Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/298

 Gould's holdings in real estate in New York really amounted to.

"Real estate," Mr. Baker explained, "is entered on the books of the tax department by number only. The only way to get any idea there as to the ownership of a piece of property is to see who paid the taxes on it. According to this test, the real estate on which Mr. Gould paid taxes in New York is confined to his residence. The Manhattan Railroad Company is a large holder of real estate, but the company pays its own taxes, of course, and the only place Mr. Gould's name appears on the tax department books is in relation to his residence and the admitted $500,000 of personal property."

Ex-Tax Commissioner Coleman added the opera house property to the list that Mr. Gould paid on personally.

"The peculiarity of the matter," said Mr. Coleman, "is that Gould was never really in business in New York City. His wealth was very largely in stocks that had no particular value by themselves and that were not even on the market. He made his money by taking hold of almost bankrupt companies, getting control of the common stock that had no particular value beyond its voting power, and then by manipulating things to his own interest.

"Besides, his various railroad stocks, like the Union Pacific, Wabash, Texas and Kansas Pacific, were not assessable. The bonds that were assessable were generally those of roads that had been reorganized and reorganized till any estimate of value