that day into hospital supply depots, and the congregations into Samaritan bands. This grand idea was instantly acted upon, and thus within a few hours the Christian people of Boston were performing their sacrifices unto God by deeds of charity and works of love. Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, everybody were scraping lint, tearing bandages, collecting jellies, fruits, wines and other things useful to the wounded, sick and dying patriots lying in the fields and houses in and around Sharpsburg. Tremont Temple was made the grand central depot, to which all the stores were sent to be packed and shipped. During the entire day Fisk was ubiquitous and indefatigable. It is not surprising, therefore, when he says as the cars laden with these supplies collected at his suggestion, moved out on the road, that he gave utterance to his feelings of just pride at the achievements of the city, in which he had already become a respectable and influential citizen. More recently, a similar evidence was given of the generous impulses of this man's heart. When the news of the conflagration of Chicago reached New York, and the extent of the privations, sufferings ́and destitution of a large portion of the population of the destroyed city become known, Fisk appeared in Broadway with his "four-in-hand,” and called on all the people to contribute articles of domestic use of every nature for the suffering people of Chicago. The appeals were responded to with unmeasured generosity, and very soon the Erie Railway depot, of which Fisk was at the time master, presented the appearance of a general market and warehousing establishment; car load after car load of goods were shipped over Fisk's road without charge; and thus among the first to administer relief to the terrified and impoverished citizens of the burned city was this erratic, matchless Green Mountain Boy who, amidst the stir and glare of city life, the dash and selfishness of Wall street operations, kept glowing brightly in his heart the generous impulses inherited and inhaled from the surroundings and pure air of his childhood home. After a short and brilliant career as a member of the house of Jordan, Marsh & Co., Mr. Fisk was able to withdraw with a capital of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. He opened a dry good house of his own, but having laid in his stock at a time when fabrics of every class were falling in price, he very soon discovered that by the gradual sinking of the market, not only his reasonable profits but his original capital would be melted away, and that by this process he would inevitably be reduced to poverty. He, therefore, towards the latter part of the year 1864, resolved to close out his business and go to New York, hoping there to find a moreextensive field for the exercise of his peculiar talents as an operator in outside speculations. The war was drawing to a close and the control of government contracts had settled into permanent channels, so that there was nothing to be hoped for from that source. During the war Fisk had engaged in the purchase of cotton in the Confederate States, and by a system of agencies that extended into all of the cotton States, he developed a very profitable trade for the benefit of himself and those with whom he was engaged. This was but another illustration of the quickness and keenness of the foresight of this man. As soon as it was announced by President Lincoln, that it would be the policy of his administration to deprive the Southern Confederacy of as much cotton as possible, whether by capture or purchase, Fisk instantly saw, that here was an opportunity for a grand and profitable speculation. Accordingly he procured the necessary permits for a corps of agents to pass the lines of the army, and then despatched his men to the coast of the cotton States, to the Gulf of Mexico, and to the military posts on the Mississippi river, wherever cotton could be delivered from the Confederate lines. This was a very lucrative trade; it also gave full scope to the adventurous and reckless enterprise of this man of peculiar genius. His efforts were rewarded by gains that should have satisfied even a prince. Before leaving Boston, Fisk had married an estimable young lady of Springfield, Massachusetts, and lived in good style, moving in respectable society. Mrs. Fisk did not accompany her husband to New York, but continued her residence in Boston, and thus it was, that during the first year of Fisk's operations in New York, he maintained his citizenship in Massachusetts. He supported his family in fine and luxuriant style, and settled the |