Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-01
The Young Va ndsrbiIts.
New York Letter in Cincinnati Conmerci

GazetteI
 The young Vanderbilts, I mean Cornelius | and William K., the present head of the family, have "gons at it'' if they meant ! to double the fortunes their father left them | right speedily. Indeed, I don't see how ! they can help it. Cornelius Vanderbilt is 40 now, and he is worth, I suppose, at leat $50, ,000,0 and perhaps more. This, st compound interest, should double every 12 ! years, which would make it no less than | $640, 900 900 when MT. Cornelius is 7e. It ! would increase a good deal faster than that at the interest which he is to-day receiving on his
 stock and bonds, but there will come some
 panics, reverses, cataclysms perhaps, and
 he cannot safely count on making more than $460, 900, 900 in 36 years.
 | These young men are exceptional char | actsrs. They started in the path of life un- ! der the iron rod of their remarkable grand father, the old comnodors. He didn't believe
 in boys at all; he didn't believe in anybody | much; and when Cornelius and William K got out of short, clothes he said ts their fath- 1 er:' Look here, Billy, boys are no good; ! there's only one way to say @ 'em, and that ! is by putting 'em at something and making'sm work like the devil all the while. Now, stick these boys in some whore, and mako 'em come down to it. Don't let up on 'em."
 William H. was not half as hard and
 infiexible as his father, but he was accus-
 toned to mind that gentleman-as obedi-
 ent when he was 40 when he was IA -
 and he knew perfectly well that it was better to kick boy out of doors than to pet him and give him money; so he told the boys, as
 his father had told him, that they ''1nust support themselves"
 Cornelius got little clsrkship in the Shoe and Leather bank when he was 16, any clerk, and worked as late and as hard He allowed himself no sxtrs holidays, and neither did his father nor his grand father do anything to make his life easier. During these years his uncle Torrance, eo- ing to Europe for the commodore, invited the "youngster" to go with him, and the grandfather relented and consented. The boy was delighted at the chance, but the question of salary was involved. He pre- sented the matter to the president. "You can go," said that amiable functionary .sbut of course yen will lose your salary, $50" That settled it. Cornelius turned his back on the temptation and declined to go. When he was 20 he was made a'clerk, at the bottom of the ladder" in the Hudson
 River railroad office, and his younger
 brother, Wm. K, was put at work there
 the next year. For moro than IS years,
 now, they have " bowed down to it" in
 that great concern, and they are far better
 trained than their father ever was in all the
 details of the busiuess.S
 They are not fast men. They own no
 yachts. They care nothing for clubs. They
 are contsnt. up to the present time, with one
 wife apiece. They love their children, and
 each family, filing into church, looks like . pair of gently sloping stairs. They care little for fast horses. They do not swear.
 One of them is superintendent of Sunday school, and both are deeply involved in the various charities of the city.
 Cornelius is first vice president and head of finance, William K. is second vice presi- dent and master of transportation Each knows his business thoroughly. The most striking thing about either of them is that they work as hard as if they were hired by the job, which they are, by the way, and that they are perfectly democratic and access ible to anybody who has business with them. On the whole, the present seniors of the house of Vanderbilt are about the most quiet, nnassuming, well behaved, we'll train ed and level-headed of the New York mil lionairss of the present day.