Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



387 



THE CURSE OF GREAT RICHES. 

 " The Passing of a Great Railroad Dynasty," by 

 H. J. Hendrick, in MtClure's for March, might have 

 l-.cen written as a commentary on " Woe unto you 

 that are rich." Jay Gould left his fortune, generally 

 estimated at seventy-five million dollars, as an intact 

 •.vhole in the hands of trustees. The trustees were 

 his four eldest children. Their aim was to maintain 

 the Gould svstem, 19,000 miles of railway. But " the 

 Goulds are losing control of their ancestral domains 

 because thev have attempted to do two incompatible . 

 things— live lives of idleness and luxury, and at the 

 same time personally control great enterprises. Only 

 one of Jav Gould's six children, Helen Miller, a woman 

 distinguished for philanthropy and patriotism, has 

 aroused wide public esteem." 



Jay Gould reposed great confidence in his beloved 

 son George, whose services he valued during his life 

 at fiN c millions. George married a charming New York 

 actress of high personal character, and at first took 

 active interest in the railroad system. Gradually 

 society, with all its distractions, took him away from 

 his railroad duties. He was extremely jealous of 

 delegating his power, but used suddenly to go off to 

 Europe leaving no one in authority. He would 

 transact important business not on the ground but by 

 cable or telegraph. He could not, therefore, secure 

 strong and active subordinates. He became sur- 

 rounded with sycophants and flatterers. Gradually 

 he became isolated and a solitary figure, a Hamlet 

 of the railroad world. Edwin, Jay's second son, has 

 more steadiness of purpose in him, and more industry, 

 but has not taken much share in the management of 

 the Gould roads. 



Howard married an actress, once conspicuous m the 

 retinue of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. .She plunged 

 into all kinds of extravagances, and they led together 

 a cat-and-dog life. Frank Gould was divorced by his 

 first wife, and immediately afterwards he was sued 

 by a well-known dancer for breach of promise. 'Ihe 

 youngest daughter, Anna, has exceeded the family 

 record as a spendthrift. She married a penniless 

 Frenchman who claimed to be the Count de Castellane, 

 who was a colossal spendthrift. His wife's income 

 of a million a year was spent long before the payment 

 was due. In six years the Count had got away with 

 nearly ten millions of the Gould money. Then the 

 little Countcs> found that her husband was spending 

 large sums in intrigues with other women. She 

 obtained a divorce, and then married his cousin, the 

 Prince de Sagan. 



" Having had a glimpse at one picture— the chorus- 

 girls, the balls, the royal entertainments, the castles — 

 the other picture— the elevated railroads, the telegraph 

 and cable services, and the Western railways— is 

 precisely what one would expect." The railroads were 

 starved to provide dividends on what was a practical 

 monopoly. Finally Ilarriman arose, and in the long 

 railroad duel eventually conquered the Goulds. 



THE FUTURE OF EXPLORATION. 



By Sir Ernest Sh.\ckleton. 

 Sir Ernest Shackleton contributes to the North 

 American Review for March a paper which is intended 

 to dispose of the notion that the work of exploration 

 will be done when the South Pole is reached. In support 

 of this thesis he describes the various expeditions which 

 are at present being equipped for the purpose of 

 exploring the interior behind the 8,000 miles of 

 .'Antarctic coast-line. This is considerably larger than 

 Europe, and is practically an unknown land. Sir 

 Ernest Shackleton speaks highly of Dr. Douglas 

 Mawson, the leader of the proposed .-Vustralian expe- 

 dition, and Dr. W. S. Bruce, director of the Scottish 

 Oceanographical Laboratory, who has already made 

 nine Polar voyages. The Scottish National .Antarctic 

 Expedition is proposing a journey right across the 

 continent, over the Polar area, taking it from the 

 Atlantic side. A well-found Polar expedition now 

 costs, on an average, about £50.000. Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton does not think there will be any yield of 

 immediate cash return, but the conquest of the Poles 

 mav enable us to predict weather with an accuracy 

 that we have never done before. But it is not only in 

 the' Polar regions where much remains to be done : — 



In norlhern Canada ihere is slill much new ground to break, 

 with rich prizes for the hunter and miner ; central Labr.-idor is 

 practically untrodden, and though Greenland has been crossed, 

 the interior is little known. The long northern coast-line of 

 Russia and its frozen hinterland are unvisited except by the 

 nomad n.itives, though the commercial advantage of sea com- 

 munications with the great rivers running northward through 

 .Siberia has long been recognised. 



Throughout the north ai;d east of the Tsar's .Asiatic dominions 

 there is still much occupation for (he explorer as well as for the 

 pioneer of trade. This is no less true of Russian Central .\sia, 

 where many historical and arcluvological problems also remain 

 to be investigated. The opening-up of Thibet and the border- 

 lands of India and China w ill yet be a long and slow process ; 

 and the mapping of northern China is far from complete. .V 

 British expedition is, I believe, at this moment engaged upon 

 most interesting researches in western Mongolia, a region as to 

 which English readers have so fiir practically no information. 



Then there is New Guinea, an island as large as 

 Great Britain, whose wild mountains and forests are 

 still mostly closed to their nominal Dutch, British, 

 and German owners ; and almost every kind of geo- 

 graphical research is urgently called for from one end 

 to the other of South .\mcrica. Finally, the explora- 

 tion of the submarine world is only just begun : — 

 " All over the world great tasks of discovery await 

 accomplishment, some sensational, some merely useful, 

 some chiefly challenging the scientist, some the 

 financier anil trader." 



In the Mouth for March Mr. K. Digliy Beste has an 

 article on some " Jesse Trees in Painted Glass."' The 

 oldest painted glass in England seems to be the frag- 

 ment of a jesse-trce in York Minster dating from the 

 twelfth century. Two beautiful jesse-trees are the proud 

 possession of the parishes of l.lanrhaiadr and Dyserth, 

 situated on opposite sides of the \'ale of Clwyd in 

 North Wales, and within a few miles of each other. 



