nity College, and saw his class, from whom he had
parted only a year before, all thought of remaining two years to
graduate faded from his mind. An ocean seemed to divide him from both
teachers and pupils. The professors were stupid and slow; the pupils
were boys--he was a man. They, too, felt the difference, and called him
"Sir." And when one of them introduced him to a Freshman as "an
American," Freshy bowed low, and the breast of A. T. Stewart expanded
with pride. Not even the offer of a professorship could have kept him in
Ireland. He saw himself the principal of an American College, "filling"
the pulpit of the college chapel on Sunday, picturing the fate of the
unregenerate in fiery accents. The Yankee atmosphere had made him a bit
heady. The legacy left him by his grandfather was exactly one thousand
pounds--five thousand dollars. What to do with this money, he did not
know! Anyway, he would take it to America and wisely invest it.

In New York he had boarded with an Irish family, the head of which was a
draper. This man had a small store on West Street, and Alexander had
helped tend store on Saturdays, and occasionally evenings when ships
came in and sailors with money to waste lumbered and lubbered past,
often with gay painted galleys in tow.

The things you do at twenty are making indelible marks on your
character. Stewart had no special taste for trade, but experience spells
power--potential or actual. With five thousand dollars in his belt, all
in gold, he felt uncomfortable. And so on a venture he expended half of
it in good Irish lace, insertions and scallop trimmings. Irish linens,
Irish poplins and Irish lace were being shipped to New York--it could
not be a loss! He would follow suit. If he was robbed of his money he
could not at the same time be robbed of the drapery. And so he sailed
away for New York--and Ireland looked more green and more beautiful as
the great, uplifting, green hills faded from sight and were lost to view
in the mist.

* * * * *

On the ship that carried Stewart back to New York was a young man who
professed to be an adept in the draper's line. Very naturally, Stewart
got acquainted with this man, and told him of his investment in
drygoods. The man offered to sell the stock for Stewart.

In those days the Irish pedler with his pack full of curious and
wonderful things was a common sight at the farmhouses. He rivaled both
Yankee-Gentile and Jew, an