The Osceola times., 1881-01-22
JAY G0ULD'S CAREER.
The Methods by Which He May Add Mil
lions to His Wealth.
New York sun.

report says they have been, he should De
adding to his inheritance, even by the
operation of natural causes, at the rate OF
three or four millions year. To-day he
is undoubtedly the richest man IN Amer
lea. but whether he will enjoy that dis
tinction ten years hence depends upon
the continuance Of Mr.. Jay Gould's busl-
ness career during that period. For 1t Is
certainly within Mr. Gould's power, em-
ploying the agents he has now in hand,
to add not only two, but ten millions OF
dollars to his fortune every wear, unless
catastrophes of which there now seems
TO be no sign should intervene between
his power and the application of that
power
Mr.. Gould owns or controls railroads
that may be put in rivalry with all the
other chief railroad systems of the coun-
try, excepting in the South. lie controls
the one rival to the great telegraph sys-
tenn of the country. lie owns or controls
two metropolitan newspapers, one repre-
senting each political party. lie is able
to devote, ON an hours notice, to the
furtherance of any scheme one million or
ten millions of ready money, as the eNi-
gencies of the project demand. lie IS
able to keep that ten millions invested,
without material inconvenience, until 1t
suits him to call it in and realize the inn
mense profits that he had calculated upon
from the first.
Thus he has the agents with which TO
unsettle the financial market; he has the
newspapers through which to make pub
lie what he finds necessary to make pub
lie; he has the immense capital with
which to operate. The experience of
Wall street shows how these are used.
The process is Il simple one.
Mr.. Gould owns a railroad competing
with one of the great roads quoted in the
stock market. lie quietly, if it may be
sells short the stock Of the latter road to
! the amount of one, two, five, or ten mill
| lions BY skilfully worded paragraphs
| in the World or Tribune he creates an un-
easy feeling as to that road. The public
| mind is prepared, day by day, for his
| final attack. He suddenly makes war
through his competing road, the stock Of
which he is able to hold through all the
! fluctuations he has anticipated. The
! stock Of the other road is forced down to
| the figure at which he has planned TO
realize. At that moment, too, he can
! buy largely for an advance. Then he
suspends hostilities, and the stock of both
| roads RECEIVERS. He has invested hun
dred thousand dollars in the expenses OF
! the war. He has realized a million.
| This has been the story, repeated over
and over again in the last fifteen months,
| of his operations in Wabash, Delaware,
| Lackawanna and Western, or the Amer
lean Union Telegraph.
Mr.. Gould began TO speculate in rail-
road stocks in 1859 He had the reputa-
tion from the first Of being successful, and
he was counted as a millionaire long be
fore the close of the war. lie proilted
| by the purchase and sale of gold rs well
as stocks, and took advantage of every
success or rout Of the Union army. The
men who operated intclligcntly in Wall
street, in war times, made great amounts
of money. Mr. Gould was one Of them.
How much he was worth when he went
into Erie can be at best mere conjecture,
forMr Gould carefully withholds inform
alton relative to his financial condition,
but it is part of the history of that
eventful episode that the company soon
owed him four millions of dollars, and
that after the overthrow he got the
money. His own version of how he
made more than million additional i'm
mediaiely afterward is told in an inter
view with him printed in the SuH in
August, 1877:
"When | got possession of my money
and left the company, began to sell the
stock short. Being no longer connected
with the concern, had a perfect right to
do this, and / sold a good deal of the
stock. One day, remember, Mr.. Bisch-
ohsheim was talking very loud, and Of
- .,,F,I.r.,. e.
10000 shares. ! sold him the lot, and
took it in n short time aiterward in the
neighborhood of 40.
Mr. Gould next venture was very sue
cessful. He purchased, rumor has it, 25,-
600 shares of Cleveland and Pttsburg
stock at about 80, rcorganized the com
pany and improved the road, doubled
the market price Of the stock, and then
leased the property. If it be true that
the amount Of his purchase was 25,OO0
shares, his profits from the transaction
would be more than a million and half
net.
These transactions, and his phcnome-
nal success in speculation for ten years
preceding them, might indicate that Mr..
Gould was worth toward ten millions of
dollars when, in 1873, he went into Union
Pacific buying Thousands. of shares Of it
at 20, which he has been able since to
sell at %. His later ventures have been
upon the same gigantic scale and with
the same uniform success, SO far as the
street knows OF them. The purchase Of
thousands Of shares of Wabash at less
than >, the consolidation of the road and
the advance Of the stock-the preferred
to so and the common to - and 49-and
the buying of great amount Of Kansas
and Texas stock at about and its in
crease in market value to 4S, nctted him
millions. All through lS76-7-S he was
purchasing large lines of the lOw-priced
stocks, which began TO rise almost imme-
diatcly, and continued to appreciate in
value until March last Wall street men
differ widely in their estimate of Mr.
Gould's present wealth. some putting it
as low Us twenty millions and some as
high as sixty millions. Nobody doubts,
however, that it is very large sum, and
that it is increasing at a rate which, if
continued in the same proportion, must
make him III less than ten years the rich
est man in America, if not in the world
Kccn-witted men have made the man
ipuiation Of Wall street stocks a study
How TO make prices decline when the
prosperity of the country, the condition
of the crops, and the laws of trade were
pushing them up has been the subject of
scheming and planning without end vet
Mr.. Gould has discovered the most sim
pie means Of accomplishing this result
He does it through the use of rival lines,
and he has the street almost at his mer-
cy. With his American Union telegraph
u