Franklin C. Norton's Bride

New York, 1895

Georgia Lott of Far Rockaway became Mrs. Franklin C. Norton on Monday morning. The bride is 20 years old and the bridegroom 57. As the couple left the church the bride was given a check for a handsome amount by the bridegroom who is worth $100,000.

When it became known that Norton was engaged to Georgia Lott a local man-about-town, who boarded at the Norton house, made some comment about the young woman which angered Norton. He promptly drew a revolver and threatened to shoot the traducer of his sweetheart.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 19, 1895, p. 1.

Incomes In Country and Town

1895

Five thousand dollars in a country town is affluence if the beneficiary is content to stay there, but in a city the family man with only that income, provided he is ambitious, can only just live and might fairly be described as the cousin-german to a mendicant, and yet there are some worthy citizens still who would doubtless be aghast at these statements and would wish to know how one is to spend $6,000 a year without extravagance. — Scribner's Monthly.

Note: "cousin-german" means first cousin, here the sense being "the next thing" or "essentially."


Death Valley

Death valley, in southern California, was formerly a lake of mineral water, and its dried up bed is now covered with a crust of salt, soda and borax to a depth of from six inches to three feet.

Gifts Before Death

1895

THE PHILANTHROPIST SHOULD BE HIS OWN EXECUTOR.

The Beautiful Picture of Benevolent Peter Cooper Moving Among the People He Loved — Does the Man Who Dies Rich Die Disgraced?

Perhaps it may be too much to say with Andrew Carnegie that a man who dies rich dies disgraced, though we remember that that admirable philanthropist, Lewis Tappan, published a pamphlet to prove the same thing. Yet it is evident beyond question that that man is wisest and that man gets the most comfort out of life who during his lifetime sees that his money goes to the important objects for which he destines it, and who can behold with his own eyes the good done by it. A rich man narrows and belittles himself if he devotes his entire thought to the increase of his estate. He should devote thought to its wisest expenditure. Therein he acquires a largeness and breadth of soul which will be the chief comfort of his life. He will prove that he is a genuine philanthropist, not one who transfers his wealth to charity on his deathbed, as if he were then about to make his peace with God and the world, but that he has lived for his fellow men and not simply for himself.

The rich man whose only ambition is to be rich is not the friend of humanity and can hardly be anything else than its enemy. In any conflict against capital he can claim no sympathy, nothing more than the coldest justice. He has cast no anchor to the windward; he has sent forth no roots or tendrils which gathered about the hearts of the people. His mammon of unrighteousness has made him no warm friends; his belated benefactions may do good to the world, and they seem to be a sort of atonement for his shortcomings. They fail to prove that he possessed a soul that went out lovingly toward God or his fellow men.

Perhaps the most beautiful sight which this generation has seen was that of Peter Cooper building his own monument, not in the masonry of the Cooper Union, but in the hearts of its pupils and of the people of New York. Peter Cooper, the manufacturer of glue, would have been forgotten, but Peter Cooper, the patron of all aspiring youth, their friend and teacher, walking about with his benevolent face and his long white hair among the classes of young people for which his bounty made provision and reaping constantly the harvest of their admiration and love, was an exquisite witness not to the pride of wealth, but to the beauty of goodness. We are glad of a long list of wealthy men who have founded colleges and universities in their lifetime, honored for their large hearts, who give their hearts if not their names to their charities.

Of course it is a great deal better for a man to give money for benevolent purposes by will than not to give it at all. We would not say a word in disparagement of the usefulness of great gifts that have been made in that way. We know very well that there are men who have the faculty of making money, and who do not feel that they are competent to decide for themselves wisely how their wealth should be disposed of or how its expenditure for benevolent objects should be managed. But the time will come when they must give up their money, and some one's advice or decision must be followed. That advice they can obtain during life, and they can themselves make their gifts safely. It is as easy to do it now as it is to select executors or trustees to do it after death, except in so far as a man cannot bring himself to loosen the grasp by which he holds his wealth until death compels him to do so. We would have such people consider, however, the great danger there is that their wishes will not be carried out. The repeated cases in which wills have been declared void and the purposes of the testator have been annulled ought to make every one who has money to give consider whether he cannot, without in jury to his own interests and those of his family, give at least a part of it during his lifetime.

But whether he does it or not this at least is true — that every man who has acquired wealth from the public should consider it a privilege. if not a duty, to give back to the public some portion of what he has received. They say that in Boston it is not respectable to die without leaving a bequest to Harvard college. It ought not to be respectable for any man of wealth to die without a bequest to some college or benevolent society or hospital or museum or park or public institution. Of course one should provide for his household, and charity should begin at home. But that is not charity which ends at home. It is cold blooded, hard hearted selfishness. To give to the public in this way is something more than a duty. It is a privilege. It is a privilege to be connected in any way with the amelioration of the evil of the world, with the increase of truth and righteousness, with the development of Christian civilization in any land on the face of the earth, and the man who gives his possessions to such an object as this is therein a partner with our great Exemplar who went about doing good. — New York Independent.

