Talk:Oliver Belmont

Medium Rewrite
The article does not put together very well the information available on Wikipedia. The Belmonts were Gilded Age "barons", one of the families that started from nowhere and nothing but because of fortuitous circumstances acquired immense fortunes. Once they got started there was no limit to the expansion of their wealth due to there being no income taxes and no labor laws. They spent their best time in Newport building these huge "cottages." Expense was no object. They were deliberately ostentatious and exclusive, which is charicaturized by one of the media available. Oliver is depicted with a snooty look saying "Don't touch me" in Latin. The whole topic of August's judaism as well as his wealth is left incomplete. August is mentioned in Birmingham's "Our Crowd." He came to this country as an agent for Rothchild's banking firm, but when that went bankrupt in America he started his own bank, which took off like a rocket. He hid his judaism, like the other "our crowd" gentility, and being handsome and affable as well as a capable financier soon married a Protestant girl of good family. He converted to her religion, which was episcopalian, and overtly we heard no more about judaism. Oliver's mother undoubtedly got him into St. Paul's, one of the best private schools around, and set him up for the USNA, where today the words of one of her ancestors, "Don't give up the ship," glare through the door of Memorial Hall. He was a cooperative young man though unenthusiastic up until the day of his majority. Then he did as he pleased, which turned out to be quitting the navy, marriage and horse racing. The Academy had its effect. At the end of his life he began to feel meaningless and turned to the government for meaning. Unfortunately he was yanked out of it by appendicitis and death. His time was up. Just using all the links now available someone should put together a meaningful article that shows the course of Oliver's life and position in society. Right now we have scattered and random half-truths.Botteville (talk) 11:26, 12 July 2017 (UTC)