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dustry, Energy, Enterprise, and Success in Life-the "representative men, who may serve as a key to universal mercantile history." The plan of this publication has been maturing for many years, and we now have the satisfaction of stating that the first volume is in press, and will be published early in December of the present year, and the second during the year 1856.

The first volume will embrace several biographies that have appeared in the pages of this Magazine, but these have been revised, corrected, and enlarged. Others were written expressly for the forthcoming work.

That our readers may form some idea of the character of the series, we give the names of the subjects of these memoirs, as well as the names of the contributors to the collection, as follows:

1. THOMAS HANDASYD PERKINS. By Hon. THOMAS G. CARY, of Boston. 2. THOMAS PYM COPE. By Hon. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, of Philadelphia.

3. PETER CHARDON BROOKS. By Hon. Edward EVERETT, LL. D., of Boston. 4. NICHOLAS BROWN.

5. STEPHEN GIRARD.

6. SAMUEL WARD. BY CHARLES KING, LL. D., President of Columbia College. 7. MATHEW CAREY. Corrected and Revised by his son, HENRY C. CAREY, Esq. 8. THOMAS EDDY.

9. JONATHAN GOODHUE.

10. JOSEPH PEABODY. By George Atkinson Ward, Esq. 11. JACOB LORILLARD. By Rev. WILLIAM Berrian, D. D.

12. GIDEON LEE. BY CHARLES M. LEUPP, Esq., of New York.

13. WALTER R. JONES. By W. A. JONES, A. M., Librarian of Columbia College. 14. SAMUEL APPLETON. By EPHRAIM P. PEABODY, D. D., of Boston.

15. JOSEPH MAY.

16. SAMUEL SLATER. By Rev. JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D, of New Jersey.
17. ALEXANDER HENRY. By S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, Esq., of Philadelphia.
18. JONAS CHICKERING. By J. L. BLAKE, D. D.

19. ASA CLAPP.

20. PATRICK TRACY JACKSON. By JOHN AMORY LOWELL, Esq., of Mass.

The first volume will be illustrated with NINE fine engravings on steel, including portraits of T. H. PERKINS, THOMAS P. COPE, PETER C. BROOKS, JAMES G. King, SamUEL APPLETON, SAMUEL SLATER, JONAS CHICKERING, ASA CLAPP, and PATRICK TRACY JACKSON. The work, in two volumes, will be printed on fine paper and a new and distinct type. Each volume will contain between five and six hundred pages octavo, handsomely bound in muslin. The subscription price is fixed at FIVE DOLLARS for the two volumes, or TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS per volume, payable on delivery of each. The Boston Evening Transcript, referring to our plan, alluding to the "noble specimens of the true merchant" furnished by that city, says :

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Mr. HUNT, in this enterprise, is doing for the commercial biography of the country what JARED SPARKS has done for our American biography generally."

The plan of our work is in some respects different from that of Mr. Sparks. His collection embraces the lives of all persons who have been distinguished in America from the date of its first discovery to the present time. It includes, however, few that were merchants, and of those few very little of the mercantile life is given. Our work is confined to the merchants and business men of the past and present century, and while we give prominence to the events and circumstances connected with the diversified pursuits of commercial enterprise, it will be an important part of our plan to embrace whatever pertains to the merchant in his public or private career—as a citizen, a patriot, a statesman, and in all the relations of social and domestic life.

It has been well remarked that "the two principal objects to be attained in biographical compositions are accuracy as to facts and finish in the literary execution." This, as to the first requisite, at least, has, we think, been attained, and the accomplished scholarship of the writers of several of the biographies, (leaving our own labors out of the question,) is a sufficient guaranty for the last named requisite-the literary execution.

We entered upon our semi-literary and commercial field of labor some seventeen years since, and the THIRTY-THREE Volumes of the Merchants' Magazine afford, in our opinion, pretty conclusive evidence that we have not been idle in our pioneer efforts to establish a commercial literature, and give it a "habitation and a name.”

THE NAMES OF SHIPS A NATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC.

