initial commit of ebook 15161HEADmain

1 files changed, 19301 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/15161.txt b/old/15161.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c599ae7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/15161.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,19301 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made, by
+James D. McCabe, Jr., Illustrated by G. F. and E. B. Bensell
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
+
+Author: James D. McCabe, Jr.
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2005  [eBook #15161]
+
+Language: english
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT FORTUNES, AND HOW THEY WERE
+MADE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Macfarlane, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 15161-h.htm or 15161-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/1/6/15161/15161-h/15161-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/1/6/15161/15161-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+GREAT FORTUNES, AND HOW THEY WERE MADE
+
+Or, The Struggles and Triumphs of Our Self-Made Men
+
+by
+
+JAMES D. MCCABE, JR.,
+
+Author of _Planting the Wilderness_, etc., etc.
+
+Numerous Illustrations from Original Designs by G. F. & E. B. Bensell
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CONSTERNATION AT THE SIGHT OF FULTON'S MONSTER.]
+
+
+
+
+"MAN, it is not thy works, which are mortal, infinitely little, and the
+greatest no greater than the least, but only the _spirit thou workest
+in_, that can have worth or continuance."--CARLYLE.
+
+
+
+
+George Maclean,
+Philadelphia, New York and Boston
+Electrotyped at the Franklin Type Foundry, Cincinnati
+
+1871
+
+
+
+
+"The physical industries of this world have two relations in them: one
+to the actor, and one to the public. Honest business is more really a
+contribution to the public than it is to the manager of the business
+himself. Although it seems to the man, and generally to the community,
+that the active business man is a self-seeker, and although his motive
+may be self-aggrandizement, yet, in point of fact, no man ever manages a
+legitimate business in this life, that he is not doing a thousand-fold
+more for other men than he is trying to do even for himself. For, in the
+economy of God's providence, every right and well organized business is
+a beneficence and not a selfishness. And not less is it so because the
+merchant, the mechanic, the publisher, the artist, think merely of their
+profit. They are in fact working more for others than they are for
+themselves."
+
+HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The chief glory of America is, that it is the country in which genius
+and industry find their speediest and surest reward. Fame and fortune
+are here open to all who are willing to work for them. Neither class
+distinctions nor social prejudices, neither differences of birth,
+religion, nor ideas, can prevent the man of true merit from winning the
+just reward of his labors in this favored land. We are emphatically a
+nation of self-made men, and it is to the labors of this worthy class
+that our marvelous national prosperity is due.
+
+This being the case, it is but natural that there should be manifested
+by our people a very decided desire to know the history of those who
+have risen to the front rank of their respective callings. Men are
+naturally cheered and encouraged by the success of others, and those who
+are worthy of a similar reward will not fail to learn valuable lessons
+from the examples of the men who have preceded them.
+
+With the hope of gratifying this laudable desire for information, and
+encouraging those who are still struggling in the lists of fame and
+fortune, I offer this book to the reader. I have sought to tell simply
+and truthfully the story of the trials and triumphs of our self-made
+men, to show how they overcame where others failed, and to offer the
+record of their lives as models worthy of the imitation of the young men
+of our country. No one can hope to succeed in life merely by the force
+of his own genius, any more than he can hope to live without exerting
+some degree of influence for good or evil upon the community in which
+his lot is cast. Success in life is not the effect of accident or of
+chance: it is the result of the intelligent application of certain fixed
+principles to the affairs of every day. Each man must make this
+application according to the circumstances by which he is surrounded,
+and he can derive no greater assistance or encouragement in this
+undertaking than by informing himself how other men of acknowledged
+merit have succeeded in the same departments of the world's industry.
+That this is true is shown by the fact that many of the most eminent men
+attribute their great achievements to the encouragement with which the
+perusal of the biographies of others inspired them at critical periods
+of their careers. It is believed that the narrations embraced in these
+pages afford ample instruction and entertainment to the young, as well
+as food for earnest reflection on the part of those who are safely
+advanced upon their pathway to success, and that they will prove
+interesting to all classes of intelligent readers.
+
+Some explanation is due to the reader respecting the title that has been
+chosen for the work. The term "Great Fortunes" is not used here to
+designate pecuniary success exclusively. A few of the men whose lives
+are herein recorded never amassed great wealth. Yet they achieved the
+highest success in their vocations, and their lives are so full of
+interest and instruction that this work must have been incomplete and
+unsatisfactory had they been passed over in silence. The aim of the
+writer has been to present the histories of those who have won the
+highest fame and achieved the greatest good in their respective
+callings, whether that success has brought them riches or not, and above
+all, of those whose labors have not only opened the way to fortune for
+themselves, but also for others, and have thus conferred lasting
+benefits upon their country.
+
+In short, I have sought to make this work the story of the _Genius of
+America_, believing as I do that he whose achievements have contributed
+to the increase of the national wealth, the development of the national
+resources, and the elevation of the national character, though he
+himself be poor in purse, has indeed won a great fortune, of which no
+reverse can ever deprive him.
+
+J.D. McC., JR.
+
+NEW YORK, _24th October, 1870_.
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+CONSTERNATION AT SIGHT OF FULTON'S MONSTER (Frontispiece)
+GIRARD COLLEGE
+GIRARD'S HEROISM
+ASTOR'S FIRST TRIP FOR FURS
+"MY MEN SHALL NOT SUFFER"
+PORTRAIT OF GEORGE PEABODY
+PEABODY PAYING FOR A NIGHT'S LODGING
+PORTRAIT OF CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
+VANDERBILT EARNING HIS FIRST HUNDRED DOLLARS
+VANDERBILT CARRYING OFF THE SHERIFF
+FOUNDING A GREAT FORTUNE
+PORTRAIT OF ROBERT FULTON
+AN AMAZING REVELATION
+"THE MADHOUSE IS THE PROPER PLACE FOR HIM"
+WHITNEY WATCHING THE FIRST COTTON-GIN
+PORTRAIT OF ELIAS HOWE, JR.
+HOWE'S FIRST IDEA OF THE SEWING-MACHINE
+THE BOY COLT INVENTING THE REVOLVER
+PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL F.B. MORSE
+HOW THE NEW YORK HERALD BEGAN
+MARSHALL'S DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
+PORTRAIT OF JAMES T. BRADY
+"THEY ARE GOING TO HANG MY BROTHER; YOU CAN SAVE HIM!"
+THE TRUANT'S SECRET DISCOVERED
+PORTRAIT OF HIRAM POWERS
+POWERS' DISTRUST OF THE HUNTERS
+FILIAL DEVOTION SHAPES A GREAT CAREER
+CARTWRIGHT CALLING UP THE DEVIL
+PORTRAIT OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+JEFFERSON, AS RIP VAN WINKLE
+PRESCRIBING AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE
+"PRESIDENT LINCOLN HAS BEEN MURDERED!"
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+I. MERCHANTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STEPHEN GIRARD.
+
+The fog in the Delaware--News of the war--Alarm of the French skipper--A
+narrow escape from capture--Arrival of Girard in Philadelphia--Early
+history of Stephen Girard--An unhappy childhood--Goes to sea--Is
+licensed to command--Becomes a trader in Philadelphia--Marries Mary
+Lum--Unfortunate issue of the marriage--Capture of Philadelphia by the
+British--Early commercial life of Stephen Girard--How he earned his
+first money, and the use he made of it--Aid from St. Domingo--His rigid
+attention to business--Thoroughness of his knowledge--One of his letters
+of instructions--His subordinates required to obey orders though they
+ruin him--Anecdote of Girard and one of his captains--His promptness and
+fidelity in business--He never breaks his word--How he lost five hundred
+dollars--Buys the old Bank of the United States and becomes a
+banker--Cuts down the salaries of his clerks--Refuses his watchman an
+overcoat--Indifference to his employes--Contrast between his personal
+and business habits--His liberality in financial operations--He
+subscribes for the entire Government loan in 1814, and enables the
+United States to carry on the war--His generosity toward the
+Government--The suspension of specie payments--Financial troubles--How
+Girard saved his own notes--His public spirit--How he made half a
+million of dollars on a captured ship--Personal characteristics--Why he
+valued money--His ambition--His infidelity--Causes of the defects of his
+character--A favorable view--Heroic conduct of Stephen Girard during
+the prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia--The Good
+Samaritan--He practices medicine, and congratulates himself that he has
+killed none of his patients--His industry--Visit of Mr. Baring to Mr.
+Girard--A curious reception--Failing health and death of Stephen
+Girard--His will--His noble bequests--Establishment of Girard College.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
+
+Legitimate business the field of success--Reasons for claiming Astor as
+an American--Birth and early life--Religious training--The village of
+Waldorf--Poverty--The jolly butcher--Young Astor's repugnance to his
+father's trade--Unhappy at home--Loses his mother--His desire to
+emigrate to the "New Land"--Leaves home--His voyage down the
+Rhine--Reaches London and enters the service of his brother--His efforts
+to prepare for emigration--Learns to speak English--Peace between the
+United States and Great Britain--The road to the "New Land" open--Astor
+sets out for America--His first ventures in commerce--The voyage--How he
+proposed to save his Sunday clothes--Arrival in the Chesapeake--The
+ice-blockade--Astor makes a friend--The fur trader's story--Astor sees
+the way to fortune--Reaches New York--His first situation--Learning the
+business--His method of proceeding--An example to young men--His capacity
+for business operations--He is promoted--His journeys to Canada, and
+their results--Sets up in business for himself--The fur trade of North
+America--A survey of the field of Astor's operations--His capital--His
+tramps into the wilderness in search of furs--Predictions as to the
+future settlement of the country--His first consignment to England--His
+marriage--A good wife--Improvement in his prospects--Buys his first
+ship--The secret of his success--Close attention to business--His
+economical habits--His indorsement disputed by a bank clerk--Statements
+of the profits on furs--He engages in the Chinese trade--How the
+Government aided the early China traders--Amount made by Astor in his
+legitimate business--His real estate operations--His foresight and
+courage--How eight thousand dollars yielded eighty thousand--His real
+estate in the City of New York--Purchases the half of Putnam County--The
+Roger and Mary Morris estate controversy--Astor wins his suit, and makes
+half a million of dollars--Astor's scheme of colonization--A grand
+enterprise--Settlement of Astoria--Betrayed by his agents, and the
+scheme brought to failure--Astor withdraws from active business--His
+boyhood's vow and its fulfillment--Builds the Astor House--His voyage to
+Europe--The return--The troubles of a millionaire--The great man
+seasick--A curious draft--The last years of his life--His fondness for
+literary men--His death and burial--His will--Opposite views of his
+character--How his refusal to buy a chronometer cost him seventy
+thousand dollars--He remembers an old friend--His gift of a lease--His
+humor--"William has a rich father."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ALEXANDER T. STEWART.
+
+Birth and early life--Becomes his grandfather's ward--Designed for the
+ministry--A change in his plans--Comes to America--Teaches school in New
+York--Becomes a dry goods merchant--Receives a legacy--His first
+importation--How he began business--An energetic trader--His sample lots
+and their history--Success of his enterprise--He begins by encouraging
+honesty in trade--Wins a name for reliability--The system of selling at
+one price--Inaugurates the "selling off at cost" feature--His courage in
+business--How he raised the money to meet his note--Improvement in his
+business--He enlarges his store--As an inducement to the ladies, employs
+for clerks handsome young men--The crisis of 1837--Stewart comes out of
+it a rich man--How he did so--Builds his lower store--Predictions of
+failure--The result--Compels the Government to purchase goods from
+him--His foresight and liberality--Charged with superstition--Lucky and
+unlucky persons--Story of the old apple woman--Remarks at the opening of
+the St. Nicholas Hotel--Reasons of Stewart's success--A hard worker--How
+he receives visitors--Running the gauntlet--How he gets rid of
+troublesome persons--Estimate of Mr. Stewart's real estate in New
+York--His new residence--His benevolence--Aid for Ireland, and free
+passages to America--Home for women--Political sentiments--Mr. Stewart's
+appointment as Secretary of the Treasury--Feeling of the country--The
+retail store of A.T. Stewart & Co.--A palace of glass and iron--Internal
+arrangements--The managers and salesmen--List of sales--Wages
+given--Visitors--The principal salesroom--The parcel department--The
+wagons and stables--Extravagant purchases--Mr. Stewart's supervision of
+the upper store--The system of buying--The foreign agencies--Statement
+of the duties paid each day--Personal appearance of Mr. Stewart.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AMOS LAWRENCE.
+
+The Lawrence family--A poor boy--Early education--Delicate
+health--Obtains a situation at Dunstable--Returns to Groton--Becomes Mr.
+Brazer's apprentice--The variety store--An amateur doctor--Importance of
+Groton in "old times"--Responsibility of young Lawrence--Is put in
+charge of the business--High character--Drunkenness the curse of New
+England--Lawrence resolves to abstain from liquors and tobacco--His
+self-command--Completes his apprenticeship--Visits Boston--An unexpected
+offer--Enters into business in Boston--Is offered a partnership, but
+declines it--His sagacity justified--Begins business for
+himself--Commercial importance of Boston--Aid from his father--A narrow
+escape--lesson for life--Amos Lawrence's method of doing business---An
+example for young men--His business habits--He leaves nothing unfinished
+over Sunday--Avoids speculation--His views upon the subject--Introduces
+double entry in book-keeping into Boston--His liberality to his
+debtors--Does not allow his business to master him--Property gained by
+some kinds of sacrifices not worth having--Forms a partnership with his
+brother Abbott--Business of the firm--They engage in manufactures--Safe
+business principles--A noble letter--Political opinions--His
+charities--Statement of his donations--Requests that no public
+acknowledgment of his gifts be made--Character as a merchant and a
+man--Advice to his son--His religious character--Loss of his health--His
+patience and resignation--The model American merchant.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ANDREW V. STOUT.
+
+Early struggles--Acquires an education--Undertakes the support of his
+family--The boy teacher--Hard work--Is made instructor of Latin--A
+trying position--How he conquered his difficulties--Is made principal of
+a public school--His first business ventures--Engages in the building of
+houses--His platform of integrity--His success--A great mistake--He
+indorses a note--The consequence of a false step--Liberal action of the
+bank--Mr. Stout resolves to accept no accommodation--Pays the notes, and
+loses twenty-three thousand dollars--Establishes himself as a wholesale
+boot and shoe dealer--Enters the dry goods trade--Close attention to
+business--His system and its success--Organization of the Shoe and
+Leather Bank of New York--Mr. Stout is made Vice President, and
+subsequently President--Character as a citizen--Is made City
+Chamberlain--Generosity to the police force--Interest in church
+affairs--Kindness to the poor--Encouragement which his career affords
+others.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+JONAS CHICKERING.
+
+The largest building in the United States--The Chickering piano
+factory--Birth of Jonas Chickering--Early love of music--Is apprenticed
+to a cabinet-maker--Is employed to repair a piano--Succeeds in the
+undertaking--Consequence of this success--Becomes a piano-maker--Removes
+to Boston--Is employed as a journeyman--The labor of his life--His
+patience and skill--Is known as the best workman in the
+establishment--History of the piano--Chickering's first discovery--His
+hope of success based on intelligence--Becomes a master of the theory of
+sound--His studies and their result--Makes an improvement in the framing
+of pianos--Invents the circular scale for square pianos--Generously
+makes his invention free--A noble gift to the world--His business
+operations--Increase in the demand for his instruments--Death of Captain
+Mackay--Mr. Chickering undertakes the sole charge of his affairs--Fears
+of his friends--Magnitude of the business--The lawyer's question
+answered--The mortgages paid--Rapid success of Mr. Chickering--His
+varied duties--Sharp competition--A bogus Chickering--How a Boston bank
+lost his custom--His independence in business--His character as a
+merchant--Trains his sons to succeed him in business--The result of his
+efforts--The present house of Chickering & Sons--Destruction of the
+factory--Offers of aid--Mr. Chickering's kindness to his workmen--Sets
+to work to re-establish his business--The new factory begun--Sudden
+death of Mr. Chickering.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+NICHOLAS LONGWORTH.
+
+The grape interest of the United States--Growing demand for American
+wines--Instrumentality of Mr. Longworth in producing this success--Early
+life of Mr. Longworth--Apprenticed to a shoemaker--Removes to South
+Carolina--Returns to Newark and studies law--Removes to
+Cincinnati--Admitted to the bar--His first case--Is paid in whisky
+stills, and trades them for lands which make his fortune--Rapid growth
+of Cincinnati--The oldest native inhabitant of Chicago--Longworth's
+investments in real estate--Immense profits realized by him--His
+experiments in wine growing--History of the Catawba grape--Longworth
+decides to cultivate it entirely--His efforts to promote the grape
+culture in the Ohio Valley--Offers a market for all the grape juice that
+can be brought to him--The result of his labors seen in the Ohio
+vineyards of to-day--His wine cellars--Amount of wine made annually by
+him--The process used--How "Sparkling Catawba" is made--Longworth's
+experiments with strawberries--His liberality--Gift of land to the
+Observatory--His challenge to a grumbler--Estimate of his character--His
+eccentricities--His generosity to his tenants--How he made money by
+helping others to grow rich--His politics--How he subscribed one hundred
+dollars to elect Clay--His hatred of vagabondage--His stone quarry--How
+he provided it with laborers--His system of helping the poor--Is charged
+with stinginess--The "devil's poor"--Personal appearance--The
+"Hard-times" overcoat--Charity to a millionaire--Death of Mr. Longworth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+GEORGE PEABODY.
+
+Birth and parentage--Early education--His first lessons in business--An
+apprentice in a country store--Youthful ambition--A desire for
+change--The visit to Post Mills--Removal to Newburyport--Reasons for his
+attachment to that place--His first patron--Peabody goes south--A
+soldier in the War of 1812-15--A young merchant--A change of
+prospects--A partner in the house of Riggs & Peabody--Peabody's business
+capacity--An irregular banker--His reputation as a business
+man--Promising opening of a brilliant career--Retirement of Mr.
+Riggs--Growth of the business--A branch house in London--Mr. Peabody
+saves the credit of the State of Maryland--Tribute from Edward
+Everett--Success in London--A model American merchant--Establishment of
+the house of George Peabody & Co.--The Fourth of July dinner--The
+exhibition of 1851--Patriotism of Mr. Peabody--How he saved the United
+States from humiliation--Admission of the "London Times"--Mr. Peabody's
+business habits--His economy--Adventure with a conductor--Finds a
+conscientious hackman--Personal simplicity--Visits to the United
+States--His munificent donations--His last visit--Returns to London and
+dies--Honors paid to his memory--The funeral ceremonies--His burial at
+Peabody--Statement of his donations and bequests--His example
+encouraging to the young.
+
+
+II. CAPITALISTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CORNELIUS VANDERBILT.
+
+Staten Island seventy-six years ago--The establishment of the Staten
+Island ferry--Birth of Cornelius Vanderbilt--His boyhood--Defective
+education--A famous rider--His early reputation for
+firmness--Superintends the removal of a ship's cargo at the age of
+twelve--How he pawned a horse--Becomes a boatman--How he bought his
+boat--A disastrous voyage--His life as a boatman--His economy and
+industry--Earns three thousand dollars--The alarm at Fort
+Richmond--Vanderbilt's perilous voyage for aid for the forts--His
+marriage--His first contract--How he supplied the harbor
+defenses--Builds his first schooner--His winter voyages--Becomes a
+steamboat captain--His foresight--Leases the hotel at New Brunswick--The
+dangers of navigating the New York waters--The steamboat war--How
+Captain Vanderbilt eluded the sheriff--Becomes manager of the steamboat
+line--Declines an increase of salary--Only wants to carry his
+point--Refuses to buy Mr. Gibbons's interest in the steamboat company,
+and builds his own boat--Narrow escape from ruin--Final
+triumph--Systematic management of his vessels--How he ruined the
+"Collins Line"--The "North Star"--Becomes a railroad director--How he
+foiled a plan to ruin him--dishonest legislature--Vanderbilt's
+triumph--His gift to the Government--His office in New York--Vanderbilt
+in business hours--Personal characteristics--Love for horses--His
+family.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+DANIEL DREW.
+
+Birth-place--Birth and parentage--A farmer's boy--Goes to New York to
+seek his fortune--Becomes a cattle drover--Leases the Bull's Head
+Tavern--His energy and success in his business--Brings the first western
+cattle to New York--Helps a friend to build a steamboat--The fight with
+Vanderbilt--Drew buys out his friend, and becomes a steamboat
+owner--Vanderbilt endeavors to discourage him--He perseveres--His
+success--Formation of the "People's Line" on the Hudson River--The
+floating palaces--Forms a partnership with George Law, and establishes
+the Stonington line--Opening of the Hudson River Railway--Drew's
+foresight--Room enough for the locomotive and the steamboat--Buys out
+the Champlain Company--Causes of his success as a steamboat
+manager--Becomes a banker--His success in Wall Street--Indorses the
+acceptances of the Erie Railway Company--His courage and calmness in the
+panic of 1857--He saves "Erie" from ruin--Elected a director of the Erie
+Road--Is made Treasurer--His interest in the road--His operations in
+Wall Street--His farm in Putnam County--Joins the Methodist Church--His
+liberality--Builds a church in New York--Founds the Drew Theological
+Seminary--Estimate of his wealth--His family--Personal appearance.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+JAMES B. EADS.
+
+Birth--Childhood--Fondness for machinery--Early mechanical
+skill--Constructs a steam engine at the age of nine years--His
+work-shop--Death of his father--Works his way to St. Louis--Sells apples
+on the streets--Finds employment and a friend--Efforts to
+improve--Becomes a clerk on a Mississippi steamer--Undertakes the
+recovery of wrecked steamboats--Success of his undertaking--Offers to
+remove the obstacles to the navigation of the Mississippi--Failure of
+his health--Retires from business--Breaking out of the war--Summoned to
+Washington--His plan for the defense of the western rivers--Associated
+with Captain Rodgers in the purchase of gunboats--His first contract
+with the Government--Undertakes to build seven ironclads in sixty-five
+days--Magnitude of the undertaking--His promptness--Builds other
+gunboats during the war--The gunboat fleet at Forts Henry and Donelson
+the private property of Mr. Eads--Excellence of the vessels built by
+him--A model contractor--Residence in St. Louis.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CYRUS W. FIELD.
+
+Birth--Parentage--Early education--Goes to New York in search of
+employment--Obtains a clerkship in a city house, and in a few years
+becomes a partner--A rich man at thirty-four--Retires from
+business--Travels in South America--Meets Mr. Gisborne--Plan of the
+Newfoundland Telegraph Company--Mr. Field declines to embark in
+it--Conceives the idea of a telegraph across the Atlantic
+Ocean--Correspondence with Lieut. Maury and Prof. Morse--The scheme
+pronounced practicable--Mr. Field secures the co-operation of four New
+York capitalists--Organization of the New York, Newfoundland, and London
+Telegraph Company--Building of the line from New York to St. John's--A
+herculean task--The Governmental ocean surveys of the United States and
+England--Efforts to secure aid in England--Liberal action of the
+Government--Organization of the Atlantic Telegraph Company--A hard-won
+success in America--Passage of the bill by Congress--The first attempt
+to lay the cable--The expedition of 1857--The telegraph fleet--Scenes on
+board--Loss of the cable--Failure of the expedition--Difficulties
+remedied--The new "paying-out" machinery--The expedition of 1858--The
+second attempt to lay the cable--Dangerous storm--Failures--Loss of the
+cable--The third attempt--The cable laid successfully--Messages across
+the Atlantic--Celebrations in England and the United States--The signals
+cease--The cable a failure--Discouraging state of affairs--Courage of
+Mr. Field--Generous offer of the British Government--Fresh
+soundings--Investigations of the Telegraph Board--Efforts of Mr. Field
+to raise new capital--Purchase of the Great Eastern--The fourth attempt
+to lay the cable--Expedition of 1865--Voyage of the Great Eastern--Loss
+of the cable--Efforts to recover it unsuccessful--What the expedition
+demonstrated--Efforts to raise more capital--They are pronounced
+illegal--The new company--The fifth attempt to lay the cable--Voyage of
+the Great Eastern--The cable laid at last--Fishing up and splicing the
+cable of 1865--The final triumph--Credit due to Mr. Field.
+
+
+III. INVENTORS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ROBERT FULTON.
+
+Trinity churchyard--The Livingston vault--An interesting place--Fulton's
+tomb--Birth of Robert Fulton--Boyhood--Early mechanical skill--Robert
+astonishes his tutor--Robert's fireworks--"Nothing is
+impossible"--"Quicksilver Bob"--The fishing excursion--The first
+paddle-wheel boat--Fulton's success as an artist--His gift to his
+mother--His removal to England--Intimacy with Benjamin West--Goes to
+Devonshire--Acquaintance with the Duke of Bridgewater--His interest in
+canal navigation--His first inventions--Goes to Paris--Residence with
+Mr. Barlow--Studies in engineering--Invents the diving boat--The
+infernal machine--His patriotic reply to the British ministry--His
+marriage--Returns to America--The General Government declines to
+purchase his torpedo--Brief history of the first experiments in steam
+navigation--Fulton's connection with Livingston--The trial boat on the
+Seine--Determines to build a boat on the Hudson--Fulton and Livingston
+are given the sole right to navigate the waters of New York by
+steam--Popular ridicule--Disbelief of scientific men--Launch of the
+"Clermont"--The trial trip--The first voyage up the Hudson--Fulton's
+triumph--Scenes along the river--Efforts to sink the
+steamer--Establishment of steam navigation on the Hudson River--The
+first New York ferry-boats--The floating docks--Boats for the West--New
+York threatened by the British fleet in 1814--Fulton's plan for a steam
+frigate--The "Fulton the First"--The steamboat war--Illness of
+Fulton--His death and burial--His last will--True character of his
+invention.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+CHARLES GOODYEAR.
+
+Discovery of India-rubber--Mode of collecting it--Preparation and use by
+the natives--Its introduction into the United States--Mr. E.M. Chaffee's
+process--The India-rubber fever--Brief success of the India-rubber
+companies--Their sudden failure--Visit of Mr. Goodyear to New York--He
+invents an improvement in the life preserver--Early history of Charles
+Goodyear--His failure as a merchant--Offers his invention to the Roxbury
+Company--The agent's disclosures--Mr. Goodyear finds his mission--His
+first efforts--A failure--Discouraging state of his affairs--Renews his
+efforts--Experiments in India-rubber--Coldness of his friends--His
+courage and perseverance--Goes to New York--Accidental discovery of the
+aqua fortis process--Partial success--Ruined--Life on Staten
+Island--Removes to Boston--Delusive prosperity--The mail bag
+contract--His friends urge him to abandon his efforts--He refuses--On
+the verge of success--Discovers the usefulness of sulphur--The
+inventor's hope--The revelation--Discovers the secret of
+vulcanization--Down in the depths--Kept back by poverty--A beggar--A
+test of his honesty--Starvation at hand--The timely loan--Removal to New
+York--Difficulties in the way--Death of his youngest child--Finds
+friends in New York--His experiments in vulcanization--Final
+success--His heart in his work--Fails to secure patents in Europe--His
+losses from dishonest rivals--Declaration of the Commissioner of
+Patents--Death of Mr. Goodyear--Congress refuses to extend his
+patent--His true reward.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ELI WHITNEY.
+
+The home of General Greene in Georgia--The soldier's widow--An arrival
+from New England--The young schoolmaster--A mechanical genius--Early
+history of Whitney--Mrs. Greene's invitation--Visit of the
+planters--State of the cotton culture in 1792--A despondent
+planter--Mrs. Greene advises them to try Whitney--Origin of the cotton
+gin--Whitney's first efforts--His workshop--The secret labors--How he
+provided himself with materials--Finds a partner--Betrayal of his
+secret--He is robbed of his model--He recovers it and completes it--The
+first cotton gin--Statement of the revolution produced by the invention
+in the cotton culture of the South--Opinion of Judge Johnson--The story
+of an inventor's wrongs--Whitney is cheated and robbed of his
+rights--The worthlessness of a patent--A long and disheartening
+struggle--Honorable action of North Carolina--Congress refuses to extend
+the patent--Whitney abandons the cotton gin--Engages in the manufacture
+of firearms--His improvements in them--Establishes an armory in
+Connecticut, and makes a fortune--Death.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CHAUNCEY JEROME.
+
+The old-fashioned clocks--Their expensiveness--Condition of the clock
+trade of Connecticut sixty years ago--Early history of Chauncey
+Jerome--A hard life--Death of his father--Becomes a farmer's boy--Is
+anxious to become a clock-maker--An over-wise guardian--Hardships of an
+apprentice--How Jerome became a carpenter--Hires his winters from his
+master--Becomes a dial-maker--The clock-making expedition--Jerome's
+first savings--Takes a wife--A master carpenter--Poor pay and hard
+work--Buys a house--A dull winter--Enters Mr. Terry's factory--The
+wooden clock business--Sets up in business for himself--Industry and
+energy rewarded--His first order--Sends his clocks South--Enlarges his
+business--Improvements in his clocks--Losses on southern shipments from
+dampness--Depression of business--Jerome's anxiety--A wakeful
+night--Invention of the brass--A new era in the clock trade--Beneficial
+effects of Jerome's invention--Magnitude of the Connecticut clock trade
+at present--Growth of Jerome's business--Makes a fortune--Organization
+of the "Jerome Clock-making Company"--Practical withdrawal of Mr.
+Jerome--Difficulties of the company--Jerome a ruined man--Honest
+independence--Finds employment--Becomes the manager of the Chicago
+Company.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ELIAS HOWE, JR.
+
+The first sewing-machine--Birth of Elias Howe--A poor man's son--Raised
+to hard work--His first employment--The little mill-boy--Delicate
+health--Goes to Lowell to seek his fortune--Thrown out of
+employment--Removes to Cambridge--Works in a machine shop with N.P.
+Banks--Marries--A rash step--Growing troubles--A hard lot--Conceives the
+idea of a sewing-machine--His first experiments unsuccessful--Invents
+the lock stitch and perfects the sewing-machine--Hindered by his
+poverty--A hard struggle--Finds a partner--His winter's task--His attic
+work-shop--Completion of the model--Perfection of Howe's
+invention--Efforts to dispose of the invention--Disappointed
+hopes--Popular incredulity--Becomes an engine driver--Amasa Howe goes to
+England with the sewing-machine--Bargain with the London
+merchant--Elias removes to London--Loses his situation--The rigors of
+poverty--Returns to America--Death of his wife--Fate's last blow--The
+sewing-machine becomes better known--Adoption by the public--A tardy
+recognition--Elias Howe sets up in business for himself--Buys out his
+partner's interest--The sewing-machine war--Rapid growth of the
+sewing-machine interest--Earnings of the inventor--A royal
+income--Honors conferred upon him--Enlists in the United States Army--A
+liberal private--Last illness and death.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+RICHARD M. HOE.
+
+Growth of the art of printing--Birth of Richard M. Hoe--Sketch of the
+career of Robert Hoe--He comes to America--His marriage--Founds the
+house of "Robert Hoe & Co."--The first steam printing presses--He
+retires from business--Richard M. Hoe is brought up in the business--The
+mechanical genius of the house--The new firm--Richard Hoe's first
+invention--Obtains a patent for it--Visits England--Invents the
+double-cylinder press--Demand for increased facilities for printing--Mr.
+Hoe's experiments with his press--His failures--How the "Lightning
+Press" was invented--A good night's work--Patents his invention--The
+first "Lightning Press"--Demand for it--Rapid growth of the business of
+the firm--Statement of the operations of the house--Personal
+characteristics of Richard M. Hoe--The "Lightning Press" at work.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+SAMUEL COLT.
+
+Birth and parentage--A restless boy--Dislikes school--Early fondness for
+mechanical inventions--Is sent to boarding-school--Runs away to sea--The
+story of a boy's invention, and what came of it--Origin of the
+revolver--Returns home--His chemical studies--Dr. Coult--The lecturing
+tour--His success--Completes his design for the revolver--Patents his
+invention--Visits England--Discovery at the Tower of London--Returns
+home--Formation of the "Patent Arms Company"--Objections of the
+officers of the army and navy to the revolver--The Florida War--It is
+decided by the revolver--Triumph of Col. Colt--Cessation of the demand
+for arms--Failure of the company--Beginning of the Mexican War--Action
+of General Taylor--No revolvers to be had--A strange dilemma for an
+inventor--The new model--Contracts with the Government--Success of the
+revolver in Mexico--The demand from the frontier--Emigration to
+California and Australia--Permanent establishment of Col. Colt's
+business--The improved weapon--Builds a new armory--Description of his
+works at Hartford--A liberal employer--Other inventions of Col.
+Colt--His submarine telegraph--His fortune--His marriage--Visits to
+Europe--Attentions from European dignitaries--Witnesses the coronation
+of the Emperor of Russia--His last illness and death.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.
+
+Birth--Parentage--Early education--Graduates at Yale College--Becomes an
+artist--His masters--Visits England--His first attempt--"The Dying
+Hercules"--Opinion of Benjamin West--Wins the medal of the Adelphi
+Society of Arts--Ambition as an artist--His cold reception by the
+Americans--Mr. Tuckerman's comments--Organizes the National Academy of
+Design--Visits Europe the second time--The homeward voyage in the
+"Sully"--News of the experiments at Paris with the electro-magnet--How
+the electric telegraph was invented--Morse is made a professor in the
+University of New York--Completion of his model--An imperfect
+telegraph--His first experiments--The duplicate finished--First
+exhibition of the telegraph--Morse applies for a patent--Visits Europe
+to introduce his invention--His failure--Seeks aid from Congress--A
+disheartening effort--A long struggle--Independence of Morse--Despondent
+at last--A sudden lifting of the cloud--The experimental line--The
+trial--A curious Cabinet Minister--Success of the
+telegraph--Establishment of companies in the United States--Professor
+Morse wins fame and fortune--The telegraph in Europe--Honors at home and
+abroad--A list of his rewards--Morse originates submarine telegraphy,
+and predicts the laying of an Atlantic telegraph--Personal characteristics.
+
+
+IV. PUBLISHERS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+JAMES HARPER.
+
+The Brothers Harper--Birth and parentage of James Harper--The Long
+Island home--James Harper goes to New York--Becomes a "devil"--Winning
+his way--How he gave his card to a stranger--Arrival of "Brother
+John"---Good habits--Sets up for himself--"J. & J. Harper,
+Printers"--How they started in business--Integrity rewarded--First
+job--Their first effort at stereotyping--The Harpers become publishers
+on their own account--Their early ventures--Feeling their way to
+success--Their publications--Character of their books--How they drove
+the "yellow covers" out of the market--Their prosperity--Admission of
+new partners--The great fire--Destruction of the establishment of Harper
+& Brothers--Energy of the firm--Re-establishment of their
+business--Their new premises--Description of the buildings--Personal
+characteristics of Mr. James Harper--Religious life--Liberality of
+sentiment--His industry--Elected Mayor of New York--Kindness to his
+operatives--Physical Vigor--"The Lord knows best"--Accident to Mr.
+Harper and his daughter--His death.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+JAMES T. FIELDS.
+
+The old "Corner Book-store" in Boston and its associations--Carter &
+Bendee employ a new clerk--Birth and early life of James T. Fields--His
+literary talent--Governor Woodbury's advice--Enters mercantile
+life--Determined to rise--His studies--The result--Associated with
+Edward Everett at the age of eighteen--His business talent--Steady
+promotion--Becomes head clerk with Allen & Ticknor--Establishment of the
+firm of Ticknor & Fields--Success as a publisher--High character of his
+house--Relations toward authors--Publications of Ticknor &
+Fields--Removal--Organization of the firm of Fields, Osgood & Co.--The
+new book-store--An elegant establishment--Mr. Field's literary
+success--Statement of a friend--"Common Sense"--His contributions to the
+periodicals of the firm--Travels in Europe--Personal appearance.
+
+
+V. EDITORS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
+
+Birth--Intended for the Romish priesthood--How he was induced to come to
+America--Arrival in Halifax--Comes to the United States--What came of a
+shilling--Employment in Boston--Reaches New York--Attempts to establish
+a school--Becomes connected with the press--Success of his Washington
+letters--Services on the "Courier and Inquirer"--Leaves that
+journal--Removes to Philadelphia--Establishes "The
+Pennsylvanian"--Ingratitude of his political associates--Returns to New
+York--Establishment of "The New York Herald"--Early difficulties of that
+paper, and how Bennett surmounted them--The first "Herald" office--A
+determined effort to succeed--First numbers of "The Herald"--How one man
+carried on a newspaper--A lucky hit--The first "money article"--The
+office burned down--The great fire--Bennett's reports of the
+disaster--Success of "The Herald"--His first advertising
+contract--Increasing prosperity--The journal of to-day--How it is
+conducted--The new "Herald" office--Bennett's pride in his
+paper--Personal characteristics--His independence.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ROBERT BONNER.
+
+Birth and parentage--Emigration to America--Becomes a printer--A
+first-class compositor--Engaged upon the "Evening Mirror"--The
+"Merchant's Ledger"--Bonner purchases the paper, and changes its name to
+the "New York Ledger"--The new literary journal--Predictions of
+failure--Bonner confident of success--Engages Fanny Fern to write for
+him--A handsome price for a story--Wonderful success of the
+"Ledger"--Skillful advertising--Popularity of the paper--How Bonner
+silenced the critics--"Edward Everett writes for the 'Ledger'"--How
+Bonner treats his contributors--"Henry Ward Beecher writes for the
+'Ledger'"--Immense circulation of the paper--The new "Ledger"
+building--Private residence of Mr. Bonner--His stable--His love for
+horses.
+
+
+VI. LAWYERS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+JOHN MARSHALL.
+
+The model American lawyer--Birth and early life of John Marshall--A
+devoted father--Early education--The young patriot--Troubles with
+England--Marshall becomes a soldier--The "Culpepper Minute
+Men"--Marshall's popularity in the army--Finishes his law studies--His
+journey from Williamsburg to Philadelphia--Commences the practice of the
+law--Elected to the Legislature--Establishes himself in Richmond--The
+power of a powdered wig and velvet coat--Marshall's services in the
+Virginia Convention of 1798--Becomes the champion of Washington's
+Administration--Refuses public honors--Is made Minister to France
+--Public reception in New York--Elected Member of Congress--His
+memorable speech--Enters the Cabinet of President Adams as Secretary of
+State--Is made Chief Justice of the United States--His record--His "Life
+of Washington"--Personal characteristics--His generosity--William
+Wirt's pen and ink sketch of him--His courtesy and kindness--Fondness
+for manly sports--The quoit club--How he carried a proud man's turkey
+home--The supper party--The Chief Justice loses the wager--Mode of
+traveling on his circuit--The scene at Maguire's Hotel in Winchester,
+Virginia--The unknown champion of Christianity--A brilliant
+defense--Last illness and death of Judge Marshall.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+JAMES T. BRADY.
+
+Birth and early life--His "big head"--His kindliness of
+disposition--Enters his father's office to study law--Merry nature--How
+he studied law--A model for ambitious youths--His father's opinion of
+him--Admitted to the bar--His first case--The newsboy case--sudden rise
+in popularity--Practices in the Supreme Court--The India-rubber suit--A
+compliment from Daniel Webster--Brady's integrity--Professional success
+and generosity--His readiness in managing his cases--Conduct toward
+witnesses--His fearlessness--A bold declaration in Tammany Hall--His
+profound knowledge of his profession--His industry--His disinterested
+kindness--His humor--Meets his match--Political life--Personal
+appearance--A genial old bachelor--Literary tastes and labors--His
+generosity to the poor--Devotion to his relatives--Last appearance in
+public--Forebodings--Death.
+
+
+VII. ARTISTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+BENJAMIN WEST.
+
+A native of Pennsylvania--Circumstances attending his birth--The child
+of promise--First indications of genius--The baby's portrait--Lessons
+from the Indians--The box of colors--The truant pupil--The mother's
+discovery---West's opinion of his first picture--The little portrait
+painter--The first attempt at historical painting--"The Death of
+Socrates"--Choosing a profession--Dedicated to his work--A fighting
+Quaker--Establishes himself in New York--Visits Europe--Arrival at Rome,
+and reception there--Visit to the Apollo Belvidere--West's
+criticism--Travels and labors on the continent--Visits England--His
+reception there--Urged to stay--Decides to make England his home--Sends
+for his bride--Marriage--"Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of
+Germanicus"--Success of the picture--The king becomes his friend--The
+most famous works of Benjamin West--"The Death of Wolfe"--Reception of
+the picture by the public--West triumphs over the critics, and
+inaugurates a new era of historical painting--Death of the king--West is
+elected President of the National Academy--His resignation and
+re-election--Closing years of a great career--Personal appearance--Leigh
+Hunt's description of him--Death--Burial in St. Paul's Cathedral.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+JOHN ROGERS.
+
+Birth--Early years--Begins life as a clerk in a dry goods
+store--Artistic talent--Opposition of his parents--A change in his
+plans--Becomes an engineer--Failure of his eyes--Voyage to Spain--Return
+home--Becomes a machinist--Promoted--Learns to model in clay--Commences
+his studies in art--A hard life, and a noble perseverance--A change for
+the better--A sudden reverse--Out of work--Visits Europe to study his
+art--Returns home in despair--Enters the service of the surveyor of the
+city of Chicago--His first statuettes--Their success--A new field opened
+to him--Visits New York, and learns the new method of casting
+figures--Establishes himself in New York--His first studio--Immediate
+popularity of his works--Description of them--Removes to a new
+studio--His later works--Process by which they are made-Originality of
+the artist rewarded by the public--Personal characteristics.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HIRAM POWERS.
+
+Birth--Juvenile mechanical skill--The life of a Vermont boy--Hard
+times--Removal of the Powers family to the West--The new
+farm--Misfortunes never come singly--Breaking up of the
+household--Hiram's first employment--The reading-room scheme--Hiram
+becomes a collector of bad debts--Reminiscences of the young
+West--Powers becomes a mechanic--Story of the brass plates--Rapid
+promotion--The silver watch--How Hiram purchased it--The Cincinnati
+Museum--The artist's first lessons in modeling--His first sitter--The
+trial of skill--The king of the Cannibal Islands--The man-eater--Hiram
+becomes interested in the museum--How he played the devil in
+Cincinnati--A dishonest employer--Mr. Longworth's offer--Powers goes to
+Washington--His success there--Visit to "Old Hickory"--The first
+critic--Kindness of Senator Preston--Powers goes to Italy--Arrival in
+Florence--His first works in Italy--Visit to Thorwaldsen--Works of
+Powers--His rapid success--His life in Italy--Views of Mr. Powers
+respecting an artist life--Personal characteristics--Popularity with
+artists.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+EMMANUEL LEUTZE.
+
+An American by adoption--Early life and education--How he learned to
+draw--Becomes an artist--His first picture--The evils of too much
+haste--His first professional engagement--Despondency--A ramble through
+the Virginia woods, and what came of it--A friend in need--Greater
+success--Friendship of Mr. Carey--Leutze goes to Europe--Studies at
+Dusseldorf-His reception there--Becomes Lessing's pupil--His first
+picture finds a purchaser--Travels and studies in Europe--Returns to
+Dusseldorf, marries, and makes his home in that place--His
+paintings--Returns to New York--Success in America--The Government
+commission--Journey to the Rocky Mountains--The great fresco in the
+Capitol--"Westward the Star of Empire takes it Way"--Revisits
+Dusseldorf--Reception by the artists--Returns to the United
+States--Further commissions from the Government--His sudden death--His
+unfinished works--Mr. Tuckerman's remarks.
+
+
+VIII. DIVINES.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+A Connecticut boy--The minister's family--A gloomy childhood--Ma'arm
+Kilbourn's school--The loss of his curls--The dull boy--A bad voice for
+an orator--His first religious impressions--Aunt Esther--The Sunday
+catechism--Sent to boarding school--Love of nature--Enters his sister's
+school--The hopeless case--An inveterate joker and an indifferent
+scholar--Removal to Boston--Gets through the Latin school--The sea-going
+project--Dr. Beecher's ruse--Life at Mount Pleasant--Conquers
+mathematics--Embraces religion at a revival--Resolves to become a
+minister--Removal to Cincinnati--Course at the Lane Seminary--How he
+learned to preach--Marries--His first charge--Life at
+Lawrenceburg--Removal to Indianapolis--Life in the West--His
+popularity--His theory of preaching and its success--Conversion of his
+brother--Mr. Beecher accepts a call to Plymouth Church in
+Brooklyn--Political record--Literary labors--Pastoral work--A large
+audience--Government of Plymouth Church--Description of the edifice--The
+congregation--The services--Mr. Beecher as a preacher--Sympathy between
+the pastor and his hearers--His ideas of religion--How he prepares his
+sermons--His prayers unstudied--The social receptions--The Friday
+evening meeting--A characteristic scene--Labors during the war--Visit to
+Europe--An unpopular sermon in a good cause--Personal characteristics.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PETER CARTWRIGHT.
+
+Birth--Removal to Kentucky--"Rogue's harbor"--Condition of the country
+and the people--Frontier life--Early life of a preacher--Becomes a
+Christian--His account of his conversion--Is made an exhorter in the
+Methodist Church--Removal to Lewiston County--Begins
+preaching--Qualifications of a backwoods preacher--His energy--The
+jerks--How Peter frightened a bully--A brimstone angel--Enters the
+ministry--Appointed to the Marietta Circuit--A good school--Hard
+times--Marries--Quiet heroism--How the old-time people married--His
+devotion to the Methodist Church--Troubles with other denominations--How
+he argued with a Universalist--How he met a wrathful dame--Encounter
+with a Baptist preacher--Adventure with Father Teel--Taming a
+shrew--Removal to Illinois--His reasons for taking that step--Death of
+his daughter--Arrival at his new home--Life on the frontier--A large
+district--The Methodist circuit riders of sixty years ago--Perils of
+frontier traveling--Success of Cartwright's ministry--How he was
+superannuated--His courage--How he cleared a camp of rowdies--Encounter
+on a ferry-boat--Frightens a bully--Advocates temperance--A practical
+joke--Is elected to the Legislature--His opinion of politics--How he
+raised the devil--"Another sinner down"--Missionaries from the
+East--Indignation of the backwoods preacher--The proposed mission to New
+England--Cartwright declines it--He visits Boston--His reception--How he
+preached for Father Taylor--Summing up--Sixty-seven years of a
+preacher's life.
+
+
+IX. AUTHORS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
+
+Birth and early life--The old house by the sea--College life--Early
+literary productions--Becomes a professor in Bowdoin College--Travels in
+Europe--Marriage--Literary labors--"Outre Mer"--Is made a professor in
+Harvard College--His second visit to Europe--Death of his wife--Goes to
+live in the Craigie House--Historical associations--Washington's
+headquarters--A congenial home--Literary labors--"Hyperion"--Great
+popularity of the book--"Voices of the Night"--"The Spanish
+Student"--Mr. Longfellow buys the Craigie House--Summary of his
+works--The "Song of Hiawatha"--Death of Mrs. Longfellow--Mr. Longfellow
+again visits Europe--His popularity with the English-speaking
+race--Cause of his popularity--"Resignation"--Scene from "The Golden
+Legend"--The poet's home.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
+
+The Hawthornes of Salem--A sea-going race--Birth of Nathaniel
+Hawthorne--A sad home--Early life--His college days--Longfellow's
+recollection of him--Returns home--The young recluse--Literary
+efforts--"Twice-Told Tales"--"The most unknown author in
+America"--Enters the Boston Custom House--His duties--Popularity with
+the sailors--Loses his office--Becomes a member of the Brook Farm
+Community--Marries and goes to live at Concord--"The Old Manse"--Life at
+Concord--Curiosity of the village people--"Mosses from an Old
+Manse"--Hawthorne's visitors--Hawthorne and his friends--George William
+Curtis' recollections--Removes to Salem--Is made surveyor of that
+port--"The Scarlet Letter"--Removal to the Berkshire Hills--"The House
+of the Seven Gables"--Returns to Concord--"Life of Franklin Pierce"--Is
+made Consul to Liverpool---Life abroad--Depressed by the war--Moncure D.
+Conway's recollections--Juvenile works--Death of Mr. Ticknor--Effect
+upon Hawthorne--Goes traveling with Ex-President Pierce--Sudden death of
+Hawthorne--Burial at Concord.
+
+
+X. ACTORS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+EDWIN BOOTH.
+
+The elder Booth--His success as an actor--His sons--Birth of Edwin
+Booth--Early life--Brought up on the stage--Admiration for his
+father--Travels with him--First appearance--Appears frequently with his
+father--Plays Richard III. in New York--A bold venture--Learns the
+details of his profession--Visits Australia and the Sandwich
+Islands--Re-appearance in New York in 1857--Recollections of him at that
+time--His labors in his profession--Successful tours throughout the
+country--Visits England--Appears at the Haymarket Theater in
+London--Studies on the continent--Appearance at the Winter Garden--The
+Shakespearian revivals--Destruction of the Winter Garden by fire--Loss
+of Mr. Booth's theatrical wardrobe--Popular sympathy--The new
+theater--Opening of the building--Description of Booth's Theater--A
+magnificent establishment--A splendid stage--Novel mode of setting the
+scenes--Magnificent mounting of the plays produced there--Mr. Booth's
+performances--Personal--Genius as an actor--Beneficial influence upon
+the drama.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+JOSEPH JEFFERSON.
+
+The Jefferson family--A race of actors--Jefferson the first--"Old
+Jefferson"--Jefferson the third--Birth of Joseph
+Jefferson--Childhood--Brought up on the stage--Olive Logan's
+reminiscence--First appearance in public--Early training--Career as a
+stock actor--Becomes a "star"--His success--Visits Australia, the
+player's El Dorado--Pecuniary success of Jefferson in Australia--His
+merits as an actor--Visits England--First appearance at the Adelphi
+Theater--"Our American Cousin"--Production of Rip Van Winkle--Makes the
+part his specialty--Description of his performance of Rip Van
+Winkle--Personal characteristics--Devotion to his profession--Love of
+art--A capital sportsman--Buys a panorama--A visit to John Sefton--"The
+Golden Farmer"--Private life.
+
+
+XI. PHYSICIANS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Birth and early life--Adopts medicine as a profession--Studies in
+Europe--Returns home, and is made a professor in the Philadelphia
+Medical College--Political career--Elected to the Provincial Conference
+of Pennsylvania--Action with respect to the independence of the
+colonies--Elected to the Continental Congress--Signs the Declaration of
+Independence--Marriage--Is made Surgeon-General of the army--Becomes
+Physician-General--Troubles--Resigns his commission--Letters to the
+people of Pennsylvania--Services in the State conventions--Resumes his
+practice in Philadelphia--Plans the Philadelphia Dispensary--Resumes his
+professor's chair--The yellow fever in Philadelphia--A scene of
+terror--"The Hundred Days"--Dr. Rush's treatment of the
+disease--Opposition of the Faculty--Success of Rush's
+treatment--Testimony of Dr. Ramsay--Suit for damages--Dr. Rush's
+services during the fever--Reminiscences--Honors from European
+sovereigns--Is made Treasurer of the United States Mint--Literary
+labors--Zeal in behalf of Christianity--His connection with the Bible
+Society--Death.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+VALENTINE MOTT.
+
+Birth--Early life--Enters Columbia College--His medical
+studies--Continues his studies in Europe--Great surgical genius--His
+early success as an operator--Returns home--Is made Professor of Surgery
+in Columbia College--His career and success as a teacher--Introduces the
+system of clinical instruction--Difficulty of procuring "subjects" for
+dissection--Desperate expedients--midnight adventure--A ready
+rebuke--Success and skill as a surgeon--Tribute from Sir Astley
+Cooper--A wonderful operation--Sketch of his original operations--His
+mode of operating--Careful preparation--Success as a physician--A
+progressive mind--Professional honors--Visits Europe--Reception
+abroad--Operates upon the Sultan of Turkey--A cool
+proposition--Personal--His last illness and death--"President Lincoln
+murdered."
+
+[Illustration: GIRARD COLLEGE]
+
+
+I.
+
+MERCHANTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STEPHEN GIRARD.
+
+
+One May morning, in the year 1776, the mouth of the Delaware Bay was
+shrouded in a dense fog, which cleared away toward noon, and revealed
+several vessels just off the capes. From one of these, a sloop, floated
+the flag of France and a signal of distress. An American ship ran
+alongside the stranger, in answer to her signal, and found that the
+French captain had lost his reckoning in a fog, and was in total
+ignorance of his whereabouts. His vessel, he said, was bound from New
+Orleans to a Canadian port, and he was anxious to proceed on his voyage.
+The American skipper informed him of his locality, and also apprised him
+of the fact that war had broken out between the colonies and Great
+Britain, and that the American coast was so well lined with British
+cruisers that he would never reach port but as a prize. "What shall I
+do?" cried the Frenchman, in great alarm. "Enter the bay, and make a
+push for Philadelphia," was the reply. "It is your only chance."
+
+The Frenchman protested that he did not know the way, and had no pilot.
+The American captain, pitying his distress, found him a pilot, and even
+loaned him five dollars, which the pilot demanded in advance. The sloop
+got under weigh again, and passed into the Delaware, beyond the defenses
+which had been erected for its protection, just in time to avoid capture
+by a British war vessel which now made its appearance at the mouth of
+the bay. Philadelphia was reached in due time, and, as the war bade fair
+to put an end to his voyages, the captain sold the sloop and her cargo,
+of which he was part owner, and, entering a small store in Water Street,
+began the business of a grocer and wine-bottler. His capital was small,
+his business trifling in extent, and he himself labored under the
+disadvantage of being almost unable to speak the English language. In
+person he was short and stout, with a dull, repulsive countenance, which
+his bushy eyebrows and solitary eye (being blind in the other) made
+almost hideous. He was cold and reserved in manner, and was disliked by
+his neighbors, the most of whom were afraid of him.
+
+This man was Stephen Girard, who was afterward destined to play so
+important a part in the history of the city to which the mere chances of
+war sent him a stranger.
+
+He was born at Bordeaux, in France, on the 21st of May, 1750, and was
+the eldest of the five children of Captain Pierre Girard, a mariner of
+that city. His life at home was a hard one. At the age of eight years,
+he discovered that he was blind in one eye, and the mortification and
+grief which this discovery caused him appear to have soured his entire
+life. He afterward declared that his father treated him with
+considerable neglect, and that, while his younger brothers were sent to
+college, he was made to content himself with the barest rudiments of an
+education, with merely a knowledge of reading and writing. When he was
+quite young, his mother died, and, as his father soon married again,
+the severity of a step-mother was added to his other troubles. When
+about thirteen years of age, he left home, with his father's consent,
+and began, as a cabin-boy, the life of a mariner. For nine years he
+sailed between Bordeaux and the French West Indies, rising steadily from
+his position of cabin-boy to that of mate. He improved his leisure time
+at sea, until he was not only master of the art of navigation, but
+generally well informed for a man in his station. His father possessed
+sufficient influence to procure him the command of a vessel, in spite of
+the law of France which required that no man should be made master of a
+ship unless he had sailed two cruises in the royal navy and was
+twenty-five years old. Gradually Girard was enabled to amass a small sum
+of money, which he invested in cargoes easily disposed of in the ports
+to which he sailed. Three years after he was licensed to command, he
+made his first appearance in the port of Philadelphia. He was then
+twenty-six years old.
+
+From the time of his arrival in Philadelphia he devoted himself to
+business with an energy and industry which never failed. He despised no
+labor, and was willing to undertake any honest means of increasing his
+subsistence. He bought and sold any thing, from groceries to old "junk."
+His chief profit, however, was in his wine and cider, which he bottled
+and sold readily. His business prospered, and he was regarded as a
+thriving man from the start.
+
+In July, 1777, he married Mary Lum, a servant girl of great beauty, and
+something of a virago as well. The union was an unhappy one, as the
+husband and wife were utterly unsuited to each other. Seven years after
+her marriage, Mrs. Girard showed symptoms of insanity, which became so
+decided that her husband was compelled to place her in the State Asylum
+for the Insane. He appears to have done every thing in his power to
+restore her to reason. Being pronounced cured, she returned to her
+home, but in 1790 He was compelled to place her permanently in the
+Pennsylvania Hospital, where, nine months after, she gave birth to a
+female child, which happily died. Mrs. Girard never recovered her
+reason, but died in 1815, and was buried in the hospital grounds.
+
+Girard fled from Philadelphia, with his wife, in September, 1777, at the
+approach of the British, and purchased a house at Mount Holly, near
+Burlington, New Jersey, where he carried on his bottling business. His
+claret commanded a ready sale among the British in Philadelphia, and his
+profits were large. In June, 1778, the city was evacuated by Lord Howe,
+and he was allowed to return to his former home.
+
+Though he traded with the British, Girard considered himself a true
+patriot, as indeed he was. On the 27th of October, 1778, he took the
+oath of allegiance required by the State of Pennsylvania, and renewed it
+the year following. The war almost annihilated the commerce of the
+country, which was slow in recovering its former prosperity; but, in
+spite of this discouraging circumstance, Girard worked on steadily,
+scorning no employment, however humble, that would yield a profit.
+Already he had formed the plans which led to his immense wealth, and he
+was now patiently carrying out the most trying and disheartening
+preliminaries. Whatever he undertook prospered, and though his gains
+were small, they were carefully husbanded, and at the proper time
+invested in such a manner as to produce a still greater yield. Stephen
+Girard knew the value of little things, and he knew how to take
+advantage of the most trifling circumstance. His career teaches what may
+be done with these little things, and shows how even a few dollars,
+properly managed, may be made to produce as many thousands.
+
+In 1780, Mr. Girard again entered upon the New Orleans and St. Domingo
+trade, in which he was engaged at the breaking out of the Revolution. He
+was very successful in his ventures, and was enabled in a year or two to
+greatly enlarge his operations. In 1782, he took a lease of ten years on
+a range of frame buildings in Water Street, one of which he occupied
+himself, with the privilege of a renewal for a similar period. Rents
+were very low at that time, as business was prostrated and people were
+despondent; but Girard, looking far beyond the present, saw a prosperous
+future. He was satisfied that it would require but a short time to
+restore to Philadelphia its old commercial importance, and he was
+satisfied that his leases would be the best investment he had ever made.
+The result proved the correctness of his views. His profits on these
+leases were enormous.
+
+About this time he entered into partnership with his brother, Captain
+John Girard, in the West India trade. But the brothers could not conduct
+their affairs harmoniously, and in 1790 the firm was dissolved by mutual
+consent. Stephen Girard's share of the profits at the dissolution
+amounted to thirty thousand dollars. His wealth was greatly increased by
+a terrible tragedy which happened soon afterward.
+
+At the outbreak of the great insurrection in St. Domingo, Girard had two
+vessels lying in one of the ports of that island. At the first signal of
+danger, a number of planters sent their valuables on board of these
+ships for safe-keeping, and went back to their estates for the purpose
+of securing more. They never returned, doubtless falling victims to the
+fury of the brutal negroes, and when the vessels were ready to sail
+there was no one to claim the property they contained. It was taken to
+Philadelphia, and was most liberally advertised by Mr. Girard, but as no
+owner ever appeared to demand it, it was sold, and the proceeds--about
+fifty thousand dollars--turned into the merchant's own coffers. This was
+a great assistance to him, and the next year he began the building of
+those splendid ships which enabled him to engage so actively in the
+Chinese and East India trades.
+
+His course was now onward and upward to wealth. At first his ships
+merely sailed between Philadelphia and the port to which they were
+originally destined; but at length he was enabled to do more than this.
+Loading one of his ships with grain, he would send it to Bordeaux, where
+the proceeds of her cargo would be invested in wine and fruit. These she
+would take to St. Petersburg and exchange for hemp and iron, which were
+sold at Amsterdam for coin. From Amsterdam she would proceed to China
+and India, and, purchasing a cargo of silks and teas, sail for
+Philadelphia, where the final purchase was sold by the owner for cash or
+negotiable paper. His success was uniform, and was attributed by his
+brother merchants to _luck_.
+
+Stephen Girard had no faith in luck. He never trusted any thing to
+chance. He was a thorough navigator, and was perfect master of the
+knowledge required in directing long voyages. He understood every
+department of his business so well that he was always prepared to survey
+the field of commerce from a high stand-point. He was familiar with the
+ports with which he dealt, and was always able to obtain such
+information concerning them as he desired, in advance of his
+competitors. He trusted nothing of importance to others. His
+instructions to the commanders of his ships were always full and
+precise. These documents afford the best evidence of the statements I
+have made concerning his system, as the following will show:
+
+
+     _Copy of Stephen Girard's Letter to Mr. ----, Commander and
+     Supercargo of the ship ----, bound to Batavia._
+
+     PHILADELPHIA, ----.
+
+     SIR--I confirm my letters to you of the ---- ult., and the ----
+     inst. Having recently heard of the decease of Mr. ----, merchant at
+     Batavia, also of the probable dissolution of his house, under the
+     firm of Messrs. ----, I have judged it prudent to request my
+     Liverpool correspondents to consign the ship ----, cargo, and
+     specie on board, to Mr. ----, merchant at Batavia, subject to your
+     control, and have requested said Liverpool friends to make a
+     separate invoice and bill of lading for the specie, which they will
+     ship on my account, on board of the ship ----, and similar
+     documents for the merchandise, which they will ship in the same
+     manner; therefore, I request that you will sign in conformity.
+
+     I am personally acquainted with Mr. ----, but not with Mr. ----,
+     but I am on very friendly terms with some particular friends of the
+     latter gentleman, and consequently I give him the preference. I am
+     sorry to observe, however, that he is alone in a country where a
+     partner appears to me indispensable to a commercial house, as well
+     for the safety of his own capital as for the security of the
+     interests of those who may confide to them property, and reside in
+     distant parts of the globe.
+
+     The foregoing reflections, together with the detention of my ship
+     V----, at Batavia, from June last, epoch of her arrival at that
+     port, until the 15th of September, ----, when she had on board only
+     nineteen hundred peculs of coffee, are the motives which have
+     compelled me to request of my Liverpool friends to consign the
+     specie and goods, which they will ship on my account, on board of
+     the ship ----, under your command, to said Mr. ----, subject to
+     your control.
+
+     Therefore, relying upon your activity, perseverance, correctness,
+     zeal, and attention for my interest, I proceed in pointing out to
+     you the plan of conduct which I wish you to pursue on your arrival
+     at Batavia, and during your stay at that or any port of that
+     island, until your departure for Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, to
+     await my subsequent orders.
+
+     First. On your arrival at Batavia, you are to go on shore and
+     ascertain Mr. ----'s residence, and, if you have reason to believe
+     that he is still considered at that place as a man of good credit,
+     and merits full confidence, you are to deliver to him my Liverpool
+     consignees' letters to his address, and also the goods which you
+     have on board, in such proportion as he may request, except the
+     specie, which is to continue on board, as mentioned in the next
+     article.
+
+     Second. The specie funds of the ship ----, which will consist of
+     old Carolus dollars, you are to retain on board untouched, and in
+     the said boxes or packages as they were in when shipped from
+     Liverpool, well secured, and locked up in your powder magazine, in
+     the after run of the said ship under the cabin floor.
+
+     The bulkhead and floor of said magazine, scuttle, iron bar,
+     staples, etc., must be made sufficiently strong, if not already so,
+     while you are at Liverpool, where you are to procure a strong
+     padlock and key, for the purpose of securing said specie in the
+     most complete and safest manner; and when you have the certainty
+     that it is wanted to pay for the coffee purchased on account of the
+     ship ----, then you are to receive the said coffee, and pay or
+     deliver to your consignee Spanish dollars to the amount of said
+     purchase, and no more, having due regard to the premium or advance
+     allowed at Batavia on old Spanish dollars; and in that way you are
+     to continue paying or delivering dollars as fast as you receive
+     coffee, which is not to exceed the quantity which can be
+     conveniently stowed on board said ship ----, observing to take a
+     receipt for each payment, and to see that the net proceeds of the
+     goods, which will have been shipped at Liverpool, must be invested
+     in coffee, as far as the sales will permit, and shipped on board of
+     said ship.
+
+     Should it happen that on your arrival at Batavia you should find
+     that death, absence, etc., should deprive you of the services of
+     Mr. ----, or that, owing to some causes before mentioned, it would
+     be prudent to confide my interests elsewhere, in either case you
+     are to apply to Messrs. ----, merchants of that place, to
+     communicate your instructions relative to the disposal of the
+     Liverpool cargo, on board of the ship ----, the loading of that
+     ship with good merchantable coffee, giving the preference to the
+     first quality whenever it can be purchased on reasonable terms for
+     cash, or received in payment for the sales of the said Liverpool
+     cargo, or for a part thereof, observing that I wished said coffee
+     to be purchased at Samarang, or any other out-port, if practicable;
+     and in all cases it must be attentively examined when delivered,
+     and put up in double gunny bags.
+
+     If the purchase of said cargo is made at an out-port, the ship
+     ----must proceed there to take it in.
+
+     On the subject of purchasing coffee at government sales, I have no
+     doubt that it is an easy way to obtain a cargo, but I am of opinion
+     that it is a very dear one, particularly as the fair purchaser, who
+     has no other object in view but to invest his money, does not stay
+     on the footing of competitors, who make their payments with
+     Netherland bills of exchange, or wish to raise the prices of their
+     coffee which they may have on hand for sale.
+
+     Under these impressions, I desire that all the purchases of coffee
+     on my account be made from individuals, as far as practicable, and
+     if the whole quantity necessary to load the ship can not be
+     obtained at private sale, recourse must then be had to government
+     sales.
+
+     In many instances I have experienced that whenever I had a vessel
+     at Batavia, the prices of coffee at the government sales have risen
+     from five to ten per cent., and sometimes higher.
+
+     On the subject of coffee I would remark that, owing to the increase
+     of the culture of that bean, together with the immense imports of
+     tea into the several ports of Europe, the price of that leaf has
+     been lowered to such a degree as to induce the people of those
+     countries, principally of the north, to use the latter article in
+     preference to the first.
+
+     That circumstance has, for these past three years, created a
+     gradual deduction from the consumption of coffee, which has
+     augmented the stock on hand throughout every commercial city of the
+     northern part of the globe, so as to present a future unfavorable
+     prospect to the importers of that article. Indeed, I am convinced
+     that, within a few months from this date, coffee will be ten per
+     cent. cheaper in the United States than what it has been at Batavia
+     for these two years past; nevertheless, being desirous to employ my
+     ships as advantageously as circumstances will permit, and
+     calculating also that the price at Java and other places of its
+     growth will fall considerably, I have no objection to adventure.
+
+     Therefore, you must use every means in your power to facilitate
+     the success of the voyage.
+
+     Should the invoice-cost of the entire cargo of coffee shipped at
+     Java, on board of the ship ----, together with the disbursements of
+     that ship (which must be conducted with the greatest economy), not
+     amount to the specie funds and net proceeds of her Liverpool cargo,
+     in that event you are to deliver the surplus to your consignee, who
+     will give you a receipt for the same, with a duplicate, expressing
+     that it is on my account, for the purpose of being invested on the
+     most advantageous terms, in good dry coffee, to be kept at my order
+     and disposal.
+
+     Then you will retain the original in your possession, and forward
+     to me the duplicate by first good vessel to the United States, or
+     via Europe, to care of my correspondents at Liverpool, London,
+     Antwerp, or Amsterdam, the names of whom you are familiar with.
+
+     If you should judge it imprudent, however, to leave that money at
+     Batavia, you are to bring it back in Spanish dollars, which you
+     will retain on board for that purpose.
+
+     Although I wish you to make a short voyage, and with as quick
+     dispatch at Java as practicable, yet I desire you not to leave that
+     island unless your consignee has finally closed the sales of the
+     Liverpool cargo, so that you may be the bearer of all the
+     documents, and account-current, relative to the final transactions
+     of the consignment of the ship ---- and cargo. Duplicate and
+     triplicate of said documents to be forwarded to me by your
+     consignees, by the two first safe conveyances for the ports of the
+     United States.
+
+     Being in the habit of dispatching my ships for Batavia from this
+     port, Liverpool, or Amsterdam, as circumstances render it
+     convenient, it is interesting to me to be from time to time
+     informed of the several articles of produce and manufactures from
+     each of those places which are the most in demand and quickest of
+     sale at Java. Also of the quantity of each, size of package, and
+     the probable price which they may sell for, cash, adding the
+     Batavia duty, charges for selling, etc. Please to communicate this
+     to your Batavia consignee.
+
+     The rates of commission I will allow for transacting the business
+     relative to the ship and cargo at Java are two and a half per cent,
+     for selling, and two and a half per cent, for purchasing and
+     shipping coffee and other articles.
+
+     The consignees engaging to place on board of each prow one or two
+     men of confidence, to see that the goods are safely delivered on
+     board of the ship, to prevent pilfering, which is often practiced
+     by those who conduct the lighter.
+
+     I am informed that the expenses for two men are trifling,
+     comparatively, to the plunder which has been committed on board of
+     the prows which deliver coffee on board of the ships.
+
+     No commissions whatever are to be allowed in the disbursements of
+     my ships, whenever ship and cargo belong to me, and are consigned
+     to some house.
+
+     While you remain at Batavia, I recommend you to stay on board of
+     your ship, and not to go on shore except when the business of your
+     ship and cargo may render it necessary.
+
+     Inclosed is an introductory letter to ----, which I request you to
+     deliver, after you have made the necessary arrangements with Mr.
+     ----for the consignment of the ship and cargo, or after the
+     circumstance aforementioned has compelled you to look elsewhere for
+     a consignee. Then you are to call upon said Messrs. ----, deliver
+     them the aforesaid letter and the consignment of the ship ---- and
+     cargo, after having agreed with them in writing, which they will
+     sign and deliver to you, that they engage to transact the business
+     of the ship and cargo on the terms and conditions herein stated;
+     and when that business is well understood and finally closed, you
+     are to press them in a polite manner, so that they many give you a
+     quick dispatch, without giving too great a price for the coffee,
+     particularly at this present moment, when its price is declining
+     throughout those countries where it is consumed.
+
+     Indeed, on the subject of purchasing coffee for the ship ----, the
+     greatest caution and prudence should be exercised. Therefore, I
+     request that you will follow the plan of conduct laid down for you
+     throughout. Also, to keep to yourself the intention of the voyage,
+     and the amount of specie you have on board; and in view to satisfy
+     the curious, tell them that it is probable that the ship will take
+     in molasses, rice, and sugar, if the price of that produce is very
+     low, adding that the whole will depend on the success in selling
+     the small Liverpool cargo. The consignees of said cargo should
+     follow the same line of conduct, and if properly attended to by
+     yourself and them, I am convinced that the cargo of coffee can be
+     purchased ten per cent. cheaper than it would be if it is publicly
+     known there is a quantity of Spanish dollars on board, besides a
+     valuable cargo of British goods intended to be invested in coffee
+     for Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia.
+
+     During my long commercial experience, I have noticed that no
+     advantage results from telling one's business to others, except to
+     create jealousy or competitors when we are fortunate, and to
+     gratify our enemies when otherwise.
+
+     If my remarks are correct, I have no doubt they will show you the
+     necessity of being silent, and to attend with activity,
+     perseverance, and modesty, to the interests of your employer.
+
+     As my letters of instruction embrace several interesting objects, I
+     request you to peruse them in rotation, when at sea in fine
+     climates, during your voyage to Batavia, and to take correct
+     extracts, so as to render yourself master of the most essential
+     parts. I conclude by directing your attention to your health and
+     that of your crew.
+
+     I am yours, respectfully,
+
+     STEPHEN GIRARD.
+
+
+Mr. Girard was not only rigidly precise in his instructions, but he
+permitted no departure from them. He regarded it as dangerous to allow
+discretion to any one in the execution of _his_ plans. Where a deviation
+from his instructions might cause success in one case, it would cause
+loss in ninety-nine others. It was understood among all his employes
+that a rigid obedience to orders, in even the most trifling particulars,
+was expected, and would be exacted. If loss came under such
+circumstances, the merchant assumed the entire responsibility for it.
+
+Upon one occasion one of his best captains was instructed to purchase
+his cargo of teas at a certain port. Upon reaching home he was summoned
+by the merchant to his presence.
+
+"Captain ----," said Mr. Girard, sternly, "your instructions required
+you to purchase your cargo at ----."
+
+"That is true, Mr. Girard," replied the Captain, "but upon reaching that
+port I found I could do so much better at ----, that I felt justified in
+proceeding to the latter place."
+
+"You should have obeyed your orders, sir," was the stern retort.
+
+"I was influenced by a desire to serve your interests, sir. The result
+ought to justify me in my act, since it puts many thousands more into
+your pocket than if I had bought where I was instructed."
+
+"Captain ----," said Girard, "I take care of my own interests. You
+should have obeyed your orders if you had broken me. Nothing can excuse
+your disobedience. You will hand in your accounts, sir, and consider
+yourself discharged from my service."
+
+He was as good as his word, and, though the captain's disobedience had
+vastly increased the profit of the voyage, he dismissed him, nor would
+he ever receive him into his service again.
+
+To his knowledge of his business Mr. Girard joined an unusual capacity
+for such ventures. He was, it must be said, hard and illiberal in his
+bargains, and remorseless in exacting the last cent due him. He was
+prompt and faithful in the execution of every contract, never departed
+in the slightest from his plighted word, and never engaged in any
+venture which he was not perfectly able to undertake. He was prudent and
+cautious in the fullest sense of those terms, but his ventures were
+always made with a boldness which was the sure forerunner of success.
+
+His fidelity to his word is well shown by a circumstance which had
+occurred long after he was one of the "money kings" of the land. He was
+once engaged with his cashier in a discussion as to the length of time a
+man would consume in counting a million of dollars, telling out each
+dollar separately. The dispute became animated, and the cashier declared
+that he could make a million of dots with ink in a few hours.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Girard, who was thoroughly vexed by
+the opposition of the other, "I'll wager five hundred dollars that I can
+ride in my gig from here to my farm, spend two hours there, and return
+before you can make your million of dots with ink."
+
+The cashier, after a moment's reflection, accepted the wager, and Mr.
+Girard departed to his farm. He returned in a few hours, confident that
+he had won. The cashier met him with a smile.
+
+"Where is my money?" asked Girard, triumphantly.
+
+"The money is mine," replied the cashier. "Come and see."
+
+He led the merchant to an unused room of the bank, and there, to his
+dismay, Girard saw the walls and ceiling covered with spots of ink,
+which the cashier had dashed on them with a brush.
+
+"Do you mean to say there are a million of dots here?" he cried,
+angrily.
+
+"Count them, and see," replied his subordinate, laughing. "You know the
+wager was a million of dots with ink."
+
+"But I expected you would make them with the pen."
+
+"I did not undertake any thing of the kind."
+
+The joke was too good, and the merchant not only paid the amount of the
+wager, but the cost of cleaning the walls.
+
+In 1810 the question of renewing the charter of the old Bank of the
+United States was actively discussed. Girard was a warm friend of that
+institution, which he believed had been the cause of a very great part
+of the prosperity of the country, and was firmly convinced that Congress
+would renew the charter. In this belief he ordered the Barings, of
+London, to invest all his funds in their hands in shares of the Bank of
+the United States, which was done, during the following year, to the
+amount of half a million of dollars. When the charter expired, he was
+the principal creditor of that institution, which Congress refused to
+renew. Discovering that he could purchase the old Bank and the cashier's
+house for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, he at once secured
+them, and on the 12th of May, 1812, opened the Girard Bank, with a
+capital of one million two hundred thousand dollars, which he increased
+the next year by one hundred thousand dollars more. He retained all the
+old officers of the Bank of the United States, especially the cashier,
+Mr. Simpson, to whose skill and experience he was greatly indebted for
+his subsequent success.
+
+Finding that the salaries which had been paid by the Government were
+higher than those paid elsewhere, he cut them down to the rate given by
+the other banks. The watchman had always received from the old Bank the
+gift of an overcoat at Christmas, but Girard put a stop to this. He gave
+no gratuities to any of his employes, but confined them to the
+compensation for which they had bargained; yet he contrived to get out
+of them service more devoted than was received by other men who paid
+higher wages and made presents. Appeals to him for aid were unanswered.
+No poor man ever came full-handed from his presence. He turned a deaf
+ear to the entreaties of failing merchants to help them on their feet
+again. He was neither generous nor charitable. When his faithful cashier
+died, after long years spent in his service, he manifested the most
+hardened indifference to the bereavement of the family of that
+gentleman, and left them to struggle along as best they could.
+
+Yet from the first he was liberal and sometimes magnificent in the
+management of his bank. He would discount none but good paper, but it
+was his policy to grant accommodations to small traders, and thus
+encourage beginners, usually giving the preference to small notes, by
+this system doing very much to avert the evils that would of necessity
+have sprung from the suspension of the old Bank of the United States.
+The Government credit was almost destroyed, and money was needed to
+carry on the war. He made repeated advances to the treasury, unsolicited
+by the authorities, and on more than one occasion kept the Government
+supplied with the sinews of war. In 1814, when our prospects, both
+military and financial, were at their lowest ebb, when the British
+forces had burned Washington and the New England States were threatening
+to withdraw from the Union, the Government asked for a loan of five
+millions of dollars, with the most liberal inducements to subscribers.
+Only twenty thousand dollars could be obtained, and the project seemed
+doomed to failure, when it was announced that Stephen Girard had
+subscribed for the whole amount. This announcement at once restored the
+public confidence, and Mr. Girard was beset with requests from persons
+anxious to take a part of the loan, even at an advanced rate. They were
+allowed to do so upon the original terms. When the Government could not,
+for want of funds, pay the interest on its debt to him, he wrote to the
+Secretary of the Treasury:
+
+"I am of opinion that those who have any claim for interest on public
+stock, etc., should patiently wait for a more favorable moment, or at
+least receive in payment treasury notes. Should you be under the
+necessity of resorting to either of these plans, as one of the public
+creditors, I shall not murmur."
+
+"A circumstance soon occurred, however, which was a source of no little
+discomfiture to the financial arrangements of his individual
+institution. This fact was the suspension of specie payments by the
+State banks, resulting from the non-intercourse act, the suspension of
+the old bank, and the combined causes tending to produce a derangement
+of the currency of the country. It was then a matter of great doubt with
+him how he should preserve the integrity of his own institution, while
+the other banks were suspending their payments; but the credit of his
+own bank was effectually secured by the suggestion of his cashier, Mr.
+Simpson, who advised the recalling of his own notes by redeeming them
+with specie, and by paying out the notes of the State banks. In this
+mode not a single note of his own was suffered to be depreciated, and he
+was thus enabled, in 1817, to contribute effectually to the restoration
+of specie payments."
+
+He was instrumental in securing the establishment of the new Bank of the
+United States, and was its largest stockholder and one of its directors.
+He even offered to unite his own institution with it upon certain
+liberal conditions, which were refused. Yet he was always a firm friend
+to it.
+
+"One of the characteristics of Mr. Girard was his public spirit. At one
+time he freely subscribed one hundred and ten thousand dollars for the
+navigation of the Schuylkill; at another time he loaned the company two
+hundred and sixty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars. When
+the credit of the State of Pennsylvania was prostrated by what was
+believed to have been an injudicious system of internal improvement, and
+it was found expedient for the Governor to resort to its metropolis in
+order to replenish its coffers, he made a voluntary loan to Governor
+Shultz of one hundred thousand dollars. So far was his disposition to
+promote the fiscal prosperity of the country manifested, that, as late
+as 1831, when the country was placed in extreme embarrassment from the
+scarcity of money, he perceived the cause in the fact that the balance
+of trade was against us to a considerable extent, and he accordingly
+drew upon the house of Baring Brothers & Co. for bills of exchange to
+the amount of twelve thousand pounds sterling, which he disposed of to
+the Bank of the United States at an advance of ten per cent., which
+draft was followed up by another for ten thousand, which was disposed of
+in like manner to other institutions. This act tended to reduce the
+value of bills, and the rate of exchange suddenly fell. The same spirit
+which he manifested toward the national currency he exhibited to the
+corporation of Philadelphia, by erecting new blocks of buildings, and
+beautifying and adorning its streets; less, apparently, from a desire of
+profit than from a wish to improve the place which was his adopted home,
+and where he had reaped his fortunes. His subscription of two hundred
+thousand dollars to the Danville and Pottsville Railroad, in 1831, was
+an action in keeping with the whole tenor of his life; and his
+subscription of ten thousand dollars toward the erection of an exchange
+looked to the same result."
+
+The war of 1812, which brought financial ruin to so many others, simply
+increased Girard's wealth. He never lost a ship, and as war prices
+prevailed, his profits were in accordance with them. One of his ships
+was taken by a British cruiser at the mouth of the Delaware, in the
+spring of 1813. Fearing that his prize would be recaptured by an
+American ship of war if he attempted to send her into port, the English
+admiral dispatched a flag of truce to Mr. Girard, and proposed to him to
+ransom the vessel for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in coin.
+Girard consented, paid the money, and the ship was allowed to come up to
+the city. Her cargo consisted of silks, nankeens, and teas, and afforded
+her owner a profit of half a million of dollars.
+
+Yet in the midst of all his wealth, which in 1828 was estimated at ten
+millions of dollars, he was a solitary old man.
+
+He lived in a dingy little house in Water Street. His wife had died in
+an insane asylum, and he was childless. He was repulsive in person. He
+was feared by his subordinates--by all who had dealings with him--and
+liked by none. He was mean and close in his personal habits, living on
+less, perhaps, than any of his clerks, and deriving little or no benefit
+from his vast wealth, so far as his individual comfort was concerned. He
+gave nothing in charity. Lazarus would have lain at his doors a
+life-time without being noticed by him. He was solitary, soured, cold,
+with a heart of stone, and fully conscious of his personal unpopularity.
+Yet he valued wealth--valued it for the power it gave him over men.
+Under that cold, hardened exterior reigned an ambition as profound as
+that which moved Napoleon. He was ambitious of regulating the financial
+operations of the land, and proud of his power in this respect, and it
+should be remembered in his favor that he did not abuse that power after
+it had passed into his hands.
+
+He had no vices, no dissipations; his whole soul was in his business. He
+was conscious that his only hope of distinction above his fellow-men was
+in his wealth, and he was resolved that nothing should make him swerve
+from his endeavor to accumulate a fortune which should make him all
+powerful in life and remembered in death. He sought no friends, and was
+reticent as to his career, saying to those who questioned him about it,
+"Wait till I am dead; my deeds will show what I was."
+
+Religion had no place in his heart. He was an avowed unbeliever, making
+a boast of his disbelief. He always worked on Sunday, in order that he
+might show his disapproval of the observance of it as a day of rest.
+Rest, he said, made a man rusty, and attendance upon the worship of God
+he denounced as worse than folly. His favorite books were the works of
+Voltaire, and he named his best ships after the most celebrated French
+infidels.
+
+Yet this man, so unloved, so undeserving of love, is said to have once
+had a warm heart. His early troubles and his domestic griefs are said to
+have soured and estranged him from mankind.
+
+"No one who has had access to his private papers can fail to be
+impressed with the belief that these early disappointments furnish the
+key to his entire character. Originally of warm and generous impulses,
+the belief in childhood that he had not been given his share of the love
+and kindness which were extended to others, changed the natural current
+of his feelings, and, acting on a warm and passionate temperament,
+alienated him from his home, his parents, and his friends. And when in
+after time there were superadded years of bitter anguish, resulting from
+his unfortunate and ill-adapted marriage, rendered even more poignant by
+the necessity of concealment, and the consequent injustice of public
+sentiment, marring all his cherished expectations, it may be readily
+understood why constant occupation became a necessity and labor a
+pleasure."
+
+This is the testimony of Mr. Henry W. Arey, the distinguished secretary
+of Girard College, in whose keeping are the papers of the subject of
+this memoir, and it must be confessed that his view of Girard's
+character is sustained by the following incidents, the narration of
+which I have passed over until now, in order that the history of his
+commercial career might not be interrupted:
+
+In the summer of 1793 the yellow fever broke out with fearful violence
+in Philadelphia. The citizens fled in dismay, leaving the plague-smitten
+city to its fate. Houses were left tenantless, and the streets were
+deserted. It was a season of horror and dread. Those who could not get
+away avoided each other, and the sufferers were left to languish and
+die. Money could not buy nurses in sufficient numbers, and often the
+victims lay unburied for days in the places where they had died. So
+terrible was the panic that it seemed that nothing could stay it.
+
+On the 10th of September the _Federal Gazette_, the only paper which had
+not suspended its publication, contained an anonymous card, stating that
+of the visitors of the poor all but three had succumbed to the disease
+or fled from the city, and begging assistance from such benevolent
+citizens as would consent to render their aid. On the 12th and 14th,
+meetings were held at the City Hall, at the last of which a volunteer
+committee was appointed to superintend the measures to be taken for
+checking the pestilence. Twenty-seven men volunteered to serve, but only
+twelve had the courage to fulfill their promise. They set to work
+promptly. The hospital at Bush Hill was reported by the physician to be
+in a deplorable state--without order, dirty and foul, and in need of
+nurses. The last, he stated, could not be had for any price. Two of the
+committee now stepped forward and nobly offered themselves as managers
+of the hospital. They were Stephen Girard and Peter Helm.
+
+Girard was now a man of wealth and influence, and with a brilliant
+commercial career opening before him. Above all, he was a foreigner, and
+unpopular in the city. Yet he did not hesitate to take the post from
+which others shrank. He and Helm were regarded as doomed men, but they
+did not falter from their self-imposed task. They went to work at once.
+Girard chose the post of honor, which was the post of danger--the
+management of the interior of the hospital. His decisive character was
+at once felt. Order began to appear, medicines and nurses were procured,
+and the very next day the committee were informed that the hospital had
+been cleaned and reorganized, and was prepared to receive patients.
+
+Girard opened his purse liberally, and spared no expense where money
+would avail. But this was not all. Besides personally superintending the
+interior of the hospital, he went about through the city seeking the
+sick and conveying them to the hospital.
+
+"In the great scarcity of help, he used frequently to receive the sick
+and dying at the gate, assist in carrying them to their beds, nurse
+them, receive their last messages, watch for their last breath, and
+then, wrapping them in the sheet on which they had died, carry them out
+to the burial ground and place them in the trench. He had a vivid
+recollection of the difficulty of finding any kind of fabric in which to
+wrap the dead, when the vast number of interments had exhausted the
+supply of sheets. 'I would put them,' he would say, 'in any old rag I
+could find.'"
+
+[Illustration: GIRARD'S HEROISM.]
+
+"If he ever left the hospital, it was to visit the infected districts,
+and assist in removing the sick from the houses in which they were dying
+without help. One scene of this kind, witnessed by a merchant who was
+hurrying past with camphored handkerchief pressed to his mouth, affords
+us a vivid glimpse of this heroic man engaged in his sublime vocation. A
+carriage, rapidly driven by a black man, broke the silence of the
+deserted and grass-grown street. It stopped before a frame house, and
+the driver, first having bound a handkerchief over his mouth, opened the
+door of the carriage, and quickly remounted to the box. A short,
+thick-set man stepped from the coach and entered the house. In a minute
+or two the observer, who stood at a safe distance watching the
+proceedings, heard a shuffling noise in the entry, and soon saw the
+stout little man supporting with extreme difficulty a tall, gaunt,
+yellow-visaged victim of the pestilence. Girard held round the waist the
+sick man, whose yellow face rested against his own; his long, damp,
+tangled hair mingled with Girard's; his feet dragging helpless upon the
+pavement. Thus he drew him to the carriage door, the driver averting his
+face from the spectacle, far from offering to assist. Partly dragging,
+partly lifting, Girard succeeded, after long and severe exertion, in
+getting him into the vehicle. He then entered it himself, closed the
+door, and the carriage drove away toward the hospital."[A]
+
+For sixty days Mr. Girard continued to discharge his duties, never
+absenting himself from his post, being nobly sustained by Peter Helm.
+
+Again, in 1797 and 1798, when the city was scourged a second and a third
+time with the fever, he volunteered his services, and more than earned
+the gratitude of his fellow-citizens. In the absence of physicians, he
+took upon himself the office of prescribing for the sick, and as his
+treatment involved careful nursing and the use of simple remedies only,
+he was very successful. In 1799 he wrote to his friend Devize, then in
+France, but who had been the physician at the Bush Hill Hospital in
+1793:
+
+"During all this frightful time I have constantly remained in the city,
+and, without neglecting any public duties, I have played a part which
+will make you smile. Would you believe it, my friend, that I have
+visited as many as fifteen sick people in a day, and what will surprise
+you still more, I have lost only one patient, an Irishman, who would
+drink a little. I do not flatter myself that I have cured one single
+person, but you will think with me that in my quality of Philadelphia
+physician I have been very moderate, and that not one of my confreres
+have killed fewer than myself."
+
+[Footnote A: James Parton.]
+
+Such acts as these should go far in his favor in estimating his
+character, for they are the very height of true heroism.
+
+Mr. Girard was never idle. Work, as has before been said, was a
+necessity with him. Nothing would draw him from his labors. His only
+recreation was to drive to his little farm, which lay a few miles out of
+the city, and engage with his own hands in the work of tilling it. He
+was very proud of the vegetables and fruits he raised himself, and took
+great interest in improving their growth. During the visit of the
+present head of the house of Baring Bros, (then a young man) to this
+country, that gentleman supposed he would give Mr. Girard pleasure by
+informing him of the safe arrival of one of his ships, the Voltaire,
+from India. Engaging a carriage, he drove to the banker's farm, and
+inquired for Mr. Girard.
+
+"He is in the hay-loft," was the answer.
+
+"Inform him that I wish to see him," said Mr. Baring; but almost before
+the words had left his lips Girard was before him.
+
+"I came to inform you," he said, addressing the banker, "that your ship,
+the Voltaire, has arrived safely."
+
+"I knew that she would reach port safely," said Girard; "my ships always
+arrive safe. She is a good ship. Mr. Baring, you must excuse me; I am
+much engaged in my hay." And so saying, he ascended to the loft again.
+
+To the last he was active. In 1830, having reached the age of eighty, he
+began to lose the sight of his eye; yet he would have no assistance. In
+attempting to cross a crowded street, he was knocked down by a passing
+wagon and injured severely. His ear was cut off, his face bruised, and
+his sight entirely destroyed. His health now declined rapidly, and on
+the 26th of December, 1831, he died, in the back room of his plain
+little house in Water Street.
+
+His immense wealth was carefully divided by his will. He gave to his
+surviving brother and eleven of his nieces sums ranging from five to
+twenty thousand dollars, and to his remaining niece, who was the mother
+of a very large family, he gave sixty thousand dollars. He gave to each
+of the captains then in his employ who had made two voyages in his
+service, and who should bring his ship safely into port, fifteen hundred
+dollars. To each of his apprentices he gave five hundred dollars. To his
+old servants he gave annuities, ranging from three to five hundred
+dollars each.
+
+He gave thirty thousand dollars to the Pennsylvania Hospital, in which
+his wife had been cared for; twenty thousand to the Deaf and Dumb
+Asylum; ten thousand to the Orphan Asylum; ten thousand to the Lancaster
+schools; ten thousand for the purpose of providing the poor in
+Philadelphia with free fuel; ten thousand to the Society for the Relief
+of Distressed Sea-Captains and their Families; twenty thousand to the
+Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, for the relief of poor members; six
+thousand for the establishment of a free school in Passyunk, near
+Philadelphia; five hundred thousand dollars to the Corporation of
+Philadelphia for certain improvements in the city; three hundred
+thousand to the State of Pennsylvania for her canals; and a portion of
+his valuable estates in Louisiana to the Corporation of New Orleans, for
+the improvement of that city.
+
+The remainder of his property, worth then about six millions of dollars,
+he left to trustees for the erection and endowment of the noble College
+for Orphans, in Philadelphia, which bears his name.
+
+Thus it will be seen that this man, who seemed steeled to resist appeals
+for private charity in life, in death devoted all the results of his
+unusual genius in his calling to the noblest of purposes, and to
+enterprises of the most benignant character, which will gratefully hand
+his name down to the remotest ages of posterity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
+
+
+Those who imagine that the mercantile profession is incapable of
+developing the element of greatness in the mind of man, find a perfect
+refutation in the career of the subject of this memoir, who won his
+immense fortune by the same traits which would have raised him to
+eminence as a statesman. It may be thought by some that he has no claim
+to a place in the list of famous Americans, since he was not only German
+by birth, but German in character to his latest day; but it must be
+borne in mind that America was the theater of his exploits, and that he
+owed the greater part of his success to the wise and beneficent
+institutions of the "New Land," as he termed it. In his own country he
+would have had no opportunity for the display of his great abilities,
+and it was only by placing himself in the midst of institutions
+favorable to progress that he was enabled to make use of his talents. It
+is for this reason, therefore, that we may justly claim him as one of
+the most celebrated of American merchants.
+
+John Jacob Astor was born in the village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, in
+the Grand Duchy of Baden, on the 17th of July, 1763. This year was
+famous for the conclusion of the Treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg,
+which placed all the fur-yielding regions of America, from the Gulf of
+Mexico to the Frozen Sea, in the hands of England. He was the youngest
+of four sons, and was born of Protestant parents. He was early taught to
+read Luther's Bible and the Prayer-book, and throughout his whole life
+remained a zealous Protestant. He was trained to the habit of rising
+early, and giving the first of his waking hours to reading the Bible and
+Prayer-book. This habit he continued all through life, and he often
+declared that it was to him the source of unfailing pleasure and
+comfort. His religious impressions were mainly due to his mother, who
+was a pious, thrifty, and hard-working woman, given to saving, and
+devoted to her family.
+
+His father, on the contrary, was a jolly "ne'er do well," a butcher by
+trade, and not overburdened with industry. The business of a butcher in
+so small a village as Waldorf, where meat was a luxury to the
+inhabitants, was merely a nominal calling. It knew but one season of
+real profit. It was at that time the custom in Germany for every farmer
+to set apart a calf, pig, or bullock, and fatten it against harvest
+time. As that season approached, the village butcher passed from house
+to house to slaughter the animal, cure its flesh, or make sausage meat
+of it, spending, sometimes, several days at each house. This season
+brought Jacob Astor an abundance of work, and enabled him to provide
+liberally for the simple wants of his family; but during the rest of the
+year it was with difficulty that he could make bread for them. Yet Jacob
+took his hard lot cheerfully. He was merry over his misfortunes, and
+sought to forget them in the society of companions who gathered at the
+village beer-house. His wife's remonstrances against such a course of
+life were sometimes so energetic that the house became any thing but a
+pleasant place for the children.
+
+Here John Jacob grew up to boyhood. His brothers left home to earn their
+livelihood elsewhere, as soon as they were old enough to do so, and he
+alone remained under the paternal roof. His father destined him for his
+own calling, but the boy shrank from it with disgust. To crown his
+misfortunes, his mother died, and his father married again, and this
+time a woman who looked with no favor upon the son. The newly-married
+pair quarreled continually, and the boy was glad to escape occasionally
+to the house of a schoolmate, where he passed the night in a garret or
+outhouse. By daylight he was back at his father's slaughter-house, to
+assist in carrying out the meat. He was poorly clad and badly fed, and
+his father's bad reputation wounded him so keenly that he shrank from
+playing with other boys, and led a life of comparative isolation.
+
+Fortunately for him, he had a teacher, Valentine Jeune by name, the son
+of French Protestants, who was better fitted for his position than the
+majority of the more liberally-patronized Catholic instructors. He was
+well taught by Valentine Jeune in the rudiments of a plain education,
+and the tutor and the Protestant minister of the village together
+succeeded so well in his religious instruction that at the age of
+fourteen he was confirmed. Confirmation is the decisive point in the
+career of the German youth. Until then he is only a child. Afterward he
+is regarded as on the threshold of manhood, and is given to understand
+that the time has come for him to make choice of a career in life.
+
+To the German peasant two courses only lie open, to learn a trade or go
+out to service. John Jacob was resolved not to do the latter, and he was
+in no condition to adopt the former. He was already familiar with his
+father's trade, but he shrank from it with disgust, and he could not
+hope to obtain money enough to pay for his tuition as an apprentice in
+any other calling. No workman in the village would receive him as an
+apprentice for less than fifty dollars, and fifty dollars were then
+further beyond his reach than as many millions in after years. The
+harvest was approaching, and Jacob Astor, seeing an unusual amount of
+work in store for him at that season, decided the matter for his son by
+informing him that he must prepare to settle down as his assistant. He
+obeyed, but discontentedly, and with a determination to abandon his home
+at the earliest practicable moment.
+
+His chief desire was to leave Germany and emigrate to America. The
+American Revolution had brought the "New Land" into great prominence;
+and one of the brothers, Henry Astor, had already settled in New York as
+a butcher, and his letters had the effect of increasing John Jacob's
+desire to follow him. It was impossible to do so then, for the war which
+was raging in this country made it any thing but inviting to an
+emigrant, and the boy was entirely ignorant of the English language.
+Nevertheless, he knew that the war could not last always, and he
+resolved to go as soon as peace would allow him. Meanwhile he wished to
+join his elder brother, who had removed to London, and was now engaged
+with his uncle in the manufacture of musical instruments. In London he
+thought he could acquire a knowledge of English, and save from his wages
+the amount necessary to pay his passage from England to America. He
+could reach some of the seaports of the Continent by walking. But he
+needed money to pay his passage from there to Great Britain. His
+determination thus formed, he made no secret of it, and succeeded at
+length in extorting a reluctant consent from his father, who was not
+inclined to expect very much from the future career of his son. His
+teacher, however, had more faith in him, and said to the butcher, on the
+morning of the lad's departure: "I am not afraid of John Jacob; he'll
+get through the world. He has a clear head, and every thing right behind
+the ears."
+
+He was seventeen years old when he left home; was stout and well built,
+and had a constitution of iron. He was possessed of a good plain
+education, and a remarkable degree of common sense. He had no vicious
+habits or propensities, and was resolved that he would never set foot
+again in his native town until he could do so as a rich man.
+
+Ardently as he was bent on seeking his fortune in distant lands, it cost
+him a struggle to go away, for he was a true German in his attachment to
+his home and family. This attachment he never lost. After providing
+liberally for his relatives in his will, he made a munificent donation
+to his native village for the benefit of its poor children.
+
+With his scanty wardrobe in a bundle, which he slung over his shoulder
+by a stick, and a mere pittance in his purse, he set out from Waldorf,
+on foot, for the Rhine. "Soon after I left the village," said he, in
+after-life, "I sat down beneath a tree to rest, and there I made three
+resolutions: to be honest, to be industrious, and not to gamble." He had
+but two dollars in his pocket; but this was enough for his purpose. The
+Rhine was not far distant from his native village, and this part of his
+journey he easily accomplished on foot. Upon reaching the river, he is
+said to have secured a place as oarsman on a timber raft. The timber
+which is cut in the Black Forest for shipment is made up into rafts on
+the Rhine, but instead of being suffered to float down the stream, as in
+this country, is rowed by oarsmen, each raft having from sixty to eighty
+men attached to it. As the labor is severe and attended with some risk,
+the wages are high, and the lot of the oarsmen not altogether a hard
+one, as they manage to have a great deal of sport among themselves. The
+amount paid as wages on these voyages is about ten dollars, besides the
+coarse fare furnished the men, and the time occupied is about two weeks.
+
+Upon reaching the Dutch seaport at the mouth of the Rhine, young Astor
+received his wages--the largest sum he had ever possessed--and took
+passage in a vessel for London, where he was welcomed cordially by his
+brother, and provided with employment in his manufactory.
+
+He now set to work to prepare himself for his emigration to America. His
+industry was unflagging. He worked literally from dawn till dark, and
+practiced the most rigid economy in his expenditures. His leisure time,
+which was brief, was spent in trying to master the English language, and
+in acquiring information respecting America. He had anticipated great
+difficulty in his efforts to learn English, but succeeded beyond his
+hopes. In six weeks he could make himself understood in that language,
+and some time before starting for America could speak it with ease,
+though he never could at any period of his life rid himself of his
+strong German accent. He was never able to write English correctly, but
+after being some years in this country acquired a style which was
+striking and to the point, in spite of its inaccuracy. England, however,
+was not a favorable place for acquiring information respecting America.
+The Colonies had exasperated the mother country by their heroic struggle
+for freedom, which was just drawing to its close, and the New World was
+pictured to the imagination of the young German in any thing but a
+favorable light. His most accurate information was gained from those who
+had returned from America, and these persons, as often as chance threw
+them in his way, he questioned with eagerness and precision; their
+answers were carefully stored up in his memory.
+
+In September, 1783, the news of the peace which established the
+independence of the United States was published in Europe. Young Astor
+had now been in London two years, and had saved money enough to take him
+to America. He was the possessor of a suit of good clothes, besides his
+ordinary wearing apparel, and fifteen guineas in English money, which he
+had saved from his slender earnings by the absolute denial to himself of
+every thing not essential to his existence. The way to America was now
+open, and he resolved to set out at once. For five guineas he bought a
+steerage passage in a ship bound for Baltimore, and reserving about five
+pounds sterling of the remainder of his capital in money, invested the
+rest in seven German flutes, which he bought of his brother, and
+embarked for the "New Land."
+
+The winter was memorable on land and sea for its severity, and our
+hero's first voyage was a stormy one. It is said that on one occasion,
+when the tempest was unusually violent, and the ship in imminent danger,
+he made his appearance in his Sunday clothes. In reply to those who
+asked his reason for so strange an act, he said that if he should reach
+land he would save his best clothes, and that if he was drowned it was
+immaterial what became of them.
+
+Although the ship sailed in November, it did not reach the Chesapeake
+until near the end of January, and there, when only one day distant from
+Baltimore, was caught in the ice, where it was compelled to remain until
+late in March. This delay was very vexatious to the young emigrant, but
+it proved in the end the greatest blessing that could have befallen him.
+During the voyage Astor had made the acquaintance of one of his fellow
+passengers, a German, somewhat older than himself, and, while the ship
+lay fast in the ice, the two were constantly together. As a consequence
+of the intimacy which thus sprung up between them, they exchanged
+confidences, told each other their history, and their purpose in coming
+to America. Astor learned that his friend had emigrated to the New World
+a few years before, friendless and penniless, but that, beginning in a
+little way, he had managed to become a fur trader. He bought his furs
+from the Indians, and from the boatmen plying on the Hudson River. These
+he sold at a small profit to larger dealers, until he had accumulated a
+considerable sum for one in his position. Believing that he could find a
+better market in Europe than in America, he had embarked all his capital
+in skins, which he had taken to England and sold at a heavy advance. The
+proceeds he had invested in toys and trinkets valued by the savages, and
+was now on his way back with them, intending to go into the wilderness
+himself and purchase an additional stock of furs from the Indians. He
+recommended Astor to enter upon the same business; gave him valuable
+information as to the value of peltries in America and in England; told
+him the best way of buying, packing, preserving, and shipping the skins,
+and gave him the names of the leading furriers in New York, Montreal,
+and London. Astor was deeply impressed with the views of his friend, but
+he could not see his own way clear to such a success, as he had no
+capital. His friend assured him that capital was unnecessary if he was
+willing to begin in an humble way. He could buy valuable furs on the
+wharves of New York for toys and trinkets, and even for cakes, from the
+Indians who visited the city, and these he could sell at an advance to
+the New York dealers. He advised the young man, however, not to be
+satisfied with the American market, but to work for a position which
+would enable him to send his furs to England, where they would bring
+four or five times as much as in this country. Astor carefully treasured
+up all that his friend said to him, and quietly resolved that he would
+lose no time in entering upon this business, which seemed to promise so
+much.
+
+The two friends traveled together from Baltimore to New York, where they
+were warmly received by Aster's brother, Henry, who had succeeded in
+laying the foundation of a prosperous business as a butcher, in which he
+afterward made a large fortune. Both brothers were men of business
+habits, and on the very first evening after the arrival of the new-comer
+they began to discuss plans for his future. Astor's friend stated all
+the advantages of the fur trade, and convinced Henry Astor that it was a
+fine field for the energies of his brother; and it was agreed that it
+would be best for the young man to seek employment in the service of
+some furrier in the city, in order that he might thoroughly learn the
+business, and familiarize himself with the country and its customs. To
+his great delight, young Astor learned that, so far from being compelled
+to pay his employer for learning him the business, as in Europe, he
+would be certain here to receive his board and nominal wages from the
+first. The next day the three started out, and succeeded in obtaining a
+situation for the young man in the store of Mr. Robert Bowne, a Quaker,
+and a merchant of long experience in the business, as well as a most
+estimable man. He is said to have engaged Astor at two dollars per week
+and his board.
+
+Astor was at once set to work by his employer to beat furs, this method
+of treating them being required to prevent the moths from lodging in and
+destroying them. From the first he applied himself to the task of
+learning the business. He bent all the powers of his remarkable mind to
+acquiring an intimate knowledge of furs, and of fur-bearing animals, and
+their haunts and habits. His opportunities for doing so were very good,
+as many of the skins were sold over Bowne's counters by the hunters who
+had taken them. These men he questioned with a minuteness that
+astonished them, and the result was that in a few years he was as
+thoroughly familiar with the animals, their habits, their country, and
+the mode of taking them, as many of the trappers themselves. He is said
+to have been in his prime the best judge of furs in America. He
+appreciated the fact that no man can succeed in any business or
+profession without fully understanding it, and he was too much
+determined upon success to be satisfied with a superficial knowledge. He
+was resolved that there should be no detail in the business, however
+minute, with which he was unfamiliar, and he toiled patiently to acquire
+information which most salesmen in his place would have esteemed
+trivial. Nothing was trivial with him, however, and it is remarkable
+that he never embarked in any scheme until he had mastered its most
+trifling details. Few men have ever shown a deeper and more far-reaching
+knowledge of their profession and the issues involved in it than he. He
+fully understood that his knowledge would give him a power which a man
+of less information could not obtain, and he never failed to use that
+knowledge as a power. His instructions to his subordinates were always
+drawn up with the strictest regard to details, and show not only how
+thoroughly he had mastered the subject before him, but also how much
+importance he attached to the conscientious fulfillment of a
+well-digested plan of operations. He recognized no such thing as luck.
+Every thing with him was the result of a deliberate plan based upon
+knowledge. In this respect his career affords one of the best models to
+be found in our history.
+
+[Illustration: ASTOR'S FIRST TRIP FOR FURS.]
+
+Astor's employer was not insensible to his merits, and soon promoted him
+to a better place. In a little while the latter intrusted him with the
+buying of the furs from the men who brought them to the store, and he
+gave such satisfaction to his employer that he was rewarded with a still
+more confidential post. Montreal was at that time the chief fur depot of
+the country, and it was the custom of Mr. Bowne to make an annual
+journey to that city for the purpose of replenishing his stock. The
+journey was long and fatiguing, and as soon as the old gentleman found
+that he could intrust the mission to his clerk, he sent him in his
+place. Ascending the Hudson to Albany, Astor, with a pack on his back,
+struck out across the country, which was then almost unsettled, to Lake
+George, up which he passed into Lake Champlain. Sailing to the head of
+the lake, he made his way to Montreal. Then returning in the same way,
+he employed Indians to transport his furs from Lake George to Albany,
+and dropped down the Hudson in the way he had come. Mr. Bowne was
+delighted with the success of his clerk, who proved more than a match
+for the shrewd Indians in his bargains. It was doubtless here that Mr.
+Astor obtained that facility in "driving a hard bargain" for which he
+was afterwards noted.
+
+As soon as Mr. Astor felt himself master of his business, he left the
+employ of Mr. Bowne, and began life on his own account. The field upon
+which he purposed entering was extensive, but it was one of which he had
+made a careful survey. Previous to the peace of 1763, the French and
+English divided the control of the fur-bearing regions of America. The
+British possessions, extending from Canada to the unexplored regions of
+the North, had been granted by a charter of Charles II. to Prince
+Rupert, and were, by virtue of that instrument, under the exclusive
+control of the Hudson Bay Company. Large quantities of furs were
+obtained in this region, and collected at the principal settlement, York
+Factory, from which they were shipped to England.
+
+South of this region was Canada, then possessed by the French, who
+carried on an extensive trade with the Indians, who brought their furs
+down to Montreal in their birch canoes. The French finally settled in
+the country of the savages, and married among the natives,
+thenceforward entirely devoting themselves to the life of the trapper
+and hunter. These marriages produced a race of half-breeds who were
+especially successful in securing furs. The cession of Canada to England
+was a severe blow to the French traders, as it opened the country to the
+enterprise of the English, a few of whom were quick to avail themselves
+of its advantages. The French and Indians at first regarded them with
+hostility, but gradually became reconciled to their presence.
+
+Under the French rule the savages had not been furnished with liquors,
+but the English soon sold whisky and rum in great quantities to them,
+receiving the best furs in return. As a consequence, intemperance spread
+rapidly among the savages, and threatened to put an end to their
+industry as gatherers of furs. To check the evil results of this
+irregular trading, a company was established in 1785, called the
+North-west Company. It was managed by twelve partners, some of whom
+resided at Montreal, and others at the trading posts in the interior.
+Their chief station was at Fort William, on Lake Superior. Here, at
+stated times, the agents would come up from Montreal and hold a
+consultation for the purchase of furs. These meetings always drew crowds
+of French and Indian trappers, boatmen, and others, who brought in large
+quantities of skins.
+
+A few years later a third company was organized, with its principal
+station at Michilimackinac, near Lake Huron. It was called the Mackinaw
+Company, and its field of operations was the country bordering Lake
+Superior, and that lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky
+Mountains. The company was English, but did not hesitate to operate in
+American territory, so little regard did Great Britain pay to the rights
+of the infant republic.
+
+"Although peace had been concluded, the frontier forts had not been
+given up. Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac, and other posts
+were still in the hands of the English. The Indian tribes continued
+hostile, being under English influence. No company had as yet been
+formed in the United States. Several French houses at St. Louis traded
+with the Indians, but it was not until 1807 that an association of
+twelve partners, with a capital of forty thousand dollars, was formed at
+St. Louis, under the name of the Missouri Company.
+
+"The trade, it will thus be seen, was almost wholly in the hands of the
+English companies--the Hudson's Bay Company in the north, the North-west
+Company in the Canadas, the Mackinaw Company in the territories of the
+United States--and the few American traders in the field had to rely on
+their individual resources, with no aid from a Government too feeble in
+its infancy to do more than establish a few Indian agencies, and without
+constitutional power to confer charter privileges."
+
+The voyage of Captain Cook had brought to the notice of the fur dealers
+of the world the sea otter of the northern Pacific, and the announcement
+made upon the return of the expedition drew large numbers of adventurers
+to the west coast of America, in search of the valuable skins of these
+animals. In 1792, there were twenty-one vessels, principally American,
+on the coast.
+
+It was into this field, already occupied by powerful and hostile
+corporations, that the young German entered. He was perfectly aware of
+the opposition his efforts would encounter from them, but he was not
+dismayed. He began business in 1786, in a small store in Water Street,
+which he furnished with a few toys and notions suited to the tastes of
+the Indians who had skins to sell. His entire capital consisted of only
+a few hundred dollars, a portion of which was loaned him by his
+brother. He had no assistants. He did all his own work. He bought his
+skins, cured, beat, and sold them himself.
+
+Several times during the year he made journeys on foot through western
+New York, buying skins from the settlers, farmers, trappers, savages,
+wherever he could find them. He tramped over nearly the entire State in
+this way, and is said to have had a better knowledge of its geography
+and topography than any man living.
+
+"He used to boast, late in life, when the Erie Canal had called into
+being a line of thriving towns through the center of the State, that he
+had himself, in his numberless tramps, designated the sites of those
+towns, and predicted that one day they would be the centers of business
+and population. Particularly he noted the spots where Rochester and
+Buffalo now stand, one having a harbor on Lake Erie and the other upon
+Lake Ontario. He predicted that those places would one day be large and
+prosperous cities; and that prediction he made when there was scarcely a
+settlement at Buffalo, and only wigwams on the site of Rochester."
+
+During these tramps his business in the city was managed by a partner,
+with whom he was finally compelled to associate himself.
+
+As soon as he had collected a certain number of bales of skins he
+shipped them to London, and took a steerage passage in the vessel which
+conveyed them. He sold his skins in that city at a fine profit, and
+succeeded in forming business connections which enabled him afterward to
+ship his goods direct to London, and draw regularly upon the houses to
+which they were consigned. He also made an arrangement with the house of
+Astor & Broadwood, in which his brother was a partner, by which he
+became the agent in New York for the sale of their musical instruments,
+a branch of his business which became quite profitable to him. He is
+said to have been the first man in New York who kept a regular stock of
+musical instruments on hand.
+
+Slowly, and by unremitting industry, Mr. Astor succeeded in building up
+a certain business. His personal journeys made him acquainted with the
+trappers, and enabled him to win their good will. The savages sold their
+skins to him readily, and he found a steady market and a growing demand
+for his commodities in the Old World.
+
+It was about this time that he married Miss Sarah Todd, of New York. She
+was a connection of the Brevoort family, and was of better social
+position than her husband. She entered heartily into his business, doing
+much of the buying and beating of the furs herself. She was a true
+helpmate to him, and long after he was a millionaire, he used to boast
+of her skill in judging furs and conducting business operations.
+
+In 1794, Jay's treaty placed the frontier forts in the hands of the
+Americans, and thus increased the opportunities of our own traders to
+extend their business. It was of the greatest service to Mr. Astor. It
+enabled him to enlarge the field of his operations, and, at the same
+time, to send his agents on the long journeys which he formerly made,
+while he himself remained in New York to direct his business; which by
+this time had grown to considerable proportions.
+
+He was now on the road to wealth. He had scores of trappers and hunters
+working for him in the great wilderness, and his agents were kept busy
+buying and shipping the skins to New York. As soon as he was able to do
+so he purchased a ship, in which he sent his furs to London,
+occasionally making a voyage thither himself. He manifested the greatest
+interest in the markets of the Old World, especially in those of Asia,
+and informed himself so accurately concerning them that he was always
+enabled to furnish his captains with instructions covering the most
+minute detail of their transactions in those markets; and it is said
+that he was never unsuccessful in his ventures there, except when his
+instructions were disobeyed.
+
+In this again, as in the fur trade, we see him patiently acquiring
+knowledge of the eastern trade before venturing to engage in it. His
+first step was always to fully comprehend his task, to examine it from
+every possible point of view, so that he should be prepared to encounter
+any sudden reverse, or ready to take advantage of good fortune. Here lay
+the secret of his success--that he never embarked in an enterprise until
+he had learned how to use it to advantage.
+
+Under his skillful management his business grew rapidly; but he avoided
+speculation, and confined himself to legitimate commerce. He was plain
+and simple in his habits, carrying this trait to an extreme long after
+economy had ceased to be necessary to him. He worked hard, indulged in
+no pleasures except horseback exercise and the theater, of both which he
+was very fond. It was only after he had amassed a large fortune that he
+ever left his business before the close of the day. Then he would leave
+his counting-room at two in the afternoon, and, partaking of an early
+dinner, would pass the rest of the day in riding about the island. So
+plain was his style of living that, before he became generally known as
+a wealthy man, a bank clerk once superciliously informed him that his
+indorsement of a note would not be sufficient, as it was not likely he
+would be able to pay it in case the bank should be forced to call upon
+him.
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Astor, "how much do you suppose I am worth?"
+
+The clerk named a moderate amount, at which the merchant smiled
+quietly.
