200 Reminiscences of 



funds required in another direction, disposed of his 

 stock and Union Pacific securities, and as the stock 

 toppled from its high price of one hundred and thirty 

 and raced down toward zero, sold borrowed stock to 

 an alarming degree. In this, however, he was fortunate 

 enough to save himself from loss by re -buying at low 

 prices which enabled him to make good deliveries to the 

 accommodating lenders. 



In the later sales of roads to the Union Pacific 

 Mr. Gould had more difficulty in having them ac- 

 cepted than in the earlier sales, owing to an awakened 

 feeling upon the part of the Union Pacific directors, 

 as they viewed the depletion of their treasury, that 

 they were approaching the situation of the cats who 

 appealed to the monkey in the distribution of the 

 cheese, who, scaling the weight, constantly bit off 

 mouthfuls to equalize, until the whole disappeared. 

 Then Mr. Gould, indignant at the lack of apprecia- 

 tion of his advanced intuitiveness in knowing better 

 than they what they needed, assumed the r61e of an 

 injured friend, whose necessities would require him 

 to appear in self-defence as an opponent of their road, 

 and perhaps oppose the management of the road so 

 unfortunately acquired, which would perhaps require 

 a connection with a new road to be built, which might 

 to some extent parallel their own. This Gould was a 

 great bluffer, and one effort in this line was the loading 

 up of the Union Pacific with the Kansas Pacific road, 

 which, with his sympathetic friend, Russell Sage, he 

 had acquired for the benefit of the former. The Kan- 

 sas Pacific went very hard, but by dint of pleading, 

 urging, and threats, came in. But when the Union 

 Pacific Railroad went into the hands of a receiver 



