The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-06-18
Some of New York's Famous Men.

years olu anu as straight as 4 ralnrOQ {,
worth nearly a hundred millions and adj
ding to EN- every day clear in his head
as a bell and tight in the hand as a vise.''
This is a sort of verbal silhouette of our
venerable and vigorous townsman, Com
mOdore Vanderbilt, that was thrown off
the other day by one of his friends. The
hearty old gentleman stepped over his
eighty-secOnd birthday last week and
seems good for that sort of exercise for
several years TO come. He looks as tough
and why as he did twenty years ago, and
takes his regular afternoon drive through
the park with as much enjoyment as one
of the young blOOds around town. A
very remarkable man. indeed, is this an
cient mariner of ours, railroad monarch of
the world and financial Colossus of the
country. His life is the history of New
York boiled down. A very small begin
ming running with steady and rapid
strides to immense results. Gotham was
MT much Of metropolis when Wander
bilt sailed his little ferrybOat between it
and Staten Island. for that was sixty wears
ago, long before splendid parks and grand
bOulevards and buildings that cost mil
lion dollars entered into the plans of the
future. | wonder if the strong young fer
rylnan had then any thought of the power
and wealth before him-that he would one
day carry Wall Street-which, by the way,
he has latterIy abandoned aItogether-in
one hand and the richest railroad i'm
the country in the other? No more, |
dare say, than y. II. Stewart had of his
future when he taught his little school
down in Rose Street. now one of the poOr
by-ways Of the city. Stewart lacks only a
little of being as old a man as Vanderbilt,
and. like him, he looks a full decade
younger than he really is. If the ancient
Commodore were weak enough for the
vanity of dyeing his hair and whiskers he
would pass for sixty-tive, and even with
the gray upon him he does not look much
over seventy. Stewart, with his light
complexion and sandy hair and beard
(what there is of it), looks like one not
more than hrlf way through the sixties.
though he is really over seventy-five. In
il respect he and the Commodore are
very much alike. Constant employment
is a necessity to both. Each attends to
his daily business as regularly as when
both We're poor and keeps Il mighty close
grip on his greenbacks. Vanderbilt takes
an airing every afternoon in the park, but
Stewart sticks closely to his desk, and
rarely treats himself to an idle ride. His
enormous business requires much atten-
ton, and though his staff OF aids is a large
one-quite a regiment, in fact-yet his
own head must govern and his own hand
direct all the machinery that g'inds out
his million or so a year. Vanderbilt is
commonly reputed a richer man than the
dry-gOOds monarch, but if both should die
tomorrow and their affairs We're figured
out in dollars and cents. | would not he
siderably ahead. StewaIt's money Is in
merchandise and tirSt-clasS real estate,
while much of V~anderbilt's is in "securi-
ties" which, in the event of his death.
might suddenly shrink. OF course the
New York Central, which Vanderbilt so
la SCiN "" III. IL Gt DtCstiIl Il Z dIutDlC
property, but in times past it was sub
iected TO an immense deal of watering, and
recent developments with r gard to other
railroads show what that sort of thing
generally leads to.
OF about equal antiquity with the lively
old Commodore. but each looking much
older, are Peter Cooper and William Gull
len Bryant, brothers in years as well as in
affection. and both of a much softer mold
than that in which the old Commodore
purpOse-the good of their fe~llow-men-
two patriarchS (bOth are beyond
ave used the gifts that Heaven
rave them, and now, though neither has
than a 1.-THE of the wealth Of Van
each is certainly more hOnOred by
people than the nan of scrip and loco
motives. Cooper has q nObler monument
the Institute that bears his name than
could ever be constructed ont of railway
trains, and Bryant 4 place in the heart Of
humanity that the manipulation of stocks
and builder of double tracks could never
itdti' IL toOh thitc HiSHt> id-i week 10
20 through with the annual exhibition of
The various classes connected with the In
and Mr.. Cooper probably found
more qualification in the pleasure of the
young people around him. almost wOr-
the kind old MAJ for what he had
ioHe fol them. than the Commodore, who
is not an unkind man. merely a
hard one. derived from any public act Of
MS life. The faces Of Cooper and Bryant
ire among the most familiar and the most
beloved in New York. Few persons ever
.oOk upon them without drawing some