The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-02-26
A WEALTHY ENGINE DRIVER
Young Cornelius Vanderbilt
Successful Railroad Man and
Inventor.

Inventor.
Among the young railroad men
there is no one more talked about than
Cornelius Vanderbilt. He has been
successful in his chosen profession,
that of railroad engineer, and there are
some people who consider this remark.
able, simply because he does not have
to be railroad engineer unless
wishes to. His father did not lea,
him as much money as he did
brother, and i'll the settlement of t.
tate he received only 81 100000. Nlth
this trfllng sum as start, howeyc.,
he has done very well.
1t has been only seven years since
he graduated from Yale, but In these
seven years he has managed to do a
number OF things. He has worked in
the railway shops and learned all about
the making of an engine. He has
patented number of inventions of
great Importance in the railway busi-
ness. lie has become national
guardsman and labbled in politics n
lltile. lie has become public official.
being now member of the municipal
civil service board. Efforts have been
made to induce him to run for Office.
but he Is very level-headed young
man.
His best known invention is patent
lre-box for the economical working of
locomotives, which has been success
iully tried on nine Of the principal
railroads and which bids fair to come
into general use. He also invented a
tank car that has many points of su.
periorlty over the old style car. The de.
mand for tank cars is greater than
ever before known nd this promises
TO be very valu,D pat Mt.
Ever since he e" &c out of COLLAGE he
has been very r~ and hard work
ing young man. lie is striving hard to
prove that a silver spoon in bows
mouth does not u -esSarily press up
ward so as to affec he brain. Tie is
convinced, evide ", that the only
way TO have name worth having is to
make it for yourself
A great deal has been said and
printed about this young man, but he
Is not a notorlety seeker. He is lust
as modest as any other man of his age
in his own business, and his
friends say that the attention
he receives i'll certain ways annoys him
greatly.
Not long ago he gave supper to
some of those in ms militia company.
"A great deal was printed of the fact
that one OF his guests was a man who
drives cab. At this supper he said
to one of his fricnGs: "I am hayi,
a splendid time tonight, but what w
ries me is the fact that the papers
going to have a write up of it.
wish they wouldn't. L wish IL
would let me be-" The papers h.
their write up" all right, but they
did not get any of their information
from the host.
MIR. Vanderbilt is modest and does
not like to talk about himself, He has
no press agent and does not under.
stand why the fact that he gets down
TO his desk at the New York Central
once In time each morning and attends
TO his business during the day should
interest the public any more than the
same fact concerning any other en-
ploye Of the road.
Besides being an inventor,
Vanderbilt is also something c
writer ON mechanical subjects,
has read several papers before an-
tiiic bodies. He has addresseG the
American Society of Mechat ical En-.
gineers and lectured at the Sheffield
Scientific school at Yale. The ad
dresses have attracted great deal OF
attention.
"Mon, ~ has not been able to !, er
, him from amounting to something, !
was what was recently said of him, b,
a well known railroad man, who add
ed: "The odd thing about tn;sis tina
every one seems to think this is rer
remarkable" =.
1t is not probable that Mr.. Vande,
II bilt when working in the shops an
!. porting over plans for boilers, waste
10 any time in contemplating the fat
,, That he Is setting an example for othe
II young men OF great wealth, but at tb
- same time the public attention he ha
- attracted has been largely on accoul
's of the fact that he presents such
"a strong contrast to most young men 81
rs uated as he is situated. .-Ne,o Yol
,r Commercial.