OFFICE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12398, 13 November 1908, Page 5

OFFICE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE.

The death of Signor Giovanni Morosini, which occurred MQW New York on September 14, removes a famous banker who was a pillar of New York finajice, for. nearly forty years. He was in his 77th year. . When four years old he was sent to school under Gavallani, one. ..of .N&poleoji'^ soldiers, in" Venice," "where he was born. In early liie Jie wa§ £r?4 .with tho martial spirit, and was in the Grimani when the Austrians besieged Malghera. When the siege was over he emigrated to . Boston, and camo thence to New York. He served before the mast on vessels plying between New York and Havana. Sjgnor Morosini joined Garibaldi in : his trip on the Commonwealth to Bondon and Genoa in 1854. Upon liis return in the same year ho worked >as an office boy for the Eric Railway Company. ••■• Within four years he : became auditor of the conipan.Vj and. was earning £2000 a year.- In 1869 Morosini mot Jay Gould, and they became the closest of friends. It was to Jay Gould that he owed the foundation of his fortune. They entered into partnership and remained so until 1886, when both retired jrom active- business. He was Mr Gould's right-hand man in organising most of that millionaire's railroad combinations. , He married Miss Julia Chanssee in 1851, and was father of two. sons and two da\ighte_rs. One daughter, Victoria, eloped with her father's coachman in 1884, but after they were married, she was induced to return home, and subsequently appeared on the stage, and sang in several light operas. The other daughter, Giulia, has the reputation of being the most gorgeouslygowned woman in the States. She is handsome, and for years was quite the most conspicuous figure at the horse show and the gala performances at the Grand Opera. Slie incurred tho -indignant wrath^of Mrs Rose Pastor-Stokes by declaring two .years ago that no woman could dross well on less* than £40,000 a year, and she frankly admitted that hep: dresses for the six days of, the When Mrs Stokes publicly reproached horse show in 1906 cost over £20,000. her- with such flaunting extravagance shb' 1 reminded that popular philanthropist that her dresses were made in Now York, and gayo employment to hundreds of poor girls. The news.paper men at the time asked Signor Morosini if the story was true. He smiled, and observed that if a hundred thousand" dollars was all her frqeks cost she was well within her allowance. She is generosity personified/ Sometimes the spirit moves her and she may bo seen oh the East side distributing hundreds of boxes of sweets to the little children of the foreign population. Her father seconded her in all her activities. Some years ago he' erected a magnificent mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, where his body will rest. Six years ago, ho contributed £20,000 to help rebuild the Campanile, of St. Mark's, at Venice.