Villard

“ Villard at Berlin their great sense of obligation to him for having recommended Mr. Adams. The outcome of the reorganization was such that none of the holders of the company's securities, who held on to them, lost anything in the end. This result compensated Mr. Villard for the personal annoyances which, as he had foreseen, grew out of the Northern Pacific collapse. As men with similar experiences necessarily do, he made a number of bitter enemies, who then saw their opportunity for revenge. ”

“ Updyke, "mind reader" that he was, had just grounds for planting the seed of everlasting vigilance in Villard's brain.
"There is an old saying that 'it takes a rogue to catch a rogue,' Drury, and I've spent years in acquiring a rogue's viewpoint. Just make up your mind that Parkins can never assume the rôle of a saint, except as a subterfuge, and that every hour that he isn't asleep, he is dangerous."
"I place the whole matter in your hands, Henry. I have not the wits for the job, and [Pg 132] would probably lose in any fight against any man with the mind of a crook," replied Villard. ”

“ Saved Hell! Why, man alive, he is beyond redemption!" yelled Updyke, whose forcefulness caused Villard to eye him critically. Evidently there were matters concerning his Vice President of which he was unaware.
"How long has he been beyond redemption?" questioned Villard in an even tone of voice striving to conceal the alarm within him as best he could. ”

“ I know the big heartedness of your intentions, but Winifred is a girl and she must have the say. There are her old-time friends at Patchogue. Those she cares for should by all means be invited. She must have a fling of some pretensions or she will brood in silence at your lack of sympathy."
"Alas, you are right—as usual," sighed Villard. "However, my pessimism is newly born from the fruits of this evil day." ”

“ Suddenly, cable news of a most alarming character from America plunged Mr. Villard into the gravest anxiety. He had taken the greatest pains to arrange his own private affairs as well as those of the Northern Pacific, North American, and Edison General Electric Companies so that he should not be disturbed by business cares while abroad, and he felt the more assured of unbroken peace of mind as he knew that the absorption of the Oregon & Transcontinental by the North American by the exchange of shares had succeeded with unparalleled rapidity. ”

“ Without a word Villard stepped into the booth and rang up his man—promptly making connection.
"I wish you'd run down here, Henry," said he, "I have a problem to solve."
"You bet you have—same old problem—Parkins!"
"Of course you would know all about our trouble," laughed Villard. "You surely have a nose for news."
"Yep—Parkins is at Sawyer's pretty well smashed, but still keeping his eyes open. We are watching the place—night and day shift from now on—but we've got nothing on him. You can't jail a man for a smash-up unless it was by [Pg 118] premeditated defiance of the speed laws. ”

“ All during the time that Parkins held his watch in hand Villard sat motionless and without protest. A minute seems long when one counts the slow seconds, but short, indeed, when one gives no heed.
"Last call—one—two—three—that's the way [Pg 273] your Updyke man counted the seconds for me—four—five—six—seven—eight—nine—ten—time's up—here goes," and with that Parkins, his eyes staring, jumped to his feet and struck Villard on the back of his head in the manner he had warned. ”

“ Mr. Villard's mother had died five years before. Most of the winter was spent in Munich with his father and with his remaining sister, who was married to an army officer stationed at Nuremberg. On the last day of March, 1865, he sailed from Liverpool, expecting to arrive in time to witness the final struggle between Grant and Lee, and was overcome with surprise on hearing, after landing in Boston on April 15, simultaneously the astounding tidings of the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee, and the assassination of President Lincoln. ”

“ The Guest of Bismarck.—1890
MR. VILLARD'S financial successes with the Kansas Pacific and the Oregon Railway & Navigation had made him in a few years a rich man, although his accumulations were by no means so great as they were reputed to be. As soon as he had an abundance, he bethought himself of ways of benefiting others. ”

