The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-20

was heard in the house and the other occupants, rushing from their respec- tive rooms, found the young man un- conscious and bleeding on the first sto- ny, near the parlor door, He had evi- dently fallen over the banister from the story above, and with his skull cracked, broken ribs, arms and leg fractured he was picked up and hls condition since then has not allowed the gleaning from him of any details of his misad- venture. Dr. P. A. Kearney has been constant attendant upon the patient since the occurrence, just as he was upon old Thomas Bell, when on that Hateful night of October l5 he, too, fell over the banister in his home and land ed on the hard floor two stories below, He died in a couple of hours, his age (about seventy initiating against his hope of recovery.
 The excitement over the death of Thomas Bell was intense, Few men in this city had been closer identified with its history, When quite boy Bell left his native country to go to Valparaiso, where he became clerk in large mercantile house, and it was as an agent for that firm that he first visited San Francisco early in 1850. He deci- ded to make California his home at
 that time but first he returned to Val paraiso to sever his connection with his employers there In the latter part of the same year he arrived here for the second time, and for thirty-two years he has resided constantly in San Fran cisco. Shortly after arriving here he
 associated himself with two others, and
 they founded the firm of Bolton, Barron
 x Co.,, which after few years became
 Barron & Go. Eustace and WE. Bar
 ron and Thomas Bell were the partners
 in this latter firm, which for many
 years was the leading broker, mining
 and commission house on the Pacific
 coast. It was during these years that
 Bell laid the foundation for what be-
 came large fortune. There was no
 mining deal In the great Comstock days
 that he had not something to do with. | He and his partners were the agents for all the big European and South
 American houses who did business with
 California, and when the Barrons died
 somewhere in 1872 or 1S7S-the busi-
 ness all fell into the hands of Bell, who
 took George Staake into partnership,
 and so created the present firm of Thomas Bell & Co.
 Bell was one of the originators and
 inc6rporators of the first bank of Cali | fornia in 1884, and when that institution
 closed it's doors years afterwards, it
 was Bell who,with D. o, Mills, cabled
 to the Rothschilds and got them to be- | come responsible for the banks paper, | thereby enabling it to resume business.
 Bell, besides his other multifarious bus mess connections, was also the quick silver magnate of the Pacific coast,
 controlling as he did the New Almaden. | the New Idria and the Standard quick l silver mines. He was also the owner l of the Triumfo silver mine near San l Bias, Mexico, and when his estate is
 settled it will be found that he owns
 mining properties in many parts of the | country. It was Bell who built the l Central American railroad, which runs | from Guatemala, and which he sold some four years ago to syndicate.
 In the earlier days of Bells life in Call 1 ifornia he made the acquaintance of l Theresa Percy, whom he afterwards
 married. Miss Percy's maid was the we'll known Nanny Pleasant, who is still with her as a companion, and who was the staunch friend of Sarah AL | thea Hill in the celebrated Sharon di-
 vorce case Nanny Pleasant to-day is
 still the advisor of Thomas Bells wid-
 ow, and the purveyor to Sarah Althea
 Hill who is in the Stockton Asylum for | the Insane,
 | The several millions of dollars left by
 Thomas Bell have been tied up for years George Staake and John W. E. l Maxwell, the old friends of the de- | ceased who acted as executors, having
 to fight collateral branches of the fam
 fly, who disputed the legitimacy of the
 six children Mrs Bell claimed as the
 fruit of their marriage.
 In addition to this, Frederick Bell, the young man who, like his father fell l over the banister and has been at the l point of death ever since, became of
 age a few months ago, and has bean de-
 manding his right to sixth part of the
 millions his father left.
 It goes without saying that Fred Bell
 has not been on good terms with his | mother for many years. In fact he | left her house In Octavia and Bush l streets at the time she drove all the
 children away during moment of an-
 ger and subsequently, called them back
 again few days later. But Frederick
 preferred to remain away entirely, and
 when the old bachelors home Of his
 father at 1,107 Bush street was rented
 out by Nanny Pleasant the latter withheld one room for the young mans
 use. It was in this house that the boy l duplicated the accident that bafell his i father in the house of silence"