Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-08-15
DAILY EVENING STAR.

DAILY EVENING STAR.
srErHEs, a1RARD-rHE BAn1NGs
! ....~',,, FAMILY.
The following interesting "reminiscences
of Stephen Girard and the Baring's family
are taken rom the forthcoming work O
Vincent Nolte, the great financier and
traveller ! = 3''' IA ""h -a
"REMINISCENCES OF STEPHEN c1RARp.
| cannot let this opportunity slip by
without saying something of another mer.
camille celebrity ofthe United States, viz.
Stephen Girard. This man was born il
a village near the banks Of the Garome
He was the son Of peasant, and had
left his own country as common sailor
Having gradually risen to the post of Sc.
cond mate, he came as such to Philadel.
phia, where he remained and opened q
tavern On the banks of the Delaware fol
such of his countrymen as were engaged
in the West India trade, particularly that
with, St. Domingo. The revolution in
st. Domingo caused an emigration which
continually brought him fresh customers,
and, having built some small vessels to
bring his fugitive countrymen away in
safety from the island, he bartered fiour
and meal for coffee, until his capital,
which had been scarcely worth mention
ing at first, gradually increased, and
enabled him to build large vessels, and
extend his spirit Of enterprise IN al. di-
rections. His rugality bordered on
avarice. Sailors fare was to him the
best, and the freighting of vessels his
favorite pursuit. The success which at.
tended his exertions at length became
unexampled; for he never had his ships
insured, but always chose skilful and ex.
perienced captains, thus saving himself
the heavy expense of taking out insur.
ance policies, and continued acting on
this principle, gradually increasing his
capital more and more, until it had final
ly swelled to an enormous amount. II.
literate, as French common sailor must
needs be, and scarcely able to write his
own name, he called all his ships after
the great authors of his native country,
and thus enjoyed the sensation of behold
ing the American flag waving above a
Montesquieu, Voltaire, Helvetius, and
Jean Jacques Rousseau. His ships.
which he was in the habit of sending
successfully to the island of Mauritius,
at that time the Isle de France, to CAL
cutta 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 Phila.
delpbia, and thence to Europe, particular
ly to Messrs. Hope& Co., at Amsterdam,
and were never insured. Remarkable
good fortune attended all these enterprises.
Until the year 1915 not one of his ships
was ever lost or captured. 1t will be
easy to form an idea of the amount of
capital accumulated by this saving of in
Surance premiums, when one reflects that
the latter went as high as from ten to
fifteen, and even twenty per cent.
Girard's right-hand man was a coun-
tryman of his, named Roberieot, who,
however, had received his mercantile ed
ucation entirely at Hamburg, under the
tutelage of Professor Busch. This Ro-
berjeot was the only man whom he now
and then, and only now and then, took
into his especial confidence: and he had
worked in the house of Girard for re-
spectacle, yet very moderate, salary dur
ing the lapse of twenty years frequent
ly something was said about Increasing
it, but nothing of the sort was ever done.
Roberjeot, who had some desire to be
taken care of in his old age, resolved to
let his patron know that if he desired to
keep him any longer, he must take that
matter into serious consideration, and
give him handsome sum, that he might
put aside and turn to good account
Girard, little nettled by this, replied
that he would give him ten thousand
dollars, but Roberjeot demanded sixty.
He was told to wait until the next day,
when, without hearing another word in
relation to the matter, he received what
he asked for-sixty thousand dollars.
Magnanimous as Girard could be in
many things, he was, on the other hand,
equally petty in many others. OF his
numerous relatives in France, who were
all poor peasant folks, he would never
hear syllable mentioned. When some
OF them upon one occasion ventured to
cross the ocean and visit him in Philadel
phia, he Immediately sent them away
again, with trifing present. In one
particular instance he exhibited unusual
hard dheartedness. His captains had re-
ceived the strictest orders not to bring
either strange goods, passengers, or
letters back with them. One of his ships
was returning from Bordeaux, and by
another, which had hurried on before it,
he learned that it was conveying him
some relations Of his as passengers; he
instantly sent to Newcastle, on the Del
aware, where the ships coming in from
sea usually touch, an order to the cap
tain. forbidding him to land any passen-
gers, but to remain at that point until
another had been procured to take them
back to Bordeaux, when he might come
Up to Philadelphia with a cargo. The
captain was then replaced by another
person. He, however, made an eXcep-
ton in favorof two nieces, the orphaned
daughters of a 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 Lalle-
mant, who had emigrated to America
upon the restoration of the Bourbons,
after the battle of Waterloo. In his will
l. L l. Al Al