The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-10-21
Vanderbilt.

There is a man who hardly ever appear;
IN vail street, and who yet wields a power
sufficiently great to upset in a few hours
all the spectators on Change, Jay Gould
excepted. That man is now eighty-one
years old, yet he looks so fresh that good
many men Of sixty might we'll envy him
lis powerful frame has not suffered either
from hard work or the excitement of fl
nancial speculatons The invigorating
open air which he breathed on Staten Is
land in his childhood and on board his
vessels in his youth seems to have insured
him against the calamites to which town
life exposes its children.
The contrast presented in the appear
ancc OF the three leading lnanciers of
New \ Ork Is most curious one.' Daniel
Drew looks like Il broken-down hollow
chested llarpagon; Jay Gould like a
quaint Moorish pawn broker; while Van
derbit has about him absolutely nothing
suggestive OF money dealing. He looks
like stubborn, hard-working Dutchman
hot one OF those little, fat Dutchmen
who could not get along in their own
country and who emigrated here to be-
come the standing butt ior American
iokcS, but one of those Dutchmen who
never leave the land they CONQUERED from
the sea- and whose IIerculean frames, red
faces with side whiskers, and long classi-
cal pipes, have furnished the originals for
somanY immortal productionsO OF The F!em-
iSh school Of painting.
Ihe COmmolOre's father, u we'll o-do
land owner Of Staten Island rented his
estate in small lots to market gardeners,
and ran sail boat, in which he carried
the gardeners produce to New ork at u
mool, round tariff thus making his land
pay double tribute. He was very anxious
that his boy should acquire a good educa-
ton, and stroye 10 excite the bows ambi-
ton in that direction but '.Cornele" did
not take kindly to books lie was q
healthy and powerful young animal, ex-
hbitinga greater taste for robbin@ melon
patches and punching the heads Of his
companions who dared to oppose him,
than for parsing As n natural conse-
quence of this, the great tinancicr's verbs,
pronouns and nouns frequently do not
agree even at this day.
Before he was fully sixteen years Of age
he begged his father to purchase a boat
for him that he might earn his own living,
and began to run it in competition with
age the business that within two years he
became soloowner of two more boats and
part owner and captain Of u third. which
was the biggest vessel of the kind in the
harhor. This prccocoGs success of the
srIl-madr ship owner was determined not
more by his natural abilities and hard
WORK than by the most rigid parsimony
i lie i.iu was never knoWn to spend upon
himself y cent more than was strictly
necessary to keep body and soul together
IL" hte lkihr&eAr iDf ,iIHf;Nmen' was the only
At the early age Of nineteen he married
his cousin. Miss Sophia j. johnson, Of
Port Richmond and settled down in New
York She kept for him subsequently a
hotel at New Brunswick, N. j bore him
thirteen children, and to the day of her
DEATH in 1868, was the slave of all his
wishes, and the only person in whom he
placed implicit confidence
At the age Of twenty three Vanderbilt
found himself the master Of n small fleet
of sailing vessels, and the possessol oi
$50, 900 in hard cash The invention Of
Robert Fulton was just then coming into
practical use, and the state Of New York
had given to him and his friend Chancel-
lor Livingston. Il monopoly Of steam naEi-
cation on the waters within its boundary.
Vanderbilt, who was always strongly op-
posed 10 all monopoiies, when held by
nyboiy but himself, saw at once the lm-
memSc advantages of steam navigation,
and chaird ut the restriction. He made
himself thoroughly acquainted with the
details of the new invention, aud while
pursuing his inquiries in this direction
made the acquaintance of Mr., Gibbons,
who was running I line OF vessels be-
tween New orl ana Philadelphia This
new friend soon had built u ,iiminutive
Steamboat for his line between this city
ana New BrunsW ick and made Wander
bilt captain Of it, with Il salary Of 81 900
per year Livingston and Fulton appeal
ed against Gibbons us one who had in
lrmgrl on their monopoly, but after q
LONG litigation Chief Justice Marshall, OF
the United States Supreme Court. decided
that no state could grant exclusive privi-
leoes on any OF the great waters of the
country, and the field was thrown open
to all c0mers.
1t was about this time that the tounda-
ton of the colossal fortune of Vanderbilt
began to be laid In 1929 he was able to
leave the service of Gibbons and to be-
come himself one of the largest ship
builders and ship owners. lie had a line
Of steamboats, on the North river, on Long
Island Sound, on the coast of Maine, on
the Delaware, and began to build steam.
Ships for the transatlantic voyages, o.
which the Prometheus and the Wander.
hilt were the largest and the best known
In 1913. when the California rush be
gan. Vanderbilt had q large amount o.
available money and number OF vessels
which enabled him to open route OF hi
own, in opposition to the United State
Mali Steamship Company and the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company, which was thef
in it's infancy This California route IN
duced Vanderbilt to take part in Il illibus
termg expedition to Nicarauga, and the
plain Dutch common sense secured him {
complete victory in the overthrow OF the
adyenturer who assumed the Presidency
Of Nicarauga and his flight from the
country. And among all these occupa
tlons Vanderbilt found time to build the
steam yacht "North Star and undertake
with her Il cruise to Europe.
1t was about 1864 that he finally aban
doned the domain Of Neptune, and hi
accumulated fortune at that time was es
timated at forty million dollars. 1t mus
not be supposed. however, that he took t.
railways only when he lett the shipping
trade. On the contrary, he withdrew hi
capital from maritime operations, step b,
step, long before he retired himself from
these pursuits BY means of lending mon
ey to the president of the New York an'
New Haven railroad he became part own
er Of that road as early as 1874. In thu
next year he began to buy up the stock 0
| the Harlem railroad, of which he and hi
family subsequently became almost thu
sole owners by means of corner, whicl
he successfully manipulated twenty year
later, on which occasion he squeezed on
OF Wall street all the stock which was t.
be got, and something like s., ,oOo, 900 be
sides.
The Erie road under the management
OF Drew and Golld, also largely contri
| buted to Vanderbilt's fortune, after Ion:
litigation, during which his two oppo