WEALTH OF A BOSTON MERCHANT.

The estate of the late Ebenezer Francis, of Boston, was according to the sworn appraisers as follows:

Cash deposited in the name of executors in New England Bank.
Deposited in the Eagle Bank in name of an executor...

13,800 22

5,434 85

$2,208,358 98

Total amount of cash on hand..

Manufacturing stocks.....

Bank stocks.

Insurance stocks..

Railroad stocks and bonds.

Mortgage on real estate....

Loan on stock.....
Miscellaneous..

Real estate

Total....

353,555 00 160,966 00

91,450 00

141,429 00

24,600 00

9,355 41

8,595 00

485,600 00

$3,483,909 39

CHARACTER BETTER THAN CREDIT.

We often hear young men who have no means dolefully contrasting their lot with that of rich men's sons. Yet the longer we live, the more we are convinced that the old merchant was right, who said to us when we began to live, " industry, my lad, is better than ingots of gold, and character more valuable than credit." We could furnish, if need were, from a score of illustrations to prove the truth of his remarks. In all branches of business, in all avocations, character, in the long run, is the best capital. Says poor Richard :-"The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy for six months longer; but if he sees you at a gambling table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day." What is true of the young mechanic, is true also of the young merchant or young lawyer. Old and sagacious firms will not long continue to give credit for thousands of dollars, when they see the purchaser, if a young man, driving fast horses, or lounging in drinking saloons. Clients will not entrust their cases to advocates, however brilliant, who frequent the card-table, the wine party, or the race course. It is better in beginning life, to secure a reputation for industry and probity, than to own houses and lands, if with them you have no character.

TAX ON MERCHANDISE.

The following is an extract from the Tennessee Code, showing how taxes on merchandise are assessed in that State :-

"On sales of merchandise by merchants, half a cent on the dollar on its invoice cost at the place were purchased, unless the tax upon the same has once before been paid to the State; in which event no additional tax shall be paid."

ACCEPTANCE OF BILLS OF EXCHANGE.

ST. LOUIS, April 4th, 1852.

Editor Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, New York:Please give the following question an insertion in your valuable journal, with request to parties competent to answer to decide the same in the next number. Can the acceptor of a bill of exchange, drawn in first and second, if he accepts both, under any circumstances be held to pay both?

In Europe it is customary to accept only one of a set of bills of exchange; in the West I find that often both first and second are accepted. My opinion is that the acceptor is liable for both, if they are in the hands of two different innocent holders, who gave value for it and may have bought them on the strength of the acceptance.

I hope for a reply through your pages.

A. Y.

The statute of the State of New York provides that, if an acceptance be written upon "a paper other than the bill, it shall not bind the acceptor, except in favor of a person to whom such acceptance shall have been shown, and who, on the faith thereof, shall have received the bill for a valuable consideration.” Two acceptances of the same set of exchange, passed into the hands of different holders, would have a suspicious aspect.

WISCONSIN EXCHANGING WITH CHINA.

The Madison (Wisconsin) Journal makes the following remarks upon a new article of traffic :—

It is well known that in some portions of the northern part of this State the cranberry crop, growing spontaneously upon the marshes, forms a large and remunerative business. In the counties of Adams and Juneau, last year, this was the principal surplus crop upon which the people depended for money, and so important has it become that the late Legislature enacted a law against gathering and selling the berries before they are ripe. But we have recently heard of another spontaneous production of some portions of the State, which is becoming an important article of export, that is wholly new to us. This is the ginseng root. Mr. Dixon, member of the late Legislature from Richland County, informed us that between $30,000 and $40,000 worth of this root was gathered and exported from that county last year. The wheat in that section was a failure last season, and but for the money derived from this source, Mr. D. informed us, many families would have been reduced to actual suffering. This root pos sesses some medicinal qualities as a tonic and restorative, but is now exported exclusively to China, being regarded by the Chinese as a specific for all classes of disease.

SUGAR.

The sugar market at New York is much depressed, and one of the dealers, who is satisfied that no money is to be made out of it this year, has taken to poetry. The stock at New York proves to be unexpectedly large. It is found to be 30,081 hhds. and 11,478 boxes, against 13,764 hhds. and 3,001 boxes at this time last year :

Sugar, sugar is my theme;

Brokers' boards with samples teem-
Losing sellers on the ground-
Anxious buyers all around.

