Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-02
Joaquin Miller on Jay Gould.


 From the first day there, found that the stock dealers did not so much inquire after the weather, the probable ill or good fortune of ships, the growth or failure of crops, floods or fires, as after the movements of one certain mana small dark, silent man ; modest unobtrusive, even timid and shy man to all appearance yet man who held their whole world in his single right hand,
 "Gould is sellingr' The street trembIed, and stocks fell two, three, four points in an hour. 'Gould is buying 7" The street started up, and stocks rose accordingly. Every rumor, good or bad, came coupled with Jay Gould, and he was held responsible for all that was done; while, in truth and in fact, this man, nine cases out of ten, neither knew nor cared how the market was going
 Never was man bitterly abused I seek in vain for the mention of one word of praise, or even respect, for Jay Gould dur ing my half-year in Wall street. Perhaps I am too much given to shouting for the bot tom dog in the fight; but this persistent and bit. ter abuse begot in me an interest in this sin gular and silent little man, and I began to study his life, and look into his mighty en- terprises. I found them so vast, so grand, so far reaching and splendid as to be almost incomprehensible. Certainly Napoleon ever had half such brain. And yet, for all this, never heard a word of admiration. Every man in Wall street seemed to be so bound mp in his own petty losses or gains
 
 thermometer that marked the rise and fall of stocks. ''An inspired fiend, " is the high est praise heard for him. Day after day you could constantly hear such expressions as these: "Some one will shoot that-be- fore he is year older" ''Well he will, never live to enjoy it, ? 'tLet him look out what he is about, " ''They fixed Fisk, and he was a stronger man than Gould yet very tranquil ly the dark, little Napoleon passed on through it all as if utterly unconcious of these mutter- ings, and utterly careless of what men thought did. Of course such coolness and courage as this appeals to man from the Pacific, and my interest in this man constant ly increased.
 may mention here that did not find the average stock speculator much of man. Quite unlike the grand old California gamblers of our first days. I found them a sober, cold -blooded, calculating lot. And here let me call attention to the gulf that lies between the stock speculator and the legitimate rail road man. Let the line between them be not forgotten. The is to be summed, dreaded, despised. The other is to be respect ed, admired, sympathised with. The one, with force of quarter million strong men, lives in luxury and gives to the world not so much as one grain of wheat. This quarter of million brokers and professional stock spec ulators live on the fat of the land; and yet, all together, they never give to the world so much one lucifer match. They camp-followers who p1under the dead.
 But the great builders of railways are quite another quality of men, although rail road builders often, much to often, spec ulators also. Gould is prominently build er He is not a man who tears down. If ever his hand touches railroad, 1t seems to start at once to life although it may have lain rusting and rotting in it's grave for years. If ever there man inspired for special work in these later days, Jay Gould seems to be the man. You may study the map of aF | II ments and collosal combinations of the First Napoleon, if it be possible. Then turn to America and see what this man has done and is doing here and you will find that his a. chievments far outreach those of the great emperor.
 When first travelled through Europe, l found had to have passport for almost every one of the 30 petty states. This was ex- pensive and troublesome. But now Bismarck and the emperor have tied all these together, and the world calls 1t great. A few years ago the railway of the West lay in broken bits and fragments one at war with the other, cutting each others throats, and maintaining standing armies of presidents and officers on enormous salaries, all of which the farmer had to pay for. Jay Gould reached out his hand, remodeled all, consolidated all, swept the standing army out of existance, and gave the farmer a road that took his produce to mar ket for less than half the former cost
 Bismarck, with a million men, tied Ger many, and the world applauded, although he did deplete the treasury and double the taxes. Here a single man, assaulted on all sides by the abuse of enemies and feeble detractors, without dollar, except as he could make 1t out of his scheming brain, has united and bound together railways, and established systems which tenfold more important, every one of them, than the unifcation of the German states; and, instead of doubling the taxes, he has doubled trebled, qnadrupled the taxable property of the countries where in he has wrought. He has given eMploy- ment to perhaps million of men in building and maintaining and reconstructing these rail- ways and, what is most important of all, so reduced tariffs that the farmer now ship his grain at 8 rate that must soon make him a wealthy man.
 Of course, know nothing of the inner life of my hero. I do not desire to know of it. The perpetual abuse of enemies has made him singulariy alone and exclusive. Yet am told that his home life is most perfect and sweet, and his sons growing up to be men of know however-that to the suffering South Kansas and other places, he has, in the most way, sent more solid help than any one man besides in the world Fancy any old world Napoleon heading subscript- magnitude and importance of this new Nap oleon's work, knitting the lakes to the Gulf, the Atlantic to the Pacific, the North to the South in a network of steel that noth- ing can ever break-this was worth my half year in Wall street.
 r.pEurrT STE THE lSANEES OE THE