Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1878-07-06
NUMBER Al,

.
than William b. ever had, resembling
his grandfather in sagacity aud foresight
, rather than his father. He is consider
ably over fifty but is OF robust constjtu~
ton and vigorous heslth. and will BE-
liEeIy TO increase the property very
materially during his admini.tration.
If be lives to his fathers sge--eighty-
fve--tbe estate will probably he worth
| Sl5G ,OOO,00 William II. Vanderbilt
is not the financial genius that
his father incontstsbly was. No.
body has ever suspected him Of
being such, but he il astute and
cautious nevertheless and will not
be likely, as has been predicted, 10 in
volVe the enormous interests OF which he
has charge. The commodore left things
in such a shape (neither he nor any other
man could prevent legal assaults upon
his wiIl) that almost any good business
man ought to be able to carry out bis
view. and iute .tions. The present Van
derbilt, albeit not brilliant, is thought
BY his intimAtes to be very safe. He
knows far more than he reveals. His
father long believed him 10 be incompe-
tent; but many years before his death,
discovered the capacity OF his son, and
never doubted it afterwsrd. William
H has son, Cornelius, who, everybody
says, is the strongest and abest Of the
existing Vanderbilts The commodore
had the highest opinion Of his grandson,
and consulted him on many occasions,
attaching the greatest Importance to his
opinions He used To declare that "that
boy Carmel is going TO be one of the
smartest men in the United States" and
the declaration will probably be justified
by circumstances
The correspondent, after devotipg a
few not mplimentary words to Judge
Hilton, concerning the immense buSi-
ness under his control, the Grand Union
and the Hebrews, the Woman's hstel
f0s>O, comes to the consideration of one
who is well known of Brooklyn and much
hOnored by it, the place ofhis residence.
HORACE B. CLAFLIN
Is one Of the richest merchants (perbaps
the richest after StewarO in the city or
country, He used to be in lower Bread.
way, but, before the breaking out sf the
civil war, he removed to new and CO.
lossal warehouse which he had built Tor
bis business in west Broadway, extend.
ing to Church and Worth streets, and
has remained there ever since. The
building occupies half of whole block
and is cue OF the most conspicuous in
that quarter, During the season it pre-
sents most active appearance. 1t
swGrmP with busting humanity. The
sidewalks are covered with boxes, bales
and cases addressed to every part 0! the
United States, the territories, Canada,
Mexico, Gustemala and South America
Nearly every vessel that comes or goes
from our docks brings or taRes something
to or from H. B. Clafin & Co, and the
firm is most lavorsbly known in London.
Manchester, Glasgow, Paris, Lyons,
Brussels, Hamburg, and all centres Of
commerce and trade. The house employs
some 700 or 500 rersons at salaries rang
ing from 5000 to $4,000 per annum, the
latter price being paid 10 the manager,
Clafin himself is now considerably over
sixty, hut actiye and energetic, with
years Of hard work in him vet. He
looks like Yankee" having a wiry,
rather slight, angular figure, and a
shrewd, somewhat anxious though hon.
est, prepOssessing face. He has a repu-
tation for liberality, and is much liked by
his employees and all persons having
intimate dealings with him "What is
he worth !" To this decidedly American
question he could scarcely reply, il he
would. His fortune is estimated all the
way from $4,000 600 to 500 900 900,
but il his affairs were settled to-day. it
would necessarily suffer greatly from
shrinkage.
There is another written of whom
Brooklyn must take interest in, since he
has been for 50 many years identified
with her ferries.
GEORGE LAW
Has sunk into obscurity !atterly, so far
as newspaper mentiVn is concerned: but
he is richer than he has ever been and is
busy looking after bis affairs despite his
seventy-'our or five years. A native Of
Washington county, this State, his par.
ents were too poor to furnish him with
an education, for which in fact he cared
very little He
WANTED TO MAKE MONEY
More than he wanted anything else, and
he resolved while still in his teens to
come here for that purpose. The story
is, that he worked his passage, as the
phrase is, from Albany to this city and
arrived in the metropolis with only few
coppers in his pocket He had strong
hands and stout heart, and he se, to
work at Once, hiring himself as a steve.
dore at twenty-five cents a day. After
several months OF hard labor on the
docks snl in warehouses he had accu.
mulated $l00-this seemed to be
an immense sum-and on his slen.
der capital he began TO barter uu>
til he had increased it ten-fold.
Law enlarged his operations, and was
so astute and energetic that he had ac-
cumulated $4,000 in few years. He
has always said, however, even long
after becoming a millionaire, that no
amount of money was 50 hard to get as
his first $1,000. Never intellectual. he
has shown from the beginning an un.
mistakable talent for turning plans into
cash, and ne is reported to be as fond OF
the transmutation now as ne was half a
century ago. Spite of his material sue,
cess, he remained unknown until thirty
when he obtained the contract for
building the high bridge for the Croton
aqueduct. 1t proved profitable and he
got new contracts which proved profit
able likewise, Then be put money into
schemes for ferry and street railway
companies, and they had a very lucrative
issue
For the past twenty years Give Oak
George has not made a ripple in the
community, but he has been very active
in pursuing his own interests and aug
mentine his stock of worldly goods. He
still owns largely in the ferry and street
railway corporations, and gets heavy
percentage from them. He can be seen
nearly any day On West street driving
about in an old, shabby buggy, himself
an old, shabby man. and looking as i he
had not $40 600 10 the world, He tax es
excellent care Of himself, going 10
he'd early and rising early, being very