Snowy white to golden hues--
Pity that such sugar lose.

Watch the crystals, how they glitter,

Greedy grocers, how they titter-
Bargains here and bargains there,
Bargains all and everywhere.

Learn a lesson, O Importer!
Learn to make your prices shorter;
You have had erroneous notions
Of our traders and their motions.

WINE TREASURES OF BREMEN.

No city in the world can boast of possessing a greater or more costly treasure in the form of wine than Bremen. The Bremen Town Hall cellar is famous all over the world, were it only by the light that Hauff's imagination has thrown over the subterranean premises. The traveler whose route leads to Bremen will seldom fail to visit it, for it contains the oldest Rhenish wine extant-and here the Twelve Apostles, with Judas Iscariot strangely placed at their head, have, for more than two centuries, dealt out the choicest of Hock and Johannisberg. The patriarch among the contents of the capacious cellar, where in former days the East India captains used to lay their accounts before their shipowners, is the Rose wine. As a sign of its value and superior dignity, it is kept apart in a separate cabinet, surmounted by a rose, and the door of the enclosure can be opened only by official authority.

In the year 1624, six pipes of Johannisberg, and an equal quantity of Hock, were placed here by the magistrates, with directions that the Burgomaster should yearly distribute a small quantity, either in presents, or for the use of the sick, by order of a physician; the supply being gratuitous to the poor, and at the cost of five thalers (of seventy-eight cents) a bottle to those able to pay. To the citizens of Bremen alone, is reserved the privilege of introducing a distinguished stranger into this sanctum, and after special permission, personally granted, he may (at the proper cost) entertain his guest with a bottle of the precious beverage. What is thus lost by annual consumption, is replaced from casks of the vintage next in date.

The value of the wine consists chiefly in its age. A pipe of it in 1624 cost 300 thalers, estimating the interest of the capital at 5 per cent, and the necessary current expenses at an additional 5 per cent, the capital at compound interest would double itself in seven years, and thus in the year 1858 each pipe of the Rose wine represented a value of 1,714,980,441,413 thalers, and allowing 1,320 bottles to a pipe, each bottle is worth 1,299,227,607 thalers. A bottle contains eight glasses, each one of which costs 162,403,450 thalers, and the drop which is spilled or left in the glass, computing it to hold a thousand, costs 162.403 thalers.

The people of Bremen are proud of their treasure, and it was a high mark of their esteem when the magistrates, at the suggestion of their counsellor, Dr. Meyer, presented Goethe with several bottles, on his birthday in 1823, after his recovery from a severe illness. Goethe knew how to appreciate the honor and the value of the gift; he delayed the enjoyment of it, postponing it until October, when the Diet met at Frankfort-on-the-Mayne, and his old friend, Count Reinhard, the French ambassador, helped him to empty the first bottle.

PUNCH AS A DIGGER.

The Digger Indians of the Northwest get their name from the fact that they dig roots for subsistence. There is no account of their digging for the root to which the London Punch refers as follows:

66

Money is the root of all evil. Nevertheless, it is an eminently esculent root, and I vote that we dig for it, O friends!"

HABITS OF BUSINESS.

Man, says Paley, " is a bundle of habits." Habit, according to the proverb, is "a second nature," which, we all know, is sometimes so powerful as utterly to extirpate the first. The power of habit is strikingly exemplified in the fact that it renders pleasant things which at first were intensely painful or disagreeable. When Franklin was superintending the erection of some forts on the frontier as a defence against the Indians, he slept at night in a blanket on the hard floor, and on his first return to civilized life, could hardly sleep in a bed. Captain Ross and his crew, having been accustomed during their Polar wanderings to lie on the frozen snow or the bare rock, afterwards found the accommodations of a whaler too luxurious for them, and he himself was obliged to exchange his ham mock for a chair. The same principle, in another form, is yet more strikingly illustrated in the case of individuals born blind, or early deprived of sight, who, acquiring a habit of nice observation through the sense of feeling, astonish us by their accurate descriptions of things which they have examined by means of their exquisitely delicate touch.

