TH - Canada Southern Railway

16 New York Central Lines Magazine for May, 1928
submerged. One rule I have followed:
I pick out of each bill of fare what I
would have eaten if I had stayed at
home. At a very large dinner I do
not take the oysters. I merely touch
the soup. I skip the fish. I skip all
dishes upon which the chef has exhausted
his art. I eat the roast, if it
is lamb or a fowl, and skip it if it is
beef. If there is terrapin, I take that
because it is very digestible, and I
take the game. I do not smoke and I
never drink anything but champagne,
and very little of that. The next day
everything with me, head and vitality,
is as usual. There never was a man
yet whom drink did not dull or deaden.
Most of the great speakers I
have known never touch anything at
dinner. They have told me that their
mental processes would not work until
at least five hours after a meal.
I never was troubled that way.
"A curious thing about public men
going to a dinner to deliver an address
is the way in which many of
them will lose a national reputation.
I have seen half a dozen of the finest
reputations in the country go to
pieces at a banquet in New York because
the man spoke too long and did
not relieve his speech because he
thought it beneath his dignity to give
a display of humor. I remember two
dinners in New York where the principal
speakers were men of national
reputation, and there were six others
to come after them, also of national
reputation. They emptied the hall;
and when they closed there were very
few present except the officers and the
band. The other speakers had also
fled."
The Depew Birthday Dinners
A most unusual feature of this unparalleled
record of public dinners
was the "Depew Birthday Dinners,"
instituted by the Montauk Club, of
Brooklyn, in 1892, and continued for
ithirty-three consecutive years. To him
this was one of the important events
of the year, always looked forward to
with pleasure.
Mr. Depew's orations and addresses
'constitute virtually a history of more
than half a century—not merely _ a
•record of events, but a political,, industrial,
commercial, educational and
social picture of the period in which
he was a conspicuous figure.
It would seem as if the activities
outlined in the foregoing would more
than suffice to absorb the energies of
any man; but in addition to all these,
Mr. Depew found time to edit a series
of the greatest orations of the world
in twenty-four volumes, a massive
work entitled "One Hundred Years of
American Commerce," a series of articles
illustrating the progress of the
country during the century, nineteen
volumes of his own addresses, and to
write "Memories of Eighty Years,"
which, as the title indicates, is not a
formal autobiography, but a series of
recollections. In the inimitable way
of which he was master, Depew set
forth incidents in his own career and
stories about famous persons of the
world with whom he came in contact,
constituting a melange which is a delight.
In addition to his railway and po­
litical engagements, exacting enough
to occupy the entire time of a less
active man, Mr. Depew had numerous
social and semi-social duties. He was
a director of many financial, fiduciary
and other corporations and trusts and
a member of societies too numerous
to mention. Among them were the
Huguenot Society, the Society of the
Cincinnati, Sons of the American
Revolution, Union League, Metropolitan
and Country Clubs, of New York;
Holland Society, New England Society,
Colonial Wars Society, Kane
Lodge, Masons, and Thirty-third Degree
in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite; St. Nicholas Society, American
Bar Association, Westchester
County Bar Association, Republican
Club, Lotos Club, Players Club,
Transportation Club, University Club,
Phi Beta Kappa Club, Psi Upsilon
Club, Lafayette Post, New York
Chamber of Commerce, New York
Yacht Club, Automobile Club of
America, Tuxedo Club. In Wash­
ington he was a member of the Metropolitan,
Chevy Chase, Country, Alibi
and University Clubs. He was an
officer of the Legion of Honor and
President of the Pilgrims Society.
For many years in succession Mr.
Depew was President of the Yale
Alumni Association and was for
twelve years a member of the Yale
Corporation. For seven successive
years he was President of the Union
League Club.
Mr. Depew was elected by the legislature
in 1874 Regent of the University
of the State of New York and
held that position for thirty-four
years.
Mr. Depew was married in 1871 to
Miss Elise Hegeman, daughter of
William Hegeman, of New York City.
