Evening journal., 1912-11-14
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Commodore VanderbiIt'S
Most Violent Fit Of
Temper
BY HuIIand.

Lambert Wardel who was for
nearly seventy years employed by the
Nanderbits-his first employer being
Commodore vanderbilt-and who was
probably in the most confidential re-
lations with the Vanderbilt family,
father sons. garndsons and grand
daughters. of any OF those employed
by the vanderbilts died in 1906 at the
age of ninety-two. AT the time Of his
death he was the sole survivor Of all
those who entered into Commodore
Vanderbilt's employ when he estab-
lishcd his great feet Of Sound steam
boats in the late thirtics.
Mr. Wardell was intrusted with the
handling OF millions OF securities. in
the sense that it was part of his
duty to care for old securities and to
see that al newly bought securities
were securely deposited. lie knew to
a dollar what the face value of the
Vanderbilt securities was. He knew
when the time had come to cut Oil
coupons, and he knew when dividends
upon stocks were due
This relation brought him into the
closest of association with Comm0-
dore Vanderbilt The intimacy was SO
close, in fact, that the two men would
sometimes call each other names. If
The Commodore called Mr. Wardell
by q hard name. or intimated to him
that he was several kinds of a fool,
Wardell would rotort with equal We
homence But in a few moments the
spat would be ended and the two
men would 90 about their allotted
tasks as though no words had passed
between them
once asked Mr. Wardell if he
could recall the time when he had
seen Commodore Vanderbilt in his
most violent fit of temper.
ITO be sure ! can was the reply.
81 never shall forget that time.
Usually. when we had spats, ! gave
him as good as ne gave me, but that
time ] couldn't say a word III tell
you how it happened.
81 think il was the year 1863;
know il was at the time when the
Commodore had had his stock divi-
dend declared, which amounted to
about eighty per cent. on the stock
Of the Hudson River railroad and
little over hundred per cent on the
stock Of what used to be the New
York Central lines They used to say
that the Commodore watered the
stock by forty million dollars. He
didn't any such thingl He put forty
millions of value into the New York
Central and into the Hudson River
Railorad after be bought them, and
this stock just represented that value.
We'll he called me in his Office
one day just about the time the in
creased stock was issued. He was in
frightful passion He called me
names that ] had never heard him
call before He used very strong lan-
guage In fact, he bemeaned himself,
and that made me dumb. I didn't
know what the trouble was until. at
last. he managed to say to me, War
dell, why didn't you let me know that
] Ind twenty thousand shares of Hud-
son River stock which hadn't been
transferrod2
"Bow could | let him know it. said
Mr. Wardcll. when be didn't know IT
himself? He hadn't said anything
about ii before. You sec, he had
bought twenty thousand shares OF
NAfiA FA''h anu uGii AihO ~ u uuciHl7
red to him from the original owners.
! don't know why he didn't do Il.
Now You see the men in whose
names that stock stood could have
made trouble. They could have pre-
sented it aud demanded new issue
in the form OF stock dividends. tell
YOU, the Commodore WAS mad and he
as scared He told me TO go as fast
az cab could carry me and get that
stock and bring it TO him lndorsed
over to him. did that i'm no time
And when ! handed the stock to him
just said TO him, Commodore. you
bemeaned yourself in what you said
10 me
Wardell,' he said .let hygones
be hygones. He was as mild as a
May morning because ] had brought
him the stock
Copyright, 1912. by j. Edwards
All rights reserved)
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