Chapter XLII: Western Millionaires in New York

Eastward the Star of Wealth and the Tide of Beauty Take 447
their Course.—Influence of the Fair Sex on this
Tendency, and Why.—New York the Great Magnet of the
Country.—Swinging into the Tide of Fashion.—Collis P.
Huntington.—His Career from Penury to the Possessor
of Thirty Millions.—Leland Stanford.—first a Lawyer
in Albany, and afterward a Speculator on the Pacific
Coast.—Has Rolled Up nearly Forty Millions.—D. O.
Mills.—An Astute and Bold Financier.—Courage and
Caution Combined.—His Rapid Rise in California.—He
Makes a Fortune by Investing in Lake Shore
Stock.—Princes of the Pacific Slope.—Mackay, Flood
and Fair.—Their Rise and Progress.—William Sharon.—A
Brief Account of His Great Success.—Wm. C. Ralston
and His Daring Speculations.—Begins a Poor New York
Boy, and Makes a Fortune in California.—John P.
Jones.—His Eventful Career and Political
Progress.-“Lucky” Baldwin.—His Business Ability and
Advancement.—Lucky Speculations.—Amasses Ten or
fifteen Millions.—William A. Stewart.—Discovers the
Eureka Placer Diggings.—His Success as a Lawyer and
in Mining Enterprises.—James Lick.—One of the Most
Eccentric of the California Magnates.—Real Estate
Speculations.—His Bequest to the Author of the “Star
Spangled Banner.”—John W. Shaw, Speculator and Lawyer

CHAPTER XLIII.

RAILROAD INVESTMENTS.

Vastness of our Railroad System.—Its Cost.—Fall in the 475
Rate of Interest.—Tendency to a Four Per Cent. Rate
on Railroad Bonds.—Effect of the Change on
Stocks.—Prospective Speculation.—Some Social
Inequities to be Adjusted through Cheaper
Transportation

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE SILVER QUESTION.

Its Fundamental Importance.—Dangers of Neglecting 481
it.—Attempts at Evasion.—How it must be Finally
met.—Silver Paper Currency Schemes, and their
Futility

CHAPTER XLV.

THE LABOR QUESTION.

Harmony Between the Representatives of Capital and 491
Labor Necessary for Business Prosperity.—If
Manufacturers should Combine to Regulate Wages the
Arrangement could only be Temporary.—The Workingmen
are Taken Care of by the Natural Laws of
Trade.—Competition among the Capitalists Sustains the
Rate of Wages.—Opinion of John Stuart Mill on this
Subject.—Compelling a Uniform Rate of Pay is a Gross
Injustice to the Most Skilful Workmen.—The Tendency
of the Trades Unions to Debar the Workingman from
Social Elevation.—The Power of the Unions Brought to
a Test.—The Universal Failure of the
Strikes.—Revolutionary Demands of the Knights of
Labor.—Gould and the Strikes on the Missouri Pacific,
&c., &c.

CHAPTER XLVI.

AN IMPORTANT SYNOPSIS.

A Resume in Brief of the Leading Events Connected with 503
Wall Street Affairs for Seventy-seven Years

CHAPTER XLVII.

INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BARTHOLDI STATUE.

Great as an Achievement of Art, but Greater as the 525
Embodiment of the Idea of Universal Freedom the World
Over.—It is a Poetic Idea of a Universal
Republic.—Enlightenment of the World Must Result in
the Freedom of Man

CHAPTER XLVIII.

LARGE FORTUNES AND THEIR DISPOSITION.

How the Fortunes of the Astors were Made.—George 529
Peabody and His Philanthropic Schemes.—Johns Hopkins
and his Peculiarities.—A. T. Stewart and his Abortive
Plans.—A Sculptor’s Opinion of his
Head.—Eccentricities of Stephen Girard, and How he
Treated his Poor Sister.—His Penurious Habits and
Great Donations.—James Lenox and the Library which he
Left.—How Peter Cooper Made his Fortune, and his
Liberal Gifts to the Cause of Education.—Samuel J.
Tilden’s Munificent Bequests.—The Vanderbilt
Clinic.—Lick, Corcoran, Stevens and Catharine Wolf

CHAPTER XLIX.

