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 CYCLOPEDIA 
 
 or 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
 
 \ CYCLOPAEDIA 
 
 OF 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS 
 
 ANECDOTES:^ 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 INTERESTING REMINISCENCES AND FACTS, 
 
 REMARKABLE TRAITS AND HUMORS, 
 
 MERCHANTS, TRADERS, BANKERS, MERCANTILE CELEBRITIES, MILLIONNAIRES, 
 BARGAIN MAKERS, ETC., ETC. 
 
 IN ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES. 
 
 DESIGNED TO EXHIBIT, BY 
 
 NEARLY THREE THOUSAND ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS, 
 
 THE 
 
 PIQUANCIES AND PLEASANTRIES OF TRADE, COMMERCE, AND GENERAL 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS. 
 
 ASTOR, 
 
 GIRARD, 
 
 McDONOGH, 
 
 BARING, 
 
 ROTHSCHILD, 
 
 BIDDLE, 
 
 TOURO, 
 
 LORILLARD, 
 
 OUVRARD, 
 
 LABOUCHERE, 
 
 LONGWORTH, 
 
 PERKINS, 
 
 BATES, 
 
 APPLETON, 
 
 BAYARD, 
 
 LEROY, 
 
 BARKER, 
 
 LAFTTTE, 
 
 STEWART, 
 
 RUSSELL, 
 
 LENOX, 
 
 COOPER, 
 
 SHAW, 
 
 STEIGLITZ, 
 
 HOWQUA, 
 
 GRESHAM, 
 
 LOWELL, 
 
 BUSSEY, 
 
 GOLDSCHMID, 
 
 PEABODY, 
 
 MORRIS, 
 
 VANDERBILT, 
 
 HOPE, 
 
 NOLTE, 
 
 RIGGS, 
 
 JEEJEEBHOY, 
 
 HOTTINGUER, 
 
 BROOKS, 
 
 GIDEON, 
 
 GRINNELL, 
 
 GRACIE, 
 
 RIDGWAY, 
 
 SLATER, 
 
 LEE, 
 
 COUTTS, 
 
 GRAY, 
 
 FRANCIS, 
 
 FUGGER, 
 
 BELMONT, 
 
 CHILD, 
 
 DEXTER, 
 
 TATTERSALL, 
 
 MORRISON, 
 
 HUDSON, 
 
 WHITNEY, 
 
 HOPPER, 
 
 DE MEDICI, 
 
 LAWRENCE, 
 
 STURGIS, 
 
 COPE, 
 
 ETC., ETC., ETC. 
 
 Long life to COMMEBCX ! What lives not through it t What is all fresh life, all movement, in reality, but trade, exchange, 
 gift for gift! BBKMEB. 
 
 Come, ANECDOTE I with all thy graces come, 
 Relieve the grave to mirth thy righto afford, 
 And crown the sparkling glass and hospitable board. COOKK. 
 
 I am persuaded that every time a man smiles but much more so when he laughs it adds something to this fragment of 
 life. STKBNK. 
 
 A dinner offragmentt 1* often said to be the best dinner." GUESSES AT TBUTH." 
 
 BY FRAZAR KIRKLAND. 
 
 EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIVE CUTS. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
 
 LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 1864.
 
 EXTEBED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE design and scope of this work will be found as clearly indi- 
 cated and as amply set forth on the Title page, as is requisite to the 
 most complete understanding of the plan which it involves and the 
 character of the matter embodied in its pages. As there stated, it is a 
 collection, original and selected, of the choicest, most striking and 
 recherche ANECDOTES relating to BUSINESS MEN and COMMERCIAL PUR- 
 SUITS, from the earliest trading transactions of which any record can be 
 found down to the present time. It is in no sense intended as a work 
 of biography, history, statistics, or collated facts, only so far as either 
 of these has been found associated, anecdotically, with some episode of 
 Business Character or Dealing, illustrative of the latter in their various 
 aspects of the gay, the ludicrous, the witty, the ingenious, the droll, 
 the original, the unique laughter-provoking, side-shaking, wonder- 
 exciting, &c. ; with such these pages abound. 
 
 The Anecdotes here given necessarily pertain both to persons and 
 things alike to the Celebrities of traffic in all ages and nations, and to 
 the multitudinous Objects which give to traffic its name and import. 
 Every country, as well as people, has here its personal representative 
 exhibiting, in all their kaleidoscopic lights and shades, the idiosyncra- 
 sies, customs, and animus peculiar to it, in bargain and sale ; every 
 clime its happy illustrations, in the productions native to it, or which 
 enter into its commercial exchange : the whole forming, as it were, a 
 sort of mental Pantechnicon, or Bazaar, where are to be seen deline- 
 ated, in endless variety, and as pictures hung upon a wall, the curiosi- 
 ties incident to the genius and craft of THE MART ! . 
 
 Perhaps no volume ever issued from the American press has fur- 
 nished, in a compendious form, so fruitful a display of the unique and 
 marvellous in human nature, on its commercial side, as this. Indeed, it 
 has the merit, whatever that may be, of being the first work of the 
 kind which has ever appeared, in this or any other country, devoted to 
 the Humorous phase of Trade and Traders. Collections of anecdotes 
 having reference to art, science, literature, morals, the drama, etc., 
 some of them possessing high merit, and attaining a wide circulation
 
 yi PREFACE. 
 
 have at different times been sent forth for public favor ; but not one, it 
 is believed, of all these, has ever touched, or but very slightly, the field 
 of pleasantries and piquancies here spread out to view. Our volume, 
 therefore, being thus sui generis, offers no opportunity of winning praise 
 by comparison, or of suffering from disparagement by contrast with any 
 other work of its kind. But, however the fact might be in this respect, 
 it would not stand in the way of an honest claim in behalf of the work, 
 of being as perfect in its character as the sources of material available 
 to that end would permit. No time has been spared, no means and 
 facilities left unimproved, no expense or labor withheld, to render these 
 pages tempting to every lover of pithy, pointed, sparkling, and mirth- 
 ful reading. 
 
 It is not too much to say, that the anecdotes, witticisms, and memo- 
 rabilia, which are here presented, of such monarch merchants as Astor, 
 Rothschild, Girard, Baring, Lafitte, Jacob Barker, De Medicis, Lorillard, 
 Howqua, Bates, Peabody, Lawrence, Hope, Touro, &c., &c., would 
 form, of themselves alone, one of the most delectable of volumes. But 
 these are only a few out of many scores of mercantile notabilities who 
 have flourished during the past, or are yet on the stage of action, and 
 of whom it is the object of this book to present the most lively and 
 pleasing incidents illustrative of their professional character, moods, 
 and dealings. And here it will not be impertinent briefly to observe, 
 that, as every undertaking must have its limits, so in the case of the 
 present work, it has been found a point of necessity to exercise a re- 
 straining hand, that the several divisions might not become too bulky 
 or diffuse. Arising from this consideration, there are some characters, 
 more or less noteworthy, whose names are not here to be met with, but 
 to which we would gladly have given place. It is believed, however, 
 that this omission rarely involves a name of extensive renown, but 
 applies rather to those whose fame, living or posthumous, is restricted 
 to particular localities or circles ; and, as almost every business com- 
 munity, large or small, is known thus to have its " representative men," 
 those of strongly marked individuality in their calling, it is apparent 
 that no task could be more impossible than to attempt to give, without 
 discrimination, the current reminiscences of such a multitude. 
 
 In the prosecution of our purpose, every important catalogue, both 
 American and foreign, has been carefully consulted, with a view to 
 examining whatever might promise aid to our efforts ; and not a single 
 library of note, in our largest cities, has been left unexplored for mate- 
 rial, in the way of biography, travels, adventure fresh, racy, and rele- 
 vant in the preparation of this work. Besides these invaluable means, 
 the best private sources within the circle of men of letters have been 
 resorted to, and the suggestions and assistance thus personally extended 
 have added greatly to the pleasantness of our task, as well as to the 
 value of its results.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 But the perplexities attending a nice discernment in the selection of 
 matter for this volume have by no means been slight. The first requi- 
 site, of course, in the qualities of an anecdote, is that of truth. Where 
 this is wanting, the narration, however agreeable or well told, falls off 
 at once ninety per cent, in its interest and import. It becomes a mere 
 fable, and should be thus entitled. The number of so-called " anec- 
 dotes " coming within this latter class, and which might have had their 
 nominal appropriateness in these pages, is very large ; they have been 
 rejected in every case where they could not stand a fair test of authen- 
 ticity. Many others, of the genuine cast, have been abridged or con- 
 densed; and others still have been revised or rewritten, so as more 
 nearly to conform to fact and reason, or that they might appear in a 
 more perspicuous dress to the reader. There is yet another class and 
 one which forms an exception to the observation just made with refer- 
 ence to credibility namely, the bristling fantasise of commercial satire, 
 burlesque, &c., which have been allowed a welcome place in almost 
 every department. These explain themselves, and may be said to con- 
 stitute one of the richest and most attractive features of the work. 
 
 It is believed that the general arrangement and classification of this 
 volume are scarcely susceptible of improvement. They are such as to 
 relieve the matter of all stiffness, formality, and tediousness, while they 
 at the same time open up, at the reader's will or fancy, and in pleasing 
 diversification, all the various spheres and phases of commerce, business 
 life, and its- individual appertainments. It is not claimed, however, that 
 there are no instances to be found, where portions of one department 
 might not as appropriately and perhaps more so have had a place 
 under some other specialty. The difficulties of perfect precision in this 
 respect, in such a work, are obvious, and were frequently felt in the 
 allotment of its contents. For any incongruities that may thus be 
 manifest, a lenient criticism is asked. 
 
 Our acknowledgments are due, and are here most gratefully ten- 
 dered, to those librarians in our principal cities who have so freely and 
 courteously opened the treasures of their alcoves to our use ; and also 
 to the many editors, authors, and merchants, who have not only encour- 
 aged us by their warm approval of our work, but have favored us with 
 their advice and friendly offices, and with the happy effusions of their 
 pens, with which to enliven our volume. 
 
 The magnificent collections of standard periodical literature, now to 
 be found complete in almost all our great libraries, and embracing full 
 sets of the Edinburgh, "Westminster, Gentleman's, Eraser's, Blackwood's, 
 Eclectic, Harleian, Jerrold's, Dublin, Punch, Notes and Queries, Cham- 
 bers', Household Words, The Leisure Hour, &c., these, in addition to 
 our American publications of similar character, furnish a vast and 
 bountiful storehouse, inviting and rewarding the research of the scholar. 
 All these have been made readily accessible to us ; and, though the
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 labor of painstakingly examining their contents has certainly been for- 
 midable, it has yet been richly remunerative for the purposes of this 
 volume. 
 
 The choice sippings of Punch will be relished by all who love to 
 drink at that fountain of mirth, satire, and facetiae ; and Mrs. Parting- 
 ton, that brusque old wit or witch will be found to grace, by her 
 weird presence, the same exhilarating category. The pages of the now 
 venerable, but always sprightly and inimitable Knickerbocker, have 
 been drawn upon for some of those " saws " whose teeth always have 
 a point ; and the " Drawer " of Harper's, that charming repository of 
 keen blades and fancies, has been approached like a bundle of golden 
 jack-straws, from which we might extract, here and there, a dainty 
 waif, without taking all. From the files of Hunt's and Homans' mag- 
 azines, we have culled not a few of the admirable morceaux of com- 
 mercial biography and the humors of mercantile genius, which give to 
 those serials so peculiar a value ; and the same observation is pertinent 
 to the more youthful Continental, especially the series of brilliant per- 
 sonal sketches from the facile pen of Mr. Frothingham. Of the 
 writings of Mr. Richard B. Kimball and "Walter Barrett," from 
 which we have taken an occasional anecdote or vivacious passage, it 
 may truly be remarked that those authors have succeeded in imparting 
 the delight of romance to the counting-house themes which they have 
 made their specialty ; and the great popular favor which their works 
 have received, evinces the widespread taste for the pleasantries of com- 
 mercial literature, under the inspiration of a genial hand. 
 
 Having wrought, to the best of our ability, in the field from which 
 this CYCLOPEDIA OF ANECDOTES has been garnered, it is sent forth with 
 the consciousness that, whatever defects or deficiencies may be discover- 
 able, it has at least been the aim of the editor, from the inception of 
 the volume to its completion, to spare neither time, labor, nor cost, in 
 rendering it as rich and perfect of its kind as seemed humanly possible.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Every class of readers requires a book adapted to itself." 
 
 IT is generally admitted by those qualified to speak authoritatively in such 
 matters, that the term ANECDOTE may be used to designate collections, either 
 of the recorded acts of noted individuals, of remarks made by them, or of 
 extracts from their private writings as well as their published works ; or gen- 
 erally, of particulars respecting them and their calling detached incidents, 
 narratives, and experiences ; personal tastes, traits, and habits ; eccentricities, 
 witticisms, &c., &c. It is thus, in its most enlarged and comprehensive sense, 
 that the word is employed in this volume, and applied distinctively to those 
 engaged in BUSINESS PURSUITS. 
 
 That the ancients were given to the wit and raillery conveyed through anec- 
 dotes, may reasonably be supposed from the fact that no less a person than 
 Julius Csesar compiled a book in which he related the ton-mots of Cicero ; and 
 Quintilian informs us, that a freedman of that celebrated wit and orator com- 
 posed three books of a work entitled De Jocis Ciceronis; and Gellius has 
 filled his Noctes Atticse with anecdotes which he heard from those distin- 
 guished characters whose society he frequented in Rome. Procopius gave the 
 title of Anecdotes to a book he published against Justinian and his wife 
 Theodora ; and other similar collections of incidents in the lives of eminent 
 men have been published. Muratori gives the title, Aneedota Greca, to several 
 writings of the Greek Fathers found in the libraries, and first given to the 
 world by him. Martene and Durand have given a Thesaurus Novus Anecdoto- 
 rum. Becker, Bachmann, Heinbach, and others, have made collections, and 
 called them Aneedota. The Orientalists, more than others, were particularly 
 fond of these agreeable collections; and the fanciful titles with which they 
 labelled their variegated miscellanies, sufficiently attest their delight. 
 
 The first eminent person of modern times, whose jests and opinions have in 
 this way been transmitted to posterity, is Poggio Bracciolini, who was secretary 
 to five successive popes. He and his friends were accustomed to assemble in a 
 hall to discuss the news and scandal of the day, and at these meetings they 
 communicated to each other entertaining anecdotes. The pointed jests and 
 humorous stories which occurred in these unrestrained conversations were 
 collected by Poggio, and formed the chief materials of his Facetiae, printed 
 in 1470. 
 
 One of the most curious of such collections is considered to be the Wai-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 poliana, founded upon the life and sayings of Horace Walpole, who was distin- 
 guished for his resources of anecdote, wit, and telling remark, as well as for his 
 epistolary qualifications. The most celebrated of the French collections of 
 anecdotes is the Menagiana the best known, the fullest, and most valuable. 
 Other works of this kind that may here be named are the Conversations of 
 Luther, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Selden's, Johnson's, and Cowper's Table 
 Talk, the Percy and Arvine collections, &c., &c. 
 
 It would be a tedious as well as profitless task, however, to go over the 
 dusty past, with a view to describing the character, or discussing the merits, 
 of the various works of this kind which have appeared at different times and 
 in different countries. It will suffice our immediate purpose to say, that, among 
 them all, no volume of anecdotes, wit, and amusement, relating to the votaries 
 of Trade and Commerce, as such, is numbered, notwithstanding the universality 
 of those occupations, and the vast numerical preponderance of those engaged 
 in them. 
 
 The present volume, then, may be said to be the first in the pleasing domain 
 of Commercial Incident, Novelty, and Humor. And if it be true, as has by 
 some one been remarked, that there is no species of composition so delightful as 
 that which presents us with personal anecdotes of men notable in their peculiar 
 calling illustrating the genius of their adaptation to and success in such call- 
 ing, as well as their domestic traits, and peculiarities of temper then a claim 
 for no small credit may with justice be put forth in behalf of the present work, 
 the abundant pages of which are stored with the rarest, the best, and most 
 striking of such memorabilia. They will be found to be a " salad " alike for 
 the " solitary " and the " sociable " entertaining, from their variety, and curi- 
 ous, as presenting a lively image of those whom they thus portray, in their most 
 interesting relations and doings. If men reason more correctly on paper, they 
 usually display their feelings and convictions with more truth in that unpre- 
 meditated conversation, and in those natural outgushings of wit, which they 
 give play to in the familiar haunts of business, and under the free-and-easy 
 influence of home surroundings. Few are so cautious or artificial that they do 
 not sometimes drop the mask in the society of their friends, and express just 
 what they think or feel, when they entertain no apprehensions of being watched 
 and noted. In many instances, however, anecdotes are to be regarded rather as 
 affording an idea of the casual turn of thinking and acting, of those whose 
 conversations they detail, or whose deeds they record, than as authorities for 
 settled opinions. Thus, a spirit of contradiction, a wish to display ingenuity, 
 to astonish, or merely to support conversation, may often lead men to maintain 
 ideas in colloquial intercourse, which they perhaps never seriously held, or at 
 least would be ready to disclaim on mature deliberation. 
 
 It being the nature of anecdotes to involve or exemplify more or less of Wit, 
 it is well for those who use or listen to them to bear in mind that such an ele- 
 ment is rarely calculated to have any influence on reasoning, other than to dis- 
 turb it. To determine, however, the precise character, or to give a definite 
 meaning, to the term wit, is indeed difficult. According to one, both fancy and 
 judgment are comprehended under that name ; but this idea is far from being 
 the one generally adopted, and the word has perhaps passed through more sig- 
 nifications, than any other in the English language. At one time, it used 
 to denote a superior degree of understanding, and more particularly a quick 
 and brilliant reason; but it came subsequently to be regarded as consisting
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 in lively and ingenious combinations of thought; and was afterward very 
 neatly described to be such an assemblage of ideas as will give delight and 
 surprise; and from this it has ultimately come to be regarded as ludicrous 
 surprise. 
 
 But, in addition to the pleasure to be derived from anecdotes on account of 
 the wit which may characterize them, and which carries with the recital both 
 relish and stimulus, there is also the very active element of Curiosity, in the con- 
 stitution of the human mind, and which craves and welcomes every opportunity 
 of gratification. This feeling of curiosity oftentimes rises to eagerness and 
 enthusiasm. There is an anxiety to know all that is possible to be learned of 
 those who have occupied a prominent position in their sphere of life. It is 
 not, merely, that every circumstance derives value from the person to whom it 
 relates ; but an apparently insignificant anecdote often throws an entirely new 
 light on the character of a man's actions. Great deeds, though they shed a 
 broad and lasting lustre round the reputation of those who have achieved them, 
 yet occupy but a small part of the life of any individual ; and mankind are 
 never unwilling to penetrate through this bright halo surrounding one or more 
 illustrious deeds, to see how the interior or remaining intervals are filled up ; in 
 a word, to look into the every-day details, to detect incidental foibles, and to 
 ascertain what qualities such persons have, or had, in common with the great 
 mass of men, as well as distinct from them. 
 
 D'Israeli very philosophically remarks, that " every class of readers requires 
 a book adapted to itself." It was in this conviction that the book now offered 
 to that numerous and influential portion of every community the Business 
 class had its origin ; fortified by the well-known fact, that anecdote forms an 
 element of positive force and profitable effect in the transactions of the count- 
 ingroom and shop as much so, perhaps, as in any other profession. And why 
 should it not be so ? An anecdote in point, occurring to a man of business, 
 when he is plying the arts of trade, whether as buyer or seller, will naturally 
 give spur to his thoughts, and perhaps be the means of balancing things in his 
 favor, when all other expedients and every other recourse would have proved 
 unavailing. This is a principle as rational as truth itself, and the value of 
 which will be found most amply unfolded in the contents of this volume. 
 
 That all pleasantries ought to be short, has long since passed into an axiom. 
 Due regard has been paid to this sentiment, in the preparation of these pages. 
 Nor has it been any part of the purpose of this volume, to make it a mere lum- 
 ber room of the relics and dotage of far-back ages a few things good and fresh 
 mixed up with many stale and inferior wares. A special characteristic, too, of 
 mercantile or business men, is that of action of ready doing, rather than loqua- 
 cious talking ; a quality of which Rothschild, of the Old World, and Girard, 
 of the New, may be cited as memorable examples. Anecdotes are brief, or 
 should be all over in a short time ; and, if they hit the mark, the object is 
 gained. This collection treats of the business classes on a similar plan : their 
 acts, sayings, achievements, fortunes, customs ; shop talk and " conversations 
 commercial ; " curious annals and interesting data in all the departments of 
 trade ; all the turnings and windings of mercantile life ; apt maxims, ingenious 
 or philosophical thoughts ; testimonies and examples of virtues, of vices, and 
 of abuses, in all their ramifications ; types, pictures, and images ; signs, shows, 
 and wonders ; all things, in short, that have either wit, or humor, or sparkling 
 ideas in them, or a more original or novel spirit than ordinary, here enter as
 
 Xll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ingredients, and are interwoven in pleasing variety a distillation of whatever 
 is pointed or pungent the milledulcia extracted from the choicest and innu- 
 merable sources. 
 
 The opening department of this volume that which presents Business 
 Celebrities in their more distinctively biographical aspect forms one of the 
 most interesting of the series. It is the vestibule, or porch, as it were, to the 
 rest ; and the endeavor has been to arrange it with that care and completeness 
 which should distinguish matter of such a character. To render biography 
 generally attractive, it is indispensable that its basis should be that of truth. 
 Without this, it necessarily wants the great superiority of the narrative of real 
 events over that of mere fictitious creations ; viz., that of recording what has 
 actually occurred in real life. How important an element this is in awakening 
 the sympathies, may be seen in children, who, when particularly fascinated by 
 any story they are told, almost invariably end by asking, " But is it all true ? " 
 The fact, also, that biography deals with personal characters, admits of its 
 expansion into many topics, both interesting and amusing. As the delineation 
 of character is its object, and the events of individual life its principal subject, 
 it not only admits of, but requires a thousand incidents and descriptions, which 
 are essential to a right understanding of the characters portrayed. Such details 
 enable the reader to clothe the characters in which he is interested in the actual 
 habiliments in which they were arrayed ; they bring before one's eyes the busi- 
 ness occupations and resorts, the dwellings, the firesides, the traits of domestic 
 association, and other data, which go to make up the warp and woof of life. 
 
 Nor is it less instructive than pleasant, to be, as it were, introduced thus 
 familiarly to the companionship of men who have been or are distinguished in 
 the sphere occupied by them. If they be men of sterling and intrepid quali- 
 ties, it is a privilege to be made acquainted with the motives of their actions, to 
 follow them from their starting point, to mark the difficulties and opposition 
 they encountered in their struggle for advancement the energy and skill by 
 which they were overcome, and the courage that animated them to persevere in 
 their efforts. By their failures, also, warning is obtained of the various quick- 
 sands and dangers that beset the path of commercial life. 
 
 Thus considered, the lives of noted business men supply abundant and 
 striking material for the pen of the writer. It is true, that only here and there 
 does such a life present itself among that class so full of versatile and remark- 
 able experience as to afford substance for an elaborate and formal biography. 
 Such as the latter have sometimes been written, exhibiting a most frugal pro- 
 portion of kernel to shell mere rivulets of fact in meadows of verbiage, and 
 bringing positive discredit both upon the author and his subject. But, not- 
 withstanding this, there are very many characters which afford, respectively, 
 some trait, habit', or individuality, capable, when presented in a lively manner, 
 of furnishing entertainment and profit in the highest degree ; as the numberless 
 specimens here spread out before the reader will attest. 
 
 It may safely be asserted, that no character of fiction, made ever so dazzling 
 by the imagery of the novelist, presents to the mind such marvels as may be 
 found in the solid realities of experience pertaining to an Astor, a Rothschild, 
 a Lawrence, a McDonough, a De Medicis, a Girard, and their compeers, the 
 chronicles of whose great and unfaltering career loom up so conspicuously in 
 these pages. Nor is the mind less startled at the history of the magnificent suc- 
 cess of a Morris, a Law, a Lafitte, a Goldschmid, a Fordyce, a Hudson, and
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 others, and their subsequent downfall and ruin. Not only are such narratives 
 adapted to intellectually impress to captivate, to excite, to confound, to arouse 
 to wonderment, to amuse but they may be made subservient to positive profit ; 
 in business parlance, they may " be made to pay ! " An aquaintance with the 
 ways and means which have characterized the career of successful business men 
 their apt sayings, or more apt silence ; their penetration of human character, 
 and art of imperceptibly influencing its sensibilities and moods to their own ends; 
 their genial sallies and happy repartees; their shrewd plans, skilful combina- 
 tions, ingenious finesse, and general modus op&randi of " turning a trade ;" such 
 an acquaintance cannot but be a capital desideratum to all who move in a kin- 
 dred path. 
 
 The plan which has been adopted of dividing the contents of this work 
 into different sections, each devoted to a particular specialty, is one which will 
 enable the reader to strike easily at every salient point in the anecdotical field 
 of commerce and commercial character thus spread before him. Of the bear- 
 ings of the first department, we have already spoken ; the others admit, sev- 
 erally, of similar explanatory detail with respect to their prescribed object and 
 the illustrations afforded by their contents. But, not to attempt to specifically 
 portray or analyze the features of each department by itself, into which this 
 volume is divided the fascinating data which open up in the memorials cf 
 world-renowned merchants, bankers, and millionnaires the arts and humors of 
 money dealing the captivating examples of success based on the practice of 
 the more rigid qualities the low craft and bold criminalities both of ancient 
 and modern traffic the whims and ingenuities of business phraseology the 
 unique thoughts and things pertaining to commercial transit the curious phe- 
 nomena of trade and merchandise in their legal bearings the exhibition of the 
 private or domestic side of mercantile characters the novelties and erratic expe- 
 dients characteristic of bargain makers in different countries the vagaries 
 and hazards of insurance the incidents of clerk life, shop experience, &c., to- 
 gether with the variegated jottings of trade and its votaries, as related to " the 
 rest of mankind ; " without attempting to depict the results, or point out the 
 peculiar entertainment presented by each one of these, separately, it may be 
 remarked, in conclusion, that perhaps the portion of this volume which ex- 
 hibits the phenomena of commercial dealings in their most extraordinary de- 
 velopments, is comprised in the recital of the manias, bubbles, panics, and 
 delusions, which have from time to time swept the business world like a tor- 
 nado, carrying before it the verdant like chaff, and ultimately the most sagacious 
 and wary. 
 
 Now that those delusions are past, it is difficult to conceive how mercantile 
 men could be led to entertain such visionary expectations, and to pay immense 
 premiums in distant and hazardous undertakings, of which they knew little or 
 nothing. A blind ardor seemed to take possession of 'men's minds; every 
 rumor of a new project was taken at once as the presage of sudden and inex- 
 haustible wealth. People supposed they were forthwith to lay their hands on 
 treasure that waited simply their bidding. The rise, in many cases, exceeded 
 cent, per cent. Many who were most eager in pursuit of shares, intended only 
 to hold them for a few hours, days, or weeks, and then profit from the advance 
 which they anticipated would take place, by selling them to others more credu- 
 lous or bold than themselves. The confidence of one set of speculators con- 
 firmed that of others. Meanwhile, the indiscriminating rapacity of the public
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was fed by every conceivable art. Madness ruled the hour. The poor and the 
 rich rushed wildly to invest their all ; and even mendicants rolled proudly, for 
 a while, in fictitious wealth ! But, as in all such cases since the world was, the 
 shadows of doubt began, in time, ominously to cast themselves athwart this 
 bright picture, and soon deepened into the dark and lurid clouds of stern real- 
 ity. People turned ashy pale. Consternation took the place of confidence, and 
 Panic spread out her spectral wings. Thus, one by one these airy bubbles ex- 
 ploded, leaving the wail of desolation, of gaunt despair, and of ghastly suicide, 
 in their fatal train. The pen of the romancer, in its most unrestrained flights, 
 would fail to equal, in startling wonders, the chronicles of commercial tragedy 
 which have their appropriate department in this volume.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND REMARKABLE REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY CA- 
 REER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES IN ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES. 
 
 ASTOR, ROTHSCHILD, OUVRARD, BATES, BARKER, TOCRO, McDoNOGH, HOWQUA, GOLD- 
 
 SCHMID, HOPE, HOTTINGUER, CotJTTS, MORRISON, DE MEDICIS, GlRARD, BlDDLE, 
 
 LABOUCHERE, LAFITTE, APPLETON, COOPER, GRESHAM, PEABODY, NOLTE, GRAY, 
 VANDERBILT, BEATTY, LAWRENCE, LOWELL, WHITNEY, GIDEON, BARING, MORRIS, 
 LORILLARD, STEIGLITZ, PERKINS, JEEJEEBHOY, BROOKS, LONGWORTH, ETC., ETC., ETC. 
 
 Appleton, Nathan, merchant, of Boston . . 32 
 Appleton, Samuel, merchant, of Boston.. 48 
 Appleton, William, merchant, of Boston 33 
 Astor, John Jacob, merchant, of New 
 
 York 47 
 
 Astor, William B., millionnaire, of New 
 
 York 39 
 
 Barings (The), bankers, of London 27 
 
 Barker, Jacob, merchant, of New Orleans 43 
 Barnum, P. T., " the Prince of Showmen," 
 
 of New York 29 
 
 Bates, Joshua, of the house of Barings, 
 
 London 21 
 
 Beatty, James, merchant, of Baltimore. . . 28 
 Biddle, Nicholas, financier, of Philadel- 
 phia 26 
 
 Brooks, Peter C., millionnaire, of Boston 49 
 Bruck, M., Austria's great merchant 
 
 banker 7 
 
 Bussey, Benjamin, merchant, of Boston . . 15 
 Callaghan, Daniel, the Irish mercantile 
 
 celebrity 9 
 
 Child, Francis, founder of English bank- 
 ing houses 14 
 
 Coeur, Jacques, French merchant in the 
 
 Middle Ages 87 
 
 Cooper, Peter, merchant, of New York. . . 16 
 Cope, Thomas P., merchant, of Philadel- 
 phia. 53 
 
 Corning, Erastus, merchant, of New York 51 
 
 Coutts, English banker 3 
 
 B 
 
 Dadabhoy Jeejeebhoy, Parsee banker and 
 
 merchant 41 
 
 De Buirette, the illustrious German mer- 
 chant 28 
 
 " Denison , Old Mr. ," of St. Mary Axe. ... 46 
 Dexter, Lord Timothy, eccentric mer- 
 chant, of Newburyport 20 
 
 Fish, Preserved, merchant, of New York 10 
 
 Forbes, William, Scotch banker 6 
 
 Fordyce, Alexander, the Shark of the Ex- 
 change 44 
 
 Fugger, Johannes, and the great commer- 
 cial family of Fuggers 15 
 
 Garrison, C. K., merchant, of San Fran- 
 cisco 40 
 
 Gideon, Sampson, the rival of Rothschild 18 
 Girard, Stephen, merchant and banker, 
 
 of Philadelphia 29 
 
 Goldschmid, Abraham and Benjamin, old 
 
 English bankers 38 
 
 Goodhue, Jonathan, merchant, of New 
 
 York 50 
 
 Gracie, Archibald, merchant, of New York 52 
 " Gray, Old Billy," merchant, of Boston . . 35 
 Gresbam, Thomas, royal merchant and 
 
 financier, of London 26 
 
 Haase, Henry Engelbert, banker, of Bre- 
 men 9 
 
 Herodotus, a merchant 41 
 
 Hogg, William, Pennsylvania millionnaire 41 
 Hope, Henry, banker, of Amsterdam .... 13
 
 XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Howqua, senior Hong merchant 2 
 
 Jeejeebhoy, Jamsetjee, great Parsee mer- 
 chant 19 
 
 Khan, the celebrated Persian merchant. . 18 
 Labouchere, P. C., the youthful prince 
 
 merchant 2 
 
 Lafitte, Jacques, French banker 8 
 
 Lawrence, Abbott, merchant, of Boston. . 42 
 
 Lawrence, Amos, merchant, of Boston. . . 11 
 Lawrence, Cornelius W., merchant, of 
 
 New York 12 
 
 Leavitt, David, merchant, of New York. . 11 
 
 Lenox, James, merchant, of New York.. 11 
 
 Little, Jacob, " of Wall Street " 22 
 
 Lloyd, Jones, banker, of London 8 
 
 Longworth, Nicholas, millionnaire, of 
 
 Cincinnati 45 
 
 Lopez, Judah M., speculator in annuities 88 
 
 Lorillard, the New York tobacconist.... 46 
 
 Lowell, Francis C., merchant, of Boston 14 
 McDonogh, John, millionnaire, of New 
 
 Orleans 17 
 
 Medicis, Lorenzo de, "the magnificent 
 
 merchant," of Florence 12 
 
 Morgan, Edwin D., merchant, of New 
 
 York 31 
 
 Morris, Robert, financier, of Philadelphia 1 
 
 Morrison, James, "of Twenty Millions" 21 
 
 Nolte, Vincent, the wandering merchant 19 
 "Old Billy Gray," merchant, of Bos- 
 ton 35 
 
 Ouvrard, G. J., "the Napoleon of finance " 52 
 Overend, John, pioneer bill broker, of 
 
 London 46 
 
 Peabody, George, merchant and banker, 
 
 of London 16 
 
 Perit, Pelatiab, merchant, of New York. . 37 
 
 Perkins, Thomas H., merchant, of Boston 50 
 
 Ricardo, David, English financier 33 
 
 Ridgway, Jacob, merchant, of Philadel- 
 phia 37, 54 
 
 Rothschilds (The), wealthiest bankers in 
 
 the world 23 
 
 Solomon, the merchant sovereign 7 
 
 "Spencer, Rich," merchant and banker, 
 
 of London 35 
 
 Steiglitz, richest of Russian merchants. . 7 
 Stewart, Alexander T., merchant, of New 
 
 York 30 
 
 Sturgis, William, merchant, of Boston.. 473 
 
 Tattersall, the London auctioneer 4 
 
 Touro, Judah, merchant, of New Orleans 34 
 Whitney, Stephen, merchant, of New 
 
 York .. 14 
 
 Wood, James, the Gloucester million- 
 naire 3 
 
 PAKT II. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY 
 
 RELATIONS. 
 
 BANES, BANKERS, BROKERS, SPECIE, NOTES, LOANS, EXCHANGE, DRAFTS, CHECKS, PUBLIC 
 SECURITIES, AND CURRENCY IN ALL ITS FORMS AND PHASES ; WITH JOTTINGS OP THE 
 MOST CELEBRATED MILLIONNAIRES AND MONEY DEALERS THEIR BUSINESS MODES AND 
 CHARACTERISTICS, MAXIMS, COLLOQIUES, WIT, ECCENTRICITIES AND FINESSE. 
 
 " Accommodation " offered at the Bank. . 119 
 Addison's Opinion of the Royal Exchange 
 
 and its Frequenters 112 
 
 Albert Gallatin declining Mr. Baring's 
 
 Offer of a Fortune 115 
 
 An Excited Specie Hunter 97 
 
 Another Bank Project 72 
 
 Application for a Discount, by Astor 102 
 
 Aster's " Secret Pain " 88 
 
 Atchafalaya Currency by the Cord 75 
 
 Avoiding Specie Suspension 74 
 
 Bank Parlor in the Winter 74 
 
 Bank Teller's " Varieties " 92 
 
 Bankers of the Old School ... .76 
 
 Bankers Snubbing Napoleon 87 
 
 Banking Habits of Girard 66 
 
 Banks Failing 84 
 
 Banks of Ease 108 
 
 Barnard, the Proud Broker 114 
 
 Bewitching a Bank Teller 114 
 
 " Borrow Money ! Borrow Money ! " 90 
 
 Bound not to Break 86 
 
 Brief Explanation of Banking 83 
 
 Burning a Banker's Notes 76 
 
 Business Aspect and Conduct of the 
 
 Richest Banker in the World 71 
 
 California Gold, Seventy Years Ago 73 
 
 Capital of European Bankers 81
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 xvil 
 
 Cashier Inviting a Run upon his Bank. . . 77 
 
 Coin used by Judas 100 
 
 Colloquies inside the Bank 106 
 
 Conducting Business on the Paris Bourse 95 
 
 " Confidence " in Hard Times 62 
 
 Counting-House Dinners 69 
 
 Croesus, vast Wealth of 91 
 
 Curious Reason for Borrowing Money... 74 
 
 Detecting Bad Bills 96 
 
 Determining the Genuineness of a Check 96 
 Disadvantage of being a Bank Director. . 107 
 
 Discounting an Hibernian's Note Ill 
 
 Disinterested Brokers 68 
 
 Drawing the Specie 59 
 
 Dudley North's Opposition to Brokerage 81 
 
 Endorser's Qualification 110 
 
 Establishment of the Bank of England 
 
 Curious Facts 85 
 
 Final Argument at a Bank Counter 80 
 
 Financial Physic 82 
 
 First Jewish Bill of Exchange 80 
 
 First Run upon Bankers 116 
 
 Florentine Brokers and Money Loaners.. 94 
 Four Money-making Rules of Rothschild 115 
 
 Franklin's Multitude of Capitalists 98 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, declining Mr. Baring's 
 
 Offer of a Fortune 115 
 
 George Peabody's Colossal Fortune 72 
 
 Girard's great Government Loan 100 
 
 Glances behind the Bank Counter 61 
 
 Goldschmid and Baring's Unfortunate 
 
 Contract Suicide of the Former 61 
 
 Governor of the Bank of England taken by 
 
 Surprise 113 
 
 Greatest Lending House in Europe 105 
 
 Gresham's Scheme of Exchanges 115 
 
 History of the Old Red Cent 101 
 
 Immense Consignment of Gold to a New 
 
 York House 119 
 
 Intruding into the Bullion Room 99 
 
 Irish Banker Redeeming his Notes 93 
 
 Irishman at the Bank 108 
 
 Jacob Barker's Forty Kegs of Specie .... 79 
 Jacob Little and the Missing Bank Bill. . 83 
 Jacob Lorillard's Note of Accommodation 110 
 
 Jewish Money Lenders Ill 
 
 Jewish Perseverance and Shrewdness... 88 
 
 Juvenile Contempt of the Bank 108 
 
 Lafitte in a Tight Place 65 
 
 Largest Dealer in Commercial Paper in 
 
 the United States 90 
 
 Largest Private Check ever Drawn 105 
 
 Learning the Currency in a Small Way. . 66 
 
 Leather Money 80 
 
 Lives of Bank Notes 73 
 
 Logic of Specie Payments 68 
 
 London Bankers and Banking Houses .... 78 
 Lorillard paying a Bequest in Bank Stock 105 
 Losing a Bank Customer 110 
 
 Loss of Bank Notes 64 
 
 Lost Bank Note of Thirty Thousand 
 
 Pounds 103 
 
 M. Rothschild on the Secret of his Success 101 
 
 Manifolding Bank Notes 93 
 
 Merchants' Notes as Currency 103 
 
 Modes of conducting Operations, by Roths- 
 child 92 
 
 Model English Banker 90 
 
 Modern Bank Directors' Parlor 96 
 
 Money-changers in China 76 
 
 Money Street of New York 112 
 
 More Cunning than Rothschild Ill 
 
 Mr. Biddle's Wit 87 
 
 Neapolitan Cambiamoneta or Money- 
 changer. . - 104 
 
 New York Bankers and Western Court- 
 houses 83 
 
 Nicholas Biddle and the Mississippi Loan 61 
 
 Note Buyers 109 
 
 Novel Securities for Loans 70 
 
 Obtaining Security to be a Broker 78 
 
 Oldest Bill of Exchange in the World 106 
 
 Origin of Paper Money 101 
 
 Ouvrard, the Banker, and Napoleon 65 
 
 Pawning Money in Ireland 70 
 
 Paying Notes in Specie 79 
 
 Peculiar Management of the Bank of 
 
 Amsterdam 102 
 
 Peep at the Treasure in Threadneedle 
 
 Street 91 
 
 Peeresses conducting Banking Operations 89 
 
 Pennsylvania Bonds 120 
 
 Picayunes and Coppers 113 
 
 Proud Broker Barnard, The 114 
 
 Punch's Money Vagaries 66 
 
 Pursuit of Specie under Difficulties 63 
 
 Queen Anne saving the Government Bank 
 
 from Pillage 116 
 
 Raising Money on Manuscript 93 
 
 Rendering Bank Notes Serviceable 116 
 
 Renewing a Note 98 
 
 Ricardo's Three Golden Rules 101 
 
 Roman Money Lenders 68 
 
 Rothschild trying to Raise a Small Loan 100 
 
 Royal Runners and Brokers 107 
 
 Running a Bank 99 
 
 Russian Money Brokers 109 
 
 Scenes after Discount Day 104 
 
 Securing Trustworthy Bank Officers, and 
 
 the Safety of Capital 69 
 
 Security for a Discount 79 
 
 Sir Robert Peel's Opinion of his Son as a 
 
 Financier 89 
 
 Spanish Reals versus Spanish Bonds 84 
 
 Specie in the Brokers' Windows 64 
 
 Strongest Bank in the World 82 
 
 Supposititious Will of the Bank of Eng- 
 land Directors 117
 
 xvm 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Terrible Revenge on a Bank, by Roths- 
 child 95 
 
 The Great Bankers of the World together 
 
 in Rothschild's Parlor 60 
 
 " The Lady's Broker " 77 
 
 The United Job and Lazarus Bank 81 
 
 Throwing out Jacob Barker's Notes 84 
 
 Timely Hard-money Loan 67 
 
 Unexpected Balance at Coutts's Bank .... 106 
 
 Vast Wealth of Croesus 91 
 
 Vaults of the Bank of France 62 
 
 Voltaire's Dealings in Government Stocks 111 
 Weight of Miss Burdett Coutts's Fortune 87 
 Yankee Hoarding Specie 72 
 
 PAKT III. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS 
 
 QUALITIES. 
 
 INTEGRITY, ENTERPRISE, ENERGY, PERSEVERANCE, COURAGE, SHREWDNESS, PUNCTILIOUS- 
 NESS, PRUDENCE, AMBITION, GRATITUDE, BENEVOLENCE, GENEROSITY, ECONOMY ; WITH 
 PENCILLINGS OF STRIKING BUSINESS ADVENTURES, VICISSITUDES, EXPLOITS AND 
 ACHIEVEMENTS, BOTH SERIOUS AND COMICAL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Good Beginning Old Moses Roths- 
 child 184 
 
 A. T. Stewart's Success 145 
 
 Aged Merchant saved from Robbery by 
 
 the Weather 176 
 
 Agreement for a Loan 142 
 
 American Merchants of the Olden Time 
 
 Joseph Peabody 174 
 
 " An Error in Shipping the Goods " . . . . 170 
 Aptness and Nicety in Business Illustrated 170 
 Arab Honesty in Business Transactions. . 140 
 
 Astor's Early Prediction 144 
 
 Aztec Merchants 181 
 
 Benevolence of Goldschmid, the Old Jew 
 
 Broker 126 
 
 Benevolence of Sbai-king-qua, the Chinese 
 
 Merchant 172 
 
 Bone and Offal Millionnaire 161 
 
 Boston Merchant's opinion of Business 
 
 Men's Honesty 157 
 
 Boyhood Struggles of a Merchant, Gideon 
 
 Lee 125 
 
 Bruised but not Crushed : the Messrs. 
 
 Brown of Liverpool 167 
 
 Business Habits of A. T. Stewart 165 
 
 Business versus Disease 141 
 
 Celebrated Question in Commerce put by 
 
 Cicero 140 
 
 Chinese Merchant's Gratitude 169 
 
 Commencing in the Sub-cellar 135 
 
 Commencing with Three Tobacco Boxes 
 
 Jacob Barker 179 
 
 Commercial Fortune of a Peer 173 
 
 Confidence in Mercantile Success 144 
 
 Controversy among Wine Dealers 137 
 
 Cope's, Thomas P., Integrity 155 
 
 Correct Appreciation of Mercantile Cha- 
 racter, by Mr. Astor 186 
 
 Day and Martin, the Millionnaires of High 
 
 Holborn 147 
 
 Earliest American Whaleship in England 181 
 English Merchant and Spanish Beggar.. 176 
 Enterprise of Yankees and Russians 
 
 'Cutely Illustrated 161 
 
 Erastus B. Bigelow's Boyhood Bargain. . . 144 
 European and American Modes of doing 
 
 Business 171 
 
 Everything by turns : Girard's Example. . 136 
 
 Expectations against Results 138 
 
 Explaining his Business 181 
 
 Extension and Profits of Mr. Astor's Fur 
 
 Business 186 
 
 Father Taylor and the Banker's Exhorta- 
 tion 169 
 
 First Greek Adventure to America 153 
 
 First Penny gained by a Millionnaire .... 126 
 Five Years of Privation and a Fortune. . . 161 
 
 Foot's, Lundy " Blackguard Snuff" 135 
 
 Fortune of a Commercial Peer 173 
 
 Fortunes at a Single Blow 130 
 
 French Mercantile Independence 127 
 
 General Jackson's Interview with Samuel 
 
 Slater 145 
 
 Generosity of Chickering the Piano-Forte 
 
 Maker 159 
 
 Getting the Hang of Mercantile Transac- 
 tions 138 
 
 Gideon Lee carrying the Lapstone 171
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 Girard trying to raise Five Dollars 142 
 
 Good Word for Girard 176 
 
 Goodhue, Jonathan, Noble Mercantile 
 
 Trait of. 162 
 
 Great Deeds of European Merchants 134 
 
 Gresham's Fortunate Letter. 174 
 
 Half a Million Profit by One of Girard's 
 
 Operations ^ 
 
 Handful of Wool and a Bank of Money. . . 164 
 
 Hiding the Dollar with a Dime 158 
 
 Hinges upon which Trade swings 138 
 
 Honorable Distinction attained by Mr. 
 
 Perit 188 
 
 Hope and Co., Peremptory Refusal of, to 
 
 do Business with Girard 134 
 
 Hudson, George, Tale at a Dinner Party. 142 
 
 Indians' Mode of Judging a Trader 132 
 
 Jacob Barker's Success when a Youth.... 147 
 James G. King's Treatment of Resent- 
 ments 162 
 
 John Jacob Aster's " Highway to For- 
 tune" 171 
 
 Johnson's Prejudice against Merchants.. 165 
 
 Labouchere and Vincent Notte 151 
 
 Ladder of Commercial Success 157 
 
 Late at a Dinner Party : George Hudson 142 
 Lawrence, Abbott, not disposed to Lie.. 164 
 
 Lee and his Travelling Companion 125 
 
 Lending a Helping Hand : A. Lawrence.. 141 
 Liberality of Yakooleff, the Russian Mer- 
 chant 127 
 
 Little too Candid 137 
 
 Locking-up Foreign Merchants in Eng- 
 land 128 
 
 Making Conditions : King James and the 
 
 Corn Merchants. 123 
 
 McDonogh's Greatest Victory 162 
 
 Mercantile Character Comparatively Esti- 
 mated 131 
 
 Mercantile Defalcation Made Good after 
 
 Sixty Years 158 
 
 Merchant Patrons of Literature 130 
 
 Merchants and Legislators 133 
 
 Merchants getting to be Gentlemen 133 
 
 Merchants of the Golden Fleece 128 
 
 Minding One's Own Business 171 
 
 Mohammedan Mercantile Morality 135 
 
 Mohammedan's reason for Not Storing 
 
 Goods 131 
 
 Money Enough to Break o.n 131 
 
 Money-getting Tact of Jews 173 
 
 Monsieur Smith : Girard's Man 154 
 
 Mr. Everell and the Hindoo Merchant.. . . 180 
 
 Mr. Grinnell's Liberality 1 83 
 
 Murdered Merchant Watched by his Dog 176 
 Mutations of a Merchant's Life; the New 
 
 Orleans Sock-Seller. 129 
 
 Mysterious Benefactor Incident of the 
 South Sea Bubble .... , . 158 
 
 Napoleon and Byron on Trading 181 
 
 Noble Mercantile Trait of Jonathan Good- 
 hue 162 
 
 Not Ashamed of Work Astor's Diligence 133 
 Not disposed to Lie : Abbott Lawrence. . 164 
 
 Old Fashioned Shopkeepers 128 
 
 Opulent New York Merchants 133 
 
 Patriotic Merchants of the Revolution . . . 127 
 Patriotism and Prowess of French Mer- 
 chants 150 
 
 Peculiar Feature in Rothschild's Business 
 
 Character 173 
 
 Peremptory Refusal of Hope and Co. to 
 
 do Business with Girard 134 
 
 Perkins's, Thomas H., Deliberate Habits. 150 
 
 Perseverance badly rewarded 185 
 
 Persevering Traders. 170 
 
 Philadelphia Young Merchant, who was 
 
 not afraid of Girard 158 
 
 Polly Kenton's Lard Speculation 164 
 
 Portuguese Pilgrim in the Streets of 
 Venice proclaiming its Commercial 
 
 Doom 175 
 
 Present Prosperity of the Rothschilds. . . 180 
 Private Mercantile finances and Royal 
 
 Fleets 174 
 
 Privateering Exploit of a Salem Merchant 149 
 Quaker Merchant's Idea of Privateering. . 132 
 
 Queen Jane's Opinion of Merchants 125 
 
 Recovering a Wasted Fortune 130 
 
 Redeeming Lost Time 163 
 
 Remarkable Case of Conscience in a Busi- 
 ness Man 182 
 
 Restitution by a Shopkeeper 163 
 
 Retiring from Business Engaging to 
 
 Blow the Bellows 141 
 
 Reverses of Mercantile Fortune 168 
 
 Reynolds, the Charitable Quaker Merchant 127 
 
 Roman Idea of Merchants 154 
 
 Romance of Trade " Blackguard Snuff" 135 
 
 Roscoe, William, the Poet Banker. 169 
 
 Rothschild and Astor compared 151 
 
 Sabbath Experiences of a Shipmaster. ... 139 
 Scene in a Merchant's Counting Room after 
 
 the Peace of 1815 152 
 
 Search for a New Route to China 186 
 
 Second Thought on a Trade 155 
 
 Secrecy in Business Transactions prac- 
 tised by Rothschild 156 
 
 Shaking One's Business Credit 123 
 
 Sharing in a Good Operation 156 
 
 Shopkeepers and Warriors 175 
 
 Six Days for Business and One for Rest.. 157 
 
 Sole Qualification of a Bill Broker 173 
 
 Sources of Wealth of the Medici Family 
 
 of Merchants 
 
 Spanish Mercantile Dealings 163 
 
 Stewart's, A. T M Success 162 
 
 "Stick to Your Last" 187
 
 XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Strong Point in Mercantile Success: 
 
 Girard's Silence 153 
 
 Tempting Business Paragraph 161 
 
 The Banker's Seven-Shilling Piece 177 
 
 Thorburn's Flowery Path to Fortune.... 166 
 Thomas H. Perkins's Deliberate Habits.. 150 
 
 Thomas P. Cope's Integrity 155 
 
 Three Merchant Voyages and their Re- 
 sults 155 
 
 Too Close application to Business 141 
 
 Touro's Great Gift to a Beggar 159 
 
 Tudor, the Original Ice Merchant 153 
 
 Usurious Interest on Money : Peter C. 
 
 Brooks's Rule 172 
 
 Value of a Good Credit 132 
 
 " Walter Barrett's " Cotton Mission 148 
 
 Washington as a Business Man 179 
 
 Wealthy Men of Cincinnati 168 
 
 Whale Fishery Enterprise of Americans 160 
 What John McDonogh said to a Lawyer. 146 
 
 Who were the First Whalemen ? 129 
 
 William Roscoe, the Poet Banker. 169 
 
 Yankee Shrewdness Handsomely Illus- 
 trated... . 124 
 
 PAKT IV. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 THE RAREST INSTANCES OF INGENIOUS BUSINESS FRAUD, FORGERY, COUNTERFEITING, AND 
 SMUGGLING ; USURY, ARTIFICE, TRICKS, AND MALPRACTICE ; WITH EXAMPLES, EX- 
 TRAORDINARY AND AMUSING, OF AVARICE, COVETOUSNESS, PARSIMONY, EXTORTION, 
 PRIDE, RUDENESS, VIOLENCE AND EXTRAVAGANCE OF BUSINESS MEN. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "A Little More" 198 
 
 A Rustic bargaining for a Hat 262 
 
 Accomplished Canine Shoplifter 200 
 
 Artful Dodge 206 
 
 Attempt to overthrow Rothschild's Power 
 
 in the Money Market 250 
 
 Attention to Trivial Things by Girard. . . 243 
 Avarice of Osterwald, the French Banker 244 
 
 Bad Bank Bill 277 
 
 Bad Business 223 
 
 Bank Teller Filing his Gold Coin 260 
 
 Bargaining for a Jar 234 
 
 Bargains in Cochin-China 219 
 
 Bit of Yankee Financiering in Wall Street 266 
 
 Blinders for Stockholders 216 
 
 Bubble Prospectuses 281 
 
 Burns and the Drowning Merchant 272 
 
 Business Haggling in Scotland. 194 
 
 Business Suckers 212 
 
 Buying Cheap 211 
 
 Buying Wine by Sample 231 
 
 Characteristic Smuggling Ingenuity of 
 
 Parisians 226 
 
 Cheating the Oculist 212 
 
 City Merchant securing a Customer 241 
 
 Coal Dealer's Prediction Fulfilled Per- 
 haps 265 
 
 Colloquy between a Storekeeper and his 
 
 Customer 243 
 
 Commercial Croakers 248 
 
 Commercial Milk. .. .. 223 
 
 Connection between Small Bank Notes 
 
 and Crime 214 
 
 Consequence of a Simple Mercantile 
 
 Speculation 241 
 
 Cool Assurance of a Doomed Financier.. 249 
 
 " Cornering " among Brokers 247 
 
 Croesus and his Avaricious Guest 221 
 
 Custom House Swearing 249 
 
 Customs of the Store in Church 253 
 
 Dangers of Legitimate Business Transac- 
 tions 224 
 
 Deaconing Both Ends of the Barrel. 206 
 
 Deadhead Customer a Clincher 195 
 
 Deserved Reward of Blasphemy 265 
 
 Determined not to be Overreached 200 
 
 Determining the Character of an Article 
 
 by its Age 196 
 
 Discounting a Legacy 237 
 
 Disposing of an OldStock 233 
 
 Doing Things on Shares 271 
 
 " Doing " and " Shaving " Customers. . . 271 
 
 " Done for " Twice 238 
 
 Dry Goods Drummer "Sold" 204 
 
 Dummies, or Counterfeit Show Windows 269 
 
 Duplicity of French Speculators 227 
 
 Duplicity practised by Furnese, the King's 
 
 Banker 210 
 
 Dutchman illustrating a Mercantile Prin- 
 ciple 195 
 
 East India Company and the Missing Wit- 
 ness , . . 225
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Economical Hardware Merchant 242 
 
 Espionage Practised by Girard 297 
 
 Estimate of his own Life by a Miser 244 
 
 Exchanging a Cheese for a Pinch of 
 
 Snuff 261 
 
 Expedient of a Russian Miser 272 
 
 Extravagant Business Rhetoric 252 
 
 Fate of a Clerical Dealer in " Fancies " . . 233 
 
 Fauntleroy, the Executed Banker 255 
 
 Filibustering among Parisian Jewellers. . . 203 
 
 Financiering in Alabama 192 
 
 First Forged Note on a Bank 255 
 
 Fortune-making in Havana 212 
 
 French Nicety in Trade Frauds 233 
 
 French Usurers and Pigeons 275 
 
 Friend Hopper and the Due Bill 266 
 
 Game of the Money Packages 209 
 
 " Genuine " Wines 196 
 
 Government Contractors in Russia 259 
 
 Grocers' Raisin Boxes and Nibbling Cus- 
 tomers 206 
 
 Half Hour's Experience with London 
 
 Brokers 207 
 
 Hanging a Broker One Hundred Years 
 
 Ago 240 
 
 Hard Philosophy of an Annuity-Monger 274 
 
 Hardening Tendency of Business 224 
 
 " He's a Country Merchant Stick Him !" 230 
 High-heeled Boots with Watches in Them 232 
 
 His Ruling Passion 209 
 
 Hoarding and Amusing Noted Instances 253 
 
 Imitating Signatures 276 
 
 Ingenious Plot against a Banker 260 
 
 Ingenious Swindling of Pawnbrokers.. . . 199 
 
 Italian Knavery in Picture Selling 279 
 
 Italian Picture Dealer Trapping an Expe- 
 rienced Connoisseur 193 
 
 Jack's Bargain for Rope 199 
 
 Jacob Barker on " Shrewdness " in Stock 
 
 Dealing 214 
 
 James Holland's Financial Career 193 
 
 Jemmy Taylor, the Miser Broker, and the 
 
 Earl of Northumberland 200 
 
 Jew Losing a Bargain 243 
 
 Jewish Money Makers in the Holy City.. 253 
 
 Jewish Opinion of Rothschild 243 
 
 Keen Ruse by a Yankee Peddler 263 
 
 Kentucky Hams and Yankee Nutmegs. . . 217 
 King Charles in the Fawners' Clutches , . 210 
 Knavery of British and Chinese Traders 
 
 compared 246 
 
 Knowing his Customer 236 
 
 Latest " Sell" of the Day 218 
 
 Lodging a Banker in the Gutter 267 
 
 Looking Glass for Wall Street 239 
 
 Louis the Fifteenth's Opinion of his Own 
 
 Paper 240 
 
 M. Beautte and the Official Smuggler... 237 
 Making a Good Job of It 275 
 
 Making Change at Railroad Refreshment 
 
 Stands 278 
 
 "Merchant of Venice " Shylock's Com- 
 mercial Character Vindicated 222 
 
 Messrs. Moan and Groan of Cypress Row 220 
 Mode of Protecting the Money Drawer. . . 238 
 
 Morocco Pocketbook Men 225 
 
 Mr. Jones's Experience with Peter Funk 213 
 Muller, the Rich Merchant of Nuremberg : 
 
 Fictitious Theft 259 
 
 Mysteries of Tea Smuggling 229 
 
 " Newcsloth " 272 
 
 " No Great Judge of de Hemp " 201 
 
 Old Guy putting out the Light ; or, Mil- 
 lionnaires rating each others' Fru- 
 gality 286 
 
 Old-School Money Jobbers 274 
 
 OldVinter's Bank Bills 219 
 
 One Cent with Girard 273 
 
 One of the Operations in 'Change Alley. . 208 
 
 One Price, but not the Same Article 204 
 
 " P. D." 222 
 
 Parisian Female Smugglers 271 
 
 Philanthropy and Forty per Cent 232 
 
 Plan to Ruin the Ancient Firm of Child 
 
 and Co. by the Bank of England. . . . 280 
 Prayers Requested for a New Business 
 
 Undertaking 230 
 
 Prejudice against Yankee Clock Peddlers, 
 
 and how it was Overcome 277 
 
 Presents to Bank Officers : Curious Cases 254 
 
 Price of Extortion and Revenge 235 
 
 Purloining Speculator in the French 
 
 Funds 245 
 
 Quaker Banker and the Stolen Doubloons 240 
 Quaker Shipowner Economizing the Time 
 
 of his Men 198 
 
 Raising his Customer 245 
 
 Raising the Price of Bread 201 
 
 Resolving to be Rich 273 
 
 Restitution of Bank Notes 257 
 
 Results of a Career of Overreaching 262 
 
 Risks of the Currency 278 
 
 Rothschild and Lucas : Stratagem to Learn 
 
 the Former's Secrets 191 
 
 Royal Prize for Raising Money Raid 
 
 upon the Bankers 198 
 
 Saving the Pieces Girard and his 
 
 Brother 222 
 
 Selling a Bad Article 27V 
 
 Selling Salt by a Chalk Line 191 
 
 Settling a Question of Taste and Trade. . . 272 
 
 Sharing in Rothschild's Fortune 252 
 
 Sharp at a Trade Sharper in Getting Out 
 
 of It 264 
 
 Skinflint Philosophy 245 
 
 Slavers Raising a Capital 248 
 
 Smuggled Needles, and the American 
 Eagle 269
 
 XX11 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Smuggler's Honor 226 
 
 Smuggling by the Chinese 271 
 
 Smuggling on a Lace Merchant's Dog. . . 231 
 
 Snug Place for Bank Notes 270 
 
 Spaniard and Chinaman at a Trade 281 
 
 Spanish Contraband Trade 229 
 
 Stephen Whitney's Charities 244 
 
 Stock Exchange Conspiracy 214 
 
 Stock " Washing" 247 
 
 Taking Him at his Word 267 
 
 Talleyrand and the Stockjobber. 211 
 
 Terrible Career of Sadleir, the Speculator 227 
 Terrible Sequel to Parsimony : M. Foscue's 
 
 Case 250 
 
 The Bank Detectives Foiled 264 
 
 The Prince Regent's Wine and the Confi- 
 dential Dealer 268 
 
 Three Millionnaires Quarrelling about One 
 
 Farthing 235 
 
 Throwing Sawdust jn the Eyes of Custom 
 HouseOfiicers , .. 270 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " To what Base Uses hare we Come at 
 
 Last !" 280 
 
 Tobacco in Loaves 249 
 
 Tompkins's Horse Trade 218 
 
 Tough Experience of a Business Drummer 257 
 
 Tradesmen's Ticketing System 242 
 
 Trading in Imaginary Candlesticks 263 
 
 Tragical Result of Losing Bank Notes .... 224 
 
 Transactions in Worsteds 219 
 
 Trick for the "Spashy" 209 
 
 Trickery in the Clothing Trade 202 
 
 Turtles and Gold Snuff Boxes .' . . . 248 
 
 Two Playing at the Same Game 228 
 
 Unparalleled Parsimony and Benevolence 
 
 of a Millionnaire 242 
 
 Virginia Usurer Foiled 217 
 
 Wanting to Pay the Cash 262 
 
 Weighing Short 279 
 
 What it means to be " Selling Off" 197 
 
 Window " Gazers" Employed by London 
 Shopkeepers 203 
 
 PAKT V. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 THE EXCHANGE, CUSTOM HOUSE, BOARDS OF TRADE, MARKETS, ETC. THEIR ANNALS, 
 USAGES, PECULIARITIES ; WITH PERSONAL MISCELLANIES, APHORISMS, ODDITIES, 
 WHIMS AND CAPRICES OF THEIR HABITUES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Amusing Perplexities at the Custom 
 
 House 298 
 
 Animated Scenes at the French Exchange 293 
 
 Attacks on the Stock Exchange 289 
 
 Business in London at Four o' Clock 295 
 
 'Change Alley as a Business Resort 297 
 
 Custom House Official dealing with a 
 
 Princess 285 
 
 Custom Houses and Star Chambers 289 
 
 Derivation of the Commercial Term 
 
 " Bourse " 294 
 
 Drinking the Health of Custom House 
 
 Officers 287 
 
 Duty on Pictures 298 
 
 First East India House 299 
 
 Free Trade 293 
 
 Hall of the St. Petersburg Exchange 300 
 
 High 'Change Hours 298 
 
 Lloyd's Establishment, London 296 
 
 Ludicrous Custom House Examinations. . . 294 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Manchester Cotton Merchants 292 
 
 Manners at the English Stock Exchange 288 
 Men of Letters frequenting the Share Mart 301 
 Merchants and Business Resorts in Mos- 
 cow 295 
 
 One Thousand Million Pounds' Business 
 Annually at the London Clearing 
 
 House 297 
 
 Origin of Boards of Trade 289 
 
 Paying Government Fishing Bounties. . . 286 
 
 Photograph of Wall Street 286 
 
 Quotations of the New Exchange 290 
 
 Railway Clearing House 296 
 
 Reduction of Custom House Duties 
 
 " Death to the Beet Root." 294 
 
 Rencontre between Rothschild and Rose, 
 
 the Broker, on 'Change. 285 
 
 Romance and Trade 299 
 
 Scenes in a Turkish Custom House 291 
 
 The Origin of the Clearing House 294
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTS, SIGNBOARDS, TRADEMARKS, TOKENS, ENVELOPES, LABELS, INSCRIPTIONS, 
 MOTTOES AND TERMS QCAINT, CURIOUS, GROTESQUE, INGENIOUS AND LAUGHABLE. 
 
 Adepts in Commercial Puffing 305 
 
 Alliteration in Advertising 835 
 
 An untried Method 309 
 
 Ancient Pictorial Signboards 317 
 
 Arms and Seal of the Bank of Ireland 314 
 
 Baking and Banking 320 
 
 Boston Merchants' Business Marks or 
 
 Tokens 307 
 
 Broadway Signs 337 
 
 Business Puffing Two Hundred Years 
 
 Ago 329 
 
 Business Signboards in Different Nations 332 
 
 Buying a Claim 336 
 
 Cabalistic Sign for an Ale House 817 
 
 Carmeline the Dentist's Sign 316 
 
 Charging for Advertisements 331 
 
 Chinese Trade Puffing 310 
 
 Class Advertisements in City Papers 321 
 
 Classical Shop Language 310 
 
 Commercial Envelopes, Wrappers, Labels, 
 
 Ac 311 
 
 " Cotton is Quiet " 818 
 
 Criticism of a Hatter's Sign 316 
 
 Dean Swift and the Barber's Sign 306 
 
 Dialects of different Trades 322 
 
 " Ditto " 828 
 
 Earliest Printed Advertisements 307 
 
 English Business Mottoes 308 
 
 Evasions of Trade Marks 813 
 
 First Advertisement in America 322 
 
 First Trade Advertisement 315 
 
 " Five Per Cent." 330 
 
 " For Her Majesty " 312 
 
 Free Shave and a Drink 334. 
 
 French Ideas of Advertising 334 
 
 Fresh Gems from English Advertising 
 
 Columns 309 
 
 Fresh Sea Water 314 
 
 Full-size Headings to Advertisements 338 
 
 Getting Rid of his Neighbor's Customers 837 
 Harlow's Sign Painting Extraordinary... 333 
 Hide Dealer's Sign Rare Bit of Philos- 
 ophy 325 
 
 Historical and Poetical Signs 330 
 
 Inscriptions on Trade Coins 307 
 
 Irish Advertisement 316 
 
 Irish Pun on a Sign 306 
 
 Jemmy Wright's Modesty 331 
 
 Joke upon a Boston Sign 318 
 
 Killbury and Maimsworth Railway's 
 
 Advertisement 306 
 
 Latin on Business Signs 326 
 
 Literature and Groceries 312 
 
 Meaning of " Fund " and " Stock " 328 
 
 Merchants' Religious Formulae or Phrases 328 
 
 Mottoes in Ancient Times 308 
 
 Natural Advertising 321 
 
 New York Business Tokens 307 
 
 Odd Comminglings 324 
 
 Out of Style 321 
 
 Pathos and Puffing Extraordinary 335 
 
 Pat's Definition of Railroad " Stock " . . . . 337 
 
 Pawnbrokers' Three Balls 325 
 
 Paying at " Maturity " 327 
 
 Phenomena Extraordinary 319 
 
 Pleasant History of a Familiar Word. . . . 317 
 " Punch " on Commercial Phraseology. . . 322 
 Quack Advertisement Two Centuries Ago 319 
 
 Questionable Sign for a Clothier 320 
 
 Responding to an Advertisement 329 
 
 Rush's Celebrated Figure Heads 339 
 
 Scotch Tobacconist's Motto 308 
 
 Shop and Business Signs : Ancient Ex- 
 amples 314 
 
 Shopkeepers' Nomenclature of Goods. . . . 326 
 
 Signboard Punctuation 312 
 
 Silk Dyer's Poetical Sign 338 
 
 Stock Terms in the Sick Room 319 
 
 Streets and Shop Signs in Canton 317 
 
 Striking a Bargain 330 
 
 " Take down that Old Sign " 331 
 
 The Napoleon of Advertising 332 
 
 " Tight Times " 315 
 
 Titles of Business Firms 314 
 
 Trade Placards and Shop Bills 323 
 
 Transactions in the Cab Market 330 
 
 Unexampled Enterprise the Chinese 
 
 Wall for Advertisements 315 
 
 "Universal Stores" 335 
 
 "Up to Snuff" 805 
 
 Very expressive 324 
 
 Very Racy 337 
 
 Where " Tariff" came from 328 
 
 " Words have their Meaning " 334
 
 XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAET VII. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND THINGS MEMORABLE CONCERNING BUSINESS TRANSIT 
 AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 SHIPPING, STEAMBOATS, RAILWAYS, EXPRESSES, COACHES, OMNIBUSES, ETC. TIIEIK 
 OWNERS, OFFICERS, PATRONS, AND ATTACHES. 
 
 A Deep Design 368 
 
 Amending the Charter 384 
 
 American Shipuology 356 
 
 An Interesting Consignment 370 
 
 Arrival of the Steamer 353 
 
 Ask any Committee Man 347 
 
 Assuming the Responsibility 373 
 
 Captain Macalester and his Fast Ship 
 
 " Fanny " 387 
 
 Change of " Packet Day " 385 
 
 Church and State vs. Railways 351 
 
 Commercial Importance of the Cat 346 
 
 " Considering " a Ship Builder 344 
 
 Curious Division of Ships into Ounces. .. 350 
 
 Decoration of Railroad Depots 368 
 
 Disinterested Railroad Contractor 376 
 
 Dismissing a Shipmaster 346 
 
 Drinking Success to the First Railway . . 385 
 
 English Hares by Express 350 
 
 Female Shipmaster from Cape Horn to 
 
 San Francisco 360 
 
 First Railroad in Europe or America 353 
 
 First Ship at St. Petersburg 371 
 
 First Vessel in the World 350 
 
 Floating Railways 345 
 
 Forwarding by Telegraph 358 
 
 From Honolulu to Kaui 382 
 
 George Hudson, the Railway King 378 
 
 Good Land for Railroad 375 
 
 Great North Pole Railway 373 
 
 Guarding the Track 367 
 
 Imaginative Expressmen An Artificial 
 
 Corpse 344 
 
 Jumel the Merchant, and the Carman .... 358 
 
 Lady Ship master. 363 
 
 Largest Ship Owner in England 355 
 
 Laughable Opposition to Steam Trains.. . 362 
 
 Literature of the Cabin 355 
 
 Lloyd's Nautical Book 351 
 
 Locomotion and Amalgamation 364 
 
 Lucky and Unlucky Names of Ships, and 
 
 Sailing Days 364 
 
 Luxuries in the Car 859 
 
 Mode of Getting Money Transmitted 354 
 
 Mr. Griggs' Mode of Overcoming Obstacles 380 
 Names of Vessels and Trade of New York 
 
 in!680 850 
 
 New Rules for Railways 364 
 
 New York to Boston in Four Days 375 
 
 " No Swearing among the Crew " 355 
 
 Not Posted in Geography 383 
 
 Oldest Vessel in America 349 
 
 Origin of the Express Business Ham- 
 den's First Trip 356 
 
 Palmerston and the Station Master 386 
 
 Paying off Jack 355 
 
 " Pleasure Excursions " 377 
 
 Probable Origin of Schooners 360 
 
 Proposed Line from England to China. . . 372 
 
 Protective Costume for Travellers 374 
 
 Prussian Ship Navigated by a Lady 360 
 
 Punch's Own Railway 369 
 
 Purchase of Jacob Barker's Ship " United 
 States," by the Emperor Nicholas. . . 343 
 
 Rail Car Privileges 353 
 
 Railroad Damages the Tables Turned.. 365 
 
 Railway Politeness, Scale of 376 
 
 Rare Passenger in an Omnibus 371 
 
 Rather Dry 375 
 
 Rather Ominous 348 
 
 Reading the Annual Report 347 
 
 Rigid Obedience of Shipmasters Exacted 
 
 by Girard 376 
 
 Risks and Accidents Assured Against. . . 345 
 
 Rival Steamboat Lines 352 
 
 Rothschild's Omnibus Fare 373 
 
 Royal Schemers in Railways 361 
 
 Scale of Railway Politeness 376 
 
 Scene in an Express Office 359 
 
 Selling a Brig : the Ruling Passion 357 
 
 " Soaking " the Old Coach 384 
 
 Southern Accommodation Trains 381 
 
 Squelching a Director's Impertinence.... 371 
 Stage Coach Experience of Two Merchants 369 
 Stephenson, the Pioneer in Railroad Con- 
 struction 380 
 
 Strange Terminus to a Railroad 384 
 
 Superseding Steam 345 
 
 Telegraph vs. Express 851 
 
 Telegraph Capers 367 
 
 Telegraphing against Time 366 
 
 The First Steamboat Passage Money ever 
 
 Paid 877 
 
 The Ladder of Gold 349
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Thomas Gray, the Originator of Railways 354 
 
 Thompson's Travels in California 381 
 
 Universal Salvage Company 346 
 
 Unparalleled Railway Damages 347 
 
 Unsociable Travelling Companion 368 
 
 Up Trains and Down Trains 348 
 
 Usefulness of Steamboats in Reducing the 
 
 Population 355 
 
 Waghorn's Great Scheme 374 
 
 Working a Hand Car 383 
 
 Yankee Calculation of Railroad Speed. . . 365 
 " Your Ticket, Sir." 881
 
 XXV 11 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PORTRAITS ON STEEL. 
 
 GEORGE PEABODY. 
 SAMUEL SLATER. 
 ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 
 ALBERT GALLATIN. 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 
 T. DOWSE. 
 
 CORNELIUS W. LAWRENCE. 
 STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. 
 ROBERT MORRIS. 
 ERASTUS CORNING. 
 PHILIP HONE. 
 HENRY GRINNELL. 
 WILLIAM APPLETON. 
 DAVID LEAVTTT. 
 R. G. SHAW. 
 JOHN GRIGG. 
 CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. 
 
 THOMAS 
 
 ROBERT L. STEVENS. 
 
 WALTER R. JONES. 
 
 FITZ GREENE HALLECK. 
 
 CHARLES LAMB. 
 
 NATHAN MEYER ROTHSCHILD. 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 PETER COOPER. 
 
 W. F. HARNDEN. 
 
 T. W. PERKINS. 
 
 NICHOLAS BIDDLE. 
 
 JAMES G. KING. 
 
 JACOB BARKER. 
 
 PETER C. BROOKS. 
 
 THOMAS P. COPE. 
 
 JEEJEEBHOY DADABHOY. 
 
 LORENZO DE MEDICI. 
 
 WILLIAM B. ASTOR. 
 
 NICHOLAS LONGWORTH. 
 
 J. CHICKERING. 
 TILESTON.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 MM 
 
 MODERN BANK DIRECTORS' PARLOR, ... 97 
 
 NEAPOLITAN MONEY CHANGER, ... 104 
 
 MUTATIONS OF A MERCHANT'S LIFE. THE NEW ORLEANS SOCK 
 
 SELLER, . . . . 129 
 
 GRESHAM'S FORTUNATE LETTER, . ........ . 174 
 
 PETER FUNK, . . . . . . . . .213 
 
 INTERIOR VIEW OF THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, . . 288 
 
 SCENE IN AN ORIENTAL CUSTOM HOUSE, . . .' :; ' . 291 
 HIDE DEALER'S SIGN, ';'' . . i . \ 325 
 
 PAYING ROBERT FULTON THE FIRST PASSAGE MONEY, v^ 377 
 
 BONFIRE OF A DEBTOR'S PAPERS, -. < . >". i V ; 424 
 
 AFRAID OF THE SHERIFFS HAT, . , c ? 451 
 THAT LITTLE CHILD IN THE COUNTING HOUSE, . . .614 
 
 BURLESQUE ON MODERN BUSINESS UTOPIAS, . .529 
 
 TATTERSALL'S RENOWNED AUCTION MART, .... 534 
 
 GOING GOING GONE ! - 539 
 
 SYRIAN AUCTION AND AUCTIONEERS, . . .."?. 554 
 
 CHRISTIE'S CELEBRATED AUCTION ROOM, .. . . . 561 
 
 STREET MERCHANTS,. .. . - . - 89* 
 
 COMMERCIAL DIGNITY AT THE APPLE STAND, . ... .619 
 
 EXAMINING AN APPLICANT, .... 644 
 
 IMPROVING A BANKER'S BROTH, .' ....... 676 
 
 THAT BOTTLE OF WINE AMONG "OLD FULLER'S" CLERKS, 694 
 
 BILLINGSGATE MARKET DEALERS, . . . ,'\< v : - 723 
 WHOLESALE JOKE UPON SHOEMAKERS, . ^;t :*/: . ... 738 
 
 PROFESSIONAL USE OF BOOKS, ... . . . .749
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND REMARKABLE REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES IN ALL 
 AGES AND COUNTRIES.
 
 PAET FIKST. 
 
 Anecdotes and Kemarkable Eeminiscences of the Early Career of 
 Business Celebrities in all Ages and Countries, 
 
 OR, ROTHSCHILD, OUVRARD, BATES, BARKER, TOURO, 
 HOPE, HOTTINGUER, CODTTS, MORRISON, DE MEDICIS, 
 FITTE. APPLETON, COOPER, GRESHAM, PEABODY, NOL 
 
 That captivating art which consists in the delineation of individual traits and achieve- 
 ments. EDIK. RBVIBW. 
 
 The man -who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious ancestors, is like a potato the 
 only good belonging to him is under the ground. SIR T. OVERBURY. 
 
 Let not those blush who'Aare, but those who have not, a lawful calling. TATTLEB. 
 Still let the mind be bent, still plotting where, 
 And when, and how, the business may be done. HERBERT. 
 
 Kobert Morris, the Financier, of Phil- 
 adelphia. 
 
 THIS eminent financier was born in 
 Liverpool, Eng., in 1734. Of his fam- 
 ily, very little is known, except that his 
 father was a respectable English mer- 
 chant, and for a long time held the 
 agency of a very considerable tobacco 
 house in that place. The nature and 
 extent of his concerns required his 
 frequent visits to this country ; and it 
 was in one of these trips that his son 
 Robert, at the age of thirteen, became 
 the companion of his voyage, and re- 
 ceived an introduction to the scene of 
 his future greatness. His father, by a 
 melancholy accident, lost his life about 
 two years after he had established him- 
 self in this country as a merchant. 
 Soon after this sad event, Robert was 
 received into the counting house of 
 Charles Willing, at that time the most 
 distinguished merchant in Philadel- 
 phia, to whom he appears to have 
 been indentured ; and, after remaining 
 1 
 
 in this subordinate station the usual 
 term of years, he was established in 
 business by his patron, in conjunction 
 with his son, Thomas Willing. 
 
 Embarked in an extensive and profit- 
 able West India business, Mr. MOREIS 
 made several voyages as supercargo in 
 the ships belonging to the company, in 
 one of which he was unfortunately cap- 
 tured by the French, and, during a 
 close imprisonment for some time, suf- 
 fered cruelty of treatment not justified 
 by the laws of war, nor the usages of 
 civilized nations. In this state of dis- 
 tress, without a shilling, by exercising 
 his ingenuity, and repairing the watch 
 of a Frenchman, he raised the means 
 of his own liberation, and enabled him- 
 self to return to Philadelphia and re- 
 sume his mercantile life. 
 
 Under his active superintendence, 
 the house of Willing and Morris rapidly 
 rose to the summit of commercial repu- 
 tation. Their foreign freightage em- 
 ployed an incredible number of ships ;
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 while the able management of their 
 finances at home, procured them the 
 confidence and credit of the world. At 
 the age of thirty-six, he married the 
 daughter of Colonel White ; she was 
 the sister of the venerable Bishop 
 White. At the close of 1775, he was 
 sent to Congress, and, after rendering 
 important services during the war, he 
 was, in 1781, unanimously elected, by 
 Congress, superintendent of national 
 finance. 
 
 He still continued his commercial 
 business, having formed a connection 
 with the Messrs. Hazlehurst. In 1786 
 he was elected a member of the Con- 
 vention which framed the Federal Con- 
 stitution, and in 1788 was appointed 
 United States senator. His public 
 duties, however, caused that inattention 
 to his private affairs, which finally re- 
 sulted in those great embarrassments of 
 mind and circumstances which weighed 
 upon his declining years. In his old 
 age, Mr. Morris embarked in vast land 
 speculations, which proved fatal to his 
 fortune. The man to whose financial 
 operations our country has been said to 
 owe as much as to the negotiations of 
 Franklin, or even the arm of Washing- 
 ton, passed the latter years of his life in 
 prison, confined for debt. He died on 
 the 8th of May, 1806, in the seventy- 
 third year of his age. 
 
 Mr. Morris was of large frame, with 
 a fine, open, bland countenance, and 
 simple manners ; for nearly half a cen- 
 tury, until the period of his imprison- 
 ment, his house was a scene of the most 
 liberal hospitality. 
 
 P. C. Labouchere, the Youthful Prince 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 In his youth, LABOTTCHERE .com- 
 menced his commercial training in 
 Nantes, but subsequently engaged to 
 become a clerk, for a period of three 
 years, to take charge of the commercial 
 correspondence of Hope & Co., the 
 world-renowned bankers of Amster- 
 dam. Shortly before the close of this 
 
 term young Labouchere gave his prin- 
 cipal a hint that a moderate increase 
 of salary was desirable. An answer 
 was promised for the next morning. 
 When he went at the appointed time 
 to receive the anticipated reply, old Mr. 
 Hope laid before him for his signature, 
 a contract already drawn up, in which 
 he named him as his partner, with a 
 suitable share in the profits, and in- 
 trusted him with the signature of that 
 vast abd princely house. Labouchere 
 was at that time only twenty-two years 
 of age, yet ere long assumed the emi- 
 nent position of head of the firmone 
 of the first in the world, and studied 
 the manners of a French courtier pre- 
 vious to the Revolution ; these manners 
 he soon made so thoroughly his own, 
 that they seemed to be a part of his 
 own nature. He made a point of dis- 
 tinguishing himself in everything he 
 undertook by a certain perfection, and 
 carried this feeling so far, that, on ac- 
 count of the untractable lack of elasti- 
 city in his body, and a want of ear for 
 music, which nature had denied him, 
 he for eighteen years deemed it neces- 
 sary to take dancing lessons, because 
 he saw that others surpassed him in that 
 graceful accomplishment. He married 
 a daughter of the Barings : his whole 
 career, both public and private, was 
 one of almost unexampled brilliancy. 
 
 Howqua, the senior Hong- Merchant. 
 This immensely wealthy and power- 
 ful Chinese merchant, whose mercantile 
 fame was so extensive in both hemi- 
 spheres as long as he lived, was de- 
 scended from a respectable Fo-kien 
 family, long resident in the principal 
 black-tea district, and his grandfather 
 was one of the Amoy Hong, who, with 
 the progenitors of the Canton Hong 
 merchants, Poon-ke-qua, Chunc-qua, 
 and Minqua, were ordered by the 
 emperor to remove to Canton, when all 
 intercourse was forbidden with the 
 English and Dutch at the port of 
 Amoy.
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 HOWQUA had attained his seventy- 
 fifth year when he died, at Canton. For 
 a long time he had been in a feeble state 
 of health, with extremely attenuated 
 frame, but with an unimpaired intel- 
 lectual vigor up to his last illness. His 
 fortune was variously estimated, but his 
 investments in the British and foreign 
 funds were very great, and it was the 
 belief of those who were most person- 
 ally intimate with him, that his wealth 
 did not fall short of twenty-five million 
 dollars. With a very small exception, 
 all his riches were the result of his own 
 industry and enterprise. The war with 
 the English involved him in a loss of 
 two million dollars, and his proportion 
 of the Canton ransom was eight hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. 
 
 One of the peculiar characteristics 
 of Howqua was an inveterate aversion 
 to new customs and modern fashions, 
 clinging with the most conservative 
 tenacity to the old, corrupt system, by 
 which his vast wealth was mainly ac- 
 cumulated. He was the organ of com- 
 munication between the government 
 and the foreign merchants, possessed 
 great power and influence among his 
 countrymen, was a large landed pro- 
 prietor, and had founded and endowed 
 a temple to Buddha, in the suburbs of 
 Canton. 
 
 It seems almost incredible, but it is 
 not the less true, that, to the last, he 
 directed his vast and complicated trade, 
 which almost encircled the globe, alone. 
 His knowledge, and even familiarity 
 with mercantile details connected with 
 the trade of foreign ports, was truly 
 astonishing. Sound judgment, true 
 prudence, wary circumspection, and a 
 wise economy, were distinguishing 
 traits of his mercantile character. By 
 Englishmen, Howqua was not liked. 
 His predilections were American and 
 justly so, seeing that he was indebted, 
 in an early stage of his career, to an 
 American citizen, for information he 
 sought in vain from the English. 
 
 James Wood, the Gloucester Million- 
 naire. 
 
 JAMES WOOD, the celebrated shop- 
 keeping millionnaire and sole proprie- 
 tor of the Old Gloucester (Eng.) Bank, 
 the oldest private bank, with the 
 exception of Childs', in England 
 amassed a property of five million of 
 dollars. From the earliest period in 
 his business career to the day of his 
 death, he kept a shop such as comes 
 within the description of a chandler's 
 shop, in which he sold almost every- 
 thing, from a mousetrap to a carriage ; 
 not that his premises were large enough 
 to contain all the various stores in 
 which he dwelt, nor indeed was it re- 
 quisite that they should for his wealth 
 was sufficiently known to all the large 
 manufacturers and traders, so that they 
 were at all times ready to supply him 
 with goods to any amount. At one end 
 of this motley shop, the business of the 
 'Old Gloucester Bank,' as it was fa- 
 miliarly called, was transacted ; and 
 the whole establishment was managed 
 by himself and two clerks or assistants. 
 He was very penurious, and never mar- 
 ried, entertained no company, visited no 
 one, spent his whole time in his bank 
 or shop, and his Sundays in a long 
 walk in the country. His will involved 
 much litigation, and, as a consequence, 
 proved a prolific source of employment 
 to the gentlemen of the greenbag. 
 
 Coutts, the English Banker. 
 The father of Mr. COUTTS, the founder 
 of the celebrated English banking house 
 which bears his name, was a merchant 
 of some eminence in the city of Edin- 
 burgh. He had four sons; the two 
 youngest, James and Thomas, were 
 brought up in their father's office. 
 James, at the age of twenty-five, went 
 to London, and settled in St. Mary Axe, 
 as a Scotch merchant, and subsequently 
 started as a banker on the same spot, 
 and it is believed in the same house 
 where the business of the bank is now 
 carried on. Some few years after,
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Thomas joined his brother as a partner 
 in the establishment, under the firm of 
 ' James and Thomas Coutts, Bankers.' 
 On the death of James, Thomas was 
 left sole proprietor of the bank. Mr. 
 Coutts, the founder of this eminent 
 house, was plain in his person, sedate 
 in his deportment, punctual to an 
 extreme nicety in the discharge of all 
 the duties of his immense and success- 
 ful business, frugal and sparing in his 
 personal expenditure, singularly calm 
 and clear in his judgment, careful of 
 his health and still more of his repu- 
 tation. To these traits the great pros- 
 perity and wealth to which Mr. Coutts 
 attained are due. 
 
 It is related, as an illustration of Mr. 
 Coutts' character, that one day, while 
 sitting at dinner with a company of 
 bankers whom he had invited to his 
 hospitable board, he was informed by 
 one of his guests, that a certain noble- 
 man had applied to his house for a loan 
 of thirty thousand pounds, and had been 
 refused. Mr. Coutts took no particular 
 notice of this at the time, but the moment 
 his guests had retired, which was about 
 ten o'clock, he started off to the house 
 of his lordship, and inquiring for the 
 steward told him his business, adding, 
 " Tell his lordship, that if he calls on 
 me in the morning, he may have what 
 he requires." On the following morn- 
 ing, the nobleman went to the bank. 
 Mr. Coutts received him with great 
 politeness, and taking thirty one-thous- 
 and pound notes from a drawer, pre- 
 sented them to his lordship, who was 
 most agreeably surprised, and asked, 
 " What security am I to give you ? " 
 " I shall be satisfied with your lord- 
 ship's note of hand," was the reply. 
 This was instantly given. The noble- 
 man then said, " I find I shall only 
 require, for the present, ten thousand 
 pounds of the money ; I therefore 
 return you twenty thousand pounds, 
 with which you will be pleased to open 
 an account in my name." 
 
 This handsome act of Mr. Coutts was 
 
 not lost upon his lordship, who, in 
 addition to paying in, within a few 
 months, two hundred thousand pounds 
 to his account, being the amount of 
 the sale of an estate, recommended 
 several of the nobility to patronize Mr. 
 Coutts ; and further, his lordship related 
 the interesting circumstance to King 
 George the Third, who also patronized 
 him by keeping a large amount of 
 money in Mr. Coutts' bank. The king, 
 however, afterward closed his account 
 with Mr. Coutts, it having come to his 
 knowledge that the latter advanced the 
 sum of one hundred thousand pounds 
 toward Sir Francis Burdett's election 
 to parliament. In place of Mr. Coutts, 
 the king opened an account with a 
 banker at Windsor, but this banker, to 
 the great mortification of the king, 
 subsequently failed, considerably in his 
 majesty's debt. 
 
 Tattersall, the Auctioneer, London. 
 
 The present noted auctioneer in Lon- 
 don, known as TATTERSALL, is a son of 
 the founder of the great establishment, 
 who died while enjoying the sumptuous 
 surroundings in which his princely for- 
 tune enabled him to indulge. 
 
 Nobody who sees Mr. Tattersall pre- 
 siding in his rostrum during the sale 
 of horses, can resist the conviction that 
 Nature intended him for an auctioneer 
 of those noble animals. In the rostrum, 
 he is obviously in his proper business 
 sphere. He enters on his vocation 
 with heart and soul, each succeeding 
 day. He has no idea of happiness be- 
 yond the auction yard. The very sight 
 of the hammer, or rather of himself 
 wielding the hammer, is to him an en- 
 joyment of the first magnitude. His 
 own voice, when expatiating in praise 
 of any horse that " is to be sold," has 
 inexpressible charms to his ear. There 
 is not a sound in the world that he will 
 acknowledge to be half so musical to 
 him, except it be the sound of some 
 voice whose proprietor is making ft
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 " handsome bidding " for the animal in 
 the market. 
 
 Mr. Tattersall, though a man of few 
 words compared with the voluble 
 school of auctioneers in general, is a 
 very adroit and successful knight of 
 the hammer. He is dexterous in dis- 
 covering who among all that surround 
 him are the parties really intending to 
 buy, and to them in succession he 
 addresses himself. His very look, 
 unaccompanied by a single word, has, 
 in innumerable cases, appealed so forci- 
 bly to some bystander, as to draw out 
 "another guinea for the horse," even 
 when the person had fully resolved in 
 his own mind not to advance, on any 
 earthly consideration, a single six- 
 pence more. He holds in contempt 
 all bombastical diction, as in poor 
 taste, a waste of time, and a positive 
 insult to the persons assembled. Be- 
 sides, he is convinced that by his own 
 plain and homely, but expressive style, 
 he " fetches " a far better price for his 
 " fine animals," than he would by the 
 most high-sounding clap-trap sentences 
 that could be strung together. He 
 usually contents himself with mention- 
 ing the pedigree of the horse, praising 
 him as one of the finest ever known ; 
 affecting to be quite shocked at the 
 idea of selling him at the price offered ; 
 assuring the company that it would be 
 positively giving him away, which of 
 course neither he nor the proprietor 
 can afford to do ; and regretting that 
 he cannot bid himself. When an extra 
 quality of horse is " up," Mr. Tattersali's 
 art of winning upon the good graces 
 of the company is inimitable ; an 
 example of which is furnished among 
 the AUCTION anecdotes in this volume. 
 
 By all his acquaintance, Mr. Tatter- 
 sail has the reputation of being an ex- 
 cellent-hearted man, and is a great 
 favorite, personally, with all who visit 
 his premises, or have occasion to do 
 business with him. He is a dark-com- 
 plexioned man, with a rather full face, 
 and wears a reserved expression. He 
 
 is slightly under medium size, of some- 
 what stout build, and very lame. The 
 number of horses he sometimes sells hi 
 one day is one hundred to one hundred 
 and eighty. 
 
 Jacques Lafitte, the French Banker. 
 
 Important results often follow from 
 the most trifling incidents. A remark- 
 able instance of this kind is that afforded 
 in the history of LAFITTE, one of the most 
 memorable among the names of French 
 bankers, and which was the foundation 
 of the colossal fortune he afterward 
 accumulated, and of the scarcely less 
 than imperial position which he at one 
 time held in the councils of the realm. 
 
 When he came to Paris, in 1798, the 
 extent of his ambition was to find a 
 situation in a banking house ; and to 
 attain this object, he called on M. 
 Perregeaux, the rich Swiss banker, to 
 whom he had a letter of introduction. 
 This gentleman had just taken posses- 
 sion of the hotel of Mademoiselle 
 Gunnard, which had been put up in a 
 lottery by that lady, and won by the 
 fortunate banker. It was to this most 
 charming habitation, which has since 
 been demolished, that M. Lafitte paid 
 his first visit in Paris, and, as it were, 
 took his first step in the brilliant Paris- 
 ian world. The young provincial 
 poor and modest, timid and anxious 
 entered by that gateway which had 
 witnessed so many convivialities in the 
 last century. 
 
 He was introduced into the boudoir 
 of the danseuse, which had become the 
 cabinet of the banker, and there modest- 
 ly stated the object of his visit. " It is 
 impossible for me to admit you into my 
 establishment, at least for the present," 
 replied the banker; "all my offices 
 have their full complement. If I 
 require any one at a future time, I 
 will see what can be done; but, in 
 the mean time, I advise you to seek 
 elsewhere, for I do not expect a vacancy 
 for a long while." 
 
 With a disappointed heart, the young
 
 6 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 aspirant for employment left the office ; 
 and while, with a dejected air, he traver- 
 sed the stately courtyard, he stooped to 
 pick up a pin which lay in his path, and 
 which he carefully stuck in the lappel 
 of his coat. Little did he think that 
 this trivial action was to decide his 
 future fate and open up so famous a 
 destiny to him ; but so it was. From 
 the windows of his cabinet, M. Perre- 
 geaux had observed the movement of 
 the young man. The Swiss banker 
 was one of those keen observers and 
 quick interpreters of human actions, 
 who estimate the value of circum- 
 stances apparently trifling in them- 
 selves, and which would pass unnoticed 
 by the majority of mankind. He was 
 delighted with the conduct of the 
 young stranger. In this simple action, 
 he saw the revelations of a character. 
 It was a guarantee of a love of order 
 and economy, a certain pledge of the 
 qualities in especial which should be 
 possessed by a good financier. A young 
 man who would thus painstakingly 
 pick up a pin, could not fail to make 
 a good clerk, merit the confidence of 
 his employer, and reach a high degree 
 of prosperity. In the evening of the 
 same day, M. Lafitte received the follow- 
 ing note from M. Perregeaux : 
 
 " A place is made for you in my office, 
 which you may take possession of to- 
 morrow morning." 
 
 The anticipations of the banker were 
 not disappointed. The young Lafitte 
 possessed every desirable quality, and 
 even more than was at first expected. 
 From a simple clerk, he soon rose to be 
 cashier, then partner, then head of the 
 first banking house in Paris ; and after- 
 wards, in rapid succession, a Deputy, 
 and President of the Council of Minis- 
 ters the highest point to which a 
 citizen could aspire. Rarely have riches 
 been placed in better hands rarely has 
 banker or prince made a more noble use 
 of them. In 1836, M. Lafitte founded 
 the joint-stock bank which goes by his 
 name, and of which he was the head 
 
 and principal partner. His fortunes 
 changed materially, for the worse, after 
 the Revolution. He died in May, 1844, 
 and was buried with great magnificence 
 in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. He 
 left one daughter, who married the 
 prince of Moskowa, the son of Marshal 
 Ney. 
 
 William Forbes, Scotch Banker. 
 
 The private banking house once uni- 
 versally known in Scotland under the 
 lead of SIB WILLIAM FOBBES, had a 
 somewhat peculiar genealogy, reaching 
 far back into the last century, and even 
 faintly gleaming through the obscurities 
 of the one before it, when mercantile 
 efforts and speculations were taking 
 their birth amidst the embers of scarcely 
 extinct civil wars and all kinds of pri- 
 vate barbarisms. The genealogy is 
 traced to the firm of John Coutts & 
 Co., of Edinburgh, in 1742, and the 
 concern appears to be the main stock 
 from which branched off the eminent 
 London banking firms of Coutts & Co. 
 and Herries & Co. It was the first 
 banking house in Edinburgh. 
 
 Born in 1734, and fatherless when 
 four years of age, Sir William had but 
 little other means of help than the 
 usual Scotch thrift. He rose, however, 
 to be the head of the house which he 
 had entered as an apprentice, without 
 a capital, at fifteen ; recovered the lost 
 fortunes of his family, aided materially 
 in establishing those of his country 
 on a solid basis, and even became 
 the sole preserver of much of her 
 literary history which must otherwise 
 have perished. 
 
 Originally confined to commercial 
 dealing and general business traffic, 
 the sole transactions of the house finally 
 came to be those of banking. It sub- 
 sequently yielded, once or twice, to the 
 temptation of mercantile or merchan- 
 dize speculation, but suffered from it, 
 and ever afterward refused to engage, 
 directly or indirectly, in anything but 
 banking. Mr. Forbes died, in 1806, at
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 the age of sixty-seven, and to his vir- 
 tues Scott has paid a merited tribute 
 in the dedication of one of the cantos 
 of Marmion. 
 
 M. Stoig-litz, Richest of Russian Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 What the name of Kothschild is in 
 other countries, and that of Astor in 
 America, the name of STEIGLITZ is in 
 Russia, and has been for half a century. 
 It would doubtless still continue to 
 hold this pre-eminence, but for the 
 voluntary retirement of the proprietor, 
 two or three years since, with a fortune 
 computed, by Russian authorities, at 
 scores of millions of dollars, acquired 
 by his connection with all the great 
 financial concerns of the empire, and 
 the numerous and extensive manufac- 
 tories, sugar refineries, etc., which he 
 carried on. 
 
 M. Steiglitz, senior, arrived in Russia 
 about the commencement of the present 
 century ; he came from Hamburgh, and 
 was a Jew by birth, but subsequently 
 abandoned that faith and identified 
 himself with Christianity. Immediately 
 after his arrival in Russia he entered 
 into business, and founded the great 
 commercial and banking house which 
 he bequeathed to his son, with the title 
 of Baron, and a prodigious fortune. 
 M. Steiglitz, junior, subsequently man- 
 aged the house, and with such ability 
 and success as to be able to retire with 
 an estate valued at little short of fifty 
 millions of dollars. This vast fortune 
 consists in capital deposited in the im- 
 perial banks, in shares in the best Rus- 
 sian companies, and in landed estates, 
 both in the south of Russia, in Livonia, 
 and in Germany. He has the rank of 
 Councillor of State, and is decorated 
 with the grand cordon of the Order of 
 St. Stanislaus. He married a Mdlle. 
 Muller, belonging to a highly respect- 
 able, though not wealthy family, and 
 has no children. 
 
 Solomon, the Merchant Sovereign. 
 
 KINO SOLOMON was at once monarch 
 and merchant ; and it may easily be 
 inferred, that no private merchant 
 could safely compete with a prince 
 so regal, who had assumed the mer- 
 cantile character. By his intimate 
 commercial union with the Tyrians, he 
 was put into the most favorable of all 
 positions for disposing of his goods. 
 That energetic nation, possessing so 
 small a strip of territory, had much 
 need of various raw produce for their 
 own wants. Another large demand 
 was made by them for the raw materials 
 of manufactures, and for articles which 
 they could with advantage sell again ; 
 and as they were able, in turn, to sell 
 so many acceptable luxuries to the court 
 of Solomon, a most active exchange 
 soon commenced. The carrying trade, 
 which was shared between Solomon and 
 the Tyrians, was probably the most 
 lucrative part of the southern and east- 
 ern commerce. From Egypt, Solomon 
 imported not only linen yarn, but even 
 horses and chariots, which were sold 
 again to the princes of Syria and of the 
 Hittites ; the light, strong, and elegant 
 structure of the chariots rendering them 
 very salable. Wine being abundant in 
 Palestine, and wholly wanting in Egypt, 
 was, no doubt, a principal means of re- 
 payment. That Solomon's trading cor- 
 respondence also extended to Babylon, 
 may be fairly inferred. He is said to 
 have realized from a single voyage four 
 hundred and fifty talents of gold, that 
 is, upwards of one hundred and twenty 
 millions of dollars ! The business trans- 
 actions of Solomon, it thus appears, 
 were enormously large and lucrative; 
 yet it does not appear that any fault 
 was found with him on that account 
 particularly by his own subjects. 
 
 M. Bruck, Austria's Great Merchant 
 
 Banker. 
 
 Some considerable number of years 
 back, when the Greeks were in arms to
 
 8 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 assert their independence, a young man 
 with a staff in his hand and a travelling 
 knapsack on his back, presented him- 
 self at the office of a Greek merchant at 
 Trieste, to whom he had a letter of 
 introduction. Filled with youthful 
 enthusiasm for the once glorious name 
 of Greece, he was on his way to the 
 Morea with the intention of joining the 
 Greek insurgents. 
 
 The merchant, pleased with the 
 youth's appearance, and perhaps influ- 
 enced by the letter of introduction, 
 thought it a pity that so much intelli- 
 gence should be employed in warlike 
 rather than in peaceful pursuits, and en- 
 deavored to dissuade him from his pur- 
 pose. To give his argument its desired 
 effect, he offered the adventurer a clerk- 
 ship in his office. The offer was imme- 
 diately accepted. The young man's n ame 
 was BRUCK. He doubtless devoted him- 
 self with much zeal to the interests of 
 his patron, for in a few years he became 
 the head-clerk and manager of his busi- 
 ness. A courtship shortly afterwards 
 took place between him and the mer- 
 chant's daughter, which ended in mar- 
 riage with her and a partnership in 
 business with her father. 
 
 This man became one of the ruling 
 spirits in European commerce and 
 finance, the extent of his business 
 operations comporting with the high 
 repute of the house with which he was 
 identified. M. Bruck devoted himself 
 to the formation of the Austrian Navi- 
 gation Company ; and he it was who 
 established that well known commer- 
 cial institution, the Austrian Lloyd's 
 for which he was indebted for a name 
 to the mercantile phraseology of Eng- 
 land, and which he founded on prin- 
 ciples similar to those by which the 
 English Lloyd's is conducted. It is 
 also due to his energy that railroads 
 have been introduced and extended in 
 Austria. And in addition to all this, 
 his great financial and business talents 
 caused him to be appointed Minister 
 of Finance of the Empire, like La- 
 
 bouchere in England, and Lafitte in 
 France. 
 
 Jones Lloyd, London Banker. 
 The firm of JONES LLOYD & Co., 
 consisting of two partners father and 
 son has long held rank in London 
 with those of the Coutts, Glyns, Deni- 
 sons, Smiths, Barclays, Paynes, Wil- 
 lisses, and others, for immense extent 
 of business and honorable dealing. The 
 father has been mentioned as the only 
 great banker in London who has made 
 a fortune by banking, without having 
 been bred to it. Banking sought him. 
 He preserves, it is said, to this day, in 
 his bedroom, a little table which used 
 to stand many years ago in his shop at 
 Manchester, and upon which, as people 
 used to bring their money to him, his 
 first accounts were kept. His wealth 
 has been estimated at ten to twelve 
 million dollars in ready money, the 
 whole amount being kept floating in 
 convertible securities for immediate 
 use. Mr. Lewis Lloyd, according to 
 his own account, began business in 
 1792, at Manchester, where having 
 spent a year, he removed to London, 
 where he concluded to remain, with a 
 partnership in the Manchester firm. 
 According to report, he was originally 
 a Unitarian clergyman, but soon became 
 tired of that vocation finding it, as he 
 is said to have sometimes confessed after 
 dinner, " much more profitable and 
 agreeable to spend his time in turning 
 over bank notes, than in turning up the 
 whites of his eyes." Mr. Lloyd seems 
 to have been somewhat partial to this 
 style of remark. Thus, when Frys and 
 Chapman, the Quaker bankers, failed, 
 a member of the society took his ac- 
 count to Mr. Lloyd : " We think you 
 are right, friend," said the senior part- 
 ner ; " it is wiser to put thy money 
 with a rich sinner than a poor saint." 
 
 James Lenox, Merchant, of New York. 
 
 The name of LENOX appears among 
 
 some of the early Scotch emigrants,
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 9 
 
 such as the livings, Masons, Douglasses, 
 Grahams, &c. Robert Lenox became 
 a distinguished New York merchant. 
 His profits were wisely invested in 
 land, and this became very valuable. 
 His only son, JAMES, inherited the 
 larger portion of this estate, whose 
 increasing value made him a millioa- 
 naire. 
 
 In his benefactions, Mr. Lenox is said 
 to exercise close discrimination, and in 
 this way has for years refused personal 
 applications. This measure, indeed, 
 was necessary, in order to escape a 
 perpetual siege, which would soon have 
 driven any man to distraction. He 
 has been in the habit of considering 
 written applications, and of selecting 
 such as seemed worthy of his patron- 
 age. Mr. Lenox annually disburses, it 
 is stated, an enormous sum in a most 
 useful as well as most quiet manner. 
 Indeed, his mansion has been described 
 as one of the benevolent institutions of 
 the day its occupant being, to all 
 intents and purposes, but an actuary, 
 driven by perpetual duties and working 
 with assiduity to fulfil an important 
 trust. He is a thoroughly practical man, 
 posted on all the details of business, 
 and, inheriting the peculiar abilities 
 and energy of his father, puts them to 
 the best of use. 
 
 Mr. Lenox is a man of fine taste, and 
 finds recreation in gathering rare books, 
 of which he has a valuable collection, 
 and he possesses, in addition, a splendid 
 gallery of pictures, among these being 
 two of Turner's landscapes. 
 
 Daniel Callaghan, the Irish Mercantile 
 Celebrity. 
 
 One of the ablest and most accom- 
 plished merchants that Ireland ever 
 produced was DANIEL CALLAGHAN, the 
 elder, shooting ahead of all the mer- 
 chants in Ireland, by his native abili- 
 ties, his shrewdness, enterprise, and 
 tact. He set up, when but a stripling, 
 in the butter trade, but was refused 
 credit for the small amount of 400 at 
 
 Tonson & Warren's bank, as his first ex- 
 perience. He, however, finally obtained 
 the aid he was in need of, and from 
 that time pursued his business with 
 great success. A great London mer- 
 chant took the whole provision contract 
 at that time, and the Cork merchants 
 combined to engross the market. This 
 was the moment chosen by Callaghan 
 to reap the reward of the study he had 
 bestowed, so inquiringly ^nd systemati- 
 cally, upon the business of his choice. 
 Alarmed at their position, one of the 
 Londoners came over, and was still 
 more dismayed when he reached Cork. 
 Young Callaghan introduced himself, 
 and, what was then thought a most 
 presuming thing on his part, he gave 
 a dinner to the Londoner, to which, 
 however, he had some difficulty in 
 getting guests. He soon showed the 
 London firm the game it should play, 
 and expounded all the resources in 
 their power, to their enlightenment. A 
 share of the contract was immediately 
 given him, and, before the year expired, 
 the same firm handed Callaghan 10,- 
 000, on his own word, after having 
 hesitated, only nine months before, to 
 take his bond with security for a few 
 hundreds. There have been a few Irish 
 merchants who have realized greater 
 fortunes than Mr. C., who, at his cul- 
 minating point, was rated at con- 
 siderably above a million ; but it was 
 the splendid style in which he trans- 
 acted his affairs, his off-hand deal- 
 ing, his liberality and contempt for 
 peddling, and his complete mercan- 
 tile accomplishments, that placed him 
 at the head of the Irish commercial 
 world. 
 
 Henry Engrelbert Haase, Banker, of 
 Bremen. 
 
 Among those who have reached and 
 passed through the " golden gate " of 
 commercial success, is HENRY ENGEL- 
 BEKT HAASE, of Bremen, widely known 
 at home and abroad, but whose career 
 terminated so disastrously. By trade
 
 10 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 he amassed a large property, and was 
 one of the most highly respected busi- 
 ness men in Bremen holding several 
 public offices, was trustee of various 
 funds, administrator of many estates, 
 and guardian of a large number of or- 
 phan children. In fact, he abounded in 
 both public and private charities, and he 
 was always the one above all others to 
 whom his Mends intrusted their obli- 
 gations when they were absent from 
 the city. A certain coxcombry for 
 instance, he wore jewels and lace, 
 which was not usual, and took every 
 measure to conceal his age was for- 
 given him, on account of the high 
 esteem which he universally enjoyed. 
 No one ever ventured in the slightest 
 degree to ridicule Alderman Haase in 
 the opinion of every one, he stood 
 higher than any other man in Bremen. 
 He was remarkably hospitable ; enter- 
 taining every week a distinguished 
 company, and a degree of luxury was 
 exhibited at his dinners, excusable only 
 in a rich man without children. In his 
 annual statement of the different trust 
 funds he had in charge, he warmly 
 solicited the inspection of the books, 
 and often pretended that the value of 
 the property had increased by advan- 
 tageous purchase and sale of stocks, 
 and frequently offered to show the 
 overseers the certificates in various 
 closets and oaken chests; but it was 
 naturally deemed a gross imputation 
 on such a wealthy trustee and sternly 
 particular accountant, as well as a 
 downright waste of time, to accept the 
 offer. But at last, in one of the ways 
 peculiar in such cases, an explosion 
 took place, and his defalcations, squan- 
 dered in luxury and " charity," were 
 found to be immense. His house fell, 
 and " great was the fall of it." 
 
 Preserved Fish, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 No name was better known in the 
 mercantile community of New York 
 than this, during the advanced life- 
 
 time of its owner. Mr. Fish was born 
 in Rhode Island, July 3, 1766, of 
 parents in obscure circumstances. H,e 
 was at an early age apprenticed to the 
 blacksmith business, but becoming dis- 
 satisfied with his employment and em- 
 ployers, he ran away, and shipped as a 
 eabin boy in a whaling vessel. In this 
 trade he made several voyages, grad- 
 ually rising until he became master of 
 a small whaling craft, and finally by 
 his economy and industry accumula- 
 ting a little capital. 
 
 In 1810, he quit his seafaring life 
 and settled in New York, forming a 
 business copartnership with his cousin, 
 Mr. Joseph Grinnell, under the style of 
 Fish & Grinnell, and which lasted until 
 1825, when Mr. Fish went to Europe 
 and established a house in Liverpool, 
 under the name of Fish, Cairns & 
 Crary. He soon after returned to New 
 York, forming a copartnership with 
 Mr. Saul Alley and Joseph Lawrence, 
 under the style of Fish, Alley & Law- 
 rence, but which only continued for 
 two or three years. As president of 
 the Tradesmen's bank, to which posi- 
 tion he was elected in 1829, his manage- 
 ment was very successful, as the high 
 dividends and large contingent fund 
 of that institution, under his adminis- 
 tration, show. 
 
 Mr. Fish was remarkable for great 
 energy and decision of character, pur- 
 suing with ardor anything he under- 
 took, and, like most men of this char- 
 acter, he was rather opinionative, and 
 always firm in maintaining his own 
 notions possessing but little of the 
 waviter in modo, that oily process of 
 operating which distinguishes the more 
 polished man. Perhaps this trait which 
 characterized Mr. Fish may be said to 
 have been illustrated in the remark 
 made by a certain eminent man, that 
 " whenever I issue an order to a servant, 
 I say if you please, and if Tie don't please. 
 I make Mm please." Still, in busi- 
 ness qualifications, Mr. Fish had few 
 superiors, and enjoyed the universal
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 11 
 
 confidence of the mercantile commu- 
 nity. 
 
 It may be said of him, that he was 
 temperate in his habits, moderate in 
 his desires, and neither parsimonious 
 nor prodigal in his expenses ; while his 
 industry, economy and good judgment, 
 enabled him to realize a fortune from 
 which he derived an abundant income. 
 He was three times married, but left no 
 children. The story that he was picked 
 up at sea, on a plank or in an open 
 boat, and in that way acquired the 
 name Preserved, was unfounded in 
 truth; but its peculiarity probably 
 added notoriety to a character already 
 distinguished for consistency, a discrim- 
 inating judgment and stern integrity. 
 
 The name of DAVID LEAVITT may also 
 be here cited as that of one who exhibits 
 in his habits of industry and his business 
 judgment, as well as financial success, 
 a parallel case with that of Mr. Fish. 
 And to these distinguishing qualities 
 as a business man, Mr. Leavitt unites 
 the personal bearing of a bland and 
 high-toned gentleman of the old school. 
 Few names stand out brighter on the 
 roll of illustrious American merchants, 
 attaining to wealth and distinction by 
 every honorable means perseveringly ap- 
 plied, than that of David Leavitt. 
 
 Amos Lawrence, Merchant, Boston. 
 According to the usual custom in 
 New England, the first experience of 
 AMOS LAWBENCE, in the sphere of busi- 
 ness, was that of shop boy, and subse- 
 quently that of clerk. The firm by whom 
 he was thus employed having, in course 
 of time, become insolvent, Mr. L. con- 
 ceived the idea of commencing business 
 on his own account, and accordingly 
 rented a shop on Cornhill, Boston. He 
 was then, he says, in the matter of 
 property, not worth a dollar. His 
 father was comfortably off as a farmer, 
 somewhat in debt, with perhaps four 
 thousand dollars. His brother Luther 
 was in the practice of law, getting for- 
 ward, but not worth two thousand dol- 
 
 lars ; William had nothing ; Abbott, a 
 lad just fifteen years old, at school ; and 
 Samuel was a child of only seven years. 
 Some four months before, Mr. Law- 
 rence's father mortgaged his farm for the 
 sum of one thousand dollars, and placed 
 the proceeds in the hands of Amos, for 
 his use in business. Although the latter 
 was deeply affected by this act, which 
 had been effected without consultation 
 with any human being, he did not the 
 less deeply regret it. He had no desire 
 for aid that might cause others to suffer 
 through their affording it. His own 
 ideas on this point will be interesting : 
 " My honored father brought to me one 
 thousand dollars, and asked me to give 
 him my note for it. I told him he did 
 wrong to place himself in a situation to 
 be made unhappy, if I lost the money. 
 He told me he guessed IwouWnt lose it, 
 and I gave him my note. The first 
 thing I did was to take four per cent, 
 premium on my Boston bills the dif- 
 ference then between passable and Bos- 
 ton money and send a thousand dol- 
 lars in bills of the Hillsborough Bank 
 to Amherst, N. H., by my father, to my 
 brother Luther, to carry to the bank 
 and get specie, principally in silver 
 change, for the bills, and he returned 
 it to me in a few days. In the mean 
 time, or shortly after, the bank had been 
 sued, the bills discredited, and, in the 
 end, proved nearly worthless. I deter- 
 mined not to use the money except in 
 the safest way, and therefore loaned it 
 to the Messrs. Parkman, in whom I had 
 entire confidence. After I had been in 
 business, and had made more than a 
 thousand dollars, I felt that I could 
 repay the money, come what would of 
 it being insured against fire, and 
 trusting no one for goods. I used it in 
 my business, but took care to pay off 
 the mortgage as soon as it would be 
 received." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence cleared fifteen hundred 
 dollars the first year, and four thousand 
 the second. Excessive credit he re- 
 garded as the rock upon which so many
 
 12 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 business men are broken. He there- 
 fore, at the commencement of his own 
 business, adopted the plan of keeping 
 an accurate account of merchandise 
 bought and sold each day, with the 
 profit, as far as practicable. This plan 
 he pursued for a number of years ; and 
 he never found his merchandise fall 
 short in taking an account of stock, 
 which he did as often at least as once 
 in each year. He was thus enabled to 
 form an opinion of his actual state as a 
 business man. He adopted also the 
 rule always to have property, after the 
 second year's business, to represent 
 forty per cent, at least more than he 
 owed that is, never to be in debt more 
 than two and one-half times his capital, 
 a plan which saved him from ever get- 
 ting embarrassed. The splendid for- 
 tune which Amos Lawrence amassed, 
 during his business career, was thus 
 founded in the most careful and up- 
 right regulations, and to these he rigidly 
 adhered. He used his vast wealth for the 
 best good of his fellow creatures ; and 
 his style of living, though elegant, as 
 became one occupying so high a posi- 
 tion, was marked by no extravagance. 
 What his distinguished namesake, Cor- 
 nelius W. Lawrence, has so long been 
 in the commercial circles of the Empire 
 State, or its metropolis, Amos Law- 
 rence was in New England and its 
 thriving capital. The history of both 
 of these men is luminous with those 
 traits and characteristics which lie at 
 the foundation of prosperous commerce 
 and individual renown. 
 
 Lorenzo de Medicis, "the Magnificent 
 Merchant." 
 
 The MEDICI family is universally 
 acknowledged to be the most splendid 
 instance of commercial greatness which 
 the world affords. The true source of 
 the wealth and renown of the Medici 
 was their superior talents, and the 
 application of those talents to mercan- 
 tile enterprise. 
 
 Cosmo de Medici and his grandson, 
 
 " the Magnificent Lorenzo," were prac- 
 tised and operative merchants, who by 
 combining personal enterprise with the 
 most exalted patriotism, and a love of 
 trade with a devotion to science and 
 literature, raised the city of Florence to 
 an unexampled height of glory, and 
 made themselves the first citizens of the 
 world. 
 
 The high character of LOKENZO, as a 
 statesman and man of letters, was the 
 means of obtaining from other countries 
 privileges and advantages which ren- 
 dered Florence the envy of the civilized 
 world". The glory of the republic 
 appeared at a distance to be concentred 
 in himself. He seems to have arrived 
 at proficiency in everything he under- 
 took, and his individual success was 
 made subservient to his country's 
 good, his private gains being freely 
 devoted to the defense of the state and 
 the preservation of its honor. 
 
 Under the auspices of this family of 
 merchants, literature, science, and the 
 arts, flourished side by side with com- 
 merce. The Medicean Library, founded 
 by Cosmo, and supported by his grand- 
 son, still exists in Florence, presenting 
 the noblest of the many monuments of 
 their glory, the most authentic deposi- 
 tory of their magnificent fame. 
 
 Historians, poets, and philosophers, 
 have combined to swell the notes of 
 praise in honor of the merchant to 
 whom posterity has awarded the title 
 of " Magnificent." Thus, Voltaire says : 
 " What a curious sight it is to see the 
 same person with one hand sell the 
 commodities of the Levant, and with 
 the other support the burden of a state, 
 maintaining factors and receiving am- 
 bassadors, making war and peace, op- 
 posing the pope, and giving his ad- 
 vice and mediation to the princes of 
 his time, cultivating and encouraging 
 learning, exhibiting shows to the peo- 
 ple, and giving an asylum to the learned 
 Greeks that fled from Constantinople I 
 Such was Lorenzo de Medicis ; and 
 when to these particular distinctions,
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 13 
 
 the glorious names of the father of his 
 country and the mediator of Italy are 
 appended, who seems more entitled to 
 the notice and admiration of posterity 
 than this illustrious citizen of Flor- 
 ence ? " This eulogy is as beautifully 
 as it is wisely and truthfully penned. 
 
 The death of this great man, whose 
 splendid career terminated at the early 
 age of forty-four years, called forth from 
 his townsman and contemporary, the 
 wise but profligate Machiavelli, the fol- 
 lowing encomium : " No man ever 
 died in Florence, or in the whole extent 
 of Italy, with a higher reputation, or 
 more lamented by his country. Not 
 only his fellow citizens, but all the 
 princes of Italy, were so sensibly affect- 
 ed by his death, that there was not one 
 of them who did not send ambassadors 
 to Florence, to testify their grief, and 
 to condole with the republic on so great 
 a loss." The busts and portraits of this 
 illustrious merchant adorn almost every 
 art-collection and gallery in the capitals 
 of Europe. 
 
 Henry Hope, the Amsterdam Banker. 
 
 The great Amsterdam banking house 
 of Hope & Co. was established in the 
 seventeenth century by HENBY HOPE, 
 a Scottish gentleman, a descendant of 
 John de Hope, who came in 1537 from 
 France to Scotland, in the train of 
 Madeleine, queen of James V. 
 
 Mr. Hope was one of the most exalted 
 of his class. It was he who opened the 
 way for the autocratic power of Russia, 
 under the empress Catharine H., to the 
 confidence of the then wealthiest cap- 
 italists in Europe, the Dutch, and there- 
 by laid the foundation of Russian credit. 
 Always treated by the empress with 
 great distinction, he was honored with 
 the gift from her own hand, of her 
 portrait, the full size of life. This pic- 
 ture occupied the place of honor in the 
 superb gallery of "paintings, fitted up 
 by Mr. Hope in his palace " t'Huys ten 
 Bosch," now a royal pleasure-place, 
 which he had built in the domain of 
 
 Harlem. Upon his emigration to Eng- 
 land, he took this splendid gallery, 
 entirely composed of cabinet pieces, 
 with him, having it at his residence 
 in Cavendish Square. 
 
 To the tone of a refined gentleman 
 and man of the world, he united a cer- 
 tain amiable affability, which won 
 upon all who were numbered among 
 his associates. The trouble of his heart, 
 however, was the notorious relations of 
 his niece, Madam Williams Hope, 
 with a Dutch officer of dragoons, by the 
 name of Dopff. The larger part of 
 Hope's fortune, which he had bequeath- 
 ed to Henry, the eldest son of this niece, 
 and who died unmarried, passed, at 
 the decease of the latter, to Adrian, the 
 second son, who left no male heirs, but 
 from whom it descended to Francis, the 
 third son, born several years afterward, 
 this third inheritor being the rich and 
 well known Mr. Hope, of Paris, the last 
 member of that branch of the whole 
 family. 
 
 One of the leading members of 
 this vast establishment, in the early 
 part of the present century, was Mr. 
 Henry Hope, who was born in this 
 country, being the son of a Scotch loy- 
 alist who had settled in Boston, Mass. 
 This Henry Hope lived some time in 
 the town of Quincy, Mass., and was a 
 poor youth when he emigrated from 
 that place to England, at the close of 
 the last century. Mr. John Williams, 
 an Englishman, who married his niece, 
 and who assumed the name of John 
 Williams Hope, and afterward that of 
 John Hope, was the manager of the 
 establishment. Among the silent part- 
 ners of the house were Adrian Hope, 
 Henry Philip Hope, and Thomas Hope, 
 the author of " Anastasius." The oldest 
 active member of the firm was Mr. Peter 
 Caesar Labouchere, the interesting cir- 
 cumstances relating to whom, in his 
 elevation to this high position, are 
 narrated on another page of this work. 
 
 The governments with whom this 
 house entertain the most intimate
 
 14 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 financial relations, are those of Hol- 
 land, Russia, and Spain. The Hope 
 certificates, as the stocks are called, 
 which the Russian government has 
 given to the Dutch bankers, in ac- 
 knowledgment of its debt, amount to 
 about twenty-five millions of dollars. 
 Although much less powerful in its 
 monetary sway than the Rothschilds, 
 the Hopes hold in some respects a posi- 
 tion superior to the Jewish bankers. Sir 
 Archibald Hope, and the Earl of Hope- 
 toun (John Alexander Hope), are the 
 present representatives of the English 
 and elder branch of the Hope family. 
 Some of the great financial transac- 
 tions of this eminent house, as given 
 in other parts of this volume, will be 
 found to possess scarcely less interest 
 than a romance. 
 
 Francis Child, the Founder of English 
 Banking Houses. 
 
 The celebrity of the first London 
 banking house belongs, by common 
 consent, to Mr. FRANCIS CHILD. This 
 gentleman, who was the father of his 
 profession, and possessed a large pro- 
 perty, began business shortly after the 
 Restoration. He was, originally, ap- 
 prenticed to William Wheeler, pawn- 
 broker and banker, whose shop was 
 on the site of the present world- 
 renowned banking house. The foun- 
 dation of his importance arose from 
 the good old fashion of marrying his 
 master's daughter, and through this he 
 succeeded to his estate and business. 
 The latter he subsequently confined 
 entirely to the banking department. 
 The principles on which he founded 
 it, and the remarkable clauses in his 
 will, by which he regulated its future 
 conduct, show him to have been a 
 man of the highest business character. 
 It has maintained to the present day, 
 amid all the chances and changes of 
 banking, the same position and the 
 same respectability which he bequeath- 
 ed to it. 
 
 Stephen Whitney, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 STEPHEN WHITNEY was so long an 
 habitue of Wall street, Front street, and 
 Coenties slip, that even now (says a 
 writer in the " Continental Magazine ") 
 we almost momentarily expect to meet 
 him. His office was held for years in 
 the second story of a warehouse in 
 Front street, a spot in whose vicinity 
 he had passed nearly threescore years. 
 Thither he had come, in his boyhood, 
 a poor, friendless, New Jersey lad, had 
 found friends and employment, had at 
 last got to be a grocer, and had 
 gradually accumulated a large capital 
 by the closest economy. At this time, 
 the war of 1812 broke out, and cotton 
 became very low, in consequence of the 
 difficulty of shipping it to England. 
 Mr. Whitney had at that time a vast 
 amount of outstanding accounts in the 
 Southern States, and his debtors were 
 glad to pay him in this depreciated 
 article. We have been informed that 
 Jackson's cotton defenses of New 
 Orleans were of his property. As 
 neutral ships were permitted to sail 
 between the belligerent ports, Mr. 
 Whitney exported large quantities of 
 cotton to England, and held the balance 
 of his stock until the close of the war, 
 when it advanced enormously. This 
 advance, together with the proceeds of 
 his exports, at once made him a mil- 
 lionnaire, and the capital thus acquired 
 never lost a chance of increase. Giving 
 up the details of trade, Mr. Whitney 
 bought large quantities of real estate, 
 on which he erected warehouses and 
 obtained a princely rental. 
 
 Francis Cabot Lowell, Merchant, of 
 Boston. 
 
 This distinguished merchant was a 
 native of Newburyport, Mass., where 
 he was born in 1775, and died in Bos- 
 ton in 1817. In 1810, Mr. LOWELL 
 visited England, on account of the state 
 of his health ; and on his return home, 
 shortly after the commencement of the
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 15 
 
 war of 1812, he became so strongly 
 convinced of the practicability of intro- 
 ducing the cotton manufacture into the 
 United States, that he proposed to his 
 kinsman, Patrick T. Jackson, to make 
 the experiment on an ample scale. 
 
 The result of his project was the 
 establishment of manufactures at Wal- 
 tham, and the foundation of the city 
 of Lowell, which was named after 
 himself. He visited Washington in 
 1816, and his personal influence with 
 Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Calhoun, and other 
 leading members of Congress, contri- 
 buted largely to the introduction into 
 the tariff act of that year of the protec- 
 tive clause which gave such an impetus 
 to the cotton manufacture in the United 
 States. 
 
 Johannes Fugrger, and the Great Com- 
 mercial Family of Fugrgrers. 
 
 The origin of the proverb " as rich 
 as a Fugger " is in the name of a Ger- 
 man family of immensely wealthy mer- 
 chants. Its founder was JOHANNES 
 FUGGER, a weaver of Graben, near 
 Augsburg, who lived in the first half 
 of the fourteenth century, and acquired 
 a large property in lands by commerce 
 in cloths. His son, of the same name, 
 continued the occupation of weaver, to 
 which he also added that of cloth mer- 
 chant. Andreas, eldest son of the latter, 
 lived about 1400, and was widely known 
 as " Fugger the Rich" The nephews of 
 the last, Ulrich, Georg, and Jakob, born 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 covered the Baltic with their commerce, 
 which extended also to Hungary, Italy, 
 and even to India, and were able to 
 influence the affairs of the empire by 
 lending money to the princes, and were 
 in course of time created nobles. After 
 attaining to high political dignities, 
 they continued their commerce, built in 
 the Tyrol the splendid castle of Fug- 
 gerau, greatly embellished the city of 
 Augsburg, and found a new source of 
 wealth by working the mines of laathal, 
 Falkenstein, and Schwartz. The only 
 
 heirs of these three brothers were two 
 sons of Ulrich, Raimund and Anton. 
 The latter raised the family to its high- 
 est degree of prosperity and power. 
 The emperor Charles V. resorted to 
 them both when pressed for money, 
 yielded to them the privilege of coining, 
 and made them counts and princes of 
 the empire, and was lodged in the 
 splendid mansion of Anton when he 
 attended the diet of Augsburg. So 
 wealthy were they, through the success 
 attending their commercial enterprise, 
 that " as rich as a Fugger " became a 
 proverb. The most important branches 
 of this family at present are the princely 
 houses of Kirchberg and Babenhausen. 
 
 Benjamin Bussey, Merchant, of Boston. 
 
 BENJAMIN BUSSEY was for a long 
 period known as one of the old school 
 merchants of Boston only a few of 
 Whom now remain as representatives 
 of that highly honored and most 
 worthy class. 
 
 He was in the early part of his life 
 engaged in the occupation of a silver- 
 smith, and on going into business on 
 his own account he had only a very 
 small amount of paper money, which 
 his father gave him, accompanied with 
 the characteristic advice of that day, to 
 be always diligent, to spend less than 
 he earned, and never to deceive or dis- 
 appoint any one. From his grandfather 
 he also obtained the additional sum, 
 at this time, of fifty dollars in silver 
 money. Having purchased the neces- 
 sary tools, he had only ten dollars left 
 as his whole capital, and owed fifty 
 dollars borrowed money. But he pos- 
 sessed an iron constitution, principles 
 of strict integrity, and a spirit of per- 
 severance which nothing could subdue 
 or tire. In one year he made himself 
 acquainted with all the details of a 
 silversmith's art ; he had by his good 
 business management acquired some 
 capital, and his success had been equal 
 to his expectations. Articles of gold
 
 16 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 and silver wrought by his own hand 
 and well wrought, too, may still be 
 met with in and near Boston. In two 
 years he purchased the real estate on 
 which was his store. He subsequently 
 engaged In trade, in Dedham, and 
 afterward in Boston, soon reaching a 
 high position as a merchant. His 
 business rapidly increased, he became 
 deeply concerned in commerce, dealt 
 largely with England, France, and 
 Holland, owned several large vessels, 
 and was engaged in heavy and distant 
 mercantile adventures though all of 
 them were legitimate business transac- 
 tions, for he never speculated. He 
 seldom gave or took credit. The 
 immense fortune which he left ulti- 
 mately goes, by his will, to Harvard 
 University. 
 
 Peter Cooper, Merchant, of New York. 
 It is an interesting fact, that the first 
 idea of PETER COOPER'S great Univer- 
 sity of Science, or " Institute," arose in 
 his mind when he was young and thirst- 
 ing for knowledge, which at that time 
 he could not buy in New York, even 
 with the money which he earned in his 
 trade. One day, a friend told him of a 
 visit he had lately made to Paris, where 
 he had been able to learn whatever he 
 wished, without money and without 
 price, at the University endowed by 
 the first Napoleon. Peter Cooper, with 
 all the ardor of his aspiring mind, 
 wished that there was such an opportu- 
 nity in America, and this idea he said 
 never left him afterward. When he 
 began to be very successful, this idea 
 began to take shape, till at last it 
 has built that monumental palace of 
 Science for " whosoever will " the Coo- 
 per Institute, involving the munificent 
 individual appropriation of six hundred 
 thousand dollars, and which bids fair 
 to rival, at some future day, the most 
 magnificent universities of Europe. 
 The successful glue-maker has always 
 in a measure " stuck to his glue," and 
 now not merely sits in the palace due 
 
 to his opulence and high position as a 
 merchant, but is besides an intellectual 
 noble of the first class. 
 
 George Peabody, American Merchant 
 and Banker, of London. 
 
 GEORGE PEABODY was born in Dan- 
 vers, Mass., Feb. 18, 1795, of parents 
 in humble circumstances, though in- 
 dustrious and respectable. His father, 
 however, died when George was in his 
 teens, and, from the first, he was aware 
 that in the battle of life before him he 
 must depend on himself alone. Fortu- 
 nately for himself and many others, he 
 very early found that he could thus 
 depend on his unaided efforts. Incidents 
 strongly displaying ambition, energy, 
 and perseverance, marked the whole 
 course of his youth. The hard earnings 
 of his boyhood were cheerfully devoted 
 to the comfort of his mother, his broth- 
 ers, and sisters; and he subsequently 
 charged himself with their entire sup- 
 port, and cheerfully practised every 
 self-denial that he might serve them. 
 It is always safe to say, that the son 
 and brother who has shown himself 
 true to the claims of kindred, will be 
 found wanting in none of the relations 
 of life ; and George Peabody is an 
 eminent illustration of the truth of 
 this saying. 
 
 . At the age of thirteen he became 
 clerk for a grocer, and remained with 
 him about three years. Afterward, he 
 went with an uncle to Georgetown, and 
 in course of time he attracted the atten- 
 tion of Mr. Riggs, the capitalist, with 
 whom he finally went into business 
 Riggs furnishing the money and Pea- 
 body the brains. The house was re- 
 moved to Baltimore, and prospered so 
 well that branches were established in 
 New York and Philadelphia. In 1837 
 he went to England to buy goods, and 
 formed many acquaintances with its 
 leading merchants and politicians. He 
 now took up his permanent residence 
 in England, and severed his connection 
 with Peabody, Riggs & Co., in 1833.
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 17 
 
 He rendered important service in pre- 
 venting the complete prostration of 
 American securities, and particularly 
 those of Maryland, in London, in 1837, 
 but refused all compensation for what 
 he did. While he has lived in Eng- 
 land, his establishment has been a head- 
 quarters for Americans, whom he has 
 always welcomed with a generous hos- 
 pitality. The princely gift of seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars was 
 made a short tune ago to the destitute 
 of London, but was not the first in- 
 stance of his public spirited generosity. 
 In 1852, he sent a toast to a semi-cen- 
 tennial festival at his native town, 
 Danvers, which was to be opened 
 at the table. It was : " Education, a 
 debt to future generations ; " and to 
 pay his share of that debt, he inclosed 
 twenty thousand dollars, to be ex- 
 pended in establishing an institute, 
 library and lyceum for the town. The 
 sum has since been increased to sixty 
 thousand, with ten thousand dollars 
 additional for a branch library at No. 
 Danvers. Mr. Peabody subscribed ten 
 thousand dollars toward the first Grin- 
 nell expedition to the Arctic sent in 
 search of Franklin. In 1856, he gave 
 three hundred thousand dollars, with 
 a pledge to make it five hundred 
 thousand, for the establishment of an 
 institute in Baltimore, to be devoted 
 to science, literature and art. A record 
 of colossal munificence is that of George 
 Peabody. 
 
 John McDonogrh, Millionnaire, of New 
 Orleans. 
 
 JOHN MCDONOGH was born in Balti- 
 more, Md., in 1779. The only incidents 
 of his youth that are known are, that 
 he was a clerk in a mercantile store in 
 an inland town of Maryland ; that he 
 was noted then for eccentricities, and 
 for an excess of imagination, which led 
 to the apprehension that he was not 
 entirely of sound mind. Still, his 
 energy and intelligence secured him 
 
 employment and the confidence of his 
 employers. 
 
 About the year 1800 he was sent out 
 to New Orleans by a house in Balti- 
 more, with a letter of credit and con- 
 siderable resources. He then engaged 
 largely in business, but soon renounced 
 his position as agent, and starting on 
 his own account, became a leading and 
 prosperous merchant. In a few years 
 he accumulated a large fortune, say at 
 least three hundred thousand dollars. 
 He was one of the nabobs of the city, 
 and his style of living, and his habits, 
 conformed to his position and resources. 
 His mansion was one of the most showy 
 and luxurious in the city. He kept his 
 carriages and horses, his cellar of costly 
 wines, and entertained on a scale of 
 great extravagance and sumptuousness. 
 He was, in fact, the centre of fashion, 
 frivolity, sociability, and even of the 
 fashionable dissipations of the day. His 
 person, which even in extreme old age 
 was remarkable for dignity, erectness, 
 and courtliness, was at this period con- 
 spicuous for all the graces of manhood. 
 Owing to some peculiar experiences of 
 a private nature an account of which 
 will be found in our ANECDOTES OF 
 MERCHANTS IN THEIB DOMESTIC RELA- 
 TIONS, Mr. McDonogh eventually be- 
 came secluded and morose, though 
 prosecuting his acquisition of property 
 with augmented vigor, his peculiar 
 passion being that of accumulating 
 countless acres of waste and suburban 
 land. All his views regarded the dis- 
 tant future. The present value and pro- 
 ductiveness of land were but little re- 
 garded by him. His only recreation and 
 pleasure were in estimating the value 
 of his swamp and waste land fifty, & 
 hundred, and even a thousand years to 
 come. This passion at last gained such 
 an ascendency over him, that he seemed 
 to court and luxuriate in waste and 
 desolation. He would buy cultivated 
 places, and let them go to ruin. He 
 would build on his lots in the city 
 miserable shanties and rookeries, which
 
 18 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 would absolutely taint the neighbor- 
 hood, and thus enable him to buy out 
 his neighbors at low rates. 
 
 He could not be induced, by any 
 offer or consideration, to alienate any 
 of the property he had once acquired. 
 Abstemious to a fault, and withholding 
 himself from all the enjoyments and 
 associations of the world, he devoted 
 his time to the care of his large estate, 
 to the suits in which such acquisitions 
 constantly involved him, working for 
 seventeen hours out of the twenty-four, 
 the greater part of which labor con- 
 sisted in writing the necessary docu- 
 ments relating to his titles, and in 
 corresponding with his lawyers and 
 his overseers. For the fifty years of 
 his residence in New Orleans, he never 
 left the State, and rarely, if ever, passed 
 beyond the limits of the corporation. 
 He was not a usurer, a money lender, 
 nor a speculator. He acquired by 
 legitimate purchase, by entries on public 
 lands. He dealt altogether in land. 
 Stocks, merchandise, and other per- 
 sonal securities, were eschewed by him. 
 The wonder is, how, with a compara- 
 tively small revenue, his property not 
 being productive, and his favorite 
 policy being to render his lands wild 
 and unsuited for cultivation, he was 
 able to go on every year expanding the 
 area of his vast possessions. 
 
 Sampson Gideon, the Rival of Roths- 
 child. 
 
 SAMPSON GIDEON, the great Jew 
 banker, as he was commonly called 
 and the rival and enemy of Rothschild 
 was the financial support of the illus- 
 trious Sir Robert Walpole, the oracle 
 and leader in all monetary matters, and 
 his name was as familiar in the last 
 century as those of Qoldschmid and 
 Rothschild. A shrewd, sarcastic man, 
 possessing a rich vein of humor, the 
 anecdotes and reminiscences preserved 
 of him are, unhappily, few and far be- 
 tween. " Never grant a life annuity to 
 an old woman," he would say ; " they 
 
 wither, but they never die." And if 
 the proposed annuitant coughed with 
 a violent asthmatic cough on approach- 
 ing the room door, Gideon would call 
 out, " Aye, aye, you may cough, but it 
 shan't save you six months' purchase ! " 
 
 In one of his dealings with Mr. Snow, 
 the banker immortalized by Dean 
 Swift the latter lent Gideon 20,000. 
 Shortly afterward, the " forty-five " 
 broke out ; the success of the Pretender 
 seemed certain ; and Mr. Snow, alarmed 
 for his cherished property, addressed a 
 piteous epistle to the Jew. A run upon 
 his office, a stoppage, and a bankrupt- 
 cy, were the least phenomena the bank- 
 er's imagination pictured; and the 
 whole concluded with an earnest re- 
 quest for his money. Gideon went to 
 the bank, procured twenty notes, sent 
 for a vial of hartshorn, rolled the vial 
 in the notes, and thus grotesquely 
 Mr. Snow received the money he had 
 lent. 
 
 The greatest hit Gideon ever made 
 was when the rebel army approached 
 London ; when . the king was trem- 
 bling ; when the prime minister was 
 undetermined, and stocks were sold at 
 any price. Unhesitatingly he went to 
 Jonathan's, bought all in the market, 
 advanced every guinea he possessed, 
 pledged his name and reputation for 
 more, and held as much as the remainder 
 of the members held together. When 
 the Pretender retreated and stocks rose, 
 the Jew experienced the advantage of 
 his foresight, in immense gains. 
 
 Khan, the Great Persian Merchant. 
 
 When Georgia was invaded by Mo- 
 hammed, the founder of the present Per- 
 sian dynasty, the only one of the Khoras- 
 sanian chiefs who was not obliged to 
 give hostages of fidelity was ISAAC 
 KHAN, chief of Turbet-e-Hyderee, a 
 man of low birth, who, by the pursuits 
 of commerce, had been able, like the 
 Medici family in Italy, to obtain a 
 territory of two hundred miles in
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 19 
 
 length, and to raise himself from being 
 overseer of a caravansary, to the rank 
 of an independent sovereign and the 
 most eminent merchant and trader in 
 the whole realm. His revenue was 
 reckoned at one million dollars, two 
 hundred thousand of which was realized 
 from the merchandise in which he 
 traded, and the rest from his land 
 property, etc., which he had come in 
 possession of by means of his vast and 
 successful mercantile transactions. He 
 had six thousand troops in his pay, but 
 chiefly trusted to his policy for the 
 maintenance of his power; nor did 
 ever prince more securely reign in the 
 hearts of his subjects, and of the mer- 
 chants whom he had attracted to his 
 new emporium. To these, as well as to 
 pilgrims and beggars of every country 
 and religion, his hall was always open ; 
 and it was 'his principal relaxation 
 from the fatigues of public affairs and 
 commercial traffic, to dine in company 
 with the motley multitude, conversing 
 on equal terms with all, acquiring an 
 accurate knowledge of everything 
 which concerned the welfare of the 
 people, and admired by his guests for 
 his affability. 
 
 Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the Great Parsee 
 otter chant. 
 
 One of the most remarkable East 
 India merchants, a native of the Par- 
 see race and faith, and ranking with 
 the highest and the most enlightened 
 among Europeans of the same business 
 calling, was JAMSETJEE JEEJEEBHOY. 
 He was born at Bombay in 1783, and 
 his father was so poor that he followed 
 the profession of a " bottly- wallah," that 
 is, a bottle-fellow, buying and selling 
 old bottles. At the age of nineteen, 
 Jamsetjee entered into partnership with 
 his father-in-law, Pramjee Nusserwan- 
 jee, and in the following years made 
 several successful voyages to China. 
 
 Possessing those qualities most desir- 
 able in a merchant, integrity, judg- 
 ment, and enterprise, he gradually 
 
 extended his dealings to other coun- 
 tries, and drew in a rich harvest of 
 gains. His ships, built by the excellent 
 Parsee shipwrights of Bombay, traded 
 with all parts of the East, and now and 
 then sailed even round the Cape. Year 
 after year he prospered, and when he 
 had been twenty years in business, he 
 had acquired a large and still increas- 
 ing fortune. He did not, however, in 
 winning his fortune, forget or mistake 
 how to spend it. 
 
 In the course of a few years, Jeejeeb- 
 hoy's benefactions amounted to some 
 $300,000. The East India Government 
 made a report of his enlightened munifi- 
 cence to the Home Government, and the 
 latter conferred upon him the rare and 
 distinguished honor of knighthood. 
 It was the first instance, indeed, of any 
 royal title being bestowed by the Eng- 
 lish government upon a native of India. 
 The ceremony of presentation took 
 place at the Governor's House. The 
 circumstance was one not only highly 
 gratifying to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy 
 himself, but to the native community 
 in general, who are accustomed to 
 attach an extravagant value to any 
 such marks of honor. It was conse- 
 quently determined by some of the 
 most influential natives to offer him a 
 testimonial at once of their respect for 
 his character, and their gratification at 
 the distinction he had obtained. A 
 sum of fifteen thousand rupees was 
 consequently raised, and invested 
 not in a silver service, a bust, or a 
 statue, but in a fund, the interest of 
 which should be devoted to procuring 
 translations of popular and important 
 works from other languages into Guze- 
 ratte, the language chiefly in use among 
 the Parsees. 
 
 Vincent Nolte, the Wandering: Mer- 
 chant. 
 
 VINCENT NOLTE has been termed 
 "the wandering merchant." He was 
 born at Leghorn, in Italy, and lived, 
 successively, in Leghorn, Hamburg,
 
 20 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Trieste, Venice, Nantes, Paris, Amster- 
 dam, London, Philadelphia, and New 
 Orleans. He began his life as a clerk 
 in the house of Otto Frank & Co., at 
 Leghorn, in 1795 ; while drawing cari- 
 catures, the theatres, dress, and flirta- 
 tion, formed his real occupation. His 
 tailor's bill, at the end of a year, pre- 
 sented the not inconsiderable sum total 
 of twelve coats of all colors, and twenty- 
 two pairs of hose and pantaloons, which 
 were just then coming into fashion, 
 rather fast life for a youth of sixteen. 
 He saw Bonaparte at Leghorn, in 1796 ; 
 saw Wellington and the allies at Paris, 
 in 1815 ; fought under Jackson, at New 
 Orleans, in 1814, and was with Lafay- 
 ette, in Paris, during the revolution 
 of 1830. How many times he crossed 
 the Atlantic it would be difficult to 
 say. 
 
 Mr. Nolte was termed " the giant of 
 cotton speculation " at New Orleans ; 
 he was also a contractor for supplying 
 the French army with muskets ; the 
 mercantile agent in Cuba and the 
 United States of the house of Hope & 
 Co., of Amsterdam ; and agent of the 
 Barings ; an operator in stocks ; a trans- 
 lator of manuscripts at Venice ; a Tresor 
 de Numismatique et de Glyptique; a 
 writer on finance ; and an editor. He 
 stood in business and social relations 
 with most of the great men of " high 
 finance " of the last century with the 
 Barings, Labouchere, Hottinguer, La- 
 fitte, Ouvrard, etc. 
 
 " Lord Timothy Dexter," the Eccentric 
 Merchant, of Xewburyport, Mass. 
 
 According to his own account, TIM- 
 OTHY DEXTER was born in Maiden, 
 Mass., Jan. 22, 1747. After having 
 served as an apprentice to a leather 
 dresser, he commenced business in 
 Newburyport, where he also married a 
 widow, who owned a house and a small 
 piece of land, part of which, soon after 
 the nuptials, was converted by him into 
 a shop and tanyard for his own use. 
 
 By application to his business, his 
 
 property increased, and the purchase 
 of a large tract of land near Penobscot, 
 together with an interest which he 
 bought in the Ohio Company's pur- 
 chase, eventually afforded him so much 
 profit as to induce him to buy up pub- 
 lic securities at forty cents for the pound, 
 which securities soon after became worth 
 twenty shillings on the pound. By 
 these and other fortunate business trans- 
 actions, he prospered so greatly, that 
 property now was no longer the sole 
 object of his pursuit ; he exchanged 
 this god of idolatry for that of popular- 
 ity. He was charitable to the poor, 
 gave liberal donations to religious so- 
 cieties, and handsomely rewarded those 
 who wrote in his praise. His lordship 
 a selficonferred title about this time 
 acquired his peculiar taste for style and 
 splendor, set up an elegant equipage, 
 and, at great cost, adorned the front of 
 his mansion with numerous figures of il- 
 lustrious personages. 
 
 Some of his lordship's speculations 
 in trade have become quite as celebrat- 
 ed for their oddity. as those of Roths- 
 child for their unscrupulous cunning. 
 He once anxiously inquired of some 
 merchants, whom he knew, how he 
 should dispose of a few hundred dol- 
 lars. Wishing to hoax him, they an- 
 swered, " Why, buy a cargo of warm- 
 ing pans, and send them to the West 
 Indies, to be sure." Not suspecting 
 the trick, he at once bought all the 
 warming pans he could find, and sent 
 them to a climate where there was 
 every reason to suppose ice would be 
 far more acceptable. But " Providence 
 sometimes shows his contempt of 
 wealth, by giving it to fools." The 
 warming pans met with a ready sale 
 the tops being used for strainers, and 
 the lower parts for dippers, in the man- 
 ufacture of molasses. 
 
 With ^the proceeds of his cargo of 
 warming pans, Dexter built a fine ves- 
 sel ; and being informed by the carpen- 
 ter that wales were wanting, he called 
 on an acquaintance, and said, "My
 
 LARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 21 
 
 head workman sends me word that he 
 wants ' wales ' for the vessel. What 
 does he mean ? " " Why, whalebones, 
 to be sure," answered the man, who, like 
 everybody else, was tempted to im- 
 prove the opportunity of imposing 
 upon Dexter's stupidity. Whalebones 
 were accordingly bought ; but, finding 
 that Boston could not furnish enough, 
 he emptied New York and Philadel- 
 phia. The ship-carpenters, of course, 
 had a hearty laugh at his expense ; but, 
 by a singular turn of fortune, this blun- 
 der was also the means of increasing 
 his wealth. It soon after became fash- 
 ionable for ladies to wear stays com- 
 pletely lined with whalebone ; and as 
 none was to be found in the country, on 
 account of his having thus so complete- 
 ly swept the market, it brought a gold- 
 en price. Thus his coffers were a sec- 
 ond time filled by his odd transactions. 
 
 Joshua Bates, of the House of Baring 
 &Co. 
 
 An honored member of the great firm 
 of Baring Brothers & Co., London, is 
 JOSHUA BATES. Mr. Bates is a native 
 of Weymouth, Mass., where he was 
 born in 1788, being the only son of 
 Col. Joshua Bates, of that place. He 
 received his early education under 
 Rev. Jacob Norton, and at the age of 
 fifteen entered the counting-room of 
 William R. Gray, of Boston, an accom- 
 plished man of business. 
 
 Young Bates showed a remarkable 
 aptitude for commercial knowledge and 
 a commercial career, on which account 
 he was intrusted with the extensive 
 business concerns not only of his first 
 employer, but of the latter's father also, 
 the elder Mr. Gray, for a long time the 
 leading merchant in New England and 
 exceeded by but a few in the world, in 
 respect to extent of shipping. 
 
 The war with England proving disas- 
 trous to mercantile pursuits, Mr. Bates 
 was despatched to Europe, to look after 
 Mr. Gray's extensive maritime interests 
 in that quarter. This, of course, brought 
 
 him into relations with some of the 
 leading commercial and banking houses 
 of Europe, especially of the Hopes and 
 the Barings, who were greatly im- 
 pressed with his remarkable talent and 
 judgment in respect to whatever con- 
 cerned the commerce of the world. In 
 the year 1826, through the influence of 
 Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., he 
 formed a house in London, in connec- 
 tion with Mr. John Baring, son of Sir 
 Francis Baring, under the firm of Bates 
 & Baring. On the death of the late 
 Mr. Holland, these gentlemen were 
 both made partners in the house of 
 Baring Brothers & Co., and of which 
 Mr. Bates has ever since been an active 
 and efficient member, giving to it much 
 of that commanding influence which it 
 enjoys both in Europe and America. 
 Mr. Bates has long been noted for his 
 large-hearted charities on both sides 
 of the Atlantic. His most munificent 
 donations to the Boston Public Library 
 are well known ; but his benevolence 
 has by no means been confined to that 
 object alone. 
 
 Mr. Bates was married, in 1813, to 
 Lucretia Augusta, of the Boston branch 
 of the Sturgis family, by whom he has 
 only one surviving child, Madame Van 
 de Wyer, wife of the eminent states- 
 man who has more than once been 
 called to administer the government 
 of Belgium, and more recently officia- 
 ting as its diplomatic representative 
 at the court of St. James. 
 
 James Morrison, " of twenty millions." 
 
 JAMES MORRISON, who well deserved 
 the title given him of a " modern Croe- 
 sus," was until his death one of the 
 extremely rich men of London. In 
 mental character, and with boundless 
 wealth entirely self-acquired, this great 
 millionnaire was certainly remarkable 
 as a man and a merchant. He was of 
 common parents, originally of Scotch 
 descent. Early transplanted to the 
 English metropolis, at the end of the
 
 22 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 last century, the country boy first set 
 foot in London unaided, in search of 
 his fortunes. After the close of the 
 great Continental wars, and the conse- 
 quent rapid extension of population and 
 wealth, Mr. Morrison was one of the 
 first English traders who reversed his 
 system of management, by an entire 
 departure from the old plan of exact- 
 ing the highest prices. His new prin- 
 ciple was the substitution of the 
 lowest remunerative scale of profit and 
 a more rapid circulation of capital ; the 
 success of this experiment was soon 
 seen in his enormously augmented 
 trade. " Small profits and quick re- 
 turns " was his motto, and he therefore 
 became widely known as the " Cheap 
 Merchant." From his earliest settle- 
 ment in London, he was associated 
 with the liberal party in politics, 
 even in the worst of times, nor did 
 his later gains of immense wealth ever 
 vary his political principles. As a 
 member of Parliament, he devoted 
 himself to questions and measures re- 
 lating to trade, foreign commerce, the 
 currency, and railways. His accumula- 
 tions amounted to the prodigious sum 
 of twenty millions of dollars. 
 
 Mr. Morrison retired from active 
 business several years since, but with- 
 out withdrawing his capital from the 
 mercantile house ; and though man- 
 aging his vast funds himself up to the 
 time of his death (which recently oc- 
 curred) with all the sagacity of earlier 
 days, he became haunted with the idea 
 that he should come to want. He 
 finally commenced doing day labor on 
 a farm held by one of his tenants, for 
 which labor he was regularly paid 
 twelve shillings a week, and this he 
 continued up to the time of his last ill- 
 ness. For eighteen months before his 
 death he was an habitual applicant for 
 relief to the parish, assembling twice 
 a week with the town paupers, and 
 receiving with each one of them his 
 two shillings and a quartern loaf. His 
 friends indulged him in these fancies, 
 
 on the ground that it was the best 
 choice of two evils. And yet he made 
 a most judicious will, and his invest- 
 ments up to the last were characterized 
 by great good sense. 
 
 The probate duty on Mr. Morrison's 
 will exceeded five hundred thousand 
 dollars. Among his possessions was 
 his seat at Basildon Park, which cost 
 over six hundred thousand dollars, and 
 the furniture four hunded and fifty 
 thousand. The mansion on this estate 
 was left to his widow, with an annuity 
 of fifty thousand dollars yearly. The 
 estate itself was left to his son Charles, 
 as well as the Islay estate in Scotland, 
 which latter cost about two and a-half 
 millions of dollars. This is let to 
 numerous tenants, and from its extent 
 and vastness may be termed a princi- 
 pality. His son Charles was likewise 
 bequeathed the round sum of $5,000,000 
 under the will. Besides being possessed 
 of Fonthill Abbey, Hone Park, Sussex, 
 and his town palace in Harley street, 
 Mr. Morrison had shares amounting to 
 four hundred thousand dollars in the 
 Victoria Docks, and large acquisitions 
 in the United States. 
 
 Jacob Little, " of Wall Street." 
 
 The name of JACOB LITTLE has long 
 been so largely and universally asso- 
 ciated with the financial operations of 
 which "Wall street, New York, is the 
 especial theatre, that that locale may 
 with more appropriateness perhaps than 
 any other be connected with his name 
 and reminiscences. 
 
 Mr. Little was born in Newburyport, 
 Mass., and, when twenty years of age, he 
 went to New York to seek his fortune 
 and give play to the business faculties 
 and aptitude with which nature had 
 endowed him. His means were small, 
 but his intelligence was quick and 
 made readily available to his circum- 
 stances and purposes. He became, in 
 a short time, a clerk in the employment 
 of Jacob Barker, and, under such tui-
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 23 
 
 tion and example, it must indeed have 
 been his own fault, if he did not find 
 himself, at the close of his five years' 
 service, prepared to follow some calling 
 with shrewdness and success. His ca- 
 reer shows that the opportunities thus 
 enjoyed were not lost upon him. On 
 leaving Mr. Barker, Mr. Little com- 
 menced the business of exchange and 
 specie broker, on his own account, and 
 in this sphere left nothing undone that 
 could contribute to an energetic and 
 successful pursuit of his business, and 
 to securing the confidence of those who 
 intrusted to him their orders and funds. 
 His activity, decision, and good judg- 
 ment, gave him a high place in mone- 
 tary circles, wealth and favor rolled in 
 upon him, and though he has more 
 than once had to yield to the revulsions 
 in the stock and money market, he has 
 shown the rare quality of being as 
 faithful to his creditors as to himself. 
 
 Mr. Little has been humorously 
 written of as equally the hero and the 
 dupe of the American stock exchange 
 the heir of Ouvrard the confidant 
 of bank presidents the untiring pro- 
 jector of time bargains and every now 
 and then he becomes so jaded and out 
 of breath, that he himself cannot be 
 " called to time." He has for some 
 forty years thrown an air of enchant- 
 ment about speculation; has devised 
 more pitfalls for the credulous, as well 
 as for the cautious, than any man of 
 his time repeatedly losing or impair- 
 ing his financial power, and as often 
 regaining it. He was made to wrestle 
 with fortune, and to fall with a laugh- 
 ing face. Hundreds of satellites revolve 
 about him, set when he sets, and rise 
 when he rises. If fate should compel 
 him to a period of inaction, his condi- 
 tion would be most miserable. 
 
 The Rothschilds, "Wealthiest Bankers 
 
 in the World. 
 
 The house of ROTHSCHILD is the im- 
 personation of that money power which 
 governs the world. For nearly half a 
 
 century their influence has been con- 
 tinually on the increase ; and to them, 
 more than to any monarch or minister 
 of state, however potential, Europe is 
 indebted for the preservation of peace 
 between the great powers. To give 
 even an outline of the immense and 
 successful operations which have placed 
 a German Jew, his sons, and grandsons, 
 at the head of the moneyed interests 
 of the world, it would be necessary to 
 embrace the history of European finance 
 since the year 1812. 
 
 Meyer Anselm Rothschild was the 
 founder of this house, about the year 
 1740 ; he was a money-changer and 
 exchange broker, a man of fair char- 
 acter, and in easy circumstances. After 
 the battle of Jena, October, 1806, Napo- 
 leon decreed the forfeiture of their 
 states by the sovereigns of Brunswick 
 and of Hesse-Cassel, and a French army 
 was put in march to enforce the decree. 
 Too feeble to resist, the landgrave 
 prepared for flight. But in the vaults 
 of his palace he had twelve million flo- 
 rinsabout $5,000,000 in silver. To 
 save this great and bulky amount of 
 money from the hands of the French 
 was a matter of extreme difficulty, as 
 it could not be carried away, and the 
 landgrave had so little confidence in 
 his subjects that he, could not bring 
 himself to confide his case to their 
 keeping, especially as the French would 
 inflict severe punishment on him or 
 them who might undertake the trust. 
 In his utmost need, the landgrave be- 
 thought himself of Meyer Anselm 
 Rothschild, sent for him to Cassel, 
 and entreated him to take charge of 
 the money ; and by way of compensa- 
 tion for the dangers to which Mr. 
 Rothschild exposed himself, the land- 
 grave offered him the free use of the 
 entire sum, without interest. On these 
 terms, Mr. Rothschild undertook the 
 trust, and by the assistance of some 
 friends, Jewish bankers at Cassel, the 
 money was so carefully stowed away, 
 that when the French, after a hurried
 
 24 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 march, arrived in the city, they found 
 the old landgrave gone, and his treasure 
 vanished. 
 
 At the time this large sum of money 
 was placed in M. A. Rothschild's hands, 
 he had five sons, of whom three, An- 
 selm, Nathan, and Solomon, had arrived 
 at man's estate. These he associated 
 with himself. By their skilful manage- 
 ment, the large sum of ready money at 
 their disposal increased and multiplied 
 with astonishing rapidity. The fall of 
 Napoleon enabled the old landgrave to 
 return to Cassel, and he gave the Roths- 
 childs notice that he should withdraw 
 the money he had confided to them ; 
 but before the notice expired, Napo- 
 leon's return from the isle of Elba so 
 greatly alarmed the landgrave that he 
 urged the Rothschilds to keep the 
 money at the low rate of two per cent. 
 per annum, which they did until his 
 death, in 1823, when the Rothschilds 
 refused to keep it any longer. 
 
 At the period of Meyer Anselm Roths- 
 child's death, which occurred so unex- 
 pectedly, he saw his five sons placed 
 respectively at the head of five immense 
 establishments at Frankfort, London, 
 Paris, Vienna, and Naples, all united in 
 a copartnership which is universally 
 allowed to be the most wealthy and 
 extensive the world has ever seen. 
 And, whatever exceptions may be made 
 to the manner in which the business of 
 these houses has been conducted, in 
 some operations which have marked 
 their career, it must be admitted that 
 rarely does a family furnish so many 
 members who are competent, individu- 
 ally, to be intrusted with such vast 
 financial concerns. 
 
 Although Mr. ROTHSCHILD was com- 
 monly termed a merchant, his most im- 
 portant transactions were in connection 
 with stocks, loans, etc. It was here that 
 his great decision, his skilful combina- 
 tions, and his unequalled energy, made 
 him remarkable. At a time when the 
 funds were constantly varying, the temp- 
 tation was too great for a capitalist like 
 
 Mr. Rothschild to withstand. His ope- 
 rations were soon noticed ; and when 
 the money market was left without an 
 acknowledged head, by the deaths of 
 Sir Francis Baring and Abraham Gold- 
 schmid for the affairs of the latter 
 were wound up, and the successors of 
 the former did not then aim at the 
 autocracy of the money market, the 
 name of Nathan Meyer Rothschild was 
 in the mouths of all financial dealers 
 as a prodigy of success. Cautiously, 
 however, did the great banker proceed, 
 until he had made a fortune as great as 
 his future reputation. He revived all 
 the arts of an older period. He em- 
 ployed bankers to depress or raise the 
 market for his benefit, and is said to 
 have purchased in one day to the ex- 
 tent of four million pounds. His trans- 
 actions soon pervaded the entire globe. 
 The old and the new world alike bore 
 witness to his skill ; and with the prof- 
 its on a single loan he purchased an 
 estate which cost seven hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars. Minor capital- 
 ists, like parasitical plants, clung to 
 him, and were always ready to advance 
 their money in speculations at his bid- 
 ding. Nothing seemed too gigantic for 
 his grasp nothing too minute for his 
 notice. His mind was as capable of 
 contracting a loan for tens of millions, 
 as of calculating the lowest possible 
 amount on which a clerk could exist. 
 Like too many great merchants and 
 bankers, whose profits are counted by 
 thousands and millions, he paid his 
 assistants the smallest amount for 
 which he could procure them. 
 
 Rothschild in London knew the 
 result of the battle of Waterloo eight 
 hours before the British Government, 
 and the value of this knowledge was 
 no less than one million dollars, gained 
 in one forenoon. No bad loan was ever 
 taken in hand by the Rothschilds ; no 
 good loan ever fell into other hands. 
 Any financial operation on which they 
 frowned, was sure to fail. And so 
 conscious were they of their influence,
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 25 
 
 that after the July revolution in 1830, 
 Anselm Rothschild, of Frankfort, de- 
 clared, and the declaration was made 
 to sound in imperial ears, " The house 
 of Austria desires war, but the house 
 of Rothschild requires peace." 
 
 In addition to their five principal 
 establishments, they have agencies of 
 their own in several of the large cities, 
 both of the old and the new world. 
 As dealers in money and bills, they 
 may be said to have no rivals, and 
 as the magnitude of their opera- 
 tions enables them to regulate the 
 course of exchange throughout the 
 world, their profits are great, while 
 their risks are comparatively small by 
 the perfect manner in which their busi- 
 ness is managed. Indeed, the only 
 "heavy loss they may be said to have 
 experienced as yet that is, heavy for 
 them, was through the February revo- 
 lution of 1848, when it is said that, 
 owing to the sudden depreciation of 
 all funded and railroad property 
 throughout Europe, their losses from 
 March till December of that year 
 reached the enormous figure of $40,- 
 000,000. But great as their losses were, 
 they did not affect the credit of the 
 Rothschilds, and do not appear in any 
 degree to have impaired their means. 
 The members of the firm are numerous, 
 as the third generation has been re- 
 ceived into the copartnership, and, as 
 the cousins mostly intermarry, their 
 immense wealth will, for a length of 
 time, remain in comparatively few 
 hands. The affairs of this firm in the 
 United States have for a long time 
 been under the direction of August 
 Belmont, of New York, by whom they 
 have been managed with distinguished 
 success. 
 
 GK J. Ouvrard, the " Napoleon of Fi- 
 nance." 
 
 M. GABRIEL JULIEN OTJVBABD'S 
 name has been associated with the 
 most gigantic financial operations, in 
 Europe, during the last half century, 
 
 and numberless interesting incidents 
 have marked the chequered career of 
 him who has been most appropriately 
 designated the " Napoleon of Finance ; " 
 and when the vastness and novelty of 
 his plans, the extraordinary quickness 
 of his perception, the fertility of his 
 resources, his masterly combinations, 
 and the vigor and perseverance with 
 which he wove out the brilliant but 
 eminently practical conceptions of his 
 genius, are considered, the epithet thus 
 given him seems most happy. 
 
 That he has claims to universal 
 celebrity as a financier, it is sufficient 
 to say that he figured prominently in 
 the great events of the French Repub- 
 lic the Consulate the Empire the 
 Restoration and the Revolution of 
 1830 ; that, after having witnessed 
 the horrors of the Reign of Terror, and 
 aided in the downfall of Robespierre, 
 he became the Banker of the Republic, 
 with power to issue a paper currency 
 of his own, admissible as a legal tender 
 in payment of the taxes of the state 
 the associate of Barras, Cambaceres, and 
 Talleyrand a worshipper at the feet 
 of " Notre Dame de Bon Secours " the 
 votary of " Notre Dame des Victoires " 
 the creditor of Bernadotte the con- 
 fidential agent of Charles IV. of Spain 
 the honored guest of Pozzo di Borgo, 
 Metternich, and Louis XVIII. the inti- 
 mate friend of Chateaubriand the 
 Commissary-General of Napoleon at 
 the Passage of the St. Bernard, the 
 Camp of Boulogne, and on the decisive 
 field of Waterloo and the host of 
 Wellington at Paris ! 
 
 By a special contract with Charles 
 IV. of Spain, M. Ouvrard became the 
 business partner of his Majesty in the 
 exclusive commerce of the Spanish pos- 
 sessions in the new world during the 
 war with Great Britain. It was in 
 reference to this contract, and while 
 crumpling the document in his hand, 
 that Napoleon observed to M. Ouvrard, 
 in presence of the council of ministers, 
 " You have lowered royalty to the level
 
 26 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 of commerce." Whereupon M. Ouv- 
 rard, to the surprise of all present, 
 replied, in a firm but respectful tone, 
 " Sire, commerce is the life-blood of 
 states; sovereigns cannot do without 
 commerce, but it can very well do 
 without sovereigns." 
 
 M. Ouvrard lived to a very advanced 
 age, using moderately the bounties and 
 luxuries of affluence with which he was 
 surrounded. The philosophical equani- 
 mity of his mind, and the iron frame 
 in which it was cast, served him in all 
 Ms varied experiences. His elegance 
 of manner, dignified serenity of coun- 
 tenance, and the graceful charm of his 
 advanced years, rendered his presence 
 both illustrious and attractive. He 
 was naturally indulgent, kind-hearted, 
 condescending, and, like all thorough 
 men of the world, inclined to treat with 
 lenity the inexperience and errors of 
 his fellows, and especially of his juniors. 
 His memory was wonderfully retentive ; 
 and his conversation, founded on a 
 vast experience of men and things, 
 was rich in information and sparkling 
 with wit, and without any affectation. 
 Some of his transactions, however, cast 
 a cloud upon the integrity of his busi- 
 ness dealings at least during one por- 
 tion of his remarkable career. 
 
 Thomas Gresham, the Royal Merchant 
 and Financier. 
 
 Sir THOMAS GRESHAM'S name stands 
 out prominently in England's mercan- 
 tile annals, as the founder of the Royal 
 Exchange, and as a distinguished finan- 
 cier. His father had amassed great 
 wealth and attained great eminence as 
 a merchant and bill broker in the reign 
 of Henry VHI., and he resolved to train 
 his son to succeed him in the business 
 so successfully pursued by himself. 
 After a thorough collegiate education, 
 young Gresham was apprenticed to his 
 uncle, a knight, and a distinguished 
 member of the " Merchants' Company." 
 Under Edward VI., Gresham was em- 
 ployed on the same services as his 
 
 father had performed for that king's 
 father, and in the course of Edward's 
 short reign, he made no fewer than 
 forty voyages to Antwerp, on the royal 
 business. By his financial skill and 
 foresight, he rendered great service to 
 the revenues of the English crown, 
 which he rescued from the extortions 
 of Dutch and Jewish capitalists, and 
 introduced with great effect the prac- 
 tice of raising money from native money 
 lenders, in preference to foreigners, who 
 exacted a ruinous rate of interest. 
 Mary and Elizabeth continued him in 
 his employment, and the latter knight- 
 ed him in 1559. He had now accumu- 
 lated an immense fortune and built 
 himself a palatial dwelling which, 
 after his wife's death, was used as 
 Gresham College, and the site of which 
 is now occupied by the excise office. 
 He lived there in great state, and, by 
 command of Elizabeth, he often enter- 
 tained the ambassadors and visitors of 
 rank that thronged her court. To 
 these circumstances Gresham owed his 
 familiar title of the " Royal Merchant 
 and Financier" 
 
 Nicholas Biddle, the Financier, of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 The eminent financier, NICHOLAS 
 BIDDLE, was born in Philadelphia, 
 Jan. 8, 1786, and died there Feb. 27, 
 1844. On graduating at Princeton col- 
 lege, he studied for the legal profes- 
 sion, but being too young for admis- 
 sion to the bar, he accepted the post 
 of secretary to Gen. Armstrong, Minis- 
 ter to France, and afterward filled the 
 same position under Mr. Monroe, Minis- 
 ter to England. He afterward travelled 
 much in Europe, and in 1807 returned 
 to Philadelphia, and commenced his 
 career as a lawyer. He edited the 
 " Portfolio," compiled a Commercial 
 Digest, and prepared the popular 
 narrative of Lewis and Clark's Explora- 
 tion. He was at different times a 
 representative and senator in the Penn- 
 sylvania legislature, where he ably
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 supported various educational meas- 
 ures. He was a candidate for Congress 
 in 1817, but was defeated by the Fed- 
 eral party. In 1819, President Monroe 
 appointed him a government director 
 of the United States Bank, and in 1823 
 he became its president. This bank 
 continued until the expiration of its 
 charter, in 1836, when Congress re- 
 newed the charter, but President Jack- 
 son vetoed it. The Pennsylvania legis- 
 lature then created a State Bank, 
 giving to it the name of the United 
 States Bank. Mr. Biddle, then at his 
 zenith as a financier, was urged to 
 accept the presidency of this institu- 
 tion, which he finally though reluc- 
 tantly did, serving until 1836, when he 
 resigned on account of ill health. Two 
 years afterward, the bank, after many 
 struggles, ceased payment, and became 
 insolvent. Whether this was the result 
 of measures pursued during the admin- 
 istration of Mr. Biddle, or after it, or 
 of general causes affecting the condi- 
 tion of the whole country, were points 
 of vehement controversy still fresh in 
 the minds of business men. Mr. Biddle, 
 besides his career as a financier, was a 
 writer of considerable ability, an 
 agriculturist, and quite an adept in the 
 fine arts. He was president of the 
 trustees of Girard College, and deter- 
 mined the plan of the building in 
 accordance with his fine classic taste ; 
 also the beautiful structure, the United 
 States custom-house. 
 
 The Barings, Merchants and Bankers, 
 of London. 
 
 Various origins are attributed to the 
 members of the house and family of 
 BARING. It has been stated, and is gen- 
 erally believed to be the most authen- 
 tic account concerning them, that they 
 were originally German weavers who 
 came over to London ; and, being suc- 
 cessful in business, were, through the 
 interest of William Bingham, of Phila- 
 delphia, appointed agents to the Amer- 
 ican government. During the loyal- 
 
 ty loan in 1797, the head of the house 
 made one hundred thousand pounds 
 for three consecutive days ; and in 1806, 
 somebody sarcastically said, " Sir Fran- 
 cis Baring is extending his purchases 
 so largely in Hampshire, that he soon 
 expects to be able to inclose the coun- 
 try with his own park paling." Near- 
 ly sixty years ago, this gentleman, the 
 first algebraist of the day, retired from 
 business with a regal fortune, and died 
 shortly after his retirement. But the 
 great commercial house which he had 
 raised to so proud a position was con- 
 tinued by his sons, and may be con- 
 sidered the most important mercantile 
 establishment in the British empire; 
 and as an instance of the fortune and 
 capacity of its members, it may be 
 mentioned that the late Lord Ash- 
 burton, when bearing, as Sir Robert 
 Peel expressed it, " the honored name 
 of Alexander Baring," realized 170,- 
 000 in two years by his combinations 
 in French rentes. 
 
 Peter Baring seems to have been one 
 of the remotest ancestors of the Barings. 
 He lived in the years from 1660 to 1670 
 at Groningen, in the Dutch province of 
 Overyssel. One of his ancestors, under 
 the name of Francis Baring, was pastor 
 of the Lutheran church at Bremen, and 
 in that capacity was called to London, 
 where, among others, he had a son 
 named John. The latter, well ac- 
 quainted with cloth-making, settled at 
 Larkbeer, in Devonshire, and there put 
 up an establishment for the manufac- 
 ture of that article. He had five chil- 
 dren four sons, John, Thomas, Fran- 
 cis, Charles, and a daughter called 
 Elizabeth. Two of those sons, John 
 and Francis, established themselves, 
 under the firm of John and Francis 
 Baring, at London, originally with a 
 view of facilitating their father's trade, 
 in disposing of his goods, and so as to 
 be in a position to import the raw 
 material to be required, such as wool, 
 dye stuffs, &c., directly from abroad. 
 Thus was established the house which,
 
 28 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 after the withdrawal of the elder broth- 
 er, John, who retired to Exeter, grad- 
 ually under the firm-name of Francis 
 Baring & Co., and eventually under 
 that of Baring Brothers & Co., rose to 
 world-wide eminence in commerce. 
 
 Isaac De Buirette, the Illustrious 
 
 German Merchant. 
 
 The German mercantile house of DE 
 BUIKETTE was, in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, as also in the beginning of the 
 eighteenth, one of the most extensive 
 and renowned on the continent of 
 Europe. Its name, its influence, ex- 
 tended over the whole commercial 
 world, and its credit was unlimited. 
 In his time, Isaac De Buirette was con- 
 sidered the most accomplished mer- 
 chant in all Germany. Under the firm 
 of Blumart & De Buirette, he carried 
 on the most important exchange busi- 
 ness, and entered largely into great 
 commercial undertakings and bold 
 speculations. A second house was in 
 the course of time established at Vienna, 
 which acquired in a short period a 
 great reputation, and was the most cele- 
 brated ware-emporium of that famed 
 commercial metropolis. The king of 
 Prussia made him his financial coun- 
 sellor. His learning was ripe and 
 varied. His correspondence was im- 
 mense extending to all places of trade 
 in his part of the world, and also be- 
 yond, in all of which his high reputa- 
 tion was a proverb, and an unlimited 
 confidence and credit in the mercantile 
 world were his reward. The firm, in 
 its later stages, and after the decease 
 of Daniel De Buirette, consisted of his 
 three sons, and existed for many years. 
 It was a house whose fame will never 
 be blotted out in the annals of German 
 commerce. 
 
