CHAPTER XXXV.

WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT.

A BUILDER INSTEAD OF A DESTROYER OF PUBLIC VALUES.—HIS RESPECT FOR

PUBLIC OPINION ON THE SUBJECT OF MONOPOLIES.—HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE IN

RAILROAD MANAGEMENT.—HOW HE IMPROVED THE HARLEM RAILROAD

PROPERTY.—HIS GREAT EXECUTIVE POWER MANIFESTED IN EVERY STAGE OF

ADVANCE UNTIL HE BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE VANDERBILT CONSOLIDATED

SYSTEM.—AN INDEFATIGABLE WORKER.—HIS HABIT OF SCRUTINIZING EVERY

DETAIL.—HIS PRUDENT ACTION IN THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877, AND ITS GOOD

RESULTS.—SETTLED ALL MISUNDERSTANDINGS BY PEACE AND

ARBITRATION.—MAKES PRINCELY PRESENTS TO HIS SISTERS.—THE SINGULAR

GRATITUDE OF A BROTHER-IN-LAW.—HOW HE COMPROMISES BY A GIFT OF A

MILLION WITH YOUNG CORNEEL.—GLADSTONE’S IDEA OF THE VANDERBILT

FORTUNE.—INTERVIEW OF CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW WITH THE G. O. M. ON THE

SUBJECT.—THE GREAT VANDERBILT MANSION AND THE CELEBRATED BALL.—THE

IMMENSE PICTURE GALLERY.—MR. VANDERBILT VISITS SOME OF THE FAMOUS

ARTISTS.—HIS LOVE OF FAST HORSES.—A PATRON OF PUBLIC

INSTITUTIONS.—HIS GIFT TO THE WAITER STUDENTS.—WHILE SENSITIVE TO

PUBLIC OPINION, HAS NO FEAR OF THREATS OR BLACKMAILERS.-“THE PUBLIC

BE DAMNED.”—EXPLANATION OF THE RASH EXPRESSION.—THE PURCHASE OF

“NICKEL PLATE.”—HIS DECLINING HEALTH AND LAST DAYS.—HIS WILL AND

WISE METHOD OF DISTRIBUTING 200 MILLIONS.—EFFECTS OF THIS COLOSSAL

FORTUNE ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT.

In treating of the family in the order of descent, I shall now make a

brief survey of the life of William H. Vanderbilt, especially in its

relation to Wall Street affairs and the management of his great railroad

system, the two being closely connected. William H. Vanderbilt was not

much of a speculator in the Wall Street sense of the term. He was more

of an investor than a speculator, and his investments had always a

healthy effect upon the market. Unlike Woerishoffer and others of that

ilk, he built up instead of pulling down values, but was at the same

time careful to avoid the error of inflation. He paid due deference to

public opinion also, in striving to allay its alarm in regard to the

dangerous overgrowth of monopolies. A grand illustration of this was

seen in the sale of the large block of New York Central. His first

experience in railroad matters was in connection with the Staten Island

Railroad, thirteen miles in length. The road had been mismanaged and was

deeply in debt, and became bankrupt. As he and his father had

considerable interest in the road William H. was appointed receiver. It

seems this was done secretly at the suggestion of the Commodore, who

wanted to discover by this experiment if his son had any capacity for

railroad management. The receivership of the Staten Island road was

crowned with signal success. In two years the entire indebtedness of the

road was paid, and the stock, which had been worthless, rose to 175.

