What we could learn from the Malala, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate

I first saw “I am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai in a list of top books that could change the way how you view life.  Even if I rarely read political news and current events, I added it to my reading list.
 
Surprisingly, once i started reading it, I easily got hooked.  It’s beautifully written.  When I say "beautifully written", I am referring only to the writing style because the content is another thing!  Eye-opening and shocking are understatements.

So what is the book about? It’s the story of Malala, a girl who campaigned for equal education rights for girls in Pakistan.    And guess what?  Malala is still a teen!  She was born in 1997 so that makes her only about 18 years old today.  At age 17, she was co-awarded with a Nobel Prize making her the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.  Wow.

If you’re living in a country where there’s easy access to education, Malala's advocacy may not sound such a big deal because it's something that could easily be taken for granted.  But in Malala’s world, getting access to education, particularly for girls, might even cost your life.

To give you some context, Malala shared that in Pakistan, life for women is very restricted. The birth of a son, for example, means a day of celebration and the birth of a daughter is a day of sadness (but in Malala's case, her dad still celebrated when she was born).   

During her parents’ time, Malala shared that most girls stayed at home waiting to be married. Girls didn't go to school which means they couldn't read or write (like her mom).  You know how many illiterate adults are there in Pakistan?  50 Million and most of them are women.  I quickly googled Pakistan's population - it's 191M - which represents 26% of the entire population.  Simply put, about 1 out of 4 people couldn't read or write. :(  

Malala also shared that during her parents' time, there was even a period when a woman’s evidence in court counted for only half of a man’s.  Because of this, prisons were full of cases of teenage girls who got raped and pregnant but even if they were the victims, they were sent to prison for adultery.  Why?  Because they couldn’t produce at least 4 male witnesses to prove that what happened was a crime. Heartbreaking… :(

During Malala's time, girls are already able to go to school but still very few had access.  She was lucky to have access because her dad was a teacher and he managed a school.

 However, there was a group (the Taliban) who advocated that girls shouldn't go to school - this was their interpretation of the law.  Their presence in Pakistan became stronger when the US attacked Afghanistan in 2002.  This drove them to seek refuge in the border of Pakistan. Some stayed in Swat Valley, around the border area, where Malala's family lived.

Based on the book, the situation was at its worst around 2008.  Here are some snippets which Malala recounted: 


- A 23 ft Buddha face carving dating back to the 7th century which is a great part of their history was blown up.

- Bridges had been blown up.

- Cable channels were switched off.
 
- Children were banned from playing their favorite board games. 

- Businesses closed.  One of the stories Malala cited was about a Taliban who attacked a shopkeeper because an unaccompanied woman was looking at lipsticks at his beauty shop (because there was an imposed rule that women are not allowed to be in the shop unaccompanied by a male relative). The shopkeeper was badly beaten and nobody helped him. 
 
- Girls were advised to stay home and not go to school.  But even if schools followed instructions to close down, the schools were still blown up. By 2008, 400 schools had been destroyed. 

- Many girls were killed, their corpses publicly displayed for crimes such as dancing or attending school.  She said that it was a common sight to see a Taliban holding up a severed head of a policeman by its hair, blood dripping from the neck. 

- Bodies were be dumped in the town square at night so that everyone would see them the next morning on their way to work. There is usually a note that says – "This is what happens to a ____. Do not touch this body til 11am or you will be the next.”


Some of us might have seen similar scenes in fictitious movies but where Malala lived, the scenes were real. :(   Living in a constant state of fear is how she described it.

But despite of the scary situation, Malala spoke out by writing an online journal published in a BBC website (this was in 2009, at age 11!).  Her journal entries gained her international recognition.  Initially, she used a pen name but eventually, she dropped her pseudonym and revealed herself to the public.   Because of this, she continued to gain recognition, nominations and win awards globally.

One day in 2012, while going home from school, 2 men flagged down the school bus she was riding.   They asked "Who is Malala?".  No one actually answered but some threw glances towards her direction and the men shot at her.  The bullet entered her head through the left eye; it narrowly missed her brain. The bullet traveled 18 inches down to her left shoulder and stopped there.  

It was a miracle that she survived. But it took several surgeries (including removing a part of her skull) by various doctors and several months of physiotherapy before she was able to control her facial muscles again and recover her ability to speak.  

(The Taliban, later on, did issue a statement assuming responsibility for shooting her but they said that it wasn’t because of her campaign for education but for speaking against the Taliban, for promoting Western culture and for calling Obama as her idol.)

Malala, though now based in England, continues to fight for free education for all children. She shares that around the world, there are 57M children not in primary school, 32M of whom are girls. Pakistan is one of the worst places with 5.1M children who don’t go to school even if the constitution says that every child has a right to education. :(


BTW, one of the anecdotes from the book which struck me was a dialogue between Malala and her father when she was younger - this was at a time when going to school was still not banned among girls yet.  

She complained on how hard life is in Pakistan and her father said that life is even harder for women in Afghanistan. Girls in Afghanistan, her father shared, were banned from laughing out loud, locked or beaten up for wearing nail polish, and their schools were burned.  That made Malala realize how free as a bird and how lucky she was.

