21 The Wizard of Wall Street

At the age of eighty, Hetty Green lived like a pauper in an unheated apartment. To save the cost of heating her food, she ate cold eggs and onions. In order to save more money, Hetty wore newspapers instead of underwear. She had only the bottoms of her dresses cleaned. A very poor person, you say? No. Hetty was one of America’s richest women!

Hetty Green was born in 1835 in a rich section of Bellow Falls, Vermont. When her father died, she was left a large fortune. She took all of her money and invested it in the stock market. Her stocks did so well that she became known as “the wizard of Wall Street.”

But though she was very rich, Hetty Green was extremely cheap. For instance, when her son, Edward, broke his leg, she refused to call for a doctor. She felt it would cost too much. So she carried her son to a charity hospital. Still, young Edward’s leg got worse. Finally, the leg had to be removed to save the boy’s life. But Hetty still didn’t want to pay the hospital fee. Instead, in order to save more money, she had her son’s operation done on the kitchen table in her rooming house.

When Hetty died in 1916, she was worth over $120 million. Yet this tight-fisted woman had lived as though she barely had a cent.

八十岁时，海蒂·格林住在一间没有暖气的公寓里，生活得像个穷人。为了节省加热食物的费用，她吃冷鸡蛋和洋葱。为了省更多的钱，海蒂不穿内衣，而是用报纸代替。她只让人清洗连衣裙的下摆。你会说她是个非常穷的人吗？不，海蒂是美国最富有的女性之一！

海蒂·格林于1835年出生在佛蒙特州贝洛福尔斯的一个富裕地区。她父亲去世后，留给她一大笔遗产。她把所有的钱都投进了股票市场。她的股票表现非常好，因此她被称为“华尔街的巫师”。

尽管她非常富有，但海蒂·格林极其吝啬。例如，当她的儿子爱德华摔断了腿，她拒绝叫医生，觉得那会花太多钱。于是她把儿子送到一家慈善医院。然而，年轻的爱德华的腿还是恶化了。最后，为了保住男孩的性命，不得不截肢。但海蒂仍然不想支付医院的费用，为了省更多的钱，她让儿子在她的公寓的厨房餐桌上做手术。

海蒂于1916年去世时，身家超过1.2亿美元。然而，这位吝啬的女人生活得仿佛身无分文。