The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-02-02

tension, and rebounds with an elastic
spring without possible damage. We
have lively recollection of MIR. Could
few years ago, when, as president OF
Erie, he was under examination by the
committee investigating its manage
ment and affairs, The hooking audsclty
with which he walked over the quick
soil of judicial perjury was a sin to So
ciety-a brazen taunt of ironry and
contempt, aimed at men who have
scru2les that the world recognizes as
conscientious. We couldimaglne Mr..
Gould throughout his testimony hold
ing such men at arms length and re-
garding them with ridicule. Nothing
could be clearer than that they were
objects of profound disgust to him in
the light of that higher responsibility
the sense of which possesses him, and
which the world too much recognizes.
1t is painful to think that something
his understanding could better appre-
ciate than the disgust he inspires IN
the minds of his superiors could not
clutch him in an iron grip and hold
him amenable to society for his abuse
of its integrity. 1t is simply true of
Jay Gould, whom the world respects
as probably no other world ever will,
that he openly ridIcules honesty, pro-
bity and virtue. and all pretentlons to
them, and habitually deies all opinion
that has its source in veracity.
In the examination of which we speak
and which many readers will recall, he
openly avowed having hired promi-
nent lawyer, whose name We do not re-
member, to "advocate legislation" in
the interest of Erie. He was asked to
authenticate voucher for large sum,
we think $4,000, signed by him and
given to pay for this "advocacy." He
said fippantly that i, looked like his
handwriting, and might be his, but he
had yet doubt about it, or like words.
And when shown a note, in his own
handwriting, instructsng some subor-
dinate to pay large sum for some dis
reputable service, and asked if it was
his, he said again it looked like his, but
might not be, he was not sure about it.
In this way whole hours of legal per-
Juries were committed by this man of
the easy conscience and grasping love
of power, before the Erie committee,
displaying throughout the supremest
contempt for the virtue and decency of
society.
We recall, too, an example of the pa
trotism of this high-toned moralist,
which he placed on record without sGu-
pie or hesitation, when asked concern
ing his political convictions. 1t was
about thus that in a democratic dis
trict he was a democrat, in a republi-
can district he was republican, and in
a doubtful district he was doubtful. He
got things so mixed, he said, that he !
hardly knew what his politics were.
He didn't know whether he was dem
ocrat or republican, but he always
knew he was an Erie man.
The people of the southwest will be
wise to get a curb bit in the willful |
mouth of Jay Could. Let legislation,
in Arkansas, resent the indignity of
this INSCRIPTIONS buyer ofits privileges
who is a continuous menace to honesty,
by lavish encouragement to other rail
road magnates tobuild competing lines,
and physic his rapacity with loss. This
mans hand, more than any of his class,
is against the integrity of the public
hooking with his wealth