The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-05-21
very same year, can only know Of them by

very same year. can only know OF them py
hearsay.
Mr.. WALDORF AsToR has no reason TO
complain OF American treatment OF his
great-grandfather, and 1t is absurd for him
to pretend to make 1t on excuse for his own
permanent departure from the country
where was accumulated the fortune OF
which he holds so large a part and where it
still remains almost wholly. JOHN JACOB AS
TOR came to America the poor son of a poor
German butcher, and died hore tho richest
man in the whole country. 1t would seem
reasonable, therefore, that his descendants,
enjoying the fruits Of his industry and en-
terprise, should feel satisfied with his treat
ment and rejoice at the luck which caused
him to emigrate to this country. Most
people would rejoice IL their ancestors had
been treated as kindly by fortune. Not
only did the original AsToR make his great
fortune here. but he also kept it under our
avs and our social, political and material
development, so that the third generation
ofthe family since is now in possession OF it.
together with a vast increase.
Mr.. WALDORF AsToR's paper starts out
as a defence Of his voluntary exile or as an
excuse for it by alleging that the old
American sentiment was against wealth as
"a menace to popular institutions that
1t is democratic and virtuous to BIO poor
and aristocratio and un-American to be
rich" and he AYERS that the sentiment con-
tinues to exist. ALI the same, however. JOHN
JACOB AsToR accumulated his fortune with
out interference, and he and his descendants
have been subjected to less criticism in
A.o -; a1a,,ao ~ tha ~ - a, n - IF 4 hair n IN ~
it h they would have received In England.
The drain upon 1t TO meet public and social
exactions has been far less, II their oppor-
tunities forts rapid multiplication have con-
sequently been much greater. Long before
JOHN JACOB AsToR came to this country,
too, there were many rich men for those
days who stood high in the public regard
WASHINGTON himself, for example, who was
accounted the richest American Of his time.
When the first AsToR came to New York he
found here much wealth and luxury, and 1t
continued to exist without envy Of his ac-
cumulations long after he had made HIM
self rich by the fur trade. Mr.. WALDORF
Aston says the "favorite discourse" Of
1.-The preponderating religious sentiment
Of New England was that only by a mira
Cle, eQulNdltuJ W Jue LuO6t lLnpLOpdDIc puc-
nomenon, could a rich man enter into
heaven" but so was it the ~favorite discourse
Of JESUS himself-in the illustration OF the
camel and the needles eye and the parable
of DIVES and LAZARUS, for instance.
Pride in the achievements Of his great
grandfather is creditable to the sentiment
of Mr.. WALDORF Aston, but his attempt at
philosophy to justify his leaving the coun-
try in which his fortune was made, and
where 1t is still invested. is pitiably dis
creditable to his intellect. We do not say
this as Directing in any way to his taking
up his residence in England. That is his
own business, and nobody has any reason
for criticising him for doing as his taste in
clines in such a matter; but the excuse he
seems to lave thought it necessary to make
for his voluntary exile is only grotesqus.
1t indicates in him deplorable decadence
from the vigor Of his American ancestor.