Jim Fisk's Shrewd Dodge

Years ago when the New York Central and Erie railroads were engaged in a desperate and destructive battle of cut rates, Jim Fisk played a shrewd dodge on Commodore Vanderbilt. The freight rates from Chicago to New York city were so low that there was no profit in transportation. Fisk seized the golden opportunity to buy cattle; shipped the cattle over the commodore's road, and so blocked the commodore's transportation facilities that the Central was obliged to refuse all other freight. Fisk then put up the price of freight on the Erie, and was not only able to do a lucrative business while the Central was carrying cows at a loss, but he was also able to get his cattle to the market, via the commodore's line, at such low terms that he made a profit on every head. - The Argonaut.

"Carolus Duran, Cabanel, and Bonnat," says The London World, "among them have painted almost every living American who is worth more than $5,000,000."