orld's Fair held in London in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-one,
Peabody gave fifteen thousand dollars toward the exhibition of American
inventions, the chief of which at this time were the McCormick Reaper,
Eli Whitney's Cotton-Gin, and Colt's Revolver.

Peabody backed Doctor Kane with a gift of twenty thousand dollars in his
search for Franklin. He established various libraries; and gave a
quarter of a million dollars to his native town for a Peabody Institute.
Danvers can yet be found on the map, but Peabody is a place of
pilgrimage for those who reverence that American invention--a new
virtue--the Art of Giving Wisely.

Joshua Bates, through whose generosity Boston secured her Free Library,
was an agent of Peabody's, and afterward his partner. Later, Bates
became a member of the house of Baring Brothers, and carried on a
business similar to that of George Peabody. There is no doubt that Bates
got his philanthropic impulse from Peabody. In Eighteen Hundred
Fifty-six Peabody visited his native town of Danvers after an absence of
more than forty years. There were great doings, in which all the
school-children, as well as the Governor of the State, had a part.

At Washington, Peabody was the guest of the President. The House of
Representatives and the Senate adjourned their regular business to do
him honor, and he made an address to them. The Judges of the Supreme
Court invited him to sit on the bench when he entered their Chamber. For
twenty years he was America's unofficial chief representative in London,
no matter who was Consul or who Ambassador.

Every year on July Fourth he gave a dinner to the principal Americans
who happened to be in London. To be invited to this dinner was an event.
Peabody himself always presided, and there was considerable oratory
sometimes of the brand known as Southwestern, which Peabody tolerated
with gentle smiles. On one occasion, however, things did not go
smoothly. Daniel Sickles was Consul to London and James Buchanan,
afterwards our punkest President, was Ambassador. Sickles was a good
man, but a fire-eater, and a gentleman of marked jingo proclivities.
Sickles had asked that Buchanan preside, in which case Buchanan was to
call on Sickles for the first toast, and this toast was to be, "The
President of the United States." At the same time Sickles intended to
give the British lion's tail a few gratuitous twists. Peabody declined
to accede to Sickles' wish, but he himself presided and offe