The note-shaving and stock-jobbing operations of the Rothschilds he despised.  It was his pride and boast that he gained his own fortune by legitimate commerce, and by the legitimate investment of his profits.  Having an unbounded faith in the destiny of the United States, and in the future commercial supremacy of New York, it was his custom, from about the year 1800, to invest his gains in the purchase of lots and lands on Manhattan Island.

We have all heard much of the closeness, or rather the meanness, of this remarkable man.  Truth compels us to admit, as we have before intimated, that he was not generous, except to his own kindred.  His liberality began and ended in his own family.  Very seldom during his lifetime did he willingly do a generous act outside of the little circle of his relations and descendants.  To get all that he could, and to keep nearly all that he got,—­those were the laws of his being.  He had a vast genius for making money, and that was all that he had.

It is a pleasure to know that sometimes his extreme closeness defeated its own object.  He once lost seventy thousand dollars by committing a piece of petty injustice toward his best captain.  This gallant sailor, being notified by an insurance office of the necessity of having a chronometer on board his ship, spoke to Mr. Astor on the subject, who advised the captain to buy one.

“But,” said the captain, “I have no five hundred dollars to spare for such a purpose; the chronometer should belong to the ship.”

“Well,” said the merchant, “you need not pay for it now; pay for it at your convenience.”

The captain still objecting, Astor, after a prolonged higgling, authorized him to buy a chronometer, and charge it to the ship’s account; which was done.  Sailing-day was at hand.  The ship was hauled into the stream.  The captain, as is the custom, handed in his account.  Astor, subjecting it to his usual close scrutiny, observed the novel item of five hundred dollars for the chronometer.  He objected, averring that it was understood between them that the captain was to pay for the instrument.  The worthy sailor recalled the conversation, and firmly held to his recollection of it.  Astor insisting on his own view of the matter, the captain was so profoundly disgusted that, important as the command of the ship was to him, he resigned his post.  Another captain was soon found, and the ship sailed for China.  Another house, which was then engaged in the China trade, knowing the worth of this “king of captains,” as Astor himself used to style him, bought him a ship and despatched him to Canton two months after the departure of Astor’s vessel.  Our captain, put upon his mettle, employed all his skill to accelerate the speed of his ship, and had such success, that he reached New York with a full cargo of tea just seven days after the arrival of Mr. Astor’s ship.  Astor, not expecting another ship for months, and therefore sure of monopolizing