The Sunday Oregonian., August 21, 1904, PART FOUR, Page 33, Image 33

33
The Fabulous Real Estate Wealth of a Few
Twenty Men Who Own More Than a Billion Dollars in
New York City Land.
THE SUNDAY OREGON! AN, . PORTLAND, AUGUST- 21j 1904.
The cities are full of prie.
Challenging each to each:
This from her mountain-side.
That from her burthened beach.
SO sans the bard of the British
Empire when he -was a tempo
rary resident In New York. Re
siding at a Fifth-avenue hostelry, he
had but to "gaze abroad from his win
dows to absorb the inspiration for his
Song of the Cities. For then as now
the American, metropolis occupied the
richest Island on earth a statement
which may be better realized when it
is added that the :real and personal
wealth revealed by the 74 huge vol
umes containing the current tax rec
ords of Greater New York exceeds in
its stupendous total all the money
coined or circulated since the golden
days of Croesus.
Five billion, six hundred and forty
million, five hundred and forty-two
thousand and fifty-seven dollars is the
value fixed by the Tax Commissioners
as representatlng the taxable property
of this richest city In the history of the
world. Of this sum more than 55,000,
000,000 represents the valuation of
real estate alone, upon which basis the
Island of Manhattan is worth nearly
5200,000,000 a square mile. As will be
recounted later, 5330 a square foot has
been paid and received for - real estate
' on this island of mansions and millions.
Wealthiest City in the World.
Even the mind of a Sage or a Rocke
feller, reveling as they do In giant fig
ures, must pause to grasp the enormity
of this Pactolean wealth. Nothing like
it was ever known. London, as a real
estate asset, is a mere dwarf by com
parison. Paris is hardly more than a
pygmy. For London Is 51,500,000,000
poorer than the American metropolis,
and Paris is more than 52,000,000,000
nearer starvation than Its American
rival.
If by way of further comparison the
three richest cities on -earth were re
duced to physical proportion In point
of taxable value London would not
come up to the shoulder of Father
Knickerbocker and Paris could hardly
do more than reach his hand. Other
prideful cities would have to climb
some distance up the Kipling moun
tain to knock the chip from our Gulll
verian shoulder.
Over a Thousand Millionaires.
But by far the most Interesting and
Important secret revealed by the tax
records of 1904, when they were thrown
open to 'the public a few days ago, was
the fact that while ther are 1.390 mil
lionaires residing in New York, the
city Is practically owned by 20 men.
This statement could not have been
made ten or even five years ago. For
five years ago the Tax Department rec
ords bore the titles of 165,000 parcels
of real estate held by about 60,000 own
ers. At that time 20 persons owned
and controlled only 5400,000,000 worth
of real estate on Manhattan Island,
while 97 persons owned nearly 5200,
000,000 more property, placing a one
third control of the city in 124 hands.
Twenty Men "Who Own New York.
"Why has the controlling ownership
of this richest city on earth narrowed
down so rapidly to a mere score of
Croesuses? Before answering this ab
sorbing economic question. It is of
timely Interest to scan the following
names, which symbolize the actual
ownership and relative control of 51,
000,000,000 in Manhattan real estate:
"William "Waldorf .Astor SlCo'oOO.OOO
John Jacob Astor 12000,000,
ixoeiei. laraiiy ...... ...... ua.uuu.uw
Amos R. Eno estate...... 40,000,000
Arnold-Constables 25,000,000
O. M. Potter estate 22,500.000
tEldrtflge T. and Louisa M. Gerry.. 18.000.000
Jacob "Wendel estate 17.500.000
Alfred 'Corning Clark estate. 17.500.000
James iTeCreery 15.000,000
"William Rhlnelander estate 15.000.000
H. H. Landon estate 12,500.000
George Ehret 12.000.000
D. O. Mills estate 12.000.000
Sol Loeb 12,000.000
Stokes family 12.000000
"William P. Furnlw estate 11,000.000
C. V. R. Roosevelt; estate 10.500,000
D. "Willis James 10,000,000
The Vanderbllts 10,000,000
This list of name's -and figures, which
is based upon the tax records and
IRELAND "THE LAND OF THE POOR
John Mitchell Writes oE Conditions "Which For J00 Years Has Steadily Grown "Worse.
