Patère, LIFE AND DEATH John Stuart or JAY GOULD →4→ AND HOW He Made His Millions. THE PEERLESS SERIES, No. 65. Issued Monthly. December, 1892. $3.00 per year. at New York Post-Office as second-class matter. Copyright, 1892, by J. S. Ogilvie. Entered NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE, PUBLISHER, 57 ROSE STREET. TRANSPORTATION LIG JAN 1927 UNIVERSITY OF PIC Transportation Library } 1. Transportation Library MI 2754 GC? 074 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. CHAPTER I. JAY GOULD, the great figure in the history of Wall Street, died at his home, Forty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue, New York, at 9.15 A.M., December 2, 1892. The cause of death is believed to be pulmonary consump- tion, although no official announcement to that effect. has been made. The members of Mr. Gould's family, with Dr. Munn, the physician who attended him, were at his bedside when the end came. Those in the room were: Mr. and Mrs. George J. Gould, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Gould, Miss Helen Gould, Mr. Howard Gould, Mr. Har- old Gould and Miss Anne Gould. From Mr. Howard Gould it was learned that his father retained consciousness nearly to the last. He knew he was about to die, and just before the end he looked around the room. He said he wished to have all his family present, and appeared satisfied to find that all were there. He passed away quietly. purpura skla THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Those outside at that time saw the blinds all drawn down. A moment later and a servant left the house with a big batch of telegrams in one hand. They were announcements to friends of the family that Mr. Gould had died. The members of Mr. Gould's family had been with him throughout the night because it had become appar- ent early in the evening that the end could not be far off. For the first time then it was admitted by mem- bers of the family that there was little hope that Mr. Gould could live many hours. On the day before Thanksgiving Mr. Gould had a hemorrhage from the effects of which he had not re- covered when he had a second hemorrhage, which was two days later, followed by still another on Wednesday last. This announcement was a surprise to all but the most intimate acquaintances of Mr. Gould. It had all along been supposed that he was suffering from nervous dys- pepsia. From an early hour on December 2 Mr. Gould began sinking rapidly. Dr. Munn, his physician, had Dr. Janeway in consultation, but they said that nothing could be done but make Mr. Gould's last hours as com- fortable as possible. 10 Every device known to medical experts had been used to prolong Mr. Gould's life, but they all proved fruitless. The patient suffered but little pain, owing to the efforts of the physician. What pain he did suffer was caused mostly by the fits of coughing, which seemed to shake his entire frame and make him perceptibly weaker. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. He bore himself bravely until the end and uttered no complaint. He was grateful for all that had been done for him, and especially for the untiring efforts of Dr. Munn, who did everything in his power to alleviate his suffering. An hour after Mr. Gould had died, the undertaker ar- rived at the house. He was John Main, of 35 West Forty-fourth Street. Main is sexton of Dr. Paxton's church. At 10.40 Howard Gould came from the house and drove away in a carriage that was in waiting at the door. He spoke to no one. WHERE MR. GOULD DIED. Mr. Gould died in the same bedroom where his wife died. It is in the rear of his house at No. 579 Fifth Ave- nue, and fronts on Forty-seventh Street. - A bulletin given out at 7 o'clock on Thursday was the first on record in which the family have ever ad- mitted that there was anything serious about Mr. Gould's condition. Even his old associate, Russell Sage, last night said that he did not believe Mr. Gould was in any danger, but that his illness was but a recurrence of the old bil- ious attacks. Nobody on Wall Street yesterday thought otherwise, as all the bulletins given out at the house were of the most favorable character. But on Thursday night the change came. It was said that Mr. Gould had had several hemor- 8 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. } rhages since yesterday morning, but this could not be authenticated by the statement of the doctor. A tall, fine looking old gentleman, who said he was a friend of Mr. Gould, called at 8.30 o'clock. He said that the intimate friends of Mr. Gould knew for some time what was the real trouble with Mr. Gould. THE LAST MINUTES. Just after 9 o'clock the Gould house took a sudden change. The curtains were drawn throughout the entire house. Then the heavy oak doors next to the hand- some glass door of the vestibule were shut tight. From all that could be seen there was no one in the place. The house looked as if it was deserted. At about this time Mr. Richard A. Gallaway, formerly Vice-President of the Manhattan Elevated, came to the house. He was at once admitted. He remained but a few minutes. When he was asked what was Mr. Gould's condition, he simply said, with a wave of his hand, "Ask those in the house.' 66 Is No information was yet forthcoming. Brokers and business men on their way to business crossed the street and asked the newspaper men how Mr. Gould was. he dead ?" each would query. "This is the first time I've seen the house closed up in this way." No definite information could be obtained. Ten minutes later a young man entered the house with a small hand-satchel. He was questioned, but declined to speak. It was then for the first time that it was learned that Mr. Gould had passed away. " THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 9 "He is dead,” the man at the door said, in response to an inquiry. "What time did he pass away ?" “Mr. Gould is dead, and that is all I can tell you now," was the only response, and the heavy oaken doors were closed. A handsome young woman called at 9:30 and only remained a couple of minutes. She refused to say anything or tell who she was. A coachman brought a couple of messages from Russell Sage. THE FAMILY PROSTRATED. The Gould family are prostrated with grief. Miss Helen Gould was ill when her father was taken sick, and the blow has come upon her with terrible force. The members of the family are very much devoted to each other. Mr. Gould had always been very much of a domestic man, notwithstanding his enormous weight of cares from his gigantic financial operations, and the death of the father so shortly after the demise of the mother has come with an added force of affliction. Shortly after 10 o'clock Collis P. Huntington drove. up to the house in his carriage. He mounted the step and was admitted. He remained there but a few minutes, and when he came out said he was very much surprised to learn that Mr. Gould had died. Mr. Huntington said he saw no member of the family. 10 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. He said he did not think Mr. Gould's death would have much effect on the stock market. One of those in the house gave this description of the end: "Mr. Gould passed away in a room in the extnesion directly at the rear of the house. As the end drew near the family, which had spent the night at the house, gathered around the bedside in the darkened room. "The end came peacefully. Mr. Gould closed his eyes. to sleep. Without a tremor or a movement he died.". Dr. Munn, who was watching the dying man closely, told the family that he had breathed his last. The exact nature of the disease which carried Mr. Gould away could not be learned. A note was sent in to Dr. Munn, asking for the information, but he re- turned it, saying there was no answer, Immediately after the death messengers were de- spatched to the more distant relatives of the family who had not been at the bedside at the end. DR. PAXTON AT THE HOUSE. At 11 o'clock Rev. Dr. Paxton went around to Mr. Gould's house. He said that he had not been there before since yesterday morning. He said that Mr. Gould's death was no surprise to him. When asked what the direct cause of death was he said he did not know. He said the family were very anxious to keep the matter as quiet as possible, and that he could not say anything unless he was authorized to do so by a member of the family. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 11 A COLD THE DIRECT CAUSE. Mr. Gould's last illness dates from two weeks ago to- day. He took a drive on that day through Central Park with Dr. Munn and caught a bad cold. The cold settled on his lungs, and since that time he has not left his house. Mr. Gould was always of a very frail constitution, and was never able to take much nourishment, even when in his best condition and the cold which he caught in the drive through the Park overcame him. It is said that Mr. Gould never recovered from the shock of the death of his wife. He has not been the same man since her taking off, and it is said has contin- ually grieved over her death. Among the callers at the Gould house after the death were A. G. Agnew, of No. 23 West Thirty-ninth Street, a close friend of Mr. Gould's. Shortly after Mr. Gould's death a messenger was de- spatched to the Berkeley School on West Fifty-fourth Street, with a note to Professor Syms, saying that Frank Gould, a relative of the family, who is fifteen years old, and attends that school, must be excused from attend- ance. ABOUT THE GOULD HOUSE. Fifth Avenue, in front of the Gould house, presented an unusual appearance this morning after the announce- ment of Mr. Gould's death. Crowds of persons stood 12 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. around on the corners and gazed up at the darkened windows. Many persons when they learned of Mr. Gould's death could not conceal their surprise. It had come so unex- pectedly, and but few knew that his illness was of a serious nature. The undertaker's wagon, which stood before the house, was an object of much curiosity. 譬 ​1 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 13 522 Truse Km)/ Petal BUCHE Wa 341-4/7 | | द्वारिका FACESITT בן חיון WHERE JAY GOULD WAS BORN. 14 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. THE LIFE OF MR. GOULD. HOW THE LAD WITH THE MOUSE-TRAP BECAME THE MAN OF MILLIONS. JAY GOULD was one of the most remarkable men of the nineteenth century. Born on the 27th of May, 1836, his life covered the most eventful period of our political and commercial history, and during this period Gould was a unique and commanding figure. He was remarkable for the creation of a colossal fortune of $50,000,000 or more; remarkable for the methods he employed to create this wealth, and for the stirring and dramatic events in which his life abounded; remarkable for the extraor- dinary power which for many years he exerted in the world of speculation and business; remarkable for the stirring contrasts of his character, for the purity of his private and for the audacious and unscrupulous daring of his public life; remarkable for the frailty and timid- ity of his physique, and for the courage, breadth and power of his mind. { Other men have risen from poverty to affluence, and the United States contains not a few who have created colossal fortunes in a few bold enterprises by the simple exercise of their shrewdness, foresight and daring; but THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 15 Gould's great wealth was created through a series of in- cidents so extraordinary and so dramatic, and by methods so audacious and unscrupulous, and with results so inju- rious to his country, that his career dazzles the imagi- nation, and in the brilliancy of its success one is apt to forget the means by which that success was attained. He has been in finance and speculation what Napoleon was in war and politics-the most brilliant adventurer the world has ever seen. - Look back upon his wonderful career. As sometimes an assassin is tracked by his footsteps in the snow or by the drops of crimson that have fallen from his fingers, dripping with the life-blood of his victim, so the life of Jay Gould can be traced by the dark, deep stains it has left on the records of his time. We see him leaving his father's farm a penniless but determined lad, clerking in a country store by day and studying mathematics at night. We follow him as he becomes a map-maker and goes forth to survey his own and adjoining counties. We see him, hungry and unable to purchase a meal, kneeling down by the roadside and repeating his sister's prayer. We see him strike his first bargain. We see him win the confidence of Zadoc Pratt, the tanner. We follow him into the forests of Pennsylvania and hear the sound of his axe as he fells the first tree for a great tan- nery. We see him scheming for the control of the prop- erty and finally forcing out of the concern the man who had set him up in the business. We follow him in his partnership with Leupp, the old-fashioned and honora- ble merchant, of New York, and see him again scheming to gain control of the entire business. We see him en- 16 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. tering, even at this early day, into wild speculations that involved his partner and threatened him with ruin. We hear the click of the pistol with which Leupp in his despair shot himself. We see Gould still scheming and endeav- oring to drive a sharp bargain with Leupp's daughters and heirs. We see him leading a gang of ruffians to drive out of the tannery the men who were endeavoring to protect it in the interests of Leupp's daughters. We hear the groans of those who were wounded in the battle. We follow the young adventurer to New York. We see him buy his first railroad on credit and clear a handsome fortune out of the operation. We follow him into Wall Street, where for twenty years he was to reign as a king and master. We see him in Erie, first as a follower of Daniel Drew and afterwards as President. We see him at Albany bribing senators. We see him in New York pur- chasing judges, defying the law, issuing millions of se- curities, not a dollar of which represented legitimate expenditures. We see him plundering the great prop- erty of which he was nominally the trustee. We see him and his companion, James Fisk, Jr., the gambler and defaulter, in a series of wonderful stock operations, cor- nering even their former leader, Daniel Drew, and fight- ing with desperation Commodore Vanderbilt. We see him organizing the greatest and most dastardly financial conspiracy the world has ever seen, laying its foundation in the actual bribery of a member of the President's fam- ily, and in an attempt to involve in the speculation the President himself-America's greatest captain. We hear the awful crash of Black Friday's earthquake, from which Gould, the arch conspirator, saved himself, but in which THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 1 hundreds were involved in ruin and the nation in dis- honor. We see him now driven out of Erie by the indignant stockholders, headed by Gen. Sickles, Gen. Dix and Gen. McClellan. We see him arrested for ap- propriating the property of the company of which he was President, and to save himself we see him make a pretended restitution of the misappropriated millions. We see him cornering Northwestern and raking in the wealth of his recent Wall Street partner. We can see him now fastening his fingers on the great Union Pacific Railroad, which for ten years he controlled. We can see him betraying his trust as trustee for Kansas Pacific mortgages, for which he was obliged years after to plead the statute of limitations in order to save himself from prosecution. We see him securing control of the Pacific Mail, the chief American steamship line. We see him buying for a few million dollars from Commodore Gar- rison the Missouri Pacific, "just as a plaything," but which he afterwards developed into a great railroad sys- tem covering thousands of miles of territory. We see him repeating his old Erie tactics in Wabash, and we can hear the stinging words of an unpurchasable judge as he turns his dummy receivers from power. We see him organizing an opposition against Western Union until, the favorable moments arriving, he secures control of the company, and by a series of extraordinary consol- idations makes himself the head of a telegraph monop- oly with a system covering the United States and crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We hear the crash of another panic. There are moments when we think the great speculator will fall-when, lo! we see him calmly 18 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. exhibiting his millions of securities to his friends. Others fail, among them men who had been his part- ners and agents, but he is safe. We see him living in a palace on the Hudson and ploughing the waters of the river and the ocean with the most splendid yacht ever constructed. We see him at home, the personification. of domestic honor and purity, a faithful husband and a kind father, and we see him abroad, hated, feared and detested. Despite his record, we find the power of his millions and of the great properties he controlled felt in every direction. He is a factor in elections. Candidates seek him for favors. He dictates appointments to high offices. Honorable men who would not repeat his meth- ods sit with him in boards of direction and are identi- fied with some of his enterprises. Nothing that the fertile imagination of Balzac, Dumas or Gaboriau ever conceived equals in dramatic incidents and sensational developments the career of this extraordinary man. It will be observed that there were two Goulds-Gould the man of affairs, and Gould the man of family. In all his domestic relations his life was pure, his nature affec- tionate. No criticism can touch him in his home life. There he was above reproach. Towards the end of his life his dual nature seemed to blend into one. He be- came more conservative in business, more solicitous, ap- parently, of the good-will and good opinion of his fellow- men, more careful to keep within the bounds of strict business morality, less audacious in his methods. For should it be forgotten that however much Gould's pub- lic career may be justly subjected to criticism, much that he did was indirectly for the public benefit? For THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 19 instance, he developed properties that enriched wide. sections of the country. No review of his career would be complete without this acknowledgment. Though Gould loved to envelop his transactions in mystery and was a master of the art of keeping silent, and though during most of his life he was engaged in financial intrigues and occult speculations, yet it will probably surprise most readers to learn that the main facts of his life can be found in the official records of law cases and legislative and congressional investiga- tions. There is enough sworn testimony in existence regarding his transactions to fill several books of the size of "Monte Cristo" with incidents even more dramatic than those found in that famous work of fiction. That this statement of Gould's career is not drawn from irre- sponsible and untrustworthy sources, the writer names most of the authorities from which he has drawn his facts: Report of Committee appointed by Legislature of 1869 to inquire into corruption by officers of Erie Rail- way. Report of Committee appointed by Legislature of 1873 to inquire into the affairs of the Erie Railway. "A Chapter of Erie," by Charles Francis Adams, published in North American Review of July, 1869. Report of the Hepburn Railroad Investigating Com- mittee of 1879. Report of Congressional Committee of 1870, appointed to investigate into the gold conspiracy of 1869. An account of the gold panic of 1869 by Henry Adams.. 20 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Report of the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Education in 1883. "The Railroads and the People," by F. B. Thurber, in Scribner's (Century) Magazine of December, 1880. "A Chapter of Wabash," in North American Review of February, 1888. Report of State Senate Committee of 1882, which inquired into "Corners." Report of the Pacific Railroad Commission of Investi gation of 1887. Report of Congressional Investigation of Strikes in 1886. Records of innumerable law cases in the long litiga- tions of Erie, Wabash, Manhattan, Union Pacific, West- ern Union, and other corporations with which Mr. Gould has been identified. Authorized interviews with Gould which have ap- peared from time to time in the daily press. Newspaper accounts of various transactions in which Mr. Gould has been an actor, especial care being taken to consult only those which bore the stamp of truth and general accuracy. The writer has also drawn to some extent upon his own knowledge of the incidents described, in some of which he has been an impartial but interested observer. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 21 CHAPTER II. HIS EARLY YEARS-HE LEAVES HIS FATHER'S cows AND STARTS OUT FOR HINSELF. MR. GOULD first saw the light of day in Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y. It is significant that almost without exception the men who have achieved the high- est success in the city have been those born and brought up in the country. It would seem as if those nourished in the metropolis have not the reserve force to enable them to stand the heat and excitement of the tremen- dous competition of a New York business career. In 1883 Mr. Gould himself related to the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Education the facts of his early life as follows: CC My father owned a small farm then and kept a dairy of twenty cows. I was the only boy in the family, so I had to attend to the cows in the morning and assist my sisters in milking them. I used to take them out in the morning and go for them at night. I did not like farm- ing in that way, so I went to my father and told him I wanted to go to school. He said I was too young, but finally gave me permission, and I started off and showed myself at school. I had learned to write, and as I wrote - 22 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. a pretty good hand, a storekeeper in the village gave me the job to write up his books at night, and in that way I supported myself through school. "I was about fourteen when I left home, and I spent about a year at this school; then I got into a country store and made myself useful sweeping it out in the morning and learning the business during the day. My duties employed me from six in the morning until ten o'clock at night. In the mean time I had acquired a taste for mathematics and especially for surveying and engineering. I took them up after I left school. I used to get up at three o'clock and study from three until six, when I had to open the store, and I finally got a pretty good idea of that branch and concluded to start out as a surveyor. I heard of a man in Ulster County that was looking for an assistant. He was making a map of that county and I wrote to him. He engaged me at $20 a month. When I left, my father offered me money, but I concluded to burn my ships behind me and I took only enough for my fare. This man started me out to make the surveys, to see where the roads were, and to locate the residences. The map was to be useful as a record, and when I started he said to me: CC C Now, while you go along you get trusted for your beds, what you eat, etc., and I will come afterwards and pay them." "I think two or three days out I had to stay over- night at a place where they charged a shilling for sup- per, a shilling for lodging, and sixpence for breakfast. I explained the arrangement for payment, and took my book out to enter the amount of the bill, but the man THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 23 . + who kept the house declared with an oath that he would not have anything of the kind. < "You don't know this man,' said he. He has failed three times. You have got the money, I know you have, and I want my bill.' "I had not a cent, and I pulled my pockets out to show him that I had not, and I said: 1 You must trust me.' He answered: "Well, I will trust you, but I won't trust him.' "This had such an effect upon me," said Mr. Gould, 'that it seemed to me as if the world had come to an end that day. I did not know where I was to get a dinner, and I did not try till long after three o'clock, after this rebuff. I was naturally a timid boy and it had a great effect upon me. I then debated about throwing up the whole engagement, but I went out and had a good cry where nobody could see me. Then I got down and prayed and I felt better afterwards. So I made up my mind to go ahead-made up my mind to die in the last ditch. I was hungry and I decided to go into the first house I came to and get something to eat, and I did so. The woman treated me kindly, gave me some bread and milk, and when I went away I told her to enter it down. In the mean time her husband came in,.and I had got about four rods away from the house. when I heard him hallooing after me. With the morn- ing's scare in my mind I thought that he was going to finish me [laughter], but he said: 'I want you to come back and make me a noon mark.' I don't know whether you know what that is." = 2 24 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. "Yes, I know," said Senator Blair, "but explain to these gentlemen what it is." "It is a line north and south," said Mr. Gould, "by which the farmers can regulate their clocks, the sun being due south at noon. I went back with my compass and made him a noon mark, and when I got through he asked me what was to pay. I said, 'Nothing.' Oh, yes,' said he. I want to pay you; our sur- veyor always charges $1.' CC C "The food I had eaten was one shilling and he had paid me seven shillings, the balance of the dollar. This gave me an idea, and from this time I went on and paid my expenses making noon marks for the farmers. When I had finished my survey the man who employed me failed and could not pay me, but there were two other journeymen he had employed to make the surveys and I proposed to them to go on and finish the map. They decided to do so, but they wanted their names to it alone. I said: 'Very well, I will sell out to you,' and I sold out my interest in the map for $500. "This was the first money I ever earned. I went on and helped them finish the map, so that I sold out my interest in the perfected map. Then I went forward with this little capital and made similar surveys of Albany and Delaware Counties, and made up my mind to go alone. They yielded me very well and I soou accumulated $5,000." Gould's father was John B. Gould, the first male child born in Delaware County, which was then a wilderness. He married three times. His first wife, the mother of Jay, died in 1841. The elder Gould died in 1866, and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 25 some years ago their distinguished son erected over their graves a handsome monument in the village ceme- tery. The elder Gould had a farm of about 150 acres, and was esteemed by his neighbors as a worthy citizen. The house in which Jay was born and spent his boy- hood is described as "a two-story, box-like frame build- ing covered with a coating of white paint." In July, 1880, Jay Gould revisited his birthplace and also Hobart, لا 순간 ​1 MALTATEMA. Kamen (?) WWW JvzP }) 10714 ATTA WHERE JAY FIRST WENT TO SCHOOL, eleven miles distant, where he went to school. He used to walk the entire distance to school every Monday morning, returning Saturdays. He was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants at the time of his visit as the most noted man ever born in that region. Innumerable anecdotes are related of Jay's early life. All the world has heard the mouse-trap story. It was in 1853, when the World's Exhibition was held in this city, that young Gould, then about seventeen years old, is said to have made his first visit to the metropolis, in which he was to become such a power. He carried with 26 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. him a showy mahogany case, containing an invention which the boy hoped would bring him fame and for- tune. The invention was a mouse-trap. He entered a horse-car, and leaving his invention on the seat, stepped outside and stood on the platform, where he could view the glories of the great city. The box was picked up by a thief, but not without the observation of young Gould, who pursued the thief and captured him, his exploit being related next day in the Herald, this being the first newspaper reference to Gould, whose renown has since filled columns of the daily press for years. The mouse-trap was a success, but its inventor has laid traps and caught speculative mice all his life. That Gould's great fortune was not the result of a streak of luck, but of strict attention to business and hard work, is clearly proved in all the events of his life. His plans were the result of careful thought, and they were carried out by hard work. The man in whose family young Gould worked for his board when going to school thus speaks of his conduct at that early date: "He was an excellent boy. His habits were good and he devoted most of his evenings to study. He was al- ways the first one up in the morning and he had the fire. burning and the tea-kettle boiling by the time my wife was ready to prepare breakfast." It was while working in the store shortly after this that young Gould seems to have given the first exhibi- tion of his shrewdness. The merchant also did a real estate business. Gould, by virtue of his position, learned the particulars of a bargain which his employer desired to make for a piece of land which was in the market f THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD.. 27 for sale. The price asked, so the story goes, was $2,500. Gould's employer offered $2,000, and while the negotia- tions were in progress Jay borrowed $2,500 from his father, and outbidding his employer quietly scooped in the property in the name of his father, who afterwards sold it at a considerable profit. This caused a separa- tion between the merchant and his clerk and broke up a little romance which is said to have existed between the young speculator and a young female member of his employer's family. The map-making episode has been pretty fully related by Mr. Gould in his testimony before the Senate Com- mittee, but there are a few additional particulars of in- terest related by Oliver J. Tillson, one of his partners in the map-making enterprise, after the failure of the man who had first employed him in the business. Mr. Tillson confirms Mr. Gould's account and tells of the bargain in which the latter sold out to his partners. Here is a copy of the receipt given by Gould on that occasion. DECEMBER 27, 1852. Received of Oliver J. Tillson and Peter H. Brink ninety dollars and wheel in full of all debts and de- nrands and dues against them and the Ulster County map. JASON GOUld, for JOHN B. GOULD. It will be observed that he signed his name "Jason," not Jay. He was christened " Jason," but about this time began to change it to Jay, by which he was ever after known. "There wasn't any foolishness in Jason's books," says Mr. Tillson, referring to the books 28 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. in which Gould had made his notes of the surveys. "He was all business in those days, as he is now. Why, even at meal times he was always talking map. He was a worker, and my father used to say: 'Look at Gould; isn't he a driver ?'" This, in fact, is the testimony of all his contempor- aries. From his earlier years he was absorbed in schemes for making money, and his whole aim in life was to "get on." With every passing year his ambition broad- ened, until it enveloped a continent. It is a striking coincidence that young Gould and his two partners in the map business were sued by the man who first employed the former in the project, and they placed their case in the hands of Lawyer T. R. West- brook, who succeeded in having the suit dismissed. Westbrook afterward became (and this is the coinci- dence) the Supreme Court Judge, who years after scan- dalized the legal profession by holding court in Jay Gould's private office and issuing an order in one of the Manhattan Railway litigations. F { 1 1 } THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAŸ GOULD. CHAPTER III. HE BECOMES A TANNER. 29 FROM this time on Gould's career is intensely dram- atic, and one of the most interesting chapters is that relating to his experience as a tanner. While surveying in the interior of the State he became acquainted with Zadoc Pratt. He relates the incident himself, and the events which followed it, to the Senate Committee as follows: "At that time, while I was carrying on these surveys, I met a gentleman who seemed to take a fancy to me- one Zadoc Pratt, of Prattville, who owned one of the largest tanneries in the country. I had done some sur- veying for him. He had a beautiful place at Prattville, and he proposed to me to go into the tannery business with him. I consented, and on the next day started for Pennsylvania. I found that the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad had just been completed and had some large tracts of hemlock timber for sale. I told Mr. Pratt what I had found, and he sent me back to purchase this tract. I made all the contracts myself and, returning, got from fifty to sixty men and with them started the works. It was right out in the woods : : 30 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. and I cut down the first tree. We got up a sawmill and put up a blacksmith's shop, and I slept in that on a bed made of hemlock bark. So we went on and it became the largest tannery in the country. I finally bought Pratt out and afterwards sold it in New York to a firm at the head of which was a Mr. Leupp. About that time the panic of 1857 came, and of course everything was very much disturbed-confidence was gone in al- most every kind of business, and money was almost impossible to get. I thought once or twice that we would fail, but we went through. Mr. Leupp afterward committed suicide. That left the property in such a condition that litigation grew out of it." It is to be regretted that Mr. Gould was not so full and explicit in his account of this part of his career as he was in his statement of his earlier years. Zadoc Pratt was a famous man in his days-a man of ability, push and ambition. He was not only the biggest tanner in the country, but he also was a power in the politics of the State. He served ten years in Congress, and at least one of his speeches attracted widespread attention. He was one of the earliest advocates of cheap postage, and he moved the establishment of the Bureau of Statistics, which has since developed into the Department of the Interior. He also moved the first survey of the Pacific Railroad line. When he ceased his Prattville tannery in 1845 he estimated that in twenty years he had used 150,000 cords of bark and wood, had employed 30,000 men, had cleared 12,000 acres of land and tanned over one million sides of sole-leather. He was, however, nearly seventy years old when he interested himself in 1 ! 31 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULd. Gould. The latter was fortunate in obtaining the con- fidence of this man. The history of his association with Pratt, and later with Leupp, is not contained in legis- lative and law reports, as are other portions of Gould's career, but there are several very circumstantial accounts extant based on the testimony of eye-witnesses, some of whom may still be living. Pratt was doubtless taken with young Gould's snap and energy, and considered him just the kind of material to use in pushing a new enterprise. Pratt furnished all the capital and Gould conducted the active operations. The capital of the firm was $120,000, and the tannery at Gouldsboro, Pa.