Concerning the Nightcap

1895

The nightcaps almost universally worn some 25 years ago are now quite as universally discarded. There is a diversity of opinion in regard to the wisdom of this change. While some doctors assert that there is much less baldness since they were abandoned, others declare, with equal fervor, that neuralgia and catarrh are much more common since the nightcap was banished from the wardrobe. — Philadelphia Press.


More of Both

Molly — Ned Croesus is a much better match than Charlie Bullion. His fortune is larger, and he has more intelligence.
Polly — You mean that he has not only more dollars, but more sense. — Reading (Pa.) Telegram.

Mind Over Matter

1895

The Poor Reader of the Astor Library and His Luxurious Feast.

His coat had the olive tint of age and exposure, the edge of the sleeves wore as frayed as a decrepit toothbrush, and the bottoms of his shiny black trousers might have been exhibited as a piece of rare old tapestry. The hat which he laid on the table of the Astor library reading room was a picturesque ruin, and his linen was clean, but starchless, and had evidently been rough laundered at home. The man within these clothes was tall and lank, and the top story of the man was a fine patriarchal head, with a high, narrow forehead, from which the gray hair had long ago fallen out in the march of years, and his eyes were those of a thinker.

As he sat down he was all aglow with the mild excitement of the book man, for there had been handed out to him an uncut magazine, that cheerful and airy periodical, The International Journal of Ethics, and as he slid the broad ivory paper knife between its leaves there was a twinkle of satisfaction in his eyes that would not have come if he had just been bowed to by the richest man in New York. With him the opening of those pages was a work of literary sensuality, and when at last it was finished he laid the knife down with a sigh. But in another moment he was all aglow again, and settling himself back in his chair he propped the magazine against his poor old hat and plunged into a ten page article on "Luxury."

It was a triumph of mind over matter which would have made old Plato pop off his pedestal in the lobby below for very joy could he but have seen it. — New York Sun.

Ran Six Cents To 15 Millions In Few Months

1920

Charles Ponzi, "Coupon Wizard," Defies U. S. to Learn Secret of His Alleged Legal Scheme.

1920

BOSTON, Mass. — "It is my secret. Let the United States find it out if it can."

This is the challenge of Charles Ponzi, the "coupon wizard," who leaped into international fame over night when the world discovered that he had run 6 cents into $15,000,000 in less than a year by an astoundingly simple — yet astoundingly mysterious — scheme. Ponzi insists that his business is perfectly legal and so far has paid off every investor who demanded his money back. He declares that he has neither fear of a financial crash or of punishment.

Ponzi's remarkable business is, so far as is known, based on the use of the international reply coupon, authorized under the international postal agreement as the medium for taking advantage of the difference in rates of exchange.

"I simply buy international coupons," explained Ponzi to the district attorney. "They are exchangeable into stamps and I take care to buy them where the rates of exchange are such that $1 of American currency is really worth $4 or more in the native currency. I therefore get $3 clear on the transaction and can well afford to pay back the original $1 and 50 cents additional as interest to the investor. My margin of profit is enormous, but I have the system and the offices abroad. The investor's margin of profit is tremendous in proportion and he has no responsibility and is entirely certain of his money.

Hit on Scheme Year Ago.

"I hit upon the scheme just a year ago in August, when I thought of issuing an export publication on a small scale. I wrote to a friend in Spain regarding it, and in reply received an international coupon, which I was to exchange for stamps to send a copy of the publication to my friend.

"The coupon cost about 1 cent in United States money in Spain and I could get 6 cents in stamps for it here.

"My secret is how I cash the coupons," says Ponzi. "I do not tell it. Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can."

Will Make $40,000,000 More?

The "wizard" asserted that he intended to open an office in New York city immediately and probably in other big cities. He coupled this declaration with the assertion that "there is thirty or forty million dollars more, to be made out of his scheme, but it must be made quickly." And since difficulties have arisen here he says he will have to go outside New England for the money he needs to use. He said he "feared the postal conference in October would formulate an effective check" to his operations.

All day long clerks in the modest office of Ponzi poured cash into the hands of customers who had lost faith in his international postal exchange scheme.

It was after 4 o'clock when one of Ponzi's attaches stuck his head out the door and shouted inquiringly to the crowd:

"Anybody else today?"

Nobody answered and no one else entered the open door. The door was shut and locked.

