The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-22
The late George Peabody.
TRAITS AND ANECDOTES.

TRAITS AND ANECDOTES.
In personal appearance Mr.. Peabody resembled
a professional rather than n business man.
Mr.. Peabody's great interest in education doubt
less PARTIALLY arose from the fact that he was
taken from school at the early age of eleven years.
and was thus deprived of what in that day was
known as grammar school instruction
The first money that Mr.. Peabody earned out
side of the small pittance he received as clerk,
was for writing ballots for the Federal party in
Newburyport. This was before the day OF printed
votes.
When Mr.. Riggs invited Mr.. Peabody to be a
PARTNER, the latter said there was one insuperable
objection as he was only l9 years of age. This
was no objection in the mind OF the shrewd mer-
chant. who wanted a young and active assistant.
Our esteemed fellow citizen James Read, was
the first merchant who gave George Peabody
credit. The purchase was a thousand dollars, halt
of it on credit. The amount was promptly paid,
and the transaction led TO a long business relation
and life long friendship.
Two gentlemen are living who were friends of
Mr.. Peabody in b%oyhood, and who willingly paid
his share of the cost of sailing and fishing parties,
ten pins, ETC., during the war of lSl2-l4-his
excellent company being considered more than an
offset to his lack of funds.
The late Rev. d. Dana, DID,, Of Newburyport,
was the clergyman whose preaching first attracted
Mr.. Peabody's attention when a lad. DIR. Dana
was uncle to Mr.. Samuel T.. Dana of this city, who
has been Mr.. Peabody's agent of late years.
Mr.. Peabody did not bestow many gifts to re-
lieve individual poverty or distress. He thought
that much of the money thus contributed only
tended to increase the evil it sought to alleviate.
Mr.. Peabody was a beautiful penman. His
letters were usually brief and very much to the
point.
Mr.. Peabody was strongly opposed to fraud in
little matters. The conductor on an English
railway once overcharged him a shilling for fare.
He made complaint to the Directors and had the
man discharged. "Not," said he, 81 that l could
not afford to pay the shilling, but the man was
cheating many travellers to whom the swindle
would be oppressive"
When Mr.. Peabody first resided in London, he
lived very frugally, taking breakfast at his lodg-
ings and dining at a club house. His personal
expenses for ten years did not average six hundred
pounds per annum.
Mr.. Peabody had a very r~etentive memory,
particularly in regard to names and places. he
would give the most minute particulars of events
that occurred between fifty and sixty years ago.
Mr.. Peabody first appeared in PRINT as the
champion of American credit in England, at the
time our State securities were depressed on &C
count of the non-payment Of interest by Pennsyl-
vania.
Mr.. Peabody administered many severe rebukes
to prominent Southern men for the manner in
which their States treated public creditors.
Essex county, where Mr.. Peabody was born,
has five public buildings erected by his hberality.
They are consecrated to the use of education,
science and religion.
MIR. Peabody leaves a sister, Mrs. Daniels,
formerly Mrs. Russell of Georgetown. He has
several nephews and nieces, to all of whom he
has been very generous.
MIR. Peabody was very fond of singing, Scottish
songs being his favorites.
The toast Mr.. Peabody sent to the Danvers eel
ebration in 1852 was:
"Education-a debt due from present to flu
ture generations"
Mr.. Peabody was a good talker at the table
r~- $500, ,or biz a-no1o He do nE q xIoooo-%
dinner party was, where there was a great deal
of talk and he could take the lead in conversation.
The ~favorite games of Mr.. Peabody were back
CANNON after dinner, and whist in the evening.
He was as fond of the latter and as rigorous a
PLAYER as Charles Lambs friend, Sarah Battle,
who neither gave nor took quarter.
About a quarter of a century ago Mr.. Peabody
was so much pleased with an American lady visit
ing London that he offered her his hand and
fortune, which were accepted. Learning 4 short
time afterwards that she was already engaged, n
fact of which she had kept him in ignorance, he
rebuked her lack of sincerity and broke off the
engagement.
Mr.. Peabody visited, incOgnito, the houses
erected by his muniicence for the poor of London,
to see if those in charge of the charity properly
attended to their duties. He asked the wife of
the superintendent the name of her child, and
was answered, " George Peabody" This prompt
ed a present to the infant, which the mother
quickly interpreted, and announced to her neigh
D0rS the presence OF their distinguished Denefac-
tor, who gladly took refuge in a cab to be rid of
their beDedictions.
Letters by the hundred were daily received by
Mr.. Peabody of late years. They were first looked
over by q Secretary and only a few ever reached
the eyes of the great banker. He received one of
thirty-six foolscap pages from a decayed English
gentleman who solicited q loan OF a few thousand
pounds to establish the claims Of his family to an
estate. Mr.. Peabody wrote in reply substantially
this: That you should have written such a
letter, would surprise your friends that | should
have read it, would indeed surprise mine"
Chief Justice Shaw paid Mr.. Peabody the
compliment of remarking that a business docu-
ment, written by him, was one of the clearest and
most comprehensive papers that had ever been
presented to our Supreme Court.
BY temperament, religious training, early edu-
cation, political bias and business connections,
Mr.. Peabody was conservative.
The last time Mr.. Peabody spoke in public,
was at the National Peace Jubilee in Boston. 1t
was a fitting place and occasion for one whose
long and useful life had done 50 much for peace
and concord.
Several years ago Mr.. Peabody selected his
grave in the beautiful cemetery near his native
place, called /" Harmony Grove" where the re-
mains of many of his kindred are buried.
Mr.. Peabody always cherished the memory of
his mother, to whose comfort he ministered in
early life. One who knew all the circumstances
alludes TO them in the following words
" Might we invade the sanctuary of his early
home, and the circle Of his immediate connections,
we could light around the youthful possessor of a
few hundred dollars-the avails of the most severe
and untiring eforts,-a brighter halo than his
elegant inequalities, his munifcent donations, or
his liberal public acts, now shed over the rich
London banker. '-BOstOn Transcript.