Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — Vanderbilt’s Personal Habits. [ARTICLE]

Vanderbilt’s Personal Habits.

Commodore Vanderbilt was in his eighty-third year. He came of a longlived family, and had always, until very recently, enjoyed the best of health, looking at eighty, save for his silver hair, but half that age. He was tall, of magnificent physique and carried himself like a very dignitary of the Church of England, which bearing, with his constant suit of black and white necktie, probably gave rise to the often-made statement, “The Commodore looks like an archbishop.” Small gray side-whiskers fringed his hale and rosy face. His eves were dark, soft and kindly at times, with a way of growing keen and steely on emergencies. ‘‘ When the Commodore puts on his railroad look he means something,” his acquaintances used to say. In disposition he was quiet, not disposed to be aggressive, but, when aroused, merciless. In the sense of church attendance lie cannot be said to have been a religious man. He had a profound reverence for sacred things. “ Had his early surroundings and associations tended in the direction," said a gentleman intimately acquainted with the Commodore, “ he would have made a clergyman, and a successful one.” He is said to have been particularly fond of Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” carrying it about with him wherever he went. The Commodore was a most abstemious man, never taking wine. He was, however, an inveterate smoker, and, during his last illness, when remonstrated with for continually smoking, said: “When I have to give up smoking, you may give me up ” Business never appeared to trouble Mr. Vanderbilt much in late years. His custom was to spend two or three hours daily at his office back of his house, ana go home early when there was no trot. He used to devote a great deal of his evenings to whist, of which he is said to have been a superior player. At any rate, he respected the game heartily, and was a particularly careful observer of ihe silence and concentration it demands. An amusing incident illustrating this devotion is furnished by testimony he gave before one of the legislative investigating committees, which it was his fortune to encounter. He was asked what he had done when some important news was tpld him. “ I didn’t do anything,” he said, “ 1 was playing whist at the time, and I never allow anything to interrupt me when I am playing whist.” Up to a year or two ago, at any rate, he used to stop in summer at Congress Hall, in Saratoga, and under the ball-room, across the street, was a little corner room known to visitors as “The Commodore’s Card-Room.” This was a plainly furnished room, and here he played with pretty much the same party every evening, but occasionally with newcomers specially invited. Great stories are told about high play in this room, and it is said that the Commodore thought nothing of having $5,000 on the rubber. However, whatever was on the table, at ten o’clock at night precisely, the old gentleman stopped short and the game ended. Com. Vanderbilt never boasted of his wealth, his power, his gifts, or his superior abilities. But one thing he did boast of, and that was the manliness of that son of his who was lost in the war of the rebellion. He wfts also very proud of his first wife, and used to say she was the finest woman of her age in New York city. As a business man, he was bold, but none the less prudent. He used to say that no man could prevent him keeping an engagement, when once it was made. If he had bound himself to pay a million of dollars on the Ist of May, lie would at once provide for fulfilling his'eagagement in such a manner that no failure on the part of others, or any contingency whatever, could, prevent him doing it. In other words, he would have the money where he would be sure to find it on that day. He never was fond of talking. Once he was at a dinner in Loudon, and, his health being given, he was urged to respond in a speech. All that was got out of him was the following. Rising, he said: “Gentlemen, I have never made a fool of myself in 'my life, and I am not going to begin now. Here’s a friend of mine (pointing to his lawyer) who can talk all day. He will do my speaking.” Still he knew how to express himself with clearness, force and brevity, and some of his business letters were models of that kind of composition. He also possessed the more difficult art, that of not saying what he did not wish to say.— N. Y. World.

The population of the earth amounts to 1,423,917,000. Of this number Europe claims 309,178,300; Asia, 824,548,500; Africa, 190,921,600; Australia and Polynesia, 4,748,600; and America, 85,519,800. The average density of population of the whole globe is about 28 inhabitants to one square mile of land surface. The density is, of course, greatest in Europe, where it is 82 per square mile; in Asia, 48; in Africa, 18; in America, 5%; and in Australia and Polynesia, \%. With stock, a farm of broad acres can be jp*nseed to profit, but ip gtain it is not always the largest farm that produces the most profit. It is not the moat acres, but the best tilled and wisest management that win.