Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-18
TWO KINDS OF SUCCESS.

The death of Peter Cooper and the an
 nouncement that Jay Gould is about to retire from active business have brought to public attention a striking contrast between two very remarkable ives Both of them are business lives; both lives of wonderful ener- gy, and both, as the world views it, very suc- cessful lives. Both of these careers are pe- culiar products of American life and no two could more sharply contrast the two very different kinds of success to be obtained in it.
 Gould is the most notable example in our times of the vulgar idea of success. He combines to the degree of genius all those qualities which go to make up what is called in America ''the smart fellow" His success is the success of phenomenal smartness. It is a success with which integrity and the good of others have had nothing to do. Indeed, he stands at the head of class ot men, un- fortunately far too numerous nowadays, who worship success and sacrifice everything to it, including their honor and their character, and who feel and oft en openly profess contempt for business rec titude, and who regard it as an old.fashioned and exploded humbug, and whe associate the observance of high principle in dealing be. tween man and man with financial failure Gould, as 8 leading journal has said of him, "has evaded the necessity of ebeying the laws by bribing those who made laws and buying those who interpreted and applied them. He has owned newspapers for the purpose of misleading public judgment about him and his schemes" In all this his career E. TIa grander scale what thousands of his class are doing on a smaller scale and with less ability and audacity.
 It may well be questioned whether such 8 success is any success at all, even when looked at from the most practical and worldly point of view. It would hardly be claimed, for instance, that a fortune got by downright awindling was even material success, and why not on the same principle any fortune gained by questionable means. It is true that GouId,s career has dazzled great many weak-mind- ed people. His marvellous success has in some sort idealized tricksry and scoundrel- ism and given false splendor to things that are mean and despicable Though his un- paralleled daring, his tact and the infinite resources of his strategy have provoked ad- miration, it is not altogether unlike the ad- miration accorded in Greece and Italy to an audacious and successful bandit It is safe to say that his career has never awakened an atom of genuine esteem. If the attitude of the press is any indication of popular senti- ment concerning him he is the most thor oughIy despised man in America. His career is notable instance of the commonplaee fact that in this country men may gain high places and accumulate vast wealth by the most questionable means, and of another fact too, equally patent, that the peapls4aks a pretty accurate measure Of such men and estimate their success at just about what it is worth. s-s4eF s
 We could not find more. fortunate ex-s ample of what we are saying. in sseeess Of very opposite character, than the life of Peter Cooper. He was not in any sense brilliant man. He was not even man of remarkable talent. There was nothing dazzling in the character of his success. It was not the success of smartness and measure in dol lars and cents it was nothing in zoompaxison to Gould's. Yet Peter Cooper was honored and esteemed with warmth of feeling that no man of our day has awakened in this country. His funeral was of itself Q remark able event. No such funeral has taken place here in this generation. No such tribute was ever paid to man who never held high political office, or won distinction in war or in art, literature, or science. He certainly did not owe this to the fact that he was suo- csssful business man, nor entirely to the fact that he had devoted so much of his wealth to the service of his fellow men. Gould has not only made more money than he. but very likely given more to benevolent The same may be said of many other men The esteem in which Peter