both those of
Girard and Astor live vivifyingly, the first by virtue of a memorable
benefaction, the second as the founder of one of the greatest fortunes
in the world.

COMMERCE SURCHARGED WITH FRAUD.

Because of their unexcelled success, these two were the targets for the
bitter invective or the envy of their competitors on the one hand, and,
on the other, of the laudation of their friends and beneficiaries. Harsh
statements were made as to the methods of both, but, in reality, if we
but knew the truth, they were no worse than the other millionaires of
the time except in degree. The whole trading system was founded upon a
combination of superior executive ability and superior cunning--not
ability in creating, but in being able to get hold of, and distribute,
the products of others' creation.

Fraudulent substitution was an active factor in many, if not all, of the
shipping fortunes. The shippers and merchants practiced the grossest
frauds upon the unsophisticated people. Walter Barrett, that pseudonymic
merchant, who took part in them himself, and who writes glibly of them
as fine tricks of trade, gives many instances in his volumes dealing
with the merchants of that time.

The firm of F. & G. Carnes, he relates, was one of the many which made a
large fortune in the China trade. This firm found that Chinese
yellow-dog wood, when cut into proper sizes, bore a strong superficial
resemblance to real Turkey rhubarb. The Carnes brothers proceeded to
have the wood packed in China in boxes counterfeiting those of the
Turkey product. They then made a regular traffic importing this spurious
and deleterious stuff and selling it as the genuine Turkey article at
several times the cost. It entirely superseded the real product. This
firm also sent to China samples of Italian, French and English silks;
the Chinese imitated them closely, and the bogus wares were imported
into the United States where they were sold as the genuine European
goods. The Carneses were but a type of their class. Writing of the trade
carried on by the shipping class, Barrett says that the shippers sent to
China samples of the most noted Paris and London products in sauces,
condiments, preserves, sweetmeats, syrups and other goods. The Chinese
imitated them even to fac-similies of printed Paris and London labels.
The fraudulent substitutions were then brought in cargoes to the United
States where they were sold at fancy prices.

MERCHANTS THE PILLA