11.08.2002
Timothy Dexter - #1 in a Series
From Infoplease:
This Timothy Dexter guy was one of American's first true eccentrics. He sold heating pads to the West Indies, made a fortune in whale bones, and literally sold coal to Newcastle.
He also wrote one of the most bizarre books of all time, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones. He was qualified to right this book because he considered himself to be "First in the East, First in the West and Greatest Philosopher of the Known World."
When America was about to become a country, he offered to be the country's first king. Alas, he was turned down.
Some feel he was an idiot, others that he was a shrewd investor. The fact remains that he was very rich and lacked any discernable intelligence. I think he is proof that a man doesn't have to be smart to be rich, as if that needed proving.
Anyhow, this is probably the best Dexter link. Read his life and be glad that idiocy is traditional way of life for a section of the extremely wealthy.
(0) comments
From Infoplease:
Dexter, Timothy, 1747-1806, American merchant and eccentric, b. Malden, Mass. He gained a fortune from the American Revolution by buying up depreciated certificates of indebtedness that were afterward reclaimed at full value. He also gained money by shrewd mercantile transactions. He was styled "Lord Timothy Dexter" by his fellows, and he accepted the title. Dexter wrote A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1802), remarkable for the totally individual spelling and the absence of all punctuation. In the second edition he added a page of "stops" so that readers could "peper and salt it as they please."
This Timothy Dexter guy was one of American's first true eccentrics. He sold heating pads to the West Indies, made a fortune in whale bones, and literally sold coal to Newcastle.
He also wrote one of the most bizarre books of all time, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones. He was qualified to right this book because he considered himself to be "First in the East, First in the West and Greatest Philosopher of the Known World."
When America was about to become a country, he offered to be the country's first king. Alas, he was turned down.
Some feel he was an idiot, others that he was a shrewd investor. The fact remains that he was very rich and lacked any discernable intelligence. I think he is proof that a man doesn't have to be smart to be rich, as if that needed proving.
Anyhow, this is probably the best Dexter link. Read his life and be glad that idiocy is traditional way of life for a section of the extremely wealthy.
11.03.2002
Hey! Adamst has a new layout at DsT and this is the only place I can link him.
(0) comments