+
+"Would the indorsement of Mr. ----, or Mr. ----, be sufficient?" asked
+Mr. Astor, naming several well-known merchants who lived in great style.
+
+"Entirely sufficient," was the reply. "Each one of them is known to be
+wealthy."
+
+"How much do you think each is worth?"
+
+The clerk named large sums in connection with each of the gentlemen.
+
+"Well, my friend," said the merchant, "I am worth more than any of them.
+I will not tell you how much I am worth, but it is more than any sum you
+have named."
+
+The clerk looked at him in surprise, and then said, bluntly, "Then you
+are a greater fool than I took you for, to work as hard as you do."
+
+Mr. Astor was very fond of telling this story, which he regarded as one
+of the best jokes of the day.
+
+All this time Mr. Astor had lived over his store, but in 1800, after he
+had been in business fifteen years, he moved his dwelling to 223
+Broadway, on the site of the Astor House of to-day. He lived here, with
+one removal, for upwards of twenty-five years. The house was plain and
+simple, but he was satisfied with it. He was now worth a quarter of a
+million dollars, and his business was growing rapidly. The fur trade was
+exceedingly profitable. A beaver skin could be bought from the trappers
+in western New York for one dollar and sold in London for six dollars
+and a quarter. By investing this amount in English manufactures, the six
+dollars and a quarter received for the skin could be made to produce ten
+dollars paid for the English goods in New York.
+
+The Chinese trade was also very profitable. China was an excellent
+market for furs. They brought high prices, and the proceeds could always
+be invested in teas and silks, which sold well in New York. His profit
+on a voyage would sometimes reach seventy thousand dollars, and the
+average gain on a lucky venture of this kind was thirty thousand
+dollars. The high prices produced by the war of 1812-15 were also in Mr.
+Astor's favor. His ships were all remarkably lucky in escaping capture
+by the enemy, and he was almost the only merchant who had a cargo of tea
+in the market. Tea having reached double its usual price, he was enabled
+to reap immense profits from his ventures.
+
+Mr. Francis, in his _Old Merchants of New York_, makes the following
+revelation of the manner in which Mr. Astor found it possible to carry
+on such an immense business. He says:
+
+"A house that could raise money enough, thirty years ago, to send
+$260,000 in specie, could soon have an uncommon capital; and this was
+the working of the old system. The Griswolds owned the ship Panama. They
+started her from New York in the month of May, with a cargo of perhaps
+$30,000 worth of ginseng, spelter, lead, iron, etc., and $170,000 in
+Spanish dollars. The ship goes on the voyage, reaches Whampoa in safety
+(a few miles below Canton). Her supercargo, in two months, has her
+loaded with tea, some chinaware, a great deal of cassia, or false
+cinnamon, and a few other articles. Suppose the cargo mainly tea,
+costing about thirty-seven cents (at that time) per pound on the
+average.
+
+"The duty was enormous in those days. It was twice the cost of the tea,
+at least; so that a cargo of $200,000, when it had paid duty of
+seventy-five cents per pound (which would be $400,000), amounted to
+$600,000. The profit was at least fifty per cent, on the original cost,
+or $100,000, and would make the cargo worth $700,000.
+
+"The cargo of teas would be sold almost on arrival (say eleven or
+twelve months after the ship left New York in May), to wholesale
+grocers, for their notes at four and six months--say for $700,000. In
+those years there was _credit given by the United States_ of nine,
+twelve, and eighteen months! So that the East India or Canton merchant,
+after his ship had made one voyage, had the use of Government capital to
+the extent of $400,000, on the ordinary cargo of a China ship.
+
+"No sooner had the ship Panama arrived (or any of the regular East
+Indiamen), than her cargo would be exchanged for grocers' notes for
+$700,000. These notes could be turned into specie very easily, and the
+owner had only to pay his bonds for duty at nine, twelve, and eighteen
+months, giving him time actually to send two more ships, with $200,000
+each, to Canton, and have them back again in New York before the bonds
+on the first cargo were due.
+
+"John Jacob Astor, at one period of his life, had several vessels
+operating in this way. They would go to the Pacific, and carry furs from
+thence to Canton. These would be sold at large profits. Then the cargoes
+of tea to New York would pay enormous duties, which Astor did not have
+to pay to the United States for a year and a half. His tea cargoes would
+be sold for good four and six months paper, or perhaps cash; so that,
+for eighteen or twenty years, John Jacob Astor had what was actually a
+free-of-interest loan from Government of over _five millions_ of
+dollars."
+
+It is estimated that Mr. Astor made about two millions of dollars by his
+trade in furs and teas. The bulk of his immense fortune was made by
+investments in real estate. His estate was estimated at twenty millions
+of dollars at the time of his death, and has now increased to over forty
+millions. He had a firm faith in the magnificent future of New York as
+the greatest city of the continent, and as fast as his gains from his
+business came in, they were regularly invested in real estate. A part
+was expended in leasing for a long period property which the owners
+would not sell, and the rest in buying property in fee simple. These
+leases, some of which have but recently expired, were extremely
+profitable. In his purchases of land Mr. Astor was very fortunate. He
+pursued a regular system in making them. Whenever a favorable purchase
+could be made in the heart of the city, he availed himself of the
+opportunity, but as a rule he bought his lands in what was then the
+suburb of the city, and which few besides himself expected to see built
+up during their lifetime. His sagacity and foresight have been more than
+justified by the course of events. His estate now lies principally in
+the heart of New York, and has yielded an increase greater even than he
+had ventured to hope for. Seventy hundred and twenty houses are said to
+figure on the rent roll of the Astor estate at present, and besides
+these are a number of lots not yet built upon, but which are every day
+increasing in value. "When Mr. Astor bought Richmond Hill, the estate of
+Aaron Burr, he gave one thousand dollars an acre for the hundred and
+sixty acres. Twelve years later, the land was valued at fifteen hundred
+dollars per lot."
+
+In 1810, he sold a lot near Wall Street for eight thousand dollars. The
+price was so low that a purchaser for cash was found at once, and this
+gentleman, after the sale, expressed his surprise that Mr. Astor should
+ask only eight thousand for a lot which in a few years would sell for
+twelve thousand.
+
+"That is true," said Mr. Astor, "but see what I intend doing with these
+eight thousand dollars. I shall buy eighty lots above Canal Street, and
+by the time your one lot is worth twelve thousand dollars, my eighty
+lots will be worth eighty thousand dollars."
+
+His expectations were realized.
+
+During the war of the Revolution, Roger Morris and his wife, Mary, of
+Putnam County, were obliged to flee from the country to England for
+adhering to the cause of King George, and, being attainted by the
+authorities as public enemies, their immense estate, consisting of
+fifty-one thousand one hundred and two acres, was seized by the State of
+New York, and sold in small parcels to farmers, who believed the title
+thus acquired valid. In 1809, there were upwards of seven hundred
+families residing on this land. Mr. Astor, having learned that Roger and
+Mary Morris possessed only a life interest in their property, and having
+ascertained to his satisfaction that the State could not confiscate the
+rights of the heirs, purchased their claim, which was good not only for
+the land, but for all the improvements that had been put upon it. He
+paid twenty thousand pounds sterling for it. A few years previous to the
+death of Mrs. Morris, who survived her husband some years, Mr. Astor
+presented his claim. The occupants of the land were thunderstruck, but
+the right was on his side. The State of New York had simply robbed the
+heirs of their rights. There was no weak point in the claim. Having
+given defective titles to the farmers, the State was of course
+responsible for the claim; and upon finding out their mistake, the
+authorities asked Mr. Astor to name the sum for which he would be
+willing to compromise. The lands were valued at six hundred and
+sixty-seven thousand dollars, but Mr. Astor expressed his willingness to
+sell for three hundred thousand dollars. His offer was refused. In 1819,
+a second proposition was made to Mr. Astor by the Legislature of the
+State. He replied: "In 1813 or 1814 a similar proposition was made to me
+by the commissioners then appointed by the Honorable the Legislature of
+this State when I offered to compromise for the sum of three hundred
+thousand dollars, which, considering the value of the property in
+question, was thought very reasonable, and, at the present period, when
+the life of Mrs. Morris is, according to calculation, worth little or
+nothing, she being near eighty-six years of age, and the property more
+valuable than it was in 1813. I am still willing to receive the amount
+which I then stated, with interest on the same, payable in money or
+stock, bearing an interest of -- per cent., payable quarterly. The stock
+may be made payable at such periods as the Honorable the Legislature may
+deem proper. This offer will, I trust, be considered as liberal, and as
+a proof of my willingness to compromise on terms which are reasonable,
+considering the value of the property, the price which it cost me, and
+the inconvenience of having so long _lain out_ of my money, which, if
+employed in commercial operations, would most likely have produced
+better profits."
+
+This offer was not accepted by the Legislature, and the cause was
+delayed until 1827, when it was brought before the courts. It was argued
+by such men as Daniel Webster and Martin Van Buren, on the part of the
+State, and by Thomas Addis Emmett, Ogden, and others for Astor. The
+State had no case, and the matter was decided in Astor's favor. Then the
+State consented to compromise. The famous Astor stock, which paid that
+gentleman about five hundred thousand dollars, was issued, and the
+titles of the possessors of the lands confirmed.
+
+The most important of all of Mr. Astor's undertakings was his effort at
+founding the settlement of Astoria, on the coast of Oregon. This
+enterprise has been made so familiar to the majority of readers by the
+pen of Washington Irving, that I can only refer to it here. "His
+design," says a writer of thirteen years ago, "was to organize and
+control the fur trade from the lakes to the Pacific, by establishing
+trading posts along the Missouri and Columbia to its mouth. He designed
+establishing a central depot and post at the mouth of the Columbia. He
+proposed sending regular supply-ships to the Pacific posts around the
+Horn. By these, stores were to be sent also to the Russian
+establishments. It was part of his plan, if possible, to obtain
+possession of one of the Sandwich Islands as a station, for from the
+Pacific coast he knew that the Chinese market for his peltries could be
+most conveniently reached, and thus the necessity for a long and
+circuitous voyage be avoided. Instead of bringing the furs intended for
+China to New York, they could be sent from the Pacific. By the
+supply-ships, too, the stock of goods suitable for the Indian trade
+would be kept up there, and the cargoes purchased with the proceeds of
+the furs sold in China brought back to New York. The line of posts
+across the continent would become a line of towns; emigration would
+follow, and civilization would belt the continent.
+
+"In this grand scheme, Mr. Astor was only anticipating the course of
+events which, fifty years later, we are beginning to witness. When he
+laid his plans before the Government, Mr. Jefferson, who was then
+President, 'considered as a great acquisition,' as he afterward
+expressed himself in a letter to Mr. Astor, 'the commencement of a
+settlement on the western coast of America, and looked forward with
+gratification to the time when its descendants should have spread
+themselves through the whole length of that coast, covering it with free
+and independent Americans, unconnected with us except by ties of blood
+and interest, and enjoying, like us, the rights of self-government.'
+Even Jefferson's mind, wide as it was, could not take in the idea of a
+national unity embracing both ends of the continent; but not so thought
+Astor. The merchant saw farther than the statesman. It was precisely
+this political unity which gave him hope and chance of success in his
+worldwide schemes. When the Constitution was adopted, the chief source
+of apprehension for its permanence with men like Patrick Henry, and
+other wise statesmen, was the extent of our territory. The Alleghanies,
+it was thought, had put asunder communities whom no paper constitution
+could unite. But at that early day, when Ohio was the far West, and no
+steamboat had yet gone up the Mississippi, Astor looked beyond the Ohio,
+beyond the Mississippi, and the Rocky Mountains, and saw the whole
+American territory, from ocean to ocean, the domain of one united
+nation, the seat of trade and industry. He saw lines of trading posts
+uniting the Western settlements with the Pacific; following this line of
+trading posts, he saw the columns of a peaceful emigration crossing the
+plains, crossing the mountains, descending the Columbia, and towns and
+villages taking the places of the solitary posts, and cultivated fields
+instead of the hunting-grounds of the Indian and the trapper.
+
+"No enterprise, unless it be the Atlantic telegraph, engages more deeply
+the public attention than a railroad communication with the Pacific
+coast.[A] The rapid settlement of Oregon and California, the constant
+communication by steam to the Pacific coast, render it easy now to feel
+the nearness of that region, and the oneness of the nationality which
+covers the continent. But to Astor's eye the thing was as palpable then
+as now. And yet but two or three attempts had then been made to explore
+the overland routes."
+
+It would be deeply interesting to examine the details of this fast
+scheme of colonization and trade, for it is certain that Mr. Astor was
+as anxious to do an act which, by building up the continent, should hand
+his name down to posterity as a national benefactor, as to increase his
+business; but the limits of this article forbid more than a mere glance
+at the subject.
+
+[Footnote A: The reader will bear in mind that the above extract was
+written in 1857.]
+
+A company was formed, at the head of which stood Mr. Astor, and an
+elaborate and carefully-arranged plan of operations prepared. Two
+expeditions were dispatched to the mouth of the Columbia, one by land
+and the other by sea. Many hardships were encountered, but the
+foundation of a settlement was successfully made on the Columbia. In
+spite of the war with England (1812-15), which now occurred, the
+enterprise would have been successful had Mr. Astor's positive
+instructions been obeyed. They were utterly disregarded, however, and
+his partners and agents not only betrayed him in every instance, but
+sold his property to a rival British company for a mere trifle. His
+pecuniary loss was over a million of dollars, and his disappointment
+bitter beyond expression. When the enterprise was on the point of
+failure, and while he was still chafing at the conduct of his
+treacherous subordinates, he wrote to Mr. Hunt, the most faithful of all
+his agents: "Were I on the spot, and, had the management of affairs, I
+would defy them all; but as it is, every thing depends on you and your
+friends about you. Our enterprise is grand, and deserves success, and I
+hope in God it will meet it. _If my object was merely gain of money_, I
+should say, think whether it is best to save what we can, and abandon
+the place; but the very idea is like a dagger to my heart." When the
+news of the final betrayal reached him, he wrote to the same gentleman:
+"Had our place and property been fairly captured, I should have
+preferred it; I should not feel as if I were disgraced."
+
+Mr. Astor remained in active business for fifty years. During that
+entire period he scarcely committed an error of judgment which led to a
+loss in business. He was thorough master of every thing pertaining to
+his affairs, and his strength and accuracy of judgment was remarkable.
+The particulars of his transactions were indelibly impressed upon his
+mind. His intellect was vigorous and quick, and he grasped a subject
+with a readiness which seemed like intuition. He was always careful of
+the present, but he loved to undertake enterprises which extended far
+into the future. He was a man of the utmost punctuality in all his
+habits. He rose early, and, until he was fifty-five years old, was
+always in his office before seven o'clock. His capacity for work was
+very great, so that, in spite of his heavy labors, he was always able to
+leave his office by two o'clock, while many of his associates, who
+really did less than he, were compelled to remain in their
+counting-rooms until four or five. He was noted for his unvarying
+calmness, which he doubtless owed to his German temperament. In the
+midst of disaster and loss he was cooler and more cheerful than ever. To
+those who chafed at their troubles, he would say, smilingly, "Keep
+quiet; keep cool." This was his safeguard.
+
+He was a devoted citizen of the United States, and, though he took no
+active interest in politics, was a steady supporter of the Whig party.
+Henry Clay was his personal friend, and his last donation to any
+political cause was a subscription of fifteen hundred dollars to aid the
+election of his old friend to the Presidency.
+
+About the year 1830, Mr. Astor, now the possessor of millions, began to
+withdraw from active business, confining his efforts chiefly to such
+investments as the management of his immense estate made necessary. He
+now put into execution an enterprise which he had long cherished. When a
+poor stranger in the city, he had once stopped in Broadway to notice a
+row of buildings which had just been erected, and which were considered
+the finest in the street, and had then made a vow that he would one day
+build a larger and finer house than any in Broadway. He now set to work
+to carry out the plan he had cherished ever since. He owned the entire
+block on Broadway, between Vesey and Barclay streets, with the
+exception of one house, which was the property of a Mr. Coster, a
+merchant who had amassed a large fortune and retired from business. Mr.
+Astor made him many offers for his house, but the old gentleman was
+unwilling to remove. Mr. Astor offered him the full value of his house,
+which was thirty thousand dollars, and increased the bid to forty
+thousand, but Mr. Coster was obstinate. At length Mr. Astor, in despair,
+was compelled to reveal his plan to his neighbor.
+
+"I want to build a hotel," said he. "I have got all the other lots. Now
+name your own price."
+
+Mr. Coster replied that he would sell for sixty thousand dollars if his
+wife would consent, and that Mr. Astor could see her the next morning.
+Mr. Astor was punctual to the appointment, and his offer was accepted by
+the good lady, who said to him, condescendingly, "I don't want to sell
+the house, but we are such old friends that I am willing for your sake."
+
+Mr. Astor used to remark with great glee that any one could afford to
+exhibit such condescension after receiving double the value of a piece
+of property.
+
+Having got possession of the entire block, he commenced the demolition
+of the old buildings, and on their site reared the Astor House, then the
+largest and most elegant hotel in the country. This building, when
+completed, he gave to his eldest son, William B. Astor.
+
+In 1832, Mr. Astor sailed for Europe to visit one of his daughters, who
+had married a nobleman, and remained abroad until 1835. In that year he
+was compelled to return home by the action of General Jackson with
+regard to the Bank of the United States. "He reached Havre," says Mr.
+Parton, "when the ship, on the point of sailing, had every stateroom
+engaged, but he was so anxious to get home, that the captain, who had
+commanded ships for him in former years, gave up to him his own
+stateroom. Head winds and boisterous seas kept the vessel beating about
+and tossing in the channel for many days. The great man was very sick,
+and still more alarmed. At length, being persuaded that he should not
+survive the voyage, he asked the captain to run in and set him ashore on
+the coast of England. The captain dissuaded him. The old man urged his
+request at every opportunity, and said, at last, 'I give you tousand
+dollars to put me aboard a pilot boat.' He was so vehement and
+importunate, that one day the captain, worried out of all patience,
+promised him that if he did not get out of the channel before next
+morning, he would run in and put him ashore. It happened that the wind
+changed in the afternoon and wafted the ship into the broad ocean. But
+the troubles of the sea-sick millionaire had only just begun. A heavy
+gale of some days' duration blew the vessel along the western coast of
+Ireland. Mr. Astor, now thoroughly panic-stricken, offered the captain
+ten thousand dollars if he would put him ashore anywhere on the wild and
+rocky coast of the Emerald Isle. In vain the captain remonstrated. In
+vain he reminded the old gentleman of the danger of forfeiting his
+insurance.
+
+"'Insurance!' exclaimed Astor, 'can't I insure your ship my self?'
+
+"In vain the captain mentioned the rights of the other passengers. In
+vain he described the solitary and rock-bound coast, and detailed the
+dangers and difficulties which attended its approach. Nothing would
+appease him. He said he would take all the responsibility, brave all the
+perils, endure all the consequences, only let him once more feel the
+firm ground under his feet. The gale having abated, the captain yielded
+to his entreaties, and engaged, if the other passengers would consent to
+the delay, to stand in, and put him ashore. Mr. Astor went into the
+cabin, and proceeded to write what was expected to be a draft for ten
+thousand dollars in favor of the owners of the ship on his agent in New
+York. He handed to the captain the result of his efforts. It was a paper
+covered with writing that was totally illegible.
+
+"'What is this?' asked the captain.
+
+"'A draft upon my son for ten thousand dollars,' was the reply.
+
+"'But no one can read it.'
+
+"'O yes, my son will know what it is. My hand trembles so that I can not
+write any better.'
+
+"'But,' said the captain, 'you can at least write your name. I am acting
+for the owners of the ship, and I can not risk their property for a
+piece of paper that no one can read. Let one of the gentlemen draw up a
+draft in proper form; you sign it, and I will put you ashore.'
+
+"The old gentleman would not consent to this mode of proceeding, and the
+affair was dropped."
+
+During the last twenty years of his life Mr. Astor lived in the
+retirement of his family, leaving even the greater part of the
+management of his estate to the hands of others. He was exceedingly fond
+of literary men. Irving was his friend, and Halleck his business
+manager. He died at the age of eighty-four years and eight months,
+literally from old age. He was buried in St. Thomas's Church, on
+Broadway.
+
+His immense estate was left to his children, the bulk of it being
+bequeathed to his eldest son. All of his relatives were made
+comfortable. The village of Waldorf, his native place, received a legacy
+of fifty thousand dollars for the benefit of its poor, and an amount in
+land and funds equal to four hundred thousand dollars was left to
+certain trustees to establish the Astor Library in the city of New York.
+Besides these, several charitable and benevolent associations received
+handsome donations from him.
+
+His career has been related in these pages as an example to those who
+are seeking to rise in legitimate commerce. It is the Best instance on
+record of the facility with which success may be won by patient and
+intelligent industry. In his capacity for grasping and carrying out an
+enterprise, in his prudent and economical management of his business,
+in his tact, courage, sagacity, Mr. Astor's example is one which will
+lead many to success, and none to injury.
+
+He was a thoroughly upright man, his transactions were rigidly honest;
+but as a man, candor compels the acknowledgment that he was not a safe
+or admirable model. He was utterly devoid of generosity. Liberal to an
+extreme with his own family, he was close and hard with others. He paid
+small wages to his employes and never gave more than the man bargained
+for, no matter what extra service might be rendered. He carried his
+economy to a degree of meanness painful to contemplate. At his death,
+out of his vast estate, he left to his friend and faithful manager an
+annuity of only two hundred dollars, which his son increased to fifteen
+hundred.
+
+One of his captains once succeeded in saving for him property in China
+to the amount of seven hundred thousand dollars, which had become
+jeopardized by the sudden death of the agent in charge of it. This
+service was purely voluntary, and was one which required the greatest
+skill, determination, and courage on the part of the captain, and Astor
+acknowledged it, frequently saying: "If you had not done just as you
+did, I should never have seen one dollar of my money; no, not one dollar
+of it." This was the only acknowledgment he made, however. He was worth
+ten millions of dollars, and the captain had only his pay--twelve
+hundred dollars a year--and a family. At his father's death Mr. William
+B. Astor sent a considerable sum to the old seaman in return for this
+service.
+
+"We have all heard much of the closeness, or rather the meanness, of
+this remarkable man. Truth compels us to admit that he was not generous,
+except to his own kindred. His liberality began and ended in his own
+family. Very seldom during his lifetime did he willingly do a generous
+act, outside of the little circle of his relations and descendants. To
+get all he could, and to keep nearly all that he got--those were the
+laws of his being.... He enjoyed keenly the consciousness, the feeling,
+of being rich. The roll-book of his possessions was his Bible. He
+scanned it fondly, and saw, with quiet but deep delight, the catalogue
+of his property lengthening from month to month. The love of
+accumulation grew with his years, until it ruled him like a tyrant. If
+at fifty he possessed his millions, at sixty-five his millions possessed
+him. Only to his own children and to their children was he liberal; and
+his liberality to them was all arranged with a view to keeping his
+estate in the family, and to cause it at every moment to tend toward a
+final consolidation in one enormous mass."
+
+This is the estimate of his character formed by Mr. James Parton. His
+friend Dr. Coggswell presents him in quite a different light. He says:
+
+"Mr. Astor lived to the good old age of four score and four years and
+eight months. For some years previous to his death, which happened March
+29, 1848, his manly form was bowed down by age, and his bodily strength
+greatly enfeebled, but his mind retained much of its original Vigor and
+brightness. Considering his extraordinary activity until a late period
+of his life, he submitted to the helplessness of age with uncommon
+resignation. When his impaired eye-sight no longer permitted him to
+read, his principal relief from the wearisomeness of unoccupied time was
+in the society of his friends and near relatives. All who knew him well
+were strongly attached to him, and none but those who were ignorant of
+his true character believed him unamiable and repulsive.
+
+"His smile was peculiarly benignant and expressive of genuine kindness
+of heart, and his whole manner cordial and courteous to every one
+entitled to his respect. There was something so impressive in his
+appearance, no one could stand before him without feeling that he was in
+the presence of a superior intelligence. His deep, sunken eye, beneath
+his overarched brow, denoted the prophetic--it might almost be said the
+inspired--mind within. Although he lived many years beyond the age when
+the grasshopper is a burden, and was the victim of much suffering, he
+did not murmur, nor did he become unreasonable and peevish. He was not
+wont to talk much on the subject of religion, or freely communicate his
+views in relation to the life beyond the grave; but it can not be
+doubted that such tranquility as he exhibited in his near approach to
+it must have been derived from 'that peace which the world can neither
+give nor take away,'"
+
+Perhaps a medium between Mr. Parton's bitterness and Dr. Coggswell's
+enthusiasm will be as correct an estimate of his personal character as
+can be formed. It is a singular fact that Mr. Astor managed, in spite of
+the closeness which marked his operations, in spite of the small wages
+he paid, to inspire his employes with a zeal in his service that made
+them willing to undertake any thing, to endure any amount of labor, for
+him.
+
+"He once lost seventy thousand dollars by committing a piece of petty
+injustice toward his best captain. This gallant sailor, being notified
+by an insurance office of the necessity of having a chronometer on
+board his ship, spoke to Mr. Astor on the subject, who advised the
+captain to buy one.
+
+"'But,' said the captain, 'I have no five hundred dollars to spare for
+such a purpose; the chronometer should belong to the ship.'
+
+"'Well,' said the merchant, 'you need not pay for it now; pay for it at
+your convenience,'
+
+"The captain still objecting, Astor, after a prolonged higgling,
+authorized him to buy a chronometer and charge it to the ship's account,
+which was done.
+
+"Sailing day was at hand. The ship was hauled into the stream. The
+captain, as is the custom, handed in his account. Astor, subjecting it
+to his usual close scrutiny, observed the novel item of five hundred
+dollars for the chronometer. He objected, averring that it was
+understood between them that the captain was to pay for the instrument.
+The worthy sailor recalled the conversation, and firmly held to his
+recollection of it. Astor insisting on his own view of the matter, the
+captain was so profoundly disgusted that, important as the command of
+the ship was to him, he resigned his post. Another captain was soon
+found, and the ship sailed for China.
+
+"Another house, which was then engaged in the China trade, knowing the
+worth of this 'king of captains,' as Astor himself used to style him,
+bought him a ship and dispatched him to Canton two months after the
+departure of Astor's vessel. Our captain, put upon his mettle, employed
+all his skill to accelerate the speed of his ship, and had such success
+that he reached New York, with a full cargo of tea, just seven days
+after the arrival of Mr. Astor's ship. Astor, not expecting another ship
+for months, and therefore sure of monopolizing the market, had not yet
+broken bulk, nor even taken off the hatchways. Our captain arrived on a
+Saturday. Advertisements and handbills were immediately issued, and on
+the Wednesday morning following, as the custom then was, the auction
+sale of the tea began on the wharf--two barrels of punch contributing to
+the _eclat_ and hilarity of the occasion. The cargo was sold to good
+advantage, and the market was glutted. Astor lost in consequence the
+entire profits of the voyage, not less than the sum previously named.
+Meeting the captain some time after in Broadway, he said:
+
+"'I had better have paid for that chronometer of yours,'"
+
+Yet he could do a kind act when he was in the humor. When he was poor
+and struggling for fortune, he had a friend in the city named Pell, a
+coachmaker. As he advanced in the world he lost sight of his friend. One
+day a young man called on him to ask if he would sell one of his leases
+which he (the visitor) then held. He replied promptly and decidedly that
+he would not sell.
+
+"But what is your name?" he asked.
+
+"It is Pell," was the reply.
+
+"Pell--Pell--" said the old man, hesitating a moment, "I knew a man by
+that name once; he was a dear friend of mine, but I have not seen him
+for years."
+
+"That man," said the visitor, "was my father."
+
+"Indeed," exclaimed the old man, warmly; "your father? Why, he used to
+give me rides in his coaches. How I should like to see him."
+
+Then pausing a moment, and smiling as he recalled the past to his mind,
+he said:
+
+"You shall have the lease, young man. Go home, have the papers drawn,
+come here at eleven o'clock on Thursday, and I'll sign them. But don't
+put in any consideration."
+
+The engagement was kept punctually by both parties.
+
+"Have you got the papers?" asked the merchant. "Did you put in the
+consideration? Well, let it be one hundred dollars. Have you got the
+money about you? Well, no matter, Bruce will keep the lease till you
+come and pay. I've given you two thousand dollars, young man. Don't you
+buy any more, for I sha'n't do it again. You tell your father that I
+remember him, and that I have given you two thousand dollars."
+
+Mr. Astor dearly liked a joke, and occasionally indulged in a sly bit of
+humor himself. On one occasion a committee called upon him to solicit a
+donation for some charitable object. The old man took the subscription
+list, and, after examining it, signed it and gave the committee a check
+for fifty dollars. They had expected much more, and one of them ventured
+to say:
+
+"We did hope for more, Mr. Astor. Your son gave us a hundred dollars."
+
+"Ah!" replied the old man, dryly, "William has a rich father. Mine was
+very poor."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ALEXANDER T. STEWART.
+
+
+In the year 1818, a European vessel anchored in the harbor of New York,
+after a long and weary voyage from the Old World. She brought many
+passengers to the young metropolis, the majority of whom came with the
+intention of seeking fortunes in this land of promise.
+
+Among them was a young Irishman who had left his home in his native land
+to seek in America the means of bettering his condition. This was
+ALEXANDER T. STEWART. He was the son of Scotch-Irish parents, and was
+born in Belfast in 1802. Being only three years old when his father
+died, his grandfather took charge of him, and proved a kind and
+judicious guardian. As he was designed for the ministry by his relative,
+and as his own tastes inclined him to that profession, he was given a
+good common school education, and placed at college, where he made
+favorable progress in his class. He was particularly successful in the
+classics, and is said to retain his relish for them at the present day.
+
+During his second term his grandfather died, and he was by this event
+obliged to leave college. Abandoning the idea of entering the ministry,
+he embarked for America, determined to make a fortune in the New World.
+He came sufficiently supplied with ready money to insure him against
+immediate want, and with letters of introduction which at once secured
+him an excellent social position.
+
+After trying in vain for some time to secure employment in a business
+house, he obtained a position as assistant in a commercial school. This
+he soon resigned for a similar place in a more celebrated school. His
+salary here was $300, which was considered ample compensation in those
+days.
+
+Not wishing to continue in this career, however, he opened a small
+retail dry goods store in New York, and began business on a humble
+scale. Here he remained until the age of twenty-one, manifesting no
+extraordinary business capacity, and in no way distinguished from the
+many small dealers around him. Upon reaching his majority he returned to
+Ireland, to look after the inheritance left him by his grandfather. The
+amount which thus came to him was nearly one thousand pounds, and the
+greater part of this he invested in "insertions" and "scollop
+trimmings," which he shipped to America by the vessel in which he
+returned. He rented a little store, on his return, at 283 Broadway, and
+there displayed his stock, which met with a ready sale at a fair profit.
+
+Without mercantile experience, and possessing little advantage, save his
+own Scotch-Irish energy and courage, Mr. Stewart started boldly on what
+proved the road to fortune. No young merchant ever worked harder than
+he. From fourteen to eighteen hours each day were given to his business.
+He was his own book-keeper, salesman, and porter. He could not afford to
+employ help. Credit was hard to obtain in those days, and young
+merchants were not favorites with those who had such favors to bestow.
+Mr. Stewart was one of the least favored, inasmuch as he was almost a
+total stranger to the business community in which he lived. He kept a
+small stock of goods on hand, which he purchased for cash chiefly at
+the auction sales. He was a regular attendant at these sales, and his
+purchases were invariably "sample lots"--that is, collections of small
+quantities of various articles thrown together in confusion, and sold in
+heaps for what they would bring. He had these purchases conveyed to his
+store, and after the business of the day was over, he and his wife would
+take these "sample lots," and by carefully assorting them, bring order
+out of the confusion. Every article was patiently gone over. Gloves were
+redressed and smoothed out, laces pressed free from the creases which
+careless bidders had twisted into them, and hose made to look as fresh
+as if they had never been handled. Each article being good in itself,
+was thus restored to its original excellence. The goods were then
+arranged in their proper places on the shelves of the store, and by
+being offered at a lower price than that charged by retail dealers
+elsewhere in the city, met with a ready sale. Even at this low price the
+profit was great, since they had been purchased for a mere trifle. For
+six years Mr. Stewart continued to conduct his business in this way,
+acquiring every day a larger and more profitable trade. Here he laid
+down those principles of business and personal integrity from which he
+has never departed, and which have led-him to the honorable position he
+now holds.
+
+"His first rule was _honesty_ between seller and buyer. His career is a
+perfect exemplification of Poor Richard's maxim: 'Honesty is the best
+policy,' and of the poet's declaration: 'Nothing can need a lie,' His
+interest consorted with his inclination, his policy with his principles,
+and the business with the man, when he determined that the truth should
+be told over his counter, and that no misrepresentation of his goods
+should be made. He never asked, he never would suffer, a clerk to
+misrepresent the quality of his merchandise. Clerks who had been
+educated at other stores to cheat customers, and then to laugh off the
+transaction as 'cuteness,' or defend it as 'diamond cut diamond,' found
+no such slipshod morality at Stewart's little store, and learned
+frankness and fairness in representation at the peril of dismissal.
+Their employer asked no gain from deceit in trade. On his part, too, in
+buying, he rarely gave a seller a second opportunity to misrepresent
+goods to him.
+
+"A second innovation of the young dry goods dealer was selling at _one
+price_--a custom which has also lasted without interruption, and which
+has spread to all the great houses. He fixed his price, after careful
+consideration, at what he thought the goods could and would bring, and
+would not deviate from it for any haggling, or to suit individual cases.
+Of course, he followed the fluctuations of the market, and marked his
+goods up or down in accordance with it; but no difference in the price
+was made to different people. Perhaps those who had some art in 'beating
+down' prices were offended, but people in general were pleased.
+
+"The third principle he adopted was that of _cash on delivery_. It is
+said that his own early experience of buying on credit, and selling on
+credit, drove him to this rule.
+
+"A fourth principle with him was to conduct business as business--not as
+sentiment. His aim was honorable profit, and he had no purpose of
+confusing it by extraneous considerations."
+
+While still engaged in his first struggles in his little store, Mr.
+Stewart found himself called on to make arrangements to pay a note which
+would soon become due. It was for a considerable sum, and he had neither
+the money nor the means of borrowing it. It was a time when the
+mercantile community of New York regarded a failure to pay a note as a
+crime, and when such a failure was sure to bring ruin to any new man.
+Mr. Stewart knew this, and felt that he must act with greater resolution
+and daring than he had ever before exhibited, if he would save himself
+from dishonor. To meet the crisis he adopted a bold and skillful
+maneuver. He marked down every article in his store far below the
+wholesale price. This done, he had a number of handbills printed,
+announcing that he would sell off his entire stock of goods below cost,
+within a given time. He scattered these handbills broadcast through the
+city, and it was not long before purchasers began to flock to his store
+to secure the great bargains which his advertisements offered them. His
+terms were "cash," and he had little difficulty in selling. Purchasers
+found that they thus secured the best goods in the market at a lower
+figure than they had ever been offered before in New York, and each one
+was prompt to advise relatives and friends to avail themselves of the
+favorable opportunity. Customers were plentiful; the little Broadway
+store was thronged all day, and long before the expiration of the period
+he had fixed for the duration of his sales, Mr. Stewart found his
+shelves empty and his treasury full. He paid his note with a part of the
+money he had thus received, and with the rest laid in a fresh stock of
+goods. He was fortunate in his purchases at this time, for, as the
+market was extremely dull and ready money scarce, he, by paying cash,
+bought his goods at very low prices.
+
+The energy, industry, patience, and business tact displayed by Mr.
+Stewart during these first years of his commercial life brought him
+their sure reward, and in 1828, just six years after commencing
+business, he found his little store too small and humble for the large
+and fashionable trade which had come to him. Three new stores had just
+been erected on Broadway, between Chambers and Warren Streets, and he
+leased the smallest of these and moved into it. It was a modest
+building, only three stories high and but thirty feet deep, but it was a
+great improvement on his original place. He was enabled to fill it with
+a larger and more attractive stock of goods, and his business was
+greatly benefited by the change. He remained in this store for four
+years, and in 1832 removed to a two-story building located on Broadway,
+between Murray and Warren Streets. Soon after occupying it, he was
+compelled, by the growth of his business, to add twenty feet to the
+depth of the store and a third story to the building. A year or two
+later a fourth story was added, and in 1837 a fifth story, so rapidly
+did he prosper.
+
+His trade was now with the wealthy and fashionable class of the city. He
+had surmounted all his early difficulties, and laid the foundation of
+that splendid fortune which he has since won. The majority of his
+customers were ladies, and he now resolved upon an expedient for
+increasing their number. He had noticed that the ladies, in "shopping,"
+were given to the habit of gossiping, and even flirting with the clerks,
+and he adopted the expedient of employing as his salesmen the handsomest
+men he could procure, a practice which has since become common. The plan
+was successful from the first. Women came to his store in greater
+numbers than before, and "Stewart's nice young men" were the talk of the
+town.
+
+The great crisis of 1837 found Mr. Stewart a prosperous and rising man,
+and that terrible financial storm which wrecked so many of the best of
+the city firms did not so much as leave its mark on him. Indeed, while
+other men were failing all around him, he was coining money. It had
+always been his habit to watch the market closely, in order to profit by
+any sudden change in it, and his keen sagacity enabled him to see the
+approach of the storm long before it broke, and to prepare for it.
+
+He at once marked down all his goods as low as possible, and began to
+"sell for cost," originating the system which is now so popular. The
+prices were very low, and the goods of the best quality. Every body
+complained of the hard times, and all were glad to save money by
+availing themselves of "Stewart's bargains." In this way he carried on a
+retail cash trade of five thousand dollars per day in the midst of the
+most terrible crisis the country has ever seen. Other merchants were
+reduced to every possible expedient, and were compelled to send their
+goods to auction to be sold for what they would bring, so great was
+their need of ready money. Stewart attended all these auctions
+regularly, and purchased the goods thus offered. These he sold rapidly
+by means of his "cost system," realizing an average profit of forty per
+cent. It is said that he purchased fifty thousand dollars worth of silks
+in this way, and sold the whole lot in a few days, making a profit of
+twenty thousand dollars on the transaction. Thus he not only passed
+through the "crisis," but made a fortune in the midst of it.
+
+From that time to the present day his march to fortune has been
+uninterrupted. Nearly a quarter of a century ago he purchased the
+property which is now the site of his wholesale store, and commenced to
+erect the splendid marble warehouse which he still occupies. His friends
+were surprised at his temerity. They told him it was too far up town,
+and on the wrong side of Broadway, but he quietly informed them that a
+few years would vindicate his wisdom, and see his store the center of
+the most flourishing business neighborhood of New York. His predictions
+have been more than realized.
+
+He moved into his new store in 1846, and continued to expand and enlarge
+his business every year. Some years ago he purchased the old
+Ninth-Street Dutch Church and the lots adjacent to it, comprising the
+entire block lying between Ninth and Tenth Streets, Broadway and Fourth
+Avenue. When he found the retail trade going up town, and deserting its
+old haunts below Canal Street, he erected a fine iron building at the
+corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, to which he removed the retail
+department of his business, continuing his wholesale trade at his old
+store on Chambers Street. This new "upper store" has increased with the
+business. The building now covers the entire block upon which it is
+erected, and is the largest, most complete, and magnificent
+establishment of its kind in the world.
+
+Though he took no active part in politics, he was too much interested in
+public affairs, by reason of his immense wealth, not to watch them
+closely. He was satisfied, some time before our late troubles began,
+that war must come, and quietly made contracts with nearly all the
+manufacturers for all their productions for a considerable period of
+time. Accordingly, when the war did come, it was found that nearly all
+the articles of clothing, blankets, etc., needed for the army had been
+monopolized by him. His profits on these transactions amounted to many
+millions of dollars, though it should be remarked that his dealings with
+the Government were characterized by an unusual degree of liberality.
+The gains thus realized by him more than counterbalanced the losses he
+sustained by the sudden cessation of his Southern trade.
+
+Fifty years have now passed away since the young school-teacher landed
+in New York, and he stands to-day at the head of the mercantile
+interests of the New World. In the half-century which has elapsed since
+then, he has won a fortune which is variously estimated at from
+twenty-five to forty millions of dollars. He has gained all this wealth
+fairly, not by trickery and deceit, or even by a questionable honesty,
+but by a series of mercantile transactions the minutest of which bears
+the impress of his sterling integrity, and by a patience, energy, tact,
+and genius of which few men are possessed. Surely, then, it must be a
+proud thought to him that he has done all this _himself_, by his own
+unaided efforts, and that amid all his wonderful success there does not
+rest one single stain upon his good name as a man or a merchant.
+
+It is said that Mr. Stewart regards himself as a "lucky man," rather
+than as one who has risen by the force of his own genius. A writer in
+the New York _Herald_ relates the following incident, as illustrative of
+the superstition which this feeling of "luck" has given rise to with
+him: "When he kept his store on Broadway, between Murray and Warren
+Streets, there sat on the sidewalk before it, on an orange box, an old
+woman, whose ostensible occupation was the selling of apples. This
+business was, however, merely a pretense; the main object being beggary.
+As years rolled on, Mr. Stewart became impressed with the idea that the
+old dame was his guardian angel of good luck, and this impression took
+so firm a hold upon his mind that when he removed to Chambers Street,
+he, in person, took up the old woman's box, and removed her to the front
+of his new establishment. In further illustration of Mr. Stewart's faith
+in the Irish traditional belief in 'lucky' and 'unlucky' persons, it may
+be mentioned that, after the completion of the St. Nicholas Hotel in
+this city, an undertaking in which he was largely interested, and when
+the building was just about to be opened for the reception of guests,
+the millionaire, standing in the drawing-room, ejaculated, 'It is now
+finished; I hope its first visitors may be lucky people.'
+
+"A gentleman present, who had heard of Mr. Stewart's care for the aged
+apple vendor, remarked, 'I presume, sir, you do not in reality care
+about lucky or unlucky persons;' to which he immediately replied,
+'Indeed, I do. There are persons who are unlucky. I sometimes open a
+case of goods, and sell the first from it to some person who is unlucky,
+and lose on it to the end. I frequently see persons to whom I would not
+sell if I could avoid it.'"
+
+The first incident, if true, doubtless illustrates the quiet kindness
+with which Mr. Stewart watches over the poor that he takes under his
+care--and they are many. He has won his success too fairly to be a
+believer in mere _luck_. There is no such thing as chance in this world.
+Men are the architects of their own fortunes.
+
+One of the principal reasons of his success is the rigid system with
+which he conducts his business. He has a place for every thing, and a
+time for every duty, and requires the same regularity from his
+subordinates. His salesmen and managers are thoroughly versed in their
+duties, and the more important of them are selected with great care.
+Every thing works smoothly under the master's eye, and there is a
+penalty for each and every delinquency, which is rigidly exacted.
+
+Mr. Stewart is one of the hardest workers in his establishment. His
+partners relieve him of the details, but the general management of his
+immense business he trusts to no other hands. His eye is on every thing.
+He is familiar with every detail, though he does not take upon himself
+its direction. He goes to his business between nine and ten in the
+morning, stopping first at his upper store. He makes a brief but
+thorough inspection here, and learns the general progress of the day,
+and then repairs to his lower or wholesale store, where he remains
+during business hours, and returns home between five and six in the
+afternoon, stopping again at the upper store. He works hard, and is
+never absent from his post unless detained by sickness.
+
+His time is valuable, and he is not willing to waste it.
+
+Many persons endeavor to see him merely to gratify their impertinent
+curiosity, and others wish to intrude upon him for purposes which would
+simply consume his time. To protect himself, he has been compelled to
+resort to the following expedient: A gentleman is kept on guard near the
+main door of the store, whose duty is to inquire the business of
+visitors. If the visitor wishes to see Mr. Stewart, the "sentinel"
+informs him that he must first state his business to him. If the visitor
+urges that it is private, he is told that Mr. Stewart has no private
+business. If his errand meets the approval of the gentleman on guard, he
+is allowed to go up stairs, where he is met by the confidential agent of
+the great merchant, to whom he must repeat the object of his visit. If
+this gentleman is satisfied, or can not get rid of the visitor, he
+enters the private office of his employer and lays the case before him.
+If the business of the visitor is urgent he is admitted, otherwise, he
+is refused an interview. If admitted, the conference is brief and to the
+point. There is no time lost. Matters are dispatched with a method and
+promptitude which astonish strangers. If the visitor attempts to draw
+the merchant into a friendly conversation, or indulges in useless
+complimentary phrases, after the matter on which he came is settled, Mr.
+Stewart's manner instantly becomes cold and repelling, and troublesome
+persons are sometimes given a hint which hastens their departure. This
+is his working time, and it is precious to him. He can not afford to
+waste it upon idlers. In social life he is said to be exceedingly
+affable.
+
+The greater portion of Mr. Stewart's immense fortune is invested in real
+estate. Besides his two stores on Broadway, he owns the Metropolitan
+Hotel and the New York Theater, also on Broadway; nearly all of Bleecker
+Street from Broadway to Depauw Row, several churches, a number of
+buildings, and many valuable lots. He resides at the north-east corner
+of the Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. Immediately opposite he is
+building one of the finest residences in the world, and the most superb
+in America. He owns more real estate than any man in America except
+William B. Astor, and is the most successful merchant in the world.
+
+Mr. Stewart is said to be extremely liberal in his donations to objects
+which meet with his sympathy. The majority of these donations are
+quietly made, as he has a repugnance to public charities. He gave
+liberally to the cause of the Union during the war. During that struggle
+he sent a cargo of provisions to Ireland, where much distress existed,
+and then invited as many emigrants as the vessel would carry to take
+passage to America in her, free of charge. One hundred and thirty-nine
+persons availed themselves of his offer, and upon reaching America were
+all provided with good situations by him. At present he is engaged in
+erecting on the Fourth Avenue a large building, in which homes will be
+provided for poor working females, at a small expense to them. It is
+said that this noble project will require an outlay of several millions
+of dollars. His friends--and he has many--speak of him as exceedingly
+kind and liberal, and seem much attached to him.
+
+As I have said before, Mr. Stewart has not cared for political
+distinction, but has rather shunned it. He was a member of the Union
+Defense Committee during the war, and in 1866 was one of the signers of
+the Saratoga address, calling on the people of the country to sustain
+the policy of President Johnson. His warm friendship for General Grant
+caused him to be one of the earliest advocates of the election of the
+latter to the Presidency. He was a candidate for Presidential Elector on
+the Republican ticket for the State of New York, but was defeated, with
+his associates, by the Democracy.
+
+His intimate relations with General Grant, together with his vast
+financial experience, induced many persons to believe that he would be
+offered a place in the Cabinet of the new President. These expectations
+were realized by his nomination to the post of Secretary of the
+Treasury, on the 5th of March, 1869, and his immediate and unanimous
+confirmation by the Senate. He was about to enter upon his new duties,
+when it was discovered that there existed an old and almost forgotten
+law forbidding any merchant from becoming the head of the Treasury
+Department. As soon as this discovery was made, Mr. Stewart expressed
+his desire to withdraw from the position, and thus relieve the President
+of all embarrassment upon the subject, but the latter, wishing, if
+possible, to retain him in the Cabinet, urged him to delay his action,
+with the hope that the difficulty might be obviated. Willing to oblige
+his friend, and anxious to serve the country, Mr. Stewart consented to
+do this, but finding that certain persons were seeking to make his
+nomination a source of trouble to the Administration, offered either to
+resign the place or to relinquish his entire interest in his business
+during the period of his Secretaryship, and to donate his immense
+profits for that time to the poor of the city of New York. This
+sacrifice, he hoped, would render him eligible; but the President was
+unwilling to accept the princely offer--the noblest ever made by any
+man--and Mr. Stewart finally withdrew from the contest.
+
+There can be no doubt that he would have been the best Secretary that
+could have been placed at the head of the Treasury. His great financial
+experience and his unquestioned ability were better qualifications than
+those possessed by any politician in the land. Perhaps the best proof of
+the satisfaction which his appointment produced in the minds of the
+thinking men of the country is the manner in which the news affected
+the money market. Gold fell as soon as the announcement was made.
+
+Few strangers ever come to New York and depart without visiting
+Stewart's famous store at the corner of Tenth Street and Broadway. The
+lower, or wholesale store, is far more important to its owner; but it
+conducts its operations exclusively with dealers, and in such a quiet
+and systematic way that it seems to attract but little attention among
+the masses. It is the upper or retail store that is the wonder of the
+great city in which it is located.
+
+It is constructed of iron, in the style of arcade upon arcade, and is
+lighted by numerous windows. It fronts two hundred feet on Broadway, and
+three hundred feet on Ninth and Tenth Streets. It covers an area of
+about two acres, is five stories and an attic in height, and has two
+cellars underneath. It is warmed by steam, and contains several
+steam-engines for hoisting goods, running the machines employed in the
+manufacturing department, and forcing water into the immense tank at the
+top of the building. Six elevators and several handsome stairways
+connect the various floors. Three of the elevators are used for
+conveying customers up and down, and the others for hoisting and
+lowering goods. The building is lighted by several thousand gas jets,
+which are all set aflame simultaneously by electricity.
+
+The various floors, with the exception of the first, are broken only by
+a rotunda, which extends to the roof, and is inclosed at each floor by a
+massive iron balustrade. Leaning over one of these balustrades, and
+looking up or down, the sight is brilliant and attractive. Thousands of
+persons are scattered about the floors making purchases. Hundreds of
+clerks, salesmen, and cash boys are busy serving them, and the buzz and
+hum of human voices under the vast roof sounds like the droning of a
+hive of bees.
+
+The service of this immense establishment is arranged as follows: There
+is one general superintendent, with nineteen assistants, each of whom is
+at the head of a department. Nine cashiers receive and pay out money;
+twenty-five book-keepers keep the record of the day; thirty ushers
+direct purchasers to the department they seek; two hundred cash boys
+receive the money and bring back the change of purchasers; four hundred
+and seventy clerks, a few of whom are females, make the sales of the
+day; fifty porters do the heavy work, and nine hundred seamstresses are
+employed in the manufacturing department. Besides these, there are
+usually about five hundred other persons employed about the
+establishment in various capacities, bringing the total strength of the
+_personelle_ of the house to twenty-two hundred.
+
+The accounts of each department are kept separate, and the sales of each
+for the day constitute a separate return. These sales will average
+something like the following figures:
+
+
+  Silks       $15,000
+  Dress goods   6,000
+  Muslins       3,000
+  Laces         2,000
+  Shawls        2,500
+  Suits         1,000
+  Calicoes      1,500
+  Velvets       2,000
+  Gloves        1,000
+  Furs          1,000
+  Hosiery         600
+  Boys' clothing  700
+  Notions         600
+  Embroideries  1,000
+  Carpets       5,500
+
+
+The total daily receipts average $60,000, and have been known to amount
+to $87,000.
+
+Salaries of subordinate clerks range from $5 to $25 per week. The cash
+boys receive $5 per week. If not fined for misconduct they receive a
+reward of $1 per month, and a further reward of $5 at the end of each
+half year. They are promoted as fast as their conduct and vacancies in
+the force of salesmen will allow. The number of employes being so large,
+the proprietor is compelled to keep them under the constant espionage of
+two experienced detectives, and each evening when they leave the store
+they are required to do so through a private door on Ninth Street, where
+the detectives are stationed to see that none of them carry away
+articles which do not belong to them.
+
+The number of visitors to the establishment in the busy season is very
+large. On special occasions, such as opening days, it is said to have
+reached fifty thousand, but the general average is placed at fifteen
+thousand, and they represent every grade in life. Rich and poor mingle
+here freely.
+
+The floors are arranged simply, and with regard to business rather than
+for show, but every thing is elegant and tasteful. The sub-cellar is
+used as a store-room for goods in cases. Here the fabrics are opened and
+sent to their departments. The cellar is the carpet sales-room. The
+first floor is the general sales-room, and is the most attractive place
+in the building. It is three hundred feet long by two hundred wide, and
+is provided with one hundred counters, each fifty feet in length. Behind
+these counters the goods are arranged, with no effort at display, on the
+shelves, which rise but a few feet above the counters. There is an
+abundance of light in all parts of the house, especially over the silk
+counters, which are just under the rotunda. The second floor is taken up
+with ladies' suits, shawls, curtain goods, etc., and the next floor is
+devoted to the same purpose. The fourth floor is used as a manufactory
+for making up the suits, etc., placed on sale or ordered by customers;
+on the fifth is the fur-room and upholstery manufactory; and the sixth
+is occupied as a laundry. The most perfect order is maintained in every
+part of the establishment, the mere direction of which requires
+administrative ability of a very high character.
+
+As fast as the sales are made, the articles, unless taken away by the
+purchaser, are sent to the parcel desk, which is located in the cellar.
+This is the busiest department in the house, and one of the most
+important. Each order is accompanied by a ticket stating the quality and
+amount of the goods, the price, and the address of the purchaser. It is
+remeasured and examined here, so that any error on the part of the
+salesman may be detected and repaired. Errors of this kind, however, are
+rare, and the burden of the labor in this department consists of making
+the goods up into secure packages and sending them to their
+destinations. The tickets delivered at the parcel desk are then sent to
+the checking desk, which is also in the basement, where they are
+compared with those delivered by the salesmen to the cashiers, and if no
+error is discovered, the goods are sent to the wagons for delivery.
+
+The wagon department constitutes a very important branch of the
+business. The vehicles and horses are accommodated in a fine stable on
+Amity Street, near Broadway. The building was formerly a Baptist church,
+and was presided over by the Rev. Dr. Williams. When the congregation
+went higher up town, they sold the old church, which found a purchaser
+in Mr. Stewart. He converted it into a stable, and has since more than
+doubled its size. The floor was taken up, a sewer built to carry off the
+waste water, and the place paved with brick and cement. It is now one of
+the best stables in the city. It contains over forty horses, and five
+grooms are on hand to attend to them. There are eight wagons employed at
+the up-town store to deliver parcels to purchasers, while thirteen
+single wagons are used by the lower store to cart single cases around
+town. In addition to these, there are ten double trucks to haul heavy
+goods. Twenty-seven drivers are employed, and thirteen hundred bushels
+of oats and fifty tons of hay are fed out during a year. The place is in
+charge of a watchman at night, and during the day is managed by a
+superintendent. At half-past eight the trucks report at the down-town
+store, and remain there all day. At the same moment one of the light
+wagons is dispatched to the retail store, and at once takes out the
+early sales. In an hour another wagon follows it, and this course is
+pursued all day until six o'clock, when the last wagon takes the last
+sales. By this system purchasers receive their parcels with dispatch,
+and the immense business of the day is entirely finished. Every week the
+superintendent of the stables makes a report of the condition of the
+horses and wagons, and this "stable report" is carefully inspected at
+head-quarters. In case of sickness or stubborn lameness, the horses are
+sent to the country to recruit.
+
+Mr. Stewart has a farm at Tuckahoe, where the invalid horses are kept,
+and where much of their provender is raised. This farm is noted for the
+valuable marble quarry which furnished the stone from which his new
+mansion on Fifth Avenue is built.
+
+The retail store contains fabrics of every description and price. The
+wife of a millionaire can gratify her fancy here to its utmost limit,
+while the poor sewing-girl can obtain her simple necessities at the same
+price which is demanded for them from the rich. In the shawl department,
+there are "wraps" worth as much as $4,500, but not more than one or two
+find a purchaser in the course of a year. Shawls at $3,000 find a sale
+of about twenty a year, and the number of purchasers increases as the
+price diminishes. The wealthy ladies of New York deal here extensively.
+One of the clerks of the establishment recently made a statement that a
+fashionable lady ran up a bill of $20,000 here in two months.
+
+Mr. Stewart, though leaving the details of the retail business in the
+hands of Mr. Tuller, the general superintendent, yet keeps himself
+thoroughly informed respecting it, and exercises over it a general
+supervision, to which its increasing success is due. He knows exactly
+what is in the house, how much is on hand, and how it is selling. He
+fixes the prices himself, and keeps them always at a popular figure. He
+is said to have an aversion to keeping goods over from one season to
+another, and would rather sacrifice them than do so. He has no dead
+stock on hand. His knowledge of the popular taste and its variations is
+intuitive, and his great experience enables him to anticipate its
+changes.
+
+"There can not be so much selling without proportionate buying, and
+Stewart is as systematic in the latter as the former. Of late he has not
+acted personally in making purchases, but has trusted to the system
+which he organized some years ago, and which he has found to admirably
+answer as his substitute. He has branch establishments exercising
+purchasing functions only in Boston and Philadelphia, in the United
+States; in Manchester, England; and in Paris and Lyons, France. But
+while these are his agencies, his buyers haunt the marts of the whole
+world. There is no center of commerce or manufacture of the wide range
+of articles in which he deals, on either of the continents, where he is
+not always present by deputy to seize upon favorable fluctuations of the
+market, or pounce upon some exceptionally excellent productions. He
+owns entire the manufactory of the celebrated Alexandre kid-glove. He
+has a body of men in Persia, organized under the inevitable
+superintendent, chasing down the Astrachan goat heavy with young, from
+which the unborn kids are taken and stripped of their skins, thus
+sacrificing two animals for every skin obtained. He rifles Lyons of its
+choicest silks, the famous productions of Bonnet and Ponson. Holland and
+Ireland yield him the first fruits of their looms. Belgium contributes
+the rarest of her laces, and the North sends down the finest of its
+Russian sables. All the looms of France, England, Belgium, and the
+United States are closely watched, and the finest fabrics in dress
+goods, muslins, carpets, and calicoes are caught up the moment the
+workmen put on the finishing touches. He buys for cash the world over,
+and is a customer every-where so recognized as desirable that he has his
+choice of industrial productions, and on more advantageous terms than
+his rivals can purchase what he leaves. He has been so long in the
+business, and has become so thoroughly versed in the productions of
+different looms in different countries, that it is now his practice to
+select certain mills noted for excellence of work, and take their entire
+supply, and thus it happens that there are many looms in the busiest
+haunts of the Old and New Worlds that toil unceasingly on his account.
+
+"By buying thus largely in foreign lands, he is, of course, the largest
+importer in the nation, and his duties average $30,000 gold per day.
+Every year his business steadily increases, and there is apparently no
+practical limit at which it will stop. As prudent in vast affairs as
+other men are in small, he insures liberally, and has policies renewed
+every third day throughout the year. But, while leaning upon the
+insurance companies, he is utterly independent of the banks; he has
+never asked one of them to 'carry' him through a crisis, and should such
+a contingency arise, there is no bank in the world competent to the
+task."
+
+Mr. Stewart is now sixty-eight years old, but looks much younger, being
+still as vigorous and active, both mentally and physically, as most men
+of forty-five. He is of the medium size, has light-brown hair and beard,
+which are closely trimmed. His features are sharp, well cut, his eye
+bright, and his general expression calm and thoughtful. His manner is
+reserved, and to all but his intimate friends cold. He dresses with
+great simplicity, but with taste, and in the style of the day. His
+habits are simple, and he avoids publicity in all things. Standing as he
+does at the head of the mercantile interests of the country, he affords
+a fine example of the calm and dignified manner in which a man of true
+merit may enjoy his legitimate success, and of the good use he may make
+of its fruits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AMOS LAWRENCE.
+
+
+Amos Lawrence was born at Groton, Massachusetts, on the 22d of April,
+1786. His ancestor came of a good English family, and was one of the
+company which sailed from England for the New World under Governor
+Winthrop, in 1630, and which, according to Grahame, contained "several
+wealthy and high-born persons, both men and women, who expressed their
+determination to follow truth and liberty into a desert, rather than to
+enjoy all the pleasures of the world under the dominion of superstition
+and slavery." This Lawrence settled in Watertown, and was one of the
+original proprietors of the town of Groton, which was founded in 1655.
+Samuel Lawrence, the father of the subject of this memoir, was the fifth
+in descent from the founder of the family, and was himself a gallant
+officer of the American army in the War of the Revolution, the close of
+which found him the possessor of a small farm, which yielded a modest
+support for his family.
+
+Young Amos was brought up on the farm, with none of the advantages of
+wealth, and with but a limited education, which he gained at the village
+schools, and which was seriously interfered with by his delicate health.
+He received his final training at the Groton Academy, to which, in after
+life, he became a liberal patron. "As we children came forward," he
+wrote, late in life, "we were carefully looked after, but were taught
+to use the talents intrusted to us; and every nerve was strained to
+provide for us the academy which is now doing so much there." Toward the
+close of the year 1799, when but a little over thirteen years of age, he
+took his final departure from school, and entered a store in the village
+of Dunstable, as clerk.
+
+He remained there but a few months, and then returned to Groton, where
+he obtained a place as apprentice in the store of a Mr. Brazer. This was
+the largest establishment in the place, and conducted a very important
+trade with the country for miles around. Boston was so far, and so
+difficult to reach in those days, that Groton came in for nearly all the
+business of its vicinity which the railroads have now taken to the city.
+Mr. Brazer's establishment, which was known as a "variety store," came
+in for the best part of this trade. Every thing was sold there;
+"puncheons of rum and brandy, bales of cloth, kegs of tobacco, with
+hardware and hosiery, shared attention in common with silks and threads,
+and all other articles for female use." Even medicines were sold there;
+and Dr. Wm. B. Lawrence, the son of our hero, assures us that his father
+was obliged to sell medicines, not only to customers, but to all the
+physicians within a circuit of twenty miles, who depended on this
+establishment for their supplies. "The confidence in his good judgment,"
+he adds, "was such that he was often consulted in preference to the
+physician, by those who were suffering from minor ails; and many were
+the extemporaneous doses which he administered for the weal or woe of
+the patient."
+
+The Brazer store was a prominent feature in Groton. It was a place of
+general resort, and close by was the tavern where the mail coaches
+stopped. Travelers were constantly passing through the town, bringing
+the news of those stirring days when Napoleon was rushing over Europe
+with his armies, overturning old states and building up new ones, and
+changing the destinies of the world. The domestic politics of the day
+were exciting, and it is likely that they aided, together with the
+events in the Old World, in imparting to the character of Mr. Lawrence
+the earnestness and gravity for which he was noted when a mere lad.
+
+Mr. Brazer had in his employ a number of clerks, but it was not long
+before the energy and business talent of young Lawrence made him the
+most trusted of all. Mr. Brazer did not give much personal attention to
+the store, and when he found that his young clerk was so admirable and
+reliable a manager, he left the business entirely in his hands. This was
+a post of unusual responsibility for one so young, but Amos Lawrence
+accepted it promptly, and labored to discharge its duties faithfully. He
+at once established the character for probity and fairness which
+distinguished him through life; his simple assertion was sufficient in
+any matter, being received with implicit trust by all who knew him. His
+duties kept him constantly employed, and though he lived within a mile
+of his father's house, weeks sometimes passed without giving him the
+opportunity of visiting it.
+
+Drunkenness was at that day the curse of New England. Every body drank,
+and such fiery fluids as brandy, whisky, rum, and gin were the
+favorites. Men, women, and children were addicted to the vice, and
+Groton was no exception to the rule. Mr. Brazer's store was famous for
+the good liquors served out to its customers, and his clerks were aware
+that their employer did not object to their helping themselves when they
+felt thirsty. Amos Lawrence fell into the habit to which all were given,
+and for some time went along with the rest; but at length he came to the
+conclusion that such indulgence was wantonly ruining his health, and he
+resolved to abstain entirely. "We five boys," said he, years afterward,
+"were in the habit, every forenoon, of making a drink compounded of rum,
+raisins, sugar, nutmegs, etc., with biscuit--all palatable to eat and
+drink. After being in the store four weeks, I found myself admonished by
+my appetite of the approach of the hour for indulgence. Thinking the
+habit might make trouble if allowed to grow stronger, without further
+apology to my seniors, I declined partaking with them. My first
+resolution was to abstain for a week, and, when the week was out, for a
+month, and then for a year. Finally, I resolved to abstain for the rest
+of my apprenticeship, which was for five years longer. During that whole
+period I never drank a spoonful, though I mixed gallons daily for my old
+master and his customers."
+
+At the same time, Mr. Lawrence determined that he would not use tobacco
+in any form. He was very fond of the odor of "the weed," and at one
+period of his life always kept a fine Havana in his drawer that he might
+enjoy the scent of it; but he was totally free from our disgusting
+national vice in any of its forms. In this respect, as indeed in all
+others, he offers a fine example to the rising youth of the present
+generation.
+
+On the 22d of April, 1807, Mr. Lawrence completed his twenty-first year,
+and his seven years' apprenticeship with Mr. Brazer came to an end. He
+was now of an age to enter into business for himself, and it was his
+intention to open a small store in Groton, in connection with a brother
+apprentice, but before doing so he decided to visit Boston for the
+purpose of establishing a credit. He reached the city with but twenty
+dollars in his pocket, richer, he subsequently declared, in his own
+estimation, than he ever felt before or afterward. While in the city, he
+received the offer of a clerkship from a mercantile house of good
+standing. It was entirely unsolicited, and took him by surprise, but he
+decided to accept it, and abandoned his idea of going into business for
+himself in Groton; and this act led to a career entirely different from
+that to which he had looked forward.
+
+Boston, in 1807, had a population of about thirty thousand, and the
+commercial position of the city was relatively much greater than at
+present. The foreign trade of the United States was enormous, and was
+carried on in American ships, and not, as at present, in foreign
+vessels. The total tonnage of American shipping engaged in this trade
+was seven hundred thousand tons, and of this Boston possessed a fair
+share. Her domestic trade was also important.
+
+"The merchants of Boston had then high places in the estimation of the
+world. The Perkinses, the Sargeants, the Mays, the Cabots, the
+Higginsons, and others, were known throughout the world for their
+integrity, their mercantile skill, and the extent and beneficial
+character of their operations. These were the golden days of Boston's
+commerce.... The standard of integrity was high, and though it would be
+absurd to suppose that there was not the usual amount of evil in the
+place, it may be assumed that in no part of the world was the young
+trader more likely to find severer judges of character and conduct, or
+to be better treated if he should afford unquestionable proofs of
+capacity and honesty."
+
+It was into this community that Mr. Lawrence now entered, and in which
+his life was spent. He gave such satisfaction to his employers that,
+when he had been with them a short time, they astonished him with the
+offer of a partnership. He was but partially acquainted with their
+affairs, but their manner of conducting their business did not please
+him, and he declined their offer. His sagacity was verified by the
+result. In a few months the firm failed, and the creditors appointed
+him to settle their affairs, which he did to their satisfaction.
+
+Being now out of employment, he resolved to commence business on his own
+account in Boston. He had made such a favorable impression upon the
+merchants of the city that he had no difficulty in obtaining credit. He
+rented a store in Cornhill, stocked it with dry goods, and began his
+career as a merchant. Four months after this, his father, who was keenly
+interested in his son's success, without consulting the latter,
+mortgaged his farm for one thousand dollars, and, repairing to Boston,
+placed the money in Amos Lawrence's hands. Mr. Lawrence was profoundly
+affected by this proof of his father's devotion, but he regretted it
+none the less, as he knew that his failure would bring ruin to his
+parent as well as to himself. "I told him," said he, forty years later,
+"that he did wrong to place himself in a situation to be made unhappy if
+I lost the money. He told me he _guessed I wouldn't lose it_, and I gave
+him my note." Mr. Lawrence made a prompt use of the money, and paid the
+mortgage at the proper time; but he had a narrow escape from loss, as
+the bank on which he had bills for the amount of the mortgage failed
+almost immediately after he had obtained specie for them.
+
+"This incident," he said, "shows how dangerous it is to the independence
+and comfort of families for parents to take pecuniary responsibilities
+for their sons in trade, beyond their power of meeting them without
+embarrassment. Had any Hillsborough bank-notes not been paid as they
+were, nearly the whole amount would have been lost, and myself and my
+family might have been ruined. The incident was so striking that I have
+uniformly discouraged young men who have applied to me for credit,
+offering their fathers as bondsmen; and by doing so I believe I have
+saved some respectable families from ruin. My advice, however, has
+sometimes been rejected with anger. A young man who can not get along
+without such aid will not be likely to get along with it."
+
+He began his business upon principles of prudence and economy, which he
+rigidly maintained throughout his whole life. He never allowed himself
+to anticipate his gains, and having fixed his personal expenses at a
+certain sum, he never went beyond it. His system, which is thus stated
+by himself, is offered here as a safe and admirable rule for all
+persons:
+
+"When I commenced, the embargo had just been laid, and with such
+restrictions on trade that many were induced to leave it. But I felt
+great confidence that, by industry, economy, and integrity, I could get
+a living; and the experiment showed that I was right. Most of the young
+men who commenced at that period failed by spending too much money, and
+using credit too freely.
+
+"I adopted the plan of keeping an accurate account of merchandise bought
+and sold each day, with the profit, as far as practicable. This plan was
+pursued for a number of years, and I never found my merchandise fall
+short in taking an account of stock, which I did as often at least as
+once in each year. I was thus enabled to form an opinion of my actual
+state as a business man. I adopted also the rule always to have
+property, after my second year's business, to represent forty per cent,
+at least more than I owed--that is, never to be in debt more than two
+and a half times my capital. This caution saved me from ever getting
+embarrassed. If it were more generally adopted, we should see fewer
+failures in business. Excessive credit is the rock on which so many
+business men are broken."
+
+Mr. Lawrence was very successful from the first. His profits during his
+first year were fifteen hundred dollars, and over four thousand during
+the second. In seven years he made over fifty thousand dollars. He paid
+the closest attention to his business, and nothing could draw him from
+it in working hours. After these were over he would take his pleasure.
+His aim was to keep every thing in the most complete state possible.
+During the first seven years of his business he never allowed a bill
+against him to stand unsettled over the Sabbath. If he made a purchase
+of goods on Saturday, and they were delivered to him that day, he always
+examined and settled the bill by note, or by crediting it, and leaving
+it clear, so that there should be no unfinished business to go over to
+the next week, and make trouble for his clerks in case he should not be
+at his post. "Thus," said he, "I always kept my business _before_ me,
+instead of allowing it to drive me."
+
+The first years of Mr. Lawrence's mercantile experience covered the
+darkest period of the history of the Republic. They were marked by the
+embargo, the crippling of our commerce by the hostility of England and
+France, and the second war with Great Britain, in all of which there was
+much to dis-hearten a beginner, even if he escaped positive loss.
+Nothing was certain. The events of a single hour might undo the labor of
+years, and baffle the best laid plans. Yet he persevered, and went
+steadily on to fortune. He was remarkable for his keen foresight, as
+well as for his prudence, and was always on the alert to profit by the
+fluctuations of the market. Yet he abominated speculation. He averred
+that speculation made men desperate and unfit for legitimate business,
+and that it led them, when under excitement, to the commission of acts
+against which their cooler judgment would have warned them. The fair
+profits of legitimate business were, in his opinion, sure to reward any
+honest and capable man. His aim was to elevate commerce, and not to
+degrade it. He introduced into Boston the system of double-entry in
+book-keeping, in advance of any other city merchant. He was prompt and
+faithful in the performance of every contract, and required a similar
+course toward himself from all indebted to him, as long as they were
+able to do so. When they became unfortunate, he was kind and generous,
+ready to compromise upon the most liberal terms, or to give them their
+own time for payment; and it is recorded of him that he never dealt
+harshly with a debtor who had failed in business.
+
+As long as such a course was necessary, Mr. Lawrence devoted himself
+entirely to his business, but after he had placed it on a safe footing,
+he was careful to reserve to himself time for other duties and for
+relaxation. No man, he said, had the right to allow his business to
+engross his entire life. "Property acquired at such sacrifices as I have
+been obliged to make the past year," he wrote at the commencement of
+1826, "costs more than it is worth; and the anxiety in protecting it is
+the extreme of folly." He never lost sight of the fact that man is a
+responsible, intelligent being, placed in the world for other purposes
+than the mere acquisition of wealth.
+
+In October, 1808, his brother, Abbott Lawrence, afterward famous as a
+merchant and statesman, came to him as an apprentice, and on the 1st of
+January, 1814, he was admitted to partnership, the style of the firm
+being A. & A. Lawrence. This partnership was terminated only by the
+death of the elder brother in 1852. Their business was the importation
+and sale of foreign manufactures, and the firm soon took its place at
+the head of the Boston merchants engaged in this trade. The tariffs of
+1816 and 1824 gave a new and powerful impetus to the manufacture of
+woolens and cottons in this country, and the Lawrences entered largely
+into the sale of these goods on commission. In 1830, they became
+interested in the cotton mills at Lowell; and on the establishment of
+the Suffolk, Tremont, and Lawrence Companies, as well as subsequently in
+other corporations, they became large proprietors. From this time their
+business as selling agents was on the most extensive scale, and their
+income from all sources large in proportion. They amassed large
+fortunes, and won names which are the most precious heritages of their
+children.
+
+Perhaps the best exposition of the principles upon which these brothers
+conducted their commercial operations is found in the following letter
+from the elder to the younger, written on the 11th of March, 1815, upon
+the occasion of a visit to England by the latter on business for the
+firm:
+
+
+     MY DEAR BROTHER--I have thought best, before you go abroad, to
+     suggest a few hints for your benefit in your intercourse with the
+     people among whom you are going. As a first and leading principle,
+     let every transaction be of that pure and honest character that you
+     would not be ashamed to have appear before the whole world as
+     clearly as to yourself. In addition to the advantages arising from
+     an honest course of conduct with your fellow-men, there is the
+     satisfaction of reflecting within yourself that you have endeavored
+     to do your duty; and however greatly the best may fall short of
+     doing all they ought, they will be sure not to do more than their
+     principles enjoin.
+
+     It is, therefore, of the highest consequence that you should not
+     only cultivate correct principles, but that you should place your
+     standard of action so high as to require great vigilance in living
+     up to it.
+
+     In regard to your business transactions, let every thing be so
+     registered in your books, that any person, without difficulty, can
+     understand the whole of your concerns. You may be cut off in the
+     midst of your pursuits, and it is of no small consequence that your
+     temporal affairs should always be so arranged that you may be in
+     readiness.
+
+     If it is important that you should be well prepared in this point
+     of view, how much more important is it that you should be prepared
+     in that which relates to eternity!
+
+     You are young, and the course of life seems open, and pleasant
+     prospects greet your ardent hopes; but you must remember that the
+     race is not always to the swift, and that, however flattering may
+     be our prospects, and however zealously you may seek pleasure, you
+     can never find it except by cherishing pure principles and
+     practicing right conduct. My heart is full on this subject, my dear
+     brother, and it is the only one on which I feel the least anxiety.
+
+     While here, your conduct has been such as to meet my entire
+     approbation; but the scenes of another land may be more than your
+     principles will stand against. I say _may be_, because young men of
+     as fair promise as yourself have been lost by giving a small
+     latitude (innocent in the first instance) to their propensities.
+     But I pray the Father of all mercies to have you in his keeping,
+     and preserve you amid temptations.
+
+     I can only add my wish to have you write me frequently and
+     particularly, and that you will embrace every opportunity of
+     gaining information.
+
+     Your affectionate brother, AMOS LAWRENCE.
+
+     TO ABBOTT LAWRENCE.
+
+
+In his politics, Mr. Lawrence was a Federalist, and then a Whig. He
+served for one term in the State Legislature as a Representative from
+Boston, with credit to himself, but afterward avoided any active
+participation in public events. When his nephew-by-marriage, General
+Pierce, was a candidate for the Presidency, he was very much gratified
+personally by the selection of the Democracy, but declined to vote for
+him. In a letter to a friend, written at this time, he said: "I had a
+charming ride yesterday with my nephew, Frank Pierce, and told him I
+thought he must occupy the White House the next term, but that I would
+go for Scott. Pierce is a fine, spirited fellow, and will do his duty
+wherever placed. Scott will be my choice for President of the United
+States."
+
+Regarding himself as a steward of the riches committed to him, Amos
+Lawrence was liberal in his charities. During the last twenty-four years
+of his life he kept an accurate account of the sums he thus distributed,
+but with no idea that the statement, which he intended for his own eye
+only, would ever be made public. During this period he gave away six
+hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars. The greater part of this was
+given away in ten years, and during a period when his average income was
+sixty thousand dollars a year. He was a liberal patron of education,
+giving large sums to its extension; and it was his delight to assist
+poor clergymen, without regard to denominations. He gave away clothing,
+food, books, etc., in large quantities, as well as ready money. "Two
+rooms in his house," says his son and biographer, "and sometimes three,
+were used principally for the reception of useful articles for
+distribution. There, when stormy weather or ill-health prevented him
+from taking his usual drive, he was in the habit of passing hours in
+selecting and packing up articles which he considered suitable to the
+wants of those whom he wished to aid." He did not forget the children,
+and many of his packages contained toys, and books, and other things
+calculated to promote their enjoyment.
+
+He was beset with beggars of all kinds, many of whom he was compelled to
+refuse. In his diary, he wrote on the 11th of April, 1849, "Applications
+come in from all quarters, for all objects. The reputation of giving
+freely is a very bad reputation, so far as my personal comfort is
+concerned."
+
+It pained him to have his charities made public, and he frequently
+requested the recipients to say nothing about them. He once made a
+present of some books to the Johnson school for girls, and the gift
+being acknowledged through the columns of a newspaper, he wrote to the
+principal of the school: "I merely want to say that I hope you will not
+put me in the newspaper at present, and when my work is done here, if
+you have any thing to say about me that will not hurt my children and
+grandchildren, say on," To another party he wrote: "I must request that
+my name be not thrust forward, as though I was to be a by-word for my
+vanity. I want to do good, but am sorry to be published, as in the
+recent case."
+
+As a merchant, Mr. Lawrence was upright, prudent, far-seeing, sagacious,
+and courageous; as a citizen, he was patriotic, public-spirited, and
+devoted; and as a man, he was a sincere, earnest, Christian husband,
+father, and friend. Viewed in any light, his character affords one of
+the most perfect models to be found in our history. He was the Christian
+_gentleman_ in all things, even in the minutest detail of his business.
+His standard was very high, but he came up to it. Courteous and
+dignified in manner, with a face handsome and winning in youth, and
+gentle and benignant in age, he made scores of friends wherever he went,
+for it was a true index to his character. It is a significant and
+interesting fact that, during the hottest passages of the old
+nullification times, although his views were known to be
+uncompromisingly opposed to the attitude of the South, he never lost the
+warmest friendship of some of the most advanced of the South Carolina
+leaders. When one thinks of the friendships that were wrecked amid the
+passions of those days, this fact speaks volumes for the personal
+attributes of Mr. Lawrence.
+
+He was a true American--proud of his country's past, hopeful for her
+future, and desiring nothing better than to live and die in the land of
+his birth. He sent his children abroad that they might see the Old
+World, and profit by the lessons learned there, but he strove earnestly
+to keep them true to their country. To his son, who was traveling in
+France in 1829, he wrote:
+
+"Bring home no foreign fancies which are inapplicable to our state of
+society. It is very common for our young men to come home and appear
+quite ridiculous in attempting to introduce their foreign fashions. It
+should be always kept in mind that the state of society is widely
+different here from that in Europe; and our comfort and character
+require it should long remain so. Those who strive to introduce many of
+the European habits and fashions, by displacing our own, do a serious
+injury to the republic, and deserve censure. An idle person, with good
+powers of mind, becomes torpid and inactive after a few years of
+indulgence, and is incapable of making any high effort. Highly important
+it is, then, to avoid this enemy of mental and moral improvement. I have
+no wish that you pursue trade; I would rather see you on a farm, or
+studying any profession.
+
+"It should always be your aim so to conduct yourself that those whom you
+value most in the world would approve your conduct, if your actions were
+laid bare to their inspection; and thus you will be pretty sure that He
+who sees the motive of all our actions will accept the good designed,
+though it fall short in its accomplishment. You are young, and are
+placed in a situation of great peril, and are, perhaps, sometimes
+tempted to do things which you would not do if you knew yourself under
+the eye of your guardian. The blandishments of a beautiful city may lead
+you to forget that you are always surrounded, supported, and seen by
+that best Guardian."
+
+He was an eminently just man, and he carried this trait into the little
+details of his domestic life. His household adored him; and his friends
+were bound to him by ties unusually strong. He was firm and positive in
+his own opinions; but he was tolerant of those who differed from him. He
+was a man of quick, nervous temperament, but he possessed a powerful
+self-control. He was a sincere and earnest Christian, and while
+attaching himself to the sect of his choice, his sympathies and aid went
+out to the whole Christian Church.
+
+Denominational differences had no place in his heart. He stood on the
+broad platform of the "faith of Christ crucified."
+
+During the last years of his life, Mr. Lawrence was a constant invalid.
+To a man of his temperament this was a great trial, but he bore it
+unflinchingly, exhibiting, in the long years of feeble health which
+preceded his death, a cheerfulness and patience which plainly showed the
+aid of the Arm on which he leaned for support. For sixteen years he did
+not take a meal with his family. His food and drink, of the simplest
+kind, were regularly weighed, a pair of scales being kept in his chamber
+for that purpose. He wrote to his friend President Hopkins, of Williams
+College: "If your young folks want to know the meaning of epicureanism,
+tell them to take some bits of coarse bread (one ounce or a little
+more), soak them in three gills of coarse meal gruel, and make their
+dinner of them, and nothing else; beginning very hungry, and leaving off
+more hungry."
+
+Mr. Lawrence continued in this condition until December, 1852, when he
+was seized with a severe attack of the stomachic trouble to which he was
+a martyr. He died peacefully, on the last day of that month and year, at
+the age of sixty-six years, eight months, and eight days. He was buried
+in Mount Auburn Cemetery, and was followed to the grave by a host of
+friends who mourned him as a brother, and by strangers to whom his
+kindness in life had brought relief from many a care and suffering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ANDREW V. STOUT.
+
+
+There are few men in the city of New York who have won more fairly their
+proud positions in the mercantile world than he whose name stands at the
+top of this page. For more than forty years he has carried on a large
+and increasing business with an energy, skill, and probity which could
+not fail of success.
+
+ANDREW V. STOUT was born in the city of New York, at No. 6 Canal Street,
+or, as it was then called, Pump Street, about the year 1814. When he was
+scarcely more than a child he was left fatherless, and thrown upon his
+own resources for a living. He was a manly little fellow, and, young as
+he was, was fully alive to the importance of the position he was
+compelled to assume. He was resolved not only to support himself, but
+also to acquire a good education, and by studying hard while most boys
+are at play, mastered the ordinary English branches by the time he was
+twelve years old.
+
+He had a mother and sister to support, and applied himself manfully to
+the task of accomplishing this. He was well grown for his age, and was
+generally supposed to be several years older than he really was. When he
+was fourteen years old he applied for and received a position as
+assistant teacher of the English branches in one of the public schools
+of the city. The trustees of the school supposed he was at least
+eighteen or nineteen years old. Had his true age been known to them, it
+is probable he would not have received the appointment. He was not
+questioned upon the subject, and he was wise enough to keep his own
+counsel. He performed the duties of his position to the entire
+satisfaction of the school officials, and made such a good impression on
+his friends that at the age of sixteen he was made assistant principal
+in one of the most important and popular private schools of the day,
+taught by Shepherd Johnson, a name well known to the old residents of
+New York.
+
+He was very young to fill this position, and, as may be supposed, it was
+peculiarly trying to one whose learning was mainly self-acquired. He was
+determined to succeed, however, and he applied himself energetically to
+master the course he was teaching. He studied harder and more constantly
+than any of his pupils, and was always fresh on the lessons for the day.
+
+When he was sixteen years old he was so well grown and so mature that he
+passed for twenty. Having succeeded so well in the management of his
+English classes, he was offered the position of instructor of Latin,
+with an increase of his salary. The offer at first dismayed him. He was
+thoroughly ignorant of the Latin language, and utterly unprepared for
+the duties demanded of him. He was very anxious to have the place,
+however, for he needed the increase of salary offered him, and, after
+hesitating a little while, accepted it. He purchased a Latin grammar,
+and engaged a private tutor. He studied hard, and soon mastered the
+rudiments of the language. In this way he managed to keep ahead of his
+classes. If a question was asked him which he could not answer, he
+postponed his reply, looked into the matter at night, and explained it
+the next morning. By such hard study and patient efforts did this boy,
+himself a mere novice, turn out what was admitted by all to be the best
+drilled Latin class Shepherd Johnson's school had ever boasted of.
+
+When he was eighteen years old he was made principal of Public School
+No. 2 of New York. He was living at Bushwick, where he resided with his
+mother and sister in a cozy little cottage, the garden of which was his
+pride, since he tended it with his own hands. It was his custom to rise
+every morning at four o'clock, and work in his garden until seven. Then
+he rode into the city, and attended to his school duties until four
+o'clock, when he returned home.
+
+He was now in possession of a comfortable living; but he was not
+satisfied to do this and nothing more. He was anxious to win fortune, to
+enter upon a more active and stirring pursuit, and he kept himself
+always on the watch for an opening. About the time he became the head of
+the public school we have referred to, he commenced to engage in various
+ventures of a commercial nature, devoting to them his evenings, and the
+hours of the day not demanded by his school.
+
+One of his relatives was a builder, with a fair trade, and had made some
+money by erecting houses in New York. Young Stout, who had saved a
+little money, proposed to him that they should take out a contract for
+building a number of dwellings on the then fashionable thoroughfare of
+East Broadway. The elder man was pleased with the plan, and at once
+consented to it. The houses were built at a handsome profit; others
+followed them, and by attending closely to this business, as well as his
+other duties, Andrew Stout, by the time he was twenty years old, had
+saved seventeen thousand dollars--a very large sum in those steady-going
+days.
+
+He was greatly aided by the custom of doing business on time, which
+then prevailed, but he never allowed one of his notes to be protested,
+and never asked for an extension. When he began business, he did so with
+the firm resolve that he would conduct his most insignificant
+transaction as a Christian man of honor. If he could not make money
+honestly, he would remain poor. Every body saw the energy and judgment
+with which he conducted his affairs, and the strict integrity which
+marked them all, and he was not long in building up a reputation as a
+business man of which any one might have been proud. The promptness and
+apparent ease with which he met every contract, and took up every note,
+caused it to be generally believed that he was a very rich man. Further
+than this, it was known that he was a zealous and earnest Christian, one
+who carried his religion into his business, and who lived up to his
+professions. He was an active member of the Methodist Church, and the
+business man of the congregation to which he belonged. In his hands its
+finances prospered as they had never done before. Such was the
+reputation of this young man, who had not yet attained his majority.
+
+He held his position in the public school for several years after his
+appointment to it, but the requirements of his business at length
+compelled him to relinquish it.
+
+In the midst of his prosperity Mr. Stout made one mistake. A friend with
+whom he had been interested in building wished to procure some money
+from the bank, and Mr. Stout was induced, with considerable reluctance,
+to indorse his note for five thousand dollars. One false step in
+business, as in other affairs of life, leads to another, and, in order
+to save this money, Mr. Stout was forced to renew his indorsements until
+his liabilities amounted to twenty-three thousand dollars. To his dismay
+he was now informed by the builder for whose sake he had incurred this
+risk, that he (the builder) had failed, without making provision for the
+payment of the notes, and that Mr. Stout would have to account to the
+bank for them.
+
+"Several methods of relief were open to Mr. Stout. He was worth
+seventeen thousand dollars, which he had earned by nights of toil, by
+economy, and by daily and earnest attention to business. To pay the
+notes would not only sweep away every penny that he had, but would leave
+him six thousand dollars in debt. He had never realized one cent from
+the money, and his name was used simply to accommodate the builder.
+Besides, he was not of age, though nobody suspected that fact, and he
+could repudiate his debts as a minor. He took no counsel, made no
+statement of his affairs to any one, shut himself up in his own room,
+and considered thoughtfully what he should do, and then followed out the
+decision that he had reached. Having become bankrupt in money, he
+concluded he would not be so in character. He had earned seventeen
+thousand dollars, and could earn seventeen thousand dollars more. He did
+confide in one friend. He went to a relative, and asked him to lend him
+six thousand dollars, the sum necessary to take up all the notes. The
+relative was astonished at the request, and insisted upon knowing the
+facts in the case. Mr. Stout made a full and frank statement. It was met
+with the remark, 'Well, Andrew, I thought you would be a rich man, but
+if this is the way you do your business, you will never be worth any
+thing,' But Mr. Stout did not want preaching, he wanted money; and as
+the relative seemed to hesitate about loaning the money, as no security
+was offered, Mr. Stout curtly told him he could do as he pleased about
+it; he could get the money somewhere, and pay the notes. The money was
+promised, and he went on his way.
+
+"The bank watched the young financier with a great deal of interest.
+The whole matter had been discussed often in the bank, and the wonder
+was how young Stout would meet the blow. It was supposed that he would
+ask for an extension; and it was agreed to give it to him, and to make
+the time of payment convenient to his ability. Had he proposed to
+compromise the matter by paying one-half, the bank would have accepted
+it. That would have left him a capital of nearly eight thousand dollars
+for a fresh start. Had he offered his seventeen thousand dollars on
+condition that he was released from all liability, the notes would have
+been canceled with alacrity. He did neither. He proposed no compromise,
+asked no extension, and attempted to negotiate no settlement. When the
+first note became due, he paid it. He did the same with the second and
+third. After the third payment, he was called into the office of the
+president. Reference was made to the notes, and to the fact that he had
+obtained no benefit from the money. The president told him the bank was
+ready to renew the notes, and to give him any accommodation that he
+might ask. Mr. Stout simply replied that the blow was a heavy one, but
+that having assumed the obligation, he should discharge it; that he
+asked no favors, and as the notes matured he should take them up. He
+paid every dollar due, and every one was certain that his wealth must be
+very large. His manliness, pluck, and integrity, which carried him
+through that crisis, became the sure foundation-stone on which his great
+fortune was laid. He took the front rank among successful financiers,
+and his honorable course in that crisis established his fame as an
+honest man, in whom it would be safe to confide. Years of earnest and
+active business life have not changed that character, nor allowed a blot
+or stain to cloud that reputation."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Matthew Hale Smith.]
+
+Some years later, Mr. Stout became a merchant. He established a
+wholesale boot and shoe store, and engaged actively in that business. He
+brought to his new calling the energy, prudence, and integrity which had
+distinguished him all through his life, and was successful from the
+first. He worked hard. His business hours were from seven in the morning
+until six in the evening. During his busy season, four months in the
+year, he worked until ten, and often until twelve, paying his employes
+extra wages for labor performed after the regular business hours.
+Sometimes he worked until four in the morning, but that did not deter
+him from being in the store at the usual hour for opening. He was always
+the last to go home, never leaving the store until the business of the
+day was over and the house was closed. He extended his operations into
+dry goods, meeting with equal success in this department. As his
+business expanded, he was compelled to form various partnerships, but in
+all these arrangements he reserved to himself, like Stewart, the
+exclusive management of the finances.
+
+About eighteen years ago, the shoe and leather merchants of the city
+decided to organize a bank, in which their interests should be the
+principal consideration. Mr. Stout engaged in the effort with great
+enthusiasm, and the Shoe and Leather Bank of New York was at length
+organized under the most auspicious circumstances. Mr. Stout was the
+largest stockholder in the new bank, and was elected one of its
+directors. His influence was potent in directing its first operations,
+and the next year he was elected vice-president, in which position he
+really had the control of the enterprise left to him. A year later he
+was elected president of the bank, a position which he still holds,
+being in point of service the oldest bank president in New York. Upon
+questions of banking and finance, his views are listened to with great
+respect by his associates, who have proof of their soundness in the
+splendid success of the institution over which he presides; and it may
+be truly said that there are few men in the city who enjoy so large a
+share of the public confidence as is bestowed upon him.
+
+As a citizen, he is public-spirited and liberal. Some years ago, he held
+the office of city chamberlain, and during his administration of it a
+difficulty arose in regard to paying the police force their wages.
+Knowing that the men and their families would suffer if the money were
+not promptly paid them, Mr. Stout generously advanced the necessary sum
+from his private means, looking to the city to reimburse him. In
+grateful acknowledgment of this practical sympathy for them, the force
+presented him with a handsome testimonial. His fortune is immense, and
+is used liberally in behalf of the cause of the Christian religion. His
+charities are said to be large, but one rarely hears of them, so quietly
+are they done. He is married and has a family.
+
+No man's career holds out more encouragement to young men seeking to
+rise than that of Andrew V. Stout. It shows that courage, patient
+industry, and business capacity will bring fortune to any honest worker.
+His uniform success speaks volumes in favor of a young man's striving to
+lead a Christian life in the midst of his business cares and struggles.
+God's blessing follows such an one at every step, and he will succeed in
+the end, whatever trials may beset his path at first. It is a great
+mistake to suppose that a man's success depends on his "sharpness."
+Shrewdness is a valuable quality, but it must be coupled with a plain,
+practical honesty, or it will amount to nothing in the end. A man must
+be faithful to his God if he would have his work stand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+JONAS CHICKERING.
+
+
+On Tremont Street, in the City of Boston, near the Roxbury line, there
+stands an immense building of brick, said to be larger than any edifice
+in the United States, save the Capitol at Washington. It is built in the
+form of a hollow square, with a large court-yard in the center, and the
+building and court-yard together cover an area of five acres. It is five
+stories in height on the outer side, and six on the inner, the
+court-yard being one story lower than the street. The building is two
+hundred and sixty-two feet in length from east to west, and two hundred
+and forty-five from north to south, the shorter distance being the
+length on Tremont Street. The width of the building all around the
+court-yard is fifty feet. It contains nine hundred windows, with eleven
+thousand panes of glass, and when lighted up at night seems almost a
+solid mass of fire. From five to six hundred men are employed here in
+various capacities, and an immense steam engine of one hundred and
+twenty horse-power furnishes the motive power for the machinery.
+Altogether, it is one of the most prominent and interesting of all the
+sights of Boston, and the visitor is surprised to learn that it is due
+entirely to the energy and genius of one who, but thirty-four years
+previous to its erection, came to Boston a penniless stranger. The
+building is the famous piano-forte manufactory of Chickering & Sons, and
+its founder was Jonas Chickering, the subject of this sketch.
+
+JONAS CHICKERING was born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, on the 5th of
+April, 1798. His father was a blacksmith by trade, and employed his
+leisure time in cultivating a small farm of which he was the owner. He
+was esteemed by his neighbors as an upright, reliable man, and prudent
+and careful in his temporal affairs. The family being poor, young Jonas
+was required to do his share toward cultivating the farm, and received
+only such education as was afforded by the district schools in the
+vicinity. He was noted at an early age for his passionate love of music.
+When a mere child, he learned to play on the fife, and was such a
+proficient performer that he was called upon with the town drummer to
+furnish music for the militia musters, which were then the pride of the
+town. These were happy days for the lad, but his pleasure was marred by
+the ridicule which the contrast between his slender figure and the
+stalwart frame of the "six-foot drummer" caused the fun-loving
+towns-people to indulge in. Soon after this he learned to play on the
+clarionet, and when only seventeen or eighteen years old, was so
+advanced in his art that he could read at sight music of the most
+difficult character.
+
+At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker to learn
+his trade, and remained with him for three years, exerting himself to
+become thorough master of every detail of the business. Toward the close
+of his apprenticeship, an event occurred which changed the whole current
+of his life, and placed him in what proved to him the road to fame and
+fortune.
+
+One of the wealthiest citizens of New Ipswich was the fortunate owner of
+a piano, the only instrument of the kind in the place; but his treasure
+was almost useless to him, for the reason that it was out of tune and
+seriously damaged in some respects. It had lain in this condition for a
+long time, no one in or near the place being able to make the necessary
+repairs. In this extremity the owner bethought him of Jonas Chickering,
+who had acquired an enviable reputation for skill in his trade, and it
+was thought that a good cabinet-maker ought of necessity to be a clever
+piano-maker. Young Chickering, thus appealed to, consented to undertake
+the task, as much for the purpose of becoming familiar with the
+instrument as of earning the sum the owner of it proposed to pay for the
+repairs. He had not the slightest knowledge of its internal
+organization, but he believed that by patient investigation he could
+master it, and he knew that the correctness of his ear would enable him
+to tune it. He made a careful study of the instrument and of every
+separate part, spent days over the task, discovered the injury and the
+cause of it, and not only took the instrument to pieces and restored it
+to its former condition, but did his work so well that the piano was
+pronounced fully as good in every respect as when it was new. This was
+not all. He discovered defects in the instrument which even its maker
+was not able to remedy, and his fertile brain at once suggested to him a
+plan for removing them.
+
+Here was a chance for him, and he resolved to profit by it. He would
+abandon cabinet-making and learn the manufacture of pianos. Then, when
+master of his trade, he would make use of his discoveries, and earn both
+fame and fortune. When his determination to change his business was made
+known, his friends attributed it to his desire to be in the midst of
+musical instruments, and where he could gratify his love of music; but
+this was only a part of the motive which influenced him. He meant to
+rise in the world, and he was sure that he held in his hands the means
+of doing so.
+
+In 1818, when twenty years old, he removed to Boston, and obtained
+employment with a cabinet-maker. He did this in order to give him time
+to look about him, to become familiar with the city and city life, and
+to acquire such other information as would enable him to decide upon the
+best means of putting his plans into execution. He saved his wages with
+the greatest care, and at the end of his first year in Boston had
+accumulated a modest little sum, which he meant should support him while
+he was learning his new trade.
+
+On the 15th of February, 1819, without the loss of a day, he began work
+with a piano-maker.
+
+He had now entered upon what he meant should be the business of his
+life, and he was resolved that he would be master of it. From the first
+he took rank in his employer's factory as the most careful workman in
+it. He spared no pains to make his knowledge full in every detail. Time
+was of no consequence compared with knowledge, and he was never anxious
+to hurry through with his work. It soon came to be recognized by his
+employer and fellow-workmen that he was the best fitted for those
+portions of the work upon the instrument which required the greatest
+patience as well as the greatest care, and the most difficult and
+delicate work was always intrusted to him, his wages being, of course,
+in proportion. Other men had no thought but to earn a living. This man
+meant to win fame and fortune, and to enlarge the scope of that art to
+which he was so passionately devoted. He labored with his mind as well
+as his hands, familiarizing himself with every detail of the
+manufacture, and devising in silence the means for improving the
+instrument and the implements used in its construction. He could afford
+to wait, to be slower than his fellows. Every moment spent over his
+task made his workmanship the better, and opened to his mind new sources
+of improvement. He spent three years as a journeyman, and then went into
+business for himself. He associated himself with a Mr. Stewart, under
+the firm of Stewart & Chickering.
+
+Fifty years ago the piano-forte was a wretched piece of mechanism
+compared with the superb instrument of to-day. It was originally a
+progressive growth from the ancient lyre, through the harp, psaltery,
+dulcimer, clavictherium, clavichord, virginal, spinet, harpsichord, to
+the piano of Christofali in the early years of the last century. At the
+period of Mr. Chickering's entrance into business, it was still very
+imperfect, and the various manufacturers of the instrument were
+earnestly endeavoring to discover some means of remedying the defects of
+which they were all conscious. There are four divisions in the
+manufacture of a piano, each of which requires great skill and care.
+These are: First, The making of the framing and the sound-board; Second,
+The stringing; Third, The keys and action; Fourth, The case and
+ornamental work. The framing requires strength and simplicity. It is
+this portion of the instrument which sustains the tension of the
+strings, which in full to large-sized pianos is not less than from six
+to twelve tons, and it is a matter of prime necessity that the portions
+which serve as a strut or stretcher between the ends of the strings, and
+which are to resist this enormous pull, must be made correspondingly
+strong and rigid, since by any gradual yielding under the pull of the
+strings, their lengths and tensions, and hence their tone, must undergo
+proportionate change. In the old pianos, the frames were of wood, and it
+was impossible to use any but small, short strings, for the reason given
+above. Fullness and power were not to be thought of, and builders were
+obliged to confine themselves to securing truthfulness of tone. A
+multitude of causes, among which were the changes in the weather,
+combined to render it impossible to keep the old-fashioned instrument in
+tune. It was this defect which first attracted the attention of Jonas
+Chickering, and his first endeavor was to produce an instrument which
+would withstand the climatic changes which were so troublesome to the
+old ones. He was fully aware of the fact that the piano trade in this
+country was then so unimportant that it offered but little inducement to
+a man who could manufacture only the old instrument; but he believed
+that by producing an instrument of better proportions, and one fuller,
+richer, and more lasting in tone, he could create a demand for it which
+would insure the sale of all he could manufacture. His hope of success
+lay not in the old, but in an improved and nobler instrument. That he
+was correct in his belief, the magnificent instrument of to-day which
+bears his name, and the lucrative business he has left to his sons,
+amply demonstrate. Others besides himself were working for the same end,
+and he knew that he would have to bear the test of determined and
+intelligent competition. He applied himself to his purpose with
+enthusiasm. He carefully studied the theory of atmospheric vibration and
+musical combination, as well as an application of the principles of
+mechanical philosophy to the construction of the instrument. He went
+deep into the science involved in his work, into the philosophy of
+melody. Passionately devoted to music, he was ambitious of placing that
+which has been so truly called "the king of instruments" within the
+reach of all lovers of harmony, and to give them the best instrument
+that human invention could produce--an instrument which should not only
+withstand atmospheric changes, but which should yield the richest,
+fullest volume of melody, with the least exertion to the performer. His
+progress was slow, but it was sure. Beginning with an improvement in
+the action, he accomplished, in a great measure (in 1838), his plan for
+preserving the permanence and purity of the tone of the instrument by
+casting the entire iron framing with the parallel bars in one piece.
+Iron had for some time before this been in general use for framing, but
+the frame was cast in a few separate parts, which were put together by
+means of bolts and screws, a plan which is still used to a considerable
+extent in Europe. By his plan of casting the frame and its supporting
+bars in one solid piece, Mr. Chickering not only prevented the frame
+from yielding to the pull of the strings, thus securing permanence and
+purity of tone, but was enabled to use larger frames and more strings,
+which greatly increased the capacity of the instrument.
+
+Several other improvements were made by him, the most important of which
+was the invention, in 1845, of the circular scale for square pianos,
+which is now in general use in this country and in Europe. "This consists
+in giving to the row of tuning pins and wrest-planks--previously
+straight in these instruments--a curved disposition, answering nearly to
+an arc of a circle, the advantage being that the strings become less
+crowded, larger hammers, and a more direct blow can be secured, and the
+tone is both strengthened and improved." With a rare generosity, Mr.
+Chickering declined to patent this improvement, which would have enabled
+him to drive competition out of the market. He regarded it as so
+necessary to a good piano that he declared that all makers ought to have
+the use of it, as it would thus be within the power of all persons able
+to purchase a piano to avail themselves of it, whether they bought a
+"Chickering" or not. Such generosity is too rare to fail to receive the
+praise it merits.
+
+Mr. Chickering did not continue long in business with Mr. Stewart. The
+latter withdrew in a few years, and Mr. Chickering carried on the
+business alone. In 1830 he formed a partnership with Captain John
+Mackay, a retired ship-merchant. In the new firm Captain Mackay took
+charge of the finances and the office business, while Mr. Chickering
+devoted himself entirely to the mechanical department. The operations of
+the new house were very successful. The improvements made by Mr.
+Chickering from the first created a demand for their instruments which
+was sometimes so great that it was difficult to supply it. This demand
+continued to increase, until the house was perfectly easy as to money
+matters, and able to enlarge its facilities very greatly. It was Mr.
+Chickering's design that each separate instrument should be an
+improvement upon those which had preceded it, and he was careful that
+this plan should not miscarry. In a few years the firm was enabled to
+import the foreign materials needed, by the cargo, thus saving the
+profit which they had hitherto been compelled to pay the importer.
+Besides this saving, they were enabled to keep on hand a large stock of
+the woods used in the instrument, and thus it was allowed to become more
+thoroughly seasoned than that which they had been compelled to purchase,
+from time to time, in small quantities. In 1841, Captain Mackay sailed
+from Boston for South America, for the purpose of obtaining a supply of
+the woods needed by the firm; but he never returned, and as no tidings
+of him or his ship were ever received, it is supposed that the vessel
+went down at sea with all on board.
+
+Mr. Chickering now decided to continue the business without a partner.
+His friends supposed that in assuming the management of the concern, in
+addition to the direction of the mechanical department, and the constant
+mental labor to which he subjected himself in his efforts to improve the
+piano, he was undertaking more than he was capable of performing. They
+feared his health would break down under it. Besides, it was generally
+believed that, in spite of Mr. Chickering's undoubted skill in his own
+department, he was not much of a business man. He was confident of his
+own ability, however, and did not hesitate to assume the new
+responsibility.
+
+The business of which he now became the owner was very heavy and
+extensive. Soon after the beginning of his connection with Captain
+Mackay, the firm erected a large factory for the purpose of carrying on
+their business. One hundred hands were employed in it when opened, but
+in a few years it was necessary to employ more than twice that number,
+so rapidly did the business increase. The supply of materials needed was
+ample and of the very best quality, for Mr. Chickering never allowed an
+inferior article to be used. The warerooms were large and handsomely
+fitted up, and were filled with instruments ranging in price from a
+thousand dollars downward. It was generally believed that while Mr.
+Chickering's genius had created the demand for the pianos, it was
+Captain Mackay's business knowledge and experience that had placed
+affairs on their present footing, and when Mr. Chickering proposed to
+buy Captain Mackay's interest from his heirs, which was valued at
+several hundred thousand dollars, there was a very general belief, which
+found expression, that he was incurring certain ruin. The condition of
+the sale was that the purchase-money should be divided into
+installments, for each of which Mr. Chickering should give his note,
+secured by a mortgage on the premises. At Mr. Chickering's request each
+note was made payable "on or before" a given day. The lawyer who
+conducted the transaction smiled skeptically as he inserted this clause,
+and asked the purchaser if he _ever_ expected to pay the notes at all.
+
+"If I did not expect to pay them promptly, I should not give them," was
+the simple reply. He was as good as his word. The notes were met
+promptly, and although Captain Mackay's family requested that they might
+stand as an investment for them, Mr. Chickering took up the last one at
+its maturity.
+
+With the business in his own hands, Mr. Chickering continued its
+operations, displaying an ease in his mercantile transactions which
+astonished and delighted his friends. The business prospered to a
+greater degree than before, and all the while Mr. Chickering continued
+his labors for the improvement of his instruments with still greater
+success than in former years. His pianos were universally regarded as
+the best in the market, and his competitors were unable to excel him.
+Although conducting a business which required the constant exercise of
+the highest mercantile talent, he did not relax his energy in the
+mechanical department. To the end of his life, long after he had become
+a wealthy and prominent man, he had his own little working-cabinet, with
+an exquisite set of tools, with which he himself put the finishing touch
+to each of his splendid instruments, a touch he would not intrust to any
+other hands.
+
+His competitors did all in their power to equal him, but he distanced
+them all. One of them adopted a most startling expedient. He obtained
+permission from the Legislature of Massachusetts to change his name to
+_Chickering_, and at once sent out his instruments marked with his new
+name, his object of course being to deceive the public, and Jonas
+Chickering had the mortification of seeing the inferior instruments of
+another maker mistaken for his own. He promptly laid before the
+Legislature a petition for redress, setting forth the facts of the case
+and the motives of his rival. The result was that the Legislature
+reconsidered its action, and compelled the bogus Chickering to resume
+his original name.
+
+Mr. Chickering was noted for his simplicity and straight-forwardness in
+business transactions. Conscious of his own integrity, he listened to no
+proposition of a doubtful character, nor would he ever allow his credit
+as a merchant to be questioned with impunity. Upon one occasion, he
+applied through his clerk to the bank, with which he had dealt for many
+years, for an accommodation which he needed. The president of the bank
+sent for him, and told him that security would be required.
+
+"I shall give you none," he replied. "I have done my business at this
+bank for a long time, and if you do not know me, I shall apply where I
+am better known."
+
+The president was firm in his position, and Mr. Chickering applied to
+another bank, which readily granted him the desired discount, and to
+which he at once transferred his business, which was worth to the bank
+about ten thousand dollars a year. Shortly after, a director of the
+institution at which he had formerly dealt called on him, and urged him
+to restore his business to the bank, assuring him that in future it
+would readily grant him any accommodation he might desire.
+
+"No," he replied; "I will deal with no institution which, having had the
+opportunity of knowing me, suspects my responsibility."
+
+Again having need of accommodation, he sent his notes for a large sum to
+one of the city banks for discount. The president said an indorser would
+be required.
+
+"I shall indorse them myself," said Mr. Chickering.
+
+"That will never do," replied the president.
+
+"Very well," was the simple answer, and, without further words, he took
+the notes to another bank, which promptly loaned him the money on them.
+
+He tolerated no irregularity in his own business. He was true to the
+spirit as well as to the letter of a contract, and never, during the
+whole course of his long life, was he guilty of a transaction in which
+the most rigid moralist could find a taint of sharp practice. What a
+refutation of the theories of those who hold that cunning and trickery
+are unavoidable some time in the course of a long and successful
+mercantile career lies in the story of this man, who, beginning life
+penniless, filled with a burning ambition to be rich and famous, never
+swerved from the straight path of integrity, and by the exercise of only
+the highest traits of his nature more than realized his boyish dreams!
+Ponder it well, young man, and learn from it that honesty is indeed the
+best policy in any calling.
+
+Mr. Chickering had married early in life, and now had three sons just
+entering upon manhood. These were carefully educated at the public
+schools for which Boston is so justly famed, and then put into their
+father's factory to learn the mechanical part of the business. It was
+the father's ambition to be succeeded by his sons, but he was not
+willing to trust the labor of his life to ignorant or incompetent hands.
+At the age of seventeen, Thomas Chickering, the eldest son, was taken
+from school, and, under his father's eye, taught every detail of the
+mechanical branch of the business, until he understood it as well as the
+senior Chickering himself. George, the second son, in due time passed
+through the same course of training; while Francis, the youngest, was
+brought up in the warehouse. The father thoroughly imbued his sons with
+his own system and energy, and to-day we see the result. The firm of
+Chickering & Sons is still the most prominent in America. Thomas is now
+the acting head of the house, and has led it on to continued success;
+Francis is the presiding genius of the mechanical department, and has
+made many important improvements in the field in which his father won
+success; and George exercises a general supervision at the immense
+factory in Boston. The mantle of the father has fallen upon the sons,
+and his labors have found their highest reward in their success.
+
+Mr. Chickering's good fortune was not entirely uninterrupted. On the 1st
+of December, 1852, his factory was burned to the ground, with all its
+valuable patterns, stock, etc., involving a loss to him of two hundred
+thousand dollars. The interruption to his business was very serious,
+apart from the loss of his property. Expressions of sympathy poured in
+upon him from his friends, coupled with offers of pecuniary assistance
+in his efforts to reestablish his business. His disaster seemed merely
+to inspire him with fresh energy, but the kindness of his friends
+entirely overcame him.
+
+[Illustration: "MY MEN SHALL NOT SUFFER."]
+
+He wasted no time in vain regrets, but at once went to work. He was
+fifty-four years old, but he showed an energy and determination which
+more than rivaled the fire of his young manhood. The loss of his factory
+was not only a severe blow to him, but to the three hundred workmen who
+had been employed in it, and who were dependent upon their wages for
+their support. His first care was to assure them that they should not
+suffer, but that they should continue to receive their wages as
+regularly as though nothing had happened to interrupt their labor. He
+had always been kind and generous to his employes, paying liberal wages,
+and rewarding especial merit, but this act of kindness did more to
+endear him to them than any previous benefaction. Having provided for
+his men, he set to work to prepare temporary accommodations for his
+business, and then began his arrangements for the construction of a new
+factory. He took a great degree of interest in the plans for the new
+building, the architect being almost entirely guided by his suggestions,
+and the result of his labors is the magnificent building to which
+reference was made at the opening of this chapter. He did not live to
+see it completed, however. He died at the house of a friend from the
+rupture of a blood-vessel, produced, it is believed, by severe mental
+labor, on the 8th of December, 1853. His fortune at the time of his
+death was estimated at a quarter of a million of dollars. His sons
+assumed the charge of the business, which they still conduct.
+
+The loss of Mr. Chickering was felt by all classes of his
+fellow-citizens--especially by the poor. To them he had been a kind and
+generous friend. Distress never appealed to him in vain, and he proved a
+faithful steward of the riches committed to his care. Yet he performed
+his charities with such a modesty and reticence that few beside the
+grateful recipients were aware of them. Indeed, it was his custom to
+enjoin secrecy upon those whom he assisted; but they would not remain
+quiet. His liberality is in striking contrast with the closeness of many
+who were worth more than twenty times his wealth, but who lacked his
+warm and sympathizing nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+NICHOLAS LONGWORTH.
+
+
+The grape culture of the United States is yet in its infancy. Although
+the annual wine product is estimated at nearly three millions of
+gallons, there can be no doubt that ere many years shall have elapsed
+America will rank as one of the most important wine countries of the
+world. California is already extending her vineyards for miles along her
+smiling valleys, where the clear sky and the balmy air, which are
+unchangeable at the season of the grape harvest, permit a degree of
+perfection in the fruit unattainable in any European country. Already
+her wines are commanding an enviable place in the markets of the world,
+with no apparent limits to the growing demand for them. The hillsides of
+the lower Ohio Valley are lined with thriving vineyards, whose rich
+clusters of Catawba and Isabella grapes delight the eye on every hand,
+and thousands of acres are now given to successful grape culture, where
+formerly only a few straggling vines were seen. More than five hundred
+thousand gallons of wine are now annually produced in the neighborhood
+of Cincinnati alone, and find a market in that city, and what was but a
+few years ago a mere experiment is now one of the chief sources of the
+wonderful prosperity of the Ohio Valley, and one of the most important
+features in the commerce of the Queen City of the West. The success
+which has attended this branch of our industry must be a matter of
+congratulation to the whole country, and the man to whose courage,
+energy, and liberality it is mainly due must be regarded as a public
+benefactor.
+
+This man, NICHOLAS LONGWORTH by name, was born at Newark, New Jersey, on
+the 16th of January, 1782. His father had been a man of large property,
+but in consequence of being a Tory during the Revolution, his
+possessions were confiscated, and he and his family impoverished. Young
+Nicholas's childhood was passed in indigence, and it is said that he was
+apprenticed to a shoemaker, when a mere lad, to learn the trade as a
+means of livelihood. However this may be, it is certain that when very
+young he went to South Carolina as a clerk for his elder brother. The
+climate of the South, however, did not suit his health, and he returned
+to Newark, and began the study of the law.
+
+He was poor, and the East was overcrowded, even at that early day, and
+offered but few inducements to a young man entirely dependent upon his
+own efforts. Ohio was then the "Far West," and emigration was setting in
+toward it rapidly. Those who had seen the country related what then
+seemed marvelous tales of its wonderful fertility and progress. Few
+professional men were seeking the distant land, and Longworth felt
+convinced that the services of such as did go would assuredly be in
+demand, and he resolved to cast his lot with the West.
+
+In 1803, at the age of twenty-one, he removed to the little village of
+Cincinnati, and, having fixed upon this place as his future home,
+entered the law office of Judge Jacob Burnet, long the ablest jurist in
+Ohio. He soon won the confidence and esteem of his instructor, and
+succeeded so well in his studies that in an unusually short time he was
+admitted to the bar.