And here we are, in our part of the world where we enjoy the freedom to do all kinds of activities and to speak our minds, and do not fully realize how lucky we are.  What's even sad is sometimes we use this freedom to complain about things which are petty.   So the next time we find ourselves about to rant, let's think of all the millions of quiet Malalas all over the world who have to suck everything up because they are deprived of not just voice, but of choice too.

P.S.  I am Malala has copyright restrictions in the Philippines so you can't buy the e-book version.  I was able to get a physical copy at the Eslite 24/7 bookstore in Taipei. 

The Story of Huguette Clark

When I was browsing through Amazon on what to read next, I saw a book entitled “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Jr. Newell”.  Here was the book's description -

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

Intriguing, right?  The book has as an average of 4.5 stars by more than 2k Amazon readers so it must be really good. In short, I bought the book. Haha....

While reading the book, I couldn't get over the fact that it's a real story because it has the elements of a highly engaging movie plot. The sense of mystery will tickle your mind.  For example, the strict order of the owner of the mansions is to keep all the mansions in pristine condition and yet, the owner has never set foot in them for 50 years...even 60 years.  The caretakers have never even met the owner and just got paid via checks through a lawyer for decades.

Bellosguardo (meaning "beautiful lookout") in Sta. Barbara.
Huguette Clark has never set foot in this mansion for at least 50 years.
But it was immaculately-kept. Her 1930s sedans are still well-maintained
in the garage and the table is set just in case the owner visits.
Source

Le Beau Chateau in Connecticut.
This was unoccupied since Huguette bought it in 1951
(empty for 60 years!).
  Source

What made the story even more engaging is it's hard to predict what will happen next because it's difficult to read through the motivations of the characters.  I got hooked! Haha... 

But first things first - who is Huguette Clark and why is her family wealthy?

Huguette (pronounced as Oo-get) is one of the daughters of America’s top 2 richest man in the 1900s (next to John D. Rockefeller) and also, a former US Senator. Her dad’s name is William Andrews Clark (aka W.A. Clark) who got rich from the copper mines of Montana and Arizona at the height of the demand for copper with all the 19th century inventions like the telegraph cable, telephone, lightbulb, bullet, etc. which all needed copper.

You could also say that W.A. Clark founded Las Vegas.  His company needed a maintenance point for switching railcars and storing water and fuel in the Nevada desert and  so his men found a ranch there, an abandoned Mormon missionary camp. W.A. Clark saw an opportunity to profit. In 1905, he subdivided 110 acres to create a small town of 1,200 lots. People came from Los Angeles on a special Clark train for the auction. Bidders paid as little as $100 for residential lots and as much as $1,750 for the corner commercial lots on the main street, called Fremont. At the end of the second day, W.A.’s auction company had sold half of his properties, pocketing more than $250,000. The missionary camp became Los Vegas Rancho.  Clark called the new town Clark’s Las Vegas Townsite but everyone else dropped the Clark name, calling it Las Vegas.  

When W. A. Clark died in 1925, he left an estate estimated at $100 million to $250 million (worth up to $3.4 billion today).  One-fifth of the estate went to 18-year-old Huguette (Huguette is 1 of 2 daughters from W.A. Clark's second marriage; there were 4 children in W. A. Clark's first marriage).  But after W.A. Clark's death, his businesses were sold, and the Clark name faded.

Going back to Huguette, she was an American but she was born in Paris on June 9, 1906. Huguette, her mom and her older sister who were all based in Paris moved to New York in 1910.  She grew up in a mansion at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventy-Seventh Street, prominently located in the middle of New York’s Millionaires’ Row where the Vanderbilt, Astor and Carnegie lived.  It was a 121-room mansion (the mansion in the book's cover).  

In 1928, after the photo below of Huguette was taken days after her wedding, no other public photo of her came out in the next 8 decades.  

Last published photo of Huguette Clark taken in 1928.

Incidentally, within 9 months of being married to his childhood friend, the couple split. But Huguette and the ex-husband remained good friends for life. Some of their letters are printed in the book and they are one of the most beautiful letters I've ever read. So what happened to Huguette between 1928 and 2011?  She chose to quietly pursue her passions.  She chose to live privately. 

She valued her privacy so much that when her jewels (including a blue diamond) safe-kept in a bank vault were declared lost by the bank, or when a Degas painting worth USD10M was stolen from her New York home in the 1990s, she couldn't sue, report to the police or file for insurance claims because the investigation will expose her identity and generate publicity.  She valued her privacy more than money. 

Dancer Making Points by Edgar Degas (painted between 1879 and 1880)
USD10M painting stolen from Huguette's New York home.
Source

But what triggered the sudden interest about Huguette after 80+ years?  

In May 2011, two weeks before Huguette's 105th birthday, Huguette passed away.  She signed 2 wills which had contradicting instructions.    Both wills were signed in 2005 when she was almost 99 years old.   