 James Beatty, Merchant, of Baltimore. 
 
 The name of JAMES BEATTY will long 
 be known in the mercantile annals of 
 Baltimore, as that of an unblemished 
 merchant, who reaped the rewards of 
 
 his good judgment and uprightness. 
 An anecdote which he himself used to 
 relate will be appropriate here as illus- 
 trating the secret of his success : At 
 the time of the approach of the British 
 forces toward Baltimore, the United 
 States navy agent, Mr. Beatty, was 
 placed in a somewhat unpleasant situa- 
 tion by repeated threats from the sol- 
 diers in the regular army, that unless 
 they received, within a stated period, 
 all the wages due them, they had 
 determined to revolt. The amount of 
 funds in his hands was far short of 
 what was required, and the banks of 
 the city were called upon to aid in 
 making it up ; but after this request 
 had been complied with, there was still 
 not enough to satisfy the demand. At 
 this juncture, Mr. Beatty happening 
 one day to meet Mr. James Wilson, the 
 latter gentleman made inquiry as to 
 how matters stood with him in relation 
 to the raising of the funds. Mr. Beatty 
 related the circumstances, upon which 
 Mr. Wilson requested him to step to his 
 counting-room, and he would give him 
 a check for the sum yet wanting, which 
 was over $50,000. Mr. Beatty went to 
 the bank, and the check was duly 
 cashed the soldiers returning to duty 
 the battle of North Point was fought 
 shortly afterward the war was closed 
 and Government again became ena- 
 bled to discharge all its minor debts 
 in that section. Mr. Beatty made out 
 a statement of the indebtedness of the 
 Government to Mr. Wilson for his appro- 
 val. " Mr. Beatty," said the patriotic 
 merchant, " you have allowed me in- 
 terest on the sum loaned ; sir, I want 
 no interest the money was lying idle, 
 and it was just as well that Government 
 should have the use of it." It was 
 doubtless Mr. Beatty's method to put 
 himself in contact with men of this 
 stamp, and his own probity and judg- 
 ment secured their confidence as well 
 as cooperation.
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 29 
 
 P. T. Barnum, the " Prince of Show- 
 men." 
 
 Though only in his youth, and then 
 but for a brief period and in a subordi- 
 nate capacity, engaged in mercantile 
 trade, the career of Mr. BAKNTTM, dating 
 from his humble beginning, affords one 
 of the most notable instances of business 
 enterprise, perseverance, originality, 
 tact and success. Indeed, the history 
 of the American business world during 
 the last quarter of a century would fail 
 of one of its most piquant pages, with- 
 out some reminiscences of the " Great 
 Showman." He started in his business 
 career without a cent, and was compelled 
 to carry on the struggle alone. He com- 
 menced life as a clerk in a country store, 
 and married at the age of nineteen. He 
 published a newspaper several years in 
 his native town, where he was fined 
 and imprisoned for publishing his 
 opinions too freely. Afterward he tried 
 mercantile business on his own account, 
 in both Connecticut and New York, 
 with indifferent success. In 1835 he 
 became engaged in a strolling exhibi- 
 tion ; afterward in a circus, &c. ; and 
 in 1842, bought the American Museum 
 in New York. This establishment 
 began to thrive immensely under his 
 management. In 1843 he picked up 
 "Qen." Tom Thumb; exhibited him 
 in his museum a year, then took him 
 to Europe, where he remained three 
 years, appearing before all the prin- 
 cipal courts and monarchs of the old 
 world, and returned with a fortune to 
 his native country. In 1850, he en- 
 gaged Jenny Lind, and with her made 
 the most triumphant and successful 
 musical tour ever known, clearing, it is 
 said, some half a million dollars in nine 
 months, after paying that lady over 
 three hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 Stephen Girard, Merchant and Banker, 
 
 of Philadelphia. 
 
 STEPHEN GIKAKD was born in the 
 environs of Bordeaux, May 24, 1750. 
 Little or nothing is known respecting 
 
 the condition of his parents. He is 
 supposed to have left his native coun- 
 try at the age of ten or twelve years, in 
 the capacity of cabin boy in a vessel 
 bound for the West Indies. He soon 
 after came to New York, as cabin boy 
 and apprentice in the employment of 
 Captain J. Randall. While with the 
 latter, his deportment was distinguished 
 by such fidelity, industry and temper- 
 ance, that he won the attachment and 
 confidence of his master, who generally 
 bestowed on him the appellation of 
 " my Stephen ; " and when he gave up 
 business, he promoted Girard from the 
 situation of mate to the command of a 
 small vessel, in which he made several 
 voyages to New Orleans, always apply- 
 ing himself with great soberness and 
 diligence to the accomplishment of his 
 ends. 
 
 Girard was self-taught, and the world 
 was his school. His intuitive quick- 
 ness of conception and his powers of 
 combination were such as would cause 
 a very little instruction to go a great 
 way. It was a favorite theme with 
 him, when he afterward grew rich, to 
 relate that he commenced life with a 
 sixpence, and to insist that the best 
 capital a man can have is his personal 
 industry. 
 
 The Water-Witch, or, at least, the 
 captain of the Water-Witch, was al- 
 ways fortunate, and he soon became 
 part owner. Such was his confidence 
 in his " lucky star," as almost to 
 amount to superstition. He first vis- 
 ited Philadelphia in 1769. He soon 
 established himself in business, and 
 was reputed a thriving man. In part- 
 nership with Isaac Hazelhurst, he pur- 
 chased two brigs, in 1771, to trade to 
 St. Domingo. Of one of them he took 
 command himself. Both were captured 
 and sent to Jamaica. For once his 
 "lucky star" forsook him. All pro- 
 fessions and all occupations, which 
 afforded a just reward for labor, were 
 alike honorable in his estimation. He 
 was never too proud to work, even
 
 30 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 when he was the richest millionnaire 
 in the land. During the revolutionary 
 war, he bottled and sold cider and 
 claret. In 1780, he was engaged in 
 trade to St. Domingo and New Orleans. 
 In 1790, on the dissolution of a partner- 
 ship which had some time existed be- 
 tween himself and his brother, John 
 Girard, he was found by their mutual 
 umpire to be worth thirty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 At the time of the insurrection of the 
 blacks in St. Domingo, he had a brig 
 and schooner in port, in which many 
 of the inhabitants deposited their most 
 valuable goods, but were prevented by 
 a violent death from returning to claim 
 them. It is, however, not supposed 
 that he received in this manner more 
 than fifty thousand dollars. In the 
 time of the fever, in 1793, when con- 
 sternation had seized the whole popula- 
 tion of the city, Girard, then an opulent 
 merchant, offered his services as a nurse 
 in the hospital ; his offers were accept- 
 ed, and, in the performance of the most 
 loathsome duties, he walked unharmed 
 in the midst of the pestilence. He used 
 to say to his friends, " When you are 
 sick, or anything ails you, do not go to 
 the doctor, but come to me. I will 
 cure you." 
 
 The terms of a bargain were to him 
 a law, which he never violated ; but 
 in his breast there was no chancery 
 jurisdiction for the decision of causes 
 in equity. The misfortunes of a bank- 
 rupt, in his view, were follies, which 
 excited no commiseration. 
 
 Having been successful in his com- 
 mercial speculations, and by that means 
 made immense additions to his proper- 
 ty, in 1811, in expectation of a renewal 
 of the charter of the old Bank of the 
 United States, he purchased a large 
 amount of the stock of that institution. 
 The charter was not renewed, and the 
 banking house coming into his hands 
 by purchase, at a reduced price, the 
 Bank of the United States became 
 Stephen Girard's Bank. It was emi- 
 
 nently convenient to the public at the 
 time it was established, and during the 
 war was particularly useful to the 
 government, supplying, in fact, the 
 want of a national institution, at a 
 time when it was especially needed. 
 On the establishment of the last nation- 
 al bank, Mr. Girard, just at the close 
 of the subscription, took the balance 
 of the stock, namely, three million and 
 one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 Mr. Girard did much to ornament 
 the city of Philadelphia, and his ambi- 
 tion during his long and untiring busi- 
 ness career, seems to have been to die 
 the richest man in the country and be 
 remembered as the patron of learning 
 and the benefactor of the poor. He 
 died December 26, 1831, in the eighty- 
 second year of his age, the Girard 
 College and the city of Philadelphia 
 being his principal devisees. 
 
 Alexander T. Stewart, Merchant, of 
 New York. 
 
 In his early years, Mr. STEWART 
 was engaged in teaching, but soon 
 changed his employment for a small 
 mercantile business. He commenced 
 with but a limited capital, and opened 
 a store on Broadway, in 1827. This 
 little concern, in which he then was 
 salesman, buyer, financier, and sole 
 manager, has gradually increased in 
 importance, until it has become the 
 present splendid establishment, whose 
 name and fame are heard everywhere. 
 
 The marble block which the firm 
 now occupies was built nearly twenty 
 years ago. It had been the site of an 
 old-fashioned hotel called the " Wash- 
 ington," which was destroyed by fire. 
 Mr. Stewart bought the plot at auction 
 for seventy thousand dollars, a small 
 sum in comparison with its present 
 value. To this was subsequently added 
 adjacent lots in Broadway, Reade, and 
 Chambers streets, and the present mag- 
 nificent pile was reared. This estab- 
 lishment, large as it is, proved too 
 small for the increasing business ; hence
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 31 
 
 another mercantile palace has been 
 erected by Mr. Stewart, in Broadway 
 and Tenth street. This is intended 
 for the retail trade, and is, no doubt, 
 the most splendid structure of the kind 
 in the world. The down-town store is 
 devoted to the wholesale trade. The 
 firm of A. T. Stewart & Co. consists of 
 Mr. Stewart and two partners, one of 
 whom, Mr. Fox, resides in Manchester, 
 and the other, Mr. Warton, in Paris. 
 These gentlemen, together with agents 
 in the principal cities of Europe, are 
 constantly engaged in furnishing the 
 house with supplies of goods. The 
 amount of annual sales is estimated 
 at from ten to twenty millions. In the 
 retail department, the proceeds of which 
 are included in this estimate, the daily 
 sales vary, according to the weather 
 and the season, from three thousand to 
 twelve thousand dollars. 
 
 Mr. Stewart has attained his present 
 position by patient toil and forty years 
 of close application to business. His 
 remarkably fine taste in the selection 
 of dress articles, by means of which he 
 was always able to have superior goods, 
 probably led to his first success. He 
 has everything reduced to a perfect sys- 
 tem. Each branch of his trade is under a 
 special manager, who is selected with a 
 view to his qualifications for that de- 
 partment. The numerous failures which 
 take place among the business men of 
 New York give him his choice among 
 them for his managers, so that he is 
 always able to find the kind of men he 
 needs and whom he can trust. He is 
 an accurate judge of character, posses- 
 sing a penetration which enables him 
 to read men at a glance ; so that it is 
 rarely, if ever, that he is deceived. He 
 sits close in his office, is seldom seen in 
 the salesrooms, or among his clerks, yet 
 seems to know everything that is going 
 on throughout the establishment. Mr. 
 Stewart is a native of Ireland. 
 
 Edwin D. Morgan, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 Mr. MOKQAN is widely known both 
 as a successful merchant and able states- 
 man. His father, Jasper Morgan, an 
 old and highly respected citizen of 
 Connecticut, formerly lived in Berk- 
 shire county, Mass., and there it was 
 that his son Edwin was born, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1811. He received a fair educa- 
 tion before he was seventeen, without 
 going to college, and at about that age 
 commenced his mercantile experience 
 in a store in Hartford, Conn., at a salary 
 of sixty dollars for the first, seventy-five 
 for the second, and one hundred for the 
 third year's service. A trip to the great 
 city was not then made with the facility 
 that it is now ; but as he had served 
 for two or three years in the store, and 
 acquired the confidence of his em- 
 ployer, he was permitted to go to New 
 York, and, to combine business with 
 pleasure, was intrusted to make sundry 
 purchases of tea, sugar, etc., and also 
 corn, which was then becoming an ar- 
 ticle of import, instead of export. The 
 visit was made, and Edwin returned 
 in due time, by the old stage route. 
 After being greeted and welcomed, 
 his employer inquired as to the corn. 
 The price was very satisfactory ; but 
 his employer doubted if the article 
 would be of good quality at so low a 
 rate. Edwin immediately drew a 
 handful, first from one pocket and 
 then from another, as samples, and the 
 old gentleman expressed his approba- 
 tion. It had been usual for the dealers 
 to purchase two or three hundred 
 bushels at a time, and he then inquired 
 of Edwin as to the quantity, but was 
 nonplussed by the answer that he had 
 bought two cargoes, and that the ves- 
 sels were probably in the river. 
 
 " Why, Edwin," said the astonished 
 old gentleman, " what are we to do with 
 two cargoes of corn ? Where can we 
 put it ? Where can we dispose of it ?" 
 
 " Oh 1 " replied Edwin, " I have dis- 
 posed of all that you don't want, at an
 
 32 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 advance ; I have shown the samples to 
 Messrs. A. & B., who wish three hun- 
 dred bushels ; C. & Co., three hundred, 
 &c., &c. I could have disposed of three 
 cargoes, if I had had them. I stopped 
 into the stores as I came along, and 
 made sales." 
 
 This was a new phase, and out of the 
 old routine ; but the gains and results 
 were not to be questioned. The fol- 
 lowing morning, Edwin was at the 
 store, as always, in season, and had 
 taken the broom to sweep out the 
 counting room, when his employer 
 entered. 
 
 " I think," said he, " you had better 
 put aside the broom; we will find 
 some one else to do the sweeping. A 
 man who can go to New York, and on 
 his own responsibility purchase two 
 cargoes and make sales of them with- 
 out counselling with his principal, can 
 be otherwise more advantageously em- 
 ployed. It is best that he should be- 
 come a partner in the firm for which he 
 is doing so much," and he did, though 
 not yet of age. 
 
 When he had just attained to his ma- 
 jority, Mr. Morgan was elected to the 
 city council of Hartford ; and at twenty- 
 two he married Miss Waterman, of that 
 city, by whom he has but one surviving 
 child a son. He removed to the city 
 of New York in 1836, establishing him- 
 self as a wholesale grocer, upon a small 
 capital of four thousand dollars, but 
 which his business qualities afterward 
 greatly enlarged, and his fortune in- 
 creased, until now the house of Edwin 
 D. Morgan & Co. is one of the richest 
 of the metropolis. In 1849, Mr. Mor- 
 gan was elected a member of the then 
 Board of Assistant Aldermen ; in 1852, 
 a member of the State Senate ; in 1858, 
 to the high position of Governor of the 
 State ; and he now fills the honored 
 post of United States Senator. Such a 
 career of combined mercantile success 
 and political honors is rare indeed. 
 
 Nathan Appleton, Merchant, of Boston. 
 
 Mr. APPLETOH was born in New Ips- 
 wich, N. H., in 1779, and was the 
 seventh son of Isaac Appleton. At fif- 
 teen years of age he was examined and 
 admitted into Dartmouth College. It 
 was decided, however, that he should 
 proceed no further in his collegiate 
 studies. His brother Samuel, who had 
 been in trade in New Ipswich, and 
 was about to remove to Boston, pro- 
 posed that he should accompany him. 
 This was accepted, and, as he after- 
 ward said, " It was determined that I 
 should become a merchant rather than 
 a scholar." His brother commenced 
 business in a small shop on Cornhill, 
 Boston ; it consisted mostly in purchas- 
 ing goods at auction and selling them 
 again to country dealers for cash and 
 short credit, at a small profit. In 1799, 
 his brother made a short visit to Eu- 
 rope, and left his business in the charge 
 of Nathan. On the return of the for- 
 mer, he removed to a warehouse in 
 State street, and proposed to the latter, 
 who had become of age, to be a partner. 
 This was accepted, and Nathan now 
 had at hand opportunities for enlarging 
 his observation and experience. He 
 was sent out to England to purchase 
 goods. Europe was in a state of war. 
 The news of peace reached him, how- 
 ever, on landing, and changed the 
 whole current and condition of trade. 
 He postponed his purchases and trav- 
 elled on the Continent ; shortly after- 
 ward returning to America and resum- 
 ing his mercantile career. In 1806 he 
 married Maria Theresa Gold, eldest 
 daughter of Thomas Gold, of Pittsfield, 
 and for the health of his wife soon 
 crossed the ocean again. In Edinburgh 
 he met Mr. Francis C. Lowell, at the 
 moment the latter was first conceiving 
 the policy to which the cotton manu- 
 facture of New England owes its origin ; 
 with him he held an earnest and en- 
 couraging consultation in regard to it. 
 As capital accumulated in his hands,
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 33 
 
 he took an active part in connection 
 with Mr. Lowell, Patrick T. Jackson, 
 Paul Moody, and others, in establishing 
 the cotton factory at Waltham, Mass. 
 He says: "When the first loom was 
 ready for trial, many little matters 
 were to be adjusted or overcome before 
 it would work perfectly. Mr. Lowell 
 said to me that he did not wish me to 
 see it until it was complete, of which 
 he would give me notice. At length 
 the time arrived, and he invited me to 
 go out with him to see the loom oper- 
 ate. I well recollect the state of satis- 
 faction and admiration with which we 
 sat by the hour watching the beautiful 
 movement of this new and wonderful 
 machine, destined, as it evidently was, 
 to change the character of all textile 
 industry." Mr. Appleton was also one 
 of the chief associates in the company 
 which made the first purchases for a 
 like purpose in Lowell. On different 
 occasions he was elected a member of 
 the Massachusetts legislature, and in 
 1830 was chosen a member of Congress. 
 In 1842 he was again sent, to fill the 
 vacancy occasioned by the resignation 
 of Robert C. Winthrop. In this sphere, 
 his mind naturally turned to the finan- 
 cial and commercial view of questions. 
 He was a member of the American 
 Academy of Science and Arts, and of 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 Mr. Appleton died in Boston, July 14, 
 1861, and left a very large fortune. 
 
 The name of WILLIAM APPLETON is 
 justly entitled to a place in the records 
 of this eminent commercial family. 
 Few names, indeed, shine out with 
 such conspicuous and unsullied lustre 
 in the annals of American mercantile 
 fame as this. For their enterprise, in- 
 tegrity, benevolence, and public spirit, 
 they have never been surpassed by any 
 of the " solid men of Boston," whose 
 character reflects such honor upon 
 American commerce, at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 David Ricardo, English Financier. 
 
 DAVID RICARDO, celebrated alike as a 
 merchant, banker, and financial writer, 
 was born in London, of a Jewish family, 
 in 1772. His father, a native of Hol- 
 land, was for several years a prominent 
 banker in London, and, designing his 
 son for the same occupation, he sent 
 him to Holland, where he might obtain 
 the best commercial education. Soon 
 after his return to England, he was 
 taken into his father's office as a clerk, 
 and, when of age, he was associated 
 with him in business. He subsequently 
 formed a matrimonial alliance with a 
 lady of the Christian faith, which union 
 was displeasing to his father, by reason 
 of the latter's religious scruples, the 
 elder Mr. Ricardo having been born of 
 Jewish parents, and continuing in that 
 faith until his death. This breach 
 between the father and the son, 
 which, however, was afterwards en- 
 tirely healed, necessarily caused the 
 dissolution of their business copartner- 
 ship. 
 
 But the character of the son, for 
 industry, talent, and fair dealing, early 
 secured to him the confidence of busi- 
 ness men as well as that of the commu- 
 nity, and he thus accumulated a mag- 
 nificent fortune. He amassed his im- 
 mense wealth by a scrupulous attention 
 to what he called his own three golden 
 rules, and the observance of which he 
 used to press on his private business 
 friends. These were : " Never refuse an 
 option when you can get it" " Cut short 
 your losses" " Let your profits run on" 
 By cutting short one's losses, Mr. Ri- 
 cardo meant, that when a broker had 
 made a purchase of stock, and prices 
 were falling, he ought to re-sell imme- 
 diately. And by letting one's profits 
 run on, he meant, that when a broker 
 possessed stock, and prices were rising, 
 he ought not to sell until prices had 
 reached their highest, and were begin- 
 ning to fall. 
 
 Besides being an eminent banker,
 
 34 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Mr. Ricardo was a most profuse writer 
 on finance and currency, and his works 
 on these subjects gained for him a high 
 repute. He was also of quite a specu- 
 lative turn of mind and in some res- 
 pects strangely so on religious themes. 
 He is stated to have adopted the Uni- 
 tarian system of belief, though usually 
 attending the established or Episcopal 
 church. On the other hand, he is said 
 to have suggested, as an "improve- 
 ment," a sort of intermediate faith be- 
 tween Judaism and Christianity ; hold- 
 ing that Jesus Christ was a worthy man 
 and an excellent teacher, whose pre- 
 cepts should therefore be regarded with 
 great respect, but that "he assumed 
 too much in his claim to be the son of 
 God, and therefore that the blame of his 
 unhappy catastrophe was to be divided 
 between his enemies and himself." 
 The number of adherents to Mr. Ricar- 
 do's faith were very, few, and his wri- 
 tings on this subject were far less bril- 
 liant in their results than those which 
 constituted the staple of his counting- 
 house ledgers. 
 
 Judah Touro, Merchant, of New Or- 
 leans. 
 
 A well written life of this remarkable 
 man would make a volume of peculiar 
 interest, especially to the mercantile 
 class, of which he was long so honor- 
 able as well as successful a member. 
 At first, he opened a small shop on St. 
 Louis street, near the levee, where he 
 began a brisk and profitable trade in 
 soap, candles, codfish, and other exports 
 of New England, making prompt re- 
 turns to his friends in Boston. His 
 fidelity, integrity, and good manage- 
 ment, soon secured him a large New 
 England trade, every vessel from that 
 section bringing him large consign- 
 ments, and many ships being placed at 
 his disposal, as agent, to obtain cargoes 
 and collect freight. His business was 
 prosperous, his funds accumulated. He 
 invested his surplus means very judi- 
 ciously in ships and in real estate, which 
 
 rapidly advanced in value. His career, 
 guided by certain principles to which 
 he steadfastly adhered, was one of 
 honest, methodical labor, and stern 
 fidelity to the legitimate practices of 
 trade, never embarking in any hazard- 
 ous ventures or speculations, never 
 turning aside from his chosen sphere 
 of business, and adhering rigidly to 
 the cash system. 
 
 Mr. Touro was as methodical and reg- 
 ular as a clock. His neighbors were in 
 the habit of judging of the time of day 
 by his movements. In his business he 
 rarely employed more than one clerk, 
 and even this one was generally a lad. 
 It was his custom to open his store 
 himself at sunrise and close it at 
 sunset. He attended to all his affairs 
 himself, and had them so well arranged 
 that there was no possibility of any 
 misunderstanding. He engaged in no 
 lawsuits, though he lived in one of the 
 most litigious communities in the 
 world. He could not bear a disputa- 
 tious, nor even a very earnest, discus- 
 sion. On one occasion his friend, Dr. 
 Clapp, became involved in a very warm 
 discussion on a theological question 
 with some clergymen of the city. Mr. 
 Touro was greatly annoyed at the war- 
 fare of words and logic thus carried on, 
 and begged Dr. Clapp to desist from a 
 controversy which was so unpleasant 
 to him. 
 
 Mr. Touro's hard experience of the 
 discomforts attending voyages by sea, 
 though it determined him to remain on 
 land for the remainder of his life, could 
 not eradicate from him that natural 
 passion of a New Englander as he 
 was to own ships. He had conse- 
 quently invested largely of his means 
 in this business, and owned some of 
 the largest and best built ships that 
 came into the port of New Orleans. It 
 was rather an amusing peculiarity of 
 his, that though he took great pleasure 
 and pride in walking along the wharves 
 and surveying the grand and symme- 
 trical proportions of his noble ships, he
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 35 
 
 could never be persuaded to go aboard 
 and examine and admire their interior. 
 Mr. Touro's career was perhaps not so 
 eventful as that of his townsmen John 
 McDonogh and Jacob Barker, and yet, 
 as an upright, enterprising, and success- 
 ful merchant, there are few whose 
 names can be placed in advance of 
 bis. 
 
 " Old Billy Gray," Merchant, of Boa- 
 ton. 
 
 Among the successful and honorable 
 merchants of America, few have stood 
 higher than WILLIAM GKAY " Old 
 Billy Gray," as he came to be univer- 
 sally called. He was born in Lynn, 
 Mass., in 1751, and when quite a small 
 boy was apprenticed to a merchant in 
 Salem. He finished his commercial 
 education with Richard Derby, of that 
 port ; and such was his character for 
 enterprise and strict integrity during 
 his apprenticeship, that when, soon after 
 its close, he commenced business for 
 himself, he had the entire confidence 
 and good will of the whole community. 
 Prosperity waited upon him in all his 
 transactions, and in less than twenty- 
 five years after he commenced business, 
 he was taxed as the wealthiest man in 
 Salem, notwithstanding some of the 
 largest fortunes in the United States 
 belonged to that town. His enterprise 
 and industry were wonderful ; and at 
 one time he had more than sixty sail 
 of square-rigged vessels on the ocean. 
 For more than fifty years, he arose at 
 dawn, and was ready for the business 
 of the day before others had finished 
 their last nap. Although he had mil- 
 lions of dollars afloat on the sea of 
 business, he was careful of small expen- 
 ditures those leaks which endanger 
 the ship and his whole life was a 
 lesson of prudent economy, without 
 penuriousness. 
 
 During the embargo, Mr. Gray took 
 sides with Jefferson, notwithstanding 
 New England was all in a blaze against 
 the president, and it was an injury to 
 
 the amount of tens of thousands of 
 dollars to the great merchant's busi- 
 ness. In the midst of the commercial 
 distress, he removed to Boston, and 
 having pleased the people while a 
 State senator, he was chosen lieutenant- 
 governor of the commonwealth. He 
 freely used his immense riches for the 
 wants of Government, and it is said 
 never took advantage of the exigencies 
 of the times, to speculate in government 
 securities. After the war of 1812-15, 
 he engaged largely in business again, 
 but he lost often and heavily. Yet he 
 died a rich man, and universally re- 
 spected, at his elegant mansion in Bos- 
 ton, Nov. 4, 1825, aged about seventy- 
 four years. It has been stated that at 
 one period in his early career, Mr. Gray 
 was a poor shoemaker ; but, notwith- 
 standing his subsequent great wealth, 
 and the magnificence of his dwelling, 
 the old cobbler's bench which he for- 
 merly used long remained intact in a 
 separate room, and was shown with 
 pride to his visitors as the sign of 
 what he once was. 
 
 " Rich Spencer," Merchant and Bank- 
 er, of London. 
 
 JOHN SPENCER afterward Sir John, 
 and, in 1594, Lord Mayor of London 
 died possessed of property valued at 
 several round millions, acquired by his 
 tact and shrewdness in the pursuits of 
 commerce. There is much that might 
 be written respecting the humors and 
 caprices of this noted representative 
 of the commerce of that period, one 
 who rose to such eminence in the an- 
 nals of wealth amassed by sharp deal- 
 ing and still closer saving. In a curi- 
 ous pamphlet printed in 1651, and en- 
 titled " The Vanity of the Lives and 
 Passions of Men," there is the follow- 
 ing singular anecdote respecting this 
 " Rich Spencer " for so Sir John was 
 usually called: In Queen Elizabeth's 
 days, a private of Dunkirk laid a plot 
 with twelve of his mates, to carry 
 Spencer away, and which, if he had
 
 36 
 
 COMMEKCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 done, fifty thousand pounds, it is stated, 
 would not have redeemed him. This 
 private come over the seas in a shallop, 
 with twelve musketeers, and in the 
 night came into Baring Creek, and left 
 the shallop in the custody of six of his 
 men, and with the other six came as 
 far as Islington, and there hid them- 
 selves in ditches, near the path in 
 which Sir John came to his house 
 (Canonbury House) ; but, as good for- 
 tune would have it, Sir John was forced, 
 by some unusual demands of busi- 
 ness, to stay in London that night. 
 But for this, he would have been taken 
 away and rigidly dealt with. The kid 
 nappers, fearing they should be dis- 
 covered, returned in the night time to 
 their shallop, and went back to Dun- 
 kirk, minus their anticipated booty. 
 
 Jacques Coeur, French Merchant in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 JACQUES CCEUK was the great French 
 merchant and financier of the middle 
 ages. He sprung from the people, and 
 raised himself, by successful commer- 
 cial enterprise, to a level with the 
 princes of his age. He found French 
 commerce behind that of every other 
 nation, and left it prosperous and in- 
 creasing. Direct and speedy commu- 
 nication with the East seems to have 
 been his great idea. Modern Europe 
 is still striving for it. He had, at one 
 time, in his employment, three hundred 
 factors ; and the rest of the merchants 
 of France, with the whole of those of 
 Italy, are not supposed to have equalled 
 this one man, in the extent of their 
 commercial dealings. " As rich as 
 Jacques Cceur," became a proverb. It 
 was even believed, by some, that he 
 had found the philosopher's stone ; 
 and popular tradition asserts that so 
 great was the profusion of the precious 
 metals possessed by him, that his horses 
 were shod with silver a common repu- 
 tation, even at the present day, enjoyed 
 by persons of singular wealth. 
 
 He showed himself worthy of his 
 
 great mercantile eminence, by giving 
 his wealth, thus acquired, freely for 
 noble objects. He raised three armies 
 for king Charles at his own cost ; and 
 he repaired and reestablished, in his 
 office of Argentier, the deranged finan- 
 ces of the kingdom. It was his money 
 which enabled the French to profit by 
 the genius and enthusiasm of Joan of 
 Arc ; and it was his honest sympathy, 
 and steady, manly counsel, which seems 
 to have sustained the tender and brave 
 heart of the noblest of royal mistresses, 
 in her efforts to save the king. On her 
 death bed, she selected Jacques Coaur 
 for her executor. 
 
 Jacques Co3ur had, in the course of 
 twenty years, more commercial pow- 
 er than all the rest of the merchants 
 of the Mediterranean put together. 
 Everywhere his vessels were respected 
 as though he had been a sovereign 
 prince ; they covered the seas wherever 
 commerce was to be cultivated, and, 
 from farthest Asia, they brought back 
 cloths of gold and silk, furs, arms, spi- 
 ces, and ingots of gold and silver, still 
 swelling his mighty stores, and filling 
 Europe with surprise at his adventurous 
 daring and his unparalleled persever- 
 ance. Like his great prototype, Cos- 
 mo de Medicis, who, from a simple mer- 
 chant, became a supreme ruler, Jacques 
 Coeur, the Medicis of Bourges, became 
 illustrious and wealthy, and sailed long 
 in the favorable breezes of fortune, 
 admired, envied, feared, and courted 
 by all. 
 
 But his weakness seems to have lain 
 in the direction of personal magnificence 
 and splendor, and to this may be traced 
 his fall. He did not allow sufficiently 
 for the prejudices of his age, and at last 
 armed them for his ruin. He is de- 
 scribed to have far transcended, in his 
 personal attendance and equipments, the 
 chiefs of the most illustrious families 
 of France ; and when Charles made his 
 triumphal entry into Rouen, the mer- 
 chant Jacques Cceur was seen by the 
 side of Dunois, with arms and tunic
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 37 
 
 precisely the same as his. His destruc- 
 tion was planned by a party of the 
 nobles, and an indictment of all sorts 
 of crimes preferred against him among 
 them, the charge of having poisoned 
 Agnes Sorel. He narrowly escaped 
 torture and death ; and only this by 
 confiscation of his treasures (which his 
 judges divided among them), and per- 
 petual banishment. This latter re- 
 solved itself ultimately into a sort of 
 strict surveillance in a French convent, 
 from which he at last escaped by the 
 fidelity of one of his agents, who had 
 married his niece. He was again char- 
 acteristically engaging in active pur- 
 suits; and beginning life anew, on the 
 coast of Asia Minor, when illness seized 
 him in the island of Scio. 
 
 Peletiah Perit, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 The name of PELETIAH PERIT has 
 been familiar in the business circles of 
 New York for about half a century, 
 and is one of the most honored. He 
 was at one time a member of the firm 
 of Perit & Lathrop, and in 1819 he 
 became a partner in the house of Good- 
 hue & Co. Mr. Perit (says the author 
 of the " Old Merchants of New York ") 
 was born in Norwich, Conn., and re- 
 ceived a collegiate education at Yale 
 College. In the first partnership of Mr. 
 Perit with Mr. Lathrop, his brother- 
 in-law, he was not successful, and dur- 
 ing the war he was connected with an 
 artillery company, and performed mili- 
 tary service in the forts that protected 
 the harbor. After he went with Mr. 
 Goodhue, his commercial good fortunes 
 returned, and their house coined mon- 
 ey. In 1833 or 1834, the health of Mr. 
 Perit declined, and he conceived the 
 idea that it was necessary to take more 
 active exercise, and in order to insure 
 that daily, he purchased a piece of pro- 
 perty on the North river, lying between 
 Burnham's and the Orphan Asylum. 
 It may have cost him perhaps ten 
 thousand dollars. He sold it about 
 
 two years ago, and it is now supposed 
 to be worth half a million dollars. 
 This is a comment on persevering mer- 
 cantile life. By a mere accident Mr. 
 Perit buys a small lot of land, and 
 makes more money than Goodhue & 
 Co. ever made in fifty-three years' hard 
 work ! Probably no house has done a 
 larger business with all parts of the 
 world than Goodhue for the fifty-three 
 years that it has existed in a continuous 
 business. This house, so eminent, com- 
 manding means to an extent that an 
 outsider has no conception of, has made 
 merely moderate earnings in compari- 
 son with some lucky land hit, made 
 by unknown and uncredited persons, 
 that has realized millions. Since Mr. 
 Perit sold his property in New York, 
 he has removed to New Haven, Conn. 
 He has done much for the benevolent 
 enterprises of the day. He is unequalled 
 as a merchant, and has been for many 
 years honored with the presidency of 
 the Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 Jacob Ridgway, Merchant, of Phil- 
 adelphia. 
 
 This wealthy Philadelphia celebrity 
 came from New Jersey at an early age, 
 and commenced the life of a busy, bold, 
 and enterprising merchant. He com- 
 menced on a small scale ; but by his 
 industry, integrity, economy, and atten- 
 tion to business, he rose rapidly. Dame 
 Fortune smiled, and in course of time 
 he took high rank among the shipping 
 merchants of that period. He visited 
 Europe, to superintend a branch of the 
 house with which he was connected ; 
 and soon after, having the confidence 
 of the merchants of his own country, 
 Mr. RIDGWAY was appointed American 
 consul at Antwerp, where he laid the 
 foundation of his handsome fortune. 
 He returned soon after, and retired 
 from mercantile pursuits, settling him- 
 self in Philadelphia, and engaging ex- 
 tensively in plans for the improvement 
 of it and the city of Camden, on the 
 opposite side of the river Delaware. lu
 
 38 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 proportion as his efforts and means 
 were laid out in this direction, so did 
 his fortune increase ; and from being 
 the owner, in early life, of a single farm, 
 he acquired possessions and wealth, the 
 extent of which has perhaps never but 
 once been equalled in Pennsylvania, and 
 in all human probability never will be 
 by any one man again. He was a plain 
 man his dress and deportment were 
 plain, and his manners free from TMII- 
 teur. In his directorship of the Bank of 
 Pennsylvania, in which he was a large 
 stockholder, he exhibited much preju- 
 dice against granting discounts and ac- 
 commodation to the rich and extensive 
 operators, preferring the humbler me- 
 chanics, tradesmen, and merchants. 
 
 Abraham and Benjamin Goldschmid, 
 old English Bankers. 
 
 For a long and important period, 
 ABRAHAM and BENJAMIN GOLDSCHMID 
 were the magnates of the English money 
 market. Of singular capacity, and, for 
 a time, of equally singular good fortune, 
 the firm of which they were the members 
 rose from comparative obscurity to be 
 the head and front of the financial circle 
 of the world's metropolis. They were 
 the first members of the Stock Exchange 
 who competed with the bankers for the 
 favors of the chancellor, and diverted 
 from their bloated purses those profits 
 which were scarcely a legitimate por- 
 tion of banking business. The combi- 
 nation of that powerful interest being 
 thus broken up, the bargains for pub- 
 lic loans became more open, and have 
 continued so. 
 
 The munificence of the Goldschmids 
 was constant and wide spread. Natur- 
 ally open hearted, the poor of all creeds 
 found kindly benefactors in these Jew 
 capitalists. On one day, the grandeur 
 of an entertainment given by them to 
 royalty was recorded in the papers, and 
 on the next a few words related a visit 
 of mercy on their part to a condemned 
 cell. At one time, their mansion, vying 
 in architectural beauty with those of 
 
 regal occupants, was described ; at an- 
 other, some great and gracious act of 
 charity was narrated. Entertainments 
 to princes and ambassadors, reviving 
 the glories of oriental splendor, were 
 frequent ; and galleries, with works of 
 art worthy the magnificence of a Medici, 
 graced their homes. They seemed, at 
 least for a while, Fortune's chief and 
 most special favorites. When, in 1793, 
 the old aristocracy of England's traders 
 fell, as in 1847, and the bank in one day 
 discounted to the amount of more than 
 twenty million dollars, the losses of this 
 great firm amounted to only the trivial 
 sum of fifty pounds sterling. Strange 
 to relate, both of these brothers came 
 to their death by violence at their own 
 hands. 
 
 Judah M. Lopez, Speculator in 
 Annuities. 
 
 The name of JTJDAH MANASSEH LO- 
 PEZ is handed down to this day, in Eng- 
 land, as that of a Lombard and Jew 
 of " the baser sort," and a usurer one 
 in whose business dealings the art of 
 deception seemed to have fairly culmi- 
 nated. Of the origin or the successive 
 business steps in the career of this man 
 we know little. His business consisted 
 in the purchase and sale of annuities. 
 He lent to merchants when their vessels 
 failed to bring them returns in time to 
 meet their engagements ; and he ad- 
 vanced cash on the jewels of those 
 whom a disturbed period involved in 
 conspiracies which required the sinews 
 of war. But annuities were his favor- 
 ite investment ; and to him, therefore, 
 resorted all who were in difficulties and 
 were able to deal with him. With the 
 highest and the lowest he trafficked. 
 He was feared by most, and respected 
 by none. 
 
 One remarkable feature in this man's 
 dealings was, that no one found it easy 
 to recover the property once pledged, 
 if it chanced to much exceed the amount 
 advanced. In an extremity, Bucking- 
 ham, the favorite of Charles, applied
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 39 
 
 to and received assistance from the Jew 
 on the deposit of some deeds of value. 
 When the time approached for repay- 
 ment, Lopez appeared before the Duke 
 in an agony of grief, declaring that his 
 strongroom had been broken into, his 
 property pilfered, and the Duke's deeds 
 carried away. But Buckingham had 
 dealt too much with men of this class 
 to believe the story on the mere word 
 of Lopez. He therefore detained the 
 usurer while he despatched messengers 
 to the city, to search out the truth, 
 placing the Hebrew at the same time 
 under watch and ward, with an utter 
 indifference to his comfort. 
 
 When the messengers returned, they 
 avouched that all Lombard street was 
 in an uproar at the violation of its 
 stronghold. Still the Duke was dis- 
 satisfied, and resolutely refused to part 
 with his prey until he had received 
 full value for his deposit. In vain did 
 the Hebrew demurely fall on his knees 
 in vain did he call on Father Abra- 
 ham to attest his innocence ; for, in the 
 midst of one of his most solemn assev- 
 erations, Buckingham was informed 
 that a scrivener urgently solicited an 
 audience, and he saw at the same time 
 that a cloud .came over the face of Lo- 
 pez. 
 
 The request of the scrivener being 
 granted, to the Duke's astonishment he 
 produced the missing document, ex- 
 plaining to his Grace that Lopez, be- 
 lieving the scrivener too much in his 
 power to betray him, had placed it in 
 his charge until the storm should blow 
 over, but that, fearing the Duke's po\v- 
 er and trusting to his protection, he had 
 brought it to York House. On the in- 
 stant, Buckingham confronted the two. 
 The Jew's countenance betrayed his 
 crime, and, fawning on the very hem 
 of the Duke's garment, he begged for 
 forgiveness, and crouched like a dog to 
 procure it. It is intimated that from 
 that time the Duke had his loans on 
 more equitable terms and on smaller 
 security, as he dismissed the Jew with 
 
 a courtesy the latter did not de- 
 serve. 
 
 William B. Astor, Millionnaire, of 
 New York. 
 
 Prince street, New York, is the lo- 
 cality of Mr. WILLIAM B. ASTOR'S finan- 
 cial operations. The street itself is 
 of but a third-rate character, and the 
 houses are but of a common stamp. 
 Near Broadway, however, one may no- 
 tice a small brick office, neatly built, 
 of one story, with gable to the street, 
 but with doors and windows closed, 
 and the whole appearance one of se- 
 curity. Near the door may be seen 
 a little sign which reads thus : ' EN- 
 TRANCE NEXT DOOR. OFFICE HOURS 
 FR'OM 9 TO 3." This " next door " to 
 which we are referred is a plain three- 
 story brick dwelling, with no name on 
 the door, and might be taken for the 
 residence of some well-to-do old-fash- 
 ioned family. Hence one is quite star- 
 tled to find that this is the headquarters 
 of the chief capitalist of America. En- 
 tering the street door, one will find 
 himself in a small vestibule, neatly 
 floored with checkered oilcloth, and 
 opening a door on his left, he will enter 
 a well-lighted front room, destitute of 
 any furniture but a counting-house desk 
 and a few chairs. At this desk stands 
 an accountant (or perhaps two) working 
 at a set of books, and evidently enjoy- 
 ing an easy berth. He will answer all 
 ordinary inquiries, will do the duty of 
 refusing charitable demands, and will 
 attend to anything in the ordinary run 
 of business ; but if one has anything 
 special on hand, he will point to a door 
 opening into a rear office. This apart- 
 ment is of moderate size and of simple 
 furniture. On the table are a few 
 books, and on opening one of them, 
 which appears well thumbed, it will be 
 found to contain maps of plots of city 
 property, carefully and elegantly exe- 
 cuted, and embracing the boundaries 
 of an enormous estate. Seated by the 
 table may generally be seen a stout-
 
 40 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 built man with large and unattractive 
 features, and upon the whole an ordi- 
 nary face. He is plainly dressed, and 
 has a somewhat careworn look, and ap- 
 pears to be fifty or sixty years of age. 
 One naturally feels that is, if he be a 
 poor man that it is quite a rare thing 
 to address a capitalist, and especially 
 when that capitalist is the representa- 
 tive, say of twenty-five millions of dol- 
 lars. His daily income has been esti- 
 mated at six thousand dollars ! 
 
 The care of Mr. Astor's estate the 
 largest in America is a vast burden. 
 His tenements, of all grades, number 
 several hundreds, ranging from the 
 dwelling at three hundred dollars per 
 annum, to the magnificent warehouse 
 or hotel at thirty thousand dollars. To 
 relieve himself from the more vexatious 
 features of his business, he has com- 
 mitted his real estate collections to an 
 agent, who does the work well, and 
 who is, no doubt, largely paid. He, 
 with his clerks, collects rents, and 
 makes returns of a rent roll whose very 
 recital would be wearisome. As a mat- 
 ter of course, such a man must employ 
 a small army of painters, carpenters, and 
 other mechanics, in order to keep up 
 suitable repairs ; and as Mr. Astor pays 
 no insurance, the work of rebuilding 
 after fires is in itself a large item. A 
 large part of Mr. Astor's property con- 
 sists of vacant lots, which are in con- 
 tinual demand, and which he generally 
 prefers to hold rather than sell ; hence 
 he is much employed with architects 
 and master builders, and always has 
 several blocks in course of erection. 
 This is a very heavy burden, and, were 
 it not for the help derived from his 
 family, would, doubtless, crush him. 
 His son, John Jacob, is quite a busi- 
 ness man, and bears his share of the 
 load. In addition to this, Mr. Astor 
 has the aid of a gentleman of business 
 habits and character, once a member 
 of one of the largest shipping houses in 
 New York, who has become connected 
 with the family by marriage. The la- 
 
 bors of all these parties cannot be more 
 than adequate to the requirements of so 
 enormous a property. 
 
 C. K. Garrison, Merchant, of San 
 
 Francisco. 
 
 The financial and public position at- 
 tained by Mr. GARRISON, of San Fran- 
 cisco, so well known as one of the 
 mayors and leading merchants of that 
 city, was due to his own perseverance, 
 exhibited in a manner and to a degree 
 rarely witnessed even in American mer- 
 cantile character. Originating in New 
 York, near West Point, his ancestors 
 were among the regular " Knickerbock- 
 ers " of that region the Coverts, Kings- 
 lands, Schuylers, and others. The pa- 
 terfamilias was at one time considered 
 quite wealthy, but from heavy indorse- 
 ments he became involved at an early 
 period in the life of the subject now 
 under notice. The latter, having to 
 look to his own resources, left home at 
 the age of thirteen, in the capacity of 
 a cabin boy in a sloop. It was not, 
 however, without great difficulty, that 
 young Garrison obtained from his pa- 
 rents their consent that he might leave 
 their home, and accept the situation 
 he sought. " What," said his mother, 
 with characteristic feminine perception, 
 " would the Van Buskirks, the Kings- 
 lands, the Schuylers, the host of other 
 respectable relatives, the thousand and 
 one cousins, &c., &c., say, if it reached 
 their ears that my son was a cabin 
 boy ? " From this small beginning he 
 worked his way up, until he finally 
 found himself in California, where, 
 shortly after, on account of his great 
 business tact, he was offered the Nica- 
 ragua Steamship Company agency, at a 
 salary of $60,000 a year, for two years 
 certain. In addition to this appoint- 
 ment, he received at the same time the 
 agency of two insurance companies, at 
 a salary of $25,000 per annum. At the 
 age of forty-five, he found himself the 
 possessor of a princely fortune ; with 
 a salary three or four times greater
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 41 
 
 than that of the President of the United 
 States ; with a revenue besides, from 
 other sources, of as much more ; and 
 occupying the position of Mayor of the 
 city of San Francisco. This,jiajuccess 
 that rarely falls to the lot oT^hose, 
 even, who are what may be called the 
 " successful " ones in commercial life. 
 
 William Hoggr, the Pennsylvania 
 
 Millionnaire. 
 
 More than seventy years ago, WIL- 
 LIAM HOGG who died at his residence 
 in Brownsville, Pa., leaving an estate 
 of more than a million dollars crossed 
 the Allegheny mountains with a small 
 pack of goods, all he possessed, and 
 which he bore upon his own back, and 
 established himself at Brownsville, then 
 called Red Stone. He soon after open- 
 ed a small store, the first in that region 
 of country, oh the Monongahela river, 
 transporting his goods from Phila- 
 delphia by means of packhorses, and 
 increasing his stock, from time to time, 
 until he became the wealthiest mer- 
 chant in Western Pennsylvania a 
 rank which he prominently occupied 
 in the latter period of his life. He was 
 remarkable for his accurate habits of 
 business, his persevering and indefati- 
 gable application, and his great sa- 
 gacity in the management of his nu- 
 merous and extensive establishments. 
 Whether worth one dollar only, or a 
 million, he held that frugality was the 
 same virtue, and rigidly lived up to 
 this principle. 
 
 Herodotus a Merchant. 
 The opinion equally ingenious and 
 probable is advanced by Malte Brun, 
 that the great father of history and 
 geography, HEBODOTTJS, was a mer- 
 chant. " At least," says he, " this suppo- 
 sition affords the most natural solution 
 of his long voyages and numerous con- 
 nections with nations by no means 
 friendly to the Greeks." His silence re- 
 specting commerce is presumed to have 
 arisen from the same motives which in- 
 
 duced the Carthaginians to throw every 
 voyager into the sea who approached 
 Sardinia, lest the sources of their com- 
 merce and riches should be discovered. 
 
 "* -*X ' 
 
 Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Farsee Banker 
 and Merchant. 
 
 JEEJEEBHOY DADABHOY, of Bombay, 
 was a Parsee banker, merchant, agent, 
 and broker, for more than forty years, 
 and sustained important business rela- 
 tions to many European mercantile 
 houses. So^ extensive were his transac- 
 tions, that his name was well known in 
 all the commef ciaV'lowns of England, 
 Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, 
 Egypt, India, China, Mauritius, &e. 
 A few years before his death, which 
 occurred in 1849, at the age of sixty- 
 four years, he retired from the firm of 
 Messrs. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Sons & 
 Co., but left his name by associating 
 his sons, who have since carried on the 
 business, the firm ranking among the 
 first Parsee commercial houses in India. 
 
 Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy was one of the 
 most active among the native capi- 
 talists in the establishment of the va- 
 rious banks in Bombay ; and he served 
 his time as director respectively in the 
 Oriental and Commercial Banks. To 
 him and to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy 
 the people of Western India are in- 
 debted for the introduction of steam 
 navigation for commercial and passen- 
 ger traffic the first, and by far the best 
 paying of these steamers having been 
 built by them. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, 
 the manager of this company, so judi- 
 ciously conducted the business, that 
 in the course of six years he divided 
 profits amounting to nearly the out- 
 lay. 
 
 He shared, indeed, in every enterprise 
 which promised to promote public 
 advantage, however little his personal 
 interests might be benefited. Among 
 the commercial joint-stock companies, 
 he was a large shareholder in the fol- 
 lowing : the Railway Companies, Cot- 
 ton Screw Companies, Steam Naviga-
 
 42 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 tion Company, Colaba Land and Cot- 
 ton Companies, most of the Bombay 
 Marine and Life Insurance Companies, 
 the Bengal India General Steam Navi- 
 gation Company, several Calcutta In- 
 surance Companies, &c. His capital 
 was likewise engaged in advances on 
 coffee, sugar, &c., &c. 
 
 For nearly twenty years he was a 
 member of the Parsee Punchayet, a po- 
 sition which frequently imposed im- 
 portant duties upon him for the gen- 
 eral benefit of the Parsee community. 
 He was also constantly called upon to 
 arbitrate and settle matters in dispute 
 between members of his caste, and his 
 straightforward judgment invariably 
 gained for him the esteem of those who 
 had submitted their difficulties to his 
 decision. 
 
 In matters of charity his purse was 
 always open to the poor of his com- 
 munity. His name was likewise to be 
 found on almost all the lists of public 
 subscriptions and private charities, both 
 European and native. At the time of 
 his death, forty-two schools, in various 
 parts of the Bombay Presidency, were 
 wholly supported by his bounty. 
 
 He left a widow, four sons, three 
 daughters, twenty-one grandchildren, 
 and six great-grandchildren, to whom 
 he bequeathed immense wealth. He 
 likewise, by his will, left one hundred 
 thousand dollars, to be invested in Gov- 
 ernment securities in the names of eight 
 trustees, four of these being his sons, 
 the interest of this amount to be an- 
 nually divided in charities for the re- 
 lief of the suffering of his caste. 
 
 Abbott Lawrence, Merchant, of 
 Boston. 
 
 ABBOTT LAWRENCE, one of the most 
 eminent of American merchants, was 
 born in Groton, Mass., in 1792. His 
 ancestors were people in humble cir- 
 cumstances, who had for one hundred 
 and fifty years been settled in Groton 
 as cultivators of the soil, and his father, 
 Major Samuel Lawrence, served with 
 
 credit in Prescott's regiment at Bunker 
 Hill, and in many of the severest bat- 
 tles of the war of Independence. For 
 a brief period in his boyhood, he at- 
 tended the district school and the acad- 
 emy at Groton, and in his sixteenth year 
 went to Boston, with less than three 
 dollars in his pocket, and was bound 
 an apprentice to his brother Amos, 
 then recently established there in busi- 
 ness. In 1814 he became one of the 
 firm of A. & A. Lawrence, which for 
 many years conducted a prosperous 
 business in the sale of foreign cotton 
 and woollen goods on commission. Sub- 
 sequently to 1830, they were largely in- 
 terested as selling agents for the manu- 
 facturing companies of Lowell ; and, in 
 the latter part of his life, Abbott Law- 
 rence participated extensively in the 
 China trade. 
 
 In addition to his business pursuits, 
 Mr. Lawrence took a deep interest in 
 all matters of public concern, and was 
 at an early period of his career a zeal- 
 ous advocate of the protective system. 
 In 1834, he was elected a representative 
 in the twenty-fourth Congress, and was 
 there a member of the important com- 
 mittee of ways and means. He also 
 served for a brief period in 1839-'40. 
 In 1842, he was appointed a commis- 
 sioner, on the part of Massachusetts, on 
 the subject of the northeastern boun- 
 dary, in the discharge of which trust 
 he rendered the most important ser- 
 vice. In the Whig Nominating Con- 
 vention of 1848, he was a prominent 
 candidate for Vice-President of the 
 United States, lacking but six votes of 
 a nomination the choice falling upon 
 Mr. Fillmore. On the accession of Gen- 
 eral Taylor, whose election Mr. Law- 
 rence had zealously advocated, a seat in 
 the cabinet was offered to Mr. Law- 
 rence, but declined by him. He was 
 subsequently appointed the representa- 
 tive of the United States at the court 
 of Great Britain, a position which he 
 occupied with credit until October, 
 1852, when he was recalled at his own
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 43 
 
 request. The remainder of his life was 
 devoted to his private business. 
 
 The benefactions of Mr. Lawrence, 
 for private and public purposes, were 
 numerous and wisely bestowed, al- 
 though, from the nature of the circum- 
 stances under which the greater part 
 of his life was passed, the amount can- 
 not, as in his brother Amos's case, be 
 accurately estimated. In 1847, he gave 
 to Harvard University fifty thousand 
 dollars to found the Scientific School, 
 bearing his name, connected with that 
 institution ; and he bequeathed a like 
 sum in aid of the same object. He left 
 a further sum of fifty thousand dollars, 
 for the purpose of erecting model lodg- 
 ing houses, the income of the rents to 
 be forever applied to certain public 
 charities. He was greatly esteemed in 
 private life for his benevolence of dis- 
 position and genial manners, and in his 
 public relations commanded the respect 
 of all parties. Mr. Lawrence died in 
 Boston, August 18th, 1855. 
 
 Jacob Barker, Merchant, of New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Mr. BAKKER is descended from the 
 same stock as Dr. Franklin, to whom 
 he is proud to claim a certain family 
 resemblance and certainly in some of 
 their' personal characteristics there is a 
 striking identity. He was brought up 
 in the Quaker communion, to which, 
 and to their unpretending costume, he 
 long adhered. 
 
 At the age of sixteen he was adrift 
 in the world, and came to New York, 
 where he got employment with Isaac 
 Hicks, a commission merchant, and, 
 beginning the trade on his own ac- 
 count, in a small way, "before Ms major- 
 ity was in possession of four ships and 
 a brig, and had his notes regularly dis- 
 counted at the United States Bank. 
 Sitting at his wedding dinner, August 
 27th, 1801 (he married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Thomas Hazard, of New 
 York), with Mr. Henry Dewees, for 
 whom he had heavily indorsed, news 
 
 was brought him of the ruin of them 
 both ; he passed the letter over to Mr. 
 Dewees, drank wine with him, and took 
 no further notice of the matter. 
 
 For some transactions concerning 
 the North River Bank, Mr. Barker was 
 once openly insulted by one David 
 Rogers, to whom he sent a note de- 
 manding an explanation. No explana- 
 tion came, but in place of it an indict- 
 ment by the grand jury for sending a 
 challenge. Mr. Barker defended him- 
 self with infinite subtlety on the trial, 
 denying the fact of the challenge ; but 
 the jury would not be persuaded, nor 
 the judges afterward, when he argued 
 the question of law, and he was sen- 
 tenced to be disfranchised of his politi- 
 cal rights from which sentence he was 
 relieved by Governor Clinton. But at 
 length, on the failure of the Life and 
 Fire Insurance Company, he was in- 
 dicted, with others, for conspiracy to 
 defraud. The trial was long, the coun- 
 sel wanted time to look over their 
 notes, and it was suggested that Mr. 
 Barker should begin his defence. He 
 had no brief, and had taken no notes, 
 but professed his readiness. " Yes," 
 said Mr. Emmet, " if they were all to 
 be hanged, Mr. Barker would say, hang 
 me first ! " His defence was a prodigy 
 of ability. At the first trial the jury 
 disagreed, on the second he was con- 
 victed, but a new trial granted. After 
 the third the indictment was quashed. 
 
 Some years since he appeared in his 
 own defence in a suit brought in New 
 Orleans, and obtained a verdict after a 
 long personal address to the jury, which 
 is said to have made a most vivid im- 
 pression both upon them and a numer- 
 ous auditory. In reciting the chequer- 
 ed history of his life his unrivalled 
 commercial enterprise, " that the can- 
 vas of his ships had whitened every 
 sea, and that the star-spangled banner 
 of his country had floated from the 
 mast head of his ships in every clime," 
 his aid in procuring a loan of five 
 million dollars for the Government du-
 
 44 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ring the last war with England he 
 said he came to New Orleans poor, and 
 in debt, that he had since made a great 
 deal of money, and spent it in the sup- 
 port of his family and the payment of 
 his debts outstanding in New York; 
 that all those debts were now settled, as 
 was proved, and that he owed nothing 
 in the world at present but one account 
 (on a note, he believed) of about a 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 During the war, Nantucket was in 
 want of supplies : Mr. Barker purchased 
 the New York pilot boat Champlain, 
 and caused her to be landed at Nor- 
 folk with flour, and despatched for that 
 place. When near the island a heavy 
 fog set in ; when it cleared away she 
 was within a half gunshot of a British 
 seventy-four, captured, and vessel and 
 cargo lost. 
 
 Alexander Fordyce, the Shark of the 
 Exchange. 
 
 The career of this notorious broker 
 one of the shrewdest ever known on 
 the roll of British financiers furnishes 
 a dark phase in the dealings of the ex- 
 change. Bred a hosier at Aberdeen, 
 he found the North too confined for 
 such operations as he hoped at some 
 future day to engage in ; and, repair- 
 ing to London, as the only place worthy 
 of his genius, obtained employment as 
 clerk to a city banking house. 
 
 Here he displayed great facility for 
 figures, with great attention to busi- 
 ness, and rose to the post of junior part- 
 ner in the firm of RoflFey, Neale & 
 Jaines. Scarcely was he thus estab- 
 lished, ere he began to speculate, and 
 generally with marked good fortune 
 and, thinking his good luck would be 
 perpetual, ventured for sums which in- 
 volved his own character and his part- 
 ners' Fortune. The game was with him ; 
 the funds were constantly on the rise ; 
 and, fortunate as daring, he was en- 
 abled to purchase a large estate, to sup- 
 port a grand appearance, to surpass 
 nabobs in extravagance, and parvenus 
 
 in folly. He marked " the marble with 
 his name," upon a church which he os- 
 tentatiously built. His ambition vied 
 with his extravagance, and his extrava- 
 gance rivalled his ambition. The Aber- 
 deen hosier spent thousands of pounds 
 in attempting to become a titled mag- 
 nate, and openly avowed his hope of 
 dying a peer. He married a woman of 
 title ; made a fine settlement on her 
 ladyship ; purchased estates in Scot- 
 land at a fancy value ; built a hospital ; 
 and founded charities in the place of 
 which he hoped to become the repre- 
 sentative. 
 
 But a change came over his fortunes. 
 Some political events first gave him a 
 shake ; then another blow followed, 
 and he had recourse to his partners' 
 private funds to supply his deficiencies. 
 On being smartly remonstrated with, a 
 cool and insolent contempt for their 
 opinion, coupled with the remark that 
 he was quite disposed to leave them to 
 manage a concern to which they were 
 utterly incompetent, startled them ; and 
 when, with a cunning which provided 
 for everything, an enormous amount of 
 bank notes, which Fordyce had borrow- 
 ed for the purpose, was shown them, 
 their faith in his genius returned with 
 the possession of the magic paper it 
 being somewhat doubtful whether the 
 plausibility of his manner or the agree- 
 able rustle of the notes decided them. 
 
 HI fortune, however, still continued 
 to cast its gaunt shadow on Mr. For- 
 dyce's track the price of the funds 
 would not yield to his fine combina- 
 tions and plans. But with all his great 
 and continued losses, he retained to the 
 last hour a cool and calm self-posses- 
 sion. Utter bankruptcy finally follow- 
 ed, and the public feeling was so vio- 
 lent, as he detailed the tissue of his un- 
 surpassed fraud and folly, that it was 
 necessary to guard him from the popu- 
 lace. He broke half the commercial 
 town. Two gentlemen, ruined by the 
 broker's extravagance, shot themselves 
 dead, and many of the wealthiest fami-
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 45 
 
 lies were beggared. Nor is this sur- 
 prising, when it is known that bills to 
 the amount of twenty millions of dollars 
 were in circulation, with the name of 
 Fordyce attached to them a name still 
 synonymous with that of " the Shark 
 of the Exchange." 
 
 Nicholas Longworth, Millionnaire, of 
 
 Cincinnati. 
 
 NICHOLAS LONGWOBTH, who recently 
 died in Cincinnati, at the age of eigh- 
 ty years, was born in Newark, N. J., 
 in the year 1783, and was brought up 
 to the shoemaking business in his early 
 life. His father, having been reduced 
 to poverty, became a shoemaker, and 
 had all his children educated to follow 
 trades. It was intended that Nicholas 
 should obtain his living as a regular 
 shoemaker ; but at an early age he im- 
 proved the opportunity offered him of 
 going to the South with a brother, and 
 became a clerk in the latter's store in 
 Savannah. After being in mercantile 
 business at the South about two and 
 a half years, he removed in 1804 to 
 Cincinnati, then only a scattered and 
 sparsely populated village of about 
 seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, 
 adjoining to Fort Washington, on the 
 banks of the Ohio, where the Federal 
 Government maintained a garrison, the 
 expenditure of which at that and earlier 
 periods formed no small share of the 
 business of Cincinnati. 
 
 The beginning of Mr. Longworth's 
 career in Cincinnati was a very curious 
 one. He commenced the study of the 
 law, under Judge Burnett, an eminent 
 lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in 
 advance of the ordinary period. Until 
 1819, he followed the law as his profes- 
 sion. Meantime he had married a wid- 
 ow of some means, and had devoted 
 himself to speculations in lots, foresee- 
 ing that the value of real estate must 
 enhance immensely. In this way he 
 laid the foundation of his gigantic for- 
 tune. At that time, property was at a 
 very low valuation, and many of Long- 
 
 worth's lots cost him no more than ten 
 dollars each, which in a few years mul- 
 tiplied in value a hundredfold. His 
 property increased so rapidly that in 
 1850 his taxes rated higher, perhaps, 
 than those of any other man in the 
 United States except William B. Astor, 
 the taxes of the latter amounting to 
 some twenty-three thousand, while 
 those of Longworth were over seven- 
 teen thousand. The ground occupied 
 by the celebrated Observatory of Cin- 
 cinnati was a free gift from Mr. Long- 
 worth. He donated four acres of his 
 land on Mount Adams for that purpose. 
 
 Mr. Longworth devoted much of his 
 time to agriculture and horticulture 
 the grape and the strawberry especially. 
 Every one has heard of his Catawba 
 wine, both still and sparkling cham- 
 pagne. Indeed, Nicholas Longworth, 
 Esq., the " fifteen millionnaire," is not 
 half so well known as " old Nick Long- 
 worth," who did so much for the cul- 
 ture of the Catawba and Isabella grape 
 in the Ohio valley. His gardens and 
 hothouses abounded in the rarest ex- 
 otics, and were freely accessible to visi- 
 tors who wished to enjoy them, and, if 
 his gardeners were not on hand to point 
 out their beauties, it is very probable 
 that Nicholas Longworth himself would 
 perform the part of chaperon. Mr. 
 Longworth was a ready writer, full of 
 wit, humor, and sarcasm. 
 
 Mr. Longworth had four children 
 three daughters and one son. One of 
 the daughters married Larz Anderson, 
 of Cincinnati, brother of the hero of 
 Fort Sumter, a prominent lawyer. The 
 wealth of which Mr. Longworth died 
 possessed is put down at fifteen mil- 
 lions ; but it is probable that it may be 
 quoted at a much higher figure. His 
 city lots alone would probably amount 
 to that sum. The value of his prop- 
 erty in the suburbs of Cincinnati and 
 the different counties of Western Ohio, 
 from Hamilton county to Sandusky, 
 would perhaps swell his estate to twen- 
 ty millions.
 
 46 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 John Overend, the Pioneer Bill Broker 
 of London. 
 
 JOHN OVEREND'S name stood, for a 
 long time, at the head of the most an- 
 cient as well as extensive and renown- 
 ed bill-brokering establishment in the 
 world. Bill brokering in its present 
 form was commenced about half a cen- 
 tury ago. This house Overend & Co. 
 so well known in Europe and Ameri- 
 ca, was formed in the year 1807, under 
 the firm of Richardson, Overend & Co. 
 The partners were Thomas Richardson, 
 a clerk in the banking house of Smith, 
 Wright & Gray ; John Overend, a clerk 
 to a woollen dealer ; and Samuel Gur- 
 ney, then twenty-one years of age, the 
 second son of Mr. John Gurney, a part- 
 ner in the Norwich Bank. This bank 
 was established in 1770, by Henry 
 Gurney, who was succeeded by his 
 son, Bartlett Gurney, and the latter, in 
 1803, took into partnership his cousin, 
 John Gurney, and several other mem- 
 bers of his family. Mr. John Gurney 
 had previously been a woolstapler and 
 spinner of worsted yarn. In this char- 
 acter he was acquainted with Mr. Joseph 
 Smith, who was extensively connected 
 with the trade of Norwich, and was en- 
 gaged by the Norwich Bank to employ 
 their surplus funds in discounting bills 
 for his numerous connections. This 
 business became so extensive that, upon 
 the suggestion of John Overend, a firm 
 was established expressly for the pur- 
 pose of carrying it on, under the super- 
 intendence of the Norwich Bank. Mr. 
 Samuel Gurney had, for three years 
 previously, been a clerk to Mr. Fry, 
 who had married Mr. Gurney's sister, 
 the celebrated Elizabeth Fry. After 
 the death or retirement of Mr. Richard- 
 son, the firm was Overend & Co. On 
 the death of Mr. Overend, Samuel 
 Gurney became the senior partner, un- 
 til his death in 1856, when he was suc- 
 ceeded by David Barclay Chapman. 
 The second house of this kind, in point 
 of time, was that of Messrs. Sanderson 
 & Co. The house of Alexander & Co. 
 
 has also long been eminent in the same 
 kind of business founded by Overend. 
 
 " Old Mr. Denison," of St. Mary Axe. 
 
 " OLD MR. DENISON," as he was 
 called by every one, for more than a 
 generation, belonged to the primitive 
 school of English bankers, who made 
 his own fortune, and was remarkable 
 for his economy and strict attention to 
 business. He lived for years at his 
 banking house in " St. Mary Axe," and 
 was so provident as to go to market 
 daily, basket in hand, for his family. 
 But if he thus looked closely after 
 small matters, it was because he held 
 everything subservient to one great 
 one his bank and the accumulation 
 of capital. Like many men who have 
 a turn for economy, he was fond of 
 boasting of the bargains he had bought. 
 There has also been many a chronicle 
 rehearsed of the trouble it used to give 
 to the old gentleman to provide good 
 things cheap, when his son, the present 
 distinguished banker and political nota- 
 bility, entertained his west-end friends 
 at dinner. For, with the honorable 
 pride so frequently observed among 
 Scotchmen, " old Mr. Denison " not 
 only took care that his son's education 
 should be excellent, but gave him a 
 very fair encouragement to gain a foot- 
 ing in the best society in which, too, 
 he was as successful as he could have 
 wished. He left a large property, 
 which has been increased by his son, 
 one of the richest London bankers 
 being commonly rated at three millions 
 sterling the greater part of which is 
 always kept available for business pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Lorillard, the New York Tobacconist. 
 The name of LORILLARD looms up 
 very prominently in the annals of 
 American mercantile biography, and 
 few of the solid merchants of New York 
 show a more honorable record of per- 
 sonal worth and financial success. It
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 47 
 
 was one of Mr. Lorillard's favorite re- 
 marks, and well deserving of note, that 
 his prosperity arose from his not having 
 made haste to le rich. He entered upon 
 business with a capital of a thousand 
 dollars, increased by a loan from his 
 brothers of double that amount ; and 
 from the skill, the foresight, and the 
 diligence with which his business was 
 conducted, and from some adventitious 
 advantages, his own part of it was even- 
 tually multiplied more than a thousand- 
 fold. " Lorillard, the New York To- 
 bacconist," became, in course of time, a 
 name widely known in both hemi- 
 spheres, nor has it yet lost its prestige. 
 
 Simple in all his tastes and habits, 
 well regulated in all his affections and 
 desires, free from vanity, ostentation, 
 and pride, he had no extravagant long- 
 ings, either to urge him on in the eager 
 pursuit of wealth, or to make him 
 squander, in prodigality, the fruits of 
 iniquity and fraud. Instead, therefore, 
 of unduly extending his business, and, 
 in haste to enrich himself, careless 
 about the interests and claims of 
 others ; instead of running out into 
 wild and visionary schemes, which are 
 usually so tempting to the cupidity of 
 business men, and staking the laborious 
 acquisitions of a life upon the chances 
 of a day, Mr. Lorillard was contented 
 to follow the prudent methods of better 
 times, to avoid unnecessary anxiety for 
 the future, to keep innocency, and take 
 heed to the thing that was right in re- 
 gard to his neighbor. 
 
 Whenever, therefore, the profits of 
 his business were not needed for the 
 enlargement of his capital, he was in 
 the habit of investing them in real es- 
 tate, selected very often in obscure and 
 retired places, which would be unat- 
 tractive to the mere speculator, and 
 with greater regard to the security of 
 the property than the immediate pros- 
 pect of gain. But, in most cases, this 
 very moderation and prudence turned 
 to a better account than the grasping 
 calculations of avarice itself his own 
 
 possessions increasing in value, securely 
 and steadily, while those of others were 
 often swept away by their extravagance 
 and folly. 
 
 John Jacob Astor, Richest Merchant 
 of America. 
 
 Mr. ASTOR was born near the ancient 
 city of Heidelberg, Germany, in the 
 year 1763, and his history embodies an in- 
 valuable moral for merchants generally, 
 and for young men in particular. His 
 parents moved in humble life. He came 
 to this country when about nineteen 
 years of age, at which time the State 
 of New York was mostly a wilderness. 
 He made frequent excursions up the 
 Mohawk river, to traffic with the In- 
 dians for furs, and gradually enlarged 
 his business as his means increased. 
 After a while, the American Fur Com- 
 pany was formed, and he became a com- 
 petitor with the great capitalists of Eu- 
 rope, who controlled the Northwestern 
 and Canadian Fur Companies. Such 
 was his enterprise, that he extended 
 his business to the mouth of the As- 
 toria river, and formed the first fur 
 establishment then known as Astoria. 
 For many years previous to the war of 
 1812, and subsequently, Mr. Astor was 
 extensively engaged in the Canton 
 trade, and during the war was fortu- 
 nate in having several of his ships ar- 
 rive here with valuable cargoes. The 
 profits on these were enormous. Mr. 
 Astor made large investments in Gov- 
 ernment stocks, which he purchased 
 during the war with Great Britain, at 
 sixty or seventy cents on the dollar, and 
 which, after the peace, went up to 
 twenty per cent, above par. On his 
 death, most of his estate went to Mr. 
 William B. Astor, his son, and consist- 
 ing in a great measure of property not 
 subject to regular appraisal, the esti- 
 mates of its value have been very va- 
 rious. During the whole of his pro- 
 tracted business career, Mr. Astor was 
 noted for persevering industry, rigid 
 economy, and strict integrity. He bad
 
 48 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 a genius bold, fertile, and expansive ; 
 a sagacity quick to grasp and convert 
 a circumstance to the highest advan- 
 tage ; and a singular and never-waver- 
 ing confidence of signal success in what 
 he undertook. 
 
 As the result of only sixteen years of 
 business life, Mr. Astor was worth one 
 quarter of a million dollars, and is sup- 
 posed, on a moderate estimation, to 
 have left a fortune of twenty millions. 
 It would be difficult to say whether 
 the great part of his immense fortune 
 was derived from his mercantile deal- 
 ings or his investments in real estate. 
 He early began and systematically fol- 
 lowed up the policy of investing large- 
 ly, not only in the inhabited parts of 
 the city, where immediate income could 
 be realized, but in unoccupied lots, or 
 acres, rather, of fields out of town, 
 which he saw, in anticipation, covered 
 by the spreading city. He was under 
 no necessity of mortgaging one prop- 
 erty for the purchase of another under 
 no temptation to dangerously expand. 
 Thus he was enabled to make invest- 
 ments which it has been said, no doubt 
 with literal truth, centupled on his 
 hands. At one time, it is stated, he 
 was in the habit of investing two thirds 
 of his net annual receipts in land, and 
 in the course of all of his vast opera- 
 tions, with a large part of his fortune 
 afloat on the ocean, he is said never to 
 have mortgaged a lot. During the 
 fifty years of his active business life, he 
 hardly made a mistake or misstep 
 through defect of his own judgment. 
 Until his fifty-fifth year, he was at his 
 office before seven o'clock. He was a 
 great horseman, and in the constant 
 habit of riding out for pleasure and 
 exercise. In the strength of his gen- 
 eral grasp of a great subject, he did 
 not allow himself to be too much dis- 
 turbed by the consideration of details. 
 His mind worked so actively that he 
 soon got through the business of a day, 
 and he could leave his office earlier 
 than many business men who did less. 
 
 Troubled and annoyed by petty trials, 
 he was calm and self-possessed under 
 great ones. " Keep quiet keep cool," 
 was the constant and familiar admoni- 
 tion from his lips. When the great 
 trials came, his spirit rose with the 
 emergency, and he was equal to the 
 hour. Mr. Astor died in March, 1848, 
 aged eighty-four years, and in his will 
 bequeathed four hundred thousand dol- 
 lars to found a free public library in 
 the city of New York. 
 
 Samuel Appleton, Merchant, of 
 Boston. 
 
 SAMUEL APPLETON, a rich merchant 
 and distinguished philanthropist of 
 Boston, was born in New Ipswich, N. H., 
 in 1766. His father was a respectable 
 farmer, and the son spent his youth 
 amidst the severe toils attendant on the 
 pursuits of agricultural life. Samuel 
 shared his good fortune with his 
 brother Nathan, who was his partner in 
 mercantile business. Some amusing 
 anecdotes are related of the early career 
 of the subject of this notice, illustrative 
 of his humble origin and his fidelity. 
 One of these is, that, when fourteen 
 years of age, his father hired him to as- 
 sist a drover of cattle ten miles through 
 the woods, for which service the fath- 
 er received twelve and a half cents. 
 The boy satisfied the drover so well, 
 that six and a quarter cents more 
 were given him as a gratuity. This 
 was perhaps the first money that 
 he could call his own. When about 
 twenty-one years of age, he left home 
 and spent some time in clearing a lot 
 of new land in Maine, on which was 
 a log cabin ; the nearest residence was 
 distant two miles, and his only guide 
 to it was the marked trees. He next 
 became a country schoolmaster, but 
 after a short tune engaged in a small 
 village store. His success was good; 
 and in 1794 he removed to Boston, 
 where, with his brother Nathan, under 
 the firm of 8. & N. Appleton, he em- 
 barked in commercial pursuits, and be-
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 49 
 
 came one of the most thrifty merchants 
 in that city. His wealth, increased 
 rapidly ; and, from an early date in his 
 accumulations, his charities gladdened 
 the hearts of the widow and orphan. 
 The Boston Female Orphan Society was 
 one of the first to participate in his 
 munificence. His native town, also, 
 was occasionally remembered by him 
 with filial affection. Indeed, he was 
 always ready to give, according to his 
 means, and when consistent with their 
 claims, if the object presented was a 
 good one. Being himself without chil- 
 dren, most of his estate, amounting to 
 a million of dollars, was distributed by 
 his will as follows : he left to his wid- 
 ow specific bequests amounting to two 
 hundred thousand dollars ; also, many 
 other bequests, to nephews, nieces and 
 others, amounting to some three hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand dollars more. 
 Among these may be mentioned one 
 of five thousand dollars " to his friend 
 and pastor, Rev. Ephraim Peabody," 
 and five thousand dollars to the ser- 
 vants living in the family at the time 
 of his decease, to be distributed in the 
 manner and according to the proportion 
 to be fixed upon by his widow. He 
 then bequeathed to his executors, man- 
 ufacturing stocks valued at two hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, to be by them 
 appropriated for scientific, literary, re- 
 ligious, or charitable purposes, and 
 thus, through the long future, his 
 wealth is to be beneficially employed. 
 Mr. Appleton lived to the good old age 
 of eighty-seven years. 
 
 Peter O. Brooks, Underwriter and 
 Millionnaire, of Boston. 
 
 PETER C. BROOKS was born in North 
 Yarmouth, Maine, January 6th, 1769, 
 his father, Rev. Edward Brooks, being 
 then a settled clergyman in that place. 
 Soon after his birth, his father returned 
 to Medford, Mass., his native town, to 
 which the family was strongly attached, 
 and there he died prematurely, in 1781, 
 the son being only twelve years of age. 
 4 
 
 As soon as the subject of this sketch 
 arrived at maturity, he repaired to Bos- 
 ton, gifted only with a common school 
 education, and without pecuniary 
 means, to seek his fortune. The rich 
 men of that city were then in especial 
 need of young men of talent and char- 
 acter, by whom they could be assisted 
 in the care of their property and busi- 
 ness. Mr. Brooks soon proved to them 
 that he had business talents of the 
 highest order, and these were united 
 with great modesty, and an integrity 
 that never received from youth to old 
 age a single blemish. 
 
 At the time referred to, there were 
 no insurance companies in Boston, and 
 Mr. Brooks had the sagacity to see the 
 need of a substitute, and hence estab- 
 lished himself as an insurance broker, 
 particularly for marine policies. Most 
 of the capitalists had such confidence in 
 his judgments, that they became under- 
 writers in his office. With the rapidly 
 increasing commerce of the country, 
 the business of Mr. Brooks became 
 large and lucrative, and, almost before 
 he or any one else thought of it, he was 
 a rich man. This was the foundation 
 of an estate estimated, long before his 
 death, to amount to three millions of 
 dollars, more or less ; but it was at 
 least sufficient to furnish a moral to 
 young men, which to them is worth 
 more than any mere financial compu- 
 tation. It shows how a small busi- 
 ness, shrewdly commenced and skilfully 
 prosecuted, will ordinarily lead to com- 
 petence, if not to affluence. The same 
 good sense manifested by Mr. Brooks 
 in his business affairs was also exhib- 
 ited by him in regard to his daughters 
 when contracting matrimonial alliances. 
 He desired his daughters especially to 
 select wise and good husbands, rat/'er 
 than heartless and brainless shadowy 
 of manhood, though possessed of 
 wealth. In illustration of this, it may 
 be mentioned that Rev. Nathaniel L. 
 Prothingham, D.D., Hon. Edward Eve- 
 rett, and Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
 
 50 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 son of John Quincy Adams, were his 
 sons-in-law. Although Mr. Brooks did 
 not receive an university education, yet 
 his attainments were better than many 
 who had enjoyed those advantages. 
 As a man of business he had not a su- 
 perior ; and in the social relations of 
 life, he was an accomplished Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 Thomas H. Perkins, Merchant, of 
 Boston. 
 
 Mr. PEHKINS was one of the most 
 sagacious, enterprising, and successful 
 of Boston merchants, of which city he 
 was a native. Colonel Perkins, as he 
 was uniformly called, had two brothers, 
 James and Samuel, both merchants. 
 James, who died about the year 1825, 
 and left a large fortune, was a liberal 
 patron of the Boston Athenaeum. Sam- 
 uel acquired a fortune ; but afterward 
 incurred such heavy losses, that for 
 many years he derived his chief sup- 
 port from a salary as President of the 
 Suffolk Insurance Company. Colonel 
 Perkins had three sisters, one of whom 
 was the mother of John P. Gushing, 
 the well-known millionnaire, who accu- 
 mulated a large fortune in China ; one 
 was the wife of Benjamin Abbott, 
 LL.D., for fifty years the celebrated 
 principal of Phillips Academy, Exeter, 
 N. H. ; and the third sister was the 
 mother of the philanthropic Captain 
 Forbes, who commanded the James- 
 town on her mission of benevolence to 
 famished Ireland, in the year 1847. 
 
 Colonel Perkins commenced his com- 
 mercial career in partnership with his 
 elder brother, James, who was a resi- 
 dent of St. Domingo, when the insur- 
 rection occurred in that island, and 
 was then compelled to flee for his life. 
 They afterward embarked in the trade 
 to the Northwest coast, Canton and 
 Calcutta, in which they acquired great 
 wealth. Soon after the death of his 
 brother James, Colonel Perkins retired 
 from active business. The Perkins 
 family gave over sixty thousand dol- 
 
 lars to the Boston Athenaeum. For 
 more than sixty years was Colonel 
 Perkins identified with the commercial 
 history of Boston ; and for a quarter 
 of a century, or more, by common con- 
 sent, occupied a prominent position as 
 the leading merchant of New England. 
 
 Among the many incidents of his 
 life, which mark and illustrate his pri- 
 vate character, is the part he took in 
 the erection of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
 ment, and the donation of his elegant 
 estate for the use of the Boston Institu- 
 tion for the Blind. He was also, in 
 1827, the projector of the Quincy rail- 
 way, the first enterprise of the kind in 
 the United States. Subsequently, he 
 was much interested in urging forward 
 the completion of the Washington 
 Monument ; and was also the largest 
 contributor to the Boston Mercantile 
 Library Association. But his chief 
 pleasure was derived from his free and 
 constant private charities. His full 
 heart kept his full hand always open. 
 
 Colonel Perkins visited Europe sev- 
 eral times, and, while in Paris, on one 
 of these tours, participated, with anoth- 
 er Bostonian, in the pleasure of libera- 
 ting from the conscription, George 
 Washington, the eldest son of the Mar- 
 quis de Lafayette. His last visit to 
 Europe was made when in his seventy- 
 seventh year ; and it has been asserted 
 that no American, occupying a private 
 station, has been treated with such 
 marked attention by the nobility and 
 gentry of Great Britain, as was Colonel 
 Perkins. He was not simply a talented 
 merchant, but his taste led him to the 
 study and to the advancement of litera- 
 ture, the sciences, and the arts. He 
 died at Boston, in January, 1854, at the 
 age of eighty-nine years, leaving a for- 
 tune of nearly two millions. 
 
 Jonathan Goodhue, Merchant, of 
 New York. 
 
 THIS eminent and excellent merchant 
 was a native of Massachusetts, having 
 been born in Salem, June 21, 1783.
 
 EARLY CAREER OP BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 51 
 
 His father, Hon. Benjamin Goodhue, 
 represented the State of Massachusetts 
 in the United States Senate, two suc- 
 cessive terms. Jonathan received his 
 education at the village grammar 
 school, and diligently improved the 
 opportunities of educational advance- 
 ment there afforded him, until, at the 
 age of fifteen, he became a clerk of that 
 excellent man and distinguished mer- 
 chant, John Norris, of Salem. After 
 serving in this capacity a few years, his 
 employer sent him to Arabia, as super- 
 cargo, touching at the Cape of Good 
 Hope and the Isle of France, and re- 
 maining some six months at Aden, Ara- 
 bia, carrying on trade with the Moham- 
 medans. Subsequently to this he went, 
 in the same capacity, on a voyage to 
 Calcutta. 
 
 In 1807, at the age of twenty-four, 
 Mr. Goodhue removed to New York, 
 and there commenced his successful 
 career as an extensive, high-minded 
 and opulent merchant, under the pat- 
 ronage of his former friend, Mr. Norris, 
 together with such men as William 
 Gray, of Boston, Joseph Peabody, of 
 Salem, and others of kindred stamp in 
 that section of the country ; and one 
 of his warmest friends in his newly 
 chosen sphere of commercial operations 
 was the late Archibald Gracie. 
 
 As soon as the peace of 1814 came 
 with its blessings upon the country, 
 Mr. Goodhue greatly extended his busi- 
 ness, comprising voyages to almost all 
 parts of Europe, the East Indies, Mexi- 
 co, South America, etc. And such was 
 the method which characterized Mr. 
 Goodhue's business transactions, that, 
 notwithstanding the long period cov- 
 ered by his career, and the consequent 
 multiplicity and importance of the po- 
 litical and other events affecting com- 
 mercial interests during that period, his 
 credit remained unimpaired throughout 
 the whole. 
 
 In his intellectual qualities, Mr. Good- 
 hue was distinguished for simplicity, 
 clearness and strength, and his love of 
 
 acquiring information from books and 
 intelligent acquaintances. He was an 
 unflinching Federalist, and an advocate 
 of the doctrine of free trade, differing 
 of course, in these respects, from the 
 great body of his associates through life. 
 But that he entertained these views of 
 political and commercial policy con- 
 scientiously, no one ever for a moment 
 doubted. The same quality of con- 
 scientious uprightness may be said to 
 have shone conspicuously in all his 
 personal, public, and business dealings. 
 His tastes, too, were simple, and thus 
 the affluence to which he attained was 
 never accompanied by pride or extrava- 
 gance ; and though he shunned noto- 
 riety, he was always ready to fill those 
 positions of philanthropic or financial 
 trust in which he could be of benefit to 
 his fellow-men, a feeling which was 
 illustrated by his long and honorable 
 connection with some of the most im- 
 portant institutions in his adopted city. 
 Mr. Goodhue died at the age of six- 
 ty-five years. Immediately after this 
 event, a letter was found, written by Mr. 
 Goodhue to his family, and in which, 
 with many other things equally char- 
 acteristic of the goodly simplicity of 
 his character, he says : " In reference 
 to the closing scene in this world, I 
 wish to express my desire that there 
 be no parade connected with the funeral 
 performances. It would be my desire 
 that none but the immediate relatives 
 and friends should be called together 
 when the usual religious services should 
 be performed, and that no more than a 
 single carriage should follow the hearse 
 to the cemetery/' 
 
 Erastus Corning:, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 IN 1807, when but thirteen years of 
 age, Erastus Corning sought and found 
 the opportunity to begin that indus- 
 trious career, which he has so long and 
 so admirably sustained. Troy at that 
 time attracted the attention of many
 
 52 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 of the sagacious men of business of the 
 Eastern States. It seemed by its posi- 
 tion toward the Western and Northern 
 trade, and the facilities for manufacture 
 which clustered near it, to afford a sure 
 recompense for the exercise of business 
 energy ; a result of which the success 
 of the city has justified the prediction. 
 Mr. Coming's relative, Mr. Benjamin 
 Smith, appreciating the character and 
 energy of his nephew, made him the 
 companion of his removal from Nor- 
 wich ; and, as he fixed his abode in 
 Troy, associated him with his business. 
 Mr. Corning here, and then, entered 
 upon that connection with the business 
 of hardware which, with him, has been 
 the progress from a moderate begin- 
 ning to the head and control of the 
 largest establishment in that section of 
 the country. Seven years were passed 
 in Troy. The same kind relative who 
 had initiated him into the duties of a 
 commercial life, accompanied him with 
 his kindness to the last. Strengthened 
 in fortune, and with a business habit 
 which moulded readily to his charac- 
 ter, and which was every day develop- 
 ing the resources of judgment and good 
 sense which distinguished him, he re- 
 moved to Albany the city the annals 
 of whose prosperity, and, better than 
 that, of whose charities, cannot be dis- 
 sociated from his life. 
 
 The house Mr. Corning entered, when 
 he arrived at Albany, had at its head 
 a remarkable man a man of the first 
 grade of merchants. John Spencer ex- 
 hibited one of the best specimens of a 
 merchant high in the order of commer- 
 cial integrity. Nor is it strange that 
 out of a house, conducted by such a 
 man, so many fortunes have had origin. 
 Many of those, now giving to various 
 great measures of good the valuable 
 influence of their wealth, as well as 
 their example, traced from the house 
 of John Spencer & Co. their career. 
 On one occasion, Mr. Spencer was at 
 the old Pearl-street House in New 
 York, when that locality was the gath- 
 
 ering place of the merchants of West- 
 ern New York. At the dinner table 
 were collected such men as Christopher 
 Morgan, and those who, like him, led 
 the business of "the West" a geo- 
 graphical designation applied, at that 
 time, to New York State. The name 
 of a merchant in Albany was mention- 
 ed, and Mr. Spencer asked in relation 
 to his solvency and credit. He an- 
 swered instantly : " As good as my 
 own." Returning to Albany, he sent 
 for that man, conversed with him of 
 his affairs, entered fully into their ac- 
 tual condition, and finding them pre- 
 carious and at peril, assumed the bur- 
 den of his obligations, and placed him 
 beyond cavil or danger. Such was 
 John Spencer's estimate of the worth 
 of a merchant's word, that even his 
 opinion was to be though at cost and 
 loss made sound and reliable. 
 
 The young man who, at the age of 
 twenty, came to his establishment, was 
 congenial to such honorable rule, and 
 in two years after his entry to the house 
 he became a partner, and the house of 
 Erastus Corning sometimes alone, but 
 oftener with partners, giving to the 
 business the same high and earnest di- 
 rection has continued in increasing 
 prosperity, and with a range of busi- 
 ness touching the very verge of the 
 country. But it is to Mr. Corning, as 
 a railway man, that the public eye has 
 for many years been directed, and, so 
 well known is his distinguished career 
 in this sphere, that it would be well- 
 nigh superfluous to attempt, in this 
 place, any delineation of his great and 
 sagacious abilities. 
 
 Archibald Oracle, Merchant, of New 
 York. 
 
 THIS distinguished merchant and es- 
 timable man was born at Dumfries, in 
 Scotland, in 1756. He received a mer- 
 cantile education of high order, in a 
 counting house at Liverpool. Among 
 his fellow clerks were three other emi-
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 53 
 
 nent merchants the late Mr. Ewart, 
 of the latter place ; Mr. Reid, of Reid, 
 Irving & Co., London ; and Mr. Caton, 
 of Baltimore, who married a daughter 
 of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 
 
 Mr. GRACIK came to the United 
 States soon after the peace which con- 
 firmed their independence, and mar- 
 ried Miss Rogers, a sister of the late 
 Moses Rogers Esq., of New York. He 
 established himself first in Virginia; 
 where, in the year 1796, he was ranked 
 among our first merchants for credit 
 and capital. 
 
 The geographical position of New 
 York did not escape his foresight ; for 
 he early pronounced its destiny to be 
 the commercial emporium of the West- 
 ern World, and selected that port for 
 the home of his mercantile operations, 
 as well as permanently made it his resi- 
 dence. Here riches flowed in, and 
 honor and usefulness were his rewards 
 for a long term of years. Endowed 
 with rare sagacity and sound sense, to 
 which he added great experience, his 
 commercial enterprises were laid with 
 judgment, and executed with zeal. His 
 signal flag was known in most of the 
 ports of the Mediterranean and the 
 Baltic seas, of the Peninsula, in Great 
 Britain and China, and his name was 
 synonymous with credit, probity, and 
 honor. Even the Spanish Government, 
 not usually over-confiding in foreigners, 
 intrusted to him at one time their bills 
 of exchange, drawn on Vera Cruz, to 
 the extent of ten millions of dollars. 
 These bills were brought in a French 
 frigate to New York, in 1806, and Mr. 
 Isaac Bell, who had charge of them, 
 was upset in a boat, and a reward of 
 two hundred dollars was offered to the 
 finder of the trunk which contained 
 them. It was picked up a fortnight 
 after, at Deal Beach, near Long Branch. 
 The bills were dried, and collected in 
 specie by Mr. Gracie and two other 
 distinguished merchants Mr. Oliver, 
 of Baltimore, and Mr. Craig, of Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 But a season of reverses came. Em- 
 barrassed by the capture of ships and 
 cargoes, and by the failure of foreign 
 correspondents and domestic debtors 
 disaster upon disaster befalling the 
 commercial community his mass of 
 wealth, accumulated by a long life of 
 enterprise and industry, was entirely 
 swept away in the common ruin a 
 sad verification of the proverb : " Rich- 
 es take to themselves wings and fly 
 away." But he never boasted of 
 them, nor trusted in their continuance. 
 Public confidence had often been mani- 
 fested toward him by appointments to 
 places of trust ; and now his friends, 
 whose esteem he never lost nor for- 
 feited, sought to secure a continuance 
 of his usefulness, and an asylum for his 
 declining years, in the presidency of 
 an insurance company, created for these 
 purposes. But the effect of the blast 
 which had prostrated him was not yet 
 over ; for here again adversity crossed 
 his path, and the hazards of the ocean 
 proved ruinous to the affairs of the office. 
 Benevolence and beneficence were 
 the shining characteristics of Mr. Gra- 
 cie. His dwelling was long the man- 
 sion of elegant, unostentatious hospi- 
 tality, and his door never closed against 
 the poor. It is no slight testimonial to 
 his standing and worth, that he re- 
 ciprocated honor in a long and confi- 
 dential intimacy with Alexander Ham- 
 ilton and Gouverneur Morris. Mr. 
 Gracie died on the 12th of April, 1829, 
 in the seventy-fourth year of his age. 
 
 Thomas P. Cope, Merchant, of 
 Philadelphia 
 
 MB. COPE, formerly one of the most 
 eminent of Philadelphia merchants, was 
 a native of Lancaster county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and belonged to a highly re- 
 spectable Quaker family. His ances- 
 tor, Oliver Cope, was one of the first 
 purchasers from William Penn. On 
 the maternal side, Mr. C. descended 
 from the Pyms, who claim as an an-
 
 54 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 cestor the celebrated parliamentarian, 
 John Pym, whose name is connected 
 with that of Strafford. In 1786, he was 
 sent to Philadelphia, and entered a 
 counting house. In 1790, he began 
 business for himself, and built for his 
 own use the store at the corner of Second 
 street and Jones's Alley, then known 
 by the euphonious designation of Pew- 
 ter-Platter Alley. Here he transacted 
 a large business, importing his own 
 goods. In this location he continued 
 until 1807, at which time he built his 
 first ship, which he named for his na- 
 tive county, Lancaster. This same year 
 he was elected to the State Legislature ; 
 and soon afterward he was solicited to 
 accept a nomination for Congress, but 
 preferred to superintend his extensive 
 mercantile concerns. To Mr. Cope was 
 Philadelphia indebted, in 1821, for the 
 establishment of the first regular line 
 of packet ships between that city and 
 Liverpool, England. 
 
 About 1810, Mr. Cope removed his 
 place of business to Walnut street wharf, 
 where his sons now have their counting 
 house, and where their packet ships 
 lie when in port. This place had been 
 remarkable as the scene of misfortune 
 to nearly all its previous occupants, 
 and so marked had the results been, 
 so striking and so uninterrupted, that a 
 dread had been excited in the minds 
 of those the least tinctured with super- 
 stition. It was what was called an 
 " unlucky place," and several of Mr. 
 Cope's friends mentioned to him with 
 some earnestness its bad character in 
 this respect. "Then," said he, with 
 his characteristic uprightness and fear- 
 lessness, " I will try to earn for it a bet- 
 ter name." And although he was a 
 wealthy man before he removed thither, 
 yet that place is identified with his 
 subsequent prosperity. 
 
 As a mercantile man, Mr. Cope was 
 the contemporary and often the rival 
 of Stephen Girard ; he was also on 
 terms of intimacy and friendship with 
 that remarkable man. It was another 
 
 proof of Mr. Girard's sagacity, that he 
 selected Mr. Cope to be one of the exe- 
 cutors of his will, and one of the trus- 
 tees of the bank. It happened that 
 after discharging with fidelity the du- 
 ties which his friend and fellow mer- 
 chant had thus devolved upon him, 
 Mr. Cope became, for a time, President 
 of the Board of Commissioners of the 
 Girard Estate. To Mr. Cope, in an 
 eminent degree, may be acceded the 
 praise of bringing to a completion the 
 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal ; and 
 the citizens of Philadelphia are not 
 likely soon to forget the promptness 
 and the efficiency of his efforts to se- 
 cure the construction of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad. For a long time he 
 was President of the Board of Trade, 
 an active manager of the Pennsylvania 
 Hospital, and was also President of the 
 Mercantile Library Company from its 
 foundation to his death. 
 
 His personal appearance was quite 
 prepossessing ; and not even the weight 
 of eighty years deprived him of a buoy- 
 ancy of spirits that made his company 
 the delight of social gatherings. He 
 died November 22, 1854. 
 
 Jacob Bidgway, Merchant, of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 JACOB RIDGWAY, son of John and 
 Phebe Ridgway, of Little Egg Harbor, 
 was born on the 18th of April, 1768, 
 and was the youngest of five children. 
 His parents were Friends, his father 
 being an elder in the meeting. He was 
 about seven years old when his father 
 died. His father left a good farm, be- 
 sides money at interest, for each of the 
 three sons ; and a small house and lot, 
 with three thousand dollars, to each of 
 the daughters. The family continued 
 to live at the homestead, until the death 
 of the mother, when the household was 
 broken up ; and Jacob, then about six- 
 teen, went to Philadelphia, to live with 
 his eldest sister, whose husband he had 
 chosen as his guardian. His property
 
 EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 
 
 55 
 
 was more than sufficient for his main- 
 tenance and education, and afforded a 
 capital at last for commencing business. 
 
 He studied the wholesale dry goods 
 business in the store of Samuel Shaw, 
 and succeeded him in it as partner with 
 his son, Thomas Shaw. Though only 
 twenty-one, he was highly valued for 
 his business capacity. After a few 
 years he withdrew from this, and went 
 into partnership with his brother-in- 
 law, James Smith, in a grocery, on 
 Water street. They continued this for 
 some time, till, finding their funds in- 
 creasing, they sold out to Joseph Pry- 
 or, and commenced the shipping busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Smith & Ridgway continued as ship- 
 ping merchants with great prosperity 
 until the difficulties between France 
 and England. Their ships were seized ; 
 and it became necessary for one of the 
 firm to reside abroad to protect their 
 property. Mr. Ridgway then removed 
 with his family to London, where he 
 conducted the business of the firm, and 
 also that of other merchants. He spent 
 much time in travelling, but finally 
 settled at Antwerp, as consul for the 
 United States. He there became a 
 partner in the firm of Mertons & Ridg- 
 way, still continuing in the firm of 
 
 Smith & Ridgway, of Philadelphia. 
 During this time he constantly sent on 
 funds to be invested in real estate in 
 Philadelphia. On his return, after sev- 
 eral years' absence, he retired from 
 business, finding sufficient employment 
 in the care of his property. 
 
 It is related, as an instance of his de- 
 cision and promptitude, that, while 
 living as consul at Antwerp, he was in- 
 formed of the seizure of a vessel con- 
 signed to his care, the cargo of which 
 was very . valuable. Instantly he de- 
 spatched a courier to Paris to order 
 relays of post-horses at the different 
 stations, collected his papers, and trav- 
 elled day and night, eating and sleep- 
 ing in his carriage, until he reached 
 Paris, where he procured an interview 
 with Bonaparte, obtained authenticated 
 papers for the ship's release, and re- 
 turned to Antwerp with the same ra- 
 pidity. Before his absence had been 
 even suspected, and just as the captors 
 were about breaking open the cargo 
 and dividing the spoil, much to their 
 surprise and disappointment, he ap- 
 peared among them and countermand- 
 ed their proceedings, producing his 
 papers, and taking possession of the 
 ship. Mr. Ridgway died in May, 1843, 
 aged seventy-six years.
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF BUSINESS PURSUITS IN 
 THEIR MONET RELATIONS.
 
 PAET SECOKD. 
 
 Anecdotes and Incidents of Business Pursuits in their Money 
 
 Eelations. 
 
 BANKS, BANKERS, BROKERS, SPECIE, NOTES, LOANS, EXCHANGE, DRAFTS, CHECKS, PUBLIC 
 SECURITIES, AND CURRENCY IN ALL ITS FORMS AND PHASES; WITH JOTTINGS OF THE 
 
 MOST CELEBRATED MILLIONAIRES AND MONEY DEALERS THEIR BUSINESS MODES AND 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS, MAXIMS, COLLOQUIES, ECCENTRICITIES, WIT, AND FINESSE. 
 
 Money in thy purse will ever be in fashion. RALEIGH. 
 
 Money, as money, satisfies no want, answers no purpose can be neither eaten, drank, nor 
 worn. LAURINS. 
 
 It money is none of the wheels of trade ; it is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels 
 more smooth and easy. HUME. 
 
 Then would he be a broker, and draw in 
 Both wares and money, by exchange to win. SPENSER. 
 Whole droves of lenders crowd the banker's doors. DRYDEX. 
 
 Drawing: the Specie. 
 
 THEBE was at one time, in the vicinity 
 of Boston, a working man who had 
 saved quite a sum from his earnings, 
 and of this sum he deposited some 
 fifteen hundred dollars in a bank, one 
 of the officers of which was an old 
 acquaintance. After a time, however, 
 the depositor concluded to withdraw 
 his money, stating that he wished gold, 
 as he was to expend it in Maine, and 
 there might be some trouble about bills 
 if he took them. He was informed 
 that the cashier's check would be as 
 good as gold for the purpose, and in 
 case of loss, be more secure, as pay- 
 ment could be stopped. But he desired 
 to have the gold, which was at once 
 counted out to him. The next the 
 bank officers heard of him, he was 
 under arrest, and the following facts 
 were elicited : The story about taking 
 the funds to Maine was simply an 
 excuse for drawing specie. The gold 
 
 had been secreted under the hay in the 
 loft of a stable ; and the man, visiting 
 it in the night, had taken a lantern, 
 the light of which had arrested the 
 attention of another party who watched 
 the movements, supposing the owner 
 of the gold to be an incendiary, and 
 took the man and his bag of double 
 eagles forthwith to the police station 
 house. After considerable parley and 
 protestations of innocence on the part 
 of the supposed culprit, the funds were 
 retained as security for the owner's 
 appearance in the morning. His state- 
 ments concerning his treasure were 
 verified the next day, and he was re- 
 leased. When remonstrated with for 
 his imprudence in mistrusting a sound 
 bank so capriciously, and leaving his 
 money in a place so liable to destruc- 
 tion as a stable, he replied, that he 
 thought that in case the barn was 
 burned, his gold would drop through, 
 and he could easily find it among the 
 ruins !
 
 60 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 The Great Bankers of the World in 
 Rothschild's Parlor. 
 
 IN the year 1824, the great bankers 
 of the world met together to combine 
 in the carrying out of a colossal opera- 
 tion for the French government, viz., 
 to convert the state debt from five per 
 cents, to three per cents. 
 
 It was proposed to pay off with a 
 round sum those who were disinclined 
 to exchange their claims which bore 
 five per cent, interest for new three per 
 cent, claims, and to take seventy-five 
 francs for every hundred. The whole 
 of the state debt amounted to 3,066,- 
 783,560 francs ; and as it was shown 
 that only about one third of the state 
 creditors would consent to the conver- 
 sion, a payment in cash of 1,055,556,720 
 francs became necessary. In order to 
 collect this important capital, the whole 
 financial power of England, Holland 
 and France was called into exercise. 
 Invitations in all directions assembled 
 the leaders of the Paris and London Ex- 
 changes Messrs. Baring Brothers & 
 Co. of London, Brothers Rothschild, 
 and J. Lafitte & Co. of Paris, to no very 
 difficult task, namely, to arrange in 
 three lists the capitalists of various 
 lands with whom they were connected, 
 especially those of London, Amsterdam, 
 and Paris, at the head of each list being 
 one of themselves. 
 
 These financial magnates sat daily in 
 the parlor of the Brothers Rothschild, 
 and sat the longer because of the inex- 
 haustible eloquence of M. Lafitte, about 
 the advantages to accrue from the con- 
 version and all matters connected with 
 it, an eloquence which, as Mr. Baring 
 afterwards remarked, drove them fre- 
 quently into positive impatience. 
 
 The secret plan of the holders of the 
 three per cent, debt was to raise it to 
 eighty, and then to sell it, and so get 
 rid of it. This price would give to 
 buyers an interest of three and one-half 
 per cent. ; and if the portion of the 
 debt to be paid off could not be raised, 
 excepting by new three per cent, pur- 
 
 chasers at eighty, the consequence 
 would be, that the five per cent, before 
 the conversion would be worth the rela- 
 tive price of one hundred and six francs 
 sixty-six and two- thirds, in order to get 
 rid of the corresponding interest. This 
 governed the operations of the London, 
 Frankfort, Amsterdam, and Paris Ex- 
 changes. The capital destined for the 
 conversion, and collected at the com- 
 mon cost of the representatives of the 
 three lists, was estimated at one thou- 
 sand millions. Speculators had con- 
 ceived so favourable an idea of the 
 three per cent, funds to be created an 
 idea based upon the belief that the 
 undertakers would not bring it into 
 circulation under eighty that buyers 
 were found in Amsterdam and Frank- 
 fort at eighty-one and eighty-two, and 
 even eighty-three and a half. At the 
 same time important sales were made of 
 French five per cent, state paper, at the 
 relative price of from one hundred and 
 six francs sixty-seven, to one hundred 
 and ten. Nothing more was to be had. 
 The project, after much opposition, was 
 sanctioned by the chambers of deputies 
 and peers. For the business world, the 
 consequence of this measure was im- 
 mense losses for all the direct par- 
 takers in the conversion, and for all the 
 first speculators. The five per cents, 
 ran down to ninety-eight francs, and 
 remained fixed at that price for a long 
 time. As people had freely purchased 
 in behalf of the conversion, it became 
 necessary to turn the purchases made 
 on time into money again. 
 
 Of the three chiefs of this celebrated 
 coalition, Messrs. Baring and Lafitte 
 suffered most, because of the immense 
 expense caused by the collection of the 
 thousand millions. But the Roths- 
 childs were splendidly compensated by 
 the sales of the three per cents, at eigh- 
 ty-one and eighty-two, and by the sale, 
 at the same time, of a great quantity 
 of five per cents, at one hundred and 
 four five and six. As the three per 
 cents, had just been called into exist-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 61 
 
 ence they had nothing to furnish, and 
 they could replace the five per cents, 
 sold at ninety -eight francs. This plan 
 of M. Rothschild was not imparted to 
 the other two who were interested in the 
 conversion, as is always required by the 
 common understanding of a common 
 participation in loss and gain the two 
 had been outflanked. The unconquer- 
 able aversion which the chief of the 
 Hope house had long felt, to all busi- 
 ness connections with the Rothschilds, 
 was the cause of the Amsterdam firms 
 having no part in the projected con- 
 version, and consequently none in the 
 losses. In the same way the house of 
 Hottinguer & Co. refused any partici- 
 pation in the matter. 
 
 Nicholas Biddle and the Mississippi 
 Loan. 
 
 To the prudence and clearness which 
 characterized Mr. Biddle's course in the 
 crisis of 1836-'7 has been attributed the 
 fact that American credit was saved, 
 and the mercantile interests of the 
 United States preserved from ruin. The 
 gratitude of the commercial houses thus 
 carried through was limitless, and Bid- 
 die was always received with marked 
 attention in New York, and through- 
 out the States he was hailed as the 
 greatest financier of the day the Sa- 
 viour of Commerce. Perhaps the height 
 to which he was thus elevated made 
 him dizzy, even generating the fancy 
 that his popularity and moneyed in- 
 fluence could lift him to the presi- 
 dential chair. To win the South, he 
 made enormous advances to the cotton 
 planters. His last measure for popu- 
 larity was this : there was no American 
 holder of the whole $5,000,000 to the 
 State of Mississippi. Planters are natu- 
 rally rather backward, and this begat 
 public distrust. Then Biddle took the 
 whole loan, reckoning on his influence 
 and the indorsement of his bank to pro- 
 cure money from the capitalist. When 
 he saw, however, that he had reckoned 
 without his host, he determined to offer 
 
 a part of it to Hottinguer & Co., as 
 equivalent for the bank exchanges. 
 The French firm, however, already a 
 little nervous, resolved to get rid of the 
 whole burden, to let the bank paper be 
 protested, and to send back the Missis- 
 sippi paper. What followed is well 
 known. 
 
 Ooldschmid and Baring's Unfortunate 
 Contract Suicide of the Former. 
 
 SOME fifty years ago, the houses of 
 Baring and Goldschmid were contract- 
 ors for a ministerial loan of 14,000,000. 
 But Sir Francis Baring dying, the sup- 
 port of the market was left to his com- 
 panion. The task was difficult, for a 
 formidable opposition had arisen, which 
 required the united energies of both 
 houses to repress, and to meet which 
 one house was inadequate. It was the 
 interest of this opposition to reduce the 
 value of scrip, and it succeeded. Day 
 by day it lowered, and day by day was 
 Mr. Goldschmid's fortune lowered with 
 it. He had about 8,000,000 in his 
 possession ; and with the depression of 
 his fortune his mind grew dispirited 
 and clouded. Another circumstance 
 occurred at this particular moment to 
 increase his embarrassments. Half a 
 million of exchequer bills had been 
 placed in his hands to negotiate for the 
 East India Company ; and the latter, 
 fearing the result of the contest going 
 on, claimed the amount. His friends 
 did not rally around him, as might 
 have been expected they would, at such 
 a moment ; and Abraham Goldschmid, 
 dreading a disgrace which his sensi- 
 tive and- honorable nature magnified a 
 hundredfold, after entertaining a large 
 dinner party, destroyed himself in the 
 garden of his magnificent residence in 
 Surrey. 
 
 Glances behind the Bank Counter. 
 
 A VERY readable account of some of 
 the inside operations of a provincial 
 bank is given in Chambers' Journal. 
 We commence with "Old Levy," the
 
 62 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 official specie hunter : " Who can this 
 little man be who comes forward, 
 thumping down on the counter those 
 immense bags of silver, and who has a 
 man behind him bringing more ? " 
 This is " Old Levy," who collects silver 
 for the bank, when hard pressed for 
 that useful commodity. How he gets 
 it all, or where, nobody cares to know ; 
 there it is. Hard work he must have, 
 and not very great pay, for he receives 
 only half a crown for every hundred 
 pounds of silver he brings. But a very 
 useful appendage to the bank is Mr. 
 Levy, nevertheless. 
 
 There goes the messenger off to some 
 branch with a remittance which prob- 
 ably has just been asked for by letter. 
 There seems nothing very particular 
 about him, and yet his non-arrival at 
 the branch to-day would place the re- 
 spectable manager there in a very un- 
 comfortable dilemma. It is curious how 
 little bother is made in sending him 
 off. The manager quietly walks up to 
 him and says laconically : " Ten thou- 
 sand pounds in notes to go to Overdun 
 Branch by next train ; you have twenty 
 minutes." The messenger sends out 
 for a cab, stuffs the little bundle of 
 notes into an inside breastpocket, and 
 away he goes, as unceremoniously and 
 unconcernedly as if he hadn't a penny 
 about him. 
 
 Here comes the little telegraph lad, 
 elbowing his way up to the teller, and 
 pitching his missive imperiously across 
 to him, as if he knew that his busi- 
 ness was of primary consequence, and 
 would be first attended to ; and he is 
 right. The dispatch is opened by the 
 manager, and is from the London bank- 
 ers, where all the bills are payable, 
 and he thus reads : " Your customer, 
 Robert Banks's bill for three hundred 
 pounds to Hayes & Co., is presented for 
 payment ; we have no advice from you 
 to pay, shall we do so ? " " Very 
 stupid of Banks," mutters the manager ; 
 but on referring to his account, he finds 
 plenty of funds to meet it ; so the care- 
 
 less friend is sent for, to give the neces- 
 sary check and 'sanction for correcting 
 his oversight. He comes in very hot, 
 makes all kinds of apologies, and then 
 another little missive is sent to the tele- 
 graph office, addressed to the bank's 
 agents ; it contains only the word 
 "Pay," accompanied, however, by a 
 private cipher, known only to the " con- 
 fidentials " in both establishments, and 
 without which no notice would be 
 taken of it. 
 
 Vaults of the Bank of Prance. 
 
 THE silver coin of the Bank of France 
 is heaped up in barrels and placed in 
 spacious cellars, resembling the subter- 
 ranean storehouse of a brewery, each 
 tub holding fifty thousand francs, in 
 five-franc pieces, and weighing about 
 six hundred pounds. There are, at 
 times, eight hundred barrels, piled up 
 to the very crown of the arches, and 
 rising much higher than a man's head. 
 The visitor walks through a long alley 
 of these barrels, for some time, until he 
 comes to a large stone-floored apart- 
 ment, wherein are to be seen large square 
 leaden cases, resembling those used at 
 vitriol and sulphuric acid works. Each 
 of these holds twenty thousand bags 
 of one thousand francs, and the whole 
 are soldered up hermetically within the 
 cases several of these, it appears, not 
 having been opened for nearly forty 
 years, and will probably remain en- 
 tombed one hundred years longer the 
 last of the stock to be disposed of or 
 dipped into. In these leaden reservoirs 
 the treasure of the Bank of France is 
 kept perfectly dry, and free also from 
 any variation of temperature. The 
 stairs reaching to these regions of Plu- 
 tus are narrow, and admit of only one 
 person at a time, ascending or descend- 
 ing with a candle. This has been ex- 
 pressly contrived for protection and 
 defence from insurgent mobs. In one 
 of the treasure vaults are the precious 
 deposits of the Rothschilds, and other
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 63 
 
 wealthy capitalists, left for safety with 
 the bank. 
 
 " Confidence " in Hard Times. 
 
 A LITTLE Frenchman loaned a mer- 
 chant five thousand dollars, when times 
 were good. He called at the counting 
 house on the times becoming " hard," 
 in a state of agitation not easily de- 
 scribed. 
 
 " How do you do ? " inquired the 
 merchant. 
 
 " Sick very sick," replied monsieur. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " De times is de matter." 
 
 "Betimes? what disease is that?" 
 
 " De malaide vat break all de mar- 
 chants, ver much." 
 
 " Ah the times, eh ? Well, they are 
 bad, very bad, sure enough ; but how 
 do they affect you ? " 
 
 " Vy, monsieur, I lose de confidence." 
 
 "In whom?" 
 
 " In everybody." 
 
 " Not in me, I hope ? " 
 
 "Pardonnez moi, monsieur; but I 
 do not know who to trust a present, 
 when all de marchants break several 
 times, all to pieces." 
 
 " Then I presume you want your 
 money ? " 
 
 " Oui, monsieur, I starve for want 
 of Vargent" 
 
 " Can't you do without it ? " 
 
 " No, monsieur, I must have him." 
 
 " You must ? " 
 
 " Oui, monsieur," said little dimity 
 breeches, turning pale with apprehen- 
 sion for the safety of his money. 
 
 " And you can't do without it ? " 
 
 " No, monsieur, not von other leetle 
 moment longare." 
 
 The merchant reached his bank book, 
 drew a check on the good old " Con- 
 tinental" for the amount, and handed 
 it to his visitor. 
 
 " Vat is dis, monsieur ? " 
 
 " A check for five thousand dollars, 
 with the interest." 
 
 " Is it bon ? " said the Frenchman, 
 with amazement. 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Have you de Vargent in de bank ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And is it parfaitement convenient 
 to pay de same ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly. What astonishes 
 you ? " 
 
 " Vy, dat you have got him in dees 
 tunes." 
 
 " Oh, yes, and I have plenty more. 
 I owe nothing that I cannot pay at a 
 moment's notice." 
 
 The Frenchman was perplexed. 
 
 " Monsieur, you shall do me von 
 leetle favor, eh ? " 
 
 " With all my heart." 
 
 " Veil, monsieur, you shall keep de 
 Vargent for me some leetle year lon- 
 ger." 
 
 " Why, I thought you wanted it ! " 
 
 " Tout au contraire. I no vant de 
 Sargent. I vant de grand confidence. 
 Suppose you no got de money, den I 
 vant him ver much suppose you got 
 him, den I no vaat him at all. Vous 
 comprenes, eh ? " 
 
 After some further conference, the 
 little Frenchman prevailed upon the 
 merchant to retain the money, and left 
 the counting-house with a light heart, 
 and a countenance very different from 
 the one he wore when he entered. His 
 confidence was restored he did not 
 stand in need of the money. That's all. 
 
 Pursuit of Specie under Difficulties. 
 
 AN anecdote of a somewhat lively 
 character is given of a Cincinnati bro- 
 ker, who favored the banks of La- 
 fayette, Ind., during a financial excite- 
 ment. The broker had with him about 
 $2,500 in bills on the old State Bank, 
 and some $4,500 on the Bank of the 
 State. He stepped into the latter, and 
 his eye brightened at the prospect of 
 the yellow boys ranged in tempting 
 piles before him, every dollar worth ten 
 per cent, premium. He presented his 
 notes, and the cashier recognizing him 
 as one of the Cincinnati sharks, took up
 
 64 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 a bag of silver specially reserved for 
 such chaps, and commenced redeeming 
 one bill at a time. The broker expos- 
 tulated. He wanted gold offered to 
 make a slight discount ; but no, the 
 cashier told him that the notes were 
 worth one hundred cents to the dollar, 
 and he proposed to redeem them in 
 Uncle Sam's currency at that figure. 
 He refused to take the silver, and de- 
 positing the red backs in an old carpet 
 sack that looked as though it could a 
 tale unfold of many a " run," the dis- 
 comfited broker wended his way to the 
 old State Bank. He presented his 
 packages, marked " $2,500," and de- 
 manded the specie. The cashier of this 
 bank promptly put Tiis hook into the 
 broker's nostrils, by setting out a couple 
 of bags filled with dimes and half- 
 dimes. Mr. Broker thus finding " a 
 spider in his cake" here also, turned 
 upon his heel in disgust if not a bet- 
 ter man, at least better " posted." 
 
 Specie in the Brokers' Windows. 
 
 IT has been said that next to owning 
 gold, the highest pleasure in life is look- 
 ing at it. Acting on this idea, espe- 
 cially in times when specie circulates 
 scantily, knots of people stand, shoul- 
 der to shoulder, at the windows of the 
 exchange brokers, and feast their greedy 
 eyes with gold. 
 
 There it is, spread out in a flat, 
 careless heap, with an ingenious affec- 
 tation of profusion. Looking at it, 
 tossed recklessly on the black velvet, as 
 if thrown out of a shovel, one would 
 hardly think that the owners attached 
 much value to it. Its tempting abund- 
 ance calls up visions of great vaults full 
 of gold in the back office. The display 
 in the window seems but a sample of 
 tons more, which can be heard of by 
 inquiring within. This is a high in- 
 stance of art concealing art. The in- 
 tention of the broker is to express the 
 idea of boundless resources, and he 
 does it. If he arranged the gold in his 
 
 window, in the shape of a cornucopia, 
 or piled it up in little uniform columns, 
 set like the squares of a checker-board, 
 the illusion of untold wealth would at 
 once be dispelled. The gazers on the 
 sidewalk would say, or think, " This 
 is all the gold the man has. He is 
 showing it off to the best advantage." 
 So it seems that the arrangement of 
 gold in a broker's window, like the 
 tying of a cravat, must be done with a 
 certain studied carelessness, or it will 
 fall short of a perfect success. 
 
 Some brokers, who have investigated 
 the subject with that attention which 
 it deserves, as a legitimate department 
 of the fine arts, obtain an admirable 
 effect by scattering twenty-dollar gold 
 pieces carelessly at the bottom of the 
 heap, barely allowing the milled edge 
 of the ground periphery to stick out 
 from the mass of smaller coins above 
 and around. The sidewalk man recog- 
 nizes the sublime double eagle of the 
 national currency at once. Perhaps he 
 owned one like it years ago or, more 
 probably, he was slightly acquainted 
 with some other man that once had 
 one. At any rate, he has seen a twenty- 
 dollar gold piece somewhere before, 
 and its majestic outline is stamped upon 
 his memory. From seeing these double 
 eagles peeping out here and there, 
 among the sprawling mass of coins, he 
 derives, by a natural logical process, an 
 impression of Ophirs and Golcondas 
 within, which ten times the number 
 of the same huge unattainable pieces 
 would fail to create, if geometrically 
 adjusted in cylindrical piles. 
 
 Loss of Bank Notes. 
 
 THE old Bank of the United States 
 was chartered in 1791, and continued 
 in active business operation during a 
 period of twenty years. Its circulation 
 never exceeded twenty millions. In 
 1823, by decree of court, the trustees 
 of the bank were formally released from 
 any obligation to redeem outstanding
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 65 
 
 bills, as twelve years had elapsed from 
 the expiration of the charter ; and no- 
 tice, by public advertisements, had 
 been widely spread for seven years, 
 sufficient to meet almost every ordi- 
 nary case, it would seem. The notes 
 then unredeemed amounted to the large 
 sum of $205,000. A fund of five thou- 
 sand dollars was reserved for instances 
 of peculiar hardship that might in fu- 
 ture turn up ; but the whole presented 
 did not exceed eleven hundred dollars, 
 of which the greater part was in the 
 hands of an invalid revolutionary sol- 
 dier, and liquidated in 1825. A note 
 of ten dollars, however, was redeemed 
 a short time since. 
 
 Lafitte in a Tight Place. 
 
 THE ancient and close connection 
 between the banking houses of Lafitte 
 of Paris and Coutts & Co. of London, 
 who were intrusted with the wealth of 
 the highest and richest nobles in Eng- 
 land, had brought into their hands an 
 immense capital, belonging to English 
 travellers in France and Italy. Many 
 of the travellers had settled in those 
 countries, leaving their money in La- 
 fitte's hands. 
 
 It was the common calculation, that 
 fifty thousand Englishmen were living 
 in France ; and that if each were to 
 spend but ten francs a day, fifteen mil- 
 lions of francs a month, and one hun- 
 dred and eighty millions a year, of 
 English gold, would be spent in 
 France. It is evident, that if one-third 
 of these people, or even fewer, were to 
 leave their funds in Lafitte's hands, it 
 would make up a capital far beyond 
 the need of his banking business, and 
 so bis own capital might be untouched. 
 But, in order to make it lucrative, La- 
 fitte had loaned it on mortgages of 
 every sort, had invested it in factories, 
 had bought real estate, forests, etc., so 
 that it was no longer of use in his busi- 
 nss, but the foreign capital served for 
 his operations. The July revolution 
 5 
 
 alarmed most of the English in France ; 
 they departed, and drew their money 
 from the banker. This emigration be- 
 came stronger every day, and emptied 
 the portfolios and chests of the house. 
 
 For the jftrst time, the credit of the 
 mightiest French tanking house was 
 shaken, and their embarrassment was 
 notorious. Then the new king, Louis 
 Philippe, came to the help of his friend 
 Lafitte, who had greatly contributed 
 to his elevation, and bought of him the 
 part of the forest of St. Germain which 
 he owned, for the sum of nine millions 
 of francs. Even this help, however, 
 was not needed, for the storm soon 
 blew over. 
 
 Ouvrard the Banker, and Napoleon. 
 
 NAPOLEON once sent for Ouvrard the 
 banker, ostensibly on diplomatic busi- 
 ness. After a brief interview, Napoleon 
 said: 
 
 " Can you give me any money ? " 
 
 " How much does your imperial ma- 
 jesty require ? " was Ouvrard's answer. 
 
 " To begin with," said the emperor, 
 " fifty millions of francs." 
 
 " I could get that amount within 
 twenty days, in return for five millions 
 Rente," (of which the price was more 
 than fifty-three francs,) " to be given 
 me at fifty francs, and under the condi- 
 tion that the treasury shall pay Dou- 
 merc, whose creditor I am, the fifteen 
 millions it owes him." 
 
 The agreement was at once con- 
 cluded, and the terms drawn upon the 
 spot, by a secretary of the emperor, the 
 latter dictating every word, and sign- 
 ing the paper with his own hand. 
 Napoleon, who had made himself fully 
 acquainted with the condition of the 
 public credit on the Paris Bourse, him- 
 self doubted the success of this propo- 
 sition of Ouvrard's ; but when the 
 great banker continued, for seventeen 
 days, to pay in two millions of francs 
 daily to the treasury, Napoleon could 
 scarcely master his astonishment. This
 
 66 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 was, perhaps, the first time that he, who 
 had never known any other way of fill- 
 ing the treasury than by contributions 
 from the countries he overran, and the 
 taxation of his own subjects, formed a 
 correct idea of the power of credit. 
 
 Learning: the Currency in a Small 
 Way. 
 
 OP all the close dealers among us, the 
 Dutchmen live on the least, and shave 
 the closest. It is astonishing how soon 
 they learn our currency. A good thing 
 occurred, however, in this connection, 
 with the keeper of a small lager bier 
 saloon, in a certain neighborhood, who 
 undertook to teach his assistant, a 
 thick-headed sprout of " Faderland," 
 the difference between " fivepence " and 
 " sixpence." 
 
 "Yah!" said John, with a dull 
 twinkle of intelligence. 
 
 A wag of a loafer, who overheard the 
 lecture, immediately conceived the idea 
 of a " saw " and " lager bier " gratis, for 
 that day at least. Procuring a three 
 cent piece, he watched the departure 
 of the " boss," and going up to John, 
 he called for a mug of " bier," throwing 
 down the coin, and looking as if he ex- 
 pected the change. John, who remem- 
 bered his recent lesson, took up the 
 piece, and muttering to himself, " Mit- 
 out de vomans 'tish von sixpence," 
 he handed over three coppers change. 
 
 How often the aforesaid was drank 
 that day, we know not ; it depended 
 upon his thirst and the number of times 
 he could exchange three coppers for 
 three-cent pieces ; but when the boss 
 came home at night, the number of 
 small coin astonished him. 
 
 "Vat ish dese, John; you take so 
 many ? " 
 
 " Sixpence," replied John, with a pe- 
 culiarly satisfied leer. 
 
 " Sixpence ! Dunder and Blitzen ! 
 You take all dese for sixpence ? Who 
 from ? " 
 
 " De man mit peard like Kossuth ; 
 he during all day mit himself." 
 
 " Der teufel ! You give him change 
 every time ? " 
 
 "Y-a-h," said John, with a vacant 
 stare. 
 
 " Der teufel catch de Yankees ! " was 
 all the astonished Dutchman could say. 
 
 Punch's Money Vaguries. 
 
 THE early Italians, says "Punch," 
 used cattle as currency, instead of coin ; 
 and a person would sometimes send for 
 change for a thousand-pound bullock, 
 when he would receive twenty fifty- 
 pound sheep ; or, perhaps, if he wanted 
 very small change, there would be a 
 few lambs among them. The incon- 
 venience of keeping a flock of sheep at 
 one's bankers, or paying in a short- 
 horned heifer to one's private account, 
 led to the introduction of tuition. 
 
 As to the unhealthy custom of 
 " sweating sovereigns," it may be well 
 to recollect that Charles the First was, 
 perhaps, the earliest sovereign who was 
 sweated to such an extent, that his im- 
 mediate successor, Charles the Second, 
 became one of the " lightest sovereigns " 
 ever known in England. 
 
 Formerly every gold watch weighed 
 so many " carats," from which it became 
 usual to call a silver watch a "tur- 
 nip." 
 
 " Troy weight " is derived from the 
 extremely " heavy " responsibility which 
 the Trojans were under to their credi- 
 tors. 
 
 The Romans were in the habit of 
 tossing up their coins in the presence 
 of their legions, and if a piece of money 
 went higher than the top of the en- 
 sign's flag, it was pronounced to be 
 " above the standard." 
 
 Banking 1 Habits of Qirard. 
 
 THE habits characterizing Mr. Girard's 
 attention to business were extremely 
 regular in his counting roon\ and gen- 
 erally so in the bank, but not alwaj^. 
 On discount days, he almost invariably
 
 Auifm-milt,ml<Xoli-(VNc<r-Vt.rl<.
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 67 
 
 entered the bank between nine and 
 eleven o'clock during the short days 
 of winter, and six and nine during the 
 summer months ; he immediately pro- 
 ceeded to the despatch of business, and 
 would then drive to his farm for 
 which purpose he would order his horse 
 and chair to the bank at the exact hour 
 that he calculated to finish his business. 
 This routine he generally followed up, 
 unvaryingly, throughout the whole year, 
 never deterred by the inclemency of the 
 weather or other circumstances. 
 
 During the first years of the existence 
 of his bank, his visits, except on dis- 
 count days, could not be calculated 
 upon, but at a later day, as the course of 
 trade induced him to abstract more of his 
 capital from commerce, the pleasure he 
 took in his banking and financial ope- 
 rations seemed to increase, and he then 
 seldom failed to examine his balance 
 sheet every day, and " bleed " some of 
 the debtor banks of their specie. In 
 this latter operation, however, it is 
 claimed for him that he was never ac- 
 tuated by any spirit of envy or hostili- 
 ty, but exclusively by the broad and 
 fair principle of equitable competition 
 to keep down the balances due him 
 to a sum corresponding to the resources 
 of character of the debtor bank, as well 
 as to check that spirit of too liberal 
 discounting, by which they often ex- 
 tended their business beyond the just 
 proportion of their specie responsibili- 
 ty, and the ability of their capitals. 
 
 From the peculiar nature of a private 
 institution like Girard's, the harvest of 
 his business was during a scarcity of 
 money in the market, or a scarcity of spe- 
 cie among the banks. His deposits bore 
 no proportion to his capital, but his 
 specie responsibility always far exceed- 
 ed, even in a compound ratio, that of 
 other institutions; so that, when the 
 State banks began to curtail, Girard's 
 bank began to extend discounts, and 
 this he always did to the utmost limits 
 of a sound discretion, but never to the 
 extent of his ability. He never seemed 
 
 to evince any great anxiety as to the 
 small or large amount of applications for 
 discounts. If the offerings were limit- 
 ed, he was content to keep his surplus 
 funds, and draw specie from the other 
 banks, to stock his vaults for emergen- 
 cies. If they were ample, he discounted 
 freely, and paid away the specie he had 
 before been employed in gathering. In 
 this respect, he seemed to have as much 
 elasticity of mind, as he was distin- 
 guished by eccentricity of conduct; 
 and, like a true philosopher, was al- 
 ways prepared for the loss or the profit 
 that happened to him. 
 
 When the State passed an act pro- 
 hibiting individuals from discounting 
 notes, as bankers, he altered his books 
 as they stood, and his system, from that 
 of discount to loaning operations giv- 
 ing the customer full credit for the 
 whole amount of the note, and the in- 
 terest charged against him, as a check 
 drawn. 
 
 Timely Hard-Honey Loan. 
 ROBERT MORRIS'S financial benefits 
 rendered to our country were equal in im- 
 portance, as affecting the great issue in- 
 volved, to the military exploits of some 
 of the ablest generals, in tbe conflict 
 then waged. At one time, the public 
 safety absolutely demanded a certain 
 sum of hard money, and information 
 of this demand was sent to Mr. Morris, 
 in the hope that, through his financial 
 credit, the money might be obtained. 
 The communication reached him at his 
 office, on his way from which to his 
 dwelling-house, immediately afterward, 
 he was met by a merchant of the So- 
 ciety of Friends, with whom he was in 
 habits of business and acquaintance, 
 and who accosted him with his accus- 
 tomed phrase, " "Well, Robert, what 
 news ? " " The news is," said Mr. Mor- 
 ris, " that I am in immediate want of a 
 sum of hard money" mentioning. the 
 amount " and that you are the man 
 who must procure it for me. Your se- 
 curity is to be my note of hand and my
 
 68 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 honor." After a short hesitation, the 
 quaker gentleman replied, " Robert, 
 thou shalt have it," and by the punc- 
 tual performance of his promise, the 
 great public exigency was met. 
 
 Logic of Specie Payments. 
 
 A PECTJLIAB circumstance once occur- 
 red in Mr. Rothschild's dealings with 
 the Bank of England, in which the lat- 
 ter may be said to have been essentially 
 outwitted by his superior finesse. Mr. 
 Rothschild was in want of bullion, and 
 went to the governor of the bank to 
 procure on loan a portion of their super- 
 fluous store. His wishes were met ; the 
 terms were agreed on ; the period was 
 named for its return ; and the affair 
 finished for the time. The gold was 
 used by the financier, his end was an- 
 swered, and the day arrived on which 
 he was to return the borrowed metal. 
 Punctual to the time appointed, Mr. 
 Rothschild entered, and those who 
 know anything of his personal appear- 
 ance may imagine the cunning twinkle 
 of his small, quick eye, as, ushered into 
 the presence of the governor, he handed 
 the borrowed amount in bank notes. 
 He was reminded of his agreement, and 
 the necessity for bullion was urged. 
 His reply was worthy a commercial 
 Talleyrand: "Very well, gentlemen. 
 Give me the notes ! I dare say your 
 cashier will honour them with gold 
 from your vaults, and then I can return 
 you bullion." To such a speech the 
 only worthy reply was a scornful si- 
 lence. 
 
 Roman Money Lenders. 
 THE Roman money lenders had no 
 newspaper in which they could tempt- 
 ingly advertise " advances to gentlemen 
 on personal security " after the mod- 
 ern fashion; but they could stand in 
 the Forum, and offer their shining coin 
 to the passers-by a more beguiling 
 lure to ruin perhaps, in the case of the 
 heedless, than an advertisement. What 
 
 spendthrift could resist the sight and 
 convenient form of the yellow metal, or 
 hear the clink thereof unmoved ? No 
 stairs to mount no grim clerk to face 
 no " sweating room " to be ushered 
 into, the money amiably and inviting- 
 ly thrust under his very nose ! They had 
 a thriving business, those Roman money 
 lenders ; legal interest was one per cent, 
 per month and the rest they knew 
 about. The penalties, too, of non-pay- 
 ment, were such, in those times, as make 
 a very paradise of all modern Botany 
 
 Disinterested Brokers. 
 
 WHAT would the British Government 
 do without its broker? There never 
 is a difficulty in the money market but 
 he disinterestedly comes forward, bear- 
 ing his offers of relief, and spends hi8 
 fifteen or twenty thousand pounds with 
 no more concern than a school boy 
 would drop his halfpenny at the near- 
 est apple stand. This he does, not 
 merely one day, or a couple of days, but 
 will go on generously buying for weeks 
 and weeks together. 
 
 He is the financial physician to the 
 State, and no sooner does Government 
 feel a little tightness in its chest, than 
 with the benevolence of a Rothschild 
 himself, he is ready to relieve it by im- 
 mediately applying for an investment, 
 the happy application of which to 
 the part affected, enables the patient to 
 exclaim with as much saltatory glee as 
 the dressing-gowned invalid in George 
 Cruikshank's pictorial advertisement, 
 " Ha ! ha ! Cured in an instant ! " 
 
 He is the best friend that Madam 
 Bank, the aged lady in Threadneedle 
 street, ever had, and, supposing that 
 elderly dame ever took it into her head 
 to marry, it would be no matter of 
 wonder that the government broker 
 should prove to be the object of her 
 affection. 
 
 His wealth must be something enor- 
 mous, considering the amount he spends 
 in the course of a twelvemonth ; and
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 his frugality must be almost as great as 
 his wealth, for it is noticed that he 
 never buys for any other purpose than 
 that of paying into the savings banks. 
 He must make money very fast, too, or 
 else has an enormous " ready cash" busi- 
 ness, that brings him in thousands every 
 week throughout the whole year, inas- 
 much as it is a stereotyped fact that the 
 government broker limits his operations 
 generally to buying for he is rarely 
 caught selling. This is a proof of the 
 sure principle upon*which he always 
 conducts his business, and the conse- 
 quence is, that the interest which ac- 
 crues is invariably not less sure than the 
 principal. 
 
 Counting House Dinners. 
 A CHARACTERISTIC anecdote is told 
 of Girard, which shows that he was not 
 disposed to permit his appetite to inter- 
 fere with his business. A merchant 
 had made a large purchase of him ; and 
 after waiting some time for Mr. Girard 
 to send for his notes, and not residing 
 far off, he carried his receipt book and 
 waited upon Mr. Girard to pay him. 
 As he entered his counting room, he 
 found Girard at dinner, making his re- 
 past upon biscuit and cheese, from a 
 small pine table, the drawer of which, 
 as the merchant entered, Girard opened, 
 and with a broad, off-hand sweep of his 
 right arm, brushed in the fragments of 
 his simple meal thus consulting not 
 only the economy of money, but the 
 economy of time. It is not supposed 
 but that the " fragments " were made 
 to serve a prudent purpose at another 
 time. 
 
 Securing Trustworthy Bank Officers 
 and Safety of Capital. 
 
 CREDIT, respectability, reputation, 
 rank, and religious exterior having 
 been proved to be no pledge for the 
 probity of bankers, the public have be- 
 come very anxious to be informed of 
 some definite criterion, by which they 
 shall be assured of the trustworthiness 
 
 of those in whose keeping they intrust 
 the whole, or most, of their money. 
 
 Since, then, the grounds of confi- 
 dence in bankers above enumerated are 
 not to be depended upon, the gentle- 
 man in search of a banker is reduced, 
 by a process of utter exhaustion, to re- 
 sort, for guidance in his momentous in- 
 quiry, to physiognomical indications, 
 but of these the only scientific basis is 
 the system of phrenology. 
 
 This consideration has suggested the 
 formation of a new joint-stock bank, to 
 be entitled the " PHRENOLOGICAL BANK- 
 ING COMPANY," the directors to con- 
 sist of individuals whose heads are all 
 highly developed in the moral and in- 
 tellectual regions. No doubt can be 
 entertained of the soundness of the 
 principles on which a bank would be 
 conducted by gentlemen of fine emboss- 
 ments laying their heads together. 
 
 Casts of the heads of the directors 
 and other ofticers of the bank are to be 
 exhibited for public inspection in the 
 bank windows facing the street, and 
 another set of them will be on view 
 within, open, on application, to all par- 
 ties desirous of taking shares, or de- 
 positing money with the company. 
 
 As most persons, however, are but 
 imperfectly acquainted with practical 
 phrenology, in order to facilitate the 
 examination of the development of the 
 directors, casts of the heads of the most 
 noted villains will be placed in juxta- 
 position with them, for the sake of con- 
 trast or comparison. The criminal 
 heads will include those of bankers 
 most recently convicted and therefore 
 most familiar to the public, and, if pro- 
 curable, those also of directors who 
 have eluded justice. 
 
 The casts of the heads of the direc- 
 tors of this new bank are to be dupli- 
 cated, and kept on sale at all the prin- 
 cipal image shops, and at the bank it- 
 self. It is submitted that this pro- 
 vision for the publicity of the constitu- 
 tion of the establishment will be far 
 more satisfactory than an ordinary ad-
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 vertisement of the heads of a banking 
 association. 
 
 It cannot have escaped the notice of 
 many persons, that bankers are very apt 
 to be bald. This fact looks almost like 
 a provision of nature for assisting ob- 
 servation so extremely important as 
 that of the moral organization of a 
 banker ; and it is not unworthy of re- 
 mark, that " conscientiousness," and all 
 the other organs of the virtues, are seat- 
 ed at the crown of the head. 
 
 Pecuniary particulars are to be an- 
 nounced when a certain number of sub- 
 scribers shall have come forward ; all 
 that is precisely stated at present con- 
 cerning the resources of the company 
 being, that it is composed of capitalists 
 with capital heads, and that the ser- 
 vices of Mr. Bumpass have been secur- 
 ed as provisional manager. 
 
 Novel Securities for Loans. 
 
 THE great banking house of Strahan, 
 Paul & Bates, of London, came to a 
 sudden and ignominious end, some 
 years ago, on its becoming known that 
 they had been guilty of disposing of 
 securities intrusted to them as bankers, 
 by their customers, for safe keeping, and 
 for their use, but which they had ap- 
 propriated to their own, one of the 
 highest criminal offences in England, 
 and which was formerly punishable 
 with death. The name of this firm was 
 originally Snow & "Walton. It was one 
 of the oldest, wealthiest, and most hon- 
 ored banking houses in London, second 
 only to Child & Co., who date from 
 1640. At the period of the Common- 
 wealth, Snow & Co. carried on the busi- 
 ness of pawnbrokers, under the sign of 
 the " Golden Anchor." The firm, about 
 the year 1679, suspended its payments, 
 in common with most of the London 
 bankers, owing to the circumstance of 
 the seizure of their money by that 
 most profligate and unprincipled ruler, 
 Charles the Second. On an examina- 
 tion of the books of Strahan & Co., ren- 
 
 dered necessary by their failure, one 
 was discovered of the date of 1672, 
 which clearly shows that the mode of 
 keeping accounts in those days was in 
 decimals. It is also stated as a curious 
 fact, in respect to the nature and quali- 
 ty of the articles pledged by. the elite 
 at the loan houses of that period (com- 
 prising some of a domestic as well as 
 rather comical character), that one of 
 the entries in the books in question 
 runs thus: "March 10, 1672. To 
 
 fifteen pounds lent to Lady , on the 
 
 deposit of a golden pot de chambre.'" 
 The blank, it is said, might be filled up 
 with an existing Scotch title. 
 
 Pawning Money in Ireland. 
 
 THE fund of Irish anecdotes will 
 probably never be so much drawn upon, 
 but that there will be one left. Among 
 a portion of the people of Galway, so 
 little is the commercial value of money 
 known, that they are constantly in the 
 habit of pawning it. A traveller visit- 
 ing that place, having been informed 
 of the fact, was so incredulous as to its 
 truth, that he went to a pawnbroker's 
 shop to satisfy himself in regard to it. 
 On asking the question, the shopman 
 said it was quite a common thing to 
 have money pawned, and he produced 
 a drawer containing a 10 Bank of Ire- 
 land note, pawned six months ago, for 
 ten shillings ; a thirty shilling note of 
 the National Bank, pawned for ten shil- 
 lings ; a thirty shilling Bank of Ireland 
 note, pawned for one shilling; a 1 
 Provincial Bank note, pawned for six 
 shillings ; and a guinea, in gold, of the 
 reign of George the Third, pawned for 
 fifteen shillings, two months ago. Any- 
 thing more blindly ignorant and ab- 
 surd than this, it is scarcely possible to 
 conceive. The 10 bank note would 
 produce six shillings and sixpence in- 
 terest in the year, if put into the sav- 
 ings bank, while the owner, who pledg- 
 ed it for ten shillings, will have to pay 
 two shillings and sixpence a year for
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 the ten shillings, and lose the interest 
 on his 10 ; in other words, he will pay 
 ninety per cent, through ignorance, for 
 the use of ten shillings, which he might 
 have for nothing, and realize besides, 
 some five or six shillings for the use of 
 his nine pounds ten shillings. The 
 keeper of the establishment also stated 
 that in many cases money was sold as 
 a forfeited pledge ; that a man would 
 pawn a guinea or fifteen shillings, keep 
 it in pawn till the interest amounted to 
 three or four shillings, and then abso- 
 lutely and doggedly refuse to redeem it. 
 
 Business Aspect and Conduct of the 
 Richest Banker in the World. 
 
 AT all times in the haunts of busi- 
 ness, and especially on 'change, Nathan 
 Rothschild was a marked object. There 
 he stood, day after day, leaning against 
 his pillar on the right hand, entering 
 from Cornhill. He was a monarch on 
 'change ; and the pillar in question may 
 be said to have been his throne but in 
 his case a solid one of granite. No 
 consideration would induce him to do 
 business anywhere else, so devotedly 
 attached was he to that particular spot. 
 There, with his back resting against 
 the pillar, and with note book in hand, 
 he was always to be seen, during the 
 usual hour of business, entering into 
 transactions of great extent with the 
 merchants and capitalists of all coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Little would a stranger, who chanced 
 to see the money potentate of the world 
 standing on the spot in question, have 
 fancied from his personal appearance, 
 what an important influence he exerted 
 on the destinies of Europe. No one 
 could be more unprepossessing than he, 
 just such a man as the boys in the 
 street would have thought a fine sub- 
 ject for a " lark," unless, indeed, they 
 had been deterred by the lowering ex- 
 pression or sullen aspect of his counte- 
 nance. He always looked sulky, never 
 indulged in a smile, nor even relaxed 
 the rigidity of his muscles. In private, 
 
 his intimate friends mention that he 
 occasionally made an effort to smile, 
 but never with any marked success, his 
 smiles at best being hardly more than 
 a species of spoiled grin. 
 
 His countenance wore a thoughtful 
 aspect, but his whole appearance was 
 that rather of a stupid, clownish-like 
 farmer of the humbler class. His fea- 
 tures were massy. He had a flat face, 
 its conformation being peculiarly char- 
 acteristic of the faces of the Jewish race 
 of people. His features seemed to be 
 huddled together, without anything 
 like regularity in them. His nose had 
 a good deal of the cock-up form. His 
 mouth was rather large, and his lips 
 thick and prominent. His forehead 
 was of more than an average height, 
 considering the altitude of his face. 
 His hair had something like a darkish 
 hue, and was generally short. His 
 complexion was pale, except where it 
 was slightly tinged with color by the 
 weather. He was short and thick ; 
 though being considerably under the 
 general height, it is possible his pot- 
 belly and corpulent aspect generally, 
 may have made him appear shorter 
 than he really was. He usually was to 
 be seen in a great coat of a dark brown 
 color ; and as he paid but little attention 
 to his personal habiliments, his tailor 
 had no difficult customer to please 
 that is, in respect to taste and style, 
 though not on the question of price. 
 
 It was one feature in Nathan's con- 
 duct when on 'change, that he never, 
 except when engaged in business, en- 
 tered into any conversation whatsoever 
 with any of the multitude surrounding 
 him. There he stood, apparently as 
 deeply lost in thought, and with as 
 melancholy a countenance, as if he had 
 been alone in the " vast wilderness " of 
 shade referred to by Cowper, or been 
 the "Last Man," described by Camp- 
 bell. Whether his reserve was consti- 
 tutional, or whether it arose from the 
 pride of purse, or whether from the 
 magnitude of the matters which must
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 have been ever occupying his mind 
 or from the conjoint operation of these 
 three, can only be surmised. 
 
 Another Bank Project. 
 
 IT has long been a reproach to 
 roguery that it never permanently pros- 
 pers ; a fact which is owing to the im- 
 providence which generally accompanies 
 want of " principle." 
 
 Numerous examples however, in the 
 commercial world, as well as elsewhere, 
 prove that it is possible for a rogue, 
 provided he be prudent, to get on as 
 well as anybody else. And, as organi- 
 zation is as necessary as honor among 
 thieves, an eminent pickpocket has sug- 
 gested the propriety of establishing a 
 STEALINGS BANK to be conducted on 
 the principle of a Savings Bank, for the 
 accumulation of the earnings of dishon- 
 est industry, as a provision for the de- 
 predator's declining years. 
 
 The direction of the Stealings Bank 
 is, according to the plan announced, to 
 be vested in a chairman, whose name, 
 for obvious reasons, has not been made 
 public, he being the greatest character 
 in the fraternity concerned. This " gen- 
 tleman "is to be assisted by an unlim- 
 ited number of Vices of the lowest 
 grade. The smallest deposits will be 
 admissible, and plunder in kind will 
 be regarded as an investment, and re- 
 ceive a fair moneyed equivalent where- 
 by, it is hoped, an end will be put to 
 the extortions of less reputable estab- 
 lishments now so numerous. The bank 
 will be open to yards of ribbon and 
 bits of tape, and even to rags and 
 bones. To sharp shop-boys, also, hav- 
 ing access to tills, no less than the foot- 
 pad and highwayman, this institution 
 will be available, and will receive any 
 amount of booty from the smallest 
 theft to the highest burglary, swin- 
 dling, or forgery transaction. 
 
 No distinction is contemplated be- 
 tween common thieves, sharpers, Funks 
 and pickpockets, and those engaged in 
 
 mercantile and financial pursuits, or 
 speculators in Government and other 
 official situations ; and thus, to all dis- 
 honestly-disposed persons holding pub- 
 lic or private berths of trust, the Steal- 
 ings Bank holds out peculiar tempta- 
 tions and facilities. Magistrates' clerks 
 likewise, and officers of certain law 
 courts, whose fees come decidedly un- 
 der the head of impositions, will find 
 an appropriate receptacle for their gains 
 in the proposed Stealings Bank. 
 
 Yankee Hoarding- Specie. 
 
 Now and then some very remarkable 
 cases of specie hoarding come to light. 
 A Boston broker some time ago pur- 
 chased a quantity of coin, of which the 
 history was as follows : The coin was 
 purchased of the heirs of an old man 
 who died in Barnstable county, Mass. 
 He was an old resident of that county, 
 and lived to be ninety-four years old. 
 He was the owner of the house and 
 land which he occupied ; but it was 
 not supposed that he had much prop- 
 erty beyond his real estate, although it 
 was known that he was very close and 
 miserly in his habits. After his death, 
 his premises were searched, and specie 
 of various kinds found to the amount 
 of fifty thousand dollars. Many of the 
 Spanish dollars were of ancient date ; 
 but they showed by their color and 
 perfect stamp that they had not cir- 
 culated much since the coinage. The 
 Spanish gold pieces were wrapped in 
 scraps of parchment, on which the value 
 of each was marked ; and the date in- 
 dicated that they had been thus hoard- 
 ed for a long period. In all probabili- 
 ty, a large part of this gold and silver 
 had been in his possession more than 
 half a century. 
 
 Georg-e Peabody's Colossal Fortune. 
 
 WHEN all American securities were 
 cast down in the London market, from 
 the unjust confusion of good with bad,
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 arising from the repudiation of some of 
 the States, George Peabody made the 
 beginning of that colossal fortune, 
 which he has proved he knows so well 
 how to use. He made no secret, in- 
 deed, of the true state of affairs, and 
 publicly as well as privately exerted 
 himself for the maintenance of Ameri- 
 can credit. It was a sort of poetical 
 justice, that rendered the instruments 
 by which he proved to the world his 
 confidence in his assertions, the means 
 of his own exceeding great reward, 
 in a solid pecuniary return. 
 
 California Qold Seventy Years Ago. 
 
 IN the " Voyage Round the World," 
 by Captain George Shelvocke, begun in 
 1790, he says of California: The soil 
 about Puerto Seguro, and very likely 
 in most of the valleys, is a rich black 
 mould, which, as you turn it fresh up 
 to the sun, appears as if intermingled 
 with gold dust, some of which we en- 
 deavored to purify and wash from the 
 dirt ; but though we were a little preju- 
 diced against the thoughts that it 
 would be possible that this metal 
 should be so promiscuously and uni- 
 versally mingled with the common 
 earth, yet we endeavored to cleanse 
 and wash the earth from some of it ; 
 and the more we did, the more it ap- 
 peared like gold. In order to be fur- 
 ther satisfied, I brought away some 
 of it, which we lost in our confusion in 
 China. 
 
 How remarkably a mere accident 
 thus prevented the available discovery, 
 nearly a century back, of the magnifi- 
 cent harvest of gold since gathered and 
 now gathering in California ! 
 
 "Lives" of Bank Notes. 
 
 THE average period which each de- 
 nomination of London notes remains in 
 circulation has been calculated, and is 
 shown by the following authentic ac- 
 count of the number of days a bank 
 
 note issued in London remains in cir- 
 culation : 5 note, 72.7 days; 10, 
 77.0 ; 20, 57.4 ; 30, 18.9 ; 40, 13.7 ; 
 50, 38.8; 100, 28.4; 200, 12.7; 
 300, 10.6; 500, 11.8; 1,000, 11.1. 
 The exceptions to these averages are 
 few, and therefore remarkable. The 
 time during which some notes remain 
 unpresented is reckoned by the cen- 
 tury. On the 27th of September, 1846, 
 a 50 note was presented bearing date 
 20th January, 1743. Another, for 10, 
 issued on the 19th of November, 1762, 
 was not paid till the 20th of April, 
 1845. 
 
 There is a legend extant of the eccen- 
 tric possessor of a 1,000 note, who 
 kept it framed and glazed for a series 
 of years, preferring to feast his eyes 
 upon it, to putting the amount it repre- 
 sented out at interest. It was convert- 
 ed into gold however, without a day's 
 loss of time, by his heirs on his demise 
 a fact which can very easily be cred- 
 ited. 
 
 Stolen and lost notes are generally 
 long absentees. The former usually 
 make their appearance soon after a 
 great horse race, or other sporting event, 
 altered or disguised so as to deceive 
 bankers, to whom the bank furnishes a 
 list of the numbers and dates of all 
 stolen notes. 
 
 Bank notes have been known to light 
 pipes, to wrap up snuff, and to be used 
 as curl papers ; and British tars, mad 
 with rum and prize money, have not 
 unfrequently, in the time of war, made 
 sandwiches of them, and eat them be- 
 tween bread and butter. Carelessness 
 gives the bank enormous profits, against 
 which the loss of a mere 30,000 note 
 is but a trifle. In the forty years be- 
 tween 1792 and 1832, there were out- 
 standing notes of the Bank of England 
 presumed to have been lost or de- 
 stroyedamounting to 1,330,000 odd, 
 every shilling of which was clear profit 
 to the bank.
 
 74 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Bank Parlor in the Winter. 
 
 THE parlor of the Bank of England 
 has always been a place of considerable 
 " interest," and has been often de- 
 scribed by those so fortunate as to visit 
 it. But its aspect in winter has been 
 portrayed by only one hand, the spark- 
 ling qualities of whose pen are only 
 equalled by those of real "Punch." 
 Of course, in the cold weather, the fire- 
 place is the spot which first attracts 
 and holds the attention, and there the 
 observer perceives the conventional 
 mode of keeping the pot boiling by 
 means of money, most strikingly real- 
 ized. A bank coffer filled with real coffee 
 rests on the bars, which of course are 
 made of real bullion, and the fire is kept 
 alight by the agency of little bags of a 
 material one hundred in a bag that 
 may be seen piled up in the neighboring 
 coal-scuttle, which is also of the same 
 shiny material. On the rug before the 
 fire-place is a little footstool with a de- 
 licious stuffing of bank notes an ar- 
 ticle known to be extremely useful in 
 keeping people on their legs and giving 
 them a firm footing. The seats serve 
 the purpose of chests as well as chairs, 
 and are filled with the national curren- 
 cy every seat in the bank parlor hav- 
 ing a good stock of the precious metals 
 for its foundation. The works of art 
 in the bank parlor are rare, and the 
 celebrated drawing of a bank note for 
 one million pounds, inclosed in a frame 
 of gold similar in style to the bars of 
 gold which form the window sashes 
 is the chief ornament to the walls of the 
 apartment. 
 
 Avoiding: Specie Suspension. 
 WHEN the combined influence of the 
 non-intercourse act, the war, and the 
 dissolution of the old Bank of the 
 United States, caused the State banks 
 to resort to a suspension of specie pay- 
 ments, in order to avoid total ruin and 
 bankruptcy, Mr. Girard became greatly 
 embarrassed as to the course he should 
 
 pursue, to avoid the drain of his specie, 
 and yet preserve his character for strict 
 integrity of business dealing ; but he 
 was soon relieved of his inquietude by 
 adopting the suggestion of Mr. Simp- 
 son, a most competent and respected 
 adviser in such matters, viz., to pay out 
 the notes of the State banks instead of 
 his own, which he drew in, by paying 
 the specie for them ; so that, at no pe- 
 riod of the most disastrous financial cri- 
 sis, was a bank note of Stephen Girard's 
 ever suffered to become depreciated. 
 This husbanding of his resources subse- 
 quently enabled him, in 1817, to con- 
 tribute so materially to the restoration 
 of specie payments. 
 
 The fact just mentioned is interest- 
 ing, as showing that Girard was never 
 seduced into an imprudent measure, by 
 the prospect of immediate profit, but 
 was satisfied to do what appeared to pro- 
 cure permanent advantage, though, for 
 the time being, rather detrimental than 
 profitable. Most men would have at- 
 tempted to force their notes into circu- 
 lation, and redeem them when presented 
 for payment, with the common circula- 
 ting medium of the country. But, act- 
 ing according to the principle and 
 method which he did, Stephen Girard's 
 bank never refused to pay the specie for 
 a note of Stephen Girard ! It is also 
 stated, that only in one instance was 
 his name ever protested ; but even then, 
 it was not his name, but that of his 
 agent in Europe, on whom he had 
 drawn bills, that became dishonored 
 for, as soon as they were presented to 
 him, after their return, he immediately 
 paid them. 
 
 Curious Reasons for Borrowing: 
 Honey. 
 
 Mr. PETER C. BROOKS'S maxim was, 
 that " the whole value of wealth con- 
 sists in the personal independence it 
 secures." An amusing and singular 
 illustration of that distinguished mer- 
 chant's maxim is thus given : 
 
 A merchant named Porter once had
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 a clerical friend between whom and 
 himself there existed great intimacy. 
 Every Saturday night, as Porter was 
 sitting balancing his cash, a note would 
 come, requesting " the loan of a five 
 dollar bill." The money was always 
 restored punctually at eight o'clock on 
 the Monday morning following. But 
 what puzzled the lender was, the per- 
 son always returned the identical note 
 he borrowed. Since the discovery of 
 this fact, he had made private marks 
 on the note ; still the same was handed 
 back on Monday morning. 
 
 One Saturday evening, Porter sent a 
 five dollar gold piece, instead of a note, 
 and marked it. Still the very same 
 coin was returned on Monday. Porter 
 got nervous and bilious about it ; he 
 could hardly sleep at night for think- 
 ing about it ; he would wake his wife 
 in the middle of the night, and ask her 
 what she thought of such a strange oc- 
 currence. He was fast boiling over 
 with curiosity, when a note came from 
 the reverend borrower, one Christmas 
 eve, asking for the loan of ten dollars. 
 A brilliant thought now struck him. 
 He put on his great coat, resolving to 
 call and demand an explanation of the 
 mystery. When he was shown into his 
 friend's study, he found him plunged 
 in the profoundest melancholy. 
 
 " Mr. B.," said the lender, " if you 
 will answer me one question, I will let 
 you have that ten dollars ! How does 
 it happen that you always pay me the 
 money you borrow on Saturday night 
 in the very same coin or note on Mon- 
 day ? " 
 
 The parson raised his head, and after 
 a violent internal struggle, as though 
 he were about to unveil the hoarded 
 mystery of his soul, said, in faltering 
 tones, " Porter, you are a gentleman, a 
 Christian, and a New Yorker I know 
 I can rely on your inviolable secrecy. 
 Listen to the secret of my eloquence. 
 You know that I am poor, and when, 
 on Saturday, I have bought niy Sunday 
 dinner, I have seldom a red cent left 
 
 in my pocket. Now I maintain that 
 no man can preach the gospel and blow 
 up his congregation properly, without 
 he has something in his pocket to in- 
 spire him with confidence. I have 
 therefore borrowed five dollars of you 
 every Saturday, that I might feel it 
 occasionally, as I preached on Sunday. 
 You know how independently I do 
 preach how I make the rich shake 
 in their shoes. Well, it is all owing 
 to my knowing that I have a five dollar 
 bill in my pocket. Of course, never 
 having to use it for any other purpose, 
 it is not changed, but invariably re- 
 turned to you the next morning. But, 
 to-morrow, Mr. George Law is coming 
 to hear me preach, and I thought I 
 would try the effect of a ten dollar-bill 
 sermon on him ! " 
 
 Atchafalaya Currency by the Cord. 
 
 CAPT. SHALLCBOSS, of the Mississippi 
 steamer Peytona, is one of the crack 
 captains on the river. Everybody knows 
 him and he knows everybody there- 
 fore everybody will be pleased with a 
 little story about him. One day, the 
 Peytona was steaming down past the 
 cotton woods toward New Orleans, 
 when she was hailed by another boat 
 going up. 
 
 " Hallo ! Capt. Shall. ! " 
 
 " Hallo ! " was the answer. 
 
 " Got any Atchafalaya money ? " 
 
 " Yes, plenty." 
 
 " Well, pay it out ; the bank's busted, 
 or gwine to." 
 
 "Ay, ay," said Capt. Shallcross. 
 "Clerk, have you got much of that 
 money?" "About a thousand dol- 
 lars, I reckon, sir," said the clerk of 
 the Peytona. " Well, stop at the first 
 wood boat." And the Peytona pufled 
 on, until a wood boat was seen moored 
 to the shore, with piles of cord-wood 
 around, and a small man, with his 
 trousers rolled up, and his hands in 
 his pockets, shivering on the bank be- 
 side his boat, in the chill December 
 weather.
 
 76 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " Wood boat, ahoy I " sang out Capt. 
 Shallcross. 
 
 " Hallo 1 " sounded the small man in 
 the distance. 
 
 " Want to sell that wood ? " 
 
 Small man in the distance " Tas." 
 
 " Take Atchafalaya money ? " 
 
 Small man in the distance " Yas." 
 
 "Round to, pilot," said Capt. Shall. 
 
 The boats bound down stream always 
 have to come around, with their bow 
 pointed up stream, to resist the current 
 of the Mississippi ; sometimes they en- 
 counter a big eddy, and have to take 
 a sweep of some miles before they reach 
 the landing place. So it was in this 
 instance. 
 
 " So you will take Atchafalaya money 
 for wood, will you ? " said the captain, 
 as the boat approached the shore. 
 
 " Tas," said the small man. 
 
 " How will you take it ? " asked 
 Capt. Shall. meaning at what rate. 
 
 " Take it even," quoth the small man. 
 
 " What do you mean by even ? " 
 
 " Cord for cord, Captain." 
 
 "Put her round again, pilot," said 
 Capt. Shall.," " and wood up at the next 
 wharf-boat ; I reckon that some gabbler 
 has posted this fellow on Atchafalaya." 
 
 Burning: a Banker's Notes. 
 
 DURING one of the rebellions in Ire- 
 land, the rebels, who had conceived a 
 high degree of indignation against a 
 certain great banker, passed a resolu- 
 tion that they would at once burn his 
 notes which they held; this they ac- 
 cordingly did forgetting that, in burn- 
 ing his notes, they were destroying his 
 debts, and that for every note which 
 went into the flames, a corresponding 
 value went into the banker's pocket 
 and out of their own. This is what 
 may be termed a genuine financial Hi- 
 bernianisni 1 
 
 Honey Changers in China. 
 THE Chinese do not recognize either 
 gold or silver as current coin. Gold is 
 
 considered merchandise, and its value 
 varies like that of any other precious 
 commodity in Europe. As to silver, 
 it is never coined, but, to forward the 
 purposes of commerce, it is generally 
 divided into small ingots, which they 
 can cut into morsels, as they choose, 
 in order to make their payments exact. 
 Thus all men of business carry with 
 them a pair of small scales, of most 
 exact balance, by means of which they 
 settle all their accounts by weight. 
 The changer may usually be seen ex- 
 amining a dollar, and grasping with one 
 hand a species of shears, used as well 
 for testing as dividing the coin of 
 foreigners. A dollar is worth a num- 
 ber more or less, according to the 
 course of exchange of the small cop- 
 per coins which are seen threaded on 
 the changer's desk. This coin is the 
 only one legally current in China ; it 
 is round, with a hole in the middle, 
 and is a little larger, but much thinner 
 than an English farthing. These small 
 coins are called lees ; they are used 
 separately for trade purposes, or strung 
 in fifties, hundreds, or thousands. The 
 lees are current only during the reign 
 of the sovereign who issued them. The 
 head of the reigning prince, however, 
 is never engraved on the Chinese coin ; 
 the only distinguishing mark is that 
 of the dynasty under which it was 
 struck, with a couple of Chinese char- 
 acters on the face, and as many Tartar 
 characters on the reverse. The Chinese 
 would think it a great mark of disre- 
 spect to the majesty of the emperor, 
 as brother of the sun, to circulate his 
 august effigy among the common peo- 
 ple, and submit it to the plebeian fingers 
 of hawkers, pedlers, and fishfags. Such 
 a degradation is not to be thought of. 
 
 Bankers of the Old School. 
 
 THE London banker of the olden time, 
 the successor to the Lombards, had but 
 little resemblance to the modern gentle- 
 man who is known by the same title.
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 77 
 
 He was a man of serious manners, plain 
 apparel, the steadiest conduct, and a 
 rigid observer of formalities. On look- 
 ing in his face, there could be read, in 
 intelligible characters, the fact that the 
 ruling maxim of life, the one to which 
 he turned all his thoughts and by which 
 he shaped all his actions, was, "that 
 he who would be trusted with the 
 money of other men should look as if 
 he deserved the trust, and be an osten- 
 sible pattern to society of probity, ex- 
 actness, frugality, and decorum." 
 
 He lived, if not the whole of the 
 year, at least the greater part of it, at 
 his banking house, was punctual to the 
 hours of business, and always to be 
 found at his desk. The fashionable 
 society at the west end of the town, 
 and the amusements of high life, he 
 never dreamed of enjoying, and would 
 have deemed it little short of insanity 
 to imagine that such an act was within 
 the compass of human daring, as that 
 of a banker lounging for an evening in 
 Fop's Alley, at the opera, or turning 
 out for the Derby with four greys to 
 his chariot, and a goodly bumper swung 
 behind, well stuffed with pies, spring 
 chickens, and iced champagne. 
 
 The material or architectural aspect 
 of the business of banking in early 
 tim?^ is also, to modern ideas, as hum- 
 ble as it must have been picturesque. 
 Instead of the handsome apartments, 
 the highly polished and well-fitted 
 counters, and well-dressed clerks of 
 the modern banking-houses, there were 
 the dark-featured Lombards, ranged 
 behind their bags of money displayed 
 on low benches in open shops, pro- 
 tected, perhaps, by occasional awnings, 
 from the inclemency of the weather. 
 
 "The Lady's Broker." 
 MOST of the leading men who act 
 as brokers in London go by nick-names ; 
 and the way in which these names some- 
 times originate, is quite curious. One 
 of the fraternity has been dubbed "The 
 Lady's Broker," in consequence of hav- 
 
 ing been employed, on one occasion, by 
 Madame R., the lady of a deceased 
 capitalist, in a speculation into which 
 she entered on her own account, and 
 without the knowledge of her husband. 
 The speculation turned out so unfavor- 
 ably, that neither the lady nor her bro- 
 ker could discharge their obligations ; 
 and hence, as in other cases where the 
 broker cannot meet the engagements he 
 has entered into for any other party, he 
 must, to save himself from the black- 
 board, give up the name of his prin- 
 cipal, the broker was compelled to 
 divulge the name of the lady speculator. 
 From that day to this, he has gone 
 under the name of the " The Lady's 
 Broker." The husband, in this case, 
 knowing he could not be compelled to 
 pay for the illegal gambling of his wife, 
 refused to advance a single farthing 
 in liquidation of her debts. 
 
 Cashier Inviting: a Run upon Ms Bank. 
 
 A BANK that was managed with great 
 caution was once in what was supposed 
 to be a peculiar position, when a friend 
 of the cashier called upon him, and tak- 
 ing him aside, with a grave face, said, 
 " I heard it asserted just now that you 
 have not five thousand dollars left out 
 of the one hundred thousand silver 
 dollars that were lately paid into your 
 bank, and I hastened to tell you, in 
 order that you may show me your 
 vaults, and give me the means to con- 
 tradict the rumor." 
 
 " No," said the cashier, " the rumor 
 is all true. What use do you suppose 
 that I have for the silver ? " 
 
 "Why, to meet the run upon your 
 bank, which must certainly come when 
 this state of your affairs is generally 
 known," was the reply. 
 
 " Let the run come," said the cashier; 
 " and by way of beginning it, do you 
 go into the street, collect all of our 
 bills that you can find, and bring them 
 to me, and I promise to give you the 
 hard dollars for them."
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 After some time, his friend returned 
 to say that he had not been able to- find 
 any of the bills of that particular bank, 
 excepting a solitary one for five dollars, 
 for which the silver was immediately 
 offered him. 
 
 " Just so," said the cashier, " almost 
 all the bills that I have issued have 
 already been sent in, and I have paid 
 out the silver for them. But in doing 
 so, I have emptied most of these boxes 
 of dollars. The money was given me to 
 lend ; and I have lent it for about four 
 months. But I could not lend and keep 
 it too. I have, therefore, very little 
 gold or silver in the vaults. So long* 
 as I have the small amount that is 
 necessary to redeem the few bills that 
 remain out, and the two thousand dol- 
 lars which I have earned for the stock- 
 holders, I am easy. You may go back 
 to the street, if you will, and defy the 
 world to break our bank. We shall 
 lend nothing more until the promissory 
 notes that we have taken as security 
 begin to fall due. As they are paid in, 
 with hard dollars, or the bills of other 
 banks, we shall have the means to lend 
 money again." 
 
 Obtaining: Security to be a Broker. 
 
 AMONG the political opponents of 
 George Hudson, the English railway 
 monarch, when at York, was one who, 
 when riches were discovered by him to 
 be so easily realized on the stock ex- 
 change, sought the great metropolis to 
 make his fortune, as others had, by be- 
 coming a broker. To London he went. 
 But to be a member of the money mar- 
 ket in that city, two sureties were re- 
 quired ; and he could procure only one. 
 The difficulty continued, and great was 
 his disappointment. In his despair he 
 thought of the railway king ; and, as a 
 last resource, on Mr. Hudson he waited, 
 and told his mission. 
 
 " You've been no friend of mine," 
 said Mr. Hudson, bluntly ; " but I be- 
 lieve you're a good sort of fellow call 
 on me to-morrow." 
 
 The morrow came, and, full of anxi- 
 ety, he waited on the autocrat. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Hudson, " it's all 
 settled ; I've arranged everything. Mr. 
 
 will be your other security: go 
 
 to him ; I've told him to do it." 
 
 Mr. Hudson did not add, as he might, 
 that he had in fact guaranteed the 
 amount to the broker named by him, 
 and was himself sole surety for the 
 opponent he befriended. 
 
 London Bankers and Banking: Houses. 
 
 THE oldest banking houses in Lon- 
 don are Child's, at Temple Bar, Hoare's, 
 in Fleet street, Strahan's formerly 
 Snow's, in the Strand, and Gosling's, 
 in Fleet street. None date earlier than 
 the restoration of Charles the Second. 
 The original bankers were goldsmiths 
 " goldsmiths that keep running cashes " 
 and their shops were distinguished 
 by signs. Thus, Child's was known by 
 " The Marygold," still to be seen where 
 the checks are cashed ; Hoare's, by " the 
 Golden Bottle," still remaining over the 
 door ; Strahan's, by " the Golden An- 
 chor," to be seen inside ; and Gosling's, 
 by " the Three Squirrels," still promi- 
 nent in the ironwork of their windows 
 toward the street. 
 
 The founder of Child's celebrated 
 house was John Backwell, an alderman 
 of the city of London, ruined by the 
 shutting up of the Exchequer in the 
 reign of Charles the Second. Stone 
 and Martin's, in Lombard street, is said 
 to have been founded by Sir Thomas 
 Gresham, and the grasshopper sign of 
 the Gresham family was preserved in 
 the banking house till late in the last 
 century. 
 
 Of the west-end banking houses, 
 Drummond's, at Charing-cross, is the 
 oldest; and next to Drummond's, 
 Coutts's, in the Strand. The founder 
 of Drummond's obtained his great 
 position by advancing money to the 
 Pretender, and the king's consequent 
 withdrawal led to a rush of the Scot-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 79 
 
 Tish nobility and gentry with their 
 accounts, and to the ultimate advance- 
 ment of the bank to its present footing. 
 Coutts'a house was founded by George 
 Middleton, and originally stood in St. 
 Martin's lane, near St Martin's church ; 
 Coutts removed it to its present site. 
 
 The great Lord Clarendon, in the 
 reign of Charles the Second, kept an 
 account at Hoare's; Dryden lodged 
 his 50 for the discovery of the bullies 
 who waylaid and beat him, at Child's, 
 Temple Bar; Pope banked at Drum- 
 mond's ; Lady Mary Wortley Montague, 
 at Child's ; Gay, at Hoare's ; Dr. John- 
 son and Sir Walter Scott, at Coutts's ; 
 Bishop Percy, at Gosling's ; the Duke 
 of Wellington, at Coutts's ; the Duke 
 of Sutherland, at Drummond's; the 
 Duke of Devonshire, at Snow's. 
 
 Paying: Notes in Specie. 
 
 PHILIP HONE, speaking of the " bless- 
 ed " days of specie currency, says : " The 
 few notes which were given out by the 
 merchants and shopkeepers and the 
 sequel will show how few they must 
 have been were collected of course 
 through the bank. Michael Boyle, the 
 runner, with his jocund laugh and 
 pleasant countenance, called, several 
 days before the time, with a notice that 
 the note would be due on such a day, 
 and payment expected three days there- 
 after. When the day arrived, the same 
 person called again with a canvas bag, 
 counted the money in dollars, half dol- 
 lars, quarters, and sixpences (those 
 abominable disturbers of the people's 
 peace bank notes being scarcely 
 known in those days), carried it to the 
 bank, and then sallied out to another 
 debtor. And in this way all the notes 
 were collected in the great commercial 
 city of New York, in such a circum- 
 scribed circle did its operations then 
 revolve. Well do I remember Mi- 
 chael Boyle, running around from Pearl 
 street to Maiden lane, Broadway, and 
 William street, the business limits, 
 
 happily for him, not extending north 
 of the present Fulton street, panting 
 under the load of a bag of silver, a sort 
 of locomotive sub-treasurer, or the em- 
 bodiment of a specie circular." 
 
 Security for a Discount. 
 
 IT is very common among business 
 men to give vent to a good deal of 
 grumbling about the illiberal course 
 which characterizes banks in hard 
 times, toward their customers. An 
 unfortunate customer of one of these 
 institutions in Philadelphia, being 
 somewhat irritated at the picayune poli- 
 cy pursued, resorted to the following 
 desperate expedient, to see if there was 
 any such thing as " raising the wind," 
 in said concern. He drew a note for 
 five dollars at thirty days, covered it 
 down the back with first-class indorse- 
 ments from his fellow sufferers, pinned 
 it to a ten dollar bill of the same bank, 
 as collateral, and then ventured to offer 
 it for discount. That is what Jedediah 
 Tompkins would call " hintiri 1 round" 
 
 Jacob Barker's Forty Kegs of Specie. 
 
 MANY years ago Jacob Barker offered 
 some good business paper for discount 
 at one of the Wall street banks, and, 
 when the board of directors met, they, 
 after mature deliberation, threw the 
 paper out, which displeased friend Ja- 
 cob, and he consequently sought re- 
 venge, in a professional way, for what 
 he took to be rather ungentlemanly 
 treatment. A few days only elapsed, 
 when Jacob presented forty thousand 
 dollars of the bills of that same bank 
 at its counter, and demanded the specie 
 from the astonished officers ; but never- 
 theless it was rolled out to him in kegs 
 of one thousand dollars each, the 
 teller of the bank informing him that 
 they were obliged to give him small 
 coin, five and ten cent pieces. 
 
 Here was a dilemma, even for so 
 bright witted and redoubtable a man
 
 80 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 as Jacob ; but being equal to the emer- 
 gency, Jacob ordered the porter to un- 
 head the casks, which being done, Ja- 
 cob took a handful of the coin from 
 each, and requested the teller to place 
 the remainder which of course re- 
 quired, according to bank custom, to be 
 counted to his credit. It was said, 
 at the time, that it required the whole 
 available force of the institution to 
 count the coin, and that many late 
 hours were made. Whether Jacob ever 
 offered any more notes for discount, or 
 applied for any " accommodation " fa- 
 vors, at that bank or whether he got 
 them if he did, we are only left to in- 
 fer. 
 
