The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-05-06
RICH MEN IN CARPETS
MiLLIONA!RES WHO CHOOSE TO
LIVE LIKE HERMITS.
Eccentricities of G. e. Dering and Sir
Henry Delves Broughton Of Eng
nd-Solodovnikoff, the Miser
King Of St. Petersburg.

King Of St. Petersburg.
The vanity OF riches" has never
been more strikingly demonstrated
than by the story of G. e. Dering, who
recently died at Lockley Hall. Walwyn.
For the greater part Of half a cen
tury this lord of many acres and of
quarter Of million of money has
been content to lead the life of a
hermit In his magnificent home sur
rounded by thousand acres of park
land. His valuable pictures-by Hol
bein, Fra Bartolomeo and other old
masters-have stood for generation
stocked three deep with their faces
turned to the walls; a generation of
dust had settled undisturbed on Dres-
den vases, gold and enamel clocks,
statuary and costly furniture.
Gorgeous carriages, rich with her
aldic painting, lay rotting in his coach
house; his front door was overgrown
with ivy as high as the stone shield OF
arms that crowned it. Not even
lamb was allowed to bleat within hear
ing Of the lord of this desolate man
sion; and even the high road was d-
verified. that no sound of traffic should
vex his ears. Thus, amid dust, decay
and desolation, lived and died the
owner of G25,000 a year, stunning the
world and scorning his wealth.
And so it has always been and al
ways will be. One man squandered
his gold; another boards or despses
it. 1t is but few years since one of
our wealthiest baronets-a man with
a rent roll of 100000 year-died
IN a miserable attic near Water
loo Bridge. His scrdd room was pa.
pered with illustrations from the week
~ papers; he never crossed it's
threshold except for an occasional
solitary ra1nble by night; no one was
ever allowed to enter his dTeary sanc-
tum, his meals being left for him out.
side the door; and his long days were
spent looking through his attic win
dow on the moving panorama of the
Thames.
While Sir Henry Delves Broushton
was sitting at his attic window a man
infinitely richer was walking the
streets of st. Petersburg in the guise
OF besgar, pocketing the aims of
charitable passers-by. and gleefully
carrying back his spoil to his miser-
able two-storied cottage in one of the
city's slums.
That was the only palace" of the
multi-millionaire Solodovnikoff, where
he lived among his decrepit sticks of
furniture with an old housekeeper.
Here he would sit shivering through
the cold winter days, too miserly to
allow himself a fire or even to bright
en- the dark house with the light Of a
solitary candle. For 20 years he was
only known to wear one suit, a thing
of shreds and patches" scarcely
Vestlge OF the original cloth remain.
ing. And yet this sordid-living her
init was one of the greatest landown-
ers and railway magnates in all Rus.
sia-a man who left behind him a hun.
dred million roubles. Far Weather
than many kings, he led life from
which most peasants would have
shrunk.
A few years ago there was no
wealthier man in all Paris than M.
Colasson, who for generation had
lived as pauper in two rooms of his
magnificent palace in the Rue Galilee.
During all this period he never once
left his splendid prison, and no one
was ever allowed to enter 1t except
his one faithful attendant, who kept
him supplied with his daily food of
bread and eggs. AS in Mr.. Behring'S
case, it was the death Of father that
consigned him to his hermit life, so
with M. Colasson it was the tragic
death by fire of loved nephew and
heir in 1874 that decided him to for.
swear the world and all it's vanities.
Within a few weeks Of the death OF
M. Colasson there died in an attic in
q Berlin slum one Herr Schwarz, who
was known to and pitied by his neigh.
bors as the poorest of the poor. He
sailed out daily into the fashionable
quarters, dressed in rags and carrying
a sack in which he collected crusts.
He lived alone and died alone,
mere bag of bones-surrounded by
riches, for in his loom was found
G80,000--in gold coins. stored in
scores Of jars and bottles, and in bank
notes, with which his pillow and mat.
tress were stuffed.-Tit-Bits.