The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-07

SOME OF THE TROUBLE MONEY
GIVES TO ITS POSSESSoRS.

A Recital Which Contains Much Con-
ISOLATION to Poor Man who is also
a Philosopher Pleasure is in Getting,
Not in Having.
From the Providence Journal
SAN Francisco, March 17--After all,
nilionaires do not seem to have just as
much fun as they are supposed to have
When man grows rich he begins TO dis
cover that what he gains in one way he
loses in another Since the bad shaking up
that Mackay and Flood got over the great
wheat deal, the losses on which are now set
down at about S1S, 900, the public faith
in millions has received a severe shock.
There was time when the bonanza firm
was supposed to be invincible, and it was
supposed that when they got out of the stock
business and went into legitimate banking
they had fixed themselves where they could
not be hurt by anything But the idea of
Mackay and Flood having to skirmish
around town to borrow paltry half mil
lion seemed to mean utter ruin. OF course
ANYBODY would be glad to have what the
two ex-bonanza kings still have, but they
are not what they once were.
The latest story that has been spread
around is that Mackay and Flood have
quarrelled over that wheat business, and
broken up their friendship. Well, it would
only be human nature, but they deny it, at
least Mackay does. Flood says nothing.
1t has been great part of Floods success
in life that he has never denied or affirmed
anything. Reporters have never been
known to get anything out of him, and
even his most intimate friends have not
found him very willing to give them a
pointer on any stock deal Until the wheat
deal Mackay had much the same reputa-
the pleasure of an intimate ac-
quaintance with him have alleged
they lost money in stocks, and limited that
he should not have permitted
them to lose it if they have not said it was
on his advice. l remember seeing a state
ment in paper that w. j. Florence, who
was one of his most intimate friends, had
lost money on bonanzas in which he had
invested by Mackay's advice This is, per-
haps, an example of how stories arise. Mr..
Florence never said So Mr.. Florence told
me himself that in all his dealings-all his
friendship with Mackay--he had never
heard Mackay speak of business except in a
general way, and that he had neither helped
him to make nor to lose money
Both Flood and Makay had been looked
upon as worthy of the fortunes they had
and have. Flood, whose early life was in a
business not calculated to develop the most
refined feelings, has, ever since his rise to
fortune, been very highly respected. A
quiet, undemonstrative man, not much of a
talker. not much of a society man, he has
moved into style aud social position with
out the faintest development of pdrUenu
peculiarities. He and his wife are two of
those rare people who can sit in a box at
the opera and not attract any attention to
their being in the place above all others of
style and show. Their box is always filled
with men in full display of dress, but no
one can say that he sees the
wealth sticking out of the millionaire
and his wife. Miss Flood has had
more offers of marriage than any woman
almost, but fancy the good sense of her
parents and her own Judgment have been
responsible for her single blessedness. l
have heard the street yell for Floods life in
the old stock gambling days. l have heard
muttered threats against the quartet of
bonanza owners when stocks broke and they
were reported to be making deal. But to-
day Flood and Mackay have few enemies
and the people generally would have pre-
ferred to see them keep their money, es-
Pecially as the general opinion is that Flood
had no idea himself of making deal in
wheat. Mackay has always been popular.
Even in the worst days of the Conistock
jObbery people believed in Mackay, and
gave him credit for being the practi-
cal miner to whom they owed the discov-
cry of Consolidated Virginia and Cali
fornia. Mackay, when the mines were
fairly established. became somewhat of
bon UiUdnt, a man about town. Mrs
Mackay set up in Europe and has conquered
apparently the best European society. All
who knew her there, all Americans who
have met her, speak universal chorus of
praise of her, and mauv poor Californians
have known her kindness to their practical
benefit, kindness which has not often been
published. But Mrs. Mackay, when she
tried to enter San Francisco society as the
bonanza kings wife long ago, received some
sights from the women who thought them
selves ton. Those same women have not
been very happy to hear that she has even
entertained the Prince Of Wales and
several of them have been. it is said re-
buffed by her when they have sought to
obtain the entree to her set in Paris and
London
There were four of these bonanza kings
Flood and O'Brien in San Francisco, and
Mackay and Fair on the Comstock. O'Brien
was the least important; but it was the
firm Of Flood & OBrien, when they had a
saloon in San Francisco who found most of
the money to develop the Consolidated
Virginia, and Mackay and Fair were the
two who worked the mine to success.
Mackay was the miner; the man who man
aged the deals was Fair, a shrewd miner,
too. They built the Nevada Block and
started the Nevada Bank It was and is an
elegant banking office. An old story tells
how Mackay came down from the Com
stock when the place was finished, and
walked into the Office. He looked around
and took in the elegance and said:
TOO much - quarterback about this"
Sharon was then the great rival of the
bononza firm, and they were giants fighting
all the time on the stock market 1t was
alleged TO be the quarrel between them that
brought the Bank of California down over
eleven years ago. Flood wanted to raise
some money, and he went to Sharon.
a Sharon was not willing, and they got to
n high words about it.
You'd better go back to your whisky
selling" said Sharon.
IF ever sell whisky again." said Flood,
II sell it over the counter of the Bank of
California"
When the Nevada Bank was going the
Bank OF California wanted gold. The Bank
OF Nevada had locked up in its vaults some
SIOJO,OOO which Flood would not allow to
go out; and the Bank of California closed
us doors, until the directors put up 81, 000,-
oOO apiece and saved it. 1t was not as noble
a sacrifice as it seemed to be. They would
nave been liable for more il they had let
. Jne bank 20. and thew made il nav hand