 Final Argument at a Bank Counter. 
 
 ON receipt of the news of the banks 
 suspending specie payments, Mrs. Jones 
 hastened to her savings bank, elbowed 
 her way smartly to the desk, presented 
 her book, and demanded her money. 
 
 " Madam," said the clerk persuasive- 
 ly, " are you sure you want to draw this 
 money out in specie ? " 
 
 "Mrs. Jones," said a director, with 
 an oracular frown, do you know that 
 you are injuring your fellow deposi- 
 tors?" 
 
 " And setting an example of great 
 folly to less educated persons in this 
 community ? " struck in another direc- 
 tor. 
 
 " Let us advise you simply to reflect," 
 interposed the clerk, blandly. 
 
 " To wait for a day or two at least," 
 said the director 
 
 At last there was a pause. 
 
 Mrs. Jones had been collecting her- 
 self. She burst now. In a tone which 
 was heard throughout the building, 
 and above all the din, and at which 
 her interlocutors turned ashy pale, she 
 said: 
 
 " Will you pay me my money yes or 
 noV 
 
 They paid her instantly. 
 
 First Jewish Bill of Exchange. 
 
 THE circumstance which gave rise to 
 the introduction of bills of exchange in 
 the mercantile world, was the banish- 
 ment from France, in the reigns of 
 Philip Augustus and Philip the Long, 
 of the Jews, who, it is well known, 
 took refuge in Lombardy. On their 
 leaving the kingdom, they had com- 
 mitted to the care of some persons in 
 whom they could place confidence, such 
 of their property as they could not 
 carry with them. Having fixed their 
 abode in a new country, they furnished 
 various foreign merchants and travel- 
 lers, whom they had commissioned to 
 bring away their fortunes, with secret 
 letters, which were accepted in France 
 by those who had the care of their 
 effects. From this it is claimed that 
 the merit of the invention of exchanges 
 belongs to the Jews exclusively. They 
 discovered the means of substituting 
 impalpable riches for palpable ones, the 
 former being transmissible to all parts, 
 without leaving behind them any traces 
 indicative of the way they have taken. 
 
 Leather Money. 
 
 ON the authority of Seneca, a curious 
 account is given of a period when leath- 
 er, appropriately stamped to give it a 
 certain legal character, was the only 
 current money. At a comparatively re- 
 cent date, in the annals of Europe, 
 Fredich the Second, who died in 1250, 
 at the siege of Milan, actually paid his 
 troops with leather money. Nearly the 
 same circumstance occurred in England, 
 during the great wars of the barons. 
 In the course of 1350, King John, for 
 the ransom of his royal person, prom- 
 ised to pay Edward the Third, of Eng- 
 land, three millions of gold crowns. 
 In order to fulfil this obligation, he 
 was reduced to the mortifying neces- 
 sity of paying the expenses of the pal- 
 ace in leather money, in the centre of 
 each piece there being a little, bright
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 81 
 
 point of silver. In that reign is found 
 the origin of the burlesque honor of 
 boyhood, called " conferring a leather 
 medal." The imposing ceremonies ac- 
 companying a presentation, gave full 
 force, dignity, and value to a leather 
 jewel, which noblemen were probably 
 proud to receive at the hand of ma- 
 jesty. 
 
 The United Job and Lazarus Bank. 
 
 WITH a view to the special advan- 
 tage of the small and uncertain capi- 
 talist, the United Job and Lazarus Bank 
 has at last been established. 
 
 That distinguished British actuary, 
 Mr. Fitzlocker, has calculated that the 
 half-pence annually bestowed in charity 
 upon persons of the mendicant class 
 amounts, on an average, to no less a 
 sum than 950,000, Us. 2d. This 
 sum does not include the daily coppers 
 expended upon the crossing-sweepers, 
 that may fairly be put down at 50,000 
 more, sinking, for the sake of round 
 numbers, the odd half-penny. Thus, a 
 total is presented of 1,000,000, 14s. 
 %id. Now, it is well known that the 
 mendicant and crossing-sweeper class 
 are, for the most part, a thrifty if not a 
 penurious people. What is more com- 
 mon than to read of the apprehension 
 or death of the beggar upon whose per- 
 son or body are found rolls of bank 
 notes and showers of sovereigns ? 
 
 It is calculated that of the above 1,- 
 000,000, not above one half is expended 
 by the recipients for board, clothing, 
 and lodging leaving a fair margin of 
 expense for an annual visit to a watering 
 place. Thus, a clear half million is an- 
 nually accumulating in old stockings, 
 under worm-eaten floors, and in all sorts 
 of impossible nooks and corners consid- 
 ered convenient only to Plutus. 
 
 Now, it is to afford safe and pecu- 
 liarly profitable means of investment to 
 the provident classes above named, that 
 the United Job (it is requested that 
 " Job " be taken in its purely patriarch- 
 al pronunciation) the United Job and 
 
 Lazarus Bank is established. The per- 
 sons most interested in the successful 
 permanence of the institution, it cannot 
 be doubted, will feel the fullest and 
 deepest confidence in the character of 
 the concern, upon a careful perusal of 
 the circular containing the names of 
 the officers ; these include such individ- 
 uals as Messrs. Crook-fingered Jack, 
 Jemmy Twitcher, Wat Dreary, Ben 
 Budge, Ben Booty, Reynard Foxleer, 
 and others, with Mr. Filch as manager 
 and cashier 
 
 Capital of European Bankers. 
 AH actual report of the general super- 
 visor of the books of the several firms 
 of the Rothschild, giving the aggregate 
 amount of their capital or the sum at 
 their instantaneous command, shows 
 that capital to be a millard of francs, 
 or two hundred million dollars. It is 
 also stated that the similar capital of 
 the two Pereires is at least one hundred 
 millions of francs ; of the Hottinguers, 
 seventy-five millions ; of Mir6s and the 
 Foulds still higher ; and the Duke of 
 Galiera, at the head of the Credit Mobi- 
 lier, is held to be prodigiously opulent. 
 The Pereires have created for them- 
 selves a new fortune by the purchase 
 of very extensive grounds within and 
 without the walls of the capital, which 
 they turn into streets and boulevards 
 with a certainty of the earliest and 
 most ample proceeds. 
 
 Dudley North's Opposition to Bro- 
 kerage. 
 
 THE system of banking or brokerage 
 by bills which was introduced in Lon- 
 don in the sixteenth century, in place 
 of the old method of paying in solid 
 metals, encountered much opposition 
 and clamor. Old fashioned merchants 
 complained bitterly that a class of men 
 who, thirty years before, had confined 
 themselves to their functions, and had 
 made a fair profit by embossing silver 
 bowls and chargers, by setting jewels 
 for fine ladies, and by selling pistoles
 
 82 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 and dollars to gentlemen setting out for 
 the Continent, had become the treas- 
 urers and were fast becoming the mas- 
 ters of the whole city. These usurers, 
 it was said, played at hazard with what 
 had been earned by the industry and 
 hoarded by the thrift of other men. If 
 the dice turned up well, the knave who 
 kept the cash became an alderman ; if 
 they turned up ill, the dupe who fur- 
 nished the cash became a bankrupt. On 
 the other side, the consequences of the 
 modern practice were set forth in ani- 
 mated language. The new system, it 
 was said, saved both labor and money. 
 Two clerks, seated in one counting 
 house, did what, under the old system, 
 must have been done by twenty clerks 
 in twenty different establishments. 
 
 Gradually, however, even those who 
 had been loudest in murmuring against 
 the innovation, gave way and conform- 
 ed to the prevailing usage. The last 
 person who held out, strange to say, 
 was Sir Dudley North. When, in 
 1689, after residing many years abroad, 
 he returned to London, nothing aston- 
 ished or displeased him more than the 
 practice of making payments by draw- 
 ing bills on bankers. He found that 
 he could not go on 'change without 
 being stealthily followed round the 
 piazza by goldsmiths as the dealers in 
 bullion were then called who, with 
 low bows, begged to have the honor 
 of serving him. He lost his temper 
 when some of these friends asked him 
 where he kept his cash: "Where 
 should I keep it," he sharply asked, 
 " but in my own house ? " and turned 
 his heel upon the whole pack. With 
 difficulty he was at last induced to put 
 his money, just by way of trial, into 
 the hands of one of the Lombard street 
 men, as they were familiarly called. 
 As ill luck would have it, the Lombard 
 street man broke, and some of his cus- 
 tomers suffered severely. Dudley North 
 lost only fifty pounds ; but this loss im- 
 movably confirmed him in his dislike 
 of the whole art of " improved bank- 
 
 ing." It was in vain, however, that 
 this old landmark stood up and exhort- 
 ed his fellow citizens to return to the 
 good old practice, and not to expose 
 themselves to utter ruin in order to 
 spare themselves a little trouble. He 
 stood alone against the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
 Strongest Bank in the World. 
 
 THE Bank of Genoa, which has been 
 in existence hundreds of years, has 
 perhaps proved itself the strongest in- 
 stitution of the kind in the world. It 
 is a remarkable fact in its history, that 
 its administration has always been as 
 permanent and unchangeable, as that 
 of the republic has been agitated and 
 fluctuating. No alteration ever took 
 place in the mode of governing and 
 regulating the affairs of the bank ; and 
 two sovereign and independent powers, 
 at war with each other, have been 
 within the walls of the city, without 
 producing the slightest shock to the 
 bank, or causing it to secrete any of its 
 books or treasures. 
 
 Financial Physic. 
 
 IT is proposed to establish an alto- 
 gether new method of inquiring into 
 the state of the health of certain classes 
 of the community. The following are 
 some of the interrogatories to be ad- 
 dressed to the patient : How are your 
 funds ? Let me see your coupons. Put 
 out your stock. Are your dividends all 
 right ? Have you any pain about your 
 bonds ? Any uneasiness referring to 
 your foreign securities ? What is the 
 state of your corn market ? Allow me 
 to examine your shares. Let me feel 
 your scrip. Have you any sinking in 
 your mines ? Any tightness at the 
 back, or hollowness of the chest ? How 
 is your discount ? Have you any appe- 
 tite for speculation ?
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 83 
 
 Brief explanation of Banking:. 
 
 OLD Mr. Lefevre, father of the former 
 speaker of the House of Commons, and 
 the principal founder of the house of 
 Curries & Co., illustrated the simple the- 
 ory of banking to a customer one day, in 
 a manner rivalling the best treatises on 
 that subject. The customer in question 
 was one of those men who find it very 
 convenient to have bad memories, and 
 very tantalizing at times to have good 
 ones. His account was almost always 
 overdrawn, and whenever spoken to 
 on the hitch thus occasioned, his an- 
 swer was invariably the same he really 
 had forgotten how it stood. At last, 
 Mr. Lefevre watched his opportunity, 
 caught him one day at the counter, and 
 said to him : 
 
 "Mr. Y , you and I must under- 
 stand one another something better 
 than we now seem to. I am afraid you 
 don't know what banking really is; 
 give me leave to tell you. It's my 
 business to take care of your money ; 
 but I find you are always taking care 
 of mine. Now, that is not banking, 
 Mr. Y. ; it must be the other way. Fm 
 the banker, not you. You understand 
 me now, Mr. Y. ; I'm sure you do ! " 
 
 Jacob Little and the Missing Bank 
 Bill. 
 
 OP this acute financier, an anecdote 
 of the most extraordinary of his facul- 
 ties his quickness of perception is 
 related, as illustrating one of the secrets 
 of his success. A man came to the 
 counter with a draft for $650. He was 
 handed at once a $500, a $100, and a 
 $50 bill. The man left. In a few mo- 
 ments he returned, saying, 
 
 " Mr. Little, sir, I think you made a 
 mistake. That was a draft for $650 I 
 gave you, and you have given me only 
 $150 and he held out the $100 and 
 the $50 notes. 
 
 With almost fierce abruptness the 
 tone familiar to all who knew Mr. L., 
 
 he asked the man, "Where have you 
 been?" 
 
 " To the Bank of America, to deposit 
 my money, and it was there I " 
 
 Mr. Little did not wait to hear the 
 end of the sentence. Dashing on Ma 
 hat, he ran out, hastened to the bank, 
 and returned, in almost less time, than 
 it takes to tell the story, with the miss- 
 ing $500 in his hand. 
 
 " Here, sir," said he, to the overjoy- 
 ed customer ; " you dropped your bill 
 at the bank, and if I had been a quarter 
 of an hour later, you would never have 
 seen it again let me tell you." 
 
 New York Bankers and Western Court 
 Houses. 
 
 THAT city bankers are called upon 
 to loan for almost everything, far and 
 near, is a fact which none know so well 
 as themselves. Occasionally, however, 
 an incident like the following, in their 
 experience, comes to light. The agent 
 of a county in one of the Western 
 States, visited New York to negotiate 
 bonds, and called on a leading banker, 
 with the expectation of having the gold 
 shovelled into his pocket, that he might 
 go home by the next train. 
 
 " What do you want the money 
 for ? " asked the banker. 
 
 " To build a court house and jail," 
 was the answer. 
 
 " And you have called on me for ad- 
 vice?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. Knowing you to be ac- 
 quainted with the best houses, I thought 
 you could refer me to them in a favor- 
 able manner." 
 
 " I will give you my advice and help 
 you willingly." 
 
 " Thank you thank you." 
 
 "It is this: Put your bonds in 
 your pocket and go home. When you 
 get there, take your bonds out of your 
 pocket, and put them into the fire." 
 
 The banker's visitor opened his eyes 
 and mouth. 
 
 " Yes, sir, put them in the fire. Then 
 tax your people and build your court
 
 84 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 house and jail. We can't give you 
 money for any such purposes, and you 
 have no business to ask it. "What do 
 we care for a court house and jail out 
 by the Mississippi River ? This is the 
 way with some of you Western men ! 
 Now go back and do as I tell you 
 burn your bonds and tax your people. 
 Nobody here cares a picayune whether 
 you have a court house or not. If it 
 should do no better than some other 
 court houses, justice won't be the gainer 
 by it. I think it quite likely you would 
 be better with a jail, and I'm sorry to 
 have to say that I can't help you to 
 build it." 
 
 Banks Failing:. 
 
 " ABE you afraid of the banks fail- 
 ing ? " asked a Boston cashier, as Mrs. 
 Partington went to draw her pension. 
 " Banks failing ! " said the dame ; " I 
 never had any idea about it at all. If 
 he gets votes enough, I don't see how 
 he can fail, and if he don't, I can't see 
 how he is to help it." " I mean," said 
 he, " the banks that furnish paper for 
 the currency." She stood a moment 
 counting her bills. " Oh, you did, did 
 you ? " said she ; " well, it's about the 
 same thing. If they have money enough 
 to redeem with and heaven knows 
 there's need enough for ' redemption' for 
 a good many of them, and more ' grace ' 
 than they allow their customers they 
 may stand it ; but doubtful things are 
 uncertain." She passed off like an ex- 
 halation, and the cashier counted out 
 $115.17 fifteen times while pondering 
 what she said, in order to catch her 
 meaning. 
 
 Spanish Reals versus Spanish Bonds. 
 ROTHSCHILD, though so deeply en- 
 grossed in money matters, occasionally 
 has time to add to his quality of 
 shrewdness that of being witty. On 
 being called upon one time to give a 
 good definition of the real and the 
 ideal in sublunary matters, he, true to 
 his profession, answered : " I cannot 
 
 give you a more forcible example than 
 this, namely the ' real ' is the current 
 coin of Spain, and a Spanish bond, 
 which is supposed to represent it, is 
 the ' ideal.' " 
 
 Throwing out Jacob Barker's Notes. 
 
 THE bitter opposition of Jacob 
 Barker to the renewal of the charter of 
 the United States Bank is matter of 
 history, and it came about in this wise : 
 Although subject to occasional reverses, 
 Mr. Barker prospered greatly in his 
 business until he had the misfortune to 
 incur the displeasure of Robert Lenox, 
 a very rich Scotch merchant strong- 
 minded and intelligent, with a will and 
 prejudices equally decided. 
 
 Mr. Barker had, as agent for the 
 owner, chartered to James Scott, the 
 ship Live Oak, of Portland, Me., for a 
 voyage to St. Domingo and back. On 
 her arrival off the port of destination 
 she found it blockaded, and was or- 
 dered off, when, according to custom, 
 she proceeded to the next port ; finding 
 that in the possession of the slaves, 
 they having revolted, the captain pru- 
 dently returned to New York with the 
 outward cargo. 
 
 A question now arose, whether or 
 not the ship was entitled to compensa- 
 tion. Mr. Barker applied immediately 
 to his friend and professional adviser, 
 Gen. Alexander Hamilton, for advice ; 
 that gentleman advised him to retain a 
 sufficiency of the cargo to pay the 
 amount of the charter, until he could 
 advise and receive an answer from his 
 employer, the owner of the ship. A 
 portion less than the amount of charter 
 was in money ; it was retained. 
 
 The following day, Mr. Barker's notes 
 offered for discount at the United 
 States Branch Bank, where he kept his 
 account,' were all thrown out, which 
 was followed up every discount day for 
 two or three weeks, when Mr. B. began 
 to feel its effects. Knowing Mr. Lenox 
 to be the most influential director, he 
 applied to that gentleman, without the
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 85 
 
 least idea of the cause, or that he was 
 the individual who had induced the 
 rejection of the notes offered ; named to 
 him the liberality with which he had 
 always been treated by the bank, the 
 goodness of the notes offered and their 
 rejection, adding that he presumed 
 there must be some hidden cause which 
 he, Mr. L., could satisfactorily explain, 
 if he knew what it was. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Lenox, " there is a 
 cause, and if you expect any more dis- 
 counts at the Branch Bank, you must 
 deliver to Mr. Scott the money you 
 withhold from him." 
 
 Mr. Barker, astonished at the avowal, 
 inquired if the board of directors un- 
 dertook to pass, ex parte, on differences 
 which arose among merchants, neither 
 of whom was of their number, and to 
 enforce their decision against one of 
 the parties, without having allowed 
 him a hearing. Mr. Lenox replied that 
 he believed every director at the board 
 agreed with him in opinion. 
 
 Application was immediately made to 
 Gen. Stevens, Thomas Buchanan, and 
 other directors, who informed him that 
 Mr. Lenox was mistaken ; that they 
 were opposed to all such assumption 
 of power, and that if Mr. Lenox did 
 not withdraw his objection, they would 
 not allow the notes of his friends to 
 be discounted. One or two opposing a 
 note, it could not, by the rules of the 
 board, be discounted. On the re-ap- 
 pointment of Mr. Lenox as a director 
 by the mother bank at Philadelphia, 
 Mr. Barker sought his redress by op- 
 posing a renewal of the bank's charter, 
 which was soon to expire. This he 
 did with untiring tact and energy, not 
 ceasing his exertions until the fate of 
 the bank was sealed by a rejection of 
 the bill for the renewal of the charter 
 by Congress. This was done by a ma- 
 jority of only one ; and as Mr. Barker's 
 half-brother, Gideon Gardner, was a 
 member from Naritucket, and voted 
 against the bank, it is not unreasonable 
 to conclude that Mr. Barker's influence 
 
 was not small, in overthrowing the first 
 United States Bank. 
 
 Establishment of the Bank of England 
 Curious Facts. 
 
 AFTER much opposition, the Bank 
 of England was established in 1694. 
 Strange as it may seem, the act of Par- 
 liament by which the bank was estab- 
 lished is entitled " An act for granting 
 to their majesties several duties upon 
 tonnage of ships and vessels, and upon 
 beer, ale, and other liquors, for securing 
 certain recompenses and advantages in 
 the said act mentioned, to such persons 
 as shall voluntarily advance the sum 
 of fifteen hundred thousand pounds 
 toward carrying on the war with 
 France." After a variety of enactments 
 relative to the duties upon tonnage of 
 ships and vessels, and upon beer, ale, 
 and other liquors, the act authorizes 
 the raising of twelve hundred thousand 
 pounds by voluntary subscription, the 
 subscribers to be formed into a corpo- 
 ration, and be styled " The Governor 
 and Company of the Bank of England." 
 The sum of three hundred thousand 
 pounds was also to be raised by subscrip- 
 tion, and the contributors to receive 
 instead annuities for one, two, or three 
 lives. Toward the twelve hundred 
 thousand pounds no one was to sub- 
 scribe more than ten thousand pounds 
 before the first day of July next en- 
 suing, nor at any time more than 
 twenty thousand pounds. The corpora- 
 tion were to lend their whole capital 
 to government, for which they were to 
 receive interest at the rate of eight per 
 cent, per annum, and four thousand 
 pounds per annum for management ; 
 being one hundred thousand pounds 
 per annum on the whole. The corpo- 
 ration were not allowed to borrow or 
 
 re more than the amount of their 
 capital, and if they did so, the individ- 
 ual members became liable to the credi- 
 tors in proportion to the amount of 
 their stock. The corporation were not 
 to trade in any goods, wares, or mer-
 
 86 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 chandise whatever, but they were al- 
 lowed to deal in bills of exchange, gold 
 or silver bullion, and to sell any goods, 
 wares, or merchandise upon which they 
 had advanced money, and which had 
 not been redeemed within three months 
 after the time agreed upon. The whole 
 of the subscription was filled in a few 
 days. In Grocers' Hall, since razed for 
 the erection of a more stately structure, 
 the Bank of England commenced oper- 
 ations. Here, in one room, were gath- 
 ered, with almost primitive simplicity, 
 all who performed the duties of the 
 establishment. "I looked into the 
 great hall where the bank is kept," 
 says the graceful essayist of the day, 
 " and was not a little pleased to see 
 the directors, secretaries, and clerks, 
 with all the other members of that 
 wealthy corporation, ranged in their 
 several stations according to the parts 
 they hold in that just and regular econ- 
 omy." 
 
 A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, 
 speaking of the external appearance of 
 the bank, in 1757, describes it as com- 
 paratively a small structure, almost in- 
 visible to passers by, being surrounded 
 by many others, viz., a church called 
 St. Christopher le Stocks; three tav- 
 erns, two on the south side (the Foun- 
 tain) in Bartholomew lane, facing the 
 church there, just where the great door 
 of entrance is now placed, and about 
 fifteen or twenty private dwelling 
 houses. Visitors are sometimes shown 
 in the bullion office the identical old 
 chest, somewhat larger than a common 
 seaman's, also the original shelves or 
 cases, where the cash, notes, papers, 
 and books of business were kept. Vis- 
 itors are occasionally shown some notes 
 for large amounts, which have passed 
 between the bank and government. In 
 the early history of the establishment 
 any person in the possession of a bank 
 note might demand only part of its 
 amount, and the same plan might be 
 resorted to with the same note until the 
 whole of the sum due upon it was ab- 
 
 sorbed ; some of these are still shown 
 on the last which came in there was 
 only sixpence to receive. A bank of 
 England note is never issued after it 
 returns to the bank ; it is then cancelled 
 and destroyed, to make way for the 
 next issue. Whenever a note is pre- 
 sented to the bank the corner is torn 
 from it, the number is punched out, it 
 is cancelled in the register book, and 
 then sent down to the library, there to 
 lie for ten years, until burned in the 
 yard during the eleventh. About one 
 thousand persons are employed in the 
 establishment. 
 
 Bound not to Break. 
 
 THE banking operations of Jacob 
 Barker, when he carried on business in 
 "Wall street, New York, met with much 
 opposition from many of the bankers 
 of that locality, and they managed once 
 in a while to push Jacob pretty close 
 to the wall. On one occasion, when 
 the times were somewhat tight, and 
 Mr. Barker was absent, attending to 
 his duties as a member of the New 
 York senate, a ship arrived from Liver- 
 pool with advice of the failure of his 
 house at that place. This at once 
 caused a very great run on Mr. Barker's 
 bank on receiving notice of which he 
 returned to the city, was the first to 
 land from the steamboat, and drove 
 with great speed to Wall street, the 
 carriage making its way through the 
 crowd with difficulty. 
 
 He alighted at the bank door, to the 
 surprise of all, and to the disappoint- 
 ment of his enemies, who were ranged 
 on the opposite side of the street in 
 momentary expectation of seeing the 
 doors of the bank close. They had not 
 heard of the boat's arrival, or of the 
 river's being free from ice. He was too 
 quick for them, and remarked to all 
 how glad he was to see them, saying, 
 " Come in, come in come in and get 
 your money ; " caused the back room 
 to be thrown open, and additional 
 clerks to be placed there, with plenty
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 of specie. All that wished it were sup- 
 plied. A great number put the notes in 
 their pockets and went home, fully re- 
 covered from their alarm. Mr. Barker 
 was " bound not to break," and, as his 
 stores were full of goods hemp, sail 
 cloth, iron, sugar, tea, salt, etc., he 
 sold a sufficiency of these at auction to 
 replenish the vaults of his bank, and 
 at once returned to the duties of his 
 office. Jacob declared, with character- 
 istic emphasis, that he was " bound not 
 to break." 
 
 "Weight of Miss Burdett Coutts's For- 
 tune. 
 
 THE late Duchess of St. Albans left 
 Miss Burdett Coutts the regal sum of 
 1,800,000, or some nine million dol- 
 lars. The weight of this prodigious 
 sum in gold, reckoning sixty sovereigns 
 to the pound, is thirteen tons, seven 
 cwt, three qr., twelve Ibs., and would 
 require one hundred and seven men to 
 carry it, supposing that each of them 
 carried the solid weight of two hun- 
 dred and ninety-eight pounds. This 
 large sum may also be partially guessed, 
 by considering that, counting at the 
 rate of sixty sovereigns a minute for 
 eight hours a day, and six days, of 
 course, in the week, it would take ten 
 weeks, two days, and four hours, to ac- 
 complish the task. In sovereigns, by 
 the most exact computation each 
 measuring in diameter seventeen-twen- 
 tieths of an inch, and placed to touch 
 each other it would extend to the 
 length of twenty-four miles and two 
 hundred and fifty yards ; and in crown 
 pieces, to one hundred and thirteen 
 and one half miles and two hundred 
 and eighty yards. 
 
 Mr. Biddle's Wit. 
 
 " NICK BIDDLE " was a wit as well 
 as a financier. During the session of 
 the legislature of Pennsylvania, in the 
 year 184-, a bill waa up appropriating 
 a large sum for continuing the State 
 
 improvements. Mr. H., of Berks, an 
 honest but unlearned German member, 
 was very hostile to the bill, and in fact 
 opposed to all State improvements, as 
 they involved such an expenditure of 
 money. He knew the wishes of his 
 constituents, but his general knowledge 
 was rather limited. While the bill was 
 under consideration, Mr. Biddle of the 
 city moved an ironical amendment, ap- 
 propriating ten thousand dollars for 
 the improvement of the Alimentary 
 Canal. The member from Berks was 
 instantly upon his feet, declaring his 
 purpose to oppose any appropriation 
 for the Alimentary or any other canal 
 energetically declaring the amend- 
 ment to be unnecessary and against the 
 wishes of the people. The amendment 
 was instantly withdrawn, amidst the 
 general mirth of the members at the 
 expense of the honest member from 
 Berks. 
 
 Bankers Snubbing: Napoleon. 
 
 THE house of Hope & Co., of Amster- 
 dam always remarkable for great in- 
 dependence of character effectually 
 checkmated Napoleon in his presump- 
 tuous dictation to them as bankers. 
 This powerful house, which may be 
 said to have then stood at the head of 
 the mercantile order throughout the 
 world, and, in Holland, not only felt 
 itself perfectly its own master, but con- 
 sidered itself equal in financial matters 
 to any potentate on earth, and entitled 
 to occupy a similar footing with them, 
 could not recognize that it was in any 
 manner bound by an imperial decree. 
 
 Yet Napoleon was weak enough to 
 think differently. He had dictated a 
 letter, addressed to Messrs. Hope & Co., 
 in the handwriting of Mollieu, the suc- 
 cessor of Barbe Marbais, who had been 
 removed. This missive, worded in the 
 language of a master to his servant, 
 contained the following words : 
 
 " Tou have made enough money in 
 the Louisiana business to leave me no 
 room to doubt that you will, without
 
 88 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 reservation, comply with any order I 
 may see fit to make." 
 
 He then sent this letter, without 
 Ouvrard's consent, by an inspector of 
 finance, to Amsterdam. However, the 
 finance inspector was very coolly re- 
 ceived, and had to come back without 
 accomplishing anything. Soon after- 
 ward, Napoleon thought it advisable 
 to send the Baron Louis afterward 
 Louis Philippe's first minister of finance 
 to Holland, to explore the ground, 
 and discover what resources Ouvrard 
 might have there. Baron Louis pre- 
 sented himself to the Messrs. Hope, and 
 disclosed the object of his visit. Mr. 
 Labouchere, the partner who received 
 him, at once replied in the following 
 admirable and high-minded mercantile 
 decision : 
 
 " Whether we have money in our 
 hands for Mr. Ouvrard, or not, baron, is 
 not a matter for which we are obliged 
 to render any account to you ; and the 
 inappropriateness of your present visit 
 must have been apparent to yourself ! " 
 
 This anecdote was related by Ouv- 
 rard himself, and was likewise repeated 
 frequently by Mr. Labouchere, who 
 could not suppress his commercial 
 pride, whenever he got an opportunity, 
 at this illustration of his independence 
 of the man, at whose feet all Europe 
 bent the knee. 
 
 Astor's " Secret Pain." 
 ME. ASTOB was compelled, at one 
 time, to repair to Paris, where he could 
 avail himself, for a physical infirmity, 
 of the skilful assistance of Baron Du- 
 puytren. The latter thoroughly restored 
 him, and advised him to ride out every 
 day. He frequently took occasion him- 
 self to accompany his patient on these 
 rides. One day, when riding, Astor 
 appeared by no means disposed to con- 
 verse ; not a word could be got out of 
 him and at length Dupuytren declared 
 that A. must be suffering from some 
 secret pain or trouble, when he would 
 not speak. He pressed him, and wor- 
 
 ried him, until finally Astor loosed his 
 tongue : 
 
 " Look ye, Baron ! " said Astor ; 
 " how frightful this is. I have here, in 
 the hands of my banker, at Paris, 
 about two million francs, and cannot 
 manage, without great effort, to get 
 more than two and one half per cent. 
 per annum on it. Now, this morning, 
 I have received a letter from my son in 
 New York, informing me that there 
 the best acceptances are at from one 
 and a half to two per cent, per month. 
 Is it not enough to enrage a man ? " 
 This revelation of course relieved the 
 Baron's apprehension of any " secret 
 pain or trouble " of a physical nature. 
 
 Jewish Perseverance and Shrewdness. 
 
 THE clerk of an English banker hav- 
 ing robbed his employer of Bank of 
 England notes to the amount of twenty 
 thousand pounds, made his escape to 
 Holland. Unable to present them him- 
 self, he sold them to a Jew, doubtless 
 at a price affording a good bargain to 
 the purchaser. In the mean time every 
 plan was exhausted to give publicity 
 to the loss. The numbers of the notes 
 were advertised in the papers, with a 
 request that they might be refused; 
 and for about six months no informa- 
 tion was received of the lost property. 
 At the end of that period, the Jew ap- 
 peared with the whole of his spoil, and 
 demanded payment, which was at once 
 refused, on the plea that the bills had 
 been stolen, and that payment had been 
 stopped. The owner insisted upon 
 gold, and the bank persisted in refus- 
 ing. 
 
 But the Jew was an energetic man, 
 and was aware of the credit of the cor- 
 poration ; he was known to be pos- 
 sessed of immense wealth. He went 
 deliberately to the exchange, where, to 
 the assembled merchants of London, in 
 the presence of her citizens, he related 
 publicly that the bank had refused to 
 honor their own bills for twenty thou-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 89 
 
 sand pounds ; that their credit was 
 gone ; their affairs in confusion ; and 
 that they had stopped payment. The 
 exchange wore every appearance of 
 alarm ; the Hebrew showed the notes 
 to corroborate his assertion. He de- 
 clared that they had been remitted to 
 him from Holland ; and as his transac- 
 tions were known to be extensive, there 
 appeared every reason to credit his 
 statement. He then avowed his inten- 
 tion of advertising this refusal of the 
 bank; and the citizens thought there 
 must indeed be some truth in his bold 
 announcement. 
 
 Information reached the directors, 
 who grew anxious, and a messenger 
 was sent to inform the holder that he 
 might receive cash in exchange for the 
 notes. In any other country, the Jew 
 would have been tried as a calumnia- 
 tor; but in England, the bank the 
 soul of the State would have lost the 
 cause. The law could not hinder the 
 holder of the notes from interpreting 
 the refusal that was made of payment 
 according to his fancy ; nothing could 
 prevent him from saying that he be- 
 lieved the excuse was only a pretext to 
 gain time; and though intelligent 
 people could not credit the story, the 
 majority would have been alarmed, 
 and would not have taken their notes 
 for cash. In short, the Jew was ac- 
 quainted with the nation and its laws, 
 and he gained his point. 
 
 Sir Robert Feel's Opinion of his Son 
 as a Financier. 
 
 MR. PEEL'S great currency measure, 
 which he caused to be carried through 
 Parliament by his influence and elo- 
 quence, was opposed by his distin- 
 guished father, and one of the most in- 
 teresting features in the history of that 
 celebrated measure is to be found in a 
 petition from the merchants of the city 
 of London, presented by the elder Peel, 
 against its enactment. After stating 
 that his petitioners were the best calcu- 
 lated to judge on so important a point, 
 
 and that a meeting, which he had at- 
 tended for this purpose, was composed 
 of the very men who had so nobly sup- 
 ported the government in 1797, he pro- 
 ceeded to say, in language as feeling as 
 the subject was interesting, that ' he 
 well remembered when that near and 
 dear relation was only a child, he ob- 
 served to some friends who were stand- 
 ing near him, that the man who dis- 
 charged his duty to his country in the 
 manner in which Mr. Pitt did, did most 
 to be admired, and was most to be imi- 
 tated ; and he thought, at that moment^ 
 if his own life and that of his dear re- 
 lation should be spared, he should one 
 day present him to his country to fol- 
 low in the same path. He was well 
 satisfied that the head and heart of 
 that relation were in their right places ; 
 and that though he had deviated a 
 little from the path of propriety in this 
 instance, he would soon be restored 
 to it." 
 
 Peeresses Conducting: Banking- Opera- 
 tions. 
 
 Two of the richest bankers in Lon- 
 don, a few years ago, were peeresses, 
 namely, the Duchess of St. Albans and 
 the Countess of Jersey the latter, as 
 the heiress of old Josiah Child, consti- 
 tuting the principal partner of the 
 Child banking house. Both ladies were 
 at one time said to be in the habit of 
 paying periodical visits to their re- 
 spective establishments, and are said to 
 have been distinguished for the affa- 
 bility and good sense with which they 
 sustained their positions, inspected the 
 books, and entered into general busi- 
 ness details. But this report was true, 
 and that in part, only of the late 
 Duchess of St. Albans. She was pecu- 
 liarly fond of showing herself at the 
 bank in the Strand, and putting ques- 
 tions to the partners and clerks, with 
 whom she was no favorite being, in 
 truth, somewhat of a bore. Lady Jer- 
 sey, as the representative of Sir Josiah 
 Child's interest, only attends the bank
 
 90 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 once a year, when the accounts are bal- 
 anced and the profits struck. On this 
 occasion, the partners dine together at 
 the bank, and the countess, as the prin- 
 cipal partner, takes the head of the 
 table. This lady's connection with the 
 concern has the following history : 
 The last Mr. Child left an only daugh- 
 ter, who was the heiress of his great 
 wealth, and was married to the Earl of 
 Westmoreland ; the eldest daughter of 
 that marriage was the present Countess 
 of Jersey, to whom the grandfather's in- 
 terest in the bank descended. 
 
 Model English. Banker. 
 
 THE model English banker of the 
 present day, is educated at Eton, and 
 makes love to lords. They borrow his 
 money, and laugh at him as a " toady." 
 He enters the banking house at twenty- 
 one, and looks upon the clerks as ser- 
 vants as breathing copying machines. 
 He belongs to all sorts of clubs. He 
 is a great authority upon wine, horses, 
 and women. He keeps his yacht, and 
 never stops in town after the opera. 
 He walks through the city as if it be- 
 longed to him. He is great in jewelry, 
 and very particular about his riding- 
 whips. He wears in winter white 
 cords and buckskin gloves, and sub- 
 scribes to the nearest " hounds." His 
 wristbands show an inch and a half. 
 He marries a baronet's daughter, and 
 talks nothing but the Blue Book ever 
 afterward. He has a house in Belgravia 
 and a seat in the North. His name, 
 too, is generally amongst the " fashion- 
 ables whom we observed last night at 
 Her Majesty's Theatre." He has always 
 a particular engagement at the West- 
 end at two, at which hour his bay cab 
 invariably calls for him. His printed 
 charities are very extensive one sum al- 
 ways for himself, another for the com- 
 pany. He is very nervous during panics, 
 and when there is a run upon the bank, it 
 is always owing to " the pressure of the 
 times." He pays his creditors one half 
 
 crown in the pound, and lives on three 
 thousand pounds a year, " settled on 
 his wife" perhaps, indeed, a model 
 banker of this description never fell 
 yet, whose fall was not agreeably soft- 
 ened by a snug little property " settled 
 on his wife." The inference from this 
 is, that the model banker is a most 
 rigid cultivator of the matrimonial vir- 
 tues, and if he forgets occasionally 
 what he owes to himself and others, he 
 remembers to a nicety what is due to 
 his wife. It is only the system of 
 double entry applied to banking. 
 
 Largest Dealer in Commercial Paper 
 in the United States. 
 
 THE late Stephen Whitney, of New 
 York, is supposed to have dealt more 
 largely in commercial paper than any 
 other man in that city, and perhaps in 
 the Union. His habits of industry con- 
 tinued through life, and were a com- 
 mon theme of remark with those who 
 observed him in his daily walk from 
 his office to the great moneyed centre 
 of America, where the price of paper 
 and money rates regaled his ears. He 
 was a good judge of paper, and needed 
 no one to advise him. He touched 
 nothing but what in commercial par- 
 lance is termed "gilt-edged," and of 
 this he purchased almost daily for 
 thirty years. These notes being made 
 payable to the order of the drawers, 
 needed no other indorsement, and 
 hence might pass through a hundred 
 hands without this fact becoming 
 known. Mr. Whitney's bills receivable 
 falling due in Wall street, must have 
 been at the rate of thirty thousand per 
 day, and his purchases of paper, of 
 course, were about the same rate. 
 
 " Borrow Money P Borrow Money P" 
 
 ONE of the familiar cries of the Lon- 
 don Stock Exchange is " Borrow Mon- 
 ey ? Borrow Money ? " a singular one 
 to general apprehension, but it must 
 be understood of course, that the credit
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 91 
 
 of the borrower must either be first rate 
 or his security of the most satisfactory 
 nature, and that it is not the principal 
 who thus goes into the market, but his 
 broker. 
 
 " Have you money to lend to-day ? " 
 is a question asked with a nonchalance 
 which would astonish the simple man 
 who goes to a " friend," with such a 
 question quivering on his mouth. 
 " Yes," may be the reply. " I want ten 
 or twenty thousand pounds." " On 
 what security ? " for that is the vital 
 question ; and this point being settled, 
 the transaction goes on smoothly and 
 quickly enough. 
 
 Another mode of doing the business 
 is to conceal the object of the borrower 
 or lender, who asks, " What are Ex- 
 chequer ? " The answer may be " forty 
 to forty-two ; " that is, the party ad- 
 dressed will buy one thousand pounds 
 at forty shillings, and sell one thousand 
 pounds at forty-two shillings. The 
 jobbers cluster around the broker, who 
 perhaps says, " I must have a price in 
 five thousand pounds." If it suits 
 them, they will say, " Five with me, 
 five with me, five with me," making 
 fifteen or, they will say each, " Ten 
 with me ; " and it is the broker's busi- 
 ness to get these parties pledged to buy 
 of him at forty, or to sell to him at 
 forty-two, they not knowing whether 
 he is a buyer or seller. The broker 
 then declares his purpose, saying, for 
 example, " Gentlemen, I sell to you 
 twenty thousand pounds at forty," and, 
 the sum is then apportioned among 
 them. 
 
 Peep at the Treasure in Threadneedle 
 Street. 
 
 " THE next room I entered " says a 
 visitor at the Bank of England " was 
 that in which notes are deposited which 
 are ready for issue." " We have thirty- 
 two millions of pounds sterling in this 
 room," the officer remarked to me, 
 " will you take a little of it ? " I told 
 him that it would be vastly agreeable, 
 
 and he handed me a million sterling (five 
 million dollars), which I received with 
 many thanks for his liberality ; but he 
 kind of insisted on my depositing it 
 with him again perhaps because it 
 would be hardly safe, besides being 
 burdensome, to carry so much money 
 with me into the street, though that 
 was a risk I would willingly have in- 
 curred. I very much fear I shall never 
 see that money again. In the vault 
 beneath the floor was a director and 
 cashier counting the bags of gold which 
 men were pitching down to them, each 
 bag containing a thousand pounds 
 sterling, just from the mint. This 
 money seemed to realize the most daz- 
 zling fables of Eastern wealth. 
 
 Vast "Wealth of Croesus. 
 
 IN our jottings of millionnaires, it 
 would seem as though these pages were 
 incomplete without some data concern- 
 ing him whose name has for centuries 
 and generations fresh down to the 
 present day, furnished the standard 
 representative of vast wealth. Croesus 
 flourished about the middle of the sixth 
 century B. c. The prodigious wealth 
 which he had inherited had been in- 
 creased by the tribute of conquered na- 
 tions, by the confiscation of great es- 
 tates, and by the golden sands of the 
 Pactolus. Perhaps some idea of the 
 extent of this wealth may be formed 
 from the rich votive ofl'erings which he 
 is known to have deposited in the tem- 
 ples of the gods. Herodotus himself 
 saw the ingots of solid gold, six palms 
 long, three broad, and one deep, which 
 to the number of one hundred and sev- 
 enteen, were laid up in the treasury at 
 Delphi. He also saw, in various parts 
 of Greece, the following offerings, all in 
 gold, which had been deposited in the 
 temples by the same opulent man : a 
 figure of a lion, probably of the natural 
 size; a wine bowl of about the same 
 weight as the lion ; a lustral vase ; a 
 statue of a female, said to be Croesus's
 
 92 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 baking woman, four and one-half feet 
 high ; a shield and a spear ; a tripod ; 
 some figures of cows ; and a number 
 of pillars ; and a second shield in a dif- 
 ferent place from the first, and of great- 
 er size. 
 
 Mode of Conducting: Great Transac- 
 tions by Rothschild. 
 
 WHEN engaging in large transac- 
 tions, the method pursued by Roths- 
 child was this : Supposing he possess- 
 ed exclusively, which he often did a 
 day or two before it could be generally 
 known, intelligence of some event 
 which had occurred in any part of the 
 continent sufficiently important to cause 
 a rise in the French funds, and through 
 
 * O 
 
 them on the English funds, he would 
 empower the brokers he usually em- 
 ployed to sell out stock, say to the 
 amount of five hundred thousand 
 pounds. The news spread in a moment 
 in financial quarters, that Rothschild 
 was selling out, and a general alarm 
 followed. Every one apprehended he 
 had received intelligence, from some for- 
 eign part, of some important event 
 which would produce a fall in prices. 
 As might, under such circumstances be 
 expected, all became sellers at once. 
 This, of necessity, caused the funds to 
 use the customary phraseology, " to 
 tumble down at a fearful rate." Next 
 day, when they had fallen perhaps, one 
 or two per cent, he would make pur- 
 chases, say to the amount of one and 
 a half million pounds, taking care, 
 however, to employ a number of bro- 
 kers whom he was not in the habit of 
 employing, and commissioning each to 
 purchase to a certain extent, and giving 
 all of them strict orders to preserve se- 
 crecy in the matter. Each of the per- 
 sons so employed was, by this means, 
 ignorant of the commission given to 
 others. Had it been known the pur- 
 chases were for him, there would have 
 been as great and sudden a rise in the 
 prices as there had been in the fall, so 
 that he could not purchase to the in- 
 
 tended extent, on such advantageous 
 terms. On the third day, perhaps, the 
 intelligence, which had been expected 
 by the jobbers to be unfavorable, ar- 
 rives, and instead of being so, turns out 
 to be highly favorable. Prices instan- 
 taneously rise again ; and possibly they 
 may get one and a half, or even two 
 per cent, higher than they were when 
 he sold out his five hundred thousand 
 pounds. He now sells out at the ad- 
 vanced price the entire million and a 
 half pounds he had purchased at the 
 reduced prices. The gains by such ex- 
 tensive operations, when thus skilfully 
 managed, are enormous. 
 
 Bank Teller's "Varieties." 
 
 FEW are aware of the perplexing 
 difficulties of a bank teller. Besides 
 the routine of business in connection 
 with the clearing-house, which requires 
 most judicious examination, the cur- 
 rent business of the day goes on with 
 increasing pressure from the outside. 
 So long as he can dispose of the appli- 
 cations uninterruptedly, as they are 
 represented, the lobby is comparatively 
 quiet and free from obstruction; but 
 even a momentary stoppage causes the 
 crowd to gather, and soon ten or a 
 dozen persons are waiting to be served 
 in turn. Expressions of impatience are 
 not uncommon. The teller is pro- 
 nounced " slow " " indifferent to the 
 convenience of the customers" "in- 
 ^competent," and " tantalizing," by his 
 deliberation of movement. Delibera- 
 tion is the secret of his accomplishing 
 so much. In truth, there is hardly a 
 moment when he may not be said to be 
 doing two or more things at once. 
 
 The interruptions to which he is sub- 
 jected are almost incessant. The 
 cashier has just received advices of the 
 issue of a number of duplicate checks 
 by a corresponding bank, to replace 
 the originals which have been lost in 
 the mail. He brings the letter and list 
 of duplicates to the teller, who is occu-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 93 
 
 pied several minutes in obtaining a 
 clear understanding of the case. Some 
 of the originals might be in the hands 
 of persons then waiting to be served, 
 and he must be able to detect them at 
 sight. 
 
 " Will you pay me this check, sir ? I 
 don't want to be kept here half a day ! " 
 growls a hot-tempered customer. 
 
 "," Yes, sir," answers the teller, " if you 
 will have the discrepancy corrected be- 
 tween the figures and the writing." 
 
 Another : " How did your exchanges 
 come out the day before yesterday?" 
 asks a messenger from another bank. 
 
 " A thousand dollars over." 
 
 " That's lucky ! Our teller is short a 
 thousand that must be it." 
 
 " "Well, if he can establish his claim, 
 and no other bank contests, I'll pay it." 
 
 "I want five thousand dollars in 
 gold for that check not good," says 
 another bank messenger. 
 
 The porter or specie clerk, who keeps 
 the coin prepared for such demands, is 
 absent, and the teller may be obliged 
 f o go to the vault for it. 
 
 In the next moment, a check which 
 had been sent to another bank, through 
 the exchanges, is returned for a written 
 guarantee of indorsement. If satisfied 
 of its correctness, the teller gives the 
 guarantee. Otherwise he pays the 
 money for it, and returns it to the 
 dealer who had deposited it. 
 
 A stranger offers to the teller five 
 hundred dollars in bills, to pay a check 
 which he had drawn on the bank. 
 Keeping no account, his money is re- 
 fused, but he persists in an altercation 
 about it, to the hindrance of those be- 
 hind him. 
 
 A dealer wants thirty or forty thou- 
 sand dollars in coin, to pay duties at 
 the custom house. Another hands in a 
 memorandum check that he has given 
 out, but of which he wants to arrest 
 payment. Another inquires whether a 
 lost check, of which he had previously 
 given notice, has been paid. A porter 
 from the Merchants' Bank presents a 
 
 dozen notes of different parties for cer- 
 tification, and he ia immediately fol- 
 lowed by one from another bank, with 
 a bag of gold which he reports ten dol- 
 lars short, and which may be the occa- 
 sion of some dispute. 
 
 The other clerks have frequent neces- 
 sity to communicate with the paying 
 teller with respect to the state of ac- 
 counts, and he with them. 
 
 A noisy colloquy ensues with a dealer 
 whose check has been refused, because 
 of his deposit having been credited to 
 another party ; and with another, whose 
 account appears deficient, because a 
 promised discount of paper has not 
 been entered on the books. 
 
 "Here," says Mr. Bungle, returning 
 a handful of rumpled bank bills and 
 coin, " that money which you paid me 
 is twenty dollars short." The teller 
 examines it, and satisfies Mr. Bungle 
 that the error was in his own counting. 
 
 Raising: Money on Manuscript. 
 
 IN ancient times, manuscripts were 
 important articles in a commercial 
 point of view ; they were excessively 
 scarce, and preserved with the utmost 
 care. Usurers themselves considered 
 them as precious objects for pawn. A 
 student of Pavia, who was reduced by 
 his debaucheries, raised a new fortune 
 by leaving in pawn a manuscript of a 
 body of law ; and a grammarian, who 
 was ruined by a fire, rebuilt his house 
 with two small volumes of Cicero, 
 through the pawnbroker. 
 
 Irish Banker Redeeming- his Notes. 
 
 SAYS a sprightly writer who possesses 
 a lively relish for the humorous in mat- 
 ters of business : I once accompanied 
 a large party of English ladies and gen- 
 tlemen to that enchanting spot, the 
 Lakes of Killarney, where, having 
 amused ourselves for a few days, we 
 were on the point of returning to Dub- 
 lin, when one of the party recollected
 
 94 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 that he had in his possession a handful 
 of notes on a banker who was a kind 
 of saddler in the town of Killarney. 
 Accordingly, we all set out by way of 
 sport to have them exchanged, our 
 principal object being to see and con- 
 verse with the proprietor of such a 
 bank. 
 
 Having entered the "bank," which 
 hardly sufficed to admit the whole com- 
 pany, we found the banking saddler 
 hard at work. One of the gentlemen 
 thus addressed him : 
 
 " Good morning to you, sir. I pre- 
 sume you are the gentleman of the 
 house ? " 
 
 " At your service, ladies and gentle- 
 men," returned the saddler. 
 
 " It is here that I understand that the 
 bank is kept." 
 
 " You are right, sir," was the reply ; 
 " this is the Killarney Bank, for want 
 of a better." 
 
 " We are on the eve," said the spokes- 
 man, " of quitting your town, and, as 
 we have some few of your notes which 
 will be of no manner of use to us else- 
 where, I'll thank you for the cash for 
 them." 
 
 The banker replied " Cash, plase your 
 honor, what is that ? Is it anything in 
 the leather line ? I have a beautiful 
 saddle here as ever was put across a 
 horse, good and cheap. How much of 
 my notes have you, sir, if you please ? " 
 
 " There are no less than sixteen of 
 your promises to pay, for the amazingly 
 large sum of fifteen shillings and nine- 
 pence sterling money." 
 
 " I should be sorry, most noble," re- 
 turned the banker, " to waste any more 
 of your lordship's time or of those swate 
 beautiful ladies and gentlemen, but I 
 have an illegant bridle here as isn't to 
 be matched in Yoorup, Aishy, Africay, 
 or Merickay ; its lowest price is fifteen 
 shillings six and a-half pence will say 
 fifteen shillings sixpence to your lord- 
 ship. If ye'll be plased to accept of it, 
 then there will be twopence ha'penny 
 or a three-pence note coming to your 
 
 lordship, and that will clear the busi- 
 ness at once." 
 
 This account of an Irish banker, al- 
 though possibly somewhat overcharged, 
 may be considered a pretty fair speci- 
 men of many who pretended to carry 
 on the business of banking in that 
 country, years ago. 
 
 Florentine Brokers and Money 
 Loaners. 
 
 THE early prosperity of the Floren- 
 tine brokers was great indeed. The 
 useful invention of a system of ex- 
 change, first known, or at least perfect- 
 ed in Florence, raised her in commer- 
 cial character ; and strengthened by the 
 sums of money which, at an advan- 
 tageous interest, were loaned by the 
 Florentine merchants to the largest 
 houses, and not unfrequently to the 
 governments of other countries, the 
 body or board of Florentine brokers 
 became at once among the most influ- 
 ential in the domestic affairs of the 
 city, and among the most necessary to 
 the rising commerce of Europe. 
 
 The mode of exacting security on 
 loans is a notable circumstance, and 
 shows, with unerring certainty, the exact 
 value to commerce of the indefatigable 
 exertions made by the money lenders 
 of Florence. When Aldobrandino 
 d'Este applied for the aid of the bank- 
 ers of Florence, in addition to the mort- 
 gage of all his real estate, they required 
 the person of his brother in pledge. 
 The neglect of similar precautions had 
 caused to Florence a loss that shook the 
 whole fabric of commercial prosperity, 
 when Edward of England, the conquer- 
 or of Cressy and Poictiers, and the am- 
 bitious aspirant to the realm and throne 
 of France, permitted the great house 
 of Peruzzi to fail in consequence of his 
 inability to repay the moneys which 
 they had furnished for his wars, and 
 which amounted to a sum, calculated 
 according to the present value of mon- 
 ey, of not less than thirteen millions of 
 dollars.
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 95 
 
 Conducting: Business on the Paris 
 Bourse. 
 
 THERE are some interesting peculiari- 
 ties in the mode of doing business on 
 the Paris Bourse, or stock exchange. 
 The agens de change alone are author- 
 ized by law to purchase or sell public 
 securities. All respectable business, 
 whether for cash or the end of the 
 month, is transacted by them not, as 
 in London, through the medium of the 
 third party, called the jobber, but 
 directly with each other. They seldom 
 communicate to their principals the 
 names of the persons with whom they 
 deal ; but they report each bargain as it 
 is made, and answer at the end of the 
 month for the balance due to him. 
 They are very cautious in doing busi- 
 ness with the public, and they generally 
 require a deposit, or couverture, as it is 
 called, of from two to four per cent, of 
 the sum bought or sold, before they 
 will deal for the end of the month. 
 
 Their profits are enormous, as about 
 sixty agents engross the whole respec- 
 table business of the Bourse, and as 
 they encounter losses only when some 
 great banker fails, or some brother 
 agent de change stops payment. 
 
 The agens de change compose what is 
 called the "parquet" but there is 
 another body in the exchange called 
 the coulisse, consisting of speculators of 
 all classes and fortunes, who are beyond 
 the law, and who do business with 
 each other on parole. There are re- 
 spectable men to be found in the coulisse, 
 but many persons are admitted into it 
 who have very little to recommend 
 them. Their operations are all for 
 time, and in the three per cents, only. 
 Several members of the coulisse do busi- 
 ness as brokers for speculators out of 
 the market, but their chief occupation 
 consists in catching for each other the 
 turn of the market. It rarely happens 
 that the parquet and the coulisse take 
 the same view of public affairs ; and 
 the former, backed by the great capi- 
 
 talists, are usually the " bulls," while 
 the latter usually are the " bears." In 
 both, the small fry are sacrificed soon- 
 er or later they are carried down the 
 stream, as the rich bankers, at stated 
 times, combine and execute them with- 
 out mercy. 
 
 Terrible Revenge on a Bank by 
 
 Rothschild. 
 
 AN amusing adventure is related as 
 having happened to the Bank of Eng- 
 land, which had committed the great 
 disrespect of refusing to discount a bill 
 of a large amount, drawn by Anselm 
 Rothschild, of Frankfort, on Nathan 
 Rothschild, of London. 
 
 The bank had haughtily replied 
 " that they discounted only their own 
 bills, and not those of private persons." 
 But they had to do with one stronger 
 than the bank. " Private persons ! " 
 exclaimed Nathan Rothschild, when 
 they reported to him the fact : " Pri- 
 vate persons 1 I will make these gentle- 
 men see what sort of private persons 
 we are ! " 
 
 Three weeks afterward, Nathan 
 Rothschild who had employed the in- 
 terval in gathering all the five-pound 
 notes he could procure in England and 
 on the Continent presented himself at 
 the bank at the opening of the office. He 
 drew from his pocket book a five-pound 
 note, and they naturally counted out 
 five sovereigns, at the same time look- 
 ing quite astonished that the Baron 
 Rothschild should have personally 
 troubled himself for such a trifle. The 
 baron examined one by one the coins, 
 and put them into a little canvas bag, 
 then drawing out another note, a 
 third a tenth a hundredth, he never 
 put the pieces of gold into the bag 
 without scrupulously examining them, 
 and in some instances trying them in 
 the balance, as, he said, " the law gave 
 him the right to do." The first pocket- 
 book being emptied, and the first bag 
 full, he passed them to his clerk, and 
 received a second, and thus continued,
 
 96 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 till the close of the bank. The baron 
 had employed seven hours to change 
 twenty-one thousand pounds. But as he 
 had also nine employes of his house en- 
 gaged in the same manner, it resulted 
 that the house of Rothschild had drawn 
 210,000 in gold from the bank, and that 
 he had so occupied the tellers that no 
 other person could change a single note. 
 Everything which bears the stamp 
 of eccentricity has always pleased the 
 English. They were, therefore, the 
 first day, very much amused at the 
 little pique of Baron Rothschild. They 
 however laughed less when they saw 
 him return the next day at the opening 
 of the bank, flanked by his nine clerks, 
 and followed this time by many drays, 
 destined to carry away the specie. 
 They laughed no longer, when the king 
 of bankers said with ironic simplicity : 
 " These gentlemen refuse to pay my 
 bills, I have sworn not to keep theirs. 
 At their leisure only I notify them 
 that I have enough to employ them 
 for two months ! " " For two months ! " 
 " Eleven millions in gold drawn from 
 the Bank of England which they have 
 never possessed ! " The bank took 
 alarm. There was something to be 
 done. The next morning, notice ap- 
 peared in the journals that henceforth 
 the bank would pay Rothschild's bills 
 the same as their own. 
 
 Determining the Genuineness of a 
 Check. 
 
 THE bank account of a highly re- 
 spectable house was reported over- 
 drawn for two thousand dollars ; and 
 one of the firm denied the genuineness 
 of a particular check for that amount. 
 A number of his checks were so ar- 
 ranged as to conceal all but the signa- 
 tures, and he was requested to point 
 out the forgery. He acknowledged his 
 inability to discriminate between that 
 and any other. On close inquiry it ap- 
 peared that he had been in the habit 
 of signing checks in blank to the order 
 of his bookkeeper, to be used in his ab- 
 
 sence, and the one in question was of 
 this description, excepting that it was 
 payable to the bearer. He was asked 
 if he could swear that the signature 
 was not his own to which he answered 
 in the negative. Yet it was not made 
 subject to order in his usual form, and 
 he had no recollection of having signed 
 it. Under these circumstances, the 
 bank insisted that it was genuine, and 
 the house submitted to the loss. 
 
 Modern Bank Directors' Parlor. 
 
 THE bank room, or parlor, of the 
 Bank of England, is the grand centre 
 around which the whole mechanism 
 of that vast establishment revolves. 
 There in solemn assembly sit, once a 
 week, that august commercial body, 
 reverently spoken of by all as the 
 " board of directors ; " there all the 
 overdrawn accounts are gone over and 
 commented upon ; instructions are giv- 
 en for further advance or reduced bal- 
 ances ; all the bills on hand, and the 
 character of their acceptors, are regular- 
 ly examined and criticized ; grave de- 
 liberations are held as to the best means 
 of investing any surplus funds ; and 
 last, but not least, to those immediate- 
 ly concerned, the question of salaries is 
 there gone into, and duly disposed of. 
 Very rarely, indeed, is a joke heard, or 
 a pun perpetrated in this retreat, sacred 
 to business alone ; but should such an 
 event ever occur, it would doubtless be 
 some dry wit comprehensible only to 
 financiers. The directors never die 
 that is to say, they never die out. So 
 soon as a vacancy takes place, it is im- 
 mediately filled, generally by the larg- 
 est shareholder, if possessed of a reason- 
 able amount of capacity for the posi- 
 tion. 
 
 Detecting: Bad Bills. 
 A BANK TELLEK requires an instinc- 
 tive faculty for the detection of spurious 
 bills. To stand by and observe him 
 counting, it might be supposed that he
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 97 
 
 Modern Bank Directors' Parlor. 
 
 could hardly get a glimpse of each, so 
 rapidly do they pass through his hands. 
 He looks as if he were trying how many 
 times he could strike the ends of his 
 fingers together in the twentieth part 
 of a second ; but you see a steady 
 stream of bills issuing beneath them 
 and gradually gathering into a pile. 
 
 There goes one aside, without per- 
 ceptible pause in the handling 1 He 
 checks the item on the list, and with 
 his right hand thrusts the pile into a 
 drawer, whilst with the left he tosses 
 the single bill back to the depositor. 
 
 " Counterfeit five dollars off ! " 
 
 He makes the entry, deducting it 
 from the list, hands the book to the 
 dealer, and takes the next in order, in 
 which there is a package of mixed de- 
 nominations of several hundred dollars. 
 He gives it a smack on the counter to 
 loosen the bills, and a peculiar toss, 
 which makes them fall over like the 
 leaves of a book, affording an instanta- 
 neous glance at their ends. His eye has 
 caught in that instant an old acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 " Where did you get that altered 
 bill ? " he asks of the customer, mean- 
 while counting " twenty, thirty, fifty, 
 7 
 
 fifty-five, sixty," and on he goes like 
 lightning. The dealer looks aston- 
 ished, not thinking that the question 
 could possibly have reference to any 
 bill in his money. The teller repeats, 
 without ceasing his account for an ap- 
 preciable instant " one twenty, one 
 thirty, two, five, one forty five say, 
 where did you get that altered bill ? 
 sixty-five, one seventy, eighty, two 
 thirty that" he says, tossing it in his 
 face " two altered to ten ; two eighty- 
 five, two ninety-five, three, five, ten, 
 three thirty-five ten off, right;" and 
 the deposit is entered, and the dealer's 
 book is returned before he knows it, 
 and the teller is in the midst of another 
 count for the next customer in order. 
 
 This is very curious to an inexpe- 
 rienced observer. But there are cer- 
 tain well-known spurious and altered 
 bank bills, which are distinguished by 
 a quick teller, as well as the counte- 
 nance of said teller's landlord who ap- 
 proaches to ask for his quarter's rent. 
 
 An Excited Specie Hunter. 
 
 DUKING the heat of the specie excite- 
 ment at Glasgow, a few years ago, a
 
 98 
 
 COMMEKCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 gentleman went into the Union Bank 
 of that city, and presented a check of 
 five hundred pounds. The teller asked 
 him if he wished gold. " Gold ! " re- 
 plied he, " no ; give me notes, and let 
 the fools that are frightened get the 
 gold." 
 
 Another gentleman rushed into the 
 same bank in a great state of excite- 
 ment, with a check for fourteen hun- 
 dred pounds. On being asked if he 
 wished gold, he replied, "Yes." 
 " Well," said the teller, " there are one 
 thousand pounds in that bag, and four 
 hundred in this one." The gentleman 
 was so flurried by the readiness with 
 which the demand was granted, that he 
 lifted up the bag with the four hundred 
 pounds only, and walked off, leaving 
 the one thousand pounds on the coun- 
 ter. The teller, on discovering the bag, 
 laid it aside for the time. Late in the 
 day the gentleman returned to the bank 
 in great distress, stating that he had 
 lost the bag with the one thousand 
 pounds, and could not tell whether he 
 left it behind him on leaving the bank, 
 or dropped it while in the crowd. 
 " Oh, you left it on the counter," said 
 the teller quietly, " and if you will call 
 to-morrow you will get your thousand 
 pounds." 
 
 Renewing: a Note. 
 
 As queer scenes occur in the daily 
 proceedings of a bank, probably, as in 
 almost any kind or place of business 
 that can be named the apparent mo- 
 notonous routine of bank transactions 
 being diversified by many an odd inci- 
 dent. 
 
 When the tellers get at their posts, 
 and the hour for business has arrived, 
 customers begin to drop in first one by 
 one, and there are generally " cases " 
 of some sort or other soon requiring 
 special attention. Perhaps among them 
 will come "Old Indian," as he is fa- 
 miliarly known at the institution, a 
 man who has honorably acquitted him- 
 self in the military line, and one who 
 
 is liked by all at the bank, but who 
 has got into difliculties, which, per- 
 haps, he feels to be more galling than 
 he ever did the fire of an enemy. With- 
 out preliminaries, he, soldier-like, comes 
 to the point at once. 
 
 " I wish to pay the interest on that 
 bill of inine you hold, and to renew it 
 for three months longer." 
 
 " Very good, sir ; I will find the bill." 
 
 The teller now goes ostensibly for the 
 document, but in reality to consult the 
 manager's wishes on the subject : " Mr. 
 Brookes has called to renew his note ; 
 shall I do so ? " " Well, I suppose we 
 must. You know we have a little se- 
 curity for it, and as he means to pay 
 off gradually, we must try to oblige 
 him." 
 
 Having thus "found the bill," the 
 teller again goes to his desk, and 
 draws out the new one, which the old 
 gentleman signs, pays the interest on 
 the first, and with a stiff " good morn- 
 ing," takes his leave. They all feel for 
 him, but sometimes wonder, with all 
 credit to his good intentions, whether 
 he will ever do much more than renew 
 his bills. 
 
 Franklin's Multitude of Capitalists. 
 
 " TIME is money," said Franklin ; 
 but it doesn't follow that the multitude 
 of those who have so great a quantity 
 of such " money " on their hands are 
 all capitalists. 
 
 " Manifolding " Bank Notes. 
 THE use of bank notes, independent- 
 ly of their legitimate value, appears to 
 be somewhat diverse. But perhaps the 
 most extraordinary use to which they 
 have been applied is to be found in the 
 process termed " manifolding." A per- 
 son carrying on a rather extensive busi- 
 ness in the British provinces, being in 
 want of cash, and having in his pos- 
 session a fifty-pound note, came to the 
 conclusion that he would cut it in two. 
 With one part he went to a moneyed 
 acquaintance told him he had just re-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 99 
 
 ceived it by post, and that the other 
 would follow in a day or two, and it 
 would be a great convenience if his 
 friend could advance him cash to the 
 amount on its security. The person to 
 whom he applied consented to the re- 
 quest. Having been thus successful 
 with one half, he determined to try the 
 other ; with it he proved equally for- 
 tunate, and thus his fifty-pound note 
 produced him one hundred pounds. 
 The game was too profitable to be 
 given up at once ; so he went to a 
 banker, and demanded a one hundred 
 pound note with the cash he had re- 
 ceived. Again he had recourse to the pro- 
 cess of cutting ; again he victimized two 
 acquaintances, and thus procured two 
 hundred pounds for his original note. 
 With the money thus acquired he de- 
 parted, satisfied with having gained one 
 hundred and fifty pounds thus easily. 
 
 Running 1 a Bank. 
 
 THE Bank of England probably never 
 passed through a more critical strait 
 than the " run " made upon it by the 
 Due de Choiseul, a French plan to 
 destroy the institution, hoping thereby 
 to obtain important State advantages 
 for France over her rival. Some mil- 
 lions of livres added to the zeal of the 
 French emissaries, who discovered a 
 period when the bullion was somewhat 
 low, and spread reports calculated to 
 injure the standing of the corporation. 
 
 Collecting all the notes which they 
 could possibly procure, they poured 
 them into the bank, and carried away 
 the gold with a parade which attracted 
 the attention it sought. The old cry 
 arose of a run upon the bank, and in 
 a few hours the whole city was in mo- 
 tion. Volumes of paper were present- 
 ed, and gold received in exchange. 
 The consternation of the directors was 
 in proportion to the suddenness of the 
 attack. The alarm, far from being 
 quieted, became every day more gen- 
 eral. Post-chaises poured in from the 
 
 provinces. The application for specie 
 became more urgent. There was no 
 mode of judging to what extent an at- 
 tempt so unprecedented and so unex- 
 pected might be carried. The efforts 
 of the national enemy seemed prosper- 
 ing, and for some days England appear- 
 ed to be on the brink of the greatest 
 evil which could happen. 
 
 Time was necessary to collect specie, 
 and people were employed day and 
 night to coin money. All the gold 
 which by any stratagem could be gath- 
 ered was brought into the bank. The 
 method of paying by weight was dis- 
 continued. The sums claimed were de- 
 livered with greater deliberation ; and 
 the money placed guinea by guinea on 
 the table. For nine days this fever 
 continued ; but the method adopted by 
 the directors, with concurrent circum- 
 stances, gave time for the production 
 of a large supply of gold. All the de- 
 mands were met, and the claimants find- 
 ing there was no cause for doubt, re- 
 sumed their confidence in the bank. 
 
 Intruding: into the Bullion Boom. 
 
 THE directors of the Bank of Eng- 
 land some time since received an an- 
 onymous letter, stating that the writer 
 had the means of access to their bul- 
 lion room. They treated the matter as 
 a hoax and took no notice of the letter. 
 Another and more urgent and specific 
 letter failed to rouse them. At length, 
 the writer offered to meet them in their 
 bullion room at any hour they might 
 please to name. They then communi- 
 cated with their correspondent through 
 the channel he had indicated, appoint- 
 ing some " dark and midnight hour " 
 for the rendezvous. A deputation from 
 the Board, with lantern in hand, re- 
 paired to the bullion room, locked 
 themselves in, and awaited the arrival 
 of the mysterious correspondent. 
 Punctual to the hour a noise was heard 
 below. Some boards in the floor with- 
 out much trouble were displaced, and
 
 100 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 in a few minutes the Guy Fawkes of 
 the bank stood in the presence of the 
 astonished directors. His story was 
 yery simple and straightforward. An 
 old drain ran under the bullion room, 
 the existence of which had become 
 known to him, and by means of which 
 he might have carried away enormous 
 sums. Inquiry was made. Nothing 
 had been abstracted, and the directors 
 forthwith rewarded the honesty and 
 ingenuity of their anonymous corre- 
 spondent a working man, who had 
 been employed in repairing sewers by 
 a present of eight hundred pounds. 
 
 Rothschild Trying' to Raise a Small 
 Loan. 
 
 THE name of Nathan Meyer Roths- 
 child is found upon more money bills 
 than passed through any twenty bank- 
 ing firms in London, during the period 
 covered by his business career. But he 
 was far from being celebrated for his 
 proficiency in the art of writing. This 
 defect, on one occasion in particular, 
 caused him some little annoyance. He 
 was travelling in Scotland, and, on his 
 return, stopped at the town of Mont- 
 rose ; here, wishing to replenish his ex- 
 hausted exchequer, he went to the 
 bank, and requested cash for a draft 
 of one hundred pounds on his agent in 
 London. He was, however, much sur- 
 prised at the refusal of the bank man- 
 ager to honor his check, without, as 
 that functionary said, having the gen- 
 uineness of the signature hick he vas 
 utterly vnable to read previously ac- 
 credited ; and for this purpose it must 
 be first forwarded to London. To this 
 arrangement Mr. Rothschild was com- 
 pelled to submit ; and as, at that time, 
 it took six days before an answer could 
 be received from London, he was de- 
 tained until the reply came, which, of 
 course, proving favorable, he was en- 
 abled to pursue his journey. 
 
 Giraxd's Great Government Loan. 
 
 IT is a fact which may be put to the 
 credit of Girard's patriotism, that in 
 1814, when the credit of the country 
 was exhausted, the treasury bankrupt, 
 and an invading army was marching 
 over the land ; when, in fact, subscrip- 
 tions were solicited for funds to the 
 amount of five millions of dollars, upon 
 the inducement of a large bonus and an 
 interest of seven per cent., and only 
 twenty thousand dollars could be ob- 
 tained upon that offer for the purpose 
 of carrying on the war, Stephen Gi- 
 rard stepped forward and subscribed 
 for the whole amount. When, too, 
 those who had before rejected the terms 
 were afterward anxious to subscribe, 
 even at a considerable advance from 
 the original subscription, these individ- 
 uals were let in by him upon the same 
 terms. 
 
 Coin Used by Judas. 
 
 THE " piece of silver," thirty of which 
 were paid to Judas, in his trade of be- 
 traying Christ, was considered a pecu- 
 liar piece by the Israelites, and was al- 
 ways spoken of in their holy books as 
 the shekel of Israel, or holy shekel of the 
 sanctuary. It was the amount which 
 each Israelite, between the ages of 
 twenty and fifty, was required to pay 
 into the public treasury, as a ransom 
 for their delivery, during their sojourn 
 in the wilderness. 
 
 According to the British currency, a 
 shekel was worth two shillings three 
 pence three farthings, equal to about 
 fifty cents of our money. The coin 
 was somewhat larger than an American 
 half-dollar, and was smooth-edged. On 
 one side it bore the emblem of Aaron's 
 rod, as mentioned in Numbers, xvii. 8, 
 surrounded with the inscription in He- 
 brew which is given in the eleventh 
 chapter of Leviticus with the words, 
 "Shekel of Israel."
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 101 
 
 History of the Old Bed Cent. 
 
 As the old " red cent " has now passed 
 out of use, and, except rarely, out of 
 sight, like the " old oaken bucket," its 
 history is a matter of sufficient interest 
 for preservation. The cent was first pro- 
 posed by Robert Morris, the great finan- 
 cier of the Revolution, and was named 
 by Jefferson two years after. It began 
 to make its appearance from the mint 
 in 1792. It bore the head of Washing- 
 ton on one side, and thirteen links on 
 the other. The French Revolution 
 soon created a rage for French ideas in 
 America, which put on the cent, instead 
 of the head of Washington, the head 
 of the Goddess of Liberty a French 
 liberty, with neck thrust forward and 
 flowing locks. The chain on the re- 
 verse was replaced by the olive wreath 
 of peace. But the French liberty was 
 short-lived, and so was her portrait on 
 our cent. The next head or figure suc- 
 ceeding this the staid, classic dame, 
 with a fillet around her hair, came 
 into fashion about thirty or forty years 
 ago, and her finely chiselled Grecian 
 features have been but slightly altered 
 by the lapse of time. 
 
 Origin of Paper Honey. 
 
 THE celebrated traveller, Marco 
 Paulo, of Venice, was the first person 
 who announced to Europe the existence 
 of paper money in China, under the 
 Moguls. It was subsequently intro- 
 duced by the Moguls into Persia, where 
 their notes were called djaou, or djaw, 
 a word evidently derived from the Chi- 
 nese word schaio a word intended to 
 signify the want of specie. 
 
 The fact of the Moguls having, in 
 China and Persia, made use of paper 
 money, has induced the belief that 
 they were the inventors of it. But in 
 the history of Tchinghiz-khan, and of 
 the Mogul dynasty in China, published 
 in the year 1739, the author speaks of 
 the suppression of the paper money, 
 
 which was in use under the dynasty 
 of the Soung, who reigned in China 
 previous to the Moguls ; and he also 
 mentions a new species of notes which 
 were substituted for the ancient in the 
 year 1264. 
 
 The original financial speculation of 
 the Chinese ministry, to provide for the 
 extraordinary expenditures of the state, 
 which were exceeding the revenues, 
 was in the year 119 before the Christian 
 era. At this period were introduced 
 the phi-pi, or value in skins. These 
 were small pieces of the skin of deer, 
 which were kept in a pen, within the 
 precincts of the palace. They were a 
 Chinese square foot in size, and were 
 beautifully ornamented with painting 
 and embroidery. The price of those 
 skins was fixed at a sum equal in Eng- 
 lish money to about twelve guineas. 
 
 Eicardo's Three Golden Rules. 
 
 DAVID RICABDO, the English Jew 
 broker, accumulated an immense prop- 
 erty. He had what he called his three 
 golden rules in business, the observance 
 of which he always pressed upon his 
 private friends. These were :. Never to 
 refuse an option when you can get it ; 
 cut short your losses ; let your profits 
 run on. By cutting short one's losses, 
 Mr. Ricardo meant that, when a broker 
 had made a purchase of stock, and 
 prices were falling, he ought to re-sell 
 immediately. And by letting one's 
 profits run on, he meant that, when a 
 dealer possessed stock, and the prices 
 were rising, he ought not to sell until 
 prices had reached their highest, and 
 were beginning again to fall. 
 
 TIL. Rothschild on the Secret of his 
 Success. 
 
 ON the occasion of a familiar inter- 
 view, one day, between Sir Thomas 
 Buxton and Rothschild, the latter said : 
 " My success has always turned upon 
 one maxim. I said, /can do what another 
 man can, and so I am a match for all
 
 102 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 the rest of 'em. Another advantage I 
 had I was always an off-hand man ; 
 I made a bargain at once. When I was 
 settled in London, the East India Com- 
 pany had eight hundred thousand 
 pounds in gold to sell. I went to the 
 sale, and bought the whole of it. I 
 knew the Duke of "Wellington must 
 have it. I had bought a great many 
 bills of his at a discount. The govern- 
 ment sent for me, and said they must 
 have it. When they had got it, they 
 didn't know how to get it to Portugal, 
 where they wanted it. I undertook all 
 that, and sent it through France ; and 
 that was the best business I ever did in 
 my life. 
 
 " It requires (continued Rothschild) a 
 great deal of boldness and a great deal 
 of caution to make a great fortune ; 
 and when you have got it, it requires 
 ten times as much wit to keep it. If I 
 should listen to one half the projects 
 proposed to me, I should ruin myself 
 very soon. 
 
 " One of my neighbors is a very ill- 
 tempered man. He tries to vex me, 
 and has built a great place for swine 
 close to my walk. So, when I go out, 
 I hear first, 'Grunt, grunt,' then 
 'Squeak, squeak.' But this does me 
 no harm. I am always in good humor. 
 Sometimes, to amuse myself, I give a 
 beggar a guinea. He thinks it is a 
 mistake, and for fear I should find it 
 out, he runs away as hard as he can. I 
 advise you to give a beggar a guinea 
 sometimes it is very amusing." 
 
 Application for a Discount, by Astor. 
 
 MR. J. J. ASTOK'S profits rolled in 
 upon him at a rate which no one could 
 have dreamed of, and he kept their 
 amount a secret until he had so pene- 
 trated the frontier by his agencies that 
 he controlled the whole fur-trade, when 
 he occasionally acknowledged a degree 
 of wealth which astonished those who 
 heard. For instance, he had occasion 
 at a certain time, to use a large amount 
 
 of cash, and, what was very rare with 
 him, applied to his bank for a heavy 
 discount. The unusual circumstance 
 and the sum demanded startled the 
 cashier, who, in a plain business way, 
 put the question: "Mr. Astor, how 
 much do you consider yourself worth ? " 
 " Not less than a million" was the reply. 
 "A million 1" the cashier was over- 
 whelmed. He supposed that he knew 
 all his customers, and had rated Astor 
 at hardly more than one-tenth of that 
 sum. 
 
 Peculiar Management of the Bank 
 of Amsterdam. 
 
 PREVIOUSLY to the year 1609, the 
 great trade of Amsterdam brought 
 thither large quantities of clipped and 
 worn coin, from foreign countries. 
 Thus, the whole currency became great- 
 ly debased ; for, whenever any coin was 
 issued fresh from the mint, as the metal* 
 was worth more than its nominal and 
 current value, it was immediately with- 
 drawn from circulation, and exported, 
 or melted down. In this state of things, 
 merchants could not always find enough 
 of good money to pay their bills of ex- 
 change. 
 
 To remedy the inconveniences in 
 question, a bank was established in 
 1609, which received all money, at its 
 real value in standard com, and gave 
 the owners credit for the amount, after 
 deducting a small percentage for the 
 recoining and other expenses. A law 
 was passed, that all bills of exchange 
 of the value of six hundred guilders, 
 or above, should be payable only in 
 bank currency a regulation, which at 
 once compelled all merchants to open 
 an account with the bank. As the city 
 of Amsterdam became bound for the 
 solvency of the bank, and as the paper 
 currency had many conveniences, the 
 bank paper was always at a premium, 
 and could be sold in the money market 
 for more than its nominal value. Con- 
 sequently there was no necessity to de- 
 mand payment of the bills.
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 103 
 
 The bank professed to lend no part 
 of the money that was deposited in its 
 vaults, but to have the value in coin 
 always in hand, for all its certificates 
 of credit. It is believed that this was 
 really the case ; for, on one occasion, 
 when political events caused a run 
 upon the bank, some of the coins, then 
 paid out, bore the marks of having 
 been scorched by a fire, which had oc- 
 curred soon after the institution was es- 
 tablished. 
 
 Lost Bank-Note of Thirty Thousand 
 Pounds. 
 
 A VERY wealthy English banker had 
 occasion for thirty thousand pounds, 
 which he was to pay as the price of an 
 estate he had just bought ; to facilitate 
 the matter, he carried the sum with him 
 to the bank, and obtained for it a bank 
 note. On his return home, he was sud- 
 denly called out upon particular busi- 
 ness ; he threw the note somewhat care- 
 lessly on the chimney, but when he 
 came back a few minutes afterward to 
 lock it up, it was not to be found. 
 
 No one had entered the room he 
 could not, therefore, suspect any per- 
 son. At last, after much ineffectual 
 search, he was persuaded that it had 
 fallen from the chimney into the fire. 
 The banker went to acquaint the gen- 
 tlemen, who were associated with him 
 as directors of the bank, with the mis- 
 fortune that had happened to him ; 
 and, as he was known to be a perfectly 
 honorable man, he was readily be- 
 lieved. It was only four-and-twenty 
 hours from the time that he had de- 
 posited his money ; they thought, there- 
 fore, that it would be hard to refuse his 
 request for a second bill. He received 
 it upon giving an obligation to restore 
 the first bill, if it should ever be found, 
 or to pay the money himself, if it should 
 be presented by any stranger. 
 
 About thirty years afterward (the 
 banker having been long dead, and his 
 heirs in possession of his fortune), an 
 unknown person presented the lost bill 
 
 at the bank, and demanded payment. 
 It was in vain that they narrated to this 
 person the transaction by which that 
 bill was annulled he would not listen 
 to it ; he maintained that it had cornel 
 to him from abroad, and insisted upon 
 immediate payment. The note was 
 payable to bearer; and the thirty 
 thousand pounds were paid to him. 
 The heirs of the deceased banker 
 would not heed any demand upon 
 them for restitution, and the bank was 
 obliged to sustain the loss. It was dis- 
 covered afterward that an architect, 
 having purchased the banker's house, 
 had it taken down, in order to build 
 another upon the same spot, and found 
 the note in a crevice of the chimney ! 
 
 Merchants' Notes as Currency. 
 
 THE peculiarities of carrying on busi- 
 ness in the United States and England 
 respectively, are illustrated by the dif- 
 ference in passing good mercantile 
 notes as a circulating medium. In 
 England, a note of hand, when given 
 for any business purpose, is not taken 
 to some convenient banker's, to be dis- 
 counted or sold, but is treated with 
 that deference that is given to other 
 kinds of notes signed by certain of- 
 ficials known as the president and 
 cashier of a bank, for the simple reason 
 that, if made by an honest, responsible 
 man, it is worth just as much. The 
 holder can, any day, in the neighbor- 
 hood where its character may be 
 known, without any previous negotia- 
 tion, buy anything he pleases, and pay 
 for it with this paper by simply in- 
 dorsing it because the second holder 
 knows he can in turn do the same ; 
 and so it goes, getting farther and far- 
 ther from home, until having passed 
 through the hands of perhaps more 
 than twenty different persons, and 
 being literally covered with indorse- 
 ments, it is finally lodged in the bank 
 for collection. Such a note, of one 
 thousand pounds, is frequently made
 
 104 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 to pay the indebtedness of twenty dif- 
 ferent men, not one of whom needs to 
 know whether the bank is calling in or 
 letting out its best money, or to care 
 whether his banker is easy or " tight " 
 in his financial condition. 
 
 , 
 Scenes after Discount Day. 
 
 DISCOUNT customers at New York 
 banks are, in a good majority of cases, 
 an eager set. The first crowd at the 
 bank the morning after the board has 
 sat, is composed of the most anxious 
 dealers. It is important for them to 
 know early, whether they must seek 
 elsewhere the bread of commercial life 
 for the day. They are followed by the 
 less needy the more deliberate, who 
 know the value of " deportment " in a 
 tight market. Here are some samples 
 which will keep fresh for a long time : 
 
 " Notes done, sir ? " is asked by the 
 applicant, either verbally, or in panto- 
 mime. The affirmative causes a bright 
 gleam of sunshine in the face of the 
 questioner. But a negative to the next 
 comer substitutes a scowl of disappoint- 
 ment : " What is the reason of that, sir ? 
 Has the bank stopped discounting?" 
 "Market tightened up, sir. Deposits 
 down. Offerings very heavy." 
 
 The customer departs with an audi- 
 ble growl of indignation at what he 
 conceives to be " a denial of rights." 
 
 Another : " Good morning, Mr. Smith ; 
 what have you to say to me ? " " Noth- 
 ing very encouraging, sir. The bank 
 discounted one of your notes." " What 
 only one out of ten ? " " That's all. 
 Very good proportion, I do assure you." 
 " A single thousand ! And I want five 
 to-day! Where's the president ?" "In 
 his room, sir. But I don't believe you'll 
 gain anything by talking to him. Our 
 receipts are very small just now, and 
 the porter brings bad news from the 
 clearing-house." 
 
 , A third fills the little gate in the rail- 
 ing with a grim and threatening visage, 
 but does not speak. The clerk knows 
 
 him as a frequent applicant, and seldom 
 a fortunate one ; the character of his ac- 
 count, as well as of his paper, being in- 
 ferior, and presenting no claims worthy 
 of consideration by the directors. He 
 receives back his offering without re- 
 mark, and departs in sullen silence. 
 
 Customer four : " Well, Smith, don't 
 tell me my notes ain't done 1 " 
 "Wouldn't if I could help it, sir. 
 Board did mighty little." "Hang 
 the board ! Isn't there any explana- 
 tion? Don't they know the paper? 
 Is it too long ? " " No explanation 
 given to me. Bank's short. Can't 
 help it. Majority in the same boat." 
 Customer leaves an oath behind him. 
 
 Neapolitan Cambiamoneta, or Money 
 Changer. 
 
 ALONG the crowded streets of Naples 
 the passer-by will occasionally see a 
 great red umbrella mounted on a tall 
 pole, and under which a very snug little 
 business is carried on. A smart, respect- 
 able, middle-aged lady sits in state be- 
 neath this circumscribed, but brilliant, 
 little awning, which lends a decidedly 
 roseate hue, not only to herself but to 
 her calling. The table at which she 
 sits is, in fact, a " strong box " on 
 wheels, and she herself is a banker in 
 a small way a street money-changer. 
 On her little counter are disposed vari- 
 ous money bags, with open mouths a 
 small one of gold, a larger one of silver, 
 and a still larger of copper coins. Her 
 transactions are as safe as they are sun- 
 pie. She does not lend out her money 
 on usury ; she does not gamble on the 
 stock-exchange, or make "time bar- 
 gains," or demand a high rate of in- 
 terest for " accommodation," while she 
 gives a low rate of interest on " depos- 
 its." She merely lays herself out to 
 change one set of coins into their equiv- 
 alents; for this she receives a small 
 banker's commission, and on this small 
 commission she lives and thrives. 
 
 It is surprising how often her inter- 
 vention is required in the daily busi-
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 105 
 
 ness of life. Here is a laughing, rol- 
 licking, black-eyed servant girl come 
 out, with a basket on her arm, to make 
 her purchases in the market of Santa 
 Lucia. Her money does not happen to 
 be in an available shape, and the fish- 
 monger cannot give change. But 
 " Ah ! most fortunate ! See, the Sig- 
 nora Marchetti ! Ah, 'cellema, without 
 your help I am lost. Oblige me, this 
 holy morning, with some of your dear 
 carlini. My padrone (master) is so im- 
 patient. Ah, 'cellema, how eagerly he 
 craves his dinner." And so her " Ex- 
 cellency " is only too happy to oblige 
 her friend, the brisk and vivacious little 
 cook, while with the blandest of smiles 
 she deducts from the change her own 
 pretty little percentage. 
 
 Again, there is a tall, dark, suspi- 
 cious-looking man, who finds that his 
 long walk from Capua has made a hole 
 in his shoe. Near by, too, there is a 
 poor street cobbler, who is seated on 
 his own tool-basket, with his little 
 hammer, and his twine and wax dis- 
 posed around him on the pavement. 
 The dark Capuan kicks off his ailing 
 shoe, plants his unshod foot on the 
 ground by the shod one, and, in spite 
 of the police, hums a proscribed ode to 
 Masaniello, until the poor cobbler sets 
 him comfortably on his feet again. 
 Once more, the Signora Marchetti must 
 be referred to, for the cobbler's pocket 
 is as empty as himself, and not a " gra- 
 na " lurks there to supply his employer 
 with the requisite change, and to sup- 
 ply himself with the yet more requisite 
 dinner of chestnuts ; and thus, for an 
 additional exchange of equivalents, the 
 banker's commission glides into the Sig- 
 nora's waiting puree. 
 
 Largest Check ever Drawn. 
 
 IN the negotiations made a few years 
 since by the English government for a 
 loan of eighty million dollars, the suc- 
 cessful contractors were the Messrs. 
 Rothschild; and, having been sup- 
 
 ported by the subscriptions of friends, 
 they were of course recognized as the 
 acting firm in that important transac- 
 tion. In paying the first deposit to- 
 ward this amount to the government, 
 the check they drew was for the sum 
 of six million dollars. This bank check 
 was probably the largest ever drawn at 
 once by one private banking-house or, 
 if not, it was certainly for a very " con- 
 siderable sum." 
 
 Lorillard Paying a Bequest in Bank 
 Stock. 
 
 ON a certain occasion, Jacob Loril- 
 lard was appointed executor to an es- 
 tate in which the widow had a life- 
 interest, but where each of the children 
 was to receive a thousand dollars on 
 coming to age. When, in the first 
 case, this period had arrived, one of 
 the sons called on him for the amount 
 of this bequest. " And what," he said, 
 " do you wish to do with it ? " " To 
 purchase stock with it in a particular 
 bank." " At what is it now selling ? " 
 " A hundred and ten." " Have you 
 any objections to leave the money with 
 me on interest till the 1st of May, and 
 then I will let you have the stock at 
 the same rate ? " In the mean time it 
 fell, as he anticipated, to eighty-four. 
 When this change took place, the 
 young man was greatly depressed. He 
 called at the time appointed, to fulfil 
 the engagement. " The stock is ready 
 for you," Mr. Lorillard playfully re- 
 marked ; " however, if you prefer it, I 
 will release you from the contract, and 
 the money may remain where it is." It 
 may easily be conceived that the young 
 man left him grateful and rejoicing. 
 
 Greatest Lending: House in Europe. 
 
 THE great money-lending house at 
 Naples was first established in 1539 or 
 1540. Two rich citizens, Aurelio Papa- 
 ro and Leonardo or Nardo di Palma, 
 redeemed all the pledges which were at 
 that time in the hands of the Jews, and
 
 106 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 offered to deliver them, to the owners 
 without interest, provided they would 
 return the money which had been ad- 
 vanced on them. More of the opulent 
 citizens soon followed their examples ; 
 many bequeathed large sums for this 
 particular purpose; and Toledo, the 
 viceroy, who drove the Jews from the 
 kingdom, supported it by every method 
 possible. This lending house, which 
 has undergone so many variations, is 
 the largest in Europe ; and it contains 
 such an immense amount and number 
 of different articles, many of them ex- 
 ceedingly valuable, that it may be con- 
 sidered as a repository of the most im- 
 portant part of the movables of the 
 whole nation. 
 
 Oldest Bill of Exchange in the World, 
 1325. 
 
 THE oldest copy of a formal bill of 
 exchange known to be in existence, at 
 present, is one dated at Milan, on the 
 9th of March, 1325, and runs in the 
 original as follows : 
 
 " Pagate per questa prima litera [let- 
 tera] a di IX. Ottobre a Luca de Goro 
 Lib. XLV. Sono per la valuta qui da 
 Marco Reno, al tempo il pagate e po- 
 nete a mio conto e E. che Christo vi 
 guarde Bonromeo de Bonromei de Mila- 
 no IX. de' Marzo, 1325." Or, in Eng- 
 lish 
 
 " Pay for this first bill of exchange, 
 on the 9th of October, to Luca Goro 45 
 livres ; they are for value received here 
 from Marco Reno ; at the time of ma- 
 turity pay the same to my account, 
 thanking you, may Christ protect you, 
 Bonromeo de Bonromei of Milan, the 
 9th of March, 1325." 
 
 Unexpected Balance at Coutts's Bank. 
 
 LORD A. FITZCLARENCE happened to 
 drop into Coutts's bank with his friend 
 Mr. W., "who wanted to draw some 
 money, for which purpose he got a 
 check from the cashier, and filled it 
 up for two hundred pounds; on re- 
 
 ceiving which, he observed that he 
 had something to say to one of the 
 partners, and excused himself for step- 
 ping into an inner room a few minutes 
 for the purpose. Lord A., left standing 
 by the counter, remarked, laughingly : 
 
 " Well, it is a very pleasant thing to 
 walk in and get helped to two hundred 
 pounds in that way." 
 
 " If your lordship wishes to draw," 
 replied the cashier, " I will hand you a 
 check." 
 
 u Oh, yes ! but as I do not keep an 
 account here, that would be of very lit- 
 tle use," said the lord ; and the conver- 
 sation went on, as his lordship thought, 
 jocularly. 
 
 " I beg your lordship's pardon ; but 
 I should be very happy to cash it." 
 
 " But I tell you I have no money in 
 the bank, and never had any at Messrs. 
 Coutts's." 
 
 " Your lordship is mistaken ; there 
 is a larger sum than that standing on 
 our books in your name ; " and, con- 
 sulting a large ledger, he pointed out 
 the entry. 
 
 It turned out that Lord A.'s royal 
 father had vested certain amounts for 
 the younger branches of his family, and 
 had somehow forgotten to mention the 
 circumstance; and so it might have 
 lain for a very long time, as it is a rule 
 of the house never to announce moneys 
 paid in. 
 
 Colloquies inside the Bank. 
 
 IN his various walks and contacts, 
 the porter of a bank gains much knowl- 
 edge of men and things, which, discre- 
 tionally, or in answer to questions, he 
 communicates to the bank officials, be- 
 tween whom and himself there is free 
 and often confidential intercourse. 
 Here is an amusing illustration, from 
 no other pen than Gibbons's : 
 
 "What news at the clearing-house 
 to-day, Mr. Donaldson ? " asks the pres- 
 ident. " I didn't hear anything par- 
 ticular, sir. It looks as if things might
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 107 
 
 be a little excited and uncomfortable, 
 that's all." " Ah ! Well, that's a good 
 deal. What makes you think so ? " 
 " A little sort of snap, sir. Some of 
 the porters came in late, as though 
 they'd been holding back for morning 
 checks." "Did you hear anything in 
 the street?" "I heard some talk 
 about a failure among the brokers, but 
 no name." " No steamer in ? " " Well, 
 yes, sir ; but the boys ain't crying an 
 extra yet. They've got a notice on the 
 bulletins ' Delhi not taken ! ' " 
 
 The president catches a valuable hint 
 from many a conversation, of which this 
 is an example. 
 
 " Delhi not taken ! Then, Mr. Cash- 
 ier, I think you may answer Mr. Bor- 
 row, that we can't give him any priv- 
 ilege of over-draft, nor re-discount his 
 paper. These country banks must learn 
 to take care of themselves." An appli- 
 cation for a credit of fifty thousand dol- 
 lars, which had been lying in suspense, 
 is thus decided by the state of things in 
 India. 
 
 It is not unlikely that the porter will 
 carry notices to parties within the next 
 half hour, calling in one or two hun- 
 dred thousand dollars of demand loans, 
 so sensitive are bank officers to imag- 
 inary effects that may follow an an- 
 nouncement that some " Delhi " or 
 other is " not yet taken." 
 
 Disadvantage of being 1 a Bank 
 Director. 
 
 THE Senate of the State once elected 
 Mr. Matthew Carey, the eminent book 
 publisher, a director of the Bank of 
 Pennsylvania. He mentions, as a dis- 
 advantage to him from the position, 
 the lenity shown by the other directors, 
 whereby his debts rose extravagantly 
 high. This evil he urges with great 
 warmth and zeal, as the one which sev- 
 eral times in his business life came near 
 bringing him to bankruptcy. " I print- 
 ed and published," he declares, " above 
 twice as many books as were necessary 
 for the extent of my business ; and, in 
 
 consequence, incurred oppressive debts 
 to banks was laid under contribution 
 for interest to them and to usurers, 
 which not only swallowed up my profits, 
 but kept me in a constant state of pen- 
 ury. I was in many cases shaved so 
 close by the latter class, that they al- 
 most skinned me alive. To this cause 
 my difficulties were nearly altogether 
 owing, for I did a large and profitable 
 business almost from the time I opened 
 a bookstore." 
 
 He sets down another evil practice 
 of his business career, which he cau- 
 tions young traders to shun, as they 
 would "temporal perdition." It is 
 that of endorsation. " In this way, in 
 fourteen years," he writes, " I lost be- 
 tween thirty and forty thousand dol- 
 lars; and but for this I might have 
 retired from business ten years earlier 
 than I did ; besides, in one of the cases 
 of failure, I was brought to the verge 
 of stoppage." 
 
 Royal Fawners and Brokers. 
 
 THE infection of gambling, in the 
 different varieties of that practice, is so 
 strong that Pope, who knew his coun- 
 trymen well, declared that : 
 
 "Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks; 
 Peeress and butler share alike the box ; 
 And judges job, and bishops bite the town, 
 And mighty dukes pack cards for half a 
 crown." 
 
 In the twelfth century Richard I. 
 pawned the revenues of the crown for 
 the payment of moneys borrowed to 
 defray the expenses of the fanatical 
 conquest of the Holy Land. Henry HI. 
 pawned the crown jewels and regal 
 ornaments and robes of state. Ed- 
 ward I. borrowed money to pay the 
 debts of his father, in order to get his 
 soul " out of purgatory," as the record 
 states. Richard II. was deposed for 
 extorting one million one hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling, under pre- 
 text of borrowing, which was never 
 repaid. This was one of the chief
 
 108 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 causes of the York and Lancaster wars. 
 In 1346 Edward in. ordered a sum of 
 money to be lent to him. Henry IV. 
 obliged the rich men of the kingdom to 
 lend him money on the growing taxes. 
 Henry VIII. escaped the punishment he 
 so justly merited for defrauding his 
 creditors ; he compelled Parliament to 
 pass two acts, offering him " all the 
 money he had received in loans," thus 
 discharging him of all obligations he 
 had come under, and all suits that 
 might arise thereupon. In money 
 matters in Elizabeth's time, the people 
 insisted upon the payment of the sums 
 advanced to her predecessors, a demand 
 she was wise enough to comply with. 
 
 Irishman at the Bank. 
 
 THE city banks have all kinds of cus- 
 tomers. For instance, one in the shape 
 of an Irish pig-jobber, a stranger, intro- 
 duces himself, or rather his business, by 
 laying his great whip on the counter, 
 taking off an apology of a hat so far 
 as any known styles stand related to 
 it, and then, fumbling in the caver- 
 nous recesses of his dirty garments, 
 lugs out a crumpled bundle of very 
 nasty-looking notes. 
 
 " Could ye give me your bank notes 
 for these, sur ? " he asks, in his most in- 
 sinuating manner. 
 
 " We never change notes to stran- 
 gers." 
 
 " Why, they're good, ain't they ? " 
 
 " Yes, doubtless ; but we don't change 
 notes of another bank." 
 
 "Well, sur, supposing I'd be after 
 paying ye a little charges now, would 
 ye do it for me ? " 
 
 " Do you know any one in the town ? 
 If you can find any one known to us, 
 who will write his name on the back 
 of them, we might do it, perhaps." 
 
 " Yes, sure, sur, there's Mr. Murphy 
 the pork butcher, sur." 
 
 " Well, he will do." 
 
 In due time he re-appears, with his 
 friend Murphy, and with much satisfac- 
 
 tion pockets the new and clean notes. 
 After paying his " charges," as he calls 
 them, the warm heart of a son of Erin 
 exhibits itself: 
 
 " Thank ye, sur ; and, by jabbers, if 
 ye'll come out wid me. I'll stand trate 
 for brandy." 
 
 Juvenile Contempt of the Bank. 
 
 A SHOP boy, having a very rustic ap- 
 pearance in dress and manners, entered 
 one of the banks in Dundee, Scotland, 
 and, throwing a sixpence to the teller, 
 asked, " A saxpence worth o' fardins." 
 The teller very politely replied, "I 
 can't do it. I have not so many." 
 Shop boy, " Gie's back my saxpence, 
 then." The boy, on opening the door 
 to leave, looked over his shoulder, and 
 staring at the teller, exclaimed, " Sic a 
 bank ! " Next day he had occasion to 
 visit the same bank, and on being asked 
 amid the laughter of the clerks " If he 
 got his saxpence worth o' fardins ? " re- 
 plied contemptuously, "Ay did I. I 
 got them in a little pie-shop." 
 
 Banks of Ease. 
 
 MANY years ago the first settlers in 
 Western New York were obliged to 
 take their grain a great distance in 
 wagons to Albany, to find a market. 
 The roads were bad, and the travelling 
 dangerous. Three farmers of this re- 
 gion found a purchaser for their loads 
 of wheat at Amsterdam, a village some 
 twenty-five miles west of Albany, and 
 were glad thus to dispose of it, and 
 save themselves the trouble and travel. 
 They took an order on the bank of 
 Amsterdam for their pay, which was 
 offered them in specie silver ; but they 
 objected to taking it, as it was too hea- 
 vy to carry, and they preferred the notes 
 of the bank. And here the laugh comes 
 in. The officers of the bank refused to 
 give them the bills, because the farmers 
 were going so far out into the wilder- 
 ness, the bills would never come back
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 109 
 
 to the bank again ! The matter was 
 finally compromised by the bank's pay- 
 ing each of them one dollar extra, on 
 their consenting to receive silver in- 
 stead of paper money. Surely, this 
 bank might well be termed a Bank of 
 Ease! 
 
 Russian Money Brokers. 
 
 THOUGH the ring upon one's finger is 
 said to be unsafe in the Russian money- 
 marts, it is clear that the silver rubles 
 and ducats on the tables of the money- 
 brokers are perfectly secure ; for tables 
 of this kind stand at the corners of all 
 the streets, amidst the thickest of the 
 throng, upon which columns and heaps 
 of the different sorts of coin are invit- 
 ingly exposed to the public gaze a 
 phenomenon that perhaps could not 
 take place in any other great and 
 crowded city. It would be easy for 
 any one intent on plunder to upset the 
 table, and tumble its valuable freight 
 promiscuously into the mud ; and no 
 one, amidst the general confusion, could 
 be expected to point out the rogue that 
 was enriching himself with the scatter- 
 ed spoil. 
 
 And yet it is a fact, that though 
 thousands of rubles are often placed 
 under the care of lads only twelve years 
 of age, not a broker would risk a farth- 
 ing, if he did not think himself per- 
 fectly safe with his money amidst all 
 these people and the attendant commo- 
 tion. But the Russian rogue is a 
 strangely discriminating fellow, who 
 has not the least scruple to commit 
 some actions that are palpably dis- 
 honest for instance, to charge a buyer 
 six times as much for a thing as it is 
 worth, or to pick one's pocket of watch 
 or purse, while he thinks others most 
 disgraceful, and is therefore, in certain 
 points, as honorable and trustworthy as 
 the most conscientious man that can be 
 found. These money-brokers are under 
 the protection of the public and of the 
 thieves themselves. No doubt it has 
 
 often happened that such money-tables 
 have been overthrown, and not a single 
 copeck, much less a ducat, has been 
 lost, because all the by-standers, in their 
 sheep-skin dresses, assisted with the 
 most courteous officiousness to pick up 
 all the pieces of gold and silver out of 
 the dirt. 
 
 Note Buyers. 
 
 THEEE are men who spend their 
 whole lives in Wall street, and who do 
 nothing else but buy notes. They come 
 in early and go out late. Their time is 
 occupied in making fresh inquiries, and 
 in haggling about the rate per cent. 
 You can to-day see these persons, if 
 you will take the trouble to station 
 yourself on the spot, and I predict you 
 will behold what will deeply interest 
 you. Wait a few moments near this 
 corner, and you will not be disappoint- 
 ed. There he comes, passing thought- 
 fully along the street. He has the ap- 
 pearance of a man laden with many 
 cares. Look at him ! He is respecta- 
 bly encased in a moderately warm suit 
 of black. His head inclines forward; 
 his eye has become stony ; his nose 
 pointed ; his chin angular ; his cheeks 
 rigid ; his lips wooden ; his mind 
 alas ! he has no longer any mind ; but 
 in place of mind he possesses an instinct 
 so subtle and acute that it will detect 
 a piece of " made " paper in the very 
 curl of the signature. If you wish to 
 see more of this sort, go and take a 
 seat for an hour or two in one of the 
 many small note-brokers' offices, which 
 abound, and watch the arrival of others 
 of these paper sharks. They come in 
 hungry, eager, sharp, to hear and see 
 what new offers. They have a large 
 capital, perhaps hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars, invested in notes, or repre- 
 sented by securities, which can be con- 
 verted into cash in twenty-four hours, 
 should it be required to buy more pa- 
 per with. They are always moving 
 about to pick up the note of some good
 
 110 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 mechanic, who they know for certain 
 reasons is hard-up, and who is willing 
 to bleed freely rather than to fail in a 
 contract. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that, for 
 the delineation of the above character, 
 the credit belongs to Kimball's facile 
 pen. 
 
 Jacob Lorillard's Note of Accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 THE benevolent feelings manifested 
 by Jacob Lorillard toward young begin- 
 ners in business, who were needy and 
 friendless, exhibit a very bright side to 
 human nature. When a director of that 
 institution, of which he was twice the 
 president, he would frequently take a 
 parcel of the small notes which were 
 offered for discount by poor mechanics, 
 who were obscure and unknown, and 
 which, therefore, for the most part, 
 would have been rejected, and make 
 diligent inquiry, in person, as to their 
 character and standing ; and if he found 
 that, with a proper regard to the inter- 
 ests of the bank, he could commend 
 them to favor and confidence, he felt 
 that he was abundantly rewarded for 
 all his pains. 
 
 On one occasion, a person whose note 
 had been refused where it was offered 
 for discount, and who, it appears, had 
 no peculiar claims on his kindness and 
 influence, though possessing his confi- 
 dence, called on him for the favor of a 
 line of recommendation, which would 
 be sure to procure the desired accom- 
 modation. He at once, as it seemed, 
 complied with the desired request ; in- 
 stead of being a line of recommenda- 
 tion, however, it was afterward discov- 
 ered to be a note of Mr. Lorillard, for 
 the amount which was needed. The 
 person immediately returned, and point- 
 ed out the mistake. " Never mind," 
 said Mr. Lorillard, "if they will not 
 discount your note, see whether they 
 will not mine." 
 
 Losing- a Bank Customer. 
 
 MB. CHICKEBINO, of piano-forte fame, 
 one day presented a large number of 
 notes for discount at one of the banks 
 in Boston, where he had done his busi- 
 ness. The president asked him who 
 was to endorse the notes. Mr. Chicker- 
 ing replied, " I shall endorse them my- 
 self." " That will never do," said the 
 president. Mr. Chickering simply re- 
 sponded, " Very well," took the notes, 
 and carried them to another bank, which 
 immediately gave him all the money he 
 needed. On another occasion, a bank 
 with which he had long had transac- 
 tions, and to which he had as usual 
 applied through his clerk for an accom- 
 modation, sent for Mr. Chickering, and 
 said to him, " Security was wanted." 
 Mr. Chickering replied, " I shall give 
 you none ; 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 consequence 
 was, the necessary discount was at once 
 given by another bank, to which he 
 transferred his business. This business 
 was worth at least ten thousand dollars 
 a year. Soon after this, a director of 
 the bank which refused him, called on 
 Mr. Chickering, to induce him to re- 
 store his business, under the assurance 
 that for the future the bank would 
 grant whatever accommodation might 
 be wanted. Mr. Chickering, however, 
 declined the proposed arrangement, not 
 wishing to do business at an institution 
 willing to suspect his responsibility. 
 
 Endorser's Qualifications. 
 
 A WORTHY but poor minister once 
 requested the loan of fifty dollars from 
 the cashier of a country bank ; and in 
 the note requesting the favor, he said 
 that if the cashier would oblige him, 
 he would " pay him in ten days, on the 
 faith of Abraham." The cashier re- 
 turned word that by the rules of the
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 bank, the endorser of the note must re- 
 side in the State ! 
 
 More Cunning than Rothschild. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING his great fore- 
 thought, sagacity, and penetration, 
 Rothschild was occasionally surpassed 
 in cunning. On one occasion a great 
 banker lent Rothschild a million and a 
 half on the security of consols, the price 
 of which was then eighty-four. The 
 terms on which the money was lent 
 were simple and usual. If the price 
 reached seventy-four, the banker might 
 claim the stock at seventy ; but Roth- 
 schild felt satisfied that, with so large 
 a sum out of the market, the bargain 
 was tolerably safe. The banker, how- 
 ever, as much a Jew as Rothschild, had 
 a plan of his own. He immediately 
 began selling the consols received from 
 the latter, together with a similar 
 amount in his own possession. The 
 funds dropped ; the stock exchange 
 grew alarmed ; other circumstances 
 tended to depress it the fatal price 
 of seventy-four was reached, and the 
 Christian banker had the satisfaction 
 of outwitting the Hebrew loanmonger. 
 
 Voltaire's Dealings in Government 
 Stocks. 
 
 THOUGH a literary man, Voltaire had 
 an eye to the main chance, the angle of 
 his vision finding its focus in govern- 
 ment stocks. "Here I am," he says, 
 " living in a way suited to my habits, 
 and caring but little for to-morrow ; for 
 I have a friend, a director in the Bank 
 of France, who writes to me whenever 
 money is to be made in the public funds. 
 Sometimes he writes to me desiring me 
 to sell, because the bank is going to 
 withdraw its notes. At other times he 
 bids me buy for ' we are going to issue 
 a quantity of notes ; ' and so, through 
 the kindness of my friend, I always 
 make money, though living two hun- 
 dred miles from Paris." 
 
 Jewish Money Lenders. 
 
 A PREJUDICE against Jews, on ac- 
 count of their sharpness in money trans- 
 actions is almost universal. The simple 
 fact is, however, just this : that when a 
 man not a Jew is in a tight place, 
 or broken down in his fortune, so that 
 he can neither raise funds by the credit 
 of his name nor by mortgage on his es- 
 tate, he flies to the money lender. Now, 
 Jews are essentially a financial people, 
 and money-broking, in all its details, 
 is their special avocation. The class 
 of Israelite money lenders is, therefore, 
 numerous ; and it is ten to one that the 
 broken-down individual who requires a 
 loan addresses himself to a Jew, even 
 if he take the money lender nearest to 
 him, or to whom he is at first recom- 
 mended. Well, he transacts his busi- 
 ness with this Jew ; and as his habits 
 of life and shaky business condition are 
 well known, he cannot of course obtain 
 the loan he seeks, save on terms propor- 
 tionate to the risk incurred by the 
 lender. Yet he goes away, and de- 
 nounces the Jew. as a usurer; when, 
 had he applied to a " Christian " money 
 broker, the terms would have been 
 equally high, if any terms could have 
 been effected at all, seeing that he had 
 no real security to offer, and that his 
 name was already tarnished. Perhaps, 
 then, after all, Jewish " hardness " will 
 compare favorably with the proverbial- 
 ly rapacious practices of Christian attor- 
 neys and the greedy exactions of Chris- 
 tian bill discounters ! 
 
 Discounting: a Hibernian's Note. 
 
 A TRANSPARENT Hibernian wanted a 
 friend to discount a note. " If I ad- 
 vance this," said the lender, " will you 
 pay your note punctually ? " "I will, 
 on my honor," replied the other " the 
 expense of the protest and att ! "
 
 112 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Addison's Opinion of the Royal Ex- 
 change and its Frequenters. 
 
 ADDISON once pleasantly wrote : 
 There is no place in the town which 
 I so much love to frequent as the Royal 
 Exchange. It gives me a secret satis- 
 faction, and in some measure gratifies 
 my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to 
 see so rich an assembly of countrymen 
 and foreigners, consulting together 
 upon the private business of mankind, 
 and making this metropolis a kind of 
 emporium for the whole earth. 
 
 The Royal Exchange of London still 
 exhibits one of the most remarkable 
 assemblages in the world, if the stran- 
 ger visiting it is fortunate enough to 
 have the advantage of a city merchant 
 as his cicerone ; otherwise there is little 
 in its general aspect differing from what 
 may be seen daily at 'Change hour in 
 any of the large cities. But it certain- 
 ly interests the stranger, on walking 
 into the quadrangle between two and 
 three o'clock, " when merchants most 
 do congregate," to see the representa- 
 tives of the different nations of the 
 earth, grouped in their respective places 
 under the piazzas, and engaging in ne- 
 gotiations, which, more than the coun- 
 cils of cabinets, influence the policy of 
 states; and to be told, for example, 
 that the thoughtful-looking man, with 
 strongly marked Jewish features, lean- 
 ing carelessly against a pillar, is able 
 by a dash of his pen to control the 
 most powerful governments in Europe. 
 In this quadrangle, too, resides the mys- 
 terious susceptibility to the variations 
 in the political and commercial atmo- 
 sphere, indicated upon the scale of that 
 most sensitive of all barometers, the 
 money market, with its constantly fluc- 
 tuating prices. 
 
 Money Street of New York. 
 
 WALL STREET is not a long street, 
 though it is felt a long ways. A man, 
 without corns, can walk the length of 
 
 it in five minutes and then, if he 
 should keep on, would find himself in 
 the East River. It is not a wide street. 
 Bids have been made from curb to 
 curb. Wheels get locked there daily, 
 especially near the head of it ; and a 
 vast deal of highly ornamental profan- 
 ity is done by sweet-tempered carmen, 
 who, having wedged themselves in, seem 
 to think that, like the poor debtor, they 
 can swear themselves out. 
 
 It is not a handsome street, still there 
 is nothing wooden in it, except, per- 
 haps, the heads of some stock buyers. 
 White marble, brown freestone, terra 
 cotta, and substantial granite bespeak 
 its wealth. There is that wonderfully 
 intricate building, the Merchants' Ex- 
 change now the Custom House, where 
 there is so much hard swearing over 
 fraudulent invoices and political assess- 
 ments. 
 
 On either side of the street is an il- 
 lustrious row of banks and insurance 
 offices, with foreign insurance agents, 
 land agents, coal agents, railroad agents, 
 steamship agents, and many other sorts 
 of agents (Satan's too, perhaps), includ- 
 ing some lawyers on the second and 
 higher floors. The basements swarm 
 with brokers. Every nook and cranny 
 in all these buildings commands high 
 rents. Add to this picture innumera- 
 ble groups of earnest-talking, scolding, 
 chaffing, gesticulating men, dividing 
 the rapid currents of merchants, bro- 
 kers, clerks, foreign consuls, financiers, 
 and commercial editors, who are con- 
 tinually passing, and one who has never 
 seen the notorious thoroughfare will 
 have a tolerably graphic idea of Wall 
 street. 
 
 It is admitted, even by Europeans, 
 that, as a money-dealing street, this 
 has no superior in the world. The na- 
 ture and amount of transactions of this 
 kind, for a single week, in this locality, 
 would make a formidable portion of 
 Doomsday Book.
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 113 
 
 Governor of the Bank of England taken 
 by Surprise. 
 
 AT the half-yearly meetings of the 
 proprietors of the Bank of England, it 
 sometimes happens that one or more 
 of the stockholders endeavor to elicit 
 some information relative to the con- 
 duct of the governor, and also as to the 
 cause of any particular loss sustained 
 by the bank, and from what data the 
 directors have fixed the dividend. 
 These and similar questions are gener- 
 ally put in the most cautious manner ; 
 and, if answered at all which is a 
 rare occurrence are met with an equal 
 degree of caution on the part of the 
 governor. 
 
 That functionary, however, is on 
 some occasions taken by surprise, and 
 betrayed into admissions which are 
 contrary to practice. A singular in- 
 stance of this occurred during the term 
 of Governor Reid, at a meeting for the 
 declaration of the dividends, when he 
 stated that during the past year the 
 amount of commercial paper discount- 
 ed by the bank was forty millions of 
 pounds. As this amount was unusually 
 large, and as the rate of interest charged 
 by the bank was five and one-half to six 
 per cent., with only a loss of six hun- 
 dred pounds, it naturally occurred to the 
 stockholders to inquire why the divi- 
 dend was not larger than the corre- 
 sponding period of the last year ; and, 
 on one of them putting a question to 
 the chair, as to whether the repayment 
 of the money borrowed from the Bank 
 of France had been attended with any 
 considerable loss to the corporation, the 
 governor was on the point of answering 
 this question, when some kind friend, 
 like a second Mentor, whispered some- 
 thing in the ear of the governor, which 
 had the effect of immediately sealing 
 his lips, and he refused to answer the 
 question. At these meetings, as little 
 as possible of the affairs of the bank is 
 disclosed by the directors, from the 
 fear that, should they be more explicit, 
 8 
 
 it might endanger their property by 
 depreciating the value of bank stock ; 
 and, to such an extent is this system of 
 secrecy carried, that it is a proverbial 
 saying, " that if you met a bank direc- 
 tor going across the Royal Exchange, 
 and you asked him what o'clock it was, 
 he would say, 'You must excuse me 
 answering that question.' " 
 
 Picayunes and Coppers. 
 
 You "can't buy nothing" in New 
 Orleans, or most Southern and Western 
 cities, for less than a " picayune ' ? six 
 and a quarter cents. And in connec- 
 tion with this fact in currency, a little 
 incident took place on board one of the 
 "Western boats, the rehearsal of which 
 can do no harm on a hot or rainy day. 
 A man from the North, who happened 
 to have quite a lot of coppers weighing 
 down his pocket, but who, Yankee- 
 like, had no idea of not getting their 
 full value in a trade, essayed to pass 
 ten of the filthy coin upon a " Sucker," 
 for a dune. 
 
 " What le they ? " inquired the Suck- 
 er, in unfeigned ignorance. 
 
 " I calculate they are cents," replied 
 the Northerner ; " can't you read ? " 
 
 " I reckon not," said the other ; " and 
 what's more, old hoss, I allow I don't 
 want to. What is cents, mister ? " 
 
 "I vow to the judges," said the 
 Northerner, "you are worse than the 
 heathen ! Cents is money 'sartin ! 
 Ten of them are worth one dime. 
 Can't you see? It says 'E Pluribus 
 Unum ' that's the Latin for ' Hail Co- 
 lumbia ' and here it's inscribed ' One 
 Cent.' " 
 
 " Look here," responded the Sucker, 
 putting the thumb of his hand into his 
 ear, and inclining his fingers forward, 
 " you may run a sew on a Hoosier or a 
 Wolverine, but I'm blamed if you Yan- 
 kee me with that contusive stuffl "
 
 114 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Bewitching: a Bank Teller. 
 
 DURING the sojourn of Professor 
 Anderson in the Quaker City, he used 
 one of the banks for his deposits. One 
 day he went to the bank for this pur- 
 pose, with a large amount. It was 
 principally in twenty and ten dollar 
 gold pieces, and was handed in in 
 packages of five hundred each. The 
 teller, who did not know the wizard, 
 and who is usually a yery smart man, 
 commenced counting the gold, but could 
 not, for his life, satisfy himself of the 
 numerous amounts. Opening one pack- 
 age, he found all right ; then he took 
 a second, and found it ten dollars 
 short recounted it, and found ten dol- 
 lars over ; and then again, and it was 
 short. He then laid it aside, took an- 
 other parcel, and found it contained 
 twenty dollars over recounted it, and 
 it was only ten over ; again he carefully 
 and deliberately counted it, and discov- 
 ered it was thirty short ! The young 
 man felt his head, to see if he was labor- 
 ing under sickness, dreaming, or de- 
 ranged. Finding his senses all right, 
 he set to work again, commencing at 
 the first package and got through five 
 very well; the next he found twenty 
 short, and, recounting it, discovered 
 forty over 1 He finally called to his 
 aid another teller, who was equally 
 puzzled ; but, turning round, his eye 
 fell upon Professor Anderson standing 
 near by, and he felt convinced it was 
 the trick of the wizard. The professor 
 blandly smiled, and desired him to 
 proceed ; and when he got through 
 satisfactorily, he took the receipt for 
 the amount. The teller then went to 
 the table where he had left the piles of 
 gold, in order to put them into the 
 drawer, when lo 1 he could not lift 
 any of them ; the coins clung together 
 and were immovable ! The young man 
 here looked fairly terrified, and sought 
 a chair ; but the professor, seeing his 
 perplexity, told him not to be alarmed. 
 He found his imagination had affected 
 
 him, and told him to put the cash 
 away ; the professor then left the bank, 
 passing the crowd of anxious customers 
 who had been observing, in blank as- 
 tonishment, the capers that were being 
 cut up on the other side of the counter. 
 
 The Proud Broker Barnard. 
 
 JOHN BARNARD, usually styled " the 
 proud broker," flourished extensively 
 in the English money circles of the last 
 century. The reduction of interest on 
 money loans, in 1750, from four to 
 three per cent., originated with this 
 famous man, and he it was who de- 
 fiantly made war upon time bargains. 
 His pride was indomitable to such a 
 degree that it passed into a proverb ; 
 the members of the exchange, who were 
 always spoken of by Sir John with 
 haughty contempt, thoroughly detest- 
 ed him, and greatly helped to fan the 
 unpopularity which fell upon him 
 when he opposed public feeling as, 
 with a most unflinching determination, 
 he invariably did, if his conscience 
 prompted. 
 
 On commercial subjects his opinion 
 was greatly regarded; when any re- 
 markable feature in financial politics 
 occurred, the town echoed with, 
 " What does Sir John say to this ? 
 what is Sir John's opinion ? " He once 
 had the honor of refusing the post of 
 chancellor of the exchequer. 
 
 It is somewhat at variance with the 
 proud character of the man, that from 
 the time the distinguished honor was 
 paid him of erecting his statue in the 
 Royal Exchange, he never so much as 
 entered that building, but transacted 
 his business in the front. 
 
 The blood of Sir John Barnard still 
 flows in the veins of some of the best 
 houses in the commercial world, his 
 son having married the daughter of the 
 great banker, Sir Thomas Hankey. Sir 
 John's great enemy -and a powerful 
 one, it may well be believed was 
 Sampson Gideon, the Jew broker,
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 115 
 
 "worth more than all the land of 
 Canaan." __^_ 
 
 Four Money-making Rules of Roth- 
 schild. 
 
 ROTHSCHILD commonly ascribed his 
 early success, in a great degree, to the 
 following rules : 
 
 " First : I combined three profits ; I 
 made the manufacturer my customer, 
 and the one I bought of my customer 
 that is, I supplied the manufacturer 
 with raw materials and dyes, on each 
 of which I made a profit, and took his 
 manufactured goods, which I sold at a 
 profit, and thus combined three profits. 
 
 " Second : Make a bargain at once. 
 Be an off-hand man. 
 
 " Third : Newer have anything to do 
 with an unlucky man or place. I have 
 seen many clever men who had not 
 shoes to their feet. I never act with 
 them ; their advice sounds very well, 
 but fate is against them they cannot 
 get on themselves how can they do 
 good to me ? 
 
 " Fourth : Be cautious and lold. It 
 requires a great deal of boldness and a 
 great deal of caution to make a great 
 fortune ; and when you have got it, it 
 requires ten times as much wit to keep 
 it." 
 
 The last idea was one which Roth- 
 schild frequently expressed ; it forms a 
 passage in his memorable conversation 
 with Sir Thomas Buxton, and there is 
 no doubt he was thoroughly impressed 
 with its truth. 
 
 Albert Qallatin declining Baring's 
 Offer of a Fortune. 
 
 THE financial talent and success of 
 Albert Gallatin were equalled only by 
 his inflexible business integrity his 
 name, through scores of years, stand- 
 ing forth as the very embodiment of 
 rare good judgment and unspotted 
 honor. One of the most interesting 
 illustrations of his high-toned charac- 
 ter, in business dealings, occurred while 
 
 he was in Europe, on a mission in be- 
 half of his Government, in 1818. While 
 absent on his duty, he rendered some 
 essential service to Mr. Alexander Bar- 
 ing in the negotiation of a loan from 
 the French Government. Mr. Baring 
 in return pressed him to take a part of 
 the loan, offering him such advantages 
 in it that, without advancing any funds, 
 he could have realized a fortune. " I 
 thank you," was Gallatin's reply; U I 
 will not accept your obliging offer, be- 
 cause a man who has had the direction 
 of the finances of his country as long as 
 I have, should not die rich." 
 
 G-resham's Scheme of Exchanges. 
 
 THOMAS GRESHAM was for many 
 years the commercial pride of England ; 
 and that his character has not been 
 overrated is proved by the notable 
 scheme he devised at Antwerp, for op- 
 erating on the exchanges, so as to ren- 
 der them favorable to England. He 
 promised Edward the Sixth, during 
 the reign of whom this occurred, that 
 if he might pursue his own views, he 
 would remove all his sovereign's diffi- 
 culties in two years. The following is 
 his plan, in his own words : 
 
 My request shall be to his majesty 
 and you, to appoint me out, weekly, 
 twelve or thirteen hundred pounds, to 
 be secretly received at one man's hands, 
 so that it may be kept secret, and that 
 I may thereunto trust, and that I may 
 make my reckoning thereof assuredly. 
 I shall so use the matter here in the 
 town of Antwerp, that every day I will 
 be sure to take up two or three hundred 
 pounds sterling by exchange. And thus 
 doing, it shall not be perceived, nor yet 
 shall be the occasion to make the ex- 
 change fall. For that it shall be taken up 
 in my name. And so by these means, in 
 working by deliberation and time, the 
 merchant's turn also shall be served. 
 As also this should bring all merchants 
 out of suspicion, who do nothing to- 
 ward payment of the king's debts, and
 
 116 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 will not stick to say, that ere the pay- 
 ment of the king's debts be made, it 
 will bring down the exchange to 13s. 
 4dL, which I trust never to see that 
 day. So that by this you may per- 
 ceive if that I do but take up every day, 
 but 200 sterling, it will amount in one 
 year to 72,000, and the king's majesty 
 oweth here at thjs present 108,000, 
 with the interest money that was pro- 
 longed before this time. So that, by 
 these means, in two years, things will 
 be compassed accordingly, and my 
 purpose set forth. 
 
 By this plan, he found means in a 
 short space to raise the exchange from 
 sixteen shillings Flemish for the pound 
 sterling to twenty-two shillings, at 
 which rate he discharged all the king's 
 debts, and in this way money was ren- 
 dered plentiful and trade prosperous. 
 
 First Run upon Bankers. 
 
 THE extravagant luxury of the court 
 of King Charles, together with its utter 
 want of principle, and incapacity to 
 carry on the contest with Holland, pro- 
 duced the first run upon "bankers ever 
 made. The Government had suffered 
 a succession of humiliating disasters. 
 The extravagance of the court had dis- 
 sipated all the means which Parliament 
 had supplied for the purpose of carry- 
 ing on offensive hostilities. It was de- 
 termined only to wage defensive war ; 
 but even for defensive war the vast re- 
 sources of England were found insuffi- 
 cient. The Dutch insulted the British 
 coast, sailed up the Thames, took Sheer- 
 ness, and carried their ravages to Chat- 
 ham. The blaze of the ships burning 
 in the river was seen at London ; it 
 was rumored that a foreign army had 
 landed at Gravesend ; and military 
 men seriously proposed to abandon the 
 tower. 
 
 The people, accustomed to the se- 
 cure reign of Cromwell, were in utter 
 consternation. The moneyed portion 
 of the community were seized with a 
 
 panic. The country was in danger. 
 London itself might be invaded. What 
 security was there, then, for the money 
 advanced to the crown ? The people 
 flocked to their debtors ; they demand- 
 ed their deposits ; and London now 
 witnessed the first run upon the bank- 
 ers ! 
 
 The fears of the people, however, 
 proved fallacious, for the goldsmiths 
 as the bankers were then called met 
 all demands made upon them. Confi- 
 dence was restored by a proclamation 
 from the king, stating that the de- 
 mands on the exchequer should be met 
 as usual ; and the run ceased. 
 
 Queen Anne savin? the Government 
 Bank from Pillage. 
 
 HISTORY shows, in more than one 
 instance, that the great wealth accumu- 
 lated in the treasury of the Bank of 
 England, has rendered it peculiarly 
 liable to attack in times of public ex- 
 citement and tumult. There are al- 
 ways idle and profligate men to whom 
 the very name " bank " possesses a 
 charm. In 1709 the piety of the people 
 of London created a religious riot. One 
 Dr. Henry Sacheverell, an apostate 
 Whig, being appointed to preach the 
 annual sermon at St. Paul's, before the 
 Lord Mayor and court of aldermen, 
 used the occasion as an engine of attack 
 upon some of the Government officials. 
 The measureless impudence of the 
 preacher was rebuked among others 
 by Sir Gilbert Heathcote, a director 
 of the Bank of England. The usual 
 courtesy of having the discourse print- 
 ed by the city was not extended ; in 
 the absence of which, Sacheverell him- 
 self had it printed, with an inflammatory 
 epistle, dedicating it to Garrard, the 
 Lord Mayor, at whose instance, he al- 
 leged, the publication was made. He 
 was arrested and impeached, in revenge 
 for the liberties he had taken with the 
 Government. The populace chose to 
 support the divine ; and a body guard
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 117 
 
 of London butchers accompanied him 
 to his trial at "Westminster Hall, which 
 the queen honored with her presence. 
 " God bless the Church and Dr. Sach- 
 everell" was echoed from mouth to 
 mouth among the " pious " populace. 
 Money was thrown among them, by 
 some of the better classes, who follow- 
 ed in hackney coaches. The dissenting 
 chapels were sacked. The queen and 
 court were in the utmost consternation. 
 Multitudes followed the Doctor, press- 
 ing about him, and striving to kiss his 
 hand. Alarm seized every bosom. 
 
 The anxiety of the bank directors 
 during this period of tumult was great, 
 as every day rendered them liable to 
 attack. At last, intelligence reached 
 them that the rioters were moving to- 
 ward their locality. As a pious mob 
 was no more to be trusted, pecuniarily, 
 than a political one, the court, assem- 
 bled to " concert measures proper to be 
 taken," and sent to the principal Secre- 
 tary of State for a guard to prevent any 
 attempt they might make on the bank. 
 When the message was received the 
 Earl of Sunderland made its tenor 
 known to the queen, who immediately 
 ordered both horse and foot out to quell 
 the tumult, leaving her own person 
 without protection. " God will be my 
 guard," was her ready reply, when re- 
 minded of her danger. A detachment 
 under Captain Horsey was immediately 
 ordered into the city to prevent the 
 meditated attack on the alarmed direc- 
 tors. "Am I to preach or fight?" 
 was the question of the blunt soldier, 
 on receiving his instructions. There 
 proved, however, to be no occasion for 
 either. The rioters retreated in alarm ; 
 the ~barik was saved from pillage^ Tyy the 
 self-sacrifice and devotion of the queen. 
 
 Rendering- Bank Notes Serviceable. 
 
 THE uses of bank notes are manifold ; 
 but the following is a novel mode of 
 rendering them serviceable. One of 
 these for 5 came in the course of busi- 
 
 ness to a mercantile house in Liverpool. 
 On the back of it was written : " If this 
 note gets into the hands of John Dean, 
 of Longhill, near Carlisle, his brother 
 Andrew is a prisoner in Algiers." The 
 circumstance was interesting and ap- 
 peared in a newspaper, in which the 
 paragraph was perused by a person in 
 Carlisle, who had known in past years 
 one Andrew Dean, and was still ac- 
 quainted with his brother John Dean, 
 of the place named in the note. The 
 son of the latter happened to be in 
 Carlisle, and hearing the intelligence, 
 gave such a report of his uncle that 
 there was every reason to believe he 
 was the Andrew Dean whose captivity 
 became thus singularly known to his 
 friends in England. Of these things 
 are formed the romance of life ; and 
 the impossibility of assisting the Alge- 
 rine slave must often have been a 
 painful remembrance to the prisoner's 
 brother. 
 
 Supposititious "Will of the Bank-of- 
 Eng-land Directors. 
 
 THE success which attended the op- 
 erations of the Bank of England, in its 
 early history, naturally provoked com- 
 petition. A bank was proposed by Dr. 
 Hugh Chamberlain, to advance money 
 on the security of landed property, and 
 though the Bank of England had no 
 occasion to fear rivalry, they petitioned 
 against it, and were heard by their 
 counsel. All that the projectors required 
 was money ; and as that was not ready 
 at the appointed period, " the roman- 
 tic Land Bank " failed. A war of most 
 sarcastic pamphlets ensued between the 
 friends of the new scheme and those of 
 the old institution, one of these pam- 
 phlets being entitled : " The Trial and 
 Condemnation of the Land Bank, at Ex- 
 eter 'Change, for murdering the Bank of 
 England at Grocers' Hall." A will, by 
 no means complimentary to the direc- 
 tors of the latter, is supposed to be pro- 
 duced at the trial. It runs as follows :
 
 118 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " Know all our creditors by these 
 presents, that we, the Governor and 
 Company of the Bank of England, be- 
 ing weak in body through the wounds 
 received from the Land Bank at Exeter 
 Change, to whom we lay our death, 
 but of as good sense as ever we were, 
 finding ourselves impaired in our credit 
 and reputation, and despairing of re- 
 covery, do make our last will and testa- 
 ment. 
 
 " 1st. We bequeath our soul to the 
 devil, in order to serve the public out 
 of our creditors' money ; and as to the 
 qualities of our mind, we dispose them as 
 follows, namely, all our skill in foreign 
 exchanges, and our probity and candor 
 in making up the accounts of the loss 
 thereof, we give to all and every of our 
 directors, except four or five, jointly 
 and severally, to hold to them, and 
 to their successors, as heirlooms, and 
 imperishable monuments of their skill 
 and probity forever. All our obstinacy 
 and blunders we give unto our present 
 governor, upon trust, that he shall em- 
 ploy one equal third part thereof as one 
 of the lords of the Admiralty, and the 
 other part thereof as Governor of the 
 Bank of England. All our oaths, im- 
 pudence, &c., we give unto our present 
 deputy governor and our dear Sir Hen- 
 ry Furnese, to hold in joint partner- 
 ship during their lives, and the survivor 
 to have the whole. All our shuffling 
 tricks we give to our dear Sir William 
 Gore. All our cynicalness and self- 
 conceit we give to our directors, Sir 
 John Ward and Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 
 equally to be divided betwixt them, 
 share and share alike, as tenants in 
 common. All our blindness and fear 
 we give unto our dear Obadiah Sedg- 
 wick, and we also give him 5 in mon- 
 ey to buy him a new cloth coat, a new 
 half-beaver hat, a second-hand periwig, 
 and an old black sword to solicit with 
 in the lobby, and also to buy him a 
 pair of spectacles to write letters to 
 lords with. 
 
 u As to the residue of our temporal 
 
 estate (besides the said 5) we dispose 
 thereof as followeth : Imprimis, we de- 
 vise to our own members (when they 
 shall have paid in our 100 per cent.) 
 our fund of 100,000 per annum, charg- 
 ed and chargeable, nevertheless, with 
 the sum of 1,200,000, for which it 
 stands mortgaged, by bank bills, in full 
 satisfaction of all their great expecta- 
 tions from the probity and skill of our 
 directors, advising them to accept a re- 
 demption thereof by Parliament, when- 
 ever they can have it. 
 
 " Item all our ready moneys, before 
 any of our debts are paid, we give to 
 our executors, hereinafter named, in 
 trust, that they shall, from time to 
 time, until 1st August, 1696, lend the 
 same into the exchequer, upon condi- 
 tion to defeat the establishment of the 
 Land Bank ; and from and after the 1st 
 said August, then to lend out the same 
 into the said exchequer, upon security 
 of premises to establish our executors 
 the next session, instead of the Land 
 Bank, and for such other premiums as 
 our said executors can give to them- 
 selves, for doing thereof. And we do 
 direct our said executors to continue 
 the stock and pensions already allowed 
 to our past friends they know where. 
 And after all our ready moneys so dis- 
 posed, we leave the residue of our effects 
 for payment of bills and notes, at such 
 days and hours, and in such manner and 
 proportion, and with such preferences, 
 as our said executors shall see fit. And 
 we do hereby constitute our directors 
 executors of this our will, giving each 
 of them power, out of our cash, to 
 discount their own tallies, bills and 
 notes, at par ; and the bills and notes 
 of other of our creditors at the highest 
 discount they can get for the same. 
 
 " And our body we commit to be burned, 
 with all privacy, lest our creditors arrest 
 our corpse. In witness wherof, we 
 have hereunto set our common seal, 4th 
 May, 1696." 
 
 The epitaph was as follows : 
 
 " Here lies the body of the Bank of
 
 BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 
 
 119 
 
 England, who was bora in the year 
 1694, died May 5th, 1696, in the third 
 year of its age. They had issue legiti- 
 mate by their common seal, 1,200,000, 
 called bank bills, and by their cashier 
 
 two million sons of called Speed's 
 
 notes." t 
 
 Immense Consignment of Gold to a 
 New York House. 
 
 THE great business crash in 1837 was 
 attended by a universal suspension of 
 specie payments by the banks through- 
 out the country. Under these circum- 
 stances, and in view of the extensive 
 business relations between the United 
 States and England, application was 
 made to the bankers and capitalists of 
 the latter country, for such aid as would 
 encourage Americans then struggling 
 to extricate themselves from embarrass- 
 ments, and enable them to return to 
 specie payments. To effect this, Mr. 
 James G. King, of the house of Prime, 
 Ward & King, New York, proceeded 
 to England, and was warmly received 
 and eagerly consulted by bankers and 
 merchants in London. His calm and 
 assured tone and judgment did much 
 to allay the apprehension which panic 
 and ignorance of the extent of resources 
 possessed by the American commercial 
 community and banks, had produced. 
 
 He startled the bank-parlor in 
 Threadneedle-street by a suggestion, 
 that instead of embarrassing American 
 merchants by discrediting, as they had 
 been doing, paper connected with the 
 American trade, it nearly concerned the 
 solvency of many of their own cus- 
 tomers, and thus their own interests, 
 that liberal aid should rather be ex- 
 tended to that trade. He finally 
 brought them over to these views, and 
 proposed that the Bank of England at 
 once send over several million dollars 
 in coin, to strengthen the American 
 banks and enable them to resume. In 
 conformity with Mr. King's opinions 
 and plan, the bank consigned to his 
 firm the immense sum of one million 
 
 pounds sterling in gold, upon the sole 
 responsibility of that house and the 
 guaranty of Baring Brothers & Co. 
 The receipt of this com in America pro- 
 duced at once a realization of the re- 
 sult anticipated by Mr. King, and the 
 transaction constitutes one of the most 
 important events in the financial his- 
 tory of the United States, nor is it ne- 
 cessary to state that Mr. King added 
 much to his already high renown as a 
 merchant and banker, by the part he so 
 grandly enacted. The affair was wound 
 up without loss and with great prompt- 
 ness. __^_ 
 
 "Accommodation" offered at the 
 Bank. 
 
 A CAPITAL example of what is often 
 termed " taking the starch out," hap- 
 pened in a country bank in New Eng- 
 land. A pompous, well-dressed indi- 
 vidual entered the bank, and, address- 
 ing the teller, who is something of a 
 wag, inquired : 
 
 " Is the cashier in ? " 
 
 " No, Sir," was the reply. 
 
 " Well, I am dealing in pens, supply- 
 ing the New England banks pretty 
 largely, and I suppose it will be proper 
 for me to deal with the cashier." 
 
 " I suppose it will," said the teller. 
 
 " Very well ; I will wait." 
 
 The pen peddler took a chair and sat 
 composedly for a full hour, waiting for 
 the cashier. By that time he began to 
 grow uneasy, but sat twisting in his 
 chair for about twenty minutes, and, 
 seeing no prospect of a change in his 
 circumstances, asked the teller how 
 soon the cashier would be in. 
 
 " Well, I don't know exactly," said 
 the waggish teller, " but I expect him in 
 about eight weeks. He has just gone to 
 Lake Superior, and told me he thought 
 he should come back in that time." 
 
 Peddler thought he would not wait. 
 
 " Oh, you may stay if you wish," said 
 the teller, very blandly. " We have no 
 objection to your sitting here in the day- 
 time, and you can probably find some
 
 120 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 place in town where they will be glad 
 to keep you nights." 
 
 The pompous peddler disappeared 
 without another word. 
 
 Pennsylvania Bonds. 
 
 AT the time when Sidney Smith, the 
 reverend canon of St. Paul's, was de- 
 nouncing the "drab-coated men of 
 Pennsylvania " for neglecting to pay 
 the interest on their State stock, of 
 which he held a considerable amount, 
 
 he was visited by a young author, ex- 
 ceedingly lavish in his compliments and 
 flattery, and who declared that if he 
 could only hope to attain to even a 
 small degree of the fame and honor 
 which he (Sidney) enjoyed, he would 
 be the most happy man on earth. " My 
 dear young friend," said the canon, 
 " I would that you were not only al- 
 most, but altogether such as I am, ex- 
 cept these ~bonds" laying his hand at the 
 same time on the certificates of his 
 Pennsylvania stock lying on the desk 
 before him.
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SUCCESSFUL 
 BUSINESS QUALITIES.
 
 PAET THIED. 
 
 Anecdotes and Illustrations of the Successful Business Qualities, 
 
 INTEGRITY, ENTERPRISE, ENERGY, PERSEVERANCE, COURAGE, SHREWDNESS, PUNCTILIOUSNESS, 
 PRUDENCE, AMBITION, GRATITUDE, BENEVOLENCE, GENEROSITY, ECONOMY; WITH PEN- 
 CILLINGS OF STRIKING BUSINESS ADVENTURES, VICISSITUDES, EXPLOITS, AND ACHIEVE- 
 MENTS, BOTH SERIOUS AND COMICAL. 
 
 'Tig not in mortals to command success ; 
 
 But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it. ADDISOK'S 
 
 ' CATO." 
 
 In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once ; but must prepare 
 business, and so ripen it by degrees. LORD BACON. 
 
 It is in vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take 
 it. JOHNSON. 
 
 A merchant who always tells the truth, and a genius who never lies, are synonymous to a 
 saint. LAVATEB. 
 
 Of plain sound sense life's current coin is made ; 
 
 With that we drive the most substantial trade. YOUNQ. 
 
 Making: Conditions King James and 
 the Corn Merchants. 
 
 DURING the reign of James the First, 
 a great dearth of corn happened, which 
 obliged his majesty to send for the 
 celebrated Eastland Company of mer- 
 chants. He told them, that to obviate 
 the present scarcity, they must load 
 their homeward-bound ships with corn ; 
 which they promised to do, and so 
 retired. One of the lords of the coun- 
 cil, however, said to the king, that such 
 a promise signified little, unless they 
 agreed at what price it should be sold ; 
 on which they were all called back, and 
 acquainted that the king desired a more 
 explicit answer. The deputy replied : 
 " Sir, we will freight and buy our 
 corn as cheap as we can, and sell it 
 here as we can afford it ; but to be 
 confined to any certain price, we can- 
 not." Being still pressed for a more 
 distinct answer, the deputy, who was 
 not only a princely merchant but a 
 great foxhunter, said to the king; 
 
 " Sir, your majesty is a lover of the 
 noble sport of hunting so am I, and 
 I keep a few dogs ; but if my dogs do 
 not love the sport as well as we, I 
 might as well hunt with hogs as with 
 dogs." The king replied : " Say no 
 more, man, thou art in the right; go 
 and do as well as you can, but ~be sure 
 you bring the corn." 
 
 Shaking: One's Business Credit. 
 
 A good story is told of old Mr. Ful- 
 ler, once the famous banker of Cornhill, 
 London founder of the firm now loca- 
 ted in one of the splendid bank palaces 
 in Moorgate street, shining with plate 
 glass, polished mahogany, brass railings, 
 and bronze candelabra, a glance at 
 which would have half driven its head 
 and originator into Bedlam. 
 
 Mr. Fuller not only lived at his bank, 
 but even had his washing done on the 
 spot. On such days, for many a revolv- 
 ing year, every one who passed his 
 door at or about noon might have seen-
 
 124 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 a single pint of porter placed at the 
 foot of the staircase; that was the 
 washerwoman's allowance. In process 
 of time this constant pint, so long a 
 pint, became a pot, and forthwith there 
 was a sensation at the bank, in Corn- 
 hill, and all along Lombard street! 
 The twelve o'clock pint of beer that 
 had stood so long, at Fuller's bank, 
 had been increased to a pot! Every 
 one talked of the event; and at last 
 one customer whether a dull, hard- 
 hearted, unhappy miser, or some solemn 
 mocker, pleased to trifle with the infir- 
 mities of poor human nature, cannot be 
 told drew the senior partner's atten- 
 tion to the circumstance, in this formal 
 manner : Entering the bank, one morn- 
 ing, and finding the old gentleman 
 fixed, as usual, woodwork-like to his 
 desk, as if he was a component part of 
 that article, he drew near and thus be- 
 gan: 
 
 " I have banked with you now, Mr. 
 Fuller, for a good many years." 
 
 Mr. Fuller hereupon bowed, not his 
 head, but head, shoulders, and half his 
 body, smirked, and replied : " Yes, 
 many thanks for your favors ; you have, 
 sir." 
 
 " I have, Mr. Fuller," continued the 
 other, " and have always felt great satis- 
 faction in keeping my account with 
 you until lately." 
 
 "Indeed, sir," interrupted the old 
 gentleman, with quick anxiety, laying 
 down his pen, and pushing his spec- 
 tacles from his eyes up to his forehead ; 
 " pray, what has happened ? we are 
 the same as ever." 
 
 "Pardon me, Mr. Fuller; I have 
 noticed for many a year, that on a cer- 
 tain day in the week a pint of porter 
 has regularly stood at the foot of your 
 stairs. I always could tell, when I saw 
 that pint, that it was washing-day with 
 you, and greatly pleased I used to be at 
 that proof of your economy; for, Mr. 
 Fuller, the man who is intrusted with 
 the keeping of other men's money, 
 should know how to take care of his 
 
 own ; and he cannot give any better or 
 stronger proof of what he is capable of 
 in that respect, than by being moderate 
 and abstemious in his housekeeping. 
 Therefore I was always, as I have just 
 said, well pleased to see you were not 
 wasteful with your washerwoman. I felt 
 sure, while that continued, that my de- 
 posits in this house were safe perfect- 
 ly safe, sir. (This was said with an em- 
 phasis that weighed all of thirteen 
 pounds, and with a look that set the 
 tips of Mr. Fuller's fingers a-twirling, 
 as if a small electric battery had been 
 brought to play upon his nervous sys- 
 tem.) But I see you are changing you 
 are breaking loose, Mr. Fuller; you 
 now allow your washerwoman not a 
 pint, but a whole pot of beer, every 
 washing-day ; and I must say, sir, that 
 if you go on doubling your expenditures 
 at that rate, it may be time for your 
 customers to be looking after their bal- 
 ances." 
 
 Mr. Fuller, it is said, took this re- 
 buke quite seriously, and with humble 
 thanks, assuring his customers that 
 business had increased that more 
 resident clerks were now employed 
 than formerly and that, as there was 
 more washing to be done, helpers had 
 been hired, and an extra allowance of 
 beer permitted. But this he promised 
 to retrench at once, and he kept his 
 word. The pot of beer was counter- 
 manded, the " standard " pint replaced, 
 and this was never afterward exceeded 
 during the old banker's lifetime. 
 
 Yankee Shrewdness Handsomely 
 Illustrated. 
 
 WHEN the prospect of founding a 
 large manufacturing town on the Merri- 
 mac River was in contemplation, some 
 of the persons interested in that great 
 commercial enterprise sent up Mr. B., a 
 young gentleman skilled as an engineer, 
 and who was also fond of sporting, to 
 view the water privilege carefully, and 
 to make inquiry as to the prices of land 
 in the vicinity. He went with his dog,
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 125 
 
 gun, and fishing tackle, and obtained 
 board in a farmer's house, a Mr. F. He 
 spent his time in viewing the falls, the 
 canal, the river and grounds, with occa- 
 sional fowling and fishing. 
 
 After spending some time there, in 
 talking with the farmer, one evening 
 he told him " that he liked the place 
 very well, and thought he should be 
 pleased to come and live there." The 
 man said "he should be pleased to 
 have him." " Well, Mr. F., what will 
 you take for your farm ? " " Why, I 
 don't want to sell it, Mr. B. ; nor would 
 I, unless I can get twice what it is 
 worth, as I am satisfied here, and don't 
 want to move." " Well, what do you 
 say it is worth, Mr. F. ? " " Why, it is 
 worth fifteen hundred dollars, and I 
 can't sell it for less than three thousand 
 dollars." " That is too much," said 
 Mr. B., "I can't give that." "Very 
 well, you need not." Here the conver- 
 sation ended. 
 
 Mr. B. continued his sporting, and, 
 having received his instructions in the 
 course of a few days, renewed his talk 
 with Mr. F., and said to him, " Well, 
 Mr. F., I have made up my mind that I 
 should like to live here very well, and 
 though you ask so much, I will take 
 up with your offer, and give you three 
 thousand dollars." " Why, as to that, 
 Mr. B., you did not take my farm when 
 I offered it to you, and I am not willing 
 to sell it now, for anything less than 
 six thousand dollars." " You are jok- 
 ing, Mr. F. 1 " " Not so, Mr. B., I am 
 in earnest, and I shan't continue my 
 offer more than twenty-four hours." 
 
 B., finding he was determined, went 
 off for instructions, and the next day 
 told Mr. F. he would give him six thou- 
 sand dollars. The purchase was made, 
 deed passed, and money paid. 
 
 Some time afterward, Mr. B. asked 
 the farmer what reason he had in the 
 course of a few days to double the price 
 for his farm, and to insist upon it. 
 " Why, Mr. B., I will tell you ; a day 
 or two after I offered you the farm for 
 
 three thousand dollars, I saw two men 
 on the opposite side of the Merrimac 
 River, sitting on a rock, and talking 
 for some time ; then they got up, and 
 one went up the river, and the other 
 down, and after some time they re- 
 turned, seemed in earnest conversation 
 for half an hour or more, when they 
 arose and went away. I did not know 
 what it meant, but I thought something 
 was in the wind, and I determined, if 
 you asked me again to sell my farm, 
 I would demand double the price." 
 Thus began the purchase, by Boston 
 merchants, of the land upon which the 
 city of Lowell has been erected. 
 
 Queen Jane's Opinion of Merchants. 
 
 JAKE, of France, wife of Philip the 
 Fair, while residing a few days at 
 Bruges, was mortified at the splendor 
 of the appearance of the merchants' 
 wives, judging by that of her own. 
 " I thought," said the elegant and royal 
 visitor, "I had been the only queen 
 here; but I find there are above six 
 hundred queens in this city ! " 
 
 Boyhood Struggles of a Merchant. 
 
 " I REMEMBER," said Gideon Lee, in 
 after life, " when I was a lad living 
 with my uncle, it was my business to 
 feed and milk the cows. And many a 
 time, long before light in the morning, 
 I was started off, in the cold and snow, 
 without shoes, to my work, and used 
 to think it a luxury to warm my frozen 
 feet on the spot just before occupied by 
 the animal I had roused. It taught me to 
 reflect, and to consider possibilities ; and 
 I remember asking myself, "Is it not 
 possible for me to better my condition ? " 
 
 Lee and His Travelling' Companion. 
 
 BEFORE establishing himself perma- 
 nently as a leather merchant in New 
 York, Gideon Lee made a voyage to 
 St. Mary's, Georgia, taking with him
 
 126 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 some small ventures of leather. On 
 returning to New York, the vessel in 
 which he took passage was wrecked 
 off Cape Fear, and he barely saved him- 
 self, with the few clothes he had on. 
 Accompanied by a faithful friend, 
 named Smith, who had nursed him 
 while sick at St. Mary's, he had no 
 other means of getting to the North 
 than to trudge it on foot. The journey 
 was a most tedious and dismal one ; 
 several days of it were through the 
 pine barrens of North Carolina, not 
 meeting with a house in a day's travel. 
 Smith was a brother Yankee, and bore 
 the hardships with great courage and 
 good humor. Mr. Lee used to relate 
 an anecdote of him, illustrating this 
 latter trait, as well as the dismal char- 
 acter of the country through which 
 they were travelling. " One day," said 
 he, " we had been trudging along, 
 nothing to be seen but the pitch-pine 
 forests, before and behind, and on both 
 sides of us ; shoes worn out, and our 
 feet bleeding, myself before, and Smith 
 following after ; neither of us had ex- 
 changed a word for some time, when 
 Smith suddenly spoke out in his nasal 
 twang "Mr. Lee!" "Well, Smith, 
 well, what about it?" "I wish I 
 could hear it thunder!" "Hear it 
 thunder ! why do you wish so ? " " Be- 
 cause they say thunder is God's voice, 
 and if I could only hear it thunder I 
 should know I was on God's earth ; as 
 it is now, I don't know where I am." 
 
 First Fenny Gained by a Millionnaire. 
 
 AN eminent English millionnaire, who 
 rose as most of that class have from 
 obscurity, says that the first money he 
 ever recollects possessing, was gained 
 in the following manner: I went, he 
 says, to school, a distance of three 
 miles. One day, on my way, I picked 
 up a horse-shoe, carried it about three 
 miles, and sold it to a blacksmith for a 
 penny. That was the first penny I ever 
 recollect possessing ; and I kept it for 
 
 some time. A few weeks after, the 
 same man called my attention to a boy 
 who was carrying off some dirt oppo- 
 site his door ; and offered, if I would 
 beat the boy, who was somewhat big- 
 ger than myself, to give me a penny. I 
 did so ; he made a mark upon the pen- 
 ny, and promised that if I would bring 
 it to him that day fortnight, he would 
 give me another. I took it to him at 
 the appointed time, when he at once 
 fulfilled his promise, and I thus became 
 possessed of three pence ; since which 
 I have never been without money, ex- 
 cept when I gave it all away. It is 
 hard to tell which point involves the 
 most difficulty the art of first obtain- 
 ing a little " nest egg," or the use and 
 management of it when once possessed. 
 
 Benevolence of Goldschmid, the Old 
 Jew Banker. 
 
 GOLDSCHMID'S wealth seemed, on 
 some occasions, hardly greater than 
 his pure-minded benevolence. It is 
 related that at one time a clergyman 
 of the Church of England, who with a 
 family had met with some unforeseen 
 misfortunes, was in debt the sum of 
 four hundred and sixty pounds. From 
 the good character and conduct of the 
 poor debtor, a number of Mends and 
 parishioners were induced to open a 
 subscription for making up the amount ; 
 but being unable amongst themselves 
 to raise more than one hundred and 
 fifty pounds, the collectors were advised 
 to try their success by applying to the 
 benevolent Jew banker ; this was ac- 
 cordingly done. On application, the 
 collectors were ordered to call in the 
 course of a day or two, when Mr. Gold- 
 schmid promised to inquire into the 
 state of the facts. He did so without 
 delay, and finding it a truly worthy 
 case, on their second application, he 
 presented them with a check for the 
 whole amount of the debt, desiring 
 them, at the same time, to return the 
 amount of subscriptions raised else-
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 127 
 
 where to the poor debtor, to begin 
 the world with afresh. 
 
 Reynolds, the Charitable Quaker Mer- 
 chant. 
 
 THE late venerated Richard Rey- 
 nolds, a Quaker merchant in Bristol, 
 Eng., who amassed a princely fortune, 
 was accustomed to speak of himself, in 
 connection with his wealth and the use 
 of it, as merely a steward of the Al- 
 mighty. Thus, hfs entire income, after 
 deducting the moderate expenses of his 
 family, was devoted to charitable pur- 
 poses; and he thought his round of 
 duty still incomplete, unless he devoted 
 his time likewise. He often deprived 
 himself of the slumber which his years 
 craved, to watch beside the bed of sick- 
 ness and pain, and to administer conso- 
 lation to those in trouble. On one oc- 
 casion, he wrote to a friend in London, 
 requesting to know what object of char- 
 ity presented itself, stating that he had 
 not spent the whole of his income. His 
 friend informed him of a number of 
 persons confined in prison for small 
 debts. . He paid the whole, and swept that 
 miserable abode of its distressed tenants. 
 Most of his donations were inclosed in 
 blank covers, bearing the modest signa- 
 ture of " A Friend." A lady once ap- 
 plied to him in behalf of an orphan, 
 saying, " When he is old enough, I will 
 teach him to name and thank his bene- 
 factor." "Nay," replied the Quaker, 
 " thou art wrong. "We do not thank 
 the clouds for rain. Teach him to look 
 higher, and thank Him who giveth both 
 the clouds and the rain. My talent is 
 the meanest of all talents a little sor- 
 did dust ; but as the man in the para- 
 ble was accountable for his talent, so 
 am I accountable to the great Lord of 
 all." 
 
 Liberality of Yakooleff, the Russian 
 Merchant. 
 
 THE rich sheet iron merchant, Ivan 
 Alexevitch Yakooleff, at one time most 
 generously presented to the Czar, 
 
 through Count Orloff, an order on the 
 bank for one million of silver rubles, 
 equal to nearly eight hundred thousand 
 dollars, to make good the defalcation of 
 Politkofisky in the Invalid Fund, thus 
 saving present and former members of 
 the commission, with their families, from 
 ruin, as their estates and other prop- 
 erty were all to be taken to indemnify 
 the government. 
 
 Politkofisky was president of the 
 commission for the management of the 
 Invalid Fund, and possessed the un- 
 bounded confidence of his associates in 
 the commission. His death revealed 
 the defalcation, which probably had 
 been increasing for years until raised 
 to above a million of silver rubles ; for 
 all which the emperor held the com- 
 mission individually responsible. This 
 would have involved most of them in 
 ruin, but from which the noble deed of 
 Yakooleff rescued them. 
 
 French Mercantile Independence. 
 
 SOON after Colbert came into the 
 management of the finances of France, 
 he sent for the principal merchants of 
 that kingdom ; arid in order to ingra- 
 tiate himself with them, and to acquire 
 their confidence, he asked what he 
 could do for them ? They unanimous- 
 ly answered, " Pray, sir, do nothing ! 
 Laissez nous faire" " Let us do for 
 ourselves." 
 
 Patriotic Merchants of the Revolution. 
 
 IN that immortal Congress that 
 adopted the Declaration of American 
 Independence, sat many merchants. 
 It was the merchant John Hancock, 
 that presided over its deliberations 
 and that first put a bold and unshrink- 
 ing mercantile signature to that peri- 
 lous Declaration. With him, in glory 
 and in danger, were the merchants, 
 Robert Morris and George Clymer, of 
 Pennsylvania ; Elbridge Gerry and 
 Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts ; Wil-
 
 128 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Ham Whipple, of New Hampshire; 
 Philip Livingston and Francis Lewis, 
 of New York ; Joseph Hewes, of North 
 Carolina; and Barton Gwinnett, of 
 Georgia. 
 
 Old-fashioned Shopkeepers. 
 
 FOKMERLY, the English shopkeeper 
 took short turns before his door, cry- 
 ing, " What d'ye lack, sir ? What d'ye 
 lack, madam ? " and then he rehearsed 
 a list of the commodities he dealt in. 
 When he became weary, this task was 
 assumed by his apprentice ; and thus a 
 London street was a Babel of strange 
 sounds, by which the wayfarer was 
 dinned at every step. The articles of 
 shopkeeper were often of a very hetero- 
 geneous description in those days of 
 " auld lang syne." They were huddled 
 in bales within the proprietor's little 
 shop, and in the midst of them the 
 wife and daughter of the master were 
 ensconced, plying the needle or knit- 
 ting wires, and eyeing the passing crowd. 
 
 In one of the plays of the time, the 
 merchant thus explains to his idle ap- 
 prentice the way in which he grew rich : 
 " Did I gain my wealth by ordinaries ? 
 No. By exchanging gold? No. By 
 keeping of goldsmiths' company ? No. 
 I hired me a little shop, bought low, 
 took small gains, kept no debt-book, 
 garnished my shop for want of plate 
 with good, thrifty, wholesome sen- 
 tences, as : ' Keep thy shop, and thy 
 shop will keep thee;' 'Light gains 
 make heavy purses ; ' ' "Pis good to be 
 merry and wise.' " But, although the 
 shops and warehouses of the London 
 traffickers were so humble, their houses 
 were of a very different description ; so 
 that, even as early as the reign of 
 James, the dwelling of a chief mer- 
 chant rivalled the palace of a noble- 
 man in the splendor of its furniture, 
 among which cushions and window 
 pillows of velvet and damask had 
 become common. 
 
 At the hour of nine, the Bow fell 
 
 rang, which was a signal for the em- 
 ployed to leave off work, and repair to 
 supper and to bed a bell which the 
 master thought too soon, and the ap- 
 prentice too late. Only a great mag- 
 nifico, or royal merchant, was thought 
 worthy the honor and privilege of pre- 
 fixing " Master " or " Mr." to his name, 
 in those times the addition of gentle- 
 man, or esquire, would have thrown 
 everybody in such a man's circle into 
 an uproar indeed. 
 
 Locking up Foreign Merchants in 
 
 England. 
 
 LONDON is mentioned by Tacitus as 
 the chief residence of merchants, and 
 the great mart of trade and commerce. 
 Yet, before the charter of Runnymede, 
 foreign merchants were permitted to 
 visit England only during the period 
 of public fairs, and were restricted to 
 a residence of forty days. Afterward 
 a German company monopolized the 
 trade of the country for several centu- 
 ries, and its members were regularly 
 locked up at night getting comfort, 
 however, from this species of indignity, 
 by keeping the whole foreign commerce 
 of the realm to themselves. Singularly 
 enough, long after the importance of 
 commerce had been recognized in other 
 countries, the people of England, now 
 the most mercantile on the face of the 
 globe, neglected the occupation which 
 has mainly contributed to their great- 
 ness. 
 
 Merchants of the Golden Fleece. 
 
 THEKE was formerly, and for many 
 years resident in London, a company 
 of Dutch traders, located at a place 
 called the Stilyard; it was granted 
 many privileges by Henry the Eighth, 
 in return for its occasional loans 
 which enabled him to carry on his 
 wars. Its profits and wealth be- 
 came so immense that a rival company 
 of traders and merchants was finally 
 created, under the patronage of Queen
 
 MUTATIONS Ot A MEKCHANT'S LIFE.
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 129 
 
 Elizabeth, and its title was that of 
 " The Company of English Merchant 
 Adventurers." This company had for 
 many years the principal trade to 
 Germany, the Netherlands, and the 
 adjacent countries establishing its 
 marts in all the principal cities of 
 western Europe, and doing an immense 
 business, especially in the exporta- 
 tion of English woollens. It became 
 abroad what the Stilyard merchants 
 had been in England ; its credit was 
 in repute, and its wealth famous 
 throughout Europe. The general esti- 
 mation in which it was held abroad 
 may be judged of from the fact that 
 Philip of Burgundy, because of the 
 great revenue ensuing to his treasury 
 from the duties on English woollen, 
 adopted as the name and emblem of 
 his favorite order of knighthood, that 
 of " The Golden Fleece." 
 
 Who were the First Whalemen P 
 
 THE interesting question has often 
 been discussed "Who were the first 
 whalemen?" In answer to this it is 
 stated, not the sea-ruling Briton, not 
 the hardy Dane, not the steadily endur- 
 ing, amphibious Dutchman, not the 
 bold Norwegian, child of the sea kings. 
 No : the Spaniards Biscayans and 
 Bosques first dared attack the Levia- 
 than on the high seas, so early as 1575. 
 True, some have tried to prove the 
 Norwegians were the first in the field, 
 but they have not made out a clear 
 case. It was probably the narwhal, 
 grampus, and other small versions of 
 the great whale, they hunted. The old 
 ninth century navigator, Olithore the 
 Norwegian, whose wonderful adven- 
 tures were taken down from Ms own lips 
 by no less a man than King Alfred, often 
 speaks of having slain sixty whales in 
 two days flatly impossible, if right 
 whales had been in question. Thus 
 much is certain : the first whalebone 
 which ever found its way into England, 
 was picked up from the wreck of a Bis- 
 9 
 
 cayan ship, in 1594 ; and when, at the 
 close of the sixteenth century, the Eng- 
 lish first began to fit out whaleships, 
 they were obliged to call on Biscayans 
 to direct them in their preparations, 
 and to fill the more important offices in 
 the ship. 
 
 Mutations of a Merchant's Life : the 
 New Orleans Sockseller. 
 
 A STBANGE old man is he, who may 
 be seen any day, be it cold or hot, in 
 the neighborhood of the Poydras Mar- 
 ket, New Orleans, with a bundle of 
 socks in his hand or on the banquette 
 beside him. Selling socks is now his 
 only business; yet time was when it 
 was not so. Of the multiform muta- 
 tions of human life, that old man has 
 experienced more than mortal's share. 
 See how he mutters to himself, and 
 smiles, half insanely, as he praises his 
 wares to his real or pretended custom- 
 ers ! One eye is closed, and the lid is 
 swollen, and the face of the sockseller 
 is covered with scars. These are the 
 traces left in the old man's face by 
 assassin burglars, who once robbed him 
 of his goods, and left him as one dead, 
 in his house on Circus street. It was 
 long before this old man recovered, and 
 when he did, his intellect was a wreck, 
 and nothing save his business habits 
 was left to keep him from total insan- 
 ity. Since then he has followed the 
 business of selling socks. 
 
 But it were unjust to the old man to 
 give so imperfect an abstract of his his- 
 tory. Let us roll back the tide of time 
 some quarter of a century, and a tall, 
 fine-looking gentleman may be ob- 
 served walking down Broadway, in 
 New York. Fair ladies ogle him as 
 he passes, and feel flattered when he 
 smiles on them. And is it strange? 
 for the smiler of that day is a wholesale 
 merchant, of princely fortune. After 
 that changes come. The merchant, 
 broken in fortune, removed to New Or- 
 leans, and his remains may now be 
 found in the muttering sockseller of
 
 130 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 the Poydras Market. There is a 
 strange tale of love connected with 
 the old man; but here let the veil 
 drop. 
 
 Recovering a Wasted Fortune. 
 
 IT is related of a young man, that, 
 having fallen heir to a large estate, he 
 engaged in a career of profligacy and 
 wasteful expenditures, until he found 
 himself utterly impoverished and desti- 
 tute, cast off 1 by his former associates, 
 and having no resource to which to 
 look for relief. His misery was so 
 great that he resolved upon self-de- 
 struction, and wandering forth to find 
 some suitable place for the execution 
 of his desperate purpose, found him- 
 self on an eminence which overlooked 
 the estates that once belonged to him. 
 He sat down and thought of his folly. 
 A long time he mused in silence. 
 When he arose, a new purpose had 
 taken possession of him. He said to 
 himself, " Those estates shall again be 
 mine," and at once he set about carry- 
 ing out the plan he had thus cogitated 
 in silence. 
 
 As he passed along, he saw some coal 
 lying before a door, and he asked to be 
 employed to carry it into the house. 
 His wish was gratified, and after finish- 
 ing his task, he was master of a shil- 
 ling. He soon earned another by a 
 similar process, and when hungry he 
 satisfied his cravings in the most frugal 
 manner. Month after month, year after 
 year, he pursued his plan, and in pro- 
 cess of time achieved his end. The 
 -estates once forfeited by his prodigality 
 were regained by decision, energy, con- 
 centration of purpose upon a single 
 
 Fortunes at a Single Blow. 
 
 "I FEND," said a shrewd merchant, 
 " I make most money when I am least 
 anxious about it." There is practical 
 philosophy in this remark. Caution, 
 
 prudence, sagacity, and deliberation 
 are all necessary to business success. 
 Some men, it is true, get rich suddenly, 
 but the great majority do not, and can- 
 not. Bonaparte once said, " I have no 
 idea of a merchant's acquiring a for- 
 tune as a general "wins a battle at a 
 single blow." Such fortunes too often 
 vanish suddenly. 
 
 Merchant Patrons of Literature. 
 
 THEKE are honored names, and not a 
 few such as Peabody, Bates, Girard, 
 Lawrence, Perkins, Cooper, Astor, &c. 
 that might be dwelt upon in proof 
 of the connection that may and does 
 exist between trade and letters. Prom- 
 inent among those of a former day, were 
 Cosmo and Lorenzo de Medici, the 
 wealthiest men of Europe in their day. 
 And yet they were merchants and 
 bankers, and were preeminent still for 
 their generosity and devotion to letters. 
 To this merchant family belongs the 
 lasting honor of having restored the 
 empire of science and true taste to 
 Europe, after a dreary night of dark- 
 ness. By their efforts, many valuable 
 manuscripts were saved from total de- 
 struction. The Medici thought the dis- 
 covery of a manuscript equivalent to 
 the conquest of a kingdom. It is 
 doubtful, indeed, if we are not indebt- 
 ed to them for most of the perfect 
 copies now known of the Greek and 
 Roman classics. It is remarkable, too, 
 that they lived at a time when they 
 were enabled to find and preserve so 
 many valuable manuscripts just before 
 the invention of printing, and previous- 
 ly to the wonderful extension of trade 
 and commerce. The Medici were by 
 education and pursuit merchants, yet 
 they devoted their energies for a long 
 lifetime, not only to extend their vast 
 commercial relations, but also to col- 
 lect and found great libraries, establish 
 galleries, and encourage the fine arts. 
 The names of Cooper, Astor, Perkins, 
 Lawrence, Corcoran, Peabody, &c., of
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 131 
 
 the present day, rank in the same 
 noble category. 
 
 Napoleon and Byron on Trading-. 
 
 NAPOLEON openly expressed his aver- 
 sion to commerce and those engaged in 
 it. When a deputation of commercial 
 men came out from Antwerp to wel- 
 come him on hia approach to that city, 
 he met them with the words, " I don't 
 like merchants ! A merchant is a man 
 who would sell his country for a shil- 
 ling ! " " Je n'aime pas les negotiants ? 
 Un negotiant est un homme qui ven- 
 drait sa patrie pour un petit ecu ! " He 
 despised the walks of trade, and in one 
 of his consultations with the banker 
 Ouvrard, uttered the reproach that he 
 had degraded loyalty to the level of 
 trade. 
 
 The curious opinion that there is 
 something derogatory in trade, was 
 exemplified, too, even in a distin- 
 guished British statesman, at the Con- 
 gress of Vienna, who asserted, in the 
 presence of the representatives of Eu- 
 rope, that England was not dependent 
 on commerce. This was intended as 
 an offset to the sneer of Napoleon 
 against the " nation of traders," and 
 arose from a desire to " sink the shop " 
 before tbe plumed and epauletted array 
 which dazzled and bewildered the civi- 
 lian into an ungrateful forgetfulness of 
 the very class, without whose aid em- 
 perors and kings, if suffered to retain 
 power at all, would have dwindled to 
 provincial governors. 
 
 Byron said, " If Commerce fills the 
 purse, she clogs the brain ; " and yet he 
 himself bravely encountered that peril 
 by trafficking his own verses with a thrift 
 that would have done credit to Baillie 
 Nicol Jarvie, and a shrewd attention to 
 detail which might have won the heart 
 of Tirn Linkinwater. His practice re- 
 futed his theory, and his driving a sharp 
 bargain, at the highest market rates, for 
 the proceeds of his genius, resulted in 
 no apparent diminution of his acuteness. 
 
 Mercantile Character Comparatively 
 
 Estimated. 
 
 A SHOPKEEPER at Doncaster had for 
 his trading virtues obtained the name of 
 the little rascal. A stranger once frank- 
 ly asked him why this appellation had 
 been given to him. " To distinguish 
 me from the rest of my trade," quoth 
 he, " who are all great rascals ! " 
 
 Honey Enough to Break On. 
 
 ONE of the richest men in the weal- 
 thy town of Zanesville, O., is Mr. S., 
 who acquired some hundreds of thou- 
 sands of dollars by his industry and 
 business tact. He is a pleasant sort of 
 a man, very nervous, and somewhat 
 eccentric. Being one of the first set- 
 tlers, he has not brought around his 
 family those ruinous influences that so 
 frequently destroy rich families. When 
 his son William came of maturity, he 
 asked the " old man " for capital to 
 start on. The father gave the son 
 $10,000, saying that it was enough 
 for him to Iredk on. " Bill " took the 
 $10,000, and instead of breaking, ac- 
 quired a fortune in ten years, equal to 
 that of his father. He is an extensive 
 private banker, engaged in milling, &c. 
 Occasionally the youth ventures into 
 deep water, and the father undertakes 
 to restrain him; but Bill's reply is, 
 " Perhaps you want the ten thousand 
 dollars ; if so, the chinks are ready for 
 you, principal and interest." 
 
 Mohammedan's Reason for not Storing 1 
 Goods. 
 
 SOME years ago, a Philadelphia mer- 
 chant sent a cargo of goods to Constan- 
 tinople. After the supercargo saw the 
 bales and boxes safely landed, he in- 
 quired where they could be stored. 
 
 " Leave them here it won't rain to- 
 night," was the reply. 
 
 " But I dare not leave them thus ex- 
 posed ; some of the goods might be 
 stolen," said the supercargo.
 
 132 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 The Mohammedan merchant burst 
 into a loud laugh, as he replied 
 
 "Don't be alarmed, there ain't a 
 Christian within fifty miles of here." 
 
 Value of a Good Credit. 
 A CELEBRATED gambler, of great ad- 
 dress, but notorious bad character, 
 meeting with a mercantile gentleman 
 of the highest reputation for honor and 
 veracity one of that exalted class, 
 whose " word is as good as their 
 bond," observed to him, " Sir, I would 
 give fifty thousand dollars for your 
 good name." "Why so?" demanded 
 the wondering merchant. " Because," 
 replied the gambler, " I could make one 
 hundred thousand dollars out of it." 
 
 Merchants and Legislators. 
 THAT the East India Company, at an 
 early age of its existence, entertained a 
 due consideration of the dignity of 
 commerce, is evident from the bearing 
 of Sir Josiah Child, the able manager 
 of the affairs of the company at home, 
 during part of the reigns of Charles II. 
 and James n. Mr. VauK, the manager 
 in India, on being exhorted to " act 
 with vigor, and to carry whatever in- 
 structions he might receive from home 
 into immediate effect," answered" that 
 he should endeavor to acquit himself 
 with integrity and justice, and would 
 make the laws of his country the rule 
 of his conduct." Sir Josiah replied, 
 telling Mr. Vaux roundly that he ex- 
 pected Jiis orders were to be his rules, 
 and not the laws of England, which 
 were a heap of nonsense, compiled by a 
 few ignorant country gentlemen, who 
 hardly knew how to make laws for the 
 good government of their own private 
 families, much less for the regulating 
 of companies and foreign commerce ! 
 
