St. Paul daily globe., 1889-12-26
MAKES S2O,00OA DAY
What Gould Does While He Is
Growing That Much More
Wealthy.
His Home Life, His Office
Hours and His Various
Pleasures.
His Charities, and How They
Are Bestowed in New York
and Elsewhere.
He Tells Some Very Funny
Stories, and Is a Very
ShreWd Observer.

America who has never held an official
position about whom so much has been
written as Jay Gould, says the Boston
Herald. Indeed, it may be said that it
would be almost impossible to pick upa
single number of any of the leading
daily newspapers in the United States,
issued during the past ten years. with
out finding somewhere in its columns
the name of the man who has had so
much to do with the vast railroads and
telegraph system with which his name
has been identified. Notwithstanding
this fact. there are few men in Amer
gaze at all, about whose home
life, personal habits and daily routine
so little is known as about those of Mr..
Gould. Even his daily business asso-
ciates know nothing about these features
of his life, save that in general way
he is domestic in his tastes, temperate
in his habits and moderate without be-
ing stingy, as to his personal eXpend-
itures. am not going to fall into the
mistake made by so many others OF try
ing to impress the public that Mr..
Gould wears shabby, or even cheap,
clothes: nor am | going to advertise his
tailor 10y telling just where his clothes
are bought or what he pays for them,
but the fact is that Mr.. Gould
is clad very much as any other bust
ness man with quiet tastes and good
income would be. His tailor, in the
main, is a fashionable one. but is re-
Stricted as to the cut ana fit of the
millionaire's garments by Mr.. Gould's
ideas upon the subject, which, by the
way, are very pronounced. 1t is not an
unusual thing for him to buy ready
made suit or an OvercOat, If it happens
to strike his fancy, and when ne does
this he never haggleS about the price.
One of the most striking peculiarities of
Mr.. Gould's daily life is his remarkable
ability to
AVOID PERSONAL OBSERVATION.
At least 800 days of each year are
spent in whole or in part in his Office
in the Western Union building. He
goes in and out without making any ap-
parent effort to keep from being seen,
his face is perfectly familiar to every
body in New York, and yet among the
thousand or more persons who are en-
ploved in and about the Western Union
building, and whose duties call them
there every day in the year, more than
90 per cent of them have never seen
MIR. Gould ir their lives. If he is seen
at any time one of the little knots OF
telegraph operators who are nearly al
ways gathered about the door OF the big
building, the fact creates as much of a
stir among these people whom one
would suppose ought to know him
well and eXciteS from them quite
as much comment as if they had just
caught glimpse of the ear of Russia
or the wild man of BorneO. Out of the
hundreds of thousands of theatergOerS
in New York city but few remember
ever having seen him at a place OF
amusement, and this is not because he
doesn't 90 often, but arises from the
fact of his ability to keep from attract
ing observation, coupled with the other
fact that there are SO many men who re-
Semble HIM that one is never quite Ger
tain whether they are looking at MIR.
Gould or one Of his many doubles. This
latter fact was very cleverly illustrated
in one Of the pictorial funny papers not
long ago. in which twenty different
men were grouped in barber shop.
none of them being the counterpart of
the other, yet every one of the twenty
bore a striking resemblance to Jay
Gould.
There is absolutely no foundation for
the MANY stories told about Mr.. Gould's
being constantly accompanied by de-
tective. Those who know him best,
and there are very few who know him
at all, say that to their certain knOwl-
edge Mr. Gould has never at any time
been watched by anybody of his own
yolition. He is rarely seen on the street
with any one except his son George,
who has always been his most constant
companion. So far as the appointments
of MIR. Gould's home are concerned.
where they concern other members of
the family they are as luxurious as
the most eytravagant taste could desire,
but those portions of it which affect
him personally are like his wearing ap-
paref, plain, comfortable, and quiet in
the extreme. He has no valet, and
never has had one, attending to his per-
sonal needs of the toilet and the bed
room with his own hands, just as he
used to do when he was poor surveyor
I'D in Ulster county, or Woodworking
clerk in his uncle's tannery.
Like most of the successful men of
the present age, Mr.. Gould Is extremely
METHODICAL AND SYSTEMATIC
in his habits. He rises every morning
at precisely 7:30, seldom varying from
that hour more than ten minutes. AT s
O'Clock he sits down to his breakfast,
which, in his case, is usually French
rolls and expects to find every member
of the family present at that meal.
Breakfast over, his private secretary is
called in, and the numerous begging
| letters of the mornings mail are laid
upon the table. Each member selects at
random number of these letters and
reads them over. If any one of them
are impressed by any of the letters, it is
| laid aside for future reference, while
| the others 90 into the waste basket.
| Those letters which have been
laid aside are then taken up
and discussed, and if a majority of those
present conclude that it is a case which
really deserves assistance, the assist
| ance is sure to come within few hours
| in very substantial form and without
| the slightest hint as to the identity of
| the donor. This part of his work over,
| MI. Gould turns to his business corre-
spondence, which he dispoSes of very
rapidly. his own stenOgrapher at home,
his private wire to his house and a
| special telegraph operator to work it.
| Then he goes to his office, usually TAX
| ing the Sixth avenue elevated road, over
| which it is hardly necessary to say he
| has pass.
Ten o'clock finds him In his Office at
the Western Union building, where he
looks over the official reports of the va
rious enterprises III which he is en-
gagged. 1t is about this time of the day
that Mr.. Gould is popularity supposed to
| SPIN TIE COMPLICATED WEB
| in which financial flies are allowed tc
| entangle themselves. What he really
does while he is In that Office probably
no man on earth knows. for it Is well.
known fact that even his son George
never knows Just what the old man is
doing. About IL, or little after, Dr.
Norvin Green, president of the Western
Union, comes down for half-hour's
chat with his principal. There are nc
two men on earth more exactly unlike
than Norvin Green and Jay Gould, YET
DR.. Green is the only one with whom
Mr.. Gould seems to be upon entirely
cordial terms. After these two gentle
men have discussed the affairs of the
Western Union company, they nearly
always lock arms and 60 to lunch to
gether, either in the lunch room of the
Western Union building, the Astol