| Show NELL THE ISLE OF millionaires washington INGToN D C dec 1896 r WONDER il if president cleve I 1 land visited visite d the isle of the millionaires during his last j weeks trip to the south there is no doubt he was very near to it but the details ot of his journey have been kept s secret ecret and no one knows whether he has been wading about the swamps trying to bring down the festive snipe with his gun or whether he ha has s been rolling in the lap ol at S p 00 luxury with the nabobs nabors oi of the cited ted states the have isle you of ever millionaires ikeard F of 0 it it I 1 is a the robinson t ol of tor for iwah jone ass nei retreat street s street and fa fifth afta avenue A members balry land aln belonging to a club whose bave haeme fridays by the dozen and alu men rather than nuts I 1 visited live in palaces the li it recent trip nip to south 11 during my e miles irom from bruns bigot ties lies about just jus by the warm sall sail surrounded wick ga U r ro eaters as balot at the he southern sout five it be to about score ones in common it is estimated that tae me t aggregate lor tunes ot of us its owners toot loot up hundred million one everal times it is said that every man wao house spends his loate its club ds ot of dollars a year li it tens of shousan thousands HS Js IB known as bekyl island anu ana it wab gebort ahe b ought as a mimo I 1 tee lee at me the start was ate barship that admission to lo the club abut but I 1 am told the island thousands thoua thou ands bands f to it now worth s rv M when it was boniv only cost t the club 1251 marsh and forests to rests ae YA tt stretch retch ai ot of 52 mauu Z 4 hundreds ol of thousands ol 01 jance cc then dollars Oli ars have been expended upon it 14 and anci ahen I 1 visited it I 1 found an army ot of workmen V putting up new buildings palm trees and making improvements tor for tat other expensive winter season no one can land on bekyl island unless steamboats Steam boais in an invitation he has as innot annot in not stop there and the millionaires aft as sale irom from intrusion as they are behind their Eng engliss listi butlers m in their homes in the great cities the privacy ot of the rich surrounds them and me golden key ot at blue blood allied to 10 wealth is required before membership to the club can be obtained bo tar lar little has been said about the club in the newspapers some ol at its members 1 venture look down on newl newspaper paper men and one especially anu belongs to 10 the vanderbilt Van derbUt family and who usually sails down clown here irom from abw york in his yacht during the winter always has a private secretary with him to keep press still there are newspapermen among the members and a notable figure is the hon joseph pulitzer Puh tzer who comes here after new year yea r lor for his winter rest he has for the past two seasons rented a cottage at bekyl paying I 1 am told 1500 for six weeks rent an average ot of a week to merely nave have a roof over his head think ot of paying more than 30 30 a day tor for the privilege ot of living in a two story house add to this perhaps 75 additional dit ional and you have about the baily expenses ot of one man at bekyl he brings his horses with him he nas has six which come in their special car some weeks in advance in order that they maybe may be acclimated bei becore ore his arrival he has his bis private secretary and his own servants and his family cati keeps his table supplied to such an ex teut that he hardly knows the Git terence between this desert island and his own house at home though snut shut on oft from the world however the world is not noi shut on off trum from him there is a telephone and a telegraph line running irom bekyl to 10 the mainland and he is in as close communication almost with his office in new york as though he were in the editorial room at the top ol of the great building on city hall square J pierpont morgan gets away from his business cares by coming to bekyl guard ed by ane sea he rides and drives about the island and with the aladdin s lamp ot of his clothes his bis solitude luxurious ease before I 1 take you with me on a visit to the island let me say a little more about the me members ol of the club A list of them lies becore me and I 1 see that they come from all parts ot of the union there thera is marshall field the big merchant prince ot of chicago who began life as a farmers lar mers boy but who now does a biness business bu ol of something like a year he has made a fortune in dry goods real estate and mines and his income is enormous he travels to brunswick runswick jb in a special car and crosses in the club launch to the island then there is james hill fillol of st paul who back in the sixties was a clerk and who now no AT has more railroads than any other man in the country he owns the great northern has a large share ot of the northern pacific ana suca other property that his pile is measured by the tens ol at millions I 1 am told that he knows to a cent the wages ot of each of the men in his employ and that his brain never stops working from one years and nd to the other he comes to bekyl to try to get rest and ana snoots shoots and in tuis warm climate when in toe thermometer is at zero in his minnesota home another railroad miRio millionaire who has las a