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Bits of Charles Darwin’s Life, from Victor Niederhoffer

2018-07-09 · Victor Niederhoffer
Original source

1. He was a stock speculator and made successful trades in many railroad stocks as well as consuls.

  1. He died with an estate of 700,000 pounds equivalent to 30 million today.

  2. He spent his last years studying worms and the roots of plants and became a part of the nature that he loved.

  3. He was a good father, husband, and master.

  4. He kept double entry accounts of all expenditures and balanced books at the end of each year.

  5. He played 2 games of backgammon each evening with the wife Emma and he was up by 2800 to 2600 in games when he died.

  6. Emma and the son-in law played Mozart trios and Beethoven second movements to create harmony.

  7. He had 10 children and they all contributed to his researches and books.

  8. A Mr. Rich who he had never met bequested 15,000 pounds to the kids just as a gesture of tribute for the contribution that Darwin made.

  9. He exchanged numerous letters with Wallace and arranged for Gladstone to give Wallace a pension of 500 pounds a year, which Wallace needed because he was a Hoodoo who whenever he bought a stock it was bound to crater.