Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 April 1885 — Page 11

'length. Great light will also be thrown -upon political and religious history of the age." “How lone will it be before your book is ready fcor publication?” “I hope to work out the two parts of Henry this summer, and print in the fall.” “Can you make the cipher plain enough to any cavil?” “Oh, yes. While I don't want to reveal the rule until it comes out in my book. I can "convince any intellieent person in five minutes *of the existence of the cipher, and that it is preHcise and wonderfully ingenious. All he needs is >& pencil and paper, and I -will show him that 'which is as far removed from accident as are the movements of the planets. When I publish I •shall make the book of quarto size, and print in it sac similes of the pages of the folio, so that ■the reader can count for himself and satisfy him•self. There will be no guesswork about it. Whole sentences will be found to flow ip due order without change from the same multiple. I propose to go to England to secure a copyright there, as well as in this country. The man who comes with the internal history of Bacor., Bhakspearc, Raleigh and Essex in his hand can •xnect the whole world for an audience. As soon as I get through m> business here I shall return to Minnesota, and settle down to a quiet and .patient elaboration of cipher story.” XI. “What kind of a man do you conceive Shaks|>eare to have been?” “A man with very little education. Appleton Morgan has shown that they did not even teach English in the Stratford schools. Nothing but a little Latin. He was not necessarily a bad man. He may have been a very decent, genial fellow, With more or less mother wit. The fact that in *The Merry Wives of Windsor the part of the killing of Justice Shallow’s deer and the Shallow coat-of-arras was the luces of the Lucy family, and the riot, etc., is put upon Faltstaff. leads me to think that, in some traits, Shakspeare may have resembled that worthy If tradition is to be believed he certainly possessed FalstafTs licentiousness, ready wit, ahrewdness and love of money. There is one thing to be remembered in his favor; he never in any way claimed the authorship of the plays, and he seemed to have had a lively fear that when it became known that he was an impostor his remains might be disturbed by vandal hands. Hence he had placed over his tomb that doggerel surse on all who should move his bones. •An •Id letter, recently unearthed in the British Museum, written from Stratford not long after his death, states that he had had himself buried seventeen feet deep. He was evidently getting ready for the day of wrath. Lines. One day, while asleep near a swift-running stream, These thoughts came to me on the wings of a dres,m: If this fast-flowing river were a pathway to God. And by feet of earth’s people could never be trod; If earth were forever, if life were for aye; And the glories of Heaven shone out down the way, SVliafc a garden of torment would the mind of man be If he knew that those splenders were for none such as he; What heartbursts of anguish, of agony, woe, ’Would lay hold on his soul as he reeled to and fro! Would the terrors of hell, or of great judgment day JMako life more a burden, make darker his way? ******* But blessed assurance, a voice from on high Weaves itself through the vision—“On earth, all must die.” —Chris. Van Dcvanter. VEEDERSBrKO, March 23.

THE DEATH RACKET. Preparing Memorials for the Dead—How the . Scheme Is Worked. Pittsburg Chronicle-Tolegraph. “I am working the death racket, now,” said a Rorid faced and exceedingly glib-tongued young tnan, who had a somber-looking portfolio under his arm, whiie in his hand beheld a list of death notices which he had just clipped from a daily paper. “The der ih racket? Is that some new graveyard insurance scheme?’’ was the interrogation point, with the business end towards the young Inan. “Oh, no. Don’t you understand it? It is a legitimate business, and it is a very (profitable one if it is properly worked. I think at is a brilliant scheme, and am working it for all there is in it Will I explain? Certainly. There is nothing to be concealed about the matter. Let me show you my portfolio first, and then there will be no difficulty in understanding the whole scheme.” Then the young man opened up his somber-looking book, and displayed some really artistic looking lithographs. The top and * sides were ornamented with emblems of mourning. There were figures! of weeping women on the sides, at the bottom and in each corner were monuments of various styles, and angels with tho regulation wings hovering abeut. In the center Was an oval space for a photograph, and surJrounding this were verses of obituary poetry, f robably the production of George W. Childs, of he Ledger. “I have found,” said the inventor of the death racket, “that when a death occurs in a family, the friends are always anxious to have something to remind them of the lost one. Sometimes they have the flowers which have been presented carefully preserved and framod. Others have little articles carefully arranged and displayed where they can be seen at any time. I conceived the idea of getting up this engraving, and the design is sufficiently general to meet all classes —whether the dead one be a father, mother, sister or brother, old or young. My plan is to cut out all the death notices out of the city papers, religious as well Its secular. I then select a piece of poetry that ( think will be appropriate, and have it printed on one of these sheets. I then go to the house of mourning, show the memorial sheet, and in nine cases out of ten I receive an order for from four to five copies. When I show the engraving the friends seem to think that it was gotten up specially for the occasion, and are consequently all the more eager to buy.” “Isn't it rather mournful to go around among the afflicted families?” “Well, it’s not a very cheerful occupation by any means, and it frequently requires' considerable tact in treating with those who have been bo recently bereaved, but I have succeeded very well so far. I own the lithographic stone, and I cun have the memorials printed whenever I desire. Sometimes I make a mistake in the selection of poetry, and not infrequently the friends themselves have pieces of