The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-12

small indeed, sometimes entirely inyiS~
BILE yet one chord of generosity at
east vibrated through his frame, for in
The immediate social relationships of
his family and personal friends he was
kind in heart and liberal in purse to a
certain extent. He had the mlserly
however, to return whatever
wealth he had in the immediate family
of Vanderbilt Only few days ere his
death his son was given an immense
estate on Long Island gifts of the kind
to his children have been occasional,
yet the great wide world throbDlng about
him with its poverty and misery was
passed by unthought of. It must be a
sad thought to the man of wealth, when
he sees the honey arm of the grim dc
stroyer reaching closer and closer to
his throat, that with all his dimes and
dollars that have jingled SO merrilv in
his ears not one has been loaned to
heal the great disease of woe and want
and suffering that broods above our
land. 81 might have done SO much
good in the world,'' he is apt to think.
All that little term, sit might have
BEEN" is bad thing to have stuck
IN a mans throat when the death rattle
is upon him. Even the wealth of Van
derbilt could not purchase happiness.
The cares and anxi eties of such a life
as his forbade peace Of mind or body.
The continual turmoil of traffic was his
dearest pleasure. The rise and fall in
stocks was the only ebbing and flowing
tide of amusement that ever rippled
through his life, and we doubt not
that the sweetest music his ears ever
heard was that of the death bells when
they rang to him on Tuesday last The
world must not be uncharitable, to the
uncharitable, however. The faults OF
the few are seldom OUT umbered by the
virtues of the many, and the beam in
one mans eye does not deserve more
CeDsure than the mote in another's.
The greatest trouble with Vanderbilt
was his persistent failure to grow human
and embrace brotherhood in his ma
ture. To pile Pelons of gold upon
Ossas of paying dividends was the OBJ
ject of his thought and labor. TO have
spread those mountains of wealth out
in the day where the needy and suffer-
ing could behold and partake would
have been nobler life work. His silent
charities were very many, no doutbt,
but the enormous piles of wealth Of
which he died possessed are not credi-
table evidence of any extended acts of
liberality. Perhaps he had learned to
regard death as an impossbllity in his
life and that he might when it came
induce it to defer its work upon him
for a certain time in consideration of a
few shares in Northern Pennsylvania or
Western Union. But death never comes
to earth to reap aught than mems souls !;
there is no bribe in all the world that
will tempt it to loosen its hold upon the
throat of its victim, be he good man
or a bad man. 1t should not be in
ferred that Vanderbilt was a bad man,
or a criminal man. He was simply an
imperfect man, because he did rot put
in use those glorious opportunities which
lay in his power to benefit mankind.
What the result of his death will be to
the world CAN be easily estimated
Neither were very closely related III a
mutually beneficial way, and the falling
off of one leaves the other, unal-
tered, except with the differences of
one toiler less upon the earth one miser
less to gather in its harvests of gold,
monopolize its wealthy truitage to the
exclusion of the honest man of worth
who cannot cry out SO loud iii his pow
erty or to ba heard above the clanking
metal of the n.isef The fluctua;ing
and ebbing tide Of railroad and corpor-
alton stocks will be effected wildly for
a short time, the voices of lawyers and
heirs will be heard for a brief period
disputing the distribution ofthe wealthy
man's money, but beyond that the
death of VIVA. r. Vanderbilt will be no
more IN the eyes CT heaven and the eyes
of men than the death OF yGader beg
gar at the corner.