Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-01-26
MILLIONAIRES' TROUBLES.



to extort money from him in hundreds
of ways. He is besieged wherever he
goes by beggars, and nine-tentis of
the callers of rich men are of this
character. Gould once said that if he
gave away a dime for every dollar
that was asked of him for charity he
would not have a cent left within two
years. 1t is the same with every rich
man in the country, and the majority
of rich men have their hearts torn daily
with the piteous appeals of people
whom they cannot crafty. They are
also besieged by impostors, and the
chances are that nine of every ten men
who approach them are frauds. Ev-
cry effort is made to extort money
from them, and woe unto them if any
indiscretion which they have COM
mitted comes to the knowledge of the
blackmailer. The stories Of the DO
nanza kings of the west are of dirty
linen washed with golden soap.
O'Brien thought he had provided for
all his loves when he died. He gave
each, it is said, beautiful house and
enough money to support it, and he
took from each a release of his estate
from any claim whatsoever. One
woman, however, he forgot. She was
a Mexican senorita, who had bundle
of faded love letters which O'Brien
had written her. 1t cost the estate, it
is said, $40, 900 to get them, and they
were put down among the items as
''1egal expenses in securing certain
quit-claim deeds" The trouble of
Sharon and Althea Hill are too recent
to need repetition. The scandal sent
the ex-United States senator to his
grave. Lucky Baldwin has had nu-
merous suits with his inamoratas. In
1883 q woman who claimed to be his
cousin tried to shoot him in the corri-
doris of his own hotel in San Francisco.
The hammer of the pistol caught in the
folds of the Woman's dress and she
lost her aim. Another woman who
said she was his niece tried to kill
him, but the courts found her insane,
and a third brought suit for half a mill
lion. Senator Fair was divorced from
his wife not long ago, and the posses
sion of all his millions cannot keep
him from thinking of her. He gave
her more than $4.000,000 when she left
him. EX-Sen. Tabor, after quarter
of a century of married life with the
woman who helped him to make his
fortune, fell in love and he divorced
the first Mrs. Tabor to marry the sec
ond, who had in the meantime got
divorce. His first wife, respectable
woman of Denver, got a fortune from
his estate. The second marriage of
Tabor first took place in the dirty
office of q Justice of the Peace i'll ST.
Louis. 1t was q secret marriage, and
the world did not know of it when he
celebrated it again in grand style in
Washington. showing his embroidered
night shirts to the newspaper CORES
pondents and telling them they cost
scores of dollars apiece.
Outside of scandals, family troubles
come to the rich as well as to the poor.
The $4,000 which Catharine Wolf
paid her doctor every year could not
drive away death. There was not a
father in the country who did not pity
Senator Stanford when he lost his only
son, and he would be poor father in
deed who would trade his son for the
$75, 900, 900 which Stanford owns.
Amasa Stones endowment of Adelbert
College in Cleveland, which he named
after his son, showed how much he felt
his loss, and j. II. Wade, another
Cleveland millionaire, almost broke
his heart in grief when his son died a
few years ago. Wade ordained the
Western Union Telegraph Company.
He believes in Spiritualism, and it is
said that he holds communication with
his son through the means of the tele-
graph. Every Sunday morning be-
I io1o -
goes, he has a seance. He takes q
little ivory sounding telegraph instru-
ment and puts it upon table. The
medium puts his finger upon this and
goes into trance, whereupon the
ghost of the son speaks to the father
by telegraph through the mediums
fingers, answering the fathers cues
tions and conversing with him gener-
ally. Wade is an expert telegraphcr,
but it is said that the medium knows
nothing about the art
Scores of cranks besiege the house
of Senator Stanford in Washington
and not few hang around. the resi-
dence of w. w. Corcorah. These
cranks sometimes become dangerous,
and woman crank once came near
killing the millionaire thread maker,
Clark. She had been a patient in the
county lunatic asylum and she called
at the door of the Clark mansion in
New Jersey, when the family were at
supper. She first asked to see Clarks
daughter, then his wife, and finally
Mr.. Clark himself. As the latter
opened the door she dashed bottle of
nitric acid upon his face, burning it
terribly, but fortunately not touching
his eyes. This girl had once been en-
ployed in Clark's thread mill, but had
been discharged. She had been in
sane, had attempted to commit sui
eide, and had tried to poison the mem
bers of her family. Had it not been
that Clark had put on his hat before
he went to the door the nitric acid
would have entered his eyes and he
would have been blind for life.
Bad health aff1icts the millionaire as
it does the pauper. Many u modern
Midas has the dyspepsia and he can
not eat the dainty things which his
French cook brings him. Amos Law
renee of Boston, did not dare to tempt
his stomach by eating with his family,
and confines himself to oat meal cruel.
Jay Gould lately telegraphed to a
London doctor for cure for neural
gia, and the pills which he received in
response did not help him bit All
the millions in the world will not stop
the jumping toothache, and Mrs. A. I.
Stewart paid $50. 900 a year to three
physicians during her latter days and
died at last. Mayor Hewitt's wealth
will not drive away insomnia. He had
in Washington during his Congress
sonal career half dozen different
houses and cOU1d not b11v cInnn q T +ba