The Washington herald., 1914-04-24
HISTORY BUILDERS.
How a Wall Street Napoleon Met His
Waterloo.
BY nR. III. j. EDWARDs.

Il
The late Charles s. Brooke, at one time
esteemed among the ablest Of the crim-
inaI lawyers of the United States, was
retained by Henry S. Ives to defend him
at the sensational trial In 1855 of the lat
ter for alleged fraudulent transactions
in connection with some Of his railroad
operations. Mr. Brooke's attempts were
partially successful. He secured disa-
grcement of the jury. I had accompanied
Mr.. Brooke to the courtroom several
times during the progress Of the trial.
and he spoke to me frequently about
what he regarded as the narrow escape
of Ives from gaining a very brilliant tri-
| umph in the field of railway operations In
which he secured national notoriety and
a nickname widely applied to him as the
Napoleon of Wall Street"
Ives had undertaken to get the mastery
of several railroad systems, beginning
with one in Ohio, and was reported to
have done this on what Wall Street was
accustomed to call a shoe string" That
meant the beginning OF a very large un-
dertaking with no money capital to
speak of, but with a vast amount OF as
surance and a considerable knowledge OF
some OF the peculiarities of the Wall
Street methods OF those early days. He
became a conspicuous character. He
slipped up. No one could ever tell ex-
actly why He just missed accomplishing
what he set out TO do.
A few days after the trial was ended I
met Mr.. Brooke, and asked him what he
thought OF Ives.
We'll" said ne. Il couldn't quite make
the man out. Even with me he was some
what taciturn or reserved. He convinced
me as feeling absolutely certain that
hHlh 10 EaI yr-a, NE-ifh h
in the law. and that he owed his failure
to the fact that he ran up against some
men who were Of greater experience than
he was. Yet he was persuaded that the
kind OF attack which he made. the guer-
lila method. the swift. impulsive dash at
his object, was the only one which would
succeed
Now l will tell you something rather
amusing continued Mr. Brooke. Il
learned incidentally that Ives methods
had greatly interested Jay Gould. Mr..
Gould had been told that Ives had studied
Gould's own career and thought he had
learned the lesson Of that career per
fectly. There was something about the
dash and the audacity O! Ives attempt
to capture a railroad system which caus-
ed Gould to give some heed to his per
lormenCe. II was not matter OF per-
sonal interest to him. since his railroad
systems were entirely without the field
Of Ives operations and plans. and ! sup
pose he felt that IL Ives should advance
toward his own railroad system he was
perfectly competent completely to throw
the operator down.
Il met Mr.. Gould on the street only a
day or two after the trial. / knew him
pretty well. He stopped me and spoke
TO me about the trial. Then he made this
singular statement to me: There was
only one trouble with Ives. II he had
avoided that I think he would have won.
The trouble with him was that he didn't
know what lawyers to retain. That is
one OF the first essentials for success OF
plans such as Ives had
1T then occurred TO me that Mr. Gould
was unConsriously revealing to me one
of the secrets OF his own successes. and
| knew that he always made a point Of
retaining the abIest lawyers whom he
could secure
Copyright. 1914. by Dr. 2 Edwaris All rights
TvSTTed)
Tomorrow DIR. Edwards will tell of
'DHvid ID. HiIrs Hard Luck In Two