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Practical Python
Data Visualization
A Fast Track Approach To Learning
Data Visualization With Python
—
Ashwin Pajankar
Practical Python Data
Visualization
A Fast Track Approach
To Learning Data Visualization
With Python

Ashwin Pajankar
Practical Python Data Visualization: A Fast Track Approach To Learning
Data Visualization With Python
Ashwin Pajankar
Nashik, Maharashtra, India

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-6454-6 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-6455-3

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6455-3

Copyright © 2021 by Ashwin Pajankar

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I dedicate this book to Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Laureate
economist of Indian origin
Table of Contents
About the Author���������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix

About the Technical Reviewers�����������������������������������������������������������xi

Acknowledgments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������xiii
Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv

Chapter 1: Introduction to Python��������������������������������������������������������1

Python Programming Language����������������������������������������������������������������������������1
History of Python���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2
Python Enhancement Proposals����������������������������������������������������������������������3
Applications of Python�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������4
Installing Python on Various Platforms�����������������������������������������������������������������5
Installing on a Windows Computer������������������������������������������������������������������5
Installing on Ubuntu and Debian Derivatives���������������������������������������������������8
Python Modes�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9
Interactive Mode��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13
Script Mode���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������16

Chapter 2: Exploring Jupyter Notebook����������������������������������������������17

Overview of Jupyter Notebook����������������������������������������������������������������������������18
Setting up Jupyter Notebook������������������������������������������������������������������������������19
Running Code in Jupyter Notebook���������������������������������������������������������������������25
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������29

v
Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Data Visualization with Leather����������������������������������������31

Running OS Commands in Jupyter Notebook�����������������������������������������������������31
Introduction to Leather���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������33
More Types of Visualizations�������������������������������������������������������������������������������37
Scales�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������43
Styling�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������45
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������48

Chapter 4: Scientific Python Ecosystem and NumPy�������������������������49

Scientific Python Ecosystem�������������������������������������������������������������������������������50
NumPy and Ndarrays������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������51
More Than One Dimension����������������������������������������������������������������������������53
Ndarray Properties����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������54
NumPy Constants������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������55
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������56

Chapter 5: Data Visualization with NumPy and Matplotlib�����������������57

Matplotlib������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������58
Visualization with NumPy and Matplotlib������������������������������������������������������������59
Single Line Plots�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������64
Multiline Plots�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������66
Grid, Axes, and Labels�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������68
Colors, Styles, and Markers��������������������������������������������������������������������������������73
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������79

vi
 Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Visualizing Images and 3D Shapes�����������������������������������81

Visualizing the Images����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Operations on Images�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������85
3D Visualizations�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������93
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������100

Chapter 7: Visualizing Graphs and Networks�����������������������������������101

Graphs and Networks���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������101
Graphs in Python 3��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������102
Visualizing Graphs in Python 3��������������������������������������������������������������������������105
More Types of Graphs���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������107
Assigning Custom Labels to Nodes�������������������������������������������������������������������114
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������115

Chapter 8: Getting Started with Pandas�������������������������������������������117

Introduction to Pandas��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������117
Series in Pandas������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������118
Basic Operations on Series�������������������������������������������������������������������������120
Dataframes in Pandas���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������121
Reading Data Stored in CSV Format������������������������������������������������������������127
Visualizing with Pandas������������������������������������������������������������������������������������128
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������136

Chapter 9: Working with COVID-19 Data������������������������������������������137

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Data Set�������������������������������������������������������137
Data Sources for COVID-19 Data�����������������������������������������������������������������138
Visualizing the COVID-19 Data��������������������������������������������������������������������������142
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������155

Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������157

vii
About the Author
Ashwin Pajankar holds a Master of Technology from IIIT Hyderabad,
and he has more than 25 years of programming experience. He started
his journey in programming and electronics at the tender age of
seven with the BASIC programming language and is now proficient in
Assembly programming, C, C++, Java, Shell scripting, and Python. His
other technical experience includes single-board computers such as
Raspberry Pi and Banana Pro, and Arduino. He is currently a freelance
online instructor teaching programming bootcamps to more than 60,000
students from tech companies and colleges. His YouTube channel has an
audience of 10,000 subscribers and he has published more than 15 books
on programming and electronics with many additional international
publications.

ix
About the Technical Reviewers
Lentin Joseph is an author, roboticist, and
robotics entrepreneur from India. He runs
robotics software company Qbotics Labs
in Kochi and Kerala. He has ten years of
experience in the robotics domain, primarily
in Robot Operating System (ROS), OpenCV,
and PCL. He has authored eight books on ROS,
including Learning Robotics Using Python,
Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, ROS
Robotics Projects, and Robot Operating System for Absolute Beginners. He
has pursued his master’s degress in robotics and automation in India and
also worked at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He has
also been a TEDx speaker.

Aarthi Elumalai is a programmer, educator,

entrepreneur, and innovator. She has a
Bachelor of Engineering degree in computer
science from Anna University, Chennai,
India. She has launched a dozen web apps,
plug-ins, and software applications that are
being used by thousands of customers online.
She has more than 15 years of experience in
programming. She is the founder of DigiFisk,
an e-learning platform that has more than 70,000 students worldwide.

xi
About the Technical Reviewers

Her courses are well-received by the masses, and her unique,

project-based approach is a refreshing change for many. She teaches
the complex world of programming by using practical exercises and
puzzles along the way. Her courses and books always come with
hands-on training in creating real-­world projects so her students are
better equipped for the real world.

xii
Visit https://textbookfull.com
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Acknowledgments
I want to express my gratitude to all of the technical reviewers for helping
me to make this book better. I would also like to express my gratitude to the
team from Apress. Aditee Mirashi helped us to coordinate the entire book
process. I am also grateful to Celestin Suresh for giving me the opportunity
to write this book.

xiii
Introduction
I have been working with the Python programming language for more than
15 years now. I have used it for a variety of tasks like automation, graphics,
Internet of Things (IoT), and data science. I have found that it is a very
good tool for generating scientific and data-driven business visualizations.
It takes fewer lines of code to generate visualizations with Python. Python
is capable of fetching data from various type of sources. Combining this
feature with various third-party visualization libraries makes Python the
perfect tool for various types of visualization requirements.
This book covers the basics of Python, including setup and various
modes, and many visualization libraries. I have also made a modest
attempt to visualize real-life data related to the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic.
I encourage readers to read all of the material and not to skip anything,
even if you are familiar with the particular topic. I have written this book
in such a way that every topic and demonstration builds confidence in the
reader for the next topic. This truly is a step-by-step guide for beginners
and experts alike.
After reading this book, you will be empowered by the knowledge of
data visualization with Python and will be able to apply this knowledge
in real-life projects at your workplace. It will also instill confidence in you
to explore more libraries for data visualization in Python, as most of the
support the scientific Python ecosystem and NumPy library discussed in
detail in this book.
I hope that readers of this book will enjoy reading it and following the
demonstrations as much as I enjoyed writing it.

xv
CHAPTER 1

Introduction to
Python
I welcome you all to the exciting journey of learning data visualization with
Python 3. This chapter provides details to get you started with the Python
programming language, including its history, features, and applications.
This chapter is focused on general information about Python 3 and its
installation on various popular operating system (OS) platforms, such as
Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi Raspbian. We will be writing
a few basic Python programs and learn how to execute them on various
platforms. Here is the list of topics that we will cover in this chapter.

• Python programming language

• Installing Python on various platforms

• Python modes

After completing this chapter, you should be comfortable with

installation and usage of Python 3 programming language in various modes.

Python Programming Language

Python 3 is a high-level, interpreted, general-purpose programming
language. This section provides a general discussion about the Python
programming language and its philosophy.

© Ashwin Pajankar 2021 1

A. Pajankar, Practical Python Data Visualization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6455-3_1
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

History of Python
Python is a successor to the ABC programming language, which itself
was inspired by the ALGOL 68 and SETL programming languages. It was
created by Guido Van Rossum as a personal side project during vacations
in the late 1980s while he was working at CWI Centrum Wiskunde &
Informatica in the Netherlands. From the initial release of Python through
July 2018, Van Rossum was the lead developer and Benevolent Dictator
for Life for this project. Since then, he has gone into a state of permanent
vacation and now works on a steering committee for Python. The following
timeline details the important milestones in Python’s release.

• February 1991: Van Rossum published the code

(labeled version 0.9.0) to alt.sources.

• January 1994: Version 1.0 was released.

• October 2000: Python 2.0 was released.

• December 2006: Python 3.0 was released.

• December 2019: Python 2.x was officially retired

and is no longer supported by the Python Software
Foundation.

Python 2.x versions are retired and no longer supported. In addition,

Python 3 is not backward compatible with Python 2. Python 3 is the latest
and currently supported version the language. We therefore use Python
3 throughout the book to demonstrate programs for data visualization.
Unless explicitly mentioned, Python denotes Python 3 throughout this
book.

