ent; and it is to
the credit of both employers and employes that but few changes occur in
this force. Many of the employes have been with the firm since its first
entrance into business. The old man in charge of the vaults--a curiosity
in his way--has been in the service of the house for fifty years, and to
leave it now would, doubtless, break his heart; for none of the Harpers
are as proud of their reputation as he is. The most perfect system
reigns throughout every department, and every thing goes on promptly and
in its proper place.

"Of course," says a writer who many years has witnessed the operations
of the house, "the development and organization of such a business were
due not to one brother alone, but to the cooperation of all.... The
business was to James, as to the others, the great central interest, but
prosperity could not relax his steady character. He did not forget his
early faith, nor the counsels and the habits of his Long Island home. He
remained strictly a 'temperance man,' and his marvelous physical vigor
was claimed by the temperance advocates as that of a cold-water mans He
was long an official member of John-Street Church, and when he left his
house in Rose Street, and went to live in the upper part of the city, he
joined the congregation of St. Paul's Church, in the Fourth Avenue. But
with all his fidelity to his ancestral faith, he cherished the largest
charity, and by much experience of the world had learned to agree with
his favorite apostle, James, that pure religion and undefiled, is to
visit the fatherless and widows, and keep himself unspotted from the
world. Thus, with all his conviction and devotion, there was nothing
hard or fanatical in his feeling or conduct, and he held pleasant
personal relations with men of every faith. Few men indulged in so
little harsh criticism of others, and he expressed censure or
disapprobation by humorous indirection rather than by open accusation.
'We must not be too hard,' he was fond of saying, 'it is so difficult to
know all the circumstances. If you should insist, for instance, that the
use of tobacco is a sin, dear me! dear me!'

"Mr. Harper was a Whig during the days of that party, and a natural
conservative. But in politics he showed the same moderation and
toleration. 'Don't try to drive men too roughly, my dear sir; it is much
easier to draw than to push.' He took no conspicuous or active part in
politics, except in 1844, when he was elected May