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



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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 " JSTo, 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
me."

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 irpon 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.

MR. 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 pers'on 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 Jiis
house, he drove back many miles to re-
voke his order and he 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 Jive
dollars to give to the men for rowing
them off.

" Oh, my good friend," exclaimed
Girard, " what shall I do ? I 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 cut of my
power to muster it and what shall 1
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 sloop,
and commenced heaving the anchor im-
mediately. I jumped into the boat and
parted with them. The boat put me 011
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 might 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."

Aster'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. Bigelow's Boyhood Barg-ain.

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-



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145



ceiving at the close, a cosset lamb
called " Dolly," to which he had taken
a strong 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, arid 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-Presiclent. " 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 1 848, 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, ly 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, u 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