UBLIN, Aug. 4. (Special Corre
spondence of The Sunday bre
gonlan. Copyrighted, 1904, by Jo"hn
Mitchell. All rights reserved.) In cross
ing the narrow seas which separate
Great Britain from Ireland, one feels
that one Is migrating to an entirely dif
ferent country. Although England and
Ireland are under the same government,
although the same language is spoken
and the same laws followed, there could
be no wider difference than between these
two lands. Like England, Ireland Is beau
tiful, and one looks out of the train win
dow upon cultivated lands and smiling
va,' tys; but here the resemblance ends.
While in England one sees everywhere
signs of comparative prosperity the ba
sis of Irish life is its poverty and misery.
Everywhere one notes evidence of this
obvious poverty. In the cities, as In the
country districts, the people seem poor,
and the Indigent population is large. Out
side of Belfast one sees but few indus
tries, and in the small towns, through
which one passes, the Deople seem pov
erty-stricken and In many cases
wretched. One notes the comparative
absence of large factories employing
thousands of men, of mines, of iron works
and textile mills, of large, thriving cities,
with great Industrial populations. The
people themselves seem to lack Initiative
and spirit. They seem oppressed, and,
despite a certain occasional gaiety, there
appears to be among them a spirit of
madness which manifests Itself even In
their songs.
Suffering for 150 Years.
Ireland has suffered, and Is still suf
fering, from the evils of the past hun
dred and fifty years. During the 18th
century the English government adopted
towards Ireland somewhat the same
policy that it sought to adopt towards
tho American colonies. The Industrial
development of the island, was crushed
out by the commercial policy of England,
and tho industries of the country died
under the Influence of the competition
of its stronger rival. The Irish, driven
out of Industry, were forced into agri
culture; and even here they lost ground,
especially after the adoption of Iree
trade, which removed the duties from
foreign grain. In the competition with
the great grain-producing countries of
America, Russia -and India, Ireland was
left far behind, and the failure of the
potato crop 60 years ago crushed the last
element of hopefulness out of the peo
ple. The peasants were ground down
between the upper millstone of falling
prices for their produce and the nether
millstone of rising, or, at least, station
ary rents for their lands, and as each
year passed the condition of the pop
ulation grew steadily worse.
The result was that the Irish were
squeezed out of Ireland. Hundreds of
thousands died during the famine of 1846,
when the food, for want or which the
people were starving, was shipped out
cf the island. Those who could sought
which has been carefully verified, will
be noticed as representing only 5612,-
500.000. But ery multi-millionaire
representative on the foregoing roll
controls and frequently owns vast,
and valuable properties which are not
directly traceable to the real owner
and controller by the army of asses
sors. It Is conservatively estimated
that nearly 5450,000,000 additional real
ty is so owned and controlled by the
20 foregoing individual and syndicate
realty kings.
Changes of a Decade.
A decade ago the list would have
been twice or thrice as long as rep
resenting the same real estate hold
ings. But Tax Commissioner Samuel
Strasbourger, who, by reason of his
veteran service and Intimate acquaint
ance -with the taxable wealth of New
Yorkers, Is perhaps the foremost liv
ing authority on the subject, explained
that the score of multi-millionaires and
estates as here chronicled own and con
trol most of the realty in those sec
tions of the city which have doubled
and even trebled In value within the
past decade.
During the past 12 months there has
been an increase of 5263,912,953 in the
real estate valuation and a decrease In
the personal property Valuable of 555,
7S7.214. Commissioner Strasbourger
has compiled the following lllumina?
tive table showing the present taxable
wealth of the five boroughs of Greater
New York as compared with a year
ago.
REAL ESTATE.
1904. Increase.
Manhattan 53,676,837,411 5183.064,029
The Bronx 261,026,477 13,935,710
Brooklyn 901,094.957 48.234.600
Queens 131.379,223 7,597,502
Richmond 44.205.709 1.0S1.112
Total $5,0ip,4fl3.779 5283.912,053
,' PERSONAL PROPERTT.
A904. Decrease.
Manhattan .$508,478,655 $41,364,593
The Bronx C.l 14.750,953 5.0SS
Brooklyn ..I 88.573.775 11,478.573
Queens 1 7,477.425 2,099,475
Richmond 5.792.070 239.480
Total 5625,07S1S78 $55,787,214
Total real estate. $5,015,463,770
Increase i.- $263,912,953
Total personal G25.07S,ST8
Decrease . 55, 87,214
Grand total $5,040,542,657
Increase . ........ $208,125,739
New York Grows Richer.
