Fifty years in Wall Street
the spiritual seances which he then was in the habit of attending. But
when the cash was put in his hand he found it was a material reality.
This sealed a warm friendship between him and his worthy and economical
daughter-in-law, which was only severed by her premature death about ten
years before that of her unfortunate husband.
The sympathy that some people manifested for “Young Corneel” was, like
his own maladies, of the most morbid or delusive character. He had $200
a week from his father all the time that he was whining to the public
about his pinching poverty and denouncing the old man’s niggardliness.
This would have been ample, with fair economy, not only for all the
necessaries of life, but, under judicious management, would have
afforded the recipient many of its luxuries.
With his irresistible propensity for gambling, he would not have been
any better off physically, but worse, with the entire income from his
father’s 75 or 100 millions. The only difference that should have arisen
was that he would have been instrumental in carrying out in part the
socialistic and communistic idea of a wider distribution of private
property, amassed by thrift, privation and industry, among the drones,
lazy “loafers” and criminals of society.
The Commodore’s judgment, therefore, in limiting his prodigal son to
$200 a week, was not only comprehensive, but beneficent in its results
both to his son and to society at large.
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE YOUNG VANDERBILTS AND THEIR FORTUNES.
REMARKABLE FOR PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ABILITY.—THE MIXTURE OF RACES
AND THE LAW OF SELECTION.—THE WONDERFUL WILL AND THE WISE
DISTRIBUTION OF TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS.—TASTES, HABITS AND SOCIAL
PROCLIVITIES OF THE YOUNG VANDERBILTS.—THE MARRIED RELATIONS OF SOME
OF THEM.—BEING HAPPILY ASSORTED THEY MAKE GOOD HUSBANDS.—THEIR
PROPERTY REGARDED AS A GREAT TRUST.—THEIR RAILROAD SYSTEM AND ITS
GREAT ARMY OF EMPLOYES.—THE YOUNG MEN CAUTIOUS ABOUT SPECULATING,
AND CONSERVATIVE IN THEIR EXPENSES GENERALLY.
The young Vanderbilts who have succeeded to the estate of their father,
William H., are all remarkable for both intellectual and physical power,
as well as a high degree of refinement, showing how fast human evolution
under favorable circumstances progresses in this country. In other
countries it takes many generations to develop such men as the present
Vanderbilts. In this country three generations in this instance have
produced some of the best samples of nature’s nobility, which is
superior in every respect to the proud and vain-glorious production
which emanates from the succession of “a hundred earls” in England, or
even a greater number of barons, princes and kings on the Continent of
Europe. It would be difficult to produce better types of men in the
short period named than Cornelius, William K., Frederick and George
Vanderbilt, in personal appearance, breeding and culture.
The mixture and amalgamation of races from all parts of the world have
doubtless had a great deal to do with such favorable results in the
reproduction of our species in the United States. In the old country
close intermarriages seem to have a deteriorating effect on the race,
with probably the one apparent exception, namely, the house of
Rothschild, and a little longer time may tell that the rule of
deterioration holds good in this case also.
The four sons of William H. Vanderbilt have had the greatest start in
life of any family in all the records of history, ancient and modern,
with the single exception, probably, of the five Rothschild brothers,
the sons of old Anselm, and they had not near so much money to begin
with, but had the advantage of the Vanderbilts in their locations and in
their methods of combination. These methods, as I have observed
elsewhere, could only be attained through the Hebrew religion. By the
provisions of the remarkable will, which revealed such enormous wealth
as to make almost every other millionaire feel comparatively poor, the
greater portion of 200 million dollars was divided among the eight
children of the testator. Millions were distributed in this case as
other millionaires have been in the habit of dealing with thousands. The
ordinary human mind fails to grasp the idea of such a vast amount of
wealth. If converted into gold it would have weighed 500 tons, and it
would have taken 500 strong horses to draw it from the Grand Central
Depot to the Sub-Treasury in Wall Street. If it had been all in gold or
silver dollars, or even in greenbacks, it would have taken Vanderbilt
himself, working eight hours a day, over thirty years to count it. If
the first of the Vanderbilts had been a contemporary of old Adam,
according to the Mosaic account, and had then started as president of a
railroad through Palestine, with a salary of $30,000 a year, saving all
this money and living on perquisites, the situation being continued in
the male line to the present day, the sum total of all the family
savings thus accumulated would not amount to the fortune left by Wm. H.
Vanderbilt, unless this original $30,000 had been placed at compound
interest, and that in a bank from which young Napoleons of finance had
been strictly excluded.
The will itself affords one of the best tests on record of the sound
judgment and equitable mind of the testator. He was under filial
obligations to a certain extent to revere the memory and respect the
opinions of the father through whom he had acquired the means of
accumulating this wonderful fortune.
