coating of white paint." In July, 1880, Jay Gould visited his birth-place and also Hobart, where he went to school. He used to walk the entire distance to school every Monday morning, returning Saturdays. He was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants at the time of his visit, as the most noted man ever born in that region. When he visited the old house, it is to be wondered if he recalled the first instance in which he ever showed a combative spirit of bravery. It was during the Anti-rent War, when a party of anti-renters visited his father's house to compel him to cease paying rent, John B. Gould and a neighbor, Hiram Moore, belonging to the conservative farmers, known as "high-renters." The "rebels" were masked and in bad temper, but John B. Gould stood out stoutly for his rights, while ten-year-old Jay, who stood in the doorway at his side, urged his father to shoot his assailants down. John B., like the son in manhood, was small of stature, and had the additional misfortune of having one leg shorter than the other, but he probably inherited some of the rugged qualities of grim Captain Abram, and these were likely to be accentuated by the struggle for existence in the rough sterile country of their habitation. The vigilance committee, at any rate, left the little man unharmed, though they promptly proceeded to tar and feather his neighbor, Hiram Moore.
These anti-rent troubles were caused by the refusal of the occupants of certain large tracts of land in Delaware and adjacent counties, to pay an annual rental to persons who claimed to have purchased
