The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-20
WALL STREET CHARITY.
How Very Little the Rich Men Have
Done for Johnstown.
From the Ne,o York World.

Done for Johnstown.
From the Ne,c York World.
Well, and how much have the million
aires contributed in aid of the Jamestown
sufferers, and for the alienation of Johns
town suffering9 Something like 5000, 900
has been contributed by New York, and it
analyze the list of contributors and find out
what portion of that amount has come from
the millionares who could best afford it,
Have any of them opened their strong
boxes and overturned their Golfers and
said practically: Here. 1t doesn't make
very much difference how much we
contribute. We can't possibly miss
it, The occasion is big one;
let us give something worthy the occa-
sion" Have they done anything of this
klnd9 Not to any alarming extent What
has Jay Gould done9 Or George Gould?
Or Russell Sages Or c. P Huntington?
Or Mrs. Hetty Green? Or other millionaires
who are in the forefront of Wall street life?
Any one Of these could throw million So
gold pieces into New York bay or spill them
into the depths of the Dead sea and go on
living their lives precisely as they are
living them now. They would still be able
to get the same number of meals every day,
buy the same number of suits of clothes,
the same horses aud pay for all the luxuri s
of mundane existence, just as they are pay
ing or not paying for them now. 1t might
relieve them -of some worry, because
they wouldn't have to bother about finding
suitable investment for this extra money,
but it could not affect them in any other
way or deprive their families of one solitary
enjoyment or advantage which they now
possess. Has any one of them given the
fhAxr l1,,1E a.
81 900, 900 or the $500,000! Or the $50, 900
or the 100000
The published contributions answer this
question, and of course answer it in the
negative. Mr.. Gould gives $1,000. Mr..
Sage hasn't been heard of at all, although
it is understood that he made some addition
to the stock exchange fund. Out of her
$4,000, 900 Mrs. Hetty Green had given
nothing up to last accounts. G. P. Hunting
ton and George Gould may have CON
tributed in some indirect way, but the
public certainly hasn't heard of it.
No one who has studied the characteristics
of millionaires is surprised over the show
ing they have made at a time when the
very sub-soil of human nature has been
dug up, aud the hand Of every human being
in this country stretched out impulsively
and almost uneensciously to help the VIC
TINS of this most awful of modern calami-
ties. The fact is notorious that million
aires are not in the habit of giving money
away. There are some exceptions but
they are the exceptions which
prove the rule. If they did give money
away possibly they would never have be-
come milionaires, and it would have
been a great deal better for the coun-
try at large if they hadn't. People
talk about Russell Sage and newspaper
men write about him generally as though
his parsimony, contrasting with his i'm
mense wealth estimated at $50, ZOO, 900, was
something altogether unique and unparal-
leled in Wall street. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Nearly ali his fell
low miAionaires partake of his econo n
ical characteristics, and, when he sat down
at the mlllionaireS' lunch up in the Western
Union as he used to do with Jay Gould and
Sidney Dillon and Cyrus w. Field and other
gentlemen, with lots of bonds and securities
packed away in safe deposit vaults, the COM
paay was quite in color with each other so
far as the tendency to hang on to money,
down to the final nickels, was concerned,
and the devislng of every possible scheme
for eluding payment and getting things
gratis.
So far as Mr.. Gould is concerned, although
no such stories are told about him as are
told about Russell Sage, it is well known in
Wall street that Mr.. Gould is parsimonious
to degree almost amusing, and that his
family is now and always has been in sym
pathy with him. In fact, great many of
Mr. Gouldis friends seem to think that if
Mrs Gould hadn't been so mean her hus-
band would have been much more OPEN
handed and oompanionable man. Mr.
Gould was always very liberal with her,
possibly because of the fact that it
was with the money which he received
with her on their marriage that he started
in on his money-maklng career, and the
money thus received by Mrs. Gould in
return for this early service was constant
source of calculation and bookkeeping with
her. She was forever figuring over her
books and estimating the value of her prop
erty and forever scheming to save in this
direction and in that so that she might add
to her accumulations. She never encour-
aged any hospitable inclinatlons in her hus-
band, so that the occasions on which guests
were entertained in the Gould household
were exceedingly rare.
This spirit on Mrs. Gould's part did not,
of course, fail of distinct effect on Mr..
Gould's character, particularly as he Is very
susceptible to surroundings, and a tendency
toward extreme parsimony was thus en-
couraged and developed, and its manifesto
tions In his Wall street life have given
cause for considerable comment. He has
seldom been known to assist nvbody in the
street except where the people whom he
assisted were of practical and immediate
service to him. In fact, the only case
wherein he was known to have given a
friend or acquaintance tip on the market
was in the case of well-known theatrica
man here who retired from the theatrical
business year OF so ago and whom
he put into Union Pacific just before
that stock turned in price and began to
move very rapidly upward. 1t Is under
stood that the theatrical man in question
made something like $4,000 out of the
turn in the market, which never seemed to
turn his head. by the way, and is now able
to enjoy life very comfortably. But this is
a single case and its fellow would probably
be pretty difficult to find. The walters
down in Delmonico's would probably doubt
the truth Of the story. Mr.. Gould used to
lunch constantly at the Broad street place
and he was never known to tip waiter in
his life. When he came in with Charlie
Osborne, and Osborne blew the little man
off to luncheon, the fortunate waiter re-
caivad 81 or so but when Could came In