No man in the country had a wider audience than Gould. Whatever he had to say was sure of publication in every newspaper in the land. Journals that continually denounced him would print everything he had to say as a matter of news. Gould was always an interesting figure. The public never tired of reading about him, his operations, his yacht, his home, his daily life. Every word he uttered was eagerly reported and his movements were watched as closely as the President’s. In his later years he was quite accessible to newspaper men, and they found him not averse to the process of interviewing if he had anything to say. The _Tribune_ and _Sun_ were his favorite mediums of communication with the public, because they seldom attacked and often defended Gould. Indeed, they were looked upon as his personal organs during a part of his life. But Gould would frequently give interviews to other papers. He recognized the fact that the papers which opposed him were of the widest circulation and influence, and that if he had anything to say it was time to give it to the largest circulation. The _World_ was foremost in denouncing his operations, but he was often pleased to reach the public through its columns, even if his words were accompanied with severe editorial criticism. Mr. Gould was a good talker; he possessed the art of saying little or much, as he pleased. The most skillful of interviewers could not trap him into saying something which he did not wish to say. When he got through he would stop, and no amount of ingenuity could induce him to continue. Mr. Gould was fond of testifying to the honesty and good faith of newspaper men. When he knew his man he said he could trust him not to betray him. But Gould almost invariably insisted on seeing the proof-sheets of the interview before publication. From 1880 to 1883 Mr. Gould owned the _World_. We have his own word (in an interview in the _World_ in June, 1883) that he purchased the control of the paper from Col. Tom Scott, the famous Pennsylvania railroad king, as a part of a negotiation which included also the purchase of the Texas Pacific railroad. Mr. Gould said that Col. Scott appealed to him at Berne, Switzerland, in 1879, to take the road and the paper off his hands. William Henry Hurlbert, who was editor of the _World_ under Gould, gave a different version of the transaction, claiming that the purchase from Col. Scott was the result of a negotiation opened by Mr. Hurlbert with Mr. Gould. The _World_ did not thrive under the ownership of Gould. It did not possess public confidence. The paper was used as an instrument in Gould’s Wall street operations. Brilliant editorials could not redeem it from the withering influence of Gould’s name. Its circulation had shrunk to 15,000 when Mr. Joseph Pulitzer purchased it in May, 1883. After church, charities, politics and the press, the relations of Mr. Gould with his employes are interesting to notice.