Charles Francis Adams Jr. reflects on his life in business.

Shortly before his death, Adams, who lived at 20 Gloucester Street from 1886 to 1896, writes, “I have known, and known tolerably well, a good many ‘successful’ men – ‘big’ financially – men famous during the last half-century, and a less interesting crowd I do not care to encounter. Not one that I have ever know would I care to meet again, either in this world or the next; nor is one of them associated in my mind with the idea of humor, thought or refinement. A set of mere money-getters and traders, they were essentially unattractive and uninteresting.”