poetry which they desire printed on the memorial. I am always willing to print anything that may be required. What lo I charge? Well, that depends entirely npon the financial standing of the family. Sometimes I get a very profitable order, but frequently I fiud the family in a condition that precludes the possibility of making a sale, and I give them the sample copy free of charge. I meet with ome strange adventures. One day I visited a Hebrew family and exhibited a sample memorial. Unfortunately tho poetry was not suitable, and I was informed of the fact in a very sharp manner. I offered to print another poem, but ihe friends thought I had purposely attacked Iheir faith, and refused to purchase from me. I am in a hurry, just now, and if you want to fcnow anything further about the racket call on ne again. —i —l ■■■■ ' I M Jones versus Smith. Ban Francisco Chronicle. There is a man in town who is known as the most interminable of talkers and the biggest of bores. We’il call him Smith, meaning no offense to Mr. Smith. You can’t get rid of him if he once gets into the habit of seeking your society. Neither time nor tide are any consideration to him. He once fastened himself on noor Ned Fry, the most gonial soul who ever lived and the most warm-hearted of men. One day Ned said to a friend when Smith was freezing onto him: “l’d give $lO to get rid of that follow.” “Will you. bomst?” “I will: $lO in gold.” ‘Til find you a man who will rid you of him for that amount" “Send him along.” Next day, as Smith was filling a chair in Ned Fry’s office and wearying Ned's life out, in walked a man—we’ll call him Jones—and presented a card. Jones froze to Stbith, talked into his ears and his eyes and his nose, button holed him, held on to him until Smith fled. Jones followed him to the door, talked at him, held on to him up a dozen blocks and Smith never came hack to Fry’s office, or bothered him again. A few days after Fry sent a little note to his obliging friend: God's sake, take away Jones and send t>ack Smith.”

WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT. A Glance at the Most Famous of the Millionaires of New York City. His Early Drawbacks in Life —Ilis Final Suc-cess—-His Palace on Fifth Avenue —His Social Position. Written for the Indianapolis Journal. L Whether we are inclined to admit it or not, we are all more or less curious about millionaires. We know that money does not make the man, or, at least we say so; we know that even though poor “a man's a man for a’ that.” We are aware that many a millionaire is entitled to anything but unstinted commendation, and some of us, moreover, may be aware from observation, if not precisely by experience, that the popular idea that happiness necessarily accompanies wealth is a delusion, ludicrous or pathetic, as we may choose to regard it. Nevertheless, while the metal whose yellow glitter attracted savage eyes ages ago shall be sought and even fought for by mankind, the possessor of many millions will be scrutinized with some curiosity by even the most philosophical. Among the most famous figures in the financial world to be seen on the Fifth avenue of New York is the oldest son of a man, who, beginning life as a Staten Island boatman, laid the broad, firm foundations of one of the most colossal fortunes ever amassed by a private citizen in any age. IL William H. Vanderbilt is the oldest of the thirteen children of Cornelius Vanderbilt, better known as the “Commodore.” Ho was born in New Brunswick, N. J., May 8, 1821. He is, consequently, in his sixty-fourth year, though his appearance would indicate that he was at least ten younger. He received only a commonschool education, and has frequently expressed his regret that he was not in his youth allowed better educational advantages. When eighteen years of age he became a clerk in the financial firm of Drew, Robinson & Cos., and in liis twentieth year he was offered a partnership in the business. City life, and especially the close application to business, telling on his health, he started a little later as a farmer on Staten Island, where his father gave him a farm of seventy-five acres. He had in the meantime married a Miss Kissam, the daughter of a New York clergyman, a cultured lady of many sterling traits of character. Later, when the Staten Island railroad became embarrassed, he and his uncle, Jacob Vanderbilt, extricated it from its difficulties. This was his first experience in railroad affairs. He displayed a certain aptitude for business of that sort, and, in 1864, he was elected vice-president of the New York & Harlem railroad, and soon after he was chosen to fill the same office in the New York Central & Hudson River road. When his father died, in 1877, he inherited the bulk of the Commodore's immense property. Os the nine children born to him eight ar living. 111. In personal appearance he is tall, nearly six feet in height, of burly build, ruddy complexion, with coarse, heavy features, gray eyes, sandy side whiskers in the English style and yet only slightly fringed with gray. He is somewhat bald; the hair is rather inclined to curl. His roughly chiseled upper lip is not concealed by a mustache. His appearance rather'suggests that of the typical Enelish capitalist, but his features are without the stupid stolidity that not seldom distinguishes the large putty faces of his brother millionaire across tho water. His manners have little or none of the solemn, fat-witted attenuation of many of the moneyed Englishmen. Still, at times he comes altogether too near to that sort of pomposity usually observable in comparatively illiterate men of great wealth, of whatever nationality, and then tho less ingratiating side of his character is disclosed. It is said that on one occcasion he was riding down town in a Fourth-avenue car and the conductor not knowing him asked for his fare. The unctuous-looking man slowly turned his weight of 250 pounds and with an impressive nod of the head uttered the word: “Vanderbilt!” The conductor retired abashed. It was doubtless as a stockholder in the company that he thought the mention of his name was enough, though- Mr. Gould, for instance, would most likely have paid and said nothing. But Mr. Vanderbilt seldom gives any such foolish exhibition of his consciousness of a plethoric exchequer. He'has not the