witness the earnestness with which
they were applied for. The offices
were crowded with applicants; and,
if the slightest delay occurred, though
occasioned by their own ignorance,
they regarded it as an invidious delay



of their rights, and a confirmation of
their fears. Time, however, in this as
in other things, brought "healing on
its wings," and confidence to the breasts
of public creditors.

Subscriptions for the Government by
Philadelphia Merchants.

AT a critical period of the Revolu-
tionary War, when there was great
danger of the dissolution of the Ameri-
can army, for want of provisions to
keep it together, a number of patriotic
gentlemen in Philadelphia principally
the bankers and merchants subscribed
to the amount of some two hundred
and sixty thousand pounds, payable in
gold and silver, for procuring them.
This movement was considered nearly
equivalent to assuming the debt of the
Government, and was in the highest
degree creditable to the mercantile
community. The provisions were pro-
cured. The two highest subscriptions
were those of Robert Morris, for 10,-
000, and Blair McClenachan, 10,000.
Thomas Willing subscribed 5,000. Mr.
Willing, and his associate in commerce,
Robert Morris, as well as his connec-
tion, Mr. Clymer, were all members of
Congress of 1776. To the great credit
and well-known patriotism of the house
of Willing & Morris, the country owed
its extrication from those trying pecu-
niary embarrassments so familiar to the
readers of our Revolutionary history.
The character of Mr. Willing has been
thought to resemble, in many respects,
that of Washington ; and in the discre-
tion of his conduct, the fidelity of his
professions, and the great influence,
both public and private, which belong-
ed to him, the destined leader (Wash-
ington) was certain to find the elements
of an affinity by which they would be
united in the closest manner.

Lafayette's Loan to Matthew Carey.
AFTER passing through many strik-
ing experiences as a politician and



460



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



journalist abroad, Matthew Carey land-
ed in Philadelphia on the 1st of No-
vember, 1784 ; and, while he was yet
contemplating a removal to the coun-
try, until sufficient funds should be re-
ceived from the sale of his newspaper
in Dublin (which place he found it
prudent to leave, in view of the Gov-
ernment prosecution for libel which
hung like a drawn sword over his
head) to enable him to engage in busi-
ness, the Marquis de Lafayette, having
heard of his arrival, desired that he
should call upon him. The marquis^
previously aware of the persecutions he
had suffered, and admiring his noble
spirit, made inquiries of him as to his
future plans and prospects. On stating
that it was his intention, at as early
a day as possible, to establish a news-
paper, Lafayette entered fully into
the project, and promised him such
influence as he could command
with Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsim-



mons, and other leading men in that
region.

On the following morning, Mr. Carey
was surprised at receiving a letter from
Lafayette, containing the sum of four
hundred dollars. This was the more
remarkable from his not having said a
word about desiring to borrow, or in
any way to receive money from the
marquis no such thought having en-
tered his mind. This sum of money
the fabric upon which it may be said
Mr. Carey built his fortune, first as a
journalist and then as a printer and
bookseller he considered it a solemn
duty to repay, in assisting Frenchmen
in distress; which he did, fully and
amply. While it was not the desire of
Lafayette that it should be regarded in
the light of a loan, but as a free gift,
Mr. Carey, in after years, consigned to
him an invoice of tobacco, besides, on
his arrival in New York, in 1824, re-
paying him the entire amount.



PART NINTH.



ANECDOTES OF MERCHANTS, BANKERS, TRADERS, AND
MlLLIONNAIRES, IN THEIR DOMESTIC RELATIONS.



PAET



Anecdotes of Merchants, Bankers, Traders, and Millionnaires, in
their Domestic Eelations,

PERSONAL APPEARANCE, MANNERS, CONVERSATION, TASTES, SOCIAL TRAITS AND HABITS ; PE-
CULIAR EXPERIENCES ; GENIAL SALLIES, JESTS, AND JOCULARITIES J LAST HOURS, WILLS,
ETC.



Domestic happiness, thou only bliss

Of paradise that hath survived the fall !

COWPER'S "TASK."

No money ia better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. JOHNSON.
A man that knows how to mix pleasures with business, is never entirely possessed by them. ST.

EVREMOND.

He is so full of pleasant anecdote
So rich, so gay, so poignant in his wit.

BAILLIE'S "DE MONTFORD."

What you leave at your death, let it be without controversy , else the lawyers will be your heirs.
OSBORN.

