LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

[FROM ; OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. « San Francisco, January 16. * A SIMPLETON VICTIMISED. Bearing upon the Sharon ease, comes a similar one, which has in a small way excited a good de?l of attention. The son of . a prominent oitizen, who had been placed by hiß father in a respeotable and high position as regards commerce, fell in with the lawless young men of the city, who enticed the dear, innooent young man from the paths of rectitude, and introduced him to a courtesan, who is accounted very attractive. The young man, in his cups, grew desperate, and offered to marry the woman, and in one of these "sprees" actually bought a marriage license, and took the girl to a clergyman, who, however, refused to marry a man who was drunk. But the girl was smart, and she took the drunken lover to her room, where she wrote out a marriage contract, following in the footsteps of Sarah Althea, which the man signed. Next morning sobriety brought repentance, and the new Benedict cried off. The girl consented for £1000, which he paid, but, like a fool, forgot to claim the contract, which she subsequently laid before her husband's father, who, remembering Sharon's expenses under similar circumstances, bought it for the sum of £8000, whioh, with the previous £1000, made a neat little sum for a fast woman,

AMERICAN MONEY QUEENS. Possibly there is no country in the world that holds bo many rich women as America, and, though we have not many here, still New York, Boston, Chicago, and other oities oan show a fair proportion. _ Mrs. Mark Hopkins is our richest millionaire. She is a widow, and has a magnificent place on Nob Hill, which is as ugly as it is large, but the interior is on the grandest scale. Furnished from garret to cellar, yet this enormous dwelling is left untenanted year after year. Mrs. Hopkins has built Another palace in Massachusetts, where she dwells. Her hobby is grand houses and blood horses. She is middle- very plain in appear, ance, lacking in style altogetherin brief, commonplace. Her charities are few, in spite of the length of her purse— I never heard of her giving anything away. I once asked aid for some poor ladies, and she said she ''had not a dollar to spare," though she owns £6,000,000. Mrs. Fair, who was divorced from her husband a few years ago, got £1,000,000 as her share of the property. She built a hotel with a portion. As people say, Bhe has spent half already, but she has a good time, gives parties, and is surrounded by hosts of money worshippers. She is not celebrated for any particular , charity, and is a very vulgar woman, looks like a good fat cook, and dresses in all the colours of the rainbow at times. In New York there is one well-known character on Wall-street, named Hettie Green, who is the richest woman in Mew York State, Her father left her £1,800,000, which, having great business tact, the youthful Hettie at once set about increasing by commerce. She travelled about in England and other places, buying up mortgages, which eventually increased her fortune to £4,000,000. She then married a Mr. Green, who ia a very "nice fellow," and who had £140,000. He sent Hettie a valentine, which, by mistake, happened to be a receipted tailor's bill for a £5 suit of olothes. She was so pleased with the apparent economy of the thing that she married him, making a contract with him that he should pay all house expenses, leaving her £4,000,000 intact settled on herself. After marriage she plunged into business once more with a will, and got into Wall-street speculation. She could buy large blocks ot stock, and could "bull" and " bear" the market at will, always winning when her husband lost. She is now worth £8,000,000, and penurious to a degree. She rides in a 2Jd omnibus, and, to save buying rubbers, will pull old stockings over her shoes when going to a party in the snow. When she arrives, she pulls off her stockings, and hangs them up to dry on the hatstand. She keeps all her silver in the bank, going on certain days with a box of whitening and polishing it up herself. She is only 40, this Hettie Green, and her sole ambition is to make her invalid son the richest man in the world, which there is every chance of her doing, as she still labours indefatigably. The richest single woman in America is Catherine Wolfe, Her income is £100,000 a year, and, besides this, she owns real estate all over New York State. Miss Wolfe is fearful of fortune-hunters, and at the age of fifty declines to hold communication with suitors.

