Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/178

 shares of American Union, which represented a comparatively small outlay of capital on the part of Gould, went into the Western Union at par and Gould's immense holdings of Western Union were thus acquired at a low figure. Of course, if he had attempted to market his holdings in one lump his profits would have been wiped out, but by carrying the load and letting the stock out by driblets his profits were large, even if he sold under the market price, which was nearly always below par. On Jan. 11, 1881, it became known in Wall street that the consolidation was probable and the price of Western Union rose from 78 to 103 and the next day to 114-1/2. The consolidation increased the capitalization of the Western Union to $80,000,000, and this amount has increased later by the capitalization of scrip dividends and by the acquisition of the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph. After Gould became the master of the system the Mutual Union was started as a rival concern. Gould soon gobbled it up and leased it to the Western Union. Then Robert Garrett developed the wires owned by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad into a competing telegraph system, and under the management of Mr. Bates, who had formerly been with Gould in American Union and Western Union, it became a big system, stretching far west and south. But Garrett soon got into deep waters. He had not the genius of his father, the famous John W. Garrett, and a struggle with Gould was beyond his strength. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, nominally a Gibraltar