190                  THE   OLD .MERCUAXTS
 

CHAPTER XIX.

I am not aware that there ever lived in New Yorfe
city a more respectable commercial house — one that
bore a mercantile credit unstained, and never tainted
— than the firm of Coster Brothers & Co., before 1786
and " Brothers Coster & Co.," for ten years after — as
I have their signature before me in 1796 — and " Hen¬
ry A. and John G. Coster," as they signed after 1801,
until Henry A. died in 1821.

What a splendid pair of old merchants ? They did
honor to New York. That house added greatly to its
wealth. They were Hollanders — modern Dutch —
the right sort of stuff to make good old merchants of
in the New World. Of the two brothers, Henry A.
Coster was the oldest. Both were born in Haarlem,
Holland, the city where the great organ is. Probably
Henry received his commercial education in an Amster¬
dam counting house. He came out to this city previous
to the Revolution — I believe he was sent out as agent
by an Amsterdam house. His brother John G., who
had been educated for a physician, did not come out un¬
til a few years later. No better mercliants ever lived
in tliis city than these two. When these two honest,
guileless merchants formed a partnership in the town, for
it  was a  small one, their place of business was  at  2C