AMERICA'S RICHEST WOMAN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 117, 15 May 1909, Page 3

AMERICA'S RICHEST WOMAN.

MINDING ONE'S OWN BUSINESS

Mrs Hetty Green, the richest woman in America, and a most accomplished Wall Street financier, broke silence last month for the first time.since the exciting wedding of her daughter, Sylvia. Asked by an interviewer why she, a multi-millionaire, left the luxury of a New York hotel to occupy a small flat in a workingman's suburb, she replied: "I left New York because we.were being pestered to death there by' blackmailers. One of them, a woman, came to our apartments and demanded £250. She said if I did not give it to her she would publish things in the newspapers that would hurt my daughter. Sylvia was terribly worried by this persecution. She lost 101b while we lived there, but now she is married, and all that is ended." We are told that Mrs Green "spoke

wistfully when 'she mentioned her children," and gave the impression of great loneliness. She spoke of newspaper misconception, and the abuse to which, she and others have been subjected.1 ■ "I- have never robbed an orphan, but I have helped many. Everything I have done for others has not been published. Print a good word about the old people," she pleaded. "They don't get many nice things said about them; ■ "Are you not afraid to live alone r' asked a reporter. "No, lam not afraid of anyone except God. I have always been straight and honest. I am no usurer; When I have lent money, it has always been at the legal rate of interest." - ] "What do you think of Wall Street?" ■ < .. ■ :. '. ■ There was a suggestion of a grim smile on Mrs Green's face as she ieplied: "Wall Street men don't bother me. They are afraid of me. I licked Huntington; t I licked Choate, and when I licked Huntington I took a piece of his railroad down in Texas. No. Wall Street men keep away from me." '

Mrs Green, in conclusion, gave one of her precepts of life: "I mind my own business," she said. "If I did not I could not run two banks with 240 clerks. I mind my own business, and they mind theirs." The richest woman in America was neatly but plainly dressed in black. Her appearance is that of a gentle, kindly old lady, and completely belies the popular impression or her gained from caricatures.