunes Are Made.
A correspondent of The Philadelphia
Times says: c. P. Huntington, ma
| tive of Connecticut, believe, went to
California, in the early days, but did
not try to get rich by mining. He was
too shrewd for that. He dabbled in
gold dust for while, but soon set up
a hardware establishment In Sacramen-
to and adhered closely to business un-
til he had a large and lucrative trade.
At that time he would never have
dreamed of fortune of more than
1000, 600, which he would have thought
sufficient for any man. even for him
self. When congress, however, decid-
ed in 1862 to build the Pacific railroad
Huntington, with several other enter
prising Californians, took the contract
for constructing the Central Pacific
from San Francisco to Ogden. seeing
the amount of money he might make
thereby.
That was the beginning of his great
wealth, and ever since he has been rap
idly increasing his store. He probably
made several millions by the Central
Pacific contract. but that merely whet-
ted his financial appetite. A man may
be satisfied with few hundred thou
sand dollars. but when he has gained a
million there is usually no limit to his
desires. He cOvets the whole world.
Huntington now controls lines on lines
of railroads. and is reaching out for
more. They are called the Huntington
system, and are as we'll known as the
systems of Jay Gould or the Wander
bilts. Between the three is continual
struggle for predominance, for they are
all ambitious, more of power than of
money. Huntington, unhappily for his
further acquisition, is 65. and, though
recently married second time. has had
no children. He has an adopted daugh-
ter. young, pretty, and clever, to whom,
in all probability, the bulk of his vast
estate-reckoned at 1926, ,OO0 600 to $4O,-
600, OOO--will in due time descend. He
may have twelve or fifteen years of
work in him yet, for he is of strong
constitution, excellent health, simple
habits. and takes the best care of HIM
self. He is considered rather hard gen.
orally, but they who know him inti-
mately say that he has soft side to his
heart
Wholly self-made, he owns few inner
resources and cares little for the ordi-
nary pleasure of life. He is best salts
fled, doubtless, when engaged in big
operations, and he gauges his happiness
by the size of his income. He has one
of the very best financial brains in the
city or country, and if he were twenty
years younger he might be the richest
of Americans. 1t may irk HIM some
times to remember Could age and that
Cornelius and William X. Vanderbilt
are less. respectively, than forty and
thirty-seven. Such men are apt to
crave heirs who can bear their name
and continue their monetary glories,
But Huntington reveals no symptoms
of discomfort of any sort His tall,
brawny, heavy figure is familiar in Wall
street, His manners are pleasant,
though rather bluff, and he shows no
purse-vanity, however much he may
possess. Like so many rich Californi-
ans, he prefers New York to San Fran
cisco and has made his home here for
years.
Charles Croker, another man who
got his first start from his contract of
building the Central Pacific railroad,
has come here to live. He has been
much associated with Huntington and
is still, though considerably younger
and of less financial ability. He is re-
ported to be worth from $1O.OOO,OO0 to
$12,OOO.OOO. and is plain, sensible, kind
hearted. with marked practical ability.
He, too, was an fastener, who had be-
come merchant on the Pacific slope
and had struggled up from nothing to
pecuniary independence, when the rail-
road contract opened the way to great
wealth.
Some years after his sudden prosper
ity he was in Europe with his wife, to
whom he was devoted and with whom
vantages of his newly acquired posi-
ton. He wanted to get her everything
that money would buy and in his gener-
osity purchased such splendid diamonds
for her that she was in constant dread
of being robbed whenever she wore
them. At last she became SO nervous
about them that she refused to put them
on at all and had them carefully locked
up in bank vault. For months they
were source of terrible anxiety, but
finally growing accustomed to their
possession they ceased to trouble her.
l have heard of her marked personal
improvement at that time. She put
herself in the hands of Partisan cart
ists," and they transformed her into a
new being by developing nature in her
good intents but inadequate perform
anccs, Her husband, however, left
Paris very much as he had entered it,
except that he was delighted with the
change in his wife. This shows what
money will do for women, who seem,
at least in this country, to need only
leisure and means to take on the high
er aesthetic forms.
August Belmont, one of the great
bankers who counts his fortune by
millions, is said to have had an humble
origin. His father German and his
mother French, he early displayed un-
usual capacity, so that his parents