Romance of Millions.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10724, 23 October 1928, Page 9

Romance of Millions.

RICHES OF VANDERBILT

Among- the life stories of America’s famous millionaires there is mono more remarkable than that- of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who died.a little over 50 years ago, leaving a fortune worth more than £20,000,000. How/he set about creating this wealth with £2O. which his mother took from her little hoard inside the clock at their home, is described in a fascinating book by Mr. Arthur D. Howden Smith. • “Vahderibilt-'Used'--to -declare* there was" "ho’""money in dishonesty, and made, eyefy.ippnny of his greats for*_ tune in a perfectly legitimate way. He began' .with a . small sailing boat that he bought with the £2O, and launched" his- career as a. transporter on his -16th birthday, taking passengers to and fro between Stateii Island and New York. His mother was proud of the-fact .that “Corneel practically shpported. himself by doing odd- jobs ever since he was' six.” At the age of .13 Cornelius' took over from his father, th'e task oflight-' ering the cargo out of a • stranded vessel near Sandy Hook. At 16 he was too go-ahead to be satisfied Uath lii"s father’s ideas, and insisted on setting up for himself. His father and mother'/made it a condition that he should plough ./and sow an eighth acre field before his birthday, m order to have the £2O for a boat. The enthusiastic lad rounded up. all his “chums,” -bribed, them with offers of free sails in his craft, and gotthem to work clearing the field, of great-stones. -‘He finished the job on the "day. before his birthday! ? N ext, morning be .was at the ferry, ready for pa s sen gers. Twelve months later Corncel s talked into the kitchen where his mother vras cooking supper. He handed her back the notes she had given him to buy the boat. “No! no;” she protested: “You all . . • •” “And here’s a thousand dollars I saved beside,” added the young manr “Guess xhat’ll ease things for pH, eb.?” On December 31, 1817, at the age of 23; Corneel balanced his ledger, ! and found that he had three ■ vessels and £IBOO in cash, made in seven years.' “Steam’s bound to beat sails,” he reflected, when deciding to scrap his boats, “if ye give folks comfort ’ and- stowage,” .Then the young man took the "plunge into river “steam-botin’ When.

nearly 70 years old he made another leap but .of • steam-boats into railways. He sold off his steamships, and secured, control of the Harlem line. At the time of his death, Mr. Vanderbilt. was the dominating figure in American railways and' controller of .Wall Street.

PAST ' AGES. IMMENSRTORTUNES.

The £10,000,000 estate of Sir Geo. Wills, -recently announced,..proves, the. famous tobacco king to have been one of the richest men in. Great Britain. How does, this fortune compare with those of the rich men of other countries—and the rich men of the past whose nambs -have long since been forgotten? If riches are to be. measured by the • cost - of living, says an English writer, Mr - . E. 1/. Thomas, some of the plutocrats of - the past have not been entirely outclassed by Mr Henry Ford, now hailed as the fir?t -“dollar, billionaire” in history. - Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plutarch provide! a' few dazzling glimpses of: wealthy men' in ‘antiquity. ' The first, almost.lost .in-tho/niist of legend,, was the Egvptiaif Pharaoh RamasesyHi:, who feigned ' about 3000 .years- ago. He /surpassed all predecessors ■ in. wealth ne possessed and in his' fonaV it»»s for. its accumulation. / Dipdorus

•estimates this, Pharaoh’s, fortune" at 400,000 talents, which would be. about £100,000,000 in actual money to-day. In the purchasing power of that period it- was equivalent to 20 times this amount. Raineses, therefore, was worth £2,000,000,000 in the buying value of his day. To show how far money would go a. thousand years before the Jiegfnning. of the Christian era, it is only necessary to mention that a rat ox could be bought for 4s or less. A bushel of wheat would bring od in tiie market, and that a day’s wage was from 5d to 9d.

DISHONEST ARCHITECT’S! LOOSE BLOCK.

For the preservation of .his .enormous hoard of \ treasure Rameses 111. had a special stone edifice built adjoining his palace. • But Herodotus adds that a dishonest architect contrived a loose block in the wall, which when 'removed, 'w’ould admit a man to the tons of gold.- Apparently ho was afraid to user his secret entrance, but on his death-bed he told his two sons about it, and they helped themselves, to riches, until discovery put an. end to their easy money. Up 1 to a. few years ago such tales ; from Herodotus and Diodorus were considered samples of Oriental Imagination ; -but since the-golden disclosures of Tutankhamen’s tomb—and he was one of the least of the Pharaohs,—the untold wealth of these sons of Ra has entered the realms of realiity. Small -wonder that they plated their household furniture with precious metals and encrusted their common, utensils with gems. Incidentally, how. theise, old Phar--aohs could command i labor! Cheops, who came somewhat later than Rameses 111., kept 100,000 men at work on his pyramid for 20 years. Furthermore, from modem deductions, based op inscriptions and various-re-mains, it is. evident thatthis army of pyramid builders worked with systematic efficiency ‘ with tools and science that “may be compared with methods and means employed in a, modern highpowered industrial plant. OTHER INSTANCES OF VAST ? WEALTH.

Amazement grows. at the wealth and achievements of' the Egyptians when it is known that their population never went much beyond .. the 7,000,000 mark.' However, they know how- to make-the most of their kind, discipline themselves into an organic whole, and make conquered peoples work for them. >

Croesus is another hero of Herodotus. Nobody -knows ..how rich.thife Lydian ' king was, but ■ his .name became a synonym for Idhu'bifs wealth. An idea of- his possessions ',fiiay' J b& had from a.' propitiatory offering he sent, to the Delphic Oracle,.«. This bid for success, in his campaign against the Persian host consisted of a pyramid of 117 bricks, some of them solid gold weighing 4061 b ''apiece.--.-.iThe-whole was surmounted by a golden lion-weighing 8001b.--There were bowls of gold, silver necklaces, and money.

: AltogetheryifKpl /•gift'I’' 1 ’' aggregated about £2,000,006 V at; 'current •' valuation ; bnt'agam-it'is. necessary to'mul-tiplyv-by' twenty to gM ; the purchasing value- of that period; ;” .It is seen ■, then, as ’a little present of 000 'given to'the’gods/. ’Yet despite; this tribute the. Oracle could. riof/give him* tbe victory he craved 1 , £• ; -Certain relatives seem to havq been • quite; as. well -off as the himself . PythiUs-one ofi.his kinfolk,: is ; pictured as giving Xerkesi. a token of his esteem in the fornV'of'money to the amount of- £4,800;0C0.' When Xerxes -’hesitated, Py tliius assured’ him • th&t; it was ■ a- mere "trifle .that •he happened to have on hand.

} Multiply that by twenty and it becomes nearer the purchasing 'power of the time. It is safe to assume -that there have been few gifts in history to equal this one. SOLOMON IN THE ROCKEFELLER CLASS. i Solomon had an income equivalent to £4,000,000 a year to-dqy. which would place him in The Rockefeller class. " "Sardanapalus and Nero were golden over-lords, and Lucuilus spent fortunes on feasts and luxurious living; Both the Queen of Sheba- and Cleopatra ".wore, women of great wealth.

i.Except for the dark ages There docs not seem to • have been a period in history whore there was not somo colossal wealth or somo fabulous moneyed family towering over the rest of .the world. Even as early as the fourteenth century one hears’ of very rich men in England, like William do la Pole and Dick Whittington. De la Pole lent his king the equivalent of £l,G(X)y000 sterling on one occasion—and never got. it back.