St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-30
JAY GoULD,s DEFENSE.
An English Report OF the Little
Wizards" Thinking Aloud.

An English Report Of the "Little
Wizard's'' Thinking Aloud.
London Spectator.
A contributor to the st. James Gazette
reported on Monday the essence of some
conversations which he held with the
late Jay Gould on the deck Of an At
lantic liner. Circumstances mentioned
threw the two men into position of
momentary sympathy, and the million
aire replied to questions, perhaps a
little over-Searching, with want of
reticence greatly at variance with his
usual habit.
Il am absolutely the most detested
man living, and | am not surprised"
said Mr.. Gould. ''1here isn't man or
woman living who would do me good
turn to save his own life; and why
therefore, should do any man or WON
an good turn? l was born and bred
so low down that have always been on
the rise at every point in my career;
and accordingly every mans hand that
| have come III contact with mas been
against me-"
Again, to give the full force of what
he said. we must extract verbatim: ~
cannot remember ever having had a
good turn done to me. am not sur
prised. for have had to shove down
every man have ever met; ut,equally,
why should | help those who have
been opposed to me? l have made
my own fortune, and in doing so
| have had to ruin thousands. 10
be sorry for one fact L should
say am, for the simple reason that any
mo xuhnpN | haat q hIGUpr fool than |
am. and l hate fools; and. of course.
fools hate me. 1t is lucky for me and
lucky for them they are in the major
ity; but why should | like men who
hate me? l don't like being hated nat
urally; but [ can't help it. If | were
liked | should know | was fool, and
that thought would break me right up.
| was born to make money and
to be- eXecrated accordingly. L
can't help being hated any
more than ] can help making money.
Everybody has had the same chances
that | have had. Exactly the Same
crises have occurred during all our life
times. Everybody's eyes have been
riyited on the same projects. They have
thought one thing would happen and
they have acted on their opinion; have
thought the other thing would happen
and have acted upon my opinion.
should have been mad to act against
my convictions, and madden still to try
and make the world act against theirs.
"You can't do people good turns
they won't let you. L should not listen
to them, they would not listen to me:
Surely we are quits. and there should
| be no ill-feelng. But there is, and as
| they hate me for succeeding hate them
| for falling. At any rate, one is as ra-
| tional as the other. LIZ lost. | dare say
! | should be unreasonable enough to hate
| them, and they would accordingly hate
| me sooner or later. They might try and
! help me. but | would not take their ad-
vice, and accordingly they would drop
me as fool, and we would all be
; standing in the same hating ratio
! one to another. Men | have
never seen nor even heard of have gone
| about with murder in their hearts, and
if they could have found me would have
! been fools enough to kill me-iust as if
| that would have benefited them! 1t
| surely is as natural for me to hate them
| as for them to hate me. L have gone
| about for years with men paid to pro-
! tect me. If | did not hate every man as
! cordially as every man hates me |
should be unhappy, and yet suppose |
am the most miserable devil in the whole
world. What a paradise it all isD'
| We hardly remember narrative more
truly tragic, or one that more vlVidly
described the feelings OF what used to
be called in language now disused, a
possessed" man. Mr. Gould, if the st.
! James narrative is true, was possessed
! with the demon of money-making-
avarice, but the money-making form OF
! ambitiOn-WhO could not 90 out of the
arena, could not help using his marvel
GUS weapon of slaughter, yet had all the
while to steel himself against relics OF
instructive pity by asserting over and
over again, These are all my enemies"