Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/313

 him were of the widest circulation and influence, and that if he had anything to say it was time to give it to the largest circulation. The World was foremost in denouncing his operations, but he was often pleased to reach the public through its columns, even if his words were accompanied with severe editorial criticism. Mr. Gould was a good talker; he possessed the art of saying little or much, as he pleased. The most skillful of interviewers could not trap him into saying something which he did not wish to say. When he got through he would stop, and no amount of ingenuity could induce him to continue. Mr. Gould was fond of testifying to the honesty and good faith of newspaper men. When he knew his man he said he could trust him not to betray him. But Gould almost invariably insisted on seeing the proof-sheets of the interview before publication.

From 1880 to 1883 Mr. Gould owned the World. We have his own word (in an interview in the World in June, 1883) that he purchased the control of the paper from Col. Tom Scott, the famous Pennsylvania railroad king, as a part of a negotiation which included also the purchase of the Texas Pacific railroad. Mr. Gould said that Col. Scott appealed to him at Berne, Switzerland, in 1879, to take the road and the paper off his hands. William Henry Hurlbert, who was editor of the World under Gould, gave a different version of the transaction, claiming that the purchase from Col. Scott was the result of a negotiation opened by Mr. Hurlbert with Mr. Gould.