2
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Python Enhancement Proposals

To steer the development, maintenance, and support of Python,
the Python leadership team came up with the concept of Python
Enhancement Proposals (PEPs). These are the primary mechanism for
suggesting new features and fixing issues in Python project. You can read
more about the PEPs at the following URLs:

• https://www.python.org/dev/peps/

• https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0001/

P
 hilosophy of Python
The philosophy of Python is detailed in PEP20, known as The Zen of
Python, available at https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/. Here
are some of the points from that PEP.

1. Beautiful is better than ugly.

2. Explicit is better than implicit.

3. Simple is better than complex.

4. Complex is better than complicated.

5. Flat is better than nested.

6. Sparse is better than dense.

7. Readability counts.

8. Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.

9. Although practicality beats purity.

10. Errors should never pass silently.

11. Unless explicitly silenced.

12. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.

3
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

13. There should be one—and preferably only

one—obvious way to do it.

14. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless

you’re Dutch.

15. Now is better than never.

16. Although never is often better than *right* now.

17. If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad

idea.

18. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a

good idea.

19. Namespaces are one honking great idea—let’s do

more of those!

These are among the general philosophical guidelines that influenced

the development of the Python programming language and continue to
do so.

A
 pplications of Python
Because Python is a general-purpose programming language, it has
numerous applications in the following areas:

1. Web development.

2. Graphical user interface (GUI) development.

3. Scientific and numerical computing.

4. Software development.

5. System administration.

Case studies of Python for various projects are available at ­https://

www.python.org/success-stories/.

4
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Installing Python on Various Platforms

A Python implementation is a program or an environment that supports
the execution of programs written in Python. The original implementation
created by Van Rossum is known as CPython and serves as a reference
implementation. Throughout the book, we use CPython. It is available on
the Python website and we will learn how to install it in this section.
I prefer to write Python programs on a Windows computer or a Raspberry
Pi computer with Raspberry Pi OS. Let us learn how to install Python on
both of these platforms.

Installing on a Windows Computer

Visit the Python 3 download page located at https://www.python.org/
downloads/ and download the Python 3 setup file for your computer. It will
automatically detect the OS on your computer and show the appropriate
downloadable file, as displayed in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1. Python Project home page with download options

5
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Run the setup file to install Python 3. During installation, select the
check box related to adding Python 3 to the PATH variable (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. Python Installation Wizard

Click Customize Installation, which provides the customization

options shown in Figure 1-3.

6
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Figure 1-3. Python installation options

Select all the check boxes and click Next to continue the setup.
Complete the setup. The name of the binary executable program for
Python is python on Windows OS. Once installation is finished, run the
following command at the Windows command prompt cmd.

python -V

It will return the version of Python 3 as follows:

Python 3.8.1

We can also check the version of pip3 as follows:

pip3 -V

pip stands for Pip installs Python or Pip installs Packages; its name is
a recursive acronym. It is a package manager for the Python programming
language. We can install the other needed Python libraries for our
demonstrations using the pip utility.

7
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

To determine the exact locations of Python, you can run the where
command as follows:

where python

It returns the following result:

C:\Users\Ashwin\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\
python.exe

Similarly, we can learn the location of the pip3 utility by running the
following command:

where pip3

Installing on Ubuntu and Debian Derivatives

Debian is a popular distribution. Ubuntu Linux and Raspberry Pi OS are
other popular distributions based on Debian. Python 3 and pip3 come
preinstalled on all the Debian distributions and derivatives like Ubuntu
or Raspberry Pi OS, so we do not have to install them separately. I use
Raspberry Pi OS on a Raspberry Pi 4B with 4 GB RAM. Both the major
Python versions, Python 2 and Python 3, come preinstalled on Debian
derivatives. Their executables are named python and python3 for Python 2
and Python 3, respectively. We must use python3 for our demonstrations.
To determine the versions and locations of the needed binary executable
files, run the following commands one by one.

python3 -V
pip3 -V
which python3
which pip3

Almost all the other popular Linux distributions come with Python
preinstalled, too.

8
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 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

P
 ython Modes
Python has various modes that we will discuss one by one. First, though, we
need to learn about the integrated development and learning environment
(IDLE). This is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed
by the Python Software Foundation for Python programming. When we install
the CPython implementation of Python 3 on Windows, IDLE is also installed.
We can launch it on the Windows OS in various ways. The first way is to search
for it in the Windows Search bar by typing IDLE as shown in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4. Python IDLE on Windows

9
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

The other way is to launch it from the command prompt (cmd) by

running the following command:

idle

This will launch the window shown in Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5. Python IDLE

Before we proceed, we need to configure it to be easy to read. We

can change the font by selecting Options ➤ Configure IDLE as shown in
Figure 1-6.

Figure 1-6. Configuring IDLE

The window shown in Figure 1-7 opens. There you can change the font
and size of the characters in IDLE.

10
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Figure 1-7. IDLE configuration

11
Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

Adjust the font settings according to your own preferences.

All the Linux distributions might not come with IDLE preinstalled. We
can install it on Debian and its derivatives (Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS)
by running the following commands in sequence.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install idle3

Once the installation is complete, we can find IDLE on the menu (in
this case the Raspberry Pi OS menu) as shown in Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-8. IDLE on the Raspberry Pi OS menu

12
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Python

We can also launch IDLE on Linux by running the following command:

idle

Now let us discuss the various Python modes.

I nteractive Mode
Python’s interactive mode is a command-line type of shell that executes
the current statement and gives immediate feedback in the console. It runs
the previously fed statements in active memory. As new statements are fed
into and executed by the interpreter, the code is evaluated. When we open
IDLE, we see a command-line prompt that is Python’s interactive mode.
Let’s look at a simple example. Let’s type in the customary Hello World
program in the interactive prompt as follows:

print('Hello World!')

Press Enter to feed the line to the interpreter and execute it. Figure 1-9
presents a screenshot of the output.

Figure 1-9. Python interactive mode on IDLE

13
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money, when all over Europe great mercantile houses were
breaking. One of the most notable characteristics of Benjamin was,
we are told, his astonishing knowledge of firms, which was not
confined merely to England, but embraced the whole money-market
in or out of England. He valued, with a certainty bordering on the
marvellous, every name on the back of a bill. In the panic year of
1790, the house only lost £50, when ruin swept away many of the
chief firms of England and abroad. At the beginning of the present
century, there was no house greater, or more universally esteemed;
and yet the end was tragic in the extreme. One morning in April,
1808, Benjamin Goldsmid hung himself in his bed-room. In 1810,
the elder brother, Abraham, in conjunction with the house of Baring,
embarked in a government loan of £14,000,000. The business
failed; the house of Baring survived the crash; but Abraham
Goldsmid shot himself when he found how true it was that riches
take to themselves wings, and fly away.
Here is a story of an alderman, extracted from Maloniana. When the
late Mr. Pitt, or Alderman Beckford, made a strong attack on the late
Sir William Baker, alderman of London, charging him with having
made an immense sum by a fraudulent contract, he got up very
quietly, and gained the House to his side by this short reply: “The
honourable gentleman is a great orator, and has made a long and
serious charge against me. I am no orator, and shall therefore only
answer it in two words—Prove it.” Having thus spoken, he sat
down; but there was something in his tone and manner that
satisfied the House the charge was a calumny.
In 1736, there was—as I dare say there is now—an old Mr. Collier in
the City. He lived in Essex, and his daughter—as is generally the
case with rich City men—soon got married. It was thus the Rev. Dr.
Taylor, of Isleworth, in 1788, described the wedding;—“Old Mr.
Collier was a very vain man, who had made his fortune in the South
Sea year: and having been originally a merchant, was fond, alter he
had retired to live upon his fortune, of a great deal of display and
parade. On his daughter’s wedding, therefore, he invited nearly fifty
persons, and got two or three capital cooks from London to prepare
a magnificent entertainment in honour of the day. When other
ceremonies had concluded, the young couple were put to bed, and
every one of the numerous assemblage came into the room to make
these congratulations to the father and mother, who sat up in bed to
receive them: ‘Madame, I wish you a very good-night. Sir, all
happiness to you, and a very good-night,’ and so on through the
whole party. My father, who hated all parade, but was forced to
submit to the old gentleman’s humour, must have been in a fine
fume; and my mother, who was then but seventeen or eighteen,
sufficiently embarrassed.” It is as well rich citizens don’t indulge in
such a display on the occasion of a marriage in the family in our
time. I don’t fancy even a Lord Mayor, however fond of antiquity,
would feel himself justified in attempting anything so ridiculous
now. But then it was the fashion for a well-bred youth to address
his father as “honoured sir,” and not as now, as “governor.”
Another money-making family was that of the Hopes, originally from
Holland. “Mr. William Hope,” says old Captain Gronow, “inherited, on
coming of age, £40,000 a-year. He exhibited, alternately, extreme
recklessness in expenditure, and the stinginess of a miser. He would
one day spend thousands of pounds on a ball or supper, and then
keep his servants for days on cold meat and stale bread. His large
fortune enabled him to give the most splendid entertainments to the
beau monde of Paris. At his balls and parties all the notables of the
day were to be seen, and no expense was spared to make them the
most sumptuous entertainments then given. It was his custom,
when the invitations were issued, not to open any letters till the
party was over, to save him the mortification of refusing those who
had not been invited.”
If we are to believe the great poet, who mostly spent his life in
London, and whose name still graces a street very much reduced
from what it was in his day, Mammon-worship must have a very bad
moral effect, for Mammon was the least erected spirit that fell from
heaven; and even there we are told—
 “His looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beautiful.”