The first will named her nurse and her closest living relatives as the heirs.  The second will named her nurse, god-daughter, doctor, hospital, lawyer, accountant, and a new arts foundation as the heirs and nothing was left to the relatives.   Her relatives from her father's first marriage challenged her last will saying that Huguette was a victim of fraud, that she was mentally ill, and unable to understand what she had signed.   

Here are some interesting things mentioned in the book about the people around Huguette in her later years: 
 
- Her private nurse received over USD30M worth of gifts from Huguette while she was alive.  Huguette paid for the education of all the nurse's kids from pre-school to post-graduate and including their piano lessons, violin lessons, summer camps, etc.  Huguette also bought the nurse's family a total of 6 homes in prime spots around New York.  The family was even able to buy several luxury vehicles, not just any luxury vehicle, but including a limited edition Bentley - an Arnage Le Mans - one of only 150 in the world, for which they paid $210,000 in cash. Whoa....  

- Her doctors and hospital nurses received millions in checks for more than a decade even if it was against the hospital policy to receive gifts from patients.  

When people around Huguette were asked if they thought it was inappropriate to receive gifts from Huguette, their common answer was they didn't think so because it was Huguette who insisted out of generosity.  But the weird thing is some of them had letters to Huguette explicitly asking for money or subtly describing a situation where the underlying message is they need money, or a car, or a house! Wahaha...   For me, since you know the person would write you a check when she finds out you've a financial problem, then if you sincerely don't want her to act on your situation (especially if you think she has given you so much already), then just stop talking about your financial issues with her. Just saying... :) 

Anyway, as the relatives investigated, they also found out that Huguette's accountant was a felon, and that the accountant and Huguette's lawyer failed to file Huguette's gift taxes for several years.  And because of this, the taxes plus accumulated interest over the years reached a staggering USD82M! :(

At least 26 lawyers worked on the investigation and after 3 years (and before the trial began), a settlement was reached.  Clark relatives received USD34.5M. The private nurse renounced her bequest and agreed to pay back USD5M in gifts but she kept the remaining USD26M.  The accountant and lawyer gave up their bequests and executor fees but their malpractice claims were dismissed. The lawyers who worked on the investigation got USD30M (wow, it's close what the relatives actualy got!).  One-third or about USD104M went to pay gift taxes, interest and estate taxes.   Other beneficiaries like Huguette's god-daughter got their bequests.   The hospital and doctor also got their bequests but the bad news is they were also sued for hiding Huguette to extract rent and donations. Remember Huguette opted to stay in the hospital for more than a decade even if she didn't have any serious medical condition?  Apparently, Huguette's name was left off the daily patient census and the staff were told to hide her file when inspectors came. 

But after all everything, regardless of how the people around Huguette behaved (whether with malice or none), Huguette's generosity was sincere and she lived a happy, fulfilling quiet life.

Even when she was pushing 100 years old, she was still busy pursuing her passions.  She had an assistant whom she would ask to bring what she needed for the day's project like working on a miniature Kabuki theatre (she had a deep fascination for Japanese history, arts and culture).   She played the violin.  She kept in touch (via letters and phone) with her closest god-daughter, friends and employees including their family members up to grandchildren and never failed to send gifts during special occasions.  She learned how to play chess (in her eighties!).  She actively monitored auctions and participated in them through her lawyers.  She read the classics, she read French magazines and newspapers... she enjoyed reading news about royalty... and she even loved watching the Smurfs! :)

People around her said she had a sharp memory.  At age 93, she still clearly remembered vivid details of her trip to Hawaii in 1915 like the name of trees she saw, the hotels where they stayed in, the Olympic champion Kahanamoku who taught them how to surf.   Those are memories from 80 years ago! I can't even remember the details of my Hawaii trip 3 years ago! Wahaha....

When she was 98 years old, Huguette recited a poem to her doctor entitled “Le Grillon” (The Cricket or sometimes called True Happiness), an old French fable which her sister used to read to her when they were kids.  Huguette knew it by heart!  

I am sharing the entire poem here because it speaks a lot about Huguette's choice of a private life and also, it's a beautiful poem. 

THE CRICKET 

by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian

A poor little cricket hidden in the flowery grass observes a butterfly 

Fluttering in the meadow, the winged insect shines with the liveliest colors:

Azure, purple, and gold glitter on his wings;

Young, handsome, foppish, he hastens from flower to flower taking from the best ones. 

Ah! says the cricket, how his lot and mine are dissimilar! 

Lady Nature for him did everything, and for me nothing. 

I have no talent, even less beauty; 

No one takes notice of me, they know me not here below; 

Might as well not exist. 

As he was speaking, in the meadow arrives a troop of children. 

Immediately they are running after this butterfly, for which they all have a longing. 

Hats, handkerchiefs, caps serve to catch him. 

The insect in vain tries to escape. 

He becomes soon their conquest. 

One seizes him by the wing, another by the body; 

A third arrives, and takes him by the head. 

It should not be so much effort to tear to pieces the poor creature. 

