Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-12-13

the Summer residence of his father, New
Brunswick, N. j., and after an excellent
and practical education at Columbia College
Grammar School, he entered, in his eigh-
teenth year, the financial house of Drew,
Robinson & Co., New York, where he ex-
hibited such industry and executive ability,
that, on the expiration of two years, he was
offered a partnership. The close confne-
ment, however, having begun to prey on
his health, he determined to take up farm
ing as means of recuperation; and, the
Commodore having bought him seventy
five acres of unimproved land on Staten Is
land, he at once took his young wife there,
and set to work with such skill and energy
that he not only cleared the seventy-fve
acres, but soon had larger tract purchased,
and $50 acres under crop.
Shortly after this period, the Staten Is
land Railroad Company became embar-
rassed, when Mr.. Vanderbilt and his uncle
Jacob entering the management, relieved
the road of its difficulties and improved it's
prospects in a marked degree. The expert
ence acquired here gave the subject of our
portrait such an insight into railroad affairs,
and so advanced him in the opinion of
certain capitalists and stockholders, that,
in 1864, he was elected ice-President Of
the New York and Harlem, and, in 1856, Of
the Hudson River line, which under his
management became SO prosperous that he
was unhesitatingly recognized as not only
a railroad manager of profound knowledge
and experience, but worthy the confidence
of the Commodore to the fullest extent. 1t
was now plain sailing until the death or
his father, when, as all the world knows he
suddenly became possessed of untold wealth.
In 1S41, Mr.. Vanderbilt married Miss
Kissam, the daughter of a New York cler-
gyman, and Christian lady of sterling
qualities and attainments. This union has
been blessed with nine children, eight Of
whom are still alive, comprising most in
teresting and charming family of sons and
daughters, all finely educated. He has
made various visits to Europe where he
has purchased numerous works of art for
the adornment of his home on this side or
the Atlantic. His charities and public spir-
it are not unworthy his vast wealth, al
though he does not seem to court notoriety
through these channels. This may be in
ferred from the fact, that notwithstanding
he had betrayed the whole cost Of the re-
moval of the obelisk, Cleopatra's Needle,
from Alexandria, Egypt, to its site in Cen
tral Park, New York, it was some time
before the public was made aware Of the
circumstance.
Mr.. Vanderbilt is now sixty years Of age,
and is still hale and active. When in New
York, he spends much Of his time with his
family and the few friends that he has Sc
lected from among his many acquaintance.
In private life he is frank, open and generous.
There is nothing about his dress or general
appearance to distinguish him from an ordi-
nary American gentleman. His hair was
once dark, but is now iron gray, and his
side whiskers large and flowing, although
he wears no moustache. He is rather heav-
lily built, and looks like man who has yet
many years of usefulness before him.
MAN AND FIsHING.-Fishing was a far
earlier mode of supporting human life than
agriculture. However far back in the
stream of terrestrial events We suppose it
allowable to carry the date of mans appear
ance on the scene, still he must have been
preceded by fish. The rivers, lakes and
seas, when he first looked upon them, must
have been peopled very much as they are at
this day. There was as great a variety of
species, and probably much the same inf1n-
itude of individuals in some of these spe-
cies. And as a savage population must be
always sparse, and in any locality few in
number, their supply of food from this
source could only be limited by their ina
bility to capture it. What the wild game
of the forest and of the open plain were to
the inland hunting tribes, the fish of the
fresh and salt water were to the riverine
and maritime tribes. Between these early
days and the first beginnings OF agriculture
vast periods of time must have elapsed.
First, because in these, and more or less in
all ATTITUDES, nature offered to man no plant
that in its unimproved state was worth
cultivating. The suitable form had to be
evolved or created by long processes Of OBJ
servation and selection. This is why we
know nothing of the parentage of wheat,
barley, oats, rye, beans or maize, and why
the tropical bread fruit, plantain, banana,
and sugar-cane have lost the power of pro-
ducing seed, and so of reproducing them
selves; this must have been the result of
long ages of human selection. Nothing of
the kind had to be done for fish. There it
was as fit for food on the first day that man
stood on the river bank or the seashore, as
it is at this day. Agriculture also required
implements to clear and stir the ground
and to gather in the crops with, and these
implements we know were the result of
a long series of discoveries, improvements
and advances. Primeval man, therefore, as
we now read his history, could not have
lived by or known anything of, agriculture.
Nor could he have lived by wild fruits, for
they are not continuous throughout the
year. They have their season and that a
brief one. He must then have lived by
hunting and fishing; and of the two fishing
would be the most continuous throughout
the changing seasons, the most valuable OF
all qualities for those ill-supplied times
1t would not be more difficult to hook, and
spear, and net, and trap fish, and to gather
mollusks from the rocks and sand-banks,
than to pierce with arrows wild game.
Our immediate comparison, however, is
with agriculture and we may be sure that
not in it were the foundations of society
laid, but in hunting and fishing, and that
of these two, as the great carnivors at first
had possession of the forest and the plain
against intruding man, fishing was the main
primeval occupation and means Of subsis-
tence. Me 1fUO0a's Mdgazine.