Hero to Zero
The Mythology of Allen Thorndike Rice
Publication Date: August 16, 2024
Allen Thorndike Rice held an almost mythical status in American culture in the days after his death in 1889.
He was variously called “one of the most highly cultivated men America has produced,” and “Rich, handsome, famous, a bachelor in the prime of manhood, a leader of thought, minister to a great foreign power when only 36 years old, no gift of good fortune seemed withheld from him…” 1
But Allen wasn’t just hero worshipped for his civility and highbrow accomplishments, he was also remarkably adored for his bad boy image. Albeit a very cultured and blue-blooded bad boy.
There are two famous stories that highlight this weird dichotomy.
The first took place in Paris in 1883 and involved a notorious American gambler named Billy Deutsch. As the story goes, Billy made it known in all the baccarat rooms in Paris that, if any one man or combination of men would wager any sum between 100,000 and 500,000 francs on one single hand of baccarat, then he would stake an equal amount. As reference, in today’s dollars the bet would have been worth somewhere between $700,000 and $3.5 million. On one hand.
The hand was to be played at The Washington Club, and, at the appointed time, famous gentleman gamblers from across Paris and the surrounding area filled that establishment’s baccarat room money in hand, among them Allen Thorndike Rice. All the men placed their wagers, and, when added together, their bets amounted to just over 500,000 francs – again, roughly $3.5 million dollars in 2024.
Although details here vary somewhat – as one first-person account noted, the “tale is one which has never been accurately told”, and only “whispered at various times” – it seems likely Allen was one of the three men who took a seat at the baccarat table that afternoon. His name is mentioned in several retellings, and at least one account references the “editor”.
As the wager was for just one hand of baccarat, the actual play lasted only a few moments, but it’s not hard to imagine the tension in the room. Let’s pick up the end of the story from someone who claimed to recount it directly from Billy:
“To draw or not to draw was the question which agitated me for only a fleeting moment. I was satisfied I had won on the first tableau, and even if I lost in the second, the winnings and losing would be almost equal. Throwing down my two cards face upwards on the table without drawing I declared in a loud voice, ‘Point five’.”
Billy had won!
“The scene which followed the declaration of the points was not characterized by any visible excitement, and yet there was an indefinable something in the atmosphere of the apartment which showed that it was supercharged with the tumultuous throbbings of the worst sentiments which ever give impulse to mankind. The muttered curses which followed the crushed form of the unfortunate punter who had drawn the nines spot were none the less fervently bitter for issuing from almost nerveless lips. I did not smile. I am certain my countenance underwent no change whatsoever.”
Billy turned in his chips, wrapped his winnings in a newspaper, and he and two bodyguards grabbed a carriage and headed to the banking house. 2
The second is equally bold and unverified, but seems to have occurred at New York’s Union Club, one of the exclusive sporting clubs for the city’s ultra wealthy and social elites. Various accounts have Allen and tobacco baron and thoroughbred horse breeder, Pierre Lorillard, as the last two players in a high-stakes poker game in which Allen lost a whopping $500,000 to his pal. That’s more than $16 million dollars today! 3
Allen and Pierre were more than just gambling buddies, however. They were also fellow armchair adventurers. Well, sort of. In 1879, the two helped finance expeditions through the then-wilds of Mexico and Central America, including places like Oaxaca, Tehuantepec, Guatemala, and the peninsula of Yucatán. Led by acclaimed French archeologist and photographer, Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay, the expedition’s goal was to document and bring back photographs, casts and artifacts of the great unexplored ruins of the region.
Allen wrote about the Désiré Charnay Expedition in the August 1880 edition of the North American Review, giving readers a reason to be excited about the discoveries made, but also reminding them why those discoveries matter.
