Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-20
THE COMMODORE AND HIS FRIEND

THE COMMODORE AND HIS FRIEND
The Proceedings in the Vanderbilt Viii
Case Enticene1 by ah Entertaining Wit
1tess--W That the Commodore Said OF His
Sons.
In the Vanderbilt will trial. on Friday, ia
cob J. Van Pelt testified that he knew Com
modore Vanderbilt for fifty years: they were
very intimate, and used to drive to town to-
gether:a GOODNESS occurred between them
soon after 1870; just before the Commodore |
went with his family to Europe he said to
witness: "Van, have eleven millions of |
dollars left better than any millions in the |
United States. It is worth % per centum |
his family were all on board and if one
went, all, or nearly all, would go together
when the Commodore came back. They /
had another conversation, and witness |
asked, ''What are are you going to do with |
your property if anything happens?" He |
answered: Il have a large family; they were |
not brought up to take care of themselves, |
but in the way 1 have left my money they |
will all of them have enough as long as they |
live In another conversation the Commo- |
dore said: ''It wilfgo faster than I made it, |
whenever am gone.''
The witness went on to testify that in |
1868 the commodore said, II am friend of
yours and you are to consider SO: and I in
tend you shall have a house and lot and
100000" Witness said: ''Do you mean
it?'' Il do said the commodore. when
do you mean to let me have it?'' said the
witness. ''After am gone" said he, twill
be time enough On another occasion the
commodore repealed the promise, and wit
ness said: GIVE me the house and lot now,
and let the 100000 CO. Laughter NO"
said he, '.that won't do" ..Well,'' said the
the house and lot 60 for the present.
Laughter. But the commodore said, :'No,
that won't do: you will appreciate it better
after 1 am gone,'' and witness answered,
'Well, perhaps will, commodore They
spoke of this matter very often, the very last
conversation they had the commodore said,
ssYou shall have that 100000, and that is
enough for YOU Eyes said Witness
''that's enough" He recollects it by the
word enough In 1864 witness suggested
to him to improve his Staten Island proper
ty, but he said, ssThe Staten Island property
title is not worth anything A GOODNESS be-
tween them occurred in 1870. He can i'm
agine the cause. He went to the commo-
dore's Office to inquire for him. Mr.. Lam
bert Wardell was there. This was month
or two before the commodore's death.
Mr.. Lord offered to prove that the COM
modore in 1866 asked the witness to take
lady in his carriage from the co1nmodore's
office to her home, and he did SO, and he
never saw her again until month before
the commodore's death, when witness called
at the commodore's Office and saw the lady
in question there and Mr.. Lambert Wardell,
which would be followed by proof through
another witness that falsehood had been
told to the commodore about the witness;
that the commodore had never communica-
ted this to Mr.. Van Pelt, or asked for an
explanation, and that this was the cause for
the GOODNESS. The object was to show that
the commodore would receive accusations,
perhaps against his children, without giving
them chance to explain-that he had the
unhappy characteristic of listening to false
hoods.about others and sealing his lips. and
that in the case of Mr.. Van Pelt the whole
trouble was caused by a base falsehood.
The surrogate said the commodore might
have listened to the falsehood and refrained
from speaking of if to his friends through
motives of delcacy. But there was no evil
dence that he believed the story. The wit
ness merely stated that he thought the COM
modore cooler than usual. The evidence
was excluded.
On cross examination the witness said he
used to borrow money from the commodore
The commodore never refused him. Some
| times he gave notes for the money. some
times he did not. The commodore told him
he might have any amount he wanted in his
business without security. Once witness
owed him $25,OOO without security. He
called upon the commodore and said "Com
modore, you had better take some security
for this. If you died, and was bad enough,
| might keep it, "You could,' said he;
"look here, if die before you, and you owe
me 100000, and nobody knows anything
about it like this, keep it, ''Do you mean
that, commodore" .'Yes, 1 do said he.
| '.Well,'' said witness, 81 would not wish
your death for all your money, but I hope
I shall owe you 100000 when you die
| Q.-How did the account stand between
you? Ale owed me 500. Laughter
Q.-Did he ever give you anything? A
No; but gave him horse? Laughter.
Q.-TelI US how that was.
| Witness-I had handsome mare that he
wanted, but [ asked 81 200 more than he
would give. One day called at his office
''Hello, said he, you want something, you
come around SO early Laughter said
did. Laughter. Then he took me in
and said: ''Are you going to let me have
that mare?" ''Give me my price, and you
can have her. I said. No. he would not.
Said he, ''Shall tell you what you had bet
ter dor eyes, commodore, tell me what /
had better do "Give me that mare ;,
said he. s'Do you mean it. commodore?''
eyes," said he. every well,'' said witness.
81 will do it."
Witness continued: A few days after he
sent me a check for $4,000. which was all
that asked for her, and sent it back. Next
day he said, '.Why did not you keep the
check?'' 81 said, ''That was not my bargain
you asked me for that mare SWELL -
said he, "you got the best of the bargain .
| every WELL said l, "when get the best of
the bargain l never let up on man,
[Laughter.] "Well,'' said he, ..that is so.''
In reply to further questions by Mr.. Gin
ton the witness said he heard the commo-
dore speak about Cornelius J. He said Cor
neel would spend all the money he owned in
three years if he had it. "He is bad,'' said
he; she would do anything; he would steal,''
said he. "No, no." said l. .'He WOULD
said he. 81 would not leave anything in my
Office he could take away Laughter.] He
spoke of Corneel's gambling. He said some
thing about Cornee's signing his fathers
name. He told me he did it once, but do
not remember whether he said it was for
gerry.
To Mr.. Lord heard him say Cornell
was misrepresented and was not as bad as
other people. heard him speak of William
81. He said William was not able to make a
living out of his farm and had morteaped it
to man, and that he (the commodore) had
| money tn mt on rnortoaoo r. W;!l;.,o ,,,.,,4