literary men--His death and burial--His will--Opposite views of his
character--How his refusal to buy a chronometer cost him seventy
thousand dollars--He remembers an old friend--His gift of a lease--His
humor--"William has a rich father."


CHAPTER III.

ALEXANDER T. STEWART.

Birth and early life--Becomes his grandfather's ward--Designed for the
ministry--A change in his plans--Comes to America--Teaches school in New
York--Becomes a dry goods merchant--Receives a legacy--His first
importation--How he began business--An energetic trader--His sample lots
and their history--Success of his enterprise--He begins by encouraging
honesty in trade--Wins a name for reliability--The system of selling at
one price--Inaugurates the "selling off at cost" feature--His courage in
business--How he raised the money to meet his note--Improvement in his
business--He enlarges his store--As an inducement to the ladies, employs
for clerks handsome young men--The crisis of 1837--Stewart comes out of
it a rich man--How he did so--Builds his lower store--Predictions of
failure--The result--Compels the Government to purchase goods from
him--His foresight and liberality--Charged with superstition--Lucky and
unlucky persons--Story of the old apple woman--Remarks at the opening of
the St. Nicholas Hotel--Reasons of Stewart's success--A hard worker--How
he receives visitors--Running the gauntlet--How he gets rid of
troublesome persons--Estimate of Mr. Stewart's real estate in New
York--His new residence--His benevolence--Aid for Ireland, and free
passages to America--Home for women--Political sentiments--Mr. Stewart's
appointment as Secretary of the Treasury--Feeling of the country--The