Realty, unlike personal property, can
not 'shirk its share of taxation. It Is on
the spot and can always be found bthe
Assessors. This year they found 1C5.420
Individual parcels of real estate owned by
less than 50,000 individuals. The decrease
in the value of personal propertyMoes not
mean that there has been any shrinkage
in the personal wealth of New Yorkers,
for It Is conservatively estimated that
with the incoming tide of costly art ob
jects and other luxuries only afforded
by the millionaire, New York Is $100,000,000
richer in Its luxuries than it was a year
ago. It simply means, as the tax officials
ruefully acknowledged, that a great many
more wealthy persons Commissioner
Strasbourger estimates the number at 1800
have taken advantage of the swearing
off process this year than a year ago.
What can the Assessors do? Nothing.
For the Commissioners are bound by law
to accept the word of the man before
them, unless explicitly able to prove Its
falsity. This Is generally Impossible, al
though 1000 corporations and 800 individ
uals were challenged this year. .
Wonders of Tax LIs'ts.
One who has the patience or incentive to
explore the tax records will discover a
rointe of information such as .may be had
from no other source. For the tax books
"form the golden rule by which the vast
fortunes bf contemporary American mil
lionaires are mainly measured and esti
mated.; All the facts and figures given
here have been compiled with infinite care
from the tax receipts and other reliable
sources of information and subsequently
submitted to real estate experts having
intimate knowledge of the immense es
tates or domains of the metropolis.
"William Waldorf Astor heads the pro
cession of millionaires who exercise a real
estate suzerainty on Manhattan Island.
His estate reaches the enormous total of
$150,000,000, or an Investment which yields
him in rentals alone an annual revenue
of $20,000,000. Thus an expatriated mil
refuge In America, and during the last
60 years a steady stream of emigration
has poured out of tHc" country. At every
census the population has decreased. In
1841 there were almost eight and a quar
ter millions of inhabitants in the land.
At the present time there are less than
fou.r and a half millions. Sixty years ago
Ireland had over three times the popu
lation of Scotland. Today Its population
is less than that of the northern peninsu
la. Sixty years ago there were over
half as many Irishmen as there were
Englishmen and Welshmen. Today the
population of Ireland Is less than one
seventh of that of England and Wales.
There are today In Ireland fewer people
by almost a million than there were a
hundred yeara" ago at tho time of the
Union.
Low Birth Rate.
-Tho country naturally shows all the de
pressing signs of a depletion absolutely
unprecedented In tho history of the
world's migrations. In these 60 years
over four million Irishmen have left their
native shores a population almost as
great as that which now remains. The
Irish who emigrated were the"" pick of
the nation. It was the men and the
women with initiative, with courage,
with hopefulness, who left the Emerald
Isle to seek a new home In America, or
to begin life anew under more favorable
conditions in England, Scotland, or the
British Colonies. It was the young peo
ple who left, and It Is the old people who
remain. As a consequence, -the birth
rate in Ireland Is low. The people who
are capable of giving birth are for the
most part out of the country, so that
for every hundred births among a given
number of Englishmen or Scotchmen
there are only about SO births among the
same number of Irish. For the same
reason, namely, that Ireland Is over
burdened with old men and old women,
the death rate Is higher In Ireland than
in Scotland or England. The difference
between the births and deaths leaves
but a small margin for any increase In
the population. The marriage rate is
also low, there being only five marriages
per thousand among the Irish population,
while there are seven marriages per
thousand In Scotland. Even without
emigration," it wourd be difficult for the
country to keep up Its present popula
tion. The bad conditions which form
erly prevailed, however, 'still continue
to a considerable extent, and the emi
gration and the constant drain on the
population still go on.
Perhaps much of the poverty of the
Irish Is due to the fact that, unlike Eng
land, Wales and Scotland, it has not
an industrial but an agricultural popula
tion. Only one out of every 11 males
in England and Wales Is employed In
agriculture, whilst In Ireland the pro
portion is one In three. Over a half of
all the males in England, Wales and
.Scotland are employed in Industrial en
terprises, but in Ireland the proportion Is
less than one In five. Unlike England
and Scotland, Ireland in the main is a
country without great cities. There are,
of course, Dublin and Belfast, with pop
ulations over 200,000 each, but with the
lionaire, who has chosen to bow his knee
to an English King rather than to the
Stars and Stripes, is the greatest land
owner in this city and country, if not
in the world.
