Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-01-28

Under Abuse-Persona' Habits-Hi
Two Sons-Georse Gould's Wife.
Meeting a friend who has grown more thai
middle aged in the railway service between
Ohio, Baltimore and New York, l said t.
him: SIS not Gould in about as good shap,
as he ever VASE
"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 dc
anything while abroad. However, they will
never lose their fear of him wherever he may
le. And Gould gets nearly all his bad repu
.ation among the spectators and promoters
Who tried to cheat him. and having failed
urn round and bite at him, as the snake
ynawed the file. / will give you an instance
# that which happened under my own eye,
when no person was in the room but GoGld
and myself. | had been severely prejudiceh
against him, and wOuld not have dared to go
and see him but for the Intervention of a
very quiet chap by the name of Guppy,
whom Could found in the Erie railroad when
he went there. Guppy was a 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, crcum-
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 Them said l, Il will not be
saved, for 1 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. ! 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 | 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-
terous.n
SIS Mr.. Gould a man of any gratitude!r
does him kindness but he feels it and
warns to an opportunity to repay it, NAV
also say that he is 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 a
man without mental traits and memory,
undertakes one of the greatest contests of
this life. He is not person to do dirty
thing, but he understands this business of
finance and everybody who is in it, And he
acquires his information about them in
gener1 from how they behave to himself,
when he has given them a fair and equal
opportunity, either as opponents, wayfarers
or friends"
HAS Gould any suffering under public
abuse, such as newspaper abuser
" He keeps n 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 lie never smoked but one cigar
in his life. He told me when that happened;
it was aftel he and his associates had beaten
old Commodore Vanderbilt, who desired to
capture the Erie railroad They were
in Jersey City, think, and all
the rest of them were playing billiards and
smoking cigars, and Gould was offered a
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 a domestic man ?"
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 |
a man plain and quiet, and in my Judgment |
there is something very lovely about him, if |
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 he |
knows how to defend his nest like the eagle" " |
"Are his sons persons Of capacityf"
Eyes, 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, l
think, is 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 popular mistake, however, to suppose
that Jay Gould distateS telegraph dispatches
70 either of his sons. Gould has very re-
character of literary ability. |
suppose there is no man connected with our
finance who can write as rapidly as he does
and you can never read anything between
5he lines when he signs telegraph dispatch.
Those who search through bis communica
ions to them to see if they can find out what
ne is about are invariably disappointed"
SIS George Gould happily married."
"Ye5. 1t may not be generally understood,
1ut George Could married the first girl he
,ver fell in love with, and that was why his
'ather and mother hastened to appreciate his
,hoice He met his wife, warmed to her, fol-
owed her and married her They have a
ovely child, and she is a very accomplished
woman. There is another instance of Gould's
appreciation of brightness and talent.
Georges wife was a lady who made her Iiv-
ng, through both necessity and cleverness,
lpon the stage. The parents have nothing of
he prig about them. n-"Gath' in Cincinnati
Enquirer.
Proud Chicago.
Charles Dickens, Jr. ARRIVING in Chicago