The Irish standard., 1896-03-07
A MODERN MONTE CRlSqO
The Story Of Boss Shepherd, the
Once Much Abused rlan ;.
of Washington.
Began Life the Poorest of the Poor
and Is Now a Multi
Millionaire.
His Genius Laid the Foundation
For the Nation s Magni-
ficent Capital.

The man who made washington thu
most beautiful capital in the world il
spending the winter here, writes Franz
G. Carpenter from Washington. He~too}
the city when it was a mud hole. Wher
he left it it llad~more than 100 miles c.
beautiful! streets, shaded by over 10,00i
trees and over s250Oo 900 had been spen
upon it's improvement. l refer to Gov
ernor Alexander r. Shepherd.
When he first took charge of the public
works here he was worth S25O,OO0 Hf
had begun life without a cent, but at 5:
he had made a quarter of a million, and
he then had an income of from $25, ,0ot
to $4,000 year He remained in pub
lie life for seven years. When he left il
he found himself more than S1,000,D0t
in debt, and with assets hardly equal
to his liabilities. His creditors did not
press him, but he saw that it would be
uphill work making money in Washing
ton, and he left and went to Mexico to re-
trieve his fortunes For the past II
years he had been living in the noun
tajns in the northern part OF our sis
ter republic. He has found in the Chi
hauhau mines a treasure equal to that OF
the famed cave of Monte Christie, and he
now comes back, prospectively one of the
(. richest men of the world,
The story of Governor Shepherds car
eer is most interesting. I chatted with
him about it last night. Said he:
!. 81 was born here in Washington. My
! ''er died when I was II years old. He
some property, but owing to bad
administration, my mother got none Of
it, and she had to open a boarding house
to pay her expenses. When I was II
years old began my life as a carpenters
apprentice, and 1 learned two trades
within the next six years. | did not like
carpenter work and I gave it up because
one Of my employers could not appreci,
ate my ability At least thought he did
net You see, got up early every morn,
ing to make the fires for mother One
morning she was not we'll, and had also
to get breakfast. The result was that
did not get started to work until about
1880 o'clock. It was nearly mile from
the lumber yard to the house which we
were building. | had to carry lot OF
boards on my back from the yard to the
house This took me some time and it
was s o'clock when l got there. l. went
to work at once mailing on clapboards.
l remember was on the ladder pounding
away when my employer, a sQueaky-
voiced Jew, screeched out scolding at
me for being SO late. He said | was lazy
and would never amount to anything.
He said 1t, too, in such way that it
at him. and told him I would have moth
Ibid you hit him." I asked.
'sNo." replied Governor Shepherd, "but
stopped work. The hatchet came very
near him, and don't think he wanted 10
hold me- The result was that l lett car
penter work. The next thing I got into
was plumbing establishment i
learned the trade and soon became a
partner in the business. l atterwarl
bought out my other partner. | then
turned my attention to building houses
and investing in real estate. 1t was not
hard to make money then, it seemed
to me, and the day was 35 had made
about $250,O00. and had an income OF
about $4,000 a year"
"How did you happen to take charge OF
the improvement Of Washington? /
asked
"It came IRON the talk of moving the
capital west to st. Louis. I was inter
esied in Washington City and l wantc1
the capital kept there. You can hardly
; appreciate the condition of this city at
that time. It had bad reputation in
many parts of the north. The people
we're fiisgnsted with the disloyalty that
existed here during the war. After the
war ended we had a carpet-bag govern
ment, and negroes were employed in
cleautng the cutters With knives ten men
not doing the work Of one man, and each
getting 81 a day. The streets We're mud
holes. and ali sorts Of dirt was thrown
out into them. The government was pay
Ing no taxes, to speak of, and in seventy
years, out of about s16,000,000 which was
spent for the improvement Of the capital.
Uncle Sam had paid less than $4,000, 900.
This was the case, notwithstanding the
government had agreed at the tine they
made Washington the capital city to pay
llS .SlldtS " tuS CdASS. II hdi ItGSlFEt ltl9
fee simple title to all the streets for moth
ing, and it had gotten every alternate
lot, receiving all told about SIS per cent
OF the property of Washington. thought
that the government ought to pay at least
halt Of the taxes. and that it ought to
aM in the improvement of the city.
did not think the capital ought to be re-
s<moved, and / devoted myself TO keeping
II here and to its improvement. In order
to do this resolution for new govern
n1ent had TO be pushed through congress.
We organized committee for the pur-
pose, and we spent great deal of money
We, finally succeeded. and Washington,
fer a time had territorial government,
with board Of public works appointed by
the President General Grant was then
In the White House. He made me the
chief Of this board. and we began our
work of improving the streets. We kept
3tt up several years, spending all told more
tslan $25. .O00. 600, and making Washington
the beautiful city it is.
sS5$ & In the meantime my business went to
Dieces. and { awoke to find that | had less
thsn $2, coo, 900 of assets and $1,000, 900
q (indeLtednsss NV cred itoTs allowed me