mean old Andrew...or?

[leitskev]

Andrew was the Grinch, right? Ebeneezer Scrooge. He was miserly and cold, an inflexible old Puritan straight out of a Dickens story.

Or was he?

At the house tour, they told us a story to substantiate what a cold and merciless landlord he was. Andrew owned a lot of property, both commercial and residential. When tenants of his received a raise in the factory they worked at(which Andrew probably owned a piece of), he was immediately notified...so he could raise their rent accordingly. What a bastard!

But there is another way to look at this story. The fact that he could raise these rents suggests he was not getting market rates. In other words, he was charging those workers below what he could get. Isn't it very possible he did so out of generosity? He charged below market rates to people who worked in low paying jobs...and he raised the rent closer to normal as they worked their way up.

I don't know which is the case...was he Scrooge...or was he a reasonable man who was generous when he could be. I think this just shows there are two ways of looking at this, but once a meme gets started, everything gets interpreted in that light.

The Fall River papers described him, as far as I know, as a cold, miserly rich man. Maybe he was. But I doubt the papers can be trusted on this. It was an era of yellow press, and even more so then than now, reporters were quick to paint the rich as cheap and conniving. In their view, the rich could only get that way by screwing other people. It's a colorful view, but bears little resemblance to the way things usually work.

The hard evidence people point to to prove Andrew's cold and miserly nature is the house itself: he refused to have running hot water and bathrooms, modern lighting, that kind of thing. And of course the family developed food poisoning from eating old mutton.

And there is the fact that he lived on the bottom of the hill, near town, unlike the other rich who lorded over everyone from the high hill where Lizzie eventually moved. Cheap bastard!

But maybe we can be a little more fair to the man. Five years before the murders, when his 2nd wife's sisters were destitute, he bought the house they lived in, giving it to his wife(I think), and letting the sisters live there rent free. It was pure generosity. In fact, this caused the rift with the girls who felt their inheritance was being squandered.

More evidence: Lizzie was the main suspect in a theft of Abby's jewelry. The fact that she had expensive jewelry suggests she was treated generously by Andrew.

And Andrew must have paid for at least part of Lizzie's lengthy trip to Europe.

So which is it...a miserly man or a generous one?

I would completely discount the coloring by the local press. That's pure muckraking journalism. No matter how generous and fair Andrew may have been, the local papers would have colored him this way. He was a banker and landlord...automatically hated.

What about the house on the bottom of the hill? Well, he wanted to be near his many downtown business interests. And unlike the other haughty tawdy, he was not a snob. Maybe staying in a more modest house allowed him to undercharge needy tenants, which he seems to have done.

And as for the lack of modern amenities, this was a man...like many old timers...who thought if it was good enough for him growing up, it was good enough for them now. He didn't like to waste. He was extremely poor as a young man, and it took great habits of discipline to escape poverty. Habits which he didn't change. This is why, though he supposedly bought only the most expensive of meats, he refused to waste any. He was hardened in his ways...like most his advanced age.

Dr. Bowen claimed he turned him away the morning before, not wanting to pay for a house call. But is that how it happened? Did Dr. Bowen just assume that was the reason? Was there other reason for friction? Remember, they were neighbors. Neighbors have friction. And old men are stubborn. And no one was truly all that sick in the house. Maybe Dr. Bowen just got on the old man's nerves. Bottom line is this is pretty weak evidence.

I think Andrew's generosity with Abby and her sisters really speaks more loudly than anything else. He was frugal and stubborn in ways...but also had great generosity. More generosity than most would have in that situation. If Lizzie killed Mrs. Borden, I'm glad she killed her father too...so he would never have to find out. I expect he was basically a decent man,