The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-25
THE POOR flILLIONAIRES.
Very Rich Men In California Who Don't SQuander
Money.


f Tenn, and has a block of first mort
l. gage bonds on the Northern Pacifi
: railroad His hobby is writing lei
ters, and he writes long ones, so as I
get all the weight that a 2-cent STAN
: will carry. He corresponds constantl
with New York and Chicago capitalist
| about profitable investments in stock
. and bonds.
HIS ONLY EXTRAVAGANZA
The richest man in Los Angelo
county-if not in all southern Califor
} nia-is Louis Phillips Every day
81 Sundays and all, he may be seen dliv
ing from his plain brick house at TIL
little old Mexican hamlet of Spadr.
to Pomona, an old farm horse tina
would be dear at $40, and riding in
rattletrap Dhaeton that did service
generation ago. He is not a worke
now that he has passed his seventietl
year, but he is as economical as tn
laborers along the highway His de
light is in playing a Mexican gam
Of pedro for cigars at some public
place in Pomona or Los Angeles
he wins a half dozen nickel cigars il
the course of a mornings or after.
Moons gaming his pleasure is great
If, however, he loses three straigh
games of pedro he will trifie no j)ngel
with fortune, and no one can induce
him to risk a few dimes more of his
millions in such prodigality. He goes
out and soon is jogging back home in
his old phaeton.
Phillips has an income of about S16-
600 a month. His family expenses are
not more than $4,000 year. He owns
some of the most profitable business
| property in Los Angeles; he own 1900
| acres of fertile soil in the San Gabriel
and Pomona valleys, and he has whole
issues of school and municipal bonds.
! He never buys less than $4,000 worth
! Of bonds at time. He came TO Cali
fornia. from Bavaria in 1857, and was
a va0uero for the rich Mexican cattle
men of this region. The city of Po-
mona, with its 5000 population. is To-
Gated in the heart of a ranch that
Phillips got for $3.50 an acre 80 years
ago.
He has never been out of California
since he came here raw German lad
He is good natured man, and laugh
inglv saws that all the fun he wants If
life is to play pedro for the cigars, and
be sure of his fortune until he is
through with life.
A curious combination of energy and
pinching economy is found in Alonzo
Myers, the wheat king of Oregon. His
bookkeeper was forced during one of
his employers cases in court a few
years ago. to produce the Ledger of
Myers. Everyone was surprised to
learn that Myers was worth some
50, 200, 900. and enjoying an income of
more than $500, eco year.
NEVER SPENT A CENT FOR BOOKS.
Myers cannot read or writer and he
boasts that he never spent an idle hour
or cent in his life on books or news
papers. He believes that reading is a
species of loafing. and idleness and IN
rardonable sin. He is nearly So years
old. He was a eobbler in San Fran
cisco in 1856 and 1858 He slept along
side his bench at night and cooked his
own meals from the cheapest odds and
ends of meat he could buy, and the
stalest bread he could get at the bak-
err s. His brother was making poor
success with a ranch in southern Ore
gon and could not repay loan he had
from the cobbler So Alonzo went TO
him, walking 600 miles across the
mountains. He reached Oregon in
three weeks. and became a farmer. For
more than % years he worked II hours
many times "a hours-out of the "a.
The brother tried to keep up with
AlonZo as "a worker. but it killed him
after a half dozen years. AlonZo bought |
adjacent ranches, specialized in wheat |
which his neighbors. who lived better |
and enjoyed life more, had. to sell very |
cheap. He is one of the poorest dressed |
men to be seen on the streets of Port
land or San Francisco. He wears |
straw hat for three years at time. and |
then he buys the cheapest and most
durable hat, no matter how it looks.
or how ancient the style. He makes his
biennial purchases of clothing at sec
ond- hand clothing store. His home is
on the outskirts of Albany, Ore, where
he has some 5000 acres of beautiful
wheat land He lives alone in weather
wheat land. He lives alone in
ram Shackle, old one
story building. There are but three
rooms in it, and each is furnished with
only the barest necessaries. dry
goods box serves as a dining table,
and newspapers are the curtains at
he windows. Not dollar for improve
nents has been spent in years. The
I'D man rises at a. m. the year round.
Ie.sis easier with himself nowadays
md takes an hour or two more COM
ort in bed than when he was making
lis fortune. A ranch hand comes in
It daybreak, and he and the old man
-et breakfast The expense of the
anch laborer's board is thereby saved. !
But it is such poor board that very ]
ew men will stay with Alonzo Myers {
nd endure the diet for longer than /
eW months. ne CUES 10 the OdHh,
ellis his bookkeeperS what they must I
o, and hears their reports. He listens !
o the business letters that come to 4
i'm. and directs the answers to them. h
lie can sign his name, but that is O
II he can do in writing and reading. \
very few weeks he has business {
l San Francisco and Portland. In the j
tiles he patroniZes the 25-cent lodging {
ouses and 10-cent lunch counters. T
ust as soon as he can get away from
is business he starts for home, SO
TO cut off the expenses incurred while
way. He knows c. P. Huntington,
ne Pacific coast railroad magnate, S
reU. and last winter when he had
ONE important business to discuss q
18th Mr. Huntington, he astonished all
no knew him by spending a quarter r
or bath and in buying a so suit of -
lothes before going to the railroad c
residents office. The very next day,
owever Myers started for Albany I
ressed in his grimy, faded and torn Il
ld-tinle garments, and with his new
Tit in bundle under his arm. The
liter will never be worn except on
tate occasions. I
What will become of Myers large n
,rtune when he has passed into that
fe where dollars and cents are of no Z
vail is a matter of perennial discus
on among the host of people who
ave observed how two millions have
cen accumulated through 40 years of
Dor and scrimping. u
LIVES A SHEPHERDS LIFE.
The newspapers in southern Califor- Il
ia will lose many an interesting sub
ct when Calvin G. Eastwood dies. He
. opd l. tho ou-ra,. Of ,~,ora