LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 609, 1 June 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A STORY OF THE ASTORS,

(Concluded.))

'These men,' as Irving explains, 'would set out from Montreal with canoes well stocked with goods, with arms and ammunition, and would make their way up the mazy and wandering rivers that interlace the vast forests of the Canada s ?, coasting the most remote lakes, and creating new wants and habitudes among the natives. Sometimes they sojourned for months among them, assimilating to their tastes and habits with the happy facility of Frenchmen ; adopting in some degree the Indian dress, and not unfrequently taking to themselves Indian wives. Twelve, fifteen, eighteen months would often elapse without any tidings of them, when they would come sweeping their way down the Ottawa in full glee, their canoes laden down with packs of beaver-skins ; and now came their turn for revelry and extravagance.' The kindred clasi of voyageurs, who also sprang out of the fur trade, still formed a fraternity who were employed as carriers and assistants in long internal expeditions of travel and traffic, proceeding by means of boats and canoes on the rivers and lakes. ' Their dress is generally half-civilised, half-savage. They wear a capot or surcoat made of a i blanket, a striped cotton shirt, cloth trousers or leather leggings, m iccasins of deer skin, and a belt of variegated worsted, from which are suspended the knife, tobacco-pouch, and other implements. Their language is of the same piebald character, being a French patois, embroidered with Indian and English words and phrases. The lives of the voyageurs are passed in wild and extensive rovings, in the service of individuals, but more especially of the furtraders. They are generally of French descent, and inherit much of the gaiety and lightness of heart of their ancestors being full of anecdote and song, and ever ready for the dance. They inherit, too, a fund of civility and complaisance ; and instead of that hardness and grossness which men in laborious life are apt to indulge towards each other, they are mutually obliging and accommodating ; interchanging kind offices, yielding each other assistance and oomforfc in every emergency, and using the familiar appellations of "cousin" and "brother," when there is in fact no relationship. Their natural good-will is probably heightened by a community of adventure and hardship in their precarious and wandering life. No men are more submissive to their leaders and employers, more capable of enduring hardship, or more . good-humoured under privations. Never are they so happy as when on long and rough expeditions, toiling up rivers or coasting lakes ; encamping at night on the borders, gossiping round their fires, and bivouacking in the open air.' After a variety of adventures in which great hardships were endured, Mr Hunt and party reached the Columbia River, and finally arrived at Astoria, such being the name of what was to be the trading post of departure by sea. Misfortunes had already overtaken the company. The vessel despatched by Mr Astor Avas wrecked, and from fresh expeditious there ensued no practical benefit. The breaking out of the war betwixt Great Britain and the United States was the final blow given to the concern. Fort Astoria tell into the hands of the British, and the American Fur Company thereupon partially breaking up, the trade in peltries was forthwith engrossed by the North-west company and other associations. Although Mr Astor's plans had so far proved disastrous, he did not repine, but continued to trade in furs, and to engage in other advantageous enterprises. So realising a small fortune, he began to invest money in the purchase of land in and about New York, the rapid growth of which he foresaw must soon vastly raise the value of real estate. These calculations proved correct. The property he acquired rose in some instances to a hundred times the price originally paid for it. He also erected numerous public and private buildings in a handsome style, Avhich he advantageously let. One Avay and another, lie realised the largest fortune ever, till that time, accumulated in America,|amou.itingto twenty millions of dollars, or four millions of pounds sterling. As mere money making is not to be highly commended, the extroordinary success of John Jacob Astor cannot merit anything like a eulogium. We give his story only as offering a remarkable instance of extraordinary shreAvdness, and persevering diligence in ordinary pursuits. It is stated that he continued through life to be an early riser, to be scrupulously attentiA r e to his business concerns, and to be noted for fair dealing. So long as he was able, he took daily exercise on horseback. He Avas by no means stingy in money matters, but contributed pretty largely to charities. Amidst the bosom of his family and friends, lie drew out existence pleasantly, and Avas till the last exemplary as regards religious duties. He died at New York March 29th, IS4S, at the ripe age of eighty-five years. Not till after the death of John Jacob Astor, A\as the extent of hi 3 munificence known. Among the charitable provisions in his Avill, tiie first Avorthy of mention Avas a bequest of fifty thousand dollars for the benefit of poor Waldorf, his native village, a sum which the Grand Duke of Baden judiciously applied for the instruction of young persons, avlio would otherwise have been destitute of education. There was a still grander bequest. It Avas the sum of four hundred thousand dollars —eighty thousand pounds sterling—to found and maintain a public library in New York, Avhere an institution of this kind, if only for general reference, Avas greatly wanted. Under the management of trustees, the Astor Library, as it is called, was established in a handsome edifice erected for the purpose. The collection of books, drawn from every European country, is much esteemed for its value in promoting literary study. For this crowning act of beneficence, the memory of John Jacob Astor is Avorthy of all honour. Let others A\ho have the means, whether in America or Europe, go and do likewise. The greater portion of the fortune of John Jacob Astor Avas inherited by his son, Wm. B. Astor, Avho, folloAviug up his father's arrangements, continued to augment his acquired Avealth, by sedulous perseverance until his decease, which took place recently, 21th November, 1875. William B. Astor is reputed to have had none of his father's daring genius. Fis life Avas nob devoid of generous deeds, but from the time he sucsucceeded to his father's estate, at fifty-six years of age, accumulation was his absorbing object. The following sketch of the character and career of this second of the j Astors, appears in the Spectator news-

