OF JAMES FISK, JR., THE STORY OF HIS YOUTH AND MANHOOD, WITH FULL ACCOUNTS OF ALL THE SCHEMES AND ENTERPRISES IN WHICH HE WAS ENGAGED, INCLUDING THE GREAT FRAUDS OF THE TAMMANY RING. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF RAILROAD MAGNATES AND LIGHTS AND JOSIE MANSFIELD" THE "SIREN." How a beautiful woman captivated and ruined her victims. The Mansfield Mansion. The rejected and the accepted suitors. EDWARD S. STOKES, THE ASSASSIN. And an account of the Assassination. BY WILLOUGHBY JONES. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. UNION PUBLISHING COMPANY, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by WILLIAM FLINT, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. JAMES FISK, Jr., is dead. The record of his life is closed. Judged by a worldly standard, whether he was a good man or a bad man, will appear by striking a balance of the acts of his life. That he did both good and bad none will question-and of whom can it be said that all his acts were good? If the good overbalances the bad, then the public verdict must be in his favor; otherwise, not. Certainly, he was an extraordinary man. He accomplished more work, and made a greater stir in social and commercial circles in the short life he lived, than it is possible for most other men to do, though they live to twice his age. Thirty years ago he was a sprightly village boy; twelve years ago he was a country peddler; five years ago he was a banker in New York; a millionnaire in Wall street; and soon thereafter he became the master of a great railroad corporation; the owner of two lines of magnificent sound and coast steamers, and the terror of Wall street financiers-all this-and assassinated in the thirtyseventh year of his age. Here, then, is a problem worthy of study with a view to a correct solution. Let no man praise or condemn without due deliberation, and with all the facts before him. To gain a proper insight into the character of this man, it will be necessary to understand the scope of the great enterprises he was engaged in, and also to know something of the men with whom he was associated in business. A sketch of the railroad and steamboat lines, of the theatrical establishments, and stock and gold speculations in which Fisk was interested, are, therefore, set forth, as well as brief biographies of the noted characters involved in those operations, together with the men who aided, and those who confronted him in his most daring feats in financial and corporation achievements. All of the most striking and characteristic episodes in this versatile life were indigenous to New York; they could not have been enacted elsewhere. They were the natural products of metropolitan social life and business tricks. It is, therefore, necessary to exhibit to the reader some of the scenes and incidents of New York life, drawing both the "lights and shadows" of the pictures of that real life, which is ever more varied, and stranger even than fiction. This includes names great in finance, great in corporation management, great in politics, great in fraud, great in robbery, great in crime of the darkest hue; all of these were made to dance attendance to the presence of this man of marvelous power, whose life they moulded, magnified and destroyed. NEW YORK, January 16, 1872. |