The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-28

~ " h1SSHENI LIt ESS.
10 TIE one who knew the late A. T.
Stewart and Judge Henry Hilton, whose
life has just reached ITS close. it has al
ways lenained q profound mystery why
the former should have handed himself
and his vast fortune over to The control
of the latter. Stewart was indubitahlv
the stronger in character, intellect and
business ability. Hilton was at best a
mediocre man, great neither as LAWYER
nor as 1inancier. He had no personal
qualities which would ordinarily draw to
their possessor any type of man what
ever
1t was tragic illustration which Stew
srt gave 81 the worthIessness of wealth.
He had given his life over to its accumu-
lation. Leaving out Of view the pittance
which he bestowed on certain of his en-
ployes through his will, he never, either
publicly or privately, applied his wealth
or any part Of it to really meritorious
end
His friend, the ex-lawyer's clerk, sur
vivcd Stewart only to demonstrate how
quickly the gain of ore, 10 matter how
enormous, can be dissipated by another.
The marble palace at Thirty-fourth street
and Fifth avenue in which Stewart made
what passed for his home bleak and
cheerless as the place always appeared.
notwithstanding the extreme richness of
its outward appearance might reveal the
silent shadow of an unhappy wife, as she
wandered restlessly from place to place
through the vast expanses Of her living
mausoIeum. That it ever fulfilled any
useful part in the lives of the man and
woman 70 whose domestic comfort it was
supposed to have been erected was not
conceived of as even a possibility bv anv
who knew either of them. The huge
structure, erected in another section of
the big metropolis, ostensibly as a
womans hotel, was a mere monument
to the helplessness Of tie great merchant
for any activity whatever which did net
involve the accumulation of wealth.
Judge Hilton was the only mortal who
survived Stewart who might, On a rea-
sonable stretch of the imagination. he
said to have entertained even the shade
Of regret at his departure. lie was yir-
tually the only mortal who had benefited
by Stewards existence and career. If he
really can be said to have derived anv
benefit. He was made immensely
wealthy by Stewart: but the newly ac-
CURED wealth appeared 70 be productive
of but one result a most perfect demon
stration of the utter unftness for wealth
either in the character Of q trustee or
otherwise, of the man who ended a. worse
than useless career at Saratoga on
Thursday last-worse than useless con-
sidering the vast opportunities for doing
good, publicly and privately, which came
to him without the slightest effort or the
slightest merit en- his part, and his utter
failure to avail himself of these oppor-
tunities
To that steadily increasing class Of
Americans who live only for the accumu,
lation Of wealth for wealth'e sake, the
end of these two men. Stewart and Hill,
ton, the one rich and powerful in his day
to degree which cannot be even fully
realized in our time, the other lifted to
the greatest heights to which wealth of
itself can lift any man. should have a
dread significance. They have both
passed away, leaving behind them not
even trace that they ever lived. Their
generation was rot rendered better in a
single particular, but worse, by their cx-
ample They neither loved nor were be,
loved The one toiIed and saved; the
other bIundered and squandered. Nei-
Their leaves behind him even a memory
that viii benefit his kind.