The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-01

mere gold, if piled sufficiently high, is
calculated to make even a king stare,
and kings set the fashion nowadays If
they do nothing else.
Is William Waldorf AstOr's character
worth analyzing? Maybe it is and
maybe it isn't, but it may give some
sport to try the experiment. If there is
anything in heredity we might go back
of the man and see what sort of stock
he came from. His ancestors were
pretty good people. His great-great-
grandfather was democrat who
didn't like titles. He was, like Shakes
peare'S father, a good butcher, who
earned an honest living and brought
his son up in the narrow path. That
son, John Jacob, came to America
more than a century ago, and got rich
SHINING weasels. Careful investment
In Manhattan Island real estate did the
rest. So that on the score of ancestry
William Waldorf Aston will pass. The
United States was good enough for
John Jacob and for William Black
stone, and for the other John Jacob.
Why is it not good enough for William
Waldorf? Just because, it would ap-
pear, William Waldorf could not
force its people to see in him anything
but a man overwhelmed with the
wealth that other people created II
the people had only given him those
who were poor, made him a senator,
a congressman, or even president, he
would not today be subject Of Queen
Victoria. And if he is a subject Of
Queen Victoria, the people of the
United States can blame themselves
alone. 1t is their fault.
Mr.. Astor is not yet fifty. Hei is
graduate of a law school. But he never
practiced law. He wanted to be
great man, and to be a great lawyer
one must have genius and one must
work. Mr.. Astor had no genius and did
not like work Why work when you
can buy? Indeed, he was in an I'M
fortunate position. The three avenues
to greatness defined in the letter to
MalvOliO were shut out from him. He
had not been born great; he could not
achieve greatness, and those who had
greatness to thrust on people passed
him by with stony stare. Mr.. Astor
is not a silly man. He is not fop, he
is not a feather-brain. He is even
above the average. He is cultured,
gentle-hearted, able in many ways and
a scholar But he is not great He
found that to win the plaudits of men
he must do something Of himself that
is better than most good men can do.
No one could win athletic honors for
him in the great tourney Of life. He
must win them himself or go without.
And to give him credit, he tried to
win them. But his efforts were half
hearted.
Too deep and too serious to estimate
the baubles Of merely brilliant social
life at more than their real worthless
nesss, he early despised society and
sought for a part in the forces that
move the great mass of humanity. He
longed to be q world power, and he ran
for congress. The gamut spread itself
out before him. Congress, governor,
senate, president, history. 70 make
the name Of Astor illustrious was his
wish, and in this respect he is the
greatest Of. his line. But the gods
frowned upon him. He ran for con-
gress He mingled with the people.
He felt the rude paws Of labor He
tipped glasses at Bowery bars He
smelled the stale Cdors in the kens and
the tree Of New York politics. The
fruit hung to his hand to be plucked.
and he was fired with big desire. He
flung his money away to the herds as
If it hurt his hands, and he burrowed
in the damp cellars and the sewers of
society. But the effort was vain. The
apples were just beyond his reach, and
he sank back weak and Disguised from
the race. The people gave the place to
some man whose income would be his
salary
That cured him OF politics. What
could he try now? Art? No; art was a
mistress that had to be wooed for her
own sake. Then, he was too Old Idtera-
ture? Yes. Thousands had made names
IN ifterature--by happy strokes of luck.
In that back yard Of letters. where all
failures elsewhere are heaped up, there