Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/255

 The motion of the body while walking would keep the cream stirring, and then besides there was a sort of piston with a handle on the top. Every now and then you were to give that a jerk, so that by the time the man reached home at night he could turn out on a plate for his wife a pound or two of fresh butter.

"I said to the man when he had explained what the thing was, 'I will give you thirty days in the penitentiary,' and you ought to see him get out. It would have done you good to see Mr. Gould laugh over our dropping down behind that counter at the sight of that portable churn."

Mr. Morosini illustrated Mr. Gould's peculiar tactics in operations in some particular stock in the Exchange with another anecdote. Said he:

"At one time Mr. Gould was short on Pacific Mail, and he bought and sold, bought and sold, bought and sold until the commissions paid brokers amounted to about $36,000. Then the account was finally made up and showed to the credit of Mr. Gould on the entire transaction the sum of fourteen cents. A rumor was in circulation that Mr. Gould had made a great deal of money in the stock. One afternoon, just about that time, I was at Mr. Gould's house when William H. Vanderbilt called to see him about some matter of business. He congratulated Mr. Gould on having made so much money on the stock. Mr. Gould turned to me and said, 'Morosini, how much have we made on that deal in Pacific Mail?'

"I answered, '$140,000.'

"'What,' he exclaimed, and looked at me in a