Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1854-09-07
EBENsBURG, SEPTEMBER Z, 1854.

| land Mauritius, at that time the Isle de France
to Calcutta and Canton and each of which
cost from forty to sixty thousand dollars,
brought back cargoes worth from one to two
hundred thousand dollars to Philadelphia and
| thence to Europe, particularly to Messrs. Hope
td'Co., at Amsterdam, and were never insur-
Led. Remarkable good fortune attended all
these enterprises. Until the year 1915, not
one of his ships was ever lost or captured 1t
Ewill be easy to form an idea of the amount of
capital accumulated by this saving of insur-
Fmce premiums, when one reflects that the lat
ter went as high as from ten to fifteen, and
tyen twenty per cent.
Girard's right hand man was countryman
ot hhis, nai4Ied Roberjeot who. however, had
received his mercantile education entirely at
Hamburg under the tutelage of Professor
Busch This Roberjeot was the only man whom
he now and then, and only now and then, took
into his especial confidence, and he worked in
the house of Girard for respectable, yet very
moderate salary during the lapse of twenty
FEARS, frequently something was said about
Increasing it. but nothing of the sort was ever
Sone Roberieot, who had some desire TO be
iaken care of in his old age, resolved to let his
patron know that he desired to keep him any
longer, he must take that matter into serious
consideration, and give him a handsome sum,
That he might put aside and turn to good ac-
tount Girard little nettled by this, replied
that he would give him ten thousand dollars,
but Robertjeot demanded sixty. He was told
10 wait until the next day, when, without hear
ing another word in relation TO the matter he
received what he asked for-sixty thousand
dollars
Il Magnanimous as Girard could be in many
things, he was, on the other hand, equally
pretty in many others. OF his numerous rela-
tives in France, who were all poor peasant
folks, he would never hear syllable mention
ed When some of them upon one occasion
Nentured to cross the ocean and visit him in
Philadelphia, he Immediately sent them away
again, with trifing present. In one particu-
lar instance he exhibited unusal hard-hearted-
ness. His captains had received the strictest
orders not to bring either strange goods, pas
sengers or letters back with them One of his
ships was returning from Bordeaux. Through
another which had hurried on before it,
he learned that 1t was conveying him some re-
lations of his as passengers; he instantly sent
to New Castle, on the Delaware, where the
ships coming from sea usually touch, an order
to the captain, forbidding him to land any
passengers, but no remain at that point until
another had been procured to take them back
to Bordeaux, when he might come up 10 Phi
-ladelphia with his cargo. The. captain was then
replaced by another person He however,
made an exception in favor of two rieres, the
orphaned daughters of brother who had died
in poverty He allowed these girls to come to
him, and gave one of them permission, along
with some twenty thousand dollars, to marry
the brother of General Lallemout, who had
emigrated to America upon the restoration of
the Bourbons after the battle of Waterloo In
his will he tequeathed to the other an equal
sum