Second place In the enviable procession
Is also occupied by an Astor. Colonel
John Jacob Astor must this year pay
taxes on $75,000,000 In realty and, as trus
tee and head of the American house of
Astor, he Is taxable for an additional
550,000.000. This swells the Astor total in
all the collateral branches to $275,000,000.
The Most Valuable Property.
First in point of taxable value among
the single pieces- of real estate In the'
metropolis Is the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
ft
exception of these two places and of Cork
there Is 'no city or town In Ireland with
a population as great as 40,000.
Other Signs of Poverty.
There are many other signs of the pov
erty of tne Irish population, even if
that poverty was not perfectly, obvious.
In the United Kingdom there Is an In
come tax which falls on all Incomes over
$750, but, although there are many In
dividual rich men in Ireland, the income
from this source from the Emerald Isle is
only one-twenty-second part of that from
the whole kingdom.-In Ireland, the railroad
'traffic, both as regards freight and pas
sengers Is very much leas than In England
or Scotland. The number of letters car
ried, the number of telegrams sent, the
tonnage of shipping, the number and
size of the factories, the amount of coal
used, the quantity of Imports and ex
ports are all .very much less than they
should be in proportion to the popula
tion. The taxation, which In the United
Kingdom falls heavily on the poorer
classes of the population, bears with ex
treme weight on Ireland, which has an un
due proportion of poor people, and while
doubtless the amount of wealth in the
country Increases, the poverty of the peo
ple, as compared with that of the Eng
lish or the Scotch, is constantly and con
tinually Increasing.
When wfe speak of the Irish as being
an agricultural nation, we must not con-
'found the situation there with that In
our country. The Irishman who tills
the soil Is not In the position of an Inde
pendent farmer holding his 100 or 150
acres, but is'rather a peasant with a ure
carious holding of a piece of land small In
extent and value, and with a rent in ex
cess of what the land should legitimately
bear. The farms, such aslttiey are, are
extremely small; over twothlrds of all
the holdings are less than 30 acres in ex
tent, and almost one out of every three
farms Is less th"in ten acres In size. To
a certain extent co-operation has been In
troduced among these farmers, but as a
rule the poverty , of the: individual and
hls ignorance of the general conditions
of "farming render it difficult for him to
combine. The farms are upon the whole
Ill-kept, and the conditions under which
they are held are such as tp discourage
any particular thrift or uncommon en
ergy. Low Wage for Artisans.
The men engaged in Industry and in
transportation In Ireland earn consider
ably less than do their brethren In Eng
land and Scotland, and upon the whole
the proportion of unskilled workers In
Ireland Is much larger than In the two
other countries named, while the pay
for the same grade of work Is less. In
general. It is true to say that the Irish
workman earns on an average about half
the amount earned In the Industrial
countries of England and Scotland. The
common laborer In England, who will
earn $4.75 per week in "Northumberland
or Durham, or $5.80 in London, will earn
only $3.25 In Belfast and $4.10 In Dublin,
and about $3.50 in other places In Ireland.
The general surface laborer In mines will
property, at Thirty-fourth street and
Fifth avenue. Thfs "property Is valued by
experts at 57,750,000.' The Cornelius Van
derbllt residence at Fifty-seventh street
and Fifth avenue, which Is assessed at
51.200,000, is displaced by the $3,500,000 Wil
liam A. Clark mansion as the most val
uable single residence in the city.
One of the curios of the tax records is
the smallest lot in town, owned by James
Cornell. It Is situated between Giles
Place and Fort Independence road, near
Boston road. This diminutive piece of
property is valued at 51 by the Tax Com
missioners and Is assessed for 2 cents.
This year the owner sent a 2-cent stamp
to the Assessors in payment of his taxes.
Glancing over the foregoing tfst of the
earn from $4.25 to $4.75 In 'the North of
England, and would earn about $2.80 In
Tlpperary, Antrim or Sllgo. The spinners
In the woolen mills who earn $8.50 in Leeds
will get but $4.75 in Ireland. Ten ye'ars
ago an investigation was made into the
condition of the railroad employes In
England, Scotland and Ireland, and It
was found that while only one employe In
500 earned less than 15s, or $3.75 per
week, In England, and only one In 80
earned less than that amount In Scot
land, almost a half of all the railroad
employes earned 15s. or less In Ireland.
