The record-union., 1898-01-27
SPENT A GREAT FORTUNE.

Stteub
Would it be hard, think you, to spend
a million dollars year? Say, roughly
$4,000 a day. The task would stagger
the average man when he sat down TO
think It out. 1t might be easy for a
year, for two years, for five years.
But to spend at that rate for twenty
hve years? 1t has been done. The
man Who did it died month ago. He
was FL astus Corning, Jr.
Not many years ago the municipal
Board Of Assessors for the city Of AL
bany We're in session in the City Hail.
They had prepared elaborate tax lists,
and were awaiting objections from
those who felt that their wealth
had been overestimated. Before
them came man whom they
knew well, but they were sure
he was not seeking a reduction.
He was Parker Corning, the head of
the Coming estate. Once it had been
a vast institution, but in the years it
had dwindled pitifully. They knew this,
and very carefully they had estimated
it as taxable at SS1, 900. Perhaps Mr..
Corning wished to tell them of some
property overlooked.
He spoke to the Assessors in a low
voice, and they looked at him in amaze
ment.
"Gentleman, 1 cannot pay this tax.
i am ready to make affidavit that the
estate does not touch this valuation
The Assessors said nothing. There
was nothing to say. Silently they
handed him a printed form, which he
filled out and made oath to. Then he
went quietly away 1t was a matter
of record that the Corning estate was
not worth taxing. 1t was a memory
only. Yet twenty-five years ago that
estate was valued at more than S12,-
600, 900. one of the largest in the State,
solid as a rock, a magnificent monu-
ment TO the energy, thrift and genius
of a business man.
Where had it gone to? A colossal
fortune had melted into thin air IN a
quarter of a century, in less than a
generation. What dissipated it?
The answer is astounding in it's sim
plicity. One man spent it, Twenty
FIVE years ago Erastus Corning, Jr.,
came into possession of 10000, 900 He
died intestate a month ago, leaving not
enough to raise a tax on. The money
slipped away at the rate of a million a
year for at only per cent interest
an amount Will double itself in that
time. The estate was making more
profit than that
Old Erastus Corning, a hard-headed,
honest business man. built this fortune
with his own hands. At his death, in
the early l0s, it was unencumbered
and vigorous. for an immense fortune
like this can suffer from debility There
IS a financial dry rot that is as fatal
as cancer. This estate had life and
health. The holdings were in bank
stock, in gilt-edged railroad securities,
in valuable timber tracts in Michigan.
and principally in the great Albany and
Rensselaer, iron and steel works a
rival Of the Carnegie plant and the
largest east of the Susquehanna
II blood and training amount to any,
thing there was never man better fitted
for making this wealth roll upon itself
than Erastus Corning, Jr He came of
keen old Puritan stock, an ancestor be-
ing Ensign Corning, one of the first
settlers of Massachusetts. He was born
in Albany in 1897, and educated at
College Hill, Poughkeepsie and Union
College, Schenectady. Then, when %
years old, he was admitted to the firm
of Corning & Co, where, under the
keen eye of his father he was to learn
TO handle that mighty fortune. He
learned in way of his own.
But there was something wrong. The
faculty for gathering, so strong in the
father, in the son became a faculty for
scattering. He developed fads A mill
ionaire can afford fads, but not too
many. The younger Corning had many.
Among them We're orchids, prize cattle.
model farms, politics. social entertain
ments, dazzling display, almost indis-
eliminating generosity, and a wide
spreading charity. Amid such things
how could business instinct thrive? It
was choked in its growth.
Through 1t all the father who had
toiled his life away to gather his pile
of wealth, lost not his faith in his son.
Whatever he thought of his course,
he made no sign. The son, il should
be observed, was not a young man AT
the time Of his fathers death he was
10 years old. Into the hands Of this
mature man fell S12, ,000, 900
The fads seemed to break loose then.
In the green house the display of or
chids grew. From every cline came
priceless specimens, whose perfume and
color and form this strange man loved
above all else. His collection was IA
nous all over the country. He owned
500 varieties, every one a prize They
cost money, naturally. One million of
the twenty-five, it is estimated, was
spent on them
The hiss and bubble of politics at
tracted him, and he poured out money
TO see it melt in the whirl And in this
he came nearest to his reward Wise
old politicians viii tell you that Erastus
Corning might have been President of
the United States. He at least had q
grand chance to become Governor CT
New York
In the convention Of 1881. say these
S@SsasachsvEsAskxN .