Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/68

 habits of great industry, with phenomenal tenacity of purpose, with a fair amount at least of capital to back him, it is not surprising that Mr. Gould profited largely by his speculation in railway stocks and gold during the war of the rebellion. The keen-sighted, intelligent men in "the Street" at that time nearly all made money, and Mr. Gould was at least a millionaire when the Confederacy fell. What his methods were at the time it is useless to speculate about. It was before the day when by absolute mastery of gigantic railway and telegraph systems he could at his will depress the value of almost any institution on which he fixed his eye by setting on foot a ruinous war in rates until he had made it to be his own interest to restore a more normal and healthful condition of affairs by ceasing his antagonism and building up the property which he had acquired cheaply during the period of depression. But the details of his operations were always so subtle as to be shut out from the discovery of either friend or foe.

Gould was now fairly on the way toward his colossal fortune. Though friends warned him against entering into the whirlpool of blasted hopes and ruined fortunes of Wall street, his inclinations in that direction were too strong to be resisted. Gould was a born speculator. It is true that his great fortune was created mainly in hazardous enterprises outside of Wall street, and that in stock speculations, pure and simple, he was not always so successful or so infallible as many have supposed, but by