The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-01-29
NO. o..

couldn't have been whit more tamil-
lar had she been of the house of Van
derbilt itself At the Thirty-second
street stables there wes a change of
conductors, and bearded young fellow
came upon the rear platform, rang the
signal bell and started the car onward
through the tunnel.
Papa! papa!' shouted the little one
excitedlv, and off from the knee of the
millionaire owner of the railroad she
clambered to hold out her arms toward
that bearded young fellow, the new
conductor. The conductor recognized
his distinguished passenger, and natuT-
ally he was amazed-his own child in
the magnate's arms He FASTENED to
correct things, and, with what was,
perhaps, not an unnatural earnestness.
apologized for the baby's rudeness.
Tut! tut!' interrupted Mr.. Wander
bilt, 1--WE enjoyed my ride with her.
Young man, wish she were my own.
She must be taken good care of" And
then, as the car turned out of the tun-
mel to the Grand Central Station, he
patted the little one affectionately upon
the head and said good-by. Within
a month that street-car conductor was
holding a responsible position upon
one of the big Vanderbilt railroads, a
post that he holds to this day. That
very night Mr.. Vanderbilt had the
young mans antecedents looked up,
and, finding his record clean, and as
sured that he was man of energy and
capacity, he made a place for him at
once.
One wintry night three or four years
ago / sat with Mr.. Vanderbilt in his
sitting-rOom, and listened to his chat
for over an hour of his horses, his pic
lures and various other things from
which he derived pleasure.
II don't care to talk about stocks"
he said. sit always seems to me that
I'm on a salary when l do that, and
when / feel like a hired man there's
not much fun in the thing"
/ found him reading VANITY Fair"
and he told me that Thackeray was one
of his favorites among authors. But
it seems to me" he commented, ''that
Thackeray is a good deal keener than
he is honest; he sees people, but /
hardly think he gets real well ac-
quainted with them. find that most
folks have lots of good traits under
what on the outside look like pretty
fiagrant faults. / like Thackeray so
much that l often wish he had been
just little more generous.
About that time there was a very
lively combat of words going on be-
tween the friends of Mr.. Vanderbilt
and the friends of Mr.. Frank Work as
to the comparative merits of their dOu-
BILE teams, and Mr.. Vanderbilt showed
that he felt an interest in the matter
that was intensely keen. Some ques-
ton arose during the evening as to the
right and the wrong in certain state
60 NJ 1nIxy I1 Neva.ra
authority in Mr.. Works favor. Then
Mr.. Vanderbilt arose and went over to
the stand beside which his comely,
pleasant hammered wife was quietly
and industriously knitting, and, pick
ing up book Of a hundred pages or
more that contained among other
things the National Trotting AssOcia-
ton rules, he handed me the book, and
settling again back in his easy arm
chair, he began TO quote authorities be-
tween those covers to sustain his posi-
ton as against what had been brought
against that position. 1t WINS one of
the most astonishing tests of memory L
ever noted. On page -, he would say,
you will find this; and on he would go
with a quotation as fast as my eyes
could follow on the printed pages; and
then on page so and so you will notice
this; again and again and again did he
do this, reciting page after page, never
missing a word, never making a single
mistake, either as to the number of the
page, the article or the section, and al
ways giving in the precise language OF
the book the authority he quoted. And
then at the end, having finished this,
he talked of the dispute between him
and Mr.. Work after a fashion that
reached up to absolute eloquence. His
heart was in the matter, and he warmed
up to the subject as though his very
life were at stake, and / learned, too,
that he could use sarcasm in a pretty
effectual way. That night was a reve-
latiOn to me. No man could have lis
tened to him as he talked there and
failed to have been charmed, nor would
any man thereafter ever dare to aver
that William ii. Vanderbilt was a man
of money only. His forcible, clear
cut, logical sentences, studded here
and there with a witty side remark and
sarcastic comment, marked him as a
man of brains, and brains not lacking
cultivation ether.-N T. Times