In the early evening of October 8, 1882, one of the richest men in the world was about to eat his supper in his private dining car. The train to which he was attached had just arrived in Chicago from Michigan City, Indiana, but before he could pick up his fork, a brash young reporter, freelancer Clarence Dresser, burst into his car asking for an interview. He wanted to know the railroad’s guidelines for establishing freight rates.“I’ll talk to you after supper,” William Henry Vanderbilt told him.“But I have a deadline to meet,” Dresser persisted, “and the public has a right to know.”“The public be damned! Get out!”In this one unfortunate outburst Dresser already had more than he could ever have dreamed of getting.Dresser tried to sell the encounter to the Chicago Daily News, but the night
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