The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-06
A. t. STEWARDS ECcENTRIcITIEs.
His Two Ambitions in the Line of
Charit.-.
From the New York Press.

house of Hilton, Hughes & Co., which fail
ed last week. used to say that the only
| real struggle he ever had in his life was
to make his first $1,000. After that every
thing came his way; his grandfather left
| him a legacy and he started a business
which made him one Of the greatest mill
lionaires of his time. But all his earlier
life was a struggle toward that $1,000. At
times it seemed as if he would never
reach the goal. but he persevered, and
| when he finally did arrive, fortune stood
| waiting to receive him. The end of the
once great dry goods house, which came
last week. has revived all the stories of
Stewart and his remarkable career.
People were beginning to forget almost
that there ever was an A. T. Stewart.
but the suspension Of Hilton, Hughes &
Co. brings his name prominently to the
| minds of men again.
Mr.. Stewart left many monuments,
| which should serve to keep his memory
| green. His Garden City experiment was
| the most ambitious of his efforts outside
| of his business. On Hampstead Plains he
| aspired to build cathedral town some
what after the old world model, There he
| started the building of a gothic cathedral
| and the building of a city which he in
| tended should be made up of the homes
| of wage-earners of moderate means. In the
| crypt of the cathedral he designed that the
| bodies of himself and his wife should rest
| after DEATH and looked forward to gener-
atoms of worshipers who should gather
| beneath the gothic spire and call his MEM
| DRY blessed. A big hotel was built for the
| accommodation of single men and
| church school established. But Garden
| City, though now a f1ourishing residential
s- f,,Ns tod Nv aaIaG IF
| pie for whom Mr. Stewart intended it, and
| as to that sarcophagus, with the name of
| A. T. Stewart chiseled on 1t in the crypt
| of the cathedral, everybody knows the
| gruesome story of the stealing of the mil
| lionaire's body and of the mystery which
| still surrounds its ultimate fate. There are
| those who believe that the Body was never
| recovered, while others are as confident
| that II was finally given up by the grave
robbers and is now reposing in the sarco-
phagus made to receive 1t. Judge Hilton
and a few others now living know the true
story of the stealing of Stewards body ana
what became of it, but so far as the public
is concerned the affair is still a mystery.
Those who believe that the body of the
dead millionaire is in the crypt of the
Garden City cathedral base their belief
mostly before Mrs. Stewards death of
her visits to the cathedral. 1t used to
be said that the widow had a private key
to the crypt and that she used to go there
alone and lpray beside the sarcophagus
bearing her husbands name.
One of Mr. Stewards philanthropc
schemes was the building of the Park
Avenue hotel. which he desiged as a home
for working girls. That experiment, like
his experiment in the Garden City hotel
was not a success and the hotel became
like any other metropolitan hotel.
When Mr. Stewart built the Park Ave
nue. hotel one of his ideas was to prove his
| 70, civ 10 81 q
income President Grant appointed him
Secretary of the Treasury, but he was not
| confirmed by the Senate, as 1t is against
the law for man engaged in the import
ing trade to hold that office. Mr.. stew
art offered to place his property in the
hands of trustees and to give the income
of II to charity during his term of office.
The Senate however, refused to confrm
him. When Mr.. Stewart built the great
marble building now occupied by the Man
haitian Club for a home the mousse was
, talked about all over the country, Tor
there was nothing in New York to com
! pare with it in those days. Those We're
the DAVIS of the great gilt-framed mirrors
and the violent red hanglngs, and all the
interior decorations of that marble pie
would be consderedfin these more esthetic
days in execrable taste, but then were the
hight Of the decorators skill. Outside
and inside the house said, money, mon
ey'' 1t makes an excellent clubhouse,
however.
II is well known that Mr. Stewart hest
tated long time about moving into the
house after It was finished, believing that
} he would not live long after he went to
reside in his marble palace. This Is SUI
perstition not uncommon to mihlonalres
} who have made their own way in the
J world. n.t
one of the remarkable things about the
; business which Mr.. Stewart established
! and conducted so successfully was its far
reaching scope of operations. There We're
branches OF the New York house in va
rious European capitals, and even IN Hong
Kong and Thibet branches were estab-
lished
Mr.. Stewart believed in the motto take
: care of the pennies and the pounds will
! take care of themselves For long
time Isaac Devoe was his customhouse
broker. One day Devoe brought some pa
pers for Mr. Stewart to sign rs this all
} you have to do, make out these papers?
said Mr.. Stewart. why, Isaac, you, have
a sinecure" "If doing a lot of work for
almost no pay is sinecure, l have one,
holly replied Mr.. Devoe. "Ha, ha, =
laughed MIR. Stewart. You are facetious
Isaac" Another time Mr.. Stewart and
Mr. Devoe were riding downtown in a
Broadway omnibus. Mr.. Devoe waited to
see IL his employer would pay the fares
but the millionaire dropped his own fare
in the box, with the remark, i suppose
the firm pays your fare, lsaacF When
| Stewart was in his downtown store he had
; an elaborate system of fines, which he ap-
piled to his clerks for trifiing derelictions
once, when Cyrus W. Field was CLERK
In the store the clerks decided in conven-
ton that the fines collected that month,
should be expended I'm an oyster supper
and. winning over to their views the man
appointed to collect the fines, the thing
was done, in spite OF MIR. Stewards pro-
tests. At the dinner Mr.. Field, who was
one OF the chief movers In the scheme,
made an elaborate speech.
An article. Hold Up Your Heads" is
printed in the Jewish Review. 1t says:
There is something amusing about the
way In which many of our Jewish Jour
nails deprecatingly deny that the Jews have
any influence or any wealth. What reason