The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-03-14

upon the young man with a severity OF mlen
that must have appalled, him, and slowly
said in her s~everest and iciest manner:
sYoung man, | had achieved success and
was known the world over many years be-
fore you were born" 1t it needless to say
that the interview was brought to an ab-
rupt end, right then and there.
Thus we started out on good writer's, or
the qualification for the good writer and
ended on reporters; but we have this to
say OF the reporter that il industrious,
persistent, pains.taking and level headed,
he is Just as sure to make a good writer as
the tadpole is to make IL frog.
As editor of the MONITOR We are not at
all concerned over the financial future of
William Waldorf Astor, son and heir OF
the late John Jacob Astor, or Ashdor. as
the Germans spelled his grandfather's
name in the good Faderland.
The first John Jacob Ast0r was poor,
and it is here our sympathy comes IN,
earning but 50 per week as a fur beater,
| dHt lidNtIiiis ooh tnd pithiJ '
pack of ttinkets upon his back in order to
drive a sharp bargain with the Indians and
| turn an honest penny or 50 with the win
min" folks. This was the first j. j. a. OF
nal charcoal burner and aboriginal of the
Aston descent. When thus peddling trink-
cts on his back, Astor was quite young,
perhaps not over twenty five, and when he
$40, 600, 900, and he was considered the
richest man in America.
OF course this gave John Jacob, the
second, father to William Waldorf Astor,
a pretty good send of, which the young
man improved to sucn advantage that when
he died a few weeks since his wealth was
roughly estimated at from $3.50, 600, 900 to
5000, 600, 900.
So William, the second of that name,
so far as we now have to do, has a fairly
good start in life and will not have to black
boots for a living as Governor Albeit of
this State once did, won't have to mend
his own shoes as Lincoln did, nor stitch
his breeches as Andy Johnson did, nor
drive 4 horse and mule to Il wood wagon
like General Grant, or oobble his neigh
bors' boots like Roger Sherman, nor keep
himself and poor mother IN less than Sc a
week as Garfield did, nor hang a seythe up
a tree to avoid working it as the god-like
Webster did, nor carry corn up atyo
story flight of stairs as Henry Clay, s'the
mill boy of the slashes,' did, nor make his
own cabinet (of wood) as President Mil
lard Fillmore did, nor peddle $50 maps
over Delaware county, n. Y, as Jay
Gould once did, or work at $3.50 a week
salary as Wanamaker did on the start, or
play the role of stroker on a Mississippi
steamboat as editor Pulitzer once did, nor
hire out at 50 per week as Andrew Car
negie did in a Pittsburg telegraph office,
nor plough his neighbours field with a pair
| of bull calves as [. S. Senator Joe Brown
once did, nor Engage as an eIrand boy at
81 per week as George W. Childs did, nor
drive a California milk Wagon as Jim"
keene did, nor 'clean up their clocks for
them as the elder Green of Woodbury.
did some years since, nor act as cores
pendent on a Cincinnati newspaper at s.
per week as Whitelaw Reed did, nor sell
small articles from door to door as the
richest man at Leesburg, Cumberland Co.,
once did, nor be a Philadelphia butcher as
was once Adam Forepaugh, nor Il bar
tender in Niblo's theatre as was +. T. Bar
mum, nor business on less than
$50 capital as did the EceHiHg NeUS Co.,
Bridgeton, nor sell cigars over an OHIO
did, nor teach school and board around'
as A. T. Stewart did, nor clerk ia a store
as Cyrus Field and Moses Taylor did-the
former in a New England village and the
latter in the city Of New York-nor as of
any of the hosts Of great men now living
or dead at some time in their lives were
obliged to.
lie wont have to do it, William Wal
dorf wont, because ''he don't have to-"
But then lie will ave to do that which
may prove vastly more severe to him than
the early trials of the pioneers of the
worlds history was to them, viz: keep up
the reputation of the Astor family for
money getting and money saving. 1t will
be comparatively easy for young William
to become rich with the start lie has, but
to add to it and keep the added wealth is
what may prove the most difficult of the
two.
Another feature of the family, and that
more Immediately and increasingly dis
tinguishing his father, William Waldorf
will also have To keep up, or lose caste,
the reputation for giving. In 1879 John
Jacob presented the three city lots adjoin-
ing the Astor Library to that institution
and erected on them a third structure.
similar To those erected on them by his
father and grandfather, and added n story
to the central binding. His outlay. ex-
elusive of land, was about $3.50, 600, max
ing the entire gift of the Astor family
more than 81 600, 900. lie gave large SIMS
to various ipstitntions-the Cancer Hos
pitai, for instance. His wife founded the
Home for FrIendless Women on Fifteenth
street, and he continued the good work in