CHAPTER IV.
GOULD AND THE TANNERY WAR.
From the mildly humdrum life of school boy,
tinker, surveyor and bookseller, Gould's career
now changes to an intensely dramatic period. While
pursuing his avocation as a surveyor, he made the
acquaintance of Zadock Pratt, a local celebrity who
lived at Prattsville not far from Roxbury, for whom
he had done some surveying. Pratt is described as
an ignorant man who had amassed what at that
time and in that section was considered an immense
fortune. He was worth a hundred thousand dollars,
and had the largest tannery in the country. He had
also been to Congress, and, as is usual with such
district nabobs, he was a very vain man. How he
happened to become attached to Jay Gould does
not appear. Mr. Gould himself once said: "While
I was carrying on these surveys, I met a gentleman
who seemed to take a fancy to me." Zadock Pratt
was a famous man in his days. He was not only
the biggest tanner in the country, but he was also a
power in the politics in the state. During his ten
years' service in Congress, at least one of his
speeches attracted widespread attention. He was
one of the earliest advocates of cheap postage, and
he moved the establishment of the Bureau of Sta-
