The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-10-29

|
The result is handsome iron building
in an unfinished state. Nobody seems
to know whether it ever will be finished.
Stewart may know; but he is silent as
the Sphinx on the subject. Nothing
has been done to the Home for many
months. AS it was designed for semi
benevolent purpose, perhaps it is natu-
raj enough that dry goods Dives should
delay its completion rs long as possible.
He may be an extremely liberal per-
son; but his reputation is otherwise.
The great public is unwilling to give
him credit for any kind of philanthro-
ply or charity which does not pay him
certain per cent. on the investment.
Hence It is sceptical Of the outcome
of the Working Women's
home, originally intended to furnish
comfortable accommodations to that
class at rate they can easily afford to
pay. People have heard SO much and
seen SO little of Stewards benevolent
aims always in the future that they
have little faith IN their assuming prac.
teal form.
| A OESOLATE OLD MAN.
He will undoubtedly leave q large
part of his immense estate to eleemosy.
nary objects. He can hardly do other.
wise, inasmuch as he has no children,
and is reported to have no kindred,
even the most distant. His blood does
no, flow in the veins Of single human
creature and with his estimated $780,.
DOC, 900, he has the means Of enriching
hundreds. He has precious few friends
withal; for his life has not been such as
to make, or keep friends. For half a
century he has toiled unremittingly to
swell his income; and to-day, he is a
magnificently prosperous isolation.
Lonely old man! There are in this
great city, / venture to affirm, dozens
upon dozens Of homeless wretches,
with no idea where they will get their
next meal, who are no further removed
than he from sterling resentment. His
case is anomalous. question if there
be another uan in America. or any
other country, in possession of colossal
wealth who is so disconnected from his
kind by every tie of blood. If to be a
self-made man is to be like Alexander
T. Stewart. sclf-making would be shorn
Of most of its enticements.
| CORNELIUS VANDERBILT,
far more selfish than Stewart has ever
been accused of being, is even more of
spontaneous combustion. Unlike
Stewart, he was never educated, hav-
ing grown up wild on small farm on
Staten Island. A descendant of the
early Dutch settlers hereabouts, he was
so Industrious and thrifty that when
his father died. leaving to the family
only small patch Of ground,
and an old pirogue IA pirogue is
a narrow ferry boat, carrying two
masts and a lee beard). Cornelius.
then sixteen, took charge Of the vessel,
and carried passengers and vessels from
the island to the city. This he did in
his mothers interest, prospecting to
such an extent, as the story goes, he
built rival pirogue, and entering into
active competition with the maternal
craft, ran the old lady of the line.
| That touching instance of filial devo-
ton is declared to be singularly char
acteristic Of Vanderbilt, who is so full
Of the milk Of human kindness that he
never fails to benefit himself at the
expense of his fellows, even though
! they be near relatives.
The Staten Island ferry rendered
him pecuniarily indepen lent. After
he had had it few years he put a
steam engine into it, in defiance Of the
exclusive right that had been granted
to Fulton and his heirs to navigate the
waters hereabout with steam. In SUBJ
sequent steamboat enterprises he was
| arrested again and again for violation
of law, but he always gave bail and
continued the violations, contesting
each case in colrt, until the Fulton
monopoly was overthrow.
A GIFTED ooLD-sEKKBB
I, In 184o, Vanderbilt was worth $780,
600, all Of which. backed by ampl-
credit, he invested in vessels IN the CAL
ifornia trade; the gold fever having
broken out in that year. At that time,
he was dubbed Commodore, and
made q great deal of money in his ma
rine enterprise. 1t wss not long before
he disposed Of his interests, and trans
ferred his capital to railways. He oper-
ated extensively in Harlem stock, then
very low, and reckoned altogether as
fancy; and he was SO active buyer
that . corner was COTTON up in it. and
the great bulk thrown on his hands.
In place Of being ruined. as it was gen.
orally thought he would be, he began
improving the road, Of which he was the
virtual owner, and finally brought its
value up to par. The great rival Of the
Harlem was the Hudson River. He
soon got possession Of the latter after
ward ousted Dean Richmond and his
adherents from the New York Central,
and became the master Of that road
likewise. Everything he has tried to
do he has done. Individuals, courts,
corporations, have been SO unable to re,
sist him that it is not strange that .
member Of Congress not long ago
thanked God that the term of human
life is limited to hundred years; for,
if it were not, men like Vanderbilt
would own the whole world.