A BRIEF MERCANTILE BIOGRAPHY:

ANDREW S. NORWOOD.

The Commercial Advertiser, of November 15, 1856, announced the death of Andrew S. Norwood, an old and highly respected citizen and merchant of New York, who died at his residence in Fourteenth-street on the 14th of November, 1856. Mr. Norwood, we believe, was at the time of his death the oldest native of New York, engaged in business, being in the 87th year of his age. He was born in 1770, and up to the time of his last illness he retained a vivid recollection of the events attending the close of the revolutionary war. His father served in the army of the patriots, and was an inmate of the sugar-house here as a prisoner, until released by an exchange, and we have heard Mr. Norwood relate that he had been frequently dispatched with relief for the remaining prisoners, by his father, after his liberation.

Mr. Norwood commenced business as a merchant 1791, not having attained the age of twenty-one, as one of the firm of Norwood & Austen, and afterwards carried it on on his sole account, until about 1830, when he closed his active mercantile career. He was one of the originators and owners of the second line of packet ships between New York and Havre, consisting of the Erie, France, and other vessels, of which Messrs. Crassous & Boyd were the agents in New York, and Boisgerard & Co., in Havre. For many years past he has lived in comparative retirement, retaining his faculties in an eminent degree up to nearly the time of his death.

Mr. Norwood was a favorable specimen of the New York merchant of the old school; a man of untiring energy in his younger days, and of great enterprise, yet careful and judicious in his manner of doing business, amassing his property as the fruits of his industry and judgment, rather than by the modes of modern speculation, and preserving his reputation to the close of his long career as a man and merchant of the most uncompromising integrity.

THE COTTON PRESSES AT NEW ORLEANS.

No one, says a correspondent of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, writing from New Orleans, who has ever witnessed the operations of a New Orleans steam cotton-press can form any idea of their commercial importance, or the novelty and interest of their operations. The ordinary bales of cotton seen on our river steamers, or in the inland towns, appear to the uninitiated to have been rather tightly squeezed, but see them subjected to one of these five hundred horsepower inventions, it is rather a different affair. On the plantation the cotton is subjected to the ordinary screw press, which leaves them about four feet in diameter, but as space on board European cotton ships is all important, the steam press has been invented, by which fully one-third the bulk is saved at a trifling expense. The bale is dropped, as it were, into the knitted hands of an iron giant, and the steam let on, causing the arms to contract with a groan, or roar like an enraged elephant, pressing the mass upwards against a permanent platten, with a force that would seem to threaten annihilation. Men stand ready with ropes that are quickly passed through corrugations in the plattens, securing the compressed mass, and bale after bale is thus turned off with incredible rapidity.

TRADE BETWEEN DETROIT AND PHILADELPHIA.

The Detroit Tribune says: "We have on former occasions called attention to the fact that by the completion of the railroad from Elmira, N. Y., to Philadelphia, the merchants of our city and State are as near the latter market as to New York city. The line of communication is as direct to one city as the other, and the rates of freight are the same. There is, however, one advantage in favor of Philadelphia, from the fact that between here and there, there is one less transhipment than between here and New York city. Philadelphia is a large market, not until lately accessible to us, and for several reasons our merchants may find it to their interest to trade there. It now has a population of near 600,000, and its jobbers offer large and varied stocks to select from. Its importers import direct from Europe, and thus stand on a par with those of New York. It is a great manufacturing city, its manufactures being estimated to amount to $150,000,000 per annum, and it is a fact that our merchants now purchase in New York and Boston the manufactures of that city. Of course it is cheaper always to buy from the manufacturer. For drugs and medicines, shoes, paper hangings, certain kinds of manufactured cotton fabrics, jewelry, leather, perfumery, &c., our merchants would find Philadelphia the best city to purchase in. It is also, in consequence of the thickly settled immense coal regions in its vicinity, where all are only consumers, a good market for the sale of our surplus produce."

A GOOD LESSON FOR APPRENTICES.

The Christian Register says that a father whose son was an apprentice, re quired him to pay his board while at home. The son thought this a hardship. But he understood afterwards, the wisdom of his father, when he saw the habits his fellow apprentices had acquired in the expenditure of their wages, and the straits to which they were reduced to meet expenses, which had become habitual. Every boy should be called upon to pay a portion of his earnings for board, even at his father's house, however able the parent may be to charge him nothing. He learns thereby the proper use of money-how far it will go. The first earnings always appear large enough to indulge in expenses of dress and amusement from which they are entirely inadequate. A weekly call for a portion of these wages, soon teaches the important lesson of a strict economy in expenditure, if he would not, as so many do, begin thus early to get into debt; a step which may, and often does, harass the young, misguided apprentice through his minority.

A CURIOUS BARGAIN.

