Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-19
AMERICAN MIuLIoNAIREs.
A London Paper Thinks Their Wealth
Very Much OyerestimateJ


devoting much attention TO the annual
examination OF that portion OF the reve-
nue. returns from which, says the Lon
don Standard, by process Of calcula-
tion based on the statements handed in
for the purpose OF direct taxation, the
acknowledged income OF the various
transatlantic millionaires can be COM
puted. How far such returns may be
accepted is an open question. 1T is
doubtful whether the state can ever
take 1.-THE of the taxable wealth OF the
magnates whose Investments, spread
over half the world, are only to small
extent in tangible property. On the
other hand, there is gossip to the effect
that, to increase their consequence and
the credit which follows, aspiring
bachelors and pushing men of business
sometimes return their means as higher
than they really are, and find their
profit in paying on the fictitious amount
say Gould, we are told, is worth
ESQ, 900, 900, q figure that is probably
enormously exaggerated, as aresalso the
ESQ, ,000,0 900 set down for n Nevada mine
owner, who, it is added, was wheeling
barrow in Virginia City some twenty
five years ago. These are followed at
some distance by the head of the New
| York Astors, who is credited with
e3S,000,0 600, the Vanderbilts with
e25,000,00 and variety of less fa-
miliar personages. M. de Varigny,
| who has been examining these and sim
| liar figures, considers that the richest
| Englishman is the duke of Westmins-
| ter, whose property is estimated at
G16,000, 600, and that no continental
| landowner or merchant comes within
| many millions of this amount.
The new world millionaires, however,
| differ in certain respects from those OF
this side of the globe. On the one
| hand their riches are all their own, un
| 1ampered with entails or other oblign-
| tions incident to property inherited or
| acquired on this side of the Atlantic,
but on the other, very little of it is
real wealth. Most of the American
millions are represented by shares in
sorts of speculative enterprises-in
| mines which may or may not run clear
of ore, or in railways, the stock Of
which is often at the mercy of
| one or two shareholders and may in u
| few hours be made almost worthless.
tIn California there are, perhaps, more
millionaires than IN any other state OF
the union, the rich mines and the end
| less opportunities for enterprise offered
| by that region having operated to the
benefit of its sharper citizens. One
these is said to be university gradu-
ate and seven are lawyers. The rest
| werh n their youth OF the uneducated, :,
| bareiooted order, their early struggles
| being unaided by friends or relatives.
| Forty-nine are Americans by birth, Is
| are Irish, 8 are Hebrews, 5 are German,
| are English and is of French cx-
traction. Yet it Is striking common
| tary on public life in America that Of
| these eighty-five millionaires, repre-
senting total of about 5000, 900,
| only seven have aspired to any political
position.
The millionaire in America dates,
generally, speaking, from the time of
| the civil war, and we are accustomed to
| speak of his wealth as putting COM
| pletely in the shade that of the
| ancients. But we are inclined
| to think that in the palmy
| days of Rome, when all the world
was pillaged to enrich it, there
were men, relatively speaking, quite as
rich as any these days. Croesus pos
sessed in landed property nearly e.
000.000, besides slaves, furniture and
money to more than equal the amount.
Seneca could afford to he philosophic
with fortune OF e3,500,000. Tiberlus
left at his death over e2S, ,000, 900, which
| Caligula spent in less than Il year.
Julius Cesar, before he obtained any
| office, ''nursed the constituency" so
adroitly that he owed nearly f3 900, 900.
In all he squandered nearly 9l47 ,000,-
0C0 of the public money. Appius
wasted in debauchery e500,000 and
poisoned himself rather than face the
world on a pittance of GSO,000. Esopus,
the comedian, would spend eS0,0O0 on
single dish. BY the time the Roman
empire fell Europe had been pretty
| clyinrnl fhn,,ph
| bankers were concentrated for the most
| part in Italy, great deal of the plum
| der in the peninsula does not seem to
| have crossed the Alps.
In the middle ages there were rich
| men, of course, for in such a state of
general mpecuniosity it was easy for
a capitalist to heap up wealth. Bo
! Jonsson Grip, a Swede, died in 1886,
| leaving, in addition to enormous estates,
| mines and sums of coined money, $1,000
ounces of silver. So we'll provided was
he with the sinews of war that he could
declare hostilitles against the Hanseat-
| ic league and dictate terms to Lubbock
and Dantzig. The Fuggers and other
| merchants managed to monopolize a
vast amount of money. Yet when Ed
ward III failed in 1886 to pay 1865, 900
| golden crown which he had borrowed
| OF the Peruzzi OF Florence, something
like panic ran through the exchanges
of the continent.
With the discovery of America wealth
once again began to grow rapidly, but
not even then did anything like mod
ern fortunes become common. Within
the last fifty years, manufactures,
mines and various industrial enter
prizes have revolutionized our con-
| ception on the subject. When the elder
Dumas reveled in oriental conceptions
he created Monte Cristo as his ideal
millionaire. Yet, judging by modern
standards, this imaginary being would
have been rather poor, and would
scarcely have found place in the an
nual list which appears in New York.
Few of these American plutocrats can
be said to enjoy their money. Most of
them get it at n time of life when they
are too old to begin to learn anew the
art of living. They have never done
anything but form combinations and
rake in money. Public life they de-
spise. They have no position as great
land owners or mobiles to keep up. Most
OF them are too slenderly educated to
appreciate science, or art, or learning.
But, as q rule, the feelings OF the class