+
+He entered upon the practice of his profession with energy, and soon
+acquired a profitable business, which increased rapidly. He was a man of
+simple habits, and lived economically. His savings were considerable,
+and were regularly invested by him in real estate in the suburbs of the
+town. Land was cheap at that time, some of his lots costing him but ten
+dollars each. Long before his death they were worth more than as many
+thousands. He had a firm conviction that Cincinnati was destined to
+become one of the largest and most flourishing cities in the Union, and
+that his real estate would increase in value at a rate which would
+render him wealthy in a very few years.
+
+His first client was a man accused of horse-stealing, in those days the
+most heinous offense known to Western law. Longworth secured his
+acquittal, but the fellow had no money to pay his counsel, and in the
+absence of funds gave Longworth two second-hand copper stills, which
+were his property. These the lawyer accepted, thinking that he could
+easily dispose of them for cash, as they were rare and valuable there in
+those days. They were in the keeping of Mr. Joel Williams, who carried
+on a tavern adjacent to the river, and who was afterward one of the
+largest property-holders in Cincinnati. Mr. Williams was building a
+distillery at the time, and, as he had confidently reckoned upon using
+the two stills in his possession, was considerably nonplussed when
+Longworth presented his order for them. In his extremity he offered to
+purchase them from the lawyer for a lot of thirty-three acres of barren
+land in the town, which was then worth little or nothing. Longworth
+hesitated, for although he had an almost prophetic belief in the future
+value of the land, he was sorely in need of ready money; but at length
+he accepted the offer. The deed for the land was made out in his name,
+and the stills became the property of Mr. Williams. The distillery was
+built, and its owner realized a fortune; but Longworth did more. His
+thirty-three acres of barren land were soon in the very heart of
+Cincinnati, and long before his death were valued at two millions of
+dollars.
+
+The foresight of Mr. Longworth was fully justified by the course of
+events. The growth of Cincinnati was almost marvelous in its rapidity.
+In 1802, it contained about 800 inhabitants; in 1810, 2,540; in 1820,
+9,060; in 1830, 24,831; in 1840, 46,338; in 1850, 118,761; and in 1860,
+just three years before Mr. Longworth's death, 171,293 inhabitants. The
+reader can easily imagine the immense profits which a half century's
+increase placed in the hands of the far-seeing lawyer. It seems almost
+like reading some old fairy tale to peruse the accounts of successful
+ventures in real estate in American cities. They have sprung up as if by
+magic, and it is impossible to say where their development will end.
+Said a gentleman of less than thirty-five years of age to the writer of
+these pages, "I am the oldest native-born citizen of Chicago. When I
+first saw the light, my native place could not boast even the dignity of
+a village; and young as I am, I have witnessed all this wonderful
+growth." The prosperity of Cincinnati was scarcely less marked, as the
+career of Mr. Longworth shows. The investment of a comparatively
+insignificant sum laid the foundation of his fortune, and the first
+counsel fee he ever earned, a sum trifling in itself, placed him in
+possession of millions.
+
+Mr. Longworth continued carefully to invest his gains in real estate.
+The prices paid by him increased, of course, with the rise in the value
+of property, but as he was persuaded that the limit had not yet been
+reached, he extended his operations without fear of loss. He sold many
+of his original purchases, but continued until the day of his death the
+largest land-owner in the city. In 1850 his taxes were over $17,000, and
+in the same year the taxes of William B. Astor amounted to $23,116. At
+the time of his death Mr. Longworth's estate was valued at fifteen
+millions of dollars, and is doubtless worth fully one-third more at the
+present day.
+
+Mr. Longworth retired from the practice of the law in 1819, to devote
+himself to the management of his property, which was already
+sufficiently important to require his undivided attention. He had always
+been an enthusiast in horticultural matters, and believing that the
+climate of the Ohio Valley was admirably adapted to the production of
+grapes, had for some time been making experiments in that direction; but
+he fell into the error of believing that only the foreign vines were
+worth cultivating, and his experiments were unsuccessful. The foreign
+grape did not mature well, and the wine produced from it was not good.
+In 1828 his friend Major Adlum sent him some specimens of the Catawba
+grape, which he had procured from the garden of a German living near
+Washington City, and be began to experiment with it in his own vineyard.
+
+The Catawba grape, now so popular and well-known throughout the country,
+was then a comparative stranger to our people, and was regarded even by
+many who were acquainted with it as unfit for vintage purposes. It was
+first discovered in a wild condition about 1801, near Asheville,
+Buncombe County, North Carolina, near the source of the Catawba River.
+General Davy, of Rocky Mount, on that river, afterward Senator from
+North Carolina, is supposed to have given the German in whose garden
+Major Adlum found the grape a few of the vines to experiment upon.
+General Davy always regarded the bringing of this grape into notice as
+the greatest act of his life. "I have done my country a greater benefit
+in introducing this grape into public notice," said he, in after years,
+"than I would have done if I had paid the national debt."
+
+Mr. Longworth's experiments with the Catawba were highly successful,
+and induced him to abandon all his efforts with foreign vines, and
+undertake only the Catawba, to which he afterward added the Isabella. He
+now entered systematically upon grape-growing. He established a large
+vineyard upon a hillside sloping down to the river, about four miles
+above the city, and employed German laborers, whose knowledge of
+vine-dressing, acquired in the Fatherland, made them the best workmen he
+could have. He caused it to be announced that all the grape juice
+produced by the small growers in the vicinity would find a cash
+purchaser in him, no matter in what quantities offered. At the same time
+he offered n reward of five hundred dollars for any improvement in the
+quality of the Catawba grape.
+
+The enthusiasm which he manifested, as well as the liberality of his
+offer, had a decidedly beneficial effect upon the small growers in the
+neighborhood. "It proved a great stimulus to the growth of the Catawba
+vine in the country around Cincinnati," to know that a man of Mr.
+Longworth's means stood ready to pay cash, at the rate of from a dollar
+to a dollar and a quarter a gallon, for all the grape-juice that might
+be brought to him, without reference to the quantity. It was in this
+way, and by urgent popular appeals through the columns of the
+newspapers, that he succeeded, after many failures, and against the
+depressing influence of much doubt and indifference, in bringing the
+enterprise up to its present high and stable position. When he took the
+matter in hand there was much to discourage any one not possessed of the
+traits of constancy of purpose and perseverance peculiar to Mr.
+Longworth. Many had tried the manufacture of wine, and had failed to
+give it any economical or commercial importance. It was not believed,
+until Mr. Longworth practically demonstrated it, that a native grape
+was the only one upon which any hope could be placed, and that the
+Catawba offered the most assured promise of success, and was the one
+upon which all vine-growers might with confidence depend. It took years
+of unremitted care, multiplied and wide-spread investigations, and the
+expenditure of large sums of money, to establish this fact, and bring
+the agricultural community to accept it and act under its guidance. The
+success attained by Mr. Longworth soon induced other gentlemen resident
+in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and favorably situated for the purpose,
+to undertake the culture of the Catawba, and several of them are now
+regularly and extensively engaged in the manufacture of wine. The
+impetus and encouragement thus given to the business soon led the German
+citizens of Hamilton County to perceive its advantages, and, under their
+thrifty management, thousands of acres, stretching up from the banks of
+the Ohio, are now covered with luxuriant and profitable vineyards,
+rivaling in profusion and beauty the vine-clad hills of Italy and
+France. The oldest vineyard in the county of Hamilton is of Mr.
+Longworth's planting.
+
+Mr. Longworth subsequently increased the size of his vineyard to two
+hundred acres, and toward the close of his life his wine houses annually
+produced one hundred and fifty thousand bottles of wine. His vaults
+usually contained a stock of three hundred thousand bottles in course of
+thorough ripening.
+
+His cellars were situated on the declivity of East Sixth Street, on the
+road to Observatory Hill. They occupied a space ninety feet by one
+hundred and twenty-five in size, and consisted of two tiers of massive
+stone vaults, the lower of which was twenty-five feet below the surface
+of the ground. The manufacture of the wine was placed under the charge
+of a celebrated chemist from Rheims, and the mode of preparation was as
+follows:
+
+After the pressing of the grape, the juice is subjected to the vinous
+fermentation, by which ten or eleven per cent, of alcohol is developed.
+In the following spring, it is mixed with a small quantity of sugar, and
+put into strong bottles, the corks of which are secured with twine and
+wire. The sugar accelerates a second fermentation, which always takes
+place about this time, and thus a strong movement is produced inside the
+glass, which generates gas enough to burst the vessels briskly, adding
+thereby considerably to the cost. This is known as the gaseous
+fermentation, and the effect of it is to render the wine more
+enlivening, more stinging to the taste, and more fruity. "This last
+effect results from this, that the flavor of the fruit mostly passes off
+with the carbonic acid gas, which is largely generated in the first or
+vinous fermentation, and in a less degree in this second or gaseous
+fermentation." It is impossible to avoid the loss of the flavor in the
+first fermentation, but the strong bottles and securely-fastened corks
+preserve it in the second. The liquid, which is muddy at first, becomes
+clear in about a year, a thick sediment having collected at the bottom
+of the bottle. The bottles are then placed in racks, with their necks
+downward, and are shaken vigorously every day for about three weeks.
+This forces the sediment to settle down in the neck against the cork.
+When it is all in the neck, the wires are cut, and the cork blown out by
+the gas, carrying the sediment with it. Fresh sugar, for sweetness, is
+now added, new corks are driven in and secured, and in a few weeks the
+wine is ready for the market.
+
+Mr. Longworth continued his wine trade with great success for about
+twenty-five years, and though for some time his expenditures were
+largely in excess of his income from this source, he at length reaped a
+steady and increasing profit from it, which more than reimbursed him for
+his former losses. He was very fond of the strawberry, and succeeded,
+by careful and expensive cultivation, in making several very important
+improvements in that delicious fruit. His experiments in the sexual
+character of the strawberry are highly interesting, but must be passed
+by here. He manifested no selfishness with respect to his fruits. He was
+anxious that their cultivation should become general, and his
+discoveries and improvements were always at the service of any and every
+one who desired to make use of them.
+
+He was thoroughly devoted to his adopted home, and anxious to secure its
+steady improvement. When it was proposed to establish an observatory,
+the Mount Adams property, then owned by him, was regarded as the most
+fitting site for it. He was asked to name the price for which he would
+sell the property. To the astonishment of the parties in charge of the
+enterprise, he made a free gift of the land--four acres in extent--to
+the trustees. A gentleman who had hoped to dispose of some of his own
+property for this purpose charged Mr. Longworth, through the press, with
+being influenced by a desire to improve his adjoining property by the
+erection of the observatory on Mount Adams. Longworth promptly replied
+that if the writer of the article in question would donate four acres of
+his own property for an observatory, he (Longworth) would put up, at his
+own expense, a building on it equal to that which had been erected on
+Mount Adams, and transfer the latter place to the city as a permanent
+pleasure ground. He quietly added that in this way his accuser might
+himself receive, for his adjacent property, all the benefits of such an
+improvement, and at the same time win for himself the lasting gratitude
+of the people of Cincinnati. This settled the matter, and no more was
+heard from the other side.
+
+"Longworth," says one who knew him, "is a problem and a riddle--a
+problem worthy of the study of those who delight in exploring that
+labyrinth of all that is hidden and mysterious, the human heart; and a
+riddle to himself and others. He is a wit and a humorist of a high
+order; of keen sagacity and shrewdness in many other respects than in
+money matters; one who can be exact to a dollar, and liberal, when he
+chooses, with thousands; of marked peculiarity and tenacity in his own
+opinions, yet of abundant tolerance to the opinions, however
+extravagant, of others--a man of great public spirit and sound general
+judgment.
+
+"In addition to all this, it would be difficult to find an individual of
+his position and standing so perfectly free from pride, in the ordinary
+sense. He has absolutely none, unless it be the pride of eccentricity.
+It is no uncommon circumstance for men to become rich by the
+concentration of time, and labor, and attention to some one object of
+profitable employment. This is the ordinary phase of money-getting, as
+closing the ear and pocket to applications for aid is that of
+money-saving. Longworth has become a rich man on a different principle.
+He appears to have started upon the calculation that if he could put any
+individual in the way of making a dollar for Longworth, and a dollar for
+himself at the same time, by aiding him with ground for a lot, or in
+building him a house on it; and if, moreover, he could multiply cases of
+the kind by hundreds, or perhaps thousands, he would promote his own
+interests just in the same measure as he was advancing those of others.
+At the same time he could not be unconscious that, while their half was
+subdivided into small possessions, owned by a thousand or more
+individuals, his half was a vast, boundless aggregate, since it was the
+property of one man alone. The event has done justice to his sagacity.
+Hundreds, if not thousands, in and adjacent to Cincinnati, now own
+houses and lots, and many have become wealthy, who would, in all
+probability, have lived and died as tenants under a different state of
+case. Had not Mr. Longworth adopted this course, he would have occupied
+that relation to society which many wealthy men now sustain, that of
+getting all they can and keeping all they get."
+
+In politics, Mr. Longworth was a Whig, and afterward a Republican.
+During the famous Clay campaign he was asked to give one hundred dollars
+to help defray the expenses of the party.
+
+"I never give something for nothing," said he. "We might fail to elect
+Clay, as we did before, and I should fling away the hundred dollars."
+
+The applicant, who was himself a man of wealth, assured him that there
+was no doubt of Clay's election.
+
+"There can be no chance of your losing," he said.
+
+"Well," replied Longworth, "I'll tell you what I will do. I will give
+you the hundred dollars, but mind, you shall be personally responsible
+to me for its return if Clay is not elected."
+
+The offer was accepted; and when the campaign resulted in the defeat of
+Clay, Longworth demanded his money from the politician, who was
+compelled to return it out of his own pocket.
+
+In his own way--and a quaint, singular way it was--Mr. Longworth was
+exceedingly charitable. Long after he was worth millions, and when every
+moment of his time was valuable, he was supernumerary township trustee.
+This was an office which required the expenditure of a considerable
+portion of his time, and brought him in constant contact with some of
+the most wretched of the lowest class of the poor. He was always in his
+office, at stated times, and with a patience and kindness worthy of all
+admiration, the millionaire listened to their sad tales, and provided
+such aid as was necessary, oftentimes giving it out of his own purse
+when the public funds failed.
+
+He was a bitter foe to vagabondage and mendicity. If people in need were
+willing to work, he would place them in the way of doing so. He was the
+owner of a stone quarry on Deer Creek, the traces of which may still be
+seen in the lines of the new Gilbert Avenue; and he kept in his office
+a supply of picks and shovels. When a stout beggar asked him for alms,
+he would inquire if he was willing to go to work. If answered
+affirmatively, he would give him a pick and shovel, and start him for
+the quarry, where the wages were promptly paid out every night. Many
+availed themselves of the opportunity, and worked for him faithfully;
+but others gave the quarry "a wide berth," and sold the pick and shovel
+for money or liquor. It was his custom to buy large quantities of bread
+tickets from the bakers, and to distribute them to those whom he
+considered worthy; and he would also keep on hand large quantities of
+shoes, dry goods, etc., which he gave away in the same manner.
+
+Mr. Frank Pentland, who was once in his employ, relates the following
+incident:
+
+"One morning, just after Mr. Longworth had gone to his office, near the
+Third-Street entrance, where he was accustomed to receive applicants for
+charity, he was accosted by a man who craved assistance. In answer to a
+question as to his needs, he replied that his main want was a pair of
+shoes, and a glance at his feet showed that he spoke truthfully. Mr.
+Longworth appeared 'to take his measure' at a glance, and impulsively
+shaking his right foot (he seldom wore his shoes tied), kicked the shoe
+over to the applicant, saying:
+
+"'Try that on, my man. How does it fit?'
+
+"'Illigant, yer honor,'
+
+"'Well, try that, now,' said he, kicking off the other. 'How will they
+do?'
+
+"Illigant, yer honor; illigant! May many a blessing'--
+
+"'Well, well, go now--that'll do,' and turning to Pentland, who was then
+a young boy in his service, ordered him to the house to get another
+pair. Frank obeyed, but was told by Mrs. Longworth that those he wore
+away from the house were all that he had. The result was that Frank was
+hurried off to William Hart's shoe store, on Fifth Street, for new ones,
+with instructions to 'Ask Mr. Hart for the kind I always buy, and don't
+pay over a dollar and a half for them.'"
+
+Yet many persons charged this man with stinginess--a charge to which
+every rich man lays himself open who does not give to all who ask him.
+Even the rich must refuse sometimes, for there is no reason why they
+should answer _all_ the calls made upon them--a course which would soon
+impoverish them. They must discriminate somewhere, and how this shall be
+done is a question which each must decide for himself. Longworth
+exercised this discrimination in an eccentric manner, eminently
+characteristic of him. He invariably refused cases that commended
+themselves to others. A gentleman once applied to him for assistance for
+a widow in destitute circumstances.
+
+"Who is she?" asked the millionaire. "Do you know her? Is she a
+deserving object?"
+
+"She is not only a woman of excellent character," answered his friend,
+"but she is doing all in her power to support a large family of
+children."
+
+"Very well, then," said Mr. Longworth, "I shan't give a cent. Such
+persons will always find a plenty to relieve them."
+
+He was firm, and turned coldly from the entreaties of his friend. Yet
+he opened his purse liberally to those whom others refused. Vagabonds,
+drunkards, fallen women, those who had gone down far into the depths of
+misery and wretchedness, and from whom respectable people shrank in
+disgust, never appealed to him in vain. "The devil's poor," he
+whimsically called them. He would listen to them patiently, moved to the
+depths of his soul by their sad stories, and would send them away
+rejoicing that they were not utterly friendless. "Decent paupers will
+always find a plenty to help them," he would say, "but no one cares for
+these poor wretches. Every body damns them, and as no one else will help
+them, I must." Yet he aided them in such a manner as to encourage them
+to rise above their wretchedness.
+
+In his personal appearance Mr. Longworth was not prepossessing. He was
+dry and caustic in his remarks, and rarely spared the object of his
+satire. He was plain and careless in his dress, looking more like a
+beggar than a millionaire. He cared nothing for dress, except, perhaps,
+that he preferred common clothes to fine ones. One of his acquaintances
+relates the following story in illustration of this phase of his
+character:
+
+"Many winters ago, it will be remembered that a style of striped goods
+was quite popular with poor people on account of its cheapness, and that
+it acquired the name of 'Hard Times.' Every body with scant purses wore
+coats or pants of it, for the reason that they could not very well buy
+any other kind. As the story goes, it appears that 'Old Nick,' as he was
+familiarly called, invested in an overcoat of this material, and took
+great pride in wearing it, much to the annoyance of the women folks. It
+happened that one cold, stormy night the faithful family coachman was at
+the house without an overcoat, and Mrs. Longworth, after very feelingly
+depicting his forlorn condition to her husband, solicited the privilege
+of giving him the aforesaid overcoat. Much to her gratification, Mr.
+Longworth assented, and the coachman wore off the 'Hard Times,' the good
+wife replacing it by an elegant broadcloth that she had quietly provided
+for the occasion. The next morning 'Old Nick' very innocently (?)
+overlooked the new coat, and went off to make his usual morning rounds
+without one; but it would be impossible to portray the annoyance of the
+household when they saw him returning to dinner wearing a duplicate of
+the veritable 'Hard Times,' and for weeks afterward it was no uncommon
+occurrence to see the 'master and man' flitting about the old homestead
+dressed in their gray stripes."
+
+The shabbiness of his dress once led to an amusing adventure, which he
+enjoyed very much. Climbing one of the hilly streets of the city one
+broiling summer day, he sat down on a pile of bricks, under the cool
+shade of a tree, to rest. Taking off his well-worn hat, he laid it on
+his knee, and closing his eyes, sat enjoying the breeze which had just
+then sprung up. He was very tired, and his whole figure expressed his
+weariness. As he sat there in his shabby dress, with his eyes closed,
+and his hat resting on his knees, he looked the very picture of a blind
+beggar soliciting charity. For such, indeed, he was mistaken by a
+working man who passed by a few minutes later, and who, pitying the
+supposed unfortunate, tossed a few pennies into his hat. The noise of
+the coppers made the old man open his eyes and look up; and to his
+amazement the workman recognized in the object of his charity Nicholas
+Longworth, the millionaire. Mr. Longworth looked at him a moment in his
+dry, quizzical way, and then, thanking him politely, put the coins in
+his pocket, and, closing his eyes, once more resumed his former
+position.
+
+Mr. Longworth had erected a magnificent mansion in the midst of his
+vineyard. He gathered there a fine library, and a collection of
+paintings, statuary, and other art treasures, which were his pride. He
+died there on the 10th of February, 1863, at the age of eighty-one. His
+loss was severely felt by the community, especially by his "devil's
+poor," for whom he had cared so tenderly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+GEORGE PEABODY.
+
+
+It is not often that men who pass their lives in the acquisition of
+money are able to retain the desire to give it to others who have had no
+share in the earning of it. In European countries, the wealthy merchant
+commonly uses his fortune for the purpose of founding a family, and
+securing sometimes a title of nobility. His wealth is entailed, that it
+may remain in his family and benefit remote generations; but few save
+those of his own blood enjoy any benefit from it, and the world is no
+better off for his life and success than if he had never been born. In
+America, instances of personal generosity and benevolence on a large
+scale are of more common occurrence than in the Old World. We have
+already borne witness to the munificence of Girard, Astor, Lawrence,
+Longworth, and Stewart, and shall yet present to the reader other
+instances of this kind in the remaining pages of this work. We have now
+to trace the career of one who far exceeded any of these in the extent
+and magnitude of his liberality, and who, while neglecting none
+connected with him by ties of blood, took the whole English-speaking
+race for his family, and by scattering his blessings far and wide on
+both sides of the Atlantic, has won a proud name
+
+    "As one who loved his fellow-men."
+
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE PEABODY.]
+
+GEORGE PEABODY came of an old English family, which traced its
+descent back to the year of our Lord 61, the days of the heroic
+Boadicea, down through the brilliant circle of the Knights of the Round
+Table, to Francis Peabody, who in 1635 went from St. Albans, in
+Hertfordshire, to the New World, and settled in Danvers, Massachusetts,
+where the subject of this memoir was born one hundred and sixty years
+later, on the 18th of February, 1795. The parents of George Peabody were
+poor, and hard work was the lot to which he was born, a lot necessary to
+develop his sterling qualities of mind and heart. He was possessed of a
+strong, vigorous constitution, and a quick, penetrating intellect. His
+education was limited, for he was taken from school at the age of
+eleven, and set to earning his living. Upon leaving school, he was
+apprenticed to a Mr. Sylvester Proctor, who kept a "country store" in
+Danvers. Here he worked hard and faithfully for four or five years,
+devoting himself, with an energy and determination surprising in one so
+young, to learn the first principles of business. His mind matured more
+rapidly than his body, and he was a man in intellect long before he was
+out of his teens. Having gained all the information it was possible to
+acquire in so small an establishment, he began to wish for a wider field
+for the exercise of his abilities. A retail grocery store was no longer
+the place for one possessed of such talents, and thoroughly conscious of
+them at such an early age, and it was natural that he should desire some
+more important and responsible position.
+
+Accordingly, he left Mr. Proctor's employment, and spent a year with his
+maternal grandfather at Post Mills village, Thetford, Vermont. "George
+Peabody's year at Post Mills," says a writer who knew him, "must have
+been a year of intense quiet, with good examples always before him, and
+good advice whenever occasion called for it; for Mr. Dodge and his wife
+were both too shrewd to bore him with it needlessly.
+
+"It was on his return from this visit that he spent a night at a tavern
+in Concord, N.H., and paid for his entertainment by sawing wood the next
+morning. That, however, must have been a piece of George's own voluntary
+economy, for Jeremiah Dodge would never have sent his grandson home to
+Danvers without the means of procuring the necessaries of life on the
+way, and still less, if possible, would Mrs. Dodge...."
+
+[Illustration: PEABODY PAYING FOR A NIGHT'S LODGING.]
+
+"The interest with which Mr. Peabody remembered this visit to Post Mills
+is shown by his second visit so late in life, and his gift of a
+library--as large a library as that place needs. Of its influence on his
+subsequent career, of course, there is no record. Perhaps it was not
+much. But, at least, it gave him a good chance for quiet thinking, at an
+age when he needed it; and the labors of the farm may have been useful
+both to mind and body."
+
+At the age of sixteen, in the year 1811, he went to Newburyport, and
+became a clerk in the store of his elder brother, David Peabody, who was
+engaged in the dry goods business at that place. He exhibited unusual
+capacity and promise in his calling, and soon drew upon himself the
+favorable attention of the merchants of the place. He was prompt,
+reliable, and energetic, and from the first established an enviable
+reputation for personal and professional integrity. It is said that he
+earned here the first money he ever made outside of his business. This
+was by writing ballots for the Federal party in Newburyport. Printed
+ballots had not then come into use.
+
+He did not stay long in Newburyport, as a great fire, which burned up a
+considerable part of the town, destroyed his brother's store, and
+obliged him to seek employment elsewhere. He always retained a warm
+attachment to the place, however, an attachment which a resident of the
+town explains as follows:
+
+"The cause of Mr. George Peabody's interest in Newburyport was not alone
+that he had lived here for a brief period, or that his relatives had
+lived here; but rather it was the warm friendship that had been shown
+him, which was, in fact, the basis of his subsequent prosperity. He left
+here in 1811, and returned in 1857. The forty-six intervening years had
+borne to the grave most of the persons with whom he had formed
+acquaintance. Among those he recognized were several who were in
+business, or clerks, on State Street in 1811,--Messrs. John Porter,
+Moses Kimball, Prescott Spaulding, and a few others. Mr. Spaulding was
+fourteen years older than Mr. Peabody, and in business when the latter
+was a clerk with his uncle, Colonel John Peabody. Mr. Peabody was here
+in 1857, on the day of the Agricultural Fair, and was walking in the
+procession with the late Mayor Davenport, when he saw Mr. Spaulding on
+the sidewalk, and at once left the procession to greet him.
+
+"Mr. Spaulding had rendered him the greatest of services. When Mr.
+Peabody left Newburyport, he was under age, and not worth a dollar. Mr.
+Spaulding gave him letters of credit in Boston, through which he
+obtained two thousand dollars' worth of merchandise of Mr. James Reed,
+who was so favorably impressed with his appearance, that he subsequently
+gave him credit for a larger amount. This was his start in life, as he
+afterward acknowledged; for at a public entertainment in Boston, when
+his credit was good for any amount, and in any part of the world, Mr.
+Peabody laid his hand on Mr. Reed's shoulder, and said to those present,
+'My friends, here is my first patron; and he is the man who sold me my
+first bill of goods.' After he was established in Georgetown, D.C., the
+first consignment made to him was by the late Francis Todd, of
+Newburyport. It was from these facts that Newburyport was always
+pleasant in his memory; and the donation he made to the Public Library
+was on his own suggestion, that he desired to do something of a public
+nature for our town."
+
+From New England, George Peabody turned his face southward, and entered
+the employment of his uncle, Mr. John Peabody, who was engaged in the
+dry goods business in Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. He
+reached that place in the spring of 1812; but, as the second war with
+England broke out about the same time, was not able to give his
+immediate attention to business. He became a member of a volunteer
+company of artillery, which was stationed at Fort Warburton, but as no
+active duty was required of the company, he soon went back to his
+uncle's store. His uncle was a poor man and a bad manager, and for two
+years the business was conducted by George Peabody, and in his own name;
+but at the end of that time, seeing the business threatened with ruin by
+his uncle's incapacity, he resigned his situation, and entered the
+service of Mr. Elisha Riggs, who had just established a wholesale dry
+goods house in Georgetown. Mr. Riggs furnished the capital for the
+concern, and Mr. Peabody was given the management of it. Soon after
+this, the latter became a partner in the house. It is said that when Mr.
+Riggs invited Mr. Peabody to become his partner, the latter informed him
+that he could not legally assume the responsibilities of the business,
+as he was only nineteen years old. This was no objection in the mind of
+the merchant, as he wanted a young and active assistant, and had
+discerned in his boy-manager the qualities which never fail to win
+success.
+
+The new business in which he was engaged consisted chiefly in the
+importation and sale of European goods, and consignments of dry goods
+from the northern cities. It extended over a wide field, and gave Mr.
+Peabody a fine opportunity for the display of his abilities. Mr. Riggs'
+friends blamed him very much for leaving his business so entirely in the
+hands of a boy of nineteen; but he had better proof than they that his
+affairs were not only in good but in the best hands, and he answered
+them all by telling them that time would justify his course. Mr. Peabody
+traveled extensively in establishing his business, often journeying into
+the wild and unsettled regions of the border States on horseback. He
+worked with energy and intelligence, and in 1815 the business was found
+to be so extensive that a removal to Baltimore became necessary. About
+this time a sort of irregular banking business was added to the
+operations of the house. This was chiefly the suggestion of Mr. Peabody,
+and proved a source of great profit.
+
+Mr. Peabody quickly took a prominent rank among the merchants of
+Baltimore. His manner was frank and engaging, and won him many friends.
+He was noted for "a judgment quick and cautious, clear and sound, a
+decided purpose, a firm will, energetic and persevering industry,
+punctuality and fidelity in every engagement, justice and honor
+controlling every transaction, and courtesy--that true courtesy which
+springs from genuine kindness--presiding over the intercourse of life."
+His business continued to increase, and in 1822 it became necessary to
+establish branches in Philadelphia and New York, over which Mr. Peabody
+exercised a careful supervision. He was thoroughly familiar with every
+detail of his business, and never suffered his vigilance to relax,
+however competent might be the subordinates in the immediate charge of
+those details. In 1827 he went to England on business for his firm, and
+during the next ten years made frequent voyages between New York and
+London.
+
+In 1829 Mr. Riggs withdrew from the firm, and Mr. Peabody become the
+actual head of the house, the style of the firm, which had previously
+been "Riggs & Peabody," being changed to "Peabody, Riggs & Co." The firm
+had for some time been the financial agents of the State of Maryland,
+and had managed the negotiations confided to them with great skill and
+success; and every year their banking department became more important
+and more profitable.
+
+In 1836 Mr. Peabody determined to extend his business, which was already
+very large, to England, and to open a branch house in London. In 1837 he
+removed to that city for the purpose of taking charge of his house
+there, and from that time London became his home.
+
+The summer of this year was marked by one of the most terrible
+commercial crises the United States has ever known. A large number of
+the banks suspended specie payment, and the majority of the mercantile
+houses were either ruined or in the greatest distress. Thousands of
+merchants, until then prosperous, were hopelessly ruined. "That great
+sympathetic nerve of the commercial world, credit," said Edward Everett,
+"as far as the United States was concerned, was for the time paralyzed.
+At that moment Mr. Peabody not only stood firm himself, but was the
+cause of firmness in others. There were not at that time, probably, half
+a dozen other men in Europe who, upon the subject of American
+securities, would have been listened to for a moment in the parlor of
+the Bank of England. But his judgment commanded respect; his integrity
+won back the reliance which men had been accustomed to place in American
+securities. The reproach in which they were all involved was gradually
+wiped away from those of a substantial character; and if, on this solid
+basis of unsuspected good faith, he reared his own prosperity, let it be
+remembered that at the same time he retrieved the credit of the State of
+Maryland, of which he was agent--performing that miracle by which the
+word of an honest man turns paper into gold."
+
+The conduct of Mr. Peabody, as well as the evidences which he gave of
+his remarkable capacity for business, in this crisis, placed him among
+the foremost merchants of London. He carried on his business upon a
+large scale from his base of operations in that city. He bought British
+manufactures in all parts of England and shipped them to the United
+States. His vessels brought back in return all kinds of American produce
+which would command a ready sale in England. Profitable as these
+ventures were, there was another branch of his business much more
+remunerative to him. The merchants and manufacturers on both sides of
+the Atlantic who consigned their goods to him frequently procured from
+him advances upon the goods long before they were sold. At other times
+they would leave large sums in his hands long after the goods were
+disposed of, knowing that they could draw whenever they needed, and that
+in the meanwhile their money was being so profitably invested that they
+were certain of a proper interest for their loans. Thus Mr. Peabody
+gradually became a banker, in which pursuit he was as successful as he
+had been as a merchant. In 1843 he withdrew from the house of Peabody,
+Riggs & Co., and established the house of "George Peabody & Company, of
+Warnford Court, City."
+
+His dealings were chiefly with America, and in American securities, and
+he was always regarded as one of the best specimens of the American
+merchant ever seen in London. He was very proud of his country; and
+though he passed so many years of his life abroad, he never forgot that
+he was an American. In speaking of the manner in which he organized his
+business establishment, he once said: "I have endeavored, in the
+constitution of its members and the character of its business, to make
+it an American house, and to give it an American atmosphere; to furnish
+it with American journals; to make it a center of American news, and an
+agreeable place for my American friends visiting London."
+
+It was his custom, from his first settlement in England, to celebrate
+the anniversary of the independence of his country by an entertainment
+at one of the public houses in the city, to which the most distinguished
+Americans in London were always invited, as were also many of the
+prominent men of Great Britain; and this dinner was only discontinued in
+deference to the general celebration of the day which was afterward
+instituted by the whole body of Americans resident in the British
+metropolis. In the year 1851, when it was thought that there would be no
+representation of the achievements of American skill and industry in the
+Great Exhibition of that year, from a lack of funds, Mr. Peabody
+generously supplied the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, which enabled
+the Commissioners to make a suitable display of the American
+contributions. Said the Hon. Edward Everett, alluding to this act:
+
+"In most, perhaps in all other countries, this exhibition had been a
+government affair. Commissioners were appointed by authority to protect
+the interests of the exhibitors; and, what was more important,
+appropriations of money had been made to defray their expenses. No
+appropriations were made by Congress. Our exhibitors arrived friendless,
+some of them penniless, in the great commercial Babel of the world. They
+found the portion of the Crystal Palace assigned to our country
+unprepared for the specimens of art and industry which they had brought
+with them; naked and unadorned by the side of the neighboring arcades
+and galleries fitted up with elegance and splendor by the richest
+governments in Europe. The English press began to launch its too ready
+sarcasms at the sorry appearance which Brother Jonathan seemed likely to
+make; and all the exhibitors from this country, as well as those who
+felt an interest in their success, were disheartened. At this critical
+moment, our friend stepped forward. He did what Congress should have
+done. By liberal advances on his part, the American department was
+fitted up; and day after day, as some new product of American ingenuity
+and taste was added to the list,--McCormick's reaper, Colt's revolver,
+Powers's Greek Slave, Hobbs's unpickable lock, Hoe's wonderful printing
+presses, and Bond's more wonderful spring governor,---it began to be
+suspected that Brother Jonathan was not quite so much of a simpleton as
+had been thought. He had contributed his full share, if not to the
+splendor, at least to the utilities of the exhibition. In fact, the
+leading journal at London, with a magnanimity which did it honor,
+admitted that England had derived more real benefit from the
+contributions of the United States than from those of any other
+country."
+
+As has been said, Mr. Peabody made the bulk of his colossal fortune in
+the banking business. He had a firm faith in American securities, and
+dealt in them largely, and with confidence. His business instinct was
+remarkable, his judgment in mercantile and financial matters almost
+infallible, and he made few mistakes. His course was now onward and
+upward, and each year marked an increase of his wealth. His business
+operations were conducted in pursuance of a rigid system which was never
+relaxed. To the very close of his life he never abandoned the exact or
+business-like manner in which he sought to make money. He gave away
+millions with a generosity never excelled, yet he could be exacting to a
+penny in the fulfillment of a contract.
+
+In his youth he contracted habits of economy, and these he retained to
+the last. Being unmarried, he did not subject himself to the expense of
+a complete domestic establishment, but lived in chambers, and
+entertained his friends at his club or at a coffee-house. His habits
+were simple in every respect, and he was often seen making his dinner on
+a mutton-chop at a table laden (at his cost) with the most sumptuous and
+tempting viands. His personal expenses for ten years did not average
+three thousand dollars per annum.
+
+The conductor on an English railway once overcharged him a shilling for
+fare. He promptly complained to the directors, and had the man
+discharged. "Not," said he, "that I could not afford to pay the
+shilling, but the man was cheating many travelers to whom the swindle
+would be offensive."
+
+Several years ago he chanced to ride in a hack in Salem, Massachusetts,
+and upon reaching his destination tendered the driver his usual fee of
+fifty cents.
+
+"Here's your change, sir," said the man, handing him back fifteen cents.
+
+"Change!" exclaimed Mr. Peabody; "why, I'm not entitled to any."
+
+"Yes, you are; I don't charge but thirty-five cents for a ride in my
+hack."
+
+"How do you live, then?"
+
+"By fair dealing, sir. I don't believe in making a man pay more than a
+thing is worth just because I have an opportunity."
+
+Mr. Peabody was so much pleased with this reply, that as long as he
+remained in Salem he sought this man out and gave him his custom.
+
+In his dress Mr. Peabody was simple and unostentatious. He was
+scrupulously neat and tasteful, but there was nothing about him to
+indicate his vast wealth. He seldom wore any jewelry, using merely a
+black band for his watch-guard. Display of all kinds he abominated.
+
+He made several visits to his native country during his last residence
+in London, and commemorated each one of them by acts of princely
+munificence. He gave large sums to the cause of education, and to
+religious and charitable objects, and made each one of his near kindred
+wealthy. None of his relatives received less than one hundred thousand
+dollars, and some were given as much as three times that sum. He gave
+immense sums to the poor of London, and became their benefactor to such
+an extent that Queen Victoria sent him her portrait, which she had
+caused to be executed for him at a cost of over forty thousand dollars,
+in token of her appreciation of his services in behalf of the poor of
+her realm.
+
+Mr. Peabody made another visit to the United States in 1866, and upon
+this occasion added large sums to many of the donations he had already
+made in this country. He remained here until May, 1867, when he returned
+to England. He came back in June, 1869, but soon sailed again for
+England. His health had become very feeble, and it was his belief that
+it would be better in the atmosphere of London, to which he had been so
+long accustomed. His hope of recovery was vain. He failed to rally upon
+reaching London, and died in that city on the 4th of November, 1869.
+
+The news of his death created a profound sadness on both sides of the
+Atlantic, for his native and his adopted country alike revered him as a
+benefactor. The Queen caused his body to be placed in a vault in
+Westminster Abbey, amidst the greatest and noblest of her kingdom, until
+all was in readiness for its transportation to the United States in a
+royal man-of-war. The Congress of the United States authorized the
+President to make such arrangements for the reception of the body as he
+should deem necessary. Sovereigns, statesmen, and warriors united to do
+homage to the mortal remains of this plain, simple man, who, beginning
+life a poor boy, and never departing from the character of an unassuming
+citizen, had made humanity his debtor by his generosity and goodness. He
+was borne across the ocean with kingly honors, two great nations acting
+as chief mourners, and then, when the pomp and the splendor of the
+occasion were ended, they laid him down in his native earth by the side
+of the mother from whom he had imbibed those principles of integrity and
+goodness which were the foundation of his fame and fortune.
+
+It is impossible to obtain an accurate statement of the donations made
+by Mr. Peabody to the objects which enlisted his sympathy. In addition
+to those mentioned in the list below, he gave away for various public
+purposes sums ranging from two hundred and fifty to one thousand
+dollars, and extending back as far as the year 1835. He divided among
+his relatives the sum of about three millions of dollars, giving them a
+portion during his last visit to this country, and leaving them the
+remainder at his death.
+
+The following is a statement of his more important donations during his
+life, including the bequests contained in his last will and testament:
+
+To the State of Maryland, for negotiating the
+   loan of $8,000,000.................................    $60,000
+To the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Md., including
+   accrued interest...................................  1,500,000
+To the Southern Education Fund........................  3,000,000
+To Yale College.......................................    150,000
+To Harvard College....................................    150,000
+To Peabody Academy, Massachusetts.....................    140,000
+To Phillips Academy, Massachusetts....................     25,000
+To Peabody Institute, etc., at Peabody, Mass..........    250,000
+To Kenyon College, Ohio...............................     25,000
+To Memorial Church, in Georgetown, Mass...............    100,000
+To Homes for the Poor in London.......................  3,000,000
+To Libraries in Georgetown, Massachusetts,
+   and Thetford, Vermont..............................     10,000
+To Kane's Arctic Expedition...........................     10,000
+To different Sanitary Fairs...........................     10,000
+To unpaid moneys advanced to uphold the
+   credit of States...................................     40,000
+
+Total................................................. $8,470,000
+
+The life of such a man affords lessons full of hope and encouragement to
+others. In 1856, when on a visit to Danvers, now named Peabody, in honor
+of him, its most distinguished son and greatest benefactor, he said:
+
+"Though Providence has granted me an unvaried and unusual success in the
+pursuit of fortune in other lands, I am still in heart the humble boy
+who left yonder unpretending dwelling. There is not a youth within the
+sound of my voice whose early opportunities and advantages are not very
+much greater than were my own, and I have since achieved nothing that is
+impossible to the most humble boy among you."
+
+
+[Illustration: CORNELIUS VANDERBILT.]
+
+II.
+
+CAPITALISTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CORNELIUS VANDERBILT.
+
+
+Staten Island lies in the beautiful bay of New York, seven miles distant
+from the great city. Its lofty heights shut in the snug anchorage of the
+inner bay, and protect it from the rude storms which howl along the
+coast. It lies full in sight of the city, and is one of the most
+beautiful and attractive of its suburbs. The commanding heights and
+embowered shores are covered with villas and cottages, and afford a
+pleasant and convenient summer resort for the people of New York. It now
+contains a large and flourishing population, and maintains a speedy and
+constant communication with the metropolis by means of steam
+ferry-boats, the total travel on which sometimes reaches as many as ten
+or twelve thousand passengers per day.
+
+Seventy-six years ago, Staten Island was a mere country settlement, and
+its communications with the city were maintained by means of a few
+sail-boats, which made one trip each way per day.
+
+One of these boats was owned and navigated by Cornelius Vanderbilt, a
+thriving farmer, who owned a small but well cultivated estate on Staten
+Island, near the present Quarantine Grounds. He was a man of exemplary
+character, great industry, and was generally regarded as one of the most
+prudent and reliable men on the island. Having a considerable amount of
+produce to sell in the city, he purchased a boat of his own for the
+purpose of transporting it thither. Frequently, residents of the island
+would secure passage in this boat to the city in the morning, and return
+with it in the evening. He realized a considerable sum of money in this
+way, and finally ran his boat regularly between the island and the city.
+This was the beginning of the New York and Staten Island Ferry. Mr.
+Vanderbilt, by close application to his farm and boat, soon acquired a
+property, which, though small, was sufficient to enable him to maintain
+his family independently. His wife was a woman of more than usual
+character, and aided him nobly in making his way in the world.
+
+This admirable couple were blessed with nine children. The oldest of
+these, CORNELIUS, the subject of this sketch, was born at the old
+farm-house on Staten Island, on the 27th of May, 1794. He was a healthy,
+active boy, fond of all manner of out-door sports, and manifesting an
+unusual repugnance to the confinement and labors of the school-room. He
+has since declared that the only books he remembers using at school were
+the New Testament and the spelling-book. The result was, that he merely
+learned to read, write, and cipher, and that imperfectly. He was
+passionately fond of the water, and was never so well pleased as when
+his father allowed him to assist in sailing his boat. He was also a
+famous horseman from his earliest childhood, and even now recalls with
+evident pride the fact that when but six years old he rode a race-horse
+at full speed. When he set himself to accomplish any thing, he was not,
+like most boys, deterred by the difficulties of his undertaking, but
+persevered until success crowned his efforts. So early did he establish
+his reputation for overcoming obstacles, that his boyish friends learned
+to regard any task which he undertook as already virtually performed.
+
+When he was only twelve years old his father contracted to remove the
+cargo from a ship which had gone ashore near Sandy Hook, and to convey
+it to New York. The lighters which were to carry the goods to the city
+could not reach the ship, and it was necessary to haul the cargo,
+transported in wagons, across the sands from the vessel to them. In
+spite of his tender age, little Cornelius was placed by his father in
+charge of the undertaking, which he accomplished promptly and
+successfully. He loaded his lighters, sent them up to New York, and then
+started for home with his wagons. Upon reaching South Amboy, where he
+was to cross over to Staten Island, he found himself, with his wagons,
+horses, and men, without any money to pay his ferriage across to the
+island. The ferriage would amount to six dollars, and how he was to
+raise this sum he was, for a time, at a loss to determine. Finally, he
+went to the keeper of the tavern, to whom he was a stranger, and asked
+for the loan of six dollars, offering to leave one of his horses as a
+pledge for the money, which he promised to return within two days. The
+tavern-keeper was so well pleased with the boy's energy, that he loaned
+him the money, and the party crossed over to Staten Island. The pawned
+horse was promptly redeemed.
+
+Young Vanderbilt was always anxious to become a sailor, and, as he
+approached his seventeenth year, he determined to begin life as a
+boatman in the harbor of New York. On the 1st of May, 1810, he informed
+his mother of his determination, and asked her to lend him one hundred
+dollars to buy a boat.
+
+The good lady had always opposed her son's wish to go to sea, and
+regarded this new scheme as equally hair-brained. As a means of
+discouraging him, she told him if he would plow, harrow, and plant with
+corn a certain ten-acre lot belonging to the farm, by the twenty-seventh
+of that month, on which day he would be seventeen years old, she would
+lend him the money. The field was the worst in the whole farm; it was
+rough, hard, and stony; but by the appointed time the work was done, and
+well done, and the boy claimed and received his money. He hurried off to
+a neighboring village, and bought his boat, in which he set out for
+home. He had not gone far, however, when the boat struck a sunken wreck,
+and filled so rapidly that the boy had barely time to get into shoal
+water before it sank.
+
+[Illustration: VANDERBILT EARNING HIS FIRST HUNDRED DOLLARS.]
+
+"Undismayed at this mishap," says Mr. Parton, from whose graphic memoir
+the leading incidents of this sketch are taken, "he began his new
+career. His success, as we have intimated, was speedy and great. He made
+a thousand dollars during each of the next three summers. Often he
+worked all night; but he was never absent from his post by day, and he
+soon had the cream of the boating business of the port.
+
+"At that day parents claimed the services and earnings of their children
+till they were twenty-one. In other words, families made common cause
+against the common enemy, Want. The arrangement between this young
+boatman and his parents was, that he should give them all his day
+earnings and half his night earnings. He fulfilled his engagement
+faithfully until his parents released him from it, and with his own half
+of his earnings by night, he bought all his clothes. He had forty
+competitors in the business, who, being all grown men, could dispose of
+their gains as they chose; but of all the forty, he alone has emerged to
+prosperity and distinction. Why was this? There were several reasons. He
+soon became the best boatman in the port. He attended to his business
+more regularly and strictly than any other. He had no vices. His
+comrades spent at night much of what they earned by day, and when the
+winter suspended their business, instead of living on their last
+summer's savings, they were obliged to lay up debts for the next
+summer's gains to discharge. In those three years of willing servitude
+to his parents, Cornelius Vanderbilt added to the family's common stock
+of wealth, and gained for himself three things--a perfect knowledge of
+his business, habits of industry and self-control, and the best boat in
+the harbor."
+
+During the War of 1812, young Vanderbilt was kept very busy. All the
+harbor defenses were fully manned, and a number of war vessels were in
+port all the time. The travel between these and the city was very great,
+and boatmen were in demand.
+
+In September, 1813, a British fleet attempted to run past Fort Richmond,
+during a heavy gale. The commanding officer was anxious to send to New
+York for reinforcements, but it was blowing so hard that none of the old
+boatmen were willing to venture upon the bay. They all declared that if
+the voyage could be made at all, Cornelius Vanderbilt was the only man
+who could make it. The commandant at once sent for the young man, who,
+upon learning the urgency of the case, expressed his belief that he
+could carry the messengers to the city. "But," said he, "I shall have to
+carry them part of the way under water." He set out with the messengers,
+and in an hour landed them safe, but drenched through, at the foot of
+Whitehall Street, which was then the landing place of all the boatmen of
+the harbor.
+
+He was now so prosperous in his calling that he determined to marry. He
+had wooed and won the heart of Sophia Johnson, the daughter of a
+neighbor, and he now asked his parents' consent to his marriage, and
+also requested them to allow him to retain his own earnings, in order
+that he might be able to support a wife. Both of his petitions received
+the approval of his parents, and in the winter of 1813 he was married.
+His wife was a woman of unusual personal beauty and strength of
+character, and proved the best of partners. He has often declared since
+that he owed his success in life as much to her counsel and assistance
+as to his own efforts.
+
+In the spring of 1814, it became known in America that the British were
+fitting out a formidable military and naval expedition for the purpose
+of attacking one of the Atlantic ports of the United States. The whole
+coast was on the lookout, and, as it was feared that the blow would be
+struck at New York, every precaution was taken to be ready. The militia
+were called into service for three months, under a heavy penalty for
+refusing to obey the call. The term of service thus marked out covered
+the most prosperous season of the boatmen, and made the call fall
+particularly hard upon them. About this time, an advertisement was
+inserted in the city journals by the Commissary-General of the army,
+calling for bids from boatmen for the purpose of conveying provisions
+from New York to the various military posts in the vicinity. The labor
+was to be performed during the three months for which the militia were
+called out, and the contractor was to be exempted from all military duty
+during that time. Bids poured in from the boatmen, who offered to do the
+work at ridiculously low figures--the chief object of each one being to
+secure the exemption.
+
+Young Vanderbilt, knowing that the work could not be done at the rates
+at which his comrades offered to perform it, at first decided not to bid
+for it, but at length--and more to please his father than because he
+expected to succeed--offered to transport the provisions at a price
+which would enable him to be sure of doing it well and thoroughly. He
+felt so little hope of success that he did not even trouble himself to
+go to the office of the Commissary on the day of the awarding of the
+contract, until he learned from his companions that all their efforts to
+secure it had been ineffectual. Then he called on the Commissary, merely
+through curiosity, to learn the name of the fortunate man, and to his
+utter astonishment was told that the contract had been awarded to
+himself. The Government was satisfied, from his sensible offer, that he
+would do the business thoroughly, and this the Commissary assured him
+was the reason why they had selected him.
+
+There were six posts to be supplied--Harlem, Hell Gate, Ward's Island,
+the Narrows, and one other in the harbor, each of which was to be
+furnished with one load per week. The young contractor made arrangements
+to have a daily load of stores ready for him each evening at six
+o'clock, and thus performed all the duties of his contract at night,
+which left him free to attend to his boating during the day. He never
+failed to make a single delivery of stores, or to be absent from his
+post on the beach at Whitehall one single day during the whole three
+months. He was often without sleep, and performed an immense amount of
+labor during this period; but his indomitable energy and powerful
+physical organization carried him safely through it all.
+
+He made a great deal of money that summer, and with his earnings built a
+splendid little schooner, which he named the "Dread." In 1815, in
+connection with his brother-in-law, Captain De Forrest, he built a fine
+schooner, called the "Charlotte," for the coasting service. She was
+celebrated for the beauty of her model and her great speed. He continued
+to ply his boat in the harbor during the summer, but in the fall and
+winter made voyages along the coast, often as far south as Charleston.
+During the three years succeeding the termination of the war he saved
+nine thousand dollars in cash, and built two or three small vessels.
+This was his condition in 1818.
+
+By this time it had become demonstrated to his satisfaction that the new
+system of steamboats was a success, and was destined to come into
+general use at no very distant day. He therefore determined to identify
+himself with it at once, and thereby secure the benefits which he felt
+sure would result from a prompt connection with it. Accordingly, in
+1818, to the surprise and dismay of his friends, he gave up his
+flourishing business, in order to accept the captaincy of a steamboat
+which was offered him by Mr. Thomas Gibbons. The salary attached to this
+position was one thousand dollars, and Captain Vanderbilt's friends
+frankly told him that he was very foolish in abandoning a lucrative
+business for so insignificant a sum. Turning a deaf ear to their
+remonstrances, however, he entered promptly upon the duties of his new
+career, and was given command of a steamboat plying between New York and
+New Brunswick.
+
+Passengers to Philadelphia, at that day, were transported by steamer
+from New York to New Brunswick, where they remained all night. The next
+morning they took the stage for Trenton, from which they were conveyed
+by steamer to Philadelphia. The hotel at New Brunswick was a miserable
+affair, and had never paid expenses. When Captain Vanderbilt took
+command of the steamer, he was offered the hotel rent free, and accepted
+the offer. He placed the house in charge of his wife, under whose
+vigorous administration it soon acquired a popularity which was of the
+greatest benefit to the line.
+
+For seven years he was harassed and hampered by the hostility of the
+State of New York, which had granted to Fulton and Livingston the sole
+right to navigate New York waters by steam. Thomas Gibbons believed this
+law to be unconstitutional, and ran his boats in defiance of it. The
+authorities of the State resented his disregard of their monopoly, and a
+long and vexatious warfare sprang up between them, which was ended only
+in 1824, by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in
+favor of Mr. Gibbons.
+
+As a means of crippling Gibbons, the New York authorities at one time
+determined to arrest Vanderbilt and his crew; but the wary captain was
+too cunning for them. He would land his crew in Jersey City, and take
+charge of the engine himself, while a lady managed the helm. In this way
+he approached the wharf at New York, landed his passengers, and took on
+more. As soon as he had made his boat fast, he concealed himself in the
+hold until the moment of his departure. As soon as he appeared on deck,
+the Sheriff's officer (who was changed every day to avoid recognition)
+would approach him with a warrant for his arrest. His reply was an
+order to let go the line. The officer, unwilling to be carried off to
+New Jersey, where he was threatened with imprisonment in the
+penitentiary for interfering with the steamer, would at once jump
+ashore, or beg to be landed. This was kept up for two months, but the
+captain successfully baffled his enemies during the whole of that
+period. The opponents of Mr. Gibbons offered a larger and better boat
+than the one he commanded if he would enter their service, but he firmly
+declined all their offers, avowing his determination to remain with Mr.
+Gibbons until the difficulty was settled.
+
+After the decision of the Supreme Court placed Mr. Gibbons in the full
+enjoyment of his rights, Captain Vanderbilt was allowed to manage the
+line in his own way, and conducted it with so much skill and vigor that
+it paid its owner an annual profit of forty thousand dollars. Mr.
+Gibbons offered to increase his salary to five thousand dollars, but he
+refused to accept the offer.
+
+"I did it on principle," he said, afterward. "The other captains had but
+one thousand, and they were already jealous enough of me. Besides, I
+never cared for money. All I ever cared for was to carry my point."
+
+[Illustration: VANDERBILT CARRYING OFF THE SHERIFF.]
+
+In 1829 he determined to leave the service of Mr. Gibbons, with whom he
+had been connected for eleven years. He was thirty-five years old, and
+had saved thirty thousand dollars. He resolved to build a steamer of his
+own, and command her himself, and accordingly made known his intention
+to his employer. Mr. Gibbons at once declared that he could not carry on
+the line without his assistance, and told him he might make his own
+terms if he would stay with him. Captain Vanderbilt had formed his
+decision after much thought, and being satisfied that he was doing
+right, he persisted in his determination to set up for himself. Mr.
+Gibbons then offered to sell him the line on the spot, and to take his
+pay as the money should be earned. It was a splendid offer, but it was
+firmly and gratefully refused. The captain knew the men among whom he
+would be thrown, and that they could never act together harmoniously. He
+believed his own ideas to be the best, and wished to be free to carry
+them out.
+
+After leaving Mr. Gibbons he built a small steamer, called the
+"Caroline," which he commanded himself. In a few years he was the owner
+of several other small steamers plying between New York and the
+neighboring towns. He made slow progress at first, for he had strong
+opposition to overcome. The steamboat interest was in the hands of
+powerful companies, backed by immense capital, and these companies were
+not disposed to tolerate the interference of any new-comer. They met
+their match in all cases, however, for Vanderbilt inaugurated so sharp a
+business opposition that the best of them were forced to compromise with
+him. These troubles were very annoying to him, and cost him nearly every
+dollar he was worth, but he persevered, and at length "carried his
+point."
+
+From that time he made his way gradually in his business, until he rose
+to the head of the steamboat interest of the United States. He has owned
+or been interested in one hundred steam vessels, and has been
+instrumental in a greater degree than any other man in bringing down the
+tariff of steamboat fares. He never builds a vessel without giving his
+personal superintendence to every detail, so that all his various craft
+have been models of their kind. He selects his officers with the
+greatest care, pays them liberal salaries, and, as long as they do their
+duty, sustains them against all outside interference or intrigue. In
+this way he inspires them with zeal, and the result is that he has never
+lost a vessel by fire, explosion, or wreck.
+
+He built the famous steamer "North Star," and made a triumphal cruise
+in her to the Old World. It is said that he was at one time very anxious
+to divide the business of the ocean with the Collins Line of steamers.
+When the "Arctic" was lost he applied to Mr. Collins to allow his
+steamer to run in her place. He promised to make no claim for the mail
+subsidy which Collins received, and to take the vessel off as soon as
+Collins could build another to take her place. Mr. Collins was afraid to
+let Mr. Vanderbilt get any hold on the foreign trade of the country, and
+not only refused his request, but did so in a manner which roused the
+anger of the veteran, who thereupon told Mr. Collins that he would run
+his line off the ocean if it took his whole life and entire fortune to
+do it. He kept his word. He at once offered the Government to carry the
+mails more promptly and regularly than had ever been done before, and to
+do this for a term of years without asking one single cent as subsidy.
+It was well known that he was perfectly able to do what he promised, and
+he pressed the matter upon the Government so vigorously that he was
+successful. The subsidy to Collins was withdrawn, and the magnificent
+line soon fell to pieces in consequence of the bankruptcy of its owner,
+who might have averted his fate by the exercise of a little liberality.
+
+Of late years, Mr. Vanderbilt has been withdrawing his money from ships
+and steamers, and investing it in railroads and iron works. Success has
+attended him in all his ventures, and he is to-day worth over thirty
+millions of dollars. He controls the Hudson River, Harlem, and New York
+Central Roads, and is largely interested in many others. He is all
+powerful in the stock market, and can move it as he will.
+
+A few years ago he wished to consolidate the Hudson River and Harlem
+Railroads, and when the scheme was presented before the Legislature of
+New York, secured a sufficient number of votes to insure the passage of
+the bill authorizing the consolidation. Before the bill was called up on
+its final passage, however, he learned from a trustworthy source that
+the members of the Legislature who had promised to vote for the bill
+were determined to vote against it, with the hope of ruining him. The
+stock of Harlem Road was then selling very high, in consequence of the
+expected consolidation. The defeat of the bill would, of course, cause
+it to fall immediately. The unprincipled legislators at once commenced a
+shrewd game. They sold Harlem right and left, to be delivered at a
+future day, and found plenty of purchasers. They let their friends into
+the secret, and there was soon a great deal of "selling 'short'" in this
+stock.[A] Commodore Vanderbilt, although indignant at the treachery of
+which he was to be made the victim, held his peace. He went into the
+market quietly, with all the funds he could raise, purchased every
+dollar's worth of Harlem stock he could lay his hands on, and locked it
+up in his safe. When the bill came before the Legislature on its final
+passage, the members who had pledged themselves to vote for it voted
+against it, and it was rejected.
+
+
+[Footnote A: For the benefit of the uninitiated reader, we will explain
+the "game" more clearly. Harlem stock was selling at a high price, in
+consequence of the expected consolidation. Those who sold "short" at
+this time sold at the market price, which, as we have said, was high. By
+engaging to deliver at some future day, they expected to be able to buy
+the stock for little or nothing after the defeat of the bill, and then
+to demand for it the price for which they had sold it in the first
+place. Such a transaction was infamous, but would have enabled those
+engaged in it to realize immense sums by the difference in the price of
+the stock.]
+
+The speculators were jubilant. They were sure that the defeat of the
+bill would bring down "Harlem" with a rush. To their astonishment,
+however, "Harlem" did not fall. It remained stationary the first day,
+and then, to their dismay, began to rise steadily. Those to whom they
+had sold demanded the delivery of the stock, but the speculators found
+it impossible to buy it. There was none in the market at any price.
+Being unable to deliver stock, they were forced to pay its equivalent in
+money, and the result was, that all who were engaged in the infamous
+scheme were ruined. One of the shrewdest operators in New York lost over
+two hundred thousand dollars. He refused to pay, but his name was at
+once stricken from the list of stock-brokers. This brought him to terms,
+and he made good his contracts. Vanderbilt made enough money out of this
+effort to crush him to pay for all the stock he owned in the Harlem
+Road.
+
+During the rebellion, Commodore Vanderbilt was one of the stanchest
+supporters of the Government. Early in the struggle he equipped his
+splendid steamer, the "Vanderbilt," as a man-of-war, and offered her to
+the Navy Department at a fair price. He found that, in order to sell the
+vessel, he would have to pay a percentage of the price received for her
+to certain parties who stood between the Government and the purchase,
+and levied black mail upon every ship the Government bought. Indignant
+and disgusted, he withdrew his ship, and declared she was not for sale.
+Then, satisfying himself that she was in perfect condition, he presented
+her to the Navy Department _as a free gift to the nation_.
+
+Says a recent writer, whose fondness for courtly similes the reader must
+pardon, for the sake of the information he imparts: "No man is felt in
+Wall Street more than Commodore Vanderbilt, yet he is seldom seen there.
+All of his business is done in his office in Fourth Street. Here his
+brokers meet him, receive their orders, and give reports. Here the plans
+are laid that shake the street, and Wall Street trembles at the foot of
+an invisible autocrat. If the reader would care to visit the court of
+that great railroad king, whose name has become the terror of Wall
+Street, he may accompany us to a plain brick residence in Fourth Street,
+near Broadway, and distant from Wall Street nearly two miles. No sign
+indicates its imperial occupant, except that the upper story being
+occupied as a millinery establishment bears a legend of that character.
+However, as we enter the hall, we notice the word 'office,' and open the
+door thus inscribed. Here we see a table, a few chairs, and a desk, at
+which a solitary clerk of middle age is standing at work.
+
+"The walls are bare, with the exception of a few pictures of those
+steamships which originated the title of 'Commodore,' This is the
+ante-chamber, and a pair of folding doors screen the king from vulgar
+gaze. He is closeted with his marshals, and this privy council will last
+an hour or so. One after the other they depart, and before three o'clock
+the effect of this council will not only be felt in Wall Street, but
+will be flashed over the Union. At length you are permitted to enter.
+The folding door is opened, and you behold an office as plain in
+appearance as the one just described. It contains a few arm-chairs and a
+long business-table, thrown flush before you, on the opposite side of
+which sits a large man, with his face fronting you. He is writing, and
+his eyes are fixed on the paper, so that you have a moment to note the
+dignity of frame and the vast development of brain. In a few minutes the
+countenance raises, and you meet its expansive and penetrating glance.
+
+"You face the king. He smiles in a pleasant and whole-souled manner, and
+in a moment puts you at ease. No stiffness nor formality here. His
+kingship is in himself, not in etiquette. He is ready for a pleasantry,
+and will initiate one if it comes in the line of conversation. You note
+those wonderful eyes, bright and piercing, and so large and rich that
+one is fascinated, and does not know how to stop gazing into them. Such
+is the appearance of the railway king, and you take your leave,
+conscious that some men, as Shakespeare says, 'are born great.' Indeed,
+we know a man who would rather give five dollars to sit and look at
+Commodore Vanderbilt for an hour than to see any other sight in this
+city. Next door to the office is a building of brown stone, with
+spacious doors and a roadway. This is the Commodore's stable, where are
+some of the finest horses in the country.
+
+"Every afternoon he is wont to take an airing, and after tea a game of
+whist affords an evening amusement. The Commodore is simple in his
+manners and habits. He is a representative of a former age, when men
+lived less artificially than at the present time, and when there was
+more happiness and less show. As for business, it is his nature. He can
+not help being king. He is but developing himself, and any other mode of
+life would be painful. He has in the Central afforded a third wonder,
+the Harlem and the Hudson River being the first and second, and if he
+gets the Erie he will soon show the world another wonder. On Sundays the
+Commodore attends Dr. Hutton's church on Washington Square, and here his
+tall and dignified form may be seen, head and shoulders above the rest
+of the congregation. He is a friend of the pastor, who takes a deep
+interest in his welfare, and we hope will meet him in a better world. He
+stood by the Commodore's side when his wife was laid in the tomb, and
+cheered him in that dark and trying hour. Among his more recent works is
+the completing of a tomb in the old Moravian burial-ground in Staten
+Island. The subterranean chamber is about thirty feet square, and is
+surmounted by a lofty shaft, and a statue of grief adds a peculiar
+finish to the spot. The cemetery is on an eminence, from which one gets
+a fine view of the ocean, dotted with ships."
+
+Commodore Vanderbilt's early passion for horses still survives, and his
+stable contains some of the finest in the world. Nothing pleases him so
+well as to sit behind a fast team, with the reins in his hands, and fly
+along the road with almost the speed of the wind.
+
+He is extremely generous to his friends, and gives liberally to
+charitable objects. He never puts his name to a subscription paper, but
+his donations are none the less liberal for that. His old
+acquaintances--especially those of his boyhood--find him a tender
+friend, and many of them owe to his bounty the comforts which surround
+their age.[A]
+
+He is the father of thirteen children--nine daughters and four
+sons--nearly all of whom are still living. A few years ago, at the
+celebration of his golden wedding, over one hundred and forty of his
+descendants and relatives assembled to congratulate him. He lost a
+promising son during the war, and his wife died two years ago. Not long
+since he married a second time. He is still one of the handsomest and
+most imposing men in New York, and will doubtless live to see his
+children's grandchildren.
+
+[Footnote A: In July, 1870, Mr. Vanderbilt chanced to hear that the Rev.
+Dr. Deems, of New York, was in want of a church. Admiring the energy
+with which the reverend gentleman had built up his congregation in the
+short space of three years, Mr. Vanderbilt quietly made up his mind that
+he should not want in vain. Accordingly he bought the Mercer Street
+Presbyterian Church, and made the Doctor a present of it, keeping him in
+ignorance of his intention until he placed the title deeds in his hand.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+DANIEL DREW.
+
+
+The name of DANIEL DREW has so long been familiar in the financial
+circles of the country, that it is surprising that the history of his
+life is not more generally known.
+
+He was born at Carmel, in Putnam County, New York, on the 29th of July,
+1797. His father was a small farmer, with limited means, and had to work
+hard to provide his family with food and clothing. Young Daniel was
+brought up to work on the farm, and at such times as he could be spared
+from this work, was sent to the country school in the neighborhood,
+where he acquired but a meager stock of learning. When he was fifteen
+years old, his father died, leaving his family in an almost helpless
+condition. Young Daniel remained on the farm three years longer, and in
+1815, being then eighteen years old, stared out to try and earn a living
+for himself.
+
+He came to New York in search of employment, but the country, just then,
+was in too depressed a condition to afford him a chance in any regular
+business. After looking around for awhile, he at length became a cattle
+drover. He spent five years in driving cattle from Putnam County to New
+York for sale, but failed to make any money at the business.
+
+In 1820, he removed to New York, and established his headquarters at
+the famous Bull's Head Tavern, in the Bowery, which was the great resort
+of the butchers and drovers doing business in the city. He kept this
+tavern a part of the time, and found it quite a profitable investment.
+He soon formed a partnership with two other drovers, and commenced
+buying cattle in the adjoining counties and bringing them to New York
+for sale.
+
+[Illustration: FOUNDING A GREAT FORTUNE]
+
+These ventures were so successful that the operations of the firm were
+extended into Pennsylvania, and finally into Ohio and the other States
+of the great West. Mr. Drew and his partners brought over the mountains
+the first drove of cattle that ever came from the West into New York
+city. The cattle, two thousand in number, were collected into droves of
+one hundred each, and were driven by experienced and careful men. The
+journey occupied two months, and the total cost of the purchase and trip
+was twenty-four dollars per head. The profit on the venture was very
+large.
+
+Mr. Drew continued in this business for fourteen years, slowly and
+carefully laying the foundations of that immense fortune which has made
+him so conspicuous, an example to others who have entered upon the
+life-struggle since then.
+
+In 1834, an event occurred which changed the whole tenor of his career.
+In that year, the steamer "General Jackson," owned by Jacob Vanderbilt
+(a brother of the famous Commodore), and plying between New York and
+Peekskill, blew up at Grassy Point. A friend of Mr. Drew at once put a
+boat called the "Water Witch" in her place, and Mr. Drew, to oblige his
+friend, advanced one thousand dollars toward the enterprise. Commodore
+Vanderbilt was not willing that any rival should contest the river trade
+with him, and built a steamer called the "Cinderella," with which he ran
+a sharp opposition to Mr. Drew. The contest was so sharp that fares and
+freights were lowered to a ridiculous figure, and both parties lost
+heavily. At the end of the season, the owner of the "Water Witch" found
+himself ten thousand dollars in debt, and sold his boat to Drew, Kelly &
+Richards for twenty thousand dollars.
+
+Finding that Mr. Drew was not frightened off by his opposition,
+Commodore Vanderbilt urged him to withdraw from his attempt, telling him
+he knew nothing of the management of steamboats. Mr. Drew refused to be
+intimidated; however, and continued his efforts. Since then, there have
+been fifty attempts to run him off the river, but all alike have failed
+of success.
+
+In 1836, the "Water Witch" was replaced by a fine steamer called the
+"Westchester," which was subsequently run as a day boat to Hartford,
+Connecticut. The "Westchester" was run against the Hudson River Line,
+from New York to Albany. The Hudson River Line at that time owned the
+"De Witt Clinton," the "North America," and others--the finest
+steamboats then afloat--and it seemed at first foolhardiness for any
+one to attempt to oppose so popular a company. Mr. Drew and his
+partners bought the "Bright Emerald," for which they gave twenty-six
+thousand dollars, and ran her as a night boat between New York and
+Albany, reducing the fare from three dollars to one dollar. During the
+season, they bought the "Rochester" for fifty thousand dollars, and also
+bought out the Hudson River Line, after which they restored the fare to
+three dollars.
+
+Several years later, Isaac Newton, who was largely interested in the
+towing business of the Hudson, built two splendid passenger steamers
+called the "North America" and the "South America." In 1840, Mr. Drew
+formed a partnership with Mr. Newton, and the celebrated "People's Line"
+was organized, which purchased all the passenger steamers owned by Drew
+and Newton. Mr. Drew was the largest stockholder in this company, which,
+to-day, after a lapse of nearly thirty years, still owns the most
+magnificent and popular steamers in the world. Soon after its
+organization, the company built the "Isaac Newton," the first of those
+floating palaces for which the Hudson is famed. Since then, it has built
+the "New World," the "St. John," the "Dean Richmond," and the "Drew,"
+the last two of which cost over seven' hundred thousand dollars each.
+Repeated efforts have been made to drive this line from the river, but
+it has been conducted so judiciously and energetically, that, for nearly
+thirty years, it has held the first place in the public favor.
+
+In 1847, George Law and Daniel Drew formed a partnership, and
+established a line of steamers between New York and Stonington, for the
+purpose of connecting with the railroad from the latter place to Boston.
+The "Oregon" and the "Knickerbocker" were placed on the route, and the
+enterprise proved a success. Mr. Drew and Commodore Vanderbilt secured a
+sufficient amount of stock in the railroad to give them a controlling
+interest in it, and by the year 1850 the Stonington Steamboat Line was
+firmly established.
+
+When the Hudson River Railroad was opened, in 1852, it was confidently
+expected that the steamboat trade on the river would be destroyed, and
+the friends and enemies of Mr. Drew alike declared that he might as well
+lay up his boats, as he would find it impossible to compete with the
+faster time of the railroad. He was not dismayed, however, for he was
+satisfied that the land route could not afford to carry freight and
+passengers as cheap as they could be transported by water. He knew that
+it would only be necessary to reduce his passenger and freight rates
+below those of the railroad, to continue in the enjoyment of his immense
+business, and his faith in the steady expansion of the trade of the city
+induced him to believe that the time was close at hand when railroad and
+steamers would all have as much as they could do to accommodate it. His
+views were well founded, and his hopes have been more than realized. The
+river trade has steadily increased, while the Hudson River Railroad is
+taxed to its utmost capacity to accommodate its immense traffic.
+
+In 1849, Mr. Drew, in connection with other parties, bought out the
+Champlain Transportation Company. This corporation had a capital of one
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and ran a line of five steamers from
+White Hall to the Canada end of the lake. The new proprietors ran the
+line seven years, and in 1856 sold out to the Saratoga and White Hall
+Railroad Company.
+
+As a steamboat manager, Daniel Drew has few equals and no superiors. His
+ventures on the water have all been crowned with success, a result due
+entirely to his judicious and liberal management His employes are chosen
+with the greatest care, and generally remain with him during their
+lives. He is very liberal in his dealings with those who serve him
+faithfully, but will not tolerate a single careless or incompetent man,
+however unimportant may be his position. The steamers owned by him are
+almost entirely free from accidents, and such misfortunes as have
+befallen them have been those against which no skill or foresight could
+guard. He refuses to insure his boats, holding that care and prudence
+are the best safeguards against accidents, and thus saves half a million
+dollars. When the "Dean Richmond" was run down by the "Vanderbilt," a
+year or two ago, he lost nearly three hundred thousand dollars. He paid
+every claim presented by shippers and passengers, as soon as made,
+without submitting one of them to the adjudication of the courts.
+
+In 1836, Mr. Drew entered the banking business in Wall Street, and in
+1840 established the widely-known firm of Drew, Robinson & Co. This
+house engaged largely in the financial operations of the day, and became
+known as one of the most uniformly successful in its dealings of any in
+the city. Mr. Drew remained at the head of it for thirteen years, but in
+1855 withdrew to make room for his son-in-law, Mr. Kelley. This
+gentleman died soon after his connection with the firm, and Mr. Drew
+resumed his old place.
+
+Having succeeded so well in all his ventures, Mr. Drew now determined to
+enter another field. Railroad stocks were very profitable, and might be
+made to yield him an immense return for his investments, and he decided
+to invest a considerable part of his fortune in them. In 1855, he
+endorsed the acceptances of the Erie Railroad Company for five hundred
+thousand dollars. This was the first decided evidence the public had
+received of his immense wealth, and in 1857 another was given by his
+endorsement of a fresh lot of Erie acceptances amounting to a million
+and a half of dollars. This last indorsement was made in the midst of
+the great financial panic of 1857, and occasioned no little comment. Men
+could admire, though they could not understand, the sublime confidence
+which enabled Mr. Drew to risk a million and a half of dollars in the
+midst of such a terrible crisis. Some one asked him if he could sleep
+quietly at night with such large interests at stake. "Sir," he replied,
+calmly, "I have never lost a night's rest on account of business in my
+life."
+
+In 1857, Mr. Drew was elected a director of the Erie Railroad Company, a
+position he held until recently. He was subsequently elected treasurer
+of the company, and is one of the principal holders of Erie stock. He is
+also one of the principal creditors of the company. The recent
+proceedings in the New York courts to prevent the Erie Road from issuing
+the new stock necessary to complete its broad-gauge connections with the
+West, are too fresh in the mind of the reader to need a recital of them
+here. It was proposed to issue ten millions of dollars worth of new
+stock, and Mr. Drew was to guarantee the bonds. After a tedious and
+costly suit, in which the New York Central Road endeavored to prevent
+the issue of the stock, in the hope of keeping the Erie Road from
+forming through connections with the West, the New York Legislature
+legalized the new issue, and a compromise was effected between Mr. Drew,
+in behalf of the Erie Road, and Commodore Vanderbilt, who represented
+the New York Central.
+
+Mr. Drew still continues his operations in Wall Street, where he is
+known as one of the boldest and most extensive, as well as one of the
+most successful, of all the operators in railroad stocks. Though losing
+heavily at times, he has nevertheless been one of fortune's favorites.
+His efforts have not been confined to the Erie Road. He owns stock in
+other roads, and, together with Commodore Vanderbilt, took up the
+floating debt of over half a million of dollars which weighed down the
+Harlem Road, and placed it in its present prosperous condition.
+
+He owns a fine grazing farm on the Harlem Railroad, about fifty miles
+from New York. It is situated in Carmel, in Putnam County; is nearly one
+thousand acres in extent, and includes the old farm on which he was
+born. He has made it one of the finest and most profitable in the State,
+and, it is said, values it above all his other possessions. He has
+improved and beautified it upon an extensive scale, and near the old
+grave-yard, where his parents lie sleeping, he has built one of the most
+beautiful churches in the land.
+
+In 1811, Mr. Drew became a member of the Methodist Church, but for
+twenty-five years this connection was merely nominal. During all the
+years of his drover's life he kept himself free from the sins of
+intemperance and swearing. Once while riding out in a buggy with a
+friend, to look at some cattle, a thunder-storm came on, and his horse
+was killed in the shafts by lightning. This narrow escape from death
+made a deep impression on his mind, and in 1841 he united with the
+Mulberry Street Methodist Church, of which he became an active member
+and a trustee. The elegant marble structure now standing at the corner
+of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street attests his liberality to this
+congregation. He is a trustee in the Wesleyan University, and has
+largely endowed that institution; and within the past few years has
+contributed several hundred thousand dollars for the endowment of the
+Drew Theological Seminary, which has been established at Madison, New
+Jersey, for the education of candidates for the Methodist ministry. He
+gives largely in aid of missionary work, and is one of the most liberal
+men in his denomination. It is said that he gives away at least one
+hundred thousand dollars annually in private charities, besides the
+large donations with which the public are familiar. He selects his own
+charities, and refuses promptly to aid those which do not commend
+themselves to him.
+
+His property is estimated at twenty millions of dollars, and he is said
+to earn at least half a million of dollars every year. He has two
+children, a son and a daughter, the latter of whom is the wife of a
+clergyman of the Baptist Church.
+
+Mr. Drew is about five feet ten inches high, and slenderly made. He is
+very active and vigorous for his age, and looks a much younger man than
+he is. His expression is firm, but withal pleasant. His features are
+regular, but dark and deeply marked, while his black hair is still
+unstreaked with gray. He is courteous and friendly in his intercourse,
+and is very much liked by his acquaintances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+JAMES B. EADS.
+
+
+James B. Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in the year 1820. His
+father was a man of moderate means, and was able to give him a fair
+English education. From his earliest childhood he evinced a remarkable
+fondness for all sorts of machinery and mechanical arrangements. This
+fondness became at length a passion, and excited the surprise of his
+friends, who could not imagine why a mere child should be so much
+interested in such things. His greatest delight was to go to the machine
+shops in his neighborhood, in which he had many friends, and watch the
+workings of the various inventions employed therein.
+
+When he was nine years old his father removed to Louisville, Kentucky.
+During the voyage down the Ohio, young Eads passed the most of his time
+in watching the engines of the steamer. The engineer was so much pleased
+to see his interest in the machinery that he explained the whole system
+of the steam-engine to him. The boy listened eagerly, and every word
+remained fixed in his mind. Two years later, with no further instruction
+on the subject, he constructed a miniature engine, which was worked by
+steam. This, for a boy of eleven years, was no insignificant triumph of
+genius. His father, anxious to encourage such unmistakable talent, now
+fitted up a small workshop for him, in which he constructed models of
+saw mills, fire engines, steamboats, and electrotyping machines. When he
+was only twelve years old he was able to take to pieces and reset the
+family clock and a patent lever watch, using no tool for this purpose
+but his pocket-knife.
+
+At the age of thirteen his pleasant employment was brought to a sudden
+end. His father lost all his property by the failure of some commercial
+transactions, and the family was brought to the verge of ruin. It now
+became necessary for young Eads to labor for his own support, and for
+that of his mother and sisters. Boy as he was, he faced the crisis
+bravely. Having in vain sought employment in Louisville, he resolved to
+go to St. Louis. He worked his passage there on a river steamer, and
+landed in that city so poor that he had neither shoes to his feet nor a
+coat to his back. He found it as difficult to procure work here as it
+had been in Louisville, and was at length compelled to resort to
+peddling apples on the street in order to secure a living. He did this
+for some time, never relaxing his efforts to obtain more desirable
+employment.
+
+After many attempts he succeeded in getting a situation in a mercantile
+house, at a fair salary. One of his employers was a man of wealth and
+culture, and was possessed of one of the finest private libraries in the
+West. Learning the extraordinary mechanical talent possessed by his
+young clerk, this gentleman placed his library at his disposal. The
+offer was promptly and gratefully accepted, and young Eads devoted
+almost all his leisure time to the study of mechanics, machinery, and
+civil engineering. He remained with this house for several years, and
+then obtained a clerkship on one of the Mississippi River steamers,
+where he passed several years more. During this time he became
+intimately acquainted with the great river and its tributaries, and
+acquired an extensive knowledge of all subjects appertaining to western
+navigation, which proved of great service to him in his after life.
+
+In 1842, being then twenty-two years old, and having saved a moderate
+sum of money, he formed a copartnership with Messrs. Case & Nelson, boat
+builders, of St. Louis, for the purpose of recovering steamboats and
+their cargoes which had been sunk or wrecked in the Mississippi.
+Accidents of this kind were then very common in those waters, and the
+business bade fair to be very profitable. The enterprise succeeded
+better than had been expected, and the operations of the wrecking
+company extended from Galena, Illinois, to the Balize, and into many of
+the tributaries of the great river. The parties interested in the scheme
+realized a handsome profit on their investments. Mr. Eads was the
+practical man of the concern, and worked hard to establish it upon a
+successful footing. In 1845 he sold out his interest in the company, and
+established a glass manufactory in St. Louis. This was the first
+enterprise of the kind ever attempted west of the Mississippi. Two years
+later, in 1847, he organized a new company for the purpose of recovering
+boats and cargoes lost in the Mississippi and its tributaries. This
+company started with a capital of fifteen hundred dollars. It was slow
+work at first, but a steady improvement was made every year, and in
+1857, just ten years from the date of their organization, the property
+of the firm was valued at more than half a million of dollars. During
+the winter of 1856-'57, Mr. Eads laid before Congress a formal
+proposition to remove the obstructions from the western rivers and keep
+them open for a term of years, upon payment of a reasonable sum by the
+General Government. Had this proposition been accepted, the benefits
+thereby secured to all who were engaged in the navigation of those
+rivers would have been very great. A bill was reported in Congress
+authorizing the acceptance of Mr. Eads' offer, but was defeated through
+the influence of the Senators from Mississippi (Jefferson Davis) and
+Louisiana (J.P. Benjamin).
+
+In 1857, Mr. Eads was compelled, on account of ill-health, to retire
+from business. He had earned a handsome fortune by his industry and
+enterprise, and could well afford to rest for a short time, preparatory,
+as it afterward proved, to the most important part of his whole career.
+
+When the secession troubles began to agitate the country, toward the
+close of the year 1860, Mr. Eads cast the weight of his private and
+public influence on the side of the Union. He felt that the war, if it
+should come, would be a very serious affair for the West, as the
+prosperity of that section depends largely upon the absolute freedom of
+the navigation of the Mississippi. The Confederates well understood
+this, and prepared from the first to close the great river until their
+independence should be acknowledged by the General Government. Dr.
+Boynton, in his "History of the United States Navy During the
+Rebellion," thus describes the condition of affairs in the West, a
+proper understanding of which will show the reader the importance of the
+services subsequently rendered by Mr. Eads:
+
+
+     The main features of the rebel plan of war in the West were to
+     seize and hold Missouri, and, as a consequence, Kansas and
+     Nebraska, and thus threaten or invade the free States of the
+     North-west from that point; to hold Kentucky and Tennessee, and, if
+     possible, to cross the Ohio, and make the Northern States the
+     theater of the war; or, in case they should be unable to invade the
+     North, to maintain their battle line unbroken along the Ohio and
+     through Missouri; to keep the great rivers closed, and thus holding
+     back the North, and being secure within their own territory, at
+     length compel the recognition of their independence. They certainly
+     presented to the North a most formidable front, a line of defenses
+     which was indeed impregnable to any means of assault which the
+     Government at first possessed. No army could be moved into
+     Tennessee by land alone, because the line of communication with a
+     Northern base could not be held secure, and a defeat far from the
+     Ohio would be the destruction of an army, and open the road for an
+     invasion of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and the destruction of
+     their cities.
+
+     It was quite evident that no impression could be made upon the
+     power of the rebellion in the West, until a firm foothold could be
+     gained in Kentucky and Tennessee, and until the Mississippi could
+     be wrested from the conspirators' control. It was clear that the
+     whole seaboard might be regained, even to Florida, and yet the
+     rebellion remain as dangerous as ever, if the rebels could hold the
+     Mississippi River and the valley up to or near the Ohio.
+
+     France was looking with eager eyes toward Texas, in the hope of
+     securing and extending her Mexican usurpation. England was ready to
+     give all the assistance in her power to any step which would weaken
+     the North; and had the rebels been pressed back from the seaports
+     and the Northern Atlantic slope, they would have had it in their
+     power, if still holding the Mississippi, the South-west, including
+     Tennessee, and the great natural fortresses of the mountains, to
+     have so connected themselves with Mexico and France as to have
+     caused the most serious embarrassment. It became absolutely
+     necessary to the success of the Government that the rebels'
+     northern line of defenses should be broken through, and that the
+     Mississippi should be opened to its mouth.
+
+     At first, and before the nature of the work was fully understood,
+     the whole was placed under the direction of the War Department, as
+     it was thought the few armed transports which would be needed would
+     be a mere appendage of the army. The idea of a formidable river
+     navy of a hundred powerful steamers did not in the beginning enter
+     into the minds of any.
+
+     It was soon seen, however, that an entirely new description of
+     craft was needed for this work. It was clear that the river boats,
+     which had been built for the common purposes of freight and
+     passage, were not capable of resisting the fire of heavy artillery,
+     and that the batteries of the rebels could not be captured nor even
+     passed by them. They could not even be safely employed alone in the
+     transportation of troops, for they could be sunk or crippled by the
+     field batteries that could be moved from point to point. The
+     question of iron-clads was proposed, but with only the ocean
+     iron-clads as a guide, who should conceive the proper form of an
+     armored boat which could navigate our rivers and compete
+     successfully with the heavy guns, rifled as well as smooth-bore, of
+     the fortifications. It was by no means easy to solve this problem,
+     but it was absolutely necessary that the attempt should be made....
+     These forts could only be reduced by the aid of gunboats, and
+     these were almost literally to be created.
+
+
+There was in the Cabinet of President Lincoln at this time a western
+man, intimately acquainted with the steamboat interest of the
+Mississippi. This was Edward Bates, the Attorney-General of the United
+States. He was an old friend of Mr. Eads, and felt assured that in case
+of war the services of that gentleman would be of the greatest value to
+the country. When it was found that hostilities could not be avoided, he
+mentioned the name of Mr. Eads to the Cabinet, and strongly urged that
+his services should be secured at the earliest possible moment. On the
+17th of April, 1861, three days after Fort Sumter had fallen, he wrote
+to Mr. Eads, who was living in comfortable retirement, at St. Louis: "Be
+not surprised if you are called here suddenly by telegram. If called,
+come instantly. In a certain contingency it will be necessary to have
+the aid of the most thorough knowledge of our western rivers, and the
+use of steam on them, and in that event I have advised that you should
+be consulted."
+
+A few days later Mr. Eads was summoned to Washington. Mr. Bates there
+explained to him in full a plan he had conceived for occupying Cairo,
+and endeavoring to hold the Mississippi by means of gunboats. Mr. Eads
+warmly indorsed the plan, and was introduced by Mr. Bates to the
+President and members of the Cabinet. When the plan was proposed to the
+Cabinet, the Secretary of War pronounced it unnecessary and
+impracticable, but the Secretary of the Navy was much impressed with
+it, and requested Mr. Eads to submit his views in writing, which was
+done. The paper embodied Judge Bates's general plan in addition to Mr.
+Eads's own views, and contained suggestions as to the kind of boats best
+fitted for service on the western rivers, and also in regard to the best
+points on those streams for the erection of land batteries. This paper
+was submitted to the Navy Department on the 29th of April, 1861, and was
+referred by the Secretary to Commodore Paulding, who reported in favor
+of its adoption.
+
+The Secretary of the Navy now detailed Captain John Rodgers to accompany
+Mr. Eads to the West, and purchase and fit out such steamers as should
+be found necessary for the service. Up to this time the Secretary of War
+had manifested the most supreme indifference in regard to the whole
+subject, but he now claimed entire jurisdiction in the matter, and this
+interference caused considerable vexation and delay. At length he issued
+an order to Mr. Eads and Captain Rodgers to proceed with their
+purchases. These gentlemen obtained the approval of General McClellan,
+in whose department the purchases were to be made, and began their
+operations.
+
+Upon arriving at Cairo, they found one of the old snag-boat fleet,
+called the "Benton." Mr. Eads knew the boat well, as he had formerly
+owned her, and proposed to purchase and arm her, but Captain Rodgers did
+not approve the plan for converting her into a gunboat. Mr. Eads then
+proposed to purchase and arm several of the strong, swift boats used for
+the navigation of the Missouri River, and equip them at St. Louis, from
+which point there would always be water enough to get them below Cairo.
+Captain Rodgers disapproved this plan also, and went to Cincinnati,
+where he purchased and equipped the "Conestoga," "Tyler," and
+"Lexington," and started them down the river. They were not iron-clad,
+but were merely protected around the boilers with coal bunkers, and
+provided with bullet-proof oaken bulwarks. Mr. Eads had warned Captain
+Rodgers that he could not depend upon the Ohio to get his boats down to
+Cairo, and his predictions were realized. The boats were started from
+Cincinnati some time in July; they were detained on the bars of the Ohio
+for six or seven weeks, and did not reach Cairo until about the first of
+September; then the bottom of the "Tyler" was found to be so badly
+damaged by sand-bars that she had to be put on the marine railway for
+repairs.
+
+In July, 1861, the War Department advertised for proposals to construct
+a number of iron-clad gunboats for service on the Mississippi River. On
+the 5th of August, when the bids were opened, it was found that Mr. Eads
+proposed to build these boats in a shorter time and upon more favorable
+terms than any one else. His offer was accepted, and on the 7th of
+August he signed a contract with Quartermaster-General Meigs to have
+ready for their crews and armaments, _in sixty-five days_, seven
+vessels, of about six hundred tons each, each to draw six feet of water,
+to carry thirteen heavy guns, to be plated with iron two and a half
+inches thick, and to steam nine miles per hour. "They were one hundred
+and seventy-five feet long, and fifty-one and a half feet wide; the
+hulls of wood; their sides placed out from the bottom of the boat to the
+water line at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and from the water
+line the sides fell back at about the same angle, to form a slanting
+casemate, the gun-deck being but a foot above water. This slanting
+casemate extended across the hull, near the bow and stern, forming a
+quadrilateral gun-deck. Three nine or ten-inch guns were placed in the
+bow, four similar ones on each side, and two smaller ones astern. The
+casemate inclosed the wheel, which was placed in a recess at the stern
+of the vessel. The plating was two and a half inches thick, thirteen
+inches wide, and was rabbeted on the edges to make a more perfect
+joint."
+
+In undertaking to complete these vessels in sixty-five days, Mr. Eads
+had assumed a heavy responsibility. The manufacturing interests of the
+West were sadly crippled by the sudden commencement of hostilities, and
+doubt and distrust prevailed every-where. The worst feature of all was,
+that skilled workmen were either enlisting in the army or seeking
+employment in States more remote from the scene of war. Every thing
+needed for the gunboats was to be made. Even the timber for their hulls
+was still standing in the forest, and the huge machinery which was to
+roll out and harden their iron plates had yet to be constructed. No
+single city, no two cities, however great in resources, could possibly
+supply every thing needed within the stipulated time, and it was
+necessary to employ help wherever it could be obtained.
+
+The very day the contract was signed, the telegraph was kept busy
+sending instructions all over the West for the commencement of the
+various parts of the work. The saw-mills in Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, and Missouri were set to getting out
+the timber, which was hurried to St. Louis by railroad and steamboat as
+fast as it was ready. There were twenty-one steam engines and
+thirty-five boilers to be made, and the machine-shops in St. Louis,
+Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh were put to work upon them. The huge
+rolling-mills of Cincinnati and Portsmouth, Ohio, Newport, Kentucky, and
+St. Louis were engaged in making the iron plates, and employed for this
+purpose no less than four thousand men. Night and day, Sundays included,
+the work went on with an almost superhuman swiftness. Mr. Eads paid the
+workmen on the hulls large sums from his own pocket, in addition to
+their wages, to induce them to continue steadily at their work.
+
+On the 12th of October, 1861, just forty-five days from the time of
+laying her keel, the first iron-clad, belonging to the United States,
+was launched, with her engines and boilers on board. Rear Admiral Foote
+(then a flag officer), appointed to command the Mississippi squadron,
+named her the "St. Louis," but upon being transferred to the Navy
+Department her name was changed to the "Baron de Kalb." She was followed
+by the other vessels in rapid succession, all being completed within the
+stipulated time.
+
+In September, 1861, General Fremont ordered the purchase of the snag
+boat "Benton," which had been proposed by Mr. Eads and rejected by
+Captain Rodgers, and sent her to Mr. Eads to be armored and equipped as
+a gunboat. Work was at once begun on her, and pushed forward with the
+same energy that had been displayed in the construction of the other
+iron-clads. Her performances during the war fully sustained the high
+esteem in which she was held by the officers of the navy. Admirals Foote
+and Davis pronounced her the "best iron-clad in the world."
+
+By dint of such skill and energy as we have described, Mr. Eads, in the
+brief period of one hundred days, built and had ready for service a
+powerful iron-clad fleet of eight steamers, carrying one hundred and
+seven heavy guns, and having an aggregate capacity of five thousand
+tons. Such a work was one of the greatest in magnitude ever performed,
+and, as may be supposed, required a heavy capital to carry it to
+perfection. Mr. Eads soon exhausted his own means, and but for the
+assistance of friends, whose confidence in his integrity and capacity
+induced them to advance him large sums, would have been compelled to
+abandon the undertaking; for the Government, upon various pretexts,
+delayed for months the stipulated payments, and by its criminal
+negligence came near bringing the iron-clad fleet, so necessary to its
+success, to an untimely end. It was prompt enough, however, to
+commission the vessels as soon as they were ready. At the time they
+rendered such good service in the conquest of Forts Henry and Donelson,
+and compelled the fall of Island No. 10, they were still unpaid for, and
+the private property of Mr. Eads.
+
+In the spring of 1862, Mr. Eads, in accordance with the desire of the
+Navy Department, submitted plans for light-draught armored vessels for
+service on the western rivers. He proposed an ingenious revolving turret
+to be used on these vessels, the performance of which he agreed to
+guarantee to the satisfaction of the Department; but the Government
+decided to use the Ericsson turret, which the recent encounter between
+the Monitor and Merrimac had proved to be a success. Mr. Eads was
+allowed, however, to modify the Ericsson turret considerably, in order
+to avoid making the draft of his steamers greater than was desired. He
+built the "Osage" and "Neosho," and when these vessels were launched,
+with all their weight on board, it was found that they were really
+lighter than the contract called for, a circumstance which permitted the
+thickness of their armor to be afterward increased half an inch without
+injuring their draught or speed.
+
+In May, 1862, at the request of the Navy Department, Mr. Eads submitted
+plans for four iron-clads, iron hull propellers, to carry two turrets
+each of eight inches thickness, four eleven inch guns, and
+three-quarters inch deck armor, to steam nine nautical miles per hour,
+to carry three days' coal, and not to exceed a draught of six feet of
+water. His plans were accepted, and he constructed the "Winnebago,"
+"Kickapoo," "Milwaukee," and "Chickasaw." Like the "Osage" and "Neosho,"
+these vessels were found to be of lighter draught than had been agreed
+upon, and the Department ordered all four to have an extra plating of
+three-quarters inch armor, which was done. Three of the vessels were
+also reported, by the officers of the navy sent to examine them, to
+exceed the speed required by the contract, while the fourth was fully up
+to the standard.
+
+Of how many "Government Contractors" during the war can it be said that
+their work was much better than they had agreed to furnish? Verily, we
+think Mr. Eads stands almost alone in this respect, his proud position
+made still more honorable by its comparative isolation.
+
+Mr. Eads built, during the war, fourteen heavily armored gunboats, four
+heavy mortar boats, and converted seven transports into musket-proof
+gunboats, or "tin-clads," as they were called on the river. He had a
+share in other enterprises of a similar nature during the war, and
+besides rendering good service to the Union, was enabled to retire at
+the close of the struggle with a handsome fortune, won by his own
+patriotic skill and energy.
+
+Whatever may be the distinction awarded to others, to him belongs the
+credit of having been the first to provide the Government with the means
+of securing that firm hold upon the great river of the West which, once
+gained, was never relaxed.
+
+Mr. Eads resides in St. Louis. He is still in the prime of life, is
+admired and honored by his fellow-citizens, and affords a splendid
+example of what genius and industry can do for a poor, friendless boy in
+that glorious western country which is one day to be the seat of empire
+in the New World.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CYRUS W. FIELD.
+
+
+Cyrus far we have been considering the struggles of men who have risen
+from obscure positions in life, by the aid of their own genius,
+industry, and courage, to the front rank of their respective callings.
+We shall now relate the story of one who having already won fortune,
+periled it all upon an enterprise in which his own genius had recognized
+the path to fame and to still greater success, but which the almost
+united voice of the people of his country condemned as visionary, and
+from which they coldly held aloof until its brilliant success compelled
+them to acknowledge the wisdom and foresight of its projector.
+
+Fifteen years ago very few persons had heard of Cyrus W. Field. Ten
+years ago he had achieved considerable notoriety as a visionary who was
+bent on sinking his handsome fortune in the sea. To-day, the world is
+full of his fame, as the man to whom, above all others, it is indebted
+for the successful completion of the Atlantic Telegraph; and those who
+were formerly loudest in ridiculing him are now foremost in his praise.
+"Nothing succeeds like success," and what was once in their eyes mere
+folly, and worthy only of ridicule, they now hail as the evidences of
+his courage, foresight, and profound wisdom, and wonder that they never
+could see them in their true light before.
+
+Cyrus West Field was born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on the 30th day
+of November, 1819, and is the son of the Rev. David Dudley Field, a
+distinguished clergyman of that State. He was carefully educated in the
+primary and grammar schools of his native county, and at the age of
+fifteen went to New York to seek his fortune. He had no difficulty in
+obtaining a clerkship in an enterprising mercantile house in that city,
+and, from the first, gave evidence of unusual business capacity. His
+employers, pleased with his promise, advanced him rapidly, and in a few
+years he became a partner in the house. His success as a merchant was
+uniform and marked--so marked, indeed, that in 1853, when only
+thirty-four years old, he was able to partially retire from business
+with a large fortune as the substantial reward of his mercantile career.
+
+Mr. Field had devoted himself so closely to his business that, at his
+retirement, he resolved to seek recreation and change of scene in
+foreign travel, and accordingly he left New York, and passed the next
+six months in journeying through the mountains of South America. Upon
+his return home, at the close of the year 1853, he declared his
+intention to withdraw entirely from active participation in business,
+and to engage in no new schemes.
+
+He had scarcely returned home, however, when his brother, Mr. Matthew D.
+Field, a successful and well-known civil engineer, informed him that he
+had just become acquainted with a Mr. Frederick N. Gisborne, of
+Newfoundland, who had come to New York for the purpose of interesting
+some American capitalists in a company which had been organized in
+Newfoundland for the purpose of procuring news in America and Europe,
+and transmitting it between the two continents with greater dispatch
+than was possible in the then existing mode of communication between the
+two countries. The scheme of Mr. Gisborne had commended itself to Mr.
+Matthew Field, and he urged his brother to meet that gentleman and hear
+his statements. Mr. Cyrus Field at once declined to undertake any share
+in the enterprise, and said that it would be useless for him to meet Mr.
+Gisborne; but his brother was so urgent that he at last consented to
+grant Mr. Gisborne an interview, and at least hear what he had to say.
+At the appointed time, Mr. Field received Mr. Gisborne at his house, and
+was there made acquainted with the proposed plan of operations of the
+"Electric Telegraph Company of Newfoundland." This company had gone into
+bankruptcy a short time previous, but Mr. Gisborne hoped to be able to
+revive it by the aid of American capital. The scheme which he laid
+before Mr. Field, can not be better stated than by quoting the following
+extract from the charter which the Legislature of Newfoundland had
+granted the bankruptcy company:
+
+"The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly an
+'Inter-Continental Telegraph,' Its termini will be New York, in the
+United States, and London, in the Kingdom of Great Britain; these points
+are to be connected by a line of electric telegraph from New York to St.
+John's, Newfoundland, partly on poles, partly laid in the ground, and
+partly through the water, and a line of the swiftest steamships ever
+built, from that point to Ireland. The trips of these steamships, it is
+expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time will be
+occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's and New York, the
+communication between the latter city and London or Liverpool, will be
+effected in _six days,_ or less. The company will have likewise
+stationed at St. John's a steam yacht, for the purpose of intercepting
+the European and American steamships, so that no opportunity may be
+lost in forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of
+communication."
+
+Mr. Field listened attentively to his visitor, but declined to commit
+himself to more than an expression of sympathy with the enterprise.
+After the departure of his guest, he took the globe which stood in his
+library, and turning it over, began to examine the proposed route of the
+telegraph line and the distance to be traversed by the steamers. While
+engaged in this examination, the idea flashed across his mind that
+instead of undertaking such a complicated scheme, it would be better to
+attempt to stretch a telegraph wire entirely across the ocean, from the
+shores of Newfoundland to the coast of Ireland. The vastness of this
+scheme pleased him, and its usefulness to the entire world, if it could
+be carried out, was clear to his mind from the first.
+
+He at once set to work to ascertain if such an undertaking as an
+Atlantic telegraph was practicable. He wrote to Lieutenant Maury, then
+the Chief of the National Observatory at Washington, and asked if the
+laying of such a wire was possible; and to Professor Morse, the inventor
+of the telegraph, to know if such a wire would be available for sending
+messages if it could be laid. Lieutenant Maury promptly replied,
+inclosing a copy of a report he had just made to the Secretary of the
+Navy on the subject, from which Mr. Field learned that the idea of
+laying a telegraph across the ocean was not original with himself. In
+this report Lieutenant Maury demonstrated the entire practicability of
+such an enterprise, and sustained his conclusions by a statement of the
+recent discoveries concerning the bed of the ocean, made by Lieutenant
+Berryman. Professor Morse came in person to visit Mr. Field, and assured
+him of his entire faith in the possibility of sending telegraphic
+messages across the ocean with rapidity and success.
+
+The two highest authorities in the world thus having assured him of the
+entire practicability of the undertaking, Mr. Field declared his
+readiness, if he could procure the assistance of a sufficient number of
+capitalists in the United States, to undertake the laying of a telegraph
+across the Atlantic between Europe and America. Further deliberation
+only made him better satisfied with the undertaking, and he set to work
+to find ten capitalists, each of whom he proposed should contribute one
+hundred thousand dollars, making the capital of the proposed company one
+million of dollars. Mr. Field was convinced that the undertaking would
+be expensive, but he had then but a faint conception of its magnitude,
+and was very far from supposing that "he might yet be drawn on to stake
+upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; that he was to
+sacrifice for it all the peace and quiet he had hoped to enjoy, and that
+for twelve years he was to be almost without a home, crossing and
+recrossing the sea, urging his enterprise in Europe and America."
+
+The scientific questions involved in the undertaking were so little
+understood at the time by the public, and the popular judgment regarded
+the attempt to stretch a cable across the deep, mysterious ocean with so
+much incredulity, that Mr. Field had considerable trouble in finding
+gentlemen willing or prepared to share his faith in the enterprise. His
+first effort was to induce Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York, his next door
+neighbor, to join him, and he succeeded so well that Mr. Cooper
+consented to do so if several others would unite with them. Encouraged
+by his success with Mr. Cooper, whose name was a tower of strength to
+his cause, Mr. Field renewed his efforts, and succeeded in winning over
+the following gentlemen, and in the order named: Moses Taylor, Marshall
+O. Roberts, and Chandler White. These gentlemen were very slow to accept
+the views of Mr. Field, but, once having done so, they never lost faith
+in the ultimate success of the undertaking. The more thoroughly they
+became acquainted with its magnitude and costliness, the stronger grew
+their confidence in it, for this increase of knowledge not only showed
+them more plainly its difficulties and dangers, but developed new
+grounds on which to base their hopes.
+
+Mr. Field was about to continue his efforts to procure additional names,
+when Mr. Cooper proposed that the five gentlemen already pledged to the
+scheme should undertake its entire cost without waiting for the other
+four. The proposition was agreed to, and it was decided to take the
+necessary steps to procure a charter for their company from the
+Legislature of Newfoundland. Mr. Field consented to undertake this, and
+at once set off for St. John's, accompanied by his brother, Mr. David
+Dudley Field, who was made the legal adviser of the company. At St.
+John's they were greatly aided by Mr. Archibald, then the
+Attorney-General of the Colony, and afterward the British Consul at New
+York, and by the Governor of Newfoundland. They succeeded in obtaining a
+charter from the Legislature under the name of the "New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company," with liberal grants in land
+and money. This accomplished, they assumed and paid the liabilities of
+the old Telegraph Company which had been brought to Mr. Field's notice
+by Mr. Gisborne, and thus removed the last difficulty in their way. This
+much accomplished, Mr. Field hastened back to New York, and on the 6th
+of May, 1854, the Company was formally organized at the residence of Mr.
+David Dudley Field. Messrs. Cooper, Taylor, Field, Roberts, and White
+were the first directors. Mr. Cooper, was made President of the
+Company, Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor Secretary. A capital
+of one million and a half of dollars was subscribed on the spot, Mr.
+Field contributing about two hundred thousand dollars in cash.
+
+Work was at once begun on the section between New York and St. John's.
+There was no road across the island of Newfoundland, and the Company had
+not only to build their telegraph line, but to construct a road by the
+side of it through an almost unbroken wilderness. It was a work which
+required the highest executive ability, and the services of an army of
+men. The distance across the island was four hundred miles, and there
+were numerous rocky gorges, morasses, and rivers in the way. The country
+was a desolation, and it was found that supplies would have to be
+transported from St. John's. The execution of the work was committed to
+Mr. White, the Vice-President, who went to St. John's to act as the
+general agent of the Company, and to Mr. Matthew D. Field, who was
+appointed constructing engineer. These gentlemen displayed such skill
+and energy in their respective positions that in two years the Company
+had not only built a telegraph line and a road of four hundred miles
+across the island, but had constructed another line of one hundred and
+forty miles in the island of Cape Breton, and had stretched a submarine
+cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence.[A] The line was now in working
+order from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of one
+thousand miles, and it had required about a million of dollars for its
+construction. It now remained to complete the great work by laying the
+cable between Newfoundland and Ireland.
+
+
+[Footnote A: The first effort to lay a cable in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
+was made by this Company, in August, 1855. It was a failure, and the
+cable was lost. The second attempt was made in the summer of 1856, and
+was entirely successful.]
+
+It being desirable to examine still further the bed of the ocean over
+which the cable was to be laid, Mr. Field requested the Government of
+the United States to send out an expedition over the route for the
+purpose of taking deep sea soundings. His request was promptly granted,
+and an expedition under Lieut. Berryman was dispatched, which proceeded
+to examine the ocean bed, with the most satisfactory results. This was
+accomplished in the summer of 1856, and the next year the same route was
+surveyed by Commander Daymon, with the British war steamer Cyclops--this
+survey being ordered by the Lords of the Admiralty, at Mr. Field's
+request. These surveys made it plain beyond question that a cable could
+lie safely on the bed of the sea, at a depth sufficient to protect it
+from vessels' anchors, from icebergs, and from submarine currents, and
+that it would receive sufficient support from that bed to free it from
+all undue tension. There was no doubt of the ultimate success of the
+enterprise in the minds of the directors, but it was necessary to
+convince the public in both Europe and America that it was not an
+impossibility, and also to enlist the sympathies of the Governments of
+Great Britain and the United States, and secure their assistance.
+
+Mr. Field, who had made several voyages to England and to Newfoundland
+in behalf of the company, was elected Vice-President after the death of
+Mr. White, in 1856, and was charged with the duty of proceeding to
+England to obtain the assistance of the British Government, and to
+organize the company in London. Thus far the directors had borne the
+entire cost of the undertaking, and it was but fair that they should
+seek the means for completing their work in the country which was to be
+so much benefited by it. Mr. Field sailed for England in the summer of
+1856, and upon reaching that country proceeded to consult some of its
+most eminent engineers and electricians. The English people were slow to
+believe that so long a cable could be successfully worked, even if laid
+intact, and to remove their doubts, the opinions of Professor Morse and
+Lieutenant Maury were published in their newspapers; and this
+publication brought out communications from many scientific men on the
+subject, a number of them advocating the undertaking. Thus, the
+attention of the English public was gained. Experiments were made by
+Professor Morse, Mr. Bright, and Dr. Whitehouse, which proved beyond all
+doubt the ease with which a continuous line of more than two thousand
+miles of wire could be worked; and Professor Morse was able, from these
+experiments, to declare his conviction that an electric current could
+pass between London and New York, on such a wire, in the space of one
+second.
+
+Science had now done its utmost, and had in every thing sustained the
+great plan. It was now necessary to ask the aid of Her Majesty's
+Government. This effort was intrusted to Mr. Field, who carried it
+through successfully. The English Government agreed to furnish the ships
+necessary for making soundings and surveys, and to furnish vessels to
+assist in laying the cable. It also agreed to pay to the company an
+annual subsidy of fourteen thousand pounds for the transmission of the
+government messages until the net profits of the company were equal to a
+dividend of six pounds per cent., when the payment was to be reduced to
+ten thousand pounds per annum, for a period of twenty-five years.
+Provision was made for extra payment, in case the government messages
+exceeded a certain amount; and it was provided that the messages of the
+Governments of Great Britain and the United States should be placed upon
+an equal footing, and should have priority in the order in which they
+arrived at the stations. This last provision exhibited a decided
+liberality on the part of the English Government, since both ends of the
+proposed cable would be in British territory. Indeed, throughout the
+whole negotiation, Great Britain cheerfully accorded to the United
+States every privilege which she claimed for herself.
+
+Having secured the aid of the Queen's Government on such liberal terms,
+Mr. Field now undertook the organization of the company, in addition to
+the task of raising a capital of three hundred and fifty thousand
+pounds. In both efforts he was effectively assisted by Mr. John W.
+Brett, who had laid the first cable across the English Channel, and by
+Mr. Charles T. Bright and Dr. Edward O.W. Whitehouse. The efforts of
+these gentlemen were successful. In a few weeks the whole capital was
+subscribed. It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a
+thousand pounds each. One hundred and one of these were taken up in
+London, eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, twenty-eight
+in Manchester, and a few in other parts of England. Mr. Field, at the
+final division of shares, took eighty-eight. He did not design making
+this investment on his own account, but thinking it but fair that at
+least one-fourth of the stock should be held in America, he made this
+subscription with the intention of disposing of his shares after his
+return home. Owing to his continued absence from New York, and the
+straitened condition of the money market, it was nearly a year before he
+could succeed in selling as much as twenty-seven shares. The company was
+organized in December, 1856, a Board of Directors elected, and a
+contract made for the cable, half of which was to be made in London and
+the other half in Liverpool.
+
+The day after the organization of the company, Mr. Field sailed for New
+York, from which place he at once made a voyage to Newfoundland, to look
+after some matters which required his presence. Returning home, he
+hurried to Washington, to secure the aid of the General Government. He
+met with more opposition here than he had encountered in England. A
+powerful lobby opposed him, and a spirit of hostility to his bill
+exhibited itself in Congress, and to such a degree that the measure
+passed the Senate by a majority of only one vote. It came very near
+failing in the House, but at length got through, and received the
+President's signature on the 3d of March, 1857.
+
+In the summer of 1857, Mr. Field having returned to England, the cable
+was declared to be in readiness for laying. The United States Government
+now placed at the disposal of the Telegraph Company the magnificent new
+steam frigate "Niagara," as the most suitable vessel for laying the
+cable, and ordered the "Susquehanna," the largest side-wheel frigate in
+the service, to accompany her in the expedition. The British Government
+provided the steam frigate "Agamemnon," a splendid vessel, which had
+been the flagship of the English fleet at the bombardment of Sebastopol,
+and ordered the "Leopard" to accompany her as an escort. The "Niagara"
+was commanded by Captain W.L. Hudson, of the United States Navy, and the
+"Agamemnon" by Captain Noddal, of the Royal Navy. The "Niagara" took on
+her share of the cable at Liverpool, and the "Agamemnon" received hers
+at London. It was agreed that the "Niagara" should begin the laying of
+the cable, and continue it until her portion of it should be exhausted
+in mid-ocean, when her end of it should be united with the cable on
+board the "Agamemnon," which ship should continue laying the line until
+the shores of Newfoundland were reached. After taking on the cable, the
+ships were ordered to Queenstown.
+
+The vessels left England in the midst of general rejoicings, and arrived
+at the rendezvous at the proper time. Thence they sailed for the harbor
+of Valentia, which was to be the eastern terminus of the line and the
+starting point of the expedition. They were greeted every-where with
+enthusiasm, and the greatest confidence in the success of the
+enterprise was manifested by those on board. Mr. Field, Professor Morse,
+and several other officers of the company were on board the "Niagara,"
+as that ship was to conduct the first part of the sinking of the cable.
+
+At length all was in readiness. The shore end of the cable was landed
+and made fast on Wednesday afternoon, the 5th of August, and the next
+morning the fleet stood out to sea. "Before they had gone five miles the
+heavy shore end of the cable caught in the machinery and parted. The
+'Niagara' put back, and the cable was 'underrun' the whole distance. At
+length the end was lifted out of the water and spliced to the gigantic
+coil, and as it dropped safely to the bottom of the sea, the mighty ship
+began to stir. At first she moved very slowly, not more than two miles
+an hour, to avoid the danger of accident; but the feeling that they are
+at last away is itself a relief. The ships are all in sight, and so near
+that they can hear each other's bells. The 'Niagara,' as if knowing that
+she is bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bends her head
+to the waves, as her prow is turned toward her native shores.
+
+"Slowly passed the hours of that day. But all went well, and the ships
+were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in
+the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept.
+A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment, as those who have a
+personal interest in the issue. All through that night, and through the
+anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in every soul
+on board as if a friend in the cabin were at the turning-point of life
+or death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange,
+unnatural silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled
+tread, speaking only in whispers, as if a loud voice or a heavy footfall
+might snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the
+enterprise, that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on
+whose fate they hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny.
+
+"There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps
+the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the
+deeper. What strange thoughts came to them as they stood on the deck and
+watched that mysterious cord disappearing in the darkness, and gliding
+to its ocean bed! There are certain moments in life when every thing
+comes back upon us--when the events of years seem crowded into an hour.
+What memories came up in those long night hours! How many on board that
+ship thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent ones, of the distant and
+the dead! Such thoughts, mingling with those suggested by the scene
+around, added to the solemnity of the hour, had left an impression which
+can never be forgotten.
+
+"But with the work in hand all is going on well. There are vigilant eyes
+on deck. Mr. Bright, the engineer of the company, is there, and Mr.
+Everett, Mr. De Sauty, the electrician, and Professor Morse. The
+paying-out machinery does its work, and though it makes a constant
+rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound is music to their ears, as it
+tells them that all is well. If one should drop to sleep, and wake up at
+night, he has only to hear the sound of 'the old coffee-mill,' and his
+fears are relieved, and he goes to sleep again."
