EXTRAVAGANCE-MAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3195, 15 April 1911, Page 4

EXTRAVAGANCE-MAD.

FADS OF AMERICAN MILLIONAIRES.

Fresh evidence of the ingenuity displayed by rich members of American society in creating new channels for the useless and senseless expenditure of nloncy is contributed by Frederick Martin, himself one of the leaders of the “Four Hundred,” to the February number of “Everybody’s Magazine.” A dog, neither valuable nor beautiful, says Mr. Martin, was given a dinner by its owner, at the conclusion of which the animal was decorated with a diamond collar valued at £3OOO. That banquet was voted a huge success.. Scorning an imported motor car, which had cost £2400, a southern millionaire put the finishers and decorators to work on it. When finished it contained a living and sleeping room, a small bath tub, hot and cold water fixtures, and a tiny kitchen, but it cost him £3600. -Cigarettes wrapped in £2O notes roused the enthusiasm of the guests at a New York function. A millionaire spent £15,000 on a. pair of opera glasses; without the lyre encrusted with diamonds and sapphires that surmounted them, they were worth £2O. The wife of a multimillionaire, who wears a necklace that cost more than £120,000, recently gave birth to a son. The woman retained four high-priced’ physicians as part of a large staff hired for the exclusive care of the infant. The physicians examined the child four time a day, and issued bulletins after each examination of its health.” A. hat, which has brought joy to the heart of a Nebraska millionaire, is made entirely of paper money to itlie value of £4OOO. Another millionaire is attending to his tombstone. It is not finished yet. but every year since 1906, he has paid £3OOO to cover running expenses, and there is still plenty of room for more, saving. Once a millionaire wanted a home/ in New York, and 1 this is how he obtained it. For £400,000 he bought a house ; pulled down a place next door worth £20,000, and with an additional £IOO,OOO made a garden. His bedstead was of carved ivory arid ebony inlaid with gold; his washstand cost £7600, and his dressing table £13,000.. Altogether he spent nearly one million pounds. One of “the little sons of the rich” took a pa-rty of friends by special train from Los Angelos to New York expenses totalling £IO,OOO. Another youth travelling through the South, dying of ennui, discovered a pair of negroes living in a hovel bordering on a swamp. “The man engaged help from New. Orleans, and had a delightful time pulling down the shanty ana erecting in its place a beautiful bungalow foir the awed negroes.” It had every convenience and luxury that £4OOO could purchase.