resources in ready money of Russell Sage, and sometimes will remark to a friend, “If I had five million dollars at hand I would buy so and so,” naming some stock or bond, and speaking of the matter, and such a vast sum. as most persons would Speak of a few hundred dollars. As to Wail-street affairs he sometimes professes complete ignorance; he has, he says, retired from any active participation in Wall street matters; he is not even watching the market. But such a statement is oftentimes quite as inexact, for example, as that of a well-known political leader of Brooklyn, who occasionally is kind enough to cheer the public by the assurance that he has retired from the dictatorship of Brooklyn politics. Mr. Vanderbilt’s reputation for veracity on business subjects, in other words, it is charged, leaves much to be desired. He has been subjected to considerable censure on this account, and even to downright abuso, with epithets which need not be repeated. He has been accused of secretly going “short" of his own stocks though he spoke well of them in public, and it is claimed that he has met with considerable success at times in mystifying investors and speculators. A keen observer of financial affairs, who knows him well in a business way, in speaking of him recently, said, “He is not always truthful about business matters. But then he can’t be. No man can succeed in Wall street and always speak tho truth. People are constantly trying to pry into his affairs. To mislead them is often a matter of self-defense.” This is Wall-street cynicism. It would, of course, be more commendable for Mr. Vanderbilt to observe the strict silence, the immovable reticence, in regard to his financial campaigns that General Grant, for example, would observe in a military campaign. He lowers himself to the level of a thimble-rigger of tho markets when he adopts any other course. Putting the most lenient construction possible on some of his utterances on financial matters, more particularly with reference to certain railroads, they have been singularly calculated to create mistaken impressions. Os course, any business engagements which he makes are carried out faithfully with the promptness of a thorough business man. At times he exhibits an almost boyish enjoyment of his wealth and leisure. Some time after he retired from the presidency of the New York Central railroad he said, with a laugh, to an acquaintance, who met him walking down Fifth avenue: “I am doing nothing now, I am loafing. I think I rather enjoy being a loafer.” IV. He is sensitive to newspaper criticism and not insensible to public opinion. He is in fact far more sensitive to criticism in the public jonrnals than he himself would admit: more so than some have supposed. He manifests no such bitter hostility to newspaper men, it is true, as Russell Sage, for example, who, when he finds a reporter in his sanctum, will sometimes half whine, half growl, in the rural accent which he has never wholly rid himself of: “Well, how did you get ini” But Mr. Vanderbilt, while not ordinarily so brusque as the great jobber in puts aud calls, avoids journalists, especially those who are not particularly well versed in railroad matters. He nas little respect for any one who does not readily comprehend railroad’financiering in all its intricacies. He is even sometimes weak enough to

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1885.

say that he does not read the newspapers. “I don’t read ’em,” he said one Sunday evening to a bright young journalist who had come to his palace to question him about some railroad matter; “I don’t read 'em,” and glancing at a pile of newspapers on a costly table in an apartment fit for a throno room, he added by way of explanation: “My butler buys ’em; I don't.” Os course this a harmless fable, but some of the sycophants who surrotnd him deny that he ever uttered the famous expression: “The public be d —d!” But while there is no doubt whatever that he did make the remark, a somewhat strained significance was given to it for sensational purposes. A crowd of Chicago reporters boarded his car a short distance from Chicago and questioned him about some complications which had arisen in connection with the railroad freight pool. There had been trouble among the railroad companies for some time, and Mr. Varderbilt had declared that he would not see the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania railroad strip New York of its grain trade for the benefit of Baltimore and Philadelphia, and that the New York Central road would carry on the fight if it cost $10,000,000. New Yorß merchants commended him for the stand he took, though it was of course recognized that he was acting on strictly businesslike motives. After a number of questions had been put he was asked by some reporter, apparently anxious to entrap him into some foolish remark in an unguarded moment: “Mr. Vanderbilt, do you run your road for the good of the public?” It was then that he impatiently made the remark which has since become famous, adding: “We run the railroads to make money.” Under like circumstances an answer of the same purport, whatever might be the commercial enterprise involved, would have been made by ninetynine business men in a hundred. There is no reason to suppose that he is any more indifferent to tho claims of the public than the average business man. Whenever there is occasion for the public to deal with capitalists like Mr. Vanderbilt, it assuredly should not be by means of small nageieg like this, but, if necessary through legislative enactments, rigorously enforced. The small venom and spite with which men of wealth are often regarded, especially by persons of inferior intelligence, gives no additional dignity to tho righteous contest against the growing power of wealth in this country. If it were possible there are few of us who would decline to become millionaires. There is reason to beiieve that the popular outcry caused by the remark referred to gave Mr. Vanderbilt, for a time, some uneasiness. He is, of course, aware that real estate, railroads and government bonds have no value except by the fact of a people maintaining law and order, and that the great body of the population in every country, the mass of the people who fight its battles, are either poor or only moderately