Let a close observer take a stroll leisurely among the shipping that lines the East River, says the Journal of Commerce, and he will find that the naming of their ships is as significant an index to the national peculiarities of a people, as more consequential matters. The Spaniard evinces the superstitious tendency of his mind by such titles as-Santissima Trinidada, St. Joseph, Mother Mary, &c.; and one ill-looking hermaphrodite brig we observed discharging cargo, bore on her stern the euphonious appellation of the "Twelve Apostles."

The French, again, manifest their gaite and gallantry, by such titles for their ships as La Belle Julie, La Bayadere, La Prima Donna.

We met with but one Italian vessel, and she was small and of most primitive construction. Her sticks were badly strained; instead of the modern wheel, her rudder was governed by a tiller of rough wood, with the end carved into a grotesque resemblance of a dog's head. She was also a little "hogged;" and, in contrast with the graceful outlines and raking masts of the clippers that were near her, she appeared to as much disadvantage as a deformed man among a file of picked soldiers. We boarded her, sought the captain; but he spoke no English, and beyond a few phrases from the operas, our own Italian is bankrupt. We essayed German, however, and there he was at home-invited us to enter his cabin, and pressed upon us his hospitalities. But the name of the ship was The Archangel, and it confirms our theory. We found but two Dutch (Holland) vessels in our walk, and these two strengthened the convietion; for the Dutch are an industrious, frugal people, and the names of the vessels in question were The Beaver, and the Gold Hunter.

John Bull's crustiness and pugnacity were abundantly attested by such names as The Badger, The Gladiator, The Spitfire, The Boxer, The Julius Cæsar, &c.

And Jonathan, our Brother Jonathan, whose energies promise to revolutionize the world, whose motto is speed, progression, and universal dominion, shows his devotion to those objects by calling his ships Sovereign of the Seas, King of the Clippers, Flying Pigeon, West Wind, Game Cock, Frightened Lightning, &c.

CHOCOLATE TRADE OF BOSTON.

Few are aware of the extent of the chocolate business, or the supremacy which Boston has obtained in its manufacture. Of the hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of chocolate (in its different forms) sold in America during the year, nearly all is manufactured by firms, according to the Boston Chronicle, in that city. Scarcely a vessel leaves for a foreign port but has it on board. The business is not of sudden growth; by fifty years of labor only has it been established, and the names of John Preston & Sons, and Walter Baker, rendered synonymous with the article they have so long made. The manufactories are situated in Dorchester. A short time since we

had the pleasure of witnessing the process by which the rough bean is prepared for use. In the storehouse on the one side were heaped huge sacks of the cocoa bean, as it arrives from South America and the West Indies; and on the other, tall sacks of the prepared article.

There was broma for the invalid, and bags upon bags of shells and cracked cocoa. There was cocoa paste, cocoa sticks and carraccus for ships' use, confectioners' chocolate, and some half dozen different brands of the article whose names we do not remember. In the roasting-room the beans are roasted, (not baked,) and then ground. After going through the many processes of mixing and molding, cooling and sorting, papering and boxing, the mass is ready for sale and for use, and it goes throughout the country. Boston takes the lead in many things, but in the chocolate business she reigns supreme, and America stands to that city for the whole supply.

MAGNETISM IN TRADE.

There are few of the readers of the Merchants' Magazine engaged in trade that will not feel the force of the following remarks from the pen of the clever editor of the Philadelphia Merchant :—

There is a kind of magnetism in trade that goes a great ways towards explaining the greater success of one man over another who seems to have equal opportunities. While conversing with a very enthusiastic friend the other day, he remarked:

"How queer it is that sometimes when a customer enters the store I feel as though it would be impossible to sell him or her a fip's worth, but at another time I feel as though I could make a customer buy just what I feel inclined to sell. There's a real magnetism about it."

Yes," we replied, "and your battery is not always in order."

"What!" he answered, "do you mean the difference is all in me ?"

