where around the city, at a
distance of from thirty to sixty miles; there were two or three hundred
of them, and incredible were the sums of money which had been spent
upon their decoration. One saw an artificial lake of ten thousand
acres, made upon land which had cost several hundred dollars an acre;
one saw gardens with ten thousand rose-bushes, and a quarter of a
million dollars' worth of lilies from Japan; there was one estate in
which had been planted a million dollars' worth of rare trees, imported
from all over the world. Some rich men, who had nothing else to amuse
them, would make their estates over and over again, changing the view
about their homes as one changes the scenery in a play. Over in New
Jersey the Hegans were building a castle upon a mountain-top, and had
built a special railroad simply to carry the materials. Here, also, was
the estate of the tobacco king, upon which three million dollars had
been spent before the plans of the mansion had even been drawn; there
were artificial lakes and streams, and fantastic bridges and statuary,
and scores of little model plantations and estates, according to the
whim of the owner. And here in the Pocantico Hills was the estate of
the oil king, about four square miles, with thirty miles of model
driveways; many car-loads of rare plants had been imported for its
gardens, and it took six hundred men to keep it in order. There was a
golf course, a little miniature Alps, upon which the richest man in the
world pursued his lost health, with armed guards and detectives
patrolling the place all day, and a tower with a search-light, whereby
at night he could flood the grounds with light by pressing a button.

In one of these places lived the heir of the great house of Devon. His
cousin dwelt in Europe, saying that America was not a fit place for a
gentleman to live in. Each of them owned a hundred million dollars'
worth of New York real estate, and drew their tribute of rents from the
toil of the swarming millions of the city. And always, according to the
policy of the family, they bought new real estate. They were directors
of the great railroads tributary to the city, and in touch with the
political machines, and in every other way in position to know what was
under way: if a new subway were built to set the swarming millions
free, the millions would find the land all taken up, and
apartment-houses newly built for them--and the Devons were the owners.
They had a scor