74 BANQUET TO THE 



certain important branches of business on an extended 

 scale, requires ability equal at least to that demanded 

 by either of the so-called learned professions. The 

 lawyer argues his client's case, while the responsibility 

 of its decision and its consequences rest with either 

 the judge, or the jury, or both ; and whatever the 

 result, whether adverse or otherwise, his fee is secure. 

 The merchant must gather his facts often too super- 

 ficially, make his logical deductions, and arrive at 

 a decision in the silent operations of the mind, to 

 be carried into effect so promptly that it may cost 

 him in some instances the loss of half, or possibly the 

 whole, of his fortune. Such are the vicissitudes of a 

 business life, that a very small per cent of those who 

 engage in it escape failure sooner or later, and pos- 

 sibly the loss of the accumulations of a lifetime. We 

 may therefore the more cordially congratulate our 

 venerable friend. Colonel Wilder, as being one of the 

 few whose successful experience has followed him 

 so near to the closing years of a long and arduous 

 life. 



Merchants are, and always have been, especially 

 prominent in founding, as well as in supporting by 

 their liberal benefactions, philanthropic and educa- 

 tional institutions, as well as in relieving the wants 

 of their less favored fellow-men. They are also, as 

 is well known, the generous patrons of the fine arts. 

 With all these great public interests. Colonel Wilder 



