The Romance and Tragedy | Page 2

A Voucher XXXI Two Sides to the
Question XXXII The Panic of Ninety-Three XXXIII Farewell to
"Redstone" XXXIV A Summer on the Sound XXXV Monmouth Beach
XXXVI The Ship Founders XXXVII The Family and Friends
XXXVIII "W. E. Stowe & Co., Incorporated" XXXIX The Struggle
Commenced XL The Struggle Continued XLI Darkness Before the
Dawn XLII Brighter Days XLIII Smooth Sailing Into Rough Waters
XLIV The Tyranny of the Jury Law XLV Bitter Trials XLVI At the
Brink of the Grave XLVII Again at the Helm XLVIII A Nightmare
XLIX Retrospection L A Dream LI "From God and the King" LII A
Foundation Principle

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Woman Portrait "Sunnyside" "Redstone" "Redstone"--Library Off
for a drive Eighty-sixth Street and West End Avenue "Redstone"--The
Hall "Chestnut Ridge" "Chestnut Ridge"--Library

[ILLUSTRATION: The Author]
[His Signature]
August, 1913
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST ROUND OF THE LADDER

NEW YORK, February 23, 1866.
"Master Walter E. Stowe:
"If you have not yet procured a situation, please call at my office, 45
Duane Street, and oblige.
"Yours truly,
"JNO. DERHAM, "Per T. E. D."
This letter came to me in response to my application for a situation as
an office-boy. I had replied to the advertisement in the Herald, without
consulting my parents, knowing they would raise objections to my
leaving school.
My father, one of New York's old-time shipping merchants, running a
line of packets to Cuban ports, had failed in business as a result of
losses during the war, the crowding out of sailing vessels by steamers,
and unfortunate outside investments.
It did not require great discernment to see the necessity of my giving up
all idea of going to Columbia College, for which I was preparing, and
thus, before I was sixteen years of age, I commenced as an office-boy
at a salary of three dollars per week. The position in those days was
vastly different from what it is to-day. The work now done by janitors
and porters fell to the office-boy, and my duties included sweeping and
dusting the office, cleaning windows, and in winter making fires.
This work, menial and distasteful as it was to the boy brought up in
luxury, was cheerfully undertaken, and it is only referred to here to
show that my start was from the first round of the ladder.
My employer, a north of Ireland man, though frequently brusque with
others, often to the detriment of his own interest, always treated me
with consideration and probably my life at the office ran as smoothly as
that of any lad in similar position. The only other employee was a

younger brother of Mr. Derham, who was taken in as a limited partner
shortly after I was employed. The firm carried on a brokerage business,
requiring no capital, and stood in the trade as well and perhaps a little
better than any of its competitors, of which there were but few.
Much of the business done by the firm consisted in the execution of
orders for out-of-town dealers and consumers, but by far the greater
volume comprised the negotiations carried on between the different
importers and dealers of New York.
The entire business of the United States, in their line of trade, was
practically controlled by these importers and dealers. The
characteristics of the trade as they existed then, exist to-day. A few of
the old firms have gone out of existence through failure or liquidation,
and some accessions have been made, chiefly of foreign blood, but
most of the old concerns remain, and though the personality of these
has changed, through the departure of many on the long journey and the
taking of their places by their successors, the same spirit that was in
evidence in the years immediately following the war, animates the trade
to-day.
Admitting that sentiment has no place in business and brotherly love is
not to be expected amongst business competitors, I feel safe in saying
that in no other trade has jealous rivalry so nearly approached to
personal animosity.
Preeminent in the trade stands a firm with name unchanged for three
generations, of world-wide reputation for its wealth and the
philanthropy of its individual members, past and present, all of whom
have been prominent in New York's religious and social life. Another
firm only a few years ago discontinued a custom of hanging on the
walls of its offices scriptural texts. Of still another firm, the most active
member is a leader of Brooklyn's annual Sunday-school processions,
though he prides himself on his cold blood, and before leaving his
home in the morning to go to his office replaces his heart with a
paving-stone. But why go on? Suffice it to say that the trade is
eminently respectable and rich, in some instances possessed of
enormous wealth, and this is the