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PERSONALITY OF THE CHIEF HEIR.

At this time William H. Vanderbilt was fifty-six years old. Until
1864 he had been occupied at farming on Staten Island; he lived at
first in "a small, square, plain two-story house facing the sea, with
a lean-to on one end for a kitchen." The explanation of why the son
of a millionaire betook himself to truck farming lay in these facts:
The old man despised leisure and luxury, and had a correspondingly
strong admiration for "self-made" men. Knowing this, William H.
Vanderbilt made a studious policy of standing in with his father,
truckling to his every caprice and demand, and proving that he could
make an independent living. He is described as a phlegmatic man of
dull and slow mental processes, domestic tastes and of kindly
disposition to his children. His father (so the chronicles tell) did
not think that he "would ever amount to anything," but by infinite
plodding, exacting the severest labor from his farm laborers, driving
close bargains and turning devious tricks in his dealings, he
gradually won the confidence and respect of the old man, who was
always pleased with proofs of guile. Croffut gives a number of
instances of William's craft and continues: "From his boyhood he had
given instant and willing submission to the despotic will of his
father, and had made boundless sacrifices to please him. Most men
would have burst defiantly away from the repressive control and
imperious requirements; but he doubtless thought that for the chance
of becoming heir to $100,000,000 he could afford to remain long in
the passive attitude of a distrusted prince." (sic.)

[Illustration: WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT, He Inherited the Bulk of His