An appeal was made, but the same result followed-thus sweeping away, at a single blow, property to the amount of over one hundred thousand dollars.  During the progress of the trial, Mr. Graham was much excited, and drank more freely than ever.  When the result was finally ascertained, he sank down into a kind of morose inactivity for some months, neglecting his large and important business, and indulging, during the time, more deeply than ever in his favourite potations.  It was in vain that his distressed family endeavoured to rouse him into activity.  All their efforts were met by an irritability and a moroseness of temper so unlike what he had been used to exhibit towards them, that they gave up all idea of influencing him in despair.

A second heavy loss, of nearly equal amount, altogether consequent upon this neglect of business, seemed to awaken up the latent energies of his character, and he returned to himself with something of his former clear-sighted energy of character.  But his affairs had already become, to him, strangely entangled.  The machinery of his extensive operations had been interrupted; and now, in attempting to make the wheels move on again, it was too apparent that much of it had become deranged, and the parts no longer moved in harmonious action with the whole.  The more these difficulties pressed upon him, the deeper did he drink, as a kind of relief, and, in consequence, the more unfit to extricate himself from his troubles did he become.  Every struggle, like the efforts of a large animal in a quagmire, only tended to involve him deeper and deeper in inextricable embarrassment.

This downward tendency continued for about three years, when his family was suddenly stunned by the shock of his failure.  It seemed impossible for them to realize the truth—­and, indeed, almost impossible for the whole community to realize it.  It was only three or four years previous that his wealth was estimated, and truly so, at a million and a half.  He was known to have met with heavy losses, but where so much could have gone, puzzled every one.  It seems almost incredible that any man could have run through such an estate by mismanagement, in so brief a period.  But such was really the case.  Accustomed to heavy operations, he continued to engage in only the most liberal transactions, every loss in which was a matter of serious moment.  And towards the last, as his mind grew more and more bewildered in consequence of is drinking deeper and deeper, he scarcely got up a single voyage, that did not result in loss; until, finally, he was driven to an utter abandonment of business—­but not until he had involved his whole estate in ruin.

The beautiful family mansion on Chestnut-street had to be given up—­the carriage and elegant furniture sold under the hammer, while the family retired, overwhelmed with distress, to an humble dwelling in an obscure part of the city.