Trumbull White

“ 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. ”

“ Great enterprises make great responsibilities. From this time the enormous weight of the responsibilities upon Jay Gould’s shoulders could never again lessen.
Did he ever, in those years of scheming and fighting for wealth, cast his recollection backward to the old days at Roxbury, when he was but a barefoot farmer’s boy, with nothing more oppressive on his mind than the necessity to go through the rain for the cows, or to find the nest that the blue hen had hidden away some place in the hay-mow? ”

“ Gould has been prominently before the public in financial operations, and his history is the history of Wall street. Opinions of Mr. Gould have been just as varied as his own pursuits. There are those who laud him to the skies for the success he had in creating his enormous fortune, and who think him the sum of all good things. There are many others who think of him as being simply a close-fisted, unscrupulous, selfish business man of undoubted ability, but with no thought except to add to his wealth by whatever means might be necessary at the expense of others. ”

“ 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 hatless and half crazy through the streets, their eyes bloodshot, their faces pale with anxiety, their brains on fire. There came rumors of contemplated selling of gold by the Treasury, and the street went mad. ”

“ 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 securities. Like the wicked milkman, Gould always skimmed off the cream and poured water into all his properties. ”

“ 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. Gould236 abandoned care when he entered the portals of his conservatory. He did not have many warm personal friends, yet surely a man can not be altogether bad who is a friend of the roses. There must be some good in the heart of a man whose eyes grow tender as he bends over a lily. ”

“ Jay Gould will be remembered not for the good that he has done, not for the happiness he has given, but for the enormity of the fortune that he acquired. If his heirs apply to better ends than he did, the wealth that they have received from him, they may be better remembered. If they should dissipate the fortune, it might then fall into the possession of those who would do good with it. As it has been before, the life and fortune of Jay Gould have been a constant example always in readiness to be brought forward by those who find evil in our financial system. ”

“ The wonderful financial operations of the Drew and Gould regimes 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 bond even when selling below par, but they bought with avidity every share of Erie they could get hold of. ”

“ When Stanley Matthews, one of Gould’s creatures, who was speaking, sat down, Senator Thurman rose to close the debate. I was in the press gallery. Gould and Huntington sat in the senators’ special gallery with the list of their creatures in their hands to check off every senator as he voted in order that they might know who were faithful to their bribes. They smiled pityingly when the old Roman began. They did not believe in integrity. To them every man had his price, and they had paid the price of a majority—Thurman’s speech could not hurt them. ”

“ We see him win the confidence of Zadock Pratt, the tanner. We follow him into the forests of Pennsylvania and hear the sound of his ax as he fells the first tree for a great tannery. We see him scheming for the control of the property 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 honorable merchant, of New York, and see him again scheming to gain control of the entire business. ”

“ It is true, however, that the weight of the consensus of opinion has been that Jay Gould’s life was that of a wrecker of fortunes and of honor, that the good that he is done falls far short of balancing the account, and that his loss will be felt less by the world at large than would that of any other man of equal prominence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is hard to realize what an enormous distinction is in the fact of being the richest man in the world. For Gould not only created his fortune, but he made it greater than is possessed by any other individual in the world. It is true that there are families, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and the Rothschilds, whose aggregated wealth far exceeds the fortune left by Mr. Gould. But no individual of one of those families possesses an amount nearly equal to that represented by the Gould properties. ”

“ Gould’s philanthropical adviser,” said this remarkable man on one occasion in 1879; “whenever a really deserving charity is brought to my attention, I explain it to Mr. Gould. He always takes my word as to when and how much to contribute. I have never known him to disregard my advice in such matters. His only condition is that there shall be no public blazonry of his benefactions. He is a constant and liberal giver, but doesn’t let his right hand know what his left hand is doing. ”

“ It will be our effort to show what justification there may be for each opinion. Whatever other merit may be claimed for this modest biography of a rich man, it is certainly to be considered as entirely fair, with no bias for or against its subject, and no inclination to do anything but justice to his memory. No effort has been spared to secure reliable, accurate and exhaustive information on the history and personal characteristics of Jay Gould. ”

“ For the last few centuries, commercial ability, financial capacity, knowledge of how to manipulate men and measures in a way to increase fortune, and so to secure more of what fortune will buy, have been more and more appreciated, until to-day aristocracy and royalty clip coupons, families whose ancestors trace from the Conqueror invest in stocks and draw dividends, and the bluest blooded of all great families engage with avidity in the struggle for business and wealth. ”

“ 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.
It is doubtful if many young men, before the age of twenty-four years, have passed through as many and as varied experiences as these of Jay Gould. All his training now for several years had been in the line, first, of competition with others in the same business as his own, and then in direct conflict and war with those who had been his associates. He had learned not only to conquer his enemies, but to conquer his friends. ”

“ Those men who of late have been most intimately associated in business with Mr. Gould, and those directly connected with the business enterprises of which he was the commanding power, invariably speak of him in the highest terms. The directors of the Manhattan Elevated Railway, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Missouri Pacific System, and other great corporations in which Mr. Gould’s holdings of stock were the controlling interests, have been lavish in the compliments and admiration which they express. ”

“ Gould’s career in the corporation world will appreciate how again and again he found this quality of patience a prime investment. He never seemed to be in a hurry about anything. One of his enemies has remarked that during the last twenty years Jay Gould spent $1,000,000 hiring lawyers and paying court fees to accomplish nothing except to have lawsuits postponed.
And now the great man is dead. For days after his demise the public press was full of tales of his career. On every editorial page have been resumes of his life, and judgment upon him, either for or against. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When it comes to the fighting to hold his own against competition, which will be necessary in all of the properties left by the multi-millionaire, George will be met by a warfare entirely different from that directed against Gould senior. The fact that all the wealth, so to speak, is left in one pile, simplifies the war for its possession, and from this time on George Gould will be one of the best watched, best courted and very soon best hated men in America. ”

“ 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 this splendor, where we hope to renew life beyond the tomb. ”

“ In all his domestic relations his life was pure, his nature affectionate. No criticism can touch him in his home life. There he was above reproach. Toward the end of his life his dual nature seemed to blend into one. He became more conservative in business, more solicitous, apparently, of the good will and good opinion of his fellowmen, more careful to keep within the bounds of strict business312 morality, less audacious in his methods. For should it be forgotten that however much Gould’s public career may be justly subject to criticism, much that he did was indirectly for the public benefit? ”

“ Of all financial operations, cornering gold is the most brilliant and the most dangerous, and possibly the very hazard and splendor of the attempt were the reasons of its fascination to Mr. Jay Gould’s fancy. ”

“ 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 purchase 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. ”

“ Gould were a couple happily married in the fullest sense of the term. Mr. Gould was exceedingly domestic in his tastes. He never cared much about going into society. His wife died some years ago.
Mrs. Gould had been fond of society, but gradually gave it up.
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. ”

“ The varying opinions regarding him are perhaps more widely different than those concerning any other great financier. As has been said, there are those who see in him all that was ideal in the character of a powerful money monarch. There are more whose criticisms can not be made too scathing, whose denunciations can not be made too strong. In an impartial history, all such opinions must be represented.
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. ”

“ His218 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.”
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. ”

“ 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 character 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 everyone as to his intentions. ”

“ He first attained prominence in Wall street when James R. Keene came East after his successful 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. ”