forever reminded him of his
infamy. But the men who waded on to wealth through the muck of base
practices and by means of crimes a millionfold more insidious and
dangerous than the offense of the convict, were not only honored as
leading citizens, but they became the extolled and unquestioned
dictators of that supreme trading society which made modes, customs and
laws.

It was a society essentially built upon money; consequently he who was
dexterous enough to get possession of the spoils, experienced no
difficulty in establishing his place among the elect and anointed. His
frauds were forgotten or ignored; only the fact that he was a rich man
was remembered. And yet, what is more natural than to seek, and accept,
the obeisance lavished upon property, in a scheme of society where
property is crowned as the ruling power? In the rude centuries
previously mankind exalted physical prowess; he who had the greatest
strength and wielded the deftest strokes became victor of the judicial
combat and gathered in laurels and property. But now we have arrived at
the time when the cunning of mind supplants the cunning of muscle;
bribery takes the place of brawn; the contestants fight with statutes
instead of swords. And this newer plan, which some have decried as
degenerate, is a great advance over the old, for thereby has brute force
been legally abandoned in personal quarrels at least, and that cunning
of mind which has held sway, is the first evidence of the reign of mind,
which from a low order, will universally develop noble and supereminent
qualities charged with the good, and that alone, of the human race.

ASTOR'S BANKING ACTIVITIES.

With this preliminary sketch, we can now proceed to a consideration of
how Astor profited from the banking system. We see that constantly the
bold spirits of the trading class, with a part of the money made or
plundered in some direction or other, were bribing representative bodies
to give them exceptional rights and privileges which, in turn, were made
the fertile basis for further spoliation. Astor was a stockholder in at
least four banks, the charters of which had been obtained or renewed by
trickery and fraud, or both. He owned 1,000 shares of the capital stock
of the Manhattan Company; 1,000 of the Merchant's Bank; 500 of the Bank
of America; 1,604 of the Mechanic's Bank. He also owned at one time
considerable stock in the National Bank, the charter of which, it was
strongly suspected