The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-12
RICH, He LIVES
ON l5C A WEEK.
Omaha Tax Title Buyer Practices
Simple Life Doctrine
with a Vengeance.
Special to The Journal.

Special to The Journal.
Omaha, Neb., Nov. 11.-With wealth
OF. a 100000, with the philosophy of
Emerson, Thoreau, and the other great
writers of the Concord, school as his
solace and his comfort, with the cares Of
q daily business that often mounts up
into thousands of dollars; Andrew J ack-
day on an average. His widest cpl
curean flights never exceed IN cost lo
cents day.
Seaman lives in the suburbs Of Ben
son, in cold, barren room that costs
him but so cents week rent to the
owner of the dismal little cottage of
which it forms part.
'.Here I may rest in peace and read
by Bible and my Emerson and my Thor
over he explains. "Of course, I
can t read much this weather, because
I have no stove in my room. but by re-
firing early and putting my lamp at the
head of my bed, l spend many a happy
hour in reading and meditation. MY
but they are nearest in resemblance to
Thoreau's ideal home close to nature at
Walden Pond, that I can find for 5O
cents week, which is all that any un-
married man ought to pay in rent
A Tax Title Buyer.
Mr.. Seaman IS business is that of tax
title buyer. During the past two years
he has been especially active because
10 per cent of the separate pieces OF
property in Omaha have been sold under
the hammer at a cleaning up sale IN
taxes known as the Etax scavenger
sale.'' He has bought and sold titles
rapidly, and often his extensive capital
has been completely invested for sew
eral days at a time. Day after day he
has attended the sales during the regu-
lar business hours. and then tramped
thru the outskirts of the city until dark
ness, looking over lots that would be on
sale the following day.. that he might
more accurately judge their values and
bid accordingly.
But thru it all he has lived the sim
pie life with vengeance. He didn It do
it because of necessity, but because it
was a part of his nature, inherited from
his father sixty-two yeays ago, and
studied with philosophic mind.
!, GA man can live upon an economical
basis all right, if he will watch out for
his expenses,' says Mr.. Seaman. "My
father always taught me to cut my coat
according to my cloth, and not; accord
ing to the fashion. That is why I can
live about as cheaply as any man in
Omaha.' Z
1SdIS dSO MT. DcdlIldu was d SGtGl
worker But by working hard and saw
ing all but the mere trife that his daily
fare cost him, he had enough money
saved in few years to begin his pros
porous career as buyer of tax titles,
which business he has extended to Den
ver, Lincoln and Kansas City, Journey
ing to those places from time to time in
the cheapest manner possible, packing
his documents and some rolls and cheese
oc troy-olipr rotinnS into his rnStV and
frayed little handbag. Il
Mr.. Seaman s business motto IS to buy
when others want to sell, and to sell
when they want to buy. He scorns the
man who puts all his money on his back
and declares that any man scan dress
comfortably upon S. or Sc year,
@ Finds a Cheap Office.
/ He is member of the Young Men s
Christian association and" spends the
sgreater part of his time in the rooms of
the associations saying the membership
fee of S. a year is the cheapest office
rent. There he writes and arranges his
title business. He cuts the printed de-
inquent tax lists from the papers and
pastes them in a scrap book, in order to
keep track Of his business.
In the earlY5daNs Of Mr.. Seaman 9
career as taxStitles buyer, the Y. M. G.
"A. had "limited' membership that
cost but 50 year and this amount Mr..
Seaman paid promptly, each year, but
finally, during the hard times when the
directors were scratching around for
every dollar obtainable, the sight of the
wealthy tax title3 buyer sitting day after
day in the most comfortable spot in the
building, using up association stationery
and eating his frugal lunches on the
library tables, they limited to him that
an additional contribution would be wei
coined. But the philosopher ignored the
suggestion. Finally plot was formed
by the directors to do away with the So
membership altogether, and make every
one pay at least $5. This, it was
thought, would Danish Mr.. Seaman, but
it didn It; he paid the increase.
Solves the Coal Problem.
Mr.. Seaman also solves the coal prob
lem, which is apt to- be such a winter
bugbear for some people, by simply elm
! mating the, coal altogether. . He has
never slept in heated room, he says
Mr.. Seaman is worried when any ont
Z asks him about his wealth, and evades
direct answer. But conservative esti
mates, based on the amounts he has
been known to have invested at a give1
time, place it at little over 100000
Yet he lives without kitb or kin or cal
or dog, but only his well-thumbed ani
penci-marked volumes from the writer:
of the Concord school, some cheap prints
of Emerson and Thoreau and Margare1
Fuller and Amos Bronson Alcott, evi
IDENTIFY torn from magazine, tackled tt
the walls, and a single framed picture
of Thoreau's s hut at Walden Pond hang
ing over the head of his bed. Unshave1
and unkempt, his sordid, miserly lift
lighted by, the single brilliant light o1
his Unitarian, philosophy, which warns
~ h h1,,o1 into In al Snf hot 1,o IL
simple, sainted life. Of those who frs
taught transcendentalism