Part 18 (1/2)

Almost from the first years of her existence America has been known chiefly as a commercial nation, as a nation noted for her men of affairs, rather than for her artists and men of letters Which is to say that the life of the Republic has been practical rather than artistic, and it is only of late years, except for a sporadic instance here and there, that any genuine artistic impulse has made itself felt

This is not a cause of reproach Given the circumstances, it was inevitable that America should develop first on her co thousands offor man's occupancy Millions of acres of plain and woodland awaited develope and roads tobefore A pictures Think--it is only three centuries since Jamestoas founded; only a century and a quarter since we became a nation--acenturies of English or French or Italian history We have already said that for art historic background is necessary; a background of achieve Besides, during our first century, there were such great deeds of conquest and developest men Great fortunes were made, as a matter of course, and Europe witnessed the unique spectacle ofto be captains of the world It is this which has never ceased to shock the European sense of the fitness of things--that the poor boy of yesterday may be the reatest of the nation It is the story of a few such boys which will be told in this chapter

First is the e extent made possible its successful terland, in 1734, he cae of thirteen, and a place was soon found for hi, a wealthy ence and activity, as well as unusual intelligence, he grew in favor and confidence, until, upon the death of the elder Willing, he was taken into partnershi+p by the latter's son, and by the opening of the Revolution, the firest and lish birth, and bound to England by the ties of business, Morris was nevertheless opposed to the stareeland until the act was repealed He was, however, opposed to independence, and, as a ainst the Declaration Three days later he declined to vote, but when the Declaration was adopted, he signed it, and threw in his fortunes unreservedly with his new country His services were more than valuable--they were indispensable As a overnns of the ould have been impossible It was he who supplied General Green with n of the south, and shortly afterwards raised a ton in the movement which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown A year later, when the financial situation of the governanized the Bank of North A it For three years, he acted as superintendent of finance, with complete control of the monetary affairs of the country He was a overnton asked hiesting instead Alexander Hamilton That was not the least of his services to America, for Hamilton was pree irony of fate that the man who had controlled the finances of a nation and by his personal exertions saved it from bankruptcy should himself die in a debtor's prison; yet such was the case A series of unfortunate land speculations swept away his wealth and ruined his credit; he found hiations and was seized by his creditors and thrown into prison, where he remained for some years, and where death found him in 1806

So Robert Morris was not one of the founders of great fortunes Turn we to the earliest and perhaps most successful of these, John Jacob Astor, the very type of the astute, large-hted financier

Born at Waldorf, Germany, in 1763, the son of a poor butcher in whose shop he worked until sixteen years of age, there was nothing in his life or circumstances to indicate the future which lay before him One of his brothers, however, had co John Astor resolved to join hie of twenty, he was able to do so, bringing with him some musical instruments to sell on commission, but a chance acquaintance which he ed the whole course of his life

This acquaintance was that of a furrier, who told young Astor of the great profits to betheerated the profits of the business; at any rate, he fired the ambition of his hearer, and the latter decided to enter the fur business without delay Upon landing in New York, therefore, he at once secured a position in the shop of a Quaker furrier, and after learning all the details of the business, opened a shop of his own

Perhaps no one ever worked harder in establishi+ng a business than John Jacob Astor did Early and late he was at his shop, except when absent on long and arduous purchasing expeditions into the wilderness More than that, he possessed adment, so that, after fifteen years of work, he had succeeded in accu a fortune of a quarter of a ement, the business prospered so that Astor was soon able to send his furs to Europe in his own vessels, and bring back European goods And about this tirandiose and picturesque enterprise

The English Hudson Bay Company, established many years before, with hundreds of trappers and traders and scores of trading-posts, controlled the rich fur business of Canada and the northwest We have seen how, years after the events which we are now narrating, the agents of the coland and how Marcus Whitman foiled them Astor's plan, in outline, was to render American trade independent of the Hudson Bay Coreat lakes to the Pacific, to plant a central depot at the mouth of the Columbia river, and to acquire one of the Sandwich Islands and establish a line of vessels between the western coast of America and the ports of japan, China and India Surely amore than a mere trader, and Astor proceeded at once to carry it into effect

Two expeditions were sent out, one by land and one by sea, to open up intercourse with the Indians of the Pacific coast, and the settlement of Astoria was planted at the mouth of the Columbia river Whether Astor would have been able to carry out the remainder of his plan is purely problematical, for before he had it fairly under way, the war of 1812 began, and he was forced to abandon the enterprise The story of this far-reaching project has been told by Washi+ngton Irving in his ”Astoria” Until his death, he continued to enlarge and increase his business, and left a fortune estimated at twenty millions of dollars

The Astor plan of investacious in the world Practically all of his profits were invested by John Jacob Astor in real estate outside the corew out to his holdings, he would improve them, rent or sell therowth of the city rowth of his fortune, and this plan of investment has been followed by his descendants to the present day, until they have become by far the most important owners of real estate in New York City

His son, Williarowth of the vast property he inherited, and at his death hadan estate of 45,000,000 between his two sons