Nevertheless, some of Mammon’s worshippers have found time and

money for better things, and have consecrated their wealth to noble
ends. In Roman Catholic times this was to be expected. A princely
bequest, at the dictation of the priest, was a fitting atonement for ill-
gotten wealth or an ill-spent life; but Protestantism has been equally
conspicuous—and, it is to be believed, from better motives—for
good works, and that charity which covereth a multitude of sins. In
illustration of this, there is, perhaps, no brighter name than that of
Joseph Hardcastle, of whom it is well known that, amid all his varied
and extensive engagements, he maintained a character for spotless
honour and unsullied integrity, which even calumny itself never
ventured to assail. To him, from the very outset, belonged the
reputation of the English merchant of the old school, and years
served only to augment that weight of character which he bore on
the Exchange, as well as in the missionary and other societies. He
was one of the founders of the Sierra Leone Company, along with
Wilberforce and Thornton. Also he was treasurer of the Missionary
Society. In 1799, the Religions Tract Society was founded under his
roof. And at his offices, Old Swan Stairs, the Bible Society was first
launched into existence. The Hibernian Society and the Village
Itinerary Society were aided by his purse and presence. Of the latter
society he was treasurer sixteen years. As he came of an old
Nonconformist stock—one of his ancestors was an ejected clergyman
—Mr. Hardcastle, who lived mainly at Hatcham, was buried in Bunhill
Fields.
In Plough Court, Lombard Street, there was a firm well-known and
highly respected. It was a firm long remarkable for the
extraordinary philanthropic activity of its practices, and for the
excellence of its chemicals. Mr. Allen, the senior partner, was a
lecturer in chemistry at Guy’s Hospital, a Fellow of the Royal Society,
a personal and intimate friend of the Duke of Kent, the Duke of
Sussex, Lord Brougham, Sir Fowell Buxton, the Gurneys, Thomas
Clarckson, and many other of the leading philanthropic and public
characters of the past generation. He was also a minister among
the Quakers, and a prime mover in founding a host of schools,
asylums, and benevolent institutions. Another partner in the firm
was the late Luke Ronard, F.R.S., the eminent meteorologist, who
was also a preacher among the Quakers till the last portion of his
life, when he joined the communion of the Plymouth Brethren, with
whom also he was an active labourer in good efforts of various
kinds. A third partner of the firm was the late Mr. John Thomas,
who, after his very accurate and skilful scientific researches had
gained him a competency, retired from business, and devoted the
remainder of his life to an extraordinary series of efforts, in
conjunction with Mr. William Ewart, M.P., Mr. Barret Lennard, M.P.,
Mr. John Sydney Taylor, the editor of the Morning Herald, the Right
Hon. Stephen Lushington, D.C.L., and the late Mr. Peter Bedford, of
Croydon, for the removal of the punishment of death from the
numerous offences, some of them very trivial, for which it was at
one time inflicted. A writer in the Sunday at Home, in the year
1866, remarks, that it is no exaggeration to say, that the splendid
triumphs of mercy, which have rendered the reign of King William IV.
for ever illustrious in history, were, either directly or indirectly,
largely owing to the strenuous, continuous, and truly wonderful
labours of Mr. Barry and this small group of his philanthropic
coadjutors. Such were the partners in the firm at Plough Court, a
house frequented by all classes of men—by princes of the blood-
royal, by peers and statesmen, by scientific discoverers and
professors, by missionaries and preachers, by schoolmasters and
authors, by reformed criminals and escaped slaves. It became a
centre of conference and movement for much of the metropolitan
philanthropy during the reigns of George IV. and William IV.
It is to the credit of the City that some of these money-making men
have been amongst the most earnest supporters of every religious
and philanthropic enterprise. Here we get a pleasant glimpse of one
of them. Heard writes to Wilberforce, in 1790, of the death of John
Thornton:—“He was allied to me by relationship and family
connection. His character is so well known that it is scarcely
necessary to attempt its delineation. It may be useful, however, to
state, that it was by living with great simplicity of intention and
conduct in the practice of Christian life, more than of any superiority
of understanding or of knowledge, that he rendered his name
illustrious in the view of all the respectable part of his
contemporaries. He had a counting-house in London, and a
handsome villa at Clapham. He anticipated the disposition and
pursuits of the succeeding generation. He devoted large sums
annually to charitable purposes, especially to the promotion of the
cause of religion, both in his own and other countries. He assisted
many clergymen, enabling them to live in comfort, and to practise a
useful hospitality. His personal habits were remarkably simple. His
dinner-hour was two o’clock; he generally attended public worship at
some church or Episcopalian chapel several evenings in the week,
and would often sit up to a late hour in his own study, at the top of
the house, engaged in religious exercises. He died without a groan
or a struggle, and in the full view of glory. Oh, may my end be like
his!” He was the Sir James Stephen in the Edinburgh Review for
1844, “a merchant renowned in his generation for a munificence
more than princely.” Mr. Thornton was an Episcopalian, and it was
owing to him that the venerable John Newton became pastor of St.
Mary Woolnoth. His benevolence was as unsectarian as his general
habits; and he stood ready, said Mr. Cecil, to assist a beneficent
design in any party, but would be the creature of none. It was thus
he was mainly instrumental in founding, and supporting for a while,
a Dissenting academy at Newport-Pagnell, which was placed under
the care of the Rev. Josiah Bull. Also he extended his patronage and
pecuniary assistance to the institution at Marlborough, under the
direction of the Rev. Cornelius Winter, and was thus brought into
connection with Mr. Jay, towards whose support he contributed while
passing through his academic course. Mr. Thornton spent myriads of
pounds in the purchase of livings for evangelical preachers, in the
erection and in enlargement of places of worship, both in the Church
of England and among Dissenters, in sending out Bibles and
religions books by his ships to various parts of the world, and in
numerous other ways. Nor was his beneficence exclusively confined
to religious objects. Mr. Newton says—“Mr. Bull told my father, that
while he (Mr. Newton) was at Olney, he had received from Mr.
Thornton more than £2,000 for the poor of that place. He not only,”
continued Mr. Bull, “gave largely, but he gave wisely. He kept a
regular account—not for ostentation, or the gratification of vanity,
but for method—of every pound he gave in a ledger, which he once
showed me. I was then a boy, and, I remarked, on every page was
an appropriate text. With him giving was a matter of business.”
Cowper, in an elegy he wrote upon him, said truly—

“Thou hadst an interest in doing good,

Restless as his who toils and sweats for food.”

