The record-union., 1897-09-17
OGDEN GOELET.
WORTH S1OO,OOO,OOO AND DIED
OF STARVATION.
Not Able to Take Amy Solid Food
and Science Gould Not
Save Him.

( by ogden GOelet. Try to imagine Wndt
those figures mean. Think of the land,
/ buildings. rentals, coupons, bonds,
mortgages, horses, yachts, jewels, they
may represent. With a hundred mil
/ lions man should move mountains
and buy countries. There should be no
I comfort, no luxury on the whole wide
earth that should not be his.
! Starvation.
/ What a formidable word. 1t sug-
/ gests all that is frightful and cruel
/ hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, waning
! strength, tottering limbs, living
death. hopelessness, despair.
/ And what must be the irony of fate
when it perpetrates the horrible jest
which forces a man worth one hun
dred millions to starve to death?
| ogden Goelet, one of the richest men
in the United States, a man who sup
ped with princes and who was able to
give feasts calculated to make all the
old Roman entertainers turn uneasily
in their tombs, multi millionaire, bon
vivant friend of royalty, actually died
from starvation.
True, his disease was not called by
this name. 1t is said he died from a
complication of diseases.
Dr. Dawson, the personal physician
of Mr.. Gcelet, says nothing beyond the
fact that his patient died from a COM
plicarion of diseases; the two Drs
Hoffmeister of Cowes, whose father is
surgeon apothecary to the Queen, and
who carried out the embalming opera
ton with the aid of two other physI-
clans from Ryde, Isle of Wight. We're
equally reticent as to the immediate
cause OF Mr. Goelet's death.
But from reliable sources of informa-
tion the correspondent of the ''World"
in London is able to state the fact that
Mir Goelet died from starvation. His
poor, tmaciated frame was reduced to
the last stages of debility and mani
tion. For months he was utterly un-
able TO digest any solid food, and he
subsisted entirely on minute doses Of
champagne, varied occasionally by
spoonful of champagne jelly.
1t is stated by those to whom these
facts are we'll known that Mr.. Goelet
suffered thus for four years, and that
but fol the unremitting care of his
faithful physician he might have died
at any moment during the period men
toned.
DR.. Dawson devoted day and night
to Mr. Goelet, watching his every
symptom, ready to take alarm at once
and fan the flickeIing flame of life.
This vigilant physician was the only
watcher by the sick mans couch dur
ing the last hours of his life. Mr.. Goe-
let was too i'll to take part in the Law
fsh entertainment offered the Princess
of Wales on board his yacht during
regatta week at Cowes. There was a
brilliant function given-a luncheon
party to her royal highness. The ban
udet was spread in the saloon, the ia
BILE was a mass of glittering plate,
rare flowers and exquisite china. Serv-
ants were hustling here and there put
ting the final touches to the sumptuous
board, when suddenly there tottered
feebly into the saloon the wrath of
the master of all this opulence and
luxury. He surveyed the table with
his pathetic eyes and feebly asked;
What is all this fuss about?'
The mass of the dead mans fortune
will go it is said to his only son.
Young Gcelet is still a lad, about IL
years Of age. He has inherited his
fathers looks, complexion and hair.
He is not a stalwart youth
that the family will not accompany Mr..
Goelet's body to this country. But it
is not now considered good form for
friends or. relatives of one who has
passed away to travel with the body.
So, emblamed by the same process
used in the case of royalty, the dead
man comes back to his native country
alone.
yT%l.. oL,& To- ~fJ<yx h n
scene of many of Mr.. Goelet's social
triumrhs, whereon he had often enter
tanned the Prince of Wales at feasts
that outshone those of Lucullus ana
whereon he sank after untold suffering
after his last sleep, will bring him
back. A strange voyage this. I'm
accompanied save by his sailors, VINO
were devoted to the genial. kindly mas
ter. the dead millionaire comes home.
Millions Of dollars have for him
crumbled to just this-a narrow house
on a lonely craft, adrift in the desc
late Nind-swept waters of the Attain
tic.
One hundred million dollars repre-
sents enormous opportunities. The
power to do things with the money
which young Goelet inherits can
scarcely be grasped. Probably ne
himself fails to realize it. 1t is worth
thinking about.
The latent potentiality of hundred
millions can be measured in various
way. Greater New York's city gov
ernmcDt will expend S75, ,00O,000 in
round year. Young Mr.. Goeled, then,
could carry on all the municipal afalrs
of our new and greater metropolis for
year at his own expense and then
have S25 100000 left.
One hundred millions is the aggre-
gate Of salaries of the Presidents of the
United States (S50,000 a year, for the
next 900 years. Young Mr.. Goelet,
therefore, could, if he chose, set aside
fund large enough to pay all the
Presidents of the Republic from now
on to the year 1897, and still have
trife OF $4,000, 600 left to live on.
The United States Navy costs about
S2S orc coo a year to support. Mr.
Goelet could maintain it as his private
pleasure fleet for a couple of years
and have S44000,O00 to devote to other
objects
He could pay all the cost of the
United States Army, coast defenses and
all the expenditures of the War De-
partmcnt for a year. and use only half
of his fortune in doing it.
Young Goelet could buy the total
output of all the silver mines in this
country for a year and still have $50
000.000 of his vast fortune left He
could buy all the anthracite coal pro-
duced from American mines last year
and still have a balance of S20,0O0,000
at his banker's-NeW York World.
Relics of Rob Roy.