Show I I NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY I HOW COMMODORE VANDERBILT CAME OArE BY illS HIS CLUTCHING HAND HANDBy ByJ By 3 E Edwards ThIs daily serIes ot of anecdotes o s arid and that throw new Interesting and md frequently dramatic light on en famous ous events and of the ho p past st have havo been by Edwards dunn durIn I g nearl nearly forty years ears ot of more mere or less ices mate moto acquaintance many man ot of tho lenders since the tho Civil War E cb anecdote or Incident I is fresh from Mr E notebook and either In whole or on In part pant It constitutes New News ot of Yesterday garnered from the men who made the tho from eq authoritative II sources ou As len Im contributions of the tho Human Int Interest sort to American history articles have IIVO a distinctIve value all Ibo Ir in own The late lato Samuel Barton nephew or of Commodore Vanderbilt and the broker through whom the tho commodore dId much or of hIs was a veritable treasure house of Van VanderbIlt dotes dote and for Cor this hitherto unpublished one of how hew the commodore came cameby by hIs clutchIng hands I have Mr Barton Darton as my authority I There as one personal peculiarity about the commodore whIch alt all of us who were In close assocIatIon wIth him front the tho time Ume he beG began n hIs rail railway way Va career noticed and often otten spoke to ono one another about s said Mr Bar Barton Barton ton This was tue tho way woy In whIch lie he held hIs hands hande the fingers and thumbs of each ench beIng so 80 extended and curved carved that they constantly seemed to be beabout beabout about to grasp something sti This sP peculiarity Ul was f pot duo to a any stiffness or rheumatiC trouble an we all 1111 knew for tor the tho commodores fingers wore very elastic clastic and strong and so there carno caine to bo be II a general short sian among hIs daily among hill closest frIends In thIs sort of clutching grasping way woy or of holding hIs hands reveal revealed cd to the tha world the avaricious or greedy creedy nature of at the commodore This view was strengthened b by the belief on the tho part of many persons that the tho desire to got hold of something to keep It was ivas the ruling passion of at tim the life I knew better I knew that he cared for money princIpally because or of Its power and the sense senile of at achievement that It gave but I must confess that tho commodores clutchIng hands flue puzzled sled me greatly though whenever I heard anyone say that the reflected his avaricious nature I felt relt sure suro that the speaker was mistaken Well ell on one day ay the commodore was In the tho treasurers olleo of at hIs when whon Captain Joke Jake VanderbIlt his brother came caine In Ho was a quaInt highly original character very proud of tim tho commodore and not the tho leant leat bit afraid ot or hIm as were man or of commodores business associates Captain Joke Jako greeted his brother with his customary are aro you ou then threw Into a chair for a chat The at that moment was talc tak lug Ing up tip n a bundle that list may have c cn n tamed bonds when of at a sudden Cap tain tam Jake Jako leaned and oem com Hold out your OUr hand The Tho somewhat ed did so Captain lake Jake looked Jt at tho extended hands long and earnestly Corned Corneel ho he said your our hands look just as the used to when you were a between Staten Island anti and New York City That Is exactly the tho way YOU caught hold ot of your our oars The commodore turned hIs fists over and over oer apparently discovering for tho thc first time the tho physIcal peculiarity that wa In them At last ho he said I dont know but youre right Juice Jako I never thought or of It before It took a pretty good grip to pull that boat boa and I suppose I got Ot In the habit of holdIng my hands all the tIme exactly just as I would when I head had hold or of the tho handles or of the oars But they thoy ace aro all better hands than limn yours Jake Jako an and ho moved his fingers l to show chess the strength and elus that were In them And so at lat last ad added ed Mr Barton I came camo to know for a certainty that It avarice but hIs old fen ferry days instead that gaVe the commodore hIs lifelong clutching graspIng hands |