The evening world. Newspaper, June 20, 1922, Page 20

oN i LOLLY PPEULE PELE EE RTE \ s fn By Major Joseph Caccavajo Copyright, 1922 (New York Evening World) ‘by Press Publishing Co. WHAT would you do it someone handed you the income on more than $30,000,000 and restricted you to spend it for the bene- fit of 900 old men for whom there had already been pro- vided every possjble comfort, amuse~ ment and rational means for the en- Joyment of life that money could supply? This is the every day problem of gome of New York City’s leading men who are trustees of an estate left for @ specific purpose and which has In- creased in ‘value during the past hundred years at a pace which Is far and above the demands. Unlike the money of Capt. Kidd which }ies buried in the sand, tne gold of an equally successful priva~ ‘teer captain was sunk into New York City property which was later left by his son to establish a home for aged and decrepit sailors, To-day the Big problem of the trustees is how to spend the money which rolls in year after year much faster than it can be epent. \ ‘This “home” ts Sailors’ Sous Har- bor, on the Staten Island shore of the Kill van Kull, and many of Its 900 old men are nearing the century mark. How and why the Snug Harbor was established is an interesting chapter in the history and growth of New York. What has been accomplished during the 121 years since the death of the founder is a matter of record What another hundred years will bring forth is difficult to prognosti- cate, Will the funds which are grow- ing so rapidly become a Frankenstein or will ways be found to distribute them for purposes not set forth in the original bequest? Time alone will tell. Capt. Thomas Randall, the father et Robert Richard Randall, the founder of Sailors’ Snug Harbor, was one of the most noted sea captains of the days when such great Americans as George Washington, Jefferson and Franklin were attending school o: just beginning to make history in the colonies. In those early days the distinction between being a pirate and what was known as a privateer depended entirely upon who hap- pened to be telling the story. From all accounts the foundation of Randall fortune came from about the same general source the huge sums of money, gold, silver and pre- cious stones which Capt. Kidd col- lected as toll upon the high seas and was supposed to have buried at sev- TUR 0 GS ¢ SEBS | GRE CED | CRD et a > BE a a: ee Car ae How $300 Keep m 900 Sailors HARBOR “CAPTAINS” “s . 3 ‘ce ene | GY | ED | OES RE | aD ERE | ED «ED « CEE» + THE EVE fort for Life. $12,500 Farm Bequeathed by Robert R. Randall 121 Years Ago to Found Sailors’ Snug Harbor, Now 21 Acres in Heart of Manhattan So Valuable Trustees Cannot Spend All Its Income. NING WORLD, PROPERTY ROBERT RICHARD NDALL BOUGHT BY HIM FoR $12,300 - VALUED To- DAY AT MORE THAN 9 50.000. O90. RANOALL MEMORIAL THE FINEST OF IT'S KIND Act ES eral places along the shores in and about New York. It ts known that @apt. Randall commanded the pri- vateer brigantine The Fox, which in 1748 brought in the French frigate L'Amazone. In 1757 he took out the brigantine De Lancey, carrying fourteen guns, and was so successful that he was enabled to become part owner of the ship General Aber+ cromble, sixteen guns, and the ship Mary, ten guns. The De Lancey was captured by the Dutch in 1760 and the commander and crew imprisoned, but Capt. Randall seems to have con- tinued his successfu) privateering, a8 in 1762 he added the Charming Sally, with six guns, to his fleet. Capt. Thomas Randall took @ prominent part during the Revolu- tion, and when the British entered New York he withdrew to Bliza- bethtown and aided the Provisional Congress in handling the privateers commissioned by it. His name heads the list of the committee which wel comed George Washington to New York after the war and was among the Committee of Thirteen to con- duct the procession which met Gov Clinton when he entered the city on Nov, 26, 1783. The history of the city both immediately before and TUE SDAY, JUNE 20, 1922 after the Revolutionary War shows that Capt. Randall was not only one of the most important but also one of the most useful citizens of the new Republic. Founder of the Ma- rine Society and one of the original twelve members of the Chamber of Commerce, Director of the New York Banking Company and a leader tn the financial and commercial activities of the city, the fact that his fortune had been founded upon what was