“ A little later on, with herself and father already seated comfortably in Villard's smart touring car, she was surprised when Mr. Updyke got in and asked to be allowed to sit beside Mr. Barbour. This change brought [Pg 224] Villard into the seat beside Winifred. But she thought she saw the reason for it by the way Updyke brought the sick man out of his doldrums.
"You are going to feel a lot better when you get back to your old haunts," said he, affably. "When a man spends a lifetime in one place, there is where his heart belongs. ”

“ I presume that you are aware that the only copy of your report which has yet been published was the rough draft furnished by you to Major-General Rosecrans, that officer being in great haste to make out his own report. General Rosecrans gave this rough draft which you had sent him to Mr. Villard, the correspondent of the Tribune, and it was published in that paper. The final report which you sent to Washington was, so far as I am aware, never seen by Mr. Villard. I am confident that you have not imputed to the War Department the mutilation of any official documents ”

“ The Parkins matter had waned into [Pg 232] a memory and Updyke held his peace as to the whereabouts of the man. Then, suddenly, as a bolt from the sky, the engagement of Winifred Barbour of Patchogue and George Carver of Riverhead was announced in the local papers of that thriving little city. From the moment Villard learned of it he settled back into the life of a recluse. He had lost his battle in the dearest cause of his life. He became old and worn over night, such had been the inexorable reaction from his mighty love for the girl of his heart. ”

“ Villard struggled on, using all his mental and pecuniary resources; but, in the latter part of November, he lost courage and became conscious that neither he himself nor the Oregon & Transcontinental could be saved. His physical powers of endurance were fast being exhausted, and sleeplessness threatened him with nervous prostration. The desertion of friends became more and more frequent, the abuse of the press more and more violent, and the pressure of his own and the Oregon & Transcontinental creditors harder to meet. ”

“ Henry Villard, aged 51 Frontispiece From a photograph by W. Höffert, Berlin. Henry Villard, aged about 13 to face page 6 From a daguerreotype. (He stands at the left of the group, which includes also his mother, his sister Emma, and his uncle, Robert Hilgard.) ”

“ Villard to have the Chancellor bring up the subject of their mutual friend, Carl Schurz. The Prince said that not only his great public career in America, but the personal attractions he discovered in him at their several meetings, excited his admiration. It was a great pity that such a man served a foreign and not his own country. Just that type of man was needed in Germany to supplant the Geheimrat (privy councillor) species which had given him so much trouble. ”

“ Villard's toilet being finished, the Prince and the dogs led the way to the rear of the mansion, where the two took seats on a sort of veranda. Professor Schweninger joined them, followed by Bismarck's private secretary, the Princess, her married daughter, Countess Rantzau, and the latter's children. The Prince, noticing the gouty formations on his visitor's hands, said: "I see you are suffering from gout. How long have you had it?" When told for nearly twenty years, he pointed to the Professor: "That is the man to help you. ”

“ The vigour, however, of Monsieur de Villardin was beginning to be impaired; and, though he was still a strong and powerful man for his time of life, yet a degree of inactivity, when no great excitement prompted to exertion, showed that years began to lay as a burden upon him. Thus the walks and rides of Laura de Villardin, before my arrival, had often been taken alone, or only followed, when on horseback, by some servants, or, when on foot, by her attendant Lise. ”

“ Villard's name had figured prominently in the completion of the Northern Pacific; he was close to Schurz, and they each enjoyed a high reputation. Soon thereafter the Porte submitted the matter to a syndicate of German, British, and French bankers, and the famous Bagdad Railroad was not built by Americans.
Early in 1888 I received a letter from an old friend, the Reverend William Hayes Ward, eminent Assyriologist and scholarly editor of the "Independent," respecting an expedition for excavating in Babylonia which the Reverend John P. Peters, of the University of Pennsylvania, contemplated. ”

“ Mr. Villard states that he went to Kansas in 1856 with the second Massachusetts colony of that year, and became a member of John Brown's "Volunteer-Regulars," September 9, 1856. Also, that he fought well at Osawatomie. But since he is reported as having enlisted ten days after the battle of Osawatomie there may be some mistake as to that. George B. Gill, who knew a good bit about him and who may have been a trigger "puler" himself, says that he "had a good intellect with great ingenuity." ”