-for the place was named after Gould-became the biggest concern of its kind in the country. Gould threw the whole energy of his being into the enterprise. As he has related, he cut with his own hand the first tree. He carried a portable sawmill with him into the woods, and in a day or two a black- smith's shop was erected. Gould slept and ate in that shop until the tannery was completed. Pratt made occasional visits to Gouldsboro, but the business was left ractically in Gould's hands, and it grew rapidly. But fter awhile Mr. Pratt became dissatisfied with the con- dition of affairs. Apparently a rushing business was being done, from which there was no adequate return. The books seemed to be so mixed that it was quite im- possible to ascertain just how the firm stood. Gould soon saw that his partner was becoming suspicious and determined to be ready for him. On the growth of the business Gould Fad ur-e, occasion to frequently e acquainted with most visit New York, y - 32 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. of the merchants in the "Swamp," then, as now, the centre of the leather trade. Among others, he became acquainted with Charles M. Leupp, a merchant of the ¡ old school, honorable and correct in all his dealings. He was a man of great refinement and of poetic tempera- ment, and possessed many literary and artistic tastes. He was a man of wealth and owned a fine mansion the corner of Madison Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street. This mansion is still standing, but has been altered into an apartment-house. In Mr. Leupp's time it was probably the handsomest and best-constructed private dwelling in the city, and cost about $150,000. It was an evil day for Mr. Leupp when Gould came to him and proposed that he advance the money to pur chase Mr. Pratt's interest in the tannery. That was the beginning of Mr. Leupp's troubles, but at that time he considered the proposition an advantageous one and he consented to advance the cash. Gould never seems to have had at any period in his career any difficulty in interesting the wealthiest and most powerful men in his schemes. He has himself said that it is just as easy to obtain the acquaintance and secure the friendship of the most powerful as of the most insignificant, if only one will set about it in the right way. Well, Gould returned to Gouldsboro with Leupp's backing. He found Pratt looking over the books and puzzled by their intricacies. He discovered that Gould had started a private bank at Stroudsburg in his own name, and he became suspicious that the firm's funds. were used in the bank. Pratt then demanded an ex- planation and finally threatened to close up the tan- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 33 nery and dissolve the partnership. Gould protested that this would ruin him, when Pratt said that he must buy or sell. This was what Gould was waiting for, and he offered Pratt $60,000 for his interest in the business. Pratt accepted the offer and Gould drew on Leupp for the money. This made Gould a partner of Leupp with full powers. He continued with Leupp the policy he had begun with Pratt. He branched out in many speculations in Leupp's name, but without his knowl- edge. It is said that he bought another tannery, at- tempted to get up a "corner" in hides, and in other ways entered into many hazardous enterprises. He con- tinued to draw on Leupp for money and to display his incapacity as a bookkeeper until Leupp became sus- picious, just as Pratt had. Meanwhile the panic of 1857 had swept over the country and unsettled all busi- ness operations, and when Leupp discovered the extent in which he had been involved in Gould's speculations he thought that he was ruined. He went to his mag- nificent home one night and, in a fit of despondency, shot himself dead. It is not certain but that Gould's schemes would have turned out all right, and to Leupp's, as well as to Gould's advantage, but it is a fact that Leupp's partners and heirs have always felt very bitter against Gould, and could not help believing that he was indirectly the cause of Leupp's sad and untimely end. It is related that in the excitement and passion of Black Friday when a mob serged through Wall Street, a voice was heard above the tumult shouting the awful. question: "Who killed Leupp ?" 34. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. } And the answer is said to have come from a hundred throats: 66 Jay Gould!" Mr. Gould then negotiated with Leupp's daughters for the control of the tannery. It is stated that they demanded $60,000, the amount Leupp had originally advanced. Gould agreed to this, but proposed a plan by which the payments should extend over a term of years-$10,000 cash and a like amount every year until the entire indebtedness had been liquidated. When the papers were drawn up it was found Gould had made no provision for paying interest. Negotiations were broken off, and Mr. Lee, a relative and former partner of Leupp, hastened to Gouldsboro and took possession of the tannery in the name of Leupp's heirs, taking the precaution to hire a lot of men to help him barricade and guard it. Gould arrived a day or two later and determined to capture the tannery at all hazards. Gouldsboro was a village of about three hundred in- habitants, situated some distance from the railway sta- tion, and besides the tannery the most important build- ing was a hotel. Mr. Lee, who, like Mr. Leupp, is de- scribed as an honorable, warm-hearted man, but with more courage and grit, had the tannery guarded by about thirty or forty men whom he had hired at Scran- ton. Gould, as soon as he arrived, began active opera- tions. He interested nearly the entire population of the place in his behalf. They knew him, and Lee was a comparative stranger. Gould told every one he met. that he owned the tannery, that Lee and his cut-throats were endeavoring to get the property away from him, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 35 and that if they succeeded the business would go to wreck and ruin, and the place would suffer a big loss. He had soon an armed gang of about 150 men around him prepared to fight for him. They were a tough- looking set of men. He took them to the hotel, where he gave them an oyster supper, and then mounting an empty box addressed his forces, telling them to use no unnecessary violence, but to "be sure and get the tan- nery." This was probably the first and only speech Gould ever made in all his life. Filled with oysters and whiskey, the men made a determined charge on the tan- nery, Gould directing everything, but prudently keep- ing in the background, for he heard that Lee had a loaded musket ready for him. The battle was fierce but short. The barricaded doors were battered in and Lee's men were driven from the tannery. Two men were badly wounded. One of Lee's party was shot through the breast. Warrants were issued for the ar- rest of all concerned. Many of the men fled from the place, never to return. Those arrested were afterwards released on bail. Gould was left in possession of the property, but it did him little good. Lee began legal proceedings against him, and Gould brought counter- suits, and this litigation was continued until the busi- ness was destroyed and the tannery abandoned. Gould's ready resources were so exhausted that it is related that he had to borrow the money to pay his railroad fare to New York. It is probable that no man in this or any other country has ever been a party to so many law suits as Gould. From the time of the contest over the map business there was scarcely a day during his whole 38 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. life that he did not have some litigation on his hands. This ends the early chapters of Gould's life. He now entered upon that career in the metropolis which has made his name familiar around the globe. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 37 CHAPTER IV. HE ARRIVES IN NEW YORK. On his visits to New York Mr. Gould used to put up at the Everett House, and here about this time he met the lady who shortly became his wife, as will hereafter be related. The impression is that after the tannery episode Mr. Gould was pretty thoroughly impoverished. However that may be, his marriage put him on his feet again, for his father-in-law was a wealthy merchant, and though it is said that he opposed his daughter's mar- riage with the hero of Gouldsboro, yet he soon became reconciled and evidently aided Mr. Gould in the opera- tions into which he then entered. At this time he bought his first railroad, and Mr. Gould's own account of the transaction, given in his extraordinary narrative to the Senate Committee, from which extracts have already been given, will be interesting: "About that time," he said, "the panic of 1857 came on and everything was very much disturbed. Railroad values after this time went down very low and the first mortgage bonds of the Rutland and Washington Rail- road were selling at 10 cents on the dollar. I bought all the bonds at that price, borrowing the money to pay 38 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. : for them. I took the entire charge of this road and learned the business, as I may say. I was President, Secretary, Treasurer and Superintendent, had sole con- trol, and I formed what was known as the Saratoga consolidation. The first road was sixty-two miles long. `I had gradually drawn the road up and I kept at work until finally we made the present Rensselaer and Sara- toga consolidation. Meantime the bonds became good and my stock also. "A friend of mine came to me one night and said that the next day he must fail. He had bought Cleve- land & Pittsburg, but could not pay for it. He bought it at 60 and it was down to about 40. I told him, 'I will take half of what you have at that figure.' He agreed to this, and that was the way I became the owner of the Cleveland & Pittsburg. As soon as it was found that there was some one there who could take care of it the stock went up to 120. I took the road and it was very successful. It paid dividends from the start, and finally I sold it out to the Pennsylvania road." His profits from the Rutland Railroad speculation were very large, and Gould was now fairly on his way to his colossal fortune. At this time his attention was turned to Wall Street, and, though friends warned him against entering into the whirlpool of blasted hopes and ruined fortunes, his inclinations in that direction were too strong to be resisted. Gould was a born speculator. It is true that his great fortune was created mainly in hazardous enterprises outside of Wall Street, and that in stock speculations pure and simple he was not always so successful or so infallible as many have supposed, but SIM ! 39 by nature and habit Gould was at this time of his life a commercial gambler, and it was as natural that he should enter Wall Street as for a duck to take to water. It was in 1859 or 1860 that Gould first entered Wall THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. JAY GOULD AT 38. Street. It was not very long before he stepped to the front rank. What a long list of brainy and courageous men do Gould's contemporaries in the Street make! With most of them Gould has been at sword's point, with a few he has been an ally, with some he has been { ** C THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. LIFE 40 both ally and enemy. Most of them are no longer powers in the speculative world. Some of them are dead. Not a few have been overwhelmed in the swift, resistless torrent of stock speculation. Three or four yet remain with power in their hands and millions in their vaults. The Vanderbilts-the Commodore, hist son and grandsons-Daniel Drew, James Fisk, Jr., the Beldens, Commodore Garrison, Henry N. Smith, James R. Keene, William Heath, George I. Seney, Gen. Thomas, Calvin S. Brice, D. O. Mills, Horace F. Clark, Alfred Sully, Addison Cammack, C. F. Woerishoffer, the Rockefellers, S. M. Kneeland, C. J. Osborn, D. P. Morgan, H. S. Ives, C. P. Huntington, Russell Sage, Cyrus W. Field, John W. Garrett, Robert Garrett, J. P. Morgan, the Seligmans, Brown Bros., Jay Cooke, Hugh J. Jewett, Lathrop Little and Austin Corbin, Henry Clews, Washington E. Conner, Burnham, Gen. E. F. Winslow, Edward S. Stokes, S. V. White, Wm. Dowd, Solon Humphreys, Wm. R. Travers, Rufus Hatch, Samuel Sloan-these were some of the men identified with various Wall Street interests with whom Gould has been allied or at enmity, or both, during his long career in the Street. That he has been able among all these financial giants to make himself the leader is the highest evidence that can be given of his genius in speculation and railroad financiering. As we read some of these names there arises before our eyes the visions of murder, of suicide, of bankruptcy, of the debtor's prison, of the felon's cell, of ruined fortunes and blasted reputations. Others of the men have achieved wealth and honorable names. It is interesting THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 41 to note that at the time Gould first entered the Street one of his fellow-boarders at the Everett House was James Gordon Bennett, the elder, with whose son and successor he became engaged in such bitter business and personal antagonisms. Gould not only gambled in Wall Street, but he de- fended the operation. "People," he told a State Senate Committee which was investigating into stock and grain corners, "will deal in chance. Your minister, doctor and barber all have the same interest in speculation. Would you not, if you stopped it, promote gambling ?” 42 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD, } : CHAPTER V. GOULD AND ERIE. THE blackest pages in the history of American rail- ways comprise the chapter relating to Erie. Nothing in the Crédit Mobilier and the history of the rise of the Pacific railroads equals in downright violation of sacred trusts, in absolute plunder of vast properties and in wholesale bribery and corruption the record of Erie. Even Mr. Gould, in his sworn autobiography before the Committee on Labor and Education, while careful to give minute details about other periods of his history, significantly preserved an entire silence as to Erie and Black Friday, two incidents in his career which even a eulogist like J. S. C. Abbott was of Napoleon could only. pass over in silence. That this is no exaggeration of lan- guage an examination of the facts will show. There is no intention to speak maliciously of Gould. Beside an open grave charity and forgetfulness stand guard on either side. But the lesson of Gould's career would be lost if even at this time the facts were not plainly and openly told. To say that Gould ruthlessly plundered the Erie Railway is to speak the plain truth. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 43 Fortunately the record of Erie, notwithstanding Mr. Gould s silence, can be told from authoritative testi- mony. In his famous " Chapter of Erie," published in the North American Review in 1869, Charles Francis Adams gave a thrilling account of Erie from the time Daniel Drew engaged in his famous war with Commo- dore Vanderbilt to the time when the unfortunate road was in complete control of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. Mr. Adams's history stopped short in the middle of the story, but the record of Erie from 1869 till Mr. Gould was driven from power in 1872 is given in the reports of the Legislative inquiry in 1873 and of the Hepburn investigation of 1879. It is a curious fact that years after writing this "chapter" Mr. Adams, having become President of the Union Pacific, sat in the same Board of Directors with Gould, but only for a comparatively brief period, and Mr. Adams never repudiated or recalled his early history of Gould in Erie. It is a striking illustration, however, of the power of millions that Gould should live to sit in the same board with the representative of the aristocratic Adams family, which furnished two Presidents to the United States; that after involving the administration of President Grant in the disgrace of Black Friday, he should in after years be joined with him in business enterprises: that after having been publicly branded as an unscrupulous gambler in a con- gressional report written by James A. Garfield, he should be sought for to render aid to secure Garfield's election as President, and that, though not seeking to join the social circles in which the Astors are leaders, he V 1 1 44 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. was able to induce John Jacob Astor to sit with him in the Western Union Board of Directors. Twenty years ago, after Mr. Adams wrote his "Chap- ter of Erie," he was himself President of the Union Pacific, and it must have given Mr. Gould the keenest satisfaction to have been the occasion of his retirement from that position. The railway was in a bad way financially-had a big floating debt-and Mr. Gould and his friends stepped in, gained control of the prop- erty the second time, retired Mr. Adams from the presi- dency, and secured an adjustment of the floating debt. It was suggested to Mr. Gould at this time that he might write a " Chapter of Union Pacific" covering the history of the Adams administration. But whatever there may have been lacking in administrative vigor in Mr. Adams's presidency, he retired without any blot on the family escutcheon. When Gould entered Wall Street Erie was one of the most active stocks on the list of the Stock Exchange. It was natural that he should drift into its speculation, and his connection with the Cleveland & Pittsburg led him naturally into Erie. His old acquaintances were surprised to hear one day that he had become a director and a controlling spirit of this great road. This was in 1867. But now let us quote a little plain language from Charles Francis Adams in order to get into the atmos- phere of Erie at this time: "Yet freebooters are not extinct," he wrote. "They have only transferred their operations to the land, and have conducted them in more or less accordance with the THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 45 forms of law, until at last so great a proficiency have they attained that the commerce of the world is more equally but far more heavily taxed in their behalf than would ever have entered into their wildest hopes, while out- side the law they simply make all comers stand and de- liver. ... Gambling is a business now, where for- merly it was a disreputable excitement. Cheating at cards was always disgraceful. Transactions of a similar character under the euphemistic names of operating,' 'cornering' and the like are not so regarded. . . No better illustration of the fantastic disguises which the worst and most familiar evils of history assume as they meet us in the actual movement of our own day could be afforded than was seen in the events attending what are known as the Erie wars of the year 1868." 6 In these wars Gould was an active spirit, and if Mr. Adams had written in 1873 instead of 1869 he would have made his language still stronger. Before his entrance into Erie Gould had become acquainted with James Fisk, Jr., and the former, with that unerring judgment of men which was always one of the elements of his success, soon perceived in Fisk the qualities which supplied his own deficiencies. Fisk was the son of a Vermont pedler, and followed the calling himself for some time, and in it learned the great art of driving a hard and shrewd bargain. Wholly uneducated, his natural ability in the line of making money was very great. Gould was timid and shrank from publicity; Fisk was bold and loved notoriety. Gould had many refinements of mind and was of a domestic nature; Fisk was coarse, sensual and fond of 46 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. I display. He became the colonel of a militia regi- ment, and with great delight used to put on his uniform and ride in the front of his command. He used to create a sensation by riding in a carriage with six horses in questionable female company. He considered it one of the choicest prerogatives of his position of Vice-Presi- dent and Comptroller of Erie to direct the theatre that adjoined the railway offices in the Grand Opera-House. While Gould did not have the inclination or courage to do these things, he did not hesitate to use Fisk in every available way and to hide his own personality behind that of his partner. In those days Fisk seemed to play the more prominent part, and Gould, in public estima- tion, was a secondary character. When anything was done it was Fisk that bore the brunt of popular criticism and indignation. Yet the facts as they are now known show that Gould's was the master-mind; Fisk was simply his right arm. "With Gould to plan and Fisk to act," said Gen. Francis Barlow, in 1872, "they were a strong team." At the time Gould and Fisk entered into Erie Daniel Drew was the master of that great trunk-line. Drew was one of the most extraordinary characters in Wall Street history. Both pious and unscrupulous, he founded a theological seminary and wrecked a railroad with equal fervor. He was a director and Treasurer of Erie, and used these positions simply for speculative purposes. He was known in his day as "the great speculative director." His biggest piece of "financiering" was to get himself apparently cornered in Erie stock, and then to appear in the Street with a block of stock which had THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 47 } been converted from bonds issued with an obscure provision entitling the holders to convert them into stock. Gould later on repeated this trick with success, both in Erie and Jersey Central. Soon after Gould and Fisk entered Erie Drew became engaged in his celebrated contest with Commodore Van- derbilt, and in this contest he had their able assistance. The first and great Vanderbilt was cast in a larger mould than Drew. The latter was simply a speculator, Vanderbilt was a creator of property. He was the first of the line of railroad kings. Laying the foundations of his great wealth in the steamboat and steamship business, he soon drifted into railroad operations, clearly seeing that in the development of the great inland com- merce of America there were larger and quicker profits to be obtained than in the export trade. Vanderbilt had obtained control of the Harlem and Hudson River roads; he now aimed at the ownership of Erie. Space will not permit the telling of the story of this famous contest. It can be found in detail in Mr. Adams's interesting chapter. It is a story of extraordinary stock operations; of millions lost and won; of securities issued by the bushel and with little or no regard for law or equity; of large and intricate litigation; of judges bought, legislators bribed; of directors defying injunc- tions and fleeing to another State to escape arrest. Van- derbilt, having been defeated in other efforts to get his fingers on the Erie road, resolved if possible to buy a controlling interest, and his brokers were set at work on this difficult job. Drew resolved to let Vanderbilt have as much stock as he wanted, but entered into a bargain 48 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. with Gould and Fisk by which the railroad king should be defeated by issuing and marketing an unlimited num- ber of new securities. So Drew sold and Vanderbilt bought. The latter, having in remembrance Drew's famous convertible-stock trick, resorted to the courts to prevent him from issuing any more stock. Injunctions were issued enjoining Drew and all the directors of the road from issuing any stock. Counter-injunctions were obtained by the Drew-Gould party. One judge would issue an order commanding certain things to be done which another judge simultaneously commanded should not be done. Judges in New York, Brooklyn, Albany and Binghamton issued contradictory injunctions. Such a legal pandemonium has never been seen before or since. The courts ran riot, and law became another name for plunder. In this scene-the blackest in the history of American jurisprudence-the notorious Judge Barnard loomed up conspicuously, and a little later Judge Car- doza, shrewd, learned, crafty and venal-the modern Lord Bacon-appeared on the scene. At first Barnard was Vanderbilt's judge. Later, when Vanderbilt had no further use for him, he became Gould's judge. His other master was Tweed. In the meantime, regardless of injunctions, Drew and his aides calmly proceeded to carry out their carefully matured plans to issue new stock. It was agreed that fifty thousand shares of new stock should be delivered to the Wall Street firms of which Gould and Fisk were members. Without going into the details of the intrigue it is sufficient to say that it was, at least for the time being, successful. When the fifty thousand shares were f ļ 1 : THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ** '. 1 こ ​JAY GOULD'S HOUSE AT IRVINGTON. 2 49 **** 1*\**) * ! ! : ! 50 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. thrown on the market the price of Erie fell from 83 to 71. Vanderbilt found that he had bought at high figures a lot of Erie stock, but that he was no nearer control than ever. Drew raked in about $7,000,000 of Vanderbilt's money, and Gould and Fisk shared in the profits. Then orders were issued to arrest the Drew directors for con- tempt of court. Receiving intelligence of this, they hastily packed up their papers and securities, and, thrusting them into their pockets and valises, they beat a hasty retreat to Jersey City. Over $6,000,000 in secu- rities were carried in one coach. Among this precious company, of course, were Gould and Fisk. In Jersey they were safe from the operation of New York law. They calmly proceeded to have the Erie incorporated as a New Jersey institution, at the same time laboring to get the New York Legislature to pass a bill to legalize the issue of fifty thousand shares of stock, a transaction which some one at that time likened to an attempt "to legalize counterfeit money." It was not conscientious scruples which caused the Legislature to hesitate to pass this bill. It was simply a question of cash. Vanderbilt was still in the fight to protect his interests, and it was a question of who had the biggest purse. Meanwhile Peter B. Sweeny-the brains of the Tweed ring-had been made, temporarily, receiver of the road, and though he never actually did anything in that position, Judge Barnard ordered that he be paid $150,000 for his ser- vices. Poor Erie had to foot the bill. It was necessary that the Drew party should have a trusty representative at Albany to look after Erie legis- lation there, and Gould was selected as the fittest man THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 51 to act in this capacity. Gould now appears on the scene as a lobbyist. First giving out that he is going to Ohio, Gould quietly slips up to Albany with $500,000 of Erie cash in his pockets. Here in a day or two he was ar- rested but released on $500,000 bail to appear in a New York court on Saturday. He appeared on that day, but his attorneys secured a postponement, and he was allowed to return to Albany in charge of an under-sheriff. Arriving in Albany Mr. Gould was conveniently taken sick, and unable to return to New York to attend the court proceedings, though he drove to the Capitol in a snow-storm. The officer reported him to court as a "runaway," but the matter was afterwards settled, and, in the language of Mr. Adams, he "assiduously culti- vated a thorough understanding between himself and the Legislature." In this he was materially aided by the cash with which his pockets were so liberally filled. Corruption ran high. One senator was recorded to have. accepted $75,000 from one side and $100,000 from the other. One man was paid $5,000 by Gould “just,” as Mr. Gould remarked, "to smooth him over." The cor- ruption at this session was investigated by a legislative committee in 1869. Gould was a witness, but he en- deavored to conceal the facts as much as possible. In the famous Erie investigation of 1873, however, Mr. Gould testified as follows: - "I was first elected President of the Erie Railroad in 1868, and I was President in 1869, 1870 and 1871. I do not remember whether I approved payment to Willam M. Tweed of money for legal services while he was senator. I do not know whether he is a lawyer. 52 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. He was a director of Erie and a member of its Execu- tive Committee. I would not have allowed pecuniary transactions with Mr. Tweed to be put in the shape of legal services if my attention had been called to them. The name of William M. Tweed is in my handwriting. The words in my handwriting are: William M. Tweed, legal disbursements as per order J. G., $35,000, April 25, 1871.' The approval of voucher, April 5, 1869. He was senator in 1869, also in 1871 and 1872. The 'legal account' was of an india-rubber character. I gave large amounts in 1869, 1870, 1871 and 1872 in the senatorial and assembly districts. It was what they said would be necessary to carry the day in addition to the amount forwarded by the committee, and con- tributed more or less to all the districts along the line of the road. We had to look after four States-New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It was the custom when men received nominations to come to me for contributions, and I made them and considered them good paying investments for the company. In a Republican district I was a strong Republican; in a Democratic district I was Democratic, and in doubtful districts I was doubtful. In politics I was an Erie rail- road man all the time. We had friends on both sides— friends in a business way. The amounts contributed for the elections were large, but I could not give any definite estimate. No names occur to me at the I moment. I am a poor hand to remember names. had relations in several States. I did not keep separate what I paid out in New Jersey from what I paid out in New York. We had the same ground to go over there, - www THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 53 and there has been so much of it-it has been so exten- sive-that I have no details now to refresh my mind. You might as well go back and ask me how many cars of freight were moved on a particular day." This confession so charmingly frank relates to pay- ments before elections, but there is every reason to believe that the payments were continued after election. The state of things unearthed by this investigation was officially described in the report of the legislative committee as follows: "It is further in evidence that it has been the custom of the managers of the Erie Railway, from year to year in the past, to spend large sums to control elections and to influence legislation. In the year 1868 more than one million ($1,000,000) was disbursed from the treas- ury for extra and legal services.' "Mr. Gould, when last on the stand, and examined in relation to various vouchers shown him, admitted the payment during the three years prior to 1872 of large sums to Barbour, Tweed and others, and to influence legislation or elections; these accounts were charged in the 'india-rubber account' The memory of this wit- ness was very defective as to details, and he could only remember large transactions, but could distinctly recall that he had been in the habit of sending money into the numerous districts all over the State, either to control nominations or elections for senators and members of assembly. Considered that, as a rule, such investments paid better than to wait till the men got to Albany, and added the significant remark, when asked a question, 54 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. that it would be as impossible to specify the numerous instances as it would to recall to mind the numerous freight cars sent over the Erie road from day to day." The report of the committee concludes as follows: "It is not reasonable to suppose that the Erie Railway has been alone in the corrupt use of money for the purposes named; but the sudden revolution in the direction of this company has laid bare a chapter in the secret history of railroad management such as has not been permitted before. It exposes the reckless and prodigal use of money, wrung from the people, to pur- chase the election of the people's representatives and to bribe them when in office. According to Mr. Gould, his operations extended into four different States. It was his custom to contribute money to influence both nominations and elections." Mr. Adams did not have this report before him when he wrote his "chapter." His record closes in 1868, soon after Mr. Gould had been elected President of the road. This had been brought about in the following manner: While Gould was engaged in "fixing" the Legislature, and the courts were filled with Erie suits, the various parties in interest got together and effected a compro- mise. Vanderbilt got rid of the useless stock he had bought at high figures. Drew pocketed his profits and returned from exile in Jersey. The Boston, Hartford and Erie crowd which had figured in these transac- tions, having got all they could out of Eric for the ben- efit of their own bankrupt road, withdrew. All litiga- tions were stopped and injunctions revoked. Bills were rushed through the Legislature favorable to both Van- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 55 derbilt and Erie. Drew resigned from the road; Vanderbilt relinquished his ambition for control, and the property was turned over to Gould and Fisk. Drew may have thought that by this time the poor old road was a squeezed lemon, but if so he was mistaken, for Gould and Sage. found that the property had not yet been worked for all that was in it. What their admin- istration cost the road is very plainly set forth in the testimony given before the Hepburn Committee of 1879 by J. W. Guppy, Assistant General Superintendent under Gould, and for many years connected with the road into whose service he first entered as a telegraph operator. When Gould was ousted from the control in March, 1872, the total stock was $86,536,910, the funded debt. $26,395,000, and the floating debt $2,517,301, a total of $115,449,211, an increase during the time of Gould's identification with the road of $64,383,268. Yet Mr. Guppy testified that not a dollar of this vast sum was represented by any additions to the road. At the time that the Gould-Fisk ring was sucking the life-blood of Erie, the Tweed-Sweeney ring was plunder- ing the city of New York. The two were really one. From Mr. Gould's testimony just quoted and from other facts here presented it will be seen how closely al- lied they were. Tweed was one of the Executive Com- mittee of the Erie and was paid large sums for so-called "legal" services. This was a great day for the spoils- men. It was a long feast of corruption. Dishonesty walked openly in the streets, bribery influenced elec- tions and controlled Legislatures, and plundering was a fine art. Great as was Tweed at this time, his prosperity 56 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. was soon to end in flight, capture, imprisonment, dis- grace and death, but Gould survived the exposure and lived to enjoy his wealth and power. He ap- One of the first achievements of Gould and Fisk when they assumed entire control was to corner their old associate, Daniel Drew. The latter, after a short retirement from the Street, returned to speculation and naturally drifted into Erie, but this time from the outside. He was caught just as many times he had caught others. And Gould repeated, only in a more aggravated way, his trick of issuing new stock and flooding Wall Street with it. This new stock was issued by Gould and Fisk without even going through the form of consultation with the other directors. Mr. Adams calls this "the most extraordinary feat of finan- cial legerdemain which history has yet recorded." Drew found that even he, old and experienced in all the tricks of his trade, was no match for Gould. pealed to the courts for relief, but Mr. Gould fought him in the same way. Realizing that he had no other avenue of escape, Drew actually called on Gould and Fisk one night and appealed piteously to be permitted to get out without loss, though his companions in loss might be squeezed to Gould's heart's content. Gould and Fisk bowed their aged associate out without satis- faction, and smiled as they closed the door on the old man. Drew lost $1,500,000 in this transaction. Stu- dents of this period of Gould's career will see here and there lurid flashes which write the history of these times in letters of fire. Gould and Fisk visit Judge Barnard's house and he gives them an injunction while. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOUld. 57 eating his breakfast. Gould at this time actually posed as an anti-monopolist before the public. All his extra- ordinary acts as President of the Erie were defended on the ground that he was endeavoring to protect the system against consolidation or affiliation with other trunk lines, and there were some honorable persons who really put faith in this statement. "Gould," said Mr. Adams, "posed as a public benefactor, with unspeakable effrontery." The wonderful financial operations of the Drew and Gould régimes in Erie could not have been possible but for the extraordinary fascination which the stock possessed for English capitalists. While Americans. looked with more than suspicion on the Erie securities, England was possessed of an irresistible craze to get as many of them as possible. English capitalists would not take the United States bonds even when selling below par, but they bought with avidity every share of Erie they could get hold of. At last, however, the eyes of the English stockholders were opened to the true condition of affairs, and under the lead of James Mc- Henry they organized to get the control of the property. At this time Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, one of the heroes of Gettysburg, was Minister to Spain. He was engaged to lead the anti-Gould forces against the Erie strong- holds. He did his work well, and it is said was paid a very big fee for his labors. He obtained a leave of absence from Madrid and returned home to conduct the opera- tions in person on the ground. This was the last of the Erie wars. It should be recorded at this time, however, that the # 1 58 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. famous partnership of Gould and Fisk had been dissolved by death. Fisk, late in 1871, had been shot by Edward S. Stokes, and after a few days had died from the wound. He and Stokes had at one time been friends, but had quarrelled over business matters and about a woman the beautiful, but notorious, Josie Mansfield-and the quarrel led to the murder. It will surprise no one who had read this history thus far that in the course of the Erie litigation a Supreme Court Judge once held court and issued orders from Josie Mansfield's apartments. Stokes was tried three times. Once the jury disagreed. Once he was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hanged by Judge Noah Davis. This verdict being overruled by the Court of Appeals, he was tried again and convicted of manslaughter in the third degree. After serving a few years in Auburn Prison Mr. Stokes returned to New York, where he soon became a prosperous business man, intimate for a long time with John A. Mackay, the Californian millionaire, and President of a telegraph system competing with Gould's Western Union. Before his death the belief is that Gould and Fisk had substantially parted company. The World of that day gives an account of an interview between Gould and Fisk in which the former asked Fisk for his resig- nation as Vice-President and Comptroller of Erie. Fisk is represented as saying to a friend who was about to leave for Europe: "I like you to do me a favor. If you find in Europe a mean man who can do a meaner thing to his best friend or tell a bigger lie than Jay Gould I want you to telegraph me at once." After - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 59 Fisk's death, however, Gould acted handsomely by his widow. Whatever else may be said of Fisk he was cer- tainly a more popular man than Gould, and after the former's death Gould did not long remain at the head of Erie. "The feeling against Gould," said Gen. Barlow at the time of the anti-Gould revolution, "grew in great part since Fisk's death. Fisk was always pop- ular with the people of the road and in the office. Had he been alive we should have had more trouble or perhaps the move would never have been made." Besides Barlow, Gen. Sickles had other efficient aid, and the anti-Gould movement was strengthened by such names as Gen. John A. Dix, who in the same year was elected Governor of New York; Gen. George B. McClellan and William R. Travers. In March, 1872, the blow was struck. A man named Archer had been elected Vice-President in place of Fisk, and with his aid the revolution was accomplished. Gould had made him Vice-President with the view of conciliating the opposition. Nine members of the Board of Directors had been won over to the opposition. These wrote to Gould asking him to call a meeting of the board. As Gould did not respond, Vice-President Archer called the meeting. The revolutionists as- sembled at Barlow's house and prepared to carry the Grand Opera-House by storm. Gould had this barri- caded by his men, with instructions to permit no one to pass in. But the revolutionists succeeded in passing the picket-line and passed in, and Mr. Archer called the meeting to order. Then ensued an extraordinary scene which lasted all night. Gould ordered the "con- 60 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. spirators," as he called them, to leave the building. They refused. Gould at this time had the benefit of the legal advice of David Dudley Field and Thomas G. Shearman. Mr. Field was long one of the leaders of the New York bar. One of his brothers sat on the Supreme Court bench of the United States, and the other, Cyrus W. Field, was the father of the Atlantic cable, and soon one of the closest of Gould's business associates. Mr. Shearman, who afterwards became fa- mous in the defence of Henry Ward Beecher, had be- fore this time published an article on the corruption of the New York judiciary which attracted widespread attention, but he was now counsel to a man who owned two or three Supreme Court judges and a few months. later publicly admitted the distribution of a corruption fund. Space will not permit the telling of all the incidents of that night. Shearman appeared with forty police- men and ordered the revolutionists to leave, but they shut themselves up in their rooms and refused to do so. Gould obtained from Judge Ingraham a temporary in- junction to restrain Archer and the other directors from acting, but they calmly proceeded to elect new officers and directors. Field and Shearman declared that Gould's legal position was absolutely perfect, but not- withstanding this he was finally obliged to give in. The opposition elected Gen. Dix as President and Gen. McClellan as one of the directors. The World of March 11, 1872, thus describes this memorable night: "The scene at the Grand Opera-House was one to be THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOÜLD) 61 .. " 7 **On 1/ L کم B ally! UPL ART BI Caps THE CONSERVÁTORY AT IRVINGTON. By 62 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. remembered. Gould and Eldridge, with their counsel, in one room, and the newly chosen directors in another, the doors of both rooms barred, opening to no one but an avowed friend, each fearful of orders of arrest being served on them, every spare room in the offices filled with blue-coated officers of the peace, sitting in all the chairs and on all the tables, and lying on the floors, and an intense sense of subdued excitement pervading the heavy air of the place." The only communication between the two hostile par- ties was by means of Peter B. Sweeney, who acted as go-between. Finding that he was defeated, Gould then resorted to one of those acts of audacity with which at different periods in his career he surprised the public. In a public letter he offered to leave all the questions in dispute to arbitration by Horace Greeley. Thus he attempted to place himself in favorable light before the public. But it should not be supposed that Greeley was in any sense a friend of Gould. On the contrary, the Tribune of that day shows how severely he criticised Gould. The battle lasted one night and then Gould sur- rendered. He remained as a director for a time, but his power was gone and Erie passed out of his hands for- ever. The property has never fully recovered from the condition into which it was thrown by the Drew-Gould régime. Though one of the most important systems in the country and enjoying an immense business, it is crippled with its enormous stock and bond liabilities, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 63 and not until 1891 did it pay a dividend. For many years it remained in the hands of a receiver. The testimony of J. W. Guppy before the Hepburn Cominittee, already referred to, gives some interesting details of Gould's management of the Erie. Among the roads which Erie leased were the Chemung Rail- road and the Canandaigua and Elmira. These leases were very profitable to Erie, but Gould, as an individual, after quietly purchasing a majority of their capital stocks, as President of Erie refused to pay the rentals, thus abrogating the leases. Then he sold the roads to the Northern Central of Pennsylvania at a big profit. Gould and Fisk organized a number of auxiliary com- panies whose plant was usually paid for by Erie, but whose stock went into the pockets of Gould, Fisk and their associates. Among these companies was the National Stock Yard Company. The land was pur- chased and the improvements made by Erie, but the stock was divided as so much spoils, 800 shares finding their way into the pockets of Judge Barnard. The Erie Emigrant Company, the Jefferson Railroad Com- pany, the Blackford Company and the Greenwood Coal Company were the names of some of the companies. practically saddled upon Erie, but whose stock was issued to Gould and Fisk without consideration. C Augustus Stein, who made an examination into the records, told the Hepburn Committee that the amount of Gould's wrong-doing in Erie was about $12,000,000. By this was meant the amount which he wrongfully appropriated. 64 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. CHAPTER VI. THE STOLEN MONEY. "2 AND now comes Gould's pretended restitution of this stolen money. "Stolen "is the word used by the Hep- burn Committee. In nothing is Mr. Gould's smartness made more apparent than in this act of pretending to restore the money which he had misappropriated. After he had left Erie the new management sought to ascertain how large was the plunder carried away by Gould. This information could be obtained with com- plete accuracy only from Morosini, the auditor of the company, and he refused to make up the accounts and left Erie and joined his fortunes to those of Gould. Morosini now became inseparable from Gould and a notable figure in Wall Street. He was a tall, athletic Italian, shrewd and faithful, an ideal private secretary. He had served with Garibaldi in the wars for Italian liberty, and was proud of his service under the great Italian patriot. He had been a sailor, too, and had had a wide experience with the world, which while not making him overscrupulous in his methods, made him invaluable to a man like Gould. When the firm of W. E. Connor & Co., of which Gould was a special, was THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 65 } founded, Morosini became partner, and when the firm dissolved and Morosini retired from business Gould said that his private secretary was worth $2,000,000 or $3,000,000. A way was soon opened, however, by which the new Erie management gained some proof of Gould's wrong- doing. Gould, in company with Horace F. Clark, had engineered a corner in Northwest stock, one of the most famous and successful corners in Wall Street history. In after years Gould gave a unique account of this cor- ner to a legislative committee which was investigating corners. He was interested, said Mr. Gould with that charming frankness which he sometimes assumed, “in the Chicago and Northwest corner. The stock was selling at 75 to 80." He "considered it very cheap," and he bought. He soon had bought a great deal more than there really was to deliver, and the shorts were cornered. The price went up to 250. "I was induced," said Mr. Gould, with exquisite humor, "to part with some at that price." Among the shorts caught in this famous corner was Henry N. Smith, who only a short time before had been Gould's partner in the firm of Smith, Gould & Martin, and who had supported Gould in his great conspiracy to corner gold. Smith is another noted Wall Street character, whose life is linked in that of Gould. He was something of an "exquisite," and had the reputa- tion of wearing corsets, but he was for many years re- markably successful in Wall Street. After renewing his relations with Gould he became chiefly distinguished as one of the bear leaders, and was thus continually in 66 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. antagonism with Gould. Woerishoffer, Cammack and Smith were a trio that once nearly drove Gould to the wall, but the latter lived to see one dead, the second his associate in certain speculations, and the third involved in irretrievable bankruptcy. It was not in the Northwest corner that Smith was ruined, but in it he lost a very large sum, which found its way into Gould's pockets. Smith was not slow in getting his revenge. The books of the late firm of Smith, Gould & Martin were in his possession, and he handed them over to Mr. Barlow, of the Erie, who quicky discovered in them the evidence on which to obtain an order of arrest for Gould, and to establish a șuit for the recovery of $12,803,059, the proceeds of bonds converted into stock to the extent of 407,347 shares, which were sold by Mr. Gould's firm and the proceeds transferred to his pocket. That was the charge, and Gould was arrested and placed under very heavy bonds, which he furnished. Here Mr. Gould's genius displayed itself. He actually entered into a big specula- tion based on his restitution of this plunder. Gen. Dix, it should be recorded, remained as President of Erie for only a few months, and was succeeded by President Watson, a man who owed his position mainly to Horace F. Clark, who, as has been seen, was in intimate busi- ness relations with Gould. Clark undertook to arrange a compromise between Watson and Gould, and all three evidently united to "rig" the stock market by the oper- ation. One day it was reported that Gould intended to restore his plunder, and the price of Erie advanced with a bound. A day or two later a denial of the report THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 67 would come, and down would go the price. This was repeated two or three times, and Gould, of course, bought at the low figures and sold at the top, and the profits must have been big. Finally the restitution, so-called, was announced with a flourish of trumpets. On the face of the agreement Gould made over to Erie an immense amount of property, and all suits were with- drawn and Gould released from all criminal responsibil- ity. A clause in the agreement said that in making this transfer of property Gould expressly stipulated that it should not be considered as an admission of wrong- doing. The Opera-House and adjoining buildings and other real estate, with the exception of Gould's Fifth Avenue mansion, were made over to the Erie, and, in addition, a mass of stocks of the par value of about $6,000,000. As a matter of fact most of these stocks were worthless. J. G. Guppy told the Hepburn Com- mittee that he would not give $200,000 for the entire lot. Among the securities were $1,000,000 of United States Express stock to be issued, and which Gould guaranteed to be issued, but which, as a matter of fact, never was. When Hugh J. Jewett became receiver of Erie he discovered the utter sham of this alleged restitu- tion. He told the Hepburn Committee: "Mr. Watson had made a settlement with Mr. Gould, in which he received in liquidation of this account, or such portion of it as he supposed he could recover, certain assets. When I came here I sought to realize on these assets. I found many of them totally worthless, and some which were of value were encumbered by existing liens." In 1876, therefore, Mr. Jewett was obliged to negotiate a final settlement with Mr. Gou" • 68 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. CHAPTER VII. THE GOLD CONSPIRACY. THE history of the Erie has been gone into with much detail because it gives an insight into Gould's methods of railroad-wrecking-methods which he introduced to a greater or less extent into most of his other railroad operations. In this history glimpses have been given also of Gould in Wall Street, but it is proposed now to give an account of Black Friday much in detail, because it reveals most clearly Mr. Gould as the greatest Wall Street gambler. The gold conspiracy of 1869 was one of the most dis- graceful events in American history. In his ambition to create sudden wealth Mr. Gould involved not only Wall Street in ruin but his country in dishonor. It was the most wicked speculation of modern times. This gold conspiracy was investigated in 1870 by a committee of Congress of which James A. Garfield, afterwards President, was chairman and S. S. Cox a member. The report of the committee, with the ac- companying testimony, is one of the most absorbingly interesting books in existence. If any one thinks that THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 69 the language employed in this article is extravagant or too severe, let him spend an afternoon at the Astor Library reading this report: (C Gould, the guilty plotter of all these criminal pro- ceedings," is the language of James A. Garfield, the author of this report. Gould some years before had formed a co-partnership with H. N. Smith and others, under the name of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co. "He was a broker," says Henry Adams, in his history of the gold conspiracy, "and a broker is almost by nature a gambler, perhaps the very last profession suitable for a railway manager. In char- acter he was strongly marked by his disposition for silent intrigue. He preferred, as a rule, to operate on his own account without admitting other persons into his confidence, and he seemed never to be satisfied except when deceiving every one as to his intentions. There was a reminiscence of the spider in his nature. It is scarcely necessary to say that he had not a concep- tion of a moral principle." It was one of Mr. Gould's peculiarities that he rarely entered into any large speculation without furnishing the public with a plausible reason for assisting him in his operations. This was certainly the case in the gold conspiracy. The plausible reason was in this case sug- gested to Mr. Gould by James McHenry, who was then training with Mr. Gould in Erie. The latter spared no pains to dress the reason up in the best shape and give it to the public. Mr. Gould argued with much apparent force, but actual sophistry, that an advance in the price of gold would benefit the Western farmers in giving 770 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. them a bigger price for their grain, and Mr. Gould backed up this theory with many facts and figures. Gen. Grant had just become President. His Secretary of the Treasury was George F. Boutwell. The key to the situation was the financial policy of the Govern- ment. No successful corner in gold could be estab- lished if the Treasury should sell gold with a liberal hand. It should be explained that the war had caused a lively speculation in gold, which continued after the war until the resumption of specie payments made the greenbacks equal in value to gold. Speculation in gold was carried on in the gold-room, an institution separate from the Stock Exchange. It became essential to the success of Mr. Gould's plans that the Grant administration should either become a party to the speculation or else an honest. believer in his crop theory. Failing in both of these, the public must at least be impressed with the idea that the administration was in the deal, whether it was or not. So Gould began to lay systematic siege around the administration. He seems to have entered alone into this speculation. It was only when he was unable to carry the burden alone that he took in others, and it was not until late in the game that Fisk entered. Gould found a brother-in-law of President Grant a convenient tool in his operations. The name of this brother-in-law was A. R. Corbin, who had been something of an adventurer all his life, and whose chief hold on respectability was his relationship to the President. Gould unfolded enough of his plans to Corbin to enlist him in his ser- vice and to bind him by interest to the speculation. Gould THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 71 bought for Corbin $1,500,000 of gold, and promised him that all the profits should be turned over to him. Every rise of 1 per cent. in the price of gold made Corbin. $15,000 richer. Corbin claimed to have great influence with the President, and Gould evidently placed much. reliance in him. I am right behind the throne," said Corbin to Gould at one stage of the proceedings. "Give yourself no uneasiness. All is right." The first step in the conspiracy after the bribing of Corbin and the purchase of a large quantity of gold was to secure the appointment of the right sort of man as Assistant Treasurer of New York. Though nominally a subordinate officer and having no original authority, the Assistant Treasurer draws the salary of a Cabinet. officer and his influence is large. Corbin undertook this part of the scheme and secured the appointment of Gen. Butterworth, who seemed to give great satisfaction to Gould. Butterworth was afterwards exonerated by Congress of all guilty connection with the gold con- spiracy, but Gould purchased for his account $1,000,000 of gold. But then Gould also had the affrontery, at one stage of the negotiations, to buy $500,000 of gold for Gen. Porter, the President's private secretary, which that gentleman promptly declined. It was said also that $500,000 was purchased in the name of Mrs. Grant, but she never received any of the profits and had no connection with the conspiracy. Butterworth secured, it was necessary to make an im- pression on the President. Through Corbin, Gould secured an interview with Gen. Grant, and later, when the President made a brief visit to New York, he was 772 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. given Fisk's private box at the Opera-House, and on his way to Newport was honored with a big banquet on one of Fisk's Sound steamers. Fisk and Gould were both there and were supported by Cyrus W. Field and other "solid" citizens. Fisk was resplendent and omnipresent and strutted up and down swelled with the belief that he was a Nopoleon of Finance, a title which he publicly assumed in the gold-room the day before Black Friday. At dinner a cold-blooded attempt was made to extract from the President the lines of his financial policy. Nothing more "brassy" than this attempt to "pump" the President of the United States for the purposes of speculation has been seen in the history of Wall Street. However, Gould obtained little satisfaction. A remark by the President in reply to a question by Fisk that there was "a fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country and the bubble might as well be tapped" threw a wet blanket on Gould's schemes. However, Gould was already in, and he was not a man to back out as long as he saw any chance for success, and he finally succeeded in really impressing on the Presi- dent's mind that in order to move the crops it was neces- sary that gold should sell at 145. Gould's first pur- chases had been made as low as 1301, which was about the normal price. But it would be said at the outset that there is not a particle of evidence that Gen. Grant was ever personally concerned in the speculation or that he winked at mem- bers of his official household being so. On the contrary, the evidence is all the other way. Grant never seemed to like Gould. When the latter succeeded in getting - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 73 his first interview with the President, Gen. Grant rep- rimanded his servant for allowing him so easy an access to his person, and at a later day the President remarked to his secretary that he did not like to have that man- referring to Gould-around so much. "He is always · DIRU décra TORTI THE HOUSE IN WHICH HE DIED. trying to get something out of me," was the President's remark. How different was Gould's position in 1892 when he was a specially invited guest at the White House of Pres- ident Harrison, making the journey to Washington in his private car, attended by his daughter Helen, whom 74 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. * he had just introduced to society at a big reception at his own mansion in Fifth Avenue. Grant's apparent conversion to the gold theory was brought about by persistent agitation, and he finally wrote to Secretary Boutwell that in his opinion it would be unwise to force down the price of gold at present-a suggestion which, of course, the Secretary considered the same as an order. This was the position which Gould desired the administration to maintain. He did everything to give the public the impression that the Government was behind the "deal." An article written by Corbin was published as an editorial in the Times and attracted attention, as the editor, John Bigelow, had just had a conversation with the President. and was supposed to speak with authority. Notwith- standing the authorship of the article, it is just to say that the Times detected the odor of Wall Street about it and quarantined the article before making it public. Its effectiveness for Gould was much lessened. Gould wrote to Boutwell with a view of obtaining an official statement from him, but received a reply that said little and that diplomatically. Meanwhile Gould had been buying millions in gold and had formed a pool that bought millions more. That the movement was ficti- tious is shown by the fact that the impression on prices was comparatively small. Fisk looked on incredulously. "The country is against you," was his criticism of the scheme. The members of the pool sold out, but Gould con- tinued to buy. "I had to buy," testified Gould after- wards, "or show the white feather. The other fellows THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 775 "J deserted me like rats.' Gould had the material aid of the Tenth National Bank, an institution which he owned and which he used as an adjunct to his speculative operations. The extent to which he used it in the gold conspiracy was shown by the fact that it in one day over- certified Gould's checks to the amount of $7,500,000. Garfield called this bank "a manufactory of certified checks." (C As Gould bought the bears sold "short" and the battle became intensely exciting. At this point Fisk was drawn into the scheme. He took no stock in the crop theory, but the idea of making the administration a partner in the diabolical enterprise seems to have at- tracted him. Nothing," said Garfield in his report to Congress, "nothing but the scent of corruption could sharpen the appetite of Fisk for the game his leader (Gould) was pursuing. The compounded villainy pre- sented by Gould and Corbin was too tempting a bait." So Fisk was drawn into the movement when his aid was most needed. This corner was a glittering edifice built on a foundation of deceit and corruption. It could not long stand. The most that Gould and Fisk could do was to frighten the "shorts" into covering before Grant awakened to the realization of how he was being used and issue orders to sell gold. Wall Street was soon filled with rumors that the administration was in the deal and the excitement ran high. "The malign influence," says the Congressional report already quoted, "which Cataline wielded over the reck- less and abandoned youth of Rome finds a fitting parallel in the power which Fisk held in Wall Street when, fol- 76 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 1 lowed by the thugs of Erie and the debauchees of the opera, he swept into the gold-room and defied both the Street and the Treasury." The magnitude of the conspiracy is shown by the fact that before Black Friday Gould had employed fifty to sixty brokers to make his purchases, and $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 of gold had been bought by William Heath & Co., Woodward, H. K. Enos, E. K. Willard and others of the brokers. He required all this to ad- vance the price of gold from 1351 to 1401. Fisk's entrance into the game was a powerful help to Gould, for it not only furnished another purchaser for gold, but directed public attention from himself to Fisk. The ex-pedler loved to bask in the sun of public notoriety. Gould was timid, but Fisk had the brazen courage of a courtesan. • At last the dénouement came. A last attempt was made to still further involve the President in the con- spiracy. Grant was then at a little town in Western Pennsylvania, off the line of a railroad. Corbin wrote him a long letter calculated to elicit a response, and Fisk sent his special messenger to deliver the letter. He succeeded in handing it to the President, and after waiting until he had read the contents, he asked if he had anything to say. The President replied, "All right," and the messenger so telegraphed to the conspirators. These interpreted "all right" to mean a favorable an- swer to the letter, and they were much elated. But the President, supposing that the messenger was only a clerk from the post-office, had said "All right" merely to indicate that he had received the letter and required THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ryry his presence no longer. His suspicions were aroused after the messenger had left, when he ascertained that he had brought the letter at post-haste all the way from New York. That night Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin a note stating that the President had heard that Mr. Corbin was engaged in Wall Street speculations, and if it were true he desired that he should immedi- ately dissociate himself from them. This letter filled Gould with consternation. He and Corbin sat in the latter's house all night reading and re-reading the note and endeavoring to grasp the meaning between the lines. "If you show that note," said Gould, finally, "I am a ruined man." Corbin said he must obey orders and leave the Street, but he insisted Gould should first take up the gold held in Corbin's name and pay him the profits. Corbin had already received a check for $25,000. But Gould had already all the gold he wanted, and after standing for a while in silence by the door, his brow black with mystery, he left the house. The game was up. One stroke of a woman's pen had punctured the dazzling bubble. A word from the President was sufficient to collapse the biggest corner on record. How to save himself? That was the ques- tion which, with knit brow and lips compressed with hidden excitement, Gould debated as he returned home that night. No thought for others who were deep in the game with himself. No thought for Fisk, his friend and associate. His mind labored for himself alone. He soon reached a conclusion. While there was yet time he would dump his heavy load of gold on the market, and let others take what he could not carry. His only 78 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. } capital now was the early information he possessed of the President's aroused suspicions, of his change of purpose. He did not tell even Fisk of Mrs. Grant's let- ter to Mrs. Corbin, but let Fisk continue his purchases in ignorance of the real situation. He only remarked to Fisk that Corbin was getting weary and wanted his profits, or something to that purpose. Thursday—the day preceding Black Friday-Gould began his dumping process. "I sold that day," he testified afterwards, "and only bought enough to make the Street think I was still a bull.” کو THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 779 CHAPTER VIII. ↓ BLACK FRIDAY. AND now opens that remarkable day in September, 1869, known as "Black Friday." "Black Friday." Wall Street has passed through other days of excitement and calamity, but even the panic days of 1873 and 1884 pale before the awful passion and fury of Black Friday. It was a day long to be remembered and not easily forgotten by those who witnessed it or were caught in the maelstrom that carried everything before it. The conspirators were early in the street, and the, offices of Smith, Gould & Martin, Fisk & Belden, and William Heath & Co. were the centre of enormous ex- citement. William Belden, who was Fisk's partner, played a conspicuous part in this day's history. He was a man cool and daring-the fit companion of such men as Gould and Fisk. The day, however, left a stain on his record that could never be obliterated, and when, in 1888, Belden formed a co-partnership with a member of the Stock Exchange, the Governing Committee of the institution stated that unless the member severed his partnership with Belden he must leave the ex- change. 