It is needless to add that he lived at Clapham, and had Wilberforce

for a nephew. His son, Henry Thornton, M.P. for Southwark,
followed in his father’s steps to a certain extent. One day, when he
was at Bath, he desired Jay to bring with him Foster, the essayist, to
dinner. The attempt was a failure. Jay writes—“Mortifyingly he
(Foster) again showed his indisposition to talk; and our most
excellent entertainer was not much favoured to make his company
easy and free and communicative, for his manner was particularly
cold, distant, and reserved. Foster said—yet I think very untruly—
that he sat as if he had a bag of money under his arm; but at this
time Mr. Foster had a silly kind of prejudice against persons of
affluence, however their wealth had been obtained.”
Let us recall the memory of Mr. John Poynder. As an East Indian
proprietor he spoke much in favour of the abolition of Sutteeism,
and against the monstrous tax arising from the idolatrous worship of
Juggernaut. His publications were numerous, and chiefly on
religious subjects—the evangelisation of our East Indian dominions,
the paganism of popery, the sanctification of the Lord’s day. He was
a staunch Tory and churchman; “but,” writes Jay, of Bath, “never
was there a warmer advocate of evangelical truth and the doctrines
of the Reformation; never was there a more determined enemy to
popery and its half-sister, Puseyism; never did man more strive to
serve his generation by the will of God.” A name that should be dear
to Dissenters is that of Mr. William Coward, who was the friend of
Doddridge, and who supplied the funds for his college for the
training of Congregational ministers, first at Daventry, and
afterwards at Wymondley, and now in Torrington Square, when the
students were entered at University College. Coward College is now
incorporated in the New College, St. John’s Wood. Mr. Coward was
rather an eccentric in 1732, Dr. Jennings first intimated Mr. Coward’s
idea to Doddridge, and recommended him not to comply with Mr.
Coward’s idea to come and live at Walthamstow, where the latter
lived; adding, “that the likeliest way to keep it in the worthy old
gentleman’s good graces, is perhaps, not to be quite so near him.”
In a note, the editor of the Doddridge correspondence adds
—“William Coward, Esq., was a zealous Nonconformist, having
accumulated a large fortune as a merchant. It may be said,” adds
the editor, “that Mr. Coward still continues a generous benefactor to
the cause of Nonconformity, as he left about £20,000, the interest of
which is, in accordance with the provisions of his will, distributed in
its service by four trustees, whose number must always be
maintained, and who have hitherto conducted their important duties
with so much propriety that their conduct has not in any instance
been questioned.” Mr. Coward seems to have defrayed the expenses
of a volume of sermons published by Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Coward had
a will of his own, and some of his regulations may seem to us not a
little whimsical. One was to receive no guest at his mansion after
the hour of eight. The Rev. Hugh Farmer had a comical experience
of this when, about that hour, he knocked for admission in vain. Mr.
Farmer, after repeated raps at the floor, began to feel
uncomfortable. While involved in this dilemma he was observed by
a footman of Mr. Snell’s, who was passing near on his way home,
and who reported to his master that a strange gentleman was trying
to gain admittance at Mr. Coward’s beyond the hour. The hospitable
Mr. Snell immediately sent to say that his door was open; and from
that evening the celebrated Mr. Farmer—he was a favourite pupil of
Dodderidge, and was thought in many respects to resemble him—
became a permanent member of Mr. Snell’s family circle. Mr. Coward
seems to have had a keen eye for orthodoxy, and complained of Dr.
Watts that he was a Baxterian. He is also reported as growing cold
to Dr. Guyse and Dr. Jennings, and falling most passionately in love
with Dr. Taylor. Mr. Coward seems to have died in 1738. In 1818,
there was a wealthy stock-broker—the late Mr. Thomas Thompson,
of Pondsfort Park, who was deeply grieved with the destitute
condition of the seamen in the port of London. In the February of
that year a meeting on the subject was held in the London Tavern,
to form a provisional committee to purchase and prepare a ship. At
a subsequent meeting, it was announced that the Speedy, an old
sloop-of-war, had been purchased of the government, and fitted up
at a cost of nearly £3,000, to seat 750 hearers. The opening
services on board the floating chapel were held on May 4th, when
three sermons were preached—that in the morning by the Rev.
Rowland Hill. Mr. Thompson called on the reverend gentleman,
stated the neglected condition of sailors, and the plans in
contemplation, and begged him to consent to preach the opening
sermon on board the floating chapel. Mr. Hill heard all, rang the bell
in silence, and his old servant appeared. “John,” he said, “fetch my
pocket-book.” Mrs. Hill, who had hitherto been a quiet listener, now
interposed, asserting that his engagements were already too
numerous, and that he would wear himself out. Stroking his chin
and shaking his head, with his characteristic habit, he replied, “My
dear, I must preach for poor Jack.” Thus was the first floating
chapel for sailors happily launched, and the Port of London Society
for the Spiritual Benefit of Sailors brought into active operation. To
the ship, and the general objects of the society, Mr. Smith
contributed, from first to last, about £3,000. Another society, called
into existence by Mr. Thompson’s activity and Christian devotedness
and liberality, was the Home Missionary Society, which was
inaugurated at the London Tavern on August 11th, 1819. At that
time Mr. Thompson resided at Brixton Hill, and on week-day
evenings held religious meetings amongst the neglected poor of that
district and of Streatham. Gas-lights and police being then
unknown, Mr. Thompson’s family were thankful when he came home
from these charitable peregrinations safe and sound. It must be
remarked here that Mr. Thompson was one of the founders, in 1827,
of the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum. The first election was for
five boys only, but it soon became a large and flourishing institution.
Though a Dissenter, the Pastoral Aid and Special Services Aid
Societies owed him much. As his daughter truly writes of him—“Mr.
Thompson was one of those who helped to mould the benevolent
character of the age in which he lived.”
Another name, well known in religious circles, was that of the late
Mr. Thomas Wilson, who was the first to begin chapel-building on a
large scale in London. Even in our more ostentatious day, Mr.
Wilson’s charities would be considered princely.
And here, for the present, we take leave of the Christian merchant
princes of London—the righteous men who possibly may have
preserved it from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the great mediæval cities of the continent, it was the men who
had made money by trade who were the first to spend it liberally for
the promotion of art, and the benefit of charity and religion. It has
been so in London. Our Norman barons, our men with pedigrees
running up to the time of the Conqueror, have done little for the
welfare of the people, compared with the men of humble birth, who,
as they have grown in wealth, have also grown in their estimate of
its power to help those lower in the social scale than themselves.
 CHAPTER II.
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