Paid Back $500,000 in Day.

It is estimated the total returned to clients in one day was in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. The cash was brought from the banks by the "wizard's" employes, under heavy guard, and a huge businesslike revolver rested at the elbow of one of the clerks who "stood guard" over the paying-teller.

Ponzi's secretary, Miss Lucy Meli, says the office has paid back $2,000,000 to investors this week. About forty per cent of this amount, however, was on accounts that had "matured," meaning that the customers were returned their own money and the promised 50 per cent profit agreed within ninety days, but which had been paid steadily in forty-five days.

In spite of close search the nature of Ponzi's business remains a secret to public officials, and he stoutly maintains that he will continue. While he is busy paying off an army of claimants the authorities are searching the files of the telegraph offices to determine if Ponzi has cabled orders of purchase or sale to representatives in Continental Europe.

Scheme May Soon Be Known.

Uncle Sam has set in motion every Federal governmental investigating agency.

Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies and consulates in Europe and in all the countries that are included in the international postal agreement and deal in international reply coupons.

"I came to this country seventeen years ago and landed in Boston with $2.50. My family is a fine old Italian family and I am university educated.

"Landing in Boston with such a small sum of money, I was downcast I didn't have a friend in the city nor a relative in the country, so I went on where my ticket carried me — to New York. There I did manual labor. Then I moved on to Pittsburgh in search of some friends who I believed were there. I didn't find them, so I went on from place to place, working now as a clerk in a business office, next as a grocery clerk and often at more menial tasks.

"Back to Boston I came again in January, 1917. I went to work for the J. R. Poole Company, merchant brokers. My salary was $16 a week. It might interest you to know that I own the company today, and intend to incorporate it for $10,000,000.

Insists Business Is Legal.

"I insist that my business is entirely legal, even tho it may not be strictly ethical. It will continue as long as there is a marked difference in the rates of exchange among the governments of the world. As the rates 'close up' the interest I will be able to pay will decline. But there cannot be any loss, I insist, for I have provided against loss to investors by the creation of a large reserve in stamps and foreign currency.

"My operations are now going on in nine different countries. None of the foreign stamps are now being redeemed in this country, nor do I intend to do so.

I buy international coupons in immense quantities — by hundreds of thousands, by millions — and exchange them for postage stamps.

"I looked around for some connections here and abroad. I explained my plan to a certain party and he was interested. I had a one-room office where I began doing a little exporting business on a small scale, and there, with a few thousand dollars, I began the present concern, the Securities Exchange Company.

Began Last December.

"We really began operations in December. I began as I am still doing; I gave investors a note guaranteeing payment with 50 per cent interest in ninety days. However, I made all payments in forty-five days. I was safe in giving the notes and I am safe in giving them now, for I have built up a reserve.

"Within a month the few thousands had grown to nearly ten thousand dollars. Persons who received their first profits immediately told their friends, and they told their friends — and then the deluge. Everybody wanted us to take their money.

"When the volume of business increased I took three rooms in the building and recently I acquired a large interest in a trust company — really a controlling interest.

"The peak of my business was reached in May, just two months ago. Now my receipts are about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day in the Boston offices, and a total of $250,000 daily thru branches in other cities. What I pay out varies from day to day. I have just given my cashier in Boston $200,000 with which to make tomorrow's payments."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1-2.

Note: Unfortunately my copy of this newspaper is missing a couple sections, interesting bits, and I can't figure out entirely what they are. After the paragraph where Ponzi says, "Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can," there is a paragraph, and take into consideration the words of nearly an entire line are missing, "While refraining from giving any clew —— [tran]saction, Ponzi —— said. —— is all very simple. First, the psychology of greed. Then, the psychology of fear. Men and women are children a few years older." Drop down to the paragraph that has the sentence, "Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies," etc. There is an entire line missing. But the sentence starts off, "It will —————- is a veritable bonanza king or something else." Then that leads into all the Ponzi quotes.

John D's Fortune $1,000,000,000

1916

Information of the existence of a balance sheet compiled at Cleveland ten days ago on the occasion of John D. Rockefeller's 77th birthday, showing that his private fortune, exclusive of endowment funds and other benefactions, exceeds a billion dollars, is said to be in possession of the authorities of Cuyahoga county.

The existence of the balance sheet, indicating that Mr. Rockefeller's fortune exceeds that of any man in the world, was discovered in the search for evidence to present in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in a forthcoming attempt of Cuyahoga county to force Mr. Rockefeller to pay taxes on holdings of more than three hundred million dollars. Mr. Rockefeller obtained an injunction in the United States District court in Cleveland, preventing the enforcement of tax collection on the holdings in October, 1915, and in December of the same year Cuyahoga county filed an appeal in the United States Circuit court.