To them one son, Chauncey M. Depew,
Jr., was born in 1882. Mrs. Depew
died in 1892. Mr. Depew was again
married in 1900, his bride being Miss
May Palmer, daughter of John
Palmer, of New York.
F e l l o w Directors o f T h r e e R o a d s
M e m o r i a l to C h a u n c e y D e p e w
The following tribute of esteem for Chauncey M. Depew was passed by
the Boards of the New York Central, Michigan Central, and the Cleveland,
Chicago, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroads, April 11, and signed by P. E.
Crowley, President, and E. F. Stephenson, Secretary, to be sent to the family
of Mr. Depew:
HE President announced, with
Tdeep regret, the death of Hon.
Chauncey M. Depew, Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the New
York Central Railroad Company and
a Director of this Company, at New
York, on Thursday, the fifth day of
April, 1928, whereupon the following
minute was unanimously adopted:
Mr. Depew was born in Peekskill,
N. Y., April 23, 1834, about three
years after the operation of the first
train over the Mohawk & Hudson
Rail Road—the only one of the railroads
now comprising the New York
Central Lines then in existence—
twelve years prior to the incorporation
of the Hudson River Railroad
Company and three years after the
organization of the New York &
Harlem.
Mr. Depew was educated at Peekskill
Military Academy from which he
graduated in 1852, and at Yale University
where he was a member of the
Class of 1856. He then entered the
office of a lawyer in Peekskill as a
student, was admitted, to the Bar in
1858 and immediately opened an office
in that village.
In 1866, he accepted the office of
Attorney for the New York & Harlem
Railroad Company; was elected a
Director of that company in 1874, and
subsequently became associated and
identified with the New York Central
& Hudson River Railroad Company
and other companies in the so-called
"Vanderbilt System." He served as
Second Vice-President of the New
York Central & Hudson River Railroad
Company for two years, as President
thirteen years and as Chairman
of the Board of that company and the
present company for thirty years,
having been elected to the latter office
in 1898—which position he held until
his death.
He was elected a Director of the
Michigan Central Railroad Company
May 8, 1884, and of the Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis
Railway Company June 7, 1889.
He took an active part in public
affairs and became a commanding
figure in finance, politics and society.
Although Mr. Depew was one of our
most distinguished Americans, who
contributed in substantial ways to the
well-being and national life of the
United States, he was so well known
in foreign lands that he might justly
have been claimed to have been a citizen
of the world.
He was a man of scholarly attainments,
deep learning, sound judgment
and remarkable insight into the methods
and plans of his contemporaries
and competitors. Always wisely conservative
in his judgment, he was
nevertheless progressive in studying
the problems of the times; in adapting
himself to them and in giving to
the organizations with which he was
officially connected the full benefit of
his knowledge and judgment.
His personal charm and lovable disposition
endeared him to all who knew
him and his indefatigable activity
made him an outstanding figure in
the railroad world as well as in all
walks of life. He was the beloved
personal friend of every member of
this Board and his loss is keenly felt
as a personal one to each of the members
and as a severe one to the corporation.
In adopting this tribute of the esteem
in which Mr. Depew was held, we
New York Central Lines Magazine for May, 1928 17
One Seeks Kest in Peekskill
By Garnett Laidlaw Eskew
1DACK to the valley that he loved so long
The patriarch returns to seek his rest . . .
April is here, the birds break into song,
The same blue hills roll out against the West,
And the same river, sweeping grandly down,
Laps as of old beside his quiet town.
These are unchanged as when, long, long ago,
Beyond the memory of our oldest men,
He was a boy here by the Hudson's flow,
Watching the world go forward, even then,
With happy eyes, and that sure, simple faith
Which was the staff on which he leaned till death.
Four score and fourteen years had laid their weight
Upon him, silvering all his hair with snow,
Bending the once straight shoulders that of late
Had borne no burdens which a man can know
When he is in his prime—such as he bore
Through the long years of life that went before.
