Year: 1877

Speaking of a recent failure in Boston
the New York Tribune says:


"If we had been called upon to name a
Boston lawyer perfectly trustworthy, and
not in with a criminal squint, it is very
probable that we should have mentioned
Mr.. Edward S. Rand, jr., for he had high
standing at the bar, he was of an excellent
family, and he was the owner of charming
estate in Dedham, where he was particular
ly successful in cultivating flowers, about
which he wrote books regarded as excel
lent of their kind. He was the very man
to be made q trustee of women's funds,
and such trustee he was accordingly. He
is now, accordingly to his own statement,
very near to beggary, and was lately in
Jail upon a writ Of ne ereat. 1t is one of
those cases of complete breakdown which
come too frequently after long and ap
parently prosperous career. All the beau
tiful estate with its elegant gardens is
mortgaged quite to its value. The money
received upon the mortgages has been
spent in the improvement OF the land, in
living, and in paying debts. Even the
furniture of the house is mortgaged. The
trust money is gone, not, as Mr.. Rand's
friends say, criminally misappropriated,
though he admits spending a portion for
purposes apart from the trust. So the re-
spectacle and respected gentleman of yes
terday is utterly ruined, at the best an
object of commiseration, and quite bowed
down by calamity.


Total failure of this kind has become so
common, not only in Massachusetts but in
other parts of the country, that it furnishes
a well-defined variety of human weakness
and wretchedness. Men, upon the sole
ground of their responsibility, are allowed
to manage the money of others, when it
turns out at last that they are incompetent
to manage their own. This was the case
with Abram jackson of Boston, who came
to the deepest grief in 1875, to the utter
amazement of everybody. This was also,
though not to so great an extent, the case
| of Winslow, also of Boston. No criminal
actions have been brought against Mr..
Rand, and none may be; but not the less
is he socially ruined.


Nor is this the first instance in Masscchu-
sets, by any means, of a man brought to
insolvency by passion for fancy farming
and Horticulture. Mr.. Rand's gardens
were as famous in Boston as the gardens of
Sallust were in Rome. His greenhouses
were celebrated throughout the land. The
soil of his State is remarkable at least for
one thing-a capability Of swallowing up
| large quantities OF cash TO the acre. MI.
Rand's bulbs and other roots, his orchids
and his fruit trees, flourished wonderfully,
but they cost a great deal of money and
they brought in none. There was another
gentleman who fourished not great way
from Mr.. Rand's estate, and who came to
grief through passion for wonderful pigs
We have heard of another in the same
sterile commonwealth who broke down on
strawberries. Nobody knows till he tries
how much money he can spend in green
houses, lighthouses, forcing houses, and
lovely stables full of blooded stock. Mr.
Rand's calamity only shows how a sensible
man in other matters can muddle away
fortune. In his distress, which is under
stood to be acute, he is warming against
yielding to be a hobby-even the beautiful


hobbies of Horticulture and fine furniture