Show The Wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt a Modern Cornelia HER CHILDREN HER GEMS f She Manages FortyFive 3Icninls aatl Her Palacels Always la Apple Ap-ple Pie Order i Copyright 1S95J There are many young women and Did ones too who think it would be a great thins to occupy for a day the tiny lltiSe shoes of Mrs Cornelius Van tierbilt Just be able to spend all the money lone wasted to to buy anything that one saw in the shop windows and fancied fan-cied regardless of the cost if it were oS 2 S20U or 52000 of course would be a mighty fine thing But to be able to l II do it every day in the year and to already Jiave everything possible that money can buy which is precisely the situation of Mrs Vanderbilt takes the I I I I 1 1M t ill 1 C ilciF 1I 111 4 t r 5 4r t C S ERs rnniELUS VAIttJEIUJILT line edge and the attractive glamor from the pretty picture I Besides Mrs Vanderbilt has everyday every-day worries just the same as peope situated sit-uated less fortunately True she lives f in the finest palace in New York and t on the entire continent for that matter and it is filled from cellar to dome with i hundreds of treasures the cost of one of which would seem a small fortune tot to-t the ordinary mind But there is a lot i of annoyance attendant upon guarding k those selfsame treasures and watching watch-ing a home which cost in the aggregate 7000000 I Then there are a lot of petty social rivalries which are continually cropping t crop-ping up in the path of Mrs Vandeflbilt 1 who is now endeavoring to fill the difficult r r dif-ficult position of queen of Xew York society Sush a position calls for the < exercise of deep diplomacy and for the winnng over of such formidable rivals as Mrs John Jacob Astor Mrs George Gould a very recent aspirant Mrs Ebredge T Gerry whose claims are or the best and a number of others who i Imagine they are possibilities Mrs Vanderbilt is a woman of more ithan ordinary tact and ability She is not what would generally be termed pretty but notwithstanding that she has grown children she has a sight almost girlish figure and a very winning win-ning and captivating manner Mrs Vanderbilt looks out upon the World every morning aibout 10 oclock from her bedroom In the southwest corner cor-ner of the second floor of her big brick I and stone palace The corner of Fifty seventh street and Fifth avenue is a rosy spot from which to view things in the metropolis There are evidences of wealth on all sides so much of it intact t in-tact that that particular spot has been popularly christened the millionaires t crossroads Mrs Vawderibilt like every other society I so-ciety woman has a maid who is an expert ex-pert massage operator and the first thing she does in the morning Is to enter en-ter her bathroom which in itself Is one of the most unique apartments in the city It is made entirely of Mexican Onyx the floor walls ceiling and bathtub bath-tub all being of the valuable stone After Af-ter her bath Mrs Vanderbilt breakfasts In her = boudoir and then councils with her chief servants In nfl there are fortyfive menials In the Cornelius Vanderbilt houand Mrs I Vanderbilt supervises tieir work throagh the five head ser rants who are responsDble for the cavying out of all the details attenda upon the proper pro-per management of such a mammbth home More than half of these servants serv-ants Urs Vancerbilt has never seen They are air Employed by the head 11 ousckeeper All the cleaningup work the establishment is done while the F e Ambers of the family are asleep F It is one of Mrs Vanderfsilts standing 1 J les that everything must be In order It in all parts of the house before any one jof the family leaves his or her room The down stairs servants must not be I Been in any part of the house used by I the family in waking hours Of course the butler and his assistants who are J > taticmed at the Fiftyseventh and Fif 1 w tyeighth street entrances and a few maids are to be seen about the establishment estab-lishment but the servants who do the drudgery work are kept out of sight There are three coachmen and three footmen connected with the establishment establish-ment although there Is not enough work to keep them busy onefourth of the day This merely illustrates the elaborate plan in which the house is managed Of the five Vanderbilt children but three of them are at home and unlike many fashionable women Mrs Vanderbilt Vander-bilt Is a mother in the real sense of the word The children are not left entirely entire-ly to the care of nurses tutors and governesses gov-ernesses tout receive the tender instruction instruc-tion and advice that only a mothers I I heart can prompt 1 The eldest son Cornelius Jr is a student I stu-dent at Yale Alfred G is a student