well-to-do, and that to this popular sovereignty the wealthiest are indebted for their possessions. V. His fortune was at one time placed at as high as $200,000,000, but a good judge lately said that he thought $150,000,000 was now nearer the mark. Still he is the richest man in tho world. None of the Rothschilds ever had anything like his wealth. The banking business of that famous house stilt, of course, goes on in London, Paris and Vienna, but it is now in the hands of young men of the Rothschild family, and its wealth has been distributed among quite a number of its members by will, as one by one the older men of the firm died. The combined capital of that family is now about $250,000,000, and some writers have declared that Mr. Vanderbilt’s fortune exceeded that of ail the Rothschilds put together, but this is an exaggeration. It would not be at all surprising if Mr. Vanderbilt’s wealth should, before he departs this life, fully justify such a statement, but for the present it is enough to know that he comes as near as he does to the figures mentioned, and that he is not only far richer than any single member of the Rothschild family, but is, as already stated, the wealthiest man in the world. None of the traders of antiquity of which we have any record, none of the present financial barons of France or England, none of the moneyed princes of Germany, Austria or Russia or ot the world of haute finance anywhere, can really compare with him in point of personal possessions. Old John Jacob Astor with his fortune of twenty million dollars was, forty years ago, the Vanderbilt of his day, but even after making due allowances for the greater purchasing power of money in those times he came no where near the enormous accumulation of the chief millionaire of to-day. VI. His wealth is largely in government bonds and railroad securities. He takes an inventory of his wealth once a year. In January, 1883, he told a friend that he was worth $194,000,000, and added: “I am the richest man in the world. In England, the Duke of Westminster is said to be worth $200,000,000, but it is mostly in lands and houses. It does not pay him 2 per cent.” This was an unusual outburst of boastfulness on his part. A year ago he had $54,000,000 in government four-percent. bonds, but the amount was afterwards reduced to $35,000,000, partly for the purpose of aiding his sons, who lost $10,000,000 by Wall-street speculations. Later on, however, he purchased about $10,000,000 more of the four-per cents, and he has besides $4,000,000 in the government bonds that pay 3£ per cent. His government bonds are worth, as near as can be stated, $70,000,000. He owned, a year ago, 240,000 shares of Michigan Central stock, 300,000 shares of the Chicago <fc Northwestern, 200,000 shares of Lake Shore, 30,000 shares in the Chicago & Rock Island road, 20,000 in the Delaware & Lackawanna, besides some 20,000 shares in other railroads, so that in all, he held, approximately, 810,000 shares of railroad stock. A large part of these he still owns, though he is reported to have sold considerable Lake Shore stock. He owns $22,000,000 worth of railroad bonds, it is said, besides $3,200,000 worth of State and city bonds, and has $2,000,000 in various manufacturing stocks and mortgages. He valued his house on Fifth avenue at $3,000,000, the art fallery being worth, with its contents, $1,000,000. lo sold Maud S. for $40,090 last year. His ordinary expenses in a y.ur, he has said, were $200,000, but bis ball giv.u in 1883 cost him $40,000 extra. Mrs. Vandorbilt’s diamonds are valued at $150,000. He wears lone himself. A Wallstreet statistician, in referring to Mr. Vanderbilt’s wealth, said: “From his government bonds he draws $2,372,000 a year; from railroad stocks and bonds, $7,391,000;’ from miscellaneous securities, $576,695; total, in round numbers, $10,350,000 a year. His earnings are thus over $28,000 a day, $1,200 an hour, aud $19.75 a minute.”. This was a year ago, when his wealth was reckoned at $200,000,000. The value of his securities has decreased since, through the hard times. The depression in trade has not improbably reduced his wealth nearly $50,000,000, but his fortune and his income are SI course still almost fabulous. VII. Some have questioned his business sagacity, and be undoubtedly lacks the commercial genius of his father, but ho has been shrewd enough not only to keep what was left to him but to add to it very materially. “He is no fool” said a well-informed Wall street man in referring to this subject. “He was shrewd enough to sell 250,000 shares of New York Central’stock some five years ago at about 120, and then buy government four per cent, bonds at par. He has talked a good deal against the bears in times past; he has called them ‘cheap fellows’ and applied more offensive epithets to them. “ ‘I want people to believe in me,’ he has been known to say, ‘don’t want people to point at me and say ‘There goes a thief,’ this was in allusion to the bears in Wall street. “There was no need of his expressing himself with such emphasis. Nobody even thought of applying such a term to him, and the joke cf it is he was shrewd enough to turn 'bear' himself last fall, and he made a good deal of money py the decline in stocks then and later on.” * VIII. The curious will wonder how such a man, at E resent engaged in no particular business, passes is time. He is very fond of horses, of which ho has quite a number, and some of which are very fast trotters. He sold Maud S., however, to Robert Bonner, last summer. He talks horse a great deal, in fact, he talks horse too much. I understand that previous to his quarrel with Frank Work he would talk horse in the barroom of the Windsor Hotel with that gentleman fora long time in the evening. He raced Frank Work on Harlem Lane, or one of the boulevards, on one occasion, both driving teams, aud it ended in & dispute, after Mr. Work had given the burly millionaire his dust. Mr. Vanderbilt showed some vindictiveness about this matter,

