Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-25
MANY MILLIONS KEPT
HIM FROM MARRIAGE
FATHERS WILL FORBADE THAT
HE TAKE A WIFE
Had Stephen Salisbury Yielded to
the Warnings of His Heart It
Would Have Meant the Loss of
His Great Fortune
Special to The Herald.

SDeC1ai 10 Il ne f1eTGi0.
WORCESTER, Mass. Dec. a.
Twenty times millionaire was Stephen
Salisbury, the aged philanthropist and
man of affairs who died in this city
recently.
Had 1t been possible for the world to
read the heart of the silent, grave
financier who gave SO literally of his
wealth to Worcesters charitable insti-
tutions and brought so much happiness
into the haunts of poverty, it would
have been found that the aged million
aire wag in reality one of the most un-
happy-one of the most unlucky-of all
men. His great fortune had been to
him a tyrant. Hpr more than half a
century he had been it's slave.
When still young man the founda-
ton of his great fortune had been made
by a rich bequest in his eccentric
fathers will. The elder Salisbury heaped
money and estates upon his son but
under the most cruel conditions. 1t was
stipulated that Stephen Salisbury
should never marry and that. should he
violate the agreement, he should forfeit
his great estate even to the last penny.
That was when Stephen Salisbury
was young, and when life was sunny.
He went to Harvard university, and
there his open purse won for him many
convivial friends. He returned, after
his graduation to Worcester, and there
his many interests for while occupied
his attention. At that early time of life
bachelorhood was full of its own at
fractions. The true romance of living
was to him sealed book.
But monotony crept into the existence
of this man who had more money than
he knew what to do with. He resolved
to travel. Alone he visited the great
cities of Europe and when their novelty
began to pail, he turned his face to the
republics of South America and at last.
one day, in Yucatan he met dark
eyed Spanish girl who appealed to his
fancy as no other woman had ever
done.
Those We're the short, happy days in
Stephen Salisburys life. His friend
ship for the Spanish girl grew to real
affection. Affection became love and
then the young millionaire traveller
knew that without her his life would
never be complete. But between his
heart and hers stood the impossible
wall OF his great fortune, and his obli-
cation to his aristocrauc old father s
memory.
The man who possessed the material
and mental means of bestowing lux
ury upon woman and bringing happi-
ness into her life was denied the right
to wed.
So the young millionaire returned TO
Worcester. leaving his heart behind
him in far away Yucatan. The residents
of the Bay state city noted his changed
manner. but they did not understand It's
meaning. for of all matters affecting his
personal life, Stephen Salisbury's lips
were sealed. He refrained from talking
of his own affairs even to his closest
friends.
He took up his residence in the big.
solemn mansion that had come to him
through his fathers will and set out to
live his life alone: AS his years in-
creased the one domestic light in his
solitary life seemed to be the friendship
of Mrs. s. E. Reed Lawton, friend Of
his younger days, who had married
when she first knew him. Her homie
closely Joined his and there seemed to
be a bond of sympathy between the
two
But apart from this one friendship
Mr.. Salisbury stunned society. His one
popularity In life was to avoid associa
ton with others. His heart-but his
friends did not know--belonged else
where.