Since the county authorities have been endeavoring to obtain evidence that Mr. Rockefeller was a legal resident of Cleveland. He is now at his home in Cleveland, and on July 9 celebrated his 77th birthday. It was about that time, it is understood, that a balance sheet containing the extent and the varied amounts of his holdings was presented to him. The balance sheet, according to authentic information, indicated that the Rockefeller fortune had exceeded $1,000,000,000 and steadily was mounting upward; so rapidly, in fact, that, with all of his enormous benefactions, Mr. Rockefeller was unable to dispose of the income.

Of the enormous total nearly $500,000,000 represents Mr. Rockefeller's holdings in the various Standard Oil companies and their subsidiaries. He holds approximately 247,962 shares out of a total of 883,383 shares issued in all of the companies. The stock is now quoted around $1700, about three times what it was before the federal courts issued the order dissolving the great corporation into independent companies.

The balance of Mr. Rockefeller's fortune, it is understood, is shown to be in enormous holdings in various railway and banking corporations, the United States Steel corporation, and in National, Municipal, State and in foreign bond issues. Among his holdings it is recorded, there are $10,000,000 of Anglo-French war bonds, floated here last year by the Allied commission.

Naturally, with such amazing accumulation of wealth, the variations of the stock market day by day increase or decrease the fortune by a million or more dollars. Since the compilation of the schedule in June, immediately succeeding the announcement that the half year's gifts of the Rockefeller Foundation, merely one of his projects, were more than three million dollars, the fortune is said to have shown a great increase. That is because of the steadily upward trend of various stocks because of the enlivened commerce of the country.

Neither Mr. Rockefeller nor his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., are engaged actively in business. Since 1910, when their joint benefactions first began to loom large in the generosities of the world, eclipsing those of Andrew Carnegie, it is estimated that the Rockefellers have given a way approximately $200,000,000.

The most conspicuous of the benefactors have been the General Education Board, which has received about $60,000,000; University of Chicago to which has been given $25,000,000; Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, $10,000,000; Rush Medical College, $6,000,000; missions of the Baptist church at home and abroad, $8,000,000; to various colleges and universities in the United States, including Yale, Harvard, Barnard, Union Theological Seminary of New York, the Baptist and the Southern Education Fund, about $30,000,000; the Young Men's Christian Association, $4,000,000; to various hospitals and medical colleges, $20,000,000; for juvenile reform work, $3,000,000; and to Cleveland for betterment purposes, $3,000,000.

Since the war in Europe, the Rockefeller Foundation has given about $10,000,000 for relief work for a wide and varied character, but despite the great demands, the income accruing from the endowment fund, it is said, is not entirely used up. To the Rockefeller foundation, organized in the words of Mr. Rockefeller "for the good of mankind," will probably be the disburser of this greatest of existing fortunes. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is the chief administrator of the great fund. The organization which will use the wealth has the following for its avowed purpose:—

"To make this vast force a living organism, which will have the freedom of a live thing, to give aid swiftly and largely when aid is most needed, not a mere accident of death that may set the money free for certain limited uses. No man can foresee the needs of ten, twenty or fifty years from now. The Foundation is limited only by the field of human civilization and human need. It will be a great clearing house for humanitarian effort all over the world."

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 1.

Editorial Comments

1916

Alice B. Glines, editor

More and more newspapers are owned for ulterior purposes.

After the war Europe can engage in iron mining all over the lot.

If the Bremen keeps it up she will become another Flying Dutchman.

We must not think the presidential campaign has really started; Judge Hughes has not ridden on a locomotive yet.

What is a yegg? It used to be headwriters' short for highwayman, but now they are beginning to use it for a safe-blower.

Luckily it was only foggy, not a storm, or it would not have been such a picnic going to the Two Lights to see the Bay State.

Among the numerous plans to "help the farmer," the one that seems never to occur to folks is to keep their hands out of the farmer's pockets.

There is no knowing how soon the war may stop. The Germans are a people much devoted to logic, willing to base their actions on their mental processes. Once they see that every week's delay puts them in a worse position, how long will they then delay?

Portland has reckoned her temporary settlement from 1632 or 1633. If Biddeford is to reckon hers from 1616 Portland could reckon hers ten years' earlier. Christopher Levett did build a house to accommodate the annual fishing voyages, which was still standing in 1632 when the Trelawny settlement at Richmond's Island started. Vines built only temporary cabins if anything; Sir Ferdinando Gorge's book says Vines dwelt with the savages. Levett's house was about three miles from Portland proper; Vines's wintering place about five miles from Biddeford proper. Biddeford is in truth a year or two older than Portland, both in their preliminary settlements, which ended in 1690, and in their permanent settlements, a quarter of a century later.

