The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1896-09-10
Philadelphia TImes.l

derstandable 1t is necessary, by way OF
preface, to briefly tell the tale Of the en-
trance Of the late Jay Gould into the
financial world Of New York and his re-
lationship with James Fiske, Jr.. 1t Is
a remarkable narrative.
After dabbling with the stocks Of some
small railroads in New York State, with
whose possibilities his experience as a
surveyor had made him familiar jay
Gould, then only % years of age, quietly
unannounced, entered Wall street as q
broker in a small private office. He
showed so much aptitude for the tricks
of the street that one year later he was
made member of the firm of Smith &
Martin. Six years later his shadow was
cast across the financial horizon In the
infamous Erie Railroad scheme, a cor
poration crime, Of which Jim Fiske, one
of the criminals, said that 1t was long q
question whether those engaged In 1t
would land in New York palaces or Sing
Sing cells. You won't have to cudgel
your brains to recall the looting Of the
Erie Railroad when Jay Gould, William
H. Marston, James Fiske. Jr., William
Belden, Henry N. Smith and others
bought up the proxies of the majority
of the Erie Railroad stockholders In
order to wrest its control from Daniel
Drew In this they succeeded, but Gould
cunningly retained Drew in the manage
ment, because that shrewd old gentle
man was the only one Of the party who
was possessed Of any amount Of money.
Then the directors-if they had used
their jimmies and been less dexterous
they would have been spoken OF In
newspaper literature as gam"
sued their famous--or rather, infamous
convertible bonds, upon every thousand
dollars of which they also issued ten
shares Of stock.
At this time Commodore Vanderbilt
appeared upon the scene; In fact, all
these doings were intended for his espe-
cial benefit and enticement His road,
the New York Central, was practically
paralleled by the Erie Road, and when
the Gould crowd in furtherance OF their
conspiracy began cutting rates ruinous-
ly, Vanderbilt, very naturally, determin-
ed to wrest the control OF the rival cor
poration from their hands. With this
end in view he began buying Erie stock,
and as fast as he bought 1t Gould ana his
confederates printed and manufactured
more They started a sort OF stock mill,
which was watered by vanderbilts mil
lions. There are laws even in New York
State against this sort Of thing, ana
when arrest was threatened and I'M
pending Gould and his crowd escaped to
Jersey City and practically became
fugftives from justice. But they were
full Of resources. They knew how to|
manage a State Legislature. At their
instigation law was passed iegalizing
the overissue of Erie stock, and when
this had been done they returned from
their self-infiicted exile in foreign
State. The profits of their wrong-doing
enabled them to easily spare several
hundred thousand dollars for the cor
rupt members of the New York Assem-
bly,, which was then controlled by Will |
lam M. Tweed, the bosom friend OF Jay |
Gould and James Fiske, Jr. In that
scandalous way did the fortune which
Jay Gould amassed have its beginning. |
In all this rascality 1t was Jim Fiske |
and not Gould who figured in the pubic |
eye as the great man of the combination.
1t was Fiske who drove fourth hand;
it was Fiske who bought the Grand |
Opera House; 1t was Fiske who basked |
in the sunshine of Josie Mansfeld's |
smiles; it was Fiske who drove Aimee, J
the French opera bouffe artistic, through |
Central Park; 1t was Fiske who dined
and wined all corners, while Gould sat
spinning his web in the privacy of his |
quiet home. Part of the spells acquired
by the looting of the Erie Railroad was
the Fall River Line of steamboats,, and
Fiske made himself commodore of the
fleet, appearing every afternoon on the
upper deck Of the departing vessel in
full naval uniform. A new and palatial
addition to the line was made in the
Bristol, which was veritable palace
In one of its cabins were panels con-
tanning pictures in oil of Gould and
Fiske. A party of distinguished men
were invited to inspect the new vessel.
Among them was William r. Travers,
the well-known Wall street broker, the
suffering wit Of New York. When he
was ushered into the cabin and his at
tention was directed to the two paint
ings, and his opinion asked Of them, he
said: "W-w-ww-here Is our S-s-a-
vior?" The suggestion as to the two
thieves needs no comment.
1t was not until the bullet of Edward
S. Stokes laid Fiske low that the world
learned that is was Gould that was the
Fiske was simply the bully, the hired
bravo The other and smaller man was
all his life physical coward. He never
did a dastardly act without having men
to protect him from righteous violence.
Morosini, an Italian bravo, took adj
Of that fact to make fortune
for himself, and. learning lesson from
the fate of all those who became closely
affiliated with the Little Wizard, prac-
tically abandoned his employer after Sc
curing his booty.
The GROWING chicanery of Jay Gould's
life was his manipulation of the gold
market in March, 1869, and it's disastrous
in the episode of Black Fri
day. The price of gold in March, 1859, !
was 1904, the lowest in three years.
Gould brought 81, 000, 900 worth at 1872 and
put the price up to 140. A few days !
later the precious metal rose to IA. In
The middle of September the Gould ,
clique bought 100000 in one batch at
1884, to 1874, and on the morning of Wed
1esday, Sept. %, the clique held several
Millions more than there was in the city
If New York outside the ub-Treasury. ,
The price had been forced no higher /
han 141. On Thursday the clique held
n calls and cash and gold from $50, 000.-
100 to Sill, 100000 The short interest, ,
made largely under IA, is said TO have :
,een $25, 100000. The clique settled its :
,lans on Thursday evening. 1t had :
oaned gold in immense sums at 1873. The ,
Ian at first was to call in all this, lock !,
l up and force the bears to settle by .
uying it under the rule The Tenth Ma
ional Bank was to have been used to :,
hift the immense sums, but the ap- !.
earance of the bank examiners unset
ed this plan, and the programme was
D put gold up swiftly and brighten the ..
ears into direct settlements. AS it =
ras, the officials of the bank agreed to ,
Gritty to an unlimited extent night ard =
ay. On Thursday 1t did certify checks 5.
to SIS 900, 600, and on Friday q
spite of the presence of the examiners,
4, 100000 more.