Word: got
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Career: Son of a lawyer and officer in the Confederate Army who was disfranchised and impoverished after the Civil War, William G. McAdoo was a messenger, clerk, handyman, worked his way during his three years at the University of Tennessee. While he was reading law in Chattanooga, he got into politics as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1884. He cast his first vote for Grover Cleveland, was admitted to the bar just after his 21st birthday. More businessman than lawyer, he lost his shirt trying to electrify the Knoxville Street Railroad system, mortgaged...
Judah's shopkeeping partners had none of his vision. Under the terms of the Central Pacific's Government grant, the company got loans of from $16,000 to $48,000 per mile, depending on the nature of the territory through which the road passed. While it was still being built through the Sacramento Valley, Judah was asked by his partners to testify that it was in the foothills, so that the company would receive $16,000 more for each mile of track. Unwilling to be a party to this miracle of moving mountains, Judah resigned, died soon after...
...much as Huntington hated it, loved display, testimonials, speeches, luxury, built so many homes and farms that his vast estate was finally in danger. He planned Stanford University as a memorial for his son, died soon after it opened, with his affairs in such bad shape that it barely got through its first years. His widow took up his long quarrel with Huntington, modeled her life on that of Queen Victoria, called on Huntington shortly before her death to make peace with him. That cynical old millionaire's office was so poorly furnished that he had to send...
...world. Alfred Krupp retired to his castle in the Ruhr Valley in quivering hypochondria, went to bed in a room overlooking the stables, for he was always stimulated by the smell of horses. His son Fritz, while the German Navy grew like a house afire and the family firm got most of the armor plate orders, went to Capri, founded a mock religious order with gold insignia in the form of projectiles, on his doctor's orders lay on his stomach each day for an hour after lunch. To keep him company, all his male guests lay on their...
Bernhard Menne, who worked for Krupps till Germany got too hot for him, would have written a better book if he had spent less time on Krupps under the Empire and more on Krupps under the Nazis...