Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-04-19
OAKEY HALL 5 BUDGET.
William Waldorf AstOr in TOwn--De-
Tense of His London Life.
Millionaire Snobbery-Ogden Mills
New Departure-TheB Big Library
Emeute - Tilden the Charlatan.
Astor's New Electric Launch
New Social Fads-New Yorks
Astrologer.
From Our Regular Correspondent.

AStrOlOger.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
New York, April 17.-After breakfast
this morning at the Netherlands Hotel
that Adults the Savoy and fronts the
Plaza Hotel at the principal entrance 10
Central Park, and all constituting
point of attraction that not Trafalgar
square nor the Paris debouche OF the
Champs Elysee can surpass, L encoun-
tered pilgrim William Waldorf Astor,
the owner of the Netherlands, quitting
his portico in company with his legal
adviser. Charles A. Peabody, Jr., son
Of an eminent ex-judge, ana nlmseii
| iurist. Republican and political leader
of no mean consequence.
WALDORF ASTOR NOT A SNOB.
w. w. shares the Democratic in
stincts of his grandfather, the late WIN:
B.. and does not at all deserve the chdh
which many American editors nave
clouded him with because OF alleged
| Tory and aristocratic sympathles OF
English sanction. He has crossed the
water solely on business, and is deep
in it. for he has many shining Asteroids
in our financial armament to regard
with his investment telescope. IL Is
not generally known that the testament
tary directions of the original Astor or
dered a large surplus OF the Astor treas
ury accretions to be invested IN BRUSH
consols. The old furrier was great
believer in Poor Richards advice not
to carry all Of ones eggs in one basket,
and he had an abiding faith in the Eng
| lish three per cents. And, mind you,
he died never anticipating our SIX ana
four per cents. of the civil war era.
| His testamentary directions about Eng
| lish consols must not therefore be look
| ed at by the cathode rays OF the pres
ent patriotic time. The combined AS
tor property is therefore largely con-
nected with London interests, and TO
care for these explains William wal
DORIS apparent exile. And | have rea-
son to know that he has, as leader in
the American colony of London, never
muffied his patriotic identities, al
though, perhaps, as editor, and in So
| cial circles, more or less obeyed the old
saving, while in Rome do as the Ro-
| MANS uO. HAUL DClAS
| lish waters, sailing his Pail Mall Ga
zette as trimming sails to the breezes
prevailing. James Gordon Bennetrs
London Herald failed because he I'M
dertook to navigate 1t on a purely
American keel, the fashion whereof
Englishmen did not and could not I'M
derstand or appreciate. William Wal
dorf does not patronize the other hotel
bearing his middle name. Perhaps it
| is because he dislikes the snobbery that
| has been allowed to creep into 1t. l
! have known every male Of the Aston
family, and can vouch that IL never held
one who could be suspected Of snob-
berry.
OUR MILLIONAIRES ARE NOT
SNOBS.
That really belongs to the half way
rich. Among our millionaires there is
not one snob. Certainly not among the
Vanderbilts or the Rockefellers, and
clearly not for account of our Herman
Oelrichs, who shares in Lne great Fair
estate. and is one Of the most accessible
and genial of millionaires; nor with
Ogden Mills, who is building in the
once fashionable Blocker street
mammonth hotel for the man who can
only pay 20 cents night for a bedroom
or dime for a breakfast. If any Of our
multi-millionaires approaches to the
habit OF people first satiriZed by Thack-
cray in Punch, Commodore Elbridge T.
Gerry may be a snob. And yet, as Of
eminent Revolutionary ancestry as in
termarried into the equally Revolution
airy ancestry of the Livingston fam
lily, and as scholar and disciple of art,
he has no reason to be a snob.
OLD ASTORS POET.
On the same day of meeting W. w,
I happened to pass the site Of the or
iginal residence of the first Aston where
a sky scraper is about to rise. Coming
out of the old mansion-it was on
Broadway between Houston and Prince
it was there that / first
saw F'itz Green Halleck, our
Metropolitan twin poet Of the
olden time. with Cullen Bryant I was
a college boy and a hero worshipper,
and had read Halleck's vers de societe.
His poems are well worth a handy shelf
in a library, as is his biography of Gen.
James Wilson, one of New York's star
literati One often thinks of Halleck
in this April month because Of his much
quoted line: Nj life is but an April
day of sunshine and Of showers'-a line
that caps Longefellow's, Into each life
some rain must fall'-another Aprily
line. Halleck was financial clerk to the
original Astor, who treated him most
shabbily in his will, leaving him beg
carly five hundred a year annuity. But
to his honor be it recorded that William
B. made it larger afterwards.
AN ASTOR GAMBLING HE'LL.
1t was an irony of fate that converted
at the death of the furrier and million
aire his mansion into one Of the most
luxurious gambling hells known since
the famous Crockford's Of London. It
was kept by a jolly Irish gentleman Of
good birth and education, named Pat
rick Hearne. Therein was nightly
spread a supper table Of unequal ele-
gance; and menus and faro in the same
rooms, and roulette in the old Astor
bed room, were the alterations of the
night. Several times the great Web
ster was known to visit Pat Hearne's as
a Daniel in lions den. Many South
ern member Of Congress was lounger
there. Thus games OF chance followed
upon the exit of an Aston who believed
with Shakespeare, that chance is but
well directed effort" And all the AS
|