age he relieved himself of these
home troubles and ran away to sea. During the nine years that he sailed
between Bordeaux and the West Indies, he rose from cabin-boy to mate.
Evading the French law which required that no man should be made master
of a ship unless he had sailed two cruises in the royal navy and was
twenty-five years old, Girard got the command of a trading vessel when
about twenty-two years old. While in this service he clandestinely
carried cargoes of his own which he sold at considerable profit. In May,
1776, while en route from New Orleans to a Canadian port, he became
enshrouded in a fog off the Delaware Capes, signaled for aid, and when
the fog had cleared away sufficiently for an American ship, near by, to
come to his assistance, learned that war was on. He thereupon scurried
for Philadelphia, where he sold vessel and cargo, of which latter only
a part belonged to him, and with the proceeds opened up a cider and wine
bottling and grocery business in a small store on Water street.

Girard made money fast; and in July, 1777, married Mary Lum, a woman of
his own class. She is usually described as a servant girl of great
beauty and as one whose temper was of quite tempestuous violence. This
unfortunate woman subsequently lost her reason; undoubtedly her
husband's meannesses and his forbidding qualities contributed to the
process. One of his most favorable biographers thus describes him: "In
person he was short and stout, with a dull repulsive countenance, which
his bushy eyebrows and solitary eye almost made hideous. He was cold and
reserved in manner, and was disliked by his neighbors, the most of whom
were afraid of him."[61]

During the British occupation of Philadelphia he was charged by the
revolutionists with extreme double-dealing and duplicity in pretending
to be a patriot, and taking the oath of allegiance to the colonies,
while secretly trading with the British. None of his biographers deny
this. While merchant after merchant was being bankrupted from disruption
of trade, Girard was incessantly making money. By 1780 he was again in
the shipping trade, his vessels plying between American ports and New
Orleans and San Domingo; not the least of his profits, it was said,
came from slave-trading.

[Illustration: STEPHEN GIRARD.
(From an Engraving.)]

HOW HE BUILT HIS SHIPS.

A troublous partnership with his brother, Captain Jean Girard, lasted
but a short time; the brothers could not agree