The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-09-14
JAY GOULD.
Telling the Story Of His Life to a
Senate Committee.
How He Made His First Dollar end
How He Became a Millionaire.

subcommittee on education and labor, sitting
in New York. Mr.. Gould was summoned to
give his testimony on the subject of the re-
lations of capital and labor. Senator Blair
of the committee, said to him:
"Mr. Gould, will you tell the committee
something of your earlier life ~
Eyes, if you wish" said the witness. 'It's
rather silly to talk over such small matters. 1
don't like to parade myself before the public.
But I'll jump in and do the best l can. / was
born in Roxbury, Delaware county, New
York, May 81, 1886. My father was a small
farmer, who had a dairy of twenty cows.
AS a boy, it was my duty to drive
these COWS and assist my sisters in
milking them. 1 vent about bare
footed, and often got thistles in my feet. 1
didn't like that kind of farming, and SO one
day l said to my father that I'd like to go to
school. He said l was too young. l said if
he'd give me my time I'd try my fortune.
A right; go ahead said he, and the next
day l started out. found a blacksmith who,
as 1 wrote a good hand, would board me if l
wrote up his books at night. In that way 1
worked my way through a small select school.
l was fourteen years old when l started out,
and at fifteen l got a ~clerkship in a country
store. made myself generally useful sweep
ing it out and looking after business, working
from 6 o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock
at night.
81 had a taste for mathematics, and got up
at 8 o'clock in the morning and studied until
6 o'clock. l soon had a pretty good idea of
engineering and started out as a surveyor.
l heard of a man in Ulster county who wa
1OOtiur fnI. an assistant ans I croft on ,nooa
ment from him at twenty dollars a month
and found. After some debate l concluded it
best to take only enough money with me to
pay my fare. When my employer sent me
out to make surveys for a map of
Ulster county he gave me a little pass
book, and said AS you go along you get
trusted for what you eat and your lodgings
and I'll follow you afterward and pay the
bills On the third day out J attempted to
get trust for two and sixpence, which was
the usual charge for board and lodging in
those days. NO. cried the farmer, you've
got money and you must pay. Don't you
know that the man you're working for has
failed three times and owes everybody in
the countryF' 1 turned my pockets inside
out and said There, I've got nothing.
You can see hat I've told you the
truth From that little incident it seemed to
me then that the world had about come to an
end. 1 hadn't the heart to ask any one for a
dinner. The rebuff had such a great effect on
me that, after debating whether | should go
ahead or give up, l sat down in the woods
where nobody could see, and had a good cry"
Mr.. Gould sank his voice to a whisper at
this point, and i'll a hesitating and trembling
tone continued: 81 thought of another rem
edy, and knelt down then and there and
prayed a little. When | got up | felt better,
and made up my mind to go right ahead. l
went into the nearest farmhouse, and the
woman who met ne gave me some bread and
milk and treated me kindly. When | said l
would pay for it another time she said it
was all right, and l started off. l had
got about forty rods when l heard her
husband hallooing after me-. After my
previous experience l thought that he would
about finish me. But he simply said Il
want you to take your compass and make me
a noon mark to tell time by | went back
and mad it. much is that y he asked.
'Oh, that's all right, l replied. No, it amt
lar for such work. well, then, that's the
price l responded. He took out a shilling
for what l had eaten and gave me seven shil-
lings."
"That,n exclaimed Mr.. Gould, leaning
back in his chair, sis the first money | ever
tdl lltu. L NtuJ VII Ildb way anu Ddll my
expenses throughout the sumIner by making
noon marks. At the end of the summer my
employer had failed and couldn't pay me.
Two other surveyors working for him, who
were the sons of SIGH men, adopted my propo-
sition to go ourselves and finish our surveying
and get out the maps. They wanted
to put their names to the maps
when they We're done, and
l sold out my interest to them for $500. That
represented my earnings for the summer.
Afterward made similar surveys and maps
of Albany and Delaware counties. They
sold well, and | got 5000 out of their sale.
Later on l met Zadock Pratt, of Pratts-
vile, who was one of the largest tanners
n the country. He knew all my history
and took a fancy. to me. He proposed
to me to go into the tannery bust
ness with him, and l did so. l
bought up a large tract of hemlock
land in Pennsylvania, and with fifty or sixty
men began to build a tanning mill. We built
the blacksmith shop first, and l slept in it on
a bed of hemlock boughs the night of the day
it was finished. Finally, l bought Pratt out,
and subsequently sold the business to Leupp,
a New York leather merchant. Just about
this time the panic of 1851 occurred, and
Leupp committed suicide.
Il still had my early love for engineering
continued the witness, land had been watch
ing the railroads. The Rutland and Wash
ington road to Troy was offering its first
mortgage bonds at ten cents on the dollar.
| bought them all on credit at that figure,
and then became the president, treasurer,
general superintendent and owner of a
road about sixty miles long. l set out to
learn the railroad business. l gradually
developed the road, and when it became
part of the Rensselaer, and Saratoga. | sold
out my stock at 120 and went West. The
Cleveland and Pittsburg ROAD was in a poor
condition, and a friend who hal stock in it
came to me one night and said he would have
to fail next day if he didn't get rid of it. l
bought this friends interest. The stock was
then at65. Igradually developed the road and
its business, and il paid dividends at once.
The stock was up to 120 when | sold out.
| went after that into Union Pacific, and
bought a lot of its stock, when the sudden and
fatal sickness of Mr.. Clark threw his share I'M
expectedly upon the market. The stock went
way down TO Is. But | continued TO buy
it up as fast as it was sold. To the surprise
of everybody the road soon began to paw div
idends after | got the iron mines developed.
When its financial success began a great
clamor and cutlery was raised that this was
jay Gould's road as though that was
a dangerous thing. l thought it better to
bow to public opinion. and gradually placed
my stock in investors hands, and soon
was entirely out of the road, and