The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1897-02-05
STORIES OF THE DAY.
How the LAAs A. r. Stewart Built Up the
Firm Of Hilton, Hughes d Co.


century now since an Irishman-kin.
less, portionless, for all he knew, save
for the pack Of college learning in his
noddle-landed in New York. He wen,
asking for work and found it. He was
Alexander T. Stewart That Is the rea.
son he got what he was after. In q
dingy schoolhouse in Roosevelt street he
taught the rudiments Of learning. II
was child's play for him, but it gave
him bread. He had pupils who came to
fame afterward. But he thought moth.
ing of all that 1t was his dollars and
not their fame that he had his mind set
Oh.
When he had taught Greek and Latin
for year, word came to him that there
was money coming to him in the old
world. He went back and took it and
hurried to New York again and set up
shop. He took box Of place in Broad
way below Chambers street and spread
out there a little stock of Irish lace. 1t
had cost him every dollar that he owned.
But the trade Judgment Of A. T.
Stewart proved itself good. He sold
$500 worth Of the lace in twinkling,
and the house of Stewart was establish
ed. Elated over this omen of success, he
framed business motto thus: Hon.
esty, discretion. watchfulness, persistent
labor.
Effrontery was a mere incident to
him, SO long as it brought him buyers.
His life, the last drop of his energy,
brain or body, were always staked
against his credit Nobody should assail
that at any cost There should be no
shadow on it. If he could have known
the sequel Of the story, he would have
fallen dead Of a broken heart
He made money when other men were
crying panic. In 1887, when most men
could not borrow a farthing, Stewart
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 today remember how the New York
of their time stared at that temple of
trade at Chambers street. and more busi-
ness hurried to make friends with so
much thrift.
Stewart knew no sentiment but pelf
He was just. He gave to charities, but
only so much as would make him known
OF men, bring him new trade and in
cidentally make good his standing ac-
count with the Eternal. While he Jug
gled with the prices of merchandise he
wept over the condition of the slaves in
the south. He sent a shipload of provi-
slons to Ireland, an advertisement that
he could not otherwise have secured for
quadruple the $50, 900 it cost him.
And out Of oil this "honesty and
watchfulness" new greatness came The
old apple woman who sat at his doorstep
had brought him luck, he said, and he
must carry it up town with him. Then,
still trusting in God, but "hustling'
while he prayed, he built that giant
store at Broadway and Tenth street,
where the drawn blue curtains and the
curt. formal notice on the door told to
the world the tale of downfall.
1t cost him a pretty penny, upward
OF 81, 600, 900, but he knew the ways Of
the trade. That was only an invest
ment, no more to him than the purchase
OF consignment of carpets. He had
nli!s in every quarter of the globe and
@--.sish houses the wide world over. He
was the business W, '" '"
sun never set upon his barga4-- '"op'
any more than it did upon the realm of
the queen. Gold flowed to him. He
bought the Metropolitan hotel for $780,
900 in 1868. He bought property in
Saratoga at sums no man in those days
dared mention, In New York alone he
had realities worth over 50, 900, 900
In 1867 Stewart had an income of
g., 600, 900 d year, and though he had
never made boast Of his holdings Of real
estate New Yorkers knew that no fam
lily, save the land getting Astors, owned
O bigger portion Of Manhattan Island
than did he.
There was little more that he could
set, save to pile up more dollars, which
he did. He could not spend even re-
spectacle part Of his income. Govern
ment had made him O commissioner at
the Paris exposition. He had been
friend of Grant after the war, and the
soldier, come to eminence, had set him
self to crown Stewards great accom-
plishments by making him a dignitary
In the nations councils. He tried to
give this greatest of all ,shopkeepers the
treasury portfolio. But the law and the
people said Nor He was an importer
1t was the first time the merchant had
known what it was to meet rebuke. He
tried to beg and buy his way into an
Office that many men would not have as
gift. He failed. 1t was the first, last
and only time.
Then he set to work to show the peo-
pie Of the United States that he was not
all shopkeeper. Out Of the past he drag
ged his college learning, musty and
frayed with age His humanities, his
fine arts, his intellectually, his bon
homie-all those lofty things which
he had packed away with his old Trinity
dipkom;: and which he had forgotten in
his greed he hunted up, inventoried
and tevamped as he would bedrasgled