Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/53

 and this time he made contracts of purchase with their owners. In his next expedition into Pennsylvania he took fifty or sixty men with him to build the tannery. The site chosen was in the midst of the forest, fifteen miles away from the nearest village. The men took with them a portable sawmill. Gould went in and chopped down the first tree which was sawed up, and transferred it into a blacksmith shop, under the roof of which Jay Gould passed the first night, sleeping on a bed of hemlock boughs. Thus the tannery, "a very large one, the largest in the country at that time," to use Mr. Gould's own words, was built. Near it there soon sprung up a village which was called Gouldsboro, and in this village Gould established a bank of which he elected himself director by means of proxies obtained from relations whom he had persuaded to take stock.

Pratt was taken with young Gould's snap and energy and considered him just the kind of material to use in pushing a new enterprise. Pratt furnished all the capital and Gould conducted the active operation. The capital of the firm was $120,000, and the tannery at Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, became the biggest concern of its kind in the country. Gould threw the whole energy of his being into the enterprise. Pratt made occasional visits to Gouldsboro, but the business was left practically in Gould's hands and it grew rapidly. After a while Mr. Pratt became dissatisfied with the condition of affairs. Apparently a rushing business was being done from