The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-04

fell over one another in the rush to get
hold of stock. Last year that stock
paid IA per cent dividends. More than
one-half of this stock Upton himself
owns.
When at the time Of the queens dia-
mond jubilee the Princess Of Wales pro-
posed to give all the poor Of London a
great dinner in honor of the occasion.
her plans almost fell through because
of the impecuniosity of the wealthy
persons of London on whom the prin-
cess had relied for support. The din
ner was all but given up by the princess
in disgust, when one day Upton learned
Of the true state of affairs while dining
with the lord mayor, and, taking out
his checkbook wrote out a check for
$125,OOO. Since then he has given $780,
600 to found eating houses throughout
London for the accommodation of the
poor, where such persons might secure
food at its absolute cost price. Liptons
sovereign saw fit to reward such
generosity with knighthood. Tommie
Upton, once the Glasgow messenger
boy, became Sir Thomas Upton, Bart.
When, in the name of the Royal III
ster Yacht club, Sir Thomas first chal-
lenged for the long contested Amer
ica's cup, there were certain proud
aristocrats connected with yachting af-
fairs in Great Britain who sneered at
aristocrats by Inheritance and not by
worth, and they did not like this
parvenu sportsman's intrusion into
their ranks. But the first gentleman
of Europe soon settled that little diff
Guilty. It must be borne in mind that
whomsoever the Prince of Wales hob
nobs with is no longer of questionable
social rank. Such royal association
glorifies him at once. So when Albert
Edward grew chummy with the great
merchant prince and it was seen that a
tea seller could be as much a gentle
man as a born nobleman and more self
respecting a yachtsman than a Dun
raven, the upper classes began to re-
lent and said that Sir Thomas was not
such a bad fellow after all. It is said
in London that when Lord Dunraven
declined to allow Upton to use the
VaIkyrie III as a trial horse against
the new challenger the Prince of Wales
himself silently but significantly re-
buked the childishly snobbish earl by
offering to the Irish sportsman his own
yacht, the Britannia. The prince, to
prevent any misunderstanding in the
matter, took a great personal interest in
the trial races, and so when Sir Thomas
Upton sailed for America on the Erin
he found those English yachtsmen who
had at first looked upon him and his
yacht with a Jealous eye only too glad
to be recognized by him as the Sham
rocks owner. Since coming to Amer
lea, too, Sir Thomas has proved himself
one of the best of sportsmen, and by his
amiability and kindness and modesty
has won many friends even in the
camps of the enemy. And if in the end
it so falls out that the historic cup Of
the old America must 60 back to Eng
land, there is no one whom Americans
would prefer to see carrying it back in
triumph than Sir Thomas Upton him
self. But whether it goes or not is al
together another question. If the
Shamrock does win and the cup is car
ried back across the Atlantic, then the
dream of the little Scottish-Irish boy
who used to watch the ships from the
docks of Glasgow shall have been
realized, and he who was once known
as Tommie Upton will own the fastest
yacht in the world.
ROGER P. BARNUM-