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Show but, the founder of the family, the bulk of his fortune passed to his son, William Will-iam H. Vanderbilt, who was Raid to have inherited about 570,000,000 at tha age of 56. When William H. Vander-biit Vander-biit died he left the bulk o' his fortune to his eldest son, Cornelius, who inherited in-herited about $80,000,000 at the age ol 42. And now Alired Gwynne has inherited in-herited $100,000,000 from his father, the latter cutting off the elder son because be-cause of his marriage, which displeased dis-pleased his father. His bride-to-be is a daughter of the late Ormond French, who was tenth in descent from Edward French, one of the founders of Ipswich, Ips-wich, Mass., in 1636. She is an heiress in her own risht. and is an athletic young woman, with a fondness for sailing, riding, swimming and tennis. She was a playmate of her future husband hus-band in her childhood, and is 21 years old. VANDERBILT TO W D. Hto Brlde-to-Be Is Wealthy and of an Ancient Family. . An important society event at some still undeterminate date will be the marriage of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, head of the Vanderbilt millions, and Miss Elsie French, whose engagement was recently announced. Young Vanderbilt Van-derbilt was born in 1877, and graduated from Yale in 1899. He was making a tour of the world, and had reached Japan when his father died. ' Returning Return-ing home, he found that his father had passed by his eldest son, Cornelius J., and had left the entire fortune of $100,000,000 to himself. Very generously, gener-ously, however, Alfred Gwynne disregarded disre-garded this arrangement, and turned over some $7,000,000 to his brother. This action was a noble one. A family feud over the distribution of the Vanderbilt Van-derbilt interests would inevitably have affected many innocent persons who were interested in Vanderbilt properties. proper-ties. It seemed proper and correct enough to settle all dispute by giving away a king's ransom, but how many young men are there just out of college who could have done it so quickly and so gracefully. Alfred Gwynne is a modest young man, and is said to have inherited the Vanderbilt genius for finance. Young Vanderbilt inherited the Vanderbilt millions in accordance with the traditions of the family. At the death of old Commodore Vander- |