The grave is the common treasury to which we must all be taxed. BURKE.



Baring's Daughter and M. Labou-
chere.

IN 1822, M. LABOUCHERE, then a clerk
in the banking house of Hope & Co.,
Amsterdam, was sent by his patrons to
Mr. Baring, the London banker, to nego-
tiate a loan. He displayed in the affair
so much ability, as to entirely win the
esteem and confidence of the great
English financier.

" Faith ! " said Labouchere one day
to Baring, " your daughter is a charm-
ing creature ; I wish I could persuade
you to give me her hand."

" Young man, you are joking ; for
seriously, you must allow that Miss
Baring could never become the wife of
a simple clerk."

" But," said Labouchere, " if I were
in partnership with Mr. Hope ? "

" Oh ! that would be quite a differ-
ent thing; that would entirely make
up for all other deficiences."

Returned to Amsterdam, Labouchere



said to his patron, " You must take me
into partnership."

" My young friend, how can you
think of such a thing ? It is impossi-
ble. You are without fortune, and "

" But if I became the son-in-law of
Mr. Baring ? "

"In that case the affair would be
soon settled, and so you have my
word."

Fortified with these two promises,
M. Labouchere returned to England,
and in two months after married Miss
Baring, because Mr. Hope had promised
to take him into partnership ; and he
thus became allied to the house of
Hope & Co. His was a magnificent
career.

Domestic Trouble of Kothschlld.

At the time of the decease of Baron
ROTHSCHILD'S grandson, a very young
child, the Baron was so much afflicted,
that for some time he gave up the care



464



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



of his affairs, and neglected his vast
business enterprises. During this sea-
son of grief, a friend came to offer him
his condolence ; the Baron recalled,
with a melancholy tenderness, the win-
ning ways of the lost little child :
" They brought him to me every morn-
ing," said he, " here is my cabinet, and
I think I see him now, on my table,
overturning all my papers."

At this moment, an agent from the
exchange came in. It was the hour
when he came to take the orders of the
prince of finance, and to render him an
account of the movement in the funds,
and the aspect affairs had taken on the
Bourse down to the latest period. In-
terrupted in the overflowings of his
memories and regrets, M. de Eothschild
fell into a melancholy revery, while the
agent launched bravely into the subject
of his habitual visit, and continued,
with the most minute detail, his expose
of the state of financial matters, with-
out being disconcerted by the silence
of his auditor, which he attributed to
continued and deep financial calcula-
tion.

Having thus finished his report on
the state of all the various stocks nego-
tiated on 'Change, the agent added :
" A new advance in the public funds is
expected do you believe in it, M. le
Baron ? " M. de Rothschild, aroused
from his revery, raised his head, and
replied, with an accent full of sadness
and gravity, " I, sir ? I believe only in
God."

Coutts, the Great Banker, choosing a
"Partner."

NOT a partner for his counting-house,
but for the domestic circle. When a
single man, and known to be a banker
of such great wealth, Mr. Coutts was
an object of attraction to more than
one noble family having portionless
daughters, in the hope that such an al-
liance would be the means of relieving
them from their pecuniary necessities ;
but these aristocratic matrimonial spec-



ulators were all self-deceived and con-
founded by the choice Mr. Coutts made
of a wife falling, as it did, upon Eliz-
abeth Starkey, a superior domestic in
his brother's service, with whom he
lived many years in the enjoyment of
every domestic comfort. The result of
this union was, three daughters, who
respectively married the Marquis of
Bute, the Earl of Guilford, and Sir
Francis Burdett.

On the death of his wife, Mr. Coutts
married Miss Mellon, an actress a
marriage which caused both Mr. and
Mrs. C. much ridicule. These attacks,
however, were mainly directed against
the lady ; but they only tended to
strengthen the confidence Mr. Coutts
had placed in his wife, and this confi-
dence was in the end displayed in a
most remarkable manner. When he
died, he left the whole of his vast
property nine hundred thousand
pounds to Mrs. Coutts, for her sole
use and benefit, and at her own dis-
posal, without even mentioning any
other person, or leaving a single legacy,
large or small, to any individual or for
any object.

Mrs. Coutts subsequently married the
Duke of St. Albans, but under her mar-
riage settlement reserved to herself the
sole control over the property left by
Mr. Coutts ; and on her death, true to
the confidence placed in her by Mr. C.,
she left the whole of his great wealth
to his favorite grand-daughter Angela
Burdett, now Miss Angela Burdett
Coutts, who is the principal proprietor
of the Coutts Bank, the business being
conducted by trustees for Miss Burdett,
under the old style of Coutts & Co.