The poverty of the population can also
be shown, by the yearly pilgratlons of ag
ricultural workers from Ireland to Eng
land and Scotland. Every year some
25,000 Irishmen cross the sea to earn $1
a day during harvesting time and then
return to their homes, lor the most part
in the County of Mayo. The wages which
fall to attract English and Scotch work
men thus draw thousands of Irishmen
over the water, even though the savings
that can be effected by a trip of this sort
are not very considerable.
Hope for Betterment.
Much Improvement Is looked for In the
condition of Ireland from the land laws
recently passed by the British govern
ment These laws contemplate the pur
chase of the land from the present own
ers under conditions Involving the guar
antee of the government, and on terms
which are made as favorable as possible
for the tenant. There Is some complaint
even under these laws of the exorbitant
prices demanded by the landlords, but the
general impression appears to be that the
new act Is the first step toward remedy
ing the grievous conditions under which
Ireland has suffered for over a century.
Another hopeful sign In the situation
of Ireland at the present time Is the
energy with which the working popula
tion has entered into the trades union
movement. The people are endeavoring
to secure by Industrial means what they
formerly sought to obtain exclusively by
political action. The optimistic hope that
all would be well as soon as home rule
was -achieved has now given place to a
realization of the many other problems
which beset the Irish worker. The Irish
trade unions are to a considerable extent
separately organized, and by means of
their trade councils they have secured? the
adherence of the Irish political party to
their plans for the improvement of the
working classes. When the British work
Ingmen have succeeded In electing a large
number of members of Parliament?" they
will count, as In the past, upon the ad
herence of tho Irish party In support of
their measures. JOHN MITCHELL.
In collaboration with Walter E. Weyl.
Not Quite the Same.
Philadelphia Press.
Joe Is the 8-year-old son of a prominent
uptown clergyman of the Baptist per
suasion. That he Is an observant and at
the same time a truthful youth this story
amply demonstrates.
"Joe," said a visitor at his father's
house the other day, "as a matter of fact
doesn't your father sometimes preach the
same sermon more than once.?"
Joe thought It over.
"Well," he said at last, and with some
evident reluctance, "I have known him to
preach the same sermon as much as two
times, but but " and the lad's face
brightened "he always hollers In a dif
ferent Dlaca tho second time."
20 owners of New York the number speci
fled as estates Is notable. While each of
these estates Is represented by one or two
individuals, It has become a settled policy
with many American millionaires to en
cumber their estates with prohibitions not
to sell during the Ufa of the longest liv
ing child of the longest living heir, and
la other ways to maintain their estates
intact that they might increase from ten
to a hundredfold.
Other instances, as with "the Astor fam
ily, may be cited In which there has been
a family policy of centralization that al
most pales in steadfastness the policies
of the strongest governments on the face
of the earth. No passing sentiment has
been allowed to Interfere with the de
THE WEAK LIME
Shakespear's Great
8T has long been recognized that Mac
beth, as a tragedy, is somewhat de
ficient on the purely esthetic side. It
works by terror alone, and through this
still stands t)ie crowning glory of that
terrible impersonality which more and
more kept Shakespeare from loitering too
solicitously beside or behind the figures
of his creation. There" is. not a tear in
all Homer; and in the same way there
Is not a tear in all Macbeth. It. ha3 no
pathos and tenderness; and it leaves un
touched the springs of Aristotelian pity.
Macbeth himself goes down to his end as
grimly and as objectively as did the hus
band of Andromache. To the modern
reader or the modern audience, therefore,
the play must lack that conciliating ap
peal which" swells from what we have
come to call "the humanities," clothed
In tenderness. In plain words, appalling
and powerful as it is, Macbeth lacks
charm.
Yet from the purely structural point
of view, there Is a second notable defect
In the play, as It stands before us today.
This Is the relative feebleness, the dra
matic weakness, of the fourth act. It is
a sort of unlooked-for backwater In the
tempestuous rush of action and onward
sweeping horror. Although a number of
tho commentators have questioned or re
jected goodly portions of this act, as be
ing by a hand other than Shakespeare's
(Fleay branding as spurious two portions
of the first scene, and the more authori
tative editors being almost unanimous In
rejecting the Hecate portion), still, the
wealth of the vocabulary, the sheer prod
igality of the fancy, and the sustained
dlctlonal strength of the opening lines,
all combine to show pretty clearly that
Shakespeare himself Is responsible for
much of the act.
