Charles Talleyrand, Prince of Benevento, and perhaps the greatest
diplomat in history. We have Ben Franklin learning to ink type in his
youth and in his maturity teaching the world how to subdue our favorite
slave, the lightning. We have Daniel Webster ploughing on a farm and
afterward delighting two worlds with the magic of his voice. We see John
Jacob Astor arrive in America scarcely able to speak English, and die in
1848 worth more than any other man in America at that time. We see
George Peabody at work in a grocery at Danvers. Years afterward, as a
London banker, we chronicle his charities, almost fabulous in their
extent: To Danvers, Mass., two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; to
the Baltimore Institute, one million four hundred thousand dollars; to
the poor of London, two million five hundred thousand dollars; to the
southern negroes, three million five hundred thousand dollars; to eight
institutions, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars; to his
relatives, five million dollars; We see A.T. Stewart hard pressed for a
dollar, and we find him worth thirty millions when he dies. We watch