New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-28
GOULD IND Vanderbilt.

Commodore Vanderbilt assures the public, in
characteristic card, that after taking partic-
ular notice of Mr.. Jay Gould's cOuntenance he
came to the conclusion that he would have
nothing to do with him in any way whatever
unless to defend himself This resolution was
marked by the good sense which distinguishes
most of the Commodore's judgments, and 1t
was probably confirmed by the single business
transaction which he confesses to have had
with Mr.. Gould in the Summer of 1868. 81
sold him a lot of stock" says Mr.. Wander
bilt "for which he paid me, and the privilege
&" of a call for a further lot, which he also
Settled Our readers may have forgotten
once famous affair to which perhaps reference
is here made. 1t was at the close of the great
struggle between Drew, Vanderbilt, and Ed
ridge, which first brought Gould and Fisk
into prominence, and after many dramatic
incidents in Wall street and in the courts the
fight of the directors to Jersey City,
and the purchase of a bill at Albany
legalizng the Over-iSsue Of stock, ended IN
compromise whereby Fisk and Gould came
into possession of Tie road, and agreed to re-
lieve Mr. Vanderbilt of $4,000 shares of Erie
at 20, and to pay him S10OO,0O0 for the option
of a call for the same amount of stock at the
same price within four months. They after
ward brought suit to rescind this agreement
on the ground that it was illegal, and it was
in the course of the trial that Mr.. Fisk made
his well-remembered remark denouncing the
settlement as can almighty robbery" for
which he and his associates ought to have
been sent to Sing Sing. Naturally, Commodore
Vanderbilts recollections Of this interesting
GIL Ia Will M ii
dence in Mr.. Jay Gould.
And yet it is not unnatural that when Mr..
Gould and the COmmodOres particular friends
connections, and associates are found working
together for q common object, people should
suppose this ancient antipathy to be for the
nonce overcome There was a time, four or
five years ago, when Mr.. Vanderbilt laid an
elaborate plan for the financial ruin of Nh.
Daniel Drew, regarding that excellent man,
we have no doubt, as a pestlferous person
who ought to be got rid Of yet III few
weeks Drew and Vanderbilt were working
together at one of the biggest operations i'll
the whole history of Erie, Mr. Drew having
suddenly come over TO his adversary's side
and Joined him in making war upon his own
friends. That Jay Gould should now be found
Vanderbilt party, though not in personal alli-
ance with the Commodore himself is surely
no more surprising than that Daniel Drew
should have been in the same situation i'll
1867 or 1868. Nor is it matter for amaze
ment that Augustus Schell and Horace F..
Clark should have interfered to release Mr..
Gould from jail, and allow the little stock
transaction to proceed in which Gould was
then immersed We may not go quite so far
as Mr. Clark in regarding the offer of that
bail as "a public duty but, whether it averted
panic or not, it was natural means of
protecting the interests of Mr.. Clark's own
roads. He and Mr.. Schell certainly averted,
by their prompt action, revulsiOn which
would have been disastrous to themselves and
to the great corporate interests which they
represented. They acted on the first law of
life, that of self-preseryation, and, in
the crisis, did their duty likewise by their
companies. Very possibly also they saved
the financial community from the shock of a
general crash, like the fateful Black Friday to
which both refer in the testimony printed in full
this morning on our third page In any case
we see no justice in the current abuse OF them.
All condemn Wallst. inancering-none more
loudly than those who are deepest in it-but
nobody whose interests are involved in a
maintenance of prices would hesitate, in such
an emergency, about baihng out man whose
running away from trial they did not fear,
and whose imprisonment would, in their
Judgment, cost them millions. Least
of all should the Bears" complain
Messrs. Clark and Schell were advancing
tbo stock of roads whose interests IL Was
their official duty to promote. The Bears
were betting that by and by these stocks
would be lower. As to the nature of their opera
TONS nobody can have any doubt; and men,
who choose to gamble in that way, rarely get
much sympathy when they 20 about shouting