THE MILLIONAIRE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3942, 10 July 1918, Page 4

THE MILLIONAIRE.

HIS EXTRAVAGANCE AND

FOLLIES

If the American Croesus has dis^ covered the secret of making millions' more rapidly and easier than any other 1 man on earth, he has also no superior* in the art of dissipating them.

If anyone doubts this, a walk along the famous Fifth Avenue in New York cannot fail to dispel his scepticism; for within half an hour, he will pass some fifty imposing palaces, which, with the treasures they contain, represent at least £20,000,000—1116 homes of men whose aggregate fortune is estimated at £500,000,000.

The regal home built by Cornelius Vanderbilt, an impressive pile modelled on the Castle of Blois 3 alone cosi '£1,000,000 to build and decorate. Adjoining it is a tiny garden, to make room for which a £25,000 house was pulled down; while a further sum of £70,000 has been spent in making it beautiful. Not far away rises the splendid mansion of Mr. Jacob Astor, during- the building of which £160,000 was spent in wages alone, and which contains pictures valued at £100,000.

Mr. Gerry's palace closJi by has a marvellous staircase of exquisite _ marble, with stair-rods of gold, which" cost him £20,000. The palace of Mr Yerkes was built and decorated at a cost of £600,000. £6,000 was lavished on a single bathroom, and the bed stead for Mrs. Perkes's bedroom cost £2000; while from basement to roof the mansion is crowded with pictures and objects of art, for which Mr. Yerkes paid £400,000.

Senator Clarke's white granite par ace is enriched with Eastern furnish ings and curios valued at a million dollars. A Turkish room contains three rugs at apiece; two divans which were bought for £4000; and a couple of teakwood cabinets, holding bric-a-brac, which cost ,£15,000. A Persian rug in the hall, woven in jewelled patterns of ruby, turquoise, and other precious stones, is said to De worth £8000.

But all this prodigal extravagance pales into insignificance when compared with that wonderful bedroom which is the glory of the mansion oi Mr. Stephen Marchand, and on V.\c equipment of which he lavished the enormous sum of £193,000. The bedstead, of ebony and richly-carved ivory, alone cost £38,000; the chairs of carved ivory, inlaid with gold and ebony, £8000; and the wardrobe, dressing-table, and other furniture, £53,000.* £3,850 was paid for the painting of the ceiling by the bes! Parisian artists; and the panelling of the walls, with their richly gilt carvings and mouldings, co^t £12,800.

And these are but samples of the lavish building and decoration which mar. the houses of scores of American multi-millionaires, several of. which represent a cost of quite a million pounds apiece, or the equivalent oi nearly eight tons of gold. How rapidly money can be squandered in filling these palaces with treasures has been proved by Mr. Picrmont Morgan, who paid ,£IOO,OOO for a single picture; £70,000 for a Louis XVI. consoletable; over a million pounds for tho Kann collection of pictures, and two million francs for four tapestries.