Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/22

 were among his earlier employments. And then came his enlistment in a surveying corps and his experience in map drafting, which led up to the leather industry. This chapter in Mr. Gould's career is a sensational one. His enlargement of the tannery business in Pennsylvania, his establishment of a village named for himself, Gouldsborough, and of a bank of which he was director, were the business portions of the sensation. The suicide of his partner and the war for possession of the tannery, between two bands of roughs fighting one for Gould and one for his partner's estate, were sensations of another kind. Next Mr. Gould went into the railroad business, drifting there by the aid of his father-in-law, who wanted to make the best of a marriage which he had opposed. From that time to this, Mr. Gould has been prominently before the public in financial operations, and his history is the history of Wall street. Opinions of Mr. Gould have been just as varied as his own pursuits. There are those who laud him to the skies for the success he had in creating his enormous fortune, and who think him the sum of all good things. There are many others who think of him as being simply a close-fisted, unscrupulous, selfish business man of undoubted ability, but with no thought except to add to his wealth by whatever means might be necessary at the expense of others. And there is another large class of those who consider Mr. Gould to have been a type of all that is worst in Americans, a man who wrecked fortunes and honor of