The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-12-09
RICH AMERICANS AS
SEEN BY AN

ready given away $50. 100000. little more
than his income for d year, to universities.
churches and charitable institutions. He
scarcely ever speaks, he dresses simply.
does not enjoy himself, does not go to tho
theater; he painfully drags after him the
enormous weight of his wealth and passes
his life solitary, envied by too many, des-
pised by many. not understood by any.
Lie is the tragedy of riches.
Andy Carnegie.
..Andrew Carnegie Is q more sOciable
type. Small In stature. with lively gray
eyes; he thinks much and ak very
much; he whirls tirelessly from place to
place and is sorry he cannot be every
where at the same time. He considers 1t
a disgrace to die rich and he sings the
praises of poverty. He is convinced that
he has u providential mission to fulfill in
the world, a mission intrusted to him by
God. and the better to fulfill 1t he sold his
company to the steel trust for three times
what it was actually worth. He builds
great libraries which too often are of no
use to anyone; he has written a book in
which he teaches that education Is good
for nothing and that It is better to begin
ones own career sweeping out an Office
than studying in a university; In the
meantime, however. he distributes millions
iii endowing schools of every kind. He
has discovered that Latin is useless and he
has tried to reform English spelling. He
1 makes arnlOT plUle dLu III III
dreams of world peace, which he would
buy for $500, 100000 If it were for sale. He
has given away $l5O,NO,OO COZ in 10 years, but
he has not succeeded in Kidding himself OF
his income. He is a melodrama Of riches
with a little more of the drama than the
melody.
..Thomas Lawson. OF Boston, is the most
original of all. His favorite pose Is that
of a reformer; hearing him one would say
he was the most innocent man in the
world. In sensational articles he has ex-
posed the stupid methods OF Rockefeller
and. in exposing them, has confessed that
he himself was constrained to gain a few
millions by the same methods. He has an
establishment with 100 dogs. $50 horses and
IL kilometers of iron fence built around
1t. He writes articles for the newspapers
and magazines on the events of the stock
exchange and 1t is said that he is paid for
such articles at the rate OF $4,000 apiece
by more powerful SPECTATORS than he. He
dresses elegantly and drives perfectly any
team of horses or automobile. He is the
farce Of riches.
"These are the extremes, the most char
acteristic types; around them turns a null
titude of beings who are little less pic
turesque. The American millionaire of
the older generation is a good devil who
works d%oggedly in his Office and cares
little or nothing for the affairs of his
household, where his wife is supreme.
Tho New Generation.
The new generation of millionaires has
a different aspect 1t is gayer. more live
lN. In some cases the heirs of the old
naillionaires begin as young men TO do
business beside their fathers, and little by
little take their places in the office, to lead
the same kind of life until old age. Such
are the sons of Morgan, Rockefeller. Hill,
Stillman, Schiff, Rogers and some of the
Vanderbilts; but they are elegant. refine
young men, graduates OF Harvard or
Yale. They have never known poverty
and have never struggled, hence they do
not know what 1t was to conquer; IL they
succeed in keeping intact the property
they will inherit from their fathers they
may be called fortunate; their sons may
be called thus IL they succeed In finding
somebody who will keep 1t for them: their
grandsons will pile up debts.
"A goodly number of the young million
aires cannot work: they are sons OF faith
ers who ave worked too much, and the
rest that remains for them to do is to
spend the money amassed by their fathers,
The way they spend it at times 10 rather
strange. One builds a house that costs
millions and then sells 1t for half price
because he does not like it any more:
another passes his time with race horses
and automobiles or divarts himself by
marrying and getting divorces, a very ex-
pensive pastime. One spends a million a
year on his yacht, another spends as much
on q singer. One for diversion marries a
chambermaid and a last. not knowing
what to do, shoots or poisons another, in
order to spend a million on his trial.
I'm the midst of SO much squalor there
are not lacking, however. the sober, sem
sible. honest men OF wealth, who live
without ostentation n do good without
publicity. who deplore all this ~extrava-
gance and understand that in this world
\ floro 10 Soroathi0O uyorth mara fbor
money; but these are a ridiculous minor
ity."