Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/128

 *lished as an editorial in the Times and attracted attention, as the editor, John Bigelow, had just had a conversation with the President and was supposed to speak with authority. Notwithstanding the authorship of the article, it is just to say that the Times detected the odor of Wall street about it and quarantined the article before making it public. Its effectiveness for Gould was much lessened. Gould wrote to Boutwell with a view of obtaining an official statement from him, but received a reply that said little and that diplomatically. Meanwhile Gould had been buying millions in gold and had formed a pool that bought millions more. That the movement was fictitious is shown by the fact that the impression on prices was comparatively small. Fisk looked on incredulously. "The country is against you," was his criticism of the scheme.

Down to this moment Jim Fisk had not appeared in the affair. It was not until after September 10th that Gould appears to have decided that there was nothing else to be done but to take him into confidence. Fisk immediately bought seven or eight millions and the market began to respond slowly to these enormous purchases.

"Meanwhile Mr. Gould had placed another million and a half of gold to the account of Gen. Butterfield and notified him of the purchase; so Mr. Gould swears, in spite of Gen. Butterfield's denial. The date of this purchase is not fixed. Through Mr. Corbin a notice was also sent by Gould about the middle of September to the President's private secretary,