The panic of 1884 is believed to have caused Mr. Gould much anxiety. It came suddenly and without warning. There had been earlier in the year, it is true, the collapse and resignation of Henry Villard, soon followed by the failure of James R. Keene, but these disasters would not have produced the financial earthquake that shook Wall street in May. The failure of the Marine Bank and Grant & Ward, with the revelations which followed of embezzlement on a scale never before witnessed in the street, and the suspension on the memorable 13th and 14th of the month of the Metropolitan Bank, George I. Seney and seven or eight prominent banking-houses in this city and two banks in Brooklyn and Newark, caused a panic like that of 1869 and 1873, and from the depressing effects of which the street did not rally for several years. Gould’s fortune melted like snow in the decline of values which accompanied this panic. He came out of it probably $20,000,000 poorer than when it began. But this loss, it is true, was chiefly on paper. He was able to hold most of his securities, the value of which afterward increased. But it is believed that he was at one time very hotly pressed. His associate, Russell Sage, lost millions in the decline by his operations in puts and calls. His office was besieged by a mob clamorous for their profits. The old man reluctantly paid up, and, badly scared and sick at heart, retired from the street for a while, hoarding the $40,000,000 or $45,000,000 which was still left to solace him.