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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



as he did not like the climate nor were there financial inducements for 

 his doing so. He was now his own master and decided to go north and 

 try his fortune in the then small and remote French trading post known 

 as St. Louis. He accordingly embarked upon the Maid of New Orleans, 

 and after a long and tedious voyage landed at St. Louis on May 3, 1819. 



Fig. 16. Henry Shaw ; from a watercolor painting at the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden, by permission of the Director. 



He began business on the second floor of a building which he found 

 for rent, and for a time lived, cooked and sold his small stock of cutlery 

 in this one room. The capital with which he bought his first stock of 

 goods was furnished by his uncle. While Mr. Shaw's main object at 

 this time was to make money, and while he denied himself many youth- 

 ful enjoyments, he still did not thus deny himself beyond reasonable 

 limits. 



He had been succeeding in business, and when the balance sheet for 

 1839 was struck it showed to his own great surprise a net gain for the 

 year of $35,000. His figures were gone over again and again until there 

 could be no doubt of the fact. It seemed to him that " this was more 

 money than any man in my circumstances ought to make in a single 

 year.'' Accordingly, the following year, when opportunity offered, he 

 closed out his business. At this time he was forty years of age, physic- 

 ally and mentally unimpaired, and vigorous, a free man, and the pos- 

 sessor of $250,000, equivalent to more than $1,000,000 at the present 

 time. 