William H. Vanderbilt was then elected President of the road. It was at

this time, it is said, that the Commodore began to correct his judgment

regarding the “executive ability of William H.,” and the latter relaxed

no effort to please his exacting father in everything, taking all his

abuse without complaint or anger. After the Commodore secured control of

the Harlem road, which was his first great railroad venture, he made

William H. Vice-President. As a co-worker with his father the latter

further demonstrated his capacity for railroad management, and Harlem

stock, which had been down to nearly nothing, in a few years became one

of the most valuable railroad properties in the country. So, it is a

fact, although not generally known, that William H. Vanderbilt had

proved himself to be a competent railroad manager before his eminent

father had fairly begun that line of business. It was almost entirely

owing to his individual exertions and sound judgment that, in a few

years, the Harlem road was double-tracked, and such other improvements

made as sent the stock from 8 or 9 to above par. The Commodore was so

highly pleased and agreeably surprised with his son’s management of the

Harlem road that he made him Vice-President of the Hudson River Railroad

also, and at a later date associated him in the same capacity with the

management of the important consolidation of New York Central & Hudson

River. The great executive power of William H. was manifested in every

successive movement which his father directed, and unparalleled

prosperity was the result in every instance. After William H. was fully

installed in the Vice-Presidency of the consolidated system of the

Vanderbilt railroads he became an indefatigable worker, taxing his

physical and mental powers to their utmost capacity, and it was

doubtless this habit of hard work, persisted in for many years, that

resulted in so sudden and comparatively premature death for a member of

a family famous for its longevity throughout several generations. He

insisted on making himself familiar with the smallest details of every

department, and examined everything personally. He carefully scrutinized

every bill, check and voucher connected with the financial department of

the immense railroad system, and inspected every engine belonging to the

numerous trains of the roads. In addition to this general supervision of

everything that pertained to the railroads, he was in the habit of going

over a large amount of correspondence which the majority of other men

not possessing the hundredth part of his wealth hand over to their

clerks, and he answered a great number of letters with his own hand

which financiers of comparatively moderate means are in the habit of

dictating to their stenographers. When his father died, at the age of

82, in January, 1887, William H. Vanderbilt, then 56 years of age, found

himself the happy possessor of a fortune variously estimated at from 75

to 90 million dollars. The remainder of the Commodore’s bequests

amounted to 15 millions.

After the death of his father the executive powers of Wm. H. Vanderbilt,

in the management of the vast railroad interests bequeathed to him, were

called into active play. The great strike of 1877 among the railroad

employes threatened to paralyze business all over the country, and came

pretty near causing a social revolution. In this emergency a cool head

and prudent judgment were valuable attributes to a railroad manager. Mr.

Vanderbilt proved that he possessed both in more than an ordinary

degree. Just prior to encountering the knotty problem of the strike he

had been highly instrumental in bringing about suspension of hostilities

in the freight war, and the course which he advised led to an

arrangement that produced harmony among the trunk lines for a

considerable period. As a consequence of the rate war the railroad

companies were obliged to cut down the wages of their employes, and this

was the chief element in causing the strike. There were 12,000 men in

the employ of the New York Central and Harlem. Their wages had been

reduced ten per cent. and they had threatened to annihilate the Grand

Central Depot. Instead of making application to have the militia called

out, as had been done in Pennsylvania, Mr. Vanderbilt—although a man

possessed of far more than ordinary courage—with keen foresight proposed

a kindly compromise with his employes. He telegraphed from Saratoga to

his head officials an order to distribute $100,000 among his striking

employes and promising them a restoration of the ten per cent. reduction

as soon as business improved to a point justifying such an advance. This

prompt and prudent action had the desired effect, and the consequence

was that while there was a small insurrection in Pittsburgh, and bloody

war to the knife, at great cost to Allegheny County, calmness reigned in

the prominent railroad circles of New York, and the taxpayers escaped

the burden that might otherwise have been put upon their shoulders, and

the demoralizing effects of violence and bloodshed were prevented. Over

11,500 of the 12,000 men returned to work, thus showing their gratitude

to Mr. Vanderbilt and faith in his promise, which was afterwards duly

fulfilled. The policy of Wm. H., in the management of his great railroad

system, unlike that of his father, was entirely pacific in its

character. He was disposed to settle all misunderstandings by reason and

arbitration, and had no inclination for fighting and conquest, after the

manner of the Commodore. Although a very close calculator in business

matters, a habit to which he adhered even to the precision of striking

out superfluous items which should not have been charged in his lunch

bill, Mr. Vanderbilt was in many respects generous to a fault. He

compromised the suit with his brother, “Young Corneel,” allowing him the

interest on $1,000,000, whereas his father had only left him the

interest on $200,000, with a forfeiture clause in the event of “Corneel”

contesting the will. Wm. H. also made a present of $500,000 in United

States bonds to each of his sisters, out of his own private fortune. A

good story is related in connection with the distribution of this

handsome gift. Mr. Vanderbilt, it is said, went around one evening in

his carriage, taking the bonds with him and dispensing them to the

fortunate recipients from his own hands. One of his brothers-in-law

having observed by the evening papers that the bond market had declined

a point or two on that day, said, “William, these bonds fall $150 short

of the $500,000, according to the closing prices of this day’s market.”

