The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-02
OLD MAN RICE
wAx11rs AND CHARtTIEs or PATRICK'S ALLEGED VlCT11
A Massachusetts Lad Went to Texas and Built Up nnions-By No Means . 1liser-To Live
 Long His Great Ambition.

x Never go into anything unless you can control it. was one of the maxims by which w. M Rlcs Billed Billed Hp soa ms .naeoes: l,ons; concerning the way he applied 1t are told by the half dozen nephews who have been brought here from Massachusetts and Texas in connection with the Pat There has been almost . family reunion of them at the Grand Union Hotel since the trial began.
 ring to the murder as that of an old mis- er," said one. "The facts are fiatly the reverse. He neither was miser nor lived as such.
 crate cases of personal benefaction at his hands. People knew of the million and half he gave to the Rice Institute ten years before his death, but there Thirty years ago a sister va. left . widow with a large family of children. He purchased house for them ana sup At the time of his death he was regu- larly helping number of persons less fortunate in their old age than himself widows of old time friends some of them who without his assistance would never have been able to have the medical aid he provided them with.
 own person. that is false. His monthly living expenses would have kept poor family for year.
 Mir. Rice was typical Of the nunSreos West in the first half of the last century struck out for themselves with little more than the clothes on their backs and Texas, and by middle life he had built up with his own hands interests limited only by the boundaries of the biggest State in His father was David Rice. who found- ed the first Methodist Church of Spring field. Mass.-a man with family of ten children and little or no means. The son showed Q knack for bargaining when in He clerked at an age when most boys are still doing their sums on . school slate. and then opened up a little gro- shops of the United States Armory. That was before he was 20 and he was doing the business under his fathers . name. Some friends had gone to Texas and they induced him to follow. He scraped together $500 and the next thing his fel- low townsmen knew he had opened a gen general store .,r, at ..l Houston when that He grew with the development oi Texas. had hand in boosting 1t along at more than one turn and as the years went by he was identified with every large enterprise in the State. beginning with the first railroads that opened 1t up He came to New York in the 60 because he could operate better here. the Rice Hotel there and there is where the Rice Institute is to be located.
 When he had come to count his hold ings In lumber and cotton. railroads and Texas land away up in hte millions, he enjoyed nothing better than telling sto- ries of the Houston days when Rice's store was known near and far as the one where hides or cotton or anything
  be traded for goods.
 He would store up his old plumber bunch it and sell it at a handsome profit than a cash business would have netted him. There are no such opportunities fl Texas nowadays.
 "'Never go into anything you can' control thae-was his great business max. i'm and guess he lived up to it pretty closely. In the first place he had conf dence in himself and then it must be ad mitted he was bound to have his owl There was trouble brewing when h, met opposition in an undertaking. Bu it was rare thing for him to swear people were better used to his smile. An oth IT fancy of his was his ability to say No He prided himself upon it above all things else and often counseled Il: younger me.i on that point
 ''I reIT.t mber an instance quite typica of the man." said w. NJ Rice, Jr., who is head of big lumber company at lily, att, Tex "A snap judgment was obtained against the Houston ana IeXaS CenIra in 1877 and at that time he owned 8 larger interest than any stockholder. Out side parties were trying to get control o1 the road hut he was too quick for them He was at New York and while the thing was still in the air in Texas, he negotiated the sale of the road to Com. modore Morgan. He saved not only his own large interest-it was eminentl, that of all his Texas friends and that was quite as characteristic. It was just .one of hundreds of equally shrewd busi. ness moves and showed his super-natura keenness and initiative
 T had been intimate with my uncle since '75 and know the stories of his be. ing miserly to be false. At that time his home was at Duaellen, N. J. It was { large establishment kept up in a styl commensurate with his means.
 The place included 113 acres, tn grounds were beautiful, there were eight servants and five handsome turnouts The house was three stories and "a basement and equipped with all modern conyen fences. something very unusual at tha, time in the country homes of evel wealthy people.
 His wife was living, they entertained a great deal and their table was bounti fully supplied. I spent months with then and he -Mas exceedingly generous to me Indeed. he was always generous where generosity could do good, but unostenta. ttous and man who did not believe fl throwing money away.
 
 tion, as kind and courteous in demeanol as he was upright in his dealings He was not man easily to get acquainted with but when once well known the acauaint ance ripened into strong attachment.
 Toward the close of his life, hayin, no family, being advanced in years and occupied with large business demand upon his time. this trait led to the opin ion frequently expressed that he was s recluse. He cared nothing for society His charities were numerous and lara. but he usually insisted on nothing beins 'aif ais sGH%1 fsmlig fRf@ pPide goE curious form said Frank H. Mckee, one of the party He came of long-liyed stock. He ha, two sisters living. one 76 and the othe 19; he himself was s4 and his Igrandfathe, lived for more than a century. Mir. Ric. was physically strong for his years an( often have heard him say he was goins to beat the family record.
 He had definite formula to accom- plish 1t. He did everything by clock work-ate at a certain fixed hour wheth CT school kept or not never ate two starchy foods at once and so on That was his great hobby. The first thine found among his effects was a pictnr, of his grandfather and under it writter 101 years months.'" ,,
 TuE NAHnFNyr