The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-05-12
JAY GOULD.
How the Shadow Of One Man Effects the
Bears and Bulls Of Wall Street.

How the Shadow of One Man Effects the
Bears and Bulls Of Wall Street.
From the New York Graphic
ought sooner to have mentioned that.
from the first day there, I found that the
stock dealers did not SO much inquire after
the weather, the probable i'll or good for
tune of ships, the growth or failure of crops,
floods or fires, as after the movements of
one certain mana small, dark, silent man,
to all appearance, yet man who held their
whole world in his single right hand
''Gould is selling?" The street trembled,
and stocks fell two, three four points in an
hour.
Gould is buying!" The streets started
UP, and stocks rose accordingly. Every
ramor, good or bad, came coupled with the
name Of Jay Gould, and he was held re-
sponsible for all that was done, while in
truth and in fact, this man, nine cases out
of ten, neither knew nor cared how the mark
ct was going.
Never was man so bitterly abused. I
seek in vain for the mention of one word
of praise or even respect for Jay Gould
haps am too much given to shouting for
the bottom dog in the fight, but this per-
sistent and bitter abuse begot in me an in
terest in this singular and silent little man,
and I began to study his life and look into
his mighty enterprises. 1 found them so
vast. so grand, SO reaching and splendid
as to be almost incomprehensible. Ger
tainly, no Napoleon ever had half such
brain And yet for all this never heard
word of admiration. Every man in Wall
street seemed to be so bound up in his own
petty losses or gains that Gould was looked
upon as kind of thermometer that marked
the rise and fall of stocks. can inspired
fiend," is the highest praise heard for
him. Day after day you could constantly
hear such expressions as these: "Some one
will shoot that---before he is year old
er" well, he will never live to enjoy it.
LET him look out what he is about.
"They fixed Fisk, and he was a stronger
man than Could" yet very TRANQUILITY the
dark little Napoleon passed on through it
terings and utterly careless of what men
thoug ht or did. Of course, such GOODNESS
and courage as this appeals to q man from
the Pacific, and my interest in this man in
creased.
Here is single man, assaulted on all
sides by the abuse of enemies and feeble
detraekors, without dollar, except as he
could make it out of his scheming brain,
has united and bound together railways and
established systems which are ten fold
more important, every one of them, than
the uniication of the German states, and,
instead of doubling the taxes, he has doub-
led, trebled, quadrupled the taxable prop
erty of the countries wherein he has
wrought. He has given employment 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 can now
ship his grain at rate that must soon make
him wealthy man.
Take, for example, what is now called
the Wabash system. A little while ago the
stock was selling at half cent on the hun
dred. The old iron rails were rueting away,
and the whole concern was bankrupt
Now, steel rails, thousands of additional
cars, and, like new equipments generally,
blossom all along the two thousand miles
now consolidated and merged in one cor
poration. And, with this new life, new
towns are going up all along the lines.
Truly it may be said Of this man that he
has built as many cities as some men we
call great have destroyed.