+
+Saturday and Sunday passed away without accident, but on Monday, when
+two hundred miles at sea, in deep water, and safely beyond the great
+submarine mountain, the electrical continuity was suddenly lost. This
+interruption amazed and perplexed all on board, but no one was able to
+remedy it, or to account for it satisfactorily. It lasted for two hours,
+and then, just as the order was about to be given to cut the cable and
+endeavor to wind it in, it came back as suddenly and mysteriously as it
+had disappeared. The greatest delight was now manifested by all on
+board. "You could see," says the correspondent of the London _Times_,
+"the tears of joy standing in the eyes of some as they almost cried for
+joy, and told their mess-mates that it was all right."
+
+That night, however, the expedition came to grief. The cable was running
+out freely at the rate of six miles per hour, while the ship was making
+only four. This was supposed to be owing to a powerful undercurrent. To
+check this waste of the cable the engineer applied the brakes firmly,
+which at once stopped the machine. The effect was to bring a heavy
+strain on the cable that was in the water. The stern of the ship was
+down in the trough of the sea, and as it rose upward on the swell, the
+pressure was too great, and the cable parted. The alarm was at once
+given, and the greatest consternation and grief prevailed on board. "It
+made all hands of us through the day," says Captain Hudson, "like a
+household or family which had lost their dearest friend, for officers
+and men had been deeply interested in the success of the enterprise."
+
+The fleet immediately put about and returned to England, where Mr. Field
+at once informed the directors of the extent of the disaster. The
+remaining portions of the cable were landed and stored safely away, and
+the vessels were returned to their respective Governments. Orders were
+given for the manufacture of seven hundred miles of cable to replace the
+portion which had been lost, and to allow for waste in paying it out,
+and the most energetic preparations were made for another attempt.
+
+Being satisfied that the machine used for paying out the cable was
+defective, Mr. Field went to Washington and procured from the Navy
+Department the services of Mr. Wm. E. Everett, the chief engineer of the
+"Niagara," stating to that gentleman the necessity for a new machine,
+and urging him to invent it. This Mr. Everett succeeded in doing during
+the winter. His machine was regarded as a great improvement on that
+which had been used on the "Niagara." "It was much smaller and lighter.
+It would take up only about one third as much room on the deck, and had
+only one fourth the weight of the old machine. Its construction was much
+more simple. Instead of four heavy wheels, it had but two, and these
+were made to revolve with ease, and without danger of sudden check, by
+the application of what were known as self-releasing brakes. These were
+the invention of Mr. Appold, of London, a gentleman of fortune, but with
+a strong taste for mechanics, which led him to spend his time and wealth
+in exercising his mechanical ingenuity. These brakes were so adjusted as
+to bear only a certain strain, when they released themselves. This
+ingenious contrivance was applied by Mr. Everett to the paying-out
+machinery. The strength of the cable was such that it would not break
+except under a pressure of a little over three tons. The machinery was
+so adjusted that not more than half that strain could possibly come upon
+the cable, when the brakes would relax their grasp, the wheels revolve
+easily, and the cable run out into the sea 'at its own sweet will.' The
+paying-out machine, therefore, we are far from claiming as wholly an
+American invention. This part of the mechanism was English. The merit of
+Mr. Everett lay in the skill with which he adapted it to the laying of
+the Atlantic cable, and in his great improvements of other parts of the
+machinery. The whole construction, as it afterward stood upon the decks
+of the 'Niagara' and the 'Agamemnon,' was the combined product of
+English and American invention."
+
+In January, 1858, the Board of Directors offered Mr. Field the sum of
+five thousand dollars per annum if he would assume the post of general
+manager of the company. He at once undertook the duties of the
+position, but declined all compensation.
+
+Every thing being in readiness for the second attempt at laying the
+cable, the "Niagara" sailed from New York in March, 1858, to take on her
+portion of the cable at Plymouth. The "Agamemnon" was again ordered to
+assist in the undertaking, and the "Gorgon" was made her consort Mr.
+Field had hoped that the "Susquehanna" would again be the consort of the
+"Niagara," but a few days before the sailing of the fleet he was
+officially informed that he could not have the ship, as she was then in
+the West Indies, with the greater part of her crew down with the yellow
+fever. This was a keen disappointment, as every arrangement had been
+made with the expectation of having the assistance of the "Susquehanna."
+It was too late to ask the Government at Washington for another ship,
+and it was by no means certain that the request would be granted if
+made. In this dilemma Mr. Field frankly stated his disappointment to the
+Lords of the Admiralty of England, and asked for a ship to accompany the
+"Niagara." He was informed that the English Government was at that
+moment chartering vessels to convey troops to Malta, as it had not ships
+enough of its own, and that it was doubtful whether it could contribute
+a third ship to the expedition. Still, so greatly did the government
+desire the success of the enterprise, that a little later on the same
+day the "Valorous" was ordered to take the place of the "Susquehanna" in
+the telegraph fleet. This generous assistance was all the more
+praiseworthy, as it was given at a time when the need of England for
+ships was very urgent.
+
+After shipping the cable, the squadron sailed from Plymouth on the 29th
+of May, 1868, for the Bay of Biscay, where the cable was subjected to
+numerous and thorough tests, which demonstrated its strength and its
+sensitiveness to the electric current. This accomplished, the vessels
+returned to Plymouth.
+
+"Among the matters of _personal_ solicitude and anxiety at this time,
+next to the success of the expedition, was Mr. Field himself. He was
+working with an activity which was unnatural--which could only be kept
+up by great excitement, and which involved the most serious danger. The
+strain on the man was more than the strain on the cable, and we were in
+fear that both would break together. Often he had no sleep, except such
+as he caught flying on the railway. Indeed, when we remonstrated, he
+said he could rest better there than anywhere else, for then he was not
+tormented with the thought of any thing undone. For the time being he
+could do no more; and then, putting his head in the cushioned corner of
+the carriage, he got an hour or two of broken sleep.
+
+"Of this activity we had an instance while in Plymouth. The ships were
+then lying in the Sound, only waiting orders from the Admiralty to go to
+sea; but some business required one of the directors to go to Paris,
+and, as usual, it fell upon him. He left on Sunday night, and went to
+Bristol, and thence, by the first morning train, to London. Monday he
+was busy all day, and that night went to Paris. Tuesday, another busy
+day, and that night back to London. Wednesday, occupied every minute
+till the departure of the Great Western train. That night back to
+Plymouth. Thursday morning on board the 'Niagara,' and immediately the
+squadron sailed."
+
+The plan of operations this time was for the vessels to proceed to a
+given point in mid-ocean, and there unite the two ends of the cable,
+after which the "Niagara" should proceed toward Newfoundland and the
+"Agamemnon" toward Ireland, and it was supposed that each vessel would
+make land about the same time. This was believed to be a better plan
+than the one pursued in the first expedition.
+
+The squadron sailed from Plymouth on the 10th of June. The weather was
+favorable for the first two or three clays of the voyage, but on the
+13th a severe gale set in, which lasted for over a week, and came near
+causing the "Agamemnon" to founder beneath her immense load, a portion
+of which broke loose in her hold. All the vessels succeeded in
+weathering the storm, however, and on the 25th reached the rendezvous in
+mid-ocean. The next day the splice was made, and the ships set out for
+their respective destinations. Before they had gone three miles the
+machinery of the "Niagara" caught the cable and broke it. A second
+splice was made, but when each ship had paid out about forty miles, the
+electric current suddenly ceased. The cable was cut promptly, and the
+two vessels at once returned to the rendezvous, where they rejoined each
+other on the 28th. A comparison of the logs of the two ships "showed the
+painful and mysterious fact that at the same second of time each vessel
+discovered that a total fracture had taken place, at a distance of
+certainly not less than ten miles from each ship, in fact, as well as can
+be judged, at the bottom of the ocean." A third splice was made without
+delay, and the two ships again set out for the opposite shores of the
+Atlantic. This time about two hundred miles of the cable were
+successfully laid, when it parted about twenty feet from the stern of
+the "Agamemnon." The "Niagara," being unable to communicate with the
+English frigate, bore away for Queenstown, where she was joined a few
+days later by the "Agamemnon."
+
+This second failure greatly disheartened the directors, and it required
+all Mr. Field's persuasiveness to induce them to sanction another
+attempt. Yet he prevailed, and, hastening from London to Queenstown,
+sailed with the telegraph fleet on the third attempt to lay the cable,
+leaving Queenstown on the 17th of July. The rendezvous was reached on
+the 28th, and on the 29th the splice was made; and the "Niagara" and
+"Agamemnon" parted company. This time the undertaking was successful.
+The cable was laid across the Atlantic, the "Niagara" reaching Trinity
+Bay, Newfoundland, on the 5th of August, and the "Agamemnon" arriving
+at Valentia, Ireland, a few hours later on the same day. Signals were
+sent across the entire length of the line, from shore to shore, with
+ease and rapidity, and nothing occurred to mar the success of the mighty
+undertaking.
+
+The successful laying of the cable was hailed with the liveliest joy on
+both sides of the Atlantic, and those who had participated in it were
+regarded as heroes. But great as was the achievement, it was not
+destined to be a lasting success. After working for four weeks, the
+electric current suddenly ceased on the 1st of September. It never
+worked _perfectly_ at any period of its existence, but it did transmit a
+number of messages with intelligibleness, and thus put an end to all
+doubt in the minds of the scientific men of the expedition of the
+feasibility of laying a successful line across the ocean.
+
+The public generally and the directors of the company were greatly
+disappointed, and many of-the latter and nearly all of the former
+declared that all such attempts must of necessity fail. Some persons
+even went so far as to avow their belief that the statements as to the
+successful transmission of signals over the wire were false; but the
+proofs that the wire did work properly for awhile are too strong to
+allow us to accord the slightest weight to this disbelief. But whether
+signals had passed over the wire or not, there could be no doubt that
+the cable had ceased to respond to the efforts of the electricians, and
+was a total failure, and the discouragement of nearly every one
+connected with it was most profound.
+
+Mr. Field and one or two others were the only persons who retained the
+slightest confidence in the enterprise, and it was clear to them that
+any further effort to secure the aid of private capital would be useless
+just then. An appeal was made to the British Government. It was urged
+that the work was too great to be undertaken by private capital alone,
+and that, since it was to be more of a public than a private nature, it
+was but just that the Government should undertake it. The company asked
+the Government to guarantee the interest on a certain amount of stock,
+even if the second attempt should not prove a complete success. The
+failure of the Red Sea cable, to which the British Government had given
+an unconditional guarantee, had just occurred, and had caused a
+considerable loss to the treasury, and the Government was not willing to
+assume another such risk. Anxious, however, for the success of the
+Atlantic telegraph, it increased its subsidy from fourteen thousand to
+twenty thousand pounds, and agreed to guarantee eight per cent, on six
+hundred thousand pounds of new capital for twenty-five years, upon the
+single condition that the cable should be made to work successfully.
+
+This was not all, however. The Government caused further soundings to be
+made off the coast of Ireland, which effectually dispelled all the fears
+which had been entertained of a submarine mountain which would prove an
+impassable barrier in the path of an ocean telegraph. In addition to
+this, it caused the organization of a board of distinguished scientific
+men for the purpose of determining all the difficult problems of
+submarine telegraphy. This board met in 1859, and sat two years. The
+result of its experiments and investigations was a declaration, signed
+by the members, that a cable properly made, "and paid into the ocean
+with the most improved machinery, possesses every prospect of not only
+being successfully laid in the first instance, but may reasonably be
+relied upon to continue many years in an efficient-state for the
+transmission of signals."
+
+Meanwhile, Mr. Field labored energetically to revive the company. The
+war which had broken out in the United States brought home to our
+Government the urgent need of telegraphic communication with Europe, and
+Mr. Field had no difficulty in obtaining from the President an assurance
+that this Government would be most happy to join with Great Britain in
+promoting this great international work. He addressed meetings of
+merchants in various American cities, and displayed the greatest energy
+in his efforts to enlist the aid of American capital. Very little was
+accomplished, however, until 1863. By this time the success of the lines
+in the Mediterranean and in the Persian Gulf had demonstrated the
+practicability of long submarine telegraphs, and the public confidence
+in the attempt had been revived to such an extent that the directors
+ventured to call for proposals for the manufacture of a cable. Seventeen
+offers were made, from which that of Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., of
+London, was selected. Mr. Field now renewed his indomitable efforts, and
+in a few months the new capital of six hundred thousand pounds was
+subscribed, Messrs. Glass, Elliott &, Co. taking three hundred and
+fifteen thousand pounds, besides one hundred thousand pounds in bonds.
+This was accomplished in 1864, and work on the cable was immediately
+begun. The cable now adopted was very different from, and much more
+sensitive than, those which had been used before. It was heavier, and
+less liable to be injured by the water.
+
+The "Great Eastern" steamship, the greatest wonder of naval
+architecture, was at this time advertised for sale, and it occurred to
+several of the gentlemen interested in the telegraph company that she
+was the best vessel for laying the cable that could be found. They at
+once organized themselves into a company, purchased the ship, and fitted
+her up for that service. They were fortunate in securing the services of
+Captain James Anderson, and placing him in charge of her, sent her to
+Sheerness, where the cable was sent down to her in lighters from the
+factory at Greenwich. When the cable was on board, and all the other
+arrangements had been completed, the big ship left the Thames and sailed
+for Valentia harbor.
+
+The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor, five or six
+miles, to Foilhommerum Bay. On the 23d of July, 1865, the shore end was
+connected with the cable on board the ship, and the voyage was begun. It
+would be interesting to follow the huge steamer on this remarkable
+voyage, and to relate to the reader the almost marvelous manner in which
+faults were detected in the line hundreds of miles from the shore, and
+how the cable was successfully hauled in and the damage repaired. All
+went well until twelve hundred miles of cable had been paid out, and the
+ship was but six hundred miles from the shores of Newfoundland, when the
+cable broke again and plunged into the sea.
+
+Mr. Canning, the engineer in charge, was dismayed, but not disheartened.
+For nine days the ship hung around the spot grappling for the cable, in
+the hope of raising it, and sinking its grapnels for this purpose to a
+depth of two miles. The cable was caught several times, but the rope
+which held the grapnel broke each time, and the precious coil fell back
+again into the deep. At length, having marked the place where the cable
+was lost with buoys, the ship put back for England, and the enterprise
+was abandoned for that year.
+
+Though unsuccessful in carrying the cable across the ocean, this
+expedition was by no means a failure. Its results are thus summed up by
+the officers in charge of it:
+
+
+     1. It was proved by the expedition of 1858 that a submarine
+     telegraph cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland, and
+     messages transmitted through the same.
+
+     By the expedition of 1865 it has been fully demonstrated:
+
+     2. That the insulation of a cable improves very much after its
+     submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its
+     conducting power is considerably increased thereby.
+
+     3. That the steamship "Great Eastern," from her size and constant
+     steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use
+     of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic cable in
+     any weather.
+
+     4. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made to
+     grapple the cable. In three of them the cable was caught by the
+     grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the chain
+     attached to it.
+
+     5. That the paying-out machinery used on board the Great Eastern
+     worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for laying
+     cables across the Atlantic.
+
+     6. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long
+     submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute can be
+     obtained through such a cable as the present Atlantic one between
+     Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack actually paid out
+     did not exceed fourteen per cent., which would have made the total
+     cable laid between Valentia and Heart's Content nineteen hundred
+     miles.
+
+     7. That the present Atlantic cable, though capable of bearing a
+     strain of seven tons, did not experience more than fourteen
+     hundred-weight in being paid out into the deepest water of the
+     Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.
+
+     8. That there is no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep water
+     of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland, and that two
+     buoys even when moored by a piece of the Atlantic cable itself,
+     which had been previously lifted from the bottom, have ridden out a
+     gale.
+
+     9. That more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic cable have
+     been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and that the
+     insulation of the gutta-percha covered wire was in no way whatever
+     impaired by the depth of water or the strains to which it had been
+     subjected by lifting and passing through the hauling-in apparatus.
+
+     10. That the cable of 1865, owing to the improvements introduced
+     into the manufacture of the gutta-percha core, was more than one
+     hundred times better insulated than cables made in 1858, then
+     considered perfect and still working.
+
+     11. That the electrical testing can be conducted with such unerring
+     accuracy as to enable the electricians to discover the existence of
+     a fault immediately after its production or development, and very
+     quickly to ascertain its position in the cable.
+
+     12. That with a steam-engine attached to the paying-out machinery,
+     should a fault be discovered on board whilst laying the cable, it
+     is possible that it might be recovered before it had reached the
+     bottom of the Atlantic, and repaired at once.
+
+
+It was now placed beyond the possibility of a doubt that the cable would
+be laid within the next year. More than this, it was determined not only
+to lay a new cable between the two continents, but to fish up the cable
+of 1865, splice it and continue it to Newfoundland, thus giving the
+company two working lines.
+
+It was necessary, however, to raise more capital, and in this effort Mr.
+Field again put forth his restless and indomitable energies. As the
+public confidence in the scheme had been effectually restored, it was
+resolved to raise six hundred thousand pounds of new capital by the
+issue of one hundred and twenty thousand shares of five pounds each,
+which should be preferential shares, entitled to a dividend of twelve
+per cent, before the eight per cent, dividend to be paid on the former
+preference shares, and the four per cent, on the ordinary stock. They at
+once proceeded to issue these bonds, when they were informed by the
+Attorney-General that the proceeding was contrary to law.
+
+In this dilemma work on the new cable was at once stopped, and the money
+which had been paid in returned to the subscribers. As Parliament was
+not in session, and a new issue of stock could not be made by the
+company without its authorization, and as to wait for this would be to
+postpone the laying of the cable for another year, Mr. Field was now
+advised by Mr. Daniel Gooch, M.P., that the only way out of the
+difficulty was to organize a new company at once, which should assume
+the work, issue its own shares, and raise its own capital. Eminent legal
+gentlemen sustained Mr. Gooch in this opinion, and Mr. Field again set
+to work to organize a new company, under the name of the "Anglo-American
+Telegraph Company." The capital was fixed at six hundred thousand
+pounds, Mr. Field taking ten thousand pounds. The whole amount was
+raised in a short time, and the company "contracted with the Atlantic
+Cable Company to manufacture and lay down a cable in the summer of 1866,
+for doing which it is to be entitled to what virtually amounts to a
+preference dividend of twenty-five per cent., as a first claim is
+secured to them by the Atlantic Telegraph Company upon the revenue of
+the cable or cables (after the working expenses have been provided for)
+to the extent of one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds per annum,
+and the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company undertake
+to contribute from their revenue a further annual sum of twenty-five
+thousand pounds, on condition that a cable shall be working during
+1866."
+
+Once more the furnaces glowed and the hammers rang in the manufacture of
+the cable. Great improvements were made in the cable itself and in the
+machinery for laying it, and the "Great Eastern" was thoroughly
+overhauled. The cable was completed and put on board in June, and the
+big ship left the Medway on the last of the month and proceeded to
+Berehaven, in Ireland, where she took on her final stores of coal. This
+done, she proceeded to Valentia, where she arrived on the seventh of
+July.
+
+The shore end was successfully laid and made fast to the cable on board
+the "Great Eastern," and on Friday morning, the 13th of July, 1866, the
+huge ship set sail for Newfoundland, accompanied by her consorts of the
+telegraph fleet. The voyage occupied fourteen days, the ship making an
+average run of about one hundred and eighteen miles per day, and paying
+out about one hundred and thirty-one miles of cable in the same period
+of time. The weather was fair during the whole voyage, but the anxiety
+of the officers in charge was none the less on that account. There were
+accidents to be dreaded more than unfavorable weather. The ship was run
+at moderate speed all the way, as it was thought she had once or twice
+run too fast on the last voyage, and exposed the cable to danger. "The
+total slack of the cable was less than twelve per cent., showing that
+the cable was laid almost in a straight line, allowing for the swells
+and hollows in the bottom of the sea.
+
+"As the next week drew toward its close, it was evident that they were
+approaching the end of their voyage. By Thursday they had passed the
+great depths of the Atlantic, and were off soundings. Besides, their
+daily observations, there were many signs well known to mariners that
+they were near the coast. There were the sea-birds, and even the smell
+of the land, such as once greeted the sharp senses of Columbus, and made
+him sure that he was floating to some undiscovered shore. Captain
+Anderson had timed his departure so that he should approach the American
+coast at the full moon; and so, for the last two or three nights, as
+they drew near the Western shore, the round orb rose behind them,
+casting its soft light over sea and sky; and these happy men seemed like
+heavenly voyagers, floating gently on to a haven of rest.
+
+"In England the progress of the expedition was known from day to day,
+but on this side of the ocean all was uncertainty. Some had gone to
+Heart's Content, hoping to witness the arrival of the fleet, but not so
+many as the last year, for the memory of their disappointment was too
+fresh, and they feared the same result again. But still a faithful few
+were there, who kept their daily watch. Two weeks have passed. It is
+Friday morning, the 27th of July. They are up early, and looking
+eastward to see the day break, when a ship is seen in the offing. She is
+far down on the horizon. Spy-glasses are turned toward her. She comes
+nearer; and look, there is another, and another! And now the hull of the
+'Great Eastern' looms up all glorious in that morning sky. They are
+coming! Instantly all is wild excitement on shore. Boats put off to row
+toward the fleet. The 'Albany' is the first to round the point and enter
+the bay. The 'Terrible' is close behind; the 'Medway' stops an hour or
+two to join on the heavy shore end, while the 'Great Eastern,' gliding
+calmly in as if she had done nothing remarkable, drops her anchor in
+front of the telegraph house, having trailed behind her a chain of two
+thousand miles, to bind the old world to the new.
+
+"Although the expedition reached Newfoundland on Friday, the 27th, yet,
+as the cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence was broken, the news was
+not received in New York till the 29th. It was early Sunday morning,
+before the Sabbath bells had rung their call to prayer, that the tidings
+came. The first announcement was brief: 'Heart's Content, July 27th. We
+arrived here at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the
+cable is laid, and is in perfect working order. Cyrus W. Field.'"
+
+There was no failure in the communication this time. The electric
+current has continued to flow strongly and uninterruptedly from that day
+until the present, and experience has demonstrated for the wonderful
+wire a capacity far beyond the hopes of its projectors.
+
+Having laid the cable, the "Great Eastern" proceeded with surprising
+accuracy to where the line had been lost the year before, and succeeded
+in grappling and raising it to the surface. It was tested, and found to
+be in perfect order, messages being sent with ease from the ship to
+Valentia, and from that point back again. A splice was then made, and
+the line was continued to Newfoundland. Both cables are still working,
+and bid fair to be serviceable for many years to come.
+
+Many persons had contributed to this great success, but to Cyrus W.
+Field must be assigned the chief praise. His energy and perseverance
+kept the subject constantly before the public. His courage inspired
+others, and his faith in its ultimate success alone kept its best
+friends from abandoning it in its darkest hours. In its behalf he spent
+twelve years of constant toil, and made over fifty voyages, more than
+thirty of which were across the Atlantic. He devoted his entire fortune
+to the undertaking, of which he was the projector and cheerfully
+incurred the risk of poverty rather than abandon it. Therefore, it is
+but just that he, who was the chief instrument in obtaining for the
+world this great benefit, should receive the chief measure of the praise
+which it has brought to all connected with it.
+
+[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON.]
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+INVENTORS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ROBERT FULTON.
+
+
+One of the pleasantest as well as one of the most prominent places in
+the city of New York is the grave-yard of old Trinity Church. A handsome
+iron railing separates it from Broadway, and the thick rows of
+grave-stones, all crumbling and stained with age, present a strange
+contrast to the bustle, vitality, and splendor with which they are
+surrounded. They stare solemnly down into Wall Street, and offer a
+bitter commentary upon the struggles and anxiety of the money kings of
+the great city. Work, toil, plan, combine as you may, they seem to say,
+and yet it must all come to this.
+
+Not far from the south door of the church, and shaded by a venerable
+tree, is a plain brown stone slab, bearing this inscription: "The vault
+of Walter and Robert C. Livingston, sons of Robert Livingston, of the
+manor of Livingston." A stranger would pass it by without a second
+glance; yet it is one of the Meccas of the world of science, for the
+mortal part of Robert Fulton sleeps in the vault below, without monument
+or legendary stone to his memory, but in sight of the mighty steam
+fleets which his genius called forth. Very few visitors ever see this
+part of the churchyard, and the grave of Fulton is unknown to nine out
+of ten of his countrymen. Yet this man, sleeping so obscurely in his
+grave without a name, did far more for the world than either Napoleon or
+Wellington. He revolutionized commerce and manufactures, changed the
+entire system of navigation, triumphed over the winds and the waves, and
+compelled the adoption of a new system of modern warfare. Now he lies in
+a grave not his own, with no monument or statue erected to his memory in
+all this broad land.
+
+ROBERT FULTON was born in the township of Little Britain (now called
+Fulton), in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765. He was of Irish
+descent, and his father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. He was
+the eldest son and third child of a family of five children. The farm
+upon which he was born was conveyed by his father in 1766 to Joseph
+Swift, in whose family it still remains. It contains three hundred and
+sixty-four acres, and is one of the handsomest farms in Lancaster
+County.
+
+After disposing of his farm, Mr. Fulton, senior, removed to the town of
+Lancaster, where he died in 1768, and there young Robert grew up under
+the care of his mother. He learned to read and write quickly, but did
+not manifest much fondness for his books after mastering his elementary
+studies. He early exhibited an unusual talent for drawing, however,
+greatly preferring the employment of his pencil to the more serious
+duties of the school. His instructors and companions considered him a
+dull boy, though all admitted that he showed no disposition to be idle.
+All his leisure time was spent either in drawing, or in visiting the
+shops of the mechanics in the place and eagerly watching their
+operations. He displayed a remarkable talent for mechanism, which was
+greatly assisted by his skill in drawing, and his visits to the machine
+shops were always welcomed by both the apprentices and their employers,
+who recognized the unusual genius of the boy, and predicted great things
+for him in the future. But to his teacher, who seems to have been rather
+more belligerent than is usual with Quakers, Robert's neglect of his
+studies and visits to the machine shops were so many indications of
+growing worthlessness. The indignant pedagogue once took occasion to
+remonstrate with him upon his course, and, failing to convince him by
+argument, rapped him sharply over the knuckles with a ruler, telling him
+he would make him do something. Robert at once placed his arms akimbo,
+and, looking his tutor sternly in the face, replied: "Sir, I came here
+to have something beat into my brains, not into my knuckles."
+
+Some time after this Mrs. Fulton, in conversation with the teacher,
+expressed her solicitude lest her son should "turn out nothing," since
+he neglected his books so entirely. The teacher frankly confessed that
+he had done all in his power for the boy, but that he was discouraged,
+and added: "Only yesterday, madam, Robert pertinaciously declared to me
+that his head was so full of original notions that there was no vacant
+chamber to store away the contents of any dusty books." The lad was only
+ten years of age at the time, and, as may be supposed, the good Quaker
+who directed his education was not a little dismayed by such a remark.
+
+The boyhood of Fulton was passed during the stormy period of the
+Revolution, and in a section so close to the theater of war that he was
+in the midst of all the excitement engendered by the conflict. He was an
+ardent patriot from the first, and used his pencil freely to caricature
+all who showed the slightest leaning to the cause of the enemy.
+
+In 1778 the supply of candles was so low in Lancaster that the town
+authorities advised the people to refrain from illuminating their houses
+on the 4th of July of that year, in order to save their candles. Robert,
+at this time but thirteen years old, was determined not to forego a
+patriotic display of some sort. He had prepared a quantity of candles
+for the occasion, and after the proclamation of the Town Council was
+issued, he took them to a Mr. John Fisher, who kept a store in the
+place, and sold powder and shot. Mr. Fisher was somewhat astonished at
+Robert's desire to part with the candles, which were at that time scarce
+articles, and asked his reason for so doing. The boy replied: "Our
+rulers have requested the citizens to refrain from illuminating their
+windows and streets; as good citizens we should comply with their
+request, and I prefer illuminating the heavens with sky-rockets." Having
+procured the powder, he left Mr. Fisher's, and entered a small variety
+store kept by a Mr. Cossart, where he purchased several sheets of
+large-sized pasteboard. As Mr. Cossart was about to roll them, the boy
+stopped him, saying he wished to carry them open. Mr. Cossart, knowing
+Robert's mechanical genius, asked him what he was about to invent.
+
+"Why," said the boy, "we are prohibited from illuminating our windows
+with candles, and I'm going to shoot my candles through the air."
+
+"Tut, tut, tut," said Mr. Cossart, laughingly; "that's an
+impossibility."
+
+"No, sir," said Robert, "there is nothing impossible."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: He proved that this was not impossible, for he had his
+display, making his rockets himself, and after his own model.]
+
+"Robert was known," says one of his biographers, "to purchase small
+quantities of quicksilver from Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, druggist, residing
+opposite the market-house. He was trying some experiments that he did
+not wish to make public, and which the workmen in Mr. Fenno's and Mr.
+Christian Isch's shops were anxious to find out, but could not. He was
+in the habit almost daily of visiting those shops, and was a favorite
+among the workmen, who took advantage of his talent for drawing by
+getting him to make ornamental designs for guns, and sketches of the
+size and shape of guns, and then giving the calculations of the force,
+size of the bore and balls, and the distances they would fire; and he
+would accompany them to the open commons near by potter's field, to
+prove his calculations by shooting at a mark. On account of his
+expertness in his calculations, and of their ineffectual efforts to
+discover the use he was making of quicksilver, the shop-hands nicknamed
+him 'quicksilver Bob.'
+
+"Mr. Messersmith and Mr. Christian Isch were employed by the Government
+to make and repair the arms for the troops; and on several occasions
+guards were stationed at their shops to watch and see that the workmen
+were constantly employed during whole nights and on Sunday, to prevent
+any delay. The workmen had so much reliance and confidence in
+'quicksilver Bob's' judgment and mechanical skill, that every suggestion
+he would make as to the alteration of a gun, or any additional ornament
+that he would design, was invariably adopted by common consent.
+
+"In the summer of 1779, Robert Fulton evinced an extraordinary fondness
+for inventions. He was a frequent visitor at Mr. Messersmith's and Mr.
+Fenno's gunsmith shops, almost daily, and endeavored to manufacture a
+small air-gun."
+
+Among the acquaintances of Robert Fulton at this time was a young man,
+about eighteen years of age, named Christopher Gumpf, who used
+frequently to accompany his father in his fishing excursions on the
+Conestoga. Mr. Gumpf, Sen., being an experienced angler, readily
+consented to allow Robert to join himself and his son in these
+expeditions, and made the two boys earn their pleasure by pushing the
+boat about the stream, as he desired to move from point to point. As the
+means of propulsion was simply a pole, the labor was very severe, and
+Robert soon became tired of it. Not wishing, however, to give up his
+pleasant fishing trips, he determined to devise some means of lightening
+the labor.
+
+"He absented himself a week, having gone to Little Britain township to
+spend a few days at his aunt's; and while there he planned and completed
+a small working model of a fishing boat, with paddle-wheels. On leaving
+his aunt's, he placed the model in the garret, with a request that it
+should not be destroyed. Many years afterward, that simple model was the
+attraction of friends, and became, instead of lumber in the garret, an
+ornament in the aunt's parlor, who prized it highly. That model was the
+result of Robert's fishing excursions with Christopher Gumpf; and when
+he returned from his aunt's he told Christopher that he must make a set
+of paddles to work at the sides of the boat, to be operated by a double
+crank, and then they could propel the old gentleman's fishing-boat with
+greater ease. Two arms or pieces of timber were then fastened together
+at right angles, with a paddle at each end, and the crank was attached
+to the boat across it near the stern, with a paddle operating on a pivot
+as a rudder; and Fulton's first invention was tried on the Conestoga
+River, opposite Rockford, in the presence of Peter and Christopher
+Gumpf. The boys were so pleased with the experiment, that they hid the
+paddles in the bushes on the shore, lest others might use and break
+them, and attached them to the boat whenever they chose; and thus did
+they enjoy very many fishing excursions."
+
+This was the first experiment in the science of navigation attempted by
+the man who afterward became the author of a new system.
+
+Having chosen the profession of an artist and portrait painter, young
+Fulton removed to Philadelphia at the age of seventeen, and remained
+there, pursuing his vocation, until the completion of his twenty-first
+year. He formed there the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, by whom he
+was much noticed. His success was rapid, and upon attaining his majority
+he was enabled to purchase and stock a farm of eighty-four acres in
+Washington County, Pennsylvania, which he gave to his mother for a home
+as long as she should live. Having thus insured her comfort, he went to
+England for the purpose of completing his studies in his profession. He
+took with him letters to Benjamin West, then at the height of his fame,
+and living in London. He was cordially received by Mr. West, who was
+also a native of Pennsylvania, and remained an inmate of his family for
+several years. West was then the President of the Royal Academy of Great
+Britain, and was thus enabled to extend to Fulton, to whom he became
+deeply attached, many advantages, both social and professional, of which
+the young artist was prompt to avail himself.
+
+Upon leaving the family of Mr. West, Fulton commenced a tour for the
+purpose of examining the treasures of art contained in the residences of
+the English nobility, and remained for two years in Devonshire. There he
+became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, to whom England is
+indebted for the introduction of the canal system within her limits; and
+it is said that he was induced by this nobleman to abandon the
+profession of an artist, and enter upon that of a civil engineer. This
+nobleman being devoted to mechanical investigations, proved a very
+congenial acquaintance to Fulton. He was engaged at the time on a scheme
+of steam navigation by a propeller, modeled after the foot of a water
+fowl. His plan did not commend itself to Fulton's judgment, and he
+addressed him a letter, setting forth its defects, and advancing some of
+the views upon which he acted himself in after life. Here he also met
+with Watt, who had just produced the steam-engine, which Fulton studied
+enthusiastically. His own inventive genius was not idle, and while
+living in Devonshire, he produced an improved mill for sawing marble,
+which won him the thanks and medal of the British Society for the
+Promotion of the Arts and Commerce; a machine for spinning flax and
+making ropes; and an excavator for scooping out the channels of canals
+and aqueducts, all of which were patented. He published a number of
+communications on the subject of canals in one of the leading London
+journals, and a treatise upon the same subject. Having obtained a patent
+in England for canal improvements, he went to France in 1797, with the
+design of introducing them in that country.
+
+Upon reaching Paris, he took up his residence with Mr. Joel Barlow, and
+thus was laid the foundation of a friendship between these two gentlemen
+which lasted during their lives. He remained in Paris seven years,
+residing during that time with Mr. Barlow, and devoting himself to the
+study of modern languages, and engineering and its kindred sciences.
+
+His work was continuous and severe in Paris. He invented and painted the
+first panorama ever exhibited in that city, which he sold for the
+purpose of raising money for his experiments in steam navigation; he
+also designed a series of splendid colored illustrations for _The
+Columbiad_, the famous poem of his friend Mr. Barlow. Besides these, he
+invented a number of improvements in canals, aqueducts, inclined planes,
+boats, and guns, which yielded him considerable credit, but very little
+profit.
+
+In 1801, he invented a submarine boat which he called the "Nautilus,"
+which is thus described by M. de St. Aubin, a member of the Tribunate:
+
+"The diving-boat, in the construction of which he is now employed, will
+be capacious enough to contain eight men and provision for twenty days,
+and will be of sufficient strength and power to enable him to plunge one
+hundred feet under water, if necessary. He has contrived a reservoir of
+air, which will enable eight men to remain under water eight hours. When
+the boat is above water, it has two sails, and looks just like a common
+boat; when it is to dive, the mast and sails are struck.
+
+"In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only remained a whole hour
+under water, with three of his companions, but had the boat parallel to
+the horizon at any given distance. He proved that the compass points as
+correctly under water as on the surface, and that while under water the
+boat made way at the rate of half a league an hour, by means contrived
+for that purpose.
+
+"It is not twenty years since all Europe was astonished at the first
+ascension of men in balloons: perhaps in a few years they will not be
+less surprised to see a flotilla of diving-boats, which, on a given
+signal, shall, to avoid the pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water, and
+rise again several leagues from the place where they descended!
+
+"But if we have not succeeded in steering the balloon, and even were it
+impossible to attain that object, the case is different with the
+diving-boat, which can be conducted under water in the same manner as
+upon the surface. It has the advantage of sailing like the common boat,
+and also of diving when it is pursued. With these qualities, it is fit
+for carrying secret orders, to succor a blockaded fort, and to examine
+the force and position of an enemy in their harbors."
+
+In connection with this boat, Fulton invented a torpedo, or infernal
+machine, for the purpose of destroying vessels of war by approaching
+them under water and breaking up their hulls by the explosion. He
+offered his invention several times to the French Government, and once
+to the Ambassador of Holland at Paris, without being able to induce them
+to consider it. Somewhat later, he visited London, at the request of the
+British Ministry, and explained his invention to them. Although he
+succeeded in blowing up a vessel of two hundred tons with one hundred
+and seventy pounds of powder, and in extorting from Mr. Pitt the
+acknowledgment that, if introduced into practice, the torpedo would
+annihilate all navies, his invention was rejected, through the influence
+of Lord Melville, who feared that its adoption might injure England more
+than it would benefit her. At the first, when it was thought that
+England would purchase Fulton's invention, it was intimated to him that
+he would be required to pledge himself not to dispose of it to any other
+power. He replied promptly:
+
+"Whatever may be your award, I never will consent to let these
+inventions lie dormant should my country at any time have need of them.
+Were you to grant me an annuity of twenty thousand pounds, I would
+sacrifice all to the safety and independence of my country."
+
+In 1806, Mr. Fulton returned to New York, and in the same year he
+married Miss Harriet Livingston, a niece of Chancellor Livingston, by
+whom he had four children. He offered his torpedo to the General
+Government, but the trial to which it was subjected by the Navy
+Department was unsuccessful for him, and the Government declined to
+purchase the invention.
+
+But it was not as the inventor of engines of destruction that Robert
+Fulton was to achieve fame. A still nobler triumph was reserved for
+him--one which was to bring joy instead of sorrow to the world. From the
+time that Fulton had designed the paddle-wheels for his fishing-boat, he
+had never ceased to give his attention to the subject of propelling
+vessels by machinery, and after his acquaintance with Watt, he was more
+than ever convinced that the steam-engine could, under proper
+circumstances, be made to furnish the motive power.
+
+Several eminent and ingenious men, previous to this, had proposed to
+propel vessels by steam power, among whom were Dr. Papin, of France,
+Savery, the Marquis of Worcester, and Dr. John Allen, of London, in
+1726. In 1786, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, and about the same time
+Dr. Franklin, proposed to accomplish this result by forcing a quantity
+of water, by means of steam power, through an opening made for that
+purpose in the stern of the hull of the boat.
+
+In 1737, Jonathan Hulls issued a pamphlet proposing to construct a boat
+to be moved by steam power, for the purpose of towing vessels out of
+harbors against tide and winds. In his plan the paddle-wheel was used,
+and was secured to a frame placed far out over the stern of the boat. It
+was given this position by the inventor because water fowls propelled
+themselves by pushing their feet behind them.
+
+In 1787, Mr. James Rumsey, of Shepherdstown, Virginia, constructed and
+navigated the first steamboat in actual use. His boat was eighty feet in
+length, and was propelled by means of a vertical pump in the middle of
+the vessel, by which the water was drawn in at the bow and expelled at
+the stern through a horizontal trough in her hull. The engine weighed
+about one third of a ton, and the boat had a capacity of about three
+tons burthen. When thus laden, a speed of about four miles an hour could
+be attained. The boiler held only five gallons of water, and needed but
+a pint at a time. Rumsey went to England to exhibit his plan on the
+Thames, and died there in 1793.
+
+About the same time the Marquis de Joffrey launched a steamer one
+hundred feet long on the Loire, at Lyons, using paddles revolving on an
+endless chain, but only to find his experiment a failure.
+
+In December, 1786, John Fitch published the following account of a
+steamer with which he had made several experiments on the Delaware, at
+Philadelphia, and which came nearer to success than any thing that had
+at that time been invented:
+
+"The cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal
+force at each end. The mode by which we obtain what I term a vacuum is,
+it is believed, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water
+into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any
+friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is of twelve inches
+diameter, will move a clear force of eleven or twelve cwt. after the
+frictions are deducted: this force is to be directed against a wheel of
+eighteen inches diameter. The piston moves about three feet, and each
+vibration of it gives the axis about forty revolutions. Each revolution
+of the axis moves twelve oars or paddles five and a half feet: they work
+perpendicularly, and are represented by the strokes of a paddle of a
+canoe. As six of the paddles are raised from the water, six more are
+entered, and the two sets of paddles make their strokes of about eleven
+feet in each revolution. The crank of the axis acts upon the paddles
+about one-third of their length from their lower ends, on which part of
+the oar the whole force of the axis is applied. The engine is placed in
+the bottom of the boat, about one-third from the stern, and both the
+action and reaction turn the wheel the same way."
+
+Fitch was unfortunate in his affairs, and became so disheartened that
+he ceased to attempt to improve his invention, and finally committed
+suicide by drowning himself in the Alleghany River at Pittsburgh.
+
+In 1787, Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dalwinston, Scotland, designed a double
+vessel, propelled by a wheel placed in the stern between the two keels.
+This boat is said to have been very successful, but it was very small,
+the cylinder being only four inches in diameter. In 1789, Mr. Miller
+produced a larger vessel on the same plan, which made seven miles per
+hour in the still water of the Forth and Clyde Canal, but it proved too
+weak for its machinery, which had to be taken out.
+
+It was in the face of these failures that Fulton applied himself to the
+task of designing a successful steamboat. During his residence in Paris
+he had made the acquaintance of Mr. Robert R. Livingston, then the
+American minister in France, who had previously been connected with some
+unsuccessful steamboat experiments at home. Mr. Livingston was delighted
+to find a man of Fulton's mechanical genius so well satisfied of the
+practicability of steam navigation, and joined heartily with him in his
+efforts to prove his theories by experiments. Several small working
+models made by Fulton convinced Mr. Livingston that the former had
+discovered and had overcome the cause of the failure of the experiments
+of other inventors, and it was finally agreed between them to build a
+large boat for trial on the Seine. This experimental steamer was
+furnished with paddle wheels, and was completed and launched early in
+the spring of 1803. On the very morning appointed for the trial, Fulton
+was aroused from his sleep by a messenger from the boat, who rushed into
+his chamber, pale and breathless, exclaiming, "Oh, sir, the boat has
+broken in pieces and gone to the bottom!" Hastily dressing and hurrying
+to the spot, he found that the weight of the machinery had broken the
+boat in half and carried the whole structure to the bottom of the river.
+He at once set to work to raise the machinery, devoting twenty-four
+hours, without resting or eating, to the undertaking, and succeeded in
+doing so, but inflicted upon his constitution a strain from which he
+never entirely recovered. The machinery was very slightly damaged, but
+it was necessary to rebuild the boat entirely. This was accomplished by
+July of the same year, and the boat was tried in August with triumphant
+success, in the presence of the French National Institute and a vast
+crowd of the citizens of Paris.
+
+This steamer was very defective, but still so great an improvement upon
+all that had preceded it, that Messrs. Fulton and Livingston determined
+to build one on a larger scale in the waters of New York, the right of
+navigating which by steam vessels had been secured by the latter as far
+back as 1798. The law which granted this right had been continued from
+time to time through Mr. Livingston's influence, and was finally amended
+so as to include Fulton within its provisions. Having resolved to return
+home, Fulton set out as soon as possible, stopping in England on his
+return, to order an engine for his boat from Watt and Boulton. He gave
+an exact description of the engine, which was built in strict accordance
+with his plan, but declined to state the use to which he intended
+putting it.
+
+Very soon after his arrival in New York, he commenced building his first
+American boat, and finding that her cost would greatly exceed his
+estimate, he offered for sale a third interest in the monopoly of the
+navigation of the waters of New York, held by Livingston and himself, in
+order to raise money to build the boat, and thus lighten the burdens of
+himself and his partner, but he could find no one willing to risk money
+in such a scheme. Indeed, steam navigation was universally regarded in
+America as a mere chimera, and Fulton and Livingston were ridiculed for
+their faith in it. The bill granting the monopoly held by Livingston was
+regarded as so utterly absurd by the Legislature of New York, that that
+wise body could with difficulty be induced to consider it seriously.
+Even among scientific men the project was considered impracticable. A
+society in Rotterdam had, several years before Fulton's return home,
+applied to the American Philosophical Society to be informed whether any
+and what improvements had been made in the construction of steam-engines
+in America. A reply to this inquiry was prepared, at the request of the
+Society, by Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, a distinguished engineer. The
+following extracts from this paper will show the reader how Fulton's
+scheme was regarded by one who was confessedly one of the most brilliant
+engineers of his day, and who has since accomplished so much for the
+improvement of steam travel:
+
+
+     During the general lassitude of mechanical exertion which succeeded
+     the American Revolution, We utility of steam-engines appears to
+     have been forgotten; but the subject afterward started into very
+     general notice in a form in which it could not possibly be attended
+     with success. A sort of mania began to prevail, which, indeed, has
+     not yet entirely subsided, for impelling boats by steam-engines.
+     Dr. Franklin proposed to force forward the boat by the immediate
+     application of the steam upon the water. Many attempts to simplify
+     the working of the engine, and more to employ a means of dispensing
+     with the beam in converting the _libratory_ into a rotatory motion,
+     were made. For a short time, a passage-boat, rowed by a
+     steam-engine, was established between Borden-town and Philadelphia,
+     but it was soon laid aside. The best and most powerful steam-engine
+     which has been employed for this purpose--excepting, perhaps, one
+     constructed by Dr. Kinsey, with the performance of which I am not
+     sufficiently acquainted--belonged to a gentleman of New York. It
+     was made to act, by way of experiment, upon oars, upon paddles, and
+     upon flutter-wheels. Nothing in the success of any of these
+     experiments appeared to be sufficient compensation for the expense
+     and the extreme inconvenience of the steam-engine in the vessel.
+
+     There are, indeed, general objections to the use of the
+     steam-engine for impelling boats, from which no particular mode of
+     application can be free. These are:
+
+     First. The weight of the engine and of the fuel.
+
+     Second. The large space it occupies.
+
+     Third. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel, and render it
+     leaky.
+
+     Fourth. The expense of maintenance.
+
+     Fifth. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water
+     in the boiler and cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.
+
+     Sixth. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles and
+     oars to break, if light, and from the weight, if made strong.
+
+     Nor have I ever heard of an instance, verified by other testimony
+     than that of the inventor, of a speedy and agreeable voyage having
+     been performed in a steamboat of any construction.
+
+     I am well aware that there are still many very respectable and
+     ingenious men who consider the application of the steam-engine to
+     the purpose of navigation as highly important, and as very
+     practicable, especially on the rapid waters of the Mississippi, and
+     who would feel themselves almost offended at the expression of an
+     opposite opinion. And, perhaps, some of the objections against it
+     may be avoided. That founded on the expense and weight of the fuel
+     may not, for some years, exist on the Mississippi, where there is a
+     redundance of wood on the banks; but the cutting and loading will
+     be almost as great an evil.
+
+
+Scientific men and amateurs all agreed in pronouncing Fulton's scheme
+impracticable; but he went on with his work, his boat attracting no less
+attention and exciting no less ridicule than the ark had received from
+the scoffers in the days of Noah. The steam-engine ordered from Boulton
+and Watt was received in the latter part of 1806; and in the following
+spring the boat was launched from the ship-yard of Charles Brown, on the
+East River. Fulton named her the "Clermont," after the country-seat of
+his friend and partner, Chancellor Livingston. She was one hundred and
+sixty tons burthen, one hundred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet
+wide, and seven feet deep. Her engine was made with a single cylinder,
+two feet in diameter, and of four feet stroke; and her boiler was twenty
+feet long, seven feet deep, and eight feet broad. The diameter of the
+paddle-wheels was fifteen feet, the boards four feet long, and dipping
+two feet in the water. The boat was completed about the last of August,
+and she was moved by her machinery from the East River into the Hudson,
+and over to the Jersey shore. This trial, brief as it was, satisfied
+Fulton of its success, and he announced that in a few days the steamer
+would sail from New York for Albany. A few friends, including several
+scientific men and mechanics, were invited to take passage in the boat,
+to witness her performance; and they accepted the invitation with a
+general conviction that they were to do but little more than witness
+another failure.
+
+Monday, September 10, 1807, came at length, and a vast crowd assembled
+along the shore of the North River to witness the starting. As the hour
+for sailing drew near, the crowd increased, and jokes were passed on all
+sides at the expense of the inventor, who paid little attention to them,
+however, but busied himself in making a final and close inspection of
+the machinery. Says Fulton, "The morning I left New York, there were
+not, perhaps, thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat
+would ever move one mile per hour, or be of the least utility; and while
+we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I
+heard a number of sarcastic remarks."
+
+One o'clock, the hour for sailing, came, and expectation was at its
+highest. The friends of the inventor were in a state of feverish anxiety
+lest the enterprise should come to grief, and the scoffers on the wharf
+were all ready to give vent to their shouts of derision. Precisely as
+the hour struck, the moorings were thrown off, and the "Clermont" moved
+slowly out into the stream. Volumes of smoke and sparks from her
+furnaces, which were fed with pine wood, rushed forth from her chimney,
+and her wheels, which were uncovered, scattered the spray far behind
+her. The spectacle she presented as she moved out gradually from her
+dock was certainly novel to the people of those days, and the crowd on
+the wharf broke into shouts of ridicule. Soon, however, the jeers grew
+silent, for it was seen that the steamer was by degrees increasing her
+speed. In a little while she was fairly under weigh, and making a steady
+progress up the stream at the rate of five miles per hour. The
+incredulity of the spectators had been succeeded by astonishment, and
+now this feeling gave way to undisguised delight, and cheer after cheer
+went up from the vast throng. Many people followed the boat for some
+distance up the river shore. In a little while, however, the boat was
+observed to stop, and the enthusiasm of the people on the shore at once
+subsided. The scoffers were again in their glory, and unhesitatingly
+pronounced the boat a failure. Their chagrin may be imagined when, after
+a short delay, the steamer once more proceeded on her way, and this time
+even more rapidly than before. Fulton had discovered that the paddles
+were too long, and took too deep a hold on the water, and had stopped
+the boat for the purpose of shortening them.
+
+Having remedied this defect, the "Clermont" continued her voyage during
+the rest of the day and all night, without stopping, and at one o'clock
+the next day ran alongside the landing at Clermont, the seat of
+Chancellor Livingston. She lay there until nine the next morning, when
+she continued her voyage toward Albany, reaching that city at five in
+the afternoon, having made the entire distance between New York and
+Albany (one hundred and fifty miles) in thirty-two hours of actual
+running time, an average speed of nearly five miles per hour. On her
+return trip, she reached New York in thirty hours running time--exactly
+five miles per hour. Fulton states that during both trips he encountered
+a head wind.
+
+The river was at this time navigated entirely with sailing vessels, and
+large numbers of these were encountered by the "Clermont" during her up
+and down trips. The surprise and dismay excited among the crews of these
+vessels by the appearance of the steamer was extreme. These simple
+people, the majority of whom had heard nothing of Fulton's experiments,
+beheld what they supposed to be a huge monster, vomiting fire and smoke
+from its throat, lashing the water with its fins, and shaking the river
+with its roar, approaching rapidly in the very face of both wind and
+tide. Some threw themselves flat on the deck of their vessels, where
+they remained in an agony of terror until the monster had passed, while
+others took to their boats and made for the shore in dismay, leaving
+their vessels to drift helplessly down the stream. Nor was this terror
+confined to the sailors. The people dwelling along the shore crowded the
+banks to gaze upon the steamer as she passed by. A former resident of
+the neighborhood of Poughkeepsie thus describes the scene at that place,
+which will serve as a specimen of the conduct of the people along the
+entire river below Albany:
+
+"It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of villagers
+was gathered on a high bluff just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west
+bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a strange,
+dark-looking craft, which was slowly making its way up the river. Some
+imagined it to be a sea-monster, while others did not hesitate to
+express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment
+What seemed strange in the vessel was the substitution of lofty and
+straight black smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, instead of the
+gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood on the vessels navigating
+the stream, and, in place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of
+the working-beam and pistons, and the slow turning and splashing of the
+huge and naked paddle-wheels, met the astonished gaze. The dense clouds
+of smoke, as they rose wave upon wave, added still more to the
+wonderment of the rustics.
+
+"This strange-looking craft was the 'Clermont,' on her trial trip to
+Albany; and of the little knot of villagers mentioned above, the writer,
+then a boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed a part. I well
+remember the scene, one so well fitted to impress a lasting picture upon
+the mind of a child accustomed to watch the vessels that passed up and
+down the river.
+
+"The forms of four persons were distinctly visible on the deck as she
+passed the bluff--one of whom, doubtless, was Robert Fulton, who had on
+board with him all the cherished hopes of years, the most precious cargo
+the wonderful boat could carry.
+
+"On her return trip, the curiosity she excited was scarcely less
+intense. The whole country talked of nothing but the sea-monster,
+belching forth fire and smoke. The fishermen became terrified, and rowed
+homewards, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating their
+fishing-grounds; while the wreaths of black vapor, and rushing noise of
+the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred-up waters, produced great
+excitement among the boatmen, which continued without abatement, until
+the character of that curious boat, and the nature of the enterprise
+which she was pioneering, had been understood."
+
+The alarm of the sailors and dwellers on the river shore disappeared as
+the character of the steamer became better known; but when it was found
+that the "Clermont" was to run regularly between New York and Albany, as
+a packet-boat, she became the object of the most intense hatred on the
+part of the boatmen on the river, who feared that she would entirely
+destroy their business. In many quarters Fulton and his invention were
+denounced as baneful to society, and frequent attempts were made by
+captains of sailing vessels to sink the "Clermont" by running into her.
+She was several times damaged in this way, and the hostility of the
+boatmen became so great that it was necessary for the Legislature of New
+York to pass a law declaring combinations to destroy her, or willful
+attempts to injure her, public offenses punishable by fine and
+imprisonment.
+
+It had been supposed that Fulton's object was to produce a steamer
+capable of navigating the Mississippi River, and much surprise was
+occasioned by the announcement that the "Clermont" was to be permanently
+employed upon the Hudson. She continued to ply regularly between New
+York and Albany until the close of navigation for that season, always
+carrying a full complement of passengers, and more or less freight.
+During the winter she was overhauled and enlarged, and her speed
+improved. In the spring of 1808 she resumed her regular trips, and since
+then steam navigation on the Hudson has not ceased for a single day,
+except during the closing of the river by ice.
+
+In 1811 and 1812, Fulton built two steam ferry-boats for the North
+River, and soon after added a third for the East River. These boats were
+the beginning of the magnificent steam ferry system which is to-day one
+of the chief wonders of New York. They were what are called twin-boats,
+each of them consisting of two complete hulls, united by a deck or
+bridge. They were sharp at both ends, and moved equally well with
+either end foremost, so that they could cross and re-cross without being
+turned around. These boats were given engines of sufficient power to
+enable them to overcome the force of strong ebb tides; and in order to
+facilitate their landing, Fulton contrived a species of floating dock,
+and a means of decreasing the shock caused by the striking of the boat
+against the dock. These boats could accommodate eight four-wheel
+carriages, twenty-nine horses, and four hundred passengers. Their
+average time across the North River, a mile and a half wide, was twenty
+minutes.
+
+The introduction of the steamboat gave a powerful impetus to the
+internal commerce of the Union. It opened to navigation many important
+rivers (whose swift currents had closed them to sailing craft), and made
+rapid and easy communication between the most distant parts of the
+country practicable. The public soon began to appreciate this, and
+orders came in rapidly for steamboats for various parts of the country.
+Fulton executed these as fast as possible, and among the number several
+for boats for the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
+
+Early in 1814, the city of New York was seriously menaced with an attack
+from the British fleet, and Fulton was called on by a committee of
+citizens to furnish a plan for a means of defending the harbor. He
+exhibited to the committee his plans for a vessel of war to be propelled
+by steam, capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for
+red-hot shot, and which, he represented, would move at the rate of four
+miles an hour. These plans were also submitted to a number of naval
+officials, among whom were Commodore Decatur, Captain Jones, Captain
+Evans, Captain Biddle, Commodore Perry, Captain Warrington, and Captain
+Lewis, all of whom warmly united in urging the Government to undertake
+the construction of the proposed steamer. The citizens of New York
+offered, if the Government would employ and pay for her after she was
+built, to advance the sum ($320,000) necessary for her construction. The
+subject was vigorously pressed, and in March, 1814, Congress authorized
+the building of one or more floating batteries after the plan presented
+by Fulton. Her keel was laid on the 20th of June, 1814, and on the 31st
+of October, of the same year, she was launched, amid great rejoicings,
+from the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown. In May, 1815, her engines
+were put on board, and on the 4th of July of that year she made a trial
+trip to Sandy Hook and back, accomplishing the round trip--a distance of
+fifty-three miles--in eight hours and twenty minutes, under steam alone.
+Before this, however, peace had been proclaimed, and Fulton had gone to
+rest from his labors.
+
+The ship was a complete success, and was the first steam vessel of war
+ever built. She was called the "Fulton the First," and was for many
+years used as the receiving ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was an
+awkward and unwieldy mass, but was regarded as the most formidable
+vessel afloat; and as the pioneer of the splendid war steamers of to-day
+is still an object of great interest. The English regarded her with
+especial uneasiness, and put in circulation the most marvelous stories
+concerning her. One of these I take from a treatise on steam navigation
+published in Scotland at this period, the author of which assures his
+readers that he has taken the utmost pains to obtain full and accurate
+information respecting the American war steamer. His description is as
+follows:
+
+"Length on deck three hundred feet, breadth two hundred feet, thickness
+of her sides, thirteen feet, of alternate oak plank and corkwood;
+carries forty-four guns, four of which are 100-pounders, quarter-deck
+and forcastle guns, 44-pounders; and further, to annoy an enemy
+attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water
+in a minute, and by mechanism brandishes three hundred cutlasses, with
+the utmost regularity, over her gunwales; works also an equal number of
+heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with
+prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!"
+
+Fulton followed up the "Clermont," in 1807, with a larger boat, called
+the "Car of Neptune," which was placed on the Albany route as soon as
+completed. The Legislature of New York had enacted a law, immediately
+upon his first success, giving to Livingston and himself the exclusive
+right to navigate the waters of the State by steam, for five years for
+every additional boat they should build in the State, provided the whole
+term should not exceed thirty years. "In the following year the
+Legislature passed another act, confirmatory of the prior grants, and
+giving new remedies to the grantees for any invasion of them, and
+subjecting to forfeiture any vessel propelled by steam which should
+enter the waters of the State without their license. In 1809 Fulton
+obtained his first patent from the United States; and in 1811 he took
+out a second patent for some improvement in his boats and machinery. His
+patents were limited to the simple means of adapting paddle wheels to
+the axle of the crank of Watt's engine.
+
+"Meanwhile the power of the Legislature to grant the steamboat monopoly
+was denied, and a company was formed at Albany to establish another line
+of steam passage boats on the Hudson, between that city and New York.
+The State grantees filed a bill in equity, and prayed for an injunction,
+which was refused by Chancellor Lansing, on the ground that the act of
+the State Legislature was repugnant to the Constitution of the United
+States, and against common right. This decree was unanimously reversed
+by the Court of Errors, and a compromise was effected with the Albany
+company by an assignment to them of the right to employ steam on the
+waters of Lake Champlain.
+
+"Legislative aid was again invoked, and an act was passed directing
+peremptorily the allowance of an injunction on the prayer of the State
+grantees, and the seizure of any hostile boat at the commencement of the
+suit. Litigation was thus effectually arrested in New York, though by an
+arbitrary and unconstitutional enactment, and the waters of the State
+remained in the exclusive possession of Fulton and his partner during
+the lifetime of the former. A similar controversy with Colonel Aaron
+Ogden, of New Jersey, was compromised by advantageous concessions, which
+converted the opponent of the monopoly into its firmest friend, and left
+him many years afterward the defeated party in the famous suit of
+Gibbons and Ogden, in the Supreme Court of the United States."
+
+In January, 1815, Fulton was summoned to Trenton, New Jersey, as a
+witness in one of the numerous suits which grew out of the efforts to
+break down his monopoly. During his examination he was very much
+exposed, as the hall of the Legislature was uncommonly cold. In
+returning home, he crossed the Hudson in an open boat, and was detained
+on the river several hours. This severe exposure brought on an attack of
+sickness, which for a short time confined him to his bed. The steam
+frigate, then almost ready for her engines, occasioned him great anxiety
+at the time, and before he had fairly recovered his strength he went to
+the ship-yard to give some directions to the workmen employed on her,
+and thus exposed himself again to the inclemency of the weather. In a
+few days his indisposition prostrated him again, and, growing rapidly
+worse, he died on the 24th of February, 1815, at the age of fifty
+years. His death was universally regarded as a national calamity, and
+appropriate honors were paid to his memory by the General Government and
+by many of the State and municipal governments of the Union. He was
+buried from his residence, No. 1 State Street, on the 25th of February,
+and his body was placed in the vault of the Livingston family, in
+Trinity church-yard.
+
+He left a widow and four children. By the terms of his will he
+bequeathed to his wife an income of nine thousand dollars a year, and
+five hundred dollars to each of his children until they were twelve
+years old, after which they were each to receive one thousand dollars a
+year until they should attain the age of twenty-one years.
+
+In person, Fulton was tall and handsome. His manner was polished,
+cordial, and winning. He made friends rapidly, and never failed in his
+efforts to enlist capital and influence in support of his schemes. He
+was manly, fearless, and independent in character, and joined to a
+perfect integrity a patience and indomitable resolution which enabled
+him to bear up under every disappointment, and which won him in the end
+a glorious success. His name and fame will always be dear to his
+countrymen, for while we can not claim that he was (nor did he ever
+assume to be) the inventor of steam navigation, or even the inventor of
+the means of such navigation, we do claim for him the honor of being the
+first man to cross the gulf which lies between experiment and
+achievement, the man whose skill and perseverance first conquered the
+difficulties which had baffled so many others, and made steam navigation
+both practicable and profitable. The Committee of the London Exhibition
+of 1851 gave utterance in their report to a declaration which places his
+fame beyond assault, as follows:
+
+"Many persons, in various countries, claim the honor of having first
+invented small boats propelled by steam, but it is to the undaunted
+perseverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is due the
+everlasting honor of having produced this revolution, both in naval
+architecture and navigation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+CHARLES GOODYEAR.
+
+
+In the year 1735, a party of astronomers, sent by the French Government
+to Peru for purposes of scientific investigation, discovered a curious
+tree growing in that country, the like of which no European had ever
+seen before. It grew to a considerable size, and yielded a peculiar sap
+or gum. It was the custom of the natives to make several incisions in
+each tree with an ax, in the morning, and to place under each incision a
+cup or jar made of soft clay. Late in the afternoon, the fluid thus
+obtained was collected in a large clay vessel, each incision yielding
+about a gill of sap per day. This process was repeated for several days
+in succession, until the tree had been thoroughly drained. This sap was
+simply a species of liquid gum, which, though clear and colorless in its
+native state, had the property of becoming hard and tough when exposed
+to the sun or artificial heat. It was used by the natives for the
+manufacture of a few rude and simple articles, by a process similar to
+that by which the old-fashioned "tallow-dip" candles were made. It was
+poured over a pattern of clay or a wooden mold or last covered with
+clay, and successive coatings were applied as fast as the former ones
+dried, until the article had attained the desired thickness, the whole
+taking the shape of the mold over which the gum was poured. As the
+layers were applied, their drying was hastened by exposure to the heat
+and smoke of a fire, the latter giving to the gum a dark-black hue.
+Dried without exposure to the smoke, or by the sun alone, the gum became
+white within and yellowish-brown without. The drying process required
+several days, and during its progress the gum was ornamented with
+characters or lines made with a stick. When it was completed, the clay
+mold was broken to pieces and shaken out of the opening. The natives in
+this manner made a species of rough, clumsy shoe, and an equally rough
+bottle. In some parts of South America, the natives make it a rule to
+present their guests with one of these bottles, furnished with a hollow
+stern, which serves as a syringe for squirting water into the mouth in
+order to cleanse it after eating. The articles thus made were liable to
+become stiff and unmanageable in cold weather, and soft and sticky in
+warm. The French astronomers, upon their return to their own country,
+were quick to call attention to this remarkable gum, which was afterward
+discovered in Cayenne by Trismau, in 1751. At present it is found in
+large quantities in various parts of South America, but the chief
+supplies used in commerce are produced in the province of Para, which
+lies south of the equator, in Brazil. It is also grown largely in the
+East Indies, vast and inexhaustible forests of the trees which yield it
+being found in Assam, beyond the Ganges, although the quality can not
+compare with that of the South American article.
+
+This substance, variously known as cachuchu, caoutchouc, gum elastic,
+and India-rubber, was first introduced into Europe in 1730, where it was
+regarded merely as a curiosity, useful for erasing pencil marks, but
+valueless for any practical use. Ships from South America brought it
+over as ballast, but it was not until ninety years after its first
+appearance in Europe that any effort was made to utilize it. About the
+year 1820 it began to be used in France in the manufacture of suspenders
+and garters, India-rubber threads being mixed with the materials used in
+weaving those articles. It was also used in blacking and varnish, and
+some years later, Mackintosh brought it into prominent notice by using
+it in his famous water-proof coats, which were made by spreading a layer
+of the gum between two pieces of cloth. The gum was thus protected from
+the air, and preserved from injury.
+
+Up to this time, it was almost an unknown article in the United States,
+but in 1820 a pair of India-rubber shoes were exhibited in Boston. Even
+then they were regarded as merely a curiosity, and were covered with
+gilt foil to hide their natural ugliness. In 1823, a merchant, engaged
+in the South American trade, imported five hundred pairs from the Para
+district. He had no difficulty in disposing of them; and so great was
+the favor with which they were received, that in a few years the annual
+importation of India-rubber shoes amounted to five hundred thousand
+pairs. It had become a matter of fashion to wear these shoes, and no
+person's toilet was complete in wet weather unless the feet were incased
+in them; yet they were terribly rough and clumsy. They had scarcely any
+shape to them, and were not to be depended on in winter or summer. In
+the cold season they froze so hard that they could be used only after
+being thawed by the fire, and in summer they could be preserved only by
+keeping them on ice; and if, during the thawing process, they were
+placed too near the fire, there was danger that they would melt into a
+shapeless and useless mass. They cost from three to five dollars per
+pair, which was very high for an article so perishable in its nature.
+
+The great popularity of India-rubber induced Mr. E.M. Chaflee, of
+Boston, the foreman of a patent leather factory in that city, to attempt
+to apply the new substance to some of the uses to which patent leather
+was then put. His hope was that, by spreading the liquid gum upon cloth,
+he could produce an article which, while possessing the durability and
+flexibility of patent leather, would also be water-proof. His
+experiments extended over a period of several months, during which time
+he kept his plan a secret. He dissolved a pound of the gum in three
+quarts of spirits of turpentine, and added to the mixture enough
+lamp-black to produce a bright black color, and was so well satisfied
+with his compound, that he felt sure that the only thing necessary to
+his entire success was a machine for spreading it properly on the cloth.
+Like a true son of New England, he soon overcame this difficulty by
+inventing the desired machine. His compound was spread on the cloth, and
+dried in the sun, producing a hard, smooth surface, and one sufficiently
+flexible to be twisted into any shape without cracking. Mr. Chaffee was
+now sure that he had mastered the difficulty. Taking a few capitalists
+into his confidence, he succeeded so well in convincing them of the
+excellence of his invention, that in February, 1833, a company, called
+the "Roxbury India-rubber Company," was organized, with a capital of
+thirty thousand dollars. In three years this sum was increased to four
+hundred thousand dollars. The new company manufactured India-rubber
+cloth according to Mr. Chaffee's process, and from it made wagon-covers,
+piano-covers, caps, coats, and a few other articles, and, in a little
+while, added to their list of products shoes without fiber. They had no
+difficulty in disposing of their stock. Every body had taken the
+"India-rubber fever," as the excitement caused by Mr. Chaffee's
+discovery was called; and so high were the hopes of the public raised by
+it, that buyers were found in abundance whenever the bonds of the
+numerous India-rubber companies were offered for sale. The extraordinary
+success of the Roxbury Company led to the establishment of similar
+enterprises at Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, and
+Staten Island. The Roxbury Company could not supply the demand for its
+articles, and the others appeared to have as much business as they could
+attend to. Apparently, they were all on the high road to wealth.
+
+Their prosperity was only fictitious, however, and a day of fearful
+disaster was pending over them. The bulk of the goods produced in 1833
+and 1834 had been manufactured in the cold weather, and the greater part
+of them had succumbed to the heat of the ensuing summer. The shoes had
+melted to a soft mass, and the caps, wagon-covers, and coats had become
+sticky and useless in summer, and rigid in the cold of winter. In some
+cases the articles had borne the test of one year's use, but the second
+summer had ruined them. To make the matter worse, they emitted an odor
+so offensive that it was necessary to bury them in the ground to get rid
+of the smell. Twenty thousand dollars' worth were thrown back on the
+hands of the Roxbury Company alone, and the directors were appalled by
+the ruin which threatened them. It was useless for them to go on
+manufacturing goods which might prove worthless at any moment; and, as
+their capital was already taxed to its utmost, it was plain that unless
+a better process should be speedily discovered, they must become
+involved in irretrievable disaster. Their efforts were unavailing,
+however. No better process was found, and the disgust of the public with
+their goods was soon general and unmitigable. India-rubber stock fell
+rapidly, and by the end of the year 1836 there was not a solvent company
+in the Union. The loss of the stockholders was complete, and amounted in
+the aggregate to two millions of dollars. People came to detest the
+very name of India-rubber, since it reminded them only of blighted hopes
+and heavy losses.
+
+Before the final disaster, however, it chanced that a bankrupt merchant
+of Philadelphia, being one day in New York on business, was led by
+curiosity to visit the salesroom of the agency of the Roxbury Company in
+that city. His visit resulted in the purchase of a life-preserver, which
+he took home with him for the purpose of examining it. Subjecting it to
+a careful investigation, he discovered a defect in the valve used for
+inflating it, and promptly devised a simpler and better apparatus.
+
+This man, afterward so famous in the history of India-rubber
+manufacture, was CHARLES GOODYEAR. He was born at New Haven,
+Connecticut, on the 29th of December, 1800. He attended a public school
+during his boyhood, thus acquiring a limited education. When quite a
+youth, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where his father
+entered into the hardware business. Upon coming of age, he was admitted
+to partnership with his father and one of his brothers, the style of the
+firm being A. Goodyear & Sons. The house was extensively engaged in the
+manufacture of hardware, and among the other articles which they
+introduced was a light hay-fork, made of spring steel, which gradually
+took the place of the heavy wrought iron implement formerly in general
+use among the farmers. It required a large outlay and a great deal of
+time to introduce this fork, but, once in use, it rapidly drove the old
+one out of the market, and proved a source of considerable profit to its
+inventor. The prosperity of the house, however, soon began to wane, and
+it was brought to bankruptcy by the crisis of 1836.
+
+Mr. Goodyear's attention had for some time been attracted to the
+wonderful apparent success of the India-rubber companies of the country,
+and he was hopeful that his improvement in the inflating apparatus of
+the life-preserver would bring him the means of partially extricating
+himself from his difficulties. Repairing to New York, he called on the
+agent of the Roxbury Company, and explaining his invention to him,
+offered to sell it to the company. The agent was struck with the skill
+displayed in the improvement of Mr. Goodyear, but, instead of offering
+to buy it, astounded the inventor by informing him of the real state of
+the India-rubber trade of the country. He urged Mr. Goodyear to exert
+his inventive skill to discover some means of imparting durability to
+India-rubber goods, and assured him that if he could discover a process
+which would secure that end, the various companies of the United States
+would eagerly buy it at his own price. He explained to him the process
+then in use, and pointed out its imperfections. Mr. Goodyear listened
+carefully to his statements, forgot all about his disappointment in
+failing to sell his improved inflating apparatus, and went home firmly
+convinced that he had found his true mission in life. In after years,
+when success had crowned his labors, he modestly referred to this period
+of his career in language the substance of which is thus recorded:
+
+"From the time that his attention was first given to the subject, a
+strong and abiding impression was made upon his mind that an object so
+desirable and important, and so necessary to man's comfort, as the
+making of gum elastic available to his use was most certainly placed
+within his reach. Having this presentiment, of which he could not divest
+himself under the most trying adversity, he was stimulated with the
+hope, of ultimately attaining this object. Beyond this, he would refer
+the whole to the great Creator, who directs the operations of the mind
+to the development of properties of matter, in his own way, at the time
+when they are specially needed, influencing some mind for every work or
+calling."
+
+There was something sublime in the attitude of this one man, now feeble
+in health, the only dependence of a young family, a bankrupt in
+business, starting out to seek success in a field in which so many had
+found only ruin. He was convinced in his own mind that he would master
+the secret, while his friends were equally sure that he would but
+increase his difficulties. The firm of which he had been a member had
+surrendered all their property to their creditors; but they still owed
+thirty thousand dollars, and immediately upon his return from New York,
+after his visit to the agent of the Roxbury Company, he was arrested for
+debt, and though not actually thrown in jail, was compelled to take up
+his residence within prison limits.
+
+Strong in the conviction before named, that he was the man of all others
+to discover the secret of controlling India-rubber, he at once began his
+experiments. This was in the winter of 1834-35. The gum had fallen in
+price to five cents per pound, and, poor as he was, he had no difficulty
+in procuring a sufficient quantity to begin with. By melting and working
+the gum thoroughly, and by rolling it upon a stone table with a
+rolling-pin, he succeeded in producing sheets of India-rubber which
+seemed to him to possess the properties which those of Mr. Chaffee had
+lacked. He explained his process to a friend, who, becoming interested
+in it, loaned him the money to manufacture a number of shoes, which at
+first seemed all that could be desired. Fearful, however, of meeting the
+fate which had befallen the Roxbury Company, Mr. Goodyear put his shoes
+away until the next summer, to ascertain whether they would bear the
+heat. His doubts were more than realized. The warm weather completely
+ruined them, reducing them to a mass of so offensive an odor that he was
+glad to throw them away.
+
+The friend of the inventor was thoroughly disheartened by this failure,
+and refused to have any thing more to do with Goodyear's schemes; but
+the latter, though much disappointed, did not despair. He set to work to
+discover the cause of his failure, and traced it, as he supposed, to the
+mixing of the gum with the turpentine and lamp-black. Having procured
+some barrels of the gum in its native liquid state, he spread it on
+cloth without smoking it or mixing it with any thing else. He succeeded
+in producing a very handsome white rubber cloth, but it was one that
+became soft and sticky as quickly as the other had done.
+
+It now occurred to him that there must be some mineral substance which,
+mixed with the gum, would render it durable, and he began to experiment
+with almost every substance that he could lay his hands on. All these
+proved total failures, with the exception of magnesia. By mixing half a
+pound of magnesia with a pound of the gum, he produced a compound much
+whiter than the pure gum, and one which was at first as firm and
+flexible as leather. He made book-covers and piano-covers out of it, and
+for a time it seemed that he had discovered the longed-for secret; but
+in a month his pretty product was ruined. The heat caused it to soften;
+then fermentation set in, and, finally, it became as hard and brittle as
+thin glass.
+
+His friends, who had aided him at first, now turned from him coldly,
+regarding him as a dreamer; and his own stock of money was exhausted. In
+his extremity he was forced to pawn all his own valuables, and even some
+of the trinkets of his wife. In spite of this, he felt sure that he was
+on the road to success, and that he would very soon be enabled to rise
+above his present difficulties, and win both fame and fortune. He was
+obliged for the time, however, to remove his family to the country,
+depositing with his landlord, as security for the payment of the first
+quarter's rent, some linen which had been spun by his wife, and which he
+was never able to redeem. Having settled his family in the country, he
+set out for New York, where he hoped to find some one willing to aid him
+in extending his researches still further.
+
+Arrived in the great city, he found two old acquaintances, to whom he
+stated his plans and his hopes. One of them offered him the use of a
+room in Gold Street, as a laboratory, and the other, who was a druggist,
+agreed to let him have such chemicals as he needed on credit. He now
+proceeded to boil the gum, mixed with magnesia, in quicklime and water,
+and, as the result, obtained sheets of his compound whose firmness and
+smoothness of surface won them a medal at the fair of the American
+Institute in 1835. He seemed now on the point of success, and readily
+disposed of all the sheets he could manufacture. The newspapers spoke
+highly of his invention, for which he obtained a patent; and he was
+about to endeavor to enlist some persons of means in its manufacture on
+a large scale, when, to his dismay, he discovered that a single drop of
+the weakest acid, such as the juice of an apple, or diluted vinegar,
+would utterly destroy the influence of the lime in the compound, and
+reduce it to the old sticky substance that had baffled him so often.
+
+His next step was to mix quicklime with the gum. In order to work the
+compound thoroughly, he used to carry the vessel containing it, on his
+shoulder, to a place three miles distant from his laboratory, where he
+had the use of horse power. The lime, however, utterly destroyed the
+gum, and nothing came of this experiment.
+
+The discovery which followed was the result of accident, and brought him
+on the very threshold of success, yet did not entirely conquer his
+difficulties. He was an ardent lover of the beautiful, and it was a
+constant effort with him to render his productions as attractive to the
+eye as possible. Upon one occasion, while bronzing a piece of rubber
+cloth, he applied aqua fortis to it for the purpose of removing the
+bronze from a certain part. It took away the bronze as he had designed,
+but it also discolored the cloth to such a degree that he supposed it
+ruined, and threw it away. A day or two later, he chanced to remember
+that he had not examined very closely into the effect of the aqua fortis
+upon the rubber, and thereupon instituted a search for it. He was
+fortunate enough to find it, and was overjoyed to discover that the
+rubber had undergone a remarkable change, and that the effect of the
+acid was to harden it to such an extent that it would now stand a degree
+of heat which would have melted it before. When the reader remembers
+that aqua fortis is a compound two-fifths of which is sulphuric acid, he
+will understand that Mr. Goodyear had almost mastered the secret of
+vulcanizing rubber. He does not appear, however, to have known the true
+nature of aqua fortis, and called his process the "curing" of
+India-rubber by the use of that acid.
+
+The "cured" India-rubber was subjected to many tests, and passed through
+them successfully, thus demonstrating its adaptability to many important
+uses. Mr. Goodyear readily obtained a patent for his process, and a
+partner with a large capital was found ready to aid him. He hired the
+old India-rubber works on Staten Island, and opened a salesroom in
+Broadway. He was thrown back for six weeks at this important time by an
+accident, which happened to him while experimenting with his fabrics,
+and which came near causing his death. Just as he was recovering and
+preparing to commence the manufacture of his goods on a large scale, the
+terrible commercial crisis of 1836 swept over the country, and, by
+destroying his partner's fortune at one blow, reduced Goodyear to
+absolute beggary. His family had joined him in New York, and he was
+entirely without the means of supporting them. As the only resource at
+hand, he decided to pawn an article of value, one of the few which he
+possessed, in order to raise money enough to procure one day's supply of
+provisions. At the very door of the pawnbroker's shop he met one of his
+creditors, who kindly asked if he could be of any further assistance to
+him. Weak with hunger, and overcome by the generosity of his friend, the
+poor man burst into tears, and replied that, as his family was on the
+point of starvation, a loan of fifteen dollars would greatly oblige him.
+The money was given him on the spot, and the necessity for visiting the
+pawnbroker averted for several days longer. Still he was a frequent
+visitor to that individual during the year; and thus, one by one, the
+relics of his better days disappeared. Another friend loaned him one
+hundred dollars, which enabled him to remove his family to Staten
+Island, in the neighborhood of the abandoned rubber works, which the
+owners gave him permission to use as far as he could. He contrived in
+this way to manufacture enough of his "cured" cloth, which sold readily,
+to enable him to keep his family from starvation. He made repeated
+efforts to induce capitalists to come to the factory and see his samples
+and the process by which they were made, but no one would venture near
+him. There had been money enough lost in such experiments, they said,
+and they were determined to risk no more.
+
+Indeed, in all the broad land there was but one man who had the
+slightest hope of accomplishing any thing with India-rubber, and that
+one was Charles Goodyear. His friends regarded him as a monomaniac. He
+not only manufactured his cloth, but even dressed in clothes made of it,
+wearing it for the purpose of testing its durability, as well as of
+advertising it. He was certainly an odd figure, and in his appearance
+justified the remark of one of his friends, who, upon being asked how
+Mr. Goodyear could be recognized, replied: "If you see a man with an
+India-rubber coat on, India-rubber shoes, an India-rubber cap, and in
+his pocket an India-rubber purse, with not a cent in it, that is
+Goodyear."
+
+In September, 1836, a new gleam of hope lit up his pathway. A friend
+having loaned him a small sum of money, he went to Roxbury, taking with
+him some of his best specimens. Although the Roxbury Company had gone
+down with such a fearful crash, Mr. Chaffee, the inventor of the process
+in this country, was still firm in his faith that India-rubber would at
+some future time justify the expectations of its earliest friends. He
+welcomed Mr. Goodyear cordially, and allowed him to use the abandoned
+works of the company for his experiments. The result was that Goodyear
+succeeded in making slides and cloths of India-rubber of a quality so
+much better than any that had yet been seen in America, that the hopes
+of the friends of India-rubber were raised to a high point. Offers to
+purchase rights for certain portions of the country came in rapidly, and
+by the sale of them Goodyear realized between four and five thousand
+dollars. He was now able to bring his family to Roxbury, and for the
+time fortune seemed to smile upon him.
+
+His success was but temporary, however. He obtained an order from the
+General Government for one hundred and fifty India-rubber mail-bags,
+which he succeeded in producing, and as they came out smooth, highly
+polished, hard, well shaped, and entirely impervious to moisture, he was
+delighted, and summoned his friends to inspect and admire them. All who
+saw them pronounced them a perfect success; but, alas! in a single month
+they began to soften and ferment, and finally became useless. Poor
+Goodyear's hopes were dashed to the ground. It was found that the aqua
+fortis merely "cured" the surface of the material, and that only very
+thin cloth made in this way was durable. His other goods began to prove
+worthless, and his promising business came to a sudden and disastrous
+end. All his possessions were seized and sold for debt, and once more he
+was reduced to poverty. His position was even worse than before, for his
+family had increased in size, and his aged father also had become
+dependent upon him for support.
+
+Friends, relatives, and even his wife, all demanded that he should
+abandon his empty dreams, and turn his attention to something that would
+yield a support to his family. Four years of constant failure, added to
+the unfortunate experience of those who had preceded him, ought to
+convince him, they said, that he was hoping against hope. Hitherto his
+conduct, they said, had been absurd, though they admitted that he was to
+some extent excused for it by his partial success; but to persist in it
+would now be criminal. The inventor was driven to despair, and being a
+man of tender feelings and ardently devoted to his family, might have
+yielded to them had he not felt that lie was nearer than ever to the
+discovery of the secret that had eluded him so long.
+
+Just before the failure of his mail-bags had brought ruin upon him, he
+had taken into his employ a man named Nathaniel Hayward, who had been
+the foreman of the old Roxbury works, and who was still in charge of
+them when Goodyear came to Roxbury, making a few rubber articles on his
+own account. He hardened his compound by mixing a little powdered
+sulphur with the gum, or by sprinkling sulphur on the rubber cloth, and
+drying it in the sun. He declared that the process had been revealed to
+him in a dream, but could give no further account of it. Goodyear was
+astonished to find that the sulphur cured the India-rubber as thoroughly
+as the aqua fortis, the principal objection being that the sulphurous
+odor of the goods was frightful in hot weather. Hayward's process was
+really the same as that employed by Goodyear, the "curing" of the
+India-rubber being due in each case to the agency of sulphur, the
+principal difference between them being that Hayward's goods were dried
+by the sun, and Goodyear's with nitric acid. Hay ward set so small a
+value upon his discovery that he had readily sold it to his new
+employer.
+
+[Illustration: AN AMAZING REVELATION.]
+
+Goodyear felt that he had now all but conquered his difficulties. It was
+plain that sulphur was the great controller of India-rubber, for he had
+proved that when applied to thin cloth it would render it available for
+most purposes. The problem that now remained was how to mix sulphur and
+the gum in a mass, so that every part of the rubber should be subjected
+to the agency of the sulphur. He experimented for weeks and months with
+the most intense eagerness, but the mystery completely baffled him. His
+friends urged him to go to work to do something for his family, but he
+could not turn back. The goal was almost in sight, and he felt that he
+would be false to his mission were he to abandon his labors now. To the
+world he seemed a crack-brained dreamer, and some there were who, seeing
+the distress of his family, did not hesitate to apply still harsher
+names to him; but to the Great Eye that reads all hearts, how different
+did this man appear! It saw the anguish that wrung the heart of Charles
+Goodyear, and knew the more than heroic firmness with which, in the
+midst of his poverty and suffering, he agonized for the great discovery.
+Had it been merely wealth that he was working for, doubtless he would
+have turned back and sought some other means of obtaining it; but he
+sought more. He was striving for the good of his fellow-men, and
+ambitious of becoming a benefactor of the race. He felt that he had a
+mission to fulfill, and no one else could perform it.
+
+He was right. A still greater success was about to crown his labors, but
+in a manner far different from his expectations. His experiments had
+developed nothing; chance was to make the revelation. It was in the
+spring of 1839 that this revelation came to him, and in the following
+manner: Standing before a stove in a store at Woburn, Massachusetts, he
+was explaining to some acquaintances the properties of a piece of
+sulphur-cured India-rubber which he held in his hand. They listened to
+him good-naturedly, but with evident incredulity, when suddenly he
+dropped the rubber on the stove, which was red hot. His old cloths would
+have melted instantly from contact with such heat; but, to his surprise,
+this piece underwent no such change. In amazement, he examined it, and
+found that while it had charred or shriveled, like leather, it had not
+softened at all. The bystanders attached no importance to this
+phenomenon, but to him it was a revelation. He renewed his experiments
+with enthusiasm, and in a little while established the facts that
+India-rubber, when mixed with sulphur and exposed to a certain degree of
+heat for a certain time, would not melt or even soften at any degree of
+heat, that it would only char at two hundred and eighty degrees, and
+that it would not stiffen from exposure to any degree of cold. The
+difficulty now consisted in finding out the exact degree of heat
+necessary for the perfection of the rubber, and the exact length of time
+required for the heating.
+
+He made this discovery in his darkest days; when, in fact, he was in
+constant danger of arrest for debt, having already been a frequent
+inmate of the debtor's prison. He was in the depths of bitter poverty,
+and in such feeble health that he was constantly haunted by the fear of
+dying before he had perfected his discovery--before he had fulfilled his
+mission. His poverty was a greater drawback to him than ever before. He
+needed an apparatus for producing a high and uniform heat for his
+experiments, and he was unable to obtain it. He used to bake his
+compound in his wife's bread oven, and steam it over the spout of her
+tea-kettle, and to press the kitchen fire into his service as far as it
+would go. When this failed, he would go to the shops in the vicinity of
+Woburn, and beg to be allowed to use the ovens and boilers after working
+hours were over. The workmen regarded him as a lunatic, but were too
+good-natured to deny him the request. Finally, he induced a bricklayer
+to make him an oven, and paid him in mason's aprons of India-rubber. The
+oven was a failure. Sometimes it would turn out pieces of perfectly
+vulcanized cloth, and again the goods would be charred and ruined.
+Goodyear was in despair.
+
+All this time he lived on the charity of his friends. His neighbors
+pretended to lend him money, but in reality gave him the means of
+keeping his family from starvation. He has declared that all the while
+he felt sure he would, before long, be able to pay them back, but they
+declared with equal emphasis that, at that time, they never expected to
+witness his success. He was yellow and shriveled in face, with a gaunt,
+lean figure, and his habit of wearing an India-rubber coat, which was
+charred and blackened from his frequent experiments with it, gave him a
+wild and singular appearance. People shook their heads solemnly when
+they saw him, and said that the mad-house was the proper place for him.
+
+The winter of 1839-40 was long and severe. At the opening of the season,
+Mr. Goodyear received a letter from a house in Paris, making him a
+handsome offer for the use of his process of curing India-rubber with
+aqua fortis. Here was a chance for him to rise out of his misery. A year
+before he would have closed with the offer, but since then he had
+discovered the effects of sulphur and heat on his compound, and had
+passed far beyond the aqua fortis stage. Disappointment and want had not
+warped his honesty, and he at once declined to enter into any
+arrangements with the French house, informing them that although the
+process they desired to purchase was a valuable one, it was about to be
+entirely replaced by another which he was then on the point of
+perfecting, and which he would gladly sell them as soon as he had
+completed it. His friends declared that he was mad to refuse such an
+offer; but he replied that nothing would induce him to sell a process
+which he knew was about to be rendered worthless by still greater
+discoveries.
+
+A few weeks later, a terrible snow-storm passed over the land, one of
+the worst that New England has ever known, and in the midst of it
+Goodyear made the appalling discovery that he had not a particle of fuel
+or a mouthful of food in the house. He was ill enough to be in bed
+himself, and his purse was entirely empty. It was a terrible position,
+made worse, too, by the fact that his friends who had formerly aided him
+had turned from him, vexed with his pertinacity, and abandoned him to
+his fate. In his despair, he bethought him of a mere acquaintance who
+lived several miles from his cottage, and who but a few days before had
+spoken to him with more of kindness than he had received of late. This
+gentleman, he thought, would aid him in his distress, if he could but
+reach his house, but in such a snow the journey seemed hopeless to a man
+in his feeble health. Still the effort must be made. Nerved by despair,
+he set out, and pushed his way resolutely through the heavy drifts. The
+way was long, and it seemed to him that he would never accomplish it.
+Often he fell prostrate on the snow, almost fainting with fatigue and
+hunger, and again he would sit down wearily in the road, feeling that he
+would gladly die if his discovery were but completed. At length,
+however, he reached the end of his journey, and fortunately found his
+acquaintance at home. To this gentleman he told the story of his
+discovery, his hopes, his struggles, and his present sufferings, and
+implored him to aid him. Mr. Coolidge[A]--for such was the gentleman's
+name--listened to him kindly, and after expressing the warmest sympathy
+for him, loaned him money enough to support his family during the severe
+weather, and to enable him to continue his experiments.
+
+[Footnote A: O.B. Coolidge, of Woburn.]
+
+"Seeing no prospect of success in Massachusetts, he now resolved to make
+a desperate effort to get to New York, feeling confident that the
+specimens he could take with him would convince some one of the
+superiority of his new method. He was beginning to understand the causes
+of his many failures, but he saw clearly that his compound could not be
+worked with certainty without expensive apparatus. It was a very
+delicate operation, requiring exactness and promptitude. The conditions
+upon which success depended were numerous, and the failure of one
+spoiled all.... It cost him thousands of failures to learn that a little
+acid in his sulphur caused the blistering; that his compound must be
+heated almost immediately after being mixed, or it would never
+vulcanize; that a portion of white lead in the compound greatly
+facilitated the operation and improved the result; and when he had
+learned these facts, it still required costly and laborious experiments
+to devise the best methods of compounding his ingredients, the best
+proportions, the best mode of heating, the proper duration of the
+heating, and the various useful effects that could be produced by
+varying the proportions and the degree of heat. He tells us that many
+times when, by exhausting every resource, he had prepared a quantity of
+his compound for heating, it was spoiled because he could not, with his
+inadequate apparatus, apply the heat soon enough.
+
+"To New York, then, he directed his thoughts. Merely to get there cost
+him a severer and a longer effort than men in general are capable of
+making. First he walked to Boston, ten miles distant, where he hoped to
+borrow from an old acquaintance fifty dollars, with which to provide for
+his family and pay his fare to New York. He not only failed in this, but
+he was arrested for debt and thrown into prison. Even in prison, while
+his father was negotiating to procure his release, he labored to
+interest men of capital in his discovery, and made proposals for
+founding a factory in Boston. Having obtained his liberty, he went to a
+hotel, and spent a week in vain efforts to effect a small loan. Saturday
+night came, and with it his hotel bill, which he had no means of
+discharging. In an agony of shame and anxiety, he went to a friend and
+entreated the sum of five dollars to enable him to return home. He was
+met with a point blank refusal. In the deepest dejection, he walked the
+streets till late in the night, and strayed at length, almost beside
+himself, to Cambridge, where he ventured to call upon a friend and ask
+shelter for the night. He was hospitably entertained, and the next
+morning walked wearily home, penniless and despairing. At the door of
+his house a member of his family met him with the news that his youngest
+child, two years old, whom he had left in perfect health, was dying. In
+a few hours he had in his house a dead child, but not the means of
+burying it, and five living dependents without a morsel of food to give
+them. A storekeeper near by had promised to supply the family, but,
+discouraged by the unforeseen length of the father's absence, he had
+that day refused to trust them further. In these terrible circumstances,
+he applied to a friend upon whose generosity he knew he could rely, one
+who never failed him. He received in reply a letter of severe and
+cutting reproach, inclosing seven dollars, which his friend explained
+was given only out of pity for his innocent and suffering family. A
+stranger who chanced to be present when this letter arrived sent them a
+barrel of flour--a timely and blessed relief. The next day the family
+followed on foot the remains of the little child to the grave."
+
+He had now reached the lowest ebb of his misery, and a brighter day was
+in store for him. Obtaining fifty dollars from a relative, he went to
+New York, where he succeeded in interesting in his discovery two
+brothers, William and Emory Rider. They agreed to advance him a certain
+sum to support his family and continue his experiments. By means of this
+aid he was enabled to keep his family from want in the future, and from
+that time his experiments never flagged. Before entire success crowned
+his efforts, the brothers Rider failed; but he had advanced his
+experiments so greatly that his brother-in-law, William De Forrest, a
+rich woolen manufacturer, came to his support, and supplied him with the
+means to go on with his labors. Mr. De Forrest's total advances amounted
+to forty-six thousand dollars, from which fact the reader may gain some
+idea of the obstacles overcome by Goodyear in this last stage of his
+invention.
+
+The prize for which he had labored so long and so heroically was secured
+at last, and in 1844, ten years after the commencement of his
+experiments, he was able to produce perfectly vulcanized India-rubber
+with expedition and economy, and, above all, with certainty. He had won
+a success which added a new material to art and commerce, and one which
+could be applied in a thousand different ways, and all of them useful to
+man. But great as his success was, he was not satisfied with it. To the
+end of his life his constant effort was to improve his invention, and
+apply it to new uses. He had an unlimited faith in its adaptability,
+believing that there was scarcely any article of general use that could
+not be made of it. Upon one occasion he read in a newspaper that twenty
+persons perished every hour by drowning. The statement impressed him
+deeply, and his wife noticed that for several nights he scarcely slept
+at all. "Try to compose yourself, and sleep," she said to him. "Sleep!"
+he exclaimed, "how can I sleep when twenty human beings are drowning
+every hour, and I am the man that can save them?" And at this time it
+was his constant endeavor to invent some article of India-rubber which
+could be easily carried by travelers, and which would render it
+impossible for them to sink in water.
+
+Having brought his process to a successful completion in this country,
+and obtained patents for it, he went to Europe to secure similar
+protections in the principal countries of the Old World. "The French
+laws require that the patentee shall put and keep his invention in
+public use in France within two years from its date. Goodyear had, at
+great inconvenience and expense, endeavored to comply with this and with
+all other requirements of the French laws, and thought he had
+effectually done so; but the courts of France decided that he had not in
+every particular complied with the strict requisitions of the law, and
+that, therefore, his patent in France had become void. In England he was
+still more unfortunate. Having sent specimens of vulcanized fabrics to
+Charles Mackintosh & Co., in 1842, and having opened with them a
+negotiation for the sale of the secret of the invention or discovery,
+one of the partners of that firm, named Thomas Hancock, availing
+himself, as he admits, of the hints and opportunities thus presented to
+him, rediscovered, as he affirms, the process of vulcanization, and
+described it in a patent for England, which was enrolled on May 21,
+1844, _about five weeks after_ the specification and publication of the
+discovery to the world by Goodyear's patent for vulcanization in France.
+And the patent of Hancock, held good according to a peculiarity of
+English law, thus superseded Goodyear's English patent for
+vulcanization, which bore date a few days later. Goodyear, however,
+obtained the great council medal of the exhibition of all nations at
+London, the grand medal of the world's exhibition at Paris, and the
+ribbon of the Legion of Honor, presented by Napoleon III."
+
+In his own country, Mr. Goodyear was scarcely less unfortunate. His
+patents were infringed and violated by others, even after the decision
+of the courts seemed to place his rights beyond question. He was too
+thoroughly the inventor and too little the man of business to protect
+himself from the robberies of the wretches who plundered him of the
+profits of his invention. It is said that his inability to manage sharp
+transactions made him the victim of many who held nominally fair
+business relations with him. The United States Commissioner of Patents,
+in 1858, thus spoke of his losses:
+
+"No inventor, probably, has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so
+plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the
+parlance of the world, with no exaggeration of phrase, as 'pirates.' The
+spoliation of their incessant guerrilla warfare upon his defenseless
+rights have, unquestionably, amounted to millions."
+
+Failing to accomplish any thing in Europe, Mr. Goodyear returned to this
+country, and continued his labors. His health, never strong, gave way
+under the continued strain, and he died in New York in July, 1860, in
+the sixtieth year of his age, completely worn out. Notwithstanding his
+great invention--an invention which has made millions for those engaged
+in its manufacture--he died insolvent, and left his family heavily in
+debt. A few years after his death an effort was made to procure from
+Congress a further seven years' extension of his patent for
+vulcanization, for the benefit of his family and his creditors. The men
+who had trampled his rights under foot while living were resolved,
+however, that he should not have justice done him in death; and, through
+their influence, that august body, in strange contrast with its usual
+lavish generosity in the matter of land grants and the like, coldly
+declined to do any thing for the family of the man to whom civilization
+owes so much, and the effort proved abortive.
+
+But, though unfortunate in a pecuniary sense, though he died without
+freeing himself from the embarrassments which haunted him through life,
+there can be no question that Charles Goodyear richly merits the place
+which we have given him in this gallery of "Our Self-made Men;" not only
+on account of the great merit and usefulness of his discovery or
+invention, but because that invention has been the source of many a
+"great fortune" to others, as it might, indeed, have been to him, had
+his rights been respected, or properly protected when infringed. It is
+sad to reflect that he died poor who has given wealth to so many, and
+accomplished results so beneficent to mankind. Yet he did not fail
+entirely of his reward in life; he lived to see his invention give rise
+to large factories in the United States, and in England, France, and
+Germany, which employ sixty thousand operatives, and produce over five
+hundred different kinds of articles, to the amount of eight millions of
+dollars annually. He lived to see boots and shoes, clothing, caps, hats,
+articles of commerce and of pleasure, mechanical, scientific, and
+surgical instruments, toys, belting for machinery, packing for the
+steam-engine, and many other articles now in common use, made of the
+material, the discovery and perfection of which cost him long and
+sorrowful years of toil. He lived to hear his name mentioned by millions
+as one of their greatest benefactors; to know that he had conferred upon
+the world benefits of which those who had robbed him could not deprive
+his fellow-men; and to feel that he had at length accomplished his
+mission--a mission which has been productive of good alone.
+
+[Illustration: "THE MADHOUSE IS THE PROPER PLACE FOR HIM."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ELI WHITNEY.
+
+
+At the close of the Revolution the States of South Carolina and Georgia
+presented large tracts of land to the gallant General Nathaniel Greene,
+to whose genius they were indebted for their relief from British
+tyranny. Soon after this grant was made, General Greene removed his
+family to Mulberry Grove, a fine plantation on the Georgia side of the
+Savannah River. Here he died in 1786, from sunstroke, but his family
+continued to reside on the place. The mansion of Mrs. Greene was noted
+for its hospitality, and was frequently filled with guests who came to
+pay their respects to the widow of the most brilliant and best trusted
+subordinate of the immortal Washington.
+
+To this mansion there came one day, in the year 1792, ELI WHITNEY, then
+a young man recently from New England. He was a native of Westborough,
+Massachusetts, where he was born on the 8th of December, 1765. Of his
+youth but little is known, save that he was gifted with unusual
+mechanical genius, the employment of which enabled him to overcome some
+of the difficulties incident to his poverty, and to acquire the means of
+obtaining a good common school education. Adding to this the labors of a
+teacher, he earned a sum sufficient to carry him through Yale College,
+where he was graduated in the summer of 1702, a few months before his
+arrival in Georgia. He had come South to accept the offer of a situation
+as teacher, but the place had been filled before his arrival, and, being
+without friends in that section, he sought employment from Mrs. Greene.
+Though pleased with his modesty and intelligence, that lady could not
+avail herself of his services as a tutor, but invited him to make her
+house his home as long as he should desire to remain in Georgia. He was
+sick in body and disheartened by his first failure, and gladly accepted
+her invitation. While her guest he made her a tambour frame of an
+improved pattern, and a number of ingenious toys for her children, which
+so delighted the good lady that she enthusiastically declared him
+capable of doing any thing.
+
+Not long after Mr. Whitney's arrival at the plantation, Mrs. Greene was
+entertaining a number of visitors from the surrounding country, several
+planters of considerable wealth being among the number, when one of the
+guests turned the conversation upon the subject of cotton-raising, by
+declaring that he had met with such poor success that he was ready to
+abandon the undertaking. His trouble was not, he said, that cotton would
+not grow in his land, for it yielded an abundant return, but that the
+labor of clearing it from the seed was so enormous that he could not do
+more than pay expenses after selling it.
+
+His case was simply one among a thousand. The far Southern States were
+admitted by every one to be admirably adapted to the cultivation of
+cotton, but, after it was grown and picked, the expense of cleaning it
+destroyed nearly all the profits of the transaction. The cleaning
+process was performed by hand, and it was as much as an able-bodied
+negro could do to clean one pound per day in this manner. Disheartened
+by this difficulty, which no one had yet been able to remove, the
+planters of the South were seriously contemplating the entire
+abandonment of this portion of their industry, since it only involved
+them in debt. Their lands were heavily mortgaged, and general ruin
+seemed to threaten them. All felt that the invention of a machine for
+cleaning or ginning the cotton would not only remove their difficulties,
+but enable them to plant the green cotton-seed, from the use of which
+they were then almost entirely debarred, because, although more
+productive and of a better quality than the black, and adapted by nature
+to a much greater variety of climate, it was much more difficult to
+clean, and therefore less profitable to cultivate.
+
+These facts were discussed in the conversation at Mrs. Greene's table,
+and it was suggested by one of the company that perhaps the very urgency
+of the case would induce some ingenious man to invent a machine which
+should solve the problem, and remove all the difficulties in the way.
+
+"Is it a machine you want?" said Mrs. Greene, eagerly. "Then, gentlemen,
+you should apply to my young friend, Mr. Whitney; _he_ can make any
+thing."
+
+She at once sent for Whitney, and introduced him to her guests, who
+repeated to him the substance of their conversation, and urged him to
+undertake the invention of what was so much needed. The young man
+protested that he had never seen either a pod of cotton or a cotton-seed
+in his life, and was utterly incompetent for the task they proposed. In
+spite of this, however, his new acquaintances urged him to attempt it,
+and assured him that if successful his invention would make his fortune.
+Whitney would promise nothing more than to think of the matter, and the
+planters departed in the belief that nothing would come of their
+entreaties, and that the culture of cotton would languish until it
+should finally die out.
+
+Whitney _did_ think of the matter, and the result was that he decided
+to attempt the production of a machine which should clean cotton both
+expeditiously and cheaply. It was late in the season, and unginned
+cotton, or cotton from which the seeds had not been removed, was hard to
+procure. With considerable difficulty he succeeded in finding a few
+pounds on the wharf at Savannah, and at once securing his prize, he
+carried it home in his hands.
+
+[Illustration: WHITNEY WATCHING THE FIRST COTTON-GIN]
+
+Mrs. Greene being confidentially informed of his plans, provided him
+with a room in the cellar of her house, where he could carry on his work
+in secret. All that winter he worked at it, with a patience and energy
+which could not fail of success. Many difficulties confronted him. To
+carry on his work successfully, he needed tools of a certain
+description, which were not to be had in Savannah, or even in
+Charleston, upon any terms. But when was the genius of a Yankee ever
+baffled by difficulties? Whitney's mechanical skill came to his aid, and
+he conquered this obstacle by manufacturing all the implements he
+needed. He wanted wire, but none was to be found, and he was compelled
+to make all that he used. A score or more of drawbacks presented
+themselves, and were overcome in this way, and all through the winter
+the young inventor applied himself with diligence to his task. The
+children and servants regarded him with the greatest curiosity. They
+heard him hammering and sawing in his room, the doors of which were
+always kept locked, and into which they were never allowed to enter.
+Mrs. Greene was kept fully informed of his progress. When sure of
+success, Whitney revealed the secret to a Mr. Miller, a gentleman of
+means, who consented to enter into a copartnership with him for the
+manufacture of the machines, after the completion of the model should
+have enabled Whitney to secure a patent for his invention.
+
+Whitney had hoped to keep his work secret from all others, but this
+proved to be impossible. It became rumored about the country that the
+young man from New England, who was living at Mrs. Greene's, was engaged
+in inventing a machine which would clean cotton with the rapidity of
+thought, and the most intense eagerness was manifested to see the
+wonderful production, which every one felt would entirely revolutionize
+cotton culture in the South. Whitney endeavored to guard his invention
+from the public curiosity, but without success. Before he had completed
+his model, some scoundrels broke into the place containing it, and
+carried it off by night. He succeeded in recovering it, but the
+principle upon which it depended was made public, and before the model
+was completed and a patent secured, a number of machines based on his
+invention had been surreptitiously made, and were in operation.
+
+In spite of this discouraging circumstance, Whitney brought his
+invention to perfection, and in the spring of 1793 set up his first
+cotton gin, under a shed on Mrs. Greene's plantation, and invited a
+number of the neighboring planters to witness its operation.
+
+His machine was very simple, but none the less ingenious on that
+account. The cotton was placed in a trough, the bottom of which
+consisted of parallel rows of wire, placed like the bars in a grating,
+but so close together that the seed could not pass through them.
+Underneath this trough revolved an iron roller, armed with teeth formed
+of strong wires projecting from the roller, which passed between the
+wire bars, and, seizing the cotton, drew it through the bars and passed
+it behind the roller, where it was brushed off the wire teeth by means
+of a cylindrical brush. The seed, unable to pass through the bars, were
+left behind, and, completely stripped of the fiber, ran out in a stream
+through a spout at one end of the trough. It was found that the cotton
+thus ginned was cleaned thoroughly,[A] and far better than it could be
+done by hand, and that a single man, by this process, could clean as
+much as three hundred pounds in a day.
+
+[Footnote A: The cotton for which Whitney's machine accomplished so
+much, was the short staple, which is the principal product of the South.
+The Sea Island cotton could not be cleaned by it, on account of the
+length and delicacy of its fiber; and this species, for the want of some
+cheap and expeditious method of preparing it, has seldom been grown to a
+greater quantity than fifty thousand bags of three hundred pounds each.
+Consequently, it has always commanded a high price.]
+
+The spectators were delighted with Whitney's machine, and urged him to
+lose no time in putting it in the market. They predicted an unlimited
+success for it, and assured the inventor that it would not only make his
+own fortune, but also render cotton culture the source of wealth to the
+South. They did not exaggerate. As soon as it was made known to the
+public, Whitney's machine came into general use. Planters had no longer
+any thing to fear from the labor and expense of preparing their great
+staple for market. Whitney's genius had swept away all their
+difficulties, and they reaped a golden harvest from it. They were
+enabled to send their cotton promptly and cheaply to market, where it
+brought good prices. With the money thus obtained they paid their debts,
+and increased their capacity for cultivation. Every year the area
+devoted to cotton-growing became more extended, and the prosperity of
+the South became greater and more durable. In 1793, the total export of
+cotton from the United States was ten thousand bales; in 1860, it was
+over four millions of bales. Hundreds of millions of dollars were
+brought into the South by this invention--so that it is no exaggeration
+to say that the remarkable prosperity enjoyed by the South at the
+commencement of our late civil war was due entirely to the genius of Eli
+Whitney. This opinion is fortified by the following remarks of Judge
+Johnson, uttered in a charge to the jury in a suit brought by Whitney,
+in Savannah, in 1807, to sustain the validity of his patent:
+
+"With regard to the utility of this discovery ... the whole interior of
+the Southern States was languishing, and its inhabitants emigrating for
+want of some object to engage their attention and employ their industry,
+when the invention of this machine at once opened views to them which
+set the whole country in active motion. From childhood to age it has
+presented to us a lucrative employment. Individuals who were depressed
+with poverty, and sunk in idleness, have suddenly risen to wealth and
+respectability. Our debts have been paid off, our capitals have
+increased, and our lands have trebled themselves in value. We can not
+express the weight of the obligation which the country owes to this
+invention. The extent of it can not now be seen."
+
+Surely, the reader will exclaim, if such was the profit of this
+invention to the country at large, what a vast fortune must it have
+been to its inventor! Let us see. In May, 1793, Whitney and Miller went
+to Connecticut and established a factory for the construction of cotton
+gins. They were in possession of a patent which was supposed to pledge
+to them the protection of the United States. The demand for the machine
+was increasing every day, and it seemed that they would reap a golden
+harvest from it. They were disappointed. The machine was so simple that
+any competent mechanic could easily manufacture one after examining the
+model, and this temptation to dishonesty proved too strong for the
+morality of the cotton-growing community. In a short time there were
+hundreds of fraudulent machines at work in the South, made and sold in
+direct and open violation of Whitney's rights. In vain the inventor
+brought suit against those who infringed his patent. It was rare that a
+jury in a cotton State gave a verdict in his favor. In Georgia it was
+boldly asserted that Whitney was not the inventor of the cotton gin, but
+that some persons in Switzerland had invented something similar to it,
+and the substitution of teeth, cut in an iron plate, instead of wire,
+was claimed as superseding his invention. The Legislature of South
+Carolina granted him the beggarly sum of $50,000 for the use of his
+invention by the planters of that State; but it was only by going to
+law, and after several tedious and vexatious suits, that he was able to
+secure this sum. Tennessee agreed to allow him a percentage for the use
+of each saw for a certain period, but afterward repudiated her contract.
+The action of North Carolina forms the only bright page in this history
+of fraud and wrong. That State allowed him a percentage for the use of
+each saw for the term of five years, and promptly collected the money
+and paid it over to the patentee. For fourteen years Whitney continued
+to manufacture his machines, reaping absolutely no profit from his
+investments, and earning merely a bare support. During all this time his
+rights were systematically violated, suits were wrongfully decided
+against him by various Southern courts, and he was harassed and
+plundered on every side. America never presented a more shameful
+spectacle than was exhibited when the courts of the cotton-growing
+regions united with the piratical infringers of Whitney's rights in
+robbing their greatest benefactor. In 1807, Whitney's partner died, and
+his factory was destroyed by fire. In the same year his patent expired,
+and he sought its renewal from Congress. Here again he was met with the
+ingratitude of the cotton States. The Southern members, then all
+powerful in the Government, united in opposing the extension of his
+patent, and his petition was rejected. At the same time a report was
+industriously circulated that his machine injured the fiber of the
+cotton; but it is a significant fact that, although the planters
+insisted vehemently upon this assertion while Whitney was seeking an
+extension of his patent, not one of them discontinued the use of his
+machine, or sought to remedy the alleged defect.
+
+Whitney, thoroughly disheartened, now abandoned the manufacture of
+cotton gins in disgust, wound up his affairs, and found himself a poor
+man. In spite of the far-reaching benefits of his invention, he had not
+realized one dollar above his expenses. He had given millions upon
+millions of dollars to the cotton-growing States, he had opened the way
+for the establishment of the vast cotton-spinning interests of his own
+country and Europe, and yet, after fourteen years of hard labor, he was
+a poor man, the victim of a wealthy, powerful, and, in his case, a
+dishonest class, who had robbed him of his rights and of the fortune he
+had so fairly earned. Truly, "wisdom is better than strength, but the
+poor man's wisdom is despised."
+
+Whitney, however, was not the man to waste his time in repining. He
+abandoned his efforts to protect his cotton gin because of his
+conviction that there was not honesty enough in the country to sustain
+him in his rights, but he did not abandon with it the idea of winning
+fortune. He promptly turned his genius in another direction, and this
+time with success.
+
+The fire-arms then in use were heavy, clumsy weapons, and effective only
+at very short range. He examined the system closely, and quickly
+designed several important improvements in them, especially in the
+old-fashioned musket. Although his improved arms were not to be compared
+with the terribly effective weapons of to-day, they were admitted to be
+the best then in use. By examining the Springfield musket, which is due
+almost entirely to his genius, the reader can form an accurate estimate
+of the service he rendered in this respect. He has the honor of being
+the inaugurator of the system of progressive improvement in fire-arms,
+which has gone on steadily and without flagging for now fully sixty
+years past.
+
+Some time before abandoning the manufacture of the cotton gin, Mr.
+Whitney established an arms factory in New Haven, and obtained a
+contract from the Government for ten thousand stand of arms, to be
+delivered in two years. At this time he not only had to manufacture the
+machinery needed by him for this purpose, but had to invent the greater
+part of it. This delayed the execution of his contract for eight years,
+but at the expiration of that time he had so far perfected his
+establishment, which had been removed to Whitneyville, Conn., that he at
+once entered into contracts for thirty thousand more arms, which he
+delivered promptly at the appointed time. His factory was the most
+complete in the country, and was fitted up in a great measure with the
+machinery which he had invented, and without which the improved weapons
+could not be fabricated. He introduced a new system into the
+manufacture of fire-arms, and one which greatly increased the rapidity
+of construction. "He was the first manufacturer of fire-arms who carried
+the division of labor to the extent of leaking it the duty of each
+workman to perform by machinery but one or two operations on a single
+portion of the gun, and thus rendered all the parts adapted to any one
+of the thousands of arms in process of manufacture at the same time."
+
+His success was now marked and rapid. His factory was taxed to its
+fullest capacity to supply the demand for arms. His genius was rewarded
+at last, and he acquired a fortune which enabled him not only to pass
+the evening of his days in comfort, but also to leave a handsome estate
+to his family. He married a daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards, a lady
+of fine accomplishments and high character. He died at New Haven on the
+8th of January, 1825, in his sixtieth year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CHAUNCEY JEROME.
+
+
+Any readers of these pages doubtless remember the huge old-fashioned
+clocks, tower-like in shape, that in the days of their childhood
+ornamented the remote corner of the hall, or stood solemnly near the
+chimney in the sitting-room of the old homestead,--such a clock as that
+which greeted little Paul Dombey, when he commenced to be a man, with
+its "How, is, my, lit, tle, friend?--how, is, my, lit, tle, friend?"
+Very different from the bright, pretty timepieces of to-day, which go
+ticking away, as if running a race with time, was the clock of the olden
+days, as it stood, solemn and dark, in its accustomed corner, from which
+the strength of two men was necessary to move it, sending the sound of
+its slow, steady strokes into all parts of the house. And in the night,
+when all within was still, how its deep beats throbbed in the dark hall
+louder and sterner even than in the day. There was something eminently
+respectable about an old clock of this kind, and it would have been
+audacity unheard of for any member of the family to doubt its
+reliability. Set once a year, it was expected to retain its steady-going
+habits for the rest of the twelvemonth. You dared not charge it with
+being slow; and as for being too fast, why, the very idea was absurd.