SOUTHERN AFFAIRS IN SPECULATION.

The Preservation of the Union a Great Blessing.—To Let 541
them “Secesh” would have been National Suicide.—How
Immigration has Assisted National Prosperity.—Rescued
from the Dynastic Oppression of European
Governments.—Showing Good Fellowship towards the
Southern People and Aiding them in their Internal
Improvements.—The South, Immediately after the War,
had Greater Advantages than the North for Making
Material Progress.—The Business of the North was
Inflated.—The States of Georgia and Alabama Offered
Inviting Fields for Investment.—Issuing State
Securities, Cheating and Repudiating.—President
Johnson Chiefly to Blame for the Breach of Faith with
Investors who were Swindled out of their
Money.—Revenge and Avarice Unite in Financial
Repudiation

CHAPTER L.

WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL LEADERS.

Alfred Sully, his Origin and Successful Career.—Calvin 553
S. Brice, a Financier of Ability.—General Samuel
Thomas, Prominent in the Southern Railroad
System.—General Thomas M. Logan, a Successful Man in
Railroading and Mining.—Financial Chieftains of
Baltimore.—The Garretts.—Their Great Success as
Railroad Managers.—Portrait of Robert Garrett

CHAPTER LI.

ARBITRATION.

How the System of Settling Disputes and 561
Misunderstandings by Arbitration has Worked in the
Stock Exchange.—Why not Extend the System to Business
Matters Generally?—Its Great Advantages over Going to
Law.—It is Cheap and has no Vexatious Delays.—Trial
by Jury a Partial Failure.—Some Prominent Cases in
Point.—Jury “Fixing” and its Consequences.—How Juries
are Swayed by their Sympathies.—A Curious Miscarriage
of Justice before a Referee.—The Little Game of the
Diamond Broker

CHAPTER LII.

NEW YORK AS A FINANCIAL CENTRE.

Its Past, Its Present, Its Future.—Banking 577
Decadence.—Growth of Interior Centres.—Obstruction
from the National Bank Laws.—Relief
Demanded.—Requirements of the Future

CHAPTER LIII.

EARTHQUAKE THEORIES AND WALL STREET AFFAIRS.

The Shock of Every Calamity Felt in Wall 589
Street.—Earthquakes the only Disasters which seem to
Defy the Power of Precaution.—Becoming a Subject of
Serious Thought for Wall Street Men and Business
Men.—The Volcanic Theory of Earthquakes.—Other Causes
at Work Producing these Terrific Upheavals.—Why
Charleston was more Severely Shaken Up than New
York.—Why the Southern Earthquake did not Strike Wall
Street with Great Force.—Earthquakes Likely to Become
the Great Disasters of the Future

CHAPTER LIV.

AUGUST BELMONT.

The American Representative of the Rothschilds.—Begins 595
Life in the Rothschilds’ House in Frankfort.—Consul
General to Austria and Minister to the Hague.—A Great
Financier and a Connoisseur in Art

CHAPTER LV.

THE SOCIALIST OBJECTIONS TO THE PRESENT ORDER OF SOCIETY EXAMINED.

Increase of Population and the Growing Pressure upon 599
the Means of Subsistence.—Education and Moral
Improvement the True Remedy for Existing or
Threatened Evils.—Errors of Communism and
Socialism.—How Socialistic Leaders and Philosophers
Recognize the Truth.—Growth of Population Does Not
Mean Poverty

CHAPTER LVI.

STOCK EXCHANGE CELEBRITIES.

How Wall Street Bankers’ Nerves are Tried.—Fine Humor, 603
Jocular Dispositions, and Scholarly Taste of
Operators.—George Gould as a Future Financial
Power.—American Nobility Compared with European
Aristocracy.—How the Irish Can Assist to Purge Great
Britain of her Bilious Incubus of Nobility.—The
Natural Nobility of Our Own Country and Their Destiny

CHAPTER LVII.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE.

What We Are.—What We are Preparing For.—What We are 611
Destined to Do and to Become.—We are Entering on an
Era of Seeming Impossibilities.—Yet the Inconceivable
Will be Realized