Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-05-18
Obj ECTLESSON IN THRIFT
NHAT A LIFE OF FRUCALlTY HAS
DONE FOR VICTOR WILLIAMS.

de is an Eccentric Old Capitalist in New
York State-Deals in Farm Mortgages
Principally - His Famous Bootleg
Banks-Disposition of His Wealth.
Victor Williams, who is reputed to
be worth nearly 5000, 900, and whose
mortgages, leases and contracts
blanket many farm in the towns of
Lyme, Lorraine and Cape Vincent,
walked into Watertown from Three
Mile Bay, where he lives with a
nephew and "does chores for his
BOARD" on a recent Wednesday, says
The Syracuse Herald, carrying slung
across his arm well-blscked pair of
,owhide boots, in which were slowed
away big rolls of greenbacks, aggre-
eating many thousands of dollars, be-
sides other securities rivaling in value
The contents of many country bank
vault.
The old capitalist had been on q
collecting tour among the farms of
;he mentioned towns, gathering in
The interest on his mortgages and
,tufing it into his bootleg banks, and
,oming to Watertown deposited his
gatherings in the vaults of certain of
the city banks, after which he started
put to walk back to the farm, leaving
early that he might reach home in
time to take care of the farmers
stock.
In appearance the old man, who
must have passed his eightieth birth
day, is suggestive of anything but a
capitalist, as his cowhide boots, which
be always carries with him on his
trips, are suggestive of anything but
the repositories of money and secur
tiles. He wears, winter and summer,
a well patched pair of brown denim
overalls stuffed into pair of long
legged rubber boots, while his faded
coat is belted around his stopped
and bent body by piece of clothes
line with an iron ring in lieu of q
buckle. His gray hair protrudes
from beneath low drawn Scotch cap,
and his shrewd and wrinkled visage is
framed with a fringe of gray beard.
His eyes, in spite of his eighty years,
are as keen as hawks, and he never
for an instant allows his glance to
wander from his bootleg banks.
This little, bent and shabbily
dressed man has made every cent of
his wealth by industry, frugality and
strict economy, and every penny Of
his possessions has been honestly ac-
cumulated. He was born on little,
rocky farm near the Burnt Rock
schoolhouse, in the town of Lyme,
some eighty years ago, and after at
tanning his majority worked for
neighboring farmers in summer and
taught district schools in winter for
several years, but evidently gave up
welding the birch and spent his life
up to few years ago asa farm hand
in unremitting toll, often working in
the field for the scant wages of the
"hired man" on farms he could have
owned in his own name simply by
foreclosing the mortgage he held
thereon and which reposed in his cow
hide boots.
AS he received his board and got
his washing and mending" done
gratuitously on the farms where he
toiled, he was. able to save nearly
every cent of his wages. The first
dollar earned by him he. still keeps,
and has kept ninety-nine out of every
one hundred, he says, earned since.
Like many another man, he found
that the hardest struggle was to save
the first $1,000. Since that was saved
Rnd its interest commenced to pile up,
the rest, he says, has been easy.
A few years ago he gave working
among the farmers for wages, and has
since lived with his nephew neal
Three Mile Bay, but has by no means
been idle. Periodically he sings his
pair of cowhide boots across his arm
and starts out ON collecting tour
taking along his papers and making
new leases and contracts as occasion
requires. He has never. it is said
paid lawyer cent, always securing
compromise in any difference which
has arisen between himself and hi!
tenants. AS he owns no farms in his
own name, only holding mortgages
etc., he is little bothered by the tax
gatherer. He is said to have very de
cided opinions regarding the income
tax law and the taxation of mortgages
just what disposition Victor Will
liams will make of his wealth when hi
arrives at the end of his accommodating
none of his friends has the remotest
idea. He never married, his entire
attention having always been concen
trated upon the accumulation Of
wealth, and he has but few living rel
atives. 1t is said by those most fa
miliar with the eccentric old man thai
It is his purpose to set apart the
greater part of his wealth for tn,
building and endowing of an agricul
tural college, to be located neal
Watertown, while others maintain tina
the building of an industrial school
such as that erected by the benefi
cence of the late Thomas s. Clarkson
1t Potsdam, is his cherished object
To kinsman he is said to have once
stated that he would set aside q Ger
lain sum to erect monument, which
uhould ha surmouptod bv q frnr