and altogether saving the entry of the



BUSINESS EMPLOYES.



699



amount, while the posting was done by
about one sixth the former number of
clerks. In all, a saving of eighty
clerks.

On the day of the commencement of
this improved system, one hundred and
twenty clerks were employed. From
the novelty of the various operations,
the balance the great proof of success
was not arrived at till near eight
o'clock. On the second day of its trial,
the same result was arrived at by five
o'clock. On the third it was tried by
three o'clock, but without the same
success, being Jive pounds deficient.

Every plan that could be imagined
was now tried, in order to discover the
supposed error. For seven hours were
the clerks of the department employed
in examining and re-examining the
books. For seven hours were they de-
tained investigating and re-investigat-
ing the notes, of which the books were
a copy ; and it was curious to witness
a young man of three and twenty, with
unchangeable confidence in the sound-
ness of his system, directing, or at-
tempting all those experiments which
a perfect knowledge of the accounts
suggested as most likely to discover
the presumed error. At ten o'clock the
search was given up, and the ruin of the
new system seemed complete. The infor-
mation spread rapidly that the office
had separated without a balance ; and
it could have been no pleasant task to
Mr. Smee to meet the governor next
morning with the news. The confi-
dence of the latter was, however, com-
plete ; the plan went on ; a mode of
detection was adopted; and it is to be
presumed that the dread of discovery
produced the note, as the balance, a
few days afterward, was five pounds
over, and the very note which had been
proved to be missing was found to
have been returned I The success of
the new plan was complete, and work-
ed a vast change in the management
of the books and affairs of the insti-
tution.



Trying his Hand at the Accounts.

MR. MELLISH, one of the directors of
the Bank of England, once undertook
to improve upon the mode of keeping
the books of that institution aiming
at nothing less than a radical change.
Being desirous to ascertain once for all
the real nature of the duty he had in
contemplation, he announced his deter-
mination to the principal of the ac-
countants' office, to come and attempt
a day's work.

The morning arrived, and with it
Mr. Mellish. The day was indeed a
heavy one ; the business was new ; and
the books were brought him with all
the gravity suitable to the occasion,
and perhaps more frequently than was
absolutely necessary. They came too
fast for him. In vain he exerted him-
self with all the energy of which he
was master ; there was to him a diffi-
culty in finding the proper folios ; that
which clerks, accustomed to the opera-
tion, performed almost intuitively, was
a great exertion to a novice, and, long
before the day had passed, Mr. Mellish
had beheld such an accumulation of
ponderous tomes, both before and be-
hind him, that he gave up the attempt
in despair, and from this period an al-
teration was made in the amount of
labor, w y hich was perhaps more in
proportion to the clerks' views of
propriety than before. The same gen-
tleman and these things, trifling in
themselves, show a desire on the part
of the directors to improve the econ-
omy of the establishment afterward
saw the principal of the office in which
he had worked in the area of the Royal
Exchange. Immediately accosting that
gentleman, he earnestly addressed him
on the subject of the proposed altera-
tion in the mode of keeping the books,
and seizing the button of his coat,
pulled at it with the same energy with
which he was talking, nor was it until
the button was divorced from the coat
that the accountant whom the director



700



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



held captive was enabled to make his
escape. t

Rich Enough, to Retire : Abraham New-
land, Cashier of the Bank of Eng-
land.

THE name of Abraham Newland
was, perhaps, more generally known in
English financial circles, and for a
longer time, than that of any other one
individual. In 1807, he retired from
the office of cashier of the Bank of
England, after a service of more than
half a century. His last act was to de-
cline the pension which the liberality
of the directors offered and this he
could well afford to do. The same
year he died ; and as a specimen of the
fortunes which were occasionally amass-
ed in the service of that establishment,
it is stated that his property amounted
to two hundred thousand pounds ster-
ling, or one million dollars, besides the
sum of one thousand pounds a year
on landed estates. It is not to be sup-
posed, however, that this was saved
from his salary. During the whole of
Mr. Newland's career, the loans, which,
during the war, were made almost
yearly, and occasionally oftener, proved
very prolific. A certain amount of
them was always reserved for the cash-
ier's office say one hundred thousand
pounds and as they generally came
out at premium, the profits were great.
The family of the Goldsmiths, then the
leaders of the stock exchange, con-
tracted for many of these loans, and
to each of them he left five hundred
pounds, to purchase a mourning ring.
From some remarks in the papers it
may be gathered that the large funds
of Mr. Newland were occasionally lent
to these gentlemen, to assist their va-
ried speculations. It was also the sub-
ject of frequent allusion in the pamph-
lets of the period ; and as those who
know the least are frequently the most
confident, there was not much cere-
mony observed in the strictures passed
upon Mr. Abraham Newland.



