“I then went into the Union Pacific road. I met Horace Clark and Augustus Schell out West, and they gave me so good an account of the road that I concluded I would buy in it. I telegraphed to New York an order to buy at a certain price. When Mr. Clark got home he was taken ill, and as soon as his brokers learned that his illness was to be fatal, they sold out his stock. That broke the market and filled orders which I had sent at a price lower than I ever expected. When I got home I found myself the owner of a large amount of this property, and at once inquired into its condition. I learned that it was saddled with a large floating debt, and that there were ten million dollars of bonds coming due within a month. It was in rather a blue condition. The directors were consulting who should be the receiver. I made up my mind that I would carry it through, and I told them that if they would furnish half of the money to pay the debt, I would furnish the other half. The stock went down to 15. It was a large loss, but still I kept right on buying, so when the turn came there did not seem to be any top to it. It went up to 75, and I immediately went to work to bring the road up. I went out over it, started coal mines, and to the surprise of everybody it soon began to pay dividends and has never passed a dividend since. “Well,” continued Mr. Gould, “when this road began to be a financial success and developed other ways there arose quite a clamor, and it was said to be Jay Gould’s road, as though it were a dangerous thing to have one man control a road. I thought that it was better to bow to public opinion, so I took the opportunity when I could to place the stock in the hands of investors. In the course of a very few months, instead of owning control of the road I was entirely out of it, and the stock was 20 per cent. higher than I had sold it for. Instead of being thirty or forty stockholders, there were between six and seven thousand, representing the savings of widows and orphans. There were also a great many lady stockholders. That was about four years ago, after Congress enacted very harsh legislation, after they had broken the bargain they had made to get the road through in its early stages.” “You refer to the Thurman act?” asked the chairman. “Yes, and that closed my connection with the Union Pacific road.” This is a very beautiful picture and it makes out Mr. Gould to be a most public-spirited and generous man--one ready to sacrifice his own interests in obedience to the demand of public opinion. But, having looked on this picture, look upon that drawn by the Pacific Railroad Commission, appointed by President Cleveland in 1887, and composed of ex-Gov. Pattison, of Pennsylvania; E. Ellery Anderson, of New York, and David Littler, of Illinois. The commission made two reports, agreeing substantially, only that of ex-Gov. Pattison was more severe in its conclusions.