MILLIONAIRE MISERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8106, 10 May 1906, Page 4

MILLIONAIRE MISERY.

ROCKEFELLER A HUNTED AND WRETCHED MAN. All America is talking about J. D. Rockefeller, the multi-millionaire, who has been in hiding for some time from process-servers at his Lakcwood (New Jersey) estate. The house, says the " Express " New York correspondent, is surrounded by armed guards, who have been sworn as constables, and they have orders to shoot any suspicious persons found prowling about the grounds at mgkt. Although Mr Rockefeller cannot be legally served "with subpoenas to testify in the proceedings against the Standard Oil Company as long as he re. mains in the State of New Jersey, the millionaire is afraid that he will be • ;•-,'.'■<!, and taken into New York as a witness, or held for ransom by daring brigands. The estate is illuminated at night by searchlights, which are worked incessantly.

Navvii-s working fourteen hours per day for four shillings are happier than Mr John D. Rockefeller. The man who organised the gigantic Standard Oil Trust, and who is supposed to hold the destiny of the financial world in the hollow of his hand, lives in a state oi coiukuu terror. He can neither eat nor sleep, and he is as much a prisoner as the convicts in the State penitentiaries.

Although he is believed to be worth more that £150,000,000, Mr Rockefeller his been unable to purchase a new stomach. His digestion failed as his fortune grew, and to-day he lives practically on warm milk. Mr Rock;'?.;iler has false teeth as well. He likewise lost his hair in the scramble after wealth, and although he has an assortment of the finest wigs money can buy, stiE they are only wigs. Constant abuse by the American press and the excessive cruelty of the American public have combined to reduce Mr Rockefeller to an almost pitiable condition.

In recent mouths a new (error has been added to Mr Roekfeller's life"Pat"Crowe, a well-known western desperado, recently tried for kidnapping the son of Mr James Cudaby, a millionaire pork packer, confessed, during his imprisonment, that the ambition of his life was to kidnap Mr Rockefeller, and hold him fbr a considerable ransom. A plan to this end would have succeeded, he declared, but for the timidity of a prospective accomplice. ' After this confession, Mr Rockefeller was seized with the fear of being kidnapped. He dares nut go out alone. There are at least a dozen lusty private detectives in his employ, who act as convoys whenever lie uurries stealthily from one city to another. Since the process servers inaugurated their search for Mr Rockofeller, his life has been perfectly miserable, For reasons best known to himself, he dees not wish to .be cross-examined under oath regarding Standard Oil business methods.

At present Mr Rockefeller is more inaccessible than the Czar of Russia. No one is to his house save personal friends known to other memberg of the family. His secretaries inspect and destroy a large proportion of i the mail reoeived daily, in order that the harassed and unhappy old man may not see the hundreds of i t tiers, sent from all parts of the United States, denouncing bis life and his business methods.

Mr Rockefeller is reported as having said recently that his only hope for joy, or even rest, in his life was to " buy a continent and build a fence around it."

Despite the state of seige maintained at Lakewood, the local Methodists managed to sond a deputation across the threshold recently and to secure Mr Rockefeller's written order authorising two coats of paint for their church.