George Simpson's High Reputation as
a Cashier.

GEORGE SIMPSON, of Philadelphia,
enjoyed, through his long career, the
reputation of being one of the most
competent and reliable cashiers in
America. On the establishment of the
Bank of North America, the first bank
in the Union, and incorporated by the
Continental Congress and by the State
of Pennsylvania, he was appointed one
of its chief officers; and of the first
Bank of the United States, chartered
by the Government, he was appointed
the cashier, and continued to be so
until its expiration in 1811. When
Stephen Girard established his bank-
ing bouse, he appointed George Simp-
son his cashier. Stephen was not mis-
taken in his man, as the following fact
illustrates: Mr. Simpson offered him
the same security in amount, and the
same individual, he had given the ori-
ginal Bank of the United States, when
Mr. Girard replied,

" No, Mr. Simpson ; I would rather
have you as my cashier without secu-
rity, than anybody else with it."

The officers of the Bank of the United
States were all retained by Mr. Simp-
son, when he was invested with ple-
nary power over the concerns of the
institution. This fact gave moneyed
men confidence in transacting business
with the bank of Stephen Girard ; and
even European bankers sought an ac-
quaintance and business with the great
banker and his efficient cashier. On
the establishment of his bank, Mr.
Simpson remarked to him :

"Well, Mr. Girard, to be a good
merchant, you see it is necessary to
have a bank."

" Yes, Mr. Simpson," replied Girard,
" and to have a good bank, it is neces-
sary to have a cashier like you."

This took place when his ship, the
" Montesquieu," was ransomed from
the British at the Capes of the Dela-
ware; when the sum of ninety-three



BUSINESS EMPLOYES.



701



thousand dollars in gold was sent from
Ms bank as the price of her ransom,
and at a time when specie payments
were suspended by all the other banks,
and gold to that amount could not
easily have been purchased in the mar-
ket. His knowledge of banking was
acquired by nearly forty, years' labor in
the vocation of cashier. The system
on which he loaned money was simple,
being founded on the combined prin-
ciple of equity and interest. All the
small notes that were considered good
were discounted in preference to those
that were large. A fair running ac-
count was considered sufficient to en-
title a creditable applicant to liberal
discounts of business paper.



In Europe, too, as well as in tho
United States, Mr. Simpson was widely
and honorably known ; and his corre-
spondence with and agencies for the
first and largest commercial and bank-
ing houses in England, France, and
Germany, stood without a parallel in
his day. David Parrish, who was at
one time connected with the famous
house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam,
and also largely engaged with Baring,
Brothers & Co., of London, brought
letters of introduction from these
houses to him. Such was his high
standing that a letter from him to any
of his correspondents in Europe, in-
sured for the bearer the greatest hos-
pitality and attention.



PART FOURTEENTH.



ANECDOTES OF SOME OF THE OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY
TO COMMERCE AND MERCHANDISE.



PAET FOTJETEEWTH,

Anecdotes of Some of the Occupations Auxiliary to Commerce
and Merchandise,

EDITORS, PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLKRS, THE MANUAL AND INDUSTRIAL TRADES, ETC. ; WITH
RARE INCIDENTS OF BARGAIN AND SALE, LUDICROUS ADVENTURES, HAPS AND MISHAPS
BUSINESS FREAKS, GENIUS, APTITUDE, NOVELTY AND RENOWN, ETC., ETC.



Of nil the bonds by which society is united, those of business connection are the most numerous
and most extensive. ROSCOE.

Sweet is the destiny of all trades, whether of the brow or of the mind.- BISHOP HALL.
Work for some good, be it ever BO lowly :
Labor all labor is noble and holy. OSGOOD.



Music-Seller's Customers.

HAYDN used to relate, with much
pleasure, a dispute which he had with
a music seller in London. Amusing
himself, one morning, after the Eng-
lish fashion, in shopping, he inquired
of a music seller :

" Have you any select and beautiful
music ? "

" Certainly," replied the shopman ;
"I have just printed some sublime
music of Haydn's."

"Oh," returned Haydn, "I'll have
nothing to do with that."

" How, sir ; you will have nothing to
do with Haydn's music! and pray
what fault have you to find with it ? "

" Oh, plenty ; but it is useless talk-
ing about it, since it does not suit me ;
show me some other."

