who bought and sold furs.

Young Astor set himself to learn the business--every part of
it. He was always sitting on the curb at the door before the
owner got around in the morning, carrying a big key to open
the warehouse. He was the last to leave at night. He pounded
furs with a stick, salted them, sorted them, took them to the
tanners, brought them home.

He worked, and as he worked, learned.

To secure the absolute confidence of a man, obey him. Only
thus do you get him to lay aside his weapons, be he friend or
enemy.

Any dullard can be waited on and served, but to serve requires
judgment, skill, tact, patience and industry.

The qualities that make a youth a good servant are the basic
ones for mastership. Astor's alertness, willingness, loyalty,
and ability to obey, delivered his employer over into his hands.

Robert Bowne, the good old Quaker, insisted that Jacob
should call him Robert; and from boarding the young man
with a near-by war widow who took cheap boarders, Bowne
took young Astor to his own house, and raised his pay from
two dollars a week to six.

Bowne had made an annual trip to Montreal for many years.