Vanderbilt University

“ The Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, may be mentioned as a true product of the gospel of wealth. It was established by members of the Vanderbilt family during their lives—mark this vital feature—during their lives; for nothing counts for much that is left by a man at his death. Such funds are torn from him, not given by him. If any millionaire is at a loss to know how to accomplish great and indisputable good with his surplus, here is a field which can never be fully occupied, for the wants of our universities increase with the development of the country. ”

“ The educational work of Commodore Vanderbilt's architects and landscape-gardeners, whether slight or "immense," is at all events real, honest, and unperverted, which is a good deal more than can be said of the backward and benighted inculcations that are dispensed by the living vocal teachers. We gave an illustration not long ago of the bigotry and intolerance exhibited by the authorities of Vanderbilt University in abruptly dismissing from his position an able professor of science because he taught the present state of knowledge upon the subject confided to his charge. ”

“ Vanderbilt had no care for science, one would have thought that the trustees and faculty of the institution which he endowed might have gracefully acknowledged that something was specially and honorably due from them to the interests of science, and have shaped the policy of the university accordingly. They might, at least, have been decently up to the times in the spirit of its management. An old educational establishment hampered by traditions, and running in the deep ruts of long-settled habit, has some excuse, perhaps, for guiding its course by the illiberal precedents of the past ”

“ Recently $15,000 has been spent for improvements of property. The enrollment for the present year is 316, and nine teachers are employed. The Peoples School at Franklin, Tenn., and the Morgan School at Fayetteville, Tenn., are also meeting with great success. Both of these have strong local support, having been provided with splendid new buildings, with dormitories and gymnasium; both have strong men at their head and more than 200 students apiece.
The result of this movement is that Vanderbilt University now receives a majority of its incoming class from the best schools in the South. ”

“ Southern educational conditions are bad enough now, but they were far worse in 1875, the year Vanderbilt University opened its doors. At that time the public school systems of the South were striving to get under way and make some impression on the mass of illiterates. Nothing could be attempted outside a few favored cities in the way of public high schools. The common schools were running ninety-three days in the year, spending 81 cents per capita of population and meagerly educating 45 per cent of the school population. Clearly it was useless to await the coming of the public high school. ”

“ The president of Vanderbilt University, which is the most important university in the South after the University of Virginia, writes me that, although co-education has not been formally adopted there, yet women have never been refused admission 99into classes, that degrees would always be conferred upon those who had taken the proper examinations, and that one young woman had actually completed the course and received the degree of A.M. What more can the women of the central Southern States desire? It is not necessary that every male college should be open to them ”

“ He built a great terminal in New York City, and made the system so profitable that, from it, and a series of fortunate speculations, he accumulated a fortune of $100,000,000, practically all of which he bequeathed to his eldest son, William Henry. One million was also given for the establishment of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, for many years, had a very poor opinion of his son's financial ability, and giving him a small farm on Staten Island, left him to shift for himself. Everyone has read of the incident which changed this opinion. ”

“ Politics did not interest him. He was fond of driving fine horses; he gave one million to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. He had thirteen children by his first wife."
Among many stories of his daring in storm and danger, this may be told here: In a sailing-race from Staten Island to a buoy five miles out in the Bay, and return; the favorite was a costly and handsome sloop, which could easily outsail Vanderbilt's periagua—this very boat he had earned. Upon the day of the race it blew a gale. Nothing could suit Vanderbilt better. ”

“ Besides the common schools numerous private schools exist. Higher education is provided for in several institutions, such as Vanderbilt university (Methodist) at Nashville, the university of the South (Episcopalian) at Sewanee or Cumberland Mountain, the south-western Presbyterian university at Clarksville, and others; the university of Tennessee at Knoxville is supported by State grants, and is not under the direction of any one denomination. Many smaller establishments entitled universities exist in various parts of the State. ”

“ Life is keyed to a high tone in the schoolroom, and the boys feel it. Form counts for little—perhaps too little—but substance counts for much. Professional students of pedagogy, visiting the school, go away surprised—and grieved, for they do not find much respect shown their pet theories. The whole school189 is wrapped up in the personality of the two men who have made it. Some of the Tennessee training schools could not have come into being or could not now continue without the support of Vanderbilt University, but the Webb School would have been a success under any circumstances. ”

“ It is hardly to be supposed that the inferior schools will be in advance of the higher institutions; and this interests us in what they have to say regarding the character of their new university. The conference applauds it in unmeasured terms, and calls especial attention to the remarkable intellectual influence exerted upon the nascent Tennessee mind by Commodore Vanderbilt's building. They say, "There is an immense educating power in the surpassing beauty of the grounds, the finished elegance of the building, and all that pertains to it." ”

“ As Vice President of the consolidated New York Central and Hudson River he performed an amount of work which, as some of his friends think, contributed to his death—a comparatively premature one in a family distinguished for longevity.
In many minds millions breed envy, and it is only natural that while William H. Vanderbilt’s wonderful ability has been universally recognized, his personal qualities should have been misrepresented. ”

“ On the site of the former residence of the Vanderbilt family, and including, also, several adjacent plots, he built the beautiful Vanderbilt Hotel at Park Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, New York, which he made his city home. Mr. Vanderbilt found great enjoyment in society and in travel. He had keen pleasure in his association with men of note and prominence, and his social gifts and his wealth enabled him to bear his part in that life with grace and distinction. But social entertainment given or received, was by no means the whole of his career. ”

