Wealth not all it's Cracked up to Be

["Ottawa Weekly Republican," 15 Apr 1882, page 1]

The suicide of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt Sunday evening in a New York hotel, adds another scandal to the record of this family, so strangely compounded of greed, vice and wealth. The self-murderer was the youngest of the sons of the erratic commodore who, despite his wealth, was never anything but a boatswain in good clothes. Cornelius inherited none of the money-making instincts of his father, and had none of the greed of his brother William. He was a reckless, dissipated youth, and soon came to be regarded as the black sheep of the family. At one time he was known as a card sharper, and the associate of questionable men. His father virtually discarded him and he ran into debt whenever he could get an opening. He borrowed $50,00 of the kind-hearted Horace Greeley which the old commodore refused to pay. After the man's death, public sentiment forced William to pay the money to Mr. Greeley's daughters. Upon the commodore's will being made public it was discovered that William was the chief heir. Cornelius and his off color sister, Mrs. LeBau, who also suffered some disappointment, contested the will and brought out in the courts all the dirty inside life of the questionable family. The pride of the heir finally asserted itself and he compromised, giving Cornelius, it is said, one million dollars. Since then the idler has spent his time roaming about the world. His constitution was broken up by his hard life, and it is claimed that he was subject to epilepsy. He was not out of funds when he shot himself - he had simply grown tired of his own disgusting companionship. After he shot himself in the Glenham hotel, his austere brother, who felt for him the affection Cain entertained for his brother Abel, drove up in his carriage, looked at the corpse, and drove away like the offended Dives, scarce able to hide his chagrin. Money is a great and worshipful thing in modern society, but there are scores of thousands of families in this country struggling along today on $1,000 a year that would hardly exchange their peace, content and loving pride for a share of the Vanderbilt name and treasure.