, 1888-11-23
V%ANDERBILTS ESTATE.
METHODS BY WHICH THE OLD COM
MoDoRE MADE HIS FORTUNE.

Cornelius Vanderbilt's Originality and
Power of Financial Combination-suc-
cessful Railroad UnderSakings-social
QuaIities-Physical Appearance.
Another great estate is the Vanderbilt
estate. 1t was founded by Cornelius Van
derbilt, as its fellow was by John Jacob
Astor, born thirty-one years, and died
twenty-nine years earlier, at the same
age. Vanderbilt, who was an American
for several generations, had first seen the
light on Staten Island, and inherited
various traits from his Dutch stock. He
had more financial ca~pacity-it amounted
to genius-than Aston; had far greater
originality, holiness and power of com
bination; but it was exclusively of a
monetary sort. He divided mankind into
two classes, those who could and those
who could not make money, and the latter
he condemned as blank fools. Probably
no man of this century ever bent himself
moro entirely to the pursuit of wealth,
from the time he bought a periagua, at
16, after his fathers death, to carry farm
products to the New York market, until
his final illness at 81.
NOT AN EDUCATED NAN.
He was iliterats throughout life, having
a violent prejudice against education,
which he believed to interfere with prac-
tical success. and talked a peculiar Eng
fish, defiant of syntax and orthoepy.
Letters he almost never wrote-corres-
pondence was as severe a task for him as
for Sam Weller-but he invariably wanted
everybody else to put any business pro-
posal on paper. He never, so far as
known, expressed the slightest regret for
his lack of education, and, presumably,
never felt any, being in this an exception
to his race. But as a compensation-fully
sufficient for him-he was phenomenally
astute at a trade, big or little, and had a
marvellous instinct for commercial profit.
Before 20, he removed to this city, and
three years later was worth $40, 600,
which was harder, he said, to get than
any subsequent sum. At that time he
built the first steamboat to run between
New York and New Brunswick, and re-
ceived 81 ZOO a year as captain. He con-
tinued on the line until he made its
revenue $4,000 a year; his wife mean
while keeping an inn-he had married at
19-at the New Jersey terminus, and
turning it to good account.
For ffty-four years he followed the
water, owning steamboats, on the Della
ware, the Hudson and Long Island sound,
and steamships on the Atlantic and Pa
cifc, steadily overcoming opposition and
swelling his fortune. At 70, with prop
SIb1 tSILuldIcu ~ StO,OOO, OOO, IuO COllllO-
dore, as he was called, directed his atten-
ton to, and concentrated his interest in,
railways, having been for many years q
heavy stakeholder in the New York and
New Haven road. At so advanced an age
such a change was hazardous to say the
least; but he vas brilliantly successful in
it, showing the energy and force of youth
in all his plans and combinations. He
scarcely ever miscalculated, but in at
tempting to gain command of the Erie
road, when Fisk and Gould controlled it,
he found that they were supplying, with
out any thought of responsibility, all the
shares that he or others were willing to
pay for. Soon firing of pitting his money
against their printing press, he confessed
his mistake, which he ascribed to his ad-
visers, to whom he had yielded, he said,
against his better Judgment.
HIS PURPOSE ATTAINED.
When he saw his days closing-he had
a long illness-he had the supreme salts
faction of having amassed not far from
800, 600, 900, and he cared for nothing
else. bis one purpose in existence he had
~splendidly attained. Although averse by
constitution to giving away money-it
could do 40 permanent good, in his
opinion-he presented the steamship Van
derbilt, which cost $500, 900, to the gov
eminent at the outbreak of the civil war,
and endowed, through the influence of his
second wife, the Vanderbilt university,
at Nashville, with 300, 900. He also
made, toward the last, various requests,
some of which indicated that he was not
imperyious to artful gallantry. He often
helped men that he happened to like, and
it may be said, to his credit, that he was
always as good as his word. Totally
without p~retense or presumption, he was
generally accessible, having so much ex-
ecutive power that he was seldom pressed
for time.
Fine looking, especially in his old age,
his Handsome face, erect carriage, and
elastic step were likely to draw attention,
even in crowded Broadway. He might
have been a prince in disguise, if princes
were what they are imagined to be. He
certainly did not appear, physically, like
the hard headed, unconditional, unlettered
business man he was. His two recrea-
tions were driving and whist. He loved
good horses, had plenty of them, and was
the despot of the road. In whist, he
played the rigor of the game, and could
not bear to be beaten, which he seldom
was. At Saratoga, where he usually
spent the summer, he was disappointed
If he did not win enough to meet his
hotel bill. When his memory began to
fail he ceased to play; serious as was the
deprivation, he was unwilling to lose the
rank he had SO long occupied. He did not
bother himself about theology; but if he
had believed the. Biblical announcement
of the difficulty attendant Upon a rich
mans entering heaven, he would have
had a very poor opinion of heaven.-PRuN
R. Cleveland in The Cosmopolitan.