The music seller, who was a warm
friend of Haydn, replied, " No, sir ; I
have music, it is true, but not for such
as you," and turned his back upon
him.

As Haydn was going away, smiling,
45



a gentleman of his acquaintance en-
tered and accosted him by name. The
music seller, still out of humor, turned
round at hearing the name pronounced
which had just been the occasion of
such a flutter, and said to the person
who had entered the shop :

" Haydn ! ay, here's a fellow who
says he does not like that great man's
music."

A laugh followed this remark; an
explanation took place, and the music
seller was made personally acquainted
with the "fellow" who found fault
with Haydn's music.

Books and Newspapers in China.

The best Chinese books, and chiefly
historical ones, are printed at the im-
perial press, where the booksellers of
Pekin and other towns buy them at
prices fixed by the Government. This
press publishes, likewise, every two
days, a gazette, containing the extraor-
dinary events which occur in the em-
pire, the ordinances, and especially a



706



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



list of the promotions and favors grant-
ed by the emperor, such as yellow robes
and peacock's feathers, which are equiv-
alent to orders of knighthood in Eu-
rope ; it also announces the punishment
inflicted on mandarins who have been
guilty of misconduct, etc. Printers,
and even booksellers have copper and
wooden plates engraved for works of
minor interest; as many copies are
printed off as required, and sold at ar-
bitrary prices. Very neat and legible
characters, printed on fine paper, en-
hance the prices of the work. Movable
types cannot be used for the Chinese
language. Their best paper is made
of cotton.

Tonson, the Literary Trader.

JACOB TOSTSON'S portrait represents
Mm in his gown and cap, holding in
his right hand a volume lettered Para-
dise Ljst such a favorite object was
Milton and copyright. His rise in life
is curious. He was at first unable to
pay twenty pounds for a play by Dry-
den, and joined with another bookseller
to advance that sum; the play sold,
and Tonson was afterward enabled to
produce the succeeding ones. He and
Ids nephew died leaving the large for-
tune of two hundred thousand pounds.

Tonson owed much to his industry ;
but he was a mere literary trader. He
and Dryden had frequent bickerings;
he insisted on receiving ten thousand
verses for two hundred and sixty-eight
pounds, and poor Dryden threw in the
finest ode in the language to make up
that number. He would pay in the
base coin which was then current, and
which of course was a loss to the poet.

On one occasion, Tonson complained
to Dryden, that he had only received
fourteen hundred and forty-six lines of
his translations of Ovid for his Miscel-
lany, for fifty guineas, when he had
calculated at the rate of fifteen hundred
and eighteen lines for forty guineas ;
he gives the poet a piece of critical rea-



soning, that he considered he had a
better bargain with Juvenal, which is
reckoned not so easy to translate as
Ovid. Fortunately for men of letters,
such mere traders in literature have
about disappeared. Tonson, and all
his family and assignees, rode in their
carriages, 'tfith the immense profits of
Milton' ^five-pound Epic.



"Wimpreclit, the Blind Bookseller.

PERHAPS one of the greatest curiosi-
ties in the city of Augsburg, some years
since, was a bookseller of the name of
Wimprecht, who had the misfortune to
be born blind, but whose enterprising
spirit enabled him to struggle success-
fully against the melancholy privations
he was doomed to sustain, and to pro-
cure, by his industry and intelligence,
a respectable support for a large family
dependent upon him. His library con-
sisted of more than eight thousand vol-
umes, which were of course subjected
to frequent change and renewal. But
as soon as he acquired a new stock, the
particulars of each book were read to
him by his wife, and his discrimination
enabled him to fix its value. His touch,
to recognize it at any period, however
distant, and his memory, never failed
him in regard to its arrangement in his
shop. His readiness to oblige, his hon-
esty, and information of books in gen-
eral, procured him a large custom ; and
under such extraordinary natural dis-
advantages, he became a useful, and
happily rendered himself a wealthy
member of the trade to which he be-
longed.

The First Color Shop.

IT was of advantage to the old school
of Italian painters, that they were un-
der the necessity of making most of
their colors themselves, or at least un-
der the inspection of such as possessed
chemical knowledge, which excluded
all possibility of those adulterations to



OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY TO COMMERCE.



