Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/203

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minute to him. Tempting offers were made to buy him off at various times, and he might have made several fortunes in betraying the confidences of his chief, but it is believed he was always true. Like Morosini, he allied his interest to those of Gould and profited by the connection. When the firm dissolved, Gould said of his partners: "Both are very rich men. Mr. Connor is worth at least a million and Mr. Morosini two or three times as much. The new firm will have my heartiest good will in whatever it undertakes. Between Mr. Connor, Mr. Morosini and myself there has never been an interruption of good feeling."

Mr. Connor was not only faithful, but quick and shrewd in his judgments. Upon him rested nearly all the details of the best operations of the house. These operations often required the assistance of fifty or sixty brokers. Often these brokers did not know that they were working for the same client. Sometimes they were ignorant even of the fact that Gould was their client. The prime necessity in great stock operations is to conceal one's movements. Sometimes a part of the brokers might be selling and a part might be buying. Gould and Connor alone held the strings of the intricate operations. One of the first great successful movements the house undertook was in Kansas Pacific in 1879. The stock within a period of a few months shot up from 8 to 97, and the bonds from 10 to 110. Gould cleared nearly $10,000,000 by this operation. The most brilliant feat accomplished by the house was