s, and his old servants
annuities. Hospitals, orphan societies and other charitable associations
all benefited. Five hundred thousand dollars went to the City of
Philadelphia for certain civic improvements; three hundred thousand
dollars for the canals of Pennsylvania; a portion of his valuable estate
in Louisiana to New Orleans for the improvement of that city. The
remainder of the estate, about six millions, was left to trustees for
the creation and endowment of a College for Orphans, which was promptly
named after him.

A chorus of astonishment and laudation went up. Was there ever such
magnificence of public spirit? Did ever so lofty a soul live who was so
misunderstood? Here and there a protesting voice was feebly heard that
Girard's wealth came from the community and that it was only justice
that it should revert to the community; that his methods had resulted in
widows and orphans and that his money should be applied to the support
of those orphans. These protests were frowned upon as the mouthings of
cranks or the ravings of impotent envy. Applause was lavished upon
Girard; his very clothes were preserved as immemorial mementoes.[65]

"THE GREAT BENEFACTOR."

All of the benefactions of the other rich men of the period waned into
insignificance compared to those of Girard. His competitors and compeers
had given to charity, but none on so great a scale as Girard.
Distinguished orators vied with one another in extolling his wonderful
benefactions,[66] and the press showered encomiums upon him as that of
the greatest benefactor of the age. To them this honestly seemed so, for
they were trained by the standards of the trading class, by the
sophistries of political economists and by the spirit of the age, to
concentrate their attention upon the powerful and successful only, while
disregarding the condition of the masses of the people.

The pastimes of a king or the foibles of some noted politician or rich
man were things of magnitude and were much expatiated upon, while the
common man, singly or in mass, was of absolutely no importance. The
finely turned rhetoric of the orators, pleasing as it was to that
generation, is, judged by modern standards, well nigh meaningless and
worthless. In that highflown oratory, with its carefully studied
exordiums, periods and perorations can be clearly discerned the
reverence given to power as embodied by possession of property. But
nowhere do we see any explanation, or even an