I paper :—' He had been trained to watch his rasher's property, and for the rest of his life he pursued unswervingly a single purpose—- | that of so managing the " Astor Estate" that lit should gro .v greater in his hands. He o Avas not a mean man, still less a miser, any } more than he was a generous one. He thought his father had not distributed quite enough among some relatives, and in a moderate, sensible way, at a cost of a few thousands, hi remedied all the deficiencies he perceived. ' Le heard that the trustees of the Astor Library, after their large expenditure on buildinsrs, had hardly adequate fuuds for book-buying, and he added forty thousand pounds to his father's gift of eighty thousand. He gave, when asked, to charities, and not illiberally; but his usual cheque was one for two hundred pounds, and he is only once recorded to have made a donation of ten thousand pounds at once. He lived also liberally, with a town-house and large country place; but he lived moderately, spending on himself and his charities but a fracti n of hi? income, secluding himself very much from the public eye, and taking no visible part in the business of the city or republic. He never became a director in any of the undertakings in which he held shares. His work for twenty-seven years was merely to manage his property, to cover his father's lands with large houses, till shortly before his death he possessed seven hundred and twenty, most of them of the first class and in the richest quarters, and to invest his yearly accumulations in the safest investments he could find. Me never speculated or dealt on 'Change, or went in for grand coups, but steadily added house to house and share to share, working all the while ai if he had still his bread i © make. His office was as large as that of any great contractor, and he superintended it himself, going down every day when in town to business, and keeping all under him at work. He paid well, and he must have had some judgment in men, for he was well served, and had the art of inducing his agents to give up their whole lives to his service. He had, too, a certain fidelity to his work and to the estate, and, we believe, put a clause in his leases under which he al no should undertake all repairs—a branch of work involving excessive labour and no profit. It is probable that while he adhered steadfastly to his own plan of life, and watched his fortune accumulating, he was a weary man, who thought life had very little to give, and had something of a dislike for the wealth which made him such a name He seemed to be governed, possibly from habib, by a sense of duty to the estate which he had watched so long —by a feeling that to diminish it, even for great objects, would be in some sense a moral wrong. It may even be surmised that he was conscious of this feeling, and a little ashamed of it, broader ideas Hitting occasionally before his mind. There is something to our ears excusatory in his frequent remark that his wealth brought him nothing but a maintenance and a daily round of work, and the burdensome reputation of being the richest man in the Union. Nevertheless, he never intermitted his toil, but from 1860 to 1573 increased his buildings, till he was popularly described as " the Landlord of New York," and was possessed of a fortune which the Tribune says is variously estimated, but may reach ten millions sterling. We have heard it estimated, not by vulgar rumours, but by grave capitalists, who had an interest in knowing the truth, at a very much larger sum ; but vast as the transactions of W. B. Astor were, Wall Street is shrewd, and the Tribune's estimate is likely to be found, when the property is valued for the succession, the terms of which are still unknown, very near the truth. John Jacob Astor certainly left four million pounds, most of it producing more than six per cent. ; and allowing even forty thousand pounds a year for expenditure and management charges, tl e savings of twenty-seven years under such management as Mr W. B. Astor's, added to the original fortune, cannot amount to much less than ten millions, and may prove to be much more. It is to be ooserved, however, that the houses will be valued at a period of unusual depreciation. If the amount we have stated should be realised, Mr Astor's fortune was one of the largest ever at the disposal of a single man, unfettered by the responsibilities of a house like the Rothschilds, or by settlements such as reduce the London dukes to life tenancies.' As John Jacob Astor named a grandson as one of the trustees of the library he founded in New York, we assume that the magnificent fortune left by William B. Astor is duly inherited by this representative of the family. The third of the Astors may be ranked among those extraordinarily rich men whose wealth is reckoned by millions. It is generally stated that the late Mr Astor was the richest man in the States, but we see that this is controverted by the Califorr.ians; they aver that the richest is Mr John Mackey, who ten years ago was a working miner, and now owns gold mines which bring him an income of ten millions of dollars, or two millions of pounds sterliug, annually. Be this as it may, it seems to be understood that the representative of the late Mr Aster has inherited property to the value of ten millions sterling. There are rich men in Great Britain, but Ave fancy none can come up to this. What anyone can rationally do with surh enormous wealth would be difficult to say. To disperse it in an extraviigant stjle of living would be a crime, the height of folly. To give away large sums in charitable donations might have a pauperising tendency, and do more harm than good. Much could certainly be done to public advantage in the sanitary improvement of cities, in helping educational movements, in founding libraries where they are likely to be appreciated, in measures for civilising countries still in a state of semi-barbarism, and in well-con-ceived scientific enterprises beyond the reach of ordinary appliances. The very thought of ten millions being accumulated in the course of two generations creates a degree of wonder. Suppose thai the sum is not to end there, but to go on accumulating at the same ratio during a third and a fourth generation, the result becomes a little overwhelming. Meanwhile, V ithout going into speculations as to the future, we may hope that a decently good use will be made of the colossal fortune founded by John Jacob Astor, who, at the outset of life, as we have seen, was nothing more than a poor boy in the village of Waldorf. W. C.