Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-09-27

One of the Commodores sons is a Aighty
fellow, though perhaps this means that ho
has no mind for laying up treasure where
neither moth corrupts nor thieves break
through and steal. At any rate the old
man and himself see little of each other.
The Commodore has several married daugh-
ters and grandchildren and one living
brother. He was born in Washington's
administration, can remember JefIerson's,
and was voter in Madison's. Greater than
himself or his treasures are the patriotic
wonders surrounding such life the coun-
try has come up from six millions and fir-
teen States TO be what it Is, and this mans
private property is probably greater than
the value of all the highway improvements
and vehicles of transportation in America
at the time he was born. 1t is the republic
that can make one man most unequally
prosperous. There probably exists nothing
of note which Vanderbilt created, unless it
be his now depot and the two Albany
bridges. The ship Vanderbilt is rotting at
Mare island, and he owns no steamboat
stock whatever. He is the monarch of
realm left to him ten thousand forgotten
men built his whole railroad. system: and
ne won III by gambling hair century in
certificates. He has still some of the hom-
age and comfort of kings his private car
(he never travels now by night will carry
him to the Buffalo races. Horses, locomo-
tives, things which beat other things and
do not think these are Vanderbilt's gods,
and he does not even worship these. OF
what good are these superfluous possess
sions to himself whose habits are abstemi-
Gus, and whose delights are coarse and
quiet? Perhaps they illustrate the limited
arena of man, and that employment is at
last longevity and solace to the longest age,
and in itself comes nearest to religion to
satisfy human needs.
A. T. STEWART.
81 want to live long enough to see Stew
art die, to find out what will become of his
enormous business r. said an irreverent
man to me. "Can anybody else, or
any distributed directory manage his af-
fairs ?" Mr.. Stewart is the first merchant
in the world as Mr.. Vanderbilt is the first
speculator. He is stopping at the hotel he
owns-the best piece of summer property
in the world-the Grand Union of Saratoga,
for which he gave s550,O00. 1t can pay $780,
900 a year and contains S24 rooms. Hotel
property in America, next to active COM
merce, seem best .vindicated in this veal
thy merchants eyes. The house here is
controlled by young man as remarkable
as himself, considering the difference in
their ages-Breslin, one of the numerous
hotel clerks constituting great class, who
vyiI lyaa tI,a oh; ;of IL, rox
we live. Bresin was hotel clerk in this
village for many years, and now is the les
see of the Gilsey House, New YORK, of
which the proprietor, Peter Gilsey, a Ger
man tobacconist, is a third remarkable ex-
hibit of the growth of small beginnings.
Gilsey is now worth millions, and he has
put his boy off at the Carrollton, in Balti-
more TO learn this art and grow up with it.
There is no need in this country to Illus
trate such careers; they are the census of
the country.
There Is Stewart, across the street from
Vanderbilt, talking to kin- set, upon the pi-
azza of his inn. He is different man in
every sense,-a small bodied, shoppy, in
quisitive man with head and eye full of
detail, beginning with a curl of sleeps
wool and branching off, through ribbons
and spoolthread, to the products of the
world in all lis whirl of looms and thunder
of water power, and prices current, and
area of consumption. There is no wonder
in it except the result. A thousand men in
Belfast have the same habits, knowledge,
closeness and health. The country rolled
on; this early merchant apprehended it
and developed it. He could not make the
market; he could supply it; and 40 years
selling fabrics TO an empire where he began
40 years ago have raised up this extensive
personal trade, maintained by him with
uniform assiduity,-intimate vigilance
with every item of ribbon, yard, creditor,
tariff, production and demand.
Mr.. Stewart is a small, tough, gray-hair-
ed man, of plain dress, north Irish descent,
a manner genial to strangers, positive to a
gents, and that admirable mean between
caution and confidence which, practiced
| for long lifetime, is easy and certain in
stinct at last. Like Vanderbilt, his capit-
al and instrumentalities in his line of oper-
alton wero paramount to all others at the
| period of our civil war. Millions went 10
| fight the future was put in debt TO bridge
over four years Of profigate sacrifice and
| as profit gate compensation the trade OF
| generation was condensed into the hands OF
the few already prepared ;and 50 expansive
was the country, that the end of the war
| found market as large as at the height oil
| the revolution. His two or three millions
| income year continued. He extended
| his business, and invested the surplus in
active in terests like his own, n,-mills, hotels,
branch depots of commerce and silent part
nershps with younger men. Everything
but stocks. His sagacty never takes the
form of wild hazard or blind confidence in
things not capable of his personal manage
ment. Vanderbilt is an inspirer and man
agcr Of hypothetical values; Stewart is a
trader in things real. Which is the greater
man? Neither. Both are rich after their
own process. Which is the richer? Van
derbilt in investments; Stewart IN actuali-
| ties. Their incomes are not far rom the
same. Can any successor hold together
their large systemY Probably not.
Mr.. Stewart has Christian and Orthodox
IDEAS and purpose foreign altogether to
Vanderbilrs nature. Consideration for his
| good name as a merchant, Interest IN tne
| comfort Of masses of mon, political concep-
| tions and sympathies, reverence and at
tachments-the merchant is not devoid Oh
these. He aspires to be an influence OF tue
times. Those Presbyterian childhood in
culcations which, in the devout and sturdy
nature of the north Irishman, are received
upon good, if hard ground, sprout in his
mature age, and are shown in achievements
like the womans Hotel and the city on
Hampstead plains.-Sdrdtoga Letter Of
George Alfred Townshend.