Baring to Mr.
Girard--A curious reception--Failing health and death of Stephen
Girard--His will--His noble bequests--Establishment of Girard College.
CHAPTER II.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
Legitimate business the field of success--Reasons for claiming Astor as
an American--Birth and early life--Religious training--The village of
Waldorf--Poverty--The jolly butcher--Young Astor's repugnance to his
father's trade--Unhappy at home--Loses his mother--His desire to
emigrate to the "New Land"--Leaves home--His voyage down the
Rhine--Reaches London and enters the service of his brother--His efforts
to prepare for emigration--Learns to speak English--Peace between the
United States and Great Britain--The road to the "New Land" open--Astor
sets out for America--His first ventures in commerce--The voyage--How he
proposed to save his Sunday clothes--Arrival in the Chesapeake--The
ice-blockade--Astor makes a friend--The fur trader's story--Astor sees
the way to fortune--Reaches New York--His first situation--Learning the
business--His method of proceeding--An example to young men--His capacity
for business operations--He is promoted--His journeys to Canada, and
their results--Sets up in business for himself--The fur trade of North
America--A survey of the field of Astor's operations--His capital--His
tramps into the wilderness in search of furs--Predictions as to the
future settlement of the country--His first consignment to England--His
marriage--A good wife--Improvement in his prospects--Buys his first
ship--The secret of his success--Close attention to business--His
economical habits--His indorsement disputed by a bank clerk--Statements
of the profits on furs--He engages in the Chinese trade--How the
Government aided the early China traders--Amount made by Astor in his
legitimate business--His real estate operations--His foresight and
courage--How eight thousand dollars yielded eighty thousand--His real
estate in the City of New York--Purchases the half of Putnam County--The
Roger and Mary Morris estate controversy--Astor wins his suit, and makes
half a million of dollars--Astor's scheme of colonization--A grand
enterprise--Settlement of Astoria--Betrayed by his agents, and the
scheme brought to failure--Astor withdraws from active business--His
boyhood's vow and its fulfillment--Builds the Astor House--His voyage to
Europe--The return--The troubles of a millionaire--The great man
seasick--A curious draft--The last years of his life--His fondness for
literary men--His death and burial--His will--Opposite views of his
character--How his refusal to buy a chronometer cost him seventy
thousand dollars--He remembers an old friend--His gift of a lease--His
humor--"William has a rich father.
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