DISSIPATED FORTUNES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18768, 23 January 1923, Page 10

DISSIPATED FORTUNES

SOME GREAT SPENDTHRIFTS. £2,000,000 SPENT IN FOUR YEARS. “Handsome Jack” Cudahy, who brought Ids life to an untimely end at Los .-.ngeles some time ago, deserves a place among the world’s greatest spendthrifts. His father was one of the original Cudnhys who were poor Irish butchers half a century ago. They joined the Armours in the tinned meat business in Chicago and made millions. When Jack’s father died he left £12,400,000. Out of this, by his will, the millionaire left to Handsome Jack only £2OOO, but as the result of a lawsuit ho succeeded in securing a ohe-seventh interest in the estate. One hundred thousand pounds were paid outright, and the rest held in trust for his children. In ten years every penny of this fortune had been squandered, and ho shot himself after failing to negotiate a loan of £2500. John W. Steele, known for many years as “Coal Oil Johnny,” was another notorious spendthrift. In early life he was a poor farmer in Pennsylvania, but one day an oil gusher was discovered on his farm, and ho lound himself with £2OO a day from his oil wells. When ho got over the shock of having such wealth lie proceeded to got rid of it in a way that dazzled all beholders. He went to Pittsburg, bought saloons, threw open the dors to the public, and chartered theatres for days at a lime, his greatest enjoyment being the sight of others enjoying what his money would do for them. NOTES TO LIGHT CIGARS. Attending one theatre in Pittsburg, ho stepped out of his box when a black-faced comedian finished his song and handed the man a £2OO note, ashing at the same time that the song should bo repeated. In Philadelphia ho used ten-dollar notes for lighting his cigars, insisted upon the driver of his carriage wearing livery designed by himself, and would not associate with any of his hangers-on unless they wore silk hats, for which he paid. In Now York he threw bank notes to the crowd as ho walked down Broadway. When his oil wells dried up after several years. Steele found himself as poor as before, and was glad to get a job as station agent on the Burlington Railway Company. He died at the age of 77. DASHING YOUNG COUNT. Some years ago the world was ringing with the doings of that spend; thrift and dashing young sprig of the old French nobility, the Count Boni de Castellano. The daughter of the late Jay Gould brought him, on their marriage, somewhere about £2,000,001 This vast sum of money, and an almost equal sum represented by unpaid tradesmen’s bills, were squandered in fewer than four years. During the week that he gave a bear hunt in honour of the Grand Duke Boris of Russia, do Castellano gave close upon £4OOO for a fur coat and between £70,000 and £BO,OOO for a wardrobe in which to hang it and his other garments. Once when sorely pressed to find now forms of extravagance ho paid £12,000 for a few paintings worth about £lO. This appealed to him as such a successful method of reducing his income that he immediately bought a pair of candlesticks for £SOCO. Not all of the £2,000,000 through which Boni went in four years came from tha Goulds. After Boni had spent £600,000, his wife’s total dower, for building the Little Trianon de Castellano, George Gould did relax to the extent of another £250,000. No loss a sum than £2,000,000 Count Boni owed to tradesmen.