80 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Gould, Fisk, Belden, and their brokers held a counsel of war and laid out the work of the day. Heath was to look after this, Willard was to attend to that, Belden was to direct this and Fisk was to direct that, while "Gould "the language of the congressional report is now quoted-" Gould, the guilty plotter of all these criminal proceedings, determined to betray his own as- sociates, and, silent and imperturbable, by nods and whispers directed all." "I determined," said Mr. Gould afterwards, "not to open my mouth that day, and I did not.” What a study for a dramatic painter Gould would have made that day! There was undoubtedly some secret understanding between Fisk and Belden to which Gould was a party, by which all the orders given that day could be re- pudiated if the market went against them. A ready tool was found in Albert Speyer, who accepted verbal orders from Belden in the presence of Gould and Fisk to buy, and who went into the board-room and did buy immense quantities of gold at the highest prices. The street was filled with the wildest rumors. Prices rapidly advanced to 165. The shorts trembled before the rising tide that seemed about to sweep over them. Many were frightened into covering their contracts. Gould continued to sell. Fisk and Belden continued to buy. The excitement rose point by point to the wildest. pitch. Old operators lost their heads, men rushed hat- less and half crazy through the streets, their eyes blood- shot, their faces pale with anxiety, their brains on fire. There came rumors of contemplated selling of gold by į 81 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. the Treasury, and the Street went mad. Where these rumors started no one ever knew, but they were the forerunners of actual fact. James Brown, the Scotch banker, appeared in the board and began to offer gold at declining figures. Then the earthquake started, and the golden edifice built by Gould began to tumble. Soon the Treasury order to sell $4,000,000 of gold ap- peared, and then the terrible collapse. Prices fell from 165 to 133. The board-room was the scene of contend- ing furies. Albert Speyer completely lost control of him- self; his hair is said to have turned white that night after he went home a ruined man. Wall and Broad Streets were filled with men wild with excitement. Infuriated mobs surrounded the offices of Fisk & Belden and Smith, Gould & Martin. Threats of violence were made. Speyer went about saying: "Some one has threatened to shoot me. Let him shoot." The Gold Exchange Bank was obliged to suspend operations. Its clearances that day amounted to over $300,000,000 of gold. Trading was stopped in the Gold Board. Fisk & Belden suspended and their contracts were repudiated. The fortunes of hundreds were swept away in that day's battle. Several firms were driven to the wall and an- nounced their failures. The administration was in- volved in suspicion which it took years to remove. The nation was disgraced and its credit was broken. - But Gould, "the guilty plotter of all these criminal proceedings," went home saved. What he made or what he lost in that struggle is unknown, but though he had involved others in ruin and had betrayed others, he had saved himself from overthrow. To have gone • 82 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. down in the fight would have been a display of heroism. To save himself alone from the wreck was dishonor. It is not strange that in his sworn autobiography delivered to the Committee on Labor and Education Mr. Gould omitted all mention of Black Friday, but when as a witness before the Committee on Corners he was asked about the Black Friday panic, he calmly said that it was the "result of overtrading," and that its real cause was "the fluctuations in the price of gold caused by the war!" It is a singular coincidence that exactly twenty-two years after Black Friday, on the very anniversary of the day in 1891, Gould caused another big flurry in Wall Street. After several years. of depression, a "boom" in stocks was in progress, when the sudden announcement was made that the Missouri Pacific, of which Gould was President, would pass its dividend. The announcement caused a revolu- tion in prices and the "boom" completely collapsed. * THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 83 CHAPTER IX. GOULD AND UNION PACIFIC. HAVING severed his relations with Erie Mr. Gould entered into that career of acquisition which made him the master of several of the most important railroads. in the United States, of the Yale system of telegraph and of the chief line of transportation in New York City. In nearly all his railroad operations he repeated, to a greater or less extent, his career in Erie. His scheme was to buy up cheap and bankrupt roads, re- organize them, issue new stock and bonds, unload on some other road, or else, by the payment of dividends, get the public interested in the property and sell at big profits. Or he would reverse the operation and take a great property and squeeze it like a lemon. His career in Union Pacific comes naturally first in order. For ten years he was master of this great system which, with the Central Pacific, constitutes the first and most important of the lines leading to the Pacific coast. His record in this road has been a matter of official investi- gation, and this part of Mr. Gould's history, as well as that of the Erie and Black Friday periods, is based on sworn testimony. But first, it is but fair that Mr. ļ 84 ! }. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Gould's own account of his connection with Union Pacific, as stated in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Labor and Education, should be given. Having omitted all mention of Erie Mr. Gould said: "I then went into the Union Pacific road. I met Horace Clark and Augustus Schell out West, and they gave me so good an account of the road that I con- cluded I would buy in it. I telegraphed to New York an order to buy at a certain price. When Mr. Clark got home he was taken ill, and as soon as his brokers learned that his illness was to be fatal, they sold out his stock. That broke the market and filled orders which I had sent at a price lower than I ever expected. When I got home I found myself the owner of a large amount. of this property, and at once inquired into its condition. I learned that it was saddled with a large floating debt, and that there were $10,000,000 of bonds coming due within a month. It was in rather a blue condition. The directors were consulting who should be the re- ceiver. I made up my mind that I would carry it through, and I told them that if they would furnish half of the money to pay the debt I would furnish the other half. The stock went down to 15. It was a large loss, but still I kept right on buying, so when the turn came there did not seem to be any top to it. It went up to 75, and I immediately went to work to bring the road up. I went out over it, started coal mines, and to the surprise of everybody it soon began to pay dividends, and has never passed a dividend since. "Well," ," continued Mr. Gould, "when this road THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY Gould. 85 began to be a financial success and developed other ways, there arose quite a clamor, and it was said to be Jay Gould's road, as though it were a dangerous thing to have one man control a road. I thought that it was better to bow to public opinion, so I took an opportu- nity when I could to place the stock in the hands of in- vestors. In the course of a very few months, instead of ---- - 1 Be **** + SCHER ** ---- • All trad GEORGE J. GOULD. ݁ cwning the control of the road, I was entirely out of it, and the stock was 20 per cent. higher than I had sold it for. Instead of being thirty or forty stockholders there were between six and seven thousand, represent- ing the savings of widows and orphans. There were also a great many lady stockholders. That was about four years ago, after Congress enacted very harsh legis. 86 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. lation, after they had broken the bargain they had made to get the road through in its early stages." "You refer to the Thurman act ?" asked the Chair- man. "Yes, and that closed my connection with the Union Pacific road." This is a very beautiful picture, and it makes out Mr. Gould to be a most public-spirited and generous man- one ready to sacrifice his own interests in obedience to the demand of public opinion. But having looked on this picture, look upon that drawn by the Pacific Rail- road Commission, appointed by President Cleveland in 1887, and composed of ex-Gov. Pattison, of Pennsylva- nia; E. Ellery Anderson, of New York, and David Littler, of Illinois. The commission made two reports, agreeing substantially, only that of ex-Gov. Pattison was more severe in its conclusions. p In the majority report by Messrs. Anderson and Littler the purchase of a controlling interest by Jay Gould in 1873, the subsequent increase in the capital stock to 200,000 shares, the inauguration of the policy of constructing branch-lines in 1877, and the commence- ? ment of the action by the United States against the directors of the Union Pacific for misappropriating the assets of the company were detailed, and the report went on to say: "It appears from the minutes of the company that, while this litigation was pending, certain proceedings were taken by the directors whereby by their own acts and votes they undertook to release themselves from any obligations or liabilities to the company." The Kansas Pacific's financial operations THE LIFE AND DEATH OF Jay Gould. 87 1 from 1864 to 1880 were also taken up, and the circum- stances leading up to its consolidation in the Union. Pacific system were detailed at great length. · The acquisition by Jay Gould in 1877 at nominal figures of several millions of securities of the Kansas Pacific was spoken of, and the reorganization of that company under the control of Gould was detailed, and the methods severely condemned. The effect of the con- solidation was to increase the stock of the Union Pacific from $38,000,000 to $50,000,000, and the bonded in- debtedness from $88,000,000 to $126,000,000, and the other indebtedness from $4,000,000 to nearly $10,000,000. It was declared that "the three years following the consolidation were years of great business activity, and the receipts of the Union Pacific for 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1883 were largely increased," but "in the face of a very large and apparently profitable business" the com- pany "found itself early in 1884 on the verge of bank- ruptcy." Competition, the burden of its fixed charges, the extravagant sums paid for branch railroads of little or no earning power bought by Mr. Gould, and the "lavish and reckless distribution of the assets of the company in dividends, all combined to produce this re- sult." After stating that Gould's connection with the road ceased in 1883 the report says: "It is with a sense of great relief that the commission turns from the his- tory of this company from 1873 to 1883 [the period of Gould's control-Ed.], to the conservative, energetic and intelligent management that has characterized the man- agement from the opening of 1884 to the present time." Ex-Gov. Pattison, in his report, said: W 88 THE LİFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. "The Union Pacific Company has received $176,294.- 793.53 in surplus earnings and land sales during eigh- teen years, and if its stock had been fully paid, as Con- gress required that it should be and as its officers certi- fied under oath that it was, nearly all of that money would be applicable to-day to the payment of the Gov- ernment debt. The company has paid out $28,650,770 in dividends, and $82,742,850 in interest on bonds, nearly all of which were distributed to shareholders without consideration. It has sunk over $10,000,000 in Denver, South Park and Pacific; it paid out $10,000,- 000 to Jay Gould and his associates for branch lines and other investments which were worthless, and which were unloaded upon the Union Pacific because of the faithlessness of the management of the company. The gross mismanagement of the Union Pacific and the other Pacific railroads has injured the credit of foreign investors to such an extent that hundreds of millions of dollars, which otherwise would have been sent here. for investment and aided in the development of the country, have been locked up abroad.” Every line of this indictment is directed at Gould. Yet Charles Francis Adams, the author of "A Chapter in Erie," and who became President of the Union Pa- cific about the time Gould retired, told the commission that he believed from careful scrutiny that Mr. Gould had always been more than fair to the company. But the commission, with all the facts before it, rejected his view of the case. The consolidation of the Kansas Pacific with the Union Pacific came near involving Gould in a criminal THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 89. prosecution for embezzlement. Only the statute of limitations saved him. In 1879 a consolidated mortgage was issued by the Kansas Pacific to wipe out the innumerable securities bearing different rates of interest which were then burdening the road. Jay Gould and Russell Sage were then directors of both the Union and the Kansas Pacific roads, and they were made trustees of this mortgage. Among the assets covered by this mort- gage were 30,000 shares of the Denver Pacific Rail- road, then of little value, but which under the plan of consolidation which Gould was then maturing would become of great value. Sidney Dillon, who was asso- ciated with Gould and Sage in all three roads, asked them to release these stocks from the lien of the mort- gage. Gould and Sage sat down at the same desk at which Dillon had written this modest request and wrote suggesting that an action should be brought against them in the courts for the release of the stock. The action was immediately brought before Judge Don- ohue, to which Gould and Sage made no defense. Dil- lon testified that the stock was worth only $200,000 or $300,000. The order was given, the stock released, and the day after the consolidation was affected which made the stock worth its face value, or $3,000,000. In 1888 an action was brought by the bondholders through three New York lawyers to compel a restitution of the value of this stock. District-Attorney (afterwards Judge) Martine and his successor, District-Attorney Fellows, brought the facts before the Grand Jury, the chairman of which, Mr. Havens, had been a fellow-di- 90 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD.` rector of Gould in Jersey Central. The jury, on a rul- ing by Judge Cowing that the statute of limitations. prevented a criminal action, refused to bring in an in- dictment. This ruling was afterwards upheld by Recorder Smyth. While criminal proceedings were be- ing agitated Gould went away on a long ocean trip on his yacht, returning after the matter had been settled. On his return he attacked his prosecutors with a viru- lence which he had never displayed before,and filled the columns of the newspapers with interviews. In one of these he declared that the attack upon him was the re- sult of a conspiracy and blackmail, and that the powers behind the criminal proceedings were "a newspaper " (meaning the Herald), "a cable company" (referring to the Mackey-Bennett Company) "and a woman." The latter was understood to be the wife of an off- cer of one of Mr. Gould's railroads,who had brought suit for divorce. This bringing of a woman into the case created a great sensation. A few days later Gould made a bitter personal attack on James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald, calling in question his personal and social - character and reciting incidences unfit for publication. This was the first time in his life that Gould appeared to be thoroughly "rattled;" the first time that he let down the curtain of mystery with which he had so long covered himself, and the first time that he broke that silence which was his best weapon. This is a good place to quote from Gould's testimony before the Pacific Railroad Commission, as it gives an insight into his theory of railroad operations. "I consider," he said, "the past a good thing to - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. · 91 judge a road by, but the future more. I have been all my life dealing in railroads, that is, since before I came of age. I always bought on the future; that's how I made my money. The bonds on the first road I bought were down to 10 cents. I built up the road and sold them for $125. That's the reason I went into the Kan- sas Pacific and the Union Pacific. But I saw the Kan- sas Pacific was going to develop faster than the Union Pacific." As has already been stated earlier in this article, Gould returned to power in Union Pacific in 1890. One of his first acts was to break a contract with the Rock Island Railroad, which the courts afterwards declared to be a legal contract. 92 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY gould. } T CHAPTER X. Y# GOULD AND 'WABASH. IT would be too tedious to follow Mr. Gould in detail in all of his railroad operations, especially as enough has already been given to indicate the character of his enter- prises. But no life of Mr. Gould would be complete without an account of his connection with Wabash. On this road, however, he simply repeated, though to a less degree, his tactics in Erie, and the result is a corpora- tion almost hopelessly burdened with enormous obliga- tions. In the North American Review of February, 1888, will be found a full history of this unfortunate road. The writer says that "Mr. Gould remains the leading figure in the chapter of Wabash as he was of Erie." There is, he says, a "relative disappearance of the special forms of judicial usurpation and misconduct which lent such a lurid aspect to Mr. Adams's story, and in their place will be noted one sweeping judicial act followed by two or three supplementary acts which accomplished the de- signs of the actors with complete effectiveness." Gould gained control of the road in 1879 and became President in 1881. The writer of the Review article sums up the history of Wabash as follows: 1 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOUld. 93 "The Wabash system arose from the absorption and consolidation of sixty-eight separate original corpora- tions; when thus consolidated the system owned and -controlled in 1883 about 4,814 miles of railroad in the six States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa; its capital stock was increased between 1877 and 1883 from $40,000,000 to $50,174,700; its funded or mortgage debt was increased during the same period from $20,311,570.60 to $76,394,075; three quarterly 'dividends' were paid on the entire preferred stock in 1881-the the year after issue of the general mortgage in 1880- amounting to $1,036,529; within two years and a half after these 'dividends' the company made default on the interest of all its mortgage debt; in May, 1884, the entire property was, on the application of the debtor company alone, secretly placed in the hands of Hum- phreys and Tutt, two of its former directors and officers, men without any special qualifications for railroad man- agement, and who had been part of the directorate which, had brought the system to bankruptcy; immediately after the appointment of Humphreys and Tutt, the Circuit Court of the Eastern District of Missouri di- rected the issue of $2,300,000 of receivers' obligations to 'protect' the indorsements of Wabash notes by Gould, Dillon, Sage and Humphreys; the same court, six days later, directed the further issue of $2,000,000 of re- ceivers' certificates-made a first lien on all the Wabash property-to pay so-called Wabash indebtedness, which, by the terms of its lease to the Iron Mountain, which had been, in turn, leased to the Missouri Pacific, was the indebtedness of the Missouri Pacific; as the result of 94 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. مجمل two years and a half of this receivership, there was paid out of the receivers' earnings, on account of liabilities incurred prior to the receivership, $3,260,519.23, leav- $500,000 still due; as the grand result of the receiver- ship of Humphreys and Tutt, interest has accrued to the amount of $4,390,000, all due and unpaid, and of re- ceivers' obligations $3,200,000, a total during two years and a half of $7,590,000, with $290,000 of cash in hand. The property being sold to a purchasing committee, of which the chairman, Joy, was a former Wabash director, and another member, Ashley, was the Secretary of the receivers, a demand was made of the prior mortgage bondholders to fund into new Wabash bonds their past due interest and to reduce the interest on their bonds • for the future from 6 and 7 per cent. to 5 per cent. Upon application of prior mortgage bondholders the United States Circuit Court at Chicago removed Hum- phreys and Tutt for misconduct as receivers and appointed a new and separate receiver for the Wabash lines east of the Mississippi River." This removal was upon order of judge Gresham, who has made such a high reputation as a judge who can be depended upon not to be easily influenced in favor of corporations. This order was called at the time "one of the bravest acts in the history of justice." On render- ing decision he spoke in terms of great severity of the managers and the Gould receivers, and appointed in place of the latter Judge Cooley, who was afterwards made Railroad Commissioner by President Cleveland. In commenting on this decision Gould defended himself a THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 95 by attacking Gresham, who he declared was suffering from a severe attack of "the Presidential fever." "The next great enterprise, if I may call it great," said Mr. Gould, in his testimony before the Senate Labor and Education Committee, "that I engaged in was the Missouri Pacific. I bought it one day of Commodore Garrison, or rather the control of it. I had a very short negotiation with him; he gave me his price, just as we are talking here, and I said: 'All right; I will take it,' and I gave him a check for it that day. At that time I did not care about the money made; it was a mere play- thing to see what I could do. I had passed the point where I cared about the mere making of money. It was more to show that I could make a combination and make it a success. I took this road and began developing it, bringing in other lines which should be tributary to it. I developed new parts of the country, opened up coal mines, etc., and continued until, I think, we have now 10,000 miles of road. "When I took the property it was earning $70,000 a week. I have just got the gross earnings for` the last month, and they amount to $5,100,000, and we have accomplished that result by developing the coun- try, and while we have been doing this we have made the country rich, developing coal mines and cattle- raising, as well as the production of cotton. We have created this earning power by developing the system. All this 10,000 miles is fully built. The roads pass through the States of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Louisi- ana and the Indiana Territory, and we go into Mexico." } 4. 96 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOUld. } "Are there other railroad enterprises that you are connected with ?" "I am a director in various roads, but I put my whole strength into this system. I don't like to scatter around." "What you do you do well, or try to ?" "I certainly try to do all things well." "What other business enterprises of the country have you now or formerly had connection with ?” "I am a director in the Chicago and Northwest road, Chicago and Rock Island, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, New York and New England, and a good many other small roads.” Mr. Gould's Southwestern system, of which he speaks in terms so glowing, was composed of the Mis- souri Pacific, that was the main stem, and grafted on to it was the Wabash, of which an account has already been given; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas; the St. Louis and Iron Mountain, and the Texas Pacific. The directors of all the roads were substantially the same, Mr. Gould being the President, and his son George, Russell Sage, A. L. Hopkins and others of his intimate. associates being the directors. The most striking feature about the management of these roads is that while all the others were driven into bankruptcy, or to the verge of it, the Missouri Pacific was made a big dividend-paying property. Mr. Gould attributed this to the comparatively small indebtedness of the Missouri Pacific, making it, in his own language, "the snuggest property on the continent," but his enemies attributed the fact to another reason, namely, Mr. Gould's own · THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY ĠOULD. / 97 management, by which he was alleged to have starved the other properties to feed the Missouri Pacific. His holdings of the latter's stock were immense, while his pecuniary interest in the others was comparatively DARRIVAL. TREE MRS. GEORGE J. GOULD. small; indeed, he held but a few hundred shares of Missouri, Kansas and Texas, though its President. His purpose was evidently to swell the earnings of the Missouri Pacific to such an extent that he could declare big dividends and sell his stock at high figures. He ར 1 98 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ! 7 -- succeeded in pushing the price up to 112 in May, 1887, but it subsequently fell to 70 in March, 1888. The lack of public confidence in Gould's railroad methods is strikingly exhibited in the fact that though Missouri Pacific paid 6 to 7 per cent. annual dividends, Gould found it almost impossible to keep the price at par except by the pegging process, while other equal divi- dend payers brought from 110 to 130 in the market without manipulation. The same fact was also strikingly exhibited in Western Union, which paid dividends, but sold at from 70 to 80. Finally the stockholders of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas became indignant at the destruction of their property. Much of the stock was held abroad and was only worth $13 to $15 per share of $100. They en- gaged E. Ellery Anderson, the same who had been a member of the Pacific Railroad Commission, and Simon Sterne, who had been the counsel for the Hepburn Committee, to represent them, and in connection with such Wall Street men as W. L. Bull, shortly after elected President of the Stock Exchange, they hurled the Gould management from power. They publicly charged Mr. Gould with having used the road simply as a feeder to the Missouri Pacific. Mr. Gould succeeded, at least in part, with his plans in regard to Missouri Pacific, and is understood to have marketed a large block of his hold- ings in 1888. Shortly after that the road reduced its dividend and had to borrow money to pay it ! One of the most memorable events connected with Gould's management of the Missouri Pacific was the great Knights of Labor strike in 1885, which disabled - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. 99 : the road for a long time. An interesting feature of the strike was a Sunday conference at Mr. Gould's house between him and General Master Workman Powderly, at which negotiations for a settlement were entered into. The foremost representatives of capital and labor thus met to settle vital questions at issue affecting the wealth of the capitalists and the livelihood of the workingmen. Mr. Gould said to the Senate Committee on Labor and Education: "I have been all my life a laborer or an employer of laborers. Strikes come from various causes, but are principally brought about by the poorest and therefore the dissatisfied element. The best workers generally look forward to advancement in the ranks or save money enough to go into business on their own account. Though there may be few advanced positions to be filled, there is a large number of men trying to get them. They get better pay here than in any other country, and that is why they come here. My idea is that if capital and labor are let alone they will mutually regulate each other. People who think they can regu- late all mankind and get wrong ideas which they be- lieve to be panaceas for every ill cause much trouble to both employers and employees by their interference." To the Congressional Committee which investigated. the Missouri Pacific strike he said : "I am in favor of arbitration as an easy way of settling differences between corporations and their employees." 100 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. CHAPTER XI. HIS ELEVATED RAILROADS. WITHOUT entering into an account of Gould's career in New Jersey Southern, New Jersey Central, Pacific Mail, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, Louisville and Nashville and other corporations with which he has been prominently identified, it will, however, be neces- sary to dwell for a few moments on his connection with the elevated railroads of this city. He had nothing to do with their construction. In fact, Gould's name is unidentified with any great public undertaking original with himself. Other men planned and built. He grab- bed. He did, it is true, start a telegraph company, and put up poles and wires, but it was only as a part of his -plan to capture a system already constructed. So the elevated roads-the measurable solution of the problem. of rapid transit in the metropolis and an inestimable boon to the city-are not due to the foresight, pluck and energy of Gould. Other men were the pioneers, but they were driven to the wall and forgotten, while he plucked the fruits of their labors. Gould, naturally enough, came into control of this great system, which carries 600,000 passengers every day, through a consolidation and the "watering" of THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 101 ļ ? stock. There were three elevated roads-the Metropol- itan (formerly the "Gilbert," named after its originator, Dr. Gilbert), of which S. H. Kneeland was President; the second, the New York, of which Cyrus W. Field was President and of which Samuel J. Tilden was once a heavy stockholder; and the third, the Manhattan, of which Jay Gould and Russell Sage were the owners. The Metropolitan and the New York were bona-fide companies, actually owning railroads and rolling stock, but the Manhattan was a "paper" company, having a nominal charter and an organization, but not one inch. of road. Yet these three companies were consolidated on equal terms, and Gould, Sage and Field became the owners. Later the control narrowed down to Gould and Sage. Sage, Field and Kneeland are remarkable characters in Wall Street history, and their names are intimately identified with Gould's-Sage and Field as associates, and Kneeland as an unpurchasable opponent. Russell Sage is one of the richest men of his generation. He came originally from Troy, where he ran a bank, and whose district he represented in Congress before the war for one or two terms. Then he entered Wall Street. His great distinguishing trait was avarice. He worship- ped the mighty dollar. Money-getting was his passion -not for the power and luxury which money can pur- chase, but for the mere pleasure of acquisition. He lived, it is true, on Fifth Avenue and gave somewhat to charity, but his habits were economical almost to the point of penuriousness, and once a dollar got into his hands it did not easily slip through them. It should be 102 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. said for him, however, that he was as careful of other people's money as of his own. This was the man who for many years was Gould's most intimate business asso- ciate, a director in all his companies and a partner in all his schemes. Gould estimated Sage's wealth at $50,000,- 000, and their combined capital was thus enormous. Sage was chiefly a money-lender in Wall Street. He carried an immense amount of ready cash and was of incalculable aid to Gould in all his undertakings. It is indeed one of the traditions of the Street that Sage saved Gould from ruin at a time when he was hotly pressed by James R. Keene and other bear operators. Field was a different kind of a man. He liked money, but only as a means to an end, and he had not the heart or mind to roll up a colossal fortune in the way that Gould and Sage did, though he shared for a time in their enter- prises. But at one time he was worth millions. Field's passion was love of fame. His brothers all gained dis- tinction in the professions; he sought and obtained dis- tinction in commercial life. One of his brothers sat on the Supreme Bench of his country. Another was a leader of the New York bar. A third was a noted clergyman, editor and traveller. Cyrus W. Field began his business life as a rag merchant, but with indomitable pluck, energy and foresight he finally succeeded in con- structing the first Atlantic cable, and was honored both in London and New York. Mr. Field sought almost equal distinction in connection with the elevated rail- roads, whose great importance he comprehended, and he made a bid for popularity by insisting on a reduction of the fares from 10 to 5 cents against the wishes of Gould t THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 103 and Sage. Sage first became acquainted with Gould in Troy. Field first became identified with him in 1879, when he (Field) was President of the Wabash Railroad, though we have seen him as a guest at the famous ban- quet given to President Grant on "Jim" Fisk's steam- boat in 1869. Gould, Sage and Field agreed together to consolidate the three elevated railroad companies. They were, however, met by the determined opposition of President Kneeland, of the Metropolitan road. Nothing could induce him to waver in his opposition. His asso- ciates in the Metropolitan deserted him and one by one they went over to Gould, but he stood firm to the very last, and his persistency caused a celebrated litigation, which proved so protracted and costly that Kneeland was finally defeated, though his spirit was unsubdued. The first plan of consolidation was by leasing the New York and Metropolitan roads to the Manhattan, but the courts did not uphold the lease, and finally, in 1884, the Manhattan issued stock which was exchanged for the securities of the other two companies, and Gould became President of the whole system. Mr. Field be- came identified with all of Mr. Gould's properties, but gave most of his attention to the development of the elevated roads. In 1886 he inaugurated the big bull movement in Manhattan stock. He "boomed" the stock in every possible way, and bought immense quan- tities, and publicly predicted that it would sell at 200. He succeeded in pushing the price to 175. Like al- most all artificial corners this movement collapsed sud- denly and Mr. Field was nearly buried in the ruins. Many believed at the time that this collapse was pre- W 104 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. cipitated by Gould and Sage. It might have come about by other causes, but Gould gave the tottering structure the push that levelled it to the ground. There were many reasons, it was argued, for his action. First, Field was no longer necessary, but on the contrary a hindrance to Gould and Sage, and they therefore wanted to get rid of him; and second, Field was con- ducting his bull movement independently of them. They would profit by his fall, while if he succeeded the system might pass into his hands. So in June, 1887, came the collapse. Mr. Ficld never charged Gould with having precipitated it, and Gould himself claimed that he came to the rescue of Field and saved him from bankruptcy. It was, however, a remarkable deal aud one by which Gould made himself absolutely master of the elevated system, of which in 1891 he made his eld- est son Vice-President and another son a director. Field was carrying an immense amount of stock on mar- gins and was consequently a heavy borrower of money. Gould and Sage were lenders. The bank reserves were low. Gould and Sage called in their loans and Gould found it impossible to negotiate loans and was thus obliged to throw over his stock at a sacrifice. The price of Manhattan fell from 160 to 120, and Gould purchased from Field 78,000 shares at prices under- stood to have ranged from par to 120. Field saved his real estate and other property, but his power in the street was gone. His later history was a tragedy. In 1891, within a few weeks, he lost his wife and his son became a disgraced bankrupt. This chapter would not be complete without a refer- m THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 105 ence to the elevated railroad litigation. This was re- markable not only for the number and high standing of the lawyers engaged in the suits and the importance of the questions at issue, but also for a judicial incident which recalled the palmy days of the Erie and Tweed rings. Mr. Gould's favorite judge in this litigation was Westbrook, who sat on the Supreme Bench in a Hudson River district. Many years before he had been the first lawyer consulted by Gould, and now that he was judge he gave several orders that were favorable to Gould, and once actually held court and issued an injunction from Mr. Gould's private office in the Western Union building. The State Assembly presented him for im- peachment for malfeasance in office, but on trial by the Senate he was acquitted, but not unanimously by any means. He died shortly after while still serving as judge. 