Commodore Vanderbilt.]

If, however, Vanderbilt anticipated that the Pennsylvania Railroad
would remain docile or passive while his competitive line was being
built, he soon learned how sorely mistaken he was. This time he was
opposing no weak, timorous or unsophisticated competitors, but a
group of the most powerful and astute organizers and corruptionists.
Their methods in Pennsylvania and other States were exactly the same
as Vanderbilt's in New York State; their political power was as great
in their chosen province as his in New York. His incursion into the
territory they had apportioned to themselves for exploitation was not
only resented but was fiercely resisted. Presently, overwhelmed by
the crushing financial and political weapons with which they fought
him, Vanderbilt found himself compelled to compromise by disposing of
the line to them.


THE SEQUEL TO A "GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT."

Vanderbilt's methods and his duplicity in the disposition of this
project were strikingly revealed in the court proceedings instituted
by the State of Pennsylvania. It appeared from the testimony that he
had made a "gentlemen's agreement" with the Reading Railroad, the
bitterest competitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, for a close
alliance of interests. Vanderbilt owned eighty-two thousand shares of
Reading stock, much of which he had obtained on this agreement.
Strangely confiding in his word, the Reading management proceeded to
expend large sums of money in building terminals at Harrisburg and
elsewhere to make connections with his proposed South Pennsylvania
Railroad.