membership in the club is george gould and a third man whose special car carries him here is calvin S brice toe tae capitalist and united states senator pierre barillard La rillard the rich tobacconist spends some time at bekyl and cornelius N bliss who is now spoken of as a possible secretary of the treasury in mc Kin leys cabinet is another rich member A large number of the members are rich by inheritance some are polite loafers io aters who do little more than try to kill time and a chapter might be written on the rich women who come to bekyl to 10 while away the weary hours bours the younger girls come to flirt and gethus get hus bus bands for the matches made here are sure to be good from a financial stand point at least they bring their poodles doodles witti them and I 1 was shown heie a photograph of the thousand dollar dog which was owned by the girl whom Frecie frederick rick vanderbilt courted at bekyl and came so near marrying the dog sits on a plush cushion and I 1 am it wore a gold collar its little littfe nose cose was kissed again and again by this heiress hei reas and I 1 venture that young vanderbilt has many times wished in its place then there are the goblets Goe lets the Rocke tellers the cuttings and a score of other well known names watch are almost regularly registered on the bekyl island duo club book there are millionaires irom from cincinnati and other great cities and in fact a representative senta tive of most ot of the great fortunes of the united states may be loundia found in the club president cleveland would be delighted by a visit to bekyl it is a fairy island where it is almost always surn summer mer heated as it is by the amorous kisses of me voluptuous gull stream the air is in always balmy and the trees are always green it is you know just opposite brunswick ga which is oneff one of the great turpentine and resin markets of the me country coun iry and the sweet smell ot at the long leaved pines is mixed wita with that of the tropical plants of the south and the soft salt air of thelea the sea bekyl does not lie alone on the waters within afew a few miles of it are many beautiful islands the famed sea islands which embroider the coast of south carolina and georgia and which are noted for raising the finest cotton of the world it is now winter here in the nonh but december Dece moer in bekyl is like june to in dakota the flowers are in bloom and nature has on its seven leagued boots of luxuriant life your surroundings are those ol of perpetual spring the air is such that it opens the soul soui of the most ascetic it was here that the pious ccarles wesley fell in love and here john wesley came to straighten out his brothers trouble here john wesley preached some of his great sermons and it was on one arm this 9 of this island that charles wesley stood when he composed the well known hymn the first verse of which is lot lol on a narrow neck of land twixt two unbounded seas I 1 stand yet how bow A point of time a moments space removes me too yon heavenly place or shuts me up in hell bell above bekyl is st simons island upon which fanny kemble lived for a time after she had married one of the sea bland island cotton kings and it was there that governor oglethorp fought the spaniards more than a quarter of a century before our independence was declared I 1 went to the island with mr C W doming deming the newspaper man of 0 brunswick who made himself famous through his reports of the yellow fever here of some years ago we had bad a little naphtha steam launch and our c captain tain and pilot was a one eyed negro ato who knew less about a boat than the average salt water sailor does about digging gold in the we started at noon and wound in and out among the islands through narrow channels until we came into a wide river or strait which res lies between bekyl island and one of the other bits of lind land lying below it As we neared bekyl we could see the botta cottages es 1 shining out of the trees we rode 10 lor r some miles through low marshy lands lands which are famous for their hunting and are filled with snipe and ducks beyond these we could see the forests and off in the distance the great casino or club house where the most of the members of the club have their winter quarters we landed at the wharf and spent some hours in going about the island everywhere we went we saw of game and we learned that we were in one of of the best game ame preserves of the united states bekyl bekyl preserves island is eleven miles long and about two miles wide it contains acres and this is of such a character that it is adapted to all kinds of game thirty five hundred acres of it are of salt marsh hundred acres are of heavy oak and pine forest twenty five hundred acres are of old sea island cotton land and acres are of hemmock and dry savanna land the result is that A aal kinds of game will thrive the forests are full ot of deer and wild hogs in the game e keeper e 0 e I 1 saw specimens ns 0 of the e game e w which ch had been shot and they embraced many kinds of animals and birds the deer leer are found here naturally but many of the birds are imported ed the game keeper said we get thousands of quail every year and let them loose our members want to shoot quail but they do not thrive well liere here so we have to import