The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-04-20
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
(frcna oar oa0'a CorrespOndent.)

y
time, the funeral bells must ring, and
the great trio q American financial
giants Will be only a memory. Aston is
gone ; Stewards remains have just been
lowered into bis modest vault IN ST.
Marks Churchyard Vanderbilt only
survives hale old veteran indeed, but
surely and steadily approaching his
end-and when he IS gone, the three
great fortunes of the country viii have
passed down to another generation.
Mr.. Stewards prominence and pecu-
iarities have set the contents of almost
every inkstand in the country flowing IN
his direction. Every scrap of his his
tory, every attainable item concerning
his business, property, habits, and pos
sessions has been eagerly sought out and
industriously circulated by the press,
till the mine is already well-nigh exhaust
ed, and there is little that could add of
fresh interest.
Of course the greatest interest and cur
iosity centre upon the future disposition
of the vast interest which the estate IN
cludes, especially as the dead man leaves
no blood relation behind but for salts
faction on these points the public must
await the reading of the will, which will
probably be not long delayed. 1t is
generally understood, however, that his
almost lifelong friend and confidential
legal adviser, Judge Henry Hilton, will
for the most part stand in Mr.. Stewards
place In carrying on the various schemes
| which he had either planned or begun.
The dry goods business, which was the
nucles of this vast wealth, and was as
the apple of his eye to its founder during
his forty years and more of commercial
| life, which now occupies not only the
| two great white trade palaces here, but
half O. dozen branch establishments in
foreign parts, will be continued under
the old style and management of Mr..
Stewards sole surviving partne r, Mr..
VIM. Libby, who thus finds devolving
upon him the cares and responsibilities
of one of the largest private concerns on
earth, the yearly volunme of whose trade
ranges from Thirty to fifty millions of
dollars. The loss caused by the simple
closing of the doors of the two New
York stores from Mr.. Stewards death
till after his burial amounts to a small
/ fortune.
The funeral ceremonies were two-fold
and extremely imposing. First the body
lay in state, SO to speak, amid the more
than regal magnificence of his Fifth
avenue palace, where services were read
and favored few, to whom tickets were
issued by the family, were permitted to
take q last look at the remains. The
cortege, consisting of between two and
three hundred carriages and countless
line of pedestrians, then took its way to
| st. Marks Church, which is the one at
tended by the family-one of the smallest
and Oldest, but at the same time most
aristocratic of New York churches. Here
the impressive services of the Episcopal
| Church were again read, interspersed
with beautiful music, and after the fun
eral- sermon by the venerable Bishop
Potter the coffin was borne to the adj
| joining churchyard and lowered into the
family vault, the modest slab of which
can be seen amid the green grass, only
about twenty five feet from Second
avenue and hardly more from Tenth
street. From the vault can almost be
seen his great retail establishment, only
two squares distant, and the spot seems
eminently appropriate-thel last resting
place of the man should be the heart of
the busy city which made him, and
which he in return SO largely aided to
build up.
The flowers at both the house and
church were gorgeous in their profusion.
At both places the velvet-coyered casket
rested on great banks of white roses,
and large crosses, crowns, harps, an
chols, and wreaths of the rarest exotics
filed the air with their fragrance. The
employees of the two great stores sent
magnificent floral tokens of their
respect, one being an enormous cross of
flowers nine feet high, and the other a
broken column supporting a wreath.
The pall-bearers included Secretary
Hamilton Fish, Governor Tilden, Chief
Justice Daily, Governor Rice of Massa-
| chusets, Peter Cooper, William NJ. Ev-
arts, and several other prominent men.
The crowd about the house and church
was perhaps the largest ever called out
in this city by strictly private funeral.
It was estimated as containing from ten
to twelve thousand people-choking the
streets, filling every window, balcony,
and hOuSetOD and hauoino in all manner
of perilous positions from ratings and
trees. The one hundred policemen on
the ground were hardly able to restrain
the pressing, curious mass, and it was
with the utmost difficulty that the funer-
al party were able to get to and from
their carriages. The extreme interest
thus manifested is striking proof of
the universal reverence for money. Mr..
Stewart was never public man, neither
was he q popular one. The number
among that eager multitude who had
ever looked upon his face was astonish-
ingly small, considering his position and
the length Of his residence here but
the mere fact of his possessing such fab
ulous quantities of that money for the
lack of little OF which most Of them
were suffering, was enough to enchain
their attention for hours for the chance
of one glimpse of his cleaning casket.
The number of articles and opinions
upon the dead merchant and his won
derful career which have filed our pa
pers, and the conversation of their rea-
ucfs during the week, is legion. Every
shade OF Judgment upon his character
and work has been freely pronounced
Presented IN few words, however, the
moral OF his life seems to be that