attention to business--Thoroughness of his knowledge--One of his letters
of instructions--His subordinates required to obey orders though they
ruin him--Anecdote of Girard and one of his captains--His promptness and
fidelity in business--He never breaks his word--How he lost five hundred
dollars--Buys the old Bank of the United States and becomes a
banker--Cuts down the salaries of his clerks--Refuses his watchman an
overcoat--Indifference to his employés--Contrast between his personal
and business habits--His liberality in financial operations--He
subscribes for the entire Government loan in 1814, and enables the
United States to carry on the war--His generosity toward the
Government--The suspension of specie payments--Financial troubles--How
Girard saved his own notes--His public spirit--How he made half a
million of dollars on a captured ship--Personal characteristics--Why he
valued money--His ambition--His infidelity--Causes of the defects of his
character--A favorable view--Heroic conduct of Stephen Girard during
the prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia--The Good
Samaritan--He practices medicine, and congratulates himself that he has
killed none of his patients--His industry--Visit of Mr. 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