+There was sure to be some white-capped, silver-haired old lady, whose
+long years had been counted by the venerable pendulum with unerring
+precision, ready to defend the cause of the clock, to vouch for its
+accuracy, and to plead its cause so well and so skillfully, that you
+were ready to hide your face in shame at the thought of having even
+suspected the veracity of so venerable and so honored an institution.
+
+Truth to say, however, these old clocks, to the masses of the people of
+this country, were objects of admiration, and nothing more; for their
+exceeding high price placed them beyond the reach of all save the
+wealthier classes. A good clock cost from seventy-five to one hundred
+and fifty dollars, and the most indifferent article in the market could
+not be obtained for less than twenty-five dollars. At the opening of the
+present century, the demand for them was so small that but three hundred
+and fifty clocks were made in the State of Connecticut, which was then,
+as at present, the one most largely engaged in this branch of American
+industry. To-day the annual manufacture of Connecticut is about six
+hundred thousand clocks of all kinds, which command a wholesale price of
+from fifty cents upward, the greater number bringing the maker less than
+five dollars. Thus the reader will see that, while the business of the
+clock-maker has prospered so extraordinarily, valuable timepieces have
+been brought within the reach of even the poorest.
+
+The man to whom the country is indebted for this wonderful and
+beneficial increase is CHAUNCEY JEROME, who was born at Canaan,
+Connecticut, in 1793. His father was a blacksmith and nail-maker, to
+which trade he added the cultivation of the little farm on which he
+lived; and being poor, it was necessary for him to labor hard in all his
+callings in order to provide his family with a plain subsistence. Young
+Chauncey had little or no time given him for acquiring an education.
+
+He learned to read and write, but went no further; for, when he was but
+a little more than seven years old, and barely able to do the lightest
+kind of labor, he was put to work on the farm to help his father, who
+kept him at this until he was nine, when he took him into his shop. All
+the nails then in use were made by hand, for there were no huge iron
+works in the country to send them out by the ton; and such articles were
+scarce and high. The boy was set to work to make nails, and for two
+years pursued his vocation steadily. He was a manly little fellow, and
+worked at his hammer and anvil with a will, resolved that he would
+become thorough master of his trade; but when he had reached the age of
+eleven, the sudden death of his father made an entire change in his
+career, and threw him upon the world a helpless and penniless orphan.
+
+In order to earn his bread, he hired himself to a farmer, receiving for
+his labor nothing but his "victuals and clothes," the latter being of
+the plainest and scantiest kind. He worked very hard; but his employer
+was cold and indifferent to him at all times, and occasionally used him
+very badly. The boy was naturally of a cheerful disposition, and it did
+him good service now in helping to sustain him in his hard lot. Four
+years were passed in this way, and when he was fifteen years old his
+guardian informed him that he had now reached an age when he must begin
+his apprenticeship to some regular trade.
+
+The boy was very anxious to learn clock-making, and begged his guardian
+to apprentice him to that trade; but the wise individual who controlled
+his affairs replied, sagely, that clock-making was a business in which
+he would starve, as it was already overdone in Connecticut. There was
+one man, he said, engaged in that trade who had been silly enough to
+make two hundred clocks in one year, and he added that it would take the
+foolish man a life-time to sell them, or if they went off quickly, the
+market would be so glutted that no dealer would have need to increase
+his stock for years to come. Clock-making, he informed the boy, had
+already reached the limit of its expansion in Connecticut, and offered
+no opportunities at all. The carpenter's trade, on the other hand, was
+never crowded with good workmen, and always offered the prospect of
+success to any enterprising and competent man. It was the custom then to
+regard boys as little animals, possessed of a capacity for hard work,
+but without any reasoning powers of their own. To the adage that
+"children should be seen and not heard," the good people of that day
+added another clause, in effect, "and should never pretend to think for
+themselves." It was this profound conviction that induced parents and
+guardians, in so many instances, to disregard the wishes of the children
+committed to their care, and to condemn so many to lives for which they
+were utterly unfitted. So it was with the guardian of Chauncey Jerome.
+He listened to the boy's expression of a preference, it is true, but
+paid no attention to it, and ended by apprenticing his ward to a
+carpenter.
+
+The life of an apprentice is always hard, and in those days it was
+especially so. No negro slave ever worked harder, and but few fared
+worse, so far as their bodily comfort was concerned, than the New
+England apprentices of the olden time. Masters seemed almost to regard
+the lads indentured to them as their property, and in return for the
+support they gave them exacted from them the maximum amount of work they
+were capable of performing. They granted them no privileges, allowed
+them no holidays, except those required by the law, and never permitted
+the slightest approach to laziness. Chauncey Jerome's master proved no
+exception to the rule, and when the boy exhibited an unusual proficiency
+and quickness in his trade, the only notice his employer took of it was
+to require more work of him. When only a little over sixteen years old,
+this boy was able to do the work of a full-grown man, and a man's work
+was rigorously exacted of him. When sent to work at a distance from his
+employer's home, he invariably had to make the entire journey on foot,
+with his tools on his back, sometimes being required to go as far as
+thirty miles in one day in this way. His mother was living at some
+distance from the place where his master resided, and whenever he
+visited her, he had to walk all night in order to avoid using his
+master's time, not one hour of which was allowed him.
+
+In 1811, he informed his master that he was willing to undertake to
+clothe himself if he could have the five months of the cold season to
+himself. As this part of the year was always a dull period, and
+apprentices were little more than an expense to their masters, young
+Jerome's employer promptly consented to the proposed arrangement.
+Jerome, now eighteen years old, had never relinquished his old desire to
+become a clock-maker. He had watched the market closely, and questioned
+the persons engaged in the business, and he found that, so far from the
+market being over-stocked, there was a ready sale for every clock made.
+Greatly encouraged by this, he resolved to devote the five months of his
+freedom to learning the business, and to apply himself entirely to it at
+the expiration of his apprenticeship. As soon as he had concluded his
+bargain with his master, he set out for Waterbury on foot, and upon
+arriving there, sought and obtained work from a man who made clock-dials
+for the manufacturers of clocks.
+
+He worked with his new employer awhile, and then formed an arrangement
+with two journeymen clock-makers. Having perfected their plans, the
+three set out for New Jersey in a lumber wagon, carrying their
+provisions with them. The two clock-makers were to make and set up the
+works, and Jerome was to make the cases whenever they should succeed in
+selling a clock on their journey. Clock-making was then considered
+almost perfect. It had been reduced to a regular system, and the cost of
+construction had been very greatly lessened. A good clock, with a case
+seven feet high, could now be made for forty dollars, at which price it
+yielded a fair profit to the maker. The three young men were tolerably
+successful in their venture. Jerome worked fifteen hours a day at
+case-making, and by living economically, managed to carry some money
+with him when he went back to his master's shop in the spring. For the
+remaining three years of his apprenticeship he employed his winters in
+learning the various branches of clock-making, and not only earned
+enough money to clothe himself, but laid by a modest sum besides.
+
+In 1814, being twenty-one years of age and his own master, he set up a
+carpenter shop of his own, being not yet sufficiently master of
+clock-making to undertake that on his own account. In 1815, he married.
+Times were hard. The war with England had just ended, and labor was
+poorly compensated. He is said at this time to have "finished the whole
+interior of a three-story house, including twenty-seven doors and an oak
+floor, nothing being found for him but the timber," for the beggarly sum
+of eighty-seven dollars--a task which no builder would undertake to-day
+for less than a thousand dollars. Still, he declared that, in spite of
+this poor rate of compensation, he was enabled to save enough to make a
+partial payment on a small dwelling for himself. It required a constant
+struggle, however, to live at this rate, and in the winter of 1816,
+being out of work, and having a payment on his house to meet in the
+spring, he determined to go to Baltimore to seek work during the winter.
+He was on the eve of starting, when he learned that Mr. Eli Terry, the
+inventor of the wooden clocks which were so popular fifty years ago, was
+about to open a large factory for them in an adjoining town. He walked
+to the town, and made his application to Mr. Terry, who at once engaged
+him at liberal wages. Mr. Terry's factory was then the largest in the
+country, and, as he used wooden instead of metal works, he was able to
+manufacture his best clocks at fifteen dollars, and other grades in
+proportion. This reduction in price largely increased the sale of his
+clocks, and in a comparatively short time after opening his factory, Mr.
+Terry made and sold about six thousand clocks a year.
+
+Jerome was determined that he would spare no pains to make himself
+master of every detail of clock-making, and applied himself to the
+business with so much intelligence and energy, that by the spring of
+1817 he felt himself competent to undertake their manufacture on his own
+account. He began his operations very cautiously, at first buying the
+works already made, putting them together, and making the cases himself.
+When he had finished two or three, he would carry them about for sale,
+and as his work was well done, he rarely had any difficulty in disposing
+of them. Gradually he increased his business, and in a year or two was
+able to sell every clock he could make, which kept him constantly busy.
+A Southern dealer having seen one of his clocks, was so well pleased
+with it that he gave the maker an order for twelve exactly like it,
+which the latter agreed to furnish at twelve dollars each. It was an
+enormous order to Jerome, and seemed to him almost too good to be real.
+He completed the clocks at the stipulated time, and conveyed them in a
+farmer's wagon to the place where the purchaser had agreed to receive
+them. The money was paid to him in silver, and as the broad pieces were
+counted into his hand, he was almost ready to weep for joy. One hundred
+and forty-four dollars was the largest sum he had ever possessed at one
+time, and it seemed almost a fortune to him. His clocks were taken to
+Charleston, South Carolina, and sold. They gave entire satisfaction; and
+when, some years later, he commenced to ship regular consignments to the
+Southern cities, he found no difficulty in disposing of his wares.
+
+Mr. Jerome's success was now more decided. He was enabled to pay for his
+house in a short time, and having, soon afterward, an opportunity to
+dispose of it at a fair profit, he did so, and took clock-works in
+payment. He bought land and timber, and paid for them in clocks, and his
+affairs prospered so well that, before long, he began to employ workmen
+to assist him, and to dispose of his clocks to peddlers and merchants,
+instead of carrying them around for sale himself. As his business
+increased, he invented and patented labor-saving machinery for the
+manufacture of the various parts of the clock, and thus greatly
+decreased the cost of construction. He designed new and ornamental
+cases, and exerted himself to render the exterior of his clocks as
+tasteful and attractive as possible. His business now increased rapidly,
+and he was soon compelled to take in a partner. He began to ship his
+clocks to the Southern States, sending them by sea. They met with a
+ready sale, but all his ventures of this kind were subject to serious
+risks. The works, being of wood, would frequently become damp and
+swollen on the voyage, thus rendering them unfit for use. Mr. Jerome
+endeavored in various ways to remedy this defect, but was finally
+compelled to admit that, until he could change the nature of the wood,
+he could not prevent it from being influenced by moisture.
+
+He passed many sleepless nights while engaged in seeking this remedy,
+for he plainly foresaw that unless the defect could be removed, the days
+of the wooden clock business were numbered.
+
+In the midst of his depression, the idea occurred to him, one night
+while lying awake, that the works of a clock could be manufactured as
+cheaply of brass as of wood. The thought came to him with the force of a
+revelation. He sprang out of bed, lit his candle, and passed the rest of
+the night in making calculations which proved to him that he could not
+only make brass works as cheaply as wooden ones, but, by the employment
+of certain labor-saving machinery, at a cost decidedly less. There was
+one important obstacle in his way, however. The machinery requisite for
+cutting brass works cheaply was not in existence. Before making known
+his plans, Mr. Jerome set to work to invent the clock-making machinery
+which has made him famous among American inventors. When he had
+completed it, he commenced to make brass clocks, which he sold at such a
+low price that wooden clocks were speedily driven out of the market.
+Little by little, he brought his machinery to perfection, applying it to
+the manufacture of all parts of the clock; and to-day, thanks to his
+patience and genius, clock-making in the United States has become a very
+simple affair. By the aid of Jerome's machinery, one man and one boy can
+saw veneers enough for three hundred clock cases in a single day. By the
+aid of this same machinery, six men can manufacture the works of one
+thousand clocks in a day; and a factory employing twenty-five workmen
+can turn out two thousand clocks per week. By the aid of this same
+machinery, the total cost of producing a good clock of small size has
+been brought down to forty cents.
+
+As the reader will suppose, Jerome made a large fortune--a princely
+fortune--for himself, and entirely revolutionized the clock-making trade
+of the Union. Thanks to him, scores of fortunes have been made by other
+manufacturers also, and American clocks have become famous all over the
+world for their excellence and cheapness. "Go where you will, in
+Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, you will be sure to come upon Yankee
+clocks. To England they go by the shipload. Germany, France, Russia,
+Spain, Italy, all take large quantities. Many have been sent to China
+and to the East Indies. At Jerusalem, Connecticut clocks tick on many a
+shelf, and travelers have found them far up the Nile, in Guinea, at the
+Cape of Good Hope, and in all the accessible places of South America."
+
+After conducting his business for some years, Mr. Jerome organized the
+Jerome Clock-Making Company, of New Haven. It began its operations with
+a large capital, and conducted them upon an extensive scale. In a few
+years Mr. Jerome retired from the active management of its affairs, but
+continued nominally at its head as its president. He built for himself
+an elegant mansion in New Haven, where he gathered about him his family
+and the friends which his sterling qualities and upright character had
+drawn to him, and here he hoped to pass the remainder of his days.
+
+He was doomed to a bitter disappointment. Although nominally at the head
+of the Clock Company, he left its control entirely to his partners, who,
+by injudicious management, brought it at length to the verge of
+bankruptcy. They made energetic efforts to ward off the final
+catastrophe, but without success, and in 1860, almost before Mr. Jerome
+was aware of the full extent of the trouble, the Company was ruined. Its
+liabilities were heavy, and every dollar's worth of Jerome's property
+was taken to meet them. Honest to the core, he gave up every thing. His
+elegant mansion was sold, and he was forced to remove to an humble
+cottage, a poorer man than when he had first set up for himself as a
+carpenter.
+
+He was not the man to repine, however, and he at once began to look
+about him for employment. He was sixty-seven years old, and it was hard
+to go out into the world to earn his bread again, but he bore his
+misfortunes bravely, and soon succeeded in obtaining the employment he
+desired. The great Clock Company of Chicago engaged him at a liberal
+salary to superintend their manufactory in that city, which position he
+still holds. The Company manufacture his own clocks, and are fortunate
+in having the benefit of his genius and experience. Were he a younger
+man, there can be no doubt that he would win a second fortune equal to
+that which was swept from him so cruelly, through no fault of his own.
+As it is, we can only venture to hope that his sturdy independence and
+indomitable energy will provide him with the means of passing the
+closing years of his life in comfort. Few men have done the world better
+service, or been more worthy of its rewards.
+
+[Illustration: ELIAS HOWE, JR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ELIAS HOWE, JR.
+
+
+One of the busiest parts of the busy thoroughfare of Broadway, in the
+city of New York, is the point of its intersection with Fourth Street.
+Thousands and tens of thousands of people pass and repass there daily,
+but few ever pause to look at the curious machine which stands in the
+window of the shop at the north-west corner of these two streets. This
+machine, clumsy and odd-looking as it is, nevertheless has a history
+which makes it one of the most interesting of all the sights of the
+great city. It is the first sewing-machine that was ever made.
+
+ELIAS HOWE, its maker, was born in the town of Spencer, Massachusetts,
+in 1819. He was one of eight children, and it was no small undertaking
+on the part of his father to provide a maintenance for such a household.
+Mr. Howe, Sen., was a farmer and miller, and, as was the custom at that
+time in the country towns of New England, carried on in his family some
+of those minor branches of industry suited to the capacity of children,
+with which New England abounds. When Elias was six years old, he was
+set, with his brothers and sisters, to sticking wire teeth through the
+leather straps used for making cotton cards. When he became old enough
+he assisted his father in his saw-mill and grist-mill, and during the
+winter months picked up a meager education at the district school. He
+has said that it was the rude and imperfect mills of his father that
+first turned his attention to machinery. He was not fitted for hard
+work, however, as he was frail in constitution and incapable of bearing
+much fatigue. Moreover, he inherited a species of lameness which proved
+a great obstacle to any undertaking on his part, and gave him no little
+trouble all through life. At the age of eleven he went to live out on
+the farm of a neighbor, but the labor proving too severe for him, he
+returned home and resumed his place in his father's mills, where he
+remained until he was sixteen years old.
+
+When at this age, he conceived an ardent desire to go to Lowell to seek
+his fortune. One of his friends had just returned from that place, and
+had given him such a wonderful description of the city and its huge
+mills, that he was eager to go there and see the marvel for himself.
+Obtaining his father's consent, he went to Lowell, and found employment
+as a learner in one of the large cotton-mills of the city. He remained
+there two years, when the great financial disaster of 1837 threw him out
+of employment and compelled him to look for work elsewhere. He obtained
+a place at Cambridge, in a machine-shop, and was put to work upon the
+new hemp-carding machinery of Professor Treadwell. His cousin, Nathaniel
+P. Banks, afterward governor of Massachusetts, member of Congress, and
+major-general, worked in the same shop with him, and boarded at the same
+house. Howe remained in Cambridge only a few months, however, and was
+then given a place in the machine-shop of Ari Davis, of Boston.
+
+At the age of twenty-one he married. This was a rash step for him, as
+his health was very delicate, and his earnings were but nine dollars per
+week. Three children were born to him in quick succession, and he found
+it no easy task to provide food, shelter, and clothing for his little
+family. The light-heartedness for which he had formerly been noted
+entirely deserted him, and he became sad and melancholy. His health did
+not improve, and it was with difficulty that he could perform his daily
+task. His strength was so slight that he would frequently return home
+from his day's work too much exhausted to eat. He could only go to bed,
+and in his agony he wished "to lie in bed forever and ever." Still he
+worked faithfully and conscientiously, for his wife and children were
+very dear to him; but he did so with a hopelessness which only those who
+have tasted the depths of poverty can understand.
+
+[Illustration: HOWE'S FIRST IDEA OF THE SEWING-MACHINE.]
+
+About this time he heard it said that the great necessity of the age was
+a machine for doing sewing. The immense amount of fatigue incurred and
+the delay in hand-sewing were obvious, and it was conceded by all who
+thought of the matter at all that the man who could invent a machine
+which would remove these difficulties would make a fortune. Howe's
+poverty inclined him to listen to these remarks with great interest. No
+man needed money more than he, and he was confident that his mechanical
+skill was of an order which made him as competent as any one else to
+achieve the task proposed. He set to work to accomplish it, and, as he
+knew well the dangers which surround an inventor, kept his own counsel.
+At his daily labor, in all his waking hours, and even in his dreams, he
+brooded over this invention. He spent many a wakeful night in these
+meditations, and his health was far from being benefited by this severe
+mental application. Success is not easily won in any great undertaking,
+and Elias Howe found that he had entered upon a task which required the
+greatest patience, perseverance, energy, and hopefulness. He watched his
+wife as she sewed, and his first effort was to devise a machine which
+should do what she was doing. He made a needle pointed at both ends,
+with the eye in the middle, that should work up and down through the
+cloth, and carry the thread through at each thrust; but his elaboration
+of this conception would not work satisfactorily. It was not until 1844,
+fully a year after he began the attempt to invent the machine, that he
+came to the conclusion that the movement of a machine need not of
+necessity be an imitation of the performance of the hand. It was plain
+to him that there must be another stitch, and that if he could discover
+it his difficulties would all be ended. A little later he conceived the
+idea of using two threads, and forming a stitch by the aid of a shuttle
+and a curved needle with the eye near the point. This was the triumph of
+his skill. He had now invented a perfect sewing-machine, and had
+discovered the essential principles of every subsequent modification of
+his conception. Satisfied that he had at length solved the problem, he
+constructed a rough model of his machine of wood and wire, in October,
+1844, and operated it to his perfect satisfaction. His invention is
+thus described:
+
+"He used a needle and a shuttle of novel construction, and combined them
+with holding surfaces, feed mechanism and other devices, as they had
+never before been brought together, in one machine One of the principal
+features of Mr. Howe's invention is the combination of a grooved needle,
+having an eye near its point, and vibrating in the direction of its
+length, with a side-pointed shuttle for effecting a locked stitch, and
+forming, with the threads, one on each side of the cloth, a firm and
+lasting seam not easily ripped. The main action of the machine consists
+in the interlocking of the loop, made by the thread carried in the point
+of the needle through the cloth, with another thread passed through this
+loop by means of a shuttle entering and leaving it at every stitch. The
+thread attached to this shuttle remains in the loop and secures the
+stitch as the needle is withdrawn to be ready to make the next one. At
+the same time the cloth, held by little projecting pins to the baster
+plate, is carried along with this by what is called the 'feed motion'
+just the length of a stitch, the distance being readily adjusted for
+finer or coarser work. .... The cloth is held in a vertical position in
+the machine, and the part to be sewed is pressed against the side of the
+shuttle-race by a presser plate hinged on its upper edge, and capable of
+exerting any required pressure on the cloth, according as the adjusting
+screw that regulates it is turned. A slot, or perforation through the
+plate, also extended through the side of the shuttle-race near the
+bottom, admits the passage of the needle; and when this is pushed in the
+shuttle can still pass freely over it. The shuttle is pushed one way and
+then the other through its race or trough by picker staves. The thread
+for the needle is supplied by a bobbin, the movement of which is
+checked by a friction band, this securing the proper tension, and the
+slack of the thread is duly taken up by a suitable contrivance for the
+purpose. Thus, all the essential features of the most approved
+sewing-machine were first found in that of Mr. Howe; and the machines of
+later date are, in fact, but modifications of it."
+
+At this time, he had abandoned his work as a journeyman mechanic, and
+had removed to his father's house. Mr. Howe, Sen., had established in
+Cambridge a machine-shop for the cutting of strips of palm-leaf used in
+the manufacture of hats. Elias and his family lived under his father's
+roof, and in the garret of the house the half-sick inventor put up a
+lathe, where he did a little work on his own account, and labored on his
+sewing-machine. He was miserably poor, and could scarcely earn enough to
+provide food for his family; and, to make matters worse, his father, who
+was disposed to help him, lost his shop and its contents by fire. Poor
+Elias was in a most deplorable condition. He had his model in his head,
+and was fully satisfied of its excellence, but he had not the money to
+buy the materials needed in making a perfect machine, which would have
+to be constructed of steel and iron, and without which he could not hope
+to convince others of its value. His great invention was useless to him
+without the five hundred dollars which he needed in the construction of
+a working model.
+
+In this dilemma, he applied to a friend, Mr. George Fisher, a coal and
+wood merchant of Cambridge, who was a man of some means. He explained
+his invention to him, and succeeded in forming a partnership with him.
+Fisher agreed to take Howe and his family to board with him while the
+latter was making the machine, to allow his garret to be used as a
+workshop, and to advance the five hundred dollars necessary for the
+purchase of tools and the construction of a model. In return for this he
+was to receive one-half of the patent, if Howe succeeded in patenting
+his machine. About the first of December, 1844, Howe and his family
+accordingly moved into Fisher's house, and the little workshop was set
+up in the garret. All that winter he worked on his model. There was
+little to delay him in its construction, as the conception was perfectly
+clear in his mind. He worked all day, and sometimes nearly all night,
+and in April, 1845, had his machine so far advanced that he sewed a seam
+with it. By the middle of May the machine was completed, and in July he
+sewed with it the seams of two woolen suits, one for himself and the
+other for Mr. Fisher. The sewing was so well done that it outlasted the
+cloth.
+
+It has been stated by Professor Renwick and other scientific men that
+Elias Howe "carried the invention of the sewing-machine further on
+toward its complete and final utility than any other inventor has ever
+brought a first-rate invention at the first trial." Those who doubt this
+assertion should examine the curious machine at the corner of Broadway
+and Fourth Street, and their doubts will be dispelled; for they will
+find in it all the essentials of the best sewing-machine of to-day.
+
+Having patented his machine, Howe endeavored to bring it into use. He
+was full of hope, and had no doubt that it would be adopted at once by
+those who were so much interested in the saving of labor. He first
+offered it to the tailors of Boston; but they, while admitting its
+usefulness, told him it would never be adopted by their trade, as it
+would ruin them. Considering the number of machines now used by the
+tailoring interest throughout the world, this assertion seems
+ridiculous. Other efforts were equally unsuccessful. Every one admitted
+and praised the ingenuity of the machine but no one would invest a
+dollar in it. Fisher became disgusted, and withdrew from his
+partnership, and Howe and his family moved back to his father's house.
+Thoroughly disheartened, he abandoned his machine. He then obtained a
+place as engineer on a railroad, and drove a locomotive until his health
+entirely broke down.
+
+With the loss of his health his hopes revived, and he determined to seek
+in England the victory which he had failed to win here. Unable to go
+himself, he sent his machine by his brother Amasa, in October, 1846.
+Upon reaching London, Amasa sought out Mr. William Thomas, of Cheapside,
+and explained to him his brother's invention. He found Mr. Thomas
+willing to use the machine in his business, but upon terms more
+favorable to himself than to the inventor. He offered the sum of twelve
+hundred and fifty dollars for the machine which Amasa Howe had brought
+with him, and agreed to pay Elias fifteen dollars per week if he would
+enter his service, and adapt the machine to his business of umbrella and
+corset making. As this was his only hope of earning a livelihood, Elias
+accepted the offer, and, upon his brother's return to the United States,
+sailed for England. He remained in Mr. Thomas's employ for about eight
+months, and at the end of that time left him, having found him hard,
+exacting, and unreasonable.
+
+Meanwhile his sick wife and three children had joined him in London, and
+he had found it hard to provide for them on the wages given him by Mr.
+Thomas; but after being thrown out of employment his condition was
+desperate indeed. He was in a strange country, without friends or money,
+and often he and his little family went whole days without food. Their
+sufferings were very great, but at length Howe was able (probably by
+assistance from home) to send his family back to his father's house. He
+himself remained in London, still hoping to bring his machine into use.
+It was in vain, however, and so, collecting what few household goods he
+had acquired in England, he shipped them to America, and followed them
+thither himself in another vessel, pawning his model and patent papers
+to pay his passage. When he landed in New York he had half a crown in
+his pocket, and there came to him on the same day a letter telling him
+that his wife was dying with consumption in Cambridge. He could not go
+to her at once, as he had no money, and was too feeble to undertake the
+distance on foot. He was compelled to wait several days until he could
+obtain the money for his fare to Cambridge, but at length succeeded in
+reaching that place just in time to see his wife die. In the midst of
+his grief he received the announcement that the vessel containing the
+few household goods which he had shipped from England had been lost at
+sea. It seemed to him that Fate was bent upon destroying him, so rapid
+and stunning were the blows she dealt him.
+
+But a great success was now in store for him, and he was to rise out of
+his troubles to the realization of his brightest hopes. Soon after his
+return home he obtained profitable employment, and, better still,
+discovered that his machine had become famous during his absence.
+Facsimiles of it had been constructed by unscrupulous mechanics, who
+paid no attention to the patents of the^inventor, and these copies had
+been exhibited in many places as "wonders," and had even been adopted in
+many important branches of manufacture. Howe at once set to work to
+defend his rights. He found friends to aid him, and in August, 1850,
+began those famous suits which continued for four years, and were at
+length decided in his favor. His adversaries made a bold resistance, but
+the decision of Judge Sprague, in 1854, settled the matter, and
+triumphantly established the rights of the inventor.
+
+In 1850, Howe removed to New York, and began in a small way to
+manufacture machines to order. He was in partnership with a Mr. Bliss,
+but for several years the business was so unimportant that upon the
+death of his partner, in 1855, he was enabled to buy out that
+gentleman's interest, and thus become the sole proprietor of his patent.
+Soon after this his business began to increase, and continued until his
+own proper profits and the royalty which the courts compelled other
+manufacturers to pay him for the use of his invention grew from $300 to
+$200,000 per annum. In 1867, when the extension of his patent expired,
+it is stated that he had earned a total of two millions of dollars by
+it. It cost him large sums to defend his rights, however, and he was
+very far from being as wealthy as was commonly supposed, although a very
+rich man.
+
+In the Paris Exposition of 1867, he exhibited his machines, and received
+the gold medal of the Exposition, and the Cross of the Legion of Honor,
+in addition, as a compliment to him as a manufacturer and inventor.
+
+He contributed money liberally to the aid of the Union in the late war,
+and enlisted as a private soldier in the Seventeenth Regiment of
+Connecticut Volunteers, with which command he went to the field,
+performing all the duties of his position until failing health compelled
+him to leave the service. Upon one occasion the Government was so much
+embarrassed that it could not pay the regiment of which he was a member.
+Mr. Howe promptly advanced the money, and his comrades were saved from
+the annoyances which would have attended the delay in paying them. He
+died at Brooklyn, Long Island, on the 3d of October, 1867.
+
+Mr. Howe will always rank among the most distinguished of American
+inventors; not only because of the unusual degree of completeness shown
+in his first conception of the sewing-machine, but because of the great
+benefits which have sprung from it. It has revolutionized the industry
+of the world, opened new sources of wealth to enterprise, and lightened
+the labor of hundreds of thousands of working people. Many a pale-faced,
+hollow-eyed woman, who formerly sat sewing her life away for a mere
+pittance, blesses the name of Elias Howe, and there is scarcely a
+community in the civilized world but contains the evidence of his
+genius, and honors him as the benefactor of the human race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+RICHARD M. HOE.
+
+
+To write the complete history of the printing press would require years
+of patient labor and research, and a much larger space than the limits
+of the present work will permit. There are few subjects more attractive
+or more worthy of consideration than the history of this wonderful
+invention, which seems more like a romance than a narration of facts.
+The historian who should essay the task would be required to carry his
+reader back to the darkest ages of the world, and, beginning with the
+stamps used for affixing hieroglyphical characters to the now crumbling
+ruins of Egypt and Nineveh, trace the gradual development of the
+beneficent conception from the signets of the Israelites, and the stamps
+used by the Romans for marking certain kinds of merchandise, through the
+rude process of the Chinese, Japanese, and Tartars, to the invention of
+Johannes Guttenberg, and, finally, to the wonderful lightning
+steam-presses of to-day.
+
+In these pages it is not proposed to offer to the reader any such
+narrative. On the contrary, the story of the printing press will be
+taken up just as it was on the point of reaching its greatest
+perfection, since our subject concerns only the man who brought it to
+that state.
+
+This man, RICHARD MARCH HOE by name, was born in the city of New York,
+on the 12th of September, 1812. His father, Robert Hoe, was a native of
+the village of Hose, Leicester, England, and the son of a wealthy
+farmer. Disliking his father's pursuit, he apprenticed himself to a
+carpenter. When only sixteen years old, the elder Hoe purchased his
+indentures from his master and sailed for the United States. He was
+almost penniless when he reached New York, and in this condition entered
+the store of Mr. Grant Thorburn one day in search of employment. Mr.
+Thorburn manifested a sudden and strong liking to the youth, took him to
+his own house, and when he was prostrated with the yellow fever, during
+the epidemic of 1804, nursed him tenderly throughout. Setting to work
+immediately upon his arrival in New York, he made friends rapidly, and
+prospered in his trade so well that when but twenty years old he was
+able to marry. His bride was a daughter of Matthew Smith, of
+Westchester, and a sister of Peter Smith, the inventor of the hand
+printing press, which bears his name. With this gentleman and Matthew
+Smith, jr., his brother, Robert Hoe entered into partnership. Their
+business was that of carpentering and printers' joinery; but after Peter
+Smith had completed the invention of his hand press, it gradually grew
+into the manufacture of presses and printers' materials. Both of the
+brothers died in 1823, and Robert Hoe succeeded to the entire business.
+
+The manufactory of "Robert Hoe & Co." was originally located in the
+centre of the old block between Pearl and William Streets, and Pine
+Street and Maiden Lane. Soon after their establishment there, the city
+authorities ran Cedar Street right through their building, and they
+removed to Gold Street, near John. They have been twice burned out here,
+but still occupy these premises with their counting-room and lower shop.
+
+Printing by steam had long attracted the attention of persons engaged
+in the art, and many essays had been made in this direction by different
+inventors, both in this country and in Europe. The most successful
+results were the Adams press, the invention of Mr. Isaac Adams, of
+Boston, Mass., and the Napier press, that of a British artisan. It was
+the latter which was the means of identifying Mr. Hoe with the steam
+press.
+
+The Napier press was introduced into this country in 1830, by the
+proprietors of the _National Intelligencer_, but when it arrived, these
+gentlemen were not able to release it from the Custom-house. Major Noah,
+himself the proprietor of a newspaper, was at that time Collector of the
+port of New York, and he, being anxious to see the press in operation,
+requested Mr. Hoe to put it together. Mr. Hoe performed this task
+successfully, although the press was a novelty to him, and was permitted
+to take models of its various parts before it was reshipped to England.
+It was found to be a better press than any that had ever been seen in
+this country, and the _Commercial Advertiser,_ of New York, and the
+_Chronicle_, of Philadelphia, at once ordered duplicates of it from
+England.
+
+Mr. Hoe was very much pleased with this press, but believed that he
+could construct a much better one. "To this end he despatched his new
+partner, Mr. Sereno Newton, to England to examine all the improvements
+in machinery there, and bring home samples of such as he thought might
+be advantageously adopted in this country. Mr. Newton, besides being an
+ingenious mechanic, was well-read in books, and was considered one of
+the first mathematicians in New York. Returning from his mission, he
+constructed a new two-cylinder press, which soon superseded all others
+then in use." Mr. Hoe's health failed, compelling him, in 1832, to
+retire from the business.
+
+Young Richard M. Hoe had been brought up in his father's business,
+after receiving a fair education. He inherited his father's inventive
+genius, combined with a rare business capacity, and from the first was
+regarded as the future hope of the establishment. Upon the withdrawal of
+his father, a partnership was established between himself, his brother
+Robert, Mr. Newton, and his cousin Matthew Smith, but the style of the
+firm remained unchanged.
+
+Richard Hoe's first invention was conceived in 1837, and consisted of a
+valuable improvement in the manufacture of grinding saws. Having
+obtained a patent for it in the United States, he visited England in
+that year for the same purpose. By his process circular saws may be
+ground with accuracy to any desired thickness. He readily obtained a
+patent in England, as the excellence of his invention commended it to
+every one. While there he gave especial attention to the improvements
+which had been made in the printing press, in the manufacture of which
+his firm was still largely engaged. Returning to New York, he devoted
+himself entirely to this branch of his business, and soon produced the
+machine known as "Hoe's Double-Cylinder Press," which was capable of
+making about six thousand impressions per hour. The first press of this
+kind ever made was ordered by the New York _Sun_, and was the admiration
+of all the printers of the city. This style of press is now used
+extensively for printing country newspapers.
+
+As long as the newspaper interest of the country stood still, "Hoe's
+Double-Cylinder Press" was amply sufficient for its wants, but as the
+circulation of the journals of the large cities began to increase, the
+"double-cylinder" was often taxed far beyond its powers. A printing
+press capable of striking off papers with much greater rapidity was felt
+to be an imperative and still-increasing need. It was often necessary
+to hold the forms back until nearly daylight for the purpose of issuing
+the latest news, and in the hurry which ensued to get out the morning
+edition, the press very frequently met with accidents.
+
+Mr. Hoe was fully alive to the importance of improving his press, and,
+in 1842, he began to experiment with it for the purpose of obtaining
+greater speed. It was a serious undertaking, however, and at every step
+fresh difficulties arose. He spent four years in experimenting, and at
+the end of that time was almost ready to confess that the obstacles were
+too great to be overcome. One night, in. 1846, while in this mood, he
+resumed his experiments. The more he pondered over the subject the more
+difficult it seemed. In despair, he was about to relinquish the effort
+for the night, when suddenly there flashed across his mind a plan for
+securing the type on a horizontal cylinder. This had been his great
+difficulty, and he now felt that he had mastered it. He sat up all
+night, working out his design, and making a note of every idea that
+occurred to him, in order that nothing should escape him. By morning the
+problem which had baffled him so long had been solved, and the
+magnificent "Lightning Press" already had a being in the inventor's
+fertile brain.
+
+He carried his model rapidly to perfection, and, proceeding with it to
+Washington, obtained a patent. On his return home he met Mr. Swain, the
+proprietor of the Baltimore _Sun_ and Philadelphia _Ledger_, and
+explained his invention to him. Mr. Swain was so much pleased with it
+that he at once ordered a four-cylinder press, which was completed and
+ready for use on the 31st of December, 1848. This press was capable of
+making ten thousand impressions per hour, and did its work with entire
+satisfaction in every respect.
+
+This was a success absolutely unprecedented--so marked, in fact, that
+some persons were inclined to doubt it. The news flew rapidly from city
+to city, and across the ocean to foreign lands, and soon wherever a
+newspaper was printed men were talking of Hoe's wonderful invention.
+Orders came pouring in upon the inventor with such rapidity that he soon
+had as many on hand as he could fill in several years. In a
+comparatively brief period the _Herald_, _Tribune_, and _Sun_, of New
+York, were boasting of their "Lightning Presses," and soon the
+_Traveller_ and _Daily Journal_, in Boston, followed their example. Mr.
+Hoe was now not only a famous man, but possessed of an assured business
+for the future, which was certain to result in a large fortune. By the
+year 1860, besides supplying the principal cities of the Union (fifteen
+lightning presses being used in the city of New York alone), he had
+shipped eighteen presses to Great Britain, four to France, and one to
+Australia. Two of the presses sent to England were ordered for the
+London _Times_.
+
+Mr. Hoe continued to improve his invention, adding additional cylinders
+as increased, speed was desired, and at length brought it to the degree
+of perfection exhibited in the splendid ten-cylinder press now in use in
+the offices of our leading journals, which strikes off twenty-five
+thousand sheets per hour. Whether more will be accomplished with this
+wonderful machine the future alone can determine, but the inventor is
+said to be still laboring to improve it.
+
+In 1858, Mr. Hoe purchased the patent rights and manufactory of Isaac
+Adams, in Boston, and since then has carried on the manufacture of the
+Adams press from that place. He has also established a manufactory in
+England, where he conducts a profitable business in both the Adams and
+the Hoe press. Over a million and a half of dollars are invested in
+these establishments in New York, Boston, and London, in land,
+buildings, and stock. The firm manufacture presses of all kinds, and
+all materials used by printers except type and ink. They also
+manufacture circular saws, made according to Mr. Hoe's process.
+
+Mr. Hoe, now fifty-eight years of age, is still as vigorous and active
+as many a younger man. Besides being one of the most prominent and
+distinguished inventors and manufacturers in the country, he is justly
+esteemed for his many virtues and his commanding business talents. He is
+still the active head of the house which he has carried to such a
+brilliant success, and is the possessor of an ample fortune, which his
+genius and industry have secured to him. He is courteous and obliging to
+all, and very liberal to those whose needs commend them to his
+benevolence.
+
+The ten-cylinder press costs fifty thousand dollars, and is regarded as
+cheap at that immense sum. It is one of the most interesting inventions
+ever made. Those who have seen it working in the subterranean
+press-rooms of the journals of the great metropolis will not soon forget
+the wonderful sight. The ear is deafened with the incessant clashing of
+the machinery; the printed sheets issue from the sides of the huge
+engine in an unceasing stream; the eye is bewildered with the mass of
+lines and bands; and it seems hard to realize that one single mind could
+ever have adjusted all the various parts to work harmoniously.
+
+The following is a description of the ten-cylinder steam printing-press
+now used in the office of the New York _World_. It is one of the best
+specimens of its kind to be seen in the great city:
+
+The dimensions of the press are as follows: Entire length, 40 feet;
+width, 15 feet; height, 16 feet. The large horizontal cylinder in the
+center is about 4-1/2 feet in diameter, and on it are placed the "forms" of
+type for the four pages of one side of the paper. Each of these
+constitutes a segment of a circle, and the whole four occupy a segment
+of only about one-fourth of the surface of the cylinder, the other
+three-fourths being used as an ink-distributing surface. Around this
+main cylinder, and parallel with it, are ten smaller impression
+cylinders, according to the number of which a press is termed a four,
+six, or ten-cylinder press. The large cylinder being set in revolution,
+the form of types is carried successively to all the impression
+cylinders, at each of which a sheet is introduced and receives the
+impression of the types as the form passes. Thus as many sheets are
+printed at each revolution of the main cylinder as there are impression
+cylinders around it. One person is required at each impression cylinder
+to supply the sheets of paper, which are taken at the proper moment by
+fingers or grippers, and after being printed are conveyed out by tapes
+and laid in heaps by means of self-acting flyers, thereby dispensing
+with the hands required in ordinary machines to receive and pile the
+sheets. The grippers hold the sheet securely, so that the thinnest
+newspaper can be printed without waste.
+
+The ink is contained in a fountain placed beneath the main cylinder, and
+is conveyed by means of distributing rollers to the distributing surface
+on the main cylinder. This surface being lower or less in diameter than
+the form of types, passes by the impression cylinders without touching
+them. For each impression there are two inking rollers, which receive
+their supply of ink from the distributing surface of the main cylinder,
+and raise and ink the form as it passes under them, after which they
+again fall to the distributing surface.
+
+Each page of the paper is locked up on a detached segment of the large
+cylinder, called by the compositors a "turtle," and this constitutes its
+bed and chase. The column-rules run parallel with the shaft of the
+cylinder, and are consequently straight, while the head, advertising,
+and dash-rules are in the form of segments of a circle. The column-rules
+are in the form of a wedge, with the thin part directed toward the axis
+of the cylinder, so as to bind the type securely, and at the same time
+to keep the ink from collecting between the types and the rules. They
+are held down to the bed by tongues projecting at intervals along their
+length, which slide into rebated grooves, cut crosswise in the face of
+the bed. The spaces in the grooves between the column-rules are
+accurately fitted with sliding blocks of metal even with the surface of
+the bed, the ends of the blocks being cut away underneath to receive a
+projection on the sides of the tongues of the column-rules. The form of
+type is locked up in the bed by means of screws at the foot and sides,
+by which the type is held as securely as in the ordinary manner upon a
+flat bed, if not even more so. The speed of the machine is limited only
+by the ability of the feeders to supply the sheets. Twenty-five hundred
+is about as many as a man can supply in an hour, and multiplying this by
+ten--one man being at each cylinder--we have 25,000 sheets an hour as
+the capacity of the press.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+SAMUEL COLT.
+
+
+Samuel Colt was born at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 19th of July,
+1814. He was descended from one of the original settlers of that city,
+and his father, who possessed some means, was a man of great energy,
+intelligence, and enterprise. The senior Colt began life as a merchant,
+and afterward became a manufacturer of woolen, cotton, and silk goods.
+The mother of our hero was the daughter of Major John Caldwell, a
+prominent banker of Hartford, and is said to have been a woman of
+superior character and fine mental attainments.
+
+It was within the power of the parents of Samuel Colt to give him a
+thorough education, and this they were anxious to do; but he was always
+so full of restless energy that he greatly preferred working in the
+factory to going to school. He loved to be where he could hear the busy
+looms at work, and see the play of the intricate machinery in the great
+building. In order to gratify him, his father placed him in his factory
+at the age of ten years, and there he remained for about three years,
+leaving it only at rare intervals and for short periods of time, which
+he passed in attendance upon school and working on a farm. When he was
+thirteen his father declared that he would not permit him to grow up
+without an education, and sent him to a boarding-school at Amherst,
+Massachusetts. He did not remain there long, for the spirit of adventure
+came over him with such force that he could not resist it. He ran away
+from school and shipped as a boy before the mast on a vessel bound for
+the East Indies. The ship was called the Coroo, and was commanded by
+Captain Spaulding.
+
+[Illustration: THE BOY COLT INVENTING THE REVOLVER.]
+
+The voyage was long, and the lad was subjected to great hardships, which
+soon convinced him that running away to sea was not as romantic in real
+life as in the books he had read, but his experience, though
+uncomfortable enough, failed to conquer his restless spirit. While at
+sea in the Coroo he had an abundance of leisure time for reflection, but
+instead of devoting it to meditating upon the folly of his course, he
+spent it in inventing a revolving pistol, a rough model of which he cut
+in wood with his jack-knife. This was the germ of the invention which
+afterward gave him such fame, and it is not a little singular that the
+conception of such a weapon should have come to a boy of fourteen.
+
+Returning home, he became an apprentice in his father's factory at
+Ware, Massachusetts. He was put into the dyeing and bleaching
+department, and was thoroughly trained in it by Mr. William T. Smith, a
+scientific man, and one of the best practical chemists in New England.
+Young Holt manifested a remarkable aptitude for chemistry, and when but
+a mere boy was known as one of the most successful and dexterous
+manipulators in New England.
+
+When he had reached his eighteenth year, the old spirit of restlessness
+came over him again, and he embarked in an unusually bold undertaking
+for one so young, in which, however, he was much favored by the
+circumstance that he was very much older in appearance than in reality,
+commonly passing for a full-grown man. Assuming the name of Dr. Coult,
+he traveled throughout the Union and British America, visiting nearly
+every town of two thousand inhabitants and over, lecturing upon
+chemistry, and illustrating his lectures with a series of skillful and
+highly popular experiments. His tour was entirely successful, and he
+realized in the two years over which it extended quite a handsome sum.
+The use which he made of the money thus acquired was characteristic of
+the man.
+
+He had never abandoned the design of a revolving pistol which he had
+conceived on board the Coroo, and he now set to work to perfect it,
+using the proceeds of his lectures to enable him to take out patents in
+this country and in Europe. He spent two years in working on his model,
+making improvements in it at every step, and by 1835 had brought it to
+such a state of excellence that he was enabled to apply for a patent in
+the United States. His application was successful. Before it was
+decided, however, he visited England and France, and patented his
+invention in those countries. Though now only twenty-one years old, he
+had given seven years of study and labor to his "revolver," and had
+brought it to a state of perfection which was far in advance of his
+early hopes.
+
+"At this time, and, indeed, for several years after, he was not aware
+that any person before himself had ever conceived the idea of a fire-arm
+with a rotating chambered breech. On a subsequent visit to Europe, while
+exploring the collection of fire-arms in the Tower of London and other
+repositories of weapons of war in England and on the continent, he found
+several guns having the chambered breech, but all were so constructed as
+to be of little practical value, being far more liable to explode
+prematurely and destroy the man who should use them than the objects at
+which they might be aimed. Unwilling, however, to seem to claim that
+which had been previously invented, he read before the Institution of
+Civil Engineers in England (of which he was the only American
+associate), in 1851, an elaborate paper on the subject, in which he
+described and illustrated, with appropriate drawings, the various early
+inventions of revolving fire-arms, and demonstrated the principles on
+which his were constructed."
+
+Having secured patents in the United States and in the principal
+countries of Europe, Mr. Colt exerted himself to organize a company for
+the manufacture of his revolver. He met with considerable opposition,
+for it was commonly asserted that his pistol would never be of any
+practical value. The wise ones said it was too complicated for general
+use, and that its adoption would be attended by the killing or maiming
+of the majority of those who used it. The inventor disregarded these
+birds of ill omen, however, and, persevering in his efforts, finally
+succeeded in securing the aid of some capitalists in New York. A company
+was formed in 1835, called the "Patent Arms Company," with a capital of
+$300,000, and an armory was established at Paterson, New Jersey. Mr.
+Colt then endeavored to induce the Government of the United States to
+adopt the arm in the military and naval service. Strange as it now
+seems, however, the officers of the army and navy were not disposed to
+regard the revolver with favor. They declared that the percussion cap
+was entirely unreliable, and that no weapon requiring it could be
+depended on with certainty; that there was great danger that two or more
+of the charges would explode at the same time; and that the arm was
+liable to get out of order very easily. They further protested that it
+was much more difficult to repair than the arms then in use, and that
+this alone rendered it unfit for adoption by the Government.
+Notwithstanding these objections were fully met by Mr. Colt, who
+explained carefully the principles of his weapon, it was two years
+before the Government consented to give the revolver a trial.
+
+In 1837, the Florida war raged with great violence, and the Seminoles,
+secure in their fastnesses in the Everglades, were enabled to bid
+defiance to all the efforts of the army of the United States. Their
+superior skill in the use of the rifle gave them an advantage which the
+bravery and determination of our troops could not overcome. In this
+emergency, the Government consented to make a trial of Colt's revolver.
+A regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey was armed with this weapon,
+and its success was so marked from the first that the Government
+promptly gave an order for more, and ended by making it the principal
+arm of the troops in Florida. The savages were astounded and
+disheartened at seeing the troops fire six or eight times without
+reloading; and when the war was brought to a close, as it soon was, it
+was plain to all that the revolver had played a decisive part in the
+struggle. It was a great triumph for Colonel Colt, but in the end proved
+a source of misfortune. The speedy termination of the war put an end to
+the demand for his weapon, and his business fell off so greatly that in
+1842 the Patent Arms Company was compelled to close its establishment
+and wind up its affairs.
+
+For five years none of the revolvers were manufactured, and, meanwhile,
+the stock which had been put in the market was entirely exhausted by the
+demand which had set in from Texas and the Indian frontier. In 1847 the
+war with Mexico began, and General Taylor, who had witnessed the
+performance of the revolver in Florida, was anxious to arm the Texan
+Rangers with that weapon. He sent Captain Walker, the commander of the
+Rangers, to Colonel Colt to purchase a supply. Walker was unsuccessful.
+Colt had parted with the last one that he possessed, and had not even a
+model to serve as a guide in making others. The Government now gave him
+an order for one thousand, which he agreed to make for $28,000; but
+there was still the difficulty caused by having no model to work by. In
+this dilemma, he advertised extensively for one of his old pistols, to
+serve as a model, but failing to procure one, was compelled to make a
+new model. This was really a fortunate circumstance, as he made several
+improvements in the weapon, which officers who had used it suggested to
+him, so that his weapons were very much better than the old ones. Having
+no factory of his own, Colonel Colt hired an armory at Whitneyville,
+near New Haven, where he produced the first thousand pistols ordered by
+the Government. These gave entire satisfaction, and further orders from
+the War Department came in rapidly. Colonel Colt now hired and fitted up
+larger and more complete workshops in Hartford, and began business on
+his own account, supplying promptly every order that was given him. The
+weapon proved most effective during the Mexican War, and the orders of
+the Government were sufficiently large to allow the inventor to reap a
+handsome profit from them, and lay the foundations of his subsequent
+business success.
+
+At the close of the war, Colonel Colt was apprehensive that the demand
+for his weapon would again drop off, as it had done after the Florida
+campaign; but he was agreeably disappointed. The success of the revolver
+in Mexico had made it generally and favorably known throughout the
+country, and there was now a steady and even a growing demand for it.
+The discovery of gold in California, which so quickly followed the
+cessation of hostilities, greatly stimulated this demand, for the most
+essential part of the gold seeker's outfit was a revolver; and the
+extraordinary emigration to Australia, which set in somewhat later,
+still further extended the market for his weapon. Convinced by this time
+that there would be no considerable falling off in his orders, Colonel
+Colt began to take steps to assure the permanency of his business.
+
+The experience of the American officers during the Mexican War enabled
+them to point out many improvements to the inventor, who promptly
+adopted them. This made his pistol almost a new weapon, and the most
+formidable small arm then in use. He obtained a new patent for it, as
+thus improved, and it was adopted by the Government as the regular arm
+of the army and navy, different sizes being made for each service. The
+Crimean and Indian wars, which followed soon after, brought the inventor
+large orders from the British Government, and during the next few years
+his weapon was formally introduced into the armies of the leading States
+of Europe.
+
+His success was so rapid that, as early as 1851, it became necessary to
+provide still more ample accommodations for his manufactory. The next
+year he began the execution of a plan, the magnitude of which caused
+many of his friends to tremble for his future prosperity. He resolved to
+build the largest and most perfect armory in the world, one which should
+enable him to manufacture his weapons with greater rapidity and nicety
+than had ever yet been possible.
+
+Just to the south of the Little or Mill River there was a piece of
+meadow land, about two hundred and fifty acres in extent, generally
+regarded as useless, in consequence of its being submerged every spring
+by the freshets in the river. Colonel Colt bought this meadow for a
+nominal sum, and, to the astonishment of the good people of Hartford,
+proceeded to surround it with a strong dike, or embankment. This
+embankment was two miles in length, one hundred and fifty feet wide at
+the base, from thirty to sixty feet wide at the top, and from ten to
+twenty-five feet high. Its strength was further increased by planting
+willows along the sides; and it was thoroughly tested just after its
+completion by a freshet of unusual severity. Having drained the meadow,
+Colonel Colt began the erection of his armory upon the land inclosed by
+the embankment. It was constructed of Portland stone, and consisted of
+three buildings--two long edifices, with a third connecting them in the
+center, the whole being in the form of the letter H. The front parallel
+was five hundred by sixty feet, the rear parallel five hundred by forty
+feet, and the central building two hundred and fifty by fifty feet--the
+front parallel and central building being three stories in height.
+Connected with these buildings were other smaller edifices for offices,
+warerooms, watchmen's houses, etc.
+
+In 1861, the demand for the arms had become so enormous that the armory
+was doubled in size, the new buildings being similar in style to the
+old. "In this establishment there is ample accommodation for the
+manufacture of one thousand fire-arms per day," which is more than the
+arsenals at Harper's Ferry and Springfield combined could turn out in
+the same time previous to the war. In 1861, Colt's armory turned out
+about one hundred and twenty thousand stand of arms, and in 1860, the
+two armories before mentioned made about thirty-five thousand between
+them. A portion of the armory at Hartford is devoted to the fabrication
+of the machinery invented by Colonel Colt for the manufacture of his
+pistols. This machinery is usually sold to all parties purchasing the
+right to manufacture the revolver. Colonel Colt supplied in this way a
+large part of the machinery used in the Government manufactory at
+Enfield, in England, and all of that used in the Imperial armory at
+Tulin, in Russia. Near the armory, and in the area inclosed by the dike,
+Colonel Colt erected a number of tasteful cottages for his workmen, and
+warehouses for other kinds of business. His entire expenditure upon his
+land and buildings here amounted to more than two million five hundred
+thousand dollars.
+
+"Among his other cares, the intellectual and social welfare of his
+numerous employes were not forgotten. Few mechanics are favored with as
+convenient residences as those he has erected for them; and a public
+hall, a library, courses of lectures, concerts, the organization of a
+fine band of music, formed entirely from his own workmen, to whom he
+presented a superb set of musical instruments, and of a military company
+of his operatives, provided by him with a tasteful uniform, and
+otherwise treated by him with great liberality, were among the methods
+by which he demonstrated his sympathy with the sons of toil."
+
+The Hartford armory is the largest and most complete in the world, in
+extent and perfection of machinery. All the articles needed with the
+revolver, such as the powder flask, balls, lubricator, bullet molds,
+cartridges, etc., are made here on a large scale. The establishment is a
+noble monument to the inventive genius and business capacity of its
+founder.
+
+In addition to his inventions of fire-arms, Colonel Colt invented a
+submarine battery, which was thoroughly tested by the officers of the
+United States Navy, and is said to be one of the most formidable engines
+for harbor defense ever known. He also invented a submarine telegraph
+cable, which he laid and operated with perfect success, in 1843, from
+Coney Island and Fire Island to the city of New York, and from the
+Merchants Exchange to the mouth of the harbor. His insulating material
+consisted of a combination of cotton yarn with asphaltum and beeswax;
+the whole was inclosed in a lead pipe. This was one of the most
+successful experiments of the early days of submarine telegraphy, and
+entitles Colonel Colt to a conspicuous place in the list of those who
+brought that science to perfection.
+
+After the permanent establishment of his business, in 1847 and 1848,
+Colonel Colt's success was rapid. He acquired a large fortune, and built
+an elegant and tasteful mansion in Hartford, where he resided,
+surrounded with all the luxuries of wealth and taste. In 1855, he
+married Miss Elizabeth Jarvis, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of
+Portland, Connecticut, a lady of great beauty and superior character and
+accomplishments. She still survives him.
+
+He repeatedly visited Europe after his settlement at Hartford, and as
+the excellence of his weapons had made his name famous the world over,
+he was the recipient of many attentions from the most distinguished
+soldiers of Europe, and even from some of the monarchs of the Old World.
+In 1856, being on a visit to Russia, with his family, he was invited
+with them to be present at the coronation of the Emperor Alexander II.
+He was decorated by nearly all the Governments of Europe, and by some of
+the Asiatic sovereigns, with orders of merit, diplomas, medals, and
+rings, in acknowledgment of the great services he had rendered to the
+world by his invention.
+
+He died, at his residence in Hartford, on the 10th of January, 1862, in
+the forty-eighth year of his age. The community of which he was a member
+lost in him one of its most enterprising and public-spirited citizens,
+and the country one of the best representatives of the American
+character it has ever produced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.
+
+
+Samuel Finley Breese Morse is the eldest son of the late Jedediah Morse,
+one of the most distinguished Presbyterian clergymen of New England. He
+was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791, was
+carefully educated in the common schools of his native town, and at an
+early age entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1810. He exhibited
+an early fondness for art as well as studies of a scientific character,
+and while a student at Yale displayed an especial aptness for chemistry
+and natural philosophy. Upon leaving college he decided to adopt the
+profession of an artist, and was sent abroad to study under the tuition
+of West and Copley and Allston.
+
+[Illustration: SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.]
+
+"When Allston was painting his 'Dead Man Restored to Life,' in London,"
+says Mr. Tuckerman, in his _Book of the Artists_, "he first modeled his
+figure in clay, and explained to Morse, who was then his pupil, the
+advantages resulting from a plan so frequently adopted by the old
+masters. His young countryman was at this time meditating his first
+composition--a dying Hercules--and proceeded at once to act upon this
+suggestion. Having prepared a model that exhibited the upper part of the
+body--which alone would be visible in the picture--he submitted it to
+Allston, who recognized so much truth in the anatomy and expression that
+he urgently advised its completion. After six weeks of careful labor,
+the statue was finished and sent to West for inspection. That venerable
+artist, upon entering the room, put on his spectacles, and as he walked
+around the model, carefully examining its details and general effect, a
+look of genuine satisfaction beamed from his face. He rang for an
+attendant and bade him call his son. 'Look here, Raphael,' he exclaimed,
+as the latter appeared; 'did I not always tell you that every painter
+could be a sculptor?' We may imagine the delight of the student at such
+commendation. The same day one of his fellow pupils called his attention
+to a notice issued by the Adelphi Society of Arts, offering a prize for
+the best single figure, to be modeled and sent to the rooms of the
+association within a certain period. The time fixed would expire in
+three days. Morse profited by the occasion, and placed his 'Dying
+Hercules' with the thirteen other specimens already entered. He was
+consequently invited to the meeting of the society on the evening when
+the decision was to be announced, and received from the hands of the
+Duke of Norfolk, the presiding officer, and in the presence of the
+foreign ambassadors, the gold medal. Perhaps no American ever started in
+the career of an artist under more flattering auspices; and we can not
+wonder that a beginning so successful encouraged the young painter to
+devote himself assiduously to study, with a view of returning to his own
+country fully prepared to illustrate the historical department of the
+art."
+
+Morse spent four years in Europe in close study, and was then obliged to
+return to America by lack of means to carry on his education in the Old
+World. He had not indeed reached the high degree of proficiency which he
+had hoped to obtain before returning home, but he was possessed of
+natural talents and acquired skill, which fairly entitled him to
+recognition as one of our leading artists. This recognition never came
+to him, however, and his artist life in this country was a series of
+sorrowful disappointments. He found no opportunity of devoting himself
+to the higher branches of his art, and was obliged to confine himself
+entirely to portrait painting as a means of livelihood. His artist
+career is thus referred to by Mr. Tuckerman:
+
+
+     "Morse went abroad under the care of Allston, and was the pupil of
+     West and Copley. Hence he is naturally regarded by a later
+     generation as the connecting bond that unites the present and the
+     past in the brief annals of our artist history. But his claim to
+     such recognition does not lie altogether in the fact that he was a
+     pioneer; it has been worthily evidenced by his constant devotion to
+     the great cause itself. Younger artists speak of him with affection
+     and respect, because he has ever been zealous in the promotion of a
+     taste for, and a study of, the fine arts. Having entered the field
+     at too early a period to realize the promise of his youth, and
+     driven by circumstances from the high aims he cherished,
+     misanthropy was never suffered to grow out of personal
+     disappointment. He gazed reverently upon the goal it was not
+     permitted him to reach, and ardently encouraged the spirit which he
+     felt was only to be developed when wealth and leisure had given his
+     countrymen opportunities to cultivate those tastes upon the
+     prevalence of which the advancement of his favorite pursuit
+     depends. When, after the failure of one of his elaborate projects,
+     he resolved to establish himself in New York, he was grieved to
+     find that many petty dissensions kept the artists from each other.
+     He made it his business to heal these wounds and reconcile the
+     animosities that thus retarded the progress of their common object.
+     He sought out and won the confidence of his isolated brothers, and
+     one evening invited them all to his room ostensibly to eat
+     strawberries and cream, but really to beguile them into something
+     like agreeable intercourse. He had experienced the good effect of a
+     drawing club at Charleston, where many of the members were
+     amateurs; and on the occasion referred to covered his table with
+     prints, and scattered inviting casts around the apartment. A very
+     pleasant evening was the result, a mutual understanding was
+     established, and weekly meetings unanimously agreed upon. This
+     auspicious gathering was the germ of the National Academy of
+     Design, of which Morse became the first president, and before which
+     he delivered the first course of lectures on the fine arts ever
+     given in this country."
+
+
+In 1829 Mr. Morse went abroad for the purpose of completing his art
+studies. He remained in Europe for more than three years, residing in
+the principal cities of the Continent. During his absence he was elected
+"Professor of the Literature of the Fine" in the University of the City
+of New York. He set out on his return home to accept this professorship
+in the autumn of 1832, sailing from Havre on board the packet-ship
+"Sully."
+
+As has been stated, he had manifested a decided fondness for Chemistry
+and Natural Philosophy while at Yale College, where he was a pupil of
+Professor Silliman in the former science, and of Professor Day in the
+latter, and after his departure from college he had devoted all his
+leisure time to the pursuit of these studies. So great was his fondness
+for them that some of his friends declared their belief that he ought to
+abandon art and devote himself to science. In 1826-27 he had delivered,
+at the Athenaeum in New York, the course of fine-art lectures to which
+reference has been made, and on alternate nights of the same season
+Professor J. Freeman Dana had lectured upon electro-magnetism,
+illustrating his remarks with the first electro-magnet (on Sturgeon's
+principle) ever seen in this country. Morse and Dana had been intimate
+friends, and had often held long conversations upon the subject of
+magnetism, and the magnet referred to had at length been given to the
+former by Professor Torrey. The interest which he had thus conceived in
+this instrument had never diminished, and his investigations and studies
+had never ceased, so that at the time of his departure from France in
+the "Sully," in 1832, he was one of the best informed men upon the
+subject to be found in any country.
+
+Among his fellow-passengers were a number of persons of intelligence and
+cultivation, one of whom had but recently witnessed in Paris some highly
+interesting experiments with the electro-magnet, the object of which was
+to prove how readily the electric spark could be obtained from the
+magnet, and the rapidity with which it could be disseminated. To most of
+the passengers this relation was deeply interesting, but to all save one
+it was merely the recital of a curious experiment. That one exception
+was Mr. Morse. To him the development of this newly-discovered property
+of electricity was more than interesting. It showed him his true mission
+in life, the way to his true destiny. Art was not his proper field now,
+for however great his abilities as an artist, he was possessed of genius
+of a higher, more useful type, and it was henceforth his duty to employ
+it. He thought long and earnestly upon the subject which the words of
+his fellow-passenger had so freshly called up, pacing the deck under the
+silent stars, and rocked in his wakeful berth by the ocean whose terrors
+his genius was to tame, and whose vast depths his great invention was to
+set at naught. He had long been convinced that electricity was to
+furnish the means of rapid communication between distant points, of
+which the world was so much in need; and the experiments which his new
+acquaintance had witnessed in Paris removed from his mind the last doubt
+of the feasibility of the scheme. Being of an eminently practical
+character, he at once set to work to discover how this could be done,
+and succeeded so well that before the "Sully" reached New York he had
+conceived "not merely the idea of an electric telegraph, but of an
+electro-magnetic and chemical recording telegraph, substantially and
+essentially as it now exists," and had invented an alphabet of signs,
+the same in all important respects as that now in use. "The testimony to
+the paternity of the idea in Morse's mind, and to his acts and drawings
+on board the ship, is ample. His own testimony is corroborated by all
+the passengers (with a single exception), who testified with him before
+the courts, and was considered conclusive by the judges; and the date of
+1832 is therefore fixed by this evidence as the date of Morse's
+conception, and realization also--so far as the drawings could embody
+the conception--of the telegraph system which now bears his name."
+
+But though invented in 1832, it was not until 1835 (during which time he
+was engaged in the discharge of the duties of his professorship in the
+University of the City of New York) that he was enabled to complete his
+first recording instrument. This was but a poor, rude instrument, at the
+best, and was very far from being equal to his perfected invention. It
+embodied his idea, however, and was a good basis for subsequent
+improvements. By its aid he was able to send signals from a given point
+to the end of a wire half a mile in length, but as yet there was no
+means of receiving them back again from the other extremity. He
+continued to experiment on his invention, and made several improvements
+in it. It was plain from the first that he needed a duplicate of his
+instrument at the other end of his wire, but he was unable for a long
+time to have one made. At length he acquired the necessary funds, and
+in July, 1837, had a duplicate instrument constructed, and thus
+perfected his plan. His telegraph now worked to his entire satisfaction,
+and he could easily send his signals to the remote end of his line and
+receive replies in return, and answer signals sent from that terminus.
+Having brought it to a successful completion, he exhibited it to large
+audiences at the University of New York, in September, 1837. In October,
+1837, Professor Morse filed a caveat to secure his invention, but his
+patent was not obtained until 1840.
+
+He now entered upon that period of the inventor's life which has proved
+so disastrous to many, and so wearying and disheartening to all--the
+effort to bring his invention into general use. It was commonly believed
+that, although the invention was successful when used for such short
+distances as had been tried in the City of New York, it would fail when
+tested by longer lines. Morse was confident, however, that this was not
+the case, and in December, 1837, he went to Washington to solicit from
+the Government an appropriation for the construction of an experimental
+line from Washington City to Baltimore--a distance of forty miles. This
+line he declared would thoroughly test the practicability and utility of
+the telegraph. His petition was laid before Congress, and a committee
+appointed to consider it. He stated his plan to this body, and proved
+its practicability by actual experiments with his instruments.
+Considerable interest in the subject was thus aroused in Congress and
+throughout the country, but he derived no benefit from it. If men spoke
+of his telegraph, it was only to ridicule it, or to express their doubts
+of its success. This was especially the case in Congress, and it was
+very uncertain whether that body would sustain the report from the
+committee in favor of the invention. The session wore away in this
+manner, and at length ended without any action being taken in the
+matter.
+
+Having failed to secure the assistance of Congress, Professor Morse went
+to Europe in the spring of 1838, for the purpose of enlisting the aid of
+the governments there in bringing his invention into use. He was
+unsuccessful. In England a patent was refused him, and in France he
+merely obtained a worthless _brevet d'invention._ He tried several other
+countries, but was equally unsuccessful in all, and he returned home
+almost disheartened, but not entirely cast down. For four years he had
+to struggle hard for a living. He was very poor, and, as one of his
+friends has since declared, had literally "to coin his mind for bread."
+His sturdy independence of character would not allow him to accept
+assistance from any one, although there were friends ready and even
+anxious to help him in his troubles. Alone and manfully he fought his
+way through these dark days, still hopeful of success for his invention,
+and patiently seeking to improve it wherever opportunity presented
+itself. At length, in 1840, he received his long-delayed patent from the
+General Government, and, encouraged by this, determined to make another
+effort to bring his telegraph into use.
+
+He was not able to do so until the session of Congress of 1842-43, when
+he presented a second petition to that body, asking its aid in the
+construction of an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington.
+He had to encounter a great degree of skepticism and ridicule, with many
+other obstacles, not the least of which was the difficulty of meeting
+the expense of remaining in Washington and urging his invention upon the
+Government. Still he persevered, although it seemed to be hoping against
+hope, as the session drew near its close, and his scanty stock of money
+grew daily smaller. On the evening of the 3d of March, 1843, he
+returned from the Capitol to his lodgings utterly disheartened. It was
+the last night of the session, and nothing had been done in the matter
+of his petition. He sat up late into the night arranging his affairs so
+as to take his departure for home on the following day. It was useless
+to remain in Washington any longer. Congress would adjourn the next day,
+and his last hope of success had been shattered.
+
+On the morning of the 4th of March he came down to the breakfast-table
+gloomy and despondent. Taking up the morning journal, he ran over it
+listlessly. Suddenly his eye rested upon a paragraph which caused him to
+spring to his feet in complete amazement. It was an announcement that,
+at the very last hour of the session of the previous night, a bill had
+been passed by Congress appropriating the sum of thirty thousand dollars
+for the purpose of enabling Professor Morse to construct an experimental
+line of telegraph between Baltimore and Washington. He could scarcely
+believe it real, and, as soon as possible, hastened to the Capitol to
+seek authentic information. The statement was confirmed by the proper
+authorities, and Morse's dearest wish was realized. The hour of his
+triumph was at hand, and his long and patient waiting was rewarded at
+last.
+
+Work on the telegraph line was immediately begun, and carried on
+actively. At first, an insulated wire was buried under ground in a lead
+pipe, but this failing to give satisfaction, the wire was elevated upon
+poles. On the 27th of May, 1844, the line was completed, and the first
+trial of it made in the presence of the Government officials and many
+other distinguished men. Professor Morse was confident of success; but
+this occasion was a period of the most intense anxiety to him, for he
+knew that his entire future was staked upon the result of this hour.
+Among the company present to witness the trial was the Secretary of the
+Treasury, John C. Spencer. Although very much interested in the
+undertaking, he was entirely ignorant of the principles involved in it,
+and, therefore, very apprehensive of its failure. It was upon this
+occasion that he asked one of Professor Morse's assistants how large a
+bundle could be sent over the wires, and if the United States mail could
+not be sent in the same way.
+
+When all was in readiness, Professor Morse seated himself at the
+instrument, and sent his first message to Baltimore. An answer was
+promptly returned, and messages were sent and replies received with a
+rapidity and accuracy which placed the triumph of the invention beyond
+the possibility of doubt. Congratulations were showered upon the
+inventor, who received them as calmly as he had previously borne the
+scoffs of many of these same men. Yet his heart throbbed all the while
+with a brilliant triumph. Fame and fortune both rose proudly before him.
+He had won a great victory, and conferred a lasting benefit upon his
+race.
+
+The success of the experimental line brought Professor Morse numerous
+offers for the use of his invention. Telegraph companies were organized
+all over the country, and the stock issued by them was taken up as fast
+as offered. At the present day, not only the United States, but the
+whole world, is covered with telegraph lines. In July, 1862, just
+eighteen years after the completion of Morse's experimental line, it was
+estimated that the lines then in operation throughout the world amounted
+to an aggregate length of 150,000 miles. The Morse system is adopted on
+the principal lines of the United States, on all the lines of the
+Eastern continent, and exclusively on all the continental lines of
+Europe, "from the extreme Russian north to the Italian and Spanish
+south, eastward through the Turkish empire, south into Egypt and
+northern Africa, and through India, Australia, and parts of China."
+
+The rapid growth of the telegraph interest of the United States placed
+Professor Morse in the possession of a large fortune, which was greatly
+increased by the adoption of his invention in Europe. The countries
+which had refused him patents at first now did honor to his genius. Nor
+was he the only gainer by this. In France, especially, the benefits of
+his invention were great. The old system of semaphore telegraphs had
+been an annual expense to the government of that country of 1,100,000
+francs, but Morse's telegraph yielded to the French Government, in the
+first three years after its introduction, a total revenue of 6,000,000
+francs.
+
+Fortune was not Morse's only reward. Honors were showered upon him from
+all parts of the world. In 1848, his _alma mater_, Yale College,
+conferred on him the complimentary degree of LL.D., and since then he
+has been made a member of nearly all the American scientific and art
+academies. From European Governments and scientific and art associations
+he has received more honors than have ever fallen to the share of any
+other American. In 1848, he received from the Sultan of Turkey the
+decoration of the _Nishaun Iftiohar_ in diamonds, and subsequently gold
+medals of scientific merit were awarded him by the King of Prussia, the
+King of Wuertemburg, and the Emperor of Austria. The gift of the King of
+Prussia was set in a massive gold snuff-box. In 1856, the Emperor
+Napoleon III gave him the Cross of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; in
+1857, he received from the King of Denmark the Cross of Knight of the
+Danebrog; and in 1858, the Queen of Spain sent him the Cross of Knight
+Commander of the order of Isabella the Catholic. In 1859, a convention
+of the representatives of the various European powers met in Paris, at
+the instance of the Emperor Napoleon III, for the purpose of
+determining upon the best means of giving Professor Morse a collective
+testimonial. France, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Austria,
+Sardinia, Tuscany, Turkey, and the Holy See were represented, and their
+deliberations resulted in the presentation to Professor Morse, in the
+name of their united governments, of the sum of 400,000 francs, as an
+honorary and personal reward for his labors. In 1856, the telegraph
+companies of Great Britain gave him a banquet in London, at which Mr.
+William Fothergill Corke, himself the distinguished inventor of a system
+of telegraphy, presided.
+
+Professor Morse is also the inventor of submarine telegraphy. In 1842,
+he laid the first submarine telegraph line ever put down, across the
+harbor of New York, and for this achievement received the gold medal of
+the American Institute. On the 10th of August, 1843, he addressed a
+communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, in which he avowed his
+belief that a telegraphic cable could and would be laid across the
+Atlantic ocean, for the purpose of connecting Europe and America. His
+words upon this occasion clearly prove that the idea of the Atlantic
+telegraph originated with him. They were as follows: "The practical
+inference from this law is, that a telegraphic communication on the
+electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the
+Atlantic ocean. Startling as this may now seem, I am confident the time
+will come when this project will be realized."
+
+In February, 1854, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, ignorant of
+Professor Morse's views upon this subject, wrote to him to ask if he
+considered the working of a cable across the Atlantic practicable. The
+Professor at once sought an interview with Mr. Field, and assured him of
+his entire confidence in the undertaking. He entered heartily into Mr.
+Field's scheme, and rendered great aid in the noble enterprise which
+has been described elsewhere in these pages. He was present at each
+attempt to lay the cable, and participated in the final triumph by which
+his prediction, made twenty-three years previous, was verified.
+
+Professor Morse is now in his eightieth year. He resides during the
+winter in the city of New York, and passes his summers at his beautiful
+country seat near Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson. He bears his great honors
+with the same modesty which marked his early struggles, and is the
+center of a host of friends whom he has attached to himself by the
+tenderest ties. "Courage and patience have been his watchwords, and
+although the snows of time have bleached his hair, the same intelligence
+and enterprising spirit, the same urbane disposition that endeared him
+to the friends of his youth, still cause all who know him to rejoice in
+the honorable independence which his great invention has secured to his
+age."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+PUBLISHERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+JAMES HARPER.
+
+
+Some years ago a gentleman having business with the great house of
+Harper & Brothers asked one of the employes of that establishment,
+"Which one is Harper, and which are the brothers?" He was answered,
+"Either one is Harper, and all the rest are the brothers." This reply
+fully sets forth the difficulty which must be experienced by any one
+attempting to write the story of the life of either member of this
+house. In such an undertaking it is very difficult to select "Harper,"
+and impossible to pass by the "Brothers." The interests of each were so
+thoroughly in harmony with those of all the others, and there was such
+perfect unanimity of sentiment existing between them with regard to
+their private as well as their public affairs, that it is hardly
+possible to separate them. Since, however, it is not consistent with the
+design of this work to relate the history of the "house," it is the
+purpose of the writer to select the eldest of the brothers as the
+representative of the group, and to offer him to the reader as a type of
+the American publisher.
+
+The grandfather of JAMES HARPER came to this country from England about
+the year 1740, and was one of the first of the American Methodists. His
+son Joseph was born in 1766. He married Elizabeth Kollyer, and settled
+at Newtown, on Long Island, as a farmer. It was here that James, their
+eldest child, was born, on the 13th of April, 1795. He grew up with a
+vigorous constitution, and the pure influences of his home, together
+with the sound religious training which he received from his parents,
+laid the foundation of those simple and steady habits for which he was
+noted through life. In the winter he attended the district school, and
+in the summer he worked on his father's farm. Thus his life passed away
+quietly and healthfully until he had completed his fifteenth year.
+
+It now became necessary for him to make some choice of a profession in
+life, and when the matter was presented to him he promptly decided to
+become a printer. His father cheerfully seconded his wishes, and he was
+accordingly apprenticed to a printer in New York. On the morning of his
+departure from home, when the family assembled for "prayers," his
+mother, who was a woman of superior character, took the father's place
+and led the worship. With trembling tones she commended her boy to the
+love and protection of the Saviour, and when the moment of leave-taking
+came she sent him forth into the world with the tender warning never to
+forget his home or his religious duties, or "that he had good blood in
+him."
+
+The change from his happy home to the place of "devil" in the printing
+office was one which tried the lad's fortitude to the utmost. His
+position was but little better than that of a menial, and not only was
+all the drudgery and disagreeable work put upon him, but he was made the
+sport of the workmen, some of whom used him even roughly. He bore it all
+good-naturedly, however, devoting himself to his trade with the
+determination to master it.
+
+The printing office in which he was employed was located near Franklin
+Square, then occupied by the best people of the city. Often, as young
+Harper passed across the square to and from his work, his rough "country
+clothes" drew upon him the ridicule of the children of these "goodly
+citizens." They teazed and insulted him, and sometimes carried their
+cruelty to the extremity of offering him bodily violence. He bore it
+patiently for a time, but at length determined to put a stop to it. He
+was physically the superior of any of his tormentors, and had put up
+with their conduct merely from his sincere desire to avoid a "street
+fight." In accordance with his new resolution, however, when one of them
+approached him one day and asked for his card, he set down a bucket
+which he was carrying, and, seizing the fellow, kicked him across the
+square, saying to him: "That's my card, take good care of it. When I am
+out of my time, and set up for myself, and you need employment, as you
+will, come to me, bring the card, and I will give you work." "Forty-one
+years after," says the writer upon whose authority this incident is
+related, "when Mr. Harper's establishment was known throughout all the
+land, after he had borne the highest municipal honors of the city, and
+had become one of our wealthiest men, the person who had received the
+card came to Mr. James Harper's establishment and asked employment,
+claiming it on the ground that he had kept the card given him forty-one
+years before."
+
+In a little while James was joined by his brother John, who was
+apprenticed to another printer in the city, and the two lads spent with
+each other much of their leisure time. Both worked hard. James soon
+became noted as the best pressman in the city, his great personal
+strength enabling him to work the old-fashioned hand-press with ease. It
+is said that if he disliked a fellow pressman and wished to be rid of
+him, he merely put forth his immense strength and outworked him. The
+man being unable to keep up with him, was obliged to retire.
+
+"The habits of his rural home followed him to the city. In an age when
+every body drank ardent spirits freely, he was strictly temperate, and
+the cold water disciple justified his faith by his works. With the
+cheerful constancy of the fathers of his church he quietly resisted the
+temptations of the city. He opened a prayer-meeting in the house of an
+old colored woman in Ann Street, and joined the John Street Methodist
+Church. Meanwhile, to their simple and thrifty method of life, James and
+his brother added work out of hours, so that when their apprenticeship
+was ended they had a little money saved."
+
+James' excellent habits and great skill as a workman had given entire
+satisfaction to his master during the whole period of his
+apprenticeship, and he informed the young man at the expiration of his
+indentures that he was willing to employ him again at fair wages. The
+young workman surprised him by telling him that he intended to set up
+for himself, and that all he wanted from him now was a certificate that
+he was fit to be trusted with a book. This was given, and James and his
+brother John took their little capital, which was increased by a loan of
+a few hundred dollars from their father, and renting a small room in
+Dover Street, set up an office on their own account, and began business
+under the firm name of J. & J. Harper. Their capital was small--less
+than the annual wages of some of their workmen to-day--but they were
+sustained by industry, determination, and high moral principle. When
+they began business, it was with a tacit agreement that each would
+endeavor to deserve the confidence of the other, and of their
+fellow-men. There was to be no evasion of principle, no sharp practice,
+in their house. They were resolved to make money, but to make it
+honestly. They would engage in no transaction which should cause a
+doubt of their integrity in the breast of the good mother who had sent
+them forth with her blessing.
+
+More than fifty years have passed away since then, and the Harpers have
+prospered steadily, and so greatly, too, that for many years their house
+has stood at the head of the publishing interest of America. Their
+career is an instructive one, giving an emphatic denial to the assertion
+we hear so often repeated, that an "over-honest" man can not make money
+in New York. Shut your ears to the calumny, young man, just staring out
+in life. "Honesty _is_ the best policy;" and it is only by scrupulous
+honesty that enduring success can be obtained. Trickery and sharp
+practice may earn wealth rapidly, but depend upon it they have their
+reward; for it is a curious fact in the history of man that wealth
+acquired by knavery rarely stays with its possessors for more than a
+generation, if so long.
+
+In starting out, the young Harpers printed books to order, attempting
+nothing at their own risk. They did a part of the composition and
+press-work with their own hands, and were, perhaps, the hardest workers
+in their establishment. Their first job was two thousand copies of
+Seneca's Morals, and was intrusted to them by Evert Duyckinck, a famous
+publisher of that day. The books were delivered in August, 1817, and
+gave entire satisfaction.
+
+Immediately after this, they undertook to stereotype an edition of the
+"Book of Common Prayer" for the Protestant Episcopal Church of New York,
+supposing that they would be able to make a fair profit at the rate at
+which they had agreed to do the work. It was their original intention to
+do the composition themselves, and have the stereotyping done at one of
+the large establishments of the city; but upon a closer investigation
+they found that this would cost them more than they had agreed to do the
+work for. In this dilemma, they resolved to learn the art of
+stereotyping themselves, and perform that portion of their contract on
+their own premises. It was a tedious undertaking; but they went through
+with it determinedly, and at the proper time delivered the books to the
+officials of the Episcopal Church. Their profit was not very large, but
+they had become stereotypers as well as printers, and had added a
+valuable department to their business. Further than this, their Prayer
+Book was pronounced the best piece of stereotyping that had ever been
+seen in the city, and won the young men congratulations on all sides.
+They next undertook twenty-five hundred copies of Mair's "Introduction
+to Latin," which they delivered in December, 1817.
+
+In April, 1818, they put forth their first venture on their own account.
+This consisted of five hundred copies of Locke's "Essay upon the Human
+Understanding." These were readily disposed of, and their success
+encouraged them to further efforts. They proceeded very cautiously, and
+it was for a long time their custom, when contemplating the publication
+of a book, and especially in the case of a reprint, to send to the
+leading booksellers in the large cities of the Union, and ascertain how
+many copies each one would take. Thus they pushed their way forward,
+seizing upon every favorable opportunity for the publication of original
+and foreign works. They rarely made an unsuccessful venture, and as each
+worked hard, and had constantly in view, above all other subjects, the
+success of the house, they gradually extended their business until they
+secured the foremost place among the publishers of the United States.
+
+Beginning with works of a dry, philosophic nature, the Harpers have
+extended their operations into every department of literature. Their
+catalogue of publications, issued in 1869, lies on the writer's table.
+It is a duodecimo volume of two hundred and ninety-six closely-printed
+pages, and embraces a list of several thousand volumes. In this list are
+histories, biographies, travels, adventures, novels, poems, educational
+works, works on science, art, philosophy, metaphysics--in short, books
+on every topic familiar to man. In the department of fiction, the
+success of this house has been remarkable. They have published between
+four and five hundred novels, in cloth and paper bindings, and the
+demand for their early publications of this kind is still sufficiently
+active to compel them to keep a stock always on hand. When they began to
+issue their Library of Select Novels, they did so with a distinct
+purpose in view. Novel-reading has always been a passion with Americans,
+but at the period referred to the best novels were published at such
+high prices that but few could afford to buy them. The masses were
+compelled to put up with the cheap, flashy stories which were so well
+known some years ago as "yellow covers." This style of fiction, now
+confined to the lowest class of readers, at that time found its way into
+almost every house, and the popular taste was at a very low ebb. The
+Harpers felt sure that by issuing the best, and only the best, English
+novels at a low price, they would not only meet a real want on the part
+of the public, but in great measure supersede the "yellow covers," with
+all their pernicious influences. The sequel proved the correctness of
+these views, and resulted in large profits to them.
+
+Soon after commencing business, James and John Harper received their
+younger brothers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, into their establishment
+as apprentices. These young men were taught the business thoroughly, and
+when they had completed their apprenticeship were admitted into the firm
+as partners, the former entering the firm in 1823, and the latter in
+1826. In 1825 the style of the firm was changed to Harper & Brothers,
+and the business was removed to 81 and 82 Cliff Street, on a portion of
+the site of the present establishment. It was then the largest
+printing-house in New York, employing fifty workmen and ten hand
+presses.
+
+In 1850; the Harpers decided to commence the publication of a monthly
+periodical, and, accordingly, in the summer of that year they issued the
+first number of "Harper's New Monthly Magazine," which, in point of
+popularity, stands today, after a career of twenty years, at the head of
+American magazines, and boasts of a circulation of 180,000 copies. The
+recognition of another want of the public led, in 1857, to the
+establishment of an illustrated newspaper, "Harper's Weekly," which has
+at present a circulation of 100,000 copies. In 1869 they began the
+publication of a new weekly fashion paper, called "the Bazaar," which
+has reached a circulation of 75,000 copies.
+
+From the first, the Harpers made their house a popular establishment.
+They sought public favor by legitimate means, and generally managed to
+retain it in the same way. From an early period in their history, their
+imprint on a book has been sufficient to secure its sale; and they have
+managed to identify themselves so thoroughly with American progress that
+the whole country feels an interest in their success. By studying the
+popular taste closely, they were enabled to publish in rapid succession
+works suited to it; and by fair and liberal dealings with authors they
+soon drew around them a corps of the best writers in the Union.
+
+Their success was rapid, and by the year 1853 their establishment had
+increased in size so much that it occupied "nine large contiguous
+buildings, full of costly machinery of every kind, with stores of plates
+and books." On the 10th of December of that year, a workman in one of
+the upper rooms carelessly threw a piece of lighted paper into what he
+supposed to be a pail of water, but which proved to be camphene. In a
+few minutes the building was in flames; all efforts to save it were in
+vain. The fire spread rapidly, and in a few hours the entire
+establishment was in ruins. The loss was one million of dollars, of
+which sum only about one-fourth was covered by insurance.
+
+It was a terrible blow, but James Harper and his brothers wasted no time
+in repining. Before the embers had ceased smoking they were taking
+active measures to reestablish their business. From the wreck of their
+establishment they saved a part of the stereotype plates, which had been
+stored in the vaults, out of the way of the fire. They immediately
+rented Sheffield's paper warehouse, at the corner of Beckman and Gold
+Streets, and went to work with greater energy than ever. "Presses were
+employed in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Nothing was forgotten.
+The next monthly issue of the _Magazine_ had been made ready, and it was
+reproduced at the earliest moment. One regular contributor, then in
+Chicago, received the first news of the fire by a brief telegram: 'Copy
+destroyed. Send fresh copy immediately.' Before the ruins were cleared
+away the plans of the new buildings were ready, and the buildings
+themselves were rapidly finished."
+
+The new establishment of Harper & Brothers is one of the wonders of the
+great city in which it is located. The buildings are of iron and brick,
+and cover half an acre of ground. The establishment really consists of
+two buildings. The front building faces Franklin Square, and is a
+magnificent iron structure, painted white. Behind this is the second
+building, which fronts on Cliff Street. A court-yard intervenes between
+them, spanned by several bridges, connecting them. Each building is
+seven stories in height, and completely fire-proof.
+
+There are no openings in the floors for communication, but the various
+floors are connected by circular stairways of iron, placed outside the
+building. The front building, or that which faces Franklin Square, is
+used for storerooms, salesrooms, and the editorial and business offices
+of the establishment. In the rear building the various branches of the
+book manufacture are carried on. The author's manuscript is received
+here and sent back to him a complete book. Every portion of the work is
+done under the same roof, and it is well done. The building is filled
+with the most costly and complete machinery for saving time and labor.
+Besides the machinery used in other departments, it contains in its
+press-room forty-three Adams presses for book work, and five cylinder
+presses for printing the "Weekly" and the "Bazaar." About 600 persons,
+250 of whom are females, are employed in the establishment; and it is to
+the credit of both employers and employes that but few changes occur in
+this force. Many of the employes have been with the firm since its first
+entrance into business. The old man in charge of the vaults--a curiosity
+in his way--has been in the service of the house for fifty years, and to
+leave it now would, doubtless, break his heart; for none of the Harpers
+are as proud of their reputation as he is. The most perfect system
+reigns throughout every department, and every thing goes on promptly and
+in its proper place.
+
+"Of course," says a writer who many years has witnessed the operations
+of the house, "the development and organization of such a business were
+due not to one brother alone, but to the cooperation of all.... The
+business was to James, as to the others, the great central interest, but
+prosperity could not relax his steady character. He did not forget his
+early faith, nor the counsels and the habits of his Long Island home. He
+remained strictly a 'temperance man,' and his marvelous physical vigor
+was claimed by the temperance advocates as that of a cold-water mans He
+was long an official member of John-Street Church, and when he left his
+house in Rose Street, and went to live in the upper part of the city, he
+joined the congregation of St. Paul's Church, in the Fourth Avenue. But
+with all his fidelity to his ancestral faith, he cherished the largest
+charity, and by much experience of the world had learned to agree with
+his favorite apostle, James, that pure religion and undefiled, is to
+visit the fatherless and widows, and keep himself unspotted from the
+world. Thus, with all his conviction and devotion, there was nothing
+hard or fanatical in his feeling or conduct, and he held pleasant
+personal relations with men of every faith. Few men indulged in so
+little harsh criticism of others, and he expressed censure or
+disapprobation by humorous indirection rather than by open accusation.
+'We must not be too hard,' he was fond of saying, 'it is so difficult to
+know all the circumstances. If you should insist, for instance, that the
+use of tobacco is a sin, dear me! dear me!'
+
+"Mr. Harper was a Whig during the days of that party, and a natural
+conservative. But in politics he showed the same moderation and
+toleration. 'Don't try to drive men too roughly, my dear sir; it is much
+easier to draw than to push.' He took no conspicuous or active part in
+politics, except in 1844, when he was elected Mayor of the city. He was
+constantly asked to serve in Congress and in other public stations, but
+he steadily declined, saying, with a sly smile, that he preferred to
+stick to the business that he understood.
+
+"To that business his heart and life were given. Of late years its
+active cares had naturally fallen into the hands of his younger
+associates; but he never relaxed his interest and devotion. 'While I was
+dressing,' said a much younger neighbor, 'I used to see Mayor Harper
+coming out of his house to go down town, and felt ashamed of myself.
+Early at the office, he opened and looked over the mail, and during the
+hours of the morning he passed from one room to another, his shrewd eye
+seeing every thing, and measuring men and work, chatting and jesting as
+he went. But out of those shrewd eyes looked a kind and gentle heart. He
+knew by name the men and women and children employed in the various
+parts of the great buildings, interested himself in their family
+stories, and often won a confidence that was never betrayed. His
+charities, which were ample, were thus intelligent and effective, and
+poor men as well as women bent to kiss his calm, unchanged face as he
+lay in his coffin."
+
+To the very last, James Harper retained his physical and mental vigor,
+and was looked up to by all the members of the house as its brightest
+ornament. To the last, he was one of the best known and most honored
+citizens of the great metropolis. His great wealth had not ruffled the
+serenity of his spirit, or caused the slightest variation in his
+conduct. To the last he was the Christian merchant, citizen, and father,
+offering to his children in himself a noble model by which to shape
+their lives.
+
+It had been his custom at family prayers to ask of God protection from
+sudden death, but for some time before his death he ceased to do so. His
+family noticed this, and one of them asked his reason for the omission.
+He answered quietly, "The Lord knows best."
+
+On the 25th of March, 1869, he was at his usual post in his office, and
+after business hours, as was his habit, set out with his daughter for a
+drive in the Central Park, As he neared the Park the pole of his
+carriage broke suddenly, and the horses, becoming frightened, dashed off
+furiously, dragging the carriage after them. Mr. Harper and his
+daughter were both thrown violently upon the pavement. The latter was
+but slightly injured, but Mr. Harper was taken up insensible, and
+conveyed to St. Luke's Hospital, which was close at hand. He never
+regained consciousness, but lingered until fifteen minutes after seven
+on the evening of the 27th, when he expired, surrounded by all his
+family, excepting his wife, who had long been an invalid. His death was
+regarded as a calamity to the city, and all classes of the community
+united to do honor to his memory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+JAMES T. FIELDS.
+
+
+The old "corner book-store" at the intersection of Washington and School
+Streets, in the city of Boston, is one of the most notable places in the
+New England metropolis. The memory of the oldest inhabitant can not
+recall a time when this corner was not devoted to its present uses; and
+around it, in the long years that have passed since the first book
+merchant first displayed his wares here, there have gathered a host of
+the most interesting, as well as the most brilliant, souvenirs of our
+literary history. Here were sold, in "the days that tried men's souls,"
+those stirring pamphlets that sounded the death-knell of British tyranny
+in the New World; and it was from this old corner that the tender songs
+of Longfellow, the weird conceptions of Hawthorne, the philosophic
+utterances of Emerson, first found their way to the hearts of the
+people.
+
+In 1884, the corner book-store was kept by Carter & Bendee, and was then
+the leading book-house in Boston. One morning in that year there entered
+the office of the proprietors a young lad from New Hampshire, who stated
+that he came to seek employment in their service. His bright,
+intelligent appearance was in his favor, scarcely less than the
+testimonials which he brought, vouching for his integrity and industry.
+His application was successful, and he entered the service of Messrs.
+Carter & Bendee, being given the lowest clerkship in the establishment
+and a salary barely sufficient to support him.
+
+This lad was JAMES T. FIELDS. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
+on the 30th of December, 1820. His father was a captain in the merchant
+service, and died when the boy was only four years old, leaving him to
+the care and guidance of one of the best of mothers. He was educated at
+the common schools of the city, and was thence transferred to the high
+school. He exhibited a remarkable fondness for study, and at the early
+age of thirteen graduated at the high school, taking the first honors of
+his class. He was regarded as one of the best classical scholars in the
+institution, and during his course took several prizes in Latin and
+Greek composition. Unusual abilities as a poet were also manifested very
+early, and when but twelve years old he wrote a poem in blank verse,
+which attracted the attention of the late Chief Justice Woodbury, then
+Governor of New Hampshire, who was so much surprised and gratified to
+find such talent in so young a boy, that he earnestly advised him to
+endeavor to complete his studies at Harvard University. This, indeed,
+was the chief desire of the boy, but a collegiate education required
+means which he could not command, and he was forced to go out into the
+world to seek his fortune. Having secured a good elementary education,
+however, he was resolved that he would not abandon his efforts to
+acquire knowledge. All his leisure time, after going to Boston to live,
+was devoted to reading and study. While neglecting no duty in his
+business, he gave the hours which most boys devote to amusement to
+severe mental labor. Young as he was, he was ambitious.
+
+He knew that knowledge was power, especially in the community in which
+he lived, and he was resolved that this power should be his. The result
+is plainly seen in his subsequent career. Although deprived of the
+advantages of a collegiate course, Mr. Fields has more than made up that
+deficiency by his faithful labors, and there are few men in New England
+to-day possessed of more varied and extensive mental accomplishments
+than he. Upon going to Boston he promptly identified himself with the
+Mercantile Library Association of that place, availing himself of its
+advantages, and exerting all the influence of which he was possessed to
+insure its success. When but eighteen years old, he was chosen to
+deliver an anniversary poem before the association. The value of the
+compliment will be better appreciated by the reader when it is stated
+that the oration upon that occasion was pronounced by Edward Everett.
+His industry in his business duties was great. He entered the house of
+Carter & Bendee with the determination to rise in it. He worked
+faithfully, and was the first at his post in the morning, and the last
+to leave it at night. When the style of the firm was changed to Allen &
+Ticknor, he was promoted to a more important place. He proved himself
+from the first one of the most valuable and trustworthy assistants in
+the house, and his merits were promptly recognized. From the lowest
+place in the house, he worked his way up steadily until he became the
+manager of the establishment. Each promotion brought with it an increase
+of salary. Knowing well that "a penny saved at present is a pound gained
+in future" to a young man striving to rise in the world, he practiced
+the most conscientious economy. He made himself thoroughly acquainted
+with every detail of the publishing trade; and although, of late years,
+he has had the supervision more especially of the literary department of
+his large business, there are few publishers in this country more
+intimate with the business and mechanical branches of their trade.
+
+In 1846, just twelve years after his entrance into the house, his
+clerkship came to an end, and he became a partner in the establishment,
+the style of the firm being Ticknor & Fields. He took an active share in
+the business; and while full credit must be given to Mr. Ticknor for the
+extraordinary success which the firm enjoyed, it can not be denied that
+Mr. Fields' share in this work was very great, and fully equal to that
+of his partner. His acknowledged literary abilities won him friends
+among the most gifted writers of the country, and these naturally sought
+his assistance in presenting their works to the world. Their friendship
+induced an intelligent confidence in his literary taste and mercantile
+integrity, and it was a decided gain for them to secure one so generally
+esteemed and trusted as their publisher. Young writers, still struggling
+for fame, felt that in submitting their works to his inspection they
+would receive the patient examination of not only a conscientious
+reader, but of one whose own literary abilities rendered him unusually
+competent for the task. The public generally learned to share this
+confidence in his literary judgment. And so it came to pass that the
+imprint of Ticknor & Fields was universally accepted as a sufficient
+guarantee of the excellence of any book, and rarely failed to insure its
+success. Naturally, the house was proud of this confidence, and it is
+pleasant to record that they have never abused it. There is, perhaps, no
+other publishing firm in the Union whose catalogue is so free from
+objectionable or worthless publications as that issued by this house.
+
+Gradually Messrs. Ticknor & Fields became the recognized publishers of a
+large number of the leading writers of this country and of Great
+Britain. In their catalogue we find the names of Longfellow, Bryant,
+Whittier, Holmes, Aldrich, Agassiz, Beecher, Alice Gary, Cummins, Dana,
+Emerson, Hawthorne, Gail Hamilton, Lowell, Parton, Saxe, Sprague, Stowe,
+Bayard Taylor, Thoreau, and Tuckerman, in American literature; and in
+English literature, the names of Browning, Dickens, George Eliot, Mrs.
+Jameson, Kingsley, Owen Meredith, Charles Reade, and Tennyson. With
+their English authors they maintain the pleasantest relations,
+recognizing their moral right to their works, and paying them a fair
+royalty upon the sales of their books. Of their relations with their
+American authors, a popular periodical says:
+
+"There are no business men more honorable or generous than the
+publishers of the United States, and especially honorable and
+considerate toward authors. The relation usually existing between author
+and publisher in the United States is that of a warm and lasting
+friendship, such as now animates and dignifies the intercourse between
+the literary men of New England and Messrs. Ticknor & Fields.... The
+relation, too, is one of a singular mutual trustfulness. The author
+receives his semi-annual account from the publisher with as ablute a
+faith in its correctness as though he had himself counted the volumes
+sold."
+
+In 1865, the firm removed from the old corner stand to a new and elegant
+establishment on Tremont Street, near the Common, and in the same year
+Mr. Howard Ticknor, who had succeeded his father in the business,
+withdrew from it. New partners were admitted, and the style of the firm
+became Fields, Osgood & Co., Mr. Fields still remaining at the head of
+the house.
+
+The new book store is one of the handsomest and most attractive in the
+country. The store proper is eighty feet deep by fifty feet wide, and is
+fitted up handsomely in hard wood.
+
+There is no paint about it, every piece of wood in use presenting its
+natural appearance. On the right in entering are the book shelves and
+counters, and on the opposite side the desks devoted to the magazine
+department. At the rear are the counting rooms and the private office of
+Mr. J.R. Osgood, the active business man of the concern. The second
+story is elegantly and tastefully fitted up. It contains the luxurious
+private office of Mr. Fields, in which are to be seen excellent
+likenesses of his two dearest friends, Longfellow and Dickens; and the
+parlor of the establishment, which is known as the Author's Room. This
+is a spacious and handsomely-appointed room, whose windows, overlooking
+the Common, command one of the prettiest views in New England. It is
+supplied with the leading periodicals of the day, and choice volumes of
+current literature. Here one may always find one or more of the "gifted
+few," whose names are familiar to the reader; and frequent reunions of
+the book-making fraternity are designed to be held here, under the
+genial auspices of the literary partner of the house.
+
+It is not often that men win success in both literature and mercantile
+life. Good authors have usually made very poor business managers, and
+_vice versa_; but the subject of this memoir, besides winning a great
+success as a merchant, and that in one of the most hazardous branches of
+mercantile life, has also won an enviable reputation as a man of
+letters. His poems have made him well known, both in this country and in
+England. Besides the poems recited before various literary associations,
+he has published two volumes of fugitive pieces. The first appeared in
+1843, while he was still a clerk, and the second in 1858. His poems
+abound in humor, pathos, and a delicate, beautiful fancy. One of his
+friends has said of him:
+
+"Little of the sad travail of the historic poet has Mr. Fields known.
+Of the emaciated face, the seedy garment, the collapsed purse, the
+dog-eared and often rejected manuscript, he has never known, save from
+well-authenticated tradition. His muse was born in sunshine, and has
+only been sprinkled with the tears of affection. Every effort has been
+cheered to the echo, and it is impossible for so genial a fellow to fail
+of an ample and approving audience for whatever may fall from his lip or
+pen."
+
+The following lines, from his second volume, will serve as a specimen of
+the "homely beauty" of Mr. Fields' muse, though it hardly sets forth all
+his powers:
+
+
+     She came among the gathering crowd
+       A maiden fair, without pretense,
+     And when they asked her humble name,
+       She whispered mildly, "Common Sense."
+
+     Her modest garb drew every eye,
+       Her ample cloak, her shoes of leather;
+     And when they sneered, she simply said,
+       "I dress according to the weather."
+
+     They argued long and reasoned loud,
+       In dubious Hindoo phrase mysterious;
+     While she, poor child, could not divine
+       Why girls so young should be so serious.
+
+     They knew the length of Plato's beard,
+       And how the scholars wrote in Laturn;
+     She studied authors not so deep,
+       And took the Bible for her pattern.
+
+     And so she said, "Excuse me, friends,
+       I feel all have their proper places,
+     And _Common Sense_ should stay at home
+       With cheerful hearts and smiling faces."
+
+
+Mr. Fields has been a frequent contributor to his own periodicals, his
+latest effort being a paper devoted to personal recollections of Charles
+Dickens, which was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" soon after the
+death of the great master.
+
+He has made several extended tours throughout Europe, where he has
+enjoyed social advantages rarely opened to travelers. One of his friends
+says that, in his first visit to the Old World, "he passed several
+months in England, Scotland, France, and Germany, visiting the principal
+places of interest, and forming most delightful and profitable
+intimacies with the most distinguished _literateurs_ of the day. He was
+a frequent guest at the well-known breakfasts of the great banker-poet
+of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and of 'Italy,' and listened or added his
+own contributions to the exuberant riches of the hour, when such
+visitors as Talfourd, Dickens, Moore, and Landor were the talkers." He
+also formed a warm friendship with Wordsworth, and, during his stay in
+Edinburgh, with Professor Wilson and De Quincey. The writings of the
+last-named author were published by Ticknor and Fields, in eighteen
+volumes, and were edited by Mr. Fields, at the author's own request.
+
+Mr. Fields is now in his fiftieth year, but shows no sign of age, save
+the whitening of his heavy, curling beard. He is still young and active
+in mind and body. He is of medium height, and well proportioned, with an
+erect carriage. Polished and courteous in manner, he is easily
+accessible to all. To young writers he is especially kind, and it is a
+matter of the truest pleasure to him to seek out and bring to notice
+genuine literary merit. He has a host of friends, and is widely popular
+with all classes.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+EDITORS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
+
+
+James Gordon Bennett was born at New Mill, Keith, in Banffshire, on the
+north-eastern coast of Scotland, about the year 1800. His relatives were
+Roman Catholics, and he was brought up in a Catholic family of French
+origin. In his fourteenth year, having passed through the primary
+schools of his native place, he entered the Roman Catholic Seminary at
+Aberdeen, for the purpose of studying for the priesthood of that Church.
+During the two or three years which he passed here he was a close
+student, and acquired the basis of an excellent education.
+
+In 1817 he came into possession of a copy of Benjamin Franklin's
+autobiography, which had been recently published in Scotland. The
+perusal of this little book changed the course of his whole life. It
+induced him to abandon all thoughts of the priesthood, and to try his
+fortune in the New World, in which the great philosopher had succeeded
+so well before him. A little more than a year later he left Glasgow, and
+in May, 1819, being now about twenty years old, landed at Halifax, Nova
+Scotia. He had less than twenty-five dollars in his purse, knew no
+vocation save that of a book-keeper, and had not a friend on this side
+of the ocean.
+
+He secured a few pupils in Halifax, and gave lessons in book-keeping,
+but his profits were so small that he determined to reach the United
+States as soon as possible. Accordingly he made his way along the coast
+to Portland, Maine, where he took passage for Boston in a small
+schooner. He found great difficulty in procuring employment, for Boston
+then, as now, offered but few inducements to new-comers. He parted with
+his last penny, and was reduced to the most pressing want. For two whole
+days he went without food, and a third day would doubtless have been
+added to his fast had he not been fortunate enough to find a shilling on
+the Common, with which he procured the means of relieving his hunger. He
+now obtained a salesman's place in the bookstore of Messrs. Wells &
+Lilly, who, upon discovering his fitness for the place, transferred him
+to their printing-office as proof-reader; but his employers failed about
+two years after his connection with them began, and he was again thrown
+out of employment.
+
+From Boston he went, in 1822, to New York, where he obtained a situation
+on a newspaper. Soon after his arrival in the metropolis he was offered,
+by Mr. Wellington, the proprietor of the "Charleston (S.C.) Courier,"
+the position of translator from the Spanish, and general assistant. He
+accepted the offer, and at once repaired to Charleston. He remained
+there only a few months, however, and then returned to New York.
+
+He now proposed to open a "Permanent Commercial School," at 148 Fulton
+Street, and advertised to teach the usual branches "in the inductive
+method." His advertisement set forth that his pupils would be taught
+"reading, elocution, penmanship, and arithmetic; algebra; astronomy,
+history, and geography; moral philosophy, commercial law, and political
+economy; English grammar and composition, and, also, if required, the
+French and Spanish languages by natives of those countries." This
+elaborate scheme was never put into execution, as Mr. Bennett did not
+receive a sufficient number of applications to warrant him in opening
+the school. He next attempted a course of lectures on political economy
+at the old Dutch Church in Ann Street, but this enterprise was also a
+pecuniary failure. In 1825 he purchased the "New York Courier," a Sunday
+paper, but did not succeed with it. He continued to write for the press,
+principally for one or two papers, selling his articles where he could,
+and in 1826 formed a regular connection with the "National Advocate," a
+Democratic journal. To his duties in this position he applied himself
+with an energy and industry never surpassed, and rarely equaled, in his
+profession. He took an active part in politics, and wrote regularly and
+constantly for his paper, acquiring considerable reputation by his
+articles against the tariff and on banks and banking. He now embarked in
+journalism as the business of his life, and with the determination to
+succeed. In order to win success, he knew he must first learn to master
+himself. He neither smoked, drank, nor gambled. He indulged in no
+species of dissipation, but was temperate and prudent in all things. A
+few years later he said of himself, "I eat and drink to live, not live
+to eat and drink. Social glasses of wine are my aversion; public dinners
+are my abomination; all species of gormandizing my utter scorn and
+contempt. When I am hungry, I eat; when thirsty, drink. Wine or viands
+taken for society, or to stimulate conversation, tend only to
+dissipation, indolence, poverty, contempt, and death."
+
+In 1827 the "National Advocate" changed hands, and, under its new
+proprietors, supported John Quincy Adams for President. Mr. Bennett,
+being a supporter of Martin Van Buren, then a United States Senator,
+resigned his position on the paper, and soon after, in connection with
+the late M.M. Noah, established "The Enquirer," which warmly espoused
+the cause of Andrew Jackson in the Presidential canvass of 1828. About
+this time he became a recognized member of the Tammany Society.
+
+In the spring of 1828 he went to Washington, where he resided for some
+time as the correspondent of "The Enquirer." In looking through the
+library of Congress one day, he found an edition of Horace Walpole's
+letters, which he read with a keen relish. These suggested the idea of a
+series of similar letters to his own paper, and he at once put his plan
+into execution. His letters were written and published. They were
+"spicy," pleasant in style, full of gossip about the distinguished
+personages who thronged the capital every winter, and, withal, free from
+any offensive personality. They were read with eagerness, and widely
+copied by the press throughout the country. Yet he was poorly paid for
+them, and at a time when he had made a "real hit" was forced to labor
+hard for a bare subsistence. He did all kinds of literary work. He wrote
+editorials, letters, sketches, poetry, stories, police reports, in
+short, every thing that a newspaper had use for, and yet his earnings
+were barely more than sufficient to afford him a decent support.
+
+In 1829, the "Courier and Enquirer" were united under one management,
+and Mr. Bennett was made assistant editor, with James Watson Webb as his
+chief. In the autumn of that year he became associate editor. Says Mr.
+James Parton (by no means an ardent admirer of Mr. Bennett):
+
+"During the great days of the 'Courier and Enquirer,' from 1829 to 1832,
+when It was incomparably the best newspaper on the continent, James
+Gordon Bennett was its most efficient hand. It lost him in 1832, when
+the paper abandoned General Jackson and took up Nicholas Biddle, and in
+losing him lost its chance of retaining the supremacy among American
+newspapers to this day. We can truly say that at that time journalism,
+as a thing by itself and for itself, had no existence in the United
+States. Newspapers were mere appendages of party, and the darling object
+of each journal was to be recognized as the organ of the party it
+supported. As to the public, the great public, hungry for interesting
+news, no one thought of it. Forty years ago, in the city of New York, a
+copy of a newspaper could not be bought for money. If any one wished to
+see a newspaper, he had either to go to the office and subscribe, or
+repair to a bar-room and buy a glass of something to drink, or bribe a
+carrier to rob one of his customers. The circulation of the 'Courier and
+Enquirer' was considered something marvelous when it printed thirty-five
+hundred copies a day, and its business was thought immense when its
+daily advertising averaged fifty-five dollars. It is not very unusual
+for a newspaper now to receive for advertising, in one day, six hundred
+times that sum. Bennett, in the course of time, had a chance been given
+to him, would have made the 'Courier and Enquirer' powerful enough to
+cast off all party ties, and this he would have done merely by improving
+it as a vehicle of news. But he was kept down upon one of those
+ridiculous, tantalizing, corrupting salaries, which are a little more
+than a single man needs, but not enough for him to marry upon. This
+salary was increased by the proprietors giving him a small share in the
+small profits of the printing-office; so that, after fourteen years of
+hard labor and Scotch economy, he found himself, on leaving the great
+paper, a capitalist to the extent of a few hundred dollars. The chief
+editor of the paper which he now abandoned sometimes lost as much in a
+single evening at the card-table. It probably never occurred to him
+that this poor, ill-favored Scotchman was destined to destroy his paper
+and all the class of papers to which it belonged. Any one who examines a
+file of the 'Courier and Enquirer' of that time, and knows its interior
+circumstances, will see plainly enough that the possession of this man
+was the vital element in its prosperity. He alone knew the rudiments of
+his trade. He alone had the physical stamina, the indefatigable
+industry, the sleepless vigilance, the dexterity, tact, and audacity
+needful for keeping up a daily newspaper in the face of keen
+competition."
+
+Mr. Bennett left the "Courier and Enquirer" in 1832, the cause of his
+action being the desertion of General Jackson by that journal. He at
+once started a cheap partisan paper, called "The Globe," devoted to the
+interests of Jackson and Van Buren. It failed to receive the support of
+the Democratic party, however, and went down after a precarious
+existence of thirty days.
+
+Undismayed by this failure, Mr. Bennett removed to Philadelphia, and
+invested the remainder of his capital in a daily Democratic journal,
+called "The Pennsylvanian," of which he was the principal editor,
+laboring hard to win for it the assistance and support of the party. He
+had rendered good and admitted service to the Democracy, but was to
+experience the ingratitude for which political organizations are
+proverbial. He applied to Martin Van Buren and other prominent leaders
+of the party to aid him in securing a loan of twenty-five hundred
+dollars for two years, which sum would have enabled him to establish his
+paper on a paying basis, but the politicians turned deaf ears to his
+appeals, and his paper failed, after a brief and desperate struggle.
+
+He came back to New York about the beginning of 1835, a little sore
+from his unsuccessful battle with fate, but far from being dismayed or
+cast down. His failures to establish party organs had convinced him that
+success in journalism does not depend upon political favor, and he
+determined to make one more effort to build up a paper of his own, and
+this time one which should aim to please no party but the public. That
+there was need of an independent journal of this kind he felt sure, and
+he knew the people of the country well enough to be confident that if
+such a journal could be properly placed before them, it would succeed.
+The problem with him was how to get it properly before them. He had
+little or no money, and it required considerable capital to carry
+through the most insignificant effort of the kind. He made several
+efforts to inspire other persons with his confidence before he
+succeeded. One of these efforts Mr. Parton thus describes, in his _Life
+of Horace Greeley:_ "An incident connected with the job-office of
+Greeley & Co. is perhaps worth mentioning here. One James Gordon
+Bennett, a person then well known as a smart writer for the press, came
+to Horace Greeley, and, exhibiting a fifty-dollar bill and some other
+notes of smaller denominations as his cash capital, wanted him to join
+in setting up a new daily paper, 'The New York Herald.' Our hero
+declined the offer, but recommended James Gordon to apply to another
+printer, naming one, who he thought would like to share in such an
+enterprise. To him the editor of 'The Herald' did apply, and with
+success."
+
+The parties to whom Mr. Greeley referred Mr. Bennett were two young
+printers, whom he persuaded, after much painstaking, to print his paper
+and share with him its success or failure. He had about enough cash in
+hand to sustain the paper for ten days, after which it must make its own
+way. He proposed to make it cheap--to sell it at one penny per copy,
+and to make it meet the current wants of the day. The "Sun," a penny
+paper, was already in existence, and was paying well, and this
+encouraged Mr. Bennett to hope for success in his own enterprise.
