The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-07-08
FORTUNES THROWN AWAY.
Men OF Ainions Are Often Greatly
Ovegrated.
when They DIE the Sun Total 81
Their Wealth II FouAd to Be
Smaller Than Report
Has Made 1t.


$7,OO0,O0O. For years he had been
city. I hear now, by way of Atlanta,
that he left practically nothing; that
his fortune was diminished enormously
in disastrous speculation in the two
years Immediately preceding his death.
Sam Inman, the head of the big cotton
house in Atlanta, complained two years
ago that he had done all for John that
he could afford to do; that he had sent
him 5000 1000, and didn't intend to put up
any more. The Inmans have handled
as many as 5000 bales of cotton an
nually.
1t is the talk of Atlanta that Inman
committed suicide. People no longer
speak of it in whispers, but openly.
know that he ate himself to death.
He was the most omnivorous of men.
and thought he had the stomach of an
ostrich. Like Brignoli, he could eat
Z dozen chops at a sitting and repeat
the performance within an hour. Not
withstanding his prodigious capacity
for food, he never was obliged to wear
an abdominal supporter. His physique
was in no sense a bon-vivant; simply
Rastronome-an Apicius. If required
to answer the old question: do you
live to eat or eat to live 2" he would have
said: II live to eat" He taxed his
stomach to the utmost, destroyed the
mechanism, and died at the early age
Of So.
Are the great fortunes of our pluto
Gratis dwindling? Are we not giving
them too high a rating? We thought
Ogden Goelet worth at the very least
men placed his fortune at $4,000, 900;
!. yet it dwindled to less than $1O,OO0,O00.
The $3O,OOO,OOO of "Spite-house" Rich
ardson dropped to 100000 as soon as
it struck the courthouse. George NJ.
Pullman was supposed to be worth
every cent of S5O,OOO,00O. Immediately
after his death $25,OOO,O00 was the fig
ure; but the latest reports named ST.
100000 as the value of the estate. How
is this? Can it be that we are far
wrong in placing the fortune of John
D. Rockefeller at $200,0OO,O00? Will it
dwindle to $5O,0OO.OOO when he shufaes
of? Is Gen. Sam Thomas, a partner
of Cal Brice and Inman, worth 100000
600? doubt it. What is Cal. worth
His is about the only fortune that no
one tries to estimate From the way
he flies around he must have big money.
Who can tell whether Uncle Coils
Pacific Huntington is worth 100000
or $50, 1000, 900? What is Flagler's for
tune-$1OOOO,0O or $75,OO0,0OO? Is it
possible that James B. Colgate is worth
$40, OOO,O 900? No? Is John E. Andrus
worth $3O,OOo,0oO? 1 think not. Is
j. Jennings McComb worth $50, OOO, 900?
Where did he get it? Is Charles T.
Tiffany worth $3O,O0o,O00? That is his
rating. And there are John D. Arch
bold, whose fortune is estimated at
$4,000, 900; r. E. Hopkins with $5,0O0,-
600; Asphalt AMI Longeye Barber with
$2s,OOO.OOO, John T. Terry with $3O,0O0,-
900; William Rockefeller with $sO,OO0.-
600, H. Walter Webb with. S., 0OO, 900,
Warren B. Smith with So, 100000, Mrs.
Elliott F. Sheppard with S50,00O,O00,
Cornelius Vanderbilt with $11O,OOO,OOO
Willie K. Vanderbilt with 10000, 900,
Frederick Vanderbilt with SAC, 00O, 900,
George Vanderbilt with $30,OOO,OOO
George Gould with $3O.0OO,O0O, and SO
forth and so on.
The safest way to get at the size of a
mans fortune is take the public esti-
mate and divide it by ten. I generally
find that man who is rated at $40, OOO,-
900 cuts up for about 100000. It is
the custom in this day and generation
to converse in millions. We account q
man poor who has no more than 81, OOO,-
600. He is between the devil of enter
tainment and the deep sea of financial
stress-too well off to be parsimonious
and too poor to trot heats with the
Croesuses. He cannot afford $4,000
for dinner and reception without feel
ing it. It is so easy to talk millions
that we invariably use the word in the
plural.
Our popular estimate of the fortunes
of our richest men reminds me of Maine.
Up in the state of the pine tree and the
foxes we find great many miles to
the mile, a great deal of water to the
gallon, a tremendous amount of air in
the atmosphere, and a powerful sight
of mountains to the hill. And so with
the fortunes down here-there are q
great many millions to the Million
Our bitny Ids t.eeII -. -.
troubled with collie and cholera inia.
tum since his hiith. and all that We
could do fer him did not seem to give
more tina iCm mrary relief, until We
tried Cham ne, ia IN g COlIf Cholera and