A way by which our readers can help us in our unequal struggle with the paper mills is by reading the fewer papers the better. The reading public are in the final analysis the intended victims of the paper mills' greed. If subscription rates are raised, the people must pay the increase or stop reading, and if advertising rates are raised the people in the long run must pay the increase in the added cost of the merchandise they buy. But we are not obliged to read any more newspapers than we want to, and the sooner the demand falls below the supply the sooner the paper mills' raid will collapse and react on themselves. Of course if we receive paper for next week (at a high but not highway robbery price), we will issue as usual. At this writing no encouragement is offered us.

Ex-Governor St. John of Kansas, the Prohibitionist candidate for President in the Blaine-Cleveland campaign, has just gone to his reward without the satisfaciton of voting to back up President Wilson. The curious pranks fortune plays with us humans is illustrated by a personal anecdote told by Gov. St. John on the platform of the former City Hall in Portland. Governor St. John was being branded as a traitor to the party that freed the slaves, and John A. Logan was Blaine's running mate for Vice President. But before the war, when both men were young lawyers out in Illinois, St. John lay in jail for assisting in the underground railroad and helping fugitive slaves to escape into Canada, and John A. Logan was the Democratic prosecuting attorney who convicted him. Another memorable phrase in that speech of 1884 was his advance vision of the blight of trusts. "I was taught in Sunday school," he said, " that the world is 6,000 years old. Now if Eve had never got Adam to eat that apple, and if they were still alive in the Garden of Eden, and Adam had had a salary all this 6000 years at $25,000 a year, and never spent a cent of it because everything was gratis, he would now have $150,000,000. But John D. Rockefeller, who was a clerk in a grocery store out in Illinois when I was a young lawyer, has got more now than Adam would have had." "Did he earn it?" asked one of the clearest minds of our generation.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 6.

The Weariness of Wealth

1916

Interviewed for the American Magazine, Charles M. Schwab remarks that there is no enjoyment in great wealth — that a reasonable man with $10,000 to $12,000 a year is getting enough to satisfy all his needs, and that to get more is to invite unhappiness.

"One soon wearies," he says, "of riding about for pleasure in private yachts and private cars."

This is the sort of thing which everybody hears at one time or another and which nobody wholly believes. Mr. Schwab happens to prefer power to other things that money can buy. Dominance in big business takes the place with him which the pursuit of pleasure holds with some other man.

Mr. Morgan went in for world power in finance, but did not despise his yacht or his art collections. He did not prate of a lack of enjoyment in the smaller personal satisfactions possible through his great wealth.

To men of ordinary means, the luxuries born of wealth are most conspicuous, most appealing. Private yachts and private trains and motor cars and palatial homes are visible, tangible things. Men fortunately can be content without them, but the conviction that they are altogether a weariness will be difficult to carry. — The New York World.

Restitution After Thirty-One Years

1916

MAN REPAYS MONEY HE WRONGFULLY TOOK.

Aged and Needy Recipient Made Comfortable With $200 Gold and $400 as Interest.

SOMERSET, Pa. — William Speicher, of Kantner, a news agent on the Somerset & Cambria Branch Railroad, received a letter from an aged resident of Quemahoning Township, in which is told how a man with a troubled conscience returned, with interest, $200, the theft of which enabled him to grow well off while the owner of the money was made poor for life by the loss of it.

"On May 31st, thirty-one years ago," wrote the aged man, "I started for Stoyestown with a pocketbook containing $200 to make the first payment on a home that I had purchased. When I arrived there the package was missing. I returned home at once, but could find no trace of it. It was money that I had earned by hard labor. I was much broken up over the loss, ill health followed and I never had a home of my own.

"A few days ago there came a rap at my door. I opened it and a stranger stood there. I invited him in and he seated himself. He sized me up, but spoke but little. After inquiring about my identity he took from his pocket $200 in gold and counted it out to me. He said it was my money and asked me to accept it. 'I owe you interest on it for 31 years,' he went on. 'Here is $400 more to cover that. Thank God, I am free once more,' he said. I was amazed. I could not understand his actions and asked an explanation.

"'Thirty-one years ago,' he replied, 'I was on my way from a part of Somerset County to Johnstown to take a train for Kansas. I had but a few dollars in money. I was walking on the road behind you while you were driving to Stoyestown and saw you drop the money. I picked it up and stowed it away in my pocket. At the latter town I got your name and went out West. I took up land near Leavenworth, Kansas, and fortune came my way. I took up more land. Returning to my native county I got married. I grew wealthy and I can now count my wealth by many thousands of dollars, but having your money in my possession always worried me, so I decided to return it to you and confess that I took it.'

