WOMEN OF MILLIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 14 November 1928, Page 6

WOMEN OF MILLIONS

BRITISH AND AMERICAN

TOTAL OF £50,0011,91)1*

HUGE FORTUNE OK MRS HILLM AN

An enterprising modern [met ought to give us an epic entitled “A Dream of Rich Women,” Inking his dream from reality, and starting off with the “poor little rich girl,” Miss Hugctte ( lark, of New York, who is worth 4110,000,000 and lias just got married. Our poet would have to go to the I’nifed Stales for most of Ids inspiration. England's millionairesses number .scarcely iiiiue than a dozen. .America is simply bustling nut only willi women who have inherited their wealth from husbands or fathers, but also with a regiment of selfmade women.

No English woman has piled up a million pounds by her own unaided efforts, but business women of the United States are ranked among the world’s richest women, women who started with nothing but their courage and intelligence. FEW BUT LOVELY England's millionairesses may be few, but. they are beautiful. 'They fascinate, they have personality. One of the richest and most beautiful is Lady Louis Mouiitbatlen, who was Etlvvina Ashley, (lie granddaughter of the late Sir Ernest ('asset and step-daughter of Mrs Wilfrid Ashley. When her grandfather died she inherited a fortune of £2,000,000.

Lady Yule and .Miss Yule, have recently been in the public eye, and .Miss Yule, is perhaps the richest heiress in the country. The fortune of Sir David Yule, which was at first estimated at £11,000,000, is now said to be nearer £20,000,000. Miss Yule is 24 years old. Although she inherited her fortune from her father, Lady Rhondda is a business woman, and she directs over thirty companies; she was the first woman to be elected president of the Institute of Directors, and she does great work to further women's interests. Another ardent feminist is Baroness Ravensdale, daughter of the late Marquis Cufzou of Kedleston, who is heiress to the Loiter millions. She is well known for her witty sayings, and she once described the House of Lords as

“(lies buzzing in a cosy room” in a speech at a dinner. Lady Ludlow is another very rich woman. Her first husband was Sir Julius Weriihor, tile South African millionaire. She is a racehorse owner, and also breeds Southdown sheep. Lady Ludlow inherited Bath House, Piccadilly, from her husband, from which £IOO,OOO worth of jewellery was stolen in a daring coup a few years ago. HER ONLY LUXURY

Lady Houston, the “six million widow,” is famous for her philanthropy. After the death of her husband, Sir Robert Houston, she voluntarily gave to the nation over two million pounds, the amount of the death duties from which the estate was exempt because Sir Robert’s residence was in Jersey.

Lady Houston lives very simply in her house on Hampstead Heath, and she sleeps in a treetop during the hot weather. Her only luxury is yachting. America lias many wealthy women. Perhaps the most wealthy is Mrs Hugh Dill man, whoso fortune is estimated at £50,000,000. Her first husband was Mr Horace Dodge, whose motor cars are world famous. Her sou by her first husband, who was recently married in England, is said to be worth £40,000,000

in iiis own right. Like Lady Houston, Mrs Dillman is fond of yachting, and her yacht Modesty cost at least £50,000 to build. Of the American women who have “made their own pile,” Mrs Hetty Green is perhaps the best known. She started as an ordinary band in a corset factory, borrowed one day a thousand pounds to set up on her own, and now runs the largest corset factory in the United .States and is worth £5,000.000. Airs Alice Foote MacDougall, whose husband died five years ago, and left her £SOO from his life insurance, started a tcashop in the financial district of .New York, selling home-made food. Her goods sold like hot cakes, and she now has ten wonderfully designed restaurants in various districts of New York, runs a coffee business, and enjoys a fortune of over a million pounds. Her restaurants are “original.” One is fitted up like a hacienda, with a patio, dim lights, and all the necessary effects. Another resembles a Venetian palace. FILM FORTUNES

Mary Bickford has made a fortune of about" £2,000,000 from her film work alone. She and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, keep their earnings strictly separate, and it is whispered that “Duggie” makes Jess than Mary ! But then, hers is the largest individual producing organisation in Hollywood. Peggy Hopkins Joyce, though she has not earned her money, started with nothing. From most of her five husbands she has a certain amount of money and her fortune totals about a million pounds. Fifteott-ycar-old Doris Duke, whose father, James Buchanan Duke, died in 1925, has a fortune of £10,000,000, together with a magnificent million dollar home in the best residential quarter of New Jersey. Although she is so young, she runs it entirely herself, controlling thirty or forty servants, and looks after a New York town house besides. Her father and mother were separated many years before his death, and until then she lived in absolute poverty with her mother in an attic in a New York slum. Real romance is attached to the marriage of -Mrs David Milton, the daughter of Mr J. D. Rockefeller, jun. Although she is the heiress to at least ten. million pounds, she refuses to accept any money from her father. Her marriage was a ‘‘love match,” she says, and she prefers to live modestly on '.Milton's income from liis business as a stockbroker. Their home is in a small apartment, and their only luxury is a huge limousine, which her father gave her for a wedding present. They are so poor, however, that they cannot afford its upkeep. Another wealthy woman who prefers (he simple life is Mrs Sarah Edenborn, of New Orleans. Although she has a fortune of £15.000.000, left her by her husband, the barbed wire and railway magnate, she remains a housewife in a humble cottage doing all her own domestic work.

European countries have very few wealthy women. Continental marriage laws usually make the husband virtual owner of his wife’s fortune, and most of the rich women are married.