The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-10-08


But the trade judgment of AT. Stew
art proved itself good. He sold 5000
worth of the lace in twinkling. and
the house of Stewart was established.
Elate over this omen of success, he
framed business motto thus: Hon
esty. discretion. watchfulness, persis-
tent labor"
His life. the last drop of his energy,
ala and BODY. were always staked
against his credit Nobody should as
sail that at any cost. There should be
no shadow on it,
He made money when other men
were crying panic. In 1887, when most
men could not borrow farthlng, Stew
art enlarged his business. Ten years
later there was no store in New York
big enough to house the business he
had set going. He built one! White
haired men of to-day remember how
the New York of their time stared at
that temple of trade at Chambers
street, and more business hurried TO
make friends with so much thrift.
His agents We're in every market in
Europe; his customers We're in every
city and hamlet in America. He bought
as he hired, cheaply. He sold as he
talked, quickly. His employees were
servants
Stewart knew no sentiment but pelf.
He was just. He gave to charities, but
only SO much as would make him
known OF men, lI:ns him new trade,
aud, Incidentally, make goo@ his stand
ing account with the Etcl ual. While he
jnggled with the prices of merchan-
disc, he wept over the condition of the
slaves in the South. He sent a ship
load of provisions TO Ireland-an ad-
yertisement that he could not other
wise have secured for Quadruple the
$4,000 ii cost him.
And out of all this "honesty and
watchfulness" new greatness came.
The old apple woman who had sat on
his doorstep had brought him luck, he
said, and he must carry ii uptown with
him. Then. still trusting in the Al
mighty but "hustlins" while he prayed.
he built that giant store at Broadway
and Tenth street, where recently the
financial collapse occurred.
He gave $4,000 out of hand to aid
the sufferers by the Chicago fire. He
sent 1000 barrels Of -four 10 Havre
when France was writhing in the ago
nies Of the German war. But it was all
business.
Stewart built the marble palace at the
corner of Thirty-fourth street and Fifth
avenue. What millions il cost him no
man, save perhaps Judge Hilton. ever
knew. If one thing were more price
less than another, that Stewart bought
TO make his home the princeliest palace
upon earth.
That was not all He bade the great
est minds Of the century to his board
and they came. And he spread that ac-
emulation of material and intellectual
and artistic finery before the world and
said: This is all Stewards" But he
called it mere toy" and people mar
yelled.
Mr.. Stewart died at half-past
o'clock in the afternoon of April 10.
1876, in the southeast corner room of
the Thirty-fourth street mansion. He
had been married fifty-one years, but
he had no children. his two sons having
died in infancy.
On November Z. 1878, Mr.. Stewards
body was stolen from St. Marks
churchyard. The sensation that fol-
lowad tha LONG search rho raUor1s Of
fered and never claimed, the endless
tecriminations and scandals, were the
sensations of that day. And so with
the failure of a dry goods firm is bro.
ken the connecting link between the
achievements of the richest man in
America twenty years ago and the
present Nothing material remains
and memor : fast fading.
iigture and After,