St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-26
PICTURE OF JAY GOULD
The Great Magnate Liked by
Everybody Who Knows
Him Well,
His Peculiarities, His Per-
sonal Habits and His
Ideas.
How His Many Millions of
Dollars Have Been
Piled Up.
A Breezy Sketch by the Pri-
vate Secretary Of Rus
sell Sage.

|
age next May. if Capt. Death doesn't
knock at his door before then. For the
past two or three years he has looked
! his age, except OH rare occasions. There
are days when he is as lively as game
! trout. Then, OIL his way to a meeting
| of the directors of the Manhattan Rail-
! way company in the Arcade build
ing, he invariably shes into Mr.
Sage's office and up to the ticker.
| As he runs the tape through
his brown, nervous fingers he al
ways says, 'How are they running to-
day. The first time Mr.. Gould put
! that query TO ME. many years ago, /
| thought that ! shonld drop as if shot
But ] rallied ana refused to give him
| the information he apparently desired,
| for did not think then that any one so
| ignorant OF Wall street affairs as he ap-
! peared TO be should be initiated into
| them.
Still, l have heard fresh young fell
| lows tell Mr.. Gould all about the market,
| and the reasons for its weakness or
| strength; and he always acknowledged
| their kindness by an "Ah?' or by: 80,
| that's the reason, eh?n without the rip
| pie of a smile.
uoII IHllIh THAT UUUy WIN
| Air. Gould well can help liking HIM.
lie is so very modest and unassuming,
| and he is such great man. His voice
| is as low and sweet as Annie Laurie's
was. You will never hear him yelling
! harshiy or extensively to his clerks, or
| to any one else. If he feels like doing
| that, he won't have them around. But
! when he does become angry, look out!
His anger is as deadly as the fang of a
| RATHER. and as quiet.
| As boy. up in RoXbury, Delaware
| county, Mr.. Gould used to run around
| barefOOted and help his sisters to milk
his fathers twenty cows, after driving
them in from pasture. But he really
! started in life as bOokkeeper to black
| smith. From that he became clerk
| in country store. Then he, started
out as a surveyor, but his employer was
a cheat, and left young Gould lit
orally lin the woods" where
he had good cry" and a
little prayer. The first money he
ever earned was for making moon
mark" for farmer, an hour after the
cry and prayer. 1t was just 81. From
that time OH he made money almost as
| fast as he could count it, until he
| bought from Commodore Garrison the
| control OF the Missouri Pacific, which
| was then 2S7 miles long. He bought it
for fun,;' he has since said. Those
| PSI miles have up to this writing devel-
| opeG into 10000 miles.
Mr.. Gould thinks that no man ought
to be failure; if any man is, he says,
! then there is something rotten behind
him, either post or an ancestor. He
| does not think that there can ever be an
aristocracy of wealth in this country.
| He thinks more of the self-made man
| than of the ready-made one. He
| thinks that your employe may be
| your sons employer. in time.
He belifses from sun-up to sun
down ifS< school houses. Education
! is protection, he thinks. He is as tena-
cious as a blooded bulldog. Every one
| that has tried to iniure him has got
hurt. He rarely touches wine, and
| as small an amount of sleep as ever
| could the one and only Napoleon. He
| is a great reader. He reads all the
great novelists and poets. but he
| prefers autObiographies and lives
/ of great men. He is one of the
| hardest workers in the world. he
| is one OF the most generous of men, too.
| The smallest boy in his Office receives
800 from him at Christmas time, and
| have known him to give one of his
| clerks five times that amount. One day
| fee piece Of brown wrapping paper on
which was written; Edwin Gould,
merry Christmas, 1887. From papa:
! fifteen bonds of 81, 600 each" That was
| something like a Christmas present,
| now.
Through all the years when his Office
! was adjoining Mr.. Sage's, not one clerk
| or boy in it ever paid one penny for
! lunch. Lunch was sent in every work
ing day for all hands. Not much for
| a rich man to do. you may say. Still,
| he needn't have done it. l remem-
Der. also, fellow named Tommy
/ Sheridan, little, red-headed, consump-
| tive chap, who was dying longer than
| any one ] ever knew. Well, up to the
! day of his death Mr.. Gould paid him
| fine salary for dong absolutely moth
ing. and after Tommy's death money
from Mr.. Gould went to Tommy's FAM
| lily for long time.
Still. have heard people curse Mr..
| Gould foc being mean and 'getting
there" But half of those thoughtless
and vain folk do not know what they
are talking about. For instance: One
| day well known real estate broker
! of this town wanted to see Mr..
| Sage. was watching the
ticker in Mr.. Sage's interests.
| and told him he would have to
wait, AS Mr.. Sage was closeted with Mr..
Gould and Capt. Hayes. Then he be-
| gan to puff and to call Mr.. Gould hard
| names. asked him why he did that.
| He said that he and Mr.. Gould had
| gone into scheme in bygone years,
| and that Mr.. Gould had done" him out
| OF $4,000, egadH' Just then the
door of Mr.. Sage's private office
| opened and Mr. Gould came out, took
! peep at the tape, said: "Not'yery in
| teresting market, is it?'' and disap-
| peareG.
who was that man?" said my we'll
| known real estate broker.
MIR. Gould, the one who did YOU out
| of $1,000. egad," said l.
The truth of the matter was that he
| had been telling falsehood, as he had
/ never seen Mr.. Gouldand merely .wished
| to impress ME with mis- Importance.
No. wont attempt to describe that
mans face.
is the fashion to ''damn that Gould.
anyway For what, now, pray? Just
| because he has succeeded in doing what
| every man in Wall street is trying to
| do-his neighbor. I'm not Mr. Gould's
| self-app0inted champion by any means.
| He has never given me anything
hot even tip. There was
! 10 reason why he should. But
he has been studied by me in way for
| nine long years, and he is true-hearted
| gentleman if ever there was one like
! him. and | am not in the habit of liking
mean people. Nobody ever was loyal to
| Mr.. Gould without being amply re-
| warded. Nobody was ever dlSloyal to
him without regretting it. He is
| a thoroughly human manageable of
owing, capable of hating.
Mr.. Gould, more than any other ten
men. has been the builder of the West.
! Think it over and know that you will
| agree with me. He has given more
! money away than ever jim Fiske gave,
butnot in Fiske'S OSteBtatious manner.
Any man who has ever worked for and
near Mr.. Gould will swear by and
| fight for him. j have never heard
him use an oath. nor an offensive eX-
! preston believe him to be as clean
minded as a good woman. He idOliZeS
| his children. He worshiped his wife.