He earned his first wages in the service of a religious periodical, the Methodist publication still known as _Zion's Herald,_ whose office was situated in Crosby Street near Broadway.

From there he went to learn a trade in the type foundry in Great Thames Street.
But as it was already apparent that the family road to prosperity was identical with that chosen by his elder brothers, we find him working away beside them in the bake-house by the time he was eleven.

They had already established the bakery in Rutgers Street, between Monroe and Cherry, where the family lived for so many years.

They had another shop in Pearl Street, to which Isaac used to carry bread every morning.
This was a part of his life to which he was fond of recurring in his last years.

"Thanks be to God!" he said on the first day of 1886, "how hard we used to work preparing for New Year's Day! Three weeks in advance we began to bake New Year's cakes--flour, water, sugar, butter, and caraway seeds.