Hamilton says, in his Wandering's in North Africa-"I find among my notes of these last days, mention made of a curious bargain, which was struck in my presence; it was the sale of half a mare. The price of the entire animal was fixed at a certain sum, half of which was paid down by the purchaser, who took possession of the mare, which he was bound to keep in good condition. The foals were to be joint property, and the original proprietor could at any time have the use of the mare, or by repaying the purchase-money, again become her sole proprietor. This is a common transaction; and as a fourth, or even a smaller fraction of a mare may be thus sold, some have many masters, and serious quarrels often arise from such joint possession."

BANKRUPTCY AND BARBARISM IN LONDON.

The London Illustrated Times of a late date says:-"We are perfectly ashamed of repeating the trite apothegm that 'truth is stranger than fiction;' yet rememberance of the saying is irrepressible. For a most marvelous mixture of the wildest romance and sternest reality has recently evolved out of the proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court in the case of Mr. Mark Boyd. Amid dry details of certificates, assignees, dividends, and unsecured creditors, there suddenly started up an element combining the romantic and terrible in an extraordinary degree. A question was raised as to whether the bankrupt's brother, Mr. Benjamin Boyd, was alive or dead. It will be remembered that this gentleman went on a yachting voyage to the South Sea Islands, and has not since been heard of. It was stated in reply, that the fact of Mr. Boyd's death was by no means proved; for that a skull said to be his, and brought to London, had been found to have sound and perfect teeth, whereas the unfortunate gentleman 'wore' artificial teeth, there were consequently still some grounds for the belief that Mr. Benjamin Boyd was not dead, but was a captive among the natives. Could Mrs. Radcliffscould Monsieur Sue have invented anything more melodramatic than this? One brother beset by men of tape and quill' in London, interrogated by accountants, examined by commissioners; the other brother wandering perhaps among antipodean savages, naked and tattooed, or perhaps tomahawked, or probably eaten! And all this while shrewd men of business bandy about musty counting-houses, a grinning skull, and speculate as to whose flesh once covered the ghastly relic. Might not the Basinghall-street Romance' surpass the Mysteries of Udolpho' in in

terest."

THE FIRST AMERICAN TRADER TO THE ALABAMA VALLEY.

J. M. Thompson was the first man who ever took a cargo of provisions from the Ohio River to the Alabama Valley, and this he accomplished by means of a barge of thirty-five tons, propelled by fifteen oars, and manned by as many Keptuckians, who were all "half-horse-and-half-alligator" fellows. They had an easy time of it floating down the Mississippi, rather a dangerous one in coasting the Gulf of Mexico, and when they came in sight of the then Spanish fort of Mobile they hoisted the American flag, and passed directly up the river without even condescending to ask permission. It was a daring and high-handed act, and the guns at the fort were got ready to fire upon the tresspassers, when the commandant concluded that the men must be mad, positively crazy; so they escaped unharmed. Thompson made money by his venture, became a citizen of St. Stephen's, but died a few months after his arrival. The crew that accompanied him from the Ohio, took to evil ways, and the majority of them were either killed in private fights or executed by the Spanish authorities for breaking the laws.

ONE OF THE CURIOSITIES OF COMMERCE.

According to the Glasgow Mail, it appears a quantity of Glasgow manufactured goods, which were sent out to Australia upwards of eighteen months ago, were, owing to the depressed state of the market at the time, purchased by a firm there at a low rate, and reshipped to this country. They were, on their arrival here, repurchased by a Glasgow house, who sold them immediately afterwards to and Australian merchant. They are again on their way to the antipodes.

"DON'T STAY TOO LONG!"

We commend the subjoined truthfully pathetic waif, which we find floating among our exchanges, to merchants and business men who have no time for their wives and families. Would that every husband who reads the Merchants' Magazine might profit by it :

"Don't stay long!" said a young wife tenderly, one evening, as her husband was preparing to go out. The words themselves were insignificant, but the look of melting fondness with which they were accompanied, spoke volumes. It told the whole vast depths of a woman's love-of all her grief, when the light of his smile, the source of all her joy, beamed not brightly upon her.

"Don't stay long, husband!" and I fancied I saw the loving, gentle wife sitting alone, anxiously counting the moments of her husband's absence, every few moments running to the door to see if he was in sight, and finding that he was not, I thought I could hear her exclaiming in disappointed tones, "Not yet !"

"Don't stay long, husband!" and I again thought I could see the young wife rocking nervously in the great arm-chair, and weeping as though her heart would break, as her thoughtless "lord and master" prolonged his stay to a wearisome length of time.

Oh, you that have wives to say, "Don't stay too long!" when you go forth; think of them kindly when you are mingling in the busy hive of life, and try, just a little, to make their homes and hearts happy, for they are gems too seldom replaced. You cannot find, amid the pleasures of the world, the peace and joy that a quiet home, blessed with such a woman's presence, will afford.

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Don't stay long, husband!" and the young wife's look seemed to say, "For here in your own sweet home is a loving heart, whose music is hushed when you are absent; here is a soft breast to lay your head upon, and here are pure lips, unsoiled by sin, that will pay you with kisses for coming back soon."

