He therefore set to work to win popularity for the paper once more. This he succeeded gradually in doing, and during the next ten years there was an average yearly profit of over $10,000, of which Bryant received a little less than half. In 1850 the yearly profit was $16,000, and in 1860 it was $70,000. If Bryant received $30,000 for his share of the profits of a year’s business, he might be regarded as a rich man. After his death, the _Evening Post_ was sold for $900,000, of which Bryant’s share was half. During his later years he bought a great deal of land and many houses on Long Island, where he had a country home. He had another country home at Cummington, his grandfather’s homestead, where he built a beautiful house. He also traveled a great deal, going to Europe many times, and to other parts of the world. Thus, by faithful, plodding work for many years Bryant, though a poet, became rich. He was delicate and sympathetic, like all true poets, but he did not indulge in what some have supposed to be the poet’s liberty to be reckless and careless. He worked faithfully and very diligently all his life; and in his old age he was well rewarded for all his labor. CHAPTER X BRYANT AS AN ORATOR AND PROSE WRITER When Bryant went to New York it was a comparatively small city. As years passed, it grew in size and wealth, and its newspapers became more important. We have seen how Bryant became rich by his ownership of the _Evening Post_. He also gained in honors. He was the editor of a great daily paper, and he was also a noted poet. His poems had been published both in this country and in London, and many thousands of copies were sold. Bryant was often asked to write poems for great celebrations, or in honor of well-known people. This he always refused to do. But he often made public addresses. When James Fenimore Cooper died, he acted, as it were, as the spokesman of the nation’s grief. He pronounced the funeral eulogy upon Irving, and upon many noted people. He was not a great orator like Daniel Webster; but such speeches as these upon the lives of great men have seldom been surpassed. We must remember, too, that all his life Bryant, in his editorials, was writing prose. From these editorials it would be easy to select some of the finest pieces of prose writing in our language. As most of them were on the passing events of the day, they have never been reprinted,—they have died with the newspaper. But here is a passage on the emancipation of the slaves which has the ring of true eloquence. President Lincoln had proposed gradual emancipation.