The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1860-12-27
SIX DOLLARS PER ANNuN.
' OIL. v. No. 90. HOLE No. ~ %.

ana wanted stewart To take hiln M again.
! But Mr.. Stewart had meanwhile sent To
England for Mr.. King, (who had previously
been n clerk with him. and taken him into
partnership consequently there was no va
cancy for the unfortunate Johnson. He is
now in Italy. His wife will make one of the
first singers in the world, equal TO Malibran,
after having had some practice IN the Italian
school. Her voice is uncqualled. Johnson
married her in England.
In 1881 Mr.. Burroughs was book-keepcr.
Stewart took him in as partner, and gave
him one-eighth in 1888. He died last year,
and his share was just one million of dollars.
Mr.. King was in the concern long enough
TO make S250,000, and then he retired TO
England, where he also died last year.
Ireland has been the birth place of many
remarkable men, but never has she sent
from her shores n more sagacious one than
A. L. Stewart. Our land has fostered the
Frenchman Girard, of Philadelphia, and the
German Astor, and they died worth mil
lions. But they never, even at n great age,
reached the wealth of the Irishman Stew
art. He Is vet in the gristle of his success,
and not hardened into the bone of mann
moth overgrown wealth. Stewart is this
day worth from fourteen TO twenty millions
of dollars. He OWNS more real estate than
Astor, and if he lives ten years longer, Mr..
Stewart will be worth from eighty TO one
hundred millions of dollars.
In the year 1897, when all was gloom and
confusion IN the commercial world when
failures were so common that the concern
that did not fail was regarded with astonish-
ment when the banks all suspended, and
merchants begged OF the government mercy,
and not to be forced to pay their bonds and
duties in specie, Stewart was as lively in the
crash of commercial elements as Il stormy
petrol in n wild hurricane. Everybody was
breaking. What did the far-sceing Stewart
do He reduced his stock to cost, and sold
for those prices. Ginghams and such stufs.
that he had been retailing for 81 cents per
yard, he sold for 20 cents calicoes in the
same proportion. What was the consequence A.?
Old women who mad stockinged their gold and
silver marched to Stewards to take advantage
of the awful sacrifice that unfortunate mer-
chant was making and though they did not
want the goods, yet, like Mrs. Toodles,
they might want EN- one of these days."
when they could not be had at such I'M
heard of prices.
Stewar was overrun with cash. He took
the same money received for goods sold at
cost, went into the market, and bought the
same style of goods, calicoes, &c, that he
had sold, for 40 per cent. less than he had
obtained In one purchase, he bought $50,
900 of silks, half cash, and half for sixty
days at sixty per cent less than the cost of
the silks to import. On this transaction he
realized $4,000. During all the disastrous
panic, Stewart retailed every day $1,000
worth of goods. While others all around
him were breaking, he was coming money.
He was the father of the = Selling off at
Cost" He was the originator of an idea
among retail dry goods dealers that has
saved thousands of men from ruin, and made
fortunes for tens of thousands of humbugs,
by selling off at cost"
Mr.. Stewart moved quietly and calmly
among the tumultuous commercial elements
of 1897.
In 1913 he moved to his present marble
palace. He had bought Washington Hall
of young John Coster for $4,000, and for
a few thousand dollars more, two additional q
buildings and lots on Broadway, corner of
Chambers street. Upon,this magnificent site
he erected the present store, The whole
cost of the ground and palaces erected did
not reach 100000. To-day it would sell at
auctiou.for from $500, 600 to s 100000
He paid PATRON Van Rensselaer, 100000
for the Metropolitan Hotel and out buildings.
1t is now worth and pays an interest of ten
per cent. on $4,000, 900, and would bring at
auction 100000. He owns nearly all of
Blocker street, between Broadway and his
present residence, and in fact owns more real
estate than any other man in New York, ex-
cept, it may be, Mr.. VIM. B. Astor. But
Mr.. AstOr's income is not so large as Stew
arts.
In January, 1859, he WAS worth fourteen
millions of dollars. His sales at the store
are 10000, 900 annually. His profits ex-
coed 100000, of which he now, and ever
has received one-half.
He lives moderately and quietly. His
house was built by Depau, but cost Stewart
only 100000.
He married Miss Clinch, a sister of Clinch
of the grocery firm of Townsend. Clinch &
Dixie. They have no children. So unosten-
tatious is Mr.. Stewart in his religious opin-
ions, that few know whether he is a Catholic
or a Protestant.
Mr.. Stewart lives plainly, and Is very SIM
pie in his habits. He never splurges, and
cares nothing for fashionable society, or for
any but the set habit has flung him among.
He now and then gives a great dinner party.
His guests are found among the substantial
commercial men of his acquaintance. AT
Stewards dinner the service is of solid gold.
He can and does entertain splendidly.
1t Is useless to speculate IN regard TO the
disposal of this vast property, when its pres
ent owner passes from among US.
Mr.. Stewart Is only sixty four. Girard
lived to be eighty-three, and Aston was eighty
four. Mr.. Stewart is more likely 10 live TO
be one hundred than either Giard or Astor
at sixtv-four were likely TO live TO ninety.
In 1886, Stewart was worth one million
FIVE hundred thousand dollars. He has aver
aged from that time to the present a busi'
ness of four millions Il year for twenty-tour
years past. His profits have been fifteen per
ceut-that Is. six hundred thousand dollars
Il year. or fourteen million dollars. His
half share Is seven millions two hundred
thousand dollars; add compound interest TO
that, and to his original capital in 1886. and
II reaches fourteen millions. The rise OF