Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/209

 CHAPTER XIV

THE KING IS DEAD.

Enormous wealth, power in the world of finance, every luxury that is at the command of man except health, that Jay Gould possessed. On Friday morning, December 3, 1892, at 9:15 o'clock, his wonderful career was ended. It was a perfect December morning when the soul of the magnate went to the undiscovered country, whither it had been trending for so many months. He died, not as he had feared to die, by the hand of the assassin or the dynamite crank, but as peacefully as any babe whose lamp of life has dwindled to a spark ere it flickers and goes out. He died surrounded by his children, in the plain, rear-extension bedroom, with its window looking down upon the conservatory. It was the room in which his wife died before him, and which he had since occupied whenever he was in the city. It led to the little study where only his most intimate friends were admitted. Here the last remnant of his strength ebbed away, and even while an attendant turned him, he was gone, and $100,000,000 were without a master. All the members of his family were at his bedside. There were George J. Gould and his wife, who was Edith Kingdon. There were Edwin Gould and the young woman, Dr.