Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-04-07
VANDERBILT'S POVERTY OF
RICHES.

The public journals are embellish-
ed now and then with reports in adj
vance of hundred thousand dollar
ball to be given by Mr.. William FL.
Vanderbilt, and a detailed account
of the gorgeous occasion is furnished
the newspapers after the fact. In
deed, public notice in advance of the
cost of the Vanderbilt balls, with de-
tails of the price of flowers, of the
caterers bills, of the dresses to be
worn, etc., are as much part of the
Vanderbilt balls as the balls
themselves; and the rather intelli-
gent public that Mr.. Vanderbilt
sometimes hastily consigns to dam
nation, is not in any degree misled
by the sorry spectacle of man who
possesses only great riches, trying to
buy social esteem-about the only
commodity that is never in the mar
ket. The Vanderbilt balls come
along as regular as do the seasons,
but the same medley of spectators,
politicians, shoddyites and social
stragglers come and 60 all the time.
1t must be evident to sensible,
practical business man like Nh Van
derbilt, that no measure of extrava-
giant expenditure in flowers, suppers,
silks, satins and diamonds, will make
the New York social public regard
him as any other than William III.
Vanderbilt, the son of his father;
with much cluste- ing about the fami-
ly name and fortune that it would be
generously charitable to forget. He
knows how to buy or wreck a rail-
road, and how to draw the ribbons
on the fastest horses, and how to
coropel Wall street to pay homage to
his financial power; but he can nei-
ther drive nor lead that often obsti-
nate and ever capricious element of
humanity that assumes to be the So
ciety of the period. 1t will smile Or
frown at will, and even the wealth of
a Vanderbilt knocks at its doors,
clad in all the trappings of the old
and new world, without responsive
welcome.
Mr.. Vanderbilt is the richest pri-
vate citizen of any nation of the
world His annual income reaches
half score of millions, and he has
houses and lands and RAILWAYS, and
horses and paintings and statuary and
fine raiment until they must pail
upon his taste; but what good? he
will die just as other men die, and
who will keep his memory green?
We have yet to hear of a church, a
school, library or a charity that
owes its existence to his generosity,
and the poor and friendless do not
lisp his name with the gratitude that
cheers the benefactor. Hard by his
grand palace is the unfinished cathe-
dral that if completed by the dona-
ton of half of his legitimate in
come for twelvemonth, would be
perpetual monument of the useful
ness of his life, and it would stand
as faithful sentinel against the mob
that sometimes turns to destruction
in the fruitless hunt for bread. There
are thousand channels in which the
rapidly accumulating wealth of Van
derbilt could be made to pay a much
larger and better interest to its own
er. 1t would not be in added mil
lions to the already unneeded mil
lions of the richest citizen of the
world; but it would brighten the
evening of his life with consolation
and gather about him the only sin
cerity he can find to bless his name
while living and embalm it in grace
full memories when dead. Mr.. Van
derbilt can well afford his hundred
thousand dollar balls to crafty the
love of display that usurps the bet
| ter social attainments of life, as that
would be wasting not more than
three days income but if he would
make the shadows of the gathering
night resplendent with golden lining,
let him make the world better and
happier because of his existence,
and leave at least some few of the
poor and friendless, to keep his men,
DRY green, when those who revel in
his shoddy gifts shall have speeded
his parting into forgetfulness.