+
+He rented a cellar in Wall Street, in which he established his office,
+and on the 6th of May, 1835, issued the first number of "The Morning
+Herald." His cellar was bare and poverty-stricken in appearance. It
+contained nothing but a desk made of boards laid upon flour barrels. On
+one end of this desk lay a pile of "Heralds" ready for purchasers, and
+at the other sat the proprietor writing his articles for his journal and
+managing his business. Says Mr. William Gowans, the famous Nassau-Street
+bookseller: "I remember to have entered the subterranean office of its
+editor early in its career, and purchased a single copy of the paper,
+for which I paid the sum of one cent United States currency. On this
+occasion the proprietor, editor, and vendor was seated at his desk,
+busily engaged in writing, and appeared to pay little or no attention to
+me as I entered. On making known my object in coming in, he requested me
+to put my money down on the counter and help myself to a paper, all this
+time he continuing his writing operations. The office was a single
+oblong underground room; its furniture consisted of a counter, which
+also served as a desk, constructed from two flour barrels, perhaps
+empty, standing apart from each other about four feet, with a single
+plank covering both; a chair, placed in the center, upon which sat the
+editor busy at his vocation, with an inkstand by his right hand; on the
+end nearest the door were placed the papers for sale."
+
+[Illustration: HOW THE "NEW YORK HERALD" BEGAN.]
+
+Standing on Broadway now, and looking at the marble palace from which
+the greatest and wealthiest newspaper in the Union sends forth its huge
+editions, one finds it hard to realize that just thirty-four years
+ago this great journal was born in a cellar, an obscure little penny
+sheet, with a poor man for its proprietor. Yet such was the beginning of
+"The New York Herald."
+
+The prospect was not a pleasant one to contemplate, but Mr. Bennett did
+not shrink from it. He knew that it was in him to succeed, and he meant
+to do it, no matter through what trials or vicissitudes his path to
+fortune lay. Those who heard his expressions of confidence shook their
+heads sagely, and said the young man's air-castles would soon fade away
+before the blighting breath of experience. Indeed, it did seem a
+hopeless struggle, the effort of this one poor man to raise his little
+penny sheet from its cellar to the position of "a power in the land." He
+was almost unknown. He could bring no support or patronage to his
+journal by the influence of his name, or by his large acquaintance. The
+old newspaper system, with its clogs and dead-weights, was still in
+force, and as for newsboys to hawk the new journal over the great city,
+they were a race not then in existence. He had to fight his battle with
+poverty alone and without friends, and he did fight it bravely. He was
+his own clerk, reporter, editor, and errand boy. He wrote all the
+articles that appeared in "The Herald," and many of the advertisements,
+and did all the work that was to be performed about his humble office.
+
+"The Herald" was a small sheet of four pages of four columns each.
+Nearly every line of it was fresh news. Quotations from other papers
+were scarce. Originality was then, as now, the motto of the
+establishment. Small as it was, the paper was attractive. The story that
+its first numbers were scurrilous and indecent is not true, as a
+reference to the old files of the journal will prove. They were of a
+character similar to that of "The Herald" of to-day, and were marked by
+the same industry, tact, and freshness, which make the paper to-day the
+most salable in the land.
+
+Says Mr. Parton: "The first numbers were filled with nonsense and gossip
+about the city of New York, to which his poverty confined him. He had no
+boat with which to board arriving ships, no share in the pony express
+from Washington, and no correspondents in other cities. All he could do
+was to catch the floating gossip, scandal, and folly of the town, and
+present as much of them every day as one man could get upon paper by
+sixteen hours' labor. He laughed at every thing and every body,--not
+excepting himself and his squint eye,--and though his jokes were not
+always good, they were generally good enough. People laughed, and were
+willing to expend a cent the next day to see what new folly the man
+would commit or relate. We all like to read about our own neighborhood;
+this paper gratified the propensity.
+
+"The man, we repeat, had really a vein of poetry in him, and the first
+numbers of 'The Herald' show it. He had occasion one day to mention that
+Broadway was about to be paved with wooden blocks. This was not a very
+promising subject for a poetical comment, but he added: 'When this is
+done, every vehicle will have to wear sleigh-bells, as in sleighing
+times, and Broadway will be so quiet that you can pay a compliment to a
+lady, in passing, and she will hear you.' This was nothing in itself;
+but here was a man wrestling with fate in a cellar, who could turn you
+out two hundred such paragraphs a week, the year round. Men can growl in
+a cellar; this man could laugh, and keep laughing, and make the floating
+population of a city laugh with him. It must be owned, too, that he had
+a little real insight into the nature of things around him--a little
+Scotch sense, as well as an inexhaustible fund of French vivacity.
+Alluding, once, to the 'hard money' cry by which the lying politicians
+of the day carried elections, he exploded that nonsense in two lines:
+'If a man gets the wearable or the eatable he wants, what cares he if he
+has gold or paper money?' He devoted two sentences to the Old School and
+New School Presbyterian controversy: 'Great trouble among the
+Presbyterians just now. The question is whether or not a man can do any
+thing toward saving his own soul.' He had also an article upon the
+Methodists, in which he said that the two religions nearest akin were
+the Methodist and the Roman Catholic. We should add to these trifling
+specimens the fact that he uniformly maintained, from 1835 to the crash
+of 1837, that the prosperity of the country was unreal, and would end in
+disaster."
+
+These things served the end for which they were intended. They brought
+"The Herald" conspicuously before the public. While engaged in them,
+the proprietor was anxiously planning the means of making his paper a
+great _newspaper_. He worked sixteen or seventeen hours each day. He
+rose before five o'clock in the morning, and gave three hours to writing
+his editorials and the witty paragraphs to which allusion has been made.
+At eight o'clock he went to his cellar, or "office," and was at his post
+there during the morning, selling his papers, receiving advertisements,
+and often writing them for those who were not able to prepare them,
+doing such other work as was necessary, and finishing his editorial
+labors. At one o'clock he went into Wall Street, gathering up financial
+news and interesting items of the street. He returned to his office at
+four o'clock, and remained there until six, when the business of the day
+was over. In the evening he went to the theater, a ball, concert, or
+some public gathering, to pick up fresh items for his paper.
+
+All this while, however, he was losing money. He had a heavy load to
+carry, and though he bore it unflinchingly and determinedly, the
+enterprise seemed doomed to failure for lack of funds. At this juncture,
+he resolved to make the financial news of the day a special feature of
+"The Herald." The monetary affairs of the country were in great
+confusion--a confusion which was but the prelude to the crash of 1837;
+and Wall Street was the vortex of the financial whirlpool whose eddies
+were troubling the whole land. Every body was anxious to get the first
+news from the street, and to get it as full and reliable as possible. At
+this time, too, our relations with France were exceedingly critical--a
+circumstance which served to increase the trouble in financial matters.
+Appreciating the anxiety which was generally felt on this subject, Mr.
+Bennett resolved to create a demand for "The Herald" among the business
+men of the country. On the 13th of June, 1835, just five weeks after the
+establishment of the paper, he printed his first money article--the
+first that ever appeared in an American newspaper. It was as follows:
+
+
+     COMMERCIAL.
+
+     Stocks yesterday maintained their prices during the session of the
+     Board, several going up. Utica went up 2 per cent.; the others
+     stationary. Large quantities were sold. After the Board adjourned
+     and the news from France was talked over, the fancy stocks
+     generally went down 1 to 1-1/2 per cent.; the other stocks quite
+     firm. A rally was made by the bulls in the evening under the trees,
+     but it did not succeed. There will be a great fight in the Board
+     to-day. The good people up town are anxious to know what the
+     brokers think of Mr. Livingston. We shall find out, and let them
+     know.
+
+     The cotton and flour markets rallied a little. The rise of cotton
+     in Liverpool drove it up here a cent or so. The last shippers will
+     make 2-1/2 per cent. Many are endeavoring to produce the impression
+     that there will be a war. If the impression prevails, naval stores
+     will go up a good deal. Every eye is outstretched for the
+     "Constitution." Hudson, of the Merchants News Room, says he will
+     hoist out the first flag. Gilpin, of the Exchange News Room, says
+     he will have her name down in his room one hour before his
+     competitor. The latter claims having beat Hudson yesterday by an
+     hour and ten minutes in chronicling the "England."
+
+
+The money article was a success, and appeared regularly in "The Herald"
+after this. It created a demand for the paper among the merchants, and
+increased its circulation so decidedly that at the end of the third
+month the daily receipts and expenditures balanced each other. Mr.
+Bennett now ventured to engage a cheap police reporter, which gave him
+more time to attend to other duties.
+
+The paper now seemed on the point of becoming a success, when it
+received a severe and unlooked-for blow. The printing-office was burned
+down, and the gentlemen who had printed "The Herald" were so much
+discouraged that they refused to renew their connection with it. Mr.
+Bennett knew that he was too near to success to abandon the enterprise,
+and courageously put his wits to work to devise means to carry on the
+paper. By the greatest and most indomitable exertions he managed to
+secure the means of going on with it, and bravely resumed its
+publication alone.
+
+A few months after this the "great fire" swept over New York, and laid
+nearly the whole business portion of the city in ashes. This was Mr.
+Bennett's opportunity. The other journals of the city devoted a brief
+portion of their space to general and ponderous descriptions of the
+catastrophe, but Mr. Bennett went among the ruins, note-book and pencil
+in hand, and gathered up the most minute particulars of the fire. He
+spent one-half of each day in this way, and the other half in writing
+out reports of what he thus learned. These reports he published in "The
+Herald." They were free, graphic, off-hand sketches of the fire and its
+consequences, and were so full and complete that they left little or
+nothing connected with the incidents they described to be added. Mr.
+Bennett also went to the expense of publishing a picture of the burning
+of the Merchants Exchange, and a map of the burnt district--a heavy
+expense for his little journal. The result proved the sagacity of his
+views. "The Herald" reports of the fire created a heavy demand for the
+paper, and its circulation increased rapidly. Yet its success was not
+assured.
+
+When his first year closed, Mr. Bennett found his paper still struggling
+for existence, but with a fair prospect of success, if it could follow
+up the "hit" it had made with its reports of the fire. About this time
+he received an offer from Dr. Benjamin Brandreth to advertise his pills
+in "The Herald," and a contract was at once concluded between them. The
+money thus paid to the paper was a considerable sum, and proved of the
+greatest assistance to it. All the money received was conscientiously
+expended in the purchase of news. The circulation grew larger as its
+news facilities increased, and for some years its proprietor expended
+all his profits in making the paper more attractive.
+
+At the close of the fifteenth month of its career Mr. Bennett increased
+the size of "The Herald," and raised the price of it to two cents per
+copy. His success was now assured, and continued to increase, as, under
+his able and far-seeing management, his paper expanded and enlarged its
+facilities for securing and making public the promptest and most
+reliable news of the day. Since that time his success has been
+unvarying. He has made "The Herald" the leading newspaper of the world,
+for no other journal upon the globe can compare with it in liberality
+and energy in the collection of news or in promptness and completeness
+of detail in laying it before the public. Its growth has been slow, but
+sure. Every step has been won by hard and conscientious labor, as well
+as by the force of real genius. Other journals have been compelled to
+follow the example of "The Herald," but none have surpassed it. It still
+stands at the head of the newspaper press of the world, and we are
+justified in believing that it will continue to stand there as long as
+its founder's hand controls it.
+
+Instead of the little penny sheet of thirty-four years ago, "The New
+York Herald" of to-day is an immense journal, generally of twelve, and
+often of sixteen pages of six columns each, making a total of from
+seventy-two to ninety-six closely printed columns of matter. From four
+to nine pages are filled with advertisements, classified with the utmost
+exactness. No reader has to search the paper over for the article or
+advertisement he wishes to see; each subject has its separate place,
+which can be discovered at a glance. Its advertisements have reference
+to every trade, profession, or calling known to civilized man, and are a
+faithful mirror of the busy age in which we live. Its news reports are
+the freshest, most complete, and most graphic of any American journal,
+and are collected at an expenditure of more time, care, and money than
+any other journal sees fit to lay out. It has its correspondents in all
+parts of the world, and when news is worth sending, these are instructed
+to spare no pains or expense in transmitting it at once. During the late
+war it had a small army of attaches in the field, and its reports were
+the most eagerly sought of all by the public. During the Abyssinian war
+its reporters and correspondents furnished the London press with
+reliable news _in advance of their own correspondents_. Any price is
+paid for news, for it is the chief wish of Mr. Bennett that "The Herald"
+shall be the first to chronicle the events of the day.
+
+"The Herald" office is now located at the corner of Broadway and Ann
+Street. The building, of white marble, is five stories in height, and
+is one of the handsomest in the country. It is the most complete
+newspaper establishment in existence. It has two cellars, in which are
+placed the two steam-engines that drive the huge presses which strike
+off the various editions of "The Herald." Every thing is in perfect
+order, and the machinery shines like polished gold and silver. The
+proprietor's eye is upon the whole establishment, and he is quick to
+notice and reprimand a fault. The street floor contains the business
+office of the journal, a magnificent room, gorgeous with marble,
+plate-glass, black walnut, and frescoes. The editorial rooms are above,
+and near them are the reporters' rooms. The top floor constitutes the
+finest composing room in the world, from which speaking-tubes and
+vertical railways communicate with all the other parts of the building.
+Every department of the paper has a responsible head, and the most rigid
+discipline prevails throughout the office. There are twelve editors,
+thirty-five reporters, and four hundred and fifty-three other employes,
+making a total force of five hundred men engaged upon "The Herald." The
+circulation of the various editions of the paper amounts to tens of
+thousands. It is to be found in every town of importance in the land,
+and its daily receipts from advertisements alone are counted by tens of
+thousands of dollars.
+
+Mr. Bennett rarely writes for the paper now. He assembles his editors in
+his council at noon every day, hears their suggestions, decides what
+topics shall be treated in the next day's issue, and assigns to each man
+the subject upon which he is to write. In his absence his place at the
+council-board is filled by his son, or by the managing editor. Mr.
+Bennett in this way exercises a close supervision over all the articles
+that appear in "The Herald," and imparts to them a considerable share of
+his personality.
+
+Mr. Bennett is married, and has two children, a son, James Gordon
+Bennett, jr., who will succeed his father in the ownership of "The
+Herald," and a daughter. He lives on Fifth Avenue at present, his
+favorite residence, at Washington Heights, having been recently
+destroyed by fire. He is said to be a courtly and agreeable host, and
+one who rarely fails to send away his visitors with a pleasant
+impression of himself.
+
+In person he is tall and firmly built, and walks with a dignified
+carriage. His head is large, and his features are prominent and
+irregular. He has a thoroughly Scotch face, and is cross-eyed. His
+forehead is broad and high, betokening great capacity and force of
+character. His expression is firm and somewhat cold--that of a man who
+has had a hard fight with fortune, and has conquered it. He is reserved
+in his manner to strangers, but always courteous and approachable. To
+his friends he is genial and unreserved. He is finely educated, and is
+said to be a man of excellent taste. His favorite studies are history
+and biography, and he still pursues them with a keen relish. His home is
+one of the most elegant in the city. He is proud of his success, as he
+may well be, and very proud of the fact that he owes it to himself
+alone. While he was building the new "Herald" office, he was waited on
+by the president of one of the national banks of the city, who said to
+him:
+
+"Mr. Bennett, we know that you are at great expense in erecting this
+building, besides carrying on your immense business. If you want any
+accommodation, you can have it at our bank."
+
+"Mr. ----," replied Mr. Bennett, "before I purchased the land, or began
+to build, I had on deposit two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the
+Chemical Bank. There is not a dollar due on 'The Herald' building that
+I can not pay. I would pay off the mortgage to-morrow, if the owner
+would allow me to do so. When the building is opened, I shall not owe
+one dollar to any man, if I am allowed to pay. I owe nothing that I can
+not discharge in an hour. I have not touched one dollar of the money on
+deposit in the bank, and while that remains I need no accommodation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ROBERT BONNER.
+
+
+Robert Bonner was born in the north of Ireland, near the town of
+Londonderry, about the year 1824. He came to this country when a mere
+child, and was brought up in the State of Connecticut, where he received
+a good common-school education.
+
+Manifesting a decided liking for the printer's trade, he was placed at
+an early age in the office of the "Hartford Courant," where he took his
+first lessons in the art of setting type. He entered upon the business
+with the determination to learn it thoroughly, and when he had mastered
+his trade soon acquired the reputation of being the best workman in
+Hartford. As a compositor, he was not only neat and thorough, but was
+remarkably rapid as well. On one occasion, when the "Courant" was
+endeavoring to publish the "President's Message" in advance of all its
+competitors, Mr. Bonner is said to have worked at the rate of seventeen
+hundred ems an hour--a feat absolutely unparalleled.
+
+In 1844, he removed to New York and engaged in the office of a new
+journal, called the "American Republican," then lately established as
+the organ of the American party in that city, upon which he worked
+steadily during its brief career. His wages were small, and it was only
+by practicing the most rigid economy that he could live upon them.
+
+When the "Republican" suspended publication, Mr. Bonner was employed in
+the office of the "Evening Mirror," published by Morris, Willis &
+Fuller. Here he made himself so useful, that the business of getting up
+or displaying advertisements attractively was soon left entirely to him.
+His taste in this department was almost faultless, and the
+advertisements of the "Mirror" soon became noted for their neat and
+handsome appearance.
+
+At this time there was published in New York a small, struggling paper,
+exclusively mercantile in its character, called the "Merchants' Ledger."
+This paper was almost entirely dependent upon its advertising patronage,
+and the attention of its proprietor was called to Mr. Bonner's skill, as
+exhibited in the "Mirror," in displaying advertisements to the greatest
+advantage. The result was that Mr. Bonner received an offer, which he
+accepted, to take charge of this paper. This was the origin of his
+connection with the journal which he has since rendered famous.
+
+Being fond of composition, he made frequent contributions to the
+editorial columns of the paper, which were well received by the general
+public, but which seem to have aroused the petty jealousy of the
+proprietor of the "Ledger."
+
+Soon after forming his connection with the "Ledger," Mr. Bonner
+purchased it. From his boyhood up, it had been his ambition to become
+the proprietor of a journal which should be carried out upon his own
+ideas, and he believed that the "Ledger" offered him the best means of
+doing this. It was generally doubted at that time that a literary paper
+could flourish in New York--Boston and Philadelphia having apparently
+monopolized such enterprises. Mr. Bonner, however, had a clearer view
+of the matter, and was convinced from the first that the great center of
+American industry was the very best place for such an undertaking. He
+proceeded very cautiously at first, however, changing the character of
+his paper very gradually, from a commercial to a literary journal.
+
+At this time Fanny Fern was the great literary sensation of the day. She
+had just published her "Ruth Hall," which had attracted universal
+attention, and had given rise to a sharp discussion in the public press
+as to whether she was the sister of N.P. Willis or not. Mr. Bonner
+resolved to profit by her sudden notoriety, and requested her to write a
+story for the "Ledger," for which he offered to pay her twenty-five
+dollars per column. She declined the proposition. He then offered her
+fifty dollars a column, and, upon a second refusal, increased his offer
+to seventy-five dollars a column. She was pleased with the energy
+exhibited by Mr. Bonner, and flattered by his eagerness to secure her
+services, but declared that she would write no more for the newspapers.
+A little later Mr. Bonner was offered a story from her, about ten
+columns long. He at once accepted her proposition, and upon the receipt
+of the manuscript sent her a check for one thousand dollars.
+
+With this story began that wonderful career of the "Ledger" which seems
+more like a dream than hard reality. The story was double-leaded, and
+made to fill twenty columns of the paper. The "Ledger" itself was
+changed from its old style to its present form, and made a purely
+literary journal. The price paid for the story was unparalleled in the
+history of American journalism, and Mr. Bonner spread the announcement
+far and wide that he was publishing a serial for which he had given one
+hundred dollars a column. His advertisements were to be seen in almost
+every newspaper of respectable circulation throughout the Union. In form
+they were different from any that had preceded them. "Fanny Fern
+writes for the 'Ledger.'" "Buy the 'New York Ledger,'" etc., appeared,
+dozens of times repeated, until men were absolutely tired of seeing the
+announcement. Nothing had ever been brought to the public notice so
+prominently before. For awhile people were astonished at the audacious
+boldness of "the 'Ledger' man." Then they began to buy the paper. Since
+then the demand for it has steadily increased.
+
+The venture was successful. Fanny Fern's reputation and Mr. Bonner's
+energy and boldness made a demand for the "Ledger," at once, and out of
+the profits of the story for which he had paid such an unheard-of price
+Mr. Bonner purchased a handsome residence in New York City.
+
+There was as much originality as boldness in the peculiar style in which
+Mr. Bonner advertised his paper. As before stated, nothing of the kind
+had ever been seen before, and the novelty of the announcements at once
+attracted attention. It was seen that they were expensive also, and
+people naturally felt some curiosity to see for themselves the paper for
+which a man was willing to assume such risk and expense. These
+announcements sometimes covered a whole page of a daily paper; sometimes
+the page would be almost entirely blank, with only a few lines in each
+column containing the announcement. Again the advertisement would be the
+opening chapters of a story, which would be sure to excite the curiosity
+of the reader, and induce him to purchase the remaining chapters in the
+"Ledger" itself. It is to the credit of the "Ledger" that it rarely
+loses a subscriber. It has become a family paper.
+
+A recent writer thus refers to Mr. Bonner's early experience
+advertising:--
+
+
+"His mode of advertising was new, and it excited both astonishment and
+ridicule. His ruin was predicted over and over again. But as he paid as
+he went along, he alone would be the sufferer. He was assailed in
+various ways. Men sneered at his writers, as well as at the method in
+which he made them known. He had no competition. Just then it was
+announced that the Harpers were to put a first-class weekly into the
+field. The announcement was hailed with delight by many classes. Men who
+had been predicting Bonner's ruin from the start were anxious to see it
+accomplished. He had agents in all the leading cities in the land. These
+held a monopoly of the 'Ledger.' The book men and newspaper men, who
+were left out, were quite willing to have the 'Ledger' go under. The
+respectability and wealth of the house, its enterprise, with the class
+of writers it could secure, made the new paper a dangerous rival. Mr.
+Bonner concluded to make the first issue serviceable to himself. His
+paragraph advertising was considered sensational, and smacking of the
+charlatan. He resolved to make it respectable. He wrote half a column in
+sensational style: 'Buy Harper's Weekly!'--'Buy Harper's Weekly!'--'Buy
+Harper's Weekly!'--'Buy Harper's Weekly!'--and so on through the half
+column. Through his advertising agent he sent this advertisement to the
+'Herald,' 'Tribune,' and 'Times,' and paid for its insertion. Among the
+astonished readers of this 'Ledger' style of advertising were the quiet
+gentlemen who do business on Franklin Square. The community were
+astonished. 'The Harpers are waking up!' 'This is the Bonner style!'
+'This is the way the Ledger man does it!' were heard on all sides. The
+young Harpers were congratulated by the book men every-where on the
+enterprise with which they were pushing the new publication. They said
+nothing, and took the joke in good part. But it settled the
+respectability of the 'Ledger' style of advertising. It is now imitated
+by the leading publishers, insurance men, and most eminent dry goods
+men in the country. The sums spent by Mr. Bonner in advertising are
+perfectly marvelous. He never advertises unless he has something new to
+present to the public. He pays from five to twenty-five thousand dollars
+a week when he advertises."
+
+Mr. Bonner well knew that all his advertising would be worth nothing in
+the end unless he made the "Ledger" worthy of the public patronage, and
+he exerted himself from the first to secure the services of a corps of
+able and popular writers. In his arrangements with his contributors, he
+inaugurated a system of liberality and _justness_ which might well put
+his rivals to shame.
+
+When Mr. Everett was engaged in his noble effort to assist the ladies of
+the Mount Vernon Association in purchasing the home and tomb of
+Washington, Mr. Bonner proposed to him to write a series of papers for
+the "Ledger," for which he offered him ten thousand dollars, the money
+to be appropriated to the purchase of Mount Vernon. Mr. Everett accepted
+the offer, and the celebrated Mount Vernon Papers were the result. This
+was a far-sighted move on the part of Robert Bonner. Under ordinary
+circumstances Mr. Everett would probably have declined to "write for the
+'Ledger;'" but in a cause so worthy he could not refuse. The association
+of his name with the journal was of incalculable service to it, and the
+Mount Vernon Papers were to its proprietor his very best advertisement.
+(We are viewing the matter commercially.) The sale of the paper was
+wonderfully increased, and a golden harvest was reaped.
+
+This connection of Mr. Everett with the "Ledger" led to a warm personal
+friendship between himself and its proprietor, which was broken only by
+the statesman's death--a circumstance which speaks volumes for the
+private worth of the younger man. Mr. Everett continued to write for
+the paper after his Mount Vernon articles were finished, and is said to
+have earned over fifty thousand dollars by his able contributions to it.
+
+Soon after the completion of the Mount Vernon Papers, Mr. Bonner secured
+the services of George Bancroft, the historian, who contributed a series
+of admirable articles. Mr. Everett's connection with the "Ledger" had
+settled the question that it was not beneath the dignity of the most
+eminent literateur in the land to write for it. Fanny Fern's husband,
+Mr. James Parton, Alice and Phoebe Carey, Mrs. Southworth, and a host of
+others have helped, and still help, to fill its columns.
+
+But perhaps its most profitable contributor, next to Mr. Everett, is
+Henry Ward Beecher. That wonderful gift of the great preacher which
+enables him to touch so constantly upon subjects nearest to the hearts
+of most men, would make him invaluable to any paper. Mr. Bonner was
+struck with this after hearing him preach several times, and resolved to
+secure his services for the "Ledger." He proposed, to the parson's utter
+astonishment, that Mr. Beecher should write a story for the paper, and
+coupled it with the offer of a sum which many persons would consider a
+fortune. The field was utterly new to Mr. Beecher. Novel-writing was
+something he had never even thought of; but after some hesitation he
+accepted the offer. Soon after this, the publication of "Norwood" was
+begun in the columns of the "Ledger." The story was longer than was at
+first agreed upon, and Mr. Bonner paid its author a handsome sum in
+addition to the amount originally offered. The reward was princely, but
+not out of proportion to the service rendered by Mr. Beecher, who has
+won thousands of readers for the paper. Mr. Beecher still writes for the
+"Ledger," and there is no present prospect of his genial and useful
+contributions coming to a close.
+
+Mr. Bonner has made his paper useful to young people as well as those of
+maturer years. Each number contains articles, briefly and pointedly
+written, upon some popular and useful topic, so that thousands find not
+only amusement, but valuable hints and profitable instruction in the
+"Ledger."
+
+It was for a long time the custom of the newspaper press to indulge in
+sneers at the "Ledger," and, at the least, to treat it with a species of
+mild contempt. In order to stop this, its proprietor secured and
+published a series of articles from James Gordon Bennett of "The
+Herald," Henry J. Raymond of "The Times," and Horace Greeley of "The
+Tribune." By thus identifying the leading journalists of the country
+with his enterprise, he effectually silenced the scoffers, and with them
+the "lesser lights" of the press.
+
+It was said by some over-careful persons that the "Ledger" was not a
+proper paper for young persons to read. Mr. Bonner at once secured the
+services of the Presidents of the twelve principal colleges of the
+Union, and articles from each of these gentlemen appeared in his paper.
+After this it was not to be presumed that a journal which had among its
+contributors twelve such distinguished guides of youth could be unfit
+for any one to read.
+
+In order to make still less room for doubt on this subject, a series of
+articles by twelve distinguished clergymen soon after appeared in the
+"Ledger."
+
+Indeed, the greatest care is exercised to exclude from the columns of
+the paper any thing savoring in the least of impurity. It is the
+proprietor's aim to make it a help as well as an amusement to its
+readers, and his object is to elevate, not to degrade them.
+
+The "Ledger" now circulates over three hundred thousand copies per
+week, and is growing in the public favor. From the profits of his
+business Mr. Bonner has built a splendid marble publishing-house at the
+corner of William and Spruce Streets, in New York, from which the
+"Ledger" is now issued. It is one of the most complete establishments in
+the world, and is fitted up with every convenience necessary to the
+performance of the work upon the paper in the most perfect and
+expeditious manner. Mr. Bonner has created all this by his own energy
+and business talent, and richly deserves the success he enjoys. He
+resides in an elegant mansion in New York, and has also a handsome
+country seat at Morrisania, in Westchester County. He is married, and
+has a family.
+
+Mr. Bonner's great wealth has enabled him to achieve a distinction of
+another kind. He is famous as the owner of the finest horses in America.
+His stables are located in Twenty-seventh Street, and are the most
+perfect of their kind in this country. They contain every thing needed
+for the comfort and care of the horses, and the men employed in them are
+thoroughly skilled in their business. The horses are seven in number.
+First on the list is "Dexter," who has made his mile in the
+unprecedented time of 2:17-1/4 in harness, and 2:18 under the saddle. He
+is the fastest horse in the world. "Lantern," a splendid bay, fifteen
+and a half hands high, has made his mile in 2:20. "Pocahontas," the most
+perfectly formed horse in existence, has made her mile in 2:23; while
+"Peerless," a fine gray mare, has followed close on to her in 2:23-1/4.
+"Lady Palmer" has made two miles with a three hundred and fifty pound
+wagon and driver in 4:59, while her companion, "Flatbush Mare," has made
+a two-mile heat to a road wagon in 5:01-1/4. The "Auburn Horse," a large
+sorrel, sixteen and a half hands high, with four white feet and a white
+face, was declared by Hiram Woodruff to be the fastest horse he ever
+drove. These horses cost their owner over two hundred thousand dollars,
+and he would not part with them for double that sum. He does not race
+them for money, but drives them for his own use, and holds the reins
+himself.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+LAWYERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+JOHN MARSHALL.
+
+
+To the writer's mind the most perfect specimen of the American lawyer
+known to our history was JOHN MARSHALL, of Virginia, Chief Justice of
+the United States. Profoundly learned in the law, irresistible in
+argument, and possessed of an eloquence which drew men in throngs to
+listen to him, he was also the soul of honor. Neither in his private nor
+professional life could the most malicious find an action open to
+reproach. Simple and earnest as a child, he was yet a tower of strength
+to the cause of justice. Occupying the highest place in our judiciary
+system, he was never unduly elated by his honors, and while gaining and
+awarding fortunes in the discharge of his professional duties, he was
+himself so true a man that the most brazen suitor would not have dared
+to offer him a bribe. He was in all things the simple, honest gentleman,
+the fearless advocate, the just judge, and the meek and earnest follower
+of his Saviour. Although belonging to a past generation, his story is
+presented here because I wish to offer to those who seek to follow him
+in his noble calling the purest and highest model our history affords.
+
+John Marshall was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, on the 24th of
+September, 1755. He was the oldest of a family of fifteen children, and
+was the son of Colonel Thomas Marshall, a planter of moderate fortune.
+During the Revolution, Colonel Marshall commanded a regiment of Virginia
+troops, and won considerable distinction at the battles of the Great
+Bridge, Germantown, Brandywine, and Monmouth. At the Brandywine the
+regiment bore the brunt of the attack of the British army, led by
+Cornwallis in person.
+
+John Marshall was born in a region so thinly settled as to be almost cut
+off from civilization. The people were plain and even rough in their
+habits, and the mode of life which prevailed in his native county
+doubtless did much to lay the foundation of those habits of simplicity
+for which he was noted in after life. Schools were almost unknown in
+this region, and such as were in operation were so rude in character
+that Colonel Marshall, who was a man of education and culture, decided
+not to attempt to train his children in them. Being unable to raise the
+means of sending them to better schools in other parts of the Colony, he
+determined to become their teacher himself, and applied himself to his
+task with a devotion which was signally rewarded by the brilliant career
+of his eldest son. He laid especial weight upon their acquiring a
+thorough knowledge of the English language and of history, and sought to
+cultivate in them a love for the poetry of their native tongue.
+Referring in after life to his father's devoted labors, Judge Marshall
+once said, with great feeling, "To him I owe the solid foundation of all
+my success in life." John Marshall did ample justice to his father's
+labors, and when only fourteen years old was thoroughly familiar with
+the writings of Shakespeare, Dryden, Milton, and Pope, and could repeat
+by heart nearly the whole of the "Essay on Man." These poets were always
+his favorites, and in mature life he would quote them with readiness and
+the keenest relish.
+
+He showed such marked talent that his father determined to make an
+effort to secure him a better education than his private labors could
+impart to him, and accordingly sent him for a year to the school of the
+Rev. Mr. Campbell, in Westmoreland County, where he received a good
+drilling in English and Latin. At this school began his acquaintance
+with James Monroe, who was then one of Mr. Campbell's pupils. Returning
+home at the end of the year, he continued his studies under the Rev. Mr.
+Thompson.
+
+He studied hard and was an industrious reader. Poetry and romance were
+his favorites, but he read history with the deepest interest. He was
+quiet and thoughtful in manner, and full of a dreamy, poetic enthusiasm.
+He loved to wander in the thick woods, and would pass many of his
+leisure hours in gazing at the beauties of nature. His constitution was
+a sound and vigorous one, and he was not only fond of manly and athletic
+sports, but excelled in them. He had no inclination toward dissipation,
+and the simple, healthful life of his home was calculated to develop his
+physical powers to the utmost. Colonel Marshall did not neglect the
+moral training of his children, but always impressed upon them the
+importance of Christianity as the basis of their characters, rearing
+them in that simple code of true gentility which was so dear to our
+fathers, but of which we of to-day are fast losing sight.
+
+Being destined for the bar, young Marshall began his legal studies at
+the age of eighteen, but in two years they were interrupted by the
+troubles with Great Britain, which terminated in open hostilities. A
+volunteer company was raised in the neighborhood, and John Marshall
+promptly attached himself to it. He took a prominent part in the
+questions of the day, and expressed himself boldly in favor of
+resistance. In 1775 Patrick Henry made his memorable appeal for
+volunteers to drive the Loyalist Governor, Lord Dunmore, out of
+Virginia. Three companies were immediately organized in Marshall's
+neighborhood. Among these were the famous "Culpepper Minute Men."
+Marshall's father was elected major of the regiment, and he himself was
+chosen a lieutenant in the Minute Men. The force at once hastened to the
+lower counties, and bore a conspicuous part in the battle of Great
+Bridge. In July, 1776, Marshall's company was assigned to the Eleventh
+Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army, and sent North. In May, 1777,
+he was made captain of his company. He participated in the fight at Iron
+Hill, and in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine, and Monmouth, and
+shared the sufferings of the army at the memorable encampment of Valley
+Forge. Until the close of 1779 he was constantly in active service. He
+was always patient, cheerful, and hopeful. In the severest hardships to
+which the army was exposed his spirits never sank. One of his comrades
+said that he did more than any other man to keep alive the hopes of the
+army during the terrible winter at Valley Forge, and another has
+declared that "the officers of the Virginia line appeared to idolize
+him." His conduct attracted the attention of Washington, who conceived a
+warm friendship for him, and Marshall, on his part, returned the
+friendship of his chief with a feeling almost of worship. Washington
+frequently appointed him deputy judge advocate during the winter.
+
+At the close of 1779 he went to Virginia to take command of a new corps
+which the Legislature was about to raise. The project remaining under
+discussion for some months, he passed the time in attendance upon a
+course of lectures on law, delivered by George Wythe, and a course of
+lectures on natural philosophy, delivered by the Rev. Dr. Madison,
+afterward Bishop of Virginia, at William and Mary College, in
+Williamsburg. The next summer he received his license to practice law.
+Meanwhile, the project for raising troops had taken the shape of a
+definite failure, and he now set out to rejoin the army. Too poor to pay
+his passage to the North, he walked the entire distance from
+Williamsburg, Virginia, to Philadelphia, upon reaching which city he was
+so travel-worn and shabby in appearance, that the landlord of the hotel
+at which he wished to stop refused him admittance. He joined the army in
+due time, and remained with it until the spring of 1781, when he
+resigned his commission, a few months before the close of the war.
+
+With the return of peace the courts were again thrown open, and Marshall
+began that brilliant legal career which has made him one of the most
+famous men in our history. His success was marked from the first, as his
+professional talents were such as to make themselves felt anywhere, and
+his personal popularity aided him greatly in overcoming the difficulties
+which lie in the path of a young aspirant to legal honors. In 1782, the
+people of Fauquier elected him to the House of Delegates in the General
+Assembly of the Commonwealth, and in the fall of that year he was
+appointed one of the Council of State. In January, 1783, he was married
+to Miss Mary Willis Ambler, with whom he lived in the most perfect
+happiness for over fifty years. His bride was a woman of great personal
+beauty, and in every respect a fitting helpmate for such a man--than
+which no higher tribute could be paid her. About this time, Mr. Marshall
+decided not to return to Fauquier, but to locate himself permanently in
+Richmond, where he could enjoy many more professional advantages. In
+spite of this, however, his old friends in Fauquier re-elected him to
+the Legislature, and in 1787 he sat in that body as representative from
+the county of Henrico.
+
+He was very plain and even careless in his personal attire, and this
+often led to amusing occurrences. Soon after he began the practice of
+his profession in Richmond, he was strolling through the streets one
+morning, dressed in a plain linen suit and a straw hat. The hat was held
+under his arm, and was filled with cherries, of which he ate as he
+walked. In passing the Eagle Hotel, he stopped to exchange salutations
+with the landlord, and then continued his walk. Sitting near the
+landlord, on the hotel porch, was a Mr. P----, an elderly gentleman from
+the country, who had come to the city to engage counsel in an important
+case which was to be tried in a day or two. The landlord referred him to
+Marshall as the best lawyer in the city; but the old gentleman was so
+much prejudiced against the young advocate, by his careless appearance,
+that he refused to engage him. On entering court, Mr. P---- was a second
+time referred to Marshall by the clerk of the court, and a second time
+he refused to employ him. At this moment entered Mr. V----, a
+venerable-looking legal gentleman, in a powdered wig and black coat,
+whose dignified appearance produced such an impression on Mr. P---- that
+he engaged him at once. In the first case which came on, Marshall and
+Mr. V---- each addressed the court. "The vast inferiority of his
+advocate was so apparent that at the close of the case Mr. P----
+introduced himself to young Marshall, frankly stated the prejudice which
+had caused him, in opposition to advice, to employ Mr. V----; that he
+extremely regretted the error, but knew not how to remedy it. He had
+come to the city with one hundred dollars as his lawyer's fee, which he
+had paid, and had but five left, which, if Marshall chose, he would
+cheerfully give him for assisting in the case. Marshall, pleased with
+the incident, accepted the offer, not, however, without passing a sly
+joke at the _omnipotence_ of a powdered wig and black coat."
+
+In 1788, Mr. Marshall was elected to the Virginia Convention which met
+in June of that year for the purpose of considering the question of the
+adoption or rejection of the Federal Constitution. The debates in this
+body were among the most brilliant in history. Marshall took a decided
+stand in favor of the Constitution, and is believed to have done more
+than any other man, save Mr. Madison, to secure its adoption. He added
+greatly to his reputation by his labors in this body, and the close of
+the session found his practice very much enlarged. He was anxious to
+devote himself entirely to his professional duties; but he was urged so
+vehemently to accept a seat in the Legislature from the city of
+Richmond, that he was forced to consent. He sat in that body from 1789
+to 1791, and in those sessions which were marked by the brilliant
+contests between the Federalists and Republicans took a decided stand
+with the former, and sustained his position by an array of arguments
+against which his opponents were powerless. The struggle was one of
+great bitterness, but Marshall, although victorious in it, made no
+enemies among his antagonists.
+
+For the next three years he devoted himself industriously to his
+profession, appearing in public only to defend with masterly eloquence
+the course of President Washington with reference to the insolent
+conduct of Citizen Genet, the French Agent. In 1795, he was again
+elected to the Legislature, "not only without his approbation, but
+against his known wishes;" but yielding to the desires of his friends he
+took his seat in that body. The great question of the day was the
+adoption of "Jay's Treaty" with Great Britain. In Virginia, a bitter
+opposition assailed the treaty, and the entire State rang with
+denunciations of it. Even the influence of Washington was powerless to
+stay the tide of popular passion excited against the treaty and those
+who upheld it. Meetings were held in Richmond, and the treaty was
+fiercely denounced. Marshall now came to the rescue, and before a
+meeting of the citizens of that place made such an unanswerable argument
+in favor of the treaty, that the men who had been foremost in assailing
+it now united in the adoption of resolutions indorsing the policy of the
+Administration. In the Legislature his efforts were equally successful,
+and the opponents of the Administration were forced to abandon their
+constitutional objections to the treaty, and to content themselves with
+a simple denial of the expediency of the measure at that time. President
+Washington attached so much importance to these services that he offered
+to his old friend and comrade the position of Attorney-General of the
+United States, but Marshall declined the offer, as he wished to devote
+himself to his practice, which had now become very lucrative. He
+continued to sit in the Legislature, which did not interfere with his
+private business, and remained the constant and vigilant friend of
+Washington's Administration. In 1796, he was offered the post of
+Minister to France, as Mr. Monroe's successor, but he declined it for
+the same reason which had made him refuse the Attorney-Generalship. In
+1797, when the offer was repeated, this time by President Adams,
+Marshall yielded to the entreaties of Washington, and went to France
+with Pinckney and Gerry, as Envoy Extraordinary. The object of the
+mission was to remove the obstructions placed by France in the way of
+American commerce. The Envoys were unsuccessful, but a correspondence
+took place between Marshall and Talleyrand, which was a source of great
+satisfaction to American publicists, and raised Marshall still higher
+in their esteem and confidence. Upon his return home in 1798, he was
+given a public reception in New York by the citizens, and a public
+dinner by the two Houses of Congress, "as an evidence of affection for
+his person, and of their grateful approbation of the patriotic firmness
+with which he had sustained the dignity of his country during his
+important mission." He subsequently took a prominent part in support of
+the measures of retaliation directed against France by the
+Administration, which were sharply assailed by the opposition. He
+resumed his practice in Richmond, but was again drawn from it by a
+message from Washington, who requested him to visit him at Mt. Vernon.
+He did so, and the result was that he yielded to the solicitations of
+his old chieftain, and consented to accept a seat in Congress. He was
+elected to the Lower House of that body in 1799. During the canvass,
+President Adams offered him a seat in the Supreme Court of the United
+States, but he declined it.
+
+His career in Congress was brief, but brilliant. The Federalist party
+was hard pressed by the Republicans, and he promptly arrayed himself on
+the side of the former, as the champion of the Administration of John
+Adams. The excitement over the "Alien and Sedition Laws" was intense,
+but he boldly and triumphantly defended the course of the
+Administration. Mr. Binney says of him that, in the debates on the great
+constitutional questions, "he was confessedly the first man in the
+House. When he discussed them, he exhausted them; nothing more remained
+to be said; and the impression of his argument effaced that of every one
+else."
+
+His great triumph was his speech in the Jonathan Robbins affair. Robbins
+had committed a murder on board an English ship-of-war, and had sought
+refuge from punishment in the United States. In accordance with one of
+the provisions of Jay's Treaty, his surrender had been demanded by the
+British Minister, on the ground that he was a British subject, and he
+had been surrendered by President Adams. The opposition in Congress made
+this act a pretext for a famous assault upon the Administration, and a
+resolution was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr.
+Livingston, censuring the President for his course in the matter. This
+resolution produced an extended debate in the House, in the course of
+which Marshall defended the President in a speech of great force and
+eloquence. Judge Story has said of this speech, that "it was _reponse
+sans replique_--an answer so irresistible that it admitted of no reply.
+It silenced opposition, and settled then and forever the points of
+national law upon which the controversy hinged."
+
+In May, 1800, Mr. Adams offered Marshall a seat in his Cabinet as
+Secretary of War, but before he could enter upon the duties of that
+office he was made Secretary of State, in which capacity he acted for a
+short while, conducting several important negotiations during that time,
+and leaving behind him several of the most magnificent state papers to
+be found in our archives. During his occupancy of this position, it
+became necessary to appoint a Chief Justice of the United States, and
+Marshall took advantage of the occasion to urge upon the President the
+propriety of tendering the place to a distinguished gentleman who had
+been a faithful friend to the Administration; but Mr. Adams quietly
+informed him that he had made up his mind to confer the honor upon the
+man best suited to it, and that he had sent to the Senate the name of
+John Marshall, of Virginia. This appointment, which came to him entirely
+unsolicited, was made on the 31st of January, 1801, and was unanimously
+confirmed by the Senate.
+
+He held the position of Chief Justice for more than thirty-four years,
+and this period is justly regarded as the most brilliant portion of the
+history of our highest court, a court of which a famous judge has said:
+
+"The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States have raised the
+renown of the country not less than they have confirmed the
+Constitution. In all parts of the world its judgments are spoken of with
+respect. Its adjudications of prize law are a code for all future time.
+Upon commercial law it has brought us nearly to one system, befitting
+the probity of a great commercial nation. Over its whole path, learning
+and intelligence and integrity have shed their combined luster."
+
+Although holding so high a post in the General Government, he continued
+to take a warm interest in the affairs of his native State, and in 1828
+was a delegate to the Charlottesville Convention, which met for the
+purpose of recommending to the Legislature a system of internal
+improvements best suited to the needs of the State. In 1829, he was a
+member of the Convention which met in Richmond for the purpose of
+revising the Constitution of the State. Though now quite old and feeble,
+he took an active part in the debates of the Convention, and was mainly
+instrumental in effecting the settlement of the disputes between the
+eastern and western sections of the State.
+
+In 1805, Judge Marshall published, in five volumes, his "Life of
+Washington." The first volume was devoted to the history of the
+Colonies, from their settlement to the commencement of the Revolution.
+This work has always held the first position in our Revolutionary
+annals, and won for its author a place in the front rank of American
+writers. It is, all in all, the best biography of Washington in
+existence.
+
+Sterling honesty was exemplified in Judge Marshall's whole career. His
+word was indeed as good as his bond. He would never argue in behalf of a
+cause which he had reason to think unjust, and he scorned to take a
+legal advantage at the expense of moral honesty. He once indorsed a
+bond to the amount of several thousand dollars. The drawer failed, and
+Marshall paid it, although he knew he could avoid it, as the holder had
+forfeited his claim in law by requiring more than legal interest.
+
+He was generous to a fault. Once, as he passed through Culpepper County,
+he met with Captain S----, one of his old comrades in the Revolution. In
+the course of the conversation which ensued, S---- told him that his
+estate was burdened with a mortgage for $3,000, which was about to fall
+due, and that, as he was unable to pay it, he saw nothing but ruin in
+store for him. At his departure, Marshall handed a note to the servant
+who brought his horse to the door, and told him to give it to his
+master. This was done as Marshall was riding away, and upon opening the
+note Mr. S--- found that it contained a check for the amount of the
+mortgage. Mounting his horse, he soon overtook Marshall, and, though he
+thanked him warmly for his generosity, refused to accept it. Marshall
+strenuously urged its acceptance, but the other persistently refused.
+Finally, the former suggested a compromise. Marshall took up the
+mortgage, and thus satisfied the first claim, but as his friend was
+never prosperous, he never asked for the payment of the debt.
+
+William Wirt has left us the following description of his personal
+appearance: "He is tall, meager, emaciated; his muscles relaxed, and his
+joints so loosely connected as not only to disqualify him apparently for
+any vigorous exertion of body, but to destroy every thing like harmony
+in his air or movements. Indeed, in his whole appearance and
+demeanor,--dress, attitudes, gesture, sitting, standing, or walking,--he
+is as far removed from the idolized graces of Lord Chesterfield as any
+other gentleman on earth."
+
+"In spite, however, of this ungainly person," says a writer, "no one
+was a greater social favorite than the Chief Justice. The people of
+Richmond regarded his eccentric figure with strong personal affection as
+well as respect. The black eyes, under their bushy gray brows, beamed
+with good nature, and the lips were habitually smiling. The courtesy of
+the Judge was one of his most beautiful traits. It was the spontaneous
+exhibition of the simple and kindly emotions of his heart. Pure
+benevolence and philanthropy displayed itself in every word which he
+uttered. He gave his hand to the plain yeoman clad in homespun as
+courteously and sincerely as to the greatest personage in the country.
+He had the same simple smile and good-humored jest for both, and seemed
+to recognize no difference between them. It was instructive to estimate
+in the good Chief Justice the basis and character of true politeness.
+John Randolph, one of the most fastidious and aristocratic of men, left
+his opinion that Marshall's manner was perfect good breeding. In dress
+and bearing, it would be difficult to imagine any one more simple than
+Judge Marshall. He presented the appearance of a plain countryman,
+rather than a Chief Justice of the United States. He had a farm in
+Fauquier County, and another near Richmond, and he would often return
+from the latter to take his seat on the bench with burrs sticking to his
+clothes. His great passion was the game of quoits, and he was a member
+of the club which met, as it still meets, at Buchanan's Spring, near the
+city, to play at this game. Here the Governor of Virginia, the Chief
+Justice, and the most eminent lawyers of the Court of Appeals, were
+found by a French gentleman, Baron Quinet, with their coats off, gayly
+pitching quoits, with the ardor of a party of urchins. In these simple
+amusements passed the hours of leisure which Judge Marshall could steal
+from his exhausting judicial toil. At such times he seemed to become a
+boy again, and to forget the ermine. His fondness for other social
+enjoyments was great. He was the center of a brilliant circle of men,
+many of whom were famous, and the tradition of their dinner parties, and
+the jests which they circulated, is still preserved."
+
+It was his custom always to provide for his table himself when at home,
+and he might be seen every morning at the Shockoe Hill Market, with his
+basket on his arm, engaged in making his purchases. Upon one of these
+occasions he noticed a fashionably-dressed young man, swearing violently
+because he could not find any one willing to carry home for him a turkey
+which he had just purchased, and which his foolish pride would not
+permit him to carry himself. Approaching him quietly, the Judge asked
+where he lived, and upon being told, said, "I am going that way, and
+will carry it for you." Taking the turkey, he set out and soon reached
+the young man's door. Upon receiving his turkey, the young man thanked
+him for his trouble, and asked, "How much shall I pay you?" "Oh,
+nothing," replied the Judge, smiling, "you are welcome. It was on my
+way, and no trouble." So saying, the Judge departed, and the young man,
+with a faint suspicion of the truth, turned to a bystander, and asked,
+in some confusion, "Who is that polite old gentleman who brought home my
+turkey for me?" "That is John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the United
+States," was the reply. "Why, then, did _he_ bring home my turkey?"
+stammered the fop. "To give you a deserved rebuke," said the gentleman,
+"and to teach you to conquer your silly pride."
+
+Reference has been made to his carelessness in regard to his personal
+appearance. A wager was once laid among his friends in Richmond that he
+could not dress himself without leaving about his clothing some mark of
+his carelessness. The Judge good-humoredly accepted the wager. A supper
+was to be given to him upon these conditions. If his dress was found
+faultless upon that occasion, the other parties were to pay for the
+entertainment; but if any carelessness could be detected about his dress
+or in his appearance, the expense was to fall upon him. Upon the
+appointed evening the gentlemen and the Judge met at the place agreed
+upon, and to the surprise of all, the Judge's dress seemed faultless. He
+appeared the very perfection of neatness and taste. The supper followed,
+the Judge being in high glee over his victory. Near the close of the
+repast, however, one of the guests, who sat next to Judge Marshall,
+chanced to drop his napkin, and stooping down to pick it up, discovered
+that the Judge had put on one of his stockings with the wrong side out.
+Of course the condition of affairs was immediately reversed, and, amid
+roars of laughter, the Chief Justice acknowledged his defeat.
+
+The means of locomotion in the Southern States being limited in the days
+of Judge Marshall, it was his custom to travel about the country, when
+holding his circuit courts, in an old-fashioned and very much
+dilapidated gig. His plain and even rusty appearance often led him into
+ludicrous adventures, which he related to his friends with keen
+enjoyment. At other times people to whom he was personally unknown were
+astonished to find that this shabbily-dressed old man was the famous
+Chief-Justice Marshall. One of his adventures is thus related by an
+eye-witness:
+
+"It is not long since a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties
+of Virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public-house to
+obtain refreshment and spend the night. He had been there but a short
+time when an old man alighted from his gig, with the apparent intention
+of becoming his fellow-guest at the same house. As the old man drove up,
+he observed that both the shafts of his gig were broken, and that they
+were held together by withes formed from the bark of a hickory sapling.
+Our traveler observed, further, that he was plainly clad, that his
+knee-buckles were loosened, and that something like negligence pervaded
+his dress. Conceiving him to be one of the honest yeomanry of our land,
+the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and they entered the
+tavern. It was about the same time that an addition of three or four
+young gentlemen was made to their number--most of them, if not all, of
+the legal profession. As soon as they became conveniently accommodated,
+the conversation was turned by the latter upon an eloquent harangue
+which had that day been delivered at the bar. The other replied that he
+had witnessed the same day a degree of eloquence no doubt equal, but
+that it was from the pulpit. Something like a sarcastic rejoinder was
+made to the eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm and able altercation
+ensued, in which the merits of the Christian religion became the subject
+of discussion. From six o'clock until eleven the young champions wielded
+the sword of argument, adducing with ingenuity and ability every thing
+that could be said pro and con. During this protracted period, the old
+gentleman listened with all the meekness and modesty of a child, as if
+he was adding new information to the stores of his own mind; or perhaps
+he was observing, with philosophic eye, the faculties of the youthful
+mind, and how new energies are evolved by repeated action; or, perhaps,
+with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting upon the future destinies of
+his country, and on the rising generation upon whom these future
+destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a sentiment of moral and
+religious feeling, he was collecting an argument which--characteristic
+of himself--no art would be 'able to elude and no force resist.' Our
+traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what was said."
+
+[Illustration: MARSHALL'S DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANITY]
+
+"At last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to
+combat with long-established prejudices, wheeled around, and, with some
+familiarity, exclaimed, 'Well, my old gentleman, what think you of these
+things?' If, said the traveler, a streak of vivid lightning had at that
+moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been greater
+than it was with what followed. The most eloquent and unanswerable
+appeal was made, for nearly an hour, by the old gentleman, that he ever
+heard or read. So perfect was his recollection, that every argument used
+against the Christian religion was met in the order in which it was
+advanced. Hume's sophistry on the subject of miracles was, if possible,
+more perfectly answered than it had already been done by Campbell. And
+in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and
+sublimity, that not another word was uttered. An attempt to describe it,
+said the traveler, would be an attempt to paint the sunbeams. It was now
+a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the old gentleman was. The
+traveler concluded it was the preacher from whom the pulpit eloquence
+was heard; but no--it was the Chief Justice of the United States."
+
+Judge Marshall was a simple and earnest Christian, and held in the
+deepest abhorrence the fashionable skepticism of his day. His conduct
+was consistent with his profession, and to the last this good and great
+man repeated night and morning the simple prayer he had learned at his
+mother's knee.
+
+For many years he suffered from an affection of the bladder, and was at
+length compelled to resort to a surgical operation for relief. This had
+the desired effect, but he was soon after taken with an attack of "liver
+complaint." He repaired to Philadelphia for medical treatment, but
+failed to derive any benefit from it, and died in that city on the 6th
+of July, 1835.
+
+His body was conveyed to Richmond for interment, and he now sleeps by
+the side of his wife in the Shockoe Hill Cemetery in that city. The spot
+is marked by a plain slab of marble, over which the weeds and the rank
+grass are growing, and on which may be read the following inscription,
+dictated (saving the last date) by himself:
+
+"John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born 24th of
+September, 1755; intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler, the 3d of
+January, 1783; departed this life the 6th day of July, 1835."
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JAMES T. BRADY.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+JAMES T. BRADY.
+
+
+The father of James T. Brady was born in Ireland, and came to this
+country during the second war with England, and just after his marriage.
+Mr. Brady opened a school for boys, in New York, soon after his arrival,
+and it was in that city, on the 9th of April, 1815, that his eldest son,
+JAMES TOPHAM BRADY, was born. Other children followed, there being seven
+in all, two boys (James T., and Judge John R. Brady) and five girls. Mr.
+Brady, senior, was a man of rare abilities, and his wife was a woman of
+great personal beauty and high character, "one of those mothers," says a
+distinguished gentleman, who knew her, "whose quiet virtues shed their
+blessed influence over families, and are felt so long in their durable
+effect upon children."
+
+James T. Brady grew up with a sound, vigorous constitution, and at an
+early age was put at his studies in his father's school. He was only
+seven years old when he began, and though so young, he worked hard,
+storing his "big head"--which seemed too big for the little feet below
+it--with knowledge. He endeared himself very greatly to his
+school-fellows, and formed with several of them friendships which
+continued through life. "He was so noted," says one of his former
+school-fellows, "for his loving kindliness as a boy, that it almost
+obliterates every other recollection." His amiable traits developed with
+his years. He always delighted in acts of kindness, and could never bear
+to give pain, even to the most insignificant animal or insect. He
+detested hunting and fishing, which he regarded as a needless sacrifice
+of life. Yet while so tender and gentle in his disposition, he was brave
+and fearless, unusually independent, and, above all, as mirthful and
+fond of a jest at fifty as at sixteen.
+
+Before he had completed his education, his father abandoned the
+profession of teaching for that of a lawyer, and young Brady entered his
+office as office-boy and student, it being his desire to become an
+advocate. He was bright, quick-witted, and remarkably apt in his
+studies. His buoyant spirits and ready repartee often led him into
+encounters with his elders, who were generally forced to confess that
+his tongue was too much for them. His father encouraged him to form his
+own opinions, and to hold them tenaciously until convinced of his error.
+He made rapid progress in his legal studies, and soon acquired such
+proficiency in the management of the details of the office business that
+every thing which did not absolutely need his father's personal
+attention was left to him.
+
+Although fond of social enjoyment, and full of the fire and joyfulness
+of youth, he knew how to seclude himself from the pleasures he relished
+so much. He was a hard and faithful student, allowing nothing to draw
+him from his books when he meant to devote himself to them. He read not
+only law, but history, poetry, biography, romance, in short, every thing
+that could store his mind with useful knowledge or add to its natural
+graces. He slept at the office, and often sat up the entire night
+engaged in study. Abbott speaks as follows of the early studies of
+Napoleon II., and it requires no straining of language or ideas to
+apply his remarks to this portion of the life of James T. Brady: "So
+great was his ardor for intellectual improvement that he considered
+every day as lost in which he had not made perceptible progress in
+knowledge. By this rigid mental discipline he acquired that wonderful
+power of concentration by which he was ever enabled to simplify subjects
+the most difficult and complicated." Mr. Brady, senior, was very proud
+of the energy and talent displayed by his son, and when the latter was
+nineteen years old the father said to a friend who had been speaking to
+him of the promise of the boy: "Yes, sir; he is a boy of great promise,
+a boy of splendid intellect and noble character. Young as he is, I
+regard him as a walking encyclopoedia; his mind seems to gild every
+subject it touches."
+
+In the year 1835, when but twenty years old, Mr. Brady was admitted to
+the bar. "There were giants in those days" at the New York bar, and the
+young man was now entering an arena in which his powers were to be
+tested to the utmost. His native eloquence was well known to his
+friends, and naturally he was not ignorant of it; but he did not, like
+so many young men in his calling, trust entirely to his powers of
+pleading. He had long since recognized the truth of Lord Erskine's
+declaration that "no man can be a great advocate who is no lawyer," and
+had stored his mind with a knowledge of the theories of his profession
+which few men in coming to the bar have ever equaled.
+
+In his first important case he was opposed to Charles O'Conor, and was
+unsuccessful. He was engaged in a suit to recover a certain sum of money
+from an insurance company, which his client claimed was due him for
+certain goods which had been destroyed by fire. As Brady himself saw, he
+had a very weak case, and Mr. O'Conor had no trouble in demolishing it;
+yet the young counsel conducted it with a skill and an eloquence which
+made him from that hour a marked man in his profession. Yet he had to
+contend against that obstacle which meets most public men at the outset
+of their careers--the feeling which actors call "stage fright." He said
+that on this occasion every thing around him grew suddenly black, and he
+could not even see the jury. By steadying himself against his table, and
+keeping his eyes in the direction of the jury, he continued to speak
+until he had recovered his self-control.
+
+The case which brought him most prominently before the public, and which
+may be said to have established his fame as a lawyer, was a peculiar
+one. Some newsboys had been arrested for selling the "Sunday Morning
+News" on the morning of the Sabbath day. It was claimed that the selling
+of the paper on the streets on Sunday was contrary to law, and that the
+boys disturbed the congregations in the churches by their cries. One of
+these boys had been arrested at the instance of Mr. Gerard, and this
+brought on a suit to determine the rights of the lads, in which Mr.
+Brady appeared for the newsboys. Considerable feeling was manifested on
+the subject, and when the trial came on the court-room was crowded. The
+verdict of the jury was against him, but Mr. Brady won a remarkable
+triumph by his management of the case, and the whole city rang with his
+eloquence. So great was the effect of his speech upon the audience, that
+many of them who were total strangers to him crowded around him as he
+left the court-house to congratulate him. Though defeated in the verdict
+of the jury, this case was a great triumph for Mr. Brady. It established
+his fame as an advocate, and advanced him at once to a foremost place at
+the bar. Business flowed in upon him more rapidly than he could attend
+to it, and from this time to the close of his labors he was always in
+the possession of a large and lucrative practice.
+
+Mr. McKeon has said of him: "We may refer to the period of his
+introduction to the bar of this city as an epoch in its history. In
+looking back at the past, we see rising before us George Wood, treading
+with no uncertain step through the labyrinth of the law of real
+property; Daniel Lord, following, with his legal eye, commerce over the
+long and dreary waste of waters; David Graham, the younger, and Ogden
+Hoffman, standing in full panoply of intellectual power before our
+criminal tribunals. Into the lists where stood these proud knights young
+Brady sprang, ready to contend with the mightiest of them. How well he
+contended many of you well remember, and the honors paid to his memory
+are justified by the triumphs he has won."
+
+He grew rapidly in popularity, and in the esteem and confidence of his
+fellow-citizens, and was intrusted with numerous cases of a class which
+had rarely until then been seen in the hands of a young lawyer. His
+practice soon extended into the Supreme Court of the State, which at
+that time met quarterly, at New York, Albany, Utica, and Rochester. The
+practice of this court was entirely in the hands of men of high standing
+in their profession,--the great lawyers of the State,--and it was no
+slight honor to our young lawyer to hold a place, and a proud place,
+too, among them.
+
+He won additional honors in the famous India-rubber suits, which have
+been mentioned elsewhere in this volume, acting as one of the counsel of
+Charles Goodyear, and being associated with Daniel Webster. Brady
+applied himself with intense energy to master the case, and when the
+trial came off at Trenton, in the United States Circuit Court, before
+Justices Grier and Dickerson, he opened the case in a speech which
+lasted two days, and which Daniel Webster said in the beginning of his
+remarks had so exhausted it as to leave him nothing to say.
+
+Turning to Mr. Brady, Mr. Webster said, "You have cut a highway through
+this case, and if it is won, it will be because of the manner in which
+you have brought it before the court." The suit was won by Goodyear.
+
+"In connection with the India-rubber cases is a fact which testifies to
+his character. A salary of twenty-live thousand dollars a year for life
+was offered to be settled on him by the rubber company, if he would
+advise a certain course; but not deeming it right, he rejected the
+offer. When in France, in 1851, the rubber cases coming in controversy
+there, Mr. Brady substantially gave in French, to Etienne Blanc, the
+French advocate, the materials for his brief."
+
+Mr. Brady practiced law for thirty-four years, and during the major part
+of that time there was scarcely a case of great importance, in either
+the civil or criminal courts, in which he did not figure. He was
+compelled to refuse case after case from lack of time to give to it; and
+yet he frequently found time to respond to the appeals of the courts to
+defend men indicted for capital offenses who were unable to procure
+counsel. In some of these cases he had scarcely any chance of
+preparation, but he always managed to secure the acquittal of his
+client, in spite of this drawback. The spirit of kindliness which had so
+endeared him to his boyhood's friends pervaded every action of his
+maturer life, and he never displayed more energy, more unceasing
+vigilance, more irresistible eloquence, than when pleading the cause of
+some poor wretch who could only reward him with his thanks.
+
+His readiness in mastering a case was remarkable, and was greatly
+assisted by his profound knowledge of the law. As a rule, in the
+ordinary run of cases, it was merely necessary for him to comprehend the
+particular case under consideration, since he was already familiar with
+the law bearing upon it.
+
+This readiness is admirably illustrated in the following reminiscence
+related of him by the Hon. Luther R. Marsh. Mr. Marsh was engaged in a
+case of great importance, in which he desired Mr. Brady's assistance in
+the trial. Marsh had thoroughly and patiently studied the case, but
+Brady was totally ignorant of it. Nevertheless, he told Mr. Marsh he
+would do his best, and that he (Marsh) must open the case as fully and
+exhaustively as he could, without reference to him. Mr. Marsh did so,
+and says that when he sat down he thought he had _exhausted_ the case,
+and was wondering what Brady could find to say in addition to it. To his
+astonishment and delight, Brady rose, and in his argument presented
+seven new and telling points.
+
+In the examination of a witness, he could be severe and decisive when he
+had occasion to suspect that the person was trying to evade the truth;
+but in general his manner was kind and considerate, and he succeeded in
+eliciting evidence by his forbearance which others could not have
+extorted by bullying. Upon one occasion, he was convinced that a witness
+was about to relate a "made-up" story, and he at once fixed upon the man
+a look so piercing that the fellow was overwhelmed with confusion and
+could not go on with his evidence. Brady promptly changed his tactics,
+sent for a glass of water for the witness, and soothed him so
+effectually that the heart of the man was won, and, abandoning his false
+tale, he made a simple statement of the truth.
+
+The independence of character exhibited by Mr. Brady has already been
+adverted to. Having once traced out the line of duty, nothing could make
+him swerve from it, and he was as bold in the defense of the rights of
+his clients as of his own. Mr. Edwards Clarke, from whose excellent
+memoir is gleaned much of the information upon which this sketch is
+based, relates the following incidents in illustration of this quality
+of the man:
+
+"The trial of Baker for the murder of Poole furnished a notable instance
+of Mr. Brady's intrepidity in behalf of a client. It was at the height
+of the 'Know-Nothing' excitement, and Poole, after receiving the fatal
+bullet, having exclaimed, 'I die an American,' succeeded in causing
+himself to be regarded as a martyr to the cause. Lingering for days
+with--as the _post-mortem_ proved--a bullet deeply imbedded in his
+heart, the interest and excitement became intense; and on the day of his
+funeral twenty thousand men walked in solemn procession behind the
+coffin of the martyred 'rough.' In such a state of public feeling, Baker
+was put on trial for his life. At the opening of the charge by the
+judge, aroused by its tenor, Mr. Brady seized a pen and commenced
+writing rapidly, indignation showing itself in his set lips and frowning
+brow. The moment the judge ceased he was on his feet, and began: 'You
+have charged the jury thus and thus. I protest against your so stating
+it.' The judge said he would listen to the objections after the jury had
+retired. 'No!' exclaimed the indignant orator, 'I choose that the jury
+should hear those objections;' and, defying interference, he poured
+forth impetuously forty-five separate and formal objections, couching
+them all emphatically in words of personal protest to the judge. The
+force of the judge's charge on that jury was pretty effectually broken.
+The indignation of the advocate at this time was real, not simulated;
+and he, at least, of the New York bar dared to defy and to denounce
+injustice, even when clad in ermine.
+
+"Another instance of his intrepidity before a judge was in the Busteed
+case. The judge had threatened to convict him for contempt. Busteed had
+apologized, and Brady also, with his matchless grace and courtesy, had
+tendered Busteed's apology; but the judge still said that he should
+send him to prison. 'You will, will you?' said Brady; 'I say you will
+not.' And, citing authority after authority against his power to do so,
+he dared him to thus stretch his prerogative. The judge thought best to
+excuse Mr. Busteed."
+
+Perhaps one of the best instances of his moral courage to be found was
+his conduct with reference to the late Edwin M. Stanton. He was
+associated with Mr. Stan ton in the Sickles trial, and conceived a warm
+personal attachment to him. Mr. Brady remained a Democrat to the last,
+and was an active member of Tammany Hall. Upon one occasion, during a
+meeting of the Tammany Committee, when the name of Stanton was received
+with hisses and yells of objurgation, Brady rose, and facing the crowd
+told them "that he knew they hated Edwin M. Stanton, but he, a Democrat,
+knew him, and held him in his heart of hearts." It was a bold
+declaration, considering the time and place, even for one so highly
+esteemed as James T. Brady.
+
+As before remarked, Mr. Brady never relied upon his eloquence alone for
+success at the bar. He had a profound respect for his profession, and
+scorned its trickeries. He worked faithfully over the cases intrusted to
+him, studied them carefully, and never brought them to trial till he was
+thorough master of the law bearing upon them. This enabled him
+frequently to present issues which a less learned man would not have
+dreamed of. When he was retained as counsel for Huntington the forger,
+he conceived the idea that the man was morally unaccountable for his
+deed, and his theory of moral insanity, as developed by him in this
+case, is one of the most powerful arguments upon the subject to be found
+in any language. He read every thing he could find on the subject of
+insanity, and when he went into court there was not a physician in the
+land better informed with respect to it than he. The cases in which he
+was frequently engaged required an unusual acquaintance with medical
+jurisprudence, and he was regarded as one of the best authorities on the
+subject in the country.
+
+His power over a jury was remarkable. He never lost sight of the "twelve
+peers," and by his dexterous management soon had them so thoroughly
+under the influence of his magnetic mind that they hung upon his words,
+followed his every act, laughed or cried as he willed, and seemed
+capable of thinking only as he permitted them. He defended fifty-one men
+for their lives in the course of his practice, and brought them all off
+in safety.
+
+[Illustration: "THEY ARE GOING TO HANG MY BROTHER, AND YOU CAN SAVE
+HIM!"]
+
+Mr. Clarke, from whose memoir I have already quoted, relates the
+following incidents in his career:
+
+"The case of a young man charged with murder, in what was claimed to be
+an accidental fracas, attracted a good deal of interest. He was a Mason,
+and that society applied to Mr. Brady to defend him, tendering
+twenty-five hundred dollars as a fee; but for some cause he declined the
+case. Not long after, one afternoon, a neatly-dressed, modest young girl
+came to the office and asked for Mr. Brady. Told to walk into his
+private office, she timidly approached his desk, and saying, 'Mr. Brady,
+they are going to hang my brother, and you can save him. I've brought
+you this money; please don't let my brother die,' she burst into tears.
+It was a roll of two hundred and fifty dollars, which the poor girl had
+begged in sums of five and ten dollars. The kind-hearted man heard her
+story. 'They shall not hang your brother, my child,' said he, and
+putting the roll of bills in an envelope, told her to take it to her
+mother, and he would ask for it when he wanted it. The boy was cleared.
+In Mr. Brady's parlor hangs an exquisite picture, by Durand, with a
+letter on the back asking him to accept it as a mark of appreciation for
+his generous kindness in defending this poor boy. Mr. Brady prized
+_that_ picture....
+
+"Once when, in the height of his appeal to the jury, a dog began barking
+vigorously, he whirled around, shook his finger at the dog and said,
+gravely, with the quickness of thought, 'I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope
+my lips let no dog bark!'
+
+"An Irishman once came to his office: 'And are yez Misther Brady?' 'I
+am; come in, Patrick. What is it you wish?' 'I ax yer pardon; I oughtn't
+to intrude upon yez,' 'But what is it, Patrick?' 'Well, yer honor, it
+isn't for the likes o' me to be comin' troublin' yer honor.' 'But tell
+me what you want, Pat.' 'Well, yer honor, I came to see ye about a
+friend of mine as met wid an accident.' 'An accident?' said Mr. Brady;
+'then why don't you go for a doctor?' 'Arrah, sure, you're the docther
+for my friend; he had an accident which wants yer honor.' 'Well, what
+_was_ it?' 'Well, yer honor, he was arristed for a thrifle of a
+burglary, shure.' Quick as Mr. Brady was, with the readiness of his
+race, for repartee, he sometimes met his match among his own countrymen.
+He was once examining an unwilling witness who persistently called him
+Mr. O'Brady. At length, even his proverbial good nature being a little
+ruffled, he said to the witness: 'You need not call me Mr. O'Brady. I've
+mended my name since I came here and dropped the O.' 'Have ye, now? 'Pon
+my sowl it's a pity ye didn't mend yer manners at the same time.'"
+
+In politics Mr. Brady was a Democrat of the States-Rights school, yet he
+always maintained that it was the duty of the citizen to render the
+promptest obedience to the General Government. At the outset of the late
+war he gave his support to the Government in its war measures, though he
+did not separate himself from the Democratic party. He was frequently
+solicited by his friends to accept political honors, but he steadily
+refused, saying that he wanted no honors outside of his profession.
+
+In person Mr. Brady was slender and delicate in appearance. What
+attracted the gazer at once was his massive head--a head which measured
+in its circumference twenty-four and three-eighths inches. Age seemed to
+have no effect upon his face. Severe mental labor in the course of years
+took away some of the rosy hues of youth, but otherwise it continued as
+fresh and as winning as when a boy.
+
+Mr. Brady never married, but no one was more widely removed from the
+typical old bachelor than he. If he had no family of his own, he was the
+head of a family of devoted relatives, who gave him ample scope for the
+exercise of the domestic affections which were so strong in him. Very
+soon after entering upon the practice of his profession his parents
+died, leaving his brother and five sisters, all much younger than
+himself, helpless. The young lawyer at once declared that the care of
+these dear ones should be his first thought, and he devoted himself to
+his practice with redoubled energy, in order to provide for them. He
+brought his personal expenses down to a low figure, and resolutely kept
+them there, yet all the while he was lavish in his generosity to those
+whom he loved. He once said to a friend who asked him why he had never
+married: "When my father died he left five daughters, who looked to me
+for support. All the affection which I could have had for a wife went
+out to those sisters, and I have never desired to recall it." He
+transferred a share of this affection to the children of those sisters
+and of his brother, and was never so happy as when in their company. In
+his will he mentions one of his nieces as his "dearly beloved Toot."
+
+He was very fond of literature, especially of poetry, and devoted a
+considerable portion of his time to literary efforts of his own. His
+great fame as a lawyer so overshadowed the success he won in literature
+that few besides himself knew how much pleasure the popularity of his
+writings gave him.
+
+In the exercise of his profession Mr. Brady won a large fortune. His
+income was princely during the greater part of his life, but he saved
+comparatively little. He delighted in giving to others. His relatives
+were the constant recipients of substantial evidences of his affection
+for them, and his charities to the poor were in keeping with his
+generous nature. He could not look upon suffering unmoved, and "never
+turned his face from any poor man."
+
+His last appearance in public was at the Gerard dinner, where he was as
+brilliant and genial as ever. He seemed to have a foreboding of his
+approaching end, however, for the next day he said to one of his family:
+"I feel that it is the last time I shall ever appear on a like public
+occasion." His fears were prophetic. He was seized with an attack of
+paralysis on the morning of the 9th of February, 1869, and breathed his
+last at five o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. He died in the
+communion of the Catholic Church, and was buried from St. Patrick's
+Cathedral, in the city of New York. His death drew forth expressions of
+sympathy and respect from all parts of the Union and from men of all
+shades of opinion. All felt that a good and useful man, a great
+advocate, and an incorruptible citizen had been taken away.
+
+His was a happy fate. He died in the fullness of his fame, before age
+had weakened his faculties or chilled his heart, and dying thus, it may
+be said of him, as he once said of another, that he was "a man who had
+no guile in his nature, and who died leaving no living creature to
+rejoice at his death."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+ARTISTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+BENJAMIN WEST.
+
+
+At a time when America was regarded in Europe as a savage region, and
+when Americans were looked upon as little better than barbarians by the
+people of the mother country, it was no slight achievement for an
+American artist to rise by the force of his genius to the proud position
+of President of the Royal Academy of Great Britain.
+
+The man who won this triumph was BENJAMIN WEST. He was born in
+Springfield, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. His parents
+were Quakers, plain, simple people, who feared God, lived a just life,
+and desired above all other things that their children should become
+pious and useful men and women. The old mansion-house where the future
+artist was born was situated in Chester County, and is still standing.
+It is not far from Philadelphia, and the place is now called Westdale.
+His father's family emigrated from England to America with William Penn,
+at his second visit, in 1699. John West married the daughter of Thomas
+Pearson, by whom he had ten children. Of these, Benjamin was the
+youngest son. His mother was a woman of great piety, and, being once in
+attendance upon a memorable religious revival, at which she was terribly
+agitated by the preaching of one Edward Peckover, an itinerant Quaker
+minister, was taken with premature labor, of which Benjamin West was
+born.
+
+It was predicted that a child who had been brought into the world under
+such circumstances would be a man of more than ordinary fame, and the
+good mother treasured these prophecies in her heart, and watched the
+career of her boy with the keenest interest.
+
+When he was but seven years old, he was left one day to watch beside the
+cradle of the infant child of his eldest sister, who, though married,
+was still living at home. Being unusually silent for a long time, his
+mother concluded that she would go and see what he was doing. Upon
+entering the room where he had been left with his charge, she saw him
+kneeling by a chair which he had placed close up to the cradle, gazing
+at the infant, and making what she supposed to be marks on a paper which
+lay on the chair. Stealing up behind him softly, she saw to her
+astonishment that this boy, only seven years old, had executed, with
+black and red ink and a pen, an accurate though rude likeness of the
+sleeping babe. This was the first evidence he had ever given of his
+predilection for art, and was indeed a most surprising performance for
+so young a child.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRUANT'S SECRET DISCOVERED.]
+
+The next summer a party of Indians came to Springfield to pay their
+annual visit, and to please them little Benjamin showed them some
+sketches of birds and flowers which he had executed with pen and ink.
+The savages were delighted with them, and presented him with the red and
+yellow pigments with which they colored their ornaments. In addition to
+this gift, they taught him how to prepare these colors, to which he
+added another, namely, indigo, which his mother gave him from her
+laundry. His colors were rude enough, but his pencils were ruder. They
+were made of the hairs which he had pulled from a cat's back and
+fastened in the end of a goose-quill. Soon after this, a relative from
+Philadelphia, chancing to visit the old homestead, was struck with the
+talent of the little fellow, and upon his return to the city sent him a
+box of colors, with pencils and canvas and a few prints. He was only
+nine years old, but he was a born artist. He had never seen any painting
+of merit, and the few prints which his relative gave him were the most
+finished productions he had ever seen. The box of colors was his most
+precious possession, and it opened to him new fields of enjoyment. The
+day of its arrival he gave himself up entirely to the pleasure of
+examining it. "Even after going to sleep," says his biographer, "he
+awoke more than once during the night, and anxiously put out his hand to
+the box, which he had placed by his bedside, half afraid that he might
+find his riches only a dream. Next morning he rose at break of day, and,
+carrying his colors and canvas to the garret, proceeded to work. Every
+thing else was now unheeded; even his attendance at school was given up.
+As soon as he got out of the sight of his father and mother, he stole to
+his garret, and there passed the hours in a world of his own. At last,
+after he had been absent from school some days, the master called at his
+father's house to inquire what had become of him. This led to the
+discovery of his secret occupation. His mother, proceeding to the
+garret, found the truant; but so much was she astonished and delighted
+by the creation of his pencil, which also met her view when she entered
+the apartment, that, instead of rebuking him, she could only take him in
+her arms and kiss him with transports of affection. He made a new
+composition of his own out of two of the engravings, which he had
+colored from his own feeling of the proper tints; and so perfect did
+the appearance already appear to his mother, that, although half the
+canvas yet remained uncovered, she would not suffer him to add another
+touch to what he had done. Mr. Gait, West's biographer, saw the picture
+in the state in which it had thus been left sixty-seven years afterward;
+and the artist himself used to acknowledge that in none of his
+subsequent efforts had he been able to excel some of the touches of
+invention in this his first essay."
+
+His next effort was a landscape, which comprehended a view of a river,
+with vessels in the stream and cattle browsing on the banks. He could
+not have been much over ten years of age at this time, and the picture,
+though insignificant in itself, is remarkable as the work of a child. He
+subsequently presented it to his friend, Mr. William Henry, of
+Lancaster, whose family still retain possession of it. He visited
+Philadelphia soon after, and received a few simple instructions in the
+practical portion of his art, after which he went about through the
+towns of the vicinity of his home, painting portraits of his friends. At
+length he was sent for by Mrs. Ross, of Lancaster, a lady famed for her
+great beauty, to paint the portraits of herself and her family--a great
+honor for a lad of twelve.
+
+It was in Lancaster, in the year 1750, that he made the acquaintance of
+Mr. William Henry. That gentleman became deeply interested in the
+precocious boy, and frequently came to watch him at his
+portrait-painting. One day he said to Benjamin, that if he (Henry) could
+paint equally well he would not waste his time upon portraits, but would
+devote himself to historical subjects. In the course of the conversation
+to which this remark gave rise, Mr. Henry proposed to him to make an
+attempt in this direction, and suggested to him "The Death of Socrates"
+as his first subject. The little artist frankly avowed that he had
+never heard of the great philosopher, and Mr. Henry at once went to his
+library and brought out a volume of Plutarch, from which he read to the
+boy the beautiful story of the wise man's death. West listened with the
+deepest interest, and expressed his perfect readiness to undertake the
+task, but feared he would have difficulty in painting the figure of the
+slave who presented the poison, and which he thought ought to be naked,
+since he had hitherto painted only men with their clothes on. Mr. Henry
+had in his employ a young man of fine appearance, and upon hearing
+West's objection at once sent for him. As the workman entered the room
+Henry pointed to him, and said to West, "There's your model." West took
+the hint, painted the picture, which was purchased by Mr. Henry, and
+thenceforth determined that in his art he would look only into nature
+for his models.
+
+At the age of sixteen he returned to Springfield. He was anxious to
+continue his career as an artist, and as his parents were satisfied that
+he was now old enough to enter upon some permanent occupation, they
+agreed that his wishes should be submitted to a public meeting of the
+Society of Friends. The meeting was called, and the matter was laid
+before them, the boy himself being present. His relatives and friends
+were all very proud of his talents, but as the profession of an artist
+was so entirely at variance with all Quaker habits and ideas, they felt
+that the subject was one which ought not to be rashly decided. Silence
+prevailed for a long time after the opening of the meeting, but at
+length John Williamson, moved by the Spirit, rose and addressed the
+assemblage, declaring his belief that as the youth had not derived his
+fondness for art from any of his associations or surroundings, and since
+it was so manifestly a special gift from the Creator, it was their plain
+duty to bid him go forward in the path that had been marked out for
+him, and to wish him God-speed in his efforts. At the close of his
+remarks silence again fell upon the assembly. Then the women rose, and
+approaching the lad, one by one, kissed him on the cheek, and the men,
+laying their hands on his head, prayed that the Lord might verify in his
+life the value of the gift which had induced them, in spite of their
+religious tenets on the subject, to allow him to enter upon the
+permanent exercises of the profession so dear to his heart.
+
+Thus was he dedicated to his art, and at the same time separated to a
+certain degree from his Quaker brethren. Not long after this he violated
+every principle of the Quaker dispensation by volunteering under Major
+Sir Peter Halket to go in search of the remains of Braddock's army.
+
+In 1756, at the age of eighteen, he established himself in Philadelphia
+as a portrait painter, and soon after removed to New York, where he
+painted portraits at five guineas a head, occasionally attempting an
+historical piece. When he was twenty years old he made a visit to
+Europe--a visit which decided his destiny. A famine in the south of
+Europe induced a Philadelphia merchant to dispatch a vessel laden with
+flour to Leghorn, and his son, who was to take passage in the ship,
+proposed to West to accompany him, and thus secure an opportunity of
+seeing the art-treasures of the Old World. West promptly accepted the
+invitation, and some of his friends in New York provided him with an
+outfit for the voyage. Upon arriving at Gibraltar, the vessel was
+boarded by a British officer, who proved to be a kinsman of the son of
+the owner of the ship, and he not only passed them without molestation,
+but enabled them to secure unusual facilities in the voyage up the
+Mediterranean. West arrived in Rome in July, 1759, and was kindly
+received by the English Lord Grantham, to whom he bore letters of
+introduction.
+
+"Among the distinguished persons whom Mr. West found in Rome, was the
+celebrated Cardinal Albani. At an evening party, the Cardinal became
+curious to witness the effect which the works of art in the Belvidere
+and Vatican would produce on the young artist. The whole company, which
+consisted of the principal Roman nobility and strangers of distinction
+then in Rome, were interested in the event, and it was arranged, in the
+course of the evening, that, on the following morning, they should
+accompany West to the palaces. At the hour appointed, the company
+assembled, and a procession consisting of upwards of thirty of the most
+magnificent equipages in the capital of Christendom, and filled with
+some of the most erudite characters in Europe, conducted the young
+Quaker to view the masterpieces of art. It was agreed that the 'Apollo'
+should be first submitted to his view, because it was the most perfect
+work among all the ornaments of Rome, and, consequently, the best
+calculated to produce that effect which the company were anxious to
+witness. The statue then stood in a case, inclosed with doors, which
+could be so opened as to disclose it at once to full view. West was
+placed in the situation where it was seen to the most advantage, and the
+spectators arranged themselves on each side. When the keeper threw open
+the doors, the artist felt himself surprised with a sudden recollection
+altogether different from the gratification which he had expected, and
+without being aware of the force of what he said, exclaimed, 'My God!
+how like it is to a young Mohawk warrior.' The Italians, observing his
+surprise and hearing the exclamation, were excessively mortified to find
+that the god of their idolatry was compared to a savage. They mentioned
+their chagrin, and asked West to give some more distinct explanation, by
+informing them what sort of people the Mohawk Indians were. He described
+to them their education, their dexterity with the bow and arrow, the
+admirable elasticity of their limbs, and how much their active life
+expands the chest, while the quick breathing of their speed in the chase
+dilates the nostrils with that apparent consciousness of vigor which is
+so nobly depicted in the 'Apollo.' 'I have seen them often,' added he,
+'standing in that very attitude, and pursuing with an intense eye the
+arrow which they had just discharged from the bow,' The Italians were
+delighted with this descriptive explanation, and allowed that a better
+criticism had never been pronounced on the merits of the statue."
+
+Soon after his arrival in Rome, West painted a portrait of Lord
+Grantham, which won him considerable reputation. It was at first
+attributed to Raphael Meugs, but when the true artist was announced, and
+the circumstances of his history became known, West found himself
+suddenly famous, with orders enough to place him at once in comfortable
+circumstances. Cardinal Albani and Lord Grantham were very kind to him
+during his stay in Rome, and Raphael Meugs advised him to make a careful
+tour of study through the Italian art capitals. While in Rome he painted
+two pictures, "Cimon and Iphigenia," and "Angelica and Medora," which
+were well received, and during this period he was elected a member by
+the Academies of Florence, Bologna, and Parma. He made the tour advised
+by Meugs, remaining in Italy several years. Thence he proceeded to
+France, where he passed a short time in studying the French masters,
+after which he went to England, intending to sail from that country for
+America, where he had left his heart behind him in the keeping of a
+young Quakeress of Philadelphia.
+
+He reached London in 1763, and while continuing his studies here,
+whither his reputation had preceded him from Italy, undertook some
+commissions for Archbishop Drummond and several other church
+dignitaries. These attracted general admiration, and his countrymen
+residing in London were prompt to recognize and proclaim his genius. He
+had relatives living in England, so that he was not an entire stranger
+there. His success was marked from the first, and his friends urged him
+to profit by so favorable a beginning, give up his idea of returning to
+America, and make his permanent home in England. This he at length
+decided to do, and devoted himself with increased ardor to his labors.
+In two years he considered himself sufficiently well established to send
+to Philadelphia for his betrothed. This lady, Miss Elizabeth Shewell,
+came out to England under the care of his father, and in the same year,
+1765, West was married to her in London. She was a lady of great
+amiability of character, and by the English was often spoken of as the
+Philadelphia beauty.
+
+Soon after his arrival in England he produced a large painting on a
+subject from Tacitus, "Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus."
+It was a decided success. George the Third was deeply impressed with it,
+and congratulated West warmly upon its merits. At the same time the king
+gave him a commission for a painting,--the subject to be "The Death of
+Regulus,"--and thus began the friendship between the monarch and the
+artist, which lasted for nearly forty years. He was a hard worker, and
+during his long life his pictures followed each other in rapid
+succession. They are estimated by a writer in Blackwood's Magazine at
+three thousand in number. Mr. Dunlap says that they would cover a wall
+ten feet high and a quarter of a mile long if arranged side by side on a
+flat surface. The most famous are his "Death of Wolfe;" "Regulus, a
+Prisoner to the Carthaginians;" "The Battle of La Hogue;" "The Death of
+Bayard;" "Hamilcar Swearing the Infant Hannibal at the Altar;" "The
+Departure of Regulus;" "Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of
+Germanicus;" "Christ Healing the Sick;" "Death on the Pale Horse;" "The
+Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Saviour in the Jordan;" "The
+Crucifixion;" and "Christ Rejected."
+
+The picture which brought him most prominently before the public, and
+which placed his popularity beyond dispute, was "The Death of Wolfe at
+Quebec." It was fashionable at this time to treat nothing but subjects
+from ancient history, and when West announced his intention of painting
+a picture of contemporary history his friends warned him that he was
+incurring a serious risk. Nevertheless he finished his "Death of Wolfe,"
+and it was exhibited in the National Gallery. The public "acknowledged
+its excellence at once, but the lovers of old art--called
+classical--complained of the barbarism of boots, buttons, and
+blunderbusses, and cried out for naked warriors, with bows, bucklers,
+and battering rams." Lord Grosvenor was much pleased with the picture,
+and finally purchased it, though he did so with hesitation, daunted to
+some extent by the fierce storm of opposition with which the critics
+received it. Sir Joshua Reynolds, then the President of the Royal
+Academy, and the Archbishop of York, called on West and protested
+against his barbarous innovation, but he declared to them that "the
+event to be commemorated happened in the year 1759, in a region of the
+world unknown to Greeks and Romans, and at a period of the world when no
+warrior who wore classic costume existed. The same rule which gives law
+to the historian should rule the painter." When the king saw the picture
+he was delighted both with it and West's originality, and declared that
+he was sorry Lord Grosvenor had been before him in purchasing it. This
+was the inauguration of a new era in British art, and Sir Joshua
+Reynolds was obliged to declare, "West has conquered. I foresee that
+this picture will not only become one of the most popular, but will
+occasion a revolution in art." This frank avowal was as honorable to Sir
+Joshua as to West.
+
+West painted for George the Third a number of subjects taken from the
+early history of England, and received from the same monarch a
+commission for a series of paintings illustrating the progress of
+revealed religion, with which the king designed to ornament the chapel
+at Windsor Castle. Of these twenty-eight were finished when the Prince
+of Wales, afterward George the Fourth, came into power as Prince Regent,
+and the commission was withdrawn. The artist then began a series of
+grand religious subjects, upon which he was still engaged when death
+called him to rest from all his labors. Of those which were completed,
+"Death on the Pale Horse" and "Christ Healing the Sick" are the best
+known in this country.
+
+In 1792, upon the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, West was made President
+of the Royal Academy. The king wished to confer upon him the honor of
+knighthood, but he declined it, alleging that he was not wealthy enough
+to support the dignity of the position. In consequence of dissensions in
+the Academy, West resigned his presidency in 1802. The post was filled
+for a year by James Wyatt, the architect, and at the close of that time
+West was re-elected by every ballot but one--that of Fuseli, who voted
+for Mrs. Lloyd, a member of the Academy, declaring that he considered
+"one old woman as good as another." West continued in this office until
+his death.
+
+The close of his life was blessed with ample means, and, as he was in
+the full possession of all his faculties and covered with art's
+supremest honors, it may be regarded as the happiest portion of his
+career. His house was always open to Americans visiting England, and few
+things pleased him more than to listen to news from his native village.
+He was a kind and judicious friend to young artists, especially to those
+of his own country studying in England, and took a lively pleasure in
+their success. Leigh Hunt, whose mother was a relative of West, has left
+us the following description of him:
+
+"The appearance of West was so gentlemanly that the moment he changed
+his gown for a coat he seemed to be full dressed. The simplicity and
+self-possession of the young Quaker, not having time enough to grow
+stiff--for he went early to Rome--took up, I suppose, with more ease
+than most would have done, the urbanities of his new position. Yet this
+man, so well bred, and so indisputably clever in his art, whatever might
+be the amount of his genius, had received a homely or careless
+education, and pronounced some of his words with a puritanical
+barbarism; he would talk of his art all day. There were strong
+suspicions of his leaning to his native side in politics, and he could
+not restrain his enthusiasm for Bonaparte. How he managed these matters
+with the higher powers in England I can not say."
+
+Possessed originally of a sound and vigorous constitution, which he had
+not weakened by any species of dissipation, West lived to a good old
+age, and died in London on the 11th of March, 1820, in his eighty-second
+year. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, by the side of Sir Joshua
+Reynolds, and under the same great dome which covers the tombs of Nelson
+and Wellington.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+JOHN ROGERS.
+
+
+There is scarcely a family of means and taste in the country but is the
+possessor of one or more of Rogers's groups in plaster. You see them in
+every art or book-store window, and they are constantly finding new
+admirers, and rendering the name of the talented sculptor more and more
+a household word.
+
+JOHN ROGERS, to whom the world is indebted for this new branch of art,
+was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 30th of October, 1829. His
+ancestors were among the original settlers of the colony, and have
+resided in Salem for generations. His father, a merchant of moderate
+means and good reputation, was anxious to train his son to some regular
+and profitable business. As the basis of this, he gave the boy a good
+education in the common schools of the town, and in 1845, when he was
+sixteen years old, placed him in a dry-goods store in Boston to learn
+the business. He remained there for two years.
+
+He gave early evidence of his artistic genius, and when a mere child had
+shown a taste and talent for drawing which increased with his years, and
+made him eager to become an artist. His parents, however, were desirous
+of seeing him rich rather than famous, and did all in their power to
+discourage him from making choice of a vocation which they considered
+but little better than vagabondage. They magnified the difficulties and
+trials of an artist's career, and so far succeeded in their efforts that
+he entirely abandoned his wish to make art a means of livelihood. He was
+not willing to forsake it altogether, however--he was too true an artist
+at heart for that--but contented himself for the time with continuing
+his efforts, merely as a means of personal enjoyment.
+
+In 1847, feeling satisfied that he was not suited to a mercantile life,
+Mr. Rogers gave up his clerkship in Boston, and obtained a place in the
+corps of engineers engaged in the construction of the Cochituate Water
+Works. Here he had a fine opportunity for cultivating his talent for
+drawing, but the constant labor which he underwent so injured his eyes
+that he was compelled to give up his position. His physician advised him
+to make an ocean voyage for the purpose of re-establishing his health.
+Acting upon this advice, he made a short visit to Spain, and returned
+home very much improved by the voyage and the rest his eyes had enjoyed.
+
+In 1848, soon after his return to this country, he entered a machine
+shop in Manchester, New Hampshire, to learn the trade of a machinist. He
+worked at this trade for a period of seven years, applying himself to it
+with great diligence and determination, and acquiring much mechanical
+skill and a thorough knowledge of the trade. He rose steadily through
+the various grades of his new calling--from the bench of the apprentice
+to the post of draughtsman in the designing department.
+
+During this period he devoted himself enthusiastically to his art. Soon
+after his return from Spain, he had observed a young man modeling a
+figure in clay, and by closely observing him had learned the process,
+which until then was unknown to him. The labor of the youth pleased him
+very much, and the more because he saw in it a new means of artistic
+expression. He at once procured some clay, and, taking it to his room,
+commenced to practice upon the lesson which he had just received. From
+this time forward he continued his art labors, giving to them all the
+leisure time he could spare from his duties in the shop, where he was
+compelled to work from five A.M. until seven P.M. He would go to his
+room after supper, and by the light of a tallow candle work late into
+the night, modeling figures in clay, and bringing new fancies into
+shape. He says that frequently, although exhausted by his severe labor
+at the shop, he would be unable to sleep until he had molded into clay
+the idea which possessed his mind. These night studies, superadded to
+his daily duties, proved very trying to him. Yet he persevered,
+encouraged by his success with his figures. He endeavored to persuade
+some of his relatives to aid him in securing a better education as an
+artist, such as would have enabled him to abandon the machine shop; but
+they turned a deaf ear to him, and he was thus compelled to continue his
+daily task, which, under these circumstances, naturally grew more and
+more irksome.
+
+In 1856, he was enabled to better his condition for a short time. He was
+offered the place of manager of a railroad machine-shop at Hannibal,
+Missouri, and promptly accepted it. In six months, however, he was out
+of employment, the panic of 1857 having caused the machine-shop to
+suspend operations. Having a little money in hand, which he had saved
+from his wages, he resolved to visit Europe, and study the works of the
+great masters in his art, and, if he could, to take lessons in sculpture
+from some competent teacher in the Old World. He went to Paris and Rome,
+remaining in those cities for a period of eight months, and endeavoring
+to share the enthusiasm for the great works around him which the artist
+world manifested. At the end of that time he came home convinced that
+classic art had no attractions for him, and was almost ready to declare
+that he had none of the true inspiration of an artist.
+
+He did not stop long in the East upon his return. Going West at once, he
+obtained a situation in the office of the Surveyor of the city of
+Chicago. In this position he worked hard and faithfully, and his
+employers soon found that in him they had obtained a prize.
+
+Meantime, although so much disheartened by his failure to accomplish any
+thing in Europe, he did not abandon his art studies, but continued to
+model figures in clay, and shortly after his arrival in Chicago, gave
+one of his groups to some ladies of that city, to be sold at a fair in
+behalf of some benevolent purpose. This was the "Checker Players," and
+was the first of his efforts ever submitted to the public. Its success
+was immediate. It proved one of the most attractive features of the
+fair, and the newspapers pronounced it one of the most satisfactory
+evidences of native genius ever seen in Chicago. Mr. Rogers was much
+pleased with its success, and soon followed it with "The Town Pump," one
+of his most popular compositions.
+
+The popularity which these efforts attained, opened John Rogers's eyes
+to a correct perception of his true mission in life. He was not capable
+of accomplishing any thing in classic art, but here was a field in which
+a renown, unique and brilliant, might be won, and in which he might
+endear himself to thousands of hearts in the great world in which he
+lived. Both fame and wealth seemed opening up before him. He did not
+hesitate long, but resolved to follow the leadings of his genius. Having
+heard that a new process of flexible molds had been invented, by which
+the most intricate designs could be cast with ease, he came to New York
+in 1859, bringing with him his "Checker Players" and "Town Pump," and
+the model of a new group on which he was then engaged. Seeking an
+Italian familiar with the new process, he engaged him to cast his
+figures in plaster by means of it, and from him he learned how to
+practice the new method himself.
+
+He now put forth his "Slave Auction," which he had modeled in Chicago
+and brought to New York with him. The antislavery excitement was then at
+its height, and this effort aroused the sympathy and won Mr. Rogers the
+support of the greater part of the people of the Northern States. There
+was a large demand for the group, and Mr. Rogers soon found himself
+obliged to employ assistance to fill the orders which kept crowding in
+upon him. By selecting a subject which was of the deepest interest to
+the people of the country, he had thus attracted attention to his
+merits, and he felt sure that by keeping the people supplied with works
+illustrative of the topics of the day, he would win the success to which
+he aspired.
+
+He now ventured to establish himself permanently in New York, and,
+renting the garret of a Broadway building, set up his studio in it, and
+issued this modest card: "John Rogers, Artist, Designs and Executes
+Groups of Figures in Composition at his Studio, 599 Broadway." The
+success of his works had been so marked as to induce him to believe that
+he would have no difficulty in establishing a permanent business, and he
+set to work with enthusiasm. In quick succession he produced his
+"Fairy's Whisper" and "Air Castles," the latter of which is the only
+commission he has ever executed. The war began soon after, and supplied
+him with an abundance of popular subjects. These war subjects attracted
+universal attention, and sold as rapidly as he could supply them. A New
+York journal thus describes the "sensation" which they created in that
+city:
+
+"All day, and every day, week in and week out, there is an
+ever-changing crowd of men, women, and children standing stationary amid
+the ever-surging tides of Broadway, before the windows of Williams &
+Stevens, gazing with eager interest upon the statuettes and groups of
+John Rogers, the sculptor. These works appeal to a deep popular
+sentiment. They are not pretentious displays of gods, goddesses, ideal
+characters, or stupendous, world-compelling heroes. They are
+illustrations of American domestic and especially of American military
+life--not of our great generals or our bold admirals, or the men whose
+praises fill all the newspapers, but of the common soldier of the Union;
+not of the common soldier, either, in what might be called his high
+heroic moods and moments, when, with waving sword and flaming eye, he
+dashes upon the enemy's works, but of the soldier in the ordinary
+moments and usual occupations of every-day camp life. For the last year
+or more Mr. Rogers has been at work mainly on groups of this latter
+class and character. Thus he has given us 'The Returned Volunteer, or
+How the Fort was Taken,' being a group of three gathered in a
+blacksmith's shop, the characters consisting of the blacksmith himself,
+standing with his right foot on the anvil block, and his big hammer in
+his hands, listening eagerly, with his little girl, to a soldier who
+sits close by on his haunches, narrating 'how the fort was taken,' We
+have also another group of three, 'The Picket Guard,' spiritedly
+sketched, as in eager, close, and nervous search for the enemy; the
+'Sharpshooters,' another group of three, or rather of two men and a
+scarecrow, illustrating a curious practice in our army of deceiving the
+enemy; the 'Town Pump,' a scene in which a soldier, uniformed and
+accoutered, is slaking his thirst and holding blessed converse beside
+the pump with a pretty girl who has come for a pail of water; the 'Union
+Refugees,' a pathetic and noble group, consisting of a stalwart and
+sad-faced East Tennesseean or Virginian, who accompanied by his wife,
+who leans her head upon his bosom, and by his little boy, who looks up
+eagerly into his face, has started off from home with only his gun upon
+his shoulder and his powder-horn by his side, to escape the tyranny of
+the rebels; 'The Camp Fire, or Making Friends with the Cook,' in which a
+hungry soldier, seated upon an inverted basket, is reading a newspaper
+to an 'intelligent contraband,' who is stirring the contents of a huge
+and ebullient pot hung over the fire; 'Wounded to the Rear, or One More
+Shot,' in which a soldier is represented as dressing his wounded leg,
+while his companion, with his left arm in a sling, is trying to load his
+gun to take another shot at the enemy, at whom he looks defiantly; 'Mail
+Day,' which tells its own story of a speculative soldier, seated on a
+stone and racking his poor brains to find some ideas to transcribe upon
+the paper which he holds upon his knee, to be sent perchance to her he
+loves; 'The Country Postmaster, or News from the Army,' which, though a
+scene from civil life, tells of the anxiety of the soldier's wife or
+sweetheart to get tidings from the brave volunteer who is periling his
+life on the battle-field; 'The Wounded Scout, or a Friend in the Swamp,'
+representing a soldier, torn, and bleeding, and far gone, rescued and
+raised up by a faithful and kind-hearted negro--which we think is one of
+the best, if not the very best, of Mr. Rogers's works; and lastly, a
+group called 'The Home Guard, or Midnight on the Border,' in which a
+heroic woman, accompanied by a little girl, is represented as stepping
+out, pistol in hand, to confront the assailants of her humble home."
+
+In 1862 Mr. Rogers removed his studio to the corner of Fifth Avenue and
+Twenty-sixth Street, where he still remains. He has followed up the
+earlier productions named above with "The Bushwhacker," a scene
+representing a Tennessee loyalist dogging the footsteps of the Southern
+army; "Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations," the best and certainly the
+most popular of his works,--a group of four, representing a Southern
+lady with her little boy, compelled to take the oath of allegiance in
+order to obtain rations for her family. A negro boy, bearing a basket
+for his mistress, leans on the barrel watching the proceeding with the
+most intense interest. The woman's face is wonderful, and it expresses
+eloquently the struggle in her breast between her devotion to the South
+and her love for the boy before her, and the officer tendering the oath
+almost speaks the sympathy which her suffering has awakened in him. The
+other works of our artist are "Uncle Ned's School," "The Charity
+Patient," "The School Examination," "The Council of War," "The Courtship
+in Sleepy Hollow," "The Fugitive's Story," "Challenging the Union Vote,"
+and "Rip Van Winkle."
+
+The process by which these exquisite groups are produced is exceedingly
+simple, but is one requiring considerable skill and delicacy of
+manipulation, and although the casting could readily be done by
+competent assistants, Mr. Rogers conscientiously gives his personal
+attention to every detail of the process. The artist takes a mass of wet
+clay of the desired consistency and size, and fashions it roughly with
+his hands to something like the proper shape. "It is sometimes necessary
+to make a little frame of wire upon which to lay the clay, to hold it in
+its proper place, the wire being easily made to take any form. The rough
+figure is then finished with the molding stick, which is simply a stick
+of pine with a little spoon of box-wood attached to each end, one spoon
+being more delicate than the other. With this instrument the artist
+works upon the clay with surprising ease. The way in which the works are
+reproduced is as follows: When the clay model is complete, a single
+plaster cast is taken for a pattern, and is finished with the most
+scrupulous care by Mr. Rogers himself. This cast is used as a pattern
+for making whatever number of molds may be needed to supply the demand
+for any particular group or statue. The molds are made of glue softened
+with water, so as to be about as limber as India-rubber. This is poured
+over the pattern while in a warm and liquid condition; it is, therefore,
+necessary to surround the pattern with a stiff case to hold the glue in
+place. This case is made of plaster, and is built up by hand around the
+pattern. When the glue has become sufficiently hard, it is cut by a thin
+sharp knife and pulled off the pattern. The parts are put together and
+bound by cord, making a perfect glue mold. The plaster of Paris is then
+poured into the mold inverted. A number of crooked pieces of wire are
+also placed in the mold to strengthen the figure. In about twenty
+minutes the plaster sets so as to allow the case to be opened, and the
+glue mold to be pulled off. To his proficiency in the mechanical part of
+his art Mr. Rogers attributes a considerable measure of his success, as
+it enables him to execute with facility every suggestion of his
+imagination, and to secure the perfect reproduction of his works by
+those to whom he intrusts that labor."
+
+By placing his works at popular prices, ranging from $10 to $25 each,
+Mr. Rogers has insured the largest sale and greatest popularity for
+them, and has thus become a national benefactor. It is now within the
+power of every person of moderate means to possess one or more of his
+exquisite groups, and in this way the artist has not only secured to
+himself a sure means of wealth, but has done much to encourage and
+foster a popular love for, and appreciation of, the art of which he is
+so bright an ornament.
+
+It was a bold venture to depart so entirely from all the precedents of
+art, but the result has vindicated both the artist's genius and his
+quick appreciation of the intelligence of his countrymen. "We can not
+enter into the feelings of ancient Greece," says a popular journal, in
+summing up his efforts, "and our artists who spend their time in
+attempting to reproduce that ancient art are only imitators. Their works
+interest only a small class of connoisseurs, and that interest is an
+antiquarian interest. It is not a vital, living interest, such as a
+Greek felt in his own work. It is not the natural, healthful, artistic
+feeling, the feeling for the beauty of realities, except in so far as it
+represents the feeling for the eternal attributes of beautiful form. It
+is an effort on the part of our artists to impose the forms and features
+of another age upon this one,--a task as impossible in art as in
+society, religion, and national politics."
+
+Mr. Rogers is now in his forty-first year, and of all our American
+artists is, perhaps, the one best known to the masses, and the most
+popular. He is of medium height, carries himself erectly, and is quick
+and energetic in his movements. His face is frank, manly, and open, and
+the expression, though firm and resolute,--as that of a man who has
+fought so hard for success must be,--is winning and genial. He is a
+gentleman of great cultivation of mind, and is said by his friends to be
+one of the most entertaining of companions. In 1865 he married a
+daughter of Mr. C.S. Francis, of New York, and his fondness for domestic
+life leads him to pass his leisure hours chiefly by his own fireside.
+
+
+[Illustration: HIRAM POWERS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HIRAM POWERS.
+
+
+Hiram Powers was born in Woodstock, Vermont, on the 29th of July, 1805.
+He was the eighth in a family of nine children, and was the son of a
+farmer who found it hard to provide his little household with the
+necessaries of life. He grew up as most New England boys do, sound and
+vigorous in health, passing the winters in attendance upon the district
+schools, and the summers in working on the farm. "The only distinctive
+trait exhibited by the child was mechanical ingenuity; he excelled in
+caricature, was an adept in constructiveness, having made countless
+wagons, windmills, and weapons for his comrades, attaining the height of
+juvenile reputation as the inventor of what he called a 'patent fuse.'"
+
+The Powers family lived just over the river, opposite the village, and
+all joined heartily in the effort to keep the wolf from the doors. Mr.
+Powers, Sen., was induced to become security for one of his friends,
+and, as frequently happens, lost all he had in consequence. Following
+close upon this disaster came a dreadful famine in the State, caused by
+an almost total failure of the crops. "I recollect," says Mr. Powers,
+"we cut down the trees, and fed our few cows on the browse. We lived so
+long wholly on milk and potatoes, that we got almost to loathe them.
+There were seven of us children, five at home, and it was hard work to
+feed us."
+
+One of the sons had managed to secure an education at Dartmouth College,
+and had removed to Cincinnati, where he was at this time editing a
+newspaper. Thither his father, discouraged by the famine, determined to
+follow him. Accordingly, placing his household goods and his family in
+three wagons, and being joined by another family, he set out on the long
+journey to the West. This was in 1819, when young Hiram was fourteen
+years old. It cost him a sharp struggle to leave his old home, and as
+they climbed the hills beyond Woodstock he lingered behind with his
+mother to take a last view of the place. They crossed the State, and
+passing through western New York came to the vicinity of Niagara Falls.
+They were near enough to the great cataract to hear its solemn roar
+sounding high above the silent woods. The boy was eager to visit it, but
+the distance was too great to the falls, and he was forced to relinquish
+this pleasure. Continuing their journey westward, they reached the Ohio
+River, down which stream they floated on a flatboat until they came to
+Cincinnati, then a city of fourteen thousand inhabitants.
+
+Through the assistance of his eldest son, the editor, Mr. Powers was
+enabled to secure a farm not far from Cincinnati, and removing his
+family to it, began the task of clearing and cultivating it.
+Unfortunately for the new-comers, the farm was located on the edge of a
+pestilential marsh, the poisonous exhalations of which soon brought the
+whole family down with the ague. Mr. Powers the elder died from this
+disease, and Hiram was ill and disabled from it for a whole year. The
+family was broken up and scattered, and our hero, incapable of
+performing hard work so soon after his sickness, obtained a place in a
+produce store in Cincinnati, his duty being to watch the principal road
+by which the farmers' wagons, laden with grain and corn whisky, came
+into the city, and to inform the men in charge of them that they could
+obtain better prices for their produce from his employers than from any
+other merchants in the city. It was also a part of his duty to help to
+roll the barrels from the wagons to the store. He made a very good
+"drummer," and gave satisfaction to his employers, but as the concern
+soon broke up, he was again without employment.
+
+His brother, the editor, now came to his assistance, and made a bargain
+with the landlord of a hotel in the city to establish a reading-room at
+his hotel. The landlord was to provide the room and obtain a few paying
+subscribers; the editor was to stock it with his exchange newspapers,
+and Hiram was to be put in charge of it and receive what could be made
+by it. The reading-room was established, but as the landlord failed to
+comply with his agreement, Powers was forced to abandon the undertaking.
+
+[Illustration: POWERS' DISTRUST OF THE HUNTERS.]
+
+"About that time," said he, in relating his early life to the Rev. Dr.
+Bellows, some years ago, "looking around anxiously for the means of
+living, I fell in with a worthy man, a clock-maker and organ-builder,
+who was willing to employ me to collect bad debts in the country. He put
+me on an old horse which had one very bad fault. He was afflicted with
+what the Western people called the 'swaleys,' and could not go downhill.
+I frequently had to dismount and back him down, as the only way of
+getting along. The road often lay through forests and clearings, in
+mire, and among the roots of the beeches, with which my poor beast was
+constantly struggling. I would sometimes emerge from a dark wood, five
+miles through, perhaps, and find myself near a clearing where the
+farmer's house I was seeking lay, half a mile off the road. Picking up
+a stout club to defend myself against the inevitable dog, which, in the
+absence of men-folks, guarded every log-house, I plodded across the
+plowed field, soon to be met by the ferocious beast, who, not seeing a
+stranger more than once a month, was always furious and dangerous. Out
+would come, at length, the poor woman, too curious to see who it was
+that broke up her monotonous solitude, to call off the dog, who
+generally grew fiercer as he felt his backer near him, and it was
+commonly with a feeling as of a bare escape of my life that I finally
+got into the house. It was sad enough, too, often to find sickness and
+death in those fever-stricken abodes--a wan mother nursing one dying
+child, with perhaps another dead in the house. My business, too, was not
+the most welcome. I came to dun a delinquent debtor, who had perhaps
+been inveigled by some peddler of our goods into an imprudent purchase,
+for a payment which it was inconvenient or impossible to make. There, in
+the corner, hung the wooden clock, the payment for which I was after,
+ticking off the last minutes of the sick child--the only ornament of the
+poor cabin. It was very painful to urge my business under such
+circumstances. However, I succeeded, by kindness, in getting more money
+than I expected from our debtors, who would always pay when they could.
+I recollect, one night, almost bewailing my success. I had reached the
+entrance of a forest, at least nine miles through, and finding a little
+tavern there, concluded it was prudent to put up and wait till morning.
+There were two rough-looking fellows around, hunters, with rifles in
+their hands, whose appearance did not please me, and I fancied they
+looked at each other significantly when the landlord took off my
+saddle-bags and weighted them, feeling the hundred dollars of silver I
+had collected. I was put into the attic, reached by a ladder, and,
+barricading the trap-door as well as I could, went to sleep with one
+eye open. Nothing, however, occurred, and in the morning I found my
+wild-looking men up as early as I, and was not a little disturbed when
+they proposed to keep me company across the forest. Afraid to show any
+suspicion, I consented, and then went and looked at the little
+flint-pistol I carried, formidable only to sparrows, but which was my
+only defense.
+
+"About two miles into the wood, my fierce-looking friends, after some
+exchange of understanding as to their respective ways and meeting-point,
+started off on different sides of the road in search of game, as they
+said, but, as I feared, with the purpose of robbing and perhaps
+murdering me at some darker spot in the forest. I had gone perhaps two
+miles farther, when I heard the breaking of a twig, and, looking on one
+side, saw a hand signaling me to stop. Presently an eye came out behind
+the tree, and then an arm, and I verily thought my hour had come. But,
+keeping straight on, I perceived, almost instantly, to my great relief,
+two fine deer, who appeared not at all disturbed by a man on horseback,
+though ready enough to fly from a gun, and began to suspect that the
+robber I was dreading was, after all, only a hunter in the honest
+pursuit of his living. The crack of the rifle soon proved that the deer,
+and not my saddle-bags, were the game aimed at, and I found my
+imagination had for twelve hours been converting very harmless huntsmen
+into highwaymen of a most malicious aspect."
+
+His employer was so well pleased with the success of his young collector
+that he offered to give him a place in the factory, saying there would
+always be plenty of rough work at which an inexperienced hand could
+employ himself. "I could refuse no proposition that promised me bread
+and clothes," said he, "for I was often walking the streets hungry, with
+my arms pressed close to my sides to conceal the holes in my coat
+sleeves." His first task was to thin down with a file some brass plates
+which were to be used as parts of the stops of an organ. Powers was
+expected to do merely the rough work, after which the plates were to
+pass into the hands of the regular finisher. His employer, knowing that
+the task was one which would require time, told him he would look in in
+a few days, and see how he had succeeded. The young man's mechanical
+talent, on which he had prided himself when a boy in Vermont, now did
+him good service, and he applied himself to his task with skill and
+determination. When his employer asked for the plates, he was astonished
+to find that Powers had not only done the rough work, but had finished
+them much better than the regular finisher had ever done, and this
+merely by his greater nicety of eye and his undaunted energy. He had
+blistered his hands terribly, but had done his work well. His employer
+was delighted, and, finding him so valuable an assistant, soon gave him
+the superintendence of all his machinery, and took him to live in his
+own family.
