Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1886 — In the Olden Time. [ARTICLE]

In the Olden Time.

W. W. Corcoran, the eminent philanthropist and millionaire at Washington, tells a 1 story which illustrates the feeling which animated a former generation of statesmen as to business dealings. When Mr. Polk was President he bad in his charge a few thousands of dollars placed in trust with him for a minor, his relative. He asked Mr. Corcoran, his personal friend, as well as a banker and financier of ability, to invest this‘sum for his protege. Mr. Corcoran did so. A few months later the President questioned the banker about this investment, when Mr. Corcoran told him, with no little pleasure, that he had done very well with it; that he had put it in United States bonds; that these had advanced, and that he had already quite a little profit on the adventure. “My dear sir,” said Mr. Polk,” “I beg you will change the investment at once. Whatever profit there may be, turn it over to some charitable institution. I must not alio,w it even to be hinted that the President of the United States is speculating In the securities of his own Government, and I can not al ow my ward to touch one cent of the proceeds of such a transaction. —Louisville Cour-ier-Journal."