VANDERBILT AND DREW
ITwas the period of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and “Jim” Fisk; the period in which were conceived and carried out the famous “corners” in Harlem, in Hudson River, and in Erie stocks. None of the leaders in these speculations would have shone in Newport or in the polished, well-groomed crowd that watches the races at Deauville or takes the “cures” at Vichy or at Nauheim. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the son of a farmer in moderate circumstances on Staten Island, was ferrying passengers over to New York at sixteen years of age, and at the age of eighteen owned two boats and was captain of a third. He derived his education from practical experience, his successes from innate shrewdness. Daniel Drew, beginning as a drover and afterward the keeper of a tavern, never sought to rise socially above his early environment. To a reported trick of his in early life is ascribed the familiar stock-market expression, “watering stock.” According to the legend, Drew gave his cattle salt in order to create a thirst, which would cause them to drink freely and make them appear bigger and fatter when brought to market. He was negligent in his attire, even to the verge of slovenliness, and never departed from the provincial pronunciation of his youth. In many a broker’s office where he called for his securities his loud demand for “them sheers” was long remembered.