and finding that the “Commodore” had left a note for $60,000 drawn by Mr. Work he at once brought suit for it. He had a perfect right to sue Mr. Work, but it was a trifling amount to Mr. Vanderbilt, and his action in the matter was always attributed to spleen. Os course, it is well known that the Windsor has come to be an eveniug rendezvous for Wall street men, and Mr. Vanderbilt used to frequently walk down from his house and spend a pleasant evening there. He has not visited the place, however, for about four months. When he came he would, after his rupture with Frank Work, generally go into a private parlor with Harvey Kennedy, or hold a confab with some others. Com. Vanderbilt, is is well known, always disliked Mr. Gould, but his son and principal heir has been generally considered friendly to that gentleman. Mr Vanderbilt, however, has sneered at the fortunes of men whose wealth he declared existed for the most part on paper, in such a way and under such circumstances that it was generally understood that he referred to Mr. Gould. Everybody was surprised then to see the two gentlemen in close conversation on one of the sofas at the Windsor one evening, and the loungers duly noticed the fact that their talk lasted fully half an hour, and that it was about the agreement entered into by the Union Pacific, the Chicago & Rock Island and the Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads, concerning the freight traffic which had led to a railroad “war.” To the novice in financial affairs, by the way, these railroad wars are dull matters to read about in the newspapers, but if the inside history of such contests, the personal feeling, strung sometimes to the pitch of bitterness, the mutual recriminations, the jealousies, the fears, the hopes, the vast interests involved, were set forth with anything approaching lifelike fidelity, it would be an interesting exemplification of a fact, obvious to the reflective observer, that something net remote from the dramatic sometimes enters into the conduct of business interests spread over thousands of miles, in which hundreds of thousands of men, with their families, are interested, and yet which in their ordinary commercial aspect seem prosaic. The conversation referred to, from which I have digressed, was an amicable one, but the two men, while now not precisely unfriendly, have little to say to each other; in fact, they do not often meet. In the afternoon Mr. Vanderbilt is apt to take a drive in Central Park behind a twinkling-footed span of thoroughbreds. He is off-hand and Democratic in his ways. He will walk around to his stable in Fifty-second street, and drive off alone; returning, he will leave the horses there and walk around again to his house. In the evening—especially on Nilsson and Patti nights—he will go to the opera. Only his herculean build would attract notice on the street. There is nothing in his appearance to indicate wealth. He does not even wear a watchchain; he is rather careless than otherwise about his personal appearance, as is apt to be the case with men of great wealth. There is not the least personal display. IX. His home is a palace of which a Doge of Venice inicht have been proud. It cost him about $2,000,000. It is of brown stone, and is more elegant than showy in its appearance. It has a fine gallery of paintings, which is open to artists and others at certain intervals. Here are examples of the best work of contemporary artists both in this country and in Europe: here are canvases by Corot. Meissonier, Daubigny, Jean Francois Millet, Delacroix, Whistler, Moran, Millais, Watts and many others, not to mention the sculptors represented. Mr. Vanderbilt is said to be a better judge of paintings than some have supposed. • • The appointments of his palace, for it is nothing less, are elegant, not to say gorgeous, in the extreme. One of the bronze doors is said to have cost SBO,OOO, and the bronze railing around the house, $60,000. It is located at No. 640 Fifth avenue, and extends from Fifty-first to Fiftysecond street; it is one house divided into two portions, that on the corner of Fifty-first street being occupied by Mr. Vanderbilt himself, while in the other end, at Fifty-second street, reside two of his daughters with their husbands. One married William D. Sloane, the carpet dealer, and the other Elliott F. Shepherd, the lawyer. Mr. Vanderbilt's youngest son, .George, is, I believe. still at college. Frederick W. Vanderbilt, another son. lives further down the avenue, while Cornelius resides in Fifty-seventh street. One of his daughters married a physician, Dr. Webb, aud another, 11. M. Twombly* who is one of a firm owning large grain elevators. X. Mr. Vanderbilt’s social position is not considered very high. Like Mr. Gould, he is almost ignored by many of what are termed the best families. He is said to be practically ignored by such families, for example, as the Astors, Livingstons and Rhinelanders, the Van Renssalaers, Beekmans, and Roosevelts. They still think, it appears, that there is a little too much of the noveau riche about hitn, too much of the horse jockey and too little of tho cultivation usually supposed to be associated with families whose wealth dates back further than yesterday. Our so-called best society would amuse a Thaekerv; it is made out without a taint of snobbishness, and the ancientness of our “oldest families” goes such a little way back into the gray and mossy centuries as to provoke a smile at its being made a claim for social distinction; the retrospective vista usually terminates with the figure of an honest-faced, wellmeaning, if somewhat slow old Dutch trader in buckled shoes, and three cornered hat, and knee breeches, things of the comparatively recent past. Nevertheless, if what is usually considered our best society is disposed to insist that wealth alone shall not be deemed sufficient to secure its recognition, it is assuredly entitled to commendation. Still, whenever Mr. Vanderbilt gives a ball or an entertainment of any sort, his stately parlors are crowded. The Astors, it may be added, go there on such occasions, even if they afterwards only make “party calls;” and, astotne rest, most persons are glad to respond to his invitations whenever he sends them. Ilis children, and especially his grandchildren, will have a much better social position, just as the Astors, descendants of John Jacob Astor, now stand well in the most exclusive society, though their famous ancestor enjoyed little or no social distinction. It takes several generations to rub off the bristles of traffic, and fit a family of rough origin for tho refined and cultured