"Most certainly, for you confess that it is all a matter of feeling," we replied, "and the great means of always keeping up this magnetic power is to be absorbed in what we are doing, by avoiding temptations to day-dreaming and hazy speculation." We think that here's an important matter for every salesman. Whatever is to be done well must be done earnestly-the man must be fully magnetized for the labor before him-fully charged with earnestness. We have seen good and extensive customers provoked and impelled to leave a business establishment by the lackadaisical manner in which they were treated. They found it difficult to tell whether the salesman was disposed to sell at all, or had no confidence in the customer's intention to buy. They like something akin to real home-heartiness; they want to find a man in the full bloom of true enterprise; and they almost instinctively catch the indifference of the salesman, and draw themselves away without becoming purchasers.

There is more in this matter of magnetism in trade than many will be willing to allow; but if they will try a little while the whole souled way of attending on their business, treating every customer as though each one might be a large purchaser, they will find new success, and will enjoy attention to business with more relish than they have ever known.

BUYING WINE BY SAMPLE.

We applaud the penetration and the management of one of our old Commodores in a Spanish port, years ago. He bought a cask of wine, he liked the flavor of it, in one of those enormous cellars, where the Spanish merchants store their immense stock, and where they, if the truth must be revealed, also mix, brew, and manufacture them. "To what place shall I send the pipe ?" inquired the merchant.

"Nowhere," said the blunt sailor; "I will take it with me," and then appeared a competent number of sailors with a vehicle all ready for the purpose.

The merchant hesitated, demurred, and objected to delivering it for one reason or other, and finally offered a handsome sum if he would take another cask next to it, just as good, in its room, as this particular one had been disposed of. This made the Commodore still more earnest and resolved; so he insisted on paying the Spanish trader his bill, and took away his prize without asking "by your leave."

It was worth double the sum he gave for it, as it was a sample cask of the pure article, which he and all who went to that cellar to purchase were to taste, as a criterion of the whole. When the article was sent home, after the bargain, another was always put in its stead. The poor merchant was thus deprived of his decoy till he could prepare a new one, at considerable cost. This time he made a poor bargain with the American Commodore, who used to tell his friends at Washington, when be treated them to it, that it was the best battle he ever fought, and he had seen sharp service in 1813.

STICK TO SOME ONE PURSUIT.

There cannot be a greater error than to be frequently changing one's business. If any man will look around and notice who has got rich and who has not, out of those he started in life with, he will find that the successful have generally stuck to some one pursuit.

Two lawyers, for example, begin to practice at the same time. One devotes his whole mind to his profession, lays in slowly a stock of legal learning, and waits patiently, it may be for years, till he gains an opportunity to show his superiority. The other, tiring of such slow work, dashes into politics. Generally, at the end of twenty years the latter will not be worth a penny, while the former will have a handsome practice, and count his tens of thousands in bank stock or mortgages.

Two clerks attain a majority simultaneously. One remains with his former employers, or at least in the same line of trade, at first on a small salary, then on a larger, until finally, if he is meritorious, he is taken into partnership. The other thinks it beneath him to fill a subordinate position, now that he has become a man, and accordingly starts in some other business on his own account, or undertakes for a new firm in the old line of trade. Where does he end? Often in insolvency, rarely in riches. To this every merchant can testify.

A young man is bred a mechanic. He acquires a distaste for his trade, however, thinks it is a tedious way to get ahead, and sets out for the West or California. But, in most cases, the same restless, discontented, and speculative spirit, which carried him away at first, renders continued application at any one place irksome to him; and so he goes wandering about the world, a sort of semi-civilized Arab, really a vagrant in character, and sure to die insolvent. Meantime his fellow-apprentice, who has stayed at home, practicing economy, and working steadily at his trade, has grown comfortable in his circumstances, and is even perhaps a citizen of mark.

There are men of ability, in every walk of life, who are notorious for rever getting along. Usually, it is because they never stick to any one business. Just when they have mastered one pursuit, and are on the point of making money, they change it for another, which they do not understand; and, in a little while, what little they are worth is lost forever. We know scores of such persons. Go where you will, you will generally find that the men who have failed in life are those who never stuck to one thing long.

