The morning call., 1890-11-22
THE LATE HoLAs LUNING.

Over three months have elapsed since
Nicholas Luning died, but we notice that his
biography still interests writers in pubiica-
tions outside of the State. The life of one
who had accumulated some fifteen millions
by the sheer exercise of his wits is always
interesting and generally instructive, and as
some misappIehension appears to prevail in
regard to the character OF the deceased mill
ionaire it may be well for the truth of his
tory to set the matter straight. Luning will
figure in the annals OF California by the side
of Flood, O'Bren, Charles Lux, Timothy
Hopkins, Charles Croker and others
among the dead, and james B. Haggin,
Leland Stanford, G. T. Huntington, John
W. Mackay, Henry Miller, James q. Fair
and others among the living, as man who
turned the unparalleled opportunities
afforded by this Coast to such good account
that he realized enormous wealth by the eX-
ercise of very ordinary faculties.
His career was uneventiul. he arrived
here with the '49ers, at the age of q,
with S55,000 in his pocket. He took small
Office and began to lend money. To that
uuobtrusiye business he adhered i'll one
diDgy office after another, for forty-one
years. When he began business few San
Franciscans commanded as large cash
capital as he. 1t was not long before the
golden shower made many larger fortunes
than his. But lie possessed a capacity
which many of those new-rich men never
had. He could not only make money, he
could keep it. This rare faculty he owed to
his adherence to a few simple rules. 1t
would no, be safe to say that he never was
a Spectator, fer every one who buys prop
erty expecting to sell it at an advance does
in effect speculate. But he never bought
anything that was not fairly sure to be
worth what he gave for it, no matter what
money was worth. He never bought prop
erty On the theory that it would be enhanced
in value by events TO happen in the future
and he never bought what lie could not pay
for. He never took stock in rare chances"
AS soon as he became worth a million or
so he divided his money into three parts.
One part he invested in ironelad securities,
such as Government bonds and first mort
cages on improved city property; second
part he placed In property which he deemed
good, but which was not strictly of the
highest class, such as coal mine, bank
stocks and cable-car bonds; the third he
kept in cash, and divided it equally between
San Francisco, New York and London, so
that when panics occurred he was always
prepared to take advantage Of bargains
that offered. To this distribution of his
means he adhered throughout his life. 1t
was mainly his ability to lend large sums in
financial panics and to purchase properties
when they were sacrificed that enabled him
to leave so vast an estate to his heirs.
Persons who only knew the man super
ficialiy have called him miser. He was
nothing Of the kind. In business he was
strictly businesslke. He believed that two
and two made four, and neither his closest
friend nor the most importunate person in
distress could persuade him that they made
any more. When he closed bargain he
kept il, and he expected the other party to
do the same. 1n private life he vas not os-
tentatious, but neither was he niggardly.
For the last few years of his life his per-
sonal expenditures were about $4,000
year, and as he spent little ON himself be-
yond what he paid the Palace Hotel for his
room, his tailor for good clothes, and cigar
dealer for the best cigars in market, he must
have given a good deal of money away of
which the world has heard nothing.
1t was disappointment to the public
when he died and left nothing to charity.
1t is quite possible that he may have had
benevolent projects in his mind, and that
his sudden death may have prevented their
fulfillment. If there be any reason for sup
posing that this was the ase his heirs, who
have come into far more wealth than they
car ever use or enjoy, have an opportunity
OF following the example set by the chill
dren of the late Charles Croker, in carry
ing out the generous designs their father
had in mind when he died. 1t would be a
graceful and fitting act for them to devote
a portion Of their vast riches 10 founding an
institution which would keep the memory of
Nicholas Luning green throughout all time.