Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-08-04
RUSSELL sAGEs WILL.
Fifteen Millions Are Tied Up by a
Stroke of the Pen.

New York, Aug 4.-Three strokes
of pen may tie up the estate of
Russell Sage so many years in liti-
cation that the principal beneficiary
and executors, who will receive from
$SOO,O00 to $1,000,000 each, will
be dead and buried before the final
settlement. 1t is discovered in Sara
toga that in the clause to which the
testator attached his signature there
was an erased date, which apparently
ha descaped the scrutiny of any of
the heirs at law, satisfied or dissatis-
fed, with the $4,000 bequest and to
which the attorney for the executors
or attorneys for the estate or widow
have not seen fit to call attention.
In the fourth line of the paragraph
over the testator's signature is an
obliteration or erasure on which
may depend the validity of the docu-
ments. The paragraph begins:
In witness whereof l have here
with subscribed my name and affixed
my seal at No. 2 Wall street, New
York, in the borough of Manhattan"
And then follows, This 18th day of
February, 1901 (19O0 in figures) in
the presence of Edward Townsend
and Richard w. Friedman, whom l
have requested to become attesting
witnesses hereto.
RUSSELL SAGE"
An inventory of the estate of Rus
sell Sage, begun three days ago by
representatives of the executors, has
established to the satisfaction of the
executors and lawyers that the value
of the estate is not below $15O,OOO,-
90. In Sage's strong boxes were
found millions of dollars worth of
securities bearing high interest and
guaranteed as principal and income
which have been for years unknown
to manipulators on Wall Street.
One man who was not surprised
by the revelation of Sage's immense
hoard is DR.. John p. Dunn. one of
the executors. Just before Jay
Gould's death, December 1892,
Gould and Dunn. In conversation
about Sage, agreed that Sage was
the richer of the two famous million
aries. Gould was worth $7S,000.-
900. In IA years since Gould's death,
Sage's estate has easily doubled.
That Sage sought investment in
what is called underlying securities
was well known on Wall street, but
the extent of his holdings of such
issues will surprise the street, when
the inventory is filed with the sur
assessment.
! Sage had blocks of bonds and
stocks in many merged and forgotten
railroads. Both the stocks and
bonds of these roads are guaranteed
, as to dividend or interest and prin-
cipal by the bigger roads which
nave ABSORBED tnem.
Six and seven per cent income was
the ruling rate in the days when
these mergers were made.
Sage had similar luck with tele-
graph stocks of the American Tele-
graph and Gable, Gold and Stock
Telegraph, New York Mutual Tele-
graph, Empire and Bay State Tele-
graph and Washington and New Or
leans Telegraph, corporations, which
built lines in various parts of the
country. These have all been ac-
quired by the Western Union and
their stocks and bonds are guaran-
teed as to interest and principal.
Sage owned large blocks of these
securities.
The inventory showed that the
scheme of absorbing small concerns
at tremendous valuations was not
unknown 20. 80 and 40 years ago.
Securities of these smaller companies
bear incomes ranging from to per
cent and, of course, interest must
be paid before any dividends are de-
clared by the company which alb
sorbed them. Such underlying in
vestment securities are In high IA
vor on Wall street and command
premiums.