t's two sons, Robert,
born in 1841, and Ogden, born in 1846. These wielders of a fortune so
great that they could not keep track of it, so fast did it grow,
abandoned somewhat the rigid parsimony of the previous generations. They
allowed themselves a glittering effusion of luxuries which were
popularly considered extravagances but which were in nowise so, inasmuch
as the cost of them did not represent a tithe of merely the interest on
the principal. In that day, although but thirty years since, when none
but the dazzlingly rich could afford to keep a sumptuous steam yacht in
commission the year round, Robert Goelet had a costly yacht, 300 feet
long, equipped with all the splendors and comforts which up to that time
had been devised for ocean craft. Between them, he and his brother Ogden
possessed a fortune of at least $150,000,000. The basic structure of
this was New York City land, but a considerable part was in railroad
stocks and bonds, and miscellaneous aggregations of other securities to
the purchase of which the surplus revenue had gone. Thus, like the
Astors and other rich landholders, partly by investments made in trade,
and largely by fraud, the Goelets finally became not only great
landlords but sharers in the centralized ownership of the country's
transportation systems and industries.

When Ogden Goelet died he left a fortune of at least $80,000,000,
reckoning all of the complex forms of his property, and his brother,
Robert, dying in 1899, left a fortune of about the same amount. Two
children survived each of the brothers. Then was witnessed that
characteristic so symptomatic of the American money aristocracy. A
surfeit of money brings power, but it does not carry with it a
recognized position among a titled aristocracy. The next step is
marriage with title. The titled descendants of the predatory barons of
the feudal ages having, generation after generation, squandered and
mortgaged the estates gotten centuries ago by force and robbery, stand
in need of funds. On the other hand, the feminine possessors of American
millions, aided and abetted doubtless by the men of the family, who
generally crave a "blooded" connection, lust for the superior social
status insured by a title. The arrangement becomes easy. In marrying the
Duke of Roxburghe in 1903, May Goelet, the daughter of Ogden, was but
following the example set by a large number of other American women of
multimillionaire families. It is an indulgence w