uessed.

In London furs were becoming a fad. Astor sorted and sifted his
buyers, as he had his skins. He himself dressed in a suit of fur and
thus proved his ability as an advertiser. He picked his men and
charged all the traffic would bear. He took orders, on sample, from
the nobility and sundry of the gentry, and thereby cut the middleman.
All of the money he received for his skins, he invested in "Indian
Goods"--colored cloth, beads, blankets, knives, axes, and musical
instruments.

His was the first store in New York that carried a stock of musical
instruments. These he sold to savages, and also he supplied the stolid
Dutch the best of everything in this particular line from a bazoo to a
Stradivarius violin.

When he got back to New York, he at once struck out through the
wilderness to buy furs of the Indians, or better still, to interest
them in bringing furs to him.

He knew the value of friendship in trade as no man of the time did.

He went clear through to Lake Erie, down to Niagara Falls, along Lake
Ontario, across to Lake Champlain and then down the Hudson. He foresaw
the great city of Buffalo, and Rochester as well, only he said that
Rochester would probably be situated directly on the Lake. But the
water-power of the Genesee Falls proved a stronger drawing power than
the Lake Front. He prophesied that along the banks of the Niagara
Falls would be built the greatest manufacturing city in the world.
There were flour-mills and sawmills there then. The lumber first used
in building the city of Buffalo was brought from the sawmills at "The
Falls."

Electric power, of course, was then a thing unguessed, but Astor
prophesied the Erie Canal, and made good guesses as to where prosperous
cities would appear along its line.

In Seventeen Hundred and Ninety, John Jacob Astor married Sarah Todd.
Her mother was a Brevoort, and it was brought about by her coming to
Astor to buy furs with which to make herself a coat. Her ability to
judge furs and make them up won the heart of the dealer. The marriage
brought young Astor into "the best Dutch New York society," a
combination that was quite as exclusive then as now.

This marriage was a business partnership as well as marital and proved
a success in every way. Sarah was a worker, with all the good old
Dutch qualities of patience, persistence, industry and economy. When
her husband went on trips she kept store. She was the only partner in
which he eve