San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-16
MkS. GREEN'S GIRLH00D.
TIE MISERLY OLD LADY ONCE A
NEW YORK SOCIETY BELLE.

She Had Lovers by the Score-She Was
Beautiful, an Heiress to $40, oOO, 900, and
Business Principles.
Mrs Hetty Green, who is popularity believed
to be the wealthiest woman in the United
States, is not seen so frequently in Wall street
as was the case a few years ago. She keeps
her bonds and other securities, which are said
to amount now to about $4O,CO0OOO, in the
vaults of the Chemical bank, and whatever
business she does down in Wall street she does
through the Wall street brokers Of that in
stitution. OF course this manner Of getting
at the market is rather slow and tedious com
pared to the direct fashion to which Mrs
Green was addicted in years gone by, when
her associations in Wall street were with
John j. Cisco & Co., and would Indicate that
Mrs. Green is not getting into the market
and out as rapidly as she used to do for short
turns, or, in other words, that she is not spec
ulating, but that when she deals in stocks and
bonds they are secured rather as investments
than for any other purpose. And this is
pretty near the truth.
WHEN HETTY WAS BELLE
There must have been a time, surely, when
these two eyes of hers that now CLEAN with
,hrewdness and suspicion looked frankly out
on the world; when this tall, 1.-THE form was
clothed in girlish and graceful garments, and
when these crooked and clutching fingers
were straight and fair and pink and might
have invited the clasp of friendship or even
the lovers ardent kiss. Of course there is no
hot
young once, but it is rather interesting to
note that she also filled out many of the out
lines of this gracious picture with which we
are wont to associate the idea Of girlhood
She was not only young. She was fair and
a matter of thirty or thirty-five years ago
was a belle in New York society, ardently
sought by numerous lovers, not only for her
wealth but also for her beauty. And the
transformation from this attractive young
creature, glowing with health and personal
loveliness, to the unlovely and Grabbed old
lady, which the Wall street reporters find to
be a fertile occasion for numerous and humor
Gus paragraphs, has been effected right here
in the city beneath the nose and eyes of men
and women who knew her as girl but now
only hear of her as an old woman.
A number of people with whom the writer
York society and authority so far as its his.
tory is concerned, remember her perfectly as
the very attractive young girl here described
She was a tall and rather striking blonde,
notable for animal spirits and her exceptional
skill and brightness as a conversationalist She
used to come down here from New Bedford
where her father resided, and spend the win
tiers in town. She attended nearly all the
balls, parties, concerts and other entertain.
ments in which society was interested, and
was eagerly sought and wooed by numerous
lovers Freddie Gebhard's uncle is stated to
have been one of them, and members of the
Union club, who are now veterans, were also
on the list Naturally her personal attrac
lions lost nothing because of the fact that she
was an heiress to 100000. She was her
fathers only child, and her father was Ed.
ward Mott Robinson, who had laid the founda.
ton of his fortune in the whaling business
AT that time whales were much more penti
full than they are now, and as petroleum was
unknown the oil was very valuable and an
important article Of commerce. At the time
that Hetty Robinson first came to New YORK
and entered society here her father had re
tired from the whaling business, and in part
nership with Coleman, the once Pacific coast
millionaire, who failed a short time ago, en-
tered business in New York There is some
difference of opinion even among those who
have known Mrs, Green, or known of he,
since this g. r.o6l time, exactly how old sh,
is, but whether she was Is or 20 in 1856 the
fact remains that she ignored all the santi
mental advances made to her, and did not
marry until Il year or so after her tatberg