Evening journal., 1911-01-21
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Man Of Millions Who
Made Change for IL
Cents
By @ROnandr

It think that Cornelius Vanderbilt, |
who was named for his grandfather, |
the Commodore, is the most punctill- !
ously careful in his observance Of de-
tails of any man I ever knew" said
the late Commodore Alfred Van
Sanntvoord, a close friend of the
Vanderbilt family at the time of Mr..
Vanderbilts retirement. in 1897, from
the active management of the VAN
derbilt properties. Mr. Vanderbilt
Is exacting IN his personal business
relations, but he eXacts no more of
others than he does of himself.
"A striking display of this trait
Was made at meeting of a board OF
directors of the Delaware and Hudson
Railroad Company a few years ago.
Mr. Vanderbilt and / we're both men,
bers Of this board. We received at
each directors meeting a fee OF ten
dollars. In case. however. a full
board was not present, then those
who were present divided the aggre-
gate amount of the fee. That is 70
say, II the aggregate fee was ninety
dollars. then If nine members Of the
board we're present, each one received
ten dollars; but II only FIVE we're
present, each one received ten dol
lars; but If only Eve we're present,
then each one received fifteen dollars.
1T happened one day that three or
four Of the directors--I have forgotten
how many-were absent Mr.. Van
derbilt and we're present and I
remember that sat next to him at
the table.
After the business was ended, the
secretary prepared to distribute the
fees. But IL was impossible to di-
vide the total amount by the number
Of directors present, so as to leave
an even number of dollars. For each
Of us there were so many dollars
think It was twelve-and twelve and
half cents. One after another of
the directors said. as the secretary
came by TO hand out the fee. that IL
didn't matter about the odd twelve
and a half cents. we didn't want TO
bother about making change for so
small an amount
But when the secretary came To
Mr.. Vanderbilt, he saw that Mr. Van
derbilt was feeling in bis pocket.
Then Mr.. Vanderbilt drew forth a
coin purse, and. after taking some
change from II, told the secretary that
he could give him the change for a
dollar, although he could not take
care of the half cent: he would ac-
cept twelve cents. Thereupon, the
secretary handed Mr.. Vanderbilt a
dollar in addition 10 the rest Of his
money. and received in return eighty
eight cents Mr.. Vanderbilt carefully
counted the change and then put Il
into his coin purse
Those we're very queer looks that
came 70 the faces Of all the directors
who observed Mr.. vanderbilt's action
know what they were thinking
about: they were saying to them
selves. Here is a man worth a hun
dred million dollars, at the least, who
insists upon taking twelve cents that
is coming 10 him, and changing a
dollar bill In order TO get the twelve
e cents
II don't think Mr.. Vanderbilt him
self observed these queer looks Il
he had, he could not have understood
the meaning OF them I knew him
well enough to know that II was mo-
the twelve cents that he wanted: Il
was simply the workings of his dis.
position to be absolutely accurate il
all business transactions. Nor val
any spirit Of ayarice or miserlinesi
uAopid9ru IN lul6 Dlll6 dCl. MT. van
derbilt was absolutely free from suci
faint Interested as some Of the al
rectors we're at the sight Of Mr.. Van
derbilt making change for twelve
cents, have often wondered whs
was their frame Of mind and theil
thoughts when. day or two later. .
was announced that Cornelius Van
derbilt had given s250,000 to estab.
1fch v,,fuc4cr. a., N.u
York. with q pledge OF like amount
Even az the time he had insisted or
making change for and taking thu
twelve cents due him. he had in mind
and was planning that gift Of half a
million"
Copyright. 1911, by E. ]. Edwards
All rights reserved.)
On Monday Mr.. Edwards will fell
of ~The Hearts, Desire Of Benjamin
!