The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-01-15

We live in great country.
There, are 70. 900, COO OF us, they say.

We live In a great country.
There, are 70, 900, coo Of us, they say.
II every citizen had 81 today this would
he happy New Year all around.
1t is awful to think how many are morts
eaRsd up to the neck and haven't cents
III change.
II is interesting to note how much the
millionaires and monopolics have made
during the old year Just dead.
The average millionaire, sad to state.
has played In hard luck.
He has cleared only about s3.ooo.ooo on
/ his pile
While the average farmer has probably
not cleared 80 cents.
/ When one reads that POOR little Mt.
Rockefeller. who heads the list, has cleared
| only $50, o00, 900 for 1898 one feels like tax
ing up collection for him.
! How strange 1t seems that a hardwork.
ing, deserving man like Cornelius Wander
bilt should have made the meager profits
Of only s2O,0OO,0Oo In the old year?
Then there is Mr.. Russell Sage, who.
! though he has lived closely and frugally
all through 1898, has succeeded in laying
aside only $l5.ooo.ooo.
~
It's a shnms.
Mrs. Hetty Green has to content herself
with a pittance in the form of profit VI
! $4,000, 900 on her hard-earned principal,
4 while Roswell p. Flower is forced to be-
gin the new year with the niggardly sum
OF $40, 600 900 realized on his investments
for the old year.
i j. Pierpont Morgan has made only tho
agone, but he hopes to do better this year.
4 The income OF George j. Gould is Just
$40, O00, 900 for '9s, and John Jacob Aston
must struggle along with the little old
0,00O, 900 which has been saved from the
wreck of defunct 1898.
Isn't 1t awful?
Phil Armour must be disappointed
man. Despite his absolute devotion TO
honest toll and a careful stopping of all
the leaks. he has accumulated but 100000
900 to lay aside for rainy day in 1899.
And there is not even speck of dark
J cloud in the new year sky!
Dropping to the men who have succeed
ed in amassing a competency, 1t Is found
that Charles T. Yerkes is only s5,0o0.ooo
to the good on last years deals. and that
, II. o. Havemeyer has made but the small.
sweet profit of $b.00o,000.
William C. Whitney has passed under
the string just s5,000,00O ahead Of '9S,
: though the old year was a pretty swift
: runner. while John w. Mackey has been
. doomed to handle s5,OoO,00o. too. as re-
suit of his financiering during the dead
year.
And there is Mr.. Henry Flagler, who,
after a hard struggle. with luck against
him. has cleared the sum Of s5,00cooo.
But then, after all. 1t must be rensm-
bered that these be very hard times.
AS proof Of this just think of Edwin
Gould and Coils p Huntington and George
Crocker and Nelson Morris clearing only
little over sa,OoOOOo each
Just think of Marshall Field and James
r. Keene, and H. Fl. Rogers and other
raklng in such slim incomes as $4,000, 900
apiece.
How can we expect prosperity when such
t little fighters against fate as Thomas A.
c Edison and Levi p, Morton and Angus.
Belmont and scors of other small fry
succee ded in making only s1.OOCooo during
such good year as 1898 has been for those
. who rise early and work late.
All, what struggle 1t has been with
a these poor. frendless toilers to keep the
wolf from the door!
Still they shut him out, just the same.
d Now gaze on this pathetic picture!
Why, If Thomas c. Plat and Daniel La
mont and Henry Clews aud Drayton Ives
= don't carefully husband their resources
this year they will all be marching over
the hill to the poor house when the au-
; tump leaves begin to turn their little
I, greenbacks into gold.
For each and every one of these sons OF
honest tot, has cleared hut the begSarly
fortune of $4,000 in this fierce but un-
availing struggle to get on the sunny side
of Easy street during the hard. hard year
Just ended
Then there are the absolutely needy
monopolists about which 1t is hard to write
without bursting into tears.
The profits of that ragged. shiftless, pen
niless tramp OF the trusts, the Standard
Oil company. have only rolled up 800. ooo.-
900 during 1898.
This is enough to make the angels weep.
And the Wall Street Paper company,
the smallest of them all. In fact, the little
old Liliputian among the Brobdignass of
grasping greed, has taken in only se50,0;o
above expenses for 1893.
1t is shocking!
Indeed. II is enough to drive even =
wealthy nun into debt.
Romans. countrymen and lovers!"
t, Lend me hut quarter. VIII return Il,
next Saturday! sc.