During the last two or three years, Commodore Vanderbilt has been withdrawing his capital from steamers and investing it in railroads.  It is this fact that has given rise to the impression that he has been playing a deep game in stock speculation.  No such thing.  He has never speculated; he disapproves of, and despises speculation; and has invariably warned his sons against it as the pursuit of adventurers and gamblers.  “Why, then,” Wall Street may ask, “has he bought almost the whole stock of the Harlem railroad, which pays no dividends, running it up to prices that seem ridiculous?” We can answer this question very simply:  he bought the Harlem railroad to keep.  He bought it as an investment.  Looking several inches beyond his nose, and several days ahead of to-day, he deliberately concluded that the Harlem road, managed as he could manage it, would be, in the course of time, what Wall Street itself would call “a good thing.”  We shall see, by and by, whether he judged correctly.  What was the New Jersey railroad worth when he and a few friends went over one day and bought it at auction?  Less than nothing.  The stock is now held at one hundred and seventy-five.

After taking the cream of the steamboat business for a quarter of a century, Commodore Vanderbilt has now become the largest holder of railroad stock in the country.  If tomorrow balloons should supersede railroads, we should doubtless find him “in” balloons.

Nothing is more remarkable than the ease with which great business men conduct the most extensive and complicated affairs.  At ten or eleven in the morning, the Commodore rides from his mansion in Washington Place in a light wagon, drawn by one of his favorite horses, to his office in Bowling Green, where, in two hours, aided by a single clerk, he transacts the business of the day, returning early in the afternoon to take his drive on the road.  He despises show and ostentation in every form.  No lackey attends him; he holds the reins himself, With an estate of forty millions to manage, nearly all actively employed in iron works and railroads, he keeps scarcely any books, but carries all his affairs in his head, and manages them without the least anxiety or apparent effort.

We are informed by one who knows him better almost than any one else, that he owes his excellent health chiefly to his love of horses.  He possesses the power of leaving his business in his office, and never thinking of it during his hours of recreation.

Out on the road behind a fast team, or seated at whist at the Club-House, he enters gayly into the humors of the hour.  He is rigid on one point only;—­not to talk or hear of business out of business hours.

Being asked one day what he considered to be the secret of success in business, he replied:—­

“Secret?  There is no secret about it.  All you have to do is to attend to your business and go ahead.”

With all deference to such an eminent authority, we must be allowed to think that that is not the whole of the matter.  Three things seem essential to success in business:  1.  To know your business. 2.  To attend to it. 3.  To keep down expenses until your fortune is safe from business perils.