707



which the moderns are exposed. The
same also was the case in England, till the
time of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, when
he went to London, took a servant with
him, whose sole employment was to pre-
pare all the colors and materials for his
work. Kneller afterward set him up
as a color-maker for artists ; and this
man's success in his establishment the
first in London, and perhaps in the
world, of its kind caused a great in-
crease of the trade, and they are now
to be found, some of them too on a
most extensive scale, in all civilized
countries.



Queer Phases of the Butcher Trade.

DOWN in Frankfort street, hard
by William street, New York, lives a
Dutch pork seller and sausage-maker.
Some rude boys in his vicinity had
annoyed him with taunting inqui-
ries as to the materiel of which his
" links " were composed, and he had
trounced one or two of them rather
roughly for their impertinence. The
whirligig of time, however, soon
brought about their revenges. They
went down, one morning, into "the
Swamp," and collected a long string of
the rats that infest the stores of that
neighborhood ; and while two or three
boys, by dint of joke and taunt, se-
duced the butcher to pursue them down
the street, another entered his shop and
hung up the string of rats on a nail in
his show-window, between the tempt-
ing festoons of his savory sausages !

By-and-by, people began to stop be-
fore his shop, and stare into his win-
dow then roar out laughing, and pass
on. Presently a large crowd collected,
and the butcher at last came out to
ascertain what it was that could attract
their curiosity. He was not long in
finding out. " Is that the kind of stuff
you make sausages of ? " asked one,
pointing to the string of rats : " Got
any rat steaks?" inquired another:
" Send me over a rat sparerib ! " added



a third : until the man, livid with rage,
shut his door upon the crowd, removed
the " incumbrance " from his window,
and " sat him down and wept," like a
big Dutch baby !



Johnson and the Butcher.
AN eminent carcase butcher, as mea-
gre in his person as he was in his un-
derstanding, being one day in a book-
seller's shop, took up a volume of
Churchill's poems, and by way of show-
ing Ms taste, repeated the following
lino :

" Who rules o'er freemen should himself be
free."

Then turning to Dr. Johnson, "What
think you of that, sir ? " said he.

" Eank nonsense," replied Dr. J. " It
is an assertion without a proof; and
you might with as much propriety,
say:
Who slays fat oxen, should himself be fat."

Copy of a Painter's Bill.

A SCOTCH newspaper, of 1707, gives
the following copy of a painter's bill,
presented to the vestry of a church, for
professional work done therein :

" To filling up a chink in the Red
Sea, and repairing the damages
of Pharaoh's host,

To a new pair of hands for Daniel in
the lions' den, and a new set of
teeth for the lioness,

To repairing Nebuchadnezzar's
beard,

To cleaning the whale's belly, var-
nishing Jonah's face, and mend-
ing his left arm,

To a new skirt for Joseph's garment,

To a sheet anchor, a jury mast, and a
long-boat for Noah's ark.

To giving a blush to the cheek of
Eve, on presenting the apple to
Adam,

To painting a new city in the land
of Nod,



708



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



To clearing the garden of Eden, after

Adam's expulsion,

To making a bridle for the Samari-
tan's horse, and mending one of
his legs,
To putting a new handle to Moses'

basket and fitting bulrushes,
To adding more fuel to the fire of
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace.

Kec'd payment,

D. Z."



Napoleon's Opinion of a Journalist.

ABOUT the worst recommendation
which a man could have, in Napoleon's
eyes, was to carry on the business of a
newspaper writer or editor. Shortly
after the 18th Brumaire, Fabre de
1'Aude, who was always a favorite with
Napoleon, solicited, in imperial hear-
ing, an appointment for one of his ac-
quaintance.

" What has he done ? " was the la-
conic inquiry.

" He has been a journalist."

"A journalist!" repeated the first
consul ; " that means a grumbler, a cen-
surer, a giver of advice, a regent of sov-
ereigns, a tutor of nations. The cdba-
nons of Bicetre are the fittest places for
people of that stamp."



English. Pemquiers before the King 1 .

IN the month of February, 1765, the
peruke makers presented a petition to
the king of England, stating their dis-
tressed condition, occasioned by so
many people wearing their own hair,
and employing foreigners to cut and
dress it ; or, when they employ natives,
obliging them to work on the Lord's
day, to the neglect of their religious
duties.

They therefore humbly besought his
majesty, that he would be pleased to
grant them relief; submitting to his
majesty's goodness and wisdom, wheth-
er 7m own example was not the only
means of rescuing them from their dis-



tresses, as far as it occasioned so many
people wearing their own hair. His
majesty was "graciously pleased" to
receive the petition, and to return for
answer, " That he held nothing dearer
to his heart than the happiness of his
people, and that they might be assured,
he should at all times use his endeavors
to promote their welfare."

