the celebrated Alexandre kid-glove.  He has a body of men in Persia, organized under the inevitable superintendent, chasing down the Astrachan goat heavy with young, from which the unborn kids are taken and stripped of their skins, thus sacrificing two animals for every skin obtained.  He rifles Lyons of its choicest silks, the famous productions of Bonnet and Ponson.  Holland and Ireland yield him the first fruits of their looms.  Belgium contributes the rarest of her laces, and the North sends down the finest of its Russian sables.  All the looms of France, England, Belgium, and the United States are closely watched, and the finest fabrics in dress goods, muslins, carpets, and calicoes are caught up the moment the workmen put on the finishing touches.  He buys for cash the world over, and is a customer every-where so recognized as desirable that he has his choice of industrial productions, and on more advantageous terms than his rivals can purchase what he leaves.  He has been so long in the business, and has become so thoroughly versed in the productions of different looms in different countries, that it is now his practice to select certain mills noted for excellence of work, and take their entire supply, and thus it happens that there are many looms in the busiest haunts of the Old and New Worlds that toil unceasingly on his account.

“By buying thus largely in foreign lands, he is, of course, the largest importer in the nation, and his duties average $30,000 gold per day.  Every year his business steadily increases, and there is apparently no practical limit at which it will stop.  As prudent in vast affairs as other men are in small, he insures liberally, and has policies renewed every third day throughout the year.  But, while leaning upon the insurance companies, he is utterly independent of the banks; he has never asked one of them to ‘carry’ him through a crisis, and should such a contingency arise, there is no bank in the world competent to the task.”

Mr. Stewart is now sixty-eight years old, but looks much younger, being still as vigorous and active, both mentally and physically, as most men of forty-five.  He is of the medium size, has light-brown hair and beard, which are closely trimmed.  His features are sharp, well cut, his eye bright, and his general expression calm and thoughtful.  His manner is reserved, and to all but his intimate friends cold.  He dresses with great simplicity, but with taste, and in the style of the day.  His habits are simple, and he avoids publicity in all things.  Standing as he does at the head of the mercantile interests of the country, he affords a fine example of the calm and dignified manner in which a man of true merit may enjoy his legitimate success, and of the good use he may make of its fruits.

CHAPTER IV.

AMOS LAWRENCE.