The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-21
BY JOHN GILMER SPEED.

these the following were set down as
worth a million or more:
John Jacob Aston ........... SOS, 900, 900
William B. Astor ........... 5000, 900
Henry Brevoort, Jr. ....,..... 100000
Isaac Bronson (estate) ........ 100000
William B. Crosby ............ 100000
William P. Furniss .......... 100000
John Haggerty ................ LOOo,uOO
Peter Harmony .............. 1,50O,OOO
Jonathan Hunt .............. 1,OO0,OOO
lanes Lenox ........ 5000, 900
Mrs. Jacob Lorillard ........ l,5OO,OOO
Peter Lorillard, Jr. .......... 1,OOO,OoO
John Mason (estate) .......... 1,O00.OOO
Gouveneur Morris ............ 1,5OO,OOO
M. Pierpont (estate) .......... l,OOO,OOO
Joel Post (estate) ............ 1,OO0,OOO
Peter Schemerhorn ........... 25O0,OO0
L. SALES (estate) .............. l,OOO'OOU
Peter c.. Stuyvesant .......... 4OO0'O oO
Herman Thorne .............. 1,5O0OOO
Cornelius Vanderbilt .......... l'2o0'ooo
estate, .'.......... 10000, 900
Stenhen whitney ........ 100000
Seventeen MiIIiOnaires in 1916.
Here we have seventeen individuals
and six estates set down as beng
above the million mark. How &C
curate these estimates were | cannot
know. 1t may have been that they
were very accurate or not at all so.
Mr.. Beach was probably a good deal
of gossip. and as he contributed
his own name to the list, saying
frankly that he was worth 100000,
he probably was not restrained by
any feeling of delicacy in pursuing
his inquiries, for it is evident that
he saw no harm in publishing to the
world a statement as to what he was
worth and how he had acquired 1t.
however that the
amount set down in many cases was
rather larger than less what 1t should
have been or would have been II
the money had been counted and
the property appraised. The popu-
lation of New York city was then
800, 900, and of course 1t was big
place. 1t was not so big, how
ever that every man of conse-
quence could not know every other
man.
Wealth Nearly Always Exaggerated.
It may be depended upon that they
did know-they knew of their incom-
ings and their outgoings-just as now
they know in small towns and coun-
try villages. But any one who has
had experience of country life knows
that the estimates placed popularity
upon the wealth of any man who is
making money, and has more than he
his own wants, is vastly exaggerated.
ANY man who has more than he needs
seems to be rich to one who has less
than he requires. And so a man whose
wealth is really say $4,000 is put
down at four times that sum, and
man who really has 100000 is reckon
ed a millionaire. But Mr.. Beach did
not belong to the needy class; he
was rich man by his own confession.
So it is quite likely that his spectacles
were not powerful magnifying glasses,
but like those of the gentle Titbottom,
who when he put them on, saw things
exactly as they were. SO let us con-
cede that these were rich men in
their time, even though their wealth
was set down in good round
figures.
The Lesser Fortunes of the sos.
Some of these fortunes have been
disspated, some have been divided
among heirs in so many shares that
none of them are notably large, while
others, notably the Astors and Van
derbilts. have grown into colossal pro-
portions. And among the lesser for
tunes mentioned by Mr.. Beach many
have also become priPcely in magni-
tude. For instance, Mr.. Beach put
down August Belmonts fortune at
$500, 900; that of William Colgate (de-
scribed as "a very worthy man in
the business of a tallow chandler')
at 100000: that Of Peter Cooper at
100000; Mrs. John Delmonico's at
100000. j. w. De Peyster's at $780,
OCO Amos r. Eno's at $150.000: Pre-
served Fish's at s250,OOO the estate
of +. Gerhard at $500, 000 Peter Goe-
let's at $500, 00O FIVE families Of Hen
bricks at 81 100000; Arson G. Phelps
at 100000; the Rhinelander family at
81, $50 900; c. V. S. Roosevelt's at
$500. 900; Alexander T. Stewards at
$4,000: Lispenard Stewards at $780,
600, and Moses Taylor's at 100000.
The RhineInnder Fortune.
Any reader may guess as well as
into what great sums these compar-
atively lesser ones grew under the
management Of the owners Of 1886 or
that OF their successors. The Rhine
lander fortune. for instance, is now
immense, and mainly by the increase
in the value Of real estate. Mr.. Beach
says:
THE Rhinelanders, for fifty years
past among the richest Of the rich I'm
this city, were but humble tallors and
shoemakers IN the Revolution, and with
the Tories who stayed IN the city feath-
cred their nests under the protection
% the British nag"
Another chronicler tells this story OF
the Rhlnelnnder fortune.
In the Colonial times an English
man named Rogers had a farm IN the