106 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. D 1 CHAPTER XII. IN TELEGRAPHY. IN probably no other country of the world would one man be permitted to control its telegraph system. But Gould became the absolute dictator of the Western Union and successfully overcame every competitor that arose. His record in Western Union, like that in his other properties, is that of a tremendous increase of se- curities. Like the wicked milkman, Gould always skimmed off the cream and poured water into all his properties. The comic papers delighted to picture him with a watering-pot in his hand. The mainspring of the Western Union is monopoly. Its condition is such that it cannot exist with profit to its stockholders with a strong competition in the field. Thus it is a grand aggregation of small companies. It has absorbed and will probably continue to absorb every rival in the field. Gould himself rode into control on the back of a competing company. This was early in 1881. His version of the story is given in his testimony to the Senate Committee on Labor and Education. "I am interested in the telegraph," he told the com- mittee, "for the railroad and telegraph systems go THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 107 * hand in hand, as it were, integral parts of a great civilization. I naturally became acquainted with the telegraph business and gradually became interested in it. I thought well of it as an investment and I kept increasing my interests. When the Union Pacific was built I had an interest in a company called the Atlantic and Pacific, and I endeavored to make that a rival to the Western Union. We extended it con- siderably, but found it rather uphill work. We saw that our interest lay more with the Western Union. Through that we could reach every part of the country, and through a small company we could not; so we made an offer to sell to Western Union the control of the Atlantic and Pacific. At that time a very dear friend of mine was the manager, and I supposed that he would be made the manager of the Western Union, but after the consolidation was perfected it was not done, and I made up my mind that he should be at the head of as good a company as I had taken him from. The friend was Gen. Eckert, and for him I started another company-the American Union-and we car- ried it forward until a proposition was made to merge it also into the Western Union. As the stock of the latter went down I bought a large interest in it, and found that the only way out was to put the two com- panies together. Gen. Eckert became general manager of the whole system. Meantime I bought so much of its property and its earning power that I have kept increasing my interest. I thought it better to let my income go into the things that I was in myself, and I have never sold any of my interests, but have devoted $ 108 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. my income to increasing them. This is the whole history of it." This beautiful account of Gould's devotion to a friend, to the extent of starting a telegraph company for him, does not, however, tell the whole story. Gould's policy in regard to the American Union was twofold. It was to establish a competing company so strong that the Western Union would have to absorb it, or else it would absorb the Western Union. The result was that the Western Union did absorb the American Union and Gould absorbed the Western Union! By the aid of his rival company Gould kept hammering at the stock of the Western Union, then controlled by Vanderbilt. By every art known to Wall Street speculation he forced the price down as low as he could. He sold the stock "short" in large amounts, and in buying to cover bought enough additional to place him in control. Then he consolidated the two companies, and 100,000 shares of American Union, which represented a com- paratively small outlay of capital" on the part of Gould, went into the Western Union at par, and Gould's immense holdings of Western Union were thus acquired at a low figure. Of course, if he had attempted to market his holdings in one lump his profits would have been wiped out, but by carrying the load and letting the stock out by driblets his profits were large, even if he sold under the market-price, which was nearly always below par. On January 11, 1881, it became known in Wall Street that the consolidation was prob- able, and the price of Western Union rose from 78 to 103 and the next day to 114. The consolidation in- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD, 109 creased the capitalization of the Western Union to $80,000,000, and this amount has increased later by the capitalization of scrip dividends and by the acquisition of the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph. After Gould became the master of the system the Mutual Union was started as a rival concern. Gould soon gobbled it up EDWIN GOULD. and leased it to the Western Union. Then Robert Garrett developed the wires owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into a competing telegraph system, and under the management of Mr. Bates, who had formerly been with Gould in American Union and Western Union, it became a big system, stretching far west and south. But Garrett soon got into deep waters. 110 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. He had not the genius of his father, the famous John W. Garrett, and a struggle with Gould was beyond his strength. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, nominally a Gibraltar of strength, was intrinsically weak. Garrett entered into negotiations to sell a controlling interest in the property. His desire was to place it in hands hostile to Gould, but the latter used his power in the stock market to frustrate his plans. Garrett contracted to deliver the control to Henry S. Ives, a young specu- lator who was modelling his life after the Gould pattern, but in the end Garrett was not able to deliver nor was Ives able to receive. The B. & O. system was dismem- bered, and the telegraph fell into Gould's hands. Gould had previously announced to the public that "the Western Union does not intend to buy any more rival telegraph companies," but when he found he could get the B. & O. cheap a little declaration of that kind did not stand in the way. In fact it was intended only to mask his intention to buy. Gould drew around him in Western Union a powerful body of men. His Board of Directors included Norvin Green, Harrison Durkee, Alonzo B. Cornell (who when Governor of the State from 1880 to 1883 posed as an anti-Gould and anti-monopoly Governor), Cyrus W. Field, Robert L. Kennedy, Hugh J. Jewett (whose tes- timony in regard to Erie has already been quoted), J. Pierpont Morgan, of Drexel, Morgan & Co.; C. P. Huntington, R. C. Clowry, Henry Weaver, Erastus Wiman, of R. G. Dun & Co.; John Jacob Astor, Frank Work, George B. Roberts, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the leading railroad system of the world; THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 111 George D. Morgan, John Hoy, W. D. Bishop and J. W. Clendenin. The management, however, was in the hands of an executive committee composed of Gould's immediate associates. The Western Union, besides its land system, owns ocean cables and has a big interest in the telephone and stock "ticker" systems, and Gould's power as the master of this company can scarcely be estimated. It is believed that Mr. Gould's real ambition, so far as concerned the Western Union, was to sell it to the Government. But so long as the country believed that` Jay Gould desired to sell there could be no public opinion aroused in favor or purchasing it. So Gould, if such was his real desire, masked his purpose behind a display of indifference or opposition, in the hope that if it was thought he did not wish to sell the country would be all the more eager to buy. Thus he told the Com- mittee on Labor and Education: "I think the control by the Government is contrary to our institutions. The telegram system, of all other business, wants to be managed by skilled experts, while the Government is founded on the idea that the party in power shall control the patronage. If the Govern- ment controlled it the general managers' heads would come off every four years and you would not have any such efficient service as at present. The very dividend of the Western Union is based upon doing business well, keeping her customers and developing her busi- ness. If the Democrats were in power there would be a Democratic telegraph; if the Republicans came into power there would be a Republican telegraph, and if 112 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. the Reformers came in I don't know what there would be [Laughter]. I think it would be a mere political machine. I would be perfectly willing, so far as I am concerned, to allow the Government to try it, to sell out our property, but it would be very unjust to take it away, the property of our own citizens, and make it valueless." "Have you any idea what the Government ought to pay ?" "I think that it ought to pay what it is worth and no more. I think that the method that was provided in the law is a very just one, and I would be perfectly willing to let the Government take it on those terms." What, in your opinion, is the Western Union property worth ?" 66 Well, I judge of property myself by its net earning power; that is the only rule I have been able to get. If you show me a property that is paying no more than the taxes, I don't want it. I want property that earns money. You might say that there is water in Western Union, and so there is. There is water in all this prop- erty along Broadway. This whole island was once bought for a few strings of beads. But now you will find this property valued by its earning power, by its rent power, and that is the way to value a railroad or a telegraph. So it is worth what it earns now, a capital that pays 7 per cent." "That would be $100,000,000 ?" "Yes, and it is worth much more than that, because there are a great many assets." THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD 113 1 CHAPTER XIII. HIS WALL STREET FAME. To write an account of Gould's career in Wall Street would be equal to the task of writing a history of Wall Street itself, and besides, his important Wall Street operations were closely allied with his outside enter- prises, of which a full account has been given. There remain only two or three incidents of commanding in- terest out of the mass of material which could be used. The most dramatic of these was the pommelling of Jay Gould by Major A. A. Selover in August, 1877. Selover was a Californian, a six-footer, a blond, muscu- lar and vigorous. He first attained prominence in Wall Street when James R. Keene came East, after his suc- cessful mining operations in San Francisco, by which he achieved a fortune of $8,000,000. Keene was a daring, almost foolhardy stock gambler. He always played for big stakes and took enormous chances. His success in San Francisco had been so great that he entered Wall Street with the idea of clearing all before him. He tackled Gould as the biggest animal in the arena, but found to his sorrow that he had to deal with a man more able than he, scarcely less daring, but far more cautious. In a few short years Keene's wealth had dwindled away, 114 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. and early in 1884 he failed, owing hundreds of thousands. of dollars in the shape of "puts," "calls" and "strad- dles." He dropped at the rate of about a million dol- lars a year in Wall Street, and no small proportion of this found its way into the pockets of Gould. Yet Keene at one time was thought to have outmatched Gould. Selover introduced Keene to Gould, and acted as go-between for them in certain operations in which both were interested. Early in 1877 the two men com- bined forces in one deal. That is to say, they joined in one enterprise and fought each other behind each other's back. It was a case of diamond cut diamond. Keene formed a big pool, and, beginning to fight Gould, finally went over to him, being led into this change largely through the instrumentality of Selover. Both Keene and Selover then operated on an understanding with Gould, but soon found, as they charged, that Gould was secretly selling them out. Gould and Keene had a stormy scene in Russell Sage's office, when the latter is said to have brandished a pistol in Gould's face. The deal had been mainly in Western Union, which Gould did not then control, and Atlantic and Pacific, which he did control. Gould's double dealing not only made Keene very mad, but made Selover very desperate. He had placed reliance in Gould's statements and had suf- fered loss, and resolved upon revenge. Accordingly, on the 2d of August, 1877, while walking down Ex- change Place from Broadway, Selover, meeting Gould walking up to the office of Belden & Co., No. 80 Broad- way, of which he was then a partner, first engaged him in what appeared to be an amicable conversation, but THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 115 soon resulted in an assault. Selover first struck Gould in the face and then dropped him over an areaway at No. 65 Exchange Place which was seven or eight feet deep. Mr. Gould was a good deal shaken up, but not seriously injured. Selover left to go to his brokers and Gould proceeded to transact his business as usual. He was assisted from the areaway, singularly enough, by George Crouch, who has been identified with several incidents in Gould's career from the days of Erie and Black Friday to the Kansas Pacific criminal prosecu- tion, and who was one-third artist, one-third newspaper man and one-third speculator. The Selover incident created an immense sensation at the time, and the news- papers printed columns about it. Selover became quite a hero, for while there was nothing very courageous in his assault from a physical point of view, as he was more than a match for timid little Mr. Gould, yet to attack Gould was considered by many an act of moral bravery. Selover declared that he had attacked Gould because Gould had been guilty of fraud, lying and duplicity. Gould, he said, had made arrangements with him to go short on Western Union, and while he (Selover) was selling accordingly in good faith he dis- covered that Gould was buying heavily. When he learned of this he determined to punish him the first time he met him, and so he had charged him with the fraud and slapped his face. "I attacked him on my own account alone," he added, "and regardless of the fact that he had played Jim Keene the same trick. He is notoriously treacherous, and this is not the first time he has been punished for the same offense." Poor Mr. 116 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. --- Selover never amounted to very much in Wall Street after this, though he continued to be seen there daily. Gould after this incident rarely appeared in the Street unless accompanied by stalwart G. P. Morosini. It is related that not long after this Keene came near getting his revenge on Gould. The latter was putting all his energies into Union Pacific and carrying $22,000,000 of the stock, mostly in margins. Keene organized an opposition party and nearly succeeded in breaking Gould. Sage, however, came to the latter's assistance with $2,000,- 000 of much-needed cash, and Gould was saved. Keene's purpose was to drive Gould from the Street forever, but he not only failed, but in a few years he was himself a bankrupt, with Gould more powerful and richer than ever. Rumors of Gould's death and of his impending bank- ruptcy were not infrequently circulated in Wall Street. Rumors of death could be easily disproved, but once, at least, the Street was firmly convinced that Gould was in financial difficulties, and Gould was obliged to exhibit his wealth in order to prove that he was solvent. On March 13, 1882, Gould exhibited to Sage, Field and Frank Work his box of securities to show that he was not only solid, but also had not been a seller of stocks. He exhibited to the astonished vision of these associates $23,000,000 of Western Union, $12,000,000 of Missouri Pacific and $19,000,000 of other stocks. Russell Sage said: "There is not another man in America except Vanderbilt who could make such a display of stock as that." In 1884 Gould made another exhibition of his THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 117 securities to John T. Terry and others, and the display was even bigger than two years before. The panic of 1884 is believed to have caused Mr. Gould much anxiety. It came suddenly and without warning. There had been earlier in the year, it is true, the collapse and resignation of Henry Villard, soon fol- lowed by the failure of James R. Keene, but these dis- asters would not have produced the financial earthquake that shook Wall Street in May. The failure of the Marine Bank and Grant & Ward, with the revelations which followed of embezzlement on a scale never before witnessed in the Street, and the suspension on the mem- orable 13th and 14th of the month of the Metropolitan Bank, George I. Seney and seven or eight prominent banking-houses in this city and two banks in Brooklyn and Newark, caused a panic like that of 1869 and 1873, and from the depressing effects of which the Street did not rally for several years. Gould's fortune melted like snow in the decline of values which accompanied this panic. He came out of it probably $20,000,000 poorer than when it began. But this loss, it is true, was chiefly on paper. He was able to hold most of his securities, the value of which afterwards increased. But it is be- lieved that he was at one time very hotly pressed. His associate, Russell Sage, lost millions in the decline by his operations in puts and calls. His office was besieged by a mob clamorous for their profits. The old man re- luctantly paid up, and, badly scared and sick at heart, retired from the Street for a while, hoarding the $40,000,- 000 or $45,000,000 which was still left to solace him. The men who chiefly profited by the great decline were - 118 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Charles F. Woerishoffer and Addison Cammack, the leaders of a small but powerful bear party, which for several years had been preparing for this depression, and by all the bear tactics, of which they were masters, assisting in the downward movement. They were two men of mark. Woerishoffer was the superior in mind and nerve. When he died in 1886, while under forty years of age, he was worth, it is said, $8,000,000 to $10,- 000,000, the result of his daring speculation. He was probably the ablest stock speculator Wall Street has ever seen, not excepting Gould, whose principal success, it should be remembered, was in operations outside of the Street. Woerishoffer was by birth a German, and was the son-in-law of Oswald Ottendorfer. Some of the most successful men in Wall Street, it may be remarked, are Germans or of German descent, as for instance Villard, who after his collapse in 1884 had recovered in 1888 the ground he had lost; August Belmont, the banker, the Wormsers and the Seligmans. Cammack was a man of much coarser nature than Woerishoffer. He came orig- inally from the South, and the Wall Street tradition was. that he had been a slave-driver by profession. Gruff in his manners, uncouth in his language, he yet had qual- ities as a speculator which made him a power in the Street. These two men, with their following, are be- lieved to have very nearly driven Gould to the wall in 1884, and the story is that Gould might have gone down if Cammack-of all men-had not relented. This story, like many others told in Wall Street, probably has a mixture of truth and fiction. In 1887 and 1888 Cam- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 119 mack was very evidently in alliance with Gould in stock operations. Gould was not a member of the Stock Exchange, though he was often the biggest customer the institution had. He was, however, almost always in general or special partnership with some member of the exchange, and thus obtained all the advantages of personal mem- bership. After the dissolution of the house of Smith, Gould & Martin, Gould became the silent partner in the firm of William Belden & Co. This was succeeded by the famous house of W. E. Connor & Co., which lasted about ten years and which engineered some of Mr. Gould's most successful deals. At the time Mr. Gould retired from the firm, in 1886, it was composed of him- self as special partner, and of Washington E. Connor, G. P. Morosini and George J. Gould, the great operator's eldest son. Mr. Connor was the ideal broker and per- haps the most valuable lieutenant Mr. Gould ever had. Not over-scrupulous in carrying out the interests of his master, he was faithful to the last minute to him. Tempting offers were made to buy him off at various times, and he might have made several fortunes in be- traying the confidences of his chief, but it is believed he was always true. Like Morosini, he allied his interests to those of Gould and profited by the connection. When the firm dissolved, Gould said of his partners: "Both are very rich men. Mr. Connor is worth at least a mill- ion and Mr. Morosini two or three times as much. The new firm will have my heartiest good-will in whatever it undertakes. Between Mr. Connor, Mr. Morosini and 120 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. { myself there has never been an interruption of good feeling.” Mr. Connor was not only faithful, but quick and shrewd in his judgments. Upon him rested nearly all the details of the best operations of the house. These operations often required the assistance of fifty or sixty brokers. Often these brokers did not know that they were working for the same client. Sometimes they were ignorant even of the fact that Gould was their client. The prime necessity in great stock operations is to con- ceal one's movements. Sometimes a part of the brokers might be selling and a part might be buying. Gould and Connor alone held the strings of the intricate opera- tions. One of the first great successful movements the house undertook was in Kansas Pacific in 1879. The stock within a period of a few months shot up from 8 to 97, and the bonds from 10 to 110. Gould cleared nearly $10,000,000 by this operation. The most brilliant feat accomplished by the house was performed when Gould acquired Western Union. Mr. Gould for a long time, as has been related, had been an uncompromising bear on the stock. The whole Street was aware that he and his firm were heavily short of the stock. Suddenly the stock began to rush up. Gould was caught for once, it was said. The truth was that Connor had engineered the movement and Gould had not only bought in all his shorts but purchased enough stock to give him control. of the company. It was also this house that pushed Western Union up from 78 to 91 and pushed Henry Smith and other bears to cover their shorts at a heavy loss, It also handled the elevated railway deals, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 121 į While Gould and the Beldens were in partnership at No. 80 Broadway, Connor had a small office in the rear. He was bright, sharp, sagacious, reticent and nearly as well informed as Gould himself. Gould was drawn to Connor naturally, and when the former fell out with the MANE sw win V Comm Runs in GR MRS. EDWIN GOULD. Beldens he and Connor formed a co-partnership. Mr. Morosini for many years had been Mr. Gould's man Friday, and was invariably seen with a large canvas bag following his employer to the safe-deposit vaults and protecting him against any repetition of the Selover attack. Morosini went into the new firm, whose lim- itation only ran from year to year. Connor and Moro- 122 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. sini put in $100,000 each, and Gould, as special partner, $250,000. George Gould was admitted in 1881, but without paying in a cent. Although the nominal capital of the house at all times has been $450,000, the actual capital, at times of great activity on 'change, ran up into the millions. But Mr. Connor was not Gould's only broker. Charles J. Osborn was for years one of Gould's closest lieutenants and associates, and a more dashing broker never stepped into the Stock Exchange. William Heath, "the ante- lope of Wall Street," as he was called because of his long legs and slender body, was also long a favorite with Gould. Heath was a master at keeping secrets. None of his customers could ever learn what his other cus- tomers were doing. His faithfulness, experience and ability, however, availed him little in the end. He assisted Gould on Black Friday and helped him in many a risky transaction. When Heath failed with Henry N. Smith in 1885, Mr. Gould, though, with Morosini, the principal creditor, did not come to his assistance. It was thought that Gould would put him on his feet again, but he did not do so, and Heath-alone, broken in spirit and in fortune-died shortly after in Staten Island, but not until he had been lodged for a while in Ludlow Street Jail, a prisoner for debt. On the dissolution of W. E. Connor & Co., December 31, 1885, Mr. Gould announced his permanent retire- ment from the Street. That perhaps was his intention (though he was as prolific in retirements as Charlotte Cushman), but it was not long before his presence was again felt in the Stock Exchange. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 123 CHAPTER XIV. GOULD IN POLITICS-SOMETIMES REPUBLICAN, SOME- TIMES DEMOCRATIC, BUT ALWAYS FOR ERIE. GOULD'S politics sprang from his pocket, not from his patriotism. He has already been quoted as saying that "in Republican districts he was a Republican, in Dem- ocratic districts a Democrat, and in all an Erie man." But Mr. Gould was more a Republican than anything else, for he obtained, or thought he could obtain, more recognition and protection from that party than from the Democratic. The Republican party was the party of large land grants, of liberal appropriations and of corporation tendencies. In presidential elections Mr. Gould often contributed heavily to the Republican campaign fund, and his check was always solicited and joyfully received. In 1880 his money was probably part of that which bought Indiana for the Republicans, and it was charged that he obtained reward from President Garfield in the appointment of Stanley Matthews as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, whose views relative to the Pacific railroads and other corporation questions were understood to be favor- able to Gould. This charge, of course, was hard to prove, and may be unjust to both Garfield and Matthews. 124 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. In 1884 Gould supported Blaine. He was present at the celebrated millionaire dinner given to Blaine at Del- monico's two or three evenings before the election, and which, with the Burchard incident, probably turned the evenly balanced scales of public opinion against the Maine statesman. Gould's money was powerful and his presence was contaminating, and the public dis- trusted any of its servants who seemed to be friendly with him. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 125 CHAPTER XV. GOULD AND THE NEWSPAPERS. No man in the country had a wider audience than Gould. Whatever he had to say was sure of publica- tion in every newspaper in the land. Journals that continually denounced him would print everything he had to say as a matter of news. Gould was always an interesting figure. The public never tired of reading about him, his operations, his yacht, his home, his daily life. Every word he uttered was eagerly reported, and his movements were watched as closely as the President's. In his later years he was quite accessible to newspaper men, and they found him not averse to the process of interviewing if he had anything to say. The Tribune and Sun were his favorite mediums of communication with the public, because they seldom attacked and often defended Gould. Indeed, they were looked upon as his personal organs during a part of his life. But Gould would frequently give interviews to other papers. He recognized the fact that the papers which opposed him were of the widest circulation and influence, and that if he had anything to say it was time to give it to the largest circulation. The World 126 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. was foremost in denouncing his operations, but he was often pleased to reach the public through its columns, even if his words were accompanied with severe editorial criticism. Mr. Gould was a good talker; he possessed the art of saying little or much, as he pleased. The most skilful of interviewers could not trap him into saying something which he did not wish to say. When he got through he would stop, and no amount of in- genuity could induce him to continue. Mr. Gould was fond of testifying to the honesty and good faith of newspaper men. When he knew his man he said he could trust him not to betray him. But Gould almost invariably insisted on seeing the proof-sheets of the in- terview before publication. C When in Marseilles, France, in 1887, Gould was inter- viewed by the World correspondent. "What do you think of railway comforts and prices in France?" he was asked. Half a century behind America," was his reply. "Take our journey down here. Twenty-one dollars for a ticket and $11 for a berth in a sleeping-car-$32 for a ride of 500 miles between the capital of France and her principal seaport. I could not sleep a wink. The car was too hot. We could not get any one to ventilate it, and the comfort of passengers was the last thing uniformed officials on board seemed to think of. "We have got some things yet to learn from the Old World," he added, further on, when speaking of the splendid docks at Marseilles, "but in all essential respects in the form of government, of national charac- ter, resources and opportunities we have the great coun- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 127 try of the future, and the more I see of foreign countries. the better American I am." Early in 1881 Gould gave the Herald a four-column interview which created great interest, for up to that time Gould had not cared, apparently, much to cultivate friendly relations with the public. In this interview he touched upon a great variety of subjects. ،، "Corporations," he said, "are going, we are told, to destroy the country. But what would this country be but for corporations? Who have developed it? Cor- porations. Who transact the most marvellous busi- ness the world has ever seen? Corporations." Again: My theory of investments is this: To go into every- thing that promises a profit. For me business possesses a very great fascination. I believe in this country, in its future. Unfortunately I do not always succeed. I have been in a score, a hundred speculations from which I would gladly have withdrawn. But once in an enter- prise it is very hard to leave it. We are all slaves, and the man who owns $1,000,000 is the greatest slave of all, except he who owns $2,000,000." Still again: “I am a mere passenger in all my undertakings. I am in- terested not with one or a dozen men, but with thou- sands. Any man to-day can buy anything I have got." "But you dictate the price ?" "In other words, I control Wall Street ?" "Yes." C "Nonsense! No man can control Wall Street. Wall Street is like the ocean. No man can govern it. It is too vast. Wall Street is full of eddies and currents. The thing to do is to watch them, to exercise a little 128 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. common sense, and on the wane of speculation, or what- ever you please to call it, to come in on top." "Do you read the newspapers much, Mr. Gould ?" Oh, yes." 66 "And see all the cartoons of you ?" "Yes; some of them are very funny, and I enjoy them immensely. I suppose I am something of a pub- lic character and that I must bear my contribution to the fun of the time. I do not object to criticism, provided it is only fair. Sometimes, however, I get, as I think, some unfair knocks. I asked a certain editor once why he abused me so. He replied that there were only three or four men in the country worth abusing, and that I was one of them. Well,' said I, ‘go ahead, but I hope you will change your mind some day.' I am sorry to say he is of the same opinion still.” man in this country, outside of the lunatic asylum, whom I know, imagines for a moment that he could control the press or mould the opinion of this country." "No Extracts innumerable could be given from his inter- views in the World and other papers, but these give a fair idea of his ability as a talker as well as reveal some- thing of his personality. In the Herald interview Mr. Gould confirmed the story about the mouse-trap which he had brought to the city when a lad and which has already been related. From 1880 to 1883 Mr. Gould owned the World We have his own word (in an interview in the World in June, 1883), that he purchased the control of the paper from Col. Tom Scott, the famous Pennsylvania Railroad king, as a part of a negotiation which included THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD 129 also the purchase of the Texas Pacific Railroad. Mr. Gould said that Col. Scott appealed to him at Berne, Switzerland, in 1879, to take the road and the paper off his hands. William Henry Hurlbert, who was editor of the World under Gould, gave a different version of the transaction, claiming that the purchase from Col. Scott was the result of a negotiation opened by Mr. Hurlbert with Mr. Gould. The World did not thrive under the ownership of Gould. It did not possess public confidence. The paper was used as an instrument in Gould's Wall Street operations. Brilliant editorials could not redeem it from the withering influence of Gould's name. Its circulation had shrunk to 15,000 when Mr. Joseph Pulitzer pur- chased it in May, 1883. It then became a new paper. Freed from Gould and under an intelligent, enterprising and public-spirited management it became in five years the leading newspaper of the country, with the biggest circulation. }, 130 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY COULD. J CHAPTER XVI. HOW HE LIVED. IT is a relief to turn from the record of Gould's public career to the contemplation of his private life. As has already been said, in all his domestic relations Gould was a model man. He had no habits but that of hard work and home enjoyments. He did not use tobacco in any form. He rarely, if ever, sipped a glass of wine. Social scandal never attached to his name. He loved his home. When not in his office he was with his family. He owned a box at the opera, but when he at- tended his family always accompanied him. He be- longed to no social clubs. He did not add the excite- ment of the turf to the excitement of the Stock Exchange. On his return from a journey his first questions were of the welfare of his family. He made his home as beautiful as wealth, refinement and purity could make it. He loved his children, the sweet discourse of the fireside and the companionship of books and flowers. There was no attempt at display, but everything he pos- sessed was the best. Neither he nor his wife had any ambition for society distinction. They gave no great