The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1899-01-22
RICH OLD MEN
OF GOTHAM.
How New Yorker Finds Them on the Verge of the New
Year and What Their Chances Are of Living
Until 1000.
Until 1000.

, fly for the statement that no baby has
ever been refused money who has satis-
factorily proved that his name was Rus
sci, Sage
Just how this, the richest old man In
Gotham. acts. may be interesting. lie
leaves his home on Fifth avenue near
Ghirtieth street al 9 o'clock in the
morning and takes a Broadway cable
down town. The trip consumes three
quarters of an hour and Mr.. Sage pays
for bis ride with a nickel. At his office
ho alights and then you notice that ne
is "A tail. spare man with a slight stoop
and a face rudly as a winter apple.
Among the crowd of hurryllg business
g0srs on Broadway he looks like a coun-
try store keeper or perhaps farmer
out for a holiday.
lie disappears in the doorway Of ms
Office building and that is the last seen
OF him until he goes out to lunch, which
he takes az "a simple restaurant near by
aId for which he pays fifteen cents.
At o'clock he goes home and his
wife. who is very attentive 10 him-she
S. also TAN and spare-meets him at the
door. Mrs Sage Is a great deal younger
than her husband. but looks exactly as
OLD, for both could pass for fifty. In the
evening the couple receive guests very
quietly They have no children.
different, for here IS a. man with four
grown-up daughters among whom he
must distribute his twenty or thirty mil
lions. Morton began life as tradesman
and traces of his early occupation etill
linger around him, in the fineness Of his
tOuch-as though he were still Weighing
things. He counts his change" and he
knows 10 a dollar just how much is in
his pockets. He seldom walks and rare
Ia Ifu n Re
for Levi p Morton at IS is an older man
than Russell Sage al 81. The Morton5
live on Fifth avenue several blocks high
er up than the Sages because the daugh-
tiers find upper Fifth avenue society more
agreeable.
II Russell Sage IS TAN and Spare Levi
Z. Morton is short and spare His name
and his reputation are wholly out OF
proportion TO his size, for Il is doubtful
if he would tip the scales at $50. Mr..
Morton has clear cut features, a firm
tread and a good voice although he Is
decidedly feeble. The last public APP
pearance he made was at the dedication
of a statue in midsummer. when the
heat so affected him that he was COM
PEELED to retire before the exercises were
over.
At home however, nobody IS cheerier
than this old man. lie spends most OF
his time at -the-Hudson.
where ne has one of the most magnih-
cent stock farms in the world, and
where he finds the climate soothing. lie
comes 10 New York only for the opera
season and his real estate. He owns the
tallest sky scraper in New York. IL is
now nearly completed and II he lives
20 see it occupied in the spring he will
see his money invested IN a magnificent
monument TO the work Of one man.
Levi Z. Morton dresses particularly
we'll and his favorite suit is a cutaway
of mixed goods with a bright tie. like
an English gentleman. lie wears shiny
boots topped by spats and his gloves
are invariably a beautiful red. He Is
the dapper old man OF Gotham
At what age q man becomes old il is
difhcult TO say, but the sixty mark is
generally called the turning point
Chauncey Nj Depsw has been sixty and
-FOUR more. lie is the handsomest old
man Of Gotham and will be the hand