Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-05-09
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
A Visit to Noted New York Prison-The
Tombs-The Famous Lord Gordon, etc,
A SUPPOSED lord.

No truer words were ever pennod than
those of Goldsmith in his "Deserted Vii
lage:"
Princes and Lords may flourish or may fade,
| A breath can make them, as breath hath made;
But bold Peasantry, their country's pride,
| When once destroyed can never be supplied
And so it seems that q Lord has been
made in New York by mere breath of
pretence,0 and the exhibition Of sau
Ger of Chatham street diamonds, and
the assertion of unbounded wealth; and
the assumption of self-conident air, and
so complete has been his success that he
has been button-holed and elbowed and
"hobnobbed" check by jole" by Jay
Gould, Tom Scott, Vanderbilt, Horace
Greeley, and other distinguished posSessors
of money or brains,
have not space to give you all the in
teresting particulars of the romantic finan-
cial plot and scheme, but will briefly state
that the supposed Lord Gordon first came
to the surface in Minnesota, blowing like
mud turtle of the vast wealth at his
command There he met Mrs Belden, the
wife of the former partner Of James Fisk,
Jr., and represented to her that he was clos
ing bargain with the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company for million acres of
land, and also represented that he was of
noble blood, and allowed himself to be call
ed Lord Gordon, receiving the aristocratlc
distinction in the most natural manner,
He also represented to her that he owned
and controlled over $30,000,0oO in Erie
stock, and gave out the impression that
he was allied to the great Heath IL Ra-
phael interest in England. Mrs. Belden,
| like business woman, saw that under the
truth of these statements, it would be to
the interest of Gould to enlist Gordon in
his favor, and so he began to be noised
about. First Horace Greeley became ac-
ouainted with him under representations
that Gordon was deeply interested in the
emigration and colonization movement.
He also made some propositions for a
grand railroad consolidation which attract
ed the attention of the railroad kings,
and first Scott was presented to Gordon
by Greeley, and then Gould sent up his
card at the Metropolitan Hotel, and was
ushered into the presence of the aris-
tocratic Gordon, the financial Scott, and
the philosophc Greeley; and thus began
the business acquaintance which culmi-
mated in Gould entrusting the supposed
lord with 100000 in Erie stocks, and some
$500 900 in greenbacks, stocks, and other
securities for the purpose of an investiga-
ton of Erie affairs, so that Gordon could
induce the English nobility to unite with
Gould. Some of these funds were to be
expended by Gordon in the purchase of a
nice little farm for Greeley, as a present,
and q portion devoted to the grand rail.
road consolidation scheme, and Union
Depot in Westchester county, in which
Vanderbilt was also in agreeable accord
with Gordon in the gigantic plan.
&And thus the acquaintance ran on in
the smooth channel of plot and plan and
theoretc speculation, spiced with oysters
and champagne, and gorgeous parlors in
magnificent hotels, special palace-cars and
obsequious distinction to the supposed
lord, while all the time he was looking to
practical speculation for himself, as the
matter has eliminated in his failure to use
the funds placed in his hands for the pur-
poses specified, and in his refusal to give
them up, and in suit by Gould put him
under the thumb screws of " iniunctions,"
"show causes" and similar equitable pro-
cesses.
At the present time Gordon is under
bail, with Vanderbilt's son-in-law as his
bondsman, and whatever may be the re-
suit, am satisfied that the adventurer
Gordon will come out financially ahead
by his shrewd operations.
VISIT TO THE TeMBs.