“The vexed question of origin attracts at once the philosopher and the ethnologist, the theologian and the Darwinian. The historian sees looming through the mist of tradition and pictured hieroglyphics the life of a powerful nations. The artist or architect stands mute before the sculptured evidence of marvelous skill and taste, of grand powers of architectural design and engineering resource, in a race of semi-barbarians. And all marvel how nations which have left such noble proofs of their vigor, and which, without the direct influence of any foreign civilization, passed through every stage of social economy, from that of tribal savagery to a golden age of culture and wealth, should have finally perished and vanished utterly from the world’s knowledge as though by enchantment. It is not astonishing that the only memorials of their existence – the only links connecting them with the human family – should exercise a strange moral influence.”
He went on to describe in detail, based on actual field notes from Désiré Charnay and his team, numerous ruins which the party explored and documented. As an example, here’s one of Allen’s word pictures of a tablet found in the so-called Palace of Palenque:
“This now famous tablet, which is four feet long and three feet wide, contains two figures with hieroglyphics in the spaces to the right and left of them. The principal figure, which is nude, sits in a Buddha attitude, cross-legged, on a couch ornamented with two heads of jaguars. The other figure bears the ludicrous likeness to an old woman arrayed in old-fashioned modern gown and cape. She is offering to the god, if god it be – or perhaps goddess – what appears to be a plumed bonnet, to take the place of the incomprehensible headgear of the deity.” 4
This and future articles Allen wrote about the expedition, many of which included illustrations based on photos taken on site, helped bring fame to the expedition and paying customers to the museum and gallery exhibitions it spawned across the U.S. and Europe. They also earned Allen and Pierre international recognition – both were awarded the Chevalier de Légion d'honneur, France’s highest order of merit for military and civil accomplishments.
Allen’s status as American hero extraordinaire seemed secure.
A few days after Allen’s death on May 16, 1889, the following epitaph appeared in several newspapers around the country.
“It is vastly to the credit of the late Allen Thorndike Rie, says the New York Herald, that he was not willing to be known simply as a man of wealth. It is to the honor of a rich man these days that he resists the temptation to live an existence of leisure.” 5
At the time, it was believed Allen’s fortune was well over a million dollars, with some estimates going as high as $10 million. It was widely known he’d benefited greatly from generational wealth passed down from his Boston Brahmin parents, grandparents and others. Beyond that, he was thought to be a savvy businessman and investor, who’d turned The North American Review into one of the most popular publications of the time, and owned shares in other going literary concerns. And then, of course, there was his lifestyle which exemplified the carefree spending of someone for whom money was both unlimited and somehow meaningless.
So, a month after his death when Allen’s will was entered into probate it quickly became the subject of much speculation. Instead of millions, the editor’s fortune appeared to be just short of $400,000! (About 13.6 million in today dollars, so the man wasn’t a pauper, but still, a big enough shortfall that folks started talking.)
Some newspapers were kinder than others.
“If one is to judge from the wide discrepancies between the estimated wealth of rich men, and the actual value of their estates when closed by the administrators, frequently made known, there is no subject the popular estimate of which is so far wrong as the size of individual fortunes. It comes out now that the late Allen Thorndike Rice, whose wealth at his death was said to amount to fully $10,000,000, left an estate worth not above $400,000. This is enough, it is true, but it gives one a shock to jump from the estimate down to the actual figures.
“When a man once accumulates property to the amount of $500,000, the public will begin to play queer pranks with the estimates. The man will be rated to be worth anywhere from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000. And when he actually does reach the $10,000,000 standard – as a few men in this country have – he will be credited with having enough to pay off the national debt.” 6
Other writers, not so much.
Take, for example, a syndicated article which appeared in scores of papers, including the St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, and which finished with this less-than flattering commentary purported to have been said by an unnamed friend:
“Mr. Rice was an incorrigible gambler. He broke the bank at Monaco more than once and won a clean $225,000 from Pierre Lorillard almost at one sitting. But on other occasions luck naturally went the opposite way, and about the last act of his life was to sign two checks for gambling debts, for sums respectively at $28,000 and $22,000. I do not think he made anything out of the North America Review. He had $700,000 capital to start with, and, by legitimate investments, should have been worth several millions when he died. But he seems to have been very careless or else very secretive about his business affairs, and there is no doubt that several persons profited largely from this peculiarity.” 7
The condemnation and ridicule didn’t end there. Or quickly.
