Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1874 — A Russian Croesus. [ARTICLE]

A Russian Croesus.

The Continental Herald gave an account the other day of the opening of a Russian chapel erected in the Canton of Tessin by a Baron whoih the local papers call “ a Russian Croesus. ” It seems that this gentleman has become so entranced by the scenery at Lugano that he has resolved on building a magnificent chateau in the neighborhood. The building will cost 5,000,000 francs, the decorations 800,000 francs, and the furniture about as much’mpre; but this will be but a bagatelle to the owner, as the Tessinois journals sav he has an annual income ot over 10,000‘000 francs. They set down his entourage as thirty Russian servants, sixteen Russian and Swedish singeijp and sixty musicians, who cost him alone 150,000 "francs a year. In order to gratify further his musical tastes a ciSleofated prima donna is engaged Occasionally for his exclusive enjoyment., and by .way of keeping his orchestra in practice the

members of it are obliged to play at a certain hour each day throughout the year, although in the absence of M. le Baron there is not a single auditor. The Baron is said to have “ sumptuous palaces” at Paris, Vienna and Nice; to have made his money by speculations in Russian railways; to change every two years all his personnel and even his acquaintances, and tb ignore completely his relatives.