in Bt Pauls school at Concord N Rand R-and the youngest Reginald C attends I a school in the city Miss Gertrudethe eldest daughter has just made her debut de-but and her statuesque beauty has won I many plaudits which would have been I given even it she were not the great I heiress that she is I When Mrs Vanderbilt has given her instructions to the housekeeper the head coachman the butler the chef and to the governess of Gladys the baby of the family a pretty ohild of seven years it is nearly 12 oclock I Then she begins the work of going over her mornings mail A woman of Mrs Vanderbilts position is the victim I I tim of many letter writers There are countless epistles from her society friends invitations to dinners dances teas breakfasts comingsout and all manner of social functions The everready seeker after philan throphy deluges her with requests Managers of charitable bazaars fairs etc beseige her with appeals to allow them to include her name among the patronesses Threefourths of her mail is composed of letters which the glitter of her millions has attracted All of these letters except the ridiculously ridic-ulously absurd ones are answered by a young lady < who acts as Mrs Vander bilLs private secretary and who attends at-tends lo mucSi of her employers > voluminous vol-uminous affairs By the time the letters have been attended to it is 1 oclock and time for luncheon This is the great family meal in the Vanderbilt house as it is the only one in the day at which the family is present The children in the morning have an early breakfast in the nursery before the other members I of the family are up and at night the dinner is too elaborate for their young I stomachs to tamper with No matter how important business may be at the Grand Central depot and no matter how many hundreds of thousands of dollars may be involved II Cornelius Vanderbilt always makes it a point to be at home for luncheon It i is about his only opportunity in the day to be with his family and notwithstanding not-withstanding his devotion to business and the manifold interests of the Vanderbilt Van-derbilt millions he allows nothing to interfere with = it The meal is an informal one or as I informal as anything can be in an apartment thirty by forty feet in dimensions di-mensions with a ceiling as nigh as a small house and with tens of thousands I of dollars of furniture massed about I k WW IUL N4 5 1 Iih1 J cJ t r THE VAXDEItBHT PALACE u to say nothing of a horde of liveried servants clustered about Ihe table This meal serves as the childrens dinner and the mer is very elaborate Champagne ds served from a pitcher which is an unusual way of serving the costly beverage After luncheon Mrs Vanderbilt and Miss Gertrude go for a drive no matter what the state of the weather may be If there is sufficient snow a magnificent Russian sleigh is used There are broughams and landaus for cold rainy weather and victorias for warm sunny days Every Tuesday during January and February Mrs Vanderbilt is at home to her friends from oclock until 6 so She must be in before the stroke of 3 She dresses very quietly but in the most perfect taste A favorite gown is of leaf green striped black moire with corsage of green veiledin yards of accordion pleated chiffon She wears a few magnificent diamonds at her throat and in herhair < < > < 1 J iicfL f1 > Miss Vanderbilt in a rosecolored silk gown pours tea assisted by her pretty young cousins Adele Sloane < and Edyth Shepard There can be no complaint from this hospitable house that men avoid afternoon teas as they the grip for tiheYe is a constant stream of every sort kind and condition of man from the oldest beau to the youngest college fellow Some of the pretty girls and handSome hand-Some young fellows stay for dinner e J 1 rz V = = 6 > 6 MISS GERTRUDE VAXDEIU3IIT and afterward there isan informal co tillon not in the grand ballroom but in the beautiful white and gold Louis XVI salon This beautiful apartment is twentyby thirtyfive feet and adjoins ad-joins the library on the Fifth avenue side of the house The day ends for the Vanderbilts shortly after midnight unless there is a Patriarch or Assembly ball Mrs Vanderbilt is very popular socially and her services are often requested as one of the reception committee at these magnificent affairs Very queenly she looks in her beautiful ball gown ablaze with the magnificent jewels her husband hus-band has so lavishly bestowed upon herNot Not one piece of jewelry is ever seen Upon iher on the street or in the broad daylight and a glance at the very quietly dressed woman who rolls past in her carriage would never suggest that she was the wife of the richest man in America and had four or five I goodly caskets fortunes locked up in her jewel |