The Washington herald., 1907-02-17

pIaCuCdl, nalu thinking IN the course OF
their fortune building.
But the fortune builder has only begun
his task when he has got his money to-
gether. He must then plan and work to
keep it together, not only during his life
time, but after death. since he knows
from the bitter experiences Of others that
the heirs 10 great fortunes are often
quite unable to conserve them. But the
more famous Of the multimillionaires OF
to-day believe they have found a better
wGy TO perpetuate their wealth than the
cOUntry's pioneer miIlionaires knew about
and this is probably true.
The mere fact that the great fortunes OF
to-day are SO much larger than were those
Of yesterday is one thing that viii make
for their permanently, but the linking Of
the great transportation and productive
properties together, through the device
Of interlocking ownership. is expected to
prove the greatest factor in their stability
The indOlent, uubusiness-Hke or pleas
ure-loying heir to a fortune Of Sl0lOCO,CC
oven, might easily dissipate it through
bad management or personal extrava-
ganCe if il were all invested in one en-
tcrprise of which he were the sole owner
But if his $100000C00 are distributed among
half dozen or perhaps a score of great
corporations, each managed by experts
who have risen to high executive place
through successive stages and by dint
Of the hardest sort Of work, his fortune
can hardly be destroyed through his own
bad management.
"The buying of stock IN a rivals rail-
D l.
IN your own road. not only lessons the
necessity of competition between the two
roads, but also helps to insure the prop
erty OF both after YOU are gone" said a
railroad "magnate" TO the writer the
other day.
Undoubtedly the conviction that this
view is correct has had its influence in
bringing about the great combinations
which we call trusts" If these com
binations are allowed TO remain intact
there is little danger to the permanence
Of the most famous fortunes of this
country
Jay Gould. it viii be remembered. made
a sort of family trust for the preserva-
ton Of the family millions. and it was
effective even against the assaults Of the
Count de Castellane upon the portion of
them inherited by the younger daughter
OF the family.
Many of the pioneer fortune builders
were not nearly so wise in their day and
generation as those of to-day hope they
are. 1t is doubtful whether there are now
a score of millionaire families in the
whole country which were in millionaire
dom fifty years ago. it would be hard to
make an Off-hand list of more than half
a dozen. Barely ohe Of them can say its
fortune ran into the millions a hundred
years ago.
The fortunes of Abbott and Amos Law
renee, the founders of Lawrence, Mass,
were possibly the most famous in the
whole country ia the middle of the last
century. There may be here and there
among my readers a gray head who viii
remember the paragraph devoted to Alb
bott Lawrence in the old geography books
' He was described as a merchant king."
his fortune was estimated at Sz0.O00000.
which was enormous in the before-the-
war days. when he fourished
He was as much Of d phenomenon as
Aston or Vanderbilt, his millionaire con
temporaries. whose fortunes are still con-
spicuOUsly In evidence. There are many
well-tO-do LaWrences to-day, of course.
but the fame of the family as an excep-
tionaIly wealthy one has disappeared, ex-
cept near GrOton. Mass. There Abbott
Lawrence's own country house, guarded
by Il fine, more-than-a-century-o elm,
still stands
The Moses Taylor fortune was another
wonder Of New York i'm the middle Of the
nineteenth century, which is never heard
OF any more. Ii was much larger than the
fortune Of Charles J. Osborn, whose son,
Howell, got away with his patrimony in a
surprisingly short time, with the help Of
certain associates in theatrical circles
The fortune Of Asa Packer, builder Of
one Of the most famous Of the so-called
coal railroads. is another which has dis
appeared completely. Yet in the SOS and
los he was the richest man in all Penn
sylvania, and at his death his wealth was
estimated at Sl0C01,050
The Vanished Sprague Millions.
The disappearance Of the millions in
herited by William and Amasa Sprague. of
Rhode Island. attracted more attention.
probably, than the dissipation OF any other
fected in a very few years. after nearly
century Of careful and laborious upbuild-
ing, and il was attended by no end OF
startling and picturesque incidents.
As William Sgrague, the man who lost
It, had been governor of his State. and
was a United States Senator when the
crash came. and as his wife was Kate
Chase. famous for her beauty. her clever
ness. and her power in politics. the whole
country watched the dissolution Of the
fortune with the greatest interest
At the time OF his collapse in the '70s,
William SDrague was the head of the firm
OF W & \. Sprague, cotton manufac-
turers, of Providence. The firms mills
employed 15.C00 men and women The cap
ital invested in the business ran well into
the millions, and while the world of cot
ton manufacturers knew of the firms en-
barrassment. it was unguessed by the gen
eraI public.
The concern was established in the
early days Of the republic by William
Sprague's grandfather. His two sons.
William and Amasa, carried 1t on after
his death, and Amasa's sons also. VII
liam and Amasa, took it over in their
turn, so that its style was W. and A.
SpragUe for two generations. Both the
William SpTague, uncle and nephew.
went into public life, and each became
first governor and then Senator; the
first was only two years in the upper
house, from 1912 to 1874: the second
served an even dozen years. from 1868
to 1875 He is still living at Narragan-
sett Pier, across the bay from New
port. the last I heard OF him he was
chief of police there and with hardly