Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/323

 the room and they sat with open mouths and plainly evinced their astonishment when they saw Mr. Gould giving up the hitherto carefully guarded facts. Nothing more plainly showed the absolute mastery of Jay Gould over all the other railway magnates of the country.

Mr. Gould had several "doubles" who were constantly being mistaken for him.

Broker Sam Leopold, of No. 84 Broadway, for several years was known as Gould's double, but about a year ago he got tired of the distinction and had his beard cut to a point. During the campaign of 1884 he was offered $20,000 to impersonate Mr. Gould. Conspiring brokers proposed that he smear blood on his face and roll on the sidewalk near the corner of Broad and Wall streets. Confederates were to be on hand to keep the crowd back till an ambulance arrived, and to say at intervals: "That's Jay Gould; he's fatally injured."

Further details of the plan were to have a carriage near Chambers street hospital for the purpose of taking "Mr. Gould" to his house. Of course Leopold's remarkably close resemblance to Gould would be sufficient to make the scheme work well, especially as a man was to have been posted at Irvington to telegraph that the millionaire was in his country home. Then the telegraph wires were to be "grounded" for a few hours. The tremendous excitement would naturally depress the Gould stocks, and, in sympathy, about everything would go down with a rush. The schemers were to take advantage