THE LANDLORD OF NEW YORK.

Thames Advertiser, Volume IX, Issue 2314, 29 March 1876, Page 3

THE LANDLORD OF NEW YORK.

[From the Spectator.) The career of Mr W. B. Astor, the American millionaire, who died at New York on 24th November, deserves more than a passing word. He was believed to be, perhaps erroneously, the greatest capitalist in America, and he certainly was. in the whole world, the supreme example of a special type of rich men, those who may be called beaver-capitalists,— men who, possessed of unusual means, care nothing for speculation or for business in the usual sense of the term, nothing for splendour, and nothing for political power, but pass quiet lives, almost in seclusion, in the patient and usually successful endeavour to increase and secure their fortunes. The late, Mr Thornton,, whose death affected an English Budget, was one of these men; and Mr Brown, the Liverpool shipowner, another; but neither of them offered so perfect a specimen of the genus as the late representative of "the Astors." He was the,second in succession of a family of money-getters, who, but for an accident, might have attained wealth unequalled in modern history. John Jacob Astor, the founder of the house, the son of a German butcher of Waldorf, possessed in, a high degree the genius, for in him it was something more than the mere capacity, for rapidly making' money. He landed in 1782 in. New York -at nineteen with five pounds in his pocket, and seven flutes for luggage* intending, it is believed, to deal in musical instruments, but became apprentice to a Quaker furrier, set up speedily for. himself, and without any special luck-with-out marrying his master's daughter, or inheriting a great legacy-accumulated before he was forty, by dealing in furs and by some successful shipping speculations, about a quarter of- a million sterling. This was an immense fortune in those days, more than a million would be now, but it was only a beginning to Mr Astor's accumulations. He' commenced investing his money on a plan which had the advantage of being absolutely secure, and of affording a chance of immense profit, if he could only wait. He had a profound belief that New York would grow in no long time into a London, or would become at all events an immense as well as wealthy city? and he bought land on the island very cheap, at.what seemed to less convinced observers preposterous distances from the centres of business and began erecting large and attractive houses on his estates. As the city spread, they sold and let well, and still continuing his business as a furrier, and speculating heavily in ships and pianofortes, he invested all his profits in more a'nd moro acres, and more and more houses, till when he died, in 1848, at the age of eighty-five, it was found that his estate required as much management as a first class business, and that his only efficient son, the other one being insane, had inherited a fortune of £4,000,000 sterling. Larger fortunes than this are believed to exist in the United States to-day, but in 1848 this was probably the largest, and certainly the. largest safely invested in real estate and beyond any fluctuations except those incidental to the prosperity of the country. The German butcher's boy who at seventeen, long before emigra : . tion had become a habit, had the nerve to decide on emigration to a new world, and to wait two years in England en route merely to learn-its language, had in one lifetime made himself the richest citizen of his adopted country. He intended to have been much more. There was ambition as well as power in the man; he had a .passion for wealth as a conquest as well as a possession, and he struck out a scheme for founding a Fur capital in Oregon, to be called " Astoria," monopolising the furs of the. North and the Far West, and developing a trade between the United States and Asia, through the Pacific Slope, which, but for tho war with England in 1812, would, he firmly believed, have made him "the richest man that ever lived in the world." The schemewas abandoned in consequence of the war, and never resumed; but Mr Astor never lost faith in it, and looked back on it to the end of liis days as regretfully as Napoleon looked back on his 'expedition to Egypt, and the wretched little Englishman wno" stopped his true career." He would, there can be little doubt, had he succeeded, have held in his hand all the furs from the Ear West, then a main source of supply especially for beaver, and might have saved a million a year for thirty years. He turned aside, however," and thence forward adhered firmly to the investments in land;

, The' William B. Astor who inherited all .this wealth had none of his father'r daring genius for money making, but he had, nevertheless s quietly persistent desire to continue accumulating. Ho was fifty-six. when he succeeded; lie had been trained to watch his father's property, and for the rest of his life he pursued unswervingly a single purpose —that of so managing "the'"Astor Estate" that it should grow greater on his hands! Ho was not a mean man, still less a'miser, any more than he was a generous one. He thought his father had not. distributed' quite enough among some relatives, and in a moderate, sensible way ( .at a cost of. a few thousands, lie remedied all the deficiencies he "."perceived. Ho.lieard that the trustees of the: Astor library, after, their large expenditure on buildings,' had hardly adequate funds for book buying, and he added £40,000 to his father's gift of £80,000. Ho gave when asked to charities, and not illiberally, but his usual cheque was one for £200, and'he is only once recorded tg hayo made "a donation of £10,000 at once/, 'Ho lived also liberally, with a town .'hoiisp; and, large country, place,, but lie liyp4 moderately, speudinglon himself aud his charities'; but'