 Quaker Merchant's Idea of Priva- 
 teering. 
 
 DURING the war between France and 
 England, in 1780, Mr. Fox, a merchant 
 
 of Falmouth, Eng., had a share in a 
 ship, which the other owners deter- 
 mined to fit out as a letter of marque, 
 very much against the wishes of Mr. F., 
 who was a consistent Quaker. The 
 ship's fortune resulted in the capture 
 of two French merchantmen, and the 
 share of the prize-money which fell to 
 Mr. F., was about eight thousand dol- 
 lars. At the close of the war, Mr. Fox 
 sent his son to Paris, with the eight 
 thousand dollars, which he faithfully 
 refunded to the owners of the vessels 
 captured. The young merchant, to 
 discover the owners, was obliged to 
 advertise for them in the Paris papers. 
 In consequence of this advertisement, 
 he received a letter from a small village 
 near Nismes, in the province of Lan- 
 guedoc, acquainting him that a society 
 of Quakers was established in that re- 
 mote part of France, consisting of about 
 one hundred families ; that they were 
 so much struck with this rare instance 
 of generosity in one of their sect, that 
 they were desirous to open a correspond- 
 ence with him in England ; which 
 immediately commenced the first cor- 
 respondence of the kind which the 
 Society had initiated for upward of a 
 century. 
 
 Indian's Mode of Judging: a Trader. 
 
 AN old trader among the Northern 
 Indians, who had some years ago estab- 
 lished himself on the Wisseoa, tells a 
 good story, with a mercantile moral 
 worth remembering, about his first 
 trials of trading with his red custom- 
 ers. The Indians, who evidently want- 
 ed goods, and had both money (which 
 they called ahune ah) and furs, flocked 
 about his store, and examined his 
 goods, but for some time bought noth- 
 ing. Finally, their chief, with a large 
 body of his followers, visited him, and 
 accosting him with, " How do, Thom- 
 as ? Show me goods ; I take four yard 
 calico, three coonskins for yard, pay 
 you by'm by to-morrow," received his
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 133 
 
 goods and left. Next clay he returned 
 with his whole band, his blankets 
 stuffed with coonskins. "American 
 man, I pay now ; with this he began 
 counting out the skins until he had 
 handed him over twelve. Then after 
 a moment's pause he offered the trader 
 one more, remarking, as he did so, 
 " That's it." I handed it back, said 
 the trader, telling him he owed me but 
 twelve, and I would not cheat him. 
 We continued to pass it back and 
 forth, each one asserting that it be- 
 longed to the other. At last, he ap- 
 peared to be satisfied, gave me a scru- 
 tinizing look, placed the skin in the 
 folds of his blanket, stepped to the 
 door, and gave a yell, and cried at the 
 top of his voice, " Come, come, and 
 trade with the pale face, he no cheat 
 Indian ; his heart big." He then 
 turned to me and said : " You take 
 that skin ; I tell Indian no trade with 
 you drive you off like a dog ; but 
 now you Indian's friend, and me yours." 
 Before sundown I was waist deep in 
 furs, and loaded down with cash. 
 
 Merchants petting: to be Gentlemen. 
 
 BY a statute of King Athelstane, 
 grandson of Alfred, it was provided 
 that any merchant who made three 
 voyages, on his own account, beyond 
 the British Channel, should be entitled 
 to the privilege of a thane that is, be 
 regarded as a gentleman. 
 
 Not ashamed of Work Astor's Dili- 
 gence. 
 
 SOME one has said, that the secret of 
 success in business is to be beforehand 
 with your affairs. No one was better 
 able to fulfil this condition than Astor. 
 Always an early riser, he generally left 
 business at two o'clock in the after- 
 noon. He was never at rest, but sel- 
 dom in haste. His forces, his resour- 
 ces, were always marshalled and in 
 order. An enthusiastic critic of this 
 great business genius, declared that 
 
 Mr. Astor could command an army of 
 half a million men. 
 
 His unresting industry was not ham- 
 pered by false pride. He would work 
 with his own hands, and he was not 
 ashamed of workmen's garb. He knew 
 that the master's example must guide, 
 that the master's eye must be on the 
 work if it is to be well done. If his 
 furs required sorting and beating, he 
 would do it himself with the best of 
 his men, and was as ready to work 
 when worth millions as when strug- 
 gling for success. No humble disciple 
 of poor Richard was ever more plod- 
 dingly diligent in the practice of fru- 
 gality -and thrift, which the spirit of 
 mere speculation is prone to overlook, 
 than he. 
 
 Opulent New York Merchants. 
 
 PRESERVED FISH commenced life as 
 an apprentice to a blacksmith, and his 
 next situation was that of a seaman on 
 board a whaling ship. From being a 
 hand before the mast, he rose to be a 
 mate, and finally commander, and in 
 this hazardous pursuit amassed the 
 foundation of his great fortune. 
 
 Saul Alley was bound, when a small 
 boy, apprentice to a coachmaker, and 
 during his apprenticeship his father 
 died, leaving him totally dependent on 
 his own exertions, so that the very 
 clothes he wore he was obliged to earn 
 by toiling extra hours, after the regular 
 time of leaving off work had passed ; 
 the foundation of his fortune he ac- 
 quired by the exercise of frugality and 
 prudence, while a journeyman me- 
 chanic. 
 
 Cornelius W. Lawrence was a far- 
 mer's boy, and worked many a long day 
 in rain and sunshine on Long Island ; 
 there were few lads, within twenty miles 
 of him, that could mow a wider swath, 
 or turn a better furrow.
 
 134 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Great Deeds of European Merchants. 
 
 THE tact and generosity of an Eng- 
 lish merchant, Thomas Button, are said 
 to have materially aided in the defeat 
 of the Spanish Armada, and thereby 
 saved British liberty from torture and 
 thumbscrews. 
 
 A fear of the power of merchants 
 stopped Charles the Fifth from estab- 
 lishing the inquisition in Antwerp ; 
 while a merchant of that city lent this 
 king a million of money, and, at an 
 entertainment which he gave them, 
 burnt the bond in a fire of cinnamon 
 at that time a most costly spice. 
 
 A merchant of France raised an army 
 at his own expense, and lent millions to 
 his country. 
 
 A Georgian of low birth was able, by 
 the quiet arts of commerce, to obtain an 
 immense revenue, and to keep six thou- 
 sand troops in his pay. 
 
 Russia, with all her extent of land, 
 was as nothing, until that half Goth, 
 Peter, surnamed by his countrymen, 
 " the Great," promoted the advance- 
 ment of commerce. He gave his per- 
 sonal attention to the building of ships, 
 training of seamen, opening of harbors, 
 the establishment of ports, and the fur- 
 therance of commercial enterprise. 
 
 Peremptory Refusal of Hope & Co. to 
 do Business with Girard. 
 
 GERARD learned one of the most 
 trenchant lessons in his eventful mer- 
 cantile life, from his favorite correspond- 
 ents in Europe, Messrs. Hope & Co., 
 of Amsterdam. 
 
 Notwithstanding the reliance he 
 placed in them, he had sent a Quaker, 
 by the name of Hutchinson, to Am- 
 sterdam, with explicit instructions to 
 watch those gentlemen closely, and see 
 that they accounted for the real prices 
 received by them for his consignments, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 It was a rule in the house of Messrs. 
 Hope, to compute one eighth per cent, 
 more than the daily noted rate of ex- 
 
 change, when sending the regular re- 
 ceipts to bank, and this was done to 
 cover a variety of minute office expen- 
 ses, which could not be brought into a 
 stated account. Thus, for instance, 
 Mr. Hutchinson was informed that they 
 had sold a thousand bags of coffee, at 
 so-and-so much per cent. Hereupon, 
 that gentleman came, next day, to the 
 counting room, interrupted Mr. Labou- 
 chere in his meditations, and, running 
 his finger along the printed price cur- 
 rent he held in his hand, pointed out 
 to him that the rate must be put at one 
 eighth per cent. less. The oft-repeated 
 hints Mr. Labouchere had given the 
 young Quaker, who invariably came in 
 with his hat on his head, and, without 
 permission, marched directly up to the 
 door, and pushed on into the private 
 counting room that sanctum sanctorum 
 of Dutch merchants had all proved of 
 no avail ; at last they got to let him 
 stand there, without paying any atten- 
 tion to what he had to say. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Hutchin- 
 son wrote to Girard, who, in response, 
 at once dictated, for his benefit, the 
 most offensive letter to Messrs. Hope, 
 which finally decided the latter to let 
 him know, unmistakably, that there 
 existed so wide a difference between 
 their ways of doing business and his, 
 and all attempts to teach him better 
 had so signally failed, that, for the sake 
 of their own comfort and tranquillity, 
 they should be compelled to decline 
 any further transactions with him. 
 Then there came from Girard a sort 
 of apology, a promise to manage dif- 
 ferently in future, etc., etc. But the 
 house in Amsterdam remained firm in 
 the resolution they had taken, offering, 
 however, to do him the favor of recom- 
 mending to him, as his future corre- 
 spondents, Messrs. Daniel Crammelin & 
 Sons, their neighbors. 
 
 The astonishment of the latter gentle- 
 men themselves, when the first impor- 
 tant consignments began to reach them 
 from Girard, and the surprise of the
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 135 
 
 whole Amsterdam Bourse, that any one 
 should reject such business as his, re- 
 quiring no advances, may be readily 
 conceived. 
 
 Mohammedan Mercantile Morality. 
 
 IN some of its phases, Mohammedan 
 mercantile morality exceeds in its scru- 
 pulousness that of any other people, 
 whatever their religious character or 
 creed. A mercantile firm in Salonica 
 had bills to a large amount on the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants and merchants of the 
 place, which, with their books and pa- 
 pers, were destroyed by fire. On the 
 day following, a prominent Turk, who 
 was largely in their debt, went in per- 
 son and told them that, having heard 
 that their papers had been destroyed, 
 he had brought a copy of his account 
 with them and fresh bills for the 
 amount which was their due. This 
 example was followed by all the Turk- 
 ish debtors to them. It does not ap- 
 pear to be intimated that this course 
 was one that they had ever learned 
 from the Christian traders in their 
 country. 
 
 Commencing: in the Subcellar. 
 
 ONE of the wealthiest merchants of 
 New York relates how he commenced 
 business in that city. He says : I en- 
 tered a store, and asked if a clerk was 
 not wanted. " No ! " in a rough tone, 
 was the answer, all being too busy to 
 bother with me when I reflected, that 
 if they did not want a clerk, they might 
 want a laborer ; but I was dressed too 
 fine for that. I went to my lodgings, 
 put on a rough garb, and the next day 
 went into the same store and demand- 
 ed if they did not want a porter, and 
 again, "No, sir," was the response 
 when I exclaimed, in despair, almost, 
 " a laborer ? Sir, I will work at any 
 wages. Wages is not my object I 
 must have employ, and I want to be 
 useful in business." 
 
 These last remarks attracted their 
 attention ; and in the end I was hired 
 as a laborer in the basement and sub- 
 cellar at a very low pay, scarcely enough 
 to keep body and soul together. 
 
 In the basement and subcellar, I 
 soon attracted the attention of the 
 counting house and chief clerk. I 
 saved enough for my employers in 
 little things usually wasted, to pay 
 my wages ten times over, and they 
 soon found it out. I did not let any- 
 body about commit petty larcenies, 
 without remonstrance and threats of 
 exposure, and real exposure if remon- 
 strance would not do. I did not ask 
 for any ten-hour law. If I was wanted 
 at three in the morning, I never growl- 
 ed, but told everybody to go home, 
 " and I will see everything right." I 
 loaded off at daybreak packages for 
 the morning boats, or carried them my- 
 self. In short, I soon became as I 
 meant to be indispensable to my em- 
 ployers, and I rose, and rose, until I 
 became head of the house, with money 
 enough for any luxury or any position 
 a mercantile man may desire for him- 
 self and family in a great city. 
 
 Romance of Trade" Blackguard 
 Snuff." 
 
 LUNDT FOOT, the celebrated snuff- 
 manufacturer of Dublin, originally kept 
 a small tobacconist's shop at Limerick, 
 Ireland. .One night his house, which 
 was uninsured, was burnt to the ground. 
 As he contemplated the smoking ruins 
 on the following morning, in a state 
 bordering on despair, some of the poor 
 neighbors, groping among the embers 
 for what they could find, stumbled 
 upon several canisters of unconsumed 
 but half-baked snuff, which they tried, 
 and found so grateful to their noses, 
 that they loaded their waistcoat pock- 
 ets with the spoil. 
 
 Lundy Foot, roused from his stupor, 
 at length imitated their example, and 
 took a pinch of his own property, when 
 he was instantly struck by the superior
 
 136 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 pungency and flavor it had acquired 
 from the great heat to which it had 
 been exposed. Treasuring up this 
 valuable hint, he took another house, 
 in a place called " Black Yard," and 
 preparing a large oven for the purpose, 
 set diligently about the manufacture of 
 that high-dried commodity, which soon 
 became known as " Black Yard Snuff " 
 a term subsequently corrupted into 
 the more familiar word " Blackguard." 
 Making his customers pay liberally 
 through the nose for one of the most 
 " distinguished " kinds of snuff in the 
 world, he soon raised the price of his 
 production, took a larger house in the 
 city of Dublin, and was often heard to 
 say "I made a very handsome for- 
 tune by being, as I supposed, utterly 
 ruined!" When he was rich enough 
 to own and use a carriage, he applied 
 to Lord Norbury for an appropriate 
 motto for his panels. The witty judge 
 suggested the phrase Latin or Eng- 
 lish as you please " Quid rides ? '' 
 
 "Everything 1 by Turns" Girard's 
 Example. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the common 
 adage, that a business man who 
 puts too many irons in the fire, is 
 not likely to get any one of them 
 red hot, it seems to have been other- 
 wise in the career of Stephen Girard. 
 Thus, if one operation miscarried, with 
 that versatility so peculiar to his coun- 
 trymen he tried another, and another, 
 until he tried the right one. This 
 change of business gave rise to the 
 story that he was at one time engaged 
 in the manufacture of hair powder, as 
 a partner of Boldasky & Co., who, 
 about the year 1786, carried on that 
 business, near Germantown, Pa. But 
 whether or not Mr. G. had a concern 
 in that establishment, the books of 
 the latter sh'ow large accounts with 
 Stephen and John Girard for that arti- 
 cle, which they purchased for exporta- 
 tion to St. Domingo and the Southern 
 markets. 
 
 It is certain that Girard left nothing 
 untried, by which to make his fortune. 
 Even the occupation of a merchant at 
 length began to lose some of its charms 
 for Girard, and failed to satisfy that 
 boundless craving of his mind, which 
 is so peculiar a faculty of genius. Thus 
 it was that he turned banker ; and then, 
 this failing to yield him full satisfac- 
 tion, he becomes a great builder, fill- 
 ing up streets, and skirting whole 
 squares with his mansions, palaces 
 and stores, careful to learn something 
 as he went along, of the arts of those 
 several professions, from the construc- 
 tion of a ship and the building of a 
 palace, down to the erection of a 
 wharf, the paving of a street, or the 
 setting of a curb stone ; adding to all 
 this, that of being one of the first farm- 
 ers, graziers, and butchers, in the 
 State. A gentleman once went to him 
 on business, but was refused an inter- 
 view, because he was cutting up his 
 hogs for his winter provisions this 
 job, however, being but small game 
 for Girard ; for, when he assisted to 
 butcher on his farm, fifty oxen at a 
 time sometimes smoked beneath his 
 knife ; or he slew a whole hecatomb, 
 glorying, like a hero, in the gore 
 around him. When to these varied 
 occupations are added his knowledge 
 of horticulture, his skill in planting and 
 gardening, his extensive aviaries, to- 
 gether with the fact that he was an ex- 
 cellent nurse, and prided himself on his 
 success as a doctor, perhaps few men 
 have ever lived, who could be quoted 
 as his equal, or superior, for the variety 
 as well as excellence and success of his 
 pursuits, nor would it be safe for men 
 in general thus to diversify their occu- 
 pations. Girard was a man of such re- 
 markable executive capacity, that it 
 seemed almost impossible for him to 
 touch anything without its turning into 
 gold.
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 137 
 
 " Stick to Your Last." 
 
 THIS phrase/ though, seemingly re- 
 ferring to the disciples of St. Crispin, 
 is of general application, and is accept- 
 ed as such. Zadock Pratt was origin- 
 ally a tanner by trade, a man of quaint 
 manners and speech, and of very strong 
 common sense. A speculator was once 
 showing him a new method of tanning, 
 by the use of which, he argued, great 
 quantities of money might be made. 
 Pratt told him he had no reason to doubt 
 his assertion, but he was making money 
 enough ; and that he the speculator 
 would better find some one who was 
 not doing so well. He made it an in- 
 variable rule to resist all attempts to 
 allure him from his legitimate business, 
 and by this undeviating application 
 rolled up a splendid fortune. The well 
 known story of Plautus, the Roman 
 comic writer, is an apt though ancient 
 illustration of this principle of " stick- 
 ing to your business." He acquired a 
 very handsome fortune by his comedies. 
 He was afterward tempted to embark 
 in trade, and met with such severe 
 losses that he was in consequence re- 
 duced to the necessity of working in a 
 mill, as a day laborer, in order to obtain 
 a support. 
 
 Controversy among Wine Dealers. 
 
 THE question, whether the wines of 
 Champagne or Burgundy were entitled 
 to the preference, was, during the reign 
 of Louis the Fourteenth, a matter of 
 sharp controversy among the wine 
 dealers and their friends of that day. 
 The celebrated Charles Coffin, head of 
 the University of Beauvais, published, 
 during this controversy, a pungent clas- 
 sical ode, in which Champagne is ex- 
 tolled, and its superiority vindicated, 
 with a spirit, vivacity, and delicacy 
 worthy of the most important theme. 
 For this, the citizens of Rheims were 
 not ungrateful to the poet, but liberally 
 rewarded him with an appropriate and 
 
 munificent donation of the wine he had 
 so happily panegyrized. Greneau wrote 
 an ode in praise of Burgundy ; but, un- 
 like the subject which it treated, it 
 was flat and insipid, and failed to pro- 
 cure any recompense to its author. 
 The different pieces in this amusing 
 controversy were collected and pub- 
 lished in octavo, at Paris, in 1712. 
 Erasmus attributes the restoration of 
 his health to his having drunk liberally 
 of Burgundy, and has eulogized it in the 
 most extravagant terms. An epistle of 
 his, quoted by Le Grand d'Aussy, shows 
 that Falstaff and he would have spent 
 an evening together more agreeably 
 than might have been supposed. 
 
 Little Too Candid. 
 
 DURING a political campaign in Vir- 
 ginia, a democratic speaker was ad- 
 dressing a large audience, and descant- 
 ing with great vehemence upon the 
 prescriptive tenets of know-nothingism 
 with regard to foreigners, when his eye 
 fell upon a little German Jew, a peddler 
 of ready-made clothing, who seemed to 
 be very much impressed with the argu- 
 ment of the orator, and greedily swal- 
 lowing everything he uttered. This 
 was too good an opportunity not to be 
 made the most of. Looking the peddler 
 in the eye, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Furriner, didn't you come to this 
 country to escape from tyrannical, 
 downtrodden, and oppressed Europe ? 
 Didn't you flee to these happy shores 
 to live in a land of freedom, where the 
 great right of suffrage is guaranteed to 
 all ? Didn't you, furriner ? " 
 
 He paused for a reply ; when the lit- 
 tle peddler squeaked out 
 
 " No, sur ; I comes to dis countrie to 
 sell sheap ready-made clothes." 
 
 The astonishment of the orator, the 
 shouts and roars of the multitude, can- 
 not be described. The speech was fin- 
 ished, and the orator quit the rostrum, 
 heartily cursing all " furriners " gener- 
 ally, and clothes peddlers in particular.
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Hinges upon which. Trade Swings. 
 
 A GRAVE discussion was once over- 
 heard, concerning shop-door steps, in 
 which a young beginner was solemnly 
 recommended not to adopt more than 
 one step into his shop. People, it was 
 said, that is, commercial human na- 
 ture, wouldn't take the trouble to 
 mount up two or three steps, when, by 
 going a little farther on, a more easily 
 accessible establishment might invite 
 them in. 
 
 The same idea is involved in the 
 widely-opened, easily-revolving door 
 of our modern shops. Be the winter's 
 frost ever so sharp, or the cold wind 
 ever so keen, it is a standing rule with 
 certain dealers, that the shop-entrance 
 be never hindered by a closed door, or 
 only upon the condition that a porter 
 stand in continued readiness to bow in 
 or bow out the purchasers. 
 
 There can be no doubt that, upon a 
 hinge as slight even as this, many a 
 man's fortune or ill-fortune has swung. 
 
 Expectations against Results. 
 
 A GOOD anecdote is told by an " old 
 hand," illustrating the probability of 
 business sales : 
 
 A young friend of ours called on us 
 the other day in high glee ; he was 
 about concluding arrangements with 
 two others to embark in the jobbing 
 trade, and was quite sanguine in his 
 expectation of brilliant results. As we 
 did not express full faith in his antici- 
 pations, he rather chided us for our 
 doubts, whereupon we questioned him 
 a little as to his prospects. At our 
 suggestion, he took pen and paper, and 
 put down first of all his proposed ex- 
 penses. We could see that he had not 
 done this before, as he seemed quite 
 startled to find that, even at the mod- 
 erate estimates he had made, the total 
 expenses for rent, clerk hire, and living 
 of the several partners, amounted to the 
 snug sum of $8,200. 
 
 " Now for the amount of business ! " 
 said we. 
 
 " Oh, as to that," he replied, " we 
 Twpe to sell $300,000 worth of goods 
 per annum." 
 
 " But what amount of trade do all 
 of you at present influence ? " we asked. 
 " Make now a careful estimate of the 
 business you can rely upon with some 
 degree of certainty." He did so, and, 
 to his surprise, it did not quite reach 
 $125,000. 
 
 " Now, what profit can you average 
 upon this ? " After some debate, this 
 was set down at seven and one-half per 
 cent. This gave the sum of $9,375. 
 
 " Now, what shall we call the losses ? " 
 
 The latter was settled at two and one 
 half per cent, on sales, amounting to 
 $3,125, leaving the net income at $6,250, 
 or $1,950 less than enough to pay his 
 estimated expenses. He left us, pro- 
 posing to show the estimate to his col- 
 leagues. He did so, and after figuring 
 awhile without arriving at any more 
 satisfactory result, they finally aban- 
 doned the undertaking. There is no 
 doubt that, if all, when about to em- 
 bark in trade, would thus boldly look 
 at the figures, instead of closing their 
 eyes and hoping for the best, there 
 would be fewer failures among busi- 
 ness men, and there would be less com- 
 plaint that " trade is overdone." 
 
 Getting the Hang of Mercantile Trans- 
 actions. 
 
 AN amusing account of the manner 
 in which Vincent Nolte got " posted " 
 in certain mercantile transactions, while 
 holding a certain relation to the great 
 banker Labouchere, is thus given by 
 himself: This canvassing for consign- 
 ments from the United States, and the 
 kind of uneasiness which Mr. Labou- 
 chere betrayed, whenever his neighbors, 
 Messrs. Hottinguers & Co., a branch of 
 the Paris banking house, received im- 
 portant consignments from the United 
 States frequently whole fleets at a 
 time were to me inexplicable ; so I
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 139 
 
 asked my chief, what the real cause of 
 this anxiety could be. His reply in- 
 variably was, " Large advances, proba- 
 bly ! " My next question was : " And 
 who makes these advances? how are 
 they made ? " His answer : " I am ig- 
 norant of that ! " or, " I do not know." 
 At length, however, I learned from one 
 of the Hottinguer clerks, with whom I 
 had struck up a friendship, that the 
 house of Messrs. Baring accepted bills 
 drawn as an advance, in the United 
 States, took out the insurance, and after 
 sale took charge of the remittances for 
 the merchandise. From this informa- 
 tion, I for the first time got a key to 
 this whole system, so universally under- 
 stood at the present day. 
 
 Sabbath Experiences of a Shipmaster. 
 
 I WAS in command of a vessel, says 
 Capt. G., of W , Mass., engaged in the 
 
 hide trade, between N and a port 
 
 in Brazil. 
 
 The custom of the Brazilian port, 
 was to load vessels on the Sabbath. 
 This labor was performed by gangs of 
 negroes, under the direction of steve- 
 dores. These stevedores were few in 
 number, and, in times of great hurry 
 of business, in order to an equitable 
 division of their services, the vessels 
 were accustomed to take their turns 
 in the order in which they were report- 
 ed as ready to receive cargo. If, when 
 the time came round for a particular 
 vessel to load, she was not ready, her 
 name was transferred to the bottom of 
 the list. It was my lot to experience 
 some of the effects of this custom. 
 
 My turn came to load. The work 
 commenced and continued till Satur- 
 day night, when I ordered the hatches 
 closed, and forbid any work being done 
 on board till Monday morning. The 
 stevedore and his gang, muttering 
 curses, left the vessel, threatening to 
 do no more work on board. 
 
 Monday came. I made application 
 to the commission merchant, and was 
 
 informed that I had lost my turn in 
 loading, and must wait until it came 
 round again, and that the stevedore 
 and his gang had gone on board an- 
 other vessel. 
 
 To aggravate my disappointment, I 
 found that a hostile feeling had sprung 
 up against me, and was participated in 
 by all around. The merchant was stu- 
 diously polite and respectful as before, 
 but no longer familiar. Masters of ves- 
 sels avoided my society. Evil disposed 
 persons busied themselves in secretly 
 doing me injuries, such as cutting my 
 rigging in the night time, and the like. 
 And thus things went on, until our 
 turn came round again, when, there 
 being no other vessel ready to load, we 
 were left to do our own work in our 
 own way. The loss of time, occasioned 
 by the refusal to load on the Sabbath, 
 amounted to several weeks. Whether 
 it was actually a loss, or not, the result 
 will show. 
 
 It was now Saturday night again, the 
 loading of the ship was completed, and 
 we were ready for sea. With the Sab- 
 bath came a fresh and fair wind ; but 
 instead of sailing, the Bethel flag was 
 hoisted, as an invitation for all the 
 shipmates to come on board and ob- 
 serve the day in the good old way. 
 
 Monday morning, early, we were un- 
 der sail for the lower harbor, several 
 miles distant. On our way, we passed 
 two brigs aground, with lighters along- 
 side discharging their hides, in order 
 to lighten them and get them off". 
 They left the harbor on the Sabbath, 
 and here they were. On reaching the 
 lower harbor we found, to our surprise, 
 lying at anchor, upward of forty sail 
 of shipping waiting for a wind. Among 
 them were all the vessels that had clear- 
 ed for the last month or more, includ- 
 ing every vessel that had obtained an 
 advantage over us in respect to loading. 
 
 We had now to obtain a pilot and 
 get to sea, when the wind came fair 
 and before it had spent itself. These 
 were by no means matters easy to be
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 accomplished. Pilots were few, and 
 vessels many, and here, too, the prin- 
 ciple of rotation was rigidly enforced. 
 The winds, meanwhile, when fair, were 
 shortlived and feeble, and the bar at 
 the entrance of the harbor was too dan- 
 gerous to pass without a pilot. A pilot 
 who had been on a long visit to the in- 
 terior, returned to the seaboard and re- 
 sumed his duties on the very day when 
 we reached the outer harbor, and pre- 
 senting himself on board, offered to 
 pilot us to sea. 
 
 Tuesday morning found us, with a 
 fair wind, a pilot on board, and under 
 way at daylight. We were the second 
 vessel over the bar, and among the first 
 to arrive in the United States. The 
 getting out of cargo, its exposure and 
 sale, were matters of no little interest. 
 Our own cargo, owing to the delay in 
 getting it on board, received unusual 
 attention at our hands and was in per- 
 fect shipping order when stowed away, 
 and came out in the same good condi- 
 tion. The cargoes of the other vessels 
 came out very differently, with a loss in 
 some cases of twenty, thirty, and even 
 fifty per cent. This loss was occasion- 
 ed in part by hurrying the hides on 
 board in the first instance without their 
 being thoroughly dried, in order to 
 greater despatch, and in part to the 
 unusual detention of the vessels at the 
 port of loading. From these two 
 causes combined, and the activity of 
 the vermin that took possession of the 
 hides, and riddled them through and 
 through, several of those voyages turn- 
 ed out disastrous failures. 
 
 Celebrated Question of Conscience in 
 Commerce put by Cicero. 
 
 ONE of the most celebrated points as 
 affecting the obligations of one person 
 or party toward another, in trade, is 
 that put by Cicero, as follows : A corn 
 merchant of Alexandria, he says, ar- 
 rived at Rhodes in a time of great 
 scarcity, with a cargo of grain, and 
 with knowledge that a number of other 
 
 vessels laden with corn, had already 
 sailed from Alexandria for Rhodes, 
 and which he had passed on the pas- 
 sage was he bound in conscience to 
 inform the buyers of that fact ? Cicero 
 decides that he was. Other writers on 
 the morals of trade decide in the nega- 
 tive. 
 
 Arab Honesty in Business Trans- 
 actions. 
 
 WHEN Mr. Layard, the traveller, was 
 at some brackish springs called Belaisse, 
 he was awakened by the alarm that two 
 of his horses were stolen. Sabuman, 
 under whose escort he was travelling, 
 felt his honor so much concerned, that 
 he wandered till daybreak in search of 
 the thieves. Finally, having tracked 
 them, and pronounced with unerring 
 sagacity of what tribe they were, he 
 made an oath that the missing prop- 
 erty should be returned. After six 
 weeks' search and extensive journey- 
 ings, he fulfilled his vow and brought 
 back the animals, without asking ap- 
 parently without permitting, any re- 
 ward. 
 
 Suthun, another companion of Mr. 
 Layard, was often sent across the des- 
 ert, with perhaps three thousand dol- 
 lars in money, and always with perfect 
 confidence his only reward being an 
 occasional silk dress, or a few camel- 
 loads of corn for his family. 
 
 In commercial or business transac- 
 tions the same holds true. Of late 
 years, the wool of the Bedouin sheep 
 has. been in demand in the European 
 market, and a large trade is even now 
 going on in the region of the explora- 
 tions. Money is generally advanced by 
 the English representative, mostly be- 
 fore sheep-shearing, without any writ- 
 ten or other guaranty, to tribes of 
 whom nothing is heard after the pay- 
 ment until the receipt of the produce, 
 amounting sometimes to thousands of 
 dollars in value. And on the part of 
 the Arabs such scrupulous honesty is 
 observed, that one Bedouin made the
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 141 
 
 whole journey from Bagdad to Mosul, 
 solely to pay the balance of an old 
 wool account not amounting to so 
 much as one dollar. 
 
 Business versus Disease. 
 
 A TRADESMAN who had acquired 
 a large fortune in London, retired 
 from business, and went to reside in 
 Worcester. His mind, without its 
 usual occupation, and having nothing 
 else to supply its place, preyed upon 
 itself, so that existence became a tor- 
 ment to him. At last he was seized 
 with .the stone; and a friend, who 
 found him in one of its severest at- 
 tacks, having expressed his condo- 
 lence " No, no, sir," said he, " do not 
 pity me ; for I assure you what I now 
 suffer is ease compared with the tor- 
 ment of mind from which it relieves 
 
 Retiring from Business Engaging to 
 Blow the Bellows. 
 
 THE misery of having "nothing to 
 do " is oftentimes greater than that 
 which comes from having " nothing to 
 wear " poetry to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. A London tradesman, who 
 had risen to wealth from the humble 
 ranks of life, resolved to retire to the 
 country to enjoy, undisturbed, the re- 
 maining years of his life. For this pur- 
 pose, he purchased an estate and man- 
 sion in a sequestered corner in the 
 country, and took possession of it. 
 While the alterations and improve- 
 ments which he directed to be made 
 were going on, the noise of hammers, 
 saws, chisels, etc., around him, kept 
 him in good spirits. But when his im- 
 provements were finished, and his work- 
 men discharged, the stillness everywhere 
 disconcerted him, and he felt quite mis- 
 erable. He was obliged to have re- 
 course to a smith upon his estate, for 
 relief to his mind, and he actually en- 
 gaged to blow the bellows for a certain 
 number of hours in the day. In a short 
 
 time, however, even this ceased to afford 
 him the relief he desired ; he returned 
 to London, and acted as a gratuitous 
 assistant to his own clerk, to whom he 
 had given up his business. 
 
 Too Close Application to Business. 
 
 MB. RIPPON, late chief cashier of the 
 Bank of England, furnishes an extraor- 
 dinary instance of the manner in which 
 the mind becomes warped by continual 
 and close application to business. He 
 always declared he felt himself nowhere 
 so happy as in his business, and, though 
 for upward of fifty years in the bank, 
 he never solicited but one holiday, and 
 that was on the recommendation of his 
 medical adviser, on account of ill health. 
 The permission for leave was instantly 
 granted, and he left London with the 
 intention of being absent a fortnight ; 
 but the ennui of an idle life and the 
 want of his usual occupation so preyed 
 upon his spirits, that he actually re- 
 turned to his post at the expiration of 
 three days, stating as a reason, that 
 green fields and country scenery had 
 no charms for him. Mr. R. was always 
 remarkable for his sound judgment, 
 preciseness, and extreme punctuality; 
 and his long services and habits of 
 economy enabled him to leave behind 
 him a very large fortune. 
 
 Lending: a Helping: Hand : Abbott 
 Lawrence. 
 
 THE genial nature and courteous 
 manners of Abbott Lawrence were car- 
 ried with him in the marts of trade. 
 His unselfishness exhibited itself in his 
 readiness to share with his contempo- 
 raries in trade the benefits of honorable 
 enterprise. An anecdote in point will 
 illustrate this, though only one of 
 scores of the same kind that might be 
 told of that noble and elegant mer- 
 chant. A trader called at his counting 
 room one day, and remarked to him 
 that flannels were selling low, very 
 low. " Buy, then," said Mr. Lawrence.
 
 142 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " I am afraid to ; besides, I have not 
 the money," said the other. " Go buy 
 them / I will back you and share with 
 you in the speculation " was the ready 
 and accommodating reply. 
 
 Agreement for a Loan. 
 
 A MAN in the town of D., years ago, 
 went to a merchant in Portsmouth, 
 N. H., who was also president of a 
 bank, and stated that he lived on a 
 farm, the home of his father, which had 
 descended to him by right of inherit- 
 ance ; that this, his only property, was 
 mortgaged for one thousand dollars to 
 a merciless creditor, and that the time 
 of redemption would be out in a week. 
 He closed by asking for a loan to the 
 amount of his debt, for which he offered 
 to re-mortgage his farm. 
 
 Merchant : I have no money to spare ; 
 and if I could relieve you now, a similar 
 difficulty would probably arise in a year 
 or two. 
 
 Applicant : No ; I would make every 
 exertion I think I could clear it. 
 
 Merchant : Well, if you will obey my 
 directions, I can put you in a way to 
 get the money ; but it will require the 
 greatest prudence and resolution. If 
 you can get a good endorser on a note, 
 you shall have money from the bank, 
 and you can mortgage your farm to the 
 endorser, for his security. You must 
 pay in one hundred dollars every sixty 
 days. Can you do it ? 
 
 Applicant : I can get Mr. for 
 
 endorser, and I can raise the one hun- 
 dred dollars for every payment but the 
 first. 
 
 Merchant : Then borrow one hundred 
 dollars more than you want, and let it 
 lie in the bank ; you will lose only one 
 dollar interest. But mind, in order to 
 get along, you must spend nothing, buy 
 nothing; make a box to hold all the 
 money you get, as a sacred deposit. 
 
 The applicant departed. The note 
 was discounted, and the payment punc- 
 tually made. In something more than 
 
 two years, he came again into the store 
 of the merchant, and exclaimed, " I am 
 a free man I don't owe any man ten 
 dollars but look at me ! " He was in- 
 deed embrowned with labor; and his 
 clothes, from head to foot, were a tissue 
 of darns and patches. " My wife looks 
 worse than I do." " So you have clear- 
 ed your farm," said the merchant. 
 " Yes,'' answered the other, " and now 
 I know how to get another one" 
 
 Late at a Dinner Party George 
 Hudson. 
 
 ON a certain occasion, George Hud- 
 son was engaged to preside at a dinner 
 of fellow railway magnates ; the guests 
 were assembled, but Mr. Hudson was 
 wanting and, as he was always the 
 most important person wherever he 
 went, great was the concern felt lest he 
 should not come at all. The explana- 
 tion was simple, and much to the credit 
 of his business qualities. It appears 
 that as the railway chief drove to his 
 appointment, his route lay by a new 
 line, at the various posts of which the 
 employes were ordered to be present. 
 Unhappily, one of these was away ; 
 and, incensed at this neglect, Mr. Hud- 
 son ordered his instant dismissal. As 
 he proceeded, it occurred to him that 
 the punishment was harsh, that the 
 man was a poor man, that he had a 
 large family, and he determined to 
 annul the sentence at some future 
 period. He proceeded along yet fur- 
 ther ; and when he thought of the dis- 
 tress which the man would bear to his 
 house, he drove back many miles to re- 
 voke his order and be did revoke it, 
 though he kept his courtiers waiting 
 at the magnificent feast given in honor 
 of himself. 
 
 Girard Trying to Raise Five Dollars. 
 
 AT the age of about thirty years, 
 Girard's occupation is supposed to have 
 alternated between that of captain and 
 merchant, occasionally making a voy-
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 143 
 
 age to New Orleans or St. Domingo, 
 and then remaining at home to dispose 
 of his cargo and adjust his accounts for 
 a second voyage. It was while prose- 
 cuting one of these adventures, that he 
 was met at the capes of Delaware, by 
 Capt. James King, of Philadelphia, and 
 who has given the following curious 
 and remarkable account of Girard's 
 condition at that time : 
 
 On the first day of May, 1776 (says 
 Capt. King), I was chased by a British 
 man-of-war. I ran my vessel ashore, 
 all sails standing, about eight miles 
 southwest of Cape Henlopen. Whilst 
 waiting at Lewistown for an opportu- 
 nity to come up, the men-of-war were 
 coming in and out every day, so as to 
 prevent us from sailing. One morning 
 I saw a sloop at anchor, within the 
 cape, with a white flag flying. I ap- 
 plied to Major Fisher, who was then 
 commandant, to send a pilot aboard of 
 her. " No, no, King," said he, " that 
 is only a British decoy to get a pilot ; 
 I shall not trust them." I then went 
 over the cape, opposite to where the 
 sloop lay at anchor. I hailed her, 
 waved my hat, and did everything 
 that I could, in order to attract their 
 attention ; they answered me in the 
 same manner, but the surf made such 
 a noise as to prevent us from under- 
 standing each other, from which I con- 
 cluded to turn back, but, as I was re- 
 turning, discovered a boat rowing to- 
 ward me with a flag on a staff. I wait- 
 ed till they came up, when they told 
 me that they had orders from Major 
 Fisher, that if I would risk myself with 
 them, to go alongside of the sloop, they 
 would convey me ; and if not, to re- 
 turn. I immediately stepped into their 
 boat, and we proceeded to the sloop. 
 On inquiring where she was from, they 
 informed me (in French) that they were 
 from New Orleans and bound to St. 
 Pierres, but that they had lost them- 
 selves. I explained to the captain, 
 whose name was Girard, the dangerous 
 situation they were in, and that if he 
 
 attempted to go out he certainly would 
 be captured, as the men-of-war were in 
 and out every day. 
 
 " My God, what shall I do ? " said 
 Girard. 
 
 " You have no chance but to push 
 right up to Philadelphia," I replied. 
 
 " How shall I do to get there ? I 
 have no pilot and don't know the 
 way." 
 
 " These men are all pilots," I an- 
 swered. 
 
 " Oh, my good friend," said he, 
 " can't you get one of them to take 
 charge of me ? " 
 
 I said that I would try, and accord- 
 ingly spoke to them. They were will- 
 ing, but insisted they must have five 
 dollars to give to the men for rowing 
 them off. 
 
 " Oh, my good friend," exclaimed 
 Girard, " what shall I do ? / have not 
 got five dollars aboard" 
 
 " Darn the Frenchman," was the re- 
 ply, " we don't believe him, he hasn't 
 come to sea without being able to mus- 
 ter five dollars." 
 
 I informed him what the men had 
 said, and he replied 
 
 " It is really the case it is out of my 
 power to muster it and what shall I 
 do?" 
 
 " Well," said I, " I cannot stay with 
 you any longer, for I am going up to 
 Philadelphia myself, and I see one of 
 my shallops coming out of the Lewis- 
 town creek at this moment." 
 
 " Oh, you are going up to Philadel- 
 phia yourself, are you ? " observed Gi- 
 rard ; " can you not stand security to 
 these men for the five dollars, and I 
 will pay you as soon as I get up to the 
 city ? " 
 
 I told him that I would, and one of 
 the pilots then took charge of his sl( ,p, 
 and commenced heaving the anchor im- 
 mediately. I jumped into the boat and 
 parted with them. The boat put me on 
 board of the shallop that was coming 
 out of Lewistown with my goods, and 
 both sloop and shallop proceeded up.
 
 144 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Before we had got out of sight of the 
 spot where the sloop had cast anchor, 
 we saw a British man-of-war coming 
 in, and had we not started at the time, 
 in less than an hour Stephen Girard 
 would .have been a prisoner to the Brit- 
 ish. We both arrived safe in Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 The foregoing account certainly shows 
 Girard's knowledge of navigation to 
 have been very limited, and his circum- 
 stances far from being prosperous. For, 
 although even a rich merchant might 
 have been without five dollars in cash, 
 under certain circumstances, yet the 
 general description of the little sloop 
 and her commander bespeak a consider- 
 able depreciation from his former con- 
 dition. But the story of his actually 
 having lost himself may very reason- 
 ably be supposed to have been some 
 trick, or manoeuvre, in Girard, to obtain 
 a pilot, knowing, as he must have done, 
 the extreme peril of his situation, owing. 
 to the constant visits of the British 
 sloops of war ; and this supposition is 
 strengthened, when taking into account 
 the close observation and uncommon 
 sagacity of this singular man who thus 
 readily invented a specious fiction, in 
 order to accomplish his purpose. 
 
 Confidence in Mercantile Success. 
 
 BUDGETT, the successful English mer- 
 chant, not long before his death, heard 
 some one saying he wished for more 
 money : " Do you ? " said he, " then I 
 do not ; I have got quite enough. But 
 if I did wish for more, I should get it." 
 He would often say that, place him in 
 what position you might, he would 
 work his way on ay, leave him with- 
 out a shilling, still he could rise. His 
 faith in the power of perseverance was 
 unbounded. In speaking to some of 
 the poorest young men in his neighbor- 
 hood, and urging them to self-improve- 
 ment, he declared that there was no 
 reason why they miglit not though the 
 reason was manifest why they would 
 
 not every one of them be worth ten 
 thousand pounds. He placed his confi- 
 dence simply in " enduring powers and 
 extraordinary application." 
 
 Astor's Early Prediction. 
 
 WHILE yet almost a stranger in New 
 York, and in very narrow circumstan- 
 ces, Mr. Astor was one day passing by 
 a row of houses which had just been 
 erected in Broadway, and which, from 
 the superior style of their architecture 
 were the talk and the boast of the city. 
 " I'll build, one day or other, a greater 
 house than any of these, in this very 
 street," said he to himself; a predic- 
 tion which all will acknowledge has 
 been most amply fulfilled in the stately 
 and magnificent " Astor House "one 
 of the most impressive structures on 
 this continent, and exceeded by only a 
 few in Europe, of its class. 
 
 Erastus B. Eigelow's Boyhood Bargain. 
 
 THE name of Erastus B. Bigelow is 
 a notable one among the many sons of 
 New England who have risen from the 
 smallest beginnings to the highest pin- 
 nacle of business success and renown. 
 
 In Erastus's youth, good John Tem- 
 ple was his neighbor a substantial 
 farmer. The latter had noticed the 
 lad's capacity, and sometimes jokingly 
 asked him to come and live with him, 
 and learn his occupation. Erastus re- 
 garded this proposition as a business 
 matter. With him, an offer was an 
 offer. Accordingly, one Monday morn- 
 ing, in early spring, this boy of ten 
 years presented himself at Mr, T.'s 
 door, and demanded employment. It 
 was given him, with no expectation 
 that he would continue through the 
 day. He worked on, however, and at 
 the end of the week suggested to Mr. 
 T. that it would be proper to come to 
 some understanding in regard to wages. 
 On being asked his terms, he offered to 
 work six months, on condition of re-
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 145 
 
 ceiving at the close, a cosset lamb 
 called " Dolly," to which he had taken 
 a strpng liking. The moderate demand 
 was of course acceded to. But scarcely 
 had a month elapsed ere a difficulty 
 arose. Dolly could not live without 
 eating, and how was he to provide for 
 her? His fellow laborers discovered 
 the cause of his anxiety, and teasingly 
 aggravated it. At length he proposed 
 and effected an alteration in the con- 
 tract. He relinquished his claim to 
 Dolly, and Mr. T. agreed to furnish, in- 
 stead, a pair of cowhide boots, and 
 sheep's gray cloth sufficient for a suit 
 of clothes. The agreement was fully 
 carried out on both sides. At the close 
 of the period, an offer of four dollars a 
 month for the ensuing summer was 
 offered and accepted. The kind-heart- 
 ed man, at parting, gave the young far- 
 mer and future capitalist, a silver dollar. 
 
 General Jackson's Interview with 
 Samuel Slater. 
 
 WHEN making his Northern tour, 
 President Jackson visited the town of 
 Pawtucket. After he and his suite had 
 been duly conducted through the town, 
 and were expressing themselves as de- 
 lighted with its appearance its numer- 
 ous and well regulated establishments 
 of business, its ample and commodious 
 churches, and especially its intelligent 
 and well-ordered citizens they repair- 
 ed to the house of Mr. Slater, then con- 
 fined by a rheumatic disorder, to pay 
 their respects to a man whose business 
 enterprise had thus produced such great 
 results. 
 
 With the affability and complaisance 
 so peculiar to General Jackson, he ad- 
 dressed Mr. Slater as the father of 
 American manufactures, as the man 
 who had erected the first valuable ma- 
 chinery, and who spun yarn to make 
 the first cotton cloth in America; and 
 who had, by his superintendence and 
 direction, as well as by intense labor, 
 erected the first cotton mill in Rhode 
 10 
 
 Island, which was the first in the land 
 of the Pilgrims. 
 
 General Jackson, who had been in- 
 formed of the particulars referred to, 
 entered into familiar conversation on 
 the subject. " I understand," said the 
 President, " you taught us how to spin, 
 so as to rival Great Britain in her man- 
 ufactures ; you set all these thousands 
 of spindles at work, which I have been 
 delighted in viewing, and which have 
 made so many happy by a lucrative em- 
 ployment." "Yes, sir," said Mr. Sla- 
 ter, "I suppose that I gave out the 
 Psalm, and they have been singing to 
 the tune ever since." " We are glad to 
 hear also that you have realized some- 
 thing for yourself and family," said the 
 Vice-President. " So am I glad to 
 know it," said Mr. Slater, " for I should 
 not like to be a pauper in this country, 
 where they are put up at auction to the 
 lowest bidder." 
 
 A. T. Stewart's Success. 
 
 " IRELAND," says that genial writer, 
 Walter Barrett, "has been the birth- 
 place of many remarkable men, but 
 never has she sent from her shore a 
 more sagacious one than A. T. Stewart. 
 Our land has fostered the Frenchman 
 Girard, of Philadelphia, and the Ger- 
 man Astor, and they died worth mil- 
 lions ; but they never, even at a great 
 age, reached the wealth of the mer- 
 chant Stewart. He is yet in the gristle 
 of his success, and not hardened into 
 the bone of mammoth, overgrown 
 wealth. Stewart is this day worth 
 fourteen to twenty millions of dollars. 
 He owns more real estate than Astor, 
 and if he lives ten years longer, Mr. 
 Stewart will probably be worth from 
 twenty to thirty millions of dollars. 
 In 1848, he moved to his present mar- 
 ble palace. He had bought Washing- 
 ton Hall of young John Coster for sixty 
 thousand dollars, and for a few thou- 
 sand dollars more two additional build- 
 ings and lots on Broadway, corner of
 
 146 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Chambers street. "Upon this magnifi- 
 cent site he erected the present store. 
 The whole cost of the ground and the 
 palace erected did not reach three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. To-day it 
 would sell at auction for from eight 
 hundred thousand to one million dol- 
 lars. He paid patroon Van Rensselaer 
 five hundred and thirty thousand dol- 
 lars for the Metropolitan Hotel and 
 outbuildings. It is now worth and 
 pays an interest of ten per cent, on one 
 million dollars, and would bring at 
 auction eight hundred thousand dol- 
 lars. He owns more real estate than 
 any other man in New York." 
 
 What John McDonogh said to a 
 Lawyer. 
 
 THE following reminiscence of a fa- 
 miliar personal interview between the 
 great millionnaire of New Orleans and 
 a lawyer of that city as narrated by 
 the latter, is one of the rarest things of 
 the kind to be found in mercantile an- 
 nals : 
 
 I said to Mr. McDonogh, " You are 
 a very rich man, and I know that you 
 intend to leave all your property to be 
 expended in charitable purposes. I 
 have been thinking over your singular 
 life, and I want you to give me some 
 advice in regard to the success which 
 has attended you, for I, too, would like 
 to become very rich, having a family, so 
 as to leave my heirs wealthy." " Well," 
 said he, " get up, sir ; " and as I rose 
 from my arm-chair, he took my seat, 
 and, turning to me, as if he was the 
 proprietor and I his clerk, said, point- 
 ing to a common chair in which he had 
 been sitting, " sit down, sir, and I 
 will tell you how I became a rich man, 
 and how, ~by following three rules, you 
 can become as rich as myself: 
 
 "I first came to Louisiana," con- 
 tinued Mr. McDonogh, " when it was a 
 Spanish colony, as the agent for a 
 house in Baltimore and a house in Bos- 
 ton, to dispose of certain cargoes of 
 goods. After I had settled up their 
 
 accounts and finished their agency, I set 
 up to do business for myself. I had be- 
 come acquainted with the Spanish gov- 
 ernor, who had taken a fancy to me, 
 although I had never so much as flat- 
 tered him, and through his influence I 
 obtained a contract for the army, by 
 which I made ten thousand dollars. 
 After this, I gave a splendid dinner to 
 the principal officers of the army and 
 the governor, and by it obtained an- 
 other contract, by which I made thirty 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 " This is what the French and the 
 Creoles do not understand. I mean 
 the spending of money judiciously. 
 They are afraid of spending money. 
 A man who wishes to make a fortune 
 must first make a show of liberality, 
 and spend money in order to obtain it. 
 By that dinner which I gave to the 
 Spanish authorities, I obtained their 
 good will and esteem, and by this I 
 was enabled to make a large sum of 
 money. To succeed in life, then, you 
 must obtain the favor and influence of 
 the opulent, and the authorities of the 
 country in which you live. This is the 
 first rule. 
 
 " The natural span of a man's life," 
 observed Mr. McDonogh, " is too short, 
 if he is abandoned to his own resources, 
 to acquire great wealth, and, therefore, 
 in order to realize a fortune, you must 
 exercise your influence and power over 
 those who, in point of wealth, are in- 
 ferior to you, and, by availing yourself 
 of their talents, knowledge and infor- 
 mation, turn them to your own advan- 
 tage.*" This is the second rule." 
 
 Here Mr. McDonogh made a long 
 pause, as if lost in thought ; and seeing 
 him remain silent, I asked, " Is that all ? " 
 " No," said he, " there is a third and last 
 rule, which it is all essential for you to 
 observe, in order that success may attend 
 your efforts." " And what is that ? " I 
 inquired. " Why, sir," said he, " it is 
 prayer. You must pray to the Almigh- 
 ty with fervor and zeal, and you will 
 be sustained in all your doings, for I
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 147 
 
 never prayed sincerely to God, in all 
 my life, without having my prayers 
 answered satisfactorily." He stopped ; 
 and I said, "Is this all?" He an- 
 swered, " Yes, sir ; follow my advice, 
 and you will become a rich man." 
 And he arose and left. 
 
 Day and Martin, the Millionnaires of 
 " High Holborn." 
 
 THE lucky incident which made mil- 
 lionnaires of Day and Martin, of " High 
 Holborn," by the sale of their famous 
 blacking, is as follows : Day was a hair- 
 dresser in a humble way, and was be- 
 nificent and charitable in the extreme. 
 One day, a soldier entered his shop, and 
 stated that he had a long march before 
 him to reach his regiment ; that his 
 money was gone, and nothing but sick- 
 ness, fatigue, and punishment awaited 
 him, unless he could get a lift on a 
 coach. The worthy barber presented 
 him with a guinea, at which exhibition 
 of kindness the grateful soldier ex- 
 claimed, " God bless you, sir, how 
 can I ever repay you this ? I have 
 nothing in the world except " pulling 
 a dirty piece of paper from his pocket 
 " a receipt for blacking ; it is the 
 best ever was seen ; many a half guinea 
 have I had for it from the officers, and 
 many bottles have I sold may you be 
 able to get something for it, to repay 
 this you have given to a poor soldier ; 
 your kindness I never can repay or for- 
 get." 
 
 Mr. Day, who was a shrewd man, 
 inquired into the truth of the story, 
 tried the blacking, and finding it good, 
 commenced the manufacture and sale 
 of it with what results, the magnifi- 
 cent fortunes of the partners amply at- 
 test. 
 
 Jacob Barker's Success when a Youth. 
 
 DURING Mr. Barker's minority the 
 whaling business of Nantucket became 
 very much depressed, insomuch that 
 many merchants wished to sell their 
 
 vessels. This being made known by 
 him to Robert Mott, a gentleman of 
 great merit, he proposed to his friends, 
 Messrs. Robinson and Hartshorn, to 
 join him in the purchase of a ship at 
 Nantucket, and to employ young Bark- 
 er for the purpose. They offered to be 
 concerned in such a speculation, but re- 
 fused to intrust a toy with the mission, 
 saying that their Mr. Robinson would 
 go. Mr. Mott declined unless young 
 Barker was employed. They finally 
 compromised by agreeing that both 
 should go. Application was made to 
 Hicks (young Barker's employer) for 
 permission, to which he consented on 
 condition that Tie be paid a full com- 
 mission of two and one half per cent., 
 if a purchase was made. 
 
 They both went, Barker not appear- 
 ing to have anything to do with the 
 purchase. Robinson offered nine thou- 
 sand dollars for the ship Portland ; ten 
 thousand was demanded. After sev- 
 eral days' unsuccessful negotiation, he 
 determined to offer five hundred dollars 
 more ; had a meeting with the owners, 
 of whom an inquiry was made if they 
 were disposed to divide the difference. 
 They replied that "not a dollar less 
 than ten thousand would be accepted." 
 They separated, Robinson deliberating 
 how far it would be best to yield to the 
 demand of ten thousand dollars, when 
 young Barker prevailed on him to re- 
 pair to New Bedford for a few days, 
 leaving him to make the purchase. He 
 did so, and Barker succeeded pur- 
 chased the ship for nine thousand dol- 
 lars, and this, too, in season to notify 
 Robinson by the first mail, when he 
 returned to Nantucket to attend to 
 her dispatch. On arrival at New York, 
 she was sold to George M. Woolsey, for 
 thirteen thousand five hundred dollars, 
 and young Barker employed to return 
 immediately to Nantucket to purchase 
 a ship for James Lyon, of New York, 
 and John James, of Philadelphia, and 
 another for Jacob Valentine, Samuel 
 Hicks, and Samuel Robinson. He did
 
 148 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 so ; the ship Rose for the former gentle- 
 men, and the ship Beaver for the latter, 
 for which service Mr. Hicks also re- 
 ceived a full commission of two and 
 one half per cent, on the amount of 
 purchase. 
 
 In relation to the Rose: when that 
 vessel was ready for sea the vendors re- 
 fused to let her go without an indorser 
 on the bills of exchange to be given in 
 payment, amounting to ten thousand 
 dollars, although it had not been be- 
 fore mentioned ; this was very incon- 
 venient. Barker, not having the means 
 on the island to give a satisfactory in- 
 dorser, had to proceed to New Bedford 
 therefor. As there were not any steam- 
 boats running, and the mail-packet had 
 been detained some days by a north- 
 west wind, a change seemed probable, 
 and in the afternoon it came round to 
 west south-west too scant, however, 
 for the captain of the mail-packet to be 
 induced to leave. Barker, impatient 
 at the delay, took passage on a lumber- 
 loaded vessel that had put in for a har- 
 bor, bound to the neighborhood of 
 New Bedford, which he discovered 
 making sail to leave, late in the after- 
 noon. She proceeded twenty-five miles, 
 when the wind turned back to north- 
 west, which obliged the vessel to come 
 to anchor at eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing. At daylight the next morning a 
 signal was set for a pilot ; a boat soon 
 appeared from the Vineyard, and was 
 chartered to proceed to New Bedford. 
 
 On reaching Wood's Hole, the cur- 
 rent was found running east too swift 
 for the boat to encounter that passage 
 with an unfavorable wind ; she there- 
 fore beat up the Vineyard sound and 
 passed through Quicksi's Hole, and ar- 
 rived at New Bedford as the bells, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the place, 
 were ringing for twelve o'clock. The 
 indorsement of William Rotch, jr., was 
 procured. 
 
 " Walter Barrett's" Cotton Mission. 
 THE following well-told story be- 
 longs, of course, to a period when elec- 
 tric telegraphs did not, like a cobweb, 
 cover our land : Goodhue & Co. (the 
 great New York firm then and now) 
 had many rivals to their line of packets, 
 but none were successful. Robert Ker- 
 mit once started a line of " Saint " 
 ships. He owned the ship St. George, 
 and he persuaded Stephen Whitney 
 and old Nat Prime to become owners 
 in a new ship called the St. Andrew. 
 The line never succeeded, although the 
 latter once made a very short passage 
 in the year 1834, and brought the intel- 
 ligence of an advance in the price of 
 cotton in Liverpool. She came in late, 
 one Christmas eve. Old Mr. Prime 
 lived at that time at the corner of 
 Broadway and Marketfield street (now 
 Battery Place). Mr. Whitney lived 
 only a few steps' distance on the cor- 
 ner of State street and Bowling Green 
 Row, where he lived until he died very 
 recently. These old heads and two or 
 three younger ones had the exclusive 
 news, and they intended to make the 
 most of it. It was certain not to be 
 made public until the day after Christ- 
 mas. Letters of credit were prepared 
 in the front parlor of No. 1 Broadway 
 for one million of dollars. Walter Bar- 
 rett was selected to leave next morning 
 for New Orleans, by way of Wheeling, 
 hoping that he would outstrip the 
 great Southern mail, leaving two days 
 ahead, carrying these credits in favor 
 of Thomas Barrett and John Hagan, of 
 New Orleans, both eminent merchants 
 in those days. The letters ordered cot- 
 ton to be bought so long as there was 
 a bale in first hands in New Orleans. 
 Mr. Barrett, the bearer of credits and 
 orders, was told to spare no expense in 
 order to beat the mail. It was now 
 eleven o'clock, Christmas eve. No one 
 had thought about money for the ex- 
 pense of the messenger to New Orleans. 
 Banks were all shut brokers too. Mr.
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 149 
 
 Prime seized a blank check, and went 
 up with it to the City Hotel. 
 
 " Willard, for what amount can you 
 cash my check to-night ? " 
 
 " How much do you wish, Mr. 
 Prime ? " 
 
 " One thousand dollars." 
 
 Mr. Willard had the money, and 
 gave it to Mr. Prime. It was in the 
 pocket of Mr. Walter Barrett, the next 
 morning, when he embarked at six 
 o'clock in the boat for Amboy, com- 
 manded then by the since famous Capt. 
 Alexander Schultz. 
 
 The messenger, by bribing stage dri- 
 vers, paying Mississippi boat captains 
 $50 or $75 not to stop and receive 
 freight, reached New Orleans in eleven 
 days. It was daylight when he got 
 into the old City Hotel, in New Or- 
 leans, kept then by Mr. Bishop. Two 
 hours after, John Hagan and Thomas 
 Barrett had the letters of credit and 
 orders to purchase cotton. The South- 
 ern mail did not arrive for three days. 
 Before night, over fifty thousand bales 
 of cotton had been purchased at eleven 
 to twelve cents, or about sixty dollars 
 per bale. That cotton was sold at sev- 
 enteen and eighteen cents when cotton 
 went up a few days after. Some was 
 sent to Liverpool. The profit was on 
 some lots over thirty dollars a bale, and 
 was divided up among the New Orleans 
 houses of Barrett & Co., John Hagan 
 & Co., and the New York operators. 
 The messenger had the profits of two 
 hundred bales awarded him, and his 
 expenses paid. This operation was a 
 lucky one for some of the owners of 
 the St. Andrew, but it did not aid Cap- 
 tain Robert Kermit particularly, and 
 the " Saint " line went down. 
 
 We venture to say that that same 
 Walter Barrett can "do" a good job 
 now ! 
 
 Privateering Exploit of a Salem Mer- 
 chant. 
 
 JOSEPH PEABODY, the merchant-sov- 
 ereign of Salem, left that place in 
 
 1781-'2, in the letter-of-marque Ranger, 
 he being second officer. Proceeding to 
 Richmond, they disposed of their cargo 
 of salt, and then went to Alexandria, 
 where they loaded with flour for Hava- 
 na, and arrived safe. The Ranger re- 
 turned to Alexandria, and after receiv- 
 ing on board another cargo of flour, on 
 the 5th of July, 1782, dropped down 
 the Potomac to near its mouth, where 
 encountering head winds, she was 
 obliged to anchor, and, after making 
 the ordinary arrangements for the 
 night, the officers and crew retired to 
 their berths. 
 
 About eleven o'clock the watch ran 
 aft for a speaking-trumpet, and an- 
 nounced to the officers the unwelcome 
 news that boats were making for the 
 ship. The captain, Simmons, directed 
 Mr. Peabody not to let them come 
 alongside ; but they both rushed up 
 the companion-way, and as they reach- 
 ed the deck, received a discharge of 
 musketry, by which Capt. Simmons fell, 
 badly wounded, and entirely disabled 
 from further action. Mr. Peabody, 
 having no time to dress himself, ran 
 forward in his night-clothes, calling on 
 the crew to seize the boarding-pikes, 
 and grasping one himself, accompanied 
 by a man named Kent, armed in the like 
 manner, sprang to the bows, where they 
 had a fierce encounter with several of 
 the enemy already on the gunwale. 
 The crew having armed themselves, a 
 desperate conflict ensued, in the midst 
 of which another boat came alongside 
 and began a heavy fire on the other 
 quarter. 
 
 The first officer being employed at 
 the magazine in procuring ammunition 
 for those who were armed with mus- 
 kets, the command of the deck devolved 
 on Mr. Peabody, who, wearing a shirt, 
 was a conspicuous mark, even in a dark 
 night. He now ordered cold shot to 
 be thrown into the boats, and it was 
 done with such effect that one of them 
 gave way ; both had been grappled to 
 the Ranger before receiving any damage.
 
 150 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Perceiving the advantage thus obtain- 
 ed, he applied his entire force to the 
 other boat, and cheering his men with 
 the cry of " we have sunk one, my boys, 
 now let us sink the other," the re- 
 sponding cheers of the crew so alarmed 
 the assailants, that they dropped astern, 
 and both were soon lost in the darkness 
 of the night. 
 
 When the confusion was over, one of 
 the crew only was found to be dead, 
 and three wounded. Mr. Peabody was 
 not aware, during the action, that he 
 had received any wounds, but after- 
 ward found his arms stiff, and a ball 
 lodged in his left wrist, that the bone 
 of his right elbow was laid bare, and a 
 ball had grazed his left shoulder. The 
 Ranger was armed with seven guns, and 
 had a crew of twenty, while the barges 
 of the enemy contained sixty men. The 
 assailants, a band of tories headed by 
 two desperate characters, lost fifteen 
 killed, and had thirty-eight wounded. 
 
 Patriotism and Prowess of French 
 Merchants. 
 
 ONE of the chief merchants of Mar- 
 seilles, M. de Corse, carried his patri- 
 otic zeal to such an extent, that in 1760 
 he published a manifesto, declaring war 
 in his own private name against the 
 king of England, and put to sea no less 
 than twenty frigates, to cruise against 
 British commerce ! 
 
 This merchant, however, had a rival 
 in M. Gredis, a famous Jewish merchant 
 at Bordeaux. He fitted out, in 1761, 
 the Proth6e, of sixty-four guns, which 
 captured the merchant ship Ajax, an 
 Indiaman, worth about a million and a 
 half dollars. He had also several frig- 
 ates of thirty-six guns cruising at the 
 same time, on his own account. 
 
 In both these cases, it may perhaps 
 be doubted if, with a strong patriotic 
 feeling, there was not ome motive of 
 commercial gain ; for it has occurred 
 in England, as well as in France, and 
 our own country, that vessels thus fitted 
 out by merchants have done much in- 
 
 jury to the enemy, and no small service 
 to their owners. 
 
 Thomas H. Perkins's Deliberate 
 Habits. 
 
 THOMAS H. PERKINS'S self-possession 
 and tranquillity seldom forsook him 
 in any of his multifarious business 
 or private cares. At one time, when 
 he had decided to leave Boston in 
 order to take a long journey of sev- 
 eral thousand miles to the South and 
 West, application had been made to 
 him to give his guaranty for a consid- 
 erable sum, to enable one whose wel- 
 fare he wished to promote to engage in 
 a commercial connection that seemed 
 to offer great advantages. 
 
 As the magnitude of the affair re- 
 quired caution, it was expected, of 
 course, that when he had considered 
 the subject, explanations on various 
 points would be necessary before he 
 could decide to give it ; and it was in- 
 tended to take some favorable oppor- 
 tunity, when he might be entirely at 
 leisure, to explain everything fully. 
 Suddenly, however, he found it best to 
 commence the journey a week or two 
 sooner than had been mentioned, and 
 engagements of various kinds, previous- 
 ly made, so occupied him in the short 
 interval left, that there seemed to be no 
 time for offering such explanation with- 
 out danger of intruding, and the hope 
 of obtaining his aid at that time, in an 
 affair that required prompt action, was 
 given up. The applicant called at his 
 house half an hour before he was to go, 
 merely to take leave, knowing that the 
 haste of departure in such cases usually 
 precludes attention to any matter re- 
 quiring deliberation. On entering the 
 room, however, he found there was no 
 appearance of haste. All preparations 
 for the journey had been entirely com- 
 pleted in such good season that the last 
 half-hour seemed to be one entirely of 
 leisure for anything that might occur. 
 
 After a little chat, Col. Perkins intro- 
 duced the subject himself, and made
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 151 
 
 pertinent inquiries; which, being an- 
 swered satisfactorily, lie gave the guar- 
 anty and very kindly added a further 
 facility by allowing, until his return, 
 the use of a considerable sum of money 
 which he was leaving in the bank. 
 The arrangements were, in consequence, 
 completed the next day ; they proved 
 in the result to be eminently successful, 
 all pledges were redeemed, his guaran- 
 ty was cancelled in due course, without 
 the slightest cost or inconvenience to 
 him ; and the person whom he wished 
 to oblige received very large profits, 
 which happily influenced the remain- 
 der of his life, but which, perhaps, he 
 might never have enjoyed, if that last 
 half-hour before the journey had been 
 hurried. 
 
 Rothschild and Astor Compared. 
 
 THE elder Rothschild was perhaps a 
 richer man than Mr. Astor, but in other 
 respects his inferior. Rothschild was a 
 good arithmetician and a good banker. 
 He wrought out, skilfully and success- 
 fully, the materials offered to his hand 
 by the social condition of his time ; 
 but his was not an original, an inven- 
 tive, a creative mind. That of Mr. As- 
 tor, on the contrary, was strongly 
 marked by such characteristics. All 
 Ms bold and grand operations were in 
 scenes before untried; carrying out 
 combinations before unthought of; 
 opening up mines of hitherto undis- 
 covered wealth; and all tending not 
 more to his own advantage than to the 
 prosperity of the country, in its mate- 
 rial and commercial interests. Surely, 
 the stock operations of Rothschild 
 never partook of these characteristics. 
 
 Labouchere and Vincent Nolte. 
 VENCENT NOLTE became the Amer- 
 ican agent of the renowned Amsterdam 
 house of Hope & Co., under the follow- 
 ing curious circumstances, as narrated by 
 himself: One day, after the close of the 
 Bourse, Mr. L. placed his arm confiden- 
 
 tially in mine and said, " Let us take a 
 walk ; we will be able to converse un- 
 disturbed, and to better purpose, than 
 in the counting room. I have very 
 often been pressed, by my brother, to 
 give him permission to send an agent 
 to the United States, but would never 
 listen to his request, until he made men- 
 tion of you and your wishes. I think 
 that I have a perfect knowledge of you, 
 and understand you, from your corre- 
 spondence, and that you may be useful 
 to him, to yourself, and to us alL" 
 
 The " us all " sounded very pleasant- 
 ly in my ears, for under the word us I 
 was given to understand a mission for 
 the important house of Messrs. Hope 
 itself. I instantly said, " How is that ? 
 Us all?" 
 
 " I will tell you," he continued : 
 "To make your first appearance as 
 agent for the house of my brother is a 
 very good preliminary introduction to 
 the United States, and you can, accord- 
 ing to the directions and hints I will 
 give you, carefully look about you a 
 couple of months, until we shall have 
 some further additional need of your 
 services. Even were you not to make 
 one single bargain, I should still be 
 well enough satisfied ; but I have some- 
 thing better in store for you. You will 
 be intrusted with a mission that will 
 make you catch your breath to hear of 
 it. Tou will feel the ground heaving 
 under your feet." 
 
 And here he began to sketch for me 
 the outline of a really colossal under- 
 taking he was then planning in his own 
 mind. He then pointed out the posi- 
 tion he had in view, and the heavy re- 
 sponsibility that would rest upon my 
 shoulders. He was right. I did catch 
 my breath at the magnificence of his 
 project. Ere I had put a hand to it, I 
 at once declared to Mr. L. that I was 
 too young and inexperienced to assume 
 such a responsibility, and that I should 
 only in a moderate degree equal his 
 expectations. His answer was : 
 
 " That is my business, and not yours.
 
 152 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 I have but one thing to recommend to 
 you : never commit any action which 
 may one day cause you to blush before 
 me, or in the presence of your own con- 
 science 1 " 
 
 I was now placed upon the right 
 ground. He had correctly judged me, 
 and I had understood him perfectly. 
 At length we touched upon the ques- 
 tion, how much salary I was to receive 
 for all this : He replied : 
 
 "Nothing! Your expenses will be 
 liberally paid ! That is all. If you can- 
 not foresee what a position such a mis- 
 sion may secure for you in the commer- 
 cial world, and the facilities which it 
 cannot fail to open for you in the fu- 
 ture, you had better stay at home." 
 
 My reply was, that his extreme con- 
 fidence honored me, and that I would 
 unconditionally agree to all that he saw 
 fit to point out to me. 
 
 "In order to progress," he added, 
 " you must renounce all impatience to 
 succeed." 
 
 The business, of which Mr. Labou- 
 chere thus communicated only a rough 
 outline, and which Mr. Nolte got to 
 understand and form an opinion of, in 
 its whole extent, only several months 
 later, in the autumn of 1805, originated 
 in one of the many conceptions and 
 combinations of Ouvrard, the once cele- 
 brated French banker. 
 
 Scene in a Merchant's Counting: Room, 
 after the Peace in 1815. 
 
 THE promptness and energy of Amer- 
 ican merchants is established as char- 
 acteristic of them wherever American 
 commerce is known. Here is an illus- 
 tration the like of which it would be 
 no difficult labor to find in every city 
 and town in the country. 
 
 At the time of peace, in the winter 
 of 1815, Mr. A., a New York merchant, 
 proceeded to his office. The clerks, 
 four in number, were already at their 
 posts, and met their employer with a 
 smile each. " Well, boys," said he, 
 " this is good news now we must be 
 
 up and doing." He seldom used the 
 first person, I, but spoke to his clerks, 
 and of them, as being part and parcel 
 with himself. " We shall have our 
 hands full now," he continued, "but 
 we can do as much as anybody." 
 
 Mr. A. was the owner and part owner 
 of several ships, which during the war 
 had been hauled ashore three miles up 
 the river, and dismantled, and they 
 were now inclosed by a bay of solid ice, 
 for the whole distance, from one to two 
 feet thick, while the weather was so 
 cold that, when broken up, the pieces 
 would unite and congeal again in an 
 hour or two ; but this proved no dis- 
 couragement in the present case. It 
 would be a month before the ice would 
 yield to the season, and that would 
 give time for merchants in other places, 
 where the harbors were open, to be in 
 the markets abroad, before him. The 
 decision was therefore made on the in- 
 stant. 
 
 " Reuben," said Mr. A. to one of the 
 clerks, as soon as the " peace " greeting 
 was past, and he had told them his in- 
 tentions, " go out, and collect as many 
 laborers as possible to go up the river ; 
 
 Charles, do you go and find Mr. , 
 
 the rigger, and Mr. , the sail maker, 
 
 and tell them I want to see them imme- 
 diately ; John, go and engage half a 
 dozen truckmen for to-day and to- 
 morrow; Stephen, hunt up as many 
 caulkers and gravers as you can find, 
 and engage them to work ; " and Mr. A. 
 then sallied out himself to provide the 
 implements for ice breaking, and before 
 twelve o'clock, more than one hundred 
 men were three miles up the river, clear- 
 ing away the ships and cutting ice, which 
 they sawed out in large squares, and 
 then shoved them under the main body, 
 to open the channel. The roofing over 
 the ships was torn off, and the clatter 
 of caulkers' mallets was like the rattling 
 of a hail storm loads of rigging were 
 passing up on the ice riggers had 
 buckled on their belt and knife sail 
 makers were plying their needles, and
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 153 
 
 the whole was such a busy scene as had 
 not been witnessed there for years. 
 Before night the ships were afloat, and 
 moved some distance in the channel, 
 and by the time they had reached the 
 wharf, which was eight or ten days, 
 their rigging and spars were aloft, their 
 upper works caulked, and everything 
 in a great state of forwardness for sea. 
 
 It would not be safe to doubt that 
 energy like this met with its reward. 
 
 Strong: Point in Mercantile Success 
 Girard's Silence. 
 
 A POINT in the character of Girard, 
 the Napoleon of commerce, gives a 
 strong insight into the cause of his 
 business success. No man ever heard 
 him boast of wliat Tie could do. He re- 
 mained quiet and silent until the time 
 came for action, and then he struck the 
 blow with an unerring aim which in- 
 sured him success. He was studious to 
 learn all he could from others, and as 
 careful to impart nothing in return. 
 
 Tudor, the Original Ice Merchant. 
 
 To Mr. Frederick Tudor, of Boston, is 
 due the very creditable honor of origi- 
 nating the ice trade of our country, 
 now so extensive and important. This 
 gentleman, having previously sent 
 agents to the West Indies to pro- 
 cure information, determined to make 
 his first experiment in that region. 
 Finding no one willing to receive so 
 strange an article on shipboard, he was 
 compelled to purchase a vessel, the 
 brig Favorite, of about one hundred 
 and thirty tons, which he loaded with 
 ice from a pond in Saugus, Massachu- 
 setts, belonging to his father, and sent 
 to St. Pierre, Martinique. This first 
 enterprise resulted in a loss of about 
 $4,500, but was, nevertheless, followed 
 up until the embargo and war put an 
 end to the foreign trade, up to which 
 period it had yielded no profit to its 
 projector. Its operations had been 
 confined to Martinique and Jamaica. 
 
 After the close of the war with Eng- 
 land, in 1815, Mr. Tudor recommenced 
 his operations by shipments to Havana, 
 under a contract with the Government 
 of Cuba, which enabled him to pursue 
 his undertaking without loss, and ex- 
 tend it in a short time to Charleston, 
 8. C., Savannah, Ga., and New Orleans. 
 In the mean time it had been tried 
 again, by other parties, at Martinique 
 and St. Thomas, and failed, and by 
 Mr. Tudor at St. Jago de Cuba, where 
 it also failed, after a trial of some three 
 years. In 1833, the first shipment of 
 ice was made to the East Indies by Mr. 
 Tudor, in the ship Tuscany, for Calcut- 
 ta, and shipments were subsequently 
 made to Madras and Bombay. Up to 
 this time the ice business was of a very 
 complicated nature, and shipowners 
 objected to receive it on freight, fear- 
 ing its effect on the durability of their 
 vessels and the safety of their voyages. 
 It is now, however, one of the most con- 
 veniently conducted, extensive, and 
 profitable kinds of mercantile business, 
 and many parties are engaged in it. 
 
 First Greek Adventure to America. 
 
 THE first Greek ship that ever touch- 
 ed at an American port, arrived there 
 in 1811. She was called the Jerusalem, 
 and had a cargo of wines ; but in en- 
 tering the port of Boston, she ran 
 aground, and sustained so much dam- 
 age, that it took some months to repair 
 her. The captain, having in vain en- 
 deavored to sell his cargo, proceeded 
 to Havana, where he was not more suc- 
 cessful. He then returned to Boston, 
 and having become involved in law- 
 suits, his ship was seized, his cargo sold 
 at great sacrifice, and himself reduced 
 to such distress, that he was obliged to 
 beg for subsistence, until a subscription 
 was opened to defray the expenses of 
 his return to his own country. All his 
 crew died in prison.
 
 154 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Roman Idea of Merchants. 
 
 AMONG the Romans, the deity who 
 presided over commerce and banking 
 was Mercury, who, by a strange associa- 
 tion, was also the god of thieves and 
 of orators. The Romans, who looked 
 upon merchants with contempt, fancied 
 there was a resemblance between theft 
 and merchandise, and they easily found 
 a figurative connection between theft 
 and eloquence ; hence, thieves, mer- 
 chants, and orators, were placed under 
 the superintendence of the same deity. 
 On' the seventeenth of May, in each 
 year, the merchants held a public festi- 
 val, and walked in procession to the 
 temple of Mercury, for the purpose, as 
 the satirists said, of begging pardon of 
 that deity for all the lying and cheat- 
 ing they had found it convenient to 
 practise, in the way of business, during 
 the preceding year. 
 
 " Monsieur Smith," Girard's Man. 
 
 IT is known that Girard admired in- 
 dustry as much as he despised sloth, 
 and there was never, it is related, an 
 instance where he did not furnish em- 
 ployment or money to an industrious 
 and worthy man in distress. 
 
 Early one morning, while Mr. Girard 
 was walking around the square where 
 the millionnaire's well-known houses 
 now stand, John Smith, who had 
 worked on his buildings in the hum- 
 ble capacity of a laborer, and whom 
 Mr. G. had noted for his unusual activ- 
 ity, applied to him for assistance, when 
 something like the following dialogue 
 took place : 
 
 " Assistance work ha ? You want 
 to work?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; it's a long time since I've 
 had anything to do." 
 
 " Very well, I shall give you some. 
 You see dem stone yondare ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Very well, you shall fetch and put 
 them in this place. You see ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And when you done, come to me at 
 my bank." 
 
 Smith diligently performed his task, 
 which he accomplished about one 
 o'clock, when he repaired to Mr. Gir- 
 ard, and informed him that it was fin- 
 ished, at the same time asking if he 
 would not give him some more work. 
 
 "Ah, ha! oui. You want more 
 work ? Very well ; you shall go place 
 dem stone where you got him. TJnder- 
 standez ? You take him back." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Away went Smith to his work, which 
 having got through with about sunset, 
 he waited on Mr. Girard for his pay. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! you all finish ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Very well, how much money shall 
 I give you ? " 
 
 " One dollar, sir." 
 
 "Dat is honest. You take no ad- 
 vantage. Dare is your dollar." 
 
 " Can I do anything else for you ? " 
 
 " Oui. Come here when you get up 
 to-morrow. You shall have some 
 work." 
 
 Next morning, on calling, Smith was 
 not a little astonished when told that 
 he must " take dem stone back again," 
 nor was his astonishment diminished 
 when the order was repeated for the 
 fourth and last time. However, he was 
 one of that happy kind of persons who 
 mind their own business, and he went 
 on with his job, with all the indif- 
 ference imaginable. When he called 
 on Mr. Girard, in the evening, and in- 
 formed him that the stones " were as 
 they were," he was saluted thus in the 
 most cordial manner : 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur Smith, you shall be 
 my man; you mind your own business ; 
 you do what is told you ; you ask no 
 questions ; you no interfere. You got 
 one vife ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Ah, dat is bad. Von wife is bad. 
 Any de little chicks ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; five living."
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 155 
 
 " Five ? dat is good ; I like five ; I 
 like you, Monsieur Smith ; you like to 
 work ; you mind your business. Now 
 I do something for your five little 
 chicks. There, take these five pieces 
 of paper for your five little chicks ; you 
 shall work for them ; you shall mind 
 your business, and your little chicks 
 shall never want five more. Good 
 bye." 
 
 The feelings of the grateful man 
 being too much overcome to allow him 
 to reply, he departed in silence; and 
 by minding his own business, he be- 
 came one of the wealthiest of his name 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 Thomas P. Cope's Integrity. 
 
 A PERSON highly recommended ap- 
 proached Mr. Cope, the Philadelphia 
 merchant, one day, and invited him to 
 embark in a certain joint-stock enter- 
 prise. In a careful exposition of the 
 matter, he made it appear that the 
 scheme was likely to succeed, and that 
 the stock would instantly run up to a 
 liberal premium, on being put into the 
 market. "Well," said Mr. Cope, "I 
 am satisfied on that point ; I believe it 
 would be as thou sayest. But what 
 will be the real value of the stock ? " 
 " Why, as to that," answered the specu- 
 lator, " I cannot say (implying by his 
 manner what he tTwughf) ; but that is 
 of no account, for all we have to do is 
 to sell out, and make our thirty or for- 
 ty per cent, profit." " I'll have nothing 
 to do with it I'll have nothing to do 
 with it," was the prompt and indignant 
 reply. " And from that day," he used 
 to say, in relating the occurrence, " I 
 marked that man, and shunned all trans- 
 actions with him." 
 
 Second Thought on a Trade. 
 
 A MAN had bought a pair of shoes 
 from a dealer in that article, for which 
 he promised to pay him on a future 
 day. He went with his money on the 
 
 day appointed, but found that the deal- 
 er had in the interval departed this life. 
 Without saying anything of his errand, 
 he withdrew from the place, secretly 
 rejoicing at the opportunity thus unex- 
 pectedly afforded him of gaining a pair 
 of shoes for nothing. His conscience, 
 however, would not suffer him to remain 
 at ease under such an act of injustice ; 
 so, taking the money, he returned to 
 the shop, and casting in the money, 
 said, " Go thy ways, for though he is 
 dead to all the world besides, yet he is 
 alive to me." 
 
 Three Merchant Voyages, and their 
 Results. 
 
 A NEW YORK paper makes the fol- 
 lowing statement: Several years ago, 
 there lived in one of our seaports, three 
 merchants, whom we will designate as 
 A, B, and C, and all of whom were 
 owners of freight ships. Each of these 
 men loaded a ship at the same time, 
 which were to go first to Egypt, and 
 to the Baltic, to one of the Russian 
 ports. All being loaded, they waited 
 for a favorable wind. The harbor was 
 so situated, that there was no egress for 
 ships unless the wind blew in a particu- 
 lar direction. One Sabbath morning, 
 the wind was fair. The masters of the 
 vessels went to their respective owners 
 for sailing orders. A and B imme- 
 diately had their ships put to sea ; but 
 C told the master that he must remain 
 in port until the next day. Before 
 Monday morning, however, the wind 
 had changed, and remained contrary 
 until the next Sunday, when it again 
 came round fair. The master of the 
 vessel again repaired to the house of C, 
 to procure the ship's papers and orders. 
 But, to his astonishment, C remarked 
 that his ship must not leave the port 
 on the Sabbath. The captain attempt- 
 ed to reason the point with him, but 
 all in vain. He said if his ship never 
 sailed, it should not put to sea on that 
 day of the week ; and he was willing
 
 156 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 to run all the risks of maintaining his 
 principle. 
 
 Some time during the folio wing week, 
 the ship sailed with a fair breeze, and 
 arrived in Egypt just as the ships of A 
 and B were about to sail for the Baltic. 
 In the mean time, information had cir- 
 culated through the country, that 
 American vessels were in port, wishing 
 to sell their cargoes, and purchase a 
 certain kind of their produce, namely, 
 rice. The desired article was brought 
 in such abundance that the market was 
 glutted by the time C's ship arrived. 
 In consequence of this, his cargo was 
 sold at an advanced price, and his ship 
 loaded at a much better rate than the 
 others. C's vessel proceeded then on 
 her voyage up the Baltic. The ships 
 were to dispose of their rice in the Rus- 
 sian ports, and load for home with iron. 
 C's ship arrived in the Baltic after 
 those of A and B had purchased their 
 freight and nearly loaded ; and good 
 success continued to attend the former, 
 as it did in the Mediterranean. Abun- 
 dance of iron was brought to the market, 
 and there were enough purchasers for 
 the rice. All these ships reached Amer- 
 ica about the same time, that of C hav- 
 ing actually earned as much by the voy- 
 age as both the others. 
 
 Sharing: in a Good Operation. 
 
 WITH the foibles generally attendant 
 upon an aspiring, money-seeking man, 
 Mr. Fordyce, the celebrated English 
 banker, had many generous qualities. 
 A young, intelligent merchant, who 
 kept cash at his banking house, one 
 morning making a small deposit, he 
 happened to say in the office, that if he 
 could command some thousands at 
 present, there was a certain speculation 
 to be pursued, which in all probablity 
 would turn out fortunate. This was 
 said carelessly, without Fordyce appear- 
 ing to notice it. 
 
 A few months afterward, when the 
 same merchant was settling his book 
 
 with the house, he was very much sur- 
 prised to see the sum of 500 placed to 
 his credit, more than he knew he pos- 
 sessed. Thinking it a mistake, he 
 pointed it out to the clerk, who seeing 
 the entry in Mr. Fordyce's handwriting, 
 said he must have paid it to him. The 
 merchant knew he had not, and begged 
 to see Mr. Fordyce who, on appear- 
 ing, said, " It is all right enough, for as 
 I made 5,000 by the hint yon careless- 
 ly threw out, I think you fairly entitled 
 to 500." Mr. Fordyce did not stop 
 here ; for when, some years afterward, 
 the merchant became embarrassed, he 
 found a liberal friend in his previous 
 benefactor. 
 
 Secrecy in Business Transactions 
 Practised by Rothschild. 
 
 ONE cause of Rothschild's great ad- 
 vantage in his business transactions was 
 the secrecy with which he shrouded 
 them, and the tortuous policy with 
 which he misled those the most who 
 watched him the keenest. If he pos- 
 sessed news calculated to make the 
 funds rise, he would commission the 
 broker who acted on his behalf to sell 
 half a million. The shoal of men who 
 usually follow the movements of others 
 sold with him. The news soon passed 
 through the monetary circle that Roth- 
 schild was " bearing " the market, and 
 the funds fell. Men looked doubtingly 
 at one another ; a general panic spread ; 
 bad news was looked for; and these 
 united agencies sunk the price two or 
 three per cent. This was the result 
 expected ; and other brokers, not usu- 
 ally employed by him, bought all that 
 they could at the reduced rates. By 
 the time this was accomplished, the 
 good news had arrived ; the pressure 
 ceased ; the funds rose instantly ; and 
 Mr. Rothschild reaped his reward. 
 There were, however, periods when his 
 gigantic capital seemed likely to be 
 scattered to the four quarters of the 
 globe. He lost half a million in one 
 English operation; when the French
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 157 
 
 entered Spain in 1823, he was also in 
 the utmost jeopardy ; but perhaps the 
 most perilous position in which he was 
 placed was with the famous Polignac 
 loan, although his vast intelligence 
 saved him, and placed the burden on 
 the shoulders of others. With this, 
 nevertheless, he suffered greatly, as the 
 price fell thirty per cent. 
 
 Ladder of Commercial Success. 
 
 JAMES HALFOBD rose step by step up 
 the ladder of fortune until he stood se- 
 curely at the summit, with fame, wealth, 
 and honors surrounding him. Some 
 twenty years back, this same James 
 Halford was at the very foot of the lad- 
 der, pondering how he should rise. 
 The ladder was very curious to contem- 
 plate, and still more curious was it to 
 hear what the world said about it. 
 
 " It is all luck, sir," cried one, " noth- 
 ing but luck ; why, sir, I have managed 
 at times to get up a step or two, but 
 have always fallen down ere long, and 
 now I have given up striving, for luck 
 is against me." 
 
 " No, sir," cried another, " it is not 
 so much luck as scheming ; the selfish 
 schemer gets up, while more honest 
 folks remain at the foot." 
 
 " Patronage does it all," said a third ; 
 " you must have somebody to take you 
 by the hand and help you up, or you 
 have no chance." 
 
 James Halford heard all these varied 
 opinions of the world, but still persisted 
 in looking upward, for he had faith in 
 himself. 
 
 " The cry of ' luck's all,' what does 
 it amount to in reality," thought he, 
 " but that some people are surrounded 
 by better circumstances than others? 
 They must still, however, take advan- 
 tage of these circumstances permanent- 
 ly to succeed ; and I, having very in- 
 different circumstances around me, have 
 the more need to use great exertion in 
 order to better them ; and when re- 
 verses come, I will not despair, as some 
 
 do, but persevere on to fortune. I 
 want no friend to take me by the hand 
 and do that for me which every healthy 
 man can do better for himself. No, I 
 will rise by myself alone." 
 
 The resolution was earnestly made, 
 and faithfully carried out. From the 
 humblest capacity in a store, to the 
 post of highest trust, James Halford 
 rose in a few years. He became a 
 trader for himself, and amassed a heavy 
 fortune. 
 
 Six days for Business and One for Best. 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED capitalist and finan- 
 cier, charged with an immense amount 
 of property during the great pecuniary 
 pressure of 1836 and 1837, said: I 
 should have been a dead man, had it 
 not been for the Sabbath. Obliged to 
 work from morning to night, to a de- 
 gree that no hired day-laborer would 
 submit to, through the whole week, I 
 felt on Saturday, especially on Satur- 
 day afternoon, as if I must have rest. 
 It was like going into a dense fog. 
 Everything looked dark and gloomy, 
 as if nothing could be saved. I dis- 
 missed all from my mind, and kept the 
 Sabbath in the " good old way." On 
 Monday it was all bright sunshine. I 
 could see through and I got through. 
 But had it not been for the Sabbath, I 
 have no doubt I should have been in 
 the grave. 
 
 Boston Merchant's Opinion of Business 
 Men's Honesty. 
 
 IT is said of Mr. Samuel Appleton, a 
 " merchant prince " of Boston, that he 
 was himself so thoroughly upright, that 
 it was hard for him to doubt the hon- 
 esty of other men and, as is often the 
 case, men were really to him what he 
 expected them to be. On a certain oc- 
 casion he was asked and the answer 
 threw light alike on his own character 
 and on the character of merchants gen- 
 erally " You have been long engaged 
 in business, under a great variety of cir-
 
 158 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 cumstances, and in different countries : 
 what is your opinion in regard to the 
 honesty of mankind ? " " Very favora- 
 ble," he replied ; " very generally, I 
 think, they mean to be honest. I have 
 never in my life met with more than 
 three or four cases in which I thought 
 a man intended to be dishonest in deal- 
 ing with me." 
 
 Philadelphia Young Merchant who was 
 not Afraid of Girard. 
 
 A MAN who had just set up in the 
 hardware business, and who had been 
 a clerk where Girard had traded, ap- 
 plied to him for a share of his patron- 
 age. Girard bought of him, and when 
 he brought in the bill, found fault and 
 marked down the prices. " Cask of 
 nails," said he, " which I was offered 
 for so and so, you have charged so and 
 so, and you must take it off." " I can- 
 not do it," said the young merchant. 
 "You must do it," said Girard. "I 
 cannot and will not," said the mer- 
 chant. Girard bolted out of the door, 
 apparently in a rage, but soon after 
 sent a check for the whole bill. The 
 young man began to relent and say to 
 himself: " Perhaps he was offered them 
 at that price. But it is all over now ; 
 I am sorry I did not reduce the bill, 
 and get it out of him on something 
 else. His trade would have been worth 
 a good deal to me." By-and-by, Girard 
 came again and gave him another job. 
 The young man was very courteous, and 
 said, " I was almost sorry I did not re- 
 duce your former bill." " fieduce a 
 Mil! " said Girard, " had you done it, I 
 would never trade with you again. I 
 meant to see if you had cheated me." 
 
 Hiding: the Dollar with a Dime. 
 
 BUCKLEY, in one of his lectures, made 
 use of an illustration that will bear re- 
 peating : Holding a dime close to his 
 eyes with one hand, and a half dollar at 
 some distance with the other, said he : 
 " Now, I cannot see the half dollar with 
 
 this eye, for the dime is so near it, it 
 obscures my vision. So it is with men 
 of business ; in their eagerness to save 
 a dollar, they often lose sight of the 
 fifty within their reach." 
 
 Mercantile Defalcation made good after 
 Sixty Tears. 
 
 IN the month of January, 1821, a 
 man of respectable appearance entered 
 the Corn Exchange, in Mark Lane, Lon- 
 don, and advancing to one of the prin- 
 cipal factors, asked him if he was the 
 legal descendant of the head of a very- 
 ancient firm in that line, long since ex- 
 tinct ? Being answered in the affirma- 
 tive, he made some further inquiries, 
 confirmatory of the first question, and 
 departed. On the same day in the fol- 
 lowing week, he again made his appear- 
 ance with a bag, which he presented to 
 the factor, and containing three hun- 
 dred and seventy sovereigns. The fac- 
 tor, of course, surprised at the transac- 
 tion, began to make some inquiries; 
 but the person refused to answer any 
 questions, observing, that the property 
 was now returned to its rightful owner 
 that he wanted no receipt, and that 
 it was a matter of no consequence who 
 he was. On referring to some very old 
 business accounts, it appeared that in 
 the year 1762, the firm alluded to had 
 a very extensive business contract, in 
 the course of which a defalcation to 
 nearly that amount occurred. 
 
 Mysterious Benefactor Incident of the 
 South Sea Bubble. 
 
 ONE day, late in the evening, in 1720 
 a year celebrated for the bursting of 
 the South Sea Bubble a gentleman 
 called at the banking house of Messrs. 
 Hankey & Co., one of the heaviest in the 
 British kingdom. He was in a coach, 
 but refused to get out, and desired 
 that one of the partners of the house 
 would come to him ; into the hands of 
 this banker, when he appeared, he put a 
 parcel, very carefully sealed up, and de- 
 sired that it might be taken care of till
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 159 
 
 he should return again, which would 
 be in the course of a few days. A few 
 da*ys passed away, a few weeks, a few 
 months ; but the stranger never return- 
 ed. At the end of the second or third 
 year, the partners agreed to open this 
 mysterious parcel, when they found it 
 to contain the large sum of one hun- 
 dred and fifteen thousand dollars, with a 
 letter, stating that it had been obtained 
 by the South Sea speculation ; and di- 
 recting that it should be put in the 
 hands of three trustees, whose names 
 were mentioned, and the interest to be 
 appropriated to the relief of the poor. 
 
 Touro's Great Gift to a Beggar. 
 
 A POOR widow once called upon Mr. 
 Touro, the benevolent Hebrew merchant 
 of New Orleans, and opened to him a 
 very moving budget of griefs she had 
 several children, her rent was due, and 
 her landlord threatened to eject her, 
 nor had she a cent with which to buy 
 food or clothes. Long before she had 
 concluded her affecting jeremiad, Mr. 
 Touro had filled up a check and begged 
 her to go and draw it at once. The 
 poor woman proceeded accordingly to 
 the bank, and eagerly presented the 
 check at the counter. The teller care- 
 fully examined the check, and then sur- 
 veying the poor, scantily dressed, woe- 
 begone looking woman, shook his head, 
 and informed her that the check could 
 not be paid. "With a heavy heart, and 
 a sense of mingled shame and indigna- 
 tion, that she should have been thus 
 " cruelly trifled with, " she returned to 
 Mr. Touro's store, and handing him the 
 check, remarked that it ill became a 
 rich man to subject a poor widow to 
 insult and mockery. " My dear mad- 
 am," exclaimed the astonished and 
 philanthropic merchant, " it is all I can 
 give you to-day ; it is, I know, a small 
 sum, but it is all I can spare now." 
 " But the bank officer refuses to give 
 me anything for it," replied the dis- 
 tressed widow. " Oh, yes ! I see it all 
 
 he requires proof of your identity. 
 Bere," turning to his clerk, " go down 
 to the bank with this lady, and tell 
 them to pay that check." No wonder 
 that the teller refused to pay a check for 
 fifteen hundred dollars to so poor and 
 forlorn looking a holder ! 
 
 Generosity of Chickering-, the Piano- 
 forte Maker. 
 
 MANY years since, a boy, who thought 
 and dreamed of nothing but music, wan- 
 dered into a certain large establishment 
 in Boston, where his favorite instru- 
 ments were manufactured. Passing 
 into the extensive saloons where these 
 instruments were displayed, he sought 
 out a quiet corner, and seating himself 
 at one of those magnificent pianos, he 
 first looked around, to be sure that no 
 one was listening, and then began to 
 play some of those beautiful waltzes of 
 Beethoven, which, at that time, so suit- 
 ed his capacity, and suited his heart. 
 Borne away in a delicious musical rev- 
 erie, he did not for some time observe 
 that a figure had stolen up to him and 
 was listening as he played. A benevo- 
 lent face was over him, and a kind 
 voice addressed words of commenda- 
 tion and praise, which, being the first 
 the boy had received, sent the blood 
 tingling to his cheeks. The proprietor 
 of the establishment, for it was he, then 
 asked the boy if he would like to come 
 and live among those pianos, discours- 
 ing just such music to purchasers 
 thus forming, in a word, a connection 
 with his establishment. But books and 
 college were before the boy ; and won- 
 dering at the proposition, he timidly 
 thanked the proprietor and declined. 
 
 Years passed away. School and col- 
 lege were done with, and the books 
 thrown aside. The boy had reached 
 manhood ; but still the spirit of music 
 haunted him, and again he found him- 
 self in those spacious saloons. He had 
 just ceased playing upon one of those 
 magnificent instruments again, and 
 stood looking dreamily out of the win-
 
 160 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 dow, and down upon the crowded 
 " Washington street " below. Again a 
 quiet figure stole up to him, and a 
 most musical and pleasant voice began 
 to speak. The person before him was 
 of small stature, had the manners and 
 garb of a gentleman, was dressed in 
 black, with a single magnificent dia- 
 mond pin in his bosom ; the only con- 
 trast in his appearance was the clean 
 white apron of a workman, which he 
 wore. It was the proprietor of the 
 establishment again ; who, wealthy as 
 he was, had his own little working 
 cabinet, with an exquisite set of tools, 
 and there put the finishing touch to 
 each of his beautiful instruments a 
 touch he intrusted to no one else. The 
 proprietor inquired kindly of the young 
 man as to his plans for life. These, 
 alas ! were undetermined. The voice 
 of music was more fascinating than 
 ever ; but a learned profession of some 
 kind seemed to be the wish and ex- 
 pectation of his friends. Music, how- 
 ever, was his first and strongest love, 
 and he had sometimes thought, if he 
 could but go abroad to study, he would 
 decide for that. His father had given 
 him his college education and his bless- 
 ing, as capital for life. A harsh strug- 
 gle with the world was before him ; 
 music, therefore, was hardly to be 
 thought of. 
 
 In the quietest tone of that low, 
 pleasant voice, the proprietor, as 
 though making an ordinary remark, 
 rejoined, " Well, but then, if the sum 
 of five hundred dollars a year for a 
 period of four years would suit your 
 purpose, I could easily supply you 
 with that." 
 
 The world grew dun before him, and 
 the young man almost staggered with 
 surprise ; but when he recovered him- 
 self, there was the same quiet gentle- 
 man standing beside him, and looking 
 pleasantly out of the window. Two 
 months afterward the young man sailed 
 for Europe, where he passed the allot- 
 ted time and longer, from means with 
 
 which his own compositions in the 
 mean time furnished him. And what- 
 ever of knowledge, and whatever of 
 artistic culture, and whatever of suc- 
 cess in life, as connected with art, have 
 since been his, and he has long been 
 one of the most distinguished among 
 American musical composers, he as- 
 cribes entirely to that most generous 
 and noble-hearted Macaenas of art, Jonas 
 Chickering. 
 
 Whale Fishery Enterprise by Amer- 
 icans. 
 
 THE first attempts at the whale fish- 
 ery, in Massachusetts, were made from 
 the south shore and the island of Nan- 
 tucket, by persons who went out in 
 small boats, killed their whale, and re- 
 turned the same day. But the whales 
 were in this way soon driven from the 
 coast, the population increased, and the 
 demand for the product of the fisheries 
 proportionably augmented. It became 
 necessary to apply larger capitals to the 
 business. Whaleships were now fitted 
 out at considerable expense, which pur- 
 sued the adventurous occupation from 
 Greenland to Brazil. The enterprise 
 thus manifested, awoke the admira- 
 tion of Europe, and is immortalized in 
 the well-known description by Burke. 
 But the business has grown, until the 
 ancient fishing grounds have become 
 the first stations on a modern whaling 
 voyage ; and capitals are now required 
 sufficient to fit out a vessel for an ab- 
 sence of forty months, and a voyage of 
 circumnavigation. Fifty thousand dol- 
 lars are invested in a single vessel ; she 
 doubles Cape Horn, ranges from New 
 South Shetland to the coasts of Japan, 
 cruises in unexplored latitudes, stops for 
 refreshments at islands before undiscov- 
 ered, and on the basis, perhaps, of an 
 individual house, in New Bedford or 
 Nantucket, performs an exploit which, 
 eighty or ninety years ago, was thought 
 a great object to be effected by the re- 
 sources of the British government. 
 The " overgrown capitalist " employed
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 161 
 
 in this business may be said to be an 
 " overgrown lamplighter." 
 
 Enterprise of Yankees and Russians 
 
 'Cutely Illustrated. 
 A GOOD anecdote is told, illustrating 
 the rather superior enterprise of the 
 Yankees over the Russians. The squad- 
 rons sent out by the Russians to explore 
 the South Seas, had attained a degree 
 of latitude which it was supposed had 
 never before been reached, when land 
 was descried. The commander was con- 
 gratulating himself upon a discovery 
 which was thus to immortalize his 
 name, when, standing out from the- 
 land, a simple schooner was observed, 
 which proved to be a sealing vessel of 
 thirty tons. Hoisting the stars and 
 stripes, the captain of the Yankee craft, 
 for such she proved, ran alongside of 
 the commodore, and politely offered to 
 pilot him in ! The Russian was aston- 
 ished " some," to find such a rig and 
 such a crew at a spot which, in Europe, 
 was not known to exist though, in- 
 deed, it would be really more astonish- 
 ing to find a place where Yankee trad- 
 ing enterprise had not penetrated. 
 "Working a gold mine on the top of 
 Himmaleh, or speculating in dead horse 
 flesh among the Usbecs heading a 
 caravan across the Siberia, or trapping 
 bears at the North Pole bartering yel- 
 low buttons for goats' hair in the capi- 
 tal of the Grand Lama, or exchanging 
 fez-caps and coral for Soudan ingots, in 
 the stalls of Timbuctoo in any and all 
 of these places and employments, the 
 Yankee might be expected to be found. 
 
 Tempting: Business Paragraph. 
 
 " WE are well acquainted," says the 
 editor of a city journal, " with a young 
 and very handsome girl, who has the 
 principal management of a large mer- 
 cantile establishment in a flourishing 
 country town, who visits different cities 
 alone, stops at hotels, purchases sup- 
 plies of dry goods, dimity, hardware, 
 11 
 
 china, groceries, shoes, nick-nacks, and 
 all the multifarious saleables which make 
 up ' a stock ' in a miscellaneous store. 
 She gives notes, makes contracts, and 
 attends to all such business as belongs 
 to her ; and we have never yet learned 
 that she has sacrificed one iota of the 
 dignity, admiration and respect, which 
 are her just due as a young, amiable, 
 and very pretty woman. There ! " 
 
 Bone and Offal Millionnaire. 
 
 SOME years ago, a poor French wom- 
 an, residing at Buenos Ayres, being ex- 
 ceedingly perplexed with regard to the 
 " ways and means," set her inventive 
 genius to work, and hit upon the fol- 
 lowing expedient : 
 
 Observing a vast quantity of bones 
 and animal offal thrown away from the 
 slaughter houses with which Buenos 
 Ayres abounds, a thought struck her 
 that she might turn this waste to a 
 profitable account. Having procured 
 a large iron pot, and collected a quan- 
 tity of bones, etc., she commenced oper- 
 ations by boiling them, and skimming 
 off the fat, which she then sold at the 
 stores. Finding the proceeds of her 
 industry amply rewarded her labor, she 
 persevered, advancing from a pot to a 
 boiler, and from a boiler to a steaming 
 vat, until she possessed a magnificent 
 apparatus, capable of reducing a hun- 
 dred head of cattle to tallow, at one 
 steaming. In course of time she sold 
 her manufactory, and retired from busi- 
 ness with a large fortune, rolling through 
 the streets in one of the most sumptu- 
 ous carriages in Buenos Ayres. There 
 is now scarcely a respectable merchant 
 in that place, or in Montevideo, who is 
 not in some way connected with cattle- 
 steaming. 
 
 "Five Years of Privation and a For- 
 tune." 
 
 UNDER the arcades near the markets, 
 in Havana, may be seen a number of 
 shops, not ten feet square, with a show-
 
 162 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 case in front, before which a restless 
 being is constantly walking; remind- 
 ing one of a caged wild animal that 
 chafes for a wider range. At night, 
 the showcase is carried into his little 
 cabin, which serves him for a shop, 
 dormitory, and kitchen, and where he 
 may be often seen preparing his frugal 
 meal over a chafing dish of live char- 
 coal. " Five years of privation and a 
 fortune" is his motto ; and not a few 
 of the wealthiest Spanish residents in 
 Cuba are said to date the commence- 
 ment of their prosperity from so hum- 
 ble a source. These are the Catalans 
 an industrious, shrewd, economical 
 class, who have received the sobriquet 
 of Spanish Jews. A large portion of 
 the commerce of the island is in their 
 hands, as well as a very great part of 
 its wealth. In the interior of the 
 island they appear to monopolize every 
 branch of trading, from the pack of the 
 humblest peddler to the country tienda 
 with its varied contents ; and, in the 
 maritime towns, many a commercial 
 house, whose ships cover the sea, is 
 theirs. 
 
 McDonogli's Greatest Victory. 
 
 ONE of John McDonogh's favorite 
 plans of operation, to increase his for- 
 tune, was to purchase the back lands 
 of plantations on the river, the value 
 of which would be increased enormous- 
 ly by the improvements in front of 
 them. So he eagerly pounced upon all 
 the lands in the neighborhood of the 
 towns and villages in the State. One 
 of the most brilliant of his feats in this 
 sphere was the completion of his lines 
 of circumvallation around the city of 
 New Orleans. For many years he pur- 
 sued this object with the greatest ardor 
 and intensity. Commencing at the up- 
 per end of the city, he stole gradually 
 around through the swamps, purchas- 
 ing large belts of land, until at last, a 
 few years before his death, meeting 
 one of his old friends in the street, he 
 
 slapped him on the shoulder, and with 
 his face full of enthusiasm and joy, ex- 
 claimed, " Congratulate me, my friend ; 
 I have achieved the greatest victory of 
 my life. I have drawn my lines around 
 the city, and now entirely embrace it 
 in my arms all for the glory of God 
 and the good of my race." 
 
 James G. King's Treatment of Resent- 
 ments. 
 
 AN incident in the life of James Gore 
 King affords a pleasing illustration of 
 the tenderness of heart which not un- 
 frequently accompanies high mercantile 
 character. A misunderstanding had 
 for some years existed, and compara- 
 tive estrangement between him and one 
 who had been early connected with him 
 by family ties. This state of things 
 grieved him, for having no resent- 
 ment or unkindness in his own heart, 
 he was uneasy even under the appear- 
 ance of cherishing any. A casual and 
 most improbable meeting in a city omni- 
 bus, only four days before his death, with 
 the person thus estranged, the inhabit- 
 ant of another State, afforded him the 
 opportunity of reconciliation. After 
 exchanging friendly salutations in the 
 omnibus, when the person alighted he 
 too got out, and when alone together 
 said, extending his hand, " If, without 
 asking or giving any explanation, you 
 are willing that we should be friends, 
 let it be so ;" adding, with that thought- 
 ful prescience which sometimes goes 
 before the event, " I want, before I die, 
 to be at peace with all." The extend- 
 ed hand was taken ; and the particulars 
 of this interview comprised one of the 
 last subjects upon which Mr. King con- 
 versed, and with much happiness, just 
 before his death. 
 
 Noble Mercantile Trait of Jonathan 
 Good hue. 
 
 THE late Mr. Jonathan Goodhue was 
 noted for the ready-flowing sympathy 
 and fellow feeling which marked his 
 character. It was especially manifested
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 163 
 
 toward those in dependent situations 
 and in the more humble walks of life. 
 No laboring man, however low his con- 
 dition, could be engaged in his service 
 without perceiving that he had a con- 
 siderate regard for his feelings and for 
 his rights. No domestic ever lived in 
 his family without being impressed by 
 his condescension and kindness. This 
 feeling made him reluctant to part with 
 those who had faithfully served him, 
 and few men have ever made so few 
 changes in those who have held subor- 
 dinate situations under them. The 
 cartman who, on his first arrival in 
 New York, took his baggage to his 
 lodgings, was employed by him until 
 old age obliged Tiim to retire from ac- 
 tive life. A principal book-keeper, 
 well worthy of his confidence and 
 esteem, remained with him for fifteen 
 years, and then withdrew because of a 
 change in his mode of life. A con- 
 fidential counting-room porter, after 
 being in his service for twenty-five 
 years, still holds his place in the house 
 of Goodhue & Co. These incidents 
 show a trait of character indicating 
 true nobility. 
 
 Redeeming 1 . Lost Time. 
 
 THE diligence and application dis- 
 played by Gideon Lee were remark- 
 able ; he usually worked sixteen hours 
 out of the twenty-four. An anecdote 
 which he used to relate of himself in 
 this connection, is worthy of being told, 
 as illustrating two traits in his charac- 
 ter, which adhered to him through life 
 his great industry and his resolution. 
 He had " made a bargain with himself," 
 as he expressed it, to " labor each day 
 a certain number of hours, and nothing 
 but sickness or inability should make 
 him break the contract. It was known 
 to my young friends in the neighbor- 
 hood, and on some convivial occasion, 
 a quilting frolic, I believe, they came 
 to my shop and compelled me to leave 
 my work and go with them; there 
 
 being girls also in the deputation, my 
 gallantry could not resist. I lost my 
 night's rest in consequence, for the 
 morning sun found me at work, redeem- 
 ing the lost time.' 11 After gratifying his 
 friends by spending the evening in 
 their society, he returned to the shop 
 to gratify himself, by not violating his 
 faith. 
 
 Restitution by a Shopkeeper. 
 
 A GENTLEMAN, passing through the 
 streets of Newcastle, was called in by a 
 well known and extensive shopkeeper, 
 who acknowledged himself indebted to 
 him to the amount of a guinea. The 
 gentleman, much astonished, inquired 
 how this was, as he had no recollection 
 of the circumstance. The shopkeeper 
 replied, that about twenty years before, 
 as the gentleman's wife was crossing 
 the river Tyne in a boat which he was 
 in, she accidentally dropped half a 
 guinea, as she took out her money to 
 pay the fare. The now well-off shop- 
 keeper, who had then a family at home 
 literally starving, snatched up the half 
 guinea. He had since been prosperous 
 in his business, and now seized the first 
 opportunity since his good fortune, of 
 paying the money, with interest. 
 
 Spanish Mercantile Dealing 1 . 
 
 THE Spanish galleons destined to 
 supply Terra Firma, and the kingdoms 
 of Peru and Chili, with almost every 
 article of necessary consumption, used 
 to touch first at Carthagena, and then at 
 Porto Bello. In the latter place a fair 
 was opened; the wealth of America 
 was exchanged for the manufactures of 
 Europe ; and during its prescribed term 
 of forty days the richest traffic on the 
 face of the earth was begun and finished 
 with unbounded confidence and the 
 utmost simplicity of transaction. No 
 bale of goods was ever opened, no chest 
 of treasure examined ; both were re- 
 ceived on the credit of the persons to
 
 164 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 whom they belonged only one in- 
 stance of fraud being recorded, during 
 the long period in which trade was 
 carried on with this liberal and unsus- 
 pecting confidence. It seems that all 
 the coined silver which was brought 
 from Peru to Porto Bello, in the year 
 1654, was found to be adulterated, and 
 to be mingled with a fifth part of base 
 metal. The Spanish merchants, with 
 their usual integrity, sustained the 
 whole loss, and indemnified the for- 
 eigners by whom they were employed. 
 The fraud was detected, and the treas- 
 urer of the revenue in Peru, the author 
 of it, was publicly burnt. 
 
 
 Not Disposed to Lie. 
 
 WHEN that model merchant, Abbott 
 Lawrence, was at the height of his mer- 
 cantile prosperity, he was offered the 
 post of ambassador to the English 
 Court an elegant compliment to him- 
 self personally, and to the honorable 
 and influential class of whom he might 
 almost be said to be the head. Before 
 accepting, he asked Mr. Everett, who 
 had already occupied the post, " wheth- 
 er there was really any foundation in 
 truth for the ancient epigrammatic jest, 
 that an ambassador is a person sent to 
 a foreign government to tell lies for his 
 own," adding that, " if such was the 
 case, his mind was made up ; he had 
 never yet told a lie, and was not going 
 to begin at the age of fifty-six." Mr. 
 Everett told him he could answer for 
 himself as a foreign minister, that he 
 had never said a word or written a line 
 which, as far as his own character or 
 that of his government was concerned, 
 he should have been unwilling to see in 
 the newspaper the next day. This ex- 
 planation, the upright merchant re- 
 plied, removed one of his scruples. 
 
 Polly Kenton's Lard Speculation. 
 
 WHEN Miss Kenton first came into 
 Girard's employ, as his housekeeper or 
 
 attendant, which was nearly four score 
 years ago, he was making large ship- 
 ments to the West Indies, and he or- 
 dered her to procure some fifty kegs of 
 lard from her father, who was a farmer, 
 and ship them upon her own account. 
 She did so ; and the product, from some 
 unusual state of the market at that tune 
 was immense. This product remained 
 on her hands until her death, and was 
 afterward recovered from his executors. 
 
 Handful of Wool and a Bank of Money. 
 
 A MARSEILLES merchant had a 
 daughter named Eugenie, who early 
 married a Catalan officer, in the service 
 of Don Carlos. He fell in battle, and 
 after burying him in a grave dug with 
 her own hands, this widow with her 
 two children, wretched, and utterly pen- 
 niless, fled to the solitude of the Span- 
 ish mountains, taking refuge in a ruined 
 convent. There, by various little ser- 
 vices to the shepherds and peasants, 
 she obtained a scanty crust and milk 
 for her infants. Becoming thus more 
 and more acquainted with the women 
 who visited the mountains to carry 
 food to their husbands, she invited 
 them to bring with them their wheels 
 and spin together in her place of 
 abode, as more convenient and less 
 lonely than for each to labor by herself. 
 This they did in great numbers, and at 
 the end of every week the grateful 
 peasants presented her a handful of 
 spun wool each. Out of this handful 
 of wool she in due tune made a bank 
 of money and a vast estate. 
 
 Descending occasionally to the near- 
 est town, she sold these little wool 
 gatherings, and had in a few months 
 accumulated, through this means, suf- 
 ficient money to purchase the shep- 
 herds' raw wool, and to beg for an 
 hour's labor, instead of the handful of 
 material from her guests. Before the 
 summer season was over, and its occu- 
 pations, she collected, by management 
 and industry, enough funds to pay
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 165 
 
 them for their work ; and, at the next 
 sheep-shearing, she became the pur- 
 chaser of more than half the wool. 
 
 Encouraged by the rewards of her 
 business skill thus far, she proceeded, 
 the second spring following, under the 
 escort of some of her shepherd friends, 
 to the frontier, where she contracted 
 with one of the greatest wool-buyers 
 in the country, for the produce of the 
 next winter's spinning. In the space 
 of three years the old convent was con- 
 verted into a spinning factory ; became 
 renowned throughout the north of 
 Spain for the fineness of its produce ; 
 and proved both a source of social com- 
 fort and pecuniary prosperity to the 
 poor peasants who had once, out of 
 their humble means, exercised charity 
 toward its then desolate and necessi- 
 tous inmate. 
 
 Madame L 's web of good fortune 
 
 waxed after this agreeable fashion every 
 year, until she became an exceedingly 
 wealthy capitalist, with literally a bank 
 of money, and credit unlimited. She 
 has four factories in Spain, and seven 
 in France, besides cotton and flax mills 
 in Belgium. And all this great fortune 
 has been extracted or irradiated from 
 that handful of wool I 
 
 Johnson's Prejudice against Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 Dn. JOHNSON was bitterly prejudiced 
 against the mercantile classes, whether 
 of humble or high degree. At break- 
 fast, says his entertaining jackal, Bos- 
 well, I asked : 
 
 " What is the reason that we are an- 
 gry at a trader's having opulence ? " 
 
 " Why, sir," said Johnson, " the rea- 
 son is, though I do not undertake to 
 prove there is a reason, we see no quali- 
 ties in trade that should entitle such a 
 man to superiority. We are not angry 
 at a soldier's getting riches, because we 
 see that he possesses qualities which we 
 have not. If a man returns from battle, 
 having lost one hand, with the other 
 
 full of gold, we feel that he deserves the 
 gold ; but we cannot think that a fel- 
 low sitting all day at a desk is entitled 
 to get above us." 
 
 " But," responded Boswell, " may we 
 not suppose a merchant to be a man of 
 an enlarged mind, such as Addison in 
 the Spectator describes Sir Andrew 
 Freeport to have been ? " 
 
 " Why, sir," quoth Johnson, " we 
 may suppose any fictitious character. 
 We may suppose a philosophical day 
 laborer, who is happy in reflecting that, 
 by his labor, he contributes to the fer- 
 tility of the earth, and the support of 
 his fellow creatures ; but we find no 
 such philosophical day laborer. A 
 merchant may, perhaps, be a man 
 of an enlarged mind, but there is noth- 
 ing in trade connected with an enlarged 
 mind." 
 
 Johnson's opinion he who could say 
 that Americans ought to be thankful 
 for anything " short of hanging," will 
 not have much weight at the present 
 day. 
 
 Business Habits of A. T. Stewart. 
 
 IT is said of A. T. Stewart, that so 
 accurate is his comprehension of all the 
 departments of his great establishment, 
 that his clerks have sometimes imagined 
 that he has an invisible telegraph gird- 
 ling the whole building. They also 
 have a saying, that if any one of them 
 is absent he is the one to be first called 
 for. 
 
 But few of the thousands who trade 
 at Stewart's ever get sight of the pro- 
 prietor. He is only to be found at his 
 office, which is situated on the second 
 story, on the side of the house looking 
 into Chambers street. Here he sits at 
 his desk, absorbed by his responsibili- 
 ties, directing the various energies of 
 the great body of which he is the head. 
 None, except a man of the highest exe- 
 cutive ability, could endure the con- 
 stant care, the earnest effort. He is the 
 hardest worker in the concern. It is
 
 166 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 not generally known that during these 
 hours of application, and while en- 
 grossed in the management of his im- 
 mense operations, no one is allowed to 
 address him personally until his errand 
 or business shall have been first laid be- 
 fore a subordinate. If it is of such a 
 character that that gentleman can at- 
 tend to it, it goes no farther, and hence 
 it rests with him to communicate it to 
 his principal. In illustration of this 
 system, the following incident is re- 
 lated : One day a person entered the 
 wholesale department, with an air of 
 great importance, and demanded to see 
 the proprietor. That proprietor could 
 be very easily seen, as he was sitting in 
 his office, but the stranger was cour- 
 teously met by the assistant, with the 
 usual inquiry as to the nature of his 
 business. The stranger, who was a 
 Government man, bristled up and ex- 
 claimed, indignantly, " Sir, I come 
 from Mr. L , and shall tell my busi- 
 ness to no one but Mr. Stewart." 
 " Sir," replied the inevitable Mr. 
 
 Brown, " if Mr. L himself, were 
 
 to come here, he would not see Mr. 
 Stewart until he should have first told 
 me his business." 
 
 Thorbttrn's Flowery Path to Fortune. 
 
 ONE of the pleasantest stories of the 
 casual manner in which a business was 
 commenced which led on to fortune, is 
 that given by Grant Thorburn, former- 
 ly the keeper of a small grocery, after- 
 ward the leading and most wealthy 
 American seedsman and florist, his 
 business relations extending to almost 
 all parts. Here it is, in the easy and 
 simple style of that remarkable man : 
 
 On the east corner of Nassau and 
 Liberty streets, New York, there lived 
 the venerable old gentleman, Mr. Isaac 
 Van Hook, so well known as the sexton 
 of the New Dutch church opposite his 
 house, for nearly fifty years. In course 
 of time, J. L. and "W. S., both cabinet 
 makers, and carrying on a respectable 
 
 business, having in their employment 
 ten or twelve journeymen and appren- 
 tices, took a mad resolution, gave up 
 their business, sold their stock, hired 
 the corner house over the head of poor 
 old Van Hook, turning him and his to- 
 bacco pipes out of doors, and com- 
 menced the grocery business. Theirs 
 being a corner, took away the most of 
 my customers ; insomuch that I was 
 obliged to look round for some other 
 mode to support my family. This, you 
 may be sure, I considered a great mis- 
 fortune ; but, in the sequel, prepared 
 the way to put me into a more agree- 
 able and profitable business. 
 
 About this time the ladies in New 
 York were beginning to show their 
 taste for flowers, and it was customary 
 to sell the empty flower pots in the 
 grocery stores ; these articles also com- 
 posed part of my stock. 
 
 In the fall of the year, when the plants 
 wanted shifting, preparatory to their 
 being placed in the parlor, I was often 
 asked for pots of a handsomer quality, 
 or better made. As stated above, I was 
 looking round for some other means to 
 support my family. All at once it came 
 into my mind to take and paint some 
 of my common flower pots with green 
 varnish paint, thinking it would bet- 
 ter suit the taste of the ladies than 
 the common brickbat-colored ones. I 
 painted two pair, and exposed them in 
 front of my window ; they soon drew 
 attention, and were sold. I painted six 
 pair ; they soon went the same way. 
 Being thus encouraged, I continued 
 painting and selling to good advantage. 
 This was in the fall of 1802. One day, 
 in the month of April following, I ob- 
 served a man, for the first time, selling 
 flower plants in the Fly market, which 
 then stood at the foot of Maiden lane. 
 As I carelessly passed along, I took a 
 leaf, and rubbing it between my finger 
 and thumb, asked him what was the 
 name of it. He answered, a geranium. 
 This, as far as I can recollect, was the 
 first time I ever heard that the flower in
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 167 
 
 question was a geranium ; as, before 
 this, I had no taste for, nor paid any 
 attention to plants. I looked a few 
 minutes at the plant, thought it had a 
 pleasant smell, and that it would look 
 well if removed into one of my green 
 flower pots, to stand on my counter and 
 thus draw attention. 
 
 Observe, I did not purchase this 
 plant with the intention of selling it 
 again, but merely to draw attention to 
 my green pots, and let the people see 
 how well the pots looked when the 
 plant was in them. Next day, some 
 one fancied and purchased both plant 
 and pot. The day following, I went 
 when the market was nearly over, judg- 
 ing the man would sell cheaper, rather 
 than have the trouble of carrying them 
 over the river, as he lived at Brooklyn 
 and in those days there were neither 
 steam nor horse boats. Accordingly, I 
 purchased two plants, and having sold 
 them, I began to think that something 
 might be done in this way ; and so I 
 continued to go, at the close of the 
 market, and always bargained for the 
 unsold plants. The man, finding me a 
 useful customer, would assist me to 
 carry them home, and show me how to 
 shift the plants out of his pots and put 
 them into the green pots, if any cus- 
 tomers wished it. I soon found, by his 
 tongue, that he was a Scotchman, and 
 being countrymen, we wrought into one 
 another's hands, and thus, from having 
 one plant, in a short time I had fifty. 
 The thing being a novelty, began to 
 draw attention ; people carrying their 
 country friends to see the curiosities of 
 the city, would step in to see my plants. 
 In some of these visits the strangers 
 would express a wish to have some of 
 these plants, but, having so far to go, 
 could not carry them. Then they 
 would ask if I had no seed of such 
 plants ; then, again, others would ask 
 for cabbage, turnip, or radish seed, etc. 
 These frequent inquiries at length set 
 me to thinking that, if I could get 
 seeds, I would be able to sell them ; 
 
 but here lay the difficulty. As no one 
 sold seed in New York, none of the 
 fanners or gardeners saved more than 
 what they wanted for their own use, 
 there being no market for an overplus. 
 In this dilemma, I told my situation to 
 G. I., the man from whom I had always 
 bought the plants in the Fly market. 
 He said he was now raising seeds, with 
 the intention of selling them next spring 
 along with his plants in the market ; 
 but added, that if I would take 1m 
 seeds, he would quit the market, and 
 stay at home and raise plants and seeds 
 for me to sell. A bargain was imme- 
 diately struck; I purchased his stock 
 of seeds, amounting to fifteen dollars, 
 and thus commenced a business, on the 
 17th of September, 1805, that became 
 the most extensive establishment of the 
 kind in the western world. 
 
 Bruised, but not Crushed the Messrs. 
 Brown, of Liverpool. 
 
 THE transactions of the eminent firm 
 of the Browns, in Liverpool, are said to 
 have amounted, in the year 1836, to 
 fifty millions of dollars. In 1837, the 
 American banks all over the country 
 went down one after the other, and 
 many together, almost with a universal 
 crash. They fell, and their fall involv- 
 ed the Messrs. Brown. The latter, 
 though bruised, were not crushed. 
 American commerce was at that time a 
 towering pile in course of erection 
 bank credit was the scaffolding. It 
 fell ; and the Browns were not far from 
 being smothered in the rubbish. Had 
 they possessed less than the strength of 
 giants, they could not have extricated 
 themselves and, giants though they 
 were, they would have struggled in 
 vain, had not a powerful hand assisted 
 them. The British government saw, 
 and looked with apprehension as it 
 saw, the struggles of this colossal mer- 
 cantile house. From Inverness to Pen- 
 zance, there was not a single town but 
 would have felt its fall. In Sheffield 
 and Birmingham, and the towns sur-
 
 168 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 rounding them, and in Manchester, 
 Leeds, and all the great factory com- 
 munities, a large number of the mer- 
 chants and employers and, as a matter 
 of course, every man and woman em- 
 ployed were more or less involved in 
 the fate of this establishment. The 
 government of that day saw the immi- 
 nent peril, and so did the directors of 
 the Bank of England. The latter met, 
 and passed a resolution to give assist- 
 ance to the extent of some two million 
 pounds to Mr. Brown ; the exact sum 
 which he was authorized to draw a 
 loan of money, to a single individual, 
 unparalleled in the history of the world, 
 unless it be the case of George Peabody 
 was one million and nine hundred 
 and fifty-nine thousan'd pounds, or 
 nearly ten million dollars. Of this 
 loan, Mr. Brown took advantage to the 
 extent of between eight and nine hun- 
 dred thousand pounds, which he after- 
 ward repaid, besides clearing up all 
 other embarrassments, and ultimately 
 possessing one of the greatest personal 
 fortunes ever accumulated in the world. 
 The solid romance of this page in the 
 history of so world-renowned a firm is 
 rarely surpassed in interest. 
 
 Wealthy Men of Cincinnati. 
 
 THERE is a man doing business on 
 Main street, Cincinnati, who was re- 
 fused credit in 1850 for a stove worth 
 twelve dollars. He is now a director in 
 one of the banks, and is worth $150,000, 
 every cent of which has been made in 
 Cincinnati during that period. There 
 is another business man on the same 
 street, who was refused credit in 1850, 
 by a firm in the drug line for the 
 amount of five dollars ; eight years 
 after, the same firm lent that very man 
 five thousand dollars upon his endorsed 
 note. An extensive dealer in Cincin- 
 nati, now worth $100,000, and who, it 
 is said, can command more money on 
 short notice for sixty, ninety, or one 
 hundred and twenty days, than almost 
 
 any man in Cincinnati, went to a gro- 
 cery store in 1850 to purchase a hogs- 
 head of sugar ; it was sold to him with 
 many misgivings as to getting the pay 
 when it became due. A man whose 
 credit in 1850 was such that when 
 trusted by a clerk for a keg of salt- 
 petre, the employer remarked that it 
 might as well have been rolled into the 
 Ohio, was worth, in 1857, $100,000, 
 again a bankrupt in 1860, and now 
 worth $20,000. A man, now good for 
 $300,000, was ten years ago exhibiting 
 a monkey in the streets of the city, for 
 a living. Another heavy business man, 
 a bank director, sold apples in a basket 
 when a boy, through the streets. One 
 of the first merchants in the place, in 
 1845, and who could at that time have 
 bought entire blocks of houses on cred- 
 it, and who was a bank director, subse- 
 quently died intemperate and insolvent. 
 Another, who in 1837 was rated at half 
 a million of dollars, has since died, leav- 
 ing his estate insolvent. 
 
 Reverses of Mercantile Fortune. 
 
 THE array of agents, brokers, book- 
 keepers, and decayed gentlemen, who 
 were but lately numbered among the 
 merchants, bankers, and ship owners 
 of New York, is quite a moving specta- 
 cle. Thus A. B , for thirty years 
 
 connected with trade, during most of 
 which period he was a leading member 
 
 of the great cloth house of , has 
 
 been worth $200,000, but is now a 
 bookkeeper for a concern in John 
 street. J. S. has been forty years in 
 trade, and was considered successful 
 beyond all liability to future risk, being 
 for many years ranked among the rich 
 men of the street, failed, and is now 
 
 poor. B and M., princes in the 
 
 dry goods line, built two palatial stores 
 in Broadway, and have been immensely 
 rich, but after battling honorably with 
 adverse fortune, failed. J. R , a re- 
 tired merchant, estimated at $500,000, 
 holding at one time $50,000 in Dela-
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 169 
 
 ware and Hudson Canal stock, subse- 
 quently got involved and lost all. In- 
 stances like these might be multiplied 
 to any extent. 
 
 William Eoscoe, the Poet Banker. 
 
 AFTER Mr. Eoscoe had retired to pri- 
 vate life, he was earnestly solicited to 
 enter a banking house, the officers of 
 which desired the attention of a person 
 possessed of a great business capacity 
 and talent. He had already acted as 
 the confidential adviser of the house 
 when in difficulty, and had rendered it 
 valuable assistance. Yielding to the 
 earnest /equest of his friends, he became 
 a partner in said house, and for a time 
 devoted himself exclusively to its con- 
 cerns. Some seven years after, owing to 
 the demands of the time and the scarcity 
 of specie, the house was forced to sus- 
 pend. At his solicitation, the creditors 
 of the firm allowed them six years in 
 which to discharge their debts. Dur- 
 ing all this period Mr. Roscoe's labors 
 were unremitted. To meet their obli- 
 gations, however, the private property 
 of the members of the firm had to be 
 sold, and under the most unfavorable 
 circumstances. It was during this sea- 
 son of trial, that Mr. Roscoe wrote the 
 celebrated and immortal sonnet, so well 
 known to all who read the English lan- 
 guage, and so evincive of his resigna- 
 tion during trials so severe. 
 
 Chinese Merchant's Gratitude. 
 
 A MERCHANT resided many years, 
 highly respected, at Canton and Macao, 
 when a sudden reserve of fortune re- 
 duced him from a state of affluence to 
 the greatest necessity. 
 
 A Chinese merchant, to whom he had 
 formerly rendered service, gratefully 
 offered him an immediate loan of ten 
 thousand dollars, which the gentleman 
 accepted, and gave his bond for the 
 amount ; this the Chinese immediately 
 threw into the fire, saying, " When you, 
 
 my friend, first came to China, I was a 
 poor man. You took me by the hand, 
 and, assisting my honest endeavors, 
 made me rich. Our circumstances are 
 now reversed I see you poor, while I 
 have affluence." 
 
 The bystanders had snatched the 
 bond from the flames ; and the mer- 
 chant, sensibly affected by such gen- 
 erosity, pressed his Chinese friend to 
 take the security, which he did, and 
 then effectually destroyed it. 
 
 But the disciple of Confucius, ob- 
 serving the renewed distress this act oc- 
 casioned the merchant, said he would 
 accept the latter's watch, or any little 
 valuable as a memorial of their friend- 
 ship. The merchant immediately pre- 
 sented his watch, and the Chinese, in 
 return, gave him an old iron seal, say- 
 ing : " Take this seal it is one I have 
 long used, and possesses no intrinsic 
 value ; but as you are going to India, 
 to look after your outstanding con- 
 cerns, should misfortune further attend 
 you, draw upon me for any sum of 
 money you may stand in need of, seal 
 it with this signet, sign it with your 
 own hand, and I will pay the money." 
 
 Father Taylor and the Banker's Ex- 
 hortation. 
 
 AN eminent banker from the West 
 End, Boston, once visited Father Tay- 
 lor's church during a warm revival, and 
 somewhat varied the usual character of 
 the prayer meeting, by an address set- 
 ting forth the beneficence of the mer- 
 chant princes, the goodness of the Port 
 Society, and above all the duty of sea- 
 men to show their gratitude to the mer- 
 chants. He was somewhat taken aback 
 when Father Taylor arose, at the close 
 of this rather presumptuous exhorta- 
 tion, and simply inquired, " Is there 
 any other old sinner from up-town that 
 would like to say a word ? "
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " An Error in Shipping the Goods." 
 
 TOWARD the close of the Revolution- 
 ary war, the owners of the North 
 Church in New Haven, Ct., sent to a 
 Boston merchant for some nails, to 
 make repairs with, when one of the 
 kegs sent in return for the order was 
 found to contain Spanish silver dollars. 
 The deacons wrote to the merchant in 
 Boston, that there was " an error in ship- 
 ping the goods ;" but he answered that 
 the goods were sold as he bought them 
 of a privateersman, and " he couldn't 
 rectify mistakes." So the silver was 
 melted up into a service of plate for 
 the church, which is in use at the pres- 
 ent day. Had the deacons been less 
 shrewd, and stated the nature of the 
 " error " to the merchant, that service 
 of plate would never have turned up. 
 As it was, they realized the full benefit 
 of what is so much esteemed in busi- 
 ness correspondence brevity. 
 
 Persevering- Traders. 
 
 AN old bachelor who resided in Brix- 
 ton, in order to prevent itinerant trad- 
 ers annoying him by knocking at his 
 door to dispose of their wares, affixed 
 to his knocker a label to this effect : 
 'The inhabitant of this house never 
 buys anything at the door Hawkers, 
 beware ! " He was dreadfully annoyed 
 shortly after by a loud knock at the par- 
 lor window, from which he saw two fel- 
 lows with clothes-lines, mats, and pegs 
 to sell. Throwing up the sash in a 
 pretty considerable rage, he accosted 
 them thus : " Can you read ? " " Yes, 
 master," answered the hawker. " Then 
 don't you see a notice affixed to my 
 knocker, that I never buy anything at 
 the door ? " " To be sure we do ; so 
 we thought we would make bold and 
 try to do a little something at the par- 
 lor window." The fellow's wit pacified 
 the old bachelor, who straightway (he 
 had a good vein in him, after all) made 
 a purchase. Immediately afterward, 
 
 however, he sent for a painter, and had 
 the following addition made to his an- 
 nouncement : " Nor at the window 
 either." 
 
 Aptness and Nicety in Business Illus- 
 trated 
 
 ON a certain Saturday night, the 
 clerks of the Bank of England could 
 not make the balance come out right 
 by just one hundred pounds. This is a 
 serious matter in that little establish- 
 ment not the cash, but the mistake in 
 arithmetic ; for it necessitates a world 
 of scrutiny. An error in the balancing 
 has been known to keep a delegation 
 of clerks from each department at 
 work, sometimes, through the whole 
 night. A hue and cry, therefore, was 
 made after this one hundred pounds, 
 as if the old lady in Threadneedle street 
 would be in the Gazette, as an insol- 
 vent, for want of it. Luckily on the 
 Sunday morning following, the clerk 
 in the middle of the sermon, perhaps, 
 if the truth were known, felt a suspi- 
 cion of the truth dart through his mind 
 quicker than any flash of the telegraph 
 itself. He told the chief cashier, on 
 Monday morning, that perhaps the mis- 
 take might have occurred in packing 
 some boxes of specie for the West In- 
 dies which had been sent to Southamp- 
 ton for shipment. The suggestion was 
 immediately acted upon. Here was a 
 race lightning against steam, and 
 steam with eight and forty hours the 
 start given. Instantly the wires asked, 
 "whether such a vessel had left the 
 harbor?" "Just weighing anchor," 
 was the reply. " Stop her ! " frantical- 
 ly shouted the telegraph. It was done. 
 " Have up on deck certain boxes mark- 
 ed so and so ; weigh them carefully." 
 They were weighed ; and one, the de- 
 linquent, was found heavier by just one 
 packet of a hundred sovereigns than it 
 ought to be." " Let her go," says the 
 mysterious telegraph. The West India 
 folks were debited with just one hun- 
 dred pounds more, and the error was
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 corrected without even looking into 
 the boxes, or delaying the voyage an 
 hour. 
 
 European and American Modes of 
 Doing Business. 
 
 THE loose and careless manner in 
 which business is done in this country 
 at least in these latter days of hurry 
 and venture as compared with the 
 practice among European merchants 
 was a subject frequently commented 
 upon by the late John Bromfield, well 
 known as one of the "prince mer- 
 chants" of Boston. In his familiar 
 style, Mr. Bromfield used to say, 
 " Here, if a purchaser is about to buy 
 a cargo of box sugars, he will bore into 
 one box, look at a second, kick a third 
 and take the lot ; but in Europe, they 
 thrust an iron searcher through and 
 through every box, and carefully exam- 
 ine every layer." 
 
 Minding One's Own Business. 
 
 " DURING my long commercial expe- 
 rience," says Girard, " 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." He was never known 
 to disregard this theory in all his pro- 
 tracted career as one of the greatest and 
 most successful of merchants. 
 
 Hon. Peter C. Brooks, of Boston, who 
 left one of the largest fortunes ever 
 amassed in this country, on being asked 
 what rule he would recommend to a 
 young man as most likely to ensure suc- 
 cess, answered : " Let him mind his 
 own business ;" and to a similar in- 
 quiry, it has been said that Robert 
 Lenox, of New York, well remembered 
 as one of the most distinguished mer- 
 chants ever known in that great city, 
 and for his wide hospitality, once an- 
 swered : " Let him be beforehand with 
 his business." One answer seems to in- 
 clude the other, as no man can be be- 
 
 forehand with his business, unless he 
 minds it unremittingly, instead of spend- 
 ing his time and wits in looking after 
 others. 
 
 John Jacob Astor's " Highway to For- 
 tune." 
 
 " IT'S what thee'll spend, my son," 
 said a sage old Quaker, " not what 
 thee'll make, which will decide whether 
 thee's to be rich or not," Franklin's 
 advice, only in another shape, " Take 
 care of the pennies, and the pounds 
 will take care of themselves." 
 
 John Jacob Astor used to say, that 
 a man who wishes to be rich and has 
 saved ten thousand dollars, has won 
 half the battle is on the highway to 
 fortune. Not that Astor thought ten 
 thousand much. But he knew that in 
 making and saving such a sum, a man 
 acquired habits of prudent economy, 
 which would constantly keep him ad- 
 vancing in wealth. The habitual small 
 expenses, which are designated as 
 " only a trifle," amount, in the aggre- 
 gate, like the sands of the shore, to 
 something pretty serious. Ten cents a 
 day, even, is thirty-six dollars and a 
 half a year, and that is the interest on 
 a capital of six hundred dollars; so 
 that the man who saves ten cents a day 
 only, is so much richer than him who 
 does not, as if he owned a life estate in 
 a property worth six hundred dollars. 
 
 Gideon Lee carrying the Lapstone. 
 
 IN the year 1834, the memorable 
 panic year, a* report was put in circula- 
 tion among the New York business 
 men, that the house of Gideon Lee, 
 long so eminent and stable, had failed. 
 In allusion to the report, Mr. Lee re- 
 marked : " I commenced business, when 
 poor, on credit ; I thrived by credit ; 
 and I hold it to be my duty to sacrifice 
 my property down to twenty shillings 
 in the pound, before that credit shall 
 be dishonored. / have carried the lap- 
 stone, and I can do it again ; but I will
 
 172 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 never suffer a promise of mine to be 
 broken, while I have a shilling left that 
 I can call my own." 
 
 Usurious Interest on Money Peter C. 
 Brooks's Rule. 
 
 ONE of the undeviating principles 
 upon which Peter C. Brooks conducted 
 his great business was that of never, 
 either directly or indirectly, taking 
 more than legal interest. Had he been 
 willing to violate this rule, and that in 
 modes not condemned by the letter of 
 the law, nor by public opinion, he 
 might easily have doubled his fortune. 
 But many considerations led him to 
 adopt and adhere to his rule on this 
 subject. It was contrary to law to 
 take more than legal interest, and he 
 held it to be eminently dangerous to 
 tamper with the duty of a good citizen, 
 and break the law, because he might 
 think the thing forbidden not morally 
 wrong. This consideration was entire- 
 ly irrespective of the fact, that at one 
 period, by the law of Massachusetts, the 
 contract was wholly violated by the 
 demand of usurious interest, and the 
 creditor placed in the debtor's power. 
 But after the mitigation of the law in 
 this respect, Mr. Brooks's .practice re- 
 mained unaltered. He believed and 
 often said, that, in the long run, six per 
 cent, is as much as the bare use of 
 money is worth in this country ; that to 
 demand more was for the capitalist to 
 claim the benefit of the borrower's skill 
 in some particular business, or of his 
 courage and energy ; or else it was to 
 take advantage of his neighbor's need. 
 He frequently said that he would never 
 put it in the power of any one, in a re- 
 verse of fortune, to ascribe his rum to 
 the payment of usurious interest to 
 him. On more than one occasion, 
 when some beneficial public object was 
 to be promoted, he lent large sums at 
 an interest below the legal and current 
 rate. 
 
 Benevolence of Shai-king-qua, a Chi- 
 nese Merchant. 
 
 AN interesting instance of generosity 
 is given of a Chinese merchant, of the 
 name of Shai-king-qua, who had long 
 known a Mr. Anderson, an English 
 trader, and had large business transac- 
 tions with him. It appears that Mr. 
 Anderson met with heavy losses, be- 
 came insolvent, and at the time of his 
 failure owed his Chinese friend upward 
 of eighty thousand dollars. Mr. A. 
 wished to go to England, in the hope 
 of being able to retrieve his affairs ; he 
 called on the Hong merchant, and in 
 the utmost distress, explained his situa- 
 tion, his wishes, and his plans. The 
 Chinese listened with anxious atten- 
 tion, and having heard his story, thus 
 addressed him : 
 
 " My friend Anderson, you have been 
 very unfortunate ; you lose all I very 
 sorry ; you go to England ; if you more 
 fortunate there, you come back and 
 pay ; but that you no forget Chinaman 
 friend, you take this, and when you 
 look on this, you will remember Shai- 
 king-qua." In saying these words, he 
 pulled out a valuable gold watch, and 
 gave it to Anderson. 
 
 Mr. Anderson took leave of his 
 friend, but he did not live to retrieve 
 his affairs, or to return to China. 
 When the account of his death, and 
 of the distress in which he had left his 
 family, reached Canton, the Hong mer- 
 chant called on one of the merchants 
 of the factory who was about to return 
 to Europe, and addressed him in the 
 following manner : " Poor Mr. Ander- 
 son dead ! I very sorry ; he good 
 man ; he friend, and he leave two 
 childs ; they poor they have nothing 
 they childs of my friend ; you take 
 this for them; tell them Chinaman 
 friend send it 1 " And he put into the 
 returning merchant's hands several 
 thousand dollars for Mr. A.'s children.
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 173 
 
 Money-getting: Tact of Jews. 
 THAT the Jews are more successful 
 in money-getting than any other people 
 is a generally admitted fact. " As rich 
 as a Jew," is a proverb. How to ac- 
 count for it to what cause to ascribe 
 it has long been a puzzle. If the fol- 
 lowing be matter-of-fact, instead of ro- 
 mancing, it may be considered a partial 
 solution of the puzzle : " The politest 
 people in the world are not the French, 
 the English, the American, the Italian, 
 nor the German, but the Jewish. For 
 the Jews are maltreated, and reviled, 
 and despoiled of their civil privileges, 
 and their social rights ; yet are they 
 everywhere polite, affable, insinuating, 
 and condescending. They are remark- 
 able for their industry and persever- 
 ance ; indulge in few or no recrimina- 
 tions ; are faithful to old associations ; 
 more respectful of the prejudices of 
 others than those are of theirs; not 
 more worldly-minded and money-lov- 
 ing than people generally are; and, 
 everything considered, they surpass all 
 nations in courtesy, affability, and for- 
 bearance. Few persons excel in ad- 
 dress a bright and polished Jew. 
 There is no rusticity among that peo- 
 ple." Whether this representation be 
 correct or not, we scaBcely know, as the 
 majority of the reputed Jews in this 
 country, especially those in the cloth- 
 ing trade, are a mongrel race. But it 
 is certain that much of business success 
 depends on courtesy. 
 
 Sole Qualification of a Bill Broker. 
 
 AN ancient writer on money affairs 
 compressed a good deal of shrewd 
 truth in his brief description of what 
 a bill broker should be : A bill broker 
 ought to be a man of honor, and know 
 his business ; he should avoid babbling, 
 and be prudent in his office, which con- 
 sists in one sole point to hear all and 
 say nothing ; so that he ought never to 
 speak of the negotiations transacted by 
 means of his intervention. 
 
 Peculiar Feature in Rothschild's Busi- 
 ness Character. 
 
 ROTHSCHILD'S management of the 
 business of exchanges was one of the 
 most remarkable features in his char- 
 acter. He never hesitated for a moment 
 in fixing a rate either as a drawer or pur- 
 chaser of a foreign bill of exchange on 
 any part of the world ; and his memory 
 was so retentive, that, notwithstanding 
 the multifarious and immense transac- 
 tions into which he entered on every 
 foreign post-day on the Exchange, he 
 never took a memorandum of them, 
 but, on his return to his office, could 
 dictate to his clerks the whole of the 
 bargains he had made, with the various 
 rates of exchange, and the names of the 
 several parties with whom he had dealt, 
 with the most perfect exactness. 
 
 Commercial Fortune of a Peer. 
 
 ONE of the most popular members 
 of the British House of Lords is said to 
 have purchased his peerage with a mil- 
 lion of dollars in gold. One of the 
 methods by which that mercantile 
 house, of which he was the leading 
 member, amassed the large fortune 
 which they now enjoy, was this : they 
 saw that the stock of a certain article, 
 necessary for culinary purposes, was 
 becoming scarce, and that the supply 
 would be limited ; they forthwith sent 
 orders and agents to buy up that parti- 
 cular article, and thus swept the mar- 
 ket. The demand for the article in- 
 creased as is usual in proportion to 
 its scarcity, the rice went up, and the 
 house cleared within one week, at the 
 expense of tens of thousands of con- 
 sumers in very humble circumstances, 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
 
 Half-a-Million Profit by One of Qi- 
 rard's Operations. 
 
 IN the year 1813, an interesting cir- 
 cumstance occurred in the business 
 operations of Girard, through his bank, 
 by which he accomplished an enter-
 
 174 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 prise of great importance to the city of 
 Philadelphia, by the increase of its 
 trade, as well as to his own funds in 
 its profits, besides the advantages which 
 were furnished to the Government by 
 the duties which accrued to the nation- 
 al treasury. It happened that his ship, 
 the Montesquieu, was captured at the 
 mouth of the Delaware river, as was 
 alleged, by a British frigate, and as 
 this vessel had an invoice cargo of two 
 hundred thousand dollars consisting 
 of teas, nankeens and silks from Can- 
 ton, it was determined by the captors, 
 in preference to the hazard of being re- 
 captured by an American ship in any 
 attempt to carry their prize to a British 
 port, to send a flag of truce to Mr. Gi- 
 rard, in order to give him the offer of a 
 ransom. Applying to his well-stored 
 vaults, the banker drew from them the 
 sum of ninety-three thousand dollars in 
 doubloons, which was transmitted to 
 the British commander, and his vessel 
 was soon seen coming into port with 
 her rich cargo, and which, notwith- 
 standing the price of the ransom, is 
 supposed, by the advanced value of 
 every article on board, to have added 
 a half a million of dollars to his for- 
 tune. 
 
 American Merchants of the Olden Time 
 Joseph Peabody. 
 
 JOSEPH PEABODY, of Salem, Mass., a 
 name known wherever American com- 
 mercial enterprise has been heard of, 
 built and owned eighty-three ships, 
 which, in every instance, he freighted 
 himself; and for the navigation of 
 which he shipped, at different times, 
 upward of seven thousand seamen. From 
 the year 1811, he had advanced thirty- 
 five to the rank of shipmaster, who en- 
 tered his employ as boys. He had per- 
 formed by these vessels the following 
 voyages, viz. : to Calcutta, thirty-eight ; 
 Canton, seventeen ; Sumatra, thirty- 
 two ; St. Petersburg, forty-seven ; 
 other ports in the north of Europe, 
 ten ; the Mediterranean, twenty, before 
 
 the war of 1812. The voyages per- 
 formed by his vessels to the West In- 
 dies, Spanish Main, and along our wide 
 extended coast, are unnumbered. The 
 aggregate of his annual state, county, 
 and city taxes paid into the treasury, 
 amounted to about two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars. A business of such vast 
 magnitude and enterprise has rarely, 
 for so long a period, been conducted by 
 the energy and industry of an indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 Gresham's Fortunate Letter. 
 
 THOMAS GRESHAM, as is recorded in 
 history, was one of the first English 
 merchants that traded to the East 
 Indies; and, having fitted out several 
 ships, he miscalculated the time at 
 which they would return a circum- 
 stance that caused him much embar- 
 rassment. He, however, soon recovered 
 from this temporary disquietude. One 
 day, while despondingly walking about 
 the Bourse, or Exchange, which then 
 had its location in Lombard street, a 
 sailor came up and presented him with 
 a letter from the captain of one of his 
 ships, which contained the gratifying 
 information that two of his ships had 
 arrived safe from the East Indies ; and 
 that the box, which the bearer would 
 deliver, contained some diamonds and 
 pearls of great value, as a sample of the 
 immense riches the ships had brought 
 home. This peculiar and somewhat 
 romantic incident is said to be an ex- 
 planation of the statue of Gresham, in 
 the old Royal Exchange of London, 
 which represents him as holding an 
 open letter in his hand. 
 
 Private Mercantile Finances and 
 Royal Fleets. 
 
 A SINGLE merchant secured Queen 
 Elizabeth against all the danger with 
 which she was threatened by the soi- 
 dwant invincible armada of Spain. 
 When the queen was apprised of the 
 designs of Spain, she had no ships ca-
 
 
 SIB THOMAS GRESIIAM'S FOP.TUXATE LETTER,
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 175 
 
 pable of being opposed to the Spanish 
 fleet ; as a part of those which were 
 lying in the ports and docks could only 
 .be used after twelve months. Mr. 
 Thomas Button, however, the distin- 
 guished merchant who founded the 
 Charter House, being well acquainted 
 with the state of the French finances, 
 knew that the Spanish fleet could not 
 set sail, but through the medium of bills 
 which were to be drawn upon the Ge- 
 noese Bank. He therefore conceived 
 the idea of buying up all the paper or 
 bills that could be met with in every 
 commercial town in Europe, and to 
 deposit them in the Bank of Genoa, 
 that by his large remittances he might 
 have that bank so in his power, as to 
 incapacitate it, whenever he chose, from 
 giving any aid to the Spaniards. Being 
 well aware that it only required to let 
 those remittances remain at Genoa, un- 
 til the season should obstruct the sail- 
 ing of the fleet, he calculated that these 
 exchange operations would cost about 
 /orty thousand pounds sterling, and he 
 proposed to the queen to extricate her 
 at this price from the dilemma. The 
 proposal was accepted, and carried into 
 effect with so much secresy, that Phil- 
 ip's hands were tied, and he could not 
 send out the fleet until the following 
 year. 
 
 Portuguese Pilgrim in the Streets of 
 Venice. 
 
 Ox a morning of summer, in the year 
 1498, a poor Portuguese pilgrim, clothed 
 in rags, and who had wandered on foot 
 from his native hills, appeared in the 
 streets of Venice, and announced to its 
 citizens that one of those daring naviga- 
 tors sent out by his king, had doubled 
 the Cape of Storms, and discovered a new 
 route to India. He was surrounded and 
 eagerly questioned by a throng of prin- 
 ces, merchants, and artizans. His an- 
 swers struck terror in every heart. They 
 saw at once that the partition wall of 
 their commercial monopoly was broken 
 down ; they saw the lucrative trade of 
 
 the east transferred from the Lagoon to 
 Lisbon and the Tagus ; they saw that 
 the rich merchandise which they gath- 
 ered and dispersed throughout Europe, 
 was destined to pass through other 
 hands ; they saw their ships rotting in 
 their docks, and their sailors wander- 
 ing idly about the streets ; they heard 
 the last motion of those looms which 
 had produced the choice silken and 
 woollen fabrics in which the nobles 
 of Europe clothed themselves ; in a 
 word, they rightly fancied they saw 
 the destruction of that commerce 
 whence came all their wealth, their 
 luxury, and their pride ; that com- 
 merce which had sent forth with the 
 third army of the Crusaders, two hun- 
 dred ships, and with the fourth, five 
 hundred ; that commerce whose migh- 
 ty pulsations had been felt at the far- 
 thest extremities of the earth. Here 
 was the remote, but the chief cause of 
 the Commercial Fall of Venice ! 
 
 Shopkeepers and Warriors. 
 
 WHEN Napoleon applied to England 
 the contemptuous epithet of a " nation 
 of shopkeepers," he paid her a higher 
 compliment than he intended ; it was 
 an unintentional tribute to the power 
 she had acquired by trade, an extorted 
 homage to that commercial policy by 
 which her merchants had become the 
 arbiters of Europe of those elements 
 of strength which the shopkeepers of 
 the Royal Exchange and Threadneedle 
 street had furnished to her rulers, by 
 which she alone was enabled to pre- 
 scribe boundaries to the ambition of 
 the great Captain, and say to the migh- 
 ty wave of Gallic usurpation, " Thus 
 far shalt thou go, and no farther." 
 Military prowess was held in check by 
 mercantile combinations, and the shop- 
 keepers proved an overmatch for the 
 warrior.
 
 176 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Murdered Merchant Watched by his 
 Dog:. 
 
 AN account, well attested, is related 
 of two French merchants, who were 
 travelling to a fair, and, while passing 
 through a wood, one of them murdered 
 the other, and robbed him of his money. 
 After burying him, so as to prevent dis- 
 covery, he proceeded on his journey. 
 The dog of the person remained, how- 
 ever, by the grave of his master ; and, 
 by his long and continued howling, 
 attracted the notice of several persons 
 in the neighborhood, who, by this 
 means, discovered the murder. The 
 fair being ended, they watched the re- 
 turn of the merchant. The murderer 
 no sooner appeared in view, than the 
 dog sprung furiously upon him. He 
 was apprehended, confessed the crime, 
 and was executed. The kindness of 
 the merchant had secured even the at- 
 tachment of his dog to such a degree, 
 that not even death could sunder the 
 noble animal from the loved form of 
 his master. 
 
 Agred Merchant Saved from Bobbery 
 by the Weather. 
 
 Ax aged merchant was one day re- 
 turning from market. He was on 
 horseback, and behind him was a valise 
 filled with money. The rain began to 
 fall with violence, and the good old 
 man was soon wet to his skin. At this 
 he was vexed, and indulged in some 
 p'retty audible murmurings that the 
 weather should prove so bad while he 
 was journeying. 
 
 He soon reached the borders of a 
 thick forest. What was his terror on 
 beholding, on one side of the road, a 
 robber, with leveled gun, aiming at 
 him and attempting to fire ! But the 
 powder being wet by the rain, the gun 
 did not go off, and the merchant, giv- 
 ing spurs to his horse, fortunately had 
 time to escape. 
 
 As soon as he found himself safe, he 
 said to himself, " How wrong was I, 
 not to endure the rain patiently, as sent 
 
 by Providence. If the weather had 
 been dry and fair, I should not, proba- 
 bly, have been alive at this hour, and 
 my children would have expected my 
 return in vain. The rain which caused 
 me to murmur, came at a fortunate mo- 
 ment to save my life and preserve my 
 property." It is almost needless to 
 add, that thereafter the good merchant 
 made the best of the weather, which- 
 ever way it turned up, indorsing with 
 a good will the old adage, that it is an 
 ill wind indeed that blows no good to 
 some one. ^ 
 
 English Merchant and Spanish Beggar. 
 IT is related that an English mer- 
 chant in the neighborhood of Madrid, 
 having no money in his pocket, gener- 
 ously gave a handful of choice cigars 
 to a beggar who approached, him : the 
 poorest Spaniard will be more gratified 
 with a cigar than with money, so far as 
 his personal feelings are concerned, as 
 it is a compliment. Three years after- 
 ward, this merchant was seized near his 
 country house by a band of robbers. 
 While they were settling his ransom 
 they were joined by an absent comrade, 
 who instantly dismounted, and, ap- 
 proaching the Englishman, whom he 
 "had at once recognized, saluted him, 
 and asked if he did not remember hav- 
 ing given, at such a place and time, a 
 handful of cigars to a beggar; then, 
 turning to his comrades, he said, " This 
 is my benefactor whoever lays a hand 
 on him lays it on me." 
 
 Good Word for Girard. 
 
 ONE of the most ingenious and plau- 
 sible estimates of Mr. Girard's character 
 as a business man and the most favor- 
 able which has ever appeared, is that 
 uttered by Mr. Everett: He told me 
 himself (says Mr. E.), that at the age 
 of forty, his circumstances were so nar- 
 row, that he was employed as the com- 
 mander of his own sloop, engaged in 
 the coasting trade between New York
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 177 
 
 or Philadelphia and New Orleans; 
 adding that on a certain occasion he 
 was forty-five days in working his way 
 up from the Balize to the city. Few 
 persons enjoyed less personal popularity 
 in the community in which he lived, 
 and to which he bequeathed his prince- 
 ly fortune. If this proceeded from de- 
 fects of personal character, it is a topic 
 to be discussed only in its proper place. 
 Of the effect upon the public welfare of 
 the community of such a fortune in 
 one's hands, freedom of speech may of 
 course be indulged in. While I am far 
 from saying that it might not have 
 been abused by being made the instru- 
 ment of a corrupt and dangerous influ- 
 ence in the community, I have never 
 heard that it was so abused by Mr. 
 Girard ; and, on general principles, it 
 may perhaps be safely said, that the 
 class of men qualified to amass large 
 fortunes by perseverance and exclusive 
 dedication to business, by frugality and 
 thrift, are not at all likely to apply this 
 wealth to ambitious or corrupt designs. 
 As to the effect in all other points of 
 view, I confess I see nothing but public 
 benefit in such capital, managed with 
 unrelaxing economy ; one-half judi- 
 ciously employed by the proprietor 
 himself in commerce the other half 
 loaned to the business community. 
 What better use could have been made 
 of it ? Will it be said, divide it equal- 
 ly among the community ; give each 
 individual in the United States a 
 Share ? It would have amounted to 
 half a dollar each for man, woman, and 
 child; and, of course, might as well 
 have been sunk in the middle of the 
 sea. Such a distribution would have 
 been another name for annihilation. 
 How many ships would have furled 
 their sails, how many warehouses would 
 have closed their shutters, how many 
 wheels, heavily laden with the products 
 of industry, would have stood still, how 
 many families would have been reduced 
 to want, and without any advantage 
 resulting from distribution ? 
 12 
 
 In a country like this, where the laws 
 forbid hereditary transmission, and en- 
 courage equality of fortune, accumula- 
 tions of capital, made by industry, en- 
 terprise, and prudence, and employed 
 in active investments, without minis- 
 tering to extravagance and luxury, are 
 beneficial to the public. Their posses- 
 sor becomes, whether he wills it or not, 
 the steward of others ; not merely, as 
 in Mr. Girard's case, because he may 
 destine a colossal fortune after his de- 
 cease for public objects, but because, 
 while he lives, every dollar of it must 
 be employed in giving life to industry 
 and employment to labor. 
 
 Had Mr. Girard lived in a fashion- 
 able part of the city, in a magnificent 
 house; had he dazzled the passer-by 
 with his splendid equipages, and spread 
 a sumptuous table for his " dear five 
 hundred friends," he would no doubt 
 have been a more popular man. But 
 in my apprehension he appears to far 
 greater advantage, as a citizen and a 
 patriot, in his modest dwelling and 
 plain garb ; appropriating to his per- 
 sonal wants the smallest pittance from 
 his princely income ; living to the last 
 in the dark and narrow street in which 
 he made his fortune, and, when he died, 
 bequeathing it for the education of or- 
 phan children. For the public, I do 
 not know that he could have done bet- 
 ter : of all men in the world, he proba- 
 bly derived the least enjoyment from 
 his property himself. 
 
 The Banker's Seven-Shilling' Piece. 
 
 IT was during one of the great na- 
 tional panics, that a gentleman who 
 may be called Mr. Thompson was 
 seated, with something of a melancholy 
 look, in his dreary back room, watch- 
 ing his clerks pay away thousands of 
 pounds hourly. Thompson was a bank- 
 er of excellent credit there existed, 
 perhaps, in the city of London, no safer 
 concern than that of Messrs. Thomp- 
 son & Co. ; but at a moment like the
 
 178 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 one referred to, no rational reflection 
 was admitted, no former stability was 
 looked to. A general distrust was felt, 
 and every one rushed to his banker's to 
 withdraw his hoard, fearing that the 
 next instant would be too late forget- 
 ting entirely that this step was that of 
 all others most likely to insure the ruin 
 that was sought to be avoided. The 
 wealthy citizen named sat gloomily 
 watching the outpouring of his gold, 
 and with a grim smile listening to the 
 clamorous demands on his cashier; 
 for although he felt perfectly easy and 
 secure as to the ultimate strength of his 
 resources, yet he could not altogether 
 suppress a feeling of bitterness as he 
 saw constituent after constituent rush 
 in, and those whom he fondly imagined 
 to be his dearest friends eagerly assist- 
 ing in the run upon his strong box. 
 
 Presently the door opened, and a 
 stranger was ushered in, who, after gaz- 
 ing for a moment at the bewildered 
 banker, coolly drew a chair, and ab- 
 ruptly addressed him : 
 
 " You will pardon me, sir, for asking 
 a strange question, but I am a plain 
 man, and like to come straight to the 
 point." 
 
 " Well, sir," impatiently interrupted 
 the other. 
 
 " I have heard that you have a run 
 on your bank, sir." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Is it true ? " 
 
 " Really, sir, I must decline to reply 
 to your most extraordinary query. If, 
 however, you have any money in the 
 bank, you had better at once draw it 
 out, and so satisfy yourself; our cashier 
 will instantly pay you," and the bank- 
 er rose, as a hint to the stranger to 
 withdraw. 
 
 " Far from it, sir ; I have not one 
 sixpence in your hands." 
 
 " Then may I ask what is your busi- 
 ness here ? " 
 
 " I wish to know if a small sum 
 would aid you at this moment ? " 
 
 " Why do you ask the question ? " 
 
 " Because if it would, I would gladly 
 pay in a small deposit." 
 
 The money dealer started. 
 
 " You seem surprised ; you don't 
 know my person or my motive. I'll at 
 once explain. Do you recollect some 
 twenty years ago when you resided in 
 Essex ? " 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 " Well, then, sir, perhaps you have 
 not forgotten the turnpike gate through 
 which you passed daily? My father 
 kept that gate, and was often honored 
 by a few minutes' talk with you. One 
 Christmas morning, my father was sick, 
 and I attended the toll bar. On that 
 day you passed through, and I opened 
 the gate for you. Do you recollect it, 
 sir ? " 
 
 " Not I, my friend." 
 
 " No, sir ; few such men remember 
 their kind deeds, but those who are 
 benefited by them ought not to forget 
 them. I am perhaps prolix; listen, 
 however, only a few moments, and I 
 have done." 
 
 The great banker had become inter- 
 ested, and at once assented. 
 
 " Well, sir, as I said before, I threw 
 open the gate for you, as I considered 
 myself in duty bound I wished you 
 ' a happy Christmas.' ' Thank you, my 
 lad,' replied you ' thank you ; and the 
 same to you ; here is a trifle to make it 
 so," and you threw me a seven-shilling 
 piece. It was the first money I ever 
 possessed, and never shall I forget my 
 joy at receiving it, nor your kind smile 
 in bestowing it. I long treasured it, 
 and as I grew up, added a little to it, 
 till I was able to rent a toll myself. 
 You left that part of the country, and I 
 lost sight of you. Yearly, however, I 
 have been getting on ; your present 
 brought good fortune with it ; I am 
 now comparatively rich, and to you I 
 consider that I owe all. So this morn- 
 ing, hearing accidentally that there was 
 a run on your bank, I gathered all my 
 capital, and brought it to lodge with 
 you, in case it can be of any use ; here
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 179 
 
 it is " and lie handed a bundle of 
 bank notes to the agitated Thompson ; 
 "in a few days I will call again." 
 Snatching up his hat, and throwing 
 down his card, he walked out of the 
 room. 
 
 Thompson undid the roll it con- 
 tained thirty thousand pounds ! The 
 stern-hearted banker for all bankers 
 must be stern burst into tears. The 
 firm did not require this prop ; but the 
 motive was so noble, that even a mil- 
 lionnaire sobbed ; he could not help it. 
 This house is still one of the first in 
 London. 
 
 The thirty thousand pounds of the 
 turnpike boy has now grown into some 
 two hundred thousand pounds. For- 
 tune has well disposed of her gifts. 
 
 Commencing 1 with Three Tobacco 
 Boxes Jacob Barker. 
 
 JACOB BARKER'S disposition for com- 
 mercial pursuits manifested itself at a 
 very early period his first essay in this 
 line being with three tobacco boxes. 
 The history of the tobacco boxes was 
 this : Mr. Barker was, as a relaxation 
 from the fatigues of attending store and 
 other matters for his brother James, 
 permitted to go as cabin boy in his 
 packet to New York and Boston two 
 or three times a year. On one occa- 
 sion, the passengers presented him with 
 thirty-one cents. This he invested in 
 Boston in three iron tobacco boxes, and 
 took them to Nantucket, where he sold 
 two of them for a penny apiece profit ; 
 the other got a little rusty, and was 
 sold at first cost. When at Nantucket, 
 forty years after this, he met a poor old 
 man hobbling along with the aid of a 
 staff", who abruptly observed, " Jacob, 
 will- you take a piece of tobacco ? " at 
 the same time presenting the box. 
 Jacob replied, " No, I thank you, I do 
 not use tobacco in that way," when 
 the old man said, " Do you know that 
 box?" This brought its sale to the 
 recollection of Jacob, who seizing his 
 hand, said, " Is this you, Mr. Ellis ? 
 
 How do you do? I am glad to see 
 you looking so well after so long a 
 period." 
 
 Washington as a Business Man. 
 
 AT the age of thirteen, Washington 
 studied the intricate forms of business 
 with great ardor. He copied out bills 
 of exchange, notes of hand, bills of sale, 
 receipts, and all the varieties of that 
 class all being remarkable for the pre- 
 cision and elegance with which they 
 were executed. His manuscripts, even 
 then, were of the utmost neatness and 
 uniformity, the diagrams always beauti- 
 ful, the columns and tables of figures 
 exact ; and all in unstained and unblot- 
 ted order. His business papers, ledg- 
 ers, and daybooks, in which no one 
 wrote but himself, were models of exact- 
 ness. Every fact had its place, and 
 was recorded in a plain, clear hand- 
 writing, and there was neither inter- 
 lineation, blot, or blemish. One of his 
 rules, at this immature age, was, " Let 
 your discourse with men of business be 
 short and comprehensive." 
 
 From 1759 to 1764, Washington was, 
 in some measure, an active merchant ; 
 for, in that calmest period of his event- 
 ful life, he regularly exported to Lon- 
 don the product of his large estate on 
 the Potomac. The shipments were 
 made in his own name, and to his cor- 
 respondents in Bristol and Liverpool, 
 to which places his tobacco was con T 
 signed. In return for the articles ex- 
 ported, it was his custom, twice in each 
 year, to import from London the goods 
 which he desired to use ; and as an in- 
 stance of the accurateness with which 
 he conducted his commercial transac- 
 tions as an importer, it is stated that 
 he required his agent to send him, in 
 addition to a general bill of the whole, 
 the original vouchers of the shopkeep- 
 ers and mechanics, from whom pur- 
 chases had been made. So particular 
 was he in these concerns, that he 
 recorded, with his own hand, in books
 
 180 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 prepared for the purpose, all the long 
 lists of orders, and copies of the multi- 
 farious receipts from the different mer- 
 chants and tradesmen who had sup- 
 plied the goods. In this way he kept 
 a perfect oversight of the business ; 
 ascertained the prices ; could detect 
 any imposition, mismanagement, or 
 carelessness, and tell when any advan- 
 tage was taken of him of which, if he 
 discovered any, he did not fail to re- 
 mind his correspondents. 
 
 Present Prosperity of the Rothschilds. 
 
 HE who does not delay for casual- 
 ties, and has knowledge enough to per- 
 ceive that in all great affairs the success 
 not only depends on the choice and use 
 of the most favorable moment, but espe- 
 cially on the pursuit of an acknowledged 
 fundamental maxim, has the two prin- 
 ciples which are never neglected by 
 this banking house, and to which be- 
 sides to a prudent performance of its 
 business and to advantageous conjunc- 
 tures it owes the greatest part of its 
 present wealth and renown. 
 
 The first of these principles was that 
 which caused the five brothers to carry 
 on their business in a perpetual and un- 
 interrupted communion. This was the 
 golden rule bequeathed to them by 
 their dying father. Since his death, 
 every proposition, let it come from 
 whom it may, is the object of their 
 common deliberations. Every impor- 
 tant undertaking was carried on by a 
 combined effort, after a plan agreed 
 upon, and all had an equal share in the 
 result. Though for several years their 
 customary residences, being in the 
 great capitals of Europe, were very 
 remote, this circumstance could never 
 interrupt their harmony ; it rather 
 gave them this advantage, that they 
 were always perfectly well instructed 
 as to the condition of things in every 
 metropolis, and thus each of them, on 
 his part, could the better prepare and 
 initiate the affairs to be undertaken by 
 
 the firm. The second principle in per- 
 petual view of this house is, not to seek 
 an excessive profit in any undertaking ; 
 to assign certain limits though, of 
 course, proportioned to their vast means 
 to every enterprise ; and, as much as 
 human caution and prudence will per- 
 mit, to make themselves independent 
 of the play of accidents. 
 
 Mr. Everett and the Hindoo Merchant. 
 
 THE far-reaching influence which 
 American commercial enterprise has 
 abroad, is illustrated by the follow- 
 ing anecdote told by Mr. Everett: 
 "When I had the honor to represent 
 the country at London," says Mr. E., " I 
 was a little struck one day, at the royal 
 drawingroom, to see the President of 
 the Board of Control (the board charg- 
 ed with the supervision of the Govern- 
 ment of India) approaching me with a 
 stranger, at that time much talked of 
 in London the Babu Dwarkananth 
 Tagore. This person, who is now liv- 
 ing, was a Hindoo of great wealth, 
 liberality, and intelligence. He was 
 dressed with oriental magnificence he 
 had on his head, by way of turban, a 
 rich Cashmere shawl, held together by 
 a large diamond brooch ; another Cash- 
 mere around his body ; his countenance 
 and manners were those of a highly in- 
 telligent and remarkable person, as he 
 was. After the ceremony of introduc- 
 tion was over, he said he wished to 
 make his acknowledgments to me, as 
 the American minister, for the benefits 
 which my countrymen had conferred 
 upon his countrymen. I did not at 
 first know what he referred to ; I 
 thought he might have in view the 
 mission schools, knowing, as I did, 
 that he himself had done a great deal 
 for education. He immediately said 
 that he referred to the cargoes of ice 
 sent from America to India, conducing 
 not only to comfort but health. He 
 asked me if I knew from what part of 
 America it came. It gave me great
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 pleasure to tell him that I lived, when 
 at home, within a short distance of the 
 spot from which it was brought." 
 
 Earliest American Whaleship in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 THE following interesting scrap is 
 from Barnerd's History of England: 
 " 1783. On the third of February, the 
 ship Bedford, Capt. Moores, belonging 
 to Massachusetts, arrived in the Downs, 
 passed Gravesend on the 4th, and was 
 reported at the custom house on the 
 6th. She was not allowed regular en- 
 try until some consultation had taken 
 place between the commissioners of the 
 custom house and the lords of the coun- 
 cil, on account of the many acts of par- 
 liament yet in force against the rebels 
 of America. She was loaded with five 
 hundred and eighty-seven butts of 
 whale oil, manned wholly with Amer- 
 ican seamen, and belonged to the island 
 of Nantucket, Mass. The vessel lay at 
 the Horsley Down, a little below the 
 river, and was the first which displayed 
 the stars and stripes in any British 
 port." 
 
 Explaining: his Business. 
 
 THEBE is an ancient volume of 
 " Saxon Dialogues," preserved in the 
 British Museum, in which the mer- 
 chant, as one of the characters intro- 
 duced, gives the why and wherefore of 
 his occupation : 
 
 " I say that I am useful to the king, 
 and to aldermen, and to the rich, and to 
 all people. I ascend my ship with my 
 merchandise, and sail over the sea-like 
 places, and sell my things, and buy 
 dear things which are not produced in 
 this land, and I bring them to you 
 here, with great danger over the sea ; 
 and sometimes I suffer shipwreck, with 
 the loss of all my things, scarcely escap- 
 ing myself." He is then asked, " What 
 do you bring to us ? " to which he an- 
 swers, " Skins, silks, costly gems, and 
 gold ; various garments, pigment, wine, 
 
 oil, ivory ; brass, copper and tin, silver, 
 glass, and such like." 
 
