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A MILLION AIRE'S WIFE

'The other day, on Fifth Avenue,' writes a New Yorker to the Philadelphia ••Press," ' I saw a little woman, who, nt the first glance would not tempt the eye to rest upon her an Instant, a p'aln every day little woman of the kind men of sen se most admire, of the kind that snpplirs tbe i world with good mothers and wives— one of those quiet, modest, ladylike bodies ; that one sees so many thousands of m tho i big cities without really noting them nnlesa a second gla.ee reveals the genteel plainness of their attire, the trimness of their figures, and the almost ahy preoccupation of their minds. Yet if ond lived man age of marvels, or of brigands, i and thia unimpressive little figure wax stolen from the city and held for ransom i ahe oould bring her o&ptors 25,000,000 dola — aye, four times as mooh — and w.thou< i Impoverishing her f imlly. For, aa she ' waa pointed out to me 1 was told ahe wa. i B_rs William H Vanderbilt, relet of thf i man who, when he liv.d wa_ the richest I man on earth. And yet aho wore no diamonds, showed no glint of g<.ld or silver from head to feet, and she was i walking— like the rest ot us. ] • Some few very rloh persons are m- . terestlng ln spite of their wealth. She i. < admirable apart from 'lers.Jf — m herseif \ Important, rather than int-resting is tht. < word to apply to her career Neither ahe nor her husband ioretaw — perhaps they never since tton^ht of it- the oon.eqaence of het bringing m o that atolid, accretive Dutch blood the alnvxtiue of her distinctly differ. nt temperament. She was a Miss Klasam, daughter i-f an Amo ican olen_yu_ai-, wbo.e s;ock w.s, I think, originally English She had tho extreme gord fortaae to marry Vanderbilt when he was working for his father for lOOOi le a year, poor, dependent and as thoroughly In awe of the od Commodore aB when he waa a lad. She m rrled ' BtJJ,' aa ho was i oal'ed, when he had no thought of any thing but farming. Wadded thus to hard work, simple faro, -and the proverbial Dutch duty of constant motherhood, her husband's ambl-ion enfo ced bt itv co clr-umstanco- upon both, f r, on tak'tig full obargeof ths farm heheavily ni' rrgag.'ri the land to get means to dcv.L. pe it, In thoaa yeara her part was to work and save with might and main and to feel the oare , and pain of a rapidly increasing family. | Amid th a c cir.u_--t-.nceß h.r character developed, and amid thorn her boya a id glrla were born — all (if thorn to work. 'All their present millions would not buy them what thia gained for them, because with those conditions came ' modesty, confidence — tha disc'pllne of ( chilihood io the family of a thrl'ty, hard- l headed worklog ma", and their father a was ao much of a wo>klog ann that t< la the firm belief of cv ry Vanderbilt | that he killed himseif fi »lly by overwork. Bat quite equal to this tralnb g l waa the mother's blrol In their veins, ' whloh temper.d tho V_nderbllt nature 1 and broadened m ita channels leading far away from thegood enough, bat altogo -her ( n .rrovr, Boilandlth qualities of the \ ■ V-uderbllts. The old I>atoh stock of the entire valley of the Hudson is all alike , Ita qaalities — .seep, the grossly eensua ones — are mainly admirable and calculated I to keep the descendants far from the poorhoose. You oee these poople m grea < numbers In Albany, Newburgand Poqgh keep.ie, and th-.y ato all heavy eaters, ■ stalwart drinkers, members of big familios, , and rich. Ycu do not see among them any love of literature*, and except a ' fashionable fondness for art, *ny pabllo ' spirit that is not either hard to move or ostentatious. All distinct stocks, such as that, need leavenirg, nnd this is what i Mrs Vanderbilt did for h.r part of that , stook. H.r daughters ware something more thun more women, and she helped them into good marriages. The boya are aU better tha.. ma_e money-grabbers ; ' they are ambitious beyond and apart , from that. • 'She bore V.<ndt.rb!lt eight children ; Margaret, now _d>« Eliot F. Rhepard ; Oorneliui, William K. ; Emily, now Mrs Emily Thorno Slocne, wif_ of the great carpet dealer ; Frud«rick W. ; Florenco Adele, now wife of W, McK. Twombey, the poshing Western <>r now m oharge of seme of the heavier VandarblU Interest ; Lela, who married Dr W. Seward Webb, son of the old fighting editor, D James Watson Webb, nnd now head of the NewYork Central Parlor Oar Como ny, and George W ; the e^bth ohlld aud f urth son. Not a girl has mat tied what In Engl* d Is called an ' ariatoorat,' an idler Evory m&njick of their husbands made hi wiy to tho world before he ma r led a Vanderbilt Tbe boys also took care of themselves. 1 Here aod there among the children tho mother's qualities may not shlno, but thoy 1 are not lacking m any one of the family, and all are better f<»r the possession of ; them. I think it will be found that the ' world will be better for it, also, beoauae > these new Vanderbllts are all ambitious to ' distinguish themselvos as something better '< than mere magnets posseesod of the power i to attract gold. I *I? ever anyone's thoughts were worth If a peany, those of this mother of the > Va<iderbilra must be. How atrange It I .-.vat be for her to recall her glrlho-id a* the daughter of a hard-worked oldp 'a.hloned clergyman, then to net. lo her mind's eye, a glimpse of herself poorer 5 vet, as the wife of a outl»us Dutch ' farmer— and now to turn into the marble 3 o_urts between the solid bronz. lamps a'. the door il the grandest house m New . V >rk, with its wondvou. galleries of palntlugs and statuary and its appointment* nolqna i<. their oleg.noe. Ton io I ne, as I sad before, she haa not thought 3 of what hor Uncago han dono for her a ohildren, other than with tbe proud res otion that aU are virtuous and talented uaeu and women One thlofc she oM.no . a help acknowledging to herse'f In the X limmodore'a time lt was as baid fir aj 8 Vanderbilt to enter the lists of what (a it c.lled society a. for a o*mel to dodge r through tho traditional needle's eye ; II whereas, since ahe beoAme the manner f the family fate, lo ! tha name of Yan4srb.lt has got there, vrhlle oeruln other n gilded namos of millionaires, I mean the b bearers of tbetu, are pile wiih envy aod tVfiry witb wilting.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG18880131.2.21

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1754, 31 January 1888, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,135

A MILLIONAIRE'S WIFE Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1754, 31 January 1888, Page 3

A MILLIONAIRE'S WIFE Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1754, 31 January 1888, Page 3

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