The morning call., 1893-01-01


post the eolOnegs face never changed. and
from his smile you would suppose he had
won rather than lost.
Among the horses which hewiil bring
here are Colorado, Lady Hermit Ell Diablo,
Sir Frederick Roberts, Iddesleiglf. Lady
Morgan, Sheldrake, Lucy Loekel and q
rum Der of other weIl-knOwn horses Of Eng
land, the most of which have been bred in
his own stables, and few Of which. are
practically unknown as yet II IS almost
impossible TO describe the care thatIS taken
OF these horses and the wonderful .arrange-
ments which Colonel North has for Keeping
them in the best Of health and training.
They are more carefully exercised than
any prize fighter, and the stables at
Ethan have better sanitary arrange-
ments than many hospitals, They are
heated by steam, and under one of the
stables is Turkish bath. by which horse.
can be thrown into Precipitation and the
cold steamed out Of him. The walls Of the
stables are lined with costly tiles. The:
box stalls are of hardwood and the f9oFS
are az cement. The colonel's horses during
the past year have been managed by EUFd
Randolph Churchill and his winnings nom
them must be enormous. Two 0fsthe horses
which ne brings to this country won S56e00Q
for him in a single year and heputs as
much business into his racing as.he does
into the management Of his immense nitrate
fields in Chile, which make him one of the
richest men in the world. =
No one in fact knows Just how much John
i. North is worth. / doubt II he kanwS
himself. He has ventures IN nearly every
part Of the world and his nitrate fields are
better than any gold mine in the world.
One OF his most intimate friend told Inc in
London that his expenses every year out.
side OF his business are more than S500,000
and his income IS supposed to be more
than S5QoO,OOO year. lie has cement
works in Belgium which bring him In a
on n trFiaf he 4,
nothing but a brickyard. Happening to.
pass by them in a trip 10 the Continent he
noticed the clay, saw that Ii was of a supe-
TiOr quality and at once bought tile whole
field. He has now in this place immense
works which employ thousands of hands
ana he has put up for his employees sanitary
cottages and has built churches and schools
for them. lie has never had a strike
and his people all like him. He has
other works OF various kinds in England
and his investments in Chile extend to.
guanO beds as well as nitrate fields. During
the war between Chile and Peru mis- fortune
was for time in danger, and Balmaeeda
was TO large extent his agent. 1t was be
that helped the rebels, and il was bis money
that bought the arms that carried on the
war. Had he failed he would have lost
millions, and as he saw the silver 90 BY
bushels he never blinked his eye but put
uD again and again until he won. He is in
fact big, bold gambler and his stakes are
millions.
During my stay at Colonel Norths house
] took lunch with him and the family, and
after this chatted with him for some tine
about himself and other matters. He is
now about 30 years old, and he weighs, |
judge, about 100 pounds. He is about
8 feet 10 inches high. His eyes are blue,
his face is ROSY, and his hair and
whiskers are Of rich red hue. He puts on
10 airs whatever, and as we walked around
the grounds he covered his head with
an old straw hat which looked somewhat
out of place among his magnificent sur
r9undings. He is an Englishman by
birth and he comes from Yorkshire His
father was coal merchant who brought
him up as civil engineer, and wine put him.
into business as soon as he was able 10. do
anything for himself. BE was connected
as an emplOy5 in a steam-plow works when
his father died, leaving about $500 TO his
family. Young North, though ne was then
married, at once gave his share Of the estate
to his mother, and shortly after this he
went to South America with his wife to
seek his fortune. He went there as a civil
engineer and soon saw the immense posi-
bilities for fortune-making which exist on
the western coast OF that country. He in
vested in a number of different spsealatiens
and made money. He then began to bay
nitrate. and kept buying from time to time
until he at last got control Of the biggest
nitrate fields in the world. lie made mil
everything he touches turns into gold
Shortly before Cyrus w. Fields death, in
an interview | asked him if he thought we
would ever have millionaire in this world.
He replied:
II don't know. A billion dollars is a
greater sum, than the human mind can
grasp. but when we have a man like John
Thomas North, with the wonderful re-
sources Of continent at his back. Won
can't tell what will happen. | don't know
what Colonel North is worth, but am told
that his possessions run high into the tens
Of millions"
While was in London / heard number
Of estimates OF Colonel North's fortune.
and the most conservative of them put him
at about 920, 100000, or 500. 600, 600 He is
wonderfully systematic in bis work, and he
manages this immense sum with greater
ease than Jay Gould did his vast fortune
He has an Office iE London and he comes
into this every day. He has different secre
tarles for the different branches of his bust
ness, and h. gets reports from these every
morning and rapidly directs VIA: is to be