nd told the agent to give it to the old
man, as if he had received it from the tenant.

"There," exclaimed Mr. Astor when he received the money. "I told
you that she would pay it if you went the right way to work with
her."[141]

THE DEATH OF JOHN JACOB ASTOR.

So, to the last breath, squeezing arrears out of tenants; his mind
focused upon those sordid methods which had long since become a religion
to him; contemplating the long list of his possessions with a radiant
exaltation; so Astor passed away. He died on March 29, 1848, aged
eighty-four years, four months; and almost as he died, the jubilant
shouts of the enthusiastic workingmen's processions throughout the city
resounded high and often. They were celebrating the French Revolution of
1848, intelligence of which had just arrived;--a Revolution brought
about by the blood of the Parisian workingmen, only to be subsequently
stifled by the stratagems of the bourgeoisie and turned into the
corrupt despotism of Napoleon III.

The old trader left an estate valued at about $20,000,000. The bulk of
this descended to William B. Astor. The extent of wealth disclosed by
the will made a profound impression. Never had so rich a man passed
away; the public mind was not accustomed to the sight of millions of
dollars being owned by one man. One New York newspaper, the "Journal,"
after stating that Astor's personal estate amounted to seven or nine
million dollars, and his real estate to perhaps more, observed: "Either
sum is quite out of our small comprehension; and we presume that with
most men, the idea of one million is about as large an item as that of
any number of millions." An entirely different and exceptional view was
taken by James Gordon Bennett, owner and editor of the New York
"Herald;" Bennett's comments were the one distinct contrast to the mass
of flowery praise lavished upon Astor's memory and deeds. He thus
expressed himself in the issue of April 5, 1848:

We give in our columns an authentic copy of one of the greatest
curiosities of the age--the will of John Jacob Astor, disposing of
property amounting to about twenty million dollars, among his
various descendants of the first, second, third, and fourth
degrees.... If we had been an associate of John Jacob Astor ...
the first idea that we should have put into his head would have
been that _one-half of his immense property--ten millions at
least--