Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-05-30
OUR NEW YORKLETTER.
Old Men in Nep York-Brief Sketches of
Some Of TRem-Business- Editors on a
Rampage-the Weather.
ON MEN

Some Of Them-Business-EditOrs on a
Rampage-the Weather.
OLD MEN.
New York has.fewer old men in proper
tion TO its population than any city in
the civilized world. The poor die early,
of course, for the poor IN the city have
not the comforts necessary to the pro-
longation of life; aud the rich, or those
aspiring to be rich, by which mean the
business men, live altogether too rapid
life to last long. The man who COM
mences al twenty-tbree with ten thousand
dollars or Its equivalent in check and on
that check does business of half a
million per aunum, is not going to live
to see fifty, unless, indeed, he has extra
ordinary luck or an extraordinary con-
stitution. His life is one Of the hardest
kind of work. and of most consuming
excitement. Plethoric to-day-On the
averge of bankruptcy tomorrow with
nothing in the morning with which TO
pay hundred thousand dollars in the
afternoon. 1t is a life that wears faster
than any other labor in the world. II is
one everlasting, never ending strain,
from morning till night and if the cares of
the day enable him to sleep at night, he
is lucky.
But, nevertheless, there are few old
men in New York, who have survived the
strain and wear or tear of business.
MAYOR HAvEMEYER
is over seventy, and bids fair to live twen-
years yet He is of German descent, and
though he has lived through all the excl
ting periods of New York history, has
presistently refused 10 get at all excited.
He has had steady, standard business
sugar reining-and has followed it with
all the steadlness of a German. He has
taken no active part in politics-he was
Mayor thirty years ago-has been and is
bank President but in all he lives
quietly and modestly, goes to bed regu-
larly at night, eats good wholesome food,
uses stimulants with great moderation,
and always sails on an even keel. If his
house should get on fire, Mayor Have
never would walk out of it deliberately
and ifhis refnerie should burn, the loss
wouldn't bother him a particle. He
would go to work and rebuild, and go on.
He will refine sugar till he dies. and then
his sons will do it after him-not that
they have any need to do business, but
because they have habit that way. Su-
gar is their mission.
PETER COOPER,
known the world over for his benevolence
and his glue is another seVenty-fve year
older. A man of little more than medi-
um height, with gray hairs and spare
face, there Is nothing in his appearance
that betokens the powers he really pos
sesses. He is one of the strongest business
men in the city, aud at the same time one
OF the most progressive and liberal of the
citizens benevolently inclined. Having
made an immense fortune out of glue, he
determined that the public should have
its full share of his money. So he built
an Institute" in which instruction in the
practical arts and sciences should be free
to all, and gave it to the city. The prop
erly Is worth over million, but it has
done millions upon millions of good.
Girls here learn telegraphIng, wood en-
craving, and anumber of other professions
that fit them to go out into the world
armed for strife. Young men are in.
structed in metalurgy, engineering. ETC.,
and all the expense is paid by the prop
erty. Peter Cooper is not exactly
great man, but he is an exceedingly good
man. Everybody loves him, as every.
body ought. He looks and acts as though
he as good for twenty-five more years.
May he live to enjoy them.
DANIEL DREW
has passed his seventieth year, and is so
tough and wiry in his texture, that he
bids fair to live many years longer
though possibly could vote be taken
among his associates, his decease would
not be long deferred. Daniel began life
as Snowman, was promoted to be a ia
vern keeper, and following his instincts,
drifted into Wall Street, where he has
been, for many years the most feared Ope-
rator of the street. He is extremely re-
ligious-is a devoted member of the
Methodist Church, and has built Semi
nary but his professions or his giyings
haEe never yet prevented him from shay
ing his associates most numerically
whenever he had them in tight place.
Nothing so delights the old man as to get
his rivals in position where he can
squeeze them. He shows them no mercy
--he destroys them utterly. 1t is related
of"Uncle Dan'l" that once on a time he
advised the pastor of an M. E. Church If
New Jersey to invest in a certain stock.
"But suppose 1 should Loser" queried the
preacher.
"Tm so certain that you will make
money" was the reply of the good Dan
iel, shat if you do lose I'll make it good
to you"
Thus fortified the preacher did buy a
triie of the stock. And having SO good a
thing the good pastor .confidentially told
thirty or forty of his flock, all Of whom
made haste to invest in stock which the
sanity Daniel had as goods as guaranteed
to go up.
But contrary to expectation the stock |
went down, down, down. The preacher
rushed to Uncle Daniel to redeem his
promise, which the old man did by Civ
ing him cheque for the amount of his
loss.
"The thing didn't work, did it," said |
Daniel.
Indeed it did not"
"Well, you haYen't lost anything
But, my dear sir, am distressed not
withstanding. Being certain of what you
said to me confded this good thing to
my parishioners, and they"
"Hev lost, hev they Well, people
should never tech stock onless they know
the market, or hev some friend like me to
make 'em good ef they lose."
The Joke of the thing lay in the fact