Fifty years in Wall Street
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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CHAPTER XXXVI.
“YOUNG CORNEEL.”
THE ECCENTRICITIES OF CORNELIUS JEREMIAH VANDERBILT, AND HIS MARVELLOUS
POWER FOR BORROWING MONEY.—HE EXERCISES WONDERFUL INFLUENCE OVER
GREELEY AND COLFAX.—A DINNER AT THE CLUB WITH YOUNG “CORNEEL” AND
THE “FAMOUS SMILER.”—“CORNEEL TRIES TO MAKE HIMSELF SOLID WITH JAY
COOKE.—THE COMMODORE REFUSES TO PAY GREELEY.-“WHO THE DEVIL ASKED
YOU?” RETORTED GREELEY.-“CORNEEL’S” MARRIAGE TO A CHARMING AND
DEVOTED WOMAN.—HOW SHE SOFTENED THE OBDURATE HEART OF HER
FATHER-IN-LAW.
Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, the brother of Wm. H., popularly known by the
name of “Young Corneel,” is entitled to a place in this book, as he was
prominent among the many financial friends I have had, in his own
peculiar line.
“Corneel” was eccentric, and was possessed of some astonishing
peculiarities that made him a genius in his way. He led a charmed and
adventurous life in his own circles.
He had a wonderful facility for getting into scrapes, and “banked” on
the Commodore to extricate him therefrom, which the latter did on many
occasions. The mere fact, however, that he had such a father, was in
itself sufficient, very often, to get him out of his troubles, without
any effort on the part of the Commodore in that direction. “Corneel,”
however, worked this “racket” for all it was worth, and in time it
became almost exhausted. Still, he went on making new acquaintances
without limit, and to many of them the name of the Commodore was a
sufficient guarantee of security for sundry loans, that were promised to
be paid on the fulfilment of certain expectations which only existed in
the borrower’s imagination.
But it was not very safe for “Corneel” to rely upon his father, or to
bank upon his credit in any case. If he had depended solely on the
paternal security, he would often have found, when in his worst straits,
that he had leaned upon a willow cane for support. “Corneel” had a
peculiar fascination in his ability to catch the ear of prominent men,
who would listen attentively to his tale of woe, and some of them were
so thoroughly under the spell of his persuasive powers that they would
“fork” out the required amount without hesitation, to relieve his
pressing necessities.
It is sad to relate that the money thus sometimes piteously solicited,
and really required to pay a board bill or room rent, was often thrown
away in the first gambling den that the borrower happened to be passing,
while the landlady and the washerwoman would be obliged to extend their
bills of credit indefinitely.
Amongst the special friends upon whom he was in the habit of exercising
his alluring magnetism were the Hon. Schuyler Colfax and Horace Greeley.
Over both of these eminent gentlemen he seemed to have perfect control.
So hopelessly were they under the charm of his occult power that they
seldom said “no” to any request that he made, especially when he wanted
to borrow money. No sorcerer ever had his helpless victims more
completely at his mercy, nor had greater power by the touch of his
mysterious wand, than “Corneel” had over these and certain other men,
when he would entertain them with a list of imaginary wrongs which he
had suffered at the hands of his father and brother. In their ears this
story never seemed to become stale, though it was the same old story
every time, with hardly any attempt at variation. To them and others,
over whom he exercised this unaccountable influence, the thing did not
seem to become monotonous like other twice-told tales, related by
ordinary people.
To the man of average intellect and common business capacity “Corneel”
was a shocking “bore” and a victim of morbid melancholia, but these men
of genius were won by the impression which he had made upon them, and
thoroughly imbued with the deepest sympathy for the wrongs which his
strange hallucinations conjured up. Unlike most men who borrow money
from friends and don’t pay, instead of exhausting his credit by this
business delinquency, he made it the basis for increasing it, and it
generally seemed to be a potent means of enabling him to borrow more.
Hence his obligations to Mr. Greeley were persistently cumulative until
they exceeded $50,000.
I have been told by a person familiarly acquainted with him that years
after Greeley’s death he would sometimes sit in deep meditation, with
the tears welling up in his eyes, especially when in a great financial
strait, and sighingly say: “When Mr. Greeley died I lost the best friend
in the world.” Be it said to his credit, however, in spite of all his
shortcomings, he exhibited his honesty by paying every cent of the debt,
with interest, to Mr. Greeley’s daughters. He also paid the greater part
of all the other debts which he had contracted under similar
circumstances, after making a settlement with Wm. H. and receiving a
much larger amount than he had been left by the will of his father, who
bequeathed him merely a decent competence for his rank and station in
life, without any surplus for the policy shops and faro banks.
One of the qualities possessed by “Corneel” in a remarkable degree, and
which enabled him to be so successful a borrower, was his extreme
earnestness. He bent his whole energies to the work in hand, and his
requests usually met with ready response. If he had put the same energy
and intense enthusiasm into legitimate speculation, he would have been
as successful as his father or Jay Gould. He must have been an intuitive
judge of character, for he showed that he generally knew his man in
advance of making application for sundry little loans. In that respect
he was not unlike the famous huntsman who was a dead shot every time.
My first acquaintance with “Corneel” was through one of his special
friends, the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, whom he brought to my office for the
purpose of having himself introduced by Mr. Colfax. He informed me that
he had just then returned from Hartford, Conn., where he had taken his
friend, Mr. Colfax, for a week’s visit at his house. It can be readily
imagined, therefore, that at this time Mr. Colfax had but little control
over his own bank account and for a long time afterwards.
I invited both these gentlemen to dinner at the Club that afternoon.
Although Mr. Colfax was an extraordinarily good talker, he was left far
in the distance and almost silenced by “Corneel.” Most of what the
latter said, however, had very little in it of a tangible character, and
was almost entirely made up of unstinted praise of his friend Colfax. If
ever there was a man talked up to the skies, or if the thing were
possible, Colfax must have been literally in that elevated position
during our dinner.
There was no let-up to the unqualified adulation, yet I must say that
there was none of the uninterrupted stream of fulsome flattery fell to
the ground. Schuyler took it all in as he did his viands, and as if it
were legitimately his due, a proof positive that “Young Corneel” was not
mistaken in his man; and a further demonstration of his natural sagacity
in striking the man upon whom he could successfully exercise his
peculiar charms of persuasion.
When he got tired talking about Mr. Colfax, the object of his next theme
was Mr. Greeley, on whom he was profusely prolific.
I met Mr. Greeley frequently afterwards, and told him what a good friend
he had in young Cornelius Vanderbilt. “Yes,” he said, with a knowing
smile, “I think he is a good friend of mine. I have heard of his
frequently saying nice things about me. It is a great pity, however,” he
added significantly, “that he is so frequently short of funds. If he had
more money he would be a very good fellow.”
It was generally in the way above referred that he would steal a march
on Mr. Greeley and impose on his good nature. He would say nice things
about him to some one who would quote him to Mr. Greeley, and thus pave
the way for an additional loan. In a few days afterward “Corneel” would
call on his tried and trusty friend, and never fail to obtain the needed