Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-30
A GLIMPSE OF GOULD.
SOMETHING ABOUT Hls PERSONAL
 HABITS AND RELATIONS.

How He Sometimes Upsets All the Tra-
 ditions Concerning Him-Gratitude.
 Under Abuse-Personal Habits-His Two Sons-George Gould's Wife.
 Meeting friend who has grown more than middle aged in the railway service between Ohio, Baltimore and New York, 1 said to him: ''Is not Gould in about as good shape as he ever wasg'
 'Oh, yes," said my friend, whom have known since about 1870, "he is the most powerful factor in the way of speculation this country has seen But he does not do 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. 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
 
 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- terior was bright and fiery mind, circum- Stantial in its correctness and completeness and reliable as well as lArave. It 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 Gould 'Then,' said I, I 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 Gould. That first evening he upset all 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 I had ever known. I will tell you directly or at an- 
 he is so simple and not because he is so dex- terous."
 "Is MT. Gould 0 man of any gratitude."
 "Yes, it is very seldom that any person does him a kindness but he feels it and warns to an opportunity to repay it. l may also say that he is a vindictive man. lie Goes 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 n 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 abuse?'
 | :" He keeps a calm exterior and affects not l to be troubled by what is said against him, 1 but I think that all the same it gives him l suffering. As said before, he is like most l other men, and is not exceptional to the | themes of the successful men of the time. | But he never swears nor uses epithets nor 1 bcNSIciy oloSuSSSS ouy pl lNalS CuSIdClSI 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 l lrinEs, and he never smoked but one cigar 1 in his life. He told me when that happened 1 it was after he and his associates had beaten old Commodore Vanderbilt, who desired to .apture the Erie railroad. They were somewhere in Jersey City, I think, and all he rest of them were playing billiards and smoking cigars, and Gould was offered a cigar, and feeling sociablc he tried to smoke it. and it made him so sick that he has never made the effort any more"
 l "Is he a domestic man? ?'
 l ''Entirely so. His strong hold is his fam 1 ily He is far from being the man he was once considered, without higher associates and opportunities from persons who were 1 much less abused than himself, and also rich l But Mir. Gould has never lost his head about social recognition. Those who meet him fine l a man plain and quiet, and in my judgment there is something very lovely about him, ii you go 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 ht knows how to defend his nest like the eagle.
 "Are his sons persons of capacityl'
 "Yes, they are smart boys, and just the op l pOSlCS lrOi1 WuuU you Nollu expect III Cnl day of very rich men's sons. They arc 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 no v proficient in thei
 fathers business of finance. Ed Gould,
 think, is cleverer fellow in his wits thal
 George Gould, the eldest son. The father i
 working him into directorships slowly, s'
 that he can pick up the financial business.
 is popular mistake, however, to suppos
 that Jay Gould dictates telegraph dispatche
 to either of his sons. Gould has a very re
 markable character of literary ability.
 suppose there is no man connected with ou
 finance who can write as rapidly as he does
 and you can never read anything betweel
 the lines when he signs telegraph dispatch
 Those who search through his communica
 tions to them to sec if they can find out wha
 he is about are invariably disappointed"
 "Is George Gould happily marriedf'
 "Yes. It may not be generally understood
 but George Gould married the first girl b
 ever fell in love with, and that was why hi
 father and mother hastened to appreciate hi
 choice He met his wife, warmed to her, fo
 lowed her and married her. They have
 lovely child, and she is a very accomplishe
 woman. There is another instance of Gould
 ocnreciatiou of brightness and talent