The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-01
A BILLIONAIRE FAMILY
ROTHsCHILDS' CONFINED WEALTH
ESTIMATED AT $2,OO0,0O0,oOO.
story Of the Rise of These Successful
Money Lenders in n Century
Reads Like Fiction.
Boston Globe.

Boston Globe.
In finance, which has usurped the rule of
men once shepherded by the. sword, there is
no name so impressive as that of RothscRilh.
The Rothschilds are the worlds only bill
lionaire family. Their wealth is estimated at
over 1900, 100000 BY the side of this vast
accumulation Of less than a single century
the riches of the Sassoons or the Bleich-
roders are insignificant. The combined
Aston estate, ten years earlier begun, has
not grown to one-ffth such size. Cornelius
Vanderbilt and the Duke. of Westminster
are financial pigmies beside the Rothschild
trust. John Jacob Astor was already a
wealthy man before the original Rothschild
had or needed so much as a name. He was
known as Redshield, or Rothschild, from
the sign that hung over the door of his
dingy pawnbroker's shop in Frankfort's
Judengasse.
What was this mans name? When was he
born, even? No one knows. Some time be-
tween 1740 and 1850 he must have seen the
light. His father was called simply Bauer,
or peasant" 1t was about as much of
name as Jew needed who was to be locked
by night into his sinking ghetto and treated
like a dog by day. His descendants have
called themselves de" and ''von,' but their
honest grandfather had not SO much as a
name.
Mayer Anselm Rothschild, or Maier
Amscher Bauer, was left an orphan at
twelve, already an expert money changer.
Following the wish of his dying father, he
studied for a rabbi a little while, but the
clink of coins was as a siren song to his
ears, and he was soon back IN the mart a
clerk of Banker Oppenheim, % Hanover
Man-grown, lie returned to Frankfort, where
his father had lived. and hung ont his red
shield in the free city which has ever since
been the capital of capital. lie began trad
ing in everything which had value. When
he was twenty-seven he married Gudula
Schwappen, who bore him five sons ard five
daughters and lived TO be nearly che hum
dred years old in the quaint house With the
sign of the red shield IN the ll-smelling
ghetto with the high wall about t.
William TX, landgrave Of Hesse, who be-
came elector William l. was fond of chess
This is as good story as another where
nothing is known. The Graf was ElayinS
chess one day when Baron Erstoff brought
Rothschild to see him.
do you understand chess?' asked VIII
liam, who was i'll tight place.
Sufficiently well, your serene highNcss,'
responded Mayer Anselm, TO induce ne,
We're the game mine, 10 castle ON the King
side"
His serene highncss look the advice. won
the game and concluded that a Frankfort
Jew who knew SO much about chess must
be a great man, which was poor reasoning,
but wise conclusion.
The father of this Graf was the man who
had sold 1900 Hessians to Great Britain for
the war in America. Some surrendered at
saratoga some were Killed, some stayed o 10
reached home again. Whether they did or
not was nothing to the Graf, who collected
$50, 900 on the sale of his people He paid
his debts, bought what he saw that pleased
him and died in peace. 1t was what was
left of this treasure, perhaps 100000 that
puzzled Graf William when, in 1906 after the
battle of Jena, Napoleon advanced on Hesse
Without a receipt he put it in the care of
the Jew who knew chess so well.
DECEIVED NAPOLEON
1t has been said that Redsheld gave up
his own fortune to the French to shield his
masters. He did nothing of the kind, al
though he could well have afforded to do So
What happened was this; Napoleon. levied
on Frankfort an indemnity of $20,000000 for
having dared trade with the English, and
Redshield paid his share along with the
rest. He had hid the electors little nest
egg and didn't feel obliged to mention the
fact
Afterward he dug the money up from his
gardens took it out of his wine casks;
hoisted it from his well-these are the three
stories: take your pick of them-and bought
and sold on a larger scale until he went to
the fathers in 1872.
In 1914, when Napoleon was Gagged on
Elba and Europe wiped it's perspiring brow
and prepared to take its ease, Anselm Roth
schild, Mayor Anselm's oldest son and the
head of the house, offered to pay back the
Landgrafs money with interest. Suffering
cultural German Oaths, the chess-playing
elector replied with truth that he was
blamed lucky to get back the principal
money could be retransferred the Corscan
escaped from Elba and Elector William
hi n-fN .
per cent. Nine years later the house insisted
upon paying it back TO Williams son. They
had had the use of $0,OOOOOO for seventeen
years upon the payment of only Is per
cent. simple interest The Redshield wealth
had. between 1906 and 1929 grown so great
that even 100000 was a trihe.
The five sons of Mayer Anselm were:
Anselm. born June 49, 1913; died Dec. g.
1855, place of business. Frankfort. Solomon,
of business. Vienna. Nahan Maier, born
Sept IS. 1777 died July %, 1886; place of
business, London. Charles, born. April "A,
1888; died March 10, 1856 place of business.
Naples. James, born May ), 1892; died March
10, 1868; place of business, Paris.
All these branches were founded in the
early years of the century. that in Naples
was given up when the kingdom merged
with that of Italy. The others are still in
existence. These five famous sons gathered
at the bedside Of their dying sire in 1912
and heard his wise advice upon the con-
duct of their business. They were to make
of it a partnership, a perpetual trust; they
were to trust each other and work in con-
cert; they were to 1ntermarry-and this was
bad advice; they were to be just, honorable
and even generous-and this was good ad-
vice 1t was advice which Mayer AnseIm had
himself followed. He had been not only
honest, but charitable, and the poor of
Frankfort blessed him as he lay ready for
the last journey. 1t advice which. with
an occasional exception, the Rothschlds
have consistently followed ever since.
The exception was Nahan Maier. or Ma
than Mayer Rothschild, the English part
ner, and the greatest genius of his clan
then or since. He it was who kept pigeons
flying across the English channel and fast
rowboats plying between Boulogne and
FolkeStone-Sails were unreliable in a calm
Ito connect with his mounted messengers
and so keep the London office informed of
the course of continental events.
Nathan trusted to agent for the news
Of Waterloo. Mounted on a feet horse. he
kept so close to Wellington that day that
the Iron Duke muttered the threat to hang
that skulking Jew if he didn't keep
his distance.
GAMBLED ON WATERLOO
Rothschild waited only to see the begin
ming of the French rout and spurred his
steed to Brussels. There he took carriage to
Ostend. A wild storm was raging but
boatman undertook TO ferry him to Dover
for $500 and he was in London eight hours
before the official news, dolefully shaking
his head at rumors Of disaster and buying
everything in sight through a score Of
agents He cleared millions on the coup.
Four wears earlier Nathan had won the