“All right,” replied Mr. Vanderbilt, with assumed gravity, “I will give

you a check for the balance,” and he wrote and signed it on the spot. It

is related that another brother-in-law followed him to the door, and

said, “If there is to be anything more in this line I hope we shall not

be forgotten.” It is said that these remarkable instances of

ingratitude, instead of irritating him, as they would have in the case

of an ordinary individual, only served to arouse his risible faculties

and that he regarded the exhibitions of human weakness as a good joke.

One of the greatest works of Mr. Vanderbilt’s life was the building of

the beautiful palace on Fifth avenue, between Fifty-first and

Fifty-second streets, which he adorned extensively with paintings

selected from the great masterpieces of the most renowned artists of the

world.

One reason assigned for his disinclination to speculate was that he

regarded the property left by his father in the light of a sacred trust,

and while he considered it a filial duty to look after its increase and

accumulation, he was careful not to do anything that might risk its

dissipation.

Mr. Chauncey Depew, who succeeded to the presidency of the New York

Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, was upon one occasion, while

visiting in London, a guest at a dinner given to the Hon. Wm. E.

Gladstone, then Premier of England, and was honored by a seat on the

left of Mr. Gladstone, with whom he discussed the differences between

American and English railroad and financial management. In the course of

conversation Mr. Gladstone said, “I understand you have a man in your

country who is worth £20,000,000 or $100,000,000, and it is all in

property which he can convert at will into cash. The Government ought to

seize his property and take it away from him, as it is too dangerous a

power for any one man to have. Supposing he should convert his property

into money and lock it up, it would make a panic in America which would

extend to this country and every other part of the world, and be a great

injury to a large number of innocent people.” Mr. Depew admitted that

the gentleman referred to—who was Mr. Vanderbilt—had fully the amount of

money named and more, and in his usual suave and conclusive way,

replied, “But you have, Mr. Gladstone, a man in England who has equally

as large a fortune.”

Mr. Gladstone said, “I suppose you mean the Duke of Westminster. The

Duke of Westminster’s property is not as large as that. I know all about

his property and have kept pace with it for many years past. The Duke’s

property is worth about £10,000,000 or $50,000,000, but it is not in

securities which can be turned into ready cash and thereby absorb the

current money of the country, so that he can make any dangerous use of

it, for it is merely an hereditary right, the enjoyment of it that he

possesses. It is inalienable, and it is so with all great fortunes in

this country, and thus, I think, we are better protected here in England

than you are in America.” “Ah, but like you in England, we in America do

not consider a fortune dangerous,” was the ready response.

The best proof of Wm. H. Vanderbilt’s great ability as a financier is

the marvellous increase in the value of the estate which he inherited

from his father during the seven years which he had the use and control

of it, and in which he did more than treble the value at which it was

estimated on the death of the Commodore.

The weakest financial operation on his part, known to the public, was

the purchase of the Nickel Plate Road, as regards the time of the

transaction, in which he was rather premature. It is now positively

known that if he had waited about a month longer the road would have

gone into bankruptcy and have fallen into his lap on his own terms. In

that case the West Shore would have followed suit.

In such an event I believe Mr. Vanderbilt would have been saved an

immense amount of money, remorse and mental strain, which, no doubt,

aggravated the malady which was the cause of his sudden death. He

realized his error when it was too late, and it was a source of great

mental anxiety to him in his latter days. He was very sensitive, and

nothing afforded him more gratification than a clean and successful

transaction, which drew forth public approval, and in the purchase of

Nickel Plate he was caught napping. It was a mistake for which the

Commodore, had he been alive, could never have forgiven him.