enjoyment of wealth. Mr. Vanderbilt’s family is now so large, however, increased as it is by numerous grandchildren, that he requires little outside society. He has always been an indulgent father; the illtreatment and neglect from which’ he suffered as a son, and the results of which he has often deplored, have made him the more indulgent to his own children, who are much better informed than himself and in far better circumstances than he was for many years, even when his father was a famous millionaire. His family relations, in a word, are very happy. He has, it is said, expressed some regret that he built his house where he did in Fifth avenue; it is too noisy and crowded, there is a ceaseless roll of equipages over the Belgian pavement and the street, as the tide of population moves up town, attracts such throngs, especially on Sundays, that there' is little sense of seclusion. His house is opposite the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, an old and a rather fadedlooking brick edifice with ground arranged in gentle terraces of turf and traversed by two winding roadways lined with closelycropped shrubbery, in summer shaded by beeches, maples and poplars. Mr. Vanderbilt offered $500,000 for tho building and the grounds, which, enclosed by a high stoue wall surmounted by a railing extending in the rear of the edifice as far back as Madison avenue, occupying a solid block. He wished to remove the building and convert the ground into a private park, but the charter of the institution forbids the sale of its estate. On the corner opposite the Fifty-first street end of his mansion is the St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a gem of architecture with a richly ornamented facade. A block further up, nearly opposite the other extremity of his house, is the former mansion of the notorious Madame Restell, at one time considered the finest residence of this portion avenue. It was in this residence, fit for a princess, that the wretched woman, driven to bay by the law and seeing before her the gray walls of a prison for years to come, committed suicide, a fact of which there can be no doubt, despite the sensational story that another body was substituted for her own, that she escaped to Europe and that the present handsome monument in Woodlawn Cemetery was erected merely to aid the deception. The gray-turreted, rather jshowy house on the opposite coroner of Fifty-second street and Fifth avenue, on the same side of the street os the

patenal mansion, is the residence of one of his sons, William K. Vanderbilt Such, briefly, are the surroundings of one of the finest, most luxurious homes in the world. XL Mr. Vanderbilt is understood to give a large sum every year in charity. He is obliged to do this quietly or he would be overrun with impostors. He is by no means impervious to the appeals of worthy objects of charity. Some months ago he gave $230,000 to erect anew building for the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Finally, it may be stated that, although William H. Vanderbilt has little to especially recommend him except his wealth; that without his wealth he would be considered commonplace, yet he is none the less worthy of some attention as, in certain respects,, a remarkable product of the times. His not very remote ancestors must have come from Holland; but his stalwart figure and fair complexion, his aggressive spirit and general characteristics, suggest an ancient Northman transported to modern times in anew world, and no longer striking down his enemies with sword or spear and appealing to Thor for aid, but using the great weapon of a later civilization, wealth, and forming combinations of powerful capitalists to push his campaigns in the domain of commerce. He is one of the wealthiest of the nuraerous uncrowned millionaires of two hemispheres who have been multiplied so rapidly in the evolution of the social system of this continent and in Europe since the mass of the various populations began to assert themselves in the affairs of government, and perhaps in the next century the perplexing question of capital and its proper relations to society—the relations to the body politic of capital as the modern archetype of ancient political power —may have to be solved. There is, however, no evidence that this man uses his wealth to the wilful detriment of any one, and as our laws, moreover, prohibit the entailment of estates, the wealth of a millionaire is apt in time to find its way back to the people. o. w. B. Grant, the Hero Dying, What is this sad rumor flying? Grant, the sturdy soldier, dying? Grant, the grim, yet glorious Mars, Savior of the stripes and stars— Grant, the warrior dying? Grant, whose cool, intrepid bearing Stimulated deeds of daring In the hottest of the field, And whose cry was “Never yield”— Grant, unconquered, dying? Grant, whose many faults are hidden ’Neath the cloak that weaves unhidden— Royal robe of purple dye— In the loom of memory— Grant, the hero, dying? Ah! 'tis worth a nation’s sighing! On Truth’s wings the rumor's flying, Softly, friends! a hero falls When the unwelcome angel calls. Grant, at work, is dying. —Columbus, 0-. Dispatch, THE WILD ANIMAL TRADE. Disastrous Effect of the Troubles iu the Soudan and Afghanistan, Philadelphia Times. “The row in the Soudan is going to play havoc with the animal trade this year,” said Superintendent Brown, at the Zoological Garden, this afternoon. “As long as there is a war there of course no animals can bo exported from that portion of Africa. Lions are very high now, although the lion market is dull. A good pair of African lions are worth $2,000 or more. Most of the hippopotami come from Nubia and the northwestern part of Africa. If all the hippopotami in this country were to die we couldn’t get any more for a long time. Moving about isn’t good for them. Some animals seem to thrive better when they are in menageries, going from one part of the country to another, but a hippopotamus ought to stay in one place. Last year there were thirteen of these animals in the United States; now there are only eight. We have one here, and he is in capital health. He weighs twice as much as he did when we got him, something over a year ago. Then there’s the prospective war in That will cut off another wild animal-producing country