August Belmont

As it must to all men, Death came to August Belmont, famed sportsman, financier, recognized as the leading turf man in the U. S. An inflammation in his right arm bred blood-poisoning. He died in his Manhattan home after an illness of 36 hours, was buried in the family plot at Newport, R.I.

August Belmont was born in 1853. His father, August Belmont, a Prussian Jew, came to the U. S. in the diplomatic service, became a representative of the Rothschilds (European bankers), founded the banking house, August Belmont & Co., made a vast fortune, kept a racing stable. The second August Belmont was known rather as a turfman than as a financier or railroad director. He put the horse before the locomotive. He is credited with having saved thoroughbred racing when it was at its lowest ebb in the East, after the repeal of the racing law in New York State. He was Chairman of ihe Jockey Club, founder of Belmont Park (famed Long Island track), owner of many celebrated horses—Rock Sand, Norman III, Tracery, Man o’ War, Ladkin. These swift beasts wore his famed colors—scarlet, maroon sleeves, black cap—to victory. His greatest regret was that he sold Man o’ War to S. D. Riddle, under whose ownership he developed into the “fastest horse since Pegasus.” Last fall (TIME, Oct. 6) his fleet Ladkin defeated Epinard, the touted French colt, at the Aqueduct race course.

In English county meets Mr. Belmont was praised by grooms and squires alike for his skill at point-to-point riding. He played polo until injured in 1911, when his pony stepped in a mole-hole, and severely threw him. As a Harvard sprinter in the early 70’s, he introduced the wearing of steel spikes in cinder track meets.

In business he gave attention to the minutest details of every enterprise. His adroitness in pickiing up stray pins was so startling that his office boys were instructed to see that there were none about when important conferences pended, since his zeal for pin-picking distracted his mind from other topics. Twelve years after the death of his first wife (née Elizabeth Hamilton Morgan), he married Eleanor Robson, actress. Her wedding cut short the engagement of her theatrical company. With characteristic generosity, Mr. Belmont paid every member of the troupe a year’s salary.

In the War, he took a commission as major in the U. S. flying corps. He befriended many charitable organizations and churches, presented the Chapel of St. Saviour to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In all that he did there was a quality of canny vision, of testy self-will. His astuteness was reflected in his arrogant, slightly clouded, Mongolian eyes; his hunger for life in his red and heavy lips which, in later life, he concealed with a mustache.

Said The New York Times: “His was a life richly colored and abundantly lived. Never again, in all likelihood, can a single mortal span cover so much that is vital and picturesque. . . .”