The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-01-30

UNI i, 1UAHO, OAIUh
HISTORY OF The As1oRs.
The Butcher Brothers the Head OF
| the Family.
Let me step back hundred years
and tell you about these Astors. l
may tell you some things you did
not know. When John Jacob Astor
worked his way down the Rhine to
the sea and shipped to England
away from his slothful, lazy inn
keeping father, he stopped in Lon
don and went to work for his broth
er, 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 America,
and only went to England to stop
awhile and learn English feat
which be had not accomplished
when he died. When he reached
New York city, not very long after
the close Of the Revolutionary War,
he had heard about the fur business
and had. determined to embark in
it. 1t does not matter whether he
peddled q little before that any more
than it matters whether Jay Gould
sold rattraps before he became a
railroad operator. In time John
Jacob apprenticed himself to fur
dealer and learned all the tricks and
and secret, of the business. But
in the meantime he had come to
this city for the same reason he had
Igone to London-he had a brother
here. This brother was Henry AS
tor, and in those days nobody ques-
toned which would be the more
successful of the two, for Henry
was mighty and a cunning man
in business.
He was a butcher in the Bowery
and lived above his store there. He
had married a chubby, rosy German
woman, of whom he used to boast !:
"She was der pootiest gal by der
Bowery."
Now the Bowery was no ordinary
street, and Henry was no ordinary
butcher. The Bowery was the
southern termination of the old
Boston Post Road, and down it
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 this knowl.
edge to practical use. He drove
out of town twice 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 cor
nered the market. Itwas he who
thereafter set the prices and sold to
the other butchers. His young
brother, John Jacob, was just as in
stinct with the speculative spirit,
but he had no money to buy with,
and 80 he used to borrow of Henry.
Henry did not like that. He dis
trusted 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 request for loan with 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 a
paper promising never to ask for
the loan of another penny from
that date forever. 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. / have heard
that there are some Astors descend
ant from Henry living up the Hud-
son river, and that the great and
rich Astors have nothing to do with
them. l do not know whether that
is true, or whether there are such
Astors, but if it is true it is all right,
for Henry unqusstionably parted
with the rest of the family deliber-
ately and in cold blood when he
paid that snm Of money to John
Jacob so as not to be bothered by
his then poor relations any more.
John Jacob Astor prospered amaz-
ingly. He made millions when it
was something that nobody else
unconnected with royalty appeared
able to do, except the Rothschilds
| in Europe. With those millions,
made by putting the entire CONT
nent under . tax for its furs, he es-
tablished not only a landed estate,
but family with q principle, with
a fixed purpose. He was of incal-
culable service in the development
Of New York, because he went TO
districts the city had not reached
and built dwellings for persons OF
moderate means. He built them
III u.~k 1>~~ n . n0ecYh}o