The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1916-07-03

road company for an engine and one
car. After haggling few minutes,
Mrs. Green made THIS maj proposi-,
ton:
Take off the car and make It IS
less. I'll ride in the locomotive cab.
This she did, and reached Wall street
in time to make a successful turn.
Dressed Simply.
Dressed in simple and sometimes
shabby black. with little bonnet that
would stand lot of wear, the woman
of millions moved about in downtown
New York, recognized only by few who
had been initiated into the secret of
her identity. She never rode in a
carriage. and was never seen at the
theatre or opera. Her abiding place
was usually a mystery to the tax col
lector whom she admittedly lodged.
William Jennings Bryan when in
Congress arguing in favor of an income
tax, said:
"Hetty Green enjoys an income
which can scarcely be less than So.
900 900 year, yet she lives at cheap
boarding house and spends only few
hundred dollars. This woman, under
your indirect system of taxation. does
not pay as much towards the support
of the federal government as labor
ing man whose income of $500 is spent
upon his family"
Her most pretentious home was at
Bellows Falls, VT, where she spent
many summers, but even this place
was notorious there for never being
in repair. In winter she hid herself
in some of the least expensive neigh
borhoods around New York, guarding
her identity by putting the name OF
her pet dog Dewey" on the doorplate.
Her daughter, Sylvia, was her only
companion. The latter she kept from
marriage, at the age of 80, to Matthew
Astor Wilks, a wealthy New Yorker
of 81 years. The lonely mother then
removed herself for a long time to a
suite of rooms in one of the most fash
ionable Fifth avenue hotels, but this
luxury was soon given up.
Strong for Eddie.
| 1t was Hetty Green's ambition to
make her son, Edward Rowland Green,
the richest man in the country. She
put him through many severe tests to
try out his business qualifications. A
story is told that when he was boy
she sent him out to the street corner
to sell the morning paper from which
she had read the financial news. She
| finally sent him to Texas, where he
Eventually worked himself to the front
as a railroad man and financier. Since
/, 1893 he has been president of the Tex
as Midland Railroad and factor In
many other interests. In late years
he largely assumed the management
of his mothers property.
Typical of some of the turnovers by
which they made large sums OF money
was the sale of hundreds of acres oil
land in Chicago which they had OBJ
tanned years before under foreclosure
proceedings for a few hundred thou
sand. and which sold for millions.
Hetty Green's investments were
largely in mortgages and whenever
she invested in anything it was only
after she had made the most minute
personal examination of the proper
ties. She never disclosed in detail the
secrets of her success. but she admit
ted it was mainly in buying when
things were cheap, and never selling
until they were high. If asked for ad
vice as to what would be good to invest
in. her epigramatic answer was usu
ally, 1.-The Other World"
Not Intensely Religious.
While never intensely religious she
was a frequent attendant at Quaker
meetings, and only a few years ago
she, like her daughter, was baptized
in the Episcopal Church.
She emphatically denied that hel
disposition was misery. During the
panic of 1907-08 she made loans which
tided over many wealthy New York
ers. Two years before the panic, il
was said. she had gathered in large
portion of her money and was pre-
pared when the storm broke to lenC
a helping hand. at a good rate of in