The Abounding AmericanCrosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
General
The Abounding American
Crosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
National characteristics, American
Of the real authentic untraversable American millionaire, one is inclined
to speak with bated breath and whispered humbleness. There are three
men of means in America at the time of writing who will probably be
remembered for the wealth they possess as long as this weary world holds
together. The virginal chaste names of them, need one say, are John D.
Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. No doubt there are
others, such as the Vanderbilts and the Goulds, and Mr. Astor and Mr.
Harriman, and that great patron of the drama, Mr. John Cory, whose wealth
transcends the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind coming in together. But it is
on Messrs. Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie that the brunt and burden
and glitter and glory of real unlimited and omnipotent millionairedom
has fallen. Mr. Rockefeller, indeed, is commonly credited with being the
richest and most powerful capitalist in the world. So rich is he, and so
enormous are his accumulations of earned and unearned increment, that
he is rapidly becoming the overlord of all the other millionaires, who
even now are, to a great extent, playing with his money and must, to a
corresponding extent, do his bidding.
Of Mr. Rockefeller the world knows next to nothing, excepting that he
is fabulously and pitifully rich, that he has absolutely no hirsute
covering for his stupendous brains, that he suffers from indigestion, and
that he plays golf and teaches a Sunday school in a Nonconformist place
of worship. Every other morning he appears to present to this or that
American city a few odd millions “for educational purposes,” the which
millions are promptly spurned by the local authority as “tainted money,”
but ultimately accepted “in the interests of the industrial class.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account