FACTS ABOUT CUBA TOBACCO AND CIGARS,

A late Havana circular says the "Vuelto Abajo" leaf, which goes into the fabric of our best cigars, and of which the choice selections are rarely shipped, there being no market which can make profitable returns for it, averages, for selections of the several classes, $100 to $125 per bale, and the quantity of really choice leaf is so small in proportion to the whole crop made, that this sale is maintained from year to year. The bale or cercon of Vuelta Abajo weighs from 70 to 90 pounds, but in making contracts

it is never weighed—each one making his own estimate, as the price per bale is fixed -selections of what are termed "1sts," if to be purchased separately, would cost $120 to $160 per bale-and lower qualities, classed "2ds" and "3ds," from $90 to $150 per bale. The Windward leaf, or the most common tobacco of island culture, is always weighed and contracted for by actual weight, although put up in the same class of packages as the fine leaf. This goods, of inferior quality, is frequently purchased at from $4 to $5 per 100 pounds, from the planter directly; and much of it is shipped to the United States and Germany, where it is Cuba leaf at any rate. Cigars are infinite almost in variety, but of reputable factories can be purchased from $12 to $70 per thousand. Three or four factories that rule the taste of the smoking world are arbitrary in their tariffs, predicated upon long established fame, and they permit no fluctuations. In the last week there were shipped hence to all quarters of the world, 2,234,500 cigars and 155,888 pounds of leaf tobacco; and this year, to date, 178,396,750 cigars and 4,812,254 pounds leaf tobacco; of which, during the week, to the United States, 858,000 cigars and 64,445 pounds leaf tobacco; and this year, to date, 81,156,250 cigars and 1,371,719 pounds of leaf tobacco.

NEW YORK COTTON MARKET FOR THE MONTH ENDING OCTOBER 26. PREPARED FOR THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE BY UHLHORN & FREDERICKSON, BROKERS, NEW YORK.

A downward tendency in price has existed throughout the entire month, and since the close of our last monthly report (September 21st) the decline is fully one cent to one-and-a-quarter cents per pound on all grades. This rapid retrograde movement in price was not anticipated, notwithstanding the very favorable condition of the maturing crop and excessive receipts at the South, but is caused by the difficulties attending our largest customer-Great Britain. The present commercial embarrassment of both England and France seems probable to be further extended; and to save her gold, the Bank of England has advanced the rate of discount two per cent during the past month; while France, to save her credit, has purchased largely of gold with her capital. The fall of Sebastopol was looked upon by many as likely to be the last act in the bloody tragedy played by the European victors, and that peace, with its attendant security, would again take the place of insecurity, loss of life, and waste of money. A continuation of the war to an indefinite period seems now certain, and the vast drain of material required to carry it on begins to affect most seriously the course of trade both in Europe and America, and a dull state of trade in Manchester needs no telegraph to inform the Southern planter of the fact. The decline in the Liverpool market during the past month has been d. to 3d. per pound, while the stock on hand on the 5th of October is represented to be only 518,960 bales, against 795,700 bales same date 1854. The consumption since January 1st is put down at 1,618,380 bales, against 1,423,900 bales for same time in 1854. Messrs. Du Fay & Co., of Manchester, in their Trade Report for October, observe that "the fact is incontrovertible, that our stocks-with the exception of goods suitable for India-are light, and that firm prices are maintained for articles which have to be manufactured expressly for particular purposes. Our market is therefore a healthy one," &c. Yet notwithstanding the above statement of the consumption, stocks, and course of trade in the manufacturing districts, a monetary distress seems inevitable, and a lack of confidence is observable which renders commercial operations embarrassing.

The transactions in this market during the month amount to 22,500 bales; of which our own manufacturers have taken 11,000 bales, the balance being taken for export on orders and under advances. The month closes with a very moderate demand at prices in favor of buyers, and a small stock, which alone prevents a greater decline than that quoted above.

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