It is in America, as was to be expected, that rise more quickly than

in any other country. Every one is ambitious, and there he realises
the fact that no position is beyond his power if he will but work for
it. Franklin was a printer’s boy, General Putnam was a farmer, Roger
Sherman was a shoemaker, and Andrew Jackson was a poor boy,
who worked his way up from the humblest position; Patrick Henry,
the great American orator, was a country tavern-keeper; Abraham
Lincoln was equally low placed in his start in life. But even in
America it is hard work to make a fortune. Niorse, an American
artist, but a better chemist and mechanician than a painter, thought
out the magnetic telegraph on a Havre packet-ship, but met the
common fate of inventors. He struggled for years with poverty and
a thousand difficulties. He failed to interest capitalists. At last,
when he was yielding to despair, and meditated suicide, on the last
night of a session of Congress, at midnight, when the Appropriation
Bill was being rushed through, he got an appropriation of £6,000 for
an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore; then
success, rewards, honours, titles of nobility, gold medals, and an
immense fortune. The American inventor of the sewing machine
had similar misfortune, and then as great a success.
“There are two kinds of men and two kinds of business in New York,”
says an American author. The old-school merchants of New York are
few; their ranks are thinning every day. They were distinguished for
probity and honour; they took time to make a fortune. Their
success proved that business success and mercantile honour were a
good capital. Their colossal fortunes and enduring fame prove that,
to be successful, men need not be mean, or false, or dishonest.
When John Jacob Astor was a leading merchant in Now York, there
were few who could buy goods by the cargo. A large dealer in tea,
knowing that few merchants could outbid him, or purchase a cargo,
concluded to buy a whole shipload that had just arrived, and was
offered at auction. He had nobody to compete with, and he
expected to have everything his own way. Just before the sale
commenced, to his consternation he saw Mr. Astor walking slowly
down the wharf. He went to meet him, and said—“Mr. Astor, I am
sorry to meet you here this morning; if you will go to your counting-
room, and stay till after the sale, I’ll give you a thousand dollars.”
Without thinking much about it, Mr. Astor consented, turned on his
heel, and said—“Send round the cheque.” He lost money, but he
kept his word. When the lease for Astor House was nearly out,
some parties from Boston tried to hire it over the heads of the then
tenants. In a private interview with Mr. Astor, they wanted to know
his terms. He replied, “I will consult Mr. Stetson (the tenant), and
let you know.” To do that was, as they were well aware, to defeat
the object they had in view. The old New York merchant never gave
a guarantee as to the genuineness of the article he sold. It were
needless to ask it.
In New York, in Boston, and elsewhere, the rule of prosperity is
plain. One of the best-known presidents of a New York bank began
his career by blacking boots: he came to New York a penniless lad,
and sought employment at a store. “What can you do?” said the
merchant. “I can do anything,” replied the boy. “Take these boots
and black them.” He did so, and he blacked them well, and did
everything else well.
Alexander Stewart (when alive, reputed to be the richest man in the
world) was born in Ireland, came young to New York, and, with a
little money that was left him by a relative in Ireland, took a small
shop. He kept in it from fourteen to eighteen hours a day. He was
his own errand-boy, porter, book-keeper, and salesman. He lived
over his store, and, for a time, one room served as kitchen,
bedroom, and parlour. Mr. Stewart began business when merchants
relied on themselves, when banks gave little aid, when traders made
money out of their customers, not out of their creditors. One day,
while doing business in this little store, a note became due which he
was unable to pay. The banks were unfriendly, and his friends, as is
always the case when you want to borrow, were peculiarly hard up.
Resolving not to be dishonoured, he met the crisis boldly. He made
up his mind never to be in such a fix again. He marked every article
in his shop below cost price; he flooded the city with hand-hills; they
were everywhere—in basements, shops, steamboats, hotels, and
cars, promised everybody a bargain, and took New York by storm.
The little shop was crowded. Mr. Stewart presided in person. He
said but little, offered his goods, and took the cash, all attempts to
beat him down he quietly pointed to the price plainly written on each
package. He had hardly time to eat or sleep; everyone came and
bought, and when they got home customers were delighted to find
that they were not cheated, but that they had secured a real
bargain. Long before the time named for closing the sale in the
hand-bill, the whole store was cleaned out, and every article sold for
cash. The troublesome note was paid, and a handsome balance left
over. For the future, he resolved to trade no more on credit. The
market was dull, times were bad, cash was scarce; he would buy on
his own terms the best of goods, and thus he laid down the
foundation of a fortune which, long before he died, was reckoned at
30,000,000 dols. 1836, an American writer thus described his mode
of doing business:—“Though Mr. Stewart sells goods on credit, as do
other merchants, he buys solely for cash. If he takes a note, instead
of getting it discounted at a bank, he throws it into a safe and lets it
mature. It does not enter into his business, and the non-payment of
it does not disturb him. He selects the style of carpet he wants,
buys every yard made by the manufacturer, and pays cash. He
monopolises high-priced laces, sells costly goods, furs, and gloves,
and compels the fashionable world to pay him tribute. Whether he
sells a first-rate or a fourth-rate article, the customer gets what he
bargained for. A lady on a journey, who passes a couple of days in
the city, can find every article that she wants for her wardrobe at a
reasonable price. She can have the goods made up in any style, and
sent to her house at a given hour, for the opera or ball, or for travel.
Mr. Stewart will take a contract for the complete outfit of a
steamship; furnish the carpets, mirrors, chandeliers, china, silver-
ware, cutlery, mattresses, linen, blankets, napkins, with every article
needed, in every style demanded. He can defy competition. He
buys from the manufacturer at the lowest cash price; he presents
the original bills, charging only a small commission. The parties
have no trouble; the articles are of the first class. They save from
ten to twenty per cent., and the small commission pays Stewart
handsomely. He furnishes hotels and churches in the same manner;
as easily he could supply the army and navy. He attends personally
to his business. He is down early, and remains late; those who pass
through the Broadway at the small hours may see the light burning
brightly from the working-room of the marble palace. He remains till
the day’s work is done and everything squared up. He knows what
is in the store, and not a package escapes his eye. He sells readily,
without consulting books, invoice, or salesmen. He has partners,
but they are partners only in the profits. He can buy and sell as he
will, and holds the absolute management of the concern in his own
hands.”
Who has not heard of the Harpers of New York, whose publishing
house in Franklin Square was, and it may be is, the largest of the
kind in the world; as they do all the business connected with the
publication of a book under one roof. In 1810, James Harper left his
rural home on Long Island, to become a printer. His parents were
devout Methodists. His mother was a woman of rare gifts. She
embraced him on his departure, and bade him never forget the altar
of his God, his home, or that he had good blood in his veins. In his
new office all the mean and servile work was put upon the printer’s
devil, as he was called. At that time Franklin Square was inhabited
by genteel people—wealthy merchants; and poor James Harper’s
appearance attracted a good deal of unpleasant comment. His
clothes, made in the old homestead, were coarse in material, and
unfashionable in cut. The young swells made fun of the poor lad.
They shouted to him across the streets—“Did your coat come from
Paris?” “Give us a card to your tailor.” “Jim, what did your mother
give a yard for your broadcloth?” Sometimes, in their insolence, the
fellows came near, and, under pretence of feeling the fineness of the
cloth, would give an unpleasant nip. The lad had a hard life of it;
but he resolved not to be imposed upon. One day, as he was doing
some menial work, he was attacked by one of his tormentors, who
asked him for his card. He turned on his assailant, having
deliberately set down a pail that he was carrying, kicked him
severely, and said, “That’s my card; take good care of it. When I am
out of my time, and set up for myself, and you need employment—
as you will—come to me and I will give you work.” Forty-one years
after, when Mr. Harper’s establishment was known throughout all the
land—after he had borne the highest municipal honours of the city,
and had become one of the wealthiest men in New York—the person
who had received the card came to Mr. James Harper’s
establishment, and asked for employment, claiming it on the ground
that he had kept the card given him forty-one years before. With
great fidelity James served out his time. His master was pleased
with him. In a patronising way he told him, when he was free, he
should never want for employment. James rather surprised his old
master by informing him that he intended to set up for himself; that
he had already engaged to do a job, and that all he wanted was a
certificate from his master that he was worthy to be trusted with a
book. In a small room in Dover Street, James, and his brother John,
began their work as printers. Their first job was 2,000 volumes of
“Seneca’s Morals.” Their second book laid the foundation of their
fortune. The Harpers had agreed to stereotype an edition of the
Prayer-book for the Episcopal Society of New York. Stereotyping
was in a crude state, and the work was roughly done. When the
Harpers took the contract, they intended to have it done at some
one of the establishments in the city. They found that it would cost
them more than they were to receive. They resolved to learn the
art, and do the work themselves. It was a slow and difficult labour,
but it was accomplished. It was pronounced the best piece of
stereotyping ever seen in New York. It put the firm at the head of
the business. It was found to be industrious, honourable, and
reliable. In six years it became the great printing-house of New
York. Other brothers joined the firm of Harper Brothers. Besides
personal attention to business, the brothers exercised great
economy in their personal and domestic expenses; one thousand
dollars was what it cost the brothers each to live for the first ten
years of their business life. As regarded their employés, the utmost
care was taken. The liberal, genial, honourable spirit of the
proprietors prompted them to pay the best wages, and secure the
best talent. Those who entered the house, seldom or never left it.
Boys became men, and remained there as employés all the same.
In New York the love of Mammon finds no small place even in
sanctified breasts. The author of “Sunshine and Shade,” in New
York, says—“Among the most excited in the stock-market are men
who profess to be clergymen. One of this class realised a snug little
