Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/51

 CHAPTER IV.

GOULD AND THE TANNERY WAR.

From the mildly humdrum life of school boy, tinker, surveyor and bookseller, Gould's career now changes to an intensely dramatic period. While pursuing his avocation as a surveyor, he made the acquaintance of Zadock Pratt, a local celebrity who lived at Prattsville not far from Roxbury, for whom he had done some surveying. Pratt is described as an ignorant man who had amassed what at that time and in that section was considered an immense fortune. He was worth a hundred thousand dollars, and had the largest tannery in the country. He had also been to Congress, and, as is usual with such district nabobs, he was a very vain man. How he happened to become attached to Jay Gould does not appear. Mr. Gould himself once said: "While I was carrying on these surveys, I met a gentleman who seemed to take a fancy to me." Zadock Pratt was a famous man in his days. He was not only the biggest tanner in the country, but he was also a power in the politics in the state. During his ten years' service in Congress, at least one of his speeches attracted widespread attention. He was one of the earliest advocates of cheap postage, and he moved the establishment of the Bureau of Sta