The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1920-05-27
VAIL LOVED
VERMONT AND
]. ITS PEOPLE
So Says English Writer In
Remarkable Tribute to
A Great Man


Herbert N. Casson, representative
in the London Bureau Of the Boston
News Bureau, has written n remark
able tribute to the memory of the
late Hon. Theodore N. Vail. Com
ing at it does from an Englishman
and man who knew Mr.. Vail inti-
mately it is most interesting ar
ticle. 1t is as follows:
AS one who had the privilege of q
close personal acquaintanceship with
the late Theodore N. Vail, may |
write a few words of tribute to his
memory?
1t is difficult to believe that a life
so creative and masterful has come to
an end His great body and brain
were packed with life. In his rs
years he had expended the mental
voltage Of thousand men.
The word that best describes him
is GREATNESS" He was great to his
valet--to his laborers--to everybody.
His personality dominated every
occasion Wherever he sat was the
head of the table He lowered above
| other men as great mountain peak
towers above its foothills.
He lived conquering life. He
pulled nothing down. He played no
tricks. He never sold the world
short. No man Of his generation did
more to make civilization structural
and organic.
He was a man of power without
any inclination to be- ruthless; and
there are very few such men, either
in America or anywhere else.
He was too strong to be cunning
too confident to be unfair--too eff
cient to be unscrupulous.
He was not one of those who as
sumo optimism as a policy or a creed.
He did not ignore dangers. He did
not idealize either men or methods.
He knew that life is largely tragic
journey through jungle, but he went
forward and built a wide road for
others as he went.
It is strictly true to say that sort
of creative fury possessed him. He
drove through his days work with a
,, resistless tornado energy He, was
the most dynamic man ! have ever
known. He was never idle. If, by
chance, he found himself with a few
moments of leisure, he would play
solitaire with a ferocity of concentra-
ton.
He was never passive-never non
commital. He was positive and con-
structive. He gloried in responsible
ity.
There is no living Englishman who
Of paficon with II NJ.
Vail, except Leverhulme and North
cliffe. Cecil Rhodes was more of his
type; but it is quite true to say that
no European has ever had so practl-
cal and comprehensive a brain as I.
N. Vail.
Vail was not simple man, in the
scrse that Carnegie was. He always
had the grand manner of Roman
Emperor. What glorious Caesar
he would have made!
He was a unique combination OF
Emperor and New England Yankee.
He loved administration, but he hated
publicity and pomp. His Office was
workshop, not court.
OF egotism, in the common sense,
he had none. He never boosted and
seldom talked of his own success. his
conversation was OF problems--0l
now constructive work that must be
done.
He disliked public meetings and
made no speeches. He was not
speaker either in public or private.
lie rather distrusted the power OF
oratOry.
There was only one place and one
time when he became gifted wiuh
flueney-at his Vermont home, in the
tower room, after 10 p. m. 1t was
his habit after dinner to play his pipe
organ for an hour, and at 10 o'clock
to retire with a friend or two to his
tower-room, which overlooked ~
miles of Vermont scenery. Here he
would relax and talk freely and nu,
emily of telephony and the SOCIAL
problems of the human race.
An his life, he wanted to be
farmer. He loved Vermont and the
people of Vermont. He never relax
cd so completely as he did wheh
talking to the Vermont villagers
among whom heslived.
He had the most efficient of COW
barns and cost system by when
he knew exactly the output and pro-.
fit per COW. He was quite annoyed,
on one occasion when called BARN
"Cow- Waldorf" What he aimed.
at was not show, but efficiency.
Vail was the creator of the 'tele-.,
nhonv as d business. He was man
who seemed to be providentially de-
signed for this purpose.
His cousin, Alfred Vail, was the
friend and co-worker of Morse; ana
Morse's first telegraph line was
erected at the Vail Ironworks at
Morristown, N. j., in 1928.
Vail heard the story OF Morse az
his mothers knee. AS a boy, ms
favorite toy was telegraph ihstru-
ment, made by himself.
In 1876 he became the manager OF
the first Bell Telephone Company, az
a oala,v of $4,000, which, he told me-