Arizona republican., 1899-03-02
BANKS IN HIS BOOTS.
The Queer Habits of an Old Miser
 in Northern New York.
Always Carries His odd Depository About with Him SlunG Over His Arm Does Chores for
 His Board.

Victor Williams. who is reputed to be
 worth nearly $200,C00, and whose
 mortgages and leases and contracts
 blanket many a farm in the town ot
 Lyons, Lorraine, and Cape Vincent,
 walked into WatertOwn from Three
 Mile bay, where he lives with nephew
 and 'does chores for his board" carry
 ing sIung across his arm well-blacked
 pair of cowhide boots, in which were
 s1owed away big rolls of green backs,
 aggregating many thousands of dol
 lars. besides other securities rivaling
 in value the contents of many a country
 bank vault.
 The cid capitalist had been on col
 lccting 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
 { o Watertown deposited his gatherings
 in the vaults Of certain of the city
 banks, after which he started to walk
 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 anything but a capitalist,
 as his cowhide boots. which he always carries with him On his trips are sug- gestive of anything but the Repositories
 of money and securities. He wears, winter and summer, q 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 a buckle. His gray hair pro- trudes from beneath a long-drawn 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 shabbily dressed man has made every cent of his wealth by industry, frugality and strict econ cmy, and every penny of his posses sions has been honestly accumulated. He was born on little rocky farm near the Burnt Rock sehoolhouse in the town of Lyme, some So years ago, and after attaining his ma jority worked for some neighboring farmers in sum- mer and taught district schools in win ter for several years, but evidently gave up the yielding of the birch and spent his life up to a few years ago as q farmland in unremitting toll, often working in the field for the scant wages l of the 'hiTed man" on farms he could | have owned in his own name simply by ! forecloSing the mortagage 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 toiled, 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 out of every ore hundred. he says, earned since. Like many an- other man, he found that the hardest struggle was to save his first S1.OC0. Since that was saved and it's interest commenced to pile up, the rest, he says, has been easy.
 4 few years agO he gave up working among the farmers for wages and has since lived with his nephew near Three . Niles Bay, but has by no means been de. Periodically he slings his pair of ecwhide boots across his arm and starts put on q collecting tour, taking along cis papers and making new leases and as occasion requires. He has never, it is said. paid a lawyer a cent, llways securing a compromise in any difference which has arisen between himself and his tenants. As he owns no arms in his own name. only holding mortgages, etc, he is little bothered by he tax gatherer. He is said to have cry decided opinions regarding the ncome tax law and the taxation of mortgages.
 Just what disposition Victor Will jams will make of his wealth when he rriyes at the end of his accommodating lOne of his friends has the remotest dea. He never married. his entire at ention having always been concen- rated on the accumulation of wealth, 1 nd has but few living relatives. It is ] aid by those most familiar with the ec- entric old man that it is his purpose o set apart the greater part of his -ealth for the buiIdir- and endowing f an agricultural college, to be located j ear WatertOwn. while others main : ain that the building of an industrial ehool, such as that erected b y .he be- I eficence of the late Thomas s. Clark { on, at Potsdam, is his cherished ob- sct. To a kinsman he is said to have nee stated that he would set aside a ertain sum to erect q monument which hould be surmounted by figure cop z d after himself. bearing slung across he arm a pair Of boots. To another -iend here he is alleged 10 have once aid that more than $10O, GOO has passed | trough his bootleg banks during the | ears in which he has used them for | and carrying wealth.-Syra- : Ise (N. Y.) Herald.
 Liked Her Far Of, She-Oh, see, Edward, over there 'mes mamma. Why do you put the Q eld-glass to your&yes? [