Peter Cooper / The Riverside Biographical Series, Number 4

-three, Mr. Cooper said at a

about sixty cents per head of the population. Not a single steam engine had yet been built or erected on the American continent; and the people were clad in homespun, and were characterized by the simple virtues and habits which are usually associated with that primitive garb. I need not tell you what the country now is, and what

f the oldest men who have ever lived; but I do not feel old, and I

e snows of so many winters upon my head, my faith in human nature, my belief in the progress of man to a better social condition, and especiall

emed to me calculated to advance the general good. This will account for my early attempt to perfect the steam engine, for my attempt to construct the first American locomotive, for my connection with the telegraph in a course of efforts to unite our country with the European world, and for my recent efforts to solve the problem o

er to fit them for the reception of new ideas, social, mechanical, and scientific-hoping thus to economize and expand the intellectual as well as the physical forces, and provide a larger fund for distribution among the va

as quiet and painless. Surrounded by his children and grandchildren, and whispering with almost his last breath the desi

sion to look upon the beloved face. Eighteen young men from the Cooper Union surrounded it, as a guard of honor. A body of 3500 students of that institution, of both sexes, marched by, casting flowers upon the coffin, an

o business and hung in black. The flags on all public buildings, and on the ships in the harbor, were at half-mast. The bells of all churches were

ve that character, but to become personally known to many thousands of those whom he sought unselfishly to serve. Few persons except military commanders have such an opportunity. The philanthropists who labor in secret, no matter with what noble motive, and do not come face to face with their beneficiaries, may

elf with his gi

hungering nei

TNO

efore his own, Mr. Cooper dictated the following pas

imes at longer intervals. It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life that I can believe that she has been, and is now, my guardian angel, and it is one

e Secretary of the Treasu

March 23, 1868, before the Maryland Institute, by Hon. J. H. B. Latrobe, giving h

pt of his Re

mmediate practical considerations, which has been menti

fulfilled,-namely, that the company shall be prepared to furnish water at all times, on demand. It is said that, in compliance with this requirement, a small steam pump is kept continually running, in connection with a short system of pipes, somewhere near the City Hall, and that the company stands ready to furnish water to any applican

450.01. Of the invested sum $953,159.30 is in "special endowments," of which the income only can be expended. This fund comprises $200,000 from Peter Cooper and $340,000 from the family of the late William Cooper, his brother; the remainder is made up of smaller gifts (the chief of which are a bequest of $30,000 from Wilson G. Hunt, one of the original trustees, and $10,000 each from Mary Stuart, J. Pierpont Morgan, Morris K. Jesup, and John E. Parsons), and o

and especially (being no longer dependent for annual income upon rents) to utilize the whole of the building for educational

eminded of the closing lines

is music

der's b

fs and thought of the multitude laboring beneath them or trudging through the streets ("up one ca?on and down another," as old Jim Bridger the scout said in St. Louis), ignorant of the upper sphere within reach, he might well have felt that one part of his original scheme would still be a physical and moral boon to the metropolis. In fact the disappearance of the "vacant lots," so numerous in his youth, and so freely available as informal parks and playgrounds, had created new necessity

Mr. Hunt and Mr. Tiemann have since died, and Mr. R. Fulton Cutting

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