balls and rarely were they present at "society events.' They had none of the vulgar traits of the parvenu or THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 131 prejudices of the aristocrat. When his son wished to marry on actress Mr. Gould interposed no objection, and even approved the choice, declaring his pleasure that his son had selected a respectable woman who was able to earn her own living. Perhaps his devotion to his family was due in part to the fact that his public career placed him apart from other men and made him an object of fear and hatred. He was an exile from the sympathies of his fellow-men. But he uttered no complaint, and found in his family full solace for any loss of friendships he may have incurred. The members of his family were his only intimate friends. # Mr. Gould's wife was Miss Ellen Miller, whose father, a wealthy New York merchant, was a member of the grocery house of Philip Dater & Co. Mr. Gould met his wife while living at the Everett House, before the war. She lived in a house across the street, and a delightful flirtation with the charming young lady, whose pretty face appeared at the window of the house across the way, preceded, it is related, the formal acquaintance and betrothal. She proved a most estimable wife. She made her home her life, and gave her best thought to the rearing of her children. Her death was a severe blow to Mr. Gould. Their union was blessed with six children, four boys and two girls. Of the children the eldest boy, George J. Gould, is the best known, because he has entered into man's estate and become the busi- ness associate of his father. Mr. Gould is fortunate in this son. Whether he possesses the great ability of his father is a question which only the future can decide, but he is industrious, sober and faithful. More than { 132 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. that, he has shown himself capable of caring for large interests. He has many of the physical and mental traits of his father. He loves a fast horse, a good play and a swift yacht, but the first law of his being is de- votion to business. Mr. Gould early began to introduce his son to the manifold affairs of his extensive interests. He bought him a seat in the Stock Exchange, made him his companion in his tours of inspection over his rail- roads, made him a partner in his broker's firm, and eventually a director in all his companies. Another son, Edward, has shown unmistakable talent for specu- lation and is following in his father's footsteps. Mr. Gould had four residences, two stationary, and two movable-namely, his Fifth Avenue mansion, his coun- try seat on the Hudson, his steam yacht and his private palace car. In these he spent the latter and best years of his life. - His Fifth Avenue residence is a massive edifice on the corner of Forty-seventh Street, opposite the Windsor Hotel. It was formerly the home of ex-Mayor Opdyke, himself once a prominent Wall Street man, It is fur- nished in sumptuous style, with splendid pictures and other works of art and books in abundance. The pic- tures include masterpieces by Rosa Bonheur and other famous artists. Back of this house is the residence of George J. Gould and his wife, who was formerly Miss Edith Kingdon, a member of Daly's theatrical com- pany. Mr. Gould's principal residence, however, was his mag- nificent country-seat on the Hudson between Irvington and Tarrytown. This comprises five hundred acres, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 133 commanding a splendid panorama of the Hudson. Be- sides the large and richly furnished mansion, containing a costly library of about eight thousand volumes, there is a conservatory which ranks with the best which this world-contains. It is probably the largest private con- they may start="" کریم MISS HELEN GOULD. servatory in this country, and is equalled in England only by that of the Duke of Westminster, at Chester. There are public conservatories which equal or surpass it, but none private. In this conservatory may be found every variety of flower, orchid, plant and fruit in bewildering quantity and beauty. A few years ago the writer had the privilege of a view of this splendid horticultural col- lection, his conductor being Mr. Gould himself. The www } { 134 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. $ great speculator did not own this collection simply for the pride of saying that he possessed it, but for the real pleasure he took in flowers and plants. He knew the names of the different varieties, and could point out the beauties and characteristics of an orchid as well as could his high-priced gardener. The conservatory was burned in 1880, but another, larger and more costly, soon rose from the ashes. This is 400 feet long and 32 feet wide. There are also two wings, 80 feet long and 25 feet wide. Another building, 250 feet long and 18 feet wide, is devoted to similar purposes. Several years ago there were over four thousand different varieties of plants in the conservatory, and nearly as many more on the grounds, and the collection has been added to every year. Every country and every climate is represented in this splendid collection. The great steam yacht Atalanta, which cost as much. as a first-class ocean steamer and required an annual ex- penditure nearly equal to the salary of the President of the United States, was Mr. Gould's third home. He took the greatest pleasure in this magnificent plaything. When, during the summer, he lived at Irvington, it car- ried him to and from the city every day. On this yacht also he made frequent ocean voyages to the West Indies, across the Atlantic, and in the waters of the Mediterra- nean. It was, in fact, a floating palace, but was built not simply for luxury but for speed, and not another steam yacht afloat could distance it in a trial of speed. Mr. Gould was a member of the American Yacht Club, the only organization, by the way, of which he was a member, and of this he was practically the founder. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 135 Mr. Gould also owned a private railroad car. He used for many years the Union Pacific car Convoy, but in 1887 had a new car especially constructed for his use by the Pullman Company. It was the longest car ever con- structed by that company, being seventy feet in length, and containing an observation-room, a parlor, a dining- hall and sleeping-rooms, besides the porter's quarters and the kitchen. 136 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD, CHAPTER XVII. AS TO HIS CHARACTER. No just estimate of Mr. Gould can be formed without. taking into consideration the fact that he lived in a time and country in which corruption in politics and business was widespread. The great mass of the people were honest, but municipal government was the most corrupt ever known. Bribery walked the streets of the national and State capitals, and "jobs" were behind nearly every public undertaking. It was a period, on the one hand, of glorious achievement and extraordinary development, and, on the other hand, of venality, deceit and dishon- esty. The besetting temptation of the times was the desire to get rich-enormously rich-suddenly. Mr. Gould may be said to have been little if any worse than most of his contemporaries in business. His triumphs were, for the most part, over men who would have ruined him if he had not ruined them. Slight of stature and frame, and feeble in body, with a high-strung, nervous organization, a rebellious stomach and flesh-plagued with the neuralgia-such was Mr. Gould as he appeared in the later years of his life. His deceit and far-reaching were the result largely of his frailty THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD, 137 and timidity. In appearance what a meek, mild-looking man he was! Strangers to whom he was pointed out would exclaim: "What, that Jay Gould! Well, I never would have thought it." About five feet six inches in. height and of slender figure, he was not an imposing personage. His complexion was swarthy; his eyes dark and piercing; his closely trimmed whiskers black and streaked with gray; his forehead dome-shaped and his hair rather thin-such was Jay Gould. His voice was very low and mild. When a witness in courts and before committees, as he frequently was, it was with the great- est difficulty that he could be heard. But when once in close contact with him one soon came under the spell of his intellect. His comprehension was wide, his intuition wonderful, his judgment almost unerring. He was a close student when once he took up a subject; he never ceased until he had thoroughly mastered it in every de- tail. This was the secret of his success. Henry Ward Beecher once defined genius as the power and willing- ness to work long and hard, and under this definition Mr. Gould was a man of genius. Though not by any means wholly bad, he was a dangerous man. His life was a menace to his country. His successes were demoralizing to the young. He looked like a premium on dishonesty, a reversal of the old adage that "honesty is the best policy." Mr. Gould's name is unidentified with any great pub- lic bencfactions. Astor and Tilden founded libraries, Drew established a theological seminary, George I. Seney distributed millions and Vanderbilt endowed a hospital, but Gould's purse was never opened by any 138 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. such generous ambition. He was kind to his relatives, gave his brother a good position in the Missouri Pacific Railroad and built his sisters a school in Camden. He gave liberally to alleviate the suffering by the Chicago fire and by the Memphis yellow-fever plague, made big subscriptions to the Grant and Garfield funds, and added eighty acres to the Mount Vernon property. This was nearly all he did in a public way. In February, 1892, however, he invited the members of the Church Exten- sion Society of the Presbyterian Church to his house and gave $10,000 to its fund. It was announced in his behalf by Rev. Dr. Paxton that "the Presbyterian form of church government was the most just, the most republican, the best in the world." Many noted clergymen attended this meeting, and a number of very complimentary things were said of the host, but Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, who was invited but did not go, was caustic in his criti- cism of the acceptance of Gould's money. "There is one thing I should like to know," he said, "and that is this: Where did Jay Gould get that $10,000 he gave to the Church Extension Society ?" In their private chari- ties Mr. and Mrs. Gould and Miss Helen Gould are said to have distributed a large amount of money, and every Christmas Mr. Gould made presents to his clerks. As his sons, George and Edwin, grew up and showed. capacity for business, Mr. Gould, while still retaining a firm grasp of his affairs, gradually withdrew from the fatiguing details of business. His health failed. He took frequent trips to restore it, accompanied always by his physician, Dr. Munn. When in the city he frc- quently remained at his house, in constant telephonic THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 139 communication with his office, however, and sometimes. did not go to his office for days together. Mr. Gould was fortunate in his marriage. His wife was a true helpmeet to him. He was also fortunate in his chil- dren. His sons, unlike many rich men's sons, did not take to riotous pleasure, but became their father's assist- ants in business. After the death of Mrs. Gould, in 1889, Miss Helen Gould became the head of his house- hold. Accounts of Mr. Gould's failing health reached the public from time to time. Considerable excitement was caused in October, 1891, by the announcement that he had fainted at a meeting of the Missouri Pacific directors, and the fact was that he did have an attack of nerv- ousness and depression, and is said to have buried his head in his hands and sobbed. After the Church Ex- tension meeting in 1892 he had another attack and took to his bed, but was able in a few days to go on a rail- way trip through the South. Jay Gould had no social ambition whatever. He was the most domestic of men, and his affection and atten- tion to his own immediate family was so deep as to ap- parently leave no place for outside social influences. That both he and his wife desired that their eldest son make a match that would be considered socially good is a well-known fact, but they accepted the marriage, and Mrs. George Gould was admitted to the affections of her husband's relatives. The death of Mrs. Gould set aside all plans for social diversions, just as the eldest daughter, Miss Helen Gould, was of an age to be brought for- ward. Mr. Jay Gould was one of the box owners of the - 140 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Metropolitan Opera House, and he and his daughter were regular attendants during the season. Miss Gould, as a rule, was quietly attired, very often in pale gray gowns, which were always well made. About a year ago_cards were sent out by Mr. Jay Gould, which read simply : MR. JAY GOULD and MISS GOULD At Home Saturday, Dec. 26, from 3 until 7. As many as 3,000 of these were sent out and every per- son in the social set was asked. This was nothing very unusual, as general invitations are frequently extended by people of personal prominence in this way. During the first couple of hours of the "at home" there were but few callers at the Gould house, but later they came in a steady stream. The mothers of marriageable youths were very kindly disposed towards Miss Gould. Whether she was to achieve a social success has never yet been determined, for almost immediately after the coming-out reception. she left town with her father, who went away for his health. Social leaders say that with his great wealth Mr. Gould might easily have arranged for his daughter's marriage to a man of great social rank. But Mr. Gould didn't care to encourage the quest for his daughter's · THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. 141 hand on the part of men of great social rank. This was evidenced by the hearty consent he gave to the recent marriage of his son Edwin to Miss Shrady, the adopted daughter of Dr. Shrady. 142 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. € CHAPTER XVII. THE FAMILY MAUSOLEUM IN WOODLAWN. 。 THE mausoleum in which the dead multi-millionaire will rest is in Woodlawn Cemetery. The station on the New York and Harlem River Railroad is near the north- east corner of the cemetery. Central Avenue goes by the office of the superintendent and winds through the snowy slopes for about half a mile. About fifty feet from this avenue rises a mound crowned by a tiny Greek temple. That is Jay Gould's tomb. The plot of ground is circular and contains 30,000 square feet. The price of ground in such a select loca- tion is $2 per square foot, so the space alone cost $60,- 000. The grass is surprisingly green under the snow which the workmen were clearing away yesterday to make a path, for although the snow is quite forgotten in New York, on the wind-swept heights of Woodlawn it is almost knee-deep. At the top of the knoll the sun had melted it all away, and the three granite steps of the platform on which the tomb stands were quite frec and dry. The structure is of Westerly granite, which is almost white. There are four Ionic pillars at the front and rear, and ten on each side. The blocks of stone THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuid. 143 composing the walls are smoothly dressed and so accu- rately fitted that the joint would scarcely receive the edge of one's thumb-nail. The roof is low-pitched, and there is no emblem of faith or any name upon the plain entablature. It is a copy of the famous Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, built 2,000 years ago and considered to be the best model of Ionic architecture. In the front under the portico of the tomb are double bronze doors opening outward. The upper panels are of heavy filigree work, with rich and heavy arabesques. Peering through the interstices one may see the narrow hall lined with polished Tennessee marbles. The pave- ment is of tessellated marble in three shades-a cream yellow, a pale pink, and a pale violet. The body of the floor is in the pale violet, with two brands of the pink and yellow crossing it. On each side of the hall are catacombs, ten on a side, five one above another, a partition of carved, pol- ished marble, and then five more catacombs. These are lined with polished marble, and the plate of marble. which closes each one may be removed, the casket slid in sidewise upon rollers, and the plate replaced and sealed with cement. At the back of the tomb is a stained-glass window with a round-headed arch. The pictured glass is of a group of saints. The faces and vestments of the saints are dull red and their aureoles are golden. Over them is a sky of bits of glass of various hues set with beauti- ful color-harmony. The second rear catacomb from the bottom, on the left-hand side entering the tomb, is that of Mrs. Gould, 144 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. who died January 13, 1889, and was interred January 16. The letters "Emily Day Miller, wife of Jay Gould," with the dates of her birth and death, are in high relief on the polished slab. Mrs. Gould's body is the only one in the mausoleum. The tomb was completed in 1883, and cost $50,000. Land and all it cost $110,000. In which catacomb of the tomb Mr. Gould's casket will be placed the cemetery authorities do not know. "Will there be a guard set to watch the tomb to see that the corpse is not stolen ?” "We don't know anything about that," said the superintendent. "No word has been sent us yet. Prob- ably if a guard is stationed outside the tomb the watchers will be engaged through us.” THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 145 CHAPTER XVIII. GOULD AS A PRESBYTERIAN. JAY GOULD was not what is called a religious man. He was a pewholder in the Presbyterian church at Irvington and in the Rev. Dr. Paxton's church on West Forty-second Street, but not a communicant. If he ever expressed any religious views it was to the Rev. Dr. Paxton. Certainly he did not to the Rev. Dr. Henry M. MacCracken, chancellor of the University, nor to the Rev. Roderick Terry, with whom he was on intimate terms of friendship. Dr. Terry said recently: "There was no pretence about Mr. Gould. He never made any public profession of Christianity that I know of. On the subject of religion, as on so many others, he was extremely reticent, unless he unbosomed himself to his pastor, Dr. Paxton. He certainly never talked with me about his feelings on the subject of religion, though the opportunity offered more than once." Mr. Gould's wife was a member of the South Reformed Church for many years, but afterwards became a Presby- terian. The millionaire of late years had been a frequent attendant at the Rev. Dr. Paxton's church and at the Presbyterian Church at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, near A 146 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. his country-place. An old friend of the family said yesterday that when a very young man Jay Gould became converted at a Methodist revival meeting. This gentleman said: "When Jay Gould was a young man he was converted in a Methodist church at Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y. The Rev. Mr. Dutcher, father of Rev. E. C. Dutcher, now pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Nyack, Newark Conference, was pastor in charge of the Roxbury church. The elder Mr. Dutcher was holding a series of revival meetings. The little Dela- ware County church was crowded night after night. "At one of the meetings, after a specially earnest appeal by the venerable preacher, young Gould went forward to the altar and professed conversion. He sub- sequently connected himself with the Presbyterians. The late Rev. Dr. Jacob West, then Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Dutch Reformed Church, preached a number of times in the Roxbury Reformed Church. Gould always attended, and the Rev. Dr. West frequently said Gould was always a remarkably attentive listener." Mr. Gould's name was discussed most prominently in connection with church work last February, when he gave his check for $10,000 to the Rev. Dr. John Hall. The circumstances aroused much comment and consider- able unfavorable criticism. On Tuesday evening, February 23, the Gould mansion was handsomely lighted up. Over one hundred invita- tions had been issued by Mr. Gould and his daughter, Miss Helen Gould, to prominent Presbyterians and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 147 members of the Presbyterian Board of Church Exten- sion. It was understood by those receiving the invita- tions that the reception was solely for the purpose of raising funds. Mr. and Miss Gould received the guests. They were assisted by Mrs. Russell Sage and Mrs. J. P. الا JAY GOULD, JR. Munn. The Rev. Dr. Paxton said, in the course of his opening address to the guests: "When I asked Mr. Gould about opening his home. for a meeting of the friends of Presbyterian church extension, without hesitation or deliberation he and Miss Gould said at once, and said it cordially: Certainly, with great pleasure,' and Mr. Gould added: 'I believe in church extension on Manhattan Island.' But Mr. Gould € 148 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. has taken another step in the right direction, for since he asked us here-Mr. Sage told me this-Mr. Gould, who is superficial in nothing, wanted to know what church extension is, and what church ought to be ex- tended, and so he read our confession of faith. "I am not certain of that, for he and the Revision and new creed people would not agree; he is old school; he believes in obeying marching orders, like Welling- ton; in walking in the old paths, like the New York Observer. But one thing, Mr. Sage told me, our host has made up his mind on, and that was that our form of church government was the most just, the most republican, the best in the world. Therefore, our host is not only in favor of church extension, but of Presby- terian church extension. He wants no Popery, no prel- acy, no three orders in a church in a land where all are equal in rights and before the law. I am sure this in- formation will warm Dr. Hall's heart and impart to his speech increased fervor when he speaks to-night. "We are here to face the foe, to take heart of hope, to give our money, our prayers, our tribute, our toil, knowing no such word as fail, to this good cause of extending, as Mr. Gould says, the only true, holy, catholic, American church-our old blue-bordered Pres- byterian denomination." "I have never met Mr. Gould but once before," said the Rev. Dr. Hall, "and that was many years ago. A gentleman in Chicago wrote me regarding a missionary, who had been called back from China by the illness of his wife. The wife had recovered after the missionary's return, and the couple wanted to return to China again. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 149 The Chicago gentleman wanted to know if I could not secure a free pass for the man. I went to the railroad authorities, and was referred to Mr. Gould. "I entered the room with fear and trembling and with many misgivings. I had never seen Mr. Gould, aud you can all sympathize with my feelings. He re- ceived me cordially and listened to all I had to say. He said he thought it was a very deserving case and asked me to leave a memorandum of it. The next day I re- ceived a communication from him containing a ticket for the railway journey and another for the missionary's passage to his destination.” About $20,000 was subscribed at this reception, and Jay Gould gave his check for $10,000. The Rev. Dr. Parkhurst was among those who criticised the affair as an ostentatious display of wealth in the name of re- ligion. He wanted to know where Mr. Gould got that $10,000. The religious side of Mr. Gould's life, so far as the public knew anything about it, was fully told at this church-extension reception. Mr. Gould was interested in the extension of the University of the City of New York. Chancellor McCracken said yesterday: "Mr. Gould was very much interested in the Univer- sity from his interest in telegraphy and telegraph lines, and the fact that in this building the first telegraph had its home. Prof. Morse labored here fifty-five years ago, and was assisted by two of the University's professors, Profs. Gail and Vail. "I had known Mr. Gould for five years, and from the 150 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. beginning of our acquaintance he evinced an interest in the close relation between the University and teleg- raphy, and he made it a favorite subject of conversa- tion. He made the largest single subscription towards our purchase of the uptown grounds, $25,000, and he gave an additional conditional pledge which I have never made public and shall not yet." In his active, tempestuous business career one might infer that Jay Gould had little time and less inclination to take up charitable work to any extent. As a matter of fact, what little is known of him in this connection became public within a very recent period. His friends say he gave largely and was generous to a degree when he was assured of the genuineness of a reported case of distress. He never, so far as can be learned, made use of any public organization in the disbursement of funds for any charitable object. Whatever he did he pre- ferred to do with his characteristic secrecy. He was very greatly influenced by his family in giv- ing, and through his children quite a large number of institutions were aided by the money of the financier. For instance, his daughter Helen, of whom he was exceedingly fond, is interested in many organizations engaged in charity work. Through her Jay Gould has given frequently and largely. A STORY OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE. A pretty story is told of the charity organization society that existed in Mr. Gould's own household. Its sessions were held each morning after breakfast. Like THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 151 other rich men, he was assailed constantly with showers of begging letters. These were regularly sorted out every morning, and each member of the family chose as many from the pile as desired until none were left. If a letter appeared to describe a case of real need it was placed in the centre of the table. The others were burned. Then ensued quiet investigation, conducted as secretly as the operations of the closest detective bureau. Peo- ple in want were given aid commensurate with the needs of the particular case, but were never able to thank the donor, for the identity of the giver was never disclosed. In this way, it is said, many hundreds of poor people were relieved. Another method employed was to look up cases of distress independent of the petitions poured in by mail. To just what extent this charitable work was carried on will never be known, for those conversant with it will not speak of it. } 152 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOuld. i CHAPTER XIX. MR. GOULD'S PLEASURES. 2 THE pleasures of Jay Gould's life were simple and few. With vast wealth at his command, he seldom sought recreation away from his immediate home. To a certain extent money-getting seemed to be a pleasure to him. In the many deals engineered by his master hand he felt the thrill of a nervy gambler who stakes his money on the turn of a card. It was not making money that worried him. It was keeping what he made and holding his own in the thousand and one schemes concocted to get the better of him. His life was a continual game of chance, and in this game for many years he found his chief enjoyment in existence. It is not recorded that in the earlier years of his career Mr. Gould ever sought any physical rel- axation in the way of sport or pastime. His whole. mind, heart, and soul lay between Wall Street and his uptown home. Finally, however, money-making became an old story. Time and again he had milked Wall Street dry, and his fortune had rolled up into the tens of millions. Then, observing an occasional smile on the faces of other millionaires, and hearing the laughter THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 153 of light hearts all about him, he began to wonder if there were no other pleasures in the world outside of cent per cent and the dull, eternal rows of figures that stood for stocks and bonds. So one day he turned his back on the dingy office that represented his paradise and took a New York Central train for Irvington. Here he met Mr. Merritt and was driven to the residence of the latter, a mile or so north of the old river town and close to the shore. Mr. Gould was very quiet and very reserved, but his keen eye took in all the possibilities of the place at a glance. When he returned to New York on the even- ing train he had closed a bargain with Mr. Merritt by which the estate became his for a consideration of a quarter of a million of dollars. THE HOME AT IRVINGTON. A small army of builders and decorators and glaziers was employed, and out of the general chaos of bush and bramble arose the minarets of a modern palace, with wide, well-ordered grounds and every comfort one could wish for. Mr. Gould seemed to take great pleasure in planning the arrangements for his future country resi- dence. For a while all but the general detail of his business was put in the background. Every few days. he would journey up to Irvington to see how matters were progressing. It may be safely said that these were the first leisure days of Mr. Gould's life. His eyes grew brighter, his step more buoyant, and he began to look upon these little excursions as a pleasant diversion, 154 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ". Sometimes he would take his younger children with him, and their unaffected happiness was another source of relaxation for the care-worn millionaire. Previous to this time money-making had been Mr. Gould's ex- clusive thought. Thereafter it became to a certain degree intermittent. He named his new residence Lyndhurst, and erected a short distance away one of the largest and most hand- sómely equipped conservatories in the country. It covers nearly four acres, and from a distance looks like the fabled palace of Kubla Khan. Here there was another source of pleasure for the weary financier. He employed Ferdinand Mangold, Mr. Merritt's former gardener, to take charge of the conservatory, and gave him carte blanche to procure the rarest flowers and exotics from all over the world. Mangold performed his work well. When the leaves grew yellow around Lyndhurst the autumn following the conservatory con- tained the finest palm garden on the Western hemi- sphere. THE GARDEN OF RARE PALMS. There are over 250 varieties, from the size of a maiden- hair fern to great shadowy trees, thirty feet high and with leaves as wide as the jib of a pilot-boat. They range in value from $20 to $500; but what is money to a millionaire in pursuit of the butterfly of pleasure. These palms were brought from Africa, Central and South America, Samoa, the Sandwich Islands, the heart of India, and from beyond Trebizonde, for the simple # 155 purpose of wooing Mr. Gould's pale face into a smile. There were Viridifolium, Hyophorbe Americanlis, and Plectocomia Assamica palms without number, and Mr. Gould knew every one of them by name. In another apartment was a wilderness of roses, pink and white, and gold and Guelder, Burgundy and Austrian, in an endless tangle of color and a delirious, odorous atmosphere that would have enraptured the soul of a lotus-eater. No wonder that Mr. Gould abandoned care when he entered the portals of his conservatory. He did not have many warm personal friends, yet surely a man cannot be altogether bad who is a friend of the There must be some good in the heart of a man whose eyes grow tender as he bends over a lily. roses. The conservatory became a hobby with Mr. Gould. Every morning after breakfast he would pay a visit to the big glass house to wander for an hour or so among the plants and flowers. While there he would seem to forget everything but the green, tropical tangle about him. In the evening, on his return from the city, he would again stroll through the shadowy aisles of palm and vine, sometimes alone and at others accompanied by the members of his family. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ORCHIDS WERE HIS HOBBY. Orchids were Mr. Gould's especial hobby. In this department of his conservatory he had nearly 8,000 orchid plants and over 150 varieties. For some of these delicate, air-fed and angel-painted blossoms Mr. Gould had paid $300-half the amount of a poor man's wages ን 156 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. T ǝ for a year of toil. In another apartment were nearly 2,000 azaleas, little bits of sunset sky cut into the shape of bells. In the fernery were 600 varieties of ferns, giving the entire place the appearance of a soft green cloud hemmed in glass walls. Just the place for Titania · and her fairies. It is strange that this appreciation of pure and poetical things should exist in the soul of a man of such financial grimness. But it was doubtless in Mr. Gould's nature before his life took on its acquired thirst for gold. When that thirst was in a measure satiated he turned again to his fundamental instincts, and his great conservatory was the result. Yet in the summer months Mr. Gould found much pleasure in his open-air garden. It was a big affair, guiltless of weeds, yet it is doubtful if Mr. Gould ever weeded his own potatoe patch or hoed his own turnips. There were beds for cantaloupes and watermelon, cu- cumbers, peas, beans, parsley, spinach, carrots, beets, lettuce, and cauliflower, and Mr. Gould knew just where to find everything. For a short time every day he would walk through the garden, and doubtless dream of his old barefoot boyhood days when he looked after his mother's garden, in Delaware County. He was a sort of intermittent farmer and seemed to find a tran- sitory pleasure in everything that pertained to a farm. There was nothing in common, however, between Mr. Gould's luxurious style of farming and that of the everyday horny-handed knight of the pitchfork and plough, { THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. BLOODED STOCK ON THE FARM. His barnyards and meadows, situated some distance from the conservatory, contained innumerable blooded stock. There were 50 cows, 25 horses, a span of oxen, wapya કોપરા (૯ ( UTTA Giar THILI KINGDON GOULD. 