The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1899-03-17
HIS BOOTS ARE HIS BANK.
An Odd Old New York Miser and HIS
Queer Business
Habits.

Victor Williams. who is reputed to be
worth nearly $2OO0O0. and whose
mortgages and leases and contracts
blanket many farm in the town of
Lyons, Lorraine, and Cape Vincent,
walked into WATERFOWL from Three
Mile bay, where he lives with nephew
and "does chores for his board" carry
ing slung across his arm a well-blacked
pair of cowhide boots, in which were
slowed away big rolls of greenbacks,
aggregating many thousands OF dol
lars, besides other securities rivaling
in value the contents of many a country
bank vault.
The old capitalist had been on a col
Letting tour among the farms Of the
mentioned towns, gathering in the in
terest on his mortgages and stuffing
IL into his bootleg banks, and coming
to Watertown deposited his gatherings
in the, vaults of certain of the city
banks, after which he started toJvalk
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 birthday, is
suggestive of any thing but a capitalist,
as his cowhide boots, which he always
carries with him on his trips are sug-
gestive of anything but the deposit cries
of money and securities. 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 clothesline with an iron ring in
lieu of buckle. His gray hair pro-
Scotch cap. and his shrewd and
wrinkled visage is framed with a
fringe of gray beard. His eyes. in spite
of his 80 years, are as keen as hawks.
and he never for an instant allows his
eyes to wander from his bootleg banks.
This little, bent and sha billy dressed
man has made every cent of his wealth
by industry, frugality and strict econ
omy, and every penny of his posses
sions has been honestly accumulated.
He was born on little rocky farm
near the Burnt Rock schoolhouse in
the town of Lyme. some 80 years ago,
and after attaining his majority worked
for some neighboring farmers in sum-
mer and taught district schools IN win
ter for several years. but evidently
gave up the welding of the birch and
spent his life up to a few years ago as
farmland 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 which he
held thereon and which reposed IN his
cowhide boots.
AS he received his board and got his
washing and mending" done gratui-
tously on the farms where he toi.ed, he
was able to save nearly every cent of
his wages. The first dollar ever earned
by him he still kept, and he has kept
ninety-nine out of every one hundred,
he says. earned since. Like many an
other man, he found that the hardest
struggle was to save his first $1,000.
Since that was saved and its interest
commenced to pile up, the rest, he says,
has been easy.
few years ago he gave up working
among the farmers for wages and has
since lived with his nephew GEAR Three
Miles Bay, but has by no means been
idle. Periodically he sings 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 a 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 decided opinions regarding the
income tax law and the taxation of
mortgages.
Just what disposition Victor Will
liams will make of his wealth when he
arrives at the end of his accommodating
rome of his friends has the remotest
idea. He never married, his entire at
tention having always been concen-
trated on the accumulation of wealth.
and has but few living relatives. 1t is
said by those most familiar with the &C.
centric old man that it is his purpose
to set apart the greater part of his
wealth for the building and endowing
of an agricultural college. to be located
near Watertown, while others main
tain that the building of an industrial
school, such as that erected b :he be-
neficence of the late Thomas S. Clark