TITLES OF BUSINESS FIRMS.

One of the best titles of a mercantile firm we have ever seen is "Call & Settle," which is painted in golden letters cn a sign in one of our eastern cities. Customers are reminded every time they pass, of their outstanding accounts. "Neal & Pray" is the title of another firm. But the following "beats all." Two attorneys, says an old newspaper, in partnership in a town of the United States had the name of the firm, which was "Catchum & Chetum," inscribed in the usual manner upon their office door; but as the singularity and ominous juxtaposition of the words led to many a coarse joke from passers-by, the men of law attempted to destroy in part the effect of the old association, by the insertion of the initials of their Christian names, which happened to be Isiah and Uriah; but this made the affair ten times worse, for the inscription ran: “I. Catchum & U. Chetum."

INJUNCTION FOR IMITATING TRADE MARKS.

On the 16th of December, 1856, a case was tried before Judge Hoffman in the Superior Court, New York, and an injunction issued to restrain the defendant, W. Johnson, from imitating the trade marks on soap of the plaintiffs, James B. Williams & Brothers. The judge said :

In this case it is very clear that the plaintiffs were the original claimants to the trade mark in question, and that the defendant, his agents, and others, must be restrained and enjoined from selling, or in any way disposing of any soap in boxes or other packages with labels or wrappers containing the words " genuine Yankee soap," printed or written, or from advertising, selling, or offering to sell, any soap whatever-unless the same has been manufactured by or procured from the plaintiffs-as and for genuine Yankee soap, and also from using the words in connection with the soap manufactured and offered for sale by him, and also for assimilating in any way, or using any imitation of the trade marks of said plaintiffs.

THE BOOK TRADE.

1.-Waverley Novels. In 48 volumes.

Illustrated. Household Edition. Bos

ton: Ticknor & Fields. Here, for the first time in the annals of American book-making, we have an edition of the Waverley Novels adequate to the author and to the subject. Boston may well be proud that to the enterprise of her publishers we are indebted for a series of books which will long stand unrivaled on this side of the Atlantic. Indeed, we almost doubt the reality of the title-page, and expect to see the imprint transmute itself to London in our hands; but when we turn the leaf and read the dedication, "To Washington Irving, the Friend of Sir Walter Scott," we feel that it is truly American. The paper is firm and white, and the type is beautifully clear. The illustrations are engraved in the finest manner, after original designs; and that these will be true to the scenes they portray, we have a guaranty in such names as Birket Foster, Landseer, Harvey, Faed. and Darley. The volumes are of the 16mo. size, and the publishers intend to continue the series, which they have just commenced with Waverley," by the publication of two volumes every month, until all are issued. The price is to be 75 cents per volume What better dress can brave Sir Walter wear? He has too long stood among us in a suit so threadbare that we turned our backs upon him coldly. Sometimes, to be sure, he has come to us in his courtly English garb. but then its very costliness and splendor forbade us to claim an intimate acquaintance with him. Now he comes to us richly yet plainly clad, and we need not fear to take him by the hand, and lead him home with us as an old friend and counselor. And in the whole domain of thought, there is none whose words have a truer meaning, whose wisdom is more profound; none who is more worthy of our love and honor, than rare Sir Walter Scott. He stands at the door, and his hand is on the latch. Let us bid him enter, and welcome him to the quiet round our hearths and the warmth within our hearts.

2.-Railroad Accidents; their Causes and the Means of Preventing them. By EMILE WITH, Civil Engineer. With an Introduction by AUGUSTE PERDONNET, Graduate of the Polytechnic School. Translated from the French, with an Appendix, by G. FORRESTER BARSTOW, Civil Engineer. 12mo., pp. 152. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

This book should be purchased and diligently read by every person who is in any way connected with the management of a railroad. Its information is most important, and is given in excellent method and with great clearness. The general subject of "railroad accidents," as they are termed, has been very frequently and forcibly brought before the minds of all. It has rarely happened that any catastrophe has occurred on a railroad which has not been directly owing to the ignorance or recklessness of man. A careful study of the causes of railroad accidents would be of benefit to all. In the language of the preface, it "would show those in charge of roads the dangers they are to guard against, and their own personal responsibility with respect to them; it would show passengers how many of the fatalities occurring on railroads are justly chargeable to the carelessness of the sufferers; it might show them also, that if they would travel safely, they must pay enough to maintain the road in perfect order in all its departments; and it would show stockholders that the surest protection against accidents is systematic management and the most perfect maintenance of their road in all its details."

3.-Marion Lester; or a Mother's Mistake. By Miss MINNIE S. DAVIS. 18mo., pp. 256. Boston: A. Tompkins.

A story of home and school life, launched, as the fair writer has it, "upon the literary sea, already teeming with ten thousand lights." It inculcates a religion of love rather than of fear.