THE SILVER KING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11110, 6 May 1911, Page 13

THE SILVER KING.

j. ~ HIS RAPID RISE TO WEALTH. David Moffat, who was known throughout America as "The Silver King,' , has died in Now York of pneumonia, aged 72, leaving a fortuuo estimated at £112,000,000. He began life as a messenger boy, and, by force of hard work, good luck, and native ability, mado himself a great industrial, mining, and financial power. Ho leaves a widow and a married daughter, the former in Denver, Colorado; the latter in Paris. ,

At one time and another Mr. Moffat owned nioro than ouo hundred silver mines. Harry Orchard, a Western mine worker and Anarchist, onco tried to kill him. Several years later ho was'held up in iiis bank at Denver and robbed of £3000. liis most-talked-of experience in recent years came when he took a New York hotel porter and a chambermaid on a trip to Europe with him and naid all their expenses Mr. MoiFat was born in 1839, within sixty miles of New York City, and after an interesting experience as a messenger there he moved to Des Moincs, lowa, where his elder brother got him a job as teller in a bank. There young David Moffat fell in with a ricli Nebraskan, who took a liking to him, and at seventeen 'Moffat wa- cashier. Three years later his.partner died, and Moffat struck out for tho Golden West with six mule teams, and Mr. C. AVoolworth as his new partner. Mr. Woolwortli's business was selling books, and when they followed tho trail to Denver the pair of adventurers camped there and opened a book store. Tho First National Bank which had been organised got into trouble in 1867, and was reorganised. Mr. Moffat was asked to take, tho place of cashier, and straighten out tho bank's affairs. That was tho roil beginning of his financial career. Ho became acquainted with big financiers, who liked him, and he advanced by leaps and bounds. Ho built several railroads, speculated in land, and at forty ho was worth a million pounds. Then'he turned to silver mines, and made a wonderful success, which established tho title of "Silver King" he has borno over since.

What Mr. Moffat considered his greatest undertaking was tho Moffat-Short line between Denver and Salt Lake. Surveyors told him it was a staggering lask. "Where will we build her?" they asked, after they had looked in vain for a natural route. "Cut her straight through the hills," said Mr. Moffat, and so they did. The railway crosses the Great Divide J 2,000 feet above sea level, far up beyond tho lino of perpetual snow, and it is 1000 foot higher than any other road on the Continent, and saves ten hours in running time.

Mr. Moffat was a bluff, lesourceful, generous man, a typical Westerner. Ho always kept his contracts, and eared little for public opinion. He eanio of a Now England family, and was very nopuiar in Colorado, where lie chiefly lived and worked.