Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-12-29
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most daring of spectators, he yet never ne
elected his love for art nor his talent with the
crayon. When his commercial greatness had
eliminated and waned, he became everything
by turns-commissary for arms and provi !.
sionsS agent for a machine to engrave circu-
lar lines; editor of thelittle free port newspa-
per of Hamburg; political squib-writer in
the United States clerk il, a third class house
of business translator of manuscript for Ital-
ian friars,
Vain, amusing, garrulous, scandalous old
fellow with the dryest common sense, that
is not to be tricked with the keenest eve for
a defect, either in person or character, and
bitter or comic humor to help him in describ-
ing it. Mr. Vincent Note presents to our
eyes one of the most curious life panoramas
that it is possible to see. He seldom looks at
the bright side of character, and dearly loves
-he confesses it-a bit of scandal. But he
paints WE'LL describes well, seizes character
istics which make clear to the reader the ma
turo of the man whom they illustrate.
We proceed to make some extracts from
Notes autobiography, beginning with his first
visit to the United States
The greater part of the existing population
of New Orleans in 1906 was of French origin.
In the city itself the French numbered at least
three. 6fths of the inhabitants; one other fifth
was of Spanish race, and another Americans,
among whom were some Germans. The city
numbered about l6, 900 souls, OF whom one
third were people of color and slaves. The
mercantile class was made up of four or five
French establishments, springing from the
neighhorhood of the Garonne. and founded
during the continuance of the French rule
three Scotch counting houses, one German
concern, and eight or len commission houses,
lately opened by young American merchants
from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
The traces of this class, who carried on the
early business ofNew Orleans, under the new
regime, are now limited to the sugar planter
Shepherd, who is still living, and now very
wealthy, and to the still more opulent Mr.. w
NJ. Montgomery, formerly wholesale grocer,
and now the owner of large portion of the
northwestern section of the State, who lives
partly at New York, and partly at Paris
Shepherd, whom | have Just named, who was
but two and twenty when he came from Bal
timore to New Orleans, was accompanied
thither by young American from the same
place, who could not have been more than
few years older than himself. The latter brot
some six or eight thousand dollars with him;
and after, for considerable time. exploring
all sorts of uncultivated lands lying down the
Mississippi. made choice and purchased
This young man was John McDonough, who
made such constant parade of the lands he had
bought, so well understood the game of max
ing fictitious sales to his friend Shepherd, at
very high rates, and through him to others,
at still higher prices, and pursued this system,
observing, at the same time, great frugality at
home, so long and so skilfully, that at length
real purchasers fell INTO his net, and made
themselves part and parcel of it. McDonough
talked very little, and seldom mixed in gem
eral conversation, especially with ladies, whose
society he avoided as much as possible. When
he did open his lips, all that foil from them
was praise of certain lands that he had Just
purchased, and this theme was inexhaustible.
1t was not in Louisiana alone that he carried
on this system, but also in neghboring States,
and he continued it for more than forty years.
lie passed his spare time in looking after the
education of some children in the neighbor-
hood of his homely residence on an estate, or
as they call it in the South, a plantation, be-
longing to him. He also occupied himself
with the amateur study of medicine.
MeDonough, died in October, 1851, and,
upon the opening of the will it was discov-
cred, that at the time of lis death he owned
four ilths of all the uncultiyated lands in the
State of Louisiana, and as many tracts of ter
ritory in other States, to the very considerable
amount of fifteen millions of dollars. During
the lapse of some thirty four years, I saw him
very frequently, the last time in 1889, and
knew but one relation of his, brother, who
was a pilot and died early. if am not mis-
taken, of the yellow fever. McDohough, him
self, died without heirs either direct or coll
lateral, and has made over his whole property
to the government of the United States, that
it shall expend the same in the establishment
of public schools Beside this general direc-
ton, there are number OF small requests
and codicils, ofvery curious nature. appended
to the will. One of the oldest of these is the
bequest made to Leon Goxlan, in Paris This
we'll known writer some years ago published
a romance called the Medicin du Pecq,"
which, in every point Of view, but especially
by some very peculiar and profound psycholo.
gical studies, attracted the greatest notice
throughout France. The editor ofthe Courier
des Flats Unis republished it in the feuil.
Teton of that widely circulated paper, and
it thus fell into the hands of Mr.. McDonough,
who read it at home in his solitary hours, and
was so charmed with some of the author OBJ
seryations on the world and men, that he
made him his heir to the amount often thous-
and dollars.a Thissum was lately handed over
to Mr. Gozlan by Mr.. Rives, the late Amer
lean ambassador at Paris, III check on the
house Of Albrecht & Co., in Havre.
e a M JOHN JACOB AsfoR.
The argument which Parish had madeuuse
of with Mr.. Gallatin, for the purpose Of pro-
curing permission to send out ships in ballast,
to bring back sums of money from abroad,
that were due in the United States, had found
favor in the eyes of a man who had distin-
guished himself from the mass of German
emigrants by his important successes, his
speculative spirit, and his great wealth, and
had won a certain celebrity. This man was
John Jacob Astor, the founder of the Ameri-
A a. r