cerning him, and it is
evident from many of these that he has dealt the dealers there too many
hard blows to be popular amongst them.

Mr. Vanderbilt resides in a handsome old-fashioned brick mansion in East
Washington Place. His business office is in Fourth street, near
Broadway. His wealth is very great, and is generally estimated in the
city at over forty millions of dollars. He is said to have a greater
command of large sums of ready money than almost any other American
capitalist.

Mr. Vanderbilt has been twice married, and is the father of thirteen
children--nine daughters and four sons, all the children of his first
wife. His grandchildren are numerous.

LIX. THE BUMMERS.

The Bummer is simply one who detests work, and who manages to live in
some degree of comfort without earning the means of doing so. There are
many such in the city. The genuine Bummer is more of a beggar than a
thief, though he will steal if he has an opportunity. Nothing will
induce him to go to work, not even the prospect of starvation. He has a
sublime confidence in his ability to get through life easily and lazily,
and his greatest horror is the probability of falling into the hands of
the police, and being sent to Blackwell's Island as a vagrant. All that
he desires is money enough to gratify a few actual wants, food enough to
eat, clothing to cover his nakedness, and a place where he can enjoy the
warmth of a fire in the winter. He has great faith in the charitableness
of New York, and thinks that any of the necessities of life may be had
here for the asking, and he does not hesitate to ask for them. You would
wound him deeply by calling him a beggar. He never begs, he only asks.
He asks bread of the baker, or from the housekeepers of the city, and
obtains his clothing in the same way. If he wants a little pocket money,
he does not hesitate to ask for it from the passers-by on the streets.
He never spends money on food. Such a use of "the needful" is a deadly
sin in his eyes. Money was made to furnish him with cheap whiskey and
bad tobacco. It is too easy to obtain food by asking for it to think of
buying it. If he does not receive enough to satisfy his hunger at one
house, he goes to another, and repeats his efforts until he is satisfied.
One hates to refuse food to any human being who claims to have need of
it, and the Bummer knows this. Some of these people keep lists of
various householders, with a memor