 
it was not only in their neglect of the fine processes of the law that the 
americans outdid their european contemporaries; when they fought, they 
abandoned the gentleman's rapier for the roughneck's brass knuckles. 
an instance in point is the struggle for the control of the 
albany-susquehanna railroad, a vital link in a system torn between jim fisk and 
the patrician morgan. 
morgan held one end of the line in his own hands, and the other terminal 
was a fisk stronghold. 
the controversy was accordingly resolved by each side mounting a locomotive 
on its end of the track and running the two engines, like gigantic toys, into 
one another. 
and even then the losers did not give up, but retired as best they could, 
ripping up tracks and tearing down trestles as they went. 
in this "melee" for industrial supremacy no quarter was asked and none 
given. 
even dynamite had its uses, being employed to eliminate one particularly 
sticky competitor of the standard oil group, while less violent means, such as 
kidnaping, were remarkable more for their ingenuity than their immorality. 
in 1881, when a great blizzard blew down the telegraph lines in new york, 
jay gould, the ruthless master of the money markets, was forced to send his 
orders to his broker by messenger. 
his enemies saw their chance and acted on it; they kidnaped the boy, 
substituted another of the same general physiognomy, and for several weeks 
gould was dismayed to find that his moves were all somehow known to his 
adversaries in advance. 
needless to say, the pirates who thus forced each other to walk the plank 
could scarcely be expected to treat the public with reverence. 
