But his pupils proved that they had profited only too well by his instructions. Just as he would have acted under similar circumstances, they were perfectly relentless. They seemed to be a double incarnation of Shylock personified, or two Dromios bereft of conscience and human sympathy. Drew had no Daniel but himself, to come to judgment. There was no fair Portia to plead his cause, and if there had been such an angelic creature in the case, though she might have “broke up” Fisk, it is almost certain that Gould would have successfully resisted her charms.
When Drew saw they were implacable he bade them good night, and with the courage of despair returned to the charge in Wall Street the next morning, with the results which have been briefly related. He lost nearly two millions in that fatal struggle.
CHAPTER XVII.
INTERESTING EPISODES IN DREW’S LIFE.
Incidents in the Early Life of Drew, and How he Began to Make Money.—He Borrows Money from Henry Astor, Buys Cattle in Ohio and Drives them over the Alleghany Mountains under Great Hardship and Suffering.—His Great Career as a Steamboat Man, and his Opposition to Vanderbilt.—His Marriage and Family.—He Builds and Endows Religious and Educational Institutions.—Returns to his Old Home after his Speculative Fall, but can Find No Rest so Far away from Wall Street.—His Hopes, through Wm. H. Vanderbilt, of another Start in Life.—His Bankruptcy, Liabilities and Wardrobe.—His Sudden but Peaceful End.—Characteristic Stories of his Eccentricities.
I had intended at first to give only a sketch of the salient points in the speculative career of Drew, but, on reflection, I find that the lives of great men all remind us that people want to know a great deal of minutiæ concerning men who have made their mark in this world. Our enterprising newspapers are encouraging this laudable curiosity more and more every day. So in the case of Drew, I must try to furnish answers to questions that may be asked about him in order that popular expectation may not be disappointed. I shall endeavor to anticipate what the reader may naturally want to know when he comes to the end of Drew’s great speculative ventures. One of these questions will probably be, what kind of a boy was Daniel Drew, and how did he begin to make money?
It goes without saying that Drew was the most unique figure that Wall Street has ever seen, and a characteristic specimen of one kind of American thrift, enterprise and speculation. Every side of his many-sided and peculiar character, therefore, is of interest as the representative of a class to the reader who sets his heart on making money, and the majority of readers have this weakness. He is of special interest to all speculators not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world. These facts constitute my apology for dwelling so long and minutely on his characteristics. I have an idea that his life and adventures will be read with deep interest many years hence, and help to prolong the existence and reputation of this book. They will also assist to immortalize the man who was one of the most wonderful products of American civilization, and who could hardly have been evolved from any other soil or clime. Such prodigies of success cause the members of the older social fabrics to stare with astonishment at the stupendous capabilities of our great country.
There is nothing interests people so much as the start in life, probably because there are so few who consider themselves able to get a good start. So far as I can learn, in the case of Daniel Drew, the boy was father to the man. He worked on a farm, going to school at intervals, where he was unable to learn anything, except that he obtained a notion of the current theological ideas of that day, until he was fifteen years of age, when his father died, leaving him, a younger brother and their mother to shift for themselves on a poor, small farm. His father was of English and his mother of Scotch descent.
In his seventeenth year young Drew enlisted as a substitute in the State Militia, which had then been called into service on account of the second war with England.
The regiment was placed at Fort Gansevoort, on the Hudson, opposite New York. Hostilities ceased between this country and England a few months after his enlistment, and the regiment was mustered out. Daniel returned home. His mother had taken charge of his substitute money, which probably did not exceed a hundred dollars, the amount with which his great rival, Commodore Vanderbilt commenced life, and which he earned from his mother by ploughing and planting a field.