Personal Appearance of Stephen
Girard.

GIRARD'S form was low and square,
although muscular, with feet large, and
his entire person and address exhibit-
ing the aspect of a rough old sailor.
Nor was his countenance calculated to



DOMESTIC RELATIONS OF MERCHANTS, BANKERS, ETC.



465



alter the impression that would be
likely to be produced by the appear-
ance of his person.

A face dark, and colorless, and cold,
although deeply marked with the lines
of thought, indicated a man who had
been accustomed to the hard fare of
life ; and it possessed an iron, or, as it
has been, perhaps, more properly desig-
nated, a stone-like expression. His
" wall-eye " seemed to add to that air
of general abstraction, which was
evinced by his general demeanor,
whether engaged in his domestic
affairs, or the more active business of
his banking operations. But the dull
eye, which seemed ordinarily to sleep
in its socket, and whose predominant
expression was cunning, sometimes kin-
dled as if with fire, when any topic
adapted to his taste was pressed upon
his attention. His mouth, when not
relaxed by an insinuating smile, ex-
pressed unutterable determination. His
high cheek bones, and breadth of face,
gave indications of the extraordinary
character of the man ; and this was not
diminished by his wearing a queue.

His mind appeared to be engaged
less upon the little details of business
than in devising those great projects of
mercantile speculation which tended so
directly to swell his coffers, and yet he
was scrupulous in his devotion to all
those minute points of business which
fell within the wide circle of his enter-
prises. But if a ship was to be built,
or a house constructed, or a vessel to
be freighted, his presence was seldom
wanting to superintend and direct the
most unimportant details.

From the year 1812, he was partially
defective in the hearing of one ear, and
as he could only speak in broken Eng-
lish, and seldom conversed, excepting
upon business, this circumstance threw
around his appearance an air of even
greater mystery. His ordinary style of
dress was in exact keeping with his
plain and homely traits. He constant-
ly wore an old coat cut in the French
30



style, and remarkable only for its an-
tiquity, generally preserving the same
garment in use for four or five years.
Nor did he maintain a very costly
equipage. An old chair, distinguished
chiefly for its rickety construction, as
well as its age, which he at last caused
to be painted and marked with the
letters S. G., drawn by an indifferent
horse, suited to such a vehicle, was the
style he preferred in this respect.

Astor's Appearance and Manners.

CONSIDEKING his extraordinary ac-
tivity until a late period of his life, Mr.
Astor submitted to the helplessness of
age with uncommon resignation. When
his impaired eyesight no longer permit-
ted him to read, his principal relief
from the wearisomeness of unoccupied
time was in the society of his friends
and near relatives. All who knew him
were strongly attached to him, and
none but those who were ignorant of
his true character believed him unami-
able and repulsive. His smile was pe-
culiarly benignant, and expressive of
genuine kindness of heart, and his
whole manner candid and courteous to
every one entitled to his respect. There
was something so impressive in his
appearance, that no one could stand
before him without feeling that he was
in the presence of a superior intelli-
gence. His deep, sunken eye, his over-
arched brow, denoted the prophetic
mind within. Although he lived to a
great age, and was the victim of much
suffering, he did not murmur, nor did
he become unreasonable and peevish.
He was not wont to talk much on the
subject of religion, or freely communi-
cate his views in relation to the life
beyond the grave. With regard to his
religious views, it is known that he
was a member of the German Reformed
Congregation in New York.






.466



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



De Medici, the " Magnificent Mer-
chant, 1 ' when a Child.

LORENZO DE MEDICI, the " magnifi-
cent merchant " of his time, was, when
a child, presented one day by his father
to a royal ambassador, to whom he wa>s
talking of him with the natural fond-
ness of a parent, and desired the am-
bassador to put some question to his
son, and thus see by his answer wheth-
er he was not a boy of parts. The am-
bassador did as he was desired, and
was soon convinced of the truth of
what the father had told him; but
added, oracularly, " This child, as he
grows old, will most probably become
stupid, for it has in general been ob-
served that those who, when young, are
very sprightly and clever, hardly ever
increase in talent as they grow older."
Young Lorenzo, hearing this, crept
gently to the ambassador, and looking
him archly in the face, said to him, " I
am certain that when you were young,
you were a boy of very great genius."
Lorenzo being then asked, " Who are
the greatest fools in the world ? " re-
plied promptly, " Those, surely, who
put themselves in a passion with fools."

