Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-02-27
THE L

sion. big enough for a hotel. and the
ground upon which 1t stands is worth
so much that Mr.. Foraker must nave had
TO cover it with dollar bills when he
bought it. 1t will take another fortune
10 furnish II. and 1t is a house that any
millionaire would be proud TO OWL Its
location, however, is not the luckiest. All
around 1t stand mansions which are now
OF departed greatness. A couple
of squares below II Is the brick house
which Senator Window built on Scott
circle. long before he was made secretary
of the treasury. Window, you know, start
ed life as a tailor, studied law and finally
became a great statesman. When he was
in the senate he built this house. and
during his next campaign for reelection
some of his opponents distributed photo
graphs of 1t over the state of Minnesota
and questioned how a man who was once
so poor could make enough to build it.
The result was his defeat, although 1
doubt not that every cent of the money
put into the house was honestly made.
About midway between the old Window
mansion and Senator Foraker's new house
is the palatiai structure which "Secor"
Robson built when he was secretary of
the navy You remember the scandals
corrected with his administration. He left
Washington a comparatively poor man., and
the house was for a long time a drug
on the market. Then Bourke Cochran
bought it, only to drop out of public life
here when he hxd just come to be known.
Within a rifles shot of Foraker's house is
the mansion which once belonged to the
late Senator Van Wyck, of Nebraska. A
photograph of it was circulated among
his constituents and brought him to ruin,
as far as his political prospects were con-
cerned. During James G. Blaine's cam
paign a photograph of his house on Du-
pont circle was generally distributed over
the United States, and. in fact. the day
seems to have come when the building
OF political ruin. AT any rate. it takes
q strong man to carry the burden, and /
wonder II Foraker will ever sit in his
parlor. as the late Senator Stockbridge.
is said to have done, and long for a par
rot. When Stockbridge had made his pile.
he built a homestead at Kalamazoo which
about half of that amount in furniture.
and then. plain and simple man that he
was, sat down to enjoy it. He had. how
ever, no appetite for gorgeousness. and one
day when a friend of his had gone with
him over the house and was looking, with
amazement. at the evidences of his pros
II am glad you like it, Jim. l think my
self 1t is very fine of the kind. but there is
only NIX G parr 5hlns rep 5heS' the / w v,aito a p?aF A par
rot, ~stockbridge! What on earth do you
want with a parrot"
"Pll tell you. Jim" said ~Stockbridge, in
a whisper SO low that the ladies in the
next room should not hear it. II want a
parrot to sit on a perch. over that door and
say every time l come in. Here comes the
ID fool that built this shanty,'"
Poor Once, but Now, Oh. My!
Still Senator Foraker passed his boyhood
in a log cabin. You have heard the ira
dition of his coffee sack trousers. and the
story of how. by pure brains and nerve.
he is now a broadcloth United States SEN
ator with apparently money to burn. i
know Of a score of public men who started
life poor boys. and who now live in pal
nHac SaCrafarv AlDgr was horn in a % him
worked for 81 n month. and for n time
lived upon thickened milk and cornmeal.
lie has a magnificent home in Detroit. and
has rented a house here near the corner of
Sixteenth and II streets. for which he pays