fortune of 80,000 dollars in his speculations. He did not want to be
known in the matter. Daily he laid his funds on the broker’s desk. If
anything was realised it was taken quietly away. The broker, tired of
doing business on the sly, advised the customer, if the thing was
distasteful to him, or he was ashamed openly to be in business, he
had better retire from Wall Street.” Men of this class often have a
nominal charge. They affect to have some mission, for which they
collect money; they roam about among our benevolent institutions,
visit prisons or penitentiaries—wherever they can get a chance to
talk, to the great disgust of regular missionaries, and the horror of
superintendents. They can be easily known by white cravats,
sanctified looks, and the peculiar unction of their whine. “One man,”
continues the writer in question, “especially illustrates the gentlemen
of the cloth who are familiar with stocks. His name appears in the
Sunday notices as the minister of an up-town church; down town he
is known as a speculator. His place of worship is a little house built
in his yard. It is not as long or as wide as the room in which he
writes his sermons. The pastor is a speculator; his church is his
capital, and on ’Change Rev. pays well. He has controlled and
abandoned half-a-dozen churches. He went over to London, made a
written contract with Mr. Spurgeon, the celebrated preacher, by
which the latter was to visit America. It bound Spurgeon to give a
certain number of lectures in the principal cities of the land. Tickets
were to be issued to admit to the services. One-half of the proceeds
Spurgeon was to take with him to London to build his tabernacle,
the other half was to be left in the hands of the gentleman who
brought him over and engineered him through. The contract,
coming to light, produced a great commotion, and Mr. Spurgeon
declined to fulfil it. The war breaking out, this clerical gentleman
tried his hand at a horse contract. He approached a general of high
position, and said he was a poor minister, times were hard, and he
wanted to make a little money; would the general give him a
contract? One was placed in his hands for the purchase of a number
of horses. The minister sold the contract, and made a handsome
thing of it; the government was cheated. A committee of Congress,
in looking up frauds in the city, turned up this contract. In a report
to Congress, the general and the minister were mentioned in no
complimentary terms. While these transactions were going on in
New York, the general was in the field where the battle was the
thickest, maintaining the honour of the flag. The report in which his
name was dishonourably mentioned reached him. His indignation
was aroused. He sent a letter to the speculating preacher, sharp as
the point of his sword. He told him if he did not clear him in every
way from all dishonourable connection in the transaction complained
of, he would shoot him in the street as soon as he returned to New
York. The frightened minister made haste to make the demanded
reparation.” Happily for the credit of America, the author already
referred to says, “Such men are held in as light esteem by the
respectable clergy of the city, and by the honourable men of their
own denomination, as they are by the speculators whom they
attempt to imitate.”
What a contrast to such contemptible men was John Jacob Astor,
who, at the age of twenty, left his German home, resolving to seek a
fortune in the New World. He was a poor uneducated boy, and he
trudged on foot from his home to the seaport whence he was to
sail. He was educated by his mother. His school-books were his
Bible and Prayer-book, and these he read and pondered over to the
last hour of his life. When he left home, a small bundle contained all
his worldly possessions. He had money enough, for a common
steerage passage—that was all. He landed penniless on American
soil. As he left his native village, he paused and cast a lingering,
loving look behind. As he stood under the linden tree he said, “I will
be honest; I will be industrious; I will never gamble.” He kept these
resolutions till the day of his death. He sailed from London for
America in 1783. In the steerage he made the acquaintance of a
furrier, which was the means of his introduction to a business by
which he made millions. All sorts of stories are circulated about the
early career of Mr. Astor. It was said that he commenced by trading
in apples and pea-nuts. He took with him seven flutes, from his
brother’s manufactory in London; these he sold, and invented the
proceeds in furs. He went steadily to work to learn the trade for
himself: he was frugal, industrious, and early exhibited great tact in
trade. He was accustomed to say, later in life, that the only hard
step in making his fortune was in the accumulation of the first
thousand dollars. He possessed marked executive ability. He was
quick in his perceptions. He came rapidly to his conclusions. He
made a bargain, or rejected it at once. In his very earliest
transactions he displayed the same characteristics which marked him
in maturer life. He made distinct contracts, and adhered to them
with inflexible purpose. He founded the American Fur Company, in
which he had shares, and by means of which he amassed a fortune
of over 50,000 dollars. His son succeeded in his father’s business,
and in his father’s ability for acquiring money. His habits were very
simple, and mode of life uniform.
Next to Astor, perhaps, in America, we are most familiar with the
name of Commodore Vanderbilt, one of the self-made millionaires of
the city of New York. He began life a penniless boy, and took to the
water early. His first adventure was rowing a boat from Staten
Island to the city. He took command of a North River steamboat
when quite young, and was distinguished at the start for his
resolute, indomitable, and daring will. He began his moneyed
success by chartering steamboats, and running opposition to all the
old lines up the North River, up the East River, up the Connecticut—
everywhere. Making a little money, he invested it in stocks which
were available in cash, and always ready for a bargain. Honourable
in trade, prompt, firm, and reliable, he was decided in his business,
and could drive as hard a bargain as any man in the city. His
custom was to conduct his business on cash principles, and never to
allow a Saturday night to close without every man in his employ
getting his money. If anybody was about to fail, wanted money, had
a bargain to offer, he knew where to call. Nothing came amiss—a
load of timber, coal, or cordage, a cargo of a ship, or a stock of
goods in a factory, glass-ware, merchandise, or clothing—the
commodore was sure to find a use for them. A writer, in 1868, thus
describes him:—“From nine to eleven the commodore is in his up-
town office; at one in his down-town office. Between these hours
he visits the Harlem and Hudson River stations. He is now nearly
eighty years of age. He it as erect as a warrior; he is tall, very slim,
genteel in his make-up, with a fine presence, hair white as the
driven snow, and comes up to one’s idea of a fine merchant of the
olden time. He is one of the shrewdest merchants, prompt and
decided. In one of the down-town mansions, where the aristocracy
used to reside, he has his place of business. He drives down
through Broadway in his buggy, drawn by his favourite horse,
celebrated for his white feet, one of the fleetest in the city, and
which no money can buy. His office consists of a single room, quite
large, well-furnished, and adorned with pictures of favourite
steamers and ferry-boats. The entrance to the office is through a
narrow hall-way, which is made an outer room for his confidential
clerk. He sees personally all who call, rising to greet the comer, and
seldom sits till the business is discharged, and the visitor gone. But
for this he would be overrun and bored to death. His long
connection with steamboats and shipping brings to him men from all
parts of the world who have patents, inventions, and improvements,
and who wish his endorsement. II a man has anything to sell he
settles the contract in a very few words. The visitor addresses the
commodore, and says. ‘I have a stock of goods for sale; what will
you give?’ A half-dozen sharp inquiries are made, and a price
named. The seller demurs, announcing that such a price would ruin
him. ‘I don’t want your goods. What did you come here for if you
did not want to sell? If you can get more for your goods, go and get
it.’ Not a moment of time will be lost, not a cent more be offered;
and if the man leaves, with the hope of getting a better price, and
returns to take the first offer, he will probably not sell the goods at
all.”
Turning from steamboats, Mr. Vanderbilt long ago became interested
in railroads. In this line, so great was his success that he could
control the market. “An attempt,” says an American writer, “was
made some time since to break him down by cornering the stock.”
He wanted to consolidate the Harlem Road with the Hudson.
Enough of the legislature was supposed to have been secured to
carry the measure. The parties who had agreed to pass the bill
intended to play foul. Besides this, they thought they would indulge
in a little railroad speculation. They sold Harlem, to be delivered at
a future day, right and left. These men let their friends into the
secret, and allowed them to speculate. Clear on to Chicago, there
was hardly a railroad man who was not selling Harlem short. The
expected consolidation ran the stock up; the failure of the project
would, of course, run it down. A few days before the vote was
taken some friends called upon Commodore Vanderbilt, and gave
him proof that a conspiracy existed to ruin him, if possible, in the
matter of consolidation. He took all the funds he could command,
and, with the aid of his friends, bought all the Harlem stock that
could be found, and locked it up safe in his desk. True to the report,
the bill was rejected. The men who had pledged themselves to vote
for it, openly and unblushingly voted against it. They waited
anxiously for the next morning, when they expected their fortunes
would be made by the fall of Harlem. But it did not fall. To the
surprise of everybody, the first day it remained stationary; then it
began to rise steadily, to the consternation and terror of
speculators. There was no stock to be had at any price. Men were
ruined on the right hand and on the left. Fortunes were swept away,
and the cry of the wounded was heard up and down the Central
Road. An eminent railway man, near Albany, worth quite a pretty
fortune, who confidently expected to make 50,000 dollars by the
operation, became penniless. One of the sharpest and most
successful operators in New York lost over 200,000 dollars, which he
refused to pay on the ground of conspiracy. His name was
immediately stricken from the Stock board, which brought him to his
senses. He subsequently settled, but thousands were ruined.
Vanderbilt, however, made enough money out of this attempt to ruin
him, to pay for all the stock he owned in the Harlem Road. Not
satisfied with his achievements on the land and on the American
rivers, Mr. Vanderbilt resolved to try the ocean. He built a fine
steamer at his own cost, and equipped her completely. The Collins
line was then in its glory. Mr. Collins, with his fine fleet of steamers,
and his subsidy from the government, was greatly elated, and very
imperious. It was quite difficult to approach him. Any day, on the
arrival of a steamer, he could be seen pacing the deck, the crowd
falling back and making space for the head of the important
personage. One of his ships was lost; Vanderbilt applied to Collins
to allow his steamer to take the place vacant on the line for a time;
