Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/79

 act," said Gen. Francis Barlow, in 1872, "they were a strong team."

At the time Gould and Fisk entered into Erie, Daniel Drew was the master of that great trunk line. Drew was one of the most extraordinary characters in Wall street history. Both pious and unscrupulous, he founded a theological seminary and wrecked a railroad with equal fervor. He was a director and treasurer of Erie, and used these positions simply for speculative purposes. He was known in his day as "the great speculative director." His biggest piece of "financiering" was to get himself apparently cornered in Erie stock, and then to appear in the street with a block of stock which had been converted from bonds issued with an obscure provision entitling the holders to convert them into stock. Gould later on repeated this trick with success, both in Erie and Jersey Central.

Soon after Gould and Fisk entered Erie, Drew became engaged in his celebrated contest with Commodore Vanderbilt, and in this contest he had their able assistance. The first and great Vanderbilt was cast in a larger mould than Drew. The latter was simply a speculator. Vanderbilt was a creator of property. He was the first of the line of railroad kings. Laying the foundations of his great wealth in the steamboat and steamship business, he soon drifted into railroad operations, clearly seeing that in the development in the great inland commerce of America there were larger and quicker profits to be obtained than in the export trade.