mendicant used the same plea in begging a mite of alms on the streets,
the law has invariably regarded him as a vagrant to be committed to the
Workhouse.

ASTOR'S ENORMOUS PROFITS.

At about the identical time that John Jacob Astor was persistently
complaining that the company was making no money, his own son and
partner, William B. Astor, was writing from New York on Nov. 25, 1831,
to the Secretary of War, that the company had a capital of about
$1,000,000 and that, "You may, however, estimate our annual returns at
half a million dollars."[88] Not less than $500,000 annual revenues on a
capital of $1,000,000! These were inconceivably large returns for the
time; Thomas J. Dougherty, Indian Agent at Camp Leavenworth, estimated
that from 1815 to 1830 the fur trade on the Missouri and its waters had
yielded returns amounting to $3,330,000 with a clear profit of
$1,650,000. This was unquestionably a considerable underestimate.

It is hardly necessary to say that Astor, as the responsible head and
beneficiary of the American Fur Company, was never prosecuted for the
numerous violations of both penal and civil laws invariably committed
by his direction and for his benefit. With the millions that rolled in,
he was able to command the services of not only the foremost lawyers in
warding off the penalties of law, but in having as his paid retainers
some of the most noted and powerful politicians of the day.[89] Senator
Benton, of Missouri, a leading light in the Democratic party, was not
only his legal representative in the West and fought his cases for him,
but as United States Senator introduced in Congress measures which Astor
practically drafted and the purport of which was to benefit Astor and
Astor alone. Thus was witnessed a notorious violator of the law,
invoking aid of the law to enrich himself still further,--a condition
which need not arouse exceptional criticism, since the whole trading
class in general did precisely the same thing.

FOOTNOTES:

[72] Parton's "Life of John Jacob Astor":28.

[73] "The Old Merchants of New York," 1:287.

[74] The extent of its operations and the rapid slaughter of fur animals
may be gathered by a record of one year's work. In 1793 this company
enriched itself by 106,000 beaver skins, 2,100 bear skins, 1,500 fox
skins, 400 kit fox, 16,000 muskrat, 32,000 martin, 1,800 mink, 6,000
lynx, 6,000 wolverine, 1,600 fisher, 100 raccoon, 1,200 dressed deer,
700 elk, 550 buffalo robes,