American History Revised by Seymour Morris Jr

Author:Seymour Morris, Jr. [Morris, Seymour Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-58761-9
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Living Well (on $1,000 a Day)

1880 William H. Vanderbilt sold $50 million of his New York Central stock and reinvested the money in government bonds. That very day, he spent the rest of the afternoon scrutinizing a janitor’s luncheon bills and disallowed a charge of forty cents.

“I am the richest man in the world,” he said. He started spending money in a big way. He built two $3-million mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York, one for himself and his wife, the other for two of his daughters. He took frequent trips to Paris, coming back laden with paintings and artifacts for his new palace. He treated French artists better than his janitor: whenever he would have a picture painted to order, he would offer a higher price than was asked, telling the surprised artist that he wanted him to do the very best he could.

While accumulating a $1.5-million art collection for his palace nearing completion, his wife expressed reservations about leaving their own home at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street. “We don’t need a better home, and I hate to think of leaving this home where we have lived so comfortable,” she told a friend. “I have told William that if he wants a finer place for his pictures, to build a wing to which he could go whenever he felt inclined; this is too good a house to leave. I will never feel at home in the new place. I remember the first picture we ever bought. We paid ninety dollars for it, and we were afraid to let our friends know how extravagant we had been. I have the picture yet, and there is more pleasure to me in looking at it than all the Meissoniers and other great pictures in the house.”

Other multimillionaires agreed the big house was a waste of money. One day two gentlemen from Pittsburgh were visiting New York and were cruising up Fifth Avenue in their carriage when they came to the Vanderbilt mansions. “I suppose these are really the best residences in the city,” surmised Henry Clay Frick.

“I think they are so considered,” agreed his companion, Andrew Mellon.

“I wonder how much the upkeep of the one on that corner would be?” wondered Frick, pointing to the father’s house. “Say $300,000 a year? I should think that would cover it.”

“It might,” conceded Mellon.

“That would be six percent on five million, or five percent on six, say a thousand dollars a day,” calculated Frick. “That is all I shall ever want.”

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