But Shakespeare, at this" stage of his
artistic career, was not in ythe habit of
disrupting the very main-arch of his
dramatic action. "With the beginning of
the fourth act of "Macbeth," however,
begins a distinct break in the dramatic
progress of the play. This Structural
oddity, from the standpoint of the the
ater, leaves the fourth act a startllngly
weak one. It Is a distinct and prolonged
pause In the tempest of movement, a
nerve-racking lull In the storm of seem
ing uncertainty. Now, according to the
usoge of Shakespeare himself, and ac
cording to well-established traditions of
dramatic structure, this precise portion
of any tragedy should sweep on with un
hesitating and ever more and more grip
ping action. The motive here, above all
places, should be absorbing and desper
ately sustained, and the main characters.
should be always In the picture." It is
so In "Hamlet" and "King Lear," just
as It is so in "Othello" and "Romeo and
Juliet." After the tumult and theat
rically effective mechanism of the third
act, the fourth act opens with the pro
longed apparent Irrelevancy of the
witches, in the cauldron scene. Although
the interest centering in Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth at this point Is high
pitched and naturally Impatient, the King
remains "up stace" throuchout the lit
termination of the Astors to have and to
hold their realty heritages. John Jacob
Astor the Great, with marvelous foresight.
anticipated the growth of his- adopted city
by practically buying the heart and prin
cipal arteries of the modern American
metropolis. His. heirs retain nearly all
of their original inheritance, to which
they have added from generation to gen
eration, until it is almost Impossible to
set foot in the center of the island with
out trepasslng upon Astor property.
Astor's Humble Beginning.
The founder of the' family and fortune
in 17S9 bought ajot in the Bowery near
Elizabeth street. Foot by foot and lot by
lot he added to his real estate holdings
until 21 years after his Initial purchase"
he was the realty king of the New World.
His crown and scepter are still respec
tively worn and wielded by Colonel Astor
and William Waldorf of England.
The original Astor policy was to never
dispose of a- lot or building. Sons and
grandsons have steadfastly adhered to
this policy. A few parcels that have been
sold by them were outlying and for pur
poses of developing the family posses
sions were unavailable. Astor real estate
cannot be purchased for love or money.
Astor's Million-Dollar Farm.
A remarkable feature of the Astor es
tate is embodied in a square of sunken
ground a sort of fertile hollow on fash
ionable West End avenue which is used
for farming purposes. This farm is per
square foot the most valuable one on
earth, being assessed at an even million
dollars.
Other notable Astor properties besides
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the older
Astor House In lower Broadway are as
follows: The Hotel Knickerbocker, which
is building, at Forty-second street and
Broadway, at a cost of $2,500,000; Hotel
Astor. at orty-iourtn street ana isroaa
way. at a cost of $6,500.ooo; Hotel St. Kegis,
at Fifth avenue and Fifty-fifth street, at
a cost of $2,250,000, and 54 handsome apart
ment houses and business blocks scattered
over the city and representing $78,000,000.
Beyond the Harlem, following the family
policy. Colonel Astor and his brother
have bought great tracts of real estate
within the city limits, which Astors yet
In embryo must develop as the present
heads of the family have developed land
purchased by the founder of the Astor
name and fame.
Other Great Estates.
Broadway and Fifth avenue are plas
tered with the name of Eno. Ames R.
Eno began in the early '50s to follow in
the Astor footsteps by purchasing a chain
of lots upon which he subsequently erect
ed the Fifth-Avenue Hotel. The famous
Flatlron Building, at the junction of Fifth
avenue, Broadway and Twenty-third
street, is built upon the Eno property.
None of the Enos ever figure in the mar
ket as a seller of real estate. Eno prop
erty Is not for sale.
Of such estates as the Arnold-Constable,
the Alfred Corning Clark, James Mc
Creery. George Ehret and Solomon Loeb,
It Is not necessary to speak In detail. The
money which went to establish them was
wrung from trade and finance and put
away in real estate. The widow of the
late Alfred Corning Clark recently mar
ried Bishop Henry C. Potter, and she Is
worth between $25,000,000 and $30,000,000,
mostly In improved and virginal real es
tate. She and her sons own some of the
most magnificent apartment-houses on
the western fringe of Central Park.
The Great Realty Fortunes.
