Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-04-08

well. So well that In seven short years
he appeared in Fargo and offered to
buy up most Of the town for franchises
OF n sort or another. Mr.. Yerkes was
not popular in Fargo, but he made
money there, as he makes money ev-
erywhere. When he had made about
all the money there was to make In
Fargo he went to Chicago. He opened
an office in the board of trade. He took
an interest in gas, then he took an in
terest in herdics, and then he took an
interest in street cars.
just exactly fifteen years from the
time he left the penitentiary he owned
a controlling interest i'm the great
street railways of Chicago city which
is webbed with railways as a rose bush
is spread with the spinning of the spi-
der on a dewy morning in early July.
He built new roads and operated them.
and all the city spent its matutinal
breath in N long, pensive moan over
the discomforts of the roads and the
fortune the man who planned these
dlscomforts was making. The money
rolled to Mr.. Yerkes' door.
lie ran down to Philadelphia, looked
up his wife, gave her n comfortable
sum OF money and went back to Chi
cago, where he met n beautiful blonde
woman lately arrived from the far
west. HisSvife obliged him with a di-
vorce, and he married the blonde
woman, who has a very pretty taste in
diamonds and a decided leaning for
the pretty things that grow in the
Paris dress shops.
She had all the pretty things she
wanted TO buy. for there was no ~disputing
the fact that Charles T. Yerkes had
so many millions that he really did not
know quite What to do.
She turned to art. She built a great
gallery. and he sent agents abroad buying
pictures. Every dealer In America heard
OF the new millionaire and his art fad, and
Chicago was soon humming with stories
or the magnificent antiques and the fine
old masters which were arriving I'm Chi
cago. When he had made a really fine
collection Mr.. Yerkes left art for awhile
and turned his extremely assimilatiye
mind to science. He built and equipped
the Yerkes observatory, the most perfect
ly equipped and the biggest astronomical
observatory In the world.
Then he began to take an active interest
In charities. He gave large amounts to
various charitable institutions. He do
mated large sums to hospitals, and he was
especially generous In his gifts TO free
kindegartens. Then he bought a shady
bit Of ground on the shores OF Lake Mich
igan, a little to the north Of Chicago, and
built thereon a large and commodious
home for good boys. Despite all these
works Of good, Chicago people did not
learn to love Mr.. Yerkes. The papers
called him hard m Mr.. Yerkes a
up his min to come east, where the
wicked man who knows would cease from
troubling-and go into society.
So he came to New York.
His name was put at the Metropolitan
club on a ten-day card as a guest by one
of the members. The board Of governors
did not accept the card. They compelled
the member who had presented the card
to withdraw 1t instantly. and gave him
the alternative of leaving the club or apol-
ogizing. The members of the board Of
governors gave as their reason for the
peremptory action of the board the tech
nical rule that only non-residents are ell
gible to guest cards. Mr.. Yerkes, they
said. was a resident of New York. and
therefore ineligible as a guest.
Then Mr.. Yerkes bought a house, tore
1t down and built It all over again at
Sixty-eighth street and Fifth avenue. II
Is one Of the three most magnificent pri-
vate houses I'm the world. The steps lead
ing to the entrance cost 1900. The bath
room, built OF solid onyx. cost $50, 900. The
great feature Of the house, aside from its
splendid art gallery. is the great inner
court OF pure Florentine marble, which
extends 10 the roof. The wall is made In
imitation of the old Roman villas and lined
with marble couches, strewn with gor-
geous pillows and magnificent draperles.
The great ballroom Is the finest In Amer
lea and Mrs. Yerkes' apartments are
dreams Of splendor which a queen might
W The fine house was ready for oc-
cupancy a year age but the Yerkeses are
not yet In society. Blonde, plump, pretty
little Mrs. Yerkes, the second, wears the
smartest of smart frocks, which say
made In PARIS at every rustic. She
drives a fine turnout and she has all the
latest fads In the way OF eccentric pets,
but her name has not yet appeared in the
among those present" list Of the smart
sets affairs.
Recently Mr.. Yerkes lived through the
most exciting chapter of his not unevent-
full life. He tried to buy Chicago for a
song and Chicago protested against being
sold. The Chicago aldermen listened low
ingly to the tales of the $1,000, 600 'divvy'''
that was sure TO come II the ordinance
giving Mr.. Yerkes and his railroads the
franchise for fifty years had gone
through. But the voters who elected the
aldermen were not so enamored of the
ffty-year franchise. They said that Mr..
Yerkes owns a good deal more of Chicago
how than Is good for Chicago and they did
not see why the people should sell a fran
chise worth $4,000, 900 II II Ia worth one
penny for a paltry $1,000, OOO-particularly
as no one but the aldermen aforesaid
would see any OF the money. So Mr..
Yerkes lost.
But this story is not finished vet