The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-10
THOMAS B. REED EARNEl
 $5OO,OOO IN A SHORT !

New York Correspondence in the Phiia-
 delphia Press.
 Mir. Reed must have been dissimuiating when he said to his friends in this city that he thought 1t worth while to retire from practice of the law as soon as he should have accumulated enough to give him a sufficient and permanent in come and to make certain the support of his family. If he were not dissimulat- ing, then he did not know in the last two or three years of his life how much property he had accumulated.
 Whether our Probate court has obtained cured a statement of the value of the etate, which has caused even Mir. Reeds intimate friends surprise. He must have been in possession of property approxi- mating in value $500, 900, for the inventory made to the surrogate schedules securi- ties and other personal property of the value of s4S0,00o after all debts are paid.
 It is possible, but not probable. that Mir. Reed accumulated this fine property after he resigned his seat In congress. and that 1t represents the earnings from his law practice as we'll as especially happy ventures in the speculative or in- vestment market.
 It Is remembered that MT. Reed said. after the death of Governor Russell of Massachusetts, and his own appointment as insurance arbitrator as the successor of Governor Russell In that corpora tion's office. that this made welcome addition to his income and gave him, with his magazine writing and his salary as congressman. an income from which he ought to be able to make handsome saw ings.
 MT. Reed is now shown by the docu- ments filed with the Surrogate to have been for several years not merely an in- come maker, but a fortune builder as we'll. Yet no one in this city of all that large number that were more than ac- quaintances, really warm friends of MT. Reed, suspected that he had developed abilities of this kind. His manner of living after he came to New York was inexpensive although in the last year of his life there were evidences that he all lowed himself personal expenditures which are usually permitted only to those who have means or good credit He contemplated country place upon Long Island for the summer, and he had in view handsome entertainments there, es- pecially of men of intellectual power or brilliancy, for 1t is with these that he found himself to be especially congenia1 Except these hits of prosperity, there was no indication that Mir. Reed was do- ing any better than any lawyer is able to do who has obtained a fairly good practice in New York.
 Senator Conkling and Ex-Speaker Read were similar during their brief citizen ship in thIs city. not with respect to a congenial social life, for Senator Conk- ling was excepting to a very few, much of a hermit. spending almost all of his leisure or evening hours in the library of the Bar association or else reading his much-loved literature. He could have commanded prices which for that day would have been as large relatively as those MT. Reed received for his pe- rodical essays and sketches. But MT. Conkling would have deemed it serious reflection upon his dignity had any one ventured to ask him to write, excepting professionally, for pay. Like Mir. Reed. he was a lover of fiction, but while Reed preferred Thackeray. Mir. Conkling re- joiced in "Pickwick'' and David Copper field" and was a true admirer of ouida. as was the late Charles A. Dana. Both MT. Dana and MT. Conkling commended ouidas Under Two Flags" And 1t was