men earn enough but foolishly throw it away on
unnecessaries.

If Girard owed a man a cent he could rest assured that he would get it;
if a man owed him there was much trouble in the way for that man if he
attempted to evade the payment. He was just to all men and just to
himself and family. There is another feature in the history of Girard
that is worthy of imitation; that is he kept abreast, yea, ahead of the
times,--he made a study of the various problems of his day.

He saw that the United States Bank was daily growing less popular, and
he saw that it must go down in the near future. He had prospered in his
shipping business, and seeing here a grand opportunity he began to study
up on banking preparatory to taking the bank. Reader, think of this kind
of enterprise. His friends might think such a thing visionary; the best
financier might pass the opportunity by, but this man knew that the
United States Bank had a vast patronage, and he also knew that the man
who stepped into its business would have every reason to expect success.
He at once set about to buy a controlling interest in the stock. When
the bank was discontinued it was found that he had not only secured a
controlling interest in the stock, but had gained possession of the bank
building itself. While his friends were predicting his ruin he had
bought $1,200,000 worth of stock and, by so doing, had stepped into the
largest banking business of the Republic.

Does one of my readers for one moment allow himself to believe that
Stephen Girard was a lucky man? Was it 'good luck' that placed Girard at
one move at the head of American financiers? As is well known a great
panic followed Jackson's administration, and, of a whole nation, Stephen
Girard seems to have been the only prosperous man. His capital stock
soon became $4,000,000. In this capacity he was enabled to aid his
Government much, in fact to save it from ruin in the terrible crash of
1837.

Stephen Girard was bent upon getting rich and yet, while he is generally
regarded as a cold money-getter, still he had a heart, a tender heart,
locked up within that cold exterior. While the terrible plague, yellow
fever, raged in Philadelphia with a violence never before known in
American history, and while many others fled the city, Stephen Girard
remained and nursed the dying,--performing with his own hands the most
loathesome duties, and giving most liberally of his wealth toward the
fund for the suppressio