The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-08
THE ASTOR MILLIONS.
Young John Jacob Will Not
Squander His Inheritance.
HIS FATHER SPENT $50, 900, 900.
Col. Tom Ochiltree's Connection With
the Drayton Scandal and the
Late Rebellion.

toIS III TWO years anu the UlTtu
of one are the vital records
with reference to this distinguished family.
The late William Aston, the last of the
family to die, was man who lived very
much within himself, and his death Gre
ates but passing remark from the great
public. He was man we'll endowed by
nature and with a name and fortune to
achieve for himself might have accom-
plished both. With nothing to do but
spend what he could of a vast fortune, he
has not impressed himself upon affairs.
He was eminently respectable, went to
church with commendable regularity,
read good books, enjoyed himself by travel,
and so rounded out quiet, commonplace
career. Mr.. Astor took but languid in
terest in business. less in art or literature
and none whatever in politics. One would
have supposed that man of his means
might have had himself elected to the leg
lslature. but this suggestion ap-
parently never occurred to him.
With the blood of his respected grand
father in his veins, it is somewhat
surprising that he took so little in
terest in business matters. He would
hardly walk across the street to buy
cheap property, whereas his ancestors
would go a long way to pick up a good
bargain. particularly in real estate. Mr..
Aston is said to have spent SIC, ZOO 900 in
his time and never missed it. Few men
could do that. The most ambitious of all
the Astors is William Waldorf. He has
been minister to Italy, has written books,
taken shy at politics, and really made an
effort to be distinguished for something
besides his money. But when an Astor
undertakes to be bigger than his fortune
he has a tremendous job ahead of him.
Perhaps, in view of this, the late Mr.. Astor
was wise in allowing his money to distin-
guish him instead Of taking the trouble to
distinguish himself. The only Aston who
ever made noise in the world was the
original and respected John Jacob, grand
father of the late William, who came to
this country in 1888 with fiddle-strings to
sell, and sold them. 1t was interesting,
but not altogether pleasant, to note
the comments about town when the
news was received of William Astor's
death. There was nothing in the ex-
preston of regret to indicate any deep
seated grief. The feeling seemed to be
that very rich man had gone and maybe
the community would be better off for it.
This seemed to be the first suggestion
that occurred to the mind, but the sober
second thought did not justify it. The
bulk Of the Aston estate-about $50 00O, 600
of twill go to his son, the younger John
Jacob Astor, in whom the getting and
keeping instincts of his great-grandfather.
whose name he bears, have been intensi-
fled. As the first John Jacob guarded his
fiddie-strings against wet weather, so will
the present John Jacob guard the many
millions. the outgrowth of this same stock
of catgut, against the inclemency OF fort
une. 1t is the general opinion that this
young man will never spend $50, 900. 900 OF
the Aston money, as his father is believed
to have done before him, but will do more
to add to the vast estate than any other
member of the family since his
grandfather, William b. Aston, began
in the china trade and ended as the largest
householder Manhattan island ever
knew. At the same time it must not be
inferred that the Astors have stopped
building houses. Their millions are still
being invested in this way, and the new
Aston hotels now in course of construc-
ton will be the finest specimens OF hotel
architecture this country has ever seen.
The saddest feature in connection with
the death of Mr.. William Astor is the fact
that it was most probably fastened by the
scandal which attaches to the name OF his
daughter, Mrs. Coleman Drayton, and
which two or three blackguards have been
aggravating and keeping alive by sham
duel For this scandal and it's train of at
tendant horrors society" of which the
Astors were the head, has been primarily
responsible. In dying Mr.. Astor has taken
a great load from the shoulders of Ward
McAllister, who had announced his inten-
ton to restore Mrs. Drayton to the bosom
of the Four Hundred during the coming
season. Mrs. Drayton will now don
mourning, and Butler McAllister will have
the assistance which time alone can rem
der in smoothing down the recollections of
human Irregularities.
My friend, Colonel Tom Ochiltree, OBJ
serve is at last thoroughly involved in the
meshes of the Drayton- Borrowe- Fox bust
ness. l knew, when / first heard Of this
affair from London, that Colonel Tom
would appear somewhere in the neighbor-
hood, knowing him to be friendly with
three or four of the persons who were mix
ing in it. A few days afterward l saw a
cable dispatch to the effect that Colonel
Tom had been acting as the friend and adj
wiser of Mr.. Coleman Drayton / felt
proud of him, as always do. As an adj
wiser there is not a better man on the face
of the earth. l have warm side for the
colonel, and think l thoroughly under
stand and appreciate his characteristics.
He is the most thorough man of the world
that L ever encOuntered-Warm-he hearted,
good-natured, inclined to be assertive but
at all times as square as die. He has the
warmth of the Southerner and the level
Medicines of the Yankee, but he has no
taste for business. He has most tenacious
memory, and underneath his gruif and bluff
mannerisms he has as kind heart as ever
thumped against percale vest. That
delightful rascal, George Butler, who lsed
to be boon companion of Tom in Wash
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