Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/100

 *ners in Wall street history. In after years, Gould gave a unique account of this corner to a legislative committee which was investigating corners. "I was interested," said Mr. Gould, with that charming frankness which he sometimes assumed, "in the Chicago & Northwestern corner. The stock was selling at seventy to eighty. I considered it very cheap," so he bought. He soon had bought a great deal more than there really was to deliver, and the shorts were cornered. The price went up to $250. "I was induced," said Mr. Gould, with most exquisite humor, "to part with some at that price."

Among the shorts caught in this famous corner was Henry N. Smith, who only a short time before had been Gould's partner in the firm of Smith, Gould & Martin, and who had supported Gould in his great conspiracy to corner gold. Smith is another noted Wall street character, whose life is linked in that of Gould. He was something of an "exquisite," and had the reputation of wearing corsets, but he was for many years remarkably successful in Wall street. After renewing his relations with Gould he became chiefly distinguished as one of the bear leaders, and was thus continually in antagonism with Gould. Woerlshoffer, Cammack and Smith were a trio that once nearly drove Gould to the wall, but the latter lived to see one dead, the second his associate in certain speculations, and the third involved in irretrievable bankruptcy.

It was not in the Northwest corner that Smith was ruined, but in it he lost a very large sum, which