he promised to make no claim for the subsidy, and to take off his
ship as soon as Collins built one to take her place. Collins refused to
do this: he felt afraid if Vanderbilt got his foot into this ocean
business, he would get in his whole body; if Vanderbilt could run an
ocean-steamer without subsidy, government would require Collins to
do it; he saw only mischief any way. He not only refused, but
refused very curtly. In the sharp Doric way that Vanderbilt had of
speaking when he is angry, he told Collins that he would run his line
off the ocean, if it took all of his own fortune and the years of his life
to do it. He commenced his opposition in a manner that made it
irresistible, and a work of short duration. He offered the
government to carry the mails, for a term of years, without a dollar’s
cost to the nation; he offered to bind himself, under the heaviest
bonds the government could exact, to perform this service for a
term of years, more promptly and faithfully than it had been ever
done before. His well-known business tact and energy were
conceded. His ability to do what he said, nobody could deny; his
proposition was not only laid before the members of Congress, but
pressed home by a hundred agencies that he employed. The
subsidy was withdrawn; Collins became a bankrupt; his splendid
fleet of steamers, the finest the world had ever seen, were moored
at the wharves, where they laid rotting. Had Collins conceded to
Vanderbilt’s wishes, or divided with him the business on the ocean,
the Collins’ line not only would have been a fact to-day, but would
have been as prosperous as the Cunard line.
When the rebellion broke out, the navy was in a feeble condition;
every ship in the south was pressed into the rebel service. The
men-of-war at Norfolk were burned. At Annapolis they were
mutilated and made unfit for service. The efficient portion of the
navy was cruising in foreign seas, beyond recall. The need of ships
of war and gun-boats was painfully apparent. The steam-ship
Vanderbilt was the finest and fleetest vessel that ever floated in
American waters. Her owner fitted her up as a man-of-war at his
own expense, and fully equipped her. He then offered her for sale to
government at a reasonable price. Mr. Vanderbilt found that there
were certain men, standing between the government and the
purchase, who insisted on a profit on every vessel that the
government bought. He refused to pay the black-mail that was
exacted of him if his vessel became the property of the nation. He
was told that, unless he acceded to these demands, he could not sell
his ship. Detesting the conduct of the men, who, pretending to be
patriots, were making money out of the necessities of the nation, he
proceeded at once to Washington, and presented the Vanderbilt,
with all her equipments, as a free gift to the nation.
There were few men who attended more closely to business than
the late Mr. Vanderbilt; and, as an American writer remarked of him
a few years before his death, “financially he was ready for the last
great change.” At that time his property was estimated at about
thirty millions of dollars. He was very liberal where he took an
interest; but very fitful in his charities. He often not only subscribed
liberally, but compelled all his friends to do the same. He was
prompt, sharp, decisive in his manner of doing business; he was
punctual in his engagements to the minute; he was very intelligent
and well-informed, and, in commercial and national affairs, had no
rival in shrewdness and good judgment. He was affable, assumed
no airs, and was pleasant and genial as a companion; and when
time began to tell on his iron frame, and he began to feel the
decrepitude of age, he was not unmindful of its admonitions, and
entered into no new speculations; for he wished to leave no
unfinished business to his children, amongst whom his large
property—the results of favourable endeavour and successful
financial operations—was divided.
In the great cities of America—in such centres as Chicago and New
York—the men who make the most show of wealth, who live in the
finest houses, drive the best horses, give the grandest parties, were
many of them grooms, coachmen, hotel porters, boot-blacks, news-
boys, printers’ devils, porters, and coal-heavers, who have risen from
the lower walks of life, and who left their respective homes, a few
years ago, with all their worldly wealth in the crown of their hat, or
tied up in a pocket-handkerchief. They did the hard work of the
office, swept out the stores, made the fires, used the marking-pot,
were kicked and cuffed about, and suffered every hardship. The
men who made New York what it was were men of the old school;
they were celebrated for their courtesy and integrity; they came
from the humblest walks of life—from the plough and anvil, from the
lapstone and printing-case, from the farm and quarry. They worked
their way up, as Daniel worked his, from the position of a slave to
Prime Minister of Babylon. Some of them went from their stores to
compete with the ablest statesmen in the world; they were the
fathers and founders of the American nation. These old schoolmen
ate not a bit of idle bread; they were content with their small store
and pine-desk; they owned their own goods, and were their own
cashiers, salesmen, clerks, and porters; they worked sixteen hours a
day, and so became millionaires. They would as soon have
committed forgery as be mean and unjust in trade; they made their
wealth in business, and not in fraudulent failures; they secured their
fortunes out of their customers, and not out of their creditors.—Not
so, Young America! An American writer says:—“He must make a
dash. He begins with a brown-stone store, filled with goods, for
which he has paid nothing; marries a dashing belle; delegates all the
business that he can to others; lives in style, and spends his money
before he gets it; keeps his fast horse, and other appendages
equally fast; is much at the club-room, and in billiard or kindred
saloons; speaks of his father as ‘the old governor,’ and of his mother
as ‘the old woman;’ and, finally, becomes porter to his clerk, and
lackey to his salesman. Beginning where his father left off, he leaves
off where his father began.”
Let us give a few more American illustrations of the way to wealth,
Boston has the honour of originating the express companies of
America. One morning a man took the East Boston ferry, bound for
Salem, over the Eastern Railroad. He held in his hand a small trunk,
trimmed with red morocco, and fastened with red nails. The trunk
contained a few notes which the person was to collect; a small sum
of money he was to pay; and a few commissions he was to execute.
“These,” says an American newspaper, “were the tangible things in
the trunk. Besides these notes, money, and orders, that little trunk,
which a child might have carried, contained the germ of the express
business of the land, whose agencies, untiring as the sun, are
almost as regular.” Alvin Adams—for that is and was the name of
the individual referred to—commenced the express business, as an
experiment, between New York and Boston in 1840. He had no
business, no customers, and no money. He shrewdly saw the
coming greatness of his calling, though for one year it was carried
on in the smallest possible way. He had indomitable energy; his
integrity was without a question; he gained slowly on the confidence
of the community, and closed the year with a future of success
before him. In 1854, the business was transformed into a joint-
stock company, and it now stretches out its arms to all the towns
and villages in the land. It is an express company for merchandise,
from a bundle to a ship-load. The amount of money received and
disbursed every day exceeds that of any bank in the nation. It
collects and pays out the smallest sum, and from that to a large
waggon loaded with money, and drawn by three horses. During the
war, the company rendered efficient service to the government: in
time of peril or panic, when the property of the army was
abandoned or sacrificed, it bore away cart-loads of money by its
coolness and courage, and saved millions to the Treasury. The
company opened a department expressly to carry money from the
private soldiers to their families. For a very small sum, funds were
taken from the soldier and delivered to his friends in any part of the
land. On several occasions, the transport department in the army
being in utter confusion, application was made to the Adams’
Express Company for relief.
Jacob Little originated the dashing, daring style of business in
stocks, by which fortunes are made and lost in a single day. In
1817, he came to New York, and entered the store of Jacob Barker,
who was at that time the shrewdest merchant in the city. In 1822,
he opened an office in a small basement in Wall Street. Caution,
self-reliance, integrity, and a far-sightedness beyond his years,
marked his early career. For twelve years he worked in his little den
as few men work. His ambition was to hold the foremost place in
Wall Street. Eighteen hours a day he devoted to business; twelve
hours to his office. His evenings he spent in visiting retail houses, to
purchase uncurrent money; he executed all orders committed to him
with fidelity; he opened a correspondence with leading bankers in all
the principal cities from New York to New Orleans. For twelve years
Mr. Little was at the head of his business; he was the Great Bear of
Wall Street; his mode of business enabled him to accumulate an
enormous fortune; and he held on to his system till it beat him
down, as it had done many a strong man before.
“For more than a quarter of a century,” writes the author of
“Sunshine and Shadow,” in New York, “Mr. Little’s office, in the Old
Exchange Buildings, was the centre of daring gigantic speculations.
On ’Change his tread was that of a king. He could sway and disturb
the street when he pleased. He was rapid and prompt in his
dealings, and his purchases were usually made with great
judgment. He had unusual foresight, which, at times, seemed to
amount to defiance. He controlled so large an amount of stock, that
he was called the Napoleon of the Board. When capitalists regarded
railways with distrust, he put himself at the head of the railroad
movement. He comprehended the profit to be derived from their
construction. In this way he rolled up an immense fortune, and was
known everywhere as the railway king. He was the first to discover
when the business was overdone, and immediately changed his
course. At the time the Erie was a favourite stock, and selling at par,
Mr. Little threw himself against the street. He contracted to sell a
large amount of this stock, to be delivered at a future day. His rivals
in Wall Street, anxious to floor him, formed a combination. They
took all the contracts he offered; bought up all the new stock, and
placed everything out of Mr. Little’s reach, making it, as they
thought, impossible for him to carry out his contracts. His ruin
seemed inevitable, as his rivals had both his contracts and his stock.
If Mr. Little saw the way out of his trouble, he kept his own secrets;
asked no advice; solicited no accommodation. The morning dawned
when the stock would have to be delivered, or the Great Bear of
Wall Street would have to break. He came down to his office that
morning, self-reliant and calm, as usual. He said nothing about his
business or his prospects. At one o’clock he entered the office of the
Erie Company. He presented certain certificates of indebtedness
which had been issued by the corporation. By those certificates the
company had covenanted to issue stock in exchange. That stock Mr.
Little demanded. Nothing could be done but to comply. With that
stock he met his contract, floored the conspirators, and triumphed.”