Several of the adventurous barbers
who attended on this occasion, gave
such offence by their inconsistency in
wearing their own hair, that it was cut
off by the mob on their return. His
majesty was not unmindful of the
promise he gave to the fraternity at
least, if we may judge from some of his
public exhibitions, on which he appears
to have sacrificed everything like per-
sonal vanity, to his reverence for wigs.

Theatrical Debut of a Barber.

A HAIRDRESSER, in a considerable
town in England, made an unsuccessful
attempt in tragedy. To silence an
abundant hissing, he stepped forward
and delivered the following speech :

" Ladies and gentlemen : yesterday I
dressed you ; to-night I ad -dress you ;
and to-morrow, if you please, I will re-
dress you. While there is virtue in
powder, pomatum, and horsetails, I
find it easier to make an actor than to
be one. Vive la. bagatelle! I hope I
shall yet shine in the capital part of a
lean, though I have not the felicity of
pleasing you in the character of an em-
peror."

Penny Newspapers in America.

ONLY about thirty years ago, or less,
two journeyman printers commenced
the publication of the New York Sun,
writing and setting up their own edi-
torials and other matter. They issued
seven hundred copies daily, which they
sold to the newsboys at the price of
sixty-two and a half cents a hundred
copies, and the boys sold them for a



OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY TO COMMERCE.



709



cent each. An old Ramage press was
worked with their own hands. As their
edition increased which it did the
printing was done on a Napier press.
Afterward they employed a steam
press. One of the parties sold his in-
terest for ten thousand dollars, and be-
came a lawyer and public man at the
West. Now, some tens of thousands of
copies of this paper are thrown off
daily, and it was not long before a
brood of penny papers sprung up in
different parts of the country.



" Concerned in Trade."

AT a political meeting in England, a
" noble lord " par excellence, ventured
to speak disrespectfully of several dis-
tinguished individuals of opposite prin-
ciples to his own, because they or their
ancestors had been " concerned in
trade." Let us see :

Euripides was the son of a fruiterer ;
Virgil's father was a potter or brick-
maker; Plautus was a baker; Luther
was the son of a poor miner ; the cel-
ebrated Italian writer, Gelli, when hold-
ing the high dignity of council of the
Florentine Academy, still continued to
work at his original profession of a
tailor.

The father of John Opie, the great
English portrait painter, was a working
carpenter in Cornwall ; Opie was raised
from the bottom of a sawpit, where he
was employed in cutting wood, to the
professorship of painting, in the Royal
Academy.

The lather of Haydn, the famous
musical composer, was a wheelwright ;
and filled also the humble occupation
of a sexton.

Boccaccio was the natural son of a
merchant ; Columbus was the son of a
weaver, and originally a weaver him-
self; Bunyan was the son of a travel-
ling tinker ; the founder of the house
of Baring Brothers was a weaver;
Shakspeare was the son of a butcher ;



Cowley, of a grocer ; Ben Jonson, of a
mason ; Fletcher, of a chandler ; Pope,
of a linen draper ; Collins, of a hatter ;
Gray, of a notary ; Akenside, of a
butcher ; Whitehead, of a baker ;
Henry Kirke White of a butcher, and
Thomas Moore, of a grocer.

Gay was apprenticed to a silk mer-
cer ; Sir Edward Sugden, Lord Tenter-
den, and Jeremy Taylor, were sons of
barbers ; Dr. Maddox, Bishop of Wor-
cester, was the son of a pastry cook ;
Dr. Milner was a weaver, and Sir Sam-
uel Romilly was the son of a gold-
smith ; Richardson, the gifted writer,
and Franklin, the philosopher, were
printers ; John Hunter was the son of
a carpenter; Defoe was a hosier, and
son of a butcher ; and Dymond, author
of Principles of Morality, etc., was a
linen draper, and traded, or wrote, ac-
cording as he had, or had not, custom-
ers. Woods, Curran, Jeffrey, Brydges,
Atkins, and Lord Ellenborough, were
all the sons of humble tradesmen ; Am-
yot, of France, was the son of a currier ;
Rabelais, of an apothecary ; Voltaire,
of a tax gatherer ; Lamothe, of a hat-
ter ; Massillon, of a turner ; Grienault,
of a baker; Moliere, of a tapestry
maker ; Rousseau, of a watchmaker ;