Slightly Personal.

FROM some cause or other, Lord Al-
len had taken it into his head to make
a butt of a certain banker, who be-
longed to the same club as himself;
and hearing that this banker had peti-
tioned for the removal of a monument
which had been placed opposite to his
place of business, asked him, one day,
in rather an imperious manner, his mo-
tive for joining the inhabitants of the
district in such a petition.

The banker replied that it collected
a throng of idlers and dirty boys about
the spot, to the great hindrance of
business, and the annoyance of his
neighbors.

" Oh," said his lordship, " of course
every man knows his own business best,



but I should have thought it rather
advantageous to you than otherwise."

" How so, my lord ? " rejoined the
banker.

" Because," said his lordship, " while
you are standing idle at your own shop
door, it would prevent your seeing the
crowds of people that flock to the re-
spectable banking house of Messrs. Bul-
lion & Co., on the opposite side of the
street ! "

Of course his lordship's spleen was
now gratified, for the wliole club was
convulsed with laughter; but the tri-
umph was only of short duration, for
the banker soon learned that his lord-
ship whose peculiarly pompous man-
ner had obtained for him the sobriquet
of " King," by which title and no other
was he commonly known among his
most intimate friends had previously
arranged with his creditors by the pay-
ment of ten shillings on the pound.
The banker was determined to be re-
venged, and within a few hours, before
the novelty of King Allen's last had
subsided, he went to the club, when it
was crammed with members, and hav-
ing got their attention, observed that
" if ' King Allen's ' coronation was to
take place, and his champion were to
throw down his gauntlet in Westmin-
ster Hall, he would pick it up."

"Why, why?" resounded from all
the members of the club.

" Because," said the banker, " I find
he has assumed a title to which he has
no claim, for he has compounded with
his creditors, and paid them ten shil-
lings in the pound ; he is therefore no
king, but merely a half-sovereign."



Baron Rothschild Defending- Himself
with a Big Leger.

THREATS of murder were frequently
sent to Rothschild by persons intent on
obtaining from him sums of money. A
stranger once waited upon him with
the information that a plot had been
formed to take his life ; that the loans



DOMESTIC RELATIONS OF MERCHANTS, BANKERS, ETC.



467



which he had made to Austria, and his
connection with Governments adverse
to the liberties of Europe, had marked
him for assassination; and that the
mode by which he was to lose his life
was arranged.

But though Rothschild smiled out-
wardly at this and similar threats, they
said, who knew him best, that his mind
was often troubled by these remem-
brances, and that they haunted him at
moments when he would willingly
have forgotten them. Occasionally his
fears took a ludicrous form. Two tall,
mustachioed men were once shown
into his counting house. Mr. Roths-
child bowed ; the visitors bowed, and
their hands wandered first in one pock-
et, and then in another. To the anx-
ious eye of the millionnaire they as-
sumed the appearance of persons search-
ing for deadly weapons. No time
seemed for thought; a big leger,
without a moment's warning, was
hurled at the intruders ; and, in a
paroxysm of fear, he called for assist-
ance, to drive out two customers, who
were only feeling in their pockets for
letters of introduction. There is no
doubt that he dreaded assassination
greatly.

"You must be a happy man, Mr.
Rothschild," said a gentleman who was
sharing the hospitality of his splendid
home, as he glanced at the more than
regal sumptuousness of the appoint-
ments of the mansion.

" Happy ! me happy ! " was the re-
ply. " What ! happy, when, just as
you are going to dine, you have a let-
ter placed in your hand, saying, l If
you don't send me 500, I will blow
your brains out ! Happy ! me happy ! "
And the fact that he frequently slept
with loaded pistols at the side of his
gilded bed, is comment enough upon
the happiness of the richest man on the
face of the globe.



Francis Baring at the Virginia Inn.

