, and I can not risk their property for a
piece of paper that no one can read. Let one of the gentlemen draw up a
draft in proper form; you sign it, and I will put you ashore.'

"The old gentleman would not consent to this mode of proceeding, and the
affair was dropped."

During the last twenty years of his life Mr. Astor lived in the
retirement of his family, leaving even the greater part of the
management of his estate to the hands of others. He was exceedingly fond
of literary men. Irving was his friend, and Halleck his business
manager. He died at the age of eighty-four years and eight months,
literally from old age. He was buried in St. Thomas's Church, on
Broadway.

His immense estate was left to his children, the bulk of it being
bequeathed to his eldest son. All of his relatives were made
comfortable. The village of Waldorf, his native place, received a legacy
of fifty thousand dollars for the benefit of its poor, and an amount in
land and funds equal to four hundred thousand dollars was left to
certain trustees to establish the Astor Library in the city of New York.
Besides these, several charitable and benevolent associations received
handsome donations from him.

His career has been related in these pages as an example to those who
are seeking to rise in legitimate commerce. It is the Best instance on
record of the facility with which success may be won by patient and
intelligent industry. In his capacity for grasping and carrying out an
enterprise, in his prudent and economical management of his business,
in his tact, courage, sagacity, Mr. Astor's example is one which will
lead many to success, and none to injury.

He was a thoroughly upright man, his transactions were rigidly honest;
but as a man, candor compels the acknowledgment that he was not a safe
or admirable model. He was utterly devoid of generosity. Liberal to an
extreme with his own family, he was close and hard with others. He paid
small wages to his employes and never gave more than the man bargained
for, no matter what extra service might be rendered. He carried his
economy to a degree of meanness painful to contemplate. At his death,
out of his vast estate, he left to his friend and faithful manager an
annuity of only two hundred dollars, which his son increased to fifteen
hundred.

One of his captains once succeeded in saving for him property in China
to the amount of seven hundred thousand dollars, which had become
jeopardized by t