Oh! Oh! says the cricket, I am no more sorry; 

It costs too dear to shine in this world. 

How much I am going to love my deep retreat! 

To live happily, live hidden. 

She recited this poem from memory - not just once but 3 times!  In English, in Spanish and in French! Wow!  (And I can't even recite Bahay Kubo!  Wahaha...)

What a beautiful, quiet life...Huguette lived happily, lived hidden like the cricket.  :)

What happened to the Vanderbilt fortune?

Cornelius Vanderbilt aka The Commodore
(Source:  Wikipedia)

My curiosity about the Vanderbilt family started when I had the chance to visit Rhode Island and see one of their summer homes called The Breakers.   It was so huge - the house covered 1 acre out of the 13-acre estate!  And some of the anecdotes which our tour guide shared about how people lived during the Gilded Age were just over the top.  The elites typically had 4 to 5 outfit changes in a day (since you can't wear the same thing for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner); the garden soil is not allowed to be seen with footprints  (which means servants had to rake the soil every time someone steps on it) .... how could people spend such obscene amounts of wealth on things like those?

The Vanderbilt family was once one of the wealthiest in the US.  Its patriarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known as “The Commodore”, is the man behind the New York Central Railroad.  He was born in 1794 and passed away in 1877.  When he died, the biggest chunk of inheritance he gave to one of his children was worth USD95M - which is approximately USD2B in today's money.    But within 30 years of his death, no member of his family was among the richest in the United States.  Within 70 years of his death, all the Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York were demolished.  What happened? How could such a crazy amount of wealth possibly get depleted?  

In the book “Fortune’s Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt” written by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II (a grand-nephew of The Commodore), the author tries to chronicle the saga of 4 generations of the Vanderbilt family based on last wills, court transcripts, letters, memoirs, journals, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc. 

But before we even wonder how such wealth got depleted, let's get to know more about The Commodore - how he, who was born poor, became one of the most prominent industrialists of the 19th century. 

Cornelius was born in a small farmhouse at Staten Island. His pastime was to watch the ships sail at the waterfront as they approached New York. Days before he was about to turn 16, he told his mom that he wanted to run away and become a sailor but his mom knew him better – she knew that what he really wanted was a boat of his own so he could become a boatman at the New York harbor.

So his mom gave him a seemingly impossible task – if Cornelius is able to plough, harrow and plant corn on an 8-acre uncultivated land, she would lend him USD100 to buy a boat.

Cornelius successfully accomplished the task.  How?  He got some boys to help him and do the work. So on his birthday, his mom gave him USD100 and Cornelius bought a periauger.

Periauger (Source: Wikipedia)

With his boat, he ferried passengers. And a year later, he was able to repay his mom USD100 plus USD1,000 in profit.

The Commodore continued ferrying passengers and sold food too. With his profits, he was able to buy 2 more periaugers.  

Later on, he was able to buy a schooner. With the schooner, he got into coastal trade - carrying cargoes of oysters, watermelons, whale oil, etc. By 1818, at 24, he had saved $9,000 and owned several periaugers and schooners.

Schooner (Source: Wikipedia)

Then came the steamboats which outran his boats. He studied the steamboats by working  as a captain for a steamboat owner.

Cornelius used the same strategy across the boat businesses he ran.  He would operate in unauthorized routes, charged lower fares than the competitors, but raised the prices of food and drinks to cover his losses.  Every time he does this, either the competition goes away or pays him to go away.   Because of his rogue ways, he was frowned upon by some people.

He applied the same strategy when he worked for the steamboat company.  He brought his game at a new level when he started offering free fare in the Hudson River route. He was losing money but the competitors were losing more money and at a faster rate.  What happened? The Commodore got paid USD100,000 upfront and USD5,000 annually for the next 10 years by the Steamboat Association just to leave the Hudson River route for 10 years. 

In the 11 years The Commodore worked in the steamboat company,  the business tremendously grew. He was able to save USD30,000 by 1829, at age 35, and at that time, he wanted to work for himself again. So he decided to resign and buy an old steamboat from his employer so he can run his own steamboat business.

By 1840 in his mid-forties, he owned a fleet of more than 100 steamboats.

As he was pushing 70s around 1862-1863, he saw the potential in the New York and Harlem railroad – it was a short, unprofitable line but it was the only railroad line that entered New York City. He started buying stocks at USD8/share and eventually became the controlling shareholder. He made improvements in the railroad business and the stock rose up to USD100/share . Later on, he also began buying stocks in the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central.

There were detractors who wanted him to lose so they tried manipulating the stock price. But when the stock price plunged, The Commodore always bought all the outstanding shares.   And after he made improvements in the railroads, the stock price always rose.

Sixty-seven years after his mother had loaned him $100, he had increased that loan by a factor of one million. He had accumulated a fortune of $105 million (about USD2.1B in today's money). He was richer, by far, than anyone else in the United States was or ever had been. 

On Jan 4, 1877, at age 82, the Commodore passed away. His last words to one of his children, William Henry (aka Billy), were - “Keep the money together, hey. Keep the Central our road.”