The Commodore had modified ideas of primogeniture, not exactly in the
English sense of the term, but he had an intense desire to perpetuate
his name and wealth, and would doubtless have advised William H., and
perhaps he did, to bequeath nearly all his possessions to one of his
sons, leaving the rest of the family a bare independence.
Wm. H., in accordance with his sensitive disposition, upright mind, and
a due respect for the feelings, opinions and even the prejudices of
others, resolved to make what public opinion would be likely to consider
an approximately fair division of his immense estate. In this attempt, I
think he succeeded pretty well, considering all the circumstances and
difficulties with which he had to grapple. A synopsis of the will
itself, however, herewith inserted, will enable the public to be the
best judge of the equity of the case.
In the first place Mr. Vanderbilt devised to his wife the palatial
residence, which cost two millions, situated between 51st and 52d
streets on Fifth avenue, the stables on Madison avenue, the paintings
and statuary, and an annuity of $200,000 per annum. He also empowered
her to dispose of, by will, in any way she might desire, $500,000 out of
the sum set apart to produce her annuity of $200,000.
He bequeathed to each of his four daughters, Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard,
Mrs. William Sloane, Mrs. Hamilton McK. Twombly and Mrs. William Seward
Webb, an elegant house on Fifth avenue in the vicinity of his own
mansion. He then devised 40 million dollars’ worth of securities, 25
millions of which were in United States bonds, to be divided by the
trustees equally among his eight children, five millions each. Next he
bequeathed 40 millions more in securities, ten millions of which were in
United States bonds, and the balance in securities of his own railroads,
to his eight children, share and share alike.
He gave to his son Cornelius two million dollars in addition to all
other bequests made to him.
George W., his youngest son, is to receive at the death of his mother
all that she possessed during her natural life, and if he should die
without issue his inheritance shall go to Wm. H., the son of Cornelius,
but in the event of this contingency not occurring, the grandson, Wm.
H., is to receive a million on attaining the age of 30.
Then followed a host of small legacies to relatives, friends and
employes. He left $2,000 a year to each of his uncle Jacob’s three
children.
He gave $200,000 to the Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tenn.,
founded by his father; and he left about a million in the aggregate to
twelve charitable and religious institutions.
The twenty-second clause of the will is the most important, especially
to his two eldest sons. It reads as follows:
“All the rest, residue and remainder of all the property and estate,
real, personal and mixed, of every description and wheresoever situated,
of which I may be seized or possessed, or to which I may be entitled at
the time of my decease, I give, devise and bequeath unto my two sons,
Cornelius Vanderbilt and William K. Vanderbilt, in equal shares, and to
their heirs and assigns, to their use forever.”
Mrs. Vanderbilt was appointed executrix and her four sons executors of
the will. The witnesses were Judge Charles A. Rapallo, Samuel F. Barger,
C. C. Clarke and I. P. Chambers.
This remainder, left to his two sons named in the clause cited, amounted
to about 50 million dollars each, in addition to their other bequests,
thus leaving each of them nearly as wealthy as their grandfather was
when he died. Cornelius is said to be worth over 80 million dollars.
Cornelius is the oldest son. He is a year or two over forty. He received
a good education, and had an excellent business training in his father’s
offices at the Grand Central Depot. He has always been remarkable for
strict attention to business, and for his thorough familiarity with
everything connected with his own department, as well as having a good
general knowledge of all the departments of the great railroad system.
When his father retired from active work, and the presidency of the
roads, Cornelius succeeded him as Chairman of the Board of Directors in
New York Central and Michigan Central.
Wm. K. took a similar position in Lake Shore, and was also elected
President of New York, Chicago & St. Louis, generally called the Nickel
Plate road.
Cornelius was married about fourteen years ago to Miss Alice Gwinn, a
handsome young lady of Cincinnati, and has four children. He resides in
an elegant house, at the corner of Fifty-seventh street and Fifth
Avenue, and has a handsome summer residence, “The Breakers,” at Newport.
He is connected, as an active worker, with various charitable and
religious institutions, and is very favorably known and highly respected
in the best social circles. He is gaining a great reputation through
various donations to laudable objects. Among these may be mentioned the
Club House in the vicinity of the Grand Central Depot, for the
accommodation of employes of the various railroads connected with the
Vanderbilt system. Also his magnificent gift to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the celebrated picture of Rosa Bonheur, “The Horse Fair,” which
is valued at $60,000. In this he surpassed the most liberal efforts of
Mr. George I. Seney, in one of his grand specialties, namely,
contributions to Art.
William Kissam Vanderbilt, the second son of Wm. H., also received a
fair education, and graduated in business in the Transportation
Department of his father’s great railroad system, where he exhibited
marked ability in mastering all the essentials, and in doing his work
with rapidity and accuracy. He is considered the most handsome and the
most imposing in appearance of any of the family, although, as I have
intimated at the beginning of this chapter, they are all above the
average in regard to the manly and gentlemanly virtues, owing to what
Darwin would have designated the “natural law of selection.” Wm. K. has