The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-21
Vast Fortune Amassed By Jay
Gould Slipping Away.
His Colossal Accommodations
Are Breaking Up.
STOCKS GOING DOWN.
Gould Properties Are Losing
Their Market Value.
Armour and Pullman Fighting
the Gould Interests.

New York Dec. 21-Up and down
Wall street there is a strong belief that
the Gould fortune. built to its colossal
size by JAY Gould, is breaking up at
last and that the properties which de-
lighted his thrifty soul are sinking IN
der hammering produced by lack Of
confidence.
These properties are the Wabash in
which the family has large interest;
the Texas Pacific, which it absolutely
controls; the St Louis Southwestern,
known as Eddie Gould 8 road. the Man
has an enormous interest; the Missouri
Pacific, controlled absolutely. the pet
of Jay Gould, and the Western Union
Telegraph. on which the family has
had its grip for number Of years.
For a long time the public is said to
have made emphatic its loss of conf
dence. and there has been a gradual
decline all along the line of the Gould
stocks. There has been such a tide set
ting in against them that the bear in
terest has added its hammering in most
uukindly fashion and the result has
been startling And there are said to
be special reasons for this state of
things. which hnanciers viii not mis-
understand
The Western Union is not the monop-
oily it formerly was. 1t is said that the
Elevated is not earning its dividends,
and that it has not been doing 50 for
year. that every quarter has shown
deficiency which has been paid out OF
the surplus
Whether or not this is true may come
out soon as an application was made
yesterday to the attorney general by
Mortimer Hendricks Of this city bond
holder, to GUST the directors OF the
Manhattan Elevated Co. and compel
them to pay back to the company the
money paid from the surplus
The Missouri Pacific has long suf-
fered from bad rumOrs. All the Pacific
systems, controlled by the Goulds. have
been in the dumps for several years,
and the last showing of the ST. Louis
& Southwestern was a poor one
Eddie Gould is handicapped by his
fight with the Diamond Match com
pany. In that corporation are such
moneyed men Of the west as r. D.
Armour and George NJ Pullman. Band
ed with them are a lot of lesser cattle
men and today they form strong COM
bination
The Missouri Pacific is the heaviest
carrier of cattle from the ranges of the
southwest to Chicago and Kansas City,
and these men in a large degree con
troll these shipments They have hit
Mr.. Gould where he hit them, on his
pocketbooz. They have diverted ship
ments from the Gould lines, going so
far as to force shippers to drive beef
on hoof to shipping points other than
the Missouri Pacific.
Another weakening factor lies in the
fact that some time ago the road took
within itself lot Of feeder roads,
which, since the bad times set in. have
proved to be suckers Of the parent COM
pany's vitality on their bonds inter-
est was guaranteed, and, in some cases,
dividends ON stocks. These. i'm almost
every instance. have had to be paid by
the parent company
There is, railroad men say no finer
property in the world than the Missouri
Pacific but the outlay it has made in
eouipping these feeder roads has kept
it poor and has forced its stock to the
low price which at present obtains in
this market