“Pooh, pooh!” said Sage, and he went back and reported to Mr. Gould. The next day Gould went himself and told Garrison that he would take his stock at $2,800,000. The commodore replied that the stock had advanced in price to $3,800,000, and it would continue to go up $1,000,000 a day. Gould closed the bargain on the spot, giving Garrison his check for $3,800,000. The Missouri Pacific stock subsequently became very much depressed in the stock market, and a great many weak stockholders were obliged to let go. Gould was always ready to buy. After a while he consolidated the Missouri Pacific with the Iron Mountain and the International and Great Northern, and Missouri Pacific stock went up rapidly. The Iron Mountain was a first-class money-earning road. This consolidation gave Mr. Gould a southwestern railroad system of more than 5,000 miles, which he subsequently extended largely. Gould’s testimony in regard to this portion of his career, before the Senate committee, was as follows: “The next great enterprise, if I may call it great, that I engaged in was the Missouri Pacific. I bought it one day of Commodore Garrison, or rather the control of it. I had a very short negotiation with him; he gave me his price, just as we are talking here, and I said: ‘All right; I will take it,’ and I gave him a check for it that day. At that time I did not care about the money made; it was a mere plaything to see what I could do. I had passed the point where I cared about the mere making of money. It was more to show that I could make a combination and make it a success. I took this road and began developing it, bringing in other lines which should be tributary to it. I developed new parts of the country--opened up coal mines, etc., and continued until, I think, we have now 10,000 miles of road. “When I took the property it was earning $70,000 a week. I have just got the gross earnings for the last month, and they amount to $5,100,000, and we have accomplished that result by developing the country; and while we have been doing this we have made the country rich, developing coal mines and cattle-raising, as well as the production of cotton. We have created this earning power by developing the system. All this 10,000 miles is fully built. The roads pass through the states of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and the Indian Territory, and we go into Mexico.” “Are there other railroad enterprises that you are connected with?” “I am director in various roads, but I put my whole strength into this system. I don’t like to scatter around.” “What you do you do well, or try to?” “I certainly try to do all things well.” “What other business enterprises of the country have you now or formerly had connection with?” “I am a director in the Chicago and Northwestern road, Chicago and Rock Island, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, New York and New England and a good many other small roads.”