 The principle of all commercial deal- 
 ings is distinctly enough stated in the 
 answer to the next question: "Will 
 you sell your things here as you bought 
 them there?" "I will not; because 
 what would my labor benefit me? I 
 will sell them here dearer than I bought 
 them there, that I may get some profit 
 to feed me, my wife, and children." 
 
 Aztec Merchants. 
 
 THE Aztec merchant was a sort of 
 itinerant trader, who made his jour- 
 neys to the remotest borders of Ana- 
 huac, and to the countries beyond, 
 carrying with him merchandise of rich 
 stuffs, jewelry, slaves, and other valu- 
 able ' commodities.' 
 
 With this rich freight the merchant 
 visited the different provinces, always 
 bearing some present of value from his 
 own sovereign to their chiefs, and usu- 
 ally receiving others in return, with a 
 permission to trade. Should this be 
 denied him, or should he meet with in- 
 dignity or violence, he had the means 
 of resistance in his power. He per- 
 formed Ms journeys with a number of 
 companions of his own rank, and a 
 large body of inferior attendants, who 
 were employed to transport the goods. 
 The whole caravan went armed, and so 
 well provided against sudden hostili- 
 ties, that they could make good their 
 defence, if necessary, till reinforced from 
 home. 
 
 It was not unusual for government 
 to allow the merchants to raise levies 
 themselves, for warlike purposes, and 
 which were placed under their com- 
 mand. It was, moreover, very common 
 for the prince to employ the merchants 
 as a sort of spies, to furnish him in- 
 formation of the state of the country 
 through which they passed, and the 
 disposition of the inhabitants toward 
 himself. 
 
 Thus their sphere of action was much
 
 182 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 enlarged beyond that of a humble tra- 
 der, and they acquired a high consider- 
 ation in the body politic. They were 
 allowed to assume insignia and devices 
 of their own. Some of their number 
 composed what is called by the Span- 
 ish writers a council of finance. They 
 were much consulted by the monarch, 
 who had some of them constantly near 
 his person, addressing them by the title 
 of " uncle." 
 
 Sources of Wealth, of the Medici Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 THE two brothers, Lorenzo and Cos- 
 mo de Medici, were in conjunction in 
 their great mercantile affairs, until the 
 death of the former, when his propor- 
 tion of the riches they obtained, amount- 
 ing to hundreds of thousands of florins, 
 was inherited by his son Pier Francesco 
 de Medici, for whose use it was retained 
 by Cosmo until the year 1451, when a 
 distribution took place among the two 
 families. From that time it was agreed 
 that the traffic of the family should be 
 carried on for the joint benefit of Pier 
 Francesco, and of Piero and Giovanni, 
 the sons of Cosmo, who were to divide 
 the profits in equal shares of one third 
 to each and immense riches were by 
 them thus acquired. 
 
 Of the particular branch of traffic by 
 which the Medici family acquired their 
 enormous wealth, there is little doubt 
 but that a considerable portion of it 
 arose from the trade which the Floren- 
 tines, in the early part of the fifteenth 
 century, began to carry on to Alexan- 
 dria for the productions of the East, in 
 which they attempted to rival the states 
 of Genoa and Venice. To this they 
 Tvere induced by the representations of 
 Taddeo di Cenni, who having resided 
 at Venice, and being apprised of the 
 advantages which that city derived 
 from the traffic in spices and other 
 Eastern merchandise, prevailed upon 
 his countrymen to aim at a participa- 
 tion in the new trade. The initiative 
 was consequently made, and, in 1422, 
 
 the Florentines entered on their new 
 commerce with the most imposing pub- 
 lic pageant. 
 
 But perhaps the principal sources of 
 the riches of this family arose from the 
 commercial banks which they had 
 established in almost all the trading 
 cities of Europe, and which were con- 
 ducted by agents in whom they placed 
 great confidence. At a time when the 
 rate of interest principally depended on 
 the necessities of the borrower, and was 
 in most cases very exorbitant, an incon- 
 ceivable profit must have been derived 
 from those establishments, especially as 
 they were at times resorted to for pe- 
 cuniary assistance by the most power- 
 ful sovereigns of Europe. 
 
 Remarkable Case of Conscience in a 
 Business Man. 
 
 AN old Dutchman, named S , who 
 
 lived in one of the wretched hovels that 
 stand in the rear of Sheriff street, and 
 whose apparent poverty and sufferings 
 from a dreadful case of hernia had long 
 excited the sympathy of his humane 
 neighbors, died of asthma and a com- 
 bination of other diseases. He was 
 well known to be of a very obstinate 
 and eccentric disposition; and, al- 
 though he had been confined to his 
 bed for some weeks, he not only reject- 
 ed all medical aid, but persisted to the 
 last in sleeping in the whole of his 
 wardrobe, which consisted chiefly in a 
 pair of breeches that at some remote era 
 had been constructed of blue velvet, 
 and a sailor's jacket, and a frieze over- 
 coat, all of which exhibited accumu- 
 lated proofs of the old man's attach- 
 ment. He sent for Mr. Van D., a re- 
 spectable countryman of his, residing 
 in the neighborhood, who had given 
 him charitable relief, and privately re- 
 quested him to make his will 1 To 
 this gentleman's great surprise, he be- 
 queathed various sums of money, 
 amounting altogether to several thou- 
 sand dollars, to children and grand- 
 children residing at Newark and Al-
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 183 
 
 bany, and confidentially informed him 
 where his property was deposited. He 
 then narrated to Mr. V. D. the follow- 
 ing remarkable facts in his history : 
 
 He stated that about twenty-five 
 years ago, he was a porter to a mercan- 
 tile house in Hamburg, and having 
 been long in its employ, was frequently 
 intrusted with considerable sums of 
 money for conveyance to other estab- 
 lishments. In an hour of evil influence 
 he was induced to violate his trust, and 
 abscond to this country. Having ar- 
 rived, he invested the greater part of it 
 in the purchase of two houses, which 
 adjoined each other, and which, before 
 he had effected an insurance upon them, 
 were burned to the ground. Consider- 
 ing this a judgment of heaven upon his 
 dishonesty, he determined to devote 
 the remainder of his life to a severe 
 course of industry and parsimony, with 
 the single object in view of making full 
 restitution to the persons whom he had 
 injured, or to their descendants. 
 
 He adopted another name, and, with 
 the means he had left, commenced busi- 
 ness as a tobacconist, and, although his 
 trade was a retail one, and he had again 
 suffered a heavy loss from fire, he had 
 succeeded, five years since, in acquiring 
 sufficient property to accomplish his 
 just and elevated purpose. He then, 
 accordingly, sold his stock in trade, 
 and was preparing to transmit the ne- 
 cessary amount to Hamburg, where the 
 mercantile firm he had defrauded still 
 continues, when he ascertained that it 
 had a branch establishment or agency 
 counting house in Philadelphia. Thith- 
 er he went, and paid the sum of four- 
 teen thou&and dollars, being equivalent 
 to the original sum he had embezzled, 
 with a certain rate of interest. The 
 latter, however, was generously re- 
 turned to him by a son of one of the 
 partners, and this, together with some 
 surplus money, he bequeathed as above 
 stated. This money was found by his 
 executor, principally in doubloons, and 
 curiously concealed in a certain private 
 
 department of the tenacious breeches 
 before specified ; and it was thus ascer- 
 tained, at last, that the old man's dread- 
 ful case of hernia, on account of which 
 he had received so much sympathy, 
 was a ' case ' of something far less ob- 
 jectionable, and hardly coming within 1 
 the category of those dreaded " ills to 
 which human flesh is heir." 
 
 Mr. Grinnell's Liberality. 
 
 THE name of Henry Grinnell will 
 have an enduring place in American 
 mercantile history, as that of the au- 
 thor, advocate, and patron of the 
 United States' expedition in search of 
 Sir John Franklin and his gallant party. 
 With that enterprise and liberality so 
 characteristic of his profession and of 
 Mr. Grinnell in particular he promptly 
 came forward at a time when that 
 much talked of undertaking was in 
 special need of influential countenance 
 as well as of pecuniary aid. The vari- 
 ous expeditions which Great Britain 
 had sent out in search of the illustrious 
 pioneer party, though well devised, 
 seemed to suffer from various and pecu- 
 liar drawbacks, so that, before the be- 
 ginning of 1850, all further attempts 
 were abandoned almost without at- 
 taining the first threshold of inquiry. 
 Their failure aroused everywhere the 
 generous sympathies of men. Science 
 felt for its votaries, humanity mourned 
 its fellows, and an impulse, holier and 
 more energetic than either, invoked a 
 crusade of rescue. That admirable 
 woman, the wife of Sir John Franklin, 
 not content with stimulating the re- 
 newed efforts of her own countrymen, 
 claimed the cooperation of the world. 
 In letters to the President of the United 
 States, full of the eloquence of feeling, 
 she called on us, as a " kindred people, 
 to join heart and hand in the enter- 
 prise of snatching the lost navigators 
 from a dreary grave." The delays inci- 
 dent to much of our national legisla- 
 tion menaced the defeat of her appeal.
 
 184 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 The bill making appropriations for the 
 outfit of an expedition lingered on its 
 passage, and the season for commencing 
 operations had nearly gone by. At this 
 juncture, that noble- spirited merchant 
 of New York, Henry Grinnell, fitted 
 out two of his own vessels, and proffered 
 them gratuitously to the Government. 
 Prompted by such munificent private 
 liberality, Congress hastened to take 
 the expedition under its charge, and 
 authorized the necessary proceedings to 
 that end. Moses H. Grinnell, a broth- 
 er of Henry, is also distinguished for 
 his merchant-like love of " doing a 
 good thing." 
 
 A Good Beginning Old Moses Koth- 
 schlld. 
 
 AN account is given, on another page 
 of this work, of the circumstances un- 
 der which the Prince of Hesse Cassel, 
 in his flight from the French republican 
 army, passed through the city of Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main, and paid a hasty 
 visit to one Moses Rothschild, a Jewish 
 banker of limited means, but of good 
 repute, both for integrity and ability 
 in the management of his business. 
 As is well known, the Prince's purpose 
 in visiting Moses was to request him to 
 take charge of a large sum in money 
 and jewels, amounting in value to sev- 
 eral millions of dollars. The Jew at 
 first point blank refused so dangerous 
 a charge ; but, upon being earnestly 
 pressed to take it, at the prince's own 
 sole risk nay, that even a receipt 
 should not be required he at length 
 consented. The money and jewels were 
 speedily but privately conveyed from 
 the prince's treasury to the Jew's resi- 
 dence ; and, just as the advanced corps 
 of the French army had entered through 
 the gates of Frankfort, Moses had suc- 
 ceeded in burying it in a corner of his 
 garden. He, of course, received a visit 
 from the republicans ; but, true to his 
 trust, he hit upon the following means 
 of saving the treasure of the fugitive 
 prince, who had placed such implicit 
 
 confidence in his honor. He therefore 
 did not attempt to conceal any of his 
 own property (the value of his cash and 
 stock consisting of only forty thousand 
 thalers, or about $30,000), but, after 
 the necessary remonstrances and grum- 
 bling with his unwelcome visitors, 
 and a threat or two that he should re- 
 port them to the general-in-chief from 
 whom he had no doubt of obtaining 
 redress he suffered them to carry it 
 all off. 
 
 As soon as the republicans had evac- 
 uated ths city, Moses Rothschild re- 
 sumed his business as banker and money 
 changer ; at first, indeed, in an humble 
 way, but daily increasing and extend- 
 ing it by the aid of the Prince of Hesse 
 Cassel's money. In the course of a 
 comparatively short space of time, he 
 was considered the most stable and 
 opulent banker in all Germany. 
 
 In the year 1802, the prince return- 
 ing to his dominions, visited Frankfort 
 in his route. He was almost afraid to 
 call on his Jewish banker ; apprehend- 
 ing that if the French had left any- 
 thing, the honesty of Moses had not 
 been proof against so strong a tempta- 
 tion as he had been compelled from 
 dire necessity to put in his way. On 
 being introduced into Rothschild's sanc- 
 tum, he, in a tone of despairing care- 
 lessness, said : 
 
 " I have called on you, Moses, as a 
 matter of course ; but I fear the result. 
 Did the rascals take all ? " 
 
 "Not a thaler" replied the Jew, 
 gravely. 
 
 " What say you ? " returned his high- 
 ness. " Not a thaler ! Why, I was in- 
 formed that the sans-culottes had emp- 
 tied all your coffers, and made you a 
 beggar. I even read so in the ga- 
 zettes." 
 
 " Why, so they did, may it please 
 your serene highness," replied Moses ; 
 " but I was too cunning for them. 
 By letting them take my own little 
 stock, I saved your great one. I knew 
 that as I was reputed wealthy, although
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 185 
 
 by no means so, if I should remove any 
 of my own gold and silver from their 
 appropriate bags or coffers, the robbers 
 would be sure to search for it, and, in 
 doing so, would not forget to dig in 
 the garden. It is wonderful what a 
 keen sense these fellows have got ! they 
 actually poured buckets of water over 
 some of my neighbors' kitchen and 
 cellar floors, in order to discover, by 
 the rapid sinking of the fluid, whether 
 the tiles and earth had been recently 
 dug up ! Well, as I was saying, I 
 buried your treasure in the garden ; 
 and it remained untouched until the 
 robbers left Frankfort, to go in search 
 of plunder elsewhere. Now, then, to 
 the point : as the sansculottes left me 
 not a kreutzer to carry on my business ; 
 as several good opportunities offered 
 of making a very handsome profit ; and 
 as I thought it a pity that so much 
 good money should lie idle, while the 
 merchants were both ready and willing 
 to give large interest ; the temptation 
 of converting your highness's florins to 
 present use haunted my thoughts by 
 day and my dreams by night. Not to 
 detain your highness with a long story, 
 I dug up the treasure, and deposited 
 your jewels in a strong box, from 
 which they have never since been 
 moved; I employed your gold and 
 silver in my business ; my speculations 
 were profitable ; and I am now able to 
 restore your deposit, with five per cent, 
 interest since the day on which you left 
 it under my care." 
 
 "I thank you heartily, my good 
 friend," said his highness, "for the 
 great care you have taken and the 
 sacrifice you have made. As to the in- 
 terest of five per cent., let that replace 
 the sum which the French took from 
 you ; T beg you will add to it whatever 
 other profits you may have made. As 
 a reward for your singular honesty, I 
 shall still leave my cash in your hands 
 for twenty years longer, at a low rate 
 of two per cent, interest per annum, 
 the same being more as an acknowledg- 
 
 ment of the deposit in case of the death 
 of either of us, than with a view of 
 making a profit by you. I trust that 
 this will enable you to use my florins 
 with advantage in any way which may 
 appear most beneficial to your own in- 
 terests." 
 
 Perseverance Badly Rewarded. 
 
 MAKY years ago, when Texas was 
 first admitted into the Union, George 
 Ford, a well-known hardware merchant 
 in Boston, visited that State on busi- 
 ness. He had occasion to travel in dis- 
 tant and thinly-settled parts of the 
 State on horseback, where sometimes 
 he would not see a habitation for thirty 
 or forty miles. He was told that on 
 reaching the Brazos River, a quarter 
 of a mile wide at a certain point in 
 Washington County, he would find a 
 bridge ; but, on reaching the river, 
 there were no signs of a bridge. The 
 persevering merchant dismounted, un- 
 dressed, and tying his clothes in his 
 handkerchief, he fastened the bundle 
 to the headstall of the horse, and drove 
 him into the river, Ford swimming 
 after him. Both arrived safely on the 
 other side ; and after dressing, he was 
 very much perplexed to find three forks 
 to the road or trail, and the question 
 was now which one to take to reach 
 his destination a town some fifty miles 
 distant. While pondering on the prob- 
 abilities, he cast his eyes back over the 
 river, and saw a signboard nailed to a 
 tree. He resolved to swim back and 
 read it. Undressing again, in he went, 
 and reached the other side, and read 
 these words : " Five dollars fine for 
 crossing this bridge faster than a walk." 
 It appeared the bridge had been car- 
 ried away during a great freshet, some 
 months previous, the only vestige re- 
 maining being the sign above on the 
 tree. George said it was the only time 
 he ever was " sold " in Texas.
 
 186 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Correct Appreciation of Mercantile 
 Character by Mr. Astor. 
 
 WHILE in Liverpool, England, Mr. 
 James G. King was brought into rela- 
 tions of business and much personal in- 
 timacy with Mr. John Jacob Astor, 
 who was on a brief sojourn in Europe ; 
 and such was the impression made 
 upon that sagacious observer and al- 
 most unerring judge of character, by 
 the business tact and promptness of Mr. 
 King, and his general character, that, 
 upon his return to the United States, 
 Mr. Astor invited him to come to New 
 York and take the chief direction of 
 the American Fur Company, with a 
 very liberal salary. The offer was a 
 tempting one, and made at a time 
 when, owing to the mercantile disas- 
 ters which had been battled with, the 
 prospects of Mr. King's house in Liver- 
 pool were not very promising. But the 
 business to which he was invited was 
 wholly new to him ; and, moreover, it 
 was in his character to prefer an inde- 
 pendent position though it might be 
 less lucrative to any, however advan- 
 tageous, of which the tenure was at the 
 pleasure of others. Mr. King, there- 
 fore, declined, but with such expres- 
 sion of his sense of the liberal kindness 
 of Mr. Astor as was both natural and 
 fitting; and Mr. Astor continued his 
 fast friend always, and had another 
 occasion of proving his friendship 
 about the close of 1823. Consulted by 
 Mr. Prime, then at the head of the 
 house of Prime, Ward, Sands & Co., as 
 to his knowledge of some fitting person 
 upon whom Mr. Prime might safely 
 devolve a portion of the business of his 
 prosperous house, Mr. Astor at once 
 suggested the name of James G. King, 
 and accompanied it with such eulogies 
 as to determine Mr. Prime, who, it 
 seems, from some business intercourse 
 between their houses, had himself 
 thought of Mr. King, to invite him to 
 become a partner in his house ; and this 
 arrangement was in due time consum- 
 
 mated. The brilliant commercial re- 
 sults of this copartnership, and the 
 whole subsequent career of Mr. King, 
 showed that Mr. Astor was not mis- 
 taken in his appreciation of the man. 
 
 Search for a New Route to China. 
 
 SIR HUGH WLLLOUGHBY'S famous 
 commercial exploring expedition in 
 the fifteenth century to discover a 
 near route to China met with a sad 
 fate. By the sudden approach of win- 
 ter he was compelled to seek refuge 
 within an obscure harbor in Russian 
 Lapland, where, with the crew of two 
 of his vessels, he was frozen to death ; 
 and when the Laplanders, in pursuance 
 of their annual custom, sought the sea- 
 coast in summer, for the sake of its fish- 
 ery, they found the remains of the un- 
 happy adventurer, who, meditating a 
 great discovery, had met with an ob- 
 scure death. It is a touching picture 
 to contemplate him as he was found, 
 sitting with his diary and papers before 
 him as in life, and to think how little 
 his aspiring but noble ambition medi- 
 tated so melancholy a fate. The expe- 
 dition, however, was not without its 
 benefit, as one vessel escaped. Richard 
 Chancellor, its commander, landed near 
 Archangel, and inclined the Czar, Ivan 
 Bazilowitz, then engaged in the Livo- 
 nian war, to grant considerable com- 
 mercial privileges to the English. 
 
 Extension and Profits of Mr. Aster's 
 Fur Business. 
 
 IF there was anything left undone by 
 Mr. Astor to extend and give success 
 to his early and favorite trade in furs, 
 then it was something which mortal 
 shrewdness could not compass. He 
 made himself thoroughly acquainted 
 with the nature of that trade, coming 
 in contact with the agents, and obtain- 
 ing a complete knowledge of the meth- 
 ods and profits of the traffic. His great 
 enterprise induced him to reach for
 
 SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. 
 
 187 
 
 ward to what others would have shrunk 
 from. 
 
 When the revolutionary war closed, 
 Oswego, Detroit, Niagara, and other 
 posts, were in the hands of the British ; 
 and as these were the entrepots of the 
 western and northern countries, the 
 fur trade had languished after their 
 capture and during their detention 
 The traders had been either driven 
 away or drafted into the armies; the 
 trappers had ranged themselves on 
 either side of the political contention ; 
 and the Indians obtained more fire- 
 water and calico for the use of their 
 mercenary rifles and tomahawks from 
 Great Britain, in this her domestic 
 quarrel with the colonies, than if they 
 had employed them on beavera and 
 squirrels. After much negotiation and 
 surveying, and the advancement and 
 consideration of claims, these posts 
 were conceded to the United States, 
 and Canada was opened to the fur 
 trade. Shortly afterward the British 
 retired from the west side of St. Clair, 
 opening up to the enterprising mer- 
 chants of America the great fur trade 
 of the West. 
 
 Mr. Astor saw that the posts thus 
 made free would soon be thronged by 
 Indians eager to dispose of the accumu- 
 lated produce of several years' hunting, 
 and that the time had now come when 
 he was certain to amass a large fortune 
 by the traflic. He immediately estab- 
 lished agencies, over which he exer- 
 cised a sort of personal superintendence, 
 visiting the stations sometimes, but 
 chiefly devoting himself to the New 
 York business. The results verified 
 the sagacious predictions of Mr. Astor, 
 for in a few years his gains from this 
 source were very large. 
 
 The British fur companies had, how- 
 ever, built their block forts at almost 
 every eligible site on the rivers of the 
 northern and southwestern parts of the 
 American continent, and were soon like- 
 ly to acquire a monopoly of the whole of 
 the fur trade, unless some bold measures 
 
 were adopted to rescue it from them. 
 This Astor attempted in 1803, by estab- 
 lishing the American Fur Company. 
 The hardy adventurers who entered 
 into this project, boldly pushed their 
 outposts far into the hitherto unknown 
 prairie, and raised their forts upon the 
 banks of yet unexplored rivers. Tribes 
 unused to see the white man, and who 
 only knew him through vague tradi- 
 tion, or by a passing tale from some 
 visitor of another tribe, now saw and 
 knew him, and brought their abund- 
 ance of beaver, otter, and buffalo skins, 
 and laid them at his feet for muskets, 
 powder, and fire-water. 
 
 No sooner was the American Fur 
 Company established and in operation 
 than Mr. Astor cast his shrewd eyes 
 toward the region stretching from the 
 Rocky Mountains to the ocean. He 
 proposed to the United States' Govern- 
 ment the establishment of a line of 
 forts along the shores of the Pacific 
 Ocean and on the Columbia River, in 
 order to take from the hands of the 
 British all facilities for establishing a 
 trade west of the Rocky Mountains. 
 The project was agreed to ; and in 
 1810 sixty men, under the command of 
 a hardy and adventurous leader, es- 
 tablished the first post at the mouth of 
 the Columbia, which took its designa- 
 tion of Astoria from the projector of 
 the scheme. This became the germ of 
 the budding State of Oregon. Then 
 commenced a series of operations on a 
 scale altogether beyond anything hith- 
 erto attempted by individual enter- 
 prise. The history is full of wildest 
 romance. The whole scheme was the 
 offspring of a capacious mind; and 
 had the plans of Mr. Astor been faith- 
 fully carried out by his associates, it 
 would, no doubt, have been eminently 
 successful. But the enterprise soon 
 failed. During the war a British armed 
 sloop captured Astoria, and the British 
 fur traders entered upon the rich field 
 which Mr. Astor had planted, and 
 reaped the golden harvest.
 
 188 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Honorable Distinction attained by 
 Mr. Perit. 
 
 PELATIAH PEBIT had at an early age 
 marked out for himself a professional 
 life, intending to devote himself to the 
 ministry, and possessing a fine collegi- 
 ate education and an unspotted relig- 
 ious character as the basis of such a ca- 
 reer. But a partial failure of his health, 
 and especially of his voice, required a 
 reconsideration of his purpose. Com- 
 pelled thus to relinquish the profession 
 to which he was led by religious sym- 
 pathies and aspirations, he chose the 
 mercantile profession as better for him 
 than any other secular employment. 
 
 He was in his nineteenth year when 
 he began as a clerk in one of the large 
 importing houses at Philadelphia, 
 which had not then ceased to be the 
 foremost of our American cities. Nor 
 was he long in demonstrating that all 
 his talents and attainments might be 
 made serviceable to him in his chosen 
 employment. After remaining about 
 five years in connection with the house 
 which he had entered as a clerk, and 
 for which he had made several voyages 
 to the West Indies and to South Amer- 
 ica, he returned to New York in 1809, 
 
 just when all the commercial interests 
 of our country were imperilled, and 
 were coming to the brink of annihila- 
 tion, by that series of measures which 
 terminated in the war of 1812. When, 
 however, peace was restored, and the 
 business of the country had revived, and 
 its foreign commerce once more began 
 to traverse freely every ocean, he be- 
 came a partner in the house of Good- 
 hue & Co., and, through all the changes 
 which time and death made in the 
 partnership, he remained a member of 
 that firm more than forty years. All 
 commercial men know the character 
 and standing of that house, and how 
 much of it was the character and stand- 
 ing of Pelatiah Perit. 
 
 His place among his fellow mer- 
 chants of the great metropolis was rec- 
 ognized by his election, eleven years 
 ago, to the Presidency of the New 
 York Chamber of Commerce. The 
 rules of that body provide that no 
 president shall be reflected for more 
 than three years in succession without 
 a unanimous vote. Yet for ten succes- 
 sive years he held that place of honor, 
 being nine times reflected by the unan- 
 imous vote of his distinguished associ- 
 ates a rare and honorable distinction.
 
 PART FOURTH. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES.
 
 PAET FOURTH. 
 
 Anecdotes of Trade and Business Immoralities. 
 
 THB RAREST INSTANCES OF INGENIOUS FRAUD, FORGERY, COUNTERFEITING, AND SMUGGLING ' 
 USURY, ARTIFICE, TRICKS, AND MALPRACTICE ; WITH EXAMPLES, EXTRAORDINARY AND 
 AMUSING, OF AVARICE, COVETOUSNESS, PARSIMONY, EXTORTION, PRIDE, RUDENESS, VIO- 
 LENCE, AND EXTRAVAGANCE OF BUSINESS MEN. 
 
 A man of sense can artifice disdain, 
 As men of wealth may venture to go plain. YOUNG. 
 
 A knave ia like a tooth drawer, that maintains his own teeth in constant eating by pulling out 
 those of other men. BUTLER. 
 
 Lands mortgaged may return, and more esteemed ; 
 
 But honesty once pawned, is ne'er redeemed. MIDDLETON. 
 
 For a good old gentlemanly vice, 
 
 I think I must take up with avarice. BYROS'S " DON JUAN." 
 
 He is rich whose income is more than his expenses ; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his 
 income. BRUYJUIB. 
 
 Selling- Salt by a Chalk Line. 
 
 AT one period in the changeful com- 
 mercial life of Girard, he sold salt by 
 the bushel; and, conceiving one day 
 that his measure, or half bushel, was 
 too large, he determined to regulate or 
 readjust it himself. For this purpose 
 he took a half-gallon liquid measure, 
 and repairing to the wharf, which was 
 at that time constructed with steps, for 
 the convenience of supplying citizens 
 with water from the river, he deposited 
 the requisite number of half gallons 
 into his half bushel, and then drawing 
 a chalk line round the water mark, he 
 found it was too large by an inch or 
 more; on discovering this to be the 
 case, he forthwith went to a neighbor- 
 ing cooper's shop, and borrowing a saw 
 for the purpose, reduced the measure 
 of his half bushel accordingly, thus 
 making it what he conceived it ought 
 to be. This gave rise to the saying, 
 " that Mr. Girard was a just man, but 
 
 it was according to his own measure of 
 justice." 
 
 Rothschild and Lucas- Stratagem to 
 learn the Former's Secrets. 
 
 When the great Hebrew financier lived 
 on Stamford Hill, there resided oppo- 
 site to him another very wealthy deal- 
 er in stock exchange, Lucas by name. 
 The latter returned one night very late 
 from a convivial party; he observed 
 a carriage and four standing before 
 Rothschild's gate, upon which he or- 
 dered his own carriage to go out of 
 the way, and commanded his coachman 
 to await his return. 
 
 Lucas now went stealthily and 
 watched the movements at Roths- 
 child's gate. He did not lie long in 
 ambush, before he heard a party leav- 
 ing the Hebrew millionaire's mansion, 
 and going toward the carriage. He 
 saw Rothschild, accompanied by two 
 muffled figures, step into the carriage, 
 and heard the word of command, " To
 
 192 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 the city ! " He followed Rothschild's 
 carriage very closely. But when he 
 reached the top of the street in which 
 Rothschild's office was situated, Lucas 
 ordered his carriage to stop, from which 
 he stepped out, and proceeded, reeling 
 to and fro through the street, feigning 
 to be mortally drunk. He made his 
 way in this same mood as far as Roths- 
 child's office, and sans ceremonie opened 
 the door, to the great consternation and 
 terror of the housekeeper, uttering sun- 
 dry ejaculations in the broken accents 
 of Bacchus's votaries. Heedless of the 
 affrighted housekeeper's remonstrances, 
 he opened Rothschild's private office, 
 in the same staggering attitude, and 
 fell down flat on the floor. Rothschild 
 and his friends became greatly alarmed. 
 Efforts were at once made to restore and 
 remove the would-be drunkard ; but 
 Lucas was too good an actor, and was, 
 therefore, in such a state as to be unfit 
 to be moved hither or thither. " Should 
 a physician be sent for ? " asked Roths- 
 child. But the housekeeper threw 
 some cold water into Lucas's face, and 
 the patient began to breathe a little 
 more naturally, and fell into a sound, 
 snoring sleep. He was covered, and 
 Rothschild and the strangers proceeded 
 unsuspectingly to their business. 
 
 The strangers brought the good in- 
 telligence that the affairs in Spain were 
 all right, respecting which the members 
 of the exchange were, for a few days 
 previous, very apprehensive, and the 
 funds were consequently in a rapidly 
 sinking condition: The good news, 
 however, could not, in the common 
 course of dispatch, be publicly known 
 for another day. Rothschild, there- 
 fore, planned to order his brokers to 
 buy up, cautiously, all the stock that 
 should be in market, by twelve o'clock 
 that following day. He sent for his 
 principal broker thus early, in order to 
 intrust him with the important instruc- 
 tions. The broker was rather tardier, 
 however, than Rothschild's patience 
 could brook; he therefore determined 
 
 to go himself. As soon as he was gone, 
 Lucas began to recover, and by degrees 
 was able to get up, being distracted, as 
 he said, " with a violent headache," and 
 insisted, in spite of the housekeeper's 
 kind expostulations, upon going home. 
 But Lucas also went to his broker, and 
 instructed him to buy all the stock he 
 could get by ten o'clock the following 
 morning. About eleven o'clock, Lucas 
 met Rothschild, and inquired, in a 
 satirical manner, how he, Rothschild, 
 was off for stock ! Lucas won the 
 day ; and Rothschild is said never 
 to have forgiven what he termed 
 "that base, dishonest, and nefarious 
 stratagem." 
 
 Financiering: in Alabama. 
 
 IN the times of 1836, there dwelt in 
 a pleasant town of Alabama, a smooth, 
 oily-mannered gentleman, who diversi- 
 fied a common-place pursuit by some 
 exciting episodes of finance dealing 
 occasionally in exchange brokerage, 
 buying and selling uncurrent money, 
 &c. His name may be supposed to be 
 Thompson. 
 
 It happened that a Mr. Ripley, of 
 North Carolina, was in T., having some 
 $1,200 in North Carolina money ; and, 
 desiring to return to the old North 
 State with his funds, but not wishing 
 to encounter the risk of robbery through 
 the Creek country, in which there were 
 rumors of hostilities between the whites 
 and the Indians, he bethought him of 
 buying exchange on Raleigh, as the 
 safest mode of transmitting his money. 
 On inquiry he was referred to Mr. 
 Thompson, as the only person deal- 
 ing in exchange in that place. He 
 called on Mr. T., and made known his 
 wishes. With his characteristic polite- 
 ness, Mr. Thompson agreed to accom- 
 modate him with a sight bill on his 
 correspondent in Raleigh, charging him 
 the moderate premium of five per cent, 
 for it. Mr. Thompson retired into his 
 counting room, and in a few minutes
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 193 
 
 returned with the bill and a letter, 
 which he delivered to Mr. Ripley, at 
 the same time receiving the money 
 from that gentleman, plus the " ex- 
 change." As the interlocutors were 
 exchanging valedictory compliments, 
 it " occurred " to Mr. Thompson that 
 it would be a favor to him if Mr. Rip- 
 ley would be so kind as to convey to 
 Mr. T.'s correspondent a package of 
 " documents" he was desirous of send- 
 ing, which request Mr. Ripley assured 
 Mr. T. it would afford him great pleas- 
 ure to comply with. Mr. Thompson 
 then handed Mr. Ripley a package, 
 strongly enveloped and sealed, ad- 
 dressed to the Raleigh banker, after 
 which the gentlemen parted with many 
 polite expressions of regard and civility. 
 
 Arriving without any accident or 
 hindrance at Raleigh, Mr. Ripley's first 
 care was to call on the banker and pre- 
 sent his documents. He found him at 
 his office, presented the bill and the 
 letter to him, and requested payment 
 of the former. " That," said the bank- 
 er, "will depend a good deal upon 
 the contents of the package ; " opening 
 which, Mr. Ripley had the pleasure of 
 seeing the identical banknotes, minus 
 the premium he had paid Mr. T. for his 
 bill, and which the banker now paid 
 over to Mr. R. The latter was not a 
 little surprised to find that the expert 
 Mr. Thompson had thus charged him 
 five per cent, for carrying his own 
 money to Raleigh, to avoid the risk 
 and trouble of which he had bought 
 the exchange. 
 
 T. used to remark that that was the 
 safest operation, all around, Tie ever 
 knew. He had got his exchange the 
 buyer had got his bill and the money, 
 too, and the drawee was fully pro- 
 tected ! There was profit without any 
 outlay or risk. 
 
 Italian Picture Dealer Trapping: an 
 Experienced Connoisseur. 
 
 SIGNOB A has long been known 
 
 as one of the most facetious London 
 13 
 
 dealers in pictures and other objects of 
 art, not stopping at any clever ruse by 
 which to make a good " sell." It is 
 related, too, that one of his boldest 
 tricks was successfully played off at the 
 expense of an experienced purchaser 
 and acknowledged connoisseur, the late 
 
 Mr. C . He persuaded the latter to 
 
 look at a picture of high pretensions 
 and of some merit in his house. "While 
 they were discussing it, the jingle of 
 posting bells was heard in the street, 
 and the prolonged crack of a courier's 
 whip soon echoed in the doorway. 
 
 A started, rushed out, and beheld 
 
 an express, booted, spurred, and splash- 
 ed, who handed him a letter. Tear- 
 ing it open, he appeared struck with 
 confusion, and exclaimed : 
 
 " Well, here is a fine scrape I have 
 got into ! " 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 "Why, I am talking about selling 
 you this picture, and here is the courier 
 sent back from Ancona to buy it, by a 
 Russian gentleman, to whom I offered 
 it last week, for such a sum." 
 
 The price was a large one, and Mr. 
 C. would not have thought of giving it 
 for the picture, which did not interest 
 him much ; but so ingeniously did Sig- 
 nor A. contrive to transfer to it the im- 
 portance of this dramatic scene, that, in 
 the excitement of the moment, a bar- 
 gain was- struck, and the Englishman 
 went off chuckling at the idea of hav- 
 ing so nicely " done " the Russian, the 
 latter being an imaginary personage, 
 and his courier a Roman postboy, hired 
 to gallop up in the nick of time ! 
 
 James Bolland's Financial Career. 
 
 ABOUT the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, one of the most constant stock 
 dealers in London, although in a small 
 way, was James Bolland; a man of 
 low extraction, but of great mind, of 
 immense impudence, and unrivalled 
 crime. There was nothing at which he 
 would hesitate to obtain money with
 
 194 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 which to carry on his stock dealings ; 
 and, having once commenced, he soon 
 found that the legitimate wants of his 
 trade that of a butcher were not 
 sufficient to support him. He formed, 
 therefore, a wooden weight, which, re- 
 sembling one of fifty pounds, weighed 
 only seven, and thus, in his capacity of 
 tradesman to one of the public institu- 
 tions, practised his roguery with great 
 success. 
 
 Prom butcher he turned sheriff's 
 officer, revived every past iniquity, in- 
 vented new frauds, and employed his 
 money in buying lottery tickets, to 
 which pursuit he was occasionally at- 
 tached. He robbed the broker with 
 whom he dealt, alike of his mistress 
 and his money ; and with the latter 
 bought the place of city marshal. The 
 citizens, however, discovered that his 
 integrity was scarcely equal to his im- 
 pudence, and refused to maintain their 
 bargain. 
 
 Every moment he could spare was 
 passed at the stock market, where his 
 schemes were marked by a singularly 
 bad fortune. Every speculation went 
 against him ; he never drew a prize in 
 the lottery ; and, finding there was a 
 chance of his becoming penniless, he 
 added forgery to his long list of crimes. 
 The fraud was discovered, and he paid 
 the penalty of his life. 
 
 Business Haggling in Scotland. 
 
 IN England, when an article is offered 
 for sale, it is immediately purchased, or 
 at once rejected as being too dear. But 
 in Scotland, there is a long haggling 
 and cheapening of every article succes- 
 sively offered. The purchaser objects 
 to the price. He will not buy. The 
 seller urges him, but does not offer to 
 make any reduction. Says he, " You 
 are over dear, sir ; I can buy the same 
 gudes ten per cent, lower ; if ye like to 
 tak' off ten per cent., I'll tak' some of 
 these." The seller tells him that a re- 
 duction in price is quite out of the 
 
 question, and puts the sample of the 
 article aside ; but the Scotchman wants 
 it. 
 
 " Weel, sir, it's a terrible price ; but 
 as I am out o' it at present, I'll just tak' 
 a little till I can be supplied cheaper, 
 but ye maun tak' off five per cent." 
 
 "But, sir," says the seller, "would 
 you not think me an unconscionable 
 knave, to ask ten per cent., or even five 
 per cent., more than I intended to 
 take ? " 
 
 He laughs. "Hoot, hoot, man, do 
 ye expect to get what ye ask ? Gude 
 Lord ! an' I was able to get half what 
 I ask, I would soon be rich. Come, 
 come, I'll gie ye within two an' a half 
 per cent, of your ain price, and gude 
 faith, mon, ye'll be well paid." 
 
 He is told by the seller that he never 
 makes any reduction from the price he 
 first demanded, and that adherence to 
 such a rule " saves much trouble to both 
 parties." 
 
 " Weel, weel," says he, " since ye 
 maun hae it a' your ain way, I maun 
 e'en tak' the article ; but really I think 
 ye are over-keen." 
 
 So much for buying and selling the 
 settlement is another affair still, at a 
 future time, as will now be seen : 
 
 "How muckle discount do ye tak' 
 aff, sir ? " 
 
 "Discount! You cannot expect it. 
 The account has been standing a 
 twelve-month." 
 
 " Indeed, but I do expect discount 
 pay siller without discount ! Na, na, 
 sir, that's not the way here ; ye maun 
 deduct five per cent." 
 
 He is told that no discount at all is 
 made. " Weel, sir, I'll gie ye nae 
 money at a'." 
 
 Rather than go without a settlement, 
 the seller at last agrees to take two and 
 one half per cent, from the amount, 
 which is accordingly deducted. 
 
 " I hae ten shillings doon against ye 
 for short measure, and fifteen shillings 
 for damages." 
 
 "Indeed, these are heavy deduc-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 195 
 
 tions ; but if you say that you shall 
 lose to that amount, I suppose that it 
 must be allowed." 
 
 " Oh, aye, it's a' right ; then, sir, 
 eight shillings and four pence for pack- 
 sheet, and thirteen shillings for car- 
 riage and postage." 
 
 "These last items are astonishing. 
 What, sir," said the seller, " are we to 
 pay all the charges in your business ? " 
 
 But if these are not allowed, he will 
 not pay his account ; so the seller ac- 
 quiesces, resolving within himself that, 
 since these unfair deductions are made 
 at settlement, it would be quite fair to 
 charge an additional price to cover the 
 extortion. He now congratulates himself 
 on having concluded his business with 
 such a customer ; but is disappointed. 
 
 " Hae ye a stawmpe ? " asks he. 
 
 " A stamp, for what ? " 
 
 " Just to draw ye a bill," he replies. 
 
 "A bill, my good sir! I took off 
 two and one-half per cent., on the faith 
 of being paid in cash." But he says it 
 is the custom of his place to pay in 
 bills, and sits down and draws a bill 
 at three months after date, payable at 
 his own shop. 
 
 " And what can I do with this ? " 
 
 " Oh, ye may tak' it to Sir William's, 
 and he'll discount it for you, on paying 
 him three months' interest." 
 
 " And what can I do with his notes ? " 
 
 " He'll gie ye a bill in London, at 
 forty-five days." 
 
 " So, sir, after allowing you twelve 
 months' credit, and two and a half per 
 cent, discount, and exorbitant charges 
 which you have no claim on us to pay, 
 I must be content with a bill which we 
 are not to cash for four months and a 
 half!" 
 
 " Weel, weel and now, sir," says he, 
 " if ye are going to your inn, I'll gang 
 wi' ye, and tak' a glass of wine." 
 
 Dutchman Illustrating: a Mercantile 
 Principle. 
 
 AIT anecdote is told of a German, 
 who, after it was known that a certain 
 
 bank in Buffalo had closed its doors, 
 went to one of the largest furniture 
 establishments, and purchased articles 
 amounting to $2.75, for which he off- 
 handedly proffered a five dollar bill of 
 said bank in payment. The clerk re- 
 fused to take it, and the Dutchman in- 
 sisted that it was ay. right, saying : 
 
 "It ish goot; te pank will open; 
 deres lots of beeples dere ; de pank ish 
 opening already." 
 
 Still the clerk persisted in his refusal 
 to take the bill. The proprietor, hear- 
 ing the discussion, put in his oar, and 
 the Teuton went through with his for- 
 mer lingo. Knowing that the bills are 
 well secured against loss to the holders, 
 he finally accepted the bill, and offered 
 as change a quarter of a dollar in spe- 
 cie, and a two dollar bill on the same 
 bank. The German was taken aback 
 for a moment, but finally said : 
 
 " Ich no take dat." 
 
 " But you must take this, or the one 
 you gave me is also bad," said the 
 dealer. 
 
 " I don't know as de pank ish so goot as 
 it vas" said Diedrich. 
 
 " Well, you must take this bill, or 
 trade it out in those small chairs," said 
 the furniture dealer, pointing to some 
 juvenile affairs with round holes in 
 their seats, and at which the Dutchman 
 was intently gazing (he had a brood of 
 children). 
 
 "Veil, I dink I'll dake de shairs," 
 and he took them. 
 
 This anecdote illustrates the fact of 
 the dislike of no small portion of man- 
 kind to swallow their own arguments, 
 and illustrates a mercantile principle 
 that much is good to dispose of, which 
 it were quite undesirable to obtain. 
 
 Deadhead Customer a Clincher. 
 
 YEARS ago, there dwelt in a certain 
 town a divine, notorious for his parsi- 
 moniousness, which would sometimes 
 run to almost fabulous extremes. 
 
 One day, this doctor of divinity 
 stepped into a hat store in New York,
 
 196 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 and, after rummaging over the stock, 
 selected an ordinary looking hat, put 
 it on his reverend head, ogled himself 
 in the glass, then asked the very lowest 
 price of it, telling the vendor, that if he 
 could get it cheap enough he thought 
 he might buy it. 
 
 " But," said the fatter, " that hat is 
 not good enough for you to wear here 
 is what you want," showing one of his 
 best beavers. 
 
 " Tis the best I can afford though," 
 returned the theologian. 
 
 " Well, there, doctor, I'll make you a 
 present of that best beaver, if you'll 
 wear it, and tell whose store it came 
 from ; I'll warrant you'll send me cus- 
 tomers enough to get my money back 
 with interest ; you are pretty extensive- 
 ly acquainted." 
 
 " Thank you thank you ! " said the 
 doctor, his eyes gleaming with pleasure 
 at raising a castor so cheaply ; " how 
 much, however, may this be worth ? " 
 
 " We sell that kind of hat for eight 
 dollars," replied the man of the nap. 
 
 "And the other?" continued the 
 customer. 
 
 " Three." 
 
 The man of sermons put on the bea- 
 ver, looked in the glass, then at the 
 three dollar hat. 
 
 " I think, sir," said he, taking off the 
 beaver, and holding it in one hand, as 
 he donned the cheap ' tile,' " I think, 
 sir, that this hat will answer my pur- 
 pose full as well as the best." 
 
 " But you'd better take the best one, 
 sir, it costs you no more." 
 
 "B-u-t bu-t," replied the parson, 
 hesitatingly, " I didn't know but 
 perhaps you would as lief I would 
 take the cheap one, and leave the other 
 and, perhaps, you would not mind 
 giving me the difference in a five dollar 
 Ull!" 
 
 Determining' the Character of an Arti- 
 cle by its Age. 
 
 QUITE a good story is told and will 
 bear telling again of old Bunce, who 
 
 prided himself upon never being mis- 
 taken in his judgment of a person's 
 character from the phiz. He was in 
 Washington market, New York, one 
 day, to get a goose for dinner. In 
 looking about, he saw a lot before a 
 young woman who had a peculiarly 
 fine, open countenance. " She's hon- 
 est," said Bunce to himself; and at 
 once asked her if she had a nice young 
 goose. " Yes," said she ; " here's as 
 fine a one as you will get in the mar- 
 ket," and she looked up in his face 
 with that perfect sincerity that would 
 at once have won his confidence, had 
 he not already and at first sight made 
 up his mind as to her character. 
 " You're sure it's young ? " " To be 
 sure it is ; " and Bunce took it home. 
 All efforts to eat it were fruitless, it was 
 so tough ; and the next day he was at 
 the market betimes, angry with him- 
 self, and more so with the honest-faced 
 girl who had cheated him. " Didn't 
 you tell me that goose was young, yes- 
 terday ? " he exclaimed, stalking up to 
 the girl wrathfully. " To be sure I 
 did." " You cheated me," said Bunce 
 as quickly ; " it was a tough old gan- 
 der." "You don't call me old, do 
 you?" she asked. "No I should 
 think not," he replied. "No / 
 should think not, too. I am only 
 twenty, and mother told me that goose 
 was hatched just six months after I 
 was born." Bunce had forgotten that 
 a goose lives a hundred years. 
 
 "Genuine" Wines. 
 
 THE substitution of other wines for 
 port was, it seems, practised in " great- 
 grandfather's day " quite as extensively 
 as at present. In an official investiga- 
 tion into the manufacture of wines by 
 the English authorities a while ago, 
 one witness, who had been engaged for 
 many years in importing " Masdeu," a 
 red wine from Roussillon, told the fol- 
 lowing curious story : 
 
 When I got to the port of shipment,
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 197 
 
 Port Veadres, I found very extensive 
 warehouses constructed ; and as it was 
 in a very outlandish place, with not 
 more than two hundred and fifty in- 
 habitants in the port of shipment, such 
 warehouses struck me as very remark- 
 able. I inquired why these warehouses 
 were built, and I was told that they 
 had been put up by the proprietor's 
 father the age of the present proprie- 
 tor was eighty-five. I inquired for 
 what purpose the father had built them, 
 and I was informed that he had built 
 them in connection with a countryman 
 of my own, a Mr. Ireland. " Had I 
 ever heard of Mr. Ireland ? " My an- 
 swer was, no. But upon further in- 
 quiry, I was told that Mr. Ireland and 
 his Mr. Durand's father had had 
 large transactions in wine, and that 
 Mr. I. stated that he wanted a wine for 
 the supply of the troops and the navy, 
 and I was told fine old wine. Upon my 
 return to this country I went to the late 
 Mr. George Hathorn, than whom a more 
 respectable man never existed in any 
 trade : being a very old man, I ques- 
 tioned him if he had ever heard of Mr. 
 Ireland. He said, " Yes ; he recollect- 
 ed Mr. Ireland had commenced life at 
 Bristol in a very obscure position, and 
 died one of the richest men in it." 
 
 " What course of trade did he fol- 
 low ? " 
 
 " He was an importer of red wines." 
 
 " Port wines ? " 
 
 " Port wines." 
 
 " What reputation had his wines in 
 the market ? " 
 
 " They were of the highest class" 
 
 Yet the old gentleman could not 
 seem to tell why it certainly was not 
 from any want of funds but, all at 
 once, the house suspended its prosperous 
 operations. 
 
 I supplied the wanting link; he 
 could get no more Roussillon wines, 
 as the first French revolution hindered 
 him! 
 
 What it Means to be " Selling Off." 
 
 ONE of those generous, disinterested, 
 sacrificing men, who had flaringly stuck 
 upon every other pane of glass in his 
 shop, " Selling off no reasonable offer 
 refused must close on Saturday," once 
 offered himself as bail, or security, in 
 some case which was brought before a 
 magistrate. The magistrate asked him 
 if he was worth a thousand dollars : he 
 said, yes. " But you are about to re- 
 move, are you not ? " " No." " Why, 
 you announce that you are 'Selling 
 Off.' " " Yes every shopkeeper 's sell- 
 ing off." " You say, ' No reasonable 
 offer will be refused.' " " Yes ; I 
 should be very unreasonable if I did 
 refuse such ' offers.' " " But you say, 
 ' must close on Saturday.' " " To be 
 sure ; you would not have me open on 
 Sunday, would you ? " 
 
 Espionage Practised "by Girard. 
 
 GIRARD'S oversight of his hired 
 hands was most arbitrary and exact- 
 ing. He owned a farm a few miles 
 from his residence in Philadelphia, 
 which he kept under his own cultiva- 
 tion. It was superintended by a farmer 
 who resided on the place, to which the 
 owner often drove out to see how affairs 
 were going on. He not unfrequently 
 went in the morning before breakfast. 
 On one of those occasions, coming out 
 perhaps somewhat earlier than usual, 
 on arriving at a piece of stone fence 
 which he was building along the road- 
 side, he found his farmer absent. He 
 immediately drove to the house, fasten- 
 ed his horse, and went in, searching the 
 house for him, not overlooking those 
 parts where he suspected the man 
 might .be found. Disappointed in his 
 search, he mounted his chaise and re- 
 turned to the fence and, lo ! the man 
 was found very diligently at his work. 
 
 " Ah ! how is this 2 " said the keen- 
 eyed overseer; "you were too late at 
 your work, this morning. I have driven
 
 198 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 out of town already, and you were not 
 here." " Oh, yes, Mr. Girard," says the 
 man. " I had been here, but I had only 
 stepped aside for a few moments, to get 
 something that I wanted, when you 
 passed by." " You do lie ! " said the 
 keen-eyed master. " / did go and put 
 my hand in your bed, and it was warm. 1 ' 1 
 The man had been informed by his 
 wife, of Girard's coming, when he 
 jumped up in a hurry, and ran to his 
 work. But Girard was too cute for 
 him. 
 
 Quaker Ship Owner Economising the 
 Time of his Men. 
 
 THERE was once a wealthy ship owner 
 in New Bedford, a member of the So- 
 ciety of Friends, and now deceased, 
 who was very remarkable for economiz- 
 ing the time of his hired men. He had 
 one of his ships hove down to the wharf 
 to repair and copper. It was a cold 
 winter's day, and there was a plank ex- 
 tending from the wharf to the floating 
 stages around the ship, on which the 
 carpenters and caulkers were at work. 
 Among the men was one by the name 
 of John, a man-of-all-work, a man of 
 color, and on free and easy terms with 
 his master. John was carrying matters 
 and things up and down a slippery 
 plank to the workmen, when he slid 
 of a sudden and shot, heels over head, 
 into the water. The old Quaker saw 
 him, and as John came up to blow, 
 called out to him, " Don't make a noise, 
 John, you'll stop the men in their work 
 keep quiet, and I'll help thee out." 
 
 As good or bad luck would have it, 
 the same day, the kind Quaker was 
 coming down the plank, and away he 
 went, souse into the briny deep. But 
 John was close by, and as his master 
 rose to the surface, and looked the image 
 of ghastliness and despair, the tantaliz- 
 ing negro put on a long face, and cried, 
 " Master, don't make a noise, to call off 
 the men. I'll help thee out." And so 
 he did, while the " men " would look 
 on, laughing at the fun. 
 
 " A Little More." 
 
 A NEW ENGLAND merchant, who had 
 accumulated a vast property by care 
 and industry, yet still was as busy as 
 ever, in adding vessel to vessel and 
 store to store, though considerably ad- 
 vanced in life being asked by a neigh- 
 bor, how much property would satisfy 
 a human being ? after a short pause 
 replied, " A little more" 
 
 Royal Prize for Raising Money Raid 
 upon the Bankers. 
 
 AT one period of his reign, being 
 very much distressed for money, and 
 despairing of obtaining any from the 
 House of Commons, King Charles the 
 Second declared, in a private meeting 
 with his ministers, that if any of them 
 would invent a method by which to 
 raise about one million and a half 
 pounds, without a parliament, he 
 should have the "White Staff," or, 
 in other words, the lord treasurer's 
 place. On the day following, Lord 
 Ashley told Sir Thomas Clifford, in 
 confidence, that there was a way to sup- 
 ply the king immediately with such a 
 sum ; but that it was hazardous to put 
 it in practice, and might draw a train 
 of ill consequences along with it, by in- 
 flaming both the parliament and the 
 people. 
 
 Sir Thomas was impatient to know 
 the secret, being bold and courageous, 
 entirely in the French interest, and 
 pleased with anything that might ren- 
 der the king unpopular with the par- 
 liament. Therefore, to discover the 
 project, he plied his lordship with wine 
 to excess, and then led the conversation 
 to the subject of the king's wants. 
 Lord Ashley unguardedly dropped the 
 important secret. 
 
 The hint was immediately taken by 
 Sir Thomas, who left his lordship, went 
 directly to the king, and, falling on his 
 knees, he demanded the white staff, 
 according to promise. His majesty 
 cried out :
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 199 
 
 " Odds fish ! I'll be as good as my 
 word, if you can find the money." 
 
 Sir Thomas then informed his royal 
 master that the bankers had a million 
 and, a half pounds in his majesty's ex- 
 chequer, which money he had an oppor- 
 tunity of seizing, by closing the ex- 
 chequer, and refusing to pay the bank- 
 ers. To this project the king 1 readily 
 assented; and at a privy council, his 
 majesty being present, Sir Thomas pro- 
 posed, " That, as the king must have 
 money to carry on the war against Hol- 
 land, in which his honor was staked, he 
 knew of no other means at present than 
 shutting up the exchequer. He desired 
 none would speak against it without 
 proposing some method more certain 
 and expeditious." The king, after 
 many apologies for this bold step, de- 
 clared that " it should only be for the 
 space of one whole year, and that then 
 no new orders shall interfere to break 
 the course of such property." 
 
 This conduct filled every one espe- 
 cially the business classes with con- 
 sternation and dismay, and it was de- 
 clared that the crown had published 
 its own bankruptcy. The money thus 
 forcibly seized did, in point of fact, be- 
 long to the trading community; and 
 the failure of the bankers, which was 
 the natural result, caused, for a time, 
 a general suspension of all monetary 
 transactions. Sir Thomas Clifford, for 
 his services in the affair, was, according 
 to the promise of the king, made lord 
 high treasurer and a peer. 
 
 Ingenious Swindling of Pawnbrokers. 
 
 THE plundering of pawnbrokers has 
 been reduced to quite a system in Lon- 
 don by the " profession." The parties, 
 it seems, are in the habit of sending to 
 auction rooms, for sale, cases of very 
 handsome medals and coins, finely fin- 
 ished, to represent gold. On the day 
 of the sale, some of the party attend, 
 bid a high price for the article, and, of 
 course, become the purchasers. They 
 
 then request the auctioneer to give a 
 guaranty that they are gold, and he, 
 not having any suspicions, at once gives 
 the necessary certificate. The next step 
 of the swindler is to go to a pawnbrok- 
 er's and pledge the articles for the price 
 they could fetch if they were gold, at 
 the same time producing the auc- 
 tioneer's certificate, which completely 
 throws the pawnbroker off his guard. 
 
 Jack's Bargain for Hope. 
 
 IN one of our stores there is a mis- 
 chievous young fellow by the name of 
 George, who now and then acts as sales- 
 man. If his numerous friends ever 
 make game of his short legs, they at 
 least never deny him the possession of 
 a long head. There came into the 
 store one day a roving son of the sea, 
 inquiring for rope. George immediate- 
 ly offered his services, and led him back 
 to where the rope, in snaky folds, lay 
 coiled. The sailor soon found the 
 right size, and asked the price. The 
 selling price was twelve cents the 
 pound; but George, with an eye to 
 the principles of merchandising in 
 general, and the custom of Israelites 
 in particular, was willing to put it to 
 him. at fifteen cents. To this the tar 
 made no objection, and said he would 
 take sixty fathoms ; but as it was pret- 
 ty well buried beneath a lot of old and 
 somewhat heavy " truck," he very natu- 
 rally inquired, " How'll you get it out ? " 
 Just then a bright idea shot through 
 the aforesaid long head of George, and 
 sparkled for a moment in his eyes, while 
 he drawled out most innocently, " Well, 
 if you'll pull it all out yo-ur-self, you 
 may have it at twelve cents." Whereat 
 the sailor, economically inclined, com- 
 menced a half-hour's tugging and haul- 
 ing at the buried rope ; while George, 
 more humorously inclined, enjoyed a 
 good half-hour's quiet fun.
 
 200 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Determined not to be overreached. 
 
 THERE lives, not a thousand miles 
 from "Gotham," a dealer in small 
 wares, whose greatest fear is that of 
 being overreached. He goes without 
 milk in his coffee, in dread of buying a 
 spoonful of Croton, and never pays a 
 newspaper subscription, lest it should 
 not be published to the end of the year. 
 His little shop is without gas, for he 
 has no faith in the meter ; and he even 
 dips his own candles, to insure that 
 they are all tallow. In one thing he is 
 liberal ; he makes large purchases of 
 counterfeit detectors, and buys an " ex- 
 tra " if there are any whisperings of a 
 broken bank. A neighbor of his was 
 imposed upon the other day with a 
 bank note which had been ingeniously 
 altered from one to five ; and the dealer 
 had been sharply on the watch ever 
 since, for fear of a similar imposition. 
 The other day, a young girl from the 
 country stepped into his store and pur- 
 chased a pair of stockings, offering a 
 one dollar note in payment. The old 
 man eyed the girl so penetratingly that 
 her face became suffused with blushes, 
 and this was, to him, acknowledgment 
 of guilt. 
 
 "HowtZare you offer me this.?" he 
 asked, in an angry tone. 
 
 " I thought it was good," she an- 
 swered timidly and with quivering lip. 
 
 " What is the matter with it ? " asked 
 a bystander, who had been attracted by 
 the dispute ; " it looks like a genuine 
 note." 
 
 " Genuine enough," said the shop- 
 keeper, his face crimson with passion . 
 " but, don't you see it's a one altered 
 from a twenty ! " 
 
 Jemmy Taylor, the Miser Banker, and 
 the Earl of Northumberland. 
 
 of the longest, though not best, 
 remembered of the old English stock- 
 brokers was Jemmy Taylor. So acute 
 and cunning did he become in all the 
 trickery pertaining to that kind of busi- 
 
 ness, that his profits were immense, and 
 his wealth prodigious. He was as pe- 
 nurious as he was rich, and as wretch- 
 ed in his personal appearance and his 
 mode of living as a pauper. A short 
 time after the American war, it is said 
 that the Earl of Northumberland, hav- 
 ing occasion for about half a million 
 dollars, applied to a broker, who ac- 
 cordingly appointed a certain day for 
 the transfer. At the time and place for 
 meeting, there was posted in waiting, 
 old Jemmy Taylor, who, in appearance, 
 resembled some itinerant vendor of 
 matches. Upon the Duke's arrival, the 
 broker brought Jemmy the banker for- 
 ward to his grace, who, not knowing 
 him, thought he was a beggar, and was 
 about to bestow a trifle upon him, when 
 he was informed that he was " a warm 
 man." His grace immediately shook 
 hands with the dirty usurer, and Jem- 
 my accommodated him with 74,000 
 out of one stock, in the four per cents., 
 and from whence, as it appeared by the 
 books, he could have sold out as much 
 more, and yet have had an abundance 
 left. He used to say, that " if his suc- 
 cessors had as much pleasure in spend- 
 ing his property, as he had in hoarding 
 it up, they need not complain of their 
 hard lot in the world." It does not ap- 
 pear that they were ever known to utter 
 such a complaint after Jemmy's death. 
 
 Accomplished Canine Shoplifter. 
 
 A GENTLEMAN in Edinburgh owned 
 a handsome spaniel, which he had 
 bought from a dealer in dogs. The 
 animal had been educated to steal for 
 the benefit of its protector ; but it was 
 some time ere his new master became 
 aware of this irregularity of morals, 
 and he was not a little astonished and 
 teased by its constantly bringing home 
 articles of which it had felonious- 
 ly obtained possession. Perceiving, at 
 length, that the animal proceeded sys- 
 tematically in this sort of behavior, he 
 used to amuse his friends, by causing
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 201 
 
 the spaniel to give proof of its sagacity 
 in the Spartan art of privately stealing, 
 putting, of course, the shopkeepers, 
 where he meant the dog should exer- 
 cise this faculty, on their guard as to 
 the issue. 
 
 The process was curious. As soon 
 as the dog's master entered the shop, 
 the animal seemed to avoid all appear- 
 ance of recognizing or acknowledging 
 any connection with him, but lounged 
 about in an indolent, disengaged, and 
 indifferent sort of manner, as if having 
 come of its own accord, into the shop. 
 In the course of looking over some 
 wares, the master indicated by a touch 
 on the parcel and a look toward the 
 spaniel, that which he desired the dog 
 should appropriate, and then left the 
 shop. The dog, whose watchful eye 
 caught the hint in an instant, instead 
 of following his master out of the shop, 
 continued to sit at the door or lie by 
 the fire, watching the counter, until 
 observing the attention of the people 
 of the shop was withdrawn from the 
 prize to be secured. Whenever he saw 
 an opportunity of doing so, as he imag- 
 ined, unobserved, he never failed to 
 jump upon the counter with his fore 
 feet, possess himself of the gloves, or 
 whatever else had been pointed out to 
 him, and escape from the shop to join 
 his master. 
 
 " No Great Judge of de Hemp." 
 
 IT was one of Girard's ideas of suc- 
 cess in business, that there was no stage 
 in the process of the exchange of equiv- 
 alents in trading, that might not be 
 made to him an opportunity of present 
 profit. ' 
 
 On one of these occasions, a merchant 
 who had purchased of Girard a large 
 quantity of hemp, sent a black man to 
 superintend the weighing and loading 
 of it. Girard was busy himself in put- 
 ting it upon the scales, but a great part 
 of it being damaged, the negro man 
 watched him closely, and whenever 
 
 Girard threw on a bad bundle, the ne- 
 gro would carefully throw it off. But 
 this, Girard, of course, would not sub- 
 mit to, and would proceed to replace 
 it, whilst the negro, in his turn, would 
 as quickly fling it off until, losing his 
 patience, he commenced cursing the 
 negro, and declared he should not 
 touch the hemp, at the risk of chastise- 
 ment. But Sambo, nothing intimidat- 
 ed by the threats of the rich merchant, 
 continued to look after his master's in- 
 terest, telling Girard that if he ventured 
 to touch him, he would knock his other 
 eye out. Girard became pacified, and 
 seeing the determined purpose of the 
 man not to suffer his employer to be 
 wronged, he became reconciled to the 
 negro, saying : 
 
 " Well, I believe you be one very 
 honest fellow, but you no be one great 
 judge of de hemp." 
 
 On another occasion of the same 
 kind, the purchaser of his hemp ap- 
 peared to be somewhat less inflexible 
 than Sambo. Owing to some peculiar 
 circumstances existing between the par- 
 ties, the damaged hemp was taken by 
 a ship chandler, Girard insisting that 
 he would give no other ; and very lit- 
 tle, or none of the article being in the 
 market, the buyer was obliged to sub- 
 mit to his eccentric humor, and take it 
 as he gave it, or get none. It happen- 
 ed, however, that this ship chandler 
 manufactured all Mr. Girard's cordage, 
 and in order to mete out to him meas- 
 ure/or measure, he ordered the damaged 
 hemp to be selected and made up for 
 Mr. Girard. This was done ; and the 
 retribution no doubt proved a more 
 serious loss, than the profit on the un- 
 merchantable hemp amounted to. 
 
 Raising- the Price of Bread. 
 
 SOME years ago, the bread dealers in 
 Lyons thought that they could prevail 
 on M. Dugas, the provost of the mer- 
 chants in that city, to befriend them at 
 the expense of the public. They wait-
 
 202 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ed upon him in a body, and begged 
 leave to raise the price of bread, which 
 could not be done without the sanction 
 of that magistrate. M. Dugas told 
 them that he would examine their 
 petition, and give them an early an- 
 swer. The bakers then retired, having 
 first left upon the table a good fat 
 purse of two hundred louis d'or, in- 
 tended as private pocket money for 
 the provost. 
 
 In a few days the bakers called upon 
 the magistrate for an answer, not in the 
 least doubting but that the money had 
 very effectually pleaded their cause. 
 " Gentlemen," said M. Dugas, " I have 
 weighed your reasons in the balance 
 of justice, and I find them light. I do 
 not think the people ought to suffer 
 under a pretence of the dearness of 
 corn, which I know to be unfounded ; 
 and as to the purse of money left with 
 me, I am sure that I have made such a 
 generous and noble use of it, as you 
 yourself intended : I have distributed 
 it among the poor objects of charity in 
 our two hospitals. As you are opulent 
 enough to make such large donations, 
 I cannot possibly think you are incur- 
 ring any losses in your business ; and 
 I shall, therefore, continue the price of 
 bread as it was before I received your 
 petition." 
 
 Trickery in the Clothing: Trade. 
 
 A GENTLEMAN from the country, who 
 makes a visit to Gotham once a year, 
 dropped into a fine looking clothing 
 establishment in that city, to buy a 
 coat. Seeing one which pleased him, 
 he inquired the price, which the tailor 
 stated to be thirty dollars. Not exact- 
 ly approving of that price for the coat, 
 the seller fell to twenty-five dollars, and 
 finally to twenty, at which price the 
 coat was knocked down to him, as a 
 bargain. It was immediately " bundled 
 up," and the money paid for it, the 
 buyer stating it to be his intention to 
 leave the city in a few hours. On ar- 
 
 riving at his hotel, he thought he would 
 examine the bundle he received ; when, 
 lo ! on unfolding the same, what a sight 
 met his gaze ! two old tweed coats, worth 
 three or four dollars, looked up pitifully 
 in unconscious guilt, into his astonished 
 face. How he felt, one might imagine ; 
 and mentioning the circumstances to 
 the clerk in attendance at the hotel in 
 which he supped and lodged, he was 
 informed that such a thing was of daily 
 occurrence. In a moment more, the 
 buyer was on his way, with his " bar- 
 gain," to the self-styled fashionable 
 clothing establishment, and, on enter- 
 ing, accosted the man who sold him a 
 fine black broadcloth coat, with a " Well, 
 how do you do, sir ? " This pleasing 
 salut, instead of receiving a salutation 
 in return, equally as pleasant and agree- 
 able, together with a desire to be hap- 
 py to see a customer return again, was 
 met with an indifference which showed 
 to the customer that there was no dis- 
 position or willingness manifested to know 
 him ! Calmly, however, he proceeded 
 to play his game upon the Peter Funk, 
 or " clo' man," by informing that distin- 
 guished dealer in fine black broadcloth 
 coats, that he had come back to his 
 establishment to inform him of a mis- 
 take that he had committed a few 
 hours before, in selling him two coats, 
 when he had only bargained for and 
 purchased one (here the clo' man be- 
 came twitchy and somewhat uneasy) 
 that being a man who desired only 
 what was right, his moral scruples 
 would not permit him to go away with- 
 out returning and satisfying (here the 
 Peter Funk began to smell a Tartar !) 
 the error that had been committed. 
 " It cannot be a mistake ; it is not pos- 
 sible ; no, sir ; it cannot be," were the 
 expressions of the Funk at the close of 
 the sentence above. " Now," said the 
 customer, energetically, " you you 
 had, no doubt, thought that YOU had 
 in your power a verdant one (here 
 Funk thought he was about to catch & 
 Tartar), and that an opportunity was
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 203 
 
 given you to indulge in your swindling 
 operations, expecting, of course, that I 
 would leave the city, and not call again, 
 after discovering your fraud upon my 
 purse." 
 
 The Peter Funk, now finding that he 
 Jiad caught a Tartar, began making ex- 
 planations declaring that the two 
 coats were made for another gentle- 
 man, and that he would not for ten 
 dollars that they had been kept out of 
 his hands. This attempt to " get off," 
 by telling a downright falsehood, espe- 
 cially in face of the fact that at least a 
 dozen of bundles were on the counter, 
 all of which, doubtless, were intended 
 to be " changed " for real purchases, as 
 was the case with the gentleman in 
 question, did not "take." Apologies 
 not suiting that individual, he depart- 
 ed with nothing less than the fine coat 
 he had purchased, and the money for 
 which was even then warm in the sel- 
 ler's pocket. 
 
 Filibustering among 1 Parisian Jew- 
 , ellers. 
 
 THE Parisian jewellers are now and 
 then the victims of people in elevated 
 stations aristocratic, titled, possessed 
 of everything to avert suspicion ; and 
 even of ladies in the highest social cir- 
 cles. These swindlers in high-born 
 position find it convenient to take 
 from jewellers what money bankers and 
 usurers refuse to give them. They 
 boldly enter the jewellers' shops, pur- 
 chase and have delivered to them many 
 bracelets and many diamonds, which 
 they will return in a few days (so they 
 say) if they find nothing to suit them. 
 
 The objects thus intrusted to them 
 go from the shop, after delivery, to the 
 pawnbrokers. Time passes away ; at 
 first, the jeweller hesitates to produce 
 scandal, and he accepts notes for the 
 goods which have been taken as good 
 as by force from the shop. At last the 
 notes fall due ; they are protested. 
 The next step of such " patrons " is to 
 offer to return the goods ! And this is 
 
 at the end of ten or twelve months, 
 without interest or damages. So that 
 the jewellers become the bankers of 
 fashionable ladies and gentlemen press- 
 ed for money. 
 
 As an example of this kind of aristo- 
 cratic filibustering, it is mentioned by 
 
 a dealer, that M. cle took sixty 
 
 thousand dollars' worth of jewelry from 
 seven or eight jewelry shops in Paris. 
 A twelvemonth passed away, and noth- 
 ing was paid ; all had been sent to the 
 pawnbrokers. Finally, M. de of- 
 fered to return the jewels, but hooted 
 at the idea of paying a single sou for 
 merely " taking time to examine them 
 and make up his mind." The dealers 
 threatened to bring him before the 
 police court ; he laughed at them, and 
 they abandoned it, fearing the loss of 
 time and money. Another case was 
 
 that of M'me de , who took from a 
 
 certain dealer an immense quantity of 
 jewels to " show to her mother," as she 
 said ; but really to carry to her " aunt " 
 (the slang phrase for the pawnbroker), 
 and they could not be got back but by 
 the aid of the police. 
 
 Window " Gazers" Employed "by Lon- 
 don Shopkeepers. 
 
 ONE of the most " exquisite " tactics 
 of London shopkeepers is the hiring of 
 regular window gazers. This leisurely 
 employ^, whose very existence is hardly 
 known to one in a thousand (and of 
 course is not intended to be), is a gen- 
 teelly dressed, complacent-looking indi- 
 vidual, having much the appearance and 
 manners of an aristocratic " gentleman 
 about town." It is but rarely that his 
 services are monopolized by a single 
 firm, unless they are the proprietors of 
 several shops in different quarters of 
 the city. It more frequently happens 
 that he is the joint property of several 
 individuals whose occupations and in- 
 terests do not at all clash with each 
 other. 
 
 These various traders manage to rig 
 him out in fashionable trim by general
 
 204 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 contribution ; a hatter takes charge of 
 his head ; a tailor of his back ; the pro- 
 prietor of the " pantaloononicon " con- 
 tributes the trousers; the bootmaker 
 indues him in a pair of the genteelest 
 of boots; he supports a gold-headed 
 cane or a handsome umbrella, supplied 
 by the manufacturer of those articles ; 
 necktie and handkerchief of irreproach- 
 able style and pattern are bestowed by 
 the haberdasher ; while a jeweller finds 
 him a gold watch, a showy ring, and a 
 handsome double eyeglass. 
 
 Thus equipped, he " goeth forth to 
 his labor," whenever the state of the 
 weather is such as to support the proba- 
 bility of his genuineness. All he has 
 to do is to walk leisurely from the shop 
 of one of his patrons to that of another, 
 stopping in front of the window, and 
 scrutinizing with much apparent inter- 
 est and complacency the various objects 
 there displayed to public view. In 
 so doing, he handles his gold eye-glass 
 with aristocratic grace taps his model 
 boot with his splendid cane drops a 
 monosyllabic ejaculation of surprise or 
 commendation, and when half a score 
 of simpletons have gathered around to 
 admire the astonishing cheapness and 
 perfection of the goods, he pops into 
 the shop, already commencing to give 
 an order in a loud and pompous tone 
 for a dozen of the article which the 
 tradesman wants to push off desires 
 that they may be sent to May Fair be- 
 fore dark, and, naively leaving his 
 card with the shopman, who bows him 
 deferentially out, walks leisurely off to 
 the next shop on his beat, there to re- 
 peat the same automatic ceremony. He 
 contrives to arrive at the tailor's at the 
 fashionable hour, when that functionary 
 is engaged with customers, and there 
 he spreads himself in giving his concise 
 and liberal orders : " You have my 
 measure no immediate hurry this 
 day week will do suppose you are 
 driven as usual ; " and he is off again 
 on his way to the jeweller's. 
 
 He accomplishes his easy round in 
 
 the course of the day, and betakes him- 
 self to his scurvy lodging, doffing his 
 " show-toys " before dark. His pay 
 varies from half a crown to three shil- 
 lings and sixpence a day, according to 
 his figure and effrontery ; and he con- 
 siders it easily and pleasantly earned, 
 inasmuch as he is (according to his own 
 notions), to all intents and purposes a 
 gentleman during the hours of duty. 
 
 One Price, but not the Same Article. 
 
 A LADY went into a drygoods store 
 to buy a silk dress, and after being 
 shown several pieces, at length fixed 
 on one, for which, however, she would 
 only give a certain price, and that con- 
 siderably lower than the one demanded. 
 But in accordance with the " One price 
 no deduction " rule of the house, no 
 abatement could be allowed to be made, 
 so the offer could not be taken. 
 
 The customer was just going away, 
 when the salesman dexterously put 
 aside the piece of silk in question, and 
 replaced it by another of an inferior 
 quality and lower price, though simi- 
 lar in appearance to that for which she 
 had been offering. " Come this way, 
 ma'am, you may have it ! " he cried, as 
 she was going out at the door. The 
 dress was cut off, the full price paid, 
 and the customer departed, highly 
 pleased at having got it all her own 
 way. 
 
 Drygroods Drummer " Sold." 
 
 THE following description, by the 
 hero of a native romance bearing his 
 name, of the manner and tactics of 
 New York drygoods drummers, is a pic- 
 ture which the presiding genius of Har- 
 per's " Drawer " justly pronounces to be 
 one that Dickens himself has rarely ex- 
 celled. The scene succeeds the history 
 of the hero's first acquaintance with a 
 " drummer " who, mistaking him for 
 a country " dealer," had given him his 
 card on board of a steamboat, taken
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 205 
 
 him to his hotel, sent him his wine, 
 given him tickets to the theatre, and 
 requested him to call at his store in 
 Hanover Square, where (though he 
 didn't say so) it was his intention to 
 turn these courtesies to profitable ac- 
 count. On a bright, pleasant morning, 
 accordingly, our hero visits the store, 
 where Mr. Lummocks, the drummer, 
 receives him with open arms, and in- 
 troduces him to his employer. 
 
 He shook me heartily by the hand, 
 and said he was really delighted to see 
 me. He asked me how the times were, 
 and offered me a cigar, which I took, 
 for fear of giving offence, but which I 
 threw away the very first opportunity 
 I got. 
 
 "Buy for cash, or on time?" he 
 asked. 
 
 I was a little startled at the question, 
 it was so abrupt ; but I replied : 
 
 " For cash." 
 
 "Would you like to look at some 
 prints, major ? " he inquired. 
 
 " I am much obliged to you," I 
 answered ; " I am very fond of seeing 
 prints." 
 
 With that he commenced turning 
 over one piece after another, with 
 amazing rapidity. 
 
 " TJiere, major very desirable arti- 
 cle^splendid style only two-and-six ; 
 cheapest goods in the street." 
 
 Before I could make any reply, or 
 even guess at his meaning, he was 
 called away, and Mr. Lummocks 
 stepped up and supplied his place. 
 
 " You had better buy 'em, colonel," 
 said Mr. Lummocks; "they will sell 
 like hot cakes. Did you say you 
 bought for cash ? " 
 
 " Of course," I replied, " if I buy at 
 all." 
 
 He took a memorandum out of his 
 pocket, and looked in it for a moment. 
 
 "Let me see," said he, "Franco, 
 Franco what did you say your firm 
 was ? Something and Franco, or 
 Franco and Somebody ? The name 
 has escaped me." 
 
 " I have no firm," I replied. 
 
 "Oh, you haven't, hain't ye? all 
 alone, eh ? But I don't see that I've 
 got your first name down in my ' tick- 
 ler.' " 
 
 " My first name is Harry," said I. 
 
 " Right yes I remember," said Mr. 
 Lummocks, making a memorandum, 
 " and your references, colonel, who did 
 you say were your references ? " 
 
 " I have no reference," I replied ; 
 " indeed, I know of no one to whom I 
 could refer, except my father." 
 
 " What the old boy in the country, 
 eh?" 
 
 " My father is in the country," I 
 answered, seriously, not very well 
 pleased to hear my parent called the 
 " Old Boy." 
 
 " Then you have no city references, 
 eh?" 
 
 " None at all ; I have no friends 
 here, except yourself." 
 
 " Me I " exclaimed Mr. Lummocks, 
 apparently in great amazement. " Oh, 
 ho ! how much of a bill do you mean 
 to make with us, captain ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I may buy a vest pattern," 
 I replied, " if you have got some gen- 
 teel patterns." 
 
 "J. vest pattern!" exclaimed Mr. 
 Lummocks ; " what ! haven't you come 
 down for the purpose of buying goods ? " 
 
 "No, sir," I replied; "I came to 
 New York to seek for employment, 
 and, as you have shown me so many 
 kind attentions, I thought you would be 
 glad to assist me in finding a situation." 
 
 Mr. Lummocks's countenance under- 
 went a very singular change when I 
 announced my reasons for calling on 
 him. 
 
 " Do you see any thing that looks 
 green in there ? " he asked, pulling 
 down his eyelid with his forefinger. 
 
 " No, sir, I do not," I replied, look- 
 ing very earnestly into his eye. 
 
 " Nor in there, either ? " said he, pull- 
 ing open his other eye. 
 
 " Nothing at all, sir," I replied, after 
 a minute examination.
 
 206 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " I guess not ! " said Mr. Lummocks ; 
 and without making any other answer, 
 he turned smartly on his heel, and left 
 me. 
 
 "Regularly sucked, eh, Jack?" 
 asked a young man who had been 
 listening to our conversation. 
 
 " Don't mention it," said Mr. Lum- 
 mocks ; " the man is a fool." 
 
 Harry was about to demand an ex- 
 planation of this strange conduct, when 
 the proprietor came forward and told 
 him that he was not a retailer, but a 
 jobber, and advised him, " if he wanted 
 a vest pattern, to go into Chatham 
 street 1 " The drummer was " sold," 
 instead of his goods. 
 
 Deaconing- both. Ends of the Barrel. 
 IN preparing and packing fruit for 
 the market, the practice of "deaconing," 
 as it is called, is very extensively fol- 
 lowed that is, topping off a barrel of 
 apples with the best specimens; the 
 rather irreverent term "deaconing" 
 having its origin, probably, from some 
 one holding that office having been un- 
 fortunately distinguished for his fre- 
 quent adoption of the plan, so as to 
 put an inviting show on his fruit. A 
 dealer down East, who happened to be 
 " posted," sold a barrel of apples to a 
 customer, at the same time recommend- 
 ing them as the choicest apples that had 
 been raised in the town. In due time 
 the barrel was opened, and found to 
 contain a very inferior quality ; where- 
 upon the customer, feeling that he had 
 been imposed upon, made complaint to 
 the seller, who in turn very coolly made 
 answer, that he guessed he must have 
 opened the barrel at the wrong end ! 
 The only change this little episode was 
 known to produce in the seller's prac- 
 tice was to make him careful afterward 
 to " deacon " loth ends. 
 
 Grocers' Raisin-Boxes and Nibbling: 
 Customers. 
 
 ALMOST every grocer, it may be safe 
 to assume, is or has been infested with 
 
 a customer who is perpetually infring- 
 ing on the eighth commandment. This 
 class of pilferers are constantly tasting 
 the cheese, or munching convenient 
 lumps of sugar, dried apples, etc. They 
 occasionally stick their dirty fingers in- 
 to the molasses hogshead, and suck them 
 with infinite gusto. 
 
 A grocer, " not a thousand miles " 
 from South Danvers, was the victim of 
 
 such a bore. Whenever Mr. A 
 
 came to the store, he would steer for 
 the raisin-box, and deliberately ab- 
 stract a handful ; to the cheese, and 
 take a generous slice; and, with a 
 cracker and a glass of water, serve 
 himself an excellent lunch. The gro- 
 cer one day undid a box of nice Malaga 
 raisins and placed it on his counter. 
 
 Mr. A , coming in, made direct 
 
 tracks to them, and expressed his ap- 
 probation of their quality by taking an 
 unusually large handful. Our friend, 
 the grocer, observing this, gave orders 
 to his clerks not to sell or allow any 
 one to touch the raisins in that box, 
 except Mr. A. He called frequently. 
 At the end of six months, the box of 
 
 Malagas was gone ; Mr. A had 
 
 eaten them all. His bill for that time 
 amounted to about forty dollars, the 
 profits on which were three dollars. 
 The raisins (to say nothing of other 
 nibblings) amounted, at cost price, to 
 $3.25. Thus the grocer, from that 
 " customer," in that space of time, 
 made twenty-five cents out of pocket. 
 After that, he insisted upon having 
 
 Mr. A administer firm control 
 
 over his fingers, or else withdraw his 
 patronage. 
 
 Item to whom it may concern: 
 Don't imagine that when you purchase 
 an ounce of pepper, the grocer can 
 afford you the gratuitous privilege of 
 his raisin box. 
 
 Artful Dodg-e. 
 
 AN ingenious rogue in Berlin, Prus- 
 sia, lately practised one of the most art- 
 ful dodges to be found in the records
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 207 
 
 of any business. A member of the 
 company of players at Kallenbach's 
 theatre was to have a benefit night ; 
 and the question was, how to get to- 
 gether a good audience, as the usual 
 attendance at that place of amusement, 
 even if doubled, would produce far too 
 slender a sum to satisfy the expecta- 
 tions of a benefit night. Accordingly, 
 some days before the memorable even- 
 ing, there appeared in all the Berlin 
 papers an advertisement to the follow- 
 ing effect : 
 
 " A gentleman, who has a niece and 
 ward possessing a disposable property 
 of fifteen thousand thalers, together 
 with a mercantile establishment, desires 
 to find a young man who would be able 
 to manage the business and become the 
 husband of the young lady. The pos- 
 session of property or other qualification 
 
 is no object. Apply to ." 
 
 Hundreds and hundreds of letters 
 poured in, in reply .to this advertise- 
 ment. On the morning of the benefit 
 day each person who had sent a reply 
 received the following note : " The 
 most important point is, of course, 
 that you should like one another. I 
 and my niece are going to Kallenbach's 
 theatre this evening, and you can just 
 drop in upon us in Box No. 1." 
 
 Of course, the theatre was crammed. 
 All the boxes, all the best paying places 
 in the house were filled early in the 
 evening with a mostly male public, got 
 up in a style seldom seen at the royal 
 opera itself. Glasses were levelled on 
 all sides in the direction of " box 
 No. 1," and eyes were strained to catch 
 the first glimpse of the niece, when she 
 should appear in company with the 
 uncle. But uncles are proverbially 
 " wicked old men ; " and in the pre ent 
 case neither uncle nor niece was to be 
 found, and the disconsolate lovers of a 
 fortune were left to clear up the mys- 
 tery as best they could. The theatre 
 had not had such an audience for years, 
 and, of course, the chief person concern- 
 ed reaped a rich harvest by the trick. 
 
 Half-hour's Experience with London 
 Brokers. 
 
 I TURNED to the right (says an hon- 
 est visitor to the rendezvous of English 
 brokers, to see how the money-springs 
 were touched), and found myself in a 
 spacious apartment, which was nearly 
 filled with persons more respectable in 
 appearance than the crew I had left at 
 the door. Curious to see all that was 
 to be seen, I began to scrutinize the 
 place and the society into which I had 
 intruded. But I was prevented from 
 indulging the reflections which began 
 to suggest themselves, by the conduct 
 of those about me. A curly-haired 
 Jew, with a face as yellow as a guinea, 
 stepped plump before me, fixed his 
 black, round, leering eyes full on me, 
 and exclaimed without the slightest 
 anxiety about my hearing him : 
 " So help me Got, Mo', who is he ? " 
 Instead of replying in a straightfor- 
 ward way, " Mo " raised his voice as 
 loud as he could, and shouted with 
 might and main : 
 " Fourteen hundred new fives ! " 
 A hundred voices repeated the mys- 
 terious exclamation, "Fourteen hun- 
 dred new fives ! " 
 
 "Where, where fourteen hundred 
 new fives now for a look ; where is 
 he Go it, go it ! " were the cries raised 
 on all sides by the crowd, which now 
 rallied about my person like a swarm 
 of bees. And then " Mo," by way of 
 proceeding to business, repeating the 
 war-cry, staggered sideways against 
 me, so as almost to knock me down. 
 My fall, however, was happily pre- 
 vented by the kindness of a brawny 
 Scotchman, who humorously calling 
 out, " Let the man alone," was so good 
 as to stay me in my course with his 
 shoulder, and even to send me back 
 toward " Mo," with such violence, that, 
 had he not been supported by a string 
 of his friends, he must have infallibly 
 fallen before me. But being thus 
 backed, he was enabled to withstand 
 the shock, and to give me a new im-
 
 208 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 pulse in the direction of the Scotch- 
 man, who, awaiting my return, treated 
 me with another hoist as before, and I 
 found those two worthies were likely 
 to amuse themselves with me as with a 
 shuttlecock, for the next quarter of an 
 hour. I struggled violently to extri- 
 cate myself from this unpleasant situa- 
 tion, and, by aiming a blow at the Jew, 
 inspired Moses to pause and give up 
 his next hit, and to allow me for a mo- 
 ment to regain my feet. 
 
 The rash step which I had taken was 
 likely to produce very formidable con- 
 sequences. All present were highly 
 exasperated and panting for a clinch. 
 The war became more hot and des- 
 perate than ever. Each individual 
 seemed anxious to contribute to my 
 destruction ; and some of their number 
 considerately called out, " Spare his life, 
 but break his limbs." My alarm was 
 extreme ; and I looked nervously round 
 for means of escape. 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed of your- 
 self to use the gentleman in that sort 
 of way," squeaked a small imp-like per- 
 son, affecting sympathy, and then trying 
 to renew the sport. 
 
 " How would you like it yourself," 
 cried another, " if you were a stran- 
 ger ? " shaking his sandy locks with a 
 knowing look, and knocking off my 
 hat as he spoke. 
 
 I made a desperate blow at this 
 offender. It did not take effect, from 
 the expedition with which he retreat- 
 ed, and I had prudence enough to re- 
 flect that it would be better to recover 
 my hat than to pursue the enemy. 
 Turning round, I saw my unfortunate 
 beaver, or " canister," as it was called 
 by the gentry who had it in their cus- 
 tody, bandying it backward and for- 
 ward, between the Caledonian and his 
 clan, and the Jew and his tribe. 
 
 Covered with perspiration, foaming 
 with rage, and almost expiring from 
 heat and exhaustion, I at last succeeded 
 in recovering my once glossy and re- 
 spectable hat. I did not dare to rein- 
 
 state it, but was forced to grasp it with 
 both hands, in order to save what re- 
 mained of it. I baffled several desperate 
 snatches, one of which carried away the 
 lining in shreds, and was now trying to 
 keep the enemy at bay, afraid again to 
 attack the host opposed to me ; but not 
 knowing how to retreat, when a person, 
 who had not previously made himself 
 conspicuous, approached and interfered, 
 by saying, " Perhaps you had better go 
 out ; " at the same time pointing to a 
 door which I had been too much in a 
 hurry to have seen before. 
 
 One of the Operations in 'Change 
 Alley. 
 
 WHILE the war in which the British 
 nation was involved, in 1761, was going 
 on, Mr. Dunbar, the eminent West In- 
 dia merchant in London, finding his 
 affairs much less prosperous than usual, 
 sought " the Alley," as the money street 
 of London was then termed, to retrieve 
 his failing fortunes with what success, 
 the sequel will show. From some pri- 
 vate information of which he had come 
 into possession, he believed that he had 
 good grounds for supposing that a 
 peace would soon be effected, and a 
 rise in the funds at once ensue. He 
 therefore ordered his broker to buy 
 one hundred thousand pounds in stock 
 for his account, telling him privately 
 the opinion he had formed, with the 
 intelligence on which it was based, 
 and the broker, in violation of his oath, 
 jobbed extensively on his own account 
 as well as for his client. February 
 passed away without the expected 
 peace, and Mr. Dunbar paid the differ- 
 ence. Confident, however, in his views, 
 he continued the operation ; but each 
 account day proved that the price had 
 been against him, and with great dif- 
 ficulty did he find money to pay the 
 amounts due. In July, unable to 
 pay cash, he gave notes of hand to 
 the broker, who agreed to receive 
 them. No objection being made, 
 the account was continued on for
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 209 
 
 August. In that month the pros- 
 pect of peace revived, the funds rose 
 handsomely, and Mr. Dunbar, seeing a 
 chance of paying a greater part of his 
 losses, went with all speed to his bro- 
 ker. His distress may be imagined, when 
 he was coolly told, that, since he had 
 given notes of hand, no account had been 
 opened, and no advantage could be 
 reaped from the rise in price. Any ap- 
 peal to law was useless ; but, as Mr. 
 Dunbar became a bankrupt, the mem- 
 bers of the stock exchange subscribed 
 to pay the amount claimed, in order 
 that so flagrant a case might not be- 
 come public. 
 
 His Billing: Passion. 
 
 A MB. L., a master in chancery, was 
 on his deathbed a very wealthy man. 
 Some occasion of great urgency occur- 
 red, in which it became necessary to 
 make an affidavit ; and the attorney, 
 failing of one or two other masters 
 whom he inquired after, ventured to 
 ask if Mr. L. himself would possibly be 
 able to receive the deposition. The 
 proposal actually seemed to give him 
 momentary strength ; his clerk was 
 sent for, and the oath taken in due 
 form. The master was lifted up in his 
 bed, and with difficulty subscribed the 
 paper ; as he sank down again, he made 
 a signal to his clerk, "Wallace?" 
 " Sir ? " " Your ear lower lower. 
 Have you got the half crown ? " He was 
 dead before the morning. 
 
 Trick for " the Spashy." 
 
 WHEN the banks " shut down " on 
 their specie, some people hold on to 
 what coin they get a feel at, to the 
 annoyance of the retail traders, who are 
 importuned every hour to change a bill 
 for some small purpose. An illustra- 
 tion of this fact is that of a Celtic 
 woman who entered a grocery and 
 called for " a cint's 'orth o' sand." The 
 article was measured out, and put into 
 14 
 
 the customer's pail, who tendered a one 
 dollar bill to have the pay taken out 
 of it. " I can't change that for so small 
 an amount," exclaimed the grocer; 
 " you may take the sand, and be wel- 
 come to it." " Indade, sir, and shure 
 it isn't the sand that I'm wanting at all 
 at all ; but it's the sulver the spashy 
 that ye'll be giving me back." 
 
 Game of the Money Packages. 
 
 NORTH, the noted insurance agent, 
 banker, stock gambler, and speculator, 
 who flourished upon such an extensive 
 scale until the hour of his collapse 
 when he was found to be hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars worse than noth- 
 ing was a most inveterate and persist- 
 ent borrower of other people's money. 
 
 He went to New York frequently, 
 and took with him large packages of 
 bank bills. Usually arriving in New 
 York after business hours, it was his 
 custom, on such occasions, to deposit 
 the money packages, nicely sealed, with 
 the clerk of the hotel he might de- 
 cide to stop at. L. E. W., who had 
 occasion also to go frequently to New 
 York, and who often chanced to fall 
 into North's company, had noticed that 
 these deposits of money packages gen- 
 erally secured to North nice rooms and 
 much attention at the hotels. He ac- 
 cordingly prepared two handsome pack- 
 ages, sealed them up with heavy seals, 
 marked upon each, in bold characters, 
 " $3,000," placed them in his carpet 
 sack, and in two or three days after, on 
 his way to Gotham, got into the company 
 of North. They went together to the 
 Astor. North booked his name, pulled 
 a key from his pocket, unlocked his 
 carpet sack, took out a sealed package 
 marked " $2,000," and handed it to the 
 clerk with a pompous request that it 
 be taken care of till called for. L. E. 
 W. then booked his name, and opening 
 his carpet bag, drew out the two pack- 
 ages marked "$3,000," and handed 
 them to the clerk with the same re-
 
 210 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 quest. North looked on with evident 
 satisfaction and surprise, but made no 
 remark. The next day, after break- 
 fast, he called L. E. W. aside myste- 
 riously, spoke to him about having a 
 bank note to pay, said he was " short," 
 and ending by requesting a loan of one 
 of the packages of three thousand dol- 
 lars, which he had seen him deposit the 
 evening before. The temptation was 
 too great ; and besides it was " All- 
 Fool's Day." "You can have it for 
 three days, if that can be of any accom- 
 modation to you," said W., looking 
 wisely. Of course it would be an ac- 
 commodation ; so North wrote a note 
 for three thousand dollars, payable one 
 day after date, and the package was 
 graciously passed to him. An hour 
 later, and North went into a well- 
 known bank in Wall street, with his 
 usual bluster, bustle, and hurry. " I 
 have a note here due to-day, I believe," 
 said he to a teller. The note was pro- 
 duced. It was for five thousand dol- 
 lars. A $2,000 and a $3,000 package 
 were handed over in payment. The 
 first was broken, and found to be cor- 
 rect ; the second was then opened, and 
 found to contain nought but blank tis- 
 sue paper ! The clerk looked inquir- 
 ingly ; poor North looked deeply mor- 
 tified. He made a hurried apology, 
 gathered up his two thousand dollars, 
 and took his departure. North never 
 afterward asked L. E. "W. for a loan of 
 a " money package." 
 
 King Charles in the Fawners' Clutches. 
 
 IN a curious pamphlet, published in 
 1676, an account is given of the out- 
 rageous advantage taken of the neces- 
 sities of King Charles by the pawn- 
 brokers ; showing . that the monarch 
 who lives beyond his revenue, must 
 pay the same penalty as the subject 
 who outruns his income. He found 
 himself at the mercy of the rich pawn- 
 broker, who made the royal debtor pay 
 ten, twenty, and thirty per cent, for ac- 
 
 commodation, while he allowed only 
 six per cent, for the money which went 
 to alleviate the difficulties of the " mer- 
 ry monarch." A business so profitable 
 induced the pawnbrokers more and 
 more to become lenders to the king, 
 to anticipate all the revenue, to take 
 every grant of Parliament into pawn 
 as soon as it was given ; also to outvie 
 each other in buying and taking to 
 pawn bills, orders, and tallies, so that, 
 in effect, all the revenue passed through 
 their hands. 
 
 Duplicity Practised by Furnese, the 
 King's Banker. 
 
 THE name of Sir Henry Furnese 
 figures largely among the bygone 
 bankers who gave renown to the finan- 
 ciers of that period. Throughout Hol- 
 land, Flanders, France, and Germany, 
 he maintained a complete and perfect 
 train of business intelligence. The 
 news of the many battles fought was 
 thus received first by him, and the fall 
 of Namur added to his profits, owing 
 to his early receipt of the news. On 
 another occasion he was presented by 
 King William with a diamond ring of 
 immense value, as a reward for some 
 important information, and as a testi- 
 mony of that monarch's esteem. He 
 was the king's friend and banker. 
 
 But the temptation to deceive was 
 too great, even for this eminent and 
 honored banker. He fabricated news ; 
 he insinuated false intelligence ; he was 
 the originator of some of those plans 
 which at a later period were managed 
 with so much effect by Rothschild. 
 Thus, if Sir Henry wished to buy, his 
 brokers were ordered to look gloomy 
 and mysterious, hint at important news, 
 and after a time sell. His movements 
 were closely watched the contagion 
 would spread ; the speculators become 
 alarmed ; prices be lowered four or five 
 per cent., for in those days the loss of 
 a battle might be the loss of a crown, 
 and Sir Henry would reap the benefit 
 by employing different brokers to pur-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 211 
 
 chase as much as possible at the re- 
 duced price. Large profits were thus 
 made, but a demoralizing spirit was 
 spread abroad ; and bankrupts and 
 beggars sought the same pleasure in 
 which the millionnaire indulged, and 
 often with similar success. 
 
 Talleyrand and the Stock Jobber. 
 
 AN extensive dealer in stocks, anx- 
 ious about the rise and fall of the 
 public funds, and eager to overreach 
 those similarly situated, came once to 
 Talleyrand for information respecting 
 the truth of a rumor that George the 
 Third had suddenly died, when the 
 statesman replied in a confidential tone, 
 "I shall be delighted if the information 
 I have to give you, be of any use to 
 you." The banker was enchanted with 
 the prospect of obtaining authentic in- 
 formation from so high a source ; and 
 Talleyrand, with a mysterious air, con- 
 tinued : " Some say that the king of 
 England is dead, others that he is not 
 dead, but for my own part, I believe 
 neither the one nor the other ; I tell 
 you this in confidence, but do not com- 
 mit me." 
 
 Buying: Cheap. 
 
 SOME persons have a penchant for 
 buying things cheap a weakness, in- 
 deed, with which many are troubled, 
 and it is oftentimes a most offensive 
 one. Clapp tells a "good un" of a 
 wandering Jew peddler, who stepped 
 into the counting room of a Boston 
 merchant, on a certain winter's morn- 
 ing, and after warming his hands, turn- 
 ed to the gentleman occupying the seat 
 of authority, and politely inquired : 
 
 " Would you like to examine a vest 
 pattern ? " 
 
 "No, no, don't bother me. Very 
 busy just now." 
 
 " It is the best article and the neatest 
 pattern that you ever saw." 
 
 " Don't want any vest patterns ! " 
 
 " But just look, sir," and the ped- 
 dler had a piece of vesting unfolded, 
 which was really quite neat, and the 
 cogitator, unable to unravel the politi- 
 cal web he was conning the election 
 returns as given by the rival jour- 
 nals determined to unravel the web 
 of the fabric. 
 
 " All silk, sir ; warranted, and suffi- 
 cient for two double-breasted vests, or 
 three with rolling collars." 
 
 " What do you ask for it ? " 
 
 " Twelve dollars. I bought it in 
 Liverpool, and brought it over with 
 me, and if you want it, you shall have 
 it for just what it cost me twelve dol- 
 lars." 
 
 " It is too much, shan't give any such 
 price but will give you six dollars." 
 
 " Oh, my gracious ! " exclaimed the 
 peddler, as if astonished at such an offer, 
 " I can't think of it. " Off he walked. 
 In ten minutes the door was opened, 
 and the peddler thrust in his head : 
 " You may have it for ten dollars." 
 
 " No," was all the reply he got. 
 
 " I will say eight, as the very lowest." 
 
 " No, sir" and away went the peddler 
 the second time. 
 
 The gentleman was about relapsing 
 into his revery upon the contradictory 
 election returns, as given by the differ- 
 ent political papers, when the peddler 
 reentered boldly, and laid the vesting 
 upon the desk, exclaiming : 
 
 " Well, give us six dollars, and it is 
 yours." 
 
 The money was paid, and the peddler 
 was about leaving the door, when he 
 turned round and took from his pocket 
 another roll, and, undoing it, exposed 
 to view a piece of vesting as far pref- 
 erable to the other as possible. 
 
 The gentleman at once made a propo- 
 sal to exchange. The peddler couldn't 
 think of such a thing he didn't mean 
 to sell it on any account ; he intended 
 to keep it until he was able to have it 
 made up for himself; but, after con- 
 siderable trading and talking, he gave 
 it up, received his first piece and two
 
 212 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 dollars, and walked off making eight 
 dollars for his piece of vesting. The 
 gentleman, quite satisfied with the ex- 
 change, walked up to his tailor's, 
 at noon, threw down the piece, order- 
 ing him to cut off sufficient for one 
 vest. 
 
 " How many vests do you expect it 
 will make ? " inquired the tailor. 
 
 " Three, of course," was the reply. 
 
 The yardstick went down, and look- 
 ing up, he informed the purchaser that 
 it would make two, by piecing out the 
 collar with black silk. The idea of 
 measuring the article had not occurred 
 to him before, but at this piece of news 
 he felt a kind of film spread over his 
 eyes, a lightness of pocket troubling his 
 ribs, while the letters s-o-l-d, by a delu- 
 sion of his optical nerves, appeared to 
 be written on the outer walls of all the 
 adjacent buildings. He then inquired 
 the probable worth, and was informed 
 that such vesting could be purchased at 
 about two dollars and a quarter per 
 yard I This was sufficient. 
 
 Business Suckers. 
 
 BUSINESS suckers, as they are appro- 
 priately termed, are no small class in 
 modern times. They are most numer- 
 ous out West, and ply their tactics after 
 a style that leaves nothing wanting. 
 An individual of this ilk, possessed of 
 a moderate amount of money, com- 
 mences business in some thriving town. 
 He goes to one of the wholesale mar- 
 kets, and with one or two commenda- 
 tory letters, but particularly with his 
 money, he soon becomes acquainted 
 at first but limited but he has only to 
 manage his trumps (money) with a lit- 
 tle professional tact, and his acquaint- 
 ance will very soon extend. At first 
 he purchases cautiously, and meets his 
 obligations promptly, always managing 
 to have his goods carefully packed and 
 marked scientifically, and placed ex- 
 posed on the street several days before 
 he removes them 
 
 " Like books and money 
 Laid in show 
 As nest eggs 
 To make clients lay." 
 
 And he succeeds. He soon becomes 
 known as a man of promptness and 
 capital, and doing a dashing business ; 
 and such a business he does do, for the 
 motto at home is to sell low for cash 
 never mind profits. His acquaintance 
 is courted ; he is be-drammed, be-din- 
 nered and be-suppered. Everything 
 goes on swimmingly, and finally he 
 buys largely, goes in deeply, makes one 
 grand manoeuvre a most prodigious 
 swell, and then judiciously and profita- 
 bly (to himself) explodes. 
 
 Fortune Making in Havana. 
 
 IT is a well-known fact, that nearly 
 all the merchants and shopkeepers of 
 Havana are native Spaniards. A large 
 proportion of this class come to Cuba 
 as adventurers seekers of luck and for- 
 tune, and not particular as to the ways 
 and means, though generally beginning 
 their mercantile career as clerks, on 
 small salaries. After accumulating, or 
 getting, five hundred dollars, they will 
 purchase a share in a joint-stock slave- 
 trading company, and, in the course of 
 a year or two, receive a profit in the 
 shape of a dividend, amounting to ten 
 thousand dollars, which sum, reinvest- 
 ed in the same business, soon makes 
 them millionnaires. These nabobs then 
 generally return to Spain to spend their 
 ill-gotten fortunes, leaving a plentiful 
 crop of clerks to follow in the footsteps 
 of their predecessors. 
 
 Cheating the Oculist. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM SMYTH, of Bedford- 
 shire, was an immensely rich money 
 dealer, but most parsimonious and 
 grinding in his dealings. At seventy 
 years of age he was entirely deprived 
 of his sight unable to gloat over his 
 hoarded heaps of gold. In this condi- 
 tion he was persuaded by Taylor, the
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 213 
 
 celebrated oculist, to be couched who 
 was, by agreement, to have sixty 
 guineas if he restored the banker to 
 any degree of sight. Taylor succeeded 
 in his operation, and Sir William was 
 enabled to read and write without the 
 aid of spectacles during the rest of his 
 life. But no sooner was his sight re- 
 stored, than the banker began to regret 
 that his agreement had been for so 
 large a sum. His thoughts were now 
 how to cheat the oculist. He pretend- 
 ed that he had only a glimmering, and 
 could see nothing distinctly ; for which 
 reason the bandage on his eyes was con- 
 tinued a month longer than the usual 
 time. Taylor was deceived by these 
 representations, and agreed to com- 
 pound the bargain, accepting twenty 
 guineas instead of sixty. At the time 
 Taylor attended him he had a large 
 estate, an immense sum of money in 
 the stocks, and tens of thousands in 
 gold at his house. 
 
 Mr. Jones's Experience with Peter 
 Funk. 
 
 A GREENHORN, named Mr. Jones, 
 from Hartford, is stopped while career- 
 ing down Broadway, by the sound of a 
 stentorian voice from within, crying 
 " Going." He hears the whack of the 
 auctioneer's hammer, and sees six gentle- 
 men standing round a table. " Things 
 are selling mighty cheap in there," he 
 says to himself, and goes in. Peter 
 Funk holds a piece of linen in his 
 hands, and is just on the point of knock- 
 ing it down at six cents a yard " fifty- 
 five and one half yards, going, at six 
 cents ! an awful sacrifice." " Seven" 
 hastily shouts Jones. " Eight," says 
 Stool Pigeon. "Nine," says Jones. 
 Whack goes the mallet. " Sold," saya 
 Peter. " Mr. Jones, fifty-five and one 
 half yards of linen, at fifty-nine cents," 
 touching lightly on the ' fifty.' The 
 attentive clerk beckons to Jones, who 
 steps back behind a mysterious desk 
 with a screen in front. Clerk begins 
 to make out the bill, while Jones lays 
 
 down a five-dollar bank note to pay for 
 the linen ; the money goes to the 
 drawer. Clerk hands Jones the bill, 
 which may read thus : 
 
 Mr. Jones, bought of Peter Funk, 55 
 yards Irish linen, at 59 c. per yd., 
 $32.74. 
 
 Jones opens his eyes ; clerk points to 
 the sum, and holds out his right hand, 
 with the remark, "Balance, $27.74." 
 Jones opens his mouth, and essays to 
 speak, but is dumbfounded ; he has 
 Jiearn of those pesky mock auctions, 
 but never dreamed he should ever 
 blunder into one in so respectable a 
 place as Broadway. Mr. Jones rumi- 
 nates and pinches himself to see if he is 
 dreaming ; he is awake he is in New 
 York, Broadway. 
 
 But Mr. Jones, though green, has 
 Yankee presence of mind ; he forks 
 over the balance demanded, takes his 
 linen under his arm and gapes at the 
 auctioneer, until that functionary gets 
 nervous, and announces that the sale is 
 adjourned for the day. Mr. Jones, ac- 
 cordingly, to prevent being housed with 
 the precious scamps, steps out and 
 travels toward the Tombs, where he 
 finds a policeman, and tells his tale of 
 woe. In a few moments the swindling 
 shop and the inmates, which meantime 
 have got under full headway again, is
 
 214 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 taken all aback with, an apparition it 
 is Mr. Jones with that linen under his 
 arm, and a person with a brass shield 
 on the lappel of his coat. The man 
 with the shield takes the clerk by the 
 nape of his neck, and starts him to- 
 ward the Tombs ; clerk remonstrates 
 explains exclaims, and so on, but 
 keeps custodially moving up Broadway 
 and through Chambers street, when all 
 of a sudden he concludes to disgorge 
 the $32.74 ; which Jones takes, thanks 
 the officer, and vanishes. 
 
 Connection between Small Bank 
 Notes and Crime. 
 
 THE fact appears to be abundantly 
 attested that the circulation of one- 
 pound bank notes in England proved, 
 at first, conducive to a melancholy 
 waste of human life. Considering the 
 advances made in the mechanical arts, 
 at the time of their issue, they were 
 rough and even rude in their execution. 
 Easily imitated, they were also easily 
 circulated ; and from 1797, the execu- 
 tions for forgery augmented to an extent 
 which bore no proportion to any other 
 class of crime. During six years prior 
 to their issue, there was but one capital 
 conviction ; during the four following 
 years, eighty-five occurred. To prevent 
 their imitation, most stringent penal- 
 ties were ordained, and, in 1801, it was 
 enacted that, to prevent forgeries, all 
 the one and two pound notes should 
 " be printed on a peculiar and pur- 
 posely constructed paper, having waved 
 or curved lines." But all these endeavors 
 to repress crime fell sadly short of the 
 necessity, and the connection between 
 the issue of small notes and the effu- 
 sion of blood because of their easy imi- 
 tation was apparent enough. Thus, 
 before 1797, the Bank of England could 
 issue no notes under five pounds. In 
 1802, the average number of notes un- 
 der that value was about three millions 
 and a half. In the former period there 
 were no capital executions ; in the lat- 
 ter, one hundred and sixteen occurred 
 
 in four years. In 1817, there were 
 thirty thousand forged notes of the one 
 and two pounds class stopped at the 
 bank, nine hundred of five pounds, fifty 
 of ten pounds, and two of twenty. The 
 crime is, therefore, imputed to the small 
 notes ; and the forgery of larger ones to 
 the habits of criminality originating in 
 the temptation of small notes. 
 
 Jacob Barker on "Thewdness " in 
 Stock Dealing'. 
 
 AMONG the new generation of Wall 
 street, Jacob Barker, notwithstanding 
 his present extensive business charac- 
 ter, is comparatively unknown ; but 
 there was a time when Jacob made his 
 mark upon the stock brokers and 
 money changers of that monetary local- 
 ity. He has long lived and thrived in 
 the Crescent City. Jacob is as active 
 and buoyant as most men at thirty-five ; 
 he cannot be said, however, to enjoy a 
 green old age, unless it may be discov- 
 ered in the suppleness he displays, so 
 peculiar to youth. One of the many 
 amusing stories told of him is where a 
 gentleman called at his office and de- 
 nounced, in the most unmeasured man- 
 ner, certain persons who had swindled 
 him the gentleman (not Jacob, by any 
 means) in some stock transactions. 
 Barker listened to the whole matter 
 with professional zest, and finding that 
 everything had been done " right," 
 urged the indignant victim not to go 
 on so, but to forget the thing entirely ; 
 " for," said Jacob, consolingly, " if you 
 thwade in stock, you must call thealing 
 thewdness, or you will constantly be out 
 of themper t " 
 
 Stock Exchange Conspiracy. 
 A STOCK-JOBBING operation, which, 
 was undertaken in England, in 1814, 
 and which has been celebrated in mon- 
 etary annals because of its gigantic ex- 
 tent, will perhaps afford refreshing read- 
 ing to that not small class who ply so 
 dexterously similar expedients at the 
 present day. The tale is most unique.
 
 -by 
 ~W. G.Jac"kmaii,:N<
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 215 
 
 On the 21st of February, 1815, about 
 one o'clock in the morning, a violent 
 knocking was heard at the door of the 
 Ship Inn, at Dover. On being opened, 
 the intruder announced himself as 
 Lieutenant-colonel Du Bourg, aide-de- 
 camp of Lord Cathcart. His dress sup- 
 ported the assertion. The richly em- 
 broidered scarlet uniform, the star on 
 the breast, the silver medal suspended 
 from his neck, the dark fur cap, with its 
 broad band of gold lace, gave the wearer 
 a military appearance. His clothes ap- 
 peared wet with the sea spray, and he 
 stated that he had been brought over 
 by a French vessel, the seamen of which 
 were afraid of landing at Dover, and 
 had placed him in a boat about two 
 miles from the shore. His news was im- 
 portant. Bonaparte had been slain in 
 battle. The allied armies were in Paris. 
 A great victory had been gained, and 
 peace was certain. 
 
 He immediately ordered a post chaise 
 and four horses to be prepared, and, 
 after writing a letter in great haste to 
 Admiral Foley, which was despatched 
 by special messenger to Deal, he at 
 once departed for London. Wherever 
 he changed horses the news was spread, 
 and the postboys rewarded with napo- 
 leons. In due time information reached 
 the stock exchange ; and it was not 
 long before that resort was filled with 
 rumors of general officers, despatches 
 for Government, victories, and post 
 chaises and four. Expresses from the 
 various places where Du Bourg had 
 changed horses poured into the prin- 
 cipal speculators. The funds rose on 
 the news. Application was made to 
 the lord mayor, but, as his lordship 
 had received no intelligence, they de- 
 clined. 
 
 On the morning of the same day, 
 about an hour before daylight, two, 
 men, in the habiliments of foreigners, 
 landed in a six-oared galley, called on 
 a Mr. Sandon, at Northfleet, and hand- 
 ed him a letter, purporting to be writ- 
 ten by one whom he formerly knew, 
 
 begging him to take the bearers to 
 London, as they had great public news 
 to communicate. The request was en- 
 ergetically complied with. Between 
 twelve and one o'clock of that day, 
 three persons, two of whom were dress- 
 ed as French officers, proceeded in a 
 post chaise and four, the horses of 
 which were bedecked with laurel, over 
 the then narrow and crowded thor- 
 oughfare of London bridge. While the 
 carriage proceeded with an almost os- 
 tentatious slowness, small billets were 
 scattered among the anxious gazers, an- 
 nouncing that Bonaparte was dead, and 
 the allies in Paris. Through busy Cheap- 
 side and crowded Fleet street, the occu- 
 pants of the carriage paraded their in- 
 telligence. They passed over the fine 
 bridge of Blackfriars, drove rapidly to 
 the Marsh Gate, got out, took off their 
 military, put on round hats, and speed- 
 ily disappeared. The news again spread 
 far and wide. The neighborhood of the 
 stock exchange was once more full of 
 exaggerated reports. The funds rose. 
 What could resist such accumulated 
 evidence ? The aide-de-camp of Lord 
 Cathcart, at Dover ; the foreigners at 
 Northfleet with despatches ; private 
 expresses from various places, all tend- 
 ed to convince the members that there 
 must be some foundation for the re- 
 ports. Application was made to the 
 ministry, but they knew nothing. 
 Large bargains were made. 
 
 Altogether, the scene at the stock 
 exchange at this time is spoken of by 
 those who witnessed it as baffling all 
 description. Yet still there was some 
 doubt, so long as Government remained 
 ignorant of the important intelligence. 
 And as hour after hour of anxious 
 doubt passed by, it would be difficult 
 to imagine the feelings of many who 
 began painfully to suspect that they 
 were victims of a delusion. To the 
 scene of unbounded joy and of greedy 
 expectation of gain, there succeeded, 
 in a few hours, that of disappointment, 
 shame at having been gulled, the
 
 216 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 clenching of fists, the grinding of teeth, 
 the tearing of hair all the outward 
 and visible signs of those inward com- 
 motions disappointed avarice in some, 
 consciousness of ruin in others, and, in 
 all, boiling revenge. A committee was 
 appointed by the stock exchange, and 
 various circumstances tending to prove 
 a huge conspiracy were discovered. On 
 the Saturday preceding the Monday on 
 which the deception was undertaken, 
 consols and omnium, to the extent of 
 eight hundred and twenty-six thousand 
 pounds, were purchased for various in- 
 dividuals, many of whom were serious- 
 ly implicated, and some of them suffer- 
 ed the penalties of fine and imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Blinders for Stockholders. 
 
 EVSN railways have their reckon- 
 ings, and the time of year comes when 
 they are perforce made to show and 
 disgorge their gains. Meetings are re- 
 luctantly summoned by the directors, 
 and crowds of hungry shareholders are 
 squeezed together for hours at a time. 
 If this thing is not professionally un- 
 derstood in America, it certainly is in 
 England. 
 
 The chairman pronounces a report, 
 which is second only to a " speech 
 from the throne," in vagueness, gener- 
 ality, and mystification. Anon comes 
 the " clerk of the corporation," redo- 
 lent of new shares, and he thickens the 
 mist by a jumble of accounts, an incom- 
 prehensible hotchpotch of loans, de- 
 bentures, calls, and balances, and gen- 
 erally winds up his abstruse financial 
 puzzles by a prophetic announcement 
 that the traffic next year is sure to be 
 unprecedented and immense at which 
 every countenance is wreathed with the 
 genial smiles inspired by hope. 
 
 All the details, however, are Greek 
 to the poor shareholders, who really 
 understand but one word in the whole 
 railroad vocabulary the welcome 
 sound of "dividend;" but the fear 
 
 of being thought a business nincom- 
 poop compels each one to be perfectly 
 up to snuff, and wondrously sage. It 
 is amusing, moreover, to observe how 
 the directors manage (notwithstanding 
 the " impertinent " interruptions of 
 some inconveniently acute shareholder, 
 whose sayings are recorded as those of 
 " A voice "), somehow or other so to 
 mix up this word dividend with other 
 complicated details, as to leave the un- 
 happy shareholders unable at the end 
 to say whether they have to receive 
 money or to pay it the difference be- 
 ing the sum. 
 
 How refreshing, then, to find that the 
 reports of one's own pet line are untaint- 
 ed by the faults alluded to ! The public 
 have a right to know this ; and, as a 
 pattern and incentive to other compa- 
 nies, the following extracts are made 
 from the last report of the " Hum and 
 Diddlesex Railway," England : 
 
 The chairman would now refer to 
 their finance statement (Hear!). He 
 felt bound to say it would be found 
 most satisfactory. 7,000 had been 
 mortgaged on annuities at par, and 
 their debentures were now wholly in- 
 dependent of their stock of engines 
 {Cheers, and cries of Brawl). The per- 
 manent way was now in trust for the 
 increased debits on the gradients 
 (Rear ! hear /). From this it was clear 
 that there was 4,000 balance per con- 
 tra on the new half shares. (A voice, 
 " What's the receipts ? ") The chair- 
 man could not be expected to go into 
 such details. They had lately opened 
 six miles of the " Nawey and Stoker 
 Extension branch," which he had no 
 doubt would pay well when a town 
 had arisen at each end, and traffic was 
 induced between them. (A voice, 
 "What's the expenditure?") The 
 chairman begged not to be interrupted 
 in the midst of his statement. The 
 meeting would observe one little item 
 of 56,000 for law expenses. It was 
 enough to say, they had triumphed 
 over their opponents. True, they had
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 217 
 
 incurred some trifling expense ; but 
 were they, he would ask, to be insulted 
 by the " Grand Gumption ? " (No /) or 
 by any other line ? (No, no! and cheers). 
 Then as to the dividend (" Hear, hear, 
 Jtear ! " from all parts) the clerk had 
 recommended a net dividend of 10 per 
 cent. (Loud cheers) on the deficit, and 
 this, after paying the surplus and the 
 directors' salaries (which, in justice to 
 those faithful servants, he was glad to 
 say had been raised 500 each per an- 
 num), left the 4 per cent, incidental ex- 
 penses as money in hand, which would 
 simply render it necessary for the share- 
 holders at once to pay up the late 20 
 calls. (Sensation. A voice, " What is 
 the dividend to be ? ") The chairman 
 put it to the meeting, whether the gen- 
 tleman's question had not already been 
 distinctly answered, and after some lit- 
 tle confusion he vacated the chair, and 
 the meeting like the dividend was 
 dissolved. 
 
 Virginia Usurer Foiled. 
 
 PREVIOUSLY to the Revolutionary 
 "War, it was provided by an act of the 
 Assembly of Virginia, that if any bill 
 of exchange be drawn for the payment 
 of any sum of money, and such bill is 
 protested for non-acceptance or non- 
 payment, it shall bear interest from 
 the date, at the rate of ten per cent, 
 per annum, until it shall be paid. The 
 following curious circumstance, in con- 
 nection with said law, took place at 
 Williamsburg, Va., about the year 
 1760. 
 
 A usurious broker, not satisfied with 
 five per cent, legal interest, refused to 
 advance a sum of money to a gentle- 
 man, unless, by way of security, he 
 would give a bill of exchange that 
 should be returned protested, by which 
 he would be entitled to ten per cent. 
 The gentleman, who had immediate 
 occasion for the money, sat down, 
 drew a bill upon a merchant banker 
 in London, with whom he had never 
 
 had any transactions, or carried on the 
 least correspondence. The merchant, 
 on receipt of the bill, observing the 
 name of the drawer, very readily hon- 
 ored it, knowing the gentleman to be a 
 person of large property, and conclud- 
 ing that he meant to enter into a corres- 
 pondence with his house. 
 
 The broker, by this turn in the affair, 
 became entitled to only five per cent. 
 He was, therefore, exceedingly enraged 
 at being, as he supposed, thus tricked, 
 and complained very earnestly to his 
 customer for having giving him a good 
 bill instead of a lad one. 
 
 Kentucky Hams and Yankee 
 Nutmegs. 
 
 SOME time since, the Kentucky na- 
 tion commenced a rivalship with the 
 Yankee land, in the manufacture of 
 wooden eatables. A merchant in Port 
 Gibson, Miss., desirous of procuring a 
 lot of choice bacon hams, requested his 
 agent at the Gulf to make the purchase 
 for him, from the boats passing down 
 the Mississippi. After many fruitless 
 inquiries of the passing craft, he met 
 with a Kentucky Jonathan, whose 
 loading was composed of the nicest 
 and choicest hams, all canvased, and 
 that which was shown as a sample 
 looked so well, and tasted so delight- 
 fully, that the confiding agent made 
 the purchase on the spot. 
 
 The new Jonathan had such an inno- 
 cent, unsuspected and unsuspecting 
 countenance, too giving forth no scin- 
 tillations of vivacity, nor evincing the 
 owner to possess brains more acute 
 than a lobster, on any other subject 
 than that of curing bacon the art of 
 which appeared to have become im- 
 pressed on his cranium, as drippings 
 wear the rock, or as the knowledge of 
 law and physic reveals itself in the 
 physiognomy of some members of 
 those professions. Who would sus- 
 pect Mm of perpetrating a Yankee or 
 original art ? Straws show which way
 
 218 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 the wind blows ; but, alas ! the human 
 countenance may present an unsolvable 
 enigma, even to the most penetrating. 
 Was it so in this case ? 
 
 Jonathan's hams, when opened, 
 proved to be wood, neatly turned in 
 the shape of a hog's hind leg, and 
 excellent for oven fuel a recommen- 
 dation, by the way, which, with char- 
 acteristic modesty, he had not even 
 alluded to. The Kentuckian showed 
 that he was ' up to a trick or two,' 
 and no one will deny that he threw 
 down the glove, once and forever, to 
 all Yankeedom. 
 
 Latest " Sell " of the Day. 
 
 THE latest ' sell ' of the day origina- 
 ted in the fertile brain of a Baltimore 
 clothes dealer. He placed in the pock- 
 et of a ready-made coat an old porte- 
 monnaie, and quietly awaited the ad- 
 vent of a fitting customer. Presently 
 enters an individual desiring to be 
 summer coated. After essaying several 
 coats, the dealer says : 
 
 " Here is a coat made for a gentle- 
 man ; he wore it one day and sent it 
 back it was too small for him try 
 it on. Ah ! it fits first rate, like as if 
 it was made for you. It is well made ; 
 buttons sewed on strong ; with strong 
 pockets." 
 
 The customer puts his hands into the 
 pockets to try them, when his fingers 
 come in contact with the pocket book. 
 His imagination is kindled with the 
 idea of appropriating the supposed 
 treasure. 
 
 " How much did you say the coat 
 was ? " he eagerly asks. 
 
 The dealer names a good round sum. 
 
 The money is paid, and the self- 
 duped customer walks off hurriedly 
 with his supposed prize not stop- 
 ping to hear the suppressed chuckle 
 of the dealer as he looks after him out 
 of the corner of his eye. 
 
 Tompkins's Horse Trade. 
 
 TOMPKINS bought a fine horse paid 
 three hundred dollars for him. The 
 horse, after a few months, proved to be 
 lame in the right shoulder. Tompkins 
 was distressed about it. Tried all sorts 
 of remedies embrocations, liniments, 
 Mustang included, under the advice 
 of the very best veterinarians, till the 
 lameness was obstinate and grew rather 
 worse. He became desperate, and hit 
 upon this device to sell the horse. He 
 drove an ugly tenpenny nail plump into 
 the right fore-foot, and left it there for 
 ten days ; when he led the tortured ani- 
 mal limping to a neighboring black- 
 smith, to be shod. The blacksmith was 
 a dealer in horses, and quite a jockey in 
 his way. After a while, Tompkins 
 called at the shop for his horse. 
 " That's a splendid gelding of yours, 
 Mr. Tompkins pity he's so lame," says 
 the smith. "He is, indeed," replied 
 Tompkins ; " but he is very lame, and 
 I'm afraid he can't be cured." " Per- 
 haps not, and may be he can," says 
 Vulcan ; " how much would you be 
 willing to take for him, just as he 
 stands, Mr. Tompkins, money down ? " 
 " Ah, well, I don't know what to say 
 about that. If he is cured, he is worth 
 all I paid for him, and even much 
 more, as prices go now; but if his 
 lameness should continue, you see he 
 is worth nothing not a dollar." The 
 blacksmith began to chaffer. First he 
 offered fifty dollars, then one hundred, 
 and at last two hundred, for the ani- 
 mal. Tompkins was persuaded, and 
 accepted the last offer. The money 
 was paid, and the horse delivered on 
 the spot. " Now," says the black- 
 smith, " as the bargain is finished, I 
 will be frank with you, Mr. Tompkins. 
 I suppose I can tell you just exactly 
 what ailed that horse." " Can you ? " 
 says Tompkins, " well, I shall be glad 
 to hear it. I thought you must know 
 all about it, or you would not have 
 paid me so much money for him."
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 219 
 
 The blacksmith produced the nail, 
 and assured Tompkins, with great 
 apparent satisfaction, that while par- 
 ing down the horse's hoofs he had 
 found that long piece of iron, and 
 drawn it out of the frog of the near 
 forefoot." " Is that all you know about 
 it ? " Tompkins asked, very quietly. 
 " All ! " replied the blacksmith" all 1 
 isn't that enough, for conscience' sake ? " 
 "Well," replied Tompkins, "I don't 
 know as it is. I will be equally frank 
 with you, since the bargain is finished. 
 / drove the nail into the foot, but the 
 lameness is in the shoulder" 
 
 "Old Vinter's" Bank Bills. 
 
 AWAY down East that convenient 
 but much abused locality for pointing 
 a story a wealthy old merchant, who 
 was especially fond of a glass of good 
 brandy, had established a bank, and, 
 liking his own face better than any 
 one's else, showed his frankness by 
 placing it on both ends of his bank 
 bills. One evening, a bill of this 
 description was offered at the village 
 hotel, and was thought to be a counter- 
 feit. " Put a glass of brandy to the 
 picter," proposed a wag, " and if his 
 mouth opens, you may be sure it is one 
 of old Vinter's." 
 
 Transactions in Worsteds. 
 
 A MAN some six feet three inches in 
 height, and of herculean build, went 
 into a Worcester shopkeeper's estab- 
 lishment, and asked if they had got 
 any " whirlers " by which he meant, 
 stockings without feet, supposing, of 
 course, that they were to be obtained 
 of any " worsted " merchant. 
 
 " No," said the shopkeeper, " but we 
 have got some famous big and strong 
 stockings, as will just suit such a man 
 as you." 
 
 " Let's ha'e a look at 'em," said the 
 man. 
 
 The counter was immediately covered 
 
 with a quantity. The working Hercules 
 selected the largest pair of mammoth 
 size and said : 
 
 " What's the price of them ? " 
 
 " Four shillings and ninepence," was 
 the reply. 
 
 " Can you cut the feet off of them ? " 
 was the next query. 
 
 " Oh, certainly," rejoined the shop- 
 keeper. 
 
 " Then just cut them off," was the 
 laconic direction. 
 
 No sooner said than done. The long 
 shop shears were applied, and instantly 
 the stockings were footless. 
 
 " And what's the price of 'em now f " 
 asked the customer, with all the com- 
 posure imaginable. 
 
 " Price of them now ! " exclaimed 
 the ' worsted ' merchant, surprised be- 
 yond measure at the absurdity of the 
 question ; " why, four shillings and 
 ninepence, to be sure ! " 
 
 " Four shillings and ninepence ! " ex- 
 claimed the customer ; " I never gave 
 but one shilling and sixpence for a pair 
 of ' whirlers ' in my life " and he laid 
 down that amount upon the counter. 
 
 " Well,' 1 replied the tradesman, chop- 
 fallen and fairly outwitted, throwing 
 the mutilations at him, " take them 
 and be off with you ! You've ' whirled ' 
 me this time, but I'll take good care 
 that neither you nor any of your ro- 
 guish gang shall do it again, as long 
 as /live." 
 
 This case is similar to that of the 
 cute Yankee auctioneer, who, after dis- 
 posing of a violin,' after a hard bidding, 
 to a close-fisted buyer, went on " Now, 
 gentlemen, how much m' offered for the 
 tow f how much ? how much ? how 
 much m' offered for the bow?" Ex- 
 postulation was useless. The fiddle 
 and the bow, he said, were in separate 
 'classes;' so that the former proved 
 not so very cheap after all. 
 
 Bargains in "Cochin-Chinas." 
 IN the humorous account given by 
 Burnham, of his experience in the fowl
 
 220 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 trade, which a few years ago went to 
 such preposterous lengths, he thus 
 sketches one of the " bargains " of that 
 day: 
 
 A splendid open carriage halted 
 before my door, one day, and there 
 alighted from it a fine, portly-looking 
 man, whom I had never seen before, 
 and whose name I did not then learn ; 
 who, leaving an elegant dressed lady 
 behind in the vehicle, called for me. 
 I saw and recognized the carriage, 
 however, as one of Niles's, and I 
 was satisfied that it came from the 
 Tremont House, Boston. As soon as 
 the gentleman spoke, I was also satis- 
 fied from his manner of speech, that 
 he was a Southerner. He was polite 
 and frank, apparently ; I invited him 
 in, and he went to look at my fowls, 
 that being the object, he said, of his 
 visit. He examined them all, and said 
 quietly : 
 
 "I'd like to get a half dozen of 
 these, if they didn't come too high ; 
 but I understand you fanciers have 
 got the price up. I used to buy these 
 chickens for a dollar . apiece. Now, 
 they say, you're asking five dollars each 
 for them." 
 
 I showed him my stock the "pure- 
 bred " ones, and informed him at once 
 that I had not sold any of my chickens, 
 latterly, at less than forty dollars a pair. 
 He was astounded. He didn't want 
 any much ; that is, he wasn't particu- 
 lar. Shouldn't pay that, nohow; he 
 could buy them for five dollars, wanted 
 them for his boy ; wVmld come again 
 and see about it, &c., &c. A five-year- 
 old stag mounted the low fence at this 
 moment, and sent forth an electrifying 
 crow, such as would (at that period) 
 have taken a novice " right out of his 
 boots ; " and a beautiful eight-pound 
 pullet showed herself beside him at 
 the same time. The stranger turned 
 round, and said : 
 
 " There ! What is your price for 
 such a pair as that, for instance ? " 
 
 " Not for sale, sir." 
 
 " But you will sell them, I s'pose ? " 
 
 " No, sir, I have younger ones to dis- 
 pose of ; but that pair are my models. 
 I can't sell them}' 1 The gentleman's 
 eye was exactly filled with this pair of 
 chickens. 
 
 " What will you take for those two 
 fowls ? " 
 
 " One hundred dollars, sir," I replied. 
 
 " I guess you will when you can 
 get it," he added. " Name your lowest 
 price, now, for those ? I want good 
 ones, if any." 
 
 " I prefer to keep them, rather than 
 to part with them at any price," I in- 
 sisted. " If, however, a gentleman like 
 yourseM", who evidently knows what 
 good fowls are, desires to procure the 
 choicest specimens in the country, why, 
 I confess to you that those are the per- 
 sons into whose hands I prefer that my 
 best stock should fall. But I will show 
 you some at a lower figure," I contin- 
 ued, driving this pair from the fence. 
 
 " Don't you ! Don't drive 'em away ! " 
 said the gentleman ; " let's see. That's 
 the cock ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And this is the hen ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " One hundred dollars ! You don't 
 mean this, of course," he persisted. 
 
 "No, I mean that I would rather 
 keep them, sir." 
 
 Well I'll take them? .said the 
 stranger : " It's cruel. But, I'll take 
 them ; " and he paid me five twenty- 
 dollar gold pieces down on the spot, 
 for two ten-months-old chickens, from 
 my " splendid " Royal Cochin-China 
 fowls. 
 
 Messrs. Moan & Groan of Cypress 
 How. 
 
 THE " mourning " shopkeepers have 
 a peculiarly benevolent eye to the 
 griefs and necessities of those families 
 into which death enters. This is con- 
 dolingly manifested by their sending 
 to such a family a remarkably neat 
 envelope, with a handsomely embossed
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 221 
 
 border, bearing the words, ' On especial 
 service," 1 under the address, and winged 
 with an appropriate stamp. The en- 
 closure is a specimen of fine printing 
 on smooth, thin vellum, in the form 
 of a quarto catalogue, with a deep, 
 black-bordered title page, emanating 
 from the dreary establishment of 
 Messrs. Moan & Groan, of Cypress 
 Row. 
 
 Here commerce condescends to sym- 
 pathy, and measures forth to bereaved 
 and afflicted humanity the outward and 
 visible symbols of their hidden griefs. 
 Here, when you enter his gloomy pene- 
 tralia, and invoke his services, the sa- 
 ble-clad and cadaverous-featured shop- 
 man asks you, in a sepulchral voice 
 and with quivering lip, whether you 
 are to be suited for inextinguishable 
 sorrow, or for mere passing grief; and 
 if you are at all in doubt on the sub- 
 ject, he can solve the problem for you, 
 if you lend him your confidence for the 
 occasion. He knows, from long and 
 melancholy observation, the agonizing 
 intensity of woe expressed by bomba- 
 zine, crape, and Paramatta ; can tell 
 to a sigh the precise amount of regret 
 that resides in a black bonnet ; and 
 can match any degree of internal 
 anguish with its corresponding shade 
 of color, from the utter desolation and 
 inconsolable wretchedness of dead and 
 dismal black, to the transient senti- 
 ment of sorrowful remembrance so ap- 
 propriately symbolized by the faintest 
 shade of lavender or French gray. 
 
 Messrs. Moan & Groan also know 
 well enough, that when the heart is 
 burdened with sorrow, considerations 
 of economy are likely to be banished 
 from the mind as quite out of place, 
 and disrespectful to the memory of 
 the departed; and, therefore, they do 
 not insult the lacerated sensibilities 
 of their sorrowing patrons with the 
 sublunary details of dollars and cents. 
 They speed on the wings of the post 
 to the house of mourning, with the 
 benevolent purpose of comforting the 
 
 afflicted household. They are the first, 
 after the stroke of calamity has fallen, 
 to mingle the business of life with its 
 regrets, and to seek to cover the woes 
 of the past with the allowable vanities 
 of the present. 
 
 It is their painful calling to lead 
 their melancholy patrons, step by step, 
 along the cypress margin of their flow- 
 ing pages from the very borders of 
 the tomb, through all the intermediate 
 changes by which sorrow publishes 
 to the world its gradual subsidence, 
 and land them at last on the sixteenth 
 page, restored to themselves and to 
 society, in the front box of the Opera, 
 glittering in ' splendid head dresses 
 in pearl,' in ' fashionably elegant tur- 
 bans,' and in ' dresses trimmed with 
 blonde and Brussels lace.' 
 
 Strong in their modest sense of 
 merit, Messrs. Moan & Groan make no 
 sordid array of prices oh, no ! They 
 offer you all that in mourning you can 
 possibly want ; they scorn to do you the 
 disgrace of imagining that you would 
 drive a ~bargain on the very brink of 
 the grave ; and you are of course 
 obliged to them for the delicacy of 
 their reserve on so mercenary and ple- 
 beian a point paying their bill in 
 decorous disregard of the amount. It 
 is true that certain envious rivals 
 have compared them to birds of prey, 
 scenting mortality from afar, and 
 hovering like vultures on the trail 
 of death in order to profit by his 
 dart ; but such ' caparisons,' as Mrs. 
 Malaprop says, ' are odorous,' and we 
 will have nothing to do with them. 
 
 Croesus and his Avaricious Guest. 
 
 IT is related of this well-to-do lullion- 
 naire, that his messengers, having on one 
 occasion been kindly treated by a fami- 
 ly at Athens, he in return invited one 
 of that family to visit him, and on his 
 arrival made to him the offer of as 
 much gold as he could personally 
 carry. The visitor, with avaricious
 
 222 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 eagerness to enhance the value of the 
 gift, provided himself with a large 
 cloak, in which were many folds, and, 
 with the most capacious boots that he 
 could procure, followed Croesus into 
 the treasury, where, rolling among the 
 gold, he first stuffed his boots or bus- 
 kins as full as he could, and then filled 
 all the folds of his robes, his hair, and 
 even his mouth with gold dust. This 
 done, with great difficulty he stagger- 
 ed from the place from his swelling 
 mouth and projections all around him, 
 resembling anything rather than a man. 
 CKESUS, who, probably from politeness, 
 had left him alone to help himself, 
 when he saw him come out, burst into 
 laughter, and not only suffered him to 
 carry away all he had got, but added 
 other presents equally valuable. 
 
 Saving: the Pieces. Girard and his 
 Brother. 
 
 IT is known that Girard entertained 
 a perfect horror of parting with even 
 the most trivial object in his possession, 
 without receiving, in every case, a prop- 
 er equivalent therefor. It seems that 
 on one occasion, his brother, Captain 
 John Girard, when fitting out a schoon- 
 er for Cape Francois, had use for some 
 pieces of glass for his cabin window, and 
 observing the fragments of several boxes 
 of that article in his brother Stephen's 
 store, and knowing that the pieces were 
 of little or no use to the owner, he so 
 far presumed on the privileges of con- 
 sanguinity, as to go and appropriate a 
 few of the fragments for the purpose in 
 question when, while he was in the 
 very act, Stephen suddenly pounced 
 upon him, loudly deprecating the in- 
 tended abstraction of his broken prop- 
 erty, as if ruin would ensue from the 
 loss of a few fractured panes of glass 
 for which he had no earthly use. He 
 continued to vent a torrent of ribaldry 
 and invective upon his brother John 
 the very atmosphere was blue with his 
 indignation. The temperament of John 
 was of a milder and more conciliating 
 
 character than that of Stephen, so 
 that he always retreated from the 
 arbitrary and boisterous ebullitions of 
 his brother. 
 
 "Merchant of Venice "Shy lock's 
 Commercial Character Vindicated. 
 
 A NEW version of Shakspeare's 
 "Merchant of Venice" has recently 
 been given by a Jewish writer, which 
 exhibits the commercial transactions 
 of that renowned personage in quite a 
 different aspect than heretofore. Ac- 
 cording to this authority, the play is 
 founded on fact, with this important 
 distinction, that it was the Jew who 
 was to forfeit the pound of flesh if 
 he had lost the wager. The circum- 
 stance transpired, not at Venice, but in 
 Rome, during the pontificate of Sixtus 
 the Fifth. The Jew lost; the other 
 party demanded the pound of flesh ; 
 the Jew demurred and offered money, 
 which was refused. Sixtus, to whom 
 the matter was at last submitted, de- 
 cided against the Jew, and that exactly 
 one pound of flesh should be cut from 
 him not one grain more or less, on 
 pain of the cutter being hanged ; the 
 latter very naturally declined the risk, 
 and the pope fined both parties in 
 heavy sums for engaging in such a 
 transaction. Thus old Shylock's com- 
 mercial character is vindicated at last 
 though the old version of the story 
 will probably continue to be the popu- 
 lar one. 
 
 "P. D." 
 
 ENGLISH grocers have never enjoyed 
 an immaculate reputation in the matter 
 of adulterating goods. Not a few of 
 their most costly wares are temptingly 
 capable of easy and generally harmless 
 mixture. Conscience is generally train- 
 ed to the posture or practice habitual 
 to the trade. Of course, the grocer has 
 exceedingly good reasons for his ap- 
 prentices, why they should adulterate. 
 Yet if he went to the drygoods dealer,
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 223 
 
 and found that for linen he had bought 
 a mixture of cotton and flax, he would 
 call that dealer a cheat. Or if he found 
 that the silversmith had sold him plat- 
 ed spoons for silver spoons zounds ! 
 It happens that only in his own line of 
 business, such strong reasons exist for 
 " doctoring " and " deaconing." 
 
 It happened that in the early busi- 
 ness days of Mr. A., a grocer, pepper 
 was under a heavy tax ; and in the 
 trade, universal tradition said that out 
 of the trade everybody expected pepper 
 to be mixed. Well, in the shop of said 
 grocer stood a cask labelled " P. D.," 
 containing something very like pepper 
 dust, wherewith it was used to mix the 
 pepper before sending it forth to serve 
 the public. The trade tradition had 
 obtained for the apocryphal P. D. a 
 place among the standard articles of 
 the shop, and on the strength of that 
 tradition it was vended for pepper by 
 men who thought they were doing the 
 right thing by themselves. 
 
 Now this P. D. began to give the 
 clerk no little discomfort. Considering 
 all that might be said, pro and con, he 
 came to the downright conclusion that 
 it was wrong. He instantly decreed 
 that P. D. should perish. It was night ; 
 but back he went to the shop, took the 
 hypocritical cask, carried it to a neigh- 
 boring quarry, then staved it, and scat- 
 tered P. D. among the clods and slag 
 and stones. 
 
 But this P. D. is not wholly confined 
 to grocers' traffic. The shipowner has 
 a ship which has become too old to 
 carry sugar from the West Indies, with- 
 out damaging it by leakage ; so he fits 
 her out as a passenger ship, and adver- 
 tizes her for Sidney, as " the well- 
 known, favorite, fast-sailing ship" 
 and that is P. D. The cor"n merchant 
 has a cargo damaged in a gale at sea ; 
 but as the underwriters will not pay 
 unless the captain can swear that the 
 vessel struck, the merchant, who was 
 snug in his bed when the gale blew, 
 tries to show the captain very conclu- 
 
 sively that, just off Flambeau Head, 
 the keel did actually touch the ground, 
 and that therefore he may safely take 
 the requisite oath and that is P. D. 
 The director of some joint-stock com- 
 pany, who sees that the concern is hol- 
 low and all dis-jointed, sells out his own 
 shares, but retains his place until the 
 period during which he is liable is 
 past, that no one else may take fright ; 
 P. D. The jobber is standing by a 
 parcel of goods which have been on his 
 hands for a considerable time ; a cus- 
 tomer enters, and is received with 
 smiles : " Are these new ? " " The latest 
 things we have just out, in fact. I 
 almost thought you would look in to- 
 day, and have this moment had the 
 parcel opened for you ; " P. D. Well, 
 there is more or less P. D. under every 
 trader's roof. But it is bad. Stave 
 the cask in pieces. 
 
 Bad Business. 
 
 KOHL, in his Travels in Russia, ob- 
 serves, that while at Moscow, he hap- 
 pened to take a stroll through one of 
 the markets of that city. He saw there 
 a man who was employed to sell frozen 
 fish by the pound. " Friend," said he 
 to him, " how do you come on in your 
 business ? " " Thank God," replied the 
 man, " very badly." 
 
 Commercial Milk. 
 
 A SUGGESTION has recently been made 
 for the supply of London with pure 
 country milk, in lieu of that wishy- 
 washy triumph of art over nature, which 
 flows, morning and afternoon, into jugs 
 and mugs, from a thousand milk cans 
 so called. 
 
 Such an announcement has shaken, as 
 if with a panic, all the metropolitan 
 pans ; and those purveyors who have 
 dealt in new milk from the pump and 
 chalk pit, without ever having been in 
 possession of a single pair of horns, 
 have been cowed all of a sudden by the
 
 224 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 very thought of the introduction of the 
 bovine article. And yet, so unaccus- 
 tomed are the Londoners to anything 
 else but the well-known chalk mixture, 
 that the probability is that the pure arti- 
 cle will like the genuine squeak of the 
 pig in the fable be pronounced far in- 
 ferior to the imitation with which use 
 or abuse has rendered us so familiar. 
 
 London, in fact, knows nothing of 
 real milk, which differs as thoroughly 
 as chalk is unlike cheese, from the spu- 
 rious stuff which now finds its way into 
 the coffee and tea cup. Commercial 
 milk is a compound which any consci- 
 entious cow would indignantly repudi- 
 ate. As has already been hinted, the 
 Londoner literally knows nothing of 
 milk; for of the stuff he has been 
 taught to accept as " milk," he knows 
 it would be idle to attempt even to 
 skim the surface. It is understood 
 that the chalk market immediately be- 
 gan to show symptoms of weakness at 
 the bare rumor of real milk being in- 
 troduced into the metropolis, especially 
 when coupled with the current appre- 
 hension of a short supply of water in 
 the city and suburbs. 
 
 Dangers of Legitimate Business 
 Transactions. 
 
 THE dangers attending unlawful 
 business transactions are sometimes 
 fully matched by those which accom- 
 pany dealings that are entirely legiti- 
 mate. On one occasion, a merchant in 
 London, having requested his broker to 
 purchase a certain amount of stock, and 
 having concluded his business, was sur- 
 prised in the evening to hear his broker 
 announced as a visitor. Some remark 
 being made, the latter stated that a dis- 
 pute had arisen with the jobber about 
 the price which was in the receipt, 
 and he should be glad to take it with 
 him as an evidence of his correctness. 
 Knowing that a stock receipt is in it- 
 self of no value, the buyer readily com- 
 plied. His visitor thanked him, and 
 
 from that moment was never heard of- 
 The receipt was false, the names were 
 forged ; and, secure in the possession 
 of all evidence against him, the broker 
 sought a foreign land in which to enjoy 
 his ill-gotten gains. 
 
 Hardening Tendency of Business. 
 
 REMARKING on the state of trade in 
 one of the large cities, a commercial 
 editor states that " the hardening ten- 
 dency of prices still continues." It is a 
 pity that something cannot be done to 
 counteract the hardening effect of busi- 
 ness generally on the population of some 
 of our mercantile and manufacturing 
 cities. 
 
 Tragical Result of Losing Bank Notes. 
 
 ONE of the most tragical events in 
 the business world took place a while 
 ago in St. Petersburg. The agent of 
 a banker, who had been to the bank to 
 receive the value of fifteen thousand 
 silver roubles, lost the package of bank 
 notes on his return. The money was 
 picked up by a clerk, who, instead of 
 giving the funds at once to the owner, 
 followed the agent to his destination, 
 and in this way ascertained his name. 
 The clerk then returned home, hesitat- 
 ing in his own mind how he should act. 
 When he arrived there, a violent quar- 
 rel took place between him and his 
 wife, the latter wishing to keep the 
 money. The clerk, however, on the 
 following day, went to the house of the 
 owner to deliver the money, but the 
 banker would not receive it, saying his 
 agent had committed suicide in the 
 night, on account of the loss. Over- 
 come with remorse, the clerk returned 
 home, where he found that during his 
 absence his wife had hanged herself, 
 from vexation at not having kept the 
 money. He immediately cut down the 
 body, and hung himself with the same 
 rope.
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 225 
 
 Morocco Pocket Book Men. 
 
 THE " Morocco men," so called from 
 the red morocco pocket books which 
 they carried, were a remarkable feature 
 in the London money dealings of half 
 a century ago. They began their lives 
 as pigeons ; they closed them as rooks. 
 They had lost their own fortunes in 
 their youth ; they lost those of others 
 in their age. Generally educated, and 
 of bland manners, a mixture of the gen- 
 tleman and the debauchee, they easily 
 penetrated into the society they sought 
 to destroy. They were seen in the 
 deepest alleys of Saint Giles's, and were 
 met in the fairest circles as well. In 
 the old hall of the country gentleman, 
 in the mansion of the city merchant, in 
 the butlery of the rural squire, in the 
 homestead of the farmer, among the 
 reapers as they worked on the hillside, 
 with the peasant as he rested from his 
 daily toil addressing all with specious 
 promises, and telling lies like truth 
 was the morocco man found, treading 
 alike the finest and the foulest scenes 
 of society. They whispered beguiling 
 temptation to the innocent ; they hint- 
 ed at easy fraud to the novice. They 
 lured the, youthful ; they excited the 
 aged ; and no place was so pure, and 
 no spot so degraded, but, for love of 
 seven and one-half per cent., did the 
 morocco man mark it with his pestilen- 
 tial presence. No valley was so lonely, 
 but what it found some victim ; no hill 
 so remote, but what it offered some 
 chance ; and so enticing were their 
 manners, that their presence was 
 sought, and their appearance wel- 
 comed, with all the eagerness of ava- 
 rice. 
 
 East India Company and the Missing 1 
 "Witness. 
 
 A century ago was the hanging cen- 
 tury ; and a great fraud was committed 
 toward its close upon the East India 
 Company one of the most peculiar in 
 the annals of crime, as related to busi- 
 15 
 
 ness. The leading witness the only 
 man who could prove the guilt of the 
 accused was accustomed to visit a 
 house in the neighborhood of the 
 Bank, to be dressed and powdered, ac- 
 cording to the fashion of the day. 
 Shortly before the trial came on, a note 
 was placed in his hands, informing 
 him that the attorney for the prosecu- 
 tion was desirous of seeing him, at a 
 certain hour, at his private residence, 
 in or near Portland Place. 
 
 At the time appointed, the witness 
 proceeded to the house ; the door was 
 opened, and the footman, without ask- 
 ing his name, ushered the visitor into 
 a large room, where, discussing some 
 wine upon the table, sat a group of 
 gentlemen in earnest conversation. 
 " There is a mistake," exclaimed the 
 new comer, thinking he had been 
 shown into the wrong room. " No 
 mistake, sir," interrupted one, in a de- 
 termined tone, while the remainder sat 
 quietly but sternly by. Unable to com- 
 prehend the scene, and in some alarm, 
 the visitor prepared to leave the room. 
 " There is no mistake," repeated the 
 same person, unostentatiously stepping 
 before the door ; " I am," he continued, 
 " brother to that gentleman who is to 
 be tried for forgery, and against whom 
 you are the chief witness; the honor 
 of a noble house is at stake ; and your 
 first attempt to escape -will lead to a 
 violent death. There is nothing to 
 fear, if you remain quiet ; but all whom 
 you see are sworn to detain you until 
 the trial be over, or," he added, after a 
 pause, " to slay you." The witness was 
 a sensible man ; he saw the determined 
 looks of those around ; and thought it 
 best quietly to acquiesce. 
 
 In the mean time, great surprise was 
 excited in the city. That the missing 
 man had been inveigled away was uni- 
 versally believed ; and every endeavor 
 was made to track him. Whether the 
 calmness with which he bore his con- 
 finement deceived his jailers, is not 
 known ; but it is certain that he effect
 
 226 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ed his escape from the house, although 
 not so securely but that his captors 
 were after him before he could get out 
 of sight. A mob collected ; his pur- 
 suers declared that he was an insane 
 nobleman, and that they were his keep- 
 ers. The mob shouted with delight at 
 the idea of a mad lord ; and the unfor- 
 tunate man was on the point of being 
 again confined, when a carriage drove 
 up. The inmate, a lady, desired the 
 coachman to stop, and she listened to 
 the counter statements of the pursued 
 and his pursuers. Remembering the 
 current story of a missing witness, she 
 opened the carriage, he sprang in, the 
 door was closed, and the lady, to whom 
 he told his story, ordered the coachman 
 to drive with all speed to the Old Bai- 
 ley. It was the last day ; the case, 
 which had been postponed, was being 
 tried ; and the missing witness was just 
 in time to place the rope around the 
 neck of the unhappy forger. 
 
 Smugglers' Honor. 
 
 ON the line between Prussia and Rus- 
 sia, smuggling is carried on by desper- 
 ate bands of men, in a. most desperately 
 professional manner. These bands are 
 also addicted to robbery. One of them, 
 headed by a man named Krotinus, is 
 very notorious ; it has plundered the 
 house of several of the richer Russian 
 landowners on the frontier, returning 
 across the line into Prussia to spend 
 the proceeds. A party of this band 
 once passed the day at a village wine- 
 house, and were called out toward 
 evening by a man who proved to be 
 the captain himself, " for duty : " he 
 was most particular in inquiring wheth- 
 er his men had behaved respectfully 
 and paid for everything ! 
 
 Characteristic Smuggling Ingenuity of 
 Parisians. 
 
 SOME of the curious expedients re- 
 sorted to by Parisian smugglers are 
 given in the following account by a 
 
 personal witness : I saw, through one 
 of the, windows in the mayor's office, in 
 the twelfth arrondissement, the body of 
 a negro hanging by the neck. At the 
 first glance, and even at the second, I 
 took it for a human being, whom dis- 
 appointed love, or perhaps an impro- 
 vised people's tribunal, had disposed 
 of thus suddenly ; but I soon ascertain- 
 ed that the ebony gentleman in question 
 was only a large doll as large as life. 
 What to think of this, I did not know, 
 so I asked the doorkeeper the meaning 
 of it. 
 
 " This is the ' Contraband Muse- 
 um,' " was the answer ; and on my 
 showing a curiosity to see it, he was 
 kind enough to act as my cicerone. 
 
 In a large dirty room are scattered 
 over the floor, along the walls and on 
 the ceiling, all the inventions of roguery 
 which had been confiscated from time 
 to time by these guardians of the law, 
 the revenue officers ; a complete arsenal 
 of the devices of smuggling, all in com- 
 plete confusion. 
 
 As examples, there is a hogshead 
 dressed up for a nurse, with a child 
 that holds two and one half quarts. 
 On the other side are logs, hollow as 
 the Trojan horse, and filled with armies 
 of cigars. On the floor lies a huge boa 
 constrictor, gorged with China silks; 
 and just beyond it a pile of coal curi- 
 ously perforated with spools of cotton. 
 
 The colored gentleman who excited 
 my sympathy at first, met with his fate 
 under the following circumstances : He 
 was built of tin, painted black, and 
 stood like a heyduck, or Ethiopian 
 chasseur, on the footboard of a car- 
 riage, fastened by his feet and hands. 
 He had frequently passed through the 
 gates, and was well known by sight to 
 the soldiers, who noticed he was al- 
 ways showing his teeth, which they 
 supposed to be the custom of his coun- 
 try. 
 
 One day the carriage he belonged to 
 was stopped by a crowd at the gate. 
 There was, as usual, a grand chorus of
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 227 
 
 yells and oaths, the vocal part being 
 performed by the cartmen and drivers, 
 and the instrumental by the well-ap- 
 plied whips. The negro, however, nev- 
 er spoke a single word. His good be- 
 havior, through all this wild and un- 
 heard-of misusage, delighted the sol- 
 diers, who held him up as an example 
 to the crowd. "Look at that black 
 fellow," they cried, " see how well he 
 behaves 1 Bravo, nigger, bravo ! " He 
 showed a perfect indifference to their 
 friendly applause. "My friend," said 
 a clerk at the barrier, jumping up on 
 the footboard, and slapping our sable 
 friend on the shoulder, "we are very 
 much obliged to you." What surprise ! 
 the shoulder rattled. The officer was be- 
 wildered ; he sounded the footman all 
 over, and found he was made of metal, 
 and as full as his skin could hold of 
 the very best contraband liquor, drawn 
 out of his foot. The juicy mortal was 
 seized at once, and carried off in tri- 
 umph. The first night the revenue 
 people drank up one of his shoulders, 
 and he was soon bled to death. It is 
 now six years since he lost all the 
 moisture of his system, and was reduced 
 to a dry skeleton. 
 
 Terrible Career of Sadleir, the 
 Speculator. 
 
 THE name of John Sadleir is still 
 fresh in the annals of criminal specula- 
 tion and its ofttimes tragical end. He 
 was a provincial attorney in Ireland, in 
 very moderate business ; but being a 
 man of talent and firmness of character, 
 he was instrumental in establishing a 
 bank in the county, and became a per- 
 son of some consequence. He at length 
 felt his field to be too small, and in an 
 evil hour went to London, where his 
 connection with the bank introduced 
 him at once to the speculators and cap- 
 italists of that city ; and this led to a 
 large business as a parliamentary agent, 
 and to his becoming chairman of a 
 great joint-stock bank in London. 
 
 The road of ambition was now fairly 
 
 opened. He got into Parliament, made 
 himself the leader in the Irish Brigade, 
 then deserted his party, and became a 
 lord of the treasury. In the mean time, 
 he was very busy with the Encumbered 
 Estates Bill ; and having procured from 
 the commissioners under it almost un- 
 limited authority, he organized an asso- 
 ciation in England for purchasing, and 
 afterward selling at enormous advan- 
 tage, properties sold in the Encumbered 
 Estates Court. He now became chair- 
 man of the Swedish railway, arranged 
 a new insurance company, established 
 a newspaper of his own in Dublin, and 
 plunged deep into English, Italian, 
 Spanish, and American railways. 
 
 Such is a very brief outline of Sad- 
 leir's great business career; but when 
 and where the pressure first began 
 when this originally obscure and mon- 
 eyless man found that he could not 
 pursue such schemes without funds 
 and what were the precise circumstan- 
 ces that originated his crimes, and led 
 him on, step by step, to infamy, is not 
 precisely known. It is known, how- 
 ever, that he obtained money on the 
 security of forged titles, as, from the 
 Encumbered Estate Court. He fabri- 
 cated shares of the Swedish railway to 
 the amount of over a million dollars ; 
 and besides the assignments of numer- 
 ous deeds he held in trust, he forged 
 on private individuals to the amount 
 of at least half a million dollars. 
 
 It appears that for some time he must 
 have contemplated his violent release 
 from the fever of mind in which he had 
 lived so long. But at length the occa- 
 sion came ; the forgery of one of the 
 Encumbered Estates deeds was on the 
 eve of discovery; and the wretched 
 man went forth from his own house in 
 the dead of night, with the instruments 
 of death in his pocket a midnight 
 suicide ! 
 
 Duplicity of French Speculators. 
 ONE of the most singular illustrations 
 of the methods sometimes resorted to
 
 228 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 by speculators to accomplish their ends, 
 is found in the history of the present 
 ruler of the French. While Louis 
 Philippe was king, a number of specu- 
 lators in French stocks in London, de- 
 sired, for a particular purpose, to de- 
 press said stocks for a few days. To 
 this end they hired several ships, man- 
 ned them, and gave them ammunition, 
 bulletins, &c., and placed Louis Napo- 
 leon in secret command, in order to 
 make a feint of invading France using 
 him as the unconcious tool for execut- 
 ing their own schemes. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, that reckless 
 youth was under the delusion that the 
 prestige of his name was sufficient, un- 
 der the unpopularity of the then reign- 
 ing monarch, to cause a general rising 
 of the nation in his own favor. It was, 
 however, a plan gotten up fy some cun- 
 ning 'brokers^ who used him merely as 
 an instrument, knowing his susceptibil- 
 ity to self-delusion ; but they accom- 
 plished their end, and cleared large 
 sums by their adroitly conceived mode 
 of operating. 
 
 Two Playing at the Same Game. 
 
 DECTO was an extensive London mer- 
 chant, who had large commissions for 
 sugar from several foreign dealers. On 
 a certain occasion, he treated about a 
 considerable quantity of that article 
 with Alcander, an eminent merchant in 
 the West India trade ; both understood 
 the market very well, but could not 
 agree. Decio was a man of substance, 
 and thought nobody ought to be bet- 
 ter able to buy than himself on favor- 
 able terms. Alcander was the same, 
 and, not wanting money, stood for his 
 price. 
 
 While thus engaged in attempts to 
 bargain, at a tavern near the Exchange, 
 Alcander's man brought his master a 
 letter from the West Indies, which in- 
 formed him of a much greater quantity 
 of sugar coming for England than was 
 expected. Alcander now wished for 
 
 nothing more than to sell at Decio's 
 price, before the news was public ; but, 
 being a cunning fox, and that he might 
 not seem too eager, nor yet lose his cus- 
 tomer, he drops the discourse they were 
 upon, and, putting on a jovial humor, 
 commends the agreeableness of the 
 weather from whence, descanting up- 
 on the delight he took in his gar- 
 dens, he invites Decio to go along 
 with him to his country seat, about 
 twelve miles out. 
 
 It was in the month of May, and as 
 it happened to be Saturday afternoon, 
 Decio, who was a single man, and 
 would have no pressing business in 
 town before Tuesday, accepted of the 
 other's civility, and away they go in 
 Alcander's coach. Decio was splen- 
 didly entertained that night and the 
 day following. On Monday morning, 
 to get himself an appetite, he goes to 
 take the air upon an easy-paced horse 
 of Alcander's, and coming back, meets 
 with a gentleman of his acquaintance, 
 who tells him news had come, the night 
 before, that the Barbadoes fleet was de- 
 stroyed by a storm, and adds, that be- 
 fore he came out, the news had been 
 confirmed at Lloyd's coffee house, where 
 it was thought sugars would rise twen- 
 ty-five per cent, by 'Change time. 
 
 Decio returns to his friend, and im- 
 mediately resumes the conversation 
 about a sugar trade. Alcander, who, 
 thinking himself sure of his chap, did 
 not design to broach the matter until 
 after dinner, was very glad to find his 
 intention thus anticipated; but how- 
 ever desirous he was to sell, the other 
 was yet more anxious to buy. Yet 
 both of them, afraid of one another, 
 for a considerable time affected all the 
 indifference imaginable, till at last De- 
 cio, fired with what he had heard, 
 thought delays might prove dangerous, 
 and throwing a guinea upon the table, 
 struck the bargain at Alcander's price. 
 The next day they went to London ; 
 the news proved true, and Decio made 
 his "pile" by the sugars. Alcander,
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 229 
 
 while he had striven to overreach the 
 other, was foiled in his mercantile tac- 
 tics, and paid in his own coin. 
 
 Mysteries of Tea Smuggling-. 
 
 ON account of the high tax imposed 
 upon tea by the Russian Government, 
 the smuggling of that article is carried 
 on as briskly as the wits of man can 
 devise ways and means. The Govern- 
 ment pays in cash the extraordinary 
 premium of fifty cents per pound for all 
 that is seized, a reward which is espe- 
 cially attractive to the officers on the 
 frontier, for the reason that it is there 
 paid down without any discount. For- 
 merly, the confiscated tea was sold at 
 public auction, on condition that the 
 buyer should carry it over the frontier. 
 Russian officers were appointed to take 
 charge of it, and deliver it in some 
 Prussian frontier town, in order to be 
 sure of its being carried out of the 
 country. The consequence was, that 
 the tea was regularly carried back into 
 Poland the following night, most fre- 
 quently by the Russian officers them- 
 selves. 
 
 In order to apply a radical cure to 
 this evil, destruction by fire was de- 
 creed as the fate of all tea that should 
 be seized thereafter. Thus it is that 
 from twenty thousand to forty thou- 
 sand pounds are yearly destroyed in 
 the chief city of the province. About 
 this, the official story is, that it is tea 
 smuggled from Prussia, while the truth 
 is, that it is usually nothing but brown 
 paper or damaged tea that is consumed 
 by the fire. In the first place, the Rus- 
 sian officials are too rational to burn up 
 good tea, when by chance a real confis- 
 cation of that article has taken place ; 
 in such a case, the gentlemen take 
 the tea, and put upon the burning pile 
 an equal weight of Irown paper, or rags, 
 done up to resemble genuine packages 
 of the " celestial leaf." In the second 
 place, it is mostly damaged or useless 
 tea that is seized. 
 
 The premium for seizures being so 
 high, the custom-hous^ officers them- 
 selves cause Polish Jews regular com- 
 mercial rats to buy up quantities of 
 worthless stuff and bring it over the 
 lines for the express purpose of being 
 seized ! The time and place for smug- 
 gling it are agreed upon. The officer 
 lies in wait with a third person whom 
 he takes with him. The Jew comes 
 with the goods, is hailed by the officer, 
 and takes to flight. The officer pursues 
 the fugitive, but cannot reach him ! 
 and fires his musket after him. Here- 
 upon the Jew drops his package, which 
 the officer takes and carries to the office, 
 where he gets his reward. The witness 
 whom he has with him by accident, 
 of course testifies to the zeal of his 
 exertions, fruitless though they were, 
 for the seizure of the " unknown " 
 smuggler. The latter afterward re- 
 ceives from the officer the stipulated 
 portion of the reward. This arch trick 
 is constantly practised along the fron- 
 tier, and, to meet the demand, the 
 Prussian dealers patriotically keep 
 stocks of good-for-nothing tea, which 
 they sell generally at the rate of twelve 
 and a half cents per pound. 
 
 Spanish Contraband Trade. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Spaniards have a dis- 
 like so the idea prevails to foreign- 
 ers and foreign productions, yet the 
 latter necessarily find their way into 
 Spain, because she has no productions 
 of her own, and must have them. But 
 they hate custom houses and custom- 
 house officers as much as they do for- 
 eigners, and they also prefer a smug- 
 gled article, even if it is a foreign pro- 
 duction ; hence it is that there is no 
 scene in Spanish life without a smug- 
 gler at least, so say the English. The 
 peasant smuggles through necessity, 
 the rich man through avarice, or the 
 pleasure of cheating the revenue. Even 
 the queen, it is told, robs her own ex- 
 chequer, by wearing contraband finery.
 
 230 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 The whole southern coast, from Barce- 
 lona to Cadiz, is said to be perpetually 
 transformed, at night, into a strand for 
 the loading of contraband goods. It is 
 estimated that there are not less than 
 four hundred thousand smugglers hov- 
 ering continually about the mountains 
 near the seacoast, who descend at 
 night to hold communion with pro- 
 scribed foreign smugglers, and receive 
 from them the materials for rendering 
 millions of the Spanish population com- 
 fortable, free of duty. 
 
 Prayers Requested for a New Business 
 Undertaking-. 
 
 THE ministers of the English Govern- 
 ment made great use of lotteries in the 
 eighteenth century, as an engine to 
 draw money from the pockets of the 
 people, and at a price alike disgraceful 
 to the Government and demoralizing to 
 all. The extent to which this evil had 
 reached may be inferred from the fact 
 that money was lent on these as on any 
 other marketable securities ; that in 
 1751, upward of thirty thousand tick- 
 ets were pawned to the metropolitan 
 bankers ; and this when, to have an 
 even chance for any prize, a purchaser 
 must have held seven tickets and it 
 was ninety-nine to one that even if a 
 prize were drawn, it did not exceed 
 50. Suicide, through lotteries, be- 
 came common. All arts were resorted 
 to. Lucky numbers were foretold by 
 cunning women, who, when their art 
 failed, shrouded themselves in their 
 mysticism, or, if fortune chanced to fa- 
 vor them, paraded their prophecies to 
 the public. Insurance of prizes an 
 art upon which hundreds grew rich, 
 and thousands grew poor was com- 
 menced with terrible success. Those 
 who were unable to buy tickets, paid a 
 certain sum to receive a certain amount, 
 if a particular number came up a prize. 
 The many iniquities, the household des- 
 olation, the public fraud, and the pri- 
 vate mischief which resulted from this 
 system, are beyond the power of recital. 
 
 "Wives committed domestic treachery ; 
 sons and daughters ran through their 
 portions ; merchants risked the gains 
 of honorable trade. " My whole 
 house," wrote one, " was infected with 
 the mania, from the head of it down 
 to my kitchen maid and postboy, who 
 have both pawned some of their rags, 
 that they might put themselves in for- 
 tune's way." The passions and preju- 
 dices of the sex were appealed to." Lov- 
 ers were to strew their paths with roses ; 
 husbands were plentifully promised, 
 and beautiful children were to adorn 
 their homes, through this kind of deal- 
 ing. The melancholy history was oc- 
 casionally enlivened by episodes, which 
 sometimes arose from the humor, and 
 sometimes from the sufferings of the 
 populace. Religion itself was ingeni- 
 ously used as a scapegoat in these trans- 
 actions. Thus, it is recorded as a fact, 
 that to promote the aid of the blind 
 deity, a woman to whom a ticket had 
 been presented, caused a petition to 
 be put up in a church, in the following 
 words : 
 
 " The prayers of the congregation are 
 desired for the success of a person engaged 
 in a new Imsiness undertaking" 
 
 "He's a Country Merchant Stick 
 Him." 
 
 IN a certain city, Mr. A. established 
 himself in business. Among the fre- 
 quent visitors at his store was Mr. B., 
 whose officiousness was never agree- 
 able to the proprietor, and on one oc- 
 casion at least his advice was both in- 
 sulting and disastrous. It happened 
 in this wise : A gentleman came into 
 the store and inquired for sundry arti- 
 cles as to prices, &c. In the midst of 
 the interview, Mr. B. asked Mr. A. to 
 the door, and, taking him by the but- 
 ton, whispered confidentially, regard- 
 ing the inquirer, " He's a country mer- 
 chantstick him 1 " Mr. A. turned 
 away in disgust, and resumed his con- 
 versation with the new comer. But 
 the whispered counsel had reached the
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 231 
 
 ear of the latter, and he left the prem- 
 ises without purchasing a single article. 
 
 Spaniard and Chinaman at a Trade. 
 
 HERE is an old " trick at trade," and 
 it still puzzles some people to get the 
 right of it. 
 
 A Spaniard called at the store of 
 a Chinese merchant shoemaker and 
 bought -a pair of boots at the price of 
 ten dollars, and handed Jinnqua, the 
 seller of the boots, an ounce, valued at 
 seventeen dollars. As Jinnqua had no 
 change, he stepped over the way to the 
 Palo Gordo and got it changed; re- 
 turned, and gave the boots and seven 
 dollars to the Spaniard, who took them 
 and his departure. Shortly after this, 
 the proprietor of Palo Gordo called on 
 the shoemaker with the ounce, which 
 proved to be a bad one, and the shoe- 
 maker was obliged to pay him seven- 
 teen good dollars for the good-for- 
 nothing metal. Now the question is, 
 how much and what did the shoe- 
 maker lose by the operation ? Some 
 say he lost twenty-four dollars, and 
 others twenty-seven dollars ; but it is 
 very plain that he lost just seven dol- 
 lars and a pair of new boots. Whether 
 they were worth ten dollars or not, is 
 another question one for China-tail 
 and his customer to decide. 
 
 Baying "Wine by Sample. 
 
 THE penetration and management 
 of one of our old commodores in a 
 Spanish port, some years ago, proved 
 too much for the skill of a certain wine 
 merchant, as the following will show. 
 
 He bought a cask of wine he liked 
 the flavor of it in one of those enor- 
 mous cellars, where the Spanish mer- 
 chants store their immense stock, and 
 where they, if the truth must be reveal- 
 ed, also mix, brew, and manufacture 
 them. 
 
 " To what place shall I send the 
 pipe ? " inquired the merchant. 
 
 " Nowhere," said the blunt sailor, " I 
 will take it with me ; " and then ap- 
 peared a competent number of sailors 
 with a vehicle all ready for the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 The merchant hesitated, demurred, 
 and objected to delivering it for one 
 reason or other, and finally offered a 
 handsome sum if he would take an- 
 other cask next to it, just as good, in 
 its room, as this particular one had 
 been disposed of. This made the com- 
 modore still more earnest and resolved ; 
 so he insisted on paying the Spanish 
 trader his bill, and took away his prize 
 without asking " by your leave." 
 
 It was worth double the sum he 
 gave for it, as it was a sample cask of 
 the pure article, which he and all who 
 went to that cellar to purchase were to 
 taste, as a criterion of the whole. When 
 the article was sold and delivered, after 
 the bargain, another was always put in 
 its place. This time, however, the un- 
 lucky merchant was deprived of his 
 decoy till he could prepare a new one, 
 at considerable cost. It was a poor 
 bargain that he made with the Ameri- 
 can commodore, who used to tell his 
 friends at Washington, when he treat- 
 ed them to it, that it was the best bat- 
 tle he ever fought, and he had seen 
 sharp service in 1813. 
 
 Smuggling 1 on the Lace-Merchant's 
 Dog-. 
 
 WHO would have imagined that a 
 dog had been made serviceable as a 
 clerk, and thus rolled up for his master 
 upward of a hundred thousand crowns ? 
 And yet a " big thing " like this hap- 
 pened some years ago. 
 
 One of those industrious beings who 
 know how to make a chaldron of coals 
 out of a billet of wood, determined, in 
 extreme poverty, to engage in trade. 
 He preferred that of merchandize 
 which occupied the least space, and 
 was calculated to yield the greatest 
 profit. He borrowed a small sum of 
 money from a friend, and repairing to
 
 232 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Flanders, he there bought a piece of 
 lace, which, without any danger, he 
 smuggled into France in the following 
 manner : 
 
 He trained an active spaniel to his 
 purpose. He caused him first to be 
 shaved, and procured for him the skin 
 of another dog, of the same hair and 
 the same shape. He then rolled the 
 lace around the body of the dog, and 
 put over this the garment of the other 
 animal so adroitly that it was impos- 
 sible to discover the trick. The lace 
 being thus arranged in his canine band- 
 box, he would say to his obedient mes- 
 senger, "Forward, my friend!" At 
 these words, the dog would start, and 
 pass boldly through the gates of Ma- 
 lines or Valenciennes, in the very face 
 of the vigilant officers placed there to 
 prevent smuggling. Having passed the 
 bounds, he would wait for his master 
 at a little distance in the open country. 
 Then they mutually caressed and feast- 
 ed, and the merchant deposited his 
 parcels in places of security, renewing 
 his ventures as necessity required. 
 
 Such was the success of the smug- 
 gler, that in five or six years he amassed 
 a handsome fortune, and kept his 
 coach. But envy pursues the pros- 
 perous ; a mischievous neighbor be- 
 trayed the lace merchant, and, not- 
 withstanding the efforts of the latter 
 to disguise his dog, he was tracked, 
 watched, and detected. The game was 
 up. 
 
 How far does the cunning of such an 
 animal extend ! Did the spies of the 
 custom house expect him at one gate, 
 he saw them at a distance, and instant- 
 ly went toward the other. Were the 
 gates shut against him, he overcame 
 every obstacle sometimes he leaped 
 over the wall, at others passed secretly 
 behind a carriage, or, running slyly be- 
 tween the legs of travellers, he would 
 thus accomplish his aim. One day, 
 however, while swimming a stream 
 near Malines, he was shot, and died in 
 the water. There was then about him 
 
 five thousand crowns' worth of lace 
 the loss of which did not afflict the 
 master, but he was inconsolable for the 
 loss of his faithful " clerk." 
 
 High-heeled Boots with Watches in 
 them. 
 
