San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-28
A RACE FOR COTTON.

How the OrOp IN Cnarleston vas GOT
nered" in the Day of Sailing Vessels.
Edward Knight Collins was a great
naval architect as well as shipping mer-
chant, whose career was, on the whole,
more noteworthy than that Of any man en-
gagged anywhere in similar pursuits. This
public spirited Citizen son Of Captain
Israel G. Collins, the owner and commander
of ship that traded between the United
States and England, was born on the 9Th
of August, 1902 His mother, Mary Allan,
niece of Admiral Sir Edward Knight, OF
the British navy, dying ten days after the
birth of her Only child, the infant was
reared by his aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Small,
of Truro; Cape Cod, whose kindness and
affection Mr. Collins remembered with
gratitude to the day of his death. In his
fifteenth year, after course OF study at
Sandwich, Cape Cod, and Elizabethtewn,
N. j., he entered as clerk, at Al South
street, New York, the store OF Messrs.
McCrea & Slidell, the latter gentleman a
brother Of the Confederate minister, John
SlideIl, who was captured on board the
Trent by naval officers of the country he
had disowned.
Five years afterward Mr.. Collins was
making trips to the West Indies as super.
the profits of the ventures of his new EN-
ployer and experiencing several hair.
breadth escapes from pirates and two disas
trous shipwrecks on the coasts of Cuba and
Florida. so that when in 1925 he became
the partner of his father in the firm OF
Israel &. Collins G. Son, on the north cor.
ner of South street and Burling slip, he
was fully equipped for a notable CONNER
cial performance which may be called the
foundation of his subsequent prosperity.
The ship Canada, regular Liverpool
trader, had arrived in New York, after a
short passage, with the news of a great rise
in the price of cotton in England, and a
number of spectators forthwith combined
to buy all the cotton they could find.
Several merchants, also seized with u
similar purpose, determined to send an
agent to Charleston, and at | O'Clock
on the day of the Canada's arrival pro
ceeded to the Office of |. G.. Collins & Son,
and asked the junior member of that firm
to act in that capacity. A few minutes
reflection was enough to enable him to
accept the appointment, and in reply tG
their question, "How soon can you start?"
he said quietly: "As soon as can charter
a pilot boat and ship provisions and crew
-dDOuU UHTee VIII Dt reduy u
sail at o'clock this afternoon"
But the regular Charleston packet
leaves at that hour, and the spectators
will 60 out by her and get there before
you"
Gentlemen" was the reply, Il will 90
in tie way have named or not at all. :"
Enough said. Atprecisely4 o'clock, from
the pier at Burling slip, the packet hauled
l. L 4 4 H. Ill ,tL o,t ~ln.
command of +. K. Collins, cast loose heI
moorings, the vessels proceeding down the
East river together, much to the amuse
ment of the Spectators on board the
packet, who mercilessly chaffed the boy"
as they called him, for his temerity in at
tempting to beat them. But Collins, being
an accomplished navigator, and sailing in
a boat of so light draft that it could
keep close to shore and take full advantage
of tides, currents and land breezes, was
soon out of sight of the merryandrews,
and reached Charleston long enough in ad
vance of them to buy all the cotton in that
city and on the Cooper and Ashley rivers,
to arrange his exchanges, make out his in.
voices and set sail for New York in his
saucy little craft.
She was crossing the bar homeward
bouh'i, WIN uSi "hip uo tuO "hcb
the packet and the spectators hove in
sight, and as the two vessels passed each
other within speaking distance, an eye.
witness relates that the would be cotton
buyers on board the bigger one laughed
this time the other side of their mouths.
That was certainly splendid start for II
young business man of twentythree years.
George w. Sheldon in Harper's.