TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue XLIX, 9 December 1892, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Thb "Kate Marsden Miss Eate boom," we observe, still Marsden continues, and has now In Eicdlsis. reached a higher point

than ever. The adventurous lady ha 3 even been taken up by Lady Jeune, a fact which just now ought to be as grateful to her as the Koyal distinctions which, have been lavished upon her. From the Queen Miss Marsden, according -to the Nursing Record, received a decoration in the form of a gold brooch of the figure of the Angel of Victory, engraved with the words " Victoria, E. 1." Oα October 28th she received the special silver badge of the Nurses' Institute, which was pinned Upon her breast by Princess Christian. On October 30th, according to the London correspondent of the New Twk Bun, she was to be the guest of the Queen at Balmoral, and the following week members of the Boyal Family were to attend the farewell meeting in her honour. Miss Marsden has written a book on her experiences, which, one may safely predict will be full of the mosC graphic and surprising details. Her zeal for lepers continues quite unabated, and at latest advices she was meditating a journey to America to see whether there were any to e be discovered in that country and incidentally to collect funds for their benefit.

I " CasiasiPTD-aua pity/ I Jay weare told, is the key* I Gould. note of the obituary notices in the American papers regarding Jay Gould, ■ and general gratification is expressed that his "sinister influence" has been removed from American affairs. Such is the epitaph which rewards the man who has spent a life time in amassing riches upon riches until he acquired a colossal fortune, variously estimated at from twelve to thirty-four millions sterling. He was a man of great mental power and activity, boldnes3 of action and fertility of resource. It is a pity that throughout his life these great gifts were almost uniformily misdirected. It was a very shady piece of business that gave him hia first start in life. He was a clerk in a general store and one day overheard his master telling a friend about a piece of land he was going to buy a dead bargain. Early next morning young Gould was off to the owner, closed'the purchase in his own name, and had the title in his pocket before his -master •:,■ was on the move. Next, he was a land surveyor, and incidentally invented a mousetrap. This, as far as we can gather, was about the most creditable action of his very chequered life. Hβ made money out of it, and bought a partnership in a Pennsylvanian tannery. Three years later the business doubled, Gould had " bought out" his partner, and the latter had committed suicide. I

As everybody knows, "Raids however, it was out of on railways that Jay Gould Railways." made most of his money. When he was in the leather business he married the daughter of one of his customers,. His father-in-law had some shares iv a railway which was in a bad state, and asked Jay to help him get rid of the shares. Tfiis his astuce son-in-law did by taking them himself. He also bought all he could get elsewhere, until he got control of the road, and then sold the whole concern to an opposition company at a big profit. This gave him the cue for future operations. Fairjplay, to which we are indebted for most of these facts, sketched his usual plan of procedure in the following clear' and concise terms:—. " As a rule, Gould ha 3 preferred to work single-handed, and he has made most money in buying up railways. Hie plan wa3 to get hold of a lice in a bad way, whose bonds were like waste paper, and, after getting possession, to spend a little money in furbishing up the concern and developing connections.. Then he would buy another road in the same position, throw the two lines into a new Company with a new name, and boom the concern with, advertisements of its immense prospects. When people-came in to buy he shelled out bonds to any amount for the ostensible purpose of raising more capital for extensions and improvements. .When the deal was ended, the publio would own the road and Gould the dollars. By-and-bye the shareholders would find there was nothing in it, *n& ran prices down to zero in efforts to get; rid of the stock. Whea things came to the worst, Gould would step forward to the rescue, buy the whole concern again at an old 809& declare it had been grossly mismanaged, reorganise ifc completely, and when the market was ready, "boom ,, it again. ; No one knows better how to make several profits out of one instrument." Thseh was one memo?Gould able occasion oa which versus the two financial giants, Vanderbilfc Gould and Vanderbilfe, came into deadly grapple. The Commodore, who had extensive notions of acquiring railway control, began in 186S to buy up Erie bonds. Gould and, his two associates, namely, the notorious Jim Fisk and " ynele" Daniel Drew, had not the control of Erie, but the; had the control of a crintinz nrasa. and for a time

found this quite as good. la point of fact, they turned out Erie securities as fast as Vanderbilt could buy them. The Commodore speedily recognised that he had engaged on a very tough job, and, indeed, was nearly cleaned out before he discovered the fraud that was being played upon him. The three forgers had to fly from the State, Pisk and Drew managed to make terms, but Gould was prosecuted. Things looked very black for him, but he /was far from being at the end of hi 3 resources. He had been in tho habit of making money out of other people' 3 calamities, he now resolved to achieve a grand coup out of his own. Erie bonds became a drug in the market when the secret of Gould'e printing prese became known. Gould set private brokers to work to pick up all the scrip he could pay for. Then he sent for Yanderbilfc and announced hie desire to make restitution. This became known outside and, as Fairplay says, "Erics rushed up again with a bang and Gould cleared almost twice as much as he had promised to hand over." Gould always came out on top; with his partners it was otherwise. When we seek to know their fate we find "pauper," "lanatdo asylum," "euicide," and the like written opposite their names. "Uncle Daniel" Drew, who was among the ruined ones, used to say of Jay Gould that " his touch was death." No wonder that there is nothing but exultation now that Death has touched him.