Opening paragraphs............

 On a warm April afternoon in 1873, the financier Jay Gould took time off from counting his money to have lunch at Delmonico's, the fanciest restaurant in town.  While he was eating, a lawyer walked over to his table, cocked his fist, and punched him in the face.

     A series of spectacular financial triumphs—some said swindles—had made Gould fabulously rich.  Now, at age thirty-six, he was the most notorious businessperson in the country.  Like others who tried to claw back money from Gould, the lawyer was getting nowhere in court.  The laws were too weak, enforcement too lax, and the judges were crooked.  Gould had them in his pocket.

     Oysters and Veuve Cliquot were the rule at Delmonico's.  The biftek was served au naturel.  For most people, a meal cost a week's wages.  For the rich, it was a place to enjoy their wealth, not pick fights.  Joseph Marrin, the lawyer, didn't care.  Frustrated to the point of rage, he took justice into his own hands and clocked Gould in front of the lunch crowd.  In a piece called "Gould's Nose," The New York Times declared Marrin a hero and worried about a pileup if others followed his lead. "The flattening of Gould's nose," it wrote, "would be an incidence of hourly occurrence."

-Greg Steinmetz, American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune