Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-11
American MilliOnaireS
Who They Are And the Causes That
Have Enabled Such Accommodations.
Was This World Only Intended For
A Few!

examination of that portion of the
revenue returns from which, says the Lon
don Standard, BY process of calculations
based on the statements handed in fol-
the purpose of direct taxation, the &c
knowledged income of the various trans
atlantic millionaires can be computed
How far such returns may, be acce pied as
accurate is an open question. It is
doubtful whether the state can ever take
a 1.-THE of the taxable wealth of the mag
mates whose Investments, spread over half
| the world, are only q small extent in
| tangible property. On the other hand,
there is gossip TO the effect that, to in
crease their consequence and the credit
which follows. aspiring bachelors and
| pushing men of business sometimes re-
turn their means as higher than they
really are, and find their profit in paying
on the fictitious amount. Jay Gould We
are told, is worth e60,OOO,0OO, a figure
that is probably enormously exaggerated,
as are also the e50,000,OO0 set down for a
Nevada mine owner, who, it is added, was
wheeling barrow in Virginia City some
twenty-five years ago. These are fol-
| lowed at some distance by the head of
the New York Astors, who is credited
with ga, 100000, the Vanderbilts with
| e25, 100000, and variety of less familiar
personages. M. de Varigny, who has
been examining these and similar figures,
| considers that the richest EngIishmap is
the duke of WESTMINSTER, whose property
is estimated at e16,0OO,OOo, and that no
contin entail landowner or merchant
| comes within many millions of this
amount.
The new world millionaires, however,
| differ in certain respects from those
on this side of the globe. On the one
hand their riches are all their own, IN
hampered with entails or other obliga-
tions incident to property inherited or
acquired on this side of Atlantic, but on
the other, very little of it is real wealth.
Most of the American millions are rep
resented by shares in all sorts of spec1I-
alive 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 stockholders and may
in few hours be made worthless. In
| California there are, perhaps, more mil
llonalres than in any other state OF the
| union, the rich mines and the endless op-
portunitIes for enterprise offered by that
| region having operated to the benefit of
its sharper citizens. One of these is
said to be university graduate, and
seven are lawyers. The rest We're in their
youth of the uneducated, barefooted
order, their early struggles being unaid
ed by friends or relatives. Forty-one
are American by birth, Is are Irish, are
Hebrews, are German, 4 are English,
and l is of French extraction. Yet it is a
striking commentary on public life in
America that of these eighty-ive milIioR-
aires, representing total of about $780,
| 100000, only seven have aspired to any
political position.
The millionaire in America datas, gen
orally speaking, from the time of the
| civil war, and we are accustome ed to speak
of his wealth as putting completely 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
of these days. Croe3us possessed in land
ed property nearly e2,OOO,O0O, besides
| slaves, furniture, and money TO more
than an equal amount. Seneca could
afford to be philosophic with fortune Of
e3, 100000. Tiberious left at his death
over e23 200, 900, which Caligula spent in
less than year. Julius Caesar, before he
obtained any Office, "nursed the constitu-
ENJOY" so adroitly that he owed nearly e3,-
| 100000. In all he squandered nearly
| e147 100000 OF the public money. Ap-
Plus wasted in debauchery 100000, and
poisoned himself rather than face the
world on a pittance of 100000.
Hsopus, the comedian, would spend ESQ.,
600 on single dish. By the time the
Roman empire fell Europe had been
| pretty well skinned, though as the nedi-
seval bankers were concentrated for the
most part of Italy, great deal of 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
| impecuniOsity it waJ easy for capitalists
| to heap up wealth. Bo Jonsson Grip, a
Swede, died in 1886, leaving, in addition
to enormous estates, mines, and sums of
coined money, 81, 900 ounces of silver. So
we'll provided was he with the sinews of
| war that he could declare hostilities
sg ainst the Hanseatic league and dictate
| terms to Lubec and DantZig. The Fug-
gers and other merchants also managed
| to monopolize vast amount of money.
Yet when Edward III. failed in 1886 to
| 1865 900 golden crowns WHICH he had Dor
rowed of the Peruzzi of Florence, some
thing like panic ran through the ex-
changes of the continent.
| With the discovery of America wealth
once gained began to grow rapidly, but
not even then did anything like modern
fortunes become common. Within the
last fifty years manufactures, mines, and
various industrial enterprises have rev
olutionized our conception on the sub
| ject. When the elder Dumas reveled in
oriental conceptions he created Monte
Cristo as his ideal millionaire. Yet,
| judged by modern standards, this i'm
aginary being would have been rather
poor, and would scarcely have found a
place in the annual list which appears
in New York.
Few of these American plutocrats can
be said to enjoy their money. Most of
them begin to get it at time of life
when they are too old to begin 10 learn
anew tbs 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
landowners, or mobiles to keep up. Most
of them are too slenderlY educated to ap-
| preciate science, or art, or learning,
though now and then they found univer
stiles or buy fashionable French pictures.
But, as rule, the feelings of the class
may be represented by the late Mr.. Van
de1bilt, who declared that the weight of
| his wealth crushed him that he chad no
pleasure in money, ard no use for it,"
Glass Houses and Other Possibilities
The future of the glass industry in the
United States is encouraging, for it is