Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1909-06-29
ENGAGEMENT RUMORED
London Report Says August Belmont
and Eleanor Robson, the Act
ress, Will Marry.
(Herald Specially


New York, June 29-The report
from London that Eleanor Robson,
the actress, is to marry August Bel
mont has caused no surprise among
the friends of the two in this city.
A strong friendship has been known
to exist between Miss Robson and
Mr.. Belmont for some time. This
spring, before Miss Robson's depar-
ture for Europe, they were to be seen
together almost daily, and Miss Rob
son was frequently a guest at the Bel
mont country place. Her love for
horses is said to have been the COM
mon bond between the couple since
they first met five years ago.
No man in New York is better
known than August Belmont. He is
first of all an aristocrat. 1t is claim
ed that the blood of the canny Scot
fish warrior William Wallace flows
in his veins But the man who can
claim Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of
the battle of Lake Erie, as an an
cestor, is not required to go back to
Wallace for fighting blood.
As for his paternal ancestors from
the banks of the Rhine, their lives
seem to have flowed in more peaceful
and profitable, if scarcely less hon
orable, channels. August Belmont,
father of the present financier, came
to America from Austria in 1874 to
represent his native Austria as con-
sui general in New York He liked
the young country, and decided to
adopt it as his home. Afterward he
represented the United States at The
Hague, but finally returned to New
York, to his bank and his fast horses,
for even the father of August Bel
mont had a taste for the sport of
kings.
The younger August Belmont was
born in this city in 1858, and is there
fore almost twice the age of the
young woman he is reported engaged
to marry He decided to follow in
his fathers footsteps, and in 1875, a
year after his graduation from Har-
ward, he had taken desk in his
fathers banking house For fifteen
years young August developed along
the lines of the young banker, joining |
clubs cultivating athletics, getting ac-
quainted with society, to which he
had free entree-becoming more and |
more interested in stables and ken
an accomttecame 9Gaebtsm. Of a good
player. Then the elder Belmont died.
and August Belmont, Jr., took up the
business of his father-became head
OF the banking house of August Bel
mont & Co., the American representa-
tiyes of the great house of Roths-
child.
For years August Belmont pursued
the careful way of the conservative
banker, outstanding his millions by
the methods of the bankers, making
them grow and breed and grow again.
But about ten years ago he embarked
in an enterprise that attracted world
wide attention. He organized the
Rapid Transit Subway Construction
company which backed by the Bel
mont and Rothschild millions. built
New York's underground railway sys-
EN- and later extended it under the
east river to Brooklyn. This was the
greatest of Mr.. Belmont's financial
achievements, though he has MANY
others to his credit. II
When a young man Mr.. Belmont
married Miss Bessie Hamilton Nor
IAN, who died more than ten years.
go. He has three sons-August
Belmont, Jr., Raymond and Morgan.
lis city house is in East Thirty t
ourth street, and he has a country b
lace at Hampstead, L. l., which is r
he wonder of his neighbors. a
Miss Eleanor Robson, the reported s
ancee of Mr.. Belmont, has a career d
Thich, although brief, is brimful of il
interest She was born in England p
nlrty years ago, her parents and her F
randmother being players of distinc- V
on Her mother, Mrs Madge Carr a
ook, famous as Mrs Wigs of the v