A REMARKABLE WOMAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 13

A REMARKABLE WOMAN.

HATTIE GREEN, THE CHAMPION

MISER OE THE WORLD

The honour, if honour there bo, in the distinction of champion miser of the world, goes, in spite of tho claims of all other competitors, to Mrs Henrietta Green, of New York, who is tho lucky possessor of a little income of £IBO,OOO a year, and is one of the greatest contemporary millionairesses —if tho term may pass. One would, very naturally, perhaps, expect a lady possessing this little slico of tho world’s treasures to live in palatial mansions, keep 30 or -10 servants, possess magnificent steam yachts, gamble at Monte Carlo, buy tho finest and most expensive jewellery the world can produco, and have gowns from Worth, and grumble if thoy cost loss than £2OO or £3OO. Blit if ono expected this from Mrs Henrietta Green, it would only bo to receive a startling and painful shock, for Mrs Green is, to put it kindly, ono of tho most frugal-minded ladies who ever walked this earth. Out of her income of £IBO,OOO a year she spends less than £IOO ; and she is probably the most unhappy of her sox, since sho livo3 in perpetual fear of thieves and robbers. Mrs Green is the daughter of a gentleman who made a gigantic fortune out of telegraphy, and she fell into something like £L2,000,000 at liis death. She makes her homo in the cheapest boarding-housos sho can find, moving from ono to another immediately her identity has boon discovered by her co-boarders. At 7 o’clock every morning sho rises, dresses in gowns that are of almost mediaeval fashion, and always threadbare and ragged ; and she goes down to tho kitchen to breakfast with the servants, an arrangement by which sho saves a few shillings every week. After breakfast she generally takes a car to her bankers, where a room is set aside for her private uso, rent freo, and hero sho reads the daily papers and conducts her financial business with the aid of a clerk, who is also a free loan from tho bank. A depositor who has £12,000,000 is a valuable acquisition. At noon sho returns to her boardinghouse, and carries out any domestic operations which need her attention, such as washing and darning. Sho has never been known to indulge in such reckless expenditure as paying for evou so much as a handkerchief to bo washed.

When necessity calls upon her to buy a now dross or jacket, she will walk the city round to got the cheapest to bo obtained, and when her boots are past all mending sho hoards away tho buttons that sho may not have to purchase any when sho wants them. As a matter of fact, it is very rarely that she does want them, for one button on the top of each boot to keep them on contents her. No ono meoting bor in tho streets as sho plods on her way to her bank (she will ofton walk the distance, which is considerable, to save the expense of a car), in her shabby and faded black jacket and skirt, a hat which a rag-pickor would discard, and her hoots fastened by two solitary buttons, would suspect her of being worth more than a few shillings at most. Yet her fortune of £12,000,000 is increasing at tho rato of £480,000 a year, and will soon be double what it was when it fell to her. Indood, all her financial operations have boon so successful that at tho present rate of her increase of wealth sho will iu seven or eight years bo tho richest woman in tho world.

One of her operations a couple of years ago became notorious nearly all over tho world, Ex-Judge Hiltou, who succeeded to tho most of A. T. Stewart’s property and his celebrated dry goods, or drapery, store iu New York, found himself in sudden need of 2,000,000 dollars (£400,000). This was a large sum to raiso in cash in a few days. There was no known person who could supply the demand, und the Judge called upon Hattie. Although the Judge is himself worth somo £4,000,000 in property, and was a good mark in every respect, Hattie knew his necessities, and would not loan the money unless Hilton took it for a term of five years and paid tho highest rate of interest allowed by tho law, namely, 6 per cent. It is not generally known that Mrs Green has a husband, but she has, a good-for-nothing fellow who is content to live on a pittance of £5 per week which she allows him. Sho does not live with him, but keeps an eyo on him as a person might d» with sjino unfortunate charge for whoso safety he or sho was in some way respon-

sible. Tho nearest Mrs Green ever came to having a scandal was about a year ago. Tho husband had complained of illness, and Mrs Green consented to pay a female massage operator in addition to the £5 weekly allowance. But ono morning she appeared early at tho husband’s boardinghouse, and promptly dismissed the massag« operator.