MILLIONAIRE AS REPORTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3426, 11 November 1919, Page 6

MILLIONAIRE AS REPORTER

YOUNG VANDERBILT JOINS NEW YORK HERALD STAFF.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, jun., son of Brig-adier-general Cornelius Vanderbilt, and ono of the wealthiest young men in America, entered the ranks of journalism on August 30 as a "cub" reporter on the New York Herald, with a salary of £5 a week. He obtained the position entirely on his own initiative.

Young Vanderbilt, who celebrated his twenty-nrst birthday on April 30, has all the grit and much of the keen intelligence of his father, who—aside from the_ millions he inherited —has made a good-sized fortune out of his engineering inventions, and who, as colonel before the war of the 22nd Regiment of Engineers of the National Guard, was' one of the most popular and efficient officers in that organisation. Soon after America entered the world conflict the boy enlisted, and was assigned to the headquarters troop of the 27th Division, then in at Spartanburg, South Carolina. This division later fought under Haig in Flanders. Young Vanderbilt went to France with the division, and was chauffeur for its commander, General O'Ryan.

He has written some clever verses inspired by the war (says! the London Daily Chronicle), and when ho wearied of the social gaieties at fashionable Newport, where the family have a magnificent summer home, he decided to try his hand at journalism. "I have always, found newspaper men to be the brightest and most alert persons I came in contact with," he said. "When I was in France I noticed that any duty calling for resource and initiative was always given to a former reporter, or editor." .