The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-12

FAVOR OF giving her respectful attention
and the chivalric treatment which is the
due OF every woman.
THE STORY OF A MARBLE PILE.
The new theater which 7. Henry French
is erecting on Eighth avenue, near Forty
second street, will be intended as the sue
cessor in popular affections on the West
Side of the famous old Grand opera-house,
at Twenty-third street and Eighth avenue.
a pile of white marble in which every
block has a story to tell. Real estate men
say that Jay Gould, or his son George, to
whom he gave the Grand opera-house for
birthday present on the young mans
attaining his majority, will not maintain
1T as house of amusement after Mr.
French's present lease, which was recently
renewed for short time at the enormous
annual rental of $4,000, shall have
expired. tremendous chapter in
the history of New York will be
closed when the Grand opera-house
is sold at auction, as it is said it may
be, or ceases to be a theater. 1t was in
that white marble pile that Fisk and
/ Gould planned their great operations in
Erie which convulsed the finances and
judiciary elike of New York, led to their
own romantic exodus to jersey City and
the awful panic of Black Friday. 1t was
thither that the new Erie directors
marched from Sam Barlow's house when
they passed violently through the uni
formed guards and took possession of the
all-night directors meeting which the
Flsk-Gould contingent was holding, and
finally voted Fisk and Gould out of the
Erie control. 1t was there that Jim Fisk
first introduced the uniform suit and
brass buttons into the railway and
steamboat service of this country and
established bar whose magnificence
was in those days unparalleled from
Boston to San Francisco. 1t was there
that he entertained the ''ladies of the bal.
let" and the ''queens of song" between the
acts, access from his own box in his bwn
theater, to his own parlors and his own
bar being passing easy, and il was over
that bar that he took his last drink, big
glass of lemonade. Fisk's widow, by the
way, who joined with Gould in n deed of
restitution" which conveyed this Grand
Central house block back to the Erie Rail-
way Company, is now living in poverty in
South Boston. Her husbands estate was
at one time inventoried at little less than
81, 600, 600. That was Just twenty wears
ago, and the childless widow is not what
is called an old woman now. But she
hasn't any of the Fisk money left, and
when Mr. Gould was enabled to buy the
Grand opera-house back from the Erie
Railway Company, a few years after the
conveyance of restitution in which Mrs.
Fisk Joined him, she didn't figure in the
transaction at all. Mrs. Fisk says. what
is more, that she would be rich woman
today If she had her rights. This may be
so. IL the world owes US a living, as
somebody said once, it must owe riches by
the same token to some of US. That's
curious contrast though, growing out of
the theater glut in New York-Jay Gould.
one of the richest and most powerful fac
tors in our national life, literally the owner
of many millions, the wizard whose touc h
on the electric button can send a thrill Of
pain or of gladnes. to thousands of homes.
and the widow of his old partner, Jim
Fisk, lonely and penniless in Bostonl
AN OFFICE BOY BECOMES BOSS.
Yet what marvelously useful heritage
energy and ambition are, even if they are
not accompanied by money! In the sto-
ries that have been written about influen.
tial New Workers who began life as errand
boys l do not think that Sammy Rorke's
name has been mentioned. He was office
boy at 50 week in the offices of the Coney
Island Jockey CLUB not so very many
years ago. He is now secretary of that
club and of the Essex Watch Case Com
pany, big Newark corporation, a popular
man about town, hacker of operate en-
terprises, with plenty of money and
friends, and an assured position in the
New ork world of men and things. His
right name is Samuel Edward Rorke. He
is Just 30, is slender blonde of me-
dunn size. neat appearance and pleas
ant manners, as near an approach to a
Maecenas as the lyric bard of today is
likely 10 find. Lyric poetry today, by the
way. needn't be married TO immortal
tunes" but it must be set to music 10 have
| any commercial value This is the age when
| the combination Of music and rhyme sells.
Rorke owns the "Tar and Tartar" and
| frankly admits that comic opera has GER
| tain sort of fascination for him. Mr..
| James Rowe, the new starter at the races
| hereabouts, is a friend ana partner Of
| Rorke in some of his enterprises. Rorke
| and Askin mad difference about money
| all co-partners in comic do-not long
| ago. But they also patched it up az most
| OF them do. Rorke is man worth keep
! ing ones eve on. He'll cut a bigger be-
| fore he makes smaller figure in the world.