The Wendel, Rhlnelander, Langdon,
Furnlss, Roosevelt and Stokes estates
have reached Immense figures through
generations of heirs who were shrewd
enough to let well enough alone. Broad
way crops out on the records of these
estates as their backbone with anatomi
cal portions reaching into the suburban
corners of the town. D. O. Mills and
the contemporary Vanderbilts have made
a specialty of office buildings, while
Matthew Wilks, who is ten times a mil
lionaire and comparatively unknown,
owns probably more pfoperty in the
financial district than any other Individ
ual. Matthew Wilks has the novel dis
tinction In real estate history of having
paid for a tiny lot at the southwest cor
ner of Broad and Wall streets the high
est figure per square foot ever obtained
for land in the United States. Only to
Tragedy Lacks Sympathy and Has
tle portion of the act in which he fig
ures. His wife at no time appears be
fore the audience. The one bit of tragic
action, the brutal and unallevlated mur
der of Macduff'3 son before his mother's
eyes, Ib now naturally and discreetly
blue-penciled from the prompt-book of
the actor. The rest of the act, once Mac
beth has delivered himself of some ex
ceptionally fine lines, from the poetic
point of view, and taken his departure,
Is left to purely subordinate characters.
And so "talky" are these characters that
when the Impassioned poetry of Mac
durf's grief is flung out over the foot
lights, it falls with almost anticllmactlc
disproportion on the sensibilities of the
audience. Yet even his masterpiece of
manly grieving, like the rest of the act,
appears episodic and detached from the
main interest of the tragedy.
The result is that the actor, to get
over the difficulty of the opening dia
logue, generously condenses and cuts,
leaving an act that Is usually more un
satisfactory than was the original
form, which, if it had not out-and-out
dramatic strength, had at least sus
tained poetic beauty. If the act stands
as Shakespeare left it, it is interesting
and well worth while to search out the
artistic motive which prompted this
unusual break in the line of action. In
merely reading the play it Is true the
break Is not so obvious. Attention Is
lulled to sleep by the beauty of the
language, and In the quietness of the
library there need be none of that
marked lapse of interest, which, at this
point, invariably occurs In the theater.
Might it not be possible that Shakes
peare, with a daring and premeditated
cunning, made uso of- this suspense in
the very action of the play to accentu
ate and. as It were, to toy and play
about that mental and spiritual sus
pense which seems always a state of"
torture to Macbeth himself, and as such
m Wis Jesses 3 77
however fj by the use of Mother's Friend before baby comes, as this
great liniment always prepares the body for the strain upon it, and
preserves the symmetry of her form. Mother's Friend overcomes all the
danger of child-birth, and carries the expectant mother safely through
this critical period without pain. It is woman's greatest blessing.
Thousands gratefully tell of the benefit and relief derived from the
. r i c i
use uj. iui wunuenui
remedy. Sold by all
druggists at $i.oo per
bottle. Our little
book, telling: all about
this liniment, will be sent free..
The Bradflell Regulator Go., Atlanta, Qa
complete the site for his present build
ing he bought from the late John Jacob
Astor In 1SS5 a few yards of ground at
$330 per square foot.
Owns Land by Square Blocks.
D. Willis James Is one of the towering
figures among owners of West Side prop
erty. -He has probably furnished more
money to builders for developing that
section than any other living man, own
ing himself some 20 suqare blocks of
apartment houses and fine private dwell
ings in other sections of the city.
New York has made most of these mil
lionaires. Perhaps it can be truthfully
said that the 1370 other millionaires are
making New York. For a great major
ity of them have been drawn to the me
tropolis after amassing their millions In
other sections of the country. Nowhere
and in no city under the sun have so
many money lords congregated within
the brief space of 84 years.
New York's Millionaire.
Prior to the advent of John Jacob As
tor tho first American millionaire in
1S20, the wealthiest New Yorker wa3
Isaac Classon, who swore that he was
worth $750,000. In 1S30 there were five
members of the millionaire colony John
Jacob Astor, Robert Lenox, John G. Cos
ter, Stephen Whitney and Nathaniel
Prime. Cornelius Vanderbllt was at that
time struggling with his ferryboat busi
ness. Among those who lighted and carried
on the toroh 50 years ago were Wil
liam B. Astor, worth $5.CO0,00O; J. G.
Astor, $25,000,000; John Haggarty, $1.
