The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-02
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From Our orcn COrrcspondena

UNKNOWN TO lame, and who might be excused
tor thinking that the sun rises and sets for
commodore Vanderbilt, has just finished work
upon which he has been engaged for two years
ana one week, and which has reduced him from
one hundred and ninety pounds weight to one
hundred and forty. He is a nice, plausible man,
takes well with newspaper people, has a jolly,
sociabe way, and spreads extensive "feeds at
which champagne flows like water and wit
nows like champagne. The work upon which
he has been engaged is
The Allegoricnl Representation of Commodore
VRnderbil's Life in Bronze.
lie showed me the completed design of it yes
terday afternoon, and should have been de-
lighted with it even If he had not asked me
Immediately afterwards to partake at 4 P. NJ. of
collation. that he had provided at a certain
place in st. Johns Park. / declined the COLA
ton. always do. But admired the bronze.
The work is stupendous. The figure of Wander
bilt is particularly good. The bronze chef
deurre will occupy the top of the front of the
new depot erected on the site of old st. Johns
Park. Over half million of dollars have
already been expended upon it. In honor of its
having been completed, some Of the best repre-
sentatiyes of Gotham journalism yesterday
afternoon partook of the Degroot collation. and
recovered sufficiently to go to their evening
work comparatively sober. But let me
subject which is really very interesting and i'm
portant. During the past month fifty men have
been secretly employed in erecting this bronze
work on the north wall of the new Hudson River
Railroad Depot. 1t contains Commodore Van
derbilts life in bronze. The project con-
ceived IN 1861 by Captain Albert Tegroot the
builder of the Prescott House on Broadway, and
the former commander of the Reindeer, the
Niagara, and other Hudson river steamboats,.
He secured the services of Mr.. Ernest Plassman
one of the most skillful artists in the country,
and an immense foundry was built for the pur-
pose of making the castings. Ten months
elapsed before the mod els were completed,
Last September the work was cast in square Sec
tions of manageable size. The various parts
were securely boxed up, and by means of an
immense scaffolding hoisted to their places and
held there by more than 2000 iron anchors
weighing more than four tons. The completed
work covers more than 1925 square feet in a
straight line, and thirty-one feet in extreme
height, weighs nearly 100000 pounds, and
costs, have said, more
than $5OOOOO. 1t consists of an immense
bronze statue of Commodore Vanderbilt, which
occupies the centre, and which is surrounded by
those scenes which symbolize his progress from
his youth to his old age. 1t is twelve feet high
nearly solid, weighs four tons, and is probably
known photograph by Brady, and represents the
Commodore with head uncovered, wearing
heavy, fur-trimmed overcoat his left foot slightly
advanced, his right hand inserted beneath his
vest, and his left extended. The bas-relief is
ten feet high, and terminates in massive SCROLL
work, representing leaves and plants. On the
right hand is illustrated the Commodore's marine
life, on the left his railroad life. At the right
are Neptune, grasping rudder, and the Pali-
sades of the Hudson, with Dred, the little two
masted 'perryaugur," in which, fifty years ago,
Vanderbilt carried passengers from New York
to Staten Island at two shillings head. 1t
would be tedious to follow the allegory through
in all its minute details. 1t is sufficient to say
that both the marine and the railroad life of the
Commodore are followed out a scale at once
gigantic and minute, and that the result is a
masterpiece in bronze such as was never before
witnessed in this country.
Governor Hoffman
was in town yesterday. / saw him walking
down Broadway alone, and as unconcernedy as
though he were only Mayor, instead of Governor,
and in the habit of signing orders 80. X, as
Mayor Oakley Hall, | ought to say,is in the habit
of doing. This is what it is to have man OF
genius Gnstead of a man of judgment for
Mayor. Your men of genius are always sinners
against the proprietes. Give them hinch
cas- an Englishman once said to me-, and they
take a hell-or send you to it.
Count Johannes
has been writing one of his characteristic three
column letters to the Herald in defense of Lord
Byron. That gentleman Count Johannes, not
Lord Byron always puts one in mind of "Mr
Solomons" in The Stranger, the amount of cor
respondence and the degree of intimacy he man
ages to keep up with distinguished people in all
quarters of the world being something truly
amazing. His present pretensiOns in regard tc
Lord Byron are that he was well acquainted
with his half sister, Mrs. Colonel Leigh, anC
mildly intmates that Queen Victoria and hC
were not far from nobnobbing together over hi
Lordship's character and Mrs. Leghs tea anC
toast. The Count says he would defend Lore
Byron's character to the death, if necessary. II,
does great deal better in having defended it t
the life. / am sure no one in New York coulC
do it better, although if the defense came to b
decided by mortal combat the Count would pro
badly find that the pen is mighter than thu
sword, or the pistol either, for that matter
There is only one man better known in New
York newspaper offices than Count Johanna
with that brown wig and that black coat, ant
that man is Daniel Pratt, the great American ira
Weller. Every editor feels like travelling whel
Pratt or the Count comes around.
i thought
Annie LOnsdale,
she plump sOubrette dead long ago, bu
now 1t seems she is to play the part of Mrs
Boxer" in FOrmOSd, at Nblo's The last tim
l..