Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-12-01
VANDERBILTS ESTATE.
METHODS BY WHICH THE OLD COM
 MODORE MADE HIS FORTUNE.

Cornelius vanderbnt's Originality and
 Power of Financial Co,ubination-suc-
 cessful Railroad Undertakinss-social
 Qualities-Physical Appearance.
 Another great estate Is the Vanderbilt estate It 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 capacity-it amounted to genius-than Astor; had far greater originality. boldness and power of com bination; but it was exclusively of monetary sort. He divided mankind into two classes. those who could and those who could not make money, and the latter ho condemned as blank fools. Probably no man of this century ever bent himself more entirely to the pursuit of wealth, from the time he bought a periagua, at lG, after his fathers death, to carry farm products to the New York market until his final illness at S2.
 NOT AN EDUCATED MAN
 He was illiterate 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. 1 Letters he almost never wrote-corres- pondence was as severe task for him as 1 for Sam Weller-but he invariably wanted 1 everybody else to put any business pro 1 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 trade, big or little, and had q marvellous instinct for commercial profit. l Before 20. he removed to this city, and three years later was worth $l0,OO0, 1 which was harder, he said to get than any subsequent sum. At tlAt time he 1 built the first steamboat to run between New York and New Brunswick, and re- ceived $l, 900 year as captain. He con- tinued on the line until he made its revenue $40,000 a year: his wife mean while keeping an inn-he had married at f0-at the New Jersey terminus, and Turning 1t to good account.
 For fifty four years he followed the water. owning steamboats on the Della ware, tho Hudson and Long Island sound, and steamships on the Atlantic and Pa ,ifc, steadily overcoming opposition and swelling his fortune. At 70, with prop ,rty estimated at $40,O00. 900, the commo- lore. as he was called, directed his atten- ion to, and concentrated his interest in. ailways. having been for many years 8 ieavy stockholder in the New York and New Haven road. At so advanced an age uch a change was hazardous to say the east; but he was brilliantly successful in t. showing the energy and force of youth D all his plans and combinations. He carcely ever miscalculated. but in at eLlpting to gain command of the Erie oad. when Fisk and Gould controlled it, le found that they were supplying. with 'ut any thought of responsibility, all the Ihares that he or others were willing to pay for. Soon tiring of pitting his money gainst their printing press, he confessed lis mistake, which he ascribed to his ad. Tisers, to whom he had yielded, he said. gainst his better judgment.
 HIS PURPOSE ATTAINED.
 When he saw his days closing-he had
 long ulness-he had the supreme satis. notion of having amassed not far from s100. .000, 900, and he cared for nothing Use. Ills one purpose in existence he had splendidly attained. Although averse by constitution to giving away money-it ,ould do no permanent good. In his Dpinion-he presented the steamship Van ierbilt, which cost $500, 900, to the gov srnment at the outbreak of the civil war and endowed, through the influence of his second wife, the Vanderbilt university at Nashville, with $100,000 He also made. toyard the last. yarionss beq99es,zs eq,99s some of which indicated that he was moi impervious to artful gallantry. He ofter helped men that he happened to like, and 1t may be said, to his credit, that he was always as good as his word. Totally without pretense or presumption, he was generally accessible. having so much ex 1 ccutive power that he was seldom pressed | for time.
 Fine looking, especially in his old age his handsome face, erect carriage, an( elastic step were likely to draw attention
 eren In crowded Broadway. He nigh
 hve been prince in disguise, If prince!
 were what they are imagined to be. II, certainly did not appear. physically, lik'
 tie hard headed, unconditional, unletteret
 business man he was. His two recrea
 tins were driving and whist. He lovet
 god horses, had plenty of them, and wa
 th despot of the road. In whist, h.
 pl,yed the rigor of the game, and coul'
 no bear to be beaten which he seldon
 wa At Saratoga, where he usual,
 spent the summer, he was disappointe'
 If he did not win enough to meet hi
 hotl bill. When his memory began t
 failhe ceased to play; serious as was tn
 deprivation, he was unwilling to lose tn
 rant he had so long occupied He did no
 boiler himself about theology; but if h
 had believed the Biblical announcement of the difficulty attendant upon ric
 mans entering heaven. he would hay
 had very poor opinion of heaven. Pat
 R. Cleveland in The Cosmopolitan.