The syndicate that built the road had solely for their object to land it

upon either Gould or Vanderbilt, and it was upon its last legs at the

time it made the transfer to Mr. Vanderbilt. The syndicate laid a trap

for him. It had been coquetting with Mr. Gould in reference to the

purchase, and had made it to appear, through the press and other

channels of plausible rumors, that he had an eye upon the road. Mr.

Gould had occasion to go West about this time and the syndicate invited

him to make his homeward trip over the road, taking particular pains

that all these rumors and reports should reach the ears of Mr.

Vanderbilt, who was impressed with the idea that Mr. Gould’s trip was

one of inspection, with the intention of buying the road if he did not

anticipate him. This was just what the syndicate desired, and the

successful consummation of their financial plot.

The purchase was made solely in the interest of Lake Shore, as it was a

parallel road, and the road was afterwards turned over to the Lake Shore

Company.

The conception of the scheme was to build the road at a nominal price

and sell it to Mr. Vanderbilt as high as possible, and this was duly

accomplished. I am quite satisfied that if this road had not been sold

at this particular time it would then have gone into the hands of a

receiver, while a number of the syndicate, who had built the road, would

have failed, and a general crash would have ensued. This Mr.

Vanderbilt’s purchase averted for the time, and served to prolong the

period of its coming until May, 1884.

For a few years prior to his death Mr. Vanderbilt was in a weak

condition. This cause of mental annoyance came upon him at a time when

he was not robust enough to bear it and had not sufficient strength to

throw it off. He had been seized with a slight paralytic stroke, the

only visible effect of which was a twitching of the lower lip. Shortly

after this he lost the entire sight of one eye, about a year before his

death. This was not generally known to the public, however, and it was

the principal cause of his giving up his favorite pastime of driving,

which was one of his greatest pleasures and the chief source of mental

diversion from the heavy weight of his worldly cares and

responsibilities.

The day after Mr. Vanderbilt’s death I sent the following circular to my

customers:

“As Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt was a very important factor in Wall

Street business, I feel it incumbent upon me to issue a letter

to my friends and clients on the subject of his decease,

especially as the loss to the Street is a most important one,

and certainly will be felt for some time to come. Mr. Vanderbilt

undoubtedly, at the time of his death, was the largest holder of

American securities in the world, and had innumerable followers,

who were also vast holders of similar properties as those he

controlled, who acted more or less in concert with him, and who

were at his beck and call. When he told them to buy or sell they

would do so. These parties have now lost a valuable friend and

counsellor, and a leader in whom they believed implicitly. In

such quarters, for some time to come at least, more or less of a

dazed condition will prevail, precisely, the same as would exist

in an army in the event of the general in command having been

killed. Mr. Vanderbilt was a bolder and larger operator than his

father ever dared to be, as he spread out over more interests.

The market has lost an able leader, who was usually a builder-up

of the interests of the entire country, and unlike many other

large operators, who, at times, are on that side, but quite as

frequently on the wrecking side. It will be a long while before

so conspicuous and valiant a leader as Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt

will be forthcoming, and the market will, for a protracted

period, have cause to mourn its great loss. It is, indeed,

fortunate that Mr. Vanderbilt lived long enough to see the

completion of the consolidation of the West Shore and New York

Central roads; since both roads are under the able direction of

Mr. Depew, they are now secure from future harm; but the same

cannot be said of the South Pennsylvania enterprise, as

negotiations remain in connection therewith unfinished, which

will suffer by Mr. Vanderbilt’s death, and it will be found

difficult, I fear, for any other man to knit the discordant

elements together that at present exist in that quarter. There

is enough in this for some ground of apprehension, and this

matter may, therefore, disturb the harmony of the great trunk

lines, as this speck of trouble may yet prove a cancer in the

body of the stock market. As it is capable of infusing its

poison elsewhere, beyond where it is at present located, it is

certain that there will be required skillful surgery to prevent

inoculation therefrom.

