1887.] -^oJ [Garrett. 



la the fall of 1845, Mr. Chase returned to Philadelphia and conducted a 

 private school for girls, at the same time giving lessons in other schools 

 and in families. In all probability, he would have continued uninter- 

 ruptedly in the pursuit of that profession, in which he was beginning to 

 earn a measure of the "honorable fame " to which he aspired in his boy- 

 hood, had not severe haemorrhages of the lungs, occurring three years 

 later and continuing, with diminishing frequency, for ten years, compelled 

 him to relinquish teaching. His physicians recommended a life which 

 would allow of more out-door air and exercise, and he entered into a 

 manufacturing business, under the name of North, Harrison & Co. 



Two years later, John Edgar Thomson, President of the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad Company, joined the firm as special partner, and a younger 

 brother of Mr. North as general partner, under the firm name of Norths, 

 Harrison & Chase, who conducted a large foundry at Wilmington, Del., 

 with sales-rooms in Philadelphia. In the following year, Mr. Harrison 

 died, and the name was changed to North, Chase & North, and eventually 

 Chase became the head of the firm of Chase, Sharpe & Thomson, the 

 junior of which was Edgar L., a nephew of President Thomson. But 

 although their house engaged in an extensive wholesale trade extending 

 to foreign countries, tiie practical business element was somewhat deficient 

 in the head of the house, who greatly preferred intellectual pursuits, and, 

 after suffering heavy losses, he finally, in 1866, after having wasted 

 eighteen precious years in uncongenial occupations, sold out his interest 

 in the foundry business. He was at this time forty-six years of age. 

 Prof. Chase has been criticised for too much diversification of pursuits. It 

 was characteristic of this tendency, that for six or eight years prior to 

 abandoning mercantile life, he had given private lessons in the then 

 famous school for young ladies of Prof. Charles Dexter Cleveland ; and 

 five years earlier bad actually bought the furniture and good-will of 

 Prof. Cleveland, upon the hitter's retirement from teaching. This course, 

 while more to the taste of so intellectual a man, did not conduce to the 

 success of the foundry business which he was conducting, and which 

 afterwards, in the hands of a former employe, proved exceedingly profitable, 

 although the closing years of Prof. Chase's connection were the lucrative 

 years of inflation caused by the war of the Rebellion. In the very same 

 jj^ear, he also gave up the finishing school for young ladies, his own 

 impression being that "the breaking out of the war interfered with private 

 schools." He did not, however, abandon teaching, and from this time 

 until his death adhered to his chosen profession, pursuing it continuously, 

 if we except two visits to Europe, on the first of which, in 1870, he accom- 

 panied a party of young ladies who had been his former pupils and who 

 sought the benefit of his familiarity with the European languages, as well 

 as his agreeable companionship. The second visit was made in the sum- 

 mer of 1883 with members of his own family. 



His later da3's were certainly his best days as a teacher, and while a 

 natural modesty stood in the way of ambition, and he preferred a quiet 



PROC. AMEU. PlIILOS. SOC. XXIV. 126. 2k. PRINTED NOV. 31, 1887. 