 IN the days when high-heeled French 
 boots were the pride of fashion, there 
 was a shoemaker in London, who made 
 a fortune by the sale of the best Paris 
 boots at a price which all his fellow 
 tradesmen declared ruinous. He un- 
 derstood the trade, and obtained troops 
 of customers. " These boots must be 
 stolen," said his rivals, but there was 
 no evidence that they were ; certainly 
 they were not smuggled boots for any 
 one could satisfy himself that the full 
 duty was paid upon them at the cus- 
 tom house. The shoemaker retired from 
 business with a fortune. Afterward 
 his secret was accidentally discovered 
 although he had paid for the boots, 
 he had not paid for everything that 
 was in them. There was a heavy duty 
 payable on foreign watches ; and every 
 boot consigned to him from Paris had 
 contained in its high heel a cavity ex- 
 actly large enough to hold a watch. 
 The great profit obtained by the trade 
 in smuggled watches made it possible 
 for this tradesman, when he had filled 
 up their heels, to sell his boots under 
 prime cost. This was worth while 
 again, because, of course, by the exten- 
 sion of his boot trade, he increased his 
 power of importing watches duty free. 
 
 Philanthropy and Forty Per Cent. 
 
 UNDER the name of the Equitable 
 Loan Company, there was many years 
 ago started, in England, a mining 
 scheme for taking money out of the 
 pockets of the many, and putting it in 
 the pockets of the few. In paragraphs, 
 calculated to excite the sympathy of 
 the public, the directors piously de- 
 nounced the profits of the pawnbroker, 
 arraigned his evil practices, and deli-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 233 
 
 cately concluded by hinting that a com- 
 pany formed upon the most philanthro- 
 pic principles, and paying forty per cent., 
 would soon be formed, and thus the pub- 
 lic be saved from any further imposition. 
 The philanthropy element in the scheme 
 might have been proclaimed unavailing- 
 ly for centuries, but forty per cent, was 
 irresistible. The Duke of York good-na- 
 turedly lent his name ; members of Par- 
 liament were bribed with shares ; and 
 when it was honestly said by one that 
 " the bill would never pass the House," 
 the ready reply of the philanthropic 
 schemers was, " Oh ! we have so many on 
 the ministerial, and so many on the op- 
 position side, and we are of course sure 
 of the saints ! " The shares, however, 
 tumbled down to a discount ; both op- 
 position and ministerial members gave 
 the nefarious scheme the go-by, and the 
 philanthropy of the saints faded with 
 the fading vision of " forty per cent." 
 
 Pate of a Clerical Dealer in "Fancies." 
 
 SOME time since an account appeared 
 in the London journals of a practical 
 joke which, however, for one of the 
 parties concerned, was no joke at all 
 having been played off upon a parson 
 on the Stock Exchange. It appears 
 that the said reverend gentleman in 
 holy orders had been giving a series of 
 most unholy orders to a variety of 
 stockbrokers, who had thus been " let 
 in " to a serious amount by said specu- 
 lating clergyman. Having been per- 
 suaded to visit the " sanctum " of the 
 stock exchange, the parson was forth- 
 with surrounded, and an unceremoni- 
 ous punishment was improvised, with- 
 out the slightest " benefit of clergy " 
 being allowed to him. His coat was 
 covered with flour thrown from bags, 
 without the remotest respect for his 
 cloth, and he was showered with eggs, 
 of which there was an ample supply in 
 readiness to make as was remarked 
 by an unhappy punster on the spot a 
 terrible eggsample of the defaulting 
 
 dominie. The reverend financier's white 
 choker was so besmeared with the bat- 
 ter thus hurriedly compounded, that he 
 was obliged to rush from the stock ex- 
 change to exchange his stock at the 
 nearest hosier's. The affair, happening 
 as it did on or about " Shrove Tues- 
 day," caused some who saw the parson 
 covered with eggs and flour to suppose 
 naturally enough that, while on 
 some parochial call, he had unfortu- 
 nately fallen into a mass of batter pre- 
 pared for the manufacture of pancakes. 
 
 French. Nicety in Trade Frauds. 
 
 ALL is false in wines ; the color, the 
 strength, the flavor, the age, even the 
 name under which they are sold. 
 There are wines which do not contain 
 a drop of grape juice. Even science is 
 impotent, in many cases, to distinguish 
 the true from the false, so complete is 
 the imitation, but it nevertheless great- 
 ly aids in the detection. This was de- 
 veloped in a memorable case which 
 came before the French courts. The 
 chemist, after reporting all the ingre- 
 dients of which the wine was com- 
 posed, observed that if one of them 
 were in less quantity, he would have 
 been unable to distinguish it from the 
 natural wine. The prosecuted wine 
 merchant, who was present, listened 
 attentively to the chemist's report, and 
 at last asked him which ingredient it 
 was. The chemist very unguardedly 
 told him, and the accused immediately 
 answered, " I am very much obliged, 
 sir, and I don't regret now my forty 
 hogsheads of wine which will be de- 
 stroyed, because now I am certain of 
 my business." 
 
 Disposing of an Old Stock. 
 
 ONE Mr. P. G., a gentleman well 
 known to many citizens of New Hamp- 
 shire as a successful merchant of C., 
 owed much of his good fortune to his 
 knowledge of human nature, of which
 
 234 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 he always endeavored to take advan- 
 tage. At one time, he opened, with 
 another person, a " branch store " in a 
 town in the north part of the State, and 
 which they mostly filled with the un- 
 salable goods from their principal store 
 in C. These goods were " as good as 
 new " among the rustics, and sold quite 
 as well, with the exception of a large 
 lot of that unique article of gentlemen's 
 wear denominated hogskin caps. 
 
 G. generally kept himself at his 
 house in C., though often visiting his 
 country store, staying sometimes a week 
 or more, and attending the country 
 church as a matter of course being 
 looked at with astonishment by the go- 
 to-meeting young men of the town. In- 
 deed, he was honored by their imita- 
 tion in almost all their acts, dress, &c. 
 What Mr. G. wore to church of a Sun- 
 day, gentleman as he was, was the pre- 
 vailing fashion there until he intro- 
 duced a new style at some subsequent 
 visit. 
 
 On one of these occasions, G. asked 
 his partner about the business prospects 
 and other matters in which he was in- 
 terested, and received the reply that 
 things went pretty quick at good 
 prices. 
 
 " Keep those old caps yet. I didn't 
 make a great bargain in buying them," 
 said G., espying a large box filled with 
 said caps. " Can't you get rid of them 
 at any price ? " 
 
 " Haven't sold one yet ; people don't 
 like them, and I have had a great no- 
 tion of throwing them out of the back 
 window, and getting rid of the trouble 
 of them. They won't go here, I think." 
 
 G. looked at them a moment, and ex- 
 claimed, " I have it ! You have kept 
 them out of sight, I see ! Next Mon- 
 day, you get them out and brush them 
 up, and I'll send you a score of custom- 
 ers before the week is out." 
 
 The following Sunday, G. appeared 
 in church with one of these identical 
 caps tipped gracefully on one side of 
 his head, and a splendid gold watch- 
 
 chain dangling from his vest pocket. 
 He was, as usual, the observed of all 
 observers; and it is needless to say 
 that, a fortnight after, when in his own 
 store in C., he received an order for two 
 dozen more of his " imperial " caps. 
 
 Bargaining: for a Jar. 
 
 PASSING by the shop of a dealer in 
 curiosities at Paris, a Neapolitan prince 
 observed a superb Japan jar, five and 
 one half feet high, and very large. He 
 commenced bargaining for it, but the 
 tradesman insisted on having four 
 thousand francs for the article, while 
 the prince was only willing to give 
 three thousand francs ; " but," said he, 
 " if you had the fellow to it, its value 
 would be infinitely greater to me." 
 " No doubt, Excellenza ; the value of 
 the pair would be fifteen thousand 
 francs." 
 
 A few days elapsed, and the Neapol- 
 itan received a summons to return to 
 his own country, and he went once 
 more to try to obtain the jar. " I again 
 offer three thousand francs," said he. " I 
 will not take less than four thousand," 
 said the tradesman. " I leave to-mor- 
 row." " No matter ; I will keep my 
 jar." 
 
 The next day, as the prince was su- 
 perintending the packing up of his 
 effects, a waiter of the hotel said, 
 " Your excellency would no doubt be 
 glad to find the fellow of the Japan 
 jar ? Well, there is one in the faubourg 
 St. Germain." " Is it possible ? " It 
 is quite certain." " Beppo, my car- 
 riage ! " Arrived in the faubourg, the 
 prince saw that the jar was precisely 
 the same as the one he had bargained 
 for. " Where did you get it ? " he asked 
 the tradesman who showed it. "At 
 the sale of the Duchess de Montebello. 
 There was a pair of them, but I was 
 outbid for the other." " Ah, yes, I un- 
 derstand. And what do you ask?" 
 "Four thousand francs." "He does 
 not know," thought the Neapolitan,
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 235 
 
 " that the other jar is offered for sale in 
 another part of Paris ! If I give him 
 four thousand for this, I can buy the 
 other at the same price, and so have 
 for eight thousand francs what is worth 
 fifteen thousand." 
 
 He bought the jar at once, paid for 
 it, and had it conveyed to his hotel. 
 He then went to the other tradesman 
 and asked for the jar. He was told 
 that the tradesman was out, and that 
 the jar had been taken away. He re- 
 turned the next day, but could not see 
 the dealer ; but he learned subsequent- 
 ly that the jar which he had purchased 
 for four thousand francs was the very 
 one he had offered three thousand for, 
 and that the waiter at the hotel had re- 
 ceived ten francs to inform the prince 
 of the existence of the jar in the fau- 
 bourg St. Germain a cool thousand 
 being, by this trick, put into the pock- 
 et of the tradesman. 
 
 Three Millionnaires Quarrelling: about 
 One Farthing:. 
 
 EL WES, the millionnaire banker and 
 miser, notwithstanding his dislike of 
 society, was a member of a club which 
 occasionally met at his own village, 
 and to which also belonged two other 
 wealthy and miserly baronets, besides 
 himself, viz., Sir Cordwell Firebras and 
 Sir John Barnardiston. With these 
 three, though all so rich, the reckoning 
 was always a subject of minute investi- 
 gation before they separated. One day, 
 when they were at loggerheads in set- 
 tling some trifling item, a wag, who 
 was likewise a member of the club, 
 called out to a friend that was passing, 
 " For heaven's sake, step up stairs, and 
 assist the poor ! Here are three mil- 
 lionnaire baronets chafing and quarrel- 
 ling about one farthing ! " 
 
 Price of Extortion and Revenge. 
 
 IN one of our cities there occurred, 
 some years ago, the following illustra- 
 tion of what sometimes comes from ex- 
 
 tortion. Mr. A., a wealthy merchant, 
 built a very expensive warehouse on 
 his lot, and after it was completed, B., 
 his next neighbor, discovered that it 
 was a couple or three inches on his lot. 
 A surveyor was sent for, and A. dis- 
 covered his mistake, and freely offered 
 B? a large sum if he would permit it 
 to remain. B. knew that he had his 
 wealthy neighbor in his power, there- 
 fore he seemed unwilling to sell the 
 narrow gore for twenty times the value 
 of the land. He only waited for a larrger 
 sum to be offered, believing that before 
 A. would pull down his warehouse, he 
 would pay half its value. But A., find- 
 ing that B. was determined to be satis- 
 fied with nothing but extortion, began 
 to pull down his noble building. Then 
 A. might have settled on his own terms, 
 but he had no offer to make. The last 
 foundation stone was removed. 
 
 But in order to revenge himself, A. 
 ordered his builder to run up the new 
 edifice a couple of inches within his own 
 line, and it was done : and the noble 
 building was again completed. A 
 short time afterward, B. commenced 
 the erection of his splendid warehouse, 
 directly against his neighbor's, and, of 
 course, two inches over on the lot of 
 
 A. The trap laid had succeeded as 
 was expected ; and after B.'s building 
 was completed, and his friends were 
 congratulating him on his splendid 
 warehouse, A. steps up and informs 
 
 B. that his structure encroaches on 
 his land ! B. laughs at the thought, 
 for amid the rubbish and deep founda- 
 tions, a couple of inches cannot be 
 detected by the naked eye. A sur- 
 veyor was sent for, and conceive the 
 blank astonishment that filled the mind 
 of B., when he found himself at the 
 mercy of one whom he had so deeply 
 wronged. This was the moment for A. 
 to show to the sordid B. what a mag- 
 nanimous heart could do. But, no ! A. 
 was determined upon revenge, and that 
 neighbor can name no sum at which 
 he would even look. He offered him
 
 236 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 half the cost of his magnificent ware- 
 house, if he would suffer him to let it 
 stand. No, he must pull it down ; and 
 down it came to the very foundations. 
 Such cases are rare indeed among mer- 
 chants. 
 
 Knowing: his Customer. 
 
 George the Second was re- 
 turning from his German dominions, 
 in his way between the Brill and Hel- 
 voetsluis, he was obliged to stay at an 
 obscure public house on - the road, 
 while some of his servants went for- 
 ward to obtain another carriage, that 
 in which he had travelled having bro- 
 ken down. The king ordered refresh- 
 ment, but all he could get was a pot 
 of coffee for himself and Lord Delawar, 
 and four bottles of gin made into punch, 
 for his footmen ; however, when the 
 bill was called for, the conscientious 
 Dutchman, knowing his customer, pre- 
 sented it as follows : 
 
 " To refreshments for his Sacred 
 Majesty, King George the Second, and 
 his household, 9." 
 
 Lord Delawar was so provoked at 
 this imposition, that the king overheard 
 his altercation with the landlord, and 
 demanded the cause of it. His lord- 
 ship immediately told him ; when his 
 majesty good-humoredly replied : " My 
 lord, the fellow is a great knave, but 
 pay him. Kings seldom pass this 
 way." 
 
 A similar anecdote is related of an- 
 other monarch, who, passing through a 
 town in Holland, was charged at the rate 
 of thirty dollars for two eggs. On this, 
 he said, " that eggs were surely scarce 
 in that town." " No, your majesty," 
 replied the landlord, " but kings are." 
 
 " Old Ouy " Putting Out the Light ; or, 
 Milliormaire Misers Hating: each 
 other's Frugality. 
 
 GUY, the broker and miser, was one 
 evening seated in his little back room, 
 
 meditating over a handful of half-light- 
 ed embers, confined within the narrow 
 precincts of a brick stove ; a farthing 
 candle was on the table at his side, but 
 it was not lit, and the fire afforded no 
 light to dissipate the gloom. He sat 
 there alone, planning some new spec- 
 ulation congratulating himself on sav- 
 ing a pennyworth of fuel, or else per- 
 chance cogitating as to how he could 
 bestow some thousand guineas in 
 charity. 
 
 His thoughts, whether on subjects 
 small or great, were interrupted by the 
 announcement of a visitor a shabby, 
 meagre, miserable-looking man ; but 
 compliments were exchanged and the 
 guest was invited to take a seat. Guy 
 immediately lighted his farthing can- 
 dle and desired to know the object 
 of the gentleman's call. The visitor 
 was no other than the celebrated Hop- 
 kins, whose fortune was about a million 
 and a half, and who, on account of his 
 avarice and rapacity, was known as 
 Vulture Hopkins. 
 
 " I have been told," said Hopkins, 
 as he entered the presence of Guy, 
 " that you are better versed in the 
 prudent and necessary art of saving, 
 than any man now living. I now wait 
 upon you simply for a lesson in fru- 
 gality, an art in which I used to think 
 I excelled, but I am told by all who 
 know you that you are greatly my 
 superior." 
 
 " If that is all you are come about," 
 said Guy, " why then we can talk the 
 matter over in the dark ; " so saying, 
 he with great deliberation put the ex- 
 tinguisher on his newly lighted far- 
 thing candle. Struck with this most 
 ready instance of practical economy, 
 Hopkins having no need of any mere 
 verbal lessons at once acknowledged 
 the superior ability of his host, and 
 thoughtfully took his leave, imbued 
 with profound respect for such an 
 adept in the art of saving.
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 237 
 
 Discounting- a Legacy. 
 
 TAYLOR, at one time one of the most 
 eminent stock jobbers in London, and 
 who died worth half a million dollars 
 in cash, was so penurious that he scarce- 
 ly allowed himself the common necessa- 
 ries of this life ; and this spirit he car- 
 ried out as well in his financial and 
 business dealings. A few days before 
 his decease, the officers of the parish 
 in which he resided, waited upon him 
 at his request ; they found the old man 
 on a wretched bed in a garret, making 
 his dinner on a thin slice of bacon and 
 a potato, of which he asked them to 
 partake. One of them accepted the 
 offer ; upon this, the miser desired his 
 cook to broil him another but, find- 
 ing the larder was totally empty, Tay- 
 lor harshly rebuked her for not having 
 it well ^supplied with a quarter of a 
 pound, to cut out in slices whenever it 
 was wanted for company. He then in- 
 formed the overseers of the poor, that he 
 had left by his will, one thousand pounds 
 sterling for their relief, and eagerly in- 
 quired if they would not allow him dis- 
 count for prompt payment : this being 
 assented to, apparently much delighted, 
 he immediately gave them a check for 
 nine hundred and fifty pounds, and 
 soon after breathed his last. 
 
 It. Beautte and the Official Smuggler. 
 
 IT is difficult to imagine a collection 
 more rich in those thousand wonders 
 which tempt the female heart, than is 
 seen at Beautte's, who stands at the 
 head of the fashionable jewellers in 
 Geneva ; it is almost enough to drive a 
 Parisian mad, or to make Cleopatra 
 palpitate with longing in her grave. 
 
 This jewelry is liable to a duty on 
 entering France ; but, for a premium 
 of five per cent., M. Beautte under- 
 takes to smuggle it. The bargain be- 
 tween the buyer and seller is publicly 
 made on this condition, as if there 
 were no custom-house officers in the 
 
 world M. Beautte possessing won- 
 derful address in setting them at fault, 
 and thus securing a vast amount of 
 profitable trade. 
 
 When the Count de Saint Crieg was 
 director-general of the customs, he 
 heard of this skill, by which the vigil- 
 ance of his officers was thwarted, and, 
 so frequently was it mentioned, that 
 he resolved to assure himself whether 
 all was true that was said of it. He 
 subsequently went to Geneva, presented 
 himself in person at M. Beautte's shop, 
 and purchased thirty thousand francs' 
 worth of jewelry, on condition that it 
 should be delivered, without paying the 
 import duty, at his residence in Paris. 
 M. Beautte agreed to the condition like 
 a man accustomed to bargains of 
 the kind, and merely presented to the 
 purchaser a sort of promissory note, by 
 which he undertook to pay the usual 
 five per cent., besides the thirty thou- 
 sand francs purchase money. The latter 
 smiled ; took up a pen, signed " De 
 Saint Crieg, director-general of the 
 French customs," and handed back the 
 paper to Beautte, who looked at the 
 signature, and contented himself with 
 quietly answering, with a bend of the 
 head, " M. le directeur, the article which 
 you have done me the honor of buying, 
 will arrive at Paris as soon as your- 
 self." 
 
 M. de Saint Crieg, whose interest 
 was now excited to the highest pitch, 
 scarcely gave himself time to dine, sent 
 to the post for horses, and set out an 
 hour after the bargain had been con- 
 cluded. M. de Saint Crieg made him- 
 self known to the officers who came to 
 examine his carriage, told the principal 
 one what had happened him, enjoined 
 the most active surveillance on the 
 whole line, and promised a reward of 
 fifty louis to the officer who should 
 succeed in seizing the prohibited jew- 
 elry. 
 
 Not a custom-house officer slept dur- 
 ing three days. In the mean while, M. 
 de Saint Crieg arrived at Paris, alight-
 
 238 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ed at his residence, kissed his wife and 
 children, and went to his room to take 
 off his travelling costume. The first 
 thing he perceived on the chimney 
 piece was an elegant box, with the 
 shape of which he was acquainted. 
 He approached it, and read on the 
 silver plate which ornamented the 
 top, " The Count de Saint Grieg, 
 Director-General of the Customs." 
 He opened it, and found the jewelry 
 he had purchased at Geneva 1 
 
 Beautte had made an arrangement 
 with one of the waiters at the inn, 
 who, while assisting M. de Saint Grieg's 
 servants to pack their master's luggage, 
 had slipped the prohibited box among 
 it. On his arriving at Paris, his valet, 
 noticing the elegance of the case, and 
 the inscription engraved upon it, had 
 hastened to place it upon his master's 
 chimney piece. Thus the director-gen- 
 eral of the customs was the first smug- 
 gler in the kingdom. 
 
 Mode of Protecting: the Money Drawer. 
 
 A YOUNG apprentice lad was very 
 ingeniously detected in stealing money 
 from the drawer of Mr. Throop's store. 
 He had for some months made it a 
 practice to call at the store when there 
 was no one in excepting the owner or 
 one of his clerks. He would generally 
 then call for wine, or some trifling arti- 
 cle kept in the store cellar, and, in 
 their absence to procure it, it was sus- 
 pected that he made somewhat too 
 free with the money drawer. One day, 
 Mr. Throop fastened a strong cord to 
 the back of the drawer, and let one 
 end pass through a small hole into the 
 cellar. It was but a short time before 
 the boy came in, and observing no one 
 but the proprietor about the store, 
 called for some wine. On entering the 
 cellar, the owner perceived the cord to 
 move, caught hold of it, and, with a 
 sudden and violent jerk, made it fast. 
 He then ran up stairs, and found the 
 young rogue with, his hand fast in the 
 
 drawer, and he was taken, as Prince 
 Hal says, " in the manner." 
 
 "Done for" Twice. 
 
 A PAT, burly English landlord was 
 sitting one afternoon at the door of his 
 inn, when a person entered the house, 
 and after complimenting its cleanliness 
 and snug appearance, ordered a good 
 dinner and a bottle of wine. The din- 
 ner, when cooked, was laid in an upper 
 apartment, looking out upon a pleasant 
 garden ; and after it had been thorough- 
 ly ' discussed,' and the wine sipped 
 toothsomely to the bottom of the bot- 
 tle, the satisfied guest sent for his host, 
 and, when he had entered the room, 
 thus addressed him : " You have a fine 
 inn here, landlord a very fine inn ; 
 everything is particularly nice in fact, 
 what J call comfortable." The land- 
 lord expressed his gratification. 
 
 " I shall have great pleasure," con- 
 tinued the guest, without noticing the 
 interruption, "in recommending your 
 house to my friends in town. Ahem ! 
 There remains only one thing more to 
 mention, landlord ; and as the subject 
 is one which I have reason to think 
 will be as unpleasant to you as to my- 
 self, I will express it in a few words : 
 I have not, at this moment, any money ; 
 but I will be here again in " "No 
 money ! " exclaimed the landlord, in a 
 voice husky with anger " NO MONEY ! ! 
 Then why did you come to the ' Hen 
 and Chickens,' and run up a bill that 
 you can't pay ? Get out of my house 
 this instant ! Go ! " 
 
 " I expected this," replied the guest, 
 rising ; " I anticipated this treatment ; 
 nor can I much blame you, landlord, 
 to tell the truth, for you don't know 
 me. Because you sometimes meet 
 with deception, you think / am de- 
 ceiving you ; but I pledge you my 
 honor that a fortnight from to-day I 
 will be with you again, and you will 
 confess yourself ashamed of your sus- 
 picions." " Bah ! you're a swindler ! "
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 239 
 
 ejaculated Boniface ; " this will be the 
 last of you take that ? " and with a 
 vigorous coup de pied, was " sped the 
 parting guest." " You will live to 
 regret this, landlord, I am sure ; but 
 I do not blame you, for you are igno- 
 rant of my character," was the meek 
 reply to this gross indignity. 
 
 Just two weeks from that day, this 
 same ill-used gentleman (with a travel- 
 ling friend) was, with many apologies 
 and protestations, shown into the best 
 room of the celebrated " Hen and Chick- 
 ens " inn. The landlord's profuse apol- 
 ogies were accepted ; he was forgiven ; 
 and even invited to dine with the two 
 friends upon the best dinner, flanked 
 by the very choicest wines which his 
 house afforded. When all was finished, 
 and while the landlord, who had be- 
 come exceedingly mellow, was protest- 
 ing that he should never be so sus- 
 picious of a " real gentleman " again 
 (referring, of course, to the little scene 
 at the previous visit), he was inter- 
 rupted by his first guest with " But, 
 landlord, there is one thing which we 
 ought, in simple justice to you, to men- 
 tion. / do not happen to have, at this 
 moment, a single penny ; and, I grieve 
 to say, that my companion, who is a 
 good man, but, in a mere worldly point 
 of view, very poor, is not a whit better 
 off. Under these unpleasant circum- 
 stances, it becomes, as it were, a neces- 
 sity, to bid you a very good evening." 
 It would be difficult to say whether the 
 phiz of the amazed landlord was black 
 or blue at this point. But, ejaculating, 
 ." Done twice ! the Hen and Chickens 
 done twice ! and both times exactly 
 alike," he went down to set the swindle 
 to the account of " Profit and Loss." 
 
 Looking' Glass for Wall Street. 
 
 THE aptness of Mr. Kimball's de- 
 scription of a certain class of nervous, 
 anxious people, who have to raise 
 money from day to day, and whose 
 business locality is Wall street, will be 
 
 appreciated by all who have seen a 
 certain proverbial animal or his tusks. 
 He says : It seems miraculous how this 
 class can endure such a never-ending 
 state of bondage. Some of these are 
 fashionable, their connections are of 
 the first distinction, their associations 
 most desirable. They keep up hand- 
 some establishments; they earn by 
 their pursuits $4,000 a year, and spend 
 $5,000. They always anticipate what 
 is due them, and are always harassed for 
 ready money. They are honorable fel- 
 lows, and would not plead usury under 
 circumstances the most aggravating. 
 They make notes, and get a broker to 
 sell them. This broker, understanding 
 their antecedents, and whom they 
 are most intimate with, goes proba- 
 bly to some rich friend of the partic- 
 ular " party " wanting a loan, who 
 is thoroughly acquainted with the 
 " case," and who knows that the notes 
 will be paid when due, although at 
 the sacrifice of putting a new one on 
 the market, and getting it shaved some- 
 where. So he cashes it at a fearful 
 rate, puts the broker under an oath of 
 secrecy not to reveal where he got the 
 money, which oath it is for the broker's 
 interest to keep, and our fashionable 
 acquaintance is relieved. He hurries 
 home in time for the opera or a dinner 
 out, and, meeting several duns in the 
 hall, he pays them off, and sets about 
 his evening's enjoyment. 
 
 There are others who, having an 
 excellent Government contract, either 
 " General," " State," or " Corporation," 
 need funds to help them through 
 with it. They can afford to pay well, 
 and they do pay well for cash accom- 
 modations. In fact, the street is full 
 of persons about to realize, who want 
 money in advance of the period, and 
 who are ready to pay a large bonus for 
 it. The result is, they do all the work, 
 and the money lender gets nearly all 
 the profits. Sometimes this latter per- 
 sonage mistakes his investment and 
 makes a loss. But he can well afford
 
 240 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 it. And he never quarrels with the 
 man who has been so unfortunate as 
 to " let him in." 
 
 Hanging a Broker, One Hundred Tears 
 Ago. 
 
 JUST one hundred years ago, namely, 
 in 1762, a London broker, named John 
 Rice, was hung for malpractice in busi- 
 ness. A female customer of Rice, and 
 for whom Rice was in the habit of 
 receiving stock dividends, was, under 
 false representations, induced to grant 
 a power to sell, as well as to receive the 
 interest. The broker sold all his pa- 
 tron's stock, employed the proceeds 
 to meet his losses, and kept up the 
 deception by sending her the proceeds 
 as usual. The lady, moved by doubt, 
 or by some other impulse, in course of 
 time intimated to Rice her intention 
 of visiting the city. Unable to re- 
 store the principal, Rice took the alarm, 
 and fled, leaving with his wife five 
 thousand pounds of the misappropri- 
 ated property. Ignorant of his deeds, 
 and anxious to join her husband, she 
 also embarked for Holland. The weath- 
 er was rough; the vessel was driven 
 back ; and the person sent in search of 
 the husband apprehended the wife, who 
 yielded the money in her possession, 
 leaving herself entirely destitute. The 
 search continued for Rice, and being at 
 last found, he was made to suffer the 
 stringent penalty of the law. 
 
 Quaker Broker and the Stolen 
 Doubloons. 
 
 THE Quakers were once, more than 
 at present, a power in the commer- 
 cial world in New York. They were 
 an honest, industrious, and extremely 
 shrewd race of merchants, not devoid 
 of humor and sarcasm, and, though 
 religious non-combatants, not in the 
 least disposed to allow themselves to 
 be the victims of roguery. 
 
 One of this fraternity a dealer in 
 specie and exchange, and a large pur- 
 chaser of gold coin one day left his 
 
 counting house in haste, and crossed 
 the street to accost a friend. He had 
 just purchased a quantity of doub- 
 loons, which he had omitted to lock 
 up in his safe. The office was, empty. 
 When the old Quaker returned, the 
 room was in the same condition no 
 one was in it but one of the bags of 
 doubloons was missing. The Quaker 
 now locked up the others, and opened 
 not his mouth on the subject of the 
 loss. Days passed, and weeks, but no 
 reward was offered, no policemen were 
 set on the track of the thief the old 
 Quaker stood his loss like a statue. 
 Two or three months afterward, his 
 neighbor, a small mercantile man, hap- 
 pened to be in his counting room, 
 conversing on the topics of the day. 
 Suddenly turning to the Quaker, he 
 inquired : 
 
 " By the way, Mr. , did you ever 
 
 hear anything of the bag of doubloons 
 you lost ? " 
 
 Up started the old Quaker in an 
 instant. 
 
 " Thee 1 the thief, John ! thee're the 
 thief / never told any one I lost the 
 lag!" 
 
 Needless to say, the doubloons were 
 restored, and the clumsy rogue par- 
 doned, with a caution to go and sin 
 no more. 
 
 Louis the Fifteenth's Opinion of his 
 Own Paper. 
 
 THE fact of Louis the Fifteenth's be- 
 ing a stock jobber was a somewhat un- 
 fortunate one for those who fell into 
 his financial clutches. He operated 
 principally, in his exchange and loan 
 transactions, through M. Bertin, his 
 banker. The latter did his master's 
 stockjobbing very profitably, too, by 
 buying, on the spot, good paper at six 
 and seven per cent., according to the 
 scarcity of money. One day the bank- 
 er proposed to Louis the Fifteenth an 
 operation of several millions. 
 
 " Sire," said M. Bertin to the royal 
 stock jobber, " the royal bills lose a great
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 241 
 
 deal in the place; their discount is 
 now considerable ; it is the very mo- 
 ment to buy several millions. I am 
 certain they will rise, and that there 
 must follow a considerable profit to 
 some one in a short time." 
 
 " That paper," replied the " prudent " 
 monarch, " is not to be depended upon ; 
 the risk is too great ! " 
 
 It was his own paper of which he was 
 talking ! 
 
 Consequence of a Simple Mercantile 
 Speculation. 
 
 ACCORDING to a French authority, 
 the war between England and France 
 in 1777 was the consequence of a simple 
 mercantile speculation. Several of our 
 ministers (says a writer in high posi- 
 tion at that period) have made among 
 themselves an act of copartnership, in 
 the commerce of America. The first 
 expeditions proved very profitable ; but 
 as they have a considerable outstanding 
 fund, they will not dissolve their part- 
 nership before they are reimbursed for 
 their advances and receive the profits 
 which are to arise, according to the cal- 
 culations they have made. Peace would 
 overturn all their speculations, and ruin 
 the lenders of the various funds. The 
 expenses, etc., of the " establishment " 
 amount to an enormous sum. First of 
 all must be paid their directors ; their 
 bookkeepers ; their under clerks ; then 
 follow the mistresses of the ministers, 
 their sons or daughters, brothers, cous- 
 ins, and even their grandchildren ; 
 then those who lend their name to this 
 speculation ; courtiers and protectors. 
 When this world of dependants is paid, 
 ministers are to personally gain, not- 
 withstanding all, cent, per cent. Then 
 calculate the inferior profits which 
 must be made before the net balance. 
 Several of the ministers' proteges, who 
 were known to have had at first only a 
 salary of six thousand livres, afterward 
 enjoyed, by these commercial operations 
 priced with blood, an income of one 
 hundred thousand, and became lords of 
 16 
 
 two or three manors. One of the chief 
 clerks of a French mercantile house was 
 heard to remark, in November, 1777 : 
 If peace took place at this moment, my 
 principal would be ruined, and I too. 
 We have all our fortune in America, 
 and we wait for it with impatience. 
 This is the reason for which the king 
 has not yet declared for the Americans ; 
 he will only do this when the ships we 
 expect are safely arrived. 
 
 City Merchant Securing: a Customer. 
 
 AN eager merchant in New York, 
 having heard of the arrival of a coun- 
 try trader who was known to be a large 
 purchaser and of unquestionable credit, 
 was resolved to get him to visit his es- 
 tablishment and, once there, he felt 
 sure that he could secure him as a cus- 
 tomer. He accordingly sent out one of 
 his drummers, of whom he had a large 
 number, adapted to every taste and 
 disposition. The one sent, however, 
 returned without success. Number two 
 was despatched, and with no better re- 
 sult ; and again, number three, and so 
 on, until all had gone and come back 
 without their man. The merchant now 
 determined to go himself; and, finding 
 that brandy and water and free tickets 
 to the theatre were of no avail, for the 
 country trader did not take the one nor 
 go to the other, and would not be per- 
 suaded by any such inducements, he 
 was reduced to the necessity of a ruse. 
 It was simple enough, but it proved 
 effectual. On the merchant taking his 
 leave, after a pleasant interview, he 
 took care to commit the " mistake " of 
 taking the trader's hat instead of his 
 own. Next morning, as was expected, 
 the merchant received a prompt visit 
 at his store, from the country trader, 
 who came to look up the hat which 
 had thus, as he supposed, been hur- 
 riedly exchanged. This was, of course, 
 all that was wanted. The visit was se- 
 cured, and a good bill was the result.
 
 242 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Tradesmen's Ticketing System. 
 
 THE tendency of tradesmen to speak 
 " by the card " is made manifest by 
 the enormous extent to which goods 
 are now-a-days ticketed. At one es- 
 tablishment articles are being " given 
 away," while at the next door the pro- 
 prietors are undergoing the daily tor- 
 ment of an " alarming sacrifice." One 
 would imagine that self-immolation 
 was a popular pastime with the trades- 
 men in our cities. Innumerable win- 
 dows announce the determination of 
 the proprietor " to sell considerably 
 under cost;" from which it would 
 seem that keeping a shop is a piece of 
 disinterestedness, by which one man de- 
 termines to victimize himself and oc- 
 casionally a few creditors for the ben- 
 efit of the public in general. These 
 sacrifices, however, do not seem to be 
 wholly without their reward, for, 
 strange to say, the tradesmen who re- 
 sort to them very frequently prosper, 
 in spite of their recklessness of their 
 own private interests. Thus, while the 
 tickets in the windows bespeak a " ru- 
 inous reduction," the premises them- 
 selves display, from day to day, "a 
 splendid enlargement," and when " sac- 
 rifices " are to be performed, the temples 
 are often decorated in a style of gorge- 
 ous magnificence. That sacrifices are 
 made, there can be no doubt, but it is 
 another question who are the victims. 
 In some houses it is in contemplation 
 to keep a bankrupt permanently on the 
 premises, to professionally preside at a 
 counter set apart for giving things away 
 and going to ruin. 
 
 Economical Hardware Merchant. 
 
 A FEW years since, a snug hardware 
 merchant, who had made his fortune in 
 the city of New York, determined to 
 sell off his stock and retire. His goods 
 were soon disposed of, and the shop 
 empty. In sweeping out the store one 
 day, however, he found in the crevices 
 
 and corners a few stray shot about 
 twenty of all sizes. These he gathered 
 up in the hollow of his hand, and stood 
 for some seconds gazing at them ; at 
 length, seizing his hat, he went into an 
 adjoining liquor store, where they also 
 sold shot, and thus addressed the pro- 
 prietor : " In cleaning my store, I found 
 a few shot they are of no use to me, 
 but to you they are worth something ; 
 I don't value them very highly, but 
 perhaps (here he niggardly lowered his 
 voice) you would give me half a glass 
 of ~beer for them." 
 
 Unparalleled Parsimony and Benevo- 
 lence of a Millionnaire. 
 
 WHEN, on a certain occasion, a pub- 
 lic hospital was to be built in London, 
 many benevolent individuals volun- 
 teered to solicit contributions by call- 
 ing upon the inhabitants. Two or 
 three gentlemen went to a small house 
 in an impoverished neighborhood for 
 the pence of the poor were solicited as 
 well as the pounds of the rich. The 
 door was partially open, and as they 
 drew nigh, they overheard an old man 
 giving a female servant a thorough 
 scolding for having thrown away a 
 match, only one end of which had been 
 used. Although so trivial a matter, the 
 master appeared to be greatly enraged, 
 and the collectors remained some time 
 outside the door, before the old man 
 had finished his angry .lecture, and 
 could hear a knock from the outside. 
 When the tones of his voice were some- 
 what subdued, they entered, and, pre- 
 senting themselves to this strict observ- 
 er of frugality and saving, explained 
 the object of their application ; but 
 they did not anticipate much success. 
 
 The millionnaire miser, however, for 
 such he was reputed in the neighbor- 
 hood, no sooner understood their ob- 
 ject, than he opened a closet, and 
 bringing forth a well-filled bag, count- 
 ed therefrom four hundred guineas, 
 which he presented to the astonished 
 applicants. They expressed their sur-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 243 
 
 prise and thankfulness, and could not 
 refrain from telling the old gentleman 
 that they had overheard his difficulty 
 with his domestic, and how little they 
 expected, in consequence, to have met 
 with such munificence from him. 
 
 "Gentlemen," replied the old man, 
 "your surprise is occasioned by my 
 care of a thing of such little conse- 
 quence ; but I keep my house and save 
 my money in my own way ; my parsi- 
 mony enables me to bestow more liber- 
 ally on charity. With regard to benev- 
 olent donations, you may always expect 
 most from prudent people who keep 
 their own accounts, and who pay atten- 
 tion to trifles." 
 
 Colloaay between a Storekeeper and 
 
 his Customer. 
 
 STOREKEEPEB : " That's a bad fifty- 
 cent piece. I can't take it. It is only 
 lead silvered over." 
 
 " Well," replies the customer, " ad- 
 mitting such to be the fact, I should 
 say that the ingenuity displayed in the 
 deception might well induce you to ac- 
 cept it. Admire, sir, the devotion of 
 the artist to the divine idea of LIBEB- 
 TY, the idol of us all ! He, having 
 wrought her effigy in humble lead, in 
 order to make it worthier of that glori- 
 ous impression, resorts to the harmless 
 expedient of silvering it over ! And 
 shall we harshly repudiate his patriotic 
 instincts deny his work the paltry 
 value of fifty cents ? Oh, no, sir ! you'll 
 take it ; I know you will ! " 
 
 " Enough said : " he did take it, like 
 a man ! 
 
 Jew Losing a Bargain. 
 
 IT is not often that a Jew, bent on a 
 nice little trade, is outwitted, or comes 
 off second best. That such a contin- 
 gency, however, is among the rare pos- 
 sibilities in business affairs, the follow- 
 ing will show : 
 
 Some children were once playing in 
 the Kent road, near Blackheath, Eng- 
 land, amusing themselves with making 
 
 grottos of oyster shells ; and, in order 
 to give effect, one of the children went 
 home and begged of his mother to let 
 him have two old pictures that were 
 lying about the house and considered 
 but as useless lumber, to adorn their 
 grotto. This was readily granted, and 
 the old pictures were placed one on 
 each side of the grotto. 
 
 In a short time a Jew dealer came 
 by, and after looking at the pictures 
 for some time, he offered to give the 
 children sixpence for them; the chil- 
 dren refused, and said that they be- 
 longed to their parents. The Jew, at 
 last, offered five shillings, but was still 
 refused, and, at last, went to the par- 
 ents, and offered ten shillings ; but the 
 extreme eagerness of the Jew excited 
 some suspicion that the old pictures 
 were of more value than had been sup- 
 posed, and this was confirmed when the 
 Jew offered five pounds and five shil- 
 lings for them, which was also refused. 
 The next day, the father of the children 
 took the pictures to a connoisseur, to 
 inquire if they were of any value, and 
 that gentleman gave him a letter of re- 
 commendation to a person in London, 
 who purchased them for fourteen hun- 
 dred pounds, and they were afterward 
 sold for much more. 
 
 Attention to Trivial Things by Girard. 
 
 EVEN after his head was white with 
 the frosts of nearly fourscore years, 
 Girard gave the minutest attention to 
 the most trivial thing that could affect 
 his fortune. " Take that lot of fowls 
 away ; the roosters are too many, they 
 will keep the hens poor," said the old 
 merchant to a farmer who had brought 
 them for one of Girard's ships " take 
 them away I will not buy them." 
 
 Jewish Opinion of Rothschild. 
 
 IT is very well known that, whatever 
 may have been the redeeming traits in 
 Baron Rothschild's character, the syna-
 
 244 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 gogue generally did not entertain the 
 same respect for him as the German 
 Jews do for the Rothschilds of Frank- 
 fort. Some thought he might have 
 done more for his brethren than he 
 did ; and that if he had only used the 
 influence which he possessed with Gov- 
 ernment and the many friends which 
 he had at court, all the civil disabilities 
 with which the British Jews were stig- 
 matized would have been abolished, 
 when the proposition was first mooted. 
 " But Rothschild," as was said of him 
 by an eminent English Jew, " was too 
 great a slave to his money, and all 
 other slavery was counted liberty in his 
 sight." 
 
 Avarice of Osterwald, the French 
 Banker. 
 
 OSTERWALD, the wealthy French 
 banker, was a man remarkable for his 
 penuriousness. So strong was this 
 habit in its hold upon him, that, even 
 within a few days of his death, no im- 
 portunities could induce him to buy a 
 few pounds of meat, for the purpose of 
 making a little soup, in order to nour- 
 ish him. " "Tis true," he remarked, " I 
 should not dislike the soup, but I have 
 no appetite for the meat itself; what, 
 then, will become of that, if I cannot 
 eat it ? " At the time that he refused 
 this nourishment, for fear of being 
 obliged to give away two or three 
 pounds of meat, there was tied around 
 his neck a silken bag which contained 
 eight hundred assignats of one thou- 
 sand livres each. At his outset in life 
 he drank a pint of beer, which served 
 him for supper, every night, at a house 
 much frequented, and from which he 
 carried home all the bottle corks he 
 could come at ; of these latter, in the 
 course of eight years, he had collected 
 as many as sold for twelve louis d'ors 
 a sum that laid the foundation of his 
 fortune, the superstructure of which 
 was rapidly raised by his uncommon 
 success in stock jobbing. He died pos- 
 sessed of the snug sum of one hundred 
 
 and twenty-five thousand pounds ster- 
 ling. 
 
 Estimate of his Own Life by a Miser. 
 
 AN old bachelor, whose trading skill, 
 combined with the most grinding close- 
 fistedness, had enabled him to amass a 
 clever fortune of some fifty thousand 
 dollars, meeting a friend one day, be- 
 gan to harangue him very learnedly 
 upon the detestable sin of avarice, and 
 gave the following instance of it. 
 " About three years ago," said he, " by 
 a very odd accident, I fell into a well, 
 and was absolutely within a very few 
 minutes of perishing, before I could 
 prevail upon an unconscious dog of a 
 laborer, who happened to be within 
 hearing of my cries, to help me out for 
 a shilling. The fellow was so rapacious 
 as to insist upon having twenty-five 
 cents, for above a quarter of an hour, 
 and I verily believe he would not have 
 abated me a single farthing, if he had 
 not seen me at the last gasp ; and I de- 
 termined to die rather than submit to 
 his extortion." 
 
 Stephen Whitney's Charities. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING he stood in the 
 front rank of New York merchants 
 in point of immense wealth, Mr. Whit- 
 ney's charities were extremely stinted. 
 When the congregation of which he 
 was a member were building a mission 
 house, he was applied to to head the 
 subscription, which he did with a tri- 
 fling sum. The gift was refused, and a 
 larger one was demanded, as in better 
 keeping with his position. " Sir," was 
 his reply, "if you go on in this way, 
 there will not be a rich man left in the 
 city of New York." It is also said 
 that on a certain occasion he was called 
 on to aid a political movement with 
 his subscription. " Sir," was his reply, 
 "I have no money to spare; but I'll 
 come and sit up all night to fold bal- 
 lots for you."
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 245 
 
 Skinflint Philosophy. 
 
 WHEN that respectable skinflint, 
 Elwes, who left such an enormous for- 
 tune in gold to be divided between 
 his two sons, was advised to give them 
 some education, his characteristic an- 
 swer was : " Putting things into peo- 
 ple's heads is taking money out of 
 their pocket." 
 
 Raising his Customer. 
 
 THE perseverance of trade hunters in 
 some of our large cities will not lose 
 anything in comparison with the tena- 
 city of that griping little animal called 
 the leech. One of this hunting or 
 drumming class in Boston, seeing the 
 name of a Western trader registered at 
 one of the hotels, who he knew would 
 be a desirable customer, and anxious to 
 secure him first, put himself upon the 
 said trader's trail in this wise : He sat 
 down in the office of the hotel to watch 
 the Tcey of the Western man's bedroom 
 till he should come in to claim it ; but 
 something kept the stranger out very 
 late, and the drummer fell asleep. 
 When he awoke, he found that his 
 customer had escaped him by coming 
 in and going to bed. He was obliged 
 to give it up, therefore, for that night, 
 but early on the next morning, he 
 repaired to the door of the gentleman's 
 bedroom, and seeing, as he expected to, 
 his loots outside, he, with a lead pencil, 
 marked them across again and again, 
 until they could not be mistaken, 
 and once more took up his position 
 in the office, where he could exam- 
 ine at a glance, the boots of all who 
 came down. Finally he discovered 
 the ones with the well-known marks 
 upon them, when, with, much suavity, 
 he cordially addressed the wearer by 
 name, as if he had known him for 
 years, and, with some other appropri- 
 ate finesse, which it would be quite im- 
 possible to describe, "raised his cus- 
 tomer." 
 
 Purloining Speculator in the French 
 Funds. 
 
 X was a speculator upon the 
 
 Bourse of Paris sometimes successful 
 and sometimes the contrary. He had 
 wasted some years in this uncertain 
 way of livelihood, when a sudden shift- 
 ing of the funds made him utterly pen- 
 niless. He wandered in a melancholy 
 way about the Exchange for a week 
 after, wishing very vainly for a few 
 thousands, to make a new venture on ; 
 when one day he chanced to see a 
 wealthy banker of the town put into 
 his pocket a well- filled portemonnaie, 
 containing some fifty thousand francs. 
 He knew the old banker well knew 
 his habits knew his absent habit of 
 thought, and he seemed to him a good 
 subject for an amateur bit of roguery. 
 He therefore pushed after him in the 
 throng which belongs to the closing 
 hour of the Bourse, and, brushing with 
 feigned carelessness against him, man- 
 aged to transfer his bank bills to his 
 own pocket. 
 
 The banker did not miss his purse 
 until he was by his own office fire. It 
 was too late to attempt to find it again 
 in the hall of the Exchange. Indeed, 
 all his inquiries proved vain. On the 
 fourth day after his loss, he received a 
 pleasant letter, informing him that his 
 money was in good hands, and if affairs 
 at the Bourse turned well as the wri- 
 ter hoped might be the case he would 
 in time refund the money. 
 
 After a time, the banker, who had 
 nearly forgotten the money and the 
 note, received an enclosure of thirty 
 thousand francs, on account of the fifty 
 thousand missing four years before ; 
 and the writer condescended at the 
 same time to inform him that his spfec- 
 ulations were looking favorably, and, 
 if there was no heavy fall within a 
 month, he hoped to refund him the 
 balance with interest. 
 
 The banker was grateful for the en- 
 closure ; but, on attentive examination 
 of the handwriting, fancied he perceiv-
 
 246 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ed some resemblance to letters ad- 
 dressed him by a certain broker of his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 An " expert " was called, who pro- 
 nounced unhesitatingly the different 
 letters to be written by one and the 
 same person. Upon this, the eager 
 banker, just now in need of the addi- 
 tional twenty thousand, entered a pros- 
 ecution against the broker, insisting 
 upon immediate payment of the bal- 
 ance. 
 
 X yery naturally defended him- 
 self against a charge of robbery, which 
 rested on so unsubstantial proof, and 
 defied evidence of his misdeeds ; with 
 what result is best known to the 
 parties. 
 
 In view of the uncertainty of the de- 
 cision, it is a question if the banker 
 would not have pursued the safer pol- 
 icy in receiving quietly the disgorge- 
 ment of a rogue who had proved so 
 prompt in his instalments. 
 
 Knavery of British and Chinese 
 Traders Compared. 
 
 ACCORDING to a well-known mercan- 
 tile writer, " A grocer is a man who 
 buys and sells sugar, and plums, and 
 spices, for gain." 
 
 Happy, says a London writer, is the 
 English grocer, who can lay his hand 
 upon his commercial heart, and, mak- 
 ing answer to the text, can say " I am 
 the man." For of the men who take 
 over unto their shop doors the name 
 of grocer, how many are there who buy 
 and sell sugar, and sugar only; who 
 turn the penny upon spices in their 
 purity ; vend nought but the true mace 
 the undoctored clove ? 
 
 Great is the villany of the Chinese ; 
 but it is written in certain books of the 
 prying chemist, that the roguery of the 
 Englishman bent, it may be, upon the 
 means of social respectability doth 
 outblush the pale face of the Tartar 
 tricksters. 
 
 The Chinaman glazes his tea with 
 Prussian blue ; he paints his Congou, 
 
 and adds a perfume to his Twankay ; 
 but he the pig-tailed heathen does 
 not recognize in a Britisher a man and 
 a brother, and, in his limited sympa- 
 thies, fails to acknowledge, in any Brit- 
 ish maiden, of any fabulous age soever, 
 a woman and a sister. The China tea- 
 man is a benighted barbarian; the 
 British grocer is an effulgent Christian. 
 The Chinaman's religion is the gust of 
 revenge ; the Briton's creed is the creed 
 of common love. (Oh !) 
 
 It is possible, if the effort be made, 
 to drop a tear over the ignorance of 
 the Chinaman who dusts his faded tea 
 leaves over with chromate of lead ; but 
 shall not one's eyes flash fire at the en- 
 lightened British tea dealer, who to the 
 withered leaf imparts the mortal glow 
 of plumbago ? Nevertheless, there are 
 grocers, in the commercial form of men, 
 who treat the stomachs of their cus- 
 tomers as customers treat their stoves 
 namely, they bestow upon their in- 
 ternals the questionable polish of black 
 lead, innocently swallowed in cups of 
 liquid, worse and blacker than the La- 
 cedemonian black broth. How many 
 an innocent tea-loving spinster, proud 
 of the jetty loveliness of her fireplace, 
 would vent a spasm of horror did she 
 know that the polish of her own stove 
 and the bloom of her own black tea, 
 fragrant and smoking at her lips, were 
 of one and the same black lead of 
 lead that, in due sufficiency, is akin to 
 coffin lead ! And the English grocer, 
 intent upon deceit, outvies say the 
 chemists the teaman of the flowery 
 kingdom. There is not a toss-up be- 
 tween the two ; and if there be, though 
 China beats by a tail, England fails not 
 to win by a head. 
 
 Of coffee (a word still found in some 
 of the dictionaries) it is hardly neces- 
 sary to speak the acres of chiccory, 
 wherein the pious grocer as well as his 
 customers may " walk forth to muse at 
 eventide," have a language and a les- 
 son of their own. It may be added, 
 however, that perhaps there is not a
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 247 
 
 more touching, a more instructive, and 
 withal a more pathetic picture than 
 either man or woman complacently em- 
 ployed in drinking what the drinker, in 
 more than primitive innocence, believes 
 to be coffee grocer's coffee, at one shil- 
 ling per pound ! 
 
 "Cornering" among: Brokers. 
 
 THE operation of " cornering," as the 
 term is, is played by brokers in the fol- 
 lowing manner : Four, five, six, or ten 
 (as the case may be) brokers enter into 
 an arrangement with each other to buy 
 and get control of the entire stock of 
 some company. They commence by 
 depressing the stock as much as possi- 
 ble. To do this, they must all appear 
 to be sellers, and cry down the price, 
 representing it to be worthless, and 
 themselves heartily sick of everything 
 pertaining to it. While they are pub- 
 licly selling lots of one hundred or two 
 hundred shares, their agents or tools 
 are buying all that they can get hold 
 of. As soon as they can buy all the 
 cash stock they find in this way, they 
 turn suddenly around and begin to buy 
 on time. Parties not in [the secret, of 
 course, are willing to sell on thirty, six- 
 ty, or ninety days even though they 
 do not possess the stock thinking 
 that before the expiration of that time 
 they will be able to buy it at a less 
 price than they sold it at. In this way, 
 thousands of shares are sold, to be de- 
 livered at a future day, to the very men 
 who own every share of the stock that 
 has ever been issued. When the time 
 arrives for delivery, the sellers discover 
 that there is no stock to be had but of 
 the men to whom they have sold it. 
 Of course they must pay whatever the 
 owners choose to demand. If the game 
 is well played, the cornerers will make 
 as much in selling as they did in buy- 
 ing in. Should every one of the party 
 prove true to his comrades, they will so 
 manage as to get rid of the whole stock 
 to outsiders at a high price. It will be 
 
 readily seen that this is a very danger- 
 ous game unless well played ; for should 
 any of the parties interested " let fly " 
 without letting the others know it, the 
 game is up, and although he may make 
 a fortune, it will be at the sacrifice of 
 all the others. 
 
 Stock "Washing:.'' 
 
 WHAT is known as the game of 
 "washing" among stock brokers, is 
 when John makes a sale in public to 
 Joe, with a previous understanding 
 that Joe is not to take the stock. For 
 instance, John holds a large amount of 
 " Harlem," which he is anxious to get 
 rid of. If he throws it into the market 
 at once, he is pretty sure to knock the 
 price down. His safety depends upon 
 a stiff market ; and he goes to Joe and 
 makes an arrangement with him to 
 take five hundred shares at full price 
 or one eighth above. They both go 
 into the board, and when Harlem is 
 called, John offers one hundred shares 
 at fifty-eight and one fourth, cash. No 
 one takes them, but several bid fifty- 
 seven, and fifty-seven and one fourth to 
 one half. John comes down one eighth, 
 and Joe " takes 'em ; " " a hundred 
 more," " take 'em ; " "a hundred 
 more," " take 'em ; " "a hundred 
 more," " take 'em." John now " holds 
 up," and Joe offers to take one hun- 
 dred more. If some old stager sees 
 through the game, he "sticks" Joe 
 with a hundred, and the game is up ; 
 if not, why, John may be said to have 
 succeeded, and the market for Harlem 
 is firm. " Washing " will hardly go 
 down at the board ; the game is too 
 old, and there is too much danger in 
 playing it when there are none but old 
 brokers present ; but in the street it is 
 very common, and many a " green " 
 one is taken in by a " wash sale." The 
 truth is, a man who does not under- 
 stand the business had better go to 
 California than speculate in stocks.
 
 248 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Commercial Croakers. 
 
 THE commercial croaker is a charac- 
 ter with which every commercial city 
 and neighborhood is infested. Does a 
 friend embark in a mercantile specula- 
 tion of any sort, he is the first to in- 
 form him that he has undertaken im- 
 possibilities, and that the chances of 
 his failure are ten to one. Is a new 
 movement proposed in the city, the 
 croaker spreads his palms and rolls up 
 his eyes with horror at the audacity, or 
 turns up his nose with a sneer at your 
 plans, "liyou sj5ea*k*'6f the "growth of 
 his native city, or its increased facility 
 for business, he informs you oracularly 
 that " all is not gold that glitters." 
 He knows of at least one hundred 
 houses which are for sale or rent, but 
 which cannot find any tenants upon 
 any terms. He informs you of some 
 nameless friend who has sold real es- 
 tate and stocks at an alarmingly low 
 rate, in order to raise money to provide 
 himself with a new location ; and he 
 lachrymosely expresses the belief that 
 in less than five years the grass will be 
 growing in the main streets of the city. 
 If A fails for a couple of thousand dol- 
 lars, the croaker goes snivelling round 
 the streets, predicting that nine tenths 
 of the merchants in the city will be in 
 the same condition within the year. 
 Does the severity of the winter suspend 
 navigation, the croaker is sure that the 
 spring business is ruined for that year, 
 and that by midsummer half the 
 names in town will be gazetted for 
 bankruptcy. When political excite- 
 ment runs high, the croaker is at the 
 height of his enjoyment. Of course, he 
 predicts the reduction of property, the 
 want of money, and the prospect of an 
 overwhelming commercial crisis. 
 
 Slavers Raising: a Capital. 
 
 ONCE on a time, two young fellows, 
 brothers, went to Jamaica, with the 
 intention of commencing a mercantile 
 
 business. They were by trade black- 
 smiths. Finding, soon after their ar- 
 rival, that they could do nothing with- 
 out a little money to begin with, but 
 that with a few hundred dollars they 
 might be able to realize a fortune, they 
 hit upon the following novel and inge- 
 nious trick : One of them stripped the 
 other naked, shaved him close, and 
 blackened him from head to foot. This 
 ceremony being performed, he took 
 him to one of the negro dealers, who 
 was so pleased with the appearance of 
 the young fellow, that he advanced 
 four hundred dollars currency upon the 
 bill of sale to the " slavers ; " and prided 
 himself much on the purchase, suppos- 
 ing him the finest negro upon the isl- 
 and. The same evening, this manufac- 
 tured negro made his escape to his 
 brother, washed himself clean, and re- 
 sumed his former appearance. Rewards 
 were then in vain offered in handbills, 
 pursuit was eluded, and discovery, by 
 care and precaution, rendered imprac- 
 ticable. The brothers, with the money 
 thus obtained, commenced commercial 
 business, and finally left the island with 
 a large fortune. Previous, however, to 
 their departure from the island, they 
 waited upon the trader from whom 
 they had received the money, and, re- 
 calling the circumstance of the negro to 
 his recollection, paid him the principal 
 and interest with thanks. 
 
 Turtles and Gold Snuff-Boxes. 
 
 So strict is meant to be the search- 
 ing at Russian custom houses, in order 
 to prevent smuggling, that the ship 
 captain, who is bound to give an in- 
 ventory of every article on board, may 
 fall into unheard-of trouble if he forget 
 so much as his own private Canary 
 bird. 
 
 There was an English captain once 
 at Cronstadt who by accident forgot to 
 enter a fine turtle upon his list. He 
 told the leading custom-house official, 
 plainly and honestly, of his unfortunate
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 249 
 
 omission, and the functionary, who was 
 a good-natured man, saw no plain way 
 out of the difficulty. 
 
 He recommended that the matter 
 should be glossed over by assuming 
 that the turtle was intended for the 
 emperor. The captain did, therefore, 
 formally declare that, if he had not en- 
 tered the turtle, it was because it had 
 been brought expressly as an English- 
 man's gift to the czar, and to the czar 
 the turtle was despatched accordingly. 
 Soon after there arrived a Government 
 messenger, inquiring for this most cour- 
 teous of captains, who brought the gra- 
 cious thanks of the czar Nicholas, to- 
 gether with the gift of a gold snuff- 
 box, embellished with the autocratic 
 cipher set in diamonds. 
 
 Instead of fine and persecution, there 
 were royal gifts and honors for this 
 lucky sailor. But when, afterward, 
 some other trading captains, acting, as 
 they imagined, cunningly upon the 
 hint, brought turtle to exchange for 
 gold snuff-boxes, his astute majesty 
 quietly made the turtles into soup, but 
 declined, by any act of exchange, to 
 add snuff boxes to the articles of Rus- 
 sian trade shipped at the port of Cron- 
 stadt. 
 
 Tobacco in Loaves. 
 
 STREEN, a custom-house officer at 
 Liverpool, apprehended a woman who 
 had come as passenger on board an 
 American vessel to that port, on suspi- 
 cion of having some smuggled tobacco 
 in her possession. Upon examining her 
 dress, seventeen pounds of tobacco were 
 found concealed under it ; but the most 
 remarkable of the expedients which had 
 been resorted to for the purpose of de- 
 ceiving the lynx-eyed deputies of the 
 customs, was that of giving to the con- 
 traband leaf the resemblance of a loaf. 
 A quantity of cut tobacco had been 
 pressed into a tin, over which a thin 
 layer of dough was spread, and this, 
 being baked, had the appearance to the 
 
 eye of a veritable and edible loaf. The 
 quantity of tobacco which the woman 
 had contrived to secrete in this and 
 other modes, amounted to no less than 
 seventy pounds. 
 
 Custom-House Swearing:. 
 
 SOME time ago, says a lively writer, 
 I had charge of a department in one of 
 the Eastern custom houses. Holmes 
 was an officer in the same room with 
 me. On the monthly pay day it was 
 necessary for him to make oath to two 
 pay rolls one, the account of the offi- 
 cer himself, and the other of the sum 
 due to his assistant. One day, Holmes 
 signed his pay roll, received his money 
 after making oath to its correctness, 
 and walked out, without signing 1 that 
 of his assistant. When the omission 
 was discovered, I went for him, and he 
 bustled in with a " What do you want 
 of me ? " " To sign the pay rolls." 
 " But I have already." " You signed 
 and swore to one, but not to the 
 other." " Well," said Holmes, " I knew 
 I swore to something I didn't know 
 exactly what." Such swearing is said 
 to be quite custom-ary in the custom 
 house. 
 
 Cool Assurance of a Doomed 
 Pinancier. 
 
 THE cool assurance of Sadleir, the 
 greatest of modern swindlers, when the 
 fearful guilt of his transactions had al- 
 ready become known in more than one 
 quarter, is hardly paralleled in any sim- 
 ilar case. This was particularly mani- 
 fested in a conversation that passed in 
 the office of one of the city newspaper 
 writers at the time referred to. Even 
 steeped as he was to his eyes in crime, 
 he preserved admirable calmness, and 
 betrayed not the least apprehension. 
 
 Scene : Lombard street, London, hour 
 about 1 P. M. 
 
 John Sadleir (pale, cadaverous, but 
 gentlemanly introduced by a friend 
 and brother director of a bank) : " Oh,
 
 250 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 there has been some slight mistake re- 
 specting the announcement of the drafts 
 of the Tipperary Bank having been re- 
 fused over the way ; it is all set 
 straight ; the remittances have been 
 delayed passing through Hull, when 
 they should have come direct to Lon- 
 don. Just please mention it, so that 
 the fact may be known." 
 
 Party addressed : " You are sure it is 
 all right ; because it will be awkward 
 if there is any further difficulty." 
 
 Sadleir and his friend : " It is all 
 made straight ; you can ask over the 
 way." 
 
 Party addressed: "You are sure 
 there will be no fresh hitch ? " 
 
 Sadleir (plainly, but with great em- 
 phasis) : " I am sure there will be no 
 further hitch" 
 
 The inquiry was made "over the 
 way ; " it was stated the drafts had 
 been provided for, and the explanation 
 as requested was afforded. But the 
 party entertained his suspicions, and 
 meeting the friend of Sadleir late in 
 the day, he asked him if there was not 
 something " doubtful " in the business. 
 The reply was, " No, there cannot be ; 
 the bank has just declared a dividend 
 and bonus, and the report is most fa- 
 vorable." Two or three days afterward 
 the explosion took place, with all its 
 tale of Sadleir's infamy. 
 
 Terrible Sequel to Parsimony : 
 M. Fescue's Case. 
 
 M. FOSCUE, who had amassed enor- 
 mous wealth by the most sordid par- 
 simony and disreputable extortion, ap- 
 plied his ingenuity to discover some 
 effectual way of hiding his gold. With 
 great care and secrecy he dug a cave in 
 his cellar. To this receptacle for his 
 treasure, he descended by a trap door, 
 to which he attached a spring lock, so 
 that, on shutting, it would fasten of it- 
 self. By and by the miser disappeared ; 
 inquiries were made ; the house was 
 searched; woods were explored, and 
 the ponds dragged; but no Foscue 
 
 could they find. Some time passed on. 
 The house where he lived was sold, and 
 workmen were busily employed in its 
 repair. In the progress of their work 
 they met with the door of the secret 
 cave, with the key in the lock outside. 
 They threw back the door, and de- 
 scended with a light. The first object 
 upon which the lamp reflected was the 
 ghastly body of Foscue, and scattered 
 around him were heavy bags of gold, 
 and ponderous chests of untold treas- 
 ure ; a candlestick lay beside him on 
 the floor. The worshipper of Mammon 
 had gone into his cave, to pay his de- 
 voirs to his golden god, and became a 
 sacrifice to his devotion. 
 
 Attempt to Overthrow Rothschild's 
 Power in the Money Market. 
 
 REPEATED efforts, but always with- 
 out success, and generally to the ruin 
 of the party making the same, have 
 been made to overthrow the power of 
 Rothschild in the money market. It 
 was clear that the only way in which 
 this could be done, if it was to be done 
 at all, would be by the party attempt- 
 ing it engaging in transactions of cor- 
 responding magnitude. 
 
 By far the boldest of these attempts 
 was that once made by a young gentle- 
 man, a Mr. James H . He made a 
 
 number of most extensive purchases, 
 and sold out again to a very large 
 amount, all in a very short period of 
 time; and so far from imitating the 
 character of the rival whose empire he 
 sought to subvert, in the secrecy of his 
 transactions, he deemed it essential to 
 the success of his schemes that his oper- 
 ations should be performed as speedily 
 as possible. 
 
 Mr. H. was the son of a wealthy 
 banker in the country, and held, at the 
 time of his introduction, money stock 
 in his own name, though it actually 
 was his father's, to the extent of 50,- 
 000. The reputation of being so rich 
 invested him at once with great impor- 
 tance as a banker. The 50,000, after
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 251 
 
 Mr. H. had been some time a member 
 of the house, was privately retfansferred 
 to his father, the real owner of it. For 
 some time, and until he became per- 
 fectly master of the rules and usages 
 of the house, he acted with great pru- 
 dence and caution, confining his transac- 
 tions to small amounts ; but he even- 
 tually began to astonish " the natives " 
 for so the members of the stock ex- 
 change are often called by the bold- 
 ness of his manoeuvres. In a very short 
 time he became the dread of all parties 
 the bulls and bears were anxious to 
 follow him ; but, like Rothschild, he 
 evinced a disposition to act independ- 
 ently of every person and every party. 
 
 About this time consols were as high 
 as 96 or 97. In a few months after- 
 ward symptoms of a coming panic be- 
 gan to manifest themselves ; and a 
 well-known writer on money matters, 
 having at the time, for reasons best 
 known to himself, begun to deal out 
 his fulminations against the Bank of 
 England, in an influential paper, the 
 unhealthy state of the money market 
 was greatly aggravated, though high 
 prices were still maintained. Mr. H. 
 watched the state of things with great 
 penetration ; and being satisfied in his 
 own mind that a leader was only want- 
 ing to commence and carry on a suc- 
 cessful war against Rothschild, he de- 
 termined himself to become that lead- 
 er and it must be admitted that he 
 acquitted himself as an able general. 
 Going into the house one afternoon, he 
 accosted one of the most respectable 
 jobbers thus : 
 
 " What are consols ? " 
 
 " 96 and 98," was the answer. 
 
 " In 100,000 ? " continued he. 
 
 " Yes," said the jobber. " You have 
 them ; 100,000 more ? " 
 
 " I'll take 100,000 more." 
 
 " They are yours." 
 
 " Another 100,000 ? " 
 
 " No, I don't want any more." 
 
 On this transaction being finished, 
 the adventurous young gentleman im- 
 
 mediately turned round and announced 
 aloud that "200,000 had been done at 
 96, and more offered." Then walking 
 backward and forward, " like a tiger 
 in a den," he followed up the bold tac- 
 tics he had commenced by offering any 
 part of 1,000,000 at 94. For a great 
 part of this amount he at once found 
 purchasers. But he was not yet con- 
 tent with the extent of his transactions, 
 great as they were ; nor would he wait 
 for buyers at 94. He offered them, viz., 
 consols, at 93, at 92, and eventually as 
 low as 90, at which price they left off 
 that day. Next day he renewed his 
 exertions to depress the market, and he 
 succeeded to the utmost of his wishes ; 
 for consols did not stop in their de- 
 scent till they reached 74. As was to 
 be expected, contemporaneous with this 
 sudden and extraordinary fall in the 
 price of consols, there was a run on the 
 Bank of England, which almost ex- 
 hausted it of its specie. He then pur- 
 chased to so large an extent that, when 
 a reaction took place, he found that his 
 gains exceeded 100,000. 
 
 The rivalry of Mr. H. was, however, 
 of short duration, ending in this wise : 
 In about two years after the above ex- 
 tensive " operations," he attempted an- 
 other, on a scale of corresponding mag- 
 nitude. But in this case, Rothschild, 
 anticipating the tactics H. would adopt, 
 laid a trap for him, into which he fell, 
 and became a ruined man. He was 
 declared a defaulter, and his name stuck 
 upon the blackboard. It was only now 
 that the discovery was made that the 
 50,000 money stock, supposed to be 
 his own, was in reality his father's, and 
 that it had been retransferred in his 
 name. A deputation from the commit- 
 tee waited upon Mr. H. immediately 
 after his failure, at his own house, in the 
 neighborhood of Regent's Park, when 
 one of the most rapacious of the num- 
 ber suggested a sale of his furniture and 
 a mortgage of the annuity settled on 
 his wife. He received the suggestion 
 with the utmost indignation, and ring-
 
 252 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ing the bell for his servant, desired him 
 to show the deputation down stairs, 
 
 adding that he would be (it need 
 
 not be said what) before he would pay 
 a sixpence after the treatment he had 
 met with from them. " As for you, you 
 vagabond, ' My son Jack \ (one of the 
 brokers who went by that name), who 
 have had the audacity to make such a 
 proposal to me as for you, sir, if you 
 don't make haste out of the room, I'll 
 pitch you out of the window 1 " It is 
 scarcely necessary to say, that " My son 
 Jack " was the first who reached the 
 bottom of the stairs. 
 
 Sharing in Rothschild's Fortune. 
 
 DURING the stormy days of 1848, two 
 stalwart mobocrats entered the bank 
 of the late Baron Anselm Rothschild, 
 at Frankfort. " You have millions on 
 millions," said they to him, " and we 
 have nothing; you must divide with 
 us." " Very well ; what do you sup- 
 pose the firm of Rothschild is worth ? " 
 " About forty millions of florins." 
 " Forty millions, you think, eh ? Now, 
 then, there are forty millions of peo- 
 ple in Germany ; that will be a florin 
 apiece. Here's yours." 
 
 Extravagant Business Rhetoric. 
 
 DEFOE, who wrote of the morals of 
 mercantile trade in England, in former 
 times, mentions among other manoeu- 
 vres of retailers, the false light which 
 they introduced into their shops for 
 the purpose of giving a delusive ap- 
 pearance to their goods. He comments 
 upon the " shop rhetoric," the " flux 
 of falsehoods," which tradesmen habit- 
 ually uttered to their customers ; and 
 quotes their defence as being that they 
 could not live without lying. Add to 
 which, he says, that there was scarce a 
 shopkeeper who had not a bag of spu- 
 rious or debased coins, from which he 
 gave change whenever he could. 
 
 The giving and taking presents, as a 
 
 means of obtaining custom, has become 
 a great practice. An extensive dealer 
 once remarked : " Every one of the buy- 
 ers with whom I deal, expects an occa- 
 sional bonus in some form or other. 
 From time to time I have to make a 
 handsome present perhaps a dozen of 
 choice port, or else to give a round sum 
 as discount. Some require the bribe 
 to be wrapped up, and some take it 
 without disguise." 
 
 Getting wide glimpses through small 
 holes, any one may easily get an idea 
 of how trade is carried on, even by the 
 sights and sounds of the street. Hear- 
 ing the fruiterer cry all his fruit and 
 vegetables as " fine," and the itinerant 
 fish-vendor invariably describe his sup- 
 plies as " fresh " and " alive," one might 
 infer the generality of misrepresenta- 
 tion ; and he would find this inference 
 strengthened when, on turning to the 
 advertising columns of the daily news- 
 papers, he found all the ships and 
 packets characterized as " splendid," 
 " first class," " very fast sailing," " beau- 
 tiful," " celebrated," " magnificent ; " 
 when he read of the horses that they 
 were all either " finest grown," or " first 
 rate," or " invaluable," or " the hand- 
 somest in town," or " one of the grand- 
 est steppers," and in every case " sold 
 for no fault ; " or when he saw that 
 all the properties for sale were " ex- 
 ceedingly valuable," " extremely well 
 fitted up," " most eligible," " delight- 
 ful site," " admirably adapted," etc. ; 
 or when he discovered that all the 
 lodgings were "unsurpassed for com- 
 fort," all the medicines " infallible," all 
 the references " unexceptionable." 
 
 Casting the eye over shop signs and 
 door plates, and meeting with such 
 titles as " mechanical operative dentist " 
 implying that other dentists are not 
 mechanical and operative ; or " practi- 
 cal bootmaker," tacitly referring, as it 
 seems, to some class of mere theoreti- 
 cal bootmakers one gets further im- 
 pressions that the screw which is loose 
 is a very large one. Add to these the
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 253 
 
 words " patent and registered," applied 
 to commonplace objects, implying im- 
 provements where there are none ; to- 
 gether with the glaring announcements 
 of "great reduction," "selling off," 
 " bankrupt stock," " tremendous sacri- 
 fices," " twenty per cent, below other 
 houses " and there can be no doubt 
 that " bait " is used as plentifully on 
 the land as in the sea. 
 
 Customs of the Store in Church. 
 
 IK a certain town, not more than fifty 
 miles from Boston, as the clergyman 
 was holding forth one Sabbath in his 
 usual drowsy manner, one of the dea- 
 cons, probably influenced by the nar- 
 cotic qualities of the discourse, fell into 
 a doze. In connection with the train 
 of thought characterizing his sermon, 
 the preacher happened to use the 
 words, " What is the price of all earth- 
 ly pleasures ? " The money-getting dea- 
 con (he kept a small store, and had a 
 lively eye to the main chance}, half 
 consciously, thinking the inquiry was 
 respecting some kind of merchandise, 
 immediately answered, " Seven and 
 sixpence a dozen." 
 
 Hoarding: and Amassing Noted 
 Instances. 
 
 THERE died at Paris, in the year 
 1799, literally of want, the noted bank- 
 er Osterwald. He deprived himself of 
 almost every personal comfort and con- 
 venience, alike in sickness and in 
 health, for fear of encroaching on his 
 hoarded treasures. He died worth 
 125,000. 
 
 Another desperate case of this kind 
 was that of the millionnaire Elwes, 
 whose diet and dress were of the most 
 revolting kind, and his penuriousness 
 almost passing belief. His property 
 was estimated at 800,000. 
 
 Daniel Dancers's miserly propensities 
 were indulged to such a degree, that, 
 among his eccentricities, was that of 
 performing his ablutions at a neighbor- 
 
 ing pond, and drying himself in the 
 sun, in order to save himself the ex- 
 travagant indulgence of a towel ; yet 
 the yearly income of this poor mendi- 
 cant was reckoned by thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 The well-known Nat Beatty, alias 
 " Dirty Dick," of London, was the vic- 
 tim not only of a craving for gold, but 
 even for old iron. 
 
 Another deplorable case was that of 
 Tom Pitt, of Warwickshire. It is re- 
 lated that some weeks prior to the sick- 
 ness which terminated his remarkable 
 career, he went to several undertakers 
 in quest of a cheap coffin. He left be- 
 hind him a rich hoard in public funds. 
 
 Thomas Cook afforded a precious 
 example of this kind. On his physi- 
 cian intimating to him the possibility 
 of his not existing more than five or six 
 days, he protested against the useless 
 expense of sending him medicine, and 
 charged the doctor never to show his 
 face to him again. His property was 
 rated at 130,000. 
 
 Jewish Money-Makers in the Holy 
 City. 
 
 SOME of the Jews residing in the 
 Holy City, though they are ready 
 enough to accept alms from their Eu- 
 ropean brethren, amass money, and are 
 no more above a little sharp practice 
 than are their kindred in Holywell 
 street. " Dog ought not to eat dog," 
 is a proverb, but here is a veritable 
 anecdote, told by a close observer of 
 the Israelites in Jerusalem, which 
 shows some of their traits. 
 
 Sir Moses Montefiore brought with 
 him in wooden barrels a large quantity 
 of dollars in specie, and resolved, with 
 his usual kindness of disposition, to 
 give with his own hand a dollar to 
 every poor person. It took many hours 
 before his task was done and the mis- 
 erable exhibition of poverty concluded. 
 It so happened that the noble distribu- 
 tor, forgetful of himself, gave away the 
 sum which he required to pay his trav-
 
 254 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 elling expenses home. He was obliged 
 to borrow money. A man was soon 
 found, who expressed his readiness to 
 oblige him -for a consideration and 
 supplied him with the necessary sum, 
 the amount of which was considerable, 
 in specie. And yet this man, the pre- 
 vious day, seemed to be the neediest of 
 the needy, and had received a silver dol- 
 lar from the hand of the benefactor of 
 Palestine ! Sharp practice that. 
 
 Even among the leading Jews of 
 Jerusalem, the ruling passion seems to 
 be to pervert everything even charity 
 to their pecuniary gain. Thus, an 
 institution for advancing money as 
 loans was founded by Mr. Cohen, and 
 endowed by the Rothschild family with 
 one hundred thousand piasters. M. 
 Alteras, one of the Sepharedim, and an 
 Austrian subject, being intrusted with 
 the management of it, lent forty thou- 
 sand piasters to the presidents of the 
 Sepharedim. All of them regarded the 
 money, not as a means of benefiting 
 others by advancing loans without in- 
 terest, but as a means of benefiting 
 themselves by lending it out on usury. 
 One half of the money thus advanced 
 with the best intentions was lost, not- 
 withstanding the efforts made to recov- 
 er it. 
 
 Presents to Bank Officers Carious 
 Cases. 
 
 IN his admirable exposition of bank- 
 ing in New York, Mr. Gibbons gives a 
 few racy incidents in regard to the ar- 
 tifice of present making to bank officers, 
 and what comes of such " favors : " 
 
 A cashier asked a director of the 
 same bank if he could advise him 
 where to purchase a certain description 
 of tea. The latter engaged to find the 
 article. On the same evening, a " quar- 
 ter chest '' was left at the cashier's house 
 without a bill, and the matter was not 
 again alluded to. The director was sub- 
 sequently indebted to the officer for 
 some " favors," which, however, did 
 not keep him solvent. A dealer in 
 
 fancy goods asked the same cashier for 
 his address, without specifying any 
 object. On going home, the latter 
 found his parlor mantel furnished with 
 some elegant ornaments. 
 
 A bank president inquired of a deal- 
 er in foreign porcelain, where he could 
 best get an English dinner set at a cost 
 of not over one hundred dollars. The 
 latter answered that his acquaintance 
 with the wholesale importers would 
 enable him to purchase at a consider- 
 able discount, and he did so. The 
 president never asked for a bill, but he 
 discounted his friend's paper liberally 
 " between the Boards." 
 
 Said a bank officer carelessly, to a 
 jeweller, after serving him with a loan : 
 " By the way where is that gold- 
 headed cane you promised me ? " The 
 jeweller smiled, but said nothing. In a 
 week, the cane was sent ; and when the 
 donor called at the bank, subsequently, 
 he was greeted with an expression of 
 great surprise: "Why, Mr. D., you 
 didn't suppose I was in earnest the 
 other day, did you ? " 
 
 Another officer called at the store of 
 a drygoods merchant, after assisting 
 the latter to a liberal discount of paper. 
 While walking along the aisle, he was 
 attracted by some ladies' kid gloves of 
 superior quality. " Ah,' said he, " you 
 keep these articles, do you ? They are 
 really very soft and beautiful ! " " Yes, 
 sir," answered the proprietor, at the 
 same time wrapping up a dozen in 
 some fine tissue paper " put those in 
 your pocket. Yes, yes, do ! " overcom- 
 ing the apparent reluctance of his vis- 
 itor, by unaffected earnestness. The 
 same scene was acted over again on the 
 next occasion, when the merchant had 
 paper discounted. A third rehearsal 
 taught him to add a dozen of the finest 
 kid gloves to the legal rate of seven per 
 cent, whenever he obtained accommo- 
 dation at that bank. 
 
 A dealer, who was impatient to rec- 
 tify his accounts, urged a bookkeeper 
 to balance his bank book , after wait-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 255 
 
 ing several days, the request was re- 
 peated, and the clerk promised that it 
 should be done: "But," he added, 
 "you haven't sent me that umbrella 
 yet ! " It was added to his wardrobe. 
 
 A clerk took lodgings at a hotel dur- 
 ing the absence of his family in the 
 country, which led to the landlord open- 
 ing an account with the bank. In the 
 "progress of human events," baskets 
 of brown stout were left at the resi- 
 dence of one of the officers, and dining 
 privileges were enjoyed without cost. 
 The result in this case was a loan of 
 twenty thousand dollars on inferior se- 
 curities; and although it was finally 
 paid, the process involved transactions 
 of questionable propriety. 
 
 Mr. George Curtis, the first cashier of 
 the New York Bank of Commerce, and 
 late president of the Continental Bank, 
 was occasionally the unwilling recip- 
 ient of " a present." His well-known 
 high sense of honor and propriety 
 would have protected him against all 
 suspicion of improper influence in the 
 administration of his trust ; but so sen- 
 sitive and scrupulous was he on the 
 subject, that he uniformly placed the 
 article, whatever it was, in the direc- 
 tors' room, and related its history at the 
 next meeting of the board of directors. 
 
 First Forg-ed Note on a Bank Execu- 
 tion for the Crime. 
 
 IT is a memorable fact that the Bank 
 of England had circulated its paper 
 with freedom for sixty-four years, be- 
 fore any attempt at imitation was made. 
 The name of the criminal was Vaughan, 
 a Stafford linen-draper, and he was exe- 
 cuted for his crime. 
 
 It appears that the records of Vaugh- 
 an's life do not show want, beggary, 
 or starvation urging him, but a simple 
 desire to seem greater than he was. 
 By one of the artists employed, and 
 there were several engaged on different 
 parts of the notes, the discovery was 
 made. The criminal had filled up to 
 the number of twenty, and deposited 
 
 them in the hands of a young lady to 
 whom he was attached, as a Droof of his 
 wealth. There is no calculating how 
 much longer bank notes might have 
 been free from imitation, had this man 
 not shown with what ease they might 
 be counterfeited. But from this period 
 forged notes became common. And 
 the fact is, that the faculty of imitation 
 is so great, that when the expectation 
 of profit is added, there is little hope 
 of restraining the destitute or bad man 
 from a career which 'adds the charm of 
 novelty to the chance of gain. 
 
 The publicity given to this strange 
 and easy fraud, the notoriety of the 
 proceedings, and the execution of the 
 forger, tended to excite that morbid 
 sympathy which, up to the present 
 day, is apt to be evinced for any ex- 
 traordinary criminal ; and it is there- 
 fore possible, that if Vaughan had not 
 been induced by circumstances to star- 
 tle London with his novel crime, the 
 idea of forging notes might have been 
 long delayed. 
 
 Fauntleroy, the Executed Banker. 
 
 THE sensation produced by the 
 criminality of Fauntleroy, the great 
 banker and forger, has never been 
 exceeded by that attending any simi- 
 lar case, in Europe or America. In 
 September, 1824, Plank, the Bow-street 
 officer, might be seen proceeding in 
 the direction of the banking house of 
 Marsh, Stracey & Co. A person 
 who accompanied him entered first, 
 and, requesting an interview with 
 Mr. Fauntleroy, was ushered into his 
 private counting house. Within a 
 minute he was followed by Plank. 
 The interior of a bank is nearly sacred ; 
 but the officer pushed boldly by the 
 clerk, who would have interrupted 
 him, merely saying he wished to speak 
 with Mr. Fauntleroy. On entering, he 
 closed the bar, announced his name, 
 and produced a warrant for the appre- 
 hension of Henry Fauntleroy on a
 
 256 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 charge of forgery. A deadly pallor 
 passed over the face of the latter ; he 
 was fearfully agitated, and hurriedly 
 exclaimed, " Good God 1 cannot this 
 business be settled ? " Plank begged 
 him to make no noise, but to walk 
 out for a few minutes, and they could 
 talk about it. Mr. Fauntleroy then 
 signed a few blank checks for the' bus- 
 iness of the house with a hand so un- 
 steady that it was difficult to recognize 
 his signature ; and said he should go 
 out for a few minutes. He was then 
 conducted to the private residence of 
 Mr. Conant, the magistrate ; and, after 
 an interview of the prisoner with one 
 of his clerks, Mr. Freshfield, accom- 
 panied by Plank, proceeded to the 
 banking house to search the papers. 
 
 The search was successful. Docu- 
 ments unparalleled in the history of 
 crime were discovered. In a private 
 room, a box, bearing no name, was 
 found. What must the surprise have 
 been, on finding in it a list, in the 
 prisoner's handwriting, of forgeries 
 which he had committed on the Bank 
 of England, amounting to one hundred 
 and twelve thousand pounds, with the 
 following extraordinary acknowledg- 
 ment : "In order to keep up the credit 
 of our house, I have forged powers of 
 attorney, and have, thereupon, sold out 
 all these sums, without the knowledge 
 of any of my partners. I have given 
 credit in the accounts for the interest 
 when it became due. Henry Fauntleroy." 
 These words followed : " The bank first 
 began to refuse our acceptances, and 
 thereby destroy the credit of our house. 
 The bank shall smart for it." At the 
 period of his apprehension he had a 
 power of attorney by which he would 
 have replaced the stock that produced 
 the discovery. 
 
 In a conference the forger had with a 
 partner, he expressed great anxiety to 
 obtain possession of a " blue book." 
 Mr. Graham searched, and brought 
 one with a blue sheet for a cover. 
 " No, no," he said, " this is not the 
 
 one I want. It is a bound book." 
 Mr. Graham informed him that it had 
 reached the hands of Mr. Freshfield. 
 " Then," said Fauntleroy, " I'm a dead 
 man. I could have set the bank at 
 defiance." This book was said to con- 
 tain an account of all his forgeries. 
 
 The crime of Mr. Fauntleroy excited 
 intense and universal interest. Hardly 
 anything else was talked about. The 
 newspapers teemed with anecdotes. 
 His past life was inquired into. His 
 portrait was in the windows. His be- 
 havior was analyzed. His person was 
 described. The very way in which he 
 held his hat was represented. The 
 magistrate apologized for an intrusion ; 
 and, when the forger heaved a sigh, 
 the scribe was ready to draw the atten- 
 tion of the public to so memorable a 
 fact. The loss sustained by these 
 forgeries was three hundred and sixty 
 thousand pounds ; and the interest 
 alone, which was regularly paid, must 
 have been nine or ten thousand pounds 
 a year. The care required by these 
 accounts, and the constant anxiety 
 weighing on the mind of Fauntleroy, 
 from the knowledge of his perilous 
 position, were, in themselves, a punish- 
 ment. His exertions at the banking 
 house were extraordinary. So energetic 
 was he, that his services were noticed 
 as being equal to those of three clerks. 
 The last time he received from the 
 bank the warrants due to the firm was 
 the day on which Thurtell and Hunt 
 were tried. During the payment, he 
 entered into conversation on the crime 
 with the clerk who paid him ; imagin- 
 ing but little perhaps that within a 
 year the same judge who had tried 
 them would try him ; that the very 
 list of warrants he was receiving would 
 be brought in evidence, and that the 
 clerk with whom he was so familiarly 
 conversing would be a witness against 
 him. Before the debtors' door at New- 
 gate, and amidst a vast concourse of 
 spectators, the unhappy man expiated 
 his crime.
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 257 
 
 Restitution of Bank Notes. 
 
 ON the 24th of November, 1844, Sun- 
 day, the " strong room " of the bank- 
 ing house of Messrs. Rogers, Towgood 
 & Co., London, was opened, and prop- 
 erty in bank notes, gold, and bills of 
 exchange, taken therefrom, to the 
 amount of nearly fifty thousand pounds. 
 The notes, of various denominations 
 and of which there were thirty-six one- 
 thousand-pound notes amounted to 
 about forty-four thousand pounds in 
 all, and the gold to twelve hundred 
 pounds ; the rest consisted of bills of 
 exchange. 
 
 On the day in question, one of the 
 partners was in the house an invalid, 
 and a clerk, whose duty it was to re- 
 main on the premises during the day, 
 was also in attendance ; yet the above 
 property was abstracted, and never 
 missed till the following morning, 
 when the safe was opened. 
 
 A reward of three thousand pounds 
 was immediately offered for the recovery 
 of the property, and so ran the offer : 
 " Her most gracious majesty's pardon 
 will be granted to any one of the guilty 
 parties who will give such evidence as 
 will procure the conviction of the other 
 offender or offenders;" and, although 
 this offer, with a description of the 
 notes stolen, which occupied three full 
 pages in octavo, was published in al- 
 most every newspaper and periodical 
 in the three kingdoms and on the con- 
 tinent, no clew could be obtained of the 
 robbers, yet, after a considerable lapse 
 of time, and when the circumstances 
 had been almost forgotten by every 
 one but the losers of the property, the 
 bank notes were returned in a parcel, 
 directed to the bankers in an unknown 
 hand, and without any comment. 
 
 Tough Experience of a Business 
 Drummer. 
 
 ONE cold January night, the hospi- 
 tably huge fireplace of the best room 
 
 of the best inn in was surrounded 
 
 17 
 
 by a jovial company, composed of com- 
 mercial travellers and their customers 
 of the town. The air of solid comfort 
 which pervaded the scene was height- 
 ened by its contrast with the cheerless 
 aspect of the weather without ; and the 
 complacent manner with which each 
 guest quaffed from his mug of flip, 
 and gave a bland reflection to his 
 neighbor's smile, told that the plea- 
 santness of the situation was not un- 
 appreciated. 
 
 All were overflowing with jest and 
 story, but the most amusing member 
 of the party, was a gentlemanly look- 
 ing person, rather smaller than the 
 common size of men, and frank and 
 open in his address. He gave his name 
 as Morris, and (from remarks thrown 
 out, as if casually, by himself, and from 
 that fact alone, for of those present not 
 one had ever seen him previous to that 
 time) he was supposed to be the agent 
 of a new Liverpool house. There was 
 a rich, racy humor, and a power of imi- 
 tation and description, about the man, 
 allied to a knowledge of the light and 
 dark spots in human nature, which 
 lent to the stories that he told a fasci- 
 nation winning entire attention. Iden- 
 tifying himself for the moment with the 
 character whose deeds and words he 
 was narrating, he would seem at times 
 the artless Scotch lassie, the Yorkshire 
 lout, the rude sailor, the querulous bel- 
 dame, the blundering Irishman, chang- 
 ing from one to another with a chame- 
 leon-like facility. 
 
 But his ofof-cPoiuvre, in this kind of 
 narration, was a story of a finished free- 
 booter, who accomplished much in his 
 line of business, by first insinuating 
 himself into the confidence of his in- 
 tended victims in the guise of a gentle- 
 man. His personation of the easy im- 
 pudence of the gentleman of the road 
 was characteristic and excellent. When 
 he had concluded, however, his " free- 
 booter " was criticized by Mr. D. (an 
 agent for a large house in London, con- 
 nected with the coffee trade), whose
 
 258 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 flip had made him flippant. He in- 
 sisted that Morris had made but "a 
 tame bird" of his hero, instead of 
 a "roystering, rough-handed, ribald 
 rogue," as in nature, and swore with 
 a laugh that he could enact the high- 
 wayman better himself. Morris re- 
 joined, in the same good-natured 
 way, that were it not so late, and the 
 calls of Somnus less inviting, he would 
 try a little competition of the kind 
 with him, and let the company then 
 present decide which was the better 
 of the two. However, he professed to 
 think that an opportunity might yet 
 occur, as they would probably meet again 
 on the road at some time or another. The 
 company laughed heartily at the joke, 
 and, drinking sundry parting toasts, 
 each of which was denominated, as 
 given, the very last and best, retired 
 for the night. Mr. D. was fain to 
 maintain his equilibrium by accepting 
 the arm of Morris to his bedroom. 
 Before he bade the latter a good night, 
 he had, in drunken bravado, defied all 
 the highwaymen in Christendom, and 
 in confidence pointed out to his new 
 friend a secret pocket in his coat, con- 
 taining a brace of small pistols loaded, 
 and a considerable amount of money 
 in gold. 
 
 In the morning, several of the " drum- 
 mers " departed in their own vehi- 
 cles. Mr. D. was to take a seat in a 
 stage, but being invited by Morris to 
 take a seat in his chaise, concluded to 
 go with him, as their routes were alike. 
 During the ride of the first few miles, 
 D.'s good opinion of his companion 
 suffered no diminution, but it imme- 
 diately fell below par, when, in a lone- 
 some part of the road, Morris presented 
 a pistol in juxtaposition with his head, 
 and begged leave to borrow the funds 
 then in his possession. The altered 
 mien and determined look of the man, 
 as well as his own instinctive assurance 
 that he was in earnest, left no doubt in 
 the mind of the poor agent of the other's 
 character. He determined, however, not 
 
 to comply with the rascal's request, 
 without an effort to save his money for 
 loans more profitable. With the pre- 
 tence of producing the desired funds, 
 he seized one of his pistols from his 
 pocket, and snapped it at the head of 
 the robber. It flashed, but it did not 
 explode. The quondam Morris laughed, 
 and mockingly remarked, as the other 
 grasped at the remaining weapon, that 
 he was obliged to him, but he was suffi- 
 ciently helped, and that the contents 
 of his pocket would be equally accept- 
 able, and much more effective, than 
 those of his pistols, inasmuch as the 
 last were empty which was not the 
 case with the pocket, that being 
 charged with gold. He explained 
 the failure of the weapons to dis- 
 charge, by saying that lest accident 
 should befall the esteemed friend 
 whom he had the pleasure of address- 
 ing, he had availed himself of the in- 
 formation given him on the evening 
 previous, and drawn the charges from 
 both of the pocket pistols. In effect- 
 ing this friendly measure, he had 
 noticed with great satisfaction, that 
 his friend had the wherewithal to 
 make him the loan, which he now 
 desired receiving without delay. As 
 his fingers, he said, were rather trem- 
 ulous, and the persuader, into the muz- 
 zle of which his esteemed friend did 
 him the honor to blink, had a hair 
 trigger, he begged leave to suggest 
 the expediency of a speedy delivery 
 of all his funds. Mr. D. cursed the 
 other's impudence, and with a pardon- 
 able ill grace gave up his money. He 
 also handed his watch to the robber, 
 but it was returned to him, with a 
 pathetic request that he would keep it 
 in remembrance of the " tame bird." 
 The poor, plucked agent remembered 
 his boasting of the previous evening, 
 and ground his teeth with vexation. 
 
 After Mr. D. had alighted from the 
 chaise, he was asked by his eccentric ac- 
 quaintance whether or not he thought 
 it would be necessary to find referees
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 259 
 
 to decide which, was the better high- 
 wayman of the two ! Before he could 
 answer, the robber was driving at a 
 rapid rate toward the London road, 
 and he was left to pursue his journey 
 on foot. Poor D. never again sought 
 to rival a freebooter. 
 
 Government Contractors in Russia. 
 
 IT would seem that American con- 
 tractors for Government jobs are not 
 alone in the patriotic disinterestedness 
 of their mode of doing business ; but 
 that their equals in this respect may 
 be found- even among the rough and 
 grizzly Russians. As for example : 
 
 A certain quantity of well-seasoned 
 oak being required, Government issues 
 tenders for the required amount. A 
 number of contractors submit their 
 terms to a board appointed for the 
 purpose of receiving them, who are 
 regulated in their choice of a con- 
 tractor, not by the amount of his ten- 
 der, but of his bribe. The fortunate 
 individual selected immediately sub- 
 contracts upon a somewhat similar 
 principle. Arranging to be supplied 
 with timber for half the amount of 
 his tender, the sub-contractor carries 
 on the game, and perhaps the eighth 
 link in this contracting chain is the 
 man who, for an absurdly low figure, 
 undertakes to produce the seasoned 
 wood. His agents in the central pro- 
 vinces, accordingly, float a quantity 
 of green pines and firs down the Dnie- 
 per and Bay to Nicholaeff, which are 
 duly handed up to the head contractor, 
 each man pocketing the difference be- 
 tween his contract and that of his 
 neighbor. When the wood is pro- 
 duced before the board appointed to 
 inspect it, another bribe seasons it, 
 and the Government, after paying the 
 price of well-seasoned oak, is surprised 
 that the one-hundred-and-twenty gun- 
 ship, of which it has been built, is unfit 
 for service in five years. 
 
 Muller, the Rich Merchant of Nurem- 
 berg^ Fictitious Theft. 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER has said, "Take 
 away interest and vanity from the 
 heart of man, and humanity is per- 
 fect." A little story, apropos of this 
 vanity <5f our age, concerning an emi- 
 nent German merchant, will not be 
 out of place in this volume. 
 
 Heinrich Heine, when very young, set 
 out one fine morning, from Hamburg, 
 and started for Germany. He arrived 
 one evening at Manheim, enters the fau- 
 bourg of the Golden Lion, and finds, in 
 the dining hall, a man with white hair 
 and a respectable appearance, digesting 
 his dinner by reading a newspaper. 
 From time to time he sighed heavily. 
 Heinrich Heine moved he was very 
 young and asked of the unknown the 
 cause of his grief. 
 
 " Ah, monsieur ! " he groaned, in 
 reply, and ordered a bottle of Johan- 
 nisberg. Our two Germans drank to- 
 gether ; Heinrich Heine renewed his 
 question, and the unknown, who was 
 continually sighing, suddenly yielding 
 to the desire of removing from his 
 heart an enormous weight, said to 
 him : 
 
 " Listen to me. My name is Muller ; 
 I am a very rich merchant of Nurem- 
 berg ; I have two hundred thousand 
 livres income, an adorable wife, and 
 charming children; my health is ex- 
 cellent, and I am the most unfortu- 
 nate of men ! " 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 " Ah 1 (another sigh.) How to make 
 you so terrible an avowal ! I have 
 committed a crime in my life. I have 
 stolen ! " 
 
 " Rich as you are, what hinders you 
 from restoring the sum you have 
 taken ? " 
 
 " There does not a pass a month that 
 I do not give, in charities, in pious 
 works, the double, the triple, the quad- 
 ruple of what I have purloined ; but 
 the claw of the vulture does not leave 
 me a moment of sweet repose."
 
 260 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " And how has a man like you been 
 able to yield to the temptation of 
 theft ? " 
 
 "A vertigo. I had the honor of 
 dining with the Duke of Nassau at 
 his chateau at Biebrich ; the prince, 
 who has a very particular considera- 
 tion for me, placed me on his right, 
 and we talked during the dinner of 
 one thing and another. " Monsieur 
 Muller," said the Duke to me, " how 
 is Madame Muller ? " " Your high- 
 ness is too good." " And the little 
 Mullers?" "Very well. But your 
 highness does me too much honor." 
 The Duke de Nassau places me on the 
 footing of a flattering familiarity. 
 
 " Suddenly I saw shining before my 
 eyes a little gilt spoon. What passed 
 in my brain I know not, but the mo- 
 ment when the Duke turned his head 
 I stretched my hand slyly along the 
 cloth, took the spoon and put it in 
 my pocket. This, sir, is what I did at 
 the house of the Duke de Nassau." 
 
 And Mr. Muller, who had just finish- 
 ed his third bottle, tumbled off to sleep, 
 and, in spite of so much remorse, snored 
 like a bass viol. 
 
 Some days after this conversation 
 Heinrich Heine made inquiries in re- 
 gard to this man. He was truly Mr. 
 Muller, a merchant of Nuremberg, pos- 
 sessed of two hundred thousand francs 
 income, he was surrounded by a large 
 family, but he had never dined at the 
 house of the Duke de Nassau. He 
 had only invented the fable of the 
 spoon to persuade the people that he 
 was the friend of the Duke ; willing to 
 gratify his vanity by imputing to him- 
 self an act of theft. 
 
 Bank Teller Filing: His Gold Coin. 
 
 A NEW business crime was discovered 
 in 1767. The notice of the clerks at 
 the bank of England had been attracted 
 by the habit of William Guest, a teller, 
 picking new from old guineas, without 
 assigning any reason. An indefinite 
 
 suspicion, increased by the knowledge 
 that an ingot of gold had been seen 
 in Guest's possession, was awakened ; 
 and although he stated that it came 
 from Holland, it was remarked to be 
 very unlike the regular bars of gold, 
 and that it had a considerable quantity 
 of copper on the back. Attention being 
 thus drawn to the movements of Guest, 
 he was observed to hand to one Rich- 
 ard Still some guineas which he took 
 from a private drawer, and placed with 
 others on the table. Still was instantly 
 followed, and on the examination of 
 his money, three of the guineas in his 
 possession were deficient in weight. 
 An inquiry was immediately instituted, 
 and forty of the guineas in the charge 
 of Guest looked fresher than the others 
 upon the edges, and weighed much less 
 than the legitimate amount. On search- 
 ing his home, four pounds eleven ounces 
 of gold filings were found, with instru- 
 ments calculated to produce artificial 
 edges. Proofs soon multiplied, and the 
 prisoner was found guilty. The instru- 
 ment with which he had effected his 
 fraud, and of which one of the wit- 
 nesses asserted it was the greatest im- 
 provement he had ever seen, is said to 
 be yet in the Mint, a memento of the 
 prisoner's capacity and crime. 
 
 Ingenious Plot against a Banker. 
 
 A LONDON banker was severely 
 grieved by the contents of a letter 
 which, on a certain occasion, he re- 
 ceived from a correspondent at Ham- 
 burg, the postmark of which place it 
 bore. From the statement it contained, 
 it appeared that a person most minutely 
 described had defrauded the writer, 
 under extraordinary circumstances, of 
 three thousand pounds. The letter 
 continued to say information had been 
 obtained that the defrauder the dress 
 and person of whom it described was 
 occasionally to be seen on the Dutch 
 Walk of the Royal Exchange. The 
 object of the writer was to induce his
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 261 
 
 correspondent to invite the party to 
 dinner, and, by any moral force which 
 could be used, compel him to return 
 the money ; adding that, if he should 
 be found amenable to reason, and 
 evince any signs of repentance, he 
 might be dismissed with a friendly 
 caution and five hundred pounds, as 
 he was a near relation of the wri- 
 ter. 
 
 As the gentleman whose name this 
 letter bore was a profitable corres- 
 pondent, the London banker kept a 
 keen watch on the Dutch Walk, and 
 was at last successful in meeting and 
 being introduced to the cheat. The 
 invitation to dine was accepted ; and 
 the host, having previously given no- 
 tice to his family to quit the table soon 
 after dinner, acquainted his visitor 
 with his knowledge of the fraud. 
 Alarm and horror were depicted in 
 the countenance of the young man, 
 who, with tones apparently tremulous 
 from emotion, begged his disgrace 
 might not be made public. To this 
 the banker consented, provided the 
 three thousand pounds were returned. 
 The visitor sighed deeply, but said that 
 to return all was impossible, as he had 
 unfortunately spent part of the amount. 
 The remainder, however, he proposed 
 to yield instantly, and the notes were 
 handed to the banker, who, after dilat- 
 ing upon the goodness of the man he 
 had robbed, concluded his moral lesson 
 by handing him a check for five hun- 
 dred pounds, as a proof of his bene- 
 ficence. The following morning, the 
 banker, on depositing the money he 
 had received, was told, to his great 
 surprise, that the notes were counter- 
 feit. His next inquiries were concern- 
 ing the check, but that had been 
 cashed shortly after the opening of the 
 bank. He immediately sent an express 
 to his Hamburg correspondent, who 
 replied that the letter was a forgery, 
 and that no fraud had been committed 
 on him. The whole affair had been 
 plotted by a gang, some of whom 
 
 were on the continent, and some in 
 England. 
 
 Exchanging a Cheese for a Finch of 
 Snuff. 
 
 JOHN TICE, a New Jersey grocer, 
 came to Philadelphia a short time 
 since, to replenish his stock. Com- 
 pleting his purchases, which in due 
 time were deposited on the docks, to 
 be shipped per river steamer, Mr. Tice 
 thought proper to keep his eye upon 
 his goods until they could be taken 
 on board. Among them was a fine 
 Bucks county cheese, weighing about 
 sixty-five pounds, upon which, for 
 want of better accommodations, the 
 weary grocer seated himself as he 
 watched the remainder of his property 
 on the wharf. While thus seated, 
 running over the events of the day, 
 calculating the profits that he would 
 realize on this purchase, and every 
 now and then solacing his nasal organ 
 from a " yaller " snuff-box, two nice 
 young men approached, and entered 
 into conversation. 
 
 " You take snuff, sir," asked young 
 man No. 1. " Yes couldn't do with- 
 out it took it for over eight years." 
 " You use the maccoboy, I perceive " 
 (No. 2). " Yes. That suits me the best 
 for a steady snuff." " Let me recom- 
 mend you mine," said the sharper, 
 producing a silver-plated box, engraved 
 with an American eagle and two har- 
 poons ; " I imported it from France. 
 It is the identical snuff used by Mar- 
 shal Pelissier and the officers of the 
 French army." Mr. Tice said, "Cer- 
 tainly," and inserted his thumb and 
 finger in the stranger's box. The 
 moment he placed it to his nose, he 
 was seized with sneezing. At every 
 sneeze he lifted himself about a foot 
 from the cheese upon which he sat. 
 While he was doing this, sharper No. 
 2 was carrying out his share of the 
 programme. As Mr. Tice gave the 
 third sneeze, the rogue pushed the 
 cheese from under him, and in its stead
 
 262 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 placed a peck measure ; and as he was 
 sneezing for the eighth and last time, 
 the sharpers and cheese had disap- 
 peared. 
 
 The grocer continued rubbing his 
 nose for about five minutes more, won- 
 dering as to the style of nose possessed 
 by Marshal Pelissier and the officers 
 of the French army, who took such 
 remarkable snuff. By this time, the 
 deck hands of the boat commenced 
 to load up Mr. Tice's goods. Mr. Tice 
 rose from his seat and said, " Take 
 this cheese, too." Deck hand said, 
 " What cheese ? " The grocer looked 
 around, and found that instead of the 
 cheese, he had been sitting upon a peck 
 measure. When he understood the 
 manner in which the exchange had 
 been effected, he was the most excited 
 man of the season. He offered fifty 
 dollars to any one who would give 
 him an opportunity to fight the thieves 
 with one hand tied behind his back. 
 
 Wanting to Pay the Cash. 
 
 IN an interior town in old Connec- 
 ticut lives a shaky character, named 
 Ben Hayden. Ben has some good 
 points, but he will run his face when 
 and where he can, and never pay. In 
 the same town lives Mr. Jacob Bond, 
 who keeps the store at the corners. 
 Ben had a " score " there, but to get his 
 pay was more than Mr. Bond was equal 
 to, as yet. One day Ben made his ap- 
 pearance with a bag and wheelbarrow, 
 and said, " Mr. Bond, I want to buy 
 two bushels of corn, and I want to pay 
 cash for ." " Very well," replied Mr. 
 Bond, " all right ; " and so they both 
 ascended the loft, and when the neces- 
 sary operations were gone through 
 with, they respectively returned. But 
 by the time the trader had got down 
 and looked around him, old Ben had 
 got some distance from the door, and 
 was rapidly making for home. " Hal- 
 loo, halloo, Ben ! " cried out the trader 
 lustily; "you said you wanted to 
 
 pay cash for that corn." Old Ben 
 deliberately sat down on one handle 
 of his barrow, and cocking his head 
 on one side, said, " That's all true, Mr. 
 Bond. I do want to pay you the cash 
 for the corn, but I can't ! " 
 
 A Rustic Bargaining for a Hat. 
 
 A JOCKEY country merchant was 
 trafficking one day with a rustic moun- 
 taineer, purchasing hay rakes in ex- 
 change for goods. Of course, the mer- 
 chant's prices were what are called bar- 
 ter prices. Our rustic had need of a 
 new hat, and inquired the price of one 
 from a case just opened, from New 
 York. " Only five dollars," said the 
 merchant. "Isn't that rather clear?" 
 said the customer. " I never sold one 
 for less," said the sharp merchant. 
 
 The clerk in the store inclined his 
 head to the ear of a bystander, who was 
 listening to the interesting confabula- 
 tion, and whispered : " He never sold 
 one at all." The case was bought at 
 auction in New York for one dollar a* 
 piece. 
 
 Results of a Career of Overreaching:. 
 
 ONE who knew well the late Gideon 
 Lee, remarks of him that no man more 
 thoroughly despised trickery in trade 
 than did Mr. L. He used to say that 
 " no trade can be sound that is not 
 beneficial to both parties to the buyer 
 as well as to the seller. A man may 
 obtain a temporary advantage by sell- 
 ing an article for more than it is worth ; 
 but the very effect of such operations 
 must recoil on him, in the shape of bad 
 debts and increased risks." A person 
 with whom he had some transactions 
 once boasted to him that he had, on 
 one occasion, obtained an advantage 
 over such a neighbor, and, upon anoth- 
 er occasion, over another neighbor; 
 "and to-day," said he, "I have ob- 
 tained one over you." 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Lee, " that may be ;
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 263 
 
 but if you will promise never to enter 
 my office again, I will give you that 
 bundle of goatskins." The man made 
 the promise, and took them. 
 
 Fifteen years afterward, he walked 
 into Mr. Lee's office. At the instant, 
 on seeing him, Mr. L. exclaimed : 
 " You have violated your promise ; pay 
 me for the goatskins ! " " Oh 1 " said 
 the man, " I am quite poor, and have 
 been very unfortunate since I saw you." 
 " Yes," responded Mr. Lee, " and you 
 always will be poor; that miserable 
 desire for overreaching others must ever 
 keep you so." 
 
 Keen Ruse by a Yankee Peddler. 
 
 JUST before the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, a Yankee peddler started 
 down to New York, to sell a parcel of 
 bowls and dishes he had made of ma- 
 ple. Jonathan travelled over the city, 
 asking everybody to buy his wares, but 
 no one seemed disposed to buy wooden 
 dishes. It happened, however, that a 
 British fleet was then lying in the har- 
 bor of New York, and Jonathan struck 
 upon a plan of selling his dishes. So 
 he got a naval uniform, by hook or by 
 crook for history doesn't tell where 
 he got it and, strutting up town one 
 morning, in his assumed garb, asked a 
 merchant if he had any nice wooden 
 ware; that the commodore wanted a 
 lot for the fleet. The merchant replied 
 that he had none on hand ; but there 
 was some in town, and if he would send 
 in the afternoon he could supply him. 
 " Very good," said our naval officer 
 and out he went, and cut for home. He 
 had scarcely doffed his borrowed plu- 
 mage before down came the merchant, 
 who, observing that Jonathan had sold 
 none of his wares, now offered to take 
 the whole, if he would deduct fifteen 
 per cent. ; but Jonathan said " he'd be 
 hanged if he didn't take 'em home be- 
 fore he'd take a cent less than his first 
 price." So the merchant paid him 
 down in gold his price for the wooden 
 
 ware, which laid on his shelves for 
 many a long day thereafter. If any- 
 thing additional is necessary to be 
 said in connection with this trade, it is 
 not that Jonathan trotted home in 
 high glee at the success of his ruse, 
 while the merchant cursed British uni- 
 forms and officers ever after. 
 
 Trading: in Imaginary Candlesticks. 
 
 IN 1808, Vincent Alessi, a native of 
 one of the Italian States, went to Bir- 
 mingham, England, to choose some 
 manufactures likely to return a suffi- 
 cient profit in Spain. Among others 
 he sought a brass founder, who showed 
 him that which he required, and then 
 drew his attention to " another article," 
 which he said he could sell cheaper 
 than any other person in the trade. 
 Mr. Alessi declined purchasing this, as 
 it proved to be a forged bank note; 
 upon which he was shown some dollars, 
 as fitter for the Spanish market. These 
 were also declined. It would seem, 
 however, from what followed, that Mr. 
 Alessi was not quite unprepared, as, in 
 the evening, he was called on by one 
 John Nicholls, and, after some conver- 
 sation, he agreed to take a certain 
 quantity of notes, of different value, 
 which were to be paid for at the rate 
 of six shillings in the pound. 
 
 Alessi thought this a very profitable 
 business while it lasted, as he could 
 always procure as many as he liked, by 
 writing for so many dozen candle- 
 sticks, calling them Nos. 5, 2, or 1, ac- 
 cording to the amount of the note re- 
 quired. The vigilance of the English 
 police, however, was too much even for 
 the subtlety of an Italian ; he was taken 
 by them, and allowed to turn king's 
 evidence, it being thought very desir- 
 able to discover the manufactory whence 
 the notes emanated. 
 
 In December, John Nicholls received 
 a letter from Alessi, stating that he was 
 going to America ; that he wanted to 
 see Nicholls in London ; that he re-
 
 264 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 quired twenty dozen candlesticks, No. 
 5, twenty-four dozen No. 1, and four 
 dozen No. 2. Mr. Nicholls, unsuspi- 
 cious of his correspondent's captivity, 
 and consequent frailty, came forthwith 
 to town to fulfil so important an order. 
 Here an interview was planned within 
 hearing of the public officers. Nicholls 
 came with the forged notes. Alessi 
 counted up the whole sum he was to 
 pay, at six shillings in the pound, say- 
 ing : " Mr. Nicholls, you will take all 
 my money from me." " Never mind, 
 sir," was the reply, " it will be all re- 
 turned in the way of business." Alessi 
 then remarked that it was cold, and 
 put on his hat. This was the signal 
 for the officers. To the dealer's sur- 
 prise and indignation he found himself 
 entrapped, with the counterfeit notes 
 in his possession, to the precise amount 
 in number and value that had been or- 
 dered in the letter. Thus Mr. Nicholls 
 found his business suddenly brought to 
 a close, and the brisk trade in imagin- 
 ary candlesticks finished. 
 
 The Bank Detectives Foiled. 
 
 THE desire of the London banks to 
 discover the makers of forged notes 
 produced, on a certain occasion, a con- 
 siderable amount of anxiety to one 
 whose name is indelibly associated 
 with the fine arts. George Morland 
 a name rarely mentioned but with feel- 
 ings of admiration and regret had, in 
 his eagerness to avoid incarceration for 
 debt, retired to an obscure hiding- 
 place, in the suburbs of London. At 
 one period he hid himself in Hackney, 
 where his anxious looks and secluded 
 manner of life induced some of his 
 charitable neighbors to believe him a 
 maker of forged notes. The bank di- 
 rectors despatched two of their most 
 dexterous emissaries to inquire, recon- 
 noitre, search, and seize. The men ar- 
 rived, and began to draw lines of cir- 
 cumvallation round the painter's re- 
 treat. He was not, however, to be sur- 
 
 prised ; mistaking those agents of evil 
 mien for bailiffs, he escaped from be- 
 hind as they approached in front, fled 
 into Hoxton, and never halted till he 
 had hid himself in London. Nothing 
 was found to justify suspicion ; and 
 when Mrs. Morland, who was his com- 
 panion in this retreat, told them who 
 her husband was, and showed them 
 some unfinished pictures, they made 
 such a report to the bank that the di- 
 rectors presented him with a couple of 
 bank notes of twenty pounds each, by 
 way of compensation for the alarm 
 they had given him. 
 
 Sharp at a Trade Sharper in Getting 
 out of it. 
 
 THERE once flourished in one of our 
 commercial cities a little French mer- 
 chant, who was very well known in 
 said locality, and who himself " knew 
 a thing or two." During the last war, 
 our little Frenchman was doing a very 
 thriving business in the drygoods line, 
 and was supposed to be a little sharper 
 at a bargain than most, at least, of his 
 fellow tradesmen. There also flourished 
 at the same time, and in the same city, 
 an importing merchant, of Yankee ori- 
 gin, who was noted as a long-headed, 
 close-fisted dealer. 
 
 It is well known that during the war 
 English goods were sold at enormous 
 prices. The Yankee merchant was in 
 that line of trade ; and a few days be- 
 fore the arrival in this country of the 
 news of peace, he received private ad- 
 vices from the continent, which led him 
 to anticipate it. As he had a large 
 supply of English goods on hand at the 
 time, the prices of which would of 
 course instantly fall, he set about dis- 
 posing of them as soon as possible to 
 his less informed and unsuspecting 
 customers. The little Frenchman was 
 one of his victims. After much hag- 
 gling, and the offer of a long credit, the 
 importer effected a bill of sale of goods 
 to him, to the amount of something 
 like twenty thousand dollars, taking
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 265 
 
 his notes on long time in payment. 
 These he considered perfectly good, of 
 course, as his customer's reputation in 
 the money market was unsullied. The 
 bargain being consummated, the two 
 friends parted, each in a capital humor 
 with himself; the Yankee to deposit 
 the notes in his strong box, and the 
 Frenchman to his store, where, receiving 
 his newly purchased goods, he imme- 
 diately commenced marking them one 
 hundred per cent, above cost, thus 
 making, before midnight, to use his 
 own boast, a profit of twenty thousand 
 dollars on his purchase ! 
 
 Three days afterward the official 
 news of peace came ; English goods in- 
 stantly fell one half, and our little 
 Frenchman awoke in horror from his 
 dream of cent, per cent. Nine persons 
 out of every ten, under such circum- 
 stances, would have failed at once. 
 But nil desperandum was the motto of 
 our Frenchman. He saw that he had 
 been Mt by his commercial friend, and 
 he immediately set his wits at work to 
 turn the tables upon him. So, late in 
 the evening of the next day, he re- 
 paired to the dwelling of the importer, 
 and told a long and pitiful story of his 
 embarrassments. He said his con- 
 science already smote him for making 
 so heavy a purchase while in failing 
 circumstances, and that he had come 
 to make the only reparation in his pow- 
 er namely, to yield up the goods ob- 
 tained of the importer, on the latter's 
 cancelling the notes given therefor. 
 The Yankee at first demurred ; but on 
 the Frenchman insisting that he was 
 a bankrupt, and that he feared the 
 moment he opened in the morning the 
 sheriff would pounce upon him with a 
 writ that would swallow up everything, 
 he finally agreed to the proposition. 
 " Half a loaf was better than no bread," 
 he thought ; so the notes and the bill 
 of sale were accordingly cancelled. 
 
 By daylight in the morning, the 
 Yankee was at the Frenchman's store, 
 with his teams, as had been agreed 
 
 upon the night before, and every pack- 
 age of his goods was soon removed. 
 The two merchants again parted, the 
 Frenchman relieved of a heavy load, 
 and the Yankee rather down in the 
 mouth at the result of his trade. 
 
 Two or three days afterward, as the 
 importer was passing the Frenchman's 
 store, he observed his sign still up, and 
 everything apparently as flourishing as 
 ever. He stepped in to see what it all 
 meant. " Hallo ! Mr. S.," said he, " I 
 thought you had failed ! " " Failed ! " 
 repeated the little Frenchman, thrust- 
 ing his thumbs in the arm holes of his 
 vest, and sliding his legs apart from 
 counter to counter, till he resembled a 
 small Colossus of Rhodes : " Failed f 
 No, be gar! Firmer than ever, Mr. 
 H. ; but I should have failed, almosht, if 
 I hadn't got rid of dem tamn'd English 
 goods at cost ! " 
 
 Coal Dealer's Prediction Fulfilled 
 Perhaps. 
 
 AN English coal dealer, who was 
 notorious for his continual and unpro- 
 voked swearing, had occasion to pro- 
 ceed with a boat to a neighboring port, 
 with a cargo of coals, and ordered one 
 of his men to take charge of it. As the 
 boat was leaving the wharf, an ac- 
 quaintance civilly accosted the man, 
 asking where he was going. " I am 
 going to hell," he characteristically re- 
 plied, with an oath. Strange to relate, 
 he died suddenly before reaching the 
 port of his destination. Perhaps his 
 profane prediction was fulfilled; he 
 knows best. 
 
 Deserved Reward of Blasphemy. 
 
 IN the strait between Johor and Rhio 
 there is a small white rock, called the 
 " White Stone," only slightly elevated 
 above the water, and so exactly in the 
 centre of the passage that many ves- 
 sels, unacquainted with it, have there 
 been wrecked. 
 
 A Portuguese merchant passing this
 
 266 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 strait, in a vessel of his own, richly 
 laden with gold dhd other valuable 
 commodities, asked the pilot when this 
 rock would be passed : but each mo- 
 ment appearing to him long until he 
 was secure from the danger it involved, 
 he repeated his question so often that 
 the pilot impatiently told him "the 
 rock was passed." The merchant, trans- 
 ported with joy at this announcement, 
 rashly exclaimed, that " God himself 
 could not now make him poor." But 
 in a little while, the vessel did reach 
 and struck on the White Stone, and all 
 his wealth was in a moment engulfed 
 in the deep sea. His life alone was 
 spared, which he spent in misery and 
 remorse. 
 
 Friend Hopper and the Due Sill. 
 
 UPON a certain occasion a man called 
 upon Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker, with 
 a due bill for twenty dollars against an 
 estate he had been appointed to settle. 
 Friend Hopper put it aside, saying he 
 would attend to it as soon as he had 
 leisure. The man called again a short 
 time after, and stated that he had need 
 of six dollars, and was willing even to 
 give a receipt for the whole if that sum 
 were advanced just then. This propo- 
 sition excited suspicion, and the ad- 
 ministrator decided in his own mind 
 that he would pay nothing on that de- 
 mand till he had examined the papers 
 of the deceased. Searching carefully 
 among these, he found a receipt for the 
 money, mentioning the identical items, 
 date, and circumstances of the transac- 
 tion, and stating that a due bill had 
 been given and lost, and was to be re- 
 stored to the creditor when found. 
 When, therefore, the man called again, 
 Isaac said to him, in a quiet way : 
 
 " Friend Jones, I understand thou 
 hast become pious lately." 
 
 He replied in a solemn tone : " Yes, 
 thanks to the Lord Jesus, I have found 
 out the way of salvation." 
 
 " And thou hast been dipped, I hear," 
 
 continued the Quaker. " Dost thou 
 know James Hunter ? " 
 
 Mr. Jones answered in the affirmative. 
 
 " Well, he was also dipped some time 
 ago," rejoined friend Hopper, " but the 
 neighbors say they didn't get the 
 crown of his head under water. The 
 devil crept into the unbaptized part, 
 and has been busy with him ever since. 
 I'm afraid they didn't get ihee quite 
 under water. I think thou hadst bet- 
 ter be dipped again." 
 
 As he thus spoke, he held up the 
 receipt for twenty dollars. The coun- 
 tenance of the pretended pious man be- 
 came scarlet, and he disappeared in- 
 stantly. 
 
 Bit of Yankee Financiering: in Wall 
 Street. 
 
 A LITTLE colloquy, after the follow- 
 ing fashion, is reported in the Knicker- 
 locker, as having occurred in the count- 
 ing house of a mercantile firm : " A 
 man kind o' picks up a good many 
 idees abeout. I larnt a few in Wall 
 street." "In Wall street?" "Yes; 
 'see, I studied it eout while I was stage 
 drivin'. I got a little change together ; 
 didn't know where to place it ; couldn't 
 hire it eout hum, 'cause I was pleadin' 
 poverty all the time ; that, 'see, wouldn't 
 deu : so I goes deown and claps it in 
 the Dry Dock Bank ; got five per cent., 
 tew. Had a brother thair who was tell- 
 er. One day I 'gin a check for fifty dol- 
 lars : all right. At last the-bank got in 
 trouble : I had some four or five thou- 
 sand dollars ; I goes to my brother and 
 draws eout my money he pays me in 
 
 Bank of notes. Well, I took 'em 
 
 hum, but they forgot to take eout my 
 check for fifty dollars. So I goes, and 
 sez I, ' I owe you fifty that you haint 
 charged me ; will you take your own 
 notes ? ' ' Sartin,' says they ; so I pays 
 'em in notes that I bought at twenty- 
 five off. ' That's a good spec,' says I ; 
 so I goes areound, and buys up about 
 tew hundred Dry Dock notes. When 
 I got to the city, I couldn't pass 'em
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 267 
 
 off. I tried a good many banks no 
 go. At last they creowded me off the 
 pavement in Wall street, the creowd 
 was so big, and I stood in the middle 
 of the street, and calculated. ' I've got 
 the idee,' sez I ; ' I'll come country 
 over 'em.' So I walked into the Bank 
 
 of , took off my hat, and looked 
 
 areound as if didn't know what I was 
 abeout. I know'd the cashier; so he 
 comes up : ' Sam 1 ' sez he, ' what neow ? 
 how's the family ? ' ' All well,' sez 
 I, 'but what's the matter with your 
 banks ? I don't know who to depend 
 on. Here's your neighbor, the Dry 
 Dock's, gone, and maybe you'll go next ; 
 and I've got abeout five thousand dol~ 
 lars of your money, and I guess I'll 
 come deown to draw the specie.' I 
 expect I must a-looked as if I was 
 frightened to death ; for he said to 
 once, ' Deon't do that, Sam ! ' sez he ; 
 ' you'll frighten the hull country, and 
 they'll come and run us.' ' Can't help 
 it,' sez I ; ' here's abeout tew hundred 
 dollars of the Dry Dock, and if I don't 
 get the money somewhere before I go 
 hum, I'll draw on you seoon.' ' Heow 
 much ? ' sez he : ' Abeout tew hundred.' 
 4 We'll take it, Sam,' sez he, ' and you 
 keep our paper.' 'Well,' sez I, 'on 
 that condition I'll keep still.' I guess 
 I made my twenty-five per cent, eout 
 of Wall street that time, ' if I am Dutch ' 
 as the saying is ! " 
 
 Taking: him at his Word. 
 
 " WILL you give me a glass of ale, 
 please ? " asked a rather seedy-ish look- 
 ing person, with an old but well-brush- 
 ed coat, and a'most too shiny a hat. It 
 was produced by the bartender, cream- 
 ing over the edge of the tumbler. 
 "Thanky'e," said the recipient as he 
 placed it to his lips. Having finished 
 it at a swallow, he smacked his lips, 
 and said : " That is very fine ale very. 
 Whose is it ? " " It is Barman's ale." 
 " Ah ! Harman's, eh ? well, give us an- 
 other glass of it." It was done, and 
 
 holding it up to the light and looking 
 through it, the connoisseur said : 
 "Ton my word, it is superb ale ' 
 superb ! clear as madeira. I must have 
 some more of that. Give me a mug of 
 it." The mug was furnished, but, be- 
 fore putting it to his lips, the imbiber 
 said : " Whose ale did you say this 
 was ? " " Harmari's," emphatically re- 
 peated the bartender. The mug was 
 exhausted, and also the vocabulary of 
 praise ; and it only remained for the 
 appreciative gentleman to say, as he 
 wiped his mouth and went toward the 
 door : " Harman's ale, is it ? I know 
 Harman very well I shall see him 
 soon, and will settle with him for two 
 glasses and a mug of his incomparable 
 brew ! Good mawning ! " 
 
 Lodging: a Banker in the Gutter. 
 
 THERE is a class of retail dealers in 
 London who keep accounts with bank- 
 ers, but who seldom, or perhaps never, 
 have the privilege of the entree to a 
 banker's parlor or " sweating room." 
 (A banker's parlor is called a " sweat- 
 ing room," a significant term, as all who 
 have been under the necessity of ask- 
 ing for " accommodation " will readily 
 allow.) This privilege is almost exclu- 
 sively enjoyed by the merchants and 
 wholesale dealers ; and on this account 
 the retail tradesman scarcely knows the 
 person of the banker with whom he 
 lodges his money, or the banker that 
 of his customer. This ignorance gave 
 rise to a ludicrous scene between a 
 wealthy London banker and a baker, 
 one of his customers. 
 
 It happened on a certain day that 
 the baker had paid in to his account a 
 large sum of money, and on his retir- 
 ing from the bank he paused on the 
 step of the door, and began to reflect 
 which way he should steer his course. 
 While in this position of innocent un- 
 certainty, as ill luck would have it, the 
 banker came up ; and, as he could not 
 pass the dusty baker without touching
 
 268 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 him, and thus soiling his own clothes 
 for the baker was in his working 
 'gear he very haughtily said: "Move 
 away, fellow." This language, applied 
 to a trader who had just paid five hun- 
 dred pounds in to his account, which 
 already had a large sum to his credit, 
 was, to say the least of it, very irritat- 
 ing, and such as the baker thought, no 
 doubt, he ought to resent, for h*e re- 
 plied : " I shan't move for you nor any 
 coxcomb like you ; and, what's more, 
 if you give me your lip again in that 
 manner, I'll put your nose in the ken- 
 nel." 
 
 The banker, not being, in his turn, 
 used to such a mode of address, still 
 authoritatively ordered the baker to 
 move and let him pass, or he would let 
 him know who he was. Words ran 
 very high. At last the pugnacious 
 baker, unable any longer to restrain his 
 passion, with one blow for he was a 
 powerful man knocked the tanker into 
 the gutter. The banker's fall shook 
 Lombard street; but, unlike most 
 bankers, who, when they fall, fall like 
 Lucifer, never to rise again, he did rise, 
 and, rushing into his banking shop, 
 covered with mud, foaming with rage, 
 and followed by the still bristling 
 baker, eager for a clinch, he called 
 loudly for the parties to fetch a con- 
 stable to " take this fellow into cus- 
 tody." 
 
 The cashier, who but a few minutes 
 before had attended upon the baker, to 
 his utter amazement witnessed this ex- 
 traordinary scene. He immediately ran 
 to the banker, and whispered in his 
 
 ear : " That is Mr. , our customer." 
 
 These few words acted upon the excit- 
 able feelings of the banker in the same 
 manner as oil upon troubled water; 
 for, without uttering another word, he 
 retired to his room which, on this 
 occasion, might with peculiar propriety 
 be called a " sweating room," and after 
 a while requested the cashier to calm 
 the belligerent baker, who, in a men- 
 acing attitude, was still chewing the 
 
 cud of his resentment outside the room. 
 This the cashier soon effected ; and the 
 customer was then, for the first time, 
 formally introduced to him, when apo- 
 logies were mutually interchanged, and 
 the banker and baker were from that 
 day well known to each other. 
 
 The Prince Regent's Wine and the 
 Confidential Dealer. 
 
 AN anecdote is related in Taifs Mag- 
 azine of the Prince Regent, which gives 
 some insight into the mysteries of the 
 wine trade. The incidents of the case 
 relate to how the Prince Regent had, 
 in a corner of his cellar, a small quan- 
 tity of remarkably fine wine, of a pecu- 
 liar quality and flavor ; how, this wine 
 remaining untouched for some time, 
 the household thought their master 
 had forgotten it, and to make up for 
 this inexcusable lapse of memory, took 
 upon themselves to drink it nearly 
 out ; how the prince, one day, expect- 
 ing some illustrious connoisseurs to 
 dinner, ordered this particular wine to 
 be served, and thus threw " the house- 
 hold " into a state of consternation, and 
 how one of them hastened thereupon 
 to take confidential counsel of a wine 
 merchant in the city, who quickly al- 
 layed his terrors. " Send me," said the 
 ingenious dealer, " a bottle of what re- 
 mains, and I will send you in return as 
 much wine of that description as you 
 want ; only you must take care that 
 what I send is drunk immediately." 
 This advice was followed, the success 
 was complete. The Prince Regent and 
 his distinguished guests (so the story 
 goes) were delighted with this rare old 
 wine, whose peculiar merits had been 
 so long overlooked. Three or four 
 times afterward, the prince, whose 
 taste in wine was exquisite, ordered 
 some from the same batch ; and on 
 every occasion the confidential dealer 
 had recourse to his private vineyard in 
 his cellar, and " the mixture as before " 
 was forthcoming. This process was 
 continued until " the household," fear-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 269 
 
 ing a discovery, thought it prudent 
 to inform their royal master that the 
 stock of this favorite beverage was ex- 
 hausted. 
 
 " Dummies," or Counterfeit Show 
 Windows. 
 
 IT is stated that the demand for 
 " dummies " has wonderfully increased 
 in the large towns of England, as well 
 as on the Continent, since the recent 
 elevation and widening of shop win- 
 dows. Though the shopkeeper may 
 carry his magnificent crystal windows 
 up to the first or second floor, as many 
 of them do, it is out of his power to 
 conveniently lift the heads of his cus- 
 tomers to the same level ; he conse- 
 quently finds out, sooner or later, that 
 it is a losing game to exhibit his perish- 
 able stock at a height of half a dozen 
 feet or more above the heads of the 
 public, and he has recourse to the 
 maker of dummies, who can counter- 
 feit any description of solid-looking 
 goods, and save him from the dete- 
 rioration which would befall genuine 
 goods thus exposed to the glare and 
 dust, damp, smoke, &c. 
 
 The dummies, therefore, go aloft, 
 and economically fill in the ample 
 background, and, for purposes of show, 
 their attractive appearance enables 
 them to be used about as advantage- 
 ously as the real article. They are not, 
 however, confined to the window sole- 
 ly; a young tradesman with a small 
 capital may fill the major portion of 
 his shelves with a " rich stock of 
 goods," by means of dummies, displa- 
 cing them gradually by real wares, as 
 success enables him to do so. 
 
 Pieces of linen, rolls of broadcloth or 
 Brussels carpeting, splendid brocades, 
 whole fathoms of backs of elegantly 
 bound books, chests of tea, huge tuns 
 of " Old Tom," or real Jamaica rum, 
 packets of patent medicines, and in- 
 numerable things besides,, are counter- 
 feited with such perfect effect as to 
 reality and beauty, as to defy recogni- 
 
 tion by a stranger nay, the tradesman 
 himself will sometimes lay hands on 
 the dummy, mistaking it for a genuine 
 piece of goods. 
 
 Smuggled Needles and the American 
 Eagle. 
 
 SOMEBODY tells the following anec- 
 dote, capital of its kind : In the time 
 of the last war, there were two hot- 
 headed politicians, whose contempt for 
 John Bull was so hearty, that, taking 
 their own word for it, they would not so 
 much as eat with a knife and fork of 
 English manufacture, if they could 
 avoid it. During the war, the English 
 had possession of Castine, at the head 
 of Penobscot Bay, and smuggling Eng- 
 lish goods from that place into the 
 country was extensively practised. The 
 temptation was too great for the cupid- 
 ity of our two republicans, and finally 
 overcame all their scruples. I lived at 
 that tune (says the narrator) in an 
 eastern town, and one bitter cold night 
 in February, I was called, at two 
 o'clock, from my bed, by two men 
 whom I never knew before, to go and 
 receive several loads of smuggled 
 goods, which, by direction of my em- 
 ployer, I took into the cellar, through 
 a back way in the store where I was a 
 clerk, and secreted them carefully. 
 
 One of the sleighs was loaded with 
 hardware, and in crossing the ferry 
 over the Kennebeck, they met with a 
 sad accident. The only ferry boat was 
 a large, flat gondola. When they ar- 
 rived on the opposite side, intending 
 to stop for some refreshment, they 
 drove the sleighs out of the gondola, 
 except the hindmost one, which, being 
 loaded with the hardware, was very 
 heavy, and tipped the boat very much. 
 This was permitted to remain, and while 
 they were regaling themselves, the tide 
 rose, overflowed the sides of the boat, 
 and sank it. The goods were, of course, 
 wet. Among them was a package of 
 sewing needles, and being accustomed 
 to handling such goods, our republicans
 
 270 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 employed me to open, dry, and repack 
 them in emery, which I did very care- 
 fully, at the expense of several days' 
 labor. Needles were many times as 
 dear then as now, so that the case was 
 valued at some hundreds of dollars, 
 which, but for my care and industry, 
 would have been spoiled entirely. And 
 one day, when a custom-house officer 
 came into the store to search for smug- 
 gled goods, I showed him every place 
 in the store except where they were. 
 The goods were delivered out again, 
 and sent in small parcels to Boston and 
 New York, for sale. 
 
 The pains I had taken, and the value 
 of my services, led me to expect a gen- 
 erous reward, and I congratulated my- 
 self with the anticipated profits of fidel- 
 ity to the trust reposed in me. When 
 the last package of goods was removed, 
 one of the smugglers came to me and 
 said, " You are a capital little fellow ; 
 if I had you in my store you would be 
 worth your weight in gold. Always 
 be as faithful, and you will always be 
 trusted." 
 
 Expectation was now on tiptoe; I 
 would not have given a sixpence to in- 
 sure a twenty-dollar bill in my hand 
 the next moment, but, like most high 
 worldly hopes, mine were doomed to 
 disappointment. The republican smug- 
 gler put his hand in his pocket and 
 solemnly drew forth an American half 
 dollar! "That," said he, "is the real 
 coin, the true American eagle; keep it, 
 and be sure you always avoid an Eng- 
 lishman as you would an adder." He 
 took his valise in his hand and walked 
 toward the stage office ; I looked after 
 him till he was out of sight, and his 
 gait, form, and figure, to the smallest 
 outline, are as fresh in memory now as 
 at that moment (I was then a boy), and 
 the contempt I then felt for him has 
 never been effaced. I have met him 
 often in the streets of New York ; he 
 does not know me, but I never passed 
 him without laughing, though I have 
 kept his secret to this day. 
 
 Throwing- Sawdust in the Eyes of 
 Custom-House Officers. 
 
 AN ingenious ruse was played by a 
 wag who, before the working of the 
 saline springs of New York, made it a 
 business to smuggle salt from Canada 
 into the " States." One day, having 
 got wind that he was suspected, he 
 loaded his bags with sawdust, and 
 drove past the tavern where the sus- 
 picious excisemen were waiting for 
 him. He was ordered to stop, but he 
 only increased his speed. At length 
 he was overtaken, and his load in- 
 spected, with many imprecations from 
 the eager officials, after which he was 
 permitted to pass on. A day or two 
 after he drove up again, with a full 
 load of salt, and asked, banteringly, if 
 they didn't want to search him again. 
 " Go on ! go on ! " said the officials ; 
 " we've had enough of you ! " 
 
 Snug Place for Bank Notes. 
 
 A GBEAT number of false bank notes 
 were at one time put into circulation 
 within the dominions of the Czar. 
 They could only have been imported ; 
 but although the strictest search was 
 made habitually over every vessel en- 
 tering a Russian port, no smuggling of 
 false notes was discovered. Accident, 
 however, at last brought the mystery 
 to light. It happened that several 
 cases of lead pencils arrived one day 
 from England, and were being exam- 
 ined, when one of them fell out from a 
 package, and the custom-house officer, 
 picking it up, cut it to a point, and 
 used it to sign the order which deliv- 
 ered up the cases to the consignee. He 
 kept the one loose pencil for his own 
 use ; and a few days afterward, because 
 it needed a fresh point, cut it again, 
 and found that there was no more lead. 
 Another chip into the cedar brought 
 him to a roll of paper nested in a hol- 
 low place. This paper was one of the 
 false notes engraved in London, and
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 271 
 
 thus smuggled into the dominions of 
 the Muscovite. 
 
 Parisian Female Smugglers. 
 
 THE smuggling of game and such 
 taxable articles into Paris, under the 
 petticoats of women, has become so fre- 
 quent that a female has been attached 
 to the bureau of the department, in or- 
 der that she may search under the gar- 
 ments of suspected individuals of her 
 sex. Recently a woman known as the 
 Hottentot Venus presented herself at 
 one of the gates. The agents, who are 
 always jealous of stout people, request- 
 ed the lady with the phenomenal con- 
 tour to stop. She refused, and pushed 
 by. One of the custom-house employes 
 seized her, and commenced pressing his 
 fingers on various parts of her fictitious 
 body, as if he were feeling to see wheth- 
 er she was ripe. She screamed and 
 fought, and in her struggles a partridge 
 fell from under her skirts to the ground. 
 Her contraband wares were probably 
 strung like dried apples, and the escape 
 of the partridge loosened the whole. 
 Down came a quail, and then a snipe, 
 and then another quail, and a wood- 
 cock, until the woman, whose embon- 
 point had now visibly diminished, was 
 thrust into the office, where the female 
 attendant of the establishment com- 
 menced a thorough investigation. When 
 all was over, the victim was found to 
 be a very spare person, not weighing 
 over ninety -five pounds. 
 
 Smuggling by the Chinese. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Chinese smugglers do 
 not precisely fear the mandarin boats, 
 they always endeavor to avoid them, 
 unless they have come to some agree- 
 ment. If, however, they cannot escape 
 being overhauled, they endeavor to ne- 
 gotiate, and will offer the mandarin and 
 his crew a cumsha (a present) in order 
 to obtain permission to continue their 
 voyage. They do not fight except at 
 
 the last extremity, or unless the de- 
 mands of the mandarin are too exorbi- 
 tant or, what is still more rare, unless 
 that functionary shows himself inacces- 
 sible to corruption, and will not traffic 
 his duties. 
 
 Doing Things on Shares. 
 
 HEBE is a case illustrating the work- 
 ing of the "peculiar institution of" 
 doing things on shares. A happened 
 to have more pigs than he could keep, 
 while his neighbor B had more milk 
 than he could dispose of. One day, A 
 brought two pigs over and deposited 
 them in B's pen, saying that he wished 
 B to keep them two months and have 
 one of them as his share. B replied 
 that, as he had plenty of feed, he would 
 keep them four months and have them 
 both, as, of course, that would amount 
 to the same thing ! A left, saying that 
 he supposed it was all right, but 
 guessed he wouldn't bring any more. 
 
 "Doing" and "Shaving" Customers. 
 
 "A FOOL and his money are soon 
 parted " a proverb not founded on 
 fact, but a great favorite with mer- 
 chant princes and cabmen on the oc- 
 casion of their having, in their respect- 
 ive callings, succeeded in " doing " a 
 liberal customer. With what gusto 
 does the " gentleman " relate to his 
 partner, over a bottle at his country 
 seat, how easily the greenhorn took the 
 bait ! " An entire cargo ten per cent, 
 above the market price said he sup- 
 posed it was ' all right ' would take 
 my word for it ; ha ! ha ! ha ! a fool 
 and his money are soon parted ! " And 
 listen to the humbler but not meaner 
 chuckling of the hackdriver over his 
 gin twist : " Charged him a dollar from 
 Whitehall to the Astor forked over 
 the tin without a word ! A fool and 
 his money," etc. The fact is, an avari- 
 cious man sees no wit in liberality or 
 open dealing. Shylock began it : " This
 
 272 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 is the fool that lent out money gratis ! " 
 It's all wrong. A Wall-street broker of 
 the best reputation once said that the 
 hardest man to " shave " as he tech- 
 nically expressed himself is a fool. 
 " Sir," said he, " you don't know where 
 to have 'em ; you can't stick soft cheese 
 on a hook ! " 
 
 Settling: a Question of Taste and Trade. 
 
 MR. JONES was down to 'York once, 
 and being very fond o' sassengers, he 
 went into an eatin' shop to get some. 
 While he was a-hearin' of 'em fry, his- 
 sin' and sputterin' away, a man was 
 buyin' some of 'em raw at the counter, 
 and while he was a-tyin' of 'em up, a 
 chap came in with a fuz cap and a 
 dirty drab sustout, and laid down a lit- 
 tle bundle at fur eend o' the counter. 
 He looked at the keeper, and see he 
 was a little busy ; so he said, lookin' 
 sly at him as he went out, says he, 
 "'Tan't no matter about the money 
 now, but that makes eleven " p'intin' 
 toward the bundle. Jones looked at 
 the bundle, and says he saw the head 
 of a cat stickin' out at the eend, with 
 long smellers onto it as long as his fin- 
 ger ! He left that shop 'mazin' quick, 
 and has had no relish for the article 
 sence, tho' once so savory and tooth- 
 some to him. 
 
 "Newscloth." 
 
 A PUBLISHER in Greenock, Scotland, 
 having been fined for printing news on 
 unstamped sheets of paper contrary to 
 the law in such cases retaliated by 
 printing on doth, which is not speci- 
 fied in the act calling his journal the 
 "Greenock Newscfo^," in allusion to 
 the material. 
 
 Expedient of a Russian Miser. 
 
 A RUSSIAN merchant, who was so 
 immensely rich that on one occasion he 
 lent the Empress Catharine the Second 
 
 a million of roubles, used to live in a 
 small, obscure room in St. Petersburg, 
 with scarcely any fire, furniture, or at- 
 tendants, though his house was larger 
 than many palaces. He buried his 
 money, in cash, in the cellar, and was 
 so great a miser that he barely allowed 
 himself the common necessaries of life. 
 He placed his principal security in a 
 large dog of singular fierceness, which 
 used to protect the premises by barking 
 nearly the whole of the night. At length 
 the dog died ; when the master, either 
 impelled by his sordidness from buying 
 another dog, or fearing that he might 
 not meet with one that he could so well 
 depend on, adopted the singular meth- 
 od of performing the canine service 
 himself, by going his rounds every 
 evening, and barking as well and as 
 loud as he could, in imitation of his 
 more excusable beast. 
 
 Burns and the Drowning- Merchant. 
 
 BURNS was standing one day upon 
 the quay at Greenock, when a most 
 wealthy merchant, belonging to the 
 town, had the misfortune to fall into 
 the harbor. He was no swimmer, and 
 his death would have been inevitable, 
 had not a sailor, who happened to 
 be passing at the time, immediately 
 plunged in, and, at the risk of his own 
 life, rescued him from his dangerous 
 situation. 
 
 The Greenock merchant, upon recov- 
 ering a little from his fright, put his 
 hand into his pocket, and generously 
 presented the sailor with a shilling 1 
 The crowd, who were by this time col- 
 lected, loudly protested against the 
 contemptible insignificance of the sum ; 
 but Burns, with a smile of ineffable 
 scorn, entreated them to restrain their 
 clamor "for," said he, "the gentle- 
 man is of course the best judge of the 
 value of his own life."
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 273 
 
 One Cent with Qirard. 
 
 A GENTLEMAN from Europe pur- 
 chased a bill of exchange on Girard, to 
 defray the expenses of a tour to this 
 country. It was duly honored on pre- 
 sentation; but in the course of their 
 transactions, it so happened that one 
 cent remained to be refunded on the 
 part of the European ; and, on the eve 
 of his departure from this country, Gi- 
 rard dunned him for it. The gentle- 
 man apologized, and tendered him a 
 six-and-a-quarter-cent piece, requesting 
 the difference. Mr. Girard tendered 
 him in change five cents, which the 
 gentleman declined to accept, alleging 
 that he was entitled to an additional 
 quarter of a cent. In reply, Girard ad- 
 mitted the fact, but informed him that 
 it was not in his power to comply, as 
 the Government had neglected to pro- 
 vide the fractional coin in question, 
 and returned the gentleman the six- 
 cent piece, reminding him, however, in 
 unmistakable language, that he must 
 still consider him his debtor for the 
 balance unpaid the one cent. 
 
 Resolving to be Rich. 
 
 " I MEAN to be a rich man, cost what 
 it may. A man is nothing in the world 
 without wealth. "With plenty of money 
 he is everything. I mean to get rich, 
 anyhow." 
 
 This was the soliloquy of a young 
 merchant, who, with a small capital, 
 had recently established himself in 
 business. He made a stern resolve to 
 be rich, and having great perseverance, 
 he went busily to work in the execu- 
 tion of his project. 
 
 Everything was made subordinate to 
 the realization of his golden vision. 
 Ease and pleasure were out of the ques- 
 tion. Domestic enjoyments were of no 
 account. The merchant's brow ached 
 with incessant care ; his heart chilled 
 and warmed with the rise and fall of 
 the markets ; the changes of commerce 
 18 
 
 shaped his dreams ; money was his su- 
 perlative idea. He had time for nothing 
 but business. In vain did his wife lan- 
 guish under the weight of her domestic 
 cares. He had no time to unbend him- 
 self at home, and contribute to the bliss 
 of his little world there. Neither could 
 he bestow attention to the wants of the 
 world, nor the miseries of his fellow 
 creatures around him. All calls were 
 vain, for our merchant had neither eyes 
 nor ears for aught but mammon. 
 
 After many years of toil and care 
 after enduring anxieties and labors 
 sufficient to wear out his over-taxed 
 energies he had reached the goal. 
 The merchant had grown rich so rich 
 that he could forsake the counting 
 room, and live with princely splendor 
 in a palace-like home ! 
 
 This was the fulfilled vision of his 
 youth. He had sought gold, and his 
 massive coffers did, indeed, sweat be- 
 neath the weight of their glittering load ; 
 and when men passed him, they said, 
 
 " That is old , the millionnaire." 
 
 Was the prize worth what it cost ? 
 Thirty years of sacrifice had been de- 
 voted to its pursuit ! During that pe- 
 riod, true enjoyment had been a stran- 
 ger to his heart ; how could it be 
 otherwise ? For thirty years he had 
 not had time to be happy he had sur- 
 rendered all this for the expected advan- 
 tage of future wealth ! He had literally 
 sold these for gold 1 He had his prize. 
 , The merchant had not been many 
 months out of the counting room be- 
 fore his mind, missing the stimulus of 
 business, began to prey upon itself. 
 For intellectual and philanthropic pur- 
 suits it had no sort of relish ; they had 
 been avoided so long for want of time, 
 for the sake of the money god, that 
 they would not now afford any satis- 
 faction. Without occupation, the mer- 
 chant's life became a blank. His mind 
 sank into weakness, his memory failed, 
 his energies dried up ; first he sank into 
 the imbecility of second childhood, and 
 then into the stupidity of an idiot.
 
 274 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 They carried him to the asylum of 
 departed intellect, and there, ever talk- 
 ing of notes and ships, his soulless eyes 
 gazing into vacancy, his fingers tracing 
 figures in the air, the at last " success- 
 ful 1 ' merchant ended his days with 
 maniacs and fools, and the treasures 
 which he had heaped up were gathered 
 and enjoyed by others. This is no fan- 
 cy sketch. 
 
 Hard Philosophy of an Annuity 
 Monger. 
 
 AUDLEY, the old English banker, 
 usurer, and what not, was equally 
 ready to lend money to the gay gallants 
 of the town on annuities, as he was to 
 receive it from the thrifty poor who 
 took, on " the security of the great 
 Audley," the savings of their youth to 
 secure an annuity for their age. But 
 needy as the youngsters of that day 
 might be, the usurer was as willing as 
 they were needy. He -lent them, how- 
 ever, with affected remonstrances on 
 their extravagance, and took the cash 
 they paid him with a well-feigned air 
 of paternal regret. His money bred. 
 He formed temporary partnerships with 
 the stewards of country gentlemen, and 
 having, by the aid of the former, gulled 
 the latter, finished by smartly cheating 
 the associates who had assisted him to 
 his prey. 
 
 The annuity monger was also a phi- 
 losopher. He never pressed for his debts 
 when he knew they were safe. When 
 one of his victims, mistakenly assuming 
 Audley to possess a conscience, asked 
 him where it was, he replied, " We 
 moneyed people must balance accounts. 
 If you don't pay me my annuity, you 
 cheat me; if you do, I cheat you." 
 He said his deeds were his children, 
 which nourished best by sleeping. 
 
 His word was his bond, as many 
 could testify to their sorrow ; his hour 
 was punctual, striking terror to the un- 
 prepared ; his opinions were compressed 
 and sound. In his time he was called 
 " the great Audley," " old Audley," &c. ; 
 
 and though the fathers of the church 
 proclaimed the sin of usury to be the 
 original sin, he smiled at their asser- 
 tions, and went on his golden way re- 
 joicing. As his wealth increased, he 
 put himself in a position where his an- 
 nuity jobbing increased an office in 
 the Court of Wards the entire for- 
 tunes of the wards of Chancery being 
 under his control. 
 
 When he quarrelled with one who 
 disputed the payment of an annuity, 
 and who, to prove his resisting power, 
 showed and shook his money bags, 
 Audley sarcastically asked "whether 
 they had any bottom ? " The exulting 
 possessor answered in the affirmative. 
 " In that case," replied Audley, " I care 
 not, for in my office I have a constant 
 spring." Here, indeed, he pounced 
 upon encumbrances which lay upon es- 
 tates ; he prowled about to discover the 
 cravings of their owners, and this he 
 did to such purpose that, when asked 
 what was the value of his office, he re- 
 plied, " Some thousands of pounds to 
 any one who wishes to get to heaven 
 immediately; twice as much to him 
 who does not mind being in purga- 
 tory ; and nobody knows what to him 
 who will adventure to go to hell." 
 Charity forbids a guess as to which of 
 these places Audley himself went. 
 
 Old-School Honey Jobbers. 
 
 THE old English money brokers had 
 arts peculiar to their day. They had a 
 walk upon the Exchange devoted to 
 the funds of the East India and other 
 great corporations, and many of the 
 terms now in vogue among the initi- 
 ated arose from their dealings with 
 that description of stock. Jobbing in 
 the great chartered corporations was 
 thoroughly understood reports and 
 rumors were as plentiful and well-man- 
 aged as now. No sooner was it known 
 that one of the fine vessels of the East 
 India Company, laden with gold and 
 jewels from the East, was on its way,
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 275 
 
 than every method was had recourse to. 
 Men were employed to whisper of hur- 
 ricanes which had sunk the well-stored 
 ship ; of quicksands which had swal- 
 lowed her up ; of war, which had com- 
 menced when peace was unbroken ; or 
 of peace being concluded when things 
 were actually in the utmost danger. 
 
 Nor were the brains of the specula- 
 tors less capable than now. If at the 
 present day an English banker conde- 
 scends to raise a railway or other kind 
 of bubble fifty per cent., the broker or 
 money jobber of that day understood 
 his craft sufficiently to cause a varia- 
 tion in the price of East India stock of 
 two hundred and sixty-three per cent ! 
 Everything which could inflate the 
 hopes of the schemer, was brought into 
 operation by the brokers. If shares 
 were dull, they jobbed in the funds, or 
 tried exchequer bills; and if these 
 failed, rather than remain idle, they 
 dealt in bank notes at forty per cent, 
 discount. 
 
 Sober citizens were entangled as 
 well as the more adventurous. Their 
 first impulse was to laugh at the sto- 
 ries currently circulated of fortunes 
 lost and won ; but when they saw men 
 who were yesterday threadbare pass 
 them to-day in their carriages when 
 they saw wealth which it took their 
 plodding industry years of patient la- 
 bor to acquire, won by others in a few 
 weeks unable to resist the temptation, 
 the greatest merchants deserted their 
 regular vocations for these more glitter- 
 ing avenues to fortune. 
 
 These jobbers came from all classes 
 of society, and those who won were at 
 once on a par with the nobility. As an 
 illustration of these ups and downs, it 
 is related that a worthy Quaker, a 
 watchmaker by trade, having success- 
 fully speculated in the shares and 
 funds, was of sufficient importance to 
 invite to the marriage feast of his 
 daughter such guests as the Duchess 
 of Marlborough and the Princess of 
 Wales, who, with three hundred others 
 
 of " the quality," graced the wedding 
 entertainment. 
 
 Making a Good\Tob of it. 
 
 A WORKMAN recently purchased, in 
 a small provincial town of Germany, 
 ten pounds of powdered sugar ; but on 
 examining it, he found that the grocer 
 had generously mixed with it at least a 
 pound of lime. On the succeeding day 
 he advertised as follows in the public 
 prints : " Should the grocer who sold 
 me a pound of lime along with nine 
 pounds of sugar, not bring to me the 
 pound he cheated me of, I shall forth- 
 with disclose his name in the papers." 
 The next day the customer received 
 nine pounds of sugar from several dif- 
 ferent grocers who had similar actions 
 on their conscience, and feared publici- 
 ty. The customer was so well satis- 
 fied, that at last accounts he was mak- 
 ing a vigorous 'examination of his re- 
 cent supplies of coffee, spices, etc., and 
 the prospect was that he would soon be 
 performing among the grocers what the 
 bull enacted in the crockery shop. 
 
 French Usurers and Pigeons. 
 
 THE chronicles of the French money 
 and credit system partake of that 
 piquancy which might naturally be 
 looked for among such a lively race. 
 There are usurers, courtiers, pigeons, 
 &c., &c., almost without number. But 
 the usurer never sees the pigeon, or very 
 rarely. He is banker, count, minister 
 of state, director of theatres, lives in a 
 grand hotel of his own, gives dinners 
 to princes, dresses superbly d la mode, 
 and is far above the acquaintance of a 
 mere pigeon. This he leaves to the 
 courtier, a genteel and knowing per- 
 sonage, who deals in everything. He 
 
 tells the pigeon that if M. , not 
 
 being inclined to part with his ready 
 money, can only give wine or furniture 
 in exchange for the bill, he, the cour- 
 tier, will undertake the sale, and this
 
 276 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 he does, upon occasion. But in the 
 majority of instances, wine, furniture, 
 and all the rest of the old story, is a 
 mere pretence. / 
 
 The pigeon proposes a bill. The 
 agent, or faiseur, goes to the banker 
 and gets it done at fifty per cent, in 
 ready money. He returns to the pi- 
 geon, says that the bill is discounted, 
 but that the price is given in goods, 
 which he will not undertake to sell. In 
 two or three days he returns with the 
 story that the goods are not to be sold. 
 The pigeon is impatient. The faiseur 
 then offers to take the goods at his own 
 risk, at a discount. This the pigeon is 
 only too glad to do, and gets one half 
 of the money which was received by the 
 faiseur just one quarter of his bill. 
 The faiseur gets the other half, without 
 any risk whatever ; and in half an hour 
 is to be seen trotting down the Rue 
 Vivienne, eager for the excitement of 
 the new loan or the latest scheme. 
 
 Instances are known where the pigeon 
 has taken a horse for a note of a thou- 
 sand francs. The horse remains in the 
 stable of the courtier, who in a few 
 days sends in the bill for its keep 
 thirty francs. The pigeon orders the 
 horse to be sold at auction. It fetches 
 twenty-seven francs ! All the pigeon 
 gets by the transaction is the pleasure 
 of paying three francs ready money, 
 and the bill, when it becomes due. In 
 another case, a young man is known to 
 have signed a note of twenty-eight 
 thousand francs ; he was credited in 
 return with sixty thousand blocks of 
 marble, eleven thousand mouse traps, six 
 thousand iron rods, and three thousand 
 francs in money. The marble remained 
 in the quarry ; no one would buy it in 
 situ, or advance the large sum necessary 
 to remove it. The mouse traps and the 
 rods sold for about one thousand francs, 
 and the pigeon was finally credited four 
 thousand francs, of which he received 
 about half, the courtier pocketing the 
 rest. 
 
 Imitating: Signatures. 
 
 THE imitation of signatures with in- 
 conceivable accuracy was a quality 
 possessed by John Mathison, an Eng- 
 lish mechanic, and probably never sur- 
 passed by any one in any country or 
 age. Tempted by the hope of sudden 
 wealth, he applied this faculty to the 
 forging of bank notes, which, being 
 discovered, a reward was offered, with 
 a description of his person, and he es- 
 caped to Scotland. There, scorning to 
 let his wonderful talent lie idle, he 
 counterfeited the notes of the Koyal 
 Bank of Scotland, amused himself by 
 negotiating them during a pleasure 
 excursion through the country, and 
 reached London, supported by his imi- 
 tative talent. Here a fine sphere open- 
 ed for his genius, which was so active, 
 that in twelve days he had bought the 
 copper, engraved it, fabricated notes, 
 forged the watermark, printed, and 
 negotiated several. When he had a 
 sufficient number, he travelled from 
 one end of the kingdom to the other, 
 disposing of them. Having been in 
 the habit of procuring notes from the 
 bank the more accurately to copy 
 them he chanced to be there when a 
 clerk from the excise office paid in sev- 
 en thousand guineas, one of which was 
 scrupled. Mathison, from a distance, 
 said it was a good one. " Then," said 
 the bank clerk, on the trial, " I recol- 
 lected him." 
 
 The frequent visits of Mathison, who 
 was very incautious, together with 
 other circumstances, created some sus- 
 picion that he might be connected 
 with those notes, which, since his first 
 appearance, had been presented at the 
 bank. On another occasion, when 
 Mathison was there, a forged note of 
 his own was presented, and the teller, 
 half in jest and half in earnest, charged 
 Maxwell the name by which he was 
 known with some knowledge of the 
 forgeries. Further suspicion was ex- 
 cited, and directions were given to de-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 277 
 
 tain him at some future period. The 
 following day, the teller was informed 
 that " his friend Maxwell," as he was 
 styled ironically, was in Cornhill. The 
 clerk instantly went, and under the 
 pretence of having paid Mathison a 
 guinea too much on a previous occa- 
 sion, and of losing his situation if the 
 mistake were not rectified by the 
 books, induced him to return with 
 him to the hall ; from which place he 
 was taken before the directors. To all 
 the inquiries he replied, "He had a 
 reason for declining to answer. He 
 was a citizen of the world, and knew 
 not how he had come into it, or how 
 he should go out of it." Being de- 
 tained during a consultation with the 
 bank solicitor, he suddenly jumped out 
 of the window. On being taken and 
 asked his motive, if innocent, he said 
 " it was his humor." 
 
 In the progress of the inquiry, the 
 Darlington paper, containing his de- 
 scription, was read to him, when he 
 turned pale, burst into tears, and say- 
 ing he was a dead man, added, " now 
 I will confess all." He was, indeed, 
 found guilty only on his own acknowl- 
 edgment, which stated he could accom- 
 plish the whole of a note in one day. 
 It was asserted at the time, that, had it 
 not been for this confession, he could 
 not have been convicted. He offered 
 to explain the secret of his discovery 
 of the water-mark, provided the corpo- 
 ration would spare his life; but his 
 proposal was rejected, and he paid the 
 penalty of his crime. 
 
 Bad Bank Bill. 
 
 A CITY journal, describing a new 
 counterfeit bank bill, says the vignette 
 is " cattle and hogs, with a church far 
 in the distance." A good illustration 
 of the world ! 
 
 Selling a Bad Article. 
 
 AT a business meeting of one of the 
 Methodist churches in Philadelphia, 
 
 not long since, a rare incident occurred, 
 as showing the relation which a man's 
 business may sustain toward his stand- 
 ing as a church member. The question 
 on the tapis, among the official members 
 of said church, was to find a suitable 
 man to fill a vacancy in the board of 
 trustees. A gentleman in business as a 
 wholesale grocer was named by a mem- 
 ber present as a very suitable man for 
 the place ; but his nomination was 
 vehemently opposed by another broth- 
 er, who was very zealous in the tem- 
 perance cause, on the ground that in 
 the way of his business he sold liquor. 
 And appealing to Brother A., one of 
 the oldest members present, who, from 
 his solid and clerical look, was called 
 " the Bishop," he said, " What do you 
 say, Brother A. ? " 
 
 "Ah!" said Brother A., looking 
 very grave, drawing up his cane with 
 a view to emphasize and give point to 
 what he had to say, " that is not the 
 worst of it" (solemn shake of the 
 head) ; " that is not the worst of it ! " 
 
 " Why, Brother A.," said the others, 
 crowding around and looking for some 
 astounding developments, " what else is 
 there ? " 
 
 " Why," said Brother A., bringing 
 down his cane with a rap, " he don't 
 keep a good article I've tried it ! " 
 
 Prejudice against Yankee Clock Ped- 
 dlers, and how it was Overcome. 
 
 NEAR one of the rural villages in 
 Ohio there dwelt, a few years since, an 
 elderly gentleman, who went by the 
 familiar name of "Uncle Jonathan." 
 He was a rigid member of the Lutheran 
 church, sober, exemplary, and withal, 
 possessed of considerable wealth. Like 
 many of his neighbors in that region 
 of the country, he entertained a bitter 
 prejudice toward "Yankees;" and, 
 notwithstanding his piety, he had 
 avowed his intention of kicking out 
 of his door the first Yankee clock-ped- 
 dler that should enter.
 
 278 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 One sultry day in summer a covered 
 wagon was drawn up to his gate; a 
 keen-eyed, gaunt-looking individual 
 alighted, and rapping softly at the 
 door, requested, in subdued tones, a 
 drink of water. After drinking, the 
 traveller asked permission of the old 
 gentleman to sit and rest for a few 
 minutes, saying he was overcome by 
 the heat. The stranger said but little, 
 and the old gentleman eyed him sus- 
 piciously. Presently the old man's eye 
 began to brighten. 
 
 " What papers have you got there ? " 
 said he, pointing to the stranger's 
 pocket, which bore the appearance of a 
 travelling post office. 
 
 " Oh," said the stranger, " those are 
 a few copies of our Lutheran Observer 
 that I carry to read along the road." 
 
 " Indeed I Then you belong to the 
 Lutheran Church ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir. Would you not like to 
 look at a copy of the paper ? " 
 
 The old man was delighted ; asked 
 stranger to stay for dinner. Of course 
 he accepted. As they were putting up 
 the team, the old gentleman remarked, 
 
 " You drive a queer-looking wagon." 
 
 " Yes," said the stranger ; " I have 
 been out West, and have suffered sev- 
 eral months from chills and fever. 
 Wishing to get home to my family, 
 and having no means of defraying my 
 expenses, I purchased a few clocks to 
 sell along the way." 
 
 Stranger stayed, and fed himself and 
 horses without money and without 
 price. He did more. He sold Uncle 
 Jonathan every clock on his wagon, 
 and took his note, which he turned in- 
 to money within two hours. 
 
 " Well," said the landlord, " didn't I 
 tell you that he would abuse you ? " 
 
 "Very much mistaken," said Yan- 
 kee; "the old man is a gentleman. 
 Here, take these papers [Observers] ; I 
 have no further use for them." 
 
 Uncle Jonathan is silent on the sub- 
 ject of Yankee clock peddlers. 
 
 Risks of the Currency. 
 
 A ROCHESTER darkey named Pete 
 got a five-dollar counterfeit bill, and 
 taking some friends to a lager beer 
 saloon, treated them to the extent of 
 forty cents, passed the bill, and got the 
 change. The Dutchman soon found 
 the bill was bad, and overhauling Pete, 
 charged him with passing counterfeit 
 money. Pete expressed great surprise, 
 said he knew where he got the bill, 
 and would take it and get a good one 
 for it. This was agreed to, but day 
 after day passed, and Pete did not 
 bring back the money. The Dutch- 
 man overhauled him again, and Pete 
 said the man who gave it to him was 
 now trying to get it back from the man 
 Tie took it from. The Dutchman was 
 furious, and threatened to have him 
 taken up for passing counterfeit money. 
 "Guess you couldn't do that," said 
 Pete ; " can't took up a man for pass- 
 ing counterfeit money, when you hain't 
 got de Nil ! " This was a new idea to 
 Mr. Lagerbeer and Pete comforted Mm 
 by paying him a dollar and a half of 
 the change, as he said, " goin' halves " 
 with him in the loss of the V. 
 
 Making: Changre at Railroad Refresh- 
 ment Stands. 
 
 YEARS ago Lewis Holt kept a railroad 
 refreshment stand at the station at At- 
 tica, on the road running west. He had 
 a way which men of his persuasion have 
 not altogether abandoned of taking 
 the money of passengers, sweeping it 
 into his drawer, and fumbling after the 
 change till the cars were off, when the 
 passenger would have to run and leave 
 his money. Charlie Dean stepped out 
 of the cars there one day, took a " gin- 
 ger pop," price six cents, laid down a 
 quarter, which Holt dropped into his 
 till, and went hunting to get the 
 change. Away went the cars, and 
 Charlie jumped on without his change ; 
 but he had time to read the name of
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 279 
 
 LEWIS HOLT over the door, and, mak- 
 ing a note of it, rode on. 
 
 Postage was high in those days, and 
 was not required in advance. From 
 Buffalo he wrote a letter to Holt 
 " Sell foam at 25 cents a glass, will 
 you?" Holt paid ten cents on this 
 letter, and ten more on one from De- 
 troit, and twenty-five on another from 
 St. Louis, and for two or three years he 
 kept getting letters from his unknown 
 customer, and would have got more to 
 this day, but for the law requiring 
 postage to be paid in advance. He 
 had to pay two or three dollars in 
 postage before the letters ceased to 
 come, and as they were always directed 
 in a new handwriting, he hoped each 
 one was of more importance than the 
 ones before. 
 
 Weighing Short. 
 
 A WESTEBN man, too smart by half 
 for his own interest or the good of his 
 soul, drove into town with a load of 
 wheat in bags, to be sold by weight, so 
 many pounds to the bushel. Finding 
 a merchant ready to purchase, the sell- 
 er demurred to the proposal to drive 
 upon the buyer's scales, as he was afraid 
 he might not be fairly dealt with. 
 "Very well," said the merchant, "if 
 you prefer it, drive on and be weighed 
 out there," pointing to the next plat- 
 form. On he went, keeping his seat 
 on the load; the merchant opened a 
 little door in the floor, asked the seller 
 how many bags there were, and being 
 told twenty, pronounced the load to be 
 forty-two bushels. " All right ! " said 
 the seller, and then returned and de- 
 posited his wheat at the buyer's store 
 and went off, never finding out that 
 he had been weighed on the platform 
 of a fire cistern, and that he had sold 
 fifty bushels of wheat for forty-two ! 
 
 Italian Knavery in Picture Selling:. 
 
 IF modern copies and paintings in 
 Florence can be counted by myriads, 
 
 there seems to be equally a mine of old 
 copies and originals as inexhaustible as 
 the coal pits of England. For centuries 
 Italy has been furnishing the rest of 
 Europe with pictures, yet the supply 
 still remains as plentiful as its beggars. 
 Lumber rooms are stored with them ; 
 streets are lined with them ; every tai- 
 lor has his gallery ; each Italian gentle- 
 man his heirlooms ; in short, Florence 
 is a vast picture shop. One would 
 imagine that every man, woman, and 
 child, for the last century, had been 
 born with pencil in hand. There is no 
 possibility of diminishing them. One 
 dealer has sold twelve thousand in Eng- 
 land alone at least he says so and 
 yet his rooms are full to repletion, 
 though he is diminishing his stock to 
 give up business. Cargoes go annual- 
 ly to the United States the matter 
 being much after this wise : 
 
 A speculator arrives, and gives out 
 that he is a purchaser of pictures by 
 the wholesale. A flock of crows can- 
 not light sooner upon an open cornbag, 
 than do the sellers upon him. He is 
 not after good pictures, but the trash 
 that can be bought for the value of 
 the wood in their frames. They are 
 brought to him by wagon loads. He 
 looks at the pile, and makes an offer 
 according to its size. In this way he 
 buys several thousand daubs at an 
 average of a few dimes each, spends as 
 much more in varnish, regilding, and a 
 little retouching, sends them to Amer- 
 ica, where they are duly offered for sale 
 as so many Titians, Vandykes, Muril- 
 los, or other lights of the European 
 school. One lucky sale pays for the 
 entire lot. No other art affords a wider 
 scope for fraud. There are fair dealers, 
 but Italian reputation in general, in 
 this respect, is of a slippery character. 
 A dealer will sometimes practise his 
 trickery after this fashion : have a fine 
 copy, in a frame, exposed as a sample, 
 for which a buyer is found, at what 
 appears a reasonable price, the bargain 
 concluded, and the purchaser's name
 
 280 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 marked by himself on the back of the 
 picture. Upon receiving it at home, 
 however, he could not believe his own 
 senses, so inferior did it appear to the 
 one he selected ; but on the back there 
 was the veritable evidence of his own 
 handwriting. Upon investigation, it 
 was proved that the seller had two pic- 
 tures in the same frame, the outer one 
 being good and the inner bad, and that 
 he had withdrawn the former and sent 
 the latter. ____ 
 
 "To what Base "Uses have we Come at 
 Last!" 
 
 WHEN poor Law's "Mississippi 
 scheme " had run itself out, to the ter- 
 rible damage of those who had invest- 
 ed in it, the excitement knew no 
 bounds, and there were thousands of 
 ruined and frenzied men seeking to lay 
 revengeful hands upon the author of 
 their misery. Law took good care 
 not to expose himself unguarded in 
 the streets. Shut up in the apart- 
 ments of the Regent, he was secure 
 from all attack, and, whenever he ven- 
 tured abroad, it was either incognito, or 
 in one of the royal carriages, with a 
 powerful escort. An amusing anecdote 
 is recorded of the detestation in which 
 he was held by the people, and the ill- 
 treatment he would have met, had he 
 fallen into their hands. 
 
 A merchant by the name of Boursel 
 was passing in his carriage down the 
 Rue St. Antoine, when his further 
 progres was stayed by a hackney 
 coach that had blocked up the road. 
 M. Boursel's servant called impatiently 
 to the hackney coachman to get out of 
 the way, and, on his refusal, struck 
 him a spirited smack on the face. A 
 crowd was soon drawn together by the 
 disturbance, and M. Boursel got out of 
 the carriage to restore order. The 
 hackney coachman, imagining now that 
 he had another assailant, bethought 
 him of an ingenious feint to rid him- 
 self of both, and called out as loudly 
 as he was able : 
 
 " Help ! help ! murder ! murder ' 
 Here are Law and Tiis servant going to 
 UUme! Help! help!" 
 
 At this cry, the people came out of 
 their shops, armed with sticks and 
 other weapons, while the mob gath- 
 ered stones to inflict summary ven- 
 geance upon the supposed financier. 
 Happily for M. Boursel and his servant, 
 the door of a church near by stood 
 wide open, and, seeing the fearful odds 
 against them, the two rushed toward 
 it with all speed. They reached the 
 altar, still pursued by the people, and 
 would have been, ill-treated even 
 there, if, finding the door open leading 
 to- the sacristy, they had not sprang 
 through, and closed it after them. The 
 mob were then persuaded to leave the 
 church by the alarmed and indignant 
 priests ; and, finding M. Boursel's car- 
 riage still in the streets, they vented 
 their ill-will against it, and did it con- 
 siderable damage. 
 
 Little did the once powerful and 
 pampered Law imagine that he would 
 thus ever be made the convenient 
 scapegoat of a hackney coachman ! 
 
 Plan to Ruin the Ancient Firm of 
 Child & Co. by the Bank of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 IT is well known that in the year 
 1745, on account of the domestic con- 
 fusion which prevailed in some parts 
 of England, bank notes were at a con- 
 siderable discount. The notes, how- 
 ever, which were issued by Child's 
 house, as well as those of Hoare & Co., 
 still maintained their credit, and were 
 circulated at par. The bank directors, 
 alarmed at the depreciation of their 
 paper, and attributing it to the high 
 estimation in which the house of 
 Messrs. Child still remained, attempt- 
 ed, by very unfair artifices, to ruin 
 their reputation. This plan they en- 
 deavored to accomplish by collecting a 
 very large quantity of their notes, and 
 pouring them all in together for pay-
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. 
 