“The stock market started off to-day as if held by concerted

action, and the appearances indicating that such attitude might

prevail to bridge over the Vanderbilt shock. While prices had a

moderate break, it was scarcely adequate as a fitting tribute of

respect to Mr. Vanderbilt’s memory, as the great General of the

Army of Finance of this country. It was unmistakable, however,

that the large selling was mostly of long stock, coming from

numerous frightened holders who were shaken out, and it was very

evident that the bears were more conspicuous as buyers than as

sellers, to cover their short sales made during the previous

several days. I do not think that the market had, considering

the power it has lost in the death of Mr. Vanderbilt, as much of

a break as should have occurred; still, it must be remembered,

that the dealings have been so enormous during the past month,

which represent the immense number of operators now interested

in the market, that it has taken from it a character which

previously existed as a one man market, and therefore it is

owing to this fact that the removal of any one man, or a half

dozen of them, by death or otherwise, could not bring about, at

the present time, any very wide and lasting disaster to Wall

Street. This market, as I have repeatedly stated, can fairly be

now considered the market for the world, and beyond the

permanent reach of any one man doing it any lasting harm. As Mr.

Vanderbilt invented pegging stocks, and stood his ground when

taken better than any one that will survive him in that plan of

strategic movement, he will, in that particular alone, be

sorrowfully missed. I am of the opinion, now that Mr. Vanderbilt

is no more, that Mr. Gould’s plan of leaving the Street will

undergo a modification, at least by his remaining for some time

longer at the helm. This will prove, in such an event, an

important factor in the future, especially as the bulls of the

Street have for at least a year past recognized Mr. Gould in the

light of a benefactor. To them he has proved a brave and able

leader, and the field is now clear for him to become

commander-in-chief of all the forces, without any one to dispute

his right thereto. This should be enough to fire his ambition

and keep him in our midst, and probably will.”

Among the popular and erroneous impressions entertained

regarding Wm. H. Vanderbilt, the one that he was no judge of

pictures seemed to have taken deep root in the public mind,

except among the few who knew him intimately, and the celebrated

artists whom he visited and from whom he purchased many of the

works of art which adorn his great gallery in Fifth avenue, now

in charge of his youngest son, George. That Mr. Vanderbilt had

an intimate knowledge and correct appreciation of true art has

been amply proved by the highest authority. I am well aware that

some years ago this statement would have been ridiculed by the

majority of the newspapers; but Mr. Vanderbilt never bought a

picture that he did not fully understand in his own simple,

unaffected method of judgment. He may not have been capable of

the highest flights of fancy, necessary to follow the poetic

imagination of the artist to its extreme height, but he was

equal to the task of grasping all the material essentials from a

common-sense point of view.

So far from making any pretence of being a lover of art, he was

in the habit of saying, when a handsome painting was shown him,

“It may be very fine, but until I can appreciate its beauty I

shall not buy it.”

Apropos of his modesty and judgment, in regard to the fidelity

to nature of a picture, a circumstance is related of his visit

to Boucheron, a French picture dealer, where he wanted to see a

painting by Troyon, with the object of buying it. A yoke of oxen

turning from the plough to leave the field is the subject.

Experts in art had taken exception to the manner in which the

cattle left the field. When Mr. Vanderbilt’s opinion was asked,

he said, “I don’t know as much about the quality of the picture

as I do about the truth of the actions of the cattle. I have

seen them act like that hundreds of times.” The artists present

submitted to his judgment, as he knew more about the oxen than

they did. When in France he visited the celebrated Rosa Bonheur,

at Fontainebleau, who was about his own age, and gave her an

order for two pictures, which she painted to his entire

satisfaction. He had his portrait painted by the celebrated

Meissonier, to whom he paid nearly $200,000 for seven pictures.

He purchased in Germany this artist’s masterpiece, “The

Information—General Desaix and the Captured Peasant,” for

$40,000, giving Meissonier, who had not seen it for many years,

a great surprise, and filling the heart of the enthusiastic

artist with unbounded gratitude for rescuing the picture from

Germany and bringing it to America.

Mr. Vanderbilt’s taste for music, especially operatic music, was

refined, and he had a keen sense of the humorous.

Neither Mr. Vanderbilt nor any of his family ever displayed any

anxiety to hobnob with those people who are known as the leaders

of society, although possessed of more wealth than the greatest

of them. The celebrated fancy dress ball, given by Mrs. Wm. K.

