The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-06-05
POWER OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
Vanderbilt, Beecher, Bennett, Young Dam
rosch, and George Gould.

vanderbilt Beecher, Bennett, Young Dam
rosch, and George Gould.
l saw three or four people to-day
who struck me as being admirable IL
Illustrations of the power Of circum-
stances, writes q New York CORE
spondent to The Boston Herald. The
first was William Fl. Vanderbilt. He
was walking toward his stables. He
is doubtless the richest man in the
CONTEMPLATING out Mr.. Mackey,
who belongs as much on the other side
as he does here. William had his hat
NOT a particularly nice hat, either
pulled way down over his ewes, his
hands were behind him, his overcoat
buttoned close up in the neck, and he
pushed heavily and logily along the
ciers and real estate men and horse
men say that Vanderbilt's Judgment
of men, real estate, and horseilesh is
good. We know he has a tenacious
grip, for the talents which his father
gave him were not buried in a napkin,
but were multiplied and increased like
the mustard seed alluded to in our old
friend, the bible. and assuming that
the commodore lett his son S75, O00,-
900, and he now has 1926, 600, 900, it
must be conceded he has done a pref
ty good thing. Gould he ever have
made that increased AMOUNT of mon.
ey if his father hadn't left him the
original S75, 000, 900? Well, the ques-
ton answers itself. No one thinks he
could. Everybody knows he could
not. His circumstances placed him in
the very van of financial agents when
he was about 10 years old. and if he
had kept the original sum invested at
interest only it would have grown
amazingly, for with most extravagant
tastes and habits he couldn't have
spent what it would have made annu-
ally. But he didn't do that. He in
vested and re~invested. He extended
his lines of road. He went into other
spheres of work. He INDUCED to an
extent in horsetlesh and to an extent
in real estate, and to-day, by reason of
the boost and push that circumstances
gave him, he is q much richer man
than he vas the day after his father
died, making him the heir-in-chief of
his great property. / saw another
man very much the same build
as Vanderbilt, without his side
whiskers and his thick lips and with
out his money, but a man whose name
is known wherever Vanderbilt's is
known, and whose influence is greater
a t~housaudfold than that of a dozen
Vanderbilt's rolled into ore. l refer
to my good friend, Henry Ward
Beecher, who in all probability would
never have been Il minister OF the Cos
pei had not his fathers circumstances
forced hun to attend the theological
seminary, where he was what they
called converted and put upon the
pietic track, where he has run a very
rapid pace. Beecher as an orator, as
a jury advocate, as a politician, would
undoubtedly have made his mark, but
the very fact that his great natural
talents are garlanded with eccen-
tricities, which seem strange in
a pulpit. has given him extend
ed renown which he would be
the last to question or decry. As |
passed from my office to the Astor
house IN hour ago, l met Postmaster
Pearson. He is q short, good-looking,
gentle, well-mannered fellow, of no
especial force, who would have been
content, all the days of his life, with
a ~, 700 salary as n of the upper
grade clerks in the New York post
Office. Circumstances made the post
master postmaster general, who made,
part and parcel of his bargain with
Garfield, that his son-in-law Pearson
should be appointed his successor as
postmaster OF New York. He is an ex-
c~ellent officer, honest, devoted to his
/ hI1Ginasc irfn l1inanf aot;-a arJ ,r;Jn
awake. But he isn't ass enough tosay
to me or to you that there are not a
dozen men in the New York postotlice,
to-day, who would have made Just as
good ar officer as he, had circum-
stances decreed that either of them
should be the successor of Postmaster
James. Take young Walter Damrosch.
His father fortwenty years foughtpov-
erty, opposition, impecuniosity, dis
tress OF all sorts and kinds, never OBJ
tanning so musch as Il finger clasp, let
alone IL foothold. upon the ladder OF
success until the year of his unfortu-
nate death. Henry M. Abbey refused
TO touch the Metropolitan opela-house.
Nh. Stanton, in behalf of the directors,
selected MI. Damrosch, ST., and ar
ranged with him as conductor of Ger
man opera in that magnificent temple
of the arts. Mr.. Damrosch had a son
Walter-a clever, bright young man;
not a genius. Not great in any sense.
Not particularly gifted as conductor
Or musician. Pneumonia claimed the
old gentleman for its own, aud Walter,
who had conducted r~ehearsals oc-
casionally for his father, and, in de-
fault of an under director, had taken
his fathers place for two or three
nights in the vast auditorium, was
chosen, to the utter amazement and
establishment OF everybody, except Mr..
Sentiment, as his fathers SUCCESSOR
absolute-with all the contracts of his
father placed in his adolescent hand.
What do you think of that for circum-
stances? What else but circumstances
had aughtto do with young Damrosch's
good luck? You see the point, OF
course. ! used to think, when / was a
very young man, that the fellows on
Gods round footstool whom | envied
most were Albert Edward, prince OF
Wales. and young James Gordon Ben
nett. They were about my own age,
but attended by circumstances of such
consequence, afforded foundations Sc
solid and substantial, confronted by
careers upon which they could not
turn their backs with honor, as to
make them well worth the envy OF
any ordinary man. To-day, the one
is brayely meeting the brutal Irish in
their W streets, and, noblesse oblige,
facing with his sweet-faced wife snarl-
ing mobs and bowling hell-hounds.
The other, in ripe middle age, is abso.
lutte controller and director of the
most successful morning paper on the
face OF the globe, and the most pros.
porous evening newspaper in the city
Of New York. Rich beyond the dream.
Of avarice, his potency for good OF
,y;1 con nnt Ia axaorarotad Eort,