 281 
 
 merit on the same day. Before the 
 project was executed, her Grace, the 
 Duchess of Marlborough, who had re- 
 ceived some intimation of it, imparted 
 the information to Mr. Child, and sup- 
 plied hun with a sum of money more 
 than sufficient to answer the amplest 
 demand that could be made upon 
 them. In consequence of this scheme, 
 the notes were sent by the bank, and 
 were paid in their own paper a cir- 
 cumstance which occasioned consider- 
 able loss to that corporation, their pa- 
 per being circulated considerably be- 
 low par. Perhaps this anecdote finds 
 confirmation in the well-known cir- 
 cumstance of the hostility of her Grace 
 to the administrators of that trust. 
 
 Bubble Prospectuses. 
 
 THE most laughable reading may be 
 found by looking over the prospectuses 
 of the joint-stock bubble companies 
 which flourished in England in 1824. 
 At that time mines were proposed in 
 all parts of the world. One was issued 
 at a premium avowedly for the benefit 
 of the projector. Another was cele- 
 brated " for having a vein of tin ore in 
 
 its bottom, as pure and solid as a tin 
 flagon." A third was pronounced by 
 the directors as " no speculative under- 
 taking no problematic or visionary 
 scheme it was founded on a sure and 
 permanent basis, adopted after months 
 of mature deliberation, after inquiries, 
 surveys, investigations, and reports;" 
 and this was dissolved almost imme- 
 diately. Another declared that " lumps 
 of pure gold, weighing from two to 
 fifty pounds, were totally neglected," 
 and that its mines alone would yield 
 " considerably more than the quantity 
 necessary for the supply of the whole 
 world." The romantic aspect of the 
 land was described in a fifth ; while a 
 sixth, proposing to supply England 
 with granite, lamented, in plausible 
 and poetic strain, the " soft and per- 
 ishable materials " of the buildings of 
 " the mighty head of a mighty em- 
 pire." Innumerable laborers and arti- 
 sans were to be employed, "and," 
 continued the prospectus, " perhaps by 
 the efforts of this company the dingy 
 brick fronts, the disgrace of the metro- 
 polis, may give way to more durable 
 and magnificent elevations, worthy of 
 the throne of the queen of the isles."
 
 PART FIFTH. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND 
 LOCALITIES.
 
 MEYER ROTHSCHILD. 
 
 I>ie,d at Frankfort. <?..Vf, J~u.ly 28,1836, miffed. S iacty
 
 
 PAET FIFTH. 
 
 Anecdotes of Famous Commercial Kesorts and Localities, 
 
 THE EXCHANGE, CUSTOM HOUSE, BOARDS OP TRADE, MARKETS, ETC. THEIR ANNALS, USAGES, 
 PECULIARITIES ; WITH PERSONAL MISCELLANIES, APHORISMS, ODDITIES, WHIMS, AKD CA- 
 PRICES OF THEIR HABITUES. 
 
 Business is the salt of life, which not only gives a grateful smack to it, but dries up those crudities 
 that would offend. ARION. 
 
 Long has this worthy been conversant in bartering, and knows, that when stocks are lowest, it is 
 the time to buy. TATLBB. 
 
 I'll give thrice so much land 
 
 To any well-deserving friend ; 
 
 But in the way of bargain mark me I 
 
 I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE'S " HBNET IV." 
 And conscience, truth, and honesty are made 
 To rise and fall, like other wares of trade. MOORE. 
 
 Custom-House Official Dealing with 
 a Princess. 
 
 THE Princess of Prussia having ordered 
 some rich silks from Lyons, which paid a 
 high duty at Stettin, the place of her resi- 
 dence, the custom-house officer rudely 
 seized them, until the duties were paid. 
 The princess, highly indignant at such 
 an affront, desired the officer to bring 
 the silks to her apartments. He did so, 
 when the princess seized them, and 
 giving the officer a few cuffs in the 
 face, turned him out of doors. The 
 proud and mortified man of excise, in 
 a violent fit of resentment, presented a 
 memorial to Frederic the Great, in 
 which he complained bitterly of the 
 dishonor put upon him in the execu- 
 tion of his office. The king, having 
 read the memorial, returned the follow- 
 ing answer : " Sir, the loss of the duties 
 belongs to my account ; the silks are to 
 remain in the possession of the princess 
 the cuffs with Mm. who received them. 
 As to the supposed dishonor, I cancel it 
 
 at the request of the complainant ; but 
 it is itself null, for the lily hand of a 
 fair lady cannot possibly dishonor the 
 face of a custom-house officer. FRED- 
 EBIC." 
 
 Rencontre between Rothschild and 
 Rose the Broker, on 'Change. 
 
 There was no more constant attend- 
 ant on 'Change, every Tuesday and 
 Friday, than Rothschild, and, for 
 years, he was in the habit of planting 
 himself at a particular spot, with his 
 back to the pillar known to every fre- 
 quenter of that precinct as " Roths- 
 child's pillar;" but, alas for human 
 greatness 1 he was on orie occasion 
 doomed to the sad annoyance, that he 
 had no especial right to that particular 
 spot. A person of the name of Rose, 
 possessed of great courage, one Tues- 
 day afternoon purposely placed him- 
 self on the spot hitherto occupied by 
 the world's financial dictator. On Mr. 
 Rothschild's approach, he requested
 
 286 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 the party to move. This was just what 
 the other expected, and what he was pre- 
 pared to dispute. He argued that this 
 was the royal exchange, free to all ; and 
 he, as a British subject, had a right 
 to stand there if he thought fit. This 
 doctrine could not of course be dis- 
 puted, but he was told that it was the 
 spot that Mr. Rothschild invariably 
 occupied, and, as such, ought to be 
 yielded ; but no 1 Mr. Kose, being a 
 powerful man, defied Mr. Rothschild 
 and all his tribe to remove him. For 
 nearly three-quarters of an hour the 
 most valuable portion of the exchange 
 time did he keep deliberate posses- 
 sion of the autocrat's pillar; and not 
 until the whole business of the ex- 
 change of the day was jeopardized did 
 Mr. Rose, after having, as he said, es- 
 tablished his right, retire, amidst the 
 yells and howls of the friends of Roths- 
 child there assembled. 
 
 Paying: Government Fishing* Bounties. 
 
 ON the accession of a new auditor in 
 one of our custom houses, several years 
 ago, he found considerable looseness in 
 the machinery by which the fishing 
 bounties were paid at that establish- 
 ment. He determined to correct the 
 proceeding, and then return with joy 
 to the original and honest state of 
 things. 
 
 Be it known, that the oath required 
 of an applicant for this bounty is a 
 long, rude complication of solemnities, 
 and had usually been sputtered over 
 with indelicate and unseemly haste. 
 
 One day a blustering and confident- 
 looking skipper came to the desk with 
 his bundle of papers, looking as if he 
 had robbed the circumlocution office, 
 and wanted some bounty. The new 
 auditor rose to a tall majesty, took the 
 great book of oath in his hand, fixed 
 his keen eye on Mr. Skipper, requested 
 him to uncover his head, hold up his 
 right hand, and repeat after him the 
 oath as he read it. They had not trav- 
 
 elled more than half way through the 
 serious business, when the hand of the 
 skipper fell as quick as if his arm had 
 been struck by a chain shot. 
 
 " You may stop there," he exclaimed ; 
 " I can't swear to any more of that. 
 Give me back the papers." 
 
 He nervously grasped the package, 
 hurried out of the office, and to this 
 day his fate and reflections are un- 
 known. 
 
 Photograph of Wall Street. 
 
 THE view given of this great thor- 
 oughfare by Mr. Kimball, in his " Un- 
 dercurrents of Wall Street," is admi- 
 rable in its descriptive power. He 
 says: Its advantages for a universal 
 mart are incredible. It is Lombard 
 Street, Threadneedle Street, Old Broad 
 Sreeet, "Wapping, the Docks, Thames 
 Street, and the Inns of Court, com- 
 bined. In it is the Custom House as 
 well as the Exchange. It is a good 
 dog market, cow market, and bird 
 market. If you want a pair of horses, 
 and any description of new or second- 
 hand carriage, wait a little, and they 
 will be paraded before you. You will 
 find there the best fruit, and the finest 
 flowers in their season. If you would 
 have a donkey, a Shetland pony, or a 
 Newfoundland dog, a good milch cow 
 and calf, a Berkshire pig, a terrier, 
 white mice, a monkey or parroquets, 
 they are to be had in Wall street. It 
 is a strange spot. On Sunday or early 
 in the morning during the week it is 
 like the street of a deserted city. About 
 ten o'clock it begins to show signs of 
 extraordinary animation. Through the 
 day the turmoil increases, people rush 
 to and fro, and literally " stagger like 
 drunken men." Toward three o'clock 
 the street appears undergoing a series 
 of desperate throes. Men rush madly 
 past each other with bank books in 
 their hands, uncurrent money, notes, 
 drafts, checks, specie. Occasionally you 
 may see an individual on the steps of a
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 287 
 
 building, evidently waiting for some- 
 thing, with an air of forced calmness. 
 From time to time he turns his eyes anx- 
 iously to the great dial-plate which is 
 displayed from the church, and then up 
 and down the street. The minute-hand 
 has marked five into the last quarter. 
 In ten more minutes it will be three 
 o'clock. Occasionally an acquaintance 
 passes ; the man attempts as he bows 
 to smile pleasantly ; he can't do it, he 
 only makes a grimace. What is he 
 waiting for ? That individual has a 
 note to pay, or a check to make good 
 before three. He has worked hard, 
 but the fates are against him. One 
 friend is out of town, a second is short, 
 a third can't use his paper : he has 
 sent to the last possible place. Look 1 
 the young man is coming. Yes ? No ? 
 He runs eagerly up, thrusts the wel- 
 come little slip, a check for the desired 
 amount, into the hands of the now 
 agitated principal; it is rapidly in- 
 dorsed, and on flies the youth to the 
 bank. 
 
 Our hero relieved he has probably 
 borrowed the money for a day only, 
 and has to renew the attack next morn- 
 ing now proposes to leave his affairs, 
 he lights a cigar, invites the first friend 
 he meets to take a drink with him, and 
 strolls leisurely up Broadway as un- 
 concernedly as if he had not a care in 
 the world. Perhaps he does not come 
 off so luckily ; perhaps his young man 
 reports to him, while standing gloomily 
 on the steps, that it is " no go ; " then 
 the fatal hand which points toward 
 three, travels fast. He considers a 
 moment ; he sees it can't be done ; he 
 waits until he hears the chimes ring 
 out the full hour, and then " his mind 
 is easy." Your shrewd money-lender 
 understands this perfectly. He knows 
 how unsafe it is to let his victim 
 pass the point unrelieved ; for, once 
 having gone to protest, he becomes 
 demoralized, and in consequence 
 indifferent. So, just before the hour, 
 the money is generally " found." 
 
 Drinking the Health of Custom House 
 Officers. 
 
 u WILL Watch," the bold smuggler, 
 as a once popular song has it, sleeps, 
 or rather slept for a considerable time, 
 at peace with the dead. That is a 
 pity certainly on one account, for if 
 Mr. Watch were, conformably to his 
 surname, alive and wide awake, he 
 would have a capital story told him 
 of a somewhat novel importation. 
 
 It appears that among the cargo of 
 the Dane steamer, unloaded at the 
 Southampton docks, Eng., from the 
 Cape of Good Hope, were seven cases 
 addressed to Dr. Schwarz, Germany. 
 The contents being unknown, they 
 were taken to the " sight floor " for 
 examination by the customs' officers, 
 when they were found to contain, ac- 
 cording to the judgment of the officials 
 in question, various specimens of natu- 
 ral history, illustrating the science of 
 anatomy. One case was filled with 
 " human bones," and in another case 
 were four tins, each containing the 
 " head of a negro," presented in brandy 
 in a jar closely secured in the tin. The 
 whole were pronounced to be in a most 
 perfect condition. 
 
 The fact, which Mr. Watch would 
 hardly have required to be pointed out 
 to Mm, evidently is, that a very neat 
 trick was in this instance played on 
 the custom house officers, resulting in 
 their being most cleverly " sold." The 
 simple fact is that they, in their inno- 
 cence, did not taste the brandy in 
 which the heads of the blackamoors 
 were preserved. If they had tried that 
 formidable but, as it would have proved, 
 safe experiment, they would have found 
 the spirituous liquor none the worse for 
 the preserves. By the art of the model- 
 ler and colorist, no doubt, heads, black 
 or white, and of the right kind of 
 material as incapable of affecting as 
 of being affected by brandy may be 
 manufactured in any required quantity ; 
 and it was not a very long time after 
 the decision in question, that certain
 
 288 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 gentlemen might have been seen, pro- 
 vided access could have been obtained 
 to the scene of their good cheer, convi- 
 vially and with a hearty gusto drinking 
 the health of the Southampton custom house 
 officers in the fluid supposed to have 
 served an antiseptic purpose in relation 
 to the heads of the black men. 
 
 It is wonderful that such expert offi- 
 cers were so easily done. The address, 
 " Dr. Schwarz," ought to have opened 
 their eyes. What would they have said 
 to "Mr. Smith," London? The case 
 shows one more of the secrets of smug- 
 gling, which is an occupation much 
 more romantic than reputable, for the 
 smuggler inflicts a downright injury on 
 the really fair trader assuming that 
 the latter character still exists. Such 
 a case also causes the imposition of a 
 very disagreeable djuty on custom house 
 officers those usually bland and accom- 
 modating persons. They will henceforth 
 have to assure themselves, beyond a 
 doubt, that the brandy in which alleged 
 anatomical preparations are imported, 
 really contain those objects of medical 
 science; and it is only to be hoped 
 that they will find the means of deter- 
 mining this point by some other sense 
 than that of taste. 
 
 Manners at the English Stock 
 Exchange. 
 
 THE manners no less than the 
 morals of the London Stock Ex- 
 change, are curious, to say the least. 
 Some time since, the papers reported 
 a limb broken " in sport ; " occasional 
 duels arise from the " fun " of the 
 members ; and the courtesies of life 
 are wanting on the part of many of its 
 habitues, if a stranger ventures among 
 them. When such an " intruder " ap- 
 pears, instead of the bearing of gentle- 
 men, the first discoverer of the visitor 
 cries out, " Fourteen hundred fives ! " 
 and a hundred voices re-echo the cry. 
 Youth or age is equally disregarded ; 
 and the following description of what 
 occurred to an unconscious interloper, 
 
 and which is no rare instance, will 
 show that there are financial as well as 
 political " roughs." 
 
 Not long ago (according to an Eng- 
 lish journal), a rural gentleman, igno- 
 rant of the rule so rigidly enforced for 
 the expulsion of strangers, chanced to 
 "drop in," as he phrased it, to the 
 Stock Exchange. He walked about 
 for nearly a minute, without being dis- 
 covered to be an intruder, indulging 
 in surprise at finding that the great- 
 est uproar and frolic prevailed in a 
 place in which he expected there would 
 be nothing but order and decorum. 
 All at once, a person who had just 
 concluded a hasty but severe scrutiny 
 of his features, called out at the full 
 stretch of his voice the usual signal 
 in such cases "Fourteen hundred." 
 Then a bevy of the " gentlemen " of 
 the resort clamorously surrounded him. 
 " Will you purchase any new navy five 
 per cent. ? " said one, eagerly and mena- 
 cingly looking him in the face. " I am 
 not ," the stranger was about to say 
 he was not going to purchase stock of 
 any kind, but was unceremoniously 
 prevented finishing his sentence by his 
 hat being, through a powerful applica- 
 tion of some one's fist to its crown, 
 not only forced over his eyes, but over 
 his mouth also. Before he had time to 
 recover from the stupefaction into 
 which the suddenness and violence of 
 the eclipse threw him, he was seized 
 by the shoulders and whirled about 
 as if he had been a revolving machine, 
 accompanied by several smart cuffs 
 which told, with stinging effect, in the 
 region of his ears. He was then 
 dragged about, from one person to an- 
 other, each having a fraternal " turn " 
 at him, as if he had only been the 
 effigy of some human being, instead of 
 a human being himself. After tossing 
 and hustling him about in the roughest 
 possible manner, abbreviating his coat 
 of one of its tails, and tearing into 
 fragments other parts of his wardrobe, 
 they carried him to the door, where,
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 289 
 
 after depositing him on his feet, they 
 left him to recover his lost senses at his 
 leisure but in some other place and 
 company than theirs. 
 
 Origin of Boards of Trade. 
 
 CKOMWELL seems, according to the 
 best accounts we have, to have given 
 the first notions of a board of trade. 
 In 1665, he appointed his son Richard, 
 with many lords of his council, judges 
 and gentlemen, and about twenty mer- 
 chants of London, York, Newcastle, 
 Yarmouth, Dover, etc., to meet and 
 consider by what means the trade and 
 navigation of the republic might be 
 best promoted. Charles the Second, 
 on his restoration, established a council 
 of trade for keeping a control over the 
 whole commerce of the nation ; he 
 afterwards instituted a board of trade 
 and plantations, which was afterwards 
 re-modelled by William the Third. 
 This board of commercial superiuspec- 
 tion was abolished in 1772 ; and a new 
 council for the affairs of trade, on its 
 present plan, was appointed in 1786. 
 
 Attacks on the Stock Exchange. 
 
 THE character of the old stock ex- 
 change, of London, has been set forth 
 in terms about as strong as language 
 can express it. Even as far back as a 
 century ago, a writer of that time says, 
 " The centre of jobbing is the king- 
 dom of 'Change Alley;" and what 
 was true then is by many regarded as 
 the same at the present day. The enor- 
 mous profits made by the association, 
 the malpractices of the greater part of 
 its members, and the insolence of the 
 richer ones, excited long since the alarm 
 of those unacccustomed to such manoeu- 
 vres, and the public writers began to 
 attack their increasing power. 
 
 " The villany of stock-jobbing is 
 called a mystery or machine of trade," 
 says one of these writers. " This de- 
 structive hydra ! this new corporation 
 19 
 
 of hell ! " exclaims another ; while one 
 of them gives directions, in order to 
 besiege and bring to surrender " that 
 infamous place, 'Change Alley," "to 
 storm it," etc. 
 
 Another writer declares that " the 
 general cry against stock-jobbing has 
 been so long, and it has been so justly 
 complained of as a public nuisance, 
 that these people are hardened in 
 crime ; all their art is a mere system 
 of cheat and delusion ; their characters 
 are as dirty as their employments ; and 
 the best thing that can be said of them, 
 perhaps, is that there happen to be two 
 honest men among them." " Exchange 
 Alley is, in fact, as dangerous to the 
 public safety as a magazine of gun- 
 powder to a populous city." 
 
 But all these invectives did not ob- 
 struct the progress of the establish- 
 ment ; on the contrary, it continued 
 to become more powerful, and in- 
 creased in proportion as the govern- 
 ment was more extravagant and care- 
 less of the public money. It became, 
 in short, an indispensable engine of 
 the government itself; but the latter 
 was finally compelled, by public opin- 
 ion against the detested operations of 
 the exchange, and in order to keep up 
 appearances, to pass several acts against 
 the very operations and the very gam- 
 bling it was so deeply, though secretly, 
 fomenting. Avarice, idleness, and the 
 hope of becoming rich in a short time 
 without industry, eluded and evaded 
 all laws. The members of this corpo- 
 ration have not only become the exclu- 
 sive masters of the British money 
 market, but have acquired the im- 
 mense power of secretly controlling and 
 regulating the funds and money market 
 of almost the whole world. 
 
 Custom Houses and Star Chambers. 
 
 A MERCHANT in London, of the name 
 of Richard Chambers, having sustained 
 some loss by a confiscation of part of 
 his property by the custom-house offi-
 
 290 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 cers, in a moment of indignation said, 
 in the hearing of some of the privy 
 council, "that the merchants in Eng- 
 land were more wrung and screwed 
 than in foreign parts." For the offence 
 of this language he was forthwith 
 brought before " the honorable court 
 of Star Chamber," as it was termed, 
 and fined two thousand pounds, for 
 refusing to pay which he was ordered 
 to be imprisoned six years, and even 
 this punishment was by some members 
 of the court considered too small. It 
 was also part of Chambers' sentence to 
 sign a very mean submission, which 
 was accordingly prepared. But when 
 this was brought to him he absolutely 
 refused, and, with all the terrors of a 
 prison in view, wrote under it that 
 " he abhorred and detested it as unjust 
 and false, and never until death would 
 he acknowledge any part of it." In 
 consequence of his determined opposi- 
 tion to the tyranny of the government, 
 on this and other occasions, Chambers 
 was utterly ruined, and died of poverty 
 and brokenheartedness at an advanced 
 
 Quotations of the New Exchange. 
 
 THE commercial phrases peculiar to 
 the new Matrimonial Exchange, Lon- 
 don, are from time to time delineated 
 by the stock reporters for Punch a 
 journal which appears to be the exclu- 
 sive organ of the dealers and habitues 
 of that important mart. Quotations 
 are given as follows though the varia- 
 tions are so rapid and anomalous as 
 almost to defy the reporter's skill : 
 
 The demand for hands has been flat. 
 Rings have been heavy, and so were 
 not fingered. Acceptances were at a 
 discount offers fluctuating. "Yes's" 
 were in plenty, but no takers. Kisses 
 were liberally showered on new visitors. 
 Hearts that were to be had for love went 
 off unsteadily, and, in some cases, at con- 
 siderable risk ; those with high interest 
 eagerly sought for, though, in many 
 
 cases, at a great risk, as permanent in- 
 vestments. 
 
 Banns might have been had with 
 asking for; but licenses kept their 
 prices there were very few transac- 
 tions in this stock. Smiles and 
 squeezes were unchangeable at par, 
 and one gentleman who speculated 
 boldly in foot touches, met with 
 favorable returns. Sighs latterly were 
 heavy, but small-talk continued brisk 
 to the close. Bright eyes looked up 
 occasionally, but soon fell again. 
 Though some business, as usual, was 
 done in blushes, silly looks were not 
 in demand ; free-and-easies, however, 
 rose to a high premium, and drove 
 genuine modesty almost out of the 
 market. 
 
 Maternal frowns were in consider- 
 able quantities, and prevented, it is 
 thought, many imprudent bargains 
 from being finally settled. Scandal 
 kept its customary high ground ; and 
 more transactions occurred in that line 
 than in the three others put together. 
 Serenades particularly of wind instru- 
 ments were in great demand and in 
 plentiful supply during the equinox. 
 Slights were complained of by many 
 dealers. 
 
 On the whole, at the close of the 
 season and markets, the single per 
 cents were not much reduced, as com- 
 pared with the business of former 
 years ; and there was a sluggishness 
 in even improper flirtations, which had 
 no doubt its share in casting a gloom 
 and monotony over the general course 
 of the Exchange. 
 
 P. S. A later report gives the mar- 
 ket an aspect of greater steadiness and 
 encouragement. Liberal offers being 
 more difficult to obtain, has caused 
 acceptances to be had at a great dis- 
 count compared with previous quota- 
 tions. Not much doing in maternal 
 frowns, on which account time bar- 
 gains are settled without much diffi- 
 culty. Heavy purses are much in- 
 quired for; but stocks with small
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 291 
 
 capitals, have not once been sought 
 after. Sly squeezes are very brisk. 
 Blushes are remarked as quite scarce, 
 none having been seen in the market 
 for a length of time. Jealousy is 
 rising considerably. Other stocks re- 
 main almost the same as before, with 
 the exception of scandal, which may be 
 said to be rather on the advance. 
 
 Scenes in a Turkish Custom House. 
 
 THERE is a slight difference between 
 an American and a Syrian custom- 
 house. On entering the latter, the 
 Hadji dons a pair of spectacles, and 
 taking a scrap of paper from the 
 nearest applicant, carefully peruses the 
 same before handing it over to some 
 subordinate. The room is a long 
 oblong one, with only one entrance 
 door, and a few pigeon holes close to 
 the ceiling, which do duty for win- 
 dows. Bound three sides are placed 
 long, narrow divans, with equally low 
 wooden desks before them. Only the 
 Hadji, in compliment to the high office 
 he fills, is accommodated with a lofty 
 seat, which serves for manifold pur- 
 poses ; on it he sits, tailor fashion, 
 himself; on it are his ink-horn, his 
 pepper-box, full of steel gratings (to 
 serve instead of blotting paper), -his 
 tobacco pouch, his private account 
 book, his seal of office, a large pair of 
 shears, to cut his paper with, a quire 
 of paper, and a few envelopes. All the 
 clerks have the same inventory of goods, 
 with the exception of the signet, either 
 on the desk before them, or on the 
 divan beside them ; and, as far as can 
 be judged, very few of the clerks seem 
 to pay any particular heed as to what 
 is going on around them. Some are 
 playing backgammon, shuffling the 
 dice, and speaking or laughing as loud- 
 ly as though the place were an hotel ; 
 others are playing at cat's cradle ; some 
 are narrating little episodes of private 
 adventure ; and one or two, with in- 
 tense anxiety depicted in their faces, 
 
 may be seen endeavoring to unravel a 
 sum in simple addition, adding up some 
 six lines of figures, and arriving re- 
 peatedly at most unsatisfactory re- 
 sults. 
 
 At the farther end of the room, 
 and nearest the door, are some half- 
 dozen patient individuals, who, see- 
 ing the throng pressing around the 
 Hadji's desk, despair of transacting 
 any business for a good half-hour to 
 come, and endeavor to while away the 
 time with the stale old newspaper, or 
 in desultory conversation. In the cen- 
 tre of the room, wrangling with each 
 other in no measured accents, are a 
 couple of Hebrews, the one the seller, 
 the other the purchaser of a few barrels 
 of sugar, which are warehoused in the 
 custom house ; the bone of contention 
 between them is a couple of rusty old 
 hoops, which have fallen off said casks, 
 and which both lay claim to as their 
 respective perquisites ; their joint value 
 might be somewhat under six cents 
 but six cents are six cents, and the dis- 
 pute grows fierce and loud. At last 
 they appeal to the Hadji; and the 
 Hadji, who always has an eye to the 
 main chance, claims them as his own. 
 The customs charge nothing for ware- 
 housing, therefore he considers himself 
 entitled to occasional windfalls. Vainly 
 they expostulate against this, pale with 
 anxiety and rage to think that they are 
 both outwitted ; the order is given to 
 the warehouse scribe, who chances to 
 be in the room at the time, to make an 
 immediate memorandum of the mat- 
 ter ; and this dignitary, who to all 
 appearance is totally unfurnished with 
 materials, squats down immediately 
 upon the floor, and, producing ink- 
 horn and paper, thrusts up one knee, 
 which serves him as a desk, and the 
 minute is forthwith entered. Then the 
 two dealers go away, full of enmity 
 toward each other, their tempers not 
 being improved by a sly allusion, on 
 the part of some witty individual, to 
 the fable of the two cats and the
 
 292 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 cheese which fable itself was origi- 
 nally copied from the Arabs. 
 
 Every one is talking and clamorous, 
 when a hurried shipmaster, accompa- 
 nied by a consular cawass and an inter- 
 preter, elbows his way up to the Hadji's 
 desk and demands, as the wind is fair, 
 to have his ship cleared out instanter, 
 " Shuay, shuay, ye ebney ! Yauash ! 
 yauash ! " (Gently, gently, my son ! 
 quietly, quietly!) "Does the man 
 think we work by steam in this 
 office ? " 
 
 Thua demands the Hadji, to which 
 on due interpretation, the captain 
 allows that he would be mad or blind 
 to think so. Nevertheless, the Hadji 
 has a wholesome fear of the English 
 consul ; wherefore, he takes the docu- 
 ments out of the captain's hands, and 
 gives them to his own private transla- 
 tor. This individual, who is clad in 
 hybrid costume, reads out the mani- 
 fest, line by line, the Hadji making 
 note of the same, and comparing them 
 with his own entries of shipments, 
 which are found to tally exactly. Then 
 comes the most important question, 
 viz., Have all these shipments paid 
 the right export duty? The Greek 
 broker has made some omission, it ap- 
 pears, and matters cannot be proceeded 
 with till the mistake is corrected. 
 Upon this information, the shipmaster 
 is naturally annoyed, but there is no 
 remedy ; he is obliged to go all the 
 way back to the broker's, thence to the 
 shipper, and in all probability is forced 
 to appeal to the consul. Meanwhile 
 the fair wind subsides, and the owners, 
 the underwriters, and all parties con- 
 cerned, have lost a week, if not more 
 a week of hardship, wear and tear, of 
 expenses in pay and sustenance, and 
 perhaps the cargo is about ruined by 
 so long confinement. 
 
 Manchester Cotton Merchants. 
 
 THERE is, perhaps, no part of the 
 commercial world in which so much is 
 
 done and so little said in the same 
 space of time, as among the merchants 
 of Manchester, Eng., at the time of 
 " high " change. A stranger sees noth- 
 ing at first but a collection of gentle- 
 men, with thoughtful, intelligent faces, 
 who converse with each other in 
 laconic whispers, supply the non-use 
 of words by nods and signs, move 
 noiselessly from one part of the room 
 to another, guided as if by some hidden 
 instinct to the precise person in the 
 crowd with whom they have business 
 to transact. 
 
 A phrenologist will nowhere meet 
 such a collection of decidedly clever 
 heads. The physiognomist who de- 
 clared that he could find traces of 
 stupidity in the faces of the wisest 
 philosophers, would be at a loss to find 
 any indication of its presence in the 
 countenances assembled at the Man- 
 chester Exchange. Genius appears to 
 be not less rare than folly ; the charac- 
 teristic features of these habitues, col- 
 lectively and individually, are those of 
 talent and sagacity in high working 
 order. 
 
 Whether trade be brisk or dull, high 
 'change is equally crowded ; and the 
 difference of its aspect at the two 
 periods is sufliciently striking. In stir- 
 ring times, every man on 'change seems 
 as if he belonged to the community 
 of the dancing dervishes, being utterly 
 incapable of remaining for a single 
 second in one place. It is the prin- 
 ciple of a Manchester man, that 
 " naught is done while aught remains 
 to do ; " let him but have the oppor- 
 tunity, and he will undertake to supply 
 all the markets between China and Peru, 
 and will be exceedingly vexed if he has 
 lost the chance of selling some yarn at 
 Japan, on his way. When trade ia 
 dull, the merchants and factors stand 
 motionless as statues, or move about 
 as slowly as if they followed a funeral 
 the look of eagerness exchanged for 
 that of dogged obstinacy ; it seems to 
 say " My mind is made up to lose so
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 293 
 
 much, but I am resolved to lose no 
 more." An increase of sternness and 
 inflexibility accompanies the decline 
 of the Manchester trade, and foreigners 
 declare that the worst time to expect a 
 bargain is a season of distress. 
 
 Free Trade. 
 
 THE well known Hussey Burgh, at the 
 opening of the session of parliament 
 in 1777, moved the usual address to the 
 king, in which was the following sen- 
 tence : " It is not by temporary expe- 
 dients, but by an extension of trade, 
 that Ireland can be ameliorated." On 
 the reading of this paragraph, Flood, 
 who was seated in the vice-treasurer's 
 place, said, audibly. " Why not a free 
 trade?" The amendment electrified 
 the house; the words were adopted 
 by his friend, and the motion was 
 carried unanimously. It was a bold 
 commercial stroke, accomplished with 
 a master's skill and brevity. 
 
 Animated Scenes at the French 
 Exchange. 
 
 THE spirit which animates the French 
 Exchange wakes up at one o'clock pre- 
 cisely. The stroke of the clock gives 
 the signal of business. At this sound 
 everything is in motion ; a thousand 
 cries are sent forth ; a universal shout 
 fills the vast hall, and strikes the roof. 
 The "basket" corbeille a kind of 
 circular balcony occupying the east 
 end of the hall, around which sixty 
 brokers crowd, bristles with threaten- 
 ing arms, and furious memorandum 
 books. In the wink of an eye, the 
 floor is covered with a multitude of 
 little torn bits of paper ; these are the 
 orders of purchase and sale, sent by 
 their principals, and the answers re- 
 turned by the brokers. Iron railings 
 keep oflfthe profane vulgar, who besiege 
 the basket on all sides, and whose con- 
 tinual buzz mixes with the shriekings 
 of the brokers, and of the pages of the 
 Exchange. A general stamping and 
 
 buzzing a perpetual coming and 
 going, as in an ant hill or a bee hive 
 seeming confusion yet perfect order ; 
 such is the aspect of the Exchange 
 from one o'clock to three. 
 
 From the gallery above, which is 
 also thronged with multitudes of the 
 curious, a strange spectacle is presented 
 by this furnace in full blast, where 
 writhe, like twigs in the flame, the 
 most violent passions of the human 
 heart. The floor of fine and well-swept 
 sand, which surrounds the centre of the 
 parquet, or inclosure, is simply the 
 spitting-box of the brokers. These 
 threatening cries this defiance these 
 exorcisms are good natured words 
 and pantomines, always the same, and 
 meaning " I have fifty Northerns 1 " 
 " I'll take ten thousand of the Fives ! 
 two thousand of the Threes ! " " Let 
 me have some Premiums, early day 
 next day ! " " Let me have some Pied- 
 mont!" " I'll sell some Gas !" "Who 
 wants Zinc?" Here is Bank!" "Here 
 is City ! " &c., &c., 
 
 That personage who from time to time 
 raises his voice in a corner of the Ex- 
 change, and whose purple face rises 
 above all other heads, thanks to the stool 
 which forms his pedestal, is the muezzin 
 of this mosque the auctioneer of the 
 Exchange the person whose duty it 
 is to minute and announce the rates of 
 public stock as they are ascertained. 
 At right angles with the inclosure, on 
 entering by the facade, a sort of human 
 alley-way is opened through the crowd, 
 in order to afford a passage for the 
 brokers' clerks, who go and come. Two 
 similar, but shorter alley-ways, run to 
 the right and the left of the basket, 
 like the two arms of a cross. These 
 three openings of the inclosure are 
 incessantly crowded with orders of 
 sale and purchase, which are sent to 
 the brokers by the busy messengers, 
 who bear the official insignia em- 
 broidered conspicuously on the coat- 
 collar. 
 
 The lower sides of the hall, furnished
 
 294 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 with benches at wide intervals, serve 
 as a promenade for the sages of the 
 portico the dreamers and the idle. 
 
 The Origin of the Clearing House. 
 
 NOT many years after the London 
 bankers had ceased to issue notes, the 
 inconvenience of making all payments 
 in Bank of England notes and gold, 
 had become so great, that some change 
 was indispensably necessary ; when the 
 plan of adjusting each other's daily 
 payments by an interchange of liabil- 
 ities was adopted as the best mode of 
 economizing the use of money. At first 
 the system adopted was of the most 
 primitive kind, and certainly not the 
 safest. The clerks of the various bank- 
 ing houses used to perform the opera- 
 tion of exchanges at the corners of the 
 streets, and on the top of a post. They 
 then met, by appointment, at a public 
 house ; but, from the insecurity of these 
 arrangements, it was at last thought 
 best that the principal city bankers 
 should rent a house near the old post 
 office in Lombard street. This house 
 was called the Clearing House. 
 
 Derivation of the Commercial Term 
 Bourse. 
 
 THE original name of bourse, given 
 to edifices for the accommodation of 
 merchants, is thus stated : There was, 
 in former times, a square commodiously 
 situated in the middle of the city of 
 Bruges, in which stood a large building 
 that had been erected by the noble 
 family of La Bourse, whose coat of 
 arms, on its wall, was three purses. 
 The merchants of Bruges made this old 
 house the place of their daily assem- 
 blies; and when afterward they went 
 to the fairs of Antwerp and Mons, they 
 called the places they found there for 
 the assembling of merchants, by the 
 name of La Bourse, or the Bourse. 
 
 Reduction of Custom-House Duties : 
 "Death to the Beet-Boot! " 
 
 THE news of the reduction of the 
 customs duty on sugar was celebrated 
 with great enthusiasm in the towns 
 and cities of France nowhere more 
 joyously than in Havre. Not only 
 were all the ships in the harbor gayly 
 dressed, and the houses profusely 
 adorned with tri-colored flags, but the 
 laboring class, whose work had been 
 so diminished by the smallness of the 
 cargoes brought by ships from the col- 
 onies, paraded the streets in great 
 numbers, preceded by a banner, with 
 a sugarcane surmounted by a nosegay, 
 below which was a beet-root covered 
 with crape, and bearing the inscription 
 " Death to the Beet-root ! " 
 
 Ludicrous Custom-House 
 Examinations. 
 
 NOTHING can exceed the lynx-eyed 
 scrutiny and annoying detail of the 
 British custom-house officers. Upon 
 the arrival of a vessel from the Conti- 
 nent, for instance, the passengers are 
 asked for their trunk keys, and they 
 look as if they were about to offer to 
 the British Government their entire 
 stock of movables. Each has his sin- 
 gle carpet bag, and waits his turn. The 
 first bag opened may exhibit an old 
 coat, a hair brush, a checked shirt, an 
 empty flask, and a toothbrush; the 
 next, a checked shirt, an empty flask, 
 and a hair brush; the third contains 
 an empty flask, a hair brush, and a 
 checked shirt. Then comes a bag 
 which actually contains a large portion 
 of dirty striped linen, which one of the 
 men engaged in the search begins to 
 rummage with a minuteness and curi- 
 osity which, after the very general way 
 of disposing of the other things, seems 
 quite surprising. The truth is, the 
 man has smelt brandy in the clothes, 
 and is looking out for the bottle. His 
 search for it is very much like that of 
 Page for Falstaff in the buck-basket,
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 295 
 
 and, as it turns out, is as little suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Business in London at Four o'clock. 
 
 A GRAPHIC picture though not very 
 complimentary of " Commercial Lon- 
 don " at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 may be seen in the following, from the 
 pen of North : Attorneys are cheating 
 their clients, or assisting them to cheat 
 other people. Merchants are calculat- 
 ing the chances of the markets, like 
 gamblers inventing martingales. Clerks 
 are adding up figures as clocks add up 
 minutes. Cashiers and secretaries are 
 reflecting on the facilities of an im- 
 promptu voyage to California. Direc- 
 tors of companie's are " cooking " the 
 accounts of their shareholders. Waiters 
 at Joe's, Sam's, Tom's, Betsy's, and 
 other chop houses, whose proprietors 
 are apparently more proud of their 
 Christian names than usual, order 
 countless chops, through patent gutta- 
 percha telegraphs. Cooks baste them- 
 selves with half and half, while roast- 
 ing before their fires, like Fox's mar- 
 tyrs, bound to the steaks of their ty- 
 rants. Crossing-sweepers are industri- 
 ously cleaning streets as dry as carpets, 
 and begging of passengers as charitable 
 as cannibals. Usurers are meeting gen- 
 tlemen who want to borrow money at 
 any rate of non-payment. Adven- 
 turers are keeping appointments with 
 capitalists they hope to drag into 
 speculations ; capitalists are contriving 
 monopolies by which to crush non-cap- 
 italist adventurers. Stock brokers are 
 playing money tricks on the Stock Ex- 
 change. Hebrew gold-kings are manu- 
 facturing intelligence to astonish the 
 stock brokers. Couriers are dashing 
 off with the commands of London 
 financiers to foreign potentates. Mes- 
 sengers are arriving from the sham, en- 
 treating aid from the real sovereigns of 
 Europe. And the plenipotentiaries of 
 that greater monarch still the daily 
 press are calmly overlooking the 
 
 whole anthill, with sublime indiffer- 
 ence to the struggles of its busy insects, 
 and generalizing for millions the knowl- 
 edge which, even to those in the midst 
 of the bustle, is too often but semi-ob- 
 scurity and chromatropic confusion. 
 
 Merchants and Business Resorts in 
 Moscow. 
 
 THE mercantile portion of Moscow 
 presents characteristics peculiarly its 
 own. The quarter in which the retail 
 business is carried on is called Kitai- 
 gorod, or Chinese Town, a name which 
 it obtained in the earliest times as the 
 seat of the Chinese trade. At present 
 it contains two Gostivie dvori, or ba- 
 zaars, resembling that of St. Petersburg 
 in arrangement, but far surpassing it 
 in variety and amount of business. 
 One can hardly think of a desirable 
 object, for the sale of which a row of 
 stalls is not to be found there. Each 
 dealer both buys and sells in his own 
 line of business. Specie is also ranked 
 among the articles of commercial traf- 
 fic. The current coins of all countries 
 are to be purchased, as well as those 
 which time or circumstances have con- 
 verted into mere articles of curiosity. 
 
 The mercantile population of Mos- 
 cow cling to the same antique habits 
 which distinguish the commercial 
 classes in St. Petersburg; indeed, na- 
 tionality is much more developed in 
 the former place. St. Petersburg is a 
 chameleon, the color of which changes 
 from contrast. The foreigner thinks it 
 Russian, while to the native of Moscow 
 it appears a foreign city. The comfort- 
 able tradesmen in Moscow have a quar- 
 ter to themselves ; and while their ser- 
 vants keep the shops, the bearded 
 owners chat with one another in the 
 street. They live in indolent resigna- 
 tion on whatever fortune sends them, 
 and their language is proverbially that 
 of careless indifference.
 
 296 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Railway Clearing: House. 
 
 ON account of the difficulty which 
 the multitude of English railway com- 
 panies found in keeping their mutual 
 accounts, they adopted, some years ago, 
 a system analogous to that of the 
 " clearing house " established by bank- 
 ers and merchants in large cities. The 
 clearing house, carried on in the inter- 
 est of mercantile classes, is, it is known, 
 an establishment which keeps up a sort 
 of imaginary debtor and creditor ac- 
 count with all the bankers and mer- 
 chants. The latter send their bills and 
 checks, not to each other, for payment, 
 but to the clearing house, where they 
 are sorted and classed under the name 
 of the firm which is to pay them. As 
 four o'clock approaches, each banker's 
 debits for the day are arranged in one 
 column in a printed form, and his cred- 
 its in the other ; and the payment of a 
 small sum of money, either to him or 
 by him, may balance a complicated list 
 of large sums. 
 
 It is this convenient principle, as ap- 
 plied in their mutual dealings in re- 
 spect to passengers, merchandise, mile- 
 age, and lost luggage, which the rail- 
 way companies have adopted. In a 
 street near the vast Euston station the 
 great root whence most of the railroad 
 lines spring is a plain doorway, with 
 a plain plate bearing the plain inscrip- 
 tion RAILWAY CLEABING HOUSE. 
 
 Few passers by ever think, or could 
 think to any purpose, of what is done 
 within that doorway ; few would ima- 
 gine that commercial accounts to a stu- 
 pendous extent are there daily settled, 
 by clerks more numerous and in rooms 
 more extensive than those employed 
 by the most world-renowned banker. 
 The building was constructed at the 
 joint expense of all the companies, 
 who also bear the charge of salaries 
 and office expenses. The companies all 
 elect deputies or delegates, who form, 
 collectively, a committee for managing 
 affairs or rather, there is a manager, 
 
 to' carry on all the operations of the es- 
 tablishment, while the delegates attend 
 principally to seeing after the interests 
 of 'their respective companies. There 
 are several hundred clerks, who have 
 the management and adjustment of ac- 
 counts, and the amount involved annu- 
 ally is said to be from thirty to forty 
 million dollars. There is an excellent 
 library, news room, reading room, etc., 
 combined with the vast business apart- 
 ments of this great concern. 
 
 Lloyd's Establish merit, London. 
 
 THE designation LLOYD'S, so well 
 known in the mercantile world, origi- 
 nated with a person of the name of 
 Lloyd, who kept a coffee house in Ab- 
 church lane, Lombard street. From 
 the vicinity of this house to the old 
 royal exchange, it speedily became a 
 rendezvous of merchants for news, and 
 for the transaction of business. It was 
 afterward removed to Pope's Head al- 
 ley, and thence again, in 1774, to the 
 Royal Exchange. After the destruction 
 of the Exchange, in 1838, by fire, which 
 originated in Lloyd's, the business was 
 carried on in the South Sea House, in 
 Old Broad street, where it remained 
 until the opening of the present Royal 
 Exchange in 1844, when it was removed 
 to its now splendid apartments. 
 
 These rooms are frequented by un- 
 derwriters, merchants, ship owners, ship 
 and merchandise brokers, and others, 
 chiefly for the purpose of obtaining 
 shipping intelligence, and of transact- 
 ing business connected with marine in- 
 surance. The principal room is that of 
 the underwriters, in which two enor- 
 mous ledgers lie constantly open ; the 
 one containing notices of speakings, or 
 ships spoken with, and arrivals of ves- 
 sels at their various destinations ; the 
 other recording distances at sea. The 
 immense amount of insurance business 
 done at Lloyd's may be appreciated 
 when it is said, that the value of the 
 interest annually insured at the present
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 297 
 
 is estimated at about $200,000,000. 
 The shipping intelligence received at 
 Lloyd's is furnished by responsible 
 agents, in the especial employ of the 
 establishment, in almost every port. 
 
 One Thousand Million Pounds' Busi- 
 ness Annually at the London Clear- 
 ing House. 
 
 ON his "Visit to the Bank of 
 France," by Francis Lloyd, he says: 
 I explained to the regents of the bank 
 the operations of the London Clearing 
 House; that system so economical of 
 time and trouble, and without "which 
 concentration and rapid settlement the 
 enormous balances between the bank- 
 ing houses in the great emporium of 
 the commercial world could not be so 
 promptly struck the wheels of our 
 complicated monetary system could 
 not revolve so evenly and quickly. I 
 have always thought that the system 
 of making bills, drawn from whatever 
 quarter of the world, or from whatever 
 town or village in Great Britain, upon 
 all parts of Great Britain, payable in 
 one place that is, as effected daily by 
 one hour's adjustment of the clearing 
 house that such united regulation and 
 acceleration of finance are to the com- 
 plex machinery of banking what the 
 flywheel and governor are to the steam 
 engine. 
 
 Imagine the regent's surprise when I 
 told him that in the London clearing 
 room a plain room, on part of the site 
 of the old post office in Lombard street 
 a clerk from each private bank in 
 London attended twice a day but for 
 half an hour ; and commercial obliga- 
 tions were collectively discharged to the 
 amount of three millions sterling every 
 day in the year, with not more than a 
 fifteenth of this sum in bank notes. 
 That, as to using coin (silver and cop- 
 per), I could readily picture to myself 
 the contemptuous and derisive expres- 
 sion of the face which the most juve- 
 nile of those clearing clerks would as- 
 
 sume at the bare suggestion. A thou- 
 sand millions of pounds sterling, I told 
 him, were paid last year in this room 
 by those clerks, not more than forty in 
 number a sum larger than the nation- 
 al debt ; and that all the money used 
 for the operation this' balancing of a 
 year's commercial enterprise in all quar- 
 ters of the globe was effected without 
 a single error or moment's delay, and 
 with bits of paper only, viz., the promis- 
 sory notes of the Bank of England. 
 
 \ 
 
 'Change Alley as a Business Eesort. 
 
 THE centre of financial jobbing in 
 London is in 'Change alley and its ad- 
 jacencies. The limits are easily sur- 
 rounded in a minute and a half. Step- 
 ping out of Jonathan's into the alley, 
 you turn your face full south ; moving 
 on a few paces, and then turning due 
 east, you advance to Garraway's ; from 
 thence, going out at the other door, 
 you go on still east into Birchin lane, 
 and then, halting a little at the sword- 
 blade bank, you immediately face to 
 the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or 
 three petty provinces there on your 
 way to the west ; and thus having 
 boxed your compass, and sailed round 
 the stock-jobbing globe, you turn into 
 Jonathan's again. Such is the descrip- 
 tion given by a pamphleteer of this 
 depot of the dealers and jobbers in the 
 funds and stocks market long so fa- 
 mous throughout the business world. 
 Here assembled the sharper and the 
 saint ; here jostled one another the Jew 
 and the Gentile ; here met the courtier 
 and the citizen ; here the calmness of 
 the gainer contrasted with the despair 
 of the loser ; and here might be seen 
 the carriage of some minister, into 
 which the head of his broker was anx- 
 iously stretched, to gain the intelli- 
 gence which was to raise or depress 
 the market. In one corner might be 
 witnessed the anxious, eager counte- 
 nance of the occasional gambler, in 
 strange contrast with the calm, cool
 
 298 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 demeanor of the man whose regular 
 trade it was to deceive. In another, 
 the Hebrew measured his craft with 
 that of the Quaker, and scarcely came 
 off victorious in the contest. 
 
 Amusing- Perplexities at the Custom 
 House. 
 
 THE occasional importation of arti- 
 cles which are not enumerated in the 
 tariff of custom-house duties is in some 
 instances productive of amusing per- 
 plexity. A singular case of this nature 
 occurred once at the London custom 
 house, the solution of which was beyond 
 the skill of all the officials, and was 
 only reached at last by the native power 
 of the article itself. This case was the 
 importation of some ice from Norway. 
 A doubt was started as to what duty it 
 ought to pay, and this point was re- 
 ferred from the custom house to the 
 treasury department, and from the 
 treasury to the board of trade. Oddly 
 enough, it was the opinion of the latter 
 officials, that the ice might be intro- 
 duced on the payment of the duty on 
 dry goods but, as the thing turned out, 
 " the ice was dissolved before the ques- 
 tion was solved." In another case, the 
 officials came to an equally dead lock : 
 A gentleman had imported a mummy 
 from Egypt, and the officers of the cus- 
 toms were not a little puzzled as to 
 what to do with this non-enumerated 
 article. These remains of mortality 
 muscles and sinews, pickled and pre- 
 served three thousand years ago could 
 not be deemed a raw material, and, 
 therefore, upon deliberation, it was de- 
 termined to tax them as a manufac- 
 tured article. The importer, anxious 
 that his mummy should not be seized, 
 concluded, before the decision was 
 made, just to state its value at two 
 thousand dollars an unfortunate de- 
 claration, which cost him one thousand 
 dollars, being at the rate of fifty per 
 cent, on the "manufactured merchan- 
 dise." 
 
 Duty on Pictures. 
 
 MB. N., an American, used to relate, 
 with much good humor, the following 
 adventure, which happened to him on 
 his arrival at the custom house at Do- 
 ver, England. Being an amateur of 
 pictures, he had brought with him a 
 view of the Falls of Niagara, which he 
 had himself painted during his resi- 
 dence in Canada. The size of the pic- 
 ture was about six square feet, and as 
 the duty on painted canvas was rated 
 at one guinea the foot, the demand was 
 consequently the very considerable one 
 of six guineas. Mr. N. demurred to 
 such a charge on a picture of no value 
 to any one but himself, and appealed 
 to the director of the customs, who, 
 however, informed him that the regula- 
 tion was positive, and could not be de- 
 parted from. Mr. N. still complained 
 of the exorbitant duty. " Very well," 
 said the director, " I only know one 
 way for you to avoid the payment of 
 it; leave your picture here for six 
 months ; as you are the sole proprietor, 
 no one will claim it, and at the end of 
 that period I shall put it up for sale. 
 Of course, no one will purchase such a 
 Twrrid daub, which is certainly not 
 worth six shillings, and you wifl then 
 have it for nothing." With this timely 
 advice Mr. N. complied, and in due 
 season obtained his picture. 
 
 Hig-h 'Change Hours. 
 
 . HIGH 'change hour is fixed at one 
 o'clock by the merchants of Philadel- 
 phia. New York exchange assembles 
 at two and three quarters o'clock, but 
 is not fully attended until three and 
 one quarter o'clock. In Liverpool, the 
 hours are from two to five o'clock; 
 and, if the visitor wishes to be sure of 
 seeing the persons who frequent it, he 
 may be obliged to wait or waste three 
 hours before he can accomplish his 
 purpose. In the London exchange, 
 the crowd begins to pour in at four
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 299 
 
 o'clock, and in a quarter of an hour it 
 is " high 'change." At half past four 
 it ceases, when beadles go round with 
 large bells, with which they make such 
 a deafening noise that the assembly is 
 soon dispersed, the gates are locked, 
 and no one is allowed to enter till the 
 next day. 
 
 In European cities, all the principal 
 houses or firms have regular places of 
 resort on 'change. For example, Mr. 
 Rothschild is always to be found, on 
 foreign post days, on the "Italian 
 Walk;" the Messrs. Baring, Brothers 
 & Co. are to be found at the column 
 which they have frequented for years ; 
 those merchants who are in the Ameri- 
 can trade frequent the " American 
 Walk ; " those who are in the Russian 
 and Swedish trade frequent the " Bal- 
 tic Walk ; " and those in the German 
 trade, frequent the " Hamburg Walk." 
 
 In Amsterdam, the exchange bell be- 
 gins to ring at half past two o'clock, and 
 if all persons who wish to enter the gates 
 before the clock strikes three, do not 
 succeed in getting in, they are com- 
 pelled to pay a small fee, amounting to 
 eight or ten cents, for admission. If 
 any one wishes to enter at half past 
 three, he is obliged to pay a fine of 
 half a guilder. So much importance 
 is attached to regular attendance on 
 'change, that if a house is not repre- 
 sented, either personally or by one of 
 the confidential clerks, it is considered 
 that a death has occurred in the family 
 of some one of the partners, or that bank- 
 ruptcy or some other misfortune has oc- 
 curred. High 'change at Antwerp is at 
 five o'clock in the afternoon, when the 
 gates are closed, after which, to gain ad- 
 mittance, a fee of half a franc is paid. 
 
 First East India Company House. 
 
 THE tradition is, that the East India 
 Company, incorporated December 31, 
 1600, first transacted their business in 
 the great room of the Nag's Head inn, 
 opposite St. Botolph's church, Bishops- 
 
 gate street. The maps of London, soon 
 after the great fire of 1666, place the 
 India House on a part of its present site 
 in Leadenhall street. Here originally 
 stood the mansion of Alderman Kerton, 
 built in the reign of Edward the Sixth, 
 rebuilt on the accession of Elizabeth, 
 and enlarged by its next purchaser, Sir 
 W. Craven, lord mayor in 1610. Here 
 was born the great Lord Craven, who, 
 in 1701, leased his house and a tenement 
 in Lime street to the company, at one 
 hundred pounds a year. A scarce 
 Dutch etching, still preserved, shows 
 this house to have been half timbered, 
 its lofty gable surmounted with two 
 dolphins and a figure of a mariner, or, 
 as some say, the first governor; be- 
 neath are merchant ships at sea, the 
 royal arms, and those of the company. 
 This famous and grotesque structure 
 was taken down in the year 1726, and 
 upon its site was erected the old East 
 India House, portions of which yet re- 
 main although the present stone front, 
 two hundred feet long, and a great part 
 of the house, was built in 1798. 
 
 Romance and Trade. 
 
 THERE is nothing so sentimental in 
 the columns of a daily newspaper as 
 the article devoted to the state of the 
 markets. We seldom peruse it quoth 
 Punch without a tendency to tears, 
 which are only checked by the recol- 
 lection that it is only on bags of coffee, 
 bales of cotton, parcels of pepper, and 
 barrels of flour, that we are exhausting 
 our useless sympathy. 
 
 We, however, defy any one to be 
 otherwise than moved by the descrip- 
 tion of the markets, which is evidently 
 the production of a writer who luxuri- 
 ates in a strain of melancholy tender- 
 ness, that is excluded by universal con- 
 sent from every other portion of the 
 newspaper. The literary sentimentalist, 
 finding no market among the booksel- 
 lers for his goods, has gone to the very 
 markets themselves, and has secured a
 
 300 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 corner in the journals, where he may 
 indulge without restraint his tendency 
 to pathos. 
 
 Let us take a specimen of that affect- 
 ing style of writing, which has found 
 its way, appropriately enough, to Min- 
 cing Lane : " An improved feeling has 
 again begun to show itself in the coffee 
 market, where dulness had until lately 
 prevailed, and sugars began to assume 
 a livelier aspect." 
 
 Surely this must be written by some 
 fashionable novelist " out of luck," 
 whose Rosa-Matilda-isms, that once 
 used to cloy the circulating libraries 
 with their sweetness, have rushed to 
 the sugar cask as the only alternative 
 to avoid the butter shop. Substitute 
 Augustus Danvers for the " coffee mar- 
 ket," insert Rosalie in the place of " su- 
 gars," and we get a sentence that would 
 seem to form part of a nlelting novel 
 of ten years back, when the writers of 
 the same sort of stuff could command 
 their three or five hundred pounds for 
 an adequate lot of it. The paragraph, 
 as amended, will stand thus : " An im- 
 proved feeling had again begun to 
 show itself in Augustus Danvers (the 
 coffee market), where dulness had until 
 lately prevailed, and Rosalie (sugars) 
 began to assume a livelier aspect." 
 
 We know nothing of the mysteries 
 of what is termed the " staff" of a daily 
 paper ; but we certainly picture to our- 
 selves the writer of the markets as a 
 pale gentleman, with a forehead bared 
 to its highest, a Byron tie, a turned- 
 down shirt collar, and a melancholy 
 cast of countenance, with a feminine 
 tinge of the romantic. We can imagine 
 him walking moodily about the mar- 
 kets, looking out anxiously for a 
 glimpse of gloom in sugars, and feel- 
 ing an indescribable satisfaction in the 
 dulness of peppers. Why is it neces- 
 sary that wool should be " flat," Bengal 
 figs "low," indigo "dull," rice "de- 
 pressed," and everything that seems 
 nice and eatable so wretchedly low- 
 spirited ? It is seldom we meet with a 
 
 bit of sensible " firmness " in something 
 
 o 
 
 or other ; but, even if we do, we are 
 told of a " tendency to give way," be- 
 fore we get to the end of the article. 
 
 Hall of the St. Petersburg Exchange. 
 
 THE hall of the Exchange in St. Pe- 
 tersburg is one of the most rare places 
 of business which our planet affords. 
 It is built only for whispers. An 
 audible conversation was never held 
 there. Nothing is spoken aloud save 
 mere bagatelles. " How is your good 
 lady ? " " Oh, we enjoyed exceedingly 
 our water party yesterday ; we were at 
 this place and that, at such a one's and 
 such a one's." " Yes, I admit that A 
 gives excellent dinners, but I find my- 
 self more comfortable at B's." Nothing 
 but this kind of conversation is spoken. 
 But when two persons are seen to put 
 their heads together, talk in the lowest 
 whispers, and palisade themselves in a 
 circle with their backs, so that not a 
 wedge could get into it, then there is 
 surely something in the wind, a bargain 
 has been made the whispering has led 
 to some result. " Yes, sir." " No, sir." 
 " Too much three thousand four 
 twenty a hundred thousand." " Oc- 
 tober." " November." " London." 
 " Hull." " Baltimore." " Well, I will 
 take it." " Done ! that is settled then, 
 Mr. Curtins." 
 
 In the six side rooms, the sugar ba- 
 kers, and the dealers in tallow, corn, 
 and timber, have established them- 
 selves, though without any formal 
 regulation to that effect; and each 
 class has, from habit, taken possession 
 of a particular spot. These are com- 
 posed almost exclusively of Russians, 
 with and without beard, some old men 
 still in kaftans, others in modern 
 French coats. Between them and the 
 lords of the sea in the centre, are the 
 German brokers, with silver marks at 
 the button hole. Lastly, in the outer- 
 most circles, are the " artelschtschiki," 
 a sort of messenger class, for carrying
 
 FAMOUS COMMERCIAL RESORTS AND LOCALITIES. 
 
 301 
 
 letters or money, and performing other 
 errands, one of whom constantly at- 
 tends every Petersburg merchant ; and 
 these are always Russians. 
 
 This assemblage of the mercantile 
 classes of St. Petersburg is certainly 
 the largest company of respectable and 
 polished men that is to be seen in Rus- 
 sia, without order or cross of any kind. 
 Besides these silver marks, which are 
 worn by the brokers in their business, 
 as a sign that they have been duly ap- 
 pointed and sworn, and medals of 
 a pound weight hanging about the 
 necks of a few of the Russian mer- 
 chants, no distinctions are seen noth- 
 ing but black frocks and simple green 
 surtouts. An observer has here an ex- 
 cellent opportunity of studying the 
 Russian commercial character, and will 
 be struck with the difference in manner 
 and other respects between the mer- 
 chants of St. Petersburg and those of 
 any other city. 
 
 Men of Letters frequenting the Share 
 Mart. 
 
 THE Hotel de Soissons, in Paris, was 
 made famous for a time as the head- 
 quarters of John Law, while blowing 
 his Mississippi bubbles. All classes 
 were repressented in the eager throng 
 that besieged that mart of financial 
 lunacy. This hotel was the property 
 of the Prince de Carignan, together 
 with the adjoining garden of several 
 acres in the rear. Law became the 
 purchaser of the hotel, at an enormous 
 price, paying for it out of his prodig- 
 ious stock-jobbing gains, the prince 
 reserving to himself the magnificent 
 gardens for his personal profit. They 
 contained fine statues, beautiful foun- 
 tains, and various other embellishments 
 and decorations. 
 
 As soon as Law was installed in his 
 new abode, an edict was published (for 
 there were high officials involved in 
 Law's project), forbidding all persons 
 to buy or sell stock anywhere but in 
 
 the gardens of the Hotel de Soissons. 
 In the midst, among the trees, about 
 five hundred small tents and pavilions 
 were erected, for the convenience of the 
 stock-jobbers. Their various colors, 
 the gay ribbons and banners which 
 floated from them, the busy crowds 
 which passed continually in and out 
 the incessant hum of voices, the noise, 
 the music, the strange mixture of busi- 
 ness and pleasure on the countenances 
 of the throng, all combined to give the 
 place an air of enchantment that quite 
 enraptured the Parisians. The Prince 
 de Carignan made enormous profits 
 while the delusion lasted. 
 
 As is well known, all classes became 
 enamored with Law's dazzling promises 
 of cent, per cent, for their investments ; 
 at any rate, the- exceptions were so rare 
 as to attract attention. One day, two 
 sober, quiet, and philosophic men of 
 letters, M. de la Motte and the Abb6 
 Terrason, were heard to congratulate 
 each other that they, at least, were free 
 from this strange infatuation. A few 
 days afterward, as the worthy Abb6 
 was coming out of the Hotel de Sois- 
 sons, whither he had gone to buy shares 
 in the Mississippi, whom should he see 
 but his friend La Motte entering for 
 the same purpose. 
 
 " Ha ! " said the Abbe, smiling, " is 
 that you f " 
 
 " Yes," said La Motte, pushing past 
 him as fast as he was able ; " and can 
 that be you f " 
 
 The next time the two scholars met, 
 they talked of philosophy, of science, 
 and of religion, but neither had cour- 
 age for a long time to breathe a syl- 
 lable about the Mississippi. At last, 
 when it was mentioned, they agreed 
 that a man ought never to swear 
 against his doing any one thing, and 
 that there was no sort of extravagance 
 of which even a wise man was not ca- 
 pable. 
 
 Something like this was the case of 
 Gay, the poet. Receiving a present 
 from his friend Mr. Scraggs of some
 
 302 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 South Sea stock, he once supposed him- 
 self to be master of twenty thousand 
 pounds. His friends persuaded him 
 to sell his share, but he dreamed of 
 dignity and splendor, and could not 
 bear to obstruct his own fortune. He 
 was then importuned to sell as much as 
 would purchase a hundred a year for 
 life, " which," says Fenton, " will make 
 you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder 
 of mutton every day." This counsel 
 was rejected ; the profit and 'principal 
 were lost, and Gay sunk under the ca- 
 
 lamity so low that his life became in 
 danger. 
 
 It will hardly be wondered at, how- 
 ever, that literary men should have 
 been thus beguiled, in view of the fact 
 that so multitudinous was the crowd 
 around Law's quarters, and so eager 
 were all classes of the population to 
 buy the stock, that a hump-backed 
 man who stood in the street gained 
 considerable sums by lending his hump 
 as a writing desk to the anxious specu- 
 lators !
 
 PART SIXTH. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF COMMERCIAL AST AND PESASEOLOOT.
 
 PAET SIXTH. 
 
 Anecdotes of Commercial Art and Phraseology, 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTS, SIGN BOARDS, TRADE MARKS, TOKENS, ENVELOPES, LABELS, INSCRIPTIONS, 
 MOTTOES, AND TERMS QUAINT, CURIOUS, GROTESQUE, INGENIOUS, AND LAUGHABLE. 
 
 The great skill in an advertiser is chiefly seen in the style which he makes use of. He is to men- 
 tion " the universal esteem or general reputation " of things that were never heard of. TATLER. 
 
 Liberal trade is good scholarship popularized, and commerce is literature on a sign board. ANON. 
 
 Adepts in Commercial Puffing:. 
 
 PACKWOOD, some fifty years ago, led 
 the way in England of liberal and sys- 
 tematic advertising, by impressing his 
 razor strop indelibly on the mind of 
 every bearded member of the kingdom. 
 Like other great potentates, he boasted 
 a laureate in his pay, and every one 
 remembers the reply made to the indi- 
 viduals so curious to know who drew 
 up his advertisements : " La, sir, we 
 keeps a poet 1 " 
 
 But by universal consent, the world 
 has accorded to the late George Robins 
 the palm in this style of commercial 
 puffing. His advertisements were 
 really artistically written. Like Mar- 
 tin, he had the power of investing 
 every landscape and building that 
 he touched with an importance and 
 majesty not attainable by meaner 
 hands. He did perhaps go beyond the 
 yielding line of even poetical license, 
 when he described one portion of a para- 
 dise he' was about to subject to public 
 competition, as adorned, among other 
 charms, with a " hanging wood," which 
 the astonished purchaser found out 
 meant nothing more nor less than an 
 old gallows. But then he redeemed 
 20 
 
 slight manoeuvres of this kind by 
 touches which displayed a native and 
 overflowing genius for puffing. On 
 one occasion, he had made the beauties 
 of an estate so enchanting, that he 
 found it necessary to blur it by a fault 
 or two, lest it should prove too bright 
 and good " for human nature's daily 
 food." " But there are two drawbacks to 
 this property," sighed out this Apostle 
 of the Mart, " the Utter of the rose leaves 
 and the noise of the nightingales" Cer- 
 tainly the rhetoric of exquisite puffing 
 could no further go. 
 
 "TTp to Snuff." 
 
 In the days when every London shop- 
 keeper had a sign hanging out before 
 his door, a dealer in snuff and tobacco 
 on Fish-street hill carried on a large 
 trade, especially in tobacco, for his shop 
 was greatly frequented by sailors from 
 the ships in the river. In the course 
 of time, a person of the name of Fan- 
 opened a shop nearly opposite, and 
 hung out his sign inscribed : 
 
 " The best Tobacco by Farr." 
 
 This like the shoemaker's incription, 
 "Adam Strong Shoemaker," so well 
 known attracted the attention of the
 
 306 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 sailors, who left the old shop to buy 
 "the best tobacco by far." The old 
 shopkeeper, observing that his oppo- 
 nent obtained much custom by his sign, 
 had a new one put up at his door, in- 
 scribed : 
 " Far better Tobacco than the best Tobacco 
 
 by Farr." 
 
 This turned the tide of trade his 
 customers came back and finally his 
 opponent found himself so " far " in the 
 background as to be obliged to give 
 up business. 
 
 Irish Pun on a Sign. 
 
 AN Irishman once saw the popular 
 sign of the Rising Sun near Seven Dials, 
 beneath which the name of the jovial 
 landlord, Aaron Moon, was written 
 with only the initial letter of the Chris- 
 tian name, whereupon he exclaimed to 
 a friend : " Och ! Phelim, dear, see here. 
 They talk of Irish bulls ; why, here's a 
 fellow now, who puts up the Rising Sun, 
 and calls it A Moon ! " 
 
 Dean Swift and the Barber's Sign. 
 
 DEAN SWIFT, while resident on his 
 living in the county of Meath, was daily 
 shaved by the village barber, who be- 
 came a great favorite with him. Razor, 
 while lathering him one morning, said 
 he had a great favor to request of his 
 reverence that his neighbors had ad- 
 vised him to take the little public 
 house at the corner of the churchyard, 
 which he had done, in the hope that 
 by uniting the profession of publican 
 with his own, he might gain a better 
 maintenance for his family. 
 
 " Indeed," said the dean, " and what 
 can I do to promote this happy union ? " 
 
 " And please you," said Razor, " some 
 of our customers have heard much of 
 your reverence's poetry ; so that, if you 
 would but condescend to give me a 
 smart little touch in that way, to clap un- 
 der my sign, it might be the making of 
 me and mine forever." 
 
 " But what do you intend for your 
 sign ? " says the dean. 
 
 " The jolly barber, if it please your 
 reverence, with a razor in one hand and 
 a full pot in the other." 
 
 " Well," rejoined the dean, " in that 
 case there can be no great difficulty in 
 supplying you with a suitable inscrip- 
 tion." So taking up his pen, he in- 
 stantly scratched the following " smart 
 little touch " of a couplet, which was 
 affixed to the sign, and remained there 
 for many years : 
 
 " Rove not from pole to pole, but step in 
 
 here, 
 
 Where nought excels the shaving but the 
 beer." 
 
 Killbury and Maims worth Railway's 
 Advertisement. 
 
 THE Board of Directors of the Kill- 
 bury and Maimsworth line of Railway, 
 respectfully announce that they intend 
 starting Excursion Trains during the 
 present season, to run at greatly reduced 
 fares, setting out from Killbury in the 
 morning, getting to Maimsworth at 
 twelve, and returning, with as many 
 passengers as are capable of being 
 brought back, every hour of the fore- 
 noon, up to twelve o'clock, or later, 
 according to the state of the engines, 
 and the breakdowns and collisions 
 depending on management of the en- 
 gineers, brakesmen, and the rest of the 
 Company's employes. Owing to the 
 prevailing competition occasioned by 
 the overcrowded state of the medical 
 profession, the Company have been en- 
 abled to secure the services of a numer- 
 ous staff of experienced surgeons, who 
 will accompany each train, together 
 with a large body of dressers from the 
 principal hospitals, to act as their as- 
 sistants thus seeing practice, for which 
 so large a field is afforded by the Kill- 
 bury and Maimsworth line. Medical 
 students will find splendid opportuni- 
 ties for amateur surgery in these excur- 
 sions. Amputations (under chloroform, 
 several carboys of which have been ob-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 307 
 
 tained expressly for these excursions) 
 at the shortest notice. Tourniquets, 
 with directions for use, in each car. 
 Splints, bandages, and every other com- 
 fort and convenience for the mutilated, 
 in abundance (supplied by the Com- 
 pany's own manufactory), gratuitously 
 furnished. 
 
 Earliest Printed Advertisements. 
 
 THE very first advertisement discov- 
 erable in any newspaper is one which 
 refers to the theft of two horses. It is 
 contained in an early number of an 
 English newspaper called the Impartial 
 Intelligencer, published in the year 
 1648, and consequently now consider- 
 ably more than two centuries old. It 
 was inserted by a gentleman of Can- 
 dish, in Suffolk. After this, these noti- 
 fications are very few and far between 
 for several years, until the era of the 
 London Gazette. 
 
 Next to the above, in point of prece- 
 dence, so far as an active search among 
 the earliest newspapers can be relied 
 on, is an advertisement relating to a 
 book, which is entitled : 
 
 "IRENODIA GRATULATORIA, an He- 
 
 oick Poem ; being a congratulatory pane- 
 gyrick for my Lord General's late return, 
 summing up his successes in an exquisite 
 manner. 
 
 " To be sold by John Holden, in the New 
 Exchange, London. Printed by Tho. New- 
 court, 1652." 
 
 The above appeared in the January 
 number of the Parliamentary paper, 
 Mercurius Politicus. It is evidently a 
 piece of flattery to Cromwell upon his 
 victories in Ireland. Booksellers ap- 
 pear, therefore, to have been the first to 
 take advantage of this then new me- 
 dium of publicity, and they have con- 
 tinued to avail themselves very liberally 
 of its benefits up to the present day. 
 
 Boston Merchants' Business Marks or 
 Tokens. 
 
 THERE are some interesting speci- 
 mens of New England merchants' marks, 
 or tokens, of an ancient date, still in 
 existence. Among these are those of 
 Thomas Sandbrook, of Boston, and 
 William Holmes the former bearing 
 the initials T. S., with the triangle and 
 cross ; the latter, W. H., with a rude 
 figure of a tree between. Another is 
 that of John Mills, of Boston, 1651 ; 
 James Astwood, of Koxbury, 1653 ; 
 and Nicholas Busby, of Watertown, 
 1657. That of Mills bears the initials 
 I. M., the triangle and cross at top, a 
 heart pierced with an arrow at the bot- 
 tom, six stars, and some other figures ; 
 that of Astwood, the initials I. A., with 
 a branch between them ; and that of 
 Busby, the initials N. B. united, the 
 triangle, some scrolls, etc. 
 
 New York Business Tokens. 
 
 OCCASIONAL memorials of old New 
 York business firms, of the last century, 
 come to light, and are of peculiar in- 
 terest. A piece in copper, issued by 
 Messrs. Matts, New York jewellers, in 
 1789, appears to have been the first 
 business token put in circulation in 
 that city. It bears on one side a clock, 
 on the other an American eagle ; one of 
 these was sold at auction, a short time 
 ago, for $1.62|. Talbot, Allum & Lee, 
 New York, merchants in the India 
 trade, issued their " one cent " in 1794 
 having an emblematic figure of liber- 
 ty guarding a bale of goods on one 
 side, and a ship under full sail on the 
 other; one of these tokens, issued in 
 1794, was sold at auction for the sum 
 of $1.25, and another, issued by this 
 house in 1795, brought $2.25. 
 
 Inscriptions on Trade Coins. 
 
 THE trade coins, once so common 
 among British shopkeepers, usually 
 bore on one side the issuer's name, and
 
 308 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 on the other his address and calling ; 
 sometimes a sign and date. Few trades 
 were unrepresented in this way, as the 
 coins still preserved show. 
 
 Some of these country trade coins 
 bear a simple promise to pay, as " I 
 will exchange my one penny ; " or an 
 announcement, " I pass for a half penny 
 in Leeds ; " "I am for a public good in 
 Cockermouth." Another, combining a 
 request and a prayer, " Send me to the 
 mercer of Enox Hall God grant 
 peace." One says, " Paines bring 
 gaines ; " another that, " Plain dealing 
 is best." W. Wakeling shows his loyal- 
 ty with " Vive le Roy in Uttoxeter ; " 
 while another shopkeeper profanely 
 exclaims, " Touch not mine anointed, 
 and do my profits no harm." There is 
 a mock humility in " Poore Ned, of 
 Feversham ; " unintelligible quaintness 
 in " Pharaoh in Barley ; " and a ming- 
 ling of the practical and poetical in 
 such inscriptions as 
 
 " Welcome you be 
 To trade with me," 
 
 and 
 
 " Although but brass, 
 Yet let me pass." 
 
 Scotch Tobacconist's Motto. 
 
 PERSONS who retire from trade are 
 sometimes disposed, from a false shame, 
 to conceal the mode by which they ac- 
 quired their wealth. A notable excep- 
 tion to this occurred in the case of a 
 Mr. Gillespie, a tobacconist, in the city 
 of Edinburgh. Having acquired an 
 ample fortune by the sale of snuff at the 
 end of the American war, he set up a 
 carriage ; and, lest the public, or him- 
 self, might forget how he had acquired 
 the means of keeping one, to arms of 
 three snuff boxes rampant, he added 
 the following doggerel couplet as a 
 motto : 
 
 " Who would have thought it, 
 That noses could have bought it ? " 
 
 Mottoes in Ancient Times. 
 
 WHEN printed books first became an 
 article of sale, they found such eager 
 purchasers, that spurious and imperfect 
 editions of the more celebrated works 
 began to be circulated. To remedy 
 this evil, and to give security and pro- 
 tection to those printers whose publica- 
 tions combined great literary merit 
 with rare typographical excellence, 
 princes and potentates granted them 
 permission to use on the title page 
 some symbol and motto, to counterfeit 
 which was legally as well as morally 
 criminal. 
 
 Thus, Aldus Manutius, who estab- 
 lished the famous Aldine press at 
 Venice, and was the inventor of the 
 type called Italic, adopted for his sign 
 on his title pages a dolphin and anchor. 
 Henry Stephens, the founder of the 
 celebrated family of printers of that 
 name, when established at Paris, took 
 for his symbol an olive tree, and which 
 long continued to be used by his son. 
 
 One of the earliest printers, of much 
 celebrity in England, was Henry Day ; 
 upward of two hundred works issued 
 from his press, all distinguished by his 
 symbol the rising sun, with a boy 
 awaking his companion with the words, 
 " Arise, for it is day ! " in allusion to 
 the dawning day of the Protestant Ref- 
 ormation. Christopher Plantin, of Ant- 
 werp, adopted for his emblem and 
 motto a hand and pair of compasses, 
 with Lahore et Constantia " By labor 
 and perseverance : " he stuck to his 
 own motto, and became very rich and 
 eminent. Juan de la Cuesta, of Madrid, 
 the printer and publisher of the first 
 edition of " Don Quixote," took for his 
 device a stork, surrounded by the 
 words Post tenebras, spero lucem " After 
 the darkness, I expect light." 
 
 i 
 English Business Mottoes. 
 
 THE great trading and business com- 
 panies in England, which were estab-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 309 
 
 lished before the Reformation, and en- 
 joyed exclusive monopolies by royal 
 grant, had each its patron saint, to 
 whom altars were built in the churches 
 of which they held the control the 
 saint being generally chosen from some 
 relation, supposed or real, to ftie craft 
 or mystery of the company. Thus, the 
 fishmongers chose St. Peter, and met in 
 St. Peter's Church ; the drapers chose 
 the Virgin Mary, " Mother of the Holy 
 Lamb, or fleece," and assembled for 
 their ecclesiastical services in St. Mary 
 Bethlem Church ; the merchant tailors 
 selected as their patron saint, St. John 
 the Baptist, as the messenger or proph- 
 et who announced the advent of the 
 " Holy Lamb ; " and the goldsmiths' 
 patron was St. Dunstan, reputed to 
 have been a fellow craftsman. Their 
 liveries also bore their mottoes : that 
 of the skinners was, " To God be all 
 the glory ; " that of the grocers, " God 
 grant grace ; " the clothworkers' was, 
 " My trust is in God alone ; " the iron- 
 mongers', " God is our strength ; " and 
 the drapers', " Unto God be honor and 
 glory." 
 
 Fresh Gems from English Advertising 
 Columns. 
 
 THE English journals continue to 
 furnish, now and then, an emerald of 
 the first water, in the way of ambigu- 
 ous advertisements as complete a tri- 
 umph, indeed, over Lindley Murray, as 
 was that of Wellington over Napoleon. 
 The two specimens which follow, taken 
 from a London paper, appeared under 
 the head of " For sale : " 
 
 " PIANOFORTE Cottage, 7 octaves the 
 property of a Lady leaving England, in re- 
 markably elegant Walnut Case on beautifully 
 carved supports. The tone is superb, and 
 eminently adapted for any one requiring a 
 first-class instrument. Price, 22 guineas, 
 cost double three months since." 
 
 We have heard of Arion riding on a 
 dolphin, and of the wise men of Goth- 
 am who went to sea in a bowl; we 
 have heard of Helle on her ram, and of 
 
 Europa on her bull ; but we never be- 
 fore heard of a lady designing to cross 
 the English Channel in a remarkably 
 elegant walnut case with beautifully 
 carved supports. Indeed, we might go 
 so far as to ask as probably every 
 reader of the advertisement would be 
 led to whether the " beautifully carved 
 supports " are those of the walnut case 
 or of the lady herself. In either case, 
 they would seem equally ill adapted to 
 struggle with the winds and billows. 
 
 The other advertisement referred to 
 is as follows : 
 
 " BUSINESS CHANCE. To be disposed of, 
 a Genuine Fried Fish Business, at the West 
 End." 
 
 The meaning of this advertisement 
 is quite as obscure as that of the first. 
 Does the genuineness apply to the busi- 
 ness, to the fish as objects of ichthyol- 
 ogy, or the manner in which they are 
 fried ? We can guess what is meant 
 by Genuine Patent Medicines, Genuine 
 Bear's Grease, etc., but " Genuine Fried 
 Fish," and still more, a " Genuine Fried 
 Fish Business," is something hopelessly 
 beyond us. There was a time when 
 we did not know what was meant by 
 an " old fish for a mast," but, thanks 
 to many kind friends, we know now 
 very well. Perhaps a like confession 
 of ignorance may lead to our enlighten- 
 ment on the possibly kindred subject 
 of this " Genuine Fried Fish Business, 
 at the West End." 
 
 An Untried Method. 
 
 THERE seems to be no end to the 
 new advertising projects which are 
 daily springing up in all directions. 
 There is, however, still one method of 
 advertising left untried, and it is a 
 wonder no one makes the experiment. 
 Umbrellas are still left blank their am- 
 ple and conspicuous surface bearing no 
 announcement of any new pill, new ad- 
 hesive gum, bankrupt's sale, or " What 
 is it ? " It is pretty certain that the
 
 310 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 umbrella, with its little brood of para- 
 solettes, sunshades, etc., is destined to 
 become a tremendous vehicle for infor- 
 mation. An umbrella maker might try 
 the experiment by placing a puffing 
 broadside on all the articles of his own 
 manufacture. Or perhaps it would be 
 a better plan as some persons might 
 foolishly object to carry an advertising 
 or pictorial umbrella that on wet days 
 there should be stations, with placards 
 ready printed, to be pasted on (for a 
 consideration) to the umbrellas of any 
 one who might be disposed to combine 
 profit with convenience. 
 
 Classical Shop Language. 
 
 To use plain and pure English seems 
 now quite foreign to the taste of many 
 shopkeepers. French is pressed into 
 their service quite as much as Greek 
 and Latin, and by ill-educated tongues, 
 which talk of " hany other harticle," it 
 is not easy to imagine, without having 
 the headache, how the French language 
 must be mispronounced. One can 
 hardly ever take up a newspaper, now- 
 a-days, without seeing an advertise- 
 ment of some " recherche stock of 
 goods" which are to be disposed of 
 forthwith, " sans reserve." A hair- 
 dresser now styles himself in general an 
 artiste, and advertises to the universe 
 his famed esprit de violette, or bouquet 
 de Rhine. One enterprising dealer has 
 had the courage to combine his classics 
 with his French, and to advertise for 
 Bale a lot of broche madapolums, which 
 must be something rather curious if 
 they at all be really like their name. 
 Corsets and chapeau have quite sup- 
 planted such old English words as 
 " stays " and " bonnet ; " and of course 
 no upper-ten dressmaker would ever 
 dream of naming petticoats by any 
 other term than jupes. Why this is so, 
 it would be difficult to say ; nor is it 
 very easy to guess why in a newspaper 
 professedly intended for circulation 
 among those who speak the English 
 
 language, le sommier elastique portatif 
 should be advertised, when " portable 
 spring mattress " is vastly more intelli- 
 gible and far more easily pronounced. 
 
 Chinese Trade Puffin?. 
 
 THE advertisement of Messrs. Chops 
 & Co., the great Chinese firm in Lon- 
 don as it appears in the columns of 
 Punch is formed after the choicest 
 models of English and American trade- 
 puflfers, as the following will show : 
 
 We, Chop-chin, Chop-lip, Circassian- 
 cree, & Co-cree, having, in the pleni- 
 tude of our hearts, set up a shop in the 
 very bowels of this barbarian city, now 
 graciously invite all to come and feast 
 on the wonders of our celestial genius. 
 If, after this glorious proclamation, ye 
 will come and look, then most assuredly 
 will we benignantly smile ; and if, fur- 
 ther, ye should buy, we will as assured- 
 ly laugh very heartily. Delay not ! 
 hasten, hasten ! ! be speedy ! ! 
 
 Our luxuriant and nourishing Tartar 
 Cream, so highly sought for by the 
 Chinese to polish and finish off their 
 tails, is much recommended for pro- 
 ducing a beautiful head of hair. 
 
 The True Keying Cold Cream the 
 Messrs. Chops can safely recommend, 
 it having been used for many years on 
 the nose of the Jolly Keying, when 
 heated by a vast multitude of red 
 bunkles, occasioned, it was believed, by 
 a constant flow of good spirits. 
 
 Since the arrival of the Messrs. Chops 
 into this country, they have witnessed 
 the fashion of reducing all things to 
 the smallest possible size and lightest 
 conceivable weight. Under this im- 
 pression, we have manufactured the 
 smallest, lightest, and most shallow 
 pots ever beheld ; two will go into a 
 pillbox, and any six can be carried in 
 a gentleman's waistcoat pocket. Each 
 pot 4s. 6d., being only one shilling 
 more than the usual large and clumsy 
 pots sold at perfumers. 
 
 The Imperial Dentifrice, for procur-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 311 
 
 ing a beautiful set of teeth, is composed 
 of pulverized bricks from the Porcelain 
 Tower, Nankin. The wonders of this 
 beautiful powder can be at once dis- 
 covered by merely buying a pot. 
 
 Commercial Envelopes, Wrappers, 
 Labels, etc. 
 
 To such a degree is the ornamental 
 enveloping of the objects of commerce 
 and the products of industry now car- 
 ried on, in some departments of trade, 
 that the outside aspects of certain 
 goods, in the popular estimate, actually 
 outvies the goods themselves the de- 
 corated packing case surpasses its con- 
 tents the shell excels the kernel. In- 
 deed, this is the Tcey to the whole busi- 
 ness : the plainest envelope would answer 
 all the purposes of the most luxurious 
 and ornamental one, with a single ex- 
 ception it would not sell the article ! 
 
 The most expensive of the articles 
 which may be classed as commercial 
 envelopes, is the envelope of the jewel- 
 ler the morocco case, lined with silk 
 velvet. The gold watch, the costly 
 ring, the bracelet, the gem, are present- 
 ed to the buyer in a morocco case, 
 which, however costly it may be in it- 
 self, forms a very trifling item in the 
 bill. Much capital is invested and 
 much skill employed in the manufac- 
 ture of these articles. 
 
 It is the paper maker who is the great 
 source of the commercial envelope. The 
 dress boxes, cap boxes, flower boxes, 
 pattern boxes, lace boxes, and all that 
 legion of envelopes, of every shape and 
 size, are made of paper, in some of its 
 numberless forms, such as card board, 
 mill board, etc. There is no limit to 
 articles of this description, comprising 
 the finest and whitest, or plain, or 
 grained, or embossed, with the most 
 elaborate designs, or spread with gor- 
 geous arabesques and radiant with 
 gold. 
 
 The pictorial element comes largely 
 into play in the various kinds of paper 
 boxes and envelopes; and it is said 
 
 that none of the pleasing discoveries in 
 chromo-typography, chromo-lithogra- 
 phy, and block printing in colors, would 
 have proved profitable, but for the use to 
 which they are applied by the makers 
 of paper boxes and ornamental wrappers 
 of various kinds. The perfumer, the 
 fancy stationer, the lace man, the glove 
 maker, are the wholesale patrons of those 
 beautiful arts, and not the public, who 
 admire their cliefs-d'ceuvre in the shop 
 windows,. but rarely purchase. It is by 
 the sale of tens and hundreds of thou- 
 sands of small colored designs and vig- 
 nettes, which are in demand to envel- 
 ope the scents, the soaps, the cutlery, 
 the conserves, the toilet gear of the la- 
 dies, or the choice filigree stationery 
 they use, that the chromo-photograph- 
 er is paid. For every picture which 
 the chromo-typographist sells as a 
 picture, a hundred at least are nomi- 
 nally given away as part and parcel of 
 the envelope to some kind of merchan- 
 dise. This luxurious species of envel- 
 ope originated in Paris, and is there 
 manufactured most extensively, and 
 sent in exquisite parcels to almost 
 every part of the world. 
 
 A rival of the paper-box maker is the 
 worker in metal. The thinnest sheet or 
 film of lead, or tin, or brass, or bronze, 
 may be pressed in the form of a box 
 and its cover, with an endless variety 
 of most attractive patterns. Millions 
 of these metal envelopes are used, some 
 of them being exceedingly handsome 
 and perfect in design, and of course 
 helping largely the sale of the articles 
 to which they are applied. 
 
 The glass blower is another important 
 agent in the fabrication of commercial 
 envelopes. The dealers in scents and 
 odors know full well that it is the tat- 
 tle, more than anything else, which re- 
 commends and sells the perfume, and 
 they spend infinitely more time and 
 trouble, and it may as well be told 
 capital, too, in elaborating a new toilet 
 bottle, than they do in the composition 
 of its contents. A delicious scent the
 
 312 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " extract of a thousand flowers," for in- 
 stance may be concocted from essence 
 of lavender, a modicum of eau de Co- 
 logne, and a trifle of attar of roses, ho- 
 mceopathically diffused in an ocean of 
 aqua pura and may be varied ad in- 
 finitum by the least change in the in- 
 gredients ; but the lottle, which is to 
 glitter on the toilet table, demands all 
 the genius of the artist and the skill of 
 the craftsman. It is here the chief diffi- 
 culty lies to achieve a two-ounce bot- 
 tle of classical design, toned down to 
 the modern standard of dressing-room 
 elegance; he is a lucky man indeed 
 who will accomplish it, and may reck- 
 on upon an influx of profit compared to 
 which cent, per cent, is mere zero. 
 
 The potter is in still greater request 
 than the glass blower, among a certain 
 class of dealers. Not to detail the va- 
 rious jars and earthen bottles which he 
 makes for trade purposes, there is a 
 shallow pot and cover, varying in di- 
 ameter from two inches, or less, to eight 
 inches or more, and formed of every 
 species of ceramic compound, from 
 plainest delf to finest porcelain, the 
 demand for which is almost incredible. 
 They are used as the deposits of poma- 
 tums, hair paste, cold cream, " bear's 
 grease," and so on. There are also 
 larger ones, for other purposes, some of 
 which are moulded with great care, 
 and delicately painted by hand with 
 groups of flowers or small landscapes. 
 
 Literature and Groceries. 
 
 POPE'S saying, that " a Itttle learn- 
 ing is a dangerous thing," is pretty 
 well verified in the following inscrip- 
 tion over the door of a trader in Hoi- 
 ton East, England, and which very 
 naturally arrests the attention of the 
 passers by : 
 
 WATKINSON'S 
 
 Acadamy ; 
 Whatever man has done man may do. 
 
 Also 
 
 Dealer in Groceries, 
 &c. 
 
 Signboard Punctuation. 
 
 PAINTERS of signboards are too often 
 negligent or incompetent in the matter 
 of punctuation. They either indulge 
 themselves in a redundancy of stops, or 
 totally omit them. In the latter case 
 there will sometimes be met with such 
 non-punctuated inscriptions as " A 
 Wood Smith," " Lamb Butcher," " Clay 
 Baker," "Winch Turner," "Peacock 
 Builder," "Gay Painter," "Church 
 Saddler," " Moon Gilder," &c. 
 
 "Por Her Majesty." 
 
 A TRAVELLER in England, in a pe- 
 destrian tour through the principal 
 business streets, speaks of the amuse- 
 ment afforded him on reading the in- 
 scriptions on the ancient signboards ; 
 one was coat maker, hat maker, boot 
 or spur maker, and so on, " for his 
 Majesty." Another frock maker, cape 
 maker, corset, or glove maker, "for 
 Tier Majesty." Thousands are "li- 
 censed" to sell tea, sugar, and coffee, 
 provisions, snuff and tobacco, porter 
 and pies, hay and straw, etc., and this 
 is duly specified on the board. On the 
 front of a three-story building, in large 
 letters, reaching from top to bottom, 
 was the following : " Sight restored, 
 and Headache cured, by Grindstone's 
 celebrated Eye Snuff sold here;" 
 something rather hard and gritty, it 
 would seem, this process of curing eyes 
 by a grindstone. Many have on their 
 signboards, under their name, the num- 
 ber of years they have done business in 
 that house ; as "John Thomas, Wine 
 Dealer, since 1794," thus signifying 
 that he is a man of steady habits to re- 
 side and do business in the same house 
 for scores of years. Some of the signs 
 state that father and son have done 
 business on the same spot for one hun- 
 dred years and upward.
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 313 
 
 Evasions of Trade Harks. 
 
 AN English journal gives an account 
 of several remarkable evasions of trade 
 marks, some of which, at least, can 
 scarcely be heard of without a smile. 
 A Burlington Arcade " Perruquier " in- 
 troduced a Medicated Mexican Balm, 
 to which he prefixed his name ; where- 
 upon a neighbor speedily advertised 
 his Medicated Mexican Balm. A quar- 
 rel and a lawsuit ensued, ending in 
 the award of protection to the trade 
 mark. 
 
 Prof. H.'s pills and ointments may or 
 may not be worthy of the puffery which 
 surrounds them; but by all business 
 men it must be regarded as an obvious- 
 ly mean trick when another person, 
 taking advantage of the same name, 
 opened a shop within the distance of a 
 few houses, and advertised, in the same 
 surname, pills and ointment, and which 
 was another case brought before the 
 law courts. 
 
 A third, and quite a curious case, ex- 
 hibited the following facts : Mr. Craw- 
 shay, the eminent ironmaster of South 
 Wales, marks his iron " W. Crawshay," 
 or " W. C.," enclosed in a ring. One 
 day he observed on a wharf some bars 
 of iron bearing a mark which he sup- 
 posed to be his own, but which, on 
 closer inspection, he found to be " "W. 
 0.," enclosed in a ring. He ascertained, 
 moreover, that this mark commonly 
 passed in the Turkish market for his 
 own (Crawshay's) mark. Although 
 this trade mark was not exactly like 
 Crawshay's, yet the O, which was sub- 
 stituted for the C, was, when combined 
 with the W and the ring, a proof of 
 imitation. That Thompson, the pro- 
 prietor of this iron, was aware of the 
 imitation, was made clear; but there 
 was an absence of technical proof of 
 an intention to imitate. 
 
 Mr. Linnell, the distinguished paint- 
 er, painted a picture, and put his name 
 to it ; a copy of this picture, name and 
 all, got into the market. That this was 
 
 an infringement of a trade mark, and 
 something worse, was clear enough, yet, 
 through the inconsistencies of the law, 
 the perpetrator of the fraud escaped 
 both on the charge of forgery and on 
 that of obtaining money on false pre- 
 tences. 
 
 One George Borwick invented what 
 he called baking powder, and egg 
 powder, sold in packets, with his name 
 printed on the wrapper. Another deal- 
 er, failing to sell his own baking pow- 
 der, applied to a printer to print ten 
 thousand labels as nearly as possible 
 like Berwick's, except the signature. 
 This signature had been rendered in- 
 visible by the peculiar wrapping of 
 Berwick's packets, until the wrapper 
 was torn off; and therefore the cunning 
 cheat deemed himself in this particular 
 safe. Many of these deceptive packets 
 were sold as Berwick's, before the 
 scheme was discovered. 
 
 Foreign manufacturers have in many 
 cases had to vindicate themselves 
 against the arts of nimble-witted and 
 unprincipled English adventurers. The 
 never-dying Jean Maria Farina had 
 once to go into an English court of 
 law, to demand justice for his trade 
 mark. Relying on the confusion be- 
 tween the many eau-de-Cologne makers 
 who, in almost every part of the world, 
 assume that cognomen, an English 
 printer imitated a label with the signa- 
 ture, " Jean Maria Farina, gegenuber 
 dem Julich Platz," with a peculiar 
 flourish, and also a stamp and seal. 
 Although a Prussian subject, Farina 
 was able, in this particular instance, to 
 obtain justice in an English court of 
 law. 
 
 Another instance is that of the Col- 
 lins Company, manufacturers of edge 
 tools, Hartford, Conn. They stamp on 
 their manufactured articles the words, 
 "Collins & Co., Hartford, cast steel, 
 warranted," and also affix labels on 
 which is printed, " Look out for the 
 stamp Hartford, if you want the genu- 
 ine Collins & Co." A Birmingham
 
 314 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 (England) merchant was clearly proved 
 to have imitated the trade mark and 
 labels of this company, and to have 
 been in the habit of selling and export- 
 ing tools so stamped as being the tools 
 of the company. The latter got the 
 merited justice in this case. 
 
 Shop and Business Signs : Ancient 
 Examples. 
 
 THE bearing of devices over the doors 
 of shops and other places of business, 
 was a very common practice before the 
 introduction of the plan of numbering 
 the houses, which did not take place 
 until about one hundred years ago. 
 The sign of the house in Bread street, 
 where Milton's father resided, was a 
 spread eagle, which appears to have 
 been the arms of that family. Remains 
 of this custom are still to be observed 
 in several parts of London, and, as is 
 pretty well known, the Messrs. Hoares, 
 the bankers, in Fleet street, retain to 
 this day over the door the symbol of a 
 leather bottle, gilt ; and the same was 
 also represented on their notes which 
 they formerly issued. The Messrs. 
 Gostlings also retain their sign of the 
 three squirrels, and Strahan, Paul & 
 Co., the sign of the golden anchor. 
 
 The three gilt balls so commonly 
 hung out as signs at pawnbrokers' 
 shops, and by the mass humorously 
 said to indicate that it is two to one 
 the things pledged are never redeemed, 
 were in reality the arms of a set of mer- 
 chants from Lombardy, who were the 
 first that publicly lent money on 
 pledges ; these merchants borrowed 
 this triple symbol from the great mer- 
 chant, De Medicis. They dwelt to- 
 gether in a street, from them named 
 Lombard street, in London, and also 
 gave their name to another in Paris. 
 The appellation of Lombard was for- 
 merly all over Europe considered as sy- 
 nonymous with that of usurers. 
 
 The barber's pole has been the sub- 
 ject of many conjectures, some conceiv- 
 ing it to have originated from the word 
 
 poll or head, with several other con- 
 ceits as far-fetched and unmeaning ; 
 but the true intention of that party- 
 colored staff was to show that the mas- 
 ter of the shop practised surgery, and 
 could breathe a vein as well as mow a 
 beard. The white band which encom- 
 passes the staff was meant to represent 
 the fillet thus elegantly twined about it. 
 
 Fresh Sea-water. 
 
 OVER a door on the road from Brigh- 
 ton to Lewes, is a signboard with the 
 very intelligible announcement " Fresh 
 sea-water sold here" 
 
 Titles of Business Firms. 
 
 ONE of the most expressive titles of a 
 mercantile firm that could be met with, 
 is that of " Call & Switchem," which is 
 painted in golden letters on a sign in 
 one of the eastern cities ; also another, 
 that is equally unique, viz., " Bangs & 
 Swett ; " and that of " Lanceman & 
 Payne." "Neal, Pray & Co.," is the 
 title sufficiently devotional, certainly 
 of another firm. But the following 
 " beats all." Two attorneys, who were 
 many years ago in partnership, had for 
 the name of their firm, "Catchum & 
 Chetum ; " but as the singularity and 
 ominous juxtaposition of the words led 
 to many a disparaging joke from the 
 passers by, the men of law attempted 
 to destroy in part the effect of the odd 
 association, by the insertion of the ini- 
 tials of their Christian names, which 
 happened to be Isaac and Uriah ; but, 
 in reality, this made the matter ten 
 times worse, for the inscription ran, 
 " I. Catchum & U. Chetum," and peo- 
 ple could not, for the life of 'em, dis- 
 possess their minds or imaginations of 
 " high doings " in said law office. 
 
 Arms and Seal of the Bank of Ireland. 
 
 THE arms and seal of the Bank of 
 Ireland are : Hibernia bearing a crown,
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 315 
 
 as a symbol of her independence; an 
 anchor in her hand, to denote the sta- 
 bility of her commerce, with the words 
 " Bank of Ireland ; " and under the 
 anchor, "Bono, fide respublica stabilitas" 
 intimating that the existence of a 
 people depends upon the faithful dis- 
 charge of their public debts. 
 
 Unexampled Enterprise : The Chinese 
 Wall for Advertisements. 
 
 AN enterprising and opulent bill- 
 sticker has, it is privately understood, 
 made offers to the leader of the Chi- 
 nese insurgent forces to rent of him, in 
 the event of his being made emperor, 
 the renowned wall of China. The sum 
 offered has not transpired, but it is 
 said to be something extremely muni- 
 ficent. 
 
 It is the bill sticker's intention, as 
 soon as he obtains an imperial grant, 
 to form a company of persons who 
 spend large sums of money every year 
 in advertisements, and to cover the en- 
 tire length of the wall with their bills 
 and posters, a larger price being, of 
 course, charged for those which will be 
 posted outside than for those inside 
 the wall, where comparatively but few 
 people will be able to see them. The 
 bills will be in English, or specially 
 translated into Chinese, at the option 
 of the advertiser. In the event of China 
 being thrown open to universal com- 
 merce and there is, at present, every 
 prospect of such a fact it will be at 
 once seen what " a desirable medium 
 for advertisements " this national post- 
 ing-station will be. So favorably is. 
 the scheme entertained, by some lead- 
 ing advertisers, that already twelve 
 thousand miles of that part of the wall 
 which runs through the most densely 
 populated districts of the empire, has 
 been bespoken at an enormous rental. 
 
 The company will be announced at a 
 future day, and it is expected that the 
 shares will be quoted on 'Change at a 
 heavy premium the very first day. A 
 good judge has been heard privately 
 
 to say, that next to a celebrated mil- 
 lionnaire's property, it will be the 
 largest hoarding in the world, and 
 there is no doubt it will be. All the 
 puffing tailors, pill merchants, quack- 
 medicine sellers, etc., are actively on 
 the look out though, in the present 
 case, instead of trying to " drive one 
 another to the wall," as is too generally 
 the case among competitors, each one 
 is doing all he can to keep the rest 
 from that position. Professor Liebig's 
 testimonial in favor of bitter beer is al- 
 ready printed in all the Chinese dia- 
 lects, only waiting to be posted up. 
 
 Pirst Trade Advertisement. 
 
 WITH the exception of quack-medi- 
 cine and book advertisements, the first 
 record of a tradesman turning the 
 newspaper to account in making 
 known his goods to the public, is in 
 1658. Independently of its being in 
 itself a curiosity, it possesses a very 
 strong interest, from the fact that it 
 marks the introduction of a new article 
 of food and commercial traffic. The 
 advertisement reads thus : 
 
 THAT Excellent and by all Physitians ap- 
 proved China drink called by the Chineans 
 Tcha, by other Nations Tay alias Tee, is 
 sold at the Sultaness Head Cophee House 
 Rents, by the Royal Ex- 
 
 change, London. Hercurius Politicus, 
 
 September 30, 1658. 
 
 This is undoubtedly the earliest au- 
 thentic announcement yet made known, 
 of the public sale in England of this 
 now universal beverage. The mention 
 of " cophee house " proves that the sis- 
 ter stimulant had already got a start. 
 
 ' . i 
 
 "Tight Times." 
 
 THAT financial visitor, of such bad 
 renown, " Tight Times," is thus set off: 
 
 He may be seen on 'Change every 
 day. He bores our merchants, and 
 seats himself cozily in lawyers' offices. 
 He is everywhere.
 
 316 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 A great disturber of the public quiet, 
 a pestilent fellow, is this same Tight 
 Times. Everybody talks about him ; 
 everybody looks out for him ; every- 
 body hates him ; and a great many hard 
 words and not a few profane epithets 
 are bestowed upon him. Everybody 
 would avoid "cut" him, if they 
 could; everybody would hiss him 
 from 'Change, hustle him out of the 
 street, kick him from the banks, throw 
 him out of the stores, out of the hotels 
 but they carft. Yes, Tight Times is 
 a bore he will stick like a brier. 
 
 An impudent fellow, too, is Tight 
 Times. Ask for a discount, and he 
 looks over your shoulder, winks at the 
 cashier, and your note is thrown out. 
 Ask a loan of the usurers at one per 
 cent, per month, he looks over your se- 
 curities, and marks " two and a half." 
 Present a bill to your debtor, Tight 
 Times shrugs his shoulders, rolls up his 
 eyes, and you must " call again." A 
 wife asks for a fashionable brocade and 
 a daughter for a new bonnet; Tight 
 Times puts in his caveat, and the bro- 
 cade and bonnet are postponed. 
 
 A great depreciator in stocks is 
 Tight Times. He steps in among the 
 bankers, and down go the " favorites 
 of the market." He goes along the 
 railroads in process of construction, 
 and the Irishmen throw down their 
 shovels and walk away. 
 
 A famous exploder of bubbles is Mr: 
 Tight Times. He looks into the affairs 
 of gold companies, and they fly to 
 pieces ; into " kiting " banks, and they 
 stop payment. He walks around " cor- 
 ner lots," draws a line across litho- 
 graph cities, and they disappear. He 
 leaves his footprints among mines, and 
 the rich metal becomes dross. He 
 breathes upon the cunningest specula- 
 tions, and they burst like torpedoes. 
 
 A hard master for the poor is this 
 Tight Times a cruel enemy to the la- 
 boring classes. He takes the mechanic 
 from his bench, the laborer from his 
 work, the hod carrier from his ladder. 
 
 He runs up the prices of provisions, 
 and he runs down the wages of toil. 
 He runs up the prices of food, and he 
 runs down the ability to purchase it at 
 any price. His picture is hung up in 
 everybody's memory. 
 
 Irish Advertisement. 
 
 THE Edinburgh Review, in an article 
 on Plowden's History of Ireland, where- 
 in the historian has much to say ,of the 
 splendid efforts of the Irish literati 
 their essays, histories, and learned effu- 
 sions, or rather the assumed absence of 
 such, on account of the wicked irrup- 
 tion of the Danes in the ninth and 
 tenth centuries says that in such an 
 apology there is something that strong- 
 ly reminds one of the Irish advertise- 
 ment : 
 
 " Lost, on Saturday last, but the loser 
 does not know when or where, an emp- 
 ty sack, with a cheese in it. On the 
 sack the letters ' P. G.' are marked, but 
 so completely worn out, as not to be 
 legible." 
 
 Carmeline the Dentist's Sign. 
 
 , the famous toothdrawer 
 and maker of artificial teeth, had his 
 portrait painted and placed in his 
 chamber window, with a motto taken 
 from Virgil's line of the Golden Bough, 
 in the sixth book of the ^Eneid : 
 
 " Uno avulso, non deficit alter." 
 The application of this line [When 
 one is drawn out, another is never 
 wanting] was extremely happy. 
 
 Criticism of a Hatter's Sign. 
 
 A JOURNEYMAN hatter, a companion 
 of Dr. Franklin, on commencing busi- 
 ness for himself, was anxious to get a 
 handsome signboard with a suitable 
 inscription. This he composed himself, 
 as follows : " John Thompson, hatter, 
 makes and sells hats for ready money" 
 with the figure of a hat subjoined. But
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 317 
 
 he thought he would submit it to his 
 friends for criticism and amendments, 
 if susceptible of any. 
 
 The first he showed it to thought 
 the word hatter tautologous, because 
 followed by the words " makes hats," 
 which of themselves showed he was a 
 hatter. It was struck out. The next 
 observed that the word makes might 
 as well be omitted, because his custo- 
 mers would not care who made the 
 hats if good, and to their mind, they 
 would buy, by whomsoever made. He 
 struck that out also. A third said, he 
 thought the words for ready money 
 were useless ; as it was not the custom 
 of the place to sell on credit, every one 
 who purchased expected to pay. These 
 too were parted with, and the incrip- 
 tion then stood, " John Thompson sells 
 hats." " Sells hats ! " says his next 
 friend ; " why, who expects you to give 
 them away? What, the*n, is the use 
 of the word ? " It was struck out, and 
 " hats " was all that remained attached 
 to the name of John Thompson. Even 
 this inscription, brief as it was, was 
 reduced ultimately to JOHN THOMPSON, 
 with the figure of a hat subjoined. 
 
 Cabalistic Sign for an Alehouse. 
 
 THE keeper of a paltry Scotch ale- 
 house having on his sign, after his 
 name, the letters M. D. F. K. S., a phy- 
 sician, who was a member, or fellow, of 
 the Royal Society, asked him how he 
 presumed to affix those letters to his 
 name. " Why, sir," said the publican, 
 " I have as good a right to them as you 
 have." " What do you mean, you im- 
 pudent scoundrel ? " replied the doctor. 
 " I mean, sir," retorted the other, " that 
 I was Drum Major of the Royal Scots 
 Fusileers." 
 
 Pleasant History of a Familiar Word. 
 
 SOME signboards have much of his- 
 tory connected with them. A slight 
 instance of this sort is as follows : Be- 
 
 fore the year 1730, the English publi- 
 cans sold to the thirsty souls of their 
 day three sorts of beer, which they 
 drew from different casks into the same 
 glass, and gave to this mixture the name 
 of half-and-half. The owner of one of 
 these resorts (history has handed down 
 the name), Horwood, wishing to spare 
 himself the trouble of performing this 
 task so constantly during the day, hit 
 upon brewing the beer which would 
 combine the qualities of all these beers. 
 To this compound he gave the name 
 of " Entire," which has adhered to it 
 till this day, at least on the signboards. 
 It was afterward christened "porter" 
 because principally drunk by that 
 class. 
 
 Streets and Shop Signs in Canton. 
 
 .THE streets of Canton present, to a 
 stranger, an extraordinary sight ; they 
 are very narrow, and hung about in all 
 directions with signs and advertise- 
 ments. Every shop has a large upright 
 board on each side of the door, usually 
 painted white, and on it, in red o"r 
 black letters, is inscribed a list of all 
 the articles sold. Other signs are hung 
 over the street, and some are fixed to 
 poles reaching from one side of the 
 street to the other. Many of these dis- 
 play puffing advertisements, such as 
 " This Old Established Shop? etc. ; 
 " The Refulgent Sign : Original Maker 
 of the finest quality of Gaps," etc. ; " Can- 
 ton Security Banking Establishment;" 
 and " No two Prices at this Shop " is a 
 very common notification. The Chi- 
 nese, writing looks very well in this 
 way ; and being generally red letters 
 upon white, black upon red or yellow, 
 and blue upon white, the array of signs 
 presents a most gaudy and extraordi- 
 nary appearance. 
 
 Ancient Pictorial Signboards. 
 
 IT became quite customary, in the 
 seventeenth century, among English
 
 318 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 traders, to have emblazoned some ani- 
 mal or object spreading upon the sign- 
 boards, in order more effectually to 
 catch the eye. In course of time, when 
 fancy became capricious, something 
 more grotesque or piquant was adopt- 
 ed, such as blue boars, black swans, 
 red lions, flying pigs, hogs in armor, 
 swans with two necks, and all such 
 queer skimble-skamble stuff. Then 
 there were multitudes of compound 
 signs, such as the fox and seven stars, 
 ball and neat's tongue, dog and grid- 
 iron, sheep and dolphin, pig and whis- 
 tle. These comical combinations seem 
 to have originated in the apprentice 
 quartering his master's symbol with 
 his own, like the combined but very 
 dissimilar arms of a matrimonial 
 heraldic alliance. Some curious in- 
 stances of this kind are given on 
 another page of this department of 
 Anecdotes. 
 
 In not a few instances which can 
 be traced to the ignorance of the peo- 
 ple, or the customary contraction or 
 abbreviation of speech these absurd 
 emblems became most ridiculously per- 
 verted. Thus, the Bologne mouth, the 
 mouth of the harbor of Bologne, in 
 France, became the " bull and mouth ; " 
 a noted traveller's inn in St. Martin's 
 lane, the Satyr and Bacchanals, became 
 the " devil and bag of nails ; " and the 
 praiseworthy legend or phrase, " God 
 erwompasseth us" became, after being 
 many times mouthed over by vari- 
 ous provincialists, profanely metamor- 
 phosed into the " goat and cow passes." 
 These signs, which then projected into 
 the street at all lengths and angles, 
 where they swung from their elegant 
 and elaborately curled iron supports, 
 creaked to and fro, most hideously, 
 with every blast. 
 
 Joke upon a Boston Sign. 
 
 A SOLEMN-LOOKING fellow, with a 
 certain air of dry humor about the 
 corners of his rather sanctimonious 
 
 mouth, stepped quietly, one day, into 
 the well-known establishment of " Call 
 & Tuttle," Boston, and quietly re- 
 marked to the clerk in attendance, 
 "I want to tuttle." "What do you 
 mean, sir ? " " Well, I want to tuttle : 
 noticed the invitation over your door, 
 so I 'eaZfed,' and now I should like 
 to tuttle!" He was ordered to leave 
 the establishment, which he did, with 
 an assumed look of angry wonder, and 
 facetiously grumbling to himself, " If 
 they don't want strangers to ' call and 
 tuttle,' what do they put up a sign for, 
 calling 'em in to do it ? " 
 
 "Cotton is Quiet." 
 
 IN consequence of the snow, says 
 Punch, Liverpool was last week in a 
 state of isolation from the rest of the 
 world, there being no traffic by rail 
 or news by letter, and indeed nothing 
 by which any idea could be formed 
 of the doings or condition of the Liv- 
 erpoolians. Of course, indefatigable 
 efforts were made to open the com- 
 munication with the metropolis ; but 
 all was in vain, for the ordinary electric 
 telegraph had got into a state of en- 
 tanglement through the ice and snow, 
 thus baffling all hopes of hearing any- 
 thing from Liverpool. 
 
 Bills were falling due in London, and 
 were being dishonored for want of 
 " advice ; " commercial firms were fall- 
 ing into discredit, and all for want of 
 communication with the north; when 
 at last, after almost superhuman en- 
 deavors, it was announced that the 
 magnetic telegraph had succeeded in 
 bringing news from Liverpool. Every- 
 body rushed to the second edition of 
 the morning papers, to drink in the 
 long looked-for news, when public 
 curiosity was put in possession of the 
 fact, that by tremendous energy, a com- 
 munication had reached London, 
 bringing the news that " Cotton is 
 quiet." We cannot judge of the effect 
 of this intelligence on the commercial
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 319 
 
 world, but, to us, it seems as though 
 the result of the telegraphic achieve- 
 ments had, after "much cry," ended 
 in " little wool " though there might 
 be a fair supply of cotton. 
 
 We had no idea that the condition 
 of this raw material was of such vital 
 consequence as to make it paramount 
 to every other subject of curiosity. 
 We shall, however, henceforth, look 
 out for the bulletins about cotton with 
 unprecedented anxiety and interest. 
 If we can only be assured by the paper 
 on our breakfast table that " cotton has 
 had a quiet night and is better," we 
 shall have all our mental trepidations 
 soothed, and shall even be contented 
 with the knowledge that "cotton is 
 not worse " or worsted. 
 
 Stock Terms in the Sickroom. 
 
 M. DE CHIBAC, a celebrated physi- 
 cian, had bought some joint-stock 
 shares at what proved an unlucky 
 period, and was very anxious to .sell 
 out. The stock, however, continued 
 to fall for two or three days, much to 
 his alarm. His mind was filled with 
 morbid concern in regard to the sub- 
 ject, when he was suddenly called 
 upon to attend a lady who im- 
 agined herself unwell. He arrived, 
 was shown up stairs, and at once felt 
 the lady's pulse, "It falls! it falls! 
 good God ! it falls continually 1 " said 
 he musingly though audibly, while 
 the lady looked up in his face all 
 anxiety for his opinion. " Oh, M. de 
 Chirac," said she, starting to her feet 
 and ringing the bell for assistance, " I 
 am dying! I am dying! it falls it 
 falls it falls!" "What falls?" in- 
 quired the doctor in amazement. " My 
 pulse ! my pulse ! " said the lady ; " I 
 must be dying ! " " Calm your appre- 
 hensions, my dear madam," said M. de 
 Chirac, " I was speaking of the stocks. 
 The truth, is, I have been a great loser, 
 and my mind is so disturbed, I hardly 
 know what I have been saying." 
 
 Phenomena Extraordinary. 
 
 THE following announcement of 
 facts, taken from a city advertising 
 column, may fairly be said to come 
 under the head of " phenomena extra- 
 ordinary." In one place it is announced 
 that there may be had " An airy bed- 
 room for a gentleman twenty-two feet 
 long by fourteen feet wide ; " the bed 
 room ought, indeed, to be airy, to ac- 
 commodate a gentleman of such tre- 
 mendous dimensions. Again, one may 
 read of " A house for a family iu good 
 repair," which is advertised to be let 
 with immediate possession; a family 
 in good repair meaning, no doubt, one 
 in which none of the members are at 
 all " cracked." Another oddity in this 
 line, is an announcement of there being 
 now vacant " A delightful gentleman's 
 residence ; " the " delightful gentle- 
 man" must be rather proud of his 
 delightful qualities, to allow himself 
 to be thus strangely advertised A 
 rare bit in this way, in addition to 
 the above morceaws, is an advertise- 
 ment offering a reward for " a large 
 Spanish blue gentleman's cloak, lost 
 in the neighborhood of the market." 
 The fact can easily be realized, of a 
 gentleman looking rather blue at the 
 loss of his cloak ; still there is some- 
 thing rather unaccountable in his 
 advertising the fact of his blueness in 
 connection with the loss of his gar- 
 ment. 
 
 Quack Advertisement Two Centuries 
 
 THAT great though not quite the 
 earliest progenitor of the newspaper 
 tribe, the London Gazette, of Nov. 
 16th, 1660, shows that the quack frater- 
 nity of that day were the first to avail 
 themselves of its pages to make known 
 their nostrums. It is really astonish- 
 ing to see what an ancestry some of the 
 quack medicines of the present day 
 have had. " Nervous powders," speci- 
 fics for gout, rheumatism, etc., seized
 
 320 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 upon the newspapers almost as early as 
 they were published. Here is a speci- 
 men of the above date rising two 
 hundred years ago which might still 
 serve as a model for such announce- 
 ments : 
 
 " Gentlemen, you are desired to take 
 notice, That Mr. Theophilus Buckworth doth 
 at his house on Mile-end-Green, make and 
 expose to sale, for the publick good, those 
 BO famous Lozenges or Pectorals approved 
 for the cure of Consumption, Coughs, Ca- 
 tarrhs, Asthmas, Hoarseness, Strongness of 
 Breath, Colds in General, Diseases incident 
 to the Lungs, and a sovereign Antidote 
 against the Plague, and all other contagious 
 Diseases, and obstructing of the Stomach : 
 and for more convenience of the people, 
 constantly leaving them sealed up with his 
 coat of arms on the papers, with Mr. Rich, 
 Lowndes (as formerly), at the sign of the 
 White Lion, near the little north door of 
 PauTs Church; Mr. Henry Seile, over 
 against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street : 
 Mr. William Milward at Westminster Hall 
 Gate ; Mr. John Place, at FurnivaFs Inn 
 Gate in Holborn ; and Mr. Robert Horn, at 
 the Turk's head near the entrance of the 
 Royal Exchange, Booksellers, and no others. 
 
 " This is published to prevent the designs 
 of divers Pretenders, who counterfeit the said 
 Lozenges to the disparagement of the said 
 Gentleman, and great abuse of the people. 
 Mercurius Politicus, Nov. 16, 1660." 
 
 Baking: and Banking:. 
 
 A SAD blunder is mentioned by a 
 writer in " Harper's," showing that the 
 best signs do fail sometimes. He says 
 that old Mr. Spoon kept a cake and 
 beer shop in the village, and made a 
 fortune in the business, leaving his 
 money and the stand to his only son, 
 who has long been flourishing on his 
 father's profits, and turning up his nose 
 at the baking business as altogether 
 beneath a sprig of his quality. As 
 soon as the old man was fairly under 
 the sod, the rising son fitted up the 
 shop on the corner, put in a show 
 window, through which a heap of 
 
 bills and shining gold was seen, and 
 over the door he spread a sign in hand- 
 some gilt letters " BANKING HOUSE." 
 He was now in a new line, adapted to 
 his taste and genius. One day, as he 
 was lolling over the counter, a stranger 
 drove his horses close to the door, and 
 called out to the new broker : " I say, 
 Mister, got any crackers'? " Spoon (very 
 red and indignant) : " None at all ; 
 you've mistaken the place." "Any 
 cakes, pies, and things ? " " No, sir ! " 
 accompanied by a look intended as 
 an extinguisher. Stranger (in turn 
 getting red) : " Then what on airth 
 makes you have * BAKTN' HOUSE' 
 writ in sich big letters over your door 
 for? Tell me that!" The difference 
 between " baking " and " bawking " 
 was not so great as young Spoon sup- 
 posed. 
 
 Questionable Sign for a Clothier. 
 
 A SIGN painter being called upon to 
 letter the front of a large general cloth- 
 ing establishment, finished one line 
 across the whole front thus : 
 
 " DEALER IN ALL SORTS OF LADIES' " 
 
 and finding his ladder too long to 
 paint the next line, returned to his 
 house to get one of suitable length ; 
 but stepping unguardedly upon a 
 stone, it turned his foot up, spraining 
 his ankle, so that he could not finish 
 the lettering till the next day. 
 
 In the mean time, the people rea- 
 sonably enough stared at the new 
 sign, and many of them, knowing the 
 character of the man to be strictly in 
 keeping with that of a good husband, 
 father, and citizen, it was certainly un- 
 accountable ; as " all sorts of ladies," 
 in a city like New York, comprised 
 commodities at their antipodes, the 
 best and worst on earth. 
 
 The citizens made themselves busy 
 that day in surmises, scurrilous innuen- 
 does, and injurious quizzings; which 
 could be hardly overcome when the fin-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 321 
 
 ishing lettering, " and Gentlemen's ready- 
 made Clothing" was at last added. 
 
 Out of Style. 
 
 ONE of the most eminent painters 
 of signs, in London, was Mr. Wale, 
 one of the founders of the Royal Acad- 
 emy, and who was appointed the first 
 professor of perspective in that institu- 
 tion. The most notable of his achieve- 
 ments in signboards, was a whole 
 length of Shakspeare, about five feet 
 high, which was executed for and dis- 
 played at the door of a public house, 
 at the northwest corner of Little Russell 
 street, Drury Lane. It was enclosed in 
 a sumptuously carved gilt frame, and 
 suspended by rich ironwork, the cost 
 being several hundred pounds. But 
 this splendid and costly object for at- 
 tracting trade did not hang long, 
 before it was taken down, in conse- 
 quence of the act of parliament which 
 was passed for removing signs and 
 other obstructions from the streets of 
 London. Such was the total change 
 of style and fashion, and the universal 
 disuse of such signs, that this costly 
 representation of the great dramatist 
 was sold for hardly more than its value 
 as oven wood, to a broker, at whose 
 door it stood for several years, until it 
 was totally destroyed by the weather 
 and various accidents. 
 
 Natural Advertising:. 
 
 SEVERAL years ago, and soon after 
 the " anti-license law " went into force 
 in the Green Mountain State, a traveller 
 stopped at a village hotel and asked 
 for a glass of brandy. " Don't keep 
 it," said the landlord ; " forbidden by 
 law to sell liquor of any kind." " The 
 deuce you are ! " retorted the stranger 
 incredulously. " Such is the fact," 
 replied the host ; " the house don't 
 keep it." " Then bring your own 
 bottle," said the traveller, with decis- 
 ion ; " you needn't pretend to me that 
 21 
 
 you keep that face of yours in repair on 
 water." The landlord laughed heartily, 
 and his " private " bottle, advertised so 
 well in his phiz, was at once forth- 
 coming.' No mere decanters or arti- 
 ficial signs were needed in his case. 
 
 Class Advertisements in City Papers. 
 
 BOTH in Europe and the United 
 States there are newspapers which are 
 distinguished by class advertisements. 
 The London Times, in its multifarious 
 announcements, may be said to have 
 no speciality in this respect. But the 
 Morning Post, of the same city, almost 
 exclusively monopolizes the advertise- 
 ments which relate to fashions and 
 high life ; the Morning Advertiser, the 
 organ and property of the liquor ven- 
 dors, obtains the lion's share of what- 
 ever pertains to that craft ; the Morning 
 Herald, even yet, though its circulation 
 is greatly reduced, contains a goodly 
 array of auction sales of property ; the 
 Era, and Sunday Times contain a ma- 
 jority of theatrical advertisements; 
 the Shipping Gazette chronicles the 
 times, rates, and ports of departure, for 
 the commercial marine ; Bell's Life is 
 devoted to the sporting fraternity ; the 
 Athenaeum has the principal portion 
 of the book advertisements and so 
 on, through an extensive series. 
 
 In the city of New York, the Herald 
 and the Sun may be said to engross the 
 greater part of the " wants " and 
 "boarding" advertisements; the Tri- 
 bune and Evening Post have a consid- 
 erable proportion of the literary and 
 real estate announcements ; the Courier 
 and Enquirer, or the World, is a favor- 
 ite organ of the auctioneers ; the Jour- 
 nal of Commerce, Commercial Adver- 
 tiser, and Express, have their full share 
 of the shipping notices ; the Daily 
 Times engrosses a liberal share of the 
 banking and financial advertisements ; 
 and the other dailies and weeklies 
 combine, more or less, all these varie-
 
 322 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ties, without being considered the 
 medium of any one kind in particular. 
 
 First Advertisement in America. 
 
 THE first newspaper in America 
 (with the exception of a solitary copy 
 issued in 1690), the u News Letter," 
 published in Boston, Sept. 24th, 1704, 
 contained a notice by the publisher, 
 inviting advertisements ; and in the 
 succeeding number, May 1st, 1704, was 
 one response the first news/paper adver- 
 tisement in America, as follows : 
 
 " Lost on the 10. of April last, off Mr. 
 Shippens's Wharf in Boston, Two Iron An- 
 vils, weighing between 120 and 140 pound 
 each : Whoever has taken them up, and 
 will bring or give true intelligence of them 
 to John Campbel, Post-Master, shall have a 
 sufficient reward." 
 
 The charges for advertising then, as 
 given in the first number of the " News 
 Letter," were to be " at a Reasonable 
 Rate, from Twelve Pence to Five SMI- 
 lings, and not to exceed : Who may 
 agree with John Campbel, Post-master 
 of Boston." 
 
 Compare the above with the seven 
 solid columns which sometimes consti- 
 tute a single advertisement in city 
 newspapers at the present day ! 
 
 
 " Punch " on Commercial Phraseology. 
 
 IN the intelligence from the Brazils, 
 last week, we met, says Punch, in one 
 of the papers, with the following curi- 
 ous paragraph : " Dry Germans opened 
 at 59 \ reals, but declined to 58 for 
 half ox, half cow, and 60 for ox, this 
 quotation being merely nominal." 
 
 The above is a complete mystifica- 
 tion. Of course, in our travelling ex- 
 periences, we have met with many 
 "dry Germans," but we little sus- 
 pected that they ever formed an article 
 of commerce. Besides, who could 
 wish to purchase a " dry German " ? 
 Then the question arises, how do you 
 dry a German ? After this, comes the 
 
 further mystery of his being " opened." 
 It is rather undignified to talk in this way 
 of a " dry German," as if he were no bet- 
 ter than a dried haddock, or a cured her- 
 ring, or a Teutonic mummy, that had the 
 accumulated dust and cobwebs of cen- 
 turies upon him. However, we are so 
 far pleased as to notice that " dry Ger- 
 mans " fetch so good a price in the 
 " dry goods " market, we suppose. It 
 is more than we should feel inclined to 
 give for such a specimen of dried meta- 
 physics and transcendentalistic Kant- 
 ism. 
 
 But another puzzle that bewilders us 
 still more is the revelation that your 
 " dry German " is " half ox, half cow." 
 We have heard of the multifarious 
 nature pertaining to an Irish lull, and 
 of a vache Espagnole, and of other 
 curiosities belonging to the animal 
 kingdom ; but we must confess that 
 such an ethnological specimen as a 
 " dry German," who was at the same 
 time " half ox, half cow " having the 
 head of an ox and the tail of a cow, 
 perhaps never, fortunately for us, 
 crossed our scientific path before. We 
 are so mystified that we must write to 
 Prof. O. on the subject, though it looks 
 very suspiciously as if Barnum, under 
 a strong attack of " animal " spirits, 
 had had a hand in stitching this new 
 hybrid together, for the enrichment of 
 his Museum. However, our Foreign 
 Office, that always evinces such a 
 strong sympathy for German interests, 
 should take the matter up. If slavery 
 is abolished, why, we want to know, 
 are " dry Germans " thus offered pub- 
 licly for sale ? 
 
 Dialects of Different Trades. 
 
 EVERT trade has its own peculiarities 
 and its own dialect. Stage drivers and 
 hostlers have a language of their own. 
 Hod carriers and masons always speak 
 understandingly to each other, if not 
 to strangers. Thieves and gamblers 
 have their own phrases, and house-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 323 
 
 breakers their signs ; all of which is as 
 unintelligible to the uninitiated as so 
 much Greek. 
 
 Drygoods dealers and grocers have 
 a language of their own. In speaking 
 of the standing of a countryman, they 
 often say he is good they have sold 
 him, or are going to sell him which 
 means, not that they have sold Mm 
 for a price, but that they have trusted 
 him with a certain amount of goods. 
 They are never heard to say they have 
 fought him. So at auction sales they 
 have signs ; if they want to bid two 
 dollars a dozen for a box of gloves, or 
 two dollars apiece for a box of ribbons, 
 they hold up two fingers ; and if a 
 business man is in an omnibus and 
 wants the driver to take pay for one, 
 when he hands up a quarter he will 
 hold up one finger to him, while a law- 
 yer or mechanic will bawl out, '' One 
 take out one, one, ONE." 
 
 Grocers talk about things in their 
 trade being heavy, hard, quick, slow, 
 and easy. Thus feathers may be heavy, 
 cotton down, pork slow, beef quick, 
 oranges flat, &c. 
 
 Brokers have, like all others, a lan- 
 guage of their own. Thus, " b 3 " 
 means that the buyer has the privilege 
 of taking the stock any time within 
 three days; "b 30," within thirty 
 days. If, for instance, A buys one 
 hundred shares of Canton, of B, b 30, 
 he can call upon B to-morrow, or next 
 day, or next week, or whenever he 
 chooses, for the stock, and B must 
 deliver it. " S 30 " means the seller 
 has the privilege of delivering it at 
 any time he chooses within thirty 
 days. The seller is always entitled to 
 interest on stocks sold on time. 
 "Thwk" means this week; " nwk," 
 next week; "opg," opening of the 
 transfer books, which are closed for the 
 time to make dividends. 
 
 Trade Placards and Shop Bills. 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the frequent an- 
 nouncement to be met with, " Stick no 
 
 Bills" bills are stuck somewhere, every- 
 where, and the trade of the bill-sticker, 
 though not down in the cyclopaedias 
 of commerce, is such as makes him a 
 definite, genuine, distinct character 
 one who keeps alive other trades and 
 who may also be said to live in the eye 
 of the public as literally as any other 
 man of his day. If not a literary man, 
 he may at least rank as a commercial 
 publisher, largely patronized by almost 
 all trades. 
 
 There is one singularity in the fol- 
 lower of this profession, which to many 
 is a mystery that he invariably pastes 
 over his bills on both sides; having 
 stuck them to the wall or boarding, 
 he is not content with that, but imme- 
 diately gives them a coat of paste on 
 the outer and printed side as well. 
 This, which appears to others a sheer 
 work of supererogation, is perhaps 
 mysteriously connected with some im- 
 portant element in the process; he 
 knows. 
 
 But if in this point of his art he 
 puzzles others, he himself is sometimes 
 in as odd a predicament for instance, 
 when he has a batch of announcements 
 in Hebrew, addressed to the " children 
 of Israel." While conning the square 
 letters, he will get perplexed indeed 
 as to which end of the poster has the 
 most right to stand uppermost on the 
 wall ; and, when the spectators cannot 
 help him to a conclusion, he will solve 
 the problem in a sort of hit-or-miss 
 way, by placing a couple of copies side 
 by side, one on its head, the other on 
 its feet, in accordance, it may be sup- 
 posed, with the prudent maxim, that it 
 is better to lose a part than to risk the 
 whole. 
 
 This bill sticking is, after all, more 
 of an art than shopkeepers who make 
 use of it are accustomed to consider. 
 Said an adept in the business the very 
 .apostle of it in one of the large cities 
 a little old man with a wooden leg, 
 equipped with a long cross-stick and 
 an equally long hook upon his shoul-
 
 324 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 der, and a majestic pot of paste in 
 front " These young fellows, sir, are 
 quite unfit for their business. They 
 do not know what they ought to do, 
 and sometimes they will not even do 
 what they know they ought. When 
 I undertake a bill, I go over the whole 
 town with it. I paste it from end to 
 end! I also take care never to cover 
 over a bill too soon. In fact, sir, I do 
 justice to my business as a business 
 man, which they never think of doing. 
 Then, sir, how can they pretend to 
 paste a bill with me ? Why, they have 
 not the machinery! (glancing at his 
 cross-stick and hook). 
 
 He added ' I'll give out a shop- 
 bill, too, sir, with any man in the 
 country. Some that pretend to do 
 it, give their bills to anybody who 
 will take them. Now, / give them 
 only to people who are going in the 
 direction of the shop. Some give them 
 to people who they can see at a glance 
 are too poor to buy goods J give 
 them only to people who can. It 
 requires some study, sir, to give out a 
 shop bill rightly 1 " 
 
 Odd Comminglings. 
 
 THE subject of commercial art finds 
 abundance of material, and of the 
 greatest variety, in the pictorial signs 
 and embellishment of ware now so 
 much in vogue. Painting stops to 
 make progress along with the crafts 
 of buying and selling ; nor is the sister 
 art of sculpture discountenanced by 
 the disciples of trade, for now and 
 then the bust of some great man is 
 found presiding over the stock of some 
 petty trade Sir Isaac Newton among 
 piles of potatoes, and Shakspeare and 
 Milton imbedded among the thread, 
 wax, heel ball, and sparables of the 
 retail leather seller. 
 
 Sometimes a tradesman shows his- 
 torical proclivites. Some remarkable 
 event of ancient or modern days some 
 battle, siege, earthquake, or terrible 
 
 volcanic eruption is delineated in his 
 shop window, as a background to his 
 goods. Thus, the earthquake of Lis- 
 bon, the overwhelming of Pompeii, or 
 the forcing of the Northwest Passage, 
 are events sought to be illustrated to 
 the spectator's mind by the destruc- 
 tion of vermin by Dosem's Patent 
 Cockroach Exterminator, or the new- 
 ly invented heel tips by Simon Bend- 
 leather. 
 
 With eating houses and coffee shops, 
 the pictorial subject generally consists 
 of a loaf, or two loaves, of bread, a 
 wedge of cheese on a plate of the wil- 
 low pattern, a lump of " streaky bacon," 
 a cup appearing to be full of coffee, or 
 a tankard of beer, a lump of butter on 
 a plate, and a knife and fork perhaps 
 a bunch of radishes and a red herring, 
 eloquent of relish. 
 
 The fishmongers are not so generally 
 given to the public patronage of art, 
 but the pedestrian will come now and 
 then upon a really well-painted picture 
 gracing the wall or panel of the fish- 
 monger's stand. It may be a group 
 of fish in the grand style salmon, 
 cod, frost or silver fish, among which 
 crabs and lobsters seem temptingly 
 dripping with the salt ooze; or, it 
 may be, a coast scene, with the bluff 
 fishermen up to their waists in the 
 brine, dragging their nets upon the 
 beach, which is covered with their 
 spoils. But whatever it is, it is sure to be 
 pretty well done, if executed under the 
 artistic auspices of the fishmonger. 
 
 Very Express-ive. 
 
 THE symbol long adopted by the 
 American Express Company was the 
 picture of a dog guarding a safe. 
 Their new building upon Hudson 
 street, New York, is adorned with 
 a fine bas-relief of that appropriate 
 emblem of care and fidelity, sculptured 
 in marble. A symbol, less felicitous, 
 used by an express manager, was a 
 greyhound running at full speed in-
 
 THE HIDE DEALER'S SIGN.
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 325 
 
 tended probably to indicate despatch. 
 Unfortunately for his customers it ob- 
 tained at length a more pregnant sig- 
 nificance, for the manager himself ran 
 away. It only wanted a sack of gold 
 on the back of the " hound," to render 
 the picture perfect. Another express 
 emblem, used somewhere, has been 
 that of a deer, going at the rate of 
 1.20, to signify speed. Harnden's em- 
 blem upon a circular advertising the 
 first express between the New World 
 and the Old, was a vignette representing 
 the two hemispheres, with himself 
 striding from one to the other one 
 foot being on the American shore, and 
 the other on " the chalky cliffs of Al- 
 bion ; " while upon his back he carried 
 a bag of newspapers, letters, etc. If, 
 in spanning the ocean in that figura- 
 tive way, it ever occurred to the fruitful 
 brain of Harnden that a suspension 
 bridge might at some future day serve 
 the same purpose, he wisely kept the 
 crotchet to himself. 
 
 Pawnbrokers' Three Balls. 
 
 THOUGH the fact is generally ad- 
 mitted that the three golden balls of 
 the pawnbrokers had their origin with 
 the Italian bankers the Lombards 
 it is an interesting point quite gener- 
 ally overlooked in connection with 
 this fact, that the greatest of those 
 traders in money were the celebrated 
 and eventually princely house of the 
 Medici of Florence. They bore pills 
 on their shield and those pills, as 
 usual then, were gilded in allusion 
 to the professional origin from whence 
 they had derived the n#me of Medici ; 
 and their commercial agents in Eng- 
 land and other countries put that ar- 
 morial bearing over their doors as 
 their sign, and the great reputation of 
 that house induced others to put up 
 the same sign. 
 
 Hide Dealer's Sign. : Bare Bit of 
 Philosophy. 
 
 THE proprietor of a tanyard adja- 
 cent to a certain town in Virginia, 
 concluded to build a stand, or sort of 
 store, on one of the main streets, for 
 the purpose of vending his leather, 
 buying raw hides, and the like. After 
 completing his building, he began to 
 consider what sort of a sign it would 
 be best to put up for the purpose of 
 attracting attention to his new estab- 
 lishment ; and for days and weeks he 
 was sorely puzzled on this subject. 
 Several devices were one after the 
 other adopted, and, on further consid- 
 eration, rejected. 
 
 At last a happy idea struck him. 
 He bored an auger hole through the door 
 posf, an( l stuck a coifs tail into it, with 
 the lushy end flaunting out. After a 
 while, he noticed a grave-looking per- 
 sonage standing near the door, with his 
 spectacles, gazing intently on the sign. 
 And there he continued to stand, dumb- 
 ly absorbed, gazing and gazing, until 
 the curiosity of the hide dealer was 
 greatly excited in turn. He stepped 
 out and addressed the individual : 
 
 " Good morning," said he. 
 
 " Morning," said the other, without 
 moving his eyes from the sign. 
 
 "You want to buy leather?" said 
 the storekeeper. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Do you want to sell hides ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Perhaps you are a farmer." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " A merchant, maybe." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Are you a doctor ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 "What are you, then?" 
 
 "I'm a philosopher. I have been 
 standing here for an hour, trying to 
 see if I could ascertain how that calf got 
 through that auger hole ! "
 
 326 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Latin on Business Signs. 
 
 THERE went from the good city of 
 Baltimore, some years ago, to Norfolk, 
 Va., a painter of signs, who professed 
 to know a thing or two beyond the 
 general run of his craft. He took very 
 readily, for in truth he was no mean 
 workman. Upon every sign that he 
 painted, he put his " imprint," SPBAGUE 
 (that was his name), to which he com- 
 placently added the Latin word fecit. 
 The unlearned, " the little boys and all," 
 supposing the two words to constitute 
 the name of the painter, accosted him 
 everywhere as Mr. Fecit, Mr. Sprague 
 Fecit, until the poor fellow, annoy- 
 ed to death by the ridicule which 
 his little learning had brought upon 
 him, ran away. He was some years 
 after succeeded by another knight of 
 the brush, from the same goodly city, 
 who was something of a humorist, 
 and disposed to throw Latin, like 
 physic, to the dogs. He, too, painted 
 many signs there, but was content to 
 boast of his work in plain English, as 
 might be seen by the modest inscrip- 
 tion, customary with him " Coppuck 
 did it." 
 
 Shopkeepers' Nomenclature of Goods. 
 
 ONE can hardly get an idea of how 
 extensively diffused is the knowledge 
 of languages in a community, at the 
 present day, without taking notice of 
 the signboard and shop announcements 
 which meet the eye at every turn. In- 
 deed, a walk along any of the principal 
 shopping thoroughfares of a city, will 
 very naturally excite one's curiosity as 
 to the source whence so many traders 
 derive their Greek, etc. 
 
 Thus, a tailor draws attention to his 
 " anaxyridian trousers " presumed to 
 convey the idea of braceless and stay- 
 less trousers, using Greek as the tai- 
 lor would have it used. A shop is called 
 an " emporium " or " bazaar." Some- 
 times the names given to woven goods 
 is an elaborate combination of Greek or 
 
 Latin syllables, to denote in some degree 
 the quality of the cloth ; sometimes it is 
 an imported French or Italian or Span- 
 ish name. 
 
 Among cotton goods may be found 
 saccharillas, nainsooks, tarlatans, su- 
 rougs, grandvilles, Selampores, denims, 
 panos da Costa, Polynesian swansdown 
 (did the cotton come from the breast 
 of a swan, or did it grow in Polyne- 
 sia ?), doeskins and moleskins and 
 lambskins, coutils (sometimes inele- 
 gantly corrupted into " cowtails "), and 
 a host of other examples. 
 
 The woollen and worsted people are 
 not less liberal in nomenclature, for 
 they give us anti-rheumatic flannel, 
 swanskin, valencias, reversible Witneys, 
 double-surfaced beavers, Himalayas, 
 satin-faced doeskins (a doe would 
 hardly know himself with such a face), 
 fur James beavers, Moscow beavers, 
 Alpa Viennas, three-point Mackinaws, 
 barege-de-laine, Saxe-Coburgs, Orleans, 
 napped pilots, double Napiers, ele- 
 phanta ribs, elephant beavers (un- 
 known to naturalists, certainly), rhi- 
 noceros skins, paramattas, barracans, 
 moskittos, stockinettes, wildboars, ura- 
 venas ponchos, princettas, plainbacks, 
 fearnoughts, chameleons, figured Amo- 
 zonians (exclusively for female wear ?), 
 alpaca inkas and madelinas, velillos, 
 and cristales, and cubicas, and Circas- 
 sians, madonnas, balzarines, durants, 
 and cotillons, Genappes, Henriettas, 
 rumswizzles all, be it observed, varie- 
 ties of woollen and worsted goods. 
 
 Nor do the silk dealers forget to sup- 
 ply us with mayonettes, diaphanes, 
 glace" gros d'Afrique, brocatelles, bar- 
 rattheas, armayine royales, Balmorals, 
 paraphantons, Radzimores, moire" an- 
 tiques, Algerias, levantines, and other 
 oddly named goods. 
 
 The linen folks, too, have their own 
 favorite list ; such as dowlases, ducks, 
 drills, huckabucks, gray Baden-Badens, 
 drabbets, crankies, commodores, Wel- 
 lingtons, dustings, paddings, Osna- 
 burgs, Ficklenburgs, Silesias, platillas,
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 327 
 
 estapillas, bretanas, creas legitimas, 
 etc. 
 
 The loot and shoe fraternity give us 
 a verbal crash in the "red morocco 
 leg patent goloshed vandyked button 
 boot," and the " ladies' ottoman silk 
 goloshed elastic button gaiter ; " and 
 the more classical " soccopedes elasti- 
 cus." The " pannuscorium boots" 
 ought, surely, to be worn by every 
 Latin schoolboy; and the "resilient 
 boots" must not be forgotten by fas- 
 tidious pedestrians of a lexicological 
 turn. 
 
 But the tailors beat the shoemakers 
 all hollow in their Latin and Greek. 
 The " subclavien sector " is tremendous 
 it sounds so surgical-like ; it is, how- 
 ever, simply a tailor's measure, and an- 
 other tailor's measure is the " registered 
 symmetrometer." It would be some- 
 what hazardous to say how many 
 learned names besides " siphonia " are 
 given to waterproof garments. There 
 is also the " unique habit," the " bis- 
 unique or reversible garment," and the 
 " monomeroskiton " (long enough to 
 form a very pretty Greek lesson), or 
 " single-piece coat, cut from one piece 
 of cloth." Then we have the " du- 
 plexa," the " registered auto-crematic 
 gown," and the " patent euknemeda." 
 
 Nor have Jiats and tonneta and ho- 
 siery and shirts been left unadorned 
 with Greek and Latin trimmings ; wit- 
 ness the "ventilating chaco," or for- 
 eign hat. But the " korychlamyd " 
 a helmet cap is a crusher. The " no- 
 vum pileum " hat suggests the very du- 
 bious query, whether the Latins ever 
 wore silk hats. The " areophane bon- 
 net," a pretty name for a pretty gar- 
 ment, is too transparently beautiful to 
 seem like hard Greek. As to " goffered 
 crinoline," we can only hint that it is 
 used for garments which men folk are 
 supposed to know nothing about. The 
 " brayama gloves" we cannot interpret, 
 and flatly " give it up ! " 
 
 Of shirts, the " el dorado " must 
 surely be a golden fit ; if not, then we 
 
 can try the " eureka," the " corazza," 
 the "giubba," the "elastique trans- 
 pirante," the "tourist sottanello," the 
 " registered sans-pli," and others so be- 
 dizened with names that one can hard- 
 ly recognize them as plain, honest, 
 well-meaning shirts. 
 
 As to the florid and prolific nomen-: 
 clature of the patent-medicine people, 
 we can give no accurate information, 
 until we have time to walk leisurely 
 among them, with a Greek or polyglot 
 dictionary in hand. 
 
 Pottery used to be pottery, but now 
 it is "ceramic" manufacture. Burnt 
 clay would be a poor, dull name in- 
 deed, but " terra cotta " has a fine aes- 
 thetic sound about it. Fine China is 
 not a good enough name for statuette 
 material it must be called "Parian." 
 The good people of yore delighted to 
 look at a magic lantern, but now it 
 must be a camera obscura, or a phan- 
 tasmagoria, or both ; and if public, the 
 exhibition must be called by the name 
 of diorama, cosmorama, cyclorama, pa- 
 norama, polytechnic, pantechnicon, etc. 
 
 A rush has likewise been made into 
 Greek and Latin by musical instrument 
 makers, who give us piccolos, harmon- 
 iums, microchordions, microphonic 
 pianos, seolians, ophicleides, cornope- 
 ans, floetinas, flutinas, accordions, con- 
 certinas, melodeons, seraphines, auto- 
 phons, serpentcleides, enharmonic gui- 
 tars and organs, symphonions, aeolo- 
 phons, etc. 
 
 Paying at "Maturity." 
 
 A PROMINENT mule dealer, doing 
 business in Kentucky, sold a lot of 
 stock to a trader, who was to pay him 
 in four months lawful tender in Bour- 
 bon. At the expiration of two months 
 the trader sent him an accepted bill on 
 New York for half the money, and 
 wrote him he would pay the balance at 
 maturity. After overhauling all the 
 maps and school geographies, he goes 
 down to the store, and says, " See here !
 
 328 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 where is this place they call Maturity ? 
 I can't find it on the map, and I have 
 a note payable there ; and I fear I 
 won't be able to get there, for I can't 
 find it on the map 1 " 
 
 "Ditto." 
 
 AN honest old man, rather ignorant 
 of the improved method of abbrevia- 
 tion or phraseology in business ac- 
 counts, on looking over his grocer's 
 bill, occasionally found charges like 
 the following : " To 1 Ib. tea to 1 Ib. 
 ditto." " Wife," said he, " this 'ere's a 
 putty business ; I should like to know 
 what you have done with so much of 
 this 'ere ditto? " Ditto, ditto," replied 
 the old lady, " never had a pound of 
 ditto in the house in all my life ! " So 
 back went the honest old customer, in 
 high dudgeon that he should have been 
 charged with things that he had never 
 received. " Mr. B.," said he, " shan't 
 stand this wife says she hain't had a 
 pound of this tarnal ditto in the house 
 in her life." The grocer, thereupon, 
 explained the meaning of the term, and 
 the customer went home satisfied. His 
 wife inquired, if he had found out the 
 meaning of that " ditto." " Yes," said 
 he, " as near as I can get the hang on't, 
 it means that I'm an old fool, and 
 you're ditto." 
 
 Where "Tariff" came from. 
 
 EVEBYBODY knows the meaning of 
 the word "tariff" viz., a fixed scale 
 of duties, levied upon imports. Let 
 any one turn to a map of Spain, and he 
 will notice at its southern point, and 
 running out into the Straits of Gibral- 
 tar, a promontory which, from its posi- 
 tion, is admirably adapted for com- 
 manding the entrance of the Mediter- 
 ranean sea, and watching the exit and 
 entrance of all ships. A fortress stands 
 upon this promontory, called now, as it 
 was also called in the times of the 
 Moorish domination in Spain, " Ta 
 
 rifa ; " the name, indeed, is of Moorish 
 origin. It was the custom of the Moors 
 to watch, from this point, all merchant 
 ships going into or coming out of the 
 midland sea ; and, issuing from this 
 stronghold, to levy duties according to 
 a fixed scale on all merchandise passing 
 in and out of the Straits, and this was 
 called, from the place where it was 
 levied, "tarifa," or "tariff," and, in 
 this way, the word has been acquired. 
 
 Meaning- of " Fund " and " Stock." 
 
 THE term fund was applied origin- 
 ally to the taxes or funds set apart as 
 security for repayment of the principal 
 sums advanced, and the interest upon 
 them ; \>ut when money was no longer 
 borrowed to be repaid at any given 
 time, the term began to mean the prin- 
 cipal sum itself. These facts, of course, 
 apply to the English monetary opera- 
 tions. In the year 1751, the Govern- 
 ment began to unite the various loans 
 into one fund, called the consolidated 
 fund though not to be confused with 
 that of the same name into which part 
 of the revenue is collected ; and sums 
 due in this are now shortly termed 
 " consols." These come under the gen- 
 eral denomination of " stocks." 
 
 Merchants' Religious Formulae or 
 Phrases. 
 
 THEBE are many little religious for- 
 mulae, or terms, now fallen into disuse, 
 which once prevailed universally among 
 those engaged in the various depart- 
 ments of trade and commerce. " Lau 
 Deo " (Praise be to God) was once the 
 usual heading of every page of a mer- 
 chant's journal. When goods were sent 
 to some foreign port, the bill of lading, 
 as it is technically termed, invariably 
 stated that they had been " shipped ~by 
 the grace of God in and upon the good 
 ship " called by such a name. A pol- 
 icy of insurance against sea risks still 
 begins with the words, " In the name of 
 God, Amen ; " and, up to a late date,
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 329 
 
 all commercial appointments were 
 made " God willing." 
 
 Responding to an Advertisement. 
 
 AN important mercantile house in 
 New York had occasion to advertise 
 for sale a quantity of brass hoppers, such 
 as are used in coffee mills. But instead 
 of brass hoppers, the newspaper read 
 grass hoppers. In a short time the mer- 
 chant's counting room was thronged 
 with inquirers for the new article of 
 merchandise thus advertised. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Invoice ; how 
 do you sell grasshoppers ? " said a fat 
 merchant; "what are they worth a 
 hogshead ? " 
 
 The importer was astonished ; but 
 before he had time to reply, in came a 
 druggist, who, being bent on specula- 
 tion, determined to purchase the whole 
 lot, provided he could get them low. 
 Taking the importer aside, for fear of 
 being overheard by the merchant, he 
 asked him how he sold those grasshop- 
 pers if they were prime quality, and 
 whether they were to be used in medi- 
 cine. The importer was about opening 
 his mouth to answer in an angry man- 
 ner to what he began to suspect was a 
 conspiracy to torment him, when a 
 doctor entered, smelling at his cane, 
 and looking wondrous wise. 
 
 " Mr. Invoice," said he, " ahem ! will 
 you be good enough to show me a 
 specimen of your grasshoppers ? " 
 
 " Grasshoppers ! grasshoppers ! " ex- 
 claimed the importer, as soon as he 
 had a chance to speak, " what, gentle- 
 men, do you mean by grasshoppers ? " 
 
 " Mean ? " said the merchant, " why, 
 I perceive you have advertised the ar- 
 ticle for sale." 
 
 " Certainly," said the druggist, " and 
 when a man advertises an article, it is 
 natural for him to expect inquiries re- 
 lating to the price and quality of the 
 thing." 
 
 " Nothing in the world more natu- 
 ral," said the doctor. " As for myself, I 
 
 have at present a number of cases on 
 hand, in the treatment of which I 
 thought the article might be service- 
 able. But since you are so ahem 1 so 
 uncivil why, I must look out else- 
 where, and my patients " 
 
 " You and your patience be hanged 1 " 
 interrupted the importer; " mine is fair- 
 ly worn out, and if you don't explain 
 yourselves, gentlemen, I'll lay this poker 
 over your heads ! " 
 
 To save their heads, the advertise- 
 ment was now referred to, when the 
 importer found out the cause of his 
 vexations, by reading the following : 
 " Just landed, and for sale by Invoice 
 & Co., ten hogsheads prime grasshop- 
 pers." 
 
 Business Puffin? Two Hundred Tears 
 Ago. 
 
 SOME two centuries ago, the number 
 of shopkeepers in England had got to 
 be so numerous, that they commenced 
 -the practice of genuine, downright 
 puffing the art assuming some shapes 
 hardly ventured upon even by the 
 boldest at the present day. Some- 
 times, for example, a shopkeeper, 
 scorning a direct puff advertisement 
 of his articles, commenced with ap- 
 parent anger, thus : " Whereas it has 
 been maliciously reported that A. B. is 
 going to leave off business ; " and then 
 would follow an earnest assurance that 
 such was not the case " that he con- 
 tinued, as before, to sell the undermen- 
 tioned articles, at lowest prices." A 
 more ingenious plan was for H. Z. to 
 advertise in the public prints that a 
 purse of gold, of large amount, with 
 other valuables, had been, in the great 
 hurry of business, dropped in his shop, 
 and would be restored to the proper 
 owner on describing its contents. Of 
 course, every one was disposed to deal 
 with such an honest tradesman, and 
 the latter soon found his supposititious 
 purse becoming a golden reality to
 
 330 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Transactions in the Cab Market. 
 
 THOUGH the numerous fluctuations 
 in the money market are made the sub- 
 ject of acute comments in the public 
 journals, it does not appear that any 
 notice is taken of the fluctuations in 
 the cab market, \vhich are upon a very 
 wide and extensive scale. A reporter 
 for one of the English papers more 
 enterprising than its contemporaries 
 quotes as follows : 
 
 During the gloom which prevailed 
 for a portion of the past week, the pat- 
 ent safeties without the coupon or 
 blind for wet weather were done at a 
 shilling a mile ; and the reduced fives 
 or old clarences, that will hold five 
 at a cram were buoyant at eighteen 
 pence, with a prospect of improvement. 
 Open cabs during the rain were steady 
 at nothing, and the list shows no tran- 
 sactions. 
 
 There was a rush of bears from the 
 Adelphic Theatre, which caused the 
 cab market to assume a very active ap- 
 pearance for a short time ; and fathers 
 of families, with their children, were 
 done at a very high figure, with a pros- 
 pect of advance at the settlement. 
 
 White handkerchiefs and polished 
 boots were freely taken at lower rates 
 than those demanded in the earliest 
 part of the day, when it was under- 
 stood that they had made bargains for 
 time, and they were accordingly made 
 to pay for the accommodation some- 
 what heavily. In one concern there 
 was a breaking down, and a conse- 
 quent failure in making the deposits at 
 the time and place appointed. This is 
 the only smash in the cab market which 
 we have to report, and in this the get- 
 ting out was ultimately arranged to the 
 satisfaction of all parties. 
 
 Striking- a Bargain. 
 
 AUBEBY, in his manuscript collec- 
 tions, relates that in several parts of 
 England, when two persons are driving 
 
 a bargain, one holds out his right hand? 
 and says, " Strike me ; " and if the other 
 strike, the bargain holds ; whence the 
 phrase " striking a bargain." The 
 practice is retained in the custom of 
 saying " Done " to a wager offered, at 
 the same time striking the hand of the 
 wagerer. 
 
 "Five Per Cent." 
 
 A VEBDANT-LOOKrao person called 
 upon a jeweller in Montreal, and stated 
 that he had managed to accumulate, 
 by hard labor, for the few past years, 
 seventy-five dollars, which he wished 
 to invest in something, whereby he 
 might make money a little faster ; and 
 he had concluded to take some of the 
 stock and peddle it out. The jeweller 
 selected what he thought would sell 
 readily, and the new peddler started 
 on his first trip. He was gone but a 
 few days when he returned, bought as 
 much again as before, and started on 
 his second trip. Again he returned, and 
 greatly increased his stock. He suc- 
 ceeded so well, and accumulated so 
 fast, that the jeweller ventured, one 
 day, to ask him what profit he obtain- 
 ed on what he sold ? " Well, I put on 
 'bout five per cent." The jeweller 
 thought that a very small profit, and 
 expressed as much. " Well," said the 
 peddler, "I don't know as I exactly 
 understand about your per cent.; but 
 an article for which I pay you one dol- 
 lar, I generally sell for^/we." 
 
 Historical and Poetical Signs. 
 
 IT is related of a barber in Paris, 
 that, to establish the utility of his bag 
 wigs, he caused the history of Absalom 
 to be painted over his door ; and that 
 one of the profession, in an English 
 town, used this inscription : " Absa- 
 lom, hadst thou worn a periwig, thou 
 hadst not been hanged." It is some- 
 where told of another, that he inge- 
 niously versified his brother peruke-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 331 
 
 maker's inscription : under a sign which 
 represented the death of Absalom, and 
 David weeping, he wrote thus : 
 " Absalom ! Absalom ! 
 
 Absalom ! my son, 
 If thou hadst worn a periwig, 
 Thou hadst not been undone ! " 
 
 Jemmy Wright's Modesty. 
 
 OLD Jemmy Wright, an eccentric 
 barber of wide and harmless fame in 
 his day, opened a shop under the walls 
 of the King's Bench prison. The win- 
 dows being broken when he entered it, 
 he mended them with paper, on which 
 appeared " Shave for a penny," with 
 the usual invitation to customers. 
 Whether his proximity to the gray 
 walls of a prison had a salutary in- 
 fluence in developing his honest traits, 
 cannot with certainty be stated ; but 
 over his door were scrawled the follow- 
 ing words, which exhibit the rare busi- 
 ness quality of a man speaking a better 
 word for others of his craft than for 
 himself: 
 
 " Here lives Jemmy Wright, 
 
 Shaves as well as any man in England, 
 Almost not quite" 
 
 " Take Down that Old Sign." 
 
 ONE summer morning, quoth the 
 Knickerbocker, Mr. Leupp well known 
 as an honored merchant in New York 
 was standing in the vestibule of the 
 great " Leather House," No. 20 Ferry 
 street, in the " Swamp," when some 
 one, passing by at that time, and look- 
 ing up, said, " Leupp, why don't you 
 take down that old sign, ' GIDEON 
 LEE ' ? It's all worn out ; the wood has 
 dropped away from the letters, and the 
 paint has e'en a'most rolled off o 1 them. 
 Why don't you take it down and split 
 it up?" Leupp loolced at his inter- 
 locutor, with that watery, blue, full- 
 pupiled, interior German eye of his, 
 and with a motion of his hand waved 
 the questioner on his way, without 
 
 saying a word in reply. The memory 
 of that name was precious in the es- 
 teem of Mr. Leupp. And there it is 
 still, in the old place. 
 
 Signs are very curious things. Down 
 in Murray street, there may be seen 
 some rusty, dingy, forbidding-looking 
 iron chests but, like Gideon Lee's 
 sign, they are types of something 
 worthy to be remembered ; they are 
 safes that have been tried by fierce 
 flames for hours upon hours together, 
 and yet delivered their precious and 
 otherwise irrecoverable contents un- 
 harmed. And in West street, toward 
 the Battery, there is another " case in 
 p'int," a ship chandler's sign, an 
 anchor, that " held wonderful onto a 
 schooner," in a celebrated September 
 gale, and a block and tackle that seem 
 coeval with Sol Gil's midshipman sign, 
 so reverenced by himself and Captain 
 Cuttle. 
 
 Charging: for Advertisements. 
 
 THE practice of charging for adver- 
 tisements commenced at a very early 
 period. A few might at first have 
 been inserted gratuitously, but the 
 revenue flowing from this source was 
 so obvious a consideration, that the 
 system soon began of charging a fixed 
 sum for each. In the Mercurius Libra- 
 rim, a bookseller's paper, it is stated 
 that, " to show that the publishers de- 
 sign the public advantage of trade, they 
 will expect but sixpence for inserting 
 any book, nor but twelve pence for 
 any other advertisement relating to the 
 trade, unless it be excessive long." The 
 next intimation of price is in the 
 Jockey's Intelligencer, which charged 
 a shilling for each, and sixpence for 
 renewing. The Observator, in 1704, 
 charged a shilling for eight lines ; and 
 the Country Gentleman's Courant, in 
 1706, inserted advertisements at two 
 pence a line. The Public Advertiser 
 charged for a length of time two shil- 
 lings for each insertion.
 
 332 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 The Napoleon of Advertising:. 
 
 PERHAPS the crowning fact in 
 modern advertising is that which is 
 stated by Thackeray, in his " Journey 
 from Cornhill to Cairo," namely, that 
 " Warren's Blacking " is painted up over 
 an obliterated inscription to Psamme- 
 tichus on Pompey's Pillar ! 
 
 The greatest man of the day, how- 
 ever, as an advertiser, is Holloway, of 
 London, who expends the enormous 
 sum of one hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars annually, in advertisements 
 alone. 
 
 His name is not only to be seen in 
 nearly every paper and periodical pub- 
 lished in the British Isles, but, as if 
 that country were too " pent up " for 
 this individual's exploits, he stretches 
 over the whole of India, having agents 
 in all the different parts of the upper, 
 central, and lower provinces of that 
 immense country, publishing his medi- 
 caments in the Hindoo, Ooordoo, Gooz- 
 ratee, Persian, and other native lan- 
 guages, so that the Indian public can 
 take the pills, and use his ointment, as 
 a cockney would do within the sound 
 ofBowbells. 
 
 We find him again at Hong Kong 
 and Canton, making his medicines 
 known to the Celestials by means of a 
 Chinese tranlation. We trace him from 
 thence to the Philippine Islands, where 
 he is circulating his preparations in 
 the native languages. At Singapore 
 he has a large depot ; his agents there 
 supply all the islands in the Indian 
 seas. His advertisements are published 
 in most of the papers at Sydney, Ho- 
 bart Town, Launceston, Adelaide, 
 Port Philip, and indeed in almost 
 every town of that region of the 
 world. 
 
 Returning homeward, his pills and 
 ointment are found on sale at Valpa- 
 raiso, Lima, Callao, and other ports in 
 the Pacific. Doubling the Horn, we 
 track him in the Atlantic: at Monte 
 Video, Buenos Ayres, Santos, Rio 
 
 Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco, he is 
 advertising in Spanish and Portuguese. 
 
 In all the British West Indian Is- 
 lands, as also in the Upper and Lower 
 Canadas, and the neighboring provin- 
 ces of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
 wick, his medicines are as familiarly 
 known, and sold by every druggist, as 
 they are at home. 
 
 In the Mediterranean, we find them 
 selling at Malta, Corfu, Athens, and 
 Alexandria, besides at Tunis, and other 
 portions of the Barbary States. 
 
 Any one taking the trouble to look 
 at the Journal and Courier of Con- 
 stantinople, may find in these, as well 
 as other papers, that Holloway's medi- 
 cines are regularly advertised and sell- 
 ing throughout the Turkish empire. 
 
 And even in Russia, where an almost 
 insurmountable barrier exists the laws 
 there prohibiting the entree of patent 
 medicines Holloway's ingenuity has 
 been at work, and obviates this difficul- 
 ty by forwarding supplies to his agent 
 at Odessa, a port situated on the Black 
 Sea, where they filter themselves sur- 
 reptitiously by various channels into 
 the very heart of the empire. 
 
 Africa has not been forgotten 
 by this determined " benefactor " of 
 suffering humanity ; he has an agent 
 on the river Gambia, also at Sierra 
 Leone, the plague spot of the world, 
 the inhabitants readily availing them- 
 selves of the ointment and pills. 
 
 Thus it is that Holloway has made 
 the complete circuit of the globe, com- 
 mencing with India, and ending with 
 the Cape of Good Hope, where his 
 medicines are published in the Dutch 
 and English languages. 
 
 Business Signboards in Different 
 Nations. 
 
 THE Roman traders and venders had 
 their signs ; and at Pompeii a pig over 
 the door represented a wine shop 
 within. 
 
 The Middle Ages adopted a bush 
 " Good wine needs no bush," &c., an-
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 333 
 
 swering to the gilded grapes at a 
 modern vintner's. The bush is still a 
 common sign. At Charles the First's 
 death, a cavalier painted his bush 
 black. Then came the modern square 
 sign, formerly common to all trades. 
 
 Old signs are generally heraldric, 
 and represent royal bearings, or the 
 blazonings of great families. Some 
 of these will be found briefly noticed 
 in another part of this volume, under 
 the title of " Ancient Pictorial Sign- 
 boards." The White Hart was pecu- 
 liar to Richard the Second ; the White 
 Swan, of Henry the Fourth and Edward 
 the Third ; the Blue Boar, of Richard 
 the Third ; the Red Dragon came in 
 with the Tudors, and also the Rose 
 and Fleur de Lys ; the Bull, the Fal- 
 con, and Plume of Feathers commemo- 
 rated Edward the Fourth; the Swan 
 and Antelope, Henry the Fifth ; the 
 Greyhound and Green Dragon, Henry 
 the Seventh ; the Castle, the Spread 
 Eagle, and the Globe were probably 
 adopted from Spain, Germapy, and 
 Portugal, by inns which were the 
 resort of merchants from those coun- 
 tries. Then there were the Bear and 
 Ragged Staff, etc., and some the origin 
 of which is lost in obscurity. 
 
 Monograms are common to the same 
 period as Bait and Ton for Balton ; 
 Hare and Tun, for Harrington. The 
 three Suns is the favorite bearing of 
 Edward the Fourth; and all Roses, 
 red or white, are indications of politi- 
 cal predilections. Other signs and 
 these are naturally very numerous 
 commemorate historical events. 
 
 The Pilgrim, Cross Keys, Salutation, 
 Catharine Wheel, Angel, Three Kings, 
 St. Francis, etc., are mediaeval signs. 
 Many of these became curiously cor- 
 rupted, as already mentioned in the 
 anecdotes of ancient pictorial sign- 
 boards above referred to. As addi- 
 tional examples of this amusing verbal 
 change may be mentioned that of the 
 Coeur Dore (Golden Heart) to the Queer 
 Door ; Pig and Whistle Peg and Was- 
 
 sail Bow ; the Swan and Two Necks 
 Two Nicks; the Goat in the Golden 
 Boots from the Dutch, Goed in der 
 Gooden Boote Mercury, or the God 
 in the Golden Boots ; the Cat and 
 Fiddle the Caton Fidele. 
 
 The Swan with Two Nicks repre- 
 sented the Thames Swans, so marked 
 on their bills under the " Conservatory " 
 of the Goldsmiths' Company. The 
 Coach and Horses pertain to the times 
 when the superior inns were the only 
 posting houses, in distinction to such 
 as bore the sign of the Packhorse. 
 The Fox and Goose denoted the games 
 played "within ; the country inn, the 
 Hare and Hounds, the vicinity of a 
 sporting squire. 
 
 The Puritans altered many of the mo- 
 nastic signs, during their sway; such 
 as the Angel and Lady, to the Soldier 
 and Citizen. The Crusaders brought 
 in the signs of the Saracen's Head, the 
 Turk's Head and the Golden Cross. 
 
 In the various business signs of dif- 
 ferent periods may be read every phase 
 of ministerial popularity, and all the 
 ebbs and flows of war as, the Sir 
 Home Popham, Rodney, Shovel, Duke 
 of York, Wellington's Head, etc. One 
 such sign, in Chelsea, called the Snow 
 Shoes, still indicates the excitement of 
 the American war. 
 
 The chemist's sign was that of a 
 dragon some astrological device ; the 
 haberdasher and wool draper, the gold- 
 en fleece; the tobacconist, the snuff- 
 taking Highlander; the vintners, the 
 ivy bush and the bunch of grapes; 
 and the church-and-state bookseller, 
 the Bible and crown. 
 
 Harlow's Sign Painting 1 Extra- 
 ordinary. 
 
 THERE is a clever anecdote connect- 
 ed with the ancient and celebrated sign 
 of the Queen's Head, Epsom. This 
 sign that is, the original, for the 
 board has been repainted was execut- 
 ed by Harlow, an eminent artist, and 
 a pupil of the renowned Sir Thomas
 
 334 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Lawrence. He was a young man of 
 consummate vanity, and having un- 
 warrantably claimed the merit of paint- 
 ing the Newfoundland dog introduced 
 in Lawrence's portrait of Mrs. Anger- 
 stein, the two artists quarrelled, and 
 Harlow took his resentment as follows : 
 He repaired to the Queen's Head, at 
 Epsom, where his style of living hav- 
 ing incurred a bill which he could not 
 discharge, he proposed, like Morland, 
 under similar circumstances, to paint a 
 signboard in liquidation of his score. 
 This was accepted. He painted both 
 sides : the one presented a front view 
 of her Majesty, in a sort of clever, 
 dashing caricature of Sir Thomas's 
 style; the other represented the back 
 view of the queen's person, as if look- 
 ing into the signboard and underneath 
 was painted, " T. L., Greek street, So- 
 ho." When Sir Thomas met him, he 
 addressed him with, " I have seen your 
 additional act of perfidy at Epsom; 
 and if you were not a scoundrel, I 
 would kick you from one end of the 
 street to the other." " There is some 
 privilege in being a scoundrel, for the 
 street is very long," replied Harlow, 
 unabashed, but moving out of reach of 
 the threatened demonstration. 
 
 x_ 
 Free Shave and a Drink. 
 
 THEKE was once a barber who had 
 on his sign the words 
 
 " What do you think 
 I will shave you for nothing 
 And give you something to drink." 
 A man went in on the supposed in- 
 vitation, and, after he was shaved, 
 asked for something to drink. " No," 
 said the barber, " you do not read my 
 sign right. I say, 'What! do you 
 think I will shave you for nothing, 
 and give you something to drink ? ' " 
 
 "Words nave their Meaning:." 
 
 A MEDICINE man many years ago had 
 a shop in Beekman street, New York, 
 
 where he sold various medicaments, 
 which were duly sign-ed at the door, 
 as well as sealed and delivered within. 
 Conspicuous among these signs, was 
 one which bore the following inscrip- 
 tion, namely, " The Celebrated Cure for 
 the Spanish Piles." It was an infallible 
 specific for a painful malady, the ven- 
 der said one day to a friend, " but, by 
 gar ! nobody come to buy him ! Yet 
 his sign is biggest one at de door ! " 
 The friend looked at the sign. " I see 
 how it is," said he ; " nobody here has 
 the Spanish piles your sign is wrong. 
 Have it changed to ' The celebrated 
 Spanish cure for the piles.' " This ad- 
 vice was taken, and a few days after, 
 the foreign pot'ecary met his adviser in 
 the street, when, holding out his hand, 
 with a cordial smile and a fervent 
 grasp, he said, ' Aha ! it is ver' good ; 
 now I sell de Spanish cure ver' moch ! 
 Everybody say he ver' most good 
 t'ing!" 
 
 French Ideas of Advertising. 
 
 A MARCHAND de papier or paper 
 merchant took an advertisement of 
 such wares to a provincial newspaper 
 in France, whose regisseur was proprie- 
 tor, printer, and all besides carrying 
 on a little of another kind of paper 
 business. The gentleman refused to in- 
 sert the advertisement. 
 
 " Why not ? " asked the dealer, in 
 astonishment. " Here's the money down, 
 if you are afraid of that ! " 
 
 "Heu! heu!" said the editor, "I 
 neither want your money nor your ad- 
 vertisement. I, too, sell paper fools- 
 cap, quarto, letter paper, fine, coarse, 
 and demi-fine, besides envelopes, cards, 
 and letters of faire-part, of deaths and 
 marriages, all in the newest style a 
 very large assortment. I cannot pub- 
 lish the advertisement of any one who 
 would undersell my paper. What would 
 you have ? " 
 
 Too proud to make vain remon- 
 strance, the customer went away. But
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 335 
 
 in a few days returned to the office, 
 and humbly asked : 
 
 " Monsieur, have you an attic to 
 let ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? I don't un- 
 derstand your question. Pray, now, 
 what project can you have in respect to 
 my attic ? " 
 
 "Before I can explain my inten- 
 tions," the merchant replied, "you 
 must answer my question, whether you 
 have an attic to let ? " 
 
 " No, I have not." 
 
 " Very well, monsieur ; I can now 
 proceed to business without fear of a 
 rebuff. Please insert this in your next 
 number. / have an attic to let, but I 
 thought I would ask whether you had 
 one to let also, before I ventured to 
 present the advertisement." 
 
 Pathos and Puffin? Extraordinary. 
 
 THE tone of sentiment adopted in 
 advertising the death of a trader or 
 man of business, in England, not unfre- 
 quently affords matter of peculiar enter- 
 tainment. There is sometimes a face- 
 tious not to say barefaced union of 
 puff and despondency. Here is one of 
 these pseudo-lachrymose specimens of 
 a death : " Died, on the llth ultimo, 
 at his shop in Fleet street, Mr. Edward 
 Jones, much respected by all who knew 
 and dealt with him. As a man he was 
 amiable, as a hatter upright and mod- 
 erate. His virtues were beyond all 
 price, and his beaver hats were only 
 1 4s. each. He has left a widow to de- 
 plore his loss, and a large stock, to be 
 sold cheap, for the benefit of his fam- 
 ily. He was snatched to the other 
 world in the prime of life, and just as 
 he had concluded an extensive pur- 
 chase of felt, which he got so cheap 
 that the widow can supply hats at a 
 more moderate charge than any house 
 in London. His disconsolate family 
 will carry on the business with punc- 
 tuality." 
 
 Alliteration in Advertising 1 . 
 
 ADVERTISING, now-a-days, has be- 
 come reduced or elevated 1 to a sci- 
 ence. Somebody alliterizes in this man- 
 ner, in an advertisement of an asserted 
 superior article of marking ink : to wit, 
 that it is remarkable for " requiring no 
 preparation, preeminently preengages 
 peculiar public predilection ; produces 
 palpable, plainly perceptible, perpetual 
 perspicuities ; penetrates powerfully, 
 precluding previous prerequisite prep- 
 arations; possesses particular preroga- 
 tives ; protects private property ; pre- 
 vents presumptuous, pilfering persons 
 practising promiscuous proprietorship ; 
 pleasantly performing plain practical 
 penmanship; perfectly precludes pue- 
 rile panegyrics, preferring proper public 
 patronage." 
 
 " Universal Stores." 
 
 ROYAL TYLER, the famous New 
 Hampshire wit, thus set off, in parody, 
 the advertisements of the " Universal 
 Stores," so common in former times : 
 
 VARIETY STORE. 
 