Vanderbilt, at the suggestion of Lady Mandeville, in March,

1883, seemed to have the effect of levelling up among the social

ranks of upper-tendom, and placing the Vanderbilts at the top of

the heap, in what is recognized as good society in New York. So

far as cost, richness of costume and newspaper celebrity were

concerned, that ball had, perhaps, no equal in history. It may

not have been quite so expensive as the feast of Alexander the

Great at Babylon, some of the entertainments of Cleopatra to

Augustus and Mark Antony, or a few of the magnificent banquets

of Louis XIV., but when viewed from every essential standpoint,

and taking into account our advanced civilization, I have no

hesitation in saying that the Vanderbilt ball was superior to

any of those grand historic displays of festivity and amusement

referred to, and more especially as the pleasure was not cloyed

with any excesses like those prevalent with the ancient nobility

of the old world and frequently exhibited among the modern “salt

of the earth” in the mother country. The ball had the effect of

drawing the Astors and the Vanderbilts into social union. The

_entente cordiale_ was brought about in this way, as the story

goes:

Several weeks before the ball Miss Carrie Astor, daughter of

Mrs. William Astor, organized a fancy dress quadrille, to be

danced at the ball. Mrs. Vanderbilt, it seems, heard of this and

said, in the hearing of some friends, that she was sorry Miss

Astor was putting herself to so much trouble, as she could not

invite her to the ball, for the reason that Mrs. Astor had never

called on her. This was carried to Mrs. Astor, who immediately

unbent her stateliness, called on Mrs. Vanderbilt, and in a very

ladylike manner made the _amende honorable_ for her former

neglect. So the Astors were cordially invited to the ball, where

Miss Astor presented a superb appearance with her well trained

quadrille.

All Mr. Vanderbilt’s other attachments vanished in presence of

his love for his horses. When any company, of which he formed a

part, began to talk horse his tongue was immediately loosened

and he became eloquent. Although generally a man of few words

and diffident as a talker, he could throw the eloquence of

Chauncey M. Depew in the shade when the subject was horse. He

not alone admired the speed of his horses; he seemed possessed

of the fondness of an Arabian for them, and, like old John

Harper of Kentucky, would probably have slept with them only

through fear of the newspapers criticising his eccentricity. It

was he who introduced the custom of fast driving teams, first

with Small Hopes, purchased by his father, and Lady Mac,

purchased by himself. With this team, in a top road wagon, he

made the then remarkable time of 2.23¼.

A host of rivals immediately sprang up, of whom Mr. Frank Work

was the most formidable. Mr. Vanderbilt procured faster teams,

and with Aldine and Early Rose, under the spur of competition,

reduced the time to 2.16½. Mr. Work, however, was a daring and

persistent rival, and soon beat this record, although only by a

fraction of a minute, which in trotting or racing counts just

the same as if it were an hour. Mr. Vanderbilt then purchased

the famous Maud S. in Kentucky for $21,000, and with her and

Aldine made the mile in Fleetwood Park in June, 1883, in 2.15½.

He afterwards reduced this time to 2.08¾, leaving Mr. Work and

all other rivals hopelessly in the distance. Eventually he sold

Maud S. to Mr. Robert Bonner for the comparatively small amount

of $40,000, on condition that she should never be trotted for

money. Other men would have given $100,000 for her without this

condition.

On the 12th of August, this year, Murphy, the famous jockey,

drove Maud S. in single harness, at Tarrytown, a mile in 2.10½,

and declared he did not push her. He said he was confident he

could make her do the mile in 2.06 or 2.07 if Mr. Bonner would

permit him, thus smashing all trotting records.

It has been said by experts in driving that Mr. Vanderbilt was

the best double-team driver in America, either amateur or

professional.

