Evening journal., 1914-04-24
New News Of Yesterday
How a Wall Street Napol-
con Met His Waterloo
By Holland.

The late Charles S. Brooke, at one
time esteemed among the ablest of
the criminal lawyers of the United
States. was retained by Henry s. Ives
to defend him at the sensational trial
In 1883 OF the latter for alleged
fraudulent transactions in connection
with some Of his railroad operations.
Mr.. Brooke's attempts were partially
successful. He secured a Disagree
ment OF the jury. 1 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 es-
cape Of Ives from gaining a very brill
liant triumph in the field Of railway
operations in which he secured ma
tional notoriety and nickname
widely applied to him as "the Ma
poleon of Wall Street
Ives had undertaken to get the
mastery of several railroad systems,
beginning with one in Ohio, and was
reported 10 have done this on what
Wall Street was accustomed 10 call a
"shoe string" That meant the begin
ming of a very large undertaking
with no money capital TO speak Of
but with o vast amount of assurance
and a considerable knowledge Of
some of the peculiarities of the Wall
Street methods of those early days
lie became a conspicuous character
He slipped up. No one could ever
tell exactly why. He just missed
accomplishing what he set out TO do.
A few days after the trial was end
ed I met Mr.. Brooke, and asked him
what he thought OF Ives.
"Well," he said, IL couldn't quite
make the man out. Even with me he
was somewhat taciturn or reserved
He convinced me as feeling absolute
ly certain that everything which he
had done was within 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 ne made,
the guerilla method, the swift, impul-
sive dash at his object, was the only
one which would succeed.
"NOW, ] will tell you something
Brooke. 81 learned incidentally that
Ives methods had greatly interested
Jay Gould Mr.. Gould had been told
that Ives had studied Goulc's own
career and thought he had learned
the lesson of that career perfectly.
There was something about the dash
and the audacity of Ives attempt to
capture a railroad system which
caused Gould to give some heed to his
performance. 10 was not matter Of
personal interest to him, since his
railroad systems were entirely with
out the field OF Ives operations and
plans, and ! suppose he felt that II
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
dav or two after the trial. | knew him
pretty well. lie stopped me and spoke
10 me about the trial. Then he made
this singular statement to me: There
was only one trouble with Ives. III he
had avoided that ] 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 essen
tials for success OF plans such as ives
had.
"It then occurred TO me that Mr..
Gould was unconsciously revealing TO
me- one of the secrets of his own sue
cesses. and / knew, that be always made
N point of retaining the ablest lawyers
whom he could secure"
Copyright, 1914, by T. J. Edwards
All rights reserved.)
TnmCrrow Mr. dwtrts viii tel q
eDavid b. Hills Hard Luck in 1--WE
! Tapof.a Gases -