The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-13
Cbof11aS Fitch = 9 l'''
BONANZA KINGS


Hats off, Old Pioneers, Johnny Mack
ay was man-every inch Of him.
Long before he girdled the world with
his cable, he wired an electric cord
around ten thousand hearts that throb-
bed with love for him while he lived,
and with grief for him when he died,
When great wealth or great fame
comes suddenly to a man, it sometimes
engenders the disease of "magnus
cabesa." That complaint never at
tackled Mackay. He was ever the
same brave, chivalric, generous soul,
who gave like a prince, fought like a
Crusader, and forgave like a priest.
Those who knew him were wild with
delight when this multi-millionair-e,
sneering remark concerning his wife,
not by a libel suit nor by retort in
kind, but by practicing an art of which
he was in youth past master. and
thrashing the scandalizer upon a street
corner in San Francisco, and thrash
ing him well.
AAA
The other Bonanza Kings left scarce
ly a perceptible mark upon their times.
O'Brien died soon after he came into
his great fortune, but while he lived
went ever into his pocket at the sight
| of distress. Flood was originally a
saloon keeper, and in his contest for
| financial supremacy with William c..
Ralston-the cashier and controlling
spirit of the Bank of California-the
| latter is reported to have said, 81 will
send Flood back to his original business
| of selling cocktails When this threat
was communicated to Flood he re-
| piled, IF I do I will sell them over
| the counter of the Bank of California
| When the great bank stopped payment.
| and Ralston committed suicide, Flood
negotiated for the purchase of the bank
| building, proposing to fit up a saloon
| with carved counter for bar, behind
which he designed, arrayed in a white
| apron, to officiate as barkeeper for a
| day 1t was with great difficulty that
Mackay and Fair dissuaded him from
executing this scheme of vengeance
upon the dead Ralston.
| AAA
| Fair was the inventor of plan to
discourage widows and orphans who
first offered proof of an alleged! mar
riage with a. millionaire after his death.
| He provided in his will that every lady
| who should prove herself to be his
| widow, and every child who should es-
| tablish a title to call him father, should
| be entitled to receive from his estate
| a legacy of one hundred dollars.
| A A
Mackay's generosity was unostenta-
| tious, and took the form Of private
rather than of public benefaction. A
| few months before his 1eath, he locked
! himself in his office with his private
| secretary and destroyed notes, receipts,
! and other evidence of loans and gifts
| to the amount of several millions of
dollars.
1t was not only the poor who lacked
food and shelter who were relieved by
| him, but his benefactions extended to
! those who Impoverished by ill-fortune,
| yet struggled desperately with fate,
| and like the Spartan boy, smiled in
| the face of the world, While the volt
| of disaster was eating at the vitals.
OF a lawyer once prosperous, but who
had lost his practice, a gentleman said
| to Mackay, 1.-The Judge dresses well
and he lives in a handsome house, but
| I happen to know that his wifes dia-
monds and furs are in pawn, that his
furniture and law library are covered
with chattel mortgages, that his rent
| and servant hire and grocery bills are
unpaid, that his landlord is very i'm
patient, and that his family may at
| any time be thrust into the street"
poor fellow said Mackay, land he
has such a nice family. Such dis
| tress is greater than the suffering of
| one who has no position to maintain.
Dick, draw a check for a thousand
| dollars and send it to him. He
| won't take it, Mr.. Mackay," replied the
secretary. HE is as proud as Lucifer,
and l believe that rather than accept
charity he would commit suicide"
'Is it as bad as that?" said Mackay.
'.wen we'll find a way to make him
take it. What has become of that liti-
| CATION between the Durgon and Home
| stretch Company?' 'All settled" re-
| nlied the secretary ''Well you hunt
| up some other lawsuit, any old law
suit. Sure there's enough of them
bothering us when we don't want them.
You employ the Judge in it to assist
| our other lawyers, and pay him a
| thousand dollars, and don't you let on
| to him that I have anything to do with
| it. Tell him it is the order of the Board
Of Directors"
| Mackay's gifts sometimes took an
eccentric form. He would send a hun
! dred dollars or more to widow.
with the regards of William Sharon
until that capitalist was not only driv-
en- wild with protestations of gratitude,
| hut his outer office was crammed with
petitioners for similar aid, TO whom
Mackay's beneficiary had communicate
ed the glad tidings that Sharon was
taken with enlargement of the heart
| A A A
| An old mining partner of Mackay 5,
who had not seen him for years, came
To San Francisco from the Siskiyou
mountains, and called upon the multi
millionaire at his office in the Nevada