The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-23
GOULD AND VANDERBILT.
Personal Peculiarities of These Money Kings.
Lon Inward in pbiIodnInbio press

Personal Peculiarities of These Money Kings
Joo Howard in Philadelphia Press
William H, Vanderbilt isn't tall man, but
he is a large His hair is very thin on the
top, but what he has is thoroughly well oiled
and curled about his ears, Strange as 1t may
seem, Vanderbilt considers himself the bean
ideal of beauty. Nobody knows the accidental
way in which he became his fathers heir; no.
body understands his true position better than he
but he bears himself perfectly, and confronts n
laughing world with such marked habits, such
peculiar physical developments, as suggest him
to my mind at once as person of great indi-
viduality If you see him once you can never
forget him. He hasn't an unpleasant face
although his mouth SlantS down one side, so
that when he laughs his thick lips part pre-
cisely as an English muffin does when you
open it. Don't you know, when you take an
English muffin and pull the upper from the
lower, not crust exactly but whatever, how its
particles appear to separator take a fat and
luscious peach, don't you know when you break
it open carefully, so that the juice won't fall
upon your trousers of this years fashion, or
last, as the case may be, how the meat gradually
separates in particleSl Well that's Just the
way he smiles. His mouth always looks to me
like crooked peach. He prides himself upon
his freshness He has a nice color and very
black side whiskers, which are brushed with
great care before he leaves his dressing ROOM
and are pulled with continuous thoughtfulness
when he sits in the auditorium of any nature
whatever. In the winter he wears a thick broad
cloth overcoat faced conspicuously with rich
velvet So far as his mentality permits, he is a
dandy in attire, but, unfortunately, nature got
the start of him, and he simply looks always as
an over-dreSSed footman
In the Hotel Dam restaurant there is a waiter
who is the facsimile of Vanderbilt, and the boys
call him Bill or Vanderbilt, according to the
whim and caprice of the moment and many an
extra quarter has been deposited in his fat hand
by gentlemen who, desiring to call the attention
of their companions to the Vanderbiltian eounte-
nance, ask him some question, attracting his at
tention and reward him with the coin of the
realm aforesaid Vanderbilts walk is heavy,
and his back is square, his hands fat and his feet
loggy. His rear view is just as pronounced and
as individual as his front figure. You never
could mistake the man We're you to meet him or
overtake him, after having once been informed
who he was.
Jay Gould, on the contrary, is a little bit of a
man. with a little round head at the top, his
face covered with a fairly heavy, black beard
His eyes are quick moving, restless, never quiet
for a moment looking here, looking there,
looking everywhere, like a rat. He is
small all over, physically, with a hollow
chest, no stomach to speak of, little arms, little
hands, little legs, little feet His physique is a
marvellous opposition to his gigantic brain. He
and out like an eel in crowd, and yet he doesn't
talk rapidly He wears sometimes a stovepipe
hat, and often a Derby, dresses with great neat
ness, displaying no jewery whatever. Now you
would very naturally say: well, if Gould is a
little man, an ordinary cast of countenance,
dressed as the average man dresses, why would
you be apt to notice him or single him out as
one of the four marked indiV1dualitesl" Be
cause there is a certain something in the mans
look that stamps him as being different from the
ordinary. l can't explain it, but there he is,
Walk up the street. He isn't known as a rule
to his fellow-citizens, but no man who has ever
had him pointed out to him once can forget his
face, its expression, particularly if his hat is off
and he is seated in an audience. don't know
that 1 would recognize his back, but his figure,
so far as front face is concerned, is unique.