lucky. When we wanted houses more than we wanted coal, he built
houses for us; and when we wanted coal more than we wanted houses, he
set his money to digging coal; charging nothing for his trouble but the
mere cost of his subsistence.

One fault he had as a public servant--for we may fairly regard in that
light a man who wields so large a portion of our common estate. He was
one of the most timid of men. He was even timorous. His timidity was
constitutional and physical. He would take a great deal of trouble to
avoid crossing a temporary bridge or scaffolding, though assured by an
engineer that it was strong enough to bear ten elephants. Nor can it be
said that he was morally brave. Year after year he saw a gang of thieves
in the City Hall stealing his revenues under the name of taxes and
assessments, but he never led an assault upon them nor gave the aid he
ought to those who did. Unless he is grossly belied, he preferred to
compromise than fight, and did not always disdain to court the ruffians
who plundered him.

This was a grave fault. He who had the most immediate and the most
obvious interest in exposing and resisting the scoundrels, ought to have
taken the lead in putting them down. This he could not do. Nature had
denied him the qualities required for such a contest. He had his
enormous estate, and he had mind enough to take care of it in ordinary
ways; but he had nothing more. We must therefore praise him less for the
good he did in his life, than for the evil which he refrained from
doing.

[Illustration: PETER COOPER.]

PETER COOPER.

On an April morning in 1883 I was seated at breakfast in a room which
commanded a view of the tall flag-staff in Gramercy Park in the city of
New York. I noticed some men unfolding the flag and raising it on the
mast. The flag stopped mid-way and dropped motionless in the still
spring morning. The newspapers which were scattered about the room made
no mention of the death of any person of note and yet this sign of
mourning needed no explanation. For half a lifetime Peter Cooper had
lived in a great, square, handsome house just round the corner, and the
condition of the aged philanthropist had been reported about the
neighborhood from hour to hour during the previous days; so that almost
every one who saw the flag uttered words similar to those which I heard
at the moment:--

"He is gone, then! The good old man is gone. We shall never see his
snowy locks again,