"He said that he found out that his conscience, was worth more to him than his wealth, then he bade me good-by."

From almost destitute circumstances at 75 years of age, the old man has been placed in comparative comfort.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

She Rustled

1901

A London paper says that C. T. Yerkes, the American street railway magnate, now in London, recently received the following letter from a young woman:

"Dear Mr. Yerkes — I have seen by the papers how rich you are, and also I have seen your picture, which looks kind. So I thought I would tell you that my parents are poor and depriving themselves of many comforts in order to give me a good education. Among my school friends there is a gymnastic club, of which I am a member, and all the girls wear silk skirts, and it gives me the horrors to feel I can't have one when I hear the fascinating rustle of their petticoats. Would you send me $5 to buy one? Yours," etc.

Mr. Yerkes received the unique epistle from his secretary and, to the latter's astonishment, exclaimed: "Send her the money. It will give more pleasure than if invested in any other way." The money was sent, and the acknowledgment was as follows: "Dear Mr. Yerkes — Thanks so much for the money. I invested it and can now rustle with the others."

Trying to Make Forty Dollars

1901

Here is a hard luck story apropos of efforts to make a little sum in Wall street: A young man started with $100 and ran it up to $9,960, or $40 less than an even $10,000. The desire to round out the $10,000 goaded him on. He said to his broker, "If I can make that additional $40 on a quick turn I will draw out my $10,000 and invest it in real estate."

It was a strong bull market, but things appeared sky high, and he picked out an active stock to sell short. I think he landed on T. C. and I., which had a phenomenal rise and was due to drop anywhere from 10 to 50 points. He sold 100 shares at par, intending to close it out at 99. But instead of going down the blamed thing soared to 126. At every three points' gain he sold another 100 until he was carrying all he could tote. In 24 hours he lost nearly every cent it had taken him three months to make.

With what little he had left he bought T. I. on the recession to 116, friends of the Hanover National bank assuring him that it was going to 150. Then came the fireworks and the funeral. The bottom fell out of the specialty and young Dr. Knowall found himself $15,000 in debt. He hasn't been in Wall street since. — New York Press.

Funeral is Held For Cat

1919

$6,000 Animal Is Buried on Estate in Metal Casket.

LENOX, Massachusetts — Funeral rites over a cat here were attended by all the employes on the Summer estate of Mrs. Carlos de Herodias of New York, and the feline's "remains" were buried on the estate in a metal casket. Hyacinth, a Persian cat, said to have cost $6,000, was greatly treasured by Mrs. de Herodias, and when it died at her home in New York the owner had the body borne here in a special automobile truck.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 7.

$100,000,000

1920

Rockefeller Makes Largest Christmas Donation in History

NEW YORK, N. Y., Jan. 1. — With his Christmas donation of $100,000,000 to public purposes, John D. Rockefeller brought the total sum which he had given to social, religious, welfare and educational institutions up to approximately $500,000,000. The Yuletide gift was the largest single philanthropic endowment from an individual in the history of the world.

Half of the $100,000,000 goes to the general education board, itself a Rockefeller creation, to be disbursed, both principal and interest, in co-operating with institutions of higher learning in increasing the salaries of their teaching staffs.

The other $50,000,000 goes to the Rockefeller Foundation, chartered "to promote the well being of mankind thruout the world." Of this sum $5,000,000, in deference to a special request of the donor, is to be expended for the development and improvement of the leading medical schools of Canada, which are to be required to raise additional sums from other sources.

Mr. Rockefeller's benefactions to date may be tabulated as follows:

To the general education board $70,000,000
To the Rockefeller Foundation $82,000,000
To the Rockefeller Institute $10,000,000
The son's estimate in 1915 $250,000,000
Religious and other unannounced benefactions, estimated on excellent authority $88,000,000
Total $500,000,000

Yank Must Find Bride in Twenty Days or Lose $10,000

1920

Says He Wants Wife Anyway — Is Tired of Wanderer's Life

BOSTON, Mass., March 18. — Sergeant Edward J. Seitz of Camp Devens has 20 days to choose a wife or lose an inheritance of $10,000.

By the stipulation of a wealthy New York woman — a near relative — who is still living, Seitz must marry as soon as he is discharged from the Army. His discharge will take effect in about three weeks.

Sergeant Seitz is an overseas veteran of the Canadian and American armies. Together with the prospective dowry of $10,000, he has the following attributes to offer: Six foot 2 inches of perfect manhood, good looks, splendid habits — smokes but doesn't drink — college bred, druggist by profession, musically inclined and a companionable sort of chap.