In his last will, the Commodore gave away about USD10M to his family, friends, relatives,  employees and charities. And as I mentioned earlier, the biggest chunk (the residual estate) amounting to USD95M went to his eldest son, Billy.  The book states that USD95M was more money that what was held in the US Treasury at that time.  Wow.

Anyway, The Commodore's last will was challenged by some family members as they found the sharing inequitable. They claimed that Billy manipulated his dad. Trials were held but a settlement was eventually reached. 

William Henry Vanderbilt aka Billy
The Commodore's eldest son (Source: Wikipedia)

During Billy's time, he was able to double his inheritance within 6 years after his father’s death, growing it to USD194M (about USD4.9B in today's money). He owned stocks in various businesses, government bonds, real estate, art collection, etc. His annual income was USD10.35M and his annual expenses were only USD200,000 (about USD5M today). His fortune was growing by USD10M every year (about USD250M today).

With a man of such obscene fortune, you’d think he’d be happy. But as research studies and sages say, money can't buy happiness. 

Billy confided to a friend that his fortune gave him no advantage than those who owned moderate wealth.  Once, referring to a neighbor, he told a friend -

“He isn’t worth a hundredth part as much as I am, but he has more of the real pleasures of life than I have. His house is as comfortable as mine, even if it didn’t cost so much; his team is about as good as mine; his opera box is next to mine; his health is better than mine, and he will probably outlive me. And he can trust his friends.”

Being the richest person in the world brought him, he said, nothing but anxiety.

“What’s the use of having all this money,” he said once to a nephew, “if you cannot enjoy it? My wealth is no comfort to me if I have not good health behind it.”

By his early sixties, Billy was tired and worn out. “The care of $200,000,000 is too great a load for my brain or back to bear,” he confessed to his family. “It is enough to kill a man. I have no son whom I am willing to afflict with the terrible burden. There is no pleasure to be got out of it as an offset—no good of any kind. I have no real gratification or enjoyments of any sort more than my neighbor on the next block who is worth only half a million. So when I lay down this heavy responsibility, I want my sons to divide it, and share the worry which it will cost to keep it.”

Thus, when Billy passed away, the biggest chunk (the residual estate) of USD130M (about USD3.4B today) was split between his 2 sons, William II and Cornelius II.

So if the 2nd generation was able to grow the wealth even more, what happened?

The book states several possible reasons - the imposition of rising taxes (income tax, property taxes, estate taxes), and the Depression, however it also notes that other family dynasties were able to survive and preserve their wealth like the Fords, Rockefellers and the DuPonts.

When you read about the lifestyle the 3rd generation family members led, you'll get ideas on what are the other probable causes.  Here are some -

- The wives of the third generation Vanderbilts weren't just competing in terms of lifestyle with other rich people but also among themselves.  If one built a mansion, the other would try to build a bigger mansion. If one built a yacht, the other one would build a bigger yacht.  

- When the Vanderbilts couldn't make it to the New York's elite guest list of Mrs. Astor's Annual 400 event (she invited the top 400 NY elite since her ballroom in the house can accommodate up to 400 guests), you know what one of the Vanderbilt wives did?  She came up with her own event inviting not just 400 but 1,200 because that's what her ballroom in the house can accommodate!  Haha... And you know how much the party cost?  USD250k (about USD6.3M today).  The roses alone which adorned the ballroom cost USD11k (about USD275k today).  Crazy spending, right?

- The mansions the Vanderbilts built on Fifth Avenue were just as crazy.  Even if the family members were less than 10, their mansions would have 130+ rooms.  They employed 30 to 40 servants in the household ranging from butlers, valets, ladies’ maids, footmen, housekeepers, a chef, assistant chefs, pantry boys, parlor maids, upstairs maids and scrubbing maids, laundresses, chauffeurs, seamstresses, and guards. 

- Some of them reached a lifestyle where they were spending beyond their annual income.   For example, one couple was spending USD250,000 each year but the annual interest from their trust fund was only USD125,000.  Their overspending ate up their principal.

- Some of them never worked a day in their lives and solely depended on the income of their trust funds.  Some spent their fortune like there was no tomorrow - they partied, gambled, traveled all over the world, build huge estates - until the funds got depleted and they went broke. 

And of course, there were factors beyond their control like the rising costs of property taxes (the tax more than tripled within 3 decades) that the income from their trust funds was eventually no longer enough to cover the property taxes of their huge mansions alone.  Then, there was the stock market crash in 1929.  And of course, the eventual introduction of other modes of transportation.  

The book is a very interesting read.  Sometimes you'll feel like you're reading fiction as some sub-stories seem taken out of movie plot like -

- a mom disapproved her daughter's choice of boyfriend so the letters sent by the boy were confiscated and the letters the girl wrote were never mailed.  Then the mom made her daughter marry a duke from Europe.

- a grandmother and an aunt connived to take away a daughter (little Gloria) from the custody of her own mom.  She was forced to write letters and make false statements which she did because she was made to believe that her beloved nurse would be taken away from her if she stayed with her mom. (This actually became a TV mini-series in 1982 entitled Little Gloria...Happy at Last.) 

