n their
management. In the latter part of his life, he dwelt during the winter
in a large mansion, still standing on the north side of Saratoga street,
west of North Charles street, and during the summer on an estate called
Clifton, in Baltimore County. In both these places he exercised
hospitality without ostentation. He bought a large library and many oil
paintings which are now preserved in a memorial room at the Hospital.
Nevertheless, his pursuits were wholly mercantile, and his time and
strength were chiefly devoted to the business in which he was
engaged,--first as a wholesale grocer, and afterwards as a capitalist
interested in many and diverse financial undertakings. More than once,
in time of commercial panic, he lent his credit to the support of
individuals and firms with a liberality which entitled him to general
gratitude. He died in Baltimore, December 24, 1873, at the age of
seventy-nine years. He had never married. After providing for his near
relations, he gave the principal part of his estate to the two
institutions which bear his name, the Johns Hopkins University and the
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Each of them received property estimated in
round numbers at three and a half million dollars. The gift to the
University included his estate of Clifton (three hundred and thirty
acres of land), fifteen thousand shares of the common stock of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and other securities which were valued at
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Many persons have expressed surprise that Mr. Hopkins should have made
so large an investment in one corporation. But the stock of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was free from taxation, for many years it
paid a dividend of ten per cent. per annum, and the managers, of whom he
was one, confidently anticipated that a large stock dividend would be
declared at an early day. Mr. Hopkins not only gave to the University
all the common stock that he held in this corporation; he also advised
that the Trustees should not dispose of it, nor of the stock accruing
thereon by way of increment or dividend. In view of the vibrations to
which this stock was subjected during the fifteen years subsequent to
the death of Mr. Hopkins, it should not be forgotten that it was his
will that linked the fortune of the great educational institution, which
he founded, to the fortune of another corporation, in which he had the
highest confidence. Fortunately, the crisis into which this