AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2167, 24 February 1891, Page 4

AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE.

“Broadbrim” describes the rise i and tall and rise again of an American i millionaire as follows 1 bis week it was Hepry Yillard, ..whose story reads like a tale in the “Arabian Nights ” In 1878, when we were in Paris together, Mr Yillard was a newspaper reporter, A few years after we find him at the bead of one of the most powerful financial syndicates in the world, scattering millions right and left, and controlling properties worth on the market not far from a hundred millions. The Northern Pacific, which had been the hete noir of a half dozen millionaires, was suddenly placed oh its feet and became a gilt-edged security with all the banks. Ihe new Aladdin fitted out a railroad train, the like of which never was seen in this world ; rich and noble representatives from every, land were among the, invited guests, and the lavish bos- 1 pitality that distinguished the occasion filled the oldest traveller with amazement. The financial world, dazzled' and amazed, trumpeted the fame of this new Midas at whose magic touch' everything turned to gold. Old wrinkled misers in Frankfort, Hanover, and; Berlin brought out their mouldy treasure bags and poured them into his lap, anxious to realise the dreain of their lives —150 and 200 per cent. Then came the building of the Villard palace on Madison Avenue. The costly mansions of the Astors and the Vanderbilts paled before it. Great artists from Italy frescoed its magnificent ceilings and walls; rich rugs from Persian and Indian looms covered the mosaic floors ; a million and a half of dollars were exhausted in this lavish outlay, and then came the crash. The airy palace toppled like a house, of cards; the hopes of a life went out like a dream of the night, and six months from the time that he was one of the, kings of the financial world, worn in body and broken in spirit, he staggered out of this city a wretched naked bankrupt. Oh, what a howl went up from, the street, and the lying prophets on “ Change jubilantly cried, “ I told you so.” The curses of his enemies and those who bad gone down with him to ruin followedihim aerbs the sea, up the Rhine, and over the good bid, city of Prankfort-dn-the-Main, and’here for a few weeks, the sick man found shelter and rest,. Frankfort is the home of the money lenders. Here under its free flag the Jews, persecuted in other cities, fpund peace and. safety, and the right to worship Israel’s God, It was here in the old rookery now crumbling to decay that an bumble Hebrew named Rothschild laid the foundation of that mighty fortune, the like of which had never been seen before since the world began. It seemed utterly hopeless and visionary for a man without a dollar to go back again among the men whom he had almost ruined and ask for further aid ; but that is the kind of man that Henry Villar is. Eight months £rom : the time he left here a hopeless, helpless bankrupt, he returned with twenty millions of dollars at bis back, and once more he was king of tbe stock market.