But with his soul untrammeled and unbent,
Young to the last, he answers the last call,
Turns from the marts where his best years were spent-
Where traffic roars through vault and echoing hall—
And seeks once more his peaceful boyhood town
Close by the Hudson, curving grandly down.
all feel that his most enduring memorial
is written in the hearts of those he
loved so well and by whom that love
was richly returned.
Resolved: That this tribute be
entered in our minutes and a copy,
engrossed and executed, sent to his
family.
New York-Chicago Non-Excess
Fare Service Further
Improved
"[FURTHER improvement in non-excess
fare sleeping car service between
Chicago and New York via the
New York Central and New York
Central-Michigan Central Railroads
was announced with the change of
time on April 29.
The Chicago-New York non-excessfare
sleeper via the New York Central
leaving in No. 10, the Easterner, from
LaSalle Street Station, daily at 10:35
A.M., arriving in Buffalo at 1:30 A.M.,
and the Chicago-New York non-excess
fare sleeper via the Michigan Central
in No. 10 of that road, from Central
Station, Chicago, daily at 10:30 A.M.,
now arrive in Buffalo at 1:30 A.M.
Both cars are placed in the fast
Prairie State, New York Central No.
16, at Buffalo, leaving that point at
4:20 A.M., and arriving at Grand
Central Terminal at 3:37 P.M.
It will be noted that these cars lay
over during the night at Buffalo when
passengers are asleep, and that all
trains in which these cars move are
express trains, making few stops.
Body in Mausoleum
at Peekskill, IN. Y.
HE funeral coach, which bore
TChauncey M. Depew on his last
journey to his native village of Peekskill,
N. Y., was followed by five motor
cars, in which were members of the
family only. Mrs. Depew was not
strong enough to undertake the long
journey, so she returned home.
The cortege was escorted by a detachment
of motorcycle police and followed
by two big motor cars carrying
reporters and photographers for the
metropolitan press and the press associations.
At the New York City line
the motorcycle police were relieved by
a similar detachment from the city of
Yonkers, who in turn were relieved
at the north line of Yonkers by a detachment
of State police, which escorted
the cortege to the limits of
Peekskill. Here a detachment of
seven motorcycle policemen of Peekskill
relieved the State police and escorted
the cortege to the cemetery.
As the cortege passed through the
various towns along the route of more
than forty miles, bells were tolled and
the streets were lined with people,
who stood with bared heads as the
cars passed.
At the southern line of Peekskill
an automobile carrying the Board of
Village Trustees, Frederick W. Otte,
President; Carl G. Pfeiffer, Thomas
C. Gardiner, Martin Neilsson, Dr. A.
E. Anderson, Dr. H. F. Hart and
Charles E. Fisher, joined the cortege
for the rest of the journey to Hillside
Cemetery, which lies back in the hills
about four miles from the New York
Central station.
President Otte of the Board of
Trustees had requested all business
houses along the route of the funeral
procession to close for an hour during
the last rites. There was a lavish
display of flags at half mast, while
the street along which the cortege
passed was lined with old friends and
neighbors, who stood silently with
heads bared.
The cortege passed within sight of
the old Depew home and on to the old
cemetery dating back to early Colonial
times, in which old St. Peter's church,
built long before the revolution, where
Washington is said to have worshipped,
and at last to the new cemetery.
On a little knoll on the hillside
stands the beautifully simple, dignified
mausoleum which Mr. Depew had
had built. The lawn in front was
carpeted with cut flowers. On this
carpet the casket was deposited while
the Reverend Dr. Brooks read the
brief service committing the body to
the tomb, while a detachment of boys
in uniform from Peekskill Military
Academy, where Mr. Depew had received
his schooling, stood at attention
and a group of fellow townsmen
bowed reverent heads.
On the following day, Easter Sunday,
memorial services were held in
the Peekskill churches for the village's
most distinguished citizen.