New-York tribune., 1920-02-08
Ancient Sleigh of
Jacob Vanderbilt
Is Sold for $40
Driven Through Streets of
City, Filled With Provi.
sions for Orphans, Relic
Creates a Sensation

After lying for years, neglected and
almost forgotten, in a stable on Staten
Island, an ancient sleigh which be-
longed to Jacob Vanderbilt was driven,
with bells a-jingle, through the streets
of New York yesterday. Jacob Wander
bilt, who was brother of Commodore
Vanderbilt, the founder of the Wander
bilt dynasty" had the sleigh built
especially for his own use at a cost,
tradition says, Of $700. 1t still bears
traces of its one-time elegance. Like
some phantom figure of the early 40s,
the old sleigh caused 20 little curiosity
as 1t wended it's way from the munich
pal ferry house, at South Ferry, along
State Street, through Battery Place and
up Church Street, where for time it
was lost in tangle of trucks and auto
mobiles.
The old Vanderbilt heirloom was
forced out of its hiding place by the
exigencies of the big snow storm and
the needs of orphans cared for by the
Mission n Of the Immaculate Virgin at
Tottenville, which is at the lower end
of Staten Island. E. P. Radigan, of
Clifton, has the contract to cart pro-
visions to the orphanage. The Staten
Island roads are impassable Mr.. Radi-
gan's motor trucks were useless. He
remembered hearing E. l.. Scott, a
stableman in Clifton, tell Of Wander
ebilt heirloom that was in his stable,
He inherited it from his father, John
Scott. John Scott bought the sleigh
nearly fifty years ago from Jacob Van
derbilt. The SCOTS and the Wander
bilts had been friends in the old days,
when Jacob Vanderbilt was a captain
on one of the beats which ran from
Staten Island to New Haven, and which
were owned by old Cornelius Wander
bilt before he went into the New York
Central.
The sleigh now belongs to Radigan.
He bought it from Scott on Friday. Il
sold it to him for twenty dollars"
said Mr.. Scott to reporter for The
Tribune. ~ suppose | ought to have
gotten more for it. 1t cost Jacob Van
derbilt lot Of money. But l have
been trying to sell it for twenty-five
years.
In spite of its age, the sleigh is
apparently as serviceable as it was
when sleighing was popular pastime
in New York 1t is what was known
as Victoria, with seat for the driver
raised high in front, with seats for
AOui peIsOHS DeHlHu. Inc ola pIuSh
cushions remain, rather shabby though
with the wear Of other years. Two
horses furnish the motive power.
Mr.. Radigan, the new owner, drove
the sleigh himself yesterday. So
strange and out of place the relic on
runners seemed to passersby that they
greeted the drive and it's one other
occupant, The Tribune reporter, with
CALCULATIONS of wonderment, and many
half derisive laugh. Teamsters- and
automobilists seemed to resent the
presence of the unfamiliar old thing.
But the laugh was .on the teamsters
and automobilists. What were OBJ
stacles to them we're aids to the sleigh.
Mr.. Radigan's big truck horses went
up over the snowpiles and down into
the snow ruts, along West Broadway
with an case that soon left q world
Of traffic behind. The sleigh left
South Ferry at a little after nine in
the morning. BY eleven, standing in
front of meat market on West Four
teenth Street, it was loaded to its limit
with nearly ton of beef for the or
Phans of the Mission of the Immacu-
late Virgin.