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Show Hammond Pleased to Oblige Rothschild 1 i '; (' " -at HimiHHiinHHimiMH 'wwimwnritiifmHittii'itfwt'tritittWf -""tar It hud beeu my custom, extending over a period of many 'years, to . drop In Informally mid have luncheon wlttt the Rothschilds at their hunk one or twice during each of my frequent visits to London. On these occasions always the most Interesting topic of conversation whs my ' estimate of the wealth of Rockefeller and other rich Americans, , Lord Rothschild Invariably Invari-ably Introduced the subject and, forewarned, fore-warned, I was ready to give him the desired thrill. He would start with some "piker" capitalist, whose wealth did not amount to more than the paltry pal-try sum of one hundred millions of dollars and then worked up by queries until he reached the American Croesus, Croe-sus, John D, Rockefeller. It would be an unpatriotic American who would belittle the wealth of a compatriot at a time like this, and after having modestly admitted, In reply to Lord ' Rothschild's question, that Rockefeller wus certainly worth live hundred millions of dollars, assuming an air of ultra-conservatism, I would allow him to extort what was to him a delectable delect-able fact that Rockefeller was worth at least three-quarters of a billion dollars; and when the money-bags around the table stared at me with an expression ex-pression of pleased surprise, but not of doubt, I would In subdued tone convey con-vey to them the fact that in Informed financial circles of America, the Rockefellers' wealth was estimated at over a billion dollars I The internationalism interna-tionalism of the Rothschild family and the utter lack of envy ts evidenced In the unmistakable pleasure which characterized the reception of this titbit of high finance. John Hays Hammond In Scrlbner's. iTMimmMiiiitMMWi |