Harper And Brothers

In an articlc on Fletolier Harper, the New York World says : " Upon tho death of Wesley Harper, in 1870, a new organizaron of tho iirm was inevitable. Each of the brothers had one son or more, nov grown to man's estáte, who had been trained in the business - eaeh one specially in some particular departmcnt of it, bnt each with a general knowledge of the whole. Eaeh of these had naturally becomo the special assistant of the father. These wero all admitted as members of the firm, soon no logger to bo Harper & Brothers, though still retaining the old designation. The present members are Fletcher Harper and his son, Fletcher, Jr. , bom in 1829 ; Philip J. A.., son of James, born in 1824 ; John Wesley, born in 1830, and Joseph Abner, born in 1833, sous of John ; and Josoph Wesley, born in 1830, son of Wesley. There are also grandsons of the original members who have important places in the establishmpnt. 5" Of tho wealth of the flrm no one but themselves can speak with any certainty of being even approximatoly correct. There is no reason to suppose that it approaches in amount thiit left by Astor or Stowart, or that heltl by Vanderbilt, and it is, undoubtedly, surpassed by that of several magnates of the commercial and financia! world. But it is the accumulation of flfty yoars of marked and uninterrupted success. Probably thoro has not been for half a century a single year, except that of their groat fire, when they were not considcrably richer at the close than they had been at the commoncenient. The establishment iu Franklin square, incliiding buildings, machinery, and stereotyped plates, must be worth at least $2,000,000 or $3,000,000, and vcry probably considerably more. The annual profits of the threo periodicals for the last ten yoars can hardly be less than $400,000, and this by no nieans tho main source of inconie, for every oue of the thousands of volumes on thoir list is presumeel to afford a considerable, and not a few of them a vcry large, proüt year by year. Making alíowance for a libera), though by no means lavish, personal and housohold expenditure, the annual aggregate of capitalized proiits must be very large ; and thero can be no room for doubt that the firm, of which Fletcher Harper ia tho senior member, must stand high up in the list of American millionaires."