De Luxe

In Manhattan, "the most expensive private litigation ever known" continued in its eighth year. Referee James A. O'Gorman sat four hours daily listening to depositions in the tangle of suits and counter suits that stand between the seven heirs of the late Jay Gould.

Lawyer William Wallace, counsel for the estate of the late George Gould, arose to protest a duplication of documentary evidence; stated that the case was costing the Goulds $2,500 an hour.

A statistician for The New York World made computations. Said he:

"Every time one of the serried array of learned counsel . . . clears his throat or blows a bugle call on his proboscis, a cost of 69.4 cents is imposed on the estate, assuming that indulgence in either of these forensic flourishes consumes a single second of time.

"The mumbling of a question . . . an expense of $10.46 . . . if only 15 seconds.

"The cost of reading a single typewritten page . . . $82.32 and $124.98, in inverse proportion to the pace of the reader.

"The late Jay Gould . . . succeeded in getting together and holding money . . . at the rate of $2,500,000 annually, which amounts to $285 an hour. His children and their children . . . are disbursing it nine times as fast as he made it.

"Of course there is a catch in these figures. . . . His heirs are limiting their law suit de luxe to three four-hour sessions weekly."