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part of his life his whole attention was occupied in taking care of his great
blocks of real estate.
While other merchants went to their desks at nine, Astor could always be
seen there at prompt seven. He early in life, before leaving his old home on
the Rhine, resolved to be honest, to be industrious, and to avoid gambling.
Upon this solid moral basis he built the superstructure of his fame and
secured his great wealth.
The one great act of John Jacob Astor's life, which must forever keep the
name of Astor before the people, is the establishment of the Astor Library
by donating for that purpose $400,000, to which have been added large
contributions by his son William B., to whom the elder Astor left about
$20,000,000. The library contains about two hundred thousand volumes, the
catalogue alone contains two thousand five hundred pages alphabetically
arranged. The Astors are the principal real estate owners of America.

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