Reverses, so common to all who attempt the treacherous sea of
speculation, at length overtook Mr. Little. Walking from Wall Street
with a friend one day, they passed through Union Square, then the
abode of the wealthiest people of New York. Looking at the rows of
elegant houses, Mr. Little remarked—“I have lost money enough to-
day to buy the whole square. Yes,” he added, “and half the people
in it.” Three times he became bankrupt; and what was then
regarded as a colossal fortune, was, in each instance, swept away.
From each failure he recovered, and paid his debts in full. It was a
common remark among the capitalists, that “Jacob Little’s
suspended papers were better than the cheques of most men.” The
whole man inspired confidence. He was retiring in his manner, and
quite diffident, except in business. He was generous as a creditor.
If a man could not meet his contracts, and Mr. Little was satisfied
that he was honest, he never pressed him. After his first
suspension, though legally free, he paid every creditor in full, though
it took nearly a million of dollars. His charities were large and
unostentatious. The Southern rebellion, alas! swept away his
remaining fortune, and he died poor and resigned in the bosom of
his family. His last words were—“I am going up. Who will go with
me?”
We must not omit a name from this chapter, well known all the
world over—that of James Bennett, the founder of what is still a
power, the New York Herald. Scotland was the birth-place of
Bennett. He was reared under the shadow of Gordon Castle. His
parents were Roman Catholics, and he was trained in their religion.
Every Saturday night the family assembled for religious service.
James was kept at school till he was fifteen years of age, and he
then entered a Roman Catholic seminary at Aberdeen, his parents
intending him for the ministry. He pursued his studies, on the banks
of the Dee, for three years, and then threw up his studies, and
abandoned his collegiate career. The memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
impressed him greatly, and he felt an earnest desire to visit America,
and the home of Franklin, and he landed there in 1819. At Portland
he opened a school as teacher, and thence he moved to Boston. He
was charmed with all he saw in the city and vicinity; he hunted up
every memorial of Franklin that could be found; he examined all the
relics of the Revolution, and visited the places made memorable in
the struggle with Great Britain; but he was poor, and well-nigh
discouraged. He walked the common, without money, hungry, and
without friends. In his darkest hour he found a New York shilling,
and from that hour his fortune began to mend. He obtained a
position at Boston as proof reader, and displayed his ability as a
writer, both in prose and verse. In 1822, he came to New York, and
immediately connected himself with the press, for which he had a
decided taste. He was not dainty in his work; he took everything
that was offered him. He was industrious, sober, frugal, of great
tact, and displayed marked ability. He soon obtained a position on
the Charleston Courier as translator of Spanish-American papers. He
prepared other articles for the Courier, many of which were in
verse. His style was sharp, racy, and energetic. In 1825, he became
proprietor of the New York Courier by purchase. It was a Sunday
paper; but not a success. In 1826, he became associate editor of
the National Advocate, a democratic paper. Leaving that, he became
associate editor of the Inquirer, conducted by Mr. Noah; he was also
a member of the Tammany Society, and a warm partisan. During
the session of Congress, Mr. Bennett was at the capital writing for
his paper; and while at that post, a fusion was effected between the
Courier and the Inquirer. Again, he had to leave the paper on
account of a difference between him and the editor as regarded the
bank. At this time he turned his attention to the New York press,
which was then seriously behind the age. He felt that it was not
what was demanded, and resolved to establish a paper that should
realise his idea of a metropolitan journal. He had no capital; no rich
friends to back him; nothing but his pluck, ability, and indomitable
resolution. On the 6th of May, 1835, the New York Herald made its
appearance. It was a small penny paper. Mr. Bennett was editor,
reporter, and correspondent; he collected the city news, and wrote
the money articles; he resolved to make the financial feature of his
paper a marked one; he owed nothing to the Stock Board. If he was
poor, he was not in debt; he did not dabble in stocks; he had no
interest in the bulls and bears; he could pitch into the bankers and
stock-jobbers as he pleased, as he had no interest one way or the
other. He worked hard, he rose early, was temperate and frugal,
and seemed to live only for his paper. He was his own compositor
and errand-boy; collected his own news, mailed his papers, kept his
accounts, and he grew rich. His marble palace was the most
complete newspaper establishment in the world. Before the Herald
buildings were completed, and while he was making a savage attack
on the national banks, he was waited upon by the president of one
of them, who said to him—“Mr. Bennett, we know that you are at
great expense in erecting this building, besides carrying on this
immense business. If you want any accommodation, you can have it
at our bank.” Mr. Bennett replied—“Before I purchased the land, or
began to build, I had, on deposit, 250,000 dollars in the Chemical
Bank. There is not a dollar due on the Herald buildings that I cannot
pay. I would pay off the mortgage to-morrow if the mortgagee
would allow me to. When the building is open, I shall not owe a
dollar to any man if I am allowed to pay. I owe nothing that I
cannot discharge in an hour. I have not touched one dollar of the
money on deposit in the bank; and while that remains I need no
accommodation.” One secret of his success is soon told—“He can
command the best talent in the world for his paper. He pays liberally
for fresh news, of which he has the exclusive use. If a pilot runs a
steamer hard, or an engineer puts extra speed on his locomotive,
they know that they will be well paid for it at the Herald office, for its
owner does not higgle about the price. When news of the loss of
Collins’ steamer was brought to the city, late on a Saturday night,
the messenger came direct to the Herald office. The price
demanded was paid; but the messenger was feasted and confined in
the building until the city was flooded with extra Sunday morning
copies. The attachés of the Herald are found in every part of the
civilised world; they take their way where heroes fear to travel. If in
anything they are outdone, outrun, outwritten, if earlier and fresher
news is allowed to appear, a sharp, pungent letter is written, either
discharging the writer, or sending him home. During the war, the
Herald establishment at Washington was a curiosity. The place was
as busy as the War Department. Foaming horses came in from all
quarters, ridden by bespattered letter-carriers. Saddled horses were
tied in front of the door like the head-quarters of a general. The
wires were controlled to convey the latest news from every section
to the last moment of the paper going to press. Mr. Bennett is a fine
illustration (this was written, of course, in his lifetime) of what
America can do for a penniless boy, and what a penniless boy can do
for himself, if he has talent, pluck, character, and industry. In the
conflict of interest, and in the heat of rivalry, it is difficult to estimate
a man rightly. In coming times, Mr. Bennett will take his place in
that galaxy of noble names who have achieved their own position,
been architects of their own fortune, and left an enduring mark upon
the age in which they lived.”
Horace Greeley had an origin as humble, and a fight as hard as Mr.
Bennett. He was born in New Hampshire, and, from his earliest
years, was fond of study. The father had to move to a new
settlement; and here, as little was to be done at home, after
breakfast the home was left to take care of itself; away went the
family—father, mother, boys, girls, and oxen—to work together. In
early life the lad gave proof that the Yankee element was strong in
him. In the first place, he was always doing something—and he had
always something to sell. He saved nuts, and exchanged them, at
the store, for the articles he wanted to purchase; he would hack
away, hours at a time, at a pitch-pine stump, the roots of which are
as inflammable as pitch itself, and, tying up the roots in little
bundles, and the little bundles into one large one, he would take the
load to the store, and sell it for firewood. His favourite out-door
sport, too, at Westhaven, was bee-hunting, which is not only an
agreeable and exciting pastime, but occasionally rewards the hunter
with a prodigious mass of honey: as much as 150lbs. have
frequently been obtained from a single tree. This was profitable
sport, and Horace liked it amazingly; his share of the honey
generally found its way to the store. By these, and other
expedients, the boy always managed to have a little money. When
he started, as an apprentice, to learn the printing-trade, he packed
up his wardrobe in a small pocket-handkerchief—and, small as it
was, it would have held more—for the proprietor had never more
than two shirts and one change of clothing at the same time, till he
was of age. “If ever there was a self-made man,” wrote an old
friend, “this same Horace Greeley is one; for he had neither wealthy
nor influential friends, collegiate or academic education, or anything
to aid him in the world, save his own natural good sense, an
unconquerable love of study, and a determination to win his way by
his own efforts. He had, moreover, a natural aptitude for
arithmetical calculation, and could easily surpass, in his boyhood,
most persons of his age in the facility and accuracy of his
demonstrations and his knowledge of grammar. He early learned to
observe and remember political statistics, and the leading men and
measures of the political parties; the various and multitudinous
candidates for governor and Congress, not only in a single State, but
in many; and, finally, in all the States; together with the taxation of,
and vote of this and that, and the other Congressional districts (why
democrat and what not), at all manner of elections. These things he
rapidly and easily mastered, and treasured in his capacious memory,
till, we venture to say, he has few, if any, equals at this time, in this
particular department, in this or any other country.” After Greeley
had served his apprenticeship, he came to New York, with ten
dollars in his pocket, a bundle on his back, and a stick. It was hard
work for him to find a job; but, at length, he was taken into a
newspaper-office. After a time he joined in a speculation which was
to give New York a penny paper; and, in conjunction with his
partner, Mr. Story, went on printing after the paper in question had
ceased to exist. He then started the New Yorker, having, in the
meanwhile, abandoned the use of stimulants, and become a
vegetarian. After more or less editorial work, more or less
profitable, Greeley started the New York Tribune, which, from the
first, was a success.
Another of New York’s leading men was Daniel Drew. His father died
when he was fifteen years of age, and he came to New York to seek
his fortune. Resolved to do something, and having nothing better to
do, he became a soldier as a substitute for another. Then he took to
stock-keeping, and droves of over 2,000 cattle crossed the
Alleghanies under his direction. In 1834, he began the steam-boat
enterprise. In 1836, he appeared in Wall Street. For eleven years