Excerpt from Famous American Fortunes and the Men Who Have Made Them: A Series of Sketches of Many of the Notable Merchants, Manufacturers, Capitalists, Railroad Presidents, Bonanza and Cattle Kings of the Country The story Of their combined lives is the history Of the United States from the beginning of the century; and from the days when Astor troubled himself over the success of his fur-trading expeditions to the triumphs of Jay Gould in Wall street is outlined a complete record Of industry and enterprise in the United States, and the men at the head of affairs in this age. The young Of the country, bent on the carving out of their own destinies, will find ample encouragement and inspiration from a perusal of its pages. The Old will enjoy the reading of biographies so remarkable in many instances as to appear well-nigh improbable; while people of all ranks and degrees will be interested in the stories Of how great fortunes have been won and the uses to which they have been applied. There are sketches Of educators and reformers, iconoclasts and tread-mill money-getters, and valuable lessons are to be learned from each and all their lives. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.