Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-02-23
A GLIMPSE OF GOULD.
SOMETHING ABOUT HIS PERSONAL
HABITS AND RELATIONS.

How He Sometimes Upsets All the Ira
ditions Concerning Him-Gratitude.
Under Abuse-Personal Habits-His
Two sons-George Gould's Wife.
Meeting a friend who has grown more than
middle aged in the railway service between
Ohio, Baltimore and New York, 1 said to
him: SIS not Gould in about as good shape
as he ever was?'
"Oh, yes" said my friend, whom I have
known since about 1870, she is the most
powerful factor in the way of speculation
this country has seen. But he does not do
anything while abroad However, they will
never lose their fear of him wherever he may
be. And Gould gets nearly all his bad repu-
tation among the spectators and promoters
who tried to cheat him, and having failed,
turn round and bite at him, as the snake
gnawed the file. l will give you an instance
of that which happened under my own eye,
when no person was in the room but Gould
and myself had been severely prejudiced
against him, and would not have dared to go
and see him but for the Intervention of
very quiet chap by the name of Guppy,
whom Gould found in the Erie railroad when
he went there. Guppy was poor, broken
down, spine and chest crippled man, who
never had the least reason to suppose that
Gould would treat him like human being;
but Gould found that under his diseased ex-
terror was bright and fiery mind circum-
stantial in its correctness and completeness
and reliable as well as brave. 1t is strange
that these powerful men in our finances are
often found out the first by the humble and
broken down men, who are sensitive about
friendship and often get the most of it.
"He came to me once and told me that op-
ponents of mine who had succeeded to the
Erie railroad would break ME down. Said
he: you have the right and logic on your
side, but they have got the New York city
press and prevailing courts of justice and
the big lawyers, and they will mash you to
pieces. The only man who can save you is
Jay Could Then said l, 4 will not be
saved, for [ don't want to know Jay Gould
But my quiet friend talked the matter all
over again from the outset, and the conse-
quence was that, against my desire and pur-
pose, found myself one evening calling on
Jay Could first evening he upset ali
my traditions. l had learned so much
against him from what had read and heard
that was charmed to find him about the
the easiest man to understand l had ever
known. l will tell you directly or at an
other time why he gets along; it is because
he is SO simple and not because he is SO dex-
terousn
SIS Mr.. Gould man of any gratitude?"
"Yes, it is very seldom that any person
does him kind-css but he feels it and
warns to an opportunity to repay it. I may
also say that he is a vindictive man. He
does not seek an enemy out and does not re-
sent mere mercantile opposition, but persons
who lay for him and humiliate him he re-
members; and he has got good long memory
for them. Whoever picks up Gould for
man without mental traits and memory,
undertakes one of the greatest contests of
this life. He is not person to do a dirty
thing, but he understands this business of
finance and everybody who is in it. And he
acquires his information about them in
general from how they behave to himself,
when he has given them fair and equal
opportunity, either as opponents, wayfarers
or friends"
"Has Gould any suffering under public
abuse, such as newspaper abuses"
"He keeps calm exterior and affects not
to be troubled by what is said against him,
but think that all the same it gives him
suffering. As said before, he is like most
other men, and is not exceptional to the
themes of the successful men of the time.
But he never swears nor uses epithets nor
severely discusses any private character.
That is why he is often taken by schemers
and visitors to be an overrated man. He
takes no delight in being considered smart
person. As to his other habits, he never
drinks, and he never smoked but one cigar
in his life. He told me when that happened;
it was after he and his associates had beaten
old Commodore Vanderbilt, who desired to
capture the Erie railroad. They were
somewhere in Jersey City, think, and all
the rest of them were playing billiards and
smoking cigars, and Gould was offered
cigar, and feeling sociable he tried to smoke
it. and it made him so sick that he has never
made the effort any more"
'Is he domestic man? 2"
ENTIRELY SO. His strong hold is his fam
lily. He is far from being the man he was
once considered, without higher associates
and opportunities from persons who were
much less abused than himself, and also rich.
But Mr.. Gould has never lost his head about
social recognition. Those who meet him find
man plain and quiet and in my judgment
there is something very lovely about him, if
you 60 to seek private and family character
there. If you go after him for a sensation,
or to pick his eyes out, you may find that he
knows how to defend his nest like the eagle"
care his sons persons of capacityl'
"Yes, they are smart boys, and just the op-
posite from what you would expect in this
day of very rich mems sons. They are eco
nomical, and have served their apprentice
ship to the mechanical part of the railroad
business, such as telegraphing and type
writing, and they are now proficient in their
fathers business Of finance. Ed Gould,
think, is a cleverer fellow in his wits than
George Gould, the eldest son. The father is
working him into directorships slowly, SO
that he can pick up the financial business. 1t
is a popular mistake, however, to suppose
that Jay Gould dictates telegraph dispatches
to either of his sons. Gould has very re-
markable character Of literary ability. I
suppose there is no man connected with our
finance who can write as rapidly as he does,
and you can never read anything between
the lines when he signs telegraph dispatch.
Those who search through his communica-
tions to them to see if they can find out what
he is about are invariably disappointed"
SIS George Gould happily marriedF
eyes 1t may not be generally understood,
but George Gould married the first girl he
ever fell in love with, and that was why mis-
father and mother hastened to appreciate his
choice. He met his wife, warmed to her, fol-
lowed her and married her. They have