+
+As has been stated, his employer's business was the manufacture of
+organs and clocks. Powers displayed great skill in the management of the
+mechanical department of the business, and this, added to the favor
+shown him by the "boss," drew upon him the jealousy of the other
+workmen. There hung in the shop at this time an old silver bull's-eye
+watch, a good time-piece, but very clumsy and ungainly in appearance.
+Powers was anxious to become its owner. Being too poor to buy it, he hit
+upon the following expedient for obtaining it. He had carefully studied
+the machine used in the shop for cutting out wooden clock wheels, and
+had suggested to his employer several improvements in it. The workmen,
+however, had ridiculed his suggestions, and had denounced as the most
+barefaced presumption his belief that he could improve a machine which
+had come all the way from Connecticut, where, they said, people were
+supposed to know something about clocks. Nevertheless, he maintained his
+opinions, and told his employer that if he would give him the silver
+watch, he would invent a much better machine. His offer was accepted,
+and in ten days he produced a machine, not only much simpler than the
+old one, but capable of performing twice as much and better work. The
+workmen promptly acknowledged his success, and his employer gave him the
+watch. "The old watch," said he, a few years ago, "has ticked all my
+children into existence, and three of them out of this world. It still
+hangs at the head of my bed."
+
+About this time, in a chance visit to the Museum in Cincinnati, he saw a
+plaster cast of Houdon's "Washington." It was the first bust he had ever
+seen, and he says it moved him strangely. He had an intense desire to
+know how it was done, and a vague consciousness that he could do work of
+the same kind if he could find an instructor. The instructor he soon
+found in a German living in the city, who made plaster casts and busts,
+and from him he learned the secret of the art. He proved an apt pupil,
+and surprised his teacher by his proficiency. His first effort at
+modeling from life was the bust of a little daughter of Mr. John P.
+Foote. She sat to him during the hours he could spare from his regular
+work. His model was made of beeswax, as he was afraid that clay would
+freeze or stiffen. His success encouraged him very greatly. "I found I
+had a correct eye," said he, "and a hand which steadily improved in its
+obedience to my eye. I saw the likeness, and knew it depended on the
+features, and that, if I could copy the features exactly, the likeness
+would follow just as surely as the blood follows the knife. I found
+early that all the talk about catching the expression was mere twaddle;
+the expression would take care of itself if I copied the features
+exactly."
+
+The true principles of his art seemed to come to him naturally, and
+having the genius to comprehend them so readily, he had the courage to
+hold on to them often in the face of adverse criticism. While conscious
+of having a perfectly correct eye, however, he did not scorn the humbler
+method of obtaining exactness by mathematical measurement. The following
+incident, which he related to Dr. Bellows, illustrates this:
+
+"One of the first busts I ever made was of an artist, a Frenchman, who
+came over with Mrs. Trollope. He proposed to paint my picture, while I
+was to make his bust. He was older, and considered himself much my
+superior, and, indeed, undertook to be my instructor. I was to begin.
+His first _canon_ was that I was to use no measurements, and he quoted
+Michael Angelo's saying--'A sculptor should carry his compasses in his
+eyes, not in his fingers,' I humbly submitted to his authority, and
+finished the bust without a single measurement. He was very triumphant
+at what he called the success of his method. I begged permission of him,
+now that the bust was completed, to verify my work by the dividers. He
+graciously consented, and I was pleased to find how nearly I had hit the
+mark. A few imperfections, however, appeared, and these, in spite of his
+objections, I corrected without his knowledge, for I was determined to
+have the bust as near right as I could make it. It had taken me,
+however, at least five times as long to measure the distances with my
+eyes as it would have done to measure them with the calipers, and I saw
+no advantage in the longer and more painful effort. The measurements are
+mere preparations for the artist's true work, and are, like the
+surveyor's lines, preparatory to the architect's labor. When my subject,
+in his turn, undertook my portrait, he was true to his own principles,
+and finished it without measurements. I then, though with some horror at
+my temerity, asked permission to verify his work with the dividers, and
+found at the first stroke a difference of at least half an inch in the
+distance between the eyes. He looked very much mortified, but said that
+it was done to 'give the effect.' I have had no misgivings since about
+the economy and wisdom of using the calipers freely. To be useful, they
+must be applied with the greatest precision--so small are the
+differences upon which all the infinite variety in human countenances
+depends. With the aid of my careful measurements, I do in one day what
+it would cost me a week or two's work to accomplish without, and I am
+then able to give my exclusive attention to the modeling."
+
+He did not regularly devote himself to his art, however, but remained in
+the employment of the organ and clock maker for some time longer, giving
+his leisure hours to constant practice. When he was about twenty-three
+years old, a Frenchman named Herview opened in Cincinnati a museum of
+natural history and wax figures. The latter had been very much broken
+and disfigured in transportation, and their owner, in despair, begged
+Powers to undertake the task of restoring them. The figures were
+representations of distinguished men and women, and as Powers readily
+saw that it would be impossible to repair them without having proper
+likenesses as his guides, he proposed to the Frenchman to make an
+entirely new composition of the old materials, and one which should
+attract attention by its oddity. This was agreed to, and the result was
+a hideous and ungainly figure, which Powers proposed should be called
+the "King of the Cannibal Islands," but to his amazement the Frenchman
+advertised it as the embalmed body of a South Sea man-eater, "secured at
+immense expense." Powers declared to his employer that the audience
+would discover the cheat and tear down the museum; but the "man-eater"
+drew immense crowds, and was regarded as the most wonderful natural
+curiosity ever seen in the West. The Frenchman was so well pleased with
+it that he employed the artist permanently as inventor, wax-figure
+maker, and general mechanical contriver in the museum.
+
+Powers remained in the Frenchman's employ for seven years, hoping all
+the while to earn money enough to devote himself entirely to art, which
+had now become his great ambition. His experience was not a pleasant
+one. Some of it was so singular, not to say ludicrous, that he shall
+relate one portion of it in his own language:
+
+"One of the first things I undertook, in company with Herview, was a
+representation of the infernal regions after Dante's description. Behind
+a grating I made certain dark grottoes, full of stalactites and
+stalagmites, with shadowy ghosts and pitchforked figures, all calculated
+to work on the easily-excited imaginations of a Western audience, as the
+West then was. I found it very popular and attractive, but occasionally
+some countryman would suggest to his fellow spectator that a little
+motion in the figures would add much to the reality of the show. After
+much reflection I concluded to go in among the figures dressed like the
+Evil One, in a dark robe, with a death's-head and cross-bones wrought
+upon it, and with a lobster's claw for a nose. I had bought and fixed up
+an old electrical machine, and connected it with a wire, so that, from a
+wand in my hand, I could discharge quite a serious shock upon any body
+venturing too near the grating. The plan worked admirably, and excited
+great interest; but I found acting the part of wax-figure two hours
+every evening in the cold no sinecure, and was put to my wits to devise
+a figure that could be moved by strings, and which would fill my place.
+I succeeded so well that it ended in my inventing a whole series of
+automata, for which the old wax-figures furnished the materials, in
+part, and which became so popular and so rewarding, that I was kept
+seven years at the business, my employer promising me, from time to
+time, an interest in the business, which he quite forgot to fulfill.
+When, at last, I found out the vanity of my expectations, I left him. He
+knew I kept no accounts, but he did not know that I reported all the
+money he gave me to my wife, who did keep our accounts. He tried to
+cheat me, but I was able to baffle him through her prudence and method.
+For I had married in this interval, and had a wife and children to
+support."
+
+Powers was now thirty years old, and had acquired considerable
+reputation in Cincinnati as an artist. His abilities coming to the
+notice of Mr. Nicholas Longworth, of that city, that good genius of
+young men of talent called on him and offered to buy out the museum and
+establish him in the business. The offer was declined with thanks. Mr.
+Longworth then proposed to send him to Italy to study his profession,
+but this, too, being declined, Mr. Longworth urged him to go to
+Washington and try his fortune with the public men of the country. To
+this Powers consented, and, aided by his generous friend, he repaired to
+the national capital in 1835, and spent two years there. During this
+period he modeled busts of Andrew Jackson, J.Q. Adams, Calhoun, Chief
+Justice Marshall, Woodbury, Van Buren, and others. Being unable to
+secure a model of Webster in Washington, the statesman invited him to go
+with him to Marshfield for that purpose. Powers accepted the invitation,
+and declares that he looks back upon his sojourn there as one of the
+most delightful portions of his life.
+
+General Jackson was very kind to him, and won his lasting esteem and
+gratitude. Upon being asked if he would sit for his bust, the old hero
+hesitated, and, looking at the artist nervously, asked: "Do you daub any
+thing over the face? Because," he added, "I recollect poor Mr. Jefferson
+got nearly smothered when they tried to take his bust. The plaster
+hardened before they got ready to release him, and they pounded it with
+mallets till they nearly stunned him, and then almost tore off a piece
+of his ear in their haste to pull off a sticking fragment of the mold. I
+should not like that." Powers assured him that such a terrible process
+would not be necessary, but that he only wished to look at him for an
+hour a day, sitting in his chair. The General brightened up at once, and
+cordially told him it would give him pleasure to sit for him. He at once
+installed the artist in a room in the White House, and gave him a
+sitting of an hour every morning until the model was done.
+
+Mr. Powers regards the bust of Jackson as one of his best efforts, and
+the President himself was very much pleased with it. After he had
+completed his model, Mr. Edward Everett brought Baron Krudener, the
+Prussian Minister to Washington, to see it. The Baron was a famous art
+critic, and poor Powers was terribly nervous as he showed him the bust.
+The Baron examined it closely, and then said to the artist, "You have
+got the General completely: his head, his face, his courage, his
+firmness, his identical self; and yet it will not do! You have also got
+all his wrinkles, all his age and decay. You forget that he is President
+of the United States and the idol of the people. You should have given
+him a dignity and elegance he does not possess. You should have employed
+your _art_, sir, and not merely your _nature_." The artist listened in
+silence, and Mr. Everett stood by without saying a word, "conscious," as
+he afterward confessed, "of a very poor right to speak on such a
+subject," after listening to so famous a critic. "_I_ did not dare,"
+says Powers, "in my humility and reverence for these two great men, to
+say what I wanted to in reply; to tell the Baron that my 'art' consisted
+in concealing art, and that my 'nature' was the highest art I knew or
+could conceive of. I was content that the 'truth' of my work had been so
+fully acknowledged, and the Baron only confirmed my resolution to make
+truth my only model and guide in all my future undertakings."
+
+One of his sitters in Washington was Senator Preston, of South Carolina,
+who conceived such an interest in him that he wrote to his brother,
+General Preston, of Columbia, South Carolina, a gentleman of great
+wealth, urging him to come to the artist's assistance, and send him to
+Italy. General Preston at once responded to this appeal, of which Powers
+was ignorant, and wrote to the artist to draw on him for a thousand
+dollars, and go to Italy at once, and to draw on him annually for a
+similar sum for several years. Powers was profoundly touched by this
+noble offer, and accepted it as frankly as it had been made. He sent his
+models to Italy, and took his departure for the Old World in 1837.
+Speaking of Mr. Preston's generosity, he said, two years ago: "I have
+endeavored to requite his kindness by sending him works of mine, equal
+in money value to his gifts; but I can never extinguish my great
+obligations. I fear he don't like me since the war,--for I could not
+suppress my strong national feelings for any man's friendship,--but I
+like and honor him; I would do any thing in my power to show him my
+inextinguishable gratitude."
+
+He reached Florence in advance of his models, and while waiting for them
+made two busts, one of a professor in Harvard College, and the other of
+an American lady. A severe domestic affliction, however, which came upon
+him soon after his arrival in Italy, affected him so greatly that he was
+not able to return to his work for a long time. Then he applied himself
+to his busts, which were warmly praised by the artists in Florence and
+by his countrymen traveling abroad. Thorwaldsen visited him in his
+studio, and pronounced his bust of Webster the best work of its kind in
+modern times, and praises from other distinguished artists were equally
+as warm. Orders came in rapidly from English and Italians, and from
+Americans in Europe, and the sculptor soon had as much business as he
+could attend to. He gave his leisure time to work on an ideal figure,
+which, when completed, was purchased by an English gentleman of wealth.
+This was "The Greek Slave," the most popular of all his works.
+Duplicates of it were exhibited in America and at the Crystal Palace in
+England, and won him praise from all quarters. This single work
+established his fame as an artist, and brought him orders from all parts
+of the civilized world. His statue of "Eve," which had preceded "The
+Greek Slave" by a year, had been pronounced by Thorwaldsen fit to be any
+man's master-piece, but it had not created such a furore as "The Greek
+Slave." Subsequently he made an exquisite bust of the Grand Duchess of
+Tuscany, with which the Grand Duke was so pleased that he called on
+Powers, and asked him as a favor to himself to apply to him whenever he
+could do him a service. Powers asked permission to take a cast of the
+Venus, and this much-coveted boon, which had been denied to other
+artists for years, was at once granted to him.
+
+Since then his works have been numerous. Among these are "The Fisher
+Boy," of which three duplicates in marble have been made;
+"Il Penseroso;" "Proserpine," a bust; "California;" "America," modeled
+for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, England; "Washington" and "Calhoun,"
+portrait statues, the former for the State of Louisiana, and the latter
+for the State of South Carolina; and "Benjamin Franklin" and "Thomas
+Jefferson," in the Capitol at Washington. His works are all marked by
+beauty and vigor of conception as well as by exquisite finish. Beautiful
+as his ideal figures are, he yet excels in his busts and statues of the
+great men of his native land. His "Jefferson" and "Franklin" are
+wonderful works, and his "Calhoun" is said to be almost life-like. This
+last was wrecked on the coast of Long Island on its voyage to America,
+and remained in the sea for some time, but being well packed was found,
+when raised, to be only slightly damaged by the water.
+
+Mr. Powers has now resided in Italy for thirty-three years. Motives of
+economy have controlled his action, for he would gladly return to his
+own land did he feel justified in doing so. He has thus stated the
+reasons which have influenced his long residence abroad:
+
+
+     Sculpture is universal. The human form is of no country, and may be
+     studied with equal advantage at home and abroad. The opportunities
+     of studying it abroad are so immeasurably greater than at home,
+     that I do not see how it is possible, without great loss, to
+     neglect them.
+
+     1. It is impossible to model successfully without living models;
+     and in America, in my time, it was almost at the peril of
+     reputation, both for model and sculptor, that an artist employed
+     the living model, even if he could procure it. Now, I understand, a
+     few models may be obtained in New York; but they are so rare and so
+     expensive, that it is almost ruinous to employ them. It costs two
+     or three dollars there to secure a model which here may be had for
+     half a day for forty cents. There is no want of models here; but
+     their history is a sad one, and makes one often seriously lament
+     the necessity for employing them. Young women, especially, are
+     driven to this employment by the want of bread. I have numerous
+     offers of their services made by parents who are in great distress.
+     I make it a point to discourage all who come to me from entering
+     the business, and am only conquered when I feel sure that, if I
+     decline, they will be driven to other studios. I prefer only
+     professional models, already thoroughly committed to the calling,
+     as I shrink from the responsibility of leading any into so perilous
+     a vocation. They are usually accompanied by their mothers, and I
+     strive to treat them in a way to save their self-respect and
+     delicacy--a very hard task, which too often breaks down in less
+     scrupulous hands.
+
+     2. The opportunities of anatomical studies are here nearly perfect,
+     and free from all expense. The medical schools not only illustrate
+     anatomy by surgery on the cadaver, but standing by the side of the
+     dead body is a living one, in which the action of the muscles
+     dissected before the student may be studied in life. These colleges
+     are open to all artists, and furnish the best possible schooling in
+     anatomy, a thorough acquaintance with which is indispensable to the
+     sculptor, and can only be obtained in America at great cost.
+
+     3. Marble is no cheaper here than in New York, the long
+     sea-carriage costing no more to America than the short
+     land-carriage does from the quarries to Florence or Rome. But good
+     workmen, who can not be dispensed with, are so abundant and so
+     cheap here, so rare and so dear at home, that that alone is a
+     decisive reason for coming abroad. Even here it is a heavy expense
+     to procure sufficient and competent workmen; at home it is almost
+     at ruinous cost and with nearly insuperable difficulty. I have two
+     workmen--as good, certainly, as the best in America--to the finest
+     of whom I pay only four dollars a day. He could make twice that
+     cutting weeping-willows on American tomb-stones. What could he not
+     justly demand in wages from a New York sculptor? I employ a dozen
+     workmen in my studios; the poorest, at work on pedestals and rough
+     work, earn about half a dollar a day; the moderately skilled, a
+     little over a dollar. The whole cost me about fifteen dollars per
+     day, which is wonderfully low. Then, my rent--which could not, for
+     my extensive accommodations, be less than two thousand five hundred
+     dollars a year in any eligible position which the public would
+     visit--reaches only about four hundred and fifty dollars, annually.
+
+     But, 4. The general expenses of maintaining a family are so much
+     less here than at home, that a man without capital, possessing a
+     profession so slow in reaching its pecuniary returns as an
+     artist's, finds an immense inducement to live abroad. It is true
+     that, music and accomplishment in languages apart, the
+     opportunities of a substantial education for one's children are not
+     as good here as at home. There are, however, less temptations to
+     vice, and less exposures to the American habit of hard drinking
+     among young men; but, no doubt, the general influences here, in
+     the way of developing a manly, energetic, and self-relying
+     character, are less favorable than at home. There is a softness, a
+     disposition to take life easy, and a want of moral earnestness in
+     Italy, which are not favorable to youthful ambition and
+     independence. On the other hand, the money-getting propensities and
+     social rivalries of America tend to harden human character, and to
+     bring out a severe selfishness which is offensive. On the whole,
+     the balance is on our side, and, other things apart, American youth
+     are better brought up in America. But the artist must make this
+     sacrifice to his art.
+
+
+Mr. Powers is sixty-five years old, but is in full possession of his
+mental and physical strength. He is a genuine American, notwithstanding
+his long residence abroad, and has always a warm welcome for his
+countrymen visiting his studio. He is a favorite with the younger
+artists, who find in him a kind and judicious friend. Scorning servile
+imitation, he still exhibits in his works the freshness of his youth and
+the genuine originality which was the basis of his fame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+EMMANUEL LEUTZE.
+
+
+Emmanuel Leutze, by adoption an American, was born in the village of
+Emingen, near the city of Reutlingen, in Wurtemberg, on the 24th of May,
+1816. His father emigrated to America during the infancy of his son, and
+the future artist spent his youth in the city of Philadelphia and the
+town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He received a good common school
+education, and passed his time in comparative seclusion from society,
+reading and studying, but showing no especial fondness for art. At
+length, during his father's last illness, in which he nursed him with
+great devotion, he took up drawing to beguile the weary hours of the
+sick-room, and succeeded so well in his attempts that after his father's
+death he continued his efforts under the instruction of a competent
+drawing master. He improved rapidly, and was so well satisfied with his
+success that he determined to adopt the profession of an artist as the
+one best suited to his talents and inclination.
+
+[Illustration: FILIAL DEVOTION SHAPES A GREAT CAREER]
+
+Having acquired considerable skill in drawing, he attempted rude
+portraits of men and beasts, and at length undertook to copy from memory
+a colored print after Westall. He completed it, and resolved to show it
+to some of his friends. In his impatience for the colors to dry, he
+placed the painting before the fire and went to summon his friends,
+but found, to his dismay, upon returning with them, that the heat had
+blistered the canvas so that the picture was hardly recognizable. Yet,
+in spite of this, his critics saw such evidences of genius in the
+painting that they urged the young artist to continue his labors, and
+predicted a great success for him.
+
+Leutze, however, was not willing to venture upon another composition,
+either partly or wholly original, but applied himself with zeal to learn
+the rudiments of his art, and with such success that when his portraits
+appeared at the Artist's Fund Exhibition, a year or two later, they
+received high praise, both from critics and the public. An enterprising
+publisher, attracted by these portraits, engaged him to go to Washington
+and paint the portraits of the leading statesmen of the country, to be
+engraved for a "national work." Leutze at once proceeded to the capital,
+full of hope and enthusiasm, but soon found that the schemes of the
+politicians whose faces he was to transmit to canvas engrossed them so
+much that they would not give him the sittings he desired. After waiting
+impatiently for a considerable time he threw up the engagement in
+disgust, and went into the woods of Virginia to console himself by
+communing with nature. For some time he wandered about, making desultory
+sketches, and abandoning himself to a melancholy which was closely akin
+to despair. When this feeling was at its height, a friend, before
+unknown, came to his aid.
+
+"A gentleman, whose rich domain he chanced to approach in his wayward
+rovings, perceived his abilities, understood his unhappiness, and
+aroused him from inaction by a call upon his professional skill. The
+artist obeyed, but he could not subdue the mood which possessed him. No
+brilliant scene arose to his fancy, no humorous incident took form and
+color from his pencil, and the fair landscape around appeared to mock
+rather than cheer his destiny. He could not bring himself into relation
+with subjects thus breathing of hope and gayety, but found inspiration
+only in the records of human sorrow. As the royal mourner bade her
+companions sit upon the ground and 'tell sad stories of the death of
+kings,' the pensive artist found something analogous to his own fate in
+the story of Hagar and Ishmael. He painted them as having followed up a
+spent water-course, in hopes of finding wherewith to quench their
+thirst, and sinking under the disappointment. He neither saw nor painted
+the angel of God who showed the fountain in the wilderness, and yet the
+angel was there, for now the sufferer acknowledges that early
+vicissitudes nerved him for high endeavor, rendered his vision piercing,
+his patience strong, and his confidence firm, and that this incidental
+effort to triumph over difficulties was the first of a series which
+inspired his subsequent career."
+
+In 1840 he produced a painting which he called "An Indian Contemplating
+the Setting Sun." It was exhibited in Philadelphia, and won general
+praise for the artist. Better than this, it secured him the friendship
+of the late Edward L. Carey, of that city, who, recognizing his genius,
+determined to help him on in his labors. Mr. Carey was successful in
+inducing his friends to give Leutze a number of commissions, and these
+enabled him to carry out his wish to visit Europe and complete his
+studies. Instead of going to Italy, as was then the almost universal
+practice, he determined to study in Germany, and accordingly sailed for
+that country. He went by way of Holland, and after a long and trying
+voyage reached Amsterdam in January, 1841. Pausing here for awhile to
+familiarize himself with the master-pieces of the Dutch school, he
+repaired to Dusseldorf, where he became a pupil of the celebrated
+painter Lessing, under whom he made marked progress. His reception by
+the artists of Dusseldorf was at once hearty and encouraging, and won
+for that school and its members his enthusiastic devotion. He became
+Lessing's pupil at the personal request of the master, and these two
+gifted men were soon bound to each other by the ties of an undying
+friendship.
+
+Leutze devoted himself to historical subjects from the first, and soon
+after his arrival in Dusseldorf began his picture of "Columbus Before
+the Council of Salamanca." When it was finished, it was visited by
+Director V. Schadow, who praised it warmly, and requested the artist to
+offer it to the Art Union of Dusseldorf, which at once purchased it.
+This high compliment to a beginner and a stranger proved an additional
+stimulus to Leutze, and he soon after produced a companion picture to
+his first, "Columbus in Chains," which procured him the gold medal of
+the Brussels Art Exhibition, and was subsequently purchased by the Art
+Union of New York.
+
+Remaining two years in Dusseldorf, Leutze went to Munich to study the
+works of Cornelius and Kaulbach, and while there painted another scene
+in the life of the Great Discoverer, "Columbus before the Queen." Upon
+completing this picture he went to Venice, Rome, and the other Italian
+cities, making careful studies of the masters of that school. He gave
+two years to his travels, visiting the Tyrol, and reveling in the
+magnificent scenery through which he journeyed. He went into
+Switzerland, sketching the glorious beauties of its Alps, and reached
+the Rhine at Strasbourg. Then, sailing down that beautiful river, he set
+foot once more in Dusseldorf, glad, as he declared, to end his
+wanderings in the midst of his friends. Here he determined to locate
+himself permanently, and soon after his return he married.
+
+He lived in Dusseldorf for fourteen years, devoting himself assiduously
+to his art. His labors were incessant. Historic subjects make up the
+vast bulk of his productions during this period, and in his treatment of
+them he adhered closely to the style of the Dusseldorf school. The best
+known of his works during this portion of his career are "The Landing of
+the Norsemen in America;" "Cromwell and his Daughter;" "The Court of
+Queen Elizabeth;" "Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn;" "The Iconoclast," and
+his famous and brilliant series of pictures illustrative of the events
+of the American War of Independence. The most prominent of these were,
+"Washington Crossing the Delaware;" "Washington at Monmouth;"
+"Washington at the Battle of Monongahela;" "News from Lexington;"
+"Sergeant Jasper," and "Washington at Princeton." These are fine
+paintings, possessing striking characteristics, and are all more or less
+popular. "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is perhaps the best known,
+since it has been engraved, and sold in all parts of the country in that
+form.
+
+During his absence in Germany, Leutze did not forget the country of his
+choice, as his devotion to American subjects amply testifies. When he
+had won a proud name in his art by his labors in Dusseldorf, and had
+laid by money enough to justify him in returning to a land where art was
+in its infancy, and not over-remunerative, he came back to the United
+States, after an absence of eighteen years, and opened a studio in New
+York. He found a vast improvement in the public taste and in the demand
+for works of art since his departure for the Old World, and, better
+still, found that his peculiar field, the historic, was the one most
+suited to the tastes of the American public.
+
+It was his intention, in coming back to this country, to devote the time
+during which he supposed he would be compelled to wait for orders, to
+looking around him and familiarizing himself with the changes that had
+taken place in the Union during his absence; but he was never able to
+carry out this design, as he had no leisure time. His European
+reputation had preceded him hither, and he had scarcely opened his doors
+in New York before he was obliged to refuse orders, for lack of time to
+execute them. His hands were full from the first, and he at once took
+rank as the most thoroughly popular and accomplished artist in the
+country.
+
+Early in 1860 he received from the Government of the United States a
+commission to decorate one of the marble stairways in the Capitol at
+Washington with a mural painting. The painting was to be executed in
+fresco, and he chose as his subject, "Westward the Star of Empire Takes
+its Way." He entered upon the undertaking with the keenest delight, and
+in order to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the true character
+of frontier scenery and life, performed what was then the long and
+difficult journey to the Rocky Mountains, where he made numerous
+sketches. Returning to the States, he sailed for Europe, and went to
+Munich to learn from Kaulbach the new stereochromatic process which has
+now superseded the fresco-painting of the middle ages. Returning to
+Washington, he applied himself to his task, and in a couple of years
+completed it.
+
+The picture is the largest and finest mural painting in America, and
+adorns the magnificent stairway at the north end of the west corridor of
+the House of Representatives. It is lighted from a sky-light in the
+roof, and is seen to the best advantage from the upper corridor. The
+coloring is softer and more life-like than is often seen in such
+paintings. The surface of the wall is rough, but the work has been done
+by such a master hand that one seems to be gazing upon real life. It is
+a wonderful picture--one that will repay weeks of study.
+
+The scene represents a train of emigrants crossing the Rocky Mountains.
+They have reached the summit of the range, from which a glorious view
+stretches out before them to the westward. The adventurers consist of
+the usual class of emigrants, men, women, and children. There are
+several wagons and a number of horses in the train. The faces of the
+emigrants express the various emotions which fill their hearts as they
+gaze upon the glorious scene before them. Some are full of life and
+vigor, and hope beams in every feature, while others are struggling with
+sickness and despair. The advance of the train has been momentarily
+checked by a huge tree which has fallen across the trail, and two stout
+men, under the direction of the leader of the party, who is sitting on
+his horse, are engaged in hewing it away with axes. Two others have
+climbed to the summit of the neighboring rocky crag, on which they have
+planted the banner of the Republic, which is seen flapping proudly from
+its lofty perch. In the foreground stands a manly youth, clasping his
+father's long rifle firmly, and gazing toward the promised land with a
+countenance glowing with hope and energy. His sister, as hopeful as
+himself, is seated by her mother's side, on a buffalo-robe which has
+been thrown over a rock. The mother's face is sad, but patient. She
+knows well the privations, toils, and hardships which await them in the
+new home-land, but she tries to share the enthusiasm and hope of her
+children. She clasps her nursing infant to her breast, and listens to
+her husband, who stands by and points her to the new country where they
+will have a home of their own. Her face is inexpressibly beautiful. The
+rich, warm light of the rising sun streams brightly over the whole
+scene, and gives to it a magical glow. The legend, "Westward the Star of
+Empire Takes its Way," is inscribed over the painting, in letters of
+gold.
+
+An elaborate illuminated border, illustrative of the advance of
+civilization in the West, surrounds the painting, and is in itself one
+of the most perfect works of art in the Capitol.
+
+Leutze received the sum of $20,000 for this painting. After completing
+it, some matters connected with his family required him to make a visit
+to Dusseldorf, and upon reaching that place he was warmly welcomed by
+the artists, on the 10th of June, 1863, at their club. "About one
+hundred and fifty lords of art," says a letter from Dusseldorf,
+"assembled at the 'Mahlkasten,' just outside of the Hof-Garten. This is
+the club-house of the painters, and, with its gardens, is their
+property. Leutze was received with music, and when he came within reach
+of the assembled company, there was a general rush to shake his hands,
+kiss his cheeks, and hug him. The old fellows were much affected at the
+scene, and were heartily glad to see their old companion once more. The
+guest made a short and feeling address, whereupon all went in to supper.
+Here two of the artists had arrayed themselves, one as a negro, the
+other as an Indian; and these brought in the first dishes and handed
+them to Leutze. Andreas Achenbach sat at Leutze's right, and his old
+friend Tryst at his left. After dinner, the calumet cf peace was passed
+around; there was speaking and drinking of healths, with songs afterward
+in the illuminated garden. The occasion appears to have been a very
+pleasant and right merry one, and is said to have been the happiest
+festival ever given by the Society of Artists."
+
+Returning to the United States a few months later, Leutze repaired to
+Washington, where he had permanently settled. He was given several
+commissions by the Government, and at once began to design his subjects.
+They were only in the cartoon, however, at the time of his death. One of
+these, "Civilization," was to have been placed in the Senate Chamber,
+and was partly finished. It is said to have given promise of being his
+finest production. He also left a sketch of an immense picture, "The
+Emancipation." He was always a hard worker, and this doubtless
+contributed to bring about his death, which took place on the 18th of
+July, 1868. The immediate cause was apoplexy, superinduced by the
+intense heat.
+
+"Mr. Leutze," says a writer in the Annual Cyclopedia, "was altogether
+the best educated artist in America, possessed of vast technical
+learning, of great genius, and fine powers of conception. His weakest
+point was in his coloring, but even here he was superior to most
+others."
+
+"Leutze," says Mr. Tuckerman, "delights in representing adventure. He
+ardently sympathizes with chivalric action and spirit-stirring events:
+not the abstractly beautiful or the simply true, but the heroic, the
+progressive, the individual, and earnest phases of life, warm his fancy
+and attract his pencil. His forte is the dramatic.... If Leutze were not
+a painter, he would certainly join some expedition to the Rocky
+Mountains, thrust himself into a fiery political controversy, or seek to
+wrest a new truth from the arcana of science.... We remember hearing a
+brother artist describe him in his studio at Home, engaged for hours
+upon a picture, deftly shifting palette, cigar, and maul-stick from hand
+to hand, as occasion required; absorbed, rapid, intent, and then
+suddenly breaking from his quiet task to vent his constrained spirits in
+a jovial song, or a romp with his great dog, whose vociferous barking he
+thoroughly enjoyed; and often abandoning his quiet studies for some
+wild, elaborate frolic, as if a row was essential to his happiness. His
+very jokes partook of this bold heartiness of disposition. He scorned
+all ultra refinement, and found his impulse to art not so much in
+delicate perception as in vivid sensation. There was ever a reaction
+from the meditative. His temperament is Teutonic--hardy, cordial, and
+brave. Such men hold the conventional in little reverence, and their
+natures gush like mountain streams, with wild freedom and unchastened
+enthusiasm."
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+DIVINES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+
+Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of
+June, 1813, and was the eighth child of Dr. Lyman Beecher, the famous
+Presbyterian divine of New England. Dr. Beecher was regarded as one of
+the most powerful champions of orthodox Christianity in the land of the
+pilgrims, and had the good fortune to be the father of a family whose
+members have become celebrated for their intellectual gifts.
+
+The most of these gave early promise of their future distinction, but
+the subject of this memoir was regarded as the dunce of the family. He
+grew up as the children of most New England clergymen of that day
+climbed the road to manhood. His father's family was large, and the
+salary paid by the congregation never exceeded eight hundred dollars,
+and was not always promptly paid at that. The good people of the land of
+steady habits well knew how to drive hard bargains with the Lord's
+messengers, and were adepts in the art of securing the "best talent" at
+the lowest price. The stern, hard struggle for a livelihood in which
+the father was engaged prevented him from giving much personal attention
+to his children, and the mother of young Henry dying when he was but
+three years old, the boy was left very much to himself. Like most
+ministers' children, he was obliged to "set an example to the village,"
+and this boy was dosed with Catechism and his father's stern and gloomy
+theological tenets until he was sick of them.
+
+"In those days," says Mrs. Stowe, "none of the attentions were paid to
+children that are now usual. The community did not recognize them..
+There was no child's literature; there were no children's books. The
+Sunday-school was yet an experiment in a fluctuating, uncertain state of
+trial. There were no children's days of presents and _fetes_, no
+Christmas or New Year's festivals. The annual thanksgiving was only
+associated with one day's unlimited range of pies of every sort--too
+much for one day--and too soon things of the past. The childhood of
+Henry Ward was unmarked by the possession of a single child's toy as a
+gift from any older person, or a single _fete_. Very early, too, strict
+duties devolved upon him. A daily portion of the work of the
+establishment, the care of the domestic animals, the cutting and piling
+of wood, or tasks in the garden, strengthened his muscles and gave vigor
+and tone to his nerves. From his father and mother he inherited a
+perfectly solid, healthy organization of brain, muscle, and nerves, and
+the uncaressing, let-alone system under which he was brought up gave him
+early habits of vigor and self-reliance."
+
+When but three or four years old he was sent to the Widow Kilbourn's
+school, where he said his letters twice a day, and passed the rest of
+his time in hemming a brown towel or a checked apron. It was not
+expected that he would learn very much from Marm Kilbourn, but the
+school kept him out of the way of the "home folks" for the greater part
+of the day.
+
+He was a winning, sweet-faced child, with long golden curls, of which
+he was very proud. Some of his female playfellows at school, thinking it
+a shame that a boy should look so much like a girl, cut off one or two
+of his curls with a pair of shears made of scraps of tin, and when the
+little fellow complained of his loss at home it was decided that the
+best way to protect him from such attacks in future was to cut his hair
+close to his head, which was done at once. Little Henry was commonly
+thought a dull child. His memory was lamentably deficient, and his
+utterance was thick and indistinct, so much so that he could scarcely be
+understood in reading or speaking. This was caused partly by an
+enlargement of the tonsils of his throat, and partly by timidity. The
+policy of repression worked badly in his case, and had there not been so
+much real good at the basis of his character it might have led this
+gentle, yearning boy far from the useful channel along which his life
+has flown.
+
+His stepmother was a lady of fine mental culture, of elegant breeding
+and high character, but she was an invalid, and withal thoroughly imbued
+with the gloomy sternness of her husband's faith. One day little Henry,
+who was barely able to manage the steady-going old family horse, was
+driving her in the chaise. They passed a church on their way, and the
+bell was tolling for a death. "Henry," said Mrs. Beecher, solemnly,
+"what do you think of when you hear a bell tolling like that?" The boy
+colored and hung his head in silence, and the good lady went on. "_I_
+think, was that soul prepared? It has gone into _eternity_." The little
+fellow shuddered, in spite of himself, and thought, no doubt, what a
+dreadful thing it was to be a Christian.
+
+So it was with the religion that was crammed into him. There was no
+effort made to draw him to religion by its beauty and tenderness. He
+rarely heard of the Saviour as the loving one who took little children
+in His arms and blessed them, but was taught to regard Him as a stern
+and merciless judge, as one who, instead of being "touched with the
+feeling of our infirmities," makes those infirmities the means of
+wringing fresh sufferings from us. Sunday was a day of terror to him,
+for on that day the Catechism was administered to him until he was more
+than sick of it. "I think," said he to his congregation, not long since,
+referring to this part of his life, "that to force childhood to
+associate religion with such dry morsels is to violate the spirit, not
+only of the New Testament, but of common sense as well. I know one
+thing, that if I am 'lax and latitudinarian,' the Sunday Catechism is to
+blame for a part of it. The dinners that I have lost because I could not
+go through 'sanctification,' and 'justification,' and 'adoption,' and
+all such questions, lie heavily on my memory! I do not know that they
+have brought forth any blossoms. I have a kind of grudge against many of
+those truths that I was taught in my childhood, and I am not conscious
+that they have waked up a particle of faith in me. My good old aunt in
+heaven--I wonder what she is doing. I take it that she now sits
+beauteous, clothed in white, that round about her sit chanting cherub
+children, and that she is opening to them from her larger range sweet
+stories, every one fraught with thought, and taste, and feeling, and
+lifting them up to a higher plane. One Sunday afternoon with my aunt
+Esther did me more good than forty Sundays in church with my father. He
+thundered over my head, and she sweetly instructed me down in my heart.
+The promise that she would read Joseph's history to me on Sunday was
+enough to draw a silver thread of obedience through the entire week; and
+if I was tempted to break my promise, I said, 'No; Aunt Esther is going
+to read on Sunday;' and I would do, or I would not do, all through the
+week, for the sake of getting that sweet instruction on Sunday.
+
+"And to parents I say, Truth is graded. Some parts of God's truth are
+for childhood, some parts are for the nascent intellectual period, and
+some parts are for later spiritual developments. Do not take the last
+things first. Do not take the latest processes of philosophy and bring
+them prematurely to the understanding. In teaching truth to your
+children, you are to avoid tiring them."
+
+"The greatest trial of those days," says Mrs. Stowe, "was the Catechism.
+Sunday lessons were considered by the mother-in-law as inflexible duty,
+and the Catechism as the _sine qua non_. The other children memorized
+readily, and were brilliant reciters, but Henry, blushing, stammering,
+confused, and hopelessly miserable, stuck fast on some sand-bank of what
+is required or forbidden by this or that commandment, his mouth choking
+up with the long words which he hopelessly miscalled, was sure to be
+accused of idleness or inattention, and to be solemnly talked to, which
+made him look more stolid and miserable than ever, but appeared to have
+no effect in quickening his dormant faculties."
+
+At the age of ten he was a well-grown, stout, stocky boy, strong and
+hearty, trained to hard work, and to patient obedience of his elders. He
+was tolerably well drilled in Calvinism, and had his head pretty well
+filled with snatches of doctrine which he caught from his father's
+constant discussions; but he was very backward in his education. He was
+placed at the school of the Rev. Mr. Langdon, at Bethlehem, Connecticut,
+and it was hoped that the labors of this excellent tutor would result in
+making something of him. He spent a winter at this school, and boarded
+at a neighboring farm-house, whose kind-hearted mistress soon became so
+much attached to him that she indulged him to an extent which he had
+never known at home. With his gun on his shoulder, he passed the greater
+part of his hours out of school in tramping over the pretty Connecticut
+hills, in search of game, or, lying down on the soft grass, would pass
+hours in gazing on the beautiful landscape, listening to the dull whirr
+of the partridges in the stubble-field or the dropping of the ripe
+apples in the orchard. The love of nature was strong in the boy, and his
+wonderful mistress taught him many of the profoundest lessons of his
+life. He made poor progress at the school, however, and his father was
+almost in despair. The whole family shook their heads in solemn
+forebodings over the failure of this child of ten to become a mental
+prodigy.
+
+Miss Catharine Beecher, his eldest sister, was then teaching a young
+ladies' school in Hartford, and she proposed to take the boy and see
+what could be done with him. There were thirty or forty girls in the
+school, and but this one boy, and the reader may imagine the amount of
+studying he did. The girls were full of spirits, and in their society
+the fun-loving feature of his disposition burst out and grew with
+amazing rapidity. He was always in mischief of some kind, to the great
+delight of the girls, with whom he was extremely popular, and to the
+despair of his sister, who began to fear that he was hopelessly stupid.
+
+The school was divided into two divisions in grammar recitations, each
+of which had its leader. The leaders chose their "sides" with great
+care, as these contests in grammar were esteemed the most important part
+of the daily exercises. Henry's name was generally called last, for no
+one chose him except as a matter of necessity. He was sure to be a dead
+weight to his leader.
+
+"The fair leader of one of these divisions took the boy aside to a
+private apartment, to put into him with female tact and insinuation
+those definitions and distinctions on which the honor of the class
+depended.
+
+"'Now, Henry, A is the indefinite article, you see, and must be used
+only with the singular noun. You can say _a man_, but you can't say _a
+men_, can you?' 'Yes, I can say _Amen_, too,' was the ready rejoinder.
+'Father says it always at the end of his prayers.'
+
+"'Come, Henry, now don't be joking. Now, decline He.' 'Nominative he,
+possessive his, objective him.' 'You see, his is possessive. Now, you
+can say his book, but you can't say him book.' 'Yes, I do say hymn book,
+too,' said the impracticable scholar, with a quizzical twinkle. Each one
+of these sallies made his young teacher laugh, which was the victory he
+wanted.
+
+"'But now, Henry, seriously, just attend to the active and passive
+voice. Now, _I strike_, is active, you see, because if you strike you do
+something. But, _I am struck_, is passive, because if you are struck you
+don't do any thing, do you?'
+
+"'Yes, I do; I strike back again.'
+
+"Sometimes his views of philosophical subjects were offered
+gratuitously. Being held rather of a frisky nature, his sister appointed
+his seat at her elbow when she heard her classes. A class in natural
+philosophy, not very well prepared, was stumbling through the theory of
+the tides. 'I can explain that,' said Henry. 'Well, you see, the sun, he
+catches hold of the moon and pulls her, and she catches hold of the sea
+and pulls that, and this makes the spring tides.'
+
+"'But what makes the neap tides?'
+
+"'Oh, that's when the sun stops to spit on his hands.'"
+
+It will hardly surprise the reader to be told that Master Henry
+remained with his sister only six months, and was returned at the end of
+that time to his father as an indifferent scholar and a most inveterate
+joker.
+
+A change now occurred in his life. When he was twelve years old his
+father removed to Boston to assume the charge of the Hanover-Street
+Church. Here the boy had a chance to see something more than nature, and
+to employ his powers of observation in receiving impressions from the
+daily life and aspect of a large and crowded city. His father entered
+him at the Boston Latin School, and appealed to him not to disgrace his
+name any longer by his stupidity. The appeal roused the little fellow's
+pride, and he set to work to show to his family that he was not the
+dunce they had thought him. He went at his studies manfully, mastering
+the tedious puzzle of the Latin verbs and nouns, and acquiring a
+respectable acquaintance with the grammar of that language. It was a
+terrible task to him, for he had no liking for the language, and did his
+work merely to please his father and escape disgrace. His success cost
+him a share of his health, and his vigorous constitution began to show
+the effects of such intense application. His father noticed this, and as
+a diversion to his mind advised him to enter upon a course of
+biographical reading. He read the lives of Captain Cook, Nelson, and the
+great naval commanders of the world, and at once became possessed of the
+desire to go to sea. This feeling made him restless and discontented,
+and he resolved to leave home and ship on board some vessel sailing from
+the harbor. He hovered about the wharves, conversing with the sailors
+and captains, and sometimes carrying his little bundle with him. But the
+thoughts of home were too strong for him, and he could never quite
+summon up resolution enough to run away. In a fit of desperation he
+wrote a letter to his brother, telling him of his wish to go to sea, and
+informing him that he should first ask his father's permission, and if
+that were not granted he should go without it. This letter he dropped
+where his father would be sure to find it. The old gentleman soon
+discovered it, and, reading it, put it into his pocket without comment.
+The next day he asked the boy if he had ever thought of any definite
+avocation for his future life.
+
+"Yes," said Henry, "I want to go to sea. I want to enter the navy, be a
+midshipman, and rise to be a commander."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the Doctor, cheerfully; "but in order to prepare for
+that you must study mathematics and navigation."
+
+"I am ready, sir."
+
+"Very well. I'll send you up to Amherst next week, to Mount Pleasant,
+and then you'll begin your preparatory studies at once. As soon as you
+are well prepared, I presume I can make interest to get you an
+appointment."
+
+The boy was delighted, and the next week started for Amherst. The Doctor
+felt sure that the sailor scheme would never come to any thing, and
+exclaimed, exultantly, as he bade his son good-by, "I shall have that
+boy in the ministry yet."
+
+At the Mount Pleasant Institute he roomed with his teacher in
+mathematics, a young man named Fitzgerald, and a warm friendship sprung
+up between them. Fitzgerald saw that his pupil had no natural talent or
+taste for mathematics; but instead of despairing in consequence of this
+discovery, he redoubled his efforts. Appealing to his pupil's pride and
+ambition, he kept him well to his task, and succeeded in implanting in
+him a fair knowledge of the science. Young Beecher also took lessons in
+elocution from Professor John E. Lovell. Under the instructions of this
+able teacher, he learned to manage his voice, and to overcome the
+thickness and indistinctness of utterance which previous to this had
+troubled him so much. He continued at this school for three years,
+devoting himself to study with determination and success, and taking
+rank as one of the most promising pupils of the school.
+
+During his first year at Mount Pleasant, he became deeply impressed with
+a sense of his religious responsibility at a famous revival which was
+held in the place, and from that time resolved to devote himself
+entirely to preparing for his entrance into the ministry when he should
+attain the proper age. Henceforth he applied himself with characteristic
+energy to his studies and to his religious duties, and rose steadily in
+the esteem of his teachers and friends. He entered Amherst College upon
+the completion of his preparatory course, and graduated from that
+institution in 1834.
+
+In 1832, Dr. Beecher removed from Boston to Cincinnati, to enter upon
+the Presidency of Lane Seminary, to which he had been elected. Henry
+followed him to the West after his graduation at Amherst, and completed
+his theological studies at the seminary, under the tuition of his father
+and Professor Stowe, the latter of whom married Henry's sister Harriet,
+in 1836. Having finished his course, he was ordained.
+
+"As the time drew near in which Mr. Beecher was to assume the work of
+the ministry," says Mrs. Stowe, "he was oppressed by a deep melancholy.
+He had the most exalted ideas of what ought to be done by a Christian
+minister. He had transferred to that profession all those ideals of
+courage, enterprise, zeal, and knightly daring which were the dreams of
+his boyhood, and which he first hoped to realize in the naval
+profession. He felt that the holy calling stood high above all others;
+that to enter it from any unholy motive, or to enter and not do a worthy
+work in it, was a treason to all honor.
+
+"His view of the great object of the ministry was sincerely and heartily
+the same with that of his father, to secure the regeneration of the
+individual heart by the Divine Spirit, and thereby to effect the
+regeneration of human society. The problem that oppressed him was, how
+to do this. His father had used certain moral and intellectual weapons,
+and used them strongly and effectively, because employing them with
+undoubting faith. So many other considerations had come into his mind to
+qualify and limit that faith, so many new modes of thought and inquiry,
+that were partially inconsistent with the received statements of his
+party, that he felt he could never grasp and wield them with the force
+which could make them efficient. It was no comfort to him that he could
+wield the weapons of his theological party so as to dazzle and confound
+objectors, while all the time conscious in his own soul of objections
+more profound and perplexities more bewildering. Like the shepherd boy
+of old, he saw the giant of sin stalking through the world, defying the
+armies of the living God, and longed to attack him, but the armor in
+which he had been equipped for the battle was no help, but only an
+incumbrance!
+
+"His brother, who studied with him, had already become an unbeliever and
+thrown up the design of preaching, and he could not bear to think of
+adding to his father's trials by deserting the standard. Yet his
+distress and perplexity were so great that at times he seriously
+contemplated going into some other profession....
+
+"In his last theological term he took a Bible class in the city of
+Cincinnati, and began studying and teaching the Evangelists. With the
+course of this study and teaching came a period of spiritual
+clairvoyance. His mental perplexities were relieved, and the great
+question of 'what to preach' was solved. The shepherd boy laid aside his
+cumbrous armor, and found in a clear brook a simple stone that smote
+down the giant; and so, from the clear waters of the Gospel narrative
+Mr. Beecher drew forth that 'white stone with a new name,' which was to
+be the talisman of his ministry. To present Jesus Christ personally as
+the Friend and Helper of humanity, Christ as God impersonate, eternally
+and by a necessity of His nature helpful, and remedial, and restorative;
+the Friend of each individual soul, and thus the Friend of all
+society,--this was the one thing which his soul rested on as a worthy
+object in entering the ministry. He afterward said, in speaking of his
+feelings at this time,'I was like the man in the story to whom a fairy
+gave a purse with a single piece of money in it, which he found always
+came again as soon as he had spent it. I thought I knew at least one
+thing to preach. I found it included every thing.'"
+
+Upon being ordained, Mr. Beecher married, and accepted a call to
+Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a little town on the Ohio River, about twenty
+miles below Cincinnati. His salary was small and the work was hard. He
+was not only pastor, but sexton as well, and in this capacity he swept
+out the church, made the fires, filled and trimmed the lamps, and rang
+the bell. Says he, "I did all but come to hear myself preach--that they
+had to do."
+
+He did not remain here long, however, but soon accepted a call to
+Indianapolis, the capital of the State, where he lived for eight years.
+He occupied a tasteful cottage on the outskirts of the town, and
+gathered about him his household treasures, which consisted of his
+family, his library, his horse, cow, pigs, and chickens. He was an
+enthusiast in matters of agriculture and horticulture, and besides
+importing from the East the best varieties of fruit-trees, roses, etc.,
+he edited a horticultural paper, which had a fair circulation.
+
+The eight years of his ministry in Indianapolis make up a period of hard
+and useful work. He held two services on Sunday, and five meetings
+during the week in various parts of the city, and with the consent of
+his people gave three months of each year to missionary work in other
+parts of the State. While engaged in this latter duty he traveled about
+the State on horseback and preached daily.
+
+His experience in the ministry, as well as his study of the lives of the
+apostles, convinced him that success in his profession--by which I mean
+the successful winning of souls to God--was not to be won by preaching
+controversial or dry doctrinal sermons. He must seize upon some vital
+truth, admitted by all parties, and bring that home to men's minds. He
+must preach to them of their daily, hourly trials and temptations, joys
+and comforts, and he resolved that this should be the character of his
+preaching. Then came the question, how shall one man know that which is
+uppermost in the thoughts of the many? He went into the places of public
+resort, where men were accustomed to lounge and to gather to hear the
+news, and made it his practice to listen to their conversations. In this
+way he began to know the people to whom he preached as few pastors know
+their flocks, and he was enabled by this knowledge to apply his
+teachings to their daily lives, and to send them forth to their duties
+warned by his reproofs or cheered by his intelligent counsel and
+sympathy. This practice, modified at times as circumstances have
+required, he has steadfastly continued, and in it lies the secret of his
+success as a preacher. Said a gentleman, not long since, himself a
+member of a different denomination, "Beecher's sermons do me more good
+than any I hear elsewhere. They never fail to touch upon some topic of
+importance that has engaged my thoughts during the week. Dropping all
+doctrinal technicalities, and steering clear of the vexed questions of
+theology, he talks to me in such a way that I am able to carry Christ
+into the most trifling of my daily affairs, and to carry Him there as my
+Sympathizer and Helper, as well as my Judge." He soon became the most
+popular preacher in the city, and, thanks to the genuineness of his
+gifts and the earnestness of his zeal, he was enabled to add many to the
+kingdom of Christ who had been drawn to hear him merely by their
+curiosity. Among these was his brother Charles, whose skepticism has
+been spoken of elsewhere in this chapter. Becoming deeply impressed at a
+revival in Indianapolis, Charles Beecher, by his brother's advice, took
+a Bible class, and began to teach the story of Christ. The plan worked
+most happily. Charles solved all the questions which had perplexed his
+mind, reentered upon his religious life with increased fervor, and soon
+afterward entered the ministry.
+
+In August, 1847, Mr. Beecher received a call to Plymouth Church,
+Brooklyn, which had just been founded. He promptly accepted it. Breaking
+up his home in Indiana, he removed to Brooklyn, and was publicly
+installed pastor of Plymouth Church on the 11th of November, 1847. He at
+once "announced in Plymouth pulpit the same principles that he had in
+Indianapolis, namely, his determination to preach Christ among them not
+as an absolute system of doctrines, not as a bygone historical
+personage, but as the living Lord and God, and to bring all the ways and
+usages of society to the test of His standards. He announced to all whom
+it might concern, that he considered temperance and antislavery as a
+part of the Gospel of Christ, and should preach them to the people
+accordingly."
+
+It is no part of my purpose to consider Mr. Beecher as a politician. I
+deal with him here not as the partisan of a political organization, but
+as a minister of the Gospel. In politics he has always been a Republican
+of the Radical type, but has generally inclined to a conservative
+construction of that creed. Many of his warmest friends take issue with
+him in his political views, and he has not always been able to lead his
+congregation with him in this respect.
+
+Soon after assuming the charge of Plymouth Church Mr. Beecher became a
+regular contributor to "The Independent," a paper which he had helped to
+establish. His articles were marked with an asterisk, and were widely
+read. They dealt with every topic of interest, principally with slavery,
+and were vigorous and full of thought. A number of them were afterward
+collected and published in book form as the "Star Papers." Since then he
+has acted as editor of "The Independent," and is at present the editor
+of "The Christian Union." He has written a novel of New England life,
+called "Norwood," for "The New York Ledger," and still writes a weekly
+paper for that journal. He is at present engaged upon a "Life of
+Christ," which is to be the crowning labor of his life. Besides these
+labors, he has been until recently almost constantly in the lecture
+field, and has spoken frequently before popular assemblies on the
+political questions of the day.
+
+These labors have filled up the leisure time left him after discharging
+his duties as pastor of his church, which have never been neglected upon
+any occasion. In this field his work has been faithful and constant. He
+has labored in it for nearly twenty-three years, and his work has not
+been without its reward. Such sermons as his could not fail of doing
+good even if spoken to half a dozen people. How great, then, must be
+their effect when addressed to the vast audiences to which he speaks!
+His congregation averages over twenty-five hundred at every service,
+being the largest regular congregation in existence. His sermons are
+reported by a stenographer, and are printed each week in pamphlet form,
+and in this manner find their way into thousands of hands. The "Plymouth
+Pulpit," in which they are published, has a regular weekly circulation
+of six thousand copies, and it is estimated that each copy is read by
+at least five persons, which gives the preacher, in addition to his own
+congregation, an audience of more than thirty thousand persons per week.
+
+When Plymouth Church was organized, the wise heads predicted a failure
+for it; but it has grown and prospered, until it is now the most compact
+and the best organized congregation in America. It is dependent upon no
+synod or other religious body, but manages its affairs entirely as
+it pleases. The control is vested in a board of trustees, of which Mr.
+Beecher is _ex-officio_ a member. He has no superiority in this board
+unless called by its members to preside over its meetings. His influence
+is of course all-powerful; but as the trustees are shrewd business men,
+they sometimes carry out their own views in preference to his. The
+church is supported by the sale of its pews. This yields it an annual
+income of between forty and fifty thousand dollars. The pastor receives
+a handsome salary--said to be the largest in the United States--and the
+rest goes into the treasury of the church. As the period of the annual
+sale of pews approaches, Mr. Beecher makes it his practice to preach a
+sermon in which he reviews the questions of the day, and as far as
+possible marks out his course with regard to them during the ensuing
+year. This he does in order that every one purchasing a seat in Plymouth
+Church may know just what is in store for him from the pulpit. The
+surplus revenue, after the pastor's salary and the current expenses are
+paid, has until recently been devoted to extinguishing the debt upon the
+church. That burden now being off the shoulders of the congregation, the
+money is applied to missionary work in Brooklyn. "Two missions have been
+largely supported by the funds derived from Plymouth Church, and the
+time and personal labor of its members. A mechanics' reading-room is
+connected with one of these. No church in the country furnishes a
+larger body of lay teachers, exhorters, and missionaries in every
+department of human and Christian labor."
+
+Plymouth Church is located in Orange Street, between Hicks and Henry
+Streets, in Brooklyn, and not far from the Fulton Ferry. Many strangers,
+whose expectations are based upon the fame of the pastor, are
+disappointed in the plain and simple exterior of red brick, as they come
+prepared to see a magnificent Gothic temple. The interior, however,
+rarely fails to please all comers. It is plain and simple, but elegant
+and comfortable. It is a vast hall, around the four sides of which
+sweeps an immense gallery. The interior is painted white, with a tinge
+of pink, and the carpets and cushions of the seats are of a rich, warm
+red. The rows of seats in the body of the church are semicircular, and
+those in the gallery rise as in an amphitheater, from the front to the
+wall. At the far end of the church is a raised platform containing
+merely a chair and a table. The table is a pretty ornament, and is the
+"Plymouth Pulpit." It is made of wood brought from the Garden of
+Gethsemane. In the gallery behind the pulpit is the great organ--one of
+the largest and finest in the Union. The church will seat over
+twenty-five hundred people, but in order to do this, chairs are placed
+in the aisles. These chairs are sold as well as the pews.
+
+Every Sunday morning the streets are filled with persons on their way to
+attend the services at Plymouth Church. They come not only from
+Brooklyn, but from New York, and even from Jersey City and Hoboken. The
+yard and street in front of the church are quickly filled with the
+throng, but the doors are guarded by policemen, and none but pew-holders
+are permitted to enter the church until ten minutes before the hour for
+service. Without this precaution the regular congregation would be
+crowded out of their seats every Sunday by strangers.
+
+At ten minutes before the hour for service the doors are thrown open,
+and very soon there is not even standing room in the vast interior, and
+generally the vestibules are full.
+
+Near the pulpit is placed a basket of exquisite flowers, and sometimes
+the entire platform is decorated in the same way. Most commonly some
+little child perches itself up among the flowers, and this pretty sight
+never fails to bring a smile of pleasure to the pastor's face as he
+enters the church. He comes in through a little door under the gallery,
+behind the pulpit. He is dressed in a plain suit of black, with a Byron
+collar and a black stock. His movements are quiet and graceful, although
+quick and energetic. His manner in opening the services is quiet and
+earnest, and at once impresses his hearers with the solemnity of the
+occasion. He reads the Bible in an easy, unconstrained manner, as if he
+enjoyed the task, and in his prayers, which are extempore, he carries
+the hearts of all his hearers with him to the Throne of Grace. He joins
+heartily in the singing, which is congregational. It was feared that the
+organ would prove a great temptation to do away with this style of
+singing, but this has not been the case. The magnificent instrument is
+used only to accompany the congregation, and there swells up such a
+volume of harmony from this vast throng as is never listened to outside
+of Plymouth Church. The singing is wonderful.
+
+The gem of the whole service, however, is the sermon; and these sermons
+are characteristic of the man. They come warm and fresh from his heart,
+and they go home to the hearer, giving him food for thought for days
+afterward. To attempt to describe his manner would be to paint the
+sunbeam. Eloquence can be felt, but it can not be described. He enchains
+the attention of his auditors from the first, and they hang upon his
+utterances with rapt eagerness until the close of the sermon.
+
+He knows human nature thoroughly, and he talks to his people of what
+they have been thinking of during the week, of trials that have
+perplexed them, and of joys which have blessed them. He takes the clerk
+and the merchant to task for their conduct in the walks of business, and
+warns them of the snares and pitfalls which lie along their paths. He
+strips the thin guise of honesty from the questionable transactions of
+Wall Street, and holds them up to public scorn. He startles many a one
+by his sudden penetration and denunciation of what that one supposes to
+be the secrets of his heart. His dramatic power is extraordinary. He can
+hardly be responsible for it, since it breaks forth almost without his
+will. It is simply unavoidable with him. He moves his audience to tears,
+or brings a mirthful smile to their lips, with a power that is
+irresistible. His illustrations and figures are drawn chiefly from
+nature, and are fresh and striking. They please the subtlest philosopher
+who hears him, and illuminate the mind of the average listener with a
+flood of light. He can startle his people with the terrors of the law,
+but he prefers to preach the Gospel of Love. "God's love for those who
+are scattered and lost," he says, "is intenser and deeper than the love
+even of a mother.... God longs to bring you home more than you long to
+get there. He has been calling, calling, calling, and listening for your
+answer. And when you are found, and you lay your head on the bosom of
+Jesus, and you are at rest, you will not be so glad as He will be who
+declared that, like a shepherd, he had joy over one sinner that repented
+more than over ninety and nine just persons that needed no repentance."
+
+Religion is to him an abiding joy; it is perfect love, and casteth out
+fear. It has no gloom, no terror in it, and he says to his people: "If
+God gave you gayety and cheer of spirits, lift up the careworn by it.
+Wherever you go, shine and sing. In every household there is drudgery;
+in every household there is sorrow; in every household there is
+low-thoughted evil. If you come as a prince, with a cheerful, buoyant
+nature, in the name of God, do not lay aside those royal robes of yours.
+Let humor bedew duty; let it flash across care. Let gayety take charge
+of dullness. So employ these qualities that they shall be to life what
+carbonic acid is to wine, making it foam and sparkle."
+
+The sum and substance, the burden of all his preaching is Christ:
+"'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!' I
+present Jesus to you as the atoning Saviour; as God's sacrifice for sin;
+as that new and living way by which alone a sinful creature can ascend
+and meet a pure and just God. I bring this question home to you as a
+sinner. O man! full of transgressions, habitual in iniquities, tainted
+and tarnished, utterly undone before God, what will you do with this
+Jesus that comes as God's appointed sacrifice for sin, your only hope
+and your only Saviour? Will you accept him? Will you, by personal and
+living faith, accept him as your Saviour from sin? I ask not that you
+should go with me into a discourse upon the relations of Christ's life,
+of his sufferings, of his death; to the law of God, or to the government
+of God. Whatever may be the philosophy of those relations, the matter in
+hand is one of faith rather than of philosophy; and the question is,
+Will you take Christ to be your soul's Saviour?"
+
+Having selected his theme, and formed a general plan of treatment, Mr.
+Beecher trusts a great deal to the inspiration of the moment for his
+language and illustrations. Some time ago, in reply to a friend who
+asked how he prepared his sermons, he said he generally has an idea
+during the week as to what he will preach about on Sunday, but does not
+attempt any thing like systematic preparation until an hour or two
+before going into the pulpit. Sometimes it is easy to block out a
+sermon; but again it is hard work, and he does not fairly get into it
+until the first bell rings. He writes out the headings of his subject,
+and marks the proper places for illustration. He does not confine
+himself to this written outline, however, but, once in the pulpit,
+changes it according to the impulse of the moment. He never preaches the
+same sermon twice, though he may use the same text several times,
+treating it in a different way each time. He endeavors to preach his
+best sermons on stormy days, in order that the desire to hear his best
+efforts may keep his congregation from degenerating into "fair-weather
+Christians." "Once," he said, laughing, "it snowed or rained every
+Sabbath in a certain winter, and the effort I had to make to remain
+faithful to this rule came near killing me." When asked if he studied
+his prayers, he answered promptly: "Never. I carry a feeling with me
+such as a mother would have for her children were they lost in a great
+forest. I feel that on every side my people are in danger, and that many
+of them are like babes, weak and helpless. My heart goes out in sorrow
+and in anxiety toward them, and at times I seem to carry all their
+burdens. I find that when one's heart is wrapped and twined around the
+hearts of others, it is not difficult to pray."
+
+The church is provided with a large lecture-room, a study for the
+pastor, and an elegant parlor. Mr. Beecher does not pay pastoral visits
+to his people, unless he is sent for to visit the sick and dying, or
+persons seeking help in their religious struggles. His parishioners are
+scattered over so wide a territory that a systematic course of visiting
+would consume all his time. In place of these visits, he meets his
+congregation at stated times in social gatherings in the church parlor,
+and these evenings are looked forward to with eagerness by both pastor
+and people.
+
+The most characteristic meeting of this congregation, however, even more
+so than the Sunday services, is the Friday evening meeting, which is
+held in the lecture-room. This room is plain and simple. It is provided
+with comfortable seats and a grand piano. There is no pulpit in it, but
+a small table and a chair are placed for the pastor on a low platform
+covered with green baize. The object is to banish every thing like
+formalism, and to make the meeting as free and unconstrained as a social
+gathering. As at the Sunday services, the house is full, but now the
+persons present are almost entirely members of the church. Strangers
+rarely come to these meetings, and in staying away from them miss the
+chance of seeing the true inner life of Plymouth Church. A gentleman who
+was present at one of them, a few years ago, wrote the following account
+of it for the "Atlantic Monthly:"
+
+
+     Mr. Beecher took his seat on the platform, and, after a short
+     pause, began the exercises by saying, in a low tone, these words:
+     "Six twenty-two."
+
+     A rustling of the leaves of hymn-books interpreted the meaning of
+     this mystical utterance, which otherwise might have been taken as
+     announcing a discourse upon the prophetic numbers. The piano
+     confirmed the interpretation; and then the company burst into one
+     of those joyous and unanimous singings which are so enchanting a
+     feature of the services of this church. Loud rose the beautiful
+     harmony of voices, constraining every one to join in the song, even
+     those most unused to sing. When it was ended, the pastor, in the
+     same low tone, pronounced a name, upon which one of the brethren
+     rose to his feet, and the rest slightly inclined v their heads....
+     The prayers were all brief, perfectly quiet and simple, and free
+     from the routine or regulation expressions. There were but two or
+     three of them, alternating with singing; and when that part of the
+     exercises was concluded, Mr. Beecher had scarcely spoken. The
+     meeting ran alone, in the most spontaneous and pleasant manner....
+     There was a pause after the last hymn died away, and then Mr.
+     Beecher, still seated, began, in the tone of conversation, to speak
+     somewhat after this manner:
+
+     "When," said he, "I first began to walk as a Christian, in my
+     youthful zeal I made many resolutions that were well meant, but
+     indiscreet. Among others, I remember I resolved to pray, at least
+     once, in some way, every hour that I was awake. I tried faithfully
+     to keep this resolution, but never having succeeded a single day, I
+     suffered the pangs of self-reproach, until reflection satisfied me
+     that the only wisdom possible, with regard to such a resolve, was
+     to break it. I remember, too, that I made a resolution to speak
+     upon religion to every person with whom I conversed,--on
+     steamboats, in the streets, anywhere. In this, also, I failed, as I
+     ought; and I soon learned that, in the sowing of such seed, as in
+     other sowings, times, and seasons, and methods must be considered
+     and selected, or a man may defeat his own object, and make religion
+     loathsome."
+
+     In language like this he introduced the topic of the evening's
+     conversation, which was, How far, and on what occasions, and in
+     what manner, one person may invade, so to speak, the personality of
+     another, and speak to him upon his moral condition. The pastor
+     expressed his own opinion, always in the conversational tone, in a
+     talk of ten minutes' duration, in the course of which he applauded,
+     not censured, the delicacy which causes most people to shrink from
+     doing it. He said that a man's personality was not a macadamized
+     road for every vehicle to drive upon at will, but rather a sacred
+     inclosure, to be entered, if at all, with the consent of the owner,
+     and with deference to his feelings and tastes. He maintained,
+     however, that there _were_ times and modes in which this might
+     properly be done, and that every one _had_ a duty to perform of
+     this nature. When he had finished his observations, he said the
+     subject was open to the remarks of others; whereupon a brother
+     instantly rose and made a very honest confession.
+
+     He said that he had never attempted to perform the duty in question
+     without having a palpitation of the heart, and a complete turning
+     over of his inner man. He had often reflected upon this curious
+     fact, but was not able to account for it. He had not allowed this
+     repugnance to prevent his doing the duty; but he always had to rush
+     at it and perform it by a sort of _coup de main_, for if he allowed
+     himself to think about the matter, he could not do it at all. He
+     concluded by saying that he should be very much obliged to any one
+     if he could explain this mystery.
+
+     The pastor said: "May it not be the natural delicacy we feel, and
+     ought to feel, in approaching the interior consciousness of another
+     person?"
+
+     Another brother rose. There was no hanging back at this meeting;
+     there were no awkward pauses; every one seemed full of matter. The
+     new speaker was not inclined to admit the explanation suggested by
+     the pastor. "Suppose," said he, "we were to see a man in imminent
+     danger of immediate destruction, and there was one way of escape,
+     and but one, which _we_ saw, and he did not, should we feel any
+     delicacy in running up to him and urging him to fly for his life?
+     Is it not a want of faith on our part that causes the reluctance
+     and hesitation we all feel in urging others to avoid a peril so
+     much more momentous?"
+
+     Mr. Beecher said the cases were not parallel. Irreligious persons,
+     he remarked, were not in imminent danger of immediate death; they
+     might die to-morrow; but in all probability they would not, and an
+     ill-timed or injudicious admonition might forever repel them. We
+     must accept the doctrine of probabilities, and act in accordance
+     with it in this particular, as in all others.
+
+     Another brother had a puzzle to present for solution. He said that
+     he too had experienced the repugnance to which allusion had been
+     made; but what surprised him most was, that the more he loved a
+     person, and the nearer he was related to him, the more difficult he
+     found it to converse with him upon his spiritual state. Why is
+     this? "I should like to have this question answered," said he, "if
+     there _is_ an answer to it."
+
+     Mr. Beecher observed that this was the universal experience, and he
+     was conscious himself of a peculiar reluctance and embarrassment in
+     approaching one of his own household on the subject in question. He
+     thought it was due to the fact that we respect more the personal
+     rights of those near to us than we do those of others, and it was
+     more difficult to break in upon the routine of our ordinary
+     familiarity with them. We are accustomed to a certain tone which it
+     is highly embarrassing to jar upon.
+
+     Captain Duncan related two amusing anecdotes to illustrate the
+     right way and the wrong way of introducing religious conversation.
+     In his office there was sitting one day a sort of lay preacher, who
+     was noted for lugging in his favorite topic in the most forbidding
+     and abrupt manner. A sea captain came in, who was introduced to
+     this individual.
+
+     "Captain Porter," said he, with awful solemnity, "are you a captain
+     in Israel?"
+
+     The honest sailor was so abashed and confounded at this novel
+     salutation, that he could only stammer out an incoherent reply; and
+     he was evidently disposed to give the tactless zealot a piece of
+     his mind, expressed in the language of the quarter-deck. When the
+     solemn man took his leave, the disgusted captain said, "If ever I
+     should be coming to your office again, and that man should be here,
+     I wish you would send me word, and I'll stay away."
+
+     A few days after another clergyman chanced to be in the office, no
+     other than Mr. Beecher himself, and another captain came in, a
+     roistering, swearing, good-hearted fellow. The conversation fell
+     upon sea-sickness, a malady to which Mr. Beecher is peculiarly
+     liable. The captain also was one of the few sailors who are always
+     sea-sick in going to sea, and gave a moving account of his
+     sufferings from that cause. Mr. Beecher, after listening
+     attentively to his tale, said, "Captain Duncan, if I was a preacher
+     to such sailors as your friend here, I should represent hell as an
+     eternal voyage, with every man on board in the agonies of
+     sea-sickness, the crisis always imminent, but never coming."
+
+     This ludicrous and most unprofessional picture amused the old salt
+     exceedingly, and won his entire good will toward the author of it;
+     so that after Mr. Beecher left, he said, "That's a good fellow,
+     Captain Duncan. I like _him_, and I'd like to hear him talk more."
+
+     Captain Duncan contended that this free and easy way of address was
+     just the thing for such characters. Mr. Beecher had shown him, to
+     his great surprise, that a man could be a decent and comfortable
+     human being although he was a minister, and had so gained his
+     confidence and good will that he could say _any thing_ to him at
+     their next interview. Captain Duncan finished his remarks by a
+     decided expression of his disapproval of the canting regulation
+     phrases so frequently employed by religious people, which are
+     perfectly nauseous to men of the world.
+
+     This interesting conversation lasted about three-quarters of an
+     hour, and ended, not because the theme seemed exhausted, but
+     because the time was up. We have only given enough of it to convey
+     some little idea of its spirit. The company again broke into one
+     of their cheerful hymns, and the meeting was dismissed in the usual
+     manner.
+
+
+During the late war, Mr. Beecher took an active and energetic part in
+support of the cause of the Union. His labors were so severe that his
+health was considerably impaired, and his voice began to fail him. His
+physicians ordered him to seek rest and recreation in a tour through
+Europe, and he reluctantly obeyed them. He was much benefited by his
+visit to the Continent, but on his return to England, on his way home,
+being solicited to speak in that country in behalf of the Union, he
+delivered a series of powerful appeals, which exhausted the greater part
+of the strength he had gained on the Continent, and caused him to return
+home almost as ill as when he went abroad.
+
+Soon after his return the war closed, and he went to Charleston to
+deliver the address at Fort Sumter upon the occasion of the rehoisting
+of the flag of the United States over that work. The news of the
+assassination of Mr. Lincoln met him upon his return to Brooklyn, and
+drew from him one of his most memorable sermons. At the close of
+hostilities, he preached a sermon to his congregation, urging
+forgiveness and conciliation toward the South as the policy of the hour,
+saying truly that that crisis was a rare opportunity which would never
+come again, if spurned. The sermon was unpopular, and caused him some
+trouble even in his own congregation.
+
+Mr. Beecher is now fifty-seven years old, but is still in the flush of
+his intellectual vigor. His eye is as bright, his step as firm and
+elastic, and his voice as clear and ringing as when he preached his
+first sermon. His powers have grown with his work, and every year he
+seems to rise higher in his intellectual supremacy. As a pulpit orator,
+he has no superior, and certainly there is no man in all this round
+earth whose eloquence has been productive of greater good to the cause
+he serves. He is a stout, stocky man in appearance, with a large square
+face and heavy features. It is the face of a great orator and a genial,
+warm-hearted man. He is careful and temperate in all his habits--except
+that he will work too hard--and enjoys robust health. He lives plainly
+and dresses simply. He impresses one at once with his immense energy,
+and you would recognize him immediately as a man of unusual power in his
+community. Said a friend not long since, "I was standing by Beecher in a
+book-store to-day. He was perfectly still, as he was waiting for a
+parcel to be done up, but he reminded me of a big locomotive full of
+steam and fire, and ready to display its immense force at any moment."
+
+Mr. Beecher is not only a preacher, but a capital farmer. He has a model
+farm at Peekskill, on the Hudson, and is brimful of agricultural and
+horticultural theories, which he carries into practice successfully. His
+love for flowers is a perfect passion, and dates from his boyhood. He is
+an excellent mechanic, and makes the repairs on his own premises, as far
+as he can, with a keen relish, which he has doubtless inherited from his
+father. He is thoroughly read in history, and as an art critic has no
+superior. His house is filled with art gems, which are his pride. He has
+not lost the love of reverie which marked his boyhood, but he is
+eminently a practical man, and prefers the practical questions of
+theology to those merely theoretical. He is as little like the typical
+parson as one can imagine, and yet he is one whose place will be hard to
+fill when he is gone, and whose works will live in the grateful memory
+of those whom his counsel has saved from sin, and his sympathy
+encouraged to continue in the path of duty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+PETER CARTWRIGHT.
+
+
+One of the most remarkable men in the American ministry is PETER
+CARTWRIGHT, the "Backwoods Preacher." Sixty-seven years of ministerial
+labors have passed over his head, and yet he still continues in the
+field in which he has done such good service, and retains all the
+popularity and much of the fire of his younger days.
+
+He was born in Amherst County, Virginia, on the 1st of September, 1785.
+His father had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and his mother
+was an orphan. Shortly after the close of the war, the Cartwrights
+removed from Virginia to Kentucky, which was then an almost unbroken
+wilderness. The journey was accompanied with considerable danger, as the
+Indians were not yet driven west of the Ohio, but the family reached
+their destination in safety. For two years they lived on a rented farm
+in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and at the end of that time removed to what
+was called the Green River Country, and settled in Logan County, nine
+miles south of Russellville, the county seat, and within one mile of the
+State line of Tennessee.
+
+The portion of Logan County in which young Cartwright's childhood and
+youth were passed was the very last place one Would have cared to bring
+up a candidate for the ministry. It was called "Rogue's Harbor," and was
+thickly settled with fugitives from justice from all parts of the Union.
+They actually constituted a majority of the inhabitants of the district,
+and when the respectable citizens sought to bring them to justice they
+readily "swore each other clear," and thus set the law at defiance. They
+carried on such a course of outrage and violence that the respectable
+citizens were at length compelled to combine for defence against them by
+means of an organization known as the Regulators. Several fierce
+encounters took place between the desperadoes and the Regulators, in
+which many lives were lost, before the supremacy of the law was
+established.
+
+"When my lather settled in Logan County," says Mr. Cartwright, "there
+was not a newspaper printed South of Green River, no mill short of forty
+miles, and no schools worth the name. Sunday was a day set apart for
+hunting, fishing, horse-racing, card-playing, balls, dances, and all
+kinds of jollity and mirth. We killed our meat out in the woods, wild,
+and beat our meal and hominy with a pestle and mortar. We stretched a
+deer-skin over a hoop, burned holes in it with the prongs of a fork,
+sifted our meal, baked our bread, eat it, and it was first-rate eating,
+too. We raised, or gathered out of the woods, our own tea. We had sage,
+bohea, cross-vine, spice, and sassafras teas in abundance. As for
+coffee, I am not sure that I ever smelled it for ten years. We made our
+sugar out of the water of the maple-tree, and our molasses, too. These
+were great luxuries in those days. We raised our own cotton and flax. We
+water-rotted our flax, broke it by hand, scutched it, picked the seed
+out of the cotton with our fingers; our mothers and sisters carded,
+spun, and wove it into cloth, and they cut and made our garments and
+bed-clothes, etc. And when we got on a new suit thus manufactured, and
+sallied out into company, we thought ourselves as _big as any body_."
+
+Young Peter grew up in this rough country with a constitution of iron,
+and a fair share of Western courage, independence, and energy. He was
+sent by his father to a neighboring school, but the teacher was an
+indifferent one, and he learned merely to read and write and cipher
+imperfectly.
+
+He was a "wild, wicked boy," he tells us, and grew up to delight in
+horse-racing, card-playing, and dancing. His father seems to have
+enjoyed having so dashing a son, but his mother, who was a pious woman,
+took his course seriously to heart, and wept and prayed over her boy as
+only a Christian mother can. She often talked to him, and moved him so
+deeply that he frequently vowed to lead a better life; but his pleasures
+were too tempting, and he fell back again into his old habits. His
+father presented him with a race-horse and a pack of cards, and he
+became known among his youthful companions as one of the most fearless
+riders and the luckiest fellow at cards in the county. The good mother
+wept and prayed all the more, and the boy hid his cards from her to keep
+her from burning them.
+
+In 1801, when he was sixteen years old, a change came over him. He had
+been out with his father and brother to attend a wedding in the
+neighborhood. The affair was conducted with all the uproarious merriment
+incident to those days, and when Peter returned home and began to think
+over it, he felt condemned at having passed his time in such a manner.
+"My mother was in bed," says he. "It seemed to me, all of a sudden, my
+blood rushed to my head, my heart palpitated, in a few minutes I turned
+blind, an awful impression rested on my mind that death had come to me
+and I was unprepared to die. I fell on my knees and began to ask God to
+have mercy on me. My mother sprang from her bed, and was soon on her
+knees by my side, praying for me, and exhorting me to look to Christ for
+mercy, and then and there I promised the Lord if he would spare me I
+would seek and serve Him, and I never fully broke that promise. My
+mother prayed for me a long time. At length we lay down, but there was
+little sleep for me. Next morning I rose, feeling wretched beyond
+expression. I tried to read in the Testament, and retired many times to
+secret prayer through the day, but found no relief. I gave up my
+race-horse to my father and requested him to sell him. I went and
+brought my pack of cards and gave them to mother, who threw them into
+the fire, and they were consumed. I fasted, watched, and prayed, and
+engaged in regular reading of the Testament. I was so distressed and
+miserable that I was incapable of any regular business."
+
+Several months passed away, during which time Peter had seasons of
+comfort and hopes of forgiveness, but during the greater portion he was
+wretched and miserable, filled with such a fear of the devil that he was
+almost convinced that Satan was really present with him to keep him from
+God. A camp-meeting, held in the vicinity of his father's house, in the
+spring of 1801, completed his conversion and gave him peace.
+
+"To this meeting," says he, "I repaired a guilty, wretched sinner. On
+the Saturday evening of said meeting I went, with weeping multitudes,
+and bowed before the stand, and earnestly prayed for mercy. In the midst
+of a solemn struggle of soul, an impression was made on my mind as
+though a voice said to me: 'Thy sins are all forgiven thee,' Divine
+light flashed all around me, unspeakable joy sprang up in my soul. I
+rose to my feet, opened my eyes, and it really seemed to me as if I was
+in heaven; the trees, the leaves on them, and every thing seemed, and I
+really thought were, praising God. My mother raised the shout, my
+Christian friends crowded around me and joined me in praising God.... I
+have never doubted that the Lord did, then and there, forgive my sins
+and give me religion." He went on his way rejoicing, and in June, 1801,
+was formally received into the Methodist Episcopal Church. In May, 1802,
+he was appointed an exhorter. He shrank from accepting the position, as
+he distrusted his own abilities, but finally yielded to his presiding
+elder's wishes and entered upon his work. In the fall of that year his
+parents removed to Lewiston County, toward the mouth of the Cumberland
+River.
+
+Although he was but eighteen years old, his presiding elder had detected
+in him signs of unusual promise, and had resolved to bring him into
+active labor for the Church at once, and accordingly, upon his departure
+for his new home, Peter was given authority to lay out and organize a
+new circuit, the plan of which he was to submit to the presiding elder
+for approval. The boy hesitated, frightened by the magnitude of the
+task, but being encouraged by his superiors, accepted the trust, and
+thus began his labors as a preacher of the Word. Upon reaching his new
+home, he attended a tolerably good school in the vicinity, hoping to
+acquire a better education, but the pupils and teacher persecuted him so
+sorely that he was obliged to withdraw. Determining to lose no time in
+waiting for an education, he at once began the work of preaching. Being
+possessed of strong natural sense, a ready wit, and being thoroughly
+imbued with the spirit of frontier life, he was just the man to carry
+the Gospel home to the hearts of the rude pioneers of the great West.
+His manner was that of a backwoodsman, and he had no city airs and
+graces to offend the plain, rough people to whom he preached. He was
+emphatically one of them. He offered them the plain Gospel, and gave
+theological theories a wide berth.
+
+His plan of operations was adapted to the rudest intellect. It was to
+thunder the terrors of the law into the ears of his converts, or, in his
+own words, to "shake them over hell until they smelt brimstone right
+strong," and make them see the fearful condition in which they lay by
+reason of their sin. Man was to him a wretched, degraded creature, and
+the only way to bring him to God was to drive him there by the terrors
+of the law. Our preacher had very little faith in the quieter, more
+persuasive means of grace. His first effort was to give the souls of his
+hearers a good shaking up, bring them face to face with hell and its
+torments, and then, having forced them to flee from the wrath to come,
+to trust to their future Christian experience for the means of acquiring
+a knowledge of the tender mercies of the Saviour. It must be confessed
+that this was the only plan open to him in the field in which he
+labored. The people to whom he preached were a rude, rough set, mainly
+ignorant and superstitious, and many of them sunk in the depths of
+drunkenness and viciousness. The Western country was almost a
+wilderness. Vast forests and boundless prairies lay on every hand, with
+but here and there a clearing with a solitary log cabin in it, or but
+two or three at the most. The people lived in the most perfect solitude,
+rarely seeing any but the members of their own households. Solitude and
+danger made them superstitious, and the absence of schools kept them in
+ignorance. They drank to keep off the blues, and when they came together
+for amusement they made the most of their opportunities, and plunged
+into the most violent sports, which were not always kept within the
+bounds of propriety. Churches were as scarce as schools, and until the
+Methodist circuit riders made their appearance in the West, the people
+were little better than heathen. The law had scarcely any hold upon
+these frontiersmen. They were wild and untamed, and personal freedom was
+kept in restraint mainly by the law of personal accountability. They
+were generous and improvident, frank, fearless, easy-going, and filled
+with an intense scorn for every thing that smacked of Eastern refinement
+or city life. They were proud of their buckskin and linsey-woolsey
+clothes, their squirrel caps, and their horny hands and rough faces.
+They would have been miserable in a city mansion, but they were lords
+and kings in their log-cabins. To have sent a preacher bred in the
+learned schools of New England to such a people would have been folly.
+The smooth cadences, the polished gestures, and, above all, the
+manuscript sermon of a Boston divine, would have disgusted the men and
+women of the frontier. What cared they for predestination or free-will,
+or for any of the dogmas of the schools? They wanted to hear the simple,
+fundamental truths of the Gospel, and they wanted to hear them from a
+man of their own stamp. They wanted a "fire and brimstone" preacher, one
+whose fiery eloquence could stir the very depths of their souls, and set
+their simple imaginations all ablaze; one who could shout and sing with
+true Western abandon; who could preach in his shirt-sleeves, sleep with
+them on the bare ground, brave all the dangers of a frontier life, and,
+if necessary, thrash any one who dared to insult him. Such was the man
+for these sturdy, simple Western folk, and such a man they found in
+Peter Cartwright.
+
+Peter went at the task before him with a will. The country being
+sparsely settled, people had to travel a long way to get to church, and
+it became a matter of expediency for the clergy to hold religious
+gatherings at stated points, and to continue them for several days, so
+that those who desired to attend might be able to avoid the necessity of
+going home every evening and coming back next day. Church edifices being
+scarce, these meetings were held in the woods, and a large encampment
+was formed by the people in attendance. This was the origin of the
+camp-meeting system, which for many years was the only effective way of
+spreading the Gospel in the West. It was at a camp-meeting that Peter
+obtained religion, and he has ever since been a zealous advocate of, and
+a hard worker at, them. From the first he was successful. The fame of
+the "boy preacher" went abroad into all the land, and people came in to
+the camp from a hundred miles around to hear him. He had little
+education, but he knew his Bible thoroughly, and was a ready speaker,
+and, above all, he knew how to deal with the people to whom he preached.
+He made many converts, and from the first took rank as the most popular
+preacher in the West.
+
+Peter not only believed in the overruling power of God, but he was
+firmly convinced of the active and personal agency of the devil in human
+affairs. Many of the follies and faults of the people around him took
+place, he averred, because they were possessed of devils. Each
+camp-meeting was to him a campaign against Satan, and in his opinion
+Satan never failed to make a good fight for his kingdom. Certainly some
+very singular things did occur at the meetings at which he was present,
+and, naturally, perhaps, some persons began to believe that Peter
+Cartwright possessed supernatural powers. The following incident,
+related by him, not only explains some of the phenomena to which I
+allude, but also the manner in which he was regarded by some of the
+unconverted:
+
+"A new exercise broke out among us, called the 'jerks,' which was
+overwhelming in its effects upon the bodies and minds of the people. No
+matter whether they were saints or sinners, they would be taken under a
+warm song or sermon, and seized with a convulsive jerking all over,
+which they could not by any possibility avoid, and the more they
+resisted, the more they jerked. If they would not strive against it,
+and pray in good earnest, the jerking would usually abate. I have seen
+more than five hundred persons jerking at one time in my large
+congregations. Most usually persons taken with the jerks, to obtain
+relief, as they said, would rise up and dance. Some would run, but could
+not get away. Some would resist; on such the jerks were very severe.
+
+"To see those proud young gentlemen and young ladies, dressed in their
+silks, jewelry, and prunella, from top to toe, take the jerks, would
+often excite my risibilities. The first jerk or so you would see their
+fine bonnets, caps, and combs fly, and so sudden would be the jerking of
+the head that their long, loose hair would crack almost as loud as a
+wagoner's whip.
+
+"At one of my appointments, in 1804, there was a very large congregation
+turned out to hear the 'Kentucky boy,' as they called me. Among the rest
+there were two very finely dressed, fashionable young ladies, attended
+by two brothers with loaded horsewhips. Although the house was large, it
+was crowded. The two young ladies, coming in late, took their seats near
+where I stood, and their two brothers stood in the door. I was a little
+unwell, and I had a phial of peppermint in my pocket. Before I commenced
+preaching I took out my phial and swallowed a little of the peppermint.
+While I was preaching the congregation was melted into tears. The two
+young gentlemen moved off to the yard fence, and both the young ladies
+took the jerks, and they were greatly mortified about it....
+
+"As I dismissed the assembly, a man stepped up to me and warned me to be
+on my guard, for he had heard the two brothers swear they would
+horsewhip me when meeting was out for giving their sisters the jerks.
+'Well,' said I, 'I'll see to that.'
+
+"I went out and said to the young men that I understood they intended
+to horsewhip me for giving their sisters the jerks. One replied that he
+did. I undertook to expostulate with him on the absurdity of the charge
+against me, but he swore I need not deny it, for he had seen me take out
+a phial in which I carried some truck that gave his sisters the jerks.
+As quick as thought came into my mind how I would get clear of my
+whipping, and, jerking out the peppermint phial, said I, 'Yes; if I gave
+your sisters the jerks I'll give them to you,' In a moment I saw he was
+scared. I moved toward him, he backed, I advanced, and he wheeled and
+ran, warning me not to come near him or he would kill me. It raised the
+laugh on him, and I escaped my whipping....
+
+"I always looked upon the jerks as a judgment sent from God, first, to
+bring sinners to repentance, and, secondly, that God could work with or
+without means, and that he could work over and above means and do
+whatsoever seemeth him good to the glory of his grace and the salvation
+of the world. There is no doubt in my mind that, with weak-minded,
+ignorant, and superstitious persons, there was a great deal of
+sympathetic feeling with many that claimed to be under the influence of
+this jerking exercise, and yet with many it was perfectly involuntary.
+It was on all occasions my practice to recommend fervent prayer as a
+remedy, and it almost universally proved an effectual antidote."
+
+The excitement of the religious revivals plunged many of the people into
+excesses. They prophesied, dreamed dreams, and saw visions, and troubled
+the young preacher exceedingly, but he set his face sternly against all
+such disorders, and pronounced their visions and messages to be from the
+devil. One of these dreamers came to him one day and told him he had a
+message from heaven for him.
+
+"Well," said Cartwright, "what is it?"
+
+"It has been revealed to me," said the fellow, "that you are never to
+die, but are to live forever."
+
+"Who revealed that to you?"
+
+"An angel."
+
+"Did you see him?" asked Cartwright, dryly.
+
+"O, yes; he was a beautiful, white, shining being."
+
+"Did you smell him?" asked Peter, bluntly.
+
+The man looked at him in amazement, and the preacher continued, sternly,
+"Well, did the angel you saw smell of brimstone? He must have smelled of
+brimstone, for he was from a region that burns with fire and brimstone,
+and consequently from hell, for he revealed a great lie to you if he
+told you I was to live forever."
+
+The dreamer turned off abruptly, and disappeared amidst the jeers of the
+crowd that had listened to the conversation.
+
+On the 16th of September, 1806, Mr. Cartwright was ordained a deacon in
+the Methodist Episcopal Church by Bishop Asbury, and on the 4th of
+October, 1808, Bishop McKendree ordained him an elder. Upon receiving
+deacon's orders he was assigned to the Marietta Circuit. His appointment
+dismayed him. Says he: "It was a poor, hard circuit at that time.
+Marietta and the country round were settled at an early day by a colony
+of Yankees. At the time of my appointment I had never seen a Yankee, and
+I had heard dismal stories about them. It was said they lived almost
+entirely on pumpkins, molasses, fat meat, and bohea tea; moreover, that
+they could not bear loud and zealous sermons, and they had brought on
+their learned preachers with them, and they read their sermons and were
+always criticising us poor backwoods preachers. When my appointment was
+read out it distressed me greatly. I went to Bishop Asbury and begged
+him to supply my place and let me go home. The old father took me in
+his arms and said: 'O, no, my son; go in the name of the Lord. It will
+make a man of you.'
+
+"Ah, thought I, if this is the way to make men, I do not want to be a
+man. I cried over it bitterly, and prayed, too. But on I started,
+cheered by my presiding elder, Brother J. Sale. If I ever saw hard
+times, surely it was this year; yet many of the people were kind and
+treated me friendly. I had hard work to keep soul and body together. The
+first Methodist house I came to the brother was a Universalist. I
+crossed over the Muskingum River to Marietta. The first Methodist family
+I stopped with there, the lady was a member of the Methodist Episcopal
+Church, but a thorough Universalist. She was a thin-faced, Roman-nosed,
+loquacious Yankee, glib on the tongue, and you may depend upon it I had
+a hard race to keep up with her, though I found it a good school, for it
+set me to reading my Bible. And here permit me to say, of all the isms I
+ever heard of, they were here. These descendants of the Puritans were
+generally educated, but their ancestors were rigid predestinarians, and
+as they were sometimes favored with a little light on their moral
+powers, and could just 'see men as trees walking,' they jumped into
+Deism, Universalism, Unitarianism, etc., etc. I verily believe it was
+the best school I ever entered. They waked me up on all sides; Methodism
+was feeble, and I had to battle or run, and I resolved on the former."
+
+Just before he was made an elder, Mr. Cartwright left his circuit, and
+went home on a visit to recruit. He had made a good fight with poverty
+during his labors, and at the time of his departure for home he was in a
+condition sufficiently hard to test any man's fortitude. "I had been
+from my father's house for three years," says he; "was five hundred
+miles from home, my horse had gone blind, my saddle was worn out, my
+bridle reins had been eaten up and replaced (after a sort) at least a
+dozen times, and my clothes had been patched till it was difficult to
+detect the original. I had concluded to make my way home and get another
+outfit. I was in Marietta, and had just seventy-five cents in my pocket.
+How I would get home and pay my way I could not tell."
+
+He did reach home, however, after many characteristic adventures, and
+obtained another outfit, and while there he took an important step--he
+married. "After a mature deliberation and prayer," he says, "I thought
+it was my duty to marry, and was joined in marriage to Frances Gaines,
+on the 18th of August, 1808, which was her nineteenth birthday." Peter
+and his bride knew that a hard life was in store for them, but they felt
+strong in the love they bore each other. They were simple backwoods
+folk, and their wants were few. "When I started as a traveling
+preacher," he said fifty-three years afterward, "a single preacher was
+allowed to receive eighty dollars per annum if his circuit would give it
+to him; but single preachers in those days seldom received over thirty
+or forty dollars, and often much less; and had it not been for a few
+presents made us by the benevolent friends of the church, and a few
+dollars we made as marriage fees, we must have suffered much more than
+we did. But the Lord provided, and, strange as it may appear to the
+present generation, we got along without starving or going naked." There
+is something awe-inspiring in the simple trust in God which this good
+man displayed in every stage of his life. Once satisfied that he was in
+the path of duty, he never allowed the future to trouble him. He
+provided for it as far as he could, and left the rest to the Master
+whose work he was doing. Poverty and hardship had no terrors for this
+brave young couple, and it was very far from their thoughts to wait
+until a better day to marry. They would go out hand in hand into the
+world and meet their trials together. Children would come, they knew,
+and those little mouths would have to be fed, but they would be
+industrious, saving, and patient, and "God would provide."
+
+Peter Cartwright's mission was to plant the Methodist Episcopal Church
+in the West as well as to preach the Gospel. For that end he worked and
+prayed. The Methodist Episcopal Church was his haven of safety. Without,
+all was storm and darkness; within its fold all was peace and light. He
+believed his church to be the best door to heaven, if indeed it was not
+in his estimation the only one. He was a fanatic, pure and simple, as
+regarded his own denomination, but a fanatic full of high and noble
+purposes, and one whose zeal was productive only of good. This
+fanaticism was necessary to the success of his labors. It was his
+perfect belief that his was the only church in which sinners could find
+perfect peace that carried him through the difficulties which
+encompassed him. Men were dying all around him, and they must come into
+his church. They had other denominations close at hand, but they, in his
+estimation, would not do. The Methodist Episcopal Church was a necessity
+for sinners, therefore it must be planted in all parts of the land. No
+sacrifice was too great for the accomplishment of this object. He has
+lived to see those sacrifices rewarded, to see his church one of the
+most numerous and powerful religious bodies in the country.
+
+Being so zealous in behalf of his own church, it is not strange that he
+should have clashed frequently with other denominations. He got along
+very well with the majority, but with the Baptists and Universalists he
+was always on the war path. The latter especially excited his
+uncompromising hostility, and he never failed to attack their doctrines
+with all his forces wherever he encountered them. "I have thought,"
+says he, "and do still think, if I were to set out to form a plan to
+contravene the laws of God, to encourage wickedness of all kinds, to
+corrupt the morals and encourage vice, and crowd hell with the lost and
+the wailings of the damned, the Universalist plan should be the plan,
+the very plan that I would adopt....
+
+"A few years ago," he continues, "I had a neighbor who professed to be a
+confirmed Universalist. He contended with me that there was no devil but
+the evil disposition in man, and that there was no hell but the bad
+feelings that men had when they did wrong: that this was all the
+punishment any body would suffer. When this neighbor's father lay on his
+dying bed (a confirmed Universalist, professedly) there was a faithful
+minister of Christ who believed it his duty to visit this old
+Universalist, warn him of his danger, and try to awaken his conscience,
+if not seared, to a just view of his real situation. The minister,
+however, failed in his faithful attempt and well-meant endeavors, for
+the old man, then on his dying pillow, was greatly offended at the
+preacher, and told him that he did not thank him for trying to shake his
+faith in his dying moments. This neighbor of mine, and son of this old,
+hardened sinner, was greatly enraged at the preacher, and cursed and
+abused him in a violent manner. A few days after the demise of the old
+man, he, in a furious rage, began to abuse and curse the preacher in my
+presence, and said:
+
+"D---- him; I wish he was in hell and the devil had him.'
+
+"I stopped him short by saying, 'Pooh, pooh, man, what are you talking
+about? There is no hell but the bad feelings that a man has when he does
+wrong, and no devil but the evil disposition that is in man.' Thus
+answering a fool according to his folly.
+
+"'Well,' said he, 'if there is no hell there ought to be, to put such
+preachers in.'
+
+"'Now, sir,' said I, 'you see the utter untenableness of your creed, for
+a man even in trying to do good honestly draws down your wrath, and, in
+a moment, you want a hell to put him into and a devil to torment him for
+giving you an offense, and for doing what no good man ought to be
+offended about. But God must be insulted, his name blasphemed, his laws
+trampled under foot, yet he must have no hell to put such a wretch in,
+no devil to torment him. Now I would be ashamed of myself if I were in
+your place, and let the seal of truth close my lips forever hereafter.'
+
+"Although he was confounded, he still clave to his God-dishonoring
+doctrine, waxing worse and worse, till it was generally believed he was
+guilty of a most heinous crime."
+
+Argumentative battles were not the only troubles Cartwright had to
+encounter from Universalists. They came to his revivals, he says, to
+hoot and create disturbance. At one of these meetings two sisters,
+Universalists in belief, were present. They came to "make fun," but one
+of them was overcome by Cartwright's preaching, and went up to the
+mourner's bench to be prayed for. When her sister heard of it, she
+commenced to make her way to the altar, with the angry determination to
+force the penitent from it. "I rose and met her in the crowded aisle,"
+says Mr. Cartwright, "and told her to be calm and desist. She made
+neither better nor worse of it than to draw back her arm and give me a
+severe slap in the face with her open hand. I confess this rather took
+me by surprise, and, as the common saying is, made the fire fly out of
+my eyes in tremendous sparkling brilliancy, but, collecting my best
+judgment, I caught her by the arms near her shoulders and wheeled her to
+the right about, moved her forward to the door, and said, 'Gentlemen,
+please open the door; the devil in this Universalist lady has got
+fighting hot, and I want to set her outside to cool.' The door was
+opened, and I landed her out."
+
+Concerning his tilts with the Baptists, he has given a mass of curious
+reminiscences, from which we take the following:
+
+"We preached in new settlements, and the Lord poured out his Spirit, and
+we had many convictions and many conversions. It was the order of the
+day, (though I am sorry to say it,) that we were constantly followed by
+a certain set of proselyting Baptist preachers. These new and wicked
+settlements were seldom visited by these Baptist preachers until the
+Methodist preachers entered them; then, when a revival was gotten up, or
+the work of the Lord revived, these Baptist preachers came rushing in,
+and they generally sung their sermons; and when they struck the _long
+roll_, or their sing-song mode of preaching, in substance it was:
+'Water! water! You must follow your blessed Lord down into the water!' I
+had preached several times in a large, populous, and wicked settlement,
+and there was serious attention, deep convictions, and a good many
+conversions; but, between my occasional appointments these preachers
+would rush in and try to take off our converts into the water; and
+indeed they made so much ado about baptism by immersion that the
+uninformed would suppose that heaven was an island, and there was no way
+to get there _but by diving or swimming_."
+
+He once preached a sermon on the true nature of baptism, at which were
+present the daughters of a Baptist minister, one of whom was converted.
+That night it rained violently, and all the neighboring streams
+overflowed their banks. Riding along the next day, he met the Baptist
+minister on the road.
+
+"We've had a tremendous rain," said Cartwright.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the Baptist brother, "the Lord sent this rain to
+convince you of your error."
+
+"Ah! what error?"
+
+"Why, about baptism. The Lord sent this flood to convince you that much
+water was necessary."
+
+"Very good, sir," said Cartwright, "and in like manner he sent this
+flood to convince you of your error."
+
+"What error?" asked the Baptist brother.
+
+"Why," replied Cartwright, triumphantly, "to show you that water comes
+by pouring, and not by immersion."
+
+Free and easy as he was in his manner, our preacher had a deep sense of
+the dignity of his mission, and he was resolved that others should share
+the feeling, and accord him, in his ministerial capacity, the respect
+and deference that were his due. His manner of accomplishing this was
+characteristic, as the following incident will show: Traveling on his
+circuit in 1805, he put up on one occasion at the house of an old man
+known as Father Teel, a whimsical old fellow, and supposed to be
+Cartwright's match in oddity. He had been warned that the old man,
+though a good Methodist, showed little deference to preachers. It was
+his custom to rise early, and, as soon as dressed, to give out his hymn,
+sing it himself, and then go to prayers, without waiting for his family
+to get up. He served preachers in the same way. Cartwright resolved to
+beat him at his own game, but the old man was too wary for him.
+
+"Just as day broke," says Cartwright, "I awoke, rose up, and began to
+dress, but had not nigh accomplished it when I heard Teel give out his
+hymn and commence singing, and about the time I had got dressed, I heard
+him commence praying. He gave thanks to God that they had been spared
+during the night, and were all permitted to see the light of a new day,
+while at the same time I suppose every one of his family was fast
+asleep. I deliberately opened the door and walked out to the well,
+washed myself, and then walked back to my cabin. Just as I got to the
+door, the old brother opened his door, and, seeing me, said, 'Good
+morning, sir. Why, I didn't know you were up.'
+
+"'Yes, said I, 'I have been up some time.'
+
+"'Well, brother,' said he, 'why did you not come in to prayers?'
+
+"'Because,' said I, 'it is wrong to pray of a morning in the family
+before we wash.'
+
+"The old brother passed on, and no more was said at that time. That
+evening, just before we were about to retire to rest, the old brother
+set out the book and said to me: 'Brother, hold prayers with us.'
+
+"'No, sir,' said I.
+
+"Said he, 'Come, brother, take the book and pray with us.'
+
+"'No, sir,' said I; 'you love to pray so well, you may do it yourself.'
+
+"He insisted, but I persistently refused, saying: 'You are so fond of
+praying yourself, that you even thanked God this morning that he had
+spared you all to see the light of a new day, when your family had not
+yet opened their eyes, but were all fast asleep. And you have such an
+absurd way of holding prayers in your family, that I do not wish to have
+any thing to do with it.'
+
+"He then took the book, read, and said prayers, but you may rely on it,
+the next morning things were much changed. He waited for me, and had all
+his family up in order. He acknowledged his error, and told me it was
+one of the best reproofs he ever got. I then prayed with the family, and
+after that all went well."
+
+Among his clerical brethren was a poor hen-pecked husband, whose wife
+was possessed of a temper that made her the terror of the neighborhood.
+Cartwright had often been invited by the poor man to go home with him;
+"but," he says, "I frankly confess I was afraid to trust myself" but at
+length, yielding to his importunities, he went home with his oppressed
+brother, intending to spend the night with him. His visit roused the
+fury of the wife, and "I saw in a minute," says our preacher, "that the
+devil was in her as big as an alligator, and I determined on my course."
+The woman held her tongue until after supper, when her husband asked her
+kindly to join them in prayers. She flew into a rage, and swore there
+should be no praying in her house that night. Cartwright tried to reason
+with her, but she cursed him roundly. Then, facing her sternly, he said,
+"Madam, if you were my wife, I would break you of your bad ways, or I
+would break your neck."
+
+"The devil you would," said she. "Yes, you are a pretty Christian, ain't
+you?"
+
+She continued cursing him, but Cartwright sternly bade her hold her
+peace, and let them pray. She declared she would not.
+
+"Now," said he to her, "if you do not be still, and behave yourself,
+I'll put you out of doors."
+
+"At this," says he, "she clenched her fist and swore she was one-half
+alligator and the other half snapping-turtle, and that it would take a
+better man than I was to put her out. It was a small cabin we were in,
+and we were not far from the door, which was then standing open. I
+caught her by the arm, and swinging her round in a circle, brought her
+right up to the door, and shoved her out. She jumped up, tore her hair,
+foamed, and such swearing as she uttered was seldom equaled, and never
+surpassed. The door, or shutter of the door, was very strongly made, to
+keep out hostile Indians; I shut it tight, barred it, and went to
+prayer, and I prayed as best I could; but I have no language at my
+command to describe my feelings. At the same time, I was determined to
+conquer, or die in the attempt. While she was raging and foaming in the
+yard and around the cabin, I started a spiritual song, and sung loud, to
+drawn her voice as much as possible. The five or six little children ran
+and squatted about and crawled under the beds. Poor things, they were
+scared almost to death.
+
+"I sang on, and she roared and thundered on outside, till she became
+perfectly exhausted, and panted for breath. At length, when she had
+spent her force, she became perfectly calm and still, and then knocked
+at the door, saying, 'Mr. Cartwright, please let me in.'
+
+"'Will you behave yourself if I let you in?' said I.
+
+"'O yes,' said she, 'I will;' and throwing myself on my guard, and
+perfectly self-possessed, I opened the door, took her by the hand, led
+her in, and seated her near the fire-place. She had roared and foamed
+until she was in a high perspiration, and looked pale as death. After
+she took her seat, 'O,' said she, 'what a fool I am,'
+
+"'Yes,' said I, 'about one of the biggest fools I ever saw in all my
+life.'... Brother C. and I kneeled down, and both prayed. She was as
+quiet as a lamb."
+
+Six months later, our preacher tells us, this woman was converted, and
+became "as bold in the cause of God as she had been in the cause of the
+wicked one."
+
+In 1823, Mr. Cartwright resolved to move across the Ohio, and selected
+Illinois as his new home. The reasons which influenced his actions are
+thus stated by him:
+
+"I had seen with painful emotions the increase of a disposition to
+justify slavery.... and the legislatures in the slave States made the
+laws more and more stringent, with a design to prevent emancipation.
+Moreover, rabid abolitionism spread and dreadfully excited the South. I
+had a young and growing family of children, two sons and four daughters;
+was poor, owned a little farm of about one hundred and fifty acres;
+lands around me were high and rising in value. My daughters would soon
+be grown up. I did not see any probable means by which I could settle
+them around or near us. Moreover, I had no right to expect our children
+to marry into wealthy families, and I did not desire it, if it could be
+so; and by chance they might marry into slave families. This I did not
+desire. Besides, I saw there was a marked distinction made among the
+people generally between young people raised without work and those that
+had to work for their living.... I thought I saw clear indications of
+Providence that I should leave my comfortable little home, and move into
+a free State or territory, for the following reasons: First, I would get
+entirely clear of the evil of slavery. Second, I could raise my children
+to work where work was not considered a degradation. Third, I believed I
+could better my temporal circumstances, and procure lands for my
+children as they grew up. And fourth, I could carry the Gospel to
+destitute souls that had, by removal into some new country, been
+deprived of the means of grace."
+
+It was the last reason, no doubt, that decided our preacher. Men of his
+stamp were needed west of the Ohio. Kentucky was becoming too old a
+State for him, and he felt that his true field of labor was still on the
+frontier, and thither he turned his steps. Setting out first on
+horseback to seek an eligible location, he reached Sangamon County,
+Illinois, where he bought a claim on Richland Creek. He then returned to
+Kentucky and wound up his affairs there, obtained a regular transfer
+from the Kentucky Conference to the Indiana Conference, which then
+controlled Illinois, and in October, 1824, set out for his new home in
+Sangamon County. A great affliction overtook him on the way, in the
+death of his third daughter, who was killed by the falling of a tree
+upon their camp. The affliction was made more grievous by the heartless
+refusal of the people in the vicinity to render them any aid. "We were
+in great distress," he says, "and no one even to pity our condition....
+I discovered that the tree had sprung up, and did not press the child;
+and we drew her out from under it, and carefully laid her in our feed
+trough, and moved on about twenty miles to an acquaintance's in Hamilton
+County, Illinois, where we buried her."
+
+Leaving that lonely little grave behind them, they hurried on to their
+new home. Springfield, the capital of the State, was but a small
+collection of shanties and log huts, and Sangamon County was the extreme
+frontier. It was the most northern county of Illinois, and just beyond
+it lay the unbroken Indian country. Numbers of Indians roamed through
+the Sangamon River bottom, and spent their winters there. It was as wild
+and unsettled a region as our preacher could have desired, and one which
+gave him a fine field for the exercise of his peculiar abilities. Mr.
+Cartwright was promptly received into the Indiana Conference, and he
+lost no time in looking about him. He at once established his family in
+their new home, and then set about his work. The work was hard, and
+money was scarce. The first year he traveled the Sangamon Circuit he
+received forty dollars, and the next year sixty dollars, which he says
+was a great improvement in his financial affairs. He was successful from
+the first, and in the two years referred to added one hundred and sixty
+persons to the Methodist Church in this thinly settled district. For
+forty-six years he has labored in this region, adding many souls to the
+kingdom of God.
+
+Arduous as his labors had been in the Kentucky Conference, they now
+increased very greatly. He had a larger amount of territory to travel
+over, people were more scattered, and the dangers to be encountered were
+greater. In 1827, he was made presiding elder, and given the Illinois
+District, then a very extensive region, and in 1828 Galena charge was
+added to this district. The district thus enlarged extended from the
+mouth of the Ohio River to Galena, the entire length of the present
+State of Illinois, and over this immense distance our preacher was
+obliged to travel four times in the year. The journeys were made either
+on horseback or in an old-fashioned sulky or one-seat gig. There were
+miles of lonely prairie and many rapid streams to cross, and roads,
+bridges, or ferry-boats were almost unknown. Yet Peter Cartwright was
+not the man to be deterred by obstacles. When he set out on his official
+journeys, he allowed nothing that it was possible to overcome to prevent
+him from keeping his appointments. In crossing the prairies, he would
+guide himself by the points of timber, for there were no roads over
+these vast plains. Oftentimes the streams to be crossed were swollen,
+and then he would swim his horse across them, or ride along the shore
+until he found a tree fallen over the current. Stripping himself, he
+would carry his clothes and riding equipments to the opposite bank, and
+then, returning, mount his horse and swim him across the river. Dressing
+again, he would continue his journey, and perhaps repeat the proceeding
+several times during the day. When overtaken by night, he would seek a
+place in some grove, and, lighting a fire with his tinder-box and steel,
+tie up his horse, and, throwing himself on the ground, sleep as
+peacefully as on a bed of down. Sometimes night would come on before he
+had crossed the prairie or made his way to the timber point he was
+aiming for, and then he would sit down on the ground, in the darkness
+and alone, and, holding his horse by the bridle, await the return of
+light to enable him to see his landmark. Sometimes he would find a
+little log-hut with a settler's family in it, and he says it was "a
+great treat" to come upon one of these lonely cabins and enjoy the
+privilege of a night's lodging. If the family were Methodists, there was
+sure to be preaching that night; and if they were strangers to that
+church, our preacher set to work at once to convert them. He labored
+faithfully, faring hard, and braving dangers from which his city
+brethren would have shrunk appalled. He carried the Gospel and the
+Methodist Episcopal Church into all parts of the great State of
+Illinois, and even into Iowa and the Indian country.
+
+In 1832, the first Illinois Conference met in the town of Jacksonville,
+and Mr. Cartwright attended it. He had now been a traveling preacher for
+twenty-eight years, and, as he felt himself sorely in need of rest, he
+asked and obtained a superannuated relation for one year. On the same
+day, Bishop Soule, who presided at the Conference, came to him to ask
+his advice with reference to the Quincy District. It was very important,
+but the bishop could not find a presiding elder willing to take charge
+of it, as it was an almost unbroken wilderness. The bishop was in sore
+distress, as he feared that he would be obliged to merge it into another
+district. The spirit of the backwoods preacher at once took fire, and,
+declaring that so important a field ought not to be neglected, he
+expressed his willingness to relinquish his superannuated relation and
+accept the charge. The bishop took him at his word and appointed him to
+the district, which he served faithfully. His adventures in traveling
+from place to place to fill his appointments are intensely interesting,
+and I would gladly reproduce them here did the limits of this chapter
+permit.
