The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09
ODD TRICKS OF FORTUNE
MEN, ONCE RICH, NOW REDUCED TO
PERJURY.
other Men, ON the Contrary, Who
Have Gained n After a
Long Siege with Poverty.

pork packing establishment i'm Somerville,
Mass, in 1890. He was rated as worth
sS.00O.OOO. To-day he is peddling vegetables
in the same Massachusetts, town. driving
from door to door in a little one-horse
wagon.
He is an example of the man whose
riches took TO themselves wings. Specula-
ton may. nave been at the bottom Of it.
Nobody knows. He is one of whom Poe
wrote:
"Whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster"
Once crumbling, his fortunes crashed and
crumbled still till out of the wreck of them
he had his house. a vegetable wagon, a
crazy old horse and an indomitable perse-
verance that has never left him.
Ten years ago. on a hill in the suburbs
of the town. the North mansion was one
of the sights of Somerville. Now the man
sion is a boarding house. The family is
scattered and only two rooms of the old
place are occupied by the former million
aire.
Looking down from those windows on the
hill the old man can see the walls of the
packing house I'm which his fortune so re-
Gently was planted. The name Charles
II. North" stands out i'm great letters on
the walls, but his interests are gone from
them. The whistle that calls the employees
to work no longer interests him. One of
his sons only draws a modest salary as
clerk in the Offices.
The "Charles IL. North that is meaning
full in the business of Somerville is painted
on the sides of the old mans vegetable
wagon. 1t stands for fair dealing with his
small customers.
Mr.. North is sixty-eight years old, of Wig
orous constitution, and is prompted to eff
fort by a sturdy optimism. He hopes TO re-
deem his fortunes and is saving in his small
way to hat end. His leisure is devoted to
porting over the account books of his old
business.
A DIFFERENT CASE.
Five years ago William Penn Hussey,
millionaire, Of Danversport. Mass, was
sleeping in the shadow of haystacks. The
world was his play place. Its crusts were
his as he could pick them up. He had run
away from home as a boy and had expert
enced the Indifferent luck of the mines. He
had been ranchman, brakeman, cowboy,
hobo, and the long category OF characters
that may come to the stranded tenderfoot
who has had to walk out of the mines.
From West to East and East to West he
moved as fancy and necessity urged. In
1874 he drifted into Danversport. From odd
jobs on farms he went to a position in the
asylum for the insane in that city. A young
student from Edgartown, Martha's Vine
yard. came to the asylum and was given
over to the special charge of Hussey. The
man had a sister, and finally he was re-
moved from the asylum and taken to his
fathers house, where Hussey cared for
him. Hussey fell in love with the sister,
they eloped and went to Danversport. A
letter from the wife to the father effected
a reconciliation and brought a check, upon
which Hussey established himself in the
coal business.
The business was successful. 1t led to the
purchase of a coal mine in Nova Scotia.
He formed a stock company, sold out and
cleared $3.50 coo.
Hussey is divorced from his wife. He has
q son who passed his ~twenty-ffth ami
versary a short time ago. on which occa-
sion the father gave him twenty-five 81, 200
bills. Hussey blaZes with diamonds, his
watch hargs from a chain of solid gold
weighing a pound, and the value Of these
is fixed at $4,000. His house and
stable are show places for Danversport,
and a veritable arsenal is a part of their
furnishings.
every visitor in Danversport. More than
that, he enjoys the scrutiny.
A LONG DESCENT.
From New York's exclusive Gramercy
Park to a bed of rags in an abandoned
pickle factory. near Hells Kitchen; from
millions to the ignominy of a sandwich
man," from the position of a petted son
of a famous father to delirium tremeps in
a charity ward of Bellevue Hospital.
This is the story of Edward Morse Field.
And the other day this broken, drifting
wreck of a man went out again into the
under world of New York, a companion of
vagabonds, eating, sleeping and existing
as tolerance and charity will admit.
He is the once petted son of Cyrus w
Field, who anchored all the world to
America" Nine years ago he was one of
the princes of Wall street, member of the
firm of Field, Lindley. Welcbers & Co. His
father had bought him the place there and
had invested money in the firm to prove his
faith in the boy. One day the house failed.
Two million dollars was said TO have been
unaccounted for, and young Field fled.
From a madhouSe he was brought TO Lud-
low-street Jail. After a long trial he was
sent to an asylum FOR the insane at Buff
falo 10 be observed" This was in 1891.
Two years ago he was discharged as harm
The shock had killed the father. A broth
er, Cyrus Field, jr., tried to pay this
trotheris debts and died, Edwards wife
left him, and is supporting herself and
children in New York. Edward himself,
grizzled. unwashed, and i'm tatters, sinks
through the dark streets of New York with
all the furtive doggedness of his adopted
kind. They say that he talks great
schemes of riches to them as they huddle
i'm some dark, noisome place to sleep. HIS
has some patrons who throw him charity,
and he is patronized by Hell's Kitchen.
But as Edward Morse Field he is deader
than ever the father and brother, whom
he killed.
A GOOD LUCK STORY.
Luck, as it is interpreted in the mining
camp. has been emphasized in the case o!
George wedekind. of Reno. New.
Years and years ago, when George Wede-
kind was young, he went West in a fever
for gold. All UP and down the famed
coast country of the CALIFORNIA; he wan
oered. bootless. The gold was not for him
AS the country settled he drifted from
town to town, tuning pianos. 1t was his
trade. He brought his wife to Reno finally
and the two settled down to the scanl
existence that piano tuning in a Western
town afforded.
Wedekind was seventy-two years old
when one day he went hunting. Even ths
game had suffered from the civilization
that had come to the State and then gone
in such measure as to leave ii a population
less than it had when admitted TO the
Union. He was discouraged with hunting
and was returning moodily homeward
Climbing down the side OF a bluff his foot
slipped
And uncovered a gold raine,