The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-24
COM. vANDERBILT.

HIS oFFIcB-THB PRIvY coUNcIL-rHE MAN AN,
HIS MANHERs-RIs HABITs-HIs CHURCH AM
TOMB. -
No man, says I" the Hermit in New York ~ II
his last letter to the Troy Times, is felt in Wal
street more than Commodore Vanderbilt vet h.
Is seldom seen there. All of his business Is done
in his Office In Fourth street. Here his broker.
meet him, receive their orders and give REPORTS
Here me plans are laid that shake the street, and
Wall street trembes at the foot of an invisible
autocrat. II the reader would care to visit the
court OF that great railroad king whose name has
become the terror Of Wall street. he NAV accom-.
pany us TO plain brick residence in Fourth street,
near Broadway, and distant from Wall street
nearly two miles. No sign indicates its imperial
occupant except that the upper story being oc.
cupied as millinery establishment bears a
legend OF that character. However, as we
enter the hall, we notice the word office ~ and
open the door thus inscribed. Here we see a
table, a few chairs and desk, at which a solitary
clerk of middle age is standing at work
The walls are bare with the exception of a few
pictures OF tnose steamships which originated the
and pair OF folding doors screen the king from
vulgar gaze. He is closeted with his marshaIs
and this privy council will last an hour or so'
one after the other they depart. and before three
O'Clock the effect OF this council will be not only
felt in Wall street. but will be flashed over the
Union. At length you are permitted TO enter.
The folding door lie opened. and you behold an
ofiice IS plain in appearance as the one Just de.
business table, thrown flush before you. on the
opposite side of which sits large man, with his
face fronting you. He is writing, and his ewes ara
fixed on the paper, so that you have moment TO
note the dignity OF frame and vast development of
brain. In few minutes the countenance rises.
and you meet its expressive and penetrating
glance.
You face the king. He smiles in pleasant ana
whole-souled manner, and in moment puts you
at ease. No stiffness nor Formally here. His
kiDgship is In himself not in etiquette He il ready
for pleasantly and will initiate one If il comes in
the line of conversation. You note those won.
oerful eyes bright and piercing and so large and
rich that one is fascinated. and does not know
how to stop gazing into them. Such IL the ap-
pearance of the railway king, and you take your
leave conscious that some men, as Shakespeare
says, " are born great" Indeed, we know a man
who would rather give five dollars to sit and look
az Commodore Vanderbilt for an hour than to
see any other sight in this city. Next door 10
the office is building Of brown stone, with spa.
cious doors and roadway. This is the commo-
dore's table, where are some of the finest horses
in the city.
Every afternoon he is wont to take an airing
and after tea game of whist affords an evening |
amusement The commodore is simple in hs |
manners and habits. He is a Representative of a !
former age, when men lived less srtiiciay than |
at the present time, and when there was more /
happiness and less show. Az for business, il ia |
his nature. He cannot help being king. He ia |
but developing himself, aud any other mode of i
life would be painful. He has in the Central 4
afforded third wonder. the Harlem and the Hud- |
son River being the first and second, and If he |
gets the Erie he will soon show the world another
wonder. On Sundays the commodore attends DR..
Hutton's church on Washington Square, and here
bis tall and dignifed form may be seen head and
'houlders above the rest of the congregation. He
8 friend of the pastor, who takes deep interest
n his welfare, and we hope will meet him in a
better world He stood by the commodore's side
when his wife was laid in the tomb, and cheered
him In that dark and trying hour. Among his re-
cent works is the completing of q tomb in the old
horavian burial ground in Staten Island. The
ubterranean chamber is about thirty feet SQUARE. |
md is surmounted by lofty shaft. and a statue
IT Grief adds peculiar finish to the spot. The
cemetery Is on an eminence, from which one gets
Tine view OF the ocean. dotted with ships.