A Sportsman 201 



those cold-hearted managers, insensible to the bland- 

 ishments of Mr. Gould, and the record of his devoted 

 services to the road, had the ingratitude, claiming under 

 the shelter of the law, to prosecute the friendly Gould 

 and the guileless Sage for the recovery of seven millions 

 of dollars fraudulently gained, but which was never 

 recovered. 



Mr. Gould received his important start in financial 

 life from his association with James Fisk, Jr., whose 

 remarkable combination of audacity, buffoonery, 

 roguer>', daring, and unscrupulousness after he had 

 stolen the management of the Erie Railroad from 

 his patron, the veteran Daniel Drew, commended 

 him to Mr. Gould. Fisk, after the execution of his 

 gigantic fraud and perfidious robbery of the Erie 

 directory from the confiding Drew, required the pecu- 

 liar talents which Gould possessed. The glaring, 

 shameless, and ridiculous act of one like Fisk, without 

 personal means, striding as he did into the control 

 of an extensive railroad, obtained by the fraudulent 

 use of voting proxies obtained with the money of 

 Daniel Drew, paralyzed the street and outraged all 

 sense of law and order. 



A recitation of the means employed is unnecessary 

 here, and has been sufficiently ventilated. Gould, 

 with all his craftiness and daring, would never have 

 attempted the assassination of rights which Fisk did. 

 But he could, with a master hand, loot the dazzUng 

 wealth displayed and hold the mock Duke on his 

 stolen throne. This he did long enough to stuff his 

 p)ockets full. Then, with gracious confession of wrong, 

 he made restitution of settings from which the 

 gems were stripped, retaining the values, and in 