But these sub-plots are the lives of real people. And when you read their verbatim sentiments lifted from their journals or transcripts, you'll really feel for them.  The greatest insights for me are actually reading their innermost thoughts.  

Here are some words from William II, one of the sons of Billy.  William II is one of Billy's sons who got half of the big chunk of inheritance.

William Vanderbilt II
Son of Billy (Source: Wikipedia)

“My life was never destined to be quite happy,” he told them. “It was laid out along lines which I could not foresee, almost from earliest childhood. It has left me with nothing to hope for, with nothing definite to seek or strive for. Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness. It is as certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality."

“If a man makes money, no matter how much, he finds a certain happiness in its possession, for in the desire to increase his business, he has a constant use for it. But the man who inherits it has none of this. The first satisfaction, and the greatest, that of building the foundation of a fortune, is denied him. He must labor, if he does labor, simply to add to an oversufficiency.”

So if you're not expecting any inheritance from your parents (ahem...haha...), let's take it from William.  :) 

Another beautiful quote is from Alva Vanderbilt, wife of Billy and mother of William II.  

Alva Vanderbilt, wife of Billy
(Source: Wikipedia)

Alva was the one who threw the lavish party for 1,200 New York elites and built bigger mansions, summer houses and yachts to outdo the other elites, but Alva, later in her life became an activist fighting for women's right to vote, among many other advocacies she lead. 

One of her last few words on her deathbed were -

“It makes no difference now. The important thing is knowing how to live. Learn a lesson from my mistakes. I had too much power before I knew how to use it and it defeated me in the end. It drove all sweetness out of my life except the affection of my children. My trouble was that I was born too late for the last generation and too early for this one. If you want to be happy, live in your own time.”

Yes, fortunes may have been lost and the succeeding generations may not have been able to keep The Commodore's wish to keep the money together and to keep the Central their road, but no amount of fortune can equal the lessons and realizations gained at the end of one's life.  :)

The Breakers & Getting to know the Vanderbilt family who lived in this Mansion

During a trip to New Jersey in 2008,  my friends who were based there, drove me to Rhode Island to see the Newport Mansions - summer homes of the ultra rich from 1890s until about 1950s.   I was overwhelmed not just by the sheer size of the estates but the opulence of the interiors. 

One of the mansions which struck me was called "The Breakers" (owned by the Vanderbilt Family).  According to our tour guide, this mansion was built in 1895 to the tune of USD7M. And if you were to translate the cost of the mansion to today's equivalent, he said, the figure would be around USD350M. That's more than Php16 Billion!  Whoa...

The Breakers - summer home of the Vanderbilts

The mansion is called "The Breakers" because the mansion is by the sea, facing the Atlantic Ocean. From the balcony of the mansion, you could see and hear the waves hitting the breakwater. 

At that time, I wasn't familiar with the ancestry of the Vanderbilt family so even if the tour guide rattled off all the names of the people who lived there, I was totally clueless.  Haha... But what I clearly remember was we went to a room of one of the Vanderbilt children who lived there and the tour guide said that he is Anderson Cooper's grandfather (Cooper is a 6th generation Vanderbilt).  At least I recognized one but the funny thing is, I never knew Cooper was a Vanderbilt until that time! Haha.... 

Anyway, my photo above doesn't really show how big the mansion is but here are photos I got online -

Aerial view of The Breakers (Source)

Source

How big is it?  

• The house covers 1 acre out of the 13-acre estate!
• It has 5 floors totaling about 175,000 sqm in floor area.  
• It has 27 fireplaces and 70+ rooms - 33 rooms of which are for servants alone.   (Our tour guide said, at the time the owners lived there, they had 40 servants.  Twenty servants for indoor and twenty servants for outdoor.  During the tour, I actually asked more questions about the servants than the owners.  I was interested to know more about their lives because I could relate better to them. Haha...)
• It was built by 2,000 laborers, artisans and artists, working during the day and at night, for 3 years.

Other memorable things I saw inside the house -

• There's a separate room in the kitchen that is dedicated for plating the food.
• There's also a special section in the kitchen just for cutting and arranging flowers as the servants needed to supply the rooms with fresh flowers everyday.
• There's a vault in the kitchen - as big as a bank's vault - where silverware is stored.
• There are 2 sets of taps in bath tubs - 1 for freshwater and 1 for saltwater.
• Lights are dual-powered - by electricity and gas because power outages were common at that time. 

And the interiors were just, as I said, opulent. Some sections of the mansion have 22 carat gold embossing. Most of the installations, furniture and fixtures in The Breakers were taken from palaces and chateaus in Europe.  Check out these photos I got online -

Inside The Breakers (Source)

The Hallway (Source)

The State Dining Room (Source)

Now, weeks ago, while browsing in Amazon, I chanced upon a book entitled "Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt" by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II.  Because "The Breakers" fascinated me years ago, I ended up getting the book.

