The Age Herald

THE RICHEST MEN
OF ALL NATIONS

Russia, France, Germany, Prussia, China,
MEXICO AND ENGLAND

All Have Their Millionaires and Multi-
Millionaires—Men Who Estimate
Their Fortunes by Hun-
dreds of Millions

It is a mistake for one to suppose that
because the names Astor, Vanderbilt and
Rockefeller have become synonyms for
wealth in the United States that the only
millionaires are those who pay taxes in
this country, for while it is a difficult mat-
ter to state who is the richest man in the
world it is safe to say that there are scores
of men in other countries, men whose
names are almost unknown to the gen-
eral reader, whose wealth is sufficient to
make the American big fortunes sink into
comparative insignificance.

There are rich men in all the five con-
tinents, men who estimate their fortunes
by millions and hundreds of millions and
some of them may be found in places where
it would seem as if they were least likely
to appear. Germany, for instance, is not
a land of rich men and yet there are sev-
eral noblemen in the land, men like the
who pays a tax on an income of $2,000,000
per annum. As the maker of big guns
much of his fortune has been due to his
own effort, and it is safely invested in
the big manufacturing establishments of
Germany.

Probably the wealthiest family in the
world's history is the Rothschilds, for
their aggregate wealth, which is distribu-
ted over twenty branches is not less than
$2,000,000,000, and would probably greatly
exceed that amount. The nursery of this
vast wealth was a dingy pawnbroker's
shop in the Indengasse, at Frankfort. Dur-
ing the middle of the last century the
founder of the great family lived in a
quaint little house, in the front room of
which he carried on his business, under
the sign of the Red Shield.

Here the first brood of budding mill-
aires, five sons and five daughters, was
reared, and while they played about like
the children of any other poor Jew, the
father, it is said, drove hard bargains for
a few ounces of old silver, or chaffered
about the advances on a bundle of old
clothes. Small as this beginning was, how-
ever, it laid the foundation for a fortune
that is world-wide in its influence for to-
day there is not a country in the world
where the wealth of the Rothschilds is not
a financial power.

A glance around the world of million-
aires will reveal no more picturesque figure
than that of Li Hung Chang, the Chinese
millionaire, who has played a part in the
world's history that will not soon be for-
gotten. It is impossible to estimate his
character by Western ideals for his method
of playing the game of politics has been
bewildering and peculiar. During his long
life, as one biographer has expressed it,
"he has lost enough peacock feathers to
make an eastern screen and won them back
in a manner that makes the world's head
swim; he has had buttons cut off and but-
tons sewed on. He has been the friend of
every nation and the enemy in turn."

These few words express fully the posi-
tion that Li Hung Chang has held in the
political life of the world. As a million-
aire, however, he has long held a posi-
tion at the head of the list for while he
was born a poor boy and for a time
taught school, he has succeeded in amass-