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Updated: May 25, 2025
The greater part of Cornelius Vanderbilt's wealth was massed together in his last fifteen years. This was the amazing, unparalleled feature to his generation. Within fifteen brief years he had possessed himself of more than $90,000,000. His wealth came rushing in at the rate of $6,000,000 a year.
He possessed Vanderbilt's boats upon the San Juan River and Nicaragua Lake, but they were of use to him only locally. His position was that of a man holding the centre span of a bridge of which every span on either side of him has been destroyed. Vanderbilt did not rest at withdrawing his steamers, but by supporting the Costa Ricans with money and men, carried the war into Central America.
Servants ran to and fro excitedly; messengers were dispatched to summon his sons; telegrams flashed the intelligence far and wide. The passing away of the greatest of men could not have received a tithe of the excitement and attention caused by William H. Vanderbilt's death. The newspaper offices hotly issued page after page of description, not without sufficient reason.
Havre with its great docks, its busy streets, and fast electric tramcars that frighten away foot passengers with noisy motor horns does not compel a very long stay, although one may chance to find much interest among the shipping, when such vessels as Mr Vanderbilt's magnificent steam yacht, without a mark on its spotless paint, is lying in one of the inner basins.
The upshot of the matter was that Morgan devised a plan for the sale of a large amount of Vanderbilt's stock holdings through private sale in England, and in such a way that the knowledge of such sale would not become public in America.
The young man jumped at that he'd be perfectly satisfied with that pay. And Vanderbilt said that all he got was what he could eat and wear, and offered to give the young man his board and clothes." "I declare" said the long-bearded man. "That's just it. Did you ever see Vanderbilt's house? Neither did I, but I heard he had a vault built in it five feet thick, solid.
It's only fair. Ain't I got a trooso to buy? Te, he! If I'd saved all the money I have been given to purchase troosos with I would have a bunch that would make Gladys Vanderbilt's layout look like a gingham wrapper. Sure, ain't it worth money to those wops to have the pure love of a good, true girl? Gee, don't make me laugh like a baby.
In 1865 Vanderbilt's fortune, consisting chiefly of a fleet of steamboats, amounted to about $10,000,000; he died twelve years later, in 1877, leaving $104,000,000, the first of those colossal American fortunes that were destined to astound the world.
In 1860, however, charges of corruption in the postal system and other Government departments were so numerously made, that the House of Representatives on March 5, 1860, decided, as a matter of policy, to appoint an investigatng committee. This committee, called the "Covode Committee," after the name of its chairman, probed into the allegations of Vanderbilt's blackmailing transactions.
Then it turned about, and with immense airs of superiority, attributed all of its own vices and crimes to the impoverished masses which its own system had created, whether in America or elsewhere. The apologist may hasten forward with the explanation that the commercial class was not to be judged by Vanderbilt's methods and qualities.
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