Appendix
A:38.

[156] "America's Successful Men of Affairs":36.

[157] "No church disdained his gifts." The morals and methods of the
church, as exemplified by Trinity Church, were, judged by standards,
much worse than those of Astor or of his fellow-landlords or
capitalists. These latter did not make a profession of hypocrisy, at any
rate. The condition of the tenements owned by Trinity Church was as
shocking as could be found anywhere in New York City. We subjoin the
testimony given by George C. Booth of the Society for the Improvement of
the Condition of the Poor before a Senate Investigating Committee in
1885:

Senator Plunkett: Ask him if there is not a great deal of church
influence [in politics].

The Witness: Yes, sir, there is Trinity Church.

Q.: Which is the good, and which is the bad?

A.: I think Trinity is the bad.

Q.: Do the Trinity people own a great deal of tenement property?

A.: Yes, sir.

Q.: Do they comply with the law as other people do?

A.: No, sir; that is accounted for in one way--the property is
very old and rickety, and perhaps even rotten, so that some
allowance must be made on that account.

(Investigation of the Departments of the City of New York, by Special
Committee of the [New York] Senate, 1885, 1:193-194.)

CHAPTER VII

THE CLIMAX OF THE ASTOR FORTUNE

The impressive fortune that William B. Astor left was mainly bequeathed
in about equal parts to his sons John Jacob II. and William. These
scions, by inheritance from various family sources, intermarriage with
other rich families, or both, were already rich. Furthermore, having the
backing of their father's immense riches, they had enjoyed singularly
exceptional opportunities for amassing wealth on their own account.

In 1853 William Astor had married one of the Schermerhorn family. The
Schermerhorns were powerful New York City landholders; and if not quite
on the same pinnacle in point of wealth as the Astors, were at any rate
very rich. The immensely valuable areas of land then held by the
Schermerhorns, and still in their possession, were largely obtained by
precisely the same means that the Astors, Goelets, Rhinelanders and
other conspicuous land families had used.

INTERRELATED WEALTH.

The settled policy, from the start, of the rich men, and very greatly of
rich women, was to marry within their class. The result obviously was to
increase and