Seized With Wanderlust

Sergeant Seitz is a "top" in charge of a medical detachment at the Devens Hospital. He stated that he was born in Buffalo 25 years ago. From Buffalo he went to Chicago where he attended St. Ignatius College for three years. On leaving college he entered the drug trade and was progressing rapidly in his profession when the wanderlust seized him.

From Chicago he journeyed north, south, east and west. He visited many cities in the United States until 1916.

Then he went to Canada and enlisted; went to England and was discharged; came back and enlisted in the field artillery at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. From the field artillery he was transferred to the medical corps at Fort Leavenworth. Then overseas, one year spent in France, Belgium and Germany and back to Camp Devens.

Wants a Loving Wife

Sergeant Seitz has at last called it a day. The old wanderlust has left him. He is thru with the Army. Now he wants the "right girl" and his inheritance.

The sergeant told his story.

"I am tired of going and I want to stop. I've seen, heard and done enough, and now I want to settle down. I want to marry the right girl, a real girl, who will make a good home-loving wife.

"In twenty days I leave the Army. Forty days from today I want to have a girl who will be my wife. When I am married, and I must do it as soon as I get out of the service, I will receive $10,000."

Wants "Magazine Cover Girl"

Here is the secret of the dowry that goes with Seitz's marriage. "About eight years ago," said the soldier, "a close friend of my family, a well-to-do New York woman, became interested in me. She wanted me to be a druggist and settle down, but I couldn't see it. Recently this woman, I cannot tell her name, told me that she would present me with a check of $10,000 if I would start anew — if I would marry and make a home.

"Now my predicament is the girl." The sergeant talked earnestly. "I have met plenty of girls, many nice ones; but in all my travels never the right one. I have a fixed type, a girl like that," and the soldier pointed out a magazine picture of his moving picture dream lady adorning the wall of his room.

— The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 1920.

Gibbon on Fame and Happiness

1910

Edward Gibbon, the historian, was not one to underestimate the pleasures of intellectual occupation or the value of literary fame. "I have drawn a high prize in the lottery of life," he wrote in his autobiography. "I am disgusted with the affectation of men of letters who complain that they have renounced a substance for a shadow, and that their fame affords a poor compensation for envy, censure and persecution.

"My own experience has taught me a very different lesson; twenty happy years have been animated by the labors of my history and its success has given me a name, a rank, a character in the world to which I should otherwise not have been entitled.

"D'Alembert relates that as he was walking in the gardens of Sans Souci with the king of Prussia, Frederick said to him, 'Do you see that old woman, a poor weeder, asleep on that sunny bank? She is probably a more happy being than either of us.'

"The king and philosopher may speak for themselves; for my part, I do not envy the old woman." — Youth's Companion.


Social Requirement

When a young girl appears at the theater with a young man who is a stranger in town, she should circulate a note among her friends telling who he is. It is very hard for the women to enjoy a performance with their curiosity unsatisfied. — Atchison Globe.

Woman Hater for 60 Years

1905

Now Daughter of Girl Who Jilted Him Gets His Fortune

Isaac Showers of Webster City, Iowa, religiously kept a vow for sixty years that no woman should cross his threshold or enjoy a cent of his wealth. Now that he is dead the carefully drawn will by which he hoped to perpetuate his vow has been broken, and the bulk of his estate goes to the daughter of the woman who jilted him and made him a hater of all womankind.

Showers came West years ago from New York to make his fortune, leaving behind him a girl who had promised to wait for him. When he became wealthy, as wealth was counted in those days, he journeyed back to claim his bride, only to find that she had married his brother. Without a word he returned to Iowa. When his father died, leaving a considerable estate, he refused to take any share of it because his brother was administrator.

In his own will he left his vast acreage of valuable lands to various schools, aid societies and churches. Mrs. Edward Price, daughter of the girl who jilted him, contested the will and has broken it, and will inherit something more than $250,000.

Boyhood Chum of Andy Carnegie Passes Away

1915

"Thirty" Comes to "Dode" Moreland, Veteran Telegrapher, Once Captured by Mosby.

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Dec. 16. — Theodore ("Dode") Moreland, aged 72, a patriarch among telegraphers here, and a boyhood friend and fellow-worker of Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, died in a hospital here as the result of an accident which occurred several weeks ago.

Mr. Moreland, like Carnegie, became an operator for the Western Union Telegraph Company and it was while following this work that the two renewed their boyhood friendship. Later they served as members of the Signal Corps during the Civil War.

At one time during the hostilities Mr. Moreland was captured by Mosby, the famous Confederate guerrilla leader. Mr. Moreland's mount was a better horse than that of Mosby, but the telegrapher was surrounded by rebels. Mosby, after detaining Mr. Moreland for some time, contented himself by "swapping" horses with the Northerner and then permitted him to ride his inferior mount back to the Federal lines.

