He became a large owner of Union Pacific stock in consequence of a misunderstanding with parties interested and also owing to the illness of Mr. Horace F. Clark in Chicago. The road was then in a bad way, the stock going down to fifteen, and the only thing he could do to save himself was to hold on to what he had, while at the same time he still kept buying. He made up his mind to stick to the road and build it up, and he persevered till it at last paid dividends. Before the road became a success a great clamor arose that it was Jay Gould's road, as though that was a dangerous thing. He was then engaged in selling out his stock, which was soon in the hands of- seven thousand investors, representing the earnings of many widows and orphans.

The next venture was the building up of the Gould railroad system in the South and West. It began with purchase of the Missouri and Pacific from Commodore Garrison. Other roads were purchased and connections were made to different points. Mr. Gould said that he had at this time passed the point where money-making was an object, and his only idea was in carrying out the system to merely see what could be done by combinations. The lines now spread through Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas and Indian Territory, Texas, Louisiana and Mexico. There _are central connections at Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago and New Orleans. All the construction of this system of roads was completed in 1882, and represented about ten thousand miles of road. The earnings of the lines when he