On Apr. 7, 1890, the proud governor gave a guided tour of the new capitol to Jay Gould, who just happened to be in town at the same time Texans were considering regulation of the railroads.
The infamous visitor was the same unscrupulous speculator that made a fortune by cornering the gold market in 1869. After that notorious coup, he added western rail systems to his East Coast holdings and by the 1880’s controlled more than 15,000 miles of American track.
Gould’s vast empire stretched all the way to the Lone Star State and included the Texas and Pacific, Cotton Belt, International and Great Northern, as well as the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Houston and Henderson. He was the piper Texans had to pay through the nose to ship by rail.
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