Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/276

 Mr. Gould lived quietly in his handsome house, and few people other than intimate friends frequented it. He was devoted to his family and spent nearly all of his time not occupied with his financial operations with them. They in turn were devoted to him. Mrs. Gould for several years before her death had been in delicate health, could not attend church, and never took part in social pleasures. Her trouble was a nervous one, and she could not endure excitement. Thus the house was never given over to festivities to any extent. Sumptuous as it was, it did not compare in size or display with that of other men whose fortunes rivaled Mr. Gould's, or, in fact, with the homes of many whose wealth was not a tenth of his. All looked at the place with interest, however, when it was pointed out as the retreat of the remarkable man whose public life was so dramatic, and whose home life was so quiet and so peaceful.

Mr. Gould attended the recent horse show on three afternoons, but these are the only occasions he ever publicly exhibited any particular liking for horses. His city stable is one of a row on West Forty-fourth street, between the Berkeley school building and Fifth avenue. It is a two-story, twenty-foot front brick building trimmed with granite. It is No. 14 West Forty-fourth street. It is a neatly arranged stable of the old-fashioned, oak-trimmed pattern common in the neighborhood. Mr. Gould kept only three pairs of horses at the time of his death, and they are all quartered in the building.