The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-27
WEALTH VS. eENTEEL POVERTY.
Some OF the Vast Fortunes Owned
by Few Men.
Copyright. 1891. bp the United Pre,s1

NOpgflg1ts 1871, bN the United Press)
NEW YORK, Dec. 26.-When the original
Commodore Vanderbilt died, his estate was
estimated at S10O. 100000. Hewas looked at
with amusement People regarded him as
phenomenon. A hundred millions Of dol
lars, and all in solid substantialitvl
BY manipulation well understood in the
realms Of finance, his son, William II,
uouoied at least the enormous fortuna his
IaSuer lett him, and to-day we have as the
consequence not alone the two chief Van
derollTs, estimated at from 800. OOO
OoO to Sl20.0O0,00O each. but a
nalf dozen or more families. to each of whom
the father left 81 ,0O0,0 900. 1t is not neces-
saTy to talk OF the Vanderbilts' hundreds OF
millions, nor OF Jay Gould's 500, OOO. OOJ or
SoO.oOo,0 wv, nor Of the oil mems $40, 0O0, 900
or $50, 900, 900.
Take the box list at the Metropolitan
opera house.
AT very small, moderate, and, to a GER
tain extent, careful estimate, the box
ownership at the Metropolitan opera house
represents an aggregation Of capital of eight
hundred million dollars.
why, there are houses on the upper end
OF the island costing s2O0. 900, occupied by
families whose annual expenditure runs
from $4,000 to 500, 900, and 1t is no uncom.
mon experience for men of capital TO pledge
themselves to raise subscription list for a
new enterprise OF 100000 to 800, 900, 600
and to keep their promise within forty-eight
hours.
Look at our manufacturers.
From one end of the country TO thA other
In all legitimate industries, wealth. wealth.
wealth. pours In upon them. Go to the once
quiet sequestraQon of Lenox, in Massa-
chuseets, and all that Berkshire neiRhbor-
hood. In our boyhood days a
family going to Lenox in the summer time.
the head of which was known to be worth
100000. was looked on as a man of conse-
qusnce in the financial world To-day
there are country houses there which cost
That sum OF money. 1t is sort of nest for
millionaires.
Go to Bar Harbor, 20 TO Newport. and
there you will find establishments owned
by New York aud Boston men rivaling the
tabled magnhoence OF the Orient, costing
all the way from $685. to 800 600 for
the seasons expense. Yachts costing
S5OO,OOO rest upon the bosom Of our mag
niiceEt harbor, aud it ia within easy bounds
to say that there are 500 men In this city
alone whose annual expenses are not less
than 5000, 900 each.
What of its
I don't know that there is anything
inquiry in the other direction. Is it fact
that, as the rich are growing richer, the
poor are also growing poorerl l regret to
say think it Is. l mean the very poor-I
mean more especially, the geateel poor.
fenteel poverty Is frightful condition.
Men who from boyhoOd have saluted all
their acquaintances as boss, men who in
stinctiYely look up; men who are not only
born In humility, but are bred in it, feel in
no way abashed as, joining the crowds on
Broadway, they encounter we'll dressed,
well-fed prosperity. With them shabbi-
ness of attire is normal garb; with them
continuous impecuniosity is the natural
condition; to beg to plead, to implore. tc
look to others for support, is what they
have been accustomed to from infancy,
but to men and women who, In other and
better days, have worn clean and shapely
apparel, whose tables were spread always
with substantialities, and often with luxu-
ries, TO whom it was pleasure to extend
hospitality to relative, friend and neigh
Dor. poverty is an int1iction often toe
grievous to be borne. To be compelled to
pawn your furniture, your extra wraps,
your wife's watch, the baby's triukets, for
the necessaries of life, possibly to pay a
physician for his call, is something that
thousands upon thousands upon thousands
do every week in every year.
Not alone do / believe that the very poor
are poorer to-day than ever, not alone that
genteel poverty has its grip upon more
depressed, unsuccessful plodders along
tue highways of life than ever,
but that that great medium class, who
have at no time held vast possessions, and
at no time suffered the paugs of hunger or
distress, are gradually going one way or
the other, either catching upon the gar
ment of the rich or taking hold Of the
hand of the poor, believe to be the fact.
as clear as the sun at MONDAY.
If the present condition of affairs contin-
ues another decade, If fortunes Of 800, 000 :
600 roll up, doubling as that OF Vanderbilt
did by division aud subdivision of railway
shares, if our great coal dealers, oil pro-
ducers. railroad proprietors, owners OF pat
ents. go on accommodating, accommodating,
the country will be divided into two great
classes, the very rich and the very poor, with
no central stratum, with no mlddllng class.
And thens go,
ItWell. that's the point to which sensible
men might as well now as at any time
better now than at any other time-direct
their serious, thoughtful attention. A mar
row mind finds great enjoyment in sayi1g
after some great predicted calamity. u
told you SOP
Without being especially inclined to mar
rovness of mind or anything else, It may
not be improper for me to call attention to
a series of articles which appeared in then
leading paper in this city in 1867. I'M
mediately preceding the year forever
memorable 10 the animals or New YORK, as
that of the great draft riots.
Eighteen hundred and sixty-three was
twenty-eight years ago. Ninety-eight 10
every hundred of my readers are under Is
wears of age. They know no more about
the bloody deeds Of that exciting period
than the previous generation knew Of the
war of 1Si2. or its predecessors OF the great
battles of the revolution. For three con-
secutive days this entire town, with all that
that implies was In the hands OF q ruffian
mob. Men, women and children were
murdered on the streets, trade
was paralyzed, houses were burned
negroes were hanged at lamp
nosts. inoffensive citizens were
mohbad brutality maltreated and robbed
upou the highway, and Infatuated bands OF
desperadoes roamed the city at their own
sweet will. 1t would be idle to deny that
while certain nationalities participated TO o
very large extent In this outourst, the in-
fanny was largely due to an unsettled con-
dit,on of the public mind In reference to the
nropriety of a draft made by the govern
1,,ent In order to fill the ranks OF our not
particularly successful soldiers at 1naS
critical period Of the war.
The series of articles to which l Gall at'
, tention we're written by man who, some