The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955 Page: 432
650 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
there were many individuals in the state who were highly dubious
as to Gould's ambitions. Such sentiment as that expressed in a
letter to the editor of Abilene's Taylor County News was not
uncommon. Gould is back in Dallas, he wrote, with his train side-
tracked near the main entrance to the fairgrounds.
There he dwelleth, sitting a good deal in the shade with straw hat,
baggy pantaloons and slippered feet. ... It seems to me that a very
marked change has come over his ways. He was formerly unsocial,
having few words with anyone except the most intimate friends.
Now he is the reverse. He will talk with anyone; seems to like to
talk; and he pleases everyone who is brought in contact with him.
... But do you really think he is loafing here on account of the
climate? Don't let yourself be fooled. He has been heard to say-
so it is reported-that he is a little afraid of a gentleman in Austin
whose name is Swine, or something of that sort, and of my old friend
Treasurer Lubbock, but that notwithstanding them, Texas in a few
years would be the leader of the American Union in population, that
it was the greatest field for enterprise, that, though having no money,
he has contrived somehow to spend $go,ooo,ooo in the state and that
he had no Texas securities for sale.
The writer concludes that Abilene should ask Gould to spend
a week there and admits a willingness to lead a delegation to
invite him."
Jay Gould accomplished little of a concrete nature by his trip
to Texas in the spring of 189o, but there is no doubt that he did
sell at least a part of the state on his fundamental honesty, sim-
plicity, and good will. In the words of the St. Louis Republic:
There are a great many people in Dallas, and Marshall, and Tex-
arkana, and Fort Worth, who will think of Jay Gould with very
different feelings after this visit of his to Texas. He is no longer an
abstraction. He is like other people. And perhaps it is of some ad-
vantage, even to a railroad millionaire king, to increase the number
of people in a state like Texas, who can say, "I have met him. He
struck me as not a bad sort of fellow."35
He was less often sneeringly referred to as a corrupt capitalist-
even though the railroad commission proposal was for several
months longer called communistic-and the Texas press which had
not been kind to him through the 8o's had changed its tune and
was singing his praises.
s4Taylor County News (Abilene), April s5, 1890.
8aDallas Times-Herald, April 25, 1890o, quoting St. Louis Republic, April s2, 189o.43S
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955, periodical, 1955; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101158/m1/501/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.