The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-17
GREAT FORTUNES.
Men Weather than---A. T.
Stewart.
John Jacob Aston is the Richest Man in
America, But Thereare Other New
Workers Very Wealthy.
From the Chicago Herald.

From the Chicago Herald.
The information asked for in this letter will
probably be of general interest.
In speaking of the fortune ofthe late A. T. Stew
art you say that it vastly inferior those of
Mess.s Astor, Vanderbilt, GoulG and Taylor and
"besideS these there are now several estates and
fortunes in New York which are greater than his
which you estimate very properly, 1 think at
$50 100000.
VIII you please state whose estates and fortunes
these are as l am at a loss TO remember any one
having moro or as much as 81 000o 600.
Our correspondents knowledge as to the sub
Ject must be very limited, for the names of
several posSessors Of such fortunes at once oc-
cur to us, replies the New York sun. The
Goelet estate rs q whole must much exceed
S20,0OO,00o. Then there are the Standard oil
fortunes of the two Rockefellers and Mr.
Flagler, each of whom can safely be estimated
now at more than that sum, and they are
rapidly increasing. Heber Il. Bishop can be
set down as worth more, and probably ID. O.
Mills also. Pierpont Morgans fortune is
supposed by those best informed as TO such
matters to be greater than score of millions,
and Mrs Hetty Green is not forced to the
rigid economy she practices for doubtless she
has more than the sum at which we estimated
the Stewart estate. Then there are Messrs
Amos 4: Emo. Andrew Carnegie, Percy r.
Pyne, Charles L. Pratt, Jabez a. Dostwick
Herman o. Armour, each OF whom is reported
to have $20,000,00 and over.
These by 10 means complete the list, and if
we were to include the fortunes between S10,-
100000 and &20,0o0000 and which are increas-
ing at a rapid rate, like that of Austin Corbin
and that of Henry Ii. Rogers, it would be
long, while If we took on those between five
and ten millions, and also stead
lily accumulating. it would be sur
prisingly great to men who are so
ignorant as to the subject as our correspondent
seems to be. Probably, too, some if not MANY
OF the names would be utterly unknown to
INN, Tor there are possesSOFs of such fortunes
NJ vl,fNp.
does not extend beyond Il very limited circle
because OF the comparative seclueion in which
they live, and which enables them without no.
toriety to add largely to their Accommodations
every year.
There are men in New York with fortunes
of from five millions to twenty millions whose
annual expenses for living do not exceed u
tenth or twentieth part of their annual in
comes. 1t Is easy to see how rapidly they must
be piling up money. Even when thew keep up
moro costly state and maintain establish
nents that arc relatively extravaganza, accord
ing TO our American standards, they do not
lay out on them great sum of money compar-
4tIVely to their incomes. After elegant COM
fort has been secured it docs not take many
thousand dollars year to add what seems to
the public lavish display.
y man who spends $4,000 year solely on
his living and the keeping up of his establish
ment becomes CONSPICUOUS in New York for
the grandeur of his state as q social character
vi course, many families may spend much
more in tho buying of costly pictures and other
articles of rarities, but these are of the nature
oil Investments, and are not a part of the cost
OF living. Others, too, may keep yachts
maintained at an enormous expenditure,
according to the average estimate,
and the Improvement of country places may
est up vast amount of money, so that they get
rid of twice as much hut the first is outside of
the ordinary living expenses, and the second
counts only as an investment. Ii a man comes
to New \ DIRK able and prepared to eXpend on
his hou0hold alone $4,000 q year, he can cut
great Sgure so far as his mere expenditures
go. though socially he may remain so insignif-
cant that he will throw his money away
Therefore 1t is that American estates grow
SO rapidly, especially as is so often the case
| Where they arc accumulated by men of modest
social pretensions or no social ambition what
ever. Even if they have the ambition, and
| crafty it at the cost it entails, they do not
make heavy inroads into the income from mil
lions of dollars. John Jacob Astor
is by far the richest man in America,
and yet the expenses of his actual
living cannot much exceed the sum
we have named as enough for an elegant house
hold. Hence he is yearly investing, and in
vesting with great sagacity, all beyond q very
insignificant part Of his income. His expendi-
lures are hardly enough to count but his in
yestments in land, for whose development and
productiveness the Astors can afford to wait,
and in other securities are enormous and con
tnuous.
The Vanderbilts and the Goelets spend
much more or their incomes proportionately,
but after all, only small part of them, and
Mr.. Gould, reputed to be now richer than ever
IN substantial property, lives on a scale which
requires only an insignificant sum, as compared
with his revenues from investments and specu-
lation.. The same apples to the very rich
men of New York generally. What they are
expending is trihc by the side OF what they
are receiving and making. 1t is also to be re-
membered that profuse expenditure is no
guarantee of solid wealth, and modest living
does not always imply its absence.
Accordingly the number of the many times
millionaires in New York, whittier the richest
men from all parts of the new world more and
more tend, is so constantly increasing that our
correspondent will need long sheet of paper
to write the list upon as the years go by.