The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-19

from the shop or store, their present
possessors having had no share in their
building.
X With the Astors and Vanderbilts the
tendency for several generations has
been to leave at least two-t thirds of
the money to the son most apt to keep
1t, while all the heirs have been pro-
hibited from willing any part of their
wealth ITO any but their immediate de-
scendants. Commodore Vanderbilt,
who accumulated the first Vanderbilt
million, was born a little over a CEN
tury ago His capital in life was that
energy and pluck which is supposed to
be all required here in America to send
al man to the top round of the ladder of
fortune. BY the time he was 16 years
age he had saved 500. This money he
invested in a small sloop and went into
Business for himself-the transportation
Of farm produce from Long Island to
New York.
He nalTled young, and man and wife
both turned meney-makers. He sailed
his boat while she ran a hotel. A few
years later and he was fairly prosper
Gus, according to the modest standard
of the times; he was worth $4,000.
Half century later and his fortune
was estimated at $40, 600, 900; but he had
one sorrow. His friends never heard
him speak of his eldest son, William H.
Vanderbilt, who was counted lazy and
stupid. He had reached middle life when
he surprised his father by doing him
out of half a million dollars in "a single
speculation. Three months afterward
he was in full control of the Wander
bilt millions, and within eight years
from the time of his fathers death had
doubled his inheritance. When he died
he left an estate of 5000, 600, 900 to his
children He was the last financial
genius Of the family; his sons have
bean simply well trained business men
who have handled capably what came
3 to them Some idea of the magnitude
iaof the railway system they control may
SSbe gotten when it is said they furnish
work to almost one million people, and
.efther directly or indirectly support
three times that number. 1t has been
admitted that over $1,000 miles of rail-
road are managed by them, that the
practical mastery of over 10000 miles of
road is theirs, and that the capitaliza-
ton of these roads is nearly equal to
the national debt of the United States
The Astor riches owe their existence
ITO the ability of one man and the nat
ura1 development of the country. John
Jacob Astor was the only man in four
generations who possessed the wealth.
getting genius. He was a real money
maker. This money as he made it was
iuVGSteu III New Dfk city real estate.
The growth of the city changed his
modest fortune of the last century into
one of the greatest fortunes of the
present century. He quit work in his
fathers butcher shop in Waldorf about
LA years ago and set his
face toward the new world.
On the ship that bore him
thither was fur trader who gave him
an insight into the tricks of his trade.
Parha nc ha hey ~ tynl ;,,
this trade that induced the young emf
grant to take it up. At any rate, he be-
came dealer in furs ana prospered.
Then he married Sarah Todd, thrifty
young woman, and this energetic cou-
pie had a quarter of a million dollars Is
years later. A fortunate deal in United
states bonds made it half a million,
every cent of which went into land on
Manhattan island. John Jacob died in
1S4S, and his son doubled his Inherit
anee by letting it alone, and his eldest
son, who got the bulk of the fortune.
kept to the family policy to be always
a buyer of New York real estate rather
than seller. The aggregate riches Of
the Astors are now said to be in the
neighhorhood of half a billion dollars.
The genius of the Havemeyer family
was Frederick c. Havemeyer whose
father was junior partner in the firm of
w. & F. c. Havemeyer, sugar refiners
in Vandam street When he entered his
fathers shop to master the trade of SUI
gar making the firm was producing
about 600 900 pounds of sugar a year,
and employing eight or nine men. The
entire product was sold at retail and
the Havemeyers, father and son, waited
on customers and helped in refining
They We're at the shirtsleeve stage of
the game. Frederick c., however, as
pired to be something more than man
shopkeeper who dealt in sugar by the
pound, and sticky molasses by the
quart or gallon. In 1855 he established
the firm of Havemeyer, Townsend &
Co, and built in Williamsburg the first
of the collection of immense buildings
afterward known the world over as the
refineries of Havemeyer & Elder, and
paved the way for his son, H. o. Have
meyer, to organize the gigantic sugar
trust
The average American admires cour-