[Illustration: GOULD’S BIRTHPLACE, AND HIS PALACE ON THE HUDSON.] The most dramatic of these was the pommeling of Jay Gould by Major A. A. Selover in August, 1877. Selover was a Californian, a six-footer, a blond, muscular and vigorous. He first attained prominence in Wall street when James R. Keene came East after his successful mining operations in San Francisco, by which he achieved a fortune of $8,000,000. Keene was a daring, almost foolhardy stock gambler. He always played for big stakes and took enormous chances. His success in San Francisco had been so great that he entered Wall street with the idea of clearing all before him. He tackled Gould as the biggest animal in the arena, but found to his sorrow that he had to deal with a man more able than he, scarcely less daring but far more cautious. In a few short years Keene’s wealth had dwindled away, and early in 1884 he failed, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the shape of “puts,” “calls” and “straddles.” He dropped at the rate of about a million dollars a year in Wall street, and no small proportion of this found its way into the pockets of Gould. Yet Keene at one time was thought to have outmatched Gould. Selover introduced Keene to Gould, and acted as go-between for them in certain operations in which both were interested. Early in 1877 the two men combined forces in one deal. That is to say, they joined in one enterprise and fought each other behind each other’s back. It was a case of diamond cut diamond. Keene formed a big pool, and, beginning to fight Gould, finally went over to him, being led into this change largely through the instrumentality of Selover. Both Keene and Selover then operated on an understanding with Gould, but soon found, as they charged, that Gould was secretly selling them out. Gould and Keene had a stormy scene in Russell Sage’s office, when the latter is said to have brandished a pistol in Gould’s face. The deal had been mainly in Western Union, which Gould did not then control, and Atlantic and Pacific, which he did control. Gould’s double-dealing not only made Keene very mad, but made Selover very desperate. He had placed reliance in Gould’s statements and had suffered loss, and resolved upon revenge. Accordingly, on the 2d of August, 1877, while walking down Exchange place from Broadway, Selover, meeting Gould walking up to the office of Belden & Co., No. 80 Broadway, of which he was then a partner, first engaged him in what appeared to be an amicable conversation, but soon resulted in an assault. Selover first struck Gould in the face and then dropped him over an areaway at No. 65 Exchange place, which was seven or eight feet deep. Mr. Gould was a good deal shaken up, but not seriously injured. Selover left to go to his brokers and Gould proceeded to transact his business as usual. He was assisted from the areaway, singularly enough, by George Crouch, who has been identified with several incidents in