Mr. Vanderbilt’s bequests were liberal and numerous. He added

$300,000 to the million which his father gave, through the wife

of the Commodore and Dr. Deems, to the Nashville University. He

gave half a million to the College of Physicians and Surgeons,

and his sister, Mrs. Sloane, added a quarter of a million to

this generous donation. It cost him over $100,000 to remove

Cleopatra’s Needle from Egypt to Central Park. He offered to

cancel the $150,000 check which he gave to General Grant to

relieve him from the Ward-Fish embarrassment, and his munificent

gift to the waiter students in the White Mountains will long be

remembered.

Although Mr. Vanderbilt was very courageous, as was proved by

the fact that no matter how many threatening letters he may have

received—and their name was legion—from cranks, socialists and

others, he never made any change in his programme or his routine

of business for the day, and never absented himself from the

place where he was expected at any particular hour on account of

such letters. Yet he was peculiarly sensitive to public opinion,

and sought in various ways to correct its hasty judgment in

regard to himself and his enormous wealth.

It was this sensitive feeling, together with his profound

respect for popular opinion against monopolies, which induced

him to sell a controlling interest, 300,000 shares out of

400,000, at from 120 to 130, ten points below the market price,

of New York Central stock in 1879 to a syndicate, the chief

members of which were Drexel, Morgan & Co., Morton, Bliss & Co.,

August Belmont & Co., Winslow, Lanier & Co., L. Von Hoffman &

Co, Cyrus W. Field, Edwin D. Morgan, Russell Sage, Jay Gould and

J. S. Morgan & Co. of London. The amount paid for the stock was

$35,000,000. As the syndicate largely represented the Wabash

system, the stock of that property, as well as New York Central,

had an important advance.

The reasons assigned for this stupendous and unprecedented stock

transaction are briefly condensed by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew as

follows: “Mr. Vanderbilt, because of assaults made upon him in

the Legislature and in the newspapers, came to the conclusion

that it was a mistake for one individual to own a controlling

interest in a great corporation like the New York Central, and

also a mistake to have so many eggs in one basket, and he

thought it would be better for himself and better for the

company if the ownership were distributed as widely as possible.

The syndicate afterwards sold it, and the stock became one of

the most widely-distributed of the dividend-paying American

securities. There are now about 14,000 stockholders. At the time

he sold there were only 3,000.”

That hasty expression, “The public be damned,” which Mr.

Vanderbilt used in an interview with a reporter for a Chicago

newspaper, has received wide circulation, various comment and

hostile criticism. Although the expression is literally correct,

the public at first, and many of them to this day, received a

wrong impression in regard to the spirit in which it was

applied. It was represented as if Mr. Vanderbilt was a

tyrannical monopolist, who defied public opinion. A true and

simple relation of the interview is a sufficient answer to this.

The subject was the fast mail train to Chicago. Mr. Vanderbilt

was thinking of taking this train off, because it did not pay,

and did not appear to him therefore to be a necessity, and he

did not propose to run trains as a philanthropist. As part of

the interview which relates to this point has become so widely

historic, I think it will bear reproduction here, literally:

“Why are you going to stop this fast mail train?” asked the

reporter.

“Because it doesn’t pay,” replied Mr. Vanderbilt; “I can’t run a

train as far as this permanently at a loss.”

“But the public find it very convenient and useful. You ought to

accommodate them,” rejoined the reporter.

“The public,” said Mr. Vanderbilt. “How do you know, or how can

I know that they want it? If they want it why don’t they

patronize it and make it pay? That’s the only test I have as to

whether a thing is wanted or not. Does it pay? If it doesn’t pay

I suppose it isn’t wanted.”

“Are you working,” persisted the reporter, “for the public or

for your stockholders?”

“The public be damned!” exclaimed Mr. Vanderbilt, “I am working

for my stockholders. If the public want the train why don’t they

support it.”

This, I think, was a very proper answer from a business

standpoint, and the expression, when placed in its real

connection in the interview, does not imply any slur upon the

public. It simply intimates that he was urging a thing on the

public which it did not want and practically refused. The

“cuss” word might have been left out, but the crushing reply

to the reporter would not have been so emphatic, and that

obtrusive representative of public opinion might have gone

away unsquelched. As it was, however, he and his editor

exhibited considerable ingenuity in making the best

misrepresentation possible out of the words of Mr. Vanderbilt,

thus giving them a thousand times wider circulation than the

journal in which they were first printed, and affording that

paper a big advertisement. This is the correct account of that

world-renowned expression, “The public be damned!”

