George Templeton Strong, a diarist and lawyer, who is widely quoted in histories of 19th century America, particularly in the Ken Burns series on the Civil War and in Chernow's "Grant" described one of the two scoundrels who were able to hoodwink the gullible President Grant into a variety of shady schemes, a man named Jim Fisk.
Chernow describes him as handsome, blonde, bloated with diamond rings and "flashy."
But it is Strong's description which is eerily familiar:
"Illiterate, vulgar, unprincipled, profligate, always making himself conspicuously ridiculous by some piece of flagrant ostentation, he was, nevertheless, freehanded with his stolen money, and possessed, moreover, a certain magnetism of geniality, that attracted to him people who were not particular about the decency of their associates."
Chernow adds:
He collected prostitutes and chorus girls no less promiscuously than he bought railroads and steamships and exulted in the attention his flamboyance aroused."
If any of this sounds familiar, it should at least remind us that today's version of Big Jim Fisk isn't even original.
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| In a long line of husksters |
Chernow describes him as handsome, blonde, bloated with diamond rings and "flashy."
But it is Strong's description which is eerily familiar:
"Illiterate, vulgar, unprincipled, profligate, always making himself conspicuously ridiculous by some piece of flagrant ostentation, he was, nevertheless, freehanded with his stolen money, and possessed, moreover, a certain magnetism of geniality, that attracted to him people who were not particular about the decency of their associates."
Chernow adds:
He collected prostitutes and chorus girls no less promiscuously than he bought railroads and steamships and exulted in the attention his flamboyance aroused."
If any of this sounds familiar, it should at least remind us that today's version of Big Jim Fisk isn't even original.
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