000,000; Peter Harmony, $1,500,000; Joseph
Kernochan, $1,000,000; James Lenox, $3,
000,000; Jacob Lorillard. $2,000,000; Gou
verneur Mdrris, 51,500.000; Thomas C.
Pearsall. $1,500,000; Stephen van Rensse
laer, $7,500,000; A. T. Stewart. $1,250,000;
Peter G. Stuyvesant, $4,000,000; Herman
Thome, $1,500,000, and Cornelius "Vander
bllt, $5,000,000.
Barbaric Splendor of Life.
Life with them was a simple affair,
as compared with their successors of
today. For how do the owners of New
York spend their royal revenues? There
Is no form of material splendor which Is
not within their reach. Buildings, monu
ments, parks which would give enjoy
ment to thousands of people are reserved
for the exclusive use of private Individ
uals. America has become a fairyland
a hidden one for them. Their sur
roundings recall those of a Lucullus, a
Croesus, a Maecenas, a Cosmo de Medici,
a French grand seigneur of the old re
gime or an English duke of today.
f If any American' wants to feel that he
Is in the midst of riches, all he needs to
do Is to stroll up Fifth avenue from Fif
tieth street. "Within 20 minutes he will
have passed 300 mansions whose owners
might .Day off the National debt and still
be millionaires. He will have passed not
only the homes of most of the 20 repre
sentative owners of Manhattan Island,
but those of the greatest financiers the
world has ever known.
The-'Romance of These Fortunes.
Stories rivaling an Arabian entertain
ment can be told of the history of many
of those houses and their occupants and
th great enterprises that have been
founded by the men who built them.
Railroads have been projected, epoch
making financial broths have been
brewed, mines have been figuratlvely
opened and explored, sunshine, In the
form of coal and oil, has been wrung
from, the nether regions and the earth
has been discovered anew by the men
and millions scheming'' and dreaming In
their Manhattan Island palaces.
They are all wealthy beyond the visions
of avarice. They all employ an army
of servants. They all entertain and un
doubtedly spend more money In luxury
than any similar number of persons liv
ing on an equal space anywhere In the
world. Five billion dollars in realty sus
tain their finest palaces, and yet the
Tax Department probably loses more
sleep In weighing and measuring the pos
sessions of the 20 men, among the 1380
metropolitan' millionaires, who own a
dominant Interest in the Island, than In
gathering orts and doles from the re
maining 3,999,950 residents and taxpayers
of Greater New York. (Copyright, 1904.)
WILLIAM GRIFFITH.
MACBETH
Structural Faults.
furnishes tho entire arch of the drama
with its essential keystone? For the
Irony of the tragedy, by such a move,
Is made grimly double. A blind cling
ing to superstitious belief has hereto
fore been his undoing. In the caldron
scene he once again goes to the Weird
Sisters, and once again hangs his fate
on this so-thought supernatural en
lightenment. He had been torn by
doubt up to this point, and tortured by
suspense. The newer message and the
ambiguous oracles of the Weird Sisters
now fill him with a great though a
mockingly fallacious calm, a hope and
contentment that is withering in its
tragic irony. For it can easily be seen
that this spiritual numbness, as has
somewhere been said, means simply
spiritual mortiflcatlpn. As with the
freezing limb, the stage of acute pain
has passed away, and the more placid
the relapse Into unconsciousness the
more poignant must be the ultimate
awakening.
This comparatively quiet and placid
fourth act supplies the mocking lull
before the second storm; and in the
next act we see the character caught
up and hurled along to final and abso
lute ruin, mocked to the very end by
that suspense, of which, as a man of
action, he was passionately intolerant
from the first. In other words, this
interpolated fourth act is both a pagan
like reluctance to too hurriedly dis
patch a .victim already writhing on the
spearhead of tragic misfortune, and
also a timely recess from a current of
huddled and hurried horrors which,
emotionally, might be too exhausting
to be endured by an already overtaxed
audience.
Impatient Young- Man Nellie, how la our
romance yours and mine going' to end?
Nellie (suddenly apprehensive) Why,
Geoffrey, you don't want to skip to the last
chapter yet, do you? Bangor News.
ii Every woman covets 8
W shapely, pretty figure, and
many or mem aepiore tne
loss ot their girlish forms
after marriage. The bearing
of children is often destructive
to the mother's shapeliness.
All nf on i a.
J
J
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