Not that the whole thought of these two ifts were numerous and important The most noteworthy was the Astor library, founded by John Jacob Astor at the suggestion of Washi+ngton Irving, and largely added to by his son, the total a a acious and hard-headed businessand the stillwas an instinctive accoreat American fortune was that founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, as remarkable and picturesque a character as this country ever produced Born on Staten Island in 1794, the son of a farmer in moderate circumstances, the boy soon developed a remarkable talent for trade His father owned a sail-boat, in which he conveyed his produce across the bay to the New York e this and was intrusted with these daily trips When he was sixteen years old, he bought a boat of his own, in which he ferried passengers across the bay, and two years later he ner of two boats and captain of a third This was the beginning of the great fleet of steaation of the shores of New York bay and the Hudson river, which won hi to him all his life Before he was forty years old, he had accumulated a fortune of half a reat financial operations which old in California led hiua which netted him ten er steamshi+ps between New York and Havre; and finally was attracted to railway develope returns In the course of a few years he had secured control of both the Hudson River and New York Central roads, and brought both of the theo by the purchase of the Lake Shore, the Canada Southern and Michigan Central He built a great terminal in New York City, and made the system so profitable that, from it, and a series of fortunate speculations, he accumulated a fortune of 100,000,000, practically all of which he bequeathed to his eldest son, Williaiven for the establishment of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee

Cornelius Vanderbilt, for many years, had a very poor opinion of his son's financial ability, and giving him a small farm on Staten Island, left him to shi+ft for hied this opinion William needed soive hio ahead and take a load, and Williareat scow up to the pier near the stables, proceeded to load it, and when his father protested, pointed out that he had not specified the kind of load, but that he had meant a scow-load This bit of sharp practice pleased his father, and, shortly afterwards, the great success hich he ed the Staten Island Railroad, as receiver, established him in his father's confidence He continued and extended his father's policy of railway investreat fortune which had been left hireatest in A the different branches of the Vanderbilt family William himself distributed about two millions in various benevolent and public enterprises, one of the queerest of which was the reypt to Central Park, New York City, at a cost of over a hundred thousand dollars

In the business world of New York City, half a century ago, no name was more prominent than that of A T Stewart, whose success as afeatures of the time Born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1803, Steas a descendant from one of those hardy and thrifty Scotch-Irish, e have had occasion to mention before His father was a fare of twenty the latter ca over the field, opened a s apartreatest dry-goods business this country ever saw It increased by leaps and bounds, for Stewart seeenius for the business He was continually er quarters, and in 1862, built on Broadway a store which was at that tiest in the world, and which, even in this day of mammoth structures, commands attention Its cost was nearly three millions, a colossal sum for those days; two thousand people were employed in it and it cost a ht a tremendous return, and its owner soon became one of the wealthiest ered for political and social honors which were never fully his He had e contribution to the fund of 100,000 presented by the merchants of New York to General Grant, and in 1869, Grant appointed him secretary of the treasury The senate refused to confirround that the law excluded from that office anyone interested in the importation of e reco that this law be repealed, but the senate refused; and Stewart thereupon offered to place his business in the hands of trustees and devote its entire profits to charity during his term of office; but still the senate refused, and the nomination ithdrawn It was a bitter blow to Stewart, nor was his fight for social prominence an the erection of a great ned to cost a million and to be the finest private residence in the world, but he died before it was coreat industries of the country is that of sugar refining, and it is inseparably connected with the name of Havemeyer, for to the Havemeyers is due its development and its formation into a so-called trust, which practically controls the anizers The ancestor of the Havemeyers was a thrifty Gerhteenth century, and, after engaging in various pursuits, opened a little sugar refinery in New York City, which soon brought him a comfortable income

There, in 1804, William Frederick Havemeyer was born, and after a careful education, entered the refinery, gained a thorough knowledge of the business and, in 1828 succeeded to it, having as a partner his cousin, Frederick Christian Havemeyer These twonewnew processes, which reduced thepossession of other plants and securing government support in the shape of a protective tariff, which made a naturally profitable business doubly so, and netted its owners many millions

Willia his business, to take a prominent part in New York politics He wasbefore the last term was finished

As far as possible removed from Havemeyer's hureatest showreat travelling circus, the exploiter of Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind, the owner of Jumbo, the most famous elephant that ever lived, whose naness

Barnum was born at Bethel, Connecticut, in 1810 His father was an inn-keeper and died when the boy was fifteen years old, leaving no property He tried his hand at store-keeping, and failed; ran a newspaper, and was imprisoned for libel, and finally reached New York at about the end of his resources and looking around for so to do

That was in 1834, and by accident he hit upon his real vocation

A h the country an old negro wo 161 years old, and as having been the nurse of George Washi+ngton Barnu object He has himself told hoas impressed by her

”Joice Heth,” he says, ”was certainly a reht have been far older than her age as advertised She was apparently in good health and spirits, but froe her position; she could htened; her left arers of her left hand were dran so as nearly to close it, and were fixed; the nails on that hand were al and extended above her wrist; her head was covered with a thick bush of gray hair; but she was toothless and totally blind, and her eyes had sunk so deeply in the sockets as to have disappeared altogether Nevertheless she was pert and sociable and would talk as long as people would converse with her She was quite garrulous about 'dear little George,' at whose birth she declared she was present, having been at the tiustine Washi+ngton, the father of George Washi+ngton As nurse, she put the first clothes on the infant, and she claimed to have raised him”

Barnuht her for a thousand dollars, putting his last cent into the venture and borrohat he lacked He proceeded to advertise her with characteristic energy, and great crowds thronged to see her, so that his receipts soh as 1,500 a week However, the old woman died within a year, and a post-hty years old