The Portland daily press., 1872-09-25
New York Letter.

IHE WALL STREET CONSPIRACY-A GRAPH
&c SKETCH OF JAY GOULD, THE ARCH
CoNsPIRAToR-A DEMoRALIZING EXAM
PIE OF SUCCESSFUL vlLLAMY-THE
WANDERING sAeE-HoRACE ON THE
WAR PATH-CITY PoLrTIcs-JAMEs O.
NEW YORK, Sept. %, 1872.
The mischief which has been wrought by
the Wall street Ring during the week has been
serious. By an artful combination suddenly
sprung upon the business community, they
have succeeded in Withdrawing from crcula-
ton sufficient quantity of currency and gold
to create an artificial scarcity of both; conse-
quently borrowers have been obliged to pay
fearfuy usurious rates to meet their necessi-
ties. If these dscreditable transactions affect
ed only spectators in stocks, they would be
less perilous, but they hinder all commercial
transactions, and literally paralyze the COM
merce and industries of the country. The
chief plotter in this latest Clock up'' is alleg-
ed to be the notorious Jay Gould, whose ex-
pulsion from the Erie Railway Direction,
with ample means wrung from the unfortu-
nate stockholders of that huge corporation,
leaves him at liberty to practice his unscrupu-
lous devices upon asensitive money market,
without let or hindrance. Jay Gould is one
of those marvels of audacity whose exploits
have from time to time astonshed the world.
A few years ago he was the editor of an OBJ
scure village newspaper in Delaware county,
in this State. His first success was in obtain
ing the friendship and patronage of wealthy
ex Member of Congress by ministering to his
vanity in series of elaborate puffs. The
gratified object of his panegyrics sought him
out, and conceived the magnanimous project
OF forwarding his discriminating judgment by
making him partner in an extensive tan
merry, of which he was the proprietor Discover
ing after time, that he had made mistake,
he determined to dissolve the connection. At
this critical juncture Gould succeeded
somehow or other in persuadng leading
leather merchant in New York to advance
him funds to buy out his dissatisfied partner.
This new victim in turn came to the realizing
consciousness that he had made a ruinous in
vestment, but not until he had become so
dangerously involved that his reason was de-
throned and he committed suicide. Even af-
ter this unhappy tragedy, Gould threw such
hindrances in the way OF recovery of the
remnants of the property that the heirs of
this once prosperous merchant, who occupied
one of the finest residences in the city, and
was liberal patron of art, scarcely saved
anything out of the wreck. Up to this time
Gould was not supposed to possess any
means. But his alliance with Fisk and their
subsequent conquest of the great Erie railway,
afforded him the opportunity to acquire i'm
mense wealth. This daring spoliation was
resisted by the owners of the property, but
their only remedies were through legal pro-
ceedings, and Gould and Fisk had fortified
themselves against that method of attack by
obtaining absolute control of Judge Barnard
and through him of the Supreme Court.
With the help of money, by the retention
of numerous counsel, aided by the ingenuity
of David Dudley Field and his law firm, every
effort to get the case out of Barnard's courts
failed, so that when Sickles dashing coup
Petat finally dislodged Gould, he retired la
den with spoils. A suit is now pending
against him in which the new board seeks to
recover ten millions of dollars! ..
Meanwhile he has turned his plotting pro-
pensities from the Erie railway to the banks |
and bankers of Wall street. His principle |
confederate has lost his life by violence. his
fellow directors, Tweed and Sweeney. are
awaiting the tardy justice of the courts, his
faithful henchman, the Judge, has fallen by
The terrible blow of impeachment, but Gould
IT'LL pursues his unblushing career defiant and
shameless.
Ii is not at all creditable to New York that
such man as this can live in it. He ought to
10 under such moral and social quarantine
70 W make existence a burden to him. But
'he loVe OF money has so demoralized our
people that they tolerate any amount of
when tits gilded with sufficient
'old. This Mr.. Gould affects fashion, sports
lis box in the opera, rolls along the Park in
luxurious equipage, andis in no sense tabooed
8 he ought to be.
Imagine the effect~of all this upon the
Dung men of the city. They grow to regard
UGH acharacter as smart fellow. His glaring
ishonesty is quite forgotten in admiration of
is success. But what if everybody should
initiate his example? What would become J