New York, the metropolis : its noted business and professional men. . ved. Mr. Astors natural([ualities were such as made him responsive to every suchappeal. An intuitive love of justice, an honest devotion tothe right, a severe satisfaction in the faithful discharge ofduty, underlay all the additions of reading and travel andexperience. His tastes were simple and with rijjer yearsthe serious ])leasures of his youth continued to delight the ])rime of life he i)0ssessed great vigor, and his favor-ite relaxations were a walk through the woods, or an after-noon in his rowboat, or a long ri
New York, the metropolis : its noted business and professional men. . ved. Mr. Astors natural([ualities were such as made him responsive to every suchappeal. An intuitive love of justice, an honest devotion tothe right, a severe satisfaction in the faithful discharge ofduty, underlay all the additions of reading and travel andexperience. His tastes were simple and with rijjer yearsthe serious ])leasures of his youth continued to delight the ])rime of life he i)0ssessed great vigor, and his favor-ite relaxations were a walk through the woods, or an after-noon in his rowboat, or a long ride on horseback. Ihiszest for outdoor exercise developed a vivid appreciation ofthe beauties of rural scenery. He delighted in the blos-soming exjjansion of Spring and in the reveries that Sum-mer fields and fleeting clouds and lengthening shadowssuggest ; the tints of Autumn and the sparkling vista ofthe river and the elotiuent silence of starlight nightsspoke to him in a language he grew to understand and tolove. Few rich men bear responsibility so wisely or walk. twenty-five, to the office of the estate of John Jacob the 9th of December, 1846, he mariied CharlotteAugusta Clibbes, whose father had removed from SouthCarolina at an early age. Their actjuaintance began aschildren, and was for both a first and lifelong and unwaver-ing attachment. To his wife he owed the example of herown high ideals and the habitual practice of a broad andgenerous symjjathy with all classes. Her influence sprangfrom the daily self sacrifice of her life, which was exemj)!!-fied when, after the first federal reverses of the Civil War,she accepted without murmur his determination to servein the field in the cause of the nation. At the beginning ofthis century fortunes were easily made in New York, and inmany cases were still more (juickly lost. A spendthrift orincompetent son wrecked in a year what the skill of afather had achieved in a lifetime. Hence the elderAstor early associated his so
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