Rothrock.] ^<8 [Nov. 19, 



Copes. He once stated to the writer that his fondness for read- 

 ing had saved him man}' a temptation after he had left the farm. 



This shipping-house was well known from its connection with 

 the "Cope Liners," chose justly celebrated packets between 

 Pniladelphia and Liverpool, which before the days of steam 

 vessels were the pride of our city. 



The} 7 were then the most important vessels which came to this 

 port. In size they had but lew superiors in either the American 

 or foreign merchant service. Built as strong as iron and oak 

 could make them, they well reflected the character of the house 

 which owned them. But a few months since, one of these an- 

 cient liners (which is now engaged in the petroleum trade) ap- 

 peared in the river and was tied up at her old Walnut street 

 berth. Immediately she became the centre of attraction to those 

 who could remember the part she had taken in making the com- 

 mercial past of Philadelphia so glorious. Under Thomas P. 

 Cope Mr. Price received a full mercantile education. Then he 

 spent a year with J. C. Jones, Oakford & Co., to prepare espe- 

 cially for the China trade, for which he appears to have had a 

 most intense longing. However, by the time he had become of 

 age, that trade was so depressed that he felt justified in seeking 

 a career in another field. Accordingly he became a student of 

 law in the office of the Honorable John Sergeant. This change of 

 plan was certainly as fortunate for Philadelphia as for Mr. 

 Price. There is no question but that the time spent in acquir- 

 ing the details of mercantile life was of great value to him in his 

 subsequent career. John Sergeant could not help respecting a 

 young man who had won the esteem of the Copes by his sobriety 

 and persistent attention to duty, and the great lawyer became 

 and continued to be a firm friend to his pupil. The field opened 

 by the law afforded a wider career where his relations with his 

 fellows were more intimate, and where, above all, he could, even 

 as an attorney, often act as judge, thus greatly contributing to 

 peace and justice in the conflicting claims between man and man. 