The mausoleum at New Dorp, Staten Island, is another outcome of

the genius of Wm. H. Vanderbilt. Mr. Richard M. Hunt was the

architect. Pursuant to the instructions of Mr. Vanderbilt, it

was built without any fancy work, but at the same time on such a

grand and substantial scale that it is said there is nothing

among the tombs of either European or Oriental royalty to excel

it, in solidity of structure and grandeur of design. It is forty

feet in height, sixty in breadth and about 150 in depth. It is

situated on an eminence commanding the largest prospect of the

bay, and one of the finest views all around in the State of New

York. The tomb and the twenty-one acres of land, upon the

highest part of which it stands, cost nearly half a million

dollars, and when the grounds are finished, in the style

intended, beautiful roads and walks made, flower gardens planted

with the requisite adornments, the entire expense of the

mausoleum and its surroundings will not fall far short of a

million dollars.

The precautions taken by the family against resurrectionists is

one of the best that has ever been adopted. There is a guard at

the tomb night and day. Each of these must put on record his

vigilance every fifteen minutes by winding up a clock, which is

sent to the office at the Grand Central Depot every morning.

In May, 1883, Mr. Vanderbilt, finding that his railroad duties

were too heavy for him, resigned the presidencies of his roads

and took a trip to Europe. James H. Rutter was elected President

of the Central, and on his death was succeeded by Chauncey M.

Depew, the present President, who so ably fills that office.

About a year before his death Mr. Vanderbilt gave unmistakable

notice of his approaching dissolution when he stopped driving

his fast teams, and went out riding with some other person to

drive for him. He must have keenly felt his growing weakness

when he was obliged to resign the reins which he so fondly

desired to hold, and which he had handled with such inimitable

skill.

The death of Mr. Vanderbilt was a great surprise, especially to

Wall Street, as very few brokers were aware even of his failing

health. On the 8th day of December, 1885, he arose early,

apparently no worse in health than he had been for a year

previous. He went to the studio of J. Q. A. Ward and gave that

artist a sitting for the bronze bust ordered by the Trustees of

the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mr. Depew called upon

him at one o’clock, but finding that Mr. Robert Garrett,

President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, had also

called to see Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Depew waived his opportunity

in favor of Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett was conversing on his

project of getting into New York by way of Staten Island and a

bridge over the Arthur Kill. They were in the study. Mr.

Vanderbilt sat in his large arm chair and Mr. Garrett sat on a

sofa opposite to him. It seems that Mr. Vanderbilt was in

perfect harmony with the plans of Mr. Garrett. While he was

replying to the remarks of Mr. Garrett the latter observed that

his voice began to falter and there was a curious twitching of

the muscles about his mouth. Soon he ceased to speak and had a

spasm. In a moment he leaned forward and would have fallen on

his face on the floor, but Mr. Garrett caught him in his arms,

laid him gently on the rug and put a pillow under his head. This

was only the work of a few moments, but before it was

accomplished the greatest millionaire in America had ceased to

breathe. When Dr. McLean, the family physician, arrived he said

a blood vessel had burst in the head, and so death, according to

the frequently expressed wish of Mr. Vanderbilt, was

instantaneous.

On the announcement of Mr. Vanderbilt’s death, (which was after

Board hours), a panic was predicted in the stock market. A pool

was formed of the most wealthy leading operators, with a capital

of $12,000,000, to resist such a calamity. It was not required,

however. There was a reaction of a few points in the morning

following, which was recovered before the close of the market.

The stocks of Mr. Vanderbilt’s properties, as well as the

properties themselves, had been so well distributed that such a

disaster could hardly have occurred without a strong outside

combination to help it, and the prevalent desire there was to

assist speculation in the very opposite direction. The remains

of Mr. Vanderbilt were conveyed to New Dorp and deposited in the

tomb without any ostentation.

In the chapter on the young Vanderbilts a brief account of the

disposition of the mammoth fortune of $200,000,000 is given.

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