Gould’s taste of money and profits had acted upon him almost as does the taste of blood to a lion. By this time he was making enough money to furnish himself a realization of what money could do and to make him want it with an insatiable desire. His child life had been a short one, and he was a man in business and responsibility at an age when most persons of no greater age are considered to be but the merest children. And what there was of his child life had been cold, and not of a character to teach him, what few yet know, that money is the least important thing in the world. All his life he had felt the lack of it. He had been needy. He had been compelled to struggle to supply his physical necessities, and then at times they were but scantily supplied. One favorite sister, his elder one, who was his first teacher of mathematics, was almost the only person whose recollection at home was any delight to the boy and young man. So, now that his well-applied and earnest labors have brought fruit to the extent of several thousand dollars of cash capital available to him, it is not strange that he sought for some enterprise in which the profits would be certain and large. This opportunity opened before him and he grasped it.
It is very doubtful if, at that period in his career, young Gould had ever read the works of Shakespeare, but be that as it may, he followed that great bard in the opportunity which was now his. Shakespeare says:
“There is a tide in the affairs of man
“Which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune.
“Omitted, all the voyage of our life
“Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
“On such a full sea are we now afloat,
“And we must take the current when it serves,
“Or lose our ventures.”
Gould’s tide was in; it was turning, and the chance of his life was waiting to be taken. It was this same faculty of being able to recognize what was the right thing to do, that all his life stood him in good play. He recognized it now, and changed the whole current of his life.