Nothing to Nothing

"We brought nothing into this world," intoned a soft, rich voice in a Manhattan drawing room one day last week, "and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Dr. Roelif Hasbrouck Brooks of swank St. Thomas' Church stood by a bronze casket blanketed with irises, orchids and lilies of the valley. In the casket lay all that 89 years of life had left of Mrs. Vanderbilt, dowager of her family, who died last fortnight (TIME, April 30). Nearby in deep black stood her three surviving children, bearded Cornelius, long-faced Gertrude (Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney), dark Gladys (Countess Szechenyi). Officiating with Dr. Brooks was Rt. Rev. Ernest Milmore Stires, Episcopal Bishop of Long Island, who once was rector of St. Thomas' and who is more in demand at the baptisms, marriages and funerals of the rich than Bishop Manning of New York.

In the drawing room sat other kin of the late Mrs. Vanderbilt: Nephews Harold Stirling and William Kissam Vanderbilt and William Seward Webb; Brother-in-law Frederick K.; Sisters-in-law Emily (Mrs. Henry B. White), Edith (Mrs. Peter Goelet Gerry, widow of George Vanderbilt), Lila (Mrs. William Seward Webb), and Florence (Mrs. Hamilton McK. Twombly); Nephew Erskine Gwynne; Grandsons Cornelius, George and William Henry Vanderbilt and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney; Granddaughters Gladys and Sylvia Szechenyi, Barbara (Mrs. Barklie McKee Henry), Cathleen (Mrs. Lawrence Wise Lowman), Flora (Mrs. G. Macculloch Miller), Grace (Mrs. Henry Gassaway Davis III) and Cornelia (Mrs. Eugene B. Roberts); Grandniece Consuelo (Mrs. Earl E. T. Smith); Great-grandsons Whitney and Roderick Tower, William Barklie Henry, Harry Payne Whitney II; Great-grand-daughters Flora Miller, Gertrude Henry, Nancy Whitney.

East 67th Street was roped off and two maroon Rolls-Royces were drawn up on the sidewalk in front of the Vanderbilt house so that Mrs. Whitney, Countess Szechenyi and their brigadier brother might step quickly into them. On Fifth Avenue, curious crowds watched these and 14 other limousines sweep royally downtown. Three vans bore away the flowers, some of which earned Florists Wadley & Smythe $5,000. At South Ferry on the Battery the funeral procession rolled aboard two chartered ferryboats, to bear Mrs. Vanderbilt in her bronze casket across the same body of water on which "Commodore" Cornelius Vander Bilt, her illiterate grandfather-in-law, made his start as a ferryman and founded the family fortune.

In the midst of the 15-acre Vanderbilt plot adjoining the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp, Staten Island, there arose almost 70 years ago a great mausoleum (see cut) in which lie 54 coffins including those of the old Commodore; his son William Henry; his grandsons Cornelius, George Washington, William Kissam; his great-grandson Reginald and his great-great-grandson William K. Jr. Last week Mrs. Vanderbilt was put away with those who, in the words read by Dr. Brooks from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, "are henceforth blessed . . . for they rest from their labors."

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