Lancaster Daily Intelligencer

Gould Given Advice.

The English magnate in telegraphic affairs, John Pender, who has been in this country lately viewing its telegraphic system, is said to have given some excellent advice to Mr. Jay Gould before he left our shores. It was relative to the management of the Western Union telegraph company which is under Gould's control. Mr. Pender was invited to enter into the direction of the company, but has not as yet signified his desire to do so. What he told Mr. Gould was that he should make it his endeavor to conduct the affairs of the telegraph company honestly and in the public interest. "You have made money enough to satisfy anyone's desire," is what Pender said in substance to Gould, "and now it would be expedient for you to try to get a good reputation." The words were words of wisdom. Mr. Gould, having a great deal of money and no reputation to speak of, would certainly do well to bend his energies towards remedying his deficiency. But probably his misfortune is that his talent does not run in that line. Very few people have distinguished talent in every direction; and the millionaires of the country who have made their millions by thimble rigging their fellow-men in stock gambling transactions may be supposed to be generally very deficient in the qualities which go to make up the respectable citizen. A man certainly cannot be honest and respectable at the same time that he is dishonest and disreputable; it is possible that at different periods of his life he may appear in these different aspects to his fellow-citizens; but it is not very probable. The leopard cannot change his spots and the wicked man cannot much more readily shake off the confirmed habits of years and appear before the world in the white robes of innocence. We have heard of a reformed cracksman who divided the proceeds of a bank robbery with the bank he robbed, and having thus purchased immunity from prosecution, settled down to enjoy his share of the spoils amid his fellow-citizens, and who ever afterward lived a blameless life. If Mr. Jay Gould has this versatility of character, Mr. Pender's advice to him may bear fruit, and it is possible that we may some day become so much enamored of his goodness and benevolence that we will want to elect him to the presidency; though if he has any such high ambition perhaps it would be just as well for him to postpone his regeneration until after he is elected and has served his term, since it seems not to be the thing just now to have an honest man and a gentleman in the presidential office. Mr. Gould is quite eligible just as he is. In reflecting upon Mr. Pender's advice it must be quite difficult for Mr. Gould to make up his mind as to the propriety of following it. The question being with him as to whether it will pay, the considerations to be contemplated make the decision very difficult. Perhaps if Mr. Gould goes away in that steam yacht of his for a voyage around the world he may be able to conclude before he gets home whether it will satisfy his ambition better to go on stealing or to quit his trade and undertake to be respectable. Our own advice would be to him to stick to his last. He is too old to make the prospect flattering for the success of his new departure. It would, no doubt, be very nice for men who want to be rich and respectable, but rich anyway, if they could be permitted to devote half of their life to the attainment of wealth in all manner of disreputable ways, and the other half to the acquirement of the esteem of their fellow men and a seat in Heaven. A great many try it but few succeed. They may dispense a good percentage of their booty in charity, but they cannot make its acquirement reputable by any such reputable disposition of it. They may live in great houses and be made famous by the newspapers; but they cannot enter the company of the elect. Mr. John Pender was a prudent man in not at present trusting himself in Mr. Gould's association in the Western Union. He wants to see the result of his advice and whether it is indeed possible for his pupil to be honest. He will wait awhile.