Estimates made by other newspapers and other financiers, however, who have equally good authorities on which to base their opinions, vary all the way from $50,000,000 to $150,000,000. In calculating the amount of Mr. Gould’s estate, the first difficulty met with lies in the fact that the records of his various companies by no means tell the story of his holdings in their securities. More even than many of his rivals, he has followed the policy of getting along without going through the formality of letting the extent of his ownership appear on the books of the companies. Besides, although he reduced the number of his investments in the last few years--at least the street says he did so--he had interests extending over a wide field. In only one branch of investments did Mr. Gould do very little, and that was in real estate. His possessions of real property were far smaller than those of many men not one-tenth as wealthy. He had his place at Irvington which represents $750,000 to $1,000,000, and his Fifth avenue house, worth $300,000 to $400,000. Several years ago he bought real estate in St. Louis, which the Missouri Pacific expected to use for headquarters. He paid $150,000 for this piece of property, which is supposed to be worth three times that amount now. In spite of his policy of concentrating his holdings in his later years, the list of companies in which Mr. Gould had large interests is an imposing one. The principal corporations with which he was connected at the last include the Missouri Pacific railroad, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain, the International and Great Northern, Richmond Terminal, the Texas Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Wabash, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Manhattan Elevated road, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the Western Union Telegraph Company. Moreover, these corporations cover scores of smaller and subordinate companies. Through Missouri Pacific Mr. Gould was interested in something like fifty companies, and the other great systems would run the list of the subordinate concerns up into the hundreds. As president of the Union Pacific, Charles Francis Adams once testified that he did not know how many presidencies he held, and Mr. Gould would have had an excuse several times better than Mr. Adams possessed for not having at his finger ends the number of concerns with which he was connected. At his office yesterday nobody would venture to say what the list would foot up.