The book talks about the rise and fall of the Vanderbilt family starting from its patriarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt (aka The Commodore), up to his great-grandchildren. I'll write more about the core of the book when I have the time, but for this post, I'll zero in on The Breakers.  Reading it gave me a richer history of the house and the family who lived in it. 

The Breakers is owned by The Commodore's favorite grandson who was named after the Commodore himself - Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Cornelius II is the eldest son of William, the eldest son of the Commodore, which makes him the head of House of the Vanderbilts after his grandfather and father passed away. He was married to Alice Claypool Gwynne.

Cornelius II and Alice Vanderbilt (Source)

Cornelius II and Alice had 7 kids - Alice (who passed away when she was 5), William Henry “Bill” (who died of typhoon fever while a junior at Yale University in 1892), Neily (Cornelius III), Gertrude, Alfred, Reginald and Gladys.

In 1895, the same year when The Breakers was completed, Cornelius and Alice threw a coming-out party for their daughter, Gertrude, on her 21st birthday. It was held in the mansion, attended by 300 pax. Her parents wanted to find a suitable partner for Gertrude and even invited reporters to the event. A feature story on Gertrude came out which read  -

Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt, the richest prospective heiress in America, is still a girl in skirts to her shoe tops. Her father’s fabulous wealth is estimated at $150,000,000…. Her portion of the estate will hardly be less than $20,000,000. It must be a pleasant sensation to live in a $7,000,000 house and to have most of the good things of life without even the trouble of wishing for them. This is the goodly heritage of Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt.

If the journalist thought it was a pleasant sensation to live in a USD7M house, it surely wasn't a pleasant sensation to be talked about that way. :(

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney for Vogue (Source)

Since the book is peppered with excerpts from the diaries of Vanderbilt members, you'll get an idea of their thoughts and feelings. I actually love how raw and honest their journal entries were. Here's one from Gertrude's journals -

"...There were lots of things I could not do simply because I was Miss Vanderbilt. That I should have to go through life being pointed at, having my actions talked about, seemed too hard. That I should be courted and made a friend of simply because I was who I was, was unbearable to me. I longed to be someone else, to be liked only for myself, to live quietly and happily without the burden that goes with riches. Of course time made all this easier to bear, and when I was eighteen I felt as if I could hold my head up under it, and that I would act my part well for God had put me there, just where I was, and if He had not meant me to have strength to go through He would never have put me where I was..." 

If the parents worked hard to entice Gertrude to getting married, they exerted all efforts to stop Gertrude’s older brother, Neily (Cornelius III), from marrying Grace Wilson, whom they thought wasn't suitable for their son. 

On the morning of the wedding of Neily and Grace, on June 18, 1896, Neily had an attack of acute rheumatism. The doctors sent a certification to the newspapers that he is confined to his bed and cannot safely leave his room.  The wedding was postponed since the groom can’t make it.

Cornelius and Neily continued to argue;  if Neily marries Grace, Cornelius threatened to disinherit him.  Much later that day, when the doctor went to the house to discuss Neily’s rheumatism with Cornelius, the doctor thought that Cornelius himself looked sick. Cornelius suddenly collapsed and suffered a massive stroke. He was completely paralyzed on his right side, unable to speak.  (I remember the tour guide mentioning that that patriarch of the family who owns The Breakers got to enjoy the mansion for 1 year only before he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed).

Anyway, against his dad's wishes and even after his dad's stroke, Neily still married Grace. But not a member of the immediate Vanderbilt family came to the wedding.

Neily and Grace Vanderbilt (Source)

Back at The Breakers, a wedding did take place there that same year - on August 25, 1896 - that of Neily’s younger brother, Alfred. All were invited except for Neily and Grace.

Three years later, on Sept 11, 1899,  Cornelius felt better about his health and decided to leave The Breakers for New York with the intention of attending board meetings of their various railroad companies. The next morning in New York, Cornelius suffered a massive heart attack and passed away due to cerebral hemorrhage.  He was 55.

When it was time to read Cornelius’ will, the family assembled at the great stone fireplace in the library of The Breakers. The fireplace came from a 16th century chateau in France that cost USD75,000 in 1895 (about USD82.6M in today's money).  

The fireplace had an inscription in archaic French which translates to: 

Little do I care for riches, and do not miss them, since only wisdom prevails in the end. 

(I remember our tour guide pointing to the inscription on the white marble during the tour and she even made a comment on how ironic it was for a last to be read in that spot.)

The Breakers' Library (Source)

In his last will, Cornelius left The Breakers with Alice, plus 2 other family mansions in New York (one of which is where Bergdorf Goodman now stands in New York).

Gertrude, Alfred, Reginald and Gladys shared a USD20M trust fund (about USD17.6B in today's money), and each of them received USD5M outright (about USD4.4B in today's money).

Neily, for going against his father’s will in marrying Grace, got the least with a trust of USD1 million (about USD880M in today's money), and USD500,000 outright (about USD440M in today's money).  It looks small compared to his siblings but hey, that’s still over USD1B in today’s money!  