“ Villard set about accomplishing this, and succeeded in forming an international syndicate for that purpose. By the end of February, all he could do for the several corporations having been consummated, he rejoined his family at Cannes late in March, remaining in Europe until midsummer, and was not further disturbed by untoward developments, nor did any such take place after his return. On the contrary, the Northern Pacific continued to show increasing strength right along. ”

“ Villard became a contributor of editorial and other matter to the Boston Daily Advertiser and other newspapers, and also wrote an article on Bismarck for the North American Review. In the fall of 1868, he was elected Secretary of the American Social Science Association, with an office in Boston, which position he filled for two years. Through this connection he came in contact with leading men throughout the country, and was instrumental in promoting public interests in various ways. ”

“ But I know in whom I trust,” and her eyes shone with wifely pride and affection.
251“There are still so many things to do,” said Villard, a little later. “I know I can always depend on you to help me.”
“Oh, I am not laying down the work and retiring to the old life of idleness,” was the reply. “I shall leave the management of the mills to their new owner. It’s no part of a married woman’s business to manage her husband’s office. But I shall have all the more leisure left for doing good. I have no end of schemes to lay before you ”

“ In the evening, my servants and Clement de la Marke arrived from Dumont; and the boy petitioned so earnestly to see Monsieur de Villardin, that Father Ferdinand, with the consent of the surgeon, permitted him to do so. Monsieur de Villardin's convalescence was progressive and rapid. Every cloud seemed wafted away from our fate; every tear seemed wiped away from our eyes; and nothing but the smile of joy or the sunshine of happiness was seen within the château, so lately the abode of misery and apprehension. At the end of a few days, Monsieur de Villardin was suffered to rise ”

“ Everything else apparently being arranged, I was taking my leave, intending to set out instantly, and alone, when Monsieur de Villardin, to my surprise, bade me take two of the servants, whom he named, to give me assistance in case of need.
"No, no, my lord," I said, "for heaven's sake do not inflict such shackles upon me; I shall be much better by myself; and as to assistance, I shall want none, depend upon it. I have always been able to make my own eyes find my own way, and my own hand keep my own head since I was eight years old, and with your permission I will go alone. ”

“ I came here, as you well know, to investigate for Monsieur de Villardin what were the chances in favour of the immediate liberation of the Princes; and I promised him to write immediately after I had seen you, to give him such information as would determine the part that he was to take. Come, come, Monsieur Gourville, you are not acting candidly with me. If you speak frankly, you have nothing to fear. If you do not speak frankly, you may prevent Monsieur de Villardin from throwing his whole weight into the scale of the Princes. ”

“ Such were my thoughts as I rode through a part of the forest in which Monsieur de Villardin had told me that some outrages had lately been committed; and I could not help feeling that if a chance shot from some of the plunderers that still infested the country were to lay me low, it would be but a happy termination of sufferings to which I now saw no end. Death, however, has his own appointed time; and as it is vain to fly from him, so also is it vain to seek him ere the moment be come. ”

“ He found himself in command of raw troops, not exceeding twenty thousand in number. He believed that they should be multiplied many times. He feared the rebel forces in the State largely outnumbered his own, and he could not rid himself of the apprehension that, if he should be attacked, he would have no chance of success. It was not really want of confidence in himself that brought him to this state of mind, but, as it seemed to me, his intense patriotism and despair of the preservation of the Union in view of the fanatical, blood thirsty hostility to it throughout the South. ”

“ The sound of our horses' feet had brought Father Ferdinand to the terrace; and there was a bland smile upon his lip, which told us at once that he had good tidings in store for our welcome.
"She is better, my brother; she is better," he said, taking Monsieur de Villardin's hand as he dismounted. "I trust that all danger is over."
"Thank God!" cried the Duke, and without staying to ask more, he strode on towards his daughter's apartments. ”