HOW TO MAKE MONEY

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 24, 6 November 1930, Page 4

HOW TO MAKE MONEY

A BIOGRAPHY OF J? J. ASTOR

The ame of Astor is well known in most countries' and in America to-day, John Jacob Astor, the founder,, of the "American Fur Company" and the landlord of New York is au almost legendary figure, American is a country of millionaires: Astor was the greatest of. them all. In John Jacob Astor the •story of this remarkable man has been told by Mr- Arthur D. Howden $mitn. Those readers who are anxious to acquire a fortune 'with., reasonable rapidity are now afforded the opportunity of profiting by his example.

The son of a German peasant, Astor was born at Wald Dorf—"the village in the wood" —near Heidleberg, in 1763 and received his early education from Valentine Jeune, a Huguenot refugee. As a. boy he worked on his father 'a farm, but at the age of twenty he sailed for America to make Ms fortune carrying with him twenty-five dollars" in English c *n and seven flutes. Those flutes were to prove useful. He inaugurated a successful commercial career by ventureing out into the American forests and playing them to the Indians in order to secure the lowest prices on pelts. "At night heVas fortunate if he might share the hearth of a settler's cabin or scratch fleas with the inmates of an Indian bark lodge. As often as not he slept beneath the stars, fir boughs for Ids couch, a hastily contrived lean-to for roof. Wherever he went he was keen for a bargain. No trade was too small for him. He'd bicker half-an-hotar for a musrat skin, dole out the beads of needles and thread which were his price, andi be off once more ■whistling cheerily.*'

Thus did Astor lay the foundations of his enormous fortunes. The success which he so coveted was not long in coming. He established a prosperous fur trade, im--posed himself upon the aristocratic society of INew York, bought up the Broadway,, became the owner of a fleet of trading vessels, an ddied, a millionaire, at the age of eightyfour.