There are numbers more of these money queens whom I could write about, but have not space. Numbers of them own from £1,200,000 to £2,400,000. One family of girls have £1,200,000 each. One widow in JNew York counts her money by tens of millions. Most of these women are penurious, giving little or nothing to charity. They wear plain and even poor garments, and go about looking more like maids than wealthy women. Some of them ar6 actually mean, and save and lock up everything. None of them appear to enjoy their enormous wealth, and they are pretty nearly all plain, wrinkled, old womenworn out doubtless before their time from excess of anxiety about their horrible wealth; for, in fact, wealth under such circumstances is horrible and degrading to its owners, seeming to stultify and warp all the better feelings of the possessor, and ! leaving a kind of mildew on their lives, A CRUEL SWINDLE is causing much excitement here. It appears that a large number of emigrants have been decoyed from Ireland by a man named Green, who is one of the pious frauds who are so plentifully distributed about the world. Mr. Green was a pious Catholic, and he managed to draw a goodly number of emigrantsquite respectable people—by his misrepresentations of California. They were to come to Fresno to settle; and the glowing description given by Green caused many well-to-do business men to sell out and take a passage here, The sufferings of the swindled parties on the Bea, in the loathsome intermediate cabin, were very great ; and, however Green managed it, he contrived to get almost all the money his dupes possessed into his own hands. Green had promised everything—land, Ac.—to these poor people, so that when they arrived, and found neither laud nor employment, their position may be better imagined than described. But the worst feature in the case is the bringing over of eleven young boys, sons of gentlemen in England, who have been also decoyed by Green. His' story to the parents was that he bad a 'beautiful ranche at Fresno, where he / educated youthful aspirants in the science ' of " fruitfarming." Each boy paid £70, besides the travelling expenses and outfit, to Green, for the £70 was to support the boys until such time as they were fit to receive wages. When the poor fellows arrived there was no pleasant raucho home, no provision of any sort for them ; but they were drafted on the neighbouring farmers, to fare as best they could. Luckily, some of them are earning wages, but the state ol most iB a pitiable one.- The matter has been gotten up by Dr. Kingsbury, Emigration Agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad in England, and Green, one being as bad as the other. It is to be lamented that people of common sense can be so easily gulled as they are. Who but a simpleton would send their boys to America to. be apprenticed to fruitfarming without knowing anything of the place or people but what they read of in the advertisements ? One of these poor boys is sickly, and will probably die. A kindhearted lady, one of the deluded emigrants, got him an order to go into a hospital here through the British Consul, and, on' applying to the railway for 'a pass, was absolutely refused it—wretches—though the cost is only £1 8s from Fresno to here. But when did the railway company ever do a good deed? I don't know. WOMEN AT WORK. *" There is a great improvement in the prospect for women in this city. A few years ago you would find one or two at work here and there in offices, but now a change has come, and- the girls are getting ahead of the men in some respects—as stenographers, telegraph and telephone operators, copyists, and type-writers. There are numbers of girls now employed in all kinds of offices and wholesale houses, and the number increases daily. The reason is that, while they do as good work, and even better, than men in like capacity, they work for, less wages, though I really don't see why they

should, but they do. The hours for these girls are not very lonsr, from 9 to 5 being the longest, and for this time they earn £20 a month; for shorter hours, less, of course. The j railway' companies, * wholesale liquor houses, lawyers, &c., employ them. < Those who are 4uiok , get fine pay;. those who are slow get from £8 to £12 per month. In some offices, , the telegraph girls are the worst paid. It is gratifying, to think that there is an opening for women like this, for hitherto they have had a hard time of it. Type-setting is also now a usual employment for girls.. I know of some on the newspapers who make from £3 12s to £4, though these are exceptional cases, but a girl who lives with her parents can afford to work cheap and bow much better it is than dragging out life as a chorus singer, where she must work night and day for £2, and even £1 12s a week. - -.v.V r> s THE LABOUR QUESTION * is the one topic which occupies everyone's attention at present, and no one knows where it will end. Labour is in the hands of the Chinamen, and it is a little hard to see these creatures well-fed, sleek, and fat, while white men tramp the state, half- ( starved. The cigarmakers have " imported white labour from the East, and all have found places immediately. No doubt other industries will be filled by labour after a while. The people are making a decided stand against the heathens, and the fiat has gone forth that they are to ousted from Sacramento, the capital. - Whether the native American will ever get rid of the thousands who swarm in San Francisco is a problem not easily solved. I think we are bound to have a very heavy row sooner or later on this question. The people are too poor just now to tamely submit to* starve while Chinamen get ahead as they do. The plan of boycotting would be very advisable, if people would agree to it; but, though they growl, they hold on to John like grim death, and ope can hardly wonder—he is so much cheaper than the white man, and so much easier to deal with. If a tramp comes round to beg, and you offer him work, he wants full pay, though you merely give him work you can do without paying for just to help him. If a man is hungry, he should be glad of anything, but the insolence of the white man is proverbial, and white insolenoe united to ignorance is more unendurable than even the ways of the thieving Chinese, who are patient so long as you treat him well. Nevertheless, as far as trade goes, the Chinese monopolise it hugely. Shoemaking particularly is almost entirely in their hands, but the ,San Franciscans, though they blow a great deal, and swear eternal vengeance on the interlopers, take no stand against them except in a war of words. Some day soon there will be blood spilt over this matter, if lam not mistaken. Nothing else will end the difficulty. The supervisors are trying to put down the Sandlot eloquence aired every Sunday, which is more or less of an inflammatory nature, under the sway of Coroner O'Donnel; but even their intervention falls powerless at present, and so the matter rests. In some respects John iB a curse, but also in others a blessing. SiLvaa Pen.