Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-05-04
0BJECTLESSON INTHRIFT
WHAT A LIFE OF FRUCALlTY HAS
DONE FOR VICTOR WILLIAMS.

Victor Williams, who is reputed to
be worth nearly 100000, 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 recent Wednesday, says
the Syracuse Herald, carrying slung
across his arm well-blacked pair of
cowhide 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 q country bank
vault.
The old capitalist had been on o
collecting tour among the farms of
the mentioned towns, gathering in
the interest on his mortgages and
stuffing it into his bootleg banks, and
coming to Watertown deposited his
gatherings in the vaults of certain of
the city banks, after which he started
out 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
he always carries with hia 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 a 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 a
buckle. His gray hair protrudes
from beneath w-drawn Scotch cap,
and his shrewd and wrinkled visage is
framed with 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 &C.
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 as, a 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 mine 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
and 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 near
Three-Mile Bay, but has by no means
been idle. Periodically he slings his
pair of cowhide boots across his arm
and starts out on a 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
O compromise in any difference which
has arisen between himself and his
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 he
| dEIifoS Nv bu0 tuu vi llo uCCuululdbluS,
none of his friends has the remotest
idea. He never married, his entire
attention having always been concen-
trated upon the accuK hlation of
wealth, and he has but few living rel
atives. 1t is said by those most fa-
miliar with the eccentric old man that
it is his purpose to set apart the
greater part of his wealth for the
building and endowing of an agricul-
tural college, to be located near
Watertown, while others maintain that
the building of an industrial school,
such as that erected by the benef-
cence of the late Thomas S. Clarkson,
at Potsdam, is his cherished object.
To kinsman he is said to have once
stated that he would set aside GER
tain sum to erect monument, which
should be surmounted by q figure
copied after himself, bearing slung
across the arm pair of boots. To
another friend here he is alleged to
have once said that more than $780,
600 has passed through his bootleg