+
+It required no small amount of courage to perform the various duties of
+a backwoods preacher, and in this quality our preacher was not
+deficient. He was frequently called upon to exercise it in his camp
+meetings. These assemblies never failed to gather large crowds from all
+parts of the surrounding country, and among others came numerous
+rowdies, whose delight it was to annoy the preachers and worshipers in
+every conceivable way. Cartwright put up with the annoyance as long as
+he could, and then determined to put a stop to it. He believed in
+fighting the devil with fire, and put down many a disturbance. The
+following is the way he went about it:
+
+"Our last quarterly meeting was a camp meeting. We had a great many
+tents and a large turnout for a new country, and, perhaps, there never
+was a greater collection of rabble and rowdies. They came drunk and
+armed with dirks, clubs, knives, and horsewhips, and swore they would
+break up the meeting. After interrupting us very much on Saturday night,
+they collected on Sunday morning, determined on a general riot. At eight
+o'clock I was appointed to preach. About the time I was half through my
+discourse, two very fine-dressed young men marched into the congregation
+with loaded horsewhips, and hats on, and rose up and stood in the midst
+of the ladies, and began to laugh and talk. They were near the stand,
+and I requested them to desist and get off the seats; but they cursed me
+and told me to mind my own business, and said they would not get down. I
+stopped trying to preach, and called for a magistrate. There were two at
+hand, but I saw they were both afraid. I ordered them to take these two
+men into custody, but they said they could not do it. I told them as I
+left the stand to command me to take them, and I would do it at the risk
+of my life. I advanced toward them. They ordered me to stand off, but I
+advanced. One of them made a pass at my head, but I closed in with him
+and jerked him off the seat. A regular scuffle ensued. The congregation
+by this time were all in commotion. I heard the magistrates giving
+general orders, commanding all friends of order to aid in suppressing
+the riot. In the scuffle I threw my prisoner down, and held him fast;
+he tried his best to get loose. I told him to be quiet, or I would
+pound his chest well. The mob rose and rushed to the rescue of the two
+prisoners, for they had taken the other young man also. An old, drunken
+magistrate came up to me, and ordered me to let my prisoner go. I told
+him I should not. He swore if I did not he would knock me down. I told
+him to crack away. Then one of my friends, at my request, took hold of
+my prisoner, and the drunken justice made a pass at me; but I parried
+the stroke, and, seizing him by the collar and the hair of the head, and
+fetching him a sudden jerk forward, brought him to the ground and jumped
+on him. I told him to be quiet, or I would pound him well. The mob then
+rushed to the scene; they knocked down seven magistrates, several
+preachers, and others. I gave up my drunken prisoner to another, and
+threw myself in front of the friends of order. Just at this moment, the
+ringleader of the mob and I met; he made three passes at me, intending
+to knock me down. The last time he struck at me, by the force of his own
+effort he threw the side of his face toward me. It seemed at that moment
+I had not power to resist temptation, and I struck a sudden blow in the
+burr of the ear and dropped him to the earth. Just at this moment, the
+friends of order rushed by hundreds on the mob, knocking them down in
+every direction."
+
+Once, while crossing a river on a ferry-boat, he overheard a man cursing
+Peter Cartwright and threatening dire vengeance against him, and
+boasting that he could "whip any preacher the Lord ever made." This
+roused our preacher's ire, and accosting the man, he told him he was
+Peter Cartwright, and that if he wanted to whip him he must do so then.
+The fellow became confused, and said he did not believe him.
+
+"I tell you," said Cartwright, sternly, "I am the man. Now, sir, you
+have to whip me, as you threatened, or quit cursing me, or I will put
+you in the river and baptize you in the name of the devil, for you
+surely belong to him." "This," says Cartwright, "settled him."
+
+Once, having gone into the woods with a young man who had sworn he would
+whip him, he sprained his foot slightly in getting over a fence, and
+involuntarily placed his hand to his side. "My redoubtable antagonist,"
+says he, "had got on the fence, and, looking down at me, said, 'D----
+you, you are feeling for a dirk, are you?'
+
+"As quick as thought it occurred to me how to get clear of a whipping.
+
+"'Yes,' said I, 'and I will give you the benefit of all the dirks I
+have,' and advanced rapidly toward him.
+
+"He sprang back on the other side of the fence from me; I jumped over
+after him, and a regular foot race followed."
+
+"It may be asked," says the old man, naively, "what I would have done if
+this fellow had gone with me to the woods. This is hard to answer, for
+it was a part of my creed to love every body, but to fear no one, and I
+did not permit myself to believe that any man could whip me until it was
+tried, and I did not permit myself to premeditate expedients in such
+cases. I should no doubt have proposed to him to have prayer first, and
+then followed the openings of Providence."
+
+Mr. Cartwright was from the beginning of his ministry an ardent advocate
+of temperance, and, long before the first temperance society was
+organized in the country, he waged a fierce war against dram-drinking.
+This fearless advocate of temperance came very near getting drunk once.
+He had stopped with a fellow preacher at a tavern kept by an Otterbein
+Methodist, who, thinking to play them a trick, put whisky into the new
+cider which he offered them. Cartwright drank sparingly of the beverage,
+though he considered it harmless, but, "with all my forbearance," he
+says, "presently I began to feel light-headed. I instantly ordered our
+horses, fearing we were snapped for once.... When we had rode about a
+mile, being in the rear, I saw Brother Walker was nodding at a mighty
+rate. I suddenly rode up to Brother Walker and cried out, 'Wake up! wake
+up!' He roused up, his eyes watering freely. 'I believe,' said I, 'we
+are both drunk. Let us turn out of the road and lie down and take a nap
+till we get sober,' But we rode on without stopping. We were not drunk,
+but we both evidently felt it flying to our heads."
+
+In 1826 Mr. Cartwright was elected to the Legislature of the State, and
+at the expiration of his first term was reflected from Sangamon County.
+He was induced to accept this position because of his desire to aid in
+preventing the introduction of slavery into the State. He had no liking
+for political strife, however, and was disgusted with the dishonesty
+which he saw around him. "I say," he declares, "without any desire to
+speak evil of the rulers of the people, I found a great deal of
+corruption in our Legislature, and I found that almost every measure had
+to be carried by a corrupt bargain and sale which should cause every
+honest man to blush for his country."
+
+He was full of a quaint humor, which seemed to burst out from every line
+of his features, and twinkle merrily in his bright eyes. Often in the
+midst of his most exciting revivals he could not resist the desire to
+fasten his dry jokes upon one of his converts. No man loved a joke
+better, or was quicker to make a good use of it. He was traveling one
+day on his circuit, and stopped for the night at a cabin in which he
+found a man and woman. Suspecting that all was not right, he questioned
+the woman, and drew from her the confession that the man was her lover.
+Her husband, she said, was away, and would not return for two days, and
+she had received this man in his absence.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CARTWRIGHT CALLING UP THE DEVIL.]
+
+Cartwright then began to remonstrate with the guilty pair upon their
+conduct, and while he was speaking to them the husband's voice was heard
+in the yard. In an agony of terror the woman implored Cartwright to
+assist her in getting her lover out of the way, and our preacher, upon
+receiving from each a solemn promise of reformation, agreed to do so.
+There was standing by the chimney a large barrel of raw cotton, and as
+there was no time to get the man out of the house, Cartwright put him
+into the barrel and piled the cotton over him.
+
+The husband entered, and Cartwright soon engaged him in conversation.
+The man said he had often heard of Peter Cartwright, and that it was the
+common opinion in that part of the country that among his other
+wonderful gifts our preacher had the power to call up the devil.
+
+"That's the easiest thing in the world to do," said Cartwright. "Would
+you like to see it?"
+
+The man hesitated for awhile, and then expressed his readiness to
+witness the performance.
+
+"Very well," said Cartwright; "take your stand by your wife, and don't
+move or speak. I'll let the door open to give him a chance to get out,
+or he may carry the roof away."
+
+So saying, he opened the door, and, taking a handful of cotton, held it
+in the fire and lighted it. Then plunging it into the barrel of raw
+cotton, he shouted lustily, "Devil, rise!" In an instant the barrel was
+wrapped in flames, and the lover, in utter dismay, leaped out and rushed
+from the house. The husband was greatly terrified, and ever afterward
+avowed himself a believer in Cartwright's intimacy with "Old Scratch,"
+for had he not had ocular proof of it?
+
+Riding out of Springfield one day, he saw a wagon some distance ahead of
+him containing a young lady and two young men. As he came near them they
+recognized him, though he was totally unacquainted with them, and began
+to sing camp-meeting hymns with great animation. In a little while the
+young lady began to shout, and said, "Glory to God! Glory to God!" and
+the driver cried out, "Amen! Glory to God!"
+
+"My first impressions," says Mr. Cartwright, "were, that they had been
+across the Sangamon River to a camp meeting that I knew was in progress
+there, and had obtained religion, and were happy. As I drew a little
+nearer, the young lady began to sing and shout again. The young man who
+was not driving fell down, and cried aloud for mercy; the other two,
+shouting at the top of their voices, cried out, 'Glory to God! another
+sinner down.' Then they fell to exhorting the young man that was down,
+saying, 'Pray on, brother; pray on, brother; you'll soon get religion.'
+Presently up jumped the young man that was down, and shouted aloud,
+saying, 'God has blessed my soul. Halleluiah! halleluiah! Glory to
+God!'"
+
+Thinking that these were genuine penitents, Cartwright rode rapidly
+toward them, intending to join in their rejoicings; but as he drew near
+them, he detected certain unmistakable evidences that they were shamming
+religious fervor merely for the purpose of annoying him. He then
+endeavored to get rid of them, but as they were all going the same
+direction, the party in the wagon managed to remain near him by driving
+fast when he tried to pass them, and falling back when he drew up to let
+them go ahead. "I thought," says our preacher, "I would ride up and
+horsewhip both of these young men; and if the woman had not been in
+company, I think I should have done so; but I forebore."
+
+In a little while the road plunged into a troublesome morass. Around the
+worst part of this swamp wound a bridle path, by which Mr. Cartwright
+determined to escape his tormentors, who would be compelled to take the
+road straight through the swamp. The party in the wagon saw his object,
+and forgetting prudence in their eagerness to keep up with him, whipped
+their horses violently. The horses bounded off at full speed, and the
+wagon was whirled through the swamp at a furious rate. When nearly
+across, one of the wheels struck a large stump, and over went the wagon.
+"Fearing it would turn entirely over and catch them under," says Mr.
+Cartwright, "the two young men took a leap into the mud, and when they
+lighted they sunk up to the middle. The young lady was dressed in white,
+and as the wagon went over, she sprang as far as she could, and lighted
+on all fours; her hands sunk into the mud up to her arm-pits, her mouth
+and the whole of her face immersed in the muddy water, and she certainly
+would have strangled if the young men had not relieved her. As they
+helped her up and out, I had wheeled my horse to see the fun. I rode up
+to the edge of the mud, stopped my horse, reared in my stirrups, and
+shouted, at the top of my voice, 'Glory to God! Glory to God!
+Halleluiah! another sinner down! Glory to God! Halleluiah! Glory!
+Halleluiah!'
+
+"If ever mortals felt mean, these youngsters did; and well they might,
+for they had carried on all this sport to make light of religion, and to
+insult a minister, a total stranger to them. When I became tired of
+shouting over them, I said to them:
+
+"'Now, you poor, dirty, mean sinners, take this as a just judgment of
+God upon you for your meanness, and repent of your dreadful wickedness;
+and let this be the last time that you attempt to insult a preacher; for
+if you repeat your abominable sport and persecutions, the next time God
+will serve you worse, and the devil will get you.'
+
+"They felt so badly that they never uttered one word of reply."
+
+Our preacher was determined that his work should be recognized, and as
+he and his fellow traveling ministers had done a good work on the
+frontier, he was in no humor to relish the accounts of the religious
+condition of the West, which the missionaries from the East spread
+through the older States in their letters home. "They would come," says
+he, "with a tolerable education, and a smattering knowledge of the old
+Calvinistic system of theology. They were generally tolerably well
+furnished with old manuscript sermons, that had been preached, or
+written, perhaps a hundred years before. Some of these sermons they had
+memorized, but in general they read them to the people. This way of
+reading sermons was out of fashion altogether in this Western world, and
+of course they produced no effect among the people. The great mass of
+our Western people wanted a preacher that could mount a stump or a
+block, or stand in the bed of a wagon, and, without note or manuscript,
+quote, expound, and apply the word of God to the hearts and consciences
+of the people. The result of the efforts of these Eastern missionaries
+was not very flattering; and although the Methodist preachers were in
+reality the pioneer heralds of the cross through the entire West, and
+although they had raised up numerous societies every five miles, and
+notwithstanding we had hundreds of traveling and local preachers,
+accredited and useful ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet these
+newly-fledged missionaries would write back to the old States hardly any
+thing else but wailings and lamentations over the moral wastes and
+destitute condition of the West."
+
+The indignation of our preacher was fully shared by the people of the
+West, who considered themselves as good Christians; as their New England
+brethren, and the people of Quincy called a meeting, irrespective of
+denomination, and pledged themselves to give Peter Cartwright one
+thousand dollars per annum, and pay his traveling expenses, if he would
+"go as a missionary to the New England States, and enlighten them on
+this and other subjects, of which they were profoundly ignorant."
+Circumstances beyond his control prevented his acceptance of this offer.
+"How gladly and willingly would I have undertaken this labor of love,"
+says he, "and gloried in enlightening them down East, that they might
+keep their home-manufactured clergy at home, or give them some honorable
+employ, better suited to their genius than that of reading old musty and
+worm-eaten sermons."
+
+Our preacher did visit New England in 1852, not as a missionary,
+however, but as a delegate to the General Conference which met that year
+in Boston. His fame had preceded him, and he was one of the marked men
+of that body. Every one had heard some quaint story of his devotion to
+his cause, his fearlessness, or his eccentricities, and crowds came out
+to hear him preach. But our backwoods preacher was ill at ease. The
+magnificence of the city, and the prim decorum of the Boston churches,
+subdued him, and he could not preach with the fire and freedom of the
+frontier log chapel. The crowds that came to hear him were disappointed,
+and more than once they told him so.
+
+"Is this Peter Cartwright, from Illinois, the old Western pioneer?" they
+asked him once.
+
+He answered them, "I am the very man."
+
+"Well," said several of them, "brother, we are much disappointed; you
+have fallen very much under our expectations, we expected to hear a much
+greater sermon than that you preached to-day."
+
+It was a regular Bostonian greeting, and it not only mortified and
+disheartened the old pioneer, but it irritated him. "I tell you," says
+he, "they roused me, and provoked what little religious patience I
+had.... I left them abruptly, and in very gloomy mood retreated to my
+lodgings, but took very little rest in sleep that night. I constantly
+asked myself this question: Is it so, that I can not preach? or what is
+the matter? I underwent a tremendous crucifixion in feeling."
+
+The result was that he came to the conclusion that he _could_ preach,
+and that the people of Boston had not "sense enough to know a good
+sermon when they heard it." A little later old Father Taylor, that good
+genius of the Boston Bethel, a man after Cartwright's own heart, came to
+him and asked him to preach for him, and this, after hesitating, our
+preacher agreed to do, upon the condition that he should be allowed to
+conduct the services in regular Western style.
+
+"In the meantime," says he, "I had learned from different sources that
+the grand reason of my falling under the expectations of the
+congregations I had addressed was substantially this: almost all those
+curious incidents that had gained currency throughout the country
+concerning Methodist preachers had been located on me, and that when the
+congregations came to hear me, they expected little else but a bundle of
+eccentricities and singularities, and when they did not realize
+according to their anticipations, they were disappointed, and that this
+was the reason they were disappointed. So on the Sabbath, when I came to
+the Bethel, we had a good congregation, and after telling them that
+Brother Taylor had given me the liberty to preach to them after the
+Western fashion, I took my text, and after a few common-place remarks, I
+commenced giving them some Western anecdotes, which had a thrilling
+effect on the congregation, and excited them immoderately--I can not say
+religiously; but I thought if ever I saw animal excitement, it was then
+and there. This broke the charm. During my stay, after this, I could
+pass anywhere for Peter Cartwright, the old pioneer of the West. I am
+not sure that after this I fell under the expectations of my
+congregations among them."
+
+Sixty-seven years have passed away since the old pioneer began his
+preaching, and still he labors in the cause of his Master. Age has not
+subdued his zeal or dimmed his eye. His labors make up the history of
+the West. Where he first reared his humble log-hut, smiling farms and
+tasteful mansions cover the fertile prairies of the West; cities and
+towns mark the spot where his backwoods camp-meetings drew thousands
+into the kingdom of God; the iron horse dashes with the speed of the
+wind over the boundless prairies which he first crossed with only the
+points of timber for his guides; the floating palaces of the West plow
+the streams over which he swam his horse or was ferried in a bark canoe;
+and stately churches stand where the little log chapels of the infant
+West were built by him. It is a long and a noble life upon which he
+looks back, the only survivor of the heroic band who started with him to
+carry Christ into the Western wilds. He has outlived all his father's
+family, every member of the class he joined in 1800, every member of the
+Western Conference of 1804, save perhaps one or two, every member of the
+General Conference of 1816, the first to which he was elected, all his
+early bishops, every presiding elder under whom he ever ministered, and
+thousands of those whom he brought into the Church. "I have lived too
+long," he said, in a recent lecture; but we take issue with him. He has
+not lived too long whose declining age is cheered by the glorious
+fruition of the seed sown in his youth and prime. Few, indeed, are given
+so great a privilege; and few, having lived so long and worked so hard,
+can say with him, that during such a long and exposed career, "I have
+never been overtaken in any scandalous sin, though my shortcomings and
+imperfections have been without number." A man who can boast such a
+record, though he be as poor in purse as this simple-hearted backwoods
+preacher, has earned a Great Fortune indeed, for his treasure is one
+that can not be taken from him, since it is laid up in Heaven, "where
+neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
+through nor steal."
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+AUTHORS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+Wherever the English language is spoken, the name of HENRY WADSWORTH
+LONGFELLOW has become a household word, and there is scarcely a library,
+however humble, but can boast a well-worn volume of his tender
+songs,--songs that
+
+     "Have power to quiet
+       The restless pulse of care,
+     And come like the benediction
+       That follows after prayer."
+
+He was born in the city of Portland, Maine, on the 27th of February,
+1807, and was the son of the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, a distinguished
+lawyer of that city. The house in which he was born was a square wooden
+structure, built many years before, and large and roomy. It stood upon
+the outskirts of the town, on the edge of the sea, and was separated
+from the water only by a wide street. From its windows the dreamy boy,
+who grew up within its walls, could look out upon the dark, mysterious
+ocean, and, lying awake in his little bed in the long winter nights, he
+could listen to its sorrowful roar as it broke heavily upon the shore.
+That he was keenly alive to the fascination of such close intimacy with
+the ocean, we have abundant proof in his writings.
+
+He was carefully educated in the best schools of the city, and at the
+age of fourteen entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, where he
+graduated in his nineteenth year. He was an industrious student, and
+stood high in his classes. He gave brilliant promise of his future
+eminence as a poet in several productions written during his college
+days, which were published in a Boston journal called the "United States
+Literary Gazette." Among these were the "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns,"
+"The Spirit of Poetry," "Woods in Winter," and "Sunrise on the Hills."
+
+Upon leaving college he entered his father's office, in Portland, with
+the half-formed design of studying law, which he never carried into
+execution, as more congenial employment soon presented itself to him. In
+1826 he was appointed Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at
+Bowdoin College, with the privilege of passing several years abroad for
+observation and study. He accepted the appointment with unaffected
+delight, and promptly went abroad. He passed his first year in France,
+studying the language and literature of that country, and the next in
+Spain, engaged in similar pursuits. Italy claimed his third year, and
+Germany his fourth. He traveled extensively, and made many pleasant
+acquaintances among the most gifted men and women of the Old World.
+Returning home toward the close of 1829, he entered upon the active
+duties of his professorship, and for five years held this position,
+winning considerable distinction by his academic labors.
+
+During his professorship our poet married, and the years that followed
+were very happy and very quiet. The life he led at Bowdoin was peaceful,
+and in a measure retired, giving him ample opportunity for study and for
+laying the sure foundation of his future fame. During this period of his
+life he contributed articles to the "North American Review," and
+extended his acquaintance gradually among the literary men of New
+England. He was fond of recalling the experiences of his life abroad,
+and being unwilling that they should be lost from his memory, determined
+to transmit them to paper before they faded quite away. These sketches
+he finally concluded to give to the public, under the title of "Outre
+Mer; or, Sketches from Beyond Sea." They appeared originally in numbers,
+and were published by Samuel Colman, of Portland. They were well
+received, and brought Professor Longfellow into notice in New England.
+Soon afterward he published a translation of the ode upon "Coplas de
+Manrique," by his son, Don Jose Manrique, which won him additional
+credit. His fugitive poems had become very popular, and had made his
+name familiar to his countrymen, but as yet he had not collected them in
+book form.
+
+In 1835, on the resignation of Mr. George Ticknor, he was appointed
+Professor of Modern Languages and Belles Lettres in Harvard College, and
+accepted the position. Before entering upon his duties, however, he
+resolved to devote two years more to foreign travel and improvement, and
+accordingly sailed for Europe the second time. Before leaving America,
+however, he committed the publication of "Outre Mer" to the Harpers, of
+New York, who issued it complete in two volumes in 1835. Its popularity
+was very decided. Soon after reaching Europe, Mr. Longfellow was visited
+with a sad bereavement in the loss of his wife, who died at Rotterdam.
+He devoted this European visit to the northern part of the continent,
+Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Holland, and to England, and spent some
+time in Paris. Returning in the autumn of 1836, he entered upon his
+duties at Harvard, and made his home in Cambridge. He continued his
+contributions to the "North American Review," and a number of fugitive
+pieces flowed from his pen into print.
+
+In the summer of 1837 he went to live in the house which has ever since
+been his home. This is the old Craigie House, in Cambridge, famous in
+our history as having been the headquarters of Washington during the
+siege of Boston. It had been built by Colonel John Vassal about the
+middle of the last century, and had finally passed into the hands of
+Andrew Craigie, "Apothecary General to the Northern Provincial Army" of
+the infant Republic. Craigie had ruined himself by his lavish
+hospitality, and his widow, a stately old lady, and worthy in every
+respect of a better fate, had been reduced to the necessity of letting
+rooms and parting with the greater portion of the lands which had
+belonged to the mansion. Mr. Longfellow had been attracted to the house
+not only by its winning and home-like appearance, but by its historical
+associations. Mrs. Craigie had decided at the time to let no more rooms,
+but the young professor's gentle, winning manner conquered her
+determination, and she not only received him into the old mansion, but
+installed him in the south-east corner room in the second story, which
+had been used by Washington as his bed-chamber.
+
+It was just the home for our poet. Its windows looked out upon one of
+the loveliest landscapes in New England, with the bright river winding
+through the broad meadow beyond the house, and the blue Milton Hills
+dotting the distant background. The bright verdure of New England
+sparkled on every side, and the stately old elms that stood guard by the
+house screened it from the prying eyes of the passers on the public
+road. The whole place was hallowed to its new inmate by the memories of
+the brave soldiers, wise statesmen, and brilliant ladies who had graced
+its heroic age, and of which the stately hostess was the last and worthy
+representative. The old house was as serene and still as the dearest
+lover of quiet could wish. The mistress lived quite apart from her
+lodger, and left him to follow the bent of his own fancies; and rare
+fancies they were, for it was of them that some of his best works were
+born in this upper chamber. Here he wrote "Hyperion," in 1838 and 1839.
+Its publication, which was undertaken by John Owen, the University
+publisher in Cambridge, marked an era in American literature. Every body
+read the book, and every body talked of it. It was a poem in prose, and
+none the less the work of a poet because professedly "a romance of
+travel." The young read it with enthusiasm, and it sent hundreds to
+follow Paul Flemming's footsteps in the distant Fatherland, where the
+"romance of travel" became their guidebook. The merchant and the lawyer,
+the journalist and the mechanic, reading its pages, found that the stern
+realities of life had not withered up all the romance of their natures,
+and under its fascinations they became boys again. Even Horace Greeley,
+that most practical and unimaginative of men, became rapturous over it.
+It was a great success, and established the poet's fame beyond all
+question, and since then its popularity has never waned.
+
+In 1840, he published the "Voices of the Night," which he had heard
+sounding to him in his haunted chamber. This was his first volume, and
+its popularity was even greater than that of "Hyperion," although some
+of the poems had appeared before, in the "Knickerbocker Magazine." In
+1841, he published his volume of "Ballads, and Other Poems," which but
+added to his fame, and the next year bade the old house under the elms
+a temporary adieu, and sailed for Europe, where he passed the summer on
+the Rhine. On the voyage home, he composed his "Poems on Slavery," and
+soon after his return wrote "The Spanish Student," a drama, "which
+smells of the utmost South, and was a strange blossoming for the garden
+of Thomas Tracy."
+
+In 1843 the stately mistress of the old house died, and Professor
+Longfellow bought the homestead of Andrew Craigie, with eight acres of
+land, including the meadow, which sloped down to the pretty river. There
+have been very few prouder or happier moments in his life than that in
+which he first felt that the old house under the elms was his. Yet he
+must have missed the stately old lady who first had admitted him to a
+place in it, and whom he had grown to love as a dear friend. She seemed
+so thoroughly a part and parcel of the place, that he must have missed
+the rustle of her heavy silks along the wide and echoing halls, and have
+listened some time for the sound of her old-fashioned spinet in the huge
+drawing-room below, and, entering the room where she was wont to receive
+her guests, he must have missed her from the old window where she was
+accustomed to sit, with the open book in her lap, and her eyes fixed on
+the far-off sky, thinking, no doubt, of the days when in her royal
+beauty, she moved a queen through the brilliant home of Andrew Craigie. A
+part of the veneration which he felt for the old house had settled upon
+its ancient mistress, and the poet doubtless felt that the completeness
+of the quaint old establishment was broken up when she passed away.
+
+In 1846, Mr. Longfellow published "The Belfry of Bruges, and Other
+Poems;" in 1847, "Evangeline" (by many considered his greatest work); in
+1850, "Seaside and Fireside;" in 1851, "The Golden Legend;" in 1855,
+"The Song of Hiawatha;" in 1858, "The Courtship of Miles Standish;" in
+1863, "The Wayside Inn;" in 1866, "The Flower de Luce;" in 1867, his
+translation of the "Divina Commedia," in three volumes; and in 1868,
+"The New England Tragedies." Besides these, he published, in 1845, a
+work on the "Poets and Poetry of Europe," and in 1849, "Kavanagh," a
+novel.
+
+Mr. Longfellow continued to discharge his duties in the University for
+seventeen years, winning fresh laurels every year, and in 1854 resigned
+his position, and was succeeded in it by Mr. James Russell Lowell. He
+now devoted himself exclusively to his profession, the income from his
+writings affording him a handsome maintenance. In 1855. "The Song of
+Hiawatha" was given to the public, and its appearance may be styled an
+event in the literary history of the world. It was not only original in
+the story it told, and in the method of treatment, but the rhythm was
+new. It was emphatically an American poem, and was received by the
+people with delight. It met with an immense sale, and greatly increased
+its author's popularity with his countrymen.
+
+In 1861 a terrible affliction befell the poet in his family. He had
+married, some years after the death of his first wife, a lady whose many
+virtues had endeared her to all who knew her. She was standing by the
+open fire in the sitting-room, one day in the winter of 1861, when her
+clothing took fire, and before her husband, summoned by her cries, could
+extinguish the flames, she was terribly burned. Her injuries were
+internal, and she soon afterwards died.
+
+In 1868, Mr. Longfellow again visited Europe, and remained abroad more
+than a year. His reception by all classes of the people of the Old World
+was eminently gratifying to his countrymen. This welcome, so genuine and
+heartfelt, was due, however, to the genius of the man, and not to his
+nationality.
+
+He had overstepped the bounds of country, and had made himself the poet
+of the English-speaking race. A man of vast learning and varied
+acquirements, thoroughly versed in the ways of the world, he is still as
+simple and unaffected in thought and ways as when he listened to and
+wondered at the dashing of the wild waves on the shore in his boyhood's
+home. A most gifted and accomplished artist, he has been faithful to
+nature in all things. Earnest and aspiring himself, he has given to his
+poems the ring of a true manhood. There is nothing bitter, nothing
+sarcastic in his writings. He views all things with a loving eye, and it
+is the exquisite tenderness of his sympathy with his fellow-men that has
+enabled him to find his way so readily to their hearts. Without seeking
+to represent the intensity of passion, he deals with the fresh, simple
+emotions of the human soul, and in his simplicity lies his power. He
+touches a chord that finds an echo in every heart, and his poems have a
+humanity in them that is irresistible. We admire the "grand old
+masters," but shrink abashed from their sublime measures. Longfellow is
+so human, he understands us so well, that we turn instinctively to his
+simple, tender songs for comfort in sorrow, or for the greater
+perfection of our happiness.
+
+Perhaps I can not better illustrate the power of his simplicity than by
+the following quotations:
+
+     There is no flock, however watched and tended,
+         But one dead lamb is there!
+     There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended,
+         But has one vacant chair!
+
+     The air is full of farewell to the dying,
+         And mournings for the dead;
+     The heart of Rachel, for her children crying,
+         Will not be comforted.
+
+     Let us be patient! These severe afflictions
+         Not from the ground arise,
+     But oftentimes celestial benedictions
+         Assume this dark disguise.
+
+     We see but dimly through the mists and vapors,
+         Amid these earthly damps;
+     What seem to us but sad funereal tapers,
+         May be heaven's distant lamps.
+
+     There is no death! What seems so is transition;
+         This life of mortal breath
+     Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
+         Whose portal we call Death.
+
+     She is not dead--the child of our affection--
+         But gone unto that school
+     Where she no longer needs our poor protection,
+         And Christ himself doth rule.
+
+     In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion,
+         By guardian angels led,
+     Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,
+         She lives, whom we call dead.
+
+     Day after day we think what she is doing
+         In those bright realms of air;
+     Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,
+         Behold her grow more fair.
+
+     Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken
+         The bond which nature gives,
+     Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken,
+         May reach her where she lives.
+
+     Not as a child shall we again behold her;
+         For when with raptures wild
+     In our embraces we again enfold her,
+         She will not be a child--
+
+     But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion,
+         Clothed with celestial grace,
+     And beautiful with all the soul's expansion
+         Shall we behold her face.
+
+     And though at times impetuous with emotion,
+         And anguish long suppressed,
+     The swelling heart heaves, moaning like the ocean,
+         That can not be at rest--
+
+     We will be patient, and assuage the feeling
+         We can not wholly stay;
+     By silence sanctifying, not concealing,
+         The grief that must have way.
+
+
+
+FROM THE GOLDEN LEGEND.
+
+SCENE.--_The Chamber of_ GOTTLIEB _and_ URSULA.--_Midnight_.--ELSIE
+_standing by their bedside weeping_.
+
+
+GOTTLIEB. The wind is roaring; the rushing rain
+Is loud upon the roof and window-pane,
+As if the wild Huntsman of Rodenstein,
+Boding evil to me and mine,
+Were abroad to-night with his ghostly train!
+In the brief lulls of the tempest wild,
+The dogs howl in the yard; and hark!
+Some one is sobbing in the dark,
+Here in the chamber.
+
+ELSIE.              It is I.
+
+URSULA.  Elsie! What ails thee, my poor child?
+
+ELSIE.  I am disturbed and much distressed,
+In thinking our dear Prince must die;
+I can not close my eyes, nor rest.
+
+GOTTLIEB. What wouldst thou? In the Power Divine
+His healing lies, not in our own;
+It is in the hand of God alone.
+
+ELSIE.  Nay, He has put it into mine,
+And into my heart.
+
+GOTTLIEB.          Thy words are wild.
+
+URSULA.  What dost thou mean? my child! my child!
+
+ELSIE.  That for our dear Prince Henry's sake
+I will myself the offering make,
+And give my life to purchase his.
+
+URSULA.  Am I still dreaming, or awake?
+Thou speakest carelessly of death,
+And yet thou knowest not what it is.
+
+ELSIE.  'Tis the cessation of our breath.
+Silent and motionless we lie;
+And no one knoweth more than this.
+I saw our little Gertrude die;
+She left off breathing, and no more
+I smoothed the pillow beneath her head.
+She was more beautiful than before.
+Like violets faded were her eyes;
+By this we knew that she was dead.
+Through the open window looked the skies
+Into the chamber where she lay,
+And the wind was like the sound of wings,
+As if angels came to bear her away.
+Ah! when I saw and felt these things,
+I found it difficult to stay;
+I longed to die, as she had died,
+And go forth with her, side by side.
+The saints are dead, the martyrs dead,
+And Mary, and our Lord; and I
+Would follow in humility
+The way by them illumined.
+
+URSULA.  My child I my child! thou must not die.
+
+ELSIE.  Why should I live? Do I not know
+The life of woman is full of woe?
+Toiling on, and on, and on,
+With breaking heart, and tearful eyes,
+And silent lips, and in the soul
+The secret longings that arise,
+Which this world never satisfies!
+Some more, some less, but of the whole
+Not one quite happy; no, not one!
+
+URSULA.  It is the malediction of Eve!
+
+ELSIE.  In place of it, let me receive
+The benediction of Mary, then.
+
+GOTTLIEB. Ah, woe is me! Ah, woe is me!
+Most wretched am I among men.
+
+URSULA.  Alas! that I should live to see
+Thy death, beloved, and to stand
+Above thy grave! Ah, woe the day!
+
+ELSIE.  Thou wilt not see it. I shall lie
+Beneath the flowers of another land;
+For at Salerno, far away
+Over the mountains, over the sea,
+It is appointed me to die!
+And it will seem no more to thee
+Than if at the village on market day
+I should a little longer stay
+Than I am used.
+
+URSULA.         Even as thou sayest!
+And how my heart beats when thou stayest!
+I can not rest until my sight
+Is satisfied with seeing thee.
+What, then, if thou wert dead?
+
+GOTTLIEB.                      Ah me,
+Of our old eyes thou art the light!
+The joy of our old hearts art thou!
+And wilt thou die?
+
+URSULA.            Not now! not now!
+
+ELSIE.  Christ died for me, and shall not I
+Be willing for my Prince to die?
+You both are silent; you can not speak.
+This said I, at our Saviour's feast,
+After confession, to the priest,
+And even he made no reply.
+Does he not warn us all to seek
+The happier, better land on high,
+Where flowers immortal never wither;
+And could he forbid me to go thither?
+
+GOTTLIEB. In God's own time, my heart's delight!
+When He shall call thee, not before!
+
+ELSIE.  I heard Him call. When Christ ascended
+Triumphantly, from star to star,
+He left the gates of heaven ajar.
+I had a vision in the night,
+And saw Him standing at the door
+Of His Father's mansion, vast and splendid,
+And beckoning to me from afar.
+I can not stay!
+
+GOTTLIEB.       She speaks almost
+As if it were the Holy Ghost
+Spake through her lips and in her stead!
+What if this were of God?
+
+URSULA.                   Ah, then
+Gainsay it dare we not.
+
+GOTTLIEB.               Amen!
+
+
+The old house under the elms is still the poet's home, and dear, as
+such, to every lover of poetry. It is a stately building, of the style
+of more than one hundred years ago, and is a very home-like place in its
+general appearance. Entering by the main door-way, which is in the
+center of the house, the visitor finds himself in a wide, old-fashioned
+hall, with doors opening upon it on either hand.
+
+"The library of the poet is the long north-eastern room upon the lower
+floor," said a writer seventeen years ago. "It opens upon the garden,
+which retains still the quaint devices of an antique design, harmonious
+with the house. The room is surrounded with handsome book-cases, and one
+stands also between two Corinthian columns at one end, which imparts
+dignity and richness to the apartment. A little table by the northern
+window, looking upon the garden, is the usual seat of the poet. A bust
+or two, the rich carvings of the cases, the spaciousness of the room, a
+leopard-skin lying upon the floor, and a few shelves of strictly
+literary curiosities, reveal not only the haunt of the elegant scholar
+and poet, but the favorite resort of the family circle. But the northern
+gloom of a New England winter is intolerant of this serene delight, this
+beautiful domesticity, and urges the inmates to the smaller room in
+front of the house, communicating with the library, and the study of
+General Washington. This is still distinctively 'the study,' as the rear
+room is 'the library,' Books are here, and all the graceful detail of an
+elegant household, and upon the walls hang crayon portraits of Emerson,
+Sumner, and Hawthorne.
+
+"Emerging into the hall, the eyes of the enamored visitor fall upon the
+massive old staircase, with the clock upon the landing. Directly he
+hears a singing in his mind:
+
+
+      'Somewhat back from the village street,
+       Stands the old-fashioned country-seat;
+       Across its antique portico
+       Tall poplar trees their shadows throw,
+       And from its station in the hall
+       An ancient time-piece says to all,
+           "Forever--never!
+           Never--forever!"'
+
+
+"But he does not see the particular clock of the poem, which stood upon
+another staircase, in another quaint old mansion,--although the verse
+belongs truly to all old clocks in all old country-seats, just as the
+'Village Blacksmith' and his smithy are not alone the stalwart man and
+dingy shop under the 'spreading chestnut-tree' which the Professor daily
+passes on his way to his college duties, but belong wherever a smithy
+stands. Through the meadows in front flows the placid Charles."
+
+So calmly flows the poet's life. The old house has other charms for him
+now besides those with which his fancy invested it when he first set
+foot within its walls, for here have come to him the joys and sorrows of
+his maturer life, and here, "when the evening lamps are lighted," come
+to him the memories of the loved and lost, who but wait for him in the
+better land. Here, too, cluster the memories of those noble achievements
+in his glorious career which have made him now and for all times the
+people's poet. Others, as the years go by, will woo us with their lays,
+but none so winningly and tenderly as this our greatest master. There
+was but one David in Israel, and when he passed away no other filled his
+place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
+
+
+There came to the old town of Salem, in the Province of Massachusetts,
+in the early part of the seventeenth century, an English family named
+Hawthorne--Puritans, like all the other inhabitants of that growing
+town. They proved their fidelity to Puritan principles by entering
+readily into all the superstitions of the day, and became noted for the
+zeal with which they persecuted the Quakers and hung the witches. The
+head of the family was a sea captain, and for many generations the men
+of the family followed the same avocation, "a gray-haired shipmaster, in
+each generation, retiring from the quarter-deck to the homestead, while
+a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting
+the salt spray and the gale, which had blustered against his sire and
+grandsire."
+
+[Illustration: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.]
+
+Of such a race came NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, who was born at Salem, on the
+4th, of July, 1804. His father was a sea captain, and died of the yellow
+fever at Havana, in 1810. His mother was a woman of great beauty and
+extreme sensibility, and it was from her that Nathaniel derived the
+peculiarities of character which distinguished him through life. The
+death of her husband filled her with the profoundest grief, and though
+the violence of her sorrow subsided with time, she passed the
+remainder of her life in strict seclusion, constantly grieving in her
+quiet way for her departed lord. Her son grew up to the age of ten in
+this sad and lonely house, passing four of the most susceptible years of
+his life in the society of his sorrowful mother. He became a shy boy,
+and avoided the company of other children. His health began to suffer
+from the effects of such an unnatural state of affairs, and at the age
+of ten he was sent to live on a farm belonging to the family, on the
+shore of Sebago Lake, in Maine. The active out-door life which he led
+here entirely restored his health, which was naturally strong and
+vigorous; here, also, he acquired that fondness for boating which was
+his chief amusement in after years. Returning to Salem, he completed his
+studies in the preparatory schools, after which he entered Bowdoin
+College, where he graduated in 1825, at the age of twenty-one. He was a
+classmate of Longfellow and George B. Cheever, with whom he was only
+slightly acquainted; and he formed a warm and lasting friendship with
+Franklin Pierce, who was in the class next before him. Longfellow has
+preserved a recollection of him in his student days as "a shy youth in a
+bright-buttoned coat, flitting across the college grounds."
+
+After graduating, he went back to his home in Salem, where he resided
+for many years, leading a life of seclusion, which he passed in
+meditation and study. His strong literary inclination now vented itself
+in efforts which were in every way characteristic of the man. He wrote
+numerous wild tales, the most of which he burned, but a few of which
+found their way into the newspapers and magazines of the country. They
+were full of a wild gloominess, and were told with a power which proved
+that their author was no ordinary man. Few, however, dreamed that they
+were the work of the pale recluse of Salem, for he led a life of such
+strict seclusion that not even the members of his own family could tell
+with certainty what he did. His days were passed in his chamber, and at
+night he took long walks alone on the sea-shore or into the woods. He
+shunned all society, and seemed to find companionship only in nature,
+and in the creations of his fancy. Yet he was not a morose or unhappy
+man. On the contrary, he seems to have been a very happy one, full of
+generous and kindly feelings, and finding only a strange pleasure where
+others would have found bitterness and cynicism. Like the melancholy
+Jacques, he might have said of his pensive shyness, "It is a melancholy
+of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many
+objects; ... which, by often rumination, wraps me in a most humorous
+sadness."
+
+In 1837 he collected his published tales, which, while they had charmed
+a few cultivated readers, had scarcely been noticed by the masses, and
+published them in a volume to which he gave the name of "Twice-Told
+Tales." The book was well received by the public, but its circulation
+was limited, although Mr. Longfellow warmly welcomed it in the "North
+American Review," and pronounced it the "work of a man of genius and a
+true poet." Still it was neglected by the masses, and Hawthorne says
+himself that he was at that time "the most unknown author in America."
+There was more truth in this assertion than lies on its face, for the
+people who read the book supposed that the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne
+was merely a pseudonyme, and declared that as Nathaniel was evidently
+selected by the author because of the fondness of the old-time Puritans
+for Scripture names, so Hawthorne was chosen by him as expressive of one
+of the most beautiful features of the New England landscape. The merits
+of the book were too genuine, however, for it to lack admirers, and the
+small class which greeted its first appearance with delight gradually
+increased, and finally the demand for the book became so great that in
+1842 Hawthorne ventured to issue a second series of "Twice-Told Tales,"
+the most of which had appeared in the "Democratic Review," then edited
+by his friend O'Sullivan. Of these volumes, Mr. George William Curtis
+says: "They are full of glancing wit, of tender satire, of exquisite
+natural description, of subtle and strange analysis of human life,
+darkly passionate and weird."
+
+In 1838 George Bancroft was Collector of the Port of Boston, and, having
+been deeply impressed with the genius displayed in the first volume of
+"Twice-Told Tales," sought out Hawthorne and offered him a place in the
+Boston Custom-House as weigher and gauger. Hawthorne accepted the
+position, and at once entered upon his duties. Leaving his solitude and
+the weird phantoms that had been his companions for so long, he passed
+immediately into the busy bustle of the great New England port. It was a
+new world to him, and one which interested him keenly. His duties kept
+him constantly on the wharf, and threw him daily into contact with
+captains and sailors from all parts of the world. He became a great
+favorite with these, and they told him many a strange story of their
+adventures and of the sights they had seen in distant lands, and these,
+as they were listened to by him, took each a distinctive form in his
+imagination. Not less interesting to him were the men among whom his
+duties threw him. They were more to him than the ordinary beings that
+thronged the streets of the great city, for they had been victorious in
+many a battle with the mighty deep, and they had looked on the wondrous
+sights of the far-off lands of the Old World. Queer people they were,
+too, each a Captain Cuttle or a Dirk Hatteraick in himself, and many an
+hour did the dreamy writer spend with them, apparently listening to
+their rude stories, but really making keen studies of the men
+themselves.
+
+He discharged his duties faithfully in the Boston Custom-House,
+performing each with an exactness thoroughly characteristic of him,
+until 1841, when the accession of President Harrison to power obliged
+him to withdraw to make way for a Whig.
+
+From the Custom-house he went to live at Brook Farm as one of that
+singular community of dreamers and enthusiasts which was to inaugurate a
+new era of men and things in the world, but which came at last to a most
+inglorious termination. He was thrown into intimate association here
+with many who have since become prominent in our literary history, and
+for some of them conceived a warm attachment. He took his share of the
+farm labors, to which he was very partial, but remained at the community
+less than a year, and then returned to Boston. In his "Blithedale
+Romance" he has given us a picture of the life at Brook Farm, though he
+denies having sketched his characters from his old associates at that
+place.
+
+In 1843 he married Miss Peabody, a member of a family distinguished for
+their various achievements in the world of letters. Besides being an
+artist of no mean pretensions, she was herself a writer of considerable
+promise, though her writings had no other critics than her family and
+most intimate friends. "Her husband shrank from seeing her name in the
+reviews, and in this, as in all other things, his feelings were sacredly
+respected by her." She was a lady of rare strength of character and
+great beauty, and was in every respect a fitting wife for such a man.
+The twenty-one years of their wedded life make up a period of unbroken
+happiness to both. Hawthorne was very proud of his wife, and in his
+quiet way never failed to show it. Their friends often remarked that
+the wedded life of this happy pair seemed like one long courtship.
+
+Hawthorne took his bride on his wedding-day to a new home. He had rented
+the old parsonage adjoining the battle-field of Concord, from whose
+windows the pastor of those heroic days had watched his congregation
+fight the British in his yard. It was a gloomy and partially dilapidated
+"Old Manse," and doubtless Hawthorne had chosen it because of its quaint
+aspect. He has himself drawn the picture of it, and given us an
+exquisite collection of "Mosses" from it. It lay back from the main
+road, and was approached by an avenue of ancient black-ash trees, whose
+deep shade added much to the quiet appearance of "the gray front of the
+old parsonage." It was just the home for him, and here passed three of
+the happiest years of his life. Here he wrote his "Mosses from an Old
+Manse," and here his first child was born.
+
+The life he led at Concord was very secluded. He avoided the society of
+the village people, who sought in vain to penetrate his retirement and
+satisfy their curiosity concerning him. But they were disappointed. He
+lived on in his deep seclusion, happy in having his wife and child with
+him, but caring for no other society. During the day he remained in his
+study, which overlooked the old battle-field, or, passing down the lawn
+at the back of the house to the river, spent the afternoon in rowing on
+the pretty stream. At night he would take long walks, or row up the
+river to the bridge by which the British crossed the stream, and enjoy
+his favorite luxury--a bath. The village people were full of curiosity
+to know something about him, for he was absolutely unknown to them; and
+any one who understands what the curiosity of a New England villager is
+can readily imagine the feelings with which the people of Concord
+regarded their mysterious neighbor. They were never satisfied, however,
+for Hawthorne shrank from prying eyes with indescribable horror. He kept
+his ways, and compelled them to let him alone. He could easily avoid the
+town in his walks or his rides upon the river, and he was rarely seen
+passing through the streets unless compelled to do so by matters which
+needed his attention in Concord.
+
+Yet the "Old Manse" was not without its guests. Hawthorne was a man of
+many friends, and these came often to see him. They were men after his
+own heart, and among them were Emerson, Ellery, Channing, Thoreau,
+Whittier, Longfellow, and George William Curtis. The last-named has left
+us this pleasant picture of our author in the midst of his friends:
+
+"During Hawthorne's first year's residence in Concord, I had driven up
+with some friends to an esthetic tea at Mr. Emerson's. It was in the
+winter, and a great wood-fire blazed upon the hospitable hearth. There
+were various men and women of note assembled, and I, who listened
+attentively to all the fine things that were said, was for some time
+scarcely aware of a man who sat upon the edge of the circle, a little
+withdrawn, his head slightly thrown forward upon his breast, and his
+bright eyes clearly burning under his black brow. As I drifted down the
+stream of talk, this person who sat silent as a shadow looked to me as
+Webster might have looked had he been a poet--a kind of poetic Webster.
+He rose and walked to the window, and stood quietly there for a long
+time, watching the dead white landscape. No appeal was made to him,
+nobody looked after him, the conversation flowed as steadily on as if
+every one understood that his silence was to be respected. It was the
+same thing at table. In vain the silent man imbibed esthetic tea.
+Whatever fancies it inspired did not flower at his lips. But there was a
+light in his eye which assured me that nothing was lost. So supreme was
+his silence, that it presently engrossed me to the exclusion of every
+thing else. There was brilliant discourse, but this silence was much
+more poetic and fascinating. Fine things were said by the philosophers,
+but much finer things were implied by the dumbness of this gentleman
+with heavy brows and black hair. When presently he rose and went,
+Emerson, with the 'slow, wise smile' that breaks over his face, like day
+over the sky, said: 'Hawthorne rides well his horse of the night.'"
+Later on, after he knew him better, Curtis added to this picture, "His
+own sympathy was so broad and sure, that, although nothing had been said
+for hours, his companion knew that not a thing had escaped his eye, nor
+had a single pulse of beauty in the day, or scene, or society failed to
+thrill his heart. In this way his silence was most social. Every thing
+seemed to have been said."
+
+At the close of the third year of his residence at Concord, Hawthorne
+was obliged to give up the "Old Manse," as the owner was coming back to
+occupy it. The Democrats had now come into power again under Mr. Polk,
+and Mr. Bancroft was in the Cabinet. The Secretary, mindful of his
+friend, procured him the post of Surveyor of the Port of Salem, and
+Hawthorne went with his little family to live in his native town. The
+Salem Custom-house was a sleepy sort of a place, and his duties were
+merely nominal. He had an abundance of leisure time, and from that
+leisure was born his masterpiece, "The Scarlet Letter"--the most
+powerful romance which ever flowed from an American author's pen. It was
+published in 1850, and in the preface to it the reader will find an
+excellent description of the author's life in Salem. He held his
+position in that place for three years, and then the election of General
+Taylor obliged him to retire.
+
+He withdrew to the Berkshire Hills, and took a house in the town of
+Lenox. It was a little red cottage, and was situated on the shore of a
+diminutive lake called the Stockbridge Bowl. He was now the most famous
+novelist in America, and had thousands of admirers in the Old World. His
+"Scarlet Letter" had won him fame, and had brought his earlier works
+more prominently before the public than ever.
+
+During his residence at Lenox, he wrote "The House of the Seven Gables,"
+which was published in Boston in 1851. It was not less successful than
+the "Scarlet Letter," though it was not so finished a piece of
+workmanship.
+
+Yet, though so famous, he was not freed from the trials incident to the
+first years of an author's life. Mr. Tuckerman says of him at this time:
+"He had the fortitude and pride, as well as the sensitiveness and
+delicacy, of true and high genius. Not even his nearest country
+neighbors knew aught of his meager larder or brave economies. He never
+complained, even when editors were dilatory in their remuneration and
+friends forgetful of their promises. When the poor author had the money,
+he would buy a beefsteak for dinner; when he had not, he would make a
+meal of chestnuts and potatoes. He had the self-control and the probity
+to fulfill that essential condition of self-respect, alike for those who
+subsist by brain work and those who inherit fortunes--he always lived
+within his income; and it was only by a kind of pious fraud that a trio
+of his oldest friends occasionally managed to pay his rent." His friend
+and publisher, Mr. Ticknor, "received and invested the surplus earnings
+of the absentee author when American Consul at Liverpool, and had
+obtained from Hawthorne a promise on the eve of his departure for his
+post, ... that he would send him all he could spare from his official
+income, to be carefully nursed into a competence for his family. Never
+was better advice given or wiser service performed by publisher to
+author. The investments thus made became the means of comfort to the
+returned writer in the maturity of his years and his fame."
+
+In 1852 he returned to Concord and purchased a small house which had
+once been the residence of the philosopher Alcott. Here he made his
+permanent home and gathered about him his household treasures. In the
+Presidential campaign of 1852, his friend Franklin Pierce was the
+candidate of the Democracy, and Hawthorne wrote a short biography of him
+which was used by the Democrats as a campaign document. It was a labor
+of love, for the friendship that had been begun between these two men in
+their college days had never been broken, and though naturally averse to
+every thing that savored of politics, our author made this contribution
+to the cause of his friend with all the heartiness of his nature. Pierce
+was profoundly touched by this unexpected aid, for he knew how utterly
+Hawthorne detested political strife, and when seated in the Presidential
+chair he showed his appreciation of it by offering his friend the
+consulship to Liverpool--one of the most lucrative offices within the
+gift of the executive. Hawthorne broke up his home in Concord and sailed
+for Liverpool in 1853, and remained there until 1857, when he resigned
+his consulship and traveled on the continent with his family, residing
+for some time in Italy for the benefit of his health. His European
+residence had the effect of drawing him out of his shyness and reserve
+to a certain extent, and during the closing years of his life he was
+more social with the persons about him than he had ever been. After his
+return he went back to Concord, where he enlarged and beautified his old
+home, intending to remain there for the balance of his life. He wrote
+the "Marble Faun" and "Our Old Home" just after his return from Europe.
+The former was suggested by his residence in Italy, and the latter was
+a collection of English sketches and reminiscences.
+
+The war between the two sections of the country affected him very
+deeply. It seemed to him a terrible tragedy, to which there could be no
+end but utter ruin for the country. He sympathized strongly with the
+cause of the Union, but at the same time his heart bled at the
+sufferings of the people of the south. It was one long agony to him, and
+only those who knew him intimately can understand how much he suffered
+during this unhappy period.
+
+Mr. Moncure D. Conway gives the following reminiscence of him about this
+time: "I passed a night under the same roof with him at the house of Mr.
+Fields, his publisher. He seemed much dejected. Mr. Fields had invited a
+little company, but, after the first arrivals, Hawthorne made his escape
+to his room, from which he did not emerge until the next morning at
+breakfast time. He then came in with the amusing look of a naughty
+child, and pleaded that he had become lost the night before in Defoe's
+ghost stories until it was too late to make his appearance in the
+company. He must, I should think, have been contemplating some
+phantasmal production at that time, for I remember his asking me many
+questions about the ghost-beliefs of the negroes, among whom I had
+passed my early life."
+
+Besides the works already mentioned, Hawthorne was the author of "True
+Stories from History and Biography" and "The Wonder Book for Boys and
+Girls," both published in 1851; "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told
+Tales," published in 1852; and "Tanglewood Tales," published in 1853,
+all juveniles. At the time of his death he was engaged upon a novel
+which was to have been published in the "Atlantic Monthly," but it was
+left incomplete.
+
+In the spring of 1864 his friend and publisher, Mr. W.D. Ticknor, of
+Boston, seeing how feeble Hawthorne had become, asked him to accompany
+him on an excursion, hoping that a rapid change of scene and cheerful
+company would benefit him. They set out in April, and went direct to
+Philadelphia. Upon arriving at the hotel, Mr. Ticknor was suddenly taken
+very ill, and died on the 10th of April in his friend's arms. Hawthorne
+was profoundly shocked by this melancholy occurrence, and it is said
+that he never fully recovered from its effects upon him. His melancholy
+seemed to deepen, and though his friends exerted themselves to cheer
+him, he seemed to feel that his end was near. Ex-President Pierce,
+hoping to rouse him from his sad thoughts, induced him to accompany him
+on an excursion to the White Mountains. Upon reaching Plymouth, which
+they took on their route, they stopped at the Pemigewasset House for the
+night. Mr. Pierce was so full of anxiety concerning his friend, who had
+been quieter and sadder than usual that day, that he went softly into
+his room in the middle of the night to look after him. Hawthorne was
+lying very still, and seemed to be sleeping sweetly. Mr. Pierce stole
+softly away, fearing to disturb him. In the morning he went back to
+rouse his friend, and found him lying lifeless in the position he had
+noticed in the night. He had been dead some hours.
+
+The announcement of Hawthorne's death caused a feeling of deep sadness
+in all parts of the Union. His body was taken to Concord for burial, and
+was accompanied to the grave by the best and most gifted of the land, to
+each of whom he had endeared himself in life.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+ACTORS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+EDWIN BOOTH.
+
+
+There are many persons who remember the elder Booth, the "Great Booth,"
+as he was called, in his palmy days, when the bare announcement of his
+name was sufficient to cram our old-fashioned theaters from pit to dome.
+He was sublime in the stormy passions which he delineated, and never
+failed to draw down from the gods of the gallery the uproarious yells
+with which they testify their approval; even the more dignified
+occupants of the boxes found themselves breaking into outbursts of
+applause which they were powerless to restrain. He was a favorite with
+all classes, and a deserved one, and the lovers of the drama looked
+forward with genuine regret to the period when he should be no longer
+with them. They felt that the glories of the stage would pass away with
+him. It was in vain that they were told that he had sons destined to the
+same profession. They shook their heads, and said it was impossible that
+the mantle of the great tragedian should rest upon any of his sons, for
+it was then, as now, a popular belief that great men never have great
+children. How very much these good people were mistaken we will see in
+the progress of this chapter.
+
+One of these sons was destined in the course of time to eclipse the fame
+won by his father, and to endear himself to the American people as a
+more finished, if less stormy, actor. This was EDWIN BOOTH. He was born
+on his father's farm near Baltimore, Maryland, In 1833, and after
+receiving a good common-school education, began his training for the
+stage. The elder Booth was quick to see that his boy had inherited his
+genius, and he took great pains to develop the growing powers of the
+lad, and to incline them toward those paths which his experience had
+taught him were the surest roads to success. He took him with him on his
+starring engagements, and kept him about him so constantly that the boy
+may be said to have grown up on the stage from his infancy. He was
+enthusiastically devoted to his father, and it was his delight to stand
+at the wings and watch the great tragedian in his personations, and the
+thunders of applause which proclaimed some fresh triumph were sweeter to
+the boy, perhaps, than to the man.
+
+In 1849, at the age of sixteen, he made his first appearance on the
+stage as Tyrrell, in "Richard III.," and gave great satisfaction by his
+rendition of the character. From this time he continued to appear at
+various places with his father, and in 1851 won his first great success
+in the city of New York. His father was playing an engagement at the
+Chatham Theater at the time, and was announced for Richard III., which
+was his masterpiece. When the hour for performance came, he was too ill
+to appear. The manager was in despair, for the house was filled with a
+large audience, who were impatient for the appearance of the humpbacked
+king. In this emergency Edwin Booth offered to take his father's place,
+and the manager, pleased with the novelty of the proposal, accepted it.
+Young Booth was but eighteen years old, and had not even studied the
+part, and it was a perilous thing to venture before an audience in a
+role in which one of his name had won such great fame. But he was
+confident of his own powers, and he had so often hung with delight upon
+his father's rendition of the part, that he needed but a hasty reference
+to the book to perfect him in the text. He won a decided triumph, and
+the public promptly acknowledged that he gave promise of being an
+unusually fine actor.
+
+In 1852 Mr. Booth went to California, and engaged for the "utility
+business." He spent two years in careful and patient study in the
+humbler walks of his profession, learning its details, and doing much of
+the drudgery essential to a thorough knowledge of his art. In 1854, he
+went to Australia, and played a successful engagement there, stopping on
+his way at several of the Pacific islands. On his return, he played an
+engagement, with marked success, at the Sandwich Islands, and then went
+back to California.
+
+In 1857 he returned to New York, and, on the 4th of May, appeared at
+Burton's Theater, in the character of Richard III. A writer who
+witnessed his performance on that occasion thus speaks of him: "The
+company was not strong in tragedy; the young actor came without
+reputation; the season was late. But he conquered his place. His Richard
+was intellectual, brilliant, rapid, handsome, picturesque, villainous.
+But the villainy was servant to the ambition--not master of it, as a
+coarse player makes it. The action was original; the dress was
+perfect--the smirched gauntlets and flung-on mantle of the scheming,
+busy duke, the splendid vestments of the anointed king, the glittering
+armor of the monarch in the field. His clear beauty, his wonderful
+voice--which he had not learned to use--his grace, his fine artistic
+sense, made all triumphs seem possible to this young man. Evidently
+there was great power in the new actor--power untrained, vigor ill
+directed. But what was plainest to be seen, was the nervous, impulsive
+temperament, which would leave him no rest save in achievement. He might
+come back to us a robustious, periwig-pated fellow, the delight and
+wonder of the galleries. He might come back the thorough artist, great
+in repose as in action. But it was clear enough that what he was then in
+Richard, in Richelieu, in Sir Edward Mortimer, he would never be again."
+
+He followed this appearance by a general tour through the country, and
+returned to New York in 1858, where he won fresh laurels. In 1860 he
+reappeared at Burton's Theater, then called the Winter Garden, and added
+Hamlet to his role. He had improved greatly during the time that had
+elapsed since his last appearance at this theater, and had gained very
+much in power and artistic finish. The most critical audiences in the
+country received him with delight, crowded his houses, and hailed his
+efforts with thunders of applause. This season silenced all the critics,
+and placed him among the great actors of the American stage. He bore his
+honors modestly, and though he was proud of the triumphs he had won,
+they did not satisfy him. There were still greater successes to be
+achieved before the highest honors of his profession could be his, and
+it was upon these that his eye was fixed from the first. The applause
+which greeted him in every city in which he appeared only served to
+stimulate him to fresh exertions.
+
+In the summer of 1861, he visited England, and played an engagement at
+the Haymarket Theater in London, where he was favorably received by the
+British playgoers. At the close of this engagement, he spent a year on
+the continent, in travel and in the study of his profession. He also
+made careful studies of the scenes of the great historic dramas of the
+English stage, both in England and on the continent, and of the dresses
+and other appointments needed for them. By thoroughly familiarizing
+himself with these details, he has been able to produce his plays with
+entire fidelity to history.
+
+Returning once more to New York, he appeared at the Winter Garden, in
+the winter of 1863-64, in a series of Shakespearean revivals. He played
+Hamlet for over one hundred nights, and followed it during that season
+and the next with "Merchant of Venice" and "Othello" (in the latter
+playing the parts of Othello and Iago on alternate nights). During the
+same seasons he appeared also in "Richelieu," "Ruy Blas," "The Fool's
+Revenge," and "Don Caesar de Bazan." These performances were extended
+into the season of 1866-67, when they were suddenly cut short by the
+total destruction of the Winter Garden Theater by fire on the night of
+the 23d of March, 1867. In this fire Mr. Booth lost his entire wardrobe,
+including many relics of his father, Kemble, and Mrs. Siddons.
+
+The destruction of a theater has seldom drawn forth a more universal
+expression of regret than that which poured in upon Mr. Booth from all
+parts of the country. It was feared that the loss of his valuable
+wardrobe would be irremediable, as indeed it was in a certain sense. All
+over the Union a general wish was expressed that the great actor should
+have a new theater in some of our large cities, and one which should be
+worthy of his genius. Mr. Booth had chosen the city of New York for his
+permanent home, and after the destruction of the Winter Garden Theater
+began to arrange his plans for the erection of a new building of his
+own, which he was resolved should be the most magnificent and the best
+appointed theater in the world. The site chosen was the south-eastern
+corner of the Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street in New York, and in
+the summer of 1867 the work of clearing away the old buildings and
+digging the foundations of the new theater was begun. It was carried
+forward steadily, and the building was completed and opened to the
+public in January, 1869.
+
+It is in the Rennaissance style of architecture, and stands seventy feet
+high from the sidewalk to the main cornice, crowning which is a Mansard
+roof of twenty-four feet. "The theater proper fronts one hundred and
+forty-nine feet on Twenty-third Street, and is divided into three parts,
+so combined as to form an almost perfect whole, with arched entrances at
+either extremity on the side, for the admission of the public, and on
+the other for another entrance, and the use of the actors and those
+employed in the house. On either side of these main entrances are broad
+and lofty windows; and above them, forming a part of the second story,
+are niches for statues, surrounded by coupled columns resting on finely
+sculptured pedestals. The central or main niche is flanked on either
+side by quaintly contrived blank windows; and between the columns, at
+the depth of the recesses, are simple pilasters sustaining the elliptic
+arches, which serve to top and span the niches, the latter to be
+occupied by statues of the great creators and interpreters of the drama
+in every age and country. The finest Concord granite, from the best
+quarries in New Hampshire, is the material used in the entire facade, as
+well as in the Sixth Avenue side.... The glittering granite mass,
+exquisitely poised, adorned with rich and appropriate carving, statuary,
+columns, pilasters, and arches, and capped by the springing French roof,
+fringed with its shapely balustrades, offers an imposing and majestic
+aspect, and forms one of the architectural jewels of the city."
+
+In its internal arrangements the theater is in keeping with its external
+magnificence. Entering through a sumptuous vestibule, the visitor passes
+into the magnificent auditorium, which is in itself a rare piece of
+decorative art. The seats are admirably arranged, each one commanding a
+view of the stage. The floor is richly carpeted, and the seats are
+luxuriously upholstered. Three elegant light galleries rise above the
+parquet. The walls and ceiling are exquisitely frescoed, and ornamented
+with bas reliefs in plaster. The proscenium is beautifully frescoed and
+carved, and is adorned with busts of the elder Booth and the proprietor
+of the theater; and in the sides before the curtain are arranged six
+sumptuous private boxes. The curtain is a beautiful landscape. The
+decoration of the house is not done in the rough scenic style so common
+in the most of the theaters of the country, but is the perfection of
+frescoe painting, and is capable of bearing the closest examination. The
+stage is very large, and slopes gradually from the rear to the
+footlights. The orchestra pen is sunk below the level of the stage, so
+that the heads of the musicians do not cut off the view of the audience.
+The dressing of the stage is novel. The side scenes or wings, instead of
+being placed at right angles to the spectator as in most theaters, are
+so arranged that the scene appears to extend to the right and left as
+well as to the rear. In this way the spectator is saved the annoyance of
+often looking through the wings, a defect which in most theaters
+completely dispels the illusion of the play. The scenery here is not set
+by hand, but is moved by machinery, and with such regularity and
+precision that these changes have very much the effect of "dissolving
+views." The scenes themselves are the works of highly educated artists,
+and never degenerate into the rough daubs with which most playgoers are
+familiar. The building is fire-proof, and is warmed and ventilated in a
+peculiar manner. The great central chandelier and the lights around the
+cornice of the auditorium are lighted by electricity.
+
+The plays presented here are superbly put on the stage. The scenery is
+strictly accurate when meant to represent some historic locality, and
+is the finest to be found in America. Perhaps the grandest stage picture
+ever given to an audience was the grave-yard scene in "Hamlet," which
+"held the boards" for over one hundred nights last winter. The dresses,
+equipments, and general "make up" of the actors are in keeping with the
+scenery. Even the minutest detail is carefully attended to. Nothing is
+so unimportant as to be overlooked in this establishment.
+
+It is Mr. Booth's custom to open the season with engagements of other
+distinguished actors, and to follow them himself about the beginning of
+the winter, and to continue his performances until the approach of
+spring, when he again gives way to others. When he is performing, it is
+impossible to procure a seat after the rising of the curtain. Every
+available place is filled, and thousands come from all parts of the
+country to see him. Sometimes it is necessary to secure seats a week in
+advance.
+
+Mr. Booth is still a young man, being now thirty-seven years old. In
+person he is over the medium height, and is well built. His hair is
+black and is worn long, and his dark eyes are large and dreamy. His face
+is that of a poet, strikingly handsome, with an expression of mingled
+sweetness and sadness playing over it. He wears neither beard nor
+moustache. He dresses simply and without ornament, and is grave and
+retiring in his demeanor. He is exceedingly amiable in disposition, and
+is the center of a large circle of devoted friends. He has been married
+twice, and has one child, a daughter, by his first wife. He is a man of
+irreproachable life, and in every thing a high-toned gentleman, and it
+is the high character he bears not less than his genius that has enabled
+him to do such honor to his profession. He is very wealthy, and is in a
+fair way to become a millionaire.
+
+As an actor Mr. Booth is without an equal. His impersonations are
+marked by rare genius and by the most careful study. His Hamlet is
+perhaps his most finished part, as his Richelieu is the most popular
+with the masses. It has been said that his Hamlet is not Shakespeare's
+Hamlet, and this may be true: but it is so exquisite, so perfect, that
+whether it be the conception of Shakespeare or Edwin Booth, it is the
+most powerful, the most life-like counterfeit of "the melancholy Dane"
+ever seen on any stage, and leaves nothing to be desired. His
+personation of the grim old cardinal, whose decrepit body is alone
+sustained by his indomitable will, is masterly, and we see before us,
+not Edwin Booth, the actor of to-day, but the crafty, unscrupulous,
+witty, determined prime minister of France, who bends kings and princes
+to his will. It is absolutely life-like, and to those who have seen the
+portraits of the old cardinal in the museums of France, the accuracy
+with which Booth has counterfeited the personal appearance of Richelieu
+is positively startling. The plays are so superbly set upon the stage
+that we lose sight of the little space they occupy, and seem to be
+gazing upon a real world. His Richard has such a strong humanity in it,
+that it more than half vindicates the humpbacked tyrant's memory, and
+the death scene of this play, as given by Booth, is simply appalling.
+
+It is in vain, however, that we select special characters or attempt
+descriptions of them. No one can truly understand Edwin Booth's acting
+without seeing it. He has studied his heroes so profoundly, analyzed
+their characters so subtly, and entered so heartily into sympathy with
+them, that he has, become able, by the aid of his wonderful genius, to
+entirely discard his own personality, and assume theirs at will.
+
+Mr. Booth has steadily risen in power and finish as an actor, for his
+labors have been unceasing. Great as his triumphs have been, he does
+not regard himself as freed from the necessity of study. His studies
+have become more intelligent than in former years, but not the less
+faithful. He has the true artist's aspiration after the rarest
+perfection in his art, though to those of us without the charmed circle
+it is difficult to see how he can excel his present excellence. Yet that
+he does so we have undoubted proof, for we see him rising higher in the
+admiration and esteem of the world every year, and each year we gather
+fresh laurels to twine around his brows.
+
+He has steadily educated his audiences, and has elevated the standard of
+his art among his countrymen. He has shown them what fine acting really
+is, and has taught them to enjoy it. He has kept them true to the
+legitimate drama, and has done more than any other man to rescue the
+American stage from the insignificance with which it was threatened. It
+speaks volumes for him as an actor and a manager, that when New York
+seemed wholly given up to ballet, burlesque, and opera bouffe, he was
+able to make the almost forgotten masterpieces of Shakespeare the most
+popular and most profitable dramatic ventures of the year.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JEFFERSON, AS RIP VAN WINKLE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+JOSEPH JEFFERSON.
+
+
+The subject of this sketch is one of a race of actors. His
+great-grandfather was a contemporary of some of the brightest ornaments
+of the English stage, and was himself a famous actor and the intimate
+friend of Garrick, Sam Foote, and Barr. He was a man of amiable and
+winning disposition, and was strikingly handsome in person. He occupies
+a prominent place in the history of the English stage, and is said to
+have been, socially, one of the most brilliant men of his day. He died
+in 1807. In 1795 his son came to America. Of him, Dunlap, in his
+"History of the American Stage," says, referring to him, in February,
+1797: "He was then a youth, but even then an artist. Of a small and
+light figure, well formed, with a singular physiognomy, a nose perfectly
+Grecian, and blue eyes full of laughter, he had the faculty of exciting
+mirth to as great a degree by power of feature, although handsome, as
+any ugly-featured low comedian ever seen." F.C. Wemyss has said of him
+at a later day: "Mr. Joseph Jefferson was an actor formed in Nature's
+merriest mood--a genuine son of Momus. There was a vein of rich humor
+running through all he did, which forced you to laugh despite of
+yourself. He discarded grimace as unworthy of him, although no actor
+ever possessed a greater command over the muscles of his own face, or
+the faces of his audience, compelling you to laugh or cry at his
+pleasure. His excellent personation of old men acquired for him, before
+he had reached the meridian of life, the title of 'Old Jefferson.' The
+astonishment of strangers at seeing a good-looking young man pointed out
+on the street as Old Jefferson, whom they had seen the night previous at
+the theater tottering apparently on the verge of existence, was the
+greatest compliment that could be paid to the talent of the actor. His
+versatility was astonishing--light comedy, old men, pantomime, low
+comedy, and occasionally juvenile tragedy. Educated in the very best
+school for acquiring knowledge in his profession, ... Jefferson was an
+adept in all the trickery of the stage, which, when it suited his
+purpose, he could turn to excellent account.... In his social relations,
+he was what a gentleman should be--a kind husband, an affectionate
+father, a warm friend, and a truly honest man." The second Jefferson
+enjoyed a brilliant career of thirty-six years in this country, and died
+in 1832, during an engagement at the theater at Harrisburg, which was
+then managed by his son. This son, named Joseph, after his father, was
+born in Philadelphia in 1804, and died at the age of thirty-eight. He
+was not so famous as an actor as his father or grandfather, but like
+them passed his life on the stage. He had a decided talent for painting,
+and was partially educated as an artist, but he never accomplished any
+thing with his pencil. He was a man of most amiable disposition, and was
+possessed of scores of warm and devoted friends; but he was a poor
+business manager, and was always more or less involved in pecuniary
+troubles. He married Mrs. Burke, the famous vocalist, and mother of
+Burke, the comedian.
+
+To this couple, in the city of Philadelphia, was born the JOSEPH
+JEFFERSON of to-day, on the 20th of February, 1829.
+
+This boy was literally brought up on the stage, as he made his first
+appearance upon the boards in a combat scene at the Park Theater in New
+York, when he was but three years old. He soon after went with his
+parents to the West. Olive Logan says of him, at this period of his
+life, "While they were both still children, he and my sister Eliza used
+to sing little comic duets together on the stage of various western
+towns."
+
+He received as good a common-school education as the rapid manner in
+which he was moved about from place to place would permit, and was
+carefully trained in the profession of an actor, to which he was
+destined by his parents, and to which he was drawn by the bent of his
+genius. He appeared in public frequently during his boyhood, but his
+first appearance as a man was at Chanfrau's National Theater, in 1849.
+He met with fair success, and from that time devoted himself entirely
+and carefully to his profession. He began at the bottom of the ladder of
+fame, and gradually worked his way up to his present high position.
+Playing engagements in various minor theaters of the United States, he
+at length secured a position as low comedian at Niblo's Garden in New
+York, where he won golden opinions from the critical audiences of the
+metropolis. In 1857, he closed a most successful engagement as low
+comedian at the theater in Richmond, Virginia, and with that engagement
+ended his career as a stock actor. He had by careful and patient study
+rendered himself capable of assuming the highest place in his
+profession, and these studies, joined to his native genius, had made him
+famous throughout the country as the best low comedian of the day.
+
+Feeling that he had now a right to the honors of a "star" in his
+profession, and urged by the public to assume the position to which his
+genius entitled him, he began a series of engagements throughout the
+Union, in which he more than fulfilled the expectations of his friends.
+He was received with delight wherever he went, and at once became the
+most popular of American comedians.
+
+About a year or two later, he left the United States and made a voyage
+to Australia, through which country he traveled, playing at the
+principal towns. He was extremely successful. His genial, sunny
+character won him hosts of friends among the people of that far-off
+land, and his great genius as an actor made him as famous there as he
+had been in his own country. Australia was then a sort of theatrical El
+Dorado. The prices paid for admission to the theaters were very high,
+and the sums offered to distinguished stars in order to attract them
+thither were immense. Mr. Jefferson reaped a fair share of this golden
+harvest, and at the close of his Australian engagements found himself
+the possessor of a handsome sum. It was this which formed the basis of
+his large fortune; for, unlike his father, he is a man of excellent
+business capacity, and understands how to care for the rewards of his
+labors, so that they shall be a certain protection to him in his old
+age, and an assistance to those whom he shall leave behind him.
+
+Returning to the United States, Mr. Jefferson appeared with increased
+success in the leading cities of the Northern and Western States. His
+principal success at this time was won in the character of Asa
+Trenchard, in the play of "Our American Cousin." His personation of the
+rough, eccentric, but true-hearted Yankee was regarded as one of the
+finest pieces of acting ever witnessed on the American stage, and drew
+crowded houses wherever he went. His range of characters included the
+most refined comedy and the broadest farce, but each delineation bore
+evidence of close and careful study, and was marked by great originality
+and delicacy. There was in his performances a freshness, a
+distinctiveness, and, above all, an entire freedom from any thing
+coarse or offensive, which charmed his audiences from the first. One of
+his critics has well said of him: "As Caleb Plummer he unites in another
+way the full appreciation of mingled humor and pathos--the greatest
+delicacy and affection with rags and homely speech. As Old Phil
+Stapleton he is the patriarch of the village and the incarnation of
+content. As Asa Trenchard he is the diamond in the rough, combining
+shrewdness with simplicity, and elevating instead of degrading the
+Yankee character. As Dr. Ollapod, and Dr. Pangloss, and Tobias Shortcut,
+he has won laurels that would make him a comedian of the first rank. His
+Bob Acres is a picture. There is almost as much to look at as in his Rip
+Van Winkle. There is nearly the same amount of genius, art, experience,
+and intelligence in its personation. Hazlitt says that the author has
+overdone the part, and adds that 'it calls for a great effort of animal
+spirits and a peculiar aptitude of genius to go through with it;' Mr.
+Jefferson has so much of the latter that he can--and to a great extent
+does--dispense with the former requisite. His quiet undercurrent of
+humor subserves the same purpose in the _role_ of Bob Acres that it does
+in other characters. It is full of points, so judiciously chosen, so
+thoroughly apt, so naturally made and so characteristically preserved,
+that the part with Jefferson is a great one. The man of the 'oath
+referential, or sentimental swearing,' makes the entire scope of the
+part an 'echo to the sense.' Even in so poor a farce as that of 'A
+Regular Fix,' Mr. Jefferson makes the eccentricities of Hugh de Brass
+immensely funny. The same style is preserved in every character, but
+with an application that gives to each a separate being."
+
+After a season of great success in this country Mr. Jefferson decided to
+visit England. He appeared at the Adelphi Theater, in London, and at
+once became as popular as he had been at home. His Asa Trenchard, in
+"Our American Cousin," was received by the English with delight; but his
+greatest triumphs were won in Boucicault's version of "Rip Van Winkle,"
+which he has since immortalized. This play was first produced at the
+Adelphi, where it enjoyed an uninterrupted run of nearly two hundred
+nights.
+
+Returning to the United States in the autumn of 1867, Mr. Jefferson
+appeared at the Olympic Theater, in New York, in the play of "Rip Van
+Winkle." Since then he has traveled extensively throughout the United
+States, and has devoted himself exclusively to the character of Rip Van
+Winkle; so exclusively, indeed, that many persons are ignorant of his
+great merits in other roles. By adopting this as his specialty, he has
+rendered himself so perfect in it that he has almost made the
+improvident, light-hearted Rip a living creature. A writer in a popular
+periodical draws the following graphic sketch of his performance of this
+character:
+
+
+     If there is something especially charming in the ideal of Rip Van
+     Winkle that Irving has drawn, there is something even more human,
+     sympathetic and attractive in the character reproduced by
+     Jefferson. A smile that reflects the generous impulses of the man;
+     a face that is the mirror of character; great, luminous eyes that
+     are rich wells of expression; a grace that is statuesque without
+     being studied; an inherent laziness which commands the respect of
+     no one, but a gentle nature that wins the affections of all; poor
+     as he is honest, jolly as he is poor, unfortunate as he is jolly,
+     yet possessed of a spontaneity of nature that springs up and flows
+     along like a rivulet after a rain; the man who can not forget the
+     faults of the character which Jefferson pictures, nor feel like
+     taking good-natured young Rip Van Winkle by the hand and offering a
+     support to tottering old Rip Van Winkle, must have become hardened
+     to all natural as well as artistic influences. It is scarcely
+     necessary to enter into the details of Mr. Jefferson's acting of
+     the Dutch Tam O'Shanter. Notwithstanding the fact that the
+     performance is made up of admirable points that might he enumerated
+     and described, the picture is complete as a whole and in its
+     connections. Always before the public; preserving the interest
+     during two acts of the play after a telling climax; sustaining the
+     realities of his character in a scene of old superstition, and in
+     which no one speaks but himself,--the impersonation requires a
+     greater evenness of merit and dramatic effect than any other that
+     could have been chosen. Rip Van Winkle is imbued with the most
+     marked individuality, and the identity is so conscientiously
+     preserved that nothing is overlooked or neglected. Mr. Jefferson's
+     analysis penetrates even into the minutiae of the part, but there is
+     a perfect unity in the conception and its embodiment. Strong and
+     irresistible in its emotion, and sly and insinuating in its humor,
+     Mr. Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle is marked by great vigor, as well as
+     by an almost pre-Raphaelite finish.
+
+     The bibulous Rip is always present by the ever-recurring and
+     favorite toast of "Here's your goot healt' and your family's, and
+     may dey live long and prosper." The meditative and philosophic Rip
+     is signaled by the abstract "Ja," which sometimes means _yes_, and
+     sometimes means _no_. The shrewd and clear-sighted Rip is marked by
+     the interview with Derrick Van Beekman. The thoughtful and
+     kind-hearted Rip makes his appearance in that sad consciousness of
+     his uselessness and the little influence he exerts when he says to
+     the children, talking of their future marriage: "I thought maybe
+     you might want to ask me about it," which had never occurred to the
+     children. The improvident Rip is discovered when Dame Van Winkle
+     throws open the inn window-shutter, which contains the enormous
+     score against her husband, and when Rip drinks from the bottle over
+     the dame's shoulder as he promises to reform. The most popular and
+     the most thriftless man in the village; the most intelligent and
+     the least ambitious; the best-hearted and the most careless;--the
+     numerous contrasts which the _role_ presents demand versatility in
+     design and delicacy in execution. They are worked out with a
+     moderation and a suggestiveness that are much more natural than if
+     they were presented more decidedly. The sympathy of Mr. Jefferson's
+     creation is the greatest secret of its popularity. In spite of
+     glaring faults, and almost a cruel disregard of the family's
+     welfare, Rip Van Winkle has the audience with him from the very
+     beginning. His ineffably sad but quiet realization of his desolate
+     condition when his wife turns him out into the storm, leaves
+     scarcely a dry eye in the theatre. His living in others and not in
+     himself makes him feel the changes of his absence all the more
+     keenly. His return after his twenty years' sleep is painful to
+     witness; and when he asks, with such heart-rending yet subdued
+     despair, "Are we so soon forgot when we are gone?" it is no wonder
+     that sobs are heard throughout the house. His pleading with his
+     child Meenie is not less affecting, and nothing could be more
+     genuine in feeling. Yet all this emotion is attained in the most
+     quiet and unobtrusive manner. Jefferson's sly humor crops out at
+     all times, and sparkles through the veil of sadness that overhangs
+     the later life of Rip Van Winkle. His wonder that his wife's
+     "clapper" could ever be stopped is expressed in the same breath
+     with his real sorrow at hearing of her death. "Then who the devil
+     am I?" he asks with infinite wit just before he pulls away at the
+     heartstrings of the audience in refusing the proffered assistance
+     to his tottering steps. He has the rare faculty of bringing a smile
+     to the lips and a tear to the eye at the same time. From the first
+     picture, which presents young Rip Van Winkle leaning carelessly and
+     easily upon the table as he drinks his schnapps, to the last
+     picture of the decrepit but happy old man, surrounded by his family
+     and dismissing the audience with his favorite toast, the character,
+     in Mr. Jefferson's hands, endears itself to all, and adds another
+     to the few real friendships which one may enjoy in this life.
+
+
+Mr. Jefferson is a thoroughly American actor. Abandoning all sensational
+shams, he devotes himself to pure art. His highest triumphs have been
+won in the legitimate branches of his profession, and won by the force
+of his genius, aided only by the most careful study and an intelligent
+analysis of the parts assumed by him. He has the happy faculty of
+entering into perfect sympathy with his characters, and for the time
+being he is less the actor than the individual he personates. It is this
+that gives the sparkle to his eye, the ring to his laughter, and the
+exquisite feeling to his pathos; and feeling thus, he is quick to
+establish a sympathy between himself and his audience, so that he moves
+them at will, convulsing them with laughter at the sallies of the
+light-hearted Rip, or dissolving them in tears at the desolations of the
+lonely old man, so soon forgot after he has gone.
+
+Mr. Jefferson has inherited from his father the genial, sunny
+disposition for which the latter was famous. He is an essentially
+cheerful man, and trouble glances lightly off from him. He is generous
+to a fault, and carries his purse in his hand. Misfortune never appeals
+to him in vain, and many are the good works he has done in the humbler
+walks of his own calling. He is enthusiastically devoted to his
+profession, and enjoys his acting quite as much as his auditors. In
+putting his pieces on the stage, he is lavish of expense, and whenever
+he can control this part of the performance, it leaves nothing to be
+desired. Some years ago he brought out "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at a
+Philadelphia theater, in a style of magnificence rarely witnessed on any
+stage. The scenery was exquisite, and was a collection of artistic gems.
+The success of the piece was very decided in Philadelphia, but when it
+was reproduced, with the same scenery and appointments, in a Western
+city, the public would scarcely go to see it, and the theater incurred a
+heavy loss in consequence. Jefferson's remark to the manager, when the
+failure became apparent, was characteristic: "It is all right," said he.
+"We have done our duty, and have made an artistic success of the piece.
+If the people will not come to see it, it is more their misfortune than
+ours."
+
+He has inherited also from his father considerable talent as an artist,
+and sketches with decided merit, though he makes no pretensions to
+artistic skill. In his vacations, which he passes in the country, his
+sketch-book is his constant companion. He is a famous sportsman and
+fisherman, and in the summer is rarely to be found without his gun and
+rod. It is his delight to tramp over miles of country in search of
+game, or to sit quietly in some cozy nook, and, dropping his line into
+the water, pass the hours in reveries broken only by the exertion
+necessary to secure a finny prize.
+
+Not long since his love of art led him to buy a panorama merely because
+he admired it. He put it in charge of an agent in whom he knew he could
+confide, and started it on a tour throughout the country. In a month or
+two he received a gloomy letter from the agent, telling him that the
+exhibition had failed to draw spectators, and that he despaired of its
+ever paying expenses. "Never mind," wrote Jefferson in reply, "it will
+be a gratification for those who do go to see it, and you may draw on me
+for what money you need." The losses on the panorama, however, were so
+great that Jefferson was compelled to abandon it.
+
+Several years before the death of John Sefton, Jefferson paid him a
+visit at his home in Paradise Valley, during one of his summer rambles.
+Upon reaching Sefton's farm, he found the owner "with his breeches and
+coat sleeves both rolled up, and standing in the middle of a clear and
+shallow stream, where one could scarcely step without spoiling the
+sports of the brook trout, which sparkled through the crystal waters.
+Sefton stood in a crouching attitude, watching, with mingled
+disappointment and good humor, a little pig which the stream was
+carrying down its current, and which, pig-like, had slipped from the
+hands of its owner in its natural aversion to being washed. Jefferson,
+with the true instinct of an artist, dropped his fishing tackle and took
+his sketch-book to transfer the ludicrous scene to paper. Sefton
+appreciated the humor of the situation, and only objected when Jefferson
+began to fill in the background with a dilapidated old barn, at which
+the old gentleman demurred on account of its wretched appearance. The
+artist insisted that it was picturesque, however, and proceeded to put
+it down. Sefton had to submit; but he had his revenge, by writing back
+to New York that 'Jefferson is here, drawing the worst "houses" I ever
+saw.'"
+
+In private life, Mr. Jefferson is a cultivated gentleman, and is
+possessed of numbers of warm and devoted friends. He has been married
+twice. The first Mrs. Jefferson was a Miss Lockyer, of New York, and by
+her he had two children, a son and a daughter. The former is about
+eighteen years of age, and is destined to his father's profession, in
+which he has already shown unusual promise. The present Mrs. Jefferson
+was a Miss Warren, and is a niece of the veteran actor, William Warren,
+of Boston. She was married to her husband early in 1868, and has never
+been an actress.
+
+Mr. Jefferson is the possessor of a large fortune, acquired in the
+exercise of his profession, and being thus comfortably situated, is
+enabled to enjoy more rest from his labors than falls to the lot of most
+American actors. He resides in Orange County, New Jersey, about an
+hour's ride from New York, where he has a handsome country seat, which
+he has adorned with all the attractions that wealth and taste can
+command.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+PHYSICIANS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+
+It is not often that a man, however gifted, is capable of rising to
+eminence in two distinct branches of public life, especially in two so
+widely separated from each other as medicine and politics. The subject
+of this sketch was one of the few who have achieved such distinction.
+
+BENJAMIN RUSH was born on Poquestion Creek, near Philadelphia, on the
+24th of December, 1745. He was carefully educated at the best common
+schools of his native county, and then entered Princeton College, where
+he graduated in 1760, at the age of fifteen. He decided, upon leaving
+Princeton, to adopt medicine as his vocation, and began his studies in
+Philadelphia. He gave nine years to preparing himself for his
+profession, and after completing his course in Philadelphia, sailed for
+Europe, where he continued his studies in Edinburgh, London, and Paris.
+He returned home in 1769, and began the practice of medicine in
+Philadelphia, and was at once elected Professor of Chemistry in the
+medical college of that city. He was successful in rapidly acquiring a
+large and lucrative practice, and experienced very few of the
+difficulties and trials which lie in the way of a young physician.
+
+In 1770 he began his career as an author, and for many years his
+writings were numerous. He devoted himself chiefly to medical subjects,
+but history, philosophy, and politics, and even romance, frequently
+claimed his attention. He adopted the patriot cause at the outset of his
+career, and with his pen and voice constantly advocated resistance to
+the injustice of Great Britain. This drew upon him the attention of his
+fellow-citizens, and he was chosen to a seat in the Provincial
+Conference of Pennsylvania. In that body he introduced a resolution
+setting forth the necessity of a declaration of independence of the
+mother country. His resolution was referred to a committee, of which he
+was made the chairman, and this committee having reported affirmatively,
+the resolution was unanimously adopted by the Conference, and was
+communicated to the Continental Congress, then in session in
+Philadelphia, about the last of June, 1776. When it became evident that
+the Congress would declare the independence of the colonies, five
+members of the Pennsylvania delegation withdrew from that body. Their
+places were at once supplied by Rush and four others, and when the
+Declaration was finally adopted Benjamin Rush affixed his signature to
+it as a delegate from Pennsylvania.
+
+In 1776 Dr. Rush was married to Miss Julia Stockton, daughter of Richard
+Stockton, of New Jersey, also a signer of the Declaration. In April,
+1777, he was made Surgeon-General of the Continental army for the Middle
+Department, and in July, 1777, was made Physician-General. He devoted
+himself to his duties with energy and intelligence, and succeeded in
+placing the affairs of his department in as satisfactory a condition as
+the means at the command of the Congress would permit. He was not able,
+however, to arrange every thing as his judgment assured him was best,
+and was subjected to many annoyances and great inconvenience by the
+incompetence and mismanagement of other officials, whom he could not
+control. The management of the hospital supplies of the army was
+especially defective, and was the cause of much suffering to the troops.
+He made repeated efforts to effect a reform in this particular, but
+failing to accomplish any thing, and indignant at the wrongs inflicted
+upon the soldiers, he resigned his commission and retired to private
+life.
+
+During his connection with the army, he had watched the course of
+affairs in his native State with the keenest interest, and in a series
+of four letters to the people of Pennsylvania, called their attention to
+the serious defects of their Constitution of 1776, the chief of which he
+declared to be the giving of the legislative power to one house only.
+His appeals had the effect of bringing about an entire change in the
+form of State government, which was subsequently accomplished by a
+general convention of the people. After the close of the war Dr. Rush
+was elected a member of the State Convention which ratified the
+Constitution of the United States, and distinguished himself in that
+body by his earnest and brilliant advocacy of that instrument. He was
+also a member of the convention which adopted a new State Constitution,
+embodying the reforms he had advised in the letters referred to, and
+labored hard to have incorporated in it his views respecting a penal
+code and a public school system, both of which features he ably
+advocated through the public press.
+
+With this closed his public career, which, though brief, was brilliant,
+and raised him to a proud place among the fathers of the Republic.
+
+Returning to Philadelphia after resigning his position in the army, he
+resumed the practice of medicine, and with increased success. His
+personal popularity and his great skill as a physician brought him all
+the employment he could desire, and he soon took his place at the head
+of the medical faculty of the country.
+
+In 1785 he planned the Philadelphia Dispensary, the first institution of
+the kind in the United States, and to the close of his life remained its
+warm and energetic supporter. In 1789 he was made Professor of the
+Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Philadelphia Medical College, and
+when that institution was merged in the University, in 1791, he was
+elected to the chair of the Institute and Clinical Medicine. In 1797 he
+took the professorship of Clinical Practice also, as it was vacant, and
+was formally elected to it in 1805. These three professorships he held
+until the day of his death, discharging the duties of each with
+characteristic brilliancy and fidelity.
+
+The great professional triumph of his life occurred in the year 1793. In
+that year the yellow fever broke out with great malignancy in
+Philadelphia, and raged violently for about one hundred days, from about
+the last of July until the first of November. Nothing seemed capable of
+checking it. The people fled in dismay from their homes, and the city
+seemed given over to desolation. In the terrible "hundred days," during
+which the fever prevailed, four thousand persons died, and the deaths
+occurred so rapidly that it was frequently impossible to bury the bodies
+for several days. The physicians of the city, though they remained
+heroically at their posts, and labored indefatigably in their exertions
+to stay the plague, were powerless against it, and several of them were
+taken sick and died. Few had any hope of checking the fever, and every
+one looked forward with eagerness to the approach of the season of
+frosts, as the only means of saving those that remained in the stricken
+city.
+
+At the outset of the disease, Dr. Rush had treated it in the same manner
+as that adopted by the medical faculty of the city; but the ill success
+which attended this course soon satisfied him that the treatment was
+wrong. He therefore undertook to subdue it by purging and bleeding the
+patient, and succeeded. The new practice met with the fiercest
+opposition from the other physicians, but Rush could triumphantly point
+to the fact that while their patients were dying his were getting well;
+and he continued to carry out his treatment with firmness and success.
+Dr. Ramsey, of South Carolina, estimates that Rush, by this treatment,
+saved not less than six thousand of his patients from death in the
+"hundred days." Nevertheless, the medical war went on with great
+bitterness, and the opposition to Rush became furious when he boldly
+declared that the fever was not an importation from abroad, as was
+popularly believed, but had been generated by the filthy condition of
+the city during the early part of the summer. Some time after the fever
+had subsided, a paper called "Peter Porcupine's Gazette," edited by
+William Cobbett, made a series of outrageous attacks upon Dr. Rush and
+his treatment of the fever. This exhausted the forbearance of the
+doctor, and he instituted a suit against Cobbett, in which he was
+successful, and secured a verdict of $5,000 damages against his defamer.
+
+During the prevalence of the fever, Dr. Rush's labors were unceasing. He
+was constantly going his rounds, visiting the sick, attending sometimes
+over one hundred patients in a single day. He was called on at all hours
+of the day and night, and it may be said that he scarcely slept or
+enjoyed two hours, uninterrupted rest during the "hundred days."
+
+[Illustration: PRESCRIBING AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.]
+
+For weeks he never sat down to his meals without being surrounded by
+dozens of patients, whose complaints he listened to and prescribed for
+as he ate. These were chiefly the poor, and at such times his house was
+literally thronged with them. He was a kind friend to them; rendering
+his services promptly and heartily, without the slightest wish to
+receive pay in return for them; and during all this terrible summer he
+was to be seen ministering to these poor creatures in the foulest, most
+plague-stricken quarters of the city, shrinking from no danger, and
+deterred from his work of mercy by no thought of his own safety. He has
+left us the following picture of the city during this terrible summer:
+
+
+
+     The disease appeared in many parts of the town remote from the spot
+     where it originated; although in every instance it was easily
+     traced to it. This set the city in motion. The streets and roads
+     leading from the city were crowded with families flying in every
+     direction for safety, to the country. Business began to languish.
+     Water Street, between Market and Race Streets, became a desert.
+     The poor were the first victims of the fever. From the sudden
+     interruption of business, they suffered for a while from poverty as
+     well as disease. A large and airy house at Bush-hill, about a mile
+     from the city, was opened for their reception. This house, after it
+     became the charge of a committee appointed by the citizens on the
+     14th of September, was regulated and governed with the order and
+     cleanliness of an old and established hospital. An American and
+     French physician had the exclusive medical care of it after the 22d
+     of September.
+
+     The contagion, after the second week in September, spared no rank
+     of citizens. Whole families were confined by it. There was a
+     deficiency of nurses for the sick, and many of those who were
+     employed were unqualified for their business. There was likewise a
+     great deficiency of physicians, from the desertion of some and the
+     sickness and death of others. At one time there were only three
+     physicians able to do business out of their houses, and at this
+     time there were probably not less than six thousand persons ill
+     with the fever.
+
+     During the first three or four weeks of the prevalence of the
+     disorder, I seldom went into a house the first time without meeting
+     the parents or children of the sick in tears. Many wept aloud in my
+     entry or parlor, who came to ask advice for their relations. Grief
+     after a while descended below weeping, and I was much struck in
+     observing that many persons submitted to the loss of relations and
+     friends without shedding a tear, or manifesting any other of the
+     common signs of grief.
+
+     A cheerful countenance was scarcely to be seen in the city for six
+     weeks. I recollect once, on entering the house of a poor man, to
+     have met a child of two years old that smiled in my face. I was
+     strangely affected with this sight (so discordant to my feelings
+     and the state of the city), before I recollected the age and
+     ignorance of the child. I was confined the next day by an attack of
+     the fever, and was sorry to hear, upon my recovery, that the father
+     and mother of this little creature died a few days after my last
+     visit to them.
+
+     The streets every-where discovered marks of the distress that
+     pervaded the city. More than one-half the houses were shut up,
+     although not more than one-third of the inhabitants had fled into
+     the country. In walking, for many hundred yards, few persons were
+     met, except such as were in quest of a physician, a nurse, a
+     bleeder, or the men who buried the dead. The hearse alone kept up
+     the remembrance of the noise of carriages or carts in the streets.
+     Funeral processions were laid aside. A black man leading or driving
+     a horse, with a corpse on a pair of chair-wheels, with now and then
+     half a dozen relations or friends following at a distance from it,
+     met the eye in most of the streets of the city, at every hour of
+     the day, while the noise of the same wheels passing slowly over the
+     pavements, kept alive anguish and fear in the sick and well, every
+     hour of the night.
+
+
+The population of Philadelphia at this time was but sixty thousand, and
+the reader will see that a loss of four thousand was a heavy percentage
+for so short a period.
+
+Dr. Rush's skill and heroic conduct in his efforts to stay the ravages
+of the plague made him famous, not only in his own country, but
+throughout Europe, and during the latter part of his life he received
+most gratifying evidences of this fact. In 1805 the King of Prussia sent
+him a coronation medal, and the King of Spain tendered him his thanks
+for his replies to certain questions addressed to him concerning the
+causes and proper treatment of yellow fever. In 1807 the Queen of
+Etruria presented him with a gold medal as a mark of respect; and in
+1811 the Emperor of Russia sent him a testimonial of his admiration of
+his medical character.
+
+In 1799 he was made treasurer of the United States Mint, which position
+he held until his death.
+
+Dr. Rush's writings were voluminous, and embraced a variety of subjects.
+His medical productions occupy a high place in the literature of the
+profession, and his political essays were one of the features of his
+day. He was a man of profound learning, and it is astonishing that one
+so constantly occupied with the duties of an engrossing profession
+should have found the time for such close and thorough general reading.
+
+He was a sincere and earnest Christian, and held the Bible in the
+highest veneration. He wrote an able defense of the use of it as a
+school-book, and for many years was vice-president of the Philadelphia
+Bible Society, which he helped to establish, and the constitution of
+which he drafted. He held skepticism and atheism in the deepest
+abhorrence, and in his own life affords a powerful refutation of the
+assertion one hears so often, that profound medical knowledge is apt to
+make men infidels.
+
+He died in Philadelphia on the 19th of April, 1813, at the good old age
+of sixty-eight, leaving a son who was destined to render additional
+luster to his name by achieving the highest distinction as a statesman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+VALENTINE MOTT.
+
+
+Valentine Mott was born at Glen Cove, on Long Island, on the 20th of
+August, 1785. His father, Dr. Henry Mott, was an eminent practitioner in
+the city of New York, where he died in 1840, at the age of eighty-three.
+Valentine Mott was carefully educated by private tutors until he reached
+the age of nineteen, when he entered Columbia College, New York, as a
+medical student, and at the same time became a private medical pupil of
+his kinsman, Dr. Valentine Seaman. At the age of twenty-one he graduated
+with the degree of M.D.; but feeling that he had not acquired as good a
+medical education as the schools of the Old World could afford, he
+sailed for Europe in 1806, within a few weeks after his graduation at
+Columbia College. Proceeding to London, he was for more than a year a
+regular attendant upon St. Thomas', Bartholomew's, and Guy's hospitals,
+where he conducted his clinical studies under the direction of
+Abernethy, Sir Charles Bell, and Sir Astley Cooper. He chose Sir Astley
+Cooper as his private instructor, and became one of his favorite pupils;
+and also attended the lectures of Currie and Haighton. From London he
+went to Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Hope, Playfair, and
+Gregory, as well as the prelections of Dugald Stewart. From Edinburgh
+he went to Paris, and completed his studies in the great hospitals of
+that city.
+
+He gave evidence at an early day of his great surgical abilities. He was
+indeed a born surgeon, possessing in a remarkable degree that peculiar
+adaptation to this branch of his profession, without which no amount of
+study can make a great operator. While a student in the Old World, he
+performed leading operations with a skill and natural readiness which
+astonished his instructors as much as they delighted them. He was
+possessed of a firmness and dexterity of hand, a calm, cool brain, a
+quick, unfailing eye, a calmness of nerve, a strength of will, and a
+physical endurance which were Nature's gifts to him, and which rendered
+him a great surgeon even before he had received his diploma. He did not
+trust to these natural gifts alone, however, but applied himself to the
+theory of his profession with a determination and eagerness which
+nothing could daunt. He was an enthusiast in his studies, and soon
+became known as the most profoundly-learned _young_ physician of his
+day. As he advanced in life, he maintained his reputation, keeping up
+his studies to the last. The great men under whom he studied abroad were
+delighted with him, and Sir Astley Cooper was loud in his praise. He
+exhibited so much skill as an operator that he was often called upon to
+perform operations which the professors would never have dreamed of
+intrusting to any one else, and he went through each trial of this kind
+with a readiness and precision which few even of his instructors
+excelled.
+
+His reputation was unusually flattering to one who had not yet entered
+upon the practice of his profession, and upon his return to the United
+States, in 1809, he was met with an offer of the chair of surgery in
+Columbia College, his _alma mater_. He promptly accepted the position,
+and held it until 1813, when the medical department of Columbia College
+was merged in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was at once
+called to the same chair in the new college, and occupied it until 1826.
+In that year he resigned his place in the faculty, in consequence of a
+misunderstanding between the professors and the trustees of the college
+on the principles of college government. Withdrawing entirely from the
+school, he united with Drs. Hosack, Mitchell, Francis, and several
+others, in founding the Rutgers Medical College. This college, after a
+short career of four years, was compelled by the Legislature to
+discontinue its operations, in consequence of an alleged invalidity in
+its charter.
+
+In 1830, Dr. Mott returned to the College of Physicians and Surgeons as
+Professor of Surgery, and in 1840 he became President of the Faculty and
+Professor of Surgery and Relative Anatomy in the new University Medical
+School. The science of Relative Anatomy is of the highest importance to
+the surgeon, and of this science Dr. Mott is generally regarded as the
+author. He held his position in the University for twenty years, and in
+1860, after a period of fifty years spent in the active duties of his
+professorship, retired from the immediate discharge of them, and was
+made Professor Emeritus, in which capacity he occasionally lectured to
+the classes during each of the remaining years of his life.
+
+As a professor and teacher of surgical science Dr. Mott won a brilliant
+reputation, and was considered one of the most thoroughly successful
+instructors in the Union. He had the power of winning the attention of
+his pupils at the opening of his lectures and of retaining it until the
+close. He made even the most difficult operations so clear and simple in
+his lectures that the dullest intellects could comprehend them; and his
+system of practical demonstration of his subjects was vastly superior
+to any thing that had ever been seen in America. He was the first to
+introduce into this country the system of delivering clinical lectures,
+or lectures at the bedside of the patient, whose ailments were operated
+upon during the course of his remarks. This system is naturally the most
+repugnant to the patient, but its advantages to the student are so great
+that they outweigh all other considerations. Other professors had shrunk
+from subjecting their patients to such an ordeal, but Dr. Mott had seen
+enough, during his attendance upon such lectures abroad, to satisfy him
+that it was the only method by which a thorough knowledge of the
+profession of surgery could be imparted, and immediately upon
+establishing himself in this country he introduced it. He met with
+opposition at first, but he gradually overcame it, and made the
+advantages of his system so apparent to all that at length the
+opposition entirely ceased.
+
+The greatest difficulty to which American medical schools have always
+been subject has been the almost utter impossibility of procuring dead
+bodies for dissection. It was this want that compelled Dr. Mott, as it
+has compelled so many others, to seek a practical education in Europe;
+and when he came back to the college as professor, he was met by the
+same drawback to thorough instruction. The law forbade the taking of
+dead bodies for dissection, under severe penalties. If a student was
+ever found in possession of a limb, he was liable to fine and
+imprisonment; and popular sentiment was so strong against the practice
+of dissection that those who engaged in it ran serious risk of incurring
+violence at the hands of the mob. Dr. Mott was often driven to desperate
+expedients in the procuring of subjects. He was fond of relating one of
+his adventures of this kind, which will show the reader how he was
+enabled to carry on his lectures.
+
+It was in the winter of 1815, and it had been found impossible to
+procure a supply of subjects for the season. They could not be obtained
+at any price, and it was evident that if any were to be had, the doctor
+and his pupils would have to take the matter in their own hands. There
+was a grave-yard just outside the city, in which a number of interments
+had recently been made, and the doctor resolved upon securing these
+bodies for his dissecting-room. It was a dangerous undertaking, as
+discovery would subject all engaged in it to the direst penalties of the
+law, if, indeed, they should be lucky enough to escape being lynched by
+the people. In spite of the dangers, however, the students volunteered
+to assist the doctor in the attempt, and at an appointed time proceeded
+to the cemetery, properly disguised, and began the removal of the bodies
+from the graves. The night was intensely dark, and the wind was high,
+both of which circumstances favored their undertaking, but every sound,
+every snapping of a twig or rustling of a leaf caused them to start with
+alarm and gaze anxiously into the darkness. It was near midnight when
+they had finished their task, and, this done, they waited in anxious
+silence for the arrival of the means of removing their prey. Their
+movements had been accurately timed, and they had scarcely completed
+their labors when a cart, driven by a man dressed in the rough clothing
+of a laborer, approached the cemetery at a rapid pace. Signals were
+exchanged between the driver and the students, and the latter fell to
+work to place the bodies, eleven in number, in the cart. Having
+accomplished this, they covered them over in such a manner as to make it
+appear that the cart was loaded with country produce, bound for the city
+markets. When every thing was properly arranged, the students
+disappeared in the darkness, each seeking the means by which he had come
+out from the city, and the driver, turning his cart about, drove off
+rapidly in the direction of New York. It was a long ride, and to an
+imaginative man, carrying eleven dead bodies that had been torn from
+their quiet graves through the darkness of that winter night would have
+been a terrible undertaking. But this man was not imaginative, and,
+besides this, he was keenly alive to the tremendous consequences of
+discovery. He knew that he was carrying his life in his hand, and that
+he needed all the coolness and decision of which he was master. Reaching
+the city long after midnight, he drove rapidly down Broadway and turned
+into Barclay Street. The lights of the college shone out brightly, and
+they had never seemed so welcome as then. The cart was driven rapidly to
+the college entrance, where the students were in readiness to receive
+it. In a few moments the bodies were removed from the cart and conveyed
+to the dissecting-room, and the cart turned over to its owner. The
+driver accompanied the students to the dissecting-room, and, throwing
+off his disguise, revealed the handsome but excited and eager
+countenance of Dr. Mott. He had shared the dangers to which his pupils
+had subjected themselves, and had even borne the part in the enterprise
+attended with the greatest risk. The affair had succeeded admirably, a
+winter's supply of "subjects" had been obtained, and after this the
+lectures went on without interruption.
+
+"A story is told of his readiness in the lecture-room. A mother brought
+into the amphitheater, one morning, an extremely dirty, sickly,
+miserable-looking child, for the purpose of having a tumor removed. He
+exhibited the tumor to the class, but informed the mother that he could
+not operate upon the child without the consent of her husband. One of
+the students, in his eagerness to examine the tumor, jumped over into
+the little inclosure designed for the operator and his patients. Dr.
+Mott, observing this intrusion, turned to the student and asked him,
+with the most innocent expression of countenance: 'Are you the father of
+this child?' Thunders of applause and laughter greeted this ingenious
+rebuke, during which the intruder returned to his place crestfallen."
+
+He was equally as successful in his private practice as in his labors in
+the medical school. His brilliant reputation preceded him in his return
+to his native country, and immediately upon opening his office in New
+York he entered upon a large and lucrative practice. His skill as a
+surgeon was in constant demand, and it is said that during his long
+career he tied the common carotid artery forty-six times, cut for stone
+one hundred and sixty-five times, and amputated nearly one thousand
+limbs. His old preceptor, Sir Astley Cooper, proud of the distinction
+won by his favorite pupil, said of him exultingly: "He has performed
+more of the great operations than any man living, or that ever did
+live."
+
+When he was but thirty-three years old (in 1818) he placed a ligature
+around the bracheo-cephalic trunk or arteria innominata, within two
+inches of the heart, for aneurism of the right subclavian artery. This
+was the first time this wonderful operation had ever been performed, and
+the skill and success with which he accomplished it stamped him as one
+of the brightest lights of his profession. "The patient survived the
+operation twenty-eight days, and thus demonstrated the feasibility of
+this hazardous and thus far unparalleled undertaking. He discovered in
+this case that, though all supply of blood to the blood-vessels of the
+right arm was apparently cut off, the circulation was kept up by the
+interosculating blood-vessels, the pulsation at the wrist maintained,
+and no evidence of loss of vitality or warmth manifested in the limb.
+The patient finally died from secondary hemorrhage."
+
+In 1828 he performed successfully the most difficult and dangerous
+operation known to surgery. A clergyman called upon him to remove an
+enormous tumor in the neck, in which were imbedded and twisted many of
+the great arteries. In this operation it became necessary to take out
+entire the right clavicle or collar bone, to lay bare the membrane which
+surrounds the lungs, to search for and dissect around the arteries which
+ran through the tumor, to make forty ligatures, and to remove an immense
+mass of diseased matter. This terrible operation had never been
+attempted before, and was performed by Dr. Mott without the aid of
+chloroform; yet it was done so skillfully that the patient survived it,
+and in 1865 was still living and discharging his ministerial duties. It
+was thirty years before it was attempted again in any part of the world.
+It was a great triumph of the genius of the operator, and won him
+praises from men of science in all countries.
+
+In 1821 "he performed the first operation for osteo-sarcoma of the lower
+jaw. In 1822 he introduced his original operation for immobility of the
+lower jaw. He was the first surgeon who removed the lower jaw for
+necrosis, and the first to tie successfully the primitive iliac artery
+for aneurism. Other of his original operations were cutting out two
+inches of the deep jugular vein, inseparably imbedded in a tumor, and
+tying both ends of the vein, and closing, with a fine ligature, wounds
+of large veins of a longitudinal or transverse kind, even where an
+olive-sliced piece had been cut out."
+
+It was invariably his practice before attempting an operation on a
+living subject to perform it on a dead body, and by the most minute and
+patient examination to render himself absolute master of the anatomy of
+the parts to be operated upon. He was a thoroughly conscientious man in
+the exercise of his profession, and was always on his guard to resist
+that greatest danger of the skillful surgeon--the temptation to use the
+knife needlessly. It was his practice to investigate his cases
+thoroughly, and never to use the knife unless his judgment was satisfied
+that an operation was necessary. "That he decided in favor of operating
+when some of his associates hesitated, was due rather to his large
+experience than to an overweening fondness for the use of the knife." In
+his operations he was firm and decided. Gifted with an unusual
+steadiness of nerve and strength of muscle, he never allowed his
+sympathy for the patient to cause him to hesitate or inflict one pang
+less than the case required. He was prompt and ready in the event of
+unforeseen complications, and never permitted any thing to take him by
+surprise. His manner toward his patients was tender and sympathizing to
+a remarkable degree, and his brother surgeons used to say of him, that
+he seemed to have the power of cutting with less pain to the patient
+than was possessed by most operators. During forty years of his practice
+anaesthetics were unknown, and he had to operate with the full
+consciousness that his patient was suffering the keenest agony. Besides
+attaining such an exalted position as a surgeon, Dr. Mott won an
+enviable reputation as a physician. His practice was confined almost
+entirely to the best class of the people of New York, and he was for
+many years the favorite accoucheur in a large circle of families in that
+city.
+
+He was an eminently progressive man. He fully recognized the advance of
+science with the growth of the world, and was always prompt to welcome
+any valuable discovery in medicine or surgery. He was among the first to
+adopt and advocate the use of anaesthetics, for no man had had more cause
+to understand the necessity of such assistants. He was himself the
+inventor of many valuable surgical instruments, but he gladly welcomed
+the introduction of others, even though they superseded his own in use.
+To the close of his life he was a diligent student, and watched the
+progress of his science with a keen and intelligent eye. He was the
+author of several works of merit, including a volume of travels, and the
+translator of "Velpau's Operative Surgery," to which he made extensive
+and valuable additions and annotations. He received numerous literary
+and scientific honors from colleges, universities, and learned bodies in
+the United States and Europe.
+
+In 1835 he visited Europe for the purpose of resting from his arduous
+labors, and spent several years in traveling extensively in England, on
+the continent, and in the East. His great achievements had made him as
+famous in the Old World as at home, and he was received wherever he went
+with great distinction. He was cordially welcomed by the most eminent
+surgeons of Paris, and Louis Philippe conceived a warm friendship for
+him. During his visit to Constantinople, he was called upon to attend
+professionally the reigning Sultan Abdul Medjid, who was suffering from
+a tumor in the head. Dr. Mott successfully removed this tumor, and was
+afterwards invested by the Sultan with the order of Knight of
+Medjidechi, of Constantinople.
+
+During his visit to Paris, a circumstance occurred which he related upon
+his return home, and which will serve to show the extremes to which
+professional skill and vanity will sometimes carry men. One of the most
+eminent surgeons in Paris asked him if he would like to see him perform
+his original operation. Dr. Mott replied that nothing would give him
+more pleasure. "Then you shall see it to-morrow," said the Frenchman.
+"But stay," he added, "now I think of it, there is no patient in the
+hospital who has that malady. No matter, my dear friend, there is a poor
+devil in ward No. ---- who is of no use to himself or any body else, and
+if you'll come to-morrow, I'll operate beautifully on him." Dr. Mott at
+once declined to attend the operation or to countenance in any way so
+horrible an outrage.
+
+In person Dr. Mott was a thorough gentleman of the old school. He was an
+exceedingly handsome man, and was possessed of an erect and
+well-developed figure. His hair was as white as snow, and his dress,
+which consisted of a simple suit of spotless black, with linen of
+matchless purity, was in the most perfect taste. He was grave and
+dignified in his deportment, and polished and courteous in every action.
+Even in his most difficult and trying operations the services of the
+assistants were always promptly acknowledged with scrupulous politeness.
+He was possessed of many friends, and was regarded with pride and
+veneration by his profession throughout the world.
+
+During the last winter of his life he had lectured once or twice at the
+Medical School, and had performed several operations of importance in
+his private practice. Although nearly eighty, he was still erect and
+vigorous, and was far from considering himself too old for his work.
+
+On the morning of the 15th of April, 1865, he sent for his barber, as
+was his custom, and submitted himself to the hands of the man who had
+been his attendant in this capacity for years. He was sitting in his
+dressing-room, and, being in fine spirits, began conversing with the
+barber, who, during the conversation, asked him if he had heard the
+terrible news of the day.
+
+"What is the news?" asked the doctor.
+
+"President Lincoln was killed last night at the theater in Washington,"
+was the reply.
+
+The doctor turned as pale as death, and, trembling violently, motioned
+the barber aside, and tottered into the chamber adjoining, in which his
+wife was dressing.
+
+"My dear," he gasped, scarcely able to speak, "I have received such a
+shock. President Lincoln has been murdered."
+
+[Illustration: "PRESIDENT LINCOLN HAS BEEN MURDERED!"]
+
+His agitation had now become so great that he could say no more. He sank
+down into a chair, pale and trembling, and so feeble that he could
+scarcely sit up. He was seized in a short time with acute pains in the
+back, and at the same time his vigor seemed to desert him entirely, and
+he became a weak and broken old man. He was obliged to seek his bed,
+from which he never rose. He grew feebler every day, and died on the
+26th of April, 1865.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT FORTUNES, AND HOW THEY WERE
+MADE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 15161.txt or 15161.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/1/6/15161
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+