Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/81

 before or since. The courts ran riot and law became another name for plunder. In this scene—the blackest in the history of American jurisprudence—the notorious Judge Barnard loomed up conspicuously, and a little later Judge Cardoza, shrewd, learned, crafty and venal—the modern Lord Bacon—appeared on the scene. At first Barnard was Vanderbilt's judge. Later, when Vanderbilt had no further use for him, he became Gould's judge. His other master was Tweed.

In the meantime, regardless of injunctions, Drew and his aides calmly proceeded to carry out their carefully matured plans to issue new stock. It was agreed that fifty thousand shares of new stock should be delivered to the Wall street firms of which Gould and Fisk were members. Without going into the details of the intrigue, it is sufficient to say that it was, at least for the time being, successful. When the fifty thousand shares were thrown on the market the price of Erie fell from eighty-three to seventy-one. Vanderbilt found that he had bought at high figures a lot of Erie stock, but that he was no nearer control than ever. Drew raked in about seven million dollars of Vanderbilt's money, and Gould and Fisk shared in the profits. Then orders were issued to arrest the Drew directors for contempt of court. Receiving intelligence of this, they hastily packed up their papers and securities, and thrusting them into their pockets and valises, they beat a hasty retreat to Jersey City. Over six million dollars in securities were carried in one coach.