“ He was active in neighborhood affairs and in politics. This brought him in close contact with the people and was of invaluable benefit to him when he became president of a great railroad corporation. He also acquired familiarity in railway management as a director of one on Staten Island.
Mr. William H. Vanderbilt was a man of great ability, and his education made him in many ways an abler man than his father for the new conditions he had to meet. ”

“ Cornelius Vanderbilt was a descendant of Dutch settlers who had migrated to America in the latter half of the 17th century. He first became interested in shipping while helping his father in odd jobs of boating and lightering around New York Harbor. When still a young man, he went into business for himself. ”

“ These are days when it is the commonest thing for men to meet death with coolness and courage, but even in these days we will not forget the story of Vanderbilt's humanity and sacrifice.” To his friends he was ever accessible, cordial, and generous, to strangers he was dignified, courteous, and affable. ”

“ His daughter Emily, wife of William D. Sloan, gave a Maternity Home in connection with the college, costing $250,000. Mr. Vanderbilt's four sons, Cornelius, William, Frederick, and George, have erected a building for clinical instruction as a memorial of their father.
Mr. Vanderbilt gave $100,000 each to the Home and [Pg 310] Foreign Missions of the Primitive Episcopal Church, to the New York Missions of that church, to St. Luke's Hospital, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United Brethren Church at New Dorp, Staten Island, and to the Young Men's Christian Association. ”

“ Vanderbilt was an expert whip, and whether tooling a coach along the roads of this country or enjoying his favorite pastime in England, he was always a genial and enthusiastic sportsman. Although he became an automobilist as soon as automobiles were introduced in this country, he never gave up his great liking for coaching, and developed the sport until it became an art. ”

“ No one ever sees the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt on a subscription paper, nor ever will. In his charities, which are numerous and liberal, he exhibits the reticence which marks his conduct as a man of business. ”

“ A Young Millionaire not Afraid to Work in Overalls. A TALL, slender young man walked into the office of the master of motive power and construction, in the Grand Central Station, New York. He was dressed in clothes that showed marks of travel, and his face had a tired look. This was young Cornelius Vanderbilt, son of the head of the house of Vanderbilt, and great-grandson of his namesake, the founder of the Vanderbilt fortune. ”

“ Vanderbilt is in every case portrayed as an eminently high-minded man who never stooped to dissimulation, deceit or treachery, and whose first millions, at any rate, were made in the legitimate ways of trade as they were then understood. ”

“ Vanderbilt said that that had been the greatest day of his life. He later established regular daily runs with his famous coach, from Victoria Hotel in London to the Metropole Hotel in Brighton. Some time before he had become one of the most prominent horsemen in America, his horses winning blue ribbons at every show of importance both here and abroad. In looking back throughout his career one is impressed by the modesty of his sportsmanship. If he had chosen, he could easily have taken front rank as an exhibitor of show horses ”

“ We have all heard of the rich man who declined to let his son travel abroad, not because he objected to letting his boy see the world, but because he was unwilling to allow the world to see his boy. In the admirable manhood of Cornelius Vanderbilt and his brothers we see not the exemplification of a rule so much as an agreeable exception to the customary order of social evolution.
Cornelius Vanderbilt was forty years old when the sudden death of his father, on the 8th of December, 1885, raised him to the head of New York’s greatest moneyed family. ”

“ Vanderbilt resides in a handsome old-fashioned brick mansion in East Washington Place. His business office is in Fourth street, near Broadway. His wealth is very great, and is generally estimated in the city at over forty millions of dollars. He is said to have a greater command of large sums of ready money than almost any other American capitalist. ”

“ The American people ought to be proud of, and grateful to, Cornelius Vanderbilt. This man has done more than a dozen presidents to give America a respected name in Europe. In the person of Cornelius Vanderbilt, American enterprise told the people of Europe what it could do. ”

“ In Nashville, Tenn., we have two great institutions of learning, Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities; each gazing upon the other, yet widely differing as to their influence and aim, and the age which they represent. ”

“ The barns on the Vanderbilt estate, now privately owned.
A spring attraction that appealed to many of the Dutchess County residents was the college regatta held each year on the Hudson at Poughkeepsie. Vanderbilt was a regular contributor to this rowing event. The presence of his yacht in the spectator line was frequently mentioned in the papers.
The Vanderbilts enjoyed winter sports during their weekend visits at the pavilion. Their particular delight was sleighing. On a crisp winter day, the Post Road would be alive with handsome turnouts and highstepping horses. ”

“ The moment a genuine investigation is begun into the facts, the glamour of superior ability and respectability evaporates, and the Vanderbilt fortune stands out, like all other fortunes, as the product of a continuous chain of frauds. ”

“ To return to the conference at Saratoga, the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, and the Erie came to the conclusion that they must have the co-operation of the Baltimore and Ohio. As Mr. Garrett, president and controlling owner of that road, would not come to the conference, the members decided that the emergency was so great that they must go to him. This was probably the most disagreeable thing Commodore Vanderbilt ever did. The marvellous success of his wonderful life had been won by fighting and defeating competitors. ”

“ H. Vanderbilt’s death, had a most demoralizing effect upon a large number of the wealthy portion of the community, who began to feel that they were nonentities in comparison. In making this statement I absolve the Vanderbilt family from any blame. Every man in this great Republic has the privilege of walking in the footsteps of the two great Vanderbilts if he only has the ability; but it would not be wisdom for a large number of men to attempt it. ”