WHEN a young man, Mr. Baring
travelled through the western part of
Virginia, which was at that time peo-
pled, in some of its localities, by a pret-
ty rough class, and the vehicle he used
was a very handsome and newly var-
nished travelling carriage, in style
comporting with his high personal and
business character. In accordance with
the favorite custom of those wild fel-
lows, who usually carried a penknife
or nail in their pockets, one of the
idlers, who stood and leaned about the
door of the tavern, when the banker
had alighted for refreshment, amused
himself by scratching, with a nail, all
sorts of ridiculous figures on the var-
nished surface of the carriage door.
Baring, who came out of the inn, and
caught our friend engaged in this
agreeable and polite occupation, the
instant he saw what was going on,
very sharply expressed his disappro-
bation. The loiterer responded as
quickly :

"Look here, sir! don't be saucy;
we make no ceremony. T'other day
we had a European fellow here, like
yourself, who was mighty saucy, so I
pulled out my pistol and shot him
dead, right on the spot. There he
lies ! " The banker rejoined, in the
coolest manner imaginable, by asking :

" And did you scalp him, too ? "

The fellow was so struck with this,
and felt the reproach upon his savage
rudeness so keenly, that, after gazing
at Baring suddenly and earnestly for a
moment in silence, he exclaimed :

" By ! sir, you must be a clever

fellow ! let's shake hands ! "

It would not have been easy to give
a sharper lesson.



Palace of Lafitte, the French Banker.

THE long-celebrated "Rue Lafitte,"
in Paris, was originally christened Rue
d'Artois, in 1770 in honor of the ill-



468



COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.



fated prince whom, after sixty agitated
years, the great banker Lafitte was, by
Ms masterly combinations, to drive
from the throne. After a while, the
name of Cerutti was substituted. At the
end of the street rose the magnificent
Hotel Thelusson a residence of the
Genevese banker, the patron of Necker,
whose fortune and less ambitious pop-
ularity survived those of his more illus-
trious junior partner. It became the
headquarters of the luxury of the day.
In course of time, Murat took this pal-
ace ; and not long after it fell into the
hands of Berchut, an army tailor, who
had made a fortune by selling uniforms,
in days when their first owners seldom
had the good luck to wear them out.
He invested it in the erection of build-
ings on speculation, and, in the carry-
ing out of these schemes, the hotel
which had become so famous in the
annals and chronicles of its occupants
was at last demolished.

Here, in this memorable quarter,
lived Jacques Lafitte, whose financial
greatness was felt in both hemispheres,
at times overtopping the influence and
power even of crowned heads. Hither,
on the 29th of July, 1830, when the
battle was well-nigh decided, flocked
the courtiers of his provisional majesty,
the populace, and who seemed on the
eve of a definite reinstatement in his
anarchical rights. The sordid in-
triguer, the waiter on Providence, the
timid capitalist who sought protection
rather than promotion all eagerly
crowded these approaches, now so soli-
tary, with urgent advice and covert
solicitations. It was a trembling and
undignified assemblage in such a place ;
for the result of affairs out of doors yet
hung in the balance ; the fear of being
too late was in ludicrous conflict with
that of being too early ; at any moment
a few files of infantry might direct
their steps thitherward, become the
focus of insurrection and then the
game was up !

It is due to the brilliant and cour-



ageous banker to say, that he stood
firm, as became the representative of
the great moneyed interest, in this its
crowning struggle. On one occasion,
the sound of musketry in the neighbor-
hood actually cleared the palace of all
its visitors; it proved to be only the
discharge in the air of a regiment fra-
ternizing with the mob but Lafitte,
unterrified and unconquerable, remain-
ed at his post, and profited by the in-
terval of domestic solitude to get his
sore leg dressed.

But Lafitte was ruined by this revo-
lution, as is well known. His palace
was repurchased for him by subscrip-
tion; and an inscription on the front
long recorded this fact to passers by.
It has, however, now been removed into
the courtyard. Surely, it was not a
thing to be ashamed of. The genius
of finance, however, in its domesticity,
has not quite abandoned its favor-
ite quarter. M. Rothschild himself
long lived in the Rue Lafitte, and now
and then illumined the locality with a
splendor of Hebrew hospitality which
reduced the Christendom of Paris to
envy and despair.



" Merely a Family Dinner."

THE maxim "All is not gold that
glitters," if not purely English in its
origin and application, is at all events
not much recognized in France. In
the latter country, the reputation of a
man for wealth is about in proportion
to his display of it. A showy house
of business, and an elegant style of liv-
ing, indicating that the proprietor has
abundant wealth himself, are essential
prerequisites to his being intrusted
with the wealth of others.

The contrast which prevails to this
state of things in England, is strikingly
illustrated by the following domestic
incident : A retired merchant, of enor-