 To the LITERATI : 
 
 MESSRS. COLON & SPONDEE, 
 
 wholesale dealers in 
 Verse, Prose, and Poetry, 
 
 heg leave to Inform the PUBLIC, and the LEARNED 
 
 in particular, that 
 
 previous to the ensuing 
 
 COMMENCEMEN T 
 
 They propose to open a fresh Assortment of 
 
 LEXICOGRAPHIC, BCRGURSDICIAN, AND 
 
 PARNASSIAN 
 
 GOODS, 
 
 suitable for the season, 
 
 At the Room on the Plain, lately occupied 
 
 by Mr. FREDERICK WISER, Tonsor, 
 
 if it can be procured 
 Where they will expose to Sale 
 Salutatory and Valedictory Orations, Syllo- 
 gistic and Forensic Disputations and Dia- 
 logues among the living and the dead 
 Theses and Masters, Questions, Latin, Greek,
 
 336 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and the ancient 
 Coptic, neatly modified into Dialogues, Ora- 
 tions, etc., on the shortest notice with Dis- 
 sertations on the Targum and Talmud, and 
 Collations after the manner of Kennicott 
 Hebrew roots and other Simples Dead Lan- 
 guages for living Drones Oriental Lan- 
 guages with or without points, prefixes, or 
 suffixes Attic, Doric, Ionic, and ^Eolic Dia- 
 lects, with the Wabash, Onondaga, and Mo- 
 hawk Gutturals Synalsephas, Elisions, and 
 Ellipses of the newest cut tfs added and 
 dovetailed to their vowels, with a small as- 
 sortment of the genuine Peloponnesian Na- 
 sal Twangs Classic Compliments adapted to 
 all dignities, with superlatives in o, and ge- 
 runds in di, gratis Monologues, Dialogues, 
 Trialogues, Tetralogues, and so on, from one 
 to twenty logues. 
 
 Anagrams, Acrostics, Anacreontics, Chro- 
 nograms, Epigrams, Hudibrastics, and Pane- 
 gyrics, Rebuses, Charades, Puns, and Co- 
 nundrums, by the gross or single dozen. 
 Sonnets, Elegies, Epithalamiums ; Bucolics, 
 Gearics, Pastorals ; Epic Poems, Dedica- 
 tions, and Adulatory Prefaces, in verse and 
 prose, 
 
 Ether, Mist, Sleet, Rain, Snow, Lightning, 
 and Thunder, prepared and personified after 
 the manner of Delia Crusca, with a quantity 
 of Brown Horror, Blue Fear, and Child-Be- 
 getting Love, from the same Manufactory ; 
 with a pleasing variety of high-colored Com- 
 pound epithets, well assorted Farragoes, 
 and other Brunonian Opiates Anti-Insti- 
 tutes, or the new and concise patent mode 
 of applying forty letters to the spelling of a 
 monosyllable Love Letters by the Ream 
 Summary Arguments, both Merry and Seri- 
 ous Sermons, moral, occasional, or polemi- 
 cal Sermons for Texts, and Texts for Ser- 
 mons Old Orations scoured, Forensics fur- 
 bished, Blunt Epigrams newly pointed, and 
 cold Conferences hashed; with Extempora- 
 neous Prayers, corrected and amended Al- 
 literations artfully allied and Periods pol- 
 ished to perfection. 
 
 Airs, Canons, Catches, and Cantatas 
 Fugues, Overtures, and Symphonies, for any 
 number of instruments Serenades for Noc- 
 turnal Lovers with Rose Trees full blown, 
 and Black jokes of all colors Amens and 
 Hallelujahs, trilled, quavered, and slurred 
 with Couplets, Syncopations, Minim and 
 
 Crotchet Rests, for female voices and Solos-, 
 with the three parts, for hand organs. 
 
 Classic College Bows, clear starched, lately 
 imported from Cambridge, and now used by 
 all the topping scientific connoisseurs in hair 
 and wigs, in this country. 
 
 Adventures, Paragraphs, Letters from Cor- 
 respondents, Country Seats for Rural Mem- 
 bers of Congress, provided by Editors of 
 Newspapers with Accidental Deaths, Bat- 
 tles, Bloody Murders, Premature News, Tem- 
 pests, Thunder and Lightning, and Hail- 
 stones, of ah 1 dimensions, adapted to the 
 Season. 
 
 Circles squared, and Mathematical Points 
 divided into quarters, and half shares ; and 
 jointed Assymptotes which will meet at any 
 given distance. 
 
 Syllogisms in Bocardo, and Baralipton; 
 Serious Caution against Drunkenness, etc., 
 and other coarse Wrapping Paper, gratis, to 
 those who buy the smallest article. 
 
 On hand, a few Tierces of Attic 
 Salt also, Cash, and the highest price, 
 given for RAW WIT, for the use of the 
 Manufactory, or taken in exchange for the 
 above Articles. 
 
 Buying a Claim. 
 
 FROM the oil diggings a correspon- 
 dent of Harper's " Drawer " writes, un- 
 der date of Oleana : The world is full of 
 good things. You also are in a simi- 
 lar state of repletion, and yet the half 
 is not told. There are many things 
 yet unknown, and, let us hope, many 
 more yet to happen. We live in the 
 midst of a good thing oil ; good for 
 everything under the sun but to smell ; 
 it is not good for that. Three friends 
 were discussing " THE SUBJECT " (oil, 
 
 of course). Says A : " Old Billy G 
 
 has bought a good claim." "What 
 does he give ? " says B. " One thou- 
 sand dollars, and a quarter of the oil 
 for a quarter of the claim," replied A. 
 " Then," says C, " as a matter of course, 
 had he bought the whole claim he 
 would have had to pay four thousand 
 dollars and all the oil? This is an 
 opinion as is an opinion.
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 337 
 
 Very Racy. 
 
 PREVIOUS to the destruction of the 
 National Theatre in Boston, one of the 
 stores in the basement was occupied by 
 one Patrick I. Grace. A wag meeting 
 a friend in the street, and knowing his 
 penchant for rare and exciting sights, 
 inquired if he had seen the pig race ? " 
 
 " Pig race ! " repeated Dupee, " no ; 
 I never heard of one before. Where is 
 it?" 
 
 "Down to the National Theatre; 
 you had better go down; it's worth 
 seeing," was the answer. 
 
 Dupee, who had been " spoiling " for 
 something new in the way of amuse- 
 ments, started for the National at once, 
 but of course found the doors closed, 
 and no signs of any race around there, 
 except the human race. Feeling that 
 he was the victim of a " sell," he turned 
 dryly away, when his eye caught Mr. 
 Grace's sign. The stupid painter had 
 omitted to insert any punctuation, and 
 it read thus : PIGRACE. 
 
 " Very good," remarked Dupee ; 
 "that does look like a pig race, sure 
 enough ! " and off he hurried, to find 
 a victim in his turn. 
 
 Getting rid of Ms Neighbor's 
 
 Customers. 
 
 IN the pleasant city of Canton, Mis- 
 sissippi, lives a worthy landlord by the 
 name of Colonel Pierce. Next door to 
 the Pierce House was a gunsmith's 
 shop, kept by Bob Leonard, whose 
 chief failing was the love of fish, squir- 
 rels, etc. When Bob wanted a day in 
 the woods he had no scruples about 
 closing up his establishment. Of 
 course Bob's customers would be more 
 numerous on the days the shop was 
 closed. Now no place was so handy 
 as Colonel Pierce's for the disappoint- 
 ed to inquire, " Do you know where 
 Bob Leonard is ? " The Colonel, getting 
 heartily tired of the annoyance, be- 
 thought him of a plan for ridding him- 
 22 
 
 self of the trouble of answering. He 
 had a sign painted, and hung up in the 
 most conspicuous part of the office, 
 with this inscription : " I want it dis- 
 tinctly understood that I don't know 
 where Bob Leonard is." 
 
 Broadway Signs. 
 
 NOT long since there could be seen a 
 very singular and purely accidental col- 
 lection of occupations in one building 
 on Broadway the signs across the front 
 standing out like some great Ogre's 
 eyes, nose, and mouth, ready to gobble 
 a person up. The first floor, occupied 
 by the " Broadway Restaurant" where 
 you could be taken in, fed, and pre- 
 pared ; the second floor, occupied by 
 the " Office of the West Point Foundry, 1 ' 1 
 where you could be killed by the latest 
 inventions ; the third floor occupied by 
 the " Office of G-reenwood Cemetery" 
 where you could be buried in the most 
 approved style. Feed, kill, and Trnry, 
 all in one building. 
 
 Pat's Definition of Railroad " Stock." 
 
 PAT DONAHUE was a " broth of a 
 boy," right from the " Gem of the 
 Say," and he had a small contract on 
 the Conway Railroad, New Hampshire, 
 in the year of grace 1855, in which he 
 agreed to take his pay part in cash, 
 part in bonds, and part in stock. The 
 stock of this road, be it remembered 
 like many others was not worth a 
 " Continental," and has always kept 
 up its value with remarkable uniformi- 
 ty. In due time Pat, having com- 
 pleted his job, presented himself at the 
 treasurer's office for settlement. The 
 money, the bonds, and the certificate 
 of stock were soon in his possession. 
 
 " And what is this now ? " said Pat, 
 flourishing his certificate of stock, bear- 
 ing the " broad seal " of the corpora- 
 tion. 
 
 " That is your stock, sir," blandly re- 
 plied the treasurer.
 
 338 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 "And is this what I'm to git for 
 me labor? Wasn't me contract for 
 sthock ? " 
 
 " Why, certainly ; that is your stock. 
 What did you expect ? " 
 
 " What did I expect 1 " said Pat, ex- 
 citedly ; " what did I expect ! Why 
 pigs, and shape, and horses, shure ! " 
 
 Silk-Dyer's Poetical Sign. 
 
 POOK Goldsmith's familiar and touch- 
 ing lines : 
 
 " When lovely woman stoops to folly," 
 fare sadly in the hands of a silk-dyer, 
 who puts on his sign and circular this 
 wicked parody : 
 
 " When lovely woman tilts her saucer, 
 
 And finds too late that tea will stain 
 Whatever made a woman crosser 
 What art can wash all white again ? 
 
 " The only art the stain to cover, 
 
 To hide the spot from every eye, 
 And wear an unsoiled dress above her, 
 Of proper color, is to dye I " 
 
 Full-size Heading's to Advertise- 
 ments. 
 
 As the editor of " old KNICK." 
 vouches for the strict ter-ruth of the 
 following little legend, it may be safely 
 assumed to be strictly ter-rue, especially 
 in view of the extrinsic probability 
 which is so obvious in the narration : 
 
 A few years since, the writer of the 
 following sketch was one of the editors 
 and proprietors of a daily and weekly 
 newspaper, published in one of the 
 large towns of Western New York. 
 Among the numerous patrons of the 
 paper was a man whom I shall describe 
 as Levi Lapp, a carpenter by trade, and 
 a very clever man in his way, but as the 
 sequel shows, entirely unacquainted 
 with the art which claims as its shining 
 lights the names of Guttemberg and 
 Faust. 
 
 Having considerable Yankee adapt- 
 edness to one thing or the other, in the 
 
 useful as well as ornamental line, Mr. 
 Lapp had recently purchased the right 
 to manufacture a patent pump, which 
 he was very desirous of introducing to 
 the public, through the columns of our 
 paper. In other words, he wanted to 
 advertise it. and in the course of con- 
 versation about the price and other de- 
 tails, mentioned to me that he would 
 like a cut of his new pump inserted as 
 a heading to the advertisement. I re- 
 plied, " Very well," and immediately 
 asked, " Have you the cut here ? " He 
 replied, " No, but I have got one at my 
 house, and will fetch it in." 
 
 In a day or two Mr. Lapp came into 
 the office with a hand-bill, which he 
 unfolded, and which contained a foe 
 simile of the pump he was manufac- 
 turing. 
 
 He said to me : " Now you can get 
 in my cut, and do so at once, for I wish 
 to see it in print in your paper." 
 
 " Where is your cut ? " I asked. 
 
 " On the bill," he replied, with all 
 the seriousness of a post captain. 
 
 I then told him that it would require 
 a block of wood cut by an engraver in 
 the shape and likeness of the pump ; 
 that this was called a cut or engraving, 
 and that it would have to be used in 
 the press, in connection with the types, 
 to make up such an advertisement as 
 he desired. I further told him who 
 could do the job, and the probable 
 expense some fifteen or twenty dol- 
 lars. 
 
 A bright idea appeared to influence 
 Mr. Lapp, and he informed me that he 
 thought he could do the job himself, 
 and save just so much outlay. I told 
 him if he could it would suit me 
 equally as well; but I thought he 
 would find it a trifle difficult. 
 
 We separated, and I saw no more 
 of Levi Lapp for several weeks. In 
 fact, I had forgotten all about the mat- 
 ter. One morning, bright and early, 
 as I was busy at the desk, in came Mr. 
 Lapp, in a great hurry and bluster. 
 He quickly explained himself, and
 
 COMMERCIAL ART AND PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 339 
 
 said he had his cut finished, and had 
 brought it as a heading to his adver- 
 tisement. 
 
 I said: " Very well. Where is it?" 
 
 He answered : " Down stairs." 
 
 Without giving the matter a mo- 
 ment's thought, I said to him, " Bring 
 it up ; " and he instantly left the room 
 for that purpose. 
 
 His back was hardly turned, how- 
 ever, before the thought struck me that 
 he had rather a huge engraving for a 
 paper of limited size like ours. And 
 calling to the foreman to see if I was 
 not correct in my opinion, I turned 
 again to the desk. 
 
 The foreman was back in an instant, 
 and I was soon aware that Levi Lapp's 
 bright idea had grown into giant pro- 
 portions, and that the engraving or cut 
 he had brought for our press was no 
 less than a veritable wood pump of full 
 size, even to the pump log, chain, crank 
 and water spout. 
 
 Lapp was proceeding to bring his 
 " extended cut " into our establishment, 
 but at that very moment was deterred 
 from executing his plan by the shouts 
 and laughter of the entire printing office 
 force, including the devil himself, who 
 stood at the windows making merry at 
 his expense. 
 
 The true condition of affairs slowly 
 dawned upon Mr. Lapp's vision ; and 
 when informed that he had made a 
 much larger " cut " than the present 
 condition of the art preservative would 
 justify, he hurriedly replaced his " en- 
 graving" on the wagon that brought 
 it to our door and drove off, evidently 
 making a greater " impression " in this 
 way than the pump could, by any pos- 
 sibility, have made in our limited es- 
 tablishment. 
 
 Bush's Celebrated Figure-Heads. 
 
 EDWARD CUTBTTSH was considered 
 the best carver of his day. Among his 
 apprentices, at the close of the last 
 century, was William Rush, of Phila- 
 delphia. When Rush first saw, on a 
 foreign vessel, a walking figure most 
 unusual, in that day he instantly 
 conceived the design of more tasteful 
 and graceful figures than had been be- 
 fore executed. He at once surpassed 
 his master; and having thus opened 
 his mind to the contemplation and 
 study of such attitudes and figures as 
 he saw in nature, he was very soon 
 enabled to surpass all his former per- 
 formances. Then his figures began to 
 excite admiration in foreign ports. The 
 figure of the " Indian Trader " to the 
 ship " William Penn " (the Trader was 
 dressed in Indian habiliments), excited 
 great admiration in London. The car- 
 vers there would come in boats and 
 station themselves near the ship, so as 
 to sketch designs from it. They even 
 came to take casts of plaster-of-Paris 
 from the head. This was directly after 
 the Revolution, when she was com- 
 manded by Captain Josiah. When he 
 carved a river god as the figure for the 
 ship " Ganges," the Hindoos came off 
 in numerous boats to pay their admira- 
 tion, and perhaps reverence, to the va- 
 rious emblems in the trail of the image. 
 On one occasion, the house of Nicklin 
 & Griffiths actually had orders from 
 England to Rush (fifty years and more 
 ago), to carve two figures for two ships 
 building there. One was a female per- 
 sonation of Commerce. The duties 
 charged in that instance amounted to 
 more than the first cost of the images 
 themselves.
 
 PART SEVENTH. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND THINGS MEMORABLE CONCERNING 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION.
 
 PAET SEVENTH. 
 
 Anecdotes and Things Memorable concerning Business Transit and 
 
 Communication, 
 
 SHIPPING, STEAMBOATS, RAILWAYS, EXPRESSES, TELEGRAPHS, COACHES, OMNIBUSES, ETC., 
 THEIR OWNERS, OFFICERS, PATRONS, AND ATTACHES. 
 
 The heaven-conducted prow 
 
 Of navigation bold, that fearless braves 
 
 The burning line, or dares the wintry pole. THOMSON. 
 
 Soon shall thy power, unconquered Steam I afar 
 Drag the swift oarge and drive the rapid car. 
 
 DARWIN (more than ninety ytars ago). 
 
 Now there is nothing gives a man such spirits 
 As going at full speed. DON JUAN. 
 
 No longer gee-up and gee-ho, 
 But fiz flz-z I off we go 1 ANON. 
 
 Purchase of Jacob Barker's Ship " Uni- 
 ted States" by the Emperor Nicholas. 
 
 AT one period of his business career, 
 Jacob Barker was extensively engaged 
 in the Russian trade, and gave the 
 name of " Russia " to the last ship he had 
 built. Among the vessels employed 
 by Mr. Barker in his Russian business, 
 was a very fine New- York built ship, 
 named the " United States." 
 
 This ship was lying at anchor at 
 Cronstadt, in 1829, when the young 
 emperor, Nicholas, passing by in his 
 barge, on his way to the inspection of 
 his fleet, being attracted by her fine 
 appearance, the boatswain's whistle was 
 sounded, and the men peaked their 
 oars, while the emperor took a full 
 view of the vessel ; it again sounded, 
 the boat went round the ship, and then 
 landed ; the captain was invited on 
 shore, when the emperor inquired of 
 him if his ship was for sale and if so, 
 what was the price. The reply was, 
 " She was for sale until yesterday, when 
 
 a charter was obtained, to take a car- 
 go of copper, &c., to Bordeaux price, 
 $50,000 ; she cannot now be sold with- 
 out the consent of the charterers." The 
 emperor responded : " I will send down 
 commissioners to inspect the vessel; 
 if they report favorably, I will obtain 
 the consent of the charterers, and give 
 you the required $50,000 for the ship." 
 On the czar's return y to the city, he 
 directed his minister of marine to con- 
 fer with the charterers ; he did so, and 
 stipulated to pay a specified amount for 
 their annulling the charter, provided 
 she, on inspection, should prove satis- 
 factory allowing three days for the 
 examination. She proved satisfactory. 
 But the minister of marine omitting to 
 give the notice within the three days, 
 the cargo was sent down, and the ship 
 commenced loading. The emperor 
 passed again the next day, and per- 
 ceived her to be a foot and a half 
 deeper in the water than when he 
 resolved to make the purchase. He
 
 344 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 returned immediately to the city, and 
 sent for the minister of marine, from 
 whom he obtained an explanation. In 
 place of directing him to disregard the 
 delay in giving the answer, as a frivo- 
 lous objection, he directed him to in- 
 form the captain that he might proceed 
 to Bordeaux with his cargo ; and as it 
 would be too late to return that season 
 to Russia, he might go to the United 
 States and procure another cargo, come 
 back with it to Europe, and then return 
 to St. Petersburg, when he, the emper- 
 or, would take the ship at the same 
 price. She did return, was received, 
 and promptly paid for, the royal pur- 
 chaser personally superintending the 
 consummation of his bargain. 
 
 Such high-minded conduct, such 
 business-like attention to mercantile 
 usage, on the part of a crowned head, 
 is seldom met with, though in this in- 
 stance quite consistent with the auto- 
 crat's well-known respect for American 
 merchants. 
 
 "Considering" a Ship Builder. 
 
 JOHN MOKGAN was a merchant and 
 ship owner, formerly residing in Penn- 
 sylvania. He made a contract with a 
 builder to build him a vessel. When 
 the vessel was partly finished, and he 
 had received payment for all he had 
 done, he went to Mr. M., and told him 
 that he had ascertained that he could 
 not build the vessel for the price agreed, 
 as he should lose all he was worth, and 
 perhaps more, and had therefore con- 
 cluded he must abandon the job where 
 it was, and let him get some one else 
 to finish it. This was a poser to Mor- 
 gan, who, after thinking of it for a 
 few moments, said to him, " Well, well, 
 you go on with it, and when we settle, 
 I'll consider you;" which, to the 
 builder, was satisfactory. He there- 
 fore went on until the job was finished, 
 Morgan advancing money from time to 
 time. When they came to settle, Mor- 
 gan drew his check for the balance due 
 
 according to contract. The builder 
 stood and hesitated for a while, and 
 then said, " You know, Mr. Morgan, 
 you said that if I would go on with 
 the job, you would consider me." 
 "Well, well," gruffly replied the old 
 man, " I Tiavc considered y&r, and con- 
 sidered yer a great fool for doiri 1 on't so 
 cheap." 
 
 Imaginative Expressmen an 
 Artificial Corpse. 
 
 IT is quite usual, now-a-days, to send 
 corpses by express. But the business 
 is very unpopular with expressmen, 
 especially if the body has far to 
 travel. 
 
 One morning, a messenger, having 
 among his freight, in the express com- 
 pany's car, one of those ominously 
 oblong boxes, declared confidentially 
 to the conductor of the train, that the 
 body inside " must be very far gone in- 
 deed the smell of it fairly upset him." 
 In vain he tried to forget it, or salubri- 
 fy the odor by smoking a magnificent 
 cigar. The smell became more offen- 
 sive to him every minute during the 
 long night that he was whizzing away 
 with it over the rail track ; and before 
 the train arrived in New York, it af- 
 fected him so much that he could not 
 stay in the car. 
 
 When the drivers, with the wagons 
 of the New York office, went to the de- 
 pot for the express freight, the illness 
 of the unfortunate messenger was ob- 
 vious, and in answer to inquiries, he 
 explained the cause. All eyes at once 
 fell on the oblong box, and every man 
 held his nose. It was decided unani- 
 mously that it was too far gone to be 
 taken to the office, and as the railroad 
 men swore (through their suppressed 
 olfactories) that they would not suffer 
 it to remain in the depot, the strongest- 
 nerved and most accommodating driver 
 present took it to the " dead house," 
 up town. 
 
 No one knew where the obnoxious 
 box came from. It was usual to make
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 345 
 
 a special bargain in such cases, but no 
 allusion was made to it on the way 
 bill. In the course of the day, how- 
 ever, the mystery was solved. A gen- 
 tleman came into the express office in 
 Broadway, and called for the box. 
 
 "It has been taken to the dead 
 house," was the reply of the clerk. 
 
 "The dead house!" exclaimed the 
 applicant. 
 
 " Yes, sir," rejoined the clerk, firmly ; 
 " we couldn't stand it, sir. Too far 
 gone, sir." 
 
 " Too far gone 1 " was the quick re- 
 tort ; " I should think so, if you have 
 sent it way up to th street. Explain 
 yourself ! What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean that the body smelt too lad, 
 sir 1 " responded the clerk. 
 
 " Smelt bad ! " cried the visitor ; " I 
 have handled it for ten years past, and 
 I never yet smelt anything but the var- 
 nish, and that not at all unpleasantly. 
 Hang it, sir, that box contains my man- 
 nikin, an artificial anatomy or model 
 
 of the human body. I am Dr. W , 
 
 the lecturer on physiology." 
 
 Risks and Accidents Insured Against. 
 
 IT would appear that the notion, 
 broached so long ago, of a railway in- 
 surance office, has been carried into ex- 
 ecution. A company has been actu- 
 ally started at Paris, to insure persons 
 against railway risks and accidents. 
 The directors promise to give so much 
 for the loss of an arm, a leg and even 
 the value of a burn is calculated to a 
 nicety. They offer annuities, also, to 
 surviving relations, and undertake, free 
 of expense, to bury any one who has 
 been killed. Similar companies, it is 
 thought, would be desirable in other 
 parts say in our own Western States. 
 The only apprehension is, that so many 
 railways in that section would have to be 
 rated " Doubly Hazardous ; " and that 
 a person travelling by them, would be 
 charged at the same rate as a medical 
 insurance office would charge a person 
 
 who is on the point of sailing for Sierra 
 Leone. 
 
 Floating: Railways. 
 
 SOME ingenious gentleman of a prac- 
 tical turn of mind, who seems to think 
 that capital does not get sunk rapidly 
 enough in railways of the usual con- 
 struction, has, as the result of much 
 speculation, proposed a floating line, 
 which will, of course, if carried out, be 
 exposed to more than the ordinary fluc- 
 tuations to which those things are lia- 
 ble. The scheme may work well 
 enough when matters go on smoothly, 
 but when Neptune has a bill or a bil- 
 low to take up, and Boreas may be 
 raising the wind to help him out, it is 
 to be feared the traffic on the floating 
 line would be entirely swamped, to say 
 nothing of the difficulty the engineers 
 might experience in taking their loads. 
 However, the committee who have the 
 subject under consideration, may be 
 able to show that it will be practicable 
 to outride these difficulties which 
 merely suggest themselves at first 
 thought. 
 
 Superseding Steam. 
 
 A LETTEB in Galignani's Messenger 
 having fully proved the facility with 
 which tables can be moved by means 
 of a " company " through mere volition, 
 after the hands of the company have 
 been placed for a short time on the ta- 
 ble, it is proposed that a company shall 
 be formed for the application of tabu- 
 lar locomotion to practical purposes 
 transportation of merchandise and the 
 conveyance of passengers ; to be called 
 the Locomotive Table Company. The 
 principal object of the association will 
 be to supersede steam engines on rail- 
 ways ; an improvement in travelling by 
 which it is hoped many serious acci- 
 dents will be prevented which would 
 otherwise have occurred. The table 
 will be placed where the engine is at
 
 346 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 present, in front of the train. It will 
 go on grooved castors, and a certain 
 number of the directors of the company 
 will be seated at a board in connection 
 with it, which will insure that addi- 
 tional guarantee of safety so much 
 wanted on railroads. The expenses in- 
 volved in carrying out the company's 
 object will not, it is expected, be very 
 considerable ; but shareholders will be 
 required to pay down the whole of 
 their subscriptions, as the projectors 
 anticipate some little difficulty in ob- 
 taining credit. 
 
 Universal Salvage Company. 
 
 AMONG the various enterprises to 
 which the ingenuity of the day has 
 turned itself, is that of a company 
 which advertises to raise sunken or 
 wrecked vessels, all over the world, 
 and divide the profits. It is not impos- 
 sible that this very promising associa- 
 tion may in time be followed by the In- 
 corporated Mudlarks, or Joint-Stock 
 Dredging Company which, indeed, 
 the first-named concern seems in fact 
 to be, only on a somewhat extended 
 principle. Directors are already ap- 
 pointed, and " a manager afloat " is ad- 
 vertised. It is to be hoped that " share- 
 holders aground " will not be the end 
 of this very useful nautical enterprise. 
 
 Dismissing a Shipmaster. 
 
 ONE of the most faithful shipmasters 
 in the employ of Stephen Girard was 
 Captain Guligar. He had been seventeen 
 years in his service, from an apprentice 
 until he rose to the command of one of 
 his favorite and finest ships. Having 
 thus by diligence and industry been 
 promoted to the berth of first officer, 
 he sailed in that capacity to Batavia, 
 in the Voltaire or Rousseau. At Bata- 
 via the captain died ; and Guligar, as 
 first officer, took the command of the 
 ship, sailing for Holland with a very 
 rich cargo, and arriving at an excellent 
 
 market. From Holland he brought the 
 ship safe into the port of Philadelphia, 
 making altogether an immensely profit- 
 able voyage for his owner. 
 
 Girard having concluded to repeat 
 the voyage to Batavia, Captain Guligar, 
 being either averse to the climate, or 
 from some other cause, observed to Mr. 
 Girard, " that if he had no objection, 
 he would prefer taking the command 
 of such a ship," naming her, which 
 Girard was then loading for a port in 
 Europe. Girard, without uttering a 
 syllable in reply, called to his clerk, 
 and directed him to make out the ac- 
 counts of Captain Guligar immediately. 
 He discharged him on the same day 
 from his employ, saying : " I do not 
 make the voyage for my captains, but 
 for myself," a declaration which no one 
 acquainted with him could possibly 
 venture to dispute. 
 
 Commercial Importance of the Cat. 
 
 THE peculiar relations which grimal- 
 kin sustains to commerce is not gener- 
 ally known. ' It is stated in a London 
 journal that marine insurance in some 
 parts of Europe does not cover damage 
 done to cargo by the depredations of 
 rats ; but if the owner of the cargo thus 
 damaged can prove that the ship was 
 not furnished with a cat, he can recover 
 compensation from the owner of the 
 ship. Again, a ship that is found 
 under certain circumstances, without a 
 living creature on board, is considered a 
 derelict, and, according to certain con- 
 ditions, a forfeiture to the sovereign, 
 lords of the admiralty, and other in- 
 terested parties. And it has not unfre- 
 quently occurred, after all the crew 
 have been lost, or the ship otherwise 
 abandoned, that a live canary bird, 
 domestic fowl, but most frequently a 
 cat, being found on board, has saved 
 the vessel from being condemned as a 
 derelict. Consequently, the ship own- 
 ers, considering the cat's proverbial 
 tenacity of life, as well as its presence
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 347 
 
 being a bar to claims of damage by 
 rats, always take care not to send a 
 ship to sea "without having a cat on 
 board. 
 
 Heading the Annual Report. 
 
 A CERTAIN little railway, the route 
 and character of which will presently 
 appear, has been following the example 
 of larger companies, by holding a gen- 
 eral meeting, presenting a report, and 
 performing, on its own snug little scale, 
 all the operations of a line of first-rate 
 magnitude. A few extracts from the 
 report, as read to the meeting, are here 
 given in advance of its publication : 
 
 " Your Directors had hoped to render 
 this a favorite trunk line for the con- 
 veyance of baggage belonging to the 
 boys and girls going home for the holi- 
 days from the various boarding schools 
 in the neighborhood ; but as there is 
 not as yet any scholastic establishment 
 at Wormwood Scrubs, nor any proba- 
 bility of a large juvenile population in 
 the Canal Basin, which form the two 
 termini and the only stations on the 
 permanent way, there has been as yet 
 no chance of pushing the resources of 
 the line as a trunk, or even a carpet- 
 bag line, into full development. 
 
 " It is with regret that your Directors 
 have to state that the ' branch ' con- 
 cerns, commenced last year, have not 
 yet borne any fruit, though the aspa- 
 ragus cuttings yielded a small revenue 
 applicable to the Holfast Fund in- 
 tended as superannuation money for the 
 one fireman and some of the cuttings 
 remaining uncut from last year, have in 
 due course run to seed, with a view to 
 forming the seeds of future prosperity. 
 
 "A negotiation was undertaken by 
 your Directors with the Great Western, 
 for the sale of the whole of their plant 
 (fixture and tools) ; but as the most 
 valuable portion was a lot of cabbage 
 plants, the negotiation fell to the 
 ground just as the cabbages were shoot- 
 ing out of it. 
 
 " The canal has been looked at with 
 great caution by your Directors, and they 
 have in fact gone very deeply into it. 
 They have also, after due deliberation, 
 abandoned that part of the line known 
 as the Shepherd's Bush Clothes Line, 
 though the laundresses have been hang- 
 ing out for better terms ; but your 
 Directors prefer the chance of the dry- 
 goods to the prospect of having a damp 
 thrown on any of their lines by a class 
 of people who refused to stir a peg or 
 even a clothes peg to meet the views 
 of the proprietors. 
 
 " Your Directors are still undecided 
 what to do with the first-class car ori- 
 ginally built for the passenger traffic on 
 this line, and are now considering a 
 proposition from the Messrs. Wee, the 
 great nurserymen, who have made an 
 offer for the car without its wheels, 
 with a view to its conversion into a 
 Chinese summer house, or an extensive 
 melon frame." 
 
 Every separate sentence of the 
 above report was received with shouts 
 of applause ; and, after voting, by ac- 
 clamation, to the chairman of the Board, 
 a teacup of peanuts, to be debited to 
 the company's treasury when the re- 
 ceipts should warrant the expenditure, 
 the meeting broke up with a vote of 
 confidence in everybody and every- 
 thing. 
 
 Ask any Committee Man. 
 
 Dm you ever know a railway from 
 a place no one knows where, to a 
 place no one ever heard of before, with 
 branches everywhere, of which the 
 gradients were not easy, the cuttings 
 few, the tunnelling next to nothing, 
 and the traffic immense ? 
 
 Unparalleled Railway Damages. 
 
 THE transaction of Lord Petrie with 
 the directors of the Eastern Counties 
 Railroad, England, stands unparalleled, 
 of its class, in railway annals the Shy-
 
 348 
 
 lock, perseveringly exacting his full 
 bond. 
 
 Previous to the company's obtaining 
 a bill, or charter it appears that a se- 
 cret engagement was entered into with 
 his lordship by the provisional com- 
 mittee, who engaged to pay him the 
 enormous sum of six hundred thousand 
 dollars, nominally for the land through 
 which the rail was to pass, but really 
 for the withdrawal of an opposition 
 which might have been disastrous to 
 the road. When, however, the bill was 
 passed, there seems to have been some 
 objection to fulfilling the contract, on 
 the pretended ground of misrepresenta- 
 tion. Nor did the directors hesitate to 
 assert that to fulfil it would be a fraud 
 on the proprietors, the legislature, and 
 the public. 
 
 But if the company were unwilling 
 to pay the money, his lordship was 
 equally unwilling to give it up. He 
 obtained an injunction against them ; 
 he opposed and prevented them from 
 passing through his grounds ; he har- 
 assed and irritated them as they had 
 irritated him, and with far more effect. 
 But the stake was too great to yield 
 quietly. In addition to the money in- 
 volved, Lord P.'s pride was touched 
 to the quick by the treatment he re- 
 ceived. 
 
 The company, wishing to be safe, 
 appointed seven eminent surveyors to 
 report as to the damage likely to be 
 caused to his lordship's estate ; copies 
 of their reports were forwarded to Lord 
 P., and an offer was made to use them 
 as the basis of an amicable arrangement. 
 His lordship, however, positively and 
 squarely declined any change in the 
 terms of the bond. Finally, the direc- 
 tors thought it best to stay proceedings, 
 and, seeing the hopelessness of their 
 case, urged a decision by arbitration. 
 Lord P., however, flatly refused all 
 such interference, and the company was 
 emphatically grounded ; the amended 
 bill, too, which they had caused to be 
 brought in their favor before the legis- 
 
 lature, seemed little likely to result in 
 any good. Still, if the bill were aban- 
 doned, the compulsory power of the 
 company by its first act would soon 
 cease to exist ; and even if they gamed 
 a chancery suit and annulled the con- 
 tract, their opponent might refuse to 
 sell his land at all, and thus a gap of 
 six unfinished miles grace the line. 
 
 It only remained, therefore, for the 
 company to pay the money. Thus his 
 lordship beat the board, and exacted 
 the full amount of his bond the pro- 
 digious sum of six hundred thousand 
 dollars, with interest, being paid for 
 land said by appraisers to be possibly 
 worth twenty-five thousand. This is 
 believed to be a case which stands 
 alone by itself, in respect to the immense 
 amount involved and the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances investing the whole affair. 
 
 Bather Ominous. 
 
 THE directors of a railway company, 
 it is announced, made a few days since 
 a preliminary " trip " upon the newly 
 completed line. There have been so 
 many trips and slips on the various rail- 
 ways, that a little preliminary practice 
 of that work might prove beneficial to 
 persons who prefer making a rapid 
 transit by steam to another world, to 
 the old-fashioned and tedious mode of 
 travelling by post. 
 
 Up Trains and Down Trains. 
 
 " WHAT do you mean by an ' Up 
 Train ' ? " inquired a rural passenger. 
 
 " A train whose engine explodes and 
 blows up the whole concern, of course," 
 replied the conductor. 
 
 "Then, what do you mean by a 
 ' Down Train ' ? " asked verdant. 
 
 " What else could it be but a train 
 whose engine gets off the track and 
 plunges down the bank or into the 
 river, with the cars after it ? " 
 
 " To which of the two does this 'ere 
 belong eh ? "
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 349 
 
 " We can answer no such question in 
 advance 1 " 
 
 The Ladder of Gold. 
 
 IN 1845, when the new railroad ma- 
 nia had so frantically seized upon the 
 English populace, the iron ti#ck was 
 familiarly, and yet seriously, termed 
 the ladder of gold, and all classes strug- 
 gled for a foothold that should enable 
 them to ascend its beckoning heights 
 of speedy affluence. The facts almost 
 exceed belief. A colony of solicitors, 
 engineers, and seedy accountants set- 
 tled in the purlieus of Threadneedle 
 street. Every town and parish in the 
 kingdom blazed out in zinc plates over 
 the doorways. From the cellar to the 
 roof, every fragment of a room held its 
 committee. The darkest cupboard on 
 the stairs contained a secretary or a 
 clerk. Men who were never east of 
 Temple Bar, before or since, were now 
 as familiar to the pavement of Moor- 
 gate street the great rendezvous of 
 the railway craft as the stock brokers. 
 Ladies of title, lords, members of 
 Parliament, and fashionable loungers 
 thronged the noisy passages, and were 
 jostled by adventurers, by gamblers, 
 rogues, and impostors. The choicest 
 phraseology was employed in picturing 
 the advantages and profits of the differ- 
 ent roads. Everything was to pay a 
 large dividend ; everything was to 
 yield a large profit. The shares of one 
 company rose 2,400 per cent. From 
 his garret in some nameless suburb the 
 outcast scamp ; from his West-end ho- 
 tel, the spendthrift fop ; from his dim 
 studio, the poor artist ; from his starved 
 lodging, the broken-down gentleman ; 
 from his flying address, the professional 
 swindler ; from his fine mansion, the 
 man of notoriety, whose life was a daily 
 fight to keep up appearances all these 
 poured into Moorgate street, side by 
 side, and with kindred purposes, every 
 day. Fraud, fiction, and fun made up 
 the staple of these flash projects. On 
 
 one of the contracts the name of a half- 
 pay pensioner for 54 a year was down 
 for 41,500; a curate, known to be 
 poor, was down for 35,000 ; a clerk, 
 for 50,000 ; and two brothers, sons of 
 a charwoman living in a garret, were 
 down for 12,000 and 25,000 respec- 
 tively. Duchesses' delicate fingers han- 
 dled scrip ; old maids inquired with 
 trembling eagerness the price of stocks ; 
 young ladies' eyes ceased to scan the 
 marriage list deserting this for the ta- 
 ble of shares, and startling their lovers 
 with questions respecting the opera- 
 tions of bulls and bears. One person 
 was a director in twenty-three compa- 
 nies, a second in twenty-two, a third in 
 twenty-one, and a fourth in twenty. 
 Thus " madness ruled the hour." On 
 Thursday, October 16, 1845, the Bank 
 of England raised the rate of interest ; 
 the effect was immediate. Men looked 
 doubtfully and darkly at each other. 
 The panic came, and the crash that fol- 
 lowed brought a haggard shadow upon 
 the path of peer and peasant, and a 
 frightful page to almost every family 
 history. 
 
 Oldest Vessel in America. 
 
 IT is believed that the oldest vessel 
 in this country, of American build, is 
 the barque Maria, of which a New 
 Bedford (Mass.) paper of Aug. 11, 
 1859, thus speaks : The bark Maria 
 arrived at this port last evening, from 
 a three-years' cruise in the Indian 
 ocean. She was built at the town of 
 Pembroke, now called Hanson, for a 
 privateer, during the Revolutionary war. 
 She was bought by William Rotch, a 
 merchant of Nantucket, afterward of 
 this city, in the year 1783, and in the 
 same year she made a voyage to Lon- 
 don with a cargo of oil. Her register 
 is dated A. D. 1782, and she is conse- 
 quently in her seventy-seventh year. 
 She claims to be the first ship that dis- 
 played the United States flag in a Brit- 
 ish port after the Revolutionary war,
 
 350 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 which flag is now in existence, though 
 in shreds. Her model is of the old 
 French construction, tumbling home, 
 or rounding very much in her top 
 sides, and she is consequently very 
 narrow on deck, in proportion to her 
 size, two hundred and two tons. It is 
 said that there stands to her credit 
 over two hundred thousand dollars; 
 and from the earliest history of this 
 ship, she never has been any expense 
 by loss to underwriters except once, 
 and that to a very small amount. 
 
 Names of Vessels and Trade of New 
 York in 1680. 
 
 A LIST of the clearances from the 
 port of New York, for the year 1680 
 and a few years subsequent, shows the 
 following quaint names of vessels : Re- 
 store Peace, Bachelor's Delight, the 
 Golden Hind, Happy Returne, Prudent 
 Mary ; and in the way of " adventures " 
 The Brothers' Adventure, John's Ad- 
 venture, Nathaniel's Adventure, the 
 Friends' Adventure, the Best Adven- 
 ture, the Drovers' Adventure, and the 
 Owners' Adventure. 
 
 The foreign ports with which trade 
 was carried on in those days were 
 Barbadoes, Jamaica, the Caribee Isl- 
 ands, Madeira, Nevio, Surinam, Cura- 
 coa, Bermuda, Providence Islands, 
 Fayal, Madagascar, Antigua, the Lee- 
 ward Islands, St. Christopher's, Monser- 
 rat, Newfoundland, St. Augustine, St. 
 Jago, Honduras, London, Amsterdam, 
 Isle of Man, Falmouth, Dover, Cowes, 
 Carlisle. 
 
 Curious Division of Ships into Ounces. 
 
 IT was lately stated in evidence in a 
 bankruptcy case in Wales, that the 
 sixty-four shares into which a vessel, 
 the ownership of which was connected 
 with the case, was divided, were con- 
 sidered equal to one pound avoirdupois, 
 the owner of four shares being called 
 the owner of an ounce, of two shares of 
 
 half an ounce, and so on. This resem- 
 bles the mode of division among the 
 Romans. 
 
 First Vessel in the World. 
 
 THE first vessel of which we have 
 any authentic account the first not 
 only in point of time, but in size, and 
 the magnitude of purpose for which it 
 was intended, is the Ark, The more 
 the dimensions, proportions, and ar- 
 rangement of this wonderful vessel (as 
 given in the simple but comprehensive 
 directions for its construction found 
 recorded) are considered, the more 
 does one's admiration of it increase, as 
 a work of nautical art, and as the most 
 perfect adaptation of a means to an 
 end. Her tonnage, estimated from the 
 data of size given, must have been for- 
 ty-two thousand four hundred and 
 thirteen tons, equal to about eighteen 
 ships of the line. 
 
 English Hares by Express. 
 
 A THICK practised considerably of 
 late years, by rogues in the name of 
 expressmen, is to call upon people at 
 their houses with bundles, purporting 
 to have come by express from a dis- 
 tance, upon which they have the hardi- 
 hood to collect charges. Their de- 
 mands are usually paid, and their vic- 
 tims too late discover that they have 
 got in exchange for their money only a 
 parcel of paper rags, or other trash. In 
 one instance, a box of " game " was left 
 at a house up town, New York, and 
 " twenty shillings charges " collected 
 the rascal remarking that he believed 
 it was English hares. The lady was de- 
 lighted with the idea that it was a 
 present from a very dear friend in Eng- 
 land, and she was dying of impatience 
 until her servant man had opened it, 
 and discovered that it contained only a 
 deceased cat !
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 351 
 
 Telegraph vs. Express. 
 
 " CAN you take a box to Albany to- 
 day ? " was the question of a good- 
 looking young gentleman, who was 
 trying to raise a crop of hair on his 
 upper lip, but which seemed more 
 like the down on the south side of a 
 peach. 
 
 " We will start it to-day, and it will 
 arrive in Albany some time during the 
 night, provided the train has the good 
 luck to arrive here." 
 
 " Oh, but it must reach there by nine 
 o'clock to-night, at the farthest." 
 
 " Had you not better send it by tele- 
 graph? then there will be no doubt 
 of its arriving in time." 
 
 " The telegraph man laughed at me 
 when I asked him to do it, and said I 
 had better carry the box to Albany 
 myself." 
 
 " As it is now near five o'clock, and it 
 ' must ' be there by nine, you had bet- 
 ter follow his advice. Those gentle- 
 men who work the telegraph under- 
 stand velocity in a remarkable degree, 
 and I have no doubt they judged cor- 
 rectly when they advised you to take it 
 there yourself." 
 
 " I suppose they judged me to be a 
 fast young man, from the observations 
 they made, and I was not pleased with 
 them." 
 
 " They seldom form an incorrect 
 opinion of those persons who visit 
 them, and I doubt much whether they 
 were mistaken with you." 
 
 " What must I do, then ? " 
 
 "Take the advice of the telegraph 
 operator." 
 
 " What ! and carry the box there 
 myself?" 
 
 " Certainly. You know it must be 
 there by nine o'clock, and I know of 
 no other way of its getting there." 
 
 And such impossibilities are expect- 
 ed by persons every day, of those en- 
 gaged in the express business. 
 
 Church and State vs. Railways. 
 
 A TRANSACTION peculiarly illustrat- 
 ing the character and policy of George 
 Hudson is thus related : In negotiating 
 for the Newcastle and Darlington line, 
 he had outwitted the Dean and Chap- 
 ter of Durham, showing the vanity of 
 the idea that the " Church and State " 
 could interpose to stay such great in- 
 dustrial undertakings. He now again 
 visited that ancient archiepiscopal see, 
 in company with George Stephenson, 
 for the purpose of outwitting the share- 
 holders of the Durham junction, by 
 buying up the railway between them. 
 Great was the astonishment of the pub- 
 lic when they came to hear the particu- 
 lars of the affair. A railway put into 
 the pocket of an engineer and director ! 
 The proprietors did not so slowly re- 
 cover from their surprise. Mr. Hudson, 
 by this purchase, which he handed over 
 to the company, had gained a further 
 step on the new highway to the north, 
 a further security for carrying out un- 
 checked all his plans, and sustaining 
 without impediment the whole fabric 
 of his power. 
 
 Lloyd's Nautical Book. 
 
 AN examination of this curious 
 British commercial catalogue, and in 
 which ten thousand five hundred and 
 forty-eight vessels are registered, af- 
 fords some little amusement in connec- 
 tion with the names most popular, or 
 contrariwise, among British merchants. 
 
 The largest proportion are named 
 after their owners, or some member of 
 their immediate family. The royal 
 family also, the nobility, and eminent 
 characters, seem to be favorite names 
 with shipmasters: for example, there 
 are twenty-five Victorias, thirteen Al- 
 berts or Prince Alberts, seven Prince 
 of Wales, and fourteen Princess Royals ; 
 while each junior prince or princess has 
 their representatives as well. 
 
 There are sixteen Dukes, besides the
 
 352 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Iron Duke, and six Wellingtons, and 
 one called, par excellence, THE Duke, 
 and six Duchesses. Descending a step 
 in the peerage, there are found six Mar- 
 quises and seven Marchionesses, thirty- 
 three Earls and twenty-one Countesses, 
 forty-four Lords, and exactly double 
 that number of Ladies. 
 
 The army is represented by eighteen 
 Generals, and the navy by thirteen Ad- 
 mirals. The bench has one solitary 
 representative in Baron Martin ; and 
 the only literary characters are Burns, 
 Byron, and Boz. Some of those good 
 men whose names are as household 
 words are also remembered, such, for 
 example, as John Wesley, John Bun- 
 yan, Heber, Hedley Vicars, General 
 Havelock, and Livingstone. 
 
 Names expressive of speed are natu- 
 rally favorites, there being eleven Ac- 
 tives, and several Velocity, Alacrity, 
 Alert, Plying Foam, Driving Mist, Ar- 
 row, and Faugh a Ballagh, or Clear the 
 Way. 
 
 Some names let us into a little bit of 
 family history ; thus, there is something 
 of filial affection in calling a vessel the 
 Faithful Mother, and her owner can 
 easily be imagined to be one who re- 
 spects the fifth commandment. On the 
 other hand, the Only Son is doubtless 
 a tribute of parental love. There are 
 numbers of Brothers, Sisters, Friends, 
 and Cousins quite a large family 
 even excluding the Seven Brothers, 
 Five Sisters, and the Twins. The Girl 
 I Love tells her own tale. 
 
 Several names have an airish smack of 
 defiance ; thus, Cock-o'-the-Walk, Touch 
 me Not, and Let me Alone, seem to 
 imply that any competitor has but a 
 poor chance, and had better not try a 
 race with them. Come On, on the con- 
 trary, invites a trial of speed, which I'll 
 Try apparently accepts. There's some- 
 thing cheering about All Right, Fear 
 Not, and Better Luck Still ; and some- 
 thing a little conceited in Wide Awake, 
 Look Out, Matchless, and Mark That ! 
 It is presumable that Bloomer and Cri- 
 
 noline belong to the same owner, and, 
 no doubt, if he builds a third vessel, 
 he will call her well, the Sky Reach- 
 er. The man who put his savings in 
 a ship, and named her the Ascendant, 
 can comfort himself with the pleasur- 
 able feeling that he must be growing 
 wealthy, for are not all his fortunes in 
 the ascendant ? So, too, the owner 
 of Profit and Loss, doubtless, hopes the 
 results of his vessel's earnings may be 
 represented by the first part of her 
 name ; and likewise the owner of Cornu- 
 copia, that she may indeed prove to 
 him a horn of plenty. 
 
 National characteristics are often ex- 
 hibited in the names given to vessels 
 in different countries. The Spaniard 
 evinces the somewhat superstitious ten- 
 dency of his mind by such titles as San- 
 tissima Trinidada, St. Joseph, Mother 
 Mary, the Twelve Apostles, &c. 
 
 The French, again, manifest their gaie- 
 te and gallantry, by such titles for their 
 ships, as La Belle Julie, La Bayadere, 
 La Prima Donna, Mademoiselle, &c. 
 
 The Dutch, being an industrious, 
 frugal people, may naturally be expect- 
 ed to confirm their character in these 
 respects, by naming their vessels the 
 Beaver and the Gold Hunter. 
 
 John Bull's crustiness and pugnacity 
 are abundantly exemplified by such 
 names as the Badger, Lion, Gladiator, 
 Spitfire, Boxer, Julius Caesar, Ven- 
 geance, Retribution, Bull Dog, and the 
 like. 
 
 Rival Steamboat Lines. 
 
 IN the month of September, 1809, 
 says Prof. Renwick, I was a partaker 
 in the exciting scene, then first enacted, 
 of a steamboat race. A company from 
 Albany had been formed for the pur- 
 pose of competing with Fulton. The 
 first vessel of this rival line was adver- 
 tised to leave Albany at the same time 
 with Fulton's. Parties ran high in the 
 hotels of Albany. The partisans of Ful- 
 ton were enrolled under Prof. Kemp,
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 353 
 
 of Columbia College ; those of the op- 
 position under Jacob Stout. The vic- 
 tory was long in suspense ; and it was 
 not until after the thirtieth hour of a 
 hard struggle that the result was pro- 
 claimed by Dr. Kemp, on the taffrail 
 of Fulton's vessel, and holding out, in 
 derision, a coil of rope to Captain Stout, 
 for the purpose, as he informed him, 
 of towing him into port. When the 
 age, high standing, and sedate charac- 
 ter of these two gentlemen are consid- 
 ered, it did not surprise me remarks 
 Prof. R, who witnessed the excite- 
 ment when I afterward heard of West- 
 ern women having devoted their bacon 
 to feed the fires of a steamboat furnace ! 
 
 Arrival of the Steamer. 
 
 COLONEL SNOW, a most incorrigible 
 wag, came in one morning to Grant's ton- 
 sorial establishment in Ann street, New 
 York, and with a face beaming with 
 honest excitement, remarked, " Well ! 
 the steamer's in at last. She has made 
 quick time ; but she brought away her 
 pilot, and carried away her pipes. She 
 had a fine lot of passengers ; more than 
 one hundred and fifty. The news she 
 brings is not " Here half a dozen lis- 
 teners, "under treatment," arrest the 
 barber's hand, and wiping the lather 
 from their faces, inquire with eager- 
 ness : " What steamer is it the Hiber- 
 nia, or Caledonia ? " " Oh, bless you, 
 no 1 " replies the colonel ; " oh, no ; the 
 Olive Branch ferry boat from Brook- 
 lyn ; she came over very full this morn- 
 ing, and in about six minutes ; she car- 
 ried back the pilot she brought away, 
 and at the same time she carried away 
 her pipes ! " 
 
 Railcar Privileges. 
 
 EVEKYBODY who has travelled much 
 on the Northern railroads, must have 
 noticed that in many of the cars, the 
 name of the makers, " Eaton, Gilbert & 
 Co.," is conspicuously posted. Not long 
 23 
 
 since, in one of these cars, a passenger 
 of the name of Gilbert was travelling 
 with a company of his friends, and see- 
 ing another notice just over the above, 
 to the effect that " passengers are re- 
 quested not to crack nuts in the cars," 
 his innate love of fun was awakened. 
 At the first stopping place he filled his 
 pockets with peanuts, and distributing 
 them among his friends, they were all 
 soon busily engaged in eating them, 
 and strewing the floor with the shells. 
 The conductor, in passing, gently inti- 
 mated that it was against the rules, and 
 pointed to the printed notice. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Gilbert, " I see, I see 
 that ; but you see by your own rules 
 that we are privileged." 
 
 The conductor, thinking that they 
 would soon stop, without any further 
 trouble, passed on. On his next 
 rounds, he found the same party still 
 at the nuts, and making a great dis- 
 play of shells on the floor. Out of pa- 
 tience, he now spoke up quite sharply, 
 and said to Mr. Gilbert : 
 
 " You must comply with the rules 
 of the company, if you travel in these 
 cars." 
 
 " Certainly, certainly, we will, but 
 you do not seem to be aware that I and 
 my company are excepted from the rule 
 you refer to." 
 
 " No, I do not know anything of the 
 sort, nor you either, and there is no use 
 having any words about it ; you must 
 stop or quit the cars." 
 
 " Be quiet a minute," replied Mr. Gil- 
 bert, " and I will convince you. To be 
 sure it says, ' Passengers are forbidden 
 to crack nuts in the cars,' but right un- 
 derneath is written, ' Eaton, Gilbert & 
 Co.' Now, my name is Gilbert, and 
 this is my company, and we are doing 
 as we are told." 
 
 The conductor " gave it up." 
 
 First Railroad in Europe and America. 
 
 THE first instance of the use of rails 
 appears to have been some time pre-
 
 354 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 vious to the year 1676, at the collieries 
 near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. 
 At that time, the coals were conveyed 
 from the mines to the banks of the 
 river, " by laying rails of timber exact- 
 ly straight and parallel; and bulky 
 carts were made, with four rollers fit- 
 ting those rails, whereby the carriage 
 was made so easy that one horse would 
 draw four or five chaldrons of coal." 
 
 An advance was made about the year 
 1767, in the use of iron bars as a sub- 
 stitute for the upper rail of the road ; 
 they were cast five feet long, four inches 
 wide, and one and three fourths inches 
 thick, with holes for the spikes by 
 which they should be secured to the 
 lower rail. 
 
 The first railroad company opened 
 for conveying passengers was the 
 Stockton and Darlington road in 1825, 
 and this was worked with horse power. 
 In 1826, the French engineer, M. Se- 
 guin, successfully introduced locomo- 
 tives upon the railways from St. Eti- 
 enne to Lyons, and to Andrezieux. 
 
 In the United States, a horse railroad 
 was built of pine rails, in 1826, from 
 the granite quarries of Quincy, Mass., 
 to the Neponset river, a distance of 
 three miles. This was the first in 
 America, except a temporary railway 
 with two tracks in Boston, for Ifemov- 
 ing gravel from Beacon Hill ; this was 
 so arranged, that while one train de- 
 scended the hill with its load, the emp- 
 ty train would thereby be hauled up 
 for loading. The first use of a locomo- 
 tive in this country was in 1829, and 
 was used on the railroad built by the 
 Delaware and Hudson canal company 
 in 1828, from their coal mines to 
 Honesdale, the terminus of the canal. 
 
 Mode of Getting Money Transmitted. 
 
 IN the bankerless twelfth century, so 
 great was the difficulty of conveyance 
 for the transmitting of money from Spain 
 to Rome which was generally done by 
 pilgrims returning from Santiago that 
 
 for every ounce of gold brought safely 
 to the treasury of St. Peters, a year's 
 indulgence was granted to the soul of 
 the bearer, by the Roman pontiff. 
 
 Thomas Gray, the Originator of 
 
 Railways. 
 
 IT is now a little more than forty 
 years since a thoughtful man, Thomas 
 Gray, travelling in the north of Eng- 
 land on commercial business, stood 
 looking at a small train of coal wagons 
 impelled by steam along a tramroad 
 which connected the mouth of one of 
 the collieries of that district with the 
 wharf at which the coals were shipped. 
 
 " Why," asked Gray of the engineer, 
 " are not these tramroads laid down 
 all over England, so as to supersede 
 our common roads, and steam engines 
 employed to convey goods and passen- 
 gers along them, so as to supersede 
 horse power ? " 
 
 " Just propose you that " said the 
 engineer, looking at the questioner with 
 the corner of his eye " to the nation, 
 sir, and see what you will get by it ! 
 Why, sir, you would be worried to 
 death for your pains." 
 
 Nothing more was said ; but the intel- 
 ligent traveller did not take the engi- 
 neer's warning. Tramroads, locomotive 
 steam engines, horse power superseded ! 
 the idea he had conceived continued 
 to infest his brain, and would not be 
 driven out. Tramroads, locomotive 
 steam engines, horse power superseded ! 
 he would talk of nothing else to his 
 friends. Tramroads, locomotive steam 
 engines, horse power superseded ! he 
 at length broached the scheme openly ; 
 first to the public men by means of let- 
 ters and circulars, and afterward to the 
 public itself by means of a printed 
 book. Hardly any one would listen to 
 his words, or be bothered with his fan- 
 cies ; the engineer's words seemed like- 
 ly to prove true. 
 
 Still he persevered, holding the pub- 
 lic by the button, as it were, and din- 
 ning into its ears the same wearisome
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 355 
 
 words. From public political men, in- 
 cluding the cabinet ministers of the 
 day, he received little encouragement ; 
 a few influential commercial men, how- 
 ever, began at length to be interested 
 in his plan. Persons of eminence took 
 it up, and advocated it almost as eulo- 
 gistically as the original projector. It 
 having thus been proved, according to 
 Dogberry's immortal phrase, that the 
 scheme was a good scheme, it soon 
 went near to be thought so. Capital 
 came to its aid. In 1826, Parliament 
 passed an act authorizing the construc- 
 tion of the first British railway, proper- 
 ly so called. 
 
 Largest Ship-owner in England. 
 
 THE number of ships belonging to 
 Mr. Dunbar, of Limehouse, the eminent 
 Protectionist ship-owner, has been set 
 down at thirty-three, the aggregate 
 burthen of which is twenty-two thou- 
 sand tons, or about one thousand more 
 than the Messrs. Green. Nearly the 
 whole of these vessels were bought 
 while the repeal of the navigation laws 
 was under agitation, or since they were 
 repealed some of them very lately. 
 And yet Mr. Dunbar has been the lead- 
 er among those who declared that Brit- 
 ish shipping has been and is in a state 
 of ruin, during the whole of the period 
 which he has employed in accumulat- 
 ing this enormous mercantile fleet the 
 largest ever owned in that country by 
 an individual ship-owner. 
 
 Literature of the Cabin. 
 
 MANY a downeast man has made a 
 crack sea-captain, while he was a poor 
 hand at spelling. Capt. Ezekiel Jen- 
 kins was one of these men ; he knew 
 the ropes well, but writing letters was 
 not his forte. He sailed the ship Jehu, 
 from Boston to South America, while 
 the republics were in a disturbed condi- 
 tion, and the port he designed to make 
 was blockaded ; he could not enter, 
 
 and his cargo could find no market. 
 He informed his owners of the state of 
 things, in a letter so remarkably con- 
 densed as to incline toward the ob- 
 scure. It was in these words : " SIB 
 Own to the blockhead the vig is spilt." 1 ' 
 The owners could not make it out, but 
 a friend of the captain, more familiar 
 with his laconic style, read it thus: 
 " SIR Owing to the blockade, the 
 voyage is spoilt." 
 
 Paying: off Jack. 
 
 A SHIP-OWNER, in despatching a ves- 
 sel, had a good deal of trouble with one 
 of his men, who had got very " top- 
 heavy " on his advance wages. After 
 the vessel had accomplished her voy- 
 age, on settling with the crew, it came 
 to this man's turn to be paid. " What 
 name ? " asked the merchant. " Cain, 
 sir," was the reply. " What ! are you 
 the man who slew his brother ? " face- 
 tiously rejoined the merchant. " No, sir," 
 was the ready and witty reply of Jack, 
 with a knowing wink, and giving his 
 trowsers a nautical hitch, " Pm the man 
 that was slewed ! " 
 
 "No Swearing- among- the Crew." 
 
 A MERCHANT in one of our seaports, 
 on fitting out a ship for India, told the 
 captain at the time of making the con- 
 tract for the voyage, that there must be 
 no swearing among the crew ; that he, 
 the captain, must engage not to swear 
 himself nor permit others to be pro- 
 fane ; that he must do as he pleased, 
 with respect to taking command of the 
 ship on these terms, but, if he accepted 
 the employment, it would be expected 
 that he should rigidly adhere to the 
 stipulation, and that it should be 
 known as the law of the ship, that no 
 profaneness could be permitted. 
 
 The captain seemed to have no ob- 
 jection to reforming, but inquired : 
 " How can I suddenly break off an in- 
 veterate habit ? " "I will take care that
 
 356 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 you be reminded of your duty," said 
 the owner ; " wear the ring that I shall 
 give you, and let the law of the vessel 
 be explicitly known." Accordingly he 
 procured a ring for the captain, with 
 this motto engraved upon it : " Swear 
 not at all." 
 
 The vessel soon sailed, and after per- 
 forming the voyage, returned to the 
 seaport from whence she sailed. On 
 being inquired of respecting the sub- 
 ject, the supercargo declared that there 
 had been no profanity on board, except- 
 ing a little within the first twenty days 
 after sailing. At the close of this short 
 period, the old habit was entirely mas- 
 tered ; and during the remainder of the 
 voyage, both at sea and in port, the 
 success of the experiment was complete. 
 
 Usefulness of Steamboats in Reducing- 
 the Population. 
 
 ACCOBDLNG to one of the most ob- 
 serving of modern writers, it is to the 
 over-population of a country that its 
 social or commercial depression is due. 
 Of the numerous remedies applicable to 
 this evil, none have been found so effec- 
 tual as steamboats ; and, although, their 
 superiority over the small-pox and rail- 
 roads has sometimes been sharply dis- 
 puted, yet, from the increased favor in 
 which every succeeding season they 
 are held, as engines of destruction, it 
 is clear that the highest opinion is en- 
 tertained of their efficacy. 
 
 In proof of this, any one who doubts 
 may safely be cited to the cheap excur- 
 sion boats on their Sunday trips. The 
 deck crammed, and no convenient 
 standing-room on the paddle-wheels, 
 he will be wedged in by the crowd so 
 tightly as to save him from any use of 
 his limbs when the accident, which is 
 sure to occur, takes place. Exactly at 
 the moment of the start, an opposition 
 boat will also set off, so that the speed 
 will be deliciously exhilarating, and 
 everything will be done to realize, to 
 the most ardent expectant, the usual 
 catastrophe. In trying to give " Hell 
 
 turn" as narrow a berth as possible, 
 each captain will foul his adversary, 
 and a few passengers will be missed 
 from the paddle boxes, to make an ad- 
 ditional hole or turn in the water. As 
 they will very likely amount to a dozen 
 or so quite enough to help one an- 
 other it would be nonsense to stop 
 either vessel, and so the burthen being 
 thus lightened, the speed is doubled. 
 
 In furtherance, too, of the praisewor- 
 thy object for which these vessels were 
 originally started (the reduction of the 
 population), they are ordered to "go 
 on " at the precise moment a passenger 
 is stepping off. 
 
 American Shipnology. 
 
 PEKHAPS nothing so strikingly indi- 
 cates the change which has taken place 
 in the mercantile marine of this coun- 
 try at least so far as mere taste is con- 
 cerned as the ingenuity displayed in 
 the invention of names for ships. For- 
 merly, merchants were satisfied with a 
 plain and modest nomenclature, calling 
 their vessels after their wives, or their 
 friends, or by the name of some an- 
 cient worthy or modern hero, or by 
 some homespun adjective, expressive 
 of strength and safety. Now all this is 
 changed. "We have the Courser, the 
 Bucephalus, the Storm King, the Fly- 
 ing Cloud, the Flying Dutchman, and 
 the Flying Childers ; the Stag Hound, 
 the Wild Pigeon, the Sea Gull, and 
 the Bald Eagle; the Sea Foam, the 
 Billow Crest, the Ocean Spray, and the 
 Ocean "Wave ; the "West Wind and the 
 Whirlwind, the Simoom and the Siroc- 
 co ; and lastly, the Thunder Cloud, the 
 Phantom, the Tornado, the Tempest, 
 the Wings of the Morning, Ocean Mon- 
 arch, Leviathan, Fury of the Billow, 
 Hurricane, Wildfire, Thunderer, &c. 
 
 Origin of the Express Business : 
 Harnden's First Trip. 
 
 WITH the innovations of railways, 
 the stage drivers and wagoners found,
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 357 
 
 like Othello, their " occupation gone." 
 The loss of their services seriously in- 
 commoded the public, but the rail- 
 road offered no remedy. Years passed, 
 trade and intercommunication between 
 town and country suffering, in the 
 meanwhile, from this cause. At length, 
 hardly realizing what an improvement 
 he was about to effect, William F. Harn- 
 den, then a railroad conductor, started 
 the express business. The idea was 
 not original with him exclusively, as 
 will presently be seen, but to him is 
 due the honor of having been the first 
 to put it into execution. 
 
 It was in 1839 that Major Pullen and 
 Mr. Harnden were both in the employ 
 of the Boston, Providence, Worcester 
 and New York Railroad and Steamboat 
 Companies. Mr. Harnden's health was 
 so bad, at this time, that he was unfit- 
 ted for his accustomed duties. His pe- 
 cuniary circumstances were such that he 
 could not remain idle. In this crisis 
 of his affairs he knew not what to do 
 to sustain himself and his family. 
 
 Speaking to his friend, Major Pulleu, 
 on the subject, who was agent of the 
 Steamboat Company at Boston, he ask- 
 ed his advice as to what he had bet- 
 ter do. They were, on this occasion, 
 in the office on board the steamer John 
 W. Richmond ; near them, a number 
 of small packages were lying about, 
 which were intrusted to the care of the 
 agent for delivery, as was the custom 
 at that time. Major Pullen says to Mr. 
 H. substantially as follows : " I think 
 you can make a good living by taking 
 care of these packages and delivering 
 them. If you will try it, I will give 
 you all the packages and errands that 
 are left with me, and give you all the 
 aid in my power to help you along in 
 the business." Some friends standing 
 by advised Mr. H. to do so. After 
 some deliberation, Mr. Harnden com- 
 menced his new avocation. 
 
 From this small beginning, express- 
 ing has attained its present prominent 
 position, as among the first class of bu- 
 
 siness occupations in the country. The 
 only through route from Boston to 
 New York, at that time, was by rail- 
 road to Providence, and thence to New 
 York by the steamer John W. Rich- 
 mond. The old line of steamboats ran 
 from Stonington to New York. Harn- 
 den had no paid agent in the latter city 
 at the outset. The messengers (called, 
 during the first year or two, conduc- 
 tors), attended to all the business. 
 Harnden himself acted in that capacity, 
 usually making the trip in the " J. W. 
 R.," and carrying his entire express in 
 an ordinary valise. Upon his arrival 
 in New York or Boston, he would has- 
 ten to deliver the parcels intrusted to 
 him by his customers, who were most- 
 ly booksellers and brokers. 
 
 Out of compliment to Mr. Harnden, 
 as the originator of that line, and the 
 first one in the business, the line still 
 retains the name of " Harnden's Ex- 
 press," though none of his name or kin, 
 now he is dead, are connected with it. 
 
 The express tries to do everything 
 for everybody any and all kinds of 
 service. They carry the exchange for 
 the banks; they collect notes, bills, 
 drafts, accounts, rents, etc. ; they carry 
 all the small and large packages which 
 are either too valuable, or otherwise 
 unsafe to intrust to the mails ; and they 
 extend over all sections of our own 
 continent, besides forming one of the 
 most important links in the great com- 
 mercial chain which connects us with 
 the old world. 
 
 Selling: a Brig The Ruling Passion. 
 
 A VERT good story is told of old em- 
 bargo times and the war of 1812. Un- 
 der the impulse of the removal of em- 
 bargo, there was a sudden rise in the 
 value of property, and such a demand 
 for it that merchandise was sometimes 
 carried off from vessels before the own- 
 ers arrived at their place of business ; 
 and the parties taking it came in after- 
 ward to say that they were at the own-
 
 358 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 er's mercy, and must pay what they 
 chose to ask. 
 
 A brig was lying at Boston harbor, 
 which had come up from Plymouth 
 just before the embargo was laid, fit 
 for sea. The Plymouth owner thought 
 it was a good time to sell the brig, and 
 sent up his son for the purpose, telling 
 him to demand $8,000 for her, and not 
 take less than $6,000. John went to 
 Boston, found how things stood, sold 
 the brig in a moment, as it were, and 
 hurried home, elated with his bargain. 
 As he neared the house, he saw the old 
 man marching up and down the piazza, 
 and presently he hastened out to meet 
 his son, and hear the result of the sale. 
 
 " Have you sold the brig, John ? " 
 
 " Yes, father." 
 
 " For how much, John ? " 
 
 " For ten thousand dollars ! " 
 
 " Ten thousand dollars ! " cried the 
 old man, with staring eyes, at hearing 
 a price more than double what the ves- 
 sel cost " Ten thousand dollars ? I'll 
 bet you've sold her to some swindler, 
 who don't care what the price is, and 
 never means to pay his notes." 
 
 " Notes, did you say, father ? Why, 
 there are no notes in the case ; I got 
 the money, and put it in the bank. 
 Draw, and you will get it." 
 
 The old gentleman's excitement was 
 suddenly cooled, and as the ruling pas- 
 sion rose in its place, he said : 
 
 " I say, John, couldn't you have got 
 a leetle more ? " 
 
 Forwarding by Telegraph. 
 
 OP all the telegraphic absurdities to 
 be met with, none can be much more 
 amusing than that relating to a man in 
 the south of France, who received a 
 letter from his son in the army before 
 Sebastopol, begging his father to send 
 him a pair of new shoes, and a five- 
 franc piece. The old man was very 
 willing to comply with the request, but 
 having no readier means of forwarding 
 the articles than the telegraph, which 
 
 conveniently passed within half a mile 
 of his house, he procured the shoes, 
 and hung them on the wire, with the 
 money inside. A laborer returning 
 homeward, seeing the shoes dangling 
 to the wires, took them down, and 
 finding they fitted him, carried them 
 off, leaving his old ones in their place. 
 In the evening, the old man came out 
 to see how the wires had performed 
 their work, and was delighted at the 
 result : " My poor boy," said he, " has 
 not only received the shoes I sent him, 
 but has already returned the old ones." 
 
 Jumel the Merchant, and the Carman. 
 
 STEPHEN JUMEL was among the early 
 merchant princes of New York. One 
 morning, about ten o'clock, in the year 
 1806, this gentleman, in company with 
 William Bayard, Harmon Leroy, Archi- 
 bald Gracie, and some dozen others, 
 were reading and discussing the news 
 just arrived from Liverpool, in the 
 extra short passage of seven weeks. 
 The matter mostly concerned Napoleon 
 the First and the battle of Wagram. 
 While thus engaged, a carman's horse 
 backed his cart into the Whitehall slip, 
 at the head of which these gentlemen 
 were grouped together. The cart was 
 got out, but the horse was drowned, 
 and every one began pitying the poor 
 carman's ill luck. Jumel instantly 
 started, and placing a ten dollar bill 
 between his thumb and fingers, and 
 holding it aloft, while it fluttered in 
 the breeze, and with his hat in the 
 other hand he walked through the 
 length and breadth of the crowd, ex- 
 claiming, " How much you pity the 
 poor man ? / pity him ten dollars. 
 How much you pity him?" By this 
 ingenious and noble coup-d'etat, says 
 Barrett, he collected, in a few moments, 
 about seventy dollars, which he gave 
 over at once to the unfortunate and 
 fortunate carman.
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 359 
 
 Scene in an Express Office. 
 
 " How much will you charge to take 
 this package to Illinois ?." 
 
 " One dollar." 
 
 " Outrageous 1 It is only worth fifty 
 cents, and you have the conscience to 
 charge twice the worth of it." 
 
 It is not our fault that the cost was 
 only fifty cents ; you can make the 
 package twice as large and a hundred 
 times as valuable, and the cost of trans- 
 portation will only be the same." 
 
 " But that I do not want to do, as it 
 will be so much out of my pocket for 
 nothing." 
 
 " Yet you do not think it will be 
 ' outrageous ' for w to be out of pock- 
 et in carrying this to your friend ! " 
 
 "I cannot see that you will be at 
 any loss by taking it for fifty cents. 
 If you can explain it to me I will be 
 satisfied." 
 
 " Sensible to the last, and I am truly 
 glad that you ask for the information. 
 Well, in the first place, we charge you 
 two shillings to carry this to B., then 
 pay two shillings to get it to C., two 
 shillings from C. to M., and two shil- 
 lings from M. to 8., where your friend 
 resides, thus making one dollar. If we 
 take it for fifty cents, we will be obli- 
 ged to carry it to B. for nothing, and 
 pay from B. to C. two shillings out of 
 our own pocket, thus losing cash two 
 shillings, and the freight from here to 
 B., which we pay to the railroad 
 thus actually losing about forty cents, 
 besides assuming the responsibility of 
 delivering your package to your friend 
 in Illinois." 
 
 " I was not aware that such was the 
 case, and pardon me for speaking so 
 abruptly when I came in." 
 
 " Granted, my dear sir ; and it al- 
 ways affords us pleasure to give any 
 information in our power in regard to 
 business. And I assure you, that if 
 many persons who think we are extor- 
 tioners and swindlers, and call us many 
 other hard names, would only ask for a 
 
 reason, they would be as satisfied as 
 you are." __^_ 
 
 Luxuries in the Car. 
 
 THE smoking saloon, it now appears, 
 is only the first of a series of luxuries 
 which it is intended to bestow upon 
 travellers by railway. Thus, it is in 
 contemplation to run a refreshment- 
 room with every tram, so that people 
 will have their time allowed them to 
 eat the articles sold, instead of being 
 restricted, as at present, simply to the 
 privilege of payment. 
 
 Various plans have from time to time 
 been suggested, to enable passengers to 
 swallow a cup of boiling tea or coffee, 
 or a basin of hot soup in a minute and 
 a half at the stations ; but it has been 
 over and over again proved that the 
 time specified is absolutely insufficient 
 for such a purpose. It has even been 
 suggested that there might be kept 
 and sold at all the refreshment-rooms 
 a preparation similar to that which 
 enabled a certain Frenchman some 
 years ago. to swallow melted lead 
 without any inconvenience. Others 
 have proposed that parties should be 
 allowed to take soup or tea into the 
 car with them, and send back the cup 
 or basin by the up or down train, with 
 a return ticket fastened to the piece 
 of crockery as a proof of its contents 
 having been paid for. 
 
 The most feasible scheme, however, is 
 believed to be the one above hinted at, 
 namely, a portable refreshment room, 
 one of which should travel with every 
 train ; and it might be advisable to 
 have the boiler of the engine supplied 
 with soup instead of plain water. It 
 has been calculated that the steam pro- 
 duced from the former liquid being 
 somewhat spicy would have much 
 greater strength or force than the 
 vapor arising from the latter ; and the 
 power of propulsion natural to pea 
 soup would have a wonderful in- 
 fluence .on the speed of a powerful 
 locomotive.
 
 360 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 On one line there has for some time 
 been a shaving saloon, the want of 
 which had long been sadly felt. The 
 length of time on the journey by this 
 line was so considerable that a person 
 quitting the car on arriving at his des- 
 tination felt ashamed to go forth, in 
 consequence of his beard and hair 
 having grown to a most unsightly 
 length since he left the terminus he 
 started from. 
 
 On another line, something has been 
 said about a course of lectures on ana- 
 tomy, amputation, life insurance, and 
 kindred subjects, likely to possess an 
 immediate interest to persons travelling 
 on railways, but the plan has not been 
 matured, an almost insuperable diffi- 
 culty being the frequent interruption 
 of the lecturer occasioned by the 
 shrieks and thinning off of the pas- 
 sengers, on account of collisions and 
 similar catastrophes along the line. 
 
 Probable Origin of Schooners. 
 
 THE first schooner ever launched in 
 this country, is said to have been built 
 at Cape Ann, in 1714, that is, a ves- 
 sel of the build and rig described by 
 that word. In regard to the origin of 
 the name or term " schooner," Cotton 
 Tufts says : " Being in Gloucester, 
 Mass., Sept. 8, 1790, I was informed, 
 and committed the same to writing, 
 that the kind of vessel called schoon- 
 ers, derived their name from this cir- 
 cumstance, viz. : Mr. Andrew Robinson, 
 of that place, having constructed a ves- 
 sel which he masted and rigged in the 
 same manner as schooners are at this 
 day, on her going off the stocks into 
 the water, a bystander cried out, " Oh, 
 how she schoons ! " Robinson instantly 
 replied, " A schooner let her be," from 
 which time vessels thus masted and 
 rigged have gone by the name of 
 " schooners," but before which instance 
 vessels of this classification were not 
 known in Europe or America. This ac- 
 count was confirmed to me by a great 
 
 number of persons in Gloucester. 1 
 made particular inquiry of an aged sea 
 captain, who informed me that he had 
 not, in any of his voyages to Europe or 
 in America, seen any of those vessels 
 prior to Robinson's construction." 
 
 Female Shipmaster from Cape Horn to 
 San Francisco. 
 
 THE name of Mary Patten will long 
 be remembered as that of one of the 
 most heroic of her sex. She was the 
 wife of a merchant shipmaster, who, 
 far off on the lonely Pacific, with no 
 eye to witness, and no voice to cheer 
 her, when her husband was taken down 
 by illness, now tended him in his cabin, 
 now took his place at the quarter-deck 
 of his forlorn vessel, took her chief 
 observation every day with the sextant, 
 laid down the ship's course on the 
 chart, cheered and encouraged the 
 desponding crew, arrested the mu- 
 tinous chief mate, who was for creep- 
 ing into the nearest port and, poor 
 young wife as she was, hardly twenty 
 years of age, yet with a strong will and 
 a stout heart, steered her husband's 
 vessel, through storm and through 
 calm, from Cape Horn to San Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 Prussian Ship navigated by a Lady. 
 
 IN Prussia, as well as in Holland, 
 captains in the merchant service, of 
 small property, which generally con- 
 sists of a small class vessel commanded 
 by themselves make the vessel their 
 home, and live there constantly, with 
 their families, who accompany their 
 head in all his voyages. 
 
 One of these Prussian captains, M. 
 Hesser, was navigating his galliot 
 Minerva, from Konigsberg to Riga. 
 On board his vessel was his young wife, 
 with three small children, and his crew, 
 composed of a mate and four sailors. 
 In the Baltic, during a violent storm in 
 the night, while Hesser and his men 
 were on deck, the galliot was run into
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 361 
 
 by an English merchant-ship ; and the 
 shock of the two vessels was so great 
 that Captain Hesser and one of his sai- 
 lors was thrown against the prow of the 
 English vessel, to which they clung, 
 and from whence they crawled on 
 board that ship. The three other 
 sailors fell into the sea and disap- 
 peared immediately, so that there re- 
 mained on the galliot only Mrs. Hesser, 
 her three children, and the mate the 
 latter having, during the accident, met 
 with a severe fall, by which he was so 
 seriously wounded as to be unable to 
 work. 
 
 In this state of things, Mrs. Hesser 
 had the courage to take upon herself 
 the charge of navigating the ship. By 
 turns captain, mate and sailor, using 
 the little nautical knowledge she had 
 been able to acquire in her former 
 voyages, this intrepid young woman 
 succeeded, by incessant labor, in gain- 
 ing, with her vessel, the port of Riga. 
 The native and foreign sailors at Riga, 
 having learned the courageous conduct 
 of Mrs. Hesser, caused a medal to be 
 struck in her honor, and the corpora- 
 tion of seamen at Riga presented her 
 with one thousand dollars. Captain 
 Hesser and his sailor, who were 
 saved on board the English vessel, were 
 carried in the latter to Rostock, where 
 they arrived safe and sound at Riga. 
 
 Royal Schemers in Railways. 
 
 THE madness of railway speculation 
 which some years since spread like a 
 contagion abroad, involved royal blood 
 and the peers of more than one realm. 
 Prince de Joinville mounted a tender ; 
 Lord F. Egerton sought to make a rail- 
 way all by himself; Earl Lonsdale 
 bought one ; Lord Belhaven conde- 
 scended to speak at meetings; Lord 
 Worsley even took the chair ; the Mar- 
 quis of Ormonde trundled a wheelbar- 
 row in the presence of his admiring 
 peasantry ; and Lord Wharncliffe, 
 "high in the councils of her Majes- 
 
 ty," cut turf on correct geometrical 
 principles. The schemes in which 
 these illustrious names figured were 
 got up, in many cases, somewhat on 
 the following plan : A flattering pros- 
 pectus is issued, promising ten per 
 cent., and perfect prosperity. Some 
 secret agent of the directors is on the 
 stock exchange, puffing up the shares. 
 A price is named ; it is eagerly accept- 
 ed by him, the bargain is made, and 
 the price of the scrip established. The 
 agents continue to buy ; the jobbers, 
 calculating on plenty of scrip being in 
 the market, are willing to sell on the 
 liberal term which the agent pays ; 
 and they enter into engagements to 
 deliver a large quantity of scrip. 
 When a sufficient number of shares 
 are sold to satisfy the grasping avarice 
 of the directors, they profess to con- 
 sider the applications ; and it is an- 
 nounced that no more letters will be 
 received, and that letters of allotment 
 have been forwarded to the fortunate 
 applicants, taking care, however, not 
 to issue a tenth part of the number pre- 
 viously sold in the market. The letters 
 applying for shares are burnt by bush- 
 els, without even the trouble of open- 
 ing them ; and those who have sold at 
 five pounds a share cannot even buy at 
 three times that sum, if the consciences 
 of the directors are sufficiently elastic 
 to allow so enormous a robbery. Pre- 
 miums, patronage, and pay, made the 
 brains of the directors swim and swell. 
 Men who were known to have been 
 penniless a year before, suddenly kept 
 their broughams or started barouches. 
 Valuable diamonds gleamed from fin- 
 gers which had hitherto been guiltless 
 of the bright adornment. Railway 
 papers and railway pantaloons, railway 
 ties and railway tricks, abounded. It 
 was railway madness indeed. London 
 was to be tunnelled that the train 
 might run beneath her mighty heart ; 
 colonnades were to be formed in the 
 air that the engine might pass over the 
 path of the pedestrian, and it was final-
 
 362 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ly suggested that there should be one 
 great terminus for all the companies, 
 and that that terminus should be a 
 lunatic asylum ! 
 
 The system was fruitful, and every 
 one said there was no risk. When 
 shares were demanded of a company, 
 and they only came out at par, the 
 letter of allotment was put into the 
 fire ; if they arrived at a premium they 
 were sold. Men without a shilling wrote 
 for hundreds of shares. Journeymen 
 mechanics styled themselves esquires, 
 and signed deeds for thousands. The 
 names of men well known in the city 
 as gamblers, whose notorious character 
 had banished them from the society of 
 all good men, suddenly reappeared on 
 the lists of the proprietors and directors, 
 their names graced by the cheap " es- 
 quire," and their residences given in 
 some far distant county. Tricks of 
 all sorts were played ; and in one in- 
 stance the whole of the type and stock 
 in trade of a printer was purchased by 
 one company, to prevent its rival from 
 publishing an important document by 
 a particular period this ruse proving 
 successful, and the document behind 
 its time. 
 
 On the last day allotted for the recep- 
 tion of plans by the Board of Trade, 
 a most astonishing scene was witnessed. 
 As the time approached, an anxiety 
 which passes belief was evinced. 
 Higher wages were paid to those who 
 could or would work in preparing the 
 plans. Night after night witnessed 
 the earnest workman still snatching a 
 brief repose for an hour or two, that 
 he might resume his labors with greater 
 energy. Post-horses were in demand. 
 Special trains brought plans from all 
 sections. Railway companies refused 
 trains which would assist opposition 
 projects ; and the exertion made to 
 lodge those which were ready, is 
 almost incredible. The clerks were 
 overwhelmed with them ; and though 
 an additional number of those gentle- 
 men were employed, it was impossible 
 
 to keep pace with the incessant arri- 
 vals. The place became crowded. 
 The last hour was approaching. An 
 alarm seized on all that the necessary 
 forms could not be gone through in 
 time. The clock struck, and the doors 
 were closing, when a gentleman, with 
 the plans of a proposed railway for 
 Surrey, rushed in, and succeeded in 
 lodging his charge. The doors were 
 then closed, and, in a short time, a post- 
 chaise, with foaming steeds, galloped 
 up to the entrance. Down the passage, 
 and toward the office, rushed the three 
 occupants, with their cherished papers. 
 The door was shut ; but railway per- 
 sons deemed themselves privileged, and 
 the bell was loudly rung. The unsus- 
 picious inspector of police answered 
 the ring; and the huge documents 
 were thrown in at a venture ; but were 
 again thrown into the street. Many 
 were too late for the appointed hour. 
 The labor of anxious days and weary 
 nights, the results of plotting heads and 
 crafty brains, were rejected. 
 
 Laughable Opposition to Steam Trains. 
 
 PERHAPS the most interesting and 
 romantic pages that could be furnished 
 readers at the present day, might be 
 found in the literature of early railways 
 gleanings from the speeches, pam- 
 phlets, reports, etc., which the pro- 
 posal of such schemes brought forth. 
 A few scraps will meet the purpose of 
 this volume. 
 
 It was contended by the opponents 
 of these enterprises, that canal convey- 
 ance was quicker; that the smoke of 
 the engines would injure gentlemen's 
 seats and villas ; and one writer, more 
 imaginative than perceptive, described 
 the locomotives as " terrible things," 
 although, on further questioning, he 
 admitted he had never seen one. It 
 was boldly declared, too, that a gale 
 of wind would stop the progress of the 
 carriage ; that there would be no more 
 practical advantage in a railway than
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 363 
 
 in a canal ; that Mr. Stephenson was 
 totally devoid of common sense. The 
 plan was asserted to be based on fraud 
 and folly ; that balloons and rockets 
 were as feasible ; and that the whole 
 line would be under water for two or 
 three weeks in succession. 
 
 " It is quite idle and absurd," said 
 one, " to say that the present schemes 
 can ever be carried into execution, 
 under any circumstances, or in any 
 way." "Whenever," said another, 
 with the authority of an oracle, 
 " Providence in Lancashire is pleased 
 to send rain or a little mizzling weath- 
 er, expeditious it cannot be." A third 
 gave it as his opinion, that " no engine 
 could go in the night time, because," 
 he added, more scripturally than perti- 
 nently, " the night time is a period 
 when no man can work ! " 
 
 The public benefits of a railroad were 
 put in disparaging competition with 
 the annoyance which an individual 
 would receive from the smoke of the 
 engines coming within two hundred 
 and fifty yards of his house, and it was 
 pathetically asked, "Can anything 
 compensate for this ?" Gentlemen 
 objected because it would injure their 
 prospects, and land-owners because it 
 would injure their pockets ! Of Mr. 
 Stephenson it was declared, " he makes 
 schemes without seeing the difficul- 
 ties." " Upon this shuffling evidence, 
 we are called to pass the bill." "It 
 is impossible to hold this changing 
 Proteus in any knot whatsoever." " It 
 is the greatest draught upon human 
 credulity ever heard of." 
 
 " There is nothing," said one, " but 
 long sedgy grass to prevent the train 
 from sinking into the shades of eternal 
 night." Another appealed to the pock- 
 et : "If this bill succeeds, by the time 
 railroads are set a-going, the poor, 
 gulled subscribers will have lost all 
 their money ; and, instead of locomo- 
 tive engines, they must have recourse 
 to horses or asses, not meaning to say 
 which." Numberless were the sneers 
 
 at the idea of engines galloping as 
 fast as five miles an hour. One sapient 
 gentleman thought, however, that the 
 trains might go at four and one-half 
 miles in fine weather, but not more than 
 two and one-half in wet. 
 
 " When we set out with the original 
 prospectus," was the remark of the 
 counsel, " we were to gallop I know 
 not at what rate. I believe it was 
 twelve miles an hour, with the aid of 
 a devil in the form of a locomotive, 
 sitting as postilion on the fore house, 
 and an honorable member sitting behind 
 him to stir up the fire, and keep it up 
 at full speed. / will show they cannot 
 go six. I may be able to show we shall 
 keep up with them by the canal." 
 " Thus, sir, I prove that locomotive 
 engines cannot move at more than four 
 and a-quarter miles an hour; and I 
 will show the scheme to be bottomed 
 on deception and fallacy." 
 
 Lady Ship-master. 
 
 THAT Irish ladies are ' smart,' abun- 
 dant evidence might be forthcoming, if 
 necessary. But the following single in- 
 stance will do much to establish the 
 general assertion. Amongst the fleet 
 lately wind-bound in Lamlash, not the 
 least, but perhaps the greatest wonder, 
 was the good old brig Cleotus, of Salt- 
 coats, which for more than twenty years 
 has been commanded by an heroic and 
 exceedingly clever lady, Miss Betsey Mil- 
 ler, daughter of Mr. W. Miller, ship- 
 owner and wood dealer of that town. 
 He was concerned with several vessels, 
 both in the American and coasting trade. 
 Miss Betsey, before she went to sea, 
 acted as " ship's husband " to her fath- 
 er, and seeing how the captains in many 
 cases behaved, her romantic and ad- 
 venturous spirit impelled her to go to 
 sea herself. Her father gratified her 
 caprice, and gave her the command of 
 the Cleotus, which she holds to the 
 present day ; and she has weathered the 
 storms of the deep when many comman-
 
 364 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 ders of the other sex have been driven 
 on the rocks. The Cleotus is well 
 known in the ports of Belfast, Dublin, 
 Cork, etc. 
 
 Lucky and Unlucky Names of Ships, 
 and Sailing: Days. 
 
 THAT there is ill omen as well as bad 
 luck attending vessels having certain 
 names has long been believed by many, 
 and curious instances are cited to prove 
 that it is not mere superstition. Among 
 the memorable in this respect is the 
 bark Raleigh, fitted out and called af- 
 ter his family name by the great Sir Wal- 
 ter, and intended to assist his half 
 brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in his 
 North American researches. This ves- 
 sel sailed with Sir Humphrey, and, we 
 are told in the sad record of his fate, ap- 
 peared to predict the fatal termination 
 of the expedition by returning in less 
 than a week, through a contagious dis- 
 temper which seized on the ship's crew. 
 She was lost on a similar expedition to 
 the one which hastened Sir Walter's sad 
 doom. So of the Amazon, and Birken- 
 head, which sailed on Friday, and were 
 lost so disastrously. 
 
 An attempt was once made to 
 prove, once for all, that Friday was 
 not the unlucky day poor Jack always 
 fancied it to be. A ship was built with 
 such an intention some years ago ; she 
 was named Friday, was launched on Fri- 
 day, commanded by a captain whose 
 name was Friday, sailed on a Friday, 
 which no ship does if it can convenient- 
 ly be helped, and was never heard of 
 afterward ! But against all this, and 
 other similar instances, must be placed 
 the fact that vessels with even the luck- 
 iest names, have, in innumerable cases, 
 perished, and that for each and every 
 day of the week alike there is the fruit- 
 ful record of mischance and disaster. 
 
 Columbus sailed on his great voy- 
 age of discovery, on Friday, August 
 21st. On Friday, October 12th, 1492, 
 he made his first discovery of land ; on 
 Friday, January 4th, 1493, he sailed on 
 
 his return to Spain, which if he had 
 not reached in safety, the happy result 
 would never have been known ; on Fri- 
 day, March 15th, 1493, he arrived at 
 Palos in safety ; on Friday, November 
 22d, 1493, he arrived at Hispaniola, on 
 his second voyage to America, and on 
 Friday, he, though unknown to him- 
 self, discovered the continent of Amer- 
 ica. The Mayflower, with the pilgrims, 
 made the harbor of Provincetown 
 on Friday, November 10th, 1620. Sure- 
 ly, in a maritime and commercial sense, 
 such facts send Friday up to a premium, 
 and ought to disarm seamen of their ill- 
 starred theory of that day. 
 
 Locomotion and Amalgamation. 
 
 PASSENGER : " What's the matter, 
 conductor ? 
 
 CONDUCTOR (with accustomed pres- 
 ence of mind) : " Oh, nothing partic- 
 ular, sir. We've only been run into by 
 an excursion train ! " 
 
 PASSENGER : " But, good gracious ! 
 there's a train just behind us, isn't 
 there ? " 
 
 CONDUCTOR : " Well, yes, sir ! But a 
 boy has gone down the line with a sig- 
 nal, and it's very likely they'll see it ! " 
 
 New Rules for Railways. 
 
 SOME new regulations, recently pro- 
 posed for the benefit of all concerned, 
 have found their way into print, and 
 are now being seriously considered by 
 the various railways. A few are given 
 below. 
 
 No stoppage at a railway station is 
 to exceed half an hour. 
 
 No railway dividend is to exceed one 
 hundred per cent, and no bonus to be 
 divided oftener than once a month, oth- 
 erwise shareholders shall have a right 
 to throw up their certificates. 
 
 Lectures and dramatic representa- 
 tions are to be given at the stations to 
 entertain the passengers when they are 
 detained beyond the limit above speci-
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 365 
 
 fied, and payment of one shilling an 
 hour is to be made to every laboring man 
 for every hour of such detention. 
 
 Every tunnel must be illuminated 
 with one candle at least, except during 
 the season of fireflies, when it may be 
 dispensed with. 
 
 A magistrate is to be in attendance 
 at every station to grant summonses, on 
 complaint, against the directors ; and 
 all law expenses incurred are to be paid 
 by the Company. 
 
 Never less than one minute is to be al- 
 lowed for dinner or refreshment. 
 
 One director must always travel 
 with every train, either in one of the 
 cars or in front of the engine he hav- 
 ing the liberty to choose. 
 
 Hospitals are to be built at every 
 terminus and a surgeon to be in atten- 
 dance at every station. 
 
 All the fines and damages levied upon 
 a railway are to be paid into a fund for 
 building a series of almshouses, for the 
 maintenance of indigent persons muti- 
 lated from day to day by accidents on 
 the railways. 
 
 There must be some communication 
 between every car and the conductor, 
 either by a bell, or a speaking tube, or 
 a portable electric telegraph, so that 
 the passengers may have some means 
 of giving information when their car is 
 off the track, or falling over an embank- 
 ment, or a maniac has broken loose, or 
 a robbery by chloroform has taken place. 
 
 Yankee Calculation of Railroad Speed. 
 
 " WELL, it's curous how we du git 
 over the ground ! Why, the trees all 
 look as if they was a-dancin' a jig to 
 double-quick time. I kin recollect ten 
 or twelve years ago, that if I started 
 from Bosting on a Wednesday, I cud 
 git in Filedelphy on the next Saturday, 
 makin' just three days. Now I kin git 
 from Bosting to Filedelphy in one day ; 
 and I've been cal'latin' that if the pow- 
 er of steam increases for the next ten 
 years as it has been doin' for the last 
 
 ten years, I'd be in Filedelphy jist two 
 days before I started from Bosting ! " 
 
 Railroad Damages : The Tables Turned. 
 
 A CERTAIN community somewhere in 
 Texas had made it a pretty frequent 
 practice to get all the money they could 
 from the railroad corporation there- 
 about, by allowing their cattle to get 
 upon the track and obtaining damages 
 when they were killed by the locomo- 
 tive. At last, however, a law with 
 due penalties was enacted, against the 
 roaming of cattle upon the track of 
 said road. 
 
 A new president of this corporation, 
 Mr. Blank, was chosen, whose manage- 
 ment proved him to be considerably 
 ahead of some with whom he was soon 
 called to deal. When Mr. Blank as- 
 sumed the presidential control, it was 
 in a dark day indeed. Acres of wood- 
 land, fields of grain, houses and barns 
 had been consumed by the locomotive 
 sparks, and cattle without number had 
 been killed on the track. Demands 
 against the company and impending 
 law suits were more numerous than 
 agreeable. 
 
 One day a man made his appearance 
 at Mr. Blank's office. He was the cham- 
 pion of his neighborhood in this kind 
 of business, and had come down to en- 
 force payment for a valuable pair of 
 oxen, suddenly converted into jerked 
 beef by the iron horse. Our claimant 
 entered the office as bold as a lion. 
 
 "I want payment for my cattle you 
 killed last Saturday," said he. 
 
 " Your cattle ! " inquired Mr. Blank ; 
 " were those your cattle that were 
 killed ? " 
 
 " Mighty apt to be," was the answer, 
 " and I want two hundred for them." 
 
 "And /," said Mr. Blank, "want 
 proof. You must make an affidavit of 
 the particulars, and then we will come 
 to a settlement." 
 
 Right willingly did the claimant as- 
 sent; but when the instrument was
 
 366 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 properly drawn up, signed, and authen- 
 ticated, Mr. Blank turned to him with 
 
 " Now, sir, I want two hundred dol- 
 lars from you" 
 
 " From me ? " exclaimed the amazed 
 rustic. 
 
 " Yes, sir, from you" reiterated the 
 president. " Here I have proof, under 
 your own hand, that your cattle were, 
 contrary to law, upon the track, and 
 thereby our engine was damaged to the 
 extent of two hundred dollars. Are 
 you prepared to settle the affair amica- 
 bly, or must I proceed legally ? " 
 
 The applicant spoke no word, but 
 rushed open-mouthed from the office, 
 sought his wagon, and upon reaching 
 his house advised his friends generally 
 to pocket their grievances, or worse 
 would come of it. From that day the 
 demands upon the road were few in- 
 deed. 
 
 Telegrraphingr against Time. 
 
 AN incident occurred at Niagara 
 Falls during the Prince of Wales' stay, 
 which illustrates some of the fortuities 
 of telegraphic operating, and which 
 has been frequently, but excepting by 
 a writer in Harper's Magazine never 
 correctly reported ; so it is stated. 
 
 The special reporter of a New York 
 journal had ordered the telegraph line 
 to be kept open, one Sunday evening, 
 when the offices were usually closed, 
 and had engaged to pay the operators 
 liberally for their extra work. Before 
 he had finished telegraphing his usual 
 reports, along came the reporter of an- 
 other New York journal, who, having 
 obtained some exclusive news, and find- 
 ing the line in fine working order, as- 
 serted his right to have his despatches 
 transmitted to New York also. Report- 
 er the first resisted. Reporter the 
 second insisted. Reporter the first ap- 
 pealed to the telegraph operators, and 
 after a great deal of conversation be- 
 tween the Niagara and Rochester offi- 
 ces, the operator decided that both re- 
 
 ports must be telegraphed. Reporter 
 the second was calmly triumphant, and 
 coolly prepared his notes. Reporter the 
 first attempted to bribe the operators, 
 and finding them incorruptible, began 
 a long and desultory argument over the 
 wires, in order to kill time and crowd 
 out his opponent. Reporter the second, 
 therefore, obtained an interview with 
 the Hon. John Rose, the Premier of 
 Canada, who sent down a message to 
 the operators that he was, or had been, 
 President, Vice-President, or Director 
 he really could not tell which of 
 the Telegraph Company, and that by 
 virtue of his authority, he ordered both 
 despatches to be telegraphed immedi- 
 ately. This order added fuel to the 
 fire of indignation which glowed in the 
 bosom of Reporter the first. A Cana- 
 dian official dictate to an American re- 
 porter ? Never ! Meanwhile the mo- 
 ments slipped hurriedly away, and the 
 hour was approaching when it would 
 be useless to attempt to send a despatch 
 to New York in time for publication in 
 the morning papers. Observing this, 
 Reporter the first suddenly recovered 
 his self-control, and referred all the 
 parties concerned to the standard rule 
 of the Telegraph Company, that " des- 
 patches must be sent in the order in 
 which they were received, and that one 
 despatch must be finished before an- 
 other could be transmitted." This rule 
 was acknowledged to be telegraphic 
 law. Reporter the first then claimed 
 priority for his report. This point was 
 also conceded. The reporter then elo- 
 quently but briefly informed the by- 
 standers that they might as well go to 
 bed, as his report could never be con- 
 cluded while a chance of a despatch 
 reaching New York that night remain- 
 ed to his competitor. Immediately he 
 set to work to telegraph against time. 
 His original report having been de- 
 spatched, he jotted down every item 
 worth sending, and ransacked his brains 
 for any little incident of the Prince's 
 doings which might possibly have been
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 367 
 
 forgotten. His pencil flew over the 
 paper like lightning. Click click 
 click the operator hurried off page 
 after page almost as rapidly as the re- 
 porter could indite them. Reporter 
 the second stalked gloomily up and 
 down the office, despairing, but uncon- 
 quered. To him the minute-hand of the 
 clock moved with terrible swiftness. 
 To Reporter the first the moments 
 seemed shod with lead. Every item 
 being exhausted, a description of Niag- 
 ara Falls, carefully reserved to be sent 
 by mail, was handed to the operator 
 and flashed over the line at a cost of 
 six or eight centa a word. This done, 
 there was a moment's pause. Reporter 
 the first reflected. Reporter the second 
 breathed more freely, and even ven- 
 tured to smile hopefully, and nervously 
 finger his detained despatches.* Alas ! 
 Reporter the first again writes this 
 time a note to the Rochester operator : 
 " Which would you prefer to telegraph, 
 a chapter of the Bible or a chapter of 
 Claude Duval, the Highwayman ? These 
 are the only two books I can find in 
 the hotel." The lightning flashes off 
 with the query, and returns with the 
 answer : " It is quite immaterial which 
 you send." The Reporter seizes the 
 Bible, transcribes the first chapter of 
 Matthew, with all its hard genealogi- 
 cal names, adds this to his previous 
 despatches, tacks portions of the twen- 
 ty-first chapter of Revelation describ- 
 ing the various precious stones to the 
 incongruous report, hands it all to the 
 operator, sends his blessing and an in- 
 junction to be careful of the spelling 
 to the Rochester office, and gleefully 
 awaits the result with his eyes on the 
 clock. Before this scriptural news is 
 fully transmitted, the hour arrived when 
 no more telegrams could be sent. Re- 
 porter the first retired in glory ; but 
 although his telegrams reached New 
 York safely, the Biblical portions were 
 unfortunately never published. Re- 
 porter the second telegraphed his news 
 the next morning, at the same time 
 
 good-naturedly acknowledging his de- 
 feat. 
 
 Telegraphic Capers. 
 
 ON a certain occasion, says a London 
 journal, the French telegraph made the 
 following announcement : 
 
 " Abd-el-Kader has been taken " 
 but it was mentioned that a fog envel- 
 oped the remainder of the sentence in 
 obscurity. The excitement, however, in 
 the money market was at fever height, at 
 the supposed capture of that adroit en- 
 emy, and the funds rose tremendously. 
 
 The following day, the sentence be- 
 ing completed, the intelligence ran 
 thus: 
 
 " Abd-el-Kader has been taken with 
 a dreadful cold in his head." 
 
 The funds fell, but the coup which 
 was worthy of a Rothschild had been 
 sufficiently successful for those who 
 made the telegraph play into the hands 
 of their agents at the Bourse. A fog in 
 Paris is frequently a great windfall in 
 a monetary and commercial point of 
 view. 
 
 Guarding the Track. 
 
 THE Hon. Erastus Corning, President 
 of the New York Central Railway, not- 
 withstanding his remarkable activity, 
 has the misfortune to be lame. He 
 was one day hobbling over the rail- 
 road track at Albany, when an Irish- 
 man who was placed to guard the 
 track, sang out, with marked Celtic 
 accent, "Will ye leave the track?" 
 Mr. Corning smiled inwardly and stum- 
 bled on, when the Irishman again cried, 
 " Begone, ye stumbling high-binder, or 
 the 11.30 Express will be forninst ye, 
 and Mister Corning will have to pay 
 for ye the full price of a well man with 
 two legs. Begone ! sare ! " This was 
 too much for " Old Central ; " he yield- 
 ed the track for the 11.30 Express, and 
 sent a reward and commendation to 
 the faithful watchman, who had never
 
 368 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 once suspected the name or position of 
 that " stumbling high-binder." 
 
 A Deep Design. 
 
 A PLAN is about to be carried out by 
 some enterprising London capitalists 
 for passing an electric telegraph under 
 the streets of that city. That walls Tiave 
 ears has been heard by all ; but this is 
 a plain matter-of-fact sort of scheme for 
 giving tongues to the streets, which will 
 enable them to rival the celebrated 
 stones that were nearly rising up to 
 remonstrate, in a certain exigency, to 
 say nothing of those stones of the poet, 
 in which he assures us there are ser- 
 mons. It is presumed that an under- 
 tone will be best adapted to this sub- 
 terranean language. 
 
 It has been decided that this tele- 
 graph, when completed, shall be let 
 out to the whole public at so much a 
 message. This plan will do very well, 
 unless the whole population wants, as 
 usual, to talk at once, when the effect 
 would be most extraordinary. Nor is 
 any statement made, as yet, to prevent 
 the wrong people from receiving the 
 messages that are thus sent by the tele- 
 graph. It would be very awkward if 
 a somewhat general observation should 
 arrive at a station, for there would be 
 a difficulty in finding an owner for 
 
 remark of such a common-place 
 character. 
 
 The project seems a good one, but it 
 will require much modification to ren- 
 der it effectual. One regulation pro- 
 vides that ladies who avail themselves 
 of the telegraph shall be charged by 
 the length of the message, an immense 
 revenue being calculated from this 
 source alone ; in order, however, that 
 all may share the benefits of such an 
 enterprise, no one female is to be al- 
 lowed to monopolize the use of the 
 subterranean tongue for a longer time 
 at once than thirteen hours. 
 
 Unsociable Travelling: Companion. 
 
 A BABE incident occurred in an Eng- 
 lish stage-coach, on a certain occasion, 
 before railroads came into vogue. Two 
 passengers, one a merchant, set out 
 from a London inn early on a Decem- 
 ber morning. It was dark as pitch ; 
 and one of them, not being sleepy, and 
 wishing for a little conversation, en- 
 deavored, in the usual travelling mode, 
 to stimulate his companion to discourse. 
 "A very dark morn, sir. Shocking 
 cold weather for travelling ! Slow 
 going in the heavy roads, sir." None 
 of these very civil observations pro- 
 ducing a word in response, the sociable 
 merchant made one more effort. He 
 stretched out his hand and feeling the 
 other's habit, exclaimed, " What a very 
 comfortable coat, sir, you have got to 
 travel in ! " No answer was made, and 
 the merchant, fatigued and disgusted, 
 fell into a sound nap, nor awoke until 
 the brightest rays of a winter's sun ac- 
 counted to him for the taciturnity of 
 his comrade, by presenting to his as- 
 tonished view a huge bear (luckily for 
 him muzzled and confined) in a sitting 
 posture. 
 
 Decoration of Railroad Depots. 
 
 AT one of our railway stations, a pas- 
 senger on looking round saw the bill 
 announcing the arrival and departure 
 of the train, and by its side was posted 
 with most innocent candor on the 
 part of the directors another bill, ad- 
 vising him, in the most alluring terms, 
 to insure his life. Of course the two 
 things thus placed in juxtaposition, put 
 him in a reflecting mood. 
 
 Railway companies might improve 
 on this system of starting trains of se- 
 rious thought. They should illuminate 
 the walls of their waiting-rooms with 
 moral sentences, expressive of the un- 
 certainty of human existence, such as 
 Memento Mori, Mors Janua Vitse, &c. ; 
 which, executed in appropriate char-
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 369 
 
 acters, might be made to have a pic- 
 turesque and pleasing, as well as profit- 
 able effect. The intermixture with 
 these legends, of tombstone cherubs, 
 skulls, and femoral bones, and views in 
 cemeteries well painted, would be very 
 suitable ; and to these aesthetic decora- 
 tions might be added the figure of old 
 Time with his scythe and hourglass. 
 It may be mentioned, as a matter not 
 unrelated to these suggestions, that 
 some of the newspapers have adopted 
 the plan of inserting their "Kailway 
 Intelligence " next to the " Obituary." 
 
 Punch's Own Railway. 
 
 THIS snug little suburban line (says 
 its proprietor) occasionally makes a 
 mild demand on public attention, by a 
 sort of popgun-like proceeding, known 
 as the issuing of its annual report, 
 which is usually accompanied with a 
 very little smoke, and somewhat less 
 fire. Everything is on the smallest 
 possible scale ; and the rolling stock 
 includes a garden roller, which is kept 
 for the purpose of rolling the gravel 
 walks by the side of those cabbage 
 beds which form the vegetable wealth 
 of the company. The property of the 
 railway is understood to have some- 
 what increased ; but there has been a 
 loss of one engine and two buffers, the 
 former being the moral engine which 
 the company once possessed in the sup- 
 port of a now apathetic press ; and the 
 latter consisting of two old buffers who 
 have got better places, after having 
 been for some years in the service of 
 the line as gardeners. 
 
 The balance at the banker's had been 
 augmented by a few pounds, and the 
 goods traffic is nearly eight ounces 
 more this year than it was last an in- 
 crease which, considering the level of 
 former times, may be considered fever- 
 ish. Of coal, there is a skuttle more in 
 the company's cellars than there was 
 last year; and the directors propose 
 that this surplus shall not be disturbed, 
 24 
 
 but that it shall be added to the " rest," 
 and carried over to the credit the 
 very great credit, of the company. 
 
 The engineer of the line has inspect- 
 ed the boilers, and reports that " the 
 concern is not yet out of hot water, nor 
 likely to be for some time to come," 
 nor have the law proceedings been 
 brought to a termination. Thanks 
 were voted to the chairman, who had 
 lent a Bath chair for a visit of the resi- 
 dent director to the terminus. 
 
 Stage Coach. Experience of two Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 ONE of the very pleasantest episodes 
 to be found in the range of mercantile 
 travelling experience, is that of the in- 
 terview between Vincent Nolte, the 
 great merchant of two hemispheres, 
 and John McNeil, a Liverpool mer- 
 chant of celebrity. It is one of those 
 " happenings " which do not need to 
 be read of more than once, as one read- 
 ing will serve the memory ever after. 
 It is almost worth the full price of Nol- 
 te's Autobiography, an admirable trans- 
 lation of which, from the German, has 
 been published in this country. Mr. 
 Nolte says : 
 
 I took a place, at five o'clock in the 
 morning, in the Birmingham coach, the 
 best conveyance then between Liver- 
 pool and London. It was a troubled, 
 misty, unpleasant morning. In the cor- 
 ner of the coach opposite me, wrapped 
 in his cloak, sat a gloomy looking per- 
 son, besides myself the only passenger. 
 More than two hours elapsed before the 
 spirit moved us to any conversation. 
 At length my companion roused him- 
 self, and brought forward the subject 
 which always opens a conversation in 
 England the weather. 
 
 " We have a very nasty, disagreeable 
 day before us, I fear," he remarked. 
 
 Whereupon I asked him if he were 
 oing all the way to London. 
 
 " No, no," he answered, " I will get 
 out at a pottery near Wolverhampton, 
 where I have to buy some hundred
 
 370 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 baskets of crockery for my ship, the 
 ' Peter Ellis. 1 " 
 
 " In order to send it to New Orleans, 
 I suppose," said I. 
 
 " Certainly," he said, " but I beg 
 your pardon, how did you know that ? " 
 
 " I did not know it," I replied, " I 
 only guessed it. I have seen the ship 
 several times in New Orleans. She was 
 consigned to my friends, Denistoun, 
 Hill & Co." 
 
 " Oh, ho," said he, " so you have 
 been in New Orleans." 
 
 " Very often," said I. 
 
 " How is the credit of the firm ? " 
 was his next question. 
 
 " Admirable," said I ; " Mr. Hill is a 
 man much esteemed and beloved." 
 
 " So I have always thought," he re- 
 plied. 
 
 "Those gentlemen," I continued, 
 " very often have ships to their address 
 for instance, the Liverpool brig ' The 
 Brothers,' the ship ' Mary Wood,' and 
 others. The Liverpool ship ' Ottawa,' 
 was in other hands (namely, in ours), 
 as well as many others." 
 
 " You appear to know our vessels 
 well," said he, " and also most of the 
 English houses in New Orleans." 
 
 " Oh, yes," I said ; " I know nearly 
 all the houses of any position there, 
 pretty well." 
 
 " I am glad to hear it," said my 
 companion, and then our dialogue con- 
 tinued. 
 
 " Do you know Munro, Milne & Co. ? 
 How do they stand ? " 
 
 "Very well. They are the estab- 
 lished correspondents of James Finley 
 & Co., of Glasgow." 
 
 " Do you know P. W. & Co. ? How 
 do they stand ? " 
 
 " So, so, no general credit." 
 
 " Do you know G., F. & Co. ? " 
 
 " G. is a clever business man, and F. 
 is a windbag, who, however, has thrown 
 into the firm a large capital inherited 
 from his aunt." 
 
 " The devil ! " quoth my interlocu- 
 tor; "you appear to know them all. 
 
 You must have lived some years in New 
 Orleans." 
 
 " Yes, several." 
 
 " Do you know Vincent Nolte ? " 
 
 " As well as he knows himself." 
 
 " What sort of a man is he ? " 
 
 " Well," said I, " he has many friends, 
 and perhaps quite as many foes ; take 
 him all in all, however, I believe he is 
 a good sort of a fellow, with whom 
 folks like to deal." 
 
 " Yes," he said, " our captains like 
 him very much. He was prompt and 
 expeditious, and when he had freight- 
 ed a vessel, the goods came down as 
 fast as they could be received on board." 
 
 " I believe," said I, " that this praise 
 is not undeserved. It was always his 
 custom to do quickly whatever he un- 
 dertook." 
 
 Thereupon our conversation ended ; 
 and in half an hour the coach stopped 
 before a large pottery belonging to 
 Baker, Bourne & Baker. As he got 
 out, my companion gave me his card 
 " John McNeil, Liverpool," saying : 
 
 " I have found so much pleasure in 
 your conversation, that you must prom- 
 ise to pay me a visit when you return 
 to Liverpool. I will present you to my 
 two daughters, and we will all receive 
 you with pleasure." 
 
 I was of course obliged to give him 
 my card in exchange. He glanced at 
 it twice, and in a doubtful sort of way 
 read it over. 
 
 " Vincent N-o-ble ! " 
 
 "No, sir," I said; "Vincent Nolte, 
 the very gentleman you were inquiring 
 about." 
 
 " Ah I so, so," he said. " Well, sir, 
 glad to have had a sight of you. Do 
 not fail to call when you come to Liv- 
 erpool again. Farewell, sir ! " 
 
 And so the coach rolled on. 
 
 An Interesting: Consignment. 
 
 ONE of the most interesting consign- 
 ments at least in an historical point 
 of view of which there is any record,
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 371 
 
 is that which was received from Lon- 
 don, by Mr. Jacob Barker, of New 
 York, viz., the first steam engine ever 
 in successful operation for propelling 
 vessels. It was made by Messrs. Bol- 
 ton and Watts, celebrated for construct- 
 ing steam machinery in that day. Af- 
 ter its anival it remained<ki Mr. Bar- 
 ker's store in South street many months 
 before Mr. Fulton could raise the funds 
 to pay for it. This engine was placed 
 on the first steamboat that navigated 
 the Hudson, and Mr. Barker thinks 
 that she attained the speed of four 
 miles an hour. Little did he then 
 think that this discovery of the im- 
 mortal Fulton would in less than half 
 a century regulate the commerce of the 
 whole world, saving time and shorten- 
 ing space to such a degree that to be 
 deprived of its use would be univer- 
 sally considered a calamity of the first 
 magnitude. 
 
 Squelching a Director's Impertinence. 
 
 THE plenary indulgence conceded to 
 Mr. Hudson, the English railway mon- 
 arch, by which his will was made law 
 all complaints of those who natural- 
 ly esteemed themselves not fairly dealt 
 with in various operations being silenc- 
 ed by his mere beck cannot be better 
 comprehended than in an anecdote of 
 Mr. H. in his palmy days ; being a cir- 
 cumstance which occurred at the board 
 meeting of a certain line. The honor- 
 able gentleman had allotted to himself 
 six hundred shares, and to another 
 member of the board, two hundred. 
 These shares having risen to five 
 pounds premium, the latter gentle- 
 man thought he ought to have a lar- 
 ger number, and accordingly intimated 
 his opinion- to Mr. Hudson. " I have 
 
 been accustomed, Mr. ," replied the 
 
 dictator, " to have gentlemen with 
 whom I am associated, satisfied with 
 my arrangements ; and if you are not, 
 I'll retire and leave the affairs in your 
 custody, which I dare say you'll man- 
 
 age better than I do, as I have so much 
 other business on my hands." " Oh, 
 certainly not ; by no means, Mr. Hud- 
 son," bowingly responded the crest-fal- 
 len director ; " I am sure all you do is 
 right, and I am quite satisfied with 
 your arrangement." It is pretty cer- 
 tain that no further complaint was 
 made by any of George's colleagues at 
 that board ! 
 
 Rare Passenger in an Omnibus. 
 
 JOHN MCDONOGH, of New Orleans, 
 was one of those who rarely spent ten- 
 pence for an omnibus ride, his habit 
 being to economize to the last extremi- 
 ty in these minor as well as in larger 
 things. He was an untiling pedestrian, 
 being ever on foot, on some errand per- 
 taining to his vast money concern. Sud- 
 denly, one day, while pursuing so eager- 
 ly his imaginary goal, he was seized 
 with faintness on the street. Other 
 men would have taken a cab, and rid- 
 den home, or at least to a physician's ; 
 but when did John McDonogh turn 
 aside from business to relieve any weak- 
 ness or want ? He had an important 
 document to file in court. It must be 
 done that day. He is too weak to 
 walk. There is the omnibus ; the fare 
 is only a dime but that dime is so 
 much taken from the poor, for John 
 McDonogh is only an agent for the 
 poor, so appointed and called of God. 
 Such were the reflections, probably, 
 that passed through his mind before he 
 could be induced to perpetrate this se- 
 rious violation of the settled rules of a 
 life this single blot and stain on a ca- 
 reer of unbroken self-abnegation. With 
 a sigh he took his seat in the omnibus. 
 It was his last ride. 
 
 First Ship at St. Petersburg. 
 
 THE first ship which entered the port 
 of St. Petersburg, was a Dutch vessel, 
 the same in which Peter the Great ac- 
 quired in Holland a practical knowl-
 
 372 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 edge of seamanship. She was received 
 with extraordinary rejoicings and fes- 
 tivities, and whatever she might at any 
 future period bring into the country 
 was sacredly exempted from duty. 
 This privilege she enjoyed until the 
 end of the last century, when she was 
 obliged to discontinue her trips, be- 
 cause it was found impossible to patch 
 her up any longer so as to be seawor- 
 thy. The first ship that arrives in May, 
 like the swallow proclaiming the return 
 of spring, is still greeted with unusual 
 demonstrations of joy, and has various 
 favors granted her. 
 
 Proposed Line from England to China. 
 
 IN consequence of the extreme diffi- 
 culty at present experienced in making 
 the voyage to China and India, togeth- 
 er with the delay and chances of ship- 
 wreck, it has been proposed by gentle- 
 men connected with the London Punch 
 tinder the advice of an eminent en- 
 gineer to construct a railway direct 
 from that city to the Celestial Empire. 
 
 The plan suggested is the very feasi- 
 ble one of penetrating the bowels of 
 the earth, through the medium of a suit- 
 able tunnel from London to Canton, 
 passing through the centre of the globe, 
 thus obviating altogether the enor- 
 mous expense usually incurred in the 
 purchase of land, and avoiding the op- 
 position likely to Be encountered from 
 hostile nations. 
 
 From the Report made to the Com- 
 mittee by Sinko Shaft, Esq., the engi- 
 neer, who has descended some of the 
 deepest wells and sewers in and about 
 the metropolis, and has sounded the 
 earth in various places at the outskirts, 
 there is every reason to believe that the 
 centre of the globe consists of a mass of 
 softest soil, except where intersected by 
 solid rocks of gold and silver, and 
 caverns of precious stones ; and that, 
 from his examination, there is no reason 
 whatever to believe, as some have con- 
 jectured, that the earth is a mere crust, 
 
 filled in the interior with nothing at all 
 a state of things which would natu- 
 rally have rendered the cutting of a tun- 
 nel through it an expedient of some 
 difficulty. As it is, however, the cut- 
 ting will be exceedingly easy, except 
 where the masses of precious metals and 
 jewels interpose an obstacle ; but inas- 
 much as this material, when removed, 
 will be immensely valuable, and, accor- 
 ding to the most moderate calculations 
 of the engineer, will be many hundred 
 times more than sufficient to cover the 
 entire expense of the undertaking, but 
 little fear need be apprehended upon 
 this point. 
 
 It is intended that the terminus in 
 England shall be at what is now the 
 building known as St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 London, which for the purposes of this 
 line is to undergo the necessary architec- 
 tural alterations, after permission has 
 been obtained from the metropolitan 
 bishop. 
 
 The journey by this route will, it is 
 calculated, be accomplished as soon as 
 the passengers get from one terminus to 
 another. And as the railway will pass 
 immediately under Mount Vesuvius, a 
 station will be erected there, at which 
 trains will stop for the purpose of tak- 
 ing in coals and lava, or blacksmiths, 
 should there be any residing in those 
 parts. Another stoppage will be made 
 immediately under the Mediterranean, 
 with a view of getting a supply of wa- 
 ter conveniently drawn down through 
 a pipe from the sea above. 
 
 As regards the intermediate traffic be- 
 tween the two termini, there is, from 
 the recent investigations into the sub- 
 ject by the learned members of the 
 University Nhowhere, strong reason for 
 believing that the population swallow- 
 ed up at various periods by earth- 
 quakes, as at Lisbon, Port Royal, etc., 
 etc., have only disappeared from the 
 surface of the globe to colonize and 
 people the interior. Should this be 
 proved to be the case the most interest- 
 ing results are likely to follow upon
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 373 
 
 the establishment of this undertaking 
 which indeed may be the means at 
 once of opening an immense market for 
 manufactures and a passage for the in- 
 habitants of the interior regions of the 
 earth of the most profitable and ad- 
 vantageous description. In addition to 
 this it is confidently expected that most 
 of the Continental nations will establish 
 branch tunnels running into that of the 
 parent Company, which will be both a 
 most lucrative source of revenue, and be 
 the means of opening an immense field to 
 commercial enterprise. 
 
 Assuming the Responsibility. 
 
 HUDSON, the railway king, knew well 
 how to make steady, gradual, and 
 permanent encroachments in the con- 
 duct of those vast undertakings of 
 which he was the body and soul, so as to 
 compel others to concede to him the 
 absolute influence necessary for that 
 free individual action on which he felt 
 the very existence of the organizations 
 he brought about, and the success of 
 the negotiations into which he entered, 
 depended. He further knew how to 
 make capital out of the feelings of 
 reverence and admiration he excited. 
 Having entered into some arrangements 
 for the famous Midland Company 
 which he had not vouchsafed to disclose 
 to the board of directors, these gentle- 
 man, after having vainly endeavored, 
 to worm out the coveted secret, screw- 
 ed up their courage one day to demand 
 it. They accordingly met much earlier 
 one day than usual, and when their supe- 
 rior arrived, they were a^ exceedingly 
 quiet. 
 
 "How now, gentlemen," said Mr. 
 Hudson, " has anything happened ? " 
 
 " Only," replied one, " that we being 
 equally responsible with yourself for 
 what is done, are desirous of know- 
 ing the nature of your future plans." 
 
 " You are, are you ? " rejoined the 
 premier ; " then you will not ! " And 
 the business of the board proceeded. 
 
 Rothcnild's Omnibus Pare. 
 
 THERE is a good story told of Baron. 
 Rothschild, which shows that it is not 
 only money which"makes the mare go," 
 or horses either, as in this case, but 
 ready money, " unlimited credit " to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. On a 
 very wet and disagreeable day, the Bar- 
 ron took a Parisian omnibus, on his way 
 to the Bourse or Exchange, near which 
 the nabob of finance alighted, and was 
 going away without paying. The dri- 
 ver stopped him, and demanded his fare. 
 Rothschild felt in his pocket, but he 
 had not a " red cent " of change. The 
 driver was very wroth : 
 
 " What did you get in for, if you 
 could not pay ? You must have known 
 that you had no money ! " 
 
 " I am Baron Rothschild," exclaimed 
 the great capitalist, " and there is my 
 card ! " 
 
 The driver threw the card into 
 the gutter. 
 
 " Never heard of you before," said 
 Jehu, " and don't want to hear of you 
 again. But I want my fare and I 
 must have it." 
 
 The great banker was in haste : " I 
 have only an order for a million," he said ; 
 " give me change ? " and he proffered a 
 " coupon" for fifty thousand francs. The 
 conductor stared, and the passengers set 
 up a horse laugh. Just then an " agent 
 de change " came by, and Baron Roths- 
 child borrowed of him the six sous. 
 The driver was now seized with a kind 
 of remorseful respect ; and turning to 
 the money-king, he said 
 
 " If you want ten francs, sir, I don't 
 mind lending them to you on my own 
 account." 
 
 Great North Pole Railway. 
 
 THERE is a railway enterprise on foot, 
 which, according to the prospectus, is 
 to literally rise above everything in the 
 line of that class of transit undertak- 
 ings. It is styled, with that modesty 
 of terms which distinguishes all real
 
 374 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 enterprises from those which are merely 
 chimerical, the " Great North Pole Rail- 
 way, forming a junction with the Equi- 
 noctial Line, with a branch to the ho- 
 rizon. Capital, two hundred millions. 
 Deposit, three pence." The directors 
 named for the North Pole terminus are 
 J. Frost, Esq., chairman of the northwest 
 passage ; and Baron Iceberg, keeper of 
 the great seal on the Northern Ocean. 
 Director for the horizon, Hugh de Rain- 
 bow admiral of the red, blue, and 
 orange, etc. , etc. And in ad dition to these 
 are Simon Scamp, Esq, chairman of the 
 East Jericho Junction Railway ; Thomas 
 Trapper, Esq., manager of the Gener- 
 al Aerial Navigation Company ; and Sir 
 Edward Alias, non-resident director of 
 the Equitable Coal and Slate Associa- 
 tion ; with power to add to their num- 
 ber, by " taking in " as many as possible. 
 
 The proposed line will take the hori- 
 zon for its point of departure, and, pass- 
 ing near the equator, will terminate at 
 the North Pole, which will be the prin- 
 cipal station of the company. 
 
 It is calculated that sunbeams may 
 be conveyed along the line by a new 
 process, which Professor Twaddle has 
 been employed by the provisional com- 
 mittee to discover ; and the professor's 
 report will be laid before the subscri- 
 bers at the very earliest opportunity. 
 
 By bringing the Equator within a 
 week of the North Pole, and cooperat- 
 ing with the proprietors of the Great 
 Equinoctial Line (long so vigorous in its 
 operations), the advantages to the share- 
 holders will be so obvious, that it is 
 hardly necessary to allude to them. 
 
 It is estimated that the mere luggage 
 traffic, in bringing up ice from the 
 North Pole to the readiest market, will 
 return a profit of sixty-five per cent, 
 on the capital. 
 
 Should any unforeseen circumstance 
 occur to prevent the Railway being car- 
 ried out, the deposit will be returned, on 
 application to Messrs. Walker, Gammon 
 & Co. (Solicitors to the Company), at 
 their temporary offices in Leg Alley. 
 
 Protective Costume for Travellers. 
 
 IT is in contemplation to provide, at 
 all the stations on a certain western 
 railway, a dress adapted for travellers 
 along that celebrated line, by which it 
 is thought they will be secured from the 
 chances of injury by the collisions that 
 are continually happening. 
 
 Considering that padding is not un- 
 frequently resorted to, for the purpose 
 of improving the figure, it has been 
 thought quite reasonable that the 
 fashion should be extended to the pur- 
 pose of protecting the limbs as well as 
 merely adding to their symmetry. A 
 good pair of false calves, got up at a 
 reasonable price, would doubtless be in 
 very great demand, among those who 
 risk their legs whenever they set their 
 foot in a car on the line alluded to. 
 The public would have no objection to 
 a slight addition to the fares, for the 
 purpose of insuring something like 
 protection against accident. 
 
 The tariff of the Company might easi- 
 be so varied as to allow of the " first 
 class, with paddings," being available at 
 a small extra cost ; while the " second 
 class, with calves or knee-caps," might 
 be charged something lower. 
 
 Waghorn's Great Scheme. 
 
 THE great pioneer of the Overland 
 Communication with India was poor 
 Thomas Waghorn. It is now upward 
 of thirty years since Waghorn arrived 
 in Bombay, full of a scheme for navi- 
 gating a steamer round the Cape of 
 Good Hope, which steamer, that it 
 might carry a sufficiency of fuel for 
 the whole trip, was only to take the 
 mails and one passenger. On the day 
 of Waghorn's arrival a meeting was 
 held by the merchants to receive pro- 
 posals from a Mr. Taylor for the for- 
 mation of a company which was to 
 open a communication with India ma 
 the Red Sea. Waghorn's scheme was 
 scouted. Taylor received great en-
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 375 
 
 couragement, as far as promises could 
 be relied upon, and he started for Eu- 
 rope with a party of friends, travelling 
 up the Persian Gulf and Euphrates en 
 route to Constantinople ; but the whole 
 party was murdered by the Vezedees 
 near Diarbekir. 
 
 On the receipt of the news in India, 
 "Waghorn changed his tactics, and 
 declared for the Red Sea route, offer- 
 ing to return to Europe with mercan- 
 tile letters. But the " Ducks " as the 
 Bombay people are familiarly called in 
 India thought him mad or eccentric. 
 Certainly he was afflicted with mono- 
 mania he could think, speak, dream 
 of nothing but " steam." It became 
 necessary, when in his company, to 
 avoid all allusion to anything which 
 could supply him with an excuse for 
 bursting out on his favorite topic. 
 Kettles, smoking tureens, condensed 
 vapor, one shunned; for he watched, 
 as a cat watches for a mouse, for an op- 
 portunity of bringing in steam naviga- 
 tion. On one unfortunate occasion 
 (says the narrator of this), I introduced 
 him to a Major Hawkins, a military 
 engineer, saying : " Waghorn, make 
 the acquaintance of my esteemed friend, 
 Major Hawkins." " Steamed, sir, did 
 you say ? " exclaimed Waghorn ; " I 
 am delighted 1 " He seized Hawkins 
 by the buttons and victimized him. 
 
 Mad as he was, however, Waghorn 
 contrived to carry his point with the 
 London merchants and the ministry. 
 He besieged the office of the Foreign 
 Secretary, he worried the Premier, tor- 
 tured the Duke of Wellington, and 
 bullied the public through the press. 
 At length the merchants consented to 
 test his repeated asseverations that let- 
 ters could be carried to India, via, Egypt 
 and the Red Sea, in half the time that 
 it required to send them around the 
 Cape of Good Hope. They intrusted 
 him with a large packet and the means 
 of paying his expenses. He set out : 
 travelled express to Marseilles, went on 
 a French vessel to Alexandria, hasten- 
 
 ed across the desert on a canal, hired 
 a small vessel at Kosseir, and sailed 
 down to India, accomplishing the feat 
 in less than two months. All scep- 
 ticism now vanished. If this feat 
 could be accomplished by sailing ves- 
 sels, what might not a steamer achieve ? 
 A company was formed ; Waghorn was 
 rewarded with a lieutenancy in the 
 Royal Navy, and soon drank himself 
 to death ; and thenceforward India 
 was brought ten thousand miles nearer 
 to England. Mighty have been the 
 results ! 
 
 Bather Dry. 
 
 A FRENCH merchant as usual viva- 
 cious and polite in the extreme while 
 travelling in a coach, had for his fel- 
 low traveller, a demure and taciturn 
 old English banker. With character- 
 istic French courtesy, he endeavored 
 to engage his British companion in a 
 little social chat, by addressing him 
 thus : " Sare, I hope you are well ; " 
 he however received no reply, and 
 therefore repeated the remark more 
 emphatically, " Sare, I hope you are 
 ver well." To this the old nabob sulki- 
 ly rejoined, " I was very well, sir, when 
 we came away ; I am very well now ; 
 and when I get ill, I'll let you know." 
 
 New York to Boston in Four Days. 
 
 THE first stage coach from New York 
 to Boston, started on the 24th of June, 
 1772, from the " Fresh Water." It was 
 to leave each terminus once a fortnight. 
 The fare was four pence, New York 
 currency, per mile. It reached Hart- 
 ford, Conn, in two days, and Boston in 
 two more. The proprietors promised 
 a weekly stage, " if encouraged in their 
 great enterprise." 
 
 Good Land for Railroad. 
 
 AT an early stage in the proceedings 
 of the Erie and New York City Rail-
 
 376 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 road, while the directors were negotiat- 
 ing with the chiefs for the land around 
 Jennison Hill, the colonel and others 
 had made some strong speeches depict- 
 ing the worthlessness of the land and 
 enlarging considerably upon the fact 
 that it was good for nothing for corn, 
 and, consequently, should be leased 
 very cheap. 
 
 When the colonel sat down, the old 
 chief replied in the Seneca tongue to 
 the interpreter, to the effect that " he 
 knew it was poor land for corn ; but 
 mighty good land for railroad ! " The 
 shrewdness and force of this remark 
 will be fully appreciated when it is 
 known that the little strip of land 
 around Jennison Hill was the only pos- 
 sible place for a railroad that did not 
 involve the building of two expensive 
 bridges across the Alleghany. 
 
 Disinterested Railroad Contractor ! 
 
 IT has become so common for persons 
 to engage in railroad enterprises, and 
 seek to become directors, presidents, 
 or contractors, for the purpose of spec- 
 ulating in the opprobrious use of that 
 term, that it is really refreshing to 
 record the instance of one who sacri- 
 ficed his own interest for that of the 
 persons whom he represented. Mr. F. C. 
 went to New York, with authority to 
 purchase iron for twenty miles of the 
 railroad of which he was president. 
 When in market, he found he could 
 purchase enough for seventy miles 
 more at good rates, but his limit by 
 the directors was to twenty miles. He 
 determined to close the contract for 
 the seventy miles on private account, 
 which he did. Iron soon rose in value 
 so much so that his contract was 
 $300,000 above what he had agreed 
 to pay. It was, of course, legally and 
 fairly his, but with a disinterestedness 
 almost without a parallel, he gave the 
 company the entire benefit of his bar- 
 gain without a cent of compensation. 
 A disinterested railroad contractor ! 
 
 No wonder that the speedy dawn of 
 the millennium has been so confidently 
 expected, of late years ! 
 
 Rigid Obedience of Shipmasters 
 Exacted by Girard. 
 
 IT is stated as a fact peculiar to 
 Girard's management of his business, 
 that he was always his own insurer 
 upon his ships, and he never forgave 
 the slightest disobedience of his orders 
 on the part of any captain or super- 
 cargo in his employ. 
 
 He would at once dismiss his cap- 
 tains, even if they saved the ship 
 through disobedience of his orders; 
 and this practice he carried out in the 
 most arbitrary manner, no matter how 
 long a period the offender may have 
 been in his employ, nor how faithful 
 and valuable the services rendered by 
 them. Such conduct is without a par- 
 allel among American merchants. 
 
 Scale of Railway Politeness. 
 
 THE classification adopted in the 
 management of English railways ap- 
 pears not to be confined to the cars ; 
 but the distinctions of first, second, 
 and third class are as scrupulously ob- 
 served in the degree of politeness 
 shown by the employes of the com- 
 pany to the passengers. The old 
 maxim that civility costs nothing 
 seems to be treated as a fable by the 
 railway managers, who calculate per- 
 haps that politeness at all events takes 
 time, and, as time is money, the officers 
 of the company are not justified in 
 giving it without an equivalent. Any 
 one who doubts the fact of this dis- 
 crimination has only to present him- 
 self at different times as an applicant 
 for information at a railway station, 
 in the different characters of a first, a 
 second, or a third class passenger. 
 
 If he is going in the first class, he 
 will get speedy attention from the 
 clerks in the office ; bows, and even 
 smiles, from the policemen on the plat-
 
 PAYING THE FIRST STEAMBOAT MONEY.
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 377 
 
 form ; and perhaps a touch of the hat 
 from the conductor. The second class 
 passengers will get bare civility but 
 rather more of the bear than the civili- 
 ty, from the officials who deliver the 
 checks ; these latter are very fond of 
 trying to cheat themselves into the 
 belief that they are quite on a par 
 with the petted " gentlemen in govern- 
 ment office," whom the railway clerks 
 chiefly resemble in an assumed noncha- 
 lance, which, however, the plain speak- 
 ing of a passenger who will be attended 
 to, and who may be a shareholder, is 
 pretty sure to dissipate. A second 
 class passenger will get little else than 
 a " Now, sir," from the policeman, and 
 a " Come, jump up ! " from the con- 
 ductor ; while, alas ! the third class 
 passenger will perhaps suddenly find 
 himself catching a smart poke in his 
 chest from the conductor's staff, by way 
 of keeping him back till it is conve- 
 nient to let him enter. 
 
 In fact, there are short answers as 
 well as short trains, and each class has 
 a set of rules of courtesy or " atten- 
 tion " applied to it, which the officers 
 are bound to obey as scrupulously as 
 they do the railway signals. 
 
 " Pleasure Excursions." 
 
 ONE would imagine that railways 
 were of that "grave" nature that 
 would drive away joking. One would 
 about as soon expect to fall upon a 
 comic churchyard, as to meet with a 
 jocund railway for smash-ups and 
 mutilations, somehow, are not very 
 favorable to fun. One style of joking 
 which has been adopted by a certain 
 railway company that has always been 
 the most fruitful in accidents, is that 
 of advertising " Pleasure Excursions." 
 The directors' notions of amusement 
 must have been learned in the slaugh- 
 ter house. One day of such pleasure, it 
 would rationally be supposed, must 
 suffice a man his entire life his day 
 of pleasure and his life or limb will 
 
 probably prove in this case to be 
 neck and neck. The words " Last 
 Chance," which commonly wind up 
 such advertisements, are also intensely 
 suggestive. The names of the en- 
 gines, too, are frequently conducive 
 to anything but pleasant emotions 
 there seems to be a cruel delight in 
 christening them after the gloomiest 
 objects : One railway, for instance, 
 has the following lively stud of engines 
 " Lethe," " Styx," " Minos," " Pluto,' 
 and several others, introducing every 
 member of the latter gentleman's in- 
 teresting family, as if it was absolutely 
 necessary that every traveller should be 
 on companionable terms with them, 
 preparatory to what is to follow. One 
 cannot help thinking that the very 
 bad names which directors are in the 
 habit of giving their engines may have 
 had some influence in making them, 
 as they so often prove, such emphati- 
 cally thorough-going engines of de- 
 struction. 
 
 The First Steamboat Passage-Money 
 ever Paid. 
 
 ONE of the most interesting incidents 
 of a business nature is that which con- 
 cerns the first steamboat fare paid to 
 Fulton. The narrator of this, who was 
 also one of the actors in the scene, says : 
 " I chanced to be at Albany on busi- 
 ness when Fulton arrived there, in his 
 unheard-of craft, which everybody 
 felt so much interest in seeing. Being 
 ready to leave, and hearing that this 
 craft was going to return to New 
 York, I repaired on board and in- 
 quired for Mr. Fulton ; I was referred 
 to the cabin, and there found a plain, 
 gentlemanly man, wholly alone, and 
 engaged in writing. 
 
 " Mr. Fulton, I presume." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Do you return to New York, with 
 this boat ? " 
 
 " We shall try to get back, sir." 
 
 " Can I have a passage down ? "
 
 378 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 " You can take your chance with us, 
 sir." 
 
 " I inquired the amount to be paid, 
 and, after a moment's hesitation, a sum, 
 I think six dollars, was named. The 
 amount, in coin, I laid in his open 
 hand, and, with his eye fixed upon 
 it, he remained so long motionless, 
 that I supposed there might be a mis- 
 count, and said to him, ' Is that right, 
 sir ? '" 
 
 This question roused him as from a 
 kind of reverie, and as he looked up to 
 me the big tear was brimming in his 
 eye, and his voice faltered as he said, 
 "Excuse me, sir; but memory was 
 busy as I contemplated this, the first 
 pecuniary reward I have ever received 
 for all my exertions in adapting steam 
 to navigation. I should gladly com- 
 memorate the occasion over a bottle 
 of wine with you but, really I am too 
 poor, even for that, just now; yet I 
 trust we may meet again when this 
 will not be the case." 
 
 That voyage to New York was suc- 
 cessful, as all know, and terminated 
 without accident. 
 
 Some four years after this, when the 
 Clermont had been greatly improved, 
 and her name changed to the North 
 River, and when two other boats, viz., 
 the Car of Neptune and the Paragon, 
 had been built, making Mr. Fulton's 
 fleet three boats regularly plying 
 between New York and Albany, I 
 took passage upon one of these for 
 the latter city. The cabin in that day 
 was below; and, as I walked its 
 length, to and fro, I saw I was very 
 closely observed by one I supposed a 
 stranger. Soon, however, I recalled 
 the features of Mr. Fulton ; but, with- 
 out disclosing this, I continued my 
 walk. At length, in passing his seat, 
 our eyes met, when he sprang to his 
 feet, and, eagerly seizing my hand, 
 exclaimed, " I knew it must be you, 
 for your features- have never escaped 
 me ; and, although I am still far from 
 rich, yet I may venture that ~bottU 
 
 now ! " It was ordered ; and during 
 its discussion Mr. Fulton ran rapidly, 
 but vividly, over his experiences of the 
 world's coldness and sneers, and of the 
 hopes, fears, disappointments, and diffi- 
 culties, that were scattered through his 
 whole career of discovery, up to the 
 very point of his final, crowning 
 triumph, at which he so fully felt he 
 had arrived at last. 
 
 And in reviewing all these, said he : 
 " I have again and again recalled the 
 occasion, and the incident, of our first 
 interview at Albany ; and never have 
 I done so without renewing in my mind 
 the vivid emotion it originally caused. 
 That seemed, and does still seem, to 
 me, the turning point in my destiny 
 the dividing line between light and 
 darkness, in my career upon earth; 
 for it was the first actual recognition 
 of my usefulness to my fellow men.'' 
 
 George Hudson, the Hallway King:. 
 
 GEORGE HUDSON, who will always 
 be known as the English railway king, 
 may be said to have left his counter as 
 a linen draper and sprang upon the 
 steam engine. His first notable move- 
 ment in this line was the subscription 
 for several hundred shares in the York 
 railway enterprise, and by a natural 
 progress, under a strong and vigorous, 
 bold and determined mind like his, he 
 soon became known as the railway 
 monarch. His influence extended sev- 
 enty-six miles over the York and North 
 Midland railroads ; fifty-one over the 
 Hull and Selby and Leeds and Selby ; 
 over the North Midland, Midland coun- 
 ties, and another, one hundred and sev- 
 enty-eight miles ; over the Newcastle 
 and Darlington, and the Great North 
 of England, one hundred and eleven 
 miles; while over the Sheffield and 
 Rotherham, the York and Scarborough, 
 the North British, 'Whitby and Picker- 
 ing, it affected near six hundred miles 
 more, making a total of more than one 
 thousand miles, all of which were sue-
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 379 
 
 cessful in developing traffic, and equal- 
 ly successful in paying good dividends. 
 
 For a time, no other name was heard 
 in the great world of railways. In the 
 journals of the day men read of his 
 wonderful doings. The press recorded 
 his whereabouts; the draughtsman 
 pencilled his features. His name was 
 connected with preference, shares, and 
 profits. He wielded an influence un- 
 paralleled and unprecedented. Peers 
 flattered the dispenser of scrip, and 
 peeresses fawned upon the allotter of 
 premiums. It was told with pleasure 
 and repeated with delight, that his 
 empire extended over one thousand 
 miles of railway. His fortune was 
 computed with an almost personal 
 pride. Almack's was deserted when 
 Albert house was full. The ducal crest 
 was seen on the carriage at his door. 
 The daintiest aristocracy of England 
 sought his presence. Foreign poten- 
 tates sued for his society. The coronet 
 of the peer was veiled before the crown 
 of the railway king. The minister paid 
 his court, and the bishop bent in hom- 
 age. The ermine of the judge lost its 
 dignity, and the uniform of the officer 
 its pride. The Christian banker and 
 the Hebrew capitalist alike acknowl- 
 edged his greatness. Stories were plen- 
 tiful of the fortunes he had won, and 
 the dividends his enterprises had paid. 
 The prince consort was proud to be 
 introduced to him, " shook hands very 
 heartily with the member (he was in 
 the House of Commons), and remained 
 in conversation with him for some 
 time." 
 
 When his name graced an advertise- 
 ment, men ran to buy the share. In 
 regard to lines known to be worthless, 
 and on which no business was doing, 
 if a rumor was skilfully spread that 
 Hudson was after them, the stock ex- 
 change was in a ferment, and prices 
 rose enormously, tp the cool loss of the 
 holder, however, when the contradic- 
 tion came. He was their railway po- 
 tentate, their iron king their golden 
 
 god. His appearance on the platform 
 was a perfect ovation. Sober, steady- 
 minded men shouted with joy shrewd 
 speculators ditto ; and one intense, 
 universal homage greeted the image 
 they had set up. The thought of ten 
 per cent, enraptured them, and the 
 loud applause which hailed his tram- 
 way periods would only have been jus- 
 tified by the discourse of a Macaulay 
 or the oration of a Peel. Over railways 
 and railway managers he maintained 
 an imperial sway. 
 
 His exertions in behalf of the pro- 
 jects he espoused were absolutely as- 
 tonishing. Nothing seemed to wear 
 his mind ; nothing appeared to weary 
 his frame. He battled in parliamentary 
 committees, day by day ; he argued, 
 pleaded, and gesticulated with an ear- 
 nestness which rarely failed in its ob- 
 ject. One day in town cajoling a com- 
 mittee the next persuading an arch- 
 bishop. In the morning adjusting 
 some rival claim in an obscure office ; 
 in the afternoon astonishing the stock 
 exchange with some daring coup de 
 main. 
 
 But his connection with the railways 
 of the Eastern counties, the bad man- 
 agement of which brought things to 
 such a desperate pass, turned the scale 
 of his fortune at last. The unwise ex- 
 periment was made of declaring divi- 
 dends which had not been earned, and 
 paying them out of the capital, in or- 
 der to keep up the value of the stock, 
 and the prestige of Mr. Hudson. The 
 imprudence was bitterly paid for. In 
 a short time the railway king, stripped 
 of crown and sceptre, was sent into ig- 
 nominious exile ! The revulsion in pop- 
 ular feeling was fierce, and he was now 
 as intensely hated as he had been before 
 admired. The more sweet had been 
 the accents of praise, the more bitter 
 were now the objurgations uttered by 
 the same tongues against that name. It 
 was a malignant delight to repeat and 
 repeat over again the thousand stories 
 of his unheard-of villanies. The rail-
 
 380 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 way king had now become the railway 
 demon, and his many roads were but 
 iron ways for transporting the whole 
 realm to the infernal latitudes. 
 
 Personally, he was a plain, solid- 
 looking man with a large and heavy 
 build; a keen, penetrating, gray eye; 
 a broad, wrinkled, and severe face; 
 gray and scanty hair ; a nervous and 
 rather peculiar gait, somewhat shuf- 
 fling ; in dress inclined to be careless. 
 His speech was rapid, without grace 
 of delivery, his utterance somewhat 
 thick, and he affected no refinement of 
 manner. He pitched at once into his 
 subject, and said what he had to say 
 in the fewest words he could put it 
 in. 
 
 Among the causes of his success, one 
 was an excellent arithmetical capacity, 
 enabling him to form in his head the 
 most elaborate combinations of figures 
 in a very brief time. Another thing 
 was his close personal attention to the 
 minutiae ; nothing was too small to be 
 overlooked or to be left to others, if he 
 could see to it himself. He examined 
 personally every department of the 
 roads under his management, and 
 knew the duties of every man. 
 
 Stephenson, the Pioneer in Railway 
 Construction. 
 
 To Mr. Stephenson is commonly 
 awarded the honor of first constructing 
 a railway for general transportation. 
 Three years elapsed from the com- 
 mencement of the work, and those in- 
 terested began to be impatient. They 
 wished as was natural for some re- 
 turns from the vast amount of capital 
 they had expended. 
 
 " Now, George," said Friend Crop- 
 per to him one day, " thou must get on 
 with the railway, and have it finished 
 without further delay. Thou must 
 really have it ready for opening by the 
 first day of January next." 
 
 " It is impossible," said Stephenson. 
 
 " Impossible ! I wish I could get Na- 
 
 poleon at thee. He would tell thee 
 that there is no such word." 
 
 "Tushl Don't speak to me about 
 Napoleon. Give me men, money, and 
 materials, and I will do what Napoleon 
 couldn't do drive a railroad from Liv- 
 erpool to Manchester over Chat Moss." 
 
 Mr. Grigg's Diode of Overcoming 
 Obstacles. 
 
 ON the death of Mr. "Warner, the 
 eminent Philadelphia bookseller, with 
 whom Mr. John Grigg was for a con- 
 siderable time associated in business, 
 the settlement of the affairs of the firm 
 was devolved upon Mr. G. Nor was 
 this a slight undertaking. The busi- 
 ness of the house had been immense ; 
 connected with it were numerous 
 branches and agencies ; it had dealings 
 with various houses at the South and 
 West, and the settlement of affairs ren- 
 dered frequent journeyings necessary. 
 During one of those journeys, an inci- 
 dent occurred which is too characteris- 
 tic of the days of stage-coach travel- 
 ling, and of the determined energy of 
 Mr. Grigg's character, not to be worthy 
 of mention. He was at Charleston. It 
 was the latter part of December, 1825, 
 and by Christmas day he must be in 
 Philadelphia. He pushed forward, 
 travelling day and night ; at Balti- 
 more, the steamboat which usually 
 connected was found to have left off 
 running, and the travellers were forced 
 to take to the mail coach. But every 
 seat was full when Mr. Grigg arrived ; 
 there was no alternative for the deter- 
 mined traveller, weary and excited as 
 he was by incessant journeying for 
 seven long days and sleepless nights, 
 but to ride outside with the driver. 
 The day, or rather the night, was 
 cold, the air was full of sleet, the 
 road miry. But to the driver's seat 
 he mounted and pushed on. At 
 Havre de Grace another driver took 
 the reins, who was unacquainted with 
 the road ; it was long after dark, and
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 the " inside3," who began to be fearful 
 of their necks as the coach plunged 
 and tossed in the mire, grew clamorous 
 for putting back till the morning. But 
 Mr. Grigg was determined that the 
 stage should go ahead and be in Phila- 
 delphia by Christmas day, and, besides, 
 they carried the mails, and a public 
 conveyance must not be delayed 1 So 
 he procured a lantern, and going be- 
 fore the coach piloted the travellers 
 though the darkness and mire for 
 about two miles. Finally, mounting 
 the box again, he took the reins into 
 his own hands, and daylight saw the 
 delighted travellers arrived at Elkton, 
 and well on their way. They at once 
 entreated him to take a seat inside. 
 And early on Christmas morning Mr. 
 Grigg was in Philadelphia. 
 
 Southern Accommodation Trains. 
 
 OUR railroad is a slow coach (writes 
 a Southern traveller) ; going along at 
 the usual speed of six or eight miles an 
 hour, we came to a dead halt ; several 
 passengers left the cars, and went to 
 climbing the trees by the side of the 
 track. I asked the conductor what 
 they were after. " Grapes," he an- 
 swered. " Why," said I, " is it possi- 
 ble you stop whenever the passengers 
 wish to get some grapes ? " " Oh, cer- 
 tainly, this is the accommodation train ! " 
 
 "Your Ticket, Sir!" 
 
 ON one of the Georgia railroads there 
 was a conductor named Snell, a very 
 clever, sociable, gentlemanly man, a 
 great favorite with the company he 
 was connected with, and the travelling 
 public in general fond of a joke, quick 
 at repartee, and faithful in the discharge 
 of his duties. During one of his trips, 
 as his train, well filled with passengers, 
 was crossing a bridge over a wide 
 stream, some seven or eight feet deep, 
 the bridge broke down, precipitating 
 the two passenger cars into the stream. 
 
 As the passengers emerged from the 
 wreck they were borne away by the 
 force of the current. Snell had suc- 
 ceeded in catching hold of some bushes 
 that grew on the bank of the stream, 
 to which he clung for dear life. A 
 passenger less fortunate came rushing 
 by ; Snell extended one hand, saying, 
 " Your ticket, sir ; give me your tick- 
 et 1 " The effect of such a dry joke in 
 the midst of the water may be imagined. 
 
 Thompson's Travels in California. 
 
 IT is not unlikely (though the capital 
 contributor to " Harper's " does not say 
 so) that Thompson, who figures in the 
 following whirligig of fun, was a Yan- 
 kee, having an eye to " sites," " water 
 privileges," etc., and ready for an 
 " operation " when the opportunity 
 should present itself. Assuming this 
 very reasonable probability, we are only 
 too happy to give it a place in these 
 pages. 
 
 In the northern part of California is 
 a stream called Yuba River. Across it 
 some enterprising individual built a 
 bridge ; and on the banks somebody 
 else built three or four houses. The 
 inhabitants called the place Yuba 
 Dam. Three bars were instantly erect- 
 ed, and the " town " increased rapidly. 
 About noon one cool day a traveller 
 and a sojourner in the land passed this 
 flourishing locality, and seeing a long- 
 legged specimen of humanity in a red 
 shirt smoking before one of the bars, 
 thus addressed him : 
 
 " Hello 1 " 
 
 "Hello!" replied the shirt, with 
 vigor, removing his pipe from his 
 mouth. 
 
 " What place is this ? " demanded 
 the traveller, whose name was Thomp- 
 son. 
 
 The answer of the shirt was unex- 
 pected : 
 
 " Yuba Dam ! " 
 
 There was about fifty yards between 
 them, and the wind was blowing. Mr.
 
 382 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Thompson thought he had been mis- 
 taken. 
 
 " What did you say ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yuba Dam ! " replied the stranger, 
 cheerfully. 
 
 " What place is this ? " roared Mr. 
 Thompson. 
 
 " Yu-ba Dam," said the shirt, in a 
 slightly elevated tone of voice. 
 
 " Lookee here ! " yelled the irate 
 Thompson; "I asked you politely 
 what place this was ; why in thunder 
 don't you answer ? " 
 
 The stranger became excited. He 
 rose, and replied with the voice of an 
 80-pounder, 
 
 " YU-BA DAM ! You hear that ? " 
 
 In a minute Thompson, burning 
 with the wrath of the righteous, 
 jumped off his horse, and advanced to 
 the stranger with an expression not to 
 be mistaken. The shirt arose, and as- 
 sumed a posture of offence and defence. 
 Arrived within a yard of him, Thomp- 
 son said : 
 
 " I ask you for the last time. What 
 place is this ? " 
 
 Putting his hand to his mouth, his 
 opponent roared 
 
 " YU-BA DAM ! " 
 
 The next minute they were at it. 
 First, Thompson was down ; then the 
 shirt ; and then it was a dog-fall that 
 is, both were down. They rolled about, 
 kicking up a tremendous dust. They 
 squirmed around so energetically that 
 it appeared as though they had a dozen 
 legs instead of four. It looked like a 
 prize fight between two pugilistic cen- 
 tipedes. Finally, they both rolled off 
 the bank and into the river. The 
 water cooled them. They went down 
 together, but came up separate, and 
 put out for the shore. Both reached it 
 about the same time, and Thompson 
 scrambled up the bank, mounted his 
 warlike steed, and made tracks, leav- 
 ing his foe gouging the mud out of one 
 of his eyes. 
 
 Having left the business portion of 
 the town, that is to say, the corner 
 
 where the three bars were kept, he 
 struck a house in the " suburbs," before 
 which a little girl of about four years 
 of age was playing. 
 
 "What place is this, sissy?" he 
 asked. 
 
 The little girl, frightened at the 
 clrowned-rat figure which the stranger 
 cut, streaked it for the house. Having 
 reached the door, she stopped, turned, 
 and squealed, " Oo-bee Dam ! " 
 
 " Good Heavens ! " said Thompson, 
 digging his heels between his horse's 
 ribs " Good Heavens ! let me get out 
 of this horrid place, where not only the 
 men, but the very babes and sucklings, 
 swear at inoffensive travellers ! " 
 
 Prom Honolulu to Kaui. 
 
 Two citizens of Honolulu, Judge B. 
 and Dr. N., had occasion to go to the 
 island of Kaui, the land of sugar and 
 coffee. They returned in a schooner, 
 and among the passengers was the 
 governor of the island, who was com- 
 ing to visit the metropolis the great 
 city of Honolulu. The governor is a 
 native, and so is the captain of the 
 schooner a first-rate seaman as long 
 as land was in sight. There came up 
 a gale that blew them off; and having 
 no compass, and a short supply of pro- 
 visions, they were soon in a sad plight 
 indeed. On and on, for nine days, 
 they sailed, when they ought to have 
 been in port in two. The judge and 
 the doctor thought it about time to 
 take matters into their own hands, or 
 they would all be starved to death ; 
 for neither law nor physic would serve 
 them without something to eat. They 
 deemed it proper to ask the governor 
 what he thought best to be done. His 
 excellency took the subject into con- 
 sideration, and with great sagacity re- 
 marked, " Well, now, as we are lost, I 
 think we had better go back to where 
 we started from." The poor captain 
 would have been but too happy to 
 comply with the governor's suggestion,
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 383 
 
 had there been any such thing as 
 knowing where that place was ; but 
 that day a whaler hove in sight, and 
 supplying them with provisions, led 
 them into port. They were actually 
 on the way to America. 
 
 Not Posted in Geography. 
 
 THERE was once an old gentleman 
 of the utmost integrity of character, 
 but keen as a brier in all business mat- 
 ters, who, not having had early oppor- 
 tunities of acquiring knowledge, some- 
 times made sad mistakes in his use of 
 language. Although largely engaged 
 in shipping, he was profoundly igno- 
 rant of geography. He came one day, 
 with a letter in his hand, which he had 
 just received, into the insurance office, 
 and asked to see a chart of the Medi- 
 terranean. It was promptly unrolled, 
 and spending a long time in an ap- 
 parently unsatisfactory examination, 
 the curiosity of the president of the 
 office was excited, and he offered his 
 aid to assist him in his trouble. " Why," 
 says the old gentleman, " I have just 
 got a letter from one of my captains, 
 who states that he has experienced a 
 violent hurricane, and consequently 
 put in great jeopardy. Now, I know 
 Great Jeopardy is a port in the Medi- 
 terranean, but I can't find the plaguey 
 place on the map." 
 
 Working a Hand Car. 
 
 THE thriving town of Scranton, 
 Pennsylvania, where railroad iron and 
 other products of the same substantial 
 metal are extensively manufactured, is 
 situated on the Delaware, Lackawanna, 
 and Western Railroad. There is a very 
 heavy ascending grade for several miles 
 westward from this place, to overcome 
 which requires not a little power of 
 steam with an ordinary train of cars. 
 Just before this part of the road was 
 opened, an officer connected with it 
 had occasion to go three or four 
 
 miles west to superintend some oper- 
 ations. 
 
 He took a light hand car and two 
 powerful men to work it, one of whom 
 was a German, not an accomplished 
 engineer, nor very familiar with the 
 working of railroads. They toiled 
 hard at the crank, working their way 
 up the steep grade, landing their pas- 
 senger at his destined point, who sent 
 the car back to Scranton by the Ger- 
 man alone, knowing that no labor was 
 required to descend, excepting when it 
 was necessary to hold back by putting 
 on the brake. Not having received any 
 specific directions, however, as to the 
 manner in which he was to work his 
 way down, the German mounted the 
 car, and thinking as it had been such a 
 severe labor for two men to take the car 
 out, it would require still more exer- 
 tion for one to work it back, he applied 
 all his strength to the crank, and was 
 soon moving with tremendous velocity, 
 down the hill toward the town and the 
 terminus of the road. As he passed 
 through the town over the last half 
 mile, all unconscious of what was be- 
 fore him, his danger excited universal 
 apprehension, and the cry was raised 
 on every hand, " Put on the brake ! 
 Put on the brake ! " Interpreting the 
 cry to mean " Put on more strength," 
 he laid out all his power upon one last 
 grand effort. Reaching the end of the 
 road, where there was some heavy ob- 
 struction, sufficient to stop a train of 
 cars, the hand car was instantly con- 
 verted into kindling wood, and the 
 poor German was thrown head over 
 heels some twenty-five or thirty feet 
 beyond where it struck. As he was 
 picked up, in a mangled condition, 
 some one asked him, 
 
 " Why didn't you put on the 
 brake ? " 
 
 " Put on the prake," said he, " vy, it 
 ish preak all to pieces ! " 
 
 And this was the end of that ride.
 
 384 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Amending the Charter. 
 
 A LITTLE transaction between a New 
 York merchant and a Frenchman is 
 thus related by the former : He was a 
 captain of a coasting craft, and I char- 
 tered his vessel for a round sum, to 
 take a cargo of wheat up the river to a 
 mill, and to return with a load of flour 
 in barrels. There was a written agree- 
 ment between us, which required 
 him to load without unnecessary delay. 
 Having a limited knowledge of Eng- 
 lish, and being a cautious skipper, he 
 took the agreement, before signing it, 
 to a compatriot who was, or pretend- 
 ed to be, in the legal profession whose 
 knowledge of our language was much 
 more contracted than his own, and 
 gave him a small fee to read it over 
 and see if it was correct. They came 
 together to my oflice, and the lawyer 
 addressed me with much politeness 
 and gravity, while his countryman 
 stood by with approbative visage : 
 " Bare, I have read this little papier. 
 It is entierement cor-r-rect, except von 
 vord. I do not like zat expr-r-ression 
 unnecessa-rie ! " " Very well," said I, 
 with great frankness, " I will scratch it 
 out," and I did so. The skipper and 
 lawyer both seemed relieved immensely 
 now that the former was obliged to 
 load his vessel " without delay" 
 
 "Soaking" the old Coach. 
 
 IN olden times, before the introduc- 
 tion of railroads, there lived in the 
 town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 
 a certain tavern keeper named Ramsay, 
 proprietor of all the stage coaches in 
 that region of country. His house was 
 not one of those miserable, dirty holes 
 usually selected as the stopping places 
 of the stages, but a fine, spacious, old- 
 fashioned inn, where one was sure to 
 find cleanliness and comfort the best 
 of everything that rich country could 
 afford, and plenty of it. Squire Ram- 
 say had become rich, and was much re- 
 
 spected by all his neighbors. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, he became also a little 
 too fond of bis " pure old rye," and 
 was likely to become a regular drunk- 
 ard. His friends felt the necessity of 
 cautioning him against this besetting 
 sin ; but the Squire, being a high- 
 spirited old colt, required careful 
 handling. 
 
 Finally, it was agreed that the doctor 
 of the place, one of his oldest friends, 
 should deal with him in the most deli- 
 cate manner possible. The doctor 
 thought best to approach his friend in 
 the way of a parable, as Nathan did 
 David, and felt certain of success. At 
 their next interview he led the conver- 
 sation intentionally to the subject of 
 stage coaches how long they would 
 last, etc. 
 
 " Now, Mr. R.," said he, " suppose 
 you had a fine, well-built, old coach, 
 that had done good service and was yet 
 sound, though perhaps a little shack- 
 ling, and the seams a little open ; would 
 you put it to a team of fiery young 
 horses on the roughest part of the road, 
 or would you not put it to a team of 
 steady old stagers, and on the smooth- 
 est part of the road you could find ? " 
 
 "Well, doctor," said the squire, in 
 perfect ignorance of the doctor's drift, 
 " if I had such a stage as you describe, 
 / would soak it ! " 
 
 The doctor was silenced, but, wheth- 
 er from the advice of his friends or the 
 promptings of his own good sense, the 
 squire ceased to run the " old coach " 
 so hard, and died highly esteemed and 
 respected. 
 
 Strange Terminus to a Railroad. 
 
 THERE is a small town on the North 
 Missouri Railroad called Renick; and 
 Renick is a hard place a very hard 
 place. In one of the cars on this road, 
 on a certain occasion, sat with his 
 feet upon the cushions and his hat 
 down over his eyes a flashy but dirty- 
 looking individual, evidently some
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 385 
 
 "three sheets" gone; indeed, he was 
 " maudlin drunk." 
 
 The conductor, in coming around, 
 gave him a shove, and aroused him with 
 a short " Ticket, sir ! " 
 
 " Aint got none," said loafer. 
 
 " Pay your fare, then." 
 
 " How much is it ? " demanded the 
 fellow. 
 
 " Where are you going to ? " inquired 
 the conductor. 
 
 " Guess I'm [hie] goin' [hie] to 
 the devil ! " spoke loafer, with some 
 air of truthfulness. 
 
 "Then," said the conductor, "pay 
 your fare to Renick $5.70 t " 
 
 Drinking: Success to the First 
 Railway. 
 
 IN 1823 the second Stockton and 
 Darlington Railway Act was obtained 
 from Parliament Mr. Stephenson was 
 appointed the company's engineer, at a 
 salary of 300 per annum. He laid out 
 every foot of the ground himself, ac- 
 companied by his assistants. He sur- 
 veyed indefatigably from daylight to 
 dusk, dressed in top-boots and breeches, 
 and took his chance of bread and milk, 
 or a homely dinner, at some neighbor- 
 ing farmhouse ; for the country people 
 were fond of his cheerful talk. One 
 day, when the works were approaching 
 completion, he dined at Stockton, and 
 after dinner the great engineer ordered 
 in a bottle of wine, to drink success to 
 the railway. He then said to the young 
 men assembled : " Now, I will tell you 
 that I think you will live to see the 
 day, though I may not live so long, 
 when railways will come to supersede 
 almost all other methods of conveyance 
 in this country ; when mail coaches will 
 go by railway, and railroads will be- 
 come the great highway for the king 
 and all his subjects. The time will 
 come when it will be cheaper for a 
 workingman to travel on a railway 
 than to walk on foot. I know that 
 there are great and almost insurmount- 
 25 
 
 able obstacles that will have to be en- 
 countered. But what I have said will 
 come to pass, as sure as I am now alive. 
 I only wish I may live to see the day, 
 though that I can scarcely hope for, as 
 I know how slow all human progress 
 is, and with what difficulty I have been 
 able to get the locomotive adopted, 
 notwithstanding my more than ten 
 years' successful experiment at Killing- 
 worth." The anticipations of the great 
 engineer were more than realized. At 
 the opening of the road in question 
 the first public railway Mr. Stephen- 
 son himself drove the engine. The 
 train consisted of thirty-eight vehicles, 
 among which were twenty-one wagons 
 fitted up with temporary seats for pas- 
 sengers, and a carriage filled with the 
 directors and their friends. The speed 
 attained in some parts was twelve miles 
 an hour. It was a complete success ; 
 and the goods and passengers soon 
 exceeded the expectations of the di- 
 rectors. 
 
 In surveying a line for the Liverpool 
 and Manchester railway, great opposi- 
 tion was exhibited on the part of the 
 proprietors of the lands through which 
 the line was to pass. Lord Derby's 
 farmers and servants, and Lord Sefton's 
 keepers, turned out in full force to re- 
 sist the aggressions of the surveying 
 party. The Duke of Bridgewater's 
 property-guard threatened to duck Mr. 
 Stephenson in a pond if he proceeded ; 
 and he had to take the survey by 
 stealth, when the people were at 
 dinner. _ 
 
 Cliangre of " Packet Day." 
 
 To show what was the nature of Pe- 
 latiah Perit's influence as a Christian, 
 in mercantile circles, and how much of 
 that influence was the effect of his rare 
 judgment and skill in dealing with 
 men, an illustration is afforded in the 
 change which he accomplished, perhaps 
 thirty years ago, in the regulations of 
 the packet-ships sailing from the port 
 of New York.
 
 386 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. 
 
 Formerly the packets for Liverpool 
 and other trans-atlantic ports were ad- 
 vertised to sail regularly on certain 
 days of the month, and whenever the 
 appointed days for sailing fell on Sun- 
 day, the Christian Sabbath was disre- 
 garded. To the house of Goodhue & 
 Co. this was an inconvenience. It in- 
 terfered with the Sabbath of the part- 
 ners, and with the Sabbath to which 
 their clerks and other employes were 
 entitled. It interfered also with the 
 religious feelings of all the passengers 
 who honored the Christian Sabbath, 
 and were unwilling to violate their 
 consciences by commencing a voyage 
 on that day. At the same time it in- 
 terfered with the Sunday rest religi- 
 ous or irreligious of every merchant, 
 who had occasion to send by every 
 packet, the latest advices to his corre- 
 spondents beyond the sea. But the 
 practice was a settled one, and how 
 could it be changed ? Those were the 
 days when tide and time waited for no 
 man ; and was not the sailing of a 
 packet ship on her appointed day, even 
 though that day happened to fall on 
 Sunday, a work of necessity and 
 mercy ? 
 
 How, then, should the ship-owners 
 and merchants, many of whdm had no 
 religious regard for the sanctity of the 
 Sabbath, be brought to agree upon a 
 change ? Some men undertaking such 
 a reform, would have begun with a 
 public agitation on purely moral and 
 religious grounds, and with denuncia- 
 tion of all persons implicated in up- 
 holding the existing arrangement, and 
 the result would have been a failure. 
 The personal influence of Mr. Perit 
 with men who, whatever may have 
 been their own position in relation to 
 Christianity, could not but honor his 
 Christian character, was such that he 
 found no difficulty in effecting a new 
 arrangement. He succeeded in con- 
 vincing all parties that the change of 
 "packet day," from a certain day of 
 the month to a certain day of the week, 
 
 was no infringement of any man's reli- 
 gious liberty, and was required not 
 only in the interest of religion and 
 Christian morals, but also in the in- 
 terest of merchants and their clerks, 
 and in the general interests of com- 
 merce. 
 
 Falmerston and the Station-Master. 
 
 AT one of the chief stations on the 
 Great Western Railway, England, is a 
 station-master, noted for self-conceit 
 and flunkeyism. His reverence for a 
 person with a handle to his name is 
 equalled only by the esteem in which 
 he holds himself. One day he descried 
 a gentleman pacing the platform with 
 a cigar in his mouth contrary to the 
 rule. Official at once accosted the au- 
 dacious offender, and requested him 
 forthwith to stop smoking. The gen- 
 tleman, absorbed in the most abstract 
 thought, took no notice whatsoever of 
 his command, but continued his walk 
 with the utmost nonchalance, emitting 
 a silvery cloud. Irritated by this diso- 
 bedience, Official repeated his behests 
 more peremptorily than before; but 
 still the owner of the Havana maintain- 
 ed a provoking disregard. A third time 
 the order was repeated, accompanied 
 with an emphatic threat that if the ob- 
 stinate sinner did not obey, he would 
 at once be collared by the porters. The 
 stranger took no more heed than be- 
 fore, and so at last, enraged beyond all 
 further patience, Official pulled the ci- 
 gar out of the smoker's mouth and flung 
 it away. This violent act produced no 
 more effect than the previous commands 
 and threats, and the peripatetic philos- 
 opher continued his walk with imper- 
 turbable serenity. Presently a carriage 
 and four drove up, an equipage well 
 known to Official as that of the Duke 
 of Beaufort. To his now inconceivable 
 horror, the refractory smoker entered 
 the said chariot, and drove off in style 
 to Badminton. Official asked, in trem- 
 ulous tones, who the stranger was, and
 
 BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. 
 
 387 
 
 he felt ready to sink into the earth 
 when told that it was Viscount Pal- 
 merston, K. G., First Lord of the 
 Treasury. He did not hesitate long, 
 however; he at once ordered a chaise 
 and pair, and drove off to Badminton. 
 Arrived there, he sent in his card, and 
 urgently requested a private interview 
 with Lord Palmerston. His lordship 
 soon appeared, when Official began a 
 most abject apology for having "so 
 grossly insulted his lordship : " 
 
 "Had I known who your lordship 
 was, I would not have so treated your 
 lordship for the world ! " 
 
 The Premier heard the station-mas- 
 ter out, then looking down upon him 
 sternly, and with his hands in his pock- 
 ets, said : 
 
 " Sir, I respected you because I 
 thought you were doing your duty like 
 a Briton ; but now I see you are noth- 
 ing but a snob." 
 
 Captain Macalester and his Fast Ship 
 "Fanny." 
 
 ABOUT the beginning of the present 
 century, the shipwrights of Philadel- 
 phia had attained great celebrity for 
 the beauty of the models of their ves- 
 sels, which united, in a remarkable de- 
 gree, celerity in sailing and fitness for 
 the purposes of commerce. Among the 
 most skilful of these was Mr. Grice. 
 Captain Macalester eminent as a ship- 
 master and subsequently as a merchant 
 engaged him to construct a ship, 
 called the " Fanny," in building which 
 Mr. Grice exhibited his ablest skill in 
 the adaptation of the principles of na- 
 val architecture, and Captain Macales- 
 ter added the suggestions derived from 
 his own experience as a practical and 
 observing navigator. The result was 
 
 that the " Fanny," when launched' 
 proved to be the fastest sailing mer- 
 chantman of the day. Captain Mac- 
 alester accomplished his first voyage in 
 her, from Philadelphia to Cowes hi the 
 Isle of Wight, in seventeen days, a ra- 
 pidity of passage of which there was no 
 previous record. He took with him, as 
 passengers on that occasion, the weal- 
 thy and distinguished merchant of 
 Philadelphia and Senator of the United 
 States, Mr. William Bingham, with his 
 beautiful and accomplished wife. It is 
 probable that this incident was the 
 foundation of a particularly friendly 
 intercourse, which, from his corre- 
 spondence, appears to have existed be- 
 tween him and Mr. Alexander Baring 
 (afterward Lord Ashburton), who was 
 the son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Bing- 
 ham. 
 
 In London, Captain Macalester en- 
 gaged to make a voyage in the " Fan- 
 ny " to Batavia and back. What was 
 the surprise of the consignees of his 
 vessel in London, when he presented 
 himself in their counting house, having 
 accomplished the entire voyage in sev- 
 en months and twenty days, a speed, 
 at that time, without a parallel. It 
 was in the course of this voyage that 
 he was chased by a British frigate, 
 which fell in with him at daylight in 
 the morning, but could not overtake 
 him until ten o'clock at night. When 
 the British boarding officer stepped 
 upon his deck, he said to Captain Mac- 
 alester : 
 
 " Sir, you have a very fast ship." 
 
 " I thought so until to-day," was the 
 reply. 
 
 " Our frigate," answered the officer, 
 "is reputed to be the fastest in the 
 navy, and we never before have had 
 such a chase." 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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