-- card: 8977 from stack: in
-- bmap block id: 10357
-- flags: 0000
-- background id: 6877
-- name: Commodore
----- HyperTalk script -----
on OpenCard
  global Story,forward,reverse
  if Story="Erie" then
    put "Cartoon" into forward
    put "Comm" into reverse
  end if
end OpenCard



-- part 3 (button)
-- low flags: 00
-- high flags: A002
-- rect: left=16 top=319 right=340 bottom=76
-- title width / last selected line: 0
-- icon id / first selected line: 0 / 0
-- text alignment: 1
-- font id: 0
-- text size: 12
-- style flags: 0
-- line height: 16
-- part name: Return
----- HyperTalk script -----
on mouseUp
  global returncard
  go to returncard
end mouseUp



-- part contents for background part 1
----- text -----
Cornelius Vanderbilt
"The Commodore"
1794-1877

-- part contents for background part 2
----- text -----
    "Cornelius Vanderbilt began his working life as a ferryman in New York City's crowded harbor.  It was a rough business, no place for a milquetoast.  Driven to destroy his competitors, the Commodore, as Vanderbilt styled himself (dressing in a mock naval uniform), fired the cannon that sank more than one competitor's harbor barge and negotiated many a contract with a stout club.   
   Vanderbilt gave up brawling as his shipping empire and responsibilities grew, but he was as tough and unscrupulous behind a broad oak desk as he had been at the tiller of a ferry after his waterborne transportation empire led him into moving the commerce of America's greatest city overland, too.  Once, when a reporter suggested that he had broken the law in a conflict with a rival, Vanderbilt snapped back gruffly,  "What do I care about the law.  Hain't I got the power?"
  The Commodore was never quite respectable.  His rough-and-tumble origins resonated in his wharf rat language.  The mention of his name caused ladies and gentlemen of noble New York society to shudder--for a while.  Because he said out loud what other businessmen did quietly--that ethics and social resposibility did not always make good business--he was an easy target for moralists."

Taken from page 469 of "The American Past" part two, Second Edition