The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-08-24
Vanderbilt ut Saratoga.

come of $4,000 a day, as ono of his
family admitted to me. He refuses all
telegraph dispatches; will see none of
his subordinates on business; plays five
handed eucre twice a day, for two dol
lars and a-half ut each stretch; takes
one carriage-ride with his wife and
Mrs. Crawford, his mother-in-law who
is about young enough TO be his grand
daughter, and talks with his crontes.
He is seventy y-eight years old; and If
| he should Cndcavor to realize cash for
his personal railway stocks, bonds, and
mortgages, tomorrow, there would be
u financial panic. There is nothing
suggestive about Nandcrbilt-eNcept
his wealth, which, to any high-think-
ing man, is the supcrtious and vulgar
burden of Il long-eNtcnded life of money
seeking-usclcss to him, useless to his
fellow-man, and useless to his children
Except that he demonstrates in his
life how faith can grow richer than
| fear. He was born II bull, in the stock
sense; that is, one who bet that what
ever he bought would win. Every
railway security he ever touched seem-
ed to grow buoyant from contact with
his grim Mohammedan will and pre-
destinating confidence. All that he over
did with the property represented by
such stocks was to give orders to man-
age it as meanly as possible, so that it
should cost the least for tho most re-
turn; but to the stocks themselves he
was the uplifting bull, tossing them
aloft, and representing broader re-
ligious faith than he ever knew in the
surety of his country's judicious enter
prises. No bear in the history of the
world ever touched his mark of pros
| perity, and it would seem that tho ma
! terial;st who bets Systematically that all
things must lose has no better luck
than the skeptic who sometimes grows
rich in wisdom by pursuing his doubts,
but ut last, with all his wisdom, doubts
himself.
Nandcrbilt'S life at seVenty-eight,
though always essentially Il gambling
life, selfish and single in his own inter
ests, is still what one might expect of
such n bull. He is never out of spirits;
he is never above spirits; he is Cornc-
Illus Vanderbilt, the bull.
"All is clear again above TO-" he
says to visitors. "My life is eight
years ahead" And he says it in the
cool tone of Il man who would take his
own age evon now, though prolonged
eight years beyond the dispensation of
God to other men, and OVer-iSSue stock
upon it, and bull it up to be II security.
1t is Il security. The stocks of his rail
ways will show it, when death, the
great bear, gets Vanderbilt down.
Those motly and dissimitar people
whom, by freaks and spells, he takes
under his capricious protection, arc
guarded while his contract lasts; but
what man of such riches ever picked
such friends? The best of them are
successful matcrialists like himself, and
| lnI I,s,
line qualities, heavy health, and gross
sincerity. They all admire him; he
knows it, and enjoys the consciousness
of it without :ni<fufness or egotism.
John Morrissey, who keeps the club
house around the corner, can get mon
ey from him with the understanding
that il is to be gambling capital, Ger
tain to win by the percentage in favor
Of the player-capitalists, and to be re-
paid ut that rate of profit, as if Eandcr-
bift himself were Il proprietor Of the
house. lie has no scruplcs about law
or appearances; litigation, ovcr-issue,
injunction, seizure, are human pro-
ccsscs to be availrd of. lie docs pay
his Stockholders, and make his roads
pay their interest. His son, William
Vanderbilt, assisted by one of thcnblcst
corps of actual railroad leaders in the
handling the railways, while Nandcr-
bift watches people who bother his
stocks, and, now and then descending
upon the street, like II dog upon the
weasel, he bites the backs in twain of
hundreds OF little people who would
get his securities from tho roOst. Prob
ably no living man has sent deserved
bcggary to more gamcsicrs than this
old chap.
lie wears light brcrchcs, and II black
coat, and Il standing collar. He is tall
and straight, and white whisi1crcd;
the frmncss of the mouth is giving
way, and nc sleeps II great deal. His
wife is lcss then half his age, and she is
agreeable, and as individual rs him
self.
"Mny ask which Mrs. Vanderbilt
/ am addrcSsing?' Said u gentleman
soon after being introduced.
"Old Mrs. Vanderbilt ~ she said
naivcly.