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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