them we let out from to a thousand at a time and it is not uncommon for a dog to chase up out of a single cover we have so many deer here that we have to put a net around the club house grounds to keep them away from the house you may see a score of them walking about near the houses almost any moonlight night and it is no trouble to shoot them 20 1 I should think that a good sportsman would soon kill them oft said 1 I aso so they could replied the game keeper aut but we have have a limit to the amount one man can shoot he can kill only so many quail or pheasants in a day and only so many deer in a season during the summer the game gets very tame laut but it soon grows wild when the members comedown come down herein here in the winter and it is good sport i some of the best sport upon jeckyl island is in hunting pheasants and turkeys the pheasants have been imported from england one hundred were brought over in 1886 and of these only seventy eight lived in one season they laid 1000 eggs which were hatched out by barnyard barn bam yard hens when the little pheasant chicks had grown they were turned out into the woods the next year more hen pheasants were imported and now the woods swarm with them wild turkeys are native to the region they are to be found in the oak and pine woods they are very shy and it takes a turkey cau call to bring them out it is two and one half miles from any part of the mainland to the island and the birds nearly always stay ilithe in the salt marshes there are plenty of snipe and the cotton and groan grain fields are filled with quail then there are plenty of woodcock plover and doves so that the millionaires have no trouble about getting something to kill a I 1 spent some time in lookin looking at the buildings on bekyl island T the fe cottages a es are not very extravagant that is they are not extravagant as rich mens homes they are rather extravagant as cottages for they cost all the way from to each there is one house that has never been occupied the millionaire who ordered it built thought he might want it some time but so far has not come to see it the club house itself cost I 1 am told about it is a big three story brick building with a tower at one end and with an immense circular porch running around it it is heated by steam and it is now being lighted by electricity it formerly had gas but the result was not satisfactory and so the building is being torn to pieces and electric lights put in of bourse course it will cost a lot ot 0 money to make an independent electric light plant but these rich men can stand jl it I 1 went through the new apartment house which is now being built there are about carpenters and masons at work upon it and it will have I 1 judge about a dozen apartments it is being built with a packing of wool or hair between the walls in order that ayery sound may be deadened and so that the millionaire of the floor above may not hear bear the snores of the millionaire of the floor below everything is of course of the most luxurious nature and money is of no object when there is any question of comfort under consideration I 1 could write a column about the beauties of the grounds I 1 could tell you how boats were employed to carry tall palm trees from other parts of the coast that they might be planted on the lawn about the club house and I 1 could describe other extravagances which are possible only to the rich I 1 could write about the miles of magnificent ent drives along the coast and tell you how these old nabobs nabors sit here and watch the sea and roll over and over upon the sand taking sun baths on a hot february day I 1 could tell you how the millionaires ses lie with the hot sun shining down upon them here and there an ankle may show out but there are no vulgar eyes to see it and during the greater part of the year even miss Kilman with her golden leg could lie herein peace I 1 could tell you how these men of money work up their appetites by walking the air here is pure it is full of ozone and you can walk for miles without tiring then I 1 might speak of the surf bathing think of it there is surf bathing here in midwinter and there is hunting and fishing all the year around if you dont like such amusement you can take a drive and if you have not your own horses there is plenty of good stock for hire in the stables of the club it is true that a double team will cost you a month and your bill for your riding horse will be more than half that horses are cheap everywhere else but where money is king as here there is nothing cheap and even horses are dear and so as I 1 think again of the beauties of beky I 1 wonder whether president cleveland really went there it would be a splendid place to plot a big financial scheme with pierrepont morgan or envoys from cuba could slip across the water and laud land at bekyl without any one knowing he may have gone there to shoot at the razorback razor back hogs which roam through the woods or the gamekeeper may have had orders to turn out a lew few thousand quail in the range of his gun he may have but you can never tell what the president has done I 1 know that fighting bob evans who went with him wont tell and that his physician doctor oreilly who was also along like all good doctors keeps the secret of his patients especially when one ot of |