(Btw, the will of Cornelius was dated June 18, 1896 - the date of Neily and Grace's wedding and the day the father and son argued. It's heartbreaking that the father-son relationship was strained because they didn't mutually agree on something.  Based on the book, the two were never able to patch things up until the death of Cornelius. Sigh...)

Usually in Vanderbilt wills, the eldest son gets the most because the residuary estate goes to him.  But in this case, Cornelius gave the residuary estate to Alfred (not to Neily, the eldest son) which was worth over USD42M (about USD37B in today's money).      Alfred also inherited the Commodore’s portrait, bust and gold congressional medal which are always passed on to the new head of the House of Vanderbilt, officially making Alfred the new head of the dynasty. 

Alfred Vanderbilt (Source)

Unfortunately, Alfred died on May 7, 1915, at age 37. He was aboard RMS Lusitania bound for Liverpool when it got torpedoed and sank. He and his valet helped passengers to get into lifeboats. Alfred promised a young mother with a baby that he would look for an extra life vest for her but there wasn’t any life vest available so he offered his own life vest even if he knew he couldn’t swim.  Alfred died a hero. :)

Because of Alfred's tragic death, Reggie, the youngest son of Cornelius and Alice, became the new head of the House of Vanderbilt.

Reggie got married in 1912, divorced in 1919, and in 1922, at age 42, met 17-year old Gloria Morgan.  Four days after they had met, Reggie asked Gloria to marry him.  Reggie disclosed to Gloria that he had already squandered all his fortune totaling USD13Million (about USD3.04B in today's money).  He didn't have any big house, yacht, art collection ... nothing. 

Here’s what Reggie told Gloria:

“Most of the inheritance left to me outright by my father has long since gone. I now derive my income from a five-million-dollar trust, which, after my death, must go to Cathleen and any other children I might have. And there may well not be other children. The chances are you would be a Mrs. Vanderbilt with no money. Do you understand exactly what I am saying to you?”

“As my wife, you will have a big name but little money to live up to it. I’ve spent every cent of my personal fortune…. As long as I live, you will be taken care of, but I am an ill man. Should I die, the $5,000,000 trust fund goes to my daughter by my former wife, Cathleen. Your only chance of financial security in the future would be to have a child who would then share the trust fund with Cathleen. Your chance of having a child by me is one of those 100 to 1 shots, for my doctor doubts that I can become a father again.”

But Gloria still married Reginald. And in 1924, Gloria gave birth to their daughter whom they named Gloria or who was known as "Little Gloria" when she was a child.  Little Gloria happens to be Anderson Cooper’s mom.  Still alive today at age 91. :)

Gloria and Reggie Vanderbilt with Little Gloria (Source)

I did further reading online on what happened to The Breakers and apparently, when Alice, the matriarch passed away in 1934, she passed on The Breakers to Gladys Vanderbilt Szaparys, her youngest daughter.  In 1948, Gladys leased The Breakers to The Preservation Society of Newport County for USD1/year but continued to maintain an apartment  in the 3rd floor of The Breakers until her death in 1965.

In 1972,  The Preservation Society of Newport County purchased The Breakers for USD365,000 (about USD4.94M in today's money) from Glady's heirs, but two of Gladys' children, Gladys (named after after her) and Paul, still maintains an apartment at the 3rd floor of The Breakers.   I do recall our tour guide mentioning that the tour only covers the first 2 floors because some of the great-grandchildren still use a section in the upper floors during the summer.

The latest news I could dig up about The Breakers is dated June 2015 from New York Post.  It talks about  a feud between the The Preservation Society and the Vanderbilt heirs over The Preservation Society's plan to build a visitor center within the The Breakers grounds which the Vanderbilts and preservationists are strongly against.    

I like how one of Cornelius and Alice's great-grandchildren, Paul, who still lives at The Breakers, said in the New York Post article -

"The Breakers was a house.  It's not just a mansion, a museum.  Children played there. People got sick there.  All the things that families undergo happened there.  We think that people who visit there are interested in that aspect."

I do hope the feud gets peacefully settled. :)

After finishing the book, I am now interested to know more about (Little) Gloria Vanderbilt's life story (Anderson's mom).  It's one interesting story on its own - when she was a child, she was fought over.  Her custody trial was one of the most sensationalized in the US.  But more than the litigation, I am more interested to know how she was able recover from the trauma of her difficult childhood, successfully carve a name for herself as an artist, fashion designer and author, and gracefully dealt with his son's suicide (Anderson's older brother).  

I saw in Amazon that Gloria and Anderson will launch a book next year (to be released on May 3, 2016) entitled "The Rainbow Comes and Goes:  And Other Life Lessons I Learned from My Mom".  I already pre-ordered.  :)

Anyway, if you're visiting New Jersey and you have a day to spare, make sure to include Rhode Island in your itinerary.  Some mansions are open on certain days only so make sure to check the schedule of the mansions you want to visit. Here's the official website - http://www.newportmansions.org/ 

(P.S. In computing the equivalent USD figures of the Vanderbilt's wealth in today's money, I used the calculator at measuringworth.com.)