157 : } three bulls, over a thousand chickens, 200 ducks and 500 pigeons, besides half a dozen deer. This gave the entire estate a farm-like aspect that was very pleasing to Mr. Gould. Over two hundred and fifty tons of hay were harvested in the fields of Lyndhurst every year. Mr. Gould took great pleasure in going out to the fields on summer afternoons to lie under the trees and watch the st 14 158 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. haying. The far-off drone of the flying sickle came to his brain as a soporific balm, and the sight of the sun- worn toilers heaving away at the great, slow wagons and the distant songs of the reapers lulled him to slumber. In Mr. Gould's stables there were fifteen or twenty carriages and conveyances of one kind or another, many of which were not used once a year. To get rid of malaria, Mr. Gould filled in over one hundred and twenty acres of swamp land. Mr. Merritt spent over $1,250,000 in improving the place, and Mr. Gould spent about $1,500,000 in the same endeavor. AN ART LOVER, TOO. Mr. Gould was a great lover of art, and was continu- ally purchasing statuary and paintings. Beyond the carriage archway leading to the outer hall of the Gould castle is a bust of Lafayette; on the other side is one of Washington. On the right of the inner hall is a bronze Ethiopian woman and a painting by Perrault. There are many marble busts and statues on onyx pedestals scattered throughout the house, most of which were purchased by Mr. Gould. In the picture gallery are innnmerable rare paintings. Among them are "A Forest Scene," by Rousseau; "Evening Antique Dance," by Corot; "A Girl," by Fleury; "A Storm on the Farm," by Jacque; "Priest and Cavalier," by Meisson- ier; and "Le Loup dans la Berguerie," by Loustaunau. Then there are Vernets, Simonettis, Kaemmerers, Constants, Bouguereaus and Troyons innumerable, all of which were purchased, either directly or indirectly, us THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 159 by Mr. Gould. This was in the earlier stages of his home-making and before he had the fever of the farm and conservatory upon him. Mr. Gould was not a great admirer of the drama, but he was rather fond of opera, and this formed almost his only public diversion during the winter months. He was seen very often at the Metropolitan during the opera season with his daughter and daughter-in-law. HIS YACHT ATALANTA. In the summer of 1882 a new idea in the way of diversion struck Mr. Gould. It came upon him as he sat in front of his Irvington castle gazing on the broad Hudson. Why not build a yacht? Why not have a flyer that would make the distance from the city in almost as fast time as the New York Central trains? Mr. Gould was not overfond of the sea, but he knew that the salt air would do him good, and besides he was partial to privacy when it came to travelling. There- fore the yacht idea was adopted without delay. The next year he received from the Cramps, of Phila- delphia, the steam yacht Atalanta, whose fame as an ocean flyer has since become world-wide. Mr. Gould was delighted, and for a time conservatory, gardens, live- stock and art were minor considerations. He took on a nautical air, and it made his heart glad to tell him that his face looked weather-beaten. He made several trips abroad on the yacht with his family and enjoyed himself hugely. Everybody who saw the international yacht races of 160 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. i 1885 and 1886 remembers the long black hull of the Atalanta sliding along on the outer edge of the great. fleet like a black ghost, with Mr. Gould on the bridge, holding a big pair of marine glasses to his eyes. The big yacht was almost as much of a curiosity as the racers. Day after day Mr. Gould was out for the races with his heavy coat and big glasses. That part of his face not covered by his heavy black beard grew absolutely red from the stinging winds and the salt. spray. On one occasion the little Stiletto, the Herreshoff flyer, steamed around and around the Atalanta as if to challenge her for a trial of speed, but Mr. Gould only laughed. He is reported to have shouted to the pilot of the Stiletto : "Choose somebody of your own size; we are too big for you." Physically Mr. Gould was not a courageous man. He hated to have the newspapers expatiate upon the ease with which he could be abducted. He was afraid that somebody might be tempted to try it. This feeling finally robbed his life of much of its pleasure. After the Norcross dynamite episode he grew more than ever ill at ease, and it is thought to have been this feeling that finally prompted the sale of his yacht. At any rate, it has been advertised in the papers for several months. Travelling, which to ordinary men would be a recrea- tion, was scarcely a pleasure to Mr. Gould. It is true that he enjoyed scenery in a quiet way, but he enjoyed it most from his car window. He had a horror of Indians and cowboys and rough characters. Only on *J THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 161 ! one occasion is he known to have fired a gun. On one of his southern trips through the Indian territory he stopped over night in his car at a little solitary side- track, miles from all human habitation. Of course the wolves made merry around the sleeper, and the coyotes chased each other under the trucks, fighting over the remnants of Mr. Gould's supper. A SHOT AT A DEER. He did not sleep much because he was not used to wolf music, and then again a camp fire over in the neighboring hills worried him. Somebody had told him the country was full of robbers. It was, but somehow they always missed Mr. Gould. Early in the morning a slashing, rip-roaring cowboy rode up and, sticking the nose of his bronco through the sleeping-car door, in- formed Mr. Gould's party that a big gang of deer were jist over the hill." Two or three Indian police were in the baggage-car, and Mr. Gould was not afraid. He made up his mind to have a shot at the deer. 66 Accompanied by several of his party and flanked by the Indian police he ascended the hill with all the stealth of an old scout, armed with a big Hotchkiss rifle. Now, anybody who understands anything about rifles knows how an old-fashioned Hotchkiss can kick. Mr. Gould peeped over the hill, and, sure enough, eight or ten deer were grazing out on the prairie about 200 yards distant. Mr. Gould scorned to take a rest for the gun. He lifted it slowly to his shoulder, almost after the fashion 162 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. - of a girl, with the Indian police looking on in amuse- ment. They knew what the gun would do with a man of Mr. Gould's weight. It wobbled a good deal, but that made no difference. He would not have hit any living thing even if it had not wobbled. The slant of the hill behind Mr. Gould was pretty steep, but he did not notice it. (C Whang!" roared the gun, and the next instant Mr. Gould was flying down the hill, first on his back and then on all-fours. The Indians did not smile. They were too busy killing dear. While Mr. Gould's friends were running to his rescue the Indians had bagged two, one of which they tried to persuade Mr. Gould was his. But the wily financier knew better, because, as he put it, "the gun had shot backwards and kicked him twice after it got him down." Consequently hunting could not be considered one of his pleasures. HIS HORSES AND CARRIAGES. Mr. Gould attended the recent Horse Show on three afternoons, but these are the only occasions he ever publicly exhibited any particular liking for horses. His city stable is one of a row on West Forty-fourth Street, between the Berkeley School building and Fifth Avenue. It is a two-story, twenty-foot-front brick building trimmed with granite. It is No. 14 West Forty-fourth Street. It is a neatly arranged stable of the old-fash ioned oak-trimmed pattern common in the neighbor- hood. Mr. Gould kept only three pairs of horses at the time of his death, and they are all quartered in the THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 163 building. Four of the horses are cobby bays, two with docked and two with banged tails. The other two are long-tailed black roadsters, and the most valuable of the lot. None of the horses would bring a fancy price if put up at auction, but they are all of the good plain sort that will stand plenty of work. Simplicity was the chief characteristic of the carriages. used by Mr. Gould. He always bought the best and paid the prices asked without cavilling, but the first outlay was all the carriages ever cost him. He was careless in the extreme regarding repairs or fresh trim- mings, seldom having any work done on any of his vehicles. Mr. Gould always selected his carriages per- sonally, and always bought from the same firm. He was easy to suit, always telling just what he wanted and taking the first carriage that met his ideas. James Downs is the Gould coachman. He has served the family for over ten years. The carriages at the stable ready for use are a brougham, landau, victoria and a hunting wagon. The last is gaudy in yellow and black and is the newest of the vehicles. The others are plain in coloring and are what driving people call old style. Jay Gould's livery is a dark green, and was worn on the usual occasions by both coachman and footman. HIS DRIVES IN THE PARK. Two years ago Mrs. George Gould was in the habit of giving her father-in-law early morning drives in Central Park, calling for him daily in a neat trap of her own. With this exception he seldom drove for pleasure in the 1 1 164 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. ** city. At Irvington he was occasionally seen driving on the roads hear his residence. Until the purchase of his yacht Mr. Gould drove to and from the railroad sta- tion daily, but since then he has only taken drives at infrequent intervals. . None of the Gould family is especially devoted to rid- ing nor driving. George Gould keeps six carriage horses and a saddle horse at his stable, No. 133 West Fifty-fifth Street, but they are more for Mrs. Gould's use than his own. His coachman, William Willis, has eight carriages and light traps to care for. Edwin Gould is a capital rider, and until his promotion to a captaincy and the post of Inspector of Rifle Practice in the Seventy-first Regiment, was an active member of Troop A. He always rode a long-tailed gray thoroughbred, for which he paid a high price. Edwin Gould was very proficient at wrestling on horseback and few of the cavalrymen could unseat him. The Misses Gould drive daily during their stay at Irvington, using the family carriages or else handling the reins in the hunting wagon or in a mail phaeton. DIDN'T LIKE SHOWY TRAPPINGS. An uptown harness dealer said of Jay Gould yester- day: "Mr. Gould was a regular customer for small articles. M - He seldom bought a new harness, preferring instead to have his old ones patched up from year to year. He is the only millionaire I ever saw who did not care about showy trappings for his horses. I could never persuade THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 165 , him to try the new fads. Once he called for a harness I had been repairing. I showed him how nicely the work had been done, and said incidentally it was as good as new. Before he left I tried to sell him another harness. 'No,' said Mr. Gould, 'wrap up my old har- ness and I will take it home. You say it is as good as new, so I can't waste money by buying still another brand new set. I could not use two new harnesses if I had them," " 166 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. CHAPTER XX. 4 THE GREAT UNION PACIFIC DEAL. THE greatest financial transaction ever consummated in America is believed by many people to have been the creation of the Union Pacific Railway Company by Jay Gould. By a stroke of financial genius at once bold and adroit, he consolidated into that corporation other great railroad companies, assuming control of all. It will be remembered that the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Railway Company are two distinct corporations. The former was the original company. It was in 1873 that Gould went into Union Pacific. He bought about $10,000,000 of the stock, had it bound into a book and put it in a safe, as he told a friend at the time, "for his wife and family as an in- vestment." In 1878 Gould conceived the idea of a grand coup, and this was carried out so successfully that in sixty days he had made terms which netted him about $21,000,000 in profits. He first ran over to Amsterdam from London, arriv- ing there late in the morning. At 10 A.M. that day he notified the Dutch bondholders of the Denver Pacific THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY gould. 167 that he would be pleased to meet them at 11 o'clock. Promptly at that hour he met them, and at 12 he left Amsterdam with his gripsack full of the securities of the Dutch bondholders. By this means he captured control of the Denver Pacific. Inside of ten hours he bought out Commodore Garrison's interest in the Mis- souri Pacific. He bought out ex-Gov. Ames' interest in the Central Branch of the Union Pacific, and he had previously formed a pool by which he acquired control of the Kansas Pacific. IT ALARMED THE DIRECTORS. One day the Union Pacific directors awoke to the alarming discovery that Mr. Gould had dropped out of their organization and was surveying a line from Den- ver to Salt Lake City. The Kansas Pacific was utterly worthless, the Central branch had not earned any money for years, the Denver Pacific had been in very bad shape; but when the Union Pacific directors discovered the extent of Mr. Gould's combinations they lost no time in boarding a special car in Boston and rushing over to New York to see him about it. They went up to Mr. Gould's house and were there gathered in by him on the consolidation of the three roads, all of their stock being exchanged at par and merged into the new Union Pacific Railway Company as distinguished from the Union Pacific Railroad Company. This incident formed one of the subjects of inquiry committed to the Pacific Railroad Commission in 1887. The members of the Commission appointed by President. 168 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Cleveland consisted of Gov. Pattison, of Pennsylvania; E. Ellery Anderson, of this city; and David Littler, of Illinois. The Union Pacific Railroad and the Kansas Pacific Railroad Companies had received Government subsidies in bonds and lands. The bonds were received upon the stipulation that the companies would pay at par and accumulated interest upon their maturity. The first of these bonds will mature in 1895. An application had been made by the Pacific railroads to Congress to ex- tend the time of payment, and this commission was ap- pointed to report upon that matter and incidentally to furnish Congress with information relative to these. deals which had affected the status of the corporations. C The Commission began its sittings in this city at No. 10 Wall Street. A large number of railway magnates intimately connected with the Pacific railroads were first examined, including Russell Sage and Sidney Dil- lon. They were examined particularly with a view to finding out exactly what had taken place when the Union Pacific Railway was created. They seemed to know nothing about the matter. At every point the well-directed questions of the inquirers were adroitly turned aside. The witnesses did not know or could not remember. No light had yet been thrown upon the subject under examination. But the great witness of all was reserved for the last. This was Jay Gould. He knew it all, but the great question was "would he tell ?" Nobody believed that he would tell voluntarily the facts relating to his connection with the Government interest in the matter, but it was believed that a severe and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 169 ! Ommy (ES W Som 2014 1. (Utt عتقد نہیں ہو رہے ہے جسے horter 122 M позапросто **** Micro THE GOULD MAUSOLEUM AT WOODLAWN. 170 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. searching cross-examination would compel him to di- vulge some of the facts. GOULD FOOLED THEM ALL. An immense amount of labor was gone through with in anticipation of the time when Jay Gould should take his seat in the witness chair. Men on the inside and familiar with the lines along which the inquiry should be directed devoted weeks to the study of figures and the procurement of papers upon which to base the ques- tions which should be asked of Mr. Gould. Dozens of questions on the same subject were prepared. If he answered one question one way he was to be asked a certain question, and if he answered another way he was to be asked another question. In this way it was be- lieved when Mr. Gould took his seat that the beginning of a long struggle was at hand. That was on May 17, 1887. Mr. Gould wore a plain pepper-and-salt suit and a shabby silk hat. The exam- iners, all ready to level their batteries of questions at him, were dumfounded when the first questions were asked and Mr. Gould blandly stated his willingness and desire to afford all the information in his power. He seemed anxious to withhold no facts, to evade no ques- tions and to help the members of the commission in their work. There being some uncertainty as to the exact route. of some of the roads in question, Mr. Gould even took out of his pocket a little map and kindly enlightened the members of the commission as to the various locali- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 171 ties, and said: "I had anticipated that possibly you might want to know what had been my holdings of various securities relating to this transaction and so I instructed my bookkeeper to draw off a statement, which I now submit to you." He then produced a little memorandum covering about sixteen lines of writing which covered all the facts and gave the cue to every feature of the transaction. Mr. Gould said he had kept books of all his transactions. Q. Where are the books? A. I have them. # Q. Where? A. In my possession. Q. Are they at the service of the commission? A. If they desire them, with the greatest of pleasure. This willingness to show the books created a pro- found sensation. Railway magnets worth many mil- lions and controlling thousands of miles of road had one after another followed each other to the stand only to show that Gould was the one who pulled the strings, that they did not know what his intentions were in re- gard to the commission, and that he made up his mind upon a certain line of policy without consulting them. Many of these magnates were in the room and they sat with open mouths and plainly evinced their astonish- ment when they saw Mr. Gould giving up the hitherto carefully guarded facts. Nothing more plainly showed the absolute mastery of Jay Gould over all the other railway magnates of the country. 172 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD, RAILWAY MAGNATES AFRAID OF HIM. Throughout the whole inquiry gentlemen not in the habit of associating with railway millionaires, but shrewd observers of the phenomena of life, remarked as singular the talk and manner of these plutocrats in re- gard to Jay Gould. They spoke of him with deference verging on awe. The little man with the pepper-and- salt clothes and the snappy black eyes was regarded by them in the light of a fountain of all knowledge and power, and the big magnates made their obeisance before him like Spanish grandees in the presence of an infant king. Mr. Gould was asked why he had bought certain stocks and he said that the books would show. Q. Will your books show who the broker was? A. Oh, yes; certainly, certainly. Q. Did you not buy some of your securities abroad? A. I bought 2,000,000 of Denver Pacific at 74 cents, I think, from some Amsterdam people. I was in Lon- don and heard they wanted to sell. I was afraid to go over because I had very little time, and thought that they would probably take a couple of days to smoke before finding out whether they would sell or not. But I was mistaken. I went over and got to Amsterdam in the morning, washed, and had my breakfast. I saw them at eleven, had bought them out at twelve and started back. E. Ellery Anderson asked Mr. Gould why he remem- bered a certain conversation so well. He replied that he "had it impressed upon his mind." + THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 173 ľ Q. How was that? A. Well, I remember parting with a lot of stock at 10 cents for which I could have got par a few days afterwards. Wouldn't that impress the occasion on your memory, Mr. Anderson ? Mr. Gould, and everybody else in the room, laughed at this retort. Q.. According to the ethics of Wall Street do you con- sider it absolutely within the limits of your duty while a director of the Union Pacific to purchase another property and to design an extension of the road which would perhaps ruin the Union Pacific? A. I don't think it would have been proper. That's the reason I let it go. Q. Did you consider your duty to the Government? A. I had considered it. Q. How would the Government claim have been affected by building a parallel line? A. It would have been wiped out. } From the testimony it appeared that after the Thur- man bill had been sustained by the Supreme Court Mr. Gould had a plan to build a road from Omaha to Ogden, just outside the right of way of the Union Pacific, and to give that road back to the Government. It would give others, he said, "a chance to walk;" that the Gov- ernment had tried to squeeze more out of the turnip than was in it, and that for $15,000,000 a road could be built where it had cost the Union Pacific $75,000,000. 174 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. A SMOOTH EXPLANATION THROUGHOUT. Q. You were not devoted to the interests of the Government? A. I wanted to protect them. Their legislative action hurt their own interests and put those of the stockholders in jeopardy. The Government re- pudiated their own contracts. Cash was offered to pay the Government the Union Pacific debt. I had the debt reckoned up and offered to pay it. In 1877 or 1878 I made the offer to the Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Edmunds was chairman. I made that offer myself. The debt was estimated at $15,000,000 or $17,000,000. But the Government would not con- cede that interest terminated with the bonds. No ac- tion was taken on the proposition. Mr. Gould said that he had bought the Central Branch of the Union Pacific from Oliver Ames and President Pomeroy, who came on from Boston to New York, and induced him to go and look at the property. It had cost him $1,826,500. "I thought it was doing a big business," said the witness. "Afterwards I learned that they had kept the freight back for a week to impress me. So I saw a freight train at every station when I got there. I bought the road anyway." He was asked about the dividends. "Stock doesn't always depend upon dividends," said Mr. Gould. "I paid 750 for my Missouri Pacific-4,000 at that figure. You pay more for rubies than for diamonds, and more for diamonds than for glass." # } THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 175 Asked in regard to some difference in the accounts in these large transactions Mr. Gould said he did not know where it went exactly; "but it is safe to say the lawyers got the difference," he said with a chuckle. "Now I'm showing you my whole hand." He was asked if he had ever gone to Washington in connection with the road, and Jay Gould said: "Yes, and I always paid my own hotel bills." Q. Do you know whether anything was spent to in- fluence legislation? A. No, sir, I know of no such ex- penditure. Q. Where could we find records of such transactions? A. I don't think such transactions exist. • Many other witnesses gave their testimony before the commission, but that of Mr. Gould was by far the most important of all as regarded disclosures. He spoke in low and indistinct tones, but at times, when worked up to a high pitch of interest, emphasized his remarks with quick and nervous gestures. 176 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 1 Å CHAPTER XXI. A MR. GOULD'S DOUBLES. JAY GOULD had about a dozen "doubles" in New York, and most of them are in business about the lower end of Broadway. Lots of people who have seen them think they have seen the millionaire, for several of them ape him in dress and in the cut of their beard. Thomas S. Brady, engineer of the Empire Building, No. 71 Broadway, bears a most remarkable resemblance to Gould, and all his friends about the building call him Jay. He has a photograph of Mr. Gould on the walls of his parlor which he palmed off on Mrs. Brady last Christmas as a likeness of himself. Both men are of the same build and stature. Mr. Brady is 5 feet 5 inches high, only the fraction of an inch shorter than Mr. Gould. The general features of the two men are exactly the same-the eyes, the nose and the mouth, even to the black beard and mustache, with here and there an iron-gray hair straggling through and showing the presence of ripening years. Both men have a nervous, short-stepping walk, and each one stoops slightly. Even to their clothes is the point of resom- blance carried out, and if Jay Gould did not cover up his J THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOUld. 177 brainy pate with a white high hat in summer it is doubtful whether George Gould could distinguish his father from Mr. Brady if he were to see the two men standing together. Mr. Brady has had several peculiar experiences on account of this remarkable resemblance. Before Mr. Gould moved his office to the Western Union Building he was in the Empire Building, where Mr. Brady has been employed as engineer for eighteen years. Often- times he would walk into Mr. Gould's office and the clerks would invariably take him for the "little king" himself. Mr. Brady was approached one day by Mr. Gould's office detective, who told him, "If I looked as much like Mr. Gould as you do it would be worth $20,000 to me." But Mr. Brady does not wish to traffic on his re- semblance to a rich man. The number of times Mr. Brady has been pointed out as Jay Gould would take some time to count. Not long ago he was riding home on the "L" train reading his newspaper, when he heard a man say, "Well, by Jove, if that isn't Jay Gould it's his brother," and looking up at the speaker and his companion he recognized two well-known Wall Street brokers. OFFERED $20,000 TO IMPERSONATE GOuld. Broker Sam Leopold, of No. 84 Broadway, for several years was known as Gould's double, but about a year ago he got tired of the distinction and had his beard cut to a point. During the campaign of 1884 he was } 178 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. [ offered $20,000 to impersonate Mr. Gould: conspiring brokers proposed that he smear blood on his face and roll on the sidewalk near the corner of Broad and Wall streets. Confederates were to be on hand to keep the crowd back till an ambulance arrived, and to say at in- tervals, "That's Jay Gould; he's fatally injured." Further details of the plan were to have a carriage near Chambers Street Hospital for the purpose of tak- ing "Mr. Gould" to his house. Of course, Leopold's remarkably close resemblance to Gould would be suffi- cient to make the scheme work well, especially as a man was to have been posted at Irvington to telegraph that the millionaire was in his country home. Then the telegraph wires were to be "grounded" for a few hours. The tremendous excitement would naturally depress the Gould stocks, and, in sympathy, about everything would go down with a rush. The schemers were to take ad- vantage of this by selling short, and they expected to have at least from 10 to 2 o'clock in which to work this peculiarly daring manipulation of the market. By the time the truth would be known the bold plotters would turn and go long of the market, on the recovery from the temporary shock, and at least two or three good-sized fortunes were expected to be realized by the double deal. Sam reluctantly declined the tempting offer. Although he wanted the $20,000 awfully bad, he feared that he might be mobbed after the fright was over, and so the scheme fell through. Leopold knew Gould very well, and they delighted to meet and look at each other. It is related that whenever Sam discovered a new gray hair in his whiskers he would THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 179 ♪ hurry to Mr. Gould only to find that the millionaire was also keeping tab on his white hairs, and the two accounts tallied exactly. CURBSTONE BROKERS WHO LOOK LIKE HIM. There are two other men in Wall Street either of whom would be picked out by a stranger for Mr. Gould as quickly as Mr. Gould himself. Both of these men are curbstone brokers, and both are called Gould by the people with whom they deal. One of these men was for- merly a diamond broker and the other was a real-estate broker. It was the fact of their looking like Mr. Gould that took them into Wall Street. A MAN WITH A BOTTLE. On the night that Jay Gould lay dying, a mysterious man put in an appearance on the corner diagonally across from his house. The stranger was unknown to the re- porters, who were the only persons about having any business there at the time, and the policeman on the beat did not know who he was. The stranger had a bottle of whiskey. He was a well-dressed man, and he stood erect in a sober, exultant manner, which gave sev- eral people the impression that he was "a Wall Street man." · The Wall Street man," as he was called, refused to tell who he was, where he came or whither he went, but he seemed to know that Jay Gould was dying and ap- peared to derive some sort of satisfaction from that fact, 180 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Every once in a while he pulled the bottle of whiskey out of his pocket and took a pull in the cold and nipping air, and being in a neighborly mood, he invited the re- porters to join him. Pointing a long bony finger across the street at the dark and gloomy house of the dying millionaire, where a dim light shone through the curtained windows, the mysterious stranger said in sepulchral tones: "Gould is dying." He waited around there through the long hours of the night, until one of the reporters told him he had better go home and get his news out of a paper in the morning. The whiskey had got down to near the bottom of the bottle before he left, but the quantity of it he had con- sumed did not seem to make much of an impression upon him. This further confirmed the suspicion that he was "a Wall Street man." WOULDN'T ADMIT HE WAS ILL. Mr. Gould is said to have been cruising on a vessel when a storm came up and an unusually rough sea gave him a violent attack of mal de mer. Mr. Gould was hanging over the rail, acknowledging at the same time his own weakness and the mightiness of Neptune, when a fellow-voyager accosted him: "Sorry, Mr. Gould, to see you so ill." Mr. Gould, without changing his position over the rail, and not forgetting his duty when there is any rumor out affecting his health, replied: "It's no such thing, sir; I'm perfectly well-excuse THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 181 me (here a tribute to Neptune). I haven't been so well -excuse me (here another)-in a long time, as I'm this winter-excuse me !" (Still another, and more of the same.) HE ALWAYS CARRIED THIS DIME. It frequently happens that a very rich man finds him- self a long distance from his home without money enough to pay his car-fare. Mr. Gould had been in this position after he became very rich, and he used to laugh about it. But there was one occasion in his life when all the money he had in the world was a ten-cent piece, and that was in his pocket. It was during his early struggles and to him the dime stood between him and hunger. Before it became necessary for him to spend it he "made a raise," to use his own expression, and he re- solved never to part with the dime. He never did, but carried it in his pocket up to the hour of his death. 1 182 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. THE FUNERAL SERVICES. THE funeral services over the body of Jay Gould were held in the mansion where the great financier died. Long before 4 o'clock, the time announced for the funeral, a crowd of curious people had assembled about the door, anxious to get into the house, but they were not admitted, and it required several policemen to keep them moving. Then a long procession of carriages drove up to the door, and the occupants filed into the house. The friends of the family were admitted within the sacred portals. The casket containing all that was mortal of the money king rested on two pedestals, close to the large mirror on the south wall of the front parlor. It was of plain black cloth, with three silver bar handles, and the myriads of floral pieces that surrounded it nearly hid it from view. On both sides of the casket were banks of white roses, orchids, lilies of the valley, violets, palms and trailing ferns, while at the base of the pedestals rested pillars of white roses, on which was in- scribed in violets "Grandpa." THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 183 A FLORAL DISPLAY. Beside this were crowns and wreaths, anchors and bunches of beautiful flowers that made the room fra- grant. On the mantel were three large wreaths of violets, and at the head of the coffin was a broken pillar of white roses. This was the largest floral piece in the room. It rested on a base two feet square. On the edge of the base the word "Father" was inscribed in violets. This was sent by George Gould. Across the lid of the coffin, just below the glass plate, was laid a magnificent cross of orchids, the gift of Miss Helen Gould. It was her father's favorite flower, and the choice blossoms in this cross cost nearly $800. Near this, on the coffin lid, lay another cross of white orchids, from Frank, the youngest son. In fact, the south side of the room was a veritable floral bower, the like of which is seldom seen. On the other side of the room was a full-rigged ship made of flowers, ivy-leaves and trailing vines, and in white letters on the dark-green hull was the motto: "The Voyage Ended, Safe in Port." And these were not all the flowers that had been re- ceived. If they had all been placed in the parlor there. would have been no room for the mourners and friends. ARRIVAL OF THE MOURNERS. As the friends arrived they were met at the door by Dr. Munn, Mr. Gould's physician, and those he did not know were obliged to show credentials before they could pass the portals. 184 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Time and again he refused admission to well-dressed men and women who claimed friendship with the family, but they could not satisfy the doctor that they were entitled to admission. If they persisted in going in they were handed over to Detective Titus, who in turn placed them in charge of a lusty policeman who stood on the stoop. There were well-dressed women who admitted that they didn't know the deceased, but had come a long distance to see his remains. Dr. Munn said the duty was an unpleasant one, but he was firm in his refusals. At 3.30 the officials of the Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific arrived and filed into the house. FUNERAL GUESTS. Among them were these from the Missouri company: George C. Smith of St. Louis, Assistant General Man- ager; A. H. Caleft of New York, Secretary and Treas- urer; D. S. H. Smith of St. Louis, Local Treasurer; C. G. Warner of St. Louis, General Auditor; A. G. Cochran of St. Louis, General Solicitor; B. P. Waggener of Topeka, General Attorney; John C. Wands of St. Louis and W. B. Dodridge of the same place. There were also John F. Dillon of New York, James H. Mil- lard of Omaha, Frederick L. Ames of Boston, E. F. Atkins of Boston, Oliver W. Mink of Boston, Alexander Miller of Boston, James B. Harris of Boston and Presi- dent S. H. H. Clark of St. Louis. These gentlemen were ushered into the dining-room at the end of the long hall. A few minutes later Col. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 185 F. K. Hain, Col. Gardner, Mr. McWilliams and Lucien Davis, representing the Board of Directors of the Man- hattan elevated road, arrived, and three others came one by one. Among the prominent men were Whitelaw Reid, Chauncey M. Depew, Judge Dillon, Russell Sage, Frank Kiernan, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Clews, ex-Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell, E. F. Atkins, J. H. Villard, H. Walter Webb, Alex Meyer, President of the Baltimore and Ohio road; C. M. Dixon, Mr. Gould's personal counsel; Alexander Miller, A. G. Cochran, of the Union. Pacific; J. Seaver Page, 'George C. Smith, J. Edward Simmons, James M. Minge, William H. Blackford, James Guerin, Thomas T. Eckert, John Van Horn, Addison Cammack, Judge Cowing, George C. Pierce, J. M. Dodge, A. L. Hopkins, Gen. Louis Fitzgerald, A. H. Califf, E. H. Perkins, President Importers' and Traders' Bank; Collis P. Huntington, A. S. P. Fiselle, President Fifth Avenue Bank; C. C. Baldwin, George C. Williams, F. K. Sturgis, Jesse Seligman, Mr. and Mrs. James Seligman, Mrs. Hellman, Charles A. Gardner, Winfield Scott Hoyt, C. N. Bliss, Benjamin Brewster, William Rockefeller, C. I. Warren, W. B. Dodridge, F. P. Vining, Oliver W. Mink, Frederick L. Ames of Boston, Dr. and Mrs. Jarett Baldwin, George A. Kessler, B. S. