This beautiful account of Gould’s devotion to a friend, to the extent of starting a telegraph company for him, does not, however, tell the whole story. Gould’s policy in regard to the American Union was twofold. It was to establish a competing company so strong that the Western Union would have to absorb it, or else it would absorb the Western Union. The result was that the Western Union did absorb the American Union and Gould absorbed the Western Union! By the aid of his rival company Gould kept hammering at the stock of the Western Union, then controlled by Vanderbilt. By every art known to Wall street speculation he forced the price down as low as he could. He sold the stock “short” in large amounts, and in buying to cover bought enough additional to place him in control. Then he consolidated the two companies and 100,000 shares of American Union, which represented a comparatively small outlay of capital on the part of Gould, went into the Western Union at par and Gould’s immense holdings of Western Union were thus acquired at a low figure. Of course, if he had attempted to market his holdings in one lump his profits would have been wiped out, but by carrying the load and letting the stock out by driblets his profits were large, even if he sold under the market price, which was nearly always below par. On Jan. 11, 1881, it became known in Wall street that the consolidation was probable and the price of Western Union rose from 78 to 103 and the next day to 114½. The consolidation increased the capitalization of the Western Union to $80,000,000, and this amount has increased later by the capitalization of scrip dividends and by the acquisition of the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph. After Gould became the master of the system the Mutual Union was started as a rival concern. Gould soon gobbled it up and leased it to the Western Union. Then Robert Garrett developed the wires owned by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad into a competing telegraph system, and under the management of Mr. Bates, who had formerly been with Gould in American Union and Western Union, it became a big system, stretching far west and south. But Garrett soon got into deep waters. He had not the genius of his father, the famous John W. Garrett, and a struggle with Gould was beyond his strength. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, nominally a Gibraltar of strength, was intrinsically weak. Garrett entered into negotiations to sell a controlling interest in the property. His desire was to place it in hands hostile to Gould, but the latter used his power in the stock market to frustrate his plans. Garrett contracted to deliver the control to Henry S. Ives, a young speculator who was modeling his life after the Gould pattern, but in the end Garrett was not able to deliver, nor was Ives able to receive. The B. and O. system was dismembered, and the telegraph fell into Gould’s hands. Gould had previously announced to the public that