a fraction of his income, secluding himself ' almost entirely from tho public eye, and , taking no visible part in tho business of / the City or Bepublic. Ko never engaged ini " business" in the ordinary sense, and never became a|director in any of the undertakings in which he held shares. His work for twenty-seven years waa merely to manage his property, to cover his father's lands with largo houses, till shortly before his death ho possessed 720, most of them of tho first class and in the richest quarters, and to invest his yearly ' accumulations in tho safest investments he could find. He nevor speculated or dealt on 'Change, or went in for grand coups, but steadily added house to house and share to share; working all the while as if he had still his bread to make. His office was as large as that of any contractor, and he superintended it himself, going down every day when in town to business, land keeping, all under him at work. He paid well, and he must have had somo judgment in men, for lie was well-served, and had the art of inducing his agents to give up their whole lives to his service. He had too, a certain fidelity to his work and to,tho estate, and, wo believe, put a; clause in his leases under which. he alone should undertake all repairs,—a branch of srork involving excessive labor and no profit. It is probable that while he adhered steadfastly to his own plan of life, and watched his fortune accumulating, he was- a" weary man,, who thought life had very , little to give, and had something of a ; dislike for tho • wealth which had made him such a name. : i He seemed to be governed, possibly from habit, by a sense of duty to the estate which he had watched so long-by a feel- ; ing that- to diminish it, even for great.. objects, would be in some sense a moral wrong. It may even be surmised that ho was conscious of this feeling, and a little ashamed of it, broader ideas flitting occasionally before his mind. There is some- • thing to our ears excusatory -in his fre-.. quent remark that his wealth brought him. nothing but maintenance, and, v o daily ' round of work, and the burdensome reputation of being- the-richest man in tho Union. Nevertheless, -he never intermit* ted his toil, but from 1860 to 1873 increased his buildings, till he was popularly described as "the Landlord of New York,", and was: possessed of & fortune which tho Tribune says is variously esti- ; mated, but may reach £10,000,000 ster- .v. ling. Wo have had it estimated,'not by-' ,: < f vulgar rumours,but by grave capitalists who had an interest in knowing the truthj at a ' «' very much larger sum; but-vast as- the— transactions of W- B. Astor. were, Wallstreet is shrewd, and the Tribune's estimate is likely to be found, when the pro< perty is valued for. the. succession, tho. „ terms of which are still unknown; verj;" - near the truth. Jacob H; Astor certainly fi left.: £4,000,000, most of it, producing more , than, 6. per cent,, and allowing even £40,000 a year"'for. expenditure and ' management' charges, tho savings 'of 1 * twenty-seven years under such manage*.: ment as Mr William Astor's, added to the , orignal fortune, cannot, amount to muck V, less than ten million's, and may prove to"' : b.e much. more. It is to be observed,\ : ■ however, that the houses will ; be valued at a period of unusual depreciation. If tho •. amount we have stated should bo realised," Mr Astor's fortune was one of tho.largest ever at tho disposal of a single man, unfet*' ' tered by responsibilities of.a house like the Bothschilds, or by settlements such as reduce , the London Dukes to life* tenancies.

We rather wonder, why'one feels a slight contempt for a career like this—a contempt deepened rather than lessened by the charm which very great'power in any other ' shape has> for the-imagination. ' Tried by all rules of political economy, he ■ was a most excellent citizen—a man. who, ;• instead of wasting .wealth upon himself,. ; ,i or hoarding it unused, or pauperising his.'. neighbours by lavish gifts, employed it in the most beneficial way—devoting the V whole, or nearly the whole, of his profits ; to reproductive undertakings, railways ; mines and above all useful buildings. Tried by a higher Standard even, there was little to cavil at, for, as. we. have said, ■ lie probably accumulated money from a sense of duty, which, however narrow, was sincere, and , his . personal' character is believed to have been, without a stain of any kind. He was bred "and remained r through life an unobtrusive momberof the Episcopal Church, and never neglected any external duty of a church member, :• giving'up attendance, only when, his ago ./ made the ascent" of the churoh-stcps a . suffering to him. If his will is found' as'. respectable as his life, there is no fault in ' . it on'which a critic can take hold. 7 And :r , yet the instinctive feeling that this mag. : ' on the whole- lived a poor life' must be the ; correct one. He had power in his hands, powfcr ofth'e'imftt real and effective-kind, , and he did not care to use it; but while always increasing; it.'left it behind him for others 'to use or misuse, independent,of his control., There is no reason .why ho should be blamed, any 'more than any English millionaire who equally with him buries his talent in a napkin; but .one feels iu his case an extra sense of ■ disappointment ; as if, living in such a country with such a family history, he ought to have been more original, more splendidly generous, more of a recognisable benefactor to his kind. 'It is as if Napoleon in the fulness-of power had used his whole , < strength to make himself a safe.arid- do*"-'* corous sovereign'in ! some corner of his possessions,—had made a warm oloak of .'. _ his. purple robe, and, a handsome crutch of his sceptre. A man is not bound to be lofty, if loftiness is hot in him, but there . is in the career of Mr Astor, excellent peri" •' son as ho is always represented to have been, a want of the greatness which power like ihis. would in some few natures have called forth. He did not even expand the somewhat confined and sordid. Amori* can idea of living. '• \