if John Bull and the Czar conclude to fight. The market is dull enough now, without these wars to set it back. Giraffes come from the Soudan, and they are very scarce and very high-priced. I think there are four f res in this country now. We have one, aim there is nothing the matter with him except his hoofs. They are too long. We tried to clip them, but he doesn’t like it, and is liable to kick a man. Giraffes are great butters, too. They can strike a blow with their heads that would astonish Sullivan. Two baby giraffes, only seven feet high, sold recently for $2,0§0. It’s almost impossible to put a price on these animals now, they are so scarce. “We have just received a curious bird, a brush turkey, from Australia. It’s ornithological name is Megapodius talligallus lathami. It is one of the rarest of the gallinaciousor pheasant species of birds in this country. The most curious thing about it is the way it builds its nest and lays its eggs. The hen first builds a mound or hill of earth and then digs a hole in the middle of it like a volcano. Then she lays a number of eggs in this hole and covers them with decayed vegetable matter and manure. Then comes another layer of eggs and then some more rubbish, until the hole is filled. The bird then goes about her business instead of sitting on her eggs and losing three weeks of active life, as any American hen would do. The heat generated by the decaying matter around the eggs is sufficient to hatch out the young, and they make their way out of the nest themselves. As the heat rises the top eggs probably hatch out first, and so the lower youngsters haven’t such a hard time to make their way up into the world as they otherwise would have. We have only a hen at present, but will get a gobbler some time this summer.” A little camel was born at the Zoo the other day. The chimpanzee i3 beginning to shed his teeth, like a human child. He first shed the lower central incisors. Superintendent Brown is watching this process with interest, and is making careful notes. Adoration. O Master, at Thy feet I bow in rapture sweet! Before me, as in darkening glass, Some glorious outlines pass Os love, and truth, and holiness, and power; I own them Thine, O Christ, and bless Thee for this hour. O full of truth and grace, Smile of Jehovah’s face, O tenderest heart of love untold! Who may Thy praise unfold? Thee, Savior, Lord of lords and King of kings, Well may adoring seraphs hymn with veiling wings. I have no words to bring Worthy of Thee, my King, And yet one anthem in Thy praise I long, I long to raise. The heart is full, the eye entranced above, But words all melt away in silent awe and love. How can the lip be dumb, The hand all still and numb, When the heart doth see and own Her Lord and God alone? Tune for Thyself the music of my days, And open Thou my lips that 1 may show Thy praise. Yes, let my whole life be One anthem unto Thee, And let the praise of lip and life Outring all sin and strife, O Jesus, Master! be Thy name supreme For Heaven and earth the one, the grand, thy eternal theme. —Francis Ridley Havergal, Ignoring One of the Faithful. Eugene Field, in Chicago News. We beg to remind President Cleveland that he has done nothing for Col. John Calhoun Shoemaker, editor of the Indianapolis Sentinel. And yet it was Colonel Shoemaker who effected a schism in the Rev. John Alabaster’s church, iu Indianapolis, simply because the Rev. Alabaster refused to pray for Democratic success last falL We submit that an editor who imperils his soul’s eternal welfare in tne cause of Democracy is entitled to some of the rewards which Democracy has at its disposal. Japanese Wise Sayings. Tell no secrets to thy servant If you hate a man let him live. To know the new, search the old, May to morrow be all you wish. Even a cur may bark at his own gate. Dig two graves before cursing a neighbor. The silent man is often worth listening to. He is a wise man who can preach a short sermon. A man who lends money to his friend shall never see his friend or his money again.

THE HOME OF THE HAVANA, The Habitat of the Weed Which Cheers and Solaces Smoking Humanity. The Manufacture of Cigars in Ilavana—Some of the Facts and Secrets of the Great Industry of Cuba. “There is no country so eminently qualified to satisfy the desideratum of the smoker,” said an old tobacco merchant, who has spent his best years in the West Indies, “as the island of Cuba. Not only are the finest spcrtes of the tobacco plant from there, but also a superior woody fiber for bundling and cedar wood for boxing, which so materially contribute to improve cigars.” The manufacture of cigars in Havana is carried on with more care, skill and thoroughness than any part of the world. It is greatly to this circumstance that the finer aroma and flavor of cigars made there are due. Natural differences in the various kinds of tobacco and climatic causes, of course, have much to do with this superior aroma and flavor, but, even if other countries had the Havana leaf, they could not produce the same excellent cigars. One reason why cigarmakers in Cuba are more skillful is because they confine themselves to one brand only. The cigars are made with such exactitude and perfection that they appear to have been molded. Not the smallest stem or rib is allowed to show in any one of the four or five layers of Havana used. The genuine Havana has a fragrance, apart from that which the quality of the It af and careful seasoning imparts, which must be attributed to the modus operandi of the cigar-maker and the methods of manufacturing. One favorite brand, called the Partidos, is manufactured immediately after the plant has gone through the process of fermentation, and while the leaf is almost colorless. Some people think that fresh tobacco is more easily handled, because it is softer and more elastic, but in reality this is not so. Most kinds of tobacco in Havana must be immersed in water before they can be worked. Cellars are unknown there, and, in consequence, tobacco becomes drier by heat and draughts than in other countries. Havana tobacco undergoes fermentation twice, first when it is laid up in heaps, and again when it i3 packed in bales. The stronger and heavier kinds require a seasoning of eight months before they attain such a degree of coloring that they can be used. If the