CHAPTER VII.
GOULD'S VICTORY AND FINAL DEFEAT IN ERIE.
During these years of Erie conflicts, Gould not
only fought his enemies most bitterly, but hardly
appreciated the usual feelings of men to be true
to their friends. Gould and Fisk now had practical
control of Erie. They saw the October election
coming, and they were nervous. But the
crops were good and Erie's traffic brought in good
returns. Englishmen had become strangely fascinated
with the stock, and had bought over 100,000
shares. On August 19th the stock had dropped to
44, and then to the astonishment of Wall street,
the transfer books were closed, preparatory to the
annual election on October 13th. The election went
off well for Mr. Gould and his friends. Peter B.
Sweeny and William M. Tweed were among the
new directors. Then, it is said Mr. Gould began a
system of locking up money. This culminated on
October 27th, when members of the New York Stock
Exchange waited on Mr. Gould, who had obtained
large loans on Erie. Mr. Gould told the committee
that $10,000,000 of convertible bonds had been issued,
half of which had been converted into stock and the
rest would be. This was a new issue. The money,
he said, had been used to purchase the $5,000,000 of
