The San Francisco call., 1898-01-02

the commodore, and one ot the
 greatest matrimonial catches in
 the country has left his baro-
 niaI estate, Biltmore, in North Carolina, and has gone off to India to shoot tigers and kill time till the con- tractors finish mending the drinking water supply of his magnificent es tablishment. It has cost this scion of the Vanderbilts at least 0,000 900 to develop this colossal estate up to his ideas of what a home should be, and now the owner is going to take rest till the leaks in the Biltmore pipes are patched.
 Most people have only a befogged idea of Biltmore. They know that it is located somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and that George Wander bilt is reputed to have spent a fortune on it, but there their knowledge ends.
 But such people as cnese have never seen Biltmore. They have never stood on the rampedouce at Biltmore House and watched the sun come up over the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains un- til it seemed to set the whole dome of the sky on fire. They have never at evening studied the wonderful changes in the atmosphere as the sun sinks, brilliantly coloring every cloud to a bright copper hue, which changes gradually through every warm shade, red and pink and green, until at last only the gray of night is left.
 It was these beauties of the North Carolina mountains that first attracted the attention of George Vanderbilt. It is related that the first time he came to Asheville, which is the pretty little town nearest to his estate, it was rain ing, and he was so disgusted with the general appearance of things that he ordered his special car to be ready to take him away the following morn ing.
 Fortunately for Asheville and the fu- ture of Biltmore, the weather cleared during the night, and the next morn ing George Vanderbilt, rising early, was treated to the sight of one of those . glorious sunrises. He countermanded the order with regard to his car and concluded to stay the day out at least.
 Standing on the piazza of the Bat tery Park Hotel, he looked away to the north and saw the peak of the Roan Mountain, in Tennessee, a distance of
  outline of Caesars Head, a mountain in South Carolina, fifty miles away. To the west, dim in that blue haze which gives to this range of mountains its name, was the Georgia line, ninety miles away. To the east, standing bare and bleak and ref1ecting from it's summit the suns rays, that fell upon it's snows, was Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rocky Noun tains.
 George Vanderbilt was charmed with this view, as is every one else that sees it. The plateau upon which Asheville stands lies in the shallow cup of the mountains as the bottom lies in a saul cer. To the beauties of the mountain :: scenery was added a climate that seemed to jingle with health. The more young Vanderbilt studied the situation ? the more he became pleased with it. He sent word to the railroad to side .. track his special car until further or :. ders, which were not given for six .. weeks afterward.
 In the meantime he rode and drove .. through all the mountains of the neigh .: borhocd. One day, when he had ridden to the top of mountain and had stood for long time, delighted with the |: view, the idea came to him that this would be a splendid place in which to =: establish a grand estate that would in ~: its proportions and equipment cival any of the great baronial possessions :: of the Old World. He conceived the =: scheme of building there, in the heart ,> of those smoky peaks, a castle such :. as America had not known before. He selected a site already occupied by a : Southern millionaire and offered to :: purchase it, but the Southerner would : not sell.
 :. Then young Vanderbilt decided to =. make site for himself better than any : in the neighborhood. He bought a tract : of land on which was high mountain