St. Landry democrat., 1889-12-21
>rDERBILTS ESTATE:
METHODS BY WHICH THE OLD COM
MoooRE MADE HIS FORTUNE.

IuaIties-physicaI Appearance.
Another great estate is the yandarb
ssta!e; IL was founded by Cornelius Va
astof, porn thirty-one years, and d,
Smenty,nine years earlier, at theIeaI
ior several generations, had fpsnberitef
light on Staten Island, aystock n
various traits from his DuHi, .mnn,taS
haa more financial capafad far greater
ou genlus-Ihan Ashd power Of com
bbasiality, DoidnaFas exclusively of d
pnasloni put He divided mankind into
m raa soshose who could and those
wh o o oaassssot make money, and the latter
W. o.aoH4hned as blank fools. Probably
NO IN Of this century aver bent himself
urSle entirely to the pursuit of wealth.
rom the time he bought a ~periagua, at
10, after his fathers death, to carry farm
products to the New York market, until
his final illness at 81.
o AN EDUCATED MAN.
DE was iliterate throughout life, having
q violent prejudice against education,
which he believed to interfere with prac
ticai success. and talked a peculiar Eng
iish, denar 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
never feit any, being in this an exception
sufficient for him-he was phenomenally
astute at 9 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 &iC,OOO.
which was harder, he said, to get than
any subsequent sum. At that time he
Duut the first steamboat to run between
New York and New Brunswick, and re
eeived $1,000 q 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
l9-at the New Jersey terminus, and
turning IT to good account.
For hfty-four years he followed thief
water, owning steamboats, ON the Della
ware, the Hudson and Long Island sound,
and steamships on the Atlantic and Pa
elnc, steadily overcoming opporttion and
swelling his fortune. At 10, with prop
erty estimated at $40, 0G0, 900, the commo.
dore, as he was called, directed his atten-
top to, and concentrated his interest in,
railways, having been for many years a
heavy stockholder in the New York and
New Haven road. At so advanced an age
such q change was hazardous to saw the
Least; but he was brilliantly successful in |
Il, showing the energy and force of youth
~ al his plans and combinations. He
scarcely ever mis~calculated, but in at.
tempting to gain command of the Erie
road. when Fisk and Gould controlled it,
ne found that they were supplying, with.
tut any thought of responsibility, all the
mares that he or others were willing to
,ay. for. Soon firing of pitting his money
|gainst their printing press, be confessed
lis mistake. which he ascribed to his ad.
Users, to whom he bad yielded, he said,
,gainst his better Judgment.
HIS PURPOSE ATTAINED.
When ne saw his days closing-he had
long hlnesss-he had the supreme salts.
action Of having amassed not far from
Ivy. OQ0, DOC, and he cared for nothing
HIS one purpose In existence he had
plendidly attained. Although averse by,
o~nstitution to giving away money-it
9ulq 90 no p~erEsanent good, in his
piplon-he preser6ed the steamship Van
whichkpst $500, 900, to the gov
'nment at the outbreak of the civil war.
10 endowed, through the influence of his
'cond wife, the Vanderbilt university,
Nashville, with $700, 900. He also
ade, toward the last, various requests,
OF which indicated that he was not
aperyious TO artful g~allantry. He often
men that he happened to like, and !;
may pc said, to his credit, that he was
ways as good as his word. Totally
Etnout pretense or presumption, he was /
neraliy accessible. having so much ex- I
utive power that he was seldom pressed :
! time. :
looking, especially in his old age, !
; handsome face, erect carriage, and !
site step were likely to draw attention.
en- in crowded Broadway. He might q
We been q prince in disguise, if princes Q
re what they are imagined to be. He a
did not appear, physically, like e
} hard headed, unconditional, unlettered Il
man he was. His two recrea. /,
as were driving and whist. He loved 4
ID horses, had plenty of them, and was :
J despot Of the road. In whist. he
yed the rigor of the game, and could
bear to be beaten, which he seldom .,
3. AT Saratoga, where he usually :,
mt the summer, he was disappointed Z:
ne did not win enough to meet his -
bill When his memory began to .;
be ceased to play; serious as was the q
Tivation, he was unwilling to lose the y
. ne had 50 long occupied. He did not 81
ner himself about theology; but ii he it
believed The Biblical announcement he
me difficulty attendant upon q rich III
entering heaven, he would have ",
O very Door opinion of heavan l.,
- ~ Inc Cosmopolitan ia