It may have occurred to him - since he was himself a student of the early history of New York - that Captain William Kidd was no such mythical person as the stories about him would lead one to suppose. The full weight of what these men were saying - the enormity of what they intended - seemed suddenly to come home to the usually imperturbable John Jacob Astor.īut he made no attempt to dismiss his callers or the subject regarding which they had come. "The treasure was buried on land which I own - which my family owned at the time Kidd buried it." "Well, suppose, for the sake of argument, that he did. But I have established that he did make one with the man who found Captain Kidd's treasure." Your ancestor did not make a deal with Captain Kidd. "Deal, man? What are you talking about? How could my great-grandfather have made a deal with this fellow Kidd? Why, Captain Kidd - " He was simply a shrewd business man who made the best deal he could - " Astor," continued his caller, "that this disclosure must come as a shock to you - arid I beg you to believe that I do not impute any unworthy motives to your ancestor in this matter. ![]() Such a claim was not to be laughed off too easily. He was a sober, distinguished gentleman, a man of wealth in his own right, and he was accompanied by counsel of national eminence. After all, the man in front of him was no adventurer. "Because the Astor estate belongs not to you but to me." "And why, may I ask, should anything concerning the Astor estate interest you?" Evarts has referred does interest me, and rightly." Olmsted in a low, measured voice which demanded attention, "the fact to which Mr. His two callers, however, showed no sign of departing. He rose, his hand once more on his mustache. ![]() If it were, it could possibly interest you." But I hardly see how this alleged fact could possibly be in that category - or how, I would be inclined to believe anything you said which could possibly be within your knowledge. Olmsted," he said, "I have the highest respect for your reputation and your achievements. The man of great wealth turned to his other caller. "Did you say fact, senator? Aren't you going a bit fast?" And far stranger things have happened in both than the fact that the very substantial and highly respected fortune which you enjoy was founded on the stolen treasures of the most notorious pirate of all times." "But Captain Kidd and my great-grandfather - " "You can't expect me, senator, to take you seriously," he said. But at this juncture he laughed long and heartily. Now, the fourth John Jacob Astor was not a laughing man. "On the buried treasure of Captain Kidd!" He has indisputable proof that the Astor estate was not founded, as you and all the world have been led to believe, on your great-grandfather's profits in furs." Olmsted, has come to you on a matter of extreme importance and delicacy. Astor," the senator began, "my client, Mr. Evarts's first words were to strike at the very foundation of his great fortune? Evarts big, burly, expansive, impressive Mr. ![]() Frederick Law Olmsted, of the Brookline, Massachusetts, and Deer Isle, Maine, Olmsteds, was, as everybody knew, a famous landscape engineer, a city-builder, a civic architect, one of the best known men of his time. Choate, was probably the foremost legal authority of his generation. Senator Evarts, senior partner of the great Joseph H. Olmsted, wish to see you on a matter they say is of the greatest importance." Astor," said an obsequious clerk, "two gentlemen, Mr. Wasn't he, Colonel John Jacob Astor, scholar, sportsman, soldier, financier - he who was to meet a tragic death on the Titanic - called the Landlord of New York? Wasn't it his great-grandfather, the first John Jacob Astor, who had invested two million dollars in New York real estate, and invested it so wisely that it had grown, in the hands of succeeding generations of Astors and Wendells and Delanos and Chanlers and Careys and Van Alens, until it had now reached, in the 1890s, the colossal total of four hundred and fifty million dollars? Astor, who sat in that beautiful French chateau on upper Fifth Avenue and decided who was and who was not in New York society?
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