But the firms were then so few
that I could have counted them on the fingers of one hand. The Oil and
Stock Exchanges in Pittsburgh had not as yet been founded and brokers'
offices with wires in connection with the stock exchanges of the East
were unnecessary. Pittsburgh was emphatically a manufacturing town.
I was surprised to find how very different was the state of affairs in
New York. There were few even of the business men who had not their
ventures in Wall Street to a greater or less extent. I was besieged
with inquiries from all quarters in regard to the various railway
enterprises with which I was connected. Offers were made to me by
persons who were willing to furnish capital for investment and allow
me to manage it--the supposition being that from the inside view which
I was enabled to obtain I could invest for them successfully.
Invitations were extended to me to join parties who intended quietly
to buy up the control of certain properties. In fact the whole
speculative field was laid out before me in its most seductive guise.
All these allurements I declined. The most notable offer of this kind
I ever received was one morning in the Windsor Hotel soon after my
removal to New York. Jay Gould, then in the height of his career,
approached me and said he had heard of me and he would purchase
control of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and give me one half of
all profits if I would agree to devote myself to its management.
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