The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-04-10
Vanderbilt and Grant.

About once in so often it becomes
the duty of The Sun to say something
decent of a millionaire, and some very
respectable people have almost como
to the conclusion that this paper is
regularly retained by millionaires, to
stand by them when they get in a
tight place. No mar is so poor that
The Sun will not do him justice, and
no man can be so rich that it will see
a national injustice done him and not
enter a protest. The subject of this
interesting sketch is William H. Van
derbilt, of New York. Half the papers
in the country are warming William
up n side and down the other, be-
it is alleged that he is running
General Grant by causing him to mort
gage all his property, trophies, pres
ents, ETC., to secure the hundred and
nifty thousand dollars Grant borrowed
the day before his firm failed. The
papers say Vanderbilt is a heartless
wretch, a whelp and a nine-spot.
Vanderbilt Takes ALI" is the head
ing of the article going the rounds,
and editors who can think of any
thing mean to say, say it, and say it
quick and often. And yet, Wander
bilt is showing more genuine heart in
the matter than Grants most intimate
friends, and has allowed this stuff of
Grants to be covered by his mortgage
IN order to saw the trophies from
Grant away from the creditors of the
thief Ward. Did Vanderbilt show a
very mean disposition when Grant
went to his house one Sunday and
asked for a check for a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, to save his
bank, and ''Bill' signed the check and
handedit over to Ulysses? Vanderbilt
simply knew Grant rs a great general,
and he didn't ask any security except
his word. Would he have done the
same by any business man in New
York; Not likely. He was not lend
ing money as a business, and was not
protecting banks from failure, but
there came to him an old man. hob
bling on crutches, n man who had
saved his country, as nearly as one
man could save a country. He did
not come as a business man, but as a
neighbor, 4 friend. Vanderbilt would
have lost the money before he would
have Inundated the old man by asking
security. He just handed the money
out as he would lend a shirt to a friend
whose shirts had not come back from
the laundry. The next day the check
was used, and the bank busted, and
there were not assets enough to put
in tea. Vanderbilt no doubt felt sore,
but he didn't feel as sore as Grant
did. Grant knew what Vanderbilt
had a right to think of him. He had a
right to class Grant with Ward, the
thief, and Grant wentr right to him and
told him he had been deceived, and
having borrowed the money on his
own personal account he wanted to
secure Bill, so he mortgaged every
thing he had on earth. 1t is well he
did, and well that a man with so kind
a heart as Vanderbilt, the abused mil
%lionaire. holds the mortgage. When
a subscription was started to raise
money to pay the "Shylock" who
held the mortgage on Grants property,
the "Shylock' says, ''Well, you put
me down for about $50, 00O." And if
no money was raised the mortgage
would never be foreclosed.
1t is a very serious thing for a man
to be worth as many hundred million
dollars as Vanderbilt is, because it
sets thousands and hundreds of thous-
ands of people talking and writing
against him, and u man has got to
have a pretty level head t o keep from
hating the whole world, if he reads a
thousandth part of the bad things said
of him, but We doubt if there is a man
in America who does more good with
money than this same Vanderbilt. He
cannot stand on the street or in his
office and be giving all the time, in
fact he can scarcely give at all, per-
sonally, except in cases like the half
million dollar gift to the College of
Physicians and Surgeons. If he gave
audience to one in ten of those who
want to talk to him to bleed him, or
to get subscriptions, it would take
him twenty hours a day, aud because
he refuses to be i%mportuned, he is
called a hard-hearted wretch, and vet
through others he gives away enough
every year to build a hundred miles of
railroad. His action in regard to Gen
eral Grant is generous, kind hearted
and noble, and that ease is not an
isolated one by any means. If the
PopilS hLS" VI ~ hullulCull pdIl VI
the good that side-whiskered man does,
they would take off their hats to him
when he passes on the street, instead
sneering as many do. and when they
pass his mansion on Fifth Avenue they
would say "God bless that man." in
stead OF what they often do say, and
if the time ever came when his house
was surrounded by a mob, as was JAY
Gould's recently, a million men would
march to its defense at a moments
notice, and make a human wall around
Bill Vanderbilt and his loved ones that
no crazy mob in all the world could
have any impression on. 1t is cruel,
unpatriotic and desperately mean for
respectable newspapers to allow ire
sponsible reporters and cheap writers
to have cartc-blanche toabuse a man
like Vanderbilt, and it is little wonder
that he delights in getting in a wagon
behind a fast horse and flying away
from all mankind, and forgetting that
he is abused and misunderstood anu
maligned because he is rich and does
not advertise in the newspapers ever
Zine he gives away a million dollars
for charity. About fifty years from
now the fellows that are abusing
Vanderbilt will be giving money freely
to build a monument to him, and they
will ask pardon of high heaven for the
wrongs they have done him. He is a
thoroughbred, and the time will come
when everybody will believe it. Peck's
San.