Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-28
nnhnnIMn UnIlcr
DUHnUIW6 nUUJL
TRUST FORMED
NEW YORK WOMAN IS THE
HEAD OF IT
Mrs. Kate Foster Conducts Forty-elsh'
Boarding, Lodging and Apartment
Houses-From Millinery shop
to Profitable Business
Special TO The Herald.

list of trusts there must be added q
new one-the boarding house. To the
voluminous list of trust magnates
must be added another, Mrs. Kate
Foster, who, In twelve years, through
shrewd business management and eau
tious investment, has risen from COM
parative poverty to independent wealth
and whose interests are steadily In
creasing.
Modestly, Mrs. Foster, a comely wo-
man of thlrty-four years, admits that
she now has forty-eight boarding,
lodging and apartment houses scat
tered through the upper east side, be-
tween Seventy-second and Ninetieth
streets; that she is negotiating for
four more; that she Is In the business
to make q fortune and not because 1t
appeals to her; that she has reaped a
handsome profit from her ventures,
which she has managed herself, and
that she intends some day to retire.
The rewards to be had by acquiring
new places and the possibility of ulti-
mately having practically all the
boarding houses under one manage
ment appeal to her, but she will step
aside and let some one else take the
chance.
Suggestions that subsidiary to the
boarding house trust there should be a
hash monopoly, a pie trust, a prune
combination and an Irish stew trust
brought the reply that Mrs. Foster was
opposed to subsidiary companies Of all
kinds.
Twelve Years In Business
i Light was thrown upon the interest
ing career of Mrs. Foster and her re-
marlxable business ventures by persons
who have had dealings with her dur
ing her twelve years experience as a
boarding and lodging house keeper.
Their descriptions place her in the fore
front of American business women.
Wealthy once through inheritance,
she lost her money in speculation and
after living humbly for a few years
she determined to regain her fortune
4 through her own efforts. Her success
dates from the day she close up her
small dressmakfng shop, where she
had shaved for meager reward, and
opened a rooming house in the resi-
Dental section of old Yorkville.
Year after year her business grew
until now she has, In addition to pri-
vate houses, apartment houses leased
but furnished at her own expense,
some of which have more than 150
rooms. Mrs. Foster gives evidence Of
the fact, which she reluctantly admits,
that her family was one of Importance
in Germany.
I'm not proud of what I've done"
she said to a Herald reporter. "And
anyhow it is nothing. / shall retire
some day and the sooner that day
comes the better / shall like it,"
A Real Business Woman
She was seated in her office on the
ground floor of the five-story apart
ment house at 1926 Lexington avenue
which she leased five years ago and In
which she lives. Clad in a neat fitting
suit of black-her husband died few
months ago-and with sleeves cut short,
and seated at q desk on which were
many letters and other documents, she
looked the part of the real business
woman, and a moment later this i'm
preston was heightened when, address,
ing a sort Of general supervisor who
had been summoned, she said:
"Have the plumbing fixed in the -
apartment at - East Eighty-second
street; have the paper changed at once
in fat No. in - East Seventy-eighth
street; see that the people in flat No. 8,
- East Ninetieth street, are out by
Monday; have a gas jet fixed in the
kitchen of fiat No. 7 at - Eighty
fourth street"
More than a score or orders were
given to the supervisor, who gladly took
q memorandum which Mrs. Foster had
prepared with the various addresses
written down. Her orders were ratified
off with the precision and sternness OF
a mill boss, and she demonstrated that
she has every detail of her executive
business at her fingers ends. Her
home on the ground floor of 1235 Lex
|, ington avenue is only comfortably fur
nished; luxury is sacrificed for business
In the Yorkville section Mrs. Foster
owns several private houses and leases
still others, but she prefers to live In
an apartment and will make her home
i,, " furniGhnd house
Madison avenue, which she now uses
as a fashionable rooming house.
Mrs. Foster explained, when asked
for an interview, that she dislikes pub
: licity and prefers to live her own life
without taking her neighbors or the
great public into her confidence.
You know" she said, that it some
times happens we do not get into the
business we most prefer, but, through
misfortune or other things, are forced
to do things we dislike. That Is my
case. | am not proud that / am 6
boarding and rooming house keeper. II
is true, as all real estate dealers viii
tell you, that 1 have always maintained
a high standard in every boarding ol
rooming house 1 have conducted, but
even SO, 1 do not care for the business
and will some day get out of it."
"But hasn't it made you a fortune?'
was asked.
Made Much Money
"Oh, yes, / have made great deal oi
money. I could retire tomorrow II
wished. have my automobiles and never
do another thing. There is much money
to be made in this business If one con-
ducts 1t properly and on strictly bust.
ness basis, but 1t keeps me too busy
and l hardly think shall continue th4
plans l once made, to expand until
controlled rooming and boarding houses
all over the city"
"Could you extend your interests unit
you had a monopoly on the boarding
houses of New York;" was asked.
"Oh, have quite a few now, haven't
II" she rejoined, proudly. "one coulS
get Just as many as he could get gooS
housekeepers to look after. l was {
dressmaker not so many years ago.
hadn't a cent. Then decided to star
a rooming house for aristocratic people
got a little money and started. /
paid splendidly and started seconS
one. That paid and looked arount
and started a third, That paid and
looked around and started a fourth
That paid also, and thus 1t continued
Now have several houses like thi