In 1912, nearly a quarter century after Allen’s death, there were still stories coming out about how he’d squandered his wealth and disappointed his adoring public.
One such story was said to have been told by Allen’s good friend, William Russell Grace, the former mayor of New York. Mind you, William had been dead eight years by the time the story came out, but it was, nonetheless, published in many papers of the day.
According to the story, William happened to be on the same elevated train as Allen just a day before his death. Taking note of his friend’s ill health, the former mayor offered to accompany Allen to the Fifth Avenue hotel where he was living at the time, and then summoned a physician.
After the doctor left, William wished Allen a speedy recovery so he could make the journey to Russia, which was set to start the next day. And here’s where the story gets weird. Or conspiratorial, depending on your perspective.
William claimed Allen had told him, whispered in his ear actually, that he believed he would never get to Russia and that it was probably for the best.
Although the comment struck William as odd, he didn’t think much about it until several weeks later, by which time Allen had passed away, never having made it to Russia, and his will had entered probate.
I’ll let William tell the rest of his story:
“We had all supposed Rice was a very rich man; we found that there was little or nothing left of his estate. He had some personal belongings – books and bric-a-brac – and he owned the North American Review, which I think cost him more to run than he received from it in the way of income. He must have realized, therefore, that as minister to Russia he would not be able to maintain himself in the style to which he was accustomed and which was necessary at the Russian court, for he was not the kind of man who could live upon a salary.
“So, I have always believed that when he realized he was stricken with a mortal illness, he also felt that he would by it be spared the humiliation of being unable to maintain the luxury and entertainment at the Russian court which his manner of life and his reputation as a man of wealth would have exacted from him.” 8
If such was, indeed the case, Allen’s secret would have died with him if it not for his will. Proof that, as Amelia Wright warned, there is no secret time won’t reveal.
Copyright 2024 Lori Olson White
What makes someone a hero? And, conversely, what makes someone a ‘bad guy’? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Call Me A Bastard is a weekly serialized book that tells the true and scandalous story of Aimee Henry and Mary Martha Parker. New chapters are released each Tuesday beginning June 25, 2024. Subscribe today, and we’ll deliver Call Me a Bastard and a bunch of other fantastic free content to your email each week!
If you’d like additional content, or just want to support The Lost & Found Story Box, we’d love to have you as a paid subscriber. Your paid subscription helps support Call Me a Bastard and future project, and gives you access to exclusive content like Author Q&A Sessions, Guest Features, Fan Engagement Opportunities, Virtual Wrap-up Parties, Unlimited Access to the Story Archives and more!
Read Call Me a Bastard from the beginning (LINK)
The Lost & Found Story Box is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Endnotes
1 Grand Forks Daily Herald, June 27, 1889.
2 Megargee, Seen and Heard in Many Places, The Philadelphia Times, Philadelphia, PA, September 2, 1898, P.6.
3 Allen Thorndike Rice, “Ruined Cities of Central America”, North American Review, No. CCLXXXV, August 1880. P. 89-108.
5 “The Times Leads Them All”, The Philadelphia Times, Philadelphia, PA, May 18, 1889, P.4.
6 “Their Wealth Exaggerated”, Wahpeton Times, Wahpeton, ND, March 6, 1890, P.6.
7 (“Thorndike Rice: His Estate Pans out Much Less than had been Expected”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, January 5, 1890, P.18.)
8 E.J. Edwards, “Humiliation that Death Spared Allen Thorndike Rice: Appointed Minister to Russia, He could not have Maintained that Position, for His Once Large Fortune was Dissipated”, The Fort Scott Republican, Fort Scott, KS, January 20, 1890, P. 2.
That his estate was worth $400,000 yet described as 'little to nothing' is amazing. Is the cause of Allen's death know, or is that to be included in a future post?