http://www.cityofsmoke.com New York History, Commentary, and Culture Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:02:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1638 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1638#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:24:02 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1638 At her death, the Witch of Wall Street was worth more than J. P. Morgan, and nearly all of it was in cash. Yet Hetty Green had worn the same dress for thirty years and lived in squalor. The Witch's son Ned was another matter, a six-foot, four-inch, 300-pound eccentric]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1638/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1585 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1585#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:43:33 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1585 Some years ago, while researching William Cowper Brann, editor of The Iconoclast, a turn-of-the-century Waco, Texas monthly, I encountered the multi-talented New York–born George Graham Rice, one of America's most successful and unscrupulous promoter-swindlers. This resulted from a natural confusion: one of Rice's stock market tout sheets was also named The Iconoclast.]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1585/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/868 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/868#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:40:33 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=868 Occasionally, we think about investments we  could have made that might have made us rich. Armed with clairvoyance, who would not have sunk the farm into Microsoft, back when Bill Gates was a nebbish? But we probably would have put our money into AT&T, U.S. Steel or Western]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/868/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/638 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/638#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:50:23 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=638 Who's Who in the United States often rewards the casual reader because it reveals how its subjects view themselves. In the 1905 edition, the great J. Pierpoint Morgan modestly calls himself a banker and William Randolph Hearst a publisher. John W. Gates bluntly calls himself a capitalist. He lists no honorary doctorates, philanthropies, or hobbies. A reckless bravo who won and lost fortunes on the toss of a coin or the turn of a card, he had entered American folklore as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, who flinched at no stakes and feared no odds.]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/638/feed 0