The Saint Paul globe., 1897-09-26


,,on,ense tracts of timber land, great
lumber interests in Michigan, hne q
steamboats,, the largest plant Ior ln
manufacture of iron east OF the su7-
a,Iahanna and a big block OF New
Yorlx Central railway stock that ran
wav whose engines move IKE con-
tinuous chain of buckets carrying
wealth to the Vanderbiits.
Erastus Corning, the younger, dying,
leaves an estate $125,000 in debt.
It is extremely interesting to STUDY
the life of this younger Erastus corn
ing, lately dead His frlends caile1
him a prince. He was prodlg@l
nrince. He seemed to have no idea OF
the value of money except that it was
made to spend. That is the stranger
because he was not of mushroom plrtn
lie came of good old revolutionary
stock. and. further back, of Puritan
stock an,oc,1
He traced his ancestry to Samuel,
better known as Ensign Corning,
one Of the first settlers in Massa-
chusetts. whose name was enrolled on
The records of Beverley, in the old Bay
state. as early as 1641. His grand
father was Bliss Corning, a native OF
Preston, Conn, who served In the Kew
olutionary war.
This prodigal Erastus Corning was
we'll educated, too. He studied at Col
lege Hill, Poughkeepsie, and then at
Union college, Schenectady. When he
was twenty-five years old, that is in
1852. he was admitted to the firm of
Corning & Co., and also to the Albany
Iron works.
He was a good business man-but he
did not attend to business. Instead of
4hn n1~Y1jn
and adding to them he scattered them
layishly. At his fathers death, early
in the '70's, the entire estate and all
the personal property passed into the
hands of the young Erastus. Then II
was that his friends began to call him
a prince His expenditures would
have bankrupted a prince.
Thousands were scattered right and
left. sometimes in a minute. Other
thousands were lent and yet others
given in charity.
The iron works founded by his father
had been consolidated into one great
firm. Under the younger Erastus
Corning the iron business seemed to
be going on as usual when one day
the price of iron fell. Erastus Corning
lost $SO00,0OO. Not one penny of this
huge sum was ever recovered.
MIGHT HAVE BEEN PRESIDENT
politics Those who knew his secrets
declared that although he was an
amateur. he might have been president
of the United States. He was a Dem
ocrat. He was only water commits
sioner and park commissioner Of AL
bany but in 1880 every Democrat in
the state of New York knew or knew
of Erastus Corning. His purse was
always at the service Of his party.
Now those who declare that he might
have been president Of the United
States base their assertion on the state
ment that at the convention OF 1881
the convention that nominated Grover
Cleveland for governor or New YORK
there were more delegates pledged tt
Erastus Corning than any coalition o.
other delegates could have overcome
Erastus Corning, indeed, was slated fol
the nomination of governor. Up to tht
last moment his friends say, he wa.
determined to accept the nomination
He decided, at the last moment, not Il
take it.
Grover Cleveland was nominated
there was a tidal wave that year
Cleveland was swept into the cover
nor's chair. and the force of his owl
political impetus landed him after
wards in the White house. If Grove
Cleveland, why not Erastus Corning?
CORNING LOVED HIS EASE.
The men who tell these political Sc
crets say, too, that Erastus Corning re
fused the nomination for governor be
cause ne loved his ease. Politics cos
him hundreds of thousands of dollars
but, like his other investments, he ha'
no return from this money. Perhaps n
did not wish it, To have gone prac
tically into politics, to have been NOR
a political fancier, might have interfer
ed with Mr.. Corning's other pleasure
and amusements.
He delighted to entertain. His charm