Such being the power of habit, can any one doubt that upon the early forma tion of good or bad habits hinges the question of success in life? Above all, can any one doubt that habits of patient and accurate observation, such as the blind man evinces, would be of incalculable value, if brought to bear upon the thousand and one details of business life? Or is there a question that the opposite habits of negligence and inattention must lead to ruin or disaster? What was the secret of Napoleon's military successes? Was it not his habits of patient observation and attention to details? While other generals trusted to their subordinates, he gave his personal attention to the marching of his troops, the commissariat, and other laborious and small affairs. It was this practice which enabled him to concentrate his forces in such overwhelming numbers on a given point for his close scrutiny into details produced exactness and punctuality among his sub-officers, and hence the various detachments of his army were always where he wished at the very hour. So in trade. He is but a half-merchant who knows only how to sell a great or a small stock of goods in a year. He should watch vigilantly all the changes of the market; study the laws of demand and supply; and know the means of his customers, the probability of getting payment, the amount of trade his capital will warrant, the probability of a financial crisis, and the means of weathering an impending storm.

When a merchant has acquired the habit of watching the markets, the details of everything that relates to his business, it becomes a pleasurable excitement. instead of a tiresome effort. Indeed, habits of nice order and observation, which require the most painstaking to form, often become a hobby at last which one delights to ride as much as a child his rocking horse.

After all, what is all business but habit, the soul of which is regularity? Like the flywheel upon a steam engine, it is this last which keeps the motion of life steady and unbroken, distributing the force equally over all the work to be performed. But such habits as we have commended are not formed in a day, nor by a few faint resolutions. Not by accident, not by fits and starts-being one moment in a paroxysm of attention, and the next falling into the sleep of indifference-are they to be attained; but by steady, persistent effort. Ouce attained, they are a fortune of themselves; for, as one has well said, their possessor has

disposed thereby of the heavy end of the load of life-all that remains he can carry easily and pleasantly.

On the other hand, bad habits, once formed, will hang forever on the wheels of enterprise, and in the end will assert their supremacy, to the ruin and shame of their victim.

QUICKSILVER.

Owing, says the Baltimore Price Current, to the increased consumption of this article in the arts, and the stoppage by injunction of the great New Almaden mines, at San Jose, about sixty miles from San Francisco, in California, which produced about 30,000 iron flasks of 76 lbs. each annually, the price of this article has greatly advanced throughout the world. In New York, four or five months ago, there were abundant supplies to be had at 48 cents per pound. Now it is difficult to obtain, and small lots only can be had at 80 a 85 cents per pound. The largest consumption of the article in the United States is in California, where it is indispensable in separating the gold from the pounded quartz rock; the consumption in that State is estimated at 3,000 flasks per annum, which is about equal to the present production of the Santa Clara mines, which adjoin the New Almaden mines, and have been vigorously worked for about two years by a Baltimore company. This mine is increasing in richness, and it is expected will be soon able to double its production. The cinnibar, or ore of mercury, is reduced at the Santa Clara mine in cast-iron retorts, which experience has demonstrated to be better adapted to the purpose than the old-fashioned brick furnaces, where a large part of the mercury was lost by absorption and evaporation. Until the New Almaden mines are reworked, the supply of quicksilver must be less than the demand, and higher prices will no doubt continue for the article.

THE SPRING.

The spring has been described as backward, and is so undoubtedly in many sections. But the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has found it, and thus refers to the season in his contribution to a late number of the Independent :

"But I am whirling along the Hudson, a river that never wears out any more than it runs out. If any other land has a more glorious river, I am glad of it! The ground is all disrobed of snow. Willows are yellowing the edges of low woods. Buds are making the forests look purplish. Grass is everywhere starting, and in favored spots it has lifted up that green which all summer long shall not wear out. The plow has already been at work. Farmers are all astir. Barn yards are vocal with hens celebrating the earliest achievements in the egg speculations of another season. Calves and lambs are come. Ah, you do not know, poor creatures that live in cities-you do not know that spring has come! But the signs of the year are for the country. Now the peony is pushing up its ruddy knuckles, honeysuckles are leering out, flags are drawing their swords. the swamps are full of blackbirds, wild ducks are on the ponds, trout are ready for the angler, long wedge lines of wild geese stream northward, trumpeting as evening comes on, and they are wing weary. Brook-willows are downy with their velvet catlins-mosses in the damp woods are green. Streams are full and turbid, little ones are racing down into bigger ones, and these are pouring into other streams, and everything seems hurrying and hastening as if a universal activity had inspired the year!"