leaves are worked much earlier they yield principally third-class cigars. The Cuban cigar-makers are mainly colored people, although many creoles and Spanish emigrants engage in the trade. The cigar-makers form the roughest and most miserable part of the population of Havana. Their conduct is regulated by the good or poor yield of the tobacco crop. If the yield is good and abundant there is hardly any way to manage the men properly, as a great want of workmen is then felt. If the crop is poor there are plenty of hands, and with the reduction of wages they become quite tractable. When high wages are paid the cigar makers become unmanageable, and manufacturers use evorv means to entice laborers from one house to another, often bribing and loaning money with no prospect of ever being repaid. Hundreds of dollars are spent sometimes in inducing a single workman to lenvo one place for another. In times of scarcity of hands the state prisoners are released. In 1861 the government freed 800 convicts to supply the wants of tobacco manufactories. One great nuisance, that in this country we do not feel, consists i& having to payJ employes their earnings three times per day. Havana furnishes the world with cigars, and in no other place in the world are there so many cigar factories. Much of the pleasant aromatie flavor of the Havana cigar is due to the fact that the fillers are stripped and packed in ordinary flour or potatoe barrels, and allowed to remain for six months. The longer the fillers are stored the stronger the flavor becomes. The method of making cigars in other countries is very defective, as the exquisite flavor is lost by too much drying. Rainy weather always interferes with the manufacture of cigars, as tobacco easily absorbs moisture. The fillers must always be dry before they can be worked. Poor tobacco is improved by being artificially flavored with Catalan wine, which, undiluted, is entirely too strong to drink. The manufacturer never estimates how many pounds of tobacco will be needed for a thousand cigars, but estimates how many cigars can be made from a bale. The wrapper is selected with great care, with a view to giving beauty to the cigar. All the scraps are either reworked into the body of other cheap cigars, or exported to foreign countries for cigarettes. Cigars of an inferior quality are generally pressed flat. Instead of cutting the wrapper leaf from below upwards, as is done in this country, in Havana it is cut from above downwards. Great care is taken to cut out the uppermost part of the leaf, which makes the finest wrapper. The portion that is almost without veins is wrapped around the heads. In making a cigar, the workmen takes two or three pieces of leaf and places them flat in his left hand; he then takes as many smaller pieces as may be required, rolls them all together in the hand, and finally applies the wrapper. His chief object is to cover the veins or place them all on one side. By this the skillful manipulator may bo recognized. An unpracticed maker swill make third-rate cigars out of first-class tobacco. Another test of a good workman is the amount of scraps he makes a day. A good cigar-maker will average only one-half pound. The heads of the Havana cigars are not fastened with gum or any other sticky substance, but simply by wheat bread. This is tasteless, and every workman carries a well-kneaded portion with him. With very fine Havanas nothing is used to fasten the ends, but they are secured by many skillful twistings that wiud into each other. The enjoyment of the fastidious smoker would be blunted if tho whole process of cigar manufacturing were laid open to him. Dirty negroes throw their spittle upon the leaf and tramp around it with their naked feet This, combined with the uncleanliness of many of the factories, is not very inviting information to the lovers of the Havana cigar. Everybody in Havana smokes, but the ladies in high life are rather secretive about the matter. The cigar men smoke continually, and when the employer does not supply them freely with cigars of the finest quality the laborers steal them. First class cigars have a fine, smooth appearance, tho wrapper being without veins and of a beautiful color. Second and third class cigars are of fine quality, but not so well made. The different grades of cigars may be recognized by the different colors of silk bands that binds them in bundles. Great caro is taken in embellishing the boxes of flna cigars, some of the orders of the nobility in foreign countries being elaborate in the ex treme. Havana tobacco can be harvested but once a year. Attempts have been made to obtain two crops annually, but these have been unsuccessful. The best tobacco is known under the name of tobaco de la vuelta de abajo. It grows in the region of the small rivers in the Sierras de los Oranjos. Each year this part of the island is overflown, and a heavy, rich quality of alluvium is deposited on the* soil. Irrigation has proved a failure in Cuba. In the growing season a heavy dew falls each night, but tho soil, which is a red loam, becomes dry quickly, and absorbs a great deal of moisture. Only onb very good crop can be assured in each five years. The plant requires great care. Three kinds of worms attack it, and these must be removed at night by the aid of lanterns. This is done by boys, who carry the worms to the planter for their remuneration. In tho early part of January the tobacco is ripe for cutting. If the crop is good, all the leaves are cut off the stalk at once, but if the crop is poor the unripe leaves are left to grow out more. The early crop is much the better. It is recognized by the beautitul color and mellow appearance of the leaves, many of which look as if pearls wore spread over them. Great care ought to be taken in purchasing the Havana leaf tobacco, because it differs so much in quality. Out of one quality a manufacturer will make ten different brands of cigars. The Havana lehr is the only kind of tobacco that moths and bugs will eat These kinds of vermin are very destructive if not kept away. There is a great doal of money to be made by a skillful tobacconist in Havana, but ho must oe expert* enced and understand the language spoken iu Cuba, otherwise he will not profit by this trade*

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