After the war, Mr. Moreland and Mr. Carnegie drifted apart, Mr. Moreland continuing to make dots and dashes, while Mr. Carnegie made millions.

Several years ago, however, when Mr. Carnegie chanced to hear again of his erstwhile fellow-worker, he ordered that a pension of $50 a month be paid him. This was done for some time, tho the pension for some unknown reason ceased two years ago.

Mr. Moreland continued his work at the key until he had reached the maximum age of 70 years, when pensioned by the Western Union Company, being one of the first operators in Pittsburgh to be retired.

Blue Glass at Spring Startles Ohio Doctor

1915

Fears Vanish When Radium is Found in Water

Benjamin Marshall of Paw Paw, Mich., is spending his leisure time in reading automobile catalogs and pricing Persian rugs.

The reason he engages in this pastime is because radium has been discovered in his back yard, according to a doctor from Ohio, who claims to know something about the stuff that sells for thousands of dollars per amount as big as a pinhead.

Two years ago Marshall and his mother came here and purchased a fruit farm on the outskirts of this village. On the property is a spring of sparkling clear water. Prior to their coming here, Mrs. Marshall was a chronic dyspeptic, subsisting only on the simplest of diets.

Helps Mother's Appetite

They had been here only a short time when Marshall noticed his mother's appetite had increased astonishingly and that she could eat anything with keen relish.

A glass was always left at the spring and always turned a light blue after slight use. One day when the Ohio doctor was visiting the Marshalls he noticed the blue glass and said:

"Marshall, you don't drink this water, do you?"

"Yes, we're really intemperate with it."

"And doesn't it make you sick?"

"I don't look seriously ill, do I?" asked Marshall, with a chuckle, as he exhibited his tongue.

Does a Little Probing

Then the doctor did some investigating and declared that the water contained radium.

"I thought it was cobalt at first," he said, "but if it were cobalt it would make you sick."

The doctor took several samples of the water back with him to test, and Marshall took to reading auto catalogs and pricing Persian rugs.

Threw Wife Over Cliff; Hurled Dog After Her

1915

Husband Did This, Says Man Who Helped Him

Confesses They Took Mrs. Frederick T. Price to Lonely Spot, Gave Her Fling Over Embankment

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CONSIDERED SIGNIFICANT

Mrs. Frederick T. Price met her death in a mysterious manner Nov. 28, 1914, one day after she had been given $60,000 by her father.
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Dec. 16. — Confessing, according to George Armstrong, county prosecutor of Hennepin County, Minnesota, that he aided Fredrick T. Price of Minneapolis in hurling Price's wife to death over a cliff, Charles D. Etchison, a traveling salesman of Washington, D. C., is in Minneapolis where he must face legal action.

Etchison was arrested in Washington by operatives of a private detective agency and was brought here. Accompanying him was Armstrong, who announced that the prisoner had confessed.

"Mrs. Price was the daughter of David B. Fridley, member of one of the oldest Minneapolis families," Etchison is reported to have said in his confession, "and the day after she got the money, she and Price and I went to a matinee. Later Price suggested an auto ride.

"She sat in the rear with her dog — Price and I in front. Price stopped the ear near a steep embankment. He muttered something about tire trouble, and asked his wife if she didn't want to get out and give the dog some exercise.

Threw Wife Over Cliff.

"As Mrs. Price stepped out, Price put one arm in front of her, and I put an arm in front and we gave a fling. Down she went. Price picked up the dog and threw it after his wife."

When they climbed down the embankment, Etchison is reported to have said, they found the woman still alive and Price struck her head with a stone.

"We told everybody that she stepped over the cliff to save her dog," the officials said Etchison confessed. "Price canceled my notes for $1,200 he held and gave me $3,500 to boot."

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"I deny it all. I swear it is not true," declared Fredrick T. Price, when told in his cell at the county jail of the confession of Charles D. Etchison, that he aided Price in the murder of the latter's wife Nov. 28, 1914. "I do not care to say anything further except to reiterate that the confession is not true."

Price was indicted by the county grand jury for bigamy and murder.

After his wife's death Price sued the city of Minneapolis for $7,500 for leaving the river bank unprotected where he said his wife had fallen over. A detective revealed that Price had been married twice before and he dismissed his suit.

Last Christmas Price married Miss Carrie Olson, a Minneapolis bookkeeper. While his wife was living, it is said, he promised Miss Olson to get a divorce. It is charged he did not get a divorce from one of his three wives.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 11.

Note: Price was convicted of the murder by a jury in district court, Minneapolis, in Jan. 1916. Etchison repeated the substance of his confession from December.