The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-06
THREW MONEY AWAY
RUSsLA'S VANDERBILT is A VAC
ABOND THROUGH LACK
OF TRAINING
WAS LEFT A VAST FORTUNE
1t Away I'm Visionary
Schemes-Hfs Failure Has Brought
Ruin to Hundreds of HOmes-As-
sistance OF Relatives Necessary
less and DtsSraced.

less and DtsEraced.
In all the history of millionaIredom there
was probably never a more striking coin
cidence than the death Of Cornelius Van
derbilt occurring simultaneously with
the breakdown and dissolution of Rus
sia's greatest industrial and financial
institute, the DERIVES Railroad, Steam
ship and Banking system, says the Gin
cinnau Enquirer.
At the very hour when the American
Croesus awoke his wife with the resigned
words, IT think that I am dying" a
messenger of the st. Petersburg Imperial
bank, bearing a draft of 100 900 rubles on
Paul DERIVES, was turned away from
the latter's office with the information,
mo funds" and while in Fifth avenue,
New York. carriages. and servants on
foot were hurrying along to fetch doc
tors and relatives to the bedside of a
wonderful man, who was in the throes
of death, the people of the Russian capt.
tai hailed one another in the streets and
over the phone: DERIVES has failed
what will become of us?'
The death of Cornelius Vanderbilt
scarcely created a slump in the New
York stock exchange; the dishonored pa
per of his Russian alter ego threw the
whole empire into a violent panic, Grip
ping railways and means of river and
ocean transportation, throwing $4,000
workmen on the street with wages over
DUE wrecking several big banks and car
rying others to the brink of dissolu-
ton.
In the morning the firm of Paul Der
WIGS, valued at S0000,000 rubles, had to
be counted among the dead. Before the
bourse closed on the same day the firm
of Sawwa Mamontoff, supposed to be
worth half as much, went to the wall,
causing more failures
The American had balance of $780,
O0O 900 to his credit when he died, the
Muscovite smash-up involves the loss of
the same colossal amount in rubles.
Yet up to a certain point the fortunes
of the houses of Vanderbilt and DERIVES
run a complete parallel. Around their
cradles, in the old Staten island farm
house as in the dingy back yards of a
Moscow tannery, shirt sleeves were
more conspicuous than dress coats, and
in his day Paul DERIVES was as far-see-
ing, enterprising, sturdy and lucky man
as the commodore proved himself to be.
The difference between them was this:
Old Vanderbilt brought up his progeny
with the idea that they had to work,
that they had duties to perform; DERIVES
might as we'll have been denied the
blessing of having children, for he reared
his heir as a Prince Florizel, and When
he died, some twelve years ago, that
young gentleman shirked his vast re-
sponsibilities and unloaded them upon the
shoulders of a regimental comrade, Col.
Pomeranzeff, of the mounted guards.
AN INCOMPETENT MANAGER
This colonel and courtier was credited
with being a smart man, an honest one,
too, which made him sort OF white ra-
ven in Russia, but, knowing no more
about the administration Of railways,
steamship lines, banks, etc, than the
average army man, he succeeded in fritz
tertng away at the rate of $C,750, GOO q
year the riches old DERIVES had accumu-
lated in lifetime almost uneQualed for
prodigious effort and miraculous success.
Like Commodore Vanderbilt, old Der
Wics made his first money in river trans
portatiOn before the era of steam was
we'll under way. Having thus gained
something of a financial foothoId, he
went into the railway business by con-
meeting one or two Of the more impor-
tant towns on the st. Petersburg route
with his native city, Moscow The bust
ness grew and prospered, and the Mos
-Rjasanj- Uralisk line sprang into eX-
istence, with DERIVES as prOspector, con-
structor and financier.
Soon after the opening of this great
railway Derives learned that the Volga
transportation company was in trouble.
This company, founded jill 1913, had suf-
fcred much from maladministration Der
WIGS bought Its flotilla of steamers and
sailing ships for a song and turned them
! into money makers without much DELAY
Then he began laying out and building
branch roads to the great corn and tim
Der districts, each route being calculated
to be either self-supporttng or to be run
as sort of annex to his ocean or river
transportation lines
The idea was ingeniously conceived. and
there wasn't a single hitch in the line
of progress. After twenty years work
DERIVES fortune was estimated at $780,
100000 He was the mightiest commercial
and financial figure in the Russian en-
pire, and so extensive and so varied were
his enterprises that ordinary Industrial
resources could no longer supply their
needs
DERIVES was the first to break with the
neighbors for machinery. After spend
ing millions for the foreign article, he
built his own machine works where he
constructed everything needed by his va
rtous enterprises, from a locomotive to
an iron mast or anchor.
ENGINEERS BIG DEALS.
Again he astonished the world by set
! ting up the biggest cement factory that
Russia boasts Of to this very day. At
| about that time a certain fire insurance
| company objected to Derives estimate on
piece of property. DERIVES Immediate
| ~ started an insurance company under
! his own name, and henceforth paid pre-
| miums to himself
| He was one of the first to recognize the
| tremendous value of the naphtha wells
! in Baku, and appropriated unlimited
capital for their industrial development.
But to attain the greatest possible
amount of success in this latter under
taxing more railways were necessary and
DERIVES supplied them in such magni-
tude that all Russia stood aghast.
| Finally he founded a bank and clear
ing house to financier all these enterprises
| and to reap the profits that were in this
| hEancter1ng. 1t will be seen that each
| of his undertakings was made to con-
| tribute to the support OF the next one.
| or of the whole complex Of them. In
deed, they made work and profit for
each other as long as Derives remained
| at the head. While he directed affairs
methodically, honestly and on sound
! business principles all went we'll his
profits kept on mounting higher and
| higher and he kept on rolling I'D wealth
in a wholly unprecedented style for a
| European.
Paul DERIVES died in 1887, leaving prop