The morning call., 1892-12-12
DE MORTUIS.

hand are full of articles about Jay Gould,
and the uDanimity with which they abuse
him is really remarkable. According TO
many of them be was. in the language of
the gifted reporter, iend in human shape,
who had broken laws and hearts, and who.
by miracle. escaped during his life the
punishment which undoubtedly awaits him
in another and juster world. None of the
writer's fy the particular crimes which
he committed. They do not say whose
money he stole or how or when he stole 1t.
They avoid enumeratiug the laws he broke.
They omit the names OF those whom lie
Indignantly wronged. They merely init
mate that he was a modern type of the
devil who appeared 10 Luther and tina: the
world is well rid Of him.
Ii would probably prove an arduOus task
to make him out an angel. Stock specu-
latoTs are not cast in the angelic mold. ii
is their business to take other peoples
mOney-nol in exchange for honest labor
but by superior deXteTity in the manipula-
ton Of markets and by superior foresight in
gaugng the future. Their calling does not
commend itself to the admiration of man
kind. They differ from the highwaymen
in that their victims challenge pillage and
are themselves out for wool when they
stock gambler is not one which a consider
ate father would bring his son up to. Still,
with this faint, such as it is ON their brow.
stock operators occupy a considerable posi-
ton in the world. They figure eonspieu-
ously in social as in financial circles In
Paris, London and New York. They are
members Of clubs and churches. They
contribute literally toward building edifces
q ar
rich they call themselves bankers. and COM
bine the business of gambling for them
selves with that of acting as go-betweens
for other gamblers. When these men die
it is not usual to suspend the rule Of "De
mortuis" against them. They generally get
the customary obituary pOnltice from the
papers. Why should Gould be an eXcep-
tion?
If the truth were known, much of the OBJ
loGuy which Gould attracted in his lifetime
and which follows him into his grave pro-
ceeded from envy of the wealth he had &C
CURED. He had accumulated the largest
fortune which any man of his time has made
by his manifestations without an heredi-
tary Dest-egg. lie began with nothing. He
ended as rich as Vanderbilt or Astor. What
more natural than that others who have
spent lifetime in trying to make money.
and who have fallen far short of GOuld's
success, should lbe at him and accuse him
of unfair methods? The world is full of
people who consider their parts equal to
those which Gould possessed, and yet who
spent life Of toll to acquire modest CON-
potency for old age. Is ii to be expected
that they will contemplate his transeendeut
triumph with complacent serenity? nat.
ural law implants in every breast jealousy
Of the success of others, and the pride en-
gendered by success is enhanced IN the
minds Of its winners by the thought that
others have been less fortunate.
The operator who began life as Gould did,
and has fetched up nowhere, derives a good
deal of comfort from the belief that Gould
won fortune by illegitimate methods. for
the corolary TO this proposition is that he,
too, might have succeeded had he been as
unscrupulous as Gould. 1t consoles him to
think that he is victim 10 his immaculate
virtue. Thackeray's British matron, who
sees her daughters splashed by the chariot
wheels Of Mrs. CTesus, cheers them by OBJ
serving that if their father had been as
unprincipled as old Cresus they, too, might
have ridden in their carriage. and the
thought restores composure to the ruffled
bosoms. So now, when the average citizen
ton whether Gould left seventy-fve or a
hundred millions, and how much ready cash
Miss Helen Gould will have besides the
5000 month she is allowed to keep up the
place at Irwin gton, be finds it soothing to as
sure himself that the pOssessOr of all this
wealth was, after all. a great rascal who
ought to have been in the pententiary.
That is his way of getting even.
1t Ia perhaps very wrong to be rich, II is
certainly much easier TO be poor. And the
poor mans poverty is frightened by the
thought that lie cannot be an object of jeal-
ousy or envy. and that when lie dies the
newspapers will not 90 out OF their way to
throw mud on his grave. he may have
robbed the orchard Of his neighbor in his
youth. or cheated his creditors later on, but
If he leaves no millions these peccadilloes
will be forgotten and no one will forget In
his case the kindly maxim, Speak no i'll of
the dead"