The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-08-28

one was interesting, especially IL it wcre
true, and being true Ii ought To be told
"If you want my opinion" F" said he, lit
is that Jay Gould was one of the few truly
great men the world has produced, and
know of no man alive or dead who did so
pScn good and got so little credit for do
,ng good To IA certain extent that was his
own fault, for he would never give any
thing until he had found some way to cover
the act up. He did not do charity with a
brass band.
"Mr. Gould had two great objects In his
life. One, which the public knew, was TO
make money; the other, which the public
did not know, was TO spend it where IL
would do the most good. In the latter
part of the seventies there was great crop
failure in Kansas The farmers had no
seed wheat nor money with which they
might buy seed wheat. The receivers for
the Kansas Pacific railroad had been fur
nishing seed To such farmers as had applied
for aid and taking the notes of the unfor
tunate people, payable after crop could
be raised.
SAT "a meeting Of the receivers and di-
rectors, Mr.. Gould being among the direct
ors, the question of explaining their ac-
ton TO the United States court came up
and the receivers agreed that they must so
out of the grain and charity business or
put themselves in tight box. i was at
that time manager for the receivers, and
when this conclusion had been reached
Mr.. Gould turned TO me, and in the pres
ence of all the other gentlemen said:
These people must have seed wheat. You
will please furnish it TO all who apply and
draw on me personally. Never mind the
Nafl erat oil in fraiC oh
year.
"There were no end of applications,
said Mr.. Smith, "and I thought would
make Mr. Gould squeal for once, but when
/ showed him the slip with about mile
of figures on IL he just glanced down ut
the total and said, VOL, L'sn glad we were
able TO help those poor fellows, for they
really needed it,
"You remember" the speaker went on,
"the great exodus of colored people from
the south some 10 years ago? They flooded
Kansas City like pest of grasshoppers,
and nobody knew what TO do with them.
They soon became hungry, then disorderly,
and in little while they would have be-
come desperate. Mr. Gould viewed the sit
nation from New York, but even at that
distance he foresaw calamity If these
people were not taken care Of, so he wired
me, Send those negroes wherever they
choose 10 90, and closed the message as he
had closed many beforehand draw on
me-
"I have spent fortunes Of Mr.. Gould's
money. and tho only comment usually
was. Is that alp Once | said for 1 knew
he was being imposec ,pon, These people
are not deserving, Mr. Could
We'll, he replied. you'd better help
them. They may be-
Then there were hundreds and hun
dreds Of little things be did almost every
day--little for him, but really big-which
the public knew nothing about, for only
such cases as the shipping OF the negroes or
tho giving OF Co. 600 day 10 Memphis 'as
long as they needed it ever reached the
public ear.
81 remember one day we were coming
over the old II. u. In my car when we wcro
tagged at way station and slowed down
TO receive message from the operator.
Whom the light train began to whirl away
toward tho west again l could see that
Mr. Gould was anxious TO receive the wire
for which we had been tagged, but we
wai,.d for some minutes and no message
came 10 either Of us.
"In little while / noticed that George,
the colorcd porter, was tcotering around
tho car and grinning like negro In mel
on patch, and / said % Mr. Gould Joking
ly, 10 must have been George who got the
message Finally the fellows mirth be-
came ~ offensive that j called sharply,
George, what's the matter with your
"'Mattah,' demanded George, didn't
you see mo Kit do wiaiR Is got n baby In
Kansas City and hogteetored out at the
other end Of the cur.
A" Call him back, said Mr. Gould, and
pushed the button and George waltzed
In again. Here said the little man,
that's for the boy, and ho handed the IA
ther 800 note, and the smile on Georges
face spread out another roof.
IL have seen Mr. Gould, great a. he was,