Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/349

 the great speculator will fall—when, lo! we see him calmly exhibiting his millions of securities to his friends. Others fail, among them men who had been his partners and agents, but he is safe. We see him living in a palace on the Hudson and ploughing the waters of the river and the ocean with the most splendid yacht ever constructed. We see him at home, the personification of domestic honor and purity, a faithful husband and a kind father, and we see him abroad, hated, feared and detested. Despite his record, we find the power of his millions and of the great properties he controlled felt in every direction. He is a factor in elections. Candidates seek him for favors. He dictates appointments to high offices. Honorable men who would not repeat his methods sit with him in boards of direction and are identified with some of his enterprises. Nothing that the fertile imagination of Balzac, Dumas or Gaboriau ever conceived equals in dramatic incidents and sensational developments the career of this extraordinary man.

"It will be observed that there were two Goulds—Gould the man of affairs and Gould the man of family. In all his domestic relations his life was pure, his nature affectionate. No criticism can touch him in his home life. There he was above reproach. Toward the end of his life his dual nature seemed to blend into one. He became more conservative in business, more solicitous, apparently, of the good will and good opinion of his fellowmen, more careful to keep within the bounds of strict business