Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-01-30
JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
HOW THE HEAD or A GREAT
FAMILY SECURED HIS CAPITAL.

The Butcher brother OF the Great Fur
Trader Gave the Pioneer of the West
$500 TO BE Rid of "a Poor HeiatEye-A
Princely Fortune Has Been Made Since.
Let me step back u hundred years and
tell you about the Astors. NAV tell
you something's you did not know.
When John Jacob Astor worked his
way down the Rhine to the sea and
shipped to England away from his sloth-
full, lazy innkeeping father, he stopped
in London and went to work for his
brother, a successful manufacturer of
flutes and pianos, and unless am very
much mistaken, junior partner in what
is still the greatest piano making house
in England, though there are no Astors
in it now.
John Jacob was on his way to Amer
lea, and only went to England to stop
awhile and learn English feat which
he had not accomplished when he died.
When he reached New York city, not
very long after the close of the Revolu-
tionary war, he had heard about the fur
business and had determined to embark
in it. 1t does not matter whether he
peddled little before that any more
than it matters whether Jay Gould sold
rat traps before he became a railroad
operator.
In time John Jacob apprenticed HIM
self to fur dealer and learned all the
tricks and secrets of the business. But
IN tho hO In1 L. ~.
city for the same reason he had gone to
London-he had brother here. This
brother was Henry Astor, and in those
days nobody questioned which would be
the more successful of the two, for
Henry was mighty and cunning
man in business.
He was butcher in the Bowery and
lived above his store there He had
married a chubby, rosy German wom-
an, of whom he used to boast, '.She was
der pootiest gal by der Bowery."
THE TWO BROTHERS.
Now the Bowery was no ordinary
street, and Henry was no ordinary butch
er. The Bowery was the southern ter
mination of tbs old Boston post road,
and down 1t came the bulk of the
produce of the countryside which was
eaten in and shipped from New York.
Among other things all the cattle came
into town on that road ON the hoof to be
sold to the butchers. Henry knew that
and SO did all the other butchers, but
Henry put his knowledge to practical
use He drove out of town twice a
week on market days and met the cattle
on the road up in the country. There
he bought the best Of all the steers and
cornered the market. 1t was he who
thereafter set the prices and sold to the
other butchers. His young brother,
John Jacob, was just as instinct with the
speculative spirit, but he had no money
to buy with and so he used to borrow of
Henry.
Henry did not like that He distrusted
his brothers shrewdness, or else he was
close with his money. At any rate he
loaned it to John Jacob unwillingly, and
finally he met a request for loan with
a bluff mo" He said he would not be
bothered any more, but this is what he
would do He would give John Jacob
the sum of $500 outright as a gift if John
Jacob would sign paper promising
never to ask for the loan of another
penny from that date forever. John
Jacob jumped at the offer He took the
$500, and perhaps that had more to do
with the foundation of the great Astor
fortune than any other sum he got in all |
his life
rtIIr TT IN TIVE