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Houston, Henry B. Hyde, William D. Bishop, Manager Merrihew, of the Western Union; Gen. G. M. Dodge, Samuel Sloan, Sidney Dillon Ripley, Dr. Wyckoff, Dr. D. H. S. Smith, Treasurer of the Missouri Pacific; James J. Morgan, A. L. Hopkins, E. H. Perkins, A. H. Calef, Secretary of the Missouri Pacific; A. W. Soper, Col. Moore of the 186 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. firm of Moore & Sly, G. P. Morosini, Lawson N. Fuller, Ogden Mills, Granville M. Dodge, Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific; Col. S. V. R. Cruger, Isidor Worm- ser, Col. S. C. Fordyce, President of the St. Louis and Southwestern Railway; Alexander Miller, Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, James M. Morgan, William H. Kissam, Austin Corbin, Gen. C. H. Collis, Col. R. C. Clowry, Chicago Manager of the Western Union; J. Edward Simmons, R. H. Rochester, Maugham Carter, Norvin Green, Abraham Gould, a brother of the deceased, and the young Norton boys, daughters of Mr. Gould's sisters, and John D. Crimmins. THE SERVICES. The choir of Dr. Paxton's West Presbyterian Church had seats at the foot of the staircase. Mrs. Clementine De Vere-Sapio, the soprano, was indisposed, and her place was filled by Mrs. Charles Herbert Clark. Mrs. Carl Alves was the contralto, Herbert Clarke, tenor, and Mr. Dickson F. Bushnell, basso. P. A. Schnecker, the organist, composed the anthem for the occasion, using the words of that beautiful hymn, "There is a Land Immor- tal." The funeral services were opened with this anthem. Just as the little clock on the mantel back of the casket chimed the hour of 4, Dr. Paxton arose from his seat in the hallway and, stepping to the doorway that opened into the rear parlor, followed with an invoca- tion. He said: "O eloquent, just and mighty Death, whom none THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 18 4 couldst outwit, thou takest in thy toils whom none could convince, thou persuadest whom none could over- throw, thou subduest, mighty Death! "Dire discouragement of human end, we bless God for our Christian faith in which Jesus Christ hath abolished death. We bless Thee that He plucked the stain from sin, that He robbed the grave of its victory and that He filled the heavens with the ministrations of our heavenly hope in His splendor, where we hope to renew life be- yond the tomb. "We bless our Heavenly Father for Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for our knowledge that the grave is not a dungeon, but a door opening into other worlds. and a new and higher life. We bless Thee that the grave is not a terminus, the final resting-place, the be-all and end-all of man, but that it is only the stopping place, an inn, where we humble travellers. sleep the long, sweet dream on the way to our New Jerusalem. "May the Divine Spirit be present with us in these sad, solemn services, and may the light of the resurrection morn shine into this darkened and bereaved house, and may comfort, that with which God comforteth His own, touch with heavenly and hopeful grace the hearts of our friends here, wounded, sore and bleeding still for the loss of him they all loved so well. Amen”. Then the clergyman read from the burial service. Then the choir sang "Lead, Kindly Light, amid the Encircling Gloom," after which the Rev. Dr. Roderick Terry read the second Scripture lesson, beginning: 188 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY gould. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." After this the choir sang "Nearer, My God, to Thee." CHANCELLOR MACCRACKEN'S PRAYER. Chancellor MacCracken of the New York University then offered the following prayer: "Oh, Almighty God, Father of Spirits, Thou only art perfectly wise and kind and just and true and good, therefore it is our hearts turn to Thee in every trying hour. Strengthen us now as Thou dost make us feel how short a time Thou dost grant unto us to live. Oh, kindly Light, lead Thou us on that we may be more like Thee. Quicken our hearts that we may strive to be like Thee." "Our Father in heaven, pity those that mourn. Have a special compassion upon the children of this home whom Thou hast so sorely grieved. As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.' Because Thou hast taken from the children of this family in early life both father and mother, do Thou comfort them, O Divine Comforter, as one whom his mother comforteth. Speak Thou such words as Thou dost speak to one another of Thy children. "Grant to us all that after this life we may be united with those whom we have left and who have gone before in the life immortal, in the heavenly city by the river of life and the tree of life, where God shall wipe away all tears, where there shall be no more sorrow.” THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 189 The invocation was finished by Chancellor MacCracken, reciting the Lord's Prayer. THE LAST LOOK. After the benediction was pronounced all those in the house formed into line and passed in single file past the casket, which had been partly opened, and disclosed the features of the great money king. His appearance was almost lifelike, and but for the pallor of his flesh and the sunken cheek looked just as he did when in his office. His beard had been trimmed, and the stray hairs on his forehead were smoothed down over the somewhat bald head. One by one his old friends and associates passed by, some stopping a moment to take one last look at the face of the man who had made $100,000,000 in his curious way. There were moist eyes among the old men when they turned away from the casket. Chauncey Depew did not avail himself of the oppor- tunity. Such things always affect him deeply, he said, and he preferred not to look upon dead faces. He was not the only one who went out rather than form in line, but it took a good hour for those who were in the house to pass the casket. During the funeral service the family remained in another room, and none of them were seen by those who paid their respects to the dead. The next morning the body was taken to Woodlawn, and thus closed the life of Jay Gould, the greatest money king this country has ever seen. 190 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. BUSINESS MEN'S COMMENTS. NO FEARS THAT FINANCIAL DISTURBANCE WILL FOLLOW MR. GOULD'S DEATH. Several well-known Wall Street operators and finan- ciers, who have been associated with Mr. Gould person- ally or in a business way, were asked as to the probable effect on business and values of properties in which he was known to be interested. Russell Sage, for many years the closest personal and business friend of Jay Gould, said: "Mr. Gould's death is a great loss to the whole coun- try, as his was acknowledged to be one of the leading minds of the country. It has been said that there was but one Jay Gould, and it was true. He was all the time progressive in developing the material wealth and resources of the country. Even during his illness of the past two years his mind has not been off the comple- tion of the enterprises in which he had been engaged, and he retained his interest down to the last moment. "What will be the effect on values of Mr. Gould's death? I do not see any good reason why it should seriously affect the market, as Mr. Gould has for years THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 191 had his affairs put in the best condition possible for any emergency that might come, and I think his will will show that he has provided for a proper management of his large estate so as not to cause disturbances to values. "I do not care to say more. It would be unbecoming at this time to speak of Mr. Gould's private affairs. I am too much overwhelmed by the sad news of his death to think out what would be fitting to say in this situa- tion." G. P. MOROSINI, ONCE GOULD'S PARTNER. Giovanni P. Morosini, who was once clerk, then broker, then partner to Jay Gould, was much affected by the news of his death. He said, feelingly: "I saw Mr. Gould just two weeks ago to-day. He had rosy cheeks and was in good spirits. He said to me, laughingly, 'I feel like a fighting cock." "But he was always delicate-well in the morning, ill at night, or vice versa. "His death will have no effect on the market. His holdings were all dividend payers. There may be a little fall, but they will come up again by their own merit. "Mr. Gould had been always a foresighted man. He has coached his boys till they have learned all his busi- ness methods, and they can go on in their father's own way. George is particularly like his father. CC Personally, Mr. Gould was the sweetest man to get along with that I ever knew. He was gentle, good- hearted, unassuming, quiet. IIe had a keen sense of W 192 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. justice, never forgot a friend nor a service. He was not at all suspicious, but he had to guard against false friends and flatterers, and against unscrupulous beggars, but he was always perfectly open to his friends. "He was the most generous man in Wall Street. Plain in his tastes, his amusements were few. He liked the theatre, especially comedy presentations. "In 1880, when he lived just across Fifth Avenue from the place where he died, his office was in the base- ment of the house. There were only himself, myself, and a telegraph operator there. "I came to know him as a very affectionate husband and the best of fathers. Nobody could help loving him, for his was a most lovable disposition and temperament. Simple as were his pleasures his health compelled him to forego some of them. He enjoyed playing cards in the cars. He liked coffee and drank much of it, but if he ever drank wine I never knew it. << "His wealth? Why, I have not been closely con- nected with him in many years, and my judgment is no better than that of the other men in the Street, but prob- ably he had more than $100,000,000." W. E. CONNOR'S OPINION. "There is no reason why Mr. Gould's death should affect Wall Street speculation or the value of securities in any way," said Broker Washington E. Connor. "Al- though the public has not been willing to believe it, Mr. Gould has not been a factor in Wall street for five years past. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 193 } "He was in earnest when he announced that he had withdrawn from the Street for good, and since then I know that he has not been interested in a single specu- lative movement. His name has been used repeatedly, however, by those who were operating in the market, to give strength to this or that movement, and no doubt the popular belief that Mr. Gould's influence was be- hind the market had its effect in many cases. "Mr. Gould, however, knew that his health was at stake, and he was obliged to withdraw completely from all business worry and anxiety. He was greatly bene- fited by his stay in the Southwest last year, and was pre- paring to go there again this winter, but the return of his periodical attacks of nervous prostration prevented him, "His friends have realized for a year past that he was in a very critical condition, and it was only a question when these attacks came on whether he could rally from them. "The attack before the last one brought him very low, and it seemed doubtful for a time whether he could recover. Previous to that it was only a matter of a day or two before he was all right again. "As to the effect of his death upon the market, I think the course of speculation this morning proves what I have said, that Mr. Gould had no interest in it whatever, from a speculative point of view. He had arranged his affairs, and had invested his wealth where it is secure, and there is no reason why anything should be sold. "His property has been managed entirely by his sons. 194 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. $ -si for the past two years, and, as he has brought them up to be careful business men, they are to be depended upon to carry out his ideas. No one ever had a more careful business training than George Gould, and he is thoroughly competent to administer the vast interests which are now under his charge. "As to Mr. Gould's wealth, it would be impossible to estimate it exactly.. The popular supposition that it is in the neighborhood of $100,000,000 is probably not far from correct, though anybody's opinion would be as good as mine on this point. "From my long personal acquaintance and associa- tion with Mr. Gould I know him to have been a man of much greater ability than the public generally gave him credit for. He was really a phenomenal man in many respects. "It is true that he had many bitter enemies, for in the rough and tumble of business in Wall Street he had. many a bitter fight. Every one whom he defeated in any of these contests became his relentless foe, and more hard things were said about him than of any man who ever went into Wall Street. * "I will say this, however, that those whose business. associations brought them in contact with Mr. Gould. always found his simple word as good as gold. If he said he would do a thing, there was no need of a written contract for security. The verbal promise was invariably fulfilled to the letter." ./ Y . ་ 13- 1 A & : THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 193 BANKER J. B. CLEWS. J. B. Clews, of the Broad Street banking-house, said that Mr. Gould's fortune might be set down as at least $100,000,000. "It will be recalled that at the time of the May panic, in 1884, when the market was shaky and the report was current that he was practically bankrupt, Mr. Gould, for the benefit of the whole country, and to restore confi- dence in the market, invited a few well-known financiers to his office and there opened his safes and let them -count his securities. "I think the late Cyrus Field was one. I know Morosini was another of that committee. Morosini turned over the bonds for the delegation, and they counted between sixty and eighty million of dollars worth there. "The death of Mr. Gould does not appreciably affect the market. It might have caused serious trouble ten years ago, but now the speculators know that Jay Gould leaves his properties in capable hands. George Gould is a splendid business man, after the pattern of his father." BANKER SOLON HUMPHREY. Said Solon Humphrey: "Nothing could be more absurd than to suppose that Mr. Gould's death will have an adverse effect upon the market. He has not been in it for more than two years. "If anything, it ought to have a good effect and start a bull movement, because it removes one source of disturb- 196 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Į and ance which has always affected prices adversely, and that is the wild and absurd stories which have been so often set afloat of Mr. Gould's alleged manipulation of the market. "Mr. Gould has only been an investor during the past. two years and has not touched speculation. He has undoubtedly bought a great many good things, and these will be taken care of by his son. So far as the effect upon Wall Street is concerned he might have died two or three years ago." AT DREXEL, MORGAN & Co.'s. A member of the firm of Drexel, Morgan & Co. said: "Mr. Gould is dead, and I see that prices in the stock market have not changed. The situation can very easily be understood from these facts. There seems to be nothing further to say upon the subject." EX-JUDGE NOAH DAVIS. Ex-Judge Noah Davis said regarding Jay Gould's personality: 'He was a most extraordinary man throughout his whole public carcer. He was unequalled for his reserve capacity. A most extraordinary man, he surpassed any other men I ever knew in his power of self-control, never losing his balance. He was always cool and self-pos- sessed under the most awful pressure. "I doubt if my reply to the other question as to the extent of Mr. Gould's holdings would be valu- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 197 able. I should say, perhaps he possessed upward of $100,000,000." HENRY CLEWS SAID: "Jay Gould's death is not sudden, as it has long been expected owing to his frail and weak physical condition. Death is the natural end of all, and it should not be much of a shock under the circumstances to Wall Street. Gould has undoubtelly been one of the wonders of the world-abnormally great among men of affairs. He had many good qualities,-he was generous to a fault and was invariably true to his friends, but bitter and unfor- giving to his enemies. Much of the spread of the rail- road transportation system over our vast country is due to his remarkable enterprise, sagacity and organization ability. Thereby great distances have been narrowed and people living at far-off points of our big-acreaged land have been brought in touch for business undertakings throughh is telegraph and railroad schemes. Therefore what Jay Gould has accomplished for the benefit of the country must be placed to his credit, and will be by most people, and it will in my judgment outweigh his short- comings in the recollections of the man. "I was one of the few men in Wall Street to openly criticise Jay Gould harshly at times when he deserved it while living; I will not do so now he is dead, as he has left behind him much that is good and of great benefit to the nation as a result of his marvellous ability and active life." 198 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 1 COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 梅​粉 ​JAY GOULD was a remarkable and many-sided man. Born and bred amid wholesome rural surroundings, he soon developed the wonderful ability for financial achievement and manipulation which bore him to the pinnacle of fortune. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that what the first Napoleon was to the art of war Jay Gould was to the art of speculation. He seemed the master of circumstances, not their creature. He had a courage that was dauntless, an eye that saw afar, an ex- ecutive capacity that has had few parallels in history, a talent for swift and daring manipulation that con- founded his ablest rivals and astonished the world at large. Fortunes dissolved or doubled at his touch: great properties, the product of years of toil and scheming on the part of the country's keenest financiers, grew in value or crashed into ruin as the result of his bold movements and wide-extended combinations. Other speculators might quail in the face of threatened disas- ter: Jay Gould always maintained his imperturbable coolness and his grasp of events. Other speculators might pause aghast at the risks involved in a great fi- nancial undertaking: Jay Gould, his shrewd and sweep- - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 199 د. W ing plans once formed, moved forward with the nerve and strategic skill shown by the conqueror of Austerlitz on a different field. Success apart from moral considera- tions was his goal; and he seldom failed to command it. It must be remembered, however, that his notable triumphs were largely the result of conditions not likely to be repeated in this or any other country. It is im- probable that the combination of circumstances which existed when Gould and Fisk executed their famous coups will appear in the United States again. The story of these times seems incredible, now that the heat, the excitement, the furor that attended them has passed away, and will be read with increasing interest and amazement by later generations. Posterity will un- doubtedly be able to pass a calmer and perhaps juster judgment upon a man like Jay Gould than contempo- raries who are swayed, perhaps unconsciously, by per- sonal feelings and prejudices. Jay Gould's extraordinary genius must be acknowl- edged even by those who condemn most strongly the uses which it served. He was an excellent husband and father. His death will not influence the course of financial affairs to any considerable extent, for he prac- tically withdrew from active participation in the cam- paigns of the stock market several years ago.--N. 1. Press. S Whether the death of Mr. Jay Gould is a loss or a gain to the community is a point upon which public opinion will be divided. By the great majority he has long been viewed as the incarnation of all that is evil ? * 200 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. } and mischievous in his sphere of activity, and his re- moval will, therefore, be hailed as a blessing. A smaller number, equally alive to his faults, will also remember his financial ability, his enterprise, and the splendid ser- vices which he has rendered the country in developing its material resources and increasing the productiveness of its industry. With the cessation of his impelling energy they apprehend a slackening of the onward movement, if not the possible failure, of various schemes, which, if he had lived to carry them on, would have proved highly useful to the general prosperity. Cop It was Mr. Gould's misfortune to have surpassed the crowd of men by whom he was surrounded and with whom he had his dealings, not in audacious unscrupu- lousness, but in skill and in success. The character of the business in which they are all engaged calls into ex- ercise, by its nature, unlovely traits of character, and encourages the use of artifices which a sound moralist cannot approve. Many things that Mr. Gould did in- jured his reputation, chiefly because he did them on a large scale, and to the hurt of numerous victims. The like has been as often done by others, without their in- curring obloquy, merely because of the comparative pettiness of their offence. This, of course, does not ex- cuse Mr. Gould, but in justice it should silence the clamor of many who have been his most virulent assail- ants. G We have little hope that the lesson taught by Mr. Gould's carcer and by the memory that he leaves behind him will be heeded by those to whom it ought to be chiefly useful. They will see only that he has succeeded THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 201 in what they most desire-the amassing of a great for- tune-and they will encounter the risk of a reputation like his, provided only it shall be accompanied by the same compensation. Poor human nature!-N. Y. Sun. Upon the person of Mr. Jay Gould was yesterday served the inevitable summons to join the majority. He quietly laid aside the heavy burden of business cares, and, dispossessed of all he had acquired, with the sole exception of what is known as character, he stepped across the boundary line which separates the present from the future. In former years the intermittent report of his death was used as a speculative means of raising or depressing the stock market. A financial value was attached to the vaguest rumor of his declining health, and if he had succumbed to fate in 1885 a serious panic would un- doubtedly have been the consequence. Since that time, however, he has gradually withdrawn from aggressive strategy and become a factor less to be dreaded. It is said of Mr. Gould that within the limits of the family circle he was beyond the reach of criticism. In the relations of husband and father he was wise in coun- sel, tender in admonition, generous and affectionate. By his own fireside his sovereignty was both kindly and gentle. Among his associates and his employés he was unassuming and modest to a marked degree. To these, therefore, who feel a personal loss in his death, the sym- pathy of the public will be cordially extended. But Mr. Gould was also a public man. He exercised a large influence over the careers of many who had com- mercial aspirations, and that influence tendered to lower S 202 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOUld. the moral tone of business transactions. The example he set is a dangerous one to follow. The methods he adopted are to be avoided. His financial success, judged by the means by which it was attained, is not to be en- vied. His great wealth was purchased at too high a price. The respect of the community is the guinea's stamp and all coin is counterfeit unless thus stamped. Mr. Gould's policy may be easily found. It is hidden under cover of an emphatic negative to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper ?" He played the game of life to win and he reckoned the possible ruin of thou- sands as a matter with which he had no concern. In strategy he was a genius, in financial tactics he was without a peer, in utter disregard of consequences he stood alone. To those who fell under the crushing weight of the avalanche which he started he had only the old-time answer, "I am not my brother's keeper." He has, therefore, left untold millions and an example. The millions will be inherited, but the example will be repudiated. "Go not thou and do likewise," is the les- son of a life. This is a fair-minded and in the long run a just world. Personal and commercial honor still have a value. It is safe to leave a man's career to the judgment of his fel- lows, and to that tribunal the memory of Jay Gould has already been committed.-N. Y. Herald. The character and career of the many-millionaire who died yesterday are accurately indicated by the fact that the effect of his death was looked for chiefly in Wall Street. How will it affect stocks? That was the main ques- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 203 tion. That was the query which marked the end of one of the most successful money-getters of this generation. The public had no deep interest in the death of Jay Gould because Jay Gould in his life had never shown any interest in the public, except to make of its fran- chises mills to grind money into his coffers. The city does not mourn for him because he has given it no reason to lament his loss. He leaves a great fortune, built upon the ruin of his early benefactors, and increased beyond the dreams of avarice by the remorseless sacrifice of later associates and friends. He leaves it all, to the uttermost nickel. "There are no pockets in the shroud." It is not right that public teachers should speak lies concerning the dead, simply because they are dead. The old maxim is immoral. When an utterly sordid life, pursuing its selfish ends through broken laws, corrupted legislatures and wrecked railroads, comes to its end, an honest press and pulpit should hold it up to the light of day as a stupendous failure. Jay Gould's redeeming traits were his amiable and affectionate relations with his family, his freedom from the vulgar ostentation of wealth, and the personal and domestic virtues that are so often lacking in men of his class. But few very rich men have ever been more cyn- ically indifferent than he to the truth that wealth has obligations. Mr. Gould could have done for New York what George Peabody did for London. He could have emulated and far surpassed the noble service of Peter Cooper to this city. He could have done vast good in many directions. 204 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. He has done nothing but to heap up money, often by dishonorable means, and leave it in trust for his children. It is not a great career. It is not an admirable character. It is not a death that will cause any public sorrow. N. Y. World. JAY GOULD'S CLOSED CAREER. One of the phenomenal men of his time has just passed into history. Jay Gould is dead, and there is no financial panic, nor is there any likelihood of one. There was a time when the announcement of his death would probably have been the signal for a convulsion on Wall Street which would have been sympathetically. echoed in all the stock exchanges of the world. But that time has passed. The Jay Gould properties are no longer in the creative and speculative stage; they are on a solid footing, and the life of their creator is not now essential, as it once was, to their development. Harsh things were said of this remarkable man while he lived, and there will be a flood of severe moralizing over his career now that it is closed. It is easy to say that he was a man with but one all-absorbing passion--the acquisition of wealth for its own sake and the sake of the power which it gave him over the great material enterprises of his day. It will have to be conceded, not doubt, that his character, as a whole, was not one to be held up for emulation and imitation to the youth of America. There were not enough of human sympathy and philanthropic impulse in it for that. O Nevertheless there were strong lines of purpose and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. 205 faculty in the intellectual make-up of Jay Gould which give him rank among really great men. He had cour- age, grit, insight, foresight, tireless energy, indomitable will-all great qualities. He conceived his gigantic operations boldly and executed them with consummate coolness and skill. He was the peculiar and unprece- dented product of a peculiar and unprecedented epoch of material growth, expansion, enterprise and develop- ment. No other country and time than the United States during the past thirty years could have evolved him. It was a period of colossal undertakings, of enor- mous railroad construction, of vast telegraphic and tele- phonic enterprises. Speculation was its keynote-bold, vast, hazardous, and, to the losers, often enough ruinous speculation. Jay Gould was the master-mind of this period. He won where others lost; and those who lost. hated and denounced. The game was desperate and merciless, and if the tables had been turned, and the losers had been the winners, we should have heard far less about Jay Gould's sordid and soulless nature. It is eminently a case for the old proverb-De mortuis nil nisi bonum. Jay Gould played a great part in a great age. He was neither a saint, a reformer, nor a philanthropist, and he made no pretensions to be. But at least it must be said of him that, with untold wealth at his command, his private life was clean and reputa- ble, and his moral example as a husband and parent was wholesome. It has been widely insisted that the accu- mulation of stupendous fortunes is one of the prime evils and dangers of modern American life; but, even if this be true, Jay Gould was not alone in his offence. In 206 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. common fairness it may properly be borne in mind that he was neither the first, the only, nor will he be the last, of our multi-millionaires. Byron's line on Napo- leon fits him-"Neither the greatest nor the worst of men."-N. Y. Recorder. ! THE DEATH OF JAY GOULD. Mr. Jay Gould's health has for several years been de- clining, and his death has been for some time known to his friends to be an event that should be expected at an early date. He had the reputation of a man of iron nerve, and he had the quiet courage of his remarkable intelligence. Physically he was delicate and sensitive, and his tastes and habits were those of simplicity and refinement. In his domestic life he was exemplary-a most tender husband and loving father. His sons are men of trained capacity in affairs, who have for years been educated for the management of the vast interests. now committed to their hands. Practically, they have been managers for years, with but the general judgment of their father to guide them. They are thoroughly familiar with the principles and details of the business, chiefly that of railways and telegraphy, and there is no serious change articipated, though, of course, the death of the most famous man in the history of Wall Street is an immense sensation in that world. Mr. Gould was the keenest and shrewdest and most daring of operators, and amassed an enormous fortune. He was not an original force for good or evil of extraordinary volume, but a type of and the most striking representative of an adventurous Americanism, and his was an individuality that was the THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JÀY GÓULD. 207 growth of circumstances. There is this to be said of the capital he accumulated: It was never so harvested as to be put away to rest, but it was placed so as to be active. His wealth was alive and associated with intense indus- try. The income from it has been very large, and the sagacity that animated the policy of government of the vast fortune was extraordinarily clear and tenacious. Mr. Gould was the foremost man of his time in accuracy of estimation of the value of good-will, and his apprecia- tion and realization of the invisible increments of wealth were the beginning of his success. When he had, as Dr. Johnson said, "riches beyond the dreams of avarice," Mr. Gould became sensible that he was an overtasked man; that peace, after all, was the first blessing; that his health was frail; and he turned for comfort to his home -his wife and children, his conservatory and books. In his grounds at Tarrytown he had under glass a little tropical farm, and could furnish green corn from his own patch for a Christmas dinner. He had a singular, one might say a plaintive regard for beauty, that appeared in the love of flowers and ferns; the bloom and verdure. of plants and perfumes of warm and distant regions. There was something dainty in his ways, and while at a feast he ate a bird and drank no more at most of wine than a spoonful of sauterne, he was large-eyed for the charm of a landscape; knew the joy of broad sunny fields, and the restless sparkle of the sea. Robust delights were not for him. His early dreams were of a literary life, and his later luxuries were in his library. His fondness for his books often consoled him when tortured with nervous dyspepsia and insomnia. There must have been 208 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JAY GOULD. vivid feelings under the undisturbed surface of his face, and yet the only positive evidence of it he gave strangers was the unnatural placidity of his remarks, as he attached the deepest significance to his deftly chosen words. When he meant war he made a suggestion, and if it was presented with special gentleness there was in it the greater scope of warfare. His enemies knew the impor- tance of an inference, and there was acumen in ac- cepting a hint as influential. He understood conditions of society as elements of life. The fine threads of which he was spun were strained and fretted away before he had learned the limitations of his strength, and he sought often the restoration of change of air and scene, but no climate or scenery within reach of yacht or car revived his drooping energies. He was told to amuse himself, and his pale face was seen for a time in festive enter- tainments, but theatrical noise and glitter were not con- genial, and help could not be found in the glare and fanfare of professional merriment. The sincerity of his interest in the religious work of the Church, to whose funds for good works he contributed, was, no doubt, ab- solute, but there was not generosity or even meagre justice permitted him in the public comment relating to the incident of his benefaction, and it is not improbable that purposes of larger charities were discouraged. As his life faded, there appeared weakness of the lungs, and the disease, once pronounced, was rapid to the inevitable end.--Brooklyn Standard-Union. THE END.