little short of actual piracy seems not to have in any way lowered him in the opinion of his fellow citizens. In 1784 he was appointed Vice Consul to China and seems to have visited that fer off land as Captain of the ship John Jay, though another record states that in 1784 the Empress of China, the first American Ship that went to China, cieared from New York with Metur Shaw of Boston and Capt. Themas Randall as com- mercial agents and Hon. John Jay, Minister of Forsign Affairs. In light cf subsequent events It is most interesting to find that when in 1774 Stephen Girard first arrived in this country as chief officer of the ship Le Julia in the cargo of which he had most of his money invested, it was Captain Randall who, impressed with Girard’s ability and business methods, induced him to stay and tabe command of one of Randall's boats These two men later became joint YY THE "CAPTAINS “ SETTLING LONG STANDING DisPUT sia bn ok ate CHURCH. (Replica of St. Paul's , London) IN AMERICA. owners in several ships and there Is no doubt that as the foundation of the Girard fortune was largely contributed to by Randall, Philadelphia as well as New York owes much to this galiant sailorman, pirate or privateer or whatever one may see fit to call him. He died Oct. 27th, 1797, aged 74 years and his body lies in Trinity Church- yard at the head of Wall Street. It was his son, Robert Richard Ran- dall, influenced no doubt by the life and interests of his father in the welfare of American Sailors, who established Sailors’ Snug Harbor. His will drawn by no less a personage than Alexander Hamilton assisted by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, withstood more than thirty years of strenuous legal attack and provided for almost every possible contingency, though neither Randali, Hamilton nor Tompkins dreamed that the 21 acres of orchard which comprised most of the estate and which was located at what was then considered far beyond the outer limits of the city, would ever be so valuable that the annual income would exceed twenty times the amount paid for the property. This will, dated June 1, 1801, after providing for some small bequests to several nephews and nieces and giving his gold slveve buttons and annuity ct £40 to Betsy Hart, his housekeeper; his gold watch and £40 a year to dam Shields, his faithful overseer, hd his shoe-buckls and knee-buck- , and £20 a year to Guwn Irwin, “who now lives with me,"’ stated: FromPrivateers Spoilr “Sixth. As to and concerning all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, I give, devise and bequeath the same unto the Chancellor of the State of New York, the Mayor and Recorder of the City of New York, the President of the Chamber of Commerce in the City of New York, the President and Vice President of the Marine Society of the City of New York, the senior Minister of the Episcopal Church in the said city, and the senior Minister of the Presbyterian Church in the said city, for the time and their respective suc- cessors in said offices forever to and for and upon the uses, trusts, interests and purposes, and subject to the dl- rections and appointments hereinafter mentioned and declared concerning the same * * © thatistosay * * * out of the rents, issues and profits of said real and personal property * * * to erect and build upon some eligible part of the land upon which I now reside an Asylum or Marine Hospital, to be called the ‘Sailors’ Snug Har- bor,’ for the purpose of maintaining and supporting aged, decrepit and worn-out sailors, as soon as they, my Charity Trustees * * * shall judge the proceeds of sald estate will support fifty of the said sailors and upwards; and I do hereby direct that the Income of said rea} and personal estate * ¢ © shall forever hereafter be ed and applied for supporting the Asylum or Marine Hospital hereby directed to be built and for maintain- ing sailors of the above description there, in such manner as the Trustees * © © may direct. * * * and that it is my desire (that) all courts of law and equity will so construe this, my sald will, as estate appropriated to the above uses, and that the same should in no case for want of legal form or other- wise be so construed as that my rela- tives or any other persons, should heir, possess or enjoy my property, exceptvin the manner and for the purposes above specified.’ As has been state. the relatives fought for thirty years but the will stood. The first buildings were erected in 1831 on property purchased facing the Kill van Kull on Staten Island, it having been found !mprac- tical to use the city property for the purpose as the farm was cut up into many small ‘parts by the adoption of the city street plans. In 18¢6 the lease of the property brought $750 into the funds and the entire incom» from all of the real and personal property was but little over $4,000. The twenty-one acres which com- prised the greatest part of the real property conveyed by the will wae known as the ‘Minto Farm," and in- cluded'most of the area now lying between Waverley Place and Tenth Street, Fifth Avenue and the Bowery. In a deed dated June 5, 1790, Frederilt Charles Hans Bruno Paelintz, com- monly called Baron Paelintz, con- veyed for the sum of $12,500 to Robert Richard Randall the Minto Farm. Fourteen acres was unde~ the Stoutenburgh patent from Gov. Pe- trus Stuyvesant to Petrus Stouten- burgh April 7, 1661, and seven acres from the Perro family, both tracts having in the years 1766 and 17¢8 been conveyed to Andrew Eliott who in 1785 conveyed to John Jay. Isanc Roosevelt and Alexander Hamiltun, who in turn conveyed to Baron Pae- lintz. To-day on the 210 acres of land which is included in the Snug Har- bor reservation there are something Uke 48 buildings. It is possible to to have the said o walk miles and miles through the corridors of 9 of the great bulldings without going outside of these bulld- ings. The churoh, which |s a repli- ca on a small scale of the famous St, Paul's Church in London, is a gem of the first water and was built at @ cost of $300,000, In the music hall which seats more than 600 persons there is an up to date stage and electric lighting equips men. which makes it possivle for metropolitan productions to provide entertainment with no loss of sceni¢ effect or curtailment of their acts. On Thursday evenings the inmates are entertained with reels of the very latest motion pictures with music and all the features of a first clans pl ture house. The recreation r card rooms, billiard and pool tabl and library are as good as can be found in any of the high toned clubs on Fifth Avenue. The bedrooms in the dorm'tory buildings are as comfortable a money can make them and compare favorably with those of first class hotels. The food ts also in keeping with the general standard maintained all departments. All the satlors et) at the same time in four separate dim- ing rooms Satlors wait on the tables and are paid by the Institue tion, There are barber shops where free shaves are provided and also Independent shops where a nominal charge of 5 cents is made. For two hours in the morning and again im the afternoon, between meal hours, there is a fine little coffee room opened so that if hungry the sailors may drop in for a cup of coffee, bread and butter or crackers All free with none of the objectionable features usually attached to charity, In the hospital every up-to-date feature is provided. and four doctors with forty nurses and orderlies are {n attendance. When need be the services of specialists are called to supplement the already efficient med- leal staff. If there is anything which 11 leeitimately add to the comfort | and welfare of the inmates which been neglected it is not appa and from what the saflors themsel say on the subject, they have not es/ yet been able to express a reasonable wish which {s not granted withogt ouestion or quibble. For a man to be eligible to enter the Harbor he must have spent five years aboard an American ship on the high scas. If he is an alien he must have spent ten years aboard 9@/ American ship sailing under American flaw before he will be mitted to the institution and of course, like every one else, he must be tn~ capable of further service aboard ship. The place is full of characters, any. one of whom might furnish firet- hand material fof tales of adventure which would keep a score of scenario writers busy for years. The Governor of the Harbor Is usu- ally a United States Navy man, and in the present incumbent, Lieut. Come mander George EB. Beckwith, the old sailors have a more than ordinarily close friend, as Commander Beckwith has himself been a ship master as well as Assistant Supervisor of the Naval Auxiliary Reserve during the World War. | The motto of the inatitntion “Portum petimus fesst’ (signifyt that thdse who are disabled by tolls and dangers of the sea have lus. found a place of rest and safety) Suslors’ Snug Harbor lives up to ite motto, 4