y of their land. On
the other hand, they bought constantly. On one occasion they bought
eighty lots in the block from Fifth to Sixth avenues, Forty-second to
Forty-third streets. The price they paid was $600 a lot. These lots have
a present aggregate value of perhaps $15,000,000 or more, although they
are assessed at much less.

MISERS WITH MILLIONS.

The second generation of the Goelets--counting from the founder of the
fortune--were incorrigibly parsimonious. They reduced miserliness to a
supreme art. Likewise the third generation. Of Peter Goelet, a grandson
of the original Peter, many stories were current illustrating his
close-fistedness. His passion for economy was carried to such an
abnormal stage that he refused even to engage a tailor to mend his
garments.[164] He was unmarried, and generally attended to his own
wants. On several occasions he was found in his office at the Chemical
Bank industriously absorbed in sewing his coat. For stationery he used
blank backs of letters and envelopes which he carefully and
systematically saved and put away. His house at Nineteenth street,
corner of Broadway, was a curiosity shop. In the basement he had a
forge, and there were tools of all kinds over which he labored, while
upstairs he had a law library of 10,000 volumes, for it was a fixed,
cynical determination of his never to pay a lawyer for advice that he
could himself get for the reading.

Yet this miser, who denied himself many of the ordinary comforts and
conveniences of life, and who would argue and haggle for hours over a
trivial sum, allowed himself one expensive indulgence--expensive for
him, at least. He was a lover of fancy fowls and of animals. Storks,
pheasants and peacocks could be seen in the grounds about his house, and
also numbers of guinea pigs. In his stable he kept a cow to supply him
with fresh milk; he often milked it himself.

This eccentric was very melancholy and, apart from his queer collection
of pets, cared for nothing except land and houses. Chancing in upon him
one could see him intently pouring over a list of his properties. He
never tired of doing this, and was petulantly impatient when houses
enough were not added to his inventory.

He died in 1879 aged seventy-nine years; and within a few months, his
brother Robert, who was as much of an eccentric and miser in his way,
passed away in his seventieth year.

THE THIRD GENERATION.

The fortunes of the brothers descended to Rober