were never able to thank the donor, for the identity of the giver was never disclosed. In this way, it is said, many hundreds of poor people were relieved.
Another method employed was to look up cases of distress independent of the petitions poured in by mail. To just what extent this charitable work was carried on will never be known, for those conversant with it will not speak of it.
Mr. Gould's name is unidentified with any great public benefactions. Astor and Tilden founded libraries, Drew established a theological seminary, George I. Seney distributed millions and Vanderbilt endowed a hospital, but Gould's purse was never opened by any such generous ambition. He was kind to his relatives, gave his brother a good position in the Missouri Pacific railroad and built his sisters a school in Camden. He gave liberally to alleviate the suffering by the Chicago fire and by the Memphis yellow-fever plague, made big subscriptions to the Grant and Garfield funds, and added eighty acres to the Mount Vernon property. This was nearly all he did in a public way. Gould's politics sprang from his pocket, not from his patriotism. He has already been quoted as saying that "in Republican districts he was a Republican, in Democratic districts a Democrat, and in all an Erie man." But Mr. Gould was more a Republican than anything else, for he obtained, or thought he could obtain, more recognition and protection from that party than from the Democratic. The Republican party was the party of large land grants, of liberal
