Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-24

birth of her only child, the infant WAS
 reared by his Eunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Small.
 of Truro, Cape Cod, whose kindness and affection MT. Collins remembered with gratitude 10 the day of his death In his fifteenth year. after a course of study at Sandwich, Cape Cod, and ElizGbeihtown, New Jersey, he entered as a clerk, at No. 41 South street, New York, the store of Hessrs- hcCrea & Slidell, the latter gen tleman 8 brother of the Confederate min ister, John Slidell. who was captured on board the Trent by naval officers of the country he had disowned. Five years Af- forwards MT. Collins was making trips to the West Indies as supsrcErgo for John F. Delsplaine, sharing in the profits of the ventures of his new employer, and experi- encing several hair-breadth escapes from pirates and two disastrous shipwrecks on the coasts of Cuba and Florida, so that when, in 1895, he became the partner of his father in the firm of Israel c. Collins & Son, on the north corner of South street and Burling slip, he was fully equipped for notable commercial performance which may be called the foundation of his subsequent prosperity. The ship Canada, a regular Liverpool trader, had arrived in New York, after a short passage, with the news of & great rise in the price of cotton in England, and a number of speculators forthwith combined to buy all ihe cotton they could find. Several merchants, also seized with & similar purpose, determined to send an agent 10 Charleston, South Car olins, and at one o'clock on the day of the Canada's arrival proceeded to the office of I. c. Collins X Son, and asked the junior member of the firm to act in thAt capsci- ty. A few minutes reflection was enough to enable him to accept the appointment. and in reply to their question, How soon can you staItF' he said quietly: "As soon as I can charter 8 pilot boat and ship pro visions and crew-abOut three hours. l will be ready to sail at four o'clock this afternoon"
 .sBut the regular Charleston packet leaves at that hour, and the speculators will go out by her, and get there before you"
 "Gentlemen," was the reply, "I will go in the way have named or moi st all !"
 Enough said. At precisely four o'clock, from the pier at Burling slip, the packet hauled in her hawsers, and the pilOt-bSAt, under command of E. K Collins, cast loose her moorngs, the vessels proceeding down the East river together, much to the amusement of the speculators on board the packet, who mercilessly chAffed the "boy," as they called him, for his iemerity in attempting 10 beat them. But Collins, being an accomplished navigator. and sail ing in & boat of so light draught that if could keep close to shore and take full Ad- vantage of tides, currents and land breezes, was soon out of sight of the mer- ry-sndrews, and reached Charleston long enough in advance of them io buy all the cotton iu that city and on the Cooper and Ashley rivers, to arrange his exchanges, make his invoices, and set sail for New York in his saucy little craft She was crossing the bar homeward bound, with her whip st the main, when the packet and the spectators hove in sight, and as the two vessels